…It’s the New Year

And ye, who have met with Adversity's blast,
And been bow'd to the earth by its fury;
To whom the Twelve Months, that have recently pass'd
Were as harsh as a prejudiced jury -
Still, fill to the Future! and join in our chime,
The regrets of remembrance to cozen,
And having obtained a New Trial of Time,
Shout in hopes of a kindlier dozen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wishing all of you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Iran on the path of "Liberty"

What might have started as an isolated protest has become a major and important revolution. Nearly six months have passed after the controversial, high-margin win of president Ahmendinejad in this years Iranian presidential elections. The system loyalists are thinking how long they can withstand the fierce persistance and defiance of the orninary people. Leaving all the state-imposed rules aside, iranians are sending out tweets,creating forum on facebook and orkut, posting videos on youtube. With prominent leaders such as Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohammad Khatami joining the rallies despite official warnings, and the rank and file willing to risk being beaten and arrested, the flames of revolt are clear. I was bit concerned coz two of my good friends are iranians and they are right in the center of action. Both are
students of fine arts and are actively participating in the protests.Most importantly the president is about to come to New york for the meeting of UN. This civic unrest and resistance from the inside has definitely shaken the hardline government. Ahmendinejad used the Jerusalem day to show off the stringent posture which is pretty synonymous with hardliners and most importantly he has openly declared that destroying Israel is the responsibility of all true Muslims.

Now the protests are clearly showing that general iranian public are not quite impressed with president's agenda. Ok! well iam sure there are many people amongst muslim population who want the destruction of Israel. But i seriously believe that the youth of both the countries dont care much about hardliners and softliners or Orthodox and Liberal. I have friends from both these countries and whatever interaction i have with them i can say that they want to move on.In my opinion Turkey is the ideal muslim country and other muslim countries can definately learn it from turkish people- they have been true to their religion and culture but they are also considered as a modern country with strong economy and good civic satisfaction. May be turkey is on the crossroads of Asia and Europe, so probably many people say that the european wind touches turkey as the morning breeze.Well , to be honest , that is not at all an excuse. The country is doing good and maintains healthy relation with almost all the countries. Turkish people don't have any major disputes with any nation and neither they have any political or economic instability. I wish the same for Iran..Maybe some day we can roam around "Tehran Bazar" and enjoy the hot "Shaawarma" and Lamb meat .

Amen!!!

Need some steel in the nerve

What's wong with the babus in MEA. Just today i read an article which quotes an highly placed MEA official that China should express "sympathy towards India and acknowledge india's global aspirations". What the fuck is wrong with these guys? Man this is what i called" Gandhian Side-effect". Guys in south block need to show some nerve and for god's sake stop acting like a pussy and shitting in the pants when you reply to some Chinese hegemony. Dont make India look so bad. India is surely small in geographical size than china..comparatively smaller defence force but it's also a great nation. We are the country which started one of the first proper civilisation..We discovered the essence of zero..we are the country which captivated every conquerer starting from Ghengis Khan to Modern British empire. It's the largest democracy and up coming economic and military giant. No country , even the whole G-7 consortium can deny the importance of "BRAND INDIA" and deny it's strategic importance.

we have enough achievements in our kitty to stand up and face other countries. So stop acknowledging the hegemony of china and make some strong statements. Don't stop the infrastructure works in leh.. militarize the whole area( remember what happened in 1962). Chinese 2nd artillery is already stationed in tibet . For those who don't know about chinese 2nd artillery division lemme tell u that it's the PLA's Nuclear force.And the only reason it has been stationed in Tibet is to Contain india. I will bring a new article about chinese military deployments and war plans but really it's high time now that our "leaders and Diplomats" stand up and show some grit.

United We Hope @ CopenHagen

The whole mankind is looking anxiously at the viking capital of the Scandinavia: Copenhagen. Heads of nations and delegates from both developed and developing world would be discussing the most important question of our decade: How to save earth? Negotiators have already come up with the few ideas like carbon credits, emission cut bonus etc. But still nations are resisting the idea and necessity of emission cut. why is that? Logically no one is wrong. A nation cannot survive without the indistries and industries cannot survive without fuel. That sounds easy but it's a very complex deadlock. I think this whole "HOPENHAGEN MOVEMENT" has become too much political.In my opinion the demand of this moment is innovation and creativity. If you ask your business corporations to stop using fossil fuel and follow strict environment norms than there are little chances that you will be able to sustain the high GDP growth.Compulsions won't work here. Of course it's a problem. Change will only happen if people really want that. But the course of actions are also important. As i said compulsions won't work so we will have to come up with something unique...something innovative..something creative...something logical....and something practical. Environmental dis balance is sure a big and complex problem...but it's also an opportunity. Oh yes! u read it right- OPPORTUNITY . How?? Well it depends on number of factors and answers could be more specific to a geographical location or the local environment.

Say for instance in INDIA,

It's a diverse country and is blessed with the full spectrum of terrain and associated ecosystems.

and Indian goverment has major players in almost every sphere of industry...goverment companies can actually take lead and bring up new inovations and campaigns which can be "branded" as "green". Indulge with private players and take extend the oppurtinities..for example encourae realtors to build eco freindly buildings which will will minimise the use of space conditioning and electricity. last season i saw some eco friendly designs under Hafeez Contractorwala label. Saw some eco fiendly campuses in Bangalore(Infosys) and kochi(Sutherland). One is in delhi also( the TERI campus). The campuses look cool and saves lotsa cash on ellectricity. Power companies like BSES, HP, IOL can also extend their envelope can look into renewable sources of energy like setting up windmil

ls in podecherry or kochi. The ccean winds and currents can supply unlimited power which can be stored in large capacitors and can be distributed under cheaper unit charges. Similarly Solar energy can be harnessed in rajasthan( deserts from udaipur to jaisalmer can be a good place). If my calculations are right that we can satisfy the electricity needs of not only rajasthan but can also be routed to punjab and gujrat to provide some additional power for agriculture and small industries respectively. This will also provide job opportunities and will ensure safety. The government agencies and companies can use this as an opportunity to revamp the brand image and lead a new movement. They can show that going green can yield reach dividends.

and ofcourse the creativity and innovation has to be in our personal lives also. Can start with small things like putiing up two dustbins in kitchen- Recyclable and Non-recyclable. A easy and rough way of checking your own personal carbon footprints and you know what ,you can actually earn from your green dustbin(recyclable one!!) last month i sold the garbage to kabariwala and earned good 175 bucks.My bother is changing garbages into art forms( he's kinda getting ideas from Disney's Art attack).that's with us. I know people have been doing many more cool and green things..

Lets Hope and try to create a green planet

Good luck to Copenhagen!!!

iPhone going Musical!!

The Web-o-sphere is almost buzzling with the i phone musical performance at University of Mich. One of my pal posted a media on facebook(who happens to be in UoM) and also John brownlee at the blog " Cult of Mac" could not take his eyes of the event. The article was really good and interesting. First of all cheers to John for writing a mag grade article. Georg Essl leads a group from University of mich on a music composition ride aboard apple's IPhone. and as a matter of fact Georg is a professor with the electrical engg department of UoM. Definately a revolutionary thing. I bet Steve Jobs must be having a shiny day. Well afterall his baby is getting all the media attention and that to without paying any promotional campaigns.I remember when iphone was first launched and the media hype around it. It didn't really penetrated well into most of the asian and european markets and drew lotsa criticism for the "all-aspect-exclusiveness" of this "revolutionary" gadget . Well clearly at first attempt iphone couldnot just satisfy those geeks and left people gasping for an "ultimate tech-orgasm" from Apple Inc.

Over the years things are getting easier for this petite gadget. Creativity in the form of unique inovations are pushing new boundaries. Over the years i have seen so many iphone apps which meet the eyes and mind equally. Apps like BDB, Urbanspoon , Woo, iPint are really amazing and make full use of creativity and technology. My personal fav is though the " YOU BOOZE, YOU LOSE" application. The application tells you how much was your consumption is in the past week, how much you have spent ,how much calories you gained and i hear that the latest version suggest effectve diet also.

I am sure that an music composition related app or an motion app would soon be coming but i have an advice for Steve Jobs..plz don't screw it up ..Take care of Context and Specificity.

So much for what???…A pic of mine on the plank

 

I remember that when i was in school or even in college my bi-yearly report card showed somewhere from 5-10 subjects. And now  it seems like there are infinite report cards with infinite parameters…..  Performance parameters, operational parameters, set target Vs Achieved target, Daily reports, Weekly reports, Monthly reports, Quarterly reports, Opportunities report, Quality report and many more…Reward and Recognition (R&R) is now an integral part of any “employee- centric” organization. Awards, certificates , gift hampers are kinda common with most of the organizations, one of the best is putting up a pic on the performance plank. Not many people achieve all their matrices and even less get to that pacman 5 position. And the best of them gets the opportunity to paste his/her pic on the plank. There’s obviously a sense of proud and superiority in that. But what’s the cost of all this. Sure ya! usual things- Hard work, Smart work. That’s kinda very generic reply. In IT industry , which i believe is much more competitive and ruthless than any other industry, performance is a multi dimensional and multi tier thing. Performance are important input during appraisals so it clearly has a long mark on the career. As someone wise once said that to get something you have to loose something. What m talking about???…well, 24 hours continuous shifts…lean and mean operational procedures(Six Sigma comes into play) and strict quality parameters, weekly performance calibration and reactive coaching.In situations like recession where the profit margins are less and the operation team tries to bridge the gab between actual revenue and target revenue, achieving the top tier performance is not by choice rather by compulsions. I have seen people getting into high stress level(including me)..I have seen people quitting the job…I have seen people breaking the organizational hierarchy and complaining about the “strict” work culture employed by their immediate supervisor(s) and almost in every case, this professional tremor reaches the personal life also. When operations gets squeezed almost half of the group exits the system either voluntarily or involuntarily, while the others make credible progress internally. You can say that it’s Charles Darwin’s classic theory of survival- Survival of fittest!!!

But still some people stick to it..why?? coz i think for people like me, there’s no other option. There so much on stake… But i feel that everyone should have something on his/her mind which is constant. Constant, as in, which is always in your mind..You know something that sort of can act like a continuous power supply and morale booster. At the end of the day when u see ur pic on the plank it surely gives that much needed satisfaction and peace. But to be honest it’s short lived. When u achieve that level ..u also create a benchmark for you. By default a operational manager always wants top performance, which is kinda very tough, and then it’s recession time…After u reach the plank ur target becomes wide like an ocean..it has an end but its not in ur sight.So the fight and struggle starts again…u know like an indian TV soap opera ……TO BE CONCLUDED…

Pujo, Mishti ar Bangla

Kali pujo(diwali ) marks the end of festivals in Bengal but as we bongs say “the feast must go on”. Bengal is known for it's knack for food and hospitality- two essential part of festivity. There's a whole variety of delicacies prepared during this time- both veg and non-veg. But its the sweets which are arguably the soul of the festive season. Bengal has its share of passions- Football, Politics, Poetry, Music, Fish, adda. But “Bengali” sweets surpasses the pleasure of all those taken together. Every state has it's variety of sweets but arguably bengal boasts the largest and most incredible variety of sweets. Every city in bengal has its famous sweet shops, every neighborhood has a moira that locals are proud of. Occasion or no occasion bongs eat sweets- many eat it daily as part of breakfast and certainly a sondesh or two after dinner (kinda happens in my home). I don't think any study has been done but am pretty sure that the annual consumption of sweets in bengal are way too high compared to rest of the states.

Bijoya just went by and I really like it in here. I actually like the concept- I mean besides the good wins the bad funda – people go visiting friends and relatives, do a bit of hugging, the mandatory touching of feets and then we get down to business. Plates of sweets and savouries are laid out on the dinner table- then visit someone else and eat “little” more. I have often wondered why we bongs are so fond of sweets. I suppose it has something to do with the arrival of portuguese in bengal in the 17^th century. It was some Portuguese colonist who introduced bengal to cottage cheese and then the moiras took over.

The most famous sweet maker of all time was Nobin Chandra Das. In the 1868 he famously created rossogolla, as we bongs fondly call it. Some 50 years after that his son K C Das created rossomalai or rasmalai. But while chhana may be the mainstay of bengali sweets , there are lot many sweets prepared from flour, rice powder(aatop chal), pressed rice, puffed rice, coconut, semolina, lentils and so on. Poush Parbon for instance is a festival dedicated to pithey , which are prepared with rice and its derivatives, flour, coconut, thickened milk and jaggery. Then of course there is the wonderful called notun gur – or date molasses. This is used to produce some of the best sweets I have ever had- sondesh, rossogolla and payesh and lets not forget the mishti doi, the much loved creamy and thickened sweet yoghurt that no celebration is complete without. As far as sweets are concerned innovation truly is rubbing shoulders with tradition. I love to eat jholbhora at Oh Calcutta – it has a hollow middle that's filled with molasses or rose essence. Most of the bengali sweets are prepared with cow's milk which is kinda easy on the stomach. In winters , eating a hot rossogolla out of kadhai is something close to nirvana.

The great thing about bengali sweets is that quite a few of the best known varieties are now available elsewhere in the country.

Angels And Demons: First Look

I enjoyed this sunday...Mostly because i watched the "much awaited " Ron Howard's Angels And Demons. Well first thing first , the movie didn't  justify with the original storyline. Many important scenes and incidents have been altered or removed. But the most imprtant thing is that this time the movie doesnot go head on head with catholic faiths and beliefs. Instead it's trilling stroy with huge entanglement of Papal History. Sacrilegious debunking of the New Testament is one thing which has been inherited from Dan Brown’s last novel. "Ah yes, Pope Pius IX's great castration," notes Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) as he's escorted through a gallery of officially mutilated statues. So begins the plot, which has this art-history boffin summoned by Vatican envoys in the midst of a grave succession crisis aka the Papal Conclave. The old pope is dead (murdered actually), and his four most likely replacements have been kidnapped and locked up somewhere underground. Meanwhile, a member of the Illuminati – feared age-old devotees of scientific truth – has gone to the considerable trouble of stealing a canister of explosive anti-matter from CERN in Geneva-Franco Border. Wherever it's been stashed, this will blow up at midnight, and take the Vatican with it. He is quickly embroiled in a race against time to find the four missing clerics before they are each branded with one of the elements – Earth, Air, Fire, Water – and subjected to a bespoke demise: the first corpse turns up stuffed with soil…the second one dies on St Peter’s Basil coz of puncture in the lungs…The third one is burned alive inside Bernini’s Chapel….But heroically Langdon  saves the fourth cardinal. Now i won’t disclose the Climax of the story – which is rather sudden and action filled.

But Talking about the historical facts and conclusions spread throughout the story – one thing is very clearly laid out – the involvement of renaissance artists in building the elegance of “Baroque” Vatican city,The center of Christendom and also conspiring against monopoly of Roman Catholic Church. I don’t remember any movie giving so detailed analysis of renaissance artists like Bernini, Michelangelo ,Galileo . While it’s important that most of these great minds used to work exclusively for the holy Church but they were also part of the secret organizations to promote their modern manifesto which challenges the atrocity,old beliefs and rules of the church. I think, controversies apart, the movie is kind of building awareness about that golden era of renaissance which started the propulsion of modern science and modern culture and society as whole.

River Retreat

Ganges river and Bay of Bengal are really important to my people.My home is at the southernmost point of Calcutta.This is the place where river meets the ocean.The terrain is mostly plain and moist hugged by lots of coconut and “supari” trees.It’s a beautiful place. Though Calcutta is a modern metropolis which is bustling with people my place , being the southern tip is relatively calm and restful. Today i would be sharing a wonderful travel destination which is around 1 hour drive from my home. The place is called Raichak and it’s where Ganga starts final leg of her grand journey. The river starts from the mountains of north india and spans the whole indian plain before meeting bay of bengal at the outskirts of calcutta.Ganga becomes so wide in raichak that big cargo ships and passenger ships use it as a transition route.If you start your journey from kolkata central try follwing the signboards for Ffort Radisson hotel, which meant taking a right turn at sarisa off the Diamond Harbour Road and then a left again onto the Raipur-Nurpur connector. The ffort radisson nestles behind a huge black gate to the left, some five minutes along.Just drive few more minutes and you will see the entrance for Gangakutir- Ambuja Realty’s Upmarket resort at raichak. The first thing you will notice as you enter the gate is a vista of the river over lily pond in full bloom. You look left and see a succession of tiled building connected to each other. As you will cross the centerway you will be able to see the infinity pool of constantly flowing water, which by a cunning trick of design appears to be seamlessly integrated with the river.You will find it hard to look away from this, but if you do you will be able to see the gracious buildings in wood and tiles with slopping roofs and wide varendas.The resort has been designed by some sri lankan designer and executed by both sri lankan and bengali workers.The tiny resort has been perfectly proportined- it has just 16 rooms in total and a suite. They used rural idioms and artifacts to decorate the rooms.That is really appreciable and it looks quite sophisticated. As i said the river is very wide at this point and this inlet chanel is the route for sea going ships. Small wooden boats try to catch fish throughout the day- somehow watching these activities throughout the day and evening, lying low in the pool with a drink is very relaxing. The small boats belong to fishermen who live in a nearby village. You can see small boats- both with sails and diesel powered engines with small lanterns on the bamboo sticks. If you wish you can hire one of these boats and can enjoy the river waves, although sometimes the river becomes violent during high tides.

Ganga Kutir positions itselfs as a place to rest and unwind and it lives up to that promise , beautifully.As it is the part of the same setup as that of radisson u can use it’s facilities like the radisson’s spa. If you have time and energy u can explore further and can visit bakkali,sunderbans,henry island and jambudwipa.

The food at ganga kutir is extremely good.The menu is short but well chosen and carefully prepared. There’s one problem though – the resto is open for fixed hours. So that means if you have spent too much time in pool and are late for lunch or dinner you will have to skip that altogether.However the resort staff is courteous enough to prepare and rustle up some light snacks for you.The rooms are quite spacious and as i mentioned tastefully done.Somehow i feel that they designed all the rooms to showcase the river- Big Bay windows(i plan to steal the idea for my own home), verandas with deck chairs overlooking the ganga from every room. Make sure you are sharing the room with someone you are pretty comfortable with , as the glassed-in bathrooms are  a little intimate(you can do lot of naughty things in there..trust me!).It’s more like a romatic gateway- take your loved one out and “bond” in a peaceful seclusion.- a rare commodity in our society of nosy people. Walk by the river at night or sit in the gazebo and count the stars and sip fine single malts.However don’t forget the insect repellent as the lap of nature in rural bengal usually includes a few creepy crawlies.Also wear covered shoes if you are walking by the river during night time.Ganga kutir’s best features are it’s ambience and setting, two things produced by intelligence and taste, and well worth the money.

French Navy in Abu Dhabi

They call it the peace camp but it's a full fledged military base in Abu Dhabi. On 26th may 2009 france officially opened it's first major military base in gulf. The base is a dedicated french navy dock to influence this oil rich part of the world. Ofcourse the occasion was important enough to attract french president Nicholas Sarkozy. Sarkozy says the Abu Dhabi base will be used to counter sea-piracy and security patrolling. But the important thing is that france already has a big base in Djibouti. Approx 500 navy personals will be based along with dedicated fleet of warships and aircrafts. Sarkozy also plans to build 2 nuclear reactors in UAE and to sell 60 Rafale Air Superiority Fighters.

US and UK already have their military bases in middle east. No doubt that france wants to play an important role in this part of the world.The region is close to current conflict zone of Afghanistan-Pakistan and probably iran .It;s also the region which includes the important sea trade routes. These routes account for 40% of the world oil supplies.

IAF Update: MidAir ReFuellers Compitition

Terminating an old stalemate with Russian defence industry, India today rejected IL-78 from IAF's midair refuller competition.IAF has decided that it will not field IL-78 tanker to keep it's fighters airborne for considerably longer timesThis marked the first major shift for indian defence forces.Till now Russia was the biggest weapons vendor to india but now things are changing and they are changing pretty fast.It all started with MiG accidents and india's pateince ran out with Admiral Goshkhov aircraft carrier and T-90 Main battle Tanks. Coming back to the original thread...after using IL-78 for last 6 years, IAF now selected Airbus 330 MRTT. Air force says that IL-78 could not meet the given parameters which are required for any "capable" 21st century air force. IL-78 and A-330 were both competing for the global tender for six mid-air refullers floated 3 years ago by ministry of defence.Air force has sent the recomendation to CCS for approval.

It would be logical to have a look at the A-330 refuller.Structurally it's similar to the normal Airbus-330, which is a popular passenger craft.Design and basic aerodyanamics is pretty much the same.Obviously the diffrences would be in avionics and internal load section.The airtanker is build by EADS- which leads a consortium which includes Thales,VT Aerospace and Rolls-Royce.The same consortium would be responsible for the manufacturing and servicing of the aircraft.It will also deal with the training of the pilots and aircrews. The aircraft has considerably high cruise speed..at around 920-50 km/hr. It can cover 4000km with single refuelling and can refuel six aircrafts. It can also carry 43tons of non-fuel cargo.It has a maximum fuel capacity of 111tons.The engines can either be GE or Rolls-Royce.

IMPORTANT UPDATE !

The commander of coalition troops in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Gen. David McKiernan, is being replaced by Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Defense secretary robert gates says that it would be the start of fresh and new approaches to end the 8 year old conflict.Seems like US goverment is becoming really impatient about the chaos in Afghanistan.Damn! they must be remembering about CIA-ISI-Mujahedeen nexus during cold war. It is the same ground where they saw the beating of Soviet union.

Some background info about this new man is   essential. Gen Stanley is taking charge of the most dangerous place on our planet.And the situation cannot be bad than this.Taliban is re-grouping and Pakistan is on the brinks of becoming a failed “nuclear” state.Allies are leaving this war but the US is about to boost the man power.

 

Sure this is a tough situation.

But there are few suggestions to the new general.

1) “Activate” your CIA sub-station in Islamabad. Tell the station chief to break in the tribes…cut the sleeper cells which are operating deep inside pakistan- offer whatever you can—sex..money..alcohol…anything.

2) Start Pressing into NWFP region right from South Waziristan to Khyber region. this will divide the NWFP into two parts.Neutalise the southern NWFP(meanwhile itz very important to build a strong defence at the border of Khyber-Peshawar-Nowsehra).Include this region into FATA and reinforce it.Smash any resistance…General U will have to forget human right fundas.

3) Once the southern NWFP is neutralized start pressing into northen part. Buner will be the first stop and it would be tough.Buner is a region which will remind you of vietnam and korea.Once Buner is captured don’t rush into SWAT(that would be a show spoiler).

4) Instead start pressing towards the east into Shangla..Manshera…Naran. Meanwhile your troops can comb the whole Buner area.I would suggest kill everyone there.And in the east, Indian army will load it’s guns to kill the fleeing militants from Shangla and manshera.They will try to sneak into Kashmir..but we would be ready to slaughter them.U will have a completely secure eastern flank.Don’t forget to share the intel with Indian forces.You don’t have to bring india into any ally group.They will kill these bastards into indian territory only.You just have to push them into there.

5) Press Dir and Chitral region from North west. You can easily do that. Most of the part of Chitral are inhospitable.

6) After all these..Press your attack into SWAT from 3 fronts…Southern Flank…Western Flank And Eastern Flank.Demolish SWAT so that it can never rise again.It’s the terrorist factory.Kill everyone there.

USER TRIALS FOR AGNI-II MISSILE

INDIA is preparing for a user's trial of surface-to-surface Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM), Agni-II, from the missile test range off the Orissa coast this week. The indigenously developed missile will be fired from the launching complex-IV at the Wheeler's Island near Dhamra.Preparations are on in full swing. If everything goes as planned, the missile will be testfired between May 12 and May 14 at Chandipur-on-Sea. It also said the test may be deferred by four-five days if there are problems reported during the preparations. Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) scientists are excited because this user trial will pave the way for the maiden test of Agni-IV that is now under development.
The successful tests of Astra missile from the ITR have encouraged the scientists for user trial of Agni-II. They are doing everything to ensure it's a success story. This missile is part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP), while the other missiles include Prithvi, Trishul, Akash and Nag. Agni II has appropriate on-board thrusters fitted on the second stage of the missile. Both stages of Agni-II have a solid propulsion system which allows the missile to be mobile and flexible.It also reduces the operational hazard.The Agni-II missile, which is 20 metres long, has a diameter of one meter and weighs 16 tonne, can neutralize a target at over 2,000 km range. It can carry a payload of around 1,000 kg and its range can also be increased to 3,000 km depending upon the payload. The missile will be used by 555 Missile Group of the Indian Army. Agni-II can be fired from a rail-mobile launcher and is also available in road-mobile configuration. This lends flexibility and reduces vulnerability to first strike. It is in fact a ready-to-fire missile with a launch time of about 15 minutes. Agni-II, along with Agni-I and Agni-III form the triad of the country's minimum, credible, nuclear deterrence.

CVN-77 is War ready!!

Northrop Grumman Corporation delivered the newest and most advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS George H. W. Bush (CVN 77) for US Navy, today. It is the 10th and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier and was constructed by the company's Shipbuilding sector in Newport News, Va.I think they made history by delivering 10 Nimitz class aircraft carriers. Those of you who are familiar with Nimitz carrier will know what i am saying. for others lemme’ tell that Nimitz carriers,till date, are the largest warships with a displacement of over 100,000tons. for comparison purpose our own INS Viraat aircraft carrier has a displacement which is somewhere around 29000tons.Huge difference!  CVN 77 represents the culmination of years of hard work,experience of carrier deployment n usage in war zone,craftsmanship and dedication by thousands of shipbuilders, whose work will remain with the fleet for the next 50 years.USS George H.W. Bush is the 10th and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier constructed by Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's shipyard in Newport News, Va. At 1,092 feet in length, USS George H. W. Bush is nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall. It weighs 97,000 tons, can carry more than 80 combat aircraft and its top speed exceeds 30 knots. Powered with two nuclear reactors, it will operate for more than 20 years without refueling.
New design features for the USS George H. W. Bush include new propellers, a new underwater hull-coating system, an updated aviation-fuel distribution system, and modernized aircraft launch and recovery equipment. Environmental upgrades have also been designed into the ship, including a new marine sewage system. It is the second carrier to have a modernized island and a new bulbous bow design that provides more buoyancy to the forw ard end of the ship and improves hull efficiency. The ship's keel was laid Sept. 6, 2003, it was christened Oct. 7, 2006 and was commissioned Jan. 10, 2009. The carrier carries up to 56 fixed-wing aircraft including the Hornet, F/A-18A,C,E and F, the Grumman EA-6B Prowler and the Grumman E-2C Hawkeye, and up to 15 helicopters, Sikorsky SH-60F, HH-60H Seahawk and SH-60B Seahawks.The ship carries a crew of over 6,000. But there would be 3,200 crew with 160 officers and 2,500 aircrew. The ship also accommodates the carrier battle group's flag officer and about 70 flag crew. The flight deck is 332.9m long and 76.8m wide. The angle flight deck is 76.8m long. The angled flight deck allows the landing aircraft the option of accelerating safely away if required, minimising the danger of colliding with stationary aircraft on deck. The carrier can launch aircraft at a rate of one every 20 seconds. The deck has four C13-2 steam catapults and three mk7 mod 3-type arrester wires.The carrier has four deck edge elevators. The deck edge elevators allow large aircraft to project over the side of the ship. Two starboard lifts are forward of the island and one is to the aft of the island, and the port lift is also aft of the island towards the stern. The hangar deck, (7.8m high) has capacity for up to about 30 aircraft, depending on the composition of air wing. The ship carries 8,500t of aviation fuel.Lockheed martin is the primary warfare system integrator for CVN 77. The CVN 77's combat data systems are based on the advanced combat direction system (ACDS) with communications Links 4A, 11, and 16. Weapons control is managed by three mk91 mod 1 MFCS directors for the Sea Sparrow missile.The ship is armed with two Raytheon GMLS mk29 octuple missile launchers and the Nato Sea Sparrow or Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles and two guided-missile launch system mk49 with the RIM-116 rolling airframe missile (RAM). The sensors part include The air search radars which is a ITT SPS-48E three-dimensional radar operating at E/F band, Raytheon SPS-49(Version)5 operating at C/D band, and Raytheon mk 23 TAS operating at D band. The ship's surface search radar is the Northrop Grumman Norden Systems SPS-67V, operating at G band. For countermeasures the ship is equipped with a Raytheon SLQ-32(V)4 interception and jamming electronic support and countermeasures system and a Nixie SLQ-25 towed decoy and signal generator set. The ship is steam powered, the steam being generated by the two General Electric (originally Westinghouse) nuclear pressurized water reactors type PWR A4W/A1G. The steam drives four turbines generating a total of 209MW, which drive four shafts. Four standby 8MW diesel engines are installed for emergency power.

This will surely add some relief to US defense forces as they are fighting a tough battle in Afghanistan.Kyrgyzstan parliament has voted to close the US air base.The incident will put pressure on US naval formations in Indian ocean Region(IOR) and Meditterean Region(MR)The lead ship of Nimitz class which is USS Nimitz (CVN-68) is about to retire. There were reports that this CVN-68 will be offered to Indian Navy minus the PW Nuclear Reactor.Indian navy is facing some tough times as Russia delays the delivery of Admiral Goshkhov re-christened by IN a INS Vikramaditya .If Nimitz is offered to India, it would be a logical and wise step to grab this ship…This will truly be a first step to become a powerful “blue water” navy.As a matter of fact conducting peace operations worldwide is different from having a global offensive-defensive reach.India needs to think this over.

MoonShine Tr@il Launched!!….

 

Aloha!

Sorry…I know it’s been over a month i haven’t posted anything on this blog. actually i was busy with my other blog- MoonShine Tr@il (http://moonshinetrail.blogspot.com/). i am working on this blog for quite some time. I Prepared this blog around 45 days ago but it’s XML framework was giving lotsa problems…Widgets were not working..page layout went haywire…font colors were all wrong..and then somehow it seemed like the “right” coding was not working. but atlast i managed to bring the page under opearable conditional…there are still some features which are nt working but as readers you guys won’t be able to see them and i hope that u won’t face any problems.

Why i came up with another blog?? Oh well Ya …u can say that i show up once in a month on this blog…what justice i will do to that blog! actually m working on my blogging habit :). Hopefully it would get better. Moonshine trail is basically for specific purpose …it’s for politics…economics…society…cooking…May add few more thing(heavy issues…difficult issues;)…But importantly it would be my guinea pig, as i will be experimenting with new xml sheets..javascripts and javafx features.

M-MRCA UPDATE (April, 2009)

The first phase of the technical evaluation is over and the results were really shocking. French built Dassault's Rafale is knocked out of the competition. Ministry of Defence(MoD, India) says that the aircraft fell short of meeting all the technical parameters.But i think the main reason is the cost of the aircraft. Rafale was the costliest contender. The overall budget for this deal is around $10 billion. With this, the M-MRCA competition is reduced to five contenders-

1) US F-16I Fighting Falcon from Lockheed Martin

2) US F/A- 18 E/F Superhornet from Boeing

3) European Consortium EADS's Eurofighter Typhoon

4) Russia's MiG-35 from Mikoyan Gurevich

5) Sweden's Grippen from SAAB

The field trials are expected to start from next months. There's high probability that two sets of trials would be taken- each in Low temperature areas of Leh, High temperature areas of Jaisalmer and Humid areas of south India(bangalore). Field trials and subsequent evaluations are time consuming process and this deal won't be inked before 2010.

FLAVOURS OF BENGAL

My demands have always been modest. I never ask for those long-eared horses of Bankura, or intricately woven kantha shawls from Santiniketan if anyone ever comes visiting from Bengal. I, however, do often ask friends or family members, coming to Delhi from Calcutta to make a small detour to Krishnanagar. For that’s where you get the best sarbhaja and sarpuria, two sweets that I swear by. You get them elsewhere, of course — but you just can’t beat the sweets of Krishnanagar.I visit krishnanagar almost every time i visit balurghat- as it comes in the way.I love the lunch in krishnagar- i remember nodir-macher jhol ,crispy allo bhaaja, begun bhaaja ,mosur dal ar aatop chaler bhat.yummy!

Actually, it is quite interesting how districts and towns outside Calcutta are widely known for a special dish or two. If Krishnanagar is famous for its sweets cooked with the cream of milk, a school of thought contends that for the best kanchagolla, a sweet that is thankfully now easy to get even in small sweet shops in Delhi, you have to go all the way to the North 24 Parganas.If you are a newcomer to Burdwan, you’ll be surprised to find shacks of all sizes and shapes adorning the highway outside the town. This is Shaktigarh, a place famous for its langcha, which is a kind of an elongated gulab jamun prepared with khoya and sugar syrup. The names of the shops are all very intriguing — Langcha Palace, Langcha Corner, Langcha Terrace and what have you.Burdwan itself is renowned for two sweet dishes — sitabhog and mihidana. The former is white and cooked with rice powder and chhana and the latter is yellow, and prepared with little grains of besan — the reason why I am told the two together are often called bhaat and dal!But the interiors are not just known for their sweets. Take the kolmi shaak — long leafy water spinach — which grows in abundance in fertile Hooghly. So there’s a dish called torotaja kolmi bora, or fresh balls of kolmi leaves. This is the season when the kolmi shaak is widely available in the region. The greens, when deep-fried, serve as a great side dish with rice and dal. Bankura and Birbhum are known for their posto dishes — a fondness that some believe harks back to the time of the opium trade in British-ruled Bihar and Bengal. So you have Bankura’s pelob piyaj posto, a vegetarian dish of poppy seed paste cooked with onions, green chillies, onion seeds and ginger paste in mustard oil.

But what’s pelob?. I knew piyaj (onion) and posto, but pelob was a word that I was yet to encounter. It’s a word that’s locally used to denote something that’s been lovingly done . From Burdwan, you can get a dish of aar fish, cooked with wax gourd, and from Midnapur, a dish of koi fish cooked in a leaf. The jheengey chingri of South 24 Parganas consists of small shrimps and ridged gourd cooked in mustard oil with turmeric, onion, garlic, ginger, chillies and chopped tomatoes — and finally tempered with a pinch of garam masala and chopped coriander.Hooghly offers chingrir bahar — a dish of shredded raw jackfruit and shrimps — and Midnapur is represented by its mourolar tok, small mourala fish in a sweet and tart gravy.

The menu has some delicacies — including a chitol dhoka of Coochbehar. The chitol is a much loved fish, the top part is full of bones and the stomach smooth as a baby’s cheeks. Get some medium sized pompfret and cook it with posto. The ensuing dish — postomakha roopchanda — is a popular Bankura dish. Of course, it’s another matter that the pomfret is a sea fish and can’t be a part of the indigenous Bankura cuisine. But the fish is now easily available everywhere, and Bengalis have developed a taste for it.But clearly the posto figures prominently in most parts of Bengal. And there are of course all kinds of ways of cooking it — as fried balls, ground raw with mustard oil and chillies, with shrimps and meat — and a variety of vegetables from bottle gourd to potatoes.

Some would say that these are dishes that are available in all parts of Bengal. But then a cuisine is finally the sum total of all that the districts have to offer. It’s time we doffed our caps to them.

Changeling….An appreciation !

This sunday was special…coz i was cooking a new konkani recipe for my dinner, passed to me by a colleague. Now of course the dinner was tasty but this blog entry is for the appreciation of this wonderful and brilliant movie that i watched over the dinner.I went to my local dvd-wala to get a print of “A WALK TO REMEMBER” but accidently bought the dvd of “CHANGELING”. Initially i was quite disappointed but then decided on watching the movie. And you know what, Iam glad that i decided on watching that.It's a gripping drama and a masterful period piece.  Bravo.  The standard feminist interpretation of this movie says, "The police and the psychiatric establishment would never have treated a man in this way."

But altogether the movie reminds that the “weaker sex” of our species is not that weak.She is full of courage and hope. She has the mental strength to withstand any obstacle.

 

I would suggest watch this movie.It’s one of those “true-story” based movie which didn’t tampered facts and events.Also special mention to Angelina Jolie for portraying Mrs. Collins. She is finally doing movies which goes in accord with her caliber.I  also thank Clint Eastwood for making the movie and presenting it in a very honest way.

The forgotten aspect of life……Spirituality

I am bit relaxed today. For the last complete month i did my OT. But this sunday morning was again busy for me.Paying off Broadband bills, cellphone bills and doing the bi weekly round of big bazaar…though i love it.Two days ago we were notified that our fun committee is thinking about preparing a small library in office premises. I said ..ya ! why not! They asked each employee to contribute some old books and journals. I decided to give some old books and was just unpacking all the cartons.And to my shock i found a very old book written by some German about Buddhism. I bought the book when i was in class 9..that was way back in 9.It contained a complete detail on Gauta m’s life and critical evaluation and arguments on the concepts of Buddhism.I was always interested in religions and buddhism holds a special place in  my heart.I would say that it is the future. Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future. It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology. it covers both the natural and spiritual and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.

"If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism."

-- Albert Einstein

Humanity is at the brink of evolving itself into a new life form. It seems to me at some point a life form advances to such a point that it begins to take control of its own evolution.Ya! i understand that we have not reached that point but believe me it won’t be too long . That is if the life form doesn't destroy itself first with that technology. I think that humanity has arrived at this point now. Just how the new evolved human will look, I am not sure. But I am confident that the future evolved "human" will be a genetically engineered form of man and machine.Oh ! don’t confine your imagination to Arnold “Terminator”. It is also likely that humankind will create some type of self aware machine that may someday itself evolve into a bio machine. Quite possible.All of this is quite unsettling for those trapped in the dark ages of religious myth and fantasy. Not that there is no room for myth and storytelling in helping to understand the human experience. But it is important to come to terms with reality and our relationship with it. If religious traditions and storytelling doesn't offer a glimpse into reality, but merely causes more confusion, then it needs to be clarified and understood for what it is. I believe religions and beliefs are to be changed according to changing times.But we should keep this fact intact that every religions is intended for betterment of mankind. How will any religion or spirituality help humanity deal with this "Brave New World" of science and technology so that life can retain its meaning and some joy…so that people don’t shed there beliefs.As the other aspects of human life are changing at tremendous pace  and same will happen with our understanding of the psyche, consciousness, and the hidden realms of the spiritual. We cannot discard the spiritual aspect of our lives now that humanity will soon be evolving itself into something else. I firmly believe that it is fundamentally important that we don't discard the spiritual, especially now, because it is the spirituality that will allow us to keep our heads (sanity) as we navigate through some of the very difficult times for humanity. But what spiritual tradition can help humanity move hopefully, peacefully, and lovingly into a fantastic and sometimes frightening world of change. I agree with Einstein that Buddhism can be that "cosmic religion of the future."

I am not asking anyone to discard their atheism or their belief in a particular religion. But what I am saying to those that have some understanding of the future is that spirituality is an important aspect of life. Rather than abandon the spiritual life because the "old" religious traditions and beliefs no longer fit and are not helpful, I propose that we consider adopting a cosmic understanding to go with the cosmic change that awaits us. Buddhism is the path of a good mind and a good heart.

In traditional Buddhism, what is not reasonable, reliable, and truthful should be discarded. Buddhism doesn't ask us to believe in a supreme creator or a personal God but we can if we find that such is our understanding. Instead Buddhism asks us to consider in what way our thoughts, words, and deeds have contributed to building our lives. Buddhism also asks us to consider in what way we are connected and interconnected with the rest of life and to what extent we have effected our relationships and they have effected us. Buddhism offers a path of right living and right mindfulness so that we suffer less and we have more joy in our lives. This path can be found through the spiritual discipline of meditation and association with others in a spiritual community. Buddhism doesn't ask us to discard the unseen forces that exist all around us, it only asks us to consider in what way these forces are helpful or unhelpful. Buddhism points to the Absolute and the truth behind all of the energies and movement that we see as our life. Buddhism also is a religion of love. Life without love is intolerable and Buddhism understands this. The Buddha asks us to go beyond the conditioning of our society, culture, and families and to see people as ourselves with similar likes, dislikes, feelings, and emotions. Also, the Buddha asks us to consider all of life and all of the beings that we are aware of and to think in terms of being a part of each other. The Buddha taught that there can be no peace, no real joy, and no harmony when we are contributing to people being abused or unjustly treated. The path of the Buddha was a royal road of teaching, helping, and comforting with the truth.

In this coming cycle of humanity, there needs to be a spirituality that fits our minds as well as our hearts. A spirituality that doesn't ask us to abandon wisdom and understanding in favor of rituals, traditions, and routine. I am not asking anyone to abandon a religion, or their lack of religion, if that is helping them and is a blessing to others. But I am asking those that have given up on spirituality because they don't want to give up on reality to consider Buddhism and meditation. I believe, like Einstein, that Buddhism can allow us to joyfully access the "hidden" spiritual life as we move through a world that will be profoundly changed by science and technology. In the coming decades, what it means to be human will profoundly change. But the truth that, no matter how life evolves, it is all life and we are that life will help us through the future. Buddhism and the path of meditation offers a way of spiritual hope while not abandoning our reasoning, our science, or our technology. In truth, humanity will not abandon science and technology but it doesn't have to abandon the joy of life which is found in the spirituality of having a good heart and a good mind.

 

ABOUT THE PICTURE:

This picture painted by the Mexican artist Octavio Ocampo is called “Buddha” but what is the symbolism behind the peaceful face? Isn’t it what is meant by the word “Enlightenment”? Look closer and you will see that the symbols of different religions are parts of one person. Isn’t it because all the religions are like flowers on the same tree and enlightenment means realization of the virtues which are the same in all the religions?

The chin of Buddha is made of his disciples bowing in namaskar. The lower lip is like the sahasrara chakra (1000-petal from Sanskrit). Ears are represented by Shri Ganesha and Shri Kalki. There is the tree of life constituting the forehead and the dove representing the Holy Spirit in the area of the fontanel bone. This is to name a few. May be you will also see something else.

BENGALI MICROWAVE RECIPES

TAV-21 TAVOR ASSAULT RIFLE

I was checking out the pics of AERO INDIA-09 and one of the interesting pic i saw was that of an Army's Para Maroon Beret(Army's Special Forces Unit) standing in vigil with a TAVOR Assault Rifle. Now this was a good sight partly because this is after a long time that government has actually decided to de-commission those old WW2 era sten guns and finally we have some assault rifle for our special forces which is build for them .Now this also demands some introduction to Tavor.  The story starts when India signed a Rs. 880 million deal with Israel Military Industries for 3070 TAR-21 Tavor assault rifles, a new bullpup design developed for use by the Israeli Defense Forces. The Israelis had just selected the compact Tavor over the Colt M4/M16 as its next-generation assault rifle, and the compact new weapons would be issued to India’s special forces personnel, where its ergonomics, reliability in heat and sand, and and fast-point/ fast-shoot design might give them an edge in close-quarters shootouts and employment from inside vehicles.

Bullpup designs though unusual are pretty effective in close-quarter attacks where agility, weight and pin point firing is very necessary.Tavor has a small design which enables the person to take defensive-t0-evasive actions within few seconds.It has a laser targeting sight to assist with the firing.The Tavor TAR-21 is a gas operated, selective fire, magazine fed assault rifle of bullpup configuration. It is available in several configurations which differ in the barrel lengths and accessories. The basic configuration is the TAR-21 assault rifle with the 460mm (18.1 in) barrel. Next are the compact assault rifle, called CTAR-21, with the barrel 380 mm (15 in) long, and the micro assault rifle, with the barrel of only 330 mm (13 in) long, called MTAR-21. The latter rifle also featured a redesigned front part of the housing, with charging handle placed further back on receiver  for a more  comfortable hold of the short weapon. Micro-Tavor also can be converted to 9mm pistol ammunition (9x19) with installation of the caliber conversion kit, which includes a new barrel, bolt group and a magazine adapter.
TAR-21 utilizes a common long piston stroke, rotating bolt action, with the gas piston rigidly attached to the bolt carrier. Gas cylinder is located above the barrel and is completely enclosed by the gun housing. The rotating bolt is similar to one found in the M16 rifle and has seven lugs. The ejection ports are made on both sides of the weapon, and the right or the left side ejection can be selected by installing the bolt with the ejector mounted on the right or on the left, respectively (and of course this change requires the gun to be partially disassembled). The bolt carrier rides on the single guide rod, with the return spring unit located above it, behind and inside the hollow gas piston rod. The charging handle is located at the front left side of the gun and does not reciprocate when gun is fired. The charging handle slots are cut on the both sides of the gun housing, so it can be installed on either side of the weapon, as required. The trigger unit is more or less conventional, with the ambidextrous fire mode selector / safety switch located above the pistol grip.
The TAR-21 has no separate receiver. Instead, all parts are mounted within the high impact-resistant plastic housing, reinforced with steel inserts where appropriate. The access to all the internal parts is controlled by the hinged buttplate, which can be swung down for internal inspection and disassembly.
Early production TAR-21 rifles had no open sights, but this has been fixed with introduction of the folded front and rear sights on current production models. Tavor rifles are fitted with the standard Picatinny-type accessory rail on the top of the gun. Early guns had Israeli-made ITL MARS as standard sight, which is a complicated and expensive reflex-type sight with the built-in laser pointer. For the night time operations the MARS could be complemented with the ITL Mini N/SEAS compact night vision device. Current manufacture Tavor rifles (except for Sniper version) are usually fitted with less expensive Meprolight red-dot sight. Sniper varsions usually are fitted with Trijicon ACOG optical sight with 4X magnification.
The TAR-21 utilizes the STANAG-compliant, M16 type magazines, with standard capacity of 30 rounds.
TAR-21 in its basic configuration can be fitted with 40mm M203 underbarrel grenade launcher.

 

	TAR 21	TAR C21 / CTAR 21	TAR M21 / MTAR 21
CALIBER	5.56 X 45 NATO STANDARD	5.56 X 45 NATO STANDARD	5.56 X 45 NATO STANDARD
ACTION	GAS OPERATED, ROTATING BOLT	GAS OPERATED, ROTATING BOLT	GAS OPERATED, ROTATING BOLT
OVERALL LENGTH	720 mm	640mm	590 mm
BARREL LENGTH	460 mm	380 mm	330 mm
WEIGHT	3.27 kg empty	3.18 kg empty	2.95 kg empty
MAGAZINE CAPACITY	30 Rounds	30 Rounds	30 Rounds
RATE OF FIRE	750-900 Rounds/min	750-900 Rounds/min	750-900 Rounds/min

HOPES AND DREAMS

Hopes and dreams for the future are a very important aspect of life. When times are tough, when you are having workplace problems,relationship problems, health problems, when everything that you read or see on tv about our economy and reccession are getting to you,when it's getting tough to save money after paying all bills and premiums for insurances and installments for property or maybe you are just feeling a little low on any given day, take a couple of minutes to daydream and hope for something better. Allow yourself to be transported to a period of time or a place that is welcoming, comfortable and much happier than the place in your life or a time that you might be currently at. And even if you are happy and content where your life is right now, but want just a little more, then take that mental journey utilizing your minds eye....hope and dream of more...or something better. I find that I can daydream doing my office work, while on my walks or even while cleaning my cloths...yes I honestly do that. I often dream about a myriad of places and things that I would like to do in my future and I hope that they will all happen. In all of my hopes and dreams, I am always sharing them with the girl i love. Where I go, she goes. Here is a small sample of what my dreams are and things that I hope I can do in the future. For this blog entry, I have narrowed them down to travel and I would be here for weeks trying to list them all, so I kept the list short. During all of these adventures, I would be taking photographs and journaling "our" daily adventures so that I could write them down in my blog upon my return home.
I would like to spend quite a bit of time driving around Sweden in a SUV. During "our" travels in Sweden:
I want to go fishing in those frozen lakes 
Watch the Northern Lights
I want to visit and spend time in as many towns and cities in Scandinavia as possible
I would visit each and every National Park along with all of the tall mountains...from ground level of course...I desire to mountain climb
Cruise every nook and cranny of the Black Sea coastline around Russian border..which would cover all fjords and glaciers
Watch the bears feeding on the Salmon trying to go up stream
View as much wildlife as possible and especially Moose for Ma' girl
Stay at some of the rustic lodges within the national parks
Learn about the people, their lives and their culture
Take a train ride in Copenhagen.
Drive across  Denmark
Visit the  French Vineyards
Spend a whole summer in Oslo, Norway
Visit Slovenia
Visit Austria
See the Alps...want skiing also...
Take a river cruise in  Czech Republic
Visit Italy
These are just a few of the things that I dream about doing and seeing and hopefully one of these days I can do some that are on this list. Only time will tell.
I realize that this list might seem really silly, especially when iam not a scion of a big business empire and with the recession and the small amount of money i manage to save.
But my list isn't the real point of this blog entry.
The real point is this...when you are at your lowest low, even when you are at your highest high....allow yourself to have hopes and dreams about your future.
Your hopes and dreams are as important as the blood that flows through your heart. They keep your soul energized. They keep you wanting and yearning more for yourself and for your life. It keeps you thinking positive thoughts about the future. It can help you through everthing poor and it can perk up the tired soul. Hopes and dreams can have amazing healing qualities. This can keep you going through the toughest of times.
Even if I don't get to do one thing that is on my list, those hopes and dreams have still served a purpose....because...
Life without hopes and dreams means that I am merely existing.
And I want more out of my life than to merely exist.
I want to live my life.....
And in order to do that...I will keep on clinging to my hopes and I will keep on dreamin' about my future.

And that's why I will keep on lovin' you!

TALKING ABOUT EPITAPHS

They say you can’t have it all in life. Maybe we can. Imagine a scenario when we cease to be, yet we leave an impression which would make no one forget us. No, I don’t mean suicide bombings or any similar activity. It’s like this. We should put a thought into our epitaphs and get words chiseled in stone for ages.


Now, assumptively thinking, here’s what our epitaphs would read in accordance to one’s personality and characteristics. And yes, I know many of us would be cremated instead of being buried but then, who cares when one’s finished.This Actually, ahem.....includes mine also..infact it's the very first one.



‘I swam the seven oceans, I was a fucking swim champ but the jelly-fish thought otherwise.’
- Rakesh Mahato.

‘I told you I was sick. I thought you understood my missed call. Phone calls and text messages are expensive.’

- Abhishek Mukherjee.

‘The undiscovered country, from whose bourn; no traveller returns.’
- Kimaya Joshi.

‘Here lies the body of Anurag Kotoky, done to death by a banana. It wasn’t the fruit that laid him low, but the skin of the thing that made him go. Oye Kela.’
- Anurag Kotoky.

‘A gentleman and a gentle man, ultimately remained gentle. His last words- Uffo.’
- Baharul Islam.

‘Is death the final sleep or the final awakening? What’s my point? What’s my point? Oh fuck, I asked the question twice. Only twice.’
- Hitesh Iplani.

‘She did it the hard way.’
- Mira Shankar.

‘At least I died a feminist way defending women.’
- Ruhi Sakkari.

‘We don’t know life; how can we know death?’
- Nancy Muyon.

‘Hee hee-haw. Hee hee. I’m still giggling.’
- Rita Ganguly.

‘Gone, but not forgiven.’
- Terence Mezhu.

‘In my entire life, I dressed as though Stevie Wonder was my personal designer.’
- Ved Prakash.

‘So we must part, my body (my bazooka), you and I; who have spent so many pleasant years together. It’s sorry to lose your company, who clove to me so close.’
- Vincent Lazarius.



Disclaimer-
Some of the words have been drafted from Hamlet and RD. Anyway, no offence to anyone. If offended, then great, thank you.

HAPPY 'BELATED' WOMEN'S DAY!

This Should have come up early.But I was facing some problems with my blog's style sheet...By God's grace i rectified the error.But i think it's never late to post this.Actually this post was intended for march 8, on the eve of International Women Day(IWD). The day revolves around the political and  human rights theme. It's also a occassion for men to express their love and gratitude to women in a way somewhat similar to the mixture of mother's day and st Valentine's Day.

             The power dynamics between men and women never stop, do they? Player or no player, peep toes or ballerinas; men are just about nothing without women and vice versa.These two complete each other. But still it's hard to find words to write something about women who leave a mark in our lives. The women I know may leave an impression of being submissive, but confidence is something they don’t lack. A woman has strengths that amaze men. She can handle trouble and carry heavy burdens. She holds happiness, love and opinions. She smiles when she feels like screaming. She sings when she feels likes crying, cries when she’s happy and laughs when she’s afraid. Her "love" is unconditional. There’s only one thing wrong with her, she sometimes forgets what she is worth. And i think, that is what womenhood is all about.

Dedicated to all the wonderful ladies who left some impression on my life...

(arranged in the order of appearences in ma' life)

Anulekha...Prono...Mellisa...Kimaya....Elham...Pooja...Dorsona...

..Lhasey....Ruhi....Priyam

and finally the lady who brought me to this world- My Mom.

.....till i'm dead

Empty is the ideal rose that embodies love,

a sweet shade of red to describe,

an emotion that's indescribable.

what is Love?

To know that we are not alone,

in the pain of the world.

Everything that you hold dear,

is slowly floating away in the sea of regret.

Love just makes you not notice as much.

I'm in love with my sadness

Sorry is beauty and beauty is love.

Regrets give methe will to live.

Regretting what i did,

regretting what i didn't do,

Sometimes i think i didn't do enough,

And i never will till i'm dead.

Browser Wars

Last week was really hectic, I just got off from my training in Dell. It’s really going busy after we implemented Oracle Siebel. As there’s still complains about Siebel and helpdesk is frequently bombarded with strange inquiries from end user, we decided on compiling those problems and brainstorming them under quality’s perspective and under normal operational parameters. Subsequently we also got some help from Dell India on financial data security and manning an effective and robust CRM Solution. I really can admit that dell is a superb organization to work. I really learnt many important things- some were simple while few were exceptionally complex. 

But the best and simplest was Opera browser. Before this I only heard about the browser, never actually worked on it. Recently I got the chance to actually look at Opera and through it. And you want to know what I say- Exceptionally Simple. The first thing I noticed is the symbol of Opera. I think it goes by the software- very simple n elegant.
It get’s loaded on the memory pretty fast and has loads of creative features. It decodes the pages with much faster rates and can handle multiple encryptions very easily. I felt it is a mixture of the best of Mozilla’s Firefox and Internet Explorer. As far as I can remember I started learning internet with Netscape Navigator and gosh in early nineties it was the leader of internet business. I mean it was the most popular browser at that time. HTML was really pure and simple. Eyeing Netscape’s success in the field Microsoft packaged it’s browser-IE with windows operating systems. That was completely to tilt the supremacy of Netscape. And IE actually became popular- mostly because windows started to grip the market. As a result a split appeared that the webpage designed for one will not work in other. And this started the Browser wars- or I call it B-Wars.Netscape released Navigator version 4 at around , I think in the year 1997 which had lot many bugs and problems handling CSS and JavaScript standards. Microsoft simultaneously launced the IE version 4 and that turned the tide completely. I remember I used to go to Dishnet Dial for my internet sessions and they used to prefer navigator but suddenly everything changed – it was IE in all machines. I was in class 7th. Little did I knew that this is the beginning of a war which will bring new contenders in the arena and will flush the end user with a whole bunch of browsers. Eventually Netscape found that it’s fighting a lost battle and navigator vanished from almost every machine. By the time IE 6 was released, the market share was touching 96%. This actually slowed down many things. Lazy developers designed websites for IE only. Designing them for other browsers or making them platform independent required an in depth knowledge and effort. I am quite embarrassed that my client’s website is also “best viewable” under IE. These actually compelled users to stick to IE even after advances were made in other browsers. The war resulted in the web which is full of in-compatibility and irregularities. HTML was of course blown apart as just a structural Mark-up language. But finally things have improved within last few years. IE’s supremacy is no longer absolute and new players like Mozilla , Avanti and Opera are doing great. Surfers actually have lot’s of options to choose from a number of browser. Opera Software’s browser is a really good piece of work. Billing itself as “The fastest browser on Earth!”, it is a free browser with excellent standards support. The amount of ideas and helpful features that they’ve managed to cram into opera is really something else. Your desktop is kept tidy through its tabbed browsing features, which opens all webpages in dockable windows inside a single instance of the application.The best thing I like is the speed dialing feature which helps you to log in to your “hang out sites” very easily. There are a range of tools to help you find information on the net easily, from integrated search-enabled toolbars to instantaneous looking-up of selected words.Two very helpful features are the page-zoom feature, which allows you to zoom in the entire document, instead of just the text; and the developer shortcuts to turn off stylesheets and images. In other browsers you have to go through multiple menus or use bookmarklets for this functionality.The interface is clean and sleek. Whereas the interface in browsers like Firefox is strictly controlled, in that nothing gets added to it without it being absolutely necessary, Opera’s designers don’t seem to have been so discerning. As a consequence, the menus and toolbars can be overwhelmingly filled with options that you generally won’t need to change.The browssr retains the information of the last session. Let’s suppose you were watching a particular video on youtube and suddenly your broadband gets off, what will u do? Of couse you will bookmark it but with opera it automatically get saved in browsers session record and next time when you will start the browser it will be on the same page.The browser has in-built mail client and news podcast .The browser built into Nintendo’s wonderful Wii is based on Opera, so if you want Wii owners to be able to surf your site in between bouts of Wii Tennis, you should test in Opera first.

All in all, Opera is definitely worth a try in place of the more established browsers. It may not have a large following, but it is a very promising offering, and is pioneering features you will undoubtedly see appearing in other browsers down the line. I liked it.

A show for all ages….

 

       

The still captures almost every age at the inauguration of president Obama , as they look on at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball.

M-MRCA Update-2009

The Massive M-MRCA deal for the Indian Air Force(IAF) has completed one more important step.The initial techinal evaluations are completed last month and all recomendations and reports have been forwarded to defence ministry. It's a massive deal and almost all compititors know the importance of the deal.It will not only give present business prospect but will also open huge oppurtunities for joint ventures, joint research and co-production. Lots of things are going over the electronic media bout the deals. There's also a update flying around which says that grippen is out of the compitition. That is not true. Apparently VayuSena Bhavan( IAF HQ) have forwarded all the compititors with out any eliminations. That means the field trial of the aircrafts can be expected to start from March-April , 2009 . Field trials will be done under Hot Conditions(in Rajasthan or Kutch) and extreme Cold conditions( in Leh), along with trials in Humid Conditions(Shore base).

Bamyan! Yes, Buddha left it...and so has Peace

Afghanistan is still under ruins and is still chained to taliban-loyal warlords.Afghanistan is back to chaos and violence has increased not only against coalition soldiers but also against locals.US coalition is no longer interested in afghanistan and flipping around to check chances and to abandon afghanistan.And why not! this part of the world was never their agenda.They used afghanistan as a scapegoat to attack iraq and seige oil fields.White house and NATO commanders know that this is a dead land and the only thing it can give is opium.They probably think it as "USE-N-THROW" state.People are dying there. Many americans and commenwealth nationals are regular on my blog to read about aviation and military articles.MY Feedjit visitor-counter takes quantum leap whenever i post something about weapons and war.I wish we were more interested in humanity than in weapons.Recently i got a report in my thuderbird through my RSS feed that a 14 year girl was butchered in the name of family honor.The incident happened in Bamyan province.Bamyan- Rings any bell...Oh yes!!! Once upon a time, though not long ago, this place was an international heritage site because of the the famous n huge Buddha Statue.The statue was brought down by taliban when US forces the afghan campaign in 2001.The girl, Maryam, 14, was raped by a man in the Yakawlang District of Bamyan Province, central Afghanistan, five months ago. Her mother and brother used razor blades to cut the girl open, take out the foetus, and bury it alive to hide the disgrace, according to Habiba Surabi, the governor of Bamyan.
Maryam had initially concealed the rape, fearing this could devastate her family and possibly end her own life. But five months later, when it became clear that she was carrying a baby, her family decided to “remedy” the problem.
“The baby was alive when they took it from my body… and buried it as it was crying,” Maryam was quoted in the local media as saying.
The “surgery” was conducted violently, recklessly and without any medical arrangements.
“She was butchered like an animal,” said a physician at Yakawlang hospital where the victim was in intensive care.
After the painful “surgery” which lasted almost an hour, Maryam’s abdomen was stitched up with an ordinary needle and thread, medical experts said. Dirty wounds led to her condition deteriorating rapidly. Five days later, she was reportedly taken to hospital half-dead.
“They [her parents] said she was bitten by a dog in the stomach a few days a go,” Ehsan Shaheer, director of Bamyan’s health department.
A quick look at her butchered body convinced doctors it was not a dog that had ripped Maryam’s body apart.
“We informed the police and other authorities, and now her mother and brother are in custody,” said Shaheer. The alleged rapist has also been arrested, local people said.
Shaheer said Maryam’s life had been saved but extended treatment and care - unavailable in Bamyan Province - was needed for her to make a full recovery.
“Horrific crimes”
Confirming Maryam’s tragedy, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said it had registered over 2,000 cases of violence against women in the past 10 months - a marked increase on previous years.
“We’re particularly worried about the worsening nature and characteristics of violence against women,” Soraya Rahim Subhrang, a women’s rights commissioner at the AIHRC.
A widespread culture of impunity and lack of support for victims of gender violence has further exacerbated the situation, Subhrang said, adding “The culture of violence has increased because there is no fear of the law.”
The AIHRC called on the government to bring the man who raped Maryam as well as her mother and brother to “transparent and unbiased” justice.