Full Moon

I took this photograph sometime back during full moon.

Sunrise

I took this photograph while travelling to my home town (Rajahmundry) from the train during early morning hours.

Moon: Photo Using Nikon L310

I photographed the moon sometime back using nikon L310 and it turned out to be quite good! The photo was taken in "Close Up (macro)" mode with full zoom.

Train Diaries: The Strict TTE

Prologue:

I packed my things: A suitcase full of clothes sufficient for a week, some gifts to mum and papa and a backpack consisting of my newly purchased Dell laptop (obviously to show at home) .I also had a one liter water bottle tucked in the left side pocket of the bag and a James Hadley Chase novel on the right.
I was going home after almost 8 months, upon my return from a recent 4-month trip to London, as part of an onsite assignment.

 I reached the Hoodi bus stop from my room ( there is no bus stop as such, people gather infront of the oak tree beside the Hoodi chaurastha (four road interconnection), making the bus “stop”.

 I boarded a half -filled BMTC bus coming from Tin factory side towards Kadugodi and after 20 minutes got down in Whitefield bus station.  The overbridge from the Whitefield bus stop to Kadugodi  ( To make things clear: There are railway gates after the bus stop which when crossed lead to Kadugodi) was still under construction.

The gates were closed and a Goods Rail was parked on the tracks. There were around 25 bogies sprawling across the gates right from the railway platform. I looked at my watch. It was 1:15 PM. I had to get to the station by at least 1:45 so that I could catch the train by 1:55 PM. I couldn’t wait for the train to move and decided to follow the others suit. I crossed the gate from the below and climbed up the rail coupling and jumped to the other side, landing safely. I followed the tracks to the right until I reached Platform 1 of the Whitefield station.

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I was waiting for the train to arrive at the Whitefield station, Bangalore. It was a sunny Friday afternoon and I was going hometown on the occasion of Dusherra. The station was swarming with people. Passengers were pouring in and out of the station, some crossing the railway tracks to get into the other platform, while others wading their way towards the platform where I was waiting. The station did not have a proper entrance at that time and people had to walk along the rail tracks to get into the platform from the main road.

I had my usual luggage: a suitcase, a backpack and a bottle of drinking water. I noticed an empty bench under the station roof, and proceeded from my under-the-tree seat towards

it. I put my suitcase below the bench and sat putting the backpack beside me. I opened the water bottle and had a gulp.

An elderly woman came near the seat after a while. I removed the backpack and thrust it above the suitcase, below the bench. She sat beside me.
“Thank you, son” she said, “Where are you heading to”
“Rajahmundry” I said, “By Seshadri Express”
“I am going to Kakinada, by Prasanti express” she said. I looked at the time; it was 1:30 PM.
“But Nanamma, ‘Prasanti’ does not have halt at Whitefield! I exclaimed, “The nearest halt is KR Puram!”

 "Oh is it?!" She said in surprise, "I didn't know. I stay in Kadugodi, I thought the train would stop here. How could I.. never been to Kakinada..: she fumbled with her words.

"I will arrange something, don't worry Nanamma" I said. "Please be calm"

I looked at my watch. It was 1:35 PM. "Please look at my luggage, I will be back in a while"

I rushed out of the station crossing the tracks carefully with my eyes wide open to avoid unpleasant situation by stamping on the human excreta fell on the R.C.C sleepers of the railway tracks and also glancing at my watch from time to time. Finally I was able to spot an auto driver dozing in the back seat 0f his vehicle  rickshaw. I woke him up  and bargained with hm. Half reluctantly,  he agreed for Rs 120, the fastest bargain ever, to drop at K.R. Puram Railway station. I returned back to the station with the driver with me, so that he could pick 'Nanamma's' luggage.

'Nanamma, I have arranged his auto to take you K.R. Puram, he will drop you at the station in time but you have to pay him 120 Rs. The old woman exclaimed, “ 120 rupees ! with that money I can buy 6 kilos of rice! I gave my daughter a 120 rupees  gold necklace when I gave her to that Maluru fellow. How that useless man has beaten her for that necklace, worthless fellow. You( addressing to her husband)  left me making me to do all things for your daughter. I too wanted to die with you. God , why didn’t you take me to you? (here she blew her nose into her cotton saree pallu ). ” I said, “Hurry  up. You will miss the train.  Nanamma”.   The auto Driver probably migrant from Tumkuru or from Kotturu  of  Bellary district  looking at me  with a what- type of -nonsense -look already picked her old  20^th century trunk box with two rusted locks of the same era and 2 cloth bundles throwing a menacing look at them.

"May God bless you" she mumbled, as she left the station.

I heard a long horn at 1:58 PM, as people started rushing to the edge of the platform. I fought my way to Sleeper Coach 6 and managed to get inside. The train was a bit overcrowded, obviously due to festive occasion. I found my berth and settled down, putting my luggage below the berth.

The train sped forward within 3 minutes, and soon left the station behind and made its way to a single track route with paddy fields glimmering on both the sides. The train honked its horn.

Soon chai wallas,   samosa vendors, boiled groundnut sellers 'Masala-Muri'  wallas filled the coach, screaming at the top of their voices. Amidst the chaos, I still was enjoying the journey glancing at the fast changing scenery outside the window.

                                                                                               To be continued.

Train Diaries

In the next few posts, I will be writing some adventures (or say misadventures!) during my train journeys. These accounts are partly real and fictional to enhance narration.
Train journey's in India especially in sleeper coaches (I will discuss later on the type or "levels" of coaches later) are unique and diverse. They are difficult, yet enjoyable and will leave you with some or the other memories with each trip. I have tried to capture some of these moments and hope you enjoy them.

Of Truth- By Francis Bacon

I would like to post an interesting essay by Francis Bacon with due credits to Project Gutenberg, source.


                                                                   Of Truth

WHAT is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural, though corrupt love, of the lie itself. One of the later school of the Grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell; this same truth, is a naked, and open day-light, that doth not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs, of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?

One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum daemonum, because it fireth the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt; such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments, and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last, was the light of reason; and his sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed light, upon the face of the matter or chaos; then he breathed light, into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light, into the face of his chosen. The poet, that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure, to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure, to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below; so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

To pass from theological, and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil business; it will be acknowledged, even by those that practise it not, that clear, and round dealing, is the honor of man's nature; and that mixture of falsehoods, is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. For these winding, and crooked courses, are the goings of the serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice, that doth so cover a man with shame, as to be found false and perfidious. And therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge? Saith he, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood, and breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal, to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men; it being foretold, that when Christ cometh, he shall not find faith upon the earth.

How to Display a Message on Clicking a Cell in Excel

Suppose you wish to display a message, on clicking an EXCEL cell, that would display an eloborate description of the data in the cell, it can be done by following the below steps. In the below example I have name of  a country in a cell and would like to display a description to the user when he/she clicks on the cell. In this case I have chosen "INDIA" as the country name.

1. Click on DATA on the Main Menu.

2. Click on the desired cell and then click on the data Validation button under DATA.

3. Click on "Data Validation" in the drop down. 

4. Select Input Message in the Data Validation window and enter the desired message in the Input Message field and click on OK.

5. Click on the cell and you would get the message displayed.

Removing Grid Lines in EXCEL

Say you have created a table in EXCEL and wish to present only the table to the user, without the annoying lines in excel, just follow the below steps:

1.Click on "View" in the Menu.

2. Under View, uncheck the GridLines Check Box.

The Grid Lines would disappear. To enable check the box again. Thats it!!

Another Brick in the Wall:Lyrics

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! teachers! leave the kids alone!
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! teacher! leave us kids alone!
All in all you're just a another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just a another brick in the wall.

"Wrong, do it again!"
"Wrong, do it again!"
"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. how can you
Have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
"you! yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!"

Another Brick in the wall

This is one of my favourite songs of childhood.

Ad for my upcoming story

Vivek’s Diary.

2^nd April 1990.

I have the habit of writing diary since I was five. If you don’t believe, I will show you my archived diaries right from 1987 when I was six. I just wonder today as how Appa couldn’t make to the train. May be I could have got down along with him as I do generally. Anyway I think he will stop this habit of getting down from vehicles for long times and making surprise appearances once the train moved and everybody is in tension.

As I promised, I completed reading Enid Blyton’s Famous Five second series today. I will have to return this book once I am back to school from vacation (which I hate to!).

I hope Tathagaru has cleared the Shed behind the house for us to play. How I enjoy playing in the pile of sand in the Shed and also the Swings. Wow! Hope my cousin’s Chintu and Mintu would come the next day as the exams would be over by then. Hmm I will join team B no.. I will be in Team A this year as well.

But I am wondering what will happen if they don’t find Appa at the station when my Uncles come to receive us. God, please find my Appa and make him reach home safely.

Ok I will get down from the upper berth.

 

…. Coming Soon.. A Teacher’s Journey  . A “gripping’ humorous anecdote

Rain

I wrote a short story called 'Rain' long back in my earlier Blog. I feel nostalgic whenever I read it! I would like to reproduce the story in this post.

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I gazed out of the window and saw droplets of water dripping from the roof of the window. May be the water tank was full. My room was on the second floor of the three floor apartment. It was an old apartment and no one ever tried to improvise it by at least putting a little white wash on its walls. People simply came and went, there were people who shifted within a few days. I felt I was the only one to stay here so long say an year.

There was a gust of wind all of a sudden and thick clouds, black clouds started covering the skies and soon engulfed the mighty burning sphere into their enormous fathoms.There was a lightning and a distant rumble that slowly approached and burst on the top of the apartment. A cold breeze began to blow, making my face turn white. I closed the window and at the very moment the skies poured the rain.Water began to sprout from the gaps of the window doors. A steady stream of water ran from the window, through the wall racing towards my bed.I took a piece of old cloth and wiped the stream and clogged the gap with it. A while later the cloth got soaked with the water and I took it and wrung it squeezing all the water into a little bucket. I gazed out of the window leaving the water-stream account to observe what was going outside.

People where running helter shelter some with umbrellas, some with books above their heads and some with their bags. My eyes fell on a girl, a young girl standing on the pavement with a disheveled look, with her teeth chattering and longing for someone’s help, in this heavy inadvertent rain. The water was flowing with full force creating ripples and froth.She stood looking left and right for a while and began to walk as if in a trance. I remembered somethingI remembered something. But my memory couldn’t recall. Something was wrong. At least something was about togo wrong. Then I recalled the man hole. I had seen a group of workers pumping out thesewage water the day before and had left the door open. Now in this turbulent current ofwater I wasn’t visible …. And the girl was nearing it slowly, unconsciously unaware ofthe impending danger, whatever her problem was.I rushed out of my room, descending the stairs with full speed, I tripped over and fellrolling downstairs, almost breaking my arm, but I didn’t care. The pain seemed nothing compared to the plight of the girl.I opened the gates and ran into the rain leaving a dismayed watchman behind. I ran and ran as fast as my legs could carry. And the girl took one step more… the final step to go… and she fell in ..Only to be caught by her shoulders. I held them firmly surprised by her weight and pulledher out.She screamed.. but no one came near. Nobody seemed to be caring.She looked at me and burst into sobs and pressed her head on my chest. I hugged hertightly, comforting her and relinquishing all her worries.

Trip To Bintan: Indonesia

We went for a trip to Indonesia last week. Bintan is a 45 minute journey from Singapore and the best way to reach is from the Tanah Merah ferry terminal. I experimented with Nikon L310 again.

 

Nikon L310 Zoom test

 

I shot this video near the Marina Bay Sands Singapore. The zoom is pretty good.

How to View VB in EXCEL 2007

Excel is a powerful application which can be used to develop tools using Visual basic and Macros, apart from it’s usual spreadsheet functionality.To access VB in EXCEL, we can follow the below steps:

1. Click on the Office Button

2. Click on the EXCEL Options

3. Check on the Show Developer Tab in the Ribbon Check Box and click on OK.

 

4. You can find the developer Tab has been enabled.

 

Universal Studios Montage

 

Universal Studio Hollywood Dreams Parade

Recently I went to the Universal Studios at Singapore. Here is a video that I shot with the my Nikon L310.

The streets of Little India

My Photography

Marina Bay, Singapore.

Will start posting more of my photography soon!

SQL: Data Manipulation Language Commands

In this post, we are going to see the DML commands of SQL.

• Insert
• Delete
• Update

Insert:

This is used to insert data into the table. In the previous section we learnt how to create a table. Let's insert some data into the table now. The syntax for insertion is:

insert into table_name values(...)

 To see the data inserted, we can select the data from the table.

Note that the data entered must adhere to the datatype, else it would throw exception.

Delete:

Used to delete data from the table.

delete from employee where column=some_value.

In case we do not specify any condition, all the rows would be deleted.

Update:

Say, I want to update one of the values of the table. I want to change the name of the employee having employee id as 1 to Ravi. It can be done using the update command. 

We would see more examples on all these commands in the coming posts.

SQL in a Nutshell-Mini tutorials -1

In this post I would like to revise the basic concepts of SQL: Structured Query Language. This would be based mainly on Oracle. Hope this mini tutorial would be useful as a quick guide.

                    DDL:  Data Definition Language:  This is a part of SQL which mainly defines the state of the database schema. There basically four commands:

“CADT”

Ø  Create: Used for creating database objects: tables, index, stored query, views etc.

Ø  Alter: Used to modify an existing db object.

Ø  Drop: Completely remove a DB object from the database

Ø  Truncate: Used to remove the data of the table, but retain the structure of the table.

Right now, we will generalize these commands for tables, though these can be used for any database objects, for convenience sake.

                     Syntax:

                     create:

                     Create table table_name (var datatype,….)

                          Alter:
alter table table_name add column_name datatype:

Similarly we can drop the added column using alter table table_name drop COLUMN column_name
Note the use of the keyword COLUMN in this case.

Drop:
As we have seen in the previous command, drop is used. Also drop can be used to remove the table/DB object completely from the database.

Drop table table_name;

Truncate:

Since we have not inserted any data into the table now, we would deal with truncate in later segment.

                           

DOS Box Emulator.

DOS Box is an emulator which can be used to run programs of older platforms. Remember your favorite DOS games like Mario, Paratroopers etc. These can be run using DOS box. It can be updated from the site : www.dosbox.com . Just follow the below steps and get your games going!

1.       Mount the drive in which the programs are located.

                   mount d: c :\>

              Here c :\> is the local drive where the programs are present and d: is the name given (any alphabet can be given).

2.       Once its mounted change to the drive to the drive you have provided.

  3. Change the directory to the exact location and execute the programs/games. Sometimes we would require to increase the clock speed (as I had to while playing Mario. This is quite simple. Just press  CNTRL + F11 till you find the desired speed

The King of programming: C

I can't recall any difficulty in making the C language definition completely open - any discussion on the matter tended to mention languages whose inventors tried to keep tight control, and consequent ill fate.  –Dennis Ritchie.

C language is one of foremost and profound programming languages ever. With it's versatility and simplicity it has inspired several other languages. Dennis Ritchie, the brain behind the programming who passed away recently in 2011 left behind a legacy which can never be surpassed.

I personally feel the age Old Borland Compiler is still the best to learn C programming language at least for the beginners.

The compiler currently does not run on Windows 7 due to clock speed constraints and would require an Emulator. You can get the DOS Box , a free emulator and run the compiler through it.

Security features of Windows 8

Windows 8 is the next version of the Windows operating system currently being developed by Microsoft. Microsoft has made many changes to the new operating system. Many of these changes are a reflection of the changes in the way we use computers today. Apart from a new user interface, Microsoft has also added several new security features to Windows 8 to make it very secure. Security has been a main concern ever since Windows Vista. Windows 7 is very secure and hopefully Windows 8 would be even more secure.

Windows 8 will most probably be available in the month of November this year. When it goes on sale, users are most likely to observe the new user interface. There are also several changes to the core operating system which won't be so obvious. Microsoft has designed Windows 8 in such a way that it is more effective against viruses and spyware. We can only speculate but Windows 8 could be the most secure operating system to be developed by Microsoft in all these years.

Here are some of the most significant security features of Windows 8:

Inbuilt antivirus

Windows 8 is the first version of Windows to ship with an inbuilt antivirus application. It will ship with an updated version of Windows Defender which prevents viruses and spyware from infecting your computer. This version of Windows Defender looks very similar to Microsoft's Security Essentials which is a free antivirus application from Microsoft.

Windows Defender will prevent viruses and malware from infecting your computer and so a separate antivirus application is not required. However, if you are more security conscious, you can still install other antivirus software for added security.

Better Download Screening

Microsoft had recently added a new security feature to Internet Explorer called SmartScreen Filter. This feature prevents viruses from infecting your computer by blocking websites and files that contain them. In Windows 8, this feature is integrated into the operating system. Therefore, this feature will be available even if you use other browsers such as Google Chrome or Firefox.

SmartScreen Filter screens downloaded files against a list of safe applications and alerts you if it finds something suspicious. When an alert pops up, you can check the file further and open it only confirming that it is not a malware.

Secure startup

Windows 8 will use a new secure startup system known as Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). This not only makes the startup secure by preventing malware applications from infecting the computer during startup, but also makes it much faster. The startup time for Windows 8 is just 8 seconds.

New password systems

Windows 8 has introduced new password systems which can be used for login: a four digit pin and a picture password system. The picture password will consist of picture and three gestures that you have to make. These new password systems may take some time to get used to but Microsoft believes that security wise they are better than conventional passwords.

Other security features

Microsoft has also made several changes to the various components of the operating system for more security. Due to all these changes, Windows 8 may definitely be the most secure version of Windows ever.

About the author:

Aditya Venkatesh is a computer-enthusiast who is fascinated by computer technology, gadgets and the Internet. He writes frequently on computers and other topics on www.adiwebs.com. In the past, he worked as a technical writer at a leading web development company in Hyderabad, India. His other interests include photography and DIY projects

My First Post

This is my first post. Will start posting stuff soon!