And then there was flash and then there were none

What I like most about today's kids is that they aren't overwhelmed by the tech gadgets. Give them a mobile phone or laptop and they'll work their way to games menu. Give them an iPod and they'll be soon creating playlists. Give them a camcorder and they'll be shooting movies from angles you never imagined were possible. Give them a digicam and they'll be clicking away sweet memories.

Ohh.. I almost forgot. While the little child prodigies are at it, you may wanna keep an eye on them or you may learn the murphy's law
"Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value";
the HARD way.

One of these days my 5 year old nephew was playing with my digicam and next thing I see when I switch it on "Lens Error, restart camera". This message is to camera what blue screen of death is for Windows PC.
This was the first electronic gadget that I had bought with my own salary. Canon Ixus. 8 Mega Pixel. 4x Optical zoom. Image stabilization. Face detection. Might not sound like a big deal now but these were the USPs of digicams at the time I bought mine.

I searched on net and tried various possible incantations but all in vain. So I decided to take expert advice (or so they say). I showed it at Canon service center to get it checked for 200 bucks. The next day I get a call telling me that the complete lens assembly and the LCD  panel of camera needs to be changed which would cost a whopping 9,500 bucks. That's around 60% of the total cost for what I purchased it but it's actually more than what same configuration camera would cost me now.

When I asked the "technical expert" about the exact technical fault the answer was surprisingly not so technical. All I could get out of him was that they don't do patch fixes, they change the entire parts.
Its like giving someone a heart transplant and a brain transplant at the same time when all that poor soul might need is some medicines and change of weather.

I did some math and bought a new Sony digicam. I'm hoping that Canon might soon come out with some good exchange scheme to salvage some of the e-waste.
Canon.. are you listening ?

5 MUST-HAVE things for delhi metro traveller

1) iPod - People today are very aware of the current happenings and have plethora of views on politics, sports, family problems, professional disagreements, future plans blah blah blah. They want to share their wisdom with the world. What better place than public transportation ?
Information galore, but sadly for an average brain like mine, the left cerebral hemisphere doesn't respond very well to all this wisdom. So unless you have hearing impairment or you don't have an opinion of your own which you have a strong urge to defend, iPod is a must.

2) Water bottle - Many a times you will find yourself stuck in between stations with a soft voice saying "There will be a delay in this service". The delay is a function of inefficiency of DMRC officials. Since the probability of this function having high value is close to 1 so its recommended that you carry a water bottle.

3) Books/Kindle - Books are man's best friend. Well, it pretty much serves the same purpose as Ipod keeping you occupied. But its not very often that you'll be fortunate enough to get a seat in peak office hours.
So next time you see a person sitting in metro with iPod in ears and reading a book, remember ... they are God's special people, for, they've been bestowed with power of relaxation.

4) Yoga/Balance skills - Sometimes it may happen that you'll have to stand in awkward positions with nothing to grab. You don't wanna be swaying like a drunkard and exchanging glares with other drunkards. To combat such precarious situations,  you may wanna practice exercises like one legged stands, on your toes and heel stands in your free time. Yoga will definitely help.

5) Mask - You may bump into someone whom you have known in the past (say your Ex) but haven't talked to in a long while for obvious reasons.  Believe you me, too many filler words and pointless chitchat over a long journey can leave you with sensory deprivation. A mask will come in handy ;)

Deja Vrrooomm

Friday, 24 June, around 8 pm, I'm returning back from office and driving through Moti Bagh, right most lane, not very fast when suddenly screeching sound of wheels against the road hit my ears and my brain send signals@speed of light to my feet. I press hard on my brakes. Too late though. Bang ! Crash ! Thud ! Silence.

A couple of seconds pass. Silence.

Electrical impulses from brain start again. Deja Vu. Just a month before, it happened to me. No one was at fault, then and now. All hit the brakes, then and now. All cars got bruised, then and now. My car lands up in garage, then and now. Insurance agent whining, then and now.
Looking at the positive side though, no one got hurt, then and now, except my car which is still recuperating in ICU of the bodyshop.

Not everything was same though. Then, I was just worried. Worried to get my car back in shape. Now I was feeling a cacophony of emotions. Anger, surprise, disbelief, anxiousness, to an extent guilt. But why?  I was driving carefully, sticking to my lane, not too fast, following the rules .... but still. I felt as though I had flunked the same exam twice even after studying hard. But why? Maybe I should have studied harder.

I had my answers. That night I thanked god and slept.

Having fun is a serious matter

He that's secure is not safe - Benjamin Franklin

LulzSec is a group of hackers who have been causing mayhem throughout the internet recently. Ask sony, Fox, FBI, CIA, SOCA and you'll know. LulzSec has an anthem, a logo and an official website where all the data hacked so far (or so we know) is available for download. They are also being referred to as gray hat hackers since they do not hack for personal gain but to disclose vulnerabilities.
They have come out in open and after every successful attack they claim responsibility and share their sarcastic comments. Its their way of having fun. The name says it all "Laughs @ security". LulzSec says that they do these things because they find it entertaining. Their idea of having fun might sound weird or downright un-acceptable to some but then they aren't the one's who vouch for internet security protocols being followed and refer to people making such protocols as clowns, victims as peons and themselves as lizards.

I won't be judgmental here endorsing or opposing what they do, how they do and why they do but what concerns me as an internet user is how trustworthy are the security claims made by the organizations asking for confidential information.

And I'm talking of some big names here !

Is our online data safe? Are all the internet security claims made phony? Do I even know if my personal data has already been compromised? Do you think every hacker announces everything they've hacked? LulzSec claims not to. What this effectively means is that its highly probable that your facebook, twitter or google mail account has already been hacked and some one is eavesdropping on your data waiting for the right moment to strike. Techies call it man-in-the-middle attack.

Needless to say, we need to exercise more caution. But how ? We already follow the instructions provided to us while registration/login/signup. What can we do if someone hacks the server itself. Are there any laws to sue the company with which I had an account that got hacked. May be there are. But you see the companies cleverly wash their hands off any such mishaps by inserting some clause in their "Terms of service and user agreement".
There is one such warranty disclaimer clause in Sony playstation end-user agreement as well which states that sony doesn't claim any responsibility for "unauthorized access to or use of our secure servers or any and all Personal Information that is not submitted using a secured transmission".

I'm positive that most of the gamers registered with the web-site must have simply pressed the accept button caring less to read this agreement. At the same time making such clauses a part of agreement simply implies that the companies themselves don't have faith in security measures being followed. End-users need to be more careful as well and make sure they read the agreement before accpeting them. But still I feel that some documents are ridiculously large with such important clauses embedded deep inside them in some twisted (sometimes cryptic) language.

I feel that companies need to be more responsible towards the end-users and there should be some standard body which should regulate and monitor the types of clauses being put into such agreements. This standardization body must come up with standard templatized agreements for gaming websites, bank account websites social networking websites etc having some inherent clauses which all the these websites should abide too. Further the agreements could be of varied security levels such as classI, class II, class III and so on. Class I being the most secure type of agreement whereby the organization adheres to all the inherent clauses being laid down by standrad body and class III being the least secure whereby organization declares that they don't adhere to any standrad clause and have their own conditions in the agreement as is done currently. Also when these software agreements open up in our browser all classes should follow some standard colour coding schems. For instance class I might have green color and class III might have red so that we immidiately know the level of confidence that we can have in that website.

This won't prevent such cyber attacks but surely will make end-users more aware of what they are getting into and make the organizations more liable.

Uncertainty is only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is only security - John Allen Paulos

Trip down the memory lane

Today the very first Indian annual comic convention was held at Delhi Haat. Although I don't read comics anymore but I decided to make a trip to comic convention along with my sister to see what's new with the Indian comic scene. I used to read lots of comics as a child and each one of those comics is still sitting pretty inside packed boxes in my cupboard. I was hoping to meet my old buddies Chacha chaudhary, Sabu, Super Commando Dhruv, Bankelal and the mythical characters of Amar chitra Katha. When I reached there I noticed a lotta crowd, to my surprise, I may add. With the computer games and a band of cartoons on TV, I wasn't sure if many children would be there. So with my hopes soaring high we took tickets and marched ahead.



There wasn't a trace of comics until we reached the far end of the place. There were hardly some 8-10 comic stalls but disappointingly Raj comic was not there. I did notice a couple of new publishers on the scene such as Vimanika & Wilco who had some good titles on mythology, religion, ancient tales and political leaders. To make the event more appealing a costume contest was also organised but I didn't see any partipants. There weren't many comic enthusiasts or kids either. Most of the crowd looked more interested in handicraft/clothes and food rather than the comic convention itself. It didn't look that this event was publicised widely in schools or maybe children now a days are not that much into comics. I would have loved to see more school kids there, more publishers participating, and most importantly more of comics. I guess the target audience this time around were artists, illustrators, writers, publishers and not the readers. Whatever maybe the reason, the comic scene looked rather grave. Having said that, it was an admirable attempt to rejuvenate the Indian comic industry. I did buy a couple of titles for my neice and headed back.

On my return I happened to hit the Teen murti marg where Nehru Planetarium is located. As I drove past it, nostalgia set in. This is one place where I used to come with my father a lot during my school days. This was almost after a decade that I was here. The place is exactly the same; Sky theater shows, Nehru museum & Nehru library. I couldn't catch the space show but did manage to visit the library and museum. It was fun.

Happy Silver Jubilee

Today I completed driving 25K km in my Santro. It took me 15 months and its been a long journey, well, 25000 kilometres exactly. Each and every mile has been a memorable one and shall not be forgotten. For, this is the car which was brave enough to accept me as a driver and train me through these treacherous paths of Delhi. This is the car which got bruised and battered a few times but never complained back. This is the car which was there with me through those dusty summer days, cold windy nights, those rainy thunderstorms, always protecting me and keeping me safe. LORD I PRAY to thee to bestow all the powers in the universe upon my super car and ... ok.. ok...I think I took it too far.

Anyways, there are a few....hmmmm... entities without whom this feat wouldn't have been possible. Firstly, I would like to take this oppurtunity to thank the engine of my car for being with me through thick and thin, always roaring in all its glory and maintaining its dignity along the way. I would also like to thank my cushioned seats and the shockers for making my rides so comfortable as if I had been sailing through the clouds. I would also like to acknowledge the floor mounted gear lever of my car for always providing me smooth transmission like hot knife through a butter. A special thanks goes to the braking system for stopping me from going on the wrong path. My thanks to the head lights an rear lights for showing me the path through those stormy dark nights. Last, but not the least, my sincere thanks to all my fellow riders who had the courage and confidence to sit beside me as I drove this beauty with the connoisseur's pananche.

A profitable deal, indeed

Last week I went to local saturday market to buy some fresh fruits. It didn't take me long to purchase some mangoes, apples and litchi. But, I was in the mood for a long walk so I marched forward further into the market. As usual it was really crowded. Fruits & vegatable sellers were shouting out to the customers. People were busy striking a good deal. There were clothes, kitchen stuff, toys, junk food and what not.
Amongst all this hustle-bustle I noticed an old man sitting along side a fruit seller on the ground with few stacks of old magazines spread in front of him. He was skinny and old. He wasn't shouting out to customers like others. He was just sitting there motionless in the dim light of his laal tane. I could see some comics lying there in that faint light. As I child I used to read a lot of comics of chacha chaudhary & sabu, super commando dhruv, bankelal and numerous others. This spread of comics brought back the nostalgic memories and I decided to have a look. I started browsing through the entire lot. All this while I felt as if the old man was looking at me praying to god that I should find something of my interest and buy it.

After ten minutes of searching I found five comics of my interest. I asked the old man "paanch ka kitna hua" to which he promptly replied "chalis rupeey". I took out the 50 rupee note and handed it to him. For a moment I could see that he almost got a little worried and said " aapke paas khulle nahin hain kya". He asked his neighbouring fruit seller for change and in return got back a flat cold "nahin" as the answer.

He looked helpless as though he was about to loose a big treasure. He asked me to take another comic as he did'nt have the change. I had already checked out all the comics and I knew browsing again would just be in vain. I told him "baba aap rakh lijeye. Main next time aa ke ek aur comic le jaounga". Instantly, the worried look was gone from his face and he raised the fifty rupee note to touch it on his left eye then right eye,and kept it in his pocket. With a blissful
smile on his face he said "jeetey raho beta".

don't fix if it ain't broken

Pretty soon CWG-2010 is going to be the buzz word all around Delhi. The work is going on at full throttle. Old stadiums are getting renovated, new stadiums are gbeing constructed, hotels are coming up round the city and cleaning drive is in progress. The city is getting a face lift.

BUT, what has caught my attention is the work being done on the ring road in Delhi. That's cos its totally un-called for. The stretch of road from Kirby Place, Delhi Cantt to Dhaula Kuan is already good enough to be a skating track. But a new road is getting laid over that stretch which is absolutely unneccessary and causing lot of trouble to everyday commuters. Delhi govt seems to have turned a blind eye towards the roads in north delhi and west delhi areas such as Mukherjee nagar, Vijay nagar, Punjabi bagh, Hari nagar, Paschim vihar which have been dug up since forever.
Also, there's a 3 to 4 feet wide seperator in the middle of ring road that runs along its length seperating the two sides of traffic. Now if the purpose of the seperator is keep the traffic in appropriate lanes and encourage the pedestrians to use the overhead road crossing or subway crossings, then I say, it's doin its job pretty well. Apparently, delhi govt thinks otherwise. Probably they are hoping that the tourists might be interested in the stones used along the pavement. Cos they are swapping the stones at boundary of the seperator with new ones. And you know what ! The newly laid stones are different, they are not cuboidal, they are tarpezoidal in shape. Awesome, isn't it ? Isn't it great that more than the money, govt. is wasting a lot of time doing this shit and causing un-necessary trouble to everyday commuters ?

If Delhi govt has so much spare money, then there are lot of areas in Delhi where it can be put to good use. Infrastructure wise, yes, definitely. But more so related to the courtesy and mannerisms. Especially, the people involved in public dealings such as cops, taxi drivers, auto drivers all need a crash course in the subject. So why not channelise the surplus money in
that direction ?

Koon... chuk chuk chuk chuk

A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles - Tim Cahill
Be it the journey of life or a simple train journey with family and friends.

I recently visited shirdi sai baba ji temple with my family and friends. A group of 5 families inclusive of 24 members in total. We were to catch our train from Nizamuddin railway station at 3:00 pm on 15th Jan, 2010. The train takes approx 20 hrs to reach Kopargaon junction which is half an hour taxi ride away from shirdi.
I've always loved to travel by train. Although it takes time, but there is certain mystery about railway tracks, small unknown junctions along the way, whistling engines, an organized mess on platforms, it just keeps me occuppied. Its like another world in itself. There are a lot of train journies which I distinctly remember for the sheer fun I had and this one certainly fits into that list very well.

Our train started on time. Initially everyone was busy catching up with each other and around 3-4 hours passed easily and we ate our lunch too. Lunch menu included Meethi parantha, Plain parantha, Rajma chawal, Veg pulao, Mix veg, Aaloo methi, gajar muttar and Muttar paneer. Yummy !!
After a filling lunch and lots of talking, What next ? Everyone joined in to play a couple of games of tambola excluding a few elders who were still too busy talking about politics, real estate, cricket and basically all the current affairs. I don't like Tambola too much but playing in such a big group is fun so I joined in with everybody and was lucky enough to have made a few bucks. I choose not to disclose the exact amount here due to security reasons :P

After a few games of tambola, it was becoming monotonous and mummy, bua ji, mithu bhaiya and company were not very interested in continuing. They rather preffered to chit chat. So that left me along with Shweta, Shruti, Kritika, Deepu, Sunil, Vicky bhaiya, Preeti bhabhi, Rahul and Anshu. We were also not very keen to play tambola and so the table was open for suggestions. So I suggested that we play "skip on 7" game where everyone forms a circle and starts to count from one end. First person loudly says 1, second person says 2 and so on. Whenever there is a number which is multiple of 7 or has 7 in it the person has to skip that number and say the next number loudly. So we need to skip numbers 7,14,17,21 and so on. We enjoyed playing it for sometime but started getting bored of it very soon.
We put on our thinking caps again. After a little brainstroming, I thought of dumshrads. Surprisingly, the game was new to Vicky bhaiya and preeti bhabhi. So a quick tutorial and we were on our way. We split ourselves into two teams and started exercising our acting skills. It was LOADS of FUN. Shweta, shruti and Kritika were especially sharp and expereinced campaigners but rest of us were "Oh my God ! What's that ??" kinda actors. But that was the real fun. To guess a word being enacted by a terrible actor can be lots of fun.
Speaking of terrible actors, Rahul deserves a special mention here as he had us all in splits of laughter through his acting skills. He made me realize that sometimes actions don't speak louder than words :)
If I were to give awards for the performances here's the list of peple who would share the honours.
best "I can en-act any word" award: Shweta and Kritika
best "I can guess any movie " award: Sunil (Artist hain bhai!)
best "Leave me alone, I can't act" award: Rahul
best "Blabber " award: Shruti

Everyone liked that game so much that we ended up playing for hours that day and even the next day in morning. Our train was 4 hours late in reaching Kopargaon... but no one was complaining. The journey was so much fun.


PS: My special thanks to the crew members :)
Starring: Shruti, Shweta, Kritika, Deeksha, Prisha, Deepu, Sunil, Vicky bhaiya, Preeti bhabhi, Rahul and Anshu
Special appearance: Mithu bhaiya, Aarti bhabhi, Amit bhaiya, Sheetal bhabhi, Daddy, mummy, bua ji, uncle ji, tinku bhaiya, seema bhabhi, rahul ke dada ji and goga bua.

Of new year resolutions

New year is just around the corner. Everyone is thinking about how to make the coming year even better. And so, making new year resolutions. Sticking to them however, is another story.

This tradition of making New Year resolutions and the whole exercise of thinking about the things that can make your life better and of those around you is very healthy. And it might not be always about how to make your professional life better, to loose weight, quit smoking, blah blah. Believe you me, there’s a lot of thought that goes in that direction anyways. I mean, in this busy life style how often do we sit back and say to our self that I’ve to become more environmentally responsible, that I‘ve to help the children with no homes, that I’ve to make my little contribution towards making my city a cleaner and safer place, that I’ve to be more responsible citizen, that I’ve to enjoy nature, that I’ve to ….
I KNOW that thoughts turn into actions.