Week that was ---

Saturday - On weekend, ended up offending a friend by a poor joke (sad, everyone is not intelligent like me to understand jokes)...had to write big emails saying - sorry:-) Today was supposed to talk to doctor (for a stomach problem) n take an appo but the doctor's phone number was in my office id. Tried the VPN to connect to my office network but thanks to the slowest-on-earth-tata-indicom-dial-in-connection, could not get the office network either (though could check india-au cricket score after day 3). The doc is my friends brother-in-law (good that, i don't have to pay consultation fees) - tomrow, wd ring up my friend's resi number to get the doctors phone number and consult him on Sunday - poor sis of mine, who came last to last Sunday- no movies or shopping on Sunday! Though she made few friends here in the compound by this time, she is not that bored - atleast that's what she said to me.
Saturday night- My sis is there…so no “party” on weekends – but weekends are not dull when you have a sister around. Planning to catch a movie on Sunday.

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Sunday - Could not manage time for a movie. May be next week....I’m desperate to prove that I m alive:) so have to add something in the blog. An old incident does not seem to be bad to place it here!
My friend Ranjan told me about this. The incidence is a year old. Ranjan always insisted that we (particularly me, my other friend Tapan) would take a thousand years of “sadhana” to reach a level of our other friend Sidheswar. We all gracefully agree the talent of Sidheswar but that difference in ‘level’ never came out to be a factor in our friendship. Enough of “alaap”, let’s go to the story.

It was a puja vacation, last year, Sidheswar started for home- his train, Teesta Bhorsha express departed from Kolkata at 8.30pm. Sidheswar occupied his seat at right time and was sipping his mineral water bottle frequently. It was a hot day. Eventually by half an hour, when the train is well past the Calcutta station, his water bottle was empty and Sidheswar went to bed ( He didn’t feel like having the dinner). Everything was fine until midnight when he got awake to go to urinals. Mind that smoking is banned on trains now a days, Sidheswar did not light a cigarette in the urinal. After returning to the seat, he saw all his belongings are gone!! A cool person, he thought of reporting the theft to police, but on a second thought, there is little hope of getting the things back, so Sidheswar decided to stay back. He uttered choicest of curses n abuses for the bag-lifter. Since it was real hot and dry, he was more worried about the other mineral water bottle kept in the bag. Since there was no way of getting back the lost items, a cool head, he decided to sleep again. Having a relieved bladder, he slept immediately. Having a sound sleep, he got up early and had a cup of tea from the “cha grom-wala”. He was feeling bad and his brain is working on various possibilities. By the time he finished the tea, so observed something unusual with his seat number. His ticket shows, he’s allocated berth #35 and he was @ berth#53. He immediately went to b number 35 and ALAS…EVERYTHING WAS THERE. His bag, gifts for near n dear ones, medicines for a relative etc etc…everything untouched!!. Now, it’s time to get down at next station…Sidheswar was cursing railways for making the seats so similar.

----Disclaimer: #1 -Those not-so-near to Sidheswar, were saying, his mineral water bottle contained something intoxicating, but we don’t believe it.
----Disclaimer: #2-The above paragraphs are just a possibility – any resemblance with any real life incidence is purely coincidental.

"HEROs" do it again..this time on a daily wage earner!!!

On Oct 29 a day after Diwali, an UP labourer has been lynched on a Mumbai local train. Allegedly some locals boarded same compartment as the poor labourer and on learning that the fellow is a "Bhaiya", the locals started beating the labourer untill he was unconsious. The heros got down in a next station and RPF took the victim to a hospital where he was declared brought dead.
Well done Raj, as one of the readers say - we don't need Pakistan's ISI to divide and destroy the country - we have you, your uncle and some of your clan to take care of their plan.
Our Media seems to define terrorism something which has an islamic flavour in it. Killing inocent daily wage earners is not terrorism. Killing a young man who dreamt of a better life for his family is not terrorism.
Thanks Raj, thanks Shiva Sainiks , thanks Mawawati and like minded psychos, we can no longer be proud of the kaleidoscopic culture and ethnicity of the country. You are real heros these days!! You are so successful in poisioning thousand minds.
Shall I , now, need Passport/Visa to move to other parts of the country which has a different language than what I speak, a different religion than what I am born to?

"Heaven gives its glimpses only to those..."

Probably everyone goes through a phase where he/she feels betrayed or denied. It's hard to accept the disappointment when u don't get something which u are made to believe yours and desired too passionately. But won't there be caos if everyone's dreams come true?
Was reading a bengali novel during my Eid vacation...got an interesting piece as quoted below ( no I m not into poetry, particularly if it is in english...but this might give you some food for thought:))
-------------------------------------------
A Passing Glimpse - Rober Frost
-------------------------------------------
I often see flowers from a passing car
That are gone before I can tell what they are.
I want to get out of the train and go back
To see what they were beside the track.
I name all the flowers I am sure they weren't;
Not fireweed loving where woods have burnt--
Not bluebells gracing a tunnel mouth--
Not lupine living on sand and drouth.
Was something brushed across my mind
That no one on earth will ever find?
Heaven gives its glimpses only to those
Not in position to look too close.

Sorry my friend - my prayers were not answered.

Yesterday when I rejoined after an extented vacation, saw an email from a friend/collegue that he would be irregular next few weeks. The email was dated 10th October when I was out of office. I came to know that his wife (who was expecting) developed certain critical complications and is hospitalized. I was wishing everything would be alright. As he was not available on cell, I SMS-ed him that everything would be OK - 'insallah' but god decided otherwise. Got the shocking news today only - his child died. I was not trying to call him as I am perplexed as what to say. May almighty give strength to my friend and his wife to bear the loss.

Back to work place.....

Reached Calcutta at around 2.30 PM. First 3/4 days after Eid, the weather was very bad in Silchar. The road condition and other basic civic amenities are getting worse day by day. Feel very sad for my home place. Corruption has taken a deep root in every sphere of life (Some of our land was acquired by highway authority and we were asked to pay the Land and Revenue officials 20% of total compensation amount ! I will write more details later - meanwhile I am trying to contact higher administrative officials…don’t know if that would help…keeping the fingers crossed for now).

Met a college junior in the airport whose flight to Chennai was scheduled in the evening. It was so nice to meet Tapash first time after college days.. Tapash came to my flat and we had an adda after quite a long long gap - 12 years to be precise. Saw off Tapash in the evening. My sister gave some sweets…time to do some ‘misti-mukh’ and call my friends here to wish Eid Mubarak and Suvo Bijoya.........logging off in 10 seconds!!

Cultivating corruption – “Maha-sarak in Silchar, ASSAM”

This Eid ( 2 oct 08) when I visited home, I saw a lot of house building activities in my village ( a village about 10 KM from Silchar town). In last two months there has been atleast 20 new houses built and similar number of houses are under construction. In a small village like mine, this appears to be a real estate boom….but in reality this has nothing to do with soaring demand for housings, no one is going to live in those houses!!

The supper highway from Imphal ( through a bridge over the ‘ Barak’) will make a crossing with the superhighway from Mizoram; the crossing is supposedly to be in our village. Some villagers would be uprooted to make way for the national development! Well this may be hard for a those villagers who are living there for generations - guess who is making hay out of it? The Land and Revenue officials advised the villagers to make concrete houses so that they can manipulate official records and get some higher compensation. Well, no advice comes for free! The office needs 20 to 30% of the proposed compensation paid in advance, so that villagers can get a ‘good’ package!! It is an ‘official deal’! The villagers are made to think that this is a win win situation for everyone!! Well, the officials are not saying this to be bribe; in fact no one is saying that – they are just showing the villagers a way to claim more compensation and in return they are taking some ‘service charge’. The brokering the 20-30% deal with the villagers, on behalf of the officials, has become a lucrative career option for many.


Few acres of our (inherited) fertile family land are in the designated highway area. My father currently being almost invalid, my uncle is running from pillars to post to claim the legitimate compensation/ sometimes to get information about the rate of compensation which is meager compared to what has been paid in other parts of the country ( Remember Nandigram, WB? We don’t have a Mamata Banerjee to exploit the situation! ). Nevertless, due to absence of a young male member who would have negotiated with the officials, we had no option but to be ‘happy’ to give the land at the govt offered price. But thanks to the hungry land officials, we cannot get anything until we pay 30% of the amount in advance!!
I feel like an escapist who work for a multinational and give advice to others not to encourage corruption. My father, my uncles are having all the pains for their legitimate money- they can not pay the 30%, they can not pay a good advocate to have an RTI petition filed in the court… I am proud of my father – you really helped innumerable persons to get established…I am proud of my uncle, who served the govt and despite many options to be richer, opted to remain same as before.


Dear reader, if you are looking for a bride, go and try an alliance with anyone working in the Land & Revenue department. It’s possible that you would end up getting gifts comparable to what is given in some of the north-Indian royal marriages. If you are in kidnapping business, get someone from L&R dept, Assam. You would probably get more than what you demanded !

Disclaimer:---
The blogger does not encourage dowry but the above lines are for those who, in any case, would have received some gifts! Kidnapping is also strongly discouraged but this is for those who are already established in this career and do everything with their own risk…. though sharing some ransom might not be discouraged):

How LASER printer works .....

Laser printers use the property of static electricity in an innovative way. The core part of a laser printer is a rotating photo receptor drum or cylinder, which is made of highly photo conductive material. The corona wire shown in the figure carries electricity which induces positive charge in the drum surface. When a laser beam is fired on the surface of the drum, the the point where the beam is fired, gets negatively changed. The laser beam is controlled by a print controller ( a processor inside the printer ) which determines how to move the laser so that it 'writes' an image of -ve changes on the +vely charged surface (this is called 'electro-static' image). Next step is to draw images on the cylinder with toner - Toner is a fine, black powder which is positively charged. As the drum surface comes under toner hopper, the toner glues to the negative charged 'electro static' image on the drum, but not to the positively charged "background."
With the powder pattern affixed, the drum rolls over a sheet of paper, which is moving along a belt below. Before the paper rolls under the drum, it is given a negative charge by the transfer corona wire (charged roller). This charge is stronger than the negative charge of the electrostatic image, so the paper can pull the toner powder away. Now the paper has the required image drawn with fine toner powder which is required to get etched permanently. The fuser ( see fig B ) heats the paper to melt the toner and make a permanent impression. As the paper moves fast, the paper does not get burnt.
The dischage lamp (fig A) neutralizes all the charges on the surface of the drum so that above steps can be repeated for the next scanline.

A Paradox

Have been reading Simon Singh. The Code Book makes awesome reading. Thanks Kaushik for presenting this wondeful book.
Now if I say - 'I am lying' what does it mean:)

Weekend - running kites!!

After quite a while, I was engrossed in books( not technical stuff which I have to refer anyway) for weeks. Did not come across much readings which would make me feel good, bad or even angry for a long time. Few weekends back, thought of catching a movie but just like my other plans, did not just 'get time' to go for one...instead went to "Sony world" electronic stores...no I did not have plan to buy any electronic item….. thing is that, opposite to the Sony, there is a small make-shift book store which I like to give a visit occasionally. But that day, could not locate the shop...God knows if they'd decided to implement 'Operation sunshine' to get clear of all book/magazine sellers from the narrow strip ( some people call it footpath ). So, had a mixed chaat in a sweet shop there and returned to my flat. After I had the shower, the part of my brain which I call judge saab, opined that I should spend the day with a book. Went to a mall ( now a days they keep books too!) and bought "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. Well, next few days I was glued to this book!

It is the story of love, friendship, betrayal, hope. Set against the turmoil in Afganistan in 70s, Hosseini, neatly takes the readers through a wonderful journey. I found a nice line, which describes the devastations of war:
'the desert weed lives on, but
the flower of spring blooms and wilts'

NB: A time, when the protagonist goes to meet a taliban leader....that part appeared somehow Bollywood-movie-like. Nevertless, I liked the book and recommending it to Kaushik, Kunal, Raja...

Some funny laws....

DLF building recently installed a computerised advertising panel, next to the elavators. It keeps on displaying some funny information as well. Here are some of them....
--->The entire Encyclopedia Britannica is banned in Texas because it contains a formula for making beer at home!!!
--->In Alabama- It is illegal to wear a fake mustache that causes laughter in church!
--->In Maryland, it is illegal to take a lion to the movies!
--->In Fairbanks, Alaska, it is illegal to feed alcoholic beverages to a moose!
--->In california, it is illegal to eat oranges in a bathtub!
--->In florida, unmarried women who parachute on sundays may be jailed!
--->In chicago, it is illegal to fish in Pajamas!
--->In Joliet, Illinois, it is illegal to mispronounce the name "joliet"!
--->In Finland, people must be able to read in order to get married!
--->In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon!
--->The head of any dead whale found on the British coast is legally the property of the King; the tail, on the other hand, belongs to the Queen - in case she needs the bones for her corset!
--->Chewing gum is banned in singapore!

Checking that this site is still accessible...

Sound Sleep

Today, my laptop was crashing repeatedly while booting. I had to POR (Power On Reset) four time to get it to normal. Mine is a Dell latitude 650 model with XP SP2. Compared to available models today, it's reasonably older with 40 GB HDD and 512M RAM. I did not look for a replacement as I have tons of official and personal data stored on it and also I have developed a comfort with the keyboard and other accessories attached to this Lapu. Most importantly I have seen a strange telepathic link between the lapu and my mood (partially this is also the case with my mobile phone). Whenever I feel little down, I have seen, my laptop also gets into troubles. The more gloomy I am, more is the frequency of crash. If one checks the event manager logs in my system (in the administrative tools), he/she can easily get a measure of my mood for that particular date.
I was feeling sad today - for no particular reason as such. Got up very early while it was still dark outside (though last night I slept after midnight). After having a glass of water I tried to sleep again but could not. The mobile alarm started beeping at 5 AM. No, I am not an early raiser ( I hate getting up early), I intended to set the alarm at 7 but by mistake I set it @5.00am. Partly the blame should go to the dilapidated keypad where the digits can not be seen. Anyway I set the alarm @730 and tried to sleep again. Alas, my domestic help came @6:10am while normally she does not turn up before the time I am ready for office:) I thought I would force her to take an off by not answering the calling bell but that was not to be. She kept on pressing the door bell and at the same time was knocking the door and with every passing minutes the intensity just started raising exponentially. So before whole housing society members come to examine the situation, I had to get up and let her in. I told her to clean other rooms, leaving my bedroom - I went to bed again and tried to sleep. Half an hour passed, the doorbell ringing again and it was just like before except this time the visitor was not knocking the door. I got up to see my domestic help again. This time she rang the bell not to get in...just to tell me that she was leaving :)). This time I didn't try sleeping again - had a shower and started preparing for office.

Literally, I had a "sound sleep" today.

Indian achievement??

Today, there was a news article in the net, hailing Bobby Jindal who has been given a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention- Per the website he's the first "Indian American" to have that "honour". The news article is a manifestation of Indian -third world- slave- mentality. This 'Indian American ' stuff is going too far.e.g. during NASA mission which included Sunita William, the media went crazy as if she is residing next door!! Oh..our silly media sucks!!!
While I do not have any problem with their achievements (or whatever you call it), I think it's not only stupid but also criminal to highlight such stuff as an Indian achievement. Our media should find something more newsworthy.

A lesson from Jodie Foster

"... There is nothing in this world I am prouder of than my ability to feel, to survive and yes, to be a fool for what I love and believe in."
-Jodie Foster

Smoking.........

Coming home.....

It has been 3 months since I came for a project in Lex. Everything seems to be same since my last visit in 06. Yet this time, I am in a totally different area with different chain of management. I really liked the manager's area meetings where everything is so informal - yet very open, transparent and professional.
Found that some of the Americans are very fond of Indian food. Used to have lunch in various Indian restaurents every other day. Despite work pressure, it was fun and I enjoyed the pressure....wait a minute...I enjoyed the office time only but after returning from office, the things turns out to be nightmare to me. Was feeling so bad for my parent, siblings, nephew and niece. Tomorow I am going home....I am in a ocean of joy....I can not wait seeing my near and dear ones in my place. ...
".........I’ll be home tonight,I’m coming back home.............................".

Yahooo!!!!

Back to courtyard by marriot

Last May, when I arrived Lexington, I was put up at Courtyard by Marriot where I stayed for a week and afterwards I shifted to Residence Inn by marriot. Both hotels (or motels??) are few yards apart. In Residen Inn you have a kitchen where you can cook your own food while in Courtyard there is no kitchen. Indians usually prefer Residence as we prefer to have 'home made' food. Anyway, all my reservations were done from my office...I just came and took the possesion of the suites. I did a mistake while entering Residence. They booked my room till 27th while, my stay here is till 2nd Aug. I did not validate the check out date and yesterday there was a big surprise when the Residence Inn manager informed me about my check out date. I requested her to book a room for me in either Residence or in Courtyard and luckily I got a room at Courtyard. Though 80% of my luggage are with a collegue, I have shifted to courtyard in evening after office.
Things are not that bad here....except that rooms are 100% smoke free ( I will quit smoking sometimes in future) and my room is at 3rd floor. Need to inform all relatives/friends about new phone number and suite number....going to do that.

Some experiment with camera

Bird's Eye view of Victoria

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
:Yes
:So you are smart :)

My flight experiences

Next saturday, I have a flight scheduled at 1050 AM. I doing all packing from today itself.

My flight to Mumbai on 10th May, was scheduled at 3 and I reached airport @2.30. It was a bussiness trip and I can not think of missing this as I had a mid-night flight to NY on the same day.
In Calcutta airport, there was a long Q before the xray machine and luckily I managed to get it through quickly. It was few minutes left before they 'd close the check-in counter. I was feeling very nervous as I had missed flights on 5 occassions ( believe me, all was not my faults). When my turn came, I was told by the lady that this counter is not for economy class and alas, I was told to wait in that Q by one of their employees only. Anyway, when the lady saw that there was only 5/6 minutes left, she was kind enough to issue me a boarding pass. Reached Mumbail @5.30 and there was sufficient time before my next flight to NY. From now onwards, I'd make it a point that I'd reach Airport ( Rail/Bus station) atleast one hour earlier.
--> REACH AIRPORT ATLEAST 1 HOUR EARLIER ( for Domestic travels).

I have a notorious history of missing flights by all probable reasons. Last time ( few months back) I booked the ticket few days in advance. I saw the ticket dates etc and informed my sister back home to send the car to airport on such and such date. I did not bother to check the ticket twice ( Overconfidence !!). And guess what, I read arival time as the departure time. And realized it only after reaching airport. I booked the next days ticket and informed home that due to some urgency, I can not come that day!
--->NEXT TIME, I WILL X-CHECK TICKET FOR DATE, ARR/DEP TIMINGS etc.
--->WILL DO IT ATLEAST TWICE - ONCE AFTER PURCHASING TICKET, ONCE PREVIOUS DAY OF JOURNEY.

Reporting late is probably most common reason for missing flights. ( Well for politicians, it is a custom to report late and make the flight wait ). Around a year and half back, my flight back home was at 6 AM. I was having a nice adda that night and set alarm of my cell phone at 3.30 AM (Airport was 1 hour drive). When I went to bad, it was 12 midnight and just to reconfirm I set the alarm of my cell. Hicccccccccccccc...on my cell, setting alarm twice means - reseting to "no alarm mode"....I got up at 8.45 next morning!!! I slept again, as there was no point of going airport. Got up at 1030, went to airport city office. Luckily I got and 85% refund.
-->IF YOU HAVE AN EARLY MORNING FLIGHT, SLEEP EARLY PREVIOUS NIGHT.
-->SET THE ALARM ON YOUR CELL, PRIOR TO GOING TO BED. VERIFY TIME, "AM/PM" etc.
-->ASK SOME OF YOUR FRIENDS TO CALL YOU AT TIME WHEN YOU PLAN TO GET UP.

MP ki kom poriyache ? Short supply of MPs

With political uncertainity in Delhi, guess who is making most out of it. Some MPs, we never heard name or as a matter of fact who never raised their voice in parliament, have become real assets in the Delhi bazar. If what NDTV reported, is to be believed, rate of "free" MPs have suddenly shoot to an average 25 crore (Rs). From last few days, one question is peeping into my mind. Why MP buying/selling is called horse trading? Any one ?


NB:
In '93, congress govt was accused of buying 10 jarkhand MPs for an undisclosed sum. One of JMM leader Suraj Mandal said -
''We did not take money. We only took donation. Even those who are taking money today will take as donation for the party''.

Gadgets in our life

Though, I m not a gadget savvy kinda person, still I think, we can not really avoid some of them. e.g., I am on a visit to a foreign land and I have all my contacts in my mail application on the laptop. After reaching my new office, I informed my manager in India about my arrival over the phone but after returning from office, I was missing those post-office adda's, chatting over phones with friends. I felt like calling my friends, but ALAS..all contacts are in my mobile and it's bat is totally drained. Add to the ordeal, the indian power plug does not fit here so could not recharge the cell immediately. I had to email a friend to send me a spreadsheet with all contact numbers which he did immediately after 4/5 days:)
Todo when travelling :
-> Keep a printed copy of all contacts.
-> Keep on taking e-backups of cell numbers stored in your cell once in 3/4 months.
-> There is international power adaptors available ( 10-20$), so take them when you take a laptop, cell with you when travelling a foreign country.