Chintadhara - a thought process

Exploits with the lens

2010-09-11T11:05:00.001+05:30

What am I up to?

2010-09-11T08:30:00.001+05:30

It has been more than a year since I posted on this blog. I was not busy or something, just that there was never enough thoughts for a post here. But I have been fairly active on my other estates on the web - youtube.com/saptarshide, twitter.com/saptarshide and facebook.com/saptarshide.

Also I have traveled a lot in last one year and captured many amazing sights with my lens. So I have decided to share these as a slide-show on the next post to keep the blog updated with my latest exploits! Enjoy!

Trying Windows Live Writer

2009-06-14T19:09:00.001+05:30

Today I was exploring the Windows Live services when I stumbled upon Windows Live Essentials. It’s something similar to Google Pack, though Google Pack has much more richer collection of free apps whereas Windows Live Essentials is a collection of free desktop applications from Microsoft. Some the apps included are the replacements of current Windows applications.

Windows Live Mail replacing Windows Mail/Outlook Express
Windows Live Messenger replacing MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Windows Live Photo Gallery replacing Windows Photo Gallery
Windows Live Movie Maker beta replacing Windows Movie Maker

Additional to above Windows Live Writer is also included. It is a desktop blog-publishing app which features WYSIWYG authoring, photo-publishing, map-publishing, and video-publishing functionality. And the best part is that it supports all major blogging services including Blogger, Wordpress, LiveJournal, and TypePad, amongst others.

I just now installed Windows Live Essentials. I have started using Windows Live Mail, which gives me an outlook-like usability to my Hotmail mailbox and option to copy mails to my computer, and also I made Windows Live Photo Gallery the default photo viewer. Then I decided to try out the Writer with my blog hosted on Blogger, and hence this post. OK, I am clicking the publish button now …

Did you Bing?

2009-06-02T10:42:00.003+05:30

www.bing.com

This is the latest web search offering from Microsoft, which calls it a Decision Engine as it is supposed to help make decisions apart from searching. Read here what Microsoft has to say about it.

Anyway I decided to bing the web and see what it can show me. From the first impression I feel Microsoft finally seems to be understand how things should work on internet. The interface is neat and simple, though bit heavy with graphics. The web search has some nice features like ability to suggest related searches, provide a preview to page contents without opening and also suggested alternatives for the search result. Shopping search is where I found Bing really good. It could help compare prices, show reviews, product pictures, and even offers cashbacks!! Also I liked the bird's eye view of the Bing Map search, which is based on the Microsoft Virtual Earth now called Bing Maps for Enterprise.

Overall impressive, I will not compare it with Google search yet. Mainly because today I was just poking around and didn't have anything sensible to search. I will be surely using bing as the second search option after google for my future searches. Lets see if bing can become the first option in days to come.

Forgotten hobby

2009-05-31T15:36:00.010+05:30

Reading is a very favorite hobby of mine which had taken a back-seat for quite sometime now, except my reading the Times of India newspaper daily and reading news articles on ibnlive.in.com. Till a few years back I used to read novels very frequently, mainly from fiction (crime, detective, mystery) genre apart from a couple of biographies also. The part reason for this hobby of mine taking a back-seat are the genres themselves. You need continuous time to read them, as it's very difficult to break in between, at least for me.

But very recently I got a chance to bring back this hobby of mine to focus. On my journey back to New Delhi from Kolkata on Rajdhani express I had all the time in the world. So I decided to pick up a novel to read on the train from the Howrah station. I choose The Chamber by John Grisham. Genre wise (legal thriller) it was new to me. I did manage to read a substantial part of the novel in the train but finished the remaining part at my home after reach New Delhi. I liked novel and I think I am very soon going to buy some of the other titles by John Grisham. But more than that I very excited that I went back to my hobby after a long while.

Today while browsing the net on Google search (another hobby of mine), I found a nice site which has a good collection of some of the beautiful works. www.readprint.com. It claims to be a free online library with about 8000 online books by 3500 famous authors. Not bad! Though it also carries a strange warning on the homepage - "The surgeon general reports that having these many free online books at your disposal can be highly addictive."!! I do not think the addictive part is bad but surely I would avoid it as already due to my job I sit in front of computers for better half of my day, and if I start reading books online, I am sure my eyes will pop out in revolt. And anyway, I love buying books and preserving them, after reading, in my collection.

Go down to come on the top

2009-05-28T09:16:00.003+05:30

I am referring to the recently concluded IPL T20 tournament in South Africa. After a close fight between Hyderabad Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers in the finals, Deccan Chargers became the champions. I usually do not follow cricket matches ball by ball because they are bit longer, even T20 format to some extent, but I do follow the results. Anyways that's not the reason for this post, something else caught my attention.

Both Hyderabad Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers are the teams which finished bottom of the table in the last edition of IPL, and this year they both did a perfect turnaround. Well lot of credit goes to there respective new captains Adam Gilchrist and Anil Kumble. Interestingly, in the last edition of IPL Rajasthan Royals who were virtually written off, surprised everyone by reaching the finals and eventually winning it also. Credit of that win surely goes to Shane Warne, captain and coach for Rajasthan Royals, who did a good job of making champions out of the underdogs. This year Royals were the defending champions and even better organized with a new sponsor, but couldn't re-create the magic.

Not very surprising these facts, might be even concidences, but rags to riches stories are not very uncommon. I guess winning is easier if you are at the bottom than at the top because one has nothing to loose at the bottom. Nevertheless it does need a huge amount of mental strength and determination come out as winner from behind. I guess Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders can have their hopes for the next year but it will need lot of hard work and regrouping!

What does your father do?

2009-03-29T17:24:00.003+05:30

No, I don't want an answer from you. I guess most of us have answered this many times.

Actually reason for this post is that this question was asked to a kid in one of reality shows happening on the TV these days. The answer which came left me both amused and wondering. The name of the kid, the show or the channel is not important, what's important is here ...

Judge: What does your father do?
Kid: Morning walk, goes out in car ...
...
Judge: No, I was asking what is his profession or business?
Kid: Politics.

Incidentally kid's father was in the audience and camera was pointing towards him :) ... and he was equally amused as the rest.

Earth hour ... last 5 minutes!!

2009-03-28T21:25:00.001+05:30

All lights and other electrical appliances are switched off at my home. I was standing in the balcony of my apartment and it looks quite dark outside with just the street lights on. It started to rain here (New Delhi, India) around 8:15 pm IST, so I enjoyed my earth hour with cool breeze and wind, and occasional natural lighting.

Hope we made a difference today for a better tomorrow.

Earth Hour 2009 ... are you participating?

2009-03-21T12:19:00.006+05:30

Earth Hour, which started from Sydney in 2007, is an annual international event since 2008 to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change. It calls for the participants (individuals, organizations and government) to switch off all non-essential lights and electrical appliances for just 60 minutes.

You do not have to plunge your world into darkness but just need to eliminate the non-essential usage of electricity for those 60 minutes. More of a symbolic event to spread the awareness and take the actions beyond those 60 minutes.

The next Earth Hour is scheduled on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm, your local time.

New Delhi and Mumbai are official participating cities from India in Earth Hour 2009 but you can participate from wherever you are.

Let's do our bit!

Earth Hour @ WWW:

Earth Hour Global site - http://www.earthhour.org/
Earth Hour: Vote Earth - http://www.voteearth2009.org/
Earth Hour India site - http://www.earthhour.in/

Earth Hour 2009 India Orkut community - http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=60087030
Earth Hour 2009 India Facebook Community - http://apps.facebook.com/causes/241272/41494939?m=ddfe74a3

Slumdog Millionaire .... and the triple Oscars

2009-03-15T22:41:00.002+05:30

Slumdog Millionaire ... a truly entertaining fantasy. If you have not experienced it yet then that's the first thing you should do instead of reading further. With 8 Academy Awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards and 7 BAFTA Awards, the film itself has lived its reel-life story in real-life.

I had seen this movie on its release in US and two things made a lasting impression on my mind that I am writing in retrospect. First is the unique story about how so many unrelated and tragic events can help Jamal, the protagonist, answer the tough quiz questions. Kudos to Simon Beaufoy. The second is the acting done by the child actors from the Mumbai slum, very effortless. And now there is a third, 3 Oscars coming to India!

The movie had its share of noise when it was released in India. There was a debate on the way slums and harsh realities of the life in the underbelly of Mumbai were shown. Then there was discussion about whether this was a India film or a foreign film. But why these questions? The simple fact is that its just a work of fiction with a sole motive to entertain the audience and maybe win few awards. This not the first time a story has been based on slums and what if it was; slums are a fact and every metropolis around the globe has an underbelly. I guess the natural social balance creates it. I think we should just be proud about the fact that its a good movie with India, and Indian cast and crew at its heart.

But as the saying goes ... all's well that ends well. The biggest moment for this movie would surely be the 8 Academy Awards, out of which 3 came to India! A R Rehman (2) and Resul Pookutty (1) gave us a real happy beginning to 2009!

13B, The Stoneman Murders .... and Gulaal

2009-03-15T19:35:00.002+05:30

I hope Holi was colourful and exciting for everyone. Today I watched a movie which has its name related to the festival of Holi, though the storyline has nothing to do with the festival.

Gulaal ... a slow but fascinating storyline. The story revolves around student politics while also touching many other issues including campus ragging, caste biases among others in an interesting way. Set in the backdrop of varied Rajasthan terrain storyline is bit slow but is watchable till the end for the characters and actors who play them. Kay Kay Menon as always gives a wonderful performance.

Moving to another Kay Kay Menon movie ... The Stoneman Murders, which I had watched few weeks back. This one is based on the real-life serial murders of hapless footpath dwellers in Mumbai during early 80s. The Stoneman was a name given by the popular English language print media of Kolkata to an alleged serial killer who menaced the streets of that city in 1989. The Kolkata killings had a striking similarity with the Mumbai ones. Interestingly both the cases remained unsolved till date. Though the movie is based on these real-life incidents but since these were never solved, director Manish Gupta gives us his solution and its quite convincing also! A must watch.

13B ... Fear has new address. A horror flick after a long while but it was more of a thriller than horror. It does have some scary moments in the first half. The second half is bit of a drag. The suspense is held till the end but when its revealed it leaves so many unanswered questions that you are left wondering. You can watch it if you want to know what it is all about but overall bit average.

1 gold 2 bronze ... an Olympics to remember

2008-08-23T17:50:00.004+05:30

... and of course the sportsmen who made it so. Abhinav Bindra. Sushil Kumar. Vijender Kumar. My heartiest congratulations to them for their dream achievement!

Also there are few more things to remember about India at Olympics 2008. We had a contingent of 56 athletes, and they had a support-staff of 42 officials. The athletics contingent was the largest, with 16 athletes. Still in very few events only we came close enough to think about medals and finally won 3 precious. No, I am not blaming the sportsmen/sportswomen. They would have worked really hard to be there and compete. Its the support structure which is weak. If you looks at the 3 medal winners they had their own personal support structure which supported them till they got those medals. Another thing which we should not forget is that India was not able to qualify for the hockey, our national sports. We should also remember these while thinking for London 2012 Games.

But now is a time to celebrate with Abhinav, Sushil and Vijender! Hip Hip Hurray!

bachna ae haseeno ... nice movie to watch! By the way ... 'Why do girls always fall for the wrong guy?' - read this in some acticle about the movie

Celebrating Independence

2008-08-16T22:18:00.002+05:30

Today was the first day of the 62nd year of independent India and yesterday we celebrated the 62nd Independence Day. My best wishes to every Indian!

But each year, one thought does come to my mind. What does this day mean for me? Is is just a holiday which comes every year? Maybe. I have read about the great and hard struggles which our freedom fighters have fought. I am very proud of them and really cherish the free India they have given us. But that feeling is not for only this one day. As a child it took me many years to understand the difference between the Republic Day and the Independence Day. Republic Day is my favorite of the two. I love the parade on Republic Day! Coming back to the question - what does this day mean to me? I am not sure. I tried searching web to see what others feel on this ... feeling of pride, remembering the sacrifices. These were some of the answers but question seeks an answer beyond that. And the answer comes - holiday!

It's not something to be ashamed of because its a fact. In fact its much honest an answer than saying we feel proud and remember the sacrifices of the freedom fighters, because not just individually but as nation we have forgotten many of them. Surely 61 years after we are not celebrating the freedom from foreign powers, especially that now there is lot of inter-dependencies with the same and other foreign powers.

There is one more answer for the question. If I ask this same question to my parents and grand-parents, for them the day brings back the painful memories of partition. For them happiness of 15 August 1947 was lost entirely on 14 August 1947. This is something which I definitely remember each year, with them, on this day. I hope one day we might be able to do what happened with the Berlin Wall.

Independence - if you go by the dictionary meaning, is a very Utopian concept. Each entity in this world is inter-dependent. In present day socio-economic system, each country is vulnerable to events much beyond its physical borders. The recent slow-down of the world economies and rise in oil prices, due to a crisis (sub-prime) in one country, is the perfect example. Even if we come down to individual level, I do not think anyone can say he/she is independent irrespective of where they stand in the socio-economic ladder. Each day if you look at the events, you will find a lot that happens is beyond your control, but directly impacts you and sometimes you do not like the impact.

Just other day, there was a protest organized by the a section of society to get their demands addressed and in doing so they took the rest hostage. Now many of those who were made hostage of the protest, might not agree with the demands but their 'independence' was constrained by those who wanted to excercise their democratic 'independence'. This is subjugation, but whom can we struggle against this time? It is very difficult to define the subjugator, like we did for the foriegn powers. Due this the struggle itself is getting distorted and we are getting 'solutions' like reservation, demads for new states, etc. These solutions are again seeds to new problems.

Like this questions are many. Though the answers are still clouded. I am not sad, because in last 61 years India has definitely grown into a stong player in the international arena, both politically and economically! We all should be extremely proud for this. But somewhere there is thought that we had the potential of achieving much more, if we had done few things differently.

Nevertheless, wishing every Indian out there a very happy, successful and exciting 62nd independent year which unfolding ahead!

Google explained

2008-06-22T21:00:00.002+05:30

"Google Fellow Urs Hölzle describes the software and hardware infrastructure that makes searching a multi-terabyte web index for every query with an average response time of less than a quarter of a second, with near-100% uptime, possible, as well as provide an overview of the main problems facing a web search, software architecture, servers and compact rack hardware designs." - UWTV (Series Title: CSE Colloquia - 2002, The Google Linux Cluster)

Aamir might put a dent on Sarkar Raj

2008-06-15T21:47:00.002+05:30

I am referring to the latest Bollywood releases - Aamir and Sarkar Raj. Frankly Aamir was not even on my to-watch list. I was eagerly waiting for Sarkar Raj though since I had enjoyed Sarkar a lot. But after reading through the reviews of Aamir and also I did like Rajeev Khandelwal in whatever few episodes of Left Right Left I watched; I decided to watch Aamir before Sarkar Raj.

When you go for something without any expectation; if it turns out to be bad you do not mind because no expectation means to expect it to be bad but if its good you are overwhelmed. With Aamir it was the second! Splendid acting by Rajeev with a fresh and crisp storyline. The movie is equally thought provoking. Its surely a must watch.

Sarkar Raj was bit less than what I expected. I felt it has the same storyline as Sarkar, I do not know how many of you will agree with me but I can draw parallel between the two in every sequence. I wont do that here as many of you are yet to watch it. For me, it was more if old wine in new bottle. Nevertheless is a RGV typical, topped with as always beautiful acting by Abhishek and Amitabh Bachan, so you will surely enjoy.

On pure merits both are very good movies, but Aamir edges ahead being different!

P.S. - Somehow I do not tend to agree that Sarkar or Sarkar Raj is based on any political family but I find it very close to what one would call an 'Indian' adaptation of The Godfather series.

My latest exploits with lens @ McLeod, HP

2008-06-08T15:48:00.007+05:30

Trip to McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh

2008-06-08T14:17:00.006+05:30

Last weekend we went for team outing to McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh. It was almost 2 years since my last escape from office. Hill Stations are always my favorite. And with weeks of hot climate in Delhi, the whole team wanted to go to a cool place. There are so many options around Delhi deciding the destination was a tough call, but everyone agreed that it has to be a non-regular spot.
Many people know it by the name Dharamshala and actually McLeod is suburb of Dharamshala and also has second name 'Upper Dharamshala'. We started of from New Delhi on May 30 by train to Pathankot which we reached the next day. For Pathankot we took a cab for a 3-day to McLeod. It should take about 3 hours to reach McLeod but we reached in 6 hours thanks to Himachal RTO and the beautiful scenery on the way. McLeod is a very small place that you can mostly explore it on foot. The climate was very pleasant; exactly what we were expecting. Himalayas are so beautiful that you want to capture every second in your camera. We explored few far spots in McLeod on the second day.
On the last day it was really very sad to sign-off from such a soothing place but as someone has said life must go on. We pushed of from McLeod on June 2, exploring Kangra valley on the way. Its still very hard to believe we are back in the maddening traffic and heat of Delhi.
I do not think I did full justice to McLeod with my adjectives above, so experience it for yourself ...

Album URL: http://saptarshide.myphotoalbum.com/slideshow.php?set_albumName=album35

Welcome! 2008!

2008-01-01T18:58:00.000+05:30

Wish you all a very happy 2008! May you and your loved ones have all the joy, success and good health!

But I wrote 'Welcome' in the title with a dual reason. Today only I watched the recently released Hindi movie - Welcome. Laughed all the way through it. Akshay, Anil and of course Nana & Paresh rock!! Katrina and Mallika supported well :).

Go and watch for yourself! Have an exciting 2008!

FreeRice.com

2007-12-29T11:10:00.000+05:30

Thanks to Chinmay! I got a new pass time!!

This is basically vocabulary test and with each correct match you get some point which is depicted as your Vocab Level. But thats not all, as the site puts it and I quote -

"For each word you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger"

Isn't this nice, donate rice while polish your vocabulary. I love it!

Trip to Kolkata

2007-12-25T18:50:00.000+05:30

Almost after 8 years (6 years according to my mom, still the debate is on with her :)!!!) I finally got a chance to visit the eastern part of the country.

The reason was my cousin's marriage. Wedding was in Vadodara and bou-bhaat (aka reception) was is Rishra, a suburb near Kolkata. Rishra is also my native place. My Thamma (paternal grandmother) and many relatives live there. It was quite a fun to visit after so many years and meeting so many people together.

Most exciting thing was I was not able to recognize a single person. After meeting so many people and the rounds of introduction I was the totally confused. Boy! I have quite a big family tree. Cousin's marriage gave a good opportunity to meet many of them.

In between all the wedding functions I did get some chance to visit Kolkata. Since my childhood days, I used to always love a drive through the city of Kolkata (Calcutta then) and crossing the Howrah Bridge was the main attraction. This time also it felt quite the same, not much seems to have changed. Thats one thing I love about this city. With so many old buildings in the city it looks like a one big historical monument, a heritage city.

This trip also gave me a chance to travel in train. Yes! I love long journeys in a train and after many years of traveling in flights this time I had the luxury of time to travel by the train. Enjoyed every bit of it! In fact I always believe slower the mode of transport more you enjoy the travel and the surroundings.

Phew! I traveled the entire cross-section of India. We traveled the western to eastern India. Now the trip has ended and its back to work from tomorrow.

Shubho Bijoya!

2007-10-21T22:17:00.000+05:30

Wish you all a very happy Bijoyadoshomi!! It's that day of the Durga Pujo when I feel bit low. Today morning only I was telling mom, every year I feel Durga Pujo is like a 5 seconds festival though we celebrate it for 5 days. But it’s also the day when I remember how much fun I had in last 5 days. And I would like to share the memories with you all too...

Ablum URL: http://saptarshide.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album34

Just 24 hours a day ... not enough!

2007-09-21T08:18:00.000+05:30

Today I came early too office, about 8:00 a.m. Those who know me might get worried reading this, reason being I normally don’t even wake up by this time. In fact this would almost midnight for me. But yes today I came early due to some work at office.

For last many early I have drastically disrupted my daily routine. In school days I had to reach school by 8, so had no choice but to get up early. Once in college the slide began, initially it came to 9 then 10-11 and finally I even have record of getting up after-noon. I had primarily two reasons - staying up late in the night and nothing better to do getting up early. This used to work for me as long as I was a student, but once I landed in job it cramped my day.

I had very little time in a weekday to spare on anything after office work. And slowly as the work increased in office, I started feeling more cramped. Then I started feeling that there should be more than 24 hours in a day!

But sitting early in office today, I feel how foolish is my demand. Are my productive hours limited to 24 hours? In fact NO! Actually it’s up to me how much I want to use productively. 24 hours just changes a Thursday to Friday, but it doesn’t limit me from achieving more from a day or my life.

These days there are lots of thing which I want to do, but I always didn't find time. Today I woke early for a reason; I guess I need to find one daily. If I can have an official reason, I should also be able to find a personal one.

More than a year back I had asked a question on this blog - "How to be an early-riser?". I guess I have one answer now to try.

Hello!

2007-08-26T23:23:00.000+05:30

It has been quite a while since I last wrote in this blog. A lot has happened since my last post which I wrote when I was about to leave Chennai. Since then I have re-located to Delhi and was bit busy 'starting-up' my home here. I have joined my new office in Noida which is much bigger in size than the one in which I used to work in Chennai.

I will cut short this update as I just logged in to say hello to all of you who keep visiting this blog. I hope to pick up speed in filling this space of lots things which have happened in last few weeks since I came to Delhi/Noida.

Team get-together

2007-06-23T02:32:00.000+05:30

Album: http://saptarshide.myphotoalbum.com/slideshow.php?set_albumName=album33

Doing what?

2007-06-10T17:50:00.000+05:30

I was looking at my blog and saw last few post were purely about movies. Does that means I am not doing anything except going to theaters? Well I looked back and answer came a big YES.

Weekdays are mostly busy at office and weekends are mostly taken by my laziness and sleep. Whats left of the weekends goes in cleaning the house and bring it back into order to be messed up again in the coming week. Only other thing is going for movies Saturday nights and writing about them on this blog.

Oh yes, now remember I did do something else. I finally finished reading The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas, a novel I had got some two months back. Thats pathetic compared to my normal time taken for finishing a novel. In good old days a week was the maximum I would take for finishing a novel that too if it was really thick one. But now I happy at least I did something rather just wasting time in doing nothing. Since novel has come up, let me tell a bit about it also.

The Three Evangelists belongs to the crime/mystery/thriller genre. This is genre which I love the most, though this is first time I am venturing out of Sir Aurthur Connan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot & Miss Marple) or Satyajit Ray (Feluda). The Three Evangelists was bit different from the all these as it doesn't has a specific investigator. Its does a good job in holding the mystery in the plot till the end. One thing about it which really tested my patience was the fact that the plot moves too slowly and many events happen which cannot be related back to main plot till the end. If it would have been bit tighter and faster in pace, I would have bit more happy. Nevertheless its a beautiful novel to read and has left me wanting for more which is a good sign.

Reading has always being my habit ('bad' habit), but somewhere down the line I feel to have lost it. Hmm ... thats not good. I think I will go get a new novel. I am introducing a new label for my posts - books, starting today. You should see the count going up for it in days to come.