The Sorrows and Joys of Digital World

Written on Thursday, December 21, 2006 by Unknown


It was yet another monday morning but not quite.
Logged into office, tried to sign into yahoo messenger (one of the few important things which i do as soon as i come to office) but to my dismay got "incorrect password" error again and again. Tried logging into yahoo mail, no success here either. Fearing the worst logged into my alternate email account, and there it was, the dreaded mail from yahoo "Your password has been changed".
With all kind of negative thoughts tried the "forgot password" option but it would always throw an error "The information you entered does not match with your profile information"...
The hacker was smart enough to change everything!!!

"Cmon this is just a free mail account, you can get another", i said to myself. But then i just could not gulp the fact that i just had lost a 5 year old mail account with over 100 contacts in messenger.

So what's the big deal???. You can get another for free.
If this is what you are asking, wait till it happens to you. The sorrows of digital world are different.

Anyways surrounded by the gloom i resolved of getting it back, no matter what. Going through the help pages i got a link where i could i mail them about my problem. I got a response immediately and as expected it was an automated reply :(. Frustrated i did a Google and my search string was exactly this "Recover hacked yahoo account". Got to read people's experiences where somebody was lucky to get the account back in a month after number of mail and phone communication with yahoo, while for some, yahoo was not as friendly.

What gave me the ray of hope was this post by a guy who said " The key is to get a live person (not a machine) to communicate with you. Make him believe that account is yours and it's really important for you to get it back" . As for this guy he had mailed them saying he had his children's photos in the mail box and it could be some pervert pedophile hacker downloading them. This worked like a miracle and the yahoo helped this guy to even remember his answer to security question by giving him hints. (Yeah, this guy was able to recover the account even without knowing the answer). The yahoo support guys threw hints like "probably you were watching some cartoon shows while creating this account".

This was enough for me to start onto my "recover yahoo" mission. I mailed them giving all possible kind of reasons why i should have my account back. (The mail makes for hilarious reading now, can not post it here coz has some private information). And believe it or not a person (no machine this time) replied back within 48 hours giving me my new password.
Yep i got my account back in just about 48 hours. Talk about the joy i got after seeing the mail in my mail box. Was i plain lucky. just a little creative...... or perhaps both. :)

If you are one of those poor fellas who have lost their yahoo account (or for that matter any other account) or if you ever get into situation like this, do not lose hope, even if you do not remember any damn thing about your account , of course do not forget your user id ;) . In the ages of machines you do have humans somewhere down the line. Use your skills (and sentiaaps) who knows.... you too might get lucky :)

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Unwinding in Peaceful Pondicherry

Written on Monday, December 18, 2006 by Unknown


You have your own advantages and disadvantages of being in a country of more than a billion people. Frustration of finding hordes of people at tourist places (and not so tourist places) is certainly one of the latter. Considering this my weekend trip to Pondicherry came as a pleasant surprise for me. After all at how many beaches can you drive your bikes to the shores and in fact even to almost middle of the sea, of course i mean driving on jetty . (In case you do not what a jetty means (i didn't know before i went to pondicherry) here is the dictionary definition. Jetty - A structure, such as a pier, that projects into a body of water to influence the current or tide or to protect a harbor or shoreline from storms or erosion. )

Pondicherry is certainly peaceful (Oh yes, you certainly have read this on incredible !ndia advertisements.) Be it the paradise beach or the Auro beach you'll always find only a couple of groups (and of course some couples ;)) apart from you. You do not have never ending queues, neither do you have to shell out a fortune to visit those sought after destinations. Yeah Pondicherry is a tax free UT (union territory, i like this acronym ;) ). The best way to enjoy Pondicherry (as we did) is rent a bike (for a meager 150 bucks a day) and roam around at your convenience. Parking is not a problem (It's a big concern for poor souls like me in bangalore) and neither the petrol prices. A full 10 Rs less than that in bangalore, i wonder if we have more effective Mamta Banerejee, here in pondicherry ;)

Apart from being peaceful and cheap the one thing which sets it apart from other tourist places in India is the surrrounding French aura. The street names (most of them) are all French, and are incredulously clean !!! You have the doodhwala speaking French without attending Alliance Francis classes (no kidding, though am not sure if they also manage the accent). The restaurants serve French and Italian foods (read bland). You see people from more than 30 countries here zipping around in bicycles around the streets of pondy. (no i didn't count them, read it somewhere and moreover they all looked like some Foreigner :P).

Wanna experience Mauritius, France and India (just a touch little far fetched) all in one place Pondicherry is the place to be. Go and pamper yourself.


Photos here http://picasaweb.google.com/vishal.jalan/PeacefulPondicherry

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Roti, Kapda aur Cricket !!!!

Written on Friday, November 24, 2006 by Unknown

The drubbing at Durban didn't come as a surprise to me at all especially when it was the same pitch where we were skittled out twice for a total sum of less than a hundred in 1996. But what astonished me was the debate and subsequents hours wasted in the parliament over it. Come on guys this country has enough graver problems which need your precious time.... literally. (Believe it or not, the cost of running a Parliament is approximately Rs 58 lakh a day, while that of the whole session easily runs into crores.)

No where in the world do you never expect the house of commons fighting over issues like their team losing a soccer match but then where else do you expect people saying with blatant prideness "It happens only in India". I would not be amazed if i read this (members fighting in parliament over cricket) as some fun trivia in an international publication.

And when reaching a conclusion was concerned cricket was no different from other issues (not considering here the reservations, amendment of constitution to provide more power to legislative etc.) Neither had you Peter Roebucks and Gawaskars dissecting the peformance of the team [no
(un)fortunately they are not yet Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha members]. So the quality of discussion wasn't any better than the ones heard at the "chai ka galla" next door. From chappel bashing to "bring Ganguly back" song, as if reason for current failure lies solely on them.

Just before i sign off (hope this is correct way to use it and if it is not blame it to over exposure of host oriented tv shows ;) ), even if we owe this to very sporty MPs we have then why not a discussion on Indian Hockey debacle (Trivia of the day: Hockey is India's national game. Played with 11 sticks and a ball. The stick looks exactly like those which bad guys carry in hindi movies ;) Save it somewhere, you might well be at loss of words while you explain hockey to your childrens.)

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Style YES, Substance NO

Written on Thursday, November 23, 2006 by Unknown

Casino Royale - Movie Review

"I play with guns, girls and gadgets. Who am i?"

"Bond.... James Bond"

We have grown up answering this trivial question in every other quiz shows but after Casino Royale the question (and for that matter answer) becomes dubious. Yes there is Bond .. James Bond but guns ares missing. This James Bond fights with his own hands. He does not come out of fight with his suit and ties intact. He has bruises. He has blood flowing.... like any other mortal being. No gadgets to assist him. Gone are the girls bowled by his charm. (Instead he is bowled by them to the point of leaving the job of agent 007 only to realize later that he is just a pawn in a bigger game.)

And this is precisely why Bond fails to live up to the expectation. The Bond here is not the ultimate hero. He does not come out of blues on his own rather he is plain lucky at most of times.
The character is not marked by smug confidence but a very impatience brat who keeps getting flowed by turn of events.

Alright, they say that this is the first novel and actually it is the making of James Bond but then we do not need the making of a hero after 50 years of seeing the actual hero. Go and watch it only if you are ready to digest it as a normal action movie and not a typical James Bond movie or else disappointment is in store for you.

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The battle in chat room

Written on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 by Unknown

This is an extract of conversation between me and Sanjay about the much hyped words like "Momentum", "Moral Victory" etc etc..

5:19 PM Sanjay: kitne run se jeeti?
me: 39
Sanjay: abey yaar
shud have been 50
chal anyways
5:20 PM me: kya farq padta hai saley
Sanjay: padta hai yaar
morally more crushing
5:21 PM me: these talks of morally and momentum are all bull shit
Sanjay: wankhede mein india ne harna to tha hi,after sachin's dismissal
me: where did the mumbai momentum go?
Sanjay: lekin 212 run se with more than a session to go was what was more hurting
me: now papers will talk bout momentum being in india way
Sanjay: abey wo momentum to england had lost day before in jaipur yaar
me: that was so morally crushing
exactly
why did they lose in jaipur at all
Sanjay: warm up match hi haar gaye the saale
5:22 PM me: they were on a high
Sanjay: it matters yaar
me: momentum unke saath tha
they should have won then
Sanjay: you start doubting urself
me: india were morally crushed
Sanjay: india(especially bhajji) was able to pull himself out of it
me: how did then they come back from behind
abey yaar
Sanjay: otherwise india had almost lost this one
me: these stupid terms dont matter i think at all
Sanjay: hota hai yaar
5:23 PM me: kya hota hai
Sanjay: confidence pe bahut farak padta hai
its always there
me: why did england lost in jaipur
Sanjay: abey its not that you cant lose or anything
but you are more confident
thats it
bas confidence aur self-belief ki baat hai
some ppl might be able to have it inspite of not winning matches
but winning matches helps
me: the self-belief of bhajji would be high now
5:24 PM Sanjay: the bigger the margin the more confident you become
yes exactly
me: now wat happens when andrew flintoff comes in next match and smashes him all over the park
according to this logic
flintoff cant do that
5:25 PM Sanjay: abey aisa kuchh nahi hai
me: yaad hai pathan ne pakistan mein (pahli series) mein ** **** di thi
Sanjay: i m not saying that you become invincible
its just taht you will be more confident
its confidence yaar nothing else
me: i agree that these things do matter
Sanjay: achha you tell me
me: but not as much as they r blown out of proportion
Sanjay: why do ppl wear specific bandanas and jersey numbers
5:26 PM and try and go with the same bat if they have performed well with it?
me: one bad over can change everything
Sanjay: its just that you think that it is helping ur performance
<> its not doing anything extraordinary
but you are just more confident wearing that bandana or whatever
5:27 PM me: abey u r not getting the point
i dont say that u dont require confidence at all
Sanjay: you are not getting the point!
me: u do require
u also require the momentum
but one can seize away this iniative in one good over
Sanjay: abey u cant do anything with just confidence
you need to do things rigth also
5:28 PM and it becomes easier with confidence<>
me: after the win south africa had on australia... nothing can be more morally crushing
Sanjay: thats all i am saying
if you are believing in yourself
me: losing after scoring 434
u seriously woudl start doubting ur capabilites
but look wat is happening in test matches
dono innings mila ke bhi sa 434 nahi bana pa rahi hai
Sanjay: ok
now you tell me
how come
5:29 PM <>when some bowler is bowling badly
and he gets a wicket
all of a sudden he starts bowling a fiery spell?
(has happened many times with shoaib and today it happnd with bhajji and in the first match or second test with kumble)
me: yeh bhi hota hai ki after getting a wicket he is hit all over
5:30 PM and yeh bhi hota hai ki (jaisa ki u mentioned) u keep getting hit everywhere and u still start getting wickets
Sanjay: abey maximum time ye hi hota hai ki bowler gets more confident and bowls better
u mean u keep getting wickets(instead of start) right? otherwise that statmenet is confusing
me: there are more cases of bowlere getting hit after getting a wicket than getting more wicketws
5:31 PM <>Sanjay: abey its more abt bowling better rather than getting wickets
if a bowler is hit for a six in the same over as he gets a wicket then the confidence gained is lost
its not just a game of good shots good ball and good fieldings
me: exactly now u r talking
5:32 PM Sanjay: its also a mental game
the balance can keep shifting
me: so that confidence gained could be as short lived as one ball
right??
Sanjay: but if you are strong and resistant enough once you get the "ba;ance" and "momentum" in ur favour you try not to lose it
yes exactly
<>
me: so u think england or india are strong and resistand enough
5:33 PM Sanjay: abey yaaaaaaar
you are not getting my point
you can just resist to it
you cannot just stop it from going to the other side
england did have the "momentum" in todays match too!
they just became overconfident
me: yehi to main point prove karna chah raha hoon ki yeh jo cliches hain " morally crushing" "momentum" etc are not as important as made by media, u and me
Sanjay: flintoff and pieterson threw their wickets when there was no need
5:34 PM <>they could have defended
me: more batsmen from indian side threw their wicket
Sanjay: they are only as important as the player considers it to be
me: than in english side
so wat do u mean by "Team is confident"
Sanjay: just as in the case of superstition
5:35 PM me: if it boils down to individual
Sanjay: *sigh
this argument is a lost cause
its not abt any individual or team at all man
<>me: and if u win this argument u'll have momentum with u for next argument :D
u'll be more confidnet
it would be morally crushing for me
lol
Sanjay: hey bhagwaaaaan!

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