Hey Manikanta..

I hail from the same city, Bangalore. Good to see that people are getting into security field

You are at the right place (EHnet) for guidance
I think other members gave u a good insight into what u need for OSCP.
From the syllabus of OSCP it's clear that the course is more about network security than about Web App's security. So your CCNP level skills will come handy and other things u might need will be: Some basic skill in scripting language(Python/Perl/PHP), Able to read(understand) Assembly language code, Linux skills and before you enroll, boot ur BackTrack and try to get comfortable with some important security tools so that when you get on the labs, You can straight away start practicing than wasting valuable time trying to figure out how things work
And most importantly, get yourself ready to do lots and lots of research on own, manage your time... and always TRY HARDER  
I am planning to do OSCP some time around early 2012, so keep posting your progress and I might hassle you about OSCP when I am ready to take up the certification  

I once had a faculty who was a professional Incident response handler, I had a chance to peep into his 'Jump bag' and they carry so much, things like screw drivers, spare screws and variety of hardware interfaces to connect to devices on site . And he used to say never steal from your own jump bag

This course seems affordable, not too pricy. For me I dont need dead lines and stuff to work/learn so I am not enrolling, I mean I can manage with the free material available (Vivek's Mega primer and Metasploit book).. But I highly recommend this course for some one who wanna learn the in and out of Metasploit

@Jamie. R - I am looking forward to take some Web App's certification too, you got any ideas on mind. I am a novice when it come to Web App's stuff, just learning basics now.

Well, I am sure there are a lot of places where you can download this kind of free stuff but this is not a right place to post/share this stuff.. this site is clearly an Ethical Hacker Network

HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox extension produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It encrypts your communications with a number of major websites

https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

I have never been on any professional pen test 
but let me add to the list..

Network hub or switch
Live CD's
Blank CD/DVD's
Power strip

Securitytube folks did it again..

SecurityTube Metasploit Framework Expert (SMFE) Certification an online certification on the Metasploit Framework.
http://www.securitytube.net/smfe

So any body interested in enrolling??

Never heard of it  , thats nice 

Nothing to do with this thread, but any one tried this site:
http://www.hackertyper.com/ 

Hey piersf, Welcome to the forums  

These links will be helpful for you to learn about Wireless Networks Security and also for your thesis:

http://www.willhackforsushi.com/
http://packetstormsecurity.org/papers/wireless/
Hacking Exposed Wireless, 2nd Edition

if you want to learn more about tools:
BackTrack 5 Wireless Penetration Testing Beginner’s Guide book
http://www.aircrack-ng.org/

This book is really more of doing and less of theory.

By the time time you finish third chapter you would have already started to learn stuff like Bypassing security measures ( Hidden SSID's and Mac filters. )

I am planning to take OSWP this December, as OSWP needs to setup your own lab and basic linux skills, I bet this book comes really handy.

Before taking OSWP I want to finish the following

CWNA official guide : for WLAN basics
Hacking Exposed Wireless 2nd Edition - Solid book
BackTrack 5 Wireless Penetration Testing Beginner’s Guide book
and Wireless Hacking Megaprimer by Vivek

I think this list would be really enough to get through OSWP course smoothly.

I have both Python 2.7 & 3.1 installed on my Ubuntu box  

The major difference that between these two versions is Python 3 has limited library support and the fact that most current Linux distributions has Python 2.6 - 2.7 as default.
If you are just in learning phase of the language I think any of these versions should go smooth.

Trojans 

Well.. I prefer using Dark Comet 4, it has been recently released and has fully undetectable features n stuff like that, there is a Mac version coming soon.
http://www.darkcomet-rat.com/

idr0p mentioned the best books on web application security.

Regarding other resources, OWASP has some rich content regarding Web Apps Security. https://www.owasp.org/

And they are some deliberately vulnerable applications available, that lets you practice your skills on. Take a look at Webgoat, Metasploitable.
http://www.metasploit.com/about/how-do-i-use-it/test-lab.jsp

I am more interested in Network part of Security. For now most of my learning part is going on self pace, thanks to my college library for having awesome books.
One major reason that I aint going for any certs now is not having $$  
I can be pretty stingy on things   but I really don't mind spending money on two things:
- Hardware
- Good Documentation

My path is some thing like:
- Linux Skills (Self pace) - there is a huge amount of material online.
- Protocols (TCP/IP...) - some good books like TCP/IP Illustrated
- nmap - lucky to have Fyodor's book at library
- Wireshark Skills - Wireshark has really nice user guide and wiki.(and lots n lots of practice)
- Higher concepts like Firewall's and IDS
- Python Skills - there are plenty of good books(some are free), this is something I have been focusing mostly on because at some point you feel like you can't turn your ideas into code. So my focus is more on coding.
 
This list and some others  will keep me busy for quite some time.

My certification path would be something like:
CWNA - To get started with wireless things.
OSWP - getting deeper into wireless security
OSCP  - Once I am comfortable with the above skill (and some other skills) I am going for OSCP. I am not in for eCPPT, as it covers almost the same stuff like OSCP except it focuses more on Web App's security.

Coming to your point,
"Linux +" skills will be pretty much fine for going further into security. if you have time & bucks, you can consider RH certs.

In the wireless portion, I would rather suggest to focus on CWNP certs because they are vendor neutral certifications.
After CWNP certs, as your focus is wireless you can go for OSWP, that course is pretty nicely laid out. SANS certs are good but they come with a big $$, I feel like Offensive Security certs come with a good learning curve and are not too pricey for what they offer. GPEN would be a nice place to start with.

eCPPT is good with the Web Apps security modules and you can also take a look at "So You Want To Be A Web App Pentester" by Joe McCray.

+1 for Eclipse with Pydev
And I use gedit on Ubuntu most of the time