Precious Moments

Now this is about those times
When we used to dance and rhyme
In a boisterous night with a glass of wine
On getting jobs with all friends of mine.

This is about those days
When we used to find ways
To bunk class and play
And be happy and gay.

This is about those years
When we had nothing to fear
But to bring more money near
In the game of 'jua' with all my dear.

Now when I think alot,
Many memories come and stop
But one thing is for sure,
Those best days were at F-Top

Humne To Socha Tha

Yaadon ki galiyon se guzar kar tum gaye kahaan
Humne to socha tha ki banayenge sapno ka aashiyaan

Kwaabho ke rang badal kar tum gaye kahaan
Humne to socha tha ki khilaayenge satrangi gulasitaan

Mohabbat ke baadal barsa kar tum gaye kahaan
Humne to socha tha ki bhigoyenge saara jahaan

Tere Liye

Zindagi mein jo tum aaye ho,
Laga aise ki fiza mein bahaar ho,
Ab neend aur chain kahaan,
Kwabhoh mein bhi jo tum chaaye ho

Chehre par yeh jo muskaan hain,
Jaise baagh mein khila ghulaab hain,
Bhini-bhini si teri khusboo,
Bas jo gayee ab har meri saas mein.

Ankhon mein jo yeh hain khumaar chaaya,
Jaise ki jaam se nashaa hain aaya
Dekho zaraa meri taraf,
Meri ankhon mein tera hi saaya.

Soothing Amalgmation

When the expectations are less and you get more than that, you feel ecstatic. The same kind of feeling I had after I came out the theatre which was screening Veer Zaara. Though, it didn't give me the feeling of full satisfaction, yet I was happy of the feeling that the movie resonated. If there is Yash Chopra, can Switzerland be far behind? So, some of the pictursque landscapes were shot in the Heaven on Earth (after Kashmir). The movie started with a dialogue naration by the director of movie Yash Chopra. But it would have been better if Big B had narrated instead of him, I feel. Anyway, the movie continued. As the lead hero, SRK, with amazing charisma, is portrayed as the rescue officer in the IAF. The performances of all the actors was great. SRK, Preity and Rani were amazing in the roles. But the surprise of the movie was AB, Hema Malini and Manoj Bajpai. AB, as usual, was terrific in the short role he did. He's truly a legend. Hema Malini was simply gorgeous, as ever, and Manoj Bajpai did some fine display of character he played, with some good dialogues. One thing that is unique about the movie is that the music director is legendry Late Madan Mohan. When I first listened to the music, it was like awesome but a bit oldy types. But after seeing the movie, the songs are like my favorites, esp. the sad songs, which has great support from the lyrics by none other than Javed Akhtar. Infact, one of the strong reasons of my liking for this movie is the music. Not to forget about the melody queen, Lata, apart from other singers. In short, a must see movie.

Black

I was peeping outside from the glass window in my office. It was dark. Dark and black as it could be. At a distant place, I could see a shimmering light which also faded in few seconds. Again it was black. I started from my office. The street light was off. It looked like a complete shady place. The roads wore a murky look except for one man I could see in black coat and trouser at a distance. I was walking casually, like I always do. Suddenly then, a black cat just passed by me, brushing with black shoes. And then she, though for a moment, turned her face showing her gliteering eyes and giving a shrewd smile. I was aghast by the looks she donned. I started moving faster. The man who was at a distance, was now more clearly visible in his attire. He had black coat with black trousers and shoes with a black cap and goggles with a little smile making visible his white teeths. His goggles gave me an impression that he's blind. But he started walking towards me, without any stick or any help. He was no more smiling now and it looked that he's gonna catch me. Before I could think anything else, a black Lincoln car stopped just besides me. I didn't know what to do. That guy was approching near me, every second he was 2 steps closer to me. My brain stopped working, my senses went for the toss and my strength became zilch. And then that guy got into the car and went and I just galloped to my home.

I'm Trying

Everyday I seriously think,
Why the idea of a beautiful poetry doesn't wink,
May be, I'm not that kind,
Nevertheless I'm trying, don't mind.

Every hour I brood,
Why I'm not the smartest dude,
May be, I'm left behind,
Nevertheless I'm trying, don't mind.

Every minute I cerebrate,
Why I'm not an intellect,
May be, the ideas don't get bind,
Nevertheless I'm trying, don't mind.

Every second I ponder,
Why I'm away from doing a wonder,
May be, still I need more to find,
Nevertheless I'm trying, don't mind.

Humming Bird

Thoda sa collar ko upar chadha kar,
Cigarrette ke dhuye ka challa ban kar..

I was humming this song while walking towards the subway station from the office. It was late night, infact midnight, when I got out from the office. There were clouds enshrouding the skyscrappers, street lights making the place glittering with the reflections in the slippery street. Just as I was walking down, there was huge crowd screaming. I thought may be my watch stopped and its very early in the morning. On reaching near, I realized there was some shooting going on and for that few Hollywood stars had come there. Some said Tom Cruise and some something else. I also joined with them waiting for the star to give a peepy look and so that we all can scream. But the chilly air and the resonance caused by the empty stomach made me to walk towards the house. So I started humming again..

Thoda sa jacket ko upar chadha kar,
Thandak ke dhuye ka challa ban kar..

UCS2 vs UTF-8

Now what you infer when I say UCS2. This may mean: You see an Ass too!! This was like a breeze of thought which blew over my mind when I first heard that. Then for few days or weeks or months or years I didn't care about it. "Who cares!" type attitude. But today, I just have to go deeper to understand what it actually means.

I (also) work for supporting local language requirements to my application, which is called Internationalisation in Java. Now, how the Java can understand if I'm writing in English or French or for that matter some characters in East Asia like those of Chinese, Thai languages where each representation of what is called glyph needs more bytes to represent themselves. So, UCS2 comes to our rescue and helps us out.

UCS2 represents each charcter in 2 bytes. Each character is written in number representaion having 2 bytes. But this may be problem when you want to transfer the characters in a file like an xml message where the characters has to be in ASCII. This where UTF-8 format plays the hero.

Its the representation of characters in which it can be written in a file and sent across a protocol. But then this means the suppressing the information when the conversion happens from 2 octet to 1 octet (8 bit). So, there comes the role of Encoding (an easy place to see the encoding is the browser). This encoding helps to set the proper information like fonts, thier size etc to display the characters properly.

By the way, you may ask what the hell UTF-8 and UCS2 stands for? So here you go:

UTF-8 : Unicode Transformation Format-8

UCS2: Universal Character Set - 2

The Difference?

November 2. Its the day of US elections. Its nothing great except for that I'm witnessing the democracy process in one of the greatest nation in terms of economy and development. Being from a developing country whose Independence is still a small child as compared to the history of US, I was expecting their process of election to be very unbiased and modern. But to my dissapointment, I think, the election process here is not as good as its there in my land. There are some differences, though subtle, are very profound.

Firstly, the elections, here, is a State subject matter not a Central subject. That means, a state is responsible from the organization to the time of result of elections. This obviously gives an edge to the ruling party or, what is called, to the incumbent.

Secondly, there is no central body for keeping an eye to the election process. Like the one we have the Election Commission. Well, this may be because, its the losely coupled states here which has its own set of rules and processes.

Thirdly, it has been ages since US got its independence and this is the one of the countries in the world which boasts of its blooming economy and still they lack Electronic Voting machines at many polling booths and rely on old age ballot papers.

Lastly, but not the least, the most absurd thing I noticed is that the counting of the votes started in the East coast whereas the people were casting the votes on the West Side. Ideally, the counting of votes must start after the poll has been closed at all the places.

I think, my country is great, when you think, that it has implemented Electronic Voting machines within 50 yrs of independence; we have Election Commissiion to look that the elections passes peacefully and unbiased. Yes, we have to be more mature in polling the votes, in chosing the candidates not merely on the basis of caste, language but also on the accomplishments and the personality of the person.