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.