When existence becomes boring, painful and demanding. When drudgeries of life begin to overtake you, it’s time to immerse yourself in nature’s arms. I have always loved being one amongst nature and as a member of the honourable Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), I could not have left the chance of exploring the deeper jungles of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park go unnoticed. So here I was on a Sunday morning in my trekking gear (without carrying the most important kit of all – water), joining a group of nature enthusiasts at the entrance of the park and of course my dear friend Hemant who was giving me company with his Nikon D40 and the works.
This weekend was surely a memorable one for me. It presented a great chance to catch up with my past life and relive those fine moments of childhood fun and pranks. The mad scramble for career and lifestyle had detached me practically from strengthening my friendships. It was great to meet up with the likes of Tikoo, Amish, the Dixit brothers Samir and Hiren after a long long time. These are men who were boys sometime ago and grew up with me. We played together, fought over “wrong” umpiring decisions and even stopped communicating with each other for a while but that did not dent the spirit of our relationship at all. The place where I live had a good amount of females which also gave us an opportunity to play outdoor games which today’s youth might find hard to compete. The common issues that plague our apartment ensures that we forget our miseries and unite in the favor of a solution. In such circumstances, nothing else matters to us than the protection of our “motherland”.
It’s unusual that I am writing this on valentine’s day for some reasons. Firstly, a handful fundamentalists in the region believe this occasion to be ‘commercial exploitation’ and it’s celebration as an insult to their religion. I mostly agree with them and certainly feel that the capitalists make a lot of profit from these festivities. Secondly, the event and the ethos has lost it’s meaning somewhere between the college and my profession for a stark personal reason. But I would like to support any such activity which promotes cultural harmony and peace in the current unruly environment in which we’re breathing. So here’s my small tribute on this official day of love and care for your mate.
The new season of MTV Hero Honda Roadies 5 is back and the auditions began airing on the channel for some weeks now. It’s Nikhil Chinappa and Raghu Ram who are back as judges distressing the poor kids into submission in the Torture Cell as it’s famously called. To give you an example from a recent episode, a candidate was asked to act like a monkey and the guy took the word so seriously, the next thing the judges knew he was pouncing on their table, discarding the sheets of paper and dropping the objects all around. Phew! he sure came closer to being sent to an asylum or a zoo at that point. On the other hand, you can bet that the anti-censorship lobby of the media would love to watch this show. No matter how many cuss words are beeped out by the channel (which is meant for the family), one can still make out the language being used from the lip movements (which need to be blurred on screen as well). It’s evident how hypocritical our censorship rules are which are so starkly displayed on television every week, it would put even the sleazy film directors and dialogue writers of Bollywood to shame.
This post was lying untouched and unedited in my notebook for the past 4 months until I decided to revive it today, for the sake of those who want to opt for a branded PC in India (especially DELL). After working on PCs ( both branded and assembled) I am of the opinion that the branded ones give you the best performance and value for your money.
Last year when it was time to upgrade the PC and I picked up a DELL without much ado. I had heard praises about its sales, service and quality of the machines from my bro-in-law in Hong Kong who’s a big admirer of DELL. Soon after the PC came home, I also wrote about the deplorable experience that I faced in one of my earlier post on this website. However, I discovered another issue this time with the DVD RW/ROM that came along with the configured machine. According to a sales rep, I was the first customer reporting this problem and that shocked me even further because the issue was with my region locked DVD RW/ROM that shipped with my DELL Inspiron 530s and I swear to god, I was had no knowledge of this issue prior to settling for this configuration. My contention was that just like any other component including the monitor, the RAM, the processor, etc., I should have been given a choice by the company to select from a region locked or a region free DVD RW/ROM drive and I was completely clueless about the same. I have not received a satisfactory reply from the makers and hence this article.