I was in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh when Kargil War was going on in 1999.

The War was very important for us to win. I too believe that Wars should never happen, but when someone enters your home and refuse to go back, there is only one option left, which is to throw him away. This is what Our Heros did.

I am a writer, all I can do is Write about it, this is the way I am paying a tribute to them.  Here are our Real Heros.

Capt.Vikram Batra    Param Vir Chakra(Posthumous)	Karigil’s First Hero Lt. Saurabh Kalia	Grenedier. Yogendra Singh  Param Vir Chakra
RFN .Sanjay Kumar  (Param Vir Chakra)	Major Padmapani Acharya,    Maha Vir Chakra (Posthumous)	Lieutenant Balwan Singh,    Maha Vir Chakra
Major M Saravanan,    VirChakra,	Lieutenant Kanad Bhattacharya,  Sena Medal (Posthumous)	Captain Saju Cherian,    Sena Medal
Lieutenant Keishing Clifford Nangrum,  Maha Vir Chakra (Posthumous)	Captain R Jerry Prem Raj,    Vir Chakra (Posthumous),	Major Sonam Wangchuk,    Maha Vir Chakra

Capt.Vijayant Thapar (Robin) 
He Laid down for OUR BETTER TOMORROW   
At the age of only 22

This is his last letter to his parents.

They are the people who sacrificed their lives for us. it is because of them we are able to live this kind of life. 

Photographed by Naina

Well this was the first social even after a long time (first was back in 2008). I was really not sure weather to attend it or not as the Heat of Delhi kills you even at the end of the day.

I got the invitation email from Honey Singh of Media Redefined, the social media company which was managing this event.  The event was for Samsung Mobile, for showcasing their two new mobile handsets, the Samsung Galaxy S and the Samsung Wave.

Finally I decided to attend it as I wanted to know more about Samsung Galaxy S, which has been creating waves in the market. Also I had few of my friends bought it already.

I had my friend Shaan accompanying me. It was the Plan B, in case the event turns out to be a boredom of solace. .

So, we  were there at the Samsung Bloggers Meet at the Hard Rock Café. at 4Pm, Saturday, and it was proved that I am not the only lazy guy in this world as  there were few other fellows who joined after us.

After everyone was settled down, the event started with the introduction of BADA, which is the OS for Samsung Wave Mobile. At the same time we were given Galaxy S and Wave mobile phones to play with.

Photographed by Naina

As I was busy playing with Galaxy S, I didn’t get all of the Wave’s info, but learned that Samsung is aiming to sell around 10 million BADA phones in 2010 and 20 million in 2011 and it is offering Free Apps in India only.

Photographed by Naina

After the Free Drinks (Yes Free Beer!), the 2nd part of  the presentation was about Samsung Galaxy S. I learned about few cool features in this Android based smart phone.

One of the best features I liked is that it enables you to sync your Contact list with three main social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter and MySpace), which means you don’t have to open any third party app or browser to get it done.

The second was, you write one single note and it can be sent as SMS, MMS, Tweet, Email or Facebook Status update. This what Samsung calls a Global Inbox.

Plus, I tried opening my blog (Asifahmed.net) on Galaxy S. I was able to see the whole page in the landscape mode and was able to read the posts without zooming in. Being a Blogger I really liked this thing where I don’t need to zoom in and zoom out all the time. The Default browser impressed me. There has been an improvement in the Touch, which is Samsung’s own TouchWiz 3.0 UI. It feels nice to use it. I have used other Touch Phones from Samsung which give huge electric like shocks to me. This one responds nicely and is very responsive.   

I currently own Nokia n97 Mini and it crashes the 3rd Application I open, I have to zoom in to read the content and despite of the 5mega pixel camera and Flash available in my phone, I was unable to get any proper Image I could use in this post, this is the reason I am using photos click by Naina from Studio Aside, who was there to cover the event. (You can view more shots on her site).

Galaxy S has a 1Ghz processor, which is quite huge for running multiple apps which you can get from the Android Market, which has really cools apps available and is going to be the market leader in sometime from now. It is also Capable of Recording and Playing HD Videos without any Time lagging in between. The Super AMOLED makes the Screen more brighter, at least brighter than my n97 Mini.

Not even the Software but the build quality of Samsung Galaxy S impressed me. It was looking so good that I really wanted to get one for me. Unfortunately, I was not able to Win the small contest where Samsung gave away one Wave and one Galaxy S phone while wrapping up the event.

Photographed by Naina

Specifications of Samsung Galaxy S Mobile Phone

* The Specification as given in the Broachers given by Samsung

There were few additional features like Layar Reality Browser, which Augmented Reality Browser, Swype which lets you write fast by swiping your finger over the virtual keypad and Wireless Tethering, which turns Galaxy S into a wi-fi router to connect with a Computer, ThinkFree, which lets you edit your documents on the go, Aldiko eBook, which turns Galaxy S into an eBook reader. 

All the features were well explained and demonstrated by Sarfaraz who did the entire Presentation of both the Mobile Phones and did a good job.

Photographed by Naina

At the end of the even, I was totally impressed by this Smart Phone, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking other fellow bloggers about the this phone.

Annkur from OnlyGizmos said He already owns it and is happy with it, but feels the virtual keypad could have been better.

Himanshu  from Blog Technika feels the same way about the phone.

Everything went quite well and we left for our respective places after exchanging twitter handles, Facebook profiles etc.

Rohit unboxing his brand new Samsung Galaxy S

After Getting back home I asked my friend Rohit from Blogsolute about this phone, who bought it just a week ago.

He says “It is a beast, not just a Smart Phone but a smarter phone. Android makes it so”

Well, I agree with him, I feel this one is the best phone I have seen so far. I might be biased because I am already in love with Android OS and was planning to buy Google Nexus One but after attending this event I have changed my mind.

Please Note: This is not a sponsored review, However, if anyone from Samsung is reading this and wants to gift me this phone, I would love to hear from him.

Well, there is nothing wrong in asking!

This is cool with me as I really don’t make calls to anyone and I am not as important as Brat Pitt or Steve Jobs.

But my friends are very concerned with this issue. Even if they are not concerned about it, they get to kick my ass as they get a valid reason to do so.

They always ask me where the hell I am or what the fcuk ( I am writing it that way, not a typo ) I am doing. It was so important to contact me and they were not able to call me as they didn’t have my number.

Oh well, My dear friends, I update everything on my blog. I check my emails everyday, do Facebook updates, Tweet what I eat. And if all this sound too techie for you. Put my name in Google, I am there on the top. Contact me via this page.

So, next time if you need me badly (this should not sound gay). Try searching me instead of waiting for me to contact you after ages and then get kicked by you. You really don’t want my phone number in order to reach me.

I registered the domain name last year, despite of the fact that I have been blogging since 2004 and blogging professionally since 2007. I was earlier blogging on a sub domain blog, because I did not want to pay for the domain name. yes, that’s pretty cheap of me.

But there was another reason that I did not have anything specific to say here as all the blogs Sucked covered my online time. later I started writing about stuff that no one bothers to care about, I have written posts where I wanted to feel like a Booker Prize winner, but you know what! I agree with you. My writing Sucks, and that leads me to stop writing personal things on the blog.

How can a blog, which is read any anonymous people, be a personal. Hey, I love you anonymous people, I really do. But I cant share things like whom I am sleeping with or where is my Ass attention on these days.

I added Google Adsense on the blog and I will be writing information posts, Steve Pavlina way. I will be teaching how to, and how no to.

Disclaimer: Though I stated that I will be writing no more personal posts on this blog, I can started writing personal stuff at any point of time. I am such a moody person you know!

Amazing thing to meet old friends, yes, friends are assholes, but when they become old we miss them and also it feels good to be with assholes for some time. Yes, We guys do have this kind of friendship. We talk dirty, think negative  and can throw someone in the river too.

Like on my way to come here ( 4 hours ago) , I tweeted about what was happening in the Metro Train, a guy standing next to me, was looking so desperately at the girl seated just opposite him, I just looked at him while he was watching her, and then she looked back to him, stared at him smiled and Boom, things started getting interested, As I did not have anything else to do, I moved my eyeballs to almost 90 degrees and started watching their every move. I didn’t know the guy, I didn’t know the girl as well, but why the hell it was in my interest to keep a tab on them? Well, Curiosity……

Yes, I may be wrong, but we guys always think like that, or almost 90 percent of guys do, rest of the 10 percent  are mentally retarded. We sometimes say, ‘Lucky Guy’ going to have a great night. Yes, this might be wrong, unethical or (add few more related words yourself). But we are guys, it’s ok with it us and that’s what we are blamed for.

I have found few best ways to grab traffic to your blog, lets discuss.

Traffic from Facebook

You can get a lot of traffic from Facebook, here is what you can do, try to add people who are interested in your blog’s topic. to search such kind of people, you can search groups and fan pages and then start adding people from that group. If you use your Facebook for personal stuff then create another account specially for this purpose, it’s free after all.

Traffic from Twitter

People really get angry when I tell them that they can get a lot of traffic from Twitter, they shout at me “Screw you, I don’t even know how to use it and you telling me to get traffic from there?” Well, just please with it, follow people and blogs that are related to your Topic,  use the Plugin Feed2Tweet on your blog to update your twitter followers automatically. You will gain a lot of traffic if you have got a lot of followers.

Traffic from Email List

If you don’t have an Email list then you should start working on it. the more people on your email list, more traffic you can. Email list can be used again and again and as people check their Emails, there are high chances that they will visit your blog.

Traffic from Commenting on Other Blogs

Just make a list of Related popular blogs ( about 20 is enough) and try to be the first to comment on them. To organize these blogs, make a folder in the bookmarks in your browser and rename it so that you can remember it, like ‘Blogs to Comment’ etc then put all the bookmarks in that folder, now every time you want to comment on the blogs, just open a new window and open all the bookmarks in that ‘Blogs to Comment’  folder and start commenting. This strategy works only if you write good comments and not spam them saying ‘hey, nice post’, ‘well done’  etc.

Traffic from Forums

Same is the case with forums, make a different folder for forums and bookmark all the popular forums of your related topic. Now put your blog url in the signature and always take part in the discussions going on the forums, whenever you publish a new post, try to start  conversation on the forums by putting a links back to your post. This also helps in getting back links to your blog.

Traffic from Bookmarking Sites.

There are plenty of bookmarking sites on the web. just make a list of the popular ones, like Digg, Stumble Upon, Reddit, etc. or use a plugin called Sexy Bookmarks, which will put Social Bookmarking Buttons at the end of every posts, be the first one to Bookmark your blog posts and ask your friends too.

Traffic from Word of Mouth

Many people underestimate this strategy to bring in quality traffic to the blog. But I have benefited from it, there are a concert going on in my University and my friend was performing there, after the performance he just said that people can download his song from his website. The Concert had around 1000 people there and he got around 300 Hits that night only. In the upcoming days he might have got hits which was the result of that night.

Traffic from Search Engines

You don’t have full control over this but you can Optimize your search ranking by doing little things, use All in SEO plugin and do link exchanges with other bloggers, bookmarking your posts will also add value in ranking your posts in search engines. Keep in mind that maximum links back from quality pages and proper keywords can make your blog posts rank well and can bring a lot of traffic.

Traffic from eBooks

Well, you can write eBook, or small reports and distribute it here and there on internet. Submit them on eBook sites etc. Talk something valuable in the report and refer some links to best posts on the blog, you surely will gain a lot of visitors for future.

Traffic from Guest Posting

Guest posting is pretty famous these days, this is one of the best ways to get traffic as well as quality back links to your blog. Sometimes when you have something to say with is not related to your own blog, you can surely search for the blogs which are related to that topic and ask them to publish your posts on their blogs, they surely will disclose that this post has been written by you and will be links your blog back. Imagine if you do this on a regular basis, how popular is your blog going to be.

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I think I have covered all the main strategies, but the list is endless, be smart, be innovative and keep thinking of new ways to get traffic to your blog, This is a basic funda for all the blogs, The more your traffic will be, the more your profit will be.

If you have any cool strategy, please share it in the comments below. I really would love to hear from you guys.

• Apple didn’t have two founders. It had three. Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.
• Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive share the same middle name: “Paul.”
• Before working at Apple, Jonathan Ive worked for a company called Tangerine.
• The original Apple 1 computer sold for $666.66.
• The Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan (the cube) is said to be one of the most photographed landmarks in the world.
• Nine U.S. states don’t have Apple stores: Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.
• Before co-founding Apple, Steve Jobs worked for Atari.
• Jonathan Ive has worn the same shirt in every Apple product intro video since 2000.
• Steve Jobs is a Buddhist.
• Steve Jobs’ birth father was a Syrian Muslim, Abdulfattah Jandali.
• Steve Jobs met Steve Wozniak when Jobs was 16 and Wozniak 21.
• Steve Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas for $10 million and sold it to Disney for $7.6 billion.
• Steve Jobs has four children: one son and three daughters.
• Jonathan Ive has twins.
• Steve Jobs originally denied he was the father of his first child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs.
• Steve Jobs sold his apartment in New York City to U2 frontman Bono.
• In 1998 Steve Jobs let Bill Clinton use his mansion in Woodside, California.
• Steve Jobs underwent a liver transplant at a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee in 2009.
• Apple was established on April Fools Day.
• Apple has more than 35,000 employees worldwide.

• Apple once disposed of 2,700 unsold Lisas in a Utah landfill. The computer originally sold at $10,000 each.
• Only 30-50 of the original Apple 1 computers still exist, with originals selling for up to $50,000.
• Apple’s original logo in 1976 featured Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree.
• Apple’s current logo was designed by Rob Janoff.
• First slogan: “Byte into an Apple.”
• Apple was the first company to introduce the mouse and the trackpad.
• After being kicked out of Apple, Steve Jobs started an unsuccessful company called NeXT.
• In 2001, Apple’s stock price was less than $8 per share. In April 2010 the price reached $272.
• In January 2007, Apple Inc. dropped “Computer” from its corporate name.
• Apple.com is in the top 50 websites visited worldwide and in the top 30 visited in the United States.
• Apple wasn’t started in a garage, it was started in a bedroom at 11161 Crist Drive in Los Altos.
• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak both worked together as summer employees at Hewlett-Packard.
• The longest-lived Apple computer of all time was the Apple IIe, which was on sale for nearly 11 years.
• Apple didn’t sell a Windows-compatible iPod until nine months after the iPod was introduced.
• The time shown on all of the devices in pictures on Apple’s website is the same (9:41 a.m. for iOS devices and 10:50 a.m. for Macs). The time is coordinated with when the pictures will be shown during Steve Jobs’ keynote address.
• Apple once created a stand-alone game console called the Pippin.
• The famous 1984 Macintosh ad was directed by Ridley Scott, director of Alien and Gladiator.
• Apple created the Dogcow in 1983. The sound she makes is “Moof!” 
• Steve Jobs pays himself an annual salary of $1.
• Steve Jobs’ annual income from Disney shares is $48 million.

• Despite being one of the biggest companies in the world, Apple’s current board of directors (at six) is among the smallest in the Fortune 500.
• Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is on Apple’s board of directors.
• Steve Jobs was a college drop out.
• Steve Jobs was awarded the National Medal of Technology from Ronald Reagan.
• Steve Jobs commonly dons a black long-sleeved mock-turtleneck made by St. Croix, Levi’s 501 blue jeans (he owns more than 100), and New Balance 992 sneakers.
• In 2008, Bloomberg accidentally published a 2,500 word obituary of Steve Jobs in its news service, leaving blank spaces for his age and cause of death.
• Steve Jobs traveled to India looking for enlightenment in 1974.
• Steve Jobs is dyslexic.
• Steve Jobs said he let snakes loose in his third grade classroom and “exploded bombs.”
• While Steve Jobs worked at Atari, he was moved to the night shift because he had poor personal hygiene and smelled bad.
• Steve Jobs and his wife are strict vegans.
• Apples are Steve Jobs’ favorite food.
• Steve jobs convinced the president of PepsiCo to work for Apple.
• During the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, Steve Jobs used the phone to call Starbucks and order 4,000 lattes to go.
• Steve Jobs has big feet, at size 14.
• Steve Jobs often parks in Handicap spaces at Apple headquarters.
• Steve Jobs’ sister, Mona Simpson, is a novelist.
• Apple is now a $50 billion company.
• Apple sells 91 percent of $1,000+ PCs.
• Apple’s idea for the graphical user interface actually came from Xerox.

• John Hodgman, the  PC in the “I’m a Mac” commercials, uses a Mac.
• Apple has been in the retail store business since 2001.
• Apple has had six CEOs: Michael Scott, A.C. “Mike” Markkula, John Sculley, Michael Spindler, Gil Amelio and Steve Jobs.
• Philip W. Schiller, senior vice president of marketing, began but didn’t complete a Ph.D. in English.
• Steve Jobs was portrayed by Noah Wyle in the film “Pirates of Silicon Valley.”
• Macs last an average of six years. PCs last an average of four years.
• The average PC owner spends 50 hours a year troubleshooting. The average Mac owner spends 5 hours a year.
• Teachers and students using Macs are found to be 44% more productive.
• When it was first released Steve Jobs gave every Apple employee a free iPhone.
• Apple began work on a touch-screen tablet before work began on the iPhone. The iPad wasn’t released until three years after the iPhone, however.
• The iPod’s codename was “Dulcimer.”
• Gonzo, Jedi, Malibu, Peter Pan, Rosebud, and Yikes! have all been codenames for Macs.
• The signatures of the Macintosh hardware team were originally engraved inside the computer’s case.
• Steve Jobs originally considered “Macintosh” to be a code name and wanted to rename the project.
• Time Magazine considered naming Steve Jobs “Man of the Year” in 1982, even sending a reporter for interviews multiple times, but instead, the magazine named “the computer” the machine of the year.
• Susan Kare once created a computer icon of Steve Jobs while she worked on the Macintosh team.
• Anya Major, a discus thrower, threw the sledgehammer at the screen in the famous 1984 commercial.
• The 1984 ad was originally proposed to be used as a print advertisement in the Wall Street Journal to promote the Apple II.
• Apple’s Board of Directors hated the 1984 commercial when they saw it but decided to take the risk anyway.

• The very first image shown on the Macintosh was of Disney character Scrooge McDuck.
• In 2010 Apple’s market cap exceeded Microsoft for the first time since 1989.
• Apple’s online store began on November 10, 1997.
• The first Apple retail stores opened in Virginia and California.
• Apple’s Cupertino campus has six buildings that total 850,000 square feet and was built in 1993.
• Steve Job’s birthday is February 24, 1955.
• When he was growing up, Steve Jobs lived on 45th Avenue in San Francisco.
• In his childhood Steve Jobs swallowed a bottle of ant poison and had to go to the ER.
• While in high school Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak made and sold Blue Boxes to get free calls from public telephone systems.
• In 1972, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak took $3 an hour jobs dressed as “Alice in Wonderland” characters at the Westgate Mall in San Jose.
• At the first Apple Halloween costume party, Steve Jobs dressed up as Jesus Christ.
• When the first IBM PC debuted, Apple took out an ad in the Wall Street Journal with the words “Welcome, IBM. Seriously.”
• In 1982 Steve Jobs made Bill Gates and Microsoft promise never to work on any business software that would use a mouse unless it was for Apple.
• Steve Jobs dated singer Joan Baez.
• Steve Jobs once stared as President Roosevelt in a war-themed 1984 ad parody called 1944, where Macs start a war with IBM computers.
• Paul Rand, the creator of the IBM logo, was hired to create the brand identity and logo for NeXT.
• Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell were married at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park on March 18.
• Jonathan Ive’s first piece of work at Apple was the 20th Anniversary Mac.
• Steve Jobs once sold the King of Spain a NeXT computer at a party, even before it was released.
• Steve Jobs once tried to get NASA to let him ride the space shuttle.

Wow, already five months have passed since the year started. It was So cold when I wrote the post about thing I want to change this year and see last week the temperature was 47 Degree C in New Delhi.

I had to buy Air Cooler for the room to keep myself from burning. Wow, man this is freaking me out. I am really planning to get some air on the Hills. Probably Dharchulla, or wherever but I really need to get myself out of here for sometime.

I am sorry. I should have never let you go. Even though you went away I had the time to get you back in my life. But something deep inside me stopped me.

Sorry won’t undo things which have happened, but it means that it was my fault. I accept it. I now believe that not meeting me purely came out of stress from you corporate life and you were not trying to ignore me. My critics said you were giving me hints that you no longer want to be with me. I now realize they are no one to control my life. I should have figured it out with you.

I am sorry for not returning your calls. I am sorry to turn my face from you when you expected me to stay with you on that chilly December night and have a chat about our future over hot coffee.

I am sorry I took you for granted. I thought everything is just the same between us. I am sorry to hurt you. I am sorry.

I am sorry for not saying ‘I Love You Too’ when you said ‘I Love You’ to me. I wanted my ‘I Love You’ to be special. I sorry, I just never read between the lines.

Now I am closing as I don’t have anything else to say. I am enjoying my life and I am completely over you now. I burnt all your letters, deleted you emails, your phone numbers and I won’t be wishing you B’day anymore. I will never meet you, not today, not after five years, not in this lifetime. I wish you a great life. Goodbye

My Mother always say that I am One In A Million, I know that your mother say this too, well, not about me but about you obviously. yes, Mothers are always like that irrespective of the cast, color or religion.

Right from the day I was born, she has taken care of me, I have always dictated her for everything, be it, what it would be in the Tiffin for my lunch or what color T-shirt I want. She never said ‘No’ to me. She used to wake up half an hour before me so that she could prepare iron my uniform, polish my shoes and prepare my breakfast etc.

She was the one who used to lend me money when my pocket money (given by Dad) was over. She was the one who used to sign on my ‘Report Card’ when I was scared to show it to Dad because of my poor marks. She was the one who used to feed me by her own hands while I used to shout at her that I don’t want to eat more and let me watch the TV. It was only her who understood that my ‘One Minute! Mom’ was usually 10 minutes or even more.

Image Credit biancapreusker

During my exams, she used to stay awake late nights just to make sure that she is there if I need something, she used to get more tensed than me on 31^st March which used to be my result declaration day at my school.

All that happened when I was a toddler and did have the brain to understand this emotional bonding, but today when I saw my cousin brother, who is of the same age as I was, 10 years ago, giving orders and dictating his mother to switch on the TV, set the Cartoon channel, switch on the AC and bring some water, all of it at the same time, he believed that all his demands will be fulfilled by his mother. Now I am able to understand the bonding between Mother and Child. Yes, it’s the mother who does so much for us.

I am living thousands of miles away from home from almost 8 years but it never has been more than 2 months where I don’t meet them. Thanks to the technology that I talk to her on phone every alternate day, and I love her so much. I am so lucky that I get to talk to her.

But that is not enough, we all have got mothers, and it is impossible to be born without a Mother unless you are God’s son, which you are not. So, if you have got a mother, you should go ahead and tell her that you love her so much, thank her to bring you in this world after so much pain. If you are an Idiot like me who doesn’t know how to express your emotions in from your parents, then I’ll suggest you to gift her something as Mother’s Day is around. And if you are Broke, then borrow money from your friends, and if your friends are broke too, that you really need to make a rich friend (ok will talk about it later) take some time out and give her a handmade card which says Mom! I Love You or something like this make sure you have got a good handwriting. and if you are not able to do anything like this, then simply saying ‘I love You Mom’, to your mother will do.

I too have been thinking on writing a blog post about it, as being a blogger, this is my way to show my love to my mother, I know that my mother is never going to read this blog post, as she is not that much into Computers and might think that ‘Blog’ is the name of a Dog or any animal or something. But still I am writing this as my friend Chetan Bhawani has given a tribute to his mother on his blog.

As the Mother’s Day is around, BlogAdda has organized a contest asking for giving a tribute to your mother and has also asked what you are going to gift to your mother this Mother’s Day. Well, I would gift a Mug from Pringoo.com, don’t worry, you can make your own design and order it.

I just would want you guys to let your Mothers know that you really care about your them and they should not cry watching Baghban for God’s Sake and we are not that bad.