I love recitals. I love to know people by their words. I enjoy each and every word used by a poet in a poem or couplet. I try to dig deep into the mood or situation for which he may have chosen that word. Why not use another word in place? Has the poet done justice by using that word?

My love for recitals is not just confined to poems, but any form of creative writing. Recital is also an art and when done in the way it should be, would sound like music. Poetry which is easy to understand without the use of heavy words is mostly appreciated. Most of us regard Poets as a “Devdas” kind of a person. But remember, a Poet is not a mad-man scribbling anything. Its a perfect combination of words for the illiterates like us to understand and who do not know or care about poetry.

What makes me write this weblog is an incident over which me and my sister laughed tremendously a few days ago. It happened that I sent her an audio clip of a recital called ‘Mushaira’ of a famous Urdu poet. She started laughing immediately making fun of each and every couplet; I didn’t mind. I let her enjoy. After all, the reason I sent her the audio clip was for her to enjoy. Although the reason may be different.

Nevertheless, My journey with poetry started from the school days. We had poems in every class. Be it in English or regional language. Some poets/Writers who have inspired me back then were Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Vivian Derozio, Ghalib are some to be named. I enjoyed every moment of my childhood reciting poetry and speeches in front of the mirror, making expressions to myself, and clapping to myself. This is a gift I cherish till date. Many of the recitals I remember it till date. And I will not be modest to say that I have become an avid speaker now.

Words are really important in a person’s life and his/her upbringing. I am proud to belong to family of two cultures of my mom and dad. My Father and Mother are from same state of Gujarat but their hometowns are in opposite directions. Mixing up both has given me enormous number of daily proverbs, similes, and synonyms in their own literature. I always tried to translate them. Even my grandmother has played an important role. I still remember a proverb which my grandmother told me. She said “Measure your words and then speak”. When I was young, I made a funny comment. “Should I bring weighing machine”. She knew that I would one day understand its true meaning. Many other proverbs that still go behind my mind, and another such is “Go and earn and you’ll know how many 20′s make a hundred”. I used to immediately answer “5 20′s would make a hundred”. What a carefree was I ?!

Over the years, I myself have matured due to this. But this is dying. Today’s youth is more about social networking. Poetry for them is only to be shared over text messages. The literature behind the poetry or creative writing is lost. Who encourages his/her son to become a Poet except a Poet these days? Most students take up literature because they are poor in Math. The graduates in Literature usually become journalists or become literary quacks writing poor quality books.

Nonetheless, I encourage everyone to read poetry in any form. Poetry doesn’t only express the literature of the language but also the poet’s mind and mood.

Most of the time in my childhood, we had exams during Ramadan or just after it. It was an advantage for waking up early to study. Ramadan for me in my childhood was to wake up early before sunrise, eat as much as I could, drink tea to kill the sleep and study for 1-2 hours and then doze off again until time for school. At school, during tiffin break, I would see other kids eating or buying food. I would abstain myself and half of the day was spent thinking about the Iftaari which would be prepared at home. I would come home at 2PM and count for the hours left to break the fast and EAT! I would watch television for an hour and take a short afternoon nap and wake up at 4 to realize 2 more hours are left. But I would be excited to meet friends for evening prayers. I would make faces at mom for packing less amount of Iftaari as I was a real hogger (I am now too). Many a times I would fill up the tiffin box myself without her consent.

During Ramadan, we make small groups and perform evening prayers together in a small community hall. My clothes would be spotless white. Always trying to keep the praying mattress extremely clean and tidy without any spots. I wouldn’t even want someone to place a foot on it so as to get a small imprint of his foot on the perfectly ironed white praying mattress. The only black spot would be the slippers. We were told to wear old slippers or the cheapest slippers because it would be easily misplaced in the prayer hall. I would reach the earliest to get the best place under the fan and reserve places for my friends. Sometimes they would be early and reserve place for me. We would pray together and share Ifaari together and then have dinner together. Before Dinner was served, we would play small games or hand tricks amongst ourselves. Childhood games like “See see, I can do this, can you do that” or a pretty famous game called “Dal Gosh Singa Bulbul”. A game played with fingers and counting them. Something like Rock-Paper-Scissors. Only that the loser would be hand slapped (Slap on the hand, not cheek!) by all others. Post dinner was a time to gossip and take a walk. Numerous days I have played video games like Mario and Contra at the parlor nearby (1Re for 7 minutes) after dinner.

So, this is how I spent my childhood during Ramadan. Mostly carefree, Doing things at free will and mandatory things – only what was told or expected out of me or rather say “going with the flow”. Things are different when you’re all grown up.

Importance of Ramadan.
======================

Ramadan, the month which every believer bows down willingly without any pressure or fear but sheer due to the love towards the almighty.
Its this love which brings every believer to his knees thanking and asking for for more chances to thank. Yet many of us fail to realize its importance. Many Ramadans just pass by until one realizes and understands the true reasons behind it. Many of my own Ramadans have passed away carelessly.

Fasting
=======
Many people fail to understand the importance of fasting. The fasting during Ramadan is to kill the worldly desires. Yet many people fast only to have wonderful and lavish Iftaar parties everyday. Many people I know put on extra weight due to this. Some people have Sehari like a king. Dear people, kindly restrain to such activities; The fasting has a cause. Allow your stomach to feel the crunch. Only when your stomach crunches you will truly understand the importance of food. When you break the fast and drink the first sip of Sherbet, it should remind you to thank the Almighty for the sweetness he has provided. Remember, not everyone is lucky as you to take that sip of sherbet; Many do not even get clean water to break their fast. When you quench your thirst, your glands are moist and the reward is confirmed.

Charity
=======
Ramadan’s second name is the month of Charity. Most of us are generous on Fridays; Everyday is a Friday in the month of Ramadan. Do your best. Do not hesitate in Charity as Allah has given you more than what you need. Be thankful and help the ones who cannot afford. There are many people who cannot afford the extra expense of Ifaaris during Ramadan; Give them food grains, pulses if you do not trust them with money. Give the needy what they need rather than giving simply money. Giving money is good, but giving exactly what they need solves the purpose.

Prayers
=======
I once read a blog of a person who was a nurse in Saudi Arabia, She wrote her experience that the patients in the hospitals who are sick and are exempted from prayers also do not want to miss prayers. It becomes a serious case sometimes in their treatment but still they do not want to miss their prayers. So why many FIT and FAT people like us simply ignore prayers? If you ignore prayers, on the day of judgement, the prayers will ignore you. What will you answer to “Why didn’t you pray?” . Answers like “I was stuck in some work” or “I was held up in a meeting” or “I had a headache” are simply to give yourself a self explanation and satisfaction, these self made answers will be ridiculed. If you are delayed and genuinely stuck try to amend for it later but never miss it purposely. A late prayer with genuine reason is far better than just skipping it. Many people simply make a lame excuse saying “Oh, its already late for the prayers, so sorry I missed it”. They feel no more than 30 seconds of guilt and they are back to their normal worldly pleasures. I ask those, How can you get a sound sleep at night without the satisfaction of prayers?

Abstention from Music and Entertainment
========================================
Many people believe that they should not watch TV or movies during Ramadan. Watching TV is not illegal. But it depends on what Niyat(intention) are you watching the TV. Many people simply turn off TV, do not visit movie halls; But keep sharing SMS jokes. Do you think with only outside show off, the Almighty is not watching your deeds? NOooo, for He knows what your reveal and what you conceal (Zahir and Batin). Remember the Angels are always watching you from behind and any activity you do is noted down. Most of us do not realize this at all or are too ignorant and simple feel no one is looking at them. Others will just feel 30 seconds of guilt. Keep a clean mind and clean Niyat and Allah will take care of the rest.

Fighting with the Satan
=======================
Its true that bad thoughts keep coming as the Satan keeps whispering in your sub conscience. But while one is fasting, It is a TEST on how you fight with your own bad thoughts. What is Satan for you? Its not a physical thing which you could see, but its his whispering voice and thoughts which tries to corrupt every human being. Being positive and asking for God’s forgiveness is the best way to frustrate the Satan.

Let us all try to clean our souls, clean our hearts in this month, for this month comes just once a year.

1. It works only on Windows. I gave up windows due to virus & security reasons. I am now on Macintosh. I can’t use any of Bank Of India’s online services. So its a waste for me. There are 20% people like me who are using non-windows operating system.

2. There is not much information about the digital security. The first time I use star token it asks for a PIN. How can I confirm that the information is going out securely from my system? It is not mentioned anywhere on the website.

When we install it says Publisher is Uniken Systems Pvt. Ltd. : Who is this Uniken Systems? How many of you know these guys? How does a lay man know about it? Should Bank of India website give some instructions for this?

Its ok to have a vendor do certification for you. But where is the information passed to the users ?

3. The first time Bank of India has mailed a secret PIN number to all their customers.(note the huge postal cost). What If I format my windows? I have to re-install the Star Token which will demand an authentication PIN which is mailed to me via post. It appears that this pin is usable only once! I am stuck! Help me!

4. Not sure if Bank of India thinks long term or not. According to a news, Microsoft windows will be shipped with an option of NOT having Internet Explorer. How will you guys deal with this? The software is heavily dependent on embedded Internet explorer control(Not just heavily, but rather say fully dependent!) which internally connects to BOI website! I am sure the software was heavily invested product. An unplanned investment. Any Answers BOI?

5. The software’s usability is very annoying. It blocks the entire screen. This means I can use only and only one program at a time. I am not sure if it has been tested with other intrusion detection / anti virus programs. Technically speaking, when the program requests for a full screen hook blocking other program, its a virus like activity for many anti-virus programs unless you add a exception to it.  Have you tested it BOI?

6. The whole idea of Internet Banking is ruined. This particular software restricts me to use the services from ONLY and ONLY 1) Windows AND 2) Internet Explorer AND 3) Only single Application at a time as it disallows me to use any other program at other time. I am not sure how this will work with ONLINE payment gateways!

7. According to a news report, French and German government has officially asked everyone *NOT* to use Internet explorer. Indian govt systems were compromised due to usage of Internet Explorer. Time and again it has been proved that Internet Explorer has been more vulnerable towards attack than any other browser/system. Why so much dependency on a single browser and racism towards other browsers? Isn’t Bank of India technically capable of providing services to another operating system?

8. Most of the Internet explorers in *India* are A) IE 6.0 and IE 7.0. Out of them 90% are default with their operating system which are *NEVER* patched to the current security level which Microsoft has to offer. There is always a threat of hackers using existing loopholes in the system.

With this step Bank Of India may publicize that it has added an extra level of security with all these hassles and restrictions, I rather use my old banking way of depositing a cheque/ draft than using such system. Or may be just close an account with them. They don’t care a damn for a single person! Do you BOI?

Security doesn’t mean you will narrow down options for users. It rather means you have to narrow down Hacker’s options and attempts to break into the system.

And yes, its not the end of the world. There are other banks which provide higher and secured system without A) annoying the user or B) Restricting the user for a particular operating system which has time and again proved to be more vulnerable than other operating systems. Any comments on this one, BOI?

Why does Bank of India invest in padding up existing technology and not open to newer options and not giving a though that ultimately the service is going to be used by end users! If you be evil to the the end users and they aren’t happy, it will be inevitable that sooner or later they will close an account with you.. !

Bank of India, I am not going to close the account with you immediately(But with such ‘funny’ services, I will soon). But yes, Its my humble appeal, Please employ better brains to put up a better security system which is easy and user friendly.

I plan to get the following things done in 2010.
Travel – Plan to travel on a pilgrim to places around Iraq, especially Karbala. Hopefully take my grandmother along.
Social - Be more Social. I will try
Donate - 10% of all profits and income shall be donated in Charity.
Renounce - I plan to renounce all income which involves interest on money or bonds. Banks are unavoidable, Plan to distribute interest earned in Charity.
Reduce - Shell of some extra pounds. This is my resolution every year!
Re-gain - Try to regain old friendship with lost friends.
Expand - Expand like always
Spend - I plan to spend and invest like before.
Marriage – Yes, Lets keep our fingers crossed!

Besides I have a big wish-list like always!

So wish you all a very pleasant 2010 with lots of prosperity and solace! Shalom!

Some years ago I got a laptop from HP. The irony is that my laptop was used by HP service center more than me!

The following email screens will explain what kind of Customer Help is provided by the so called MNC Hewlett-Packard!

So I didn’t receive any reply, No calls! After 8 days, I wrote another email to them!

As soon as I sent this email, I got a call from the service center!

And so I went the to the service center and collected my laptop. But I made sure if the Director Mr. Chintamani Lele knew this. So I wrote this email to him

Immediately Mr. Chintamani Lele from Vintech replied !!

And so the HP guys take it from here and NO one replied for 13 days! Which made me send them another email as below:

After 4 days from the email above, I got a reply from Sanjay Kumar, HP India Sales saying the below:

Immediately I asked him and ETA to which he replied Next Monday!

But its already passed Monday! And no reply yet. So I shoot out another email!

And on 23rd Sept, I get this in reply! Should I laugh or cry?! The guy was on leave until 21st and still on leave on 23rd! Wow HP!

Kolkata, my hometown has been a home for the Chinese since long ago. Its the only city in India to have a Chinatown and I have good Chinese friends too! Even my sister has a best friend who is Chinese! I just love Chinese food so much!

My dad deals with China day-in day-out with his import/export business. Moreover I went ahead and did a Chinese crash course! I even visited China in April 2009!

Chinese people are very fragile and delicate in looks but too strong mentally. They are workaholic(most of them) and hardworking. May be this is the reason why China is the GOD of manufacturing. While I was in China , I found products which were so cheap no Indian company could afford to make. The high availability of manpower and poverty has made China a hub of manufacturing!

I was once in an Autobus in Kolkata where I came across a chinese girl who worked at a call center. She was highly sophisticated and resembled the actual people in China. Too fashionable! From head to feet. Colored hair, imitation jewelery, state of the art footwear and what not!! Chinese people love fashion, they get bored with old ones too quickly and want new things coming up as soon as they can! When you go and buy a chinese product, the quality will be too low but it will be a unique and stylish one. Take for example Chinese mini f ans or Chinese watches or mobile phone or rather many plastic products from China. They are quite fashionable but fragile.

Not to forget I got myself an IPHONE Clone phone. It looks exactly same! I got it for US$80 only. Its a usable phone with 2 batteries, charger, earphones and iphone(designed in california) box! It was just so tempting I took it!

In India, Chinese community is treated very separately. A friend of mine was not allowed to even attend Indian IDOL audition as he was Chinese. No reasons specified! They mostly adopt Christianity but rarely go to Church(correct me if I’m wrong!) , they visit Chinese & Buddhist temples and celebrate Chinese new year as their main festival. The elder generation Chinese in India have shops of Shoes Manufacturing , Restaurants and Beauty parlors.  One of my very good friend’s family is associated with all three. But the younger generation is job oriented. They prefer instantly high paying jobs than good old business.  Some move out of India to Taiwan , Canada and Australia but not to Mainland China.

They have very well accepted Indian culture. Indian communities have a mix bag of relations. Some accept them, some treat them as aliens. But one must remember, even though they look different, I know they are all Indians by heart..

Most people don’t join a start up because of a very basic reason. The risk factor.

In the beginning its all very exciting and fascinating to call yourself a CEO or Management level post. Not necessary that you’re qualified for that!

But joining a start up isn’t something alien. The following are some points which I will share out of my experiences.

The Fear Factor: Have a mentality to convince dependents. Most Indian middle class families are job oriented. Parents prefer their children to secure a good if not high paying job and a good life than themselves. Government job in India is most secure and most boring. So where’s the challenge and excitement? NONE!

The Indian society is divided into two main sections. Families and social network which has very high regard towards a job. In most bengali families if a groom is a businessman they will think twice or even thrice before giving their daughter for marriage. They will invest money in education so that he can secure a good job. But a job after all. On the contrary, the Gujarati or Marwari family will always try to settle their son with some business by giving them some initial capital. Some families strongly believe that education up to high school is enough for the child to join his father’s business!

When joining a start up one should be ready to convince the social network around that “Hey I’m doing a start up, the boat is gonna be rocking but I’m up for it…”

And once you say you up for it, be ready to pickup any job that comes to you. It can be just anything! From serving tea to cleaning desks. If you’re not comfortable in that you shouldn’t even be reading this blog!

Treat your start up like a child. Feel motherly pride in doing anything for it.

Failure: Some people fail. Don’t give up. Understand that its a business after all. There will be times when you’re amazingly happy about winning a project or cracking a deal and other times when you’re almost down and nothing works your way! Be ready to face it. Be ready to accept it. Consider the two ends of a pendulum and imagine that on one side there is joy, happiness and on the other side there is disappointment, sadness. Your journey in life is like a pendulum. It never stays happy forever and never stays disappointing always!

Financial crisis: Most people have family pressures, bank loan, EMI to pay. They will never think of starting a startup. A secure job makes you a man-eating tiger. Once a tiger has tasted the blood of a man, he will never go back to other animals. From one man to other he will prey. Similarly job seekers will seek jobs. From one company to another and another. But one must understand, the person who is putting you on a job is a businessman after all.

Problem with start ups: We all know start ups have low funds, poor infrastructure and blah blah and everything you may have read elsewhere. But a practical lesson comes when your team members have difference in opinion. Who is right and who is wrong? Mis-communication , less communication, self respect , ego all put more oil in the fire. The team breaks. A divorce happens and the child suffers.

Strategy: Have a long lasting strategy but flexible one. A start up should like water. Should take the shape in anything which holds it. If it doesn’t it becomes too rigid and breaks when strong winds blow. A start up is more client oriented. Its really crucial to have a balance in concentrating between what you DO and how you Sell. Teams of B-techs and MBAs do a good start up but you don’t have to be a MBA or a Btech to do a start up!

Be a real tiger, not a man-eater. Feel free to put your points!

I will be conducting an online training for jQuery enthusiasts in association with ITVidya.com More details can be found here: http://twrl.in/nvdm

Learn how to create dynamic, visually-appealing web applications from two experienced JQuery developers in this 8 weeks online training with practical project

If someone is reading this blog and can help me out, I would be most delighted. I need good office to accomodate 10 people for a software house.

It also happened that I attended the Kolkata Tweetup on Sunday. There were 16 people who had come in at Park Street Macdonalds. Wide range of age groups starting from school students to working professionals ( we didn’t have any sr. citizen!). It was fun to meet the mix bag of young and a little oldies like me!

Lot of discussions took place, Overall it was a light evening.

I formally announced the launch of @KolkataTech (http://www.KolkataTech.com) which is inspired by @PuneTech (http://www.PuneTech.com). Its very rare that some IT event or anything related to IT happens in Kolkata. There are many reasons to it. Barcamp took place after all the cities had 4-5 Barcamps already! Some of you would like to read my earlier post about why there wont be a Barcamp in Kolkata  (http://hussulinux.blogspot.com/2008/02/barcamp-kolkata-why-kolkata-still.html)

But the point is that the bongs are catching up and they are doing it good. It just needs some motivation.

I’m planning to have a good social and technical networking in Kolkata once my office is setup. Hoping to have some techie talks session, camps etc to guide out the new generation of kids

Besides just technical things, I am planning to venture out on Finance domain + Stock and Forex markets. Lets hope the Marwadi’s in Kol (who have lotsa black money convert it to white) have their portfolios done by my company!

All this and more coming up from September 2009. Stay tuned..