Memories: Instant Color TV

Those who were born in India around 1980s are the folks who have seen the maximum changes Indian society has gone through. I guess the black & white television tops the chart who actually revolutionized the society , the government ran single TV channel DD National & later introduced DD Metro kept India engaged for decades, provided news ,entertainment and everything. And then by late 90's with cable TV's wide arrival everyone tasted unlimited 24 X 7 supply of entertainment (news , movies , TV serials , sports etc ) via various local , foreign channels. It happened only in late 90's when having a land line phone connection became a reality for common masses who ultimately lost the battle to its successor mobile phones in the new century. It was only in the  mid 90's when Indian students first saw desktop computers and early version of windows in some of the privileged schools. It was also only in the 80's when buying a car became a reality for middle class.

It's 2012 now most of us (most means 1.2 billions) are connected to high speed broadband connections (internet) , we have colored HD screen laptops or other variants of high speed computing devices, we are connected to the whole world in a way , we have access to almost all type of news every second , we have access to all good or bad information, history, geography, science , literature and what not.    

But, one thing I remember the most which we (at least I know a few who had) saw so humbly in 80's is this piece of colored plastic screen, which gave us all joy. It was easily available in TV shops. To make a b&w TV screen look like a colored one, you just had to fix this screen over your b&w screen, simple. It basically was a plastic sheet that was of the same size of your black and white TV screen. It had some six to seven colors filled across the screen in some pattern. In our screen I remember it was a very colorful map of India over that plastic sheet , blue color on the top of the map, green in  the middle, light red on the bottom , light yellow on right , orange on left and something like this colored everywhere. 

Like most of the others we also had a b&w TV (ours was a Jolly StarTrek an Indian brand ) and this colored plastic screen, which we often used to overlay over the screen to enjoy colors those days. So, you had an instant color TV , whenever you attached this colored screen on the black and white TV screen. Gone are those good days, its the new smart LED 3D TV time with some very shallow broadcasting going on.

~Thanks

Arvind Kejriwal reliving Dushyant Kumar's pain

Arvind Kejriwal reciting these famous lines of poet Dushyant Kumar poem/ghazal . Nothing has changed much since Dushyant Kumar wrote these lines , but Arvind the real hero of current times , fighting and motivating others against the corrupt system in India. Salute to both Dushyant Ji & our real Tiger Arvind Ji.

Dushyant Kumar-1931–1975

हो गई है पीर पर्वत-सी पिघलनी चाहिए,
इस हिमालय से कोई गंगा निकलनी चाहिए।

आज यह दीवार, परदों की तरह हिलने लगी,
शर्त लेकिन थी कि ये बुनियाद हिलनी चाहिए।


हर सड़क पर, हर गली में, हर नगर, हर गाँव में,
हाथ लहराते हुए हर लाश चलनी चाहिए।


सिर्फ हंगामा खड़ा करना मेरा मकसद नहीं,
सारी कोशिश है कि ये सूरत बदलनी चाहिए।


मेरे सीने में नहीं तो तेरे सीने में सही,
हो कहीं भी आग, लेकिन आग जलनी चाहिए।

- दुष्यन्त कुमार
from his book  "Saye Me Dhoop"

Vat 69 Pencil Colors – Fills your life with madness of colors

Vat 69 Pencil Colors – Fills your life with madness of colors

What is surrogate advertising ?

if you Google the word surrogate, Wikipedia explains what surrogate may closely refer to, it’s mostly the surrogate pregnancy which now a days people are familiar of , an arrangement for a woman to carry and give birth to a child as the actual mother is not able to because of medical inabilities. Those who are into computer programming might have heard terms like COM surrogate, surrogate proxies they also have the same meaning, that's later.

The idea is when someone is not able to conceive something it uses an able surrogate to do that something . This is currently being used by many product companies to advertise their actual money earning banned products on TV/Radio/FM or on big hoardings which they cannot otherwise showcase or glamorize because they are not allowed to do so by law , meaning they are banned to advertise such products, anywhere.  [cigarettes, alcohols etc ]

What these smart producers do for their banned products ? well they contact even more talented ad film makers , creative brains, artists who are expert in reading common human psychology, they get their expert services and create surrogate advertisements for their product which they can not advertise. This surrogate advertisement will actually conceive the idea of the original product; will convey the original message for the banned ad product. For this the producer first creates a surrogate product which will be quite cheaper in cost to manufacture and useless most of the times which nobody really buys , will have the same name, brand , logo , tag line , everything . Then the ad film maker glorifies this surrogate product in their film keeping the original banned product in mind.  This surrogate product, call it the mask for the actual product might not even see any production floor or may be never gets created in reality but it keeps remind every viewer about the actual product. 

 For example, a company who is selling Whiskey for many years if advertises a same brand named music CD, but with the word CD written very carefully in very tiny font size, in fact not even visible, who will go and buy their CD. In India no people anyways don't buy CD. So this ad solves their purpose, keeps the actual product’s name in market and they keep reaching their new customers with the same pace. Even people with fairer IQ levels fail to see the making product, what just remains on top of their mind is the banned product when they see the advertisement.

Places like India, where everyone [politicians , riches & business groups] are making mockery of laws , creating such advertisements is very easy. Government is sleeping as usual, not showing any vigilance towards such irregularities, firstly they cannot ban a single such product whose consumption adds nothing to the society, and secondly they neither stop people who are glamorizing such things. Once again places like India where more than half of the population is illiterate and insecure in every dimension it's government’s responsibility to control such irregularities, which is very less likely also.

Some suggestions: 

Don’t let the ad makers use a banned product’s name, logo design, tag line , common actors,  if possible even the  alphabets from the banned product’s name. Some commonly seen surrogate ads [List found at Wikipedia site]

Bagpiper : club soda

Imperial Blue : music CD's 'Men will be men'

Royal Stag : Music CD's , Mega cricket, with the theme 'Make it large'

McDowells No.1 : Soda and Indian cricket with the tagline 'The No.1 spirit of leadership'

Haywards 5000 : Soda and packaged drinking water

Royal Challenge : Golf accessories, Music CD's and mineral water.

Every class VIth kid from Ghaziabaad will tell you the actual product masked in above ads. At the end my all time favorite advertisement line with a very clear social message:  Red & White(Cigarette ) : Smoking kills but Red & White peeney walo ki baat hi kuch aur hai.

Ladies Seat (in a DTC bus in Delhi )

That day I was returning from my office in Gurgaon. It was around 9:30 pm and I was in a DTC bus (no 396) As usual the bus was crowded; people were standing so was I. From AIIMS bus stop one couple got in to the bus. The lady didn't look well may be she was sick , her eyes were scanning the bus for a seat.  No one (males specially) in Delhi buses offers seats to standing ladies if they themselves are sitting on non ladies seats. Everybody thinks that they are following rules as they are sitting on non-ladies  seats, with this they don't even remember if it's courteous leaving their male seats for ladies.

So this lady, who just got into the bus from AIIMS stop, was struggling to stand comfortably, she asked one young boy politely if he can vacate his seat for her.  To this, the teenage kid replied, why should he ? That’s not a ladies seat. He immediately said No! , he will not get up.  However in reality, that seat was a senior citizens seat. But the lady and her husband didn’t argue with him any further, they looked at his face silently , appeared embarrassed while other passengers smiled and laughed at them. Teenage citizen felt like a winner !!

May be you are a ghost

May be you are a ghost; check if you can see yourself in a mirror! Or maybe you are human living in a dream. 

Scenario 1

You go to work and come back, next day you go to work do same sort of things and comeback again. Your routine was same repeatedly for weeks. You don’t remember any important thing from last few days. You have been, working, delivering work, talking to people F2F, on phone but still you cannot think of that important thing. Lost in such thoughts you start thinking, a planned dream with your eyes open, suddenly you are back in your school days, it’s raining heavily while you are coming from your school in bicycle, books-bag wrapped in that thick polythene sheet, muddy road, one hand holding the big umbrella and wet under that raincoat you suddenly see one scary looking man, may be a ghost under that tree, he asks you stop , may be for a ride till that main road , it shivers your spine , terribly scared, you paddle your cycle as fast as possible, damn thing happen , so your cycle chain falls off , you cannot stop now , your heart pounds like a drum, you paddle your cycle axle in the opposite direction (anti clock wise) and the chain gets fix by luck, you thank god, you don't look back till you reach home, eat food do homework and watch TV the afternoon show, greasing your cycle chain. You never shared this as you were not supposed to take that shortcut route (jungle) especially in rainy season. You come out to present from this rainy day, thinking where you are in present thinking about past, or still in childhood thought thinking about the future. You are certainly lost with these two incidents, which one is more real; thinking about past one month of very unimportant days or thinking about that 17 year hair raising old rainy day.

Scenario 2:

You are reading a book there is no one around in the room. You need water; you leave your book opened and bring a glass of water. You comeback within a few seconds and find your book closed. You didn’t realize it then but at night while you are about to sleep, you see the book and then thinking if the book was really closed, did you close it?

Scenario 3:

You have been with yourself since a long time, watching things happening every day. Only you know what happens/runs in your mind. You perhaps know that you are actually the same type of person/thinker/human/good/bad/lazy/sporty/funny/stupid/ , from your early school days then in college and till now, your way of looking into things is still the same. And you are thinking now, why can’t you think on behalf of others or why can’t someone think on your behalf. Why people like different things irrespective of conditions and environment. Is it possible/worth if you can change yourself now, may be a more practical/smart/serious/ person, like an alert investor ?    

b t w  will you share all your passwords with someone just before you die? Or if you die unplanned will you care what people send you in tweets ? :)

Railways Just oldways : Andher Nagari Chaupat Raja

Dark is the nation and insane the king

I wish WB CM didi ji should be given additional responsibility of Food, Agriculture, Petroleum & Housing Loan, real estate departments. These are the sectors where price rise happens almost every day uncontrollable . Everyone knows what she is acting...

She yesterday hated and opposed the increase of 2 paisa /KM on railways fare in the general class tickets. This hike roughly means if a poor common man is traveling from Bangalore to Delhi in a passenger train he will have to shell out around 80 rupees extra ( 2000KM * 2 Paisa + some tax), come on common man that’s not too much. And no poor man travels from Delhi to BLR, those who travel can afford this.

 A flat worth 5 lakh rupees in 2004 is above 30 Lakhs now a days in NCR & BLR. Food prices (e.g. Arhar daal, cooking oil, sugar, wheat flour, rice etc) rose steeply (doubled may be tripled) in 2009 just after the general election within weeks. Was she sleeping then? OR does she think that common man don’t eat ,don’t need a house to live but he travels whole year from Delhi to Bangalore or from Kolkata to Mumbai, in trains? I mean this is insane!! This is totally unimaginable to oppose such a miniscule hike after 10 years.

Common man, who she claims to represent hasn’t opposed this hike yet. Everyone understands the steeping fuel price so everyone accepts this minor increase. But didi wants to make a fuss, making her presence felt! , and at the end everyone involved earns some brownie points.

I see this drama like this.

Didi : Let Trivedi ji cooking whatever he was. At the end cries for poor’s share. Let everyone know that I am a poor’s leader, living for poor’s right, their voice etc. After a week or two everyone forget. didi jindabad.
Trivedi ji : Nation comes first , I can quit this ministerial post . Either acting well or very unlucky , gains popularity as a man of steel.
Government(PM): We oppose what didi is asking for . Let everyone see we(Madam ji) have balls of steel and a strong team.

BTW…here is the increase in fares between few stations..click to see

Delhi-Lucknow (AC-3): Rs 50
Delhi-Lucknow (sleeper): Rs 25
Delhi-Indore (AC-3): Rs 80
Delhi-Indore (sleeper): Rs 40
Delhi-Kolkata (AC-3): Rs 145
Delhi-Kolkata (AC-2): Rs 218
Delhi-Kolkata (AC-1): Rs 436
Delhi-Kolkata (sleeper): Rs 75
Delhi-Chennai (sleeper): Rs 43
Delhi-Chennai (AC-3): Rs 226


Delhi-Ahmedabad (sleeper): Rs 45
Delhi-Ahmedabad (AC-3): Rs 90
Delhi-Ahmedabad (AC-2): Rs 145
Delhi-Ahmedabad (AC-1): Rs 270
Delhi-Mumbai (sleeper): Rs 70
Delhi-Mumbai (AC-3): Rs 140
Delhi-Mumbai (AC-1): Rs 431
Delhi-Chennai (AC-1): Rs 435


Delhi-Patna (sleeper): Rs 50
Delhi-Patna (AC-3): Rs 100
Delhi-Bhopal (AC chair car): Rs 70
Delhi-Bhopal (AC-3): Rs 70
Delhi-Bhopal (AC-1): Rs 210
Delhi-Bhopal (sleeper): Rs 35
Delhi-Hyderabad (AC-2): Rs 218
Delhi-Ernakulam (AC-3): Rs 306 

Janey bhi do yaroon ...lets wait and see what tomorrow brings for us ..its 16th march..

btw..did you happen to see Rahul Baba , he too claims himself as a common man's leader...:)

Blame it on valentine's day

On one such 11th February evening I asked our neighbor's younger son, hey lucky do you know who invented the ‘Light bulb’, he replied in negative. Lucky was 5’11” tall studying in class IX CBSE board in some school in Delhi , so his expression surprised me; I smiled , gave him few clues and hinted him that he must have studied lots of stories about this famous inventor in junior classes in 5th or 6th standard. After thinking for a while he shamelessly smiled and replied confidently it is either Surya Bulb or Philips Company who made bulb. I knew he was not joking and this was his real level.

I said, lucky you AN idiot it's “Edison”, Thomas Alva Edison was the inventor for the current electric bulb. To this Lucky laughed and instead questioned (Edison) and replied, “What is the use of electric bulbs, white Tube Lights , CFLs are far better than a yellow light bulb”. His answer killed me right there. I said god save the kid. 

BTW, lucky’s elder sister (Sweety ) who was in graduation and his elder brother(Rahul) who was in XII were on similar academic levels. Their parents were completely responsible for their total educational fallout. Their mother remained busy in chitchat with other ladies in the park of  'E'- block whole day, whole year and their father a gov employee smoked whole night all life.

Three days later, on 14th two breaking news broke out for ‘E’ block’s residents. First, one aunty ji saw Tony (a ‘C’ block guy) and Sweety together exchanging Valentine’s Day gifts on a fourth floor terrace. Tony realized and absconded for few days whereas Sweety wept uninterrupted whole evening. Tony, was a stylish guy from a south Indian Christian family settled in a Delhi, we labeled this love story ‘Ek Duje key liye’, never mind. All 'E' block Aunti jis , girls gathered outside their house, blamed poor Murali , cursed Valentine's day and consoled Sweety's mother. This remained hot topic for few more days.

The second news was about Rahul, who was appearing for XII class board exams for the second time. Unfortunately he had some kind of crash on his LML Vespa scooter a day before; as he told his father that those people are searching for him, so uncle ji parked his scooter in side our room in ground floor, in an stupid attempt to hide his son & scooter. FYI, Rahul got this scooter when he passed class X in 3rd division.

This news about him came out on same day 14th evening when some 'D' block spies revealed that few local gujjar boys bashed Rahul and his girl (desi gujjar girl) friend while they were going on his scooter yesterday . They broke his scooter , slapped both of them multiple times and chased him when he somehow ran away ,leaving his girlfriend on the spot, stupid, timid ,cupid. Uncle ji then searched his scooter carefully and found several wilted red rose buds and pink colored valentine day cards, I don't know why but he smiled and ignored everything.

It was amusing but sad witnessing all this crap then , I am wondering what lucky and his brother would be doing in this face book era now, when last time I checked lucky had some 700+ friends from all over the world in his face book profile. Forgot to mention that 11th Feb is Edison's birthday :).

Disclaimer: Names & locations appearing in this work are some what fictitious but not unreal. Any resemblance to real persons, experiences, living or dead is purely coincidental.

In Picture-Oldest Civilization On Road

Blame it on the others

( please click on the picture to (zoom) listen what everyone saying)

I took this photo in 2007 somewhere in Delhi on my way to home from office (from my office bus, it was hell of a jam).. I finally found a caption for this photograph...India and its roads have not changed a single bit. I am the biggest opposer of those who go office in their empty cars and then block the office parking for whole day. And in the evening these phoney people park their cars outside their apartments/houses etc as their birth right. Keep it up!!!

                                                                                                                                     

Traveling with my desktop in a roadways bus

I got my first desktop computer around 2001 when I was in my engineering days. Since then at the end of every semester I used to carry my desktop computer back home(Haridwar) at the end of semester and then back to college (Dehradun) at the start of semester, in roadways bus yes you read it correct. I mean it, the complete desktop setup, 15 inch Samsung CRT monitor (a very heavy object), the big CPU cabinet (made up of steel); inverter cum battery (a very heavy item), keyboard, mouse, anti glare screen, everything perfectly packed in cartons , wadded up old newspapers for cushioning, and finally tied strongly with nylon strings. Just imagine the silly life without laptops and tablets in those days. And that’s just 10 years back. That was a reasonable thinking, semester break used to be a month and a half long, so no point in leaving my computer back in my room, unused, when I am going home. If I carry it with me, at home I can watch movies, play games and do some turbo C++ programming to convince myself.

As an entry in KFC Fiery Grilled ,"Sets You On Fire” blogging contest I am sharing one of such fiery interesting incident happened during my travel.

In reality, traveling in a roadways bus with your complete desktop setup along with your luggage even to a shorter distance of 50 kms is not easy. Other than your luggage you got to consciously watch every computer piece floating here and there in the bus. I must have repeated this at least 10 times in the last two years of my engineering, and successful I was every time. Please think about the negotiations with the bus conductor for luggage’s fare, place and then appreciate my agreements on taking half ticket for the extra luggage. Honestly the monstrous CRT monitor’s box never looked less than a big TV. Half ticket worth around 15 Rs in those days but any money is good in college life. I seriously can’t do this again, I’m imagining, walking with so many items I must have looked like Arnold in his movie, backpack on my back, one big CRT monitor carton in one hand, in other hand CPU, battery cum inverter. Not an easy task, not even easy to lift such boxes together but I guess I tested the pains and human limits of travelling with max amount of luggage in roadways buses and proudly I touched the extreme paying a very less price. In every such travel you got to be extremely smart, careful and polite with co-passengers and bus conductor specially. Gradually, with experience from such travels, you attain a level when people help you in loading and unloading your luggage, desktop with its all accessories off and on to the bus. With little extra politeness and respect I was successful several times in keeping my big monitor or Big CPU next to somebody’s seat and those great people would then hold it safe from floating in the moving bus. I remember, I developed this style, even after seeing my bus I would never board the bus just like that. I would first ask the bus conductor if that bus is going. He would say yes, and I would say, no I don’t think there is any space left in the bus I have some luggage and this big computer TV with me. This statement will hurt conductor and he would say, अरे सामान तो रखवा देंगे , तुम चलो बैठो तो सही (no problems, I will have your luggage adjusted somewhere in the bus, you first get in) . This would hint a lot.

Sweat, heated discussion, sharp mind and a "fiery tongue" :

After college, I moved to Noida with my desktop of course but this time my elder brother was with me and we handled it easily in the bus. Sometime later I bought a new desktop in Noida and thought of retiring my first computer and finally decided to move it back to home (Haridwar). The day of travel came, this time it was around 200Km in bus but with fewer luggage, only my backpack and the CPU cabinet roughly of the size of a big suitcase. I packed it in my new CPU cabinet’s carton so it looked new stylish but slightly bigger than its actual size. The moment I boarded the UP roadways bus from Noida sec 12-22 stop, the conductor noticed it and asked me to keep it at the back or at front above bus’s bonnett. I simply refused his indecent suggestion, how can I keep a sophisticated device like CPU at the back of the bus or above bonnett, the conductor got busy with tickets and passengers. I luckily found a window seat, kept my backpack on the above rusted iron rack and sat holding my big CPU box over my lap and my hands folded on to the box, reading some book. From the next bus stop a lady in her 30’s also boarded the same bus and surprisingly sat on the seat next to mine. No one asks for permission before sitting in a seat that’s our culture, I didn’t bother either. She was a very smart lady, looked good, educated and right away our conversation started. She asked me if I am carrying a computer inside this box and if I am a student. I replied in yes and no I am not a student anymore. She asked me if she can sit on window side , I said pleasure is all mine. She was travelling to Dehradun, I don’t remember what we were discussing when the conductor came to our seat for tickets. I said one ticket to Haridwar; he questioned what’s inside the box, I replied computer, he said, you will have to buy ticket for it, I asked why? It's mine a five year old computer I am taking it with me back home, kindly consider it as my luggage. I added other people are also travelling with so many bags, big holdalls , no one actually buys tickets for their bags, and in fact I have kept it on my lap ? 

I never encountered such an adamant conductor in past two years when I travelled even with my monitor and inverter as well. I was mentally not prepared to buy ticket for my CPU. He said raising his tone, you will need to buy a full ticket of 90 Rs for it, because it’s a commercial item. By that time all passengers were looking towards us listening that heated discussion in that month of June. I wiped the sweat from my forehead with my t-shirt. Holy cow, the conductor added this useless term in that discussion as an expert politician ‘commercial item’, he said I would even need to pay sales tax if he informs them at UP-Uttrakhand border.  What he was saying didn’t make much sense to me, but he was for sure trying hard to intimidate me . He asked the driver to stop the bus, and to me to get out of the bus. I showed him my old computer bill which clearly mentions that I bought it in year 2001. To further defend my claim,  I told him that I am a student and preparing for this exam back home and this computer contains all that study material, he asked what’s study material , I replied eBooks, this word popped up in my mind spontaneously,  what’s an eBook conductor asked. I said electronically saved books, my syllabus, and course for exam, it’s not commercial and today I don’t have my monitor and its battery backup else I would have showed you how an eBook looks like. The fair lady now jumped into our heated discussion she added, by law conductor cannot ask a student to buy ticket for his books and study material. More confidently I used my mind and added further, this box contains hundreds of eBooks and thousands of document files in fact I am saving a lot of space in this bus. I don't know if that was said in humor or not I don’t even know if he got convinced or not or he was knowingly trying to push me on back foot to earn some money or I fooled him, he ultimately returned back to his seat and didn’t ask for any ticket again for my CPU. Today, I think why I never carried my computer table with me in my travels. But honestly I once transported my heavy wooden-iron folding bed in a city bus in Dehradun, don't remember if I used the fiery tongue or my mind. :)

~bd