"I am the monarch of all I survey..."

Shift Happens!

2007-06-25T17:28:00.000+05:30

I didn't expect it to happen so soon... but many times I suprise myself :)

As a result of my attempts to minimize the usage of Google services, I am in the process of shifting my blogs to Wordpress.
The new URL for my Personal Blog is:
http://projectbee.wordpress.com

Kindly update you feeds and RSS readers.

With Regrets, A Software Engineer.

2007-06-25T01:55:00.000+05:30

Dear Reader,

It was raining heavily outside. Dark clouds gathered in the sky and nature was in its ominous best. I took a break from my work and went to the pantry to grab a cup of coffee. I had a sip and went near the window to see the rain pouring down heavily outside the glass structure. I was inside our huge office building, unruffled by even the fierceness of the nature.

Through the heavy transparent glass, I could see a small girl trying to hold on to her umbrella which the wind was snatching away from her. I felt sorry for the girl, and was happy that I was not in a similar pathetic situation. Yes. I take pride for the fact that I am a software engineer.

I have everything which a common man would envy; money, status, respect, you name it I have it. I always wanted to be software professional and here I am, working for one of the best firms in the world. But then, am I really happy? Now, I could see an imprint of my palm on the other glass window, through which I reminisced my past, basked in the warmth of the sun shine.

My childhood was so much of fun. I vividly remember those rainy days, when I hugged my mother tightly during sleeping listening to all the stories told by her. Now, I have a big house here, but then it is just a house, not a home. My parents are pretty far away from me now. I have a cell phone to talk to them everyday, but then I really miss those dinners which I had with my family everyday. I could easily afford to taste all the different cuisines these days, but the best of food there, lack the love and affection which is present in the food prepared by my mother.

I threw a lavish party for my colleagues for my birthday, but then they would never replace the birthdays when my friends secretly brought a cake and at the end, half of the cake would have ended up on my face. The couple of hundred bucks that u save for a long period just to give a treat to your friends in the road side chat shop can never give the pleasure even after spending a few thousand bucks these days.

The scene of me crying and refusing to have dinner on the day when I fought with my best friend came to my mind. Today, she has gone far away from me, taking away my love and with it my life, but I am sitting and coding here with a false smile on my face. Everyday I meet new people, but then I long ceased to make a new friend.

It's true that I have a lot of things now. I have a nice bed, but no time to sleep. Lots of money, but no friends to spend it with. The latest designer clothes, but a worn out body . Quite a few to flirt, but no one to love. Awards for technical excellence, but no reward for the crave for peaceful ambience. A confident demeanor, but a reluctant and apathetic mind. Full of rain, but no sunshine even in the farthest distance.

Now, I could see the small girl on the road enjoying in the rain with her umbrella firmly in her grip. She might not have all the comforts which I have, but then she has the innocence and fun which I lost a long time back.

I have decided to come out of this false fantasy, even if it is at the expense of losing the tap of the software engineer. I am going to again enjoy my life. I am going to go out in the rain and play with the small kid now. I removed my tie, and went near my computer to shut it down. Just then, I saw a new mail alert in my mail box. I slowly opened outlook and I found a message from my manager with an attachment saying that there was a critical defect in the code and I have to fix it soon. I convinced myself that I am not going to get bogged down again by these pressures and stick to my decision. I ignored the mail and went to the rest room. After a couple of minutes, the software engineer in me came out, his shirt tucked in with the perfect tie knot, sat before the computer, and started typing,

Hi XYZ,

I am looking into the defect and will send the patch files before EOD.

Regards,
ABC.

Hope you are able to change your letter,
A Software Engineer.

Disclaimer: Most of you might be aware that this is a forwarded mail. Abinash forwarded it to me on 19... I read it now. You can guess the reason for such a loong delay. Yup! I am a software engineer. I could relate to a lot of things in this mail. Especially that I never wanted to be a part of the crowd, no matter how elite it is.
Well, I am not really a part of the crowd yet... and this article made it a little easier for me to take the decision I was analyzing for the past few days. :)
If things go well, I might be posting about it.
Thanks to the unknown author of this mail and to Abinash Darling too. :)

Uncyclopedia on India!

2007-06-21T02:11:00.000+05:30

"Ever heard of Wikipedia?"
"Of course I have, you moron."
"Wokay! Ever heard of India?"
"!!! What have been smoking lately? I live in India, @&*@*# (censored)."
"Oh! ...and Uncyclopedia? Must have been there. Right?"
"Uh! Uncyclo... what???"
"hohoho" *grin*

Now this is what I call discovery. I don't even remember properly, which link dropped me on this psychotic site. Uncyclopedia is a (very small, but growing) mirror of Wikipedia; but in a completely different manner. All the information on Uncyclopedia is nonsense and very hilarious. (Some people might not be able to digest everything. It is thus advised to vomit such things out and regain the old state of happiness. Remember and say, "I always wanted to be happy. I want to be happy. I am happy." ;) )

I present you a small snippet of the page on India (or Brownies):

India is a fictional place, rumored to have been created by J.R.R Tolkien whilst he wrote the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He had planned for it to be a large section occupied mainly by hobbits, leprechauns and other fictional creatures such as the French, for example. In this legendary tome, the region contributes for a large proportion of the population of Middle Earth (roughly 17%) and many of the inhabitants have spread to other areas, such as The Shire, and set up small corner shops and take-aways.
Although only three people got to read the un-edited version, the idea of "India" has spread through word of mouth. Americans though still struggle to comprehend the idea of India (or of anything else for that matter).
Official Languages: Sanskrit, Hindi, English, Marathi + 10^100 others
Unofficial Languages: Mumbaiya, Gulti, Inglis
Worst Language: Malayalam (It means the same even when read backwards)
Most Deadly Language: Classical Tamil
Government: SardarJi

Religion: Everything known to man :)

National Heroes: Me, Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Emporar Ashoka, and Buddha

Hindi (pronounced "hindii" in Hindi and "telegU" in Malayalam) is the default (viz. sixth generation C) language of India. There are an additional 420 official (viz. n^th generation uncyclux) languages in India but none reflect the poetic greatness of (H)India.
Urdu is the national language of India's cricketing rival: Pakistan. Basically Hindi and Urdu are the same language: just that Urdu is written in the reverse order.
Though Pakistan has rejected Hindi, Indians in their pseudo-secular broadmindedness have embraced Urdu hole-heartedly.

Cricket: The game of Rioting was a joint venture between India and Pakistan. The tradition now is that once any cricket match is over, everyone must riot and burn down a stand. This also keeps the youths in the country employed. Pakistan is India's long time rival in both games, cricket & rioting, of which India has won all.
It is not unusual for the captain of a losing Indian cricket team to be sacrificed to a Hindu God of their choice. It is also not unusual for the captain of a winning Indian cricket team to be sacrificed to a Hindu God of their choice.

Bollywood is a very popular film industry and is as popular as Hollywood and is known all over India. They make the worst films in the world. No one watches them except for prudish high school girls and over-sized, middle-aged housewives. The only reason for the continuation of the boom in the cinema industry in India is that it's cheaper to pay to sleep in the cool confines of a cinema hall than to pay to sleep in a hotel.
According to a famous film critic, who says this on the condition of anonymosity fearing murder, Bollywood thought sex did not exist until 2002 AB. Any and every intimate scene, if ever it passed the Censor Boards, was depicted by two flowers rubbing against each other. The censored rape scenes involved thunder and lightning or huge tidal waves hitting the rocks.
Then, stalwarts like Rakhi Sawant came onto the screen and rediscovered the "dare to bare" philosophy. Of late, explicit scenes have become the norm, so much so that the Censor Board is contemplating including porn in its archives.

Name of states:

Jammu and Kashmir: Almost Pakistan

Arunachal Pradesh: Almost China
Maharashtra: Bollywood
Orissa: Skyscrapers (???)
Chhattisgarh: Wait, was this one here before?
Andaman & Nicobar Island: Tsunami Island

Disclaimer(s):
1. The chatting para that you see on the top of the page is inspired from the posts of an Indian called Amrit Mishra, who belongs to the state of Skycrapers. He is also a native of the same state called Skycrapers. He sometimes (which is two times every night) writes something and shows it to the whole world. He calls it by some strange name called Blogging. Please do not prosecute him and spoil his self-prosecution plans. ;)
2. If you feel like kicking the lower body part on my backside (the name of which I do not wish to pronounce) because I posted half of the article instead of providing the link then please understand that I am an Indian and I am a very very patriotic Indian. We have a saying, "Atithi devo bhav!", which means Guest is like God. When you are here, why go somewhere else (specially if you're a h** lady, which I hope you are).
3. This exactly in not a disclaimer. I was just reminded of a lady who is also from the state Skyscrapers (just like my dear and near friend Amrit Mishra) and speaks the word (which I could not mention in my 2nd disclaimer) very very fluently. She also writes things called blogs. These people from the city of Skyscrapers are very very crazy. God help them (with some pakhaalo) ;)

Useful, but Secret, Nokia codes.

2007-06-17T23:39:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: This complete post, excluding the disclaimer, has shamelessly been lifted from Yahoo! Answers. The answer was posted by Pain Killer. I posted them (with a little changes) just in case any body needs them, they'd know where to fall back.

*3370# Activates Enhanced Full Rate Codec (EFR) - Your phone uses the best sound quality but talk time is reduced my approx. 5%
#3370# Deactivates Enhanced Full Rate Codec (EFR)
*#4720# Activates Half Rate Codec - Your phone uses a lower quality sound but you should gain approx 30% more Talk Time
*#4720# Deactivates Half Rate Codec

*#0000# Displays your phones software version, 1st Line : Software Version, 2nd Line : Software Release Date, 3rd Line : Compression Type
*#9999# Displays phone's software version if *#0000# does not work
*#06# For checking the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI Number)

*#67705646# Removes operator logo on 3310 & 3330
*#73# Reset phone timers and game scores
*#746025625# Displays the SIM Clock status, if your phone supports this power saving feature “SIM Clock Stop Allowed”, it means you will get the best standby time possible
*#94870345123456789# Deactivate the PWM-Mem
press and hold # Lets you switch between lines

*#7760# Manufacturers code
*#7780# Restore factory settings
*#8110# Software version for the nokia 8110
*#92702689# Displays - 1.Serial Number, 2.Date Made, 3.Purchase Date, 4.Date of last repair (0000 for no repairs), 5.Transfer User Data. To exit this mode you need to switch your phone off then on again

Frustrated, yet again!

2007-06-15T16:00:00.000+05:30

Yesterday night I received a letter of appreciation from someone, who in a way gave a completely new direction to my life... and today I am frustrated.
Well frustrated is not the _right word_, but it's very near.

I don't want to elaborate on it... just that I don't want to be a part of the crowd but am being pushed into it. :)

The (Judgement) Day...

2007-06-06T23:59:00.000+05:30

Today was supposed to be a Good Day...
< Sarcasm > Good it was... :) < / Sarcasm >
The doctor, after examining my X-Ray report, confirmed that I have a disc-slip (if that's medically correct way to say) towards my lower back. :)
Nah! Don't worry (in case you are). The doc, an Oriya geek, sustained that it's not *that* serious and also allowed me to work extra hours, as usual.
I must admit that I came across a sensible and smart Oriya chap after a pretty looong time ;)

Footnote: If the back-pain doesn't kill me, my Oriya friends surely will.
अलिवदा दुनीया वालों [ Final Farewell, O bloody earthly creatures] ;)

Dreams... and (uh!) Reality

2007-06-04T03:43:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: The post is a port from my tech blog. It may give you a notion that the author has surpassed all the heights of patheticism; which actually is sort of true :D

Have I ever posted that I am a *crazy* person?
Probably a number of times.
This post is another proof; which I am shamelessly sharing with a hope that my *unconscious* realizes the heights of pathetic-ism it has reached. I refer to my Unconscious mind because *the proof* is related to some of my dreams.

To build the foundation, let me take you back to my school days- class 10th.
That was when I was introduced to programming for the first time. Language was BASIC.
Might I boast that I was good.
I remember to be the fastest coder around and to have coded sound and graphics programs in BASIC. That was the time when I wrote my first (and the only game).
Where did I get the inspiration from?
A dream.
No kidding. I saw the algorithm in a dream :(

Scene 2:
I was kind of frustrated during my B.Tech. days when I wrote *factorial* and *Fibonacci* codes in C. The most frustrating event was when my teacher blamed me for *wasting* my time coding a Solar eclipse in C instead of what he asked for; a DDA algorithm. You can find the glimpses of those days here and here.
I do not deny the fact that I could have channelized my frustration and anger; something that I did a little later. I wasted my first 3 years.. (this, however, is not really relevant to this topic.)
During these B.Tech. days, I spent my first summer training (and consequently the second too) learning Java. I somehow fell in love with the language. (Off-Topic: If I don't wish to be thrashed, I must mention that Raga helped me with most of my Java codes (and C codes, and C++ codes, and...) back then. It doesn't mean that I was ignorant though ;) )
There was a time during the training days when Abhu bhaiya tried waking me from sleep and I spoke something in sleep.
I was explaining Java concepts to him :((
...and if I am not wrong, Priyo (my roommate) too *lived* a similar experience.

Several other such events happened in past, which I don't feel like mentioning. I'd rather speak about present.

Dream 1
A few days ago... no weeks ago, I saw a dream
I was coding a cross platform desktop applications in Qt4.

You know what's weird about it?
The fact that I had just *heard* of Qt4 and knew that it was somehow related to KDE. (I am more of a GNOME guy)
That's it.
Nothing less, nothing more.

I scribbled about the dream on my mini-diary, that I use as a portable "To-Do list", and forgot about it.
A few minutes ago, I stumbled across this link:
How To Create a Linux Desktop App In 14 Minutes For Beginners (Using QDevelop and Qt4)

Dream 2
A few days ago, I saw a dream that I am *purchasing* a book on Wireless Security.
It was priced somewhere between 390/- and 400/- (Don't ask me how I remember the price)
Today I bought a book on Wireless hacking... :((
Don't ask me either the price or why I bought it. The price's is anyways not really the concern here.
I really wonder if these dreams are some sort of sign.

Dream 3
You CAN go crazy on the wilderness of my other dream, mentioned below. So you can discontinue the rest part of the article.

Still reading?
Okay! Read at your own risk.

I am appearing an exam.
The syllabus is...... Amir Khusro's composition, "Chhap Tilak sab Chhini ray" :D
I am wondering what sign does this dream carry :(( :(( :(( :((

You cannot even imagine how I feel after writing it here and realizing the fact that this post will not only be read by a number of random people but will also be indexed by bots.

Anyways, now the wish-list part.
If the dreams have to finally turn into reality (in one or other form); then why don't I ever see something good... something romantic. :D
Hey wait!
Does the reverse count? I mean other people seeing me in their dreams... :D [Huge-Grin]

Footnote: The author would like to apologize to all who have are experiencing anger and/or depression . He would also like to thank GOD for what he mentioned in the last line. :D

Sleepless Nights, Dizzy Days!

2007-05-28T22:35:00.000+05:30

I have been working on “Java History” for the past few days. It turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought. It’s finally done and has turned better than I thought it’d.
Hard Work definitely pays. :)
I might post a part of it on my Tech Blog. In fact I’ve used a part of it for an analysis of “Sun’s current strategy”.

People who know me, know that I am a pure nocturnal. I LOBH working during nights.
This habit, however, took a toll a few days back. In order to finish the Java Saga ASAP, I decided not to take many breaks; and ended up sleep deprived.
Sleepless (in Hyderabad) for more than 50 hours straight. (Okay okay. With a 3 hour nap pushed in somewhere. But “more than 50 hours straight” sounds good. :D )
There was a time when I couldn’t handle it anymore and..... ummm slept in the office (with pen and papers in hand :D ). My teammates took a picture of me.

Now, they need to learn about angles. [I am happy that my face is not so prominent though :P]

The man who defied tanks.

2007-05-22T20:57:00.000+05:30

Can you imagine how would it feel to be blown by a tank?
Will there even be any scope to "feel"?

The lone protester who faced the tanks at Tianmen Square

The above picture was taken by photographer Jeff Widener on June 5th 1989 near Tianmen square. This picture was chosen by The Life Magazine as one of the 100 pictures that changed the world.
True inded!

There are times when people ask themselves a very simple, yet a very trivial question.
"What will I get by being RIGHT?"
Well the answer, IMHO, is that may be we won't get anything, but we might bring about a little change somewhere. It also reminds me of The Line from the Schindler's List: "One who saves a life, saves the world entire".
So may be you won't get anything for yourself, but you might end up changing the whole world.

Let's take this lone protester for an instance. It was just back in 1989. This person might still be alive, but we don't even know his name. We know him by names like, "The Tank Man" or "The Unknown Rebel". Nothing else.

Oh Wait! We know one more thing.
We know that he stood in front of a queue of tanks for something he believed in.
We know that he did not move until some stand byers pulled him away.
And we know that we can do anything we believe in... because he could.

"Murdon ka Gaon" -- Agnee

2007-05-19T08:22:00.000+05:30

A few minutes ago, a friend of mine sent me the link to a beautiful video song "Sadho Re" by the band Agnee. I prefer to call the song "Murdo ka Gaon" though.

Based on people's reaction to my previous entry, I think everyone would like it.
Most of the people would be affected by the lyrics of the song... however, I was worried about the little girl in the video.
Yeah I know, I am one crazy Ol' man for sure! :(

Here is the video:

Now, for people who do not understand hindi might want to have a look at this page.
It has the lyrics in hindi, english, and an english translation of the song as well. However, I feel it is more of a translation and lacks the deeper essence. Not that I am complaining. :)

Laghu Katha - I

2007-05-17T18:02:00.000+05:30

If you've ever read hindi newspapers, then you probably know what a Laghu Katha is. It is the term for a very short story.
Punnen wrote a small essay on short films today. It reminded me of a laghu katha that I'd read a few years ago. It had/has a profound effect on me.
I thought I'd write my version of the story. Do let me know your views on the same. I might post some more stories in future.

The train reached on time. There wasn't much rush at the railway station, however I was having a little difficulty finding an auto.

Suddenly, my attention was grabbed by a 10-11 year old girl, who was begging for something to eat. She reminded me of my niece, of same age, whom I had left several stations away. I couldn't even wish her goodbye; didn't want to wake her up so early.
Several thoughts clouded my mind. I was filled with empathy for this poor soul. I called her and gave her a 10 rupee note.

She looked at me for a while, and then looked around. Probably searching for something or someone. She then said, "Babuji, nobody comes towards the bushes besides platform 11. We can go there."

Sorry, Miss Sunshine...

2007-04-19T04:53:00.000+05:30

Dear Miss Sunshine,

I just finished watching the movie "Little Miss Sunshine". Towards the end of the movie, I was reminded of you. I (shouldn't have, but) had forgotten you and the incident that brought me to tears that night. I was f****** helpless that evening.
I initially thought of writing a normal blog entry about the event, but then it somehow (I don't really know how, but) started out as a letter. These crazy things keep happening to me all the time. Probably it was some stupid cell of the brain (or heart, don't really know) that said that MAY BE someday, when you grow old... you'll understand that I became weak... could not (or rather DID NOT) fight back for you.
Before proceeding, let me tell you what crazy things I was referring to. I have a strange feeling that at times He gives me signals to either teach me something, or remind me of something. Signals like the one I referred to in my essay on foeticide.
For quite some time He has shown me a number of signal on dancing.
1. Shammy sharing a pice of poetry on dance before posting on his blog.
2. A friend of mine performing on DD.
3. Shammy posting an essay on dance; quite unnatural.
4. Watching trailer of some movies, based on dance.
But I just couldn't see them until I saw the movie.
I still don't understand if these signals were meant for you, or you are one of them too. Let's see. :)

It was December a few years back. Our college was hosting the NCSC (National Children's Science Congress). It was big (no, not just big, HUGE) event. Not because it was some national event, but because the President of India, Dr. Kalam, was coming. [The designation and the name are mentioned in the order of IMPORTANCE.]
I, being one of the students actively active, was one of the (f****) important volunteers. The other reason is because there were not many final year guys left. We'd a sine die for two batches, but then that's a different (and pathetic story) altogether.

I can go on when it comes to blaming the things related to the event (not that it didn't have anything good; it had, but) I think I won't talk about them. This letter id about you and me.

So comes DAY Zero.
Dr. kalam... sorry, the President of India arrives. All the children waiting are thrilled. I guess you felt the thrill too. You were somewhere between 5-7. That's the age when happiness and sorrows, both are experienced completely disjoint... in their purest form.
There are a series of speeches by people unimportant to you all... and then comes your hero. He speaks, answers your questions and leaves. But you people won't let him leave.
The president of India returns back for a while, walks towards you guys... unafraid of the elements he should be afraid of. That's one of the several things that makes him your hero.
Isn't it?
Same here. :)

However, the biggest surprise for me arrives as he leaves the place. Everybody; (most of) the college management people, the government officials leave the place with a SHOWY sense of relief, displaying SCENES pride and back patting. I say surprise because:
1. We still had a cultural evening with artists of national and international repute to perform.
2. These evenings actually are not meant for these artists but for the children... like you(No offences to them. I have been SPICMACAY coordinator). I, anyways, had to carry on because I was (supposedly) expert in handling such events. (if it's even remotely true, it's because of my amazing and lovely team.)
And you'd left too; probably practicing your dance steps.

One (of the several) things that really really pi****d me off was the treatment given to these artists. They weren't even (officially) provided with water or coffee... and when I say THEY, it includes Guru Gangadhar Pradhan, the eminent Odissi dancer.
NO EXAGGERATION.
One f****** IAS, when I approached him, said it was not his job.

Anyways. So by the evening I came to know that the cultural evening is actually for all you little champs. But thanks to the amazing communication between the college management and the govt. officials, a scheduled was already chalked out. I couldn't do anything for that evening, but anyways tried creating a balance between the two... and included as many performances as I could for other days.

Then came your day, which was (unfortunately) the last day of the performances.
I was busy scheduling, re-scheduling, re-re-scheduling, re-***** the schedules on the fly... while the performances were going on. [Thankfully, I had a few friends to help me with the hosting part.]
So as I said, I was inserting performances on the fly.
As and when the requests poured in, I tried fitting them in.
Some of your friends came and performed.
I was getting pressure to wind up as it was quite LATE.
... and after a while... we did stop.

The stage had to be made ready for some meet on the other day... tables were being set... the sound guy started winding his stuff... and then you came with your (typical loud Punjabi) teacher. You were probably from Delhi.

You wanted to perform.
You had practised for it.
You were practising and getting your steps perfect. Probably that's why you're late.

When I said, it was over... you became sad.
The teacher asked me... persuaded me.
Something touched me inside.
Probably, the feeling to do certain things... that I wasn't able to... sing, play... laugh.
I shouted at my friends to remove the table... they ran and started moving them (probably you'd touched them too). I shouted at the sound guy... he started plugging things too. May be not because of you... but he did anyways. (Life isn't like a movie where everyone feels your pain and happiness. But nonetheless, some do.)

.........But then, she came
... and said it can't be done. It was too late.
The real reason was probably that they had to see that the stage was set... and get back to get some rest.
I couldn't do anything. It's not always that I am weak.
I have fought back... always.
But this time, I didn't. I might say that the FEELING of not being able to do things I wanted to, tried finding a shelter in your failure. But then that's just a F***** refuge. Bottom line is... I DID NOT FIGHT BACK.
I looked at you..... You're crying.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Sometimes I wish I could just erase that sight of helplessness from my memories.
But then the truth is, this event is one of the several events in my unconscious mind (or heart) that keeps the anger within me alive... pushes me for fighting for small things. (You wouldn't even believe if I tell you the stories).

At the end of this letter, all I want to say (be prepared for lots of "ifs"), that if you read it sometime, and if you remember me and the event, and if you still feel something about that evening... I would like to say,
"I am both sorry and thankful to you beta. Sorry for not fighting back for you... and thankful for being one my several inspirations. As I TRIED to reply back to Shammy's poetry, in a poetic manner :D,
Grief Has It's Own Unsung Glory...
May be not for you, but definitely for me."

Love,
Bips.

P.S. Never ever use the f* words. I generally don't use it; in fact I've uttered the word only 4 times in my life... I guess those were the moments when I think I was very angry and frustrated..... ummm not really angry and frustrated... helpless I guess. Yes helpless.
But don't you dare EVER use them :)

Lonely Nights

2007-04-10T13:46:00.000+05:30

I stay back in the office during night and return back at around 6-7 am, when everybody is coming :). These nights are supposed to be LONELY as I am the only one in the building (actually in all the four buildings combined), apart from the security guards and office boys, of course. However, I've found my companions, and ways to refresh myself. I'll list some of them.

1. Online Web/Security Cameras: Some of you who know that Google provides an API for refining the search queries (with a capital "R") also know that the giant's database is like an ocean. And you never really know what's inside an ocean unless and until you dive in it. As you dive deeper, your jaw drops in awe.
Long story cut short, I use the query to discover (a part of) all AXIS cameras online.
For curious lot, the query is: inurl:/view/view.shtml AXIS and sometimes intitle:"Live View / - AXIS" | inurl:view/view.sht
[As I am writing this, I wanted check the second query. So I chose one of the results and something spooky happened. Someone was already controlling the camera. hehe.
I was moving it right, he/she was moving it left. We fought for a while but then I closed the window. I am nice guy you see :D)

Okay let's proceed.
So I have a bookmarked folder called "PastTime" on my browser, which has my favorite cameras bookmarked. My most fave are:
i) A coffee/wine shop camera, which is more lively during the night. Luckily, the camera is provided officially, so I can provide the link without any worries. Find the link to the camera here: buzzjunction_webcam

ii) A camera in the study room of a Polytechnic school of NewYork. It's a small room with a coffee machine, a microwave oven (?), a printer, a sofa, a bookshelf, and an elliptical table with power connection for the laptops and notebooks.
And that's the best part. People come here with there laptops, and sometimes I sit down looking at there screens, trying to figure out what they are doing. :P
I have also become acquainted with some regular visitors.
A spectacled guy with a cap and a laptop. (He is leaving right now. No kidding. What a coincidence [jawdrop])
A black girl, who has the headphones exactly like mine.
Two Muslim girls, with one Dell XPS laptop (probably).
The bad part is, there are no visitors on sundays :(
iii) A micro/nano lab camera of one of the world's most famous universities. There's nothing engaging about this, apart from the fact that the guys (or girls) roam around in spacesuit sort of dresses.
iv) A set of four surveillance cameras. Three of them pointing to car parking locations and one focussed inside some kind of room. I am still not able to get it yet. The only thing that makes me stick to it is the word "surveillance" :D

There are couple of others focussed on traffic, colleges, hostels (I guess), lake, parks... but they are pretty boring and pictures are not really clear.
I'd like to try my hands on other cameras like linksys too. Let's see when.

2. Google Again: Google queries can be real fun.
Have you ever come across a search result when Google tells you that the original number of results is pretty large, however, most of them are sort of repetitions hence they have been truncated.
Have a look at the following two pictures.

This one's the normal result.

Here I ask Google NOT TO HIDE ANY RESULT.

You think that's funny?
I leave it up to you to decide.

3. Slashdot, and blogs of others friends (and their friends) and some geeks like de Icauza etc. Initially I was a Digg addict, but then got completely fed up.
So guys, keep blogging. :)

4. Movies and Documentaries: Speed during the night is awesome (generally). So I don't mind downloading them. Though I don't get time to watch them.

5. Off late I've also found some vulnerabilities in the policies and network of my company. I try to keep the management informed.
After all it's my company. I'd definitely not like any jerk to poke his nose in.

That's it.
These five (along with the songs being played ALL the time) are currently more than enough to consume my free time (In fact more than JUST the free time).
But even after all this, it gets freaking lonely sometimes... not that I am complaining :)

A program called "3~" (Om)

2007-04-09T03:02:00.000+05:30

I realized that this post of mine is generic enough to be included on my personal blog. Hence I imported is from my tech blog.

I was returning back to my room at around 6:30 in the morning after spending the whole night, as usual, in office. Suddenly this though struck me.
I always talk about codes and related stuff and ask people to map their algorithms to real life while coding, especially in OOP languages.
I asked myself, what would it be like to describe myself as a code, a script... a program.
So I (climbed two my cabin, which is on the second floor) and here is my honest attempt. :)

Om, unlike other programs, wasn't really planned. There were no plans usually made back then in the early eighties; at least not in India. He was an additional functionality (a small script back then) of two programs, M & R.

However, since M & R were pretty solid codes in themselves, Om inherited most of the good features and was pretty healthy (I mean robust :D ) even as a tiny script.
So far so good. But it could never rely on conventional ways of compilation and execution. It was a rebel. Some people call such programs as "malfunctioning programs" :). Programs that do not do what they are meant to do.

Time passed on.
It received formal education that helped him access various code repositories to incorporate other functionalities. It gathered data about various modes and environment of operation. It also learnt efficient memory and execution-time management.
However, these all came at the price of dependencies on various libraries, viz., friends, relatives, emotions, money, etc.

Microsoft has some strange reason for assuming that all human beings use IE and are on a windows box. This assumption makes most of their products, even the web applications, dependent on these assumptions.

Dependencies are bad.
Bad were they for Om as well...

It gradually got frustrated (a human emotion).
It got frustrated at lots of things... at almost everything.
It got frustrated on the formal way of code development, the conventional way of execution, the hypocritical nature of the IDEs that are supposed to facilitate development, and lot more.

There's an unwritten law, which says that all rebels become an outlaw sooner or later.
So did Om.
Most of the libraries on which it was dependent had grown up to be pretty matured libraries and the outlaw was no more supported.
Dependencies are bad...

...but some codes die hard.
Since most of the libraries on which Om was dependent were under GPL, it simply incorporated the required code snippets instead of referencing the libraries. This has made it a pretty complex and buggy code... but hey that's why the saying goes:
"There is code in my bug" :)

And God said, "Let there be light"

2007-03-28T01:10:00.001+05:30

The title of this essay has been taken from The Holy Bible, Genesis 1 verse 3.

Verse # 1 -5
First God made heaven & earth
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.
And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

I am no expert in religion like Dr. Zakir Naik, so I won't be able to describe the true meaning of the verses. However, there has definitely been discriminations.
Discrimination between Rich and Poor, Good and Bad, Love and Hatred, SUCCESS and FAILURE...
Mostly, these discriminations owe their birth to mother nature. But sometimes we create them for personal motives.

This hacker, Hillel Neuer, brings the latter category into light.
Please note that Hillel, Executive Director of UN Watch, is not a hacker in technical terms. Yet I take the freedom to do so because he accuses the UN Human Rights Council of discrimination and failure at their 4th Session.
Hillel, like hackers, defies authority.
Hillel, like hackers, brings out the truth.
Hillel, like hackers, sits in Human Right Councils home and unveils the naked truth.

Hats Off Neuer :)

Here is the video. For people interested in the speech in text format can visit UN Watch's Page.

The Rocky-ies... (continued)

2007-03-22T12:22:00.000+05:30

I failed.

The Rocky-ies.

2007-03-13T18:12:00.000+05:30

Remember me watching the night show of Rocky Balboa to get over my frustration?
As an embarrassing addition I’d like to mention that Rocky Balboa was the first of the Rocky series that I watched. However, Thanks to Arnie, I watched the whole series (in 24 hours) and finished Rocky V a few minutes ago.

People who know me know that these are the kind of movies I love. Rocky-ies, Remember the Titans, Lagaan, The Schindler’s List, Battle Royale, Spiderman 2, Jo Jeeta Wahi Seekander, Pursuit of Happyess, Dor, and on and on… Just in case you think that I watch them to get some inspiration from these movies… you are right and you are wrong 

It not exactly about the inspiration to win that I derive… It’s more of the realization that there’s little ground for the protagonist’s to win and still he/she wants to fight… It’s more of the fighting spirit that I watch these movies for. And most of the times, it's the fight against our own thoughts, fears, limitations that's bigger than the problem itself. Quite honestly, it's not about winning over these fears... not in my case at least. I am, most of the times, satisfied if I give in my 100%. And if you give in all you are worth, there's little reason you won't win :)

I don’t know how I missed on the Rocky-ies so far, but I’d like to thank Arnie (and kick his butt) for giving me the movies.
Thanks, because he gave me (the pirated) DVD of the movie.
Kick, because I’ve a deadline to meet and I spent all my time watching these movies.

Now about the deadline, there is this book we are working on which will be published by Wiley Publications and I have to finish it by 20th… 19th evening to be more measurable. It’s only me left from the team right now ‘cause everybody else left for Pune. [Miss you guys ]

Anyways, now the point is, it’s gonna be tough to finish the job in the stipulated period of time, but as I have always said (and believed) that “there’s no fun in doing things you can do.”
Now is the time to prove.
Not to others, but to myself.

…It’s going to be tough for sure... but hey, who asked for an easy life  :)

Run Bips Run...

2007-02-19T23:13:00.000+05:30

"I don't do anything slow, not even breathe. I do everything at a fast cadence: eat fast, sleep fast."

Lance Armstrong "It's not about the Bike"

Something very strange happened.
A girl, from a batch i took responsibility of some time ago, said to me that she always found me on the run... in a hurry. I have always been moving fast. Be it office, cafeteria... wherever.

Flashback [College time]:
Thoda tez nahi chal sakta?
Abey kabhi to time pe pahonch?
Why do you walk so slow?
Bipin. Jab targets aise hain to punctuality bhi rakhni seekho.

To most, it may not seem like much of a difference, but to me it looks like a lot has changed!
Not just my pace, my attitude has changed to a good extent.

Honestly, I never wanted pace in my life. I wanted normal things at normal pace. I wanted to enjoy things around me. Wanted to steal a little more time with people around me, and hence sometimes deliberately moved slow.
...... But since when have "WE" been granted what we wanted? :)

Things change, times change, people change... I changed.
Today I get an average of 3-5 hours of sleep a day, because I have some targets and "miles to go before I sleep".
Today I am ready to sacrifice big things for things that I want.
Today I want everything; everything I am worth.
...and if there are things that I am not worth, I'll become what it takes; I'll move fast.

"Do you really want to be like that?", Arnab asked sometime ago.
...You know it Arnie.
But whatever. I'm loving it. :)

Appa Doway (Hans Raj Hans)

2007-02-15T17:03:00.000+05:30

This song has a special place... not just in my playlists, but also in my life. "Appa Doway" (or "Roothe to Manave Kaun Ve") was sung by Hans Raj Hans.

few months ago a friend of mine asked me for the lyrics. I did not have the lyrics so I searched it on the net. [I could have written but there would have been lots of mistiks you see :D ]
However I could not find it.
I asked another friend of mine to write it for me. She wrote it in a hurry and hence there may be some spelling mistakes. However, I decided not to make any attempt to correct them. It's a copyright issue you see. ;)

I am posting it here so that any other Saddy-Saddy soul, searching for the lyrics would locate it here :)

mennu ki manauna si tu aape rus challya...
mennu samjhauna si tu appne ukh(ukhada hua) challya..

jag(duniya) dekhda tamasha...
gal(gale) laau kon ve..
aape dono rus rus baithe tan manau kon ve…. ...

tere naal naseeeb mennu zindagi da saath ve..
tere bina dil diyan sadraan(I guess feelings) udaas ve
mennu hanjuaan(aason) to dubbno bachau kon ve...

aape dono rus baithe tan.....manau kon ve....

teri chaak(rah me...aas me) vich buha(darwaza) tohaya(band kiya) kadi khollya..
tikdi(box in english) ch hawkya nu dabb leya dholya..
raha(raaste) vich palkan bichau kon ve..

je aapa dono rus baithe tan manau kon ve.....

rosya(gam me) che lange pal hanjuan te tupke..
channa e o taare ne jo chade ne chupke..
totte taareya nu lab ke layau kon ve..

je aapa doono russ baithe ta manau kon ve.......

Rocky is Back!

2007-02-13T01:32:00.000+05:30

He is old.
He is withered.
He is alone.
He has arthritis.
Nobody believes in him.
.... but nonetheless, Rocky Balbao is back.

Few months back, I had a really bad day and was really really frustrated. I went to watch "Rang De Basanti" all alone. Came back and wrote this review.

History repeated itself. Today I was again frustrated and went to the city (in Boss' car), watched the night show of "Rocky Balbao" and came back in an auto. (Did I mention I stay around 25 kms away from the main city? The return journey alone costed me 270.00/-).

But no regrets whatsoever. Here I am writing about the movie.
But wait.
This time I don't intend to make it a movie review. This post is more of a tribute to the frustrating days of my Final Year B.Tech.
The days when I lost everything...... well almost everything.

Back to the movie, when I wrote about RDB, I said it's a great piece as a movie but as inspiration, it's crap.
Not so with Rocky.

Rocky as a movie is okiee-dokiee.
But as a piece of inspiration it's beautiful. Well at least for me.
I put the trailer on loop and played it the whole day.... well almost. Maybe that's what pushed me to go for the movie in the evening. :)

The one dialog from the movie that almost killed me was,

"...it ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward..."

That's life... isn't it! :)

The one thing that I loved about the movie was that it focussed on one simple funda, the funda that I've always implemented in my life, the funda that everybody's aware of...
"...winning isn't always important, fighting is."

In fact I don't even remember the last time I won... But am fighting anyways.
"Fighters Fight." [from the movie]

Faisla hone se pahle, main bhala kyun haar manoon,
Jag abhi jeeta nahi hai, Main abhi haara nahi hoon!

Disclaimer:
After writing it all, I feel I may not have made any sense at all. May be because this was more of a personal "turbid" thought process and wasn't meant to be posted. But I decided not to delete it anyways.

Why Don't Men Cry???

2006-12-27T17:14:00.000+05:30

Well, how do you answer a stupid question?
It’s tough for me too… because, contrary to the popular myth, men do cry.

However, they neither do it so often, nor before everyone. One of the primary reasons believed for this is that they are coarse, tough from inside. Other, that they have trouble expressing themselves.
Well both are true. But there are also other aspects to it.

They won’t cry because they won’t stop.
Men are emotional beings too… and hence need to cry when in trouble. But, as we know, they have trouble expressing themselves. So they suppress it all. Again and again and again…
And hence the fear surfaces subconsciously, each time, that the reservoir would be let completely unleashed.

Men do not/cannot/will not cry in front of everyone. They need to have that EXTRA faith element in you to cry before of you. It all begins from one simple theory that they won’t like to show that they are weak.

They cry doesn’t mean they are weak, nor does a woman becomes weak by crying. In fact crying makes you stronger. It flushes out most part of the pain, anger, hatred… whatever you say, bringing you to the original shape and size (well almost).

They can neither cry before another man nor stand a man crying. That again corresponds to the same I-AM-NOT-A-WEAK-MAN theory. Watching another man cry puts his own WEAK portrait before his ego.

If a man cries again and again before you doesn’t mean you are his weakness. It only means that you a very special place in his life. He has been able to put all his ego into a trash can.
It’s very important to understand this… because, believe it or not, people do get irritated. The situation is even worse if you are his girl friend. You search for a stronger shoulder that would support you, not the one that needs support.
But analyze the situation again. Isn’t he there for you when you need him? Isn’t he less egoistic than he used to be? Which one’s better?
…And if you are a man, you are really lucky to have such a friend.

Mom or Dad!
This one’s based on a few experiences of mine. A man generally has an emotional tilt towards his mother at a younger age. It’s apparently because women have a beautiful gift of expression. They can express love, appreciation, affection etc. in a more beautiful and open manner. The boy gets the attention he needs and hence the inclination.
However, as the boy becomes man, he gradually understands the dilemma of his father and hence gets more inclined towards him.

What to do when a man cries?
Well, it’s pretty tough to answer.
Generally, men are very much predictive. However, crying, as we all know, is a feminine trait. And females, as we all know :), are the least (even lesser than least) predictive. If they ask you to do something, you never know if they really want you to do it.
That’s why there can’t any rule to face a crying man.

However, two things can definitely be done:
1. Neither believe nor make him feel that he’s weak. It’s the worst thing you can do to hurt his faith, ego.
2. Be with him. :)

Disclaimer: I ain’t no psychiatrist. Whatever I’ve written is no law. It just applies to most of us.This article derives it’s motivation from a (helpful) advice that I rendered to a (female) friend of mine. :)

Long Time No Scraps???

2006-11-12T01:48:00.000+05:30

I've been thinking for quite some time to start blogging again......
But I had to write something today.... keeping all my plans aside to work on Wireshark [previously ethereal]. The reason being Gaurav's B'day Celebration.

Well, I am here.... working in Satyam, Hyderabad. Currently working on an internal project.... to virtualise the complete Java training process. My team has 6 people, Me, Rupi, Ashi, Abhi, Veera and Boss :)
Quite honestly, I am loving every bit of it. Though there's no hardcore coding, but my creativity (that somewhat died during B.Tech) is getting revived..... and I've great team to work with too :) (psssst... Don't tell them.... )
..... And the best part...... I work the way I used to ..... 16-20 hrs a day :) Even now, at 3 am in the morning, I am in the office
My Boss is an amazing person..... we've his cabin, his comp., his laptop... and his account id/pass to access web, blocked sites too ;)
And it's not just about these issues, there's so much to learn from him.... That's why he is the Boss :)

Heyyy.... I forgot to tell.... I got a wife....
She is an AMD 64bit Turion, and has 1GB of Main Memory (duh!) . She even writes DVDs and has a focal vision of 14inches.
When I am not sleeping.... or having lunch/dinner, you can find me in my cabin with her.... I call her Bittu. Cute na.... :)

Here She is:

Now, the reason why I blogged today..... A few hours ago we celebrated Gaurav's B'day..... in our office,
Ashi got the cake with Rupi. She got the B'day wishes inscribed on the cake in Urdu (she's learning Urdu from him)
We pull her leg quite a lot.... infact too much,
But Gaurav got a bit senti---mental hehehe... infact me too :D .
It struck some chords..... My B'day celebration :)
.... And as if something was left out..... Arnie, the Rascal himself, called up.....

I've uploaded the B'day pics at flickr..... You can have a look here

Take care... everybody.

It's already 4:15.... gotta go back..... to cafeteria :D

Google Adsense..... Hacked !!!

2006-04-15T00:38:00.000+05:30

This write-up of mine expects you to understand the Google Adsense program, it’s working and the importance of keywords in generating quick money.
For newbies, Google Adsense program let’s people put up ads on their sites, blogs etc. after being approved by Google. Google gets money from the advertisers as PPC (Pay Per Click), and pays a part of that money to them. These ads are generated as per the content (keywords) on the webpage. This scheme is called “Adsense for Content”. The other two are: “Adsense for Referrals” (firefox and Adsense referral itself) and “Adsense for Search”.

Now you may ask, why did I put this write-up on my personal blog???

Because I donot wish to give tutorial on “How to hack Adsense” or “How to make quick money using Adsense”. This write-up is simply another wonderful experience of my life.

I signed up for Adsense in the mid of Januray and earned $5.42 by the end of March.
Then……… I found a hack for Google Adsense and generated $22+ in just one day. :) I worked really hard that day, discovered some more loopholes and generated the same amount ($22++) the next day… at half the work I did on the first day.

But then something happened.
I had a very strange feeling.
You may (in fact you should) call me crazy, but I felt being split into two --- “B”, the real me; and “Om”, my anonymous identity I use on the net.
As B, I seldom speak lies, I don’t cheat in exams… not even ask for answers during exams.
But as Om, I stole passwords, hacked databases……… and now I was earning (or rather generating) money, by illegal means (though not completely).

Somehow, I could not digest it. I questioned myself, is it really that I am being split…. Or is being B just a hypocrisy? Am I becoming weak?
But somewhere I knew that this excitement in this whole scenario was because of finding loopholes in Google’s system, rather than earning money.

However, I did work for 2 more days and generated total of $65++ in 4-5 days and then I stopped……..

On April 7th, when I opened my Gmail account, I saw a mail from Google Adsense with the subject *Google AdSense Account Disabled”.

And quite strangely…… a smile came on my face, probably making a mockery of the thought that I would be able to cheat Google, or probably because of what followed the smile…..…… a deep sense of relief.

The quest is over.
I am not split.

Why do I want to FALL FREELY!!!

2006-03-08T20:52:00.000+05:30

The topic of this entry is quite abstract and will be termed as another “Sadist” (by Rohan) or “Nostalgic” (by Shyamal) entry. But it’s not that. It’s perhaps my another big step of understanding my own feelings and intuitions.

Well, the topic derives its name from a weird fantasy of mine.
If you've seen the movie "City of Angels" starring Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan then you may be able to understand it more clearly. There's one scene, at around 75th minute of the movie, where Cage decides to give up “eternity” (his life as a messenger) and turn human to be with his love, Meg.
To achieve this he stands on a skyscraper and…………………….. FALLS.

This scene struck some unknown cord in me from the day I watched it. It’s strange….. and quite weird too. Any given day, when the problems in my life surmount and make it tough for me to handle things I am reminded of this scene.

It’s weird to mention it here but I fantasize of falling….. and the thought is not at all accompanied by any fear of hitting the ground. Nor is there any consideration of people in my life, though my FAMILY is everything to me.

All that’s in my mind (or perhaps in my heart) is that I want to FALL…. FALL FREELY.

A few days ago, when I was re-re-re-watching the movie….. I believe I figured out the reason for my absurd fantasy.
Perhaps, it’s a hidden, but loud and strong, desire to able to smile the way I used to.
To be able to see things the way I wish them to be, or at least the way they were.
To be able to see people the way they were.
To be able to see my incorrigible optimism turning to reality.
… and….
To be HAPPY (with a capital H).

AMEN :)

"Congrats, You've a baby girl." .. "Kill Her!!!"

2006-02-22T04:26:00.000+05:30

I must have been in a girl in my previous life! How else does one explain my being so sensitive to certain issues?
I purchased the Feb issue of Outlook from the railway station. The reason was the cover story “The Missing Child” or “Death Becomes Her”.
It’s about the alarmingly high rate of female foeticide in Punjab, the state boasting of a large no. of NRIs and the state which Rabbi describes in his song Jugni as, “Jitthe padhe-likhe bekar, bech zamina jawan bar…”

Female foeticide is one of the topics that brings tears in my eyes. Not just because of the pain that it inflicts in me, but also because……….. I could not stop it at one instance.

Anyways, the statistics given in the article is itself of an eye opener.
STATE     2003     2001
Punjab     776      793
HP            803      897
Haryana 807      820
UP            853      916
…………….. …….. ……….
................. ......... ............
The list is long, but one thing common to all is the increase in the rate with time. And if the study by Dr. Rajesh Kumar and Prabhat Jha, (formerly with World Bank), is to be believed then the rate of foeticide is expected to increase more with PROSPERITY. The study shows higher incidence female foeticide in well-off and better educated segments of the society. And if my experience is to be believed, they are probably right.

Simran, College Lecturer.
“I’ve one girl and cannot afford to have another
daughter. It’s so difficult to marry them off as boys
demand hefty dowries. I’ve undergone five abortions
at a private nursing home as all of them were female
foetuses. I may not be able to conceive again.”
This comment really left me motionless for a few moments.
It’s really amazes me, if given a chance, would these people kill the girl in their house.
May be not.
“Why?”
Just because they know how she looks like?
Or because they cannot kill anyone with their own hands?
How different is it really?

I have always wondered how’s abortion done. Once I received a mail with the pics of an aborted baby and never ever dared to find out the process again….. it was shocking, at least for me.
This article in Outlook enlightened me about the new techniques. Here goes the excerpt:
The earlier invasive surgical techniques for abortion, such as suction aspiration or syringe methods are fast becoming obsolete. Popular among Punjab’s army of trained and untrained medics is the trend of chemical abortion wherein M cradil, a dye, is injected into the uterus which leads to intra-uterine death of the foetus, followed by it’s expulsion. Some prefer to give two injections of Prospadil, a hormonal formulation which leads to uterine contractions and expulsion”.

Coming back to the figures of female-to-male child in some of the districts of Punjab - 529:1000, 437:1000 and even 416:1000.
Someone one told me that the names of male and female Sikhs is same because they are designated the same status.
Guru Nanak says in one of his hymns:
We were born of women and nurtured by them,
We fall in love with them and they bear us sons and daughters.
How can you belittle women who give birth to kings?
His words, I believe, lost impact with time…. And the Sikhs forgot the actual teachings of their Gurus.
Long ago, girls were killed to protect them from Muslim invaders.
Now, it’s dowry. – Khushwant Singh.
I wonder sometimes, what is more shameful to these kind of people
- their girl marrying someone of her own choice; or
- killing their girl before she is borne?

I can only hope that the people I’ve studied with, people whom I can call my friends, classmates, batch mates don’t turn out to be a “Kudi Maar”, a common abuse in Punjab meaning daughter killer.

RANG DE BASANTI --- Reviewed

2006-01-31T22:02:00.000+05:30

Everyone of you must have come across a phase in life when you do things, you don’t want to….. and can’t do things you want to.

/* SOME TEXT MISSING OR DELETED */

Anyways, I didn’t write this article to discuss my personal probs…. I just wrote all this to mention my mental status in which I watched the Movie.
So here is the, so called view of RDB from my eyes.

Rang De Basanti as a movie, as an entertainer…. Superb

If you are able to make the audience either cry uncontrollably, or laugh uncontrollably, or pump up their adrenaline.. you end up with a hit. And RDB has all this in optimized quantity.

Rang De Basanti as a guide, an inspiration … Not Good.

Let me explain…..
For the time being, please forget DJ as Amir Khan… remember him as a character… DJ, who drinks beer like water, who cares a sh*t about life, who is scared to face the real life… (remember the scene where he mentions it to Su).
So are his other friends, less or more.

Enter Su…. Brings changes (though not very apparent), while making the documentary.
Madhavan (sorry Ajay) dies… and they feel the pain…. Kill the defence minister.
Now, at this point of time I was a bit confused, as to which category should I put this act.
Rebellion against the corrupt system… or an act of Revenge???
However, Rakesh Mehra convinces me towards the end of the movie that it was not an act revenge. Then one may think why did I rate the movie this way.

Very simple. The movie doesn’t inspire you to be original.
It describes the story of some young men who are inspired by the legendary characters of the Indian War of Independence.
Please do not get me wrong. I am not being critical. I am just expressing something I believe in.

Junta, if you want to change the world, you have got to be original. You cannot imitate people and kill everyone who is corrupt.

And before all this, the question arises, who are you to decide who’s corrupt and who’s not. You were the person who gave money to the police inspector in the fort, to keep his mouth shut….. and now when you are AWAKE, you decide to kill this breed, forgetting that you and people like you have given birth to this breed.

Almost all of us give bribe to at every level possible to get our work done in the simplest and fastest way. Almost all of us would travel without ticket if assured that no TTE is on train. Almost all of us carry plastic bags, even when we have purchased a packet of maggi and then throw it on the road without caring of it.
And after that we sit down with a bunch of people and say, India ka kuchh nahi ho sakta.

Deinitely kuchh nahi ho sakta, if we do not understand our individual responsibilities. Miracles are but stories.

And to bring a change, all of us need not join army or even politics. The best possible way would be to simply find the one thing that you love doing. That’s the only way to prosper as an individual.
And when you prosper, remember two things:

Be Honest, and

Be Selfish.

Na na. I didn’t misspell the word. I really want you to be selfish, because that’s a part of human nature. But just do one more thing when you become selfish (or more appropriately realize that you have always been one)….. increase the boundaries of SELF, to accommodate the people around you.
Remember the poetry:
Dil Simte to Aashiq,
Faile to Zamana hai.

And if you ever fear whether you would be able to stand alone, just recite this poetry by Majrooh Sultanpuri:
Main Akela hi chala tha Jani-be-Manzil magar,
Log saath aate gaye, Karvan banta gaya.

Long Live Revolution :).

I am frustrated ... Arrghhhhhhhhhhh (... Concluding Edition)

2006-01-17T22:27:00.000+05:30

Been there,
Done it.. (
(Thanks Manas for this one liner).

Hi fellas. This one liner is just in continuation to my previous post.
I appeared for my IWT exam in the midst of  all confusion and frustration.

I reached college 20 mins before the scheduled time, so went to have coffee and found Miss Malik at the Nescafe (quite obvious), with Sumandeep (not so obvious).
At some point of time I discovered that I had not brought my purse (very very unobvious). My purse is like my wife guys. I’d never leave it anywhere ;). But anyways, somehow I managed to do it, and Miss Malik paid for my Kaapi. (Thanks Malik Bhai :P )

Again, as I was about to enter the examination hall, I recalled that my bloody admit card was in my purse (which I’d  left at home), and just then the bell rang :D. I quickly wrote an application and somehow entered the examination hall.
When I started writing, I again discovered that I had not brought my wrist watch. [Wow! So many discoveries.  What a day!]

The question paper was not as good as the last year’s paper, but then again….. it definitely was successful in maintaining the tradition.
It did contain the legacy queries:

Name three browsers.

Smiley!!! ^:)^

And my favorite question Pros and Cons of email (Bloody s***). Arnab comes running to me after the paper, jumping, shouting… Bol, bol… Pros and cons of email likha ki nahi bol…, [typical Arnie ;)]

Anyways, I did finish the paper with these beautiful incidents added in between (not to mention the verbal thrashing by our HOD in the middle of the exam because I was bajaying chutki with my fingers, while entering the toilet. (Sorry, I couldn’t find the English of chutki :P)

However, the best part came after the exam. I met Rahul outside the exam centre.
Rahul: Kaisa hua be?? Saala mera to mann hi nahi kar raha tha likhne ka. Sab kal baith ke Multithreading, Applet, Consumer-Producer padhe aur aaya kuchh bhi nahi.
This was very interesting and different. It’s a bit coincidental that I somehow catch Rahul online, just before the exams and hear him say the same thing everytime:
Saali phati hui hai be. Kuchh nahi padha hoon. Semester bhar masti kiya abhi phat rahi hai..#$#%$^ :D
[Though, I am sure, he never really meant it. At least not always ;). But it was good to hear something different from him.]

So, that’s my day……. Which was freshened up by a long date with Slashdot and very long nap following it.

I have one more paper left (on 19th) and it’s quite interesting. I hope to get some good questions this time.

Please, do drop in your comments. I’d love that (.
Take Care.

I am frustrated ... Arrghhhhhhhhhhh

2006-01-15T14:48:00.000+05:30

Latest News: I have my IWT (called as "Internet & Web Technology) paper day after tomorrow and I am not studying. Nothing at all.
Reason: I had a look at last years question paper.

Well, don't get me wrong, the paper was not tough..... it was garbage.
I will take the liberty of posting some questons:

What is Yahoo? [2 marks]
How do you execute a Java Program? [2 marks]
Name three web browsers. [2 marks]
What are smileys? [5 marks]
Write pros and cons of email? [5 marks]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Common guys. I am in final year B.Tech. and you expect me to sit in the examination hall and answer these question????
I'd prefer to fail...... and I guess I am gonna do that.

Infact there's a very strange coincidence, I saw a dream today early morning that I've dropped from my college............. and believe me.... the feeling was good.
Now, I think I understand the mental condition of guys like Steve Jobs dropping from college in 6 months.

I remember when Lalit simply refused to submit the CGM assignment on Input/Output devices when he saw people sumitting assignments with pictures of mouse and keyboard.

Anyways, Thanks for dropping in.
Please leave your comments.
BTW I'll not be dropping as Anu ordered me not to dare even think of it. :((

Chalo, C ya later.

My Technical Blog is here :)

2006-01-15T09:41:00.001+05:30

WoW!!!
Ubuntu is simply superb.
And above all it's package management system (PMS) is supercool.
It's way better than all other PMSs I have experienced, and definitely better than Windows. Forget about click ->next->next installations. "apt-get" is here to your rescue :).

BTW, This is to announce the launching of my much awaited technical blog. (Who's was waiting for it anyways other than me :D hihihihi)
I hope you like the name. It's called Code-in-my-bug.

So, keep visiting both of them ;).

Ciao,
3~m.

The Past One++ Month. Part-I.

2006-01-13T11:30:00.000+05:30

I am writing this blog using Open Office on Ubuntu. I may blog on this lovely O/S sometime later but now I just want to utilise my time to write about the past one and half months.

The past one and half month has been Beautiful, Amazing, full of Inspiration, Frightening, Terrible, Dirty, Filthy....... all at the same time. In other words, this time has been a special chapter of "my life's experiences”.

The time can be roughly divided into four categories:

My 7th Sem Exams and ...... Sine Die in my college.
My vacation in Bhilai (with Chacha-Chachi) and Brajrajnagar (with Ma-Papa) :)
ICDCIT '05 – Second Edition (International Conference on Distributed Computing and Internet Technology) and NCSC '05 (National Children' Science Congress) back in college, at the end of december.
And my remaining exam papers, that are continuing and will end on 19^th (with all the expected and calculated Probabilty :) )

I may not be able to complete it tonight so may be I'll write it in parts.

It all began in the evening of 24^th Nov '05. We had our Computer Intelligence paper the next day and I was, with all my power and belief, trying to study. I received a call from Rohan and came to know, though not immediately (typical Rohan :D ), about the crap going on in the hostel (i don't stay in hostel).

At a later stage, all hell broke loose and there was a bloody mess was created, involving the 2^nd year and final year batches. The worst part – It happened in the presence of our respected Chancellor. And it all happened because of a few handful “heroes”.

There is no point describing everything but yes, I was in a fix when I heard it. I am a final year guy and there are so many 2^nd year guys whom I love as much I love my younger Bro. I tried to be kept updated.... thanks to the cellphones.

Sometime after 3 am, we got the news that the police had to interrupt and the SP has declared SINE DIE. We were shocked.

Both the batches were asked to vacate the hostel by 6 am. And our exam was, quite apparently, POSTPONED INDEFINITELY.

Anyways, my main concern were my bachcha log. The irony was that they were driven out of the hostel because of a clash with the “final year” and now they were with me, a “final year guy”.

I guess then that, in general, it's not the people that are the root of the trouble, it's just a handful enlightened souls.

So, finally it was all over and everyone, by the end of the evening, deserted me back here in Bhubaneswar. I was bloody left alone, except Anu, whom I could not meet because her exams were still in progress.

The best part.............. We had ICDCIT, NCSC, and Youth Parliament approaching, and our entry in the campus was prohibited. We were not allowed to enter our own campus, for so called security reasons. :((

Anyways, there was not much left to do in Bhubaneswar, plus I had developed back ache because of spending long hours in front of my computer............ and I desperately needed a break. So, I left for Bhilai. I have a lot of relatives in Bhilai but the main reason for my visit has always been my Chachu and Chachi :). .................. I love you both :)

Now, I need to take a break. I have my next paper on 17^th and I must pass the exams if I don't want to be driven out of my home ;). I'll Update the rest later.

mY fIRST bLOG

2005-11-22T23:15:00.000+05:30

Okay!!! So here I am with my first blog.

I had created an account here a long time back but never posted any thing 'coz I didn't like the userid. It was "bipinup". hehehe
I faced the same prob today while creating a new account.
I tried "mUX" (my handle), "OM", "PRoJectB" (the name of my final year project- I'll elaborate on it in sometime later)....... but nothing seemed to work...... all's taken.
I wonder who's taken PRoJectB.

Anyways, finally I had to end up with "PRoJectBee". X-(

I am also planing to register a domain with the same name..... (with the slogan ...
"Work Together,
Work Hard...."
(referring to the way bees work, n may I'll have a company with same slogan :D ;) hehehehe

Gotta Rush now.
7 Sem exams going on.
Have CI paper on 25th and as usual, I haven't studied anything (This line isn't for you Dids :D).

:)