Barbire is our friendly campus barber (namely campus ka saloon). Every Wednesday and Saturday , much like a rooster’s call , we get a mail stating : ” Barbire is here! ” , almost as if the hostel committee members are excited that he is back on campus. Much to his credit, he doesnt mind the deluge of customers who flood his room every time he lands up here , each with their varying requests. In fact his manner and the general look of the room reminds me of the old barber shops I used to visit when I was much younger.

Back in college, we had a “supermarket” of sorts inside the campus, titled “Techno” which had a stationery shop, a grocer , an STD booth and a barbershop. The barbershop was one of those rooms where there was a thick layer on dust on every surface and you sat on the chairs wondering if they would break under your weight. Add to this a window overlooking the street through which friends would pass snide comments on the hairstyle or give suggestions to the barber while he was working.There was a very dim 60 watt bulb covered with dust,  which shone so brightly that a glowworm would have sneered at it.  The barber and his assistants were very cheerful and the fees were so cheap that a haircut at saloons in Chennai seemed like daylight robbery.

But my strongest memories are of the barbershop near our house in Durgapur which we used to frequent throughout my childhood. I used to go early in the morning around 8:00 on Sundays because one could be guaranteed quick service. The shop was a small shop with two mirrors , one with a small crack running through it (such that one’s reflection would be slightly crooked and split in two, a source of much amusement in my childhood). The best part of an early morning haircut was the old hindi songs on their broken down cassette player. Even with changes in lifestyle and the refurbishing of the shop (new chairs to replace the old wooden chairs and better mirros), the two-in-one stayed. It was my first exposure to the world of Rafi, Mukesh and others who left a magical touch on the soul early in the morning.

As a child, I had a pathological fear of the barbershop and the haircut , probably thanx to the crooked nose of the barber. I would close my eyes and wonder if he was gonna cut my throat with the razor and flinch every second as he cut the hair. He would also insist on bending my neck at crazy angles leaving me with a crick in the neck(a true pain in the neck, tat barber). Once this was completed, he would try his inevitable fight with the curls and finally shrug in despair as if saying :” Beyond my powers”.  Once I was let go, I would first complete a full check to see if I was still in possession of my ears, nose and my neck.  While the haircut was going on, I would also be privy to most of the local gossip because the barbershop was a focal point of gossip so I could be reasonably informed about the happenings in the town.

Usually the barber also had an assistant who was clumsy and had to be trained. Somehow I had this magnetic quality which endeared the barber to use me as a guinea pig for many such assistants over the years. This not only resulted in amazing haircuts where I would have one side longer than the other or a mohawk hairstyle but also one time  where one of them forgot to stop cutting hair and I ended up with a severe crewcut .But now its those assistants who run the shop when I last went some days back. The passage of time has changed everything including the shop which no longer looks the same old shack it used. Even the two-in-one has been replaced by a swanky radio which plays FM radio with their weird jokes and the latest hindi film music(mostly Himessss  , which is more torture for the ears).

And that probably is the greatest change which could have happened.

As the title suggests, this is a common irritation which most people have to suffer through for a short period of 3- 5 minutes before  the microphone is put to use (much like Sachin/Sehwag taps the pitch a dozen times before actually getting ready to bat ). Invariably at most functions and at pandals /official gatherings, one could hear the sound engineer tweaking the dials before the mike would suddenly blare to noise with a sharp C note making most of the audience wince. This is usually followed by the sound engineering saying :” Hello Hello, Mike Testing 1,2,3… Arre Choton Mike ta ektu beshi zor e aache ki?”  which can be translated as :”Is the mike a bit loud?” . By which time, most of the audience would be holding their eardrums in pain while mentally flaying the sound engineer for his acoustic excellence ignorance.

Its usually much better at Pujo Pandals and melas where the mike is but one more loud voice out there , albeit providing much better entertainment than most of the avenues otherwise available. One guarantee of any Mela / Pujo Pandal is the following announcement : ” Dolly who is wearing a pink frock and a red headband has been separated from her parents. Kindly inform the information desk / Reception Counter if anyone sees Dolly “. Other announcements would hinge around people losing personal items such as car keys and watches. This has sometimes lead to hilarious announcements such as :”Sarkar Da ei ghodi te nijer bou ke hariye feleche ” which can be translated as  :” Sarkar Da at this time has lost his wife “. After hearing the laughter across the mela, the announcer swiftly changed that to :”  Khoma korun, Sarkar Da er bou er ghodi hariye geche ” which is “Sarkar Da’s wife has lost her watch”. Other similiar announcements would also request members of the different committees to go to different places. These announcements would go on from dawn to dusk and were a perrenial source of amusement to us back then.

College festivals have a different problem altogether. No one pays attention to the mike as it blares on with regular updates and information. In fact over time, it becomes yet another part of the daily routine and a few days down the line when it suddenly falls silent, one stares up in the sky and wonders why its so silent.Through school and college I was remarkably lucky not to have a home/ hostel near a fairground where one would have to hear the blaring of the pandal microphones not to mention the amazing recitals / song and dance routines held in the name of promoting “para” talent.

One irritating fact however was the insistence of pujo pandals to play recent hit Hindi film songs during the Pujas. Most pandals would have a large set of speakers blaring the hindi film songs day and night. Sometimes they would even find some of the shadier B grade films in Bollywood and Tollywood. Thanx to these over enthusiastic pandals, I got to learn a large number of hindi film songs by heart including the songs of Kaho Na Pyaar Hai (Imagine Ek Pal ka Jeena played in all the pandals from dawn to dusk) and Devdas. In fact at one point of time, we used to run off if we could hear the Dola Re song.

However now that I am in Indore, I rarely hear the loud microphones with pleas to find lost items/wives and /or requesting people to go to different places. Somehow the sounds of silence seem sadder rather than relieving. Maybe some of the habits of Bengal have sunk in after all….

]]> http://sudharsannarayanan.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/pongal/ Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:53:04 +0000 Sudharsan Narayanan http://sudharsannarayanan.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/pongal/

Happy Lohri/ Makar Sankranti to all the readers of the blog.

For the Tamilians out there,

Iniya Pongal Thiru Naal Vazthungal

Pongal evokes a lot of happy memories, primarily those of nice feasts at lunch and dinner time (yes I am a shameless petu ) coupled with memories of running back from school to reach the homestead in time to say “Pongal O Pongal”. It also brings about memories of searching for cows to feed because the ceremony was termed as auspiciously complete only once a cow had partaken of the prasad. Now surprisingly, most cows of Durgapur seemed to disappear on the holy day of Pongal so often my dad had to take me in his car to find a wandering cow whom we could then feed , after which we could finally have our lunch.

My parents also talked about the visits of the “Gummu Maad” to their doorstep this year. Owners of cows deck their cow out in finery and take the cows to different households. At each household, the cow owner asks the cow questions like “Will the patriach of the house get a promotion?” to which the cow dutifully nods his head. At the end of a set of questions wherein  the cow fulfills the role of the “tota” used by astrologers in the north, the cow owner collects his baksheesh and walks off to the next household to deliver the Great Indian Cow nod yet again.Its a pity that my parents were not at home, else those first nods would have been greeted with peals of laughter followed by a burst of inquiries from my mother regarding my future(@ which the cow might have got a nervous breakdown considering the current .

P.S: Sorry for the delayed post. Our cultural fest Mridang put a spanner in my plans for writing posts.

I was just back from classes(Yes I do attend a few lectures once in a while, when I am bored)  and came upon a set of tweets saying that Jyoti Basu, the doyen of CPI(M) , the almost PM of the Third Front was in the hospital on the ventilator. My first thought was , Oh he is still alive!!! My second thought was : Oh Damn, if he kicks the bucket , Salt Lake will probably start suffering power cuts for the first time in decades a few days later ( a very sad thought , but for long I have envied the lucky buggers in Salt Lake Sector V who live close to him and have enjoyed summers with no power cuts. Interestingly the wiki map showing his residence has an amazing tagline ” Eikhane sob CPMsupporter <expletive deleted> chelegulo thake” which can be translated as here the CPM supporters reside ). Anyway my next thought was : Damn they will have a bandh too and I wont be there to miss school / college thanx to it

I have had a love hate relationship with bandhs since school. It has served me on numerous occasions where the very mention of a bandh would create a furor in the house. My dad would curse the vile CPI(M)/ SUCI / Congress / TMC (a very late entrant so to say) as he would have to leave the previous night for office to avoid any trouble. My mother would naturally get worried if I would get to school safely . I alone would be nonchalant as I knew that the school bus had orders not to go out if there was a strike. This meant I was getting a free holiday when I could laze around and wake up late.

Later in college, bandhs were less intrusive as we had hostels inside our campus which meant that bandhs outside had no effect on classes. However we took matters into our own hands and frequently held mass bunks / boycotts of classes on major occasions. In fact, in our very first year of college, we were herded willy nilly like cows to the professors quarters where a senior, much like a party functionary, was screaming : Cholbe na Cholbe Na! In the heat of the moment, we also started screaming : Cholbe Na Cholbe na and soon enough the profs wilted. This and many other incidents through college, ensured that bandhs and rasta rokos were still very much a part and parcel of life in college.

However Indore is insipid with there being no raucous incidents/ no rasta rokos and no bandhs , except on rare occasions. In fact the politicians prefer to talk rather than use other forms of protest . IMO, this is actually detrimental to people. So many people used to get free meals by standing in a mob and screaming : Nahi Chalega, Nahi Chalega. The workforce used to get a break from work and students a break from this rat race of education. Bandhs also encourage saving for a rainy day(since one does not know when there is a bandh, people keep snacks and essentials saved at home for such days) .

Hoping to hear that refrain again :

Cholbe Na , Cholbe Na!

Update:

As pointed out clearly by Souvik Da, one point of interest totally ignored was the amazing gully cricket matches which sprung up like the weeds in my mothers garden. Once a bandh was announced, it was free rein for gully cricket on main roads with streets being free of constraints such as traffic, people and troublesome traffic policemen. In fact I am sure the bandhs contributed to the improvement of Bengal’s Ranji Team what wit so many youngsters getting cricket practice with the frequent bandhs…

]]> http://sudharsannarayanan.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/picnic/ Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:57:54 +0000 Sudharsan Narayanan http://sudharsannarayanan.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/picnic/

A very Happy New Year to all the readers of the blog(which can be counted on the fingers on my hand probably.Not to mention that I seem to have international followers but anyway its the thought that counts, doesnt it)

Anyway New Year brings to mind two memories : the first one being the memory of staying awake till 12:00 A.M at home watching the “blockbuster Movie of the Month” on Star Movies and the second being the annual picnic organized either by the Tamil Nool Nilayam(local Tamil association)  / my dad’s office on Jan 1st.

Picnics also had their own vocabulary which was spiced with “Corners “, “Top Line”, “Bottom Line” and “Full House”. Yes I am talking about that most boring of party games aka “Housie” aka “Tambola“. Its scary to imagine that people actually want to play it online too but well one can never count for the taste of people. But I am digressing from the topic here.

Usually around December end, the first faint rumblings of rumours about picnics prop up with people asking each other:” Where should we go this time?”. Once this tough decision has been taken, the bus would turn up at a common meeting point. Invariably like eager beavers, we would be one of the first families to turn up with many others turning up at the last minute if not a few minutes late. Just when the bus would be ready, one youngster would pipe up :” I need to go to the toilet”. After all these delays and  once all the children had been corralled , the bus would finally start for the picnic spot.The trip to the picnic spot would not be complete without a round of “Antakshari”. Its on such bus rides that I have learnt amazing songs like “I am a Disco Dancer” , “Surangani” (at Tamil picnics) . The bus would usually stop in the middle for a mild breakfast(Muri / Sandwiches)  and we would reach the picnic spot around 10:00 A.M.

Reaching the picnic spot brought about a new set of decisions(much like a decision tree). Unless we had started really early(which is analogous to Virender Sehwag playing a defensive innings) , we would reach the picnic spot to find that most of the plum spots(namely those near the water sources/ river banks) would already be occupied. Now it was a frenzied race to find a good spot before rival picnic parties could. However at top picnic locations, we often arrived to find most spots reserved and guarded. So often we would land up setting camp at spots at least a mile away from the picnic location itself.

Towards the afternoon, people would get bored and this is when Housie time would start. With hot prizes like tiffin boxes and Milton Water bottles (not to mention pencil boxes with 3D stickers on the top) , we kids would be dumb enough to buy 2 tickets in the misguided belief two is better than one.  This would invariably take up around 1-1.5 hrs and at the end of the game, we would start packing to go back.

One interesting facet of these picnic spots , as pointed out by my friend Deepak , was the presence of cycle vans carrying large speakers which would be playing the latest Bhojpuri/ Hindi film songs. Towards the evening, these same vans would be pushed forward by the picnickers who would stop every 5-10 metres to dance for a few minutes to the songs and then push it forward again.

P.S: I thank  Anand Ramachandra of Son of Bosey who with his brilliant post on Tambola reminded me of Housie.

P.P.S : Durgapur folks who have any pics of me on the picnics mentioned above are requested to mail me if possible. I would like a few snaps of my former innocent self.

]]> http://thecandideye.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/reaching-out-spiritually/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:30:03 +0000 thecandideye http://thecandideye.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/reaching-out-spiritually/ http://subhodipbiswas.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/mapping-party-durgapur-and-neighbouring-places-16th-and-17th-oct-2009/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:21:03 +0000 Subhodip Biswas http://subhodipbiswas.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/mapping-party-durgapur-and-neighbouring-places-16th-and-17th-oct-2009/

There has been a discussion between Indranil Das Gupta and us regarding the problem we face due to lack of GPS devices and some more mapping parties in Durgapur area.

On 16th and 17th we decided  to map  Durgapur and neighboring places. Primarily Kushal wanted to map his village and we decided to help him to map his village Ukhra and also map Durgapur . IOTA resource center at WBSU(Barasat) extended us a  helping hand by lending us three Garmin Etrex Vista H. So with the new gps’s in our hand we now had a total of 5 GPS.

On 16-OCT-2009 :We went to Ukhra on 16th to map the village.Me,Arindam,Kushal and another guy from that village joined the party. Since we had two bikes and the village was small.We completed all major roads and even some narrowest living streets within  an hour.

Here is how Ukhra looks like now as compared a complete blank previously.

On 17th Oct 2009 : A resource person from WBSU was suppose to come during the event but he didn’t make it though .So We started around 1 Pm. I was a little late but Arindam,Harsh,Sonu,Ratnadeep and Bama started.

Ratnadeep and Bama became the local team.They mapped Fuljhore (where they live) along with neighboring areas.While the rest of the team went on cycling covering edges of Bidhanagar area.

I met them in Muchipara and on my way I mapped some of the important point of interest.

I had the etrex H GPS devices, so distributed them and we split into individual teams.

I had a Moped while rest were in cycles.I tried and mapped some far away place like PCBL,Durgapur Bazaar etc. Arindam and rest took charge of mapping the area with details. Sonu knew the place very well and helped us a lot with that.My GPS clocked 34.4 KM after more than an hour of mapping. Our meeting point was BCET gate.

We met and decided to head over for some food as day long traveling was taking toll on us. We accumulated the total distance covered which was something around 100KM’s. Bama requested us to take a GPS to map his city in Bankura so we lent one of ours. So some good  amount of data was accumulated  during the session. Since it was a festival day we decided not to do a editing session and it was dark already. Me and Arindam took care of the edits which will keeping pouring  during the weekends.

Here’s some of what has been done.

Durgapur before edits :

And here is durgapur after basic edits of 17102009 data

Here are some pics of Edit in progress.

Another Edit in Progress screenshot:

There will be a follow up post soon as edits are done.

This is an attempt to have a collection of all the blogs owned by BCET-ians past or present. This, I feel will develop a culture that will promote the virtual world in this part of the world. For more information about this… Click here

Eastern region of the country witness a National Rally Championship after 4 years of dormant period.Since there was a gap,this rally was really hyped about. But even though it was rally de kolkata the stages were actually held in Durgapur.

Sept 17 : Initial plan for Day 1 was a 23.5KM dirt stage with two rounds in it.But since it was raining heavily in Durgapur ,It was until the last moment the stages were cut short by almost half (12KM) with two legs a 5.79KM and 6.22KM run thrice.17th was the pre event day.I was planning to attends the press conference but because of rain I reached late which was good,since most reporters left, I was able to chitchat with some rally drivers including Amitrajit.It was an amazing experience.

Sept 18 : The event was supposed to flag off from Hotel Ginger at around 7AM .I reached there when 4 cars already left.It was my time to hurry to the stage which is almost 50KM even from Durgapur.On reaching the stage , I made an attempt to reach the spectator point 1 but rain and dirt made a good mix and my car got stuck.However was able to reach the start point.The track was dry and hard , very good for pace filled rally ,which which everybody started . It was me first time witnessing a rally of this sort.I walked almost a KM ahead into the first corner and made a spectator point myself.It was hot,sun overhead so after SS1,it was not so easy to make to 6.22KM stage ,so went back home and kept an eye on the live updates. The track took its toll as news came by people were crashing some can’t keep the car in control and unfortunately Vikram crashed due to wrong information from the officals into Arjun Balu’s car .

Sept 19 : The stage on duel was suppose to start on 7:18AM and stage on gram at around 8:16AM ,Easy for rally cars but not for me.so stayed back home and kept an eye on live updates.Day 2 has seen most of the actions and upturns in leader board,including someone hitting a cameramen near FF.Most biggies were out due to mechanical faliures including some Gypsy’s.There was even a holdup somewhere in the middle of the stage.

Sept 20 : Day 2 has already seen Gaurav Gill in comfortable lead of 1 min and 17 sec ahead of Amitrajit Ghosh followed by Sujay in 1600cc Baleno. Spectator Special Stage was held in Jadavpur Stadium in Jadavpur ,Kolkata. The competitors lined up at around 3 PM.But Gaurav got stuck in wet ground  .His front wheel drive cars has enough grunt to make the pit deeper.But with help from his service crew,he set himself free. The SSS was tough on esteems who were already struggling with the 560KM of travel of which more than 460 was just Liason stages. Gypys’s flying and so are baleno’s but both cedia made the SSS really special. Gaurav clocked the 2km stage in 1:25 and Amitrajit in 1:27 . So Gaurav wins as he extends his leads by 2 more secs.

Some points to note :

1. 460Km of transport stages is too tough on cars .it could have been less.

2. Officials could have been a little bit more experienced,On Day 2 the top 4 cars almost got penaltied due to a silly mistake by a marshal .

3.Privateers suffered a lot because of last minute decision changes which sparked anger  in them(as far as current rally.co.in forum posts goes ).I also feels the same.More coverage and attention on privateers would have really helped the event.

4.As most participant are from  South of the country, number of entries were 38 as compared to 60 in K1000 Bangalore.

As an event this was great to watch.Hopefully we will be able to see it next year again. I learn’t a lot about cars,driving styles and met some great drivers  and my trigger happy me was really very happy.

well guys as i said to u……. i came back home on 6th,afternoon after a long journey of 7 hours………….from durgapur to bardhamaan and then sainthia by…Howrah-Rampurhat Saheed Superfast…….. it usually takes 2 to 3 hours from durgapur to my home..

i went home after 2 weeks and with the joy of cultural fest,,,,,,,,video of my performance in my laptop and KODAK moments of Euphonic’09….

one thing that i knew that my MAA and PAAPA are going to be very  glad for what i did in the fest………..

now after i reached home,,,,, i found mom was not there….. and i started waiting until she come ,,,,,to show her the video…….  but after few minutes KAAKISA told me that she would be late….

during that time i met ANJAN(one of my best friends i have ever got in my life)…. and showed him the video…. he also liked it……

i was feeling like a star in front of my school friends and my family members…

the second day i did nothing except sleeping and eating and watching tv…………..

yesterday i updated my blog and packed my bag as i had to come to durgapur today..

n now at 5:12 i m updating my blog from netlab of the college…. and now by by

The Getting Started with OpenSOlaris 2008.11 mini-books were recently released. They are available in English, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

You might notice that there is a difference between the content of these books. They are composed by three different documents, and only the ones in English, Simplified Chinese and Japanese have them all. All other languages have only one document.

The books have a pretty basic approach, so they are aimed at people who doesn’t have much experience with the OS. This makes them perfect to be indicated during basic courses and presentations.

It seems that the 2008.11 version of these mini-books will be available only in the digital format.

Download:

OpenSOlaris 2008.11 mini-book (English)

If you ever were a small-town Indian boy in the 10-15 age group, you would hardly have passed a day without answering one of these three questions:

a. “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

This is a trick question, but if the boy is really smart he’ll know exactly what answer will earn the questioner’s approval. Apparently, I wasn’t that smart, with the result that my father virtually disowned me when I said I wanted to be in ‘saahitya‘ when I grew up, in front of several of his colleagues. That Goswami da’s son doesn’t want to take the Joint Entrance went down in the annals of my small native town as the worst perversion since Woody Allen slept with Mia Farrow’s daughter.

b. “Who is your favourite cricketer?”

The only question in the list that is easy on the boy’s head. Growing up in the 90s, you could take any name as long as it was Sachin Tendulkar.

c. “What is your favourite subject?”

The suburban Indian boy’s life revolves around cricket and science. Anyone who answered questions 1 and 2 to the satisfaction of his auditors would likely get this one too, though if the answer is something like “molecular astrobiology” or “geomathematical chemistry” rather than just “science”, the boy would doubtless score some brownie points. Never underestimate the Indian adolescent male, he learns about structural engineering before he can spell ‘cleavage’.

Anyway, I guess answering questions is a way of life for every middle-class Indian boy living in a non-metropolis. None of these questions seeks to draw out an opinion though. Whether at home,  in school or in one of the hundred private tuitions that he attends every week to catch up with the big city guys, questions are always a bit like catechism, and there’s nothing in them for the faculty of imagination. No wonder then that when he turns 18, steps out of home for the first time into an opinionated metropolis and someone suddenly asks him about his views on the Reservation policy, he can only invoke the Indian Railways in his reply. “My family’s policy is to go for reservation exactly three months ahead of the journey. And we always try to get at least one upper berth.” Good policy that, if you ask me.

When kids in the Delhis and Bombays of the world fantasise about Manchester United or Madonna, their Durgapur and Bhilai counterparts ejaculate at the thought of getting some known questions in the exam. When I was growing up, nearly all my classmates joined a tuition class run by our maths teacher who would routinely leak out questions before tests. In the process, he single-handedly killed the student-oriented porn industry in my town.

The next person in the ‘Big People I Know’ series earns his place in the list because he managed to rescue questions from this uninspiring, corrupt state to something glorious for a whole generation. He achieved this with a microphone in hand and friendliness in his voice.

Chapter 2 – Derek O’ Brien, quiz master-turned-politician and reality-TV judge

I have always suspected that I share a transcendental relationship with the O’ Briens of Kolkata. In retrospect, the two most prominent markers of my boyhood were my CISCE education and my obsession with quizzing. But for the Anglo Indian patriarchs who founded CISCE, my only experience with English in the young-adult world would have been via telegram writing (for the clueless, go check out the CBSE English syllabus; ‘fatuous’ does not even begin to describe it). And but for quizzes, I would never have bothered to find out why polar bears don’t eat penguins. The O’ Briens – father Neil as the CISCE head priest and son Derek as the archbishop of Quizzology in the country – were thus the two lighthouses of my life, and it was just a karmic accident that I was born in a racially superior family. (Heart of my heart, I have always been bit of an anglophile.) That I was born a Bengali of all things only deepened this sense of connection, Bengal being home to more CISCE schools and quizzers than revolutionaries and fishermen.

The 'WH-' doctor

Derek O’ Brien, quite simply, was my first role model. As a boy, I struggled to relate to Sachin. There was just something so immoralistic about a 15-year old hammering frightening Pakistanis twice the age and height that I could never look up to him and say “There’s the future me!” Derek was different. He merely asked interesting questions, and those who did not know the answers could rest assured that the man would not judge them based on their failure. Despite his towering presence on the stage, he never sought to write off the role played by destiny in success and failure, making him ‘oh-so-human!’ and extremely lovable. Even the dumbest kids on the block were for him a “very good team just having a bad day” (a posture that Harsha Bhogle used to his credit many years later in the ESPN Sports Quiz). You may argue that this is just shallow reality-TV gimmick, but what it does to the morale of a thoroughly intimidated smalltown bloke is better experienced than described. Add to this the ability to prick the interest of deeply materialistic and impatient ten-year olds on matters as obscure as Djibouti and the sewing machine, and there’s my hero for you. It’s a pity there is no visual record of the two occasions when the man quizzed me, but I can invoke a much more credible memory to illustrate what I mean.

We did not have cable at home till I passed my Xth, and I think the only reason my parents might have felt guilty about it was that this forced me to go to a neighbour’s house to watch the Bournvita Quiz Contest on Sunday morning. (Their son was developing quite a reputation as a quizzer, and they could not even give him the basic infrastructure.) Not that I cared much about TV otherwise, and watching Derek interrogating kids my age in shining blazers in someone else’s home was almost a religious experience for me, rendered that much more sacred by the hardhsip attached with it. And that voice. Like Moses’, that voice was meant to lead people to discoveries as a humble Man of God. Every time a team got a sitter or a really tough one as its direct question, Derek would say ‘luck of the draw!‘ with such disarming honesty and genuine surprise in his voice that the distance between the quizmaster and the participants would instantly dissolve away, reassuring one that there is no artifice or one-upmanship involved whatsoever. Compare this with Siddharth Basu’s sombre high-handed style, and you realise how much the personality of the anchor can shape the experience of a quiz. While Derek was a non-playing participant in a game, every bit as excited as those actually competing, Basu came across as a a dispassionate God who presumed complete ignorance at the other end, and even when someone did manage to get an answer, it was almost because he allowed them to.  Some would attribute this difference in treatment to the different age groups they handled, but Derek has also quizzed people with Dalal Street and not Disney on their minds, and that has not forced him to abandon his childlike joy at revealing what the next Q-card holds.

There was one more reason I loved the show – barring news on Doordarshan, it was the only English programme I understood from the accent PoV. My few attempts at watching Star Movies at an uncle’s place had convinced me that there was something wrong with the television set and nothing wrong with my cognitive abilities. The women looked hot all right (I was not among those who could not spell ‘cleavage’), so there.

After that long eulogy, let me come to ’The Definitive Derek O’ Brien Moment’ of my life. The moment was all too fleeting and farfaraway, but it feels so real that sometimes when I think of it, I am taken aback by the thick outgrowth on my chin. Nestle had started the Maggi Quiz as a neighbourhood imitation of the incredibly popular BQC, and our team found itself in the finals of the Durgapur edition. The event was in itself a brilliant evangelical gesture, helping hundreds of dreamy kids live their dream, and the fact that ‘THE’ Derek was going to quiz the finalists meant more to me than actually answering any questions. This was for all practical purposes my first close sighting of a celebrity, and by the time he came up on stage to give out the prelim answers, I was so starstruck that I did not even hear him calling us on stage as one of the finalists. I was about a foot tall at that time, and the steps to that stage were about the highest I had climbed thus far, but Derek insisted on treating all of us – including me – as grown ups on a mission. We shook hands, he asked us about our areas of strength and whether we liked eating Maggi and wished us luck for the next hour. By the time I settled down in my place in the Akbar Road Girls’ High School auditorium, I was no longer conscious that I was a midget among normal kids. This, dear readers, was also a first, perhaps a more mollifying one for my ego, which had grown used to being part of a body that was always the first one in the assembly queue, class after class.

I would be lying if I said I remember everything that happened in the next three or four or five rounds, so let me jump cut to the part that I do remember. The winner had already been decided, and we were tied for second spot with another school – an arch rival – with one last question to go. PVM (my school) vs St Xavier’s never needed Derek O’ Brien to be explosive – ask my brother who nearly got killed after a soccer game – but it became an unprecedented prestige fight with him involved. It was going to be a free floating question, and the two seniors in my team were fighting for control over the buzzer. One of them was almost barred from competing because he looked way too old to be in VIth, which was the cutoff age. My mother – who always accompanied me for quizzes – was sitting somewhere in the middle of the packed auditorium and looked all set to scoop down on them like a protective parent eagle (she is 4″5′, just the right size for the simile), when the question arrived:

“What is the difference between the functioning of the third umpire in the India-SA series (the series that gave birth to the system) and the Australia-England series (both 1992 series, I think)?”

“The one is doing it by lighting lamps and other is talking to the ground umpire Sir on walkie talkie…“

I was confident that I had given the right answer and in the best English possible (the best that I knew anyway). The first assumption turned out to be correct, and when Derek broke the five-second silence with a thunderous “Little Master, I salute you!“, the second assumption was rendered miraculously irrelevant. I was halfway between running away to escape the over-affectionate embraces of my teammates and crying out loud, when he did the unthinkable: he swooped down and picked me up, and the next thing I knew was that I was in his lap, and the crowd went hysterical. The eagle had come to my rescue after all, just not the one I expected. Yes dearies, imagine the man behind Wordly Ties, now the proud owner of a five-feet-and-a-quarter frame, right in Derek O’ Brien’s bosom!

Derek O’ Brien. The deity I invoked the night before the Quiz Club at St Stephen’s was to announce its inductee list. The face I recalled with closed eyes before every tight buzzer round. My guardian angel when it came to answering so many of life’s questions, years after quizzing became a lost-world ritual for me.

Recently, Derek joined the ever-embattled Mamata Banerjee in her fight against the communists. I also spotted him extending his rather pointless presence as a judge in a boring musical reality show on ETV Bangla. The man is clearly asking a few questions of himself now, and I’d say it’s a right well earned. No matter how he fares, I will never judge Derek O’ Brien in his new roles. No question about it.

PS: If you are still wondering why polar bears do not eat penguins, consider the two opposite poles they inhabit.

Durgapur in presently one of the hottest cities in the country crossing mercury levels of over 45 every day . Very difficult for students to carry on their exam preparations under intense heat waves . All this is happening but the library goers like me are not even slightly affected . Why So ? Because we have an Air Conditioned Reading Room in our institute’s Central Library providing just the kind of respite the students are looking for and avoiding getting roasted in the hostel oven . I really love some aspects of my College , infact many of them and the Library is on top of everything . I love my College and I love my Library .

For a long time I was due for a Technical Session in my college . The month of February was jam-packed with helluva lots of fests and events and that was the sole reason that I did’nt wanted to squeeze my demo in between all the different fests and events . Web being my expertise , so a Talk on Glassfish and J2EE was looking the most feasible option for me as I did not had much time to prepare for the talk. 

Further trouble came when I found that the  date later went on to clash with the Mukti treat . When I publicised about the talk on the mailing lists and groups people told me that I was a block (dumb) as I scheduled the talk on the same evening as the Mukti treat . But I went on through my initial plans as I felt that work always comes above and over anything  and everything in life.

It was class test times for most of the students so the gathering was as expected limited with just about 25 people sitting I went on to start the talk . The talk was attended by students of Computer Science and  IT  1st, 2nd and 3rd year. It’s great to see a diverse audience, shows you really are reaching out to everyone, and for me the success of this talk meant a lot of confidence to do future talks in this semester. I wanted everything to be perfect. From the past week, I had been observing some of our faculty lecturers carefully, trying to understand the art of holding the interest of your audience throughout the lecture, how some lectures turn out to be boring, while others keep you glued to the teacher. We all know we hate slide reading, we hate too much theory, bookish language.. but there’s a lot more to it. Body language, being friendly and casual, relating your audience and yourself with the topic, visualization of ideas, giving examples, case studies and most importantly, involving your audience, making it interactive and not just one-way traffic. 

My audience for the first time in the college properly understood what the term Web Server really means and also got the abtract concept of Web 2.0 and Semantic Web technology . 

I had already made up my mind that this particular session will witness a much better demonstration as compared to the last demo which was somewhat very uninteresting . So I demonstrated them about how to make a real world bloger application using the popular JRuby-on-Rails and that too using Netbeans IDE which which made the whole thing very very easy and fast .

I also showed them use of Servlets and JavaBeans with respect to Http Session States.It was not a long session unlike the last one as I had to attend the Mukti treat and also my audience had some tests the following week . So I wrapped up the Session in an hour . A pretty nice experience again . Now I really consider myself really grateful to GOD for making me do all these things . Now I really feel more confident presenting knowledge and information in front of public.

Hi friends , I am really sorry as it is no masala news or its nothing to do with a heart-break or something of that sort , its me moving on to just another blog . My previous blog at Sun Blogs which had become pretty much established and also got some recognition at Sun internal portals and aggregators has for some weird reasons not allowing me to log in. I waited patiently for a long time with no posts (becoz I was pretty obsessive about it), lots of service desk raised and closed during this period but nothing helped me.

So now  I think that’s enough and  its time to move on to another one and here it is. This is my first post to my new blog and looking forward to be very active in future .

Oracle acquires Sun and me being the Campus Ambassador of Sun at NITD campus has lots of questions to answer and also to prove that Open Source evangelism of Sun products in the college will not die . The next session will see lots of Talks and demos conducted in the college.

I am coming and I am coming very HARD !

Howrah is located on the west bank of the Hoogly River. It is a twin city of Kolkata, is the second largest city of West Bengal in terms of both area and population. The two cities are connected by the Howrah Bridge (also known as Rabindra Setu). The city is an important industrial and trading center.

It is also the headquarters of the jute-manufacturing industry. Major steel plants are found in the colliery belt of Durgapur.

Important industries include engineering products, electronics, electrical equipment, cables, steel, leather, textiles, jewellery, automobiles, railway coaches, and wagons.

Nearby places of interest in Howrah:

One of the main tourist attractions of the city is the Indian Botanical Gardens, in south Howrah. The banyan tree here has one of the largest canopies in the world.

Other places of interest are the Howrah Bridge, which is constructed on river Hoogly, The Belur Math, founded by Swami Vivekananda, the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, is situated in Belur, north Howrah.

Nova Délhi, 12 mar (EFE).- Os indianos comemoraram nesta quarta-feira o festival mais divertido no país, um dia em que a rígida sociedade da Índia se torna um pouco mais relaxada e se pinta de todas as cores ou bebe uma curiosa mistura de leite com maconha.

Balões e pistolas de água colorida ou simplesmente tintas em pó servem para comemorar este “festival das cores”, que lembra a chegada da primavera no país.

“Os jovens adoram este festival, já que podem se reunir e sair juntos para comemorar a Holi”, contou à Agência Efe Durgesh Nainwal, um morador de Nova Délhi de 24 anos.

Em uma sociedade de costumes rígidos e marcada pelos choques constantes entre as diferentes confissões religiosas, classes sociais ou castas, a Holi é uma festa que une todos os indianos.

Neste dia, no qual os jovens saem às ruas com roupas velhas, todos pintam e se deixam pintar em cores vivas, o que simboliza a eliminação de qualquer forma de discriminação, seja de idade, religião, sexo ou nível social.

Nos bairros, mesclam-se os gritos infantis de adultos embriagados com os tambores festivos, enquanto uma cidade como Nova Délhi recebe várias festas diurnas em áreas de lazer, algumas delas com proposta “ecológica”, para evitar o uso de corantes tóxicos e as visitas ao dermatologista no dia seguinte.

A festa tem suas raízes nas comemorações promovidas pelo deus Krishna, o primeiro ao qual as castas baixas puderam rezar graças ao fato de ter nascido em uma família rural.

Encarnado em um príncipe que ganhava os corações de todos com suas brincadeiras leves e amáveis, Krishna projetou este costume para eliminar as distinções sociais e aproveitou para paquerar todas as meninas do povoado, de acordo com a mitologia hindu.

“Na Holi, os casais têm a oportunidade de se tornar mais carinhosos”, explicou Nainwal, que destacou que é o dia perfeito para encontrar um par, já que todos podem se aproximar e tocar outros jovens com o pretexto de pintá-los sem que eles se sintam ofendidos.

Durante esta festa, as mulheres têm inclusive a possibilidade de beber o popular “bhang”, uma bebida de leite com folhas de maconha que exalta as emoções e contribui para deixar mais soltos os jovens.

Muitos aproveitam a ocasião do Holi para misturar o “bhang” nas bebidas de amigos ou idosos com quem querem brincar.

Ao cair a tarde, quando a maioria volta para casa para tomar banho e tirar as cores que ficam presas a suas peles, cabelos e unhas, pelas ruas e parques é possível ver gente rindo ou chorando sem parar sob o efeito do “bhang”.

No entanto, como explicou o jovem Nainwal, a festa não é só um dia para as brincadeiras, mas também ocasião para esquecer velhas rixas.

“Todos visitamos parentes e vizinhos para pintá-los. É o melhor dia para esquecer rancores e se reconciliar, no espírito da festa”, disse.

As famílias recebem dezenas de convidados e oferecem a eles doces preparados em casa especialmente para a Holi.

“É o festival das cores e comemora a vitória do bem sobre o mal”, observou Nainwal, porque também lembra a morte da demônio Holika, que tentou queimar vivo seu sobrinho Prahlad, mas se queimou no processo, como simbolizam as fogueiras públicas da noite que antecede a Holi.

Só um povo de toda a Índia não comemora a ocasião: os habitantes de Durgapur, no estado de Jharkhand, norte do país, creem que, se fizerem isso, serão punidos com uma crise de fome.

“Quando a Holi é comemorada, o gado morria e as colheitas não cresciam durante três anos consecutivos”, afirmou à agência “Ians” Maghi Mahto, um aldeão de 85 anos que calcula que, há 150 anos, o festival foi abolido no povo.

“Os que querem comemorar a Holi vão para outros povoados, a casa de amigos ou parentes”, explicou.

Este ano, o líder do opositor BJP, L.K.Advani, anunciou que também não faria festa em sinal de luto pelas vítimas do atentado de novembro em Mumbai. EFE

Globo

Rizzolo: A festa da Holi é uma tradição na Índia, ainda me lembro quando fui diretor da Câmara de Comércio Brasil – Índia em São Paulo, o destaque que os indianos davam a esta festa alegre e tradicional. Agora essa tal mistura de “leite com maconha”, o tal bhang”, realmente desconhecia, além disso, segundo a notícia afirma, que esse tal “leite amaconhado” é distribuído à população, ás mulheres, aos idosos; um verdadeiro absurdo no meu entender. Se fosse no Brasil a mistura seria chamada de “cachaseado”, mistura de cachaça com o ” baseado”. Realmente não dá, concorda comigo ? Problema de saúde pública. Ou não é verdade, ou falta polícia viu…

Panoramic Universal Limited (PUL) plans to bring its four star brand, United 21, into the Indian market. The company, which manages two properties under this brand in the United States, will launch the first United 21 hotel in Thane, Maharashtra by end March 2009. It will also develop the brand in Hyderabad, Jaipur and Durgapur.

While the 46 room Thane property is under a management contract, hotels at the other three locations will be owned and operated by the company. PUL will invest Rs 55 Crore in the 90 room Hyderabad property, which is expected to be operational by end 2010. The 83 room Jaipur hotel will incur an investment of Rs 72 Crore. It is slated for operations by 2012. The Durgapur hotel will be developed in two phases. The first phase will see the development of 75 rooms, which are to be ready by end 2010. As part of the second phase, the company will develop 45 serviced apartments within the property.

The Thane hotel will also provide a membership club. It will house a multicuisine restaurant, a barbeque speciality restaurant, a lounge bar, a 24 hour coffee shop and a rooftop poolside Café. It will also provide banqueting facilities to accommodate up to 350 guests. Speaking about the development, Utpal Parekh, Senior Vice President – Finance & Operations, Panoramic Universal Ltd states, “Our research signified the need for good hotel and club facilities in this part of the city. The property will depict a youthful and contemporary look. We will position it as a boutique property.” The property will undergo a soft launch on March 27, 2009 and will be completely operational by July 2009.

Besides this, the company is also on the lookout for distressed assets present in the market; it aims to adopt them through a management contract or own-and-operate model. It has undertaken a 25 room villa resort in Alleppey under management contract in October 2008. “The United 21 hotel under development in Hyderabad is a semi finished project,” Parekh adds.

The company is in the process of land acquisition in Kumarakom. “We have already acquired 10 acres and plan to develop a 100 room five star resort and spa property on 14 acres of land. About 80 per cent of the land acquisition is already done,” Parekh informs. The project is expected to incur an investment to the tune of Rs 300 Crore. Plans are also underway to develop a five star hotel cum serviced apartment in Munnar. The company has also taken over the management of a five star hotel under development in Pune. The property is expected to be commissioned by early 2011. It has bought 35 acres of land in Uzgaon, Goa and plans to develop a jungle resort on the property, as well.

PUL is raising Rs 50 Crore through preferential allotment of shares and aims to raise an excess Rs 50 Crore through non convertible preference shares in 2010. The company is presently on the lookout for domestic and international operators to brand and manage its five star properties.

Source : http://www.hospitalitybizindia.com/detailNews.aspx?aid=3871&sid=1

Last few days were hectic to me as there was lot of things that was happening around me .

6th Feb : It was Mukti 09 day ,  a national level tech fest on opensource at NIT Durgapur . Me and Arindam had to do a talk cum workshop there .Our Pre Mukti talk was canceled due to bandh and got 3 hr slot , It was scheduled at 5:00 PM .

However we decided to go a little earlier because we along with Indranil Das Gupta and Yu Yu Din were suppose to go and visit Bijra High School .It was at around  12:30 PM when we reached there ,met with Indranil Das Gupta and Yu Yu Din and started for Bijra ,but before we left the campus we called Pradeepto and took him too .At around 1:51 PM Debayan called us up  for setup at fedora stall as they are lacking volunteers but we were already on our way to Bijra .

In Bijra , there were lots of stuff that were happening , Bijra school is getting lot of aids from different section of society and they are utlizing it for a good cause .Both Yu Yu and Pradeepto liked it very much . and lot more things were discussed .

We returned to NIT campus at around 4:30 PM and headed toward IT department where our ” A day with fedora ” were suppose to be done .We started a 30 min  late at around 5:35 PM .Satya came along but she was too tired as she just finished a talk .

There were some 50+ DVD’s that were distributed along with registration kits , I asked Debayan for 15 more DVD’s to distribute in the event just as we were on the start , Nevertheless we started with Arindam’s introductory talk on “Introduction to Fedora” , He had some cool slides where  he showed ” Freedom | Friends | Features | First ” of fedora project .He also showed some cool videos like ‘Truth Happens ‘ , A video showing new features of F10 ,starring stickster and gergdek .Next was my turn , I gave talk on “Myths about Linux ,Busted with fedora ” where i showed basic misconceptions on usage of Linux . A video on ” Why fedora ” by gregdek is shown along with the talk .

Finally we conducted a small workshop on ” How to create bootable live usb for easy use “  . The local mirror of NIT was b0rked and Debayan mailed us regarding that a day before , anyways we continued with as much we can , and finally got 8 machine getting all that we need . Arindam hosted his local FTP server so that people find it easier to download .The workshop went alone and was quite successful .We faced a lot of questions , a guy from NIT agartala said the workshop was useful as  he can now got a solution to their connectivity problems . Finally we ended with the “Choice” video .

We had dinner there and finally returned home at around midnight .

7th Feb : Me along with Arindam ,Indranil Das Gupta and Yu Yu Din boarded the 6:14 AM train and went to Kolkata where IDG had to give talk . We went to IDG’s office and waited and finally went to Science City where talks were held . M Arulraj gave a talk on Open GIS . IDG gave his talk , I don’t remember the tittle of talk though . and one talk was on FOSS in bio informatics by Mr. Sudip Kundu .

Finally we all went to kafuluk at china town and had our lunch cum dinner there ./me and Arindam went to my house at sontosepur .

8th Feb : Woke up early and came back to Durgapur by taking 7:30 AM bus . It was “brigade cholo ” day , the bus we took was the last bus available as most buses were hijacked to bring in people . Reached Durgapur at around 10:30 AM and went back to NIT Durgapur at around 12 noon , On way to IDG’s talk ,we went where stalls were hosted , apart from Dominos and CCD rest were empty .IDG’s talk on “Indian FOSS Community was superb ” and at it was the last talk of mukti 09 .

NIT Lug guys did a superb organizational effort to bring up such a event and overall it was awesome to see so much participation .

Fedora Event pics are here .

As we all eagerly wait for Barack Obama’s inauguration and the second coming of alternative energy, a new play has been spinning through my mind. In the wastes of the Tata Nano debacle, there is a new opportunity for West Bengal,India. Despite it’s reputation for militant trade unionism and long years of communist rule(and the stereotype that all Bengalis are Red), Bengal has a number of things going for it which may yet raise it from the economic dead.

Firstly, it has land that is not productive from an agricultural perspective,  secondly it has a coastline and thirdly it has a strong base of education. But above all, in CESC, it has an established player in the power sector which has shown the way to success in the utility business-not many others in India can claim that. In the districts of Bankura, Birbhum and Purulia, the land remains largely barren and the population is spread thinly. This can be ideal for windfarm creation. The moment you move away from the crowded areas of the 24-Parganas, Midnapore and Nadia, you have plenty of land and some people, mainly poor. I see no reason why these people would mind extra money in terms of employment and downstream ancillary services and industries. Secondly, around Midnapore and other seaboard areas, it is a well known fact that saltwalter floods and erosion are gradually making land unarable. This is anecdotal evidence-I am sure any researcher will bear me out. Is it possible to look at putting wind turbines offshore and harvesting the power? Thirdly, the use of thermal solar should be seriously contemplated in a state that is, well, sunny for so many months. Fourth, CESC and DVC between the two of them have a base of knowledge, experience and well-established power grids which can be used to ship  this power. How long will we see fossil fuel being used and mega hydel projects killing off rivers ? India is a energy hungry market and there is no reason for Bengal not to export green power.

So who would invest in all of these? I see Singapore’s thrust in the area of green energy and it’s uniquely Asian perspective coming in handy here. There has already been an indication of closer cooperation through the Durgapur Aeropolis. Maybe it is time to start thinking ahead to a deeper engagement.