Cycling: Hobby Revisited

After a gap of 15 years, googling to find some cyclists, I came across this wonderful website, which left me overwhelmed. It was a networking site exclusively meant for cyclists in India. I was overjoyed to find loads of people like me who were interested in cycling and searching for information.

In the foray, I met some cyclists who proved highly helpful to provide me all the information alongwith the contact numbers of the cyclists in my vicinity. Losing no time, I contacted them and sensing willingness of beginners like me, Vikram and Sunny organised a cycling event on Saturday from Borivali to Aksa beach.

Being new and with no bicycle, I went to a nearby cycle shop. To my dismay, the shop didn't had cycle fit for me, but the guy was tizzy enough to help and arrange a cycle for a day.

I had my bicycle and thereafter there was no looking back. Up in the morning at 6 am we met at Don Bosco school and my passion for cylcing kept me going. On the way I had opportunity to ride various other bikes like, Raleigh elevation MTB 2.0, Hero Nuage, L.A. MTB with disc brakes and all alloy Hero Thunder racer. While returning we had a quick breakfast from the local cycle sold idliwala.

On the way back I could feel the pain in my legs. Sun and pollution multipled the hardship to reach home. Nevertheless, satisfied and having revisited my old pastime made me forgo the pain. However, I had to relax for rest of the weekend.

Sixth Sense

Yes, that’s true. In my previous post you read about the advent of Microsoft Surface with a huge price tag for commercial use. But, if Pranav Mistry has his way, the technology will soon become available for masses for the price no more than a mobile phone.

Pranav from the MIT Media Lab has developed a wearable internet-connected computer that can turn virtually any physical surface (like the wall, your hand or even a book in your hand) into a Microsoft Surface like table computer allowing you to interact with that surface using simple freehand gestures. Called Sixth Sense, a prototype of the device was recently demoed at the TED Conference by Pattie Maes (Pranav’s advisor) and it left the audience completely awestruck.

For instance, you could pick up any book from the store and the device will display ratings from Amazon.com on the book itself. Or you could project Google Maps on the wall and zoom & pan using fingers.

The video also show how you can display a pile of photographs on the wall of your room and arrange them using natural hand gesture similar to Microsoft Surface. Or do graffiti on the wall by moving your fingers in the air without touching real paint.

A newspaper can show live video news projected from the video camera of the "Sixth Sense" computer. Pranav says in an interview that any application, now on your computer or mobile phone, can be used inside Sixth Sense.

The device costs less than $350 to build but the price will obviously model "if" it goes commercial and reaches the "mass production" stage.

Microsoft Surface

I hope most of you may have heard of Microsoft Surface. It’s a computer without a keyboard and mouse. It allows you to do almost anything at the sway of your finger tips, providing a very easy to use table computer with a magic of touch. Sway your fingers and there you are maneuvering the objects on the surface.

It’s also called Touch and Gesture computing. The line between the physical world and virtual world is thinning. For instance, Surface allows cellphones to introduce themselves to the buyers. Place the cellphone on the Surface and it displays all the details about that model. Place another model and it displays the comparison with the earlier model.

Plan your holiday with the maps visible on the Surface or juggle the photos clicked, zoom them or even edit them. As visible from the videos available on Microsoft Surface’s website, the screen does not follow a fixed or disciplined width or format. You can easily rotate the applications upside down or full 360 degrees.

This piece of technology is available in US for $16,000 and is strictly for commercial purchase only. On 19th March 2009 Microsoft UK team launched the device in UK with a price tag of ₤ 11,000.

Surely, it wouldn’t be that difficult next time, when you have to teach computers to your grandparents.

Soap business: Change in Indian Television

I am not referring to the detergent business or, nor do I have plans to start one. Here I am referring to the soaps shown on Indian Television on almost most of the entertainment channels. All, with almost same set of story line involving some kind of disputes between family members. It could be between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law or two sister-in-laws fuelling their husbands to take up a fight or husband and wife.

How this era entered Indian Television when detective or comedy serials were prevalent? It all started with the advent of a soap called “'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi'” (Mother-in-law was someday a daughter-in-law) by Ekta Kapoor. Most Indian women as a general nature are inclined in gossiping internal matters of a neighbour or some near relative. This tendency was well captured by Ekta Kapoor who cleverly portrayed the gossips in this soap.

TRPs for the channel (Star Plus) rose sharply breaking all records, prompting other TV channels to follow. It brought a drastic change in the way Indian audience viewed television. However, this also had ill effects as it corrupted minds of youth, especially the women folks.

Action of the women vampires in these serials are being taken seriously and some women audience even go to the extent of practicing them in reality. The dramatization and overreaction to the smallest of the issue in the house as shown in these serials started getting replicated in reality. This has lead to bigger disputes and issues in the house, and finally break-ups. To prolong the episodes, producers and directors add more disputes and drama to make it more interesting and spicy. Some audiences are so engrossed that every comment or issue in the house are compared to the similar event in these serials and are followed up, the way they were in those teleserials. In reality, this has allowed stretching up of issues without giving any second thought to the results.

Audiences need to get more intelligent in terms of solving family disputes and not take support from such serials, which are just doing their business. Serials are not there to leverage solutions to the disputes, but are only a form of entertainment which should be forgotten with the end of episode.

If at all I am given a choice to watch any soap, I would prefer watching some comedy. They are the perfect form of entertainment that makes you laugh and forget all kinds of stress and woes encountered in a day.

The Road Ahead

It’s been a long time that I wrote a post. Few of the hurdles in life kept me away from writing. At times, there are situations where we are forced to take some tough stand, without any of our fault.

On the road of life we come across some people whom we expect to enhance our journey, but not always. We are given a choice to either rely on them and help us, or not rely and continue with the journey. If good enough they will help you to achieve the target, but if not they can bring a major accident(disruption). Again it depends from situation to situation and person to person. There is no correct answer for it. It’s all about how your resiliency helps in coming over such events.

It’s very important to have a goal in mind. One cannot achieve much without a strong determination to achieve a target. Without goal, he/she will get distracted by the people around, and in the end will stand to have achieved nothing. Over and above he /she will find himself having lost good time and lagging behind today’s competitive world.

Your goal will determine the decision you make at such critical junctures of life. It’s good to face the hurdle, then turning away from the road of life. This will atleast keep you on the road and allow you to achieve the target. Positively, such events will make you more tough and strong, helping you to face bigger impediments with ease, and come out successfully.

Happy New Year 2009

Year 2008 has been marked as one of the worst in the history. It all started with sub-prime crisis followed by world-markets crash. We saw oil prices climbing above $ 150 per barrel and witnessed wiping off some of BIG MNC banks like Lehman Brothers, Wachovia and saw companies like Citibank and GM tremor to the economic tunes.

US had to bail out Citibank and GM, preventing a big financial fall. This was followed by job cuts in US. Is it over or are we going to see some more of it in the Year 2009? There are mixed feelings among the economists. Some say there is more to come whereas some are of the opinion that, the worst is over. We also saw terror attacks here in India with Mumbai twice falling victim to terrorism, claiming hundreds of lives.

Surprisingly, it proved to be a best year for the Indian sports arena. Indian cricket won T20 as well as shooter Abhinav Bindra claimed gold medal at Olympics 2008. There were some outstanding performances by Sania Mirza (ranked 32nd in the tennis world) and Saina Nehwal (foraying into the top 10 badminton world rankings).

Hopefully, all of us would like to see Year 2009 bring peace and cheers to the people. This would become possible with controlled inflation, lower loan rates, affordable oil, etc.

Though, oil prices have fallen significantly, but more changes and reforms are required to bring back HAPPY OLD DAYS and normalize the situation. Wish Goodbye to year 2008 and welcome Year 2009.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year 2009 !!

Serious security flaw found in IE7

A week back a serious security flaw was found in Internet Explorer and everybody is been advised by 'MICROSOFT' not to use Internet Explorer for any confidential banking transactions until the new patch is released.

The new patch would be released at the earliest and Microsoft advices everybody to use the browser from their rivals until the patch is released. As many as 10,000 websites have been compromised since the vulnerability was discovered.

Other browsers, such as Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, are not vulnerable to the flaw Microsoft has identified. PC Pro magazine's security editor, Darien Graham-Smith, said that there was a virtual arms race going on, with hackers always on the look out for new vulnerabilities. "The message needs to get out that this malicious code can be planted on any web site, so simple careful browsing isn't enough."

"Every browser is susceptible to vulnerabilities from time to time. It's fine to say 'don't use Internet Explorer' for now, but other browsers may well find themselves in a similar situation," he added.

Scientoons

Scientoons are the cartoons, based on science. They not only make you smile and laugh but also provide information about new researches subjects, data & concepts in a simple, understandable and interesting thought provoking way.

Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, Senior Scientist (Chemical Technology Division) at the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow, India coined a new name for such cartoons - SCIENTOOONS.

If you find science dull, dour and boring? If words like ozone hole, glycobiology, nanotechnology or mass spectrometry sound like mumbo-jumbo? You know whom to contact next time.

On December 5, 2007 in South African Science Communication Conference which was held at Port Elizabeth and was attended by experts from all over the world, Pradeep thought to announce his concept as a new science called scientoonics.

“SCIENTOONICS IS A NEW BRANCH OF SCIENCE THAT DEALS WITH EFFECTIVE SCIENCE COMMUNICATION BY USING A NOVEL CLASS OF SCIENCE CARTOONS CALLED SCIENTOONS.”

Scientoons have also been included as a subject in the syllabus of M.Sc. (Mass Communication in Science and Technology) in Lucknow University, Lucknow (India), Devi Ahilya Bai University, Indore, India, Makhan Lal Chaturevdi University, Bhopal India, B.Ed. course of Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur and more. Many other countries are also planning to introduce scientoons for science education and science communication.

Mumbai Local Trains

Only local train passengers in Mumbai will know how helpful commuters try to be......

Last week, a hapless victim fell prey to the over enthusiastic Bombay's local train commuters.

Our hero, a man from Pune, wanted to go to Matunga, but as luck and trains would have it, boarded a fast train not halting at his destination. He panicked on realizing his mistake but by then the local had started moving.

On seeing his plight, a sympathetic co-passenger decided to come to his rescue. It seemed that he had been commuting by that particular train (6:03pm Kasara Fast) for the past 6 years and had noticed that the train always slowed down just before Matunga station and crawled at a snail's pace while passing through it. He told the man to jump out of the running train as it slowed down and that with a little bit of fleet-footedness, he would make it safely on terra firma. However, knowing the man's inexperience, he added some words of caution:

"Keep running the moment you jump or you'll fall. Just keep running." He stressed the word "running" lest the man not know the laws of motion. The train did slow down just before Matunga station and at the prompting of his mentor, our hero jumped out of the train and started running as if all hell had broken loose.

What he didn't realise, of course, was that he was running parallel to the train instead of running away from it. Meanwhile, the train slowed down further, so that the man was running faster than the train. In the process, he reached the door of the next compartment and the footboard commuters there pulled him in thinking he was trying to board the train! To his agony, the train picked up speed and sped past Matunga and his new co-passengers started to congratulate him on how lucky he had been, until he told them that they had actually undone what he had done with great difficulty.

Those standing at the door of his "ex-compartment" had witnessed the whole drama and just couldn't stop laughing at the poor man's situation, while he grinned sheepishly!!!

Ae dil, hai mushkil, jeena yahaan...., zara hatke, zara bachke, yeh hai Bombay meri jaan......................

Silence

"Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute"

- MK Gandhi

That sounds true but not when communication is need of the hour. Study says 95% of the life problems arise either due to the lack of communication or improper communication. Communication plays a very important role in the life of any individual. It could be at home, office or at social events. Communication can bring two individual/groups/countries together as well as separate them.

It is not the materialistic needs that deter the quality of life, but good communication techniques. Even the most fierce enemies can be brought together, if they are ready to solve the issue through open dialogue. However, in most cases individuals misinterpret the actions of others according to their own will and wields enmity without communicating what they interpreted. They refrain from allowing a second thought to strike their mind, refuse to understand the act of others. Resultantly, start acting against the will of other individual and thus creating conflicts.

Cumulatively, this grows into a bigger battle and starts heading towards a point of no return and thus hurling heavy and irrepairable losses to both.

"Nothing great can be achieved through silence"

Thought of the day !!

It's really worth thinking on the below thought :

"What a shame and disgrace to every citizen of India that the elite NSG Force was transported into ordinary BEST buses, whereas our cricketers are transported into state of the art luxury buses, these Jawans lay down their lives to protect every Indian and these cricketers get paid even if they lose a match, we worship these cricketers and forget the martyrdom of these brave Jawans. The Jawans should be paid the salaries of the cricketers and the cricketers should be paid the salaries of the Jawans.

An ace shooter shoots and gets gold medal, govt gives 1cr, another shooter dies while shooting terrorist, govt gives 5 lakh. WHO DESERVES MORE?"

Mumbai, meri jaan

On hearing the news of recent spate of attack on Mumbai, I was very furious at the unscrupulous terrorist activity carried out by Jihadis. I wished to have been in the defence forces(my childhood dream) fighting out these militants.

I first got the news early morning on 27th Nov, when my sister called me from US. Since then, I couldn't keep away from the news and was closely watching every update on my PC. Even in office, I felt hard to concentrate on my work and kept returning to news websites for updates. It was difficult to see my home town bleeding.

Although, Mumbai is popularly known to be resilient, but it should not be taken as a cover, allowing another such incidents of brutality. Mumbai, the commercial capital is the pride of India where most of the business is transacted. Mumbai generates 5% of India's GDP and accounting for 25% of industrial output, 40% of maritime trade, and 70% of capital transactions to India's economy. Such attack on the pride cannot be tolerated. A war has been openly raged. People of Mumbai, intelligence and government should join hands to prepare for a battle to attack the ones who look at Mumbai with such intentions.

Witnessing the pictures of grieving parents, children, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters and friends, I see my problems to be miniscule to theirs. I feel apologetic for the people who keep fighting over the petty matters in their day-to-day life. I advise them to visit border areas or face such terrorists to satisfy their interest of fighting. They can atleast put their negative skillset to a better use.

India lost some of it's best and brightest individuals, at a time when India is closely being perceived as a new Super Power under development. I express my heartfelt condolence to the innocent people killed in the attack and salute to the martyrs who lost their life while performing their duties. Not to forget the brave joint operation by NSG commandos, Navy coast guards, Mumbai police and RAF. We are proud of you.

Constructive criticism

Recently, while browsing through some of the management sites, I accidentally bumped into this site called wisegeek.com, which outlines the significance of constructive criticism :

“Constructive criticism is criticism kindly meant that has a goal of improving some area of another’s person’s life or work. Often constructive criticism refers specifically to the critique of someone else’s written or artistic work, in perhaps a teacher/student setting, that would allow that person to further improve the work or to improve their approach to future endeavors.

Parents also try to employ constructive criticism to help their children improve their lives. The trouble with constructive criticism is that not all people are receptive to it. They may either feel their self-esteem shrinking under criticism, or they may feel that all criticism is negative. This can destroy the intent of constructive criticism.

Communication is loaded with multiple intentions, especially in a parent/child or spousal relationships. Thus people may not know how to actually employ a critique of one aspect of a person without involving their own feelings or frustration that make a critique negative.

Generally, constructive criticism should address an area that needs improving. Constructive criticism should be a reasoned, unemotional response in an effort to teach. In spousal communication, constructive criticism is often shaped as the “I” message: “I feel X, when you say Y.” In parental relationships, constructive criticism generally works best when the timing is right. A child who has just lost a game, for instance, might be better served by encouraging words, rather than a performance critique.

In teacher/student relationships, constructive criticism tends to be far more helpful than a blunt critique of a student’s defects. Questions on a paper and also praise in some areas can make constructive criticism easier to receive. Although, some students do jump to the point and want to immediately know what they did wrong.

In all cases, constructive criticism runs the danger of being perceived as negative. In these situations, it is unlikely that any criticism will actually provide help. Even when a person tries to present criticism in a non-emotional way, it may still be considered a personal attack. The only way to approach this is by truly being constructive, kind and helpful, and realizing that not all people are going to appreciate what you might have to say.”

Economic burst, or economic opportunity?

It all began with the subprime crisis in US at the beginning of this year and yet nobody is able to see light at the end of this dark tunnel. Nobody knows when this turmoil would wound up, for the happy times to return.

It has shut-up Analysts world over as the predictions have lost their sheen. Although, Indian economic situation hasn’t yet worsened to the extent of US, it surely is bound to face the waves from west.

Stock price of blue chips have tumbled by almost 60-70% than their peaks in January 2008, tempting investors to invest more money, but also fears them off from the continued shocks being passed by global cues. The big question is, is it the right time to invest or wait and watch the meltdown?

Economists say, “Recession is the best time to start a new venture. You get everything so cheap”. This looks true to an extent, you have ample money in hand during recession. Due to job cuts, people are ready to work at throwaway cost. Not only the cost, you get enough choices as well as skilled manpower. We also see property prices/rentals going down drastically. This makes way for cheaper option to setup or buy your own office.

Current phase is being looked upon as a normal economic cycle, by some. This phase has it’s turn every 5-7 years and lasts no longer than a year or two. Entrepreneur able to sail through these rough times will emerge a winner during economic boom.

It’s a matter of patience and perseverance.

Diwali

Diwali is the festival of lights celebrated on account of Lord Rama’s, his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana’s return from 14 years exile and from a war in which he killed demonic king Ravana. It’s a five day festival and all these five days are exciting in every household of India. People get together, visit friends and relatives to pass good wishes. Children enjoy by bursting fire-crackers and houses are decorated with lots of oil lamps and lanterns. We had abundance of sweets pouring from all over. Traditionally, fifth day also marks the beginning of New Year for the business community as new books of accounts are opened and old are closed.

As a kid I remember we being given vacation home work during Diwali holidays and the most obvious assignment used to be an essay on Diwali. Above was a short summary of those essays.

This year we celebrated the festival at our new house in Pune. Atmosphere in Pune was very enchanting and was filled with fun and frolic amidst the economic slowdown. To double up, my sister and brother-in-law also joined us in the celebration. They were on a short visit to India. Although, this post has come little late than it’s time, wishing you all a very happy Diwali and prosperous new year ahead !!!