2011 - starting life a new

Happy new year to all of you...

Welcoming this new year in a new way. Firstly I shifted from my old place to a new penthouse. So this new year I'll start a new in a new place and with a new resolution. Life feels totally different for a while. A new week begins, a new month and a new year; and oh yeah! a new decade, too. All this is good.

Hope to get some good news this year. News that my lead me to settle down in life for once and a life time.

Many just like me are starting a new life today. Many are staying back in the same old ways they had been.     But yet, there is nothing more to know that one more year has passed by and we are decade in to the 21st century. The question is where are we now?

The question is where this new century going? Is it going like our predecessors have thought or is it like we know it - going to end in disaster. The end of humankind may be. This is ridiculous to think such a thought and more ridiculous of me to write in a blog.

Enough of this and that. Let's feel this new year in the veins rejuvenating with new juice.

Wish you all a bright new year once again.

Years gone by

Disclaimer: All what I'm writing below is under the effect of "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca played by Stephane Grapelli.

2010 is going to be a thing of past in a day and we are going to make the mistake of writing 2010 instead of 2011 for a week or so (or is that only me who makes this mistake?). Then we will move on a year ahead.

Time is a fantastic thing. So much changes with time, we lose, we get. So at the end of the year we sit to count our losses and gains. Apparently we gain some time or lose some time, but watching through a third eye, we are all at balance. Nothing gained, nothing lost.

Life is tough in a philosophical world. So let's push it aside and enjoy the 31st night. Personally I'm going to some place where I've never gone before ;)

Adieu 2010, hope I'll never see you again. (who knows I might get a time machine)

discarded

I was taking ride from Corporation to Nagawara in the G10 bus, when I found this discarded lockers. Wish we as human, we could discard all lockers that we have. May be that would solve so many problems.

Visiting God !

As the day comes for everyone, once in while we Indians do visit a temple. Especially a guy like me brought up in a religious family (Though the family culture couldn't bore deep in me). I was planning to visit Tirupati Balaji for a long time since January this year. At last the plan formulated all of a sudden and I started my pilgrimage.

The journey I must admit was worthwhile. It answered some philosophical question and affirmed my long standing belief that "In a pilgrimage, it's not the temple that you reach but the journey you make is important". The journey should make you humble and help you shed your inhibitions. But in today's world when the communication system is so good the journey is loosing its value quite faster than one can imagine. Yet, we make this journey and time unfolds itself to teach you lessons of God.

--- inception ---

I think by now everybody has seen inception and formed their own ideas about dream and reality. Well I'm not here to discuss the philosophies of dream, but just to talk about an idea. An idea that is little and grows from within our mind and soul, for years, and sometimes through generations. The flickering thought of the grandfather grows into a giant creation of the grand son.

Let's just give it a thought that how many thoughts kick our mind every moment and how many of them fly away like little birds and how few renders themselves. Wish I had just enough time to live to render at least 25% of my thoughts into action ! I know that's never possible, so never mind.

Well a little seed has been planted in my mind and I can feel it. Hope this one gets enough food to grow.

A lost case

Finally it happened. I lost my Thinkpad. It was not mine exactly, but my Team Lead's, although I was using it and it had become so integral part of my life in the last 3 months or so. And it is for the first time in my life I became a little careless while traveling and lo there it was gone! gone in some 5 seconds! That's a little long time, isn't it? Also I lost many things with it. Too many things.

Well all that doesn't matter now. I've learned a valuable lesson. To let go and also start a new. Hope this bad luck brings some good luck in life.

Chasing the rat out

I still think it is somewhere inside the room or that it might come in through the ventilator !!!

12:20 midnight, my two roommates just went to sleep. I'm trying to figure out some difficult situation in Chess, on my ThinkPad. The room is dimly lit with the light that is coming out of my monitor and tiny flashes of the modem and router. In that dim light suddenly I felt something moving on the floor. Before I could try to understand the form I realized it was a rat. And in the very next moment it was peeking from behind my bed.

Oh! man, I'm so afraid of rats!!! I never knew that! I slowly called my friend who was in the other room, "Riju". No answer. I was weighing the possibilities of the rat being somewhere below my bed and how fast can it attack me when I touch the floor.

Somehow I came down and switched on the lights, opened the main door and called up my friends. Just as I said them "A rat is in the house", both of them jumped up in their beds. Instantly we were ready for the rest of the ensuing havoc. I was the first brave guy! I went in with a broom and banged here and there till it ran out of my room into the hall. There was a loud shriek from my friends and the rat went straight to the store. Now we didn't anticipate that :(

The store is full with lots of empty bags and shoe boxes and computer packs - the Perfect place for a rat to hide. and it's door is facing my bedroom. So the phase two began, We closed the bedroom door, the bathroom door and started banging the big cupboard in the store. Soon the results followed. The Big Jerry (man it was BIG!!!) came out from behind my trolley bag and straight headed for the bedroom and (to our surprise)  squeezed under the door.

So I went in again and repeated my earlier feat with same results. He (I don't know, but guess it is male) came
out. I was surprised to see it miss the BIG DOOR and heading back to the store.

Now in the third attempt we were little more careful. We blocked all the openings under the door with pillows (now that my pillow is dirty, it does not seem a good idea). After much fuss and a couple of times it missing the main door, trying to climb up our legs it finally found it's resting place under my unused mosquito net (I brought it from Kolkata, but never used it in Bangalore). It was quite after 15 minutes of poking and prodding we realized that it got stuck in the net :)

Now one brilliantly brave idea crossed my friend's mind. He put some paper over the net and pinned the net to the ground just where the rat was moving. We dragged it till the main gate and just threw the whole thing outside and slammed the door close.

As I finish writing this, I hope there isn't a second one ! I really don't have the stamina to chase another rat for another hour. Yes, we chased for a little more than an hour!

Bonolata Sen - the poem

 This is one of my favorite poems written by Jibonananda Das, a famous Bengali poet in the early 20th century. This poem has the expressions of a lost lover's soul. Frankly this is the most romantic poem written in modern Bengali language, in my humble opinion. Here is the Bengali version and followed by English transliteration.

বনলতা সেন
জীবনানন্দ দাস

হাজার বছর ধরে আমি পথ হাঁটিতেছি পৃথিবীর পথে
সিংহল সমুদ্র থেকে আরো দূর অন্ধকারে মালয় সাগরে
অনেক ঘুরেছি আমি | বিম্বিসার অশোকের ধুসর জগতে
সেখানে ছিলাম আমি | আরো দূর অন্ধকার বিদর্ভ নগরে
আমি ক্লান্ত প্রাণ এক, চারিদিকে জীবনের সমুদ্র সফেন,
আমারে দুদন্ড শান্তি দিয়েছিল নাটোরের বনলতা সেন |

চুল তার কবেকার অন্ধকার বিদিশার নিশা,
মুখ তার শ্রাবস্তীর কারুকার্য | অতিদূর সমুদ্রের 'পর
হল ভেঙ্গে যা নাবিক হারায়েছে দিশা,
সবুজ ঘাসের দেশ যখন সে চোখে দারুচিনি দ্বীপের ভিতর
তেমনই দেখেছি তারে অন্ধকারে | বলেছে সে, "এতদিন কোথায় ছিলেন ?"
পাখির নীড়ের মত চোখ তুলে নাটোরের বনলতা সেন |

সমস্ত দিনের শেষে শিশিরের শব্দের মতন
সন্ধ্যা আসে | দানার রৌদ্রের গন্ধ মুছে ফেলে চিল |
পৃথিবীর সব রং মুছে গেলে পান্ডুলিপি করে আয়োজন,
তখন গল্পের তরে জোনাকির রঙে' ঝিলিমিল |
সব পাখি ঘরে আসে - সব নদী | ফুরায় এ' জীবনের সব লেনদেন |
থাকে সুধু অন্ধকার, মুখোমুখি বসিবার বনলতা সেন ||

Long I have been a wanderer of this world,
Many a night,
My route lay across the sea of Ceylon somewhat winding to
The seas of Malaya.
I was in the dim world of Bimbisar and Asok, and further off
In the mistiness of Vidarbha.
At moments when life was too much a sea of sounds,
I had Banalata Sen of Natore and her wisdom.

I remember her hair dark as night at Vidisha,
Her face an image of Sravasti as the pilot,
Undone in the blue milieu of the sea,
Never twice saw the earth of grass before him,
I have seen her, Banalata Sen of Natore.

When day is done, no fall somewhere but of dews
Dips into the dusk; the smell of the sun is gone
off the Kestrel's wings. Light is your wit now,
Fanning fireflies that pitch the wide things around.
For Banalata Sen of Natore.
Translation: The Poet  

কহেন কবি কালিদাস...

এখানের সব কথা কালিদাস এর লেখা নয়, বা বলা ও নয় | সব কথা কি হয়ত কোনো কোথায় নয় | তবে "কহেন কবি কালিদাস" কেন ? এখানে আমি নিজে কালিদাস হওয়ার চেষ্টা চালিয়েছি | কিন্তু সত্যি সত্যি তো হওয়ার সাধ্য নেই তাই টুকলি মেরেছি যখন যেখান থেকে পেরেছি ! এখন বাঙ্গালোরে ভরা বর্ষা | সুয্যি মামা তো ডুব দিয়েছেন সেই কোন মেঘের আড়ালে | কাপড় ধুয়ে শোকানো হয়ে গেছে মহা গেনজাম এর ব্যপার | কিন্তু সে সব এ তো  আর কবিত্ব আসে না | office এর কাঁচের জানালা দিয়ে মাঝে মধ্যে বাইরে তাকিয়ে যখন মেঘলা আকাশ দেখি তখন হয়ত বা মনে হয় কবিতার খাতা নিয়ে প্রেয়সীর মুখের ওপর মেঘে চাপা সূর্যের যে নরম ছায়াহীন আলো এসে পড়েছে তার বর্ণনা করি | কিন্তু কবি কবি ভাব থাকলে ও ছন্দ বলে যে একটা জিনিস আছে সেটা আমার মাথা থেকে কিছুতেই বের হয় না | তখন আদর এর সাথে বাঁদর এর মিল দিয়ে কাব্য রচনার প্রয়াস করতে হয় | সে যে কবিতা লেখা হয় তা পড়লে, আমার বউ আমাকে সোহাগ করে ইলিশ আর খিচুরী রেঁধে দেবার বদলে ঝাটা নিয়ে তাড়া করবে | তাই এই বর্ষায় কাব্য চর্চা মাথায় তুলে কোমর বেঁধে লেগেছি technical পড়াশোনা নিয়ে | আর কিছু না হোক চাকরি তে উন্নতি তো হবে !

কবিতা গুলো আর এ যাত্রায় ছাপালাম না | সেটা পরের বারের জন্যে তলা রইলো |

Sorry for all my non-Bengali readers. This post couldn't be written in any other language.

The saleswoman

No, I'm not talking about the beautiful, glamorous, high flying sales girl at a departmental store. Not even the sales girls who are working behind counters with a dress and a badge to distinguish them from customers. Not even those door to door sales girls who try to persuade you to their last limit. This is about the women I see when the traffic signals go RED and you curse yourself, the traffic system and then the Goddamn system of the country. I do that, too.

Then one day, let it be today, or let it be any day, any day at all - I look out the window and look at some desperate people trying to make their living out of our misery (that's so ironic, isn't it?). Some beggars, some eunuchs (the third sex people), some little girls and boys trying to do gymnastic and grab your attention. Some selling toys, some food, some fruit and many others. Well obviously the Hijras gather most of the attention and the money, too with little effort, but to stand in us and clap (i.e. if you don't consider being a social outcast a major disadvantage, they are doing good).

They all are there, and like many other days they never boarded my thought train. Then, today I saw something, that I've seen many times before - but with a new eye. A woman selling colored balloons shaped as beautiful toys, butterflies and they were so clean and attractive. But the woman was in the shabbiest dress that I've seen on these signals. The sudden contrast of the merchant and the merchandise made me feel eerie. A cold shudder went through my spine. Her dress says it all - she doesn't have a decent living, no decent place to keep those beautiful balloons, may be a gang of little hungry children hanging around her all the time. I just wondered how she managed to keep those balloons so clean? I wonder what she thinks when she has to deny her youngest one those toys?

I'm not a philosopher. I'm not an activist. I can only think and write on this blog, which no one reads. But at least this unloads my mind and I can go back to my life.

Football Oracle, Right AGAIN!!!

Believe it or not ... Once again the English-born German Octopus, Paul the Football Oracle is right !!! He has predicted all the German games in this worldcup with 100% accuracy so far. There is one more match that Germany will play, and the last prediction to make him a legend.

Speaking in Football terms I really thought Spain will learn from Argentina's mistake and apply them to win the match. After watching the match I was sure of it. They defended really well against the German Counter attacks and kept possession of the ball with occasional threats to the German nets. The 2nd half was most enjoyable of the game. Germany really missed Muller and I don't know why they looked so dull throughout the match. Well Schweinsteiger was the only one whom I could see everywhere. Others really didn't rise to the occasion.

One player, though own my heart in this tournament, Diego Forlan, I enjoyed his excellent shots at the goal, wish he could score more. The Uruguay team was the dark horse in this tournament.

And at the end what we have? A new Champion !!!

Football Oracle !!!

The Octopus shown in the above video - we all know him as Paul now. So what is he? A real Oracle or just a Hoax??

Worst Refereeing seen in FIFA 2010

Though FIFA admit it or not, the refereeing mistakes in this worldcup are monumental. Even deciding the outcome of the match at times. And surprisingly the mistakes are made in such conditions that may seem biased at times. The controversies with refereeing started with the qualifying rounds and (with worst misfortunes) might continue till the Great Finale.

I don't know if these controversies will lead FIFA to use technology assistance for critical decisions, specially at goal-line (which they are utterly against). Well, the FIFA is right in their reason - "the replay and use of technology to pause the game for a decision will kill the dynamic football (as in Cricket it is used extensively and doesn't matter, as that's a slow game anyway)", but it doesn't make a sense to give dozens of wrong decision (mostly crucial) and kill the game in the other way.

Let's see what more this world cup FIFA 2010 brings on.

Oh Referee

I was really sick of watching referees last match between Brazil and Ivory coast. The second goal of Brazil was clearly a result of handling the ball by Fabiano - surprisingly twice and not once. Also the red card that was given to Kaka is surely unjustified. He got a card for simply standing in the field. The referee, gave more free kicks and cards for play acting then for actual fowls. In fact for a few cases he didn't notice any actual fowl. What was most surprising is the match referee consulting the concerned player for the decision. For the handball of Fabiano, he was seemingly asking him "Did u just handle that ball"? To which surely Fabiano wouldn't reply saying "YES". What a joke. Also while giving Yellow card to Kaka, he was consulting the Ivory coast players for decision.

Already for bad refering Ireland is out of the tournament. Hope FIFA takes into note all these and does something to give us a fair match in future

Soccer fever

The greatest show on the earth starts now... so enjoy this soccer fever.

Grand Departure

Yeah, That's the way to die. I'd rather if I could.




A traditional New Orleans Jazz Funeral for the late tuba player Kerwin James. He died in Oct. 2007. Alot of viewers have been asking whats the reason for rocking the casket, it's so he can dance one last time.

Water and India

Urban water scenario
Even though the rate of urbanisation in India is among the lowest in the world, the nation has more than 250 million city-dwellers. Experts predict that this number will rise even further, and by 2020, about 50 per cent of India's population will be living in cities. This is going to put further pressure on the already strained centralised water supply systems of urban areas. The urban water supply and sanitation sector in the country is suffering from inadequate levels of service, an increasing demand-supply gap, poor sanitary conditions and deteriorating financial and technical performance.

According to Central Public Health Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) estimates, as on 31 March 2000, 88 per cent of urban population has access to a potable water supply. But this supply is highly erratic and unreliable. Transmission and distribution networks are old and poorly maintained, and generally of a poor quality. Consequently physical losses are typically high, ranging from 25 to over 50 per cent. Low pressures and intermittent supplies allow back siphoning, which results in contamination of water in the distribution network. Water is typically available for only 2-8 hours a day in most Indian cities. The situation is even worse in summer when water is available only for a few minutes, sometimes not at all.

 Image by: Rajesh Dangi

What a stress?
According to a World Bank study, of the 27 Asian cities with populations of over 1,000,000, Chennai and Delhi are ranked as the worst performing metropolitan cities in terms of hours of water availability per day, while Mumbai is ranked as second worst performer and Calcutta fourth worst (Source: Background Paper - International Conference on New Perspectives on Water for Urban & Rural India - 18-19 September, 2001, New Delhi.) In most cities, centralised water supply systems depend on surface water sources like rivers and lakes. Chennai, for instance, has to bring in water from a distance of 200 km whereas Bangalore gets its water from the Cauvery river, which is 95 km away. Where surface water sources fail to meet the rising demand, groundwater reserves are being tapped, often to unsustainable levels.


Delhi: The nation's capital is perpetually in the grip of a water crisis, more so during the dry season, when the situation gets particularly worse. As the demand-supply gap widens, more groundwater is being exploited. Of the water supplied by the municipality, approximately 11 per cent comes from groundwater reserves and remaining from the Yamuna river. It is, however, difficult to establish the total quantity of groundwater extracted because a large number of tubewells (owned by individuals, industries and bottled water companies) remain unregistered.

In Delhi approximately 13 per cent (Source: Zerah., M Helene, 2000, Water - Unreliable Supply in Delhi, French Research Institute of India) households do not receive water every day and in Rajkot, Gujarat, water availability in April 2000 was only for 30 minutes every alternate day.

Chennai: The main sources of public water supply in the city are the three reservoirs - Poondi, Redhills and Cholavaram - with an aggregate storage capacity of 175 MCM. Even when the reservoirs are not full, they get inflows from intermittent rains, which is then drawn. On the other hand, losses due to evaporation from the reservoirs result in the effective availability being lower than the storage.

The other major resource is groundwater from the well fields in the Araniar-Kortaliyar basin and the southern coastal aquifer, and a large number of wells and tubewells spread all across the city. Over-extraction of groundwater in the north western coastal belt resulted in a rapid ingress of seawater, which extended from 3 km inshore in 1969 to 7 km in 1983 and 9 km in 1987. Groundwater levels within the city also fell and brackish water began to appear even in localities which earlier had good quality groundwater sources.



Bangalore: With a population of 5,686,000, Bangalore is India's fifth largest city. As per the estimates of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), the total demand of water is 840 million litres per day (MLD) (assuming a population of 6 million and a supply rate of 140 litres per capita per day [lpcd]). (The demand works out to be 1200 MLD, at the standard rate of 200 lpcd set by the Bureau of Indian Standards [BIS] for water supply in urban areas). Corresponding demand supply gaps are 135 and 495 MLD.

SOURCES OF WATER:
Surface water:

Source	Design capacity (MLD)	Present withdrawl (MLD)3
1.Arkavathy river a) Hesarghatta b) T.G.Hally	36 148	6.0 36.0
2.Cauvery river a) Stage-I b) Stage-II c) Stage-III	135 135 270	135 135 270
	724	582

To meet the demand supply gap, the government has already proposed to extract 770.0 MLD of water from the Cauvery river under Cauvery stage IV project (Phase I and Phase II). The production cost of this water per kilolitre is expected to be Rs. 45.70. (On completion of these phases total extraction from the Cauvery for Bangalore alone would be 1310 MLD i.e. 478 billion litres in a year or 16.78 thousand million cubic feet [TMC])
Ground water extraction: According to a study conducted by the Centre for Symbiosis of Technology, Environment and Management (STEM), a Bangalore-based research group, the demand supply gap is met by groundwater exploitation. It is estimated that 40 per cent of the population of Bangalore is dependent on groundwater.

 Source:
1. http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/Crisis/Urbanwater-scenario.htm
2. http://www.bwssb.org/my_html/nodal_info.html
3. A conceptual frame for rainwater harvesting in Bangalore, STEM, 2001
4. Vishwanath. S, 2000, Personal Communication

Flute - unknown tune - unknown player

A very unknown tune played by a very unknown flute player

A video to bring tears

Skilled labour

Hungry India

Our country's Hunger map. What do you think???

কত কি দেখার আছে বাকি ...

There are many things to see...
কত কি দেখার আছে বাকি ...
দার্জিলিং এর মায়াময় পাহাড়ি সৌন্দর্য
(Darjeeling - Queen of Himalayas)বিষ্ণুপুর এর পুরনো গ্রাম
(Bishnupur village)

দীঘার সমুদ্রতট
(Deegha sea beach)

সুন্দরবনের ভয়াল রহস্য
(The Sundarban)

ভিক্টরিয়া মেমোরিয়াল
(Victoria Memorial)
কোচবিহার এর পুরনো শহর
(CoochBehar town)
তিস্তার পারে Dooars

কলকাতা আর হাওড়া
(Kolkata and Howra)
শান্তিনিকেতন
(Shantiniketan)

মালদা আর মুর্শিদাবাদ
(Malda and Murshidabad)
আবার কলকাতা
(Kolkata again)
আর পথে পথে এমন হাজারও বাংলার গ্রাম
(A typical Bengal village)

Hope we go around.