Monday, October 29, 2007

Amazing Authentication

I came across this amazingly done authentication for website on net the other day.

My brother is in finance company. He has got account in this news site. He has got a user ID password the usual and a card.
The card is of the size of credit card and it got a small screen and a small window, couple of holes and a button. You have to press the button to start the card. Then press your thumb in the finger print window. Not the whole thumb just part of it. The Card will check the print and will go in Sync mode if it is correct print.

Now log on the site with user id and password. On the site the similar card like your will start flashing. Hold your card in front of it. The card will synchronize itself and will show you a 4 digit no. in the small screen it has. You have to type this no. on the site and then you are in.

What really caught my fancy are few things:
1. The site applies two way authentication very cleverly
2. The card validates the print. That would mean you don’t have to carry the device for taking finger print at all places.
Let’s say you go in a café which does not have this device then you are stuck. Not with the card. You don’t need the device.
3. I don’t know if the site keeps database with all finger prints. But validation through card has removed any need of such database. Generally any individual will be very wary of having his fingerprint with some other company. Lest the security is not enough, if the print gets stolen. N no. of possibilities. Plus card authorizing the print also means that the print will not be sent any where through wire. No chance for hackers.
4. How the card synchronizes with site is a question. My guess was the card has photo sensors. Which detect the sequence in which card on site flashes and presents you with a 4 digit no. This is really cool use of technology. Never seen any software using such technique so effectively!
I later found the card uses BUnit personal authentication device. More about it on:
http://www.idsa.org/idea/idea2005/s1201.htm

All in all cool use of technology!

Really Really Liking a Book

When can u say u really really liked a book?

Here is my definition.

You buy a book thinking it will be good.
You start with it and voraciously read it day and night to reach the end as fast as u can. Then u keep it aside.
After few days u feel like reading it again. U tell urself that I will not take long time this time. I will just read out the parts I liked most.
But surprisingly u find urself reading each and every line. Very slowly in laid back attitude. U want to read each and every detail savor it. And u take long long time to finish it up this time.

Ah yeah, then u know u really really liked the book!!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Down the Memory Lane

Tried to get my room a little neater just so that to make my mummy a little happier. Got the old diaries written, so long back, when I was in school, college. Now a days I hardly write diary, should start that again. Its amazing reading it later on :)

Small, small incidents! So innocent and cute :)

Whenever you look back and see, you feel like you could have done few of the things so very differently. You feel like you were so naïve then. Over reacted, Not reacted, at some times Wrongly reacted! Perceived few things wrongly, or let’s say not so correctly. Things would have been so very different if I would have reacted differently.

And I am quite sure I will feel exactly the same when I will look at today few years down the line. :D :D

Impossible Relationships

“Impossible Relationships…” Louis Edward (Richard Gere) in Pretty woman.

So true!! isn’t it?

Long back I had gone for a cousin’s wedding at my native place. Lot of places to go there, Uncle’s and Aunt’s. Many cousins. I used to roam around whole town whole day. I was sitting in one of the cousin’s place with one more cousin. Three of us were chattering away. My aunt came out asked her daughter if she will take milk. She said “Of course”. She asked me, I said “Well, sure why not?” My aunt didn’t bother to ask third one. She went in, came out with two glasses. I asked my third cousin why she is not taking it? She said she doesn’t want to and went off. I didn’t think of this incident much about that day. Childhood is so innocent. When I think of it today, I realize how mean it was.
Lots and lots of things happened after that. The meanness came out in more ways than one. Today we hardly share any relation with them despite the relation.

A small gesture, a small incident is enough just enough to tell you about the person, to tell you about the future of the relation. Most of the times you just let it be. Some times you do get emotional. You want to stir it in right direction. Some times it will work. Some times it won’t. Some relations will grow in stronger, some not so no strong. We give a chance to few relations while we tend to cut off few while few just fall apart apparently hardly for any reason.

Why? Well no answer to that really. So what remains for you to do is just do what you feel like doing!

In the end what you get to say is just that, “Impossible Relationships!!”

Nature’s Music

I was doing something in the kitchen. Radio was on with quite some volume. And rain started. Big fat rain drops. The radio’s volume was all drowned out in all the rain tapping music. :)

Wow!!

Friday, October 26, 2007

Out of Action

Not been able to update the blog for a while now! N now when I get time it’s because I am not well :(
Being out of office is fun. Really! But not when you are out of action, sitting at home, taking medicines and sleeping off half of your day. I am surprised at my appetite for sleep now. I can actually sleep away whole day! But anyways, I think this is helping me getting well faster. So why not?
Chalo too sleepy to write anything more! :D

Thursday, May 17, 2007

In the Dad’s world

Got late going home again! Had couple of phones already coming from home! Was in a little hurry. Mind reached already home.
Driving past squares where signals were off with care. Had to stop at Alka’s signal, it was still working.
Got the green light and I started. Didn’t realize there is a rickshaw coming from the left catcing up with the orange light in speed. I was looking at right plus my vision was blocked with a rickshaw moving ahead from the left it was almost impossible to see the zooming rick. Ooof!

Just two seconds bham bhoom!

Thankfully it was not major one. I lost balance was on road in a second. Started bleeding from head. (ok I should wear helmet. I know I know. Have heard this like at least 100 times in last couple of days) and some internal injuries to hands and legs. Police station was right in front. He came took me to the station. His reaction? “Accident zala a s kalale ani ek dum dhas zal. Ghari jayachi vel ani ata he”. Well right from his point of view. He made me tell all info, informed at home, dad came, We went to hospital, had bandage done and all.
So far so good. Reached home one piece with out anything broken up. Thank god!!
Yes it was scary. It could have been worse than it was. But the point is it was NOT!

So who tells that to your parents? First reaction? Just about where I got hurt and all. Absolutely no lectures. Only and only worries of well being. Once that got satisfied… Came second reaction.

Second one? Ok here it goes:

You should buy a car. That will be a lot safer.
Right dad, but getting a car to the place we leave will take hours. Traffic is terrific in pick hours. I will have to spend hours in car. And then hours to find parking space. You should be buying a bunglow outside city” (this generally works. Dad’s never gonna leave this house. It perfectly situated and he or in fact all of us are too attached to it)

That’s ok
ok for you not for me. I am not gonna do that!

"Ok then you go by rickshaw."
I will dad for some days. But it’s not an option forever right?

Ok then you go at 9 in morning and get back exactly at 6. Tell your managers it’s time for you to go home
Dad I work in IT industry. It’s not going to be 9-6. I do come on time usually right? There are deadlines. At times you have to slog.

But go early then
How early? And when the site on which I work on gets up at 12 what do I do till then anyway? My client sends mail after 2-3 .I have to reply to him. Working late rather than working early helps all this. You should say good your client is European and not American. Imagine then!

Ok if that’s the case leave the job
WOW! And then do what? Seat at home?

No you can do some lecturership stuff”.
Great so for that I will not have to travel?

But it will be day time
So you think accident would not have happened if it would have been day? Common dad you are too big to believe that. “Jo hona hai so hona hai” Things are predestined. You can’t stop them. I was going to have one accident that I had. Believe me it was not my fault. But I will be a lot more careful next time because I knew and am now experienced that others need not be careful for you. So you have to be extra extra careful. Believe me I will be lot more careful now.

The final diction was “I am going to come and seat at your office at 7.30
Dad I am an adult now. I have my roles my responsibilities I will have to handle them stop worrying so much. I will be fine! Believe me.
The subject ended there.

Thankfully dad didn’t really came to pick me up ;) It was just part of his overwhelming reactions and worries. Phew..!!
I know he is gonna worry even more now when I am late. Damn I will some how have to take care of this for some days at least ;)

One more reaction from my uncle “u should change your bike!” Thumbs up!! Every accident prone guy should follow this.

All in all after 4 days we are back to normal, wear helmet, be careful, come back on time. :D Just the usals.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

About The Trip

After a loooooong time all family members came together for the trip. It’s been always been getting postponed for some reason or the other or was getting cancelled.
We have a long history of cancelled trips. Even for this one.
We planned to go to Banglore, Ooty for a whole week long trip. But then all of us could not make it on the dates. Had to get back earlier than decided. So going to place far away started looking less attractive. It gotta be something nearer.
So then it got reduced to Ganpatipule and Malvan. Places in Konkan.

Amazing places. Clean seas, fresh air.
The sea never failed to fascinate me. Lay till horizon and beyond. The shores lined with anything be it trees or be it sky rocketing buildings.

The sea at Ganpatipule, threatening to engulf if you disrespect its limits. Scary yet so fascinating. The sea in evening, in morning, the clean white sand. It was all just too good. Then the temple there is awesome too.

Very well built and maintained.








Then there is this parikrama you can do which is about a kilometer long around the temple and the hill. The locals belive that the hill itself is a god "Ganpati". So the parikrama is to the whole hill. We did it right in night, full moon shining overhead. It was fun!
One more thing we heard there is this being swayambhu murti people there don't get Ganpati idol at home during ganapti festival. This was some thing new.


Small Jaygad fort and the view of boats from there and a very good innovative place made in remembrance of “Kavi Keshavsut.”









Then Malvan.
The Sindhudurg, right inside sea. The two brached coconut tree.

We were leaving at a homely lodge, coconut trees surrounding the home. The small “Chivali” beach was at 2 minutes distance from there.

The rocky shores.
With the huge waves of angry sea there and the sunset. Uff Just perfect!





Couple of very different temples there and then tarkalli beach and island.
Tarkalli is amazing. It’s a small small island right in middle of the sea where a river meets the sea. Absolutely nothing on it, no tree no grass, only sand. Nothing to keep the boat fixed at one place. The poor guy had to hold it all the time to keep it near the shore. On top of that small holes probably made by some creatures mostly crabes for lying eggs. One huge tortoise paddling away from the shore. A fast boat reaching to island and back. When you are in boat its amazing feeling. Away from the land hardly for few minutes makes you realize the importance of stability, importance of land. Look around and what you see are coasts lined with trees and then the blue green sea till the horizon and probably even beyond.

Huh…
WOW!!

Saturday, March 31, 2007

THE Idiot

Being in the city with chronic traffic problem plus living in the heart of city becomes very frustrating not at times but almost daily. All the roads going towards home will have traffic at all the times! So long time to wait before you can stretch over sofa. :(

I observed this for long that by the time I reach home am so irritated that I had started getting edgy with my family members also.
Reality check: “This is no good. I must do something for it.” But what? Of course I can not reduce the traffic. The distances are high I can’t start walking around to my destinations. Correct I can’t do any thing about the situation. I have to change my perception of the situation.

So far so good. But that’s not easy. Where do I start?

Ok I get most irritated due to the unruly traffic. The vehicles suddenly taking turns, bicycles thinking the whole road is simply made for them, rickshaws going slowly checking chance to get passengers, potholes which are randomly or put crisscrossed on road. You never know where and when you are going to go for a trip inside the pothole. And when all this happens; what do you do? A lot of $#@$#@$@@@!$@. Not loudly most of the time. If start saying all this loudly I would probably take whole day in traveling and in quarrels. Mistake is yours or not, it’s human nature not to accept mistakes. Not to stranger at least! “Saying bad names for what seems to be a regular habit to all the guys in town. What does this lady think? She follows all the rules or what?”

Right!

So what do I do? Get frustrated each time. Let’s start here…

Will say only “The Idiot”!

This may sound idiotically simple. But believe me it’s NOT!!

Because it’s “THE Idiot”. Ok I can’t hold annual function for this award. It’s gotta be daily! But it gotta be only One! But it’s little tough. Cause you have to give it immediately. Not at the end of day after whole analysis. So you have to increase your patience to find that One person of the Day!

In the beginning I have been very liberal with the award. Many many almost every one who frustrated me even little would get it. But awards are not meant to be given to all yaar! One only one deserves it. Ok some rare times two, but not any more.

So finally I did become “chingu” enough to give my unique award to one person in one day. All the regular incidents no more invoke irritation. “This is regular yaar! What’s so special?”

I also learned to follow more of traffic regulations. I don’t want to gather the “The Idiot” awards given to me by some one else ;)

Now there are even more categories of people added for the same award! The idiot checking out each and every lady passing by, throwing some stupid lines to catch attention of passing by girls, people walking right in middle of road, people crossing from any where, some honking horns unnecessarily scaring the people crossing the roads, some times a colleague with stupidest doubt or some times even myself for a silly silly mistake! :)

This has helped me a lot to cool down and be my earlier cool self.
I am not that irritated when I reach home. :) Thankfully!

Airtel Oops!!

I have written about a incident some time ago. Some thing happened to remind about that again, so just thought of putting it on blog.
So the incident goes like this:

This thing really happened at my office!

We 4 of us seat in a cubicle Me,Radhika, Amruta and Deepak.
Whenever we go for lunch or snacks we make it point that if any one of us is not in cubicle, we give a missed call to a person just to say "Going to Cafeteria, join us there! "

Following the tradition on the day Radhika gave missed call to Deepak.
And to our surprise he gave a missed call back!
We were wondering "What does this mean?"
When he didn't turn up for some time we assumed it was to say "I am going to be late, go ahead!"

When we were going for snacks in afternoon, Deepak was missing again.
So Radhika, gave him a call which was supposedly to be a missed call.
But this guy picked up phone in 1 ring,
Radhika : " Deepak, Snacks ko aa rahe hona?"
(Supposed to be Deepak ): "Wrong number!"

Wow now what was that??
Probably Deepak has overworked himself :)

Just then we saw him talking to a guy near the floor entrance.
Radhika :"Apane wrong number kyon bola??"
Deepak : "Kab?"
Radhika:"Abhi! Meine phone kiya tha naa"
Deepak :" Mujhe koi phone nahi aya!"
Radhika:"Aise kya karate ho aap, ruko mein vapis karati hun"

Radhika dials the number, Deepak's phone does not ring
A guy picks up the phone
Radika:"Hello, Deepak"
(Supposed to be Deepak ): "Wrong number!"
Radhika:"Ye konsa number hai?"
(Supposed to be Deepak ): "Jo apane dial kiya hai"
Hmm………….. smart answer, by a smart %$@#%

We check deepak's cell's received calls, Rads number is not there!

Too good!

We went for snacks debating ye ho kya raha hai.
Me : "A re Deepak ne Radhika ko galat number diya hoga"
(Deepak had recently changed his number , gotten Airtels 999 Life Time Card)
Radhika:"A re usko khud ka number pata nahi hoga kya"
Deepak:" A re wo sahi number hai! Meine dekh ke hi to diya hai!"
( and in any case Deepak's cell keeps on ringing daily in regular intervals, he could not have given right no. to some and wrong to some)

Whatever yaar ! It's just not possible that the number will change out of blue, like this. There has to be a mistake, n the only mistake could be miscommunication of the number.

Radhika won't agree!
Radhika:"A re meine phone kiya hai es number pe, isko pahele! The number is correct"

Whew!
The debate continues!

Deepak's mobile rings, this time it's his wife's missed call.
Ok, at least now we can ask his wife and find out the correct number!

After coming back to workstation,
Deepak, call's his wife.
Before he could say anything,
Deepak's Wife : "Kitana natak hai, Tere ko missed call mila kya?"
Deepak: "Haan!, par.."
Deepak's Wife :" meine tere number pe phone kiya , to ek adami bola, wrong number aur rakh diya! Phir meine vapis se phone kiya, usko bola ke bhai sahab ye mere husband ka number hai, kuch to panga hua hai, aap mujhe aap ka number batao mein wo try karati hun. So then I got this other number, that's now ur's"

Wow! So the numbers actually got exchanged in middle of the day??
Deepak called Airtel, the Airtel guy says he can't change back the numbers till next 15 days,
(Why is that?? Galati to sudharo yaar! Usmein bhi bureaucracy)
So Deepak said fine then at least keep this number forever, so I won't have to keep communicating my new number to all. Airtel guy said fine (Without taking consent of the other guy, Howz that?)

Questions remain:
Who got billed for what?
N what had inspired someone smart man at Airtel to actually exchange numbers like this??

The moral I take from the story??
Well right there Sherlock when u said
"When you take out whatever is Impossible, Whatever remains how ever improbable, has to be the Truth"
It's just that be careful while defining a thing as Impossible! ;)

Friday, February 09, 2007

Being in Mummy’s Shoes

It’s not easy to be in any one else’s shoes, especially when you have seen a person doing a job so fine so smooth which doesn’t seem to have required and special efforts at all!
But when you actually take it up that you realize there is a lot of thought process going on continuously years of experience that gives this smooth and effortless effect!

It’s not that I have never entered kitchen. I have helped mom more than couple of times when some guests are coming down or she is making some thing special. I have handled the regular chores when she is been out of station for but a couple of days. But it was different then as I was in college. I used to bunk couple of lectures and used to stay back home doing the chores. Now that I work that option is out. My company has flexible working hours but I do have to finish at least the day’s job, which of course takes time and you have to stay back late if you enter in late. And now she went visiting her mother and is not going to be there more than a whole week!

It so happens that my dad doesn’t like outside food with all the oil and spice and nor do I. Plus it’s not good for him health wise. So we binge on out side food very very very occasionally.

Now when mummy’s not around I have to cook, make sure I am doing it in appropriate proportions so as not to waste a lot of food. If it remains do remember to take it out the next day out of fridge. (This is toughest. I always used to forget it and then when mummy used to get back she would have some amount of fridge cleaning. Now that mummy was not there for more than a week, I do have to remember about all this!) Make sure maids are coming and the cleaning and all is getting done properly. That’s it actually. But how much time it takes out of you! Oh and deciding which vegetables to get and make is like such a difficult tedious yet so illogical question!

Doing it all along with the job gave me a sample experience of working woman’s life. I was so tired and disheartened by the mummy came back! There is no way I can carry on my life like this after my marriage!

But mummy pulled me out of all that with the same easy grace of hers! She took over the next day with the same easy effortless style of hers! And I am again back to “Oh, damn it yaar! It doesn’t look so difficult. Well, you know I am little inexperienced. I will be fine in not time when I will start over!” :))