It was about 9:30 in the evening when all of a sudden me and my friends decided lets eat out. We were in the car and couldn't decide where to go and then I spring up with this idea of going to paranthe wali gali in Chandani Chowk in Old Delhi. Me and both my friends are big big foodies and can eat any amount of food. And on top of everything else, all of us are typical north Indians with a special sweet tooth towards paranthe and lassi and aachar ... mmm (mouth-watering starting already ..:0)
So we were off to Old Delhi, met atleast 4 ramlilas (there could be more smaller but there were 4 major ones), one circus, millions of people jostling about in the city, 3 unmanned police barricades (at Preet Vihar, ITO and Lal Quila), 12 green traffic lights, 2 red traffic lights (we jumped those) on the way. When we finally reached there we for our lives could not locate paranthe wali gali. Everyone kept telling us that it is between Gurudwara Seesganj Sahib and Nai Sarak but we must have circled that road atleast 5 times and we still could not find it. Oh yeah in all this hoopla we could easily locate a McDonalds, a Haldirams and a Sony showroom in the oldest part of Delhi. We are truly globalized ... !
Anyways we asked lot of people and finally reached there to find out that the gali is not a gali ... There are three shops in all and that is all there is to paranthe wali gali. Before I actually went there, I thought it would be a long road with eateries on both sides of the road with chairs and tables scattered along the road. Probably you wouldn't be allowed to take your car in on that road and you could only walk. But as they reality is different from dreams, it was a small alley with only three parantha shops.
Coming to the real issue - the paranthes ... They were GODlike. You could have aalo, paneer, gobhi, cheeni, matar, rabri, plain, zera. lachha, any parantha you want. The choices in paranthas were maddening. Sadly they did not have a pyaz parantha - my personal favorite. And before I forget, three of us ate 16 paranthes and 2 glass (if you can a 2 feet long cylindrical thing a glass) full of lassis. And all for mere 250 odd bucks.
And by the way they stop taking orders after 11 PM... If anyone is plannig to go there, reach there well in time.
Aashaayen - Iqbal
Nagesh Kukunoor is one of the few people I like in Bollywood. Rockford still remains my favorite movie, I can watch it umpteen number of times. One of his other movies is Iqbal and there is a track by KK called Aashaayen ...
Singer: KK + others
Lyrics:
And text in bold hold a special significance for me .. !
Singer: KK + others
Lyrics:
aashaayen ...
aashaayen ...
kutch paane ki ho aas aas
kutch armaan ho jo khaas khaas
aashaayen ...
har koshish mein ho waar waar
kare dariyao ko aar paar
aashaayen ...
toofano ko chir ke
manzilo ko chin le
(aashaayen khile dil ki
ummeedein hase dil ki
ab mushkil nahi kutch bhi
nahi kutch bhi) - 2
o ho o...
udd jaaye leke khushi
apne sang tujhko waha
jannat se mulakat ho
puri ho teri har dua
(aashaayen khile dil ki
ummeedein hase dil ki
ab mushkil nahi kutch bhi
nahi kutch bhi) - 2
aashaayen ...
gujre aaisi har raat raat
ho khwaahisho se baat baat
aashaayen ...
lekar suraj se aag aag
gaaye ja apne raag raag
aashaayen ...
kutch aaisa karke dikha
khud khush ho jaaye khuda
(aashaayen khile dil ki
ummeedein hase dil ki
ab mushkil nahi kutch bhi
nahi kutch bhi) - 2
o ho o...
teri woh raftaar ho
roke se bhi tu na ruke
haasil kar aaisa shikhar
parbat ki bhi nazrein uthe
(aashaayen khile dil ki
ummeedein hase dil ki
ab mushkil nahi kutch bhi
nahi kutch bhi) - 2
aashaayen - 3
And text in bold hold a special significance for me .. !
iWant iPod iAgain
I just bought an iPod Nano. Its not even a couple of month, an all new iPod nano is in the market. Needless to say, I want it. I think I would sell the one I have and get the new one.Happens quite often with me. The moment I buy something, there is an announcement about a better deal. If only I would have delayed the purchase by a couple of months, I would have been able to lay my hands onto a new one. Anyways I have been taught by one of my professors that a decision made under available information should not be criticized in view of new information.
Colour Blind
Once upon a time, I went to get my driver's license made. There were a few tests to be taken - including a colour blindness test. I flunked that test. I thought the inspector there was trying to fleece me and get bribe out of me. Anyways I got the license made and thats an old story.
Yesterday I was trying to download some files off rapidshare. Rapidshare uses CAPTCHA to fend off automated downloads. To download the file, I had to look at the following image and key it in. And I wasn't able to read it. I still can't.
I could get the file after refreshing the page and "decoding" another picture but thats not the point. The point remains I am now proven colour blind.. .!
Yesterday I was trying to download some files off rapidshare. Rapidshare uses CAPTCHA to fend off automated downloads. To download the file, I had to look at the following image and key it in. And I wasn't able to read it. I still can't.
I could get the file after refreshing the page and "decoding" another picture but thats not the point. The point remains I am now proven colour blind.. .!
Amazon Mechanical Turk
Amazon Mechanical Turk is the answer to people who thought human intelligence is out and artificial intelligence is here to stay (that reminds me, I used to call myself Artificially Intelligent at one point in time).
The concept is simple. Amazon is trying to create artificial intelligence artificially. Most of the tasks can be performed by machines better than humans and then there are tasks that a machine can't even think of doing and humans are completely at ease with them. mturk uses image recognition as an example. CAPTCHA is designed around the premise that humans can read the images and machines can not. mturk calls these tasks HITs.
mturk helps everyone. People can get their work done at low costs from many people (use crowd-sourcing), people can make money and in turn Amazon can make money from exchange and then they must be hoping that some people end up spending money they earn on Amazon itself ... !!!!
Oh yes, the project is still in BETA and yet to catch up. When it is up and running, may be I can put my blog as a HIT ... ?
The concept is simple. Amazon is trying to create artificial intelligence artificially. Most of the tasks can be performed by machines better than humans and then there are tasks that a machine can't even think of doing and humans are completely at ease with them. mturk uses image recognition as an example. CAPTCHA is designed around the premise that humans can read the images and machines can not. mturk calls these tasks HITs.
A Human Intelligence Task, or HIT, is a question that needs an answer. A HIT represents a single, self-contained task that you can perform to completion and collect a reward. You may do as many HITs as you like, whenever you like, in any order.
mturk helps everyone. People can get their work done at low costs from many people (use crowd-sourcing), people can make money and in turn Amazon can make money from exchange and then they must be hoping that some people end up spending money they earn on Amazon itself ... !!!!
Oh yes, the project is still in BETA and yet to catch up. When it is up and running, may be I can put my blog as a HIT ... ?
Numb3rs
The other day Shankar was telling me about a show called Numb3rs on AXN. I happened to stumble on it today and it exceeded exectations.
Anyways this is not about Shankar or Numb3rs or AXN. This is about numbers. Today I plan to list a few numbers that are important to my life and risk my privacy ;)
04p050 - My roll no at MDI
1982 - Year I was born in
22 - My Date of Birth
23 26 - My age
23:21 - Time on the clock at the bottom right of my screen
229 - My hostel room at MDI in first year
309 - Mu hostel room at MDI in second year
364 - My house number in Delhi
879 - My house number in Gurgaon
7J602483SZB - My iPod number
9810840224 (dont use this number anymore) - My cell phone number (and if you want to call me ..;))
P0505* - My driving license number
And I plan to add more numbers. Just give me some more time ;)
Last Updated: 7 Apr 2009
Anyways this is not about Shankar or Numb3rs or AXN. This is about numbers. Today I plan to list a few numbers that are important to my life and risk my privacy ;)
04p050 - My roll no at MDI
1982 - Year I was born in
22 - My Date of Birth
23:21 - Time on the clock at the bottom right of my screen
229 - My hostel room at MDI in first year
309 - Mu hostel room at MDI in second year
364 - My house number in Delhi
879 - My house number in Gurgaon
7J602483SZB - My iPod number
P0505* - My driving license number
And I plan to add more numbers. Just give me some more time ;)
Last Updated: 7 Apr 2009
Freak Accident
Think ...
You are driving down a dark road on your bike. Enjoying the ride, feeling the wind in your (balding fast) hair, you are rushing down the road with absolutely no regards for anyone. Thinking about events in your life from recent past. Absolute bliss to be alive and on the bike and most importantly to be in control. Suddenly there is a loud noise up ahead the road. You see a couple of globes of light hanging in the air and your head becomes blank. All your thoughts vanish as if they were not there at all. After about a couple of minutes you realize it’s a car coming your way faster than you are going towards it. The road is narrow, there is no way to go, crash is inevitable and all of a sudden something happens and you swerve to your left and find some turf to drive on. You are saved. Saved from an almost crash. Safe from any dangers to your dear life. You take a deep breadth. And as everything, you move on. Move on towards your destination.
You are driving down a dark road on your bike. Enjoying the ride, feeling the wind in your (balding fast) hair, you are rushing down the road with absolutely no regards for anyone. Thinking about events in your life from recent past. Absolute bliss to be alive and on the bike and most importantly to be in control. Suddenly there is a loud noise up ahead the road. You see a couple of globes of light hanging in the air and your head becomes blank. All your thoughts vanish as if they were not there at all. After about a couple of minutes you realize it’s a car coming your way faster than you are going towards it. The road is narrow, there is no way to go, crash is inevitable and all of a sudden something happens and you swerve to your left and find some turf to drive on. You are saved. Saved from an almost crash. Safe from any dangers to your dear life. You take a deep breadth. And as everything, you move on. Move on towards your destination.
Saturday Night Fever
World over, everywhere people do the same thing on a Saturday Night - Party. Some people are different though. They write blogs about ipod batteries, freak accidents and about what people world over do on saturday nights.
W5H - Why, Who, Where, When, What and How
When - Saturday Night
Where - Worldwide
Who - Everyone
What - Party
Why - This needs to be explored further, everyone has a differnet reason. Some think after some work for five days, they deserve a break, for some its a way of life and for some they dont need a reason...
How - Do I need to talk about it?
W5H - Why, Who, Where, When, What and How
When - Saturday Night
Where - Worldwide
Who - Everyone
What - Party
Why - This needs to be explored further, everyone has a differnet reason. Some think after some work for five days, they deserve a break, for some its a way of life and for some they dont need a reason...
How - Do I need to talk about it?
iGot iPod
I finally joined the revolution about three years too late. Ever since I heard about it, I wanted to get on. I could not because of obvious economic reasons. I finally got it from my August salary (June, July). I am talking about iPod.
I bought an iPod Nano 2 GB today. I could have got a 1GB, 4GB, iPod video also but I ended up buying this one. I was told to buy a Creative Zen Nano, an iRiver a Mobiblu and a host of other things. No one realized I did not want to buy an mp3 player. I wanted to buy an iPod. Period. Dot. Full stop.
Ok here is something interesting that happened. I plugged in my iPod to my ThinkPad R51 and woot ... the laptop turned off. And it won't start again. I had to physically reset the battery to get the laptop on. I realized that there was a problem with the USB port I was connecting my iPod to. When I tried connecting the mouse to that port, even the mouse wasn't working. I don't really know if this is a problem with all the laptops or the USB version is old or what. I need to find out. I am handicapped without a mouse and with only two ports on my laptop, it would be hard to charge the iPod and use the computer without a mouse.
Coming back to the iPod, the sound quality rocks. Whoever said the sound quality is not good, they can go and jump off the face of a cliff or something. The sound of an iPod is the next best thing to real sound. I am not saying iPod is the ultimate sound machine. There would be better gizmos and devices but there it no denying the fact that iPod rocks.
And yet another cake smearing on my "techie" face. I bought the iPod, charged it, loaded music on it, had all the fun in the world but when I wanted to finally shut it down, I could not find a turn off button. I got real anxious when I realized there has to be a thing called the help file or the manual. And yes now I know how to turn it off. :)
I bought an iPod Nano 2 GB today. I could have got a 1GB, 4GB, iPod video also but I ended up buying this one. I was told to buy a Creative Zen Nano, an iRiver a Mobiblu and a host of other things. No one realized I did not want to buy an mp3 player. I wanted to buy an iPod. Period. Dot. Full stop.
Ok here is something interesting that happened. I plugged in my iPod to my ThinkPad R51 and woot ... the laptop turned off. And it won't start again. I had to physically reset the battery to get the laptop on. I realized that there was a problem with the USB port I was connecting my iPod to. When I tried connecting the mouse to that port, even the mouse wasn't working. I don't really know if this is a problem with all the laptops or the USB version is old or what. I need to find out. I am handicapped without a mouse and with only two ports on my laptop, it would be hard to charge the iPod and use the computer without a mouse.
Coming back to the iPod, the sound quality rocks. Whoever said the sound quality is not good, they can go and jump off the face of a cliff or something. The sound of an iPod is the next best thing to real sound. I am not saying iPod is the ultimate sound machine. There would be better gizmos and devices but there it no denying the fact that iPod rocks.
And yet another cake smearing on my "techie" face. I bought the iPod, charged it, loaded music on it, had all the fun in the world but when I wanted to finally shut it down, I could not find a turn off button. I got real anxious when I realized there has to be a thing called the help file or the manual. And yes now I know how to turn it off. :)
Tryst with Destiny - India's 59th Independence Day
15th August 1947, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru made the famous Tryst with Destiny. Its about time we re-read it and gave it a serious thought to it.
Text: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Tryst_with_Destiny
Video: http://www.harappa.com/wall/nehru.html
Happy Independence Day :)
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