Debasisa's

Australia's Tour of India 2009 Streaming Live Free- Match 6

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:29:00 +0000

India Vs Australia- Match 6

Free Streaming Live ICC champions Trophy 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:29:00 +0000

Free Video Streaming of ICC Champions Trophy 2009

live from South Africa.

Watch Free Live Video Streaming Of the Final : Australia V New Zealand

Too Much Excitement for One Week-End

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:57:00 +0000

After a 7 month stint at 47[D] Crystal Brook Way I moved out to a new apartment in Marlborough; 12 Royal Crest Dr.
I had to move out as the owner at Crystal Brook Way was expecting his parents from India for the next couple of months. Hence on 25th April 2009 I packed my bags after returning from office on that Friday and called Rajat to come pick me up as he was already living in Royal Crest. On reaching my new home I just dumped everything in my room and had some food and went to bed a little early at about 10PM as I was too tiered after all the packing and moving. My other roomie had some plans for the week-end so he left with his friend.

Wake Up call!!
The morning I woke up to a loud knocking sound on our door.At first I was very angry/irritated as to who the f***k is this guy knocking so loud so early on a Saturday morning.As I was walking towards the door I was slowly getting my senses back and realized there was some kind of alarm that was going on. I was surprised to see a Big Fat Fireman when peeped through the doors peep hole. He said " Sir, You have get out of the apartment right now, there has been a fire in the building". With out fully realizing what he was saying I instinctively grabbed my cell phone and keys and rushed out. On my way out I could see black smoke coming out of the basement but no flames though.

Thank God for the Smoke Alarm
Upon reaching to the front of my building I saw two fire trucks , 3/4 police cars and all the residents of my apt standing on the road[The pics posted above are real life pics, taken with my cell phone camera]. I went to a person and asked How did the fire start? he said " I don't know there was some smoke in the basement which triggered the smoke alarm and notified the fire dept." I used get annoyed with the smoke alarms complaining [read going off] for every little speck of smoke coming out of the kitchen like when I made a "chapati" bit too crispy in the morning while making lunch or giving a "KADAK tadka" to the Daal etc. OK, I agree is was more than a speck of smoke but I still thought it to be a nuisance rather than a life saver as it turned out to be for the residents of 12 Royal Crest Dr on that fateful day. All the desis staying in my building were all praise for the smoke alarm, me included.

The Culprit.
After 2 cold hours outside the fire officers allowed us into the building after they cleared up all the smoke and put out the fire source. When I re-entered i went directly to the basement to see what had caused the fire. It was the dryer in the basement. Seems like some one was trying to save one buck on dry cleaning and had put in woolens inside the dryer in spite of the printed caution[in bold RED fonts] not to do so.Due to the hot air the woolen cloths melted and jammed the dryer and that caused the machine to spark /fume and hence the smoke and fire. And from the half burnt cloths lying there ; it was anybody's guess that fool was a DESI.

Lesson learned : "Don't dry your woolens against the caution in the basement dryer unless you want to burn the house down."

Watch Rath Jatra Live online- The Festival of Chariots of Lord Jagannatha

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:37:00 +0000

Rath Jatra - The Festival of Chariots
of Lord Jagannatha Celebrating on
24th June 2009 at Puri, Orissa From 8:30 AM IST Onwords.

May lord Jagannath Bless you.

Live Web Cast is brought to you courtesy National Informatics center.

IPL 2009:Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals Video Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:26:00 +0000

Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals Video Highlights

Unbelievable match. Really astounding. Incredible scenes at the end. Finally the IPL has come alive. Kolkata were well on course when Gayle was firing on all cylinders. Then enter the magician Warne, he nips out Gayle. Ganguly played an amazing innings as he silenced all his critics. Yashpal Singh opened the door for Royals with a poor stroke. Kamran Khan bowled a splendid final over. It was 2 from 2 when Ganguly edged one to the keeper. Ishant strode in and looked to have won it for KKR with a firm drive, enter Warne again with a diving stop. Kamran Khan kept his nerve to relay the ball back to the keeper to run out Ishant.

Rajasthan Innings

Kolkata Innings

Super Over

Solitude

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:53:00 +0000

The very word solitude has a whole new meaning for me now. Its not that I have never been alone before, I was on many occasions, but there would always be someone a friend, a colleague or some known face around when I needed someone to talk to or just be with.
And for some reason I liked my freedom to be myself when I was alone; I liked the idea that I can do what ever I want and nobody to question or stop me.

I saw a whole new face of solitude when my room-mate [Waman] left for India in December 08 and subsequently returned to another state. First I thought it wont make me anymore lonely than I have always been; but boy was I wrong this time. First few days went kind of OK I tried to make most of my days alone and would watch movies all week-end long or just lay in the bed the whole week-end getting out only to eat but as it was core winter in Mass probably there was not much I could have done.

Slowly as the weather started getting better my misery kept growing too. Weekdays would go great, I spent most of the day in office and I would have some company at home in the form of Arun my house owner. But the week-end would haunt me. I started doing all kind of stuff just to keep myself busy during the week-end. I would make strict schedules for the mundane chores like washing and pressing cloths, preparing food, cutting nails, polishing my shoes and would you believe even eating. I would set alarms for each of the tasks and force myself to finish them on schedule. It seemed to work for some weeks but then I started loosing the motivation to follow this insane schedule.

Just to avoid getting over bored I would talk to strangers in public chat rooms in streaming sites [justin.tv etc], go and wander outside even it’s snowing heavily, eat chips as if I have nothing else to eat, I would curse myself constantly for not being forthcoming and not being able make friends easily and quickly. All this craziness forced me to talk to people I would never talked to otherwise and that was good in a way as I made new friends[Sanga] to whom I can talk to or chat with anytime I feel like. My friend Rajat also started coming to my place some week-ends and the three of us Rajat, Sanga and me would go out some times together. Things started getting to the usual again. I can't thank them enough.

After going through all this I think I am finally at peace with my self or at least I hope I am. :)

Watch Indian Premere League Live

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:23:00 +0000

Indian Premere Legue 2009 Live

Watch IPL Season2 Live Online

NZ Vs Ind Second Test 09 Live

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:54:00 +0000

India Vs New Zealand 2nd Test Live

Click the play button to Start the stream.

Black Day for Cricket

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:42:00 +0000

A bloody attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team's bus in Pakistan has rocked the sport and cast doubt on future tours to the terrorism-plagued country.A dozen masked men with rifles, grenades and rocket launchers yesterday ambushed the team's convoy close to the main sports stadium in the eastern city of Lahore on the third day of the second test against Pakistan.

Eight people were killed and at least six players wounded as police fought off the attackers in a 15-minute battle in which a rocket narrowly missed the team bus."It was terrible. The van driver died in front of us. I am lost for words," Australian umpire Steve Davis said.
Masked attackers crept through trees as they fired guns and grenades.

"There was a blast first, then we heard firing. A rocket launcher was also fired at the bus which narrowly missed"

The injured players included captain Mahela Jayawardene, vice-captain Kumar Sangakkara, Thilan Samaraweera, Chaminda Vaas, Ajantha Mendis and Tharanga Paranavitana.
Samaraweera and Paranavitana were taken to hospital with shrapnel wounds in the chest and leg respectively. The rest of the Sri Lankan tour was canceled.

The New Zealand and Indian cricket teams donned black armbands at the halfway point of their one-day match in Napier last night as a mark of respect for their Sri Lankan counterparts and those killed in the attack.

And lets not for get why the Sri Lankan Cricket team were there. It could have been the indian crciket team if they had not canceled their tour to Pakistan. Srilanka was merely covering for India.Any which way this has been a BLACK day for Cricket. Most certainly it would work as the death nail in the coffin of already frail Pakistan cricket and also raises doubts about Pakistan hosting matches for the 2011 ICC cricket World Cup.

ICC should seriously consider banning Pakistan from hosting international cricket no country will be willing to play in Pakistan anyway.This would invariably affect the sense of safety international players felt in spite all the terror incidents due to the mad love of people in the sub-continent[India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka] for cricket as this was a direct attack on cricketers.

What a Geek wants from the Managers

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:31:00 +0000

Its Appraisal time in my Company and as with most companies there is a section in the appraisal process where you are asked what do you expect from the managers.
I don't really know what they want/expect as an answer . I proud myself of being a Geek as most IT folk. And I don't mean geek in the derogatory sense it most often used.In My dictionary Geek means "an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity".

The main reason IT people are unhappy at work is bad relations with management, often because geeks and managers have fundamentally different personalities, professional backgrounds and ambitions. Some people conclude that geeks hate managers and are impossible to lead. The expression “managing geeks is like herding cats” is sometimes used, but that’s just plain BULLSHIT.

Here are some top ways that I wish my managers managers understood then they can lead IT team or Geeks effectively and respectfully.

1.Value training. If a boss thinks that training is a waste of money and expects you to teach yourself, you feel pretty demotivated in any job. Training matters, especially in IT, and managers must realize that and budget for it. Sometimes you get the argument that “if I give them training a competitor will hire them away.” That may be true, but the alternative is to only have employees who are too unskilled to work anywhere else. Also, if you pay them well and have good benefits, they won't go somewhere else.

2.Give recognition. Since managers may not understand the work geeks do very well, it’s hard for them to recognize and reward a job well done, which hurts motivation. The solution is to work together to define a set of goals that both parties agree on. When these goals are met the geeks are doing a great job.

3.Don't Overwork the Geek. Avoid taking the approach of wringing as much as possible out of IT employees just because you figure they don't lead a normal life. Wrong! That’s a huge mistake and overworked geeks burn out or simply quit.

4.Avoid using management-speak. Geeks hate management-speak and see it as superficial and dishonest. I am not saying manages should learn to speak tech, but they should drop the biz-buzzwords. For Example a manager can say “We need to proactively impact our time-to-market” or simply use plain English and stick to “We gotta be on time with this project”. The latter makes total sense to everyone involved.

5.Don't try to be smarter than the geeks. When managers don’t know anything about a technical question, they should simply admit it. Geeks respect them for that, but not for pretending to know. And we will catch it - geeks are smart.

6.Act consistently. Geeks have an ingrained sense of fairness, probably related to the fact that in IT, structure and consistency is critical. The documentation can’t say one thing while the code does something else, and similarly, managers can’t say one thing and then do something else.

7.Include them in decisions. Never make decisions without consulting geeks. Geeks usually know the technical side of the business better than the manager, so making a technical decision without consulting them is one of the biggest mistakes a leader can make. For Example when managers come to us and say, "I have already committed to this deadline for delivery, You have get this done before the deadline." Dude!! You should have asked the geek how much time it would take before committing the date.

8.Give them the tools needed. A fast computer may cost more money than an older one and it may not be corporate standard, but geeks use computers differently. A slow computer lowers productivity and is a daily annoyance. So is outdated software. Give them the tools they need. Understand that tools come in many forms. Caffeine is considered a standard tool among Geeks. It's good to keep a supply of the caffeinated beverages your team prefers handy.

9.Remember that geeks are creative workers. Programming is a creative process, not an industrial one[like management]. Geeks must constantly come up with solutions to new problems and rarely ever solve the same problem twice. Therefore they need leeway and flexibility. Strict dress codes and too much red tape kill all innovation. They also need creative surroundings to avoid “death by cubicle”.

10.Geeks don't like dead weight. No one does. If you have any, get rid of it, and your team will be better off. Teams only work when everyone is pulling their weight.

Last but not the least "Geeks are smart. Don't assume smart people always have sound judgment- they don't. Rely on the ones who have it; learn from them- evolve.". Everybody is entitled to make mistakes, even the Geek.

Why does an egg burst when cooked in microwave oven?

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:38:00 +0000

I think you'd have already guessed it. :) I did it too. Turns out a lot of other people before me have experienced the same Kaboom!! in their microwave oven on some morning or other while boiling eggs for breakfast. I guess it was my turn to learn that lesson that day.

Due to pure laziness or lack of attentiveness I put 2 eggs in the microwave this morning set it to cook on high for 15 mins and went on to read the news on Google while finishing my cereal.

Seven mins later I turned back to a loud bursting noise in the microwave.The damn machine was off, I opened the door and shit! there was warm gooey egg slush all over the place. I quickly grabbed the kitchen towel and sucked it all up.

Once I was back from office I sat down to find out why the hell it happened? As you'd guess I looked for answers on the net. And yes someone had already asked the question so here goes the answer:

"Microwaves transfer heat to water molecules. In this case the water molecules are in the egg, enclosed in the shell. when the water boils - which it does - it creates steam inside the egg shell, and that builds up a great deal of pressure, until, **SPLAT**"

Now I also remembered that it had happened to one of my friends Luqman not so long ago and he had told me about it.But then again I am that kind of a person who has to burn his hand to learn that fire is hot.

But all you people can learn from my experience or better still go ahead try it yourself it works. :)

3 Oscar Nominations for Rehman and 10 for Slumdog

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:17:00 +0000

After becoming the first Indian to win the Golden Globe, Melody maestro A R Rahman added yet another feat to his long list of startling achievements over the years, a triple Oscar nomination in two categories, an unprecedented exploit for any Indian.
Rehman nicknamed 'Mozart of Madras', has enthralled audience in the country and abroad with his heartwarming symphonies for years; finally got his due recognition on the international stage with his composition in the British movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' by Danny Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire is leading the pack with 10 nominations, including a directing spot for Danny Boyle and two of the three song slots.

Rehman, bagged nominations in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories for two of his compositions -- 'Jai Ho' and 'O Saya'.
I hope Rehman wins the OSCAR for all his three nominations. I have my fingers crossed till Feb 22nd 09.

UPDATE :

I guess my crossing paid really big. Rehman won 2 Oscars. Hurrray!!

Watch Barack Obama's Inagural Speech Live

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:28:00 +0000

Hi Friends you can watch Barack Obamas Inagural Speech live on my blog on 20st January.

Watch out for this !!

New Fav Icon for Google

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:15:00 +0000

If you have online recently I bet you have noticed the catchy,color full and lowercase 'g' fav icon of the Google site.

As per the official Google blog post this and a complete set of new Logo's and icons are part of Google's new branding strategy for newer platforms like iPhone.

If you ask me i liked the old one with the capital G much better. Then again i am not Google CEO. If they have decided to change it after 8.5 years they must be having good reasons to do so.

If you like the new logo on the other hand and would like to see it in your Firefox search box also then here's how you can do it.

Golden Globe to Rehman

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:05:00 +0000

Bollywood music director A.R. Rahman Monday became the first Indian to win the Golden Globe Award, for best original musical score in Danny Boyle's movie 'Slumdog Millionaire'. The honour bestowed on the maestro has brought much cheer to the Indian film industry.

Rahman won the prestigious award for his musical score in the song 'Jai Ho', for which Gulzar penned the lyrics. The song is a typical Rahman number and the composer stuck to his signature style while composing it. The song was rendered by Sukhwinder Singh a Rehman regular.

Three cheers for Rehman! Hip Hip Hurray :)

Get Windows 7 Free

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:37:00 +0000

Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer today announced that Windows 7 the long awaited sequel to Microsoft's somewhat crappy previous windows release Vista will be available FREE as a public BETA release on Friday 9th Jan 2009.

Though Windows 7 beta has been available through the Bit Torrent from the next day it was unveiled but if you were waiting for a more genuine copy of the OS to try your hands on this is your lucky chance. Grab a copy and take it for a Spin !!

MS goes on to claim that Windows 7 has sub 30 second boot time.Cool!!.

If you are thinking of giving it a try here is what you would need to run Windows 7:
A 1GHz processor (32- or 64-bit),
1GB of main memory,
16GB of available disk space,
support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface), and a DVD-R/W drive.

Go ahead have fun!!

The Satyam Debacle

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Early morning today B Ramalinga Raju — the founder of Satyam Computers, one of India’s largest IT companies — dropped a bombshell when he sent a five-page letter to the 2 stock exchanges confessing to one of the biggest frauds ever seen.

He as part of his confession letter revealed that Satyam had NO BALANCE SHEET and was cooking up the numbers to fool the share holders and independent directors since several quarters.

The markets reacted quickly to this news and Satyam's share[BSE:SATCOM] was down almost 75% at the end of days trading.The NYSE even stopped trading for the Satyam Computer ADR.

Raju is a well connected man in India. It would be interesting to see if law catches up with him. Even if he escapes in India, what about the SEC the federal agency that oversees the exchange of securities to protect investors in US? However US also is not free of corporate scandals. Enron, the recent Madoff $50B scandal are best examples for this. Will the US lawyers RUSH on behalf of Satyam shareholders to sue Raju?

This leavs us with many daunting questions about corporate governance in India and trasparancy in corporate audits.
How did the auditor sign the balance sheet?
Will that audit firm Price Waterhouse in India be asked to shut?
Is this a sign or a sample case, how (are) the highly honoured audit firms are working in India?
How did the World Council for Corporate Governance named the company winner as recently as in Sept 2008?!!

The word 'Satyam' in many Indian languages means 'Truth'. Unfortunately that is the name of this company where every corporate act was false.

It all started when Mr Raju Chairman of Satyam Computers decided to buy out ‘Maytas’ which is his son’s ailing infrastructure company.

With this move, Raju destroyed the image of India as an attractive investment destination and notion of corporate governance. Initial reports say that Ramalinga Raju may face criminal proceeding and 10 year jail term. The finance ministry has swung into action on the Satyam issue. It has asked stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Ministry of corporate affairs to give a report on the issue.Market regulator SEBI on Wednesday, Jan 7 said it would take all steps under the law for which it has started discussions with government and bourses.

"We are in touch with Ministry of Corporate Affairs... we are also in discussion with them as to what steps need to be taken from the perspective of power they have under the law and SEBI has under the law," SEBI Chairman C B Bhave said. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) may look at banning Satyam Computer Services from its membership. "The entire incident came AS a shock to us. Also, this kind of a fiasco is an unprecedented one in the history of Nasscom.We are looking into the matter on what steps can be taken. Considering the magnitude and implications of the incident, we can even look at banning the company from Nasscom," said Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman of Nasscom.

Latest reports even suggest Raju has fled to Dubai to avoid getting arrested!!

If we look at the big picture here , its going to impact every body from Other IT biggies like Infosys,TCS and Wipro to the Auditing firms like Price Waterhouse..the most hit would be the poor employees and share holders of Satyam.My heart goes out for all my friends who either hold Satyam shares or are employees.

Wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:46:00 +0000

I really hope the bad times[bankruptcy,market slump,layoffs] are over with the end of 2008 and lets hope 2009 will bring with its onset a lot of hope. Hope for the economy to get back on track, hope for people who lost their jobs and houses to earn enough to get them back.Hope for the world to find peace and an end to the hatred[Terror attacks in Mumbai] we saw last year.

I wish all my readers a happy and successful year ahead.
Happy New year.

Cheers!!
Debasys

Computing on the go from MS

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:17:00 +0000

There was this cool patent registration yesterday.Microsoft had applied for a patent in 2007 for a concept called computing on the go.

The Patent's abstract explains this as "a standard PC is given away or heavily subsidized. The consumer then pays to use the computer, with charges based on length of usage time and performance levels.".

What this means is for example:
Consider a situation involving three "bundles" of applications and performance: office, gaming, and browsing.
"The office bundle may include word-processing and spreadsheet applications, medium graphics performance and two of three processor cores," the document reads. "The gaming bundle may include no productivity applications but may include 3D graphics support and three of three processor cores. The browsing bundle may include no productivity applications, medium graphics performance and high-speed network interface."

"Charging for the various bundles may be by bundle and by duration. For example, the office bundle may be $1.00 [68 pence] per hour, the gaming bundle may be $1.25 per hour and the browsing bundle may be $0.80 per hour. The usage charges may be abstracted to 'units/hour' to make currency conversions simpler. Alternatively, a bundle may incur a one-time charge that is operable until changed or for a fixed-usage period,"
Debasys

Sony, ibibo launch application for RMTC movie

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:24:00 +0000

Sony BMG has partnered with ibibo.com to launch an application for the movie 'Raaz - The Mystery Continues' (RTMC).

The movie will hit theatres worldwide on Jan 23. The RTMC application on ibibo offers for the first time in India an opportunity for the audiences to Karaoke to the tracks of the movie and that too sing straight from their mobiles.

The application also treats users to the latest music of Raaz- The Mystery Continues and the haunting rifs of smash hit Maahi- the lead track, along with four other super hits! Users can register and sample exclusive RTMC videos, trailers, befriend the cast and crew, send exclusive RTMC eCards and eGifts to their ibibo friends.

Besides singing to RTMC tracks and joining the RTMC fan club, aspiring film makers and directors are invited to upload two to three minute videos, shot on a handy cam, mobile camera or a digicams, based on a supernatural or freaky theme and get a chance to spend a day with Mohit Suri, Director of RTMC and get to learn the art of film making.

Happens to the Best of us

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:23:00 +0000

The premise

It had been snowing like crazy since last afternoon and since me and Waman[my colleague and room partner] came from office yesterday at around 12:30 pm we had stayed inside till 4PM on the fateful Saturday afternoon[20th-Dec-2008].

We had to go out and start and run Waman's car[Hyundai Ascent our RIDE] for sometime to keep it in good running state otherwise it wont start in the morning while we go to office on Monday.So at around 3:45 PM after having our late lunch we were just chatting around watching Ristay [Waman's favorite TV show] and I said lets go and check out the car.So we got our winter cloths[jacket,gloves]on, put on our shoes and went out.We missed a few very very important things as we were cruelly reminded later.

Is this our car?
We got to the place where we had parked our car yesterday and were surprised to see it completely covered with snow.There was this cute little Chinese girl cleaning her car , she said "Hi" we also returned the greetings.We also started to clear off the huge layer of snow that had accumulated over the last night. After we got the car relatively free of snow Waman got into the car to start it and I was filming him do this with my digi cam never knowing that things would go so terribly wrong.
As you can see in the video Waman made the big mistake !! closed the door with the keys[INCLUDING the keys to our house] inside.So here we were few seconds back enjoying the snow ,happy and now we were all screwed up. Freezing in the -15C temp,snowing non-stop, no home,no car, no cell phone and no people around.Remember the things I told about we missed to take while going out yes now it was all coming back to us , Oops! i for got to take my wallet that had my key for the house, Waman for got to take his cell phone.

Panic Strikes
Now we were stranded outside. Waman went to that Chinese chick to ask for help but as expected she had no clue what to do.Suddenly we remembered there was a auto-parts store called Midas just round the corner thinning they may have something or may be someone from them can help us get the car open started running towards that store. As I was running my nose and cheeks lost all sensation and my fingers and feet also started to freeze. But to our horror they were closed "who will remain open in such worst weather"!!!.
Disappointed and hopeless we made our way back to our car which was still running.We had no clue what to do and then we saw a man doing something in front of 47A[btw we stay at 47D]. So I told Waman lets go and ask him for help, we had to call 911 or AAA[Auto Insurance Company]. Waman went to him and explained our situation.

The Angel called Earl
The persons name was Earl he offered us help by giving us his phone to call as fortunately he also had a AAA membership so he had their number also. Waman called AAA and told them about our misery and as he told them that we were locked outside our home in freezing cold the lady said she will put our request in priority but this may still take up to 2 hours.

I said shit! what will we do till 2 hours?,but Earl offered us to come inside his house and wait for them.We first said "no we don't want to disturb you guys" but both us knew we needed to go inside if wanted to live to see another day.

The long wait.
We went inside; met his wife who was sitting besides a nicely decorated Christmas tree there playing some game on her Wii.After our ordeal in the freezing snow for about half an our we were now inside his home sitting on a comfortable sofa.
Waman started a conversation asking where were they from? which led to a series of casual discussions about a myriad of topics.Just to make us feel better earls wife told how his father once did a similar thing and that it "happens to the best of us" and "you will laugh on this someday".It did not seem funny at that time but as i think of it now now i can see what she was saying.me and Waman keep on laughing when ever we see the above video.All along Waman had kept an eye out of the window to spot the AAA guys.After almost 50 mins of wait finally a guy showed up in a truck.

Both me and Waman scampered out thanking Earl on the way for his help and with in no time the guy opened the car door and we got the keys for which we had suffered so much this day.

After the formalities with the AAA person got completed both me and Waman went to Earls house again and thanks him again and finally returned to our house.

Moral of the story "Never lock yourself out of your car and house on snowy winter day".
Easier said than done right?

Please dont make a Film out of Mumbai Terror Attacks

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:50:00 +0000

"Please don’t make a Film out of Mumbai Terror Attacks" was the appeal made by Sandip Ray son of the legendary film maker Satyajit Ray yesterday during some interview.

I agree with him to the fullest. I know its tempting for most of our modern day film makers to cash-in on such tragic events and I do agree some good classic films have been made on terrorism.
Besides it’s their creative freedom to choose what ever topic they like to make films on.

But my concern with these kinds of films is with the fact that due to commercial obligations or to show the actors in better light they glorify the very same terrorists, who have committed such terrible deeds, killed so many innocent people. Of course they do highlight the bravery and courage shown by our security forces. But some how or other these films depict the incidents in such a manner that the general public feel a sense of victory and feel good about it.

But after terrorists entering our commercial capital, holding the city of Mumbai to hostage for 60 long hours; killing so many people should we feel we one in the end?

Mumbai Heroes who saved many lives

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:44:00 +0000

With Mumbai under terror attacks, many common Mumbaikars showed extraordinary courage and compassion at this time of grave crisis staring right at their face. Some of these heroic stories are now coming up in the media. New York Times today listed some of them.

Vishnu Datta Ram Zende used the public-address system at Mumbai's largest railway station, Victoria Terminus, to direct busy hordes of travelers to their trains, The New York Times reported.

Zende heard a loud explosion just before 10 p.m., and saw people running across the platform, he gripped his microphone and calmly directed a panicked crowd toward the safest exit. The station was suddenly under attack, the beginning of a three-day siege by a handful of young, heavily armed gunmen.

"Walk to the back and leave the station through Gate No. 1," he shouted alternately in Hindi and Marathi, barely stopping to take a breath until the platform was cleared. No sooner, gunmen located his announcement booth and fired, puncturing one of the windows. Zende was not hurt.

Overnight, Zende became one of Mumbai's new heroes, their humanity all the more striking in the face of the inhumanity of the gunmen. As the city faced one of the most horrific terrorist attacks in the nation's history, many ordinary citizens like Zende, 37, displayed extraordinary grace, The NYT said.

Many times, they did so at considerable personal risk, performing acts of heroism that was not part of their job descriptions. Without their quick thinking and common sense, the toll of the attacks would most likely have been even greater.

Not far from the train station, as the same network of gunmen stormed the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, a sous chef named Nitin Minocha and his co-workers shepherded more than 200 restaurant diners into a warren of private club rooms called The Chambers.

For the rest of the night they prepared snacks, served soda, fetched cigarettes and then, when told it was safe, tried to escort the diners out through the back. They wanted to make sure their guests, many of them Mumbai's super-elite, were as comfortable as possible.

"The only thing was to protect the guests," said the executive chef, Hemant Oberoi. "I think my team did a wonderful job in doing that. We lost some lives in doing that."

During the attacks, six employees from the kitchen staff were slain. Another hotel employee, a maintenance worker on night duty, was shot in the abdomen and remained in critical condition on Monday, The NYT reported.

Minocha, 34, caught two bullets in the left arm. It felt numb. He could see that the bone had been shattered. He panicked.

"I'm a chef. I cook with both hands," he told himself.

Even after an aborted evacuation bid, hotel workers helped get water for their guests and held up bedsheets to create makeshift urinals. Next to the Nariman House, the headquarters of a Jewish religious organization, where gunmen took hostages, neighbors helped neighbors evacuate to safety.

At Victoria Terminus, Zende's calls prevented many commuters from walking into the path of two gunmen. "It occurred to me, I should prevent people from going to that side," he said.

The attackers had already shot up the other wing of the 130-year-old railway station, littering it with dead bodies, puncturing windows with bullet holes.

"Mumbai Terror" Attack whos responsible

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:07:00 +0000

26^th November Time 10:00 PM Mumbai.

Once again Mumbai woke up with the attack of Terrorism. Nobody knew that it was going to be a worst attack since 1993 Mumbai Blasts. On the target were one of the Old heritages of India “The Hotel TAJ ”, The Oberai, The Nariman house and the Terrorist’s favorite place “The CST Terminal’. After the 59 hours of battle Mumbai was finally freed from the terrorist but with the massive loss of Indian Heroes who gave their lives to save Mumbai. This was an attack not only on TAJ or Oberai. This is attack not only on Mumbai. This is the attack on India and on every Indian. We are the people who suffered the most. We are the people who have felt the pain and anger and we are the people among whom some have lost their lives and some their relatives. In this whole episode what was most disgusting was the act of the Politicians.

When the Mumbai was burning, when Hotel TAJ was set on fire, when hostages were crying for the help Where were our elite Politicians? our Leaders, don’t deserve to be called so. During those 59 hours, the toughest time India was facing, Our Politicians were sitting at their home and watching the live coverage of “Terrorist attack on Mumbai”. When the time was to take some action what the hell were they doing? This is really a ridiculous and the most embarrassing thing that can happen to any nation and when the whole Drama was over they came out from their Shell to get all the praise and appreciation But one thing they forgot that they couldn’t make the fool of Indian Public any more. Here is example of the most ridiculous comment given by one of our elite politician “Terrorist had plan to kill around 5000 people and govt has done well to make it to 200” and ”It was an International terrorist attack and govt can’t do much about this" . How can a person at such responsible position can give such a irresponsible statement. Our Gujrat’s CM who was most critical of the Malegaon Blast investigation done by ATS chief Hemant Karkare came to Mumbai and offered 1 crore rupees to his family to denigrate Maharashtra government who offered only 5 Lakhs rupees. What they wanted to show ? Whether they wanted to show that the life and the excellent work done by Karkare can be counted in terms of money? Never! What Mr Hemant Karkare and other elite officers did, I think we can never think in dreams . Even after his demise politicians are doing politics on his death. As of now it has been clear that this attack was not the intelligence of Terrorists but the failure of Indian Government and Indian Politicians whether it is a Maharashtra govt., UPA or NDA govt. This is not the first time when India saw the face of terror. Terror strikes in many faces but always promises were made by the Indian govt and the attacks get more daring and heinous and very less were done to the mark. If the Government of India don't have the guts to take the responsibility then they should give power to the citizens of India who are in better shape to make India terror free.

I salute to the People who directly or indirectly played a significant role in rescuing Mumbai from this Heinous Terrorist attack. As usual Indian media played the crucial role and made us to feel for the people who died and who fought against it. I salute to the people who gave us the live coverage of whole act. I am happy that our media is now mature enough and is becoming the voice of the Indians. The time has come to raise our voice now. We have lost s o many people in this battle against terror that nothing can be done to bring them back and I as a Indian don't want to loose my Indian brothers any more.

I am neither Hindu nor Muslim nor Sikh and nor even Christian. I am neither North Indian nor South Indian and nor even Maharashrian Before all these I am an Indian and it’s our responsibility to stand unite against this terror. This is the time to take some action before it’s too late and we regret to i t.

Show the anger which we all of have in some or the other way. We very well know that if Ind ians come to their own , they can beat anything which comes in their way and we have shown it in the past as well. So this is the time to give “Intt” ka jawab “Pa ther” se. This is the time to stand against this Terrorism because next target can be anybody. It can be You or me.

The Day I Laid My Feet on US Soil

noreply@blogger.com (Debasys) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:45:00 +0000

Check in at Mumbai

I was scheduled to fly from Mumbai India to Boston MA USA on Saturday 27 September 08.I was all set to fly after the parties for friends; you know the kind where friends congratulate you for some thing and make sure you pay dearly for it J, shopping etc, etc. With my friends help we loaded the Bags in the Toyota Qualis we had rented to travel from my home in Wagh-Bill Thane. We [me, Kiran, Chiku and my Mother] started for the airport from home at around 9:30 PM to allow for sufficient buffer time for check-in at the Airport.

One of my very good friends Pintu was coming to the airport to see me off and he was also going to bring me some warm cloths so on reaching the particular gate where Air France check-ins were done we waited for him. After he arrived we chatted for around 30 mins or so and it was 12:30 when I bid goodbye to all gave every body a final hug, told Maa not to cry and checked-in.

My First Flight

After a long wait at the airport I boarded the plane for Paris France my intermediate stop, right on time at 2:15 AM. I had been told by my friends all kinds of stuff about international flights like: sexy air hostess, free wine/beer, complementary chocolates etc but the thing that was ringing in my mind at that time was not one of these but "how would it feel when the plane takes off, when it’s ascending and finally in the air?"

So quickly I scampered my way through to my seat after the customary greeting by the air hostess. Then put my cabin luggage under the front seat and settled-in on my seat. Then safety instructions were given through the on-board entertainment system as the plane was getting on the run-way to take off. I fastened my seat belt and waited with bated breath as the plane accelerated on the run way and just like that we were in the air. Didn’t feel that scary; I looked through the window, Mumbai from the air, lots of small lights; the plane was still tilted vertically as we were ascending. After reaching cruising height they served refreshments and yes they did serve wine/beer along with the other beverages but I don’t drink alcohol.

A Morning in Paris.

My flight reached ahead of the scheduled arrival at Paris. To my surprise the landing was more exiting may be due to the fact that it was day time. After getting down the plane and entering the Paris Airport the first thing I had to do was to finish my chores and get something to eat. So I asked an officer for directions to the restrooms and went there. The first thing I noticed there was there was no water in the toilets to wash I had to use toilet rollJ.After the chores, started looking for something to eat then I thought let me go the terminal from where I was to board my second flight to Boston and then search for food there.

Not that food wasn’t around I just had to search something I could eat. I couldn’t pronounce the name of the salad I chose so just pointed it out to the shop owner. Then I had to wait for 5 and half hrs. It was boring, frustrating and down right horrible as I was feeling very sleepy and could not sleep as that may cause me to miss my flight. I tried various things to pass time browsed through duty free shops, tried calling home but could not as the instruction in the Public Phones were all in French somehow I waited out the 5 hr and then entered the terminal I was supposed to fly from.

Port of Entry

Finally after a brief delay in landing due to bad weather we landed at Boston airport. I had heard stories of horror people had to face during port of entry interview so I was very apprehensive.I collected my bags rather easily thanks to the stickers I had put before checking them in at Mumbai went to the rest room to freshen up still feeling sleepy and queued up at the immigration counter with my I-94 form.

To my greatest surprise the officer didn’t ask me much questions the only ones he asked were pretty straight forward. So Finally I was on American soil, land of uncle Sam, the land of Opportunities.

Came out of the airport and my HR Sunanda was waiting at the gate with a placard with my name on it. Not because I am a very important person but because I was carrying some thing for her from India. She helped pull one of my trolley bags and once I was out of the airport I realized it wasn’t much different from Mumbai though the perception quickly changed once I got into my cab and came on the highway.