A New ISP in the City

A good news and yet again it is an indication that India is marching towards accruing the best of Information and technology. Still a long way to go but thanks to all of those whose effort made this possible.

I don’t know how many of you are aware of this piece of news but I thought its worth blog, to make sure the message will continue to spread …

In Bangalore RailTel is lunching Broadband Internet Service (known as RailWire - Express Network) with a very affordable price. This service is limited now to Whitefield, B'lr only and it is expected that the service will gradually spread across other areas and cities/towns too. Now, gone are those days when you have to pay a hefty amount to get a broadband connection and also you were not assured with the quality of service. This is a clear signal to kill the monopoly of the majors in the market, to name a few Tataindicom, Reliance etc... I can hope the RailWire's quality of service would impose a challenge to them to retain their shares in the market. The other thing that is really impressing about Railwire is that the service will be a blessing for smaller cities and towns people considering the fact of accessibility and the cost per month. And cities like Bangalore what say – where every other person is in need of accessing the Internet. It will give people one more big choice / option to choose what is best for them. So I am looking forward to it.

You can check the detail information about the areas that are currently having this service, the plan charges and other required stuffs at RailWire’s website.

For more in the article published in Deccan Herald here.

Whatever we think or see isn’t always what it is meant for …

When I powered on my desktop computer after long two and half years, I had this very old MS word document waiting for me to go for a final mode for saving … yet again it made me wondering about this man made marvelous creation . And I bow down to one to the biggest achievement of today’s science and technology, the 'computer'.

Now coming back to the document, it was holding a small story that I had received in my college mailbox as a forwarded mail... I don’t remember who was the originator of that mail, but I was the person who distributed it among my friend’s circle. I still remember the huge reply mails I got from some of the friends; I know they are too good in replying back/ giving feedback on such kind of creative or some imaginative stories for that matters. Anyways, those were the days that every such single mail/story becomes our point of discussion and ever since I thought of documenting it but never had a chance; and then blog about it when I started with one. Well, that small story was an initiative to put forward a message that “the love we give away is the only love we can keep with us”. There can be several other messages that this story might hold but it’s up to you to identify what message you got from the story?. Surely, it would help somebody to figure out the role of love in life and the people for whom we are living in this world, mean to say which really influence the very basic principles of life “caring & sharing”. Probably it can define the whole world for you at some point of time.

There is a reason always and at times there can never be a reason for things happening around you; whatever happens is happen for good and the people associates with us act as the source of the change. I have always a very strong believe that the things you do or get is directly or indirectly influenced by those people and nevertheless they are the gifted people that god has send to you in many different forms, irrespective of whether you term them as good or bad. And ofcourse, we feel very fortunate enough to have such people around us every time we have the meaning with us. This is true to the knowledge and I hope you all will find the story was worth reading.

Whatever we think or see isn’t always what it is meant for … so lets get started with the story …

Some time ago a man punished his 9-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became even more upset when the child pasted the gold paper so as to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." The father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty. He spoke to her in a harsh manner, "Don't you know, young lady, when you give someone a present there's supposed to be something inside the package?"

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was full." The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put his arms around His little girl, and he begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.

An accident took the life of the child only a short time later and it is told that the father kept that gold box by his bed for all the years of his life. And whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems he would open the box and take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as human beings have been given a golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family, friends and God. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.

Flash Back - From MHz to GHz

When I am at home it’s always a different feeling and a different world altogether. Needless mentioning that I am away from my home twon for more than six years now and every time I entered to this town of Orissa, It makes me feel like wonder that I have had never so far from this place. Those dusty memories get re-freshed everytime I hit this place. And this time it is my desktop at home made me nostalgic. Now I am not able to recall when was the last I had some spare time inside my room seating with my evergreen PC (a desktop computer). It has been a wonderful more than a decade time that, this computer following my instructions. It also reminds me that lots of changes are brought by the time and pushed me away from it. Somebody has rightly said – “Life can’t wait, and I will never stop’.

Those days are history now; going way back to 1996, I was one of the lucky fellow in the town to own this PC. That time it was like owning something very special, more special than having a 'Thunder Bird' :). Anyways, it was too early at that age for me to own a bike than a Desktop. To brief about the configuration, it was loaded with the best available stuff in the market at that time, I mean with a 200 MHz Intel processor, 16 MB RAM, a 2 GB Hard disk, a 32x CD ROM drive and what more it came with a 14’ color monitor. Now after 12 years, I have seen many advancement in the world of computing where changes are so rapid and options are plenty, with new models hitting the market every now and then.

I am happy today that after so long time I am using it and yes this entire post is typed in the same PC. For a moment it is hard to believe that it is still working as good as my latest lappy (not in the literal sense). Now, the flasing memories drags me down to the lane where I started way back from those KKA days to VIT days, then to Oracle and … continuing; from Intel 200 Mhz processor to Dual Core 1.76 GHz processor. What it signals is that I would continue to experience this journey with every bit of me with knowledge as my friend and time as my mentor, from that Desktop to the current Laptop … and would term it as a journey unfinished. Also, this journey is marked with so many mistakes, learnings, failures, success and last but not the least a full of life in it.

Truly, changes are constant in anybody’s life and what probably makes me a happier person is that a change is triggered at a right time with a right combination of speed. … Well, though we moved on with whatever changes brought into our life, it keeps on swinging in between the dusty memories of past and the dreams of the future, in between holding the realities of the present .

Chavakkad Beach - God's own creation

If I can recall correctly there is this wonderful quote in upanishad; “There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond all of us, beyond the highest, the very highest. This is the light that shines in our heart”; this tells us everything about rediscovering the self by every bit of life we live.

You find, the you inside you is lost and a new you smiles every time the little power enlighten; jut because the almighty has blessed the wonderful creations around you. The every piece of nature inspires you, the wind, the trees, the mountains, the rivers, the sea, the ocean and so on … and what you really see that you are never alone when your are with them; they offer you so much that you find yourself so tiny in front of them. The realization of being with them energies you and it’s never a difficult task to see the joy of life re-creates it by its own.

It happened, so again that I was standing not far away from the sea. In continuation to the Kerela trip we reached a placed called Chavakkad, which is around 60 K.ms from the Thirssur Town. I know every beach has its own story and so do this beach. We were there just at the right time, I mean the evening time around 5.30 P.M, which made things more beautiful then expected. Intially, this place was not there in our actual plan but on the way when we heard that we were so close to a beach, then it was impossible to stop us. And what I have discovered has yet again proved to be a new experience… ofcoure my other eye (the camera) was alert enough to capture all those awing moments … so here goes ….

The weather was doing its own magic …

I know evening time is the best time when you come back from the daily work and find your clam place to re-energize yourself ... I wonder what these people might be thinking ... when I saw them seating on the boat; the quote that caught my mind was of Mother Teresa's - "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in an ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop".

Life goes on as if it never ends … and time goes on as if it never begins …

“To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me”. - Isaac Newton.

My favorite … a picture requires no words or may be 1000 words :)

Happy or Sad, life is like that ...

I wonder if there is no sad how somebody would define happy or vise versa, in the life. Well, your sad means you know how happy will make you feel about something. So a happy without sad will not be termed as a happy, probably it holds good the other way around too.

The dark clouds surround the lights of happiness as if they are those moments you never want to remember. And then the next moment you see the rays of hopes brings you back the lost smiles.

The sequence of events that brings in to your ever changing life; kicks you in every possible ways from one corner to another; one after other … Happy – Sad or Sad – Happy choose your own ways to feel and be in the process of graduation.

I may sound weirdo but there is NO moments on this earth for life to be only Happy – Happy or Sad – Sad.

P.S : photo of Arabian sea @ Allepey Beach.

Allepey, Kerela - A treat to your eyes

The journey of life took a fresh and newly explored direction. Back from the much awaited trip and clubbed with some other events. I started following the Railways station on Thursday evening to catch the train towards Allepey (Alappuzha) with a bunch of travel enthusiastic buddies. Everything was bang on time and we started exploring a place, otherwise called as ‘God’s own Country’, truly holds its meaning.

Alleppey is the most popular place for backwater tourism in Kerala. And the best thing that you can find there are well equipped House boats for the very reason of breaking the backwater paths. These house boats are available on hire on a daily as well as longer duration basis. In general, a house boat have 2/3 bed rooms with A/C facilities (optional) and attached bath rooms. On peak seasons (Sep-Feb) the charges for a 2 bed room house boat goes upto 20000 rupees per 24 hrs. And in off-peak seasons you will be lucky enough to get one as low as 5000 rupees per 24hrs.

On the way you will find the lagoons, canals crossing the country side, the surrounded paddy fields and many more such things that your eyes find worth giving a second look. Another attraction is the Alapuzha beach, one of the neat beaches I have seen in India. Seriously this place has much to offer to all the discerning tourists out there.

Oh ! man it is so difficult to choose the set of photos for this Blog. Probably I have taken the most number of photos this time - a record for me :). So understandably I had put little extra effort to choose the best one. But I really didn’t know which one was the best; each of them seems to be the best ;) to me.

A wide view of backwater lake from the train, just after you cross the Ernakulam Railway Station.

I had some memorable moments from the trip, especially the stay inside the house-boat, a newly experienced and followed by some great Kerela Style (vegetarian) food. Oh !!! I was under a wrong impression that people there don’t know how to prepare vegi-food ;).

As the Sun climbing down the sky, every view had something more to offer. And it was rightly said –“ Sunsets are so beautiful that they almost seem as if we were looking through the gates of Heaven”.

Quote(s) of the day !!!

It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.

- Jim Bishop