A rare gem

Please click on the title to go to the story by Associated Press.

The article is about a picture that was taken in 1888. The picture of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. The first time I got to know about Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan was in the movie "The Miracle Worker". A friend had it so I watched it out of sheer boredom. After a few months, I heard about "Black". I definitely felt that the Hollywood version was closer to the truth. And what's Bollywood without masala anyway.

A picture is worth thousand words. This picture made my day. It tells you the story which is almost 130 years old. Am not saying anything about the story, because I am pretty sure everyone knows the story.

This 1888 photo released by the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston shows Helen Keller when she was eight years old, left, holding hands with her teacher, Anne Sullivan, during a summer vacation to Brewster, Mass., on Cape Cod. A staff member at the society discovered the photograph in a large photography collection recently donated to the society. When Sullivan arrived at the Keller household to teach Helen, she gave her a doll as a present. Although Keller had many dolls throughout her childhood, this is believed to be the first known photograph of Helen Keller with one of her dolls. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Thaxter P. Spencer Collection, R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, New England Historic Genealogical Society-Boston)

not bad... not bad at all...

I have for a very long time mulled over the decision to do something about corruption in India, which is rampant at each and every level, and... every time I came to the same conclusion that something should be done. And like a billion people (literally) never followed up on my thoughts.

I have always thought that the system should be changed, but never acted on it myself. And the excuse is the same every time.... I can do something but that would be a drop in the ocean, so why waste my time and energy...

And how pathetic is that excuse...

I almost stopped blogging because of my really busy schedule, BUT one thing did inspire me to take some time to post.

I know that most people read rediff everyday and if there are any of those in the readers that do not, please read this article in rediff. This article seems to have appeared in most newspapers. But I decided to put it on the blog anyway.

The site that is mentioned in the article is this.

So much was I impressed by this couple, that I have no other words except the title of this blog.

The husband, a very honest IAS officer who is being "transferred around" because he is a whistle blower for corruption in the system.

The wife, who chose to do her part and support her husband in his fight. And do more... start a website to fight the corruption

The son, is not far in his support. Instead of trying to persuade them not to do so (for fear of life), he is providing the tech support needed to reach a wider audience.

"The Right to Information Act"

I didn't even know that there is a Right to Information Act in India. I am sure the politicians who upheld it never thought that it would come back to haunt them. I am sure they passed it to look uber cool and to have everything USA has.

I knew about NIC long back. I have a cousin working for it. But never asked him about what it was thinking that it just is another government organization.

I am really glad that someone had taken the initiative. Now all the educated public (which is the first to shy away from responsibility) have no excuse. All those who said "Let someone else start" have their starting point.

As the website requests I am putting it in my blog in the hope that at least one person who is not aware of this would get to know about this.

At the very least this start is not bad... not bad at all....

Google has gone mad

You don't believe me..... then judge for yourself....

Look at what it asked me to do....

All I wanted is directions from my home to Bristol Myers Squibb. I was waiting for Google to give me a choice of addresses to choose from. Instead it pulled a fast one and gave me directions from the US to France.

That is understandable given that BMS might have an office in France (Head Quarters are in Lawrenceville, NJ), it is sarcastic nonetheless. It did not advice me to take a plane or a ship or something. It actually asked me to swim some 3500 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

It did use the word swim. So someone must have entered that a water body has to be swum across. So some PhD had entered it somewhere to prove his sense of humor. Actually geeks do need to prove that they have sense of humor, lest none would believe.

I was astonished at first then had a good laugh. Someone is working overtime on their sense of humor at Google.

But I guess this very unapologetic nature of Google is giving some new search engines a chance to survive. Angel Investors have already invested millions in creating a more humane search. After all I guess the people in this country realized that more is always not better. Why give me a gazillion results I don't need instead of the a hundred that I would need.

Green Screen of death...

I feel so honored that I got something different from Microsoft. Something other than what it had been dishing out from I don't know when.

I mean come on....

If you look at it, Microsoft's Operating System Windows or even its browser Internet Explorer,
however many editions or versions MS releases ultimately neither the OS nor the software is "logical" bug free, because it is just a color change here and a form change there, squares are made round and rounds square..

I mean I am not talking about extreme case defects. Regular defects that common sense would not allow.

You do not need to store 20 days of history by default.
The browser should not hog so much memory.
You need not update it first and then again roll them up into one and apply the patch again.
You need not restart after installation of every update so don't ask it.
And restarting is NOT a solution.


However, since I am also one of the many many windows users, I should not crib much.

But I was pleasantly (??) surprised to find a rare phenomenon (finding something new is rare) in MS's software.

If you haven't heard about the blue screen of death, then may be you need to use your windows based computer/laptop more. Its when the whole screen goes blue and you HAVE to restart the machine.


So I guess the DELL laptop is old (one year is how long they work properly, but cannot complain for the price they sell them for) suddenly decided to show me the SCREEN. But to my astonishment, I didn't get a blue screen, instead I got a green screen and that too fluorescent.

I had some unsaved text files, So I almost said the F word out loud and was hoping that the machine would respond, cuz it is not blue.

But well MS seems to have played a prank on me. This screen is same as the other screen. just a difference in color. Another MS strategy to fool people into thinking they got something new .

I present you the new MS Screen of Death, a non-adobe-photoshopped image. Look at it for yourself. All those who are about to tell me that it may be because of the Media Center edition and that the base tint for media center edition is green, well thats what MS does, change colors and package it as new...

Yay!!!!!!! No dentist for 6 months FINALLY

Yesterday I successfully endured the weekly visits to the dentist and I AM GLAD...... (sounds like an ad for GLAD, but it is not, also am not even remotely remotely related to another GLAD, I am straight like an arrow. To be politically correct I think I should say that I am not associated with it and will probably not be interested, lest they think I am a hater and get hate mail)

So it turns out in the office that my colleague asked me why I had appointments for so many weeks. Sheepishly I replied that it was because I haven't been to a dentists for four years. Hearing that her motherly instincts came out (she is due pretty soon) and told me that it was long time and that I should not repeat it and I deserved all the pain . I was about to say something when my boss intervened and told her that he hadn't been to one for eight years........

Relieved that the focus is not on me, (I hate answering dentist related questions, they suck and so do dentists) I was silent for the while and then we moved on to the next topic (i.e. work).



Anyway so when Dr. Moon told me today that I should make the next appointment after 6 months, I was kind of relieved. Though I didn't like him for the pain on my first visit, the subsequent visits haven't been that bad.

The thing that caught me off-guard was that he was not his usual self wearing formal clothes, but he actually wore casuals and on the t-shirt it said MONKEY BUSINESS..... and am I not GLAD that it was my last appointment... at least for now????????????? Look at the picture..... and it looked to me that the monkey was drilling into something. Am I wrong to be scared????????????

Remember Kutchu????? and his glasses???

This is a very funny story about a friend who is quite absent minded...

The story as she narrated to me (of course modified to fit the style of this blog)....

She was doing her Post Graduation in some college in Delhi. She usually drives to the college as it was just 10 mins away from her home..... (dunno kaun sa galli wala college)

One day due to her extra-ordinary driving skills the car had to go to the service station as the gears were not responding. So her dad dropped her in the college and asked her to call him up in the evening when work would get over so that he'd come n pick her up....(seemingly her dad doesnt trust ND autowalahs)...

After the classes were over, she came out to the parking lot and started searching for her car. She went berserk trying to imagine what happened to her car and of course the dirty looks she is going to face from the family. She started thinking of all possibilities like the car got stolen, or got towed away...

She knows that she is absent minded so she even went to check the neighboring college's parking lot. And after checking for a couple of hours with tears in her eyes, she returned to her college.

The guard at the gate who saw her condition offered to help. He searched with her the whole parking lot two more times.

And then he said. "beti tumhara car ka insurance to hoga... tum apna ghar phone karke batado aur FIR darj karwaalena...."

So expecting a lecture from her dad she called him up. And her dad said "Should I come and pick you up?"

Thats when she realized that her car was at the mechanic and that she had not driven down to college that day.

So she slunk out of the back gate..and used it for the next 3 months...

One one day the guard caught her and asked...beti aapki gaadi ka kya hua...??

She smiled and said nothing.

You would imagine she wouldn't repeat the same thing again.

But she did it again some time the following year.

I was speechless but still asked, "How could you not remember such a thing?". She answered, "I usually recollect stuff after a year has passed, but in the span of one year I usually forget."

This time I really was speechless....

Third time lucky??????

So.... the tooth needed to be attended to....
Let me check if I have a good dental plan....
It seems like I have a decent dental plan... so find a dentist in the area....
Dr.Moon, well if he is going to make me dance using his fingertips (albeit with a drill in hand), I might as well not make any fun of his name....or else....
In any case I never had a bad expeience with a dentist.... so i am hoping that what people say about dentists doesnt come true...

First Visit......

Dent:Where are you from? Whats your ethnicity?????

Me (wondering if I didn't look Indian) India......

Ahhhhhhhh.... you eat a lot of spices.... Do you eat spicy food...

Me (not knowing what to answer): I would not eat them from today if you don't want me to....

No no no... these spices make your teeth acidic.... thats why you have these stains.... I will give you a light cleaning first.

Me (thinking in my mind) Dude.... cleaning can wait.... get me out of the pain....
Me: Ok... as you wish.....

after some moments of buzzing drill and constant repositioning of my head.... cleaning was done....

Dent: Whats the problem now
Me: (thanking God) I have this toothache and I do not want to be in pain anymore....

Dent: lemme take some x-rays....

that guy took x-rays of every possible angle of all my teeth......

all this while his beautiful assistant standing in front of me... I had to wonder if she was hired strategically....

Dent: I have faxed your treatment plan to the Insurance office. I shud get a go ahead in about a day... But I know that root canal is covered. So we will do the rootcanal now.

Me: okay..... as you wish... just get me outta this pain....

Asst: I will give you the anesthesia.

The doc starts drilling and even the beautiful assistant couldnt divert me away from the pain..

It was baddddddddddddddd
I held his hand and said no I cant take it....

Dent to his Asst: Did you give anesthesia?????
Asst: Yes Dr. Moon

Dent: I think you tooth are acidic..... I dont think you are getting numb.... you should take antibiotics for a week and then may be we can try....

Me (wondering why antibiotics, Cant I eat baking soda or something to reduce acidity) Ok.

That evening I was in PAIN cuz he drilled a part of the nerve and it was pain personified....

So I called the office for some prescription. She had faxed it to the pharmacy and I got it. Much to my despair it was Ibuprofen and this whole ordeal took about an hour. I was like.... Cant we just buy these without a prescription in India.....

Anyway that subsided the pain and I was getting ready for my second visit.....

Second Visit:

Dent: Did you take the antibiotics?

Me: Yes.. all 21 of them.... I dont know what will happen to my stomach....

Dent: Ahhh you will be okay.... Lets finish what we started

After anesthesia he tried to drill and got a lot of it out....

Dent: 2 roots down, I will have to kill the last nerve......

He didnt even finish the sentence, I was in hell.... Now I know why they are called gatekeepers of hell..... And all this while I was thinking why people get so scared of a dentist....

The Dent gave up and said "ok.... we will try again next time

Dent: Did you drink last weekend heavily?
Me: Last weekend? I havent had a single drink in 15 days....
Dent: Do you have any liver problems????
Me (obviously worried): None that I know of....
Dent: Then the infection may be too big to get it numb, so we will try next week.
Me (even more worried): Ok

Now that he had put this thought in my mind, I had to find out if I had any symptoms of a liver problem or so.... I browsed for four hours and finally figured out that I dont have any symptoms

Third Visit...

early in the morning 7'o clock appointment (cuz I dont think that taking half a day off for yet another dentist appointment would stretch it at the office....)

Me: Dr. Moon, just curious... what is the max sittings have you taken for a root canal?

Dent: 2 and I have seen a case like you for the first time....

Me (frowning): Do you think I will be done this time.....

Dent: Yes, cuz I have already done it.... just need to do the filling.

May be they are not that bad. Then again.... he made me browse for 4 hrs last week to figure out why I wasnt getting numb.....

After he killed the roots... he put in artificial ones....

I was intrigued as usual and asked him about those....

He says, " Well in third world countries the treatment is cheap, so they dont use these artificial ones. They just clean the roots and leave it like that. This makes the tooth very weak.... and a chance of nerve growing back."

At this instant I was a bit hurt and obviously retorted, "Well, I have had another root canal done in the US and they haven't done it here either." But realized that I needn't be so harsh cuz he still can make me dance do his drilling buzz.....

But Yessssss I was third time lucky....


However before leaving the dentists office I did ask him one question... the one that I wanted to be answered bad...

How bad is smoking for teeth?

Smoking stains and thats it.... It has other health problems, but not for teeth... Don't drink cuz it hurts your teeth more than smoking....

Well I have one less reason to quit smoking.... but then again.... he started making me think about drinkin toooo.... :(


So may be my policy of not going to a doctor till it is absolutely necessary works for me after all... I think :p

Is summer here yet?

Apr 23rd the first bona-fide summer day of the year (after spring officially started long ago)..... temperature in the 70s.... and a drastic change from a couple of days ago....

I do not know how the building support guys in those centrally air conditioned skyscrapers cope with these extremes... today they have to heat the whole building to 65 and then suddenly they have to stop the heat and start the AC to cool it off to 65 the next day..... and that too before people walk in to the building every morning.... I am glad I am not working there.

The tell-all sign of summer has arrived. Dangerously dropping neck lines and soaring hem lines, to the extent of becoming one is already evident all over the place. Not that everything is eye candy, but it is getting really hard not to hate it because no attention whatsoever is paid by the beholder. I work in the Fashion District...... no not on "fashion" but the support activities like web traffic analysis for fashion (does not sound too exciting, does it?).

And I already started feeling the heat. I drank five bottles of water, which is atypical of me, cuz I prefer aerated drinks to water and aerated drinks are just not cutting the thirst today.

I kept on wondering if the weather needed to change so drastically. But then again I realized that it is this drastic change that gives all the fall colors and beautiful springs that I enjoy so much. I just thought that nature needn't have used the "no pain no gain" policy at least here, but well who am I to think that way?

Two days and the grass is looking greener and the trees have young tender leaves and sprouts and amazing of all most of the plants have buds. What a change? and How in heaven's name is this change possible in two days. Cuz two days ago I was low with this stupid toothache and I STILL am low because I have the same freaking toothache.

Rain Rain Go away.........

Please come again another day.... anywhere but here....... please....

today is a Sunday..... i have been hit by Monday blues yet again. Well this happens practically every weekend, only the "torrential" rains made me even more gloomier....

Yesterday was good.... just as the day was supposed to be in spring... warm, not too hot, bright and as if full of life

Being in Calcutta, I never believed the weatherman. When they say it would rain, you will not, repeat , you will not see a single person carrying an umbrella.

I already noticed that the weatherman here is definitely more accurate, but somehow after seeing such a beautiful Saturday I decided to take the prediction with a pinch of salt.

So I decided to go meet a friend in Stamford, but needed to do laundry before I go there. However get the car to car wash while I do the laundry to remove the stubborn tar marks. Laundry was not on the list, but constant nagging by my soon to be better half made me add that to the list.

Last night when I went out for a "customary" smoke after dinner, I saw a few drops fall. Well it was predicted that the rain would start late evening and a heavy downpour is expected. So I am all set. It is just "drizzling".

I got up in the morning expecting a beautiful day, but faced a really ugly yucky day. It was raining, as the weatherman said it would. Downpour....

For anyone who is thinking that car wash could be taken off of the list, that's not because the rain would do the work of a car wash, but because the car wash is closed. The tar still remains.

Now I tried to convince my fiance innumerable times that doing laundry on such a day was stupidity of the biggest magnitude, but, as it turns out, she would have none of that.

Now to save the day and my plans, I decided that I would at least go and meet my friend as soon as the laundry is done.

.........


A day that started off bad has just become worse. In an attempt to finish laundry as quickly as possible so that I can be on my way to Stamford, I dumped all my clothes into the washer, put the coins in and started the machine, only to see a pack of cigarettes floating around in the water when it is being filled. Now I tried hard to open the door of the front loading machine, but the machine was one mean SOB, it would not open. I sent as SOS to the Hispanic lady who was overseeing the facility.

She came and looked at my predicament, and said "You are screwed." I was very kind and said "thank you for the reality check, Can you help me out?" She said "No. Once these machines start, the doors open only after it does its job". How is that possible? I wanted to lecture those makers of those machines on usability and what not. At this time after resigning to my fate, I started thinking of ways to reduce the smell of wet tobacco that would permeate my clothes. I have a feeling that my day could not be worse. Ok so I can get to a departmental store and get some fragrant sheets that are used while drying the clothes. I have around 40 minutes before that machine stops, so I should be easily back by that time.

So I went to the car and was checking my pockets for the keys. This, mind you in that incessant rain. Two pockets, down and two to go and I already started to have a feeling that the keys might actually be in the washer.

No I did not take off my jeans and put them in the washer, I had the keys in my hands when i was dumping my clothes into the washer. Checking my other pockets just confirmed my feeling.

Now, totally drenched, teeth chattering, (the wind speed was close to 30 mph), I went into the laundromat for some relief. By now I just wanted to have some technique of Bruce Lee so that I can freakin break open the washer. And I could hear my keys knocking themselves against the drum of the washer.

This lady saw me all drenched and came with a towel towards me. I was so touched by her gesture. I was about to thank her when she dropped the towel to the floor so that the puddle that I created does not expand any more. This time I thought that the skills of Jet Li would suffice.

The washer stopped, I frantically checked for tobacco strewn all over my shirts and I didn't find any. So I curiously took the packet out and noticed that it was empty. Now I cannot kick myself, can I?

Anyway, I was a bit dry, still shivering, put the clothes in a dryer, got my keys out and decided that I didn't need those fragrant sheets. I wanted to get into the dryer, but a notice which said "Not a toy, please do not let children climb into the dryer". So better sense prevailed and in an attempt not to make my day any worse, I refrained.

After 40 more minutes, I went back to the car, this time keys in my hand and opened the trunk, and I see my umbrella in there. But deciding that it's not time to be self deprecating, I loaded my clothes into the trunk and went back home

I got back and already felt that I might be running fever. But a shower made me feel better and I decided that I should continue on my plan of going to Stamford.

...........

Great..... roads are jammed and a few accidents have almost rendered the roads useless, so I came back after attempting to go to the highway. Not in a mood to let my Sunday go waste, I decided that I would go to the Desi bazaar to get some DVDs and eat some piping hot Indian food.

Glad that I am armed with my umbrella and not letting the rain dampen my spirits, I went to the Desi bazaar. I parked my car and went to dosa house. I got a Mysore masala dosa and started to eat it. One bite and hmmm its heaven......

Oh wait.... nooooooooooooo...... its freaking hell... what is this pain that shot out of my mouth and went all over the head and I felt I almost died.

I then realized that I have a very sensitive tooth and cannot eat anymore. I ran to the departmental store and got Orajel and used it after which the shooting pain subdued. I got wet once again.

I drove back with one hand on my cheek and decided that next time it rains, I am going to stay indoors and play mad gab.

What spelling?

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh, and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.


I raed it swoemhere on the web and it is not my own work