Diwali…..

It was Dusshera a few weeks back and even before getting rid of all the excess  fat i gained by having a frequent supply of  sweets and other eatables , Diwali came along.This festival provided another reason to continue with my not so healthy diet.(I for one wouldn’t mind).Compared to last year’s diwali this year was a more subdued affair.The reasons were quite obvious…….  recession, spiraling costs..One had to think twice before even buying any crackers this time as it would cut deep in to one’s pocket.I had the opportunity to spend quality time with my family ,my sister was home for the weekend to join in the occasion.But this year celebrating diwali was more mechanical,i had no interest whatsoever  to treat my self with burning crackers……only constant nudging and cajoling by my mother forced me to do so.I was perhaps a bit uncertain about my future this time and too preoccupied to have any thoughts of entertainment.I hope that next year would be a more  cheerful one.

home decorated with diyas

my mom burning a flowerpot

my bro enteratining himself

The wheel of fire!

House Party UK My Party

House Party UK My Party

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A trip down memory lane

I had a good opportunity of meeting my beloved principal Ms Hemalatha pradhan after a long gap of seven years.After leaving my school i never got an opportunity to meet her.I also had a feeling og meeting her only if i had achieved something worthwhile  in my life.A senior of mine convinced that it would be nice to visit our teacher and thank them for what they had given to us.I went to her home with an expectation  that she would forgive me for not visiting so long….

She was the person who influenced me a lot into reading books,participating in extra curricular activities and gave me a childhood which was fun and frolic.

It was an emotional trip both for meand my senior soumya.My princpal was so happy on seeing us both that we had very lengthy conversations on our schooling days and how her discipline and teaching helped us to achieve what we are right now.She took the opportunity and suggested that we can have a get together of sorts-bringing all my friends,seniors and juniors for a day and share their wonderful experiences they had with the school.I am planning to pen a book about my wonderful time at Tiny tots and ask my friends to do the same in the future very soon.This would be my guru dakshina to my school and my Headmistress.

Remembering my Guru’s

September the 5th in India is celebrated as teachers day.A day in remembrance of  the teachers who shape our life and play an important role  in moulding a  student in to a model citizen.Some times teachers are our friends,our guides or our mentors who help us to get on with our studies with their support.There are many such people in my childhood i remember very well.People who have trained me to speak various languages,who nurtured my mind so that I would always think positively and take the right decisions.

My special thanks goes to my headmistress Hemalatha Pradhan,who made us to realise the importance of the English language and use it as a tool to build relations across various spectrum’s of the society.Teachers who have dedicated their lives in spreading the knowledge they posses and bringing up the cognizants of tomoro in today’s children should never be forgotten.

Gone are the days
When the school reopened in June,
And we settled in our new desks and benches.

Gone are the days
When we wanted two Sundays and no Mondays, yet
Managed to line up daily for the morning prayers.

Gone are the days
When we chased one another in the corridors in Intervals,
And returned to the classrooms drenched in sweat.

Gone are the days
When a single P.T. and games period in the week’s Time Table, Was awaited more
eagerly than the monsoons.

Gone are the days
Of fights but no conspiracies,
Of Competitions but seldom jealousy.

Gone are the days
Of Sports Day, and the annual School Day,
And the one-month long preparations for them.

Gone are the days
Of the stressful Quarterly, Half Yearly and Annual Exams,
And the most enjoyed holidays after them.

Gone are the days
We learnt, we enjoyed, we played, we won, we lost, We laughed, we cried,
we fought, we thought.

Gone are the days
With so much fun in them, so many friends,
So much experience

A pleasant Surprise!

The thing i have been waiting for from the past 3 months has finally happened.It rained!!(no big deal)but it was a deluge.

Not that i am complaining about it but its supposed to be the monson season now and it has been a disaster this year.There are almost drought conditions prevailing in my area and boy! this was totally unexpected .

It was for a while that i could fully realise what was happening because i was sceptical it would fizzle out.On the contrary it went from strength to strength and the rain came down in torrents with  strong winds whipping up leaves and spraying water allaround.The next thing i did was to rush inside and grab my camera and started clicking away like mad.I didnt know why i did that may be because i wanted this to happen for many days now?

It was only a matter of time before my dog began to jump about in the water…may be it was relishing the moment too..i had to run behind it and persuade it to ocme back in the house….but not before being drenched.

Progress through processors….

I was just going through some fan sites today when i noticed this application.Called progress through processors,Intel’s initiative uses Idle time of CPU’S around the world who are connected to the gridrepublic which also runs various other not for profit initatives like climate control,rosetta home and reasearch for malaria in sub saharan africa

This initiative excited  me and i decided to see how the whole system works.After logging into facebook and downloading the app,The software utilizes idle time of the CPU.

A neat interface gives information on diskusage,resource statistics and available projects which we can join.

Volunteer computing seems to be an ideal platform for organmizations who cannot afford the huge costs involved in purchasing and maintaining complex systems.The cloud has indeed made the world into a smaller place, a global village of sorts.Kudos to intel

India..beneath the mystery..beyond the history…

The trip to mysore with my college friends was an experience of a lifeime.It gave me an opportunity to study and find out about India’s past filled with rich heritage and culture.

When i first visited the palace of the maharaja’s of mysore as a kid i was not in a position to understand what such imposing structures as the palace made in the history of india.

The trip to mysore with my college friends was an experience of a lifeime.It gave me an opportunity to study and find out about India’s past filled with rich heritage and culture.

When i first visited the palace of the maharaja’s of mysore as a kid i was not in a position to understand what such imposing structures as the palace made in the history of india.

But after visiting it now,i feel that my trip has some purpose to understand what my country was like even hundreds of years ago

.The huge imposing palaces with vast areas of green gardens,the dancing fountains dating back to hundreds of years which still work perfectly,the magnifiecient temples which give peace and tranqulity.

The grandeur  of the brindavan gardens which gives a feeling of heaven on earth,The lush green coffee plantations all along the roads leading to mysore… all of this makes me go hullabol…

India turns 62…

At the stroke of midnight 62 years ago,India obtained independence from the british raj after being ruled and looted of its entire wealth.Before the british invaded and took control over india in the 1800’s it was the richest country in the world with a GDP higher than that of the present United states.It took more than 55 years for india to become a formidable economic superpower in the present world league competing with China and its contemporaries.

As a citizen of the indian repulblic,I salute the initiative taken by mahatma gandhi in a non violent way to obtain independence and spread the word of peace.Jay hind!

Back to fedora once again

After tinkering for a long time with windows vista to check out its much touted security features,I switched back to Fedora-11  today which happens to be the latest avatar of the distro.Installation was fast and snappy.There are many things which i found common with both linux and vista like the UAC prompt and ASLR implementation at lower levels.Not that i hate it,but i was done with the memory hogging OS for quite some time.I never experienced a BSOD before,but when i got one due to a faulty ACPI driver which followed the death of my HDD i thought that it was enough.

It took some time to figure out on how to use proprietary software codecs and get all kinds of formats to work but finally i had done it.I have also been tinkering with the Bash command prompt which  i am very found out in linux based systems .

Some exciting artwork discussions is going on the fedora ambassador’s mailing  list including more effective ways of marketing the product.Due to the various DOS attacks taking place over the internet i assumed it was best for me to switch back to the very secure linux system

With the independence day coming up i feel the launch of fedora 11 has truly lived up to its tag line Freedom +Infinty=fedora

JAy ho!Mera Bharat mahan!

Finally relief from the heavens!

After 4 months of Intense heat and Sunshine,the monsoon has finally kicked in with full force!.Just seeing the rain bearing clouds above is a rejuvenating factor for all of us.The immense heat waves have made  day to day work including travelling a big nightmare adding to the frequent power cuts due to water shortage in the Dams.

With borewells drying up and tap water on alternate days, we had to for the first time buy a tanker full of water for our needs!But hopefully this should improve by the month end.Expecting rainfall in the lots.I still remember making paper boats and playing in the water with my brother when we were kids,I hope that we could have such a good time again .

I joined my brother last time to try out rain water harvesting to rejuvenate my borwell,and sure enough it worked well and water began to fill in again.This time we are well prepared before hand,using simple ingenious method of collecting excess rainwater on the roof top and allowing it to pass through a pipe sent inside the borewell .The monsoon is below expectations this time,hugely deficit across the country.But i will enjoy the rainfall even if it means for a less amount of time!