Last night I faxed quite a few pages from home using my very own "new" Fax machine. It might sound very strange, but yes I did finally aquire this equipment. With scanners, windows fax and first and foremost when using Fax from Work is considered a standard perk worldwide, I doubt now a days anyone would even think to purchase a "stand alone" Fax, but I did.
Couple of weeks back I had to fax few pages urgently to our agent. I told him that I can send him the scanned copy but he was keen on fax only. So at 9 in the night I had to rush to local Fedex Kinko's store. And I could not believe it.....sending 14 pages locally cost me around $20. Exorbitant! Is it because demand is low? I cant justify it ever as local telephone calls are free, so I was paying literally for using their machine. The store manager accepted the fact but also mentioned that now a days hardly any one use this mode of communication. Anyways very next day while browsing thru Fry's I got hold of a brand new Canon Fax (on clearnace ofcourse) and price I paid was exactly $20! I am sure the cartridge itself would cost more than the machine's price. All pricing logic fail here!
Reminds me of 16/17 years back...1992/93. I was eagerly waiting for my appointment letter from HR of C-DoT. On my last visit to NewDelhi, the HR secretary gave me enough clue that my name appears on the list but with nothing else in hand I was desperate to get that appointment letter. And when the promised day passed by with postman giving an apologetic look I decided to call the HR office. Those days the STD charges were at its peak, I think for Raipur-Delhi during office time would cost me 30 or 40 Rs per minute. Me absolutely "bekar" could not think of requesting this amount from home just to check have they sent the apptmt letter or not.
And then came FAX again...Fax to the rescue. The neighborhood STD/PCO/FAX guy asked me why don't I use Fax. Sending a half page would cost only Rs 20, you can put more words than you can speak probably and you have the mental piece of knowing it is already at HR desk! Better than the courier or speed post. Over the next few weeks while entire country was virtually shut down post Babri Masjid and C-DoT HR working at its slowest pace for valid reason...Fax was only method of communication for me.... The same Fax which is now considered extinct.
I feel proud of my new Fax machine and will keep it at my desk for as long as I can.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Summer of 1989.
It was a special summer indeed. Many events...and some of them deep enough to leave a permanent mark in memory with exact location, date and time as it took place. Now as I start writing about that time frame of my life, events after events have just started folding out in front of me waiting to be picked and placed in here as well. Another way to make them timeless I guess. Let me start from the beginning.
This was the summer when I had just finished my second semester of engineering, there was a month long vacation and after that based on results my engineering branch would be decided.
And then came LaluDa..suddenly...one fine morning he was there in his usual attire of tee-shirt , and a big backpack. Lalu Da is my cousin..but ask anyone in our family and they will tell me he is my childhood Guru. The ever smiling one, humorous to the core and a look alike of Kamal Hasan in his early days...who taught me many things even before my friends got that opportunity..he is my one of the most fav cousin. While growing up I am sure all of us have some cousin maybe few years older but who is your idol, a confidante and at the same time a great friend. Lalu da was on a month and half long North-India darshan trip which was "granted" to him from Pishey (his dad) because of his excellent performance on their only sister (Chaiti Di's marriage) couple of months back. His trip included Raipur-Nagpur-Bhopal-Agra-Delhi-Sahibabad-Hardwar and back on the same route. Thanks to our large family tree other than Agra and Hardwar it was also going to serve him the opportunity to meet the elders and other members of our clan!
With me waiting for my results and no classes, Lalu Da requested my parents if I could also join him on this long trip. Lalu da was Baba's favorite too or may be it was that special Mama-Bhanja thing.....and also to make their elder son little more smarter my parents agreed. It would be my first trip without them....and with Lalu da along...I cant describe how excited I was about it.
Baba took out a PTO (basically a concession Train ticket, where one pays only 1/3rd of the fare, a popular incentive from the world's largest employer) for me and I got a new pair of jeans (my first) and then I started my roller coaster ride of "Firsts" of many things one after another in my life!
The first one in Nagpur would be, thanks to another great cousins Montu Da and Papa da, my first 750ml of Kingfisher in a dimly light bar. Suddenly I had turned a fully grown adult I would think. Lots of wandering and roaming in and around nice places of Nagpur in Papa Da's luna. My first devouring of an English Novel, Mario Puzo's Godfather and getting addicted to that since then. Unfortunately it would be followed by Harold Robins, Irving Wallace, James Hadley, Ian Fleming and likes....before I would turn into some serious reading which one can mention proudly!
On the way from Nagpur to Bhopal..me and lalu da passing some special comments in bangla about our co-passenger thinking we are too smart....and then while she was getting down telling us to enjoy our trip and vacation...in pure and chaste bangla. That was a close shave.
Realizing in Agra that we are running short of Money and cutting short the stay and moving to Delhi few days before scheduled. Having a wonderful time at Delhi and Hardwar...and then
I came to know about a new term in my life "Preponement". Till then I used to know Postpone but never realized there can be a word like Prepone. And years later I would realize that it was OK for me to not know about it :-) "Preponement"
It happened so that because of our budgetary reasons we decided to return back to Raipur one week before scheduled. So I along with Laluda went to that famous New Delhi Reservation Center and canceled my PTO and tried to book my ticket one week before. And then came the biggest shock of the whole trip when resv. clerk said you cant cancel and reuse PTO for a new booking. You have to do a new full price reservation now. You should have PREPONED your reservation and that would have cost no money! I had no idea where the extra money would come from...and believe me just as if by God's blessing another miracle happened. Luci Di (another great sis) met us on the same day in Delhi (she was on a training there) and it was her sheer generosity she helped me out in that troubled time without me even asking her...and this all happened without anyone knowing...and without any embarrassment.
On the way back it was no less fun with stopovers at Bhopal and Nagpur. Finally on the rainy afternoon of 5th August we arrived at Raipur..exactly before one week. No cell-phone then so baba-maa had no idea and we surprised all by turning in one week ahead. Finally the trip would end in most saddest manner possible that I still remember the day....5th August of 1989.
In the evening that same day while having tea and sharing our trip stories, two policemen came inquiring our address. Baba talked with them, they came to inform about a road accident and the driver had our address in his pocket. I can never forget that moment and even right now I am getting the shivers. They didn't tell us who it is and what happened but just asked Baba to accompany them to the police station. Within hours we came to know it was Gautam Da who met a fatal accident that same rainy afternoon on his way to office..... As I was waiting with others in the morgue on that night I think all the excitement of the Summer of 89 just vanished in a second, and thinking about how crude the life can be. After exactly twenty years I am thinking of that excited summer once again and that terrible night and Gautam Da's bearded and smiling face.
This was the summer when I had just finished my second semester of engineering, there was a month long vacation and after that based on results my engineering branch would be decided.
And then came LaluDa..suddenly...one fine morning he was there in his usual attire of tee-shirt , and a big backpack. Lalu Da is my cousin..but ask anyone in our family and they will tell me he is my childhood Guru. The ever smiling one, humorous to the core and a look alike of Kamal Hasan in his early days...who taught me many things even before my friends got that opportunity..he is my one of the most fav cousin. While growing up I am sure all of us have some cousin maybe few years older but who is your idol, a confidante and at the same time a great friend. Lalu da was on a month and half long North-India darshan trip which was "granted" to him from Pishey (his dad) because of his excellent performance on their only sister (Chaiti Di's marriage) couple of months back. His trip included Raipur-Nagpur-Bhopal-Agra-Delhi-Sahibabad-Hardwar and back on the same route. Thanks to our large family tree other than Agra and Hardwar it was also going to serve him the opportunity to meet the elders and other members of our clan!
With me waiting for my results and no classes, Lalu Da requested my parents if I could also join him on this long trip. Lalu da was Baba's favorite too or may be it was that special Mama-Bhanja thing.....and also to make their elder son little more smarter my parents agreed. It would be my first trip without them....and with Lalu da along...I cant describe how excited I was about it.
Baba took out a PTO (basically a concession Train ticket, where one pays only 1/3rd of the fare, a popular incentive from the world's largest employer) for me and I got a new pair of jeans (my first) and then I started my roller coaster ride of "Firsts" of many things one after another in my life!
The first one in Nagpur would be, thanks to another great cousins Montu Da and Papa da, my first 750ml of Kingfisher in a dimly light bar. Suddenly I had turned a fully grown adult I would think. Lots of wandering and roaming in and around nice places of Nagpur in Papa Da's luna. My first devouring of an English Novel, Mario Puzo's Godfather and getting addicted to that since then. Unfortunately it would be followed by Harold Robins, Irving Wallace, James Hadley, Ian Fleming and likes....before I would turn into some serious reading which one can mention proudly!
On the way from Nagpur to Bhopal..me and lalu da passing some special comments in bangla about our co-passenger thinking we are too smart....and then while she was getting down telling us to enjoy our trip and vacation...in pure and chaste bangla. That was a close shave.
Realizing in Agra that we are running short of Money and cutting short the stay and moving to Delhi few days before scheduled. Having a wonderful time at Delhi and Hardwar...and then
I came to know about a new term in my life "Preponement". Till then I used to know Postpone but never realized there can be a word like Prepone. And years later I would realize that it was OK for me to not know about it :-) "Preponement"
It happened so that because of our budgetary reasons we decided to return back to Raipur one week before scheduled. So I along with Laluda went to that famous New Delhi Reservation Center and canceled my PTO and tried to book my ticket one week before. And then came the biggest shock of the whole trip when resv. clerk said you cant cancel and reuse PTO for a new booking. You have to do a new full price reservation now. You should have PREPONED your reservation and that would have cost no money! I had no idea where the extra money would come from...and believe me just as if by God's blessing another miracle happened. Luci Di (another great sis) met us on the same day in Delhi (she was on a training there) and it was her sheer generosity she helped me out in that troubled time without me even asking her...and this all happened without anyone knowing...and without any embarrassment.
On the way back it was no less fun with stopovers at Bhopal and Nagpur. Finally on the rainy afternoon of 5th August we arrived at Raipur..exactly before one week. No cell-phone then so baba-maa had no idea and we surprised all by turning in one week ahead. Finally the trip would end in most saddest manner possible that I still remember the day....5th August of 1989.
In the evening that same day while having tea and sharing our trip stories, two policemen came inquiring our address. Baba talked with them, they came to inform about a road accident and the driver had our address in his pocket. I can never forget that moment and even right now I am getting the shivers. They didn't tell us who it is and what happened but just asked Baba to accompany them to the police station. Within hours we came to know it was Gautam Da who met a fatal accident that same rainy afternoon on his way to office..... As I was waiting with others in the morgue on that night I think all the excitement of the Summer of 89 just vanished in a second, and thinking about how crude the life can be. After exactly twenty years I am thinking of that excited summer once again and that terrible night and Gautam Da's bearded and smiling face.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Good Luck Mr Gorsky :-)
Today while marking down the 40th anniv. of the moon landing experience, there is still a big buzz (google's search number 3 related to moon landing) whether that whole thing was staged or not. Unbelievable. No matter what..I guess this thing will go and on.
But what amazes me is the few accessories of this still ongoing debate...which though not as preposterous as the original one, but are certainly of great amusing nature....I guess the conspiracy theorists need some backup to keep the ball rolling....and yes..successful they are.
Neil Armstrong’s first sentence on the moon: “Good Luck Mr Gorsky” and not the "small step, giant step one..."
Neil Armstrong hearing the Azaan on Moon and then later converting to Islam. Wao!
--
PS: pic courtesy, bing. It was shocking to see that Google's home page forgot to ack the event till noon....bing certainly scored a good point today!
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