An Unfinished Story…

It was 4:30am and I decided to write a story. I felt that the post “When time stopped” didn’t capture the magic of the moment as I expected it to coz lets face it; I suck at story writing. If by any chance my dear cousin sister Meera is reading this, pardon me… but I guess I didn’t get the same writers blood as yours (I am A+ve ). Anyway to prove that I really suck at this I decided to write another one true from heart.

Disclaimer:

The characters in this story named “An Unfinished Story…” may or maynot resemble anyone living, dead or about to die of heart attack after reading this work of fiction. If you find that your part of life has been stolen and manipulated in the following story, you have the rights reserved to file a petition in Honourable Supreme Court of Antartica. I take no responsibility for any mental damage, allergy to short stories, peak use of foul language that may occur after reading the following creation. The story has been provided with a disclaimer which you are reading now and at the end of the story, dont tell me that I didnt warn you.

Reviews:

Anitha (friend): “Wonderful story, i slammed my head on the moniter so hard that my dad had to buy me a new one”

Aditi (friend): “Made me go speechless!!! I haven’t talked to him for a week now after reading this crap”

Shady (friend):“Narayanamoorthy would never know what’s coming towards his company”

Baalu (milkman): “I read the story to my cow. Its now shivering with fever and gives me icecream instead of milk everyday.”

Vijay (friend and singer): “Now i realise why my life is peaceful after he left the flat”

HOD (college): “I am very much pround to say that a student of my department has achived something that no one has ever done before. I watched his perfomance in the movie “Kabhi Intel, Kabhi AMD” hundred times and should say havent come across a better movie in my life. His role as Amitabs son was just mind blowing” (Me: What movie??? Whatever…)

  

An Unfinished Story…

by “You Know Who”

The hot sun shone through the white curtains of Rohan’s bedroom. He turned over in bed, ignoring the sun’s wake up call. Not to be ignored, it shone into a mirror standing right to his futon, reflecting a bright glare onto his sleepy eyes. Rohan had barely slept for the past five days. Rohan was confused, worried and in a dilemma. In fact this issue was driving him crazy. He was not a typical flirt who would have a crush on any other girl. He was highly matured for his age and knew exactly what to do with his life. He had it all planned… career, family, you name it… only thing he had not thought about was his love life. After all what’s there so much to think about? It happens at random and there is absolutely no predictability. But it’s not that he had not experienced any romance in life. It happened twice over years in school and college. In school an angel shot the arrow of love that went right thought his heart at a time when he knew absolutely nothing on the subject. All his knowledge those times were from the fancy movies where the heroes always had a heroine no matter what. He had to figure out the meaning of love from this relationship. And needless to say, it didn’t last long. After all final year of high school is not much time to figure things out. Having failed at it, he decided not to try it again… but within himself he was overconfident that he had mastered the art of romance and the second relationship would prove him completely wrong. The second one started almost unexpectedly in college. Initially just as friends, and slowly into a deep one. It took them few ups & downs and 3 years to figure out that it was not going anywhere. Still they tried their best coz they didn’t want to break each others heart. It was his sister’s marriage with the guy she loved that became an eye opener. All the problems at home and the issues with marriage was too much for him to handle. At one point he cursed the one who initially came up with the idea of marriage in human history. They had already figured it out that the relationship would end up back in friendship which is where is started in the first case. Finally at the end of college they went their own way into corporate life. 3 years of relationship was not easy to forget, it did take its time. And when it finally did, he decided no matter what, he is not going to have one more relationship until he gets settled in life. And as Rohan had planned, he had a handsome job offer with him and would be flying to the new city in a few days. Things were going very well until he met this girl.

He thought it would be just another  girl he meets on the internet with similar interests. But within a week he realised that this was more of that. To fall in love in a week??? Rohan was not someone who believed it love at first sight. For him love at first sight was something used in movies just because the director was not creative enough. He believed that the fancy word ‘crush’ suited best in such circumstances. But somewhere down his heart he knew it wasn’t a crush, nor was it love at first sight. It was something more fundamental than love, something more basic that had to come first before love could develop which would lay the foundation. Instinctively, intuitively he knew she was right for him. But still he couldn’t understand why this was happening to him. The girl has been in his head for the past five days. Wherever he goes, whatever he does, this is the only thing that he could think of. Even thought this was the first time it was happening to him, he was trying his best to fight it in all possible ways. But the photos of the girl he had in his mobile which he copied from her online Flickr album was not helping much. The girl was perfect for him… she had a lovely smile, jovial, humorous, mature, and had her life well planned. ‘Izumi Mizukio’ he thought, which in Japanese means, “beautiful fountain of pure water.” And it’s no wonder, for her eyes are so blue that they put the sea to shame. He had fell into her beautiful spell too quickly. But then what haunted him is the fact that he did have friends all his life who had all these qualities. He knew them very well but still didn’t have feelings for them. Then why this girl whom he had met barely a week back? What’s so special about her? Whenever the girl came to his mind he would say that this thing is going to go off in another minute, after all I am a Gemini, my mood keeps changing.  Unfortunately for him his Gemini theory didn’t work well here. The thoughts of the girl stayed and that has been the only thing in his heart for the past 5 days. He had not met her directly, he didn’t know much about her, he didn’t get much chance to speak with her, but yet the thoughts of her kept haunting her. He never chose his friends by appearance; he chose them by the beauty of their heart. Hence he was not sure whether she was beautiful or not, but from the things he knew about her so far, she was the most beautiful girl by heart he had ever known and that’s all mattered to him.

Unable to make a decision of his own, he consulted his friends. The fact is that his friends working abroad were worried seeing him online during the most unexpected hours. Luckily for him he had chosen his friends wisely and he did expect some quality suggestions. His friends loved him coz he really cared for them. If you were in trouble or needed help, Rohan was the first guy you would turn to. “You’re crazy!!! What would you call such a relation? Its just an infatuation” some tried to change his min. But Rohan always had his own reasons “Some relations in this world doesn’t have a name and this is one of them”. One of his close friend did make him feel better after about four hours of conversation. But the end of the four hours his friend said to him-”Listen to your heart”. He listened to his heart and it shouted back-”You love her”. Even his ex-girlfriend called to tell him how lucky the girl is to have found someone like him. But he was still feeling terrible about himself. He was having these wonderful thoughts all the time about the most amazing girl he had ever met and couldn’t even tell her. He had run out of time to know her better. He couldn’t decide what had to be done. “God help me! I am in love with her” he prayed and that was all he could do now.

He was moving to a new city far far away in a few days. And it’s really going to be a long time until it’s time for him to get married. Should he tell her? If he does and her response is not positive, he would lose her forever. A chance of a negative reply was definitely more… common, it’s been just a week and every girl has her own feelings. He wouldn’t definitely be heartbroken coz over the years he had become mature enough to respect his partner in a relationship. It’s no wonder that his female friends said his wife would be a lucky girl. Is this the girl he wanted to spend the rest of the life… yes he would say and for a reason unknown to him. Now if the girl says yes, then he will be gone for his job for a few years. They would be hurt badly due to this distance and he didn’t want any problem to come to her because of him. Maybe he would wait for the right time to come. He would stay in touch with her, get settled in life and when the time is ripe if she is still single… propose her. By the time even she would have settled in life plus they would have known each other well for the girl to take the best decision. Do you expect her to be single then was the question he faced from most of his friends who wanted him to express his love before he leaves. “I don’t know, if she’s the one meant for me, she’ll always be there for me” he would reply with a smile.

He spent the final days making the most of the moment. He had the feelings pressed and locked up inside his heart for rest of the days. And at the end of week he said bye to her and left to the new city with a promise to keep in touch. Will the girl ever come to know about her secret admirer? Will Rohan get his princess when his time comes after years? Is his waiting going to pay off? Even if it does, will she be single then? After all will she accept him? I really don’t know coz I am off to Mysore on 24th November to tame the wilds of digital data. Fortunately for you, they don’t pay me to write stories there. But I am sure that Rohan will keep his little secret until the apt time arrives. And maybe years later he would express his love and maybe then I would complete this story. So till then, wish me luck dear friends and do keep in touch…

The ads I love…

Vodafone: Life of a Mayfly

A very beautiful ad used worldwide which shows the life of a Mayfly. When Vodafone came to India this was translated to hindi and aired.

“The common mayfly has a life expectancy of just one day.But is he miserable about it?Not one bit.He fills his day with the things he loves.Just think …If we embrace life like the mayflyWhat a life that would be.

Make the most of now.”

Reliance: Apun Ka Sapne

Baat kitne be chote ho, sapne chote nahi hote!

Zoomin!!! Order prints online…

I am getting lazy nowadays to blog. But after this new service I couldn’t resist myself to blog about it. In a nutshell Zoomin is about uploading your photos online, sharing it with friends and the best part, you can order the print and it will be delivered to you at your doorstep in a breeze in India or USA. Plus the charges for a normal 4×6 prints is just Rs 4/- whether matted or glossy.

So here are some of the best part of the service

1. Free account
2. Unlimited upload, no monthly limit
3. Import photos from Flickr or Google Picasa
4. 15 prints free (Invite your friends and gain more free prints)
5. Good pricing… list below
6. INR 25 delivery charges, no matter how much quantity you order
7. Excellent service, breezy delivery (I ordered a set of 77 photos this monday and got it today, ie wednesday)
8. Nice packaging to make sure photos doesn’t get damaged
9. Excellent print quality
10. Send photos to any address in India or USA

I might have missed a few points, anyway, I just love this service. What-more, they have printing on pocketbooks, cards, mugs and calendars coming up!!! So what are you waiting for, go ahead and make register your free account at http://www.zoom.in .

Orkut new Friends Map feature

Okrut seems to be adding a new “Friends Map” feature. Its listen in the help section of Orkut, but not yet implemented. 

http://help.orkut.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10324

Can I see where all of my orkut friends are located?

You can see where all of your orkut friends are located by taking a look at the new “friends map” feature. This feature combines Google Maps and orkut profiles to let you see where all of your friends live around the world. To see the “friends map”, just follow these steps:

1. Click “view all” at the bottom of the “my friends” box.
2. Click the “friends map” tab at the top of the page.

You can click a friend’s profile picture to see their location on the map. Please note that if we do not have map data for a particular region or if your friend chose not to put their location in their orkut profile, you will see a message “(not on map)” below their profile name.

You can also click the “tiny little blue men” to see your friends’ locations. By clicking one of these figures, a bubble will pop open to let you know which friend lives in that location.

How do I use the “friends map” feature?

The friends map on orkut.com is a feature offering powerful, user-friendly mapping technology to see where all of your friends are located around the world. With the friends map, you’ll enjoy the following unique features:

Find your friends – By clicking on any of your friends’ pictures on the right-hand side of the map, you’ll be taken to their locations on the map. You can also click on any of the “little man” icons on the map to see which friend is where. (Note: If we don’t currently have map data available for your friend’s location or if they didn’t include their location in their orkut profile, you’ll see a message “(not on map)” below their name.)

Draggable maps – Click and drag maps to view adjacent sections immediately (no long waits for new areas to download).

Satellite imagery – View a satellite image (or a satellite image with superimposed map data) of your desired location that you can zoom and pan.

Zoom – You can zoom in or out by using the navigation bar in the left-hand side of the map.

Meeting with a computer

When I was in 9th, my father’s mother (whom I call muthi) died. I had never seen my father’s father bcoz he died before I was born. Fathers side its a very big family with 9 children. So a week after her death, one of my cousins; Sunil Kumar came home. He was then undergoing training at Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun. I really had a good time with him for he used to take me for a walk in the evening and buy a lot of stuff. Lateron when we came back town we used to roam around in his bike.  One of those days he told me that he is going to check mail and invited me to accompany him. I had never touched a computer in my life before and was eager to accompany him. I had no idea then what email did. His account was in USA.NET which was a free service back then. He checked his mail and asked me whether I wanted to create an account so that he can send me mail. This was the most funniest conv we had. Earlier I had seen him typing the username and password. 

He: What do you want as username?

Me: Whats that?

He: You need to enter that to login

Me: Prathul2002 (since it was year 2002)

He: Whats the password you want?

Me: Put same as yours

He: Whats mine?

Me: Its sever stars!!!!!!!!!!!

He: ????????????????? 

Later I read the same thing in Santa Banta.com. I wonder if he has submitted this joke to the site. My dear brother, if you are reading this, I have a small secret to share with you. The third time I came with you to browsing centre, I saw you password!

FBI: No Proof, Wrong Spelling

Learn to spell first FBI. Even kids of America today knows to spelll “Osama Bin Laden”; but as far as FBI is concerned, its “Usama Bin Laden”. See it here in the worlds top 10 most wanted list. http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/laden.htm

It doesnt say a word about him being involved in the WTC attack on Sept 11th, 2001. Now have a close look at the page.. do you find something interesting? Well if you believe you are looking at the photograph of a fugitive that killed 3000 americans in World Trade Centre attack look again. Read under the CAUTION part. It says:

USAMA BIN LADEN IS WANTED IN CONNECTION WITH THE AUGUST 7, 1998, BOMBINGS OF THE UNITED STATES EMBASSIES IN DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA, AND NAIROBI, KENYA. THESE ATTACKS KILLED OVER 200 PEOPLE. IN ADDITION, BIN LADEN IS A SUSPECT IN OTHER TERRORIST ATTACKS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

The new documentry “911 Ripple Effect” the same fact is mentioned. It says that when Muckraker reporter Ed Hass contracted FBI as to why there was no mention of Sept 11 attack under Osama’s crimes, the response of Rex Tomb (Chied of Investigative Publicity, FBI) was that “we have NO HARD EVIDENCE linking Osama Bin Laden to the attacks on September 11th”. Remember just before the Afganistan war began Condoleezza Rice stated that “we have hard evidence linking Osama and Taliban to the attack in American soil. We will be releasing it to the public shortly”. The release never came just because it never existed.

Ask yourself… who is to be blamed and answerable for the millions of deaths caused in war Afganistan and Iraq and the soilders killed there? Even hell cant accomodate the responsible…

Discovery Channel Propaganda: Attack on the Pentagon

Discovery and National Geographic Channel are two of the best channels I love to watch. Mainly because they indulge in thorough investigation to get to the bottom of every incident before airing it. Two days back discovery channel aired their documentary: “Attack on the Pentagon”. I should say that I was thoroughly disappointed and highly frustrated watching it for an hour. The whole documentary was shouting and supporting the government version of the attack and supporting the propaganda. Here are a few things that discovery stated. 

Discovery: Fortunately the Flight 77 hit the newly renovated part of the Pentagon which was stronger than other parts and disintegrated on impact.

Fact: This is also said in the official Pentagon investigation report. But the statement that the plane had hit the “newly renovated part of Pentagon” was a new statement not found on the original report. But the main point to note is that a big object like Boeing 757 doesn’t just disintegrate on impact into pieces that can be handpicked. Any plane crash due to its geometry leaves behind a tail section and the engines. None of the two were found at the crash site.

Discovery: The flight hit the Pentagon on the at a speed of over 500mph and banked left before impact to cause maximum damage.

Fact: Again same as official story. According to the govt story, the so called terrorists were trained on much smaller flights. A Boeing 757 has a completely different handling and controls. A pilot first time on then world’s largest commercial airlines like the Boeing 757 can never manoeuvre the aircraft at almost 100 miles more than its maximum safe speed, at such low altitude to hit the ground floor and further more bank the aircraft at the right moment. Furthermore the flight data recorder says the flight before hitting pentagon while on sky were put into manoeuvre like vertical lift which would exert a force of about 6-7G on the aircraft which in the first place no commercial airliner can withstand, nor an amateur pilot can do. At forces of 6-7Gs, people in the plane cannot even lift their heads, leave alone manoeuvring a plane as big as Boring 757 perfectly. The plane that hit the Pentagon descended too fast and too sharply for it to be a Boeing 757 – the Dulles Air Controllers, who cleared Flight 77 to take off, thought it was a fighter jet. Boeing pilots who have been flying for over 20years says even he cant do it, nor can anyone else. An aircraft can never do such manoeuvre, but there is something that can do it: A missile.

Discovery: The plane flew at 15ft off the ground before hitting the ground floor of Pentagon

Fact: When a plane flies, the engines exert a force on the ground objects known as jet blasts. If you have seen the vehicle being blown away by the aircraft in Die Hard: 4, you will know what I mean. Even a small plane like Cassena Jet required it to be at a minimum height of 60 feet to avoid affecting object one the ground.

So a Boeing 757 flying at maximum thrust at altitude as low as 15 feet will blow the lawn in front of the impact site away. But in all the photos, the lawn looks perfectly mowed and smooth.

Discovery: The aircraft disintegrated into pieces on impact and the intense heat from fire caused the parts to melt.Fact: Interestingly intense heat causes a Boeing 757 to melt but does not affect equipments like furniture’s and computers in the impact site. Funny! Plus parts of an aircraft like engines, fuselage etc are made of strong materials that doesn’t melt at 1800^O Fahrenheit. But yes one debris was indeed found from the crash site… an engine rotor. Rolls Royce, the engine manufacturers of Boeing in a press release said that the recovered rotor was too small and didn’t belong to any part of any of Boeing series aircraft. But the rotor recovered did resemble something: those used in the single engine jet of missiles like Tomahawk.

Discovery: Only one camera recorded the crash footage.

Fact: Do you believe that in worlds biggest security area like Pentagon, there was just one camera pointing the area where the plane crashed? Take a look at the picture and find how many cameras are pointing at the crash. In fact The FBI seized the video from a gas station - within minutes of the attack. The FBI also seized the video from the Sheraton Hotel and told the employees who had viewed the tape not to discuss what they had seen. The DoD originally claimed that their surveillance video cameras did not capture the attack, but later released 5 frames from the camera that looks over the point of impact. After extensive analysis on a number of Flight 77 Web Sites, it is clear that the pictures have been tampered with. Pentagon Attack Cctv Video. FBI today has almost 80 footages of the crash which they decline to be released to public on grounds of National Security. Hmm… I wonder how national security is associated with footage of plane crash. Well, maybe the footage wouldn’t show any plane hitting the Pentagon, maybe it would show a missile or single jet aircraft and maybe this would cause uproar and riots. I don’t think they need to be worried of these things happening cause with a country running on dictatorship, anybody can be made to keep their mouth shut. Now some of you may be yelling that this guy is a nuts: US is a democratic nation and not dictatorship. Oh yeah? Well, here is some facts for you: When congress told Bush that secret arrest, secret detention and torture was illegal, he simply asked his attorney general Roberto Gonsalvus issuing a policy paper claiming that it was legal and that this would be simply called ‘pressure’ and not torture and that is someone dies of pressure, that is acceptable. He went further in issuing memos to president and those used by the military that they could torture small children in front of their parents, in some cases, sexually. The president even signed pieces of legislation that hasn’t even passed the congress. He was also caught conducting warrantless searches using the NSA (National Security Agency) on the American people. Bush claimed that he had executive authority to ignore any federal law he wished. The constitution makes it illegal to spy on American people. Bush used DIA(Defence Intelligence Agency), a branch of Pentagon to spy on Anti-War activists. When asked he again said that he is on top of the law. As far as English is concerned, this is the definition for dictatorship.

Fact: Here is another fact for you. It is a standard law that in case of hijack of a commercial airliner, fighter jets would scramble to intercept it and would shoot it down under unavoidable circumstance. A few week before 9/11, the Bush administration passed a law that to shoot down a commercial jet in the event of hijack, permission from President, Vice-President or the defence Secretary is required. On 9/11 not even one fighter jet scrambled to intercept any of the four hijacked aircraft. The flight that hit Pentagon was 1 hr in air after the WTC was hit when all commercial flights were grounded. The only fighter jet that was in air and went to intercept the flight was called back by the Pentagon. When the plane was enroute to Pentagon, the vice President was constantly being updated that the flight is just 50miles away. They kept updating when the flight was 30,20 and just 10 miles away. As from the statement from Transportation secretary given to the commission, he said “When the flight was just 10 miles away, the young man asked the Vice President- ‘Do the orders still stand?’. The VP twisted his neck around and said-‘Ofcourse the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?’” [Source: CSPAN archive footage/ Terrorstorm 2^nd edition] 9/11 was clearly an inside job, well planned by the govt and not by any cave men of Torabora.Everything I told is only related to Pentagon. There is a bigger picture about the whole 9/11 incident which probably you already know. If you are not aware, I suggest you watch these documentaries and question yourself.

·         Farenheit 911

·         Loose Change 2^nd Edition

·         Terrorstorm 2^nd Edition

·         911 The ripple effect

Microsoft India Sex

I found this interesting photo on flickr while searching for Microsoft India Campus. The photograph by Amit Agrawal shows a search on MSN Search for “India Sex” which retuen www.microsoft.com as one of the search result. You can find the photograph here.

The search for the same term in the Live Search ahead of its Version 2.0 release shows an error method and refuses to searh coz it contains sexually explicit content.

But coming to the main point! To add a Live.com image to my previous post I did a live image search and came out with these results!!! The reults had a few pics of Winodws Live Messsenger, some junk images and then again some pornographic content. There is no safe search in Live like google. I hope in future the Live 2.0 image search doesnt come up with a warning: Click I accept if you are 18+. The search for the same term didnt return much MSN images, but also it didnt return any porn coz safe search was on.

Live 2.0 details leaked

Microsoft encourages its employees to blog. In fact it has a dedicated blog to each of its products at Spaces.Live.com to encourage more interaction between creators and end users. But what happens when the details of a product is leaked far ahead of schedule?

Thats excatly what happened when the details of Live Search 2.0 ahead of the next week Searchification event of unveiling its details officialy to reports. Windows Live program manager Akram Hussein in his personal blog demonstrated how the new Live Search handles searches for digital cameras, showing not just product details, but also reviews. Also a search for “Brad Pitt” shows his popularity rating. Much of the changes of the new look and feel has bee gradually appearing on the site.

The blog has ever since been pulled down and Akram Hussein has posted an apology saying that the screenshots were from a test version of the new Live and not the final verion. But some guys have managed to get the screenshots here.

TataSky vs Dish TV

There has been much talk about the topic Tatasky vs DishTV around the blog world and forums. Most of them are even confused by the conflicting infos available. Here I plan to give an unbiased reply so that you can make the best choice.

Let me start from the beginning. Unlike some of you, I never had a confusion whether to go for Tatasky or DishTV coz I never planned to buy a DTH in the first place. I got TataSky free with my Acer laptop and I didn’t have much of choice. Even to this day I am thankful to Acer that they chose Tatasky for the free offer.

I got the DigiCommp(something similar to settop box that decodes the signal) delievered and as mentioned, called up the customer care to schedule an installation. The engineers appeared promptly the next day and they were technically sound and explained clearly what they were doing. After which they gave a demo of the working. The best area where Tatasky is strong and where Dish TV fails miserably is the Customer Service. Now before the DishTV users starts scrowing at me, I am telling this statement with reference to my neighbours and friends who suscribed to DishTV for the sun channels.

 Even during thunderstorms in TataSky I am getting excellent reception quality. Dish TV reception under the same environment is pathetic (atleast in my flat). The people staying opposite to mine got DishTV free under some scheme and ever since they installed it months back they are recieveing only 1 channel. They have been calling up DishTV customer care for months now without much avail. The clarity of channels is exceptional in Tatasky, especially western channels.

Now coming to pricing. After the introduction of sun channels in Tatasky, the packages have been changed. You get all the channels (including all active channels) in the jumbo pack of Rs 350. For people who want SunTV with western channels, there is a south super pack for Rs300 available. The best thing is that before this I was using western pack (not available now) for Rs 250. Tatasky didnt change my pack automatically without my permission like the mobile providers do nowadays.

 For detailed pakages info for Tatasky, visit here
 For detailed pakages info for DishTV, visit here

Also you can easily recharge through credit card online in Tatasky. DishTv has the same option too, but its buggy. In DishTV sometimes, the account is not recharged, but the amount is deducted after which you will have a horrible time convincing the customer care. TataSky no such problems. I always recommend TataSky to my friends and would do the same to you too. You have Reliance Bluemagic and Bharti DTH coming up in a few months. But I feel TataSky is competent enough and well established now to withstand competetion. 1million connection in a year says it all. You dont have to wait for SunDTH coz its compelte crap… only the Free to air channels and Sun channels available. So the present best option is TataSky… maybe the future option too.

PS: Here are some views of a DishTV user who later switched to Tatasky….