Maha Shoonya Teen

It's more than an year at my workplace in Sakinaka. Travelling is mostly by the bus routes 398, 488 etc. Lately, I have been staying late and generally have another colleague for company. He is more than two years here, actually a senior from SP.

So many times recently, it was me and him going home in a rick. Phew! Too costly. But the body does not have the strength and courage to go for a bus at 9:45 pm. Atleast it pretends so. More so when it has experienced the comforts of a swift airy ride.

So it happens that as usual, I get out of the gate and show the rick begging hand accompanied with few forced tired words. After one or two misses, it is a hit. "Borivali?". The rickwallah gives a condescending nod. As soon as we get in, my colleague asked him," Meter thik hai na?". And the rickwallah says a non-chalant , "MH-03 hai. Thoda idhar udhar ho sakta hai." We got down and I asked my office mate what made him ask that question. He said, "MH-03 tha. isliye poocha."

And then came the revelation. Apparently, MH-03 ricks (also nicknamed Ghatkopar ricks) are infamous for having rigged meters. More the distance, more the loot. That is when I started observing that the only ricks that were going empty were the "Maha Shoonya Teen"s with MH-02 scattered sparsely. A Google search after returning home also confirmed the allegation. In fact, the very next day, I tried my hand at the MH-03 for a short distance near office which will generally cost me around Rs.14. The meter screamed a Rs. 20. Thanks to the enlightenment attained under the Bodhirickshaw a day ago, I had already cleared matters with the rickwallah confirming that I will only pay what I generally do for that distance.

Made me wonder how much I have lost already within my tenure here... what about ppl who are not aware of this? Suno bhaai suno..

Black and white

Black and white...contrasting enough to be conspicuously spotted together. White shining over black, black engraved in white. Maybe that's the reason why we use the idiom "in black and white" to denote something "in writing". Because the very act of writing things down make them clear as does black on white or white on black.

But I doubt if many are fans of writing. They do not prefer it, they prefer verbal conversation; They prefer orange, green, yellow, sky blue, pinkish brownish red, but no...not black and white. Black and white is "mail baaji" for them.

Well, I agree, to the fullest extent, be it art, literature, nothing is as good as verbally expressing it with all the body that you got. Even I was held by my legs and dipped into this pool of communication skills, made to "rrrratofy" the advantages of oral communication over written. That just speaks about my desperation, no pointer pointing towards anyone who taught us communication skills. MG ma'am, to tell you, you were the best!

But as far as what I have experienced, I have always found "mail-baaji" to the advantage. Take down the notes of advantages of writing over blabbering:

Foremost. You are a busy person. You hardly get time to talk, or are in a place where networks are no good, but you have a phone where you can read mails. What is the best way to get in touch with you?? Writing a mail.

2. With reference to the first point again. If you are busy, no problem. You can refer to my mail later. The very essence which led the NOMADIC man to write things down when it's official :). It gets recorded!

3. I said something to you. Now few days later I twist my point. Do you have a proof of that?? NO. Consider the otherwise with writing.

4. Can you cascade oral communication?? hehe...with mails, just reply or forward and the great technology helps you link mails wrt a specific topic.

OK. it was a 5 mark question. With 4 points, you get a mark less or whatever, but believe me, atleast I do, those 4 points are worth more.

Oh....just when the bell was going to ring and the exam to end, I remembered, ...you can attach things to mails..documents, drawings etc. etc.Thats a fivey now..hehe..added this here since I did not want to disturb the end.

And, by the way, for people who like colours, try the font color options, smileys...there's every colour "in black and white".

The Bus Game on the Lunar Land

I thought of the title " An Hour at the Bus Stop" but that would have made it look like a 2nd Std Essay and would have taken away the exciting part of the 'game' that it is. So basically, this is a very interesting game that one gets to play at the Dindoshi bus depot. It requires a lot of brain, vigilance and physical power. People weak at any of these should not enter the Dindoshi Bus Depot.

RULE 1: This game is played from Mon-Fri.

So it is 8 15 in the morning. You are fully charged to face another day at the office. And you enter the lunar-surfaced Depot - but with two differences.

1. g(Dindoshi lunar surface)= g(Earth) in Dindoshi area.

2. This lunar surface has not traces of water but gallons of them. ISRO could supersede NASA this time in researching water on moon. I am here to help :)

After knowing all these technicalities, you reach a safe area doing the astronaut jumps.

RULE 2: Check if the game is already over.

You look around to see if the daily faces are still there or they have beaten you in the game for that day.

Now you start looking for THE resource: the BUS. There are options and their numbers mean nothing unless it takes you to or near your destination. But intelligent people will analyse to select the right bus.

RULE 3: Late entries are not given the liberty to use their intelligence.

Then comes in the vigilance - the most important quality required to win this game. There are many things to keep an eye on:

a. The BEST honey comb: the place from where the driver bee and the conductor bee come out. You should know the already standing bus (flower) on which they will land. Experience comes handy here.

b. The opponents. In case you are not good at point a, this one helps you. Observe each opponent very carefully. Not directly in the eye(they will shoot with their snipers..beware), but look askance. Try to read their inscrutable faces. Their excitement of seeing the driver come towards the bus will surely betray their will to be stolid.

c. The gate of the depot from where a bus could already come loaded with the driver and conductor.

So you have two threads already running in your OS. Now another one adds in. The one that actuates the process of running. As soon as the observation thread of three cases throws an event, the thread for "running" should chip in without any latency.

RULE 4: Go for the front door if you are a female. The front door is a female dominated place. Do not dare to try it if you are a male. Snipers galore. Males, go for the back door.

Now comes the physical test. You need the strength of a Spartan to push away everyone behind you and get into that door to heaven. Most lose their hope at this stage and the victors go to the next level- THE ENTHRONEMENT.

The Enthronement rules have recently undergone a revision; Rev 3 to be precise, which has made the game all the more difficult for males. But that makes it more challenging and men are always good at taking challenges...hihaha. In a ruling that speaks about growing female dominance, 6 rows on the right side (12 whole seats!!) have been reserved for females now. Damn it! OK..so the victors from the last level have to catch the right throne keeping in mind all kinds of reserved seats for the females, the aged and the handicapped. The reserved seats, if unused, can be used unless the owner comes to claim it. Failure to show respect to reservations can result in disqualification.

This ends the game. The rule for deciding the winners is as follows:

RULE 5: Window seat winners stand at first place. The "pillion" seat achievers stand at second. The "standing" stand nowhere and get their punishment during the journey. If the top two places feel pity about you, you could be promoted to their positions when they are already satisfied with the comforts the seat offers...though it hardly offers anything..something better than nothing should we say..the vigilance tips can help here to know the possible candidates who are oversatisfied with their positions.

So that's the BUS game..And there is always a chance to take revenge on your opponent...the next day and the next and the next...Interested ppl are welcome.....unwillingly :(

A satisfying weekend.....

I have always had this inner feeling that I must develop all kinds of practical technical skills and learning, which will help me in dealing with theory better. And finally I had a satisfying weekend with respect to this wish of mine. I made my first home made PCB. The circuit was that of the USBasp-a popular and simple USB based programmer for the AVR family. Refer this link for more info.http://www.fischl.de/usbasp/. And all this..thanks to the friend who I consider as my electronics guru since my juniour college days-Tushar. He is the most down to earth person with the most of the electronics knowledge on this earth, according to me.

It began with a bit of planning on my side(thank you!), wherein I fixed this weekend for this activity, after a lot of procrastination. So Saturday morning, me n Tushar swooshed to Lamington Road- for those who do not know, it is THE place in Mumbai where all kinds of Electronics components reside. Tushar was walking through the lanes there, as if he owns them-after all, he knows most of the shops there, knows where you will find a particular component cheap. He has been going there regularly for the last 5 years. So basically I was lucky. Unfortunately we landed when the shop shutters were still sleeping. These guys are damn lazy. Always remember, if you want to go to Lamington road, be there after 11 am. Sunday closed. First Lesson for the weekend learnt.

You will find that a layout is already available for the circuit on the webpage that i referred to. But I did not want to copy it. So I made my own layout in Eagle along the week and made a list of components to be bought. I bought the components and the PCB fabrication materials required(Ferrous chloride, copper cladded PCB, drill and drill bits). We planned on working on it on Sunday morning, since we had to report to office and also had planned a visit to Elecrama2010. The Elecrama thing did not prove to be very useful, since we reached there when most of the stalls were winding up.

Come Sunday, we start off by printing the layout on a paper and then ironing it out on the PCB. After 4 unsuccessful trials, we learnt that a glossy paper(like most magazines have) is better for taking a print. a laser printer is mandatory. After ironing it out on the PCB, we dipped it in the ferrous chloride solution-all thanks to Tushar who has performed this process numerous times. After minute observation learnt that few tracks had merged, so had to separate them out using a blade. Drilled holes into the PCB(in the process, broke two drill bits), mounted the components and we were ready to go. But it did not work at first go. Again minute observation showed that a track was open. Bridged the track and hurrah....the programmer was born..........I have not grossed over the process details. You will find many Youtube videos on DIY PCB fabrication. All this made us again lose out on the last day of Elecrama2010, since we reached there an hour before the thing started closing. But all in all, it was a satisfying weekend for me....hope to have many such ahead.....Ohh..btw forgot to tell you that the first four unsuccessful printing trials made us think that perhaps my layout was faulty, and we reverted back to the one available on the webpage. So the one working now does not have the artwork done by me. But I am sure my design would also work. I will have that one printed too in the near future....and now heading for the week ahead.....

Speed Breakers

Somehow I have this thing about weekends. Guess, it is bcoz it is the only time in the week when I get to introspect. And this intospection can be killing, mind you. When the mind falls in a thought trench, it is difficult to climb up and come out of it. And in such cases, to the rescue come THE WEEKDAYS. Think of it as a road with speed breakers. You keep going fast, when suddenly you hit a speed breaker(in this case periodic ones). You go slow over them to speed up again. Is speed good? Dunnno..Would weekdays be good had they been like weekends..a BIG NO. But I miss the introspection on weekdays.....Thank God, they both exist...