If you read science fiction from the 70s and the 80s you will find that writers had imagined the year 2000 and beyond to be much different from what it actually is. Androids, Space Travel, Space cities and ability to transmit humans from one place to other, are few of the fantasies that they imagined would be reality between 2000 and 2050. But as many would agree – hardly any of these fantasies seem to be coming true by 2050. Conversely many of the present day innovations and lifestyle components like mobile phones and the internet were never imagined in past by scientists or fiction writers. However there is a parallel between what was imagined and what we have today. For example though we cannot transmit humans from one place to the other but communication technologies have marked the death of distance. By 2050 we may not require to transmit people even if the technology for such a phenomenon is available. Already ‘net-meetings’, telecons and forums have become a part of our day to d...

This blog has completed 3000 hits today . . . and to commemorate this event let me post about an event that left a deep imprint on me and deserves to be christened as the "turning point" of my life . . . [Pardon me for being a bit senti . . .] Our school (like most other schools) had a tradition that every section would conduct the morning assembly for one week in the year. I was in class VII and our class was allotted the turn. The class teacher selected 6 students to deliver the 'thought for the day' on each weekday. I was the last one to be selected and so was placed for Saturday. Unfortunately, an unexpected holiday was announced on Wednesday and every student's schedule shifted by a day and me who was on Saturday was kicked out. I was sad, dejected and frustrated when I went to my class teacher (Mrs. Subhadra Basu Roy). She consoled me and told me that I was good and would definitely get a chance next year but this consolation wasn't enough for me. F...

Disclaimer: This is a naughty satire on the ever-make-n-break affairs of nowadays – it is neither a comment on serious affairs, nor intended against any specific person, any specific group or sex. Please do not read further if you think you may be offended by this post. ‘I need a girlfriend!’ I said aloud and Anish started laughing. ‘Hey come on! I am serious. Damn, I have been requesting each one of you to accompany me to Juhu – even promising that the ride will be on me and none of you are still ready! Had I had a girlfriend she would not have deserted me like this’. ‘Oh Yea, on the contrary she would have been happy that you are asking her out ’ Man!! Really you do miss a lot of adventure in life when you don’t have a girlfriend. Like there’s no pressure at all on you to cut your expenses – its like ‘Main akela to hoon! Apna paisa apne pe nahi to kispe kharch karoonga’ Oh yes! Having a girlfriend helps you get economically disciplined – after all when you have to buy her the most e...

While Googling on Information security(see previous post for details), I landed up on a message archive - I was amazed at the span of the discusion going on there - the audience to this discussion ranges from software developers, network-admins, managers, IT professionals, IT managers and even social researchers . . . http://honor.trusecure.com/pipermail/firewall-wizards/2003-April/014383.html The discussion begin's with a harmless techie doubt about opening ports and tunneling (browse the link below if you want to read the techie replies - the current post does not cover them) http://honor.trusecure.com/pipermail/firewall-wizards/2003-April/014339.html The next few replies were techy in nature, but the discussion turned soon to Good Software development practices with people taking moral high ground. . . http://honor.trusecure.com/pipermail/firewall-wizards/2003-April/014386.html http://honor.trusecure.com/pipermail/firewall-wizards/2003-April/014390.html http://honor.trusecure.co...

As my winter project with KPMG, I am currently doing research in the area of Information Security in order to prepare an authoritative 'guidebook' for IT professionals in this area. To tell the truth I mostly search content on the net, screen it and realign it - of course my work is then reviewed by people with experience in the area who improve it, plug the holes and correct mistakes. But fundamentally we are just recycling the same old concepts . . . . Even during our MBA, when we submitted assignments to our Profs we used to 'compile' them from what we found readymade on the net. There were some professors who would themselves indulge in extensive Googling and thus catch 'googled assignments' red-handed. Once that started, we changed our tactics; we used the same readymade stuff but changed the language - changing active to passive, or using synonyms. We were still caught at times but more often than not we escaped unscathed and ended up with above-average gr...

Raj, Kshipra and me (M. Rajkumar and Kshipra Katakwar - my batchmates at NITIE) were sitting in the mess waiting for our '5th meal of the day' (night mess... another habit of NITIEans) to be served when Kshipra blurted out - "The tragedy of life is that one gets used to it" . And suddenly I realized - how true! Everyday while returning from office when I get on the Mumbai Local I see numerous faces - most of them are tired, sweating and stressed, and on every face you see the expression of acceptance - acceptance of their life, acceptance of the crowded local, the sweat and the stress that their life comprises of! These are not happy people (not by their looks at least) but they are not sad as well - their life is still; constant . . . . should we say lifeless? I wonder! None of these mortals would ever want to create a revolution but they would also not be a hindrance to it. They are like a buffer solution - oblivious by what goes on in their surroundings. But mind y...

The weekend is here and many of you must be planning to watch a movie. I saw ‘My Brother Nikhil’ (yes my own name too is Nikhil!) yesterday at R-Adlabs, Mulund. The movie is well made and does justice to the sensitive subject it deals with. Here’s a review of the movie from me. If you are not interested in my review here’s a link to a good professional review http://in.rediff.com/movies/2005/mar/25brother.htm While Swades was a documentary presented as a movie/fiction, ‘My Brother Nikhil’ is a fiction presented like a documentary. It is a flashback narrative primarily by – Nikhil’s sister Anamika (Juhi Chawla), mother (Lillete Dubey), father (Victor Banerjee) and most importantly a dear friend Nigel (Purab Kohli). With dates appearing in the bottom left corner as every scene changes the documentary effect is so complete that sometime one wonders if this is indeed fiction or reality. Those of you who have seen ‘Phir Milenge’ will find this movie a better presentation in terms of depth a...

I was going through different blogs on people’s description of holi celebrations when I found Manish Chauhan’s Blog on Holi. http://manishchauhan.blogspot.com/2005/03/aaj-biraj-mein-holi-hai-rasia.html His blog reminded me of my own childhood Holi days – Holi Dehan and Holi Milan were the most awaited days of the year for me too. But apart form the colours and sweets – Holi for me had a special attraction – a chance to showcase and exercise my ‘event management skills’. At our place there used to be a community dinner and cultural show in the evening on Holi (rang waali). This was time when we children used to prepare a small show with skits and games for the adults in our mohalla . Some adult also used to participate by their singing/acting performances. I must credit many of my ‘project management’ skills to the experience of organising Holi Dehan and these Holi evening shows when I was the ‘bhaiiyaa’ of the Mohalla [Incidentally I was known as dada even among my friends during my ...

Wonder If any of you have ever heard of this Movie; nice one! I just chanced upon it on the Movie Server and thought why not!! But it really turned out to be a fantastic flick ... and had a great message in it ... what's more is that what it said is what I myself have been feeling for the past few days. Here's the link http://www.ingoodcompanymovie.com/ Its about this 52 year old salesman Dan Foreman(Dennis Quad) who works for a sports magazine but suddenly finds himself demoted and being 'bossed' over by a 26 year old Carter Duryea (Topher Grace) when the magazine is taken over by a another company. At first this new exec is all booming with ideas about the company's new 'synergy' strategy. 'Synergy' is shown as some shitty management jargon which is far from the company's real-life business. While during the movie Dan has to lay off his old buddies while not agreeing with the company's new policies and has a hard time; the end makes things ...

A very interesting discussion is ‘ON’ on Manish Chauhan and Ramanand’s blogs. [ http://manishchauhan.blogspot.com/2005/02/rising-in-response-to-ramanands-post.html ] [ http://quatrainman.blogspot.com/ 2005_02_01_quatrainman_archive.html#110934441279858050 ] The discussion is about the gap between fact and fiction in relation to the movie ‘The Rising’ – supposedly made on Mangal Pandey’s life. Such questions have always been raised whenever Indian Cinema has dared to make films based on real life instead of fiction. Recently the Supreme Court had stayed release of Black-Friday (made on Mumbai Bomb Blasts) because it used real names of victims and accused in the Blasts. On the other hand just see how different Hollywood is – movies like Apollo 13, The Rookie, Titanic and many others not only do well but go on to become classics. Then there are movies like Saving Private Ryan, Three Kings and Forrest Gump which are made in a backdrop of a real life event like a war and are widely apprecia...