http://library.nu/

Good things spread by word of mouth. So I'm trying to spread a few good things here. This is for those lovers of book who sit mostly in front of their PC (like me!) and love to read e-books. Well an e-book can never replace the original paper book that we can hold in our hand and unforgettable smell the pages of different old and new books. But still it's better than nothing, and you can always take a print out.

So just try out the great library. You will find all sorts of books for free reading. Though searching and browsing is little difficult for guests. But then you have the option to join in the project and help out to get the most out of it.

http://library.nu/

Happy reading. :D

NPTEL

The IITs and IISc came together in India to produce a great study material that is available online, even in youtube. The link is http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses.php

The courses are great. They contain videos of lectures from IITs and pdf or web pages with class notes. The courses are detailed and of the highest quality. They are full of examples and animations. I'm really having fun learning. The teachers are the best in India I guess and the way deliver is impressive that you just don't need to touch a book. The written materials are great, too.

I'm really very thankful to the IITs for coming up with such an online study material. Hope this trend continues in future.

Rain in my life

There is something special about rain in my life. I was born on a stormy morning in the middle of the monsoons in Bengal. Since then it almost always rained when I'd something big in my life; even in the middle of a dry winter or spring. But more than that rain makes me travel back in time with an odd peak at my past. I almost always remember a pair of Jack-fruit trees, all wet in rain in the late afternoon, when I become nostalgic. I remember the streets full of water and a group of careless boys jumping around (well, I was a part of that group) in school dress. I remember a great black sky and a great howling wind. I remember the Hasnuhena tree by the side of our TV antenna (those days we used to have black and white TVs with a separate antenna attached to a long bamboo pole or something outside). I remember bathing in rain and playing football for hours like crazy. I remember the flowing rain water down the Fr Wery path and into the streams. I remember looking at the vast stretch of young paddy fields with waves like a green sea from the window of a thatched mud-house. Oh how I remember them and how I wish I could go back and relive those days just once.

We all have the same wish, but we all can only go to future as time takes us there.

A daily adventure

Going to office for me has turned into an adventure. An adventure that happens daily! Twice !!

Since I moved from Chinar Park to Belghoria, the daily traveling time and complexity has increased three folds. I've become so called DP (Daily Passenger) in train and bus. In spite of the complexity and time consumed I seldom grow tired of it. May be because of the variety of people I meet on the way, or the variety of route I take each day (There are three different major routes that I can take), or because it's still only a couple of months I'm in the business. Whatever, it doesn't really matter.

Well at first I never thought it to be an adventure. But each day I'd see something interesting on my way and relate it to my colleagues in office. After a couple of weeks one said,
"Samarjit's journey to office is becoming an adventure!"
Then I thought, "Oh it really is !"

Well I'm still thinking. Each day I talk to at least one stranger on my way. Try  to help out people with, who might need it. Notice the variety of people I live among. And I really really wish to continue doing so till my strength lasts.

Sometimes I think I'd write it all down. Those little things; but what I think can do most justice to this daily adventure is not a travelogue. It is a picture gallery. So things will be off to the other blog of mine for a while. In fact sometimes I really wish to merge them together. Is that a good idea?