Songs.pk used for hacking??

So the word is out in Indian newspapers today that songs.pk runs malicious software enabling hackers to access data on your system. Wow, like half of India uses that site to get the latest Bollywood music. Paranoia must have struck many a heart. Another reason to start buying music. (or stop listening to music. :P)
Funnily Norton does not agree with the Indian govt. link

Don't send messages you will later regret

Lately I have been thinking that Google was becoming to corporatised and just like easter eggs began disappearing from Windows, soon Google will become all nice and propah with the element of spontaneity missing.
Fortunately I have been proved wrong. Gmail just added a wacky feature that aims to prevent you from sending mails which you will regret later. Mails say you would send after downing a glass too much.
Read about the feature here.

LHC Stuff

Some Large Hadron Collider stuff. (Watch closely)

Webcams

:)

Brian Cox v/s the President of the British Association of the Advancement of Science

Heh.. here is Dr. Brian Cox giving the President of the British Association of the Advancement of Science what he exactly needs to hear. Delightful. What a nutcase we have as a president of advancement of science. Maybe he should be President of the British Association of the Advancement of "Applied" Science, going by the way he talks.

Shredding documents... wait..

So you thought that the document you shredded is gone forever. The secrets it contained will no longer burden you. Maybe you need a reality check. Have a look at this.

http://www.unshredder.com/

An old woman at Matheran

Lately, I have found myself becoming insensitive to my surroundings. Perhaps its the drain on mental energy making a career or perhaps its the subconscious Indian aspiration to disassociate oneself from aam junta. Whenever I look over the pictures I take, I feel them to be too touristy. They look like pictures taken by someone who has no time to pause and appreciate the surroundings for what they are. Along with this has crept in a general intolerance and suspicion of new people I meet, which might seem as normal behaviour for some.

But I have always enjoyed taking some time out and trying to see life from different perspectives. So when I was jolted out of my cocoon a few days ago by this old woman, I felt guilty.

I saw her as I was walking on the narrow guage railway track at Matheran. She sat there at the base of an advertising board, many of which have cropped up along the track, ruining the natural charm of the line and lining the pockets of the railway officers. She looked curiously at the tourists and I thought of her as some local woman waiting for her daughter in law to collect firewood. Her eyes darted from tourist to tourist. I zoomed on to her from my camera as she made a good picture. Exploitative photography.. we like to see poor people and then sigh and mutter that something has to be done and then go our way. While I was trying to get an angle on her, she called out to me and asked whether she could carry my bag. Immediately I dismissed her telling myself that I am a true trekker and would not allow anybody to carry my bag for me. As I walked away she pleaded to let her carry my bag and that she had nobody in this world.


I did not know how to react. The tone of the voice was so genuine, I was scared to even look back at her. I did nothing, just walked away but her voice kept haunting me. As I downloaded the pictures from my camera, I saw her picture and that look that did not betray her loneliness.

Is this how it is to be poor, old and lonely? What inner strength, what motivation drives her? I wished I had stopped and taken some time to understand her. But I was busy... busy returning home... yeah.

Sonavle Caves Mini Documentary

One more place I had visited in winter, the Sonavle Caves near Dhasai on the route to Vaishakhare via Mhasa. These are a set of 14 caves in a great state and taken care of by the villagers. This video was shot in the biggest of the caves. I took a group of 4 boys from the village of Sonavle to show me the way. Check out more pictures on my Flickr page.