Scent of a Woman

There are some films which are plain no brainers and there are some which are intellectual. There are some which are esoteric in nature and there are some which are completely snob, but there are some which stand out though they are not that highly rated in film critics diaries.

One of the quentissential examples of that is SCENT OF A WOMAN. The character which I am going to highlight is not that of Dramatic Col. Slade, potrayed splendidly by Al Pacino at the acme of his acting career, but that of Charlie Simms a teenager who has to babysit a giant of a man, one who is more than a monolith in terms of character. Without discussing the film in great detail the core issue of the article is that Charlie Simms has been a witness to a prank committed in school against the Head Master of the institution and he is fully aware that the crime

has been committed by one of his good friends who vow to keep that amongst themselves. Yet they chicken out when faced against austere resolve of the management and Head Master of one the most prestigious schools in America one which routinely sends boys to Harvard !!

The essence of the story here is that Charlie Simms is not a rich kid who studies on scholarship and his father cannot afford to send to Harvard but he is an brilliant student while all of his friends are average but rich. The twist here is that the Head Master who has a special tie-up with Harvard dean recommends one student from the prestigious Baird School wants to recommend Charlie Simms but in return he wants to know the real truth and he has been given a weeks time to buy his own future by selling somebody out !

Meanwhile he has a tremendous weekend where he has to babysit a now blind Colonel who had spent 26 years dow

n the line arrayed with military honours and a former member of President Lyndon Johnson staff ! It is here that he learns the real meaning of courage, honour and his own integrity !

Coming back to the film the school resumes on Monday when two witnesses Charlie Simms and his other friend, a rich kid are called in to testify before an open student teacher/disciplinary commitee !!!!! The boys are summoned along with their parents ! Charlie Simms not being able to sum

mon the courage to call his parents was left alone in his defense but the other guy calls his father who happens to be a member of the trustee board. Naturally both are initially reluctant to divulge the truth but after much pestering and threats of the Head Master the rich kid finally relinquishes part of the truth but the evidence was not sanguine. Charlie Simms was singled out to pinpoint the offenders so that they could be brought to justice and the head master knew well that Charlie's future depended on that ! Meanwhile unexpectedly Col. Slade(Al Pacino) who has formed an unusual bond with Charlie during the course of the weekend comes to the board in place of Charlie's parents to defend him.

In spite of so much pressure Charlie Simms refuse to divulge the truth and sell his friends out.

Finally an Internship at IIT Kharagpur

Well after a lot of push and pull with many places wasting 5 days in Sector 5, I finally got an internship in one of the best UG Colleges in India, IIT Kharagpur. I will be spending this whole summer. Yes it is even hotter than Calcutta in the summer and the project I got might not sound very interesting, but I guess one can't let go an oppurtunity like this. Lets see how I can do there.

Finally got a Job

29th February, Ok so this was the big day of my career. I had to show all my skills acquired in 3 years and impress one person within 10-15 minutes. Tough job at hand and as usual my Preparation was always inadequate. While other did a lot of maths practice and english, I just read up Barons a little and did a few Mock Papers.

So anyway WIPRO comes with all the hustle and bustle that too about 1hr Late. We were as usual bloody tense since we had no idea how we will perform. Anyway PPT was the starting and I have to admit it was a very nice PPT something which will touch the heart of every Aspirant.

This was followed by the Aptitude Test where 176 Candidates Sat. I particularly thought that the Maths Part was very easy but somehow I did not perform well but anyway I got the english part all correct and hopefully the Technical part correct too.

Then came the tough part the Technical interview where what happened was quite beyond my imagination. I was asked the easiest questions on earth with some crap from Java and Data Structures quite the opposite of what I read. Anyway the Lady who was there asked about my strange hobby defense analysis and my love for fighter aircraft. I explained her patiently and she finally gave me the H.R Form.

The H.R Form was an absolute hurdle. Many thanks to my seniors specially Shankha Da who was dog tired but helped all the way to fill up the H.R Form properly. Finally the H.R Form was taken away by Sonal Bharadwaj the H.R manager and she called me in. Well the H.R was finally all shit with some questions from Family Background and my hobbies and ambitions in life. Finally she said "Pleased to meet you" and I left the room for good following with a 7 hr wait for the final result.

The Result was finally declared at 11:45 P.M that night and my name was 9th on the list. Bingo I hit the bull in the eye. But as expected this would have brought great joy to our hearts but I clearly remember having no great joy or something. I just felt relieved. I don't know why and still don't have any explanations for this.

Anyway Signing off for now..... Will keep posting.......................

Trip to Kalimpong and Darjeeling...

Well I am updating the blog after a long long time....Well I had a hell of a time this Christmas. We haven't gone out as a family for about 12 years after 1996 so kinda was desparate for an outing this time. Well one of our relatives was visiting Kalimpong with his Staff for a brief 3 days tour. So we jumped on the wagon and decided to go with them only adding Darjeeling to our schedule and adding one more day thus making it 4 days. Anyway we started off from Calcutta on 23rd Night via Darjeeling mail. Well you see something has to happen whenever we go out. Bad luck as usual and that was the day when the track in that route cracked. It came out in the papers that there was a crack in the Rail Tracks and we narrowly escaped a major accident....Anyway time was short and lotta things to see. So I'm gonna take you through my experiences of the trip...

Well we reached NJP Station at about 10:30 AM train late for 2.5 hours. We started for Kalimpong on a small bus packed with 26 people from 6 families all our relatives and their staff. We waited with baited breadth to see the wonderful mountains and the fantastic flaura and fauna. Anyway keeping the Teesta on the right side of the mountain we made our way to Kalimpong. Gotta a few pics which might describe the beauty of the Teesta. Anyway one particular place was interesting where one diversion in the road went towards Kalimpong and
another went to Gangtok. Well you can understand how strategically important that road was. Anyway from therein we were constantly ascending towards greater heights. Stopped a few places finally we reached our destination. The Sad part was we were very very late and I had no lunch and it was all messed up. Reaching Kalimpong and settling down in the Hotel all took upto 5 in the evening. In the mountains you can't see anything then. So we basically wasted that day and cooled of our heels sitting in the Hotel watching the same idiot box. We were excited about the trip next day to Lava and Lolegaon and since it was short trip we had to cover both in one day.

LAVA & LOLEGAON: We got up early had a little breakfast me, dad and one of our relatives and rest of them were sleeping. Contrary to what I thought Mountain people sleep quite late and nobody wakes up before 7:30 in the Morning. Bed Tea was supposed to arrive at 7 but like the Indian Railways arrived one Hour late....Ok we started off for Lava first since it was more interesting according to everybody and indeed it was. The Lava trip was about 2 hours and we reached there by around 11:45. At 7034ft it was amazing. Quite cold and a little lonely place but it was just worth every penny to visit that place. Took a few good photos of the Valley on the other side. Could see the Kanchenjhunga but was not very clear from there. Here are the few Photos. The weather and the sky was so clear and it is really a treat to go these places. One can't deny that these are places which can be really God's own country if there is ever a God. But one thing which I observed was that people there are very clean and do everything to clear up any mess. They try to keep the things as attractive as possible even a Tea Stall by the side of the Road is as clean as possible. This photo was taken from the Roof Top of the Buddhist Monastery and was colour reproduction has been amazing. Took a few panoramic photos but this turned out to be one of the best. Anyway also visited the Monastery and it really has an amazing soothing effect the moment you enter the Hall. I will that is the place to calm the mind. Due to Lack of time we could not explore the monastery
much but I was mighty impressed by the subtlety of art in the monastery. Anyway there were so many people I had to wait about 15 min to get this shot. There were people coming in my way. The Desks on the sides of this halls where the Buddhist monks read their Holy books and chant prayers.(By the way Photography was prohibited here :D ). Anyway came down from there and got a glimse of the Lava Township from the Monastery. Here it is. This image looks

so common yet so captivating that one would love to go and spend the whole life there only. Anyway there is one image which looks like a picture perfect postcard type one. Here it is.....

And please don't ask me what's so great about this one. I don't know but it seems in this shot that the animals are eating in Synchronization. The colour and the contrast is perfect. I like this photo pretty much. Anyway that was the end of Lava Trip basically. People stay in Lava for about 2 days and all we had was abot 2 hour trip to experience such a wonderful place like this. But no matter I made the most of what I got.

Well Lolegaon was wonderful, unfortunately we could stay there for about 20 min hardly courtesy to our bus driver who came 30 min later than his stipulated time. Anyway we went to the reserve forrest and saw the Forrest bungalow there. Locals told it was great place to stay and see the sunrise and sunset but unfortunately we could see none properly. Anyway came back after that tiring trip and next day planned to go to Darjeeling.

DARJEELING: I had always planned to visit Darjeeling yet failed to do so on a couple of occations. This time I made it sure. We set off from Kalimpong 8:00AM and was supposed to reach there by 11:00. Made a stopover to Batashia loop and was very lucky to have a wonderful weather and could see Kachenjhungha peaks clearly. Luck was also in favour the Heritage TOY TRAIN came that moment only and I took a video footage of this legendary train.

Windows Media player Cracked

Microsoft has always done something or the other to Protect their Softwares from being Cracked and used by hackers but it's USP has always probably been "Come and Crack Me".... So you see it took me about 30Min to understand the Trick and Crack the thing.

Well this is how you go about doing it.

When you get the Windows Media player Installer file Just Extract it using WINRAR or WINZIP and you will see a folder being created. Go into that folder and you will see 4 EXE files by the name wmp11.exe, umdf.exe, wmpupdate.exe and the other I don't remember the name. Run them one after the other with wmp11 at first and wmp11update last.

Then Extract the wmp11.exe file using RAR again and you will get another folder. Go inside the folder and click on the update.exe file. It will be updated. Meanwhile you maybe asked to restart the machine once but don't since that will hamper the installation.

When the Updation is completely over Restart your Machine and then click on Windows Media player Icon it will automatically change to Windows Media Player. The Pre-Requisite is you have to have Windows Media Player 10 before installation.

Thats it and you crack Windows Media Player 11 without Cracking and it runs perfectly in a Non-Authentic Windows. Check it out and Mail me for problems.

I HAVE TO FIND OUT(DELL,BANGALORE)

Hi everybody, Well you people might have had an image of Dell as a very efficient and superb company. Well here is the truth......Due to shortage of space I'm writing this artcle in my other Blog Page. Please Follow the Link http://www.techno-minds.blogspot.com .

Dan Brown's Exaggeration in Da-Vinci Code.....

This is about my opinion about Da-Vinci Code Novel by Dan Brown.
I would like to say but there a few fundamental flaws with the Novel . After reading the book and doing a lot of research on it I found that it's Dan Brown himself who exaggerate the whole incident. Well this story is an immense hit in the Market but if you dig a little deeper then you will find that the claims made in this Book is not absolutely Authentic.
Dan Brown states that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus and she gave birth to the Bloodline of Jesus Christ. Yes these facts are somewhat possible since the Vatican Archives do have some proof of this. But those of you who have seen the Review in the History Channel know that this claim is not fully based on Facts. Yes it's known for sure that Mary Magdalene was a disciple of Jesus and she was rather intensely close to him but we can't say for sure that she was the wife of Jesus and that Jesus was a maried man based on the single fact that it was highly Unusual for Jewish Men to be Bachelors at that point of time. But we also have to consider the fact that Jesus himself was Unusual too. There are not many people who are historically as important as Jesus. Yes it is true to the Word that many important truths have been covered by the church but based on the remaining evidences we can't say for sure that Jesus was married with Magdalene.
Margaret Starbird an expert on this issue agrees with Dan Brown but all other authors and experts and those even the Protestant Scholar's too disagree to the claims made by Dan Brown. They say that maybe Magdalene was the wife of Jesus but we can't simply claim that for certain considering that there is no Hard Evidence and all Vague Hints lead to the Dead Sea Scrolls which itself does not say for sure but the intimacy between LORD and Mary Magdalene points to this fact but again this is not a Hard Evidence but a Strong Hint. It is not possible for us to uncover all facts because simply there aren't enough.
So you see my Friends don't believe Dan Brown blindy. Remember to use your rationality.

The Fraud that IIPM is!

.This is for everybody who seriously consider to pursue their Career in Management after completing their Current Course. Many of you must have seen the full page adds of IIPM in English Dailies where they claim to Think Beyond IIM's. I'm not gonna comment on anything. Just check out the following link where you will get the truth by JAM Careers which is an independent agency. http://www.jammag.com/careers/n/showart.php?art_id=149 I will keep you posted on this Topic.

Computer At Last

Well this one of most astounding events in my lifetime. Though I did not have a tete-a-tete with the person but can you believe that gets his computer 7 years after the Payment. Well guys this happened and infront of my eyes. It so happened that today(28/6/06) I had gone to a Computer Distributor called Eastern Logica to help him buy a new machine. At around 11:00 AM while we were in the Assembling room there was a huge uproar going on in the showroom. Came out to investigate and found out this.
A guy came to the Showroom claiming, he had paid for a computer about 7 years back in 1999 and due to some instant message in his pager(no mobile then) he went out of the shop and never came back. He didn't take Delivery of his computer claiming that due to emergency left immediately. He went abroad the same day and returned just a week back. Producing the Bill infront of the Sales counter, he threw the whole showroom in a mayhem. I can't write express in words but it was a real funny thing going on and I feel lucky to be present there. Well his Bill was examined by the Shop Owner himself who confirmed he wasn't lying. His Bill of Rs. 65,0000/- had the stamp "To be delivered" and signed by Owner. Since the amount was paid and they don't have money return Policy he was free to choose anything within the Budget. Well guys he had paid for a Pentium II Desktop & Printer 7 years back and today walked out with Lenovo Z-60(Laptop) + HP Multi Function Device. HOW MUCH MORE LUCKY CAN YOU BE !!!!!!!!

My Photo Gallery

Well I'm not going to Start a PhotoGallery here but if you really want to see some good Photos..... then Visit the URL www.flickr.com/photos/ratnajit . By the way I'm the moderator of this group and it is my request to you all to please Sign Up and Upload good Pics. By the way I call this Group Camera Stunts.........

For Techno Minds

This article is for those Computer Lovers who are obssessed about Computerss. The articles contained here are subject to frequent change. Please don't mind if any articles are left incomplete. I'll surely keep you posted with that......the link is http://www.techno-minds.blogspot.com just be sure to check back....

Microsoft Slams Authentication Notice

• THE PROBLEM:

THIS COPY OF WINDOWS IS NOT GENUINE
You are a Victim of Software Counterfeiting

Well this was the Notice which Microsoft Slammed. Now you understand how Microsoft puts it foot where it makes sense....
Well it so happened that Auto Updates were turned on and I did a mistake by downloading their new Update "Microsoft_Genine_Advantage.txt". Problems started just after I installed the Update. I was required to restart my Computer the above notice was the result. I could start the OS and carry on my day to day work but they restricted all access to INTERNET and Firefox was not allowed to access net.

• THE SOLLUTION:

Well Microsoft just made one Mistake. They should have given this notice to somebody else. I found out a very simple way to bypass this. This is what I did.....

1. Restored the System to a Previous date when my computer was working fine. Thus the update was deleted.
2. Cleaned the Disk of all Cookies and Temporary files which may be used by Microsoft to re-slam the Notice.
   
3. Traced the Website www.microsoft.com and found out the Main Foreign Server.
4. Set the firewall to block that particular Server Address.

So you see There is no Point in being a Part of the Problem but it is always better to be a Part of the Solution............