Kolkata - The City Of Joy

Someone once told me that a camera does not lie (Photoshop does though). If I click a photograph today and another one after a year, it will show me difference in Black and White (may be in color). The point here is that the differences shows up without any emotional bias as opposed to human eyes.

Calcutta, now known as Kolkata has been very unlucky with the publicity she received in the recent past. It has been mostly bricks and seldom praises, in spite of being the City of Joy.
Today I am posting a series of pictures that I have received by an email from a friend. It will change your perception. These are photographs and they are not supposed to lie! (Kudus to the photographer)

Kolkata is in the heart of every Bengali with all its pluses and minuses. We all dream of settling back there one day.

We too say... next Durga Puja, we will be in Kolkata!

Kolkata is in the heart of every Bengali with all its pluses and minuses. We all dream of settling there one day! We too say... Come next Durga Puja and we will be in Kolkata!

The Barber Theory Of Our Life

My brother has a way of elevating stories to the level of life defining theories. A few of those are so popular between us that these have become part of our life. I would like to share a few of those in the coming weeks will start with the Barber Theory.

Barber Theory: One can do lots of things if he does not have complete knowledge.

Once upon a time there was a barber in a village. He was also the de-facto local surgeon who took care of all the surgical needs of the village. Operating seamlessly through any boils, tumors any other ailment that came across and his hand never trembled. So cheap and efficient was his service that professionally trained surgeon of the area started to get affected as no patients went to see him. He was sad and complained to his peers and friends. One of his doctor friends told him, “Don’t you worry! I will fix it for you tomorrow.”

The very next day the physician went and witnessed the barber in action. Once ther surgery was completed, he asked the barber” how could you perform with so much confidence?”

The barber said “what is the big deal. I do this regularly!”

The Physician explained “if you had cut a little bit extra on the right it would have severed the vein that supplies blood to the right side of the brain. The blood circulation to the brain would have stopped leaving the patient paralyzed.” And he went on to explain exactly where each vein and nerve and tissues and muscles and all the other body components were. He also described in detail what the risks and consequences were if something gone a little wrong.

When the barber went to perform the next surgery, his hand was trembling and he was not sure anymore where to cut and how much to cut. He was worried about the consequences as he was aware of the possibilities and the dangers.

Knowledge makes a big difference! (May be at times, if not always!)

This is in response to Shekhar Kapur’s blog post “A Blackberry addict discovers grassroots enterprise in India” (http://shekharkapur.com/blog/2010/07/a-blackberry-addict-discovers-grassroots-enterprise-in-india/)

Indian Rupee finally gets its symbol

I will start with this news excerpt from News channel and it says it all. Following this is a set of instructions that shows a way to use the symbol in our PC.

Indian Rupee finally gets its symbol
NDTV Correspondent, 15 July, 2010

Finally, the Rupee will have a symbol like the Dollar ($) or the Euro (€) or the Pound (£). The Cabinet today finalised the design for the Rupee.
IIT post-graduate Uday kumar's entry has been selected out of five shortlisted designs as the new symbol for the Indian Rupee.
The government had organised a symbol design competition with a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh. Five designs were shortlisted from a competition and all new notes will bear the design finally approved.
The growing influence of the Indian economy in the global space is said to have prompted this move that will result in the Indian rupee joining the select club of global currencies like the US dollar, the British Pound, European Euro and Japanese Yen that have unique symbols.
The abbreviation for the Indian Rupee, 'Re' or 'Rs' is also used by India's neighbours Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

 
You can start using the font straight away in your PC. Thanks to Foradian Technologies. Following are the steps.

Go to  http://blog.foradian.com/font-with-indian-rupee-symbol-download-and-us
Down load the font file. It is by the name “Rupee.ttf”
Copy it to your computer's font folder. This is C: /Windows/Fonts
Open a word file. Type the first character left of 1 (the key just above "tab" button in your keyboard) Just select "Rupee" font from the drop down list of your fonts in your application It will display our new rupee symbol.

Try it. It will have its limitations, but it’s definitely a very good starting. Lets celebrate another entry to another very exclusive club.

Information obtained with thanks from NDTV and Foradian Technologies websites.

A thought for Collectors

People say that every good action of a man comes back to him multiplied several times more. Something similar happened to me last week. I used to collect postage stamps as a hobby when I was a kid. When time came to leave home for college, I somewhat detached myself form my worldly possessions and handed them over the stamp album to my kid brother. Soon it was his turn to leave home he handed them over to one of his juniors and thus the collection left our home.

Old habits die hard- that’s what they say! A decade later I restarted my hobby of stamp collection. Not as actively as before but as passionately as ever. One close friend of mine recently decided to hang up his gloves and give up hobby as well as his collection. This doesn’t interest my son and daughter, he said. So he asked me if I would take it over. I was overwhelmed and more than eager to give his collection a new home. Last week I received the first batch of his lovely collection and it made me smile to say the least. I put all my work and papers aside as I gazed through those lovely pieces of paper like a kid!

I belong to a generation where there were many things to collect. We had the craving to collect stuff partly because the abundance of today was not to be seen during those days and nor were everything for sale in the mart. Alongside postage stamps, I also collected currency notes, coins and calling cards.

I wonder what will the new generation collect. What will be their hobbies and what will they exchange. How can they learn that there are certain things that one cannot buy form the super market? They have to trade something they have extra to get something that they want to add to his collection.

As it stands today, even emails are considered backdated with the popularity of social networking rising with each passing moment. So getting a letter by general post is nothing less than a dream come true. I will not blame my friend’s children if they stamp collection does not interest them. With everyone having a mobile in his hand, even calling cards are now rare and invisible. Currency notes and coins are still an option even though European Union had a big dent in the number.

But what will the new generation collect? Digital imageries and programs! or to create some postage stamps of your own like I did....

If you are a collector of Artworks, Antiques & Collectibles, a collection of vintage cars would be a great idea  if one could afford!

What about The Common Man!

A Time pass post

These are very hot this summer days here in Doha. The mercury has been soaring very high. I have recorded 50 degrees twice during the last two months or so.

Since my Mitsubishi is carrying me without any complaint in this rough weather, I thought she was due for some well deserved therapeutic treatment this morning.

This morning I took my mate for a bath. There are not many places around here where you have this facility. Not many that we am aware of. I am probably right as even on the unholy hour of 7:30 am in a weekend morning I had to queue up behind 2 cars to have my turn. Even after reaching my turn, it is a considerable amount of time to wait as it is quite a task to get her cleaned inside out.

It reminded me of my days as a regular smoker when we used to light a cigarette on every occasion. When I had nothing else to do I would light one. I would have smoked 4 - 5 cigarettes this morning. I should have had brought something along to read even though it was quite difficult to sit in the heat and read a book. Instead I am pounding or rather pinching on my phone keyboard typing this nonsensical blog post and clicking some pictures keep me engaged while some guys are working so hard on my car. A rather unproductive timepass!

But I am not convinced that I was missing those smoking days .............. anyways!

My 2 Minutes

Time is always at a high premium for all of us! But these days I feel it more than ever before. Not because I have reached that part of life when one graduated from “growing up” to “getting old” but for the unique reason of not being able to manage my time too well. I have started to realize that it does not belong to me anymore and life is getting over between rushing to work and hurrying back home.

The most irritating moment of the life on the road is perhaps when you are approaching a crossroad with the traffic light green but the car in front of you is moving with a very slow speed or has decided to slow down. It was one of those days when I was about to lose another 2 minutes of my life just after having lost once in the previous signal. The car ahead of me was moving at an irritable slow speed with no intention of dashing for the green light. She finally reached the signal and stopped as the light was changing to amber. Usually motorist in this part of the world don't stop even when the light is changing to RED.

Having stopped at the signal and see 2 minutes of my life disappear in vain, I had one option of either being grumpy and take my frustration out on my car horn. But instead of that a new realization dawned on me and I became a bit philosophical. So much so that this made me jump within my mind and I will never be the same on roads again when I am driving alone. In fact I would be looking forward to more of those 2 minutes.

After all, the only moments that I can truly claim as mine is when I am driving to or from office. At either end of the destination, my time is either sold off or belongs to someone else!