Protection from Bird Flu: You never know which cock has it!

E. Sreedharan

After seeing the Konkan Railway bridge here in Goa and realizing that I'd be using it quite frequently now :-D I decided to read up on the man behind the legend -- E. Sreedharan. He completed the Konkan Railway project before schedule and is now working as the Managing Director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). The DMRC is also before schedule. Completing a government funded large-scale civil engineering project before schedule is nothing short of a miracle! And these are not any civil engineering projects we're talking about. It's the Konkan Railways and the Delhi Metro Rail. The first time in India such contructions have ever been attempted!

Read about him at the following links. Inspiring!

E. Sreedharan - Wikipedia Entry
E. Sreedharan - Interview in The Indian Express

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!

What Should I Do With My Life?

That's the title of the book that I had impulsively purchased from Fabmall after reading Rashmi's blog post about it. Have read through the first eight "life-changing" stories in the office loo, but nothing great yet. Let's see if I can figure out what should I do with my life by the time end this book!

Oh and it's a great feeling carrying such a book around in the office - people think you're in a mid-life crisis and will have your life figured out in some time. While they, would still be stuck with the trappings of life! Cheap thrills... he he ;o)

Fabmall - A Mixed Experience

Was referred to Fabmall by someone on the ILUG-D mailing list. Ordered two books from them. The nice thing was that I didn't need a credit card (which sadly, I don't have yet) for shopping on this site. The HDFC direct debit facility worked just fine - which is great.

But what was not great was the fact that the buggers sent me a pirated book! They sent me the goddamn pirated version of The Mythical Man Month for two hundred and seventy five (Rs 250 + Rs 25 shipping)! I mean if I had to buy the pirated version I would've done it long back. Why the hell did I have to pay the entire amount for a poor paper, tattered binding and indecipherable printing! A poor version which probably would not give me the complete "book-reading experience"!

I called up their customer care about this issue, and they asked me for a written complaint in an e-mail. I shot it off immediately. It has been two days and I have not received a response from them.

The other book What Should I Do With My Life? is the original one.

The website said that the books usually shipped in three days, but they were a bit late. I had ordered them on Wednesday, and got one book on Monday (next week) and the other on Tuesday. Though they did send me a mail saying that the books might be a bit late.

So, it has been a mixed experience with Fabmall. A range of payment options. Well made website. One book in perfect condition, one pirated book! Delivery a bit late.

It was a hundred times better than First and Second at least. I used to follow up my order on the phone with their "Dial-A-Book" service everyday for two weeks and the book nevery came. I finally took the hint and looked somewhere else!

Calvin Quotes

Off late I've started reading the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. It's AMAZING! It takes some time to get used to the dark sarcastic humour and the frank take on life by a 5 year old kid and a humanlike tiger. But once you get the hang of it - it's addictive.

Found a thread about great Calvin quotes on the Calvin and Hobbes Orkut community. Here's a few choicest ones:

• Life's disappointments are harder to take when you don't know any swear words.


• In my opinion, we don't devote nearly enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks.


• The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that they have not tried to contact us.


• As a math atheist, I should be excused from this.


• (About telivision) Oh, great altar of passive entertainment, bestow upon me thy discordant images at such speed as to render linear thought impossible!


• (About telivision) This bowl of lukewarm tapioca represents my brain. I offer it in humble sacrifice. Bestow thy flickering light forever!

Subscribe to the this Calvin and Hobbes feed on your Google Reader and get addicted!

GMail Funkiness

Discovered another funky feature on GMail.

• First of all make sure that you have 'Web Clips' enabled on your GMail account.


• Next, go to the Trash folder


• Check out the funky recycling tips on the top! (Click on the image below to see where!)
  

New Year's Resolution?

1024 x 768?

:-D

Ho, ho, ho!