Saare Jahan se Accha, Hindosatan Hamara...

Every August 15^th, makes us proud. Proud of being Indian, proud of our forefathers who fought for freedom, proud of what India is today! Most of us have been lucky that we were born in free India. The Quit India movement, the non cooperation movement, the uprising of 1857 have always been chapters in our history books.

15^th August had always been special for me. During school days, the schedule would be very tight! Get up early in the morning, go to school. Whole school would be gathered in the parade ground. Since I was part of the school band, we would be wearing our band uniforms, sparkling white shirts and trousers. The flag hoisting would happen before 8 am in morning and after that the parade! After the parade there would speech from the guest of the day, generally ex-service men. They would tell us their stories of war and how one should love our country, a very patriotic speech. We used to be so charged up with the experience, that we would decide then and there and decide that all of us would be joining the Armed forces and serve our motherland.

As the years passed, things changed. A typical 15ht August started with getting up early (that’s just before 8am) and watches the flag hoisting at the red fort in Delhi. See the small parade that happened on the day and then the prime minister’s speech. This has been the routine for many 15^th August’s till two years back. The 15^th August 2006 and 2007 had been different. This was the first time so far that I had been out of the country on this day.

Celebrating 15^th August is a very different experience outside our country. That’s really when you come to know what freedom means. Its just another day in the country you live in, you wont find Tiranga hoisted anywhere, you wont find school kids with Indian flags in their hands. Here I was, on 15^th August 2007, 60 years later, working in Great Britain, the same country, which we declared independence from.

This day, I really gave it a thought. So many things have changed. 60 years before, When British left India, they left a country a very poor and dependent country. A country with abundant natural resource, but still dependent on every thing on to others. The picture is very different now. Now it’s a new country, a country with lot of young people who want to make a difference. A country that has a confidence, which it was lacking for last so many years. A confidence that we can be a super power, a will to compete with rest of the world. Now India is not just some third world country full of people, its biggest quality human resource destination, its biggest market for goods all over the world. No other country now can ignore India or take it for granted. Today we are working shoulder to shoulder with the people of developed countries in their own country and probably earning more than them.

Most might say we are still lacking and we should have progressed more than what we have, 60 years of Independence, I think the future was never as brighter. We are one country with most promising future. Though Information technology was what started shining, today, almost every industry is shining and growing at tremendous pace. With a promise like this and people who are set to prove it to the world, India is out there to conquer the world, conquer it like never before. This conquest is not with arms or bloodshed, but with economy and good will.

World, look out for us, Here we come!!

I AM IN 10th, OPEN FOR ADVICES!

Just a few days back, I read it in newspapers that the SSC results declared. Generally when at home, mom would tell whose who expecting results for SSC that year. But for last couple of years, since staying out of home, declaration of SSC results just another news in the newspaper.

Picked up the news paper and one news attracted my attention. ‘Maharashtra SSC board results to be declared today’. This news today was just news for me, but it meant whole world to me 10 years back. This very day, ten years back, I was expecting my result. I can clearly remember that day. There was suspense and tension in the air that day. Almost everybody I know had appeared for the exam. It was projected as if the most important day of my life. I am still validating the fact whether it was or not.

That day and the year before that just flashed in front of my eyes that day. What a year! One of the fastest years I would say. When I was in 9 grade itself the mania started. A long lost aunt or cousin would ask “kitvit re tu ata? (Which standard you are in?)” and when I would tell them the answer the next sentence would be…’so ready for 10^th next year??’ I so wished so day “was there going to be standard 9.5 if I were not ready for 10^th next year?” Soon I came to know, this was just the beginning.

Someone has said, ‘life is an examination’ and it’s kinda true. But the SSC exam is the one which is very very different. At least in my case, and I guess for most of us, was first big exam, but it was bigger and more important for all the people related to me.

This exam has always been very important to the people who didn’t appear for it. For example, parents and all the relatives of the person who was appearing for the exam. When you are in 10^th, suddenly everyone related to you, your aunts, uncles, neighbors, friends parents, doodhwala bhaiya, local grocer… everyone suddenly become experts in education. You would start getting advices from all direction, for everything in your life, and not just regarding studies. I think you have it written on your face “I AM IN 10^th, OPEN FOR ADVICES”

The most common among the advices are “study early in the morning, its good for you” and this then generally get appended with, ‘there is a study done in Romeria (god knows where this is) that morning is the right time to study” or “its written in our Vedas”. Then there were mothers of the fellow ‘SSCions’ who would not be satisfied by troubling their own wards so they would advice on your study schedule and everything in your life. Someone had told me “you will have to improve your handwriting, (till here it was bearable, but then came the clincher), look how my son writes, learn to write like him, this will make a good impression on the moderator” and loads and loads of other advices.

These advices start raining when the exam date approaches. It starts with “write your roll number correctly on the exam sheet”, “make sure you sit at the right place” and it can go all the way to “go the xxx temple before you go for the exam”. The last few days before exams are just about taking advices from everyone you know. Even your younger sibling gives you advice.

Then these advices are so much of a headache, and you actually start hating those ppl who gave you all these advices. But 10 years down the line, when I look at them, I understand, each one of those people did just wanted me to be successful in that exam and in turn in my life.

I was given countless advices; most of them were quite obvious, some where weird, and some where laughable. But there was one advice which I still remember; it was from my Dad’s Uncle. He had sent me a postcard via snail mail. Amongst all other things, the line I remember was, ‘This is first important exam in your life, don’t be scared or be bogged down by it. There will a lot of exams more important in your life, and God forbid your result is not as per your expectations, don’t be scared or worried, this is not end of the world.’

Don’t you think, this is the very thing we wanted to listen from at least one of our well wishers before going for that SSC exam?

Spidey the 3rd

The much awaited movie, Spider man 3 is all set to release today in India (please forgive my ignorance, if today happens to be an International release).
Me and my friends have already booked tickets for today's show earlier this week. So all set to watch the movie.

After two grand spider man movies, I am definitely eager to watch the third one. To get into the "mood", I have been in preparation for this movie for quite sometime now.

To start with I downloaded a Spidey Skin for my new phone. I am not using that skin on the phone is a different issue. The skin was really bad, neither could I see spider man there nor my phone icons, so chucked it in the first hour of downloading it.
The other thing I did was to put a nice High Rez wallpaper, courtesy Angel, on my office PC. Well this wallpaper is not like the mobile phone skin I downloaded. The wallpaper is really nice, with a BIG spider symbol (which is on spider man's Chest) at the center of the desktop. Really nice wallpaper! I know what Angel would be thinking while reading the blog...'akhir wallpaper kisne dhunda!!' Thanks for that wallpaper Angel!
I have also read the review of this movie on our Office Bulletin board. I wont tell what was there in the review, you can read it yourself on the net.

So all set to watch the movie tonight. This reminds me of another event, for which I had prepared so much for :) "The Cricket World Cup"
Even then I had put Sachin's wallpaper on the desktop, the big thing was we bought a TV specifically to see the WC. But the way the event unfolded was not too favorable to us. India played the worst with the possibly the best team, and Australia marched all the way to get WC again for the third time. This was arguably the most Boring WC.

Anyway, lets leave past to past. Let me not get disheartened by comparing the two, and wait and watch. Its just 4 hours from now that I will be in the theater, all loaded with Pop corn to watch.... Spiderman 3

Dont Hate Windows!

I have been a Linux user for quite some time now. I don’t call myself a Linux freak or even a Linux pro, but yes I like Linux. I have frequented to many Linux forums or to the different Linux help sites or magazines.

One thing I have observed is that most the Linux Users or Linux lovers are in variably Windows haters. And believe me; I have seen Windows haters to the core. I don’t know why this happens, once people start using Linux they just start hating windows more and more. To be frank, when I started using Linux, I too joined this group of people who hate windows. But later on I realized, I don’t need to hate windows to love Linux! Why not use both the OS and take good from both?

Most of the people in the World still use windows. In case of India, majority of people still don’t know there exists any other OS apart from Windows (best part is, most of them think windows is free ;))

UNIX was there long before windows came, then why did UNIX was get a similar response as Windows? Why didn’t people plan to use UNIX for theirs PC? Well there are many reasons, but one of then is definitely GUI! Accept it, windows gives you a fantastic GUI.

I have tried thinking, is there anything in GUI I think which I think is missing in Windows? I did give it an honest thought and apart from tweaking the current features, there was nothing which came to my mind which I thought is obviously included in the GUI. Mr. Gates did invest a lot in developing a really user friendly GUI. Guess we should really give it to MS for giving us a really nice GUI.

Apart from GUI, the ease of package installations, ease of PC software maintenance, and most importantly, the ease of installing the OS at the first place!!

Here I am not comparing Windows with Linux or any other OS; all I am trying to say is Don’t just Hate Windows because you love Linux.

Don’t forget, by allowing dual boot, Its Linux way of saying “Love Linux, but Don’t Hate windows”

Live Free!

A Personal Computer or a Laptop has ceased to be a techie play thing and has become something which most of the people use. Today hundreds of millions of people use a personal computer in one form or other for work, entertainment, play or any other thing that they can think of. And when we think of a personal computer we imagine a desktop and a “Start” button on the bottom left had side. Yup, I am talking about Windows. Personal Computers have become synonymous to Windows (no offense to Apple and Mac OS users, but you guys are in minority). When asked, if you do not have Windows, what other OS would you use, and the answer is ‘Windows comes with the PC, howz it possible to have a PC without Windows?’

The truth is, PC does not come with Windows, you have to buy Windows separately and get it installed. Windows being the most used Operating System (OS); the vendor pre-installs this OS and adds the cost of it to the PC. But the other truth is, there are other OS which also can be used instead of Windows on your PC. Here I will briefly talk about ‘Alternate working environments on PC’

There are many OS which x86 architecture (Normal IBM compatible PCs) supports, few of them are Sun Solaris, different distros of Linux, OS/2, BeOS to name a few. But then the next question here is, if everyone uses Windows, why should one go for any other OS at the first place?

One can compare different OS on many parameters like

• Cost
• User – friendly
• Speed
• Requirement of PC resources for smooth working of the OS
• Look and Feel
• Loads of other technical parameters which were are really not interested in ;)

I really accept that Windows has the most user friendly interface and with Windows Vista (the OS with WOW?) possibly the best look and feel as well. But on the other aspects, Windows XP does not fair better as compared to Solaris or Linux (not comparing Vista as I have not used it and the specifications stated has ridiculous resource requirements). In terms of Cost, Windows XP professional is about $230 and compared to that, Linux is FREE!! Linux needs fewer resources than windows to run and has optimized resource utilization. All those people who has seen Linux at its birth, or who have used Unix based OS and still think that Linux is a command line based OS, they are up for a surprise. The look and feels of new Linux distros are fantastic.

Linux is an Open source OS, that means, the source code of the OS is open to all, and anybody can make changes to the kernel so as to customize it their needs. I know most of us wont even touch the kernel, but different companies do that for us and present Linux in different Distros. There are numerous distros of Linux like Red Hat, Mandrake, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, knoppix, Mandirva, Slackware, SUSE, CentOS …. (There are 352 Distros listed in Wikipedia) and one of them is an Indian Distro called Aryabhatta!

Everyone of them being Free OS with one or the other feature to boast of.

Most famous of them are the first 10 which I have listed which give most of the features of windows. I personally vote for Ubuntu as a home OS. It has a very good UI, very user friendly and there is hardly anything which you can do on Windows and not do on Linux.

When you install full version of Ubuntu (did I mention before that Ubuntu is free?) it come with almost all the day to day applications you can think of. To think of it, start with a web browser (firefox), a Mail client (thunder bird, supports Microsoft exchange), messengers, picture editing tools, pdf readers, Office tools ( this is free too and can open, create and edit Microsoft office documents), loads of system utilities like zip etc, and loads of Games!!

Once you have the Ubuntu installed, there is nothing which you need to install to start using it. But in case you are not happy with the messenger it comes with and you need yahoo messenger, or you don’t like the picture viewer and want picassa…just to their site and download the Linux version and install. Installing an application is now as simple as it is on Windows. Ubuntu comes with Plug&Play feature for most of the things you can think of, for all the cameras, USB storage devices etc, just insert and it starts working.

Now its not an pre-requisite to know Unix commands to start working on Linux, the GUI is powerful enough to do all the administrative functions. Linux is extremely customizable cosmetic changes in terms of themes, wallpapers etc.

One more important feature which Ubuntu, for that matter Linux gives you is the co – existence with windows on the same machine. You can have one of Linux flavor and windows on the same machine at same time and you can boot into any one OS at will. Linux gives you an option to access files from Windows work area too!

I am here not trying to say that Windows is bad, Linux is good, but Linux as an alternative OS to Windows has a lot of advantages if not more than Windows, I would definitely suggest, give it a chance and see, you would love it!

Live Free!!

Get fried again!!!!!......

After legally driving car for about eight years, I finally thought I should also possess a driving license to ride a Bike (Motor Cycle with Gears as it is called in RTO). Well ok, most of you would be thinking why after eight years when for most, the bike license comes first. When I turned 18, the only vehicle we had was car so got a license to drive a car (license here means permit from Govt. of India, it took 6 more months to get permit from mom). But recently my long time friend and fellow roommate Kalpak bought a shining new Pulsar 200, so thought I would also go with him to get the license.

Procuring the license is not as simple as passing HSC examination. Well that depends on what way you go about passing both! No comments about passing HSC, but getting a license have two major ways.

1. Fire and Forget: This is quite simple. Go to RTO agent or Motor Learning School. Tell him you need a Bike license (for that matter any driving license). He asks you for money (way more than the actual license fees) . Hand it over to him, DO NOT HESITATES, I repeat, DO NOT HESITATE! He gives you a date, go to him on the specified date and get the license.

2. Get Fried: This method is of toil and hard work! Here you yourself have to go to the RTO to get it done.

We made a choice, we will not grease no palms, we will get our license in the right way, we chose to get fried.

The first step in getting fried in the RTO is getting a Learning License. I call this Shallow fry! Got the form from the “Inquiry” desk. The moment we started filling up the form, a guy came to help us out. RTO, I guess was on the cost cutting spree, because the form was so faintly printed that it took us some time to realize it was in Marathi. The guy was used to filling those forms; he was just pointing at the dotted lines and telling us what to write there. He was fast, we were faster, we would fill up forms faster that his instructions! The form has a place where we had to get a doctor certificate of our health. The guy took us to the doctor just outside the RTO compound. The doctor asked me my name, asked for a birthmark and with no other check up, declared us fit to drive. This was coooool! This Doc was damn good, how did he know we were fit and fine to ride a bike. Must be some super natural power!!! Doc asked for Rs30 each from us and the guy who took us to the Doc vanished! ‘Hmmmm…he was doctors agent after all’ we said to each other. We submitted the form to a Sub Inspector for the learning license test, that’s when we realized that we had filled up the form all wrong. We had written our current permanent license numbers at the field which said “reason for cancellation of earlier license (if any)”, but luckily the SI didn’t realize this.

Once test was done, we were told to go to a room for further proceedings. Here to our surprise, they scanned our finger print and took a digital photograph! Shock of my life! RTO has gone the tech way! Biometrics in RTO!!!! Still discussing about the biometrics in RTO, we paid the license fees and left!

One month after the Learning license issue, we reached there to get our Permanent learning license. All ready with the bike and everything. We both filled up the Permanent License from, in English this time, and went for the test. Gave the test and passed! The SI there told me to give test for a four wheeler too. I told him I am in possession of a LMV (Light Motor Vehicle) driving license since eight years, to which he said I had filled up wrong form. The noble officer told me to fill up the right form and duly signed the same without any problems. It was extremely hot that day, sun in full form. We had been in the sun for last couple of hours but we were not complaining, were happy that we both passed the test and will be going to get new licenses in short time. We were told to go to a window to get a signature from another officer. He signed my form without a word, but asked Kalpak few questions and asked him to come back after an Hour. Once that was done we went to another window to pay the license fees. It’s a law of life, which states, in government office, you have to jump from window to window to get your work done. Proving and verifying the law, we jumped from window to window and finally reached the right window where we paid up the license fees. We submitted the form in the next window.

The lady at the computer tried taking another set of biometric samples of us, which the computer did not allow her to do. She called her senior, who faced the same problem. That’s when we suggested that they could carry on with the samples they took a month before and use the same ones. The Senior Clerk there was amazed at our intelligence and said that’s how it would be done! We successfully submitted the form!

A week later, my mom went to collect the license. That’s when she was told that they had not received the form at all! As per the earlier rule, mom jumped again from window to window to search for the form and finally got it. That’s when a clerk there told her that on of the forms was missing and she has to fill that up. This form was needed because I already had LMV license and the new license would be endorsed with both, LMV and MCWG. Mom promptly filled up the form and submitted it to the right window. After a couple of days, Mom when to collect the license, which to her surprise was given to her without any problem.

Mom triumphantly handed over the new license to me on the next weekend when I went home. Checked the new license, awesome!!! It was a smart card with a microchip embedded in it. My digital image on the card and all. Superb I said! Every trip to the RTO, getting fried in the Sun and jumping from window to window was worth it!

I started reading the license in details and that’s when the hell broke loose.
I could not believe my eyes!
It said “CALSS OF VEHICLE (license to drive): MCWG”

They had forgotten to endorse my LMV license on this new license!!

Sigh!!! Get fried again!!!!!......

Traffic in Pune

No city in Maharashtra has as illustrious history and past as Pune. Pune is one of the big cities in Maharashtra and definitely one of the most important. Pune has always been the "cultural" capital of Maharashtra. But Pune has another specialty, it has largest number of two wheelers in Maharashtra, possibly in India too.

Its been almost two years I have been living in Pune, but have been visiting Pune since childhood. I was always told 'The real driving test is to drive in Pune. Once you can drive in pune, you can drive anywhere in the world.' And the day came. I drove all the way from Thane to Pune and also "in" Pune. The moment I entered the city, I was in a different world all together. I saw something which i had not seen before, a special Specie of vehicle driver. The female of the specie was riding a complex vehicle which for simplicity we call "moped" The moped was ridden at the center of the road on the lane marking. All my indirect indications of overtaking were ignored, finally i honked, which to my amazement was ignored too. This was just the starting, Punekars' have found new and innovative ways to break traffic rules.

There are three flyover being build on the road from Pune University to Sancheti circle to ease the traffic at the junctions in between. Very noble thought from MSRDC and PMC but the construction work has been going on for ages now. One has to take a big detour if going towards Mumbai, you would have to get in the model colony and come out from the Senapati Bapat road into the University circle (mind you there is no circle there :) )
But people do not want to use this detour, so the next easiest way is to go on the wrong way. Don't be surprised if you see someone coming in opposite direction on your side of the road, best part is, not just mopeds and bikes but Huge trucks too, its quite common here. If fact if you don't let enough place for the vehicle coming from wrong direction, you might get a glaring look.
Apart from this, disobeying other traffic rules like parking in NO PARKING area, driving in NO ENTRY zone. Riding in opposite direction to the traffic to find parking on the road, riding on the footpath, all this is not counted in breaking traffic rules. Signals here are for the convenience of the drivers. Leave out the old teachings which our school teacher taught us - RED traffic light means STOP, Green means GO. Here the signals mean different - Green - GO GO GO GO GO, Amber - God knows why they need this light!, Red - If you have time you can wait for sometime, but if you are in hurry, no need to stop.

When ever we used to discuss the traffic problems in friends circle we used to say "Jab accident ho jayaga to pata chalega!!" but we were wrong. Every other day there is a front page news about someone being fatally injured in road accident. Most of the times the accident involves the Private company cabs. Even after so many accidents the tendency to flaunt the traffic rules has not changed. Few days back TOI had a news that PMC and MSRDC together is going to run a new project to improve the traffic conditions in Pune, and this is going to cost them Rs 1500 crore.

The government is doing their bit, all it needs is some effort from our side. Believe me its not so difficult, just simple traffic rules, we all know them. All we need to do it wait when the signal is RED. Adhere to the No Entry and one Way. And the most important is to be a little sensitive towards the other drivers on the road. If we all just be a little understanding, the traffic in pune would be a lot better than what it is today.

Temporary World Cup Finals for India

Today, is a very different day in India. All those people who are in office quite late in night would be running home early. Mom's in houses are heard saying " aaj me jevan ghari banavanar nahi, baherun magva kahitari" ( I am not going to cook at home today, order something from outside).
Everyone is already thinking which would be the most strategic seat in the house today. The discussions have been going on since Morning. Number Crunching, Chips munching, discussions, prayers.....
Well?? what the hell is wrong with that day today??

Today is India-Sri Lanka Cricket match. I know your next question, 'is it the finals?', no its not. Then why the hype? India has to win the match so as to qualify for super 8 (the next stage) or else India is back to pavilion.

I have been asking people, "Kya lagta hai, India Jeetega kya aaj?" and answers
"Sawaaal" ( now this is typical Mumbai lingo meaning 'definitely, no doubt')
"Obvisouly yaar"
"jeetega, bet?"
"chod na yaar who cares" and for this one I was like "what you mean WHO CARES", "who cares yaar i know we are gonna loose"..hmmmm thats more like an Indian...we have to have a opinion about cricket.

Everyone is praying that India wins today. The "they deserve to come back..." sentiment after the Bangladesh defeat has changed to "please please please...do something....WIN!!!"
Here is something which i came across...

Sehwag ki maa ko bulao,
Sachin ko Pepsi pilao,
Ganguly ko Chawanprash khilao,
Dhoni ke baalo mein Gel lagao,
Dravid ko castorl pilao




Everyone is charged up for the occassion, just to quite, we (@ our place) have already planned to buy about 400 grm of different types of chips, selected one of the cola brand (2x2ltrs) as the official drink of the day...

तर थोडक्यात काय, सगळे full to तयार अहेत, Set Max ने नांदी ५ वाजतच चालू केली अहे....आता फ़क्त WAIT AND WATCH...!!!

Sha Bang....

Its always been a an Hindu tradition to start anything new with "Shree Ganeshaya Namaha" meaning, my offerings to Lord Ganapati, the good of wisdom, God of Education.

Well...I thought let me start my blogs with a different note. Let me also start it with another auspicious note..."Sha-Bang"

Well I know most of the people wont know what this is and most of you will guess it to be some Chinese saying. But its not.

Sha-Bang means #!, this is how any script in unix is started.
So here i start with an SHA-BANG.....