Google’s Project Glass: Are we ready for it?

Does anybody remember Alex James Murphy, the cyborg police officer of Detroit? Our very own RoboCop? Google’s augmented reality glass reminds me of him. Especially, when a virtual overlay map starts giving you directions on the road, you video talk to your boss on the go, you reply to emails in the middle of a meeting, you click pictures by blinking your eye while passing by a hill, you fill an empty plot with a virtual image of your dream house and what not, without any obtrusive headgear. As a matter of fact, you do so without holding a single device like those of smartphones and tabs in your hands.

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist

As I read the name out loud, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, I did realize that this book has something deep attached to it, an emotion unexpressed. Plus, the CROSSWORD Recommends sticker on it and a piece of information that it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2007, made me take the book to the cashier, and back to my pad.

Most of the scripts and storylines post 9/11 had a typical ink scent that made them cliché after a time.

Mohsin Hamid looks at it in an entirely refreshing way.

First, the writing style of the book is right from the author’s pen. The first person monologue intrigues you more than any multilingual dialogue would be able to.

The Pakistani stranger ,Changez ,talks to an American Tourist at a Lahore Café, unfolding his entire biography about the time spent in the States. How he graduated Princeton with the best of grades, was hired by a top notch company Underwood Samson, and how he fell into the rat trap of the world; how he gradually got in love with Erica, and what led further to a tragic end of a realistic love story.

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Of Belly Dances in Arabian Nights: The Dubai Desert Safari

That random summer placement procedure had once decided that I was going to do my summer internship in Dubai.
And some six months later, I was actually in a desert near Dubai, reclining back on a muslin cushion, watching live performance of a Belly Dancer, who was shaking her hips on wavy arabian tunes, while my friends were busy filling their memory cards with the images and videos.
I came back to my senses, and took out my faithful SONY H55.
It made a whirring sound as the lens opened its eyes. I could not take off my eyes from the belly dance, hence shot the video without even looking at the screen!
Here’s the youtube link to a 3 minute long recording. Pardon the occasional camera swings!

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Now, Were you a Dennis or Calvin when it came to School ?

My heart beaming with pride, let me declare my latest  possession : a T-Shirt with its tag line screaming bold and clear to everyone who cares: Growing old is mandatory , growing up is NOT. [ \m/ ]
I want to go back to where it all started. For all of us. In a school. Unlike the more stressed kids of today, I’m guessing you directly went to Kindergarten, not pre-nursery or pre-pre-nursery. LKG and UKG, it was. Colourful clothes with a  hanky carefully folded diagonally and pinned to the left pocket of the shirt/frock. Waterbottles dangling around the neck as we hopped along to school, gingerly holding the hand of our darling caretaker. And tiny bags having even tinier lunch boxes!
        
       

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Is UPSC ‘killing’ talents? Or corrupting them? Think about it.

Legend has it, becoming an IAS or IPS officer is the ultimate gift a talented young person can give to his/her family. You might not want to agree, but the truth remains that many of us have been at one point of time in life, ‘inspired’ ( or were tried to be inspired) by our fathers and uncles and grandfathers to study hard to be an IAS/ IPS officer.
Legend also has it that there is no power and status compared to an IAS/IPS in the administrative circle. Even the politicians can only transfer you, but they can’t fire you. You roam in ‘laal batti’ cars, and make decisions that matter, and you know that you are among the very few capable and deserving of making such decisions.

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Egypt: The sandy land of the Mummies and the Pyramids

Our annual family trip plan meandered through various options until it finally reached in the ‘desert’ed ,(yet brimming with tourists ) land of the pharaohs, the mummies and the great pyramids!
My heart was filled with an ecstasy which can’t be explained in just a few synonyms. So, we set off through the Qatar Airways, and as we neared Cairo, I kept peeking out of my window to get a glimpse of the pyramids (impatience was never a sin). Me and my misfortune landed on the grey ribbon of runway laid on the huge cloth of sand.
The Cairo Airport was unwelcoming, so was the city traffic. We used to snail through the traffic jams while looking onto the pedestrians crossing us.

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A Nobel Laureate, An Astronaut and Naseeruddin Shah –Too Much for an Old Mic like me.

  

Namasgaram , I am myself, Mr. Mic-Swamy. I belong to this place called the IIT

of Kharagpur; It is the Indian US of A. When I was very small, one toddler you can say, my parents, the good old Gramophones of yesteryears [ God Bless Them ] had high dreams for me like every decent Indian parent. Of course, they noted from our own superstar films that you can become an engineer by studying in an Engineering College but cannot become the president by studying in Madras Presidency College. One big bummer in the path of their dreams for my future. So, they chose the former and sent me here.

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