Phew!.. Last day of the year and I was busy learning to scan and copy and shred papers. No I didn't get promoted to the post of peon but was closer. I was also writing CDs and sending files over the network for a while. And I fixed the copier machine and the printer too. All in a day!. Honestly, today was the busiest day of this year.
Ending the year with the hope of a shiny new tomorrow. Happy New Year Everybody!
December 31, 2008
December 29, 2008
Ghajini - Not a Review
And so I watched Aamir's version of Ghajini yesterday. I wasn't keen at all to watch Aamir's version of Ghajini after having watched Surya's version in tamil. But my roomies insisted and since I haven't been hanging out with them for a while, I agreed. I don't intend to do a review of Ghajini here. That is best done by other higher mortals. These are my observations about the movie and about the crowd. All in random bullet points.
* The ticket cost Rs. 250. Tell me Aamir how can you not make profit when the ticket price is double the normal rates?
* Equally overwhelming crowd. 19 shows a day. I crave for a normal cinema hall. Multiplexes are becoming boring.
* Watching Jana Gana Mana on the big screen is something I love. Pride just kicks in.
* Opening my eyes in between to watch the movie.
* Jiah can't act.
* Don't know why but liked the scene where Aamir simmers with anger when the news in Mayapurireaches him.
* The man next to me comments "Smart" when Asin is explaining her love story to Aamir.
* The man next to me was on the edge of the seat when Asin is hiding from goons and Aamir knocks on the door.
* Asin is good. The audience warmed upto her character as the movie progressed. People let out gasps when Asin's mobile rang while she's hiding from the goons. Immersed in the movie!
* Jiah looks starved. Somebody feed her please. Nayantara was little bloated in the Tamil version but she's beautiful and sexy.
* The first victim of Aamir lays dead on the porch and his left hand changes position up and down, slightly. Not so noticeable but I was watching for these little things.
* Multiple Aamirs interacting with each other was not so convincing to me. For instance, the scene where one Aamir rests his hand over second Aamirs back. The scene looked like a cut and paste over another. Also, when all of them dance, their feet doesn't seem to touch the actual floor. You know, the photoshopped look. The one that came closest was the one on the extreme left. Maybe the whole background was also put later with each dance shot separately with green background? Don't know how they do it.
* My roomie liked the love story very much.
* I felt the songs were so so. I like the tamil songs better. They are superb.
* The cop character and villain are played out by same actors as in Tamil.
* Loved the scene where Aamir leaps at the camera as if holding the goon's head and spins it around.
* Liked Aamirs Jacket.
* The tamil climax was the sore point of that movie - Exagerrated Superhuman stunts - Arm breaking - Twin Villains - Screaming Nayantara. Aamir's version is far better.
* Thought Aamir will kill the villain by piercing him with the same rod while the rod is still lodged in his body and then both will die. But its a revenge saga. Villain gets the same treatment as the heroine.
* Aamir's stunts were somehow bearable. Brought out the animal in him. Watch the scene where he beats the cop. I was afraid the stunts will become Tamilesque but its toned down here. Nobody is flying over coconut trees.
* Why do the goons have to look so unkempt?. Give them a haircut and please not typefy them like dark and ugly.
* Asin should learn to keep her mobile in silent mode. But I forget..... its a Movie.
* The man next to me comments "Good" when the movie is over.
* I like the last scene where Aamir is sitting on the bench and the camera mvoes back. The scene is an invitation to jump right in and shoot pictures. Have been longing to take such a picture of myself sitting on the bench and photo taken from behind.
Updated: * Ghajini has an iPhone!
PS: Its my 100th post.
* The ticket cost Rs. 250. Tell me Aamir how can you not make profit when the ticket price is double the normal rates?
* Equally overwhelming crowd. 19 shows a day. I crave for a normal cinema hall. Multiplexes are becoming boring.
* Watching Jana Gana Mana on the big screen is something I love. Pride just kicks in.
* Opening my eyes in between to watch the movie.
* Jiah can't act.
* Don't know why but liked the scene where Aamir simmers with anger when the news in Mayapurireaches him.
* The man next to me comments "Smart" when Asin is explaining her love story to Aamir.
* The man next to me was on the edge of the seat when Asin is hiding from goons and Aamir knocks on the door.
* Asin is good. The audience warmed upto her character as the movie progressed. People let out gasps when Asin's mobile rang while she's hiding from the goons. Immersed in the movie!
* Jiah looks starved. Somebody feed her please. Nayantara was little bloated in the Tamil version but she's beautiful and sexy.
* The first victim of Aamir lays dead on the porch and his left hand changes position up and down, slightly. Not so noticeable but I was watching for these little things.
* Multiple Aamirs interacting with each other was not so convincing to me. For instance, the scene where one Aamir rests his hand over second Aamirs back. The scene looked like a cut and paste over another. Also, when all of them dance, their feet doesn't seem to touch the actual floor. You know, the photoshopped look. The one that came closest was the one on the extreme left. Maybe the whole background was also put later with each dance shot separately with green background? Don't know how they do it.
* My roomie liked the love story very much.
* I felt the songs were so so. I like the tamil songs better. They are superb.
* The cop character and villain are played out by same actors as in Tamil.
* Loved the scene where Aamir leaps at the camera as if holding the goon's head and spins it around.
* Liked Aamirs Jacket.
* The tamil climax was the sore point of that movie - Exagerrated Superhuman stunts - Arm breaking - Twin Villains - Screaming Nayantara. Aamir's version is far better.
* Thought Aamir will kill the villain by piercing him with the same rod while the rod is still lodged in his body and then both will die. But its a revenge saga. Villain gets the same treatment as the heroine.
* Aamir's stunts were somehow bearable. Brought out the animal in him. Watch the scene where he beats the cop. I was afraid the stunts will become Tamilesque but its toned down here. Nobody is flying over coconut trees.
* Why do the goons have to look so unkempt?. Give them a haircut and please not typefy them like dark and ugly.
* Asin should learn to keep her mobile in silent mode. But I forget..... its a Movie.
* The man next to me comments "Good" when the movie is over.
* I like the last scene where Aamir is sitting on the bench and the camera mvoes back. The scene is an invitation to jump right in and shoot pictures. Have been longing to take such a picture of myself sitting on the bench and photo taken from behind.
Updated: * Ghajini has an iPhone!
PS: Its my 100th post.
December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas
I have 4 full days ahead of me with practically nothing to do, as usual.
Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it. As for me, a Cheers will do.
Cheers!
Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it. As for me, a Cheers will do.
Cheers!
Its not the OS, idiot. Its YOU!
Last Sunday I boarded SpiceJet from Bangalore to reach Mumbai. As I sat in the flight i couldn't help noticing that every tom, dick and harry was carrying a laptop, including me. Laptops have become comparably cheaper to the desktop nowadays and given the form factor and the ease of carrying it around, people go for the laptop instead of a full fledged desktop. (I must be an odd ball who still thinks of building a dream desktop from scratch using state of the art components with an ultra wide screen for entertainment and experimentations with more than enough RAM (4 Gig+) for running 64 bit ubuntu flavour.) I remember the laptop prices somewhere near the range of 1 lac when I was doing my B.Tech. Now you get a decent one much powerful and at less than half the price compared to those that existed back then. The kids who sat in the adjacent row to me had one each. They were much younger and by the looks belonged to the NRI brigade. Their parents can afford any stuff but the point is this - laptops have replaced desktops. In a big way. Companies also provide laptops to people so that they can work from onsite or from home or anywhere, adding to the number of people who carry around a black leather bag.
There was a gentleman two rows ahead of me on the other side sitting on the aisle seat who had his laptop opened and he continued to work on his presentations making notes in his diary now and then. I couldn't hold myself from becoming a peeking tom when the letters on the presentation were in 36 point bold and spoke of hiring techniques. He was running office 2007 on XP on an IBM machine. I saw that his task bar was choc-a-block with icons. I wondered why do people need to run so many services when you don't require most of them. They can be disabled in a snap and avoids the cluttered look. Same with the desktops. All the important and non-important files and shortcuts and setups dumped on the desktop. And when the system feels bogged down with so many things and responds slowly people wonder whats wrong. My funda for using windows is to keep the desktop clean of everything except the recycle bin (i once removed it by editing the registry in my first company's machine). Run minimal services required by turning off services from control panel and msconfig. Never allow any software other than the ones i cant do without at the moment to have a taskbar icon or even have a desktop shortcut except quick launch. I used my XP like this once and was happy with the performance. I kept the system crash free from viruses (i crashed it by other means) without any anti-virus. Later my machine slowed down with AVG but it was still ok to use. But the AVG was a big letdown after it let Antivirus 2008 and Antispyware 2008 to infect my machine and make it completely unusable. That was when i turned to Ubuntu completely instead of dual boot and have been a happy Ubuntu user since then. Even with Ubuntu I keep the desktop clean and close down apps which I dont use for the timebeing. And the best thing, no need of antivirus softwares and I can always keep my USB stick virus free by just deleting the unwanted files in there which you dont get to see under windows. You can get all the free softwares that you want in linux world and experiment in so many ways to achieve that ideal desktop that you can just dream with windows. And it doesn't slow down over time like windows.
One of my friends who had lost his XP because of some freak recovery partition behavior, had installed Ubuntu on his laptop. Infact, we installed ubuntu to get the XP to boot via GRUB which lay there stubborn refusing to let us in. All the efforts failed and I finally posted this issue in Ubuntuforums - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=940526. Just when we had a faint chance of booting the XP by editing boot.ini he went and erased everything except the recovery partition and put XP over it. Disappointing will be lowkey to what I felt at that point. I was sad not only about the loss of Ubuntu but also about the chance of getting an OS to boot by tinkering with it. I was sad about what I could have learned about boot.ini file and missed. I was sad about the impatience he showed just for one day while he awaited a whole two months using Ubuntu and doing fine with it. He ever lay all our efforts to waste. He always wanted XP. He thought he couldn't recover the XP ever and installed new XP over the Ubuntu partition. The desperation to have all the things back how it was earlier. He is by no means a linux hater. He is an RHCE and knows more about linux than me. Infact, he worked in linux on some project. Actually, a large part of population do not care what goes into their machine. They install all kinds of toolbar without thinking they don't need it and it will clutter their browsers. They install apps with icons in taskbar which they dont even bother to click like Winamp agent, Quicktime, WinZip. For them, its fine if they can edit occasional word document, play mp3s on winamp, watch movies, play DVDs and CDs and browse the internet. And it doesn't matter if the desktop was cluttered or not. It doesn't matter if the disk was fragmented or not. It doesn't matter if they pull out the USB or eject it coz windows will recognize it next time. It doesn't matter to them how the desktop is themed. Things just have to work. And its hard to shake off the perception that with XP everything "just works". My experience with Ubuntu have been much better. I required no drivers in Ubuntu to make my hardware work compared to XP where I had to install separate drivers for display, memory card reader and webcam. Everything worked out of box with Hardy. Its a perception ingrained in most of the users which is difficult to shake that some things wont work in linux. It just takes Google and little patience to find out how to get around the problem. One would do the same with windows too if they encounter some problem. But still there is a familiarity to windows that is just hard to shake off. People need their Start button and Control Panel. The blue sky and green fields to dump their files. Linux beats Windows in all areas except this. Familiarity. The erasing of Ubuntu to get back to XP shows a desire to be back in the familiar turf.
Once I used to be a Windows hater but over the time I realized that its not about the OS. Its how you use it. With Windows also you can be safe and sound from viruses, provided you take adequate steps, and have the snazziest desktop that you can imagine (I like the slickness of Vista). Use Linux without any proper care and it will harm your system. Use a command foolishly in Linux and your machine is dead. Use your windows registry foolishly and see the BSOD. Load any OS, Windows or Linux, with too much apps and it will slow down. The funda is same. Take care of your OS properly and see how it flies.
There was a gentleman two rows ahead of me on the other side sitting on the aisle seat who had his laptop opened and he continued to work on his presentations making notes in his diary now and then. I couldn't hold myself from becoming a peeking tom when the letters on the presentation were in 36 point bold and spoke of hiring techniques. He was running office 2007 on XP on an IBM machine. I saw that his task bar was choc-a-block with icons. I wondered why do people need to run so many services when you don't require most of them. They can be disabled in a snap and avoids the cluttered look. Same with the desktops. All the important and non-important files and shortcuts and setups dumped on the desktop. And when the system feels bogged down with so many things and responds slowly people wonder whats wrong. My funda for using windows is to keep the desktop clean of everything except the recycle bin (i once removed it by editing the registry in my first company's machine). Run minimal services required by turning off services from control panel and msconfig. Never allow any software other than the ones i cant do without at the moment to have a taskbar icon or even have a desktop shortcut except quick launch. I used my XP like this once and was happy with the performance. I kept the system crash free from viruses (i crashed it by other means) without any anti-virus. Later my machine slowed down with AVG but it was still ok to use. But the AVG was a big letdown after it let Antivirus 2008 and Antispyware 2008 to infect my machine and make it completely unusable. That was when i turned to Ubuntu completely instead of dual boot and have been a happy Ubuntu user since then. Even with Ubuntu I keep the desktop clean and close down apps which I dont use for the timebeing. And the best thing, no need of antivirus softwares and I can always keep my USB stick virus free by just deleting the unwanted files in there which you dont get to see under windows. You can get all the free softwares that you want in linux world and experiment in so many ways to achieve that ideal desktop that you can just dream with windows. And it doesn't slow down over time like windows.
One of my friends who had lost his XP because of some freak recovery partition behavior, had installed Ubuntu on his laptop. Infact, we installed ubuntu to get the XP to boot via GRUB which lay there stubborn refusing to let us in. All the efforts failed and I finally posted this issue in Ubuntuforums - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=940526. Just when we had a faint chance of booting the XP by editing boot.ini he went and erased everything except the recovery partition and put XP over it. Disappointing will be lowkey to what I felt at that point. I was sad not only about the loss of Ubuntu but also about the chance of getting an OS to boot by tinkering with it. I was sad about what I could have learned about boot.ini file and missed. I was sad about the impatience he showed just for one day while he awaited a whole two months using Ubuntu and doing fine with it. He ever lay all our efforts to waste. He always wanted XP. He thought he couldn't recover the XP ever and installed new XP over the Ubuntu partition. The desperation to have all the things back how it was earlier. He is by no means a linux hater. He is an RHCE and knows more about linux than me. Infact, he worked in linux on some project. Actually, a large part of population do not care what goes into their machine. They install all kinds of toolbar without thinking they don't need it and it will clutter their browsers. They install apps with icons in taskbar which they dont even bother to click like Winamp agent, Quicktime, WinZip. For them, its fine if they can edit occasional word document, play mp3s on winamp, watch movies, play DVDs and CDs and browse the internet. And it doesn't matter if the desktop was cluttered or not. It doesn't matter if the disk was fragmented or not. It doesn't matter if they pull out the USB or eject it coz windows will recognize it next time. It doesn't matter to them how the desktop is themed. Things just have to work. And its hard to shake off the perception that with XP everything "just works". My experience with Ubuntu have been much better. I required no drivers in Ubuntu to make my hardware work compared to XP where I had to install separate drivers for display, memory card reader and webcam. Everything worked out of box with Hardy. Its a perception ingrained in most of the users which is difficult to shake that some things wont work in linux. It just takes Google and little patience to find out how to get around the problem. One would do the same with windows too if they encounter some problem. But still there is a familiarity to windows that is just hard to shake off. People need their Start button and Control Panel. The blue sky and green fields to dump their files. Linux beats Windows in all areas except this. Familiarity. The erasing of Ubuntu to get back to XP shows a desire to be back in the familiar turf.
Once I used to be a Windows hater but over the time I realized that its not about the OS. Its how you use it. With Windows also you can be safe and sound from viruses, provided you take adequate steps, and have the snazziest desktop that you can imagine (I like the slickness of Vista). Use Linux without any proper care and it will harm your system. Use a command foolishly in Linux and your machine is dead. Use your windows registry foolishly and see the BSOD. Load any OS, Windows or Linux, with too much apps and it will slow down. The funda is same. Take care of your OS properly and see how it flies.
December 16, 2008
Dedicated to my Best Friend
I'll be all right
I'll be all right
Tu hai to tedhi medhi rahein
Ulti pulti baatein
Seedhi lagti hai
Tu hai to jhoothe muthe vaadein
Dushman ke iraade
Sacche lagtein hain
Jo Dil mein taare vaare de jaga
Woh tu hi hai,Tu hi hai
Jo roote roote de hasa
Tu hi hai wohi
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Saari duniya Ek taraf hai
Ek taraf hai hum
Har Khushi to door bhage
Mil rahein hai gum
But when u smile for me
World seems all right
Yeh meri zindagi
Pal mein khil jaaye
Jaane kyun
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Ye ye ye
I'll be all right
I'll be all right
Chote chote kuch palon ka
Dostana ye
Jaane kyun abb lag raha hai
Jaana maana yeah
Cos when u smile for me
World seems all right
Yeah saare pal yehi
Yuhi tham se jaaye
Jaane kyun
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Tu hai to tedhi medhi rahein
Ulti pulti baatein
Seedhi lagti hai
Tu hai to jhoothe muthe vaadein
Dushman ke iraade
Sacche lagtein hain
Jo Dil mein taare vaare de jaga
Woh tu hi hai,Tu hi hai
Jo roote roote de hasa
Tu hi hai wohi
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
I'll be all right
Tu hai to tedhi medhi rahein
Ulti pulti baatein
Seedhi lagti hai
Tu hai to jhoothe muthe vaadein
Dushman ke iraade
Sacche lagtein hain
Jo Dil mein taare vaare de jaga
Woh tu hi hai,Tu hi hai
Jo roote roote de hasa
Tu hi hai wohi
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Saari duniya Ek taraf hai
Ek taraf hai hum
Har Khushi to door bhage
Mil rahein hai gum
But when u smile for me
World seems all right
Yeh meri zindagi
Pal mein khil jaaye
Jaane kyun
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Ye ye ye
I'll be all right
I'll be all right
Chote chote kuch palon ka
Dostana ye
Jaane kyun abb lag raha hai
Jaana maana yeah
Cos when u smile for me
World seems all right
Yeah saare pal yehi
Yuhi tham se jaaye
Jaane kyun
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Tu hai to tedhi medhi rahein
Ulti pulti baatein
Seedhi lagti hai
Tu hai to jhoothe muthe vaadein
Dushman ke iraade
Sacche lagtein hain
Jo Dil mein taare vaare de jaga
Woh tu hi hai,Tu hi hai
Jo roote roote de hasa
Tu hi hai wohi
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
Jaane kyun Dil jaanta hai
Tu hai to
I'll be all right
December 12, 2008
Geotag your Blog posts
Blogger added a new feature named Geotagging. With this you get a way to pinpoint your location on Google Maps. It appears below the "create post" and you can click to reveal a small window with Google Maps. Its very easy to search for a particular location and mark it on the map. I noticed this feature yesteday but was in a hurry to catch the bus so couldnt explore it much. Geotagging has a huge potential for blogs which mainly deal with photography or travel. Imagine the photographers Geotagging their photos in Google maps and a gadget/mashup that can show us the photos originating from a particular location. Or rather some travelogues (blogs/tweets) posted while traveling all posted in the Google map. One can have a visual idea of the travel with a trace line plus the person's thoughts at the exact place/moment all in the Google Maps. Cool isnt it? There is one gadget that can show our posts on the Google map though. You can add the custom gadget from here : http://blogmap-gadget.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/blogmap.xml.
Click on the location to get the exact location from where i am posting this on Google Maps. The image also shows the same.
December 11, 2008
An International Conspiracy
There is an international conspiracy going on to prevent me from taking an internet connection. Don't believe me?.. read on.
I checked all the available options for wireless broadband and zeroed in on Reliance Netconnect as they had an unlimited plan (10pm - 6am) for 400 /- pm. Nice. Other Data Card plans were damn expensive. I went on to enquire what are the required documents for that at their store. That was two months back.
Me: What are the documents you require?
Representative: Your address proof, id proof and a photo and your bank account.. i mean 2300 Rs, Sir.
Me: I am new to mumbai what address proof can i give?
Rep: Your rental agreement or phone bill, Sir.
Me: Will the address proof from the company do?
Rep: Yes Sir. Thats fine Sir. You can bring that Sir.
Me: And in how many days can i get the connection?
Rep: Within 3 days Sir. You give the documents tomorrow. We will do the verification next day and the third day you will get the connection Sir.
Happy and surprised that I can get it all done in 3 days flat, i marched back home and ordered a chicken biriyani to stuff myself. The next day i came down to their office and produced the address proof printed on my company letterhead stating that I indeed work at the company and I stay at the given address at Goregaon. The rep looked at the company logo for around 5 mins and tried to figure out what it stands for. I waited patiently for him to figure out that its a logo which is easily identifiable all over the world. He finally cracked it at just 5 secs to complete 5 mins and read it aloud. I nodded Yes. With a triumphant smile he went on to read the contents of the letter. He read it all fine and then got stuck at the part where the address was written. 10 more mins and then he exclaimed. "You stay nearby, Sir!". I again nodded in affirmative.
He then proceeded to read the letter in its entirety once again. Once completely satisified that he can read the letter he looked up with an expression which the doctors give to their patient when they are going to die in few days. If you have seen Dasvidaniya and other Hindi movies where the hero is going to die by blood cancer or brain tumor, you will know.
Rep: This cannot be accepted, Sir.
I was worried. Is there any spelling mistake? I asked "Why?"
Rep: Sir, this has your address.
Surely, Its supposed to be my address proof. What else can it have?
Me: Thats the address proof. Thats where I stay.
Rep: No Sir. We can't accept this. If you can bring a letter with the company address on it we can approve that.
Confused, I asked "Like?"
Rep: Like the company phone bill Sir. You get the phone bill Sir and then we can give the connection.
I started getting it. The address proof they were looking for was some kind of document which is in vogue, you know. Like the electricity bills, phone bills. A mere address proof letter from the company is not valid. I bid goodbye to him and walked back thinking what can be done. Asking friends to take connection on my behalf was fine but then bills would be directed to them and its not such a good idea. I had to get a phone connection. As I was looking to convert to vodafone postpaid, I made it a point to put the office address as the billing address. Killing one bird with two stones. Perfect, I thought and ordered a Chicken Biriyani.
I should mention here that it took one month after taking the postpaid connection for the bill to arrive and in the meantime our friendly boys from across the neighbour came to pay us a visit and kept mumbai awake for 59 hours. Finally, One fine morning the bill came and I moonwalked my way to the reliance office.
Me: Here is the address proof.
I flashed my id card and slammed the bill on the reps table. I demanded an entry into their wireless network. The rep took one look at the bill and started laughing uncontrollably. Now What?.
Rep... haha... Dis... hohoho.. lettarr.. hehehe... hehehhe... not... haha... accept... hahahahahaha.. Sirrrr... hohohoho.
While he was beating his hands and legs in the air while rolling on the floor, I managed to make out that he meant to say "This letter cannot be accepted". I waited for him to calm down to understand one simple question "why". He called out to his colleagues and I waited helplessly till they completed their rolling and waving and laughing.
Rep: hahaha... Sir... There was a change in regulation just a week before. We can't accept Vodafone Bills.
Me: But its a phone bill addressed to my company. Surely, you must not have any problem sending your bills there?
Rep: Sir, this is your bill. Not companys bill. If your company approves our sending the bill to this address, then maybe we can approve it.
Me: And what do I need to do for that?
Rep: Sir, get an NOC from your office stating that and then we can pass it.
And so I came back home and ate Chicken Biriyani and kept a reminder on my phone to apply for an NOC tomorrow.
NOC. I explained in exact 298 characters why I need an NOC in the online submission form and pressed ok. There was no approval mail or anything but the status went to closed from open and I went on to ask our HR head about the NOC. And he said,
HR: We dont issue an NOC in such cases.
Me: Why?
HR: Its a company policy. No external communications allowed.
Translated properly, it means No internet connection.
Me: ...
HR: Try getting the connection in your friends name who are staying nearby.
Yeah, just what I dont want to.
Me: ...
Sensing no reply and seeing my stunned expression and cold eyes he asked me to leave.
HR: You may go now.
Me: ...
HR: Securityy...
The security dumped me next to the garbage bin outside and i collected my broken parts and came back to my seat. It was unbelievable. One month of waiting and the regulations get changed. The address proof on the company letter head not accepted. NOC cannot be issued when all kinds of credit card bills can come to office. There is more to it. Thats when i added 1 and 1 and got 2 on my calculator. The damned friendly neighbours!!... those @$$3$ are behind it!!.. Think of it. Everything... the address proof document that is accepted everywhere is not getting accepted here. Just when i got my postpaid bill, the regulations changed. And when there was a way to get it passed, i am refused the NOC!!!!... Who else other than those neighbouring buggers!! I know its hard to believe but its also hard to overlook the facts. There IS an international conspiracy involved here to prevent me from getting online.
Now you believe me? Lets go and get them. But first, let me have my Chicken Biriyani.
I checked all the available options for wireless broadband and zeroed in on Reliance Netconnect as they had an unlimited plan (10pm - 6am) for 400 /- pm. Nice. Other Data Card plans were damn expensive. I went on to enquire what are the required documents for that at their store. That was two months back.
Me: What are the documents you require?
Representative: Your address proof, id proof and a photo and your bank account.. i mean 2300 Rs, Sir.
Me: I am new to mumbai what address proof can i give?
Rep: Your rental agreement or phone bill, Sir.
Me: Will the address proof from the company do?
Rep: Yes Sir. Thats fine Sir. You can bring that Sir.
Me: And in how many days can i get the connection?
Rep: Within 3 days Sir. You give the documents tomorrow. We will do the verification next day and the third day you will get the connection Sir.
Happy and surprised that I can get it all done in 3 days flat, i marched back home and ordered a chicken biriyani to stuff myself. The next day i came down to their office and produced the address proof printed on my company letterhead stating that I indeed work at the company and I stay at the given address at Goregaon. The rep looked at the company logo for around 5 mins and tried to figure out what it stands for. I waited patiently for him to figure out that its a logo which is easily identifiable all over the world. He finally cracked it at just 5 secs to complete 5 mins and read it aloud. I nodded Yes. With a triumphant smile he went on to read the contents of the letter. He read it all fine and then got stuck at the part where the address was written. 10 more mins and then he exclaimed. "You stay nearby, Sir!". I again nodded in affirmative.
He then proceeded to read the letter in its entirety once again. Once completely satisified that he can read the letter he looked up with an expression which the doctors give to their patient when they are going to die in few days. If you have seen Dasvidaniya and other Hindi movies where the hero is going to die by blood cancer or brain tumor, you will know.
Rep: This cannot be accepted, Sir.
I was worried. Is there any spelling mistake? I asked "Why?"
Rep: Sir, this has your address.
Surely, Its supposed to be my address proof. What else can it have?
Me: Thats the address proof. Thats where I stay.
Rep: No Sir. We can't accept this. If you can bring a letter with the company address on it we can approve that.
Confused, I asked "Like?"
Rep: Like the company phone bill Sir. You get the phone bill Sir and then we can give the connection.
I started getting it. The address proof they were looking for was some kind of document which is in vogue, you know. Like the electricity bills, phone bills. A mere address proof letter from the company is not valid. I bid goodbye to him and walked back thinking what can be done. Asking friends to take connection on my behalf was fine but then bills would be directed to them and its not such a good idea. I had to get a phone connection. As I was looking to convert to vodafone postpaid, I made it a point to put the office address as the billing address. Killing one bird with two stones. Perfect, I thought and ordered a Chicken Biriyani.
I should mention here that it took one month after taking the postpaid connection for the bill to arrive and in the meantime our friendly boys from across the neighbour came to pay us a visit and kept mumbai awake for 59 hours. Finally, One fine morning the bill came and I moonwalked my way to the reliance office.
Me: Here is the address proof.
I flashed my id card and slammed the bill on the reps table. I demanded an entry into their wireless network. The rep took one look at the bill and started laughing uncontrollably. Now What?.
Rep... haha... Dis... hohoho.. lettarr.. hehehe... hehehhe... not... haha... accept... hahahahahaha.. Sirrrr... hohohoho.
While he was beating his hands and legs in the air while rolling on the floor, I managed to make out that he meant to say "This letter cannot be accepted". I waited for him to calm down to understand one simple question "why". He called out to his colleagues and I waited helplessly till they completed their rolling and waving and laughing.
Rep: hahaha... Sir... There was a change in regulation just a week before. We can't accept Vodafone Bills.
Me: But its a phone bill addressed to my company. Surely, you must not have any problem sending your bills there?
Rep: Sir, this is your bill. Not companys bill. If your company approves our sending the bill to this address, then maybe we can approve it.
Me: And what do I need to do for that?
Rep: Sir, get an NOC from your office stating that and then we can pass it.
And so I came back home and ate Chicken Biriyani and kept a reminder on my phone to apply for an NOC tomorrow.
NOC. I explained in exact 298 characters why I need an NOC in the online submission form and pressed ok. There was no approval mail or anything but the status went to closed from open and I went on to ask our HR head about the NOC. And he said,
HR: We dont issue an NOC in such cases.
Me: Why?
HR: Its a company policy. No external communications allowed.
Translated properly, it means No internet connection.
Me: ...
HR: Try getting the connection in your friends name who are staying nearby.
Yeah, just what I dont want to.
Me: ...
Sensing no reply and seeing my stunned expression and cold eyes he asked me to leave.
HR: You may go now.
Me: ...
HR: Securityy...
The security dumped me next to the garbage bin outside and i collected my broken parts and came back to my seat. It was unbelievable. One month of waiting and the regulations get changed. The address proof on the company letter head not accepted. NOC cannot be issued when all kinds of credit card bills can come to office. There is more to it. Thats when i added 1 and 1 and got 2 on my calculator. The damned friendly neighbours!!... those @$$3$ are behind it!!.. Think of it. Everything... the address proof document that is accepted everywhere is not getting accepted here. Just when i got my postpaid bill, the regulations changed. And when there was a way to get it passed, i am refused the NOC!!!!... Who else other than those neighbouring buggers!! I know its hard to believe but its also hard to overlook the facts. There IS an international conspiracy involved here to prevent me from getting online.
Now you believe me? Lets go and get them. But first, let me have my Chicken Biriyani.
December 3, 2008
December 1, 2008
Milking Mumbai Terror : The Media Way
The Media was doing what it should during the 3 day terrorists struck. Get as much information to the public as they can. Its their duty. And while doing their duty it doesn't matter how close they can get to the terrorists. It doesn't matter that they are sticking their head out for the terrorists to take an aim all the while standing just behind the commando who in turn is there to prevent it. It doesn't matter that while trying to protect the journos the commandos might take a hit. The journos are doing their duty. It doesn't matter that terrorists might be getting information about the positions of commandos via their masterminds who were watching the news unfolding or from the television sets inside the hotel and in the process endangering lives. The journos were there doing their duty and rest can go to hell if they can get more audience and TRPs by catching one person dying by a terrorists bullet. And to claim that they are closest to the action!. Height of disrespect for ones life. Its another thing being adventurous and getting the scoop and another being an asshole. If they were aiming for the former, they seriously kicked themselves in the butt. I actually wished for one media person to die while they were getting close. Only then they would have learned.
I can just vent my anger over the media but we ourselves are to be blamed in one way. What was that person thinking when he brought his wife and kids from Chembur to Gateway of India to watch the action live?! What were the crowd thinking by making a mess and getting close to see the commandos in action?! Was there a roadshow going on? What were those old couple thinking who moved from their own house to a friends house for safety and then looked out from their balcony to see the action?! The old couple died when terrorists fired at them from the opposite building.
I can understand the thirst for news but please dont try to become the news. Respect yours and others life. There is something more important than TRPs and watching terrorists by your own eyes. Its being a Responsible Citizen.
I can just vent my anger over the media but we ourselves are to be blamed in one way. What was that person thinking when he brought his wife and kids from Chembur to Gateway of India to watch the action live?! What were the crowd thinking by making a mess and getting close to see the commandos in action?! Was there a roadshow going on? What were those old couple thinking who moved from their own house to a friends house for safety and then looked out from their balcony to see the action?! The old couple died when terrorists fired at them from the opposite building.
I can understand the thirst for news but please dont try to become the news. Respect yours and others life. There is something more important than TRPs and watching terrorists by your own eyes. Its being a Responsible Citizen.
Milking Mumbai Terror : The Political Way
Those 3 days which kept mumbai under terror are thankfully over. The serious security lapse and the failure to act on the intelligence reports has heads rolling in Delhi as well as Mumbai. The ultimate effect of these 3 days is going to be reflected in next year when elections take place. In such a time when we were supposed to stand together, Modi and Advani gave statements criticising MH govt. and PM. Criticise you must. Its a Democracy after all. Everyone can speak his/her ass out. But please look at the situation and act with little maturity. Its not a terrorist act that can happen only in Congress rule. It can happen under BJP rule too. Whom will you blame then? Unfortunately, the blame game will be played out by the opposition then. There was one person whom I expected to jump right in the fray and start lambasting everyone but surprisingly he was the most level headed in this matter. Its none other than Raj Thackeray. He neither gave any press statement or made any provocative statement about Mumbai. Instead he shot an open letter to the CM mentioning about Modi and Advani and supporting Sonia. He said he appreciated Sonia for not indulging in blame game during the Akshardham incident. Other than that he kept quiet during the whole 3 days and after. The thing for the ruling party and the opposition to understand is that they belong to the country not for mere 5 years but also when they are not in power. The out of power period is not for just begging votes and opposing the government on every turn of events but also acting in the interest of the country. The day all politicians decide to do that we will be saved or else we will continue to hear "Itne bade shahar mein chhota hadsa ho jata hai".
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