Face of America (or the lac of it)

Many citizens in the US may wonder, why do so many people in the world dislike them? why is their innocent presence at the crosshairs of terror attacks? Inspite of being a great icon of freedom and democracy, what's the problem with people around the world?

When you look at the US as a lay outsider with some facts from history, you would come across a behavioral pattern of fear - of losing the superpower status, fear - of inability to feed the gluttonous US consumption, someday.  It is this fear that makes US today:

1. The country with the maximum weapons of mass destruction, which is on a desperate hunt to disarm the rest of the world

2. The only country that used a weapon of mass destruction

3. The country that aided creation of Taliban, to counter the soviet "threat"  - Was silent during its conquest of afghanistan. And today the militia is the biggest threat to the US and the good world. 

4. The country with a greed to keep its citizens consuming, invaded Iraq with a mask of fighting terror, only to gain control on oil and to boost its war-driven economy.

Here's an example of a country that showed itself to its citizen as a great idol of freedom and democracy. While to the rest of the world it pressed upon its tyranny.

Will change arrive in the US with Obama at its helm? At least the first hundred days of the charismatic leader indicate otherwise.

आज मैंने ऊँगली की - मेरे देश के भविष्य से

पहली बार ज़िन्दगी मैं, हमारी राष्ट्रभाषा मैं ब्लॉग लिखने की कोशिश कर रहा हूँ।
हिन्दी भाषा के प्रेमी, विशेषज्ञ, और बीते हुए कई विद्वानों की आत्माओं से मैं अपनी कच्ची भाषा की माफ़ी चाहूँगा।

आज हमारे देश के केंद्रीय चुनाव का चरण, मेरे शहर मुंबई मैं हुआ। काफ़ी दिनों से तमन्ना थी के मैं अपने देश के भविष्य मैं कुछ ऊँगली करूँ। आज मुझे ऊँगली करने का अच्छा अवसर मिला, वोह भी बीच वाली ऊँगली करने का!
सबसे अच्छी बात यह थी के अन्य जगहों पर ऊँगली करने से काफ़ी अलग, यहाँ, देश के भविष्य मैं ऊँगली करने के लिए केवल ३ मिनट का समय लगा।

३ मिनट मैं जितना ऊँगली करना था, हम कर लिए। सबूत के लिए, ऊँगली पर ऐसी दाग लगा दी सरकार ने के हम गाते ही रहगये - " लागा ऊँगली मैं दाग मिटाऊँ कैसे, घर जाऊं कैसे??"।
तीन मिनट से ज्यादा ऊँगली करने की सरकार ने इजाज़त न दी। उसके आगे पाँच साल तक ऊँगली करेंगे हमारे चुने हुए नेता। और हैरत की बात यह है के पाँच साल ऊँगली करने के बाद भी, उनपर एक भी दाग न होगा।

उम्मीद करता हूँ मेरे दोस्तों, आप सबने जी भर के ऊँगली की हमारे देश के भविष्य से। अगला मौका आसानी से हाथ न आएगा। और इस पाँच साल के दौरान, हाला के हम ऊँगली नही कर पाएंगे, हमारे पास होगा एक विशेष प्रजातान्त्रिक अधिकार। गांधीजी के प्रसिद्ध तीन बंदरों मैं से किसी एक का रूप और अंदाज़ धारण करने का हमें पूरा मौका दिया जाएगा।

याने - अगर सरकार और उनके शागिर्दों का किया बुरा देखे अथवा सुने, तो चुप्प रहिये। बाकी दो बंदरों के उपयोग का आप ख़ुद अनुमान लगायें।

आशा करता हूँ के आपके इलाके मैं सही ऊँगली-द्वार ,,, मेरा मतलब उम्मिद्वार चुन आए।

जय प्रजातंत्र । जय भारत माता । और पिता... जो भी चुन आए ।

Joy of a wireless home

I am obsessed with computers and the Internet and consider them to be my basic necessities after food, shelter and perhaps clothing ;-).

The last financial year has been a year when i spoilt myself with quite a few interesting gadgets. The latest one was a wireless router that i decided to install at my home, to enable my 2 PCs and mainly a laptop to get connected to each other and share a network connection.

Three-four years back, I first experimented with a wired LAN, with cables running through my room. Made one of my machines as a gateway and shared the internet connection. I had considered later to buy a linksys wireless kit, but during that time it costed about thrice as much as the conventional cabled network.  Inspite of the cables being called "CAT-5", rodents were not scared to take a nice bite at 'em. Thanks to their ruthless attacks, house repairs etc, the cabling failed and i got too bored to restore it.

Wireless At Last!

Lower Price:

Meanwhile i found that the price of a wireless router and adapters had reduced drastically. I ran to a neighborhood shop and purchased a router like i would buy a packet of biscuit. The price difference between the shop and the computer hardware mecca of our city - Lamington Road, was a couple of hundred bucks. I settled for a D-link DIR-300 model that costed me about 2 grands. 

Configuration with your internet provider:

Initially i couldnt connect to the internet because of a software that my cable operator uses to connect me (called Cyberroam 24 online). I fixed this by requesting them to make some changes on their side, which would connect me based on my IP and MAC address and not the software.  

Wireless security:

It is absolutely imperative to password protect a wireless connection. Few simple steps provided in the router configuration made my network invisible to the mean bad world outside, and also password protected it, just in case they spotted my signal.

Presto! now i can access the net without wires from any part of my home. My rodent guests now have no other choice but to feast on the Rat-kill biscuits.