REST IN PEACE – HOW ‘NOBEL’ WAS THIS IDEA??

An elated Obama heaved a sigh of relieve & muttered the words, “REST IN PEACE!!!” Hold on, did he mean those words to those innumerable victims who were siphoned off from earth by America in America’s International War against terrorism, or did he laugh from inside for the individuals who kept their fingers crossed very long, of course not for Nobel Prize but for social causes?? Well, only the President could tell. But having encountered a grand yet so myopic decision, I wonder if Obama cross-examined self on this saying, “What a nobel idea it was of distributing hope to millions of Americans, down-n-out, but where do I go from here??”

The Nobel Peace Prize committee wanted to give the Alfred Nobel Award (Alfred is watching from heavens) to an individual who could form a yardstick for the world to follow for peace & harmony, to a personality who could muster strength in people by words translated to action. And so Obama was the chosen one. Analysts are of the opinion that this was the way to welcome Obama regime after the tiring, and miscalculated innings played by Bush Administration. Bush’s search for weapons of Mass destruction in Iraq & Afghanistan did create uproar in international community, but does the end justify the means here?

If America was indeed undergoing a serious trouble coupled with recession, & Nobel Peace Prize belongs to global community, then shouldn’t the award really go to people fighting for eternity in Congo, or to Africans who had led the superlative form of malnourished life with all their complaints going unregistered in Doha Rounds? Or in fact to people whose work is best known when they are no longer alive?

I don’t exactly recall how long Nelson Mandela had to wait for the same Peace Award, or for how long Mahatma Gandhi’s recognition was delayed for not giving to an Asian who was dhoti clad for majority of his life, but one thing’s for sure here, Obama’s short and prolific stint did win him the laurels that no other individual dared to achieve laboring for most of his/her life!!!

Mr. Obama’s financial aid to Pakistan to fight Taliban, or against terrorism, or his proliferation of army personnel in Iraq, or his expedition to explore the north reaches of Arctic to tap future potential, if they all sum up for a Nobel Peace Prize, then no wonder every individual on this earth should be given one for doing something or the other wrong in life!!! And the best ones would be the individuals not given this materialistic prize but the recognition by the observant citizens of World.

I really don’t know if President Obama would start his stint now as the President of the masses by action & not just by words, but having put onus on his back, Nobel Committee did accidentally implant the seeds for President to act in future. Only time will tell, whether Obama takes a cue from here or continue to bath in the glory of a Peaceful existence in White House with Nobel Award at the desk and Gandhi Ji’s photo at back looking up to him with the same HOPE he delivered in his speeches!!!

God Bless,

Raghav

Kaminey – Part 2

Wanna read the Part -1 before this, follow it here:

http://rahul-aggarwal.blogspot.com/2009/10/kaminey-hum-dono-judwa-hai.html

This should’ve made directors of Kaminey a bit skeptical had someone told them about Kaminey, the 2^nd, but let’s keep the so-called geniuses of film fraternity at bay from any worries. This Kaminey, Part-2 is the germination of the seeds sown by my mischievous twin, Rahul. I wonder what sort of lives are led by other twins in this world when our both lives are so inter0mingled and yet so exciting.

Coming to the point, I was smiling for having come across Rahul’s blog, because I never thought about penning down our experiences ever!!! And believe me; I really liked the idea as much as each one of you did.

There is no denying the fact that we’ve had so many highs & lows when we were kids, but the best thing was we both could make every damn situation way too humorous when we wanted. Taking baton from the point where Rahul left, I remember the girl he used to hang around with. He always tried keeping it as clandestine as possible from every individual out there. The only thing was Rahul kept this secret in one of our class-mates, who kept all his secrets with me. And Rahul’s girl would keep all her secrets with one of her class-mates (another female), the girl who I used to trust like anything (I mean I would keep my secrets with). Now isn’t that a convoluted pentagon with three males on one side and two females on other when there’s only one couple in between? Well, yes, that’s the way not so filmy Kaminey life is!!! Not that I wanted them not to hang around, but just that I think I was too immature to realize the gravity of a missed date.

Quoting another incident was when Rahul had fallen sick due to yellow fever and was in no condition to attend school especially when exams were approaching. During initial stages when Rahul was suffering from a very high fever, we never thought the thing would aggravate to such a level. So, I employed a strategy where in I would daily attend all the school periods (yes, that’s what we used to call classes then), but with a condition: One day I would attend as Rahul and another day as myself. This would save both of us from any attendance shortages with justification on any day being, “Ma’am/Sir, when I am present here and exams are approaching, we thought may be one of us can attend college to get notes while the other one can sit back home and study alternately!!!”

In this manner, I would continue doing Rahul’s(tweaking things a bit) as well as my homework also. But the day it was confirmed that fever is going to take a heavy toll on Rahul; we had to cut short for fear of not being able to carry this thing way too long. But believe me, it was fun doing it (for all the chicks in school, including his girl kept asking me about him on almost everyday).

Once I remembered when we were in 6^th standard appearing for final semester examinations. History was one of the subjects deadlier than expected and the epitome of Rahul’s misery. J During the exam, as Rahul had already told you, I used to sit in front of him (there were times when teachers used to change our seats for having identical faces). Now during history exam, we had our class-teacher, Joel Sir as an invigilator. A very strict teacher who used to proclaim of looking back when looking ahead through his concave but convex spectacles he wore. Thinking about those glasses still gives a tickle. Half an hour past exam, Rahul sitting at my back, somehow informed me of having a clean memory wash about history chapters and was waiting for me to create some history now. Now, I wondered, was this by any sorts an experiment to challenge the quadruple eyes of Mr.Joel and conquer the cheating arena as a warrior, or an experiment to truly check if I’d loved my brother and was ready to sacrifice his as well as my exam paper on being caught if at all that happens!!! I never really wanted to test my gut skills to unleash a war against those concave but convex glasses for I knew there was not even an ounce present in me. But brother is a brother, and especially when a twin, a brother is a superlative form. Like Rahul said, “life ko jeene ke do tareeke hote hain, short-cut and chotta short-cut”, I took one about which I never bothered to know which one was it!!!

Since we had benches and desks those days, I told him that I’ll continue writing all my answers on answer-sheets and instead of keeping them beneath my examination board, I’ll keep them adjacent to me on the bench where I sat. Idiot felt elated and with 100% confidence (not the one for history answers) agreed in unison. He kept picking the answer sheets from beneath his desk and replacing them with another one after he was done. Sudden lightning-turns by Joel sir would send shivers down my spine. Luckily we both completed exam with a nice effort and scored pretty well when results were out. I don’t know whether Rahul would remember this incident, but I certainly have a smile when ever I think about the whole incident. History was indeed created during history exam!!!

There are in fact innumerable incidents I could go about writing but then there’s a thing I believe, not everything is to be uncovered and not every secret should be discussed with every friend!!!

Enjoy reading,

Raghav Aggarwal

As one of our class-mates tagged Rahul & me once with “Ache Kaminey” (Class 9^th)

Why “tweet” when year long productivity is so important???

The other day a discussion with few classmates ogled at the notorious tweet messages floated by our respected Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. Shashi Tharoor. The chit-chat amongst us was as intriguing as the statements put forward by Mr.Tharoor.

One of us was of the opinion that both his tweets were in right light and conveyed a symbolic meaning that can be interpreted only with a good intellect. This was no doubt acceptable but a half of us argued that if you assume a public position where masses look up to you, there is a high degree of responsibility associated while making statements. Especially when someone like Mr. Tharror who’s been a diplomat for most of his life knows the subtleties involved in statements’ formation and execution.

On retrospection, I thought probably, he could have put a disclaimer that all opinions are entirely personal without representation to any ministry or government body. But then, realized that conventional wisdom is always as individual’s take and if you are no-nonsense individual (with a professional representation), you better legitimate your wisdom with public sentiments.

The tweet for replacing Gandhi Ji’s birth Anniversary (Gandhi Jayanti) on 2^nd October with a working day was the most astonishing thing to have come across in recent times. This raises few blatant questions which I would certainly want Mr.Tharoor to answer in continuation of his tweeting obsession:

What levels of productivity do you expect to achieve after working for 365 days a year (excluding Sundays and other holidays)? Do you really expect it to improve? One really don’t need to put on thinking caps to realize that a continuous working culture leads to stress and lower levels of productivity rather. The maximum number of deaths in a less populated country like Japan arises out of work stress, are there any lessons to be learnt here?

If productivity is so important, equally important is efficiency i.e. using the minimum inputs to get the maximum output possible. This is where Austerity in truest form comes into picture dear Sir with devoting less time to cyber public (in form of tweets) and more time for real, striving individuals in state and the country.

As rightly pointed out by a reader of The Hindu newspaper, if working on Gandhi Jayanti is so important to uphold the Father’s principles, how many of us really consider “work is worship” principle of his during our life time when we work on every working day. Isn’t the application of this principle of Mahatma Gandhi important when all other arguments are important as you pointed out Mr.Tharoor?

The greatest anomaly with Mr.Tharoor’s tweets lies in the fact that even if we start working pan country from next year on Gandhi Jayanti, soon the day would come when people would start bypassing this day as any hackneyed day of the year, which in very long run, rather than remembering Gandhiji’s idols & philosophies would only convert into twinge of selective memories long forgotten.

Through this article, I only wish to bring to the fore the message that when you assume power, there comes great responsibility with it (as said in Spiderman movie).And when you are a public figure, you rather weigh every alphabet of your speech before making any statements be it personal or official. All views expressed here are entirely personal with no intentions to hurt anybody’s feelings or opinions.
Regards,
Raghav

Sach Ka Samna - let's Face It....

‘Sach ka Samna’, the show inspired from the English program ‘The moment of Truth’, is finding itself quite literally in a debutant confrontation with the bitter-truth of the society. And that is, “We Indians as viewers cannot really tolerate the mockery of social ethos and culture on television, but as hypocrite citizens are ready to commit all sorts of not-to-be-told, selfish & naughty acts in secret!!!” Isn’t so??
Rajeev Khandelwal, hosting one of those biggies, after landmarks like Kaun Banega Crorepati (Host:Amitabh Bachchan) & Kya aap Panchi paas hain?(Host: ShahRukh Khan) on Star Plus, seems to be taken for a ride for being a part of it. The question arises, Aren’t we really ready for such a show which exposes individuals’ inner evils to this swindler world, when we are ready for obscene programs like Splits-Villa shown on MTV & daring, in-your-face programs shown on Real? Is a late night format like ‘Sach ka Samna’ that bad that it gets ridiculed & looked down upon by news media and social frenzy when programs like Splits-Villa, Roadies etc. are shown at that time of the day when television attracts maximum viewers (that too teenagers, kids & girls)?
As literally put by one of the advertisements, ‘Jaago India, Jaago!!!”. Stop beating around the bush for deciding what’s wrong and what’s not, when each one of us knows internally & eternally, who we really are from the gut, & how clean we are at the bottom (pun intended)!!!
I happened to watch few exclusive shows on different news channels showing Rajeev Khandelwal, the most apt actor for Sach ka Samna(of course after a real & worldly performance in Armaan), clarifying his position (on behalf of this show) and persuading public at large. He was being bombarded by those vicious questions thrown mercilessly by experts from fields like psychology, hospitals, retd. Chartered accountants, news reporters, channel hosts, and audience. Woah, did I go about listing quite a number of people, just proves how shallow this society is, and how full it is with such shallow people??? Quite an oxymoron, isn’t so?
Before you pounce anymore questions to Mr. Khandelwal, I would like you to re-think and try answering the same question from within, for I believe the following point gives a good argument for the defense of Mr. Khandelwal & his show:-
•This show isn’t Rajeev Khandelwal’s brain-child. It’s a format picked from English show with honors (with all criticisms) going to Harold Schultz. So will the proclaiming righteous Indians stop misjudging and start pointing (if they still want to) in the right direction?
•As said by famous Danzel Wanshington (in ‘Men on Fire’), ‘I’m just the medium to send people to God, it is He who decides who has to be called’. So, people, Mr. Khandelwal is just a host, I’m sure he’s got other professional commitments and tasks to do, rather than getting indulged in somebody’s personal life. Also, he is there to just ask you the questions, with sole contention being yours in participating, and for carrying the lust to lose integrity and gain monies.
•There have been cases in past proving fatal to participants in foreign countries and hence receiving their ire, but do realize, people have also seen earning in a filthy manner here in a matter of few hours and start their lives when it has come to a stand-still.
•This show is for TRP’s and hence all the advertisements earnings so don’t worry you hypocrite Indian, nobody in this world can force you to sit back and watch this show. You can very well go to bed & pay your night taxes the way you define them with a mirror of truth designed by this ugly society.

I surely know that with the land of “me-too”’s, one can expect advice for free from a billion, but I ask you, in a land of billion, do you have the guts to come & participate in this show and embrace your grace with truth & wisdom? Think over it….
Take care,
Raghav

Unhide hidden files

While working on my computer one fine day, I happened to encounter the control of machine over human orders. While I was working on few files and moving them across folders, I was supposed to unhide hidden files before I could do any sort of operation. As a regular computer user, went to folder options (under Tools) in explorer and did click on the usual radio-button saying:-

Show hidden Files & Folders

Computer did respond by showing a busy signal, but not for very long when I realized that none of the hidden files got unhidden. Surprised, I again opened the pop-up only to see my machine over-riding my command and setting the radio-button back to the message saying:-

Do not show hidden files & Folders

Having an anti-virus on the system, the above anomaly was unexpected and unusual (with anti-virus getting updated on daily basis). Anyways, tried scanning the system but to no avail when I started out the search for manually removing the virus succumbing my system to death. Oh, If I forgot to mention the reason for all, it’s because of a virus residing on your desktop in one of those autorun.inf files on the system. These are initialization files which help in initialing the processes as and when required.

The search began and after much search on net, I found few basic attempts to solve the matters at hand.

I tried exploring a little more and would like to explain them to you so that anybody facing the same problem, don’t end up relegating the control to machine (we humans are a lot better than them after all!!!)

· Click Windows +R and type ‘cmd’ or ‘command prompt’ to open the command prompt manager. The default manager would open like:-

Once opened, use cd\ to reach to the root level of the existing default directory.

Now type in the required directory name (where hidden files are located) with a colon at the end and press enter:

C:\>D: and press enter

The directory moves to the new directory drive D.

Now reach to the particular folder using cd xyz and press enter (xyz should be the name of the folder). Continue till the time you reach to the exact location.

If the location where hidden files are located is also hidden or unknown, use dir/ah or dir to see all the folders within the path. Now make use of attrib command to unhide all the hidden files in the respective folder.

D:\>attrib -h xyz

-h specifies the given folder needs to be removed from hidden tag and converted into a normal folder. +h indicates to convert a normal folder into a hidden one.

I was able to use the above methods for files/ folders containing single words in their name (not a combination of words separated by spaces) and also the process was manual with every time typing the name of the file and folder to unhide it and moving on to the next one. This got me to search further to find a more ideal solution to unhide all hidden files at once and that too all kinds of files without mentioning their names.

Keep reading for how can this be achieved:-

· In order to unhide all the hidden files on your system at once, this was the method I could find.

Click on Windows +R and type ‘regedit’ to open a pop-up window like:-

As one could see the listing on the left-hand side, click on to respective links to reach to the following destination:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL

Once here, one would see attributes against SHOWALL on right hand side.

Have a look at the checkedValue parameter & see the value attached along it. It is a hexa-decimal number following by a numeric value in brackets (as shown in figure above). Make sure that the type of this parameter is REG_DWORD, and if not, delete this parameter and create a new parameter of above type and same name.

Double click the item to modify and change it from 0 to 1:-

After changing, press F5 continuously to check whether the value of checkedValue parameter goes back to 0.

If it doesn’t, open explorer (My computer) and in tools use folder options to Show all hidden files and folders. If the problem persists, that would be because of the checkedValue parameter switching back to 0. Have a look!!!

If you are able to see hidden files now, the problem is over and you can now safely move on to make use of those new unhidden files & folders.

However, if problem persists, it is because of the Explorer.exe process running in the background. What needs to be done is stop the explorer process for a short duration, till we are not able to unhide all the folders/files. Open the task manager, and go the processes section of it.

There many processes would be displayed, locate explorer.exe and by right clicking on to it, set the affinity of the process. By clicking here, it would show you how many processors the process is currently running on i.e. the System and Program in form of CPU0 & CPU1.

Unclick CPU0 and click ok. This would make the process get terminated from running on to system. Now go to registry editor as opened above, and in SHOWALL, modify the checkedvalue setting from 0 to 1.

After doing it, click F5 only to see that it doesn’t toggle back to 0 now.

Open folder options now and click Show all hidden files and folders only to see all the files of the system being displayed to you. Make use of these files/folders as you want, and do not forget to set the affinity of explorer.exe process back as normal using the Windows Task Manager.

Hope the above methodology helps, and lemme know if you still find any difficulties.

All the best,

Raghav

FedEx crashes Del Potro in Semis – French Open 2009

Exhilarating! Adrenalin rushing high!! Testing and nerve-racking!!! The more synonyms one attach to the match played between World No. 2 Roger Federer & 5^th seeded Del Potro, the less credit one would accrue to the scintillating performances. Yes, I’m talking about the semi-finals played between the two for Roland Garros’ French Open 2009. There was no doubt that Roger was tested all over the court for his skills and acrobatic moves by the young lad from Argentine. Won by Federer, but the contest was a battle of the war-lords fought furiously by the Argentinean. The convincing throttle unleashed by Potro must have sent shocking waves to the Swiss. With scores like 6/3, 6/7, 6/2, 1/6, 4/6 the match was equally combated by the two opponents. Clay not being the winning grounds for Swiss, one could really see him mustering all the strength required to fight it out, and convert his streak of 4 times entering into clay-court finals into a resounding Grand Slam victory this time. Match could have been compared to the wrestling match between Steve Austin & The Rock, with Rock (Roger) showing the greatest tenacity to fight till the last moment and Austin (Potro) knocking him with heavy punches and aces throughout the match.

Starting with the lead over Roger with 6/3 in the first set, one could clearly see the spirits with which Potro was there to fight it out. Having Roger thrown all around the court, Potro literally dictated the terms of tennis on the court. The second set was an equivocal combat between the two with each of them winning their respective points to fight for the final point in the form of a tie-breaker. This was when Federer showed his prowess to take the control of the situation. He led the tie-breaker deciding points with a lead of 5-1. And went on to winning the second set. In the third set, Potro was back again with full energy and enthusiasm and took the lead right from the beginning, leaving Federer trailing behind miserably. This was when it became for sure that tonight Potro was the one who dictated all terms on the ground, with throwing nearly three times aces on average in every set when compared to Federer. The average speed with which the Argentinean served fell in the bracket of 195 to 210 Km/hr which was much thumping and powerful when compared to Roger at 185 to 194 Km/hr. This made Potro clinch the third set with a score of 6/2, blowing Federer all over the court.

Moving towards the fourth set was when Federer was seen to come back in original form with 5^th seeded clearly showing signs of subtle tiredness setting in. but least he was about to give up. But fourth set saw, Roger competing against Potro in long rallies and coming out as clear winner. He made Potro move and fight hard for ball all around the court. With a number of double-faults on service committed by Potro, Federer was able to break his serve a number of times, thereby leading the set with an easy 1/6 win.

With match moving towards the final set, the deciding one, Roger decided to take the lead right from the beginning. In spite of a huge built and good height, Potro just could not perform to his highest levels to make Federer play at back foot from the court line. Roger begin the set with a clean sweep of 2/0 lead, and things started to become clear that Roger was hitting the bulls’ eye now when Argentinean shot back and moved the set towards 3/3 with serving for next game point. With the status-quo between the two at this point of time, it was a do or die situation between both the world-class players. Roger broke the serve of Potro and went on to lead the game with 3/4 score in the final set. Now, roger served and went on to win the point, leading the scores with 3/5. On Potro’s serve, Roger made all his efforts to break his serve and win the match, but the success was not bound to come easy when he had a fighting soldier at the other end of the battleground. The scores were 4/5 with Roger now serving for the match. This was made as easy as possible by Federer who went on to win this point and match with 40/15 intermediate scores and double match winning points.

At the end, a match played for over 3 hours could be a decider between the two, but it was a winning and quite convincing show for the audience, spectators in the court and for the spirit of the came.

Hope this streak of Federer continues and go on to win the French Open 2009 and create a new world record by beating Robin Soderling (the past occasions being Roger beating him 9 on 9 times). ALL THE BEST FEDEx!!!!

Education – The definitive road to success

There is no denying the fact that today, for any country to prosper, the most formidable pillars embodies in education & research foundations of a country. With a technology driven no-border world, every country relies most heavily on the most abundant & developed resources - humans. Higher education supplemented with research certainly earmarks the renaissance to heal the world of atrocities, ignorance, hatred and march towards a robotic productivity and efficiency in every walk of life.

After taking the charge of HRD Ministry, Dr.Kapil Sibal has a lot to do when it comes to bring the higher education at par with top-notch foreign universities’ and provide enough impetus for conducting world-class research in diversified facets of universe. Rather than opening up the avenues for foreign sub-standard and mediocre institutions in Indian contingent, there is a gamut of measures one need to ponder on for higher literacy and improving education.

The point where we need to begin is at primary and secondary education level. The scenario present today gives an image of a pyramid having three layers with maximum students waiting to get elementary education present at the bottom most level and still deprived of the resources and opportunities, the middle level comprising of students at senior secondary level not able to complete their studies due to lack of right enthusiasm and orientation, and the top triangular region comprising of very few students undertaking research with futile facilities accrued to them. The solution lies in re-orienting the pyramid to work out a win-win-win situation for all the three categories of future potentials. This can be explained with the help of the following diagram:

The first diagram shows the number of students in India at three levels and the second diagram shows the extent of facilities & resources made available to them at the respective levels (merging the two would bring in clarity). Mr. Sibal, what is required is not more meaningless facilities at the top but the greatest dedication towards the bottom i.e. the youngest lot. If problems at this level are rooted out, one would not wonder the closing in of the day when reservations in all forms can get siphoned off from the Indian contingent from every sphere of life & work, and convert s small fraction of research students into a vast pool (as shown in diagrams above). What we need to accomplish is the grooming of the bud in form of adequate provision of mid-day meals, Sarva Shiskha Abhiyan, Women & Child protection and empowerment and many more multitude of operations. Girl child needs to get educated and at par with boys with every right accrued to them. Subjects of morality, society and discipline needs to be incorporated in every class of school curriculum till the senior secondary education levels.

At the elementary level, more efforts need to be called for from non-working mothers to help in preparing meals for kids in schools where their wards study. This can be complimented with NREGA in villages and grams. Teachers’ attendance need to be properly supervised by the school authorities and submitted to the board for scrutinizing, sudden checks, and promotions. Awareness campaigns need to be launched on regular intervals at every village and small towns to educate ignorant masses towards keeping a tab on school authorities and their kid’s progress at school. Monetary incentives need to be proliferated on a wider scale to promote girl education.

At the senior secondary level, students need to be shown a more grown-up like attitude and give them the freedom to try out different diversified things. Students should be given real life trainings on different aspects like a day in the life of a traffic cop, drills, tutoring the down-trodden and needy, and certified for the same. Incentives in form of certificates pave a successful mechanism for making the maximum students try out their hand at different activities. To bring in transparency in the work carried out by government officials in different state and central governments’ initiatives, students from this level need to be given the authority to understand and inspect the work in progress and prepare reports. This would not only remove corruption, but also help them work towards the government’s cause which gets declared in form of government certificates.

At the highest level of education, students need to be given the right opportunities in form of monetary aids and all the help from prolific researchers, academicians and scholars in form of recurring events, tours & trips etc. They need to be given international exposure by initiatives to be taken by government in form of research conducting countries’ cruises and see the way researches are carried there. I was once asked by R.B.I(Delhi) Director & Team, what is the reason for such a low no. of hardware engineers in India? Well, I certainly do not agree with the statement, but there’s an underlying truth if we compare hardware professionals with other professions. The low numbers primarily point towards the fallacies in the system beginning at the root levels coupled with inadequate facilities/ opportunities given at the highest levels of education. It is this stage which can pave the success of India from being a service dominant industry to the biggest manufacturing hub of tomorrow.