… from thoughts that keep dragging me back into the past.
… from tangible things that remind of things that I try to avoid.
… from You.

The pin stuck inside my eye still hurts. Always will. Peace.

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Couldn’t really think of another title so entered something vague. It’s now been 10 days since I set foot in this hostel. A new place, a new life and a new environment.

In these ten days, I’ve done things I never imagined I would – cleaned toilets, did my laundry etc. From the time I set foot in this hostel, I’ve only made friends. It’s a different experience altogether, living on your own with people from different parts of the country. Although, a campus hostel would’ve been appreciated but this is as close as one gets to hostel life away from the college campus.

My own room, with my own loo and my own space. I do have to share it with another guy but I think it’s largely OK. Getting up at 7 in the morning, going for my breakfast and then walking in this heat to the college are just some of the things I’m doing, which I never really had done. Landran was more like a four year vacation. I could skip college at will, give exams when I wanted to and ignore the faculty when I desired. Over here it’s quite the opposite. The environment is professional and I usually find myself sitting in the library after classes, something I was certain would never happen in this lifetime.

I think I made the right choice. MBA for me isn’t just another course. It isn’t a means of getting a good placement. I’m doing this because I want to work. For once in my life, I want to slog and prove to myself that I can do wonders. I don’t want to feel all raw.

The Term-1 officially commenced today, on 30th June. An action packed day filled with case studies, assignments, projects and the like. The mid terms are somewhere in the first week of August. I’m really not scared at the moment. Just beginning to feel excited about all the learning that will take place. I don’t know how well I’ll do but I intend on giving it my 100% this time. Since I’m free from any sort of commitments or distractions, it makes the task easier.

Girls don’t really excite me. Delhi doesn’t excite me. It’s my course that does. I don’t care if I’ll get a job after this because I know that in the end I’ll come out as a better person.

Goodnight.

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तेरी ख़ुशबू में बसे ख़त मै जलाता कैसे…
प्यार में ड़ूबे हुए ख़त मै जलाता कैसे…
तेरे हाथों के लिखे ख़त मै जलाता कैसे…

पर तेरे ख़त आज मैने जला दिए… आग लगा दिए…

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You should’ve said this a long long time ago…

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Sometimes, there is this sudden realization, a sudden bolt of lightening that hits you. A moment in time, when you realize that whatever you do, will never be good enough. Never. Ever.

There will be certain things that your family expects you to do and you fail them; things that your friends want you to do. Even girlfriends have numerous expectations. Why? Why can we humans not live without expecting things in return? People constantly tell me that I’m not exploiting my potential and that they expect that I’ll work hard and do something extraordinary. But the fact is that I really don’t want to. There is no particular mountain that I want to climb up to. I have not set lofty goals for myself and I don’t want to be rich or famous. All I want to do is live a simple life. I’ll live it alone if I have to.

I don’t want to graduate as a hot-shot MBA and mint money. What purpose will I achieve by doing that? Neither do I want to sit in front of a PC screen my entire life. All I know is that I don’t want to be like you all. I have the brain and the caliber. The way I want to use it is entirely upto me. I won’t mind if it goes waste as long as I am happy and content.

I don’t expect anything from anyone. I don’t expect anything from life. Kindly stop nagging and sulking. It’s only ruining the happiness. Maybe… it already has. I know I’m not good enough… never said I was.

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I feel more and more disconnected from this world. One day, I’m going to renounce everything and go live in the jungles.

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R.I.P.

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It’s sad, so sad. It’s a sad, sad situation. And it’s getting more and more absurd. What have I got to do…
When sorry seems to be the hardest word…

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Do you get boners when you hear sucky Hindi songs? Well, not literally but do you derive some sort of pleasure listening to the most atrocious songs ever made?

I do. And that’s why I’ve decided to create an entire blog dedicated to the most “ghatiya” songs ever made!

I announce to the world, the launch of The Ghatiya Gaana Blog – the only place dedicated to this noble cause. Revive old memories, play these songs at parties… get laid! OK, enough nonsense! Click here to transport yourself to another universe. You’ll get addicted in no time!

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Around 11 days back, The Tribune carried an article titled “Has PTU become dysfunctional?”.

Any past or present student would agree with each and every word of the article. It’s sad, that a university established in the year 1997 (that’s 12 years now!) does not run any courses in its campus! That’s because the campus was shifted from one place to the other and the buildings have been constructed recently. It has an annual revenue of 300 crore which we could attribute to the thousands of re-evaluation and re-appear forms that are submitted each semester due to a fraudulent and faulty paper checking system.

If you clear the exam after re-evaluation, the university does not even bother to return your money. Results of the previous semester are declared a week before the exams for the current session are due. As far as I know, the university does not even have a vice chancellor.

I still fail to understand why the government does not take any action against this university. I am a student of PTU myself and it is because of this careless attitude of the PTU authorities that the top companies or educational institutions are not even willing to look at profiles of candidates passing out from here.

It is a mess students like myself have chosen themselves to get into and its better we rectify it by working hard and getting out of this rut.

Before I go, I shall leave you with a screenshot of the official Punjab Technical University website (http://ptu.ac.in/). This is a university which grants degrees to thousands and thousands of engineers, MCA’s, BCA’s and they can’t even do a decent enough job themselves.

Screenshot taken on August 20th, 2009.

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I love this song. Period.

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Actually, it’s been alive and kicking since the past month. I was too lazy to post an announcement here. This time it’s here to stay.

The Melting Pot is BACK!!

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I shall never forget that night. Never shall I forget what you taught me without even trying to teach me anything. I felt like I knew it all but got all nervous when it hit me. Life knows how to give you reality checks.

Untaught Lessons.

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Since WordPress 2.8 “Baker” went gold today, I decided to immediately upgrade. I took the essential backups and hit the automatic upgrade link in the WordPress Dashboard. Voila! WordPress 2.8 was up and running in an instant and seemed perfectly bug free. The reality though, was different.

I decided to update some of my plugins as I got notifications that new versions were out. I clicked the link to update and was treated with the following error :

Downloading update from http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/YOURPLUGINHERE.zip.

Unpacking the update.

Incompatible archive PCLZIP_ERR_BAD_FORMAT (-10) : Invalid archive structure

I thought of it to be a random error, so I hit back and retried. Again, I got the error. I tried to install some new plugins via the Plugin Browser and got the same error. But if I uploaded the plugin archive file from my PC, it would install correctly. The Theme Browser showed no such errors and the themes were updated and new themes installed easily.

I headed over to the WordPress.org support forums and found that some users were indeed facing the same issue. Finally, I tweeted Ryan Boren, who was kind enough to immediately respond. Another user, demetris had already isolated the issue and filed a bug report.

The issue stands resolved now. Ryan has linked to a http.php in the support forum thread, which you will need to download and then overwrite the existing http.php in the wp-includes folder. The bug fix will be included in version 2.8.1. So, if you get errors while installing or upgrading plugins in WordPress 2.8 and cannot wait for the next release, kindly head over to the forum thread and follow the instructions. Another point to be noted here is that this issue does not effect all blogs. I have two blogs hosted on the same server and only one of them is affected by the bug.

Thanks again to Ryan Boren and demetris for being the heroes!

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It’s 12.30 AM. I’m in bed and not in a particularly good mood. I sit here, whiling away time and my mind wanders off somewhere. I do not daydream. I do not try to simply pass my time. I question. I question what happens to people. I question their fate.

I rarely find myself thinking about MYSELF. For the better part of the day, I am absorbed in my own thoughts. In these moments, I turn into a philosopher, a poet, a scientist… It’s like a flurry of emotions that take over my mind. I see what happens to people and try to analyze their situations. I do not merely wish to sympathize… I wish to empathize. In this weird pursuit of mine, I find myself imagining myself drowning in the sea, just like that young boy did. I imagine I’m his mother, sobbing at night, under the cover of darkness. I imagine I’m his brother who wishes he could tell him how much he loved him. I imagine I’m his girlfriend, cursing myself for fighting with him, one day before he was gobbled up by the unrelenting ocean.

It is a very unique feeling, to be able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes without even wearing them. My heart beats, as if it’s theirs. And all of this has evolved over a period of 10 years. I clearly remember myself, laughing heartlessly at situations which demanded respect. But there has been a complete metamorphosis.

This is when the queries arise. I keep thinking, keep trying to find answers to questions, which in the very first place are not even meant for me and in all probability do not serve any worthwhile cause. I cannot seem to let go of certain things. Things that are completely unrelated to me. Things that I strangely feel I’m a part of. Things that I feel I must take charge of and steer into a more promising direction. It has probably been only once, that I have succeeded in achieving this or so I thought. Life outsmarted me again and I feel like a frustrated, desperate soul, trying to find a way back to the intended path. It seems impossible. I know it is somewhere around the corner but that corner eludes me. I feel I’m moving in an elliptical path or maybe a circular well of death. I tried to be God. But I’m not. But I won’t stop trying.

To the brother of the boy who drowned, I feel I lost a brother too. I’m not exaggerating. I felt like this the day I got the news and still feel the same.

To the mother of the girl who died after her friends played a prank on her, I feel like I lost my own daughter.

I may not be able to make your lives better and these words may not provide you with any comfort. Maybe I’m wasting my time thinking about how to correctly fit the pieces of YOUR jigsaw puzzle. But somewhere deep inside, I know this exercise that my brain takes, will benefit me. How? I do not know and I do not even wish to try and find an answer to it. I have others’ things on my mind.
God bless you all.

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Before I say a word, I want you to take a quick look at the above advertisement for Hero Honda Passion Pro. Young, fit models, smooth jingle, what could possibly be wrong?! There is one thing that just doesn’t make sense here. They’re trying to portray the dude with the jeep as an arrogant bully and the guy on the bike as a cool, nonchalant hunk. I kind of think it’s the opposite. He overtakes, stops suddenly, turns off the ignition, gets down and admires his bike. Weird. On top of that, the female in the car actually thinks he’s some super cool dude. What the fuck?! The guy on your bike, Hero Honda, is a weirdo!! The woman in the car is desperate!! And I had nothing else to write about. Goodnight.

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Yesterday, I set out to do something which I had thought would be particularly easy. When Facebook had not opened up to the world, I had tried to register with them. Now, I do not remember how that attempt went but recently I started getting loads of emails from Facebook on the email address I had used. I already have another Facebook account associated with another email address. So, the logical step was to login and delete this profile altogether.

Simple, right? Wrong. I went to the Account Settings and found an option – “Deactivate”. I clicked on it and was greeted with a form asking me why I wanted to deactivate my account. I filled in the required options and proceeded to deactivate. The process was successful and I was informed that the profile was now deactivated and I could login again anytime to activate it. Hold on a second! I could activate this profile again? That means, my data would lie on the Facebook servers forever?

This did not sound too thrilling to me. I headed over to Google and searched. There was one website which stated that we needed to send an email to the Facebook staff to queue our account for deletion. This seemed tedious. Finally, I found a link which would let me accomplish the task I had set out to do.

Before visiting this link, make sure you are already logged in to your account otherwise you will be asked to enter an email address for correspondence.

Delete My Account

If you are logged in, you should simply see a confirmation asking you whether you want to permanently remove your profile from Facebook. Hit submit and you’re good. If you do not login to your Facebook account for the next two weeks / 14 days, the profile and all its related contents will be deleted from Facebook.

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१६ (16) मई को लोक सभा चुनाव के नतीजे घोषित किए गए थे और कांग्रेस पार्टी ने सफ़लता प्राप्त की । इस सफ़लता का सारा श्रेय श्रीमति सोनिया गाँधी के सपूत, राहुल गाँधी को दिया गया । सब तरफ इसी बात कि चर्चा थी कि कैसे राहुल ने उत्तर प्रदेश में कांग्रेस को अकेले चुनाव में खड़ा करवाया । रातों-रात राहुल गाँधी एक नए, महान राजनेता के रूप में देखे जाने लगे ।

पर कहीं सब भूल गए थे कि यह वही राहुल गाँधी है जिन्होंने कहा था कि उनके परिवार कि सबसे बड़ी उपलब्धि पाकिस्तान का बंटवारा है । यह वही राहुल गाँधी है जिनके ऊपर एक ब्रिटिश मंत्री को दरिद्रता पर्यटन पर ले जाने का आरोप लगा था ।

यकीनन यह कहना सही होगा कि राहुल भी अपने पिता कि तरह दूरदर्शी हैं पर उनकी तरह जल्दबाज़ नहीं । राहुल में वह हर गुण का सही मिश्रण है जो एक सफ़ल राजनेता में होने चाहिए । पर इस सबके बावजूद उन्हें कांग्रेस कि जीत का श्रेय देना गलत होगा । हम वह पल भूल रहे हैं, जब १९९८ (1998) में Edvige Antonia Albina Maino, उर्फ़ सोनिया गाँधी ने कांग्रेस में प्रवेश किया । उस समय और उसके काफी समय बाद भी उन्हें भारतीय मूल का न होने की फटकार सहनी पड़ी । पर इस औरत ने हार नहीं मानी । एक ऐसा समय था जब वह हिंदी बोलने में लड़खड़ाती थी और एक आज का समय है जब वह साड़ी पहनकर घूमती है और किसी से कम भारतीय नहीं लगती ।

जिस खूबी से सोनिया गाँधी ने अपने आप को भारतीय रंग में ढाला है और अपने आप को हर विवाद से दूर कर दिया है, उसकी दाद देनी होगी । चुप-चाप वह यू.पी.ए. की प्रमुख बन चुकी हैं और देश की प्रधान मंत्री या राष्ट्रपति न होने के बावजूद, देश को अपनी मुट्ठी में कर चुकी हैं । यही उनका ब्रह्मास्त्र है । अब हमें उनके विदेशी मूल कि होने की चर्चा शायद ही सुनने को मिलती है क्यूंकि उन्होंने यह दिखाना ही छोड़ दिया है कि वह देश पर राज करना चाहती है । अगर अब वह विदेशी भी हैं तो उससे किसी को क्या फर्क ?

दूसरी चाल जो सोनिया गाँधी ने चल दी है वह यह है कि राहुल गाँधी को पूरे जोर-शोर से एक काबिल और सफ़ल नेता दिखने का कम कर चुकी हैं । राहुल राजीव का पुत्र है इसलिए वह पूरा भारतीय है । अगर राहुल गाँधी प्रधान मंत्री पद के लिए भी खड़े होते हैं तो कोई भी उन्हे विदेशी नहीं कह सकता । वह मेरी तरह भारत के हे नागरिक हैं ।

इसलिए मेरा सोचना यह है कि पूरा देश राहुल गाँधी कि जय-जयकार कर रहा है; और यही सोनिया गाँधी चाहती थी । कांग्रेस कि सफ़लता कि असली वास्तुकार तो वह हैं । हर बारी कि तरह विवाद से बचने के लिए नाम राहुल का लिया जा रहा है । मैं इस बात पर तो शायद ही कोई टिपण्णी दे सकूँ कि राहुल गाँधी कितने योग्य नेता हैं । पर अगर वह थोड़े भी अपनी माँ कि तरह हैं, तो उनका सफ़ल होना निश्चित है ।

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This post is a follow-up to my previous post titled How to blog in your mother tongue. Since that time, a number of advancements have been made in this field. Typing in your own mother tongue has become even easier. Literally hundreds of tools are now available on the Internet that enable us to communicate in our own language. Further, there are now tools that enable the use of Indic scripts directly on your websites by the visitors. Below are some of the most popular tools :

1. Google Indic Transliteration :
   This is a transliteration tool from the search engine giant Google. Since the day this tool was released, Google has enable support for Indian languages across most of its web properties like Gmail and Blogger enabling users to type emails and blog posts in Indian Languages.Further, if you head over to the homepage of Google Indic Transliteration, Google gives you an easy tool to type in Hindi and other popular languages. You type what you want in English and it gets converted to Hindi. You are also given suitable suggestions. You are also provided an option of adding a Bookmarklet to your browser that will enable the user to type in Indian languages on any website!
2. Lipikaar :
   Next in line is Lipikaar. This is an extremely robust tool that supports over 17 languages! Lipikaar is like the Swiss Army Knife of transliteration tools and comes in three different avatars. The first is the Lipikaar Desktop Software which is available for all flavours of Microsoft Windows. It allows for the usage of Indic scripts offline in all programs, such as Office, on your PC. The second is the Lipikaar FireFox Extension. Since, it is a FireFox add-on, it is cross-platform and can be used on Windows, Linux, OSX etc. and whichever operating system that supports FireFox. It is enabled from within FireFox and allows the user to type in the language of their choice on the websites that they visit. This is probably the easiest way to get started! The last is the Lipikaar Website Enabler. It makes your website / blog transliteration enabled. Your users may interact with you and others on your website in Indian languages.
3. Quillpad :
   Quillpad is a free, famous online Hindi typing tool. Apart from Hindi, it supports 9 other Indian languages. It also offers a Free API that enables the use of Quillpad on your websites. Whatever you type is converted automatically to Devanagari etc.
4. Webdunia Editor :
   The Webdunia Editor is another robust online tool that not only allows for easy typing in Hindi but also converts what you write in English to the best possible match in Hindi while giving you suggestions along with that.
5. HindiKalam :
   HindiKalam is another web-based Hindi editor. What you type in Hindi using the English alphabets is automatically converted to Devanagari. It is similar to some of the previously mentioned tools.
6. Hinkhoj :
   Hinkhoj is basically a Hindi language search engine. But similar to Quillpad and Lipikaar, it provides for an API that allows developers to enable Indian Language content on their websites.

   SOFTWARE SPECIFIC TOOLS
   

7. tinyMCE :
   TinyMCE is a platform independent web based Javascript HTML WYSIWYG editor control. This editor is used in a variety of software applications. An Indic plugin, akIndicPlugin has been created by Amit Kumar Singh which will enable the use on Indian languages in tinyMCE. There is another plugin by Vishal Monpara.
8. FCKEditor :
   Vishal Monpara has an Indian languages plugin for the widely used FCKEditor.
9. Drupal :
   Abhishek Nagar lists some excellent methods on his website for integrating Indic scripts within your Drupal installation. Check here and here. Gamabhana, is a set of tools that enable the use of Indic Scripts with a variety of CMS’s as well as on its own. Modules for Drupal are available on the Gamabhana website. Here is another Indic Script module for use with your Drupal installation.
10. WordPress :
    The simplicity of WordPress allows developers to create plugins for the platform. If you wish to blog in your mother tongue, you may use any of the previously mentioned resources or one of the below mentioned plugins. The Indic plugin is based on Gamabhana. MonuSoft also provides for a set of plugins to be used with WordPress enabling the use of WordPress in 8 different languages. Vishal Monpara also has an Indic IME plugin for WordPress on his website. WPGoogleLangTransliteration is a WordPress plugin based on Google Indic Transliteration.
11. Joomla :
    Amit Kumar Singh, the author of the previously mentioned akIndicPlugin has written a guide for the integration of his plugin with Joomla.

This is not the definitive guide to writing in Indic languages such as Hindi etc. A quick search on Google yields hundreds and hundreds of results. Use this guide that I’ve prepared as a reference but do a quick research yourself as well. The above list should enable you to type in Indian Languages on your computer. Now, freely type, post, chat, blog and communicate in your mother tongue!! The list of uses is infinite.

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3. Migrate/move your WordPress blog to a new domain/server Well since I just finished migrating this blog over to...

बहुत दिन गुज़र गए, जब मुझ में अखिरी बार हिन्दी में लिखने की प्रेरणा जागी थी । आज फ़िर वैसा ही अवसर आया है । आज मुझे ऐसा लगा जैसे मेरी हिन्दी, मेरी मातृ भाषा, कमज़ोर हो गई है । यह ऐसे युग में हो रहा है जब हर देश अपनी ही मातृ भाषा पर ज़ोर दे रहा है । मैं हूं यहां, इस किनारे में, सिर्फ अंग्रेज़ी में लिखी जा रहा हूँ ।

आज के इस इन्टरनेट युग में, दुनिया सिमट कर रह गई है । ज्ञान का भंडार है यह ‘जाल’ !! पर हिन्दी भाषा में लिखित बहुत कम चीज़ें हैं । एक तरफ़ चीनी, जापानी, रूसी, ऊर्दू जैसी भाषाऐं हैं जिनमें लिखे अनेक लेख इन्टरनेट पर उपलब्ध हैं और जिनको बोलने वाले उनका उपयोग कम्प्यूटर पर भी करते हैं । इधर हम हैं, जो अपनी भाषा को भी अंग्रेज़ी में लिखते हैं । इससे न केवल हमारी भाषा, बल्कि हमारा अपना व्यक्तित्व मिट रहा है ।

आप चीन जैसे देश में जांए, तो यह पाएँगे की उन्हे अपनी भाषा पर गर्व है । उनके बच्चों को पढ़ाने का माध्यम भी चीनी भाषा ही है । इन्टरनेट पर भी वह चीनी का ही अधिक प्रयोग करते हैं । यही वजह है कि दुनिया की हर बढ़ी वेबसाइट और साफ़्टवेअर का एक चीनी रूप ज़रूर होता है । क्योंकि हम अपनी भाषा को अंग्रेज़ी के अक्षरों में लिकना पसंद करते हैं, इसलिए देवनागिरी का कम्प्युटर और इन्टरनेट पर बहुत कम महत्व है । क्योंकि हम हिन्दी का लिखित में उपयोग करना ही नहीं चाहते, कोई इनके उपयोग को ना सरल बनाता है और ना ही हमारी अपनी सरकार इसको बढ़ावा देती है । एक और कारण यह भी है कि चीन जैसे देशों में कम्प्यूटर चलाने वालों की संख्या सबसे अधिक है । पर यह सिर्फ़ इसी बात का परिणाम है की चीन की सरकार ने अपनी भाषा को महत्व दिया और देश की अधिक से अधिक जनता कम्प्यूटर चलाना आसानी से अपनी भाषा में ही सीख गई ।

आजसे मेरा प्रयास रहेगा की मैं इस ब्लाग पर कुछ न कुछ हिन्दी में ज़रूर लिखूँ ताकि मैं अपनी मातृ भाषा को सम्मान दे सकूँ ।

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