I am very fond of travelling and exploring new places specially those close to mother nature.But ever since I've got my SLR, its been my bad luck that many a times, a few things doesn't turn the way to make a way for a trip to some place where I can enhance my photography skills a bit. Finally my urge was fulfilled last weekend and I was invited by one of my colleagues, Pritesh, to come with him for some serious photography along with two others, Gayatri and Saurabh, of which Saurabh backed out because of some personal reasons. The best day to go was Saturday obviously but due to some prior commitments, the plan was postponed and we three settled for Sunday.
On Saturday noon, I got a call from one of my college friend, Pathak, that he, along with a friend of him, will be reaching Pune in the evening. They arrived and as we had met after a long gap of more than a year, we chatted and chatted and chatted till 2 in the night. After that I asked them to have some sleep as they have to leave for Mahabaleshwar the next day, together with some other friends. Oh sorry! the date was changed till then, so correcting myself, they have to leave for Mahabaleshwar in the morning. I was also invited to join them but I was in no mood to change my mind and miss my maiden photography extravaganza. After they slipped into their beds, I was left with two choices. The first one was to remain awake for another 2-3 hours and start the journey straightaway. Another was to catch a wink with the hope that I'll surely get up after that. They say time is money so without wasting a single penny, I chose the former, because waking up after a sleep of 2 hours has lesser probability than India winning a football world cup.
The plan was to reach the Pune Railway Station before the sun at 5:30, so that we can board the train at 6:05. Pritesh has reminded us of the schedule a day before by calling us, and that too in strict words. However as I've expected, he was the last one to appear at station. Though he clarified for being late, but I checked and confirmed that those words don't changed the fact. However despite of his efforts and the train from Indian Railway being on time (surprisingly!!!), we managed to catch the train and that too not in a 'Jab We Met' manner.
Usually one cannot get a seat in a train plying between Pune and Mumbai, unless (s)he has a reservation and we three, being just another common human beings, faced nothing different. So we grabbed one entrance of the coach suct that we can atleast enjoy the relatively moving nature scenes. The train ride ended after about one hour and there we were, at Khandala Railway Station.
We roamed, explored and remained real close to nature for more than 4 hours. It was soul refreshing experience and also triggered a wish to stay there for more time. But few things were going against this will of heart. The eyes, stomach and several other parts were beating a hasty retreat to get back home soon. The heart fought for sometime but finally surrendered to them and we had to start with the end of the this excursion.
Back at Khandala Railway Station, we were thinking that now the rebel parts were happy and they will not be facing any more torments. But we were wrong and the most cruel situation was yet to come. The station was deserted and quiet and later on we realized that it was the calm before the storm. We get into the train, and true to our expectations, didn't get any seat. However that was not the storm. The real torture was a act by a group of students, which they were calling as Antakshri. Antakshri - the favorite time pass of people while travelling, provided there must be some females of age group 15 - 25, along with some boys drooling over them. Here all the requirements were meeting to start it but what they were doing was nothing close to Antakshri. They seem to be the best people in this world to learn how any damn song can be the worst song you have ever listened. We were just wondering on each song that how such a nice song can be sung in such a pathetic way. This mental trauma ended with the journey only and all our organs took a sigh of relief as we were back in Pune. But our ears, brains and to an extent our hearts were happy because they were the only ones suffering from the so called Antakshri also.
On reaching home I realized that I have not blessed my body with a sleep for last 31 hours. So I decided to grant, my completely tired and exhausted body, a hyper sound sleep.
I slept for 16 hours with a break of 2 hours in between and when I wake up...alas!!! Its the deMONDAY again!!!
PS: The next post will be about our close encounter with death on this excursion.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
DEATH of the Typewriter
Flashback!!!
Remember an office scene of any movie of 70s, 80s or even a few of early 90s...One common thing, sound drum of every ear would have noticed. A sound copywrited to every office to such an extent that you can tell about the scene even without staring at the screen. Yes you guessed it right...the typical non stopping, sharp clack-clack sound of the typewriter. The sound has such a great effect that whenever a director want to convey some shock in the office he first have to create an environment full of typewriter's noise and suddenly stop it when the shock is to be delivered.
What made me type this at this point of time, when the clock is showing 1:58:41 AM, to be precise, is the news in one of the leading newspaper today. The news is that the typewriter is to be a thing of the past in Indian Government Offices. The computer has steadily been replacing the typewriters in most offices, but they were still used to test the typing skills of aspiring clerks.
I remembered the era when the modern computers have just made an entry in the world with their black and white screens and were mostly found at some freaking Computer training centres and computer labs of few colleges. That was the begining of the end of typewriters which, once upon a time, was used to be the status symbol of any office.
I remember how crazy I went when I first typed my name on a typewriter. The clean, clear, well placed letters with proper spacing, better than any handwriting in the world. I was so excited that I took that piece of paper next day to my school and showed it to my classmates. I was the most sought after guy in the class for the next few days. Students even from other classes used to come to me just to have a glimpse of it and I felt proud as if I have achieved something in my life.
The trend continues for few months. On every holiday I used to go with my father to type something and feel special that I have got the opportunity to touch those keys which miraculously print the same letter on the paper rolled with the cylinder.
Another incident associated with the typewriter was about the sequence of keys. I used to wonder why the keys are arranged in this weird non logical order. Why cant they just be like regular alphabetic order. Sadly there was no google at that time which could have answered me. I tried very hard and racked my brain to figure out the logic behind it. I asked the question to many people but even they didn't have the answer. After a long time, I came to know about it when I have started working on computer. The logic was the collision of keys strokes of frequent keys while typing fastly. Then came the standard design and is used till date. It was so effective and widely used that when the computer keyboard was invented the same design was used though there was no such limitation with it.
Few days back, one of my friend switched his job and he needed to submit some affidavit signed by notary while joining. He asked me to come to get one and I agreed against my will as it was a saturday and I hate to wake up early on a holiday. But the lucrative breakfast offer made my mind to convince my heart and get out of my bed. We went to a place where there were several notaries sitting with a black coat on their body and a briefcase on a table in front of them. My friend and I picked a notary from more than 3 dozens of identicals. My friend started talking to him about his requirements. He told us the complete expenses (inclusive of all taxes as mentioned by him) and handed us a few documents. He then took us to another person with a typewriter on his table and guided him what to type. As I was getting bored there, my mind started to notice and analyse the things around me as my hobby when I have nothing to do. At that very moment, I realized that I haven't noticed a typewriter for a very long time. Forget about the phyical typewriter, I haven't even seen the word typewriter. I stressed my mind a lot to recall a moment when I have witnessed a typewriter for the last time but after every type of search, the result returned was NULL. Suddenly I noticed some argument going on between the notary and my friend on one side and the typewriter, in his early 60s, on the other. It was related to some spelling mistake made by him while typing. Once that is over I asked the notary that why the typewriter is still being used at this time when everything can easily be done by computers and that too without these type of spelling flaws. He just answered that this is the goverment rule and he cannot do anything in this regard and infact he too wanted this kind of implementation. I think he must be some relative of the God (read some higher government official) that his will was so early fulfilled and here we are reading the news about the same.
Whatever I am typing here is in the silence of night without disturbing the other folks sleeping in their cozy beds, but yeah I am missing the classic clack-clack sound. I can clearly feel it in my mind but can't describe it here. It will always remain an epic sound and surely be missed at atleast SARKARI offices.
But what-so-ever be, one thing is sure that the death of typewriter will be typed from a keyboard which has got its key patterns inherited from a typewriter.
PS: The word "typewriter" is the longest word that can be typed using only one row of keys.
Remember an office scene of any movie of 70s, 80s or even a few of early 90s...One common thing, sound drum of every ear would have noticed. A sound copywrited to every office to such an extent that you can tell about the scene even without staring at the screen. Yes you guessed it right...the typical non stopping, sharp clack-clack sound of the typewriter. The sound has such a great effect that whenever a director want to convey some shock in the office he first have to create an environment full of typewriter's noise and suddenly stop it when the shock is to be delivered.
What made me type this at this point of time, when the clock is showing 1:58:41 AM, to be precise, is the news in one of the leading newspaper today. The news is that the typewriter is to be a thing of the past in Indian Government Offices. The computer has steadily been replacing the typewriters in most offices, but they were still used to test the typing skills of aspiring clerks.
I remembered the era when the modern computers have just made an entry in the world with their black and white screens and were mostly found at some freaking Computer training centres and computer labs of few colleges. That was the begining of the end of typewriters which, once upon a time, was used to be the status symbol of any office.
I remember how crazy I went when I first typed my name on a typewriter. The clean, clear, well placed letters with proper spacing, better than any handwriting in the world. I was so excited that I took that piece of paper next day to my school and showed it to my classmates. I was the most sought after guy in the class for the next few days. Students even from other classes used to come to me just to have a glimpse of it and I felt proud as if I have achieved something in my life.
The trend continues for few months. On every holiday I used to go with my father to type something and feel special that I have got the opportunity to touch those keys which miraculously print the same letter on the paper rolled with the cylinder.
Another incident associated with the typewriter was about the sequence of keys. I used to wonder why the keys are arranged in this weird non logical order. Why cant they just be like regular alphabetic order. Sadly there was no google at that time which could have answered me. I tried very hard and racked my brain to figure out the logic behind it. I asked the question to many people but even they didn't have the answer. After a long time, I came to know about it when I have started working on computer. The logic was the collision of keys strokes of frequent keys while typing fastly. Then came the standard design and is used till date. It was so effective and widely used that when the computer keyboard was invented the same design was used though there was no such limitation with it.
Few days back, one of my friend switched his job and he needed to submit some affidavit signed by notary while joining. He asked me to come to get one and I agreed against my will as it was a saturday and I hate to wake up early on a holiday. But the lucrative breakfast offer made my mind to convince my heart and get out of my bed. We went to a place where there were several notaries sitting with a black coat on their body and a briefcase on a table in front of them. My friend and I picked a notary from more than 3 dozens of identicals. My friend started talking to him about his requirements. He told us the complete expenses (inclusive of all taxes as mentioned by him) and handed us a few documents. He then took us to another person with a typewriter on his table and guided him what to type. As I was getting bored there, my mind started to notice and analyse the things around me as my hobby when I have nothing to do. At that very moment, I realized that I haven't noticed a typewriter for a very long time. Forget about the phyical typewriter, I haven't even seen the word typewriter. I stressed my mind a lot to recall a moment when I have witnessed a typewriter for the last time but after every type of search, the result returned was NULL. Suddenly I noticed some argument going on between the notary and my friend on one side and the typewriter, in his early 60s, on the other. It was related to some spelling mistake made by him while typing. Once that is over I asked the notary that why the typewriter is still being used at this time when everything can easily be done by computers and that too without these type of spelling flaws. He just answered that this is the goverment rule and he cannot do anything in this regard and infact he too wanted this kind of implementation. I think he must be some relative of the God (read some higher government official) that his will was so early fulfilled and here we are reading the news about the same.
Whatever I am typing here is in the silence of night without disturbing the other folks sleeping in their cozy beds, but yeah I am missing the classic clack-clack sound. I can clearly feel it in my mind but can't describe it here. It will always remain an epic sound and surely be missed at atleast SARKARI offices.
But what-so-ever be, one thing is sure that the death of typewriter will be typed from a keyboard which has got its key patterns inherited from a typewriter.
PS: The word "typewriter" is the longest word that can be typed using only one row of keys.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Here I go...
Hmmm...so another one bites the dust and here I am with another blog on this expanding like hell blogosphere...
So what is the USP with blog???
Frankly speaking there is nothing special!!! Its not something(which can be anything) specific blog. Just like other blogs I am using this medium to express my desultory thoughts on various random topics.
There are times when I just wanted to write off something on some things, but THE THOUGHTS just remained thoughts. Primarily this is because I am a very very very lazy and moody guy. So whenever I sensed any thought of writing growing with in me, I used to indulge myself in some other activities and convience my mind by yelling "SOME OTHER DAY YAAR"! So even after this that I've started, chances are there that I might not be very regular in postings.
Both of my parents are writers, so being their biological son, traces of the same appears to be injected in me too. Here the word traces is used intentionally because I am not able to recall any other word to mention the minimum amount and to specify the closest accurate amount beacuse I am not good at writing, to be precise writing is not my cup of tea at all. But the very few writer blood cells, inherited from my parents, always kept me pinching for a long time and finally NOW all their efforts seems to be paying off.
There are several other reasons too to write a blog. I've been following several blogs for quite a long time and one major, common thing which I noticed in almost every blog was the main reason for my resistance. The thing is the vocabulary, at which I am not very good and incidentally that is one of those things which used to impressed me in many blogs. One of my mentor suggested me that reading and writing increases the vocabulary content, so I thought writing a blog will also trigger the increase in my vocabulary, as a background process(#AnAdvantage) and infact it has already started while searching an appropriate name for this blog.
As I said earlier that I've been following several blogs, kaporegime, thewhitenazgul, jaiarjun, atulsongaday, desininja, randomthoughtsofdementedmind, cubicileblues, impotentthoughts to name a few, so mine will be influenced by these and you might notice the same.
Being a normal human being(you can demand the proof, I've it with me :P), I may definitely make some errors and might hurt someone but that will be totally unintentional. So my apologies for the same in advance. And please do tell me about the improvements. I'd love hear from you and will try my best to ameliorate.
The postings will promarily related to my passions and interests viz movies, music, photography, puzzles, current affairs and some other random topics.
Hoping to kick off my laziness and post regularly, here I go...
So what is the USP with blog???
Frankly speaking there is nothing special!!! Its not something(which can be anything) specific blog. Just like other blogs I am using this medium to express my desultory thoughts on various random topics.
There are times when I just wanted to write off something on some things, but THE THOUGHTS just remained thoughts. Primarily this is because I am a very very very lazy and moody guy. So whenever I sensed any thought of writing growing with in me, I used to indulge myself in some other activities and convience my mind by yelling "SOME OTHER DAY YAAR"! So even after this that I've started, chances are there that I might not be very regular in postings.
Both of my parents are writers, so being their biological son, traces of the same appears to be injected in me too. Here the word traces is used intentionally because I am not able to recall any other word to mention the minimum amount and to specify the closest accurate amount beacuse I am not good at writing, to be precise writing is not my cup of tea at all. But the very few writer blood cells, inherited from my parents, always kept me pinching for a long time and finally NOW all their efforts seems to be paying off.
There are several other reasons too to write a blog. I've been following several blogs for quite a long time and one major, common thing which I noticed in almost every blog was the main reason for my resistance. The thing is the vocabulary, at which I am not very good and incidentally that is one of those things which used to impressed me in many blogs. One of my mentor suggested me that reading and writing increases the vocabulary content, so I thought writing a blog will also trigger the increase in my vocabulary, as a background process(#AnAdvantage) and infact it has already started while searching an appropriate name for this blog.
As I said earlier that I've been following several blogs, kaporegime, thewhitenazgul, jaiarjun, atulsongaday, desininja, randomthoughtsofdementedmind, cubicileblues, impotentthoughts to name a few, so mine will be influenced by these and you might notice the same.
Being a normal human being(you can demand the proof, I've it with me :P), I may definitely make some errors and might hurt someone but that will be totally unintentional. So my apologies for the same in advance. And please do tell me about the improvements. I'd love hear from you and will try my best to ameliorate.
The postings will promarily related to my passions and interests viz movies, music, photography, puzzles, current affairs and some other random topics.
Hoping to kick off my laziness and post regularly, here I go...
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