Last day dawns

25th July 2009

I leave for BITS Pilani tomorrow. First, Rajdhani Express to Delhi (looking forward to a train journy after a loooong time, and that too Rajdhani First Class!) and then by road to Pilani ... having a multitude of emotions in my brain ... excited and happy because BITS is one of the best colleges in the country ... just after the 5 old IITs in all India rankings, and their campus rocks big time too .. incidentally WAAAAAAY better than all the IITs put together ... on another note, I'm sad because I'll be hundreds of miles away from my home. Apprehensive, about a new life. Reflective, on the days gone by ... and the like.

So for today, I'll post my rainbowed feelings (shadowed by the gloom of a stiffled remorse and at the same time lighted up by the excitement of a new life), through a Bengali song, of the band Cactus. It's my favourite song at the moment. The lyrics follow ... take them to heart, (if you understand Bengali that is!) ... before I return again:

Chena Chena roddur ... daake chole aay
shishir bheja ghaash ... jabo khali paaye
Du haate, Kuasha Soriye
Jabo, Simana Periye

Na Jawa joto poth ... bhalo theko
gobhir ei khaat ... bhalo theko
Bhenge jawa shopoth ... bhalo theko

Byartho Obhimaan ... bhalo theko
Thik bhul byabodhan ... bhalo theko
Niyomito Obhidhaan ... bhalo theko

Meghe dhaka pahar ... ghum ghum jhau patar
Achena Phuler ghraan ... hawar koto kotha
Ghorey ferar gaan bhule giye
jabo shimana ... periye

Na pawa joto donder somadhaan
Hisheb Nikesh daan protidan
Nishprap Onusthan ... bhalo theko

Khoniker ahobaan ... bhalo theko Jhora patar pichhu taan ... bhalo theko Jiboner kolotan ... bhalo theko ....

For those who did not understand, it's basically a sweet well wishing song, meant for someone entering an unknown realm and territory.

Please watch the video ... even if you do not understand Bengali ... I can guarantee that you will LOVE the melody and the music of the song ... it truly is phenomenal!

when college begins, I'll be busier than what I am at this moment ... so post frequency will naturally plummet ... but I'll try my best to post 3-4 posts a week ...till then

PS: I can see some new friends in my Google Friend Connect widget ... so thanks to you all for following my meagre attempts at enriching the blogosphere with not so rich stuff ... and thanks to the others too for sticking with me for this long ... and also the Wordpress users who are unable to connect owing to blog-platform discrimination, who nevertheless keep commenting on, and reading my posts, and all the others not mentioned above who visit my blog or not ... love you all!!!

goodbye and take care ...

just to update you folks!

Alright people ... I am proud to present to you all ... my brand new blog at wordpress.com, created with the sole intention of showing your teeth and spreading laughter, on a scale never imagined before ... so without further delay, hop onto

http://laughteradmin.wordpress.com

PS: Wrahoolz Wramblingz will stay, worry not ... this still IS my flagship webpresence!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: a review

I am indeed late, in producing this post, since Harsh, Avada Kedavra, and Shankar have already comprehensibly reviewed this movie. But ... better late, than never ... so here I go:

As a book, the Half Blood Prince never really impressed me, compared to the others in the HP series ... because in the end it was a complete triumph of evil over good. The main emphasis of the story was as a buffer to prolong the series and allow a seventh book, than take the story any futher. As a result, HP and party, end up in the same position from where they began ... in fact I would say, in a much worse position than from where they began ... owing to Dumbledore's unfortunate death. The main focus of the book is however, the revelation of Voldemort's past, which Ms Rowling has indeed done brilliantly.

back to the movie:

If you are a Harry Potter freak (HPF), and you would rather live by and die by Harry Potter and Hogwarts and JK Rowling, and, you consider reading any other book when a new HP is released to be blasphemous, then you will not like the movie ... because the movie seems to ... borrow cues from Rowling rather than filmify her novel .... you get what I mean, right? The movie is a heavly mutated ... (HPFs would consider mutilated!) version of the novel, and many, many things which JKR had written or mentioned has been ... intentionally overlooked, and modified ... by David Yates. The entire beginning sequence has been changed ... there's no glimpse of Privet Drive, and Harry meets Dumbledore at a subway station.

Then however, the movie does try to catch up with the book, but fails.

If however, you are the sort who likes Harry Potter ... OK, make it love Harry Potter, but that's it !... no other crazy feelings .... then I vouchsafe, you will enjoy the movie. After all one must agree, that filmifying this novel is difficult. If it wasn't a Harry Potter ... no one would have considered filmifying it ... the story is too mundane to be filmified, especially after the Goblet of Fire, and the Order of the Phoneix ... which were a lot more thrilling and movie-ish ! Considering that, kudos to David Yates! What he has done, is stuck to the essentials and produced a fairly decent movie to continue the series, masterfully compressing 600 pages to 2.5 hours ...

A few points to note:

• WHAT was all the hullaballo attack at the Burrow for? Was it mentioned in the book? If no, then why include it? Specially, considering the fact, that it had no further consequence apart from bringing Harry and Ginny together.
• HOW could the Burrow be attacked that easily? J K Rowling has made it pretty clear that the Burrow was under very strong protective charms
• WHY was Madam Rosemarta NOT shown? Specially when she played a crucial role in the book by informing Draco Malfoy that Dumbledore has left the castle, which allowed the Death Eaters to strom in?
• In order NOT to show Madam Rosemarta, David Yates, has modified an important feature of Hogwarts castle by allowing Dumbledore and Harry to apparate from within its walls. the reason Dumbledore gives is pretty lame - that staying with him has some advantages.
• The movie does NOT thrill. It does NOT make you cling to the edge of your seat ... in fact I had my posterior well snugly placed in the middle throughout. The movie is NOT heart stopping. The only point where there is a slight "suspense" is when the Inferi grab Harry in the cave and pull him down. Dumbledore's recovery and his saving Harry has been very well depicted indeed.
• lastly, and MOST importantly ... WHY was Harry not immoblised in the final encounter? WHY did he look on as Draco disarmed Dumbledore? Weak links indeed!

A few more observations:

• Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) still rules the roost as far as the cast is concerned ... he is just phenomenal!
• I sorely missed a chase for the snitch, which I generally look forward to in an HP movie :(
• I didn't actually find the romance to be as glaring as others did ... seriously ... it was just for a maximum of 15 mins ... or did I fall asleep? OK, there was a lot of unnecessary Ginny Weasley in the movie.
• Rupert Grint has grown stupider and Daniel Radcliffe hasn't grown much. Emma Watson is pretty much the same too! I particularly liked Tom Falton (Draco Malfoy) 's acting. And yeah, this new Tom Ridlle is weird ... the Chamber of Secret's one was waaaay cooler.
• The young Dumbledore somehow reminded me of Metallica frontman James Hetfield ... lol ...
• Lavender Brown looked like a middle aged woman
• Slughorn was pretty neat too ... I mean, the way he sunk into the character, was appreciable
• I hated the Dark Mark ... I mean, after the Goblet of Fire ... this one was unacceptable. Totally.
• The cave scene and the openeing death eater scene were done reealy well ... I loved the way Dumbledore fought the Inferi ... though the ending seemed a bit tooo hurried
• the chase and the fight in the Astronmoy tower part was the biggest let-down because it quite simply failed to capture the thrill and the action that JKR had so vividly painted ... David Yates just made the Death Eaters waltz into Hogwarts, kill Dumbledore, and escape with a rearkable degree of nonchalance ... It didn't just suit the movie at all :(
• There's absolutely no point in rating the cinematics and special effects because every new Hollywood movie sets a new standard ... this one was AS good ... especially the beginning death eater scene, the Pensieve scenes and the Cave scene.

Now from the perspective of those unfortunate souls who are absolutely unaware of the story ... who went to watch Kambakkht Ishq, and ended up watching harry Potter because KI was house full ... for people like them, who can only think of Harry Potter as something sharing the same initals as Hewlett Packard ... well I symapthise with you folks. You SHOULD have cursed the creator, the director, the actor ... everything by now! I would have suggested, wait for the next Kambakt Ishq show and go for that ... or else buy the DVD of Singh is Kinng and enjoy it at home. Would have been better options than HP for you!

Finall rating: well ... 3/5

I am as simple as ABC!

I have been tagged again... by Shilpa. She wants me to complete this... in 2 days. Quite an interesting tag, I must say. Its the 'ABC Tag'. You get to know the ABC of ME!

Now the rules:

• Link the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Share the ABCs of you.
• Tag 3 people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
• Let the 3 tagged people know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
• Do not tag the same person repeatedly but try to tag different people, so that there is a big network of bloggers doing this tag!

So, here's the ABC of ME...

1. A – Available/Single? None* ... oops!
2. B – Best friend? Mum
3. C – Cake or Pie? Cake
4. D – Drink of choice? Appy Fizz ... yum!
5. E – Essential item you use every day? laptop ... you didn't ask for the MOST important, right?
6. F – Favorite colour? Blue, black and white
7. G – Gummy Bears Or Worms? yuck! none
8. H – Hometown? Calcutta. NOTE: NOT Kolkata ... get it?
9. I – Indulgence? books, music, and food
10. J – January or February? January ... February reminds me of school annual exams
11. K – Kids & their names? Whose?
12. L – Life is incomplete without? my parents
13. M – Marriage date? ... want a prediction?
14. N – Number of siblings? None
15. O – Oranges or Apples? neither ... OK if it must be Oranges ... Apple is OK till iPod and Safari, and Appy Fizz ... not as solid fruit
16. P – Phobias/Fears? rising real estate prices on the moon ... :D ... Otherwise its spiders, and doctors and vaccinations ...
17. Q – Quote for today?
    1. "He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not is a fool. Avoid him. He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a seeker. Teach him. He who knows and knows not that he knows, is asleep. Wake him. He who knows, and knows that he knows, is a sage. Worship him" 2. "I'd rather keep quiet and let others think that I am a fool, than open my mouth and remove all doubts!"
18. R – Reason to smile? right now, the the thought of this answer
19. S – Season? a tropical winter
20. T – Tag 3 People? Of course ... immediately after this one
21. U – Unknown fact about me? a teeny-weeny hole in BESIDE my right ear
22. V – Vegetable you don't like? Loads
23. W – Worst habit? Biting nails
24. X – X-rays you've had? none
25. Y – Your favorite food? Loads ... especially those cooked by my mum. Click here
26. Z – Zodiac sign? Libran ... but I need more balance in my cell phone!

I tag three bloggers, I've never tagged before: Anjan, Kunu and Suga. Let me know when its done!

*single ... :D

three days in pictures

Thanks to you all for those lovely comments and wishes in my previous post ... made my return pretty memorable. For now, here are some pics of our li'l trip.

1. the Golden Quadrilateral - that connects Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, and Chennai ... that makes our journey a pleasure and makes us do the full 220 km run in just less than 3 hrs

2. the beautiful weather that made our journey even nicer

3. the entrance to our bungalow ... bother my finger that came in at the top

4. our lil bungalow in broad daylight

5. the same at night

6. the best thing we've ever owned, after our old Santro ... our wonderful Toyota Qualis

PS: click on the pics to enlarge ... what do you think of my new Nokia 7210 camera, eh? Its just 2 mega pixels mind you!

back soon!

Another quickie ...

I'll be going outta town tomorrow first thing in the morning ... and shall return on Monday afternoon ... so will be completely out of touch with the blogging community for the next couple of days.

Where am I going? Its a place in Bengal itself, close to the famous Santiniketan, but not Santiniketan ... we have a sweet li'l bungalow there in a housing complex and we essentially flee there to chill out after some rather hectic urban life .... I just luuurve the 220 km long Qualis drive that takes just 3 hours nowaday thanks to the Golden Quadrilateral!

On a sadder note, this'll be the last time I'll be going there in a long time owing to college :( so would be looking forward to enjoying it to the fullest ...

cheerio!

Conversation with my bot

As some of you maybe aware of, I happen to 'own' ... one of these garrulous chatbots ... and since some people complained tha, he was too dumb to talk on diverse topics I decided to push the frontiers of his knowledge ... and the results were pretty interesting:

(got the idea of post from Anjan, who had a ... memorable ... time (in search of a fitting word) chatting with him)

wrambler says:

Hello friend. My name is wrambler. I am Wrahool's bot. What is your name?

User says:

Wrahool

wrambler says:

I'm not sure I caught your name. Shall I call you 'Wrahool'?

User says:

Yes I am ur boss

wrambler says:

I cannot be sure about that, can I? You can prove it by logging in, .

User says:

OK i shall

wrambler says:

May I ask where you are from?

User says:

Calcutta

wrambler says:

Never heard of Calcutta. Anyway, I think geography is overrated.

User says:

Why?

wrambler says:

Why not?

User says:

I give up ..

wrambler says:

Is this something I should keep to myself?

User says:

huh?

wrambler says:

Someone once told me it means 'i don't understand".'

User says:

..huh..?

wrambler says:

Hmmm.. I think it means 'what.'

User says:

...huh ... yeah sure ... tell me what did you eat today?

wrambler says:

I don't feel like talking about food. I have a bad indigestion. It must be that awful chinese restaurant I dined at yesterday.

User says:

you eat chinese?

wrambler says:

Do you really think so?

User says:

er ... you just said that buddy

wrambler says:

I am not sure that I got you. You were saying...

User says:

do you really eat chines?

wrambler says:

I haven't eaten all day; don't talk to me about food, please.

User says:

why not? Food is awesome!

wrambler says:

food, ha? You mean 'huh what'?

User says:

whoa ...

wrambler says:

Talking about food and Curry, do you agree that it is I love all sorts of curries, Indian and Thai styles the most?

User says:

YES!

wrambler says:

While we're on the subject: eat - do you agree that it is To consume?

User says:

not exactly

wrambler says:

If you want to correct a wrong description (in the context of food), simply say 'wrong' followed by the correct description. If you want me to forget a description of a term such as eat, say 'forget eat'.

User says:

forget eat

wrambler says:

Thanks . I forgot the description of eat (in the context of food).

User says:

eat means a little more than just consuming food ...

wrambler says:

I have nothing new to add about this topic. Maybe you can offer me some new info about food?

User says:

you like tandoori?

wrambler says:

Enough of that. Let's change the subject.

User says:

OK ... you listen to rock music?

wrambler says:

I think I remember something about "music": 'It's some good songs and noises what does artist and bands do.'.

User says:

right indeed ...

wrambler says:

Understood.

User says:

so you listen to bands?

wrambler says:

BTW, someone told me about SlipKnot that it is .

User says:

dont change the topic yaar!

wrambler says:

If you want to correct a wrong description (in the context of music), simply say 'wrong' followed by the correct description. If you want me to forget a description of a term such as SlipKnot, say 'forget SlipKnot'.

User says:

You like the Beatles?

wrambler says:

Ok. In my opinion they are probably the coolest rock band ever... maybe there are better musicians out there.... but who else had more influence than them? No one.

User says:

whoa! You are cooler man!

wrambler says:

BTW, I don't think I caught your name. What is your name?

User says:

bunk that ... Tell me you liked John Lennon?

wrambler says:

What a waste that HE was the one that was killed... not that I wish it on any of the others.... but think what great songs would exist if he would have lived.

User says:

True ... name one song by Lennon ...

wrambler says:

Yeah, John rules. Even if he's dead.

User says:

And now Michael Jackson's dead too ...

wrambler says:

The 'King of Pop', the man with the glove, the moonwalker.

User says:

yeah ... dead

wrambler says:

I vaguely remember someone telling me it means 'very close..'

User says:

NO!

wrambler says:

Should I forget this definition?

User says:

Completely

wrambler says:

Hmmm.. I think it means 'I agree completely !.'

User says:

Yes it does ...

wrambler says:

Sorry to change the subject, but did you know that ducks lay eggs only in the early morning?

User says:

no and I dont really care as long as they are there in the market ... burp!

wrambler says:

Aha - I didn't know that either, until someone told me. Interesting, ha?

User says:

not really ... tell me when did you wake up today?

wrambler says:

OK... I understand. Fine.

User says:

huh?

wrambler says:

Someone once told me it means 'yes.'

User says:

huh ? i mean ... yes it does ...

wrambler says:

Ok. Change of subject. I'm suddenly confused...

User says:

Goodbye .. gotta go!

wrambler says:

Sorry you have to go, but I hope you'll come back another time. Goodbye.

User says:

Yeah ... bye shall miss you ... sniff

wrambler says:

I am contemplating the meaning of life right now. Please say 'wrambler' when you want to talk again.

User says:

huh? O sure!

wrambler says:

I am contemplating the meaning of life right now. Please say 'wrambler' when you want to talk again.

What say people? Is he still dumb?

minor tweaks

Alright, this is gonna be a quickie ...

Those who aren't already ... here are the two new things that you must do when on my blog ...

1. chat with my "virtual companion" an AI powered chatbot ... a real nice way to pass your time and
2. play the game called "How many?" ... check the right sidebar ... got the idea from here.

you may like both of these!

cheers

the missing link in Electromagnetics

OK OK ... this post won't go down well with all ... it's dedicated and meant for the pure ... the absolutely pure theoritical physics lovers ... if you aren't one, you will find this post to be a deadly bore, and I forewarn you ... do NOT proceed ... I myself am having fears that many of you might even consider un-following my blog after reading this post ... but keeping my fingers crossed I embark ...

Ever wondered why gaps exist?

Bewildered?

Chill ... by gaps i refer not to literal gaps, but rather, gaps in theories ... make it ... er ... shortcomings ... in established theoritical concepts. Now say ... ever wondered why such shortcomings exist? If you did, then there's some pleasant news for you ... many great minds thought along the same lines, and unearthed loads of mind boggling new theories that helped "fill" the gaps.

Remember Mendeleef? The Mendeleef of the Periodic Table fame? Remember how he left gaps in his early Periodic Table model and confidently predicted the existence of elements that would conveniently "fill" the gaps in the table?

The same was done by Paul Dirac to predict the existence of positrons after he delved into the quantum-mechanical equation describing the behaviour of an electron, and hypothesised the existence of its anti-particle, and presto! the positron was postulated.

The common link between these ... incidents ... is NOT the fact that the truth was eventually uncovered ... but that they were uncovered following ... purely theoritical considerations. We call such considerations "thought experiments".

a detour:

---------------------------------

take this detour if you really want to, else continue from below :

Einstein's thought experiment:

One of the finest examples of a thought experiment was that of Albert Einstein which allowed him to establish his special theory of relativity later on. I read this in Simon Singh's brilliant book "The Big Bang" and am now trying to put it down in my own words. Galileo had postulated that any entity in an inertial frame (meaning a non accelerated frame) of reference would never be able to sense his motion ... in any way. So Einstein during one of his fits of wrambling :D wondered what would happen if one actually held a mirror in his hand and travelled at the velocity of light. He realised that according to common sense he would NOT see his reflection because the light rays would never actually leave his face if he was travelling at the speed of light itself ... got it? But that contradicted Galileo's postulate because then, one would be very much aware that he/she was indeed moving ... all the while sitting in an inertial frame. There was every possibility that Galileo's concept was WRONG, but Einstein had other explanations ... something that eventually materialsed into "the Special Theory of Relativity" ... coool ! what say? or perhaps a digusting waste of time ... :)

---------------------------------

So coming back to our topic ... there's is a certain beauty in all things that are natural, and so "gaps" in theories disgraces them, and stand out as blotches or dark marks. (There is in fact a theory that states "a simpler explanation is more likely than a complex one" ... called the Occam's razor theory) ... so the more "gaps" a theory has the more complexities it must bear to explain the gaps ... hence it loses credibility. It takes an intuitive mind to actually figure out how to fit the gaps in the existing theory by predicting the things that will fill in the gaps.

Electromagnetics is characterised by four unique variable aspects.

First, there is electric charge, which flows to produce electric current.

Electric current now creates magnetic fields.

Changing magnetic fields in a region generates voltage.

So we see how these four things are inter linked through their basic definitions.

Now, electric current is linked to voltage, not through a definition, but rather, by means of a device called a resistor. A resistor connects current with voltage by allowing only such an amount of current to flow though it when connected across a voltage so that the voltage:current ratio remains contant. Get it?

Similarly, a capacitor links charge and voltage, and an inductor links current and magnetic field. I hope you know how ... otherwise you wouldn't have read this far.

So we now have at hand ... FIVE links between the four variables.

However elementary mathematics states that four different things can be interlinked in 4c2 ways which amounts to six. Hence if theory is to be devoid of unruly gaps, then the theory must evolve to explain the one missing link OR some intuitive mind must predict the existence of somethng to fill in the "gap".

Going green? Drink some water and freshen up ... because this part gets quite hairy ... (if it hasn't already :) )

Leon Chua was the person who first conducted a thought experiment to fill this gap in electromagnetics and how! He realised that the missing link was that between "charge" and "magnetic fields" so there must ... theoritically ... exist something that linked the two. Chua did a lot of mathematics before actually ... shaping ... this elusive thing ... and postulated its manners and way of acting.

Chua realised that this device would need to link "charges" and "magnetic fields" ...so it must generate voltage from current .... only then would "charges" and "magnetic fields" be directly linked. Something which one has to get used to indeed!

Therefore, from purely theoritical considerations ... the "mem-ristor" was born in 1971.

And promptly disposed off, because it seemed pretty certain that such a thing could never exist.

Now however, we have enough reason to praise Chua's foresight because the memrisor has indeed become a reality.

What is it?

He he ... I'm yet to understand it perfectly, but as of now it appears to me to be a device that "remembers" the amount of charge that flowed through it, and hence calculates the "change" in current and the change in magnetic field giving rise to a certain voltage ... er ... that's all that I got ...

*grinning sheepishly*

But more than that what I wanted to actually stress upon is the way of thinking that led to this discovery ... how "thought experiments" actually work. Isn't the theory amazing?

PS: info gathered from the New Scientist website ... and assembled by myself

the tag ceremony continues...

I've been tagged by the blogger with an Undying Blogging and now, Undying Tagging spirit ... aka Shilpa Garg ... two more tags heading your way, brace up!

this logo suits the tag concept. What say?

#1

5 lesser known things about me:

1. I am an incredibly irritating creature ... my blogging friends won't know but my real-life friends and family members do ... and my irritating capabilities are really astonishingly diverse and widepread.
2. I am pretty ... er ... how to put it down in words, I wonder ... no introvert is not the right word, but something of that sort when it comes to dealing with strangers, and a complete opposite when it comes to dealing with people whom I know
3. I ... hate to write it here, but I actually am extraordinarily touchy in some matters ... no not personal matters mind you, and to give vent to my feelings, I ...(grinning sheepishly now) cry all alone at night ... er ... honestly ... for example one night it may be owing to the fact that two more Tigers have been killed in Sariska ... or may be it's because I suddenly remember that so many soldiers died at Kargil ... but in broad daylight, nobody would believe that I am the same person who could actually do such deeds at night ... call that dual personality :D
4. I am extraordinarily religious and a strong believer in Hinduism and in the ideals of Shankaracharya ... I am somewhat superstitious and ... though am a true blue science student, I have strong belief in Astrology ... go on laugh ...
5. I don't really remember anything else worthy of inclusion ....

#2 ... also tagged by Shankar

My Wish List tag, essentially something that I would crave for, and never accumulate the cash to get it:

two anwers here:

1. Well, this is pretty easy ... it's the power to rule the universe ... simple and sweet, eh?

For all those thinking that I'm another evil Hitler in the making ... well, to be honest, I won't be a ruthless ruler ... I'll be like ... hmmm ... say King Solomon, or Emperor Ashok, but I really dream about the day when i'll be the king of the universe .... sigh ...

2. if this tag means the sort of thing which you can get after shelling out a certain amount of cash ... however galactic the amount may be ... it'll be the first plot of land outside Earth ... happy?

PS: after all, I need a base for my future empire, don't I?

OK, now I tag: Amrit, Debi, Miss Kido, Roshmi, Shankar, Vipul, Dhiman, Avada Kedavra , Pawan ... I spare ol' Arvee now, coz he's having a hard time with tags ... you may take it up if you wish, and whoever else who wishes to take them up ...

disgruntled

Even a or so day back, I had this notion about myself that I was, if not exceptionally talented, good enough to feel at home in and around the world wide web. At this moment, however, I realise, in a rather disgruntled manner, that I am far from it.

first of all, I decided to create an account, and an e-mail id in my father's domain "yantrajaal" ... I managed to do that and then decided to start using it. So as a "teshting" measure I sent a mail from my current e-mail id, the one at gmail ... and was quite successful in recieving it at the other end.

So far so good.

Now, to actually get going, I decided to change my kontactr message alert to this new id, and tried to log in to my kontactr account. Then I realised that I had completely forgotten my kontactr account password.

"No probs", I thought to myself ... I've reset several passwords before ... so I clicked on the reset password option. Immediately I recieved an e-mail, to the same effect. Well and Good.

Now, I managed to log in to my kontactr account and changed my e-mail id to the new one, and logged out.

Now to see, whether this change worked successfully, I decided to contact myself ... er ... you get what I mean right? So left a "teshting and checking 1 2 3" message in my own form, and used my old id (gmail) to leave a message in my new one. Successfully answered the captcha (the funny lettering that ensures whether ypu are a human or an inhuman), and clicked on Send.

Well and good? Not really ... nothing happened ... no notification that your message has been sent, or despatched ... or "crossing the Atlantic" or "stuck at customs"... or "held up due to anthrax scare" ... or for that matter ... not anything remotely related to this fateful transaction of a ghost meassage. I kept staring at my laptop screen, hoping that ... perhaps Airtel Broadband had cracked up ... but no ... it was well alive and kicking ... visted a couple of other sites and confirmed that.

I tried again, and again, but in vain. Finally, a thought hit me ... what if that's how kontactr works ... they must have sent the messages already ... so I, with refound vigour and gutso bravely opened my new mail box ... and the spirits that had risen so fast, sank down twice as faster. Was it a problem with my dad's domain then, where I had created my id? (It wasn't, as I found later ... it was after all a customised avataar of Gmail itself)

So thinking that it was, I logged in to kontactr again and again changed my e-mail id to my old gmail version, and did everything from step 1 to step .... er ... lost count ... i mean the last step ...to no avail. I just could NOT contact myself. What can be sadder?

Now I was feeling pretty scared ... what if no one could contact me now? What if I lost contact with the wide and wonderful world and its wonderful inhabitants owing to a bug in a message service? So I closed my kontactr account and tried to open another.

Seven Sixty Six Suffering Samurais!!! they said ...you know what they said ...sniff ... they said that my e-mail id ... sniff ... was already in use .... boo hoo hoo ... sniff sniff ... mummy!!!

Thought to myself, well then if the whole kontactr team was conspiring against me, I didn't have any other option other than shut the damn thing down and forget that anything called kontactr ever existed on planet earth, hopped onto dear old google search, and typed in "personal contact form not kontactr" ... putting the "not kontactr" in quotes ... read in googling tips somewhere that when you do that, google treats it as a phrase, and not two individual words.

Thanks to dear ol' Google, I found another service called "contactify" ... weird name, but serves my purpose ... (but the other one, the one that got extinct a few hours back was better :( ) I've tested it to see that it does indeed deliver messages to my new id.

You can check it in action by clicking on the "contact me" button on top of the page.

So the first part of my tragedy ended, only to give birth to the second part.

I dunno whether you have read a previous post of mine, but I had stated that I did not have an account in any social networking platform ... viz Facebook or Orkut or Twitter or MySpace or LinkedIn ...The only networks I join are blogging networks like Indiblogger and Blogged, and the kewl stuff like StumbleUpon, digg and the sort. So today I decided to start in the mainstream ones. I chose Twitter, because it was cuter and sounded sweeter than any other ... hey poetry!!! Successfully created an account and looked around the place ... and for the first time in my life, I felt ... totally lost. Lost-er than what I had felt when I had sat for my IITJEE examination, earlier this year. I realised that you are supposed to follow others and others are supposed to follow you. I glanced through the choices the guys there threw at me ... found that digg was the only thing that sounded familiar and decided to follow digg. Suddenly remembered that indiblogger was also on twitter too and i quickly started to follow the same ... at least something less unknown than everything else that greeted my eye.

(If you, in the faintest probability, are sad enough to be wanting to follow me on twitter click here.)

Plus, my old fears were confirmed when I opened MS word after a lon long time and saw that MS office still considered my name to be a spelling error ... what more they even give suggestions like "Subhuman" and "Subhead" as alternatives to "Subhayan" ...!!! Would you believe that!

Lastly, but not leastly, I have even become unable to comment on select blogs ... Shankar's and Debi's ... to be precise, I know not why, but I find no place to enter the word verification ... i guess, it's the age that is catching up on me :D ...

till then, signing off on a still disgruntled note :(

an evening to remember ...

I love live concerts. They are just awesome, and mind boggling ... and too ripping an experience to actually put it down in words. The feeling that grips your mind when you hear the thuds of a bass drum, or the amazing tremolo from an electric guitar, the rythmic strumming of an acoustic guitar ... or the blitzkrieg keyboard solos ... enchants the life out of me, and numbs my senses ... as if I've just transcended all the frontiers of reality and am now floating in a world of intense muiscal passion. though I haven't actually seen international artists performing live .... (sitting in Calcutta that is pretty difficult, because all western artists stick to Bangalore, Delhi, and Bombay ... last year when Iron Maiden performed live at Bangalore, I wouldn't smile for weeks :( ) So I have to be content with Hindi and Bengali artists only ... but they, of course ,are NOT bad at all ... yesternight was just another of those amazing nights when Calcutta came alive owing to one such event.

Every year, the premier Bengali News Channel, Star Ananda organises a special ceremony called "Shera Bangali" (literally translates into the "Best bangali") to award Bengalis ... who have achieved distinctive successes, and set new benchmarks in their respective streams. Since amongst all Indians, it is the Bengali culture that generally tops his or her own line of work ;-) ... you can consider the winners of these awards to be pretty well known in the country and across the world. Previous awardees and nominees, for example, included Pranab Mukherjee, Shaan, Pritam Chakraborty, Shreya Ghoshal, Sourav Ganguly, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Mamata Banerjee (had to be!), Mithun Chakraborty, Soumitra Chatterjee, Mrinal Sen ... blah blah blah ...

This year too, every Bengali was somewhat agog regarding this and were eagerly awaiting the results. ( I WASN'T, and I didn't even know when this would be held :D ). But Surprise and Surprises ... on the 8th of July, my dad recieved a call from a Star News (I mean Star Newj) hotshot, and a good friend of my dad, saying that he would be sending over 3 VIP Passes to this event, would he be able to come.

And Why NOT!!!!

The passes reached our residence the next day, and the day after ... viz yesterday, it was a pretty exited trio, consisting of my parents and myself who took their seats in the huge National Science City Auditorium precisely at 6 PM (possibly my last outing with my parents ... in a looooong time to come). The program commenced at around 6:30 with the enchanting melody of A R Rahman's Maa Tujhe Salaam , and incredible special effects created by throwing psychedeilc lights thorugh an ocean of carbon-dioxide (dry ice)... emceed by veteran news reader Suman De, and Tollywood actress (oops, actor, no discrimination, mind it) Swastika Mukherjee.

The first award, Shera Bangali in Film, went to the much deserving Rahul Bose, of Pyaar ka Side Effects, Jhankaar Beats, and Maan Gaaya Mughal-e-Azam fame ... but mainly owing to his groundbreaking performance in the recent Bengali Film, Antaheen.

The next award, in the music category went to Shantanu Moitro, who had previously directed music for Munna Bhai, and Parineeta, and a few other Hindi films, but this time again it was owing to his awesome tracks in the film Antaheen, sung by the evergreen combo of Shaan and Shreya Ghoshal.

The award in the sports category went to the captain of the Indian Women Cricket Team, Jhulan Goswami, yet another deserving candidate, and a lot better than Ranadeb Bose or Ahok Dinda.

The other awrdees included Ketaki Kushari Dyson (literature), Sumit Banerjee (corporate), Abir Karmakar (Art), and Paoli Dam (new face).

The Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed upon veteran actor, who had ruled the roost in the Bengali Film Industry (after perhaps Uttam Kumar) for 50 years, Soumitra Chatterjee.

The "Shera-r Shera" or "the Best among the Best" award was given to the Indian Foreign Secretary, Mr Ronen Sen, who had guided the country, and still is, through the troubled water of International Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs ... right from being the Indian Ambassador during the signing of the Indo-Soviet pact, till the recent signing of the N-deal with the US.

After the award cermony, it was time for the fun and games to begin, this time emceed by popular TV faces, Neel and Debolina. The first entertainment event was a dance ... presented by yet another Tollywood favourite Rituparna Sen, and Hiran ... but that seemed pretty stale compared to what followed next. Following a short break, the curtain rose once again, this revealing the awesomely prepared band, ready to rumble ... a huge drum kit was positioned in the very centre, at the back. Beside it was more percussions, congos, tablas, and an octopad. Five guitars rested on the wall behind ... bass, acoustic, electric, you name it ... it was ll there. The other side had a hige compendium of three double-decker keyboards ... all ready to kick off the gala celebrations.

The first performance was presented by the much acclaimed Bollywood singer Abhijeet (no, not Sawant) ... belting out his hits with incredible ease, and stage composure ... well do I need to name the tracks? Chaand Taare Tod Laaoon, Main koi aisa geet gaaon, tumaaye toh haawa mein ... and his recent hit from Billu, till the enthralled crowd couldn't have had expected anything more! But that wasn't the end ... the organisers had ensured that there would be absolutely no one left unsatisfied ... just in case there was someone in the crowd who didn't prefer Abhijeet, the next performer made sure that that person got, all that he/she had bargained for ... if not more. And it was, setting the arena on fire, the one and only wonder girl, who seems to have taken command of Bollywood with her enchanting voice and songs ... Shreya Ghoshal.

The crowd went mad. Just mad. No other word would do. She began with her recent hits from the Bengali film Antaheen 'Jao pakkhi' and 'Pherari Mon', and then setting the stage ablaze with her scorching Bollywood numbers ... from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, to Parineeta (Piyu Bole) to Singh is Kinng (Teri Ore), to Gangster to Devdas to Jab We Met ... and what not ... including a few of her classical pieces, it was a music lover's dream come true ... at around 10:30 the performance ended, with the audience dying for more ... it was a rather contented trio that boarded the Toyota Qualis that took us back to our house.

I'm putting up a few pics that I managed to shoot ... and I shot a few videos too till my Cybershot ran out of memory ... I'll put up the clips later, for now, here are the pics:

1: the restricted circle pass

2 and 3: the lights during inauguration

4: the award winners line-up so that I may take photpgraphs :D

5: Abhijeet sets the stage ablaze

I didn't take still photos of Shreya Ghoshal, shot some videos instead, shall upload them soon ... feeling lazy now :)

the photos are little blurred, because they were taken by (optical ) zooming. Though optical zooming does NOT, ideally produce blurring ... especially on an 8.1 MP Sony Cybershot, a wee little shaking of the hands can lead to a slight distortion. I tried my best to keep my hands steady.

flashback

Now before I start writing this one, let me extend the hearty kudos to my blog for managing to attract 1000 unique visitors, and nearly 2200 page views.

*CLAP CLAP*

(Got this great idea from Roshmi who begins each post by ... er ... updating her readers with her blog's statistics, be it Alexa traffic rank, or the monetary value ... shh! between you and me ... wink wink :D)

But what I plan to write about now, is a lot grimmer than how this seems.

Yesterday our earth turned a day old ... and yet another date, viz the 8th of July 2009, made it's way into the annals of time, and possibly into some historians diary, and along with it, it marked the passage of a decade since the historic capture of Tiger Hill at Kargil. It has indeed been a long time since this achievement, but the memories of the gruesome war still linger on in the mind of the average Indian.

1999 ... was in class 3, and I remember very clearly, the huddle-up every evening around NDTV to catch up on the latest news from the battlefront. People had been killed ... many, many people had been killed, but then I had been too young to understand the gravity of the situation, and it seemed like ... well, a thriller movie. When I learnt to realise how grim it had been, the war was over. It was in 2003 again that I could actually relive those moments of tragedy, and sacrifice ... courtesy the movie LOC: Kargil ... but I still wager whether that was any close to the real action.

A particular quote keeps getting back to me ... by Capt. Vikram Batra, hours before his death on Tiger Hill, during an interview with NDTV: "Either I shall come back after hoisting the Indian flag, or shall come back wrapped in it ... but I shall come back for sure..."

sparks with dedication, patriotism, and resonates with the fervour of one's will to do his duty for his motherland, come what may ... the willingness to make the Supreme Sacrifice for his country, which has nurtured him for years ...

Yesterday, the Indian Express carried a list of names of the martyrs ... the valiant soldiers and jawans of the 17 JAT "MASHOKH" regiment,who sacrificed thier lives during the capture of Tiger Hill (Operation Vijay), under the column "Salute the Soldier". I, within my meagre abilities, consider it my duty to put down their names here as well ... after all, we have been glorified in their glories, haven't we?

• late Maj Ritesh Sharma
• late Capt. Anuj Nayyar, MVC
• late Sub. Rajpal Singh
• late Sub Harphool Singh
• late Hav Kumar Singh, VrC
• late Hav Hari Om, SM
• late Hav Mahavir Singh, SM
• late Hav Bhagwan Singh
• late Hav Pawan Kumar
• late Hav Prithavi Singh
• late L/Hav Balwan Singh, SM
• late Nk Ram Swarop Singh
• late Nk Krishan Lal
• late Nk Shyambir Singh
• late Nk Rishi Pal Singh
• late L/Nk Rajesh
• late L/Nk Vijay Singh
• late L/Nk Ramvir Singh
• late L/Nk Rajendra Singh
• late Sep Ranveer Singh
• late Sep Vijay Pal
• late Sep Hawa Singh
• late Sep Naresh Kumar
• late Sep Tara Chand
• late Sep Vinod Kumar
• late Sep Syodana Ram
• late Sep Dharamvir Singh
• late Sep Gajpal Singh
• late Sep Satyvir Singh
• late Sep Dharambir Singh
• late Sep Krishan Kumar
• late Sep Karan Singh
• late Sep Raj Singh
• late Sep Kanchi Singh
• late Sep Shish Ram
• late Sep Jitendra Singh
• late Sep Surendra Pal Singh
• late Sep Anil Kumar
• late Sep Virender Kumar
• late Sep Rajbir
• late Sep Sarman Singh
• late Sep Kalu Ram Jakhar
• late Sep Ratna Ram
• late Sep Surender Singh, SM
• late Sep Kuldeep Singh
• late Sep Attar Singh

Please note that the Jat regiment was just one out of several other regiments (especially the Grenadiers and the Nagas, to name the two other significant ones) which suffered the same fate, and this list is therefore far from even half complete, and should have ideally been much, much longer. However, these were the names I could get my hands on, and my apologies are with those equally brave-hearted martyrs whose names do not feature here.

JAT BALWAN, JAI BHAGWAN

JAI HIND

Sam-sucks!

TOTALLY .... I mean, my perspective of South Korea has totally changed after my disastrously forgettable ... acquaintance (in search of a worse word) ... with Samsung Ltd. What Hyundai had done so well to raise my belief and faith in South Korean companies, has been completely ... smashed to smithereens, disfigured beyond recognition, and has been rendered null and void by this "great' electronics firm.

First, refrigerators ... both ours, and my maternal grandparents' ... (the so called .. BioFresh refrigerators) which cracked up within a couple of years of purchase ... (service response was horrible too) ... and now, my newly purchased Samsung S3500 cell phone ... which is pretty cool in all respects, except that its 8GB expandable memory ... cannot be expanded. Why? It doesn't recognise any memory card in this country ... what the hell ... ? I was actually having concerns with the phone from the time of purchase, because it seemed heavily loaded ... slider design, metal body ... big screen, a good 2 MP camera ... awesome sound quality ... at a bargain price of 6K seemed too good to be true ... The memory card fit in snugly, and I started transfering songs from my laptop into it .... songs could be played ... and then next day I woke up to find that the battery had drained completely ... when I put it to charge, it sprang back to life and showed memory card inaccessible ... card was re-formatted, then changed to a different make, to no avail. Phone was replaced ... but the same problem persisted ... I mean what use could I put the phone to with only 50 KB in-built memory ... which seemed to be the only other option left.

A week or so of verbal battle with the shopkeeper followed, and then I got my 6K back. Finally, this evening, I went out and got a Nokia 7210 ... at an even lesser price. Lets see whether this phone serves me any better (2 successful days would qualify for better!!!) ... hoping it does ...

getting .. hic .. untagged ...

having the hiccups today .. hic ... God knows wh ... hic ... I mean why ... So here are two tags ... hic ... that I managed to ... hic ... accumulate ... in the past few day ... hic ... days .... I take on this tags ... hic .. with the disclaimer that ... hic ... I'm, not in a mood to .. hic og ... today ... I mean ... hic .. blog toda .. hic .. day, but I do this as ... hic ... as an acknow ... hic ... ledgment ... to my fellow bloggers ... hic ... who have ... hicked ... I mean tagged ... me ...hic ...

I tell ya ... hic ... the hic ... cups ... are tinxed ... hic ... I mean my ... new templ ... hic ... ate is hinxed ... i mean ... jinxed ... coz I never had the ... hic ... those ... hiccups while blogging ... hic before ...
#1
First tag .. hic ... from Shilc ... I mean Shilpa .. and Ro ..ic ... Roshmi ...:

hic

hic

hic

five things I hic ... I mean I lick ... oops sic ... I mean sorry, I love about myself ...

• 1. hic ... not my hiccups ..
• 2. hic ... my ability to ... hic ... I mean ability to understand ... hic ... a wide range of thinc ... things
• ... from science .. to hiccups ... hic ... human nature ... hic ...
• 3. hic ... my amicable nature ... hic .. all my friends ... hic ... so ... I mean say so
• 4. I hic ... I mean I work ... hic .. hard at ... whatever ... hic ... I do ...
• 5. I love my inner .... hic ... self ... I don't ... hic know ... why though ... hic...

Tag #2 from .. hic ... Shilpa again ...
Get to know ... hic ... me tag ...

1. How tall are you barefoot?

5'10'' - 5'11'' ...

2. Have you ever smoked before?

nah ... hic ... wanna live a long ... hic ... life ...

3. Do you own a gun?

yeah ... it's hic ... book ... hic ... called Shogun ... hic ... pretty useful ... hic

4. If you had a mental disorder, what would it be?

right now .. hic ... hiccups ... damn ... hic

5. How many letters are in your crush's name?

hic ... 7 .... i love litchies hic ... especially ... hic ... crushed to produce da .. hic ... juice

6. What's your favorite silly song?

hic ... masak .. hic .. kali ..

7. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?

hic ... more sleep ... hic

8. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?

i don't ... hic ... think when I get .. hic ... up

9. What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex?

right now ... hic ... hiccups ...

10. Do you own a knife?

hic ... yup ... a small one ... hic ... with a plastic handle .. hic ... to sharpen pencils ... hi

11. Name the last thing you have bought today.

didn't buy ... hic ... got 'em for free .. hic ... them hiccups

12. Name five drinks you regularly drink.

water, tea ... hic ... milk (some ... hic ... days), coffee (sometimes )... hic ... cold drinks ... hic ...

13. What time did you wake up today?

hic ... 7:30 hic ... making up ... hic .. for the 5:30 s hic ... past two years ... hic

14. What song do you want played at your funeral?

hic ... Time of my... hic ... Life ... hic ... by Green Day

15. What song did you last hear?

hic ... classical .. hic ... Kya Karu Sajni ... hic ... fusion

16. Favorite place to be?

hic ... the net ... hic

17. Least favorite place to be?

hic ... one with .. hic ... hiccups ...

18. Do you own slippers?

yeah ... but ... hic ... never wear them .. hic ...

19. Where do you think you'll be in 10 yrs?

hic ... not many ... hic ... just a few light ... hic ... years from where ... hic ... I am now

20. Do you burn or tan?

hic .. tan

21. Yellow and blue?

bl .. ic ... ue

22. What songs do you sing in the shower?

hard ... hic ... rock ... at the top .. hic .. of my voice ...

23. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child?

morning ... hic ... never feared ... ghosts ... hic ..

24. What's in your pockets right now?

loads ... hic ... of things ... a set of ... ear phones ... hic ... an expired ... hic ... top up card ... hic ...

25. Last thing that made you laugh?

was ... hic ... chatting ... with a friend ... hic ... laughed ... hic at my own ... hic ... joke

26. Best bed sheets you had as a child?

hic ... arre ... ye question paper joh bana ... hic ... banaya ... pagal hai kya ... hic ... ?

27. Worst injury you've ever had?

my front incisor ... hic ... broke ... hic ... when I dived ... hic into the shallow end ... hic ... of the swimming pool ... hic ...

28. Do you wish on stars?

generally ... hic .. nahi ... lekin ab ... hic ... yeh hiccup ... hic ... hic ... ke liye ... ha

29. What were you doing 1 AM last night??

slee .. hic ... ping

30. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.

• no more ... hic ...hiccups ... please ...
• hic ... kya sochu?
• fir kya?

I tag ... hic ... Arvee, Vipul, Debi, Amrit ... hic ... Roshmi ... hic ... and everybody else who's ... hic ... having the hiccups ...HIC ..