हिंदी पुस्तक के खोज में

I can read Hindi - slowly, write Hindi - with very bad spelling and handwriting, and speak Hindi - with mistakes, especially gender related and pronunciations. But I am not ashamed of those. After all, it is only the third language I know. To improve my hindi, I try to speak as often as I can. It is my effort to read Hindi, that I am not particularly happy about. I have tried to ask a few friends who are native speakers of the language, and I still don't have a list of writers who represent modern Hindi literature.

I am also worried, because none of my friends are reading Hindi, when I know some of them do read a lot. Forget about reading, they are not even aware about the Hindi literary scene from what I understand. I don't remember a recent Hindi movie which is based on original literary work. I don't remember anyone talking about a Hindi books, whereas a lot of noise is heard about works in English. Does that mean that there is a lack of interest in Hindi literature among people today? That would be sad, since I firmly believe a language evolves and enriches through written work.

BTW, I am currently reading two Bangla books, both fiction, but fact based. And even if I am not a big fan of modern Bangla fiction, I can tell you the names of at least five contemporary authors. I might also be able to suggest you books in Bangla based on your interest / genre. I know people discuss literature here. Why is it not the same with my Hindi speaking friends?

Please prove that my feeling is wrong. Tell me Hindi lit scene is thriving. Help me find some good Hindi literature.

Bagful of tag

Tagged by Swati. BTW, I already have another tag pending from Aseem, which I shall do shortly too. So, anyway, here are the rules for this one:

Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real- nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

And now the Q&A:

1. What is your name: Subhadip
2. A four Letter Word: Sure!
3. A boy's Name: Subhash (means one who speaks well. Example: Subhash Ch. Bose)
4. A girl's Name: Saina (Nehwal... go Saina)
5. An occupation: Storm chasing
6. A colour: Silver
7. Something you wear: Shirt (that was easy :P)
8. A food: Seekh Kabab
9. Something found in the bathroom: Shaving kit
10. A place: Sikkim
11. A reason for being late: Slow traffic :P
12. Something you shout: Shut up!
13. A movie title: Sholay (now can I change the previous answer to "Suaar ke bachchoo"?)
14. Something you drink: Shake
15. A musical group: Scorpions
16. An animal: Sperm Whale
17. A street name: Southern Avenue (the greenest street in Kolkata)
18. A type of car: Sportscar
19. Something scary: Seppuku (Japanese suicide ritual)
20. Ice cream flavour: Strawberry

I tag
Aseem: Since he is new to this blog & tag business. And I do intend to do the existing tag on your blog.
Kanu: Because she doesn't write frequently at all and I miss her sarcasm.
Adisha: Same reason as above minus the sarcasm.
Rohit: Since his reaction is bound to be "What the F%$&... this is so old stuff man... do I have to do it?"
Richa: Because she is most likely to do it.
Butterfly: Because her frequency of posting has drastically reduced, and her answers are likely to be the most innocent.

Others please feel free to get yourself tagged.

Kachukhali revisited

This time it was to accompany a team, who went there to see how the rebuilding process is going on. They were gracious enough to ask me to join them, so that I could see for myself how the money my friends contributed (responding to this post) is being utilised.
Overall, the situation is still very grim, but the people there are not down in spirits like the last time I thought they were. This time, I saw them joke about the situation frequently, even when the topic is as grim as imminent food crisis, or cattle death. Some people are still living in make shift shacks like the one in this picture, built on the road, right next to the embankment.

We even got someone to go on a "mission", to collect all the duck eggs that she could get in the neighborhood and sell them to one of us, and she collected 39 eggs! While we were returning, we were informed she just missed two more eggs, which were delivered by the ducks after she had collected the eggs. BTW, shrimps are one of the few things surviving well in the salty waters, and ducks are doing well there, because they are getting a lot of shrimps to eat on.

One of the first steps of the rebuilding process is to clear out the ponds of salty water, and let the monsoon rain fill the ponds with sweet water. This ensures water for everyday use and also the survival of small fish, which are a main food source here.
The farms are still filled with salty water though. Trust me, the stagnant water on these fields do not smell good. I wonder if there can be farming on those fields for months to come.
Inspiration of the day came from this man. He was planting a few saplings, apparently conditioned for salt water. In the background you can see the saplings that he planted last time, now dead. On asked if these will survive in the salty water, he said, "I am not sure, but let me try. What options do I have? I am a farmer, this is what I am supposed to do".

My friends, those who contributed towards this, I assure you, your money was well spent. The love that I received from the people of Kachukhali, it was meant for sharing with you. The food that they stuffed me with, was certainly meant for all of us, and not just one person! I wish I could take you with me to get to know this place.

Apart from all the serious stuff, this time, I learnt a few other things as well. I learnt about bee farming. I also learnt how simple traps (for fish and shrimps) work. Then, I also got an intensive and practical course on how to walk on slippery grounds!

You can see more pictures here

Why I couldn't write a post last night

For various reasons mostly good, I was thinking about my friends for the last three days. Since yesterday was "Friendship day", I even started writing about it when I came back home at about 8:30 pm. I wanted to write about how wonderful my friends are ... that they think of me once in a while ... they call me / meet me... they have supported me during my dark hours... they cheer me up when I feel low... etc, etc.

But just when I started writing that, my friends called me and asked me to get out of my house, as they were coming to "abduct" me for tea. This was at about 9:30 in the night, just about my dinner time, and we went for tea a few kms away from our place, then a long walk in search of paan, and ended up having kulfi, with loads of laughter and a few pranks.

Happy Friendship Day :)

I want to break free

It was one of those lazy afternoons, when a discussion about free software started. We got discussing whether it is feasible and sustainable to use only free software, but we couldn't quite come to any conclusions. A few days later, I got my new netbook, and decided to try and prove that it is possible to rely totally on free software. Hence this experiment. I will use only free software for the next one year on my netbook for my personal use.

My netbook came pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Office (free trial version), McAfee Anti-Virus (free trial version), Microsoft Works (bundled).

For now, I am keeping the Windows XP (since it's bundled with the laptop). Right now, I am in no mood to switch to Linux. I will keep my serious eye open for Chrome OS.
I decided not to buy the licenses for MS Office (I hate the 2007 version anyway) once their trial period expires. Instead will keep Microsoft Works for office productivity suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc) as it is bundled - the other option was to go for OpenOffice (which I have used earlier).

In addition, I installed the following software, all of them free, for my everyday use:

Firefox - My browser of choice. With those killer add-ons (like DownloadHelper for YouTube videos), I don't think I am going to use IE anytime soon.
VLC player - to play all kind of video files including the YouTube ones.
DivX - to play those HD videos.
Picasa - for organising photographs and minor edit jobs. Easiest way to upload to picasaweb.
GIMP - for major edit work on photographs. In fact, my friend who uses Photoshop professionally now wants to try GIMP as it is doing certain jobs much faster, and better than Photoshop. Example - the current "Bohemian Rhapsody" title pic was created in a couple of minutes using GIMP.
Google Sketchup - this one is for 3D modeling. I use it primarily to design my home furniture.

Wish list:

AVG - Anti-virus program once my McAfee license expires. Any other free anti-virus programs I should consider?
Jing - Video capture software instead of Camtasia Studio. I have the installer, just don't need it yet.
Apache + MySQL + PHP - If I decide to develop any web application project at home. I will also need a PHP editor software for that. Preferably one with HTML editing capability.

Help me with this experiment: Please let me know if you use any free software which really helps you. And wish me luck.

Sportstar

Yesterday, I was enjoying my unexpected off day at work, and as I normally do, I took a long walk through the streets of Kolkata. Near the popular market area of Gariahat, I saw something, which made me stop - a Sportstar magazine. Well, not exactly a magazine, since it is now printed in a tabloid format, but the logo is unmistakable. After all it is embedded in my childhood! I immediately bought it, a pure nostalgimpulsive (watch out for new entries to the Oxford dictionary next year) buy.

Anyway, back at home, late at night, I put aside the books I was reading, and opened the Sportstar. I read the articles enthusiastically, watched all the pictures, and then realized why it is not the phenomenon that it once used to be. I already knew everything (almost) that was written there, thanks to my daily dose of Sportscenter / Sportszone on TV. The high resolution images look glossier on the web pages. The newspapers are covering sports over three pages. The sports channels almost never fails to show a live event. There was nothing in Sportstar for which I should have to wait till the weekend. Very very different from the days when it used to be a novelty, something to look forward to.

You have to be one of those kids born in the 70s, growing up in the 80s to probably understand the sentiment here. You see, when I was a kid, we didn't have TV at home. Even when we did eventually get a TV, there were two precious channels (a third if you added a booster to the antenna). So sports news was a capsule of a few minutes within 15 minutes of news, which ended before it started. Live action meant cricket matches when they happened, football world cups every four years, and Wimbledon every year.

Even the newspapers were thinner, and sports was a one / one and half page affair in it. For sports crazy kids like us, Sportstar magazine and its likes were a life saver. We would wait for it to hit the stands and gobble up all the news from around the world. The special attraction was the centre four-fold poster. In those internet deprived days, you can only imagine what a high resolution Steffi Graf (or Boris Becker if you like) poster meant to us. In fact before Archies Gallery made it big, those posters with visible fold lines, were the only standard decoration items for our rooms / cupboards. Heck, I even had those old editions clubbed together every year in a thick bind for posterity. I guess every thing has their own time to live, to prosper, and then give way to newer things.

Cross the bridge ...

.. when it is built, and irrespective of what it is called - that is what I say.

For a few days now, the media has been harping about the new bridge connecting Bandra and Worli over sea. It has been hailed as an modern engineering marvel, and much is being written about naming it as "Rajiv Gandhi Setu". I am happy that it is finally complete, and I am convinced that it is an engineering marvel, and is going to help the people in Mumbai, despite the sceptics.

But while reporting this feat, I think the media failed to mention / undermined that the 5.6 km bridge took over 10 years to build for various reasons, raising the cost considerably. I can't help but compare similar infrastructure projects in our neighboring country - China. Hangzhou Bay Bridge connecting Shanghai and Ningbo over sea is 35.6 km long (the longest of it's kind) and was completed in a little over four years. Donghai bridge, which is another bridge over sea and is 32.5 km long, was developed in less than three years. Similarly, while we struggle to complete the railline from Jammu to Srinagar, China already has a train service from Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet, and a motorable road all the way to Everest Base Camp. I know there is no direct competition here, but my point is if they can do it, we must try to learn from them and do it on time too. In case we don't want to admit that others can manage projects better, what about looking at how the Delhi Metro project was done?

About naming the bridge: Nothing against Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, or Mr. Bal Thackeray, or Shivaji, or really, whoever they want to name it after. But why are we so insistent on naming any project after a person? Even when a bridge is named after legends, people usually call them by a convenient name. Case in point: Howrah bridge connecting Howrah to Kolkata is almost never referred to as Rabindra Setu, it's official name. Same goes for Vidyasagar Setu, again connecting Howrah and Kolkata, which is referred to locally as the "2nd Hooghly Bridge". It's not that people don't respect Rabindranath or Vidyasagar; it's quite the opposite - but I think people don't care to call a bridge after people who had nothing to do with the bridge!

Internationally, the few examples of landmark bridges that comes to mind are also named after the location or nearby landmarks. Golden Gate Bridge goes over the "Golden Gate" of San Fransisco. Millau Viaduct is near the town of Millau in France. Brooklyn Bridge connects Manhattan to ... you guessed it... Brooklyn. Tower Bridge in London is near the Tower of London. Sydney Harbor Bridge is obviously.... the list goes on and on. Why can't we just leave "Bandra-Worli Sea Link" to be simply "Bandra-Worli Sea Link"?