Salt to Taste

Opera Neon hits the Refresh button on browser behavior

2017-01-13T01:45:00.000+05:30

When a geek gets a notification on his Google home screen from the Technology section about his long lost browser friend launching a refreshingly new version of itself, it calls for an immediate test run and a blog post.

As the video and the website suggested, the installation was pretty smooth and Neon instantly copied my current background image into the browser to instantly set it the browser background.

While most browsers have a small icon on the tabs to notify the tabs that output music, Neon has opted to have a separate tab to have all the pages that could possibly output video. I say that because while I had a website streaming audio on that tab, Facebook made an almost entry to the tab too.

Neon does not support importing your bookmarks and settings from Chrome yet, but it supports Firefox and you can always import Chrome settings into Firefox first and then pull them into Neon.

The floating icons for speed dial is just an intuitive way of showing the most used pages and good use of space to make the space look more attractive. Open tabs by default become small circular icons to the right of the browser and the transition between the tabs was thankfully instant. I am glad Neon did not opt for any transition effect there.

The snap feature is pretty neat; something very similar to the way one would take page snap on a Macbook. Both, the button to take a snap and the picture gallery are easily accessible.

I would say Opera Neon is a Chromebook done more intuitively. While naive, Opera Neon is widely impressive and it would be interesting to see where Opera drives this one. While the idea of having a desktop like environment in a browser isn't new, it is done exceptionally well by Opera but I believe they need to do a lot more to compete with the likes of Chrome and Firefox in terms of plugins and customizations.

I like listening to music when I work and for most times, I just keep a Radio playing either on Spotify or gaana.com. But Neon was surprisingly weird when it came to rendering music on Gaana, the sound output was really slow; try imagining playing a song where you tone down the tempo by half. I wonder what was at fault, but that was the first bug for me. I might report it to Opera some time later.

Overall, I would say Neon is a browser I would definitely use for a few days to get a good handle on things for it has a lot of new features on offer. But for someone who has everything set on his Chrome (and others on their Safari and Firefox), Opera sure has a long way and a tough battle to fight to sustain and conquer in this ever intensifying battle of browser supremacy.

The browser is available for Windows and Mac.

You can install the browser from here: https://www.opera.com/computer/neon

Promo video for the browser

This is how the browser looks on my machine

List of all TV Shows that Premiere this Fall (2013)

2013-08-15T21:01:00.000+05:30

This post goes for all those TV Series fans who don't miss a single episode of their favorite shows. For fans here in India, it does become a little difficult to keep track of all the shows, their premiere dates and schedule.

Well the dates are out for this fall. And here goes the extensive list of TV Shows premiering this September and October.

Android users, to keep a track of all your TV Shows, I prefer to use a very plain simple but efficient app TV Shows Fav (No, I am not the developer). I have been using it for quite some time now; so suggested for you guys. There are many others too btw; I prefer this one. Check it out.

TV SHOWS FAV

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tvshowfavs

Cheers...!!!!

Adventures of Lonavla Part III

2012-09-03T22:05:00.001+05:30

Links to Earlier Parts:
Part I : http://abhishek-nandgaonkar-blogs.blogspot.in/2012/08/journey-to-lonavla.html
Part II : http://abhishek-nandgaonkar-blogs.blogspot.in/2012/08/journey-to-lonavla-part-ii.html

PART III

I opened my eyes. A sharp ray of light struck right into my eye. I covered my eyes and looked to my left; there was pitch darkness. I was confused of the day it was; place I was in. I tried to get up and could sense a lot of pain in my back. I fell back and fell unconscious again.

A wet feeling on my face got me disturbed. I slightly tried opening my eyes to find out a dog standing on my face. I was taken back and got up instantly. Looked around to find out nothing but dust and stones all around me. I was lying on a large piece of flat rock which was as I said then ‘Placed there for me by God.’ I checked my right hand for it had something smooth in it tickling my palm. It was that silky golden flower that had got me down there. I placed it in my left pocket. I went to the edge of the rock and it was a well sloped entrance to a very deep valley with the contrast setting of the surrounding set to the maximum. I could not see beyond five rows of trees; it was that dark.

Tried recollecting how I reached there and could recollect that my knee slipped at the edge I rolled downwards. I could distinctly recollect my attempts to grab onto something; anything and my failure in doing so. And while on a rolling spree, I must have gone unconscious. It was nothing less than a miracle that I had no fractured bones; just scratches and skin ripped off near my right knee; I was fine otherwise. I took out my handkerchief from my right back pocket and wrapped my injured right knee.

That dog was staring at me with his tongue out. I was surprised at that; rarely do dogs do that to strangers. He came and sat next to me. I started patting him; the very first time I was doing that. I wondered how many days I was out and what must my friends and parents be thinking. Probably they must have assumed me dead for someone needs a miracle to survive a fall like that. I luckily was on the receiving end.

I tried standing up; there was an evident pain in my knees. It was evening; the sun was setting. I was lying on a small piece of mountain which had naturally formed a flat surface where I could land and survive. If nature; rain and soil in particular had not once upon a time in history created that surface; I would have been somewhere up there wondering if there was one. There was greenery all around me. Trees and trees all where I could see. There were very high trees right above the cave; probably the reason why no one could see that rock from above; and nobody was crazy enough to decline down to discover it.

I immediately went for my phone in my right pocket; it wasn’t there. I was shocked. Somehow the sorrow of losing my phone was more than the fact that I was stuck at some place I actually had no idea of. There was no way to climb back to the top and I was not yet insane enough to climb down. I have seen enough movies of people stuck in forests and other random places all by themselves; I still had this unknown canine to accompany me. I had to look for a way to get out of there but darkness was slowly overpowering all the light all around me.

I was starving and thirsty. God bless that Daksh for spilling water on my jeans in the morning of my incident; reason why I decided to wear my cargos. I checked my pockets. There was a half-eaten packet of Hide-n-Seek and some Chewing gums. I also had the keys of our hotel room in my left pocket, two handkerchiefs, my wallet with some cash, a debit card, some stupid papers; most of them bills and receipts of some or the other product and a picture of my girlfriend. Gladly I found a few toffees which I thought could somehow be of help. I popped one in.

Standing at the edge of a small extension of the rock if I could call it so, I was staring right at the sunset. No Instagram could have ever captured a scene like that. It was so blissful; I just couldn’t take my eyes off it. I was somehow enjoying the breeze but soon realized that I had to find a place secure enough of anything wild in the jungle.

I looked behind and found that dog vanished. He was not there. I started wondering where he could have gone. I started searching for him for he might know the water source or any human living there; although the chances were rare. I could see wet sand with dog paw-prints on them. I decided on following it. I started following and soon I was in a semi-dark place with trees all around me. I decided on not going further and that I would try following it the next morning.

I went back near a tree by my rock; it was somehow my spot now. Sat in a corner with my back to a rock hoping that some animal won’t attack me whether I am asleep or not. I was seriously missing that dog now. His disappearance had left me disturbed. I took out Ananya’s photo from my wallet and was staring at it when I again fell asleep.

**********************************************************

I do not remember the last time I got up at sunrise; no alarm in this world was capable of doing that. But the sweet music of nature got me up; birds singing leaves rustling, I felt like I was on a vacation. Hurriedly got up and waited for brightness to increase on this beautiful canvas. I had nothing to do but to sit; no phone-calls to make, no messages to answer, no music to hear and no movies to watch. Being there without people and my phone was a completely different experience. I took a look at my injured knee; took out the handkerchief; it looked in a pretty bad shape. I wrapped my knee again and sat quietly with my stream of thoughts all flashing at once.

I was out of my consciousness for at least a day for I had seen a new morning; I expected my friends must have made a police complaint, there must have been attempts to find me, my parents must have been informed, Ananya must have been informed and everyone must be so worried. I had to go to them. It then struck me, I had Ananya’s picture in my hand when I slept the last night and now it was nowhere around me. I started searching for it frantically but could not find it anywhere. I lost hope for I wanted that picture with me, looking at that picture, talking to it gave me strength and power to overcome any problem. Just in the matter of a few minutes I realized how important that girl had become in my life, I wanted her with me. The last thing I had with her was this passport sized picture of hers but now that was gone too.

Sun started shining bright in some time and it was time for me to set off on the journey to find the dog, my only hope of survival. I popped in a biscuit and a toffee and got up. My right knee was making me limp. There were many trees around me; the next task for me was to find a weak branch which I can break and carry for protection. I started looking for one as I started walking into the jungle. I was cautious as I walked; avoiding any kind of noise on my part. I found a small tree branch lying around; I picked it up, dusted it with my hand and decided to use it as my stick.

The dog’s footprints were right in front of me and were going to lead me deep into the jungle. I was a little scared but I had to do it; so I braced myself and started walking.

... TO BE CONTINUED

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People still use Windows XP..!!

2012-08-14T14:39:00.001+05:30

I am pretty sure that my life is going to be in danger after a few of my friends read this post.

So I get a call from a friend. Lets call her Diana.

Diana: Hey, do you have Windows XP cd? Looks like I lost it.

Me: Why do you want a Windows XP! Decorating something?

Diana: Very funny! I need to format my desktop.

Me: Why XP?

Diana: I like XP.

Me: Seriously? I don't even remember using XP.

Diana: Then what should I install if not XP?

Me: Please don't tell me you haven't heard of Windows 7.

Diana: I have; I have it on my laptop. I needed to format my desktop; hence XP.

Me: Sorry for repeating my question; but Why XP? Your desktop can't bear 7?

Diana: No nothing like that. Its a dual core, 2 gb RAM. It is just that I like using XP. It has that old feel to it, like when I started using computers for the first time; it was XP. So I want to keep it as it is.

Me: And what about your family; your parents and your younger sister?
Diana: They'll deal with it.
Me: Bitch Please..!!

A friend (this time a guy) calls me over because his wireless router stops working. Lets call him Rajesh.

I ask him to start his PC as I needed to check the router settings which requires using the browser.
His PC boots up with the XP sound and that XP logo.

Me: What the hell is XP still doing on your PC? What happened to Windows 7 I got you installed last month?
Rajesh: Yes, but I just couldn't figure how to use it. I'm just so used to using Windows XP.
Me: And who installed XP for you?
Rajesh: Myself. I had seen you install it twice; I could repeat those steps.
Me: I don't understand. You can go through the pain of installing XP but you somehow can't use 7..!

I walk into a reputed Consultancy for my further studies. I am asked to fill a form and take a chair. From the place I sit; I can see their staff working on their desktops. And guess what all of them had XP installed in them.

My college had so many labs. At a time when the release of Windows 8 is just around the corner; I feel asking your students to use an operating system so old should be declared a crime if not anything else. Somehow we did manage to convince our faculty to install Windows 7 on some computers; but that came with a trial period of 30 days after which we had to deal with the "This copy of Windows is not genuine" message every time we had to use the computers.

What I don't understand is why to people take so long to embrace changes. If something is better; go for it. There is not point sticking to something just because you have a stupid emotional attachment to it.

Or sticking to something old because you can't take out some time learning something new; which is also something better. Most of the times it is because people are just plain used to something; however gross it may seem to nerds, oops geeks like me.

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Adventures of Lonavla - Part II

2012-08-11T13:09:00.002+05:30

Links to Earlier Parts:
Part I : http://abhishek-nandgaonkar-blogs.blogspot.in/2012/08/journey-to-lonavla.html

PART II

We entered the bus with our luggage; it was a 2x2 seater bus. We approached our seats and found out two of us were to sit together while the third had to sit on the adjacent row besides what seemed like a pretty face behind 'Life of Pi'.

We all started hurrying up to get that prized seat. Aditya was in the front and I was right behind him. I somehow managed to find a way towards the seat. I kept my hand on the seat and was about to sit when Aditya pushed me and sat himself.

I shouted, "Hey!", loud enough for the whole bus to listen. 'Life of Pi' went down and what emerged was actually a guy with long hair. Aditya's jaw fell while me and Daksh started laughing uncontrollably; everyone else gave us a disgusting look, quite understandably.

The rest of the journey went by pretty quietly as Daksh got himself into reading Sherlock Holmes on his phone; Aditya was listening to music, chatting and talking on the phone. I got myself into watching a couple of movies on my phone. It was a two hour journey to the junction where we had to get down on the Expressway.

I got a call from my girlfriend.

"Where are you baby?", Ananya asked.

"Got into the bus, the Shivneri ones."

"But those don't go to Lonavla. Where are headed? You lied to me!"

I laughed. "No sweetie, we're going to get off on the Expressway and take a rick from there."

"How stupid of a plan is that!"

"Really, try convincing that to Daksh. You want me to hand over the phone to him?"

"Oh, I got the point. Daksh says and you guys listen as usual. Why can't you ever listen to me? Daksh should be your girlfriend. I said come with me for shopping just for a few hours; you said no but you have time for your friends to go to Lonavla. Don't you ever talk to me". She hung up.

I was all confused. Daksh looked at me with a puzzled look. I shrugged my shoulders, nodded my head. "I have no freaking idea what got her started. I've been with her for three years now and I still don't understand her. Why the hell am I with her. I swear man, the moment I get back from Lonavla, I'm gonna break up with her."

My phone rang again. It was Ananya. I picked it up and said nothing.

"Sorry baby, I got mad at you for no apparent reason.", Ananya started.

"I just can't understand why you do this. Spoilt my trip right at the beginning. Why do you like doing this.", I winked at Daksh while I said that.

"I'm really sorry", she said in a low tone.

It was time for me to play the sacrificing guy. "Its ok;but don't do this again. We'll go shopping the very next day I return."

"You are so sweet honey, I love you."

And I had successfully dodged that one. As a boyfriend, you either succumb to your girlfriend or you eventually learn to deal with it the smart way. You know what I had reached to.

"So you're still going to break up with her?", Daksh asked me with a surprised face.

I smiled.

"You should write a book for all husbands and boyfriends."

"You bet!". I loved Ananya but then she was a girl and how much ever a girl says that she is different or she won't be a typical girlfriend, she eventually turns out to be one. And you have to devise ways to deal with the issues in a way that both of you can be content and happy.

The rest of the journey went by pretty quickly and it was time that we got off that bus. We got down right on the highway and started walking down a slope to get to Ground Zero where we could get a rick.

We reached the spot where we were to get a rick. There was just one rick as if it was waiting for us but without the driver. We looked around but couldn't trace him. Out of nowhere a man turned up dragging his slippers. He was black (I'm not being racist, he was actually that black), had a thick moustache, simple shirt and trousers but noticably bright yellow scarf around his neck.

"Where to?"

"Lonavala City. Here is the address." Daksh gave him a piece of paper.

"Can't read Sir."

"I know the place, you start the rickshaw.", Daksh said.

We loaded all our luggage in the rickshaw and set off to Hotel Lonavla Palace. Since it was one of the popular hotels; it was not so difficult to find. We had a room booked for three days with three single beds; of course.

It was evening so we decided to roam around and eat some chikki; a popular food item from Lonavla. But then buying and eating is so common. There are roughly five shops to your sight from wherever you stand in Lonavla and we decided to feast for free given there were so many shops and most of them so desperate for some business.

"Boss, you have Kaju Crush", Aditya asked the 20-odd year old guy at one of the hundred Khandelwal Sweet shop. He showed us the container; we asked for tasting the same. He gave us three pieces; we had those. It was my turn next.

"What about Chocolate Fudge; do you have that?"
He gave us that to taste too. Daksha asked for water and that guy showed him the way to the filter.
We then 'tasted' five-six more varieties and hurried out of the shop saying "No man, we get better chikkis at A-1. We'll buy it there".

We did the same thing to a couple more shops and then got bored. Money can buy you food but happiness usually comes free of cost; we just proved it.

It was 7; pretty early to have our dinner given we just had our free meal. So we started roaming around and the number of pretty girls we encountered were just too much for our eyes to feast.

"I just wish we could catch a glimpse of a group of these beautiful birds so we can have a good time for the rest of our trip.", I said.
"Someone has a girlfriend.", Daksh interrupted.
"Yeah Aditya; poor you."
"He means you fucker", Aditya promptly replied and I realized how lucky those two basterds were. But nevertheless I had something to be content with. Aditya tries too hard with girls; reason because of which he is still single even after spending thousands after every alternate girl that he must have met. And Daksh doesn't get that attracted to women which sometimes worries us if we are safe with him.

We went to the garden; bought a box of beer and spend our rest of the evening there. We had a little dinner in nearby restaurant and ended the tiresome day.

The next morning, we decided to go to the famous Lion's point of Lonavla. We hired a rick and after thirty minutes of a beautiful journey we were at the Lion's point and it was beautiful. Breathtaking view of the entire valley, strong breeze and greenery wherever you could see. We neared the railing that was setup; bought ourselves cold drinks and stood there just admiring the beauty of nature. It is this time when people usually start thinking of the beautiful people they have in their life. We were busy observing beauty around us. Girls wandering around in their hot-pants and tank tops and that strong breeze did no good for them. For us, oh yeah.

We started walking towards the far end of the peak; reached there and started clicking pictures. I am very fond of photography and thus got myself busy taking pictures of the landscape, the leaves, flowers and the small monkey family sitting on the large stone.

While clicking pictures, my eyes fell on something shining a little lower. I presumed it must be a wrapper but I was very curious to find out what it was. Daksh warned me not to go as the stones were slippery due to rains. I told him not to worry and went further anyhow. Bent on my knees and leaned forward to pick it up. My left hand was holding the end of the rock, my right knee supporting me while my right hand went near to what looked like a beautiful flower to me from there.

My hands touched that silky flower and when I was about to pluck it out, my right knee slipped.

TO BE CONTINUED...

PART III: http://abhishek-nandgaonkar-blogs.blogspot.in/2012/09/adventures-of-lonavla-part-iii.html

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Adventures of Lonavla - Part I

2012-08-09T14:37:00.001+05:30

PART I

This story dates to the month of June of 2012 while I was travelling to Lonavla with a couple of my friends. Interesting events, interesting company, interesting food made the whole journey a lot more interesting.

Me, Daksh and Aditya planned this trip some time back and we choose to set out for Lonavla on the 18th, a Monday. Usually people travel on weekends but we had a completely different theory; Everyone visits hill stations during weekends making everything from food and hotels and roaming around a bit more costlier than usual. Setting out with this philosophy the three of us with a few thousand rupees left out for this journey. None of us had a vehicle so we had to use the public transport to get there.

Daksh was a guy particular with cleanliness and addicted to giving his boring lectures to people who did not follow his 'Principles of Cleanliness' as he would call it. Given his cleanliness habits; he was particularly skeptical about travelling on the state transport buses but then we convinced him by saying that we would travel by one of the 'Shivneri' fleet of buses; which are comparable to the Volvo for comfort and are costlier which implicitly made him believe that there would be certain discipline. I and Aditya were well aware that the Shivneri buses won't take us to Lonavla as they travel directly via the Expressway to Pune but we din't tell him about it. The plan was to take him to the bus depot and make him travel by the Semi-Luxury bus hoping that he won't throw tantrums for going back home.

The day came and we decided to meet at Thane station from where we decided to go to the Vandana bus depot; the place where we could get the buses for Lonavla. Aditya got us the news that we had buses every half an hour; So we decided to meet at Thane station at 10. It was at 12 that he realized he shouldn't have gave me the news of so many buses available.

Daksh reached the Thane station sharp at 10 and started calling Aditya; the only person who had the patience and ability to bear Daksh. He was late himself and reached the station by 10.30; atleast that was what he told me.

'Bangle Ke Piche Hai Taala, Ghusun Kahaan Se Main Saala, Laila Ki Khidki Khuli Hai, Khidki Ke Neeche Hai Naala', my phone rang. I was still sleeping sound in bed. Saw the clock; it was 10.45; a little to early for me to get up.

"Who the fuck is this?", I somehow picked my phone and yelled.

"Where are you bastard, its 11", I don't remember who I was talking to.

"No it still 15 minutes to 11, call me then", and I hung up the phone.

I got a call again; this time I was more in my senses. It was Daksh.

"Weren't you supposed to reach the Thane station an hour back. You sleep so much even when you don't drink; I wonder what happens when you drink. First of all you guys make a plan to some stupid place; set a time so late and still don't turn up. How irresponsible is that? Are you coming or not?", He spoke for another five minutes. I don't remember much of that conversation. I by habit kept the phone aside and went back to sleep while I assume he must have kept talking till he realized there was no response from the other end.

I suddenly sprung out of my bed all of a sudden (no credits for those guys calling) and I realized I was supposed to be at Thane station for my Lonavla trip. Got ready as quickly as I could and reached the station at 12. As I got to the station, I called Aditya. Calling Daksh was out of question, out of syllabus. He told me where they were. I reached the platform no. 1 corner where both of them were waiting. For a three day trip, I had two bags; Aditya had two; Daksh had three.

It was a small bench. Aditya was sitting chatting on his cell with someone he claims to be his girl with his two bags on ground besides him. Daksh's bags were on the bench, one on his shoulder and that guy was himself standing; he cares a lot more for his bags I would presume. I gave out a small laugh but controlled my smile on seeing Daksh's face. His face was grim, eyes small; a face that would make anyone freak out. Both picked their bags and we started walking in silence. It was more of the silence before a storm; the storm of Daksh's lecture which was unavoidable; a wait for which was nothing less than slow death.

We approached the Autorickshaw stand to take one to the depot; it was a pretty long queue. We actually had to walk for a couple of minutes to reach the end of the queue. Wonder how the Thanekar's bear this everyday. We went and stood with our bags on us. Both me and Aditya had one bag on our backs and the other in our hand. Daksh's case was different. He had one huge one on his back; and two suitcases each in his hands.

After a good long wait of 15 minutes our turn came. The rickshaw that we were supposed to sit in was an old Bajaj one and ironically the the lady in front of us got a brand new Tata autorickshaw to travel in. We took a good look at our rick and the one that we missed with awe.

"Saab, are you going to sit!", the auto driver exclaimed. We approached to sit in.

"Great! had you come a little more earlier, we could have got the new Tata rickshaw and not this stupid 10 year old crap.", Daksh started. The rickshaw driver gave us a dirty look. I pointed to Daksh and shrugged my shoulders. Apparently, Daksh was not really aware of consequences of messing up people who bring you food or are responsible for your journey being safe.

We got down at the bus depot and I signalled Aditya to handle Daksh for we were not going to travel by a luxury but a semi-luxury bus. He asked us to wait at a spot and went into the office pretending to ask something. He came back with a grim face and said, "Guys, there is bad news. There are no luxury buses to Lonavla; just the semi-luxury ones." Both me and Aditya looked at Daksh.

Daksh had a serious face. We assumed he would yell at us or just start blabbering something but instead he said "I knew it all the way. Whom do you think were you fooling! I did all the background check. Those Shivneri buses are for Pune only although we can get off the Lonavla extension and take an auto from there; and that is what we're gonna do. Since you two lied to me, you don't get a vote. These are our tickets, I booked them online so you can't fool me into getting into any other bus." Saying so he handed us the tickets while we were still staring at his face with an open mouth.

The bus arrived in another 15 minutes. I was puzzled; asked Daksh, "But I came so late today; how did you know which bus to book ticket for? What if I came earlier; even worse what if any of us came an hour more late?"

He replied "Simple calculation my friend; I can trust Aditya for not being as late as you and I've known you for long enough, I knew exactly how long you would take to turn up. You must have slept at around 3 after your online Fifa session, the reason why you got up late. In fact you came half an hour earlier than I thought, I'm impressed!"

"Half an hour! That ways, we would have missed this bus."

"This is not our bus."

"Darn."

........ TO BE CONTINUED

Links to Later Parts:
Part II : http://abhishek-nandgaonkar-blogs.blogspot.in/2012/08/journey-to-lonavla-part-ii.html
Part III: http://abhishek-nandgaonkar-blogs.blogspot.in/2012/09/adventures-of-lonavla-part-iii.html

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Twitter is Awesome..!!

2012-05-30T20:52:00.000+05:30

"How can people stay online for so long..!! That too on Twitter...!!!"

A friend stated this while we sat around in the garden discussing the reunion plans.

I replied "Twitter is awesome"

He said "Yeah right awesome. How? By posting that your puppy is sick or by just replying to someone who posted that."

I thought to myself that he was right to some extent but was he totally right. I decided to give it a thought. Went back into flashback and started thinking.

I joined Twitter long back when it was new. Although when i created my Twitter account I never knew that one day I would be so addicted to it. When I made that account, I first tweeted with great enthusiasm, "Woohoo..!! I am on Twitter."

I did the usual following of friends by importing contacts from my mail accounts and other social networking sites and the next I knew I visited the site after a good 9 months. No, i wasn't busy doing anything interesting in those '9 months'.

All I know right now is Twitter works just fine and right for me. There was a time when I liked Facebook more, but now I believe nothing can beat Twitter. (Psst.. Dint mention Orkut for a reason..lol)

Facebook is more about friends, what they do, where they go and whom they are with. Stuff that rarely excites me. Orkut on the other hand was more like an introductory course you usually have before starting a full fledged subject.

There were other social networking sites; not that I don't have an account on those, but I haven't accessed them ever after I created the account. But i spent an awful amount of time on Facebook. And then came a good day when I thought that I should just open my Twitter profile and make some tweets and explore it a little more.

Its that day till today that I am so addicted to Twitter. It was the day I truly realized the power of Twitter. What also helped the cause was that many of my friends had joined Twitter and when I logged in, I had a pretty good amount of mentions with one friend particularly encouraging me to stay active there. Well I read that message roughly 6 months late but never the less, I liked that gesture.

I followed a few of my favorite News Feeds including daily happening from my local city to the World; from Bollywood to high tech Hollywood; from Food to Tech and from Celebs to Celebrities. The next thing I knew was there was a flood of tweets on my timeline and I was actually enjoying reading those.

Next I found trends on Twitter and I thought it was a really good way of getting news of any event, any personality in news or 'trend' for the matter.

I clicked on a couple of trends and read the tweets and some were so good; hillarious, satirical; some lame too. But getting views from people about a topic from over the world was somehow an idea that amazed me.

But after a while I realized I had made a mess of everything by following anyone and everyone; though I liked their tweets but the figure of my followings was astounding. But there were Lists to help me out. I sorted my following in Lists and I had everything sorted out.

I decided to jump in. I started tweeting about exciting things I did, new quotes I made, about events happening around and over the world. Initially I din't get response from others as expected but over time, I started getting replies and retweets and gradually there were some of my tweets that were liked and appreciated.

Nothing can encourage you more. Ever since, I've been tweeting and staying updated with everything. Most major websites, companies, celebrities, industrialists tweet about their opinions and views and at times it can be more enriching than anything else.

If you are reading this, and you are on Twitter, you know exactly what I am talking about. But if you are not, like some of my friends, I would strongly recommend that you join in.

And about that friend I mentioned above, today he is far more addicted to the site than I am. So I thought I should share this with everyone out there.

Join in and follow me. My Twitter handle: abhishek_s_n

For there is nothing better than the feeling of being heard and knowing "WHATS HAPPENING?".

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WHAT Happens at 2 a.m.?

2012-01-03T12:41:00.000+05:30

Its 2 in the night and here I am awake like an owl doing nothing; though for the matter I am writing this. If this doesn’t work, I plan to switch back to straining my eyes or another 40 minutes of Vampire Diaries. Its holidays, so I don’t have anything to study either (not that I study during terms; but what I wrote still makes a statement).

I’ve noticed this for quite some time now; whatever time it maybe be you’ll always find dogs barking here and there especially if it is night time. Wonder if it is the awakening of the ‘Dog World’ when the ‘Humans’ go to sleep.

I remember one night I was returning from a picnic late at night. It was 2 am and frankly I was scared; not of the thieves or goons but the dogs of my lane. They are known to be a menace. As I started walking into my lane, I couldn’t help myself but to locate the canines so that I could avoid them. They eased my efforts though as there they were lying around everywhere on the road with me then having to make my way through them. Add to it I had a huge sack on my shoulders and it is not unknown to us the liking of dogs to people carrying huge bags; add to it, it was late at night, time when dogs are at full barking power.

Coming back to my lane; I walked to the mid-way and suddenly one of them started barking at me. As a reflex I located that asshole and paused for a second. I ignored it and started walking forward. I just hoped that the others dint wake up to join that bitch (for the matter I am not swearing this time; it was a bitch) against her venture against me. As this bitch kept barking, each one of them looked at me taking turns, said a gentle hello by nodding their heads and went back to sleep. I presumed that they knew me; then why dint the bitch recognize me. I wondered. Soon that bitch stopped barking and I made my way through the lane back home.

And why did I write this? Because I have nothing else to do. Mom-Dad are fast asleep, my girlfriend slept four hours back, most of my friends are asleep too( I assume as I don’t get any replies back). I chose to sleep in the evening; a reason due to which I can’t sleep now.

Well, its 3rd December, the clock ticks 2.21 now. The second test match between India and Australia at Sydney is due to start in precisely 2 hours and 39 minutes and I’ll have to sleep soon. Just wondering how can a lazy person like me turn into an insomniac just by a two-hour sleep in the evening.

The word turn has an altogether new meaning for me these days; thanks to ‘The Vampire Diaries’. Every time I hear turn, I think of Damon Salvatore turning another human into a vampire. I remember well, a couple of months back, Riddhi was searching all information possible about vampires in college. I ridiculed her back then but now I am addicted to the same topic. The reason for both of us being the same. ‘The Vampire Diaries’.

Anyways, I’m signing off now. Off to sleep.
Yeah, that’s it.

What did you think when you read the title? A Vampire Story?
Don’t ever expect one from me. If at all I write one ever, it would surely be ‘A funny Vampire Story’.

Anyways I’ll try to sleep now, wrist paining (because of typing all day….. I know the way you think).
Good night. Hot Dreams.

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REVOLUTION 2020 - My review

2011-11-19T21:01:00.000+05:30

Revolution 2020 – MY REVIEW

Another Chetan Bhagat Book around the corner, a buzz that had all the youth of India chatting and discussing. Chetan Bhagat, a successful writer, a columnist and an exceptional speaker came up with his new book ‘REVOLUTION 2020’ in November 2011. I was so excited when this book was released; I promptly ordered it on www.flipkart.com.

I’ve been a fan of this guy ever since I read his first book, ‘FIVE POINT SOMEONE’. His books don’t have the complex words that most of the times define a good book but his stories have a heart; a heart through which he connects to a billion other hearts. I have personally hated reading novels. One fine day a friend of mine insisted that I read ‘TWO STATES’ and I fell in love with his writing. I enquired about other books of Chetan Bhagat and found out there were three others. It took me no time to read all the other books too.

Too much anticipation, a bit too many expectations and I have to say, a bit too much pressure on Chetan Bhagat on the release of his new book. When you do one thing better than most others, people start looking at you with high expectations; and if you can’t sustain that, you fall.

The book ‘Revolution 2020’ starts with Chetan Bhagat meeting the Director of some college ‘Gangatech’ in Varanasi. After an evening of drinking and bragging about himself, Gopal collapses and Chetan helps him get to the hospital. Chetan is about to leave when Gopal asks him, ‘Am I a good person?’ to which Chetan says that he’ll have to know him to answer that. And then begins the story of friendship, love, success, passion, corruption and a revolution.

The book is a really nice attempt although it doesn’t match up to the heights that the author got to with his earlier books. Many say that the story has been written keeping in mind a movie to be made on it given that movies have been made based on his earlier books. The story isn’t that fresh, a typical love triangle and the hero sacrificing for other’s happiness eventually. But the way it catches you mind all through the time is amazing. It is like watching a movie for 12 hours.

The book revolves mostly around the love story between Gopal and Aarti (Gopal’s love interest) which makes you wonder about the title being ‘Revolution 2020’. Gopal is a simple guy from a poor family, dead mother and a coughing farmer father. They have a lot of debt to pay off and the father has a lot of expectations from his son. He takes loans to fund Gopal’s costly classes so that he would clear engineering exams the second time after he fails once. But when he fails again, the father is shattered and eventually is portrayed dead. What begins next is his crave and madness to become rich and to reach a status that Gopal’s father always wanted him to reach. But what he also wants to get in life is his love interest Aarti. The story revolves beautifully around the love story and Gopal’s walk to richness.

Aarti, Gopal’s love interest is his childhood friend with whom Gopal falls in love with when they grow up. There is cuteness in the way these two kids are shown to meet. Aarti is the daughter of the DM of the city. Her ambition in life is to become an air hostess because she wants to travel many places around the world. She falls for Raghav (Gopal’s friend) when Gopal is away for studying. Aarti always wants friendship while Gopal keeps forcing her for a relationship all through the time. She loves Raghav but wants to stay best friends with Gopal while Gopal wants Aarti to stay happy, happy with him.

Raghav (Gopal’s friend) has always been an intelligent student. His father always wanted him to get into engineering while he wants to become a journalist and make a change in his country to make it a better place to live in. He is a third friend with Gopal and Aarti but comes closer to Aarti when Gopal is away and eventually falls in love with Aarti. Aarti acknowledges. Once he completes his engineering, he joins journalism and eventually a newspaper called ‘Revolution 2020’ which prints stories about scams and injustice to people.

Gopal follows the wrong path to get money and success while Raghav follows the right path towards the betterment of the society. Gopal has always been jealous of Raghav as he was always the successful guy. It is Aarti who makes the whole difference to the story.

All in all a really good interesting read. I would say it is a 3/5 but worth a book to keep on your book shelf.

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180 MINUTES

2011-10-02T12:27:00.002+05:30

Third year, the penultimate year of Engineering was ending. Board exams were up for a long month in the months of May and June. I’ve always wondered what could be the reason of the Mumbai University stretching the exam period of 6 days all over a month. The so called ‘preparatory leave’ and the minimum three day leave between any two exams gives a lot of time to have a vacation. Note: Some breaks between two exams go as long as a span of eleven days. Quite a much; isn’t it? Of course a month long vacation follows the exams.

What made these exams so important was it was even more important to clear these exams at any cost as a student with a subject pending isn’t allowed to appear for placement interviews which I believe is quite harsh. But it is the way it is. So here we were, facing the most crucial exam of our life. Clearing these would ensure some thousands of money coming into our accounts every month. But failing to do so could be quite a disaster. No job, no money; a student would be forced to either sit home, work in some stupid call center and apply for job externally which usually means lower pay package. Else a student will have to go for further studies for which he will then have to appear and clear competitive entrance exams to get into some reputed college. So to cut things short these were ‘do-or-die’ exams.

It was the 18^th of June, the last day of the exams; the exam was ITME (I still can’t really remember the full form of that subject.) But this subject was supposedly a very interesting subject to read but a terrible one to remember. And mugging up is what the University expects from us; so it was quite obvious that the students were going to have a tough time dealing with this subject.

Even a time interval of three days for preparation of such subjects seems just a couple of days less. But still, add to it; we the students waste the first day as a mutual result of a hangover of the earlier exam and due to the time left for the next exam. Now coming to the singular part of this article, I had three whole days and two ‘half days’ to prepare for this exam. The initial half day i.e. the evening of the earlier exam came and went past before I could notice.

I knew that I had to study hard and very hard to get through the nerve of this subject. But still somehow I wasted an entire following day revising a total of 10 pages out of 400 total pages I was supposed to study. Somehow I scraped my way over the next two and a half days to complete what I thought was sufficient to score just above average in ITME.

The moment arrived. We were in the class for the examination. I sat on the last but one bench and I could well see the entire class. As it was about to be 3, as per an unwritten rule we looked everywhere and wished every face that saw us a ‘Best of luck’. The bell rang and the supervisor gave us the question papers.

I had a glance through the paper and realized this was going to be some tough time; tough 180 minutes to be precise. Saw around there were a couple of tensed faces just like mine.

I chose writing the answers I knew. Calculated them and they accounted just for 60 marks roughly. Expecting to score a 40 when you attempt 60 in an exam of Mumbai University where the papers would be checked in K.J. Somaiya was like expecting too much. I decided that I’ll be writing the best answers possible so that I can at least manage half of what I write for. Now here comes some calculations; half marks of attempt meant getting 30 out of the attempted 60. I assumed that I would manage to get 1 mark from the rest of the paper I attempt; that would make it 31 and 9 marks is the maximum the college gives as grace provided you’ve cleared all the other subjects.

This time was the trickiest; as it is I came into the exam expecting that I’ll manage to score around 6 per question making 60 in total; but now my plan had taken a toss; Big time.

Learnt a new psychological thing; when you’re tensed about something, you can’t perform your best at tasks that you would excel otherwise.” Now this quote came from self-experience. An answer that I would have written quite easily and fluently took me lot of efforts to write and yet I was unable to write a good answer; tension big time.

Question number one; attempt any four out of five. This question was pretty much average as far as difficulty was concerned. I was quite sure of writing good answers for three answers, wasn’t really sure of the fourth while the term in the fifth question was a complete alien to me. I wrote three answers pretty well and took some help from Amit, the guy who sits on the bench front of me. With some assistance I managed myself an answer which could yield me a minimum of 2 out of the maximum 5 marks.

Four o clock, I managed to complete one question. The real tough task was yet to start. Four main questions, eight answers in the next two hours. I had to use my brain to correlate, map, analyze process, organize, strategize and coordinate the data in my mind to retrieve and develop answers which could give me a decent probability of over 0.5 to gain me marks sufficient to clear the exam. (This lingo comes from Mr. Turban.)

Suddenly it started raining. I am usually a practical person who would not in the worst possible situation believe in superstitions. But this time was different; I heard the thunder and the rain. Looked behind, outside the window and there it was, rain falling and I thought of Dhwani and Ronak who had made a study and a prophecy that it always rains when you have bad exams. And while they had based this theory on the past few exams, this time I couldn’t help but think of it and wonder how I should scrape though this one unscathed.

I started going through the next available questions amongst which I was to choose any four and attempt them. These questions consisted of two sub questions each. And coincidently or not, in each of the question I realized I could attempt exactly one. Every second question was like a new spell from the very famous book of Harry Potter.

I began to panic, drank so much water that my bladders started giving me indications; looked around, everyone was writing. I wondered was that exam difficult for everyone or was it just me. I couldn’t help but notice my supervisor was dozing. I cunningly smiled but there was no one to notice so turned it out. I shifted my attention just to notice a girl, Foram from the second row second bench right under the nose of the supervisor telling an answer to a guy on the fourth row first bench which was Hussain through signs and dummy talks. Those expressions of Foram were so funny I had to shift my attention to avoid a loud laugh. Saw to my left, Harsh and Priya were discussing something, wondered was it about the exam or something else. A little behind; Ronak Pathak, quite well known for writing just too much in the exams and using all the available stationary in the college for writing, was sitting idle looking everywhere. We shared a glance and then a smile. My attention came back to my desk where I had a watch that told me, dude, you’ve just wasted five minutes. I wondered “Whattttt..!!!”, with my eyes considerably open. All the dizziness vanished in a glance.

I quickly chose four questions to attempt and started writing answers to questions I knew I could write answers of. Wrote one answer each from two different main questions and then somehow attempted two questions from another main question. Now I had to make a tough call. There was a question 4, where I could write one answer of which I knew a couple of points which I could elaborate to a couple of pages. On the other hand I had question 7, where I somehow had an idea of both the answers; but just an idea. (Note: an idea here just means the full form.)

I wonder why I did it but I chose question 7 and started writing the answers. It was 5, last 60 minutes left for the exam to get over and it suddenly struck me that I was suddenly not hearing any noise of rains.

“Had the rain stopped? Was my bad time over? Was my exam going to be better now? Am I superstitious? Abhishek shut the fuck up and start writing. No rain God is coming down to help you.” It is amazing how your mind starts working in weird ways when you’re in trouble.

Well I had to continue with that superstition. I attempted the first answer somehow but when I saw the question of the second question, I recollected the whole answer. I thought Rain God did it for me; I would have loved to believe that but my rational brain disagreed and a loud ‘shut up’ again and ordered me to start writing. I couldn’t argue with my brain at that stage as it was the only one that could get me through the trouble. So I got the superstition out and started writing. I wrote that answer and felt a little better as now I was assured of an attempt of 75, an improvement over 60 which I thought would be my attempt earlier.

30 minutes left and two questions to go; had it been another day or just another question, I would have easily written some good answers but this was tricky. I was reading those terms for the first time and was supposed to write good two pages of answers that made sense to the moderator. I again turned towards Amit for some help. He got animated this time around. He couldn’t really say much but his actions reflected that he dint know the answer and that I was to write two answers quite much on my own.

I read the questions neatly and steadily; determined to write the answer I read the question again (as if I had anything else to do for the next 30 minutes.) I took each term of the question and wrote two lines about each of them. Next task, I combined words that made sense and wrote couple of lines for each such combination. Next, I took the whole question, related it with my own defined and created definitions and wrote some beautiful words blended with terminology of Mr. Turban having lots of planning, strategizing and organizing and put a final full stop. I went through the answer and lo I had written an answer that spanned good two pages. Wow, I said to myself, that was quite an achievement. I wonder what made me read my own answer again. On completion I started laughing at my own answer, it was quite funny. Had Turban given a chance to read it, he would quit his job, stop writing books and take a sanyas. I thought of writing a ‘lol’ after my answer just like the way that sms said but then thought I’ve shown enough smartness in the my ‘created’ answer already.

I followed a similar procedure for the second question and I had successfully written my ITME exam. That was a good feeling; I felt I will surely score a 31 if not anything else and that I would be eligible for placements. It was my second year in degree engineering. Added up with my three years of diploma engineering, I had completed a whole five years doing engineering. Somehow I felt that was quite an achievement. When I shared it with my friends, they however seemed quite bemused by it. Exams were over and we were looking forward towards a good vacation.

But those 180 minutes in the examination hall were tough, fun and often gave me scare bumps, if there are any such things. It was at 5 that I thought I would be writing an article on my experience and here I am concluding it.

Cheers..!!

Regards,

Abhishek Nandgaonkar.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

2011-10-02T12:27:00.000+05:30

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

10 … 9 …. 8 … 7 …. 6…. Faaaaive…… fooooorrrrrr… thareeeeee… tuuuuuuu…. Woneeeeeeee…. Woooohooooo…. Happy New Year….!!!!!!

This was the noise heard throughout the world on the night of 31^st of December 2010 as the year of 2010 bid a good bye to all of us and presented to us a hopeful year of 2011.

The year of 2010 has presented each one of us with varied emotions, varied dreams and has created a new chapter in each life.

Some has had good, bad, bitter, sweet experiences and each one has learnt their lessons for having a better tomorrow.

The night of 31^st was all delight all over the world. There were parties, fun and excitement all around. Here in the city of Mumbai, there was a bit of fear along with the fun and excitement and it was because of the terror threat that Mumbai and other major cities of India had received. But to everyone’s gladness that didn’t let people hamper their plans and people welcomed the New Year with all hospitality.

The year of 2010 has a significant feature that the year’s calendar is ditto the same to as that of 2005. And this has induced a lot of jokes too. But as a matter of fact, we take each day, each month and each year more specifically as a new ray of hope towards achieving happiness and reaching new heights of life.

People book yachts, halls, boats, join clubs and do all the plans by which they can welcome the New Year in the best possible way. Friends gather to have fun, Families have get-togethers and it’s a moment of all happiness. People forget their worries, all their regrets, resolve differences and look forward for a better tomorrow.

Well there is a bad side to each thing. As they say, every coin has two sides. There are many irresponsible elements in the society who indulge in anti-social activities (better not named). Due to such people; it is the police, the doctors who have to work overtime and dedicate their time to work instead of celebrating. It is heard that police were on full duty this year in the last week especially on the 31^st to ensure the safety from external threats as well as to protect the innocent citizens from internal threats. Hospitals kept around 20 beds empty with an assumption that they would be getting that number of patients due to accidents on the 31^st. And unfortunately their expectations didn’t go wrong. Like every year, this year too there were mishappenings that spoilt the mood of celebration of the New Year for some people. Some lost their fun due to their own mistakes while some other misfortunate ones due to other’s irresponsible behavior.

People should therefore see to it that they celebrate and have fun but that fun should not harm others or spoil someone’s day. But hardly do people think when they have money and drinks on their mind.

Anyways let me get back to some good stuff after narrating the grieving stuff. As the New Year approaches, children take blessings of elders. There is hugging and kissing all around. In this age of telecom and Internet bloom, people call, sms and mail each other to such an extent that the networks get jammed up. But such is the happiness of people that they keep calling their beloved ones till they get to talk to them to exchange greetings and love.

On the new day of the New Year, people get all dressed up and attend gatherings and spread love. It is a day of holiday and people enjoy it in a way they prefer. Some active people celebrate by partying while some others sit home, relax and spend quality time with their families.

People start visiting astrologers to know how their New Year would be on financial, career and love fronts respectively. People take up resolutions to follow the following year (though many give them up within a month). Walls get new calendars; everyone puts aside their old diaries and gets their brand new diaries to use. All in all everyone is jubilant that they have a new year to look forward to.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 to all my Readers. May you all have a great year ahead. May all your dreams, aspirations and wishes come true this year. Have fun and spread love.

****** HAPPY NEW YEAR *********

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Sachin, the God of Cricket.

2011-10-02T12:26:00.001+05:30

So, were you there to witness the Master of Cricket hit that glorious shot to get him his 50^th Test Century. I was and it is indeed difficult to express in words how ecstatic I was to see him achieve that feat. I was super happy and was dancing all round the room dancing to the commentary on Ten Cricket.

What made that knock special was that it came at a time when the team needed it. Sachin has been the best player India could have ever produced. He is the light of hope for millions of us, Indians. We turn on the TV sets and watch each and every ball that the Master plays because we just cant get enough of him playing. We’ve been watching him play for the past 20 years but still every time that ball hits the sweet part of Sachin’s bat our heart jumps with satisfaction and pride. People turn off their TV sets when the Master gets out and still wait for the next match to watch him play again.

Sachin Tendulkar has been an inspiration for most of us. We have grown up watch him play. He has motivated not just upcoming cricket players but also others who consider him as an example of success, achievements and glory.

What has taken him so far has been his attitude towards the game. He never lets difficulties go across him. He takes on all of them head-on and more importantly tries to get over them with all the efforts. Second thing that has helped him in his life has been his humility. You would never see him yelling or swearing upon anyone. Sachin has always been calm and composed; be it the cricket field or the field of life. Sachin has also been accredited for being very hard working. He practices for hours and hours and still it seems there is hardly anything that can get him down. He is 37 now but yet after 20 years of cricket he hasn’t given up his spirit. He still plays like a 17 year old. Though his fitness has now compelled him to alter some of his shots, but the ones he has in his kitty are sufficient for him to get another 50 centuries. Well, definitely there is a lot that goes into making a Master indeed.

Sachin in an interview said that he doesn’t really think of centuries. All that he thinks of is playing, overcoming the opponents and making runs. With this hard work, centuries and many other records come along the way.

We all play games and get so excited after winning a single game. Hardly anyone of us has a College-level record; let alone World record. Imagine what effort Mr. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar must have put in to get so many records under his belt.

Sachin is God. He indeed is.

They say.. “Do sins when Sachin plays; because even God is busy watching his game..”

Sachin is a rock star for all of us and he will remain an inspirational God-like figure for most of us. He has given smiles, tears and happiness to the entire world through his game and I am very sure he will continue doing that throughout his life.

I am blessed to have born in a country, a state that has produced such a gentleman. I look up to him and wish to attain success as he has achieved by following the paths of hard work, humility and love.

Such is the charisma of the Little Master, Sachin Tendulkar. Here are some Sachin Facts that you might be interested in having a look.

Courtesy: www.cricinfo.com

Full name Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

Born April 24, 1973, Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra

Current age 37 years 243 days

Major teams India, Asia XI, Mumbai, Mumbai Indians,Yorkshire

Nickname Tendlya, Little Master

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm offbreak, Legbreak googly

Height 5 ft 5 in

Education Sharadashram Vidyamandir School

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THE DAY OF VERDICT ON AYODHYA LAND DISPUTE

2011-10-02T12:25:00.000+05:30

NOTE: This blog is not a news article mentioning the result. Instead it is a blog from an Indian's perspective of how he felt about the verdict and the day he went through.

THE DAY OF VERDICT ON AYODHYA LAND DISPUTE

The eve of 30^th of September 2010, the clock ticked 4:30 pm. Lakhs of Indian eyes glued to the television screens surfing through various news channels. The reason was the verdict of the High court of Allahabad on the case of Ayodhya. Streets were empty, station platforms silenced; half of the hard working Mumbai was back home unlike the other working days.

“This is NDTV 24x7 and we are showing you the live coverage from the High court of Allahabad. And looks like the gates are opening.”

“Mamma, come out fast, they are showing the decision”, a young Rahul called his mother out in the TV room.

A pool of black clothed people stepped out the gate. The security personnel gathered around the lawyers and shooed the mediapeople away. Various TV channels showed the same scenarios from various angles. A TV channel showed the news from the top of a tree, other from the steps and another poor guy was just being able to show the heads of his fellow mediapeople.

A wise TV channel knew that they won’t be getting the news so soon, so they started narrating the history of the case. They said that the verdict is of a case that has been impending over 60 years. Hundreds of years ago, a Hindu deity, ‘LORD RAMA’ was born in Ayodhya. In his worship, the Indians built a massive temple with the Rama idol and Sita, his wife’s kitchen.

Hindus worshipped this place with all their faith. India was then invaded by the Mughal Empire. The then ruling Mughal Emperor, Babar, destroyed the Lord Rama temple and built a mosque over it. The Muslims all over the country started believing it as a holy place and worshipped it.

So that place in Ayodhya had a special place in the hearts of both the Hindus and Muslims.

In the early 1990’s, a bad political plot took place. The then head of a political party Mr. X made a ploy to create a rift between religions and take the Hindu advantage towards coming in power. He carried out massive protests and provoked the Hindus in believing that the Babri Masjid was built at the place of a Hindu temple. So it should be removed from its place and a Hindu temple be built.

Thousands of Hindus from all over the country went to Uttar Pradesh and in the spirit of vengeance demolished the dome of the Babri Masjid thereby announcing that the party had successfully brought down a Muslim Mosque which was built at the place of a Hindu Temple.

But what followed were massive riots and protests throughout the country. Among the worst affected was the city of Mumbai. Massive riots took place in Mumbai killing around a thousand people. It is said that the series of bomb blasts that took place in the March of 1993 was and after effect of the fall of the Babri Masjid.

Suddenly in the middle of this story, the screen showed a pitch red color through the screen with letters written in bold white as ‘BREAKING NEWS’; something enough for one to believe that the news is not good. But this news channel shows this screen for every small news; news as small as a dog’s fracture. You must have guessed which news channel I mean to mention.

The screen suddenly showed so many people that it was then difficult to identify anyone in it. Also the speakers were shouting out so loud that none of it made any sense to the viewer. Steadily it was understood that certain lawyers were announcing the court verdict to the many media persons standing for some information so that they can break it first on their news channel.

The arrangements for the press meet looked very shabby. A microphone was of the worst quality; one of the types that has been used for years for now. But still the same microphone was in full demand as it seemed that two lawyers were virtually fighting over who should speak over the mike. The stage looked weak and seemed as if the lawyers would fall off any moment. The background was a maroon colored curtain. The media it seemed was standing as no chairs were visible on my 29” monitor. But all of the media was dying over with their cameras and microphones.

Finally a lady lawyer came over and took over the microphone. It seemed that now there would be peace and we would get some good news. But things just got better (read the sarcasm). The lady I doubt if she knew English. And to overdo it she was shouting over the microphone with her long breaths filling the space between her words. The speakers dint look in a good condition either. They were emitting noise, not sound.

For 10 long minutes, the media was showing us the live coverage and I would doubt if they were themselves being able to understand what was being said leave alone the audience. The media was sensible I must say; they moved on to lawyers who were out of the room of press meet and took the news from there. These not-much-to-do lawyers suddenly got the much coveted limelight and they too in the most serious mood they could display, announced the news.

It was finally understood from the noise and the news that the verdict was declared. The verdict was that the place would be divided into 1/3^rd parts each for the Hindu Temple, the Mosque and the Nirmohi Akhara.

The decision was accepted all over the country for the time at least as both the communities were satisfied by giving some portions of the land. Both the religions were given apt respect and the decision I guess was made to satisfy both the parties.

Finally the decision was announced, the whole of India came to know the latest status of the land. But this was half of the news for the country. What was also very important to know was the response of the various communities throughout the country.

But thankfully, nothing bad took place. The whole country took the verdict in the right spirit. The people of India have indeed moved on with the pace of life. I was so happy that the decision was accepted by all the people. The fear of 1993 riots still remains in the hearts of the people and people were therefore very scared before the verdict. But the attitude of the country makes me proud to say that I am an Indian.

And finally as they say.. ”ALL IS WELL THAT ENDS WELL”

JAY HIND…!!!

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Why did Mumbai Indians fail this year at the IPL 1...?

2011-10-02T12:23:00.000+05:30

Mumbai Indians, the most pricey franchisee of the Indian Premier League..

It had everything with it.. the brand name, the sponsers, the rich rich owner, the all time best batsmen, all time good bowlers, good coach, the best fielding coach...

Then what exactly went wrong.. after having everything good in the recipie, what was it that made the food taste bad...

Instead of yelling and shouting "..aala re aala..", we had to shout "..gela re gela..". Why did this happen..?

First of all i feel, the very popular dialogue from THE SPIDERMAN,
"... Big Power brings you big responsibility..."

I think this held true with the Mumbai Indians [hereafter i would be using MI for Mumbai Indians]. The team had so much at stake, name, fame, money, reputation... Before taking up any task, any match somewhere in the minds everyone had some pressure over him.

Secondly, the MI team went for best in all areas but failed to play together as a team. The players were the best as indivisuals but as a team, they failed to perform.

Sachin's captaincy wasn't the best. As compared to Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, MS Dhoni, Sachin's captaincy stood nowhere near.

MI lacked a big hitter of the ball. A player who could hit the ball no matter where the ball was delivered..
Of course, MI had Jayasurya,but to the hard luck of the franchisee, not in the best of the forms.
Sachin on the other hand, played well throughout the season but not as good as required by the situation.
JP Duminy was a find for the team but he proved to be more of a slogger than a hitter.
Dwayne Brawo, man , what a player he is.. a true West Indian spirit.. He proved a boon to the team. The only man i believe who kept his form throughout the tournament.
Lasith Malinga was fantastic, his yorkers made me feel.. God please don't make me play him ever in my life.. What perfect yorkers...!!! Salute...
Apna Bhajji dint fire up good, Zaheer was good till he got injured.. (I just pray he would be able to play for the World Cup)
The Indian finds in Abhishek Nayar, Shikhar Dhawan, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pinal Shah, Yogesh Takawale, Rohan Raje and others were good but not good enough to stand to the level of the tournament.
A several imports were also made to sit on the bench throughout the tournament.

A team which on paper would have made several to sweat didn't fire up when required.

Many things failed and I am sure the team must be busy today collecting the bits and pieces of the failed effort..

But being a Mumbaikar, my heart beats for Mumbai and MI.. and i am quite sure, although not last year, though not this year, agle saal toh ipl mumbai hi jeetega...

".....Aaaaala re aaala MUMBAI INDIAN aaalaaa...."

I would love to shout this next year too.. and i hope we win the trophy next year...

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