Random thoughts

another long break

2010-04-14T18:30:00.002+05:45

After lots and lots of rambling, I have gone offline from blogs a while. So much has happened in the last year or so, that its almost impossible to list them all. anyway here's a summary: first and foremost I became a dad. Thats more than a year ago. second, I completed my MCA. and that was a big one. Took me more than two years to complete my thesis. The end product is not as much as i'd have liked it to be, but given that i did not to the entire thesis myself, i am happy with what i got. of course I could have gotton a little more if I had worked myself, but since i didn't i can't complain.
on work, there's more rambling to be done, especially in the procurement sector. As I have frequently discussed with my boss and others as well, I am now fed up with that. i want to move on. but unfortunately, i have had a training on procurement management about 3 yrs ago. and for that reason, i am stuck with it. its not that i don't like working in procurement; I love it. I love the opportunity it creates, the social connections that it provides, and the exposure to market. Its also challenging sector to work, what with transparency and associated risk. however its bit too risky when everyone in ur work start calling you to get any and all idea about on going procurements, when your name is associated with procurement. I had several occasions when people started calling me for every detail of procurement, sometimes, chiefs of other departments, directly calling me, bypassing the chief of my department. and those of you who know me, you know, i only provide technical advice on procurement, not the whole package. I don't work for procurement department.!!!
anyway thats about all the ramble i have for today.. maybe i will have time soon and write some more. right now i gotta sign off...
happy new year to all of you
and happy mothers' day to all the mothers out there...

Shifting responsibilities

2009-05-17T17:29:00.002+05:45

An event happened in work today. Regardless of how I feel, I am seen as a procurement specialist. It has its own pluses and minuses, and on the whole, I enjoy working on procurement... you get to deal with lots of vendor, which is very good for your social network. But sometimes, it just gets into my nerve. Today is one of those days when this responsibility has made me feel very bad... Am I feeling bad, or am I angry? I don't know. I know that I don't like what I am feeling now.

There's this machine that has recently been procured. For some reason it has gone bad. The vendor is all helpful and also sends someone to fetch it, so that they can repair it... all at their own cost. The only thing I need to do is make sure they get a gate-pass. And what happens??? People are not willing to issue a gate-pass... Everybody is shifting responsibility... from one person to another, from one department to another... and I am pissed off.... I need to get that server at vendor's location and that's all I care.... If people had been sensible and worked together, it would have too... But everyone believes they are not responsible... and points finger to others.... May be I am to blame myself... May be I shifted my responsibility too... May be I did that...

I don't know what I was supposed to do... May be I should not have relied on others just because it was their "responsibility". May be I should have taken things into my own hands... May be.. May be....

I don't know what I will do tomorrow... I will be angry I am sure.. and miserable as well... I am in half a mind to jump myself and get a gate-pass made in my name.... and just drop it at the vendor's location...

Off for a year

2008-06-11T15:18:00.003+05:45

I have been off for more than a year and half!!! There just isn't enough time for me. Anyway I will try to type a few words now and then.
For this edition, its work, again. It is one of those rare time when I am busy with something. And before you think what on earth am I doing if I were so busy, well, I just managed to complete my task for the day.
Anyway, at the moment I am writing a feasibility study report on VSAT. Some of you must be aware that I have already done so at least two times, and two more reports on VSAT. But the technology is so attractive and cost so high that the organization always finds between having and not having one installed.
And if I have to talk to any of the vendors on market about it again, I'd be ashamed!!!

To conclude today's note, I wish to welcome s-deb in this world of blogging.

Strange as it was II

2006-10-04T19:12:00.000+05:45

Another post with same title!! But its not part 2 of the last one, just a sequel. Another strange thing happened today. I think it was around 6 pm today (4th October 2006) when I was on the cell phone. I went to the roof in the hopes of getting better signal, and some privacy. While chatting, I noticed some kids excitedly pointing at something in the west-north-west sky. At first I thought about kites, but curiosity got the better of me and followed their gaze. There it was, about 50 degrees above horizon, a streak of something pure white. I thought it was a trick of light, coupled together by a high flying jet with unusual contrail, but a jet with so much contrail must make heck of a noise. And it was not a double parallel contrail. It was a plume. The confusing stuff was that at the head of the plume, there was something shiny, and apparenly blinking, which I thought was a strobe light of a jet. But as I said, it was silent, and the plume was rather think, without second parallel one. I had no idea what it was, but had enough sense to take a couple of shots. It was too slow to be a jet or a meteor, and too fast to be a comet. I knew then, whatever it was, it was athmospheric, at least it was inside the athmosphere. Later it came to me, it might have been some space debris. I know for a fact that Russians throw space-trash from International Space Station in their supply ship and hurl them into athmosphere where it would burn up before hitting the earth. But it was moving from east to west, and ISS has polar orbit so can't say for sure. Of course, if did not have polar orbit, it would not be seen this north. And I just did a search on ISS. ISS will pass close to Kathmandu in +2 orbit from now. It is possible that that space-junk might have passed those +2 orbit much sooner, because as it decends, its orbital time is reduced. But ISS goes from southwest to northeast not east to west.

So basically I don't know what it was. It might have been a UFO, I can't tell. Might have been another satellite that was at the end of its life. May be a rather slow meteor. Or a small asteroid that had been captured by Earth's gravity. I know about one thats been in Earth orbit for about 4 years, but it's expected to leave the orbit in next couple of years. Maybe there are other such meteors people had not yet discovered. Who knows? I know one thing for sure -- it did not have any conventional propellant. Just gravity and friction doing its work.

They say strange things happen in triplicates. I wonder whats coming up next!!!

Strange as it was

2006-10-02T17:30:00.000+05:45

I thought it was going to be just another sunday. Boy... was I wrong!! First the day started with a Formula 1 Grand Prix -- Chinese Grand Prix, to be exact. Now this is one of the very few tracks where Michael is not very successful. As far as I remember, he spun off in the debut of the track, and performed rather poor last year. This year too, I did not expect him to perform well. And if you were to go ahead with his qualification performance, you'd say he would be lucky to finish in points. Neither Ferrari nor Bridgestone was suited for the wet condition. Michael was the only one in top ten qualifiers with Bridgestone tyres. With just 2 points seperating Alonso and Schumacher in the championship, I was certain Michael would blow up his championship aspirations here. But boy-oh-boy. The race was superb. Although it was pit-strategy that played key role, luck and changing conditions favored Michael and he won here. I wish I could give a lap-by-lap description of the race, but I can't trust my memory to describe every lap.
Anyway the race is over and now championship standings are even -- both Michael and Alonso stand at 116 points each. Ferrari lost out because of Massa's retirement, but they are just 1 point behind Renault.
That race took most of the day. Afternoon was pretty uneventful with the exception of two movies (Da Vinci Code and The Wild) and lots of SMS'es. It was the evening that was strange. I had to go to Ason for Syako-Tyako, and I left after it was dark. When I got to the gate, and was closing it, I noticed how clear the sky was, and also noticed the constellation Cassiopeia. It is one of the most easily identifiable constellation, with its distinctive W shape. Let me see if I can attach a map of that constellation

Click on the image for bigger picture. Up is North, as usual, but left is East, not West. Its optimized to be viewed lying down while looking at the sky.

So there I was, closing the gate, when I saw something unusual. Just by the constellation was a very bright object, an object brighter than the star Vega, possibly brighter than the planet Jupiter. It was just by the small star visible in the picture -- the one thats just top left of the centre star in the constellation. It was not one of the metors, or a plane, because it was not moving, but it was very bright, steller bright, I mean. I would have it as a guess, but it might have been outside the athmosphere. For the moment, I thought I was looking at a different constellation, but after about a minute, that object was no longer there. I can't say how it vanished, because I was driving then, and couldn't keep my eyes in the sky. But I am certain it was fixed. So it most probably is not satellite. But for those who'd like to confirm, the time was around 1900 hrs NST (UTC+0545).

One Great Race, One Great Racer

2006-09-10T19:39:00.000+05:45

It's just over, the 2006 Monza grand prix that is. What a race! I did not think, not in the wildest of my dreams, that this race would be this great. But then, its a matter of perspective, I mean if you are an Alonso fan, you'd say this was one of the worst races ever.

The race started with something. Kimi had a great start. So was for Kubica and Alonso. Phillipe was the one that got penalized in all that, getting behind Kubica. He never managed to get in front of the Pole. BMW Sauber had a good package, although they were a bit lagging in the slower sections. Ferrari had the best package: at times, Schumacher would be about half a second faster than Kimi.

The first stint had Kimi as leader, but just by 3 seconds, to Michael. After the first stops, Michael was ahead of Kimi, by about 3 seconds. After that, the race was pretty uneventful for the German and Finn. However, the race was on for those on the back. Massa would not let go of Kubica, whose engine power proved much better than Massa's overall excellence, and meant that the Brazilian could not attempt many overtaking maneuvers.

The second stops just confirmed Michael's lead over Kimi, it was back in 3rd, 4th and 5th place that made all the difference. Being bottled up, Massa went in first, and few laps later, Kubica and Alonso went in together. Alonso had much better, all-be-it longer, pitstop, but he managed to get alongside the BMW Sauber of Kubica. On the exit of the pitlane, Alonso got the better of Kubica, the better part for him was, he was able to leap-frog on Massa as well in pit-strategy. So there he was, in 3rd position, with not-so-comfortable-but-nice lead over Kubica, and suddenly there's a plum of blue smoke coming out of the back of his Renault at the end of start-finish straight. Kubica misses the oil, but Massa hits it and goes straight on the bumpy ride across the chicane, and manages to get a right front puncture. The in-and-out maneuver cost him his 4th place and had to settle for 9th. Anyway, that was one of the highlights for the championship.

And with the eventual settlement for second place by Kimi, Michael had a comfortable victory. Massa tried his best to take a point, but failed, and finished ninth. The good news was that Michael scored 10 full points, while his championship rival Alonso scored none, resulting in 108 points for the Spaniard and 106 points for the German. The better news was that Ferrari leap-frogged Renault in Championship standings by 3 points (168 to 165).

The main drama was still in the making, after all the race and trophy presentation ceremony. In the Post-Race Press Conference, Michael announced what was already speculated. He's about to retire after the end of this season. It was one emotional situation, when he announced it. Almost made the presentator speechless.

Its kinda hard to imagine, particulary for the likes of me, Formula 1 without Michael. He has been there for about a decade. At the age when people start to think about future plans, he was winning races. Even with retirement in sight, he was pushing 110%. Now the real dillema for me is, in the abscence of Michael, who should I support, and follow. I am not so sure, without him, Ferrari would be so great a team, not with Massa as the lead driver. Kimi could get somewhere, but I seriously doubt it. Renault will have a good team, and has some really good driver lineup, but I don't like that team. Button has been named the replacement for Michael, but Honda team is not up to scratch, not till now. BMW Sauber and Williams have good package but lack the consistency. Red Bull Racing may show something, but Cosworth engines they are planning to use for 2007 season did not show anything with Jaguar, so I am a bit skeptical. Torro Rosso are just smaller version of RBR, so even if they have great drivers, they will not perform well. MF and Super Aguri are just back markers. So who is my preferable World Champion and Constructor Champion? Hmm... may be Kimi and Ferrari? I'd like to follow Ferrari, but chances are good that Renault will snatch both, however much I'd hate it. Anyway thats more than a year away, plenty of time for me to change my mind. One thing is for sure, I'd follow anyone I do not hate who performs well in the opening rounds of Formula 1 2007 season. For the time being, let me think over all of these and spend some time alone. I desperately need some time to analyze and think everything over.

The Great Sagar

2006-09-07T17:04:00.000+05:45

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thulung/

Sushil sent it to me... Wouldn't have known if he did not tell me. But they were some great photographs. I knew he was one talented guy, just took such a long time to see his photographic talents.
Anyway, they were some of the best pictures I have ever seen. The captions need some more creativity though. I know he can do it.

Sagar, thinking to go pro? If not, you should. Good luck mate.

Three weeks in Training Part III

2006-08-22T23:31:00.000+05:45

On the days that we were out of AIT, and those included days other than weekends also, we could see many people on yellow tee-shirts. And the number of yellow tee-shirts seemed to grow day by day. It did not seem to be any short of fashion style – every body from every walk of life seemed to wear them, including some tourists. And yes, all those tee-shirts had same lettering, same words, obviously in Thai. In few days, I could tell why they were wearing the tee-shirts, but it was not until the return flight when I found out why they were wearing yellow. We knew a bit about the kingdom and little bit about the king. We did not know that it was 60 years’ celebration of the king’s accession to the throne. By wearing the shirt marked with “We love the King”, they were showing the support and loyalty to the king, and by wearing yellow, they showed their respect the king – yellow being the color of king because he was born on Monday. The actual day of celebrations was on the very last day of our training, and we could see sea of yellow wearing people in every part of the city, as if yellow tee-shirt was the official shirt for the day.

Being from Nepal, its very difficult to understand why they love and respect their king. And being from Thailand, they find it very difficult to understand why we give a damn to our king. I was told that the current king single-handedly transitioned the country. He’d visit villages, setup camps all over the country, much like what King Birendra did in Panchayat years. The difference was that Thailand got much better on the long run, while Nepal… well we know what it is. I’d say it is not just the King that matters, people around the King also plays big role. I’d say King Bhomibol has enjoyed much better company than King Birendra or King Gyanendra. King Bhomibol had always pushed forward the policy of one village-one product, I was told. And people have gradually moved away from traditional sex-industry to cottage and other industries. Of course sex-industry is still big there, but other industries are taking over very fast.

One of the observations that I had about that society is that it is primarily a female dominated society, with women working and earning money while men looking after the house. That may be the reason why young men there want to be women. Also it may be the reason for the flourishing sex-industry. And they in general do not cook in home, preferring to eat outside. There are lots of food stall around the city. And Thais are always eating – that’s the impression you get once you move around the cities. Any time of day, you’d see people eating something – be it fruits, noodles, fried-rice, anything. Indeed, my instructor did warn us – he said Thai’s on the road are doing one of two things: eating or talking on the cell phone. It was normal for them to have two or more cell phones. On one of our trips to Zeer, we took a bus and I happened to be seated next to this guy. He was sleeping, as usual with them in bus, and suddenly his cell phone started ringing. He looked frantically to at least three phones before he could find the ringing one and then he continued talking for the rest of my journey – about 15 minutes – I can’t tell how long he talked, because when I checked his window after climbing down from the bus, he was still talking. But sometimes I tend to think that this talking on the cell phone business is slowing coming over to our part of the world. The transportation system here is nothing compared to Thailand, so I don’t see people sleeping in the bus as soon as they get a seat, or sometimes even standing in the bus, anytime soon. And we are much too aware about our weight, and eat-at-home concept is too strong to allow us to eat anywhere on the streets – let alone any time of day.

Anyway transportation is not the only thing that we need to copy from Thailand. For starters, we could try cleaning the environment. Or may be we could try with industrialization, and manufacturing. That will take time, but will happen, if the country is to survive. I only wish I live to see it.

This third part concludes the story, the story of three weeks in Bangkok. Who was with me? Dibas Neupane is my colleague and was there with me. I could not include many of other friends who we met there and helped us. I have many memories there, with many people and lots of many stories. Eventually I might tell them, but it is neither time nor appropriate to tell them. But I am eternally grateful to Ramesh, Sandeep, Sanjeet and especially to Aadit, Deep, Nuraj and Ratna, whom I met in AIT, for all their help. Whatever Sahdev did to us when we were there I am very grateful for everything he did to improve the layout of these stories. Without his tireless efforts, these last three posts would have become much less attractive. And yes, thanks Pat, for those lovely pictures of you in that yellow tee-shirt.

This ending is somewhat lame, but I have never been able to wind down any stories. And I apologize for those large pictures.

Three weeks in Training Part II

2006-08-20T15:21:00.000+05:45

The weekdays were full of classes, but we did manage to get to some nearby market places at Future Park and Zeer. Future Park was quite close, just about 10Km from AIT.

Zeer is further 5Km from Future Park. We took a trip to Big C hypermarket and bought some stuff – garden equipments, chocolates etc. Zeer is more technology oriented. My friend got couple of stuff – some mobiles, camera stand etc. I chose not to buy anything there, as I bought most of the stuff in Bangkok. And we could go to the cinema in Future Park – The Da Vinci Code. It was quite enjoyable, particularly because I had enjoyed the book, and seeing the stuff described in the book felt – um – for the lack of better word – great!!

Weekends were a different thing. On the first Saturday, we were taken to Grand Palace in Bangkok city. A great palace with lots of decorations, it encloses three parts: the residential palace for the kings, ministries and temples. Of course the king does not live there anymore, and consequently many ministries have moved out of the premises, but the temples and monasteries are still great.

We could not do a lot of shopping though. Primarily because we were so focused in buying a laptop that we did not look for anything else.

On second Saturday, we were taken to Pattaya. I don’t know if you have heard about Pattaya, and what it is famous for. I am sure, however, that you must have heard that one of the major income sources for Thailand is sex-tourism. Well you could say Pattaya is capital of sex-tourism in Thailand. It is one of the new cities, and was built for recreating foreign military, mostly Americans serving in Vietnam. That explains booming sex-trade in the city. There isn’t much in the downtown markets that suggest the scale of the industry. Super markets, hyper markets, departmental stores, groceries etc. fill most of the market. And yes, bars. Lots of bars, with lots of women – bartenders and customers. To someone naive like me, it simply suggests the level of drinking that goes on in that city. To someone more experienced, it shows the full extent of the sex-industry. I was told that those women were waiting for their customers.

The others in the group did describe the extent of the industry. I was told about the famous walking street – a street about 2 km in length just by the beach in the south of the city. This street is supposed to be closed to all vehicles after 1600 hours, and is filled with either tourist or the “bar-girls”. I did think it was a bit too exaggerated that I was told those bar-girls would stay fully or semi nude. All this stays a story for me, as I did not see that street, nor the night-life of the city, due to the heavy rains on that evening. (But I found this picture on the Internet. Its a night shot, with 1 second exposure, so people are not very clear. And I don't have permission to post it here.) Much later, about a week after I got home, I found out that, though fully covered, those girls would approach you and politely ask “Do you want sex sir?” and respectfully return if you answered negatively. I did, however, see the Alcazar show. It is one of the famous cabaret shows that feature Pattaya’s famous “Ladyboys”, the male-to-female transsexuals.

The show was amazing. With shows ranging from classical Thai to Chinese comical to modern dance numbers, the hour spent there was one of the most breathtaking. If you ever go to Pattaya, don’t miss this show. There are many such shows, but this one, along with Tiffany, is the most famous. After the show, you can get pictures taken with those ladyboys, just be prepared to spend 40 bhat per photo. I wasn’t ready to spend that much money, so I didn’t. Others felt they could.

I didn't have consent to publish anybody's picture, so I had to blur this guy's face. I don't know how to contact him, so his face will remain blurred for a long time.

The other place that we went to was the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden. The garden is spreads to about 600 acres of land and is beautifully landscaped. I especially liked the French Garden, which is just amazing. I can’t even begin to describe it. So here’s a picture of a part of it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a complete picture. The entire structure that you can see, apart from rocks, are plants, differently colored plants. Just imagine the effort that went into creating it. And before you conclude that I, somehow, misplaced the picture, no, that stonehenge is not from United Kingdom, it’s a replica there in the French garden. Now don’t ask me what a British piece of archaeological history is sitting near French garden, I don’t know.

And that cultural dance? Well... I don't have words to explain it. The hours spent in there was next to nothing. Completely knocked the hell out of me. The beautiful women, the extravagant dress-ups, the rythemic dance, one of which incedentally, is called Charya, and I suspect its very similar to our own charya dance. Anyway, I know I have not done any justice to that dance by not writing more about it, but I simply can't find enough words to describe it. Anyway there are much better and much richer references to Ramayan than in India, I was told. I wish I could write a very long piece about that hour sometime. May be when I get enough time....

In the adjoining picture, the Buddha that you see is not painted, its pure gold that is stuck to mountain-side. Obviously it is protected by the army and nobody is allowed to walk on the grass. If you get on the grass, they come and arrest you. Simple as that. It’s very easy to get arrested in Thailand, I was told, especially the tourist. Crime is moderate and lonely places are not safe at all. And police don’t speak English, so they will arrest you just to keep things simple for them. And if you are caught without passport and valid immigration documents, you are doomed. Get ready to spend rest of your life in jail.

The second Sunday was memorable, in its own weird way. We went to the airport, expecting Sahdev to return from Seoul, and waited for the whole afternoon. Our plan was to pick him up and get to Bangkok for a spot of more shopping. But he did not come that day. He changed his plans and forgot to inform us. Man… that was difficult. Somehow we managed to get some free time on the following Tuesday and went to Bangkok. We bought some more garments, but I had plans to buy this telescope. It was not exactly cheap, but it does what it is expected to do. On reaching home, the first thing I did was unpack and assemble that contraption. The night was, thankfully, clear and I pointed that thing to Jupiter. WOW – that was something, Jupiter with its four of the brightest moons: Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede. About a week later, when I pointed it to Saturn, I could see the rings and everything. I wish I could take a snap. At any rate, those images are something to remember for a long time. My NPR13000 is well spent!

Three weeks in training Part I

2006-08-15T21:14:00.000+05:45

I knew I was a potential candidate for a training course on Network Security for more than a few months, but our bureaucratic efficiency shows itself in the fact that my confirmation came just two days before the date of departure, after ticket and visa. But it did come and I got to fly. It was a great flight, very stable and nice, although it was raining around Kathmandu. Weather got much better after Janakpur, mainly because the plane was now flying over 28000 ft in altitude. Bulks of clouds below looked really nice. Unfortunately, though, I set my camera for two stops under exposure and forgot later to set it back. Some of the plane pictures came really dark. Anyway, since I did not take too many pictures from the plane, it was not too bad.

When we landed, something struck me really hard. Bangkok Intl’ Airport has two parallel runways – 03L – 21R and 03R – 21L, separated by about 380m. And between the two runways is what should be world’s noisiest golf course. I wonder who plays there! Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of that. It was too dark when we landed. That was day one at Bangkok, and we had to drive about 40 km north, to AIT.

AIT is a nice little place, but for us who have thought it would be enormous, let me just say it isn’t as big as we would think. And because buildings are well hidden among forest, it looks much smaller than it actually is. All the buildings are about 3-4 story high and not that impressive looking. As a matter of fact, I was shocked to see such a small facility. Next few days gave me another shock – just opposite the main entrance of AIT is Rangsit campus of Thammasat University. And that university is big. Big with big buildings and big area with big sports facility and everything.

Anyway, the night was spent in AIT Conference Centre, in a nice hotel room.

That evening we had our dinner in the hotel restaurant, and was it expensive, almost spent all of that day’s daily allowance in it. The next day was formal opening ceremony. In that event, we were introduced to fellow participants from Bhutan, Mr. Fazle Karim, Program Director, Ms. Maria Soccoro G. Fontanilla a.k.a. Cookie, Course co-ordinator, Mr. Kuldeep Nagi, Instructor, and finally Ms. Pattama Chaiyapan a.k.a. Pat. Pat took us through AIT premises showing places of importance where we would be spending time in AIT. Then she took us to AIT Extension building where we would have our class. One thing that I noticed was that AIT buildings are located inside all natural environment – lots of wild animals inside the premises.

There’s not much to report on the classes. Day in and day out we’d follow the path of the Golden Triangle: hotel room – class – cafeteria. For two days we tried the hotel breakfast. I found I had nothing to eat other than some fruits and two pieces of bread. Third day onwards, we cancelled the breakfast. Our routine was scheduled something like this: 8:30 – 10:00 first session (theoretical discussion), 10:00 – 10:30 coffee break, 10:30 – 12:00 second session (theoretical discussion), 12:00 – 13:30 lunch break, 13:30 – 15:00 third session (practical and self study class), 15:00 – 15:30 second coffee break, 15:30 – 16:30 fourth session (practical and self study class). But I’d usually wake up at 8:30/9:00 and always late. I’d get to class around 8:45 without anything for breakfast. After the sessions, I’d still be in class till 20:00 when I’d go to have some dinner.

After dinner, I’d go straight back to class and stay there till 00:00 sometimes even later. May be because of the coffee (I was doing something like 8-10 cups a day), I was not very sleepy before midnight, and I’d not sleep until 2 in the morning. It was quite fun working like that, with that much of coffee. I wish I had that kind of coffee all over again.

The return trip was memorable. It was the day after king’s celebrations, and obviously security was very tight. The coordinators were running around on the day before our return, it seemed that various dignitaries would arrive for the celebrations on the day we’d depart. There were conflicting reports, some said approach road to the airport would be closed from 7 am onwards, while another said it’d close, but time was confidential. Since our flight was at 10 AM, we had planned to get to airport at 7 AM, but it seemed that would not suffice, and were suggested to go to the airport along with the Bhutanese group, who had to go at 2:30 in the morning – they had a very early flight, around 6 AM. We were ready, of course, but later it was suggested that we leave at 6 AM. At 6 AM, we were waiting at the hotel lobby, but the vehicle was not there, and did not come until 7. Apparently the road would not be closed at all. So we got to airport and waited until our time for check-in. Just as our flight came up in the screens, a fire broke out in the terminal building and soon, the whole terminal was filled with smoke. We were ushered into second terminal – terminal 2, and it was jam-packed. Finally, somehow, we did manage to complete check-in procedure, and when we got to departure gates, the flight had already started boarding – mind we did not stop anywhere after check-in till the gates except for a few minutes for VAT refund of the laptop. The return flight was somewhat dull with nothing interesting happening. Just another flight, I’d say.

Another Year, Another Monaco GP

2006-05-30T21:55:00.000+05:45

Another year has gone by, and another very dramatic Monaco GP has finished. Even the qualification ended with a drama. Who would have thought Michael would go wide in the last corner of the last lap of qualification and stop that car right across the track? But he did. And in that process he made sure he was the pole sitter for the race, he made his rivals slow down on that last lap. Subsequently he was penalized and placed at the back of the grid. Now I can not pretend that I was not disappointed by what the Stewards did, but at the same time, I can’t ignore the fact that it might have been deliberate. After all, what are the chances that an experienced driver like Michael goes wide in a track like Monaco and stall just inches before hitting the wall? It would not be the first time Michael did something like that in order to win. Who can forget his first championship? Anyway, he was penalized, and started from pit, actually, and after the start, took six of the back-markers, as expected. Jenson held him a little. But he eventually took him.

The worst part of the race must have been the retirement of Kimi. I have always liked him, and David, and Jenson. I’d say, on this race Kimi was the loser of the race. He was doing so well, taking Mark like he did and pushing Fernando all the way. He was sure to win, had it not been for the Safety Car period. He would have taken the race in pit, but he would have come out first. He had such a strong strategy. Even after Safety Car, he had the potential to take the Spaniard on track, if only his engine had not given way just before the Safety Car was to pull in.

If Kimi was the loser of the race, the winner has to be David. Well Michael did perform very well, coming to fifth from all the way back in twenty second, but still, but he had the backing of Ferrari. With a very new entry like Red Bull Racing, it was amazing how David came all the way to the third – his first podium in two years. Anyway, contrary to popular belief that there’s no overtaking in Monaco, this year there were many on track overtakings, primarily those of Giancarlo. As far as I remember, he took 4 guys on track. Or is it two. Of course Michael took 4 guys in first lap and two more in second, but then, he was taking on the likes of Super Aguri Hondas and Midland Toyotas. Jenson managed to hold him for a very long time. And the fact that the likes of Mark and Kimi retired before race finish meant these guys took position without much of overtaking. I mean the highest improvement, that of Michael, gaining 16 positions, was not because of track overtakes. As far as I remember, he took only 7 guys on road. The rest were either due to retirement or due to his single stop strategy matched by Safety Car period.

That was the race this year. I did not wish to make it a lap by lap description of the race. I mean, if you are into F1, no matter how very little, you must have watched _the_ Monaco GP, and you know what happened, I don’t need to repeat everything. If you didn’t watch it, obviously you don’t care much about F1 and wouldn’t want to read anyway. So this is just my bits and pieces of the race. Hope you enjoyed it!!!

When you have nothing to say...!!!

2006-04-17T16:37:00.000+05:45

Hm,

What do you do when you know its about time you wrote something, but have absolutely no idea what to write about? I don't know what you'd do but, me? I contemplate on what to write, until I get and idea. But on occassions like today, when its just impossible to ignore the urge to write, and no matter how much I try, I can't think of something to write about, I just grab the keyboard and start pouring out the words that come into my mind.

But there is a big question of why. Why am I writing when I have nothing to say? Why am I writing when there is so little revolving around my life? If you think I am going to answer them, well, sorry to dissappoint you. I don't know the answer myself. I just had the urge to grab the keyboard and fire away.

The most important thing thats been happening around me here would be the protests. The daily show of voilence and atrocities. The so-called provocation of security troops by so-called vandals who, in-turn, are provocated by so-called vigilante groups. But do I believe in all this? Do I believe in all the voilence? Do I believe that voilence will end sometime soon? I must say no. For the time being, at least, I believe in nothing thats going on here. I don't believe this government will be willing to resolve this conflict peacefully, nor do I believe that the protestors are willing to back down without a fight. I believe that the government is wrong on ignoring such mass demonstration. I believe that the leaders are wrong in giving mixed signals while not coming out in the open. I believe that the demonstrators are wrong in forcing everyone to support them. I don't believe vandals can be stopped, though. Afterall they are vandals. Their only aim is to destroy property thats not theirs and create as much chaos as possible. I believe protestors must identify the vandals and kick them out of their agenda.

Recenlty there's this thing going on, the indicative strike at bank. I do not work in the mainstream business of this bank. My entire job description is directed towards serving those who handle the mainstream business. There's a team who think I must stop all my work, but if I stop all my work, they complain their email and communcation is not working. Because that is my job. They won't work if I don't do my job. So they want those services to work, but not me. Hm, I'd like the idea, all my job gets done and nobody has to do anything.

But then, thats all politics. I am not just about politics! I am not just about my belief. I have a life of my own, that revolves around completely different things, different people, different environment. I have friends and family to spend time with, and I have my trusty old computer to kill time. Unfortunately though, I haven't seen much of friends these past few weeks. That means I have saved a lot on my shopping spree (I have so much to buy - DVDs, magazines, chocolates, to list a few). But that also means I had a lot more time to kill. So for the whole of week end, I was busy killing people, in computer that is. Two days of virtual rampage in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Its a fun game, but unfortunately it gave me an eye problem, and a bit of headache. And oh yes, that reminds me... my HDD crashed. I was very fortunate that I have a second hard disk, and the HDD crashed just after finishing backing it up. That was a very great timing. That disk died just after about 5 minutes of finishing backup. So I lost nothing except a SR71. Couldn't have had it anyway, as I deleted its installer. anyway, I might be able to salvage it.

I think I have gone haywire now. This is one of those posts that came straight from my mind, and I do not intend to review it. (Its 5:20, I must be home in next 10 minutes and It takes me 30 minutes to walk home). I am sure this is one of my worst posts. So ... sorry.

Three stories

2006-03-13T15:13:00.000+05:45

How long does it take to read three books? Three months? Hmmm, that seems too long. Nope. Not for me at least. three weeks is a likely figure. and much closer one as well. but thats not all. i got these books more than five months ago... cost me a cool 1100 bucks to buy them. and it stayed in my library, well hidden, for more than 4 months. of course people knew about it. and the likes of jinendra actually came and looked for them in my library. sorry to dissappoint you folks, but my library is much bigger than my room. very few people know about my extended library, where i keep all my hidden books, and the few that actually know its existence and wherabouts do not care anything about books. The best part is that i finished all three books in the timeframe of a person who started one of the books, but has not yet finished it, at least until last time we had a decent communication.

Which books am i talking about? I can see these questions forming in your minds. well that is natural of course. the books must have been really interesting, or else I wouldn't have finished them so soon. And no, its not those Harry Potter books. I have read all of them long time ago, and finished re-re-rereading them. the new one won't be out for a few years now, so, it definitely is not HP books. Then what else could it be? Well there is one author who is as good as JKR. and his writing style is very different from hers. the only trouble is his earlier publications were relatively unknown. Who am I talking about? the one and only, author of Da Vinci Code... Dan Brown. But I am not talking about DVC. That was an awesome book. really good one. so I went ahead and bought all of his earlier works, Deception Point, Digital Fortress and Angels and Demons.

I started in chronological order, with digital fortress. its a must read for data security enthusiast. It describes what NSA is capable of. I doubt NSA has such a big machine, and the idea that all cypher can be cracked by brute-force attack. If you have encyphered text, you can decipher with any key, but none but one particular key will return the original text. So to brute-force a cypher is two step process, decode and see if it makes sense. but then, what if the text is encyphered twice? how does any machine know to decipher it twice? thats just one of my objection to the "theory of brute-force attack" to every encyphered text. the practicality of a machine so fast it could brute-force the strongest of encoding in a matter of hours is a question on its own. so no matter what Dan Brown says, I remain a skeptic. I don't think the technology that can decrypt strongest of cypher keys of mid-90's exists today. may be with massively parallel computing that uses millions of internet users, but definitely not under a single roof.

The second in order was Deception point. it revolves around a NASA and its biggest dicovery -- a large meteorite containing something unimaginable. I don't want to have spoilers here, so I won't say what it is, even though it is not a big suspense in the story. i am not a rocket scientist nor a marine biologist, so i can't say anything on the technology depicted in it. so let me just move on toward the third book: Angels and Demons. Now, I know the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) exists, and CERN has confirmed that it is used to create antimatter. I also know that antimatter can be created, and it will annihilate, producing brust of energy, when it comes in contact with any matter particle. so far, few atoms of anti-hydrogen has been created and their tracks have been photographed -- their life extending a few nanoseconds. But, of course, antimatter are also charged particle and magnetic field has anti-same effect as with matter particle. so, if you could create a magnetic field that curves around itself, trapping the antimatter particle, you could store it. but once that field is gone, there's nothing but a bright light and intense heat.

I liked all three concepts, but did not like the books, may be except the third one. I was so used to with HP story that I had forgotten there are different writing styles. JKR writes everything with Harry's point of view, and so far, I can remember only four events when Harry was not around in the plot. and he saw one of them in a dream. DB writes with everyone's point of view. one paragraph is from one character and another paragraph is from another character in a different continent!! and for those who have not yet read DB, nope, I am not exaggerating! and there was one chapter that one only a few sentences long.

The concept of the books were very good. I also liked the writing style. But the ending... hm... I dont' have words to describe them. they were awful, at least the first two of them. the third one was considerably better, not as much as DVC, but captivating story nonetheless.

now you may ask why it was hidden for so long. the answer is in my previos posts. if you remember them, i said i was busy with transcription project. I did not want to start a new project before finishing the other one!

One curious thing though. When I started the first of the books, I knew jenu was somewhere in the middle of Angels and Demons. When I finished all three of them three weeks later, she was still somewhere in the middle of that book. I wonder if she finished reading it. she should have, its been, what, three weeks since i finished them?

and if you are still wondering why the title is Three stories? Its after all about three books. Well, it is, but its a tribute to 21st episode of House,M.D., season 1.

So many things I got to say… (Pt. II)

2006-02-16T00:17:00.000+05:45

Madhu got married. So has his sister Nita. I think it was just a little less than a month ago. As usual, I was the photographer, and Achyut was with video. There were two more people for video, brothers, but I forgot their names. They are very good, but I found one major thing I’d do differently. I know they are right, but still, I have my own techniques. They talk a lot. All three of them. They like to engage in conversation with the subject when they are shooting. I like to let them alone – get there, shoot and move out. As if you were never there. Not possible most of the time, but still… that way you get what they were doing; at least that’s what I think. Their idea should bring your subjects’ concentration to camera rather than what they were doing. Nonetheless they got much better pics than I did :(. I wish I could comment on what went on during the events, but I find that bit difficult, considering that it was more than 3 weeks ago. Ah, me and my failing memory. But I do remember I was around for less than an hour on Nita’s wedding. It was a Nepal bandh on that day, so I had to walk for half an hour to get to his home. And then, I had to get to office after the event. I have learnt one thing in office about bandh. If you live within half an hour’s walking distance from office, you had better be at the office on those bandhs, if you do not want awkward questions. If you are not seriously ill, you better be in office. And this day was particularly special. People were ready to come all the way from Thimi, walking. And I had to go.

Anyway, just about a week after their wedding, I had to go to Janakpur. It was a very short trip, just 4 days, nothing to report from there, except that I got a very close sight of the underbelly of the mighty MI17 – not to mention its powerful rotor-blast.

That’s about it I have for this post. Wait, there is one more thing. Something I saw today, just about two hours ago. It’s a portrait, but it was not what took my attention. It was the eyes, the right eye in particular. From the reflection in the cornea, I could tell two light sources, right side being the master light with fill-in from the left side, both of them above the eye as well as the camera. But I couldn’t tell how that effect came to be. I mean, if the frame did not betray it, no one would tell the spectacles. You must have seen some specs without metallic rims – Just two pieces of lens joined by metallic looking bridge and two holders. The edges of lens just merged with the skin under it. I liked that effect. I will never know if I could do that. Not without two separate light sources.

And finally, if you are still guessing what those acronyms in my first post means… HPGoF is Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire. HPOotP is, you must have guessed by now, Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix.

That’s it for this entry. I know this is not a good entry, but at least it is an entry.

So many things I got to say… (Pt. I)

2006-02-16T00:10:00.000+05:45

I have so many things to write, I guess I don’t know where to start. So much has happened since I last posted a blog. First off, there was this huge fanfare for HPGoF. As usual, it took two sessions to fully understand what happened, and what were removed from the book. It was a bizarre experience. But it has been so long, I can’t remember the movie. I liked the part introducing Viktor Crum. Nagini was unexpectedly large. I knew the book described it as huge, but I never imagined it to be monstrous. Almost like a Boa constrictor. And to add on that, it’s had poisonous fangs. Of course there’s no such thing as poisonous fangs on the movie, but the story of HPOotP demands such fangs. So what was I disappointed about in the movie? For starters, I never imagined – may be I did not read right – that talking through floo powder would look like that, just a shape of face among red hot coal. I thought your entire head would be there, floating just above coal and looking out of fireplace, and certainly not above into chimney. Harry’s encounter with that Hungarian Horntail looks very exaggerated than the book. I’d have liked to see the Chinese firebolt being depicted in the movie. And yes, the ladies. Fleur Delacour certainly seems very graceful. And pretty too, but not as much as described in the book. May be no one in real world is as beautiful as described in the book, because Cho Chang, again a very pretty lady, comes short of what the author described in print. But again, what was that saying – beauty is in the eye of the beholder? I have to accept, the casting manager did manage to find some very pretty ladies, but why were the Patil sisters so… how to put it? Mundane? And that dress for ball? What happened to their fashion sense? It looked more like Indian casual dress than a formal one – as far as I remember it was pink Salwar-suit. Come to think of it, I think they looked more like two village girls walking around a typical Indian rural bazaar for some groceries. Then again, coming from me, it does not mean much.

So much about a movie that I watched in December. I don’t think I will do justice to the movie writing about it from what’s left in my memory. Furthermore I have few more things to write about. Now, many people have advised me to write in parts, at least post them in parts to the site. I am trying with this entry, but I am not sure whether this will work or not. Considering the fact that this post has been conceived with lots of little things in mind, I might. And I do have a bit of few more things to write about.

I have been involved in transcribing a few things. Actually it was an interaction program among commercial banks and central bank. As I had very little to do in office, I volunteered to transcribe the whole discussion. It was just over 4 hrs of recording, but … hoo boy… did it take time? At times, transcription of a 5 minute session took more than 3 hours of constant listening, typing, re-listening, retyping, and then some more re-listening and retyping. After about 2 months, first draft is over, and I still have to correct the whole thing in another couple of day’s session. So far I haven’t been able to start correction, not because of lack of time, but because of lack of enthusiasm. And if you ever get a chance to volunteer for any, and I mean any, transcription process, PLEASE DECLINE!!! It may not be pretty, but it sure is easy!

What was I thinking???

2005-11-23T23:41:00.000+05:45

Ok, this is a sequel to my last post... may be a bit too late for this post...

Anyway, to reply some of the comments... I did manage to get some of Amrita's pics. And again, I *am* preparing my website... unfortunately my web developer is going on a hypo-drive (as opposed to hyper....) Raja? You listening? And thanks to Samjhana, for not sleeping half way through it!

Um, well, now that you know I tried to participate in that contest... a few months have gone by before the pics were exhibited. Naturally I was all excited. For the first time, I had put something on public display.

It felt very weird, and kind of hit my nerves. I had about 5 rolls of film, but couldn't find 3 good pics from them. Ultimately mom, dad and sis chose three pics from 200 something pics and I submitted them. And before this, none of my shots have been compared to those of others. People have seen my pics and claimed few of them to be good, and I myself felt one or two of them to be of real value. But for the first time, I was head to head with other amateurs. And boy, they were amateurs, with point-and-shoot cameras, and some had semi-professional digital SLR's. I saw at least one Nikon D75 with a Nikkor lens and Speedlite flash... um.. thats expensive!! hundred and fifty thousand ... cool ... rupees.

So the exhibition starts and I go there.. ask all of my friends to visit the gallary... and vote for me. Many did vote for me, but when I went there, boy, was i ashamed? I think mine were the worst among them. Those that I was proud of.... seemed too... way too... bad. I don't have any other words for them. Anyway, I ducked out of the place and went to closing event, just to get the certificate -- worthless as it was.

I feel, looking as is, without comparision to others, my pics were nice. Definitely not the best, but they were nice. I had a 5 sec exposure of Mahadev-Parbati Mandir, but was a little too under-exposed, a Kumari-in-rath that lacked contrast, and Yashii Event that was just too confusing. All in all, good pics that was not good enough.

Ok so much for now. Raja, I desperately need to upload those pics. Please, please, please finish it soon!!!!

WHAT ON EARTH WAS I THINKING TO PARTICIPATE IN THAT COMPETITION! I MUST HAVE GONE MAD!!

P.S.: Sumit the singer got married today. Do send a note of congrat to him. His maunata finally got broken up!!!

Am I crazy?

2005-09-17T02:52:00.000+05:45

The answer to that question is simple: No. But I must be mad, and a big one at it!! But it is a decision I won't regret, even if I had to be madder by about a thousand times over. Some things are worth everything in life, even your sanity.

The other day, I was working up to something when an unexpected call came up. Obviously I took it – my cousin was on the line – and I was told of an amateur photo contest to be held. I had to find out what I could, so called the number he gave me, and a few hours later, I was there, registering my name for the contest.

It was all nice. A few hours worth of photography on the first day when they erect that Yashii a.k.a. Lingo, left with some highs and some lows. The pictures were not as good as I’d have liked, but a few of them were doable. Anyway, I still had the main event, and a week of shooting. Eventually came the second day, when I even shortened a house-warming party of a co-worker. There were couple of opportunities and I had them captured. Since the films are not yet developed, I can’t say what happened to them.

Anyway, there comes the third day, today, and the main day. I was all ready from the moment I woke up. Read a few chapters of a book till mid-day, and then at 1:30, got ready to go out. It was after an hour when I reached the place, Basantapur. It was one thing getting there, another thing finding a place. It was already packed to full. After 15 minutes of fooling around, I got a perfect place, just to be shunted away after a while by the volunteers there. Again fooled around for a while, and saw something strange.

If you remember Basantapur and the place where they have Kumari’s Rath, you must remember a small chaitya, that now has bar’s all around it, I was just around it and looking at Kumari Ghar, when I saw what I thought was Kumari, looking out of the window; only it was not the central gold (or golden, I don’t know) used just by Kumari, but a different wood one, normal one, at the far left side of the house, looking at someone, Ganesh or Bhairab, I don’t know, (I didn’t look carefully enough) ready to enter Kumari Ghar. Took a few snaps of her. Come to think of it, it could have been either Ganesh, or Bhairab, the one who got there earlier, before I was shunted away from my perfect place.

Anyway, 15 minutes later, armed guards moved us again, and I was back at the place I chose some half an hour ago. Only this time, there was this folk, somewhere from Europe, may be Germany or France, and was occupying free space enough for three people. Well, he was the foreigner and I had to ask him if I could use that space. He refused to give that space, but offered another space, saying he was saving the space for someone. Another half hour goes by, and I stand there, waiting for something to happen, and slowly the dignitaries arrive. That was a slow process, almost an hour. And there were this guy’s people. Turns out he is producer for some European TV station/Network or may be news agency, and his guests were none other than the previous Kumari Amrita and her father Amrit(?). And guess what? I was standing right next to her with a camera fully loaded and ready. I would be a fool to miss that chance. But no body around seemed to know. Kumari has been such generalized that people often do not recognize the person behind the name. No one gives a damn, to the girl who once was Kumari, and who now is sitting so close to you, you could actually hear her whispering to her father. Mind that I wouldn’t have cared myself, if I was not told of her identity, but never the less, I felt bad for her. Anyway, she turned out to be very shy, and answered a single word “No” to a question that producer bloke put to her – “do u miss all that?” pointing to the current Kumari, as she was being put up on to her rath, I was lucky I was able to get about 5 of her pictures, all from side, showing only half of her face. Around that time the king arrived, and the festivities started. After about 15 further minutes of waiting, Kumari Jatra started, and to my amazement, the rath came straight towards where I was standing. The rath must have been something like 10 feet away where it stood, to let raths of both Bhairab and Ganesh to pass ahead. And I had a very close view of Kumari, both the current and the previous ones. To shoot inside rath, I over exposed by two stops, but forgot to set it back to zero when I had the chance to shoot 75% of Amrita’s face. It was on 1/8 sec exposure, not sure if vibrations made it any bad. After that king went back, and I was back, all tired with 3 hours of standing up. Two events of the evening, Matayaa and Dagii, would start too late and I was too tired. May be next year, if I am not alone to fool around for couple of more hours, I will shoot that. But this year... no, not this time. It is too maddening to shoot the crowd of people you don't know and receive a patronizing stare back, or the event that those people give a damn about. Worse still, I dropped my stand and might have damaged it significantly. Lemme go check it out!

Malaysia – truly Asia

2005-08-25T00:49:00.000+05:45

I did send that note sometime ago that I was going on a vacation, not to all though. Anyway, its been two weeks since I got back, and now I am writing about that visit.

It was a great visit, a much needed break from 10-5 routine that had taken hold of in last few years. It was just an offhand question my dad asked me one not particularly fine day. There had been an ad in some paper (read Kantipur) that there was a package tour of Malaysia real cheap. Kapil uncle had saw it and an in promptu program was set. Then next week was hell of a week, what with arrangements of passport and stuff. It was on Saturday when everything was finally set, and we were to fly on the very next day, 31st of July.

Airport was hell of a place. With more than 200 ppl going to Malaysia, many of them to work, it was crowded. Had to wait in line for almost half an hour just to check in. Then further waiting, and finally boarding … after half an hour of delay. The flight was much better than I had anticipated though. Food could have been better, but overall, no complains on flight – not anything on the Boeing 767, not with crew, nothing, except weather. It was cloudy almost all the way. And when aircrafts enter clouds, the dynamics take over the control from pilots. B767 is a big plane, but when it rocks, it rocks. A climb to 40000 ft won’t solve that problem! Anyway, rocking back and forth, right and left, for 4 and a half hours, we finally land in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. And the first thing I see from the aircraft after touch down is Sepang F1 circuit. It was like, being so close and yet so far away. Aaanyway, after getting lost in the airport, after looking hungrily at so many books and book-stalls without single Malaysian penny in pocket, after 15 minutes in line for immigration, after half an hour of waiting for another group sharing our ride in airport, after one and a half burger, after one coke and a coffee, we finally get out of the airport, only to wait for the car! When we got in the car, the other group went on searching for a SIM card. Well, that time was not totally wasted though; I had a couple of very nice pictures. It was almost sunset when we came out, and underexposed by two stops at ¼ sec f/22 at dusk was great to get the world tallest control tower’s silhouette. I am planning to upload those pics soon.

The A’Famosa Resort where we were staying is in Melaka, a city about 200 KM from KL, but the hotel is about in the middle of two cities. An hour of drive and I was already awed by the state. What a road, and what a respect for other drivers. Automated toll booths, and greenery, although it continued turning darker by the minute until appeared to be blackery soon. The resort, we were told, is one of the biggest in Malaysia, spreading over 520 hectares of land. Took almost 15 minutes by bus to go from entrance gate to the very last point! Includes a big water world, and a big animal world, few dozens of restaurant and daily show. And yes, a lily flower somewhere in cowboy town. Wish I had some of the pictures of the show in cowboy town. But I have that lily flower in one of the pictures, a single stop over exposed and bright sunlight did it just right.

Melaka city is crowded. And with only one place where we were taken, not a big market too. We were told that there was only one super market in the area. Well the market was super okay, super expensive that is. A shirt worth 2000 in NPR!! That is more than super expensive.

The third day we were back to KL and was there overnight. Swiss Garden Hotels was nice, and it happened to be very close to one of the best shopping centers of the city. Found some cheap stuff as well, but we were there only for over night so not much of shopping. Then we headed for Penang, an island city about 400 KM North of KL. It is a small island, but plenty to see. I liked butterfly farm there, as well as the botanical garden. Fort Cornwallis was also good. China market was cheap and bought lots and lots of tee-shirts there. The bridge joining mainland and Penang is something like 13 km long, a full 7minutes of drive across. I can still remember the smell of sea air when we were crossing the bridge.

Then back to KL. Got to the hotel in 4 and half hours of driving. It was Grand Seasons hotel, a few kilometers west of the other hotel we were in few days ago. But their monorail took us to many of important shopping centres. I was planning to buy a camera lens, a flashgun and a mobile, but they are not cheap there. No expensive as well ;) the prices are in the same range as here. So didn’t buy anything. Laptops were cheaper, but didn’t think I needed one – a decision I regret to this day. I got some very good deals as well.

Anyway on the eighth day, we headed for airport back home. It was the formal inauguration of Air Nepal International and they had arranged buffet dinner in the airport itself for the arriving minister of transportation. Took another half an hour to clear us through. And what was the food in the aircraft? Total, forgive my word, crap. They didn’t have vegetarian food and gave me some noodles instead. It tasted like crab. Yeah, that’s right, crab, not crap.

Managed to get home somehow after 4 and half hours of mental tourture in that frigging metal tube full of rowdy people. I vividly remember the days when we would come back from college in local bus. Us getting all excited, making lots and lots of noise, enjoying. I guess other people found us very disturbing, or even crazy and uncivilized. But I can attribute it to age, or rather lack of it. What was disturbing to me on that flight was that there were people, older people, much older than me, behaving like kids, like we used to behave. One person went on and started smoking in toilet, keeping in mind that it was strictly non smoking flight. I wish he was thrown out of that plane.

Anyway got home at around 10:30 pm. And the one thing I kept reminding myself over then night was that in 8 days that I was there, I heard only one instance when I heard multiple horns going off from more than one vehicle. And two more instance when heard other horns and that was less than a second, combined. I tried to remember that when I went to office next day. Unfortunately, I went off for about 2 seconds the moment I got out of my gate;)

And yes, we were five there, Mom, Dad, Kapil uncle, Hasna aunti and I.

HP and U-NO-Poo!!!

2005-07-20T13:22:00.000+05:45

As I sit to write it, I am not sure where to begin. The last 30 something hours have been very intense. Very very intense. I think I will start at the very beginning, as usual…

Well, first there was this Big Bang, which lasted, according to astrophysicsts, something like a few nano seconds…

Oh well, lets not go that far behind – just a few years then… about one and a half to be exact. It was one warm day when I was out on a mission… a mission for the office, trying to find out how much a Sun Micro system costs. Anyway, it got around to lunch and on the way back, passed this book shop with many posters and pamphlets, one of them stood out among them. I had already been fascinated by the story ever since I watched the first movie, but had not yet got the book, and there it was, an A2 size poster of the block buster – Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix. Of course, I was already aware that it was not the first of the series, nevertheless, I had to go in and ask if the first one was available. As luck would have it, there was one copy left of Harry Potter and Philosopher’s Stone. I don’t think nothing has changed me more than that book. Reading it was a different sensation – made me an avid reader. Ever since that book, I have been reading something in every of my free time – from science, to science fiction, to biography to pure fiction. And I am writing about this particular book that I recently acquired.

Now I believe you have understood where I am going. Yesterday, that is 18th of July 2005, I got a call I had been desperately waiting for ever since around New Year. Having read all the five previously released Harry Potter series, I was desperately waiting for the launch of this book, 16th of July 2005, midnight. Now I was confident it wouldn’t be here in Kathmandu on the day of release, but I had a pre-booking nevertheless. Finally there was a call, and I ran to get it. Cost a good deal of 1430 bucks, mind, but it was worth it, at least to me. Finally the wait was going to be over and at about 11 AM I had to run out and get it. Half an hour later, I was reading the first chapter. The next 31 hours were not the same, just not same.

Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince starts at where Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix ends: the end of Harry’s 5th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry has just seen thing he hated to see, and memories that he would rather not have. He has just completed is O.W.L. (Ordinary Wizarding Level) and is expecting to get the results. He knows why he has to stay with his Uncle and Aunt (Vernon and Petunia Dursley) and their son Dudley even though he hates the place. And he knows why he has the destiny that had already been his. The world now knows his as “The Boy Who Lived” and loves him once again. But who does he love? He is already parted with one Cho, and seems Luna is, um, for the lack of better words, well, incompatible.

Ok, that was upto 5th episode. What’s going on in the sixth one? He must be wiser and closer to finish his mortal enemy. And the ones he hates, I mean his fellow student Draco and Potions master Snape? I can tell that their characters thin out a bit, almost a U turn after 5 books’ worth of story. The cover illustrations are great and meaningful – every one of them with significance. But of course I can’t tell everything, lest I open up the secret of the book before you finish it off. Anyway continuing on the story, like I said, the story is intense, and after a non-stop reading except for sleeping and traveling (Yes, I was reading whole day for two days in office, doing nothing else) I can say this much, it was intense. What with Ron’s love story, Hermione secret heartache, and Harry’s, yes, Harry’s feelings (I ain’t gonna say nothing about their love interest, u gotta read the book), the story has enough twists and turns. If you are following mugglenet.com, you must have heard (or read) some stuff vaguely speaking about little romance in the story. Well I can tell you there’s lot more than *little* romance in the story. And a lot more werewolves. Yes, Tonks reappears but with a different outlook. Fleur makes a more frequent appearance of course, what with marriage and stuff. But the story has terrible outcome. And there is a new Defense against dark arts teacher, but who is he? And will he last longer than a year this time? It sure seems so, after all, he had taught in Hogwarts earlier. Remember though, facts do deceive occasionally. As Dumbledor says "Don't count your owls before they are delivered!"

You know it is difficult to tell a story without telling the story. Trying desperately not to spoil your experience if you have not yet read it and plan to read it soon. Anyway, I will tell you only this much, the story is difficult. Very interesting, and shocking. I will say that it is a surprising end, to the end that some kind of disappointing as well. But I guess it fits the big picture on the whole. But definitely sad. Many more deaths are expected as readers of 5th book know what should happen after what happened and who appeared in Ministry of Magic. Remember Igor Karkaroff? They find his this time round all right. But who are “They”? Ministry of Magic? Death Eater? I ain’t saying;) Ya, Quidditch is back, and Harry’s on the team once again, but does he manage to play?

Okay enough said about the book. I know either u r almost asleep wonder who the heck is this Harry, or When can I get the book, or what the heck, I have already read the book. And I will stop before I reveal the story. If you are wondering whether I’d lend my book to you… well sorry to disappoint you. There’s a long enough queue already. I think you better get your copy elsewhere if you want to read it any time soon.

One thing for sure, I will be desperately waiting for the very last of the series of these books, I can see the hints what will happen in the end and how it will happen, but the side stories will be interesting as well... like who will Harry end up with, I mean romantically. Ya Draco is also important aspect, what will happen of him? And will the end be just as I imagine? The story simply continues from this book onwards so I think I know what will happen, but the details of how things turn up will be quite a read… guess another 30 something hours of very intense reading.

So long then. Keep reading!!

Saurabh

P.S. Who the heck is Half Blood Prince? Its definitely not Harry nor Voldemort. And I liked U-NO-Poo!!!!

Uh-oh

2005-07-20T00:29:00.000+05:45

wow,
its been more than a month since my last post. I promised so many things to write, but couldn't manage it. I found a new topic to write so here it is!!

wait for another post in about a minute

Saurabh

PS, its a very long one, you've been warned!!!!

Grand Prix de Monaco, this year

2005-05-23T22:37:00.000+05:45

Last Sunday was a GP weekend, and the most romantic one as well – The Grand Prix de Monaco! The slowest race of the calendar of Formula 1 season is the most prestigious of the race. They say every CEO and directors of every sponsor of every team is there to watch their team perform, so the team naturally wants to win it, even those of the likes of Minardi and Jordan. Did I say likes of Jordan? I guess I did, and what a down turn for them. For F1 fans, it is not news that this penultimate team used to be world champions. They had the likes of one time World Champion Damon Hill and superb driver Heinz Herald Frentzen. Now they have become playgrounds for newbies of the likes of Narayanan Karthikayan and Tiagro Monteniro. And to make it worse, they qualified behind Minardi, the worst performer in terms of race position. I like Minardi, primarily because they know they are test beds and spring boards for newcomers, and better still, they have a very reliable car, a slow one – allright, but a reliable car. Reliability of other teams has also improved a lot since last season. Very few engine blowouts was seen since the season of 2004, and one of them was that of Takuma Sato in his BAR, at Monaco. Wow!! That was a blowout all right, and took nearly half of the contestants with him in the aftermath. Poor DC (David Coulthard) had to stop and Giancarlo Fisichella slammed him for the rear end and went flying, taking out DC’s rear wing. The one driver I hate the most, Juan Pablo Montoya, took Michael Schumacher out. It was the aftermath of Satosan’s accident when all cars were following safety car, and Montoya, arguably the most aggressive driver in F1 circle, running one lap behind, hit Schumi in the tunnel when Schumi locked up. It was a racing incident, but it took Schumi out of race.

This year, it was big, with almost half of Star Wars crew sitting in pit with RedBull Racing, Kimi putting a stunning qualification time, and Ferrari’s troubles. The race started normally, with Alonso trying to get in front of Kimi, but the Finn held on to is position throughout the race, from green light, all the way up to checkered flag. It was nice to see him go like that. After all he is not Montoya. I’d hate it, if Kimi and Montoya swapped positions. I just hate that Columbian. Fortunately he had a penalty from Saturday practice, and started from the penultimate position. Schumi started from 8th and Rubina started from 10th. It was all fun and repetitive with Willams trying to go in front of Renaults and pushing them hard, Schumi pushing DC, Montoya tailing Rubino, and outstanding performance of both Toyotas (Ralf and Trulli). But all of a sudden, the Minardi of Christian Albers spun behind the blind corner just ahead of that famous and slowest corner in F1 calendar, and DC was caught with surprise, but managed to miss the Minardi. But it was too late for Schumi, and rammed the rear of DC. Poor DC couldn’t finish here this year as well. Schumi lost his front wing there and had to pit in – absolutely devastating his strategy. The safety car came out while the debris was cleared and race was go a couple of laps later, but Schumi was a lap behind Kimi, in 13th position. But the group of cars in front of him, led by, I think, Fisichella was slow enough to let him catch and join the train of, I think, 5 or 7 cars. Anyway, Vellneuve took out his car while trying to overtake is Sauber team mate Massa, who had to take evasive action to avoid ramming into the side bars, and both of them lost many positions. Then Trulli, obviously frustrated that he could not get in front of Fisichella, tried a do-or-die attempt at the slowest corner, and jumped over the corner. This is a very high bump, and at a time, all four wheels of Trulli was air-borne, but Fisichella had to take evasive action, that slowed him down on the exit of the next corner, and he lost his position to everyone in the train, and got back to 10th from 5th. But the bump gave troubles for Trulli, who, at the chicane after exit of the tunnel, had a massive understeer and lost time to everyone all the way up to Fisichella. By that one action of Trulli, both the Ferrari’s were in point scoring position of 7th and 8th, Schumi following Rubino. It stayed like that for a while then, Nick attacked and went ahead of Alonso and then Webber also went ahead to 3rd position after next few laps, and the race stayed same all the way up to the last lap. Schumi got ahead of Rubino (Team order I guess, but it is not allowed anymore and the move was not shown in TV) and attacked his brother at the very last corner. He was almost side to side before the finish line, and was a photo finish. I had thought it had been a dead heat, both brothers finishing exactly at same time in 6th position, but Schumi was classified 7th, less than tenth of a second after Ralf.

Well, that was the race, after the race, who was the Winner of the day and Loser of the day. The loser was no contest – Jarno Trulli in his Toyota. He had potential, and he did manage to get in front of that very wide Renault of Fisichella, but he lost the car after that move. It was a very daring move, and at the most impossible of the places. But he lost it all together, and took Fisichella along with him to 9th. Winner of the day was difficult to select. I’d say Kimi, because he stayed P1 all the way from green light to checkered flag, but it was relatively easy to finish his race. He had a superb car and a great strategy. No one is surprised at his performance. I knew he’d win. Both the Williams were great, overtaking the Renault of Alonso. It was hard for them, but I won’t call them winner of the day either. Both Ferrari’s ended in points, but again, they can’t be justified as winner of the day. Montoya? Well, P17 to P5 is great, but I hate that man, can’t give it to him. I guess Ralf would be Winner of the day. From P18 to P6, it is exactly the same jump as Montoya, but as opposed to Montoya, he did not have empty piece of track behind him. Both the Ferrari’s were far superior to his Toyota, and Barichello tried more than once to get infront of him in the latter stages, and Michael tried same thing before Barichello. At the last lap, Michael jumped ahead of his team mate and tried to go P6, both the brothers rubbed their tires, and Ralf had a heart-stopping moment after that (Did he crash? He could have, it was a very sharp and big swerve, and at that speed…? But no, he stayed in single piece). But Ralf remained P6 at the finish line, just about quarter of tenth of a second before his big brother.

It was a Monaco Race. Both the drivers of McLaren Mercedes had diamond encrusted safety helmets. The Red-Bull Racing team was on Star Wars livery, celebrating the release of Stars Wars Episode III, and a side-pod on DC’s car claimed they were powered by The Dark Side!! You always see such publicity stunts at Monaco. After all, it is the most important race venue!!

Aba ta ati bho

2005-05-02T06:15:00.000+05:45

After what felt like umpteenth time Sushil commented about my long time silence, I am trying to restart. the trouble is I can't write on a single sitting, it takes time to write. a very long time... so long that i can't do it in office. and when i get home... well the TV is very attractive, with HBO and Cinemax back on line, its very difficult not to lie down and goggle at the wretched box!! so there goes another hour in front of the box. it is almost unbelivable that, a few years ago, i was such an emailer that subash once said his mailbox got filled up, today, my mailing frequency is once a week.. and with 600 mails to download (yup, that is 6 with two (2) zeros) on one such sitting, i rarely write a word unless it is very important... why, the last time i wrote something from home must be about a year ago... so here it is.. the new me.. the lazy me.. the non-writing me.. the tv-goggling me. now here i am trying to be the writing me.. so far all i am doing is pretending to be one.

ok lets put a blame for this lazyness. i have already blamed TV... now there is one more thing i would like to acknowledge its presnece... msn messneger. everytime i think of writing to someone, i first check if he is online. if he is, then proceed to chat rather than email... now chatting of course is interactive and no need to think but just respond to what hte other guy says.. that took a chunk out of my writing skills, and a far far bigger chunk out of my writing enthusiasm... (but of course, i stopped writing long before i started using msn messenger;) thats' another story to investigate).

tara aba chai ati bho.. aba ta lekhnu paryo.. tyesaile here i am writing one more thing -- straight from my दिमाग । न बढि न कम!!

may be tomorrow i will have some thing more.. i still have to write about RBB and NIFMIS. my aggrements and disaggrements with co-workers, my photos, my photography, mannu's new hobby, pappu and jine's new routine, my health and so on.. there are more than a billion subject i need to write about.. but do i have time? and more importantly will i overcome my laziness? i don't know... but with sushil and his kick on the line, i think i will.

So long then.. I have to go home u know....

Congratulations to you all!!

2004-09-18T02:24:00.000+05:45

Dear all,
17 September 2004, The day when you have officially graduated from 4 year of college life. I hope many of you have settled into something or other. From this day onwards, you are in a different journey -- a completely different from what you had in last four years. So let me first congratulate you, every one of those who got that beautiful leather covered folder holding a piece of white paper with a few words along with your name printed in it, and bearing a seal of KU. Let me warn you though. that beautiful leather folder won't look as beautiful in a few months' time!!!

You have never stopped amazing me. When I first knew some of you, I thought I had seen some of the most immature, and childish people I had ever seen. I used to wonder, when I was your senior, and not a teacher, and definitely not a friend, what would happen to the those of you. Within four years, you have matured so much that now I am definitely sure you are ready for life. If I had travelled in time from 2000 to today, I am sure I would not recognized any one of you. When I received some unexpected calls particularly in the last months of your study, I did not think I'd be asked about the job market. Many people asked me whether they would be sold in the job market. Many people who hated the very idea of studying, and had the idea that passing was about getting a GPA of 2 with two back-papers for comparts, were found working very hard to get a distinction. There were those who I though would excel in studies, and they did it in levels I had never imagined.

As you moved up your ladder into second year, and I moved into the circle of faculties, I had the opportunity to be your course instructor. That semester, with a course in Data Structures and Algorithm, and later that year for some of you with Hardware and System Installation, I came to know you better. In these two years, I had found many good friends, not to mention good students as well. My experience had always been that good friends make bad students, but you had a surprise in store for me. Never before, and never again, I have found friends who could as easily turn into good student once inside the classroom. And how could I forget 3rd October 2001? I will never forget that day for the rest of my life. That was one of the very few time people other than my immediate family wished me a happy birthday primarily because i celebrate my birthday by lunar calendar, and it happens in dashain. My birthday had always been mostly private -- until then.

At this moment, I must mention one name among you. The rest of you, please don't consider I value you less, but this one event meant a lot to me, particularly in that day. I don't remember the date. All I remember is that it was sometime in October-November 2001. It started as just another day in class until that faithful moment, the moment when I had a familiar chest pain, only that it was big time. I was having trouble breathing, but I knew it was momentary. But when it did not appear to diminish as it happens mostly with me, I asked for a glass of water. I just saw someone sprint from that room, didn't even realize who it was. Only when I got that glass full of water did I realize that it was Arun. I remember i drank that water, thanked Arun and continued in class -- I was so determined in teaching, sometimes I believe the determinations of the likes of mine in those days that led to the invention of the character of Professor Binns in the famous Harry Potter series. Poor Arun thought I had a stroke or something! You must really have been disappointed that I continued the class!!

Around October-November 2002, I had to leave KU. All of you seemed to be happy for me. I received many congratulations -- from almost all of you. Deep down inside, I knew I was killing myself. I had an opportunity to take one more course with you, which happened to be my last course in KU. I had started my teaching carrier with you folks, and it seem I ended it with you! In that period of one year, I saw a lot of changes, the way I had performed in and out of class, the work I had to do for those classes, the reduction in sleep hours when I got home, ever pending homework books. And I saw a lot of changes in you, the ever present full house classroom, ever increasing stack of homework submissions -- unfortunately, the number of unique submission did not increase in the same rate. But anyway everyone of you had worked better than I had thought you would. I started my first DSA class with a vague idea of mostly average with some excellent and a few hopeless students, By the time I finished that SP, I knew how wrong I had been. This group has become, at least for me, mostly excellent with few average students and more important, a whole bunch of good friends. Even after those courses, I remember Bikal getting excited on phone with me one day announcing his best ever GPA. He had gotten better than his own standards, apparently. I was very fortunate to share some of your joys in these four years. I for sure tried my best to help solve some of your fears and worries.

Today, in this very important day of your lives, I had hoped to see all of you once again. I wanted to see you in that black gown. I wanted to congratulate each and every one of you in person. Unfortunately, Nepali Language in Information Technology, Steering Committee thought today and tomorrow as the best days to organize two day seminar on National Standardization Training. Worse still, my office nominated me for the training. Now, with the hindsight, I think I should have left that training for your event, but I was not smart enough. By the time I thought I could leave the program, I knew it was too late. So my one thousand and one apologies to all of you. And Congratulations. Congratulations to all of you for making it up to here.

But please remember, this is not the end. Many of you will go for a job, some for higher education. some may settle somewhere else. I want to emphasize that now, you are no longer pardoned for mistakes, no matter what you do or where you go. Starting today, you are expected to be a responsible person. And it is most important that you become a good human being and serve the community in whatever way you can. Many of you must already have found your way to serve, some may be searching for that way, some may be trying to find a better method to serve. My recommendation is, if you are not more than 30 years of age, If you do not have a responsibility to sustain your family for a long time, and If you are not lazy (which I am sure none of you is), do not go for a government job. A job like mine, no matter how attractive, generally tends to kill your productivity and creativity.

Once again, my congratulations to all of you: Alina (Joshi sir is still in Ministry, right? Pls convey my namaste to him), Alok, Anand, Anish, Anita, Arun, Ashish, Barsha, Barun, Bijay, Bikal, Bikash, Bindu, Birendra, Bishwo, Chaitanya, Dilip, Diwas, Ekta, Gaurav, Himal, Huma, Jagan nath, Jitendra, Karun, Kripa (Pls send my namaste to Bista sir), Manas, Narayan, Naveen, Neema, Nichu, Niraj, Niroj, Nishant, Nishupta, both Nitin's, Pooja, Prajna, Prakash, Pramod, Prasiddhi, both Pujan's, Raju, Ramesh, Rashmi, Robin, Rudhir, Sameep, Sameer, Samir, both Sandeep's, Sanjeet, Sansar, Shikhar, Shishir, Smeeta, Somiya, Sugat, Sujan, Sulav, Suman, Sushil, Suzu, Tri Bikram and Yamuna. Did I forget someone? I no longer have your list, and I operate completely with my failing memory along with some old address book, so if I missed someone, please forward this message to them, with another one thousand and one apologies. At some strange points in time, I hope, we will meet, when I will be able to deliver this congratulatory message in person to all of you, a few people at a time, if not all at once. I have many memories I wanted to share with you, but some may be too personal to you to discuss here, and rest are just too long and will make this mail even longer. Hopefully sometime, we will discuss in person.

I am sorry for this extremely long mail. I think I got carried away in the middle. If I missed someone, those who get it, please refer others to my blog: href=http://saurabhdass.blogspot.com> http://saurabhdass.blogspot.com . i will be more than happy to get some comments, even for my previous blogs.

Until next time,

Saurabh Dass Manandhar

Congratulations to us all

2004-09-18T02:23:00.000+05:45

Just a note to congratulate all of us. Its been three years since we graduated. It has been a lots of ups and downs and today definitely is not my day. Even the night has turned away from me. Its almost 2:30 AM and I am still working on what to write next. I will try to edit it sometime next week, so please forgive me for going into my next blog.

Saurabh

Networking is so difficult.....

2004-08-02T14:34:00.000+05:45

World is filling with Internet. Everyone is simply hooked by it. Just about everyone needs it. And they need it in their office. Of course the office will pay for the internet, and for their time that was spent on the Internet. And yes, they need it at their desktop.

It is not of concern for the techincal feasibility whether single point on the desk is possible or not. They need it and they need it yesterday. It doesn't matter whether one more point in network makes life of others very difficult. Thats the way consumers are. All they are concerned about is service. But these consumer only want service, not the quality of service. It does not matter if a 1 kb document takes more than one hour to down as long as they can download it on their desktop.

It is extremely sad facet of all this is that overall quality of service does a steep nose dive. And the technical personnels responsible for making sure that does not happen falls victim to beaurocracy. People will do anything in their powers -- request, befriend, try and talk through, impose superior order, humiliate -- to get that done. The working task force is reluctant, never willing to give in to those forces. Ultimately, though, the working force is made to do it, whether they like it or not. And why should they like it? They will like it better if they didn't have to work at all. They will like it much better if they were also able to just enjoy the Internet!! Afterall thats what everyone else is doing!!!

Readers must perceive that with all thats going on for Internet On Desk, some real work must also be happening. Let me put it this way. Part of the traffic that goes through my test proxy server is mostly directed to messenger clients -- yahoo, msn and aol, top of the list being yahoo. Second most popular site is cricket statistics and live scores, third is windows update, fourth is MSN Messenger. In July, MSN Messenger was downloaded 2935 times. With a network of about 200 computers, that results to almost 15 downloads per computer. Online Cricket score was updated 20000 times. And thats just straight sites. about 25% of bandwidth goes into pornography of one kind or another. Around 30% goes to pictures of pretty girls around the net. About 10% goes to emails. There are lot more than those activities in Internet. So how much of the bandwidth is actually used for the office? How much of this bandwidth is actually productive?

With these questions in mind, I have yet to decide how to manage networking in another 700 or so computers that will arrive in this office within few years. I am going crazy thinking about what to do when so many computers arrive. How do I create more access points? How do I accomodate more computers in already cramped network? I am going crazy. may be in a few days, you will find me in a certain hospital, my hairs all straight, unshaven for weeks, cloth looking more like rags, etcetra, etcetra. But until then, please let me sign off and enjoy my sanity -- or whatever is left of it. Ciao.

The day when my mobile broke down

2004-07-29T10:57:00.000+05:45

It all began when a mosquito bit me the other day, and I had this irresistable urge to scratch. Eventually it led to a small wound and that later developed an infection. So, now, for a few days, I have been going to Kapil uncle's place for its medication. Yesterday was my second day, and since I was on a shirt, I had to take it off, my wound being right next to right shoulder. I ended up putting my mobile on floor. When medication finished, I stood up to put on my shirt, and then it happened, "crack", a small but definite sound of plastic board cracking. Apparently my knee was over it, with my full weight of over 70 Kilos now. Now Jine has had his plastic screen of mobile cracked, and my mobile is just a day older than his, I thought, for a second before looking into the mobile, the upper screen may have cracked. And I was going to New Road, AND I have always wanted a black cover anyway, for that second, I thought it was time to buy a new cover. Then the horror struck -- I glanced over the phone. It had this funny display, looked strikingly similar to a pair of lips tightly closed together across a wide smile. I didn't believe what I saw. Maybe the stress of my weight bent it to discolor and restart would solve it... off it goes, and --WOW.. the pattern stays even when it is off!! Now panic starts to take over. I still had a computer to check out, turns out it is a display problem, and I start moving towards New Road... PRT was waiting... My mind was to get it fixed and get it sold! Didn't care how much it would fetch, but I wanted to get rid of if, at any cost. OK now it need a careful assessment of situation, a definite crack on LCD, and a pair of tight lips. The reality slowly hit -- what if LCD is not available? What if it is very expensive? The very thoughts are scary... scary enough to drive you crazy. So I get to New Road, and start my hunting.

There are so many mobile repair centers around New Road. at least 50 of them. So I choose one and ask the price -- 2200 bucks for a duplicate one. Few more and they shake their head - one even priced it 3-4 thousand!! It is kind of relief, at least it is available, though a bit expensive. almost half the price of the set itself. And a variation of price -- if people don't know anyone, its so easy to take you on a hike. after about two hours of hunting, and a considerable effort from Prabin dai (He would be my cousin's co-worker), I managed a piece at Rs 2200, for an original Nokia replacement.

What surprised me the most from this ordeal was the availability of the screen. I started out thinking how common would it be to break the screen of mobile. Lets do some maths, there are about, I don't know, 100000 lines in ktm? Okay, lets make it 200000, about 100000 in 98412xxxxx series and roughly same figure in 98510xxxxx series. Mind, these are distributed throughout Bagmati zone, as I understand it. But lets say about 90% of them is within valley and its periphery. There should be at least 100 different models of mobile sets, and no one can put a figure on how many sets of a model is in use. Lets say roughly 10% of the total set in use is Nokia 6610, the model I own. That would make roughly 18000 sets. A considerable figure, I will agree that. But the shopkeeper told earlier on the phone that he is almost out of stock. Now, with that, I'd assume he has just a piece or two left. When I got to the shop, he says he has 10 pcs left!! And he was out of stock. He is expecting a new consignment today -- who knows, may be 100 pcs, may be 50 pcs. May be just 10 pcs. But judging by what he said, I'd bet on above 50 pcs. Their talks make me think they get at least one consignment a week. Now that is 50 pcs a week for a shop. That would average out a mobile's LCD life for 360 weeks... A little more than 4 years. But assuming there are around 50 repair centers around the valley with similar businesses, the average life comes down to more like 7.2 weeks!! Of course I wouldn't bet that there are 50 businesses with similar volumes but I think I can count up to 10 places I went yesterday. And that too, in the range of half of Pako road. Even with 10 businesses doing 50 LCD's a week, average lifespan of 6610 LCD seems to be 36 weeks, half a year. Now, wouldn't you think that it is a little too much? Isn't 6610 a little too prone to danger? Now, so far I have talked about only the Genuine Nokia Spare part. Judging by the price difference, I'd bet there are equal amount of duplicate LCD screens in the market. Now you do the maths, and figure out a final figure. Mind, there are more than 10 mobile repair centers in the valley. Well, it does give some insight to shoppers out there, doesn't it?

Well, my ordeal is over and my initial instincts to throw it away has jumped out of window. After all, all that was done on it was opening of 6 screws and a tweezer work to remove connector. No solder required. I guess the new one would also be similar handiwork, and will not be much more different, except that it'd be done in a better environment. And I am happy with the end result. So I will keep it for a while.

What happened to the broken LCD screen? Well, soon after that replacement, a couple of Electronic De-Engineers got hold of it and started playing with it. The result now looks more like graph of wide histeresis loop, rather than a pair of neat, nice and tightly closed lips across a wide smile. Guess every engineering starts with some de-engineering!!

Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban

2004-07-21T22:20:00.000+05:45

The other day I was minding my own business (Read it “Reading yet another Harry Potter book”) during my lunch break when someone IM’d me. She was actually waiting for more than an hour, and our little chat went from all ranges to stop at the HP movie. And guys, before you start thinking since when has HP started making movies, let me tell you, HP does not stand for Hewlett Packard. Turns out she also wants to see that movie, and being two of a kind, I kind of thought to ask her to the movies on the following day. She’d like that, but the following day happened to be Friday, and Niraj called me to go find his mobile. After about 18 hours of that IM, I had forgotten all about my plans, and agreed with Niraj. It wasn’t until 8 PM that I remembered the movies. This was disappointment beyond description. Felt something like a hundred Dementors came across my room and sucked every little bit of happiness out of me.

But guess we muggles can’t have a one-on-one with luck. As fate would have it, I was given a treat of the movie. How I got it, is a completely different story, may be I will post it some time in future. What matters is the fact that I got there on Sunday morning show. But I was very tight on schedule. A meeting soon after movie meant I would not be allowed to reflect on the movie, and to make matter worse, my phone rang quite a few times during the show. And guess what? Jine called me. And by the time I cancelled that call and turn towards the screen – a time span of less than a minute – there it was – Harry’s equivalent of “The End”!!

I have a hunch that reviewers at Yahoo! Movies didn’t do a good job at grading it D. That movie didn't deserve a D! If they asked me, I'd have given something completely different, more on the lines of F. Either they didn’t read the story, or they didn’t watch it carefully enough, possibly both. Why did it occur to the director to make Harry scream when he rides his Firebolt for the first (and last in the movie) time? It’s as if a fighter pilot screaming upon going supersonic for the first time. Harry used to own a Nimbus 2000, and never lost a game of quidditch on it!! He is a good rider, and experienced too… bit unusual for him to scream. Furthermore, some of the viewers were laughing, at times hysterically, when the story was supposed to be very grave. People were laughing when Dementors arrived, or when Professor Boggart Snape appeared in front of Neville, or when a large spider came in front of Ron. That’s supposed to be scary, not funny! May be they didn’t have the advantage I had, but all in all, I was disappointed. Even the story’s timeline seems to be shortened. And why was Dumbledore’s welcome speech altered? What happened to the role of Crookshank the cat? Why is it just a pet and nothing more? Would Malfoy, a “pure blood” really be so afraid of Hermione, a “mudblood” when facing her wand? Would someone as big as Crabbie and Goyle sprint to safety when Malfoy gets a punch from Hermione? And whatever happened to Quidditch cup? Harry was supposed to win it this year!! At least in the story!!!

It all started with an IM and ended with a day long meeting. As I had guessed, I couldn’t reflect upon the movie. I am furious over myself for forgetting my plans on Friday. But well... we are mere muggles, and can’t fight what has already been decided. Sorry Jenu, for being busy on that faithful evening. I wish I could call you sometime soon, but as the heavenly bodies tell me that it will not be possible for this movie. Mars is awfully bright and that means returning back from evening show will be late… a little too late for you. For the rest of the folks, well, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Why is my phone still silent? Let’s face it, even if I gave it a Z grade (if that existed) and I absolutely hated that movie, I’d still go there for a late night show!!! At least I can reflect upon what happened in the movie. And this time, I will make sure my cell phone IS actually switched off!

First post never has anything interesting

2004-07-14T16:03:00.000+05:45

Well, this is not a lot more than my "experiment" with blogs, since Sushil has recommended it.. Primarily he seems to be using it quite successfully....

after reading Sushil's latest post (http://sushilbajra.blogspot.com/) ... I guess I'd like to take a ride with that "thingie" and experience 2g first hand... I would not guess it has more than 2g worth.... thats more than enough to freak out lesser mortals like us.. Fighter pilots, however, crave for more. Not that I haven't tried myself for high g experience... at one time I almost killed myself!! My machine was very crude.. and I doubt, now, it could have done 1g. So there I was, on my machine -- my trusty old RX 100 -- and speeded up to 60 km/hr. After that, my target was to slow down to 20 km/hr in ONE second. That would have created my 1 g, or so I thought. I did my maths on the fly and to this day I have not thought necessary to do the calculation again with more accurate methods. Anyway, I did slow down, but with a drum brake? Well lets just say I managed 0.25g on that one attempt and never tried again. I guess I was smart enough to try that when the road was empty and even smarter that I haven't tried that again... yet..

well so much for my experiment... I will come back again after a while.. May be I will write on some more crazy stuff that I have been through. gimme ur thoughts and I will improve myself