Going Mo-Biking !

Last Sunday I went over to Hyper-City at Malad in Mumbai and picked up a mountain bike made by Raliegh. Something I was wanting to buy for a long time and finally picked up after saving up for it. The bike feels sturdy with some great features.I took the bike for a ride on mumbai’s treacherous roads and it turned out just fine. The gears took some time getting used to, but i finally learnt much of the art. (Thanks Ashish).

I’ll be heading to the hills (nandurbar) next week with it for some off road biking. Will update the blog with pics of the off road.

Facebook chat.. Will MSN have competition?

Facebook had announced about a in-built chat for a couple of weeks officially on their blog. About 3 days it appeared on my home page but since it wasn’t a feature for most of my friends I couldn’t really utilize it.

Today morning I used it to chat with my friend Reagan the copy editor at the Bombay Times and the chat feature has a host of problems from what I noticed.

For starters unlike chat on Gmail the app took time sending messages to the other user. Most times the chat bar would disspear showing me an error message. Felt wierd as my wireless internet connection at home is stable and I didnt notice any disturbance on the P2P app.

So will this new feature by Facebook take away the steam from MSN (Windows Live) or Gtalk or even Yahoo messenger for that matter? I seriously dont think so. Why do I say that?

Chat messages on Gtalk and Windows Messenger are saved. Features most chat users prefer having so they can go back to check what they said a few weeks back when they had one too many drinks.

Facebook doesn’t incorporate features like calling and or file transfers.

Chat on Facebook is a cumbersome feature with small icons and even smaller fonts.

Will I start chatting with my friends on facebook rather than MSN or Gtalk ( my chat app of choice). Atleast in the near future the answer would be a bold NO.

I hope Facebook cleans up its act and gets some improvements into facebook chat.

Iraq and now Pakistan….. is Extremism taking over the middle east????

The year 2007 has brought about some great strides in technology….. been one of the more joyful years and less tragic events for once no bomb blast occurred in Mumbai which is so thankful ! But while India is doing so well Economically…and other spheres of life…… what is happening to our neighboring countries and others in Asia?

Iraq! It was believed that with a “Regime Change” and Saddam Hussien’s removal from power a new beggining would occur in Iraq… but what has happened is something terribly wrong ! I recently came across this awesome picture/audio presentation by the New York Times which shows the medical problems in the country. This is just a needle in the haystack of problems that Iraq today faces. I wonder how people can inflict so much damage on other fellow human beings… Would God ever want us to do that to our fellow humans??? I don’t think so. However evil a person may be causing such damage and killing others is not the answer for that matter giving judgements isnt our job !

Pakistan : The country is completely unstable even small issues now involve the military there is no such term as a civilian police or any type civilian goverement people are randomly killed or beaten up. Extremism is at it’s root here.Pervez Musharraf  seems to be two timing the world at one point telling the U.S Govt and India among other countries that it is doing its best to fight terrorism but a recent NY Times proves how money provided by the U.S Govt is being used to promote extremism against India ! ! How a majority of that amount was used in purchasing F 15 Aircraft which can hardly be used to fight terrorism.

Will this lead to a major problem among the asian countries??? Tough to say

The future for Pakistan ??? In one word—-> Bleak !

Hope the new year brings in Peace and Prosperity for the people of these two war and terror ravaged countries and may the terrorist or extremist or whatever they like being call get some divine intervention and realize that killing people is not the solution

Solo Shirpur~

Travelling alone from Mumbai to Shirpur is one of the most amazing journeys I have made to date. Starting from home to CST by Car from there by a fast Thane local train alighting at Dadar, then proceeding to the Dadar terminus and boarding the Dadar-Amristar Express for Challisgaon. The two tier A/C compartment was pretty comfortable and one could hardly realize if the train was moving or if it was stationary. At 5.05 that’s a full five minutes before the scheduled arrival I reached Challisgaon . At Challisgaon I had to exit the concourse and move to the Ticketing counter by a ticket for the passenger shuttle and be back at the concourse for the shuttle which ferried me to Dhule in a hours time. The locals were more than willing to help when I spoke to them in their local Marathi and were curious which village I was from and on informing I am from Mumbai they would be pretty much in awe. One helpful person went further to advice to sit on the single seat as it would keep other locals pushing me for a seat. Almost all of them asked me if I was going to Shirpur for higher education the reason being a little later in this article. At Dhule station on alighting I took a three wheeler to the Local State Transport Bus stand and take a bus to Shirpur which again was just waiting to leave and left within 10 minutes of my arrival with a amazing driver who was testing the limits of the Bus by driving it at around 70 km/ph with the bus rattling away. On Arrival at Shirpur I was met by my friend Br. Assis who had come over by jeep to pick me up and left for the Vishwa Mandal ashram.

This was amazingly one of the least tiring journeys i had undertaken considering the distance.