The irony of using a broadband

When I packed my bags from Ghaziabad everyone put up the same question in front of me, “When are you coming back?” When I came home around a month back I was almost sure that I would be doing nothing in these two months time. With a dial up connection I was sure that I would be away from the world of spiders, I am talking about the World Wide Web or the internet as most people would call it. I knew it would be difficult to survive, because for a person who is so addicted to net that he changes his life cycle and lives it according to US standards, staying away from net for three complete months was going to be a huge in fact a Herculean task. I always knew that was impossible. The first day I was here, evening I was out at the café, no not the coffee one but the obvious one. Anyways, within a few days I thought that was it and with the help of my sister persuaded my father to shell out 1500 bucks and that too for just a month. My father spends money quite carefully, he simply said if that’s what you really need, then have it. I knew that it was not the ultimate requirement but to survive at home ….. just couldn’t help it too. I went to the sify distributor and came back happily that the next morning I would be back to normal business; little did I know that the coming month was going to be the biggest nightmare of my life.
Two people came to my house, one, the marketing guy and the second whom I assumed to be the technical person. The tech person took out an RJ45 connector from his bad put the wire in it and quite quickly I got the sign reading “Local Area Connection is now connected”. I was glad that this happened so quickly. Then as soon as the, so called technical person, sat on the computer chair and took the mouse in his hand I knew he was having even less knowledge than the girls of my college(not to hurt anyone’s sentiments if by chance you happen to be an RKGIT girl). Within a minute I asked him to move out and let me handle the system. I asked “what do want to do now?, you want to make a new connection ?” “Yes“, he said. And as soon as I opened the “make new connection wizard”, he had a question mark on his face. I knew this was no to be done. Then I came across a paper he was holding and when I saw that, I knew what was to be done. I opened the lan settings and entered the ip address and the dns settings. I said “yahi karna tha na?” happily he said, “haan haan”. Then he gave me a cd to install the sify broadband client. No problems with that. Then he said now you can connect. I connected to the internet but the internet explorer said, “Check your proxy settings” and then without asking him I put in the lan settings which he gave me and then retried. Same answer surprised me. I asked him why that was though I knew that it would be of no use, he said “Aap bhaiya ko call karlo”. He called him and fiddled with his bhaiya for 2 minutes before I took over the phone and told him what I had done and asked him that what port should I use for the proxy server, at first even he was baffled but then he showed great character and proudly said, “aap settings me jakar restore defaults kar dijiye”. Even he knows nothing, I understood in a flash. I tried to use the “direct connection to the internet” and thankfully for me it worked. Without saying anything more I hung up the phone, paid him the requisite amount and said goodbye to him as I was already late for a party, my placement party for my school friends. Hardly realized that this was the worst I made from my father’s money. Before leaving I even took his bhaiya’s number in case I have some problem. Giving me the number he said in a very confident manner, “waise aapko koi dikkat aaegi nahi”.
Later I returned that night and logged in, happily checked my mails, scraps and then went to bed. In the meanwhile I even clicked on to the gtalk icon but it didn’t respond and I said “forget it” and turned my system off.
The next couple of days I saw some operations malfunctioning but I never took it seriously until one day my system refused to start. I knew something was serious and that most probably it’s virus. Tried some ways but couldn’t help it. I tried everything but in the end was left with no other option than formatting my system, thus losing all my data…..really a great blow. Anyways I called the “bhaiya” and told him my misery citing the reason as his network for all the mess. He disagreed saying his network was perfectly fine and that my system was infected. No point in discussing with such people I reconnected and within some hours I found the virus again. That was it. I went to his shop and shouted about his problem. To my surprise he simply denied it again. Then I thought it was of no use, came back, installed Linux and thought that it might work. As expected, it didn’t work. I went to his shop again. This time the bhaiya was not there, a calm, cool looking black person was standing and said in a voice as if he was the owner of the shop, “bhaiya nahi hai kya kaam hai bolo”. Well, I said, can you tell me how to run the net on Linux? “kya”, “net chalana hai ? to ye kholo”, opened in a browser the page where the sify software download was available and pointed me to the line mentioning the client for windows. I said, “maine ye wala kiya hai”, pointing to the Linux client and the response he gave me was not shocking as I had expected this. He proudly said to me, “humne yaha dhai sau (250) connection diye hain, aajtak kisiko is wale ki zarurat nahi padi, aap anokhe ho kya?”. I said “aajtak kisine Linux use nahi kari hogi” , “liee-niks, ye kya hai, main yaha ka network sambhalta hu, sabka kaam is pehle wale se chal jata hai aapka bhi isise chalega”. Next moment I knew that it would my fault if I talked to him any further, so I opted for waiting for the owner, the bhaiya or the distributor. I put up the same question in front of him and as expected even he didn’t know it. But what he did was gave me assurance that he will find out and let me know soon. Its been 3 weeks since then but I haven’t fond the answer. Some people claiming to be sify technical team even had this question fired from me only to give me the same answer, “we’ll find out and let you know soon sir”.
The next problem I faced was within a couple of days only. My system started showing the network cable unplugged. I called him again and he sent his network engineer. First he tried to look for some problem in the system but when he couldn’t find any then he understood it was the connector that was troubling me. Within a few minutes he replaced it and we tried to connect. Then when I tried to connect it asked me to do install an anti virus. That was it. On asking he told me that his bhaiya had accepted that there was virus on his network and now he’s put an anti virus check for each system. My point was proved.
Since then there have been one problem which continues to haunt me apart from a single instance when I tried to login and the client gave the message, “you are already logged in”. Baring that instance, whenever I not online its because of the single problem that my system can’t connect to the gateway server. Too embarrassing, as the ping screen that shows “Request timed out” creates a desire in me to thrash the distributor, the bhaiya as whenever almost 90% of the times when that problem arose, his mobile is switched off and his shop closed. After 8 pm there’s no way I can contact him and more often than not that’s when the problem arises. Sometimes I’ve even tried to call the sify local customer care but they can’t help it either. The reason for the problem is the local network which is loaded with viruses.
All this makes me feel pity on the condition of the technical knowledge of these people. No one knows a single thing and claim that they are network engineers of technical team members. I think the Jagriti technical team which comprised mostly of second year students had more knowledge than these idiots. Forget the people who are using it because they even might not know the fact that the government of India has made it clear that a service can be called a broadband service only if they supply a speed of 256 k bps or more. While the connection I am using is being used by most people here and I guess none might know this clause. But they claim to be using BROADBAND service and are quite happy about it.
Its 15 today and my connection expires on 18. With the great services my distributor has provided I am in no mood to extend his worthy services for another month and spend half of the time abusing him rather than using the net. As far as the bhaiya and his network team is concerned, I had only I thing to say to them after which they could only keep their faces hanging down. I proudly said, “Pehli bar kisi engineer se tumhara pala pada hai”

A 2 day star or a real hero ??

Ever since we've heard that nasal "oooo......", the famous track from the movie Ashiq Banaya Aapne there's been no looking back for the man with the cap, Himesh Reshamiya. The immaculate success and his immense popularity has prompted me to write about him and start a sort of debate. Debate because I started to compare him with some of the other well known singers.
I was wondering how many people know Sonu Nigam or that he acted in a film? Yes and that bombed at the box office like anything. He did not dare to act again on screen. He even tried to be a pop singer, hip hop kind but didn't succeed in that either. His songs became famous especially the Deewana tracks but that fame died out. He got a few songs but as time passed on the quality of songs he has got has just gone down. Now no one knows recognizes that "this" song has been sung by sonu.
On the contrary, everyone recognizes Himesh's songs. Everywhere you can hear his songs, be it a passing car, a DJ party or a stationed house, he's everywhere. The latest testimony of the fact that he's a star is the phenomenal success of his movie. Its been declared a smash hit and box office collections have proved that it actually is a hit. What more to say, I wen to watch awarapan last sunday, I must say I wasn't surprised to see that forget awarapan, no tickets were available for the Himesh movie. Though everyone criticized his acting skills but the movie has done awesome business. Most of the people criticize him, saying he's a nasal singer but in the end it his him whom people listen to. So in the end its him as the winner. He has more fans anywhere in the country than anybody else, so isn't he the next star ?
I don't know how many are his critics but his fan following is awesome. I don't say I am a big fan of his but I don't deny that I like most of the songs sung by him. Great tracks and yes namastey london are my favourite. A star is born but let's see if he survives or fades in the dark like sonu nigam or abhijit sawant did .... Its time to say wait and watch....

!!!!!!!! start livin larger than life man!!!!!!!!

Well this topic deals with actually me knowing nothing about it ! Yes, strange but I wrote it purposely for comments. I got this comment today while chatting to a friend on orkut and when I wrote a short form, "brb" to be exact, I got this reply :

kkk nw thats embarashn i didnt knew abt ths short form yaar tum log har cheez ka short form kyu banate ho !!!!!!!! start livin larger than life man!!!!!!!!

As my friend didn't know what that meant so when I told the full form this what I got. Its been half a day since then and when I couldn't get the answer myself I thought that some beautiful people might let me understand this and as a result of which I am writing it here.
Phew ! spent almost ten minutes, can't think of what to write..... I guess its time to say comments please and help me understand the real meaning of some beautiful words by some even more gorgeous people.

Wow ! Kimi does it again...

British GP, Brit winner, that's what everyone was expecting and when Lewis Hamilton won the pole position, it only added to the speculation that he's going to take the chequered flag. But Ferrari had some other plans. Not only their strategy make Kimi the the winner, second time in a row but it also proved that its not only the driver who is responsible for the win when the cars are out on the track the team strategies do matter.
As a matter of fact, I must say that I didn't watch the race after the first pit stops but read and heard that it was due to excellent strategy and choice of tyres that made him the winner. Without passing any of the Mclaren's he made the best finisf one can expect.
Not only did he win the race, he did it comprehensively by winning with a margin of 25 seconds which is unassailable on any circuit. Well Ferrari have certainly bounced back but I still feel it would be really difficult to displace Hamilton from the top unless he makes a finish not making it to the podium. Well this year's championship is definitely heading for a great finish. I can't wait for the next race to keep the excitement going.

PS: I am back to original posting, sorry for the last copied post, but I wont be removing it due to some reasons.

Indian Animation and Gaming industry: An insight

The rise of the Animation and Gaming industry in India has been nothing short of meteoric.The segment, driven by significant outsourcing by global customers and a fast growing global market, is offering immense employment potential to India’s Gen Z. At the same time, there is a huge talent shortage within this market, which could impact its future growth. In this issue
of Communique, we look at the Animation and Gaming industry, the business opportunity it throws up and the challenges it faces in terms of requisite, skilled talent.

The global and Indian market: The global animation market was estimated to have touched US$ 59 billion in
2006, with an expected CAGR of around eight per cent over the 2006-2010 period. The market will grow to around US$ 80 billion in 2010. Of this revenue, around 40-50 per cent is attributed to the cost of development, which means that the market for content and related services is estimated at US$ 25-26 billion and forecast to touch
US$ 34 billion by 2010.
A 2007 study by NASSCOM on the Animation and Gaming market has indicated the following:
• The worldwide gaming market stood at US$ 21 billion in 2006 and was expected to grow to US$ 42 billion by 2010 (a CAGR) of 18 per cent over 2006-2010
• The gaming content market (developer’s perspective) touched nearly US$ 7 billion in 2006 and was estimated to cross US$ 13 billion in 2010 (a CAGR of 17 per cent over the 2006-2010 period)
• Within the gaming market, mobile and online gaming were expected to grow the fastest at CAGR of around 30 and 25 per cent respectively
• The US and Europe were the biggest market for outsourcing animation and gaming functions.
• The Indian animation and gaming industry touched US$ 354 million in 2006, a growth of 24 per cent over the previous year
• The sector is expected to touch revenues of US$ 869 million by 2010, at a CAGR of 25 per cent over the 2006-2010 period
• As of now, there are around 300 animation companies in India, employing around 12,000 professionals and 3,000 freelancers
• Despite the existing focus on exports, the animation and gaming companies are now focusing on the high growth domestic market
• The Indian gaming industry touched around US$ 48 million in 2006 and was expected to touch US$ 424 million by 2010. Currently, the mobile and console gaming market account for almost 77 per cent of the total gaming market in India.

The potential: According to the NASSCOM study, despite its ever-growing size, the Indian animation and gaming
industry will account for less than two per cent of the worldwide market in 2010. Clearly, this is just the tip of the ice-berg. The immense untapped opportunity that lies beneath, needs to be addressed by Indian vendors.
The challenge: The NASSCOM study shows that adequate manpower will remain one of the biggest challenges
facing the industry going forward. A significant shortfall is expected in the number of skilled animation and gaming professionals being churned out by the market and the actual industry requirement. The demand-supply gap meanwhile is being spurred by factors such as a lack of creative/gaming and animation culture, lack of awareness
about the employment potential of this industry and the absence of reputed training institutes to help students build necessary skill sets.
The manpower shortage: The animation industry employed around 16,500 professionals in 2006 and the
number is expected to go up to 26,000, at a CAGR of 14-15 per cent. Although the forecast growth is impressive,it falls short of the potential growth that the industry can achieve. The gaming sector too is facing the same issue.
Currently, there are nearly 150 gaming companies, employing around 2,500 people. This number is estimated to rise to 13,000 by 2010 (at a CAGR of over 50 per cent). While industry revenues are expected to grow ten-fold and touch US$ 424 million, it is still lower than the estimated potential of US$ 732 million that the gaming industry can achieve by 2010.
The animation gaming industry has the potential to generate approximately 34,000 jobs by 2010. However, the number of professionals joining this sector will be lower than this figure. This shortfall will be a result of factors such
as lack of proper training institutes, lack of trainers, awareness about the industry, accredited courses.
Furthermore, NASSCOM also expects there to be a gap in the capabilities of students coming out of the country’s training institutes and the needs of the industry. The training institutes themselves are not geared up in terms of infrastructure or faculty to provide high quality learning to students. Some institutes have set up branches across the country, which are not well equipped with global-class infrastructure or capable faculty. Moreover, a number of them are offering short duration programmes – basically three and six month courses – which do not produce high quality students.
The skills required for animation: The animation industry requires professionals who are equipped with both technical and soft skills.
On the technical side, potential career seekers for the animation industry need programming expertise, logical and analytical ability, understanding and application of the sciences such as Physics and Maths. The technical skills enable professionals to understand the logic behind creation of a good animation and facilitate the development of creative content. The analytical ability and application of science facilitates the creation of quality animation from the base structure and drawings.
On the soft skills side, animation professionals need knowledge of art and art application, communication skills,interpersonal skills and story telling. The soft skills help professionals to think creatively and develop animation
keeping in view the target audience and its aesthetics.
The skills required for gaming: The gaming industry needs creative, experienced people, particularly for the
task of concept development. Often, gaming companies hire consultants from abroad and creative directors from advertising/film industry for assistance.
For the pre-production stage, the gaming sector needs lead engineers, artists and animators. Programmers,meanwhile are needed for the production stage, where the skills required depend on the platform in use. The skills needed are essentially the know-how of the tools used for game programming.
The availability of relevant courses: While, there is an overall shortage of good training institutes catering to
the gaming and animation market, the industry has witnessed some changes over the last few years in the area of quality education for this sector. Institutes such as Whistling Woods International Ltd. (Mumbai), in collaboration with the Seneca College (Canada) are offering the latest courses in animation production and development. Yet
another institute is ZICA, which has a student exchange programme with IIT (Kanpur) and enables students to gain experience of new technology and production processes.
Animation and gaming education is also available from certain studios, who have set up their own captive training institutes in order to regularise the supply of talent professionals. Examples of such initiatives are Takshaa Training Institute (set up by Ittina Studios), the Graphiti School of Animation by Graphiti Multimedia, among others.

PS: The above article is copied from the NASSCOM IT industry Communique for the Academia. These are not my words but words of renowned NASSCOM members and a result of their research. My aim in writing this on blog was to let people know about it and for the people who don't believe me as I have been saying this since the past one and a half year. Thats all.

Kanpur, A Driver's Paradise !

Before I joined college once my uncle came to India. I drove him a short distance, I guess a couple of kilometers only and as soon as we reached home he muttered " Kanpur me jo drive karle wo puri duniya me kahi bhi kar sakta hai" (whoever can drive in kanpur can drive anywhere in the world). Then I didn't understand the value of his words primarily because I hadn't driven anywhere else. But ever since I have come from Ghaziabad its been like he was absolutely correct. The traffic here is like ..... need to search the dictionary for some good words.

I don't feel like taking the car anymore. It's like you take the same amount of time to travel as you are travelling in a cycle rickshaw. And on top of it the biggest thing in my mind is that the car doesn't get any new dent, because I always get a scolding from mom that I drive fast, my only saving point is that I have never met with an accident (touch-wood as they say).
Once you get on the road, it seems like there is a race going on between unequal vehicles, a car competing a rickshaw, a cycle competing a car, a truck competing a scooter and don't forget the bikes and the shared tempos, well actually they have no competition at all as they think they are the fastest. Often I hear my father say, " Bike par baith kar to log sochte hain jaise rocke par savaar hain",(people riding a bike think that they are in a rocket). Haha, well actually thats true to the core. That has been the reason that he's never bought me a bike. Though not all drivers are the same but he believes what he sees.

Anyways that's not what I was complaining about. The point is the traffic in this part of the state has gone so awry that now I fear driving hear. As it is my temper is too short and my lack of patience doesn't lemme drive slow.
Well not much to describe about the traffic in this post, will soon be writing a description of my of my pathetic drives around the city...keep looking this place to take a ride around the kanpur city.

The moral of the story, as my Chacha said, " Jo Kanpur me drive kar lega wo duniya me kahi bhi kar lega."

When will we hear the Indian National Anthem

The French grand prix is over. Finn Kimi Raikkonen won it and as the custom goes the Finnish national anthem was played, the winning countries' song being played. I love watching the grand prix and had always dreamt of driving an F1 car, though I can never do it I know. But today I thought why hasn't an Indian won it till date? Narain Karthikeyan being the only one to have ever driven an F1 car, never had a podium finish though.
There are many things which matter and because of which an Indian has never been up there but sooner or later there will be someone who will be standing on the podium and the Indian flag up there. I just hope that if I will have enough money then maybe my kids can fulfill my dream someday.....definite that I will give full support to them.....Haha..just a wild thought. Anyways all the best to the young Indian drivers. We will definitely see the Indian flag up there and the Jana Gana Mana being played.