Synapse -- Rocking Office

I've taken up a job at Synapse, which is an 'Information Agency' based in Goa! I'll be working as a Technology Specialist. And yes -- there actually are people working in Goa!

I've just been through my first day here and I'm already in love with the place. The office is an old Portuguese bungalow in Dona Paula (that's a town about 8km from Panjim). The two storeyed bungalow is painted bright red outside and has a big lawn with a volleyball court! There's even a tree with a truck-waala Goodyear ka tyre doubling up as a swing! Inside the bungalow the walls are painted in cyan, cream, red, yellow, purple... every other color except gray.

And there are no cubicles! Every project group has a room to itself with open desks for each member of the group. Every room has a lovely balcony. I spent the day reading up 'introduction-to-Synapse' stuff (induction related documents) in the balcony!

And since it's a bungalow, there's a full fledged kitchen as well. That's where I'll be having my breakfast, lunch, evening snacks, and dinner.

Apart from the 20 odd people that work at Synapse, there are three office (or official!) dogs -- canines. I'm yet to get acquainted with them -- seem to be rather quiet fellows.

The beach is hardly a two minute drive from the office. I was given a welcome lunch at a restaurant located on the beach. Goan curry and rice is yummy! It was the first time in my life that I had so many fishes.

Life seems so vastly different from what it was in Gurgaon -- let's see what it has in store for me...

Credit Card - At Last!

Yippee! I finally got credit card! It's an HDFC Gold Card with a credit limit of Rs 75,000 :-D

What I can't understand is, why can't they have PIN numbers for credit cards? This facility is available only for Maestro debit cards. Let me explain with an example.

Point of Sale (POS) Purchase

• Master/VISA (debit or credit card): One just needs to swipe the card at the POS and sign the receipt.


• Maestro (debit card): One news to swipe the card, enter the ATM PIN into the Verifone, and then sign the receipt.


• The Issue: In case of card theft the Master/VISA can be easily misused at any POS. The Maestro, however, can not be used without the PIN at all. Why can't the Master Cards and VISAs have this extra level of security? Beats me!

Internet shopping

• Master/VISA (debit or credit card): One needs to enter the card number, name of the card holder, expiry date, and the CVV number (three digit number printed at the back of the card).


• Maestro (debit card): Just doesn't work online. Have tried a number of time but have always failed :-)


• The Issue:With Master/VISA cards all the details required to shop online are given on the card itself! An unscrupulous person need not even have physical possession of your card to shop online -- he just needs the card details. The "apparent" security cover -- the CVV number -- is also given on the card itself and can not be changed!
  
  Sample this - you purchase something at a restaurant, the waiter takes your card, charges you honestly for your current bill, but writes down your card detail (including the CVV number), and poof -- you've crossed your card limit even before you know!
  
  One solution to this problem is to memorize and scratch off the CVV number as soon as you get your credit card. But such obscure techniques could be avoided if one could have a PIN aka debit/ATM cards.

I've mailed the HDFC people about the liability of the card holder if the credit card is misused to make fraudulent online purchases. Let's see what their response is....

Review: 15 Park Avenue

Rating:
Genre: Drama

15 Park Avenue is not an easy movie to watch. It's not the case that it's a bad movie -- on the contrary it's an amazing movie. Do not miss a chance to watch it! But it's certainly not an easy movie to watch.

The Story
The story is powerful. It's about Mitali/Mithi - a schizophrenic girl - her life, her family, and her own reality. The movie is narrated in the present with a series of flashbacks building up the plot.

Mithi is an almost normal child with symptoms of schizophrenia which show up rather rarely. Joydeep/Jojo (Rahul Bose) falls in love with her and is adamant on marrying her, much to the dismay of Mithi's sister, Shabana Azmi. Mithi joins the Illustrated Weekly as a journalist and is sent all alone to a small town in Bihar to cover the post-poll riots. She is raped, repeatedly, by the local goons there. Jojo tries hard to accept her -- but fails. Shocked by the trauma of the gang rape and her lover leaving her, Mithi succumbs to acute schizophrenia. Her sister sacrifices her own life to take care of Mithi.

Jojo goes on to marry and has two kids. Eleven years while holidaying in Bhutan he sees Mithi and is overcome with an extreme sense of guilt of having failed her when she needed him the most. After meeting her a couple of times, he becomes determined to help Mithi find her imaginary home at 15 Park Avenue. All this, much to the disapporval of his wife.

The End
The end is symbolic and we spent the rest of the evening trying to come up with various interpretations of it. The one that I felt was most plausible is that Mithi finally finds the meaning of her life -- her home at 15 Park Avenue with a happy family -- albeit in a separate plane of reality. After she has gone the others start looking for their 15 Park Avenues -- their meanings of life. What do you think -- do you have some other interpretation?

The Actors
Konkana Sensharma has played the part of Mitali flawlessly. You can almost feel her hallucinating when she goes on to describe her imaginary house situated at 15 Park Avenue, five imaginary kids, imaginary pet dogs, and an imaginary husband who works at Baghdad as the prime minister of shikakai.

The scene where Mithi is raped is heart wrenching. Long after the movie, it still haunts me. The other scene -- where Jojo makes love to his wife (Shefali Chhaaya) and she asks him about his past relationship with Mithi -- is powerful too. Two extreme forms of sex juxtaposed against each another -- one to express hatred and the other to express love.

The way the confused emotions of Shabana Azmi are handled are also good. The scene where she starts shouting and blaming her mother for her failed love life is so realistic.

The Verdict
15 Park Avenue reaffirms your faith that all is not lost in Bollywood -- with the No Entry's, Garam Masaalas, and Mahesh Bhatt's skin flicks. It is a must watch!