Tribute to three Year Companion

This is a tribute to a companion who accompanied me for last three years. I shared my three young, struggling and memorializing years with this pal. Last year due to my unsocial behaviors my old buddy has broken up with me. however I intended patching up the things but nothing worked and whole incident created a cavity which is still unfilled. My dost was gorgeous and fully sincere to me.

In June 2007 I moved to sterling commerce and since then I did not see zero balance in my account. For an one year experience guy, it is shameful to have nonzero account so this unwanted disgrace was not admissible to me. All of a sudden I found a reason to abdicate my money. Ashish came from US and brought me my first laptop. This buy not only sucked single penny of my bank account but also dumped me to stand in queues of Ganesha Temple, next to JNC college. Ashish told me he bought a monster. Pranshu stated "Ashish got an awesome laptop".

Ashish came back to India in the last week of July but due to non-availability of frequent fliers in group I could see it after three weeks, thanks to Suri. Time I saw the laptop, I was awestruck. It was 17 inch laptop with glossy screen, sophisticated design, awesome configuration and latest in market packed with best available software. Best part of this investment was, it costed 20K less(Baniya Hun Bhai :) ). It was HP-Pavilion DV 9000 17 Inch. I was happy with such a gigantic laptops and to keep devils away I put a Kala Teeka(Black Mark) on it.

I heard critics, i.e., Felix and Psycho, analyzing the laptop and finding out pros and cons of the laptop. Their analysis was as following. It was most suitable laptop for common man's usage which was limited. Its most undesirable feature was Its weight which had brought down its portability quotient. Laptop was equipped with latest Windows Vista which was few months old in market, so was still testing phase. Did I care about critics??? You know well.

Soon my life started whirling around laptop. Movies, Songs, surfing, chatting and blah blah were few of the activities in which I had devoted myself thoroughly. My day used to start with first peek on my laptop, "Oops Abhi to bhaga nahi (Still have not run away)". My days used to end finding best place to make my laptop invisible from unwanted visitors. Days were going and my love was growing. Normal life outside laptop was shrinking with sun's movement.

One such fine days of my love, I woke up and opened the wardrobe to fetch the laptop. But I saw it jumping from four feet high wardrobe and in no time kissing the newly built floor. This kiss turned fatal to it. My laptop was not in parts but definitely internally it was shaken. Impact was not fully understood but one clear output was the 50% reduction in active screen. I continued using it but with time, similar to person's memory, my screen was decayed and it reduced to 20% of its original size. I changed it's screen but laptop was not fully repaired yet. At this time I got office laptop and ,as second wife gets more attention than first, I dumped my old and broken laptop. Though time to time I used to visit my first but its deteriorating performance used to make me switch back to new.

I planned to sell it. Searched some place where people deal with 2nd hand things. I went to first shopkeeper and asked him if he is interested in buying my awesome but unlucky laptop. He inspected and asked "Bhai miya, kitne baar kushti ki tumne laptop se? Bahut sare scratches hai is par. (How many times did you wrestle with the laptop as it has a lot of bruises?)". Hesitantly I told him "Miya ji ek baar gir gaya tha. (It dropped from hands once)". He said "To aisa karo, bagal mein kabade wala hai, use hi bech do, vese bhi tumhare wajan ke barabar ke laptop ko kab tak lekar gumoge. 200 mil jayega. (Nearby there is a scrap purchaser, sell it to him, otherwise you will feel tired with weight equal to your weight. he should atleast pay you 200 RS.)" All bastard shopkeepers told me same.

Somehow I was persuaded about buying power of 2nd hand shopkeeper. I went to scrap purchaser and asked "Bhai kharidna hai? (Do you want to buy?)". He said "Babu ji, Loha to hai nahi, mein 20 rs de sakta hun.(It is not iron, i can pay only 20 Rs.)? I said "Kya, pagal hai kya?"(What, are you mad?). He was "Saamne plastic wala hai use bech do (Plastic scrap dealer is sitting next, sell it to him)". I went there and asked same and he said "Babu ji plastic to hai nahi, but fir bhi 30 RS dunga (It is not plastic, can pay you 30)". I returned without selling it to him.

My decision of not selling it became productive. Soon I gave it to my younger and my relationship with my comrade ended. I prepared my resume, studied, seen lot of movies, heard music and chatted with lot of gals on it and it always functioned without giving any hiccups until the calamitous event brought pause in our relationship and this pause sooner extended to break up. This a tribute to my pyara laptop who is a family friend now.

Need help??? People are here to help

At the beginning of NCR life, lot of things were either difficult or confusing to understand. One among such things was Metro travel. Though Metro has reduced Traveling chaos in NCR but it is little confusing for a guy who is new to Metro System. At the start I had traveled miles more than required, got down at wrong stations and boarded opposite direction trains. One such confusing day, I was traveling in Metro. Though path was repeated number of times to me but I was not still sure if I had grasped all the instructions. So in middle of journey I thought of confirming if I have boarded the right train and I fired a question in Air. "Noida Sector 62 ke liye kaise jana hai?" (How can I reach to Noida Sector 62?).

What the hell man, I did not ask anyone and according to my prior experiences people had stared at me as though I was talking to ghosts and aliens. As soon as I realized my mistake, I tried regaining my lost reputation. But as though it was not required, I heard a voice.

One aged man heard my questions and suggested me the path. He told "Beta, tum to ulti direction mein aa gaye ho, Agle Station par utar jana, vahan se rajiv chawk vapis jakar, upar chale jana aur vahan se Noida city center ki metro mein baith jana". (Get down at next stop, return to Rajiv Chawk and from Rajiv Chawk take a blue line metro to Noida city center").

Another socialite person, who wanted to help but missed opportunity with fraction of second, pitched in. Instead of repeating same words he used his refined English dictionary. "Dude, you need to get down at next stop and catch a metro to reach CP (Me thinking: CP, CP, CP, Oops may be some Common Platform?). From CP you should board Blue Line metro which will end at Noida City Center. After coming out of station you can hire an auto to reach Sector 62".

As soon as MR gentle man stopped one more guy, who was little lazy in previous two instances, started "Nahi nahi, vahan se personal auto karne ki koi jarurat nahi, shared auto ten rs mein pahuncha denge sector 62. (No need to hire a private vehicle, you can catch a shared auto and reach to sector 62 just in ten rs."). It triggered an unhealthy discussion on important topic "Should I hire an auto or not?". After five minutes of discussion I figured out "I have to get down at Next station".

This is general tendency in North. Here people are waiting to unrest face muscles where as solving issues are less important than debating on them.

Whereas in southern part of India such things are tackled in different manner. One such incident happened just few days back.

I was looking for new job and some of my interviewing organizations were situated in less populated and less known areas. One such tiring day, I was able to locate the area but it was nearly impossible to find the building with the directions given. There were not much hustle bustle. One aged man was walking in front of me and he was the only hope to me. As per my best etiquattes I fired my question in air but loud call dint make any effect to the old man(No No, he dint have any hearing Aids). Disappointed me, walked little faster and reached to him.

I said "Excuse me sir?" Now this guy stopped and gave me a puzzled look (Hmmm, North Indianaaaa...). "Sir Do you know where is RMZ tech icon?" He stared at me as I was speaking in chinease.
He said "Englishaaa, English illa. Kannada, Tamil or Telugu?"(I do not know English, do you know Telugu, Kannada, Tamil?)
I replied "Kannada, Tamil, Telugu gotilla (I do not know Tamil, Telugu and Kannada...)"
He said "gotilla, Kannada... u illa Kannada".(Gottila is kannada word, how can you say, you dont know kannada?)
I said "I know only Gotilla, Hindi ati hain kya aapko? (I just know gottila, Do you know Hindi)."
He said "Hindi Kunchum Kunchum"
Oops, I was not interested to know tollywood actors names.
I said "No sir, Do you know Hindi?"
He said "Han, Hindi Kunchum Kunchum"
I said "What Kunchum Kunchuma?"
Now he used sign language to suggest me he knows Hindi a little. (Kunchum means a little in Sanskrit and in other south Indian languages).

I asked if he knew building. He did not have any clue about it but he took ample time to consult few more folks before sending me in building's opposite direction. He helped but it costed me a walk to remember.

But never mind, parts of India does not matter people help. Few replies on call whereas few catches and respond. North to South, everyone of us has same Indian heart and I am proud of this.

Movies which impact.

Just now I finished watching No One Killed Jessica. Movie is based on a sequence of real life events. Jessica, a model who was killed in a high society party by minister's son, was denied the justice first and later due to Media interruption case was reopened and spoiled son was sent to prison.

As a reviewer I would say, Both the stars(Rani and Vidhya) acted well, things were dramatized but not over, female protagonists used more slang than required, and English was overly used overlooking common men who have a couple of words in their English. But beside all these facts movie was worth to invest my two hours in it. At times I was totally into movie, into conversations, into its dialogues. Apart from few junctions director moved the story pretty well. Both the actor did justice to their roles.

When a movie is spiced up, you can go, watch, eat and return to home without scratching your head. Whereas when a movie raises concerns, points out issues and suggests changes, which relates to either us or system or environment, then those concerns, issues and changes make us to brainstorm for unanswerable questions. Yeah well, people come out of such movies without bringing those demons out of theater hall but for me leaving those takes ample time.

In the past, Bollywood has really moved. It has produced number of movies which were not left while coming out theater. Welcome to Sajjanpur, Rang De Basanti, Wel done Abba, Black Friday, Rann, Striker, Love Sex aur Dhokha, City of Gold, Rajneeti, Red Alert: The War Within, Lamhaa, Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, Peepli Live, Do Dooni Chaar, Firaaq and many other movies in last two or three years which took social enigma at the center stage and tried pointing out problems in different manners. Either they have taken the comedy route, serious tone or dramatized form of problem but all of them posed questions about society and system to us.

Welcome to Sajjanpur is based on rural social issues, which narrates the difference among various social segments and people. Rang De Basanti, is all about youth who want a change but change came at the cost of their own lives. Well done abba is about corruption in rural India. Black Friday, Story of burning Mumbai and its inhabitants after 1993 bomb blasts. Rann exposes a corrupt Media institution which creates and manipulates the news. Striker screens the changes in life of a player after riots in Bombay. City of Gold narrates the story of corrupt ministers and their relation with gangsters based in Maharastra. Each of these above mentioned movies were not just two people story or a family drama but these were screening sufferings, corruption, social problems and lot more.

No one killed Jessica posted lot of question to analyze. May it be Media involvement or ways, adopted in judiciary system, or process, followed by investigations agencies, or corrupt politicians or involvement, from us, weakening the roots of India's infrastructure. All of us to either try to save our burning asses or try to make from burning someone else back.

If we talk about Media involvement in Jessica murder case, as depicted in the movie, they were not even concerned about the proceedings of the case. Once the case was closed, then one journalist saw it as a high-profile case and an opportunity to prove his/her skills.

Was this right to check the case once it was closed? Can a journalist be so obsessed with own decision that they ignore everything related to it? Do not journalists go through the News Paper everyday? Was the case picked to get the revenue as there were not much more in kitty?

Does not judiciary think there are lot of changes are required in the trial process? Is not there any committee to audit cases where the judgments were changed at the later point of time?

Even investigations were not to its best. Lot of things were captured(audio which was used later in Jessica's case) but was not shown in court even by investigating lead police official. Why?

There are more questions posed to us. Were not we(Common Man) aware about circumstances of trial but no one reacted until someone like media reacted. Do we always need wake up call? Eye witness became hostile under the power. Do not we people got some instinct which can suggests what to react?

I know all these questions will be pushed back in my mind in few days and I am not sure do I genuinely need answers. I am little confused if I know the answer. Tough to get all answers and tough to take actions for improving methods and processes in corrupt Indian systems and hoping some day things will change and Bollywood directors, writers have to think out of the blue to write such engrossing stories.

PS: Thanks for bearing for such a long time.

Enjoying Ubuntu time

For past couple of month, I am using Ubuntu, which has provided experience of windows GUI@Linux features.

I had been planning to move on Linux for past 3 years but ease of work@Windows had been stopping me to pain my a**. But with time my machine's aged (Who said only living creatures age? ) and its output decreased. With machines performance, first windows sobbed, then it cried and finally I wept :( . Microsoft Vista was not able to open IE in 5-7 seconds. Horrible :( :(... Whom should I pass my condolences? Me, whose endurance was tested by Microsoft, or Microsoft who lost one loyal.

Finally I installed UBuntu, most safest and tested version of Linux. My transition from Microsoft to Ubuntu was smooth enough. Thanks to Linux and Open source community, who have made Linux viable for common people. I was pretty confident about my working skills on Linux. How? Dude, I am computer science grad, I had worked on Unix for whole 30 hours i mean 1800 minutes@college. I was all set.

Everything is fast, smooth and easy. It used to take 10 minutes to start my windows where as Ubuntu starts in 10 seconds. Impressive, is not it? Everything is available for free. Whether it is a software for programming, gaming, searching, Internet, and what not, it is available. Along with that I am loving black terminal to type cp, mv, ps -ef, ls, ls -l and other command which is not known to window users, Hmmm achievement, can I boost these commands in office?

With time I realized things are not as simple and smooth as I was expecting them. In other terms my learning was started even before I could enjoy this transition. Every day I encounter a new issue and I have to solve them on priority basis. But With times my problems are reducing and my Linux addiction is increasing.

With Linux I have an opportunity to delve into new things and areas, So I am trying to get best out of this migration and At the end of the day, I am happy to switch to Linux. My plan for future is to throw windows away from my laptop. Come guys, Lets make world Window free :) :).