Remagined Reality

Wild Wild West

2009-05-18T23:39:00.007+05:30

I was once and still am a great wild wild western movies fan. I can still recall back those days when I go to video parlours and hire western video cassettes or would watch them out of our own parlour collection multiple times. I love watching those of Clint Eastwood, Bud Spencer & Terence Hill, John Wayne, Charles Bronson, Robert Redford, just to mention a few.

These days, I don't think they make the wild west movies anymore. Or they still do? Even if they still do, I don't think it would be as good as those made during those golden years. The plot, the drama, the scene, the style, the color, the classiness -- everything would be different now.

I am also a great fan of bittorrent (rapidshare bye bye!). I download high quality DVD ripped movies of this and that from this and that torrent websites regularly. And a week back, I chance upon an old western movie that I had watched during my childhood and teen days. I downloaded it, and realised there may also be quite a number of them in the torrent world to download. I began searching them wild west movies and now I have downloaded and collected around 10 of them. And yeh, more of them are in queue too. Lol. To my surprise, they are of high quality rips. How I love watching them movies. =)

If you are a great fan of the wild wild western movies, look them up at some of the popular torrent websites and search engines such as http://www.piratebay.org, http://www.torrentz.com, http://www.mininova.org, etc. You will find more of them at http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/torrents

Have a great time. ;-) And yeh, thanks to all those who uploaded them.

For those new to bittorent and how download torrent files, here is a simple guide.

1. Download a bittorent client. [http://www.bittorrent.com/btusers/download]
2. Install it in your computer.
3. Go to any of the above mentioned torrent websites. For eg., lets go to http://thepiratebay.org/.
4. Type the movie or song you want to download. For eg. I type "Once upon a time in the west". A list of links will be listed http://thepiratebay.org/search/once%20upon%20a%20time%20in%20the%20west/0/99/0 (Remember not all of them are genuine and also you need to be careful not to download viruses, especially in the case of softwares, etc).
5. Look for the highest Seeds/Seeders. In piratebay.org, the Seeds/Seeders are noted as SE. The more seeders, the faster the download. ;-) Also, when you are going to select which torrent you are planning to download, look for a DVDRipword in the title of the file. Or/And read the comments!
6. I selected and clicked this.
7. Once the page loads up, look for the word - Download this torrent. Click that.
8. Your bittorrent client will ask you for the permission to download the torrent.
9. If you want to, select the Open with bittorent and click Ok. The others are self explanatory. The files/movies will be downloaded in your My Documents > Download directory (you can change this option too by looking up at the preferences.
10. After the download is finished, enjoy your movie!!

CD Copy Protection? Bust It Wide Open!

2009-01-07T13:36:00.003+05:30

A new Music Video CD was recently released and I got myself a copy through friends in New Delhi. I was told that the CD is encrypted and the video inside cannot be viewed and copied into a computer. Now, that doesn't go very fine with me. I don't have a VCD/DVD player. However, I wasn't all that troubled with thoughts such as "Should I buy or not buy the VCD?", "What's the point in buying a new Music Video CD that you cannot watch?" which could have become a factor for majority of others who doesn't have a VCD/DVD player NOT to buy. Informing the volunteered CD Sellers that it can be made to be viewable and copiable, I help them with their CD selling. :-D

I went home. Switched On the computer. Insert the newly bought Music Video CD into the DVD-RW drive, clicked it and tried to watch what's inside. And oops! there is nothing inside!

The Used Space is zer0; Free space is also zer0. Which obviously means and proved that the CD is not empty. And that there are files inside, which obviously points it out again that it is being encrypted and protected from being visible.

Amazing work by those who worked their ass out trying to protect the contents of the CD inside. Well, almost.

On second opinion, their work was a waste of time, resource and money? After all, it doesn't take more than a minute for IsoBuster, which was located at my Files/Software drive/folder, to bust the supposedly encrypted and protected contents wide open to be copiable from a computer to another computer, to pendrives, cds, dvds and other storage media. The encrypters must have used one of those cheapo, simplo and outdated protectors. No offense though. :-D

Look at this. What was invisible before is now very much visible with IsoBuster.

What I do next is right click on the Session 1, and extract the contents (Tracks *) as *.mpg files to a specified folder/drive. And that's it. Mission accomplished. However sorry, I will not be sharing the ripped music videos. Buy it and bust it wide open yourself and save it in your comp for personal viewing only. :-P

[If you want to convert the mpg files to avi, download eRightSoft's SUPER. Its free and a great conversion tool. If you find any difficulty opening or watching a video file, try VLC Media Player. It's also free and a recommended media player.]

Okay, here is an simple advise to our artists, producers and whomsoever concerned. Don't be taken by the "your CD can be protected from being copied to a computer and shared with/to another computer/user" thingies. That's nonsense unless proven otherwise with multiple test-driving with all those decrypters, busters and rippers available in the open internet. If you were charged for this "cd copy protection" service, you are really fckd up. Moreover, many of us now use a computer to watch movies and other videos rather than with a TV and VCD/DVD. What if, they can't watch your CD/DVD in their more favorable box? What happens when words (they spreads like spitfire, believe me!) gets out that it is that so. That can have affects (though not serious) on your popularity and also most importantly, on the business.

If I am not mistaken, one of a leading Mizoram-based artist Mimi Renthlei's first (?) Music Video/Audio (?) Album CD was also supposedly copy-protected too. And there was quite a number of criticisms on the topic of piracy and the buyers' legal rights to copy it into their system without the intention to be shared with others. How much I wanted to deprove the "cannot be copied" theory during those times. But I didn't have access to her CD physically; otherwise I could have done it. I am weird. I am curious. I am still a kid, I think. But I am a fair kiddie. If there was anybody who ripped it and shared it with others, it’s not me. :-D

If you really want to protect your music audio/video CD, you got to get in touch with an expert like me, ha ha, just kidding. I am not into this kind of business. I am yet to learn the technique of protecting a VCD CD from being able to be copied (but visible and playable directly through a CD/DVD drive) to a storage connected to a computer. What I succeeded so far is that, I am able to create a CD playable with VCD/DVD player but invisible and unrippable/unextracable to a computer. The good thing as of now is that the project CD is not bustable with IsoBuster. I haven't tried it out with other related softwares such as Alcohol 120%, Clone CD, Nero, Cdrwin, MagicISO, etc.

I hope the knowledge for the next step is not too difficult to be accomplished.

New Interface for Wordpress

2008-12-13T14:16:00.003+05:30

I am huge fan of Wordpress. I find it not only useful for blogging. I also find it to be a great CMS. And with the release of 2.7, the Wordpress team has introduced a rather impressive new interface. I love the new dashboard layout, plus the colors. It makes working with it more easier and convenient than ever before. But yeh, like all things new, you may need to get used to the new interface to appreciate it, but I know you will enjoy doing just that. Hats off to the WP team!

You can read up the New 2.7 Dashboard.

If you use Wordpress as your blogging tool or CMS, and haven't upgraded yet to the latest version, Get it Now! And have fun!

Mizoram needs Daily News website(s)

2008-11-07T15:29:00.003+05:30

In the last few years, with information technology making its way into the life of youth in Mizoram, we see a number of Mizo-based websites being created and launched. Some die young after a year or so, some became stagnant without any updates, and some became popular. But I noticed most of these are excerpt-like, jokes-like, comments-like blogs or websites except for Zawlbuk.net. Also, most of them are Lusei-based (as a language) content with English entries sometimes. Well, that is fine. It’s part of strengthening a language among the generations in one way.
But I do wonder why Mizoram daily newspapers, especially English dailies, haven't make their online presence felt. Zonet.in had recently started its English version of its news broadcasting. Among the regional language daily newspapers in Mizoram, Vanglaini.org seems to be doing fine too.

Just thinking out loud, I am wondering whether the absence of Mizoram newspapers on the Internet may be due to monetary constrain or lack of technical support or due to the ground reality that IT is still at its infant stage in Mizoram and it is yet to make its proper impact?

If we look at Mizoram’s neighbouring States in the Northeast, Mizoram really need to think of something to do about it as development in such area also portrays a State’s development status in some way. In Assam there is The Sentinel and The Assam Tribune which are updated daily, in Manipur - The Sangai Express and Imphal Free Press, in Meghalaya - The Shillong Times, in Nagaland – Morung Express and The Nagaland Post, in Sikkim – The Sikkim Express and Sikkim Reporter, in Tripura – none, in Arunachal Pradesh – The Arunachal Times!

I have this daily addiction - I regularly scan and retrieve news from most of the Northeast States from the above websites or through Newrack. Other than the interests I have, my addiction is also related to the work I do at an NGO where I am currently working. I keep track on issues pertaining to Dams, Development, Trade, Environment, Finance, Oil & Minings, Livelihood, Forests, Policies & Governance, etc in North East India for research materials.

As daily newspapers, magazines and other media are useful resources to keep tracks on such things, it becomes more helpful when the content you retrieve is in English. Also, English-based websites are one useful way of promoting one's rich culture, traditions, events, etc and State to the whole world, it would really help many if someone in Mizoram could take this initiative.

Ubuntu ~ Humanity to Others!

2008-10-31T19:14:00.004+05:30

I recently received a free Ubuntu Desktop Edition CD which I requested through the Get Ubuntu services. :-D

Ubuntu is a community developed, Linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need - a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more.

The installation was a breeze with the Install inside Windows option (I had to first try it out before getting the hang of it and also because I had this huge Office files which I needed to backup first). So, I cleaned up one of the Windows partition, and I let the installation work it out. This Install inside Windows feature has the option to install and uninstall Ubuntu like any other application, and you will be able to boot into either Windows or Ubuntu.The installation did not take that long. (:

When done with the installation, I connected it to our Office's Wireless network connection, configure and connect it to the network printer - trying out whether there is problem connecting to other Windows-based terminals. After a successful tryout, here I am posting a post through it, for it. I am now thinking of migrating all the system terminals in the Office with Ubuntu. ;-o

System Requirements:
Ubuntu is available for PC, 64-Bit PC and Intel based Mac architectures. At least 256 MB of RAM is required to run the alternate install CD (384MB of RAM is required to use the live CD based installer). Install requires at least 4 GB of disk space.

Default installed applications:

Accessories:
Calculator, Character Map, Dictionary, Passwords and Encryption Keys, Terminal, Take Screenshot, Text Editor, etc.

Games:
Aisleriot Solitaire, Blackjack, Chess, Five or More, Four-in-a-Row, Freecell Solitaire, Gnometris, Lagno, Klotski, Majhong, Mines, Nibbles, Robots, Same GNOME, Suduko, Tali, Tetravex.

Graphics:
F-Spot Photo Manager, GIMP Image Editor, OpenOffice.org Drawing, XSane Image Scanner.

Internet:
Ekiga Softphone, Evolution Mail, Firefox Web Browser, Pidgin Instant Messenger, Remote Desktop Viewer, Terminal Server Client, Transmission Bittorent Client.

Office:
OpenOffice.org Presentation, OpenOffice.org Spreadsheet, OpenOffice.org Word Processor.

Sound and Video:
Audio CD Extractor, Brasero Disc Burning, Totem Movie Player, Rhythmbox Music Player, Sound Recorder.

HCFD Logo

2008-10-07T14:03:00.003+05:30

The Hmar Christian Fellowship-Delhi (HCFD) Committee requested me to design a logo for HCFD. Here is the logo (approved after two minor changes) I came out with:

The elements:
Blue-peace; Trinity; Cross; Bible

Interesting Web 2.0 Apps

2008-09-02T13:39:00.004+05:30

List of Web 2.0 apps you might find interesting and useful. Check them out.

http://www.280slides.com/
Create beautiful presentations, access them from anywhere, and share them with the world. With 280 Slides, there's no software to download and nothing to pay for - and when you're done building your presentation you can share it any way you like.

http://www.3d-pack.com/
3d package is a 3d-box graphic generator. 3d package lets you instantly create 3d-box images online, free. Just upload pictures for cover and sides and then get 3d-box in you favorite image format (JPG, GIF, PNG supported). Post them in your blog or anywhere else.

http://www.ajaxlookup.com/
The fastest way to lookup domain whois (supports .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .name, .us, .ca, .uk)

http://www.badged.net/
Badged.net lets you add your favorite social networking badges to your blog or web site. Simply create your badges and put the line of code where you want them to appear.

http://www.businessitonline.com/
Business IT Online offers free online small business software applications (Address book, Invoicing, etc) that take away the need for a costly networked IT solution.

http://www.conduit.com/
Create a community toolbar and syndicate your website directly to the browser.

http://www.effectgenerator.com/
The Effect Generator is whole new way of creating Flash content online for free, within a simple but powerful what-you-see-is-what-you-get drag-and-drop graphical editing environment.

http://www.emurse.com/
Create, share and store your resume online for free.

http://www.favicon.cc/
Favicon lets you create nice icons. Just choose a color, click on the squares and paint your logo. Download when your are finised or publish it to favicon community.

http://www.filestube.com/
A search engine designed to search files in various file sharing and uploading sites.

http://www.fontstruct.fontshop.com/
FontStruct is a free font-building tool which lets you quickly and easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks. Once you're done building, FontStruct generates high-quality TrueType fonts, ready to use in any Mac or Windows application.

http://www.fotoflexer.com/
FotoFlexer is an advanced online digital photo editor.

http://www.formlogix.com/
FormLogix is an online form builder tool for creating web databases and web forms.

http://www.flypaper.com/
Flypaper allows everyday business users to easily create, edit and share Flash-quality, interactive presentations and other rich media content on the Web without requiring any programming skills.

http://www.freshbadge.com/
Whether you're creating a trendy sticker type badge for your blog, your very web 2.0 website, or your scrapbook (both digital scrapbooks and touchable scrapbooks alike) - the creation of badges will surely be a way to freshen-up any page.

http://www.iconlook.com/
Search for icons.

http://www.izzymenu.com/
IzzyMenu is a free application with an impressive Ajax interface which helps you to design quickly professional looking CSS menus for your websites.

http://kuler.adobe.com/
Adobe® kuler is a web-hosted application from Adobe Labs for generating color themes that can inspire any project. Whether you’re creating websites, interior designs, scrapbooks, fabric patterns, graphic identities, or any visual, you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes from the kuler community.

http://www.meez.com/
Meez is a vibrant online social community that combines a virtual world, avatars and games, creating an immersive environment where users can personalize their identity, connect with friends, socialize and share media.

http://www.meglobe.com/
MeGlobe™ was built to diminish language barriers from online communication. Its free web client lets you type in your own language, but sends a translated version, in near real time, specific to the native tongue of whomever you are chatting with.

http://www.odiogo.com/
Turn readers into listeners, and transform your blog into a high quality, ad-supporting broadcast that can vastly expand your audience reach!

https://jabbify.com/
Jabbify allows you to add IM to your website in few seconds. You can keep your visitors coming back by creating a responsive and dynamic site with real time chat.

http://www.photoblog.com/
Create your photoblog.

http://www.picnik.com/
Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames.

http://www.pixton.com/
You can share your ideas and opinions by generate your own comic strip online without having to draw. You can compose your own characters, dialog, scenes, and comics with an easy-to-use editor, as well as rate content and submit comments.

http://www.getsongbeat.com/
Songbeat is a web-based music player for your Desktop. Songbeat allows you to search the web for music files by using an innovative search platform: Just submit the song title or artist, and Songbeat finds the music for you.

http://www.quickthumbnail.com/
The fastest way to resize your pictures and images

http://www.readthewords.com/
ReadTheWords is a free, web based service that assists people with written material. It's done by using TTS technology, or Text To Speech technology. Users can generate a clear sounding audio file from almost any written material. ReadTheWords generate a voice that reads the words requested out loud.

http://www.scribbls.com/
A collaborative drawing community designed to combine drawings into outcomes—no talent required.

http://www.smsgupshup.com/
GupShup is a free group sms service to connect with your friends and follow your passions over SMS. Send messages to a group of friends or share your thoughts with the world, and receive messages from friends or groups that interest you.

http://www.toondoo.com/
ToonDoo is a cool, comic-creating tool from Jambav, a fun site for kids.

http://www.url.ie/
URL.ie, is a free URL truncation service. Generate a short URL for your unsightly long one, and share that URL with others, who get automatically forwarded to your original URL, with no temporary redirect pages / ads / popups / cookies.

http://www.vectormagic.com/
Convert bitmap images to vector images with a few simple clicks.

http://www.vimeo.com/
Use Vimeo to upload and share videos with anyone, watch great videos, meet new people, and explore the amazing world of personal video. Some of its features includes 500MB per week, Download original file, Groups and Channels, HD uploading, Easy embed features, Robust privacy controls, etc.

http://www.web20badges.com/
They are probably one of the most popular trend in Web 2.0 time. They might have various round or square corners and eye-catchy colors. They immediately attract visitor's attention, it's most over-used trendy little design technique in our days. Badges can be used for display a big 'Beta' message on your website or emphasize a price or a promotion. Generate your favorite badge.

http://www.wobzip.org/
WobZIP is a free online tool that allows you to uncompress your files online.

NewsRack - An Excellent News Archiver

2008-08-26T15:58:00.005+05:30

I have been using this fabulous news archiver NewsRack for more than a year now. If you are a Newshound like me, tracking and monitoring topic/issue-based news, you got to tryout this tool even if filtering/defining methods is confusing at first. It would nevertheless makes your news hounding life so much much easier.

NewsRack is a tool/service for classifying, filing, and long-term archiving of news. Users specify filtering rules which are used to select relevant articles from incoming news feeds. The selected articles are then classified into various categories. This process is similar to the process of specifying email filters to pre-sort incoming mail into various folders.

NewsRack was developed by Subramanya Sastry, a Computer Sciences doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

The following are the 'issues' that I created. Other than those created by me, there are many other 'issues' which other users like me had also created. Each of the 'issues' has an RSS feed too which makes life more easy to cope with. ;-)

Assam News
Delimitation
Hmar News
ILP
Manipur News
Meghalaya News
Mizoram News
Nagaland News
PDS
PDS Manipur
Sikkim News
Tripura News

Please note, NewsRack is not without some bugs.

Aizawl village

2008-08-11T18:00:00.007+05:30

I always thought that Aizawl, the state capital of Mizoram (India) with a population of 339,812 is a town, big town or city. I was quite surprised on my last visit to Aizawl in July 2008 when I realised that Aizawl is neither a town, a big town, or a city but a Village! Or I am wrong? My ignorance rules! But well now I know. Its better than not knowing at all forever or being too late in knowing.

Slaughter house for dogs

2008-07-22T14:40:00.010+05:30

You must have heard of the ruckus created over the killing of a dog by one PhD researcher at his hostel room in Jawaharlal Nehru University along with two of his friends and a group of animal rights activists marching inside the JNU campus seeking punishment against the "animal rights abuser".

According to the Indian Express report, the incident occurred around 2 am on the morning of 8 July, 2008 (my birthday!). The report said a complaint was made to the JNU authorities, and the student was fined Rs. 2,000 for torturing and killing the dog and had been expelled from the hostel. I don't think the student was fined because he and his friends tortured and killed the dog. I don't think they tortured the dog either. By most probability he was fined because of the presence of two of his other friends in his hostel room.

According to some JNU students, when the student opened his door after being asked, the dog was lying dead in a pool of blood with its head smashed with iron rods and and its limbs dismembered.

The funny part of the report was that the scholar in his letter of apology to the authorities put forth "self-defense" as the reason as the motive for the killing. Well, that's bullshit, especially for dog-eaters from North East India (not all the people from the Northeast consume dog-meat though. Even many individuals of a supposedly dog-eating communities do not eat it). The bottom-line for the killing was this - they meant to eat the dog! LMAO! I just can't stop laughing at the excuse word used - self-defense. :-D

I am wondering whether they are really professional dog killers. I am not either! I have never killed or try to kill one in my lifetime as yet. But yes, I find dog meat really tasty. Of course there is a certain way of preparing and cooking it. Do you know that Dog Meat is one of the most expensive meat in some part of the Northeast is considered such a delicacy that most preferred it over other meat such as beef, pork, chicken or fish? :-D

I found this email message I received from one Northeast guy in response to the incident at JNU really interesting (no comments though):

I protest the way in which the dog was killed. They should have used a solid iron rod, not a hollow one. Their style of killing was sloppy, the most ethical and efficient method is for one person to grab the muzzle of the dog-this prevents the dog from whining and minimizes the chance of being bitten. Only one swift blow to the head is normally required. Never do this in an inebriated state. Drink the whiskey after the dog is in the pressure cooker.

In an emergency, fill a bucket with water and dunk the head of the dog in the bucket. Hold on tight and beware of flying shit. This emergency method is very messy, i advise drinking the whiskey before the dog is in the pressure cooker.

As for the cooking part, I find the Hmars' traditional method of cooking dog meat the best (though I haven't tasted those prepared by other communities or other countries). The aroma is great, well-cooked and chilly hot. Yummy! Just thinking of it is making my mouth watery!!

Going back to the JNU dog incident, group of animal rights activists (Welfare and Protection of Animals) marched inside the JNU campus on July 16, demanding punishment against the PhD scholar and alleging that he did it for fun. I don't think the killing of the dog was part of any fun at all. As mentioned earlier, the only logical reason for the killing was to consume it.

Stray dogs in the capital city is increasingly turning into a menace for the city. Last year, the Delhi High Court even directed the City Government and civic bodies to take steps to clear parks, roads and streets of them. One Municipal Councilor from New Delhi also proposed before a standing committee to send Delhi's half a million stray dogs to Korea, as they are fond of dog meat.

Why Korea when you can send them to a nearer location, that too inside India itself! Why not select the sterilized and immunized stray dogs from the capital city and export them over to some of the States in the Northeast where they considered it a delicacy and where there is already a shortage of it due to which the price has also risen? Saying that, if there is a breeding house for dog, it will really be profitable. Also, if there is slaughter house for pig, cow, chicken, and fish, why not state-of-the-art slaughter house for dog?

And I just can't stop laughing at this candlelight rally at Jantar Mantar against the killing of a stray dog by a student in JNU on July 7.

WTF! Candlelight Rally for the killing of the dog at JNU! LMAO!

What about holding a Candlelight Rally for the killed innocent civilians by the Indian Army and Insurgent groups in the Northeast?

Free for girls, fee for boys

2008-06-30T13:44:00.007+05:30

Well, the same old story is making the rounds again. This time - about a Naga girl from Northeast India who had been prohibited from entering Urban Pind, a bar at Greater Kailash I, New Delhi on an Expat night. The reason for the prohibition being cited was - she didn't have a good profile. I wonder what profile does one need to be granted entry to a bar/pub. I do not frequent a bar. In my 5 years in Delhi, I had been to a bar/pub only twice. I don't even remember their (bar/pub) names (what's the difference between a bar and a pub?). And I don't like what I see very much in those bars (I saw dirty things which I wasn't supposed to see - I saw some beautiful 'Mizo' girls too). Neither the music. Maybe I went on unlucky nights. :-D

The good thing that came out from latest Naga girl case is that the bar have been served a legal notice by the Naga Lawyers Guild, Delhi. I see a new trend evolving from the incident on fighting for our rights - fight them with our legal rights.

And you know what? I find it ridiculous that there are entry fees for males and entry free for girls (some friends tells me that some bars/pub don’t…but I don’t know…I am not a bar/pub frequent). Such gender discriminations! But the sad thing is that many of us (especially feminist' groups) have not realise the underlined insult on females by granting them free passes.

Why are females not charged like the males? The only reasons I can think up of is that females are considered cheap, have loose characters, are bar/pub hungry, etc and so the right reasons that they are granted free entry to pubs and bars. I consider the entry setup a bit too discriminating and humiliating for females (even if some do not feel so and take advantage of the free passes). I feel that both sexes should either be charged entry fees or should not be charged at all, irrespective of sexes.

I once received an SMS ad inviting me to a bar/pub with some DJs playing and an accompanying text informing that it’s free for females. I replied, if it is free for males then I will most probably be coming. No replies. :-D

Must have USB virus removal tools

2008-05-28T17:33:00.007+05:30

Having your computer infected with viruses and trojans is a frustrating experience. With the massive usage of pen drives, the viruses are having their day giggling with their kind of fun than in the past. The use of USB pen-drives and removable storage devices from one computer to another increases the rate of virus infection.

Sometimes even if you say that you cleaned it either by top of the line anti-virus softwares (most of the time they do not even detect them) or by formating the pen-drive itself, the infected pen-drive failed to heal. Pen-drive viruses are a pain in the ass, a really stubborn lot. Pen-drive manufacturers should introduce an in-built anti-virus system in their future pen-drives as a mean to fight the virus menace that affects their products and the end-users. Though I suppose the virus, trojan and spyware creators would still find an ingenious way to wreck the life of computer users.

Whatever. Here are some USB removal tools you should have without fail. They actually worked to heal your computer system.

DISCLAIMER:
Use the tools at your own risk. I am not to be blamed in any way for any system failure and disaster after you use the tools.

1. Flash Drive Worm Removal Tool
Enfal, Fujacks, Taga-Lipa Are, Ravmone, Strawberry, YM Virus, Zinblog and Flash Drive Cleaner.

Usage:

Download Flash_V16.8.bat
Double click and run the file.

2. Kinza Removal Tool
Kinza virus makes the computer slow, restrict Task Manager, Regedit, CMD, Msconfig, Group, makes the Folder Options to be disabled from Windows Explorer, hides hidden files, extracts itself and create lot of exe, dll, boot.vbs files.

Usage:

Download the Kinza.exe Virus Removal Tool.
Turn off the System Restore point.
Restart the computer the computer in Safemode.
Double click and run the tool.
Delete temp file and internet temp file.
Restart the computer.

The removal tool first kills these processes:
wproxp.exe, isetup.exe, imapd.exe, dxdlg.exe, imapdb.exe, imapd.exe, imapdb.exe, scvvhsot.exe, wscript.exe, Kinza.exe

And then deletes the following files:
boot.vbs, wproxp.exe, isetup.exe, imapd.exe , ActMon.ini, dxdlg.exe, imapde.dll, imapdd.dll, imapdc.dll, imapdb.exe, imapd.exe, imapdb.dll, imapdb.exe, Kinza.exe, autorun.ini

It also restores some registry settings and policies to their default.

3. Smart Anti-virus
This anti-virus tool removes the following viruses:
im.worm.win32.sohanad.bm.a, im.worm.win32.sohanad.t.a, Trojan.Win32.Agent.abt.a, Trojan-Downloader.Win32.AutoIt.aa.a, Trojan-Downloader.Win32.AutoIt.q.a, Trojan-PSW.Win32.OnLineGames.mgw.com.a, Trojan-PSW.Win32.OnLineGames.pno.a.com, Virus.Win32.Agent.aw.a (Ravmon), Virus.Win32.AutoIt.a.a, Virus.Win32.AutoRun.abt.a (Smss or Funny Scandal), Virus.Win32.AutoRun.ajn.com

It also removes problems caused by these viruses:

Disabling of Task Manager, Registry Editor, Command Prompt, Folder Options
Reg and vbs file opening problem
Folder Options show Hidden files and Folders Problem
No Search Option Problem

Usage:

Download the Smart Anti-Virus tool
Run the Setup
Launch the tool from the Tray.
Run and scan from the options.

4. W32.USB Worm (Heap41a) Removal
This virus copy itself to removable drives and USB pen drives. The worm will attempt to create a hidden file Autorun.inf on the removeable drive and copy itself to the removeable drive as MicrosoftPowerPoint.exe. It monitors internet browser activities, blocks orkut.com, youtube.com and mozilla fireox and then display the following messages:

* “USE INTERNET EXPLORER YOU DOPE, I DNT HATE MOZILLA BUT USE IE OR ELSE...”
* “Orkut is BANNED you fool, The adminstrators didn’t write this program guess who did??”

Usage:

Download the removal tool Worm-fix.
Run the tool
Click Remove

BTW, if you haven't try this out, download Ewido Micro Scanner and scan your system. Its free.

In addition, if you identify which virus/trojan/worm is infecting your system you can get free and lightweight virus removal tools (which are quite effective than the heavy anti virus softwares provided) from these major anti-virus softwares developers:

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=vrt
http://www.eset.com/download/free-virus-remover.php
http://free.grisoft.com/ww.virus-removal
http://www.avira.com/en/support/support_downloads.html
http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/removaltools.jsp
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-virus-cleaner.html
http://www.bitdefender.com/site/Downloads/browseFreeRemovalTool
http://www.kaspersky.com/removaltools
http://www.srnmicro.com/downloads/
http://www.f-secure.com/download-purchase/tools.shtml
http://www.ca.com/us/securityadvisor/newsinfo/collateral.aspx?cid=40387

Recommended Anti-Virus:
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

Why Gmail?

2008-05-15T16:25:00.005+05:30

I don’t exactly remember anymore when I first had my Google offered email service. During those times, the service was available only on invitation. I still do remember my request to one of the frequent IRC chatters in DALnet to send me the Gmail preview version. I had my Gmail account probably in June or July 2004. But I rarely use the service then.

One of the reasons (I told myself) was this – it does not allow me to create folders. I extensively use the Filter and Folder options in Yahoo! Mail service to tidy up my clogged Email Inbox. It seems the email space provided by Gmail did not appeal me very much without my treasured option in Yahoo! Mail.

However, to my pleasant surprise I later (a year or so later) found out that Gmail also had such features I wanted. I should say the discovery to this feature was accidental. Since then, I rarely check my other email accounts (though sometimes I do) but Gmail.

I use the Filter and Folder for this useful reason:

I let the Filter option to filter incoming emails based on either the Senders’ Email ID or Subject. When it filters the incoming emails, the emails are then dropped on their appropriate Folders. I subscribed to a dozen Yahoo Discussion Groups and also multiple Google Alerts. You can imagine my obsession for this particular Email option in Yahoo! Mail.

As I have shifted most of my email correspondence to Gmail now, this is what and how I do to keep my Gmail Inbox more organised and tidy using it's Label, Filter and Archive features:

I create a Label (works almost like a Folder).
I clicked on the Create Filter.
Specify the Filter Criteria.
Clicked on the Next Step button.
Checked the Skip the Inbox (Archive it) box.
Checked the Apply the label box and then apply an existing Label from the dropdown or Apply a New Label:
I then clicked the Create Filter button. Based on my Filter Criteria, there is another option which asked me whether to also apply filter to the past conversations/email exchanges. You can checked that if you want.

Two other features I like of Gmail are:

Its way of Grouping email conversations based on the Email Subject.
Its inbuilt Chat feature.

I have been wanting to write this Gmail stuff a very long time ago. At last, I did it. Huis!

New Sister

2008-04-30T17:15:00.016+05:30

My elder brother got married on 11 April, 2008 at the Church of Evangelical Free Church of India (EFCI), Shillong and I got a brand new sister now. The wedding was ministered by Rev. J. Huoplien Neitham. And guess what? I was the Bestman. This is the first time I wore a suit. I looked damned dashing. LOL. Some of those who did not know me (when we went to Imphal for the send-off ceremony of the bride) thought that I was the Bridegroom because they find me very handsome. LMAO. Anyway, I am pasting some the photo shoots. Click to Enlarge.

And yeh, preparation for the wedding feast!

Typical Indians

2008-04-28T20:38:00.003+05:30

I know not if you have notice anything similar as this when you take flights. This is what I usually observed when I fly - whenever we reach our destination, most of the passengers usually stand on queue when the plane comes to a halt (and sometimes when it hasn't). I wonder what would psychologists' say to this - impatient or desperate or ...?

Toll Free Numbers in India

2008-03-25T15:02:00.004+05:30

A toll-free is a special telephone number where the called party is charged for the the cost of the calls instead of the caller. In India, toll-free numbers used to begin with "1600" but now the same numbers can be called using "1800". Unfortunately, most of these toll free numbers are accessible only through the BSNL and MTNL phones excluding the customer care numbers of mobile service providers.

Most top companies and service providers offers toll-free calls by which you can contact them for free. This service is important for expanding their business and also to keep their customers satisfied. Here is a list of toll-free numbers in India. I will try my best in updating it with more tool-free numbers depending on their 'usefulness'.

AIRLINES:

Indian Airlines: 1800-180-1407
Jet Airways: 1800-22-5522
SpiceJet: 1800-180-3333
Air India: 1800-22-7722
KingFisher: 1800-2333-131, 1800-1800-101
JetLite: 1800-22-3020
Indigo: 1800-180-3838
GoAir: 1800-222-111
Air India: 1800-227-722
Deccan: 1800-425-7008

BANKS:

IDBI Bank: 1800-22-1070, 1800-200-1947
ICICI Bank: 1800-22-4848
Vijaya Bank: 1800-425-9992
United Bank of India: 1800-345-0345
Union Bank of India: 1800-226-900
Syndicate Bank: 1800-425-6655
Punjab National Bank: 1800-180-2222
Indian Bank: 1800-425-1400
Corporate Bank: 1800-425-2407, 1800-22-6606
Canara Bank: 1800-425-1906, 1800-425-0018
Bank of Baroda: 1800-224-447
Bank of India: 1800-220-088

COURIERS/ PACKERS & MOVERS:

WiZ Express: 1800-229-696
Associated Cargo Movers and Packers Pvt. Ltd: 1800-233-4560
DHL: 1800-111-345
FedEx Express: 1800-226-161
Goel Packers & Movers: 1800-113-456
Agarwal Packers & Movers: 1800-114-321
UPS Jetair Express Pvt. Ltd: 1800-227-171

RAILWAYS:

Indian Railway: 131, 1345, 1335, 1330

MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDERS:

BPL: 50800
!DEA: 4444, 12345, 347, 458
Reliance Mobile: 3033-3333, *333
Aircel (NE): 9856098560, 9856012345
Vodafone: 111
BSNL Mobile: 9400024365
MTNL:
1) Dolphin: 98681-12345, 1503 (Delhi), 98690-12345 (Mumbai)
2) Garuda: 2000000, 1502
3) Basic: 1500, 1501

CELL PHONES:

Sony Ericsson: 1800-111-800
BenQ: 1800-220-808

COMPUTERS/IT:

HP: 1800-425-4999, 30304499
Apple: 1800-425-4646
TVS Electronics: 1800-4254-566
XEROX: 1800-180-1225
Lexmark: 1800-224-477
IBM: 1800-425-6666
EPSON: 1800-425-0011
Canon: 1800-345-3366
Dell: 1800-425-4026
Lenovo: 1800-113-324

AUTOMOBILES:

Maruti Suzuki: 1800-1800-180
Tata Motors: 1800-225-552
Toyota: 1800-425-0001
Hyundai: 1800-11-4645
Hero Honda: 1800-180-0016
Honda Car: 1800-113-121

Using the media to defame the NE people

2008-03-03T13:48:00.000+05:30

"...It seems, spas with doctors is the next big thing. Walk into a spa which has music, scented aroma candles, but here you'll meet a professional doctor rather than a Linda from the North-East. And order for yourself a quick botox, lunchtime peel, nip-and-tuck liposuction or a nose surgery..."

Full Story: Spa with a difference, ToI

The under-the-line statement of the bolded phrase is very clear. What the writer actually meant is this – people from the North East who works at Spas are unprofessional and cheap and could be indulging in dirty businesses.

Was there any need to include that? Is the story, in anyway, related to the Northeast? Another stunt of an unknown journalist? What the heck is the Editor of Times of India allowing that sort of comment in the story?

This is yet another defamation and insult to the North East people - using the ever increasing irresponsible Indian media. In cases such as this, involving the News media which claims to use the 'freedom of speech', as a tool to discriminate races and colors, are there any ways to file defamation suits against them?

The authorities need to look into these matters, as cases of abusing the media is increasing against the NE people.

How to format your typing correctly

2008-02-25T20:09:00.005+05:30

I guess the post title is straight forward enough to speak what this post will be about.

This post is all about how to format your typing correctly and properly. This guideline has nothing to do with spellings or the styles of writing. The guideline can be used universally by users of Mechanical Desktop Typewriter and Word processing softwares in your Computer.

Spell-check tools are useful but it won’t help you when you are typing in another language that is unknown to your Word-processor. As to my personal liking, I am used to typing first in Notepad, and then copy-paste it either in MS Word or OpenOffice Writer.

I wanted to write this guideline several years back but I would always forget to do so. Once in a while I would recall the pending work, and it is only now that it could actually materialize with this post. But please note that I am not a Pro Typist or a real Editor myself.

You might opine that this post is silly and useless, but it is not so. To me, and many others who are used to retyping and editing other individuals’ work, it is compulsory for the typists to be aware that they need not waste the time of their Editors by type-formatting their works weirdly. Many of us, as we are not used to typing properly, use uneven formatting in our typing that reformatting becomes a tedious and tiring work.

The guideline is short and easy to remember. The guideline is based on my observation of the common errors writers/typists made in their typing. Once you get used to the methods mentioned, its guaranteed that the editor of your article/news (soft-copy) will be smiling wide. So here it goes:

1. There should be a single space after a punctuation mark such as colon ( : ), comma ( , ), ellipsis ( ... ), exclamation mark ( ! ), full stop/period ( . ), hyphen ( -, ‐ ), question mark ( ? ), semicolon ( ; ), dashes ( ‒, –, —, ― ).
2. Do not put a space before the punctuation marks mentioned above.
3. Avoid putting a space at the opening and closing of quotations ( “”, ‘’).
4. Avoid putting a space at the opening and closing of brackets ( (), {}, [] ).
5. If you use Tab (single) for a Paragraph, use the same formatting for all the other paragraphs. Do not use spaces.
6. If you do not apply Tab at the first line of a paragraph, be sure to put a one-line break between the above and preceding paragraph.
7. Never use double-space in your sentences.
8. Do not put a full stop/period ( . ) after punctuation marks mentioned in 1.

Did I miss out any other? I have a new urgent project coming up, so part of the thinking is over that. I will try to edit and update the post later if there are any other that I missed out.

BTW, here is my latest Typing Test Certificate.

I am not actually a blind typist (where you don't need to look at the Keyboard for the right key) and I don't use all my 10 fingers (I use 3*2=6 fingers). Even with that handicap, I think I did extra-ordinarily well. :-D

I did the Test with TypingMaster Pro. Though I have the software, I never practise to improve. Sad.

Gospel Centenary in South West Manipur

2008-02-15T13:57:00.006+05:30

Christianity in South-West (S-W) Manipur was first introduced in the year 1910 at Senvon village in Churachandpur District. It was at this hilly village, one of the biggest Hmar villages even today, that the Welsh Missionary Mr. Watkin R Roberts came with other native missionaries from Aizawl, Mizoram to pioneer Christianity to the tribals in S-W Manipur.

The local people fondly gave Watkin R Roberts the name “Pu Sap Tlangval” as he was a young man (24 years) when he first came into contact with the natives of the area.

Watkin R Roberts made the journey from Aizawl to Senvon by foot, reaching his destination on Saturday, 5 February, 1910. He was visiting Senvon in response to a request made by the Senvon Village Chief Lal Kamkholun who asked him to come to his village and explain in detail, the Book of John, which was translated by Roberts in Lushai and dispatched to him through a traveler who visited Aizawl in 1909.

As the Church denominations in Manipur are now preparing grounds to celebrate the advent of Christianity in South West Manipur in 2010, I was also requested to design a logo for a Gospel Centenary Souvenir.

The Souvenir entitled “THUKNA ROPUI” (AMAZING DEEP), which is in its initial stage of being prepared for publication, is slated to be released at the Gospel Centenary (100 years) Celebration in Senvon village on February 5, 2008.

I am not a graphic designer by professional or do much of graphic works. This handicap took some of my time to come up with an idea of a Gospel Centenary Logo. I also had to keep in mind the relevancy of the elements attached in the logo and whether it goes along with the theme or not.

After playing around with two or three graphic editing tools, below is the logo I came up with in a day (add 2-4 days for reviews by others with some – this and there – modifications and final touches).

Carla Bruni

2008-02-11T18:38:00.003+05:30

You probably have heard of Carla Bruni. She is the girlfriend and now wife of the present French President - Nicolas Sarkozy. The two married on February 2, 2008.

The cozy pair made much news in the media wherever they went together, also when not together. Likewise as in other parts of the world, following the trend, loud noises were made in the Indian media when Sarkozy was planning to visit India and be the Guest at this year’s Republic Day, uselessly. As if there are no other important headlines to be covered.

Carla Bruni is also a songwriter, singer, guitarist and supermodel. Iaauu! And know what? She got the looks and a curvy figure too. She is beautiful though she is now 40. What a combination she has molded herself with. I don't think there are many with such blending. And I tell you, her music and vocal are more beautiful.

I first chanced to listen to her songs at a friend's place while editing Delhi Thurawn, a tiring weekly work every weekend.

Carla Bruni vocal and music are very soothing even if the songs are in French. Her second album is in English though. I bet the lyric are also good as well, like her music. I like her vocal; it’s so original, unique, whispery, dryly sweet and so very sexy. I have completely fallen in love with her husky voice. I am just damn jealous of Sarkozy. What a lucky guy!

I now have two of her albums:

Quelqu'un M'a Dit

and

No Promises

through PirateBay [big apology to her].

If you haven't listen to her yet, go get it. I am telling you, you will get bowled over before you realize.

Here is Carla Bruni's official website: http://www.carlabruni.com

Auto-resize posted images in a Wordpress-powered blog

2008-02-01T13:26:00.000+05:30

This is so simple. I just could not believe that it could be this simple. No complex coding. No javascripting.

Just a piece of CSS code.

I have been trying to automatically resize images posted in a Wordpress powered blog. What I first thought was - it would need a script that would detect and determine the size of the posted image. Based on that, if the image is larger than the required width size (in pixel), it would then automatically resize the image in the specified required size to fit in the post/story column of the Wordpress theme.

I Googled. And came across this and that tips and trick to solve the solution. But none works. I even tried playing around with Chris Messin's WP-Imagefit wordpress plugin. But it could not help me much with the theme to which I was trying to implement. What WP-Imagefit also does is that it proportionally resizes images to fit your blog template -- same as the trick I was hunting around. The drawback? WP-Imagefit plugin is currently compatible only with themes like K2 or Sandbox. The theme I am working with is neither K2 nor is it Sandbox.

Back on the prowl right off, I tried changing the posted story images with CSS's width property. It did not work. Though it does resized images but it works only with images that are larger than the required image size. The drawback to this was that images smaller than the specified required image size were also resized accordingly. I didn't want that either. I wanted those smaller images sizes unchanged. Why? It looks odd and break up the image resolutions, blah blah.

Then CSS max-width property comes to the rescue. And it finally works the way I wanted it to. It didn't resize smaller images. It resize only larger images which are larger than the specified required image size. Here is the CSS code for your Wordpress style.css.

.storycontent img { 
max-width: 460px; 
width: expression(this.width > 460 ? 460: true);
}

.storycontent: The story content class. Change accordingly.
img: For images found inside the .storycontent posted story
460px: Change this accordingly (or lesser probably) to the width size of your story content box.
width: expression(this.width > 460 ? 460: true); max-width fix for IE. Change the 460 to the appropriate size.

Now that I say is a really simple solution to an imagined big problem. No more manually specifying the dimensions of your posted images. *grins*

Tell me if this solution doesn't work. Or if there are any other workaround simpler and better than this.

Vairengte

2008-01-22T15:15:00.000+05:30

I visited Vairengte, a small town in Kolasib district of Mizoram last year in 2007. That was my first visit to Mizoram. Maybe one of these days, if I can recollect, I will try to write the experiences of my visit. Vairengte is around 130 Kms from Aizawl, State Capital of Mizoram. It is a bordering town of Mizoram with Assam. The National Highway-54, which originates in Assam passes through this border town.

On December 10, 2007 at around 5 in the morning, we (L. Keivom, David Buhril, and me) boarded a plane at Palam Airport in New Delhi and flew to Kolkata. After a stressful wait for around 6 hours at Kolkota Airport, we boarded a small Air Deccan plane and flew up and touch down at Lengpui Airport around 2:00-2:30 in the afternoon. I didn’t have the extra time to click much photos enroute to Vairengte from Lengpui via Sairang Road (?) though I really wish I had. It was already dark and almost late when we reached Vairengte.

I forgot the name of the place, it was a small village inhabited mostly (?) by road labourers. We got down from the car to rest our tiring body for a few minutes and also drank the spring water as well. When I asked one of the labourers where they came from, he told me that they were from Jharkhand.

The next day, we toured around Vairengte and took some pictures and also captured the sun settling down over the horizon.

Screenshoot your website(s) in different web browsers

2008-01-16T13:43:00.000+05:30

You know how to use WYSIWYG HTML Editors, how to design and code your website with HTML, CSS, Javascript, Java, Flash, blah blahs. But will or do they look exactly the way you wanted to show to your end-users–who uses different operating systems (OS) and web browsers (WB)? Cross-browser incompatibilities is a nuisance and can take away the interest of your audience off your website. Here in a useful open-source online tool that can solve your problem and also save your time checking your coolly designed websites in many browsers – Browsershots!

Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.

You can take the screenshots of your website from different OS platforms – LINUX, Windows, Mac OS. And the browsers? Here list the list:

Linux supported WBs:
BonEcho, Dillo, Epiphany, Firebird, Firefox, Flock, Galeon, GranParadiso, Iceape, Iceweasel, Kazehakase, Konqueror, Navigator, Opera, SeaMonkey.

Windows supported WBs:
Firefox, Flock, K-Meleon, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, SeaMonkey.

Mac OS supported WBs:
Firefox, Safari

You can also set and change the Screen Size, Color Depth, enable or disable Javascript with different versions, enable or disable Java with the options to set the versions and the same for Flash.

And that is not all to it. You can even download the Broswershots source code and re-use it and provide the same service of http://browsershots.org/ in your website.

Happy screenshooting your designs!

Here are the screenshot of my blog:

Epiphany-2.20 on Ubuntu-7.10

Epiphany-2.20 on Ubuntu-7.10

Firefox-2.0.0.4 on Windows-2000

Firefox-2.0.0.11 on Ubuntu-7.1

Galeon-2.0.2 on Ubuntu-7.10

Iceape-1.0.9 on Debian

Iceweasel-2.0.0.10 on Debian-4

Kazehakase-0.5.1 on Pld-3.0

Konqueror-3.5 on Ubuntu-6.06

MSIE-6.0 on Windows-2000

MSIE-7.0 on Windows-XP

Navigator-9.0.0.5 on Pld-2.0

Opera-9.50 on Ubuntu-7.10

Safari-3.0 on Windows-XP

New Year and Resolutions

2008-01-02T16:12:00.000+05:30

Ah. Finally back in Delhi after 18 days (10 Dec–28 Dec, 2007) of refreshening travelling to Aizawl and Shillong. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year… now… that makes me realized that I haven’t made my resolution “not-compulsorily-to-be-followed” for the year 2008. What would they/that be? Something that’s good or bad? Eh? Can one’s New Year resolution be good or bad? Now, that I think is an interesting question.

Thinking it loud, a New Year resolution(s) ought to be personal. But judging by how this “good or bad” prick is interfering in the “personal” business – I have my doubt whether New year resolutions, which we think are good, are all good at all.

After all, if we say that there are always good or bad in everything [black or white, negative or positive], then the same can be applied for New Year resolutions. But who is going to be the judge for this?

Not myself. How can I be?

If I made the resolutions myself then how can the resolutions be bad? They are good in my view, and thus the good factor becomes the valid reason for my having them as my resolution(s) in the first place.

I wonder next – is there any New Year Resolutions Consultant(s) [NYRC] across the globe? Who knows? There might already be, or may not be yet. The web’s God – Google - doesn’t seem to come across one. Although, there are tips. But there is no decider on whether the resolution is good or bad.

As [or if] there is none yet, the idea of a NYRC can turn out to be a profitable consultancy job. Or otherwise, it can also be a very valuable social service for volunteers who can point out others’ resolution(s) to be either a good or bad one and thus makes our world a better place to live.

At the same time, it can also be a flip-flop. Looking at the popular trend on how most of us disastrously bend our New Year resolutions, it can also be a time-wasting approach similar to that of having useless New Year resolutions that we, most often, do not fulfill.

That leads us back to square one – on whether New Year resolution(s) can be good or bad.

New Year resolutions should be left personal even if they are a pain in the neck for others. In any case, it matters you more than it matters others. Saying that – here is/are my New Year resolution(s) for year 2008:

To get rich in money matters by whatever means for flaunting it around to get to places and also to have at least six brand new girlfriends for the year.

LMAO!

I like the little devil in me! And the funny twisting of ideas and views I wrote which wasn’t there when I plan to write something in the first place.

So, what do you say to my New Year resolution? Good or bad? Reasons, please.

Novels Shelf

2007-11-07T17:39:00.000+05:30

I love reading books, especially fiction novels. I do read non-fictions sometimes. But I find fictions intriguing and exciting; they nurture and sharpens your ways of thinking with the twists and turns of the story plots. They also let you escape from stresses and worries. The novels I list below are not all of my favorites, but that I have bought and collected in my shelf (I might missed out some). I have intentionally left out Louis L'Amour and Sidney Sheldon novels as they are quite a collection. I like reading mystery & thriller, conspiracy, spy, western fictions. They are, without doubt, very addictive.

Food Insecurity in Tipaimukh

2007-10-29T13:03:00.000+05:30

I forgot to post an article I wrote in May 2007 on food problems faced till today by the people of Tipaimukh. ~~~
---

Food Insecurity in Tipaimukh
Lalremlien Neitham, May 2007

"Food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life." - [Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, 1996]

Introduction:
Food is one of the most essential components required for the support and sustenance of life. Not only humankind requires food, but also those in our immediate environment need it to maintain an ecological balance. This article attempts to highlight food insecurity faced by a marginalised community within a particular region of a State.

Food Insecurity:
Food insecurity is a condition where there is non-availability of dietary food, insufficient supply of food commodities, and inaccessibility of food by all people, at all times for the balancing and sustenance of life. The existence of food insecurity is accounted to a nexus of intertwined factors, such as, ineffective State-sponsored schemes, limited and undemocratic State policies, poverty, corruption, conflict, marginalisation, poor socio-economic and health status, low level of education natural catastrophe, etc. All these factors disturb a nutritious food Intake for an adequate standard of living and thereby create a deteriorated state of hunger and starvation and ultimately in death. Such is a dangerous threat posed by food insecurity against a vulnerable community that, if left unchecked, could lead to various forms of social movements, which can destabilize a State.

Profile of Tipaimukh:
The highlighted area in this article is the Tipaimukh sub-division, located in the southwest hilly region of the Hill State of Manipur, bordering the States of Mizoram and Assam. Tipaimukh is the 55th Assembly Constitution of Manipur in the district of Churachandpur. Parbung, the largest village in Tipaimukh is the sub-divisional headquarters as well as the Tribal Development Block.

The indigenous Hmar peoples and their kindred tribes belonging to the Chin-Kuki-Mizo group of peoples inhabit the Tipaimukh sub-division. Hmar is recognized as Scheduled Tribe (ST) under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India. The spoken language, also called Hmar, belongs to the Kuki-Chin-Naga group of Tibeto-Burman stock of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. The Hmars are spread in the bordering States of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura in the Northeast of India

As per Census of India 2001, Tipaimukh has a total population of 25,409 with 12,965 male and 12,444 female, and 3,924 children between the age group of 0-6 years. There are 4,053 households in 40 villages of the sub-division. The average literacy rate for the sub-division is 77.3%. The total population of Tipaimukh constitutes only 1.06% of the total population of the State of Manipur, which is 2,388,634. Of the 13,141 cultivators in Tipaimukh, 90.2% are in the agricultural sector, practicing the traditional slash and burn (jhum/shifting) method of cultivation.

Livelihood and Productivity:
The entire population in Tipaimukh is located in rural areas - engaging in agricultural operations, gathering their agricultural produces for their daily needs, hunting animals and birds in the forest, and also maintains a small animal husbandry. The villagers practiced an age-old traditional method of jhum cultivation. As large portion of the Tipaimukh area is a hilly rugged terrain, the villagers cultivate their crops in the hilly slopes by clearing natural vegetation. This system of cultivation is continued as long as the soil in a cropped area is fertile and productive, and then they move on to the next forest plot so as to allow the jhummed soil properties to recover under conditions of natural states of re-growth. With the decrease in the jhum cyclic period (2-4) years, the forestlands now gets hardly sufficient time to recover its original fertility and climax vegetation. This in turn has its impact on the productivity and availability of the agricultural produces and economy of the villagers.

The crops grown by the villagers in Tipaimukh are paddy, maize, millets, etc. They also engaged in multi-cropping of agricultural crops in their jhumfields. As agro-climatic conditions and soil characteristics are conductive for horticulture; they also grow orange, pineapple, banana, sugarcane, jackfruit, lemon, ginger, etc. However, their forest products are just about sufficient for two square meals a day and there is hardly any surplus from which the money obtained on their sale can be used for purchasing other essential commodities like sugar, kerosene, etc, In addition to this, there is also the need to avail proper agricultural implements, clothes, medicines, education, proper housing, sanitation etc; to sustain their livelihood. Consequently, the low productivity yields from their agricultural engagements and poor socioeconomic status prohibits them from procuring and availing these basis amenities of life. Thereby, many of these poor unskilled (vocational) villagers have no other alternative but to migrate from the rural areas to the urban areas to seek employment. However, this migration does not solve their problems but rather multiplies and worsens it. This state of affairs where the denied villagers are forced to abandon their land for their survival visibly discloses the failure of democratic institution in effectively using the machinery available at its disposal for proper governance. The rights of these villagers to live in their own land without any fear thus become a very challenging question. Even if the age-old traditional method of livelihood, shifting cultivation, is to be replaced by other alternative methods of 'sustainable' livelihood - the expected provision that ought to be provided by the government is unavailable to the neglected villagers. The non-existence of suitable alternatives is further complicated by the poor socio-economic status of the villagers, which is further compounded by fear and insecurity, posed by armed insurgent groups. The intervention of the state is expected, as it is the institution that has made the people dependent solely and extensively on the State's "resources."

Status of Poverty:
The present poverty line in Manipur, based on 2004-2005 estimation, is Rs. 387.64 and Rs. 378.84 per capital per month for rural and urban areas respectively. The Planning Commission prepares the estimation of poverty in India at both the National and State levels. The identified BPL persons/families from the estimation are then assisted under various poverty alleviation programmes of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). The MoRD conducts BPL Census in the beginning of every Five Year Plan. The last BPL Census was conducted in 2002. However, the BPL list for BPL Census 2002 has not been operational till date due to a Stay Order passed by the Supreme Court in a Writ Petition filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) against the Union of India, challenging that the methodology used in the estimation of poverty would reduce the number of persons identified as BPL. Nevertheless, the BPL list for BPL Census 2002 has not been finalized or submitted to the MoRD by majority of the States till date.

In view of this, the BPL list that is still being used is based on the BPL Census 1997. Under this BPL list, the number of BPL households identified in Tipaimukh subdivision is 2757 families from 52 villages. The identified numbers - 2757 - is a headcount for the head of each family. Presuming that each family has 6 members (average from the total population and total households), the total BPL persons would number approximately 16,542 (total members in a family into total BPL households). Based on the data provided by the Census of India 2001, but that identified only 40 villages in the sub-division, the percentage of BPL persons in respect to the total population in the sub-division is approximately 65% (total population into total BPL persons). If the methodology used in the estimation of poverty is flawed and there is a reduction in the poverty line as challenges by the PUCL, a large number of poor would lose not only their 'entitlements' but also the benefits provided under various poverty alleviation programmes of the Government.

Whatsoever maybe the estimated poor and the poverty line, the present conditions in the region cast doubt on whether there has been an actual estimation of the poor in Tipaimukh at all. The area has been suffering under Government's ignorance for more than a decade. The grim reality the area experience is that Government institutions have been non-functional at every level for that many stretch of years. The highest Government institution in the sub-division, the SDO office, itself is ran and managed 262 kilometres away in the district headquarters town of Churachandpur. The SDO officials attend to their area of posting whenever the situation greatly demands. Likewise are the conditions of the Governments' educational, medical, police and other institutions, which are loyally attended by cattle and other animals. The reluctance of Government officials of different departments to be omnipresent in their respective stations might be in part probably due to fear of militants dominant in those areas and also due to lack of dedication for which they are entrusted their concerned responsibilities. In such a situation where unaccounted armed militants are in complete control of Tipaimukh and its adjoining areas, can the supposed surveys so conducted with the sole aim of assessing the poverty level of the poor in those areas, be genuine and reliable? In all probability, government officials deputed for such social surveys base their reports on estimation rather than collecting precise data, which would be possible only by physically visiting all the settlements in Tipaimukh. Even if the government officials do actually visit those areas, more often than not, the methodology adopted still leaves a lot to be desired and thereby results in their veracity being questioned. The result - inaccuracies and discrepancies in the number of BPL and AAY families so identified. The CAG Report 2007 for Manipur more or less confirmed this through its survey and concluded that the addresses of BPL and AAY beneficiaries could be either incorrect or are fictitious names. The report further added that the identification conducted by the FCS Department is unreliable and there is a possibility of the passing on of the benefits of the scheme to other than the targeted beneficiaries. Moreover, to check the listing of fake beneficiaries, the required annual reviewing for addition and deletion of the BPL and AAY families have not been conducted for the last five years. This and the non-uniformity of data as published in Census of India 1991, Census of India 2001 and BPL Census 1997 cast an overall doubt on the authenticity of the collected Census data now and before.

Food Availability:
As already mentioned, the agricultural productivity of the villagers in the area is insufficient to maintain their livelihood. This is when the intervention of the State is required to ensure that BPL families get what is their inborn right to a life of dignity which can be fulfilled in part by the state machinery through the PDS programme.

Public Distribution System (PDS) is a poverty alleviation programme of the Government of India, where essential food commodities like rice, wheat, sugar, kerosene, etc. are distributed to the people at a subsidized price. In Manipur, the Food and Civil Supplies (FCS) department is responsible for the procurement of foodgrains and other PDS commodities, building up and maintenance of stocks and their storage, supply and delivery to the distribution centres. The Central Government started allocating a monthly quota of Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) for Manipur from January 2002. The AAY families are identified out of the BPL families and are provided foodgrains amounting to 35 kilograms per family per month at the rate of Rs 3.47 per kilogram of rice since April 2002. The BPL, AAY and other poverty alleviation programmes in Manipur fall under the schemes of the Social and Rural Development of the Government of Manipur.

The monthly quota of food and civil supply items consumed in Manipur, which are procured mostly from outside the State are lifted and transported from the FCI depot located at Dimapur, Nagaland to the FCI depot in Imphal, Manipur. The lifted PDS commodities are then transported from the State capital to all the districts and sub-divisional headquarters for distribution. The Deputy Commissioners (DCs) along with the District Supply Officers (DSOs) are responsible for the supervision, checking and monitoring of the distributed items. In the Sub-divisions, the responsibility lies with the Sub-divisional Officers (SDOs). The District Administration has to ensure proper distribution through the network of Fair Price Shops (FPSs) operated by the Rationing Agents. The FPSs in turn sell the PDS items to the beneficiaries at prices fixed by the State Government. However, as already stated about the status of Government institutions in Tipaimukh, there is large-scale inefficiency and irregularity in the supply and distribution of PDS commodities to the area. This malfunctioning can be attributed for the failures of the Government - to establish stability where officials can perform their duties without fear, to check massive corruption among officials and PDS transport contractors, to intervene and verify the lifting of the PDS quota with the elected representatives consent. Also the commodities do not reach their intended destination due to the Government's inability to deal with the diversion, quota cuts, and lifting of the PDS commodities by armed insurgent groups. And this is not to mention the poor quality of the distributed foodgrains and the namesake distribution of the PDS commodities only in paper. In fact, for the past few years, there have been repeated complaints and protests by civil society groups in Churachandpur district against the Government's indifference in addressing the non-supply, non-distribution and diversion of the PDS provisions for the district. The protesters demanded the authorities to allocate more PDS quota to the district, establish an FCI depot and PDCs in the district headquarters and sub-divisional headquarters, lift the PDS items directly from Dimapur/ Aizawl/ Silchar to Churachandpur, and to investigate the scandal surrounding the PDS distribution. So far, the Government has not taken any progressive action to address the grievances of the public. It was only after directions were issued from the Central Government and a high ranking official from the Centre was to visit the State on the issue of the PDS that the Manipur State Government acted, arrested and booked one LDC of DSO, Churachandpur under the National Security Act (NSA) for siphoning off three months (February, May and June 2006) quota of PDS items meant for Churachandpur district, which has been valued at Rs. 72 lakhs. The amount of the siphoned rice totals 8602 quintals for AAY and 6457.87 quintals for BPL for three months. It is open for anyone's speculation as to where and how such a huge quantity of rice, 15059.87 quintals to be exact, can just vanish without a trace without the Government ever coming to know about it. Of course its a totally different matter altogether if the government had decided to turn a blind eye to the various 'groups of individuals' involved in the disappearance of the rice and decided not to take any actions.

The Government of Manipur openly acknowledged and confirmed the State's failure to effectively implement PDS in the State. At the same time admitting its failure it also failed to redress the issue. However, due to the mentioned resentments and huge pressure of the Churachandpur public against the Manipur Government's incompetence and indifference on the issue of large scale PDS rice scam and irregularities in the system, PDS rice quota for November 2006 and January 2007 for some of the sub-divisions was reported to have reached Churachandpur on May 2007. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether it would indeed reach the neglected remote villagers who are most vulnerable to food insecurity. There is also the question of - what about the skipped months and years that the beneficiaries have not received? The genuine sincerity of the Government, non-committal as it is to the issues of the marginalised hill villagers, could be well observed and monitored in the next 3-6 months. This is because the disillusionment of the public against the State Government on the PDS issue ought to take a backseat by then by the 'proactive' action of the Government in supplying the deserved rice quota. It would also be important to note that this method of suppression is often employed by unaccounted and unprincipled Governments to quell down dissenting democratic voices and thus the sincerity often becomes short-lived.

In regards to the average requirements and food consumption of the Tipaimukh villagers - each male member of a family (between the age group of 23-55) consumes approximately 500 grams of rice per meal. The amount of rice consumption may be concurrent with the hard agricultural labour in the rugged jhumfields. The calorie demands of their body ought to be higher than those working in another environment with different work-styles and climatic conditions. As is the 'culture' in the Hmar tribal community, a family has 2 meals a day - in the morning and afternoon. Presuming that there are 3 male members of the specified age group in a 6-member family, the family would require at least 2.50 to 3 kilograms of rice per meal and 5-6 kilograms of rice per day. Based on this presumption, a family would consume and require an average of approximately 150 kilograms of rice per month, valued at Rs. 520.5 at the rate of Rs. 3.47 per kilogram. And this is not to mention the prices for other commodities required to cook a proper meal.

From 2002 till date, the quantity of rice distributed is 35 kilograms per family per month for AAY at a Fair Price Shop (FPS) rate of Rs. 3.47 per kilogram and for BPL at a FPS rate of Rs 6.21 per kilogram. The monthly average allotment of rice for the 2757 BPL families in Tipaimukh sub-division is approximately 471 quintals for BPL and 107 quintals for AAY that total to 578 quintals of rice only. Calculating the average, this total allotment of rice for each household comes to 4.77 kilograms of rice per month instead of the 35 kilograms that is to be distributed. Taking into accounts - the distributed availability of the PDS rice and the requirements only - the allotted quantity itself is insufficient to provide and sustain a Tipaimukh family that requires at least 150 kilograms of rice per month. To add to the woes of the villagers, even that meager amount of allotted PDS rice does not reach them at all.

The fact that the PDS commodities have not reach the remote villagers is evident by the present pathetic condition where the villagers are reeling under acute food shortage. Audit Report (Civil), Manipur (2005-2006), also confirmed the non-distribution of PDS items - reporting that 99 per cent of the beneficiaries had not received food grains regularly in accordance of the scale prescribed in the scheme. Other reasons for the food insecurity are the overwhelming bamboo flowering and the villagers' inability to engage in jhum cultivation owing to their large-scale displacement to Mizoram early 2006 at the backdrop of massive atrocities committed against them. The displaced villagers returned to their homestead in July-August 2006 when the jhum period was already over. Even if they were able to initiate jhum cultivation, there was the threat of stepping on the indiscriminately planted landmines in the forests and nearby village areas by insurgent groups resulting in the maiming and claiming of many innocent lives. Thus, the fear of landmines is another factor for the existing food insecurity. The acute shortage of food commodities also compelled the remote Tipaimukh villagers to purchase poor quality rice at exorbitant prices at the rate of Rs. 15 per kilogram from neighboring State of Mizoram. The poor villagers were also compelled to buy SK Oil at the rate of Rs. 35 per litre and sugar at Rs. 30 per kilogram. The issue price of PDS items at FCS level is Rs. 7.29 (APL) and Rs. 6.21 (BPL), Rs. 3.47 (AAY) for rice, and sugar at Rs.13.50 per kilogram. It is imaginable how long the villagers will be able to survive on such famine-like situation with their limited low 'monthly income that cannot meet their daily needs. The State Government is yet to undertake any schemes to address the plights of the denied villagers.

PDS, as a poverty alleviation programme in its straightforward essence, is a commendable programme of the Government. Nevertheless, the challenges posed are concentrated on how to universally accommodate not only the poor but also the general public. There is also a need to effectively implement the system so that it reaches the targeted beneficiaries. The present PDS programme is devoid of a foolproof system that guarantees the aforementioned challenges as highlighted in the article. Also, policymakers ought to formulate schemes and policies in consultation with the people to ensure a self-sustainable livelihood in the long run whereby the marginalised communities need not approach the Government for assistance. However, it would be understandable and be a different matter altogether if the Government's insidious intentions were to craft a state of dependency whereby the people would always need to rely and look upon the Government for support.

Yet, in spite of the existing hiccups in the implementation of PDS in the present setup, the Central Government should directly facilitate a project for the establishment of a FCI depot in the district headquarters of Churachandpur. It should also ascertain the establishment of Principal Distribution Centres (PDCs) in each of the sub-divisional headquarters in the hill districts under the Hill Transport Subsidy (HTS) of the FCI. Under this subsidy, the FCI's responsibility is to deliver foodgrains at the nearest PDCs. If FCI is unable to deliver foodgrains at the PDCs, it is to deliver foodgrains from the nearest designated Base Depots for which the actual cost of transportation of foodgrains from the Base Depot to the PDC will be reimbursed by FCI to the State. Interestingly, on 01 August 2006, N. Pratap Singh, Under Secretary (FCS), Govt. of Manipur informed the Zonal Manager (NE) FCI - of the declaring of Churachandpur district headquarters and Parbung, sub-divisional headquarters of Tipaimukh as PDCs by the Government of India and the FCI authority has been permitted to transport PDS rice quota of Churachandpur district directly from FCI depot in Dimapur to the declared PDCs. However, no progressive development ensued hence. Instead, the situation deteriorated further as can be seen by the confronted food insecurity.

Accessibility and Connectivity:
Uninterrupted supply of food provisions is an indispensable privilege of people who needs access to food to meet their requirements and to tackle food scarcity. It is for this reason that the accessibility of an area also needs to be taken into consideration, as it would be irrational to establish PDCs without the PDS items being transportable. The lack-locked Tipaimukh is accessible through three routes other than by air (helicopter) - one from within the State of Manipur and two from the bordering States of Assam and Mizoram.

Within Manipur, the Tipaimukh is connected to the district headquarters town of Churachandpur via the long abandoned Tipaimukh Road - the stretch of distance of which is around 262 kilometres. The distance from Imphal to Churachandpur is around 70 kilometres. The Tipaimukh Road was declared a National Highway-150 on January 06, 1999. Despite it being given a status of National Highway, no progressive construction and maintenance work has been undertaken at this significant route. This negligence on the part of both the State and Central Governments to improve the only transportation route for the Tipaimukh people within Manipur has taken its toll today and has adversely affected their socioeconomic livelihood in terms of being unable to market their agricultural products and purchasing essential commodities for their needs. This alienation due to lack of proper connectivity affected not only the road project, but also resulted in the region being completely cut-off from other parts of the State in every level. It is ironic to note that before the highway was declared a National Highway, it normally take around a day to travel to and fro from Tipaimukh areas to Churachandpur town and vice-versa. Then, the State's bus transports regularly plied from the district town to Tipaimukh on a daily basis and people and essential commodities reached their destination in a day. After being granted the status of National Highway, Government vehicles gradually stopped their services of supplying commodities to the region. Due to deterioration in road conditions, private vehicles like trucks, which occasionally take a trip to these are, journey at least three to four days to reach the interior areas in the sub-division. Other than those villages in the vicinity of the roadway, the other villages are not accessible at all.

In Assam, Tipaimukh sub-division is accessible through the Tuiruong (Barak) River waterways. The Barak River, which originates in North Senapati district of Manipur passes and form a tributary with the Tuivai River at Tipaimukh. The Barak River then flows westernly to Lakhipur sub-division in Cachar district of Assam and down to the Cachar plains. The length of the river route from Hmarkhawlien village in Lakhipur to Tipaimukh is approximately 93 kilometres. It usually takes about one and half day to reach from Lakhipur to Tipaimukh by boat. The people from both sides of the States i.e., Manipur and Assam use the Barak waterways extensively for trade and to ferry men and commodities. Forest and agricultural produces like timber, bamboo, ginger, oranges, etc are floated down from the interior of Tipaimukh to the Cachar plains. Boats from Cachar also bring in food, consumer goods and other essential commodities to Tipaimukh.

In Mizoram, Tipaimukh is accessible from the Northeast part of the State. The Tuivai River, which flows to meet the Tuiruong (Barak) River near the Tipaimukh village, constitutes a borderline between the States of Manipur and Mizoram. The villagers of Tipaimukh use this border route by crossing over the river to and fro for supply of essential commodities, trade and travel route. The distance from Tipaimukh to Aizawl is around 115 kilometres. Due to the region's remoteness and neglect, the roads on both sides of the River are in pitiable shape though it is comparatively better on the side of Mizoram. During monsoon, stretching from June to September, the already cut-off Tipaimukh region become more closed-up with the rain widening and raising the height of the Tuivai River. The normal flow of the river also increase to such a velocity that the Tuivai River forcefully cuts through the Barak River that it meets in the confluence near the Tipaimukh village. This makes it practically dangerous for the villagers to cross over with or without their goods. The lone bridge in place for the crossover has also been washed away by the impact of the vigorous river flows. Another problem is the absence of proper water transportation that would withstand the strong water current.

The inaccessibility of the area in turn have its impact on the transportation and accessibility of food provisions for the landlocked villagers, who, as already mentioned, has insufficient agricultural produces to sustain their livelihood.

Impending Famine:
The Mizo secessionist movement, led by the Mizo National Front (MNF), is said to have been a direct product over the disillusionment of India's marginalizing policy in providing assistance on the backdrop of famine caused by gregarious bamboo flowering in the late 1950s. Though the famine being only one of the causes for the uprising, nonetheless, lessons can be learnt from the resultant political movement spanning two decades. Noteworthy also is the fact that Mizoram is not only the area where bamboo flowering disastrously affects the livelihood of the people. It spans beyond the present boundary of Mizoram, and thus affects the neighbouring States and Countries in the Northeast - in the context of this article - Manipur.

Mautam or gregarious bamboo flowering is a cyclic ecological phenomenon that occurs every 48-50 years gap. The flowering bamboos, before dying, produces large quantity of seeds from which it regenerates. The local rodent population feeds on these abundant bamboo seeds which enhances their fertility and there is a tremendous spurt in their population. After exhausting their food supply (bamboo seeds), the rodent plague raids the cultivated crops in the forest jhumfields. This attack in turn led to a large-scale devastation of crops leading to scarcity in agricultural produces and which subsequently is followed by famine in the affected areas.

In Manipur, areas affected by gregarious bamboo flowering are mostly in Jiribam, Chandel, Tamenglong, and Churachandpur districts. In spite of the prediction for the occurrence of the impending bamboo flowering, the Manipur Government remained unprepared and is yet to take any practical schemes to tackle the already reported food scarcity in the affected areas of the devastating ecological phenomenon. In spite of some reported hurdles, Mizoram as compared to Manipur, has made significant progresses in undertaking projects to tackle the impending famine. As for Manipur, it is still caught up in the planning juncture with the ecological phenomenon already causing immense hardships to the populace.

On September 2006, the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) approved and sanctioned Rs. 17.82 crores, as first installment of the 85 crores, to implement various schemes to tackle the natural catastrophe in seven Northeastern States. Of the total fund to be sanctioned, Manipur is to get Rs. 9.9 crores. On 04 May 2007, Manipur Forest and Environment Minister Th. Debendra in his address to the Assembly House informed that steps has been taken to setup a Bamboo Development Agency (BDA) and plantation of mixed variety of bamboo in 2620 hectares of land in Tamenglong, Chandel and Jiribam districts. It is unknown if similar initiatives has been taken for the excluded Churachandpur district which has also been affected by gregarious bamboo flowering. The omission of the district from such schemes will have further detrimental implications for villagers in the interior hilly areas who need immediate attention. Even if established, practicability is crucial to deal with the confronted issues.

On 19 September 2006, Shri. A. Ibomcha Singh, the Director of FCS, Government of Manipur states in New Delhi that 93 Village Grains Banks (VGBs) would be established at food scarcity prone villages at the cost of Rs. 60,000 per bank. The Government of India launched the VGBs scheme targeting remote and isolated areas beyond the reach of PDS in 1996-1997. The bank is managed by the village committee, which is elected by the beneficiaries themselves who are also members of the bank. They can borrow grains from the grain banks during times of food scarcity. Had the Manipur Government initiated the establishment of such VGBs in remote areas of the Hill districts, the food scarcity faced would have been averted to a large degree. At the same time, it would also be important to create a condition to ensure that the villagers will be able to repay the borrowed grains so that they do not become forever indebted and be strangulated by the Government through the VGBs.

Conclusion:
Although the immediate need of the ignored villagers in Tipaimukh is to be rescued from the famine-like situation, it is pertinent to draw out a framework that prohibits the reoccurrence of similar food insecurity that is currently faced in a large-scale in the region. In addition to eradicate food insecurity, there should be a shift in policy to properly understand the cultural and traditional values, community systems and livelihood of these indigenous peoples who now, as never before, has an impending task of overcoming not only food insecurity but also the challenging task to safeguard their land, identity, cultural, tradition and language which are on the verge of being gradually threatened by the foreseen globalisation that is to strike them unaware and unprepared. The commitment of the Manipur Government for achievement of food security to its people should be the present priority before it plans to undertake any larger projects. The Government should first prove itself that it can democratically handle the multi-projects that have been lying unimplemented in the State. Otherwise, new projects that is claimed to be for the interest and overall development of the people and State will meet the same jeopardized fate and have far more devastating impacts on the resources of the State.

News Content Management

2007-10-19T20:49:00.000+05:30

Grrrr! Grrrr! I am almost done with my 'simple(?)' News Content Management, but its killing me! Can't think this or that, but that! Can't just get if off my head. This is insanity. This is a murderer! This is a betrayer, a robber! Robbed me of my sleep. Robbing me of my morantic self. Robbing me of my peace and what not? Argh. But this is for the good. Whatever.

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A Slippery Road; the Case of the World Bank in Mizoram

2007-09-27T15:06:00.000+05:30

Lalremlien Neitham, September 25, 2007

A four-day “Independent People’s Tribunal (IPT) on the World Bank Group in India” held at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi on 21-24 September, 2007 was attended by over 600 activists, students, academicians, policy analysts, lawyers and projects-affected communities across India who presented indicting evidence against the Bank in over 26 sectors.

The World Bank is an institution owned and directed by its 185 member countries. Each year, the WBG provides billions of dollars in loans, grants and other types of financial and technical assistance to governments and private companies in the developing world, including Asia. Its operations influence laws and regulations, government spending and private sector investment decisions in countries around the world.

The IPT is a result of a monitoring process by a large cross-section of researchers, activists and community representatives who have been putting together detailed studies of the impacts of the World Bank-funded programmes and projects in India. Apart from presentations given by leading activists and academicians from India and abroad, the Tribunal also heard testimonials from affected people of World Bank (WB) projects across India.

Two residents of Muallungthu village in Mizoram – Mrs. Lalhlimpuii and Mr. Lalramfawna, who are directly affected by a WB funded Road Project, also attended the Tribunal. Muallungthu is one of the villages where the WB funded-road project passes through. The road links more than 40 villages with Aizawl, the capital of the State and the main lifeline of these villagers.

Lalhlimpuii, a vegetable seller, gave her testimony on behalf of the project affected people. She related the woeful tale of hardships faced by the project-affected villagers who need to market their vegetables to meet their daily needs in the markets of Aizawl.

The WB approved the funding for the Mizoram State Roads Project on 14 March 2002. The project was estimated to cost 70 million US dollars. The International Development Association (IDA) provided a credit of 60 million US dollars and the Government of Mizoram (GoM), as the implementing agency, would meet the counterpart funding of 10 million US dollars by borrowing it from the Government of India (GoI). Till date, around 48 million US dollars has already been disbursed for the project. The WB claims that the project will improve road capacity, quality and safety through rehabilitation and maintenance.

The closing date (of all financial activities related to the project) of the WB funding for the Mizoram State Road Project is 31 December 2007. The financial terms and conditions for the financial credit is 35 years of maturity, including 10 years grace period. The WB’s credit to the GoI is at 0.5 percent interest and the GoI’s credit to the GoM is at 12 percent interest.

The WB also stated that “the project aims to expand or rehabilitate over 500 kilometers of the state’s core road network—around half of the state’s total core network. So far, around 210 km maintenance roads have been completed and opened to traffic, reducing travel time of about 50 percent. In addition, 42 percent of the core road network has been improved to good condition and maintenance backlog has decreased to 800 km from 1,000 km”.

However, the testimony narrated by Lalhlimpuii contradicts and speaks an opposite story of the Road project against the outrageous claims made by the WB. Lalhlimpuii recalled that they came to know of the WB-funded road project in 2000. She said that, “The whole stretch of this particular road, connecting Aizawl and Lunglei, which is around 185 kms was constructed during the British colonial rule. Before the involvement of the WB, the State’s PWD was responsible in looking after this road. As the road was narrow and its condition deteriorated by the years, we used to face lots of problems”.

She said that the poor condition of their road was one of the reasons why they were very happy when they were approached and told that the WB was going to construct a good and wider road for them, without knowing the destructive impact the project will bear on them. “During the inauguration of the Road project, Chief Minister Zoramthanga even promised that “the WB will be replacing the old run down road with a new road that will be smooth and sleek as a snake”, she added.

She further stated, “In 2000, Cochin-based Bangheertha Engineering Ltd. was given the contract to build the road and it began its work from April 2002. Due to rampant corruption and negligence of the work that resulted in the road condition becoming worse than before; Bagheeratha Engineering Ltd. was decontracted in 2005”. “But then, the authorities took a long time in selecting new contractors for the project, so the road deteriorated further”, she added.

On May 22, 2007, the WB again approved additional financing of the project of 18 million US dollars. The WB stated that, “The additional funding is due to higher costs of works and construction materials, beyond the control of the State Government”. Lalhlimpuii said that they were not even aware of the additional funding by the WB and came to know of the new funding only when they came to Delhi.

Concerned over the uncompleted project, student and youth groups such as the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), Young Mizo Association (YMA) branches and women group from the affected villages appealed the project director PWD SE Pu K Sawmvela and also submitted petitions to the CM and other authorities to resume the construction work as soon as possible. “Yet, all our prayers were never heard”, Lalhlimpuii said.

She also stated, “After destroying the previous road they ended up giving us a much worse road. The apathy of the authorities prompted the MZP to take up more serious actions. When the local MLA came to know of the decision of the MZP, he requested them not take up any action and promised to discuss the matter with the CM”.

“In Nov 2005, the Govt. announced that three new companies, Valicha, Tantia and Raitani were selected to resume the road construction work. However, the companies did not begin their work even by March 2006. The indifference of the Government to look into our plights caused anger and disappointment among the villagers. To protest the unresponsiveness, the MZP blocked the road in March 30, 2006. The police came and try to disperse the protesters and five MZP leaders were arrested and jailed. The next day on March 31, 2006, MZP had a meeting with Govt. officials, and the five arrested leaders were released and the Govt. promised to resume the road construction work by April 2006. We were also promised that the road construction work will be completed by June 2008”, she said.

Relating the plights of the affected communities, Lalhlimpuii says that, “As the monsoon arrived, the stretch of the abandoned road project has taken its toll and is full of potholes and mud. As a result, no vehicle wants to travel on the deteriorated road as the vehicles need to be repaired the next day and the vehicle owners have to spent lots of money to repair their vehicles. This further impacted in the increase of fares which creates more burdens to our limited income”.

“The process of widening the existing road also disturbed the terrain and fragile geology and increased more landslides in many places of the area. The landslides in turn resulted in the lost of many acres of cultivable lands which were not considered in the compensation packages”, she added.

The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project had forewarned that the slope cutting into the hillsides to increase the road width could lead to slope instability and that there could be an increase in landslides. The increase in landslides as testified by Lalhlimpuii also speaks the inefficiency in handling of the project work carried out by the WB and Government selected contractors. This questions the effectiveness of both the implementing agency and the funder of the project and their commitment for the welfare of the affected communities.

It should also be pointed out that the road project passes through cultivated and residential areas and compensation has already been given at the rate of Rs. 10 to Rs. 20 per square feet. The areas for compensation given were for the width of the proposed road and some of the villagers have even submitted their original land holding certificates to the “Government”.

Lamenting on the project’s affect on their livelihood, “In all the affected villages there are many women like me who earn our livelihood selling vegetables which we cultivate in our jhum or gathered in the nearby forest to the market in Aizawl. Nowadays we can hardly travel to Aizawl. Our livelihood has been disrupted”, Lalhlimpuii said.

Lalhlimpuii appraises the affected people’s fears that the Government will not live up to its promise again and that the “authorities” might simply stop the project and leave them with their devastated and horrible road. The GoM has also mentioned in its request for additional financing for the project that if the State does not get the additional funding, it will not be able to afford to self-finance it, and therefore, will not be able to complete the project. The GoM reasoned that increased costs in upgrading contracts, fuel costs, and construction costs as being the basis for the need to seek additional funding. Lalhlimpuii also mentioned that looking at the ground situation it would be unrealistic to believe that the GoM will be able to complete the project as promised, even with the additional funding.

Other concerning issues that need to be looked into is the relationship between the WB funded road project and India’s transnational trade policy and the WB’s objective and intervention in funding the project.

For 50-60 years the borders of North East (NE) has been ‘closed’ due to India’s historical and political reasons. Decades of ‘forced’ isolation from their kiths and kins in Burma (and other neighboring countries) has jeopardized the cultures, social relations, economy, politics, etc of not only Mizoram, but also the whole NE. It seems that now the GoI felt the urgent need to connect the isolated region but for some other underlying motives, which can only be devastating to the region.

While it is important to ‘renew’ relations with people in Burma and also to rekindle the cultural, economic and social relations, the fast-paced efforts to open borders by India through funding from WB and other international financial institutions is very suspicious. One reason would be that, more trade gateways through these new roads are meant for India’s trade with South East Asia (SEA) and China and vice versa. While ‘Indian’ products from the mainland might be able to compete with those from China and SEA countries, the current local economy in Mizoram, which is depending mostly on funds provided by the Central Government, will not be able to compete against it. The local economy needs to be strengthened if at all it is to participate in the global market. It will be a wonder whether WB has actually studied the local capacity to participate in international trade by which the local communities would actually profit from the international trade without it being engulfed by the new trade, which can create further complications on the livelihood of the local communities.

As seen from the border trades in Moreh (Manipur) and Champhai (Mizoram), though this will need further scrutiny, it can however be said that the local economy and institutions has adversely suffered due to dumping of cheap foreign goods where the control over trade items are not even at the hands of the local communities. Moreover, absolute dependency on border trade impacted the local economy where the absence of alternatives harmfully disturbs their livelihood. These impacts are felt when trade routes are closed. Furthermore, if the border trade routes are closed for a longer period, there is also a steep rise in the trade items prices.

What also needs to be taken into consideration is the origin of the exported items – whether they are of the local or from mainland India. While India has used the NE as a captive market all these decades, failing to build the NE economy steadily; opening unchecked Chinese and other foreign markets will be a doom for small communities in the NE. The WB also might not have taken this aspect into consideration, intentionally or unintentionally.

In addition, the border control mechanisms, like movement of people, taxes collection, etc will not accrue to the local Government and people. A more stronger and beneficial agreement for the local communities has to be in place before more trade routes are opened at other places.

It should also be noted that the main intention of the WB would not be to connect ‘un-connected villages’ in Mizoram, but instead on transnational trade routes for its bigger profiteering plans in the region. Therefore, it would not be mere speculation to wonder whether the Road Project would really serve the crucial interests of Mizoram and its people in the long run.

Convert and Download YouTube videos

2007-09-17T15:35:00.000+05:30

I came across a number of not-so-techie netizens who asked me whether I know of any methods to download the videos posted at the revolutionizing media destination on the web - YouTube.com, and how to play it in their 'offline' computer. In spite of all these craze, I am not that into YouTube. I am yet to be be bitten by the YouTube bug. But also, I wonder if its because I am weird or normal? Well, whatever.

Here are two interesting web services I came across that let you do just that, i mean, convert your favourite YouTube videos online to a number of popular formats (.MPG, .FLV, .MOV, .MP3, .3GP, .MP4, .AVI) and let you download the converted videos to your computer for playing or burning to a blank disc.

Check them out and enjoy!

http://converttube.com/
http://vixy.net/

If you know of any other recommendable tried-outs, would be glad to be informed.

DMZP Freshers' Social & Rock and Roll

2007-08-27T12:58:00.000+05:30

What do I say? It was kind of a flop event if I am to express my view on the Delhi Mizo Zirlai Pawl (DMZP) Freshers’ Social that was held at Mizoram House, Vasant Vihar on August 25, 2007. Maybe the DMZP leaders can shed light on why the Students’ body ID Cards were issued only on that day and not before that? And why those without ID cards were not allowed to enter the event’s premises.

It is possible that many who are not or do not want to be members of DMZP would also like to attend the event. Does it meant that the Freshers’ Social was intended only for DMZP registered members? And what about for those unknown guests, who are not freshers anymore? There is something amiss here which can be properly scrutinized to better the students’ body and its relationship with still studying students and those not studying anymore.

What I also do not understand is the feast (?). I wonder - what if sometimes the people who come to the event is so huge that the prepared feast is insufficient to meet the stomach of the feasters. This is quite possible because it will be unpredictable to know how many are going to come. The unpredictable can be predicated if membership fee or feast money (?) is collected before the actual event.

And also again – something about the freshers’ social event. I take it that the event had been organised mainly for the freshers. But there was no introduction of the freshers on the stage. Of course, the programme leaflet does not have the time for such. The reason I probably think is because that event starts only at 6:00 PM. One friend who is also a fresher was sort of dejected because of that. It was a different style of a freshers’ day for him probably – the freshers’ meets he attended in the past always had an occasion where freshers’ were summoned on the stage and introduced to all the participants of the event. It was kind of flop for him, as well as for me. However, in the second session, four of the freshers were called out and were asked to recite ‘difficult’ sentence from a piece of paper. But that did not compensate for the ‘usual’ freshers’ introduction at the stage.

Before the event I asked the DMZP leaders – how many freshers are there this year. The answer was – around 150-200 or more. However, it was disheartening that the freshers who attended the event numbers around only 20-30. I guess there is something missing here too which needs to be 'attended' properly. Ah, and yes, meritorious awardees numbers only 4! Serious issue huh? But ye, the second session’s rock and roll part more or less say it all, almost. I noticed that almost all are good in shaking our legs, hands, body and heads. But ye, it was fun and it was an event worth a place in the memory of a lifetime. Thanks to the BOOMARANG!

Below are some of the pictures I took at the event.

I am the First among Zo Bloggers?

2007-08-17T15:17:00.000+05:30

Maybe, maybe not. I think I am, or eh, rather, I should claim to be the first of the many Zo kindred bloggers we come across today on the Internet. I don’t want to make a hue and cry over claims but I thought I would share some of the experiences that are more or less related with it. And thanks to the addicted blogger – Sandman – for his Mizo Bloggers Directory, I could finally claim my other ‘official’ blog(s) where two of them have my name on it and the others keywords I was interested during those times of blogging. To say a word on Sandman - he is wasting his time in blogging. An advice for you Sandman, get lost and waste your time somewhere else. You a loser or something? But I still think you need to be more polished in respect to ‘Mizo’. ;-)

And also thanks to Benjamin of Misual.com for mentioning that Sandman may probably be the earliest registered Blogger registered Zo/Mizo [Mizo as in Mizo and not as Mizoram-based Mizo(s)] bloggers [rephrased and edited due to misinterpretation]. If not for him, I would not have looked back for my earlier blogs. Now, I can finally claim to be that First with sort of a genuine proof and no image editors’ retouching. (Oh damn! The saved profile screenshot of yesterday before the reclamation got corrupted.) The reclamation screenshot is below:

I have been a member of Blogger.com since May 2003. Google bought the Prya Labs’ Blogger.com in February 2003. No hard feelings to others for my being the first. ;-) If some other Zo bloggers can claim over my claim, do not hesitate to argue that in your comments! I can always hand this ‘priceless’ title over to you.

Back to blogging, I had forgotten all the emails I used and the passwords for those ‘lost’ blogs (I had so many emails with different passwords for each of them that I don’t keep track of them anymore though I used to, before). Those were the days when you were too hypersensitive about someone knowing your passwords and you had some ugly and negative perspective of the Internet (It is of course if you don't take some needed precautions). I often try to reclaim them lost blogs (most of them in Blogger.com) but always failed to. The reason being that I am and wasn’t not very familiar with Blogger.com’s password retrieval system and its overall services. But trying it out again yesterday, it was so smooth I now wonder how I could have failed to retrieve them before.

Fortunately, all my accounts (blogs) were registered in my now often and ‘officially’ used Gmail account. And the password and blog reclamation needed just three steps. But sorry to say, I had to delete almost all of them except one where I claimed to be the “Official User of the Internet”. I love that part. I had all forgotten about being my claimed title! I know and you should know, I am! I was and am still the “Official User of the Internet”. That claim was made on May 05, 2004. No one before me had claimed the title. Whoa! That kind of feels great. I know you are jealous and racking your graymatter to claim on something too. Bah! What a many-layered second-hand thoughts you do have! I pity you. :-D

Saying that, I may or may not, be even the first amongst the Zo kindred people to be have a Gmail account. That was not so long after Google.com offered its Gmail preview version only to invited users in April 2004. I still remember the time when I requested one of the mIRC scripters in the #helpdesk channel at Dalnet IRC Network. I forgot his nickname but he was kind enough to send me a request form to open up a Gmail account. His Gmail ID might still be in my now huge Gmail contact address-book as Gmail automatically add the inviter’s email address to the contact’s list. However, as my contact book grew, it would now be difficult to know who is who. Anyway, thanks to whoever is him. I have been using Gmail since June or July 2004. Any genuine counter-claims to that?

Blogging in those days, when I first registered, was still at its infant stage. The word didn’t even catch up with most. But then like every other thing popular, it started slowly and steadily. And in India? Every one of us, and many still are illiterate on what actually is a blog. It didn’t yet catch on the trend as we see today. I knew it would, but in a year or two later only. I was right about it. But then in those days, having your own personal websites was even more popular. The term ‘blog’ doesn’t even mean anything to many others, and me at all. It is disheartening to see and hear of all the hypes that have been concentrated on the ‘blog’. Of course, the popularity does push the blog coders to beautifully enrich their blog softwares with powerful features that we are using it now.

My perspective on blogs when I first registered for a blog, and even now in some way (inclusive for developer hosted blogs and exclusive for user hosted blog softwares), is not so geeky (if you know what I mean?). I wasn’t that much interested for the simple reason that it does not let you completely ‘own’ your ‘website’. I saw it something like free website providers’ ads for the newbies which claims – design your websites with readymade templates! I hate readymade templates. It stops the challenges. It makes you lame. It steals your talent and creativity – you tend to loose what you are born with. You are not in control. Instead you are in the cold and freezing to death.

I prefer much using those free website hosting – coding and designing my own website and stuffs – learning slowly but steadily rather than be tempted by the free blog hosting providers or using some of those designed templates. But even during those times, blog service was growing – redirection services were supported, and I did use them for easily integrating the services of Blogger.com with the Shillong EFCI Christian Youth Weekly – PALAI, which was originally hosted at Spunge.org. Mentioning that, at Spunge.org too, I was the first again. All the other Zo users got it after my referral of their service. Their service was great then, and I think it is also now. You don’t easily get hold of a free service where a SSH account with Apache, PHP, MySQL, PHPMyAdmin, etc [LAMP] are provided then and also now. However, it is not easy to get an account anymore at Spunge.org. Though I no longer have an account over there for being inactive, some of my friends [valtea and oznial] still do.

Might sort of seem like I am blowing my own trumpets. But I think, it doesn’t hurt to blow some once in a while. One do get irritated when some self-centric individuals who are in their own self-centred worlds claim to flaunt about their who they are and what they have done and stuffs. Oh again, I may even be the first to get a Google Adsense advertisement approval in India (maybe, maybe not). Google launched its Adsense program for website publishers in June 2003. I had to argue with those in Google when they said that they are (Adsense program) not yet open to those based in India. I had applied it for Hmar.org [the site is not maintained anymore] that later become Hmar.net of today. They (Google) rejected me at first, but then they approved my application within a week. That was between September and October 2003. Any counterclaim challenges again from other India-based websites on that? *grins*

I was fortunate enough that even when friends were rejected again and again by Google.com and banned for one or the other reasons in their Adsense program, they were never been that rude to me. Maybe they pity me because my Adsense earning is never much? Maybe they love me? Haha. I like it when my name was up for a discussion in Misual.com where it was posted with true surprise when Google suggested my name instead of the queried name – Lalremlien instead of Jenny R. Lalremliani, the Mizoram Boxing Champion (Google Speaks Hmar?). Well, I saw the coming of this sort of event already in the past, and I had been working on it, baby. Just kidding. LMAO. I don’t dare Jenny in the ring though. She might beat me up black and blue.

Maybe Google loves me and maybe that’s why it fortunately ranks Hmar.net at 6 out of 10. It currently topped the Northeast India based websites in Google PageRanking (Of course the PageRank system does fluctuate up and down many times). And what about in India itself? You know, there are not that many of the tens of thousands who ranked that high. Don’t ask me why. I prefer not to cheat or try to be popular. Well, that’s the one and only rule to be the top amongst other dogs. Some bite harder and bitterly and silently than the loud barkers. ;-)

That was one of the many reasons I made my blogs to be kind of ‘invisible’. And one of the thing being, I am too much of a privy individual. If somebody asks me the truth, I would say, the Internet is an Open Book. I won’t claim it, but it would take me just a day or some to know everything I want to know of an individual(s) from what they write – their would-be behaviour, perspectives, fears, likes and dislikes, hates and loves, what and what nots – their complete inner-self. I may be exaggerating, but there is only one way to define the Internet – it is dangerous if you want to be ‘invisible’. When you think about it, it chills you down to the bone. That is the same with email ‘conversations’. And these were the reasons for my irregularity in updating my supposedly blogs. Also then, I consider myself naive – in the stage where I was learning how the Internet really functions. I am still learning now, but experiences has taught me more than I knew those times and I learn what is to be kept privy and what not to. All those out for the readings are useless stuffs that I don’t really care whether the readers know. They are stuffs that do not give me out even one third of myself. The more you read my stuffs, the more you go round and round where you reach the same point where you started. The reason? I am a confused, weird and unpredictable psycho.

Argh. That’s quite enough for now.

Softwares I can't lived without

2007-08-09T15:31:00.000+05:30

Here is a list of softwares that I use and can't 'live' without. If you haven't use them yet, you can give a go too. I hope you will also find them useful in your digitalized life. I might missed out some (but I can easily edit and update them), so enjoy! I disclaim, yet again, for any irreparable loss that you and your computer may face using the listed softwares. But don't you worry, they are clean and popularly used softwares. If you are curiously asking yourself whether I bought the original licenses for all the following commercial softwares (some of them are open source), then you are wrong. I usefully use one of the softwares listed below to get the full versions of the commercial softwares. :-))

Adobe Dreamweaver: Adobe Dreamweaver, or simply Dreamweaver, is a web development tool originally created by Macromedia (now Adobe Systems). Initial versions of the application served as simple WYSIWYG HTML editors but more recent versions have incorporated notable support for many other web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, and various server-side scripting frameworks. Software Homepage

Adobe Pagemaker: Adobe Pagemaker is an ideal page layout program for business, education, and small- and home-office professionals who want to create high-quality publications such as brochures and newsletters. Software Homepage

Adobe Photoshop: Adobe Photoshop, or simply Photoshop, is a graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Systems. It is the current market leader for commercial bitmap and image manipulation, and is the flagship product of Adobe Systems. Software Homepage

Adobe Reader: Adobe Reader (formerly called Acrobat Reader) is available as a no-charge download from Adobe's web site, and allows the viewing and printing of PDF files. Software Homepage

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition: AVG Anti-Virus FREE Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Anti-Virus FREE is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Anti-Virus FREE is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements). Software Homepage

Babylon: Babylon offers you the most intuitive tool for all your translation needs. With Babylon you can quickly translate emails, web pages, documents, instant messages, and more. All you have to do is click on the word or text that you want to translate and a small window instantly appears with the desired results from Babylon's extensive database of language dictionaries, glossaries and conversion tools. Software Homepage

Bittorrent Client: BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) communications protocol for distributing large amounts of data widely without the original distributor incurring the entire costs of hardware, hosting and bandwidth resources. Software Homepage

Blaze Media: Blaze Media Pro is powerful, all-in-one media converter, editor, burner, and ripper software application supporting all popular media formats, audio and video conversions, audio CD ripping, video construction, video decompiling, audio editor and recording, audio and data CD burning, video CD (VCD and SVCD) burner, video DVD burner, video editor and movie editor (AVI, MPEG, WMV, etc.), MPEG encoder and decoder, the ability to convert (record) MIDI to MP3, WAV, WMA, and OGG, convert DVD audio to MP3, WAV, WMA, and OGG, batch video processing, video capture, AVI MPEG WMV video joiner, video compressor, media management, audio and video playback (including full playlist support), and etc! Software Homepage

Color Schemer Studio: Color Schemer Studio is a professional color matching application for anyone from hobbyists to advanced professionals. Software Homepage

CuteFTP: CuteFTP Professional is a software tool for transferring files between your PC and remote computers anywhere on the Internet, securely and efficiently, over multiple Internet protocols. Software Homepage

Easy File and Folder Protector: Easy File & Folder Protector protect files and folders situated on local media of Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP with Easy File & Folder Protector at Windows kernel level. Your can deny access to certain files and folders, or to hide them securely from viewing and searching. Software Homepage

Mozilla Firefox: Firefox is Mozilla's award-winning next generation Web browser. Software Homepage

Mozilla Thunderbird: Thunderbird is Mozilla's next generation e-mail client. Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster and easier than ever before. Software Homepage

Inkscape: Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Software Homepage

Internet Business Promoter: IBP is a search marketing software that offers all the tools for achieving and sustaining higher positions on Google, Yahoo and other search engines on the web. This suite of 20 professional website promotion tools includes search engine submission, search engine ranking check, link popularity improvement, top 10 optimization and keyword generation. Software Homepage

Magic DVD Ripper: Magic DVD Ripper is a very easy and powerful DVD ripping software, which can convert DVD to VCD, SVCD, AVI (DivX), WMV, iPod and PSP formats or backup DVD to hard drive without any loss of quality. Software Homepage

Microsoft Office: Does it need any introduction? Software Homepage

mIRC: mIRC is a highly configurable IRC client with all the goodies other clients on UNIX, Macintosh and even Windows, combined with a nice and clean user interface. mIRC offers full color text lines, DCC File Send and Get capabilities, programmable aliases, a remote commands and events handler, place sensitive popup menu's, Switchbar, World Wide Web and sound support, and more. Software Homepage

PDFCreator: PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application. Software Homepage

PowerDVD: PowerDVD is the latest evolution of the world acclaimed DVD software program that offers maximum video and audio playback entertainment on the PC. It comes complete with numerous customizable video/audio controls that can deliver the highest quality viewing and listening experience. Software Homepage

Textpad: TextPad is designed to provide the power and functionality to satisfy the most demanding text editing requirements. It can edit files up to the limits of virtual memory, and it will work with the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows® 2000, Server 2003, XP and Vista.Software Homepage

Tuneup Utilities: TuneUp Utilities optimizes the performance of your computer, corrects problems and helps you to customize your system to suit your needs. Software Homepage

WinAmp: Winamp is a multimedia player that is skinnable, multi-format freeware / shareware. It also plays streamed video content, both live and recorded, authored worldwide. Software Homepage

WinHTTrack: HTTrack is a free and easy-to-use offline browser utility. It allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer.Software Homepage

WinRAR: WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format.Software Homepage

XAMPP: XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use - just download, extract and start. Software Homepage

Xara Xtreme: Xara Xtreme can produce compact, highly optimized graphics, making it an ideal choice for creating web graphics, and with this in mind we have added a tools to aid in creating graphics for the web, such as a NavBar tool, image slicing capability and Dreamweaver integration. Software Homepage

Yahoo! Messenger: Yahoo! Messenger is a popular instant messaging client and protocol provided by Yahoo!. Software Offline Installer

Get them contents right on your mobile phone daily

2007-08-03T17:11:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated (except as a subscriber) with the mobile service company I am blogging about.

Let me share with you this impressive mobile phone service I subscribed, for free, that keeps me up-to-date on some of the latest happenings around the world, eh, India whether you can spare the time to read the morning paper or browse the Internet. I came across their service after a friend (I can't exactly recall where it was a she or he) forwarded me an SMS sent by this mobile service.

I did not know what kind of services they provide but had seen their SMS in other friends' mobile phone inbox (not through peeping though). What I did after that then was Google them out their website. I read their services and also, ummm, their privacy policy (always do this lest you don't want to be bombarded by ads and calls from other companies).

I followed the instruction posted in their WAP-supported website on how to receive their services in my mobile phone, more out of curiosity then. After a week or so, I found them to be quite impressive and genuine. I don't get SMS junks or calls from unknown companies looking for customers except from my mobile network who kept on sending me unsolicited SMSes and computer recorded calls (I once rough-shod a lady 'customer care' executive when I was busy in the office and her call came).

Many of you would probably know which mobile service I am talking about if you are already a subscriber to their service. Many of you may have not. For those bitten by the curiosity bug, try out the free services of MyToday, which calls itself as an India-centric mobile internet portal. They will send you News Headlines, Jokes, Bible Verses, Words, Horoscope, Quiz, and what not, everyday. I have the feeling - rather than getting agitated with your SMS beeps - you will love and get addicted to their services like I already am. They provide their fabulous services only to mobile phone users in India. MyToday is an initiative of Mumbai-based Netcore Solutions Pvt Ltd.

Always the curious one, their services got me to thinking - how could they financially manage to send SMSes to thousands of subscribers with almost (?) no ads in their SMSes at all. Maybe they have their own SMS servers. But that would need a huge amount of finances. Sometimes I would say - they are rich guys and just want to serve others with the money they already piled up through some other business they ran. And sometimes - they got a good sponsor maybe, who have huge pockets. Also sometimes - maybe they tried out some and found a reliable and dedicated server out of the supposedly free SMS servers that Google listed when you goggled for such and such keywords. I am still without any probable and right answer. I even sent an inquiry to them once regarding my curiosity. Haha. I receive no replies though. :-S

Maybe someday I might. In the meantime, I just got to bask in their great service. My wish for them is that they do not get bankrupt, die and vanish like many start-ups. And the prayers to them? Don't charge for the free service in the (not near but) future or compromise the privacy of your subscribed mobile users. Keep rocking with your service guys!

For wanna subscribers to their services, you can get their daily SMS updates by doing the following (I am showing the example of only the topic I subscribed. To get the full listing of their SMS updates topic, go to the MyToday SMS section):

SEND THE FOLLOWING SMS TO THE MOBILE NUMBER 9845398453:

1. start news
2. start jokes
3. start quiz
4. start bible
5. start word

There Goes My Extra Eyes

2007-07-13T12:13:00.000+05:30

Well, this is yet another of those unfortunate incidents in life. This has happened to me more than thrice now as far as I could recall. Just tough luck or simply carelessness could be the causes of it. Whichever it is, there is none of those “Life is Good” feeling whenever these sort of things happen and as a consequences one lose some dearly-held stuffs.

I had been four-eyed with glasses since my teen, maybe after I was freshly out of school. That probably was in 1996. Ten years wearing extra eyes sort of get me hooked to it, almost like a very old old man. As times pass by, it has somewhat become an inseparable part of me – an insignia of me. It sometimes felt like it is one part of my body. I am never without it unless going to bed or reading or writing. Although I assume it to be part of my body, I felt it dispensable during those mentioned occasions. Those are when I often left it lying around somewhere in the messy room, only to be searched amok when in need of it. Messiness and absentmindedness does not go along too well with each other indeed. Ouch!

However precious I may felt of it, it was around 11-12 last night when I broke my glasses. Maybe I needed new glasses as I wasn’t that comfortable with the very thin-rimmed glasses whose screws often get loose and required to be tightened every now and then so that it does not sha-ka-la-ka on the bridge of the nose, ever ready to fall off. The two extra eyes were only three-months old. I bought it in Shillong, for Rs. 1300+ (that’s rather expensive I believe) when I went home last April, after breaking the previous six-months or so old glasses while trying to re-angle the crooked frame. I broke (technically, not me) the previous’ previous while trying to untangle a friends’ brawl when one of them griped my glasses and three it on the floor – in anger (for my interference?). Bah! So much for trying to be a Switzerland! And so a lesson was well learnt.

To get back to the goodbye session of my last glasses – it was around that mentioned time last night. The room (also the building and locality) was in darkness. Thunder and rain was most likely the cause for the power failure. I was lying in my bed on the floor (with my glasses taken off), playing with the Nokia 1100i phone – sending SMS jokes and intentionally arguing with SMS friends (favorite pastime. Har Har). After a short while, the electricity was thankfully restored. I then thought, now I am going to shoot dead those bad guys in the “Hidden and Dangerous” PC Games. This is the one and only PC Games I get myself involved with, otherwise, I am not into PC Games. It surely does get very irritating when you are the one who get shot – bleeding, moaning and swirling on the ground in pain, lay motionless and die – again and again by those b@st#rds! But the excited thoughts were very short-lived. I had forgotten all about the glasses lying carelessly on the side in the bed. And now I need to get brand new glasses very soon with already a tight budget for the month! Whoa! Whoa!

Look at this – this is what I did to my poor and dear extra eyes:

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Providers

2007-06-23T13:13:00.000+05:30

What is a Virtual Private Server (VPS)?
Wikipedia says:

A virtual private server (also referred to as virtual dedicated server or virtual server, and abbreviated VPS or VDS) is a method of partitioning one physical server computer into multiple servers that each has the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. Each virtual server can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted.

Here is a the list VPS providers in alphabetical order (Please note that the inclusion of the provider is not a recommendation saying that they are reliable or good, it is always best to read users review on hosting reviews websites):

Aplus Value Server
Apollo Hosting
Dotster
Euro VPS
Future Hosting
Gate.com
Go Daddy
JaguarPC
Known Host
Linode
Lunar Pages
LX Labs
Myriad Network
Power VPS
Rimu Hosting
Select Level Web Hosting
Server Axis
Server Pronto
Slice Host
Solar VPS
Spry VPS Hosting
TekTonic
Verio
VPSLAND
VPSLink
Zone.net

The first CD Album Cover I designed

2007-06-07T21:46:00.000+05:30

I am not a graphic designer. But I do like playing around with colours and retouching them photos with Photoshop. It is one those things I indulged myself in when I get bored. When I get bored doing that too, I would be busy shifting it to imitating websites that intrigues me. For designing layouts of websites, I usually use either a Textpad or the most powerful (personally) WYSIWYG HTML Editor – Dreamweaver. I prefer Textpad to the simple Notepad for reasons that it has more features, which the Notepad doesn’t have. If somebody is to ask me why I imitate websites? Well, it improves my web designing skills and also, it helps me in the creativity department that give me more new designing ideas. Sometimes I get so engrossed to these passions that I would be sitting in front of this plastic like box for more than 15-18 hours a day without leaving my sit unless absolutely necessary. The addiction is really a thing to reconsider.

I think I am a little bit off-track now -– like I said I am not a graphic designer. But knowing my passion, one close friend asked me to design a CD Album Cover for the latest album of a popular and unique ‘Sinlung Rock & Roll’ Singer – Laltuoklien. The album was to be his third. The friend provided me a number of still photos of the singer, that I scanned. The photos were shot by Naresh Suri, photographer of North East SUN fortnightly magazine. I was on a time limit and I had only two days to design the cover. It took me a night to visualise, imagine and remagine the design before actually working on it. I had to final touch the cover design using a laptop and it was tough as I am not used to it for these kind of works (I prefer Desktop. Laptops are not suitable at all for me for that kind of works). And finally here is the what came out of the work:

PageRank of Northeast India based Websites

2007-06-04T14:28:00.000+05:30

Wikipedia says:

PageRank is a family of algorithms for assigning numerical weightings to hyperlinked documents (or web pages) indexed by a search engine. Its properties are much discussed by search engine optimization (SEO) experts. The PageRank system is used by the popular search engine Google to help determine a page's relevance or importance. It was developed by Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin while at Stanford University in 1998...

Here are the PageRank positions of websites from Northeast India! Look which site tops the list, right now! Whooaaaaaaaaaaaah! But sad to say, the topper is not available for the past 2 months due to some major hosting issues (to be more specific - CPU Time and MySQL Conqueries) which has prohibited me from continuing the site services - for the time being. The demand of the PageRank topper right now is either a dedicated server or at least a VPS. :-S

No. Web Site PageRank

1. www.hmar.net - 6
2. www.sentinelassam.com - 5
3. www.newswatch.in - 5
4. www.kanglaonline.com - 5
5. www.e-pao.net - 5
6. www.assamtribune.com - 5
7. www.zotalk.com - 4
8. www.zoram.com - 4
9. www.zawlbuk.net - 4
10. www.youthim.com - 4
11. www.voiceofassam.com - 4
12. www.theshillongtimes.com - 4
13. www.thesangaiexpress.com - 4
14. www.northeasttribune.com - 4
15. www.nagarealm.com - 4
16. www.nagalandpost.com - 4
17. www.mumbaimizo.org - 4
18. www.maraland.net - 4
19. www.manipuronline.com - 4
20. www.lengzem.info - 4
21. www.lelte.net - 4
22. www.assamlive.com - 4
23. www.assam.org - 4
24. www.sinlung.com - 2
25. www.thezozamtimes.com - 3
26. www.silchartoday.com - 3
27. www.silchar.com - 3
28. www.shillongonline.com - 3
29. www.shillong.com - 3
30. www.newslink.in - 3
31. www.misual.com - 3
32. www.kuknalim.com - 3
33. www.zonet.in - 2
34. www.sinlung.org - 2
35. www.siamsinpawlpi.org - 2
36. www.siahaonline.com - 2
37. www.maratechnology.com - 2
38. www.lawrkhawm.com - 2
39. www.kolasib.com - 2
40. www.izawl.com - 2
41. www.hyderabadmizo.org - 2
42. www.bangaloremizo.info - 2
43. www.zwo.org.uk - 1
44. www.zoram.org - 1
45. www.zogamonline.com - 1
46. www.vanglaini.org - 1
47. www.ralvengtu.com - 1
48. www.chakhei.com - 1
49. www.zomi.org - 0
50. www.zolife.info - 0
51. www.zoin.net - 0
52. www.mizoserver.net - 0
53. www.ifp.co.in - 0
54. www.dmzp.net - 0
55. www.delhithurawn.net - 0
56. www.delhimizo.org - 0
57. www.aizawlchat.com - 0

Cleaning up the System Startup Registry items

2007-05-25T13:00:00.000+05:30

In my previous post, I wrote one of the many tricks on how to customize and speed up your Windows load time. As mentioned in the previous post, this writing will be on how to cleanup those deactivated items from your MSCONFIG utility. In case you want to activate some of those deactivated startup items, it is recommended that you leave them as it is. It is not necessary that you have to delete them from your Registry. As I felt that those deactivated items dirtied the MSCONFIG, thus the reason for writing this trick. Maybe someone is out there among you who felt the same like I do.

As usual, I am not to be blamed in any way for any disastrously outcome to your system. Do the trick at your own risk and not mine. Lets get on with it again.

Please note: You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group to be able to do this procedure. I am using Windows XP SP2 for this trick.

What is REGEDIT?
REGEDIT (short for Registry Editor) is an advanced tool for viewing and changing settings in your system registry, which contains information about how your computer runs. In Windows, system configuration information is centrally located in the Registry.

(Click to enlarge)

Precaution: Although Registry Editor enables you to inspect and modify the registry, making incorrect changes can severely damage and break your system. In case if some thing may go wrong, always backup your Registry (Start > Run > Type regedit > File > Export > Save).

Methodology:
1. Click Start.

2. Click Run.

3. Type ‘regedit’ or ‘regedit.exe’ (without the ‘’)

4. The Registry Editor (regedit.exe) will popup (refer to the above REGEDIT picture).

5. Click on the [+] of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

6. Click on the [+] of SOFTWARE.

(Click to enlarge)

7. Scroll down and click on the [+] of Microsoft.

(Click to enlarge)

8. Click on the [+] of Shared Tools.

9. Click on the [+] of MSConfig.

(Click to enlarge)

10. Click on the [+] of startupreg. A list of all the Startup items as shown in MSCONFIG Startup tab will be available underneath the startupreg.

11. Right click on each of the deactivated Startup items, click Delete and Confirm.

12. Close your Register Editor.

13. Open up your MSCONFIG and lookup the Startup tab. Viola!

RELATED UTILITY:

Startup Control Panel
Startup Control Panel is a nifty control panel applet that allows you to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. It's simple to use and, like all my programs, it's very small and won't burden your system. A valuable tool for system administrators!

Download | More Info

Speeding up your Windows Startup

2007-05-24T13:36:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: Follow the trick at your own risk. I am not to be blamed in any way for any disastrously outcome to your system.

Many of us are impatient individuals. This unique behavior is often exposed when one starts and wait for the Windows powered Operating System to load up. Most often than not, you become frustrated with the start-up process and sometimes would like to smash the system. You feel the way you felt more so when you have to do some important work on your tormenting tortoised computer.

There can be several factors why your computer takes a long time to boot or startup or slow. It can be because of many softwares running the background prcoess, huge resources consuming softwares, lofs of programs in the startup, spywares, adwares, trojans, viruses, lack of maintenance, etc. Oli has written a good insight into What Really Slows Windows Down. It is worth a read.

There are different methods to enhance the speed of your system, one of which is what this writing will be about – playing around with the start-up of your Windows operating system. However, this is not comprehensive or advanced as I left out many other methods of a work around to fasten your Windows startup.

We will not be using any third party software but will be contented with the system tools provided by Microsoft in its operating system – MSCONFIG. If you are in need of a more advanced utilities than MSCONFIG, refer to the end of the page.

Please note: You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group to be able to do this procedure. I am using Windows XP SP2 for this trick.

Methodology:

MSCONFIG:
System Configuration Utility (Msconfig.exe) automates the routine troubleshooting steps when diagnosing Windows configuration issues. You can use this tool to modify the system configuration through a process of elimination with check boxes, reducing the risk of typing errors. You can always check and uncheck the startup items.

1. Click Start

2. Click Run

3. Type ‘msconfig’ (without the ‘’)

4. The System Configuration Utility (Msconfig.exe) will popup (refer to the above MSCONFIG picture).

5. Click on the Startup tab. You will get something like the image below (Click on the image to enlarge). The checked items are the program installed in your system and that are loaded when you start your computer for easy accessibility to them. You can locate most of them (represented by their program icons) on the right side of your Windows Taskbar. Some programs run in the background process and you will not be able to locate them in the Taskbar.

6. Click on the Disable all.

7. Checked (Enable) the programs that you want to load when the Operating System starts (For example, anti-virus or anti-spyware programs).

8. Click Apply.

9. Click OK. And when prompted to Restart your system, click Restart to restart your system.

Next on line - how to clean up those deactivated Startup items you see in the MSCONFIG Startup tab. That would involve using the REGEDIT (Registry Editor) in Windows.

OTHER STARTUP UTILITIES:

1. AutoRuns for Windows v8.61:
This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys.

Download | More Info

2. StartupList:
A simple tool that lists all and every auto starting program on your system. You might be surprised what it finds, this is way better than Msconfig. Commonly used to troubleshoot malfunctioning systems, trojan/viral infections, new spyware/malware breed and the likes.

Download

3. StartUpLite:
StartUpLite is a lightweight program that can disable or remove all known unnecessary startup entries from your computer and thus quicken the startup procedure of your system.

Download | More Info

Other Relevant Links:

1. Process Library
ProcessLibrary.com has extensive reference guide for anyone who needs comprehensive information on system processes. The explanations are accompanied by exhaustive advice on whether these processes are important for the stable and secure running of your system. It also recommends if you should terminate processes or leave them untouched.

Some random photo shots

2007-05-19T14:44:00.000+05:30

I am not a good photographer. Nevertheless, I like photography. I like taking shots. But it's kind of just a hobby since long back. I never thought of making career out of it. There goes the reason for not doing any photography course. But heck! if you have that creativity in you, anybody can be a great photographer. Come to think of it -- I don't have much of me in my album. I don't have an album either. LMAO. Okay, I am sharing some of the random shots with my NIKON Coolpix 4800 Digital Camera. You can find the bulk of my digital photo shots from Flickr.

Second Floor Office Stairs

Reading and Writing

My Messy Book Shelf

You got the Royal Challenge!

Road to Mohammadpur

Road to Mohammadpur

Green Park Red Light on way to Yusuf Sarai

Traffic Jam near Green Park

Quick accessing your Gmail and Yahoo! Mail

2007-05-12T12:43:00.000+05:30

I was rather bored today. But hand it to that boringness, I discovered some hidden tricks that has something to do with the Internet that had been left undiscovered to me till then.

It is often that new discoveries are made incidentally. Many would argue on that point.

But then experience is more of what is newly discovered which you haven’t known about it yet. Many would argue with me on that again.

So, what have I discovered this time round? Okay, I was bored. As checking email is sort of any addiction already now (I don’t get lots of junks or those personal emails. But I do get lots of those discussion mailing lists – listserv – which I subscribed and receive at least 50 of them lots everyday and always try to find myself time to read it). So I told myself, let me check my Gmail~ (Maybe one of these days, I should write something on Gmail).

I Firefoxed (my favourite browser until the next one arrives to beat it) up. I don’t really know what came over me then. I was curious (past experiences or maybe because of the boredom) to what would happen if I typed ‘g’ in the URL address bar of the browser.

So I did just that. I typed ‘g’ and pressed the Enter key. Yeh, yeh, I know you already know this old trick. If you don’t yet, I am ahead of you.

After pressing the Enter key, I was directed right to Gmail (http://gmail.google.com)!

Now that surely makes life more simple and one’s Internet time more exciting I should say.

I use Gmail and an old timer in email services – Yahoo! Mail extensively for my mailing needs. So what did I do next? It’s obvious.

I typed ‘y’ again in the URL address bar and Enter. Viola! It got me directly directed to Yahoo! Email login box (http://mail.yahoo.com)!

Don’t try this with IE though. I haven’t tested the same trick with IE 7 or any other browser – it may or it may not work. That’s for you to find out.

OMG! My Old Precious DATA BANK!

2007-04-29T11:14:00.000+05:30

I was feeling a little awkward in the morning today (its Sunday! Off off day!), and was kind of missing the yesteryears. It happens to one or the other, then and now. It’s a general sickness I supposed, suffered by all one time or the other.

And so, feeling how I felt, I rummaged some of the old things (artifacts eh?) that I brought along with me from Shillong to Delhi. Wait a minute (an after thought), not to genderised it to be an issue but I think malekind has the more tendency to fall in love with their old stuffs (or I am wrong?). I have heard lots of femalekind complaining of their hubby(s) and boys hobby in dirting the storerooms, rooms and where-not. Heh. Boys are boys!

Anyway, as I wanted to travel light (yet another malekind syndrome again, oops!), I brought along only those special ones. And as I ransacked them precious old things, there it was – my old DATA BANK (Data Organiser)!

I love gadgets then and also now too, but not the crazy types of love addictions though. So I bought this CASIO DATA BANK DC-2000 when I was in Class 11/12 (mid 90s) with my hard-earned savings of three-hundred (300) rupees if I am not wrong. It had been a long time back and I don’t have that good memory in the head.

I was a newsboy during those years and used to distribute newspapers for a profit of 25-50 paise per paper in the morning just before hurrying for my classes in College. I continued my small business till the last few months before shifting my base to Delhi in 2003, after my graduation.

Getting back to my Data Organiser, it could store telephone and fax numbers, memos, conversion tools and calculator. Oh yes, it also has a password-protected feature as well. Heh. But it wasn’t that hi-fi or high-memory data organizer. But I have to admit this – it had been a really helpful gadget to me and I treasured it a lot.

Retrieving something which is close to you in the past does sure put a smile on a face; bring back memories of good times and also happiness along with it.

Okay copycats, don’t you scurry off to peep at your old stuffs like I just did. LMAO.

R.A. Lorrain's photographs of the Mara people

2007-04-28T12:47:00.000+05:30

I found these old photographs in an old journal by the pioneer missionary Reginald A. Lorrain "Pu Zosap". The journal "Five years in Unknown Jungles" was first published in the United Kingdom by the Lakher Pioneer Mission, London in 1912.

I scanned these photos from the First Indian Reprint 1988 published and printed by Spectrum Publications, Guwahati on behalf of Tribal Research Institute, Aizawl, Mizoram.

The book "Five years in Unknown Jungles" is a 264-pages journal of five-year of the pioneer missionary "Pu Zosap" among the Lakher (Mara) tribe. The journal give an insight into the role of the Lakher Pioneer Mission and the development of the Mara people.

The Maras (formerly known as the Lakher) are indigenous peoples located in northeastern India, primarily in the Mara Autonomous District Council of the state of Mizoram (India). The Maras are also found living in the south-eastern part of Myanmar, in Chin State and Rakhine State which border the district. They were earlier known as the Lakher by outsiders, and the new name Mara was included in List of Scheduled Tribes in Mizoram state in 1988 replacing the older name. (~ Wikipedia)

I hope these valuable old photos will be of great help to those interested in the Mara people and the earlier era of their embracing Christianity, as detailed by the pioneer himself.

An eye-catching hot and sexy lap dancer

2007-04-27T18:08:00.000+05:30

The other day a friend wanted to buy a Laptop. So we made a trip to Nehru Place, a major hub of the information technology industry located in South Delhi.

The first showroom we entered was ComputerLand (51- 52, Ground Floor, Gedore House, Nehru Place), a HP Compaq dealer. After we were in and looked around the lappies, we noticed one that stood out from the others (in design and size). Noting the features that comes along with it, we were impressed. The laptop model was HP Pavilion TX1003 AU

But then as it was our first stop, we continued touring the other showrooms. After two rounds in the hub, we could not stop thinking of the first one that meets our eyes. It was kind of like love at first sight. Not only was the stylish trendy design became the kicker, the compared other features beats them all. Umm, the price also. The price tag (inclusive of all TAX) was 62,000 INR. We bought it for 60,000 INR. 8~O

Here are some of this sexy lap dancer's features:

Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-52(1.6GHz/1MB)
12.1" WXGA BrightView w/Integrated Touch-screen
180 degrees Twist & Touch Screen Display
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 6150
HP Imprint Finish, Microphone, Fingerprint Reader, Webcam
1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 (667 MHz) Memory expandable upto 2 GB
120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Lightscribe Super Multi DVD Writer (+/-R +/-RW) with Double Layer support
Altec Lansing Stereo Speaker
2x512 kb cache, up to 1600 Mhz FSB
Touch Pad
Two way scroll Zone
Finger Print Reader
3 USB Ports
Stereo Headphone In
Microphone In
Svideo TV Out
Rj-11
RJ-45
DC power in
VGA out
Bluetooth 2.0
4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
1.88 kg
10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
Integrated Wireless LAN 802.11 a/b/g
56k High Speed Modem
Xpress Card Slot
Express Card Remote Control
Stylus with Tether
1.3 Mega Pixel Web Camera
Two Omni Directional Microphones

Whiskey Lullaby

2007-04-26T20:30:00.000+05:30

I once visit a friend's place and they were playing this song. It was my first time hearing the song being played and watched. I found this song very touching. The more so when you watch the music video.

Whiskey Lullaby is a song about a couple who divorce and eventually kill themselves because they miss each other. The full length music video is set in the 1940s. It starts out with a man returning home from the Army, and find her wife in bed with another man. He then leaves her. The man starts drinking being not able to get his wife off his mind. He eventually gets so drunk that he kills himself. The wife, blaming herself for his death, also began drinking a lot, thinking that it is the only way to make her feel better until it also killed her. The song was written by Bill Anderson and Jon Randall.

Watch the Music Video (YouTube):

Here is how the lyric goes:

Brad Paisley - Whiskey Lullaby (Featuring Alison Krauss)

She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette
She broke his heart he spent his whole life tryin' to forget
We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time
But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind
Until the night

1st Chorus
He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away her memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees
We found him with his face down in the pillow
With a note that said I'll love her till I die
And when we buried him beneath the willow
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby

(Sing lullaby)

The rumors flew but nobody knew how much she blamed herself
For years and years she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath
She finally drank her pain away a little at a time
But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind
Until the night

2nd Chorus
She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away his memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength she had to get up off her knees
We found her with her face down in the pillow
Clinging to his picture for dear life
We laid her next to him beneath the willow
While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby

A larger Zolife photos

2007-04-26T17:40:00.000+05:30

For those who would like to O\/\/|\| a larger size of those photos posted at Zolife photo gallery, here are some which I edited from the original(s). Other than changing the resolution, auto leveling the color and the size, I dare not touch the others. >8=)

Interview with The Girl Writer

2007-02-24T17:31:00.000+05:30

Have you ever wondered or ever thought of a ‘Northeast’ kid writing or even selling a book? Believe it or not, but this is true. Her name is Immanuel Lalsanhim Keivom and she has written a book and that too, only at the age of 12!

Her book is entitled “The Girl Writer”, about her school-life back in Tokyo, Japan, where her parents were posted in the Indian Embassy. She studied from Grade 2 to Grade 5 over there.

She thought of the settings and every other things required for her book “The Girl Writer” when she was in Grade 6 plus. The short autobiography contains 35 pages, priced for Rs. 20.

Her parents, Mr. Malsawmthang Keivom and Mrs. Chinghoihkim Keivom, published her book in January 2007. Right now, the Girl Writer is doing her Grade-VII at Ryan International School in Greater Noida, Delhi.

The Girl Writer could, well, have her name in history as the youngest ever writer among the Hmars and other Sinlung originated peoples. Here is an excerpt of an interview with “The Girl Writer”:

LN = Lalremlien Neitham
ILK = Immanuel Lalsanhim Keivom

LN: What is your book “The Girl Writer” about?
ILK: It’s about my school-life back in Tokyo, Japan, where my parents were posted in the Indian Embassy. It includes about my, well… my personal experiences with my classmates and teachers and all the functions I enjoyed. Not only that, the main point of the story is my goal to be a writer; just not only a writer, but to be an internationally acclaimed writer.

LN: When did you started working with this book?
ILK: Well, I started working on the book during my summer vacation between May and June in 2006. It took me around two months to write the book.

LN: Since when did you take interest in reading and writing?
ILK: Since 2nd Grade, I have started taking keen interests in reading and especially writing.

LN: Which type of books do you take interest in?
ILK: The books that I prefer are like pre-adolescent or kid stuff, sort of books that have voodoo stuff, fantasies, magic, mysteries and, of course, adventures. I think realities are boring. I like dreaming away with imagination.

LN: Dreaming away with imagination… I like that. Which books do you read?
ILK: Actually, there are a lot of them. The list is really long – The Magic Tree House series, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Black Beauty, The White Stallion, Sherlock Holmes, Matilda, Goosebumps series, Sleepy Hollow, The Ramona series, Number the Stars, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dracula, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, The Wizard of Oz, Treasure Island, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more. I also read books related to my school subjects.

LN: Did you face any difficulties while working on “The Girl Writer”?
ILK: A lot, I mean, yes. I had to put things together and recall back memories from files and photos on my sketch plan. I even had to look through my old yearbooks. Writing is not at all that easy. In fact, success comes after hard work.

LN: Who edited your book?
ILK: My parents edited some of the childish expressions that I included in my book. The rest are unadulterated.

LN: Well, you are fortunate you got helpful parents.
ILK: Oh yes, and they are also very encouraging.

LN: Any plans on another book?
ILK: Yep and this time it’s going to be about Africa. It’s going to be about kids of my age enjoying and venturing for an adventure to the Savannas and deserts. I’m already brainstorming for my next book.

LN: That sounds interesting. My best wishes for your next book. I am looking forward to it.
ILK: Thanks.

The Sewagram Experience

2007-02-15T01:16:00.000+05:30

Lest I forget (to keep an account of the titbits other than the ordinary everyday lifestyle in my life), let me write down and also share again a bit of my experience in and en route to my visit at Sewagram in Maharashtra.

Between 8 and 11 February 2006, I was at Gandhiji Ashram in Sewagram, around 30 minutes to 1-hour drive by train from Nagpur, one of the two capitals of the state of Maharashtra. I was there for the meeting of ACTION 2007.

The meeting for ACTION 2007 (09-11 Feb 2007) was held under the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) which is a collective of diverse people’s movements and organizations and like minded people that struggle across India against injustice, exploitation and communal, ethnic, caste and gender-based discrimination.

That apart, I took a train (J.T. Express) from New Delhi railway station. The train departed accordingly to the departure schedule, which was 7:06 PM in the evening (the exact departure time may be around 7:15-7:30 PM). The travelling was smooth. I almost finished my carried 501 pages novel - The Innocent Man by John Grisham.

The novel is a non-fiction based on a true story of a fallen raising baseball player with a troubled mind who was convicted with a death penalty for a gruesome murder he did not commit, and his battle against a questionable injustice legal system. It was a good read than expected. I really wish I could write a novel of whatever genre, profitable or non-profitable. It’s one of those dream I have since learning to enjoy reading.

I safely reached Sewagram at around 2:30 in the afternoon. I got down from the train and asked the railways stall vendor - the direction to the exit and also the auto-stand. At the exit/entrance gate, ‘unusually’ passengers were asked for their train tickets. I showed my ticket to the railway official.

To my shock, I was told that my ticket was for only up to Nagpur. He asked me to give him the ticket from Nagpur to Sewagram, which I ‘fortunately’ did not have. I was on board the train from Nagpur to Sewagram without proper ticket. That makes me - an illegal train passenger! The truth of the matter was that I actually did not know that I would need another separate ticket. If I would have known, I would have equipped myself with one in Nagpur for which there was quite a time to book myself one.

I argued with the official that my ticket was valid up to Sewagram. But it did not actually help. I was marched to the railway office. And the argument ensued. Even after realizing that I was at fault (though the ticket was not booked my myself), maybe just for the fun of it, I continued to argue with the officials. After all, these people were good at it and like it so themselves too. But later, I had to obediently give a Rs. 292 fine for being a defaulter. But whether I was at fault or not, I was damned pissed.

After the exit from the station, I next went to the parked auto-walla. I asked the fare for my actual destination, which is Gandhi Ashram in Sewagram. The auto-walla replied that it would be Rs. 60. What good expectation can I have with these sorts of people? They are the same everywhere - blackmailers and robbers.

Afore mentioned, I was already pissed by my not so long ago experience when I was coming out from the station. I sarcastically laughed at the face of the auto-walla. The auto-walla asked me the reason why I was laughing (He was also laughing away himself). I bluntly answered, “What do you find it so funny to make you laugh too?” With that I left him. A minute or two later, the auto-walla with his auto-rikshaw came rushing after me. Oh, I am bull-headed sometimes (especially when pissed) and I already resolved that I am not going to be bulldozed around by such people as this auto-walla. He had to go back to his stand. I said to myself, serve him right.

The funny thought that came to me then was, “if Gandhi can do a Dandi March, why cannot I?” I am not Gandhi though. I continued on taking the road, along with my luggage. After a walk for sometime, I again came across an auto-riskshaw stand. I went through the same with them.

There was a diversion of the road - one that goes straight, and one on the right. I asked the auto-wallas which way is the road to Sewagram. They beckoned me the road that lead straight ahead.

I had some gut feeling that I was not played with honestly. Even then, I followed the direction given to me. After walking for 5-10 minutes, a curious schoolboy walking up front waited for me. To double-check my route, I asked him the way to Gandhi Ashram in Sewagram. He told me that I had been fooled. He told me, “you should have taken the other route at the diversion.” (He saw me asking for directions to the auto-wallas).

The boy was helpful and honest enough to tell me the fares also. I empathize myself that, at least there are some good “mainland Indians”. These cheats really can change your perception of the “mainland Indians”. They do not know the ugly impressions they are doing to the whole country by their lowly attitude in trying to rob people of their money. They should even be jailed for these kind of discriminating acts. At the same time, one cannot blame them all for their ‘uncivilized’ manners.

Stupid it might seem, the government can do something useful here. It can come out with a paid educational and awareness classes for these auto-wallas in every part of the country so that the important services they rendered to the citizen plays a great role in giving a good look to the country’s image.

Well folks, that’s all that I want to share with you today.

Weather Robbery

2007-02-13T13:56:00.000+05:30

After a long break of blogging, I could now find a little time to blog some. Well, I just wanted to share and inform you that the egg price in Delhi (or just the locality I reside?) has soared so high it just make me want to write a tiny view on it.

Early morning today (I guess for many 10 would not be considered too early), I went down to the shop to get myself eggs for breakfast. Eggs are not my crazies though. I asked for 10 rupees worth of eggs, and the shopkeeper told his helper to give me three (3) eggs.

"Three eggies only for 10 rupees?" I asked myself surprised. Curiously, I asked the shopkeeper why only three eggs? He told me, "The prices of eggs have gone up. One egg cost 3 rupees each these days" The reason, he said, is because of the climatic change (it has been raining and weather was cold and chilly) for the last 2-3 days.

I found the reason so absurd and funny. Just because it rained, the prices of eggs have to go up and up?

If not five, then four eggs for 10 rupees goes fine with me. But just three eggs? This marketting strategy, which is only determined only for profit, has to be joking. But it aint so much of a joke when you had to shell out that much money for only three eggs.

Just see, in summer it would be almost free to buy the same eggs for the same amount of money but more than six (6) eggs. This unstable fluctuation in prices of commodities cannot be termed as the strengthening of a nation's economy.

I came up with a rather stupid questioning - does the government increases and tax the market controllers as par the change in weather? I would give this marketing strategy a downright justified term 'weather robbery'.

It is truly so, and many of us are yet to grasp that our livelihood is at stake by such invisible and destructive market driven financial market. Another ugly face of globalization where markets are governed not taking into consideration the have-nots, but only for the haves.

Where does that put us - as a nation, state, local community or society? We need a stable people-friendly market where all commodities are affordable to the common man, a market driven economical policies that would ensure the different strata of society a proper livelihood, and not a profit-only driven economic policy.

Sikpui — A Festival with a Difference

2006-08-18T14:03:00.000+05:30

As the days and months unconsciously fade away, and we near the year's end again with each passing day, we look forward to our tomorrows, planning our moves with what to do. Each and every 'year', we looked forward to that 'day' of speciality when the young and old, the good and bad, the beautiful and ugly, and the poor and the rich would inter-lock hands—singing and swaying to the tune of the most controversial and mystifying song of our peoples—"Sikpui inthang kan ur laia".

It is strange but it is this very song that gives me the feeling of nostalgia of the past whenever I sing it—whether with a whisper or aloud. It is often then that I would get Goosebumps. It's odd and unexplainable as to why I feel so whenever I sing this 'sacred' song. I assume that even our forefathers felt the same way. And to tell the truth, I like the way I felt then.

And as we are slowly approaching that special day, we question ourselves—jumbling with our thoughts—whether to celebrate Sikpui Ruoi 2006. To array our thoughts, it is important to grasp the tradition of celebrating Sikpui Ruoi and the underlying message it conveys.

It is said that—our forefathers did not celebrate Sikpui on those years whenever bad befell on them. It used to be celebrated only and when the time and conditions were at their best; when the community as a whole had a successful and abundant harvest, and the years in which there were no death and disease in the village or among the communities or there were no wars and invasions.

But then I suppose, it may not be just because of that simple reason of symbolic solidarity. The wise men of those days would have probably meant to pass on a message by their act of "solidarity". Today, as we try to interpret and redefine that unique tradition of celebrating a Sikpui, we need to go beyond the characterizing of it as a mere symbolic celebration for all it's being our and only surviving festival.

It is true and agreeable, as David Buhril in his article "Celebrating Sikpuiruoi or Not?" pointed out that "...culture functioned here as a safety valve, relieving the pressure of events in the society, and at the same time as a genuine messenger of decency and hope for the future. Culture should be assigned a cornerstone of the society". And, "Our attempt may be, in adopting the "No Sikpuiruoi" approach, to show solidarity to our folks who suffer. But that solidarity is hollow and numb if we do nothing beyond merely showing..."

Instead of saying no to Sikpuiruoi, it will mean a lot more if we could strongly condemn the perpetrators who brought us untold miseries in all possible platforms."

But what I feel nevertheless is that the "No to Sikpui Ruoi" approach is not only about showing a mere symbolic solidarity with our people in Ruong-le-vaisuo who were raped, maimed, tortured, killed, and displaced by Meitei militants early this year and to those of our dear departed ones who fell victims to the barbarianism of the unthinkable. I dare not say that the de-celebrating of Sikpui would inflict injury to our culture and tradition, which we all dearly hold to. Neither would I interpret it as some sort of a sacrificial offering; nor a mean to devalue its value. Instead, the "No to Sikpui Ruoi" approach here would nourish more—the very essence and significance for what the festival is really worth.

To me, Sikpui Ruoi is not just a festival which we celebrate every year. More than that Sikpui Ruoi is a valued and sacred event that signifies and advocates our traditional and cultural values and our uniqueness. In my view, the "No to Sikpui Ruoi" approach will not in anyway diminish its worth; rather it would enhance it and us. Neither is it about giving a "triumphant" stamp and space to those who did what they did to us, but should be regarded otherwise. And that is what it is all about—on the whys of why we will not celebrate when we could. Also then this is not about the "them" but more of the "us".

It is more than celebrating a nation's Independence Day. It is different from the merry-making on Christmas day. This is because it has its own enigma attached to it and which our forefathers had adhered to since its inception; and which we should continue to uphold in the face of 'modernization' which, in a way "demands" celebrating each of our own people's festival every year. Let's not just dump its intrinsic value so as to be part of the festivities trend that our other brothers celebrate each year. Let's remind ourselves of our Sikpui's own exclusivity.

Sikpui is a festival with a difference—a festival that asserts the uniqueness of our identity and culture. And for this very reason, I am for a "No" to a Sikpui Ruoi this year. The uniqueness will strengthen our identity. And we are obligated to preserve our distinctiveness in the face of "adversities", without being labelled a traditionalist orthodox. To me, it doesn't matter if we may have to cancel the ever anticipated Sikpui Ruoi yet again next year for some unforeseen events that may unfortunately befall on our people.

The very quintessence on why we did not have will deepen and make stronger the value of our unique culture and tradition that we are so proud of, and which we need to carry along in the face of the all-powerful and inevitable cultures and traditions eradicator—black globalisation.

And that, I believe, will revive, revitalise and reaffirm the indigenousness of our unique identity as a people.

My first go to a Movie Theatre in Delhi

2006-08-08T12:10:00.000+05:30

It was on the night of August 07, 2006 that for the first time on my three-years stay in New Delhi, the wild wild capital city of India, I went to a movie theatre at PVR Priya in Vasant Vihar. I had been planning to go to a movie for a long time but then I usually end up kicking myself on the butt saying it’s a waste of time, money and energy.

I still remembered the first movie I ever watched in a Cinema Hall with my family during my childhood days. I forgot how old I was then. But then the movie lingers on. The movie we watch was a Hindi filimi, and about friendship. The name of the movie was DOSTI.

I am curious—how many of us have also watched the award-winning film. I guess it was a good one. I remembered the tears flowing like a river in my eyes. LMAO. If I am not wrong, the price of a movie ticket was less than Rs. 5 during those times. I do not know how much it might have increased by now. It was in the 80s.

I also remembered, during my years in Shillong, Meghalaya (India), I ‘never’ went for a movie. I may have gone to a theatre thrice for the most, in all my 14 years living there. I wasn’t much of a movie or theatre freak. Even those times when I went, it could not actually be counted as going to a movie since I did not actually pay for the tickets. We (with a friend) used to sneak in during the intermission. Heh.

That was naughty but fun. When we were in, we were luckily surprised to find some of our friends inside and so we took the seats next to them with some of us sitting double. LOL. Mine were not a crazy teen days. But recalling those moments, I think I was somewhat crazy doing that. But I guess many of you had a crazier life than mine to laugh about today.

The crazier, the louder the laughter with little regrets on the good times had. With some bad times as well, I should add.

Back to square one.

The movie was to start at 7:25 PM. Me and a colleague — Durang — could only come out from the office when the clock almost strike 7:00 PM. By the way, the day before was her (my colleague) birthday. And mine was on the 8th of the earlier month. So the Movie!

After the usual bargaining with the auto-walla, we to in to the auto-rickshaw for a “long ride”. And the traffic was so irritating (that’s the usual when one is in a hurry to reach a place).

We reached Priya and were queued at the PVR Priya ticket counter at around 7:30 PM! By then, we were only hoping against hope to get a ticket for the movie we so much intended to watch. But finally and fortunately, we were able to smile. The movie had not started yet. It seems it was waiting for us after-all.

And then comes the funny part.

After passing through the security and then the theatre door with the tickets in our hands. We started looking for the place to seat us in the dark. We could not find and did not know where to sit!

Imagine, two grown-ups looking sheepishly around, changing seats in the front and then to the back. That’s the price one pays for ignorance! But then luckily, a guide with torchlight came and took us to our row. Still, we still sat on the wrong seats! God! Do you know any others who are dumber fools that these two? LOL! After a minute of taking our seats, the movie began.

Oh, the movie was OMKARA—a film interpretation from Shakespeare’s Othello. Vishal Bharadwaj directed the movie. Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Bipasha Basu and Naseeruddin Shah played the lead roles. The movie was good, with a sad unexpected ending and great acting skills and dialogue from “Langra” Saif Ali Khan. But the Hindi language used was very difficult to understand for a person with a limited Hindi knowledge. And they used to many slang.

After the movie ended, we went to the auto-rickshaw stand again and the same old bargaining thing with the wallas re-started… I have no idea why I am addicted to arguing with the auto-wallas. LMAO.

Say NO to corrupted Schools!

2006-08-04T17:56:00.000+05:30

On 04 August 2006, I got to read a message sent to a Hmar discussion group on the Internet. The 'enlightening' news posted was in regards to the appointment of government school teachers in Manipur, a much sought-after 'hot seat' that can have a strong competition with the election of an MLA or CM of Manipur and with which one can enjoy the status of a 'teacher' and the food-without-work salary without shedding much of a sweat in teaching.

Heck! Who would not go for that sort of 'facility' you will receive? I guess only a paltry few would not fall for such great a temptation. I do not know how true the news I received and read was. Whatsoever, one cannot help to somehow believe in it, taking into account the open secret that flies every now and then of the teacherless schools-turned-cowsheds.

It is being said and 'rumored' that many of the wannabe teacher candidates are running helter-skelter looking for money crossing the five digits numbers to 'donate' to officials who may in turn be able to 'reward' them with the all-famous teacherhood that everybody seems to be running after.

Our society has been engulfed into such a pitiful state that we do not care a damn of the respectable status of a Teacher. The absentee of our humane conscience is destroying the fabric of our society and its a shame we do not care even a pinch.

It is understandable for the wannabe teacher candidates to some extend as they can be said to be compelled to do what they are doing. But that can itself turn to be merely an excuse which will further deteriorate our society to encourage corruption which has cruelly, not only destroying, but also taking away the soul and life of our society.

What that is called for today, is a re-looking of our inner-self and to remake and redeem our deteriorated society. Let us NOT encourage corruption and the breaking apart of our societal values and norms which are still free, in a way, from corruption.

Corruption will not only destroy us, but also our family, and our very near and dear ones. Think about it. Do you really want that to happen? A broken family without pride?

As for myself, I prefer to suffer. Whatever it takes and demands of you, SAY NO TO CORRUPTION! It is the only realistic-way to fight CORRUPTION!

2006-01-01T15:16:00.004+05:30

MAY 2008

Must have USB virus removal tools
Having your computer infected with viruses and trojans is a frustrating experience. With the massive usage of pen drives, the viruses are having their day giggling with their kind of fun than in the past. The use of USB pen-drives and removable storage devices from one computer to another increases the rate of virus infection.

Why Gmail?
I don’t exactly remember anymore when I first had my Google offered email service. During those times, the service was available only on invitation. I still do remember my request to one of the frequent IRC chatters in DALnet to send me the Gmail preview version. I had my Gmail account probably in June or July 2004. But I rarely use the service then.

APRIL 2008

New Sister
My eldest brother got married on 11 April, 2008 at the Church of Evangelical Free Church of India (EFCI), Shillong and I got a brand new sister now. The wedding was ministered by Rev. J. Huoplien Neitham.

Typical Indians
I know not if you have notice anything similar as this when you take flights. This is what I usually observed when I fly - whenever we reach our destination, most of the passengers usually stand on queue when the plane comes to a halt (and sometimes when it hasn't). I wonder what would psychologists' say to this - impatient or desperate or ...?

MARCH 2008

Toll Free Numbers in India
A toll-free is a special telephone number where the called party is charged for the the cost of the calls instead of the caller. In India, toll-free numbers used to begin with "1600" but now the same numbers can be called using "1800". Unfortunately, most of these toll free numbers are accessible only through the BSNL and MTNL phones excluding the customer care numbers of mobile service providers.

Using the media to defame the NE people
"...It seems, spas with doctors is the next big thing. Walk into a spa which has music, scented aroma candles, but here you'll meet a professional doctor rather than a Linda from the North-East. And order for yourself a quick botox, lunchtime peel, nip-and-tuck liposuction or a nose surgery..."

FEBRUARY 2008

Auto-resize posted images in a Wordpress-powered blog
This is so simple. I just could not believe that it could be this simple. No complex coding. No javascripting.

Carla Bruni
You probably have heard of Carla Bruni. She is the girlfriend and now wife of the present French President - Nicolas Sarkozy. The two married on February 2, 2008. It is said that this is her first marriage.

Gospel Centenary in South West Manipur
Christianity in South-West (S-W) Manipur was first introduced in the year 1910 at Senvon village in Churachandpur District. It was at this hilly village, one of the biggest Hmar villages even today, that the Welsh Missionary Mr. Watkin R Roberts came with other native missionaries from Aizawl, Mizoram to pioneer Christianity to the tribals in S-W Manipur.

How to format your typing correctly
I guess the post title is straight forward enough to speak what this post will be about.

JANUARY 2008

New Year and Resolutions
Ah. Finally back in Delhi after 18 days (10 Dec–28 Dec, 2007) of refreshening travelling to Aizawl and Shillong. Happy New Year!

Screenshoot your website(s) in different web browsers
You know how to use WYSIWYG HTML Editors, how to design and code your website with HTML, CSS, Javascript, Java, Flash, blah blahs.

Vairengte
I visited Vairengte, a small town in Kolasib district of Mizoram last year in 2007. That was my first visit to Mizoram. Maybe one of these days, if I can recollect, I will try to write the experiences of my visit.

Tughlaqabad Fort
I was strolling around yesterday nearby our office in Sarvpriya Vihar, near IIT flyover in New Delhi. There is this rocky ruin which I haven't visited but always wonder of what it was.

NOVEMBER 2007

Novels Shelf
I love reading books, especially fiction novels. I do read non-fictions sometimes. But I find fictions intriguing and exciting; they nurture and sharpens your ways of thinking with the twists and turns of the story plots.

OCTOBER 2007

News Content Management
Grrrr! Grrrr! I am almost done with my 'simple(?)' News Content Management, but its killing me! Can't think this or that, but that! Can't just get if off my head. This is insanity.

Food Insecurity in Tipaimukh
"Food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life." - [Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, 1996]

SEPTEMBER 2007

Convert and Download YouTube videos
I came across a number of not-so-techie netizens who asked me whether I know of any methods to download the videos posted at the revolutionizing media destination on the web - YouTube.com,

A Slippery Road; the Case of the World Bank in Mizoram
A four-day “Independent People’s Tribunal (IPT) on the World Bank Group in India” held at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi on 21-24 September, 2007 was attended by over 600 activists, students, academicians, policy analysts, lawyers and projects-affected communities across India who presented indicting evidence against the Bank in over 26 sectors.

AUGUST 2007

Get them contents right on your mobile phone daily
Let me share with you this impressive mobile phone service I subscribed, for free, that keeps me up-to-date on some of the latest happenings around the world, eh, India whether you can spare the time to read the morning paper or browse the Internet. I came across their service after a friend (I can't exactly recall where it was a she or he) forwarded me an SMS sent by this mobile service.

Softwares I can't lived without
Here is a list of softwares that I use and can't 'live' without. If you haven't use them yet, you can give a go too. I hope you will also find them useful in your digitalized life.

I am the First among Zo Bloggers?
Maybe, maybe not. I think I am, or eh, rather, I should claim to be the first of the many Zo kindred bloggers we come across today on the Internet.

DMZP Freshers' Social & Rock and Roll
What do I say? It was kind of a flop event if I am to express my view on the Delhi Mizo Zirlai Pawl (DMZP) Freshers’ Social that was held at Mizoram House, Vasant Vihar on August 25, 2007.

JULY 2007

There Goes My Extra Eyes
Well, this is yet another of those unfortunate incidents in life. This has happened to me more than thrice now as far as I could recall. Just tough luck or simply carelessness could be the causes of it. Whichever it is, there is none of those “Life is Good” feeling whenever these sort of things happen and as a consequences one lose some dearly-held stuffs.

JUNE 2007

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Providers
Here is a the list VPS providers in alphabetical order (Please note that the inclusion of the provider is not a recommendation saying that they are reliable or good, it is always best to read users review on hosting reviews websites):

PageRank of Northeast India based Websites
Here are the PageRank positions of websites from Northeast India! Look which site tops the list, right now! Whooaaaaaaaaaaaah! But sad to say, the topper is not available for the past 2 months due to some major hosting issues (to be more specific - CPU Time and MySQL Conqueries) which has prohibited me from continuing the site services - for the time being.

The first CD Album Cover I designed
I am not a graphic designer. But I do like playing around with colours and retouching them photos with Photoshop. It is one those things I indulged myself in when I get bored.

MAY 2007

Quick accessing your Gmail and Yahoo! Mail
I was rather bored today. But hand it to that boringness, I discovered some hidden tricks that has something to do with the Internet that had been left undiscovered to me till then.

Some random photo shots
I am not a good photographer. Nevertheless, I like photography. I like taking shots. But it's kind of just a hobby since long back. I never thought of making career out of it.

Speeding up your Windows Startup
Many of us are impatient individuals. This unique behavior is often exposed when one starts and wait for the Windows powered Operating System to load up. Most often than not, you become frustrated with the start-up process and sometimes would like to smash the system.

Cleaning up the System Startup Registry items
In my previous post, I wrote one of the many tricks on how to customize and speed up your Windows load time. As mentioned in the previous post, this writing will be on how to cleanup those deactivated items from your MSCONFIG utility.

APRIL 2007

A larger Zolife photos
A larger size of those photos posted at Zolife photo gallery, here are some which I edited from the original(s). Other than changing the resolution, auto leveling the color and the size, I dare not touch the others. >8=)

Whiskey Lullaby
I once visit a friend's place and they were playing this song. It was my first time hearing the song being played and watched. I found this song very touching. The more so when you watch the music video.

An eye-catching hot and sexy lap dancer
The other day a friend wanted to buy a Laptop. So we made a trip to Nehru Place, a major hub of the information technology industry located in South Delhi.

R.A. Lorrain's photographs of the Mara people
I found these old photographs in an old journal by the pioneer missionary Reginald A. Lorrain "Pu Zosap". The journal "Five years in Unknown Jungles" was first published in the United Kingdom by the Lakher Pioneer Mission, London in 1912.

OMG! My Old Precious DATA BANK!
I was feeling a little awkward in the morning today (its Sunday! Off off day!), and was kind of missing the yesteryears. It happens to one or the other, then and now. It’s a general sickness I supposed, suffered by all one time or the other.

FEBRUARY 2007

Weather Robbery
After a long break of blogging, I could now find a little time to blog some. Well, I just wanted to share and inform you that the egg price in Delhi (or just the locality I reside?) has soared so high it just make me want to write a tiny view on it.

The Sewagram Experience
Lest I forget (to keep an account of the titbits other than the ordinary everyday lifestyle in my life), let me write down and also share again a bit of my experience in and en route to my visit at Sewagram in Maharashtra.

Interview with The Girl Writer
Have you ever wondered or ever thought of a ‘Northeast’ kid writing or even selling a book? Believe it or not, but this is true. Her name is Immanuel Lalsanhim Keivom and she has written a book and that too, only at the age of 12!

AUGUST 2006

Say NO to corrupted Schools!
On 04 August 2006, I got to read a message sent to a Hmar discussion group on the Internet. The 'enlightening' news posted was in regards to the appointment of government school teachers in Manipur, a much sought-after 'hot seat' that can have a strong competition with the election of an MLA or CM of Manipur and with which one can enjoy the status of a 'teacher' and the food-without-work salary without shedding much of a sweat in teaching.

My first go to a Movie Theatre in Delhi
It was on the night of August 07, 2006 that for the first time on my three-years stay in New Delhi, the wild wild capital city of India, I went to a movie theatre at PVR Priya in Vasant Vihar. I had been planning to go to a movie for a long time but then I usually end up kicking myself on the butt saying it’s a waste of time, money and energy.

Sikpui—A Festival with a Difference
As the days and months unconsciously fade away, and we near the year's end again with each passing day, we look forward to our tomorrows, planning our moves with what to do.

About

2006-01-01T00:00:00.004+05:30

I blog just for the fun of it – on anything that crosses my mind and which I want to share it around. There is nothing such as special stuffs in the blog that might interest you. After all, it is just a weird guy's blog. So what's the big deal?

I love to design and develop websites. I like photography. I like writing and collecting news and information. I love art and music. I love colors. I love reading novels. I am imaginative, empathetic, protective, secretive, unpredictable, boring, quiet, shy, moody, stubborn and very touchy at times. I like earthly environment. I am very concern with humanity. Did I mistakenly leave out anything?