My Big Big World

Shifted

2008-10-17T06:24:00.000-07:00

Hi.
If you liked my blog, please go to my new blog Zehreelay at http://zehreelay.blogspot.com
Thanks.

SIngh was King

2008-07-29T10:19:00.000-07:00

I was a fan of Ishmeet Singh the day I saw him on the TV for the first time. In fact I saw the first episode of Voice of India because of him.

I was surfing channels when I passed a Sardarji singing a beautiful Tune Mujhe Pehchana Nahi on Star Plus. It was one of the initial stages of VoI and I loved that performance so much that I thought he should reach somewhere in the final stages. By the time I didn't even know he would reach the mega finals where there will be two people on the stage and then win the title.

Even when the final results were about to come, I was supporting Ishmeet against a person who had the same name as mine. I even wrote a post, 'Will my candidate win this time'.

But today, he is no more. I don't know how it happened exactly, but it was a painful incident.

May Ishmeet Rest in Peace.

The 2 ways

2008-07-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

There are two ways of not talking to one.

First, by not speaking and second, by not listening.

Out of Race

2008-07-27T05:18:00.001-07:00

No doubt there is a race going on among all the news channels nowadays. Every one wants to be ahead of all others, not only in bringing news to people, but also bringing experts and expert reviews. As soon as something happens, there are 'experts' on TV, talking live and on phone on the topic.

But the print media is a quite different. Probably in being good, and more responsible, they do things slowly. I first felt so when I was checking websites of various news channels and newspapers yesterday. As Times of India website was showing 6 blasts, DNA showed 9, whereas Aaj tak and IBN were showing 13 and 17 blasts' news respectively.

Today, when I thought I could read some comments by the best of India's journalists/authors on two days' continuous blasts, I was disappointed to see that Times of India had nothing on blasts by any of them and the entire editorial page, 'All that matters', in their lingo. Then I checked Hindustan Times and DNA, and found that there were no articles on blasts in any of their editorial pages.

It was like coverage of the previous 5 days of the week took away the 6th and 7th days. But the obvious fact is that these authors give their opinions days before these editions come out and nobody tried to change them.

On one hand it's good because had the case been otherwise, there would be only Ahmedabad all over the pages. But then, it's striking that when on one hand everybody is talking about bomb blasts, but these newspaper experts seem to be talking of an altogether different world.

Don't you think they need to speed up a bit?

Real and Fake

2008-07-27T02:29:00.000-07:00

I like reading Shashi Tharoor in The Times of India every Sunday. This time, it was about fake things versus real. And here is my opinion which I sent back through the ToI website.

(You can read the article by from the link given in the top right corner, 'Get real, we are living in a fake world', or simply clicking the title of this post, that is 'Real and Fake')

Thanks Shashi.

Pretty right. Absolutely right as far as drugs are concerned, and even in general, I feel we should buy original and not fake.

But sometimes piracy helps those who are not helped by originals. In today's context, I am talking about books.

Previously it was the market of CDs (read movies) that was dominated by pirates. But then, the prices of Video CDs (and even audio CDs) came down and people started buying originals, piracy taking a backseat. And though piracy hasn't been abolished completely, Moserbaer and T-Series are dominating the market with their low price CDs or say, reasonable price CDs.

Back to books now. India has a large market of pirated books. And I have bought a number of pirated books in Bangalore and Chennai, most of them Non-fiction as I used to read whatever I got in library as far as fiction is concerned. I have never liked buying pirated books but then, I didn't have much options. I don't think my parents can 'waste' rupees 495 for buying me 'The Elephant, the tiger and the cellphone' until it's going to help me out with my studies or my job or something equally important. In fact, until I start earning enough money myself, I can't think of buying a rupees 500-600 book. And I feel an average Indian student is more or less in the same situation, with the exceptions of a few rich.

Now, the options I have are:

1. I do not read the book and wait for getting a job first.

2. I stop my other expenses for a month or a half and collect money to buy the book.

3. I go to the market and get a duplicate copy for 70-80 rupees.

I think the third one is the simplest, and the best in my scenario. And in case of most Indian students. Or a lot of them, to say the least.

I still say that I do not like pirated things. I bought Chetan Bhagat books because I could afford one easily and so was the case with The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. And I feel that if prices are made a bit more people friendly, piracy can be removed to a large extent.

PS: I still haven't bought 'The Elephant...', hoping I buy an original as I'll be joining my job soon.

Blasts

2008-07-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

It's 8:56 by my watch. And seems there is a race going on between news channels. Times of India, where I saw the news for the first time had been showing news of 6 blasts and now isn't talking on numbers. DNA is showing 9 blasts on its headlines whereas IBN live claims 17 and Aaj Tak is talking about 13 blasts.

And though they say blasts were low intensity, pictures don't suggest such 'low' intensity. I mean, of course they might have not been high intensity, but the 'low' thing is quite misleading.

As the news came, I was a bit shocked as it was continuously second day for blasts. But the real shock came when I heard my mother saying that there were 14 blasts. I opened the TV and then the sites of IBN and Aaj tak telling me more than I had read.

I still doubts all the figures but one fact is that this day has been really shocking. I had not even changed the 'Are we habitual to bomb blast news now' tag on my Orkut profile when this came up.

I know there is not much going to happen for this except that there will be POTO or POTA again when the next government comes, but I wish the politicians don't politicize this issue and do something positive together. Though I feel this is going to remain just a wish as this is yet another chance of throwing mud at each other for our leaders.

For the rest, may God help us. That's all I can think of.

Next is Where

2008-07-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

7 blasts rocked Bangalore today.

After Hyderabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Faizabad and Jaipur, it's Bangalore. And I think now we have become quite used to such news. We see, look shocked, count the numbers, lament on the situation of country, and change the channel.

Not that I feel we, as general public, can do a lot about it but I feel the way we are getting used to bomb blasts is not only wrong, it's strange too.

I am not sure about others (and welcome others' opinions on this) but when I saw the blasts' news I was soon thinking, rather calculating which town or city could be the next victim now. I also feel this attitude is wrong and I feel I need to change my outlook about this.

Also, I want to know if there is anybody who thinks the same. If yes, please give your opinion.

Beta or Alpha?

2008-07-25T08:04:00.000-07:00

To start with, if you do not know the basic difference of Beta and Alpha versions of software, here it goes. The alpha build of the software is the build delivered to the software testers, usually internal to the organization or community that develops the software.

Whereas a beta version is the first version released outside the organization or community that develops the software, for the purpose of evaluation or real-world black/grey-box testing. The process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release. Beta level software generally includes all features, but may also include known issues and bugs of a less serious variety.

Now, let's come to current trends. First of all, nowadays companies like Google run their products in the markets for years and claim them to be beta versions. For example, Orkut, used by more than 12 crore people, is still in beta stage.

Now let's talk about Google's new service, Knol. Knol is a service started by Google where users can write their own pages about anything and put it online, something similar to Wikipedia, except that there can be a number of pages on a single topic in Knol, and they will belong to the owner of the page.

Now, Knol is in its Beta stage, but the service doesn't even have a working search system. The question is, how can a service that is so much dependent on search, reach its beta stage without a proper search sysytem.

Interestingly, Knol belongs to Google, which is considered the second name for search on Internet. Hope Google does something about it soon.

And now, Knol

2008-07-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

What if Google owned the Wikipedia? Well, now it seems that Google is trying to something of that sort as it has started its new service called Knol, the unit of knowledge. (name trying to remind you of mol/mole of science, I think)

Though being a Wikipedia isn't easy. That too when its a commercial company like Google. I mean, of course there are companies that are much more into money but Wiki is a complete charity so a competition should hardly exist between the two.

For now, the only things I understood are that Knol will have authors who could write on topics as they wish and they can also get ad revenues through adsense for ads on their Knols.

This is supposed to create competition but I expect more of confusion and chaos. So let's see how does this new thing works. I hope Google people get good result for using their Knols of knowledge.

India. Teaching the world

2008-07-23T03:10:00.000-07:00

Today, while surfing, I found a site called dailymind through an article called 100 Ways to Relax, Unwind and Loosen Up. Though I didn't find much in the article, I liked the site and decided to move to the home of the site, rather blog.

As I reached the home page, the sight that welcomed me was of a Kashmiri boat-sailor and a post titled 'Lessons from India 3: Dealing with hardships'.

As I watched below, there were chapters on 'Being Grateful for what you have' and 'Having a Purpose at Work'.

I think Indians are still as good at teaching spirituality as always.

Najibabad. Internet. People.

2008-07-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

Today, 4 pm, Bharat Complex Cyber Cafe, Najibabad.

It was not a new thing for me to go to the Bharat Complex. I have been there so many times for internet when I didn't have a broadband connection even though the Rs 30 per hour the guy there takes wasn't right from any standards, I thought.

Still, today I needed to go there as I needed the print out of my Dell Laptop quotation so that I could tell bank how much it cost me.

I went there and told him I needed to get a printout from my mail. After 5 mins he got me a system. I logged in. I got the mail, downloaded the PDF and said, let me check it. By the time I could complete my sentence, he had clicked sign out. Of course, he had no time to check it.

Well, he launched himself into the printer room with the PDF in his hand, in a pen drive. By the time I got in, he told me it was 8 pages long. Pretty fast, considering I'm not slow by any standards. I was sort of shocked and asked him not to print it all and just give one page when he told me he had already given the print command.

I thought it would not be much of a problem as it'd cost me Rs 16 at max and since I hadn't asked him to print, he might consider taking a bit less too.

Guess I was wrong. Not just wrong, but actually shocked when I asked him how much I had to pay and he said Rupees 40!

Rupees 40 for eight, black and white A4 pages' prints which actually I didn't want because I could fetch the price of my commodity on a single page. Seriously speaking, I had to control my anger and I was sort of showing my magnanimity when I handed him the money. The interesting thing is that when I asked him that I and he both knew how much these eight pages really cost, I got an answer that he only knew as he was the one earning. Well, the logic was quite okay but I still wonder how I could justify Rs 5 for a printout.

After half an hour when I was chatting with my dad about the printouts, for the first time it occured to me that buying a printer was a much better option as the guy could buy a printer with the margins he got on every pack of 500 A4 sheets. (500 pages x 5 Rs per page=Rs 2500, almost the cost of a printer) In fact cartridges too could be bought in that much.

I think Najibabad is a pretty self dependent place now, as far as internet is concerned as I can see many people with net connections now, but if you need to go for printouts, and the guy in your mind is the Bharat complex one (as it's one of the best running cyber cafes), consider buying a printer. The same thing as I am doing now.

Watch Out. Don't Click

2008-07-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

Today I stumbled upon a new thing, called dontclick. It's an experiment on the site dontclick where they check if you really miss clicking or happy navigating without clicks. Interesting. You can check it.

Shift Kiya.. Kiya... No-kia!

2008-07-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

I wonder if there are people on this earth who do what they say. I mean, sometimes it's so difficult. Not generally, but for me it's so. I say something, and do something else.

This time it was my phone. I lost my phone to the rain of Dehradun. Well, most probably, as it stopped working later in the night after the day when it caught some rain. And so, I was going to get a new phone.

I have been a music freak for almost 10 yrs, but I still never had a music phone. So this time I decided to get a music phone. And since I got a digicam, I wanted to have a non-camera phone. I searched, and found that Nokia had no such phone. (!!)

Well, I thought of buying a Sony Ericsson and later decided to go with a MotoYuva. I even found one with a friend of my cousin and finally I was happy with my choice of a new Moto.

The day I had to buy phones (my dad also needed one, as he lost his almost a month ago), I took off on my dad's Nova with him as the driver. (I still don't drive a scooter, or any other vehicle for that matter!)

The first shop we selected belonged to 'apna subhash' who is popular in the city for his helping nature. ('Apna' was part of his shop's name when I had bought my first phone from there in 2003) By this time 'apna Subhash' had stopped selling cellphones and was only in the business of advising as far as cells were concerned. My dad asked him who had Nokia and Motorola Agencies in the town and he immediately suggested not to go with a Motorola even though he said Motoyuva wasn't a bad phone.

Next we reached Goyal PCO, our supplier of clothing except shirts, pants and sarees, I mean, from towels to bedsheets and caps to socks, the owner of course being my dad's good friend. He there asked him to come with him to Bilal's, who had almost every model of cellphone that was sold in the town. As we talked to the guy sitting behind the counter of Bilal's, the guy suggested us not to go with a Motorola and rather stick to a Nokia. The reason he gave was that we had gone to him with bhaisahab (the owner of the PCO) and hence he would give us the best advice. He also said that he currently didn't have it and it would take him two days to get a Moto as Motorola wasn't in demand in our town.

This time I finally came down. I was all in mood to get a Moto until then but as I heard I needed to wait for two days for a thing that was un-suggested by a number of people, I decided to get back to a Nokia.

I asked the guy what were the prices of 5200, 6300 and 3110 classic. And soon I decided to go with 3110 classic as 6300 was a bit too high on price and even though I was at a liberty to buy that, I didn't want to put in that much money. Nokia 5200 was de hone and hence I didn't want to buy that. Thus I got a Nokia 3110 Classic, once again a Nokia, after my 2100, 2280, and 2600. In the meantime, I got my father a Nokia 2626 that he lost last month and this time I got him a Nokia 1650, making him the third person who bought the model while going with me.

To other cell makers: I have recommended a number of phones from other companies including Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Samsung, and this time I was about to shift to a Moto myself too. But at last, No-kia.

Blogging. Not racing

2008-07-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

Everybody makes mistakes. I do too. And here is one that I feel many people do. So did I.

Blogging. A wonderful thing. Something that gives you freedom to say what you want to say. And so people blog. And then they blog, and blog to get readers. That's where the mistake happens.

I was a guy who started a blog as an experiment last September. I kept blogging on and off with business, telecom, and Hindi blogs, hoping they would 'run well'. But in that I lost some of my real blogging pleasure. Still my big world (that's my BLOG) kept going.

And then, there was a block. When I didn't write, due to exams and then unavailability of net and then for no reason. In the meantime I started a blog on music, because I liked that. I thought I'd blog out my views on music because I always liked to make the first opinion.

This was something I was wrong with. I blogged. I gave out my views. But I joined the race I didn't have to. I started thinking more about viewers of blog rather than my views.

And that was One Of The Reasons that I wrote lyrics of three songs from Rock on!! As usual, some time after writing them I searched the song title on Google, and what happened opened my eyes. The top result belonged to a person who had copied the lyrics from my blog. (Don't ask how I know, I can understand if it's copied from mine) On the other hand, my blog wasn't in results. (I m talking top 50, that's what I keep on first page.) This little bad luck was an eye opener for me. This guy who copied my material told me that blogging wasn't a race and there was no point in reaching people with something before others, it's about reaching people with something different, something that is your own, your views you want others to know.

It wasn't that bad because I had written those lyrics because I liked them too, but I was wrong in searching for results and all, of my writings, especially those lyrics.

So if u r a blogger, or ever become one, be yourself and not what people want you to be.

Happy blogging.

Way they copy: Picturespeak

2008-07-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

Not a big deal. But it shows the way we do things. This was the NYT site I had visited a few days back.

And then one day I opened the Hindustan Times site, which made me blink for a second, as I thought I had mistakenly opened NYT again. But it was HT only.

Of course both pictures have been taken almost simultaneously. I think it's pretty normal for us. But isn't it showing we don't want to work, or say even think much?

This is with the assumption that HT has copied NYT. In case it's opposite, which is highly unlikely, the same applies to US people. :)

The World is Flat - III

2008-07-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to a marriage party. Probably I will be giving a description of all that happened later (actually nothing at all happened) but first I would like you to know that I found after four years of my Vellore, I am almost disqualified for a typical marriage party!

And of course, once again, that the world is flat.

I and my dad reached there sometime after 7.30 pm (courtesy dad, who thought it'll start in time) and found that the dinner hadn't started. (anything new??) Our hosts took us to a banquet hall where mahila sangeet was going on. (!!!)

Well, it seems something has changed. It was a mahila sangeet program, held in a banquet hall, with a DJ and a dance floor, and with a dinner following. Of course, purush, that is fortunate males, could join the proceedings and the sanctity of mahila sangeet was kept only by the fact that there were only females on the dance floor.

The sangeet was also wonderful and got more wonderful as I was sitting there in the banquet for almost 45 minutes. The first I remember being played was a traditional Dhoom taana from Om Shanti Om that was being supported by the dance of a lady of almost 25 (+/-10, keeping in view my record at guessing ages of people) and I was wondering how Vishal Shekhar could make something that didn't even belong to their age. Accolades!

A few minutes later, which seemed to pretty long with the dance, there were small children of my mohalla (no relation with college mohalla) who jumped towards the stage. No, it wasn't children anymore. I had been out of town for too long it seems. Now it was a girl in her teens who was imitating Katrina as the hall was filled with the tune of Zara-zara touch me. And then, after another traditional dance on Aaja Nachle and maybe one or two more songs, it was a number of school and college going girls that captured the DJ as it played Kajrare followed by some typical DJ tracks, and the girls kept on rocking with dances that I never knew existed in my town. Not in mahila sangeet at least.

Finally I was getting the point. In the five years I had been out, having seen the culture of mainly metros, living with students from entire country, I had forgot there was a similar progress going on in my town too. And that too, at a speed more than in the big cities. The number of young girls and boys who were getting good exposure to metro culture was increasing. Basically, it was the same people I had been with for the past five years. And now, I was meeting them. Surprised. Shocked.

Maybe I have not been very clear in what I have said. But try to get the meaning if you can. ANyways, there was something else I am pretty clear about. My disqualification.

Having stayed at college for four years, my diet has changed. I eat a lot now. But that happens only at home it seems. Yesterday in the party, I could not eat most of the things. I mean, I didn't like the quality of North Indian dishes because I was eating only at home. And I didn't like South Indian at all after staying in Tamilnadu for 4 years. Nor did I want to have South Indian, actually.

Just had a few little things and a poori with a sabji, and I came back after one ice-cream.

Disqualified. Mom says I won't be going to the next marriage party. Thanks mom.

2008-07-04T19:58:00.000-07:00

This world is not fair.
God doesn't believe in racism.

Women's Game

2008-07-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

Rolex. IBM. Anything else?

It wasn't like I was searching for jobs in multinationals. And Rolex would not offer me one anyway. It was the things I was seeing in the last match of Wimbledon. Reason: It was mens' singles.

First of all, please be clear I have no knowledge of tennis except that Leander Paes lost to America's Andre Agassi in 1996 Olympics (hope I'm correct on year) and that it's the game played by Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, and of course, Sania Mirza.

So, back to the topic, I was seeing this 'boring' Mens' singles thing between Roger Federer and Marat Safin. And though I could understand by the way the match was going that they were playing well (otherwise I wouldn't know their names, too) I didn't find it very interesting, or not at all interesting if compared to the last two matches where respectively Venus and Serena defeated their Russian and Chinese opponents.

I mean, seeing those girls playing those strong backhands and fronthands (I don't know if that term exists in tennis) is something worth watching. It's mesmerising to see how one little girl makes the big lady in front of her move here to there with her tricks (though it didn't happen that many times) and how beautifully (or dangerously) they show their joy when they win their games, sets and matches. (phrase lifted from Suhail Seth's articles, eventually a 1988 movie too)

But what is there to see in those Mens' Singles?? (or even doubles, for that matter) Why do people see them at all? I mean, if you want to see muscular men doing big action, why don't go for some Hollywood movie? (I hope there are not many 'bollywood only' people who watch tennis, that too mens')

Or maybe there is something worth seeing in the game too. Since I see Cricket, I know men like games, and maybe those guys play really well, so they can watch them play. But then, in a game where even the audiences don't shout during the game, what's the whole point in watching the GAME??

So, I think, I have thrown it out in the last sentence. I didn't, don't, see tennis for game. I see it for timepass. And for those girls. After all, I feel it's a women's game.

Of Blogs and Blogging

2008-07-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

For a long time now, I m off blogging. I mean, the real blogging- My big world. I do not know when it exactly happened, but I changed in some way. I felt I was no more able to write. But probably it was something else. Probably I wasn't getting enough exposure- to world, to worldliness.

It was those days of college (not very long back actually, it's just a few months old story) when I felt like writing on everything and used to start scribbling anywhere, hardly half of that reaching my blog. But since the day I left college, the time I was on a trip to Madurai, Bangalore, Kanyakumari and Kodai, I lost touch. And then, even when I got net back, I did everything, including writing on my music blog, but didn't really BLOG.

I thought it was because I was staying home and not getting out. But today, after reading a new blog, I sensed there was something more that was wrong. I wasn't trying new things. Not even those that did not need me going out. Reading. I wasn't reading books. And I wasn't reading many blogs either. The only blogs I read were those from my friends, but the real thing, my habit of reading a number of random blogs was gone.

And probably that was the reason I wasn't writing. Probably it was the lack of enough incoming that resulted in lesser outgoing of thoughts. Probably I wasn't discussing enough. And now that I have found the reason for my inactivity, which is at least what seems to me, it will be worth seeing for me if I get back to 'the writing' or not.

Wish I do.

2008-07-01T03:22:00.000-07:00

Many things in life happen for the first time.
And most of them never happen again.

Mark Burnett is Smarter Than a Fifth Grader

2008-06-24T11:57:00.000-07:00

Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass se Tez Hain?

Well, if you really are smarter than a fifth grader, you are going to admit that you are NOT smarter than a fifth grader. At least on the show.

"Main Paanchvi Pass se Tez NAHI Hoon!"

If you have seen the episode of 'Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass se Tez Hain?' where Pragjyoti Samal won a crore rupees, you must have seen the rules and must be clear why I think so. But if you have not, keep on reading.

'Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader', the show which is copied in India as 'Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass se Tez Hain' was created by British television producer Mark Brunett. And the guy made a little pocket in the game which not only saved millions of dollars of television producers, but also kept the sanctity of the game by proving that nobody was smarter than a fifth grader.

The pocket is that after answering ten questions, when the winner has a crore rupees in hand, she is told that she cannot use cheats anymore (completely fair) and told that she WILL HAVE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION ONCE IT IS DISPLAYED.

That is, the players are not allowed to quit the game at the last question. If they see the question, and fail to give the right answer, they are sent down to rupees 2 Lac, from One Crore. (Bad, actually.)

I think any person who is smarter than a fifth grader will like to save the crore rupees in hand rather than risk them, and proudly ADMIT that she is NOT smarter than a fifth grader.

PS: To Guys, Sorry for the use of female pronouns. But then, no guy has won a crore rupees on the show yet.

From Jaipur to Quota

2008-06-19T00:32:00.000-07:00

Mr. Bainsla has done it for his community. Going all the way from Jaipur to NCR, he has found his way to Quota. Where does this 5% comes from is another problem. The first problem is, what if I want reservation tomorrow? Shall I opt for the same track? Collect a few thousand people and reach block the roads of NCR?

The Gujjar 'protest' has set a significant 'example' for many leaders. Whereas Raj Thackeray had achieved only political recognition for himself, Bainsla has really 'achieved' something and I very much fear this is going to be a pattern that might be followed by some community or the other before elections.

Instead of any action against those who had blocked life in the NCR and Rajasthan, the government has awarded the 'agitation' with a 'special' quota which comes from nowhere and once challenged in court, may even go unimplemented.

But I feel it's not the quota that is the real problem with the Gujjar agitation. It is what process they have followed and what can become a trend after seeing the instant success of the agitation. There is no need to tell how badly Gujjar agitation had affected life in Rajasthan, NCR and even UP, affecting number of trains also, some of them even cancelled or diverted.

In short, whatever the motive, Rajasthan Government has set a bad example with the way they have tackled the issue. Also, I feel any such protests that affect life of general public, such as blocking of roads or trains etc. should be banned by the law and those laws should be enforced properly.

Dyslexic me

2008-06-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

I never knew what it was until I saw Taare Zameen Par. But my writing was not legible for most of the Homo Sapiens. Or Hetero, for that matter.

Then, I somehow passed class twelfth, with the help of my parents who never sent me to a punishment boarding school. My mother made a genius out of me by making me learn everything by heart except for the maths that was dealt by my dad and his hand of which my head had become used to.

And then, my world changed. From somewhere I got the fact that a computer did not need me to write. In fact, there was a software (God only knew what a software meant. In fact I never understood where it was SOFT!!) called Microsoft Office which made your work very easy, I could make mistakes and wait for a red line to come below all the wrong letters I typed. And though my grammar wasn't bad, it told me with a green line whenever I went wrong. On top of that the keyboards did not have any letters that could confuse me. I mean there were only English letters on the keyboard (No Russian as my teacher told!!) and that too, only capital letters. I could differentiate easily between 'b' and 'd'. It was simply the difference of 'B' and 'D' with the caps lock off which was shown with a light.

Well, I heard it was some Bill Gates who made this SOFTware. My friend Titu told me that Aamir Khan did not tell Bill Gates' name in the movie but Bill Gates actually asked his company people to make this software to help dyslexic people because he was also dyslexic. Titu also told that someone told him Bill Gates was told how to write by a teacher called Steve Jobs and this was actually where the movie came from. He also told that Aamir did not mention Bill because he did not want to put Bill Gates' name with Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein.

Anyways, whatever it was, I got a great idea and finally I am a computer engineer now. But there is some difference. When I was dyslexic, I could write some letters on paper, but now I am a typing expert and cannot write a letter on paper. I understand letters now but I do not understand paper and pen anymore.

Now my alphabet is not ABCDE... It's QWERTY... I think I am more dyslexic now.

Well, whatever, I liked the movie. Aamir Uncle is great. And so is Titu.

My Name on TV

2008-05-20T23:38:00.000-07:00

19th May, around 10 AM. It was the SRK vs ICC story running on Times Now, a channel I haven't seen much and is not on my list of favorites. But as I was surfing channels, I liked a story, started watching it, and soon made an opinion.

Pretty normal.

And then I decided to send my opinion through SMS at the number they were displaying.

Quite rare.

Soon I sent a message to 58888. (I didn't read the number actually on TV, I remember the 8888 from the days I used to read The ToI and know that we've to add 5 to all such numbers now) The message read, 'Cricket never had franchises. And now that it has, the owners should be allowed to boost their teams' morale in the way they like.', followed by my name and city.

I waited for a few minutes (thus seeing Times Now for the longest time ever, more than half an hour) and saw the ticker running which read, 'I see nothing wrong in SRK sitting in the dug out. He has the right to support his team. Harshit, Najibabad.'

Thus, I saw my own name on the TV (for the first time of course) with a different opinion than I had stated, an opinion that was being given under some other name sometime earlier.

Thankfully they had not flicked my opinion to the other side of the question and my opinion shown there was at least supporting the same cause as mine. Still, I got some truth of the news channels and once again felt that blogs are the best medium to express oneself since TV can twist the opinions of even existing-nowhere people like me.

C Naught Minor

2008-05-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

Dennis Khuraijam, or simply Dennis, has always been a strange creature, right from the day I first heard his name. Even after living in the same hostel with him for one year, he is as big a mystery to me as he was on the first day.

All I could understand of Dennis in past two years is that:
1. He is cool.
2. He doesn't care for anything other than that.

And even though I know that I don't know him, there have been instances when Dennis has shocked me. One such was when we were listening to 'Ajnabee shehar hai' song of Jaan-e-mann one day. Generally Dennis doesn't much listen to Hindi songs except very few favorites of his, those too getting occasional chances. In fact he is not much liking for Hindi movies as they are mostly 'bad copies' of those seen by him in English, or sometimes even Korean etc. (with subtitles of course).

Still, Jaan-e-mann was one of his favorites because it was 'fresh'. Anyways, while listening to the song, i.e. Ajnabee shehar hai, I was talking casually about how well Sonu Nigam had sung the song. For those who don't know me, I don't have any 'proper' knowledge of music but since I listen to music a lot, I consider myself nothing less than an expert.

So while talking, I simply said "Kitne high scale pe gaaya hai yaar!" (on what a high scale has he sung it!)

"I think it's C naught minor."

It took me sometime to understand that Dennis had told me at what scale Sonu Nigam had sung the song. It was a sudden shock for me as I didn't have any idea that he might have this deep knowledge of music. I mean I don't know whether it was right or wrong. All that mattered was that this guy who was listening to my time-pass blabbering about songs and music actually had some knowledge of music.

Later he told me he had learned to play guitar and probably keyboard and hence he knew that much. Whatever it was, I got something to remember for a long time, something that always comes to my mind when someone talks of notes and scales of music. The 'C Naught Minor'.

Language Love vs Rules

2008-05-14T03:24:00.000-07:00

It's been long since I have blogged. In the mean time, I have had a number of reviews and seminars. And finally my engineering is over, with just one thing remaining, that is result. And I don't think there is much I need to do about that now, following the sayings of Shrimad Bhagwadgita. :)

So here I start all new again, on the same blog.

Yesterday when I was coming home from the Bangalore station after leaving my college, I noticed there are vehicles with number plates written in local language. Since I do not happen to understand much of Kannada, I found it was wrong, ethically because many people who need the number will not be able to read it, especially with the number of outsiders Bangalore has, and legally, because I think all vehicles should have number plates written in Arabic numerals . (1-2-3-4 etc.)

In fact the vehicle I saw was an auto which should, in accordance with law, have a yellow colored number plate, while there was a white one. I think such things should be avoided so that we can have better traffic regulation.

2008-04-26T17:15:00.000-07:00

It is surely a male dominated world. The most preferred voice for female lyrics to me seems to be of Kailash Kher.

2008-04-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

I love echoes.
I want to hear my name when I call out yours.
Yes, I love echoes.

Lagi Shart?

2008-04-20T17:10:00.001-07:00

I had hoped that the IPL will bring huge profits to the BCCI. In fact I thought it will be profitable for even Shahrukh, Preity, Mukesh Ambani, and may be Vijay Mallya too. Though I don't think the last one is as interested in profits as he is in the game and its glamour.

Later on, I thought it would bring profits to bookies too. Of course the players and all were to be benefitted.

But I never knew that it will be Chennai Hot Puffs 2007, my nearest baker, who will be enjoying profits from IPL.

I have been put of my hostel for quite some days for my project work and staying at my project partner Anish's room. It's a almost a small hostel as there are some fifteen people from the same college, most of them from the final year. We have a TV here that is connected to cable through some arrangement unknown to me but which is not completely legal for sure.

And now we watch the IPL matches in one of the rooms, where we all gather in front of the TV, getting a place wherever possible, on a chair, a mat or the floor itself.

It was the first match where it started. Anish supported Kolkata Knight Riders for the match and Abhishek Luthra supported Royal Challengers Bangalore. The bet was a veg puff which Abhishek lost badly. Next day he supported Mohali against Chennai and lost again. The system continued and Luthra had lost 5 veg puffs to Anish till last reported.

Anish has in total won 6 veg puffs by now and hasn't lost any. But now the bets seem to have come to such levels where we are ready to put a puff even on the number of dot balls in an over.

Whoever wins these bets, our bakery owner is sure to win in this game.

Now come to the higher end of it. We'll be soon going to our homes when the series will be in the mid of it. But we want to bet on who will be the winner of the series. So what will be the prize for the winner and how will it be given?

Any guesses?

Whoever loses, will get an e-recharge, i.e. top-up of the bet amount on the winner's phone number.

Howzzat?

I think now I understand the line 'Ye India ka cricket hai bidu'.

Ad(d) value

2008-04-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

The little sweet doggy is back with a little girl this time. During the debut match of IPL, the thing I enjoyed the most after Mccullum's innings was the series of Vodafone ads.

The little dog wetting the tickets for envelopes by licking them was an awesome sight. The interesting part is that Vodafone doesn't come into the picture anywhere until you are completely held by the double innocence of the girl and the doggy.

And then, they simply write their message in big letters, such that it reaches every single heart.

I mean, when you watch it for the first time, it sure does.

Even before this, Vodafone has made beautiful ads for their alerts' services, the best one being for the art of living alerts.

Of course, nobody has forgot the 'Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayal aata hai' ad where a guy sings one song through out his life and at the end you get an almost statutory warning telling you 'Zyada gaane sunen' (listen to more songs).

I just hope they keep on making such ads, which not only add to their customers, but also make the entire experience of watching TV great.

Torch-Light

2008-04-17T11:41:00.001-07:00

There are innumerous ways to come into limelight. Especially when you are in India. But sometimes people use these rare things to get themselves into limelight, like the Olympic torch.

Use of Olympic torch to come to limelight is not really new. It has been pretty usual to run with the Olympic torch in order to get the limelight around yourself. But some people feel that this way, the torch doesn't give the best of its light. And so, they find better ways.

One such way is recently found by our just-arrived sports minister Mr. MS Gill.

Mr. Gill found out that stopping people from running with the torch will not only give him a brighter light in the media, it will also give brighter light to those who are being stopped. Probably that's the reason he has advised politicians and film stars to stay away from the torch.

Anyways, the Olympic torch this time has given light to a number of people, from Tibetans wanting their freedom to Amitabh Bachchan commenting on Mr. Gill, and from Sachin Tendulkar to Rahul Gandhi. And to Mr. Gill, no doubt.

2008-04-16T17:05:00.001-07:00

I just found my religion. I am a Googlist.

First Among Equals

2008-04-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

99/100 to this one.

One of the best from Jeffrey Archer. Where you feel the pressure building even in your own mind whenever it comes to the election time.

The one mark I reduced is because I felt at times, or may be only one time, it seems that the author has written something just to add a twist and there is no enough reasonability.

But, beyond reasonable doubt, I enjoyed reading this one too just like Shall we tell the President, Kane and Abel, and As the crow flies as the book was extremely interesting even with the amount of politics involved which can be really boring at times.

With FAE, my personal count on Archer reaches 6 and I get a majority out of his novels. Hope to read a few more, and if possible, all, in the near future. For FAE, it's a highly recommended book if you are a Jeffrey Archer reader. As a word of advice, it may be better if you know a bit about the British political system as it will make the novel easier to follow.

Fall of Grand Old Orkut

2008-04-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

No more Orkut.

It's not my new year resolution in the middle of the year. It's something that Orkut has done to itself.

Well, to be more clear and specific, we can say that Orkut has become 'facebookised'. And thus comes the fall of the grand old Orkut.

For now, all I'm feeling is that the grand old Orkut got afraid of the increasing or increased popularity of Facebook and decided to go the facebook way, adding a number of applications from music iLike to typeRacer and readingSocial to Bible Verses and IndiaDekha.

Which, I presume, is a bad, bad decision as I have seen a number of people who have found it difficult to cope with the facebook and thus have sticked to Orkut, without even deleting their Facebook accounts, for either they did not care, or they did not know how to do that.

I feel it may also trouble people who were first time netizens and found Orkut the 'simple and best' system to just stay in touch with friends.

Although, on a positive side, the new Orkut may be more interesting to people who were finding it difficult to pass more time on Orkut.

But overall, I think it's a negative thing for the grand old Orkut.

How to react?

2008-04-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to be shocked. And so I was. But the fact is that I was confused too.

Today, when I reached the library gate, I saw the face of our librarian that had become somewhat horrifying and a lot detestable for me. But the way it came to me, that was unexpected by all means.

It was her photo kept at the gate of library, with a garland over it, smoke of an incense stick, and a note that read, "We deeply regret to announce the death of our librarian Ms K Kalaichelvi."

For a few minutes I could not understand if it was truth or I was dreaming. And if it was a dream, was it good or bad? Well, it wasn't good, to say the least.

Cause even though I hated the lady, I couldn't think of something like that happening. It was just, just frustration against what she used to do, and so many people do here. And understanding that, I tried not to think bad about the lady, at least now that she was no more.

But the fact is that I couldn't think much good about her, and in some way, I was feeling a bit guilty for that.

Anyways, the facts were facts, and the hatred was hatred. But now, it all exists in the past tense only. So it's better I forget all those things.

One more thing, I feel, maybe it's only a feeling though, but I strongly feel that the thing she could not do putting up hundreds of boards in the library and using all the good and bad means, (sorry!) she did it when she wasn't there as the library seemed to be in the most silent of the moods today.

Well, now, only my apologies for talking anything bad I did talk about the dead. May she rest in peace.

Google and Googlability

2008-04-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

I had decided this post to be titled as Googlability. But since I'm a very literary person, at least nowadays, I let myself have some inspiration and named it Google and Googlability.

What is Googlability?

In simple terms, the ability of a search result to be googled easily is its Googlability.

I haven't yet made it mathematical so that it's just a concept and can be understood easily by anyone.

Now let us take some examples to understand Googlability. Let us start with the Indian Premier League. Indian Premier League is an easily Googlable term. That is, when we write Indian Premier League in the Google search box, we simply get the results related to the Indian Premier League we want and not any other thing.

Too simple. Isn't it?

When do you get results for 'Z' when you search for 'X'?

Sometimes we do.

Let us talk about Mumbai Indians. How many results out on top are for the IPL Mumbai team? Though the first ten results are for the IPL team only but not as many as come for Chennai Super Kings or Kolkata Knight Riders. This is an example of relatively low Googlability.

Today we need to know how to make ourselves more Googlable if we want people to register our presence in the online world. Being Googlable is especially necessary for those people and organisations which are googled by people and which need to be seen or heard by the people in order to advertise themselves.

We can say Googlability comes from a balance between uniqueness and generalisation. While you go out in the cyber space for an identity it should be as unique as it can be and that without losing its general identity.

Today I am happy that my name is Googlable enough and gives results on the first page of Google. After all, Googling is all about the first page search results.

Ethically Correct?

2008-04-08T03:55:00.000-07:00

The so-called reshuffle of the UPA government's ministries has been done and there has been very little to talk about. In fact the way Congress has once again ignored its youth brigade is one thing almost everybody is talking about.

The PM-in-the-waiting Rahul Gandhi has not been given any ministry and simultaneously the HIgh command Sonia Ji has released a statement declaring he didn't want a ministry himself.

And although Jyotiraditya and Jitin prasad have been given ministries, there is a big question on why was the much popular Sachin Pilot not given a ministry.

Anyways, the question of ethically correct or incorrect lies somewhere else. It's about the former Chief election commissioner M S Gill being given a place in the ministry. The question is that is it right to give a ministry to a person who has been on a top post where the holders of the post are expected to be entirely neutral. Will this not raise a question on the political leanings of the person?

I agree that Mr Gill has done his work with complete neutrality, that is, to the best of my knowledge. But his inclusion in the ministry can surely leave a wrong impression on the other election commisioners who may lean more towards parties expecting a benefit from them after the completion of their tenures.

In fact this has taken place when an election commissioner Navin Chawla is already in question regarding his involvements with the BJP.

Apart from this, there is one more question that confuses me. Is it that the UPA government itself has doubts about this act of theirs? Because I find no other reason for a highly qualified beaurocrat like Mr Gill to be assigned a state ministry, even with an independent charge. Why wasn't he given a cabinet post is something that creates more confusion.

SRK. The brand and the businessman.

2008-04-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

I was never a fan of Shahrukh Khan, the superstar. Probably because of my nature of trying not to do what everybody is doing. Or may be because of my taste in 'different' type of movies. Probably this 'taste' of mine can be explained by not only the movies I watch, but also the ones I leave. Om Shanti Om and Race being in the top league of the latter.

Then the times changed, and I started liking the work of the Khan. Actually I had loved his work in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai itself, but I started really admiring the actor after seeing Swades. Then came the undoubtedly wonderful Chak de India and I admired him more.

But I never became a fan of Shahrukh Khan, the actor. Still, Shahrukh Khan, the brand and Shahrukh Khan, the businessman, are making me his fan.

A few months back I got the inner and outer world of Shahrukh Khan. It was one of the things that brought the change. The way Shahrukh Khan presents himself, the I-don't-care-what-u-think attitude has always appealed to me, but the things he told in his inner world almost touched me. I still remember a few lines of his from the CD, which say "Nothing in this world is permanent. This is, hundred percent, a lifetime of it's own. It has a beginning, and it has an end." I do not know if those dialogues came out of some dialogue writer's pen, which does not hold a very high probability, but I started watching out for almost everything he says in public and I found myself being a fan of him.

Once I had got a point in a debate in my hostel that Shahrukh Khan is a person who has established himself and now after doing a lot of crap movies, (sorry fans) he is one person who can risk doing a Paheli. I very much agreed to the point. In fact, recently I read he admits that his friend Vivek Vaswani had asked him to 'first become a star and then become an actor'.

And now, the brand SRK has jumped into an all new area with the IPL. He has finally become a complete businessman now if he was not yet one.

His ways of working are also clear from the fact that he did not have any awards for his home production Om Shanti Om as it is clear to him that it will only be a bad for his image to win a prize for such a crappy movie. Of course, I do not doubt he could have got it had he tried it.

Well, now that I am almost a fan of him, I can talk a lot about him. But I think it's enough for now.

By the way, I'll surely be waiting for the new image of my favorite brand SRK at 'Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?' while singing karbo, larbo, jitbo re.

2008-04-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

Incomplete knowledge is seldom good but complete knowledge is seldom gained.

Once again refugee?

2008-04-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

Once again, I don't know my future. A few more months at my base where I have been for the last quarter to four years. And I will be somewhere for a few weeks. And then, somewhere else. And I hardly have any idea of either of the places.

After all, having an idea is not what matters.

I used to have a home, a school and a group of friends, like everybody else. Or like all the guys lucky enough to have a school, to be precise.

And then suddenly a day came when I no more had a school. A day I used to wait for, and a day I have detested after that day. That day took away the times with those friends of school and then, even I left my home to come back every 6 months as a guest.

Well, almost.

Then I reached Kota and had an year of coaching with some of the school friends around and some new ones. And it was a wonderful life. During my drop at Kota, I enjoyed one year of friendship, experienced one year of life, and simultaneously did one year of preparation for engineering entrance.

Well, almost. ;)

I finally got into a 'reputed' college as a result of one year of my 'hardwork', with no friends from my home this time. But then there were new friends. Like always. And sometimes, better.
After almost 4 years of stay in college, I had a friends' circle and a lot more circles. With and without girls. With and without boys. But there has been my 'Mohalla' with me all the time, except for the third year when I was in a different block. Something I know I'm gonna miss for long. May be for life.

I have had some of the best friends in college. And a big number of acquaintances with whom I have been involved with. With almost 1200 students in my year of B Tech alone, I doubt the number of people I know, at least their names, would be any less than 1k.

And there would be many of them I'll be missing at least some time in my life, for some reason or the other.

And Now I'll be leaving it all.

To stay in some place I do not know. As I've got a reputed company. I know I'll be having friends again wherever be the place I go but I doubt I'll be having such great days again with those friends. In fact, for the start, I'll be a refugee again. One in the refugee camp where everybody is new to the other and nobody knows where to go.

Ok. I think I'm not talking much sense. The fact is just that many things are going to become parts of history now. And I'll be missing it all. Just wish I get some of the present friends while getting my job. That is all I want for now.

Well, almost.

It's all fake

2008-04-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

I had read a post of the same title by mirage a few days ago. It was a pretty serious post about pretty serious issues. But what I'm going to write here is not that serious. It's just bits and pieces I have collected from here and there. Mostly from my own college.

Today I saw a girl roaming with a guy in my college. So what?? Nothing with that. They were simply standing in the 'lovers can stand here' (only that much, that too luck favoring, of course) zone of our college. But then I realized there was an old guy with them, the biggest ******** of college. (don't count the stars, all the words that need these stars can be used) He gave them a piece of their mind saying it was not a place to stand there and all the crap I could only guess from their faces. (that was when I saw what all was happening) Finally, after a few minutes, he asked them to move from there.

And they moved.

And he called the guy back and asked him, "Where are YOU going? Let her go, and you do your work."

If only you let him do it.

Logic: he was 'saving' the girl from any problems that could happen.

Fake. Isn't it?

The girl was almost on the verge of crying. She moved in the direction I was moving. (Of course I couldn't stand and see the drama taking place) Soon I realized the girl was moving in the opposite direction again. Back to the same place. The guys were both out of sight. Hopefully, she would find the one she wants to. And not the other one.

Fake again?

I remember on the day of Shankar Mahadevan concert in our college, our teachers were busy controlling us. A few of them were simply standing and trying to look happy. And then, at the same time, I could see their spouses standing on the other side of the barrier, trying to look the same happy.

The students can't dance together cause of the protection theory. But sad is that even teachers can't have the privilege of staying together if they cannot sit in the chairs.

Like good teachers.

I see guards whistling on each and everything they see. Or dont' see. And students doing their 'work' through it all.
Center for technical support banning sites and students working through proxy sites.
CTS banning proxy sites and students finding new ways to get through. And still failing in the continuous assessment exam of 'networking'.

I do not find much of truth in this world.

Or in myself.

It's all fake.

PS: I'm not a pessimist. The fake, to me, is just as interesting as true is.

Khuda kay liye

2008-03-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

Khuda kay liye.

A movie from Pakistan of which I saw a promo, the music touched me, and I downloaded all the songs of the movie.

Yes. I do have all the songs of the movie, and Allah Hu and Bandya seemed pretty good.

And now that the movie is out, I think I am going to see it too.

Generally i do not see the movie reviews very much. I simply see the promos and decide for myself whether I want to see a movie or not. But Khuda kay liye was a movie for which I have already read at least 3 reviews from both Indian and Pakistani reviewers. Reason, I have no idea about the director or the cast and crew or banner of the movie. And I was too interested to leave the detail of the movie.

The movie is from a Pakistani director (of course) Shoaib Mansoor and is a highly appreciated work and is said to be much above an average Pakistan flick. Interestingly, one of the most important roles in the movie is played by Naseeruddin Shah.

An Indian.

India. And Pakistan. And still no controversy? How is that possible?

Well, courtesy someone or the other, it is really not possible. When the role was given to the indian actor, a few people from Pakistan, even after acknowledging how good an actor Naseer is, had problems with the fact that the best role of the movie was given to an Indian. (I haven't yet seen the movie so I cannot say whether it was the best role of the movie or not)

And I really hope that there would be people in India also who would have problems with Naseer, an Indian actor, working there in Pakistan, who would be asking "India mein movies banni band ho gayi hain kya jo wahan gaya hai?" (Has India stopped making films that he has gone there?)

Though we do not have any problems with our young people all working for US. But then, you dare not compare working for US and working for Pakistan.

Next, since the movie was a Pakistan production, it couldn't be shown in India as Pakistanni movies' release inIndia was banned in 1968. We were being stopped from seeing a great, highly admired work of our own country's actor because it was produced by a person who lived in Pakistan.

But finally art won over the hatred and the movie's rights were bought by Percept Pictures Company and the movie is finally going to release on April 4.

Hope there are no problems with the release. Khuda kay liye.

Fire in the Boiler

2008-03-30T02:47:00.000-07:00

"Yaar ye baar baar power cut kyon ho raha hai?" somebody asked. We were all busy discussing movies and music in Abhishek's room, just next to mine. Or we can say my room is next to Abhishek's, as he owns the first room of the Mohalla, the corridor of friends we are proud of.

"It seems Dutta has put on his big boiler again." came a reply from somewhere in the room itself.

We kept up our discussion.

Suddenly power went off again.

This time my mind's power came back and I was running before I could actually think much.

I went into my room and saw fire coming out of my boiler. Mittal, my roommate, was sleeping a few feet away, oblivious of the fire. And my boiler was burning to ashes. Power was not there, of course, and the fire in one corner of the room was making a pretty horrific scene.

It was a small plastic boiler with a capacity of little more than a glass of water. I needed some hot water for a cold n cough medicine so I had poured a glassful of water, switched the power on, and went out of the room for a spoon.

And they were discussing some song, and then some movies, and I forgot I had left the boiler in my room. To burn itself.

I called them as fast as I could. And all of them came in within seconds.

No further questions. They all started trying to put off the fire. Motz was trying his best to put off the fire when suddenly a falling piece of boiler fell down on my hand and fell down to the ground. It had touched my hand for an instant but I felt it was burnt badly. And within seconds I was at the wash basin, with one hand on the tap and the other under water.

Actually it happened so fast that I could not even feel any pain in my hand.

I could now see the while peeled-off skin of my hand.

That was when Amit came in and saw what had happened to my hand.

And before I could think, he decided we were going to the health centre.

It was 12 in the night.

I really could not think. I asked them if I really needed to go to the health centre. I'm sure it was. But I didn't realize it at the time. But that doesn't really matter. Cause when I came back to the room, the centre of attraction had suddenly shifted. The fire was gone, there were only ashes. Pretty hot, of course. Some one of us had switched on the power too. And I do not know how many of my friends were walking with me. One holding a mug of water, in which my hand was immersed.

Soon we were on the ground floor, with Jeet and I-don't-know-exactly-who-all watching every step of mine. My hand was once again under the cold, chilling water tap, while we were waiting for the Ambulance.

I stood outside the block with a half wall beside me, my hand still in the mug of water.

Oh, how good my friends were.. All of them were there with me.. Some 8-10 right in front of me.. These were the thoughts which were crossing my mind when I realized I was fainting. I collected all my strength and called Jeet who was standing nearby and told him I was fainting.

"Don't worry. Ambulance aa rahi hai." He said and sprinkled some water on my face.

I didn't faint. But I was not in my senses either. The ambulance came and they almost lifted me and put me in even though I tried to walk up.

And then we were enjoying in the Ambulance, talking the most senseless things which I do not remember now. Jeet, Ritvik, Motz and don't know if anybody else was there. Probably Apoorv.

Finally I reached the Health centre and was surprised to see Dr Reghuraman there. He had already had an encounter with my fainting problem the last time I was in for a blood test. Well, he simply suggested a silver sulfadiazine and the nurse did the bandage.

Motz had also got slight burnings so he too got the lotion.

We came back in the same ambulance and this time I remember we were talking of movies. Resuming what was going on in Motz's room a few mins earlier.

"Amitabh Bachchan and Mallika Sherawat," I asked my question, lying on the bed in the ambulance.

"What? Any such movie exists??"

"Darna Zaroori hai."

"Chup ho ja yaar! Tere haath mein problem hogi bolne se..." Jeet had no other way out.

Movies to watch out for

2008-03-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

I do not know how many of you liked 'Race'. But I had no problem walking out of the room where my friends were playing the movie. Not that movie was bad or something. But I hardly found anything worth watching. (I've seen enough of the three gals in promos)

But I'm hoping from stock ahead. Here are some movies to watch out for.

Shaurya. Releasing next week, that is 4th April, I have at least some expectations from the Rahul Bose movie and I wish it passes them all.

Then comes U, me aur Hum. Releasing 11th April. I wasn't really expecting a lot from the movie until I saw the promos. Or should I say I was hardly expecting anything. But now I feel it's going to be worth a watch. If not more.

Tashan. 25th April. Don't know whether it will be good or not. But hope it to be a Hit. May be a super hit too. Waiting for the music launch of the movie as I'm hoping a lot from the music also.

Well, there are some negative expectations too. Bhootnath, which is expected a lot from by the media, I feel may not be such a good film. For the rest, we shall have to wait till May 9th.

My favorite, most awaited Aashayein seems to be getting late and will probably be coming in June.

Anyways, till then, if u r getting bored, there is no lack of movies. Or even good movies. For those who haven't seen it, there is a recommendation. Watch Dharm. It's fabulous. Saw it a few days ago. And if there still remains something, you can contact me anytime. :)

Captain Saab

2008-03-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well, this is hardly a post. Actually I'm simply wondering how Sehwag ji hit yet another 309. (It's not out yet)

I thought and thought. And finally I reached one conclusion. Probably Sehwag ji was practicing for the IPL matches starting next month.

In that case, we can surely say, a Captain's innings. Whatsay?

2008-03-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

Books are lenses to see the world through for the people who cannot see it on their own. But it's better to try these lenses always because what you see without these lenses may not be all the world.

2008-03-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

ट्रेन में
तीन लोगों के बैठने की बर्थ पर
मैं अकेला ही था
बीच में बैठा हुआ
बाईं तरफ़
बारिश का कुछ पानी पड़ा था
जो बराबर की खिड़की से आया था।

यूँ तो
खिड़की बंद कर देते हैं लोग,
लोग, जिन में मैं भी शामिल हूँ
मगर उस वक्त,
वो खिड़की ही मेरा सहारा थी।

उस से आती बूँदें ही मेरी मुस्कराहट थी
और उस से दिखते काले बादल
मेरी उदासी;
नहीं जानता,
बादल काले थे इसलिए मैं उदास था
या फिर मैं उदास था इसलिए बादल इतने काले थे।

सोचने का वक्त था
फिर भी
न जाने क्यों
सोचना मुश्किल सा था

बस
अपनी बाहों में अपने घुटनों को
और
अपने अकेलेपन को
जकड़कर बैठा था
फिर भी वो अकेलापन
बर्थ पर मेरे दोनों तरफ़ था।

versus

2008-03-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

I really have no idea why I'm writing what I'm writing in the manner I'm writing. Basically this is a result of the brainwaves that were in my head for a long time.

If u think there is any specific point u didn't get, ask me n I'll try n explain.

If u get nothing n still want to, ask in parts please. :)

Love vs Arrangement vs Force

Personal life vs Family reputation

Personal fears vs Elders' Experience

Personal experience vs Elders' fears

Young vs Old

Children vs Parents

Possibility vs Impossibility

Positive vs Negative

Negative vs Positive

Positive vs Positive

Negative vs Negative

Months of practical vs Ages of theory

Early vs Sudden

Logic vs Emotions

Emotions vs Logic

Pragmatic vs Traditional

the list actually goes on...

Child labor: Solutions?

2008-03-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

When I came to know about the child labor for the first time, I was a child myself and thought of child labor as one of the worst things. Even when I had not seen the worst face of it. But today, after having seen various facets of it, and after knowing probably all of them, I am more confused about the question that, "Can child labor be completely eradicated?"

There are a number of places where children are overtly exploited and certainly child labor in such places is against humanity. But is it that child labor, in all its forms and all the places, completely wrong?

There are a number of child laborers in my college mess and when I noticed that, I felt it was wrong. It was against the law. (not really as law checks births certificates which, I recently came to know, make all those children of 18+) But then, later I felt there was actually nothing wrong as these children were not doing something that exploits them. It was very normal work which any child could easily do.

But...

The big question is, they are not getting education. They are not getting what it takes to rise their standard of living, yet at the same time they are poor children who are rising their standard of living. That means, to rise their present standard of living, these children are losing their future too.

What is the solution?

Ironically, when asked, most of them are happy with their lives and do not want to study as they are 'already earning money and that is what is the motive of studying'. This was what these workers were reported saying when the college offered a work study program. (I was unable to get a further detail of this as I cannot talk to these guys myself cause of my own illiteracy in the local language)

So here is the problem to which we need to find the solution. If we really want to see our country progressing and people's living standard higher, we need to change this mentality. But I have no clue how to do that.

In fact sometimes when we see the immediate effects of this illiteracy, I feel really sad. It's strange when I see those mess workers with cellphones in their hands but they cannot operate them even at the basic level and come to us to ask how to operate them.

Is it that only institutions like Parikrma can make all the difference? In that case it will take really long to eradicate child labor from our country as there is an extremely small part of population in the reach of such institutions yet. (For details of Parikrma see post 'Thanks Shashi') Or is that we can also do something useful at our level? If yes, how? and if not, why?

Read Read Read

2008-03-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

I'm reading. More than any of the past 7 semesters. I started reading 'The World is Flat' on 5th January and completed it on 7th March. And I felt how could I read this slow? (Considering I have almost no work at hand most of the times) Though I would say I enjoyed the book a lot. In fact the book changed my entire thought process to a large extent and I started thinking differently, for the better of course.

And that turned out to be the start of a new era in my life, it seems. I started 'Kane and Abel' (Jeffrey Archer) and finished it within 3 days!! Then I started Shantaram, but left my mission mode in which I had completed my Kane and Abel. So I read almost 130 pages of the 900+ page book in 3 days.

Then by luck I found two books of Jeffrey Archer in library, probably for the second time in 4 years, and certainly for the first time that I got two. (God helps them who help themselves!!) And I decided to read them first.

Shall we tell the President turned out to be relatively shorter and I read it in 3 days. (mission mode is gone now) Then I started Honor Among Thieves, the second one from library and crossed hardly 100 pages that I found something interesting in the library again. I read the first 50 pages of this book called 'Next' by Michael Lewis in the library itself and took it to my room. Hope I'll be able to finish this one within one day.

Honor Among Thieves and Shantaram to complete.

The Alchemist and Maximum City in pipeline, along with I'm OK You're OK. Of course, magazines are also going on, rather more than ever before.

Wish me luck. For my final semester project. :)

Don't Message and Drive

2008-03-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

Don't drink and derive is old. And though it has not lost its importance, there is a new thing that people need more.

It is: Don't Message/Call and Drive.

Yes. The biggest problem on roads today doesn't seem to be drunk driving. It seems to be driving while on mobile. People who drive with their cellphones in hand seem to be far bigger a danger compared to drunk drivers as they are everywhere.

We do not easily find drunk drivers everywhere but drivers busy with their phones can be seen anywhere, any time of the day. They are on empty roads, and busy ones, the most crowded ones with long jams. And they can be as bad as drunk drivers many a time even if they are in their senses. In fact the same has been established by studies also. That you can check here.

The ironic thing is that people who are considered to be good citizens are usually found driving while simultaneously on a call or messaging. But these good citizens can be very dangerous for others as well as themselves.

As we dial a number or type a message, we have to take our eyes off from the road that makes driving risky. Also, when we talk on phone, distraction certainly comes into the picture and the efficiency of driver goes down. I have seen many incidents where people talking on cellphones have bumped into other objects or people, resulting in little to fatal damages.

Therefore, it is important that if you intend to use your cellphone while driving, you take a headset or some such device which is suitable for talking while driving. And still, it is advisable not to get too involved in conversation when you're driving.

I think we need to understand this problem and make people aware of the dangers of using cellphones while driving. But the most important is to start with yourself.

Bam Bam Bole

2008-03-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

I thought it was just another song to increase the number of songs on the album, when I listened to the song a few months earlier. I had not seen the video of the song. And when I did, I thought it was a song that was put there to attract the children who were getting mad seeing Aamir Khan in his new avatar of a Joker-teacher.

But then I saw the movie. And I was proved dead wrong. And a bad critic, simultaneously.

If you don't yet think Bam-Bam-Bole is a simply great song, read on.

We have a number of songs in the film Industry every year. A number, that I really do not know. But I know that half of them are crap. Or actually a lot more. Many of the songs, or most, actually, are love songs. We listen to hundreds of romantic songs every year, and a bigger number of sad songs. And we love them. What we generally lack in our songs is inspiration.

Still, for a few years, we have been getting better movies, and better music, with slightly better quality of lyrics too, though it falls down badly many times. (Examples may include mom-maani-nahi-dad-naaraz-tha from Jaanemann and the undoubted Dard-e-disco from Om Shanti Om) And so are coming a few good inspirational songs too, like Lakshya to har haal mein paana hai from Lakshya, Aashayen from Iqbal, and Kuchh Kariye from Chak de India. (although we have seen the Indian Hockey team getting disqualified for the Olympics today, no words for that) But the number of such songs stays in single digits strictly.

Now, talking of Bam-Bam-Bole, it's not just an inspirational song. It's much more. Today, where all the inspirational numbers I talk about either talk about do something, never telling what to do, (though it's not bad being general, it leaves a lot of scope), or are too specific to situations that hardly arise at a general level. But Bam-Bam-Bole not only inspires you to achieve something, it specifically tells us that we should dream and imagine, which, I think, is one of the major areas we lack. We, in India, are hard working to the limit that people sitting in far West need to worry about their jobs, still we are behind them. We are followers and not the leaders most of the time because of the lack of imagination and dreams.

But I consider Bam-Bam-Bole great not just because it preaches all the right things. It's great because it reaches all those children who need to understand the power of imagination. On one hand, the songs inspires children saying,

khul ke sochen aao
pankh zara failao
rang naye bikharao,

on the other hand it questions our education system and shows us the defects:

o rat rat ke kyoon tanker full...
tanker full tanker full...
aankhen band to dabba gul...
dabba gul dabba gul...

I hope you agree by now that Bam-Bam-Bole is a great song. In any case, I would like to appreciate Prasoon Joshi for the great lyrics, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Aamir Khan for bringing such a thing to us that is reaching its audiences well.

PS: I'm not getting any compensations from Aamir Khan or his associates for writing this. And if still some of thinks so, you have freedom to think anything you like.

Proxy!!

2008-03-07T07:57:00.000-08:00

Well. This is a view of The Economic Times homepage as it shows at my college computer lab. Though, we can see Orkut and Google Talk are working perfectly. And so is Facebook. (not in the picture)

The more interesting thing is that I can write a blog as blogger.com is open. But blogspot pages are prohibited by proxy so I cannot see my page. And a number of scientific and general knowledge blogs cannot be accessed just because they are being hosted on blogger.

Alas!

Interestingly, many of the sites that provide materials like papers and other things that students use for their projects and assignments are also not working. And as a result almost 80 percent of the lab is empty, making me realize that students do not sit in the lab for Orkutting or chatting, even though they open these sites while they work in the lab. An altogether knew piece of knowledge. Think I should thank the lab management for that.

Anyways I just hope these people understand it soon that in order to stop a little misuse of resources, putting too many restrictions is not the solution.

And please pray that I can see my blog next time I come.

Thanks.

I'm listening

2008-03-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

Today I was chatting with a friend when a question popped up in front of me. Which songs was I listening to nowadays. And I was a thinking. Thinking because all the time there is some song that I'm listening to. My current favorite.

Actually I have a current favorite today too. But the reason I was thinking was that the song was not from a movie, not from a private album. It was from an advertisement. Interesting. The ad makers got ahead of Hindi film industry in my ranking.

Well, it was Jashn mana le jingle of Coke featuring Hritik that I am humming almost all the day for past three days. Cause of its beautiful music and touching voice.

Think its all 'Jashn' season for Hritik. First Jashn-e-Bahara and now Jashn-e-Coke.

Enjoy.

'Touch' me

2008-03-02T22:20:00.000-08:00

'Touch' matters. But I'm not in a mood to talk the physical touch here. I'm talking of the 'touchy' things, rather ads, that TV is bringing to us, more and more.

Movie makers have been good at touching since time immemorial. Be it Gulzar or Rishikesh Mukherjee, Karan Johar or Aditya Chopra. But now a number of advertisers are moving towards touchy-feely things compared to previous times.

Of course there have been touchy ads since the TV started. I still remember those Raymond ads which stirred my soul even while I was a child. Remember the school children collecting coins in cap for the leaving teacher? (Principal I think)

But now, a whole new dimension is being added it seems. The surf excel ad (sorry bol raha hai one), the Jaypee ad (the one in which a little boy brings a little girl to show her the dam) can be quoted among such ads.

And then came the ad from Airtel. A whole new thing. An advertisement that India had never seen before. Two little boys across border coming together to play football. Followed by 'Baatein gira deti hain faaslon ki deewaarein' or 'barriers break when people talk'.

Now the thing that made me think. The latest advertisement I saw, from Airtel. In this one, a little girl calls up her 'papa' at night cause she wants to do some drawing where 'papa' is working at a site. And then papa finally brings the girl out under the sky and they both draw on sky together. On an Airtel. Oops!

Waise, the latest coke ad I saw didn't touch me less. Maybe because of the Sufi voices involved in the ad. In this one some guys come back from presumably a party or something and are hungry when everything is closed. And then Hritik performs the magic of coke and there's a beautiful voice singing 'waqt ye na rukta hai, aaj tu Jashn mana le'. (please tell me who's the singer if u know or find somewhere, dying to know that) Yet another hit by music composer Raam Sampat, my old, old favorite.

In a Flat World - II

2008-03-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

Today I was on my mission Malleswaram. By that I mean my schedule of roaming through the markets of Malleswaram, which is a pretty good market in itself now, with a number of grand showrooms, many of them opened in the previous 4 years, the time since I have come to college.

So when I was on my favorite shop, Temptation M, which is something just like Planet M, I saw a couple inquiring about the Ramayana of Ramanand Sagar (the old one) which was available there for Rs 3500.

The in charge of the shop told them and when they showed some reluctance, he started trying his luck and showed them the Mahabharata, Shri Krishna, and Vikram aur Betaal. But the couple had lost interest for some reason and confused, they left the place.

And I started thinking how would it be a waste of their money had they bought it.

Nowadays my mind is really giving me lots of troubles as it is making me think about lots of things I need not think. (so I think when I do not use my mind)

I started thinking how could they use those Rs 3500. First thing that can be done is, buy a Tata Sky connection with the amount of money. Or Dish TV, whichever you like more. In fact you can even have Reliance BlueMagic, but we don't really know in how much time is Mr Anil Ambani going to launch it, but anyways it is going to be cheaper than the two. At least that is what we expect from Reliance.

I think I went off the topic. Back.

So, we can buy a DTH connection and watch new Ramayana on the NDTV Imagine. And after a few days the new Mahabharata too, on Star. (according to reports) This way, we'll be getting a number of channels in addition to the Ramayana and Mahabharata we actually want which will be easier to watch as all the fights in the serials will be using higher quality animations compared to those of 80's.

Second option, we can have a broadband connection of any company. From a wired home broadband connection of BSNL or Sify or Airtel to USB/PCMCIA cards of Reliance/Tata Indicom. And then download and /or watch a hundred more national and international serials, series and shows from Youtube.

Actually I have learnt a lot from that shop itself. About the flattening of world. About technology getting cheaper and becoming more affordable. I have bought a number of CDs from this particular shop (in case u don't know, I am a big movie buff, and a bigger music buff, still buying movie CDs many times) and seen that CDs I buy at Rs 100 (in my case, that's the limit), are being sold for Rs 50 or 38 or 30 by Moserbaer or some company which has reduced its prices due to competition with Moserbaer.

So, in short, as the world is getting flatter, I think it is important for every human to get acquainted to its environment, so that we can get the maximum benefit of the things happening around us.

Hope u are keeping yourself updated.

Why do we think so much?

2008-03-01T07:54:00.000-08:00

I generally go to the Forum mall in an auto. That is, whenever I come to Bangalore. It takes Rs 65 to 80, depending on where I start. For the last two times, and that is when I went alone, I gave almost Rs 65-70 to the autowallas.

This time my Jijaji introduced me to a new option by telling me the number of bus going from home to the Majestic. (although its an altogether different matter that I always come from Majestic to home by bus only, I never cared to notice the bus number as I know the platform there)

So I reached the 18th cross bus stand crossing the cricket ground in front of the home and caught bus number 252 to Majestic. There were no seats in the bus and I was standing all the way. No big deal, actually.

Reaching Majestic, I asked a conductor where to get a bus to Kormangala. He told it was just in front. I reached the place he had pointed towards and with my aadha-adhura knowledge of Kannada (only written, I can't speak a word, except beda) I read it was for Kormangala only. Getting nearer I realized I could read in English also as the small lists of stoppages were bilingual.

As soon as the bus number 171 came, people gathered at the gate. The passengers from inside the bus came out and then, I know I was inside the bus, and somehow found a seat.

Almost 5 minutes later, the bus was full of crowd and there was hardly place to stand. Just next to my seat there was an elderly person standing with a bag in his hand. I'm not very good at guessing age of people but he was not less than 50. I cannot say whether he was below 60 or even more than that.

Seeing such an aged person standing beside me, I felt bad. I thought I should offer him my seat as it was not a big deal for me to go standing in a city bus. I do it half the time I travel in city buses. But I was thinking, and thinking. At least ten minutes I was thinking before I actually offered him my seat and he asked me something in Kannada, most probably it was if I was about to get down. I didn't answer properly, blabbered just something in a sign of no, and stood up.

All the way I was thinking i had done something good, all the more so when I was feeling a bit tired, as the journey took more than 45 minutes I think. But I do not know what and why I was thinking when I was sitting.

But later, when I was standing there was one question in my mind. Why do we think so much while we do some good work?

PS: I would also like to know if you have the same thing applicable to yourself. Please tell if it is so. And if you find any reasons for that, what they are. Thanks.

Deepak Chaurasia in Dhoom 4??

2008-03-01T00:18:00.000-08:00

Yash Raj Films is all set to sign Deepak Chaurasia for his next Dhoom for which the cast is not yet decided. This step is taken by the YRF after watching Deepak's performance in the special act played on Aaj tak in a budget special program. Deepak had played a kisaan from Bhaarat in a debate going on between India and Bhaarat.

Shocked?

Well, you must be knowing this is not truth but just a spoof. But do you think we shall be really shocked if we come across such a news one day? I do not think I will be much surprised.

True. News channels today do everything. Acting and hype-making. Animation and advertisement. Almost everything except news.

Fortunately, I have been from the school that is run by the Times of India Group and once got a chance to listen to Shri Sahu Ramesh Chandra Jain, who was the former president of our college and a renowned media person. He was of the view that news should not be mixed with views. He was in favor of strictly giving news where a person was to be given news and put one's own views separate from the news so that the news remains unbiased and people are able to analyze the news on their own too.

But today, news is not just being mixed with views, but the news channels have become full-fledged drama channels, covering reality shows, daily soaps from channels and their own part-horror shows and hype-creating news.

Even DD, that was considered a plain news channel, mostly the papas' choice, now tries to run the race of today's news and sometimes acts foolish. One day i came through a story made on movies or something in which I was unable to listen the voice of the guy speaking there because of the background music that was playing Om Shanti Om.

Believe me, I am really tired of these news channels. Even at home when dad says, "yaar news sunwa de kuchh", now I say, "kya karoge dad, news channel pe besure logon ke gaane sunne se achcha hai aap bhi MTV ke gaane hi sun lo.."

I Don't Pod

2008-02-29T22:01:00.000-08:00

I don't generally regret things. Even try not to be materialistic, that is I try not to be sad for things I would want and don't get.

Till date there were two things I felt sad for. Namely, I do not have a digital camera (not even a camera phone yet), and second, that I do not know how play an instrument, not any one of them.

But it seems the list is going to expand this time.

I was yesterday in a train. From Katpadi to Bangalore. Having nobody with me, I got a boring book called 'The world is flat'. Well, the book is not actualy boring, cause had it been boring, I would not be able to cross 500 pages of that. I know I am not that good at reading boring things. That much I know from 'The Hindu' and 'Frontline'.

Anyways, I managed to read the book for 2 hours. 45 pages, that is. 25 in the first hour, and being complacent, 20 in the second. (actually that tells me its a boring book)

Got to confess something too. There were two girls sitting on the seat behind mine, most probably from my own college. But even though I thought of talking to them (just generally, maybe for yet another so-how's-the-college talk), but part for their almost continuous sleep, and part for me being me, I did not.

Well, the essence is that I was in the train, getting bored alone. And then I could see some guys who came into the coach probably at Kuppam station. Most of them were having i pods in their hands and earphones in their ears. (of course!!!) I have always been content with me singing on my own and listening to myself. (I do not bother others in public places generally, though 2 days ago my neighbor Akshay asked me to sing as he was feeling I had reduced my singing time)

But this time I was feeling different. Seeing so many people with i pods, or their counterparts from other companies, like the one I saw with Saurabh 2 days earlier, one from 'i ball', I have started feeling that I also need an i pod.

Not that I have started feeling that my own voice is not that good as before or something, just that I have started feeling that I want to listen more than sing to myself. And since I am reading that boring book, i mean my flat-world, I'm feeling I am left behind people. People who know less than me. (nothing like I have done some research or something, its my self-decided notion that I'm more intelligent than most of the mortals on the earth, and in the opinion of this intelligent mortal, its very very wrong, making it a paradox)

Anyways, I think I'm gonna get an i pod as soon as I get my salary (thanks to Mr Chidambaram, my taxes are gonna get down by almost 25k this yr), even before my camera, that is in queue since 2000, or may be I get an N82. (I loved the phone, has a 5 mega pixel camera embedded and of course i can listen to what i like with that)

Well, for now, i can just keep my fingers crossed, until I get my first salary. Hope to get it soon (and my passport too, that is mandatory for joining)

Amen.

In a flat world 1.2 (or) I've gone mad

2008-02-24T02:29:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not. It's hillarious!! (nothing to do with Hillary Clinton)

Google is tracking what we are all listening. In all the countries. Based on those who put current track in their Gtalk. Big deal. But not much.

The much big deal is the results I saw. For the first time I entered the Google music labs (as they call it) and checked the results under All countries and All genres. And Mohit Chauhan's 'Tum se hi' was the third topper on the list.

So, in the flat world, Indians are participating in everything. Congrats India! The world is listening.

By the way, if u want to know what India is listening, u can select India instead of All countries. And if u are still not surprised, select genre soundtrack and all countries.

In a flat world 1.1

2008-02-24T01:55:00.000-08:00

Dudes, this is a running post. For those who are interested in Google. (or rather obsessed with it)

If u want to know more about more of Google things, and how Google things work, just type 'Google blogs' in your search box and start reading the results one by one. They may be all new to you, or some of them known. But I can assure you may not know all of these things so well. Actually much of this can be geek stuff and may be it's out of range/above head, I think its worth a watch, especially if you think you know a lot about Google.

So, Happy Reading!

In a flat world - I

2008-02-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

I do not know how many parts I will be writing in this post. But since I have been reading the book 'The World is Flat' by Thomas L Friedman for a long time now, that is almost since the first week of January, completed more than half of the book, and liking it continuously, I think I can write a lot on this Flat world.

The author has given a list of things, ten in number, that are making the world flat today. But there is, to be very specific, one, that I have been using for a long time now. And that flattener is Google.

Friends, maybe I am obsessed with Google. But I think if it is so, it's worth it.

Well, I do not know how many of you use Google how efficiently but I would like to tell you here how much and in what manners I use Google. As long as I am online.

Google starts with web search. Web search for general knowledge, studies, projects, movies' details, songs, or simply time pass. May be I have left a number of categories I search for. Then, the very next, image search (going by the order on the Google home page). Image search of Google is used for various reasons, to find various things. From pictures required in assignments to movie posters. From beautiful girls (under censored language) to my changing profile pics on Orkut. Google image search only gives meaning to all JPEG, PNG, BMP and other such words. The next one, news, is though a thing I do not search through 'Google News'. But still, almost all the news are found through the standard Google homepage.

Then comes my dear old Orkut. Whatever I say about Orkut is less. I have used Orkut for a lot, lot many things. I have found lost friends on Orkut, have talked to them sending 200 scraps in a day (to one person only) when the reply option didn't exist, have talked to anonymous people on scraps, spent whole nights visiting profiles of girls with different algorithms, collected people of my own town from around the world under the community called Najibabad, gathered information regarding admissions, colleges etc, even provided information to many, shown my power (when there was a race among us friends to have the maximum number of friends, though trying to lessen the number now), and what not.

Then comes the Gmail. A forever favorite. Currently I have at least 5 Gmail accounts running out of which i use 3 regularly. Also, my college has assigned a new mail account in the name of college provided actually by Gmail, making harshitgupta2004@vit.ac.in my new Gmail id. Basically after using Gmail I do not want to use any other mail. Recently I tried AOL mail after using which I could say it was 'Not Made for India'. I was really pissed off as I could not send even one mail properly from the American giant's mail.

Then come the two things, Google Books and Google Scholar, which I rarely use. Actually I have hardly ever used Scholar except for the main Google search engine but after seeing the papers available there, I must say it is going to help people, including myself, in their assignments and projects.

Google blog search is another interesting thing. It has found me things I could never reach through the normal web search. One day I simply searched the name of a friend and I came to know he's running a blog about which hardly anyone knows. I also search blogs when I simply want to know people's view about something, be it Raj Thackeray or my college VIT Vellore.

Photos is one thing I could not use yet as I do not have proper internet connection to upload my pics. Still, I find Picasa really useful and better my photos using Picasa as Adobe Photoshop is too heavy a tool for me.

Then there is 'Blogger' through which I broadcast all the crap that comes to my mind. And those Google alerts in which I used to write any person's name I wanted to know about and get all the info on my mail (I had hundreds of mail alerts in the name of Sania Mirza once, to keep me updated) And the desktop search that searches every item on my hard disks with the speed of Google. Wow!

And even though I don't use Google's docs and spreadsheets as I have Microsoft office on my computer, I cannot afford to forget Gtalk that I use to talk to a number of people simultaneously. In fact I have talked to 4 people at a time in the Gtalk embedded in Gmail too.

Well, being a computer engineer, I do not want to tell you how much I search on google code. It'll tel you too much then. :)

Well, that is how Google makes my world flat. that is how I access information from all the corners of the world today. And that is how my life goes on Google.

Frustration gets a name

2008-02-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

1. I think this blog is primarily for those who are ignorant of the world's happenings.
2. In this fast moving world, it seems everybody is ignorant. Of something or the other.

Well, don't ask me what it was. Just a bit of my mind. Nothing to mind. Let me start on what I have to.

Today, there is no doubt that Orkut has become the 'janta ki networking site' in India. If you want to know about the youth of the country, it's a simpler option to scrap a few and check their communities' forums rather than wasting time in meeting them. You can get information about almost anything on Orkut today. Be it a question from History or a song from the latest movie. Whether it's about the last Cricket World Cup finals or your admission to a college. Every information can be accessed on Orkut.

But today I tried something different. In a guy's profile, who had sent me a friends' request, I saw a community on FOSLA. I was interested and the very next thing I did was typing FOSLA in the search column on the top of the Orkut window.

And here it was. Almost 500 communities on FOSLA!

Don't tell me you do not know what is FOSLA now. Well, still if u think u don't know, I feel its my duty to tell u. FOSLA stands for Frustrated One Sided Lovers Association. The name provided by the movie 'Dil Dosti Etc', especially featured in the song 'Dum Laga'. Well, the song had to be a hit among students (don't tell me again u didn't listen to the song) and the result... 500 communities on FOSLA, ranging from 630 members to 0 members (now its possible to start communities with zero members too, do not know how).

The interesting thing here is that though there have always been a number of frustrated people on the net here and there, there has never been a single name under which so many people have put themselves. There has never been such a brand for frustrated people. It is interesting. In fact there are hardly 200 plus communities when u search for the word 'Frustrated' and 30 something for 'Frustration'. And brand FOSLA has got more results than any of these standard English language words. Phew!

Finally, frustration gets a name. It's branded now.

Thanks Shashi...

2008-02-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

This morning I was reading The Sunday Times of India (our library gets the ToI one day late, else this sentence 'd not be a news) as I had to pass time before marking my attendance in the department office (Alas! have to do that daily) when I came through the column of Shashi Tharoor called 'Shashi on Sunday' in which he had given example of schools where students were taken from the families that were too abd in condition and earned extremely low wages. He tells in the article about Parikrma, a school in Bangalore where eligibility criteria for admission is 'family income less than Rs 750/month' and the students after receiving education get as good as those from general convent schools.

The essence here is that there are organisations out there which do a great deal for our country but are unkown to the most of us. If these organisations get some recognition, many people would like to help them as it is clear every such institution needs a lot of funds. And Shashi Tharoor here has done a good job by informing a lot of people about two such institutions.

I would like you to go through his article, which is in The Times of India, 17th Feb, 2008, Sunday.

The link is:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2788535.cms

My Ticketless Valentine's Day!

2008-02-15T05:33:00.000-08:00

My Valentine's day had to be good. It was displayed on my department notice board a week back. I had to give my project review on 14th Feb evening.

I don't remember myself doing many humanly activities in the past one week. I have been out of the hostel since last Friday, today being Friday again. And I don't remember which day before today I had taken a sleep of even 6 hrs. That was my condition in my project work. Nothing abnormal, just to tell those who don't have projects.

On the V-day (or D-day), I woke up at almost 10. Pretty early, considering I had slept after 5 in the night (Homo Sapiens call that time morning). I had to be ready for the review presentation which was supposed to be at 2.30 pm, so considering the time, I decided to study a little. My studies got over by 2.10 and I ran to the college with my teammates. We reached the college almost in time and met our examiner who told we had to present after 2 teams that were in queue.

We finally gave our review to our examiner who seemed not so interested in listening due to a lab session going simultaneously and the twenty minute review was soon over, the dial ready to strike 4.

Free from the review I had an ice cream and Daal-roti with my teammates and went to the hostel for a change. Around 5, I messaged my friend who had to leave for Chennai and told her that my review was after 5.30 and so I couldn't go with her to station (don't get confused, my review was over). She, somehow, said it was okay and I need not worry about her as she could go alone. But she wanted to meet me once before going if I had time.

I told I was busy setting laptop for the review and hardly had any time but still could find some (Wow! that's me). After a lot of yes-no-why-how-okays she came to meet me and was puzzled to see me coming from the wrong side (I had to come from college campus, not hostel) but still didn't get my lie. Later when she asked how was my prep I told my review was over and I was free to go with her. And she tried hard not to look angry.

Anyways, I love people getting angry with me, except a few I'm afraid of. I went to the station with her and kept saying sorry for telling lies (of course, to irritate more). Finally, when it was the time for the train to come I asked her to move in first as there was too much rush and it was tough for her to get in with the luggage. When she got in, I gave her the luggage but while trying to make way to go back I couldn't find a way in the crowd and was almost forced in. And thus I was in the train. So I kept on moving with the crowd thinking I could get down at the next door. And while I was still moving with the crowd in the train, it suddenly started moving. And within a few seconds I realized there was a difference between the electric trains and the diesel trains. Though i didn't know whether the train was electric or not, yet I could guess it was.

And after a few more seconds, I decided to leave myself to the fate. And i found there were hardly any problems, until i felt i didn't have the ticket. I was standing with my friend (who had a seat reserved) until i saw the ticket examiner (TTE as I've been listening since my childhood) and searched for a place to hide and found some place. (And I should tell u I have never in my life seen such good toilets in Indian Railways. NO drop of water on the floor, NO scribbling on walls.) Anyways, I somehow reached safe from the TTE to Arakonam, the next big station I knew, and jumped down from the train as soon as I got a chance.

Now I was safe from the TTE and completely innocent (if u r not caught, u r innocent) roaming on the roads of Arakonam. Then I cam back into the station from the way I could find and went to the ticket counter (and not inquiry) to ask for the next train for Katpadi. The guy there asked me for the money and gave me the ticket before those in line, along with the info that the train was almost there.

I got the ticket and reached the platform to know that the train had gone and the next train was after an hour and a half. I came outside the station and found an elderly person to whom I asked for how much I could get an auto for the bus stand. He told if I could speak Hindi and told me I could get one for almost rupees ten and the way to the bus stand. Within ten minutes, I was talking to second such local person who talked to me in Hindi at his own will, in Tamilnadu, a state where politicians claim Hindi to be 'hurting' people, telling me once again it was all about politics, be it Madras or Mumbai.

Anyways, I reached the bus stand and found a bus just ready to leave for Vellore. Fortunately the bus had enough space. Although after an hour and a half I was wondering how much more you can travel here for any amount of money compared to that in the Northern states of India. When I got down at the Vellore bus stand, I took a 5 rupee auto to Lalit Vihar and had a refreshing 32 rupees Daal-roti there.

Finally, I was back to my Project partner Anish's room at 12. My Valentine's day was over.

Hillarious!

2008-02-11T11:22:00.000-08:00

I had seen Aarti on flash, on my computer. But I had not seen a whole multimedia presentation on Maa Saraswati ever before. It thrilled me, really.

Udayan, Utkarsh and a few more had told me they'd be arranging a Saraswati Pooja on the Basant Panchami, today, 12th Feb, at 5:30 pm in Channa Reddy Auditorium. Yesterday again I got a message from my friend Ankit that he'd be in arrangement of Pooja and I was invited. I told them both I'd try my best to come. I wasn't sure cause of my review scheduled for Thursday, 14th Feb.

At 5 when I was in campus it struck my mind that I could go to the Pooja, and sometime before 6, I was in front of the Auditorium where I saw a notice saying that the venue was changed to Gallery One in the Technology Tower. I reached there and saw that the Auditorium, rather lecture theatre was almost 80% filled. Interesting.

I sat down on a chair (mentioning as some people later didn't get even chairs) near my friend Amit (basketball champ) and waited for the program to start. And when it did, it was a thrilling experience. I was watching a multimedia presentation which told about the Goddess of knowledge, art and wisdom, Maa Saraswati and asked for her blessings.

After that, there were a few Mantras being chanted on the VLC player and the lamps were lit. The entire theater, which was overcrowded by now, stood up. Something I could never think of. I mean the overall experience was something different. It was telling me what the future of our mythology was. It told me that with the change in generation, current technology was merging with everything and our culture and rituals couldn't be kept away from them.

Later students offered flowers to Maa Saraswati's photo (not online this time!! actually i hope this will be online by the next year) and finally, there was a QUIZ!!!

A mythological quiz. Where the questions ranged from the Avatars of God Vishnu to the names of Hindi months.

Phew!!

Is there something that the Hindi Literary Association people have not done? Actually it wasn't officially an event from them but then we all knew who had arranged it all.

Last but not the least there was my junior Suby Anthony who was, for the first time in this college (as far as I can remember, and I think I'm not wrong), was seen in a salwar-kurta. A yellow-white one.

I didn't tell the notice had urged people to come in yellow, the day being Basant Panchmi when people wear yellow, as I was not in yellow (Sorry, I had not read the notice). But at least half of the people were in yellow.

So finally it was a "RANG DE BASANTI".

Any doubts?

My fortune

2008-02-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

And here is something from Orkut.

My fortune yesterday said:

A friend asks only for your time, not your money.

Today's fortune:

Time is money.

Let's see what my friends ask for. :)

Talk Addiction

2008-02-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

Well, you must have heard of the cellphone addiction. Cellphone addiction was something that kept people sticked to their cellphones. Be it games, SMS, or calls. But have you heard of people losing some sense because of cellphones, the way people get high on alcohol and drugs. In case you have not, just observe a bit more.

Yes, there is something in talks. When talking on phone, people do things which they generally don't. Some 4-5 days ago, when I was walking with a friend, I saw a girl with a long leaf of the tree she stood under, breaking the leaf into small pieces, in front of the whole lot of people standing there. I asked my friend what that girl was trying to do. And she told me the girl was talking on phone. That was when I noticed the cellphone sticked pressed between her neck and shoulder. 5 minutes later, the girl had two leaves in her hand, and I could hear a friend of hers shouting in front, "Hey X, I'm gonna tell people you're doing deforestation here!"

Today, when I was coming back from food court after having some plain dosas (3 to be precise) and a coffee, sort of a bit high as I could feel I was sleepy and had taken a coffee and had started feeling lonely (a normal effect of having a strong coffee on me), I saw a girl who looked a bit different, to be true, a bit like the crazy girl from the SASTRA's play in Riviera (maybe because I couldn't see the face of either due to their hair falling on face, the striking similarity). I was myself feeling a bit high but the girl was visibly high as I could see her walking on the fine line made near the footpath. The road was of course empty but the way she was walking made me feel something was wrong with her. And once again I noticed a cellphone in her hand she was talking on, walking unconscious of people watching her, at least me, if nobody else.

In fact, I have found even myself doing things which I would not do otherwise, while on phone. I remember walking on a pipe once (one pretty big in size, horizontal, over a big, clean drain inside my hostel area, and of course, not tough or risky to walk on) which I still look upon and think how I did that.

Actually this is pretty interesting. Although it may not be considered good by many people, in the world today where people do not do things they want to do and where everyone is afraid of bringing outside the child sitting inside themselves, this is something that makes people do they really want to do, things they do not even realize they want to do. And the world outside too watches. Amazed.

Jaago India

2008-02-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

India has over 180 million cellphone users and 200 million people without drinking water. We are a young nation with over 55% of the population under the age of 30, yet 49% of our children under the age of 5 are underweight. We produce the largest number of engineering graduates every year through over 2500 colleges; but over 3000 schools do not have teachers. And the list goes on...

These are the starting lines of the official website of 'Jaago India' that is a trust promoted by the tata tea. 'Jaago India' "intends to create an an online community for the awakening and empowerment of the youth." The site has its discussion board of a different type in which topics are already present there and anyone can go and post one's own views there. Of course there is a column where we can add new topics.

The site bosts of big names in its advisory panel and is probably a brainchild of Sheetal talwar and Bhavna Talwar, the producer-director duo who made the much acclaimed, thought provoking movie Dharm that reached even Cannes.

The site talks on topics like corruption, illiteracy, poverty, child labour and female infanticide and has a collection of figures that can force you to think about these problems but still finds itself unable to find solutions to many of these problems.

Basically the site seems to be having a small number of members yet and there are many things that need to be put into order to make the effort a success.

For now, all I can say is that the step of starting JaagoIndia has been taken with a good intention and it would be good if you look at the site once, and also do something positive if possible.

The link is: http://www.jaagoindia.org/

Dream Day

2008-01-31T12:15:00.000-08:00

It was a day of dreams. A day when things that happened were never expected. Just dreamt of.

It started with a phone call that woke me up, at 9:32 morning. A junior of mine I barely knew, called me up and said his partners in the Antakshari had left for home and asked me if I could join him. Already out in the preliminary rounds of Antakshari by a tie breaker, I should have been excited at the thought of getting a wild card entry to the finals, which I was later when I was completely out of my sleep. For the time being I just told him I had no problems joining him and I would be there at 2, the scheduled time.

I broke the news to my preliminaries' partner motz first. Then to Tyagi, who had been in during the preliminaries' second round. And then to Jayant, who had to play against me once again now.

But probably these many people only knew that I was into the finals until the afternoon, after which people came to know one by one. And finally, I was at the stage of Channa Reddy Auditorium playing finals of the Hindi Antakshari as team E, with Sahil and Rakesh at 3:15 pm.

Our start was good. Not as a contestant actually, but as a singer. The first round was easy and there were number of choices for us to sing. Sahil suggested me 'dard-e-dil' and the song was appreciated as I myself felt I was singing good. Something to be happy about. Second song in the round I sang was 'Pyar deewana hota hai' which was ok.

The second round was a pick-a-slip-and-draw round in which we had to guess the movie by the figure drawn by our teammate, and then sing the title song of the movie. Fortunately it wasn't tough and I knew the title song of 'Kati Patang' too. Smooth going.

Then in the third round we had to guess the song on the basis of an music only audio clip taken from the song. For us the song was Aaj main oopar and we were sharing the top position with 2 more teams.

Then we had to sing 'mukhda' after listening to the 'antara'. This was interesting because I was unable to recall the mukhda of the song till the last line of the antara that was being played, though I was singing along. And then, as the antara was over, there was mukhda again, and I just kept singing. And that was the automatically answered. Unbeaten yet.

Interestingly, only when I discussed which songs I had sung on stage did I realize I had sung this song which was from a movie called Ajnabee starring Akshay, Bobby, Kareena and Bipasha. I mean, I don't know how I sang a song that unconscious of everything else other than those few lines, on such a big stage.

Then there was the 5th, final round in which we had to see a mixture of 2 videos and guess the songs. Here our team was 15 points ahead of the two teams just below us, and 25 ahead of the third team.

And this round bore 30 points.

God save me!

It's ok. It's just a game.

Is it possible that we get no prize?

Leave it. Play. Enjoy.

Okay.

Team A did tell both the songs. Doesn't matter. They had gone too down.

Team B told one song out of two. 15 points. 75+15=90.

Team C told both correct. 30 points. 85+30=115.

Team D identified none. 85.

And we could guess just one. 100+15=115.

A tie with Jayant's team. Once again.

Tie breaker again. One audio clip. It was confusing. And my partners got confused. With me getting nothing. So was Jayant, but his partner saved him.

And we lost a tie breaker again.

Now Jayant and team was first and we were second. But the home teams were not to be given the first prize according to the VIT rules. Well, okay. Team C, the highest scorer among outsiders was declared the winner and Jayant+, second, and we, third.

But then I wasn't going to be playing by the morning and at 4:30 I was with the trophy for having the third prize, first time from my college, no regrets, no problems.

And then I got congratulations and appreciations for my songs. To tell the truth, I was in heaven.

After sometime I went to my room and took a sleep. And then I was in the rock show at 8:45, which had to start at 6. The first part was of no use for most of us as we were hardly interested in rock and what the guys were playing we neither knew nor liked.

The second band, Bandish was welcomed as it started with 'O Humdum suniyo re' and kept on singing popular Hindi and English songs one after other. The guy didn't sing songs very good except a few like 'Saiyyaan' and 'Bheegi Bheegi si hain raatein' but was liked as the last one had been a disaster and this one was singing good songs in an 'okay' manner. And that was the reason we did enjoy him pretty much. Much more than my expectations as I never expect a thing from the 'rock night' of Riviera. I just go because I do not want to be sitting in my room.

At the end of the day, I had a trophy, a small amount of cash prize, and a day I could remember for long, all a dream till morning.

I'm watching TV!!

2008-01-28T07:10:00.001-08:00

I was off the TV, except for songs, and some mindless stuffs like 'Sun Yaar Chill Maar' and 'Lagegi' (Now Hass Ley India) of Bindass. Basically, of all the things, I had left series of any type, from those of Ekta Kapoor to UTV to Fox. No Saas-bahu and no Friends either. In fact I have never been a loyal fan of either at any time.

But more than four years after leaving the TV, this time I got back into a series. This one is called Kyle XY.

Yesterday, after watching 'Howrah Bridge' (starring Ashok Kumar and Madhubala, black and white of course) I just 'downloaded' 2 episodes of the series from Varun's computer. (Actually we all stay on a wireless LAN and I just copied it on to my computer) And I thank God that I downloaded just two episodes. I slept after 5. Had I had more, I have no idea when I would go to bed, taking into account that each episode of the series is of 42-44 mins long.

The series is about a guy who is 'born' almost 16-17 years old in a jungle, and has an incredibly sharp mind, through which he learns things fast even though he is as unaware of things around him as a newborn.

Till now, the story is that a doctor of mental patients takes Kyle to her home and he learns to live his life there. Interestingly the guy doesn't have a belly button and there seems to be some mystery behind him.

Well, in less than 24 hrs I have watched 5 episodes of the series that is more than 3 and a half hours. I hope I'll be finishing the season one, consisting of 10 episodes, within a day or two.

Rest of the world is as good as it used to be. Riviera is about to start in the college and preparations are going in full swing. Today there was preliminary round of Sand Castle Sculptures in which there were some beautiful Mahals of sand there.

Hope the Riviera makes the coming week interesting.

No dream too big

2008-01-26T00:24:00.000-08:00

Thanks Jaypee. (Happy? Ankit ji, Jaypee wale)

For this title of my blog. Actually I realized that, of the things that felt almost impossible to me at some stage, many have come true. In time, less or more, I have achieved many things.
It was class V when I got the first big target. When I was in yet-another-school-of-my-town and I had to get an admission in the sixth class of the town's best school, which conducted a test for the admission. According to the stats of that time, almost 650+ students used to take the exam and finally 240 students were taken. Though, there were 300 students by the admissions were over, courtesy Management Quota.

I took the exam and my coach assured my father that I will pass the test easily. And when the result was out, I was second on the merit list. I was surprised, though others were not that surprised I felt. To them it was just 'good' or 'very good'. But it was not unexpected like it was for me.

Then I entered the classrooms of the school and found myself among a whole new group of students. Almost all of them new to me, except a few who had been with me during the coaching, Mostly Achal and Saket. And then, there were half yearly exams of class VI, in which they used to show us the copies before giving the results. So after I had seen 4 copies, in the interval, I was thinking how it was happening that I was on top. I was a good student. I was always on top during my last school. I had studied this time too, but I didn't know I would top here. Though I expected to be somewhere near that, as a subconscious dream at least if not in conscious.
It was going normally, I was mostly on top, once on second position in my class, till class IX. Next year was board exam and I worked really hard. And I got 72%, something too low from my expectations. And probably that was when I stopped dreaming.

I think I did, but actually I never stopped dreaming. Just that I was not that affected by things after that. I took my XII exam, got first rank in my college, missed the merit list of board due to less marks in my one of the strongest subjects, Hindi (I still was the editor of the college magazine's Hindi subsection). But it didn't matter that much now. It wouldn't even if I would have got less marks. Though it never meant I stopped studying or became lazier. Because somebody inside was still dreaming.

And then there were exams I took during my XII year, and then my drop. And I worked hard again. Though not hard enough for the IITs. I don't know who inside me was not interested in going there. I was, of course. I was preparing for it. But somebody inside wasn't. And then the result of AIEEE was there. I had got 8321 rank. I thought I will be under 12000 only. But this good, it was a bit more than my dream this time. I had expected 10-12k. Though I missed my 'favorite' college by a difference of just 2 ranks at that too, I landed in VIT, Vellore, a college my mother didn't let me apply for separately.

2000 kms away from home, near Bangalore, where my didi lives, my cousin to be precise, who currently teaches in a top engineering college there. It was a dream come true again. Because those colleges of Noida, Ghaziabad and nearby areas were too real for me. I wanted to go to some different place. Something better, and for being better it should be far away too. And I got that.

I was a student from a Hindi medium throughout my school. I didn't (and don't) speak much English in college also as I don't like to. But my aim was CAT, the common admission test for MBA, from the very first year of my college, that started becoming showing signs of some ambiguity as I started coming near to getting a job. And soon I decided I'd take up the job and postpone MBA for two years. Later, though, on my friends' insistence, I changed back my mind but I didn't give it my complete attention, that it required I came to know after seeing my results, especially XAT and even SNAP.

MBA is today my unfulfilled dream, whereas TCS, as far as I see, is going to be a dream fulfilled. As I was somehow interested in getting placed in the TCS the first day I came to VIT.
But it's not always just about academics. There have been things that I thought were not possible. And still I worked to achieve them. And then they came in my routine. Be it talking to girls or seeing my name on Google. Well, being from a Hindi-medium-small-town-semi-government-boys-school, I hardly used to talk to any girls till the end of my first year in college, when one day my friend, Tyagi said I should be talking to girls otherwise it might trouble me in the future. And today I have very good friends among girls.

And the second, more recent and comparatively tougher dream was about the Google. I started using the net properly after coming to college only. The start was from essentials like mail and the addiction came from Orkut. But I always thought how could I have my name on Google, in second-third-fourth page at least, if not first.

Then I started blogging in September '07. And resultantly I could use some interesting keywords and find my blog on Google. But one day I found my name was there on number 64 in results when I googled 'Harshit Gupta'. It was the time when I knew I was near my dream and I decided to get my name as higher as possible. Time passed and one day I reached page 1 of Google, on searching Harshit Gupta. Today my name as keyword gives my name as eighth result on Google. And if I search Harshit Gupta Vellore, the first result is my page. So, though my voter ID card shows my name wrong, I have got an identity somewhere.

And that is what will inspire me to dream.

Crow-bites

2008-01-25T01:34:00.000-08:00

There are too many crows around us nowadays. Whether I am roaming at the nearby Vellore Fort or eating near the Enzo's - the single-bedroom sized supermarket for our hostels, or in the college's food court which has is open from two and a half sides out of four, I am afraid of the staring crows all around. And that is the reason I am feeling a significant drop in the number of lies I tell in a day, as I've been listening to Bobby's 'Jhooth Bole Kauva Kaate' since childhood. Actually they taught some such proverb in the Hindi class in school also, but being a 24x7 music n movies fan, I prefer Bobby.

And then there was something in the late 90's from Hrishi da that reminded me of the proverb. He had made an I-think-it-was-flop movie called Jhooth Bole Kauva Kaate with Anil Kapoor without his mustaches, and Juhi Chawla, probably the only movie in which Sajid Khan acted. At that time I was surprised how the movie could fail as it was from Hrishi da - the master of masterpiece comedies like Chupke Chupke and Golmaal and close-to-everyone's-heart movies like Anand and Bawarchi, none of them selling for less than Rs 99 a CD even today, in the era of Rs 28/30 a CD and Rs 34 a DVD (courtesy Moserbaer). But recently I started feeling that the failure of Hrishi da was nothing, after I saw Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag and then Sanjay Leela Bhansali ki Saanwaria, followed by Anurag Kashyap ki No Smoking and even Rajkumar Santoshi ki Halla Bol. In fact I've heard that Nagesh Kukunoor also has joined the club with his Bombay to Bangkok.

Anyways, I was talking of excess crows (sorry for including excess of more dangerous stray dogs, I got no disposal for them yet). I think we can send these crows to the US as I recently read a study which says 'Bush lied 259 times', and tells us that President George W Bush and top administration officials issued 935 false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks. I think either the number exceeds the lies by Indian politicians or more probably, the researchers find themselves unable to count the number of false statements by our politicians, or maybe there are too many politicians in India which makes it impossible to count the lies. Whatever the case be, we know there are enough crows in India but the security around every liar, or non-liar politician is so tight, that no crow can touch them. So, in the interest of crows, as well as Iraq, it would be better to send these crows to the US, at least some of them.

Additionally, we can send Himesh Reshammiya with the crows to sing 'when you tell a lie, a crow will bite you'. Not sure of the other effects, but many in India will be able to breath easy if they both go, crows and Himesh.

NDTV, the acquainted newcomer

2008-01-22T22:26:00.000-08:00

It has not been very long, not long enough to be out of my memory, when after every news hour on Star News, one of the best news channels of that time, we used to see two parallel, glowing lines, moving to write NDTV, and then the Star sign followed with the usual 'this is star and you are watching star news' etc. Then suddenly in April '04, Star News started looking different, as the contract of Star with the NDTV was over and NDTV had left Star to start its own news channel.

This was the start of NDTV 24x7 and NDTV India, the English and Hindi news channels of the NDTV group. And then NDTV started Profit, another channel that gave business news. That was all NDTV was expected to do. But last year, in September, NDTV came into something new. It joined hands with the UB group (of Vijay Mallya) and started a lifestyle channel called NDTV Good Times. The channel is not very attrcating though, still there are some things worth watching like the 'Lounge' presnted by actor-director Rajat Kapoor.

And this time, NDTV did something not-that-unexpected, but in an incredible style. It started NDTV Imagine, an entertainment channel, expected, but the programs it brought with it made all the difference. In this era of reality shows, a reality show called 'Say Shaava Shaava' was fine. But it started 'Ramayan' too. The super super popular show of its time, the dharm and sanskriti show that used to hold the Indian masses 20 years ago, was re-launched by the same people (the Sagars) in an altogether new look. This was something that holds the capacity to bring NDTV Imagine in majority of homes, especially in rural and town areas. In fact I think Ramayan will be able to get audiences from everywhere, at least in the start. And it seems Ramayan will be able to find many of its viewers coming from the regular saas-bahu audiences, thus harming the Star.

Anyways, I just hope the competition gets tougher and we get better, good quality programs.

Amen.

Simply Rajat

2008-01-22T20:21:00.000-08:00

He acts. And he directs. He talks. And he listens. He plays a host to take up topics that need to be discussed but hardly ever are. A person who is almost a celebrity today - a celebrity in the making - actor, director, host - Rajat Kapoor.

Rajat Kapoor to me was yet another character artist when I started identifying with him, around the time when 'Corporate' came. But it was 'Bheja Fry' that made me know his name, not to forget again. Then, I saw 'Mixed Doubles' directed by him where he had acted too and I was sure Rajat was a person always looking for something new to do. And this time he is there, again, with his yet another 'different' movie 'Mithya'.

And then there was 'Lounge', a program that re-established his identity in my mind. The actor-director Rajat was seen in a different look, performing a different role in Lounge on NDTV Good Times. In fact this was the only program on the channel that caught my eye. Here Rajat plays host for a show where topics of social importance and relations are taken up. The two topics I followed were 'effect of children on romance' and 'adoption of children', the latter including important points like how and when should the adopted children be told the truth about them.

Truly speaking, I found the show one of the best talk shows I have seen and I would like to recommend it to people who like serious stuff.

And this time Mr Kapoor is coming in yet another new avatar. He is hosting the 'Lufthansa Nat Geo Genius' on the National Geographic Channel. The show is an Indian version of an internationally acclaimed quiz show and will search for the person who knows the most about each and every country in the world.

Well, all I can say for now is, keep watching what more he has in his bag.

For his small autobiography, you can see his page:

http://www.rajatkapoor.com/

The failed 'Halla'

2008-01-12T04:53:00.000-08:00

If you go for the movie, do not think you are going for a Rajkumar Santoshi movie, and you may like it.

Well, in the start it seemed that Rajkumar Santoshi is being too influenced by others, by Madhur Bhandarkar and other directors of commercial art movies. But Santoshi is a master of his own brand and should not try hand at such things. Also, the cast he has taken cannot be used to do those experiments.

After sometime, when Pankaj Kapoor enters, movie gets better, but the Santoshi-pace is hardly ever found in the movie. Even the script is not that good. The 'Khakee' touch is all gone. 'Khakee' to me, is a movie which you enjoy even when you do not know the story of the movie. And when you come to know the story in the mid of the movie, there is something you can feel. But 'Halla Bol' hardly has any touch of that greatness.

Though, there are scenes that are pretty good, but most of them are already aired in promos. Pankaj Kapoor is the only image you take home with you. Ajay Devgan is just fine and Vidya Balan has performed well in the few places she could. Darshan Zariwala is good. Anjan Srivastava and Sulabha Arya have played their small roles fine, too.

Music is not very good, except for one song, 'Jab tak hai dum'. The lines of late Dushyant Kumar in the song have been provided with all the zeal they require to reach the hearts of viewers, but the moment is short lived.

Actually the direction and acting are not bad but the slow speed and old-fashioned dialogues at some points make it weak and boring. And again, the fact hits harder when you go to the movie knwing it's a Rajkumar Santoshi film. The end too is not great and the movie almost fails to deliver its message strongly.

In short, do not go to the movie for Rajkumar Santoshi. But if you still need a reason, Pankaj Kapoor is the person to look forward to.

abcdxyz.blogspot.com

2008-01-10T08:17:00.000-08:00

I think I have told a lot in the title itself. It is one of my favorite pastimes while i am online. Write any words or combination of words you can think can (or cannot) make the name of a blog, in any language you like, in your address bar, followed by dot-blogspot-dot-com, and enjoy. There are very good chances of finding blogs almost more than 90% of times. And interestngly, most of the bloggers are dormant, and there is either very old material or sometimes no material at all. But many a time there are intersting things found.

For example, one day i wrote the word chitra (picture) and found something unbelievable. I had seen and read English reviews of Hindi movies many times, but this blog was writing reviews of English movies in Hindi! I could really not believe it. Though the page was dormant, it had more than 125 posts, not all Hindi. In fact most of them were English but the pages on top were all in Hindi. The reviews consisted of both Hindi and English movies.

Anyways it's interesting to see different type of blogs by these different people, the blogs being in almost every name from bluewaters to soundofsilence to throughtheyears to simply blue-dot-blogpot-dot-com.

If you too are free like me, you can try this, even use the words of your interest.

Finally, Out!

2008-01-09T09:20:00.000-08:00

It was a bit surprising for people to see me there on that stage. Not because they thought I couldn't do it. But because they had seen me 3 feet below last time. In the Anna Auditorium.

It was Hindi Antakshari's second round in which they had to first select 10 teams out of 25 and then 5 out of the 10. And finally 2, for the inter-college finals in the Riviera, VIT's annual festival.

Last two years I had been in the organisation of the Hindi Antakshari and had prepared questions for it. But this time I decided to participate instead of organising. And finally I was a participant in the pre-final round of the Rs 10,000 contest.

The proceedings were all intersting. 26th Dec, we were given a written paper in which there were certain questions related to songs and movies. 25 teams were selected from almost 80 present, among which I was in the first. Yesterday the game started with those 25 teams and the teams were divided into 5 pools of 5 teams each. Knock-out antakshari was played in 5 corners of the rectangular Anna Auditorium and 3 teams were eliminated from every pool, sending 10 teams for the next, rapid fire questions' round. The rapid fire was easy for me as I've been pretty much okay woth such types of questions. Hence I replied 3 questions out of 4 fast enough. And after the rapid fire round, the results showed that 4 out of 5 teams were final years' and all of them from my friends' circle, the Mohalla.

Here I would like to say thanks to the administraion of the show for keeping everything fair and open because otherwise, 4 teams from the same group can be questionable at times.

Anyways, we were celebrating one another on the stage as we came up and I had to agree with the statement made by Udayan, the main organiser, that 'Experience matters'. So, there we were, Me, with Vishal and Abhishek on my team, the second team comprising of Dhruv, Jayant, and Mohan, the third - our least expected team - of Parry (Pradyut), Jeet, and Tyagi (Amit), the fourth one - a second year team, and the final one, of Ritvik, Apoorv, and Ankita.

The game started and went smoothly for the first two rounds and we were on top with jayant's team. In the third round we couldn't guess the song we were given after listening to the music, and we came equal to other two teams. In the next two rounds, the second year team went ahead of us and we were on second with Jayant and team.

And now, since there could be only two teams in the final according to our college, we had to go through a tie breaker. We did. And both the teams couldn't answer the first question. Tie again. The next question was answered by both the teams this time. Tie again. This time it was a mixture of two videos with some other song in background. We couldn't get both the videos correct. And finally, Out!

Anyways, the game was really enjoyable and it was a great scene when 80% of the stage captured by the 'Mohalla'. At last, the game was a memorable experience which will last long in my memory.

In the meantime...

2008-01-07T07:52:00.000-08:00

It's been long since I posted a blog. But that doesn't mean I had nothing to say. I had a lot. Just that I didn't have an Internet connection available with me and didn't have time to go to a cyber cafe.

In the meantime, a lot has happened. 2007 ended and people celebrated the arrival of yet another year. Though I could not understand what was there to celebrate for, and finally I told myself that people celebrate just because they have to. Because they need a break from their routine lives. And probably because they want to forget all their problems in the noise of a party.

In some other corner of the world, India lost to Australia again, but this time it was probably a 15 against 11 game, with two umpires, one third umpire and a match referee playing against the Indian squad.

I do not know if they'll stick to it, but BCCI finally said they'd not go to Canberra if the ban on Harbhajan Singh is not revoked.

'Miss u dada!'

I mean, I am not at all a fan of Saurav 'dada', but today i was thinking it would have been interesting to see dada leading the team in today's scenario.

I started and completed Erich Segal's famous 'Love Story'. And then started Premchand's 'Sevasadan'.

Took XAT, yet another MBA entrance examination for yet another top college called XLRI, Jamshedpur. Wrote a one page essay on 'Consequences of Gender Imbalance - Third World War'.

The most interesting part of the exam was the cricket related photos hanging on the walls of the St. Joseph's Boys' High School, my exam centre. First, I was surprised and elated to see a photo of Jonty Rhodes along with 1996 Cricket World Cup schedule as I started upstairs for my exam hall. Then I saw photos of Robin Singh, Ganguly, Agarkar, Nikhil Chopra and a close up of Master Blaster Sachin with 5 different poses facing 5 different sides at the bottom of the photo.

I found it to be a great way to inspire. in fact I found I was getting inspired seeing the faces of these cricketers.

I shopped from Tata's Star Bazaar and Big Bazaar for a friend in Bangalore and used the Super popular Forum mall as a subway between the two supermarkets.

I saw an interview of Darsheel Safary (aka Ishan Awasthi, Taare Zameen Par) on the idiot box and saw SRK receiving the best actor award, Katrina Kaif getting the best actress award, sharing it with Rani Mukerjee, and Om Shanti Om getting the best movie award and confirmed that 'idiot box' was probably the most suitable name for the device.

I saw a live blog, that is, the 'Lounge' on NDTV Good Times in which Rajat Kapoor talked to Renuka Shahane and a few others (I couldn't recognize) on 'Romance past kids'. I had surfed through this program many times in the past but this was the first time I listened to the people and it was a really good experience.

Bought a copy of 'The World is Flat' and read through 50 pages of the book. Yet another good experience. A good book for those who understand little economics but are interested in knowing the economy is going today.

Actually, done a lot more too. Hope I get a chance to tell u later.

Welcoming the Stars on Earth

2007-12-27T22:30:00.000-08:00

It was just perfect. A perfect movie getting a perfect response. We
all expected Aamir Khan's directorial debut 'Taare Zameen Par'
would be good. But the movie turned out to be just superb.
Something unexpected, atleast after watching the biggies like
Saanwariya and Khoya Khoya Chand. And the response people gave was
also terrific. In fact there was great response for both the
movies.

Where 'Taare Zameen Par' collected an overwhelming amount of 15 cr
rupees in the first three days, the other one, Welcome, reached 17
crores. Though, the difference comes from the fact that Taare
zameen Par was released with 425 prints all over the country
whereas Welcome was released with 825 prints.

Taare Zameen Par was a superb movie with almost no boring parts
found in the movie. Though the movie is not a fast-track movie, the
level of detail shown is pretty interesting and is able to hold
people. Welcome has also turned out expectably good except for the
controversial end of the movie which was reportedly 'not liked' by
Akshay Kumar himself.

Anyways, the current status of both movies is great and both are
expected to be superhits or atleast good hits. So finally, the year
ends with a good note for the Hindi film Industry.

Let's see what does the new year bring in next. I'm waiting for
'Halla Bol'. Till then, welcome the stars, the Taare on Zameen.

My New Blogs

2007-12-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

I have started liking it. Blogging. That's what I think of now, day and night. Though, not having net all the times creates probelms sometimes and some of my ideas do not get converted into blogs, but I try.

I got three blogs going at present. The one you are reading is the one I started as a general blog. My first working blog, which has completed months and has posts in two digits.

The second one I launched was a completely business blog that could be understood by any person who might not even have any knowledge of business. It was called Common man's Economics.

The link to the blog is:

http://cozmoneymatters.blogspot.com/

The blog contains informations on current progress of market that is supposed to affect the common man, as well as possibilities regarding taxes and all.

My next blog is an altogether new step for me. Its an all Hindi blog in which I try to find out good pages in Hindi available on net. In this blog I have put many popular Hindi stories and Poems.

The blog is called Hindi Panne and the link is:

http://hindipanne.blogspot.com/

Please see my new blogs and sned your comments to: hg6789@gmail.com

or put them here:

http://www.orkut.com/Scrapbook.aspx?uid=720310748634689861

Thanks,

Harshit.

Test Report

2007-12-15T00:27:00.000-08:00

"11 baj gaye!!"
"kya hua?"
"TEST!!!"
"Oh... Sorry Dude, I forgot totally...", my roommate was apologetic.
"Baaki sab kab gaye?"
I was out of bed and in my jeans in just this much of conversation.
"Don't know.."
"Kya kya le jana hai?"
"Take a pencil, and eraser, here they are. And pen and Identity card."
"Ya, kept them."

And I was out, for the test that was imperative for the job I had got in TCS. Now it was 11:10 almost and I was asking the invigilator to allow me as it was important for my job. Finally, he made a call and I was seated in a room with M.Tech. students. I was told I would not be given any extra time.

I really did not need extra time. I needed nothing more than the permission to take the test. And I took my seat.

Thus the test started. Questions were mostly on basics. I kept on seeing my watch and answering. I didn't even know how much time was remaining but had an idea that it would be around an hour, atleast. Soon i came to know there was an hour and half remaining. There were 120 questions on the paper. I was going more than one question a minute attempting every question, irrespective of how many of them I knew. At the time I had 45 minutes remaining, I had the same number of questions remaining.

Finally, the paper ended at 12:15 when in the room of almost 60, almost ten were still there. I gave my paper to the invigilator, and thanked him, came out, directly to my room. When I saw my cell, I saw two 'all the best' messages for the test. I couldn't do anything more than read them and delete.

भाषाओं से परे, इंटरनेट

2007-12-09T06:22:00.000-08:00

हो सकता है कि आप यहाँ हिन्दी देख कर आश्चर्यचकित हों, परन्तु ये एक नयी शुरुआत है। आज इंटरनेट भाषाओं कि सीमा से ऊपर उठ चुका है। अब से कुछ समय पहले तक जहाँ केवल हिन्दी लेखों को कुछ ही कंप्यूटर दिखा पाते थे, वहीं अब गूगल की सर्च भी इंटरनेट पर हिन्दी में ही की जा सकती है। इंटरनेट पर हिन्दी का स्तर यहाँ तक पहुंच चुका है कि अधिकांश शब्दों को टाइप करते समय यह भी ध्यान रखने की आवश्यकता नहीं होती कि कहीं गलत तो टाइप नहीं हो रहा है। आज इंटरनेट पर ऐसे अनेक पोर्टल उपलब्ध हैं जो हिन्दी में समाचार से लेकर साहित्य तक उपलब्ध कर रहे हैं। गूगल में भाषा को हिन्दी पर सेट करके सर्च करते समय हिन्दी शब्दों के विकल्प लिए जा सकते हैं। उदाहरण के लिए यह चित्र देखिए।

इस प्रकार गूगल सर्च अब आपको सचमुच हिन्दी में अपनी आवश्यकता के अनुसार परिणाम ढूँढने में मदद कर रहा है। इसके अतिरिक्त अब विकिपीडिया जैसे पोर्टल भी हिन्दी में अनेक परिणाम दे रहे हैं। उदाहरण के लिए सत्यजीत रे के लिए दिया गया यह परिणाम गूगल हिन्दी से प्राप्त हुआ है।

भविष्य में कुछ और हिन्दी पोर्टल्स के विषय में लिखने का मेरा विचार है। इसके लिए मेरे बिग बिग वर्ल्ड को देखते रहें...

i-Google

2007-12-09T03:43:00.000-08:00

Google has always been a fascination for me, ever since I saw it for the first time I saw the net in the year 2003 after passing my class XII exam. I started using Internet thoroughly from the next year starting properly from Jan '04 and becoming a regular from the July-August of the same year when I got an admission to the college. Thus, I was late to start with the google compared to other students of my age and for the reason I felt I was a late entrant for the other services of google, too, such as gmail and orkut. But later I realized it wasn't so as I had started using both gmail and orkut at the time they were barely an year old.

Today, when I think of the Internet, the first thing that comes to my mind is Google. I have not the seen the net of pre-Google age and therefore, I reasonably do not know about many search engines other than Google. But today, its not just the search engine that makes me think of the Google. Today its Orkut, Gmail, Blogger and Adsense. Today its the Google Desktop search I find my songs with. And Picasa with which I organise the bunch of pictures on my computer.

Of all the services of Google, I found Orkut the second best, after the Google search, of course. Orkut has been a contacts list, a friend finder, a great time pass and a lot more to me. I searched the names of the old contacts I had lost , and found them. I went to forums and discussed about colleges when I needed knowledge about colleges for my nephew's admission, and i have chatted scrapping endlessly to one friend or more at times when I didn't have messengers with myself. Though, I still think there are many poeple who do not know how they can use Orkut for various important purposes.

Then, there has been Gmail, providing services at a level where more secrecy is required. And an embedded messenger which must have made many people use a messenger for the first time, who have not been old users of the Yahoo messenger. In those times, the Yahoo messenger was almost the only platform for people who used to chat and as I wasn't a user of the YM, I thought I'd never been into chat, but Google guys did that, and seeing a small chat box in my mail window, I started chatting, which went on and on.

Later I started using Blogger and Adsense. Actually I had tried them both earlier too but I wasn't as regular on the net. Also, the limited availability of net has always been a constraint with me.

Anyways, however much or less of the net I use, whenever I open the browser, the first letter I type in the address bar happens to be 'O', for orkut, as long as I am not 100% conscious that I'm there on net to do something very specific and important, other than Orkut. And even in those cases, half the times, the site happens to be Gmail or Google home.

In short, I cannot think how will the Internet be and what shall I do on the net if only the services of Google are not there. And, being an addict i am, should I call myself a net addict or a Google addict?

Just a Coincidence?

2007-11-24T00:03:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I saw an article titled 'Identity Redefined' with a tagline going as 'Re-branding seems to be the new mantra for telcos to make their presence felt'. It was the latest, November 2007 issue of a magazine called 'Voice and Data' from the CIOL group. I was interested seeing an article on a subject I have also written on.

I had written my article 'Changing Colors of Mobile Telephony' on almost the same subject in September this year. So interested, I took up the magazine and started reading. But there was something more in store for me. As i saw the picture they had used, can't tell whether I was surprised or shocked. The picture they had used was exactly the same as the one I had used in my article, in which the Hutch dog asks, 'Will they paint me red?'.

Think it should be a coincidence, but no big deal if somebody is inspired by my blog to write the article. In that case I should be happy that people are reading, but I was simultaneously sad that there are people who are paying so much to read the same thing I have provided here. (The magazine costs Rs 50 per issue and you can't even read the article online until you're a registered member)

Anyways, all I can do for now is wonder if the similarity of article and picture are a result of some guy copying from the net or is just a coincidence?

Harshit.

Will My Candidiate win this time?

2007-11-23T20:12:00.000-08:00

It was the Indian Idol (first one), when the series started. I supported Amit Sana. Cause according to me, he sang better than Abhijeet Sawant. And Amit lost.

Then I happened to support Karunya from the very first time I saw him, in his piano round. Because generally I don't get to see all these shows in the hostels. I find wherever its possible to find them, though. The guy reached the finals. But lost there to some Sandeep Acharya who hasn't probably sung a single song in a movie.

Then there were two shows going parallel. In fact three, of which, the two ended earlier. The two were Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and the Indian Idol 3. I loved Saregamapa and was a Big Fan of Amanat since the day I heard his Mitwaa, though I had liked many of his songs earlier also. But Mitwaa he sang had a real substance in it. It was one song that I found better than the original, and surprisingly for me, Farha Khan also said the same. Though I am not a fan of hers, when she said so, I liked it of course.

But as it goes, Amanat also lost.

And on the other end, there was a winner called Prashant in the Indian Idol 3, the guy I expected to be out in the second round. Just because at that time he was not at all doing what others were doing, prepare. The guy was simply tensed, having problems with his partner.

Emon, the guy I hoped would be out soon, as all my favorites were, was out as the 2nd runner up.

Now starts the story of the Voice of India. I never used to watch the show, as I used to see Saregamapa even if I got some chance to find TV in the hostel. But one day, when I was in Bangalore at my cousin's home, while surfing channels, I just liked a Sardar guy singing a song beautifully. I simply loved the way he sang. I don't remember the song, but from that time I kept some track of the VoI too, though I lost track more than I kept it.

Finally, it was the time of final when I came to know that the Sardar guy, Ishmeet, was in the finals. I was happy that I wasn't wrong in thinking the guy was great. Then I found the other guy in the finals was Harshit.

Oops! Harshit!!

Well, I liked the way he sang, but not that much. Most of the times Harshit sang and I saw, I felt he took some time to pick up the soul of the song, noticed for the first time in Hare Krishna Hare Raam. And then, he looked playing tricks at times. Eventually, I didn't like the guy and kept on to Ishmeet only, as he has been singing really good since the first day I thought.

And then, yesterday I saw the current results, before every break, which came as:

South zone: Harshit 73%, Ishmeet 27%,
West zone: Harshit 70+, Ishmeet 20+, (forgot exact figures)
East zone: Harshit 70%, Ishmeet 30%,

So after three breaks, I was sure my candidate is going to lose again, until I found the power of north. The North zone figures said, Harshit 40% and Ishmeet 60%. Adding up to a final figure of 49% for Harshit and 51% for Ishmeet.

First of all, it was surprising to see that North's difference of 20% was able to cover up all the 40+ %age difference of the rest of India.

Secondly, it will be surprising if a candidate I support wins.

I hope, this time.....

Bomb Blasts! Again.

2007-11-23T00:54:00.000-08:00

LUCKNOW: Bomb blast occurred in Faizabad, Varanasi and Lucknow area here on Friday. A blast occurred in the Varanasi Cantonment area. Another blast outside the Civil courts in Lucknow. The blasts occurred within five minutes of each other. Around six people are reported injured. Around seven lawyers have been injured in the blast outside the Faziabad Civil court. One lawyer is reportedly dead. [From: Multiple blasts in Uttar Pradesh, 23 Nov 2007, 1327 hrs IST,INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK]

From Mumbai to Uttar Pradesh, no place is safe it seems. It was Mumbai in 1993 that hit the worst, and since then, it has been hitting, time to time. Be it October 2005 New Delhi blasts killing more than 50, July 2006 blasts in Mumbai again, August 2007 Hyderabad blasts killing more than 40 people, or October 2007 in Ajmer, every bomb blast has made clear how unsafe we are. Whenever we are out on the road, in any town or city, we can be a target of terrorists. It can be a cinema hall, an amusement park, a Dargah, a temple or a mosque, a train, or even a government office.

And I really wonder if we can do anything about it. A cycle is there in a court premises and suddenly a blast is there and the lawyers say the police should have been there earlier. But it doesn't look like anybody could really do a thing about it.

Of course, Rahul Gandhi was saved from kidnappers as it was claimed. But I do not think we shall be able to see our country planning in way such that we can save our public also.

Seems that we can only hope. Hope that the next bomb blast doesn't take place in our neighbourhood or in our town, our city, and if possible, our country. Just hope.

Hopes. To hell and back!

2007-11-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

It was heart breaking. I had expected a lot from No Smoking and Saanwariya. But it so happened that I did not go to watch No Smoking. So many people talking bad of the movie. And then it was the Diwali surprise. In fact a Diwali shock. Saanwariya. My first 'first day first show' in life. And the way it went, all I could do was suggest my friends not to go for Saanwariya, who eventually did, and came back during the interval.

Well, that happens. Because after fifteen days I got a chance to sit in front of the Idiot box with the remote in my hand. And I was again in the same world. I was in hopes again. With some things looking promising and some interesting.

Let's see what all it was.

Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal. The first thing that's coming. Hope a good movie if not exceptional. Billo Rani is already looking beautiful in the promos of the movie. The soundtrack is a typical Pritam mostly. The song Ishq ka Kalma is simply an extension of Bhool Bhulaiyya's Hare Krishna hare raam and must be a hit.

Aaja Nachle. The comeback of Madhuri. And a worth watch cast of Kunal Kapoor, Ranveer Shorey, Konkona Sen Sharma and Yashpal Sharma. The songs are pretty good. The Title track with its better version (reprise as they call it) and Soniye mil ja are worth listening.

Taare Zameen Par. The much awaited debut of Aamir Khan as a director. Not that Aamir had made some announcement years back or something. But the fans of Aamir Khan, who are of the belief that Aamir Khan makes directors (actually said in comparison with SRK who works for big name directors), had been waiting for the Khan to direct a movie. And now that its coming, its really seems so that Taare Zameen Par is gonna be a great movie. Let us wait for December 21st.

Khoya Khoya Chand. Not a hit to hope for. Even the songs are not going to be hit as much as I heard. But the movie should have some stuff, hopefully.

Dus Kahaniyaan. A collection of 10 short stories which will hopefully be worth a watch. the movie is directed by 6 directors, a record in the indian film industry I hope. The promos of the movie hardly show anything but still look good.

And then comes the hit of the year, as far as I can see. WELCOME of Akshay kumar, his yet another flick with Katerina Kaif. The cast goes Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Firoz Khan, and finally, Mallika Sherawat. The Nadiadwala movie seems to be all ready to be a hit at the box office. Songs are good with Anand Raj Anand doing all music-lyrics-singing work.

And then we shall be seeing Atul Kulkarni-Rituparna Sengupta's Gauri, a probably flop Akbar Jodha of Ashutosh Gowarikar, and a lot more. Just in the hope they are good.

Harshit

This Diwali No Blasts...

2007-11-09T03:59:00.000-08:00

Saanwariya. One of the longest movies of I've seen. I mean, I was waiting for the movie to end at times. Actually it was about expectations. I liked the movie in many places but I do not think many will like it. I could even listen to people saying, "Why did he make such a movie?", followed by, "Why did he Make the movie at all?". As I came out I suggested people to go for Om Shanti Om. And came to know that Om Shanti Om was also a fused bomb. So, with two blockbusters going down, this diwali even the film industry is not interested in crackers it seems.

Well, Saanwariya was a huge disappointment to be true. It was just a play, going on in some unknown place, at some unknown point of time. Just with the beauties of cinematography and music. But how long can a movie go on them? Even on the few beautiful scenes the director has filmed? The movie lacks a solid story. Or maybe its something I do not understand, in terms of moviemaking. But one thing is for sure. Saanwariya comes as the weakest SLB movies till date and there is no justice done to the big names associated to the movie.

The only good thing coming out of the movie is Ranbir. Named Ranbir Raj in the movie, Ranbir enacts Raj (Kapoor) at times in the movie, and seems to be breaking into the Hritik Roshan market very soon. Even the voice seems so similar. And the guy is a great dancer and actor, besides the looks that were of course clear from much earlier.

Monty's music has been of great quality but doesn't show much new except the title song which is as good in the movie as it was when u heard it for the first time. The half sung Saanwariya in the start tells that the movie awaits another rendering of the song and it is superb when it comes.

Anyways, when it comes to recommendation, I'd suggest u better wait for some more time, maybe Madhuri's Nachle brings some kick, or Goal makes u dance. Currently, Taare Zameen Par looks somewhat fresh and promising. Akbar-Jodha seems to be yet another flop as Hritik doesn't look very good as Akbar.

Filhaal, Saanwariya is over. And the exams are about to start for me.

Harshit Gupta

Cable and Wireless

2007-10-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Indian telecommunication industry is going at a pace today where we cannot afford to think what happened yesterday. All we can think about is what is happening today and what is going to happen tomorrow.

First telecommunication meant radio, television, then in its true sense, telephones, and then, mobile phones. Even today when we think of telecommunications, first thing that comes to our minds is a cellular phone. But the fact is that today telecommunication means so much that we cannot even visualize instantly. Telecommunicationhas gone back into wires, and more amount of data than ever before is in the air simultaneously, with the existing and coming wireless technologies.

With the BSNL IPTV already in the market, and Airtel and others all set to launch theirs (Don't know if any other operator has launched IPTV), the telecommunications field has already got a new face, one that combines the information-centric internet and environment-primary television.

Internet on the go is no more a dream either, for those who really want it. With the PCMCIA cards and beautiful 1-x CDMA modems coming to a price range affordable for the middle-class, you can now find students working on their net-connected-laptops, which was used to represent business class flyers by airlines not long ago.

And then comes the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, better known as Wi-Max. The current year has seen Wi-Max starts from BSNL, Aircel, VSNL, Bharti, Reliance, and Sify. Among these, Bharti has already deployed its services in eleven cities and is planning to expand, and a lesser known Aircel has invested $1 bn in the upcoming technology.

Now we shall talk about another facet of telecommunication. The direct-to-home (DTH) service, once under the monopoly of DishTV, and later extended to DDDirect+ and Tata Sky, is soon expected to see a number of new operators with Bharti, Reliance, Videocon, and Sun TV all set to jump into the market, starting a new competition altogether.

Interestingly, DTH is a segment where we find only one or two operators in a place almost anywhere in the world. But here, four new operators are planning to start their services in a short span of time, with 3 operators already existing. And actually, I still hope they'll all find their market in the world's second largest population.

That's when we say, It happens only in India.

Falling in love, Again...

2007-10-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a number of times I have found myself falling in love. Don't know when it happened for the first time. But when I heard Deewana of Sonu Nigam, I was surely in love. In love with the voice, in love with the music. And then it kept on going. I fell in love again and again. With the same voices. With the music that touched my heart every time I listened to it. On my tape. In grand parties, on DJs. I fell in love with the music of Nadeem-Shravan. And Jatin-Lalit. And above all, of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. The music that makes me feel that love is permanent. Even today, I feel the Kal-ho-naa-ho-heartbeat as if its mine. I still love that song like anything. Feels like it'll remain with me for life. Because u never know what's gonna be there tomorrow.

There have been numerous things in music I have loved. Probably the first song I really 'loved' was 'Ye Dil' from the the remix album Pardes'98 I had. Then came the Deewana-Jaan-Yaad trio of Sonu Nigam, one by one. At that time I felt like he was the best singer, the one who could sing just anything. And truly speaking, I never thought there could be a period like the present scenario in the life of 'the great Sonu Nigam'. It was during my class X board exam, that I used to come back from the exam and switch on the TV, put on ETC, and wait for the song 'Mohabbat kabhi maine ki to nahi thi', as it was a regular on the 'ETC Maalgaadi' those days. I simply loved the song.

Then the time kept up its speed, and yet another favorite came up. It was 'Tum Bin' this time. The title and the 'Koi fariyaad' by Jagjit Singh were the two that still make me remind of the time when I tried to study regularly, putting my tape with me, in a seperate room on the first floor of our house. That was the time when I started buying cassettes regularly, and got almost one cassette a month. That was the time I realized I could believe the brand values, of Nadeem-Shravan, of Yashraj films, of Jatin-Lalit, of Sonu Nigam (in case of private albums) and so on, until I got one bad album from Nadeem-Shravan, called 'Jeena Sirf Mere Liye'. But overall, the results were very encouraging and for a person like me who wanted all the good music before others got it, bought just one cassette a month and bought only original cassettes, I think they couldn't be better, almost.

With the time, things kept on changing gradually. Never drastically or dramatically, just gradually. I loved lots of Hindi music. After contemporaries, I found myself liking Mohd Rafi's songs. Kishor Kumar was always one of the favorites. But after I got into college, I could get as much of the two as I wanted. Like never before. I had my laptop where I could keep all the music I liked. But even before that, when I had been in my first year with no computer of my own, there were several rooms in the hostel where I developed a liking for old songs. And during that one year I became a big fan of Shaan, always listening to his 'Bhool Ja and Other Hits'. Along with 'Phir Milenge'. These two have been of my most favorites. I simply loved them. Actually, those two are the albums that helped me a lot during my first year in the college.
I helped my seniors while they organised a Hindi Antakshari in our college festival, and the next year, in '07, I set all the content and questions of the same thing. That was one period that really told me a lot of things about music I didn't know. I went deep into the histories of musicians and singers. And sometimes, even directors and producers. I always liked to keep track of such things but that time I really gained something. After a long time there was something I had really worked hard with, and that was purely out of my interest. Out of my love for music. Hindi music. Atleast by that time.

In the meantime, my range kept increasing. First I was into contemporary music, then into 70s and 80s. And then came all the Ghazals of Jagjit Singh and now some by Ghulam Ali. And though I liked the old songs, I was not as much into them as I went since came the Moserbaer revolution. I thank Moserbaer a lot, not just for providing CDs for Rs 28, but also for starting a price race in the market which has brought down all the Rs.150 movies much below that. And since then I got a chance to understand the melodies of the old times far better. Today I have a small collection of around 20 movies that include classics such as Pyaasa of Gurudutt, the second costliest movie of collection (Rs.99), and Shri 420 and Barsaat of Raj Kapoor.

Seems I went off the topic. So I was talking of things and people and concepts I have fallen in love with. They always included Amitabh Bachchan, ever since I used to watch KBC. I was a fan of that simplicity. I simply loved that. But very recently, I got a chance to see the outer world of Shahrukh Khan, and even after having developed a soft corner for Shahrukh Khan ever since I saw 'Swades', I never before felt that I liked Shahrukh a lot. But after watching this CD, I felt he deserves what he has. I could relate to it when he told about the feelings he had whenever he sat at the stairs of some stage he had to perform at, just before the performance (If u didn't get the sentence, u can try to find the outer world of SRK).

And here comes the latest. I'm falling in love once again. This time its different. And I think I'm gonna enjoy this love very slowly. Because all my life, whenever I loved music and musicians, there was one thing in common. It was in Hindi always. But this time its different, this time its Enrique songs I'm really falling in love with. And that's why I'm gonna take time to understand it. Its just 3 songs of his I have heard properly, but it seems I'm gonna like him a lot. And in such cases, my predictions don't generally go wrong, as long as they're about myself. :)

How do 70 yrs Look?

2007-10-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Its not been 22 complete years since I'm on the earth. And of the time, starting 6 or so years have been among the once I do not remember a thing about, of course. Just 16 years, and when I think about it, I feel like I have lived a lifetime. Thinking of it, I wonder how do people feel when they live lives of 50-60-70 years. There are number of things I can exactly recall from my past now, even as old as those of the very early '90s. And when I think of them and keep on thinking, it seems to be a never ending chain of thoughts.

I can still go back into the past when in 1991 when I was seeing our old home was being pulled down, to build a new one. I can remember the incidents from my school from class second and thereafter. I remember my friends in school, and teachers. And the prizes I got there. And the beatings. I can exactly tell u when a teacher who had to punish almost the entire class for not completing the homework using the 'kammach' on my hands first because I was just one line short of completion. And the freedom fighter who came to our school on Independence Day, when I was in class VII, and got so impressed with me hosting the program that he sent a book for me the next day.

There have been milestones. Academically (looo...oong back), professionally, personally. Small ones and big ones. Big ones looking small, and small ones looking big. There have been happy times and sad. And those when I didn't know how to feel, to be happy or sad. Probably one such biggest incident was the day when I got my job in TCS. I should have been happy for the job, but I was not. I was more sad than happy because my roommate had not been selected.
There have been people. My family. And friends. And not just them. A family of four people, my parents, my grandma, and me. And then my 8 year younger brother. And then an extension with my retired taauji with taaiji. And then only him, and then, only his room. The room, which had tenants from '91 to '96. First a fighting couple with two small children. And then a singing uncle with his wife and a little daughter for almost an year. The time when probably for the first timed a sad song touched me, probably because of a child's voice there. Aditya Narayan. From Akele hum Akele tum.

And then there happened Kota. Me, out of home. The times I even cried feeling home sick. Well, doesn't happen now. But still, among all the things, I never felt that homesickness was foolish. Kota came with a bunch of new friends. And a new life. A new freedom in life. And new responsibilities. I didn't perform extremely good or something, but the results were not bad. Finally I got a rank where I missed a favorite college of mine by a difference of 2 ranks and reached VIT. A place against which my mom had strict instructions. But I had to be here. Had to have all these people I live with. With the Mohalla. And girls among my friends, for the first time, ever since 1995. That was the last I had been friends with a girl before. Well, life in VIT was something I could write a book on. But there won't be many people reading it. Because college changes you a lot, but my life wasn't half as interesting as that of Chetan Bhagat.

Still, things changed like the roads of VIT. Well, those in my college understand. Its a place where a new road is constructed every two months, and an old one is given some new look almost every fortnight it seems. The person who used to wear a collar button always, almost my identity once, now walks on roads with sleeves up almost always. The view from outside changed. And so did the inner side. The person who used to be tensed like anything for the smallest thing, became the 'fark nahi padta' demon for many friends. And not to forget, a class topper of 12 years became a third man, just a few inches away from the boundary always, be it pass marks or qualifying attendance. Still, its exam tomorrow and having walked on roads for almost 2 hours, I am writing this stuff for more than an hour now.

Well, what I wonder is, there are thousands of such things in my mind, and more. This is what I have lived in these 22 years, or 16, by my calculation. Then how much are the coming years gonna bring me, and how would it look like when I would see my past, if I live past 50, 60 or more.

Probably there is just one answer to it. Keep watching!

passions:

2007-10-07T01:06:00.000-07:00

Passions. When filling the Orkut profile almost 3 yrs ago, for the first time I thought if I had any passions. Then I thought that I had a passion called music. Watching old movies is counted in such passions. So is reading poetry and Hindi novels, mostly by Premchand, or Sharatchandra. But then, suddenly I realized that passions should be specific. They ARE specific. Just you have to realize what are the things you do really passionately. It can be anything. Literally anything. And slowly I found out I had lot of such things associated with myself. Called passions.

I love music. Of course. But that is not what I should call passion. When I sing 'Alvida' all alone in my room, that is passion. Well, its not just the song. There are a number of such songs, having one thing in common. All of them being high pitched. Singing high pitched songs all alone in my room is one of my passions. On top priority ones.

Then comes walking. Well, that's another thing that gives me intense relief. Whenever there is some problem, something troubling me, and no one there. Its the best way out. All I need is time. And a road. I can walk miles without reason. And its not that I walk only if I have some problem. I walk even in my college campus. Just for the sake of walking. Alone. Until somebody is found, going in the same direction, or coming from the other. Of course I can change my direction if there is no place I am walking to.

Listening comes next. I do not know if I can put it in the list of passions. But I like to listen. To my friends, relatives, acquaintances, unknown people, just anybody. Hardly does it happen that I am not interested in listening to people. That too, generally if I have something else going on in my mind. Listening to my friends, and my maa, gives me a satisfaction. Some sort of happiness. I listen while sitting in front of the teller(of course), on phone, and even on messages, and emails. I love to do that. And it seems many of my friends find this to be one of my best qualities. (this paragraph was brought to you by Miya Mitthu himself)

And one of the top passions again can be an 'adda'. That's one thing I am gonna miss after my college. Talking everything we can, from the most useless girls of the college to burning problems of the country, from the history of Edwina Mountbetton to the geography of my house on google earth, I find our addas to be one of the really passionate things I discovered during my college. Adda's vary in the number of people. But it can start anywhere while more than two people are free in the night. In fact, after staying 3+ years in hostels, I can say that the hostel nights teach us, two is a company, three is an adda.

Now comes which my friends will most probably count if they're given to count paassions for me. Internet. Well, nowadays I m on a low, online just 8-10 hrs in a week. But those were the days, and those days can come any day, whenever I get a free all night internet connection; the days when I used to be online continuously for 6-6 hrs in a day. Rather in night. I have been online for continuous 8 hrs during the night, just because the official night is that much only, when we used to get free internet. I can, and love to, surf Orkut, for hours and hours and hours. Having been a member for more than 3 years, with more than 400 friends in my friends' list, I still crave for more Orkut. I love to surf various communities, different people's profiles, and sometimes praise or advise them too, though I try to control it most of the time in case of unknown people.

And last one, the one many are afraid of, or pretend to be. Cracking PJs. My poor jokes, my one liners, my venom, what is that they are not called. But I love it. I cannot stand people's talks for long without PJs. Until they're too serious for PJs. And actually, it seems that in my Mohalla, my PJs are my identity.

Well, at times, having a coffee can be one of the most passionate things for me. Even sugar is not required. In fact, it seems I'd like dark chocolate a lot, which I haven't tried much yet. In short, it depends on your personality what passions you have, and your passions make your personality. So if you haven't found out your real passions, go for it.

18 years gone...

2007-10-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a long long time. 18 and a half years. Since I have been going to class. Every morning, or afternoon. In different shifts. For different courses. Learning entirely different things. Sometimes languages. Sometimes maths. For admission, for job, for life. And suddenly I realized a day ago that there will be no more classes after 4 weeks. The practice I have been through for 6-8 hrs a day, 200 days a year, for last 18 and a half yrs, ever since 1989, when I joined Public Montessorie School as a lower KG student. 7 yrs there, and joined MDS Inter college in 1996. again 7 yrs, and a coaching of one yr at Kota. And past 3 and half years in Vellore. And now, the journey comes to a halt. A six months project in the next semester, (no classes of course) and I'll be a guy going to office. Yup, got something. A few classes for training in the company. One last patch still remains. But anyhow, now I'm at a junction in my life. The life we lived in our hostels, is slowly coming to an end. The last CAM (the reasonably-hyped internal exams), the last term-end exams, and then half of us will not be in the college. Thus, the life will start to scatter here only. And after six months..... Well, I do not want to think. But I cannot stop thinking either.

Well, these 18 yrs (change the number according to your schooling) have given us a lot. Those 6 hrs outside homes everyday have taught us more than the remaining 18 hrs at home. I hope that's not the case with college life, though.

And what is next in our future, really nobody knows. We do not know where we will be going to live. And how will the new life be. How shall we adjust there. Probably I would say the way we did here. But truly speaking, its not going to be like that. Workplaces cannot be colleges. Nor are they expected to be. Actually, I do not know what I want from life now. In fact, today I do not know where I belong. The home I have lived in, with my parents, for 17 yrs, or the hostel I stay in, or the place I will be going to. It seems I am lost. Seems like I should listen to 'Musafir hoon yaaron, na ghar hai na thikana'.

Anyways, the best I can do for now is live with peace for the next six months in my college itself, enjoy myself as much as possible, and leave the rest to Him.

HE LISTENS

2007-09-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

It was around seven when I had left the college campus to get a tablet for my hand in which I felt blood circulation was not proper since the time I had slept on it, two days ago. When I reached the Chittoor Bus Stand, the centre point where we go for many things, and where we used to go for almost each and every need 3 yrs back, I saw my friend Manohar from auto, caught him getting into a juice shop, and we had a juice each. Meanwhile he asked me why I had come there and was I going to the Bombay Anand Bhavan. I told him I had come there for the medicines as the college medicine shop was closed it being Sunday. Then I realized that there were hardly any chance of having a good food in mess as for last four years, the Sunday dinner has been constantly bad despite all the good and bad changes the menu has been through. So finally I decided to take a turn towards the BAB as I got my tablets. When I reached the place, it was 8 and the place was really crowded, with no tables available at all. I took the token and reached the counter. The guy there told that it was too crowded and the pizza I had ordered would take 20 mins. I had ample time so didn't mind. In fact the guy seemed pretty much friendly and I told him that I would come after 20 mins to get both the pizza and the shake together.

I came out on the main road and started moving to a side road. When I went in, I felt I had never realized that this place too had a residential area. I got a feel of the newly made colonies of Dehradun (That's the place where I get to live in colonies, except the government quarters of my Jijaji in Bangalore). It seemed so much of my own; something I could relate my past with. Well, due to stray dogs there, I didn't think of staying there for long and went back to see what all was going on in BAB. The condition was the same and in the ten minutes almost nothing had changed. So I started again on the main road. Walking, I felt that it had started raining, drops here and there. I wished, I really wished that it should rain, rain heavily. But it didn't. It kept on the same way for around ten minutes and then almost came to a halt. The time I entered BAB was 8:20. I was right in time. The person asked me, "aa gaye, actually humne order doosre ko de diya". But there was no problem as I still had lots of time so I asked him to get another one ready. He gave it in less than 5 minutes, during which I came to know that there was the same song going on which I had been thinking of while on the road just a few minutes back.

Pizza came, with the shake. I had them both and came out. No signs of rain it seemed. I was disappointed. Then a drop, and after a few seconds another drop. I didn't want THIS rain. I wanted it to rain, didn't want a few drops from the sky. I went on the road, slightly frustrated, when I saw something in front of me. I could see it was 'raining' below the next lamp on the road. I could not understand for a few seconds what was going on. I thought whether to move ahead or not. And then I realized, I wanted this rain. And even if I don't go there, it will come here. So I moved towards the rain, and the rain towards me. It was a raining heavily. It was stormy. After walking for a few seconds, I started almost running. Probably for 100 meters or so, and I was almost completely wet. I moved to a tin shade on one side of the road. Switched of the cell, and remembered God. And some more people. I was feeling so satisfied that my eyes became wet. Though it hardly mattered, because I myself could not feel it against all the water that was there. And then I felt that I was leaving something I shouldn't have. When God had given me the rain I had asked for, I should take it completely. I went to the road once again. And this time, I think I moved even less, but the rain filled me tiptoe. Now i could feel the rain with me completely. This time I stopped under another shade, thanked God, and then seeing the condition of the people there, asked God that I had what I wanted, and requested Him to stop the rain for them all. And not more than two minutes later, I started from there as the rain started fading away. And soon, the rain almost stopped and the lives of people started again.

I caught an auto and came to the college. I had seen almost a miracle. And though I could not help thinking how it happened, I am not going to ask that to anybody, as somebody has said, "Nobody questions a miracle."

When I felt something!

2007-09-28T04:41:00.000-07:00

This very small incidence was one of the memorable ones of my life. An incident that I felt while being all alone, with nobody there to share except my computer screen. And still, I was so stirred within.
It actually happened when I got Abhijeet Sawant's second album, Junoon. I liked just one particular song and kept on listening to that one only for many days. Usually I try to find all the details of a song when I get it but this one I had got from my friend Vishal and I was listening without any idea of who all were the composers and producers etc. One day Vishal came and asked me if I knew who was the composer. I told him I didn't know but said that the song I liked seemed to be from Mithoon. Two days later when I was online I just recalled that I had to find the composers of the album Junoon. I googled junoon composer and found there was some Amit Trivedi who had composed the album. Of course I didn't have any problem with that. I just kept on seeing more results out of my interest, until I suddenly stopped at "Guest composer Mithoon". It was for the song I used to listen. Ek Shakhs Raaste Mein...
I suddenly felt on top of the world. I was feeling like I really knew something of music. I felt I was not an amateur anymore. I was learning. And I will try not to stop ever.

Changing colors of mobile telephony

2007-09-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

Indian mobile telephony, though it has been there for a longer time of course, came to a real existence with the advent of Reliance India Mobile, A dream of Mukesh Ambani, something that brought the very concept of cellphone for every person, a company that gave away cellphones for as low as 500 bucks, and is still providing people with cellphones at the lowest rates. Though, the name of the company is different now, the owner has changed, and so is the color.
if you remember, there used to be a number of small companies in the early 2000s most of which had started during '96 to '98. Namely, Escotel, BPL, Oasis, Spice, Orange, Essar, Aircel, Hutch, even Airtel. But then times changed and BSNL and then Reliance came up with services, threatening small companies to an extent and thus came the era of M&A, that is, Merger and Acquisitions in the mobile telephony, and the colors really started changing. With this new era, a race started off, prices fell, fundas like airtime came to an end forever, and the number of users grew exponentially. From thousands to lacs and finally, to crores. In this game of M&A, Airtel turned out as the largest company, crossing Reliance and BSNL both. In the race of getting the top position, Airtel bought Oasis (Rajasthan), Aircel bought RPG cellular (Tamilnadu), though it is itself a small entity, and Hutch made a pact with Essar. The light colored Escotel was bought by the relatively new Idea cellular and changed to a beautiful light blue. Whereas the orange Orange and orange Hutch changed into a green background pink when an egyptian partner came in. The Hexacom's Oasis, active in Rajasthan, turned from a light blue (as long as I remember), turned a Vibrant red when Airtel bought it. Last year, the blue circle BPL also changed into Hutch. But one of the major changes was brought by the split between Ambani brothers when the dull looking Blue-green RIM was converted to a Vibrant red-Sky blue logo of ADAG with two big A's in the centre.

And now, the Hutch puppy that followed us for so long, has been given a new shining bright red home by Arun Sarin's Vodafone, changing the ages old logo of India's big brother company, Hutch, to a new Red comma, seen majorly on the England Cricket team's t-shirts till date.
Anyways, happy new home, dear puppy!

Languages

2007-09-17T05:45:00.000-07:00

How many languages I know??
Well, seriously, some 3. Hindi, English and some HTML.

But if I start counting all I have some acquaintance with, I'll come to know that I know a number of languages. The number goes in 2 digits for sure. Lets start counting.
English, C, C++, Hindi, HTML, Urdu, Java, Sanskrit, Tamil, French, Assembly language, Bengali, Gujarati, C# and used to try some Kannada as well.
Well, the story seems interesting to me. And pretty much unbelievable to people. That I come to know when I see their reactions.

I started learning Hindi at home. From a newspaper called Amar Ujala, I learned the first letter of Hindi 'a'. (It sounds nearly the same as the English 'a') Started English too at home, and of course did them properly when joined school at an age of 3. Then came the third language of my life. Urdu. It was an optional in my school and mostly members of Muslim community used to study Urdu. Thus, I was reading 3 languages at an age of 3, while in Kindergarten.

The 4th one took an entry in std II. With Sanskrit, I started 4 languages at a time. I myself do not know how I used to do that. But I know I never felt it very difficult. Then, after 3 yrs, I left the school, to join a high school (with +2), and left Urdu too.

But in 7 yrs, I had got enough not to be forgotten easily and I still can read Urdu somehow, having completely left it 11 yrs ago. Here came a large gap and I lived with a knowledge of 4 languages which seemed like an achievement at school. After completing my +2 in 2003, I left for coaching so that i could get into some good engineering college. In kota. Kota is a place famous for that. Those who have lived there know about the Kota life of course. Nothing new of course, in terms of languages.

And after the one yr coaching, I went to DA-IICT in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. That was a turning point. Gujarati was a language which looked a lot like Hindi. So I started trying. As a result, during my 2 day trip, I didn't get the college, but got something new. A language. And a confidence. That I could learn a script without any books, even in two days.

After those 2 days I landed in Bangalore (now Bengaluru), Karnataka. The language of the place is Kannada. And nearly everything that is owned by the government displays Kannada. I started trying again and got some letters of Kannada soon. No books again! This time I was delighted with my achievement as it was not that easy. Kannada was a tough language for me compared to Gujarati as didn't look like Hindi from any corner. 15 days later I joined VIT, in vellore, Tamilnadu.

The local language, Tamil, was something I tried and tried and tried. But it seemed nothing went right. I could not get even 3 letters in the first one month. But I wasn't lost. I was pretty much determined that I would get this too. In fact, once a friend of mine, Apoorv, who has been living here since birth, and speaks some Tamil too, challenged me saying that he couldn't learn the language in 17 yrs. I asked for a yr's time. And voila! When I gave my job interview, I knew Tamil, at least enough to convince my interviewer that I knew the script. In fact I had learnt a lot of it in just 7-8 months.

And all this happens without any books. Some of my friends ask, how? Here, I'll answer, after a break. :)

Once again: Judge

2007-09-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well... I never thought there would be one such day. First, the friends of my class made me the judge for Besuregama, and now, this time officially, I was judging a 'kavi sammelan' on the Hindi divas, that is, today, 14th September. I had no idea I could be a judge in two events in one week. Simply a hilarious experience. And once again, I come to know that judging in live events is really tough. The people who always used to say that 'It was a tough decision...' are not joking. They really mean it, seems to me now. This time, I had to judge among 13 people for 3 positions. And after the calculations on the basis of 4 criteria what came out was 5 people sharing top 3 positions.
Though, now I do not remember the poems which got the prizes, I have some idea how the poems were. And how were the people who recited. I still find so many poets who write well but fail to get their credit because of improper recitation, or rather, lack of confidence. And I once again felt that girls do better when it comes to stage performances. I always used to think the same during my days of school while most of the winners used to be girls. (That doesn't mean I never won prizes there)
When I reached the stage to announce the result, I told them what I and the secretary of the organising association (Hindi Literary Association) had talked when I was invited. He had said that judging won't be difficult for me as I had been editor for the college magazine, Splash. But truly speaking, editing is ten times easy. I had to put the 5 best poems/articles in the magazine. And if I liked 6, I had to ask the management for an extra page. Here every single mark was important. So it was an altogether different, much tougher job.
I ended the speech and the program saying that their job was not simple and all these poets/writers had to keep on going, because their pens do not give words to just their own thoughts, they gave words to all those people's words.

Be-Sure-Gama

2007-09-11T05:39:00.000-07:00

This is my big big world. And here is my experience of the be-sure-gama which took place last Sunday, September 9th.

It was a singing competition, organised by some of my friends, on the tracks of sa re ga ma pa which is being aired on the Zee TV nowadays. The major difference being that we had only besuras and were determined not to have any person with any experience in singing. I was the only one who had once sung on the stage and mind it, I wasn't a contestant. I was a judge.

Well, the plans boasted of a great competition and it turned out to be the same, when the final round came, cause the contestants were looking pretty tensed by the time.

In all we had 7 contestants one of which was our host, Ambuj. The other 6 contestants were Anuj, Ashaf, Devanshu, DD, Manohar, and Sandeep. The 3 judges were Abhishek, Aritra and me, Harshit. The contest had three rounds. In the first round, 2 contestants, Sandeep and Ashaf were eliminated. In the second round, again 2 contestants, Ambuj and DD got eliminated. In the final round, we had 3 contestants, among which, one, Manohar was really an unexpected candidate who had sung an exceptionally well (at our level) 'suno na suno na sunlo na' and surprised nearly all by reaching the finals.

Thus, in the finals, we had three contestants, Anuj, Devanshu, and Manohar. Coincidentally, these three were the people who were the hosts too. In the last round, judges wanted the contestants to sing the types they had not touched yet. So, Devanshu, who had sung a high pitched Rabba(Musafir) and I love u o sayyoni (Aap ka Suroor) was made to sing a lighter 'Kuch saal pehle' from Yaadein. Anuj, having sung two light numbers took 'O Sathi re' (Muqaddar ka Sikandar). And Manohar chose a difficult, 'Tu hi meri Shab hai'.

The end turned out to be pretty tough and the final round ended with a difference of just one mark between the winner and the runner up while there were 3 judges difference of less than half mark per judge!!) Telling us how tough a competition was it. The final winner was Anuj.

After all the contestants, judges were asked to give performances. Aritra presented a sweet 'Raat Kali ek khwaab mein aayi' and won hearts. Abhishek went a step ahead by presenting his own beautiful Ghazal. I sang 'Bin tere kya hai jeena' from 'Woh Lamhe' to end the program.

And now, all said and done, I m thinking that if here, where we have hardly any interest in winning and cannot think of taking music seriously, the environment gets this serious, what might be happening at the national level talent-hunt programs such as Indian Idol and Sa re ga ma pa??