Blogging from android

Hey folks, just trying out a new blogger client on android (new to me). Testing out the features.

Ubuntu 9.10 on Dell Studio 1555

Just installed ubuntu on my new Dell studio 1555. I should say I'm pleased with the way it works. I had a small issue with the display while using the live CD - it didn't work, However the solution was quite simple.

I had to add "nomodeset" to the kernel boot parameters while booting using the live CD.
Adding "nomodeset" to the default boot parameters solved the problem for good.

Thanks to Ben for his blog post.
More updates later...

Another trip to a beautiful place...

I'm all charged up with the anticipation of the upcoming trip to Rohtang... Been there once and fell in love with the place... A short refresher can be found here. I hope that this will be a good antidote for the large doses of boredom that I have been subjected to of late...

Bored!

I am so bored that the boredom has killed any creative enthusiasm that might have existed in some remote corner of my soul!

I hope that the dead matter will be revived not too far in the future...

Cisco VPN on Ubuntu

Here are some handy links for folks who have been having trouble with Cisco VPN on Ubuntu.

For detailed instructions click here.
Some concise instructions here.

The VPN Client can be found here.
The patch can be found here.

I have tried the vpnc route and wasn't very pleased, so I decided to go with the proprietary client. However it didn't seem to be a very smooth ride... Anyway I hope that this helps. I will post in detail about this later.

Update: I found this tool which looks promising - Shrewsoft VPN client
It can be found using Add/Remove Applications (Jaunty and earlier) or the Ubuntu Software Center (Karmic Koala).

Ubuntu it is...

I guess I have finally given in to the temptation to use Linux as the primary operating system on the laptop. I made the switch to Ubuntu about a month ago and the fact that I'm still using it is proof that I'm liking it (loving it might be more "apt" :D ). Here are a few screenshots...

The desktop

The best part... it is light on memory and quick to respond...

New theme... and MonoDevelop 2.0

Eye candy!

For those interested in the technical details - I'm running this on a Lenovo 3000 Y500 laptop with 2 GB of RAM and 160 GB HDD. The install was smooth and configuring the system was cakewalk. The only glitch was with getting the keyboard to work once the OS booted. Did a quick search and I found a solution on the ubuntu forums.
For the ones with a keen eye - you would see that I am running without any swap space, and still no issues as yet... I'll run some heavy stuff to test it out...

I think I might go in for the upgrade to the next version of Ubuntu (9.04 - Jaunty Jackalope) tomorrow...

For folks who are interested in trying it out here is the download link. I will be following up with more posts on my experiments and experiences with Ubuntu...

Stay tuned!

Edit: Removed one image... (25th April, 2009)
Edit: Added two images (9th May, 2009)

Rain...

It rained today!

As much as I love the rain, the weather here today was simply amazing... The day was a little cloudy, and quite windy. The afternoon was perfect, a light breeze with the smell of rain that may come down any minute, the clear air, the soft sunlight, and a feeling that this day was made for me.

The weather reminds me of the many lazy summer afternoons spent playing hide and seek or swimming or just reading a book, soaking in the smell of the drenched earth after a thundershower. I don't know what it is with the rain and me, but when it rains, I feel like it was sent down especially for me. It feels like pure magic. It captivates me with its magical spell and leaves me wanting for more...

Sometimes there are things in life which we take for granted and don't wait to think twice about the wonder that it is. Sometimes these are the very things that make life woth living...

I remember reading somewhere  - "Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away..."

I guess this was one such day, and these were such moments, and I wish that everyone has more of such memories to treasure...

The year that was... and the year that will be

After a lot of twists, turns and surprises (both pleasant and unpleasant) 2008 is finally over.
The year did pass very quickly... I hope this year is more eventful...

Happy New Year 2009!!!

Going around in circles...

The leading contenders for the title of this post were:
Delhi Maze
The Chanakyapuri Chronicles
Dazed in dilli...
Circles of confusion

Well coming to the point, I happened to take the risk of exploring Dilli. On second thoughts I wouldn't call it risk, because I enjoyed it. However the experience led me to ask one question - why does Delhi have so many circles, instead of traffic lights at junctions? To a Bengalooru huduga like me who is used to stopping at every intersection for a signal, the circles initially seemed like a good idea - no signal only circle. However very soon I started questioning this logic. It seemed insane to me that there was no control mechanism to streamline the way traffic merged at these circles. Though I still hate the traffic snarls of Bangalore, I cannot but admire the fact that my city has some concern for the safety of its road users.

The bright side of having all these circles is that if you have a good sense of humour, you can have a funny day out in Delhi. It all started when a good friend of mine came visiting. I thought that going to the Akshardham temple on a Sunday afternoon would be a nice idea. In preparation for our impending mission, we checked the maps, double checked with friends (who had better knowledge of the roads) and committed to memory all the way-points that would lead us to our destination. So armed with two helmets (yes, Delhi cops enforce this rule, and I appreciate their good intentions) we set off towards Delhi. If you are wondering where we started from, I apologise for having left that out, we started from my humble residence in Gurgaon.

We had an almost uneventful ride till Chanakyapuri. Almost because we took a wrong exit from the highway and had to circle back (NOTE: this is the first circle). I was really wary of making any wrong turns at Chanakyapuri, from what I had seen on the map, this place looked like it was filled with circles - more like a puddle in the rain. So I religiously kept to the road that led me straight to some circle (I know I'm bad with names, if you didn't know that, please note the point now). We asked an autorikshaw walla for the way to Akshardham, he gave us a few directions and said that we should be fine if we stick to them. We nodded and continued, only to reach a familiar monument - India Gate, another circle. We were happy that we could include this in our itinerary for the day. We made a quick stop when we spotted a group of autos nearby and queried them for the optimal route to Akshardham. One friendly auto-wallah gave us crisp instructions "Aap yahan se aise jaayiye, pehla cut chhodiye, doosra bi chhodiye, teesre mein mud lijiye. Wahan se seedha aur phir right. Phir aage left." Briefly translated, he wanted us to go around the circle ignore the first two roads that we encounter and take the third one. We thanked him profusely and continued, happy that we had some sort of direction now. I rode and my friend counted the roads.
This is a brief transcript of our conversation - "One, ignore.... two, ignore... keep left we need to take the next one... here it comes..." "damn, why have the police blocked this one off, ok lets try the next one, there might be a way to come back to this one..." "weird, this one is blocked too..." "Maybe we'll have to find another way, lets try to figure out the way" "Hey, we're back at the place where the autorikshaws are..." "Well, this is not the first time we are going around in circles..." "Anyway, lets try to find the way we came here, we'll have to go all around again for that." "Here goes the first road again.. here goes the second... Hey! the third is open now...left! left! " "Hang on! there's a crazy cab behind me, let him go first..."

Phew! we finally made it to the road that the auto wallah mentioned. We turned right and from my little knowledge of the place deduced that we were near Pragati Maidan and according to the instructions, we had to continue straight and then take a left. We reached a signal (god bless the guy who put a signal there instead of a circle) near an old fort. I vaguely remembered traveling by that road once. We decided that we could do with a bit of help regarding directions. We stopped by the side of the road and enquired with a gentleman. Unfortunately it turned out that he was an out of towner. I refuse to admit that we were lost! We were just in need of some help regarding directions, not lost. So we looked around for any auto wallah. When we couldn't spot one we decided to go straight. We religiously follow the rule "When in doubt go straight, taking a turn could lead to circles.". We didn't have to go too far, there was a crowd of people just ahead and lots of autos waiting like vultures (pardon the comparison, this is what came to my head first). We came to understand that we were near the zoo, and that was the reason for the crowd. We finally caught hold of an auto walla who had made the mistake of deciding that the best place to drop off his passengers was next to us. We enquired with him about the way to Akshardham, and before he could answer, one of his passengers (a lady, god bless her) told us that we had to take the left turn that we had ignored by following our rule. We thanked her and continued. From there on, we had a dull ride till the Akshardham temple.

On our way back, we decided to take a route with lesser circles (to be precise no circles). We took the ring road all the way to a place called Dhaula Kuan, and from there we got onto the highway back to Gurgaon. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that in between all the circling, we happened to visit the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Some circle led us to it, and another led us back. I still wonder how people manage with all these circles. I learnt my lesson well, when in Delhi, mind the circles.

Feeling complete....

There are times when I wish I were back home. Home - where I am comfortable, comfortable enough to be me. Sometimes I feel that it is just homesickness, but then again, when I weigh it against facts, there seems to be some deeper, unknown sentiment that binds me to the place.

When I first left home it was for a new job. I was just out of college and my first job required that I move to a different city. I had my doubts about what I was doing. Moving to a new city meant leaving family, friends and everything that I had grown accustomed to. I moved, and surprisingly didn't have too much of a problem getting along with the new place (I must say that the new place was three hours from home, so I invariably ended up at home every weekend). Over time I had to move to a different city, this time further away from home. The frequency of my visits declined. Now they were once in three months. A job change resulted in me moving to yet another city. This time further than the last one...

When I look back at all this I notice one thing that catches my attention. I felt uncomfortable when I had to first move out of home. However the subsequent changes made no impact on me. The only reason I see for it is that none of it was like home. It didn't make a difference where I went, as long as it wasn't home, it was all the same.

I tried to find out what it was that bound me to that place so much that even after two years, I'd rather be there than anywhere else in the world. Today, the answer struck me all of a sudden. It is the bond created when you grow up in a place, grow up with the place. I might try transplanting myself elsewhere, but no matter what I try, I will never be the same elsewhere. The place is part of me and I am part of the place. Wherever I go, I carry a part of my home with me. Wherever I go I know that my home is incomplete without me and that I am never complete unless I go back home.

Now I have made up my mind, I am going home. It is just a matter of time.

To heaven and back

Well, if you are wondering where heaven is, it is right here on earth (atleast the heaven that I'm talking about is right here). To be more specific, it is located in Himachal Pradesh, India. The place I'm talking about is Kullu, otherwise known as the valley of the Gods. It sure does live up to its name...
It is a small town tucked away in the folds of the lower Himalays, apparently lost in time. The town of Manali is about thirty kilometres from Kullu (takes around two hours by road).



We (my team and I - six in all) started our journey from Gurgaon shortly after midnight on the 12th of July. We were jubiliant after completing a successful demo at work and were in the mood to celebrate. We hired a cab and set off to see this place that was so highly reccommended by anyone and everyone at work. To add to the excitement, google showed us tantalising images of mountains shrouded in mist and clouds rolling over cliffs. So off we went taking our winter clothing and a change of clothes. The journey took us longer than expected, twenty hours against the expected fourteen. The delay being caused due to bad roads, rain and our collective urge to stop everytime we got a photo opportunity... (the last being the major contributor).

We passed through Panipat and Chandigarh before entering Himachal Pradesh (HP). The leg of the journey through Punjab involved crossing the river Beas multiple times. However once we were in Himachal, the river became a constant companion, and the wide expressways of the plains gave way to the narrow, snaky, winding roads of the mountainside. We edged along savouring the sights that the mountains had to offer along the way, ranging from rock overhangs above the road to sections where the road hugged the sheer vertical rock face on one side and held the promise of a plunge into the icy waters of the Beas on the other.

The first phase of our journey ended at Manali, where we stayed for the night. We found decent rooms for Rs. 400 per room (thanks to the "off season", as they call it). The mall road was bustling with tourists till late in the night (well assuming that 11:00PM is way too late for a little town, hidden away in the mist). This made me wonder how the place would be during the "on season". Well to continue with the story of our journey - after making due enquiries about the weather and road conditions to go to Rohtang, we made ambitious plans of leaving Manali at five o' clock in the morning and heading off. The weariness of the twenty hour journey by road hadn't sunk in as yet, probably the chill in the air and the excitement kept the weariness away. However it decided to kick in as soon as I hit the bed...

I regained consciousness at 7:30 am. To cut a long story short (and leave out some uninteresting and routine bits in the process), we set off from Manali shortly after 9AM. The distance to Rohtang Pass (or Rohtang La as it is known locally) from Manali is roughly fifty kilometres. It took us four hours to cover that - reason: bad roads. Well it would be unfair if I blame the condition of the road entirely - we did muliple pit (read pic) stops. One of these happened to be forced upon us by the Border Roads Organization(BRO), we had no complaints though. The BRO was blasting a section of rock for widening the road, so as a safety measure they had blocked the road temporarily. A word of appreciation for the BRO is absolutely essential, taking into consideration how efficiently they clear landslides and keep the traffic flowing. The BRO was happily blasting rock away while we took a leisurely stroll outside the car. The air was cold and in a few minutes we were engulfed by a passing cloud...

Once we were at Rohtang, we took horses to carry us around. We poor humans were out of breath in the rarefied atmosphere at 13050 feet. There was some snow left from last winter, but not much. However the place offered an amazing view. The valley right below had a lake and the ground was carpeted with flowers...

I just need to close my eyes and I can sense the cold mountain air on my face... refreshing and relaxing.

Marble magic

The Taj Mahal...
Simply amazing... There are no other words to describe this monument.

The testimonial of undying love, etched in marble, ensconced in a light mist that overhung the entire city seemed to add to the surreal atmospere...

Days after day, month after month, year after year, how many people would have been mesmerised by the beauty of the Taj....... today, another name has been added to that endless list....

Edits:
21/Jan/2009: Changed the font colour

Inspiration

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son

Rudyard Kipling

To give expression to one's thought in a beautiful way, one needs to be gifted.
To inspire a fellow human while in the process of doing so... that is truly extraordinary.

Joy

The sight of a bird framed against the azure sky...

The recollection of a beautiful sunset...

A peacock welcoming the first showers of the monsoon...

The pitter-patter of raindrops on a tin roof...

The smell of fresh earth after it rains...

The sight of two old friends meeting after a long time...

Life is filled with moments and memories that will never fail to bring happiness...