A Warm Winter Evening

So I exited the store in a haste.
“He always does that and i really hate it when he behaves that crude” I was fuming and cussing.

It was a trivial issue, he chose a simple looking room-heater for his room while I was adamant on a stylish one with swivel head and shiny buttons.
“You always choose a boring crap” i said.
“You never care for my likes as if my existence means nothing to you, there are children who show respect to their parent’s decisions but you are not one of them,” dad reprimanded in a complaining tone.
Mom stood in between watching our drama and hinted me to keep mum. I looked around, all eyes were staring at us and that sales-girl was hiding her pestering smile. Felt so embarrassed so humiliated that I kept that basket on the floor and left the shop.
while leaving I heard him mutter his dissatisfaction to my open defiance, and I stamped out of the store.
As soon as I came out I slowed down, possibly because it was cold outside and also our car wasn’t parked in the vicinity of the supermarket. Hence I stalled and retreated to the exit gate of the store, stood there and decided to wait for them.
From outside I kept looking towards the billing counter, watched several people and families exiting that store. Happy kids, happy couples.

Then I saw an old man came out with two bagful of groceries. Wrinkled face, slumped shoulders and a weary gait. Old man needed someone by his side to assist him, but he walked alone. By the time I thought of helping him out he passed by me and covered a fair distance. I kept looking at him till he took the left turn towards the gallery leading to the exit door.
‘Is this how my father would be without me!’ I pondered. ‘He already walks with a limp and instead of assisting in shopping or helping him in carrying the stuffs I left them in the shop, all by themselves!’
“Damn..!”
It wasn’t long before I realized that I did something terribly wrong. I was remorseful , what I did was highly uncalled-for and immature.
Without wasting anytime further i swung towards the store’s door.
“Sorry sir, this is exit gate, entry on the upper floor” the guard said.
Lift was engaged so I took the stairs. I ran as if i needed to catch the last train home, almost stumbled on the stairs.
“Excuse me, make way please. Darn! India is really very populated” I jostled my way to the entrance. Electronics section was located at the second last bay and i was really hurried to reach there quickly.
On reaching I found my parents weren’t there. “They must have moved towards the billing counter” I muttered while walking hastily through the aisle.
I walked ahead and saw my mom checking out some cutlery in the kitchen section. As soon as i reached her I picked up the basket lying on her left.
“That one” she pointed at the one on her right. “and where were you? I guess you were out. right?” she stared at me.
I ignored the question and asked where was dad.
“He waited for you, went to get some coupon at the billing desk. And yes, take these stuffs to him”.
I headed to the billing counter and saw my dad standing there. He held a box under his arm and was looking for something.
Actually , he was looking for someone.
He was looking for me.

I walked towards him. As soon as i reached , he said “Oh Jay, where were you! Hey look  I took  this heater . It is better. and guess what! they are offering a cashback coupon on it! isn’t it great! “

“Yes dad, it is” I nodded and kept my face down, couldn’t look into his eyes.
It wasn’t the simple looking heater  that he wanted to buy but the one I was asking him to.

I was touched.
I felt so poor & miserable.
His simplicity, his self-abnegation. It touched my heart.
Why was I angry? Why did I turn my back against him when I very well knew that he needed me? Why did I lose my temper? Can’t my father expect something from me and shouldn’t I care for his wishes?
Why do we feel humiliated when our parents reprimand us? Why do we care more about the strangers watching us and not about the dissatisfaction in the heart of a person who gave us this life!

After finishing up with the shopping we headed towards our car. I was walking behind them. I was thinking how dark my life would be without them. ‘They are the reason why I am, what I am, whatever I would be. They are my blessing. How can i turn my back against them! how can I even think about leaving them!’

I was behind the steering and he sat next to me on the front seat, his place. Mom was sitting at the rear.
He was hitting the music system’s buttons randomly.
“Radio button on the right, topmost corner ” I said.
“Oh I know that, I was just checking something…emmmm” he said and then tuned into his favorite radio channel.
I looked at mom and we both smiled.
I felt great to have him next to me on that seat and I wished he always remains there with me, by my side. Forever.

We headed back home and by the time we reached I had forgot the face of that Sales-girl.
Seriously. who cares!

It happened one winter evening.
A warm winter evening.

 

‘Tech Bite’

In this ever evolving era of modern Technology, every next day we have something new ,something more advance, cutting edge and spectacular. So be it the new apple iOS 7 , Sony PlayStation 4, 3D printing or Ford’s 1 litre EcoBoost combustion engine- its tough to remain untouched & unbothered , because somehow its a part of our daily life, something essential which we can not overlook.

way back in 2010, I bought my Nokia E71 mobile handset. It worked on Nokia’s once undisputed Symbian Operating system ,now owned by Accenture. I still use this phone everyday, and I have to say- its a sturdy and decent handset that, until now, has very well served its purpose of a smartphone. Yes, Smartphone.
It has an inbuilt GPS, supports multitasking, has wireless printing and keyboard facilities, 3.5 mp primary camera with autofocus and secondary VGA , features like Qr barcode reader/Pdf reader/Mobile office/Talking dictionary and a bunch of several others ,some of which a normal user seldom requires.
A 1500 mAh battery supplies power to a 369MHz processor with 128 MB ram, though sometimes sluggish ,serves its purpose quite well.
But 3 years later, its an outdated cellphone which in resale ,might not even fetch 1/3rd of its original price. Working efficiently, but outdated. And i can’t do any change/modification in this phone to keep it apace and stand-up with the latest Google Android or MS Windows based CellPhones, which are capable of solving almost every problem in your life!
Like my cellphone, Same is the case with other Electronic devices, whether its a Television, Camera or a Computer. From future perspective, The rapid evolving technology and innovation at one hand is very efficient & a boon for the consumers , but on other hand it is heavily costing these consumers.
Costing in the sense, the innovation isn’t cheap at all! To keep oneself up to date with the technology, consumer has to shell out more and discard the old ,even if the older gizmo is working perfectly.

But then, the Dilemma- What To Do With The Old Gizmos!
Its still working! so neither I can throw it away nor would like to donate it to anyone else ..for free.
So result?????… I have 3 mobile handsets, a Desktop, an old printer, a television, a camera- all working faultless, but useless. To be precise -‘Needless’ and the toll is increasing! 😦
Out of these aforementioned items, My old Samsung television is definitely  the one I want to retain(E71 is my life though).
Way back in 2005 , i became a proud owner of my Samsung Plano Bio(29”) Megabass. My Neighbor bought a Bravia with 1200watt PMPO and challenged my dominance, hence -retaliation with a screaming 1500PMPO and an additional 2600watt from 4.1 Creative speaker system was a sine qua non. Pushed the volume key up and the windowpane quivered of music beats, a devilish grin on my face 😀
But ,with the arrival of LCDs/LEDs and Smart T.Vs , my 30kg weighing CRT too suddenly became outdated. Reason was the Lower pixle resolution and ….Weight. 😦
Recently, I discovered Amkette’s latest electronic product – EVO-TV XL, & luckily ,this product will very effectively help an ailing consumer like me! Thus the reason behind this post. 🙂
Evo-TV XL is a smart device that integrates the Internet and web features into the TV, in other words- Converts any television into a Smart TV by adding up piles of features to it! Right now, no matter how much i drool and spend my money cunningly, I can NOT get any smart TV on this Earth under 45k! Which is presently beyond my reach. Thus, Amkette’s EVO-TV XL is definitely a fantastic & cheaper substitute to a Smart TV(if you are on budget/love your old pal) and interestingly,right now there are several other similar products in the market in the same price band- for example, Apple TV or Western digital TV live!
Though its not a complete solution ,as I’m not getting a brand new TV by connecting the above device with my old Samsung, but it will definitely subdue my misery to some extent and thus keep that relation with my TV Cozy 🙂
Hope in coming days, similar remedies will follow for other gadgets too. Till then I’ll carry on with my Nokia and wait for the first User review of Apple’s new iOS7(Awestruck) 🙂

So ,next time before You plan for putting up an ad of your beloved TV on Quickr/Olx/eBay, have a look at the above options, and who knows it might just save your bucks and eventually you find a better upgrade for your TV than your Neighbors could!(Shhhhhhhh) 🙂

Till then,
Be a Geek…..Be ScientiFreak!
Prend soin de toi!

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Legal aliens in their own motherland…

I’m not a religious fundamentalist, nor a Political demagogue either. I’m just a common Indian who cares for his country and is equally hurt like any other compatriot, when he encounters some anti-nation situation or activities led by a handful of notorious people,  for their own personal interest to cause anarchy and destroy the peace.

It has been a week  since we all witnessed the mass departure of North-Eastern people from South Indian hemisphere, following the Assam riots.
it was again that murky situation of communal tension in India, the ghost which keeps on haunting us periodically.
on 15th of August ,we celebrated our 66th independence….but the real independence and freedom to each and every Indian seems to be hypothetical and beyond the realities.
Thousands of  Northeast people  , on account of the spreading of false rumors , fled back  to their home from the city of  Banglore, Chennai, Pune etc. … leaving their jobs;colleges and everything behind and rushing back to their petrified family.
the situation was a result of the communal violence between the Northeastern Bodos and the Muslims, a violence that broke out just because of some  mischievous goons(Pakistani and Bangladeshi) ,for whom the primary objective was (and is) to create anarchy and communal riots, tried to form a chasm between the two communities of the Northeast .
Bulk messages , having  inflammatory and provocative contents ,were sent from Pakistan and later on a number of Pakistani websites , run by the religious fundamentalists, posted the wrong and morphed images which tend to incite the people to damage  the communal rapport and harmony.
gradually and inevitably, the riots spread to the cities like Lucknow, Allahabad too because people of India are Overcautious when it comes to the religion, and they do not miss a single chance to jump on the streets with burning torches and stones to revolt……without knowing the actual cause and the reason for which they are indulged in the rampage…..its a  pity.
these northeastern people , who worked in the South-indian cities, mostly belonged from such families which are not financially strong and where there is a single person to earn  bread and butter for his/her  entire family.
this exodus has affected thousands of common people and posed a threat to their livelihood.

I have a link below, which will redirect the reader of this page to another blog written by an anonymous Indian Muslim.
this person has mentioned some remarkable points which should not only be read by the Muslims ,rather each and every person belonging to a different religion.
the only thing that we have to keep in our mind is Humanity and  that   ‘ the Country comes first’….first we are born Indian ,then comes our religion.
and whenever this Holistic approach is neglected and overlooked, it causes severe blow to the brotherhood and communal harmony…..and the result!……a man ,who is the inhabitant of his own country his own motherland, is treated as an alien and forced to live a life of a refugee.

Read the following Blog- its a must in order  to view some basic things with correct sense (common sense)…do read it and try to understand without being biased or prejudice.

———– http://www.anindianmuslim.com/2012/08/excessive-emotions-indian-muslims-must.html  —–

Long Live India..

Jay Sri Radhey Krishna….

I still remember the last year’s exuberant pious night of  ‘Janmashtami’, the holy day for the hindus which is marked as the birthday of Lord Sri Krishna.
yesterday, friday 10th august 2012, was the same auspicious day and i had planned to visit the ISKCON temple Ghaziabad at night, with my brother.
evening 5pm, we shifted the program as his friend Raghav, who is a skilled Tabla Player, had already planned the night with his performance on religious songs in a jagran  with other professional singers and musicians, at the old Sri Krishna temple at karkardooma,Delhi.
We all met at the Karkardooma metro station, crowd was in a hurry, as if something interesting was scheduled for the later today 🙂
we hired a Rikshaw, it was already 7pm and program was to commence at 7:30

as soon as we left the highway and mounted the suburb streets of the town, we found the whole locality with similar buildings and countless alleys! the streets were all lightened up with small chinese bulbs and colourful decorative items,.the feel was captivating and nothing less than that pictured in the bollywood movies…..people were  coming out of their respective house with small kids dressed as Radha and Krishna, most of the residents had decorated the front of their house along with lights,tableaus & a small decorated wooden structure (paalki) housing the beautiful idol of Lord Sri Krishna. They offered the ‘Prasad’ to each n every person passing by their house; no matter how rich or poor……….,sound of  ‘Hare RAMA Hare KRISHNA’  along with the blowing of Conch shells had already started to reverberate and pump us  with the joy .
It was quite difficult for the Rickshaw puller to navigate through the  streets densely packed with the crowd.
as soon as we entered the street containig that Old Krishna temple, the Rickshaw was immobile as the Devotees thronged the whole street packed tight , queued to enter the temple premises and grab a seat on the floor if they were lucky enough, coz the celebrations peak at midnight when Lord Sri Krishna was said to have been born 🙂

Sailing through the crowd ,we entered the temple, our seat was already reserved next to the performers. Ragahav along with my Brother Sudeep,took the front with his tabla facing the devotees who were already going impatient to witness the  mesmerizing program which was about to commence.
the whole indoor space of the temple was decorated beautifully and it was very difficult to take my eyes off the glowing statues of Lord Krisha and other Gods.
singing started, the vocalist had an outstanding voice and he started to sing all those beautiful songs praising and telling the stories of Lord Krishna, which we all were aware of since our childhood.
background singers,Harmonium, tabla,synthesizer, dholak, manjeera, hundreds of hands clapping and enchanting the songs….they all were producing such a melody which enthralled and forced each and every being to get lost into the glory of Sri Krishna and the whole ambiance got painted with the magical colors of Sri Krishna.women couldn’t resist and they all started to dance on those religious hymns.
devotees were showering  flowers and money and as the time was nearing the midnight…the tempo and excitement was on the top. I really cant describe  the whole Scenario as i said, we all were lost. you can yourself assess it by the fact that when i woke up in the morning , found my palms darkened because i clapped continuously for 5 hrs, and still i did’t remember it! Such is the Magic of Krishna 🙂
minutes before the midnight, prayers and ‘Aarti’ started. the chief of the Priests enchanted the holy prayers and we all stood happily with our folded hands, waiting for the moment .
Midnight………..and the whole town reverberated with the name of Krishna…’jay sri krisna’, the moment was truly magical and cant be described in the words.
huge clappings,shooting of confetties, foam sprays, anointing the Lord with flowers….heaven was on earth.
i stood spellbound with my folded hands, eyes closed,paid obeisance, prayed for my family and then wished happiness for everone. All those happy devotees including us, were given the prasad along with the one favourite to lord Sri Krishna i.e ‘Butter’ 🙂

we reached back home at 3am in the morning.
it was a beautiful experience for me and i thanked Raghav and my brother to make this day an unforgettable one.

Mera beta Engineer banega!!!…………?

My today’s Write-up is regarding my own field, i.e Engineering…and the area of concern is IT.
also this Post is in response to the the Times Of India’s 31st july,2012 article, ‘Students Prefering Computer Science branch in IIT Delhi’.
i’ve just tried to juxtapose the Current scenario in IT industry and Student’s preference for the IT discipline in Engineering.

Somen Tathagat  joined a top-level IT company in August last year, immediately after completion of his engineering degree. It’s one year now, and he has not worked on a single project yet. He still goes to office every day.He went through a Java certification training. He’s now registered for an Oracle course. But the training courses don’t take much time. He spends most of his “working hours” Googling, playing or in the cafeteria.

“It’s boring” ,he says. But that may be understating the problem. Problem- It’s also not good for his career, because he has no work experience to show for himself. And work experience is what matters most in salary increases as well as promotions.

There are many like Somen, because IT Companies failed to anticipate the sudden drop in demand on account of the global economic slowdown over the last year. Some employees are even allowed to stay at home.
“It’s making me mad. Now I’m scared I might be laid off,” says another young techie who has been on what IT companies call “THE BENCH” for close to five months now.

A bench, up to a point, is a necessary evil. Even though these employees don’t earn anything for the company, there will inevitably be a bench formed by employees who would have just completed a project and would not have another to immediately work on. A bench is also needed—as a strategy—to quickly get a project going when the company receives an order (a client will not accept a situation where his work cannot be immediately implemented). It’s just like a manufacturing company that keeps investing to ensure there’s always some excess factory capacity that can be used when an order suddenly flows in.

In normal times, IT companies have about 20% of their employee base on the bench. But as of the quarter ended March, the employee utilization rate (which is the opposite of the bench proportion) had fallen to about 67% for many, including Infosys, Wipro and MindTree — which means some 33% of their employees were on the bench. Considering that Infosys has 1.5 lakh employees, nearly 50,000 today are not earning any revenue for the company. For TCS and iGate, the utilization rate has dropped by about 4 percentage points over the last one year.

The HR Head, at a software product engineering services company , says the churn duration (the time an employee spends between completing one project and getting into another) used to be 45 to 60 days, but with opportunities dwindling, the duration is getting longer.
“This opens up a huge resource management challenge and is the biggest concern for HR managers today,” he says. Companies are reacting to the bench problem in multiple ways.Infosys Technologies has said it will delay the joining dates of the freshers it hired this year, some of them to as late as mid-2013. iGate has said it will delay the joining by one to two quarters. Many others are said to be taking similar measures. Most are reducing the extent of hiring they are doing this year.so, there is a lot of difference between the current Students perception and the IT scenario. solution is either you wait for the dark clouds to fall back(which is presently not showing any positive sign), else go for the other core branches like Mechanical, civil or electrical.

a Poem…

This isn’t  just a sweet small poem, it means a lot to me.
Moved me, made me smile, reinvigorated me in hardship….supported me and showed me the way when i was precariously slipping into oblivion.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

FOR THE FIRST TIME I FELT THIS TRUE LOVE IN MY HEART,
IT IS BURIED SO DEEP AND THAT I WOULD ALWAYS KEEP

ALL THROUGH THE DARKEST NIGHT,
YOU ARE THE BRIGHTEST STAR IN MY SIGHT.

ALWAYS IN A GRISLY FRIGHT,
U CLOTHE ME WHEN I SHIVER WITH YOUR EVER WARM EMBRACE,
YOU WIPE THE TEARS ON MY CHEEKS,
THE TEARS OF JOY THAT I HAVE SEEK,
AND IT IS YOU MY LOVE; MY DIVINE,
THAT MAKES ME SHINE SO BRIGHT.

U ARE THE SUN IN MY SKY,
STARING AT ME WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT,
GUIDING ME THROUGH THE DAYS,
WITH YOUR EVER SHINING LIGHT.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE,
I FOUND MY LOVE AND MY LIFE,
WITHOUT YOU I WILL CRY,
FOR YOU ___ I WILL DIE.

           The  End...

………………………………………………………..……………………………..…………………………..

No matter how Hard…

No matter how hard you try, but sometimes it doesn’t goes out the way you always wanted it to be.
it is always said that what counts is your present , what you possess at this very moment…..not your past , because no one always considers the retrospect as a deciding tool for the fidelity.
You know you are right, you haven’t changed, you are stepping ahead on your  track to meet your destination, you are maintaining your veraciousness at your best, ….but still something is missing!!
something which causes a hindrance ,when you are blamed of not living up to the aspirations of your people, when you are considered to be a sinister, something which suddenly covers up all  the positiveness you ever sported………and the irony- you dont even know that ‘something’.
a sudden tremor and you find yourself into an abyss.

Life is full of ups and downs, sometimes you lie in a slope and in the next moment you are standing at the tip of a cliff……graph of our life is sinusoidal!

happy n sad are two faces of life

Don’t loose hope….it might be dry, but soon it’ll rain. there is always a silver lining in the cloud.
Converse with them, sit down and explain, rectify, tell them its highly needed before every thing which took a long to build gets spoiled.
don’t worry, they are not your foes ,so your explanations will be considered.
tell them you need their help, and trust me they wont let you down.
but yes….you’ll have to  muster up your courage and show utter confidence in yourself.

Cellphone Alert!!!

Finnish cellphone major Nokia has launched its brilliant new cellphone LUMIA 900!

Beautiful LUMIA 900

loadz of features…..a good contender to the Samsung’s latest offering galaxy SIII. *some key features to be mentioned are:-

• Brilliant 8mp camera sporting Carl zeiss lens.
• Big 4.8inch Amoled screen with unmatched strenght……have a look !!!!!! http://youtu.be/Jf1fRu9YgfE 
• Easy photo tagging
• People hub
• Live tiles and many many mores…

  JAYS RATING- 4.6 /5

Gaming:Need for Speed Most Wanted Limited Edition

Bringing additional cars in to the mix, Most Wanted Limited Edition owners will see a 2012 Porsche 911 Carerra S with optimised aerodynamics and nitrous burn line up alongside the Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale as in-game exclusives

NFS MW-lt on the cards!!!

 

Fans with the Limited Edition or pre-order packs will have additional cars to choose from on day one – cars that fit how they like to compete in multiplayer, whether it’s going for the highest top speed, farthest jump, or the fastest race time

Buckle up Riders!!!! 😉

 

Surprise Surprise!!!

11th july….
Had dinner late at 11:30pm…
Chote(my brother), was with me and both of us went out for an after dinner walk
weather was quite pleasant as it rained today.
‘today he is speaking a lot’ …i talked to myself. Boy kept on showing buildings, talked about his girlfriend…this and that
as the midnight approached, he said ‘enough enough , lets head back to the flat i’m thirsty’. i said ”fine lets go’

12 sharp..
room’s door was ajar….a sensation ran through my nerves, ‘how could that be possible!!!’
pushed the door gently and room’s light went on automatically…………or if i say , his friends light it up!
‘SURPRISE SURPRISE!!!!!’
i mean i didn’t get even the slightest hint of it that they’ve planned a small birthday party for me, with candles sparkling on the cake and my name written over it.
I was overwhelmed by their surprise….was really very happy at the moment.
I cut my cake, boys turned the speakers on….danced and celebrated my 23rd birthday.

Surprise Surprise

Missed my mom and dad but my Lovely brother with his friends ,did his best to keep the day fascinated.
later in the day we went to Bangla Sahib Gurudwara in Delhi, bowed my head ,offered prayers, made some wishes….. lots of fun.

time to bow my head to the almighty

last but not the least…like every yesteryear it rained again on my birthday.

felt blessed 🙂