
After 2 years, I managed to digitalize my travelogue about the bicycle journey from Goa to Bombay that I undertook with 5 friends in November 2003. It is now available in the Photo Gallery > Travelogue section of this website.
We were a group of 6 enthusiastic boys and travelled from Goa to Mumbai on bicycles. Travelling a distance of about 635 km, we completed the expedition in 6 days. It was a memorable journey along the National Highway (NH-17) passing thru North Goa and Konkan (Madgaon, Panaji, Shindhudurg, Kudal, Rajapur, Lanja, Ratnagiri, Khed, Mangaon, Pen, Dombivli). I still recollect the thrill, excitement and the exhaustion.
Click here to read about it. And do comment!

Understanding Ayn Rand: Step one
Having devoured several John Grisham’s I’ve got used to his style so much that his courtroom conversations have become predictable to certain extent. Ayn Rand’s ‘Night of January 16th’ a small play about a murder trial springs surprises. I’ve attempted reading Atlas Shrugged a few years back, but in vain. This work is pretty easy to understand, but I could barely fathom her intended ‘Romantic Symbolism’ message.
In the introduction to the book (which consumes 13% of total number of pages), Ayn Rand states:
A sense of life is a preconceptual equivalent of metaphysics, an emotional, subconsciously integrated appraisal of man’s relationship to existence. I emphasize this last be cause it is a man’s attitude toward life that constitutes the core and motor of his subconscious philosophy. Every work of fiction (and wider: every work of art) is the product and expression of its author’s sense of life. But it may express that sense of life translated into conceptual, i.e. philosophical, terms or it may express only an abstract emotional sum. Night of January 16th is a pure, untranslated abstraction.
Nevertheless, there are some mass-appealing sequences:
Nancy Lee: Mr. Stevens, that supposition is insulting to me
Stevens: I haven’t noticed you sparing insults, Mrs. Faulkner
Nancy Lee: I’m sorry, Mr. Stevens. I assure you that was not my intention
Flint: Mr. Regan, what do you do when prospective clients refuse to pay your protection?
Regan: I’m legally allowed not to understand what you are talking about
Flint: Very well, you don’t have to understand. May I question you as to whether you read the newspapers?
Regan: You may
Flint: Well?
Regan: Question me.
Came across these links while browsing: Mumbai Cyber Lab (MCL) is a joint initiative between the Mumbai Police and NASSCOM. The Cyber Crime Investigation Cell is established by Crime Branch of Criminal Investigation Department (Mumbai). The functions of these websites include reporting cyber crimes and assisting the victims, raising general awareness about cyber crimes and collaborating with national / international security agencies so that the common user has safe internet experience.
Cyber Crime is a crime that is committed over the internet. This is what MCL says about cyber crimes and the magnitude of the menace.
It is not a surprise that Cyber Crimes like money cyber stalking, denial of service, e-mail abuse, chat abuse and other crimes are on the rise. Cyber Terrorist and cyber mafia are emerging with great force, whose activities are going to threaten the sovereignty of nations and world order.
The websites give general information for users of all categories, and describes in brief the types of cyber crimes such as hacking, child pornography, cyber stalking, software piracy, virus dissemination, Denial of Service (DOS) attacks, net extorsion, Phishing, online frauds etc. There is also a section dedicated to Indian IT Laws.
Overall excellent websites and an essential bookmarks. Such initiatives by Mumbai Police department are definitely commendable.
Mumbai is a cement jungle. Never is this fact more evident to you than the time of the festive season – Diwali. Diwali is the Hindu festival of Lights and is celebrated to mark the victory of light over darkness. Fireworks are essential part of this celebration.



Uncopyrighted photos taken from internet, not clicked by me.
Sound Energy ↔ Light Energy
If the news media are to be believed, the cosmopolitan consumer is getting increasingly savvy about environmental damages inflicted by the smoke and noise from these crackers. The manufacturing pattern has seen a marginal shift from noisy crackers to the colorful and bright varieties. However, this change is hardly useful since these fancy fireworks are steeply priced and are therefore beyond the capacity of almost all of the users.
“Louder the better”, on the other hand, appears to be the mantra. The sound generated by the bursting crackers seems to be increasing year after year. There could be another factor. The sound of the exploding firecracker reverberates in the densely populated neighborhood for long duration rather than dissipating away quickly. This causes minor but frequent local vibrations in the structures, something which they might not be designed for. Logically this is bound to weaken the buildings. The coordination committee of our residential apartment passed a resolution banning exploding the firecrackers on terrace or from open galleries of apartments. Such measures will ensure that the noisy crackers are burst only in open areas.
I need not rattle about the harmful effects of the acutely toxic fumes produced by some varieties of firecrackers and the long retention time of the plumes of smoke emerging from them.
However the sound and air pollution apart, the most tormenting experience is bursting of these firecrackers at odd timings – waking up at 2 am or 2 pm (or whatever) by the deafening sound of a firecracker demonstrated the uncivilized attitude of the public.
Perhaps the people would realize this by themselves. I’m not sure if the bright lights could eradicate the dark forces, but the rowdy crackers would surely scare away the tranquil spirits.






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