Camp X-Ray 2

Now, ya’ll will prob’ly get freaked out by these words “Camp X-Ray”, because of what it talks about:Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Phew! Place where the most wicked and ugliest techniques are used against the detainees. So, My Indian School has a bit of similar attitudes towards us. On the first day of my joining, I was made to undergo questioning (take it as interrogation) for >> not wearing the right Shoes. I even heard rumors that one of our ex-academic instructors was escorted away by POLICE for breaking a child arm AND my Dad came across a discussion about my School in which it was told by one his colleagues that aGrade-2 teacher slapped a child so hard on the face that he had to be admitted into the HOSPITAL with severe injuries on the face and suffered a partial deafness in one of his ears. I myself witnessed a guy being insulted by a tutor who used all the foul language he could. This “banging and blowing” scenes are just not being created here but perhaps in every Indian school on earth despite severe warning made by concerned departments. 

I have a feeling that the current teachers working in Indian Schools cast more terror than knowledge on the child. I read an article the other day about abuse which mentioned that if students are dealt harshly, their creativity starts to diminish. With a survey performed by some of my counterparts, we discovered that about 75% of the students in my school need “out-of-school” tutorials. The Reason: Simply because they hated the way it is presented to them @ the classroom. 

So, this time one more terrifying move by our school was all the classrooms in the campus are getting armed with cameras and intercom systems. The funny part is that the rooms have no CLOCKS and we’re going to get cameras!! I’m really happy about the fact that this is going to be my last year in this virtual prison in where no one can question the higher cheese.

Talking about Academics, we learn the stuff which were discovered or invented years back and the Indian Curriculum when compared with IGCSE can easily inflict a sensation in one’s mind that Indian Education Process really needs to evolve a great deal. (Example: In the computer curriculum we learn the functionality of DOS, whereas the other boards around the world shed light on what’s going on around the world, O.S. like XP, Vista, Mac, etc) Indian Tutors and Professionals are noted for their intellect and mastery in their concerned field, so if we have a proper consultation and a well-baked Road Map we can really hope to see every Indian being given priority where ever they go.  

PS: Be careful when ya enter our Labs, there are worth billions of Dollars, because everything in it is Antique. 

More to come on: Indian Schools 

Future Google

Google.com is the one of the fastest growing web-venture having invaded most of the Internet Categories. Blogosphere, Mailing Service, Search Department, News Service, Maps are some of the zones it conquered and there are even some rumors that its going to cum up wit its own OS (Operating System). Keeping the speed of Google.com online in mind, envisage the velocity of the OS.  If Google’s really coming out with their latest weapon against Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp., its own version of the OS, I’ll prob’ly be their first costumer. In the near future GOOGLE’s going to cum up wit its own products and widgets. People have various interpretations of Google’s Future and below is just one. Ya will luv IT! 😉

Draft Deleted

I’m sorry for not posting the cover story of the “17th Cluster Meet 2007″, which was scheduled to be uploaded by now. I had already started hitting the keys to write about and share the wonderful experience of the Inter-School Olympics which was held @ our school, IIS-Jubail.

The main reason for deletion is a typical cause, “EXAMS OVERHEAD”! So, I apologize for the problem.

I also would notify ya’ll about my inconsistency in posting articles from now on till March, 08, again the same situation; I’m in an ‘Exam Zone’ of the year.

200: A much-awaited number for me!

I guess I’m totally crazy of my stats. Mo’s article “Life Cycle of a Blogger” is true after all. To attract traffic I’ve been sending loads of mails and messages into the inboxes of my contacts and it worked too.

I’ve reached my second hundredth visitor today, so that means I’ve been hit hard. (200 Visitors in 13 days) Hmmm! Not Bad Either. Bearing in mind my student status and my poor organizing skills, this is way too much magnetism on ma’ BLOG!

Indeed, I m motivated to add more “bling-bling” content on La Communiqué™ … its more than a blog.

SO, KEEP VISITING! 😉

A Century!

BINGO! … thtz what I said when I saw my Blog’s Visitor Count screening “100 Hits”.

A Century of  visitors in  10 days. NOT BAD!

KEEP VISITING! 🙂

Shivers up the Spine

Yesterday, December 19, Wednesday, we were encountered by something that send shivers up our spines. “A Car Accident”

First Lemme me first define the phrase “Car-Accident”

“A car accident, sometimes called a car crash or car wreck, is an incident in which an automobile collides with anything that causes damage to the automobile, including other automobiles, telephone poles, buildings or trees, or in which the driver loses control of the vehicle and damages it in some other way”

Now ya’ll may be scratching your heads wondering why you want to know what a car accident is.

As it was Eid, we and my cousins who were our guests for the Eid, were in a festive mode and decided to pay a visit the unspoiled beach of Ras Tanura which shares some water with the Arabian Gulf. All had a great deal of fun there holidaying for some hours, inspecting Malls, downloading city-scenes in our heads as we passed through the streets of Ras Tanura (where the worlds’ biggest refinery is based), Qatif, Safwa and after using all our time allotted for our excursion, we planned to exit back home, Jubail. As I was peacefully sleeping in our car after a tough day of the trip, the cousins were following us. Jubail was some 65 Kms. away from the place where we were.

Out of the blue, I heard faded voices of my mom and dad as I was in a dreamland, but I somehow opened my eye lids.

I went like “WHAT!!”

I really cudn’t believe my eyes. Jus a few meters away from our car took place a fiery car accident. I woke up fully seconds later deleting away my precious sleep. All I cud see was FIRE, in the dark lanes of the busy Khobar-Jubail expressway. To my horror, it was a car which had jus lit up in flames after being hit hard by a “fleeing above 160” sedan. When I saw three men running away form the car, I knew the bang took place some jiffies ago.
My Dad braked hard as we were shocked beyond words. The sedan driver who had hit the car came out unhurt so as the other victims of the accident. Soon later, in about 2 minutes, highway Patrol Police came rushing towards the yellow scenario. I wanted to get outta the car and help n pacify the poor ones involved in the mishap. But, before I actually cud, my dad hit the gas pedal and off we went. He cudn’t take this anymore. I turned back as much as I cud, trying to see fire as it totally engulfed the car. (Gud thing I had a mobile phone equipped with a camera within my range)

As we went further we saw some more rescue unit headed for the accident scene and I sat upright on the seat and began recalling those images that I stored in my mind sum moments ago. I really wished they were a bit more careful, sitting behind the wheel.

We never experienced a live accident ever before, but according to some stats, Saudi Arabia has one of the highest car accidents rates in the world which also imply that these kinda accidents occur almost once in two days. I wish the traffic authorities take strict measures to root out this “F1-ism” from our roads by:

1)    Issuing harder penalties on law breakers,
2)    By lowering the default speed limit,
3)    Educating people about defensive driving,
4)    Awarding people who have no accident record,
5)    Installing a gadget in vehicles which stops them from crossing the adjusted limit.
6)    Monitoring of the roads more vigilantly,

Etc …

Moral: Think twice before hitting the gas pedal.

Tech-Infestation

 In the IT crazy India, one can see a lot of computer ‘n’ IT related stuff a plenty. I myself spotted many places where motherboards and hard disks were being sold on sidewalks and in one other instant I came across a cameraman using the BLUETOOTH technology to transfer photos he snapped to a printer nearby. This influx of technology is now a very common sight in India. So, if the Indian underprivileged class is not going bigger in terms of currency they certainly are in terms of Technology. Keeping this in mind, these sights: a beggar using a website to collect alms into his PayPal account, a mere cart person (Bandi-Wala) using a Blackberry, an unlearned man instead of placing his thump on a sheet to give his impression giving out a flash drive urging the authorities to chck his e-signature, etc are not very far.

Up there is a future view of the Indian roads and it depicts about the progress of India in the Tech-Industry. Computers and Gadgets would be so common and cheap in India that they will no longer be sold in Retail Shops, instead they’ll be carried around on carts!

Sickzones

As I go out almost everyday with my new bike (bicycle), the famous GOLF Maxima, I cum across many strange thingy in town. Sometimes I discover new places: Eat outs, All-in-one Stores, Veggie Marts, etc but sometimes I approach weird places like one instant I bumped into a place which for Indians looked like India, for Pakistanis looked like PakiLand, for Bangladesis (Desis) looked like BanglaLand … Quite Amazingly people here had all they can ask for > Beetle Leaves, Hyd. Biryani, Bangali Fish, Pakistani Sweets and kebabs.

It was a bit awkward feeling thought, for us, b’cuz of the fact that they never took their eyes of me and Cycling Crew plus behaved like they new saw the decent world @ the other end of our peaceful Industrial town, Jubail. They jus simply stand on the road regardless of the incoming traffic and chatter loudly in their terrible dialects, chewing the Beetle Leaves, spitting down their “spent” leaves and staring @ everyone who is not amongst them. We even caught them on the lens wearing Sheets around their legs and vests around their bellies.

Sometimes I encountered with more bizarre places loaded with these subcontinent expatriates and which also seemed like a safe-haven for over stayers.
And, in this very zone, we saw all those posters and Bill-boards filled with spelling Mistakes. Following are some of the errors which were discovered by our exploring ‘n’ cycling team:

1) Equapment
2) Cattering Services
3) Comertial and Advertising Agency
4) Bakry
5) Hair Cut Sallon
6) Shoping Center
7) Cumputer Solutions
8) Indian Restorant
9) Shopers Place

Those were the ones I found in the “Subcontinent” Hotspot.
And here sum too:

10) Mans Toilet
11) The Brost House
12) Masterpece
13) Tailer Shop
14) Photcopy Here

Oops! Totally forgot to mention this; Guess What! We even found tens if not hundreds of fake brands representing top products. Here are a few of these counterfeit names:

1)  Panasafe (for Panasonic)
2) Radu (for RADO)
3) Unileven (for UNILEVER)
4) CAB (for CATERPILLAR)
5) Gamestation
6) P5P (for SONY PSP)
7)  Adibos (for Adidas)

…

And thousands of Pirated CD’s coming in n out of the subcontinent Flea Market.

Taking into account my Discovery Skills and a distinctive hatred for an ill ‘n’ immodest society, I consider myself to be eligible to apply in an agency which chcks and corrects all these social gaffes!

As a computer buff…

…I love dealing with software, hardware, firmware and doubtless all wares.
So, during the years my computer, prob’ly my bes i-pal, has evolved into somethin what I have now. It now resembles a hybrid-computer. (Cross-Product of both Digital n Analog Comp.) Maybe, because I had it edited many a times. No, not as many times as my buddy, The Hacker®.

Nattering about my PC, its stats are incredible, its look stylish and its sound almost no-more, unlike the decibels used to hear when we first had it seated on the computer desk about 61/2 years ago. Lemme, give ya’ll an account of the modification process and the e-stuff it lost and gained.

The stuffs involved in the export/import were:

1. RAM Cards

2. Motherboard (Replaced << all by myself, after a case study!)

3. CD-ROM’s

4. Floppy Drive

5. PCI Cards (Installed << 2 additional ones)

6. CPU Fan (Replaced << Twice)

7. Light Diodes

8. Power cables

8. IDE Cables (Fixed new ones << Twice)

9. Power Supply (Matter-of-fact, I changed it 4 times. Once the suspect was my mom, she accidentally plugged the CPU Power Plug into a wrong slot, then … a typical BANG!)

Now, those thingamajigs I jotted down were all the h-stuff, Yeah … the hardware stuff. I have formatted my hard-drive nearly 7 times and have tested almost 75 different kinds of software.

But even as my e-accomplishments are worth noticin, they are faded out in the face of the e-actions of my friend, The Hacker®.

He got his first external hard-drive when he was only 8, has formatted  hard-drives nearly 25 times, replaced around 8 motherboards, assembled one hi-definition computer all by himself, learned HTML jus by readin a book and is celebrated in the Computer Lab for his intellect as well as his understanding for a program logic.

Now, ya’ll goin to advice me to get a new Binary Machine. Ain’t that right? Oh! Yes, I really do havta get one…But tell that to my parents who don’t want me “Tech-Savvier” than the today’s usual me.

Trendz…

In my 365.25 approx. dayz of readin an’ understandin blogs, newspapers, articles, posts…, I’ve cum to a conclusion that mos’ of the bloggers (duh, not all!!) follow a particular theme for when postin articlez. Then, the’re more inclined to postin in agreement to the blog theme. The themes may only restrict their wits to only think, construe and put pen to paper, only selected articles. Likewise, writers and poets too follow a suit.

Perhaps, it might be the feelin of bein dissimilar to the other bloggin competitors or maybe because of their “wanna-be” nature.

To prop up my second opinion, lemme giv ya’ll an paradigm of my ‘opposite of foe!!”, . He is indeed a real, big, supernatural, extraordinary, astonishin chap, who probably think only about the IT all 24X7. When he cum’s across a guy who is willin to listen to him, he launches his IT blah, blah, blah…outta his “oral cavity”. He once was very pissed off @ me, for != not listen his story =, about overclockin the graphics cards. I totally do NOT oppose his continually lectures about computers, but whos gonna pay attention to somethin ur interest rates @ at a moderate level? I sit next to this guy an’ now he’s in a “CODE RED” mode with me, but the other ‘Charles Babbages’ in my classspace respect him a lot. I named him “Binary Agent” and probabaly the entire school knows him as “THE HACKER”. While hez not from the “i-mind” sort, people crack hilarious stories against him.

Now, this fella is one of the many men who restrict themselves, interests, desires and hobbies to only selected subjects…and there are many who have the same ‘gene’. This is one of the many factors why many people don’t get lured towards majority of the blogs in spite of they bein hosted on top domains.

Moral: A lil’ bit of twist of evrythin, wudn’t mess it all up!

The Day when I visited the Indian Navy…

…was the 22nd of August and was one of the most exiting days of the semester for the few students, including me, who were chosen to pay a visit to the Indian Navy Warships, who extended their invitation to the IIS-Jubail and the Indian Diplomatic Community and were docked at the Jubail Commercial Port which’s just across our locality.

After getting the school for grouping, we headed off to our allotted buses, and departed to the point were the INS Kaput and INS Betwa were anchored. Before entering the port we underwent a security check which demanded us to get off the ride. After making sure that we had no “Boom-Boom” devices, the security forces let us in. The port which is one the biggest and busiest port of the kingdom was incredibly big and expansive.

Several Cargo Ships and good vessels were anchored at the port and the loading\offloading process was in full swing. After an approx. 2-mile ride inside, we arrived at the berth where Capt. A.K. Jain and Capt. Ajay Bhutanis’s destroyers were relaxing. The very first glimpses of the ships had a “jaw-dropping” effect on everybody. It was the first time, that I saw these fiery warships from a close-up. We got off our buses and shaped ourselves into teams, which were guided by class-advisors. As we came closer we were able to hear the roaring voices of the engines which kept the ships and its crew alive.

Our group was first taken to INS Betwa, a Class II frigate equipped with the latest thingamajigs and weapons. It was designed by the Indian Navy: Directorate of Naval Design was programmed to be an anti-submarine frigate and was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2004. As ships do not die its ancestor, the previous INS Betwa had participated in the 1971 war against Pakistan. The feel on the dock of the ship was awesome and as we climbed, we were welcomed by some of the crew members who wore white navy outfits with some weird-colored badges and stuff. Pilot Engineer D. Prem began briefing us about the magnificent frigate and its tools.

The most striking weapon was the tank-like movable turret gun which would fire shots as well as warning ones and behind it was the radar controlling the gun. Huge networks of steel chained were used to anchor this 20000 tons vessel. Everything on board was extraordinary and peculiar. As we moved to the second deck, the guy, Mr. Prem, tutored us about how the missile batteries function and unleash their latent fury. When I forwarded him a question regarding the range of the projectile, he smiled and informed me that it was supposed to be kept as a secret in a foreign land. (We somehow got to know the range, which was 150kms) The powerful missiles were guided by the radar located at the top of the main cockpit and could be even be altered into heat-seeking ones. “A right hit would blow 80% damage to the enemy target” said Pilot Prem, gesturing as he spoke.

After explaining more about the same we moved ahead. At this point, the neighboring vessel, the INS Rajput’s naval bands began to hit the notes and started playing the Indian National Anthem, which pumped patriotism into our hearts for a while. This was when our tutor informed us about the band and that it was the Navy’s best band. After moments of standing still and hearing them, we went on with our “investigation”. We inspected how the missile batteries were positioned and drew out picture in our mind about the reloading-process.

The next important “must-see” component was the main ship cockpit deck or the control panel which features the most important component: the chair of the powerful frigate Captain. As we entered the towering cockpit, we were set aback by the interior looks of it: Numerous Networks of cables and cords for controlling the whole of the vessel, Enormous Compass and other measuring and calculating devices, 4-5 semi-super computers for helping and assisting them in their computation. Quite Amazingly, the vessel’s ‘insides’ were kept very cool powered by the ship’s A/C Units. When, I asked them why they jus can’t pull down their normal windows was when they replied that it would turn the ship into an Iron Box. I now used my physics-inspired mind to understand the logic. << Conduction

He, the guide, began explaining the ship goodies and how they are made to function. After spending some minutes in the cockpit, we decided to leave and head for the main shed (…don’t know what they call it, so used the word “shed”, because it looked like storage shed). They Navy men had arranged some kind of party there exclusively for us, It seemed. We hurried downstairs to the main mast enjoying the attractive view of the Jubail waters.

We reached the ‘shed’ and this time we were dumbfounded by…

…a combat Helicopter!

The Reason of my excitement was probably because I never saw a helicopter on a Water-Vessel. The last time I saw a helicopter when the SWAT teams were called in to exterminate the terrorists who had killed 5 people in Yanbu in 2005. Then, snipers, as my building was a tall one in the area, climbed up and shot them from there. This had happened after I returned from School. I was really exited seeing the firing going outside and then the bomb disposal teams defusing the bomb package. Well…enough of that, let’s get back.

They, the navy dudes had arranged some kind of party there. With some cookies in one hand a cup of orange juice in the other, I had my day. I quickly quaffed the drink down as the temperature that day exceeded 40 C. It was an excellent feeling, but it went heartbreaking as soon we were announced that we had to part off.

The ‘men in white’, stood in a line resembling the ‘guard of honor’ as the school teams began ‘ejecting’ off the vessel. They bid us farewell while we were busy pulling their snapshots into the cameras. So, finally we were off board.

After minutes of walking to our buses, I found myself sitting back in bus. As the bus began its ‘exit’ tour I turned my head as much as I could to take the last glimpse of the frigates.

We were encountered with another security check and after that we just ‘bussed’ to the place, where else…

…The same old school!!