I'm part of the cult!

What's the fascination about apple ? I've asked that question myself and those apple product owners.

Is it the cool look or the impeccable quality or is it just the hip factor, that one has to own as everyone else?

Well, what ever it is, I've found them expensive to not invest in any of their products, but to just stand out with envy. But the wait was over today. I'm part of the cult now!

Thanks to SideStep, I own this amazing gizmo. Its just divine ! I feel like hearing sounds that I've not heard before, the songs I've heard for decades in all sophisticated sound systems and head-phones. Great job Apple. And, while we're on the subject, this speech from Steve Jobs is definetly a 'must not miss' !

When the morons sing " we will, we will, rock you! "

Premise: Country : India, Time : 4th week of July. Citizens wake up to find that they're unable to blog!

They scramble to find reasons, only to find none. Days go by, sporadic access to blogs, some find ways to beat the system/crappy policy, getting help from even the country's rival !.

Then comes the kicker, DoT, India terms is 'technological error'.

In an effort to stave off potential sectarian violence, the official said, the government's Department of telecommunications instructed Internet service providers to block access to the two pages. "Because of a technological error, the Internet providers went beyond what was expected of them, which in turn resulted in the unfortunate blocking of all blogs," the official explained.

Technological error to cut off the access to set of domain's! Are you kidding me ?

bloody accept the fact that you're technically challenged. Fact is you just don't get the tech. This is pathetic and clear infringement of fundamental rights of the constitution of India.

Also on Tuesday, a technician at a Bangalore-based service center of one Internet provider said the government had ordered blogspot.com to be blocked "due to security reasons." A service provider in New Delhi said the government, without explanation, had directed his company to block access to fewer than a dozen sites; he could offer no details on the nature of those sites. The secretary for telecommunications, D. S. Mathur, hung up the phone when reached at home.

Dude you called up the wrong guy. He has no clue to use the fone, leave alone to expect some courtesy out of him!

AdSense !

ooooohh hhhhhhhhhooooooooo! I got approved for adSense after repeated attempts. This time it was fassssst! I can hear the kutching sound :)... keep clicking ;)

United we stand

Two recent events in India have really disturbed me a lot - The Mumbai blasts on 11th July and blockade of blog-sites ( will write about this later ).

Mumbai is one of most busiest cities in the world and equally dense. The synchronous bombing is just a cowardliness the most despicable act.

I was really surprised at the frankness in Pakistan's president Musharaff's speech.

"The people and the Government of Pakistan and I are with you"

"To say that the peace and dialogue process should be postponed, or stopped because of the Mumbai attacks is to hand a victory to the terrorists. This is exactly what [the terrorists] want, that the peace process and the normalization process be stopped."

"If you give us proof, evidence, we will fully co-operate with you in the investigations. We are fully with you in tracking down whoever carried out this attack and caused so much damage to you"

Very powerful words. If he is being honest, I really salute the man. These words from an unlikely source should be appreciated.

At the same time, from any Indian citizen's stand-point, its really hard to see the truth and sympathy behind these words, due to the decades of conflicting Pakistan. How can one trust ?

Back to Mumbai blasts, 2 sub-events spiraled the thought process in me,as they really struck home.

1. My best friend was going to travel to their neighboring state and was concerned about traveling in a train, as they all happened in a train. They did travel and with a strong and firm decision to do so.
2. We had a mishap in our family and my dad wasn't able to attend his sibling's final rituals' as there wasn't a way to reach them. Train services were badly hit.

I now realize that there are times, things doesn't come and hit you, until they happen really close to you. It was and still is very hard for me to understand this. Again and again I ask myself, what did my friend do, what did my family do ?

My friend was been forced to think over her plans, because "somebody" thought it'd be better to kill innocent people ?!

How can anyone console my father, when his own sibling's funeral, was practically isolated, with her siblings unable to reach her ? What did they all do ?

What did all those people, who were going to work, kids going to school, people doing their own business do ?

As a terrorist you don't have the right to control other lives, others decisions, when you don't have control of yous, due to your actions and idelogies.

Violence is NOT a solution never will be, doesn't matter at any level. If you can't even show up your face, voice your opinion in an open forum, stand up for your rights and fight for it, thro' "human" means, you don't deserve to call yourself an human being, a freedom-fighter, a liberator. You don't deserve to even fight what you're fighting for!

Its an irony that India is a country which got its independence thro' non-violence.
Gandhi never advocated to blow up British establishments and system to attain freedom.

Believe me, if he were to order that, in the wildest of anyone's imagination, the entire nation would've signed up for that and could've toasted the British possibly 100's of times.

But he was the man, who believed not only in non-violence, but also that there is "always" a solution by working in a frame-work, which involves conversations, debates, negotiations, systematic processes et al. But none of those, in any form or manner, supported violence.

To all those ruthless killers : think in your heart. What have you achieved by inflicting fear ? You loath yourself having succeeded in your so called 'operation', but look back and you will see that this nation shall stand united, much more than before. You can blow up all of our establishments and kill many more, but the life you live in today looking over your shoulder always is what you should be feel bad about. While we stand proud that we stand for each other and we stand up against people like you, more during these kind of heinous acts.

You've attained nothing but even more hatred at the very plight you think you're fighting for. Above all the irreparable bereavement and deepest wounds, India stands up again and absolute in its resolve.

Over time, you shall run away from the legal system, stay away in shadows and hide in caves and plan more and more attacks. It just makes you even more sick and how shady you life is and in no way, would give you what you dream about, getting by murdering innocence lives. Equally, you could think that you've dodged the bullet, but remember, in god's books, the checks-n-balances "always" happens and you'll be held accountable. Its that burden you carry to yourself, until then. We have no feeling what so ever except we just pity you and your state of life.

These events has made us much more stronger in not only holding ourselves together, but be much more united to say "bring it on" !

Change of guard

After some long thought, I've decided finally do it. For a long time, I wanted to write about few things that deeply affected or still affect me. Had been pulling back, thinking to myself, its my view and what's the point and with other useless thoughts. But I think now that its time to change the direction of my ideas/writings.

I'd pour out on anything and everything that happens around me or that affects me. It could be strong, explicit and I could name names. But deep inside, I think I could show my point. I shall try.