Whom to We Respect More? God or Gadget!

Not Bowing One’s Head Has Been Seen in Good Light

If you recently watched any period movie where a king/warrior declines to bow his head in front of another king, you are thinking on my lines. Bowing your head had meant giving respect to the person in front of you, irrespective of the fact that he deserved any such “respect”. Brave kings are known in history for not bowing their heads and for good!

95% Bowing Their Heads

Anyways bowing the head doesn’t do any good to our neck and spine. Let me quickly come to the point. If you have traveled in Delhi Metro for a significant distance at rush hours, you must have observed at least 95% of the crowd glued to their mobiles (i.e. if you’re not glued to your mobile yourself).

Will the Concept of Terminator Hold Good?

And this is what bothers me. Bowing our heads collectively in front of our respective machines! I think James Cameron had predicted the future of machines dominating mere mortals in the year 1984 itself when he came up with the movie “Terminator”. Humans have started bowing their heads in front of machines. I wish I could be wrong but it seems that the day isn't far when our future would be in the hands of machines.

The Incomplete Vaishno Devi Trip

Planning the trip to Vaishno Devi

The trek of around 11 kilometers and the ‘darshan’ made me and Khushboo excited to plan a trip to Vaishno Devi, Jammu & Kashmir. Little did we know that despite reaching the top, we wouldn’t be able to do the darshan. We flew to Delhi from Bangalore, caught up with many friends in a span of two days and took a train to Jammu.

Catching the bus to Katra

It was a refreshing feeling when I got out of the train at Jammu railway station. The North Indian feeling and the fact that I see puri sabji etc. instead of idli chutney etc. kept me enchanted. Not that I don’t like South Indian food (I’m a big fan of nearly everything SouthIndian), but when it comes to experiencing the places around motherland, nothing beats it. Nevertheless, that’s the topic for a different day. We took a bus to Katra from where the trek was supposed to start. A person was loudly singing devotional songs in the bus and later requested money from passengers. While his tone was melodious, I think that bus conductors should discourage such people from entering the bus. The act was nothing less than begging from passengers. Going back to my memories last time I visited Katra was in 1996, exactly 20 years back. Katra has metamorphosed to a great extent with lot of businesses having mushroomed everywhere.

Starting the trek

We checked into the pre-booked hotel and started the trek at around 2130 hours. It was a long queue before the security check. After having cleared our security at we had our dinner in one of the dhabas on the way. Now, all the shops on the way from Katra to Bhawan were selling their stuff for a premium on the top of the MRP at which I don’t complain. Afterall, they have to compensate for the expense they undertake to bring their stuff uphill all the way from Katra. Somehow I didn’t like medicines being sold at a premium. Now, I’m not saying that chemists should incur loss but medicines getting sold at higher rates didn’t feel right to me.

Katra to Ardhkumari trek

There are signboards where pony-rates are clearly mentioned (pic attached). Decide beforehand if you want to book a pony and book it on the spot where they agree on the prescribed rate. Once you cross that area any person with pony will charge you as per his whims and is generally non-negotiable. A number of shops selling all types of stuff have opened up on this route and you can always find a toilet within a 10 minutes walk. The road is unshaded and is generally clean but beware of the fresh poops done by ponies. You’ll also meet several people who will offer massage for money.

Ardhkumari to Bhawan trek

The road from Ardhkumari is comparatively better and shaded. Battery run vehicles run from Ardhkumari to Bhawan for 300 INR and the return fare is 200 INR. The service remains open for a specific duration in the daytime which I don't recall. The views are scenic and limited shops of hot/cold drinks and snacks are available. We started trekking uphill and it was all a smooth trek. That is, until we were around 2 kms away from Bhawan when it started raining cats and dogs. The shades were either broken/absent at some places causing us to get little drenched which was pretty much okay as per indian standards.

Reaching Bhawan and the queue over there

We reached Bhawan and got to know that since Kailash Mansarovar Yatra was cancelled, the devotional tourism wave swept this side. The queue was long was what I thought. I went ahead to find out where the queue ends and I kept walking and walking keeping in mind that this queue would end. The queue did end but only when I reached the stairs where the Bhairo Nath trek was supposed to start. The heavy rain added to our 11 km fatigue as the queue did have a shade to protect us from rain but the water was flowing heavily on the ground making us unable to sit and rest. Khushboo’s mother started getting dizziness and she wanted to sit somewhere. The queue being so long and the rainfall happening, there was no place to sit without getting drenched since the shade is only above the queue where nobody could sit since the rainwater was flowing continuously over there. I didn’t know what to do. Should I had a position secured in the queue or should I look after Khushboo’s mother well-being?

Attempt to seek a doctor’s service and attempts to get blankets

Khushboo enquired with some people to get her mother checked with a doctor since she wasn’t well but was told that the doctor would come only at 10 am. We thought to take some rest over there and then see what action to take next. The Bhawan administration has dedicated a couple of buildings for people who want to take rest. There are multiple floors and multiple rooms in each floor. Wooden beds fixed in each room are unreserved and gets occupied on a first-come first-served basis. Some families were chatting with each other while others were having a sound sleep after the arduous trekking. This facility is actually very nice. What wasn’t nice was the system of making the blankets available. I thought that at least I’ll get some blankets for khushboo’s mother and everybody else so that we can take some rest and think of the next course of action. The person at the blanket counter was rude enough to tell me that blankets will only be issued at night. My pleading made no difference to him and he told me that if anybody comes to return the blanket, I can deposit the money to that person and take the blankets. I, like a fool started looking for people who were coming to return blankets but in vain.

Enough is enough

Khushboo after listening to my plight, went to the same person for blankets, hoping to get a different treatment but once again in vain. All this kept happening with the continuance of rain. I said I have nothing against Vaishno Devi but there is something seriously wrong with the administration and arrangements over here. I don’t expect 5-star facilities but I don’t think that basic availabilities of doctor and blankets are too much to ask for. Adding on to that I think it was a deadly combination of cancellation of Mansarovar Yatra, heavy rainfall and some other coincidences because of which we couldn’t do the darshan. Tired and not slept last night, I said, Enough is enough; I’m going back to Katra. On our way back we used a majority of staircases instead of roads since it was a downhill walk.

Conclusion

Lesson learnt the hard way! The experiences have prepared me to get ready the next time I visit Vaishno Devi.

Japanese Encephalitis, Politics and BRD Medical College Gorakhpur

Gorakhpur has been in national news for the past half week and not for good reasons. Lack of oxygen supply has caused the death of around fifty children and with the trend it has got stuck to, there won’t be any surprise if it touches 3 figures. Politicians and administrators have started the usual game of passing the buck, suspension and sacking. What is most important is, how and to what extent would the attitude of employees and contractors serving in the hospital would improve.

A majority of the children admitted over there were suffering from JE (Japanese Encephalitis) locally known as ‘Mashtishq Jwar’. JE is a mosquito borne viral infection which affects the brain severely. Though it JE cases are reported from the whole country, north-eastern region of Uttar Pradesh is most affected from this disease. The Baba Raghav Das Medical College has a 100 bed tertiary care centre dedicated to JE which is why patients suffering from JE in the nearby region are referred to this hospital. The region is comprised of Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar and Nepal.

Similar to an annual ceremony, each year patients are rushed to the hospitals in monsoon seasons. As is mentioned in the statements of administrators and politicians, these kind of deaths keep happening in these months. So one wonders why any remedial measure wasn’t taken all this while to avoid these kinds of deaths, especially when this phenomenon is within the knowledge of administrators and politicians? The lack of oxygen supply had just fired up the rate of deaths which were anyways happening all this while at a normal rate.

The condition of the aforementioned medical college is not acceptable as per the standards of middle class families because of hygiene as a concern. In case of any emergency, a middle class inhabitant would like to rush to a private hospital and if urgent, would reach out to Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow. There are discussions to have an AIIMS in Gorakhpur to share the load of BRD Medical College. While this is a welcome step, more than more AIIMS, there must be a healthy change in the attitude of the people attached with the hospital.

Web Content I wrote for an Aviation Consultancy firm who didn't like it and therefore I'm posting it here. Anyways they're not going to use it

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My Trip to Hyderabad in 2011

It was one of those long weekends in Bangalore in the year 2011 when I decided to take a quick trip to Hyderabad. I was new in Bangalore and it had been some time since I joined my finance job. At that point of time I was wondering whether I should pursue a CFA program and who better to consult than my college super-senior Swami who was in the same domain in Hyderabad. I booked the train tickets quickly and left for the City of Nawabs..

Once I was out of the station of the Twin City, I boarded the bus to land at my friend Sandeep’s place. Now, Hyderabad buses are one of the oldest buses you would have seen in your life. In fact, the speed at which the bus was running could more or less be determined by the noise caused inside the bus because of loose parts. That said, the bus fare was considerably lower than that in Bangalore. I just hope the status of buses would have got upgraded by now.

Swami had asked me to meet at NTR Marg. We reached the place well in advance and were strolling on the road. The date was 09-Sept-2011 and Ganesh Pooja had just ended. The process of ‘Murti Visarjan’ was in full swing and therefore a bit of road was blocked as well . In ‘Murti Visarjan’ the idols prepared in festivals are supposed to be immersed in water bodies once the festival gets over. Now, I have been seeing this immersion happening in my hometown Gorakhpur since my childhood and I used to be surprised as I didn’t like the way they took the the idols to the bank of Rapti river and push it to the water. I somehow, found it little disrespectful towards Gods.

On querying elders, I got to know that the idols are supposed to be carried on the boat to the centre of the water body and it should be gently left to immerse over there. Probably, what forced the people to immerse idols just like that is the number of idols outnumbering the boats to a great extent, Worse, following the immersion, the local swimmers would dive in the water and snatch whatever jewellery they can from the gods. Yes, those jewellery are artificial ones but even they fetch the swimmers some value. Here in Hyderabad, fortunately the immersion was happening with the help of a crane (Fig 1.0). Another fact is that idols were supposed to be made of clay and with the help of natural colors and therefore once immersed in water will not deteriorate the quality of water. Now-days, the idols are made of plaster of paris and along with it, the artificial colors make the water toxic which is an unhealthy practice.

Once we had a brief view of Ganesh Visarjan, we went to explore T Anjaiah Lumbini Park. The park was sufficiently big and colorful for the children to play around. There are much bigger parks in Bangalore but there was something different in this park; be it the number of swings, the waterfall (to click photos), the laser show or the boat trip to Gautam Buddha Statue in the middle of Hussain Sagar, one of the largest man-made lakes. There was a long revolving tower on which we took a ride. It went to the maximum height. The three dots kind-of things in the photo (Fig 1.1) were the baskets we sat in and therefore the height of these towers can be assumed. The ride was quite unique an experience!

We met Swami in the NTR Gardens which was at a walking distance from this park and was similar and bigger to Lumbini park. The evening was spent in the market around the world famous Charminar. This was very similar to the old market of any city and you can get a good deal if you negotiate. I bought an informal belt which is used till date. The language you come across in Hyderabad apart from Telugu is a unique dialect of Urdu called Hyderabadi Urdu. Hindi and Urdu (spoken in India) don’t have much difference apart from their vocabulary and generally one who speaks one can understand the other. I found it funny (no offence intended) the way they speak Urdu over there. For example, ‘Why’ is ‘Kyon’ in Hindi while in Hyderabadi Urdu it is ‘Kayku’ but the drag with which it is spoken seems funny.

While the majority is a Hindu population, the Muslim population is a huge minority and therefore is the prevalence of Urdu in language and Nonveg in food. I was a vegetarian (with my friend Sandeep who is a permanent vegetarian) those days and we went to a Chinese restaurant. We didn’t taste Biryani over there. Yes! You read that write. Neither did we taste Biryani nor we dealt in pearls. Hyderabad is so much more beyond Biryani and pearls. By the way, one plate biryani has so much quantity in Hyderabad that it is generally sufficient for two people.

Next day, Sandeep had already booked a Qualis to visit the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam. We started at 0700 hours and there were nine people (excluding the driver). Now ten people in a Qualis is quite a crowd but that was its own kind of fun. The seating arrangement was 3 people each on front and middle seats, and 4 people on the dual seats in the third row facing each other. The dam was some 140 kms away from our location and I was calculating in my mind that it would take 4-5 hours (including breaks) to go there. After spending around 2 hours over there we would be back in 5 hours. Having started at 0700 hours we would be easily back in the evening and I could catch my scheduled trains at 2100 hours. But destiny had something else in its mind. Having crossed some 120 kms in 4 hours we faced a massive traffic jam. We were not much sure of the reason behind the jam but Ganesh-Visarjan could have been one of the reasons.

Jam, jam and traffic jam. Fortunately, ours was a Qualis where the back door can be opened upwards (unlike Tata Sumo). It was around 12 noon and was pretty hot. Qualis was crawling like a snail and by keeping the back door open we were getting fresh air and the following auto-rickshaw was getting a shade (of the back door) as well. That was the longest period of time I had ever experienced a traffic jam. So, to cover the initial 120 kms we took 4 hours and to cover the rest of the 20 kms we took another 2 hours. My train scheduled at 2100 hours, was hardly leaving my mind running thoughts of different probabilities.

It was a strange arid road with no food-stalls, drinking water etc. We took a sigh of relief on reaching the Natural fountain (We had left the artificial dam at the place where the jam started). Extremely hungry and thirsty we had the exorbitant, tasteless egg-biryani over the only food counter over there. The fountain was ok. Since I was the only person who had to be in the city before 2100 hours, after spending around one hour over there I prodded Sandeep to ask everybody else to come back for the return journey. Somehow, I had the feeling that jam would be less on the way back.

I don’t know why carrying water didn’t come in anybody’s mind while starting from the Natural fountain. We again got stuck in the traffic and there was nothing except the omnipresent Airtel network and vehicles. All of us became thirsty and we desperately needed water. We asked the driver to come on his own and started walking on the road. We walked some 3-4 kms until we came across a hand-pump. I don’t know how much water I drank at that point of time. By now it was already 2000 hours and I understood that I will miss my train. We had a good view of the dam in the evening and had some food nearby. I asked the driver to drop me at the Bus Stand since since it was already 0000 hours and I knew that there were no train / private bus at that point of time.

The next bus to Hyderabad was at 0630 hours next day and fortunately the bus stand had a dormitory. I got the top bed of the unusually high bunker bed. Once I was flat, the distance between the fan and my body was so less that if I had raised my hand straight, it would have got hit by the fan. Thanks to the tiring day, I had a sound sleep that night. Next morning, I boarded the bus and enjoyed one of the best highways from Hyderabad to Bangalore.

Canon's new cameras: Canon EOS 200D and Canon EOS 6D Mark II.

Canon announced the launch of two new cameras to commemorate the National Camera Day: Canon EOS 200D and Canon EOS 6D Mark II.

EOS 200D is for those who are thinking of their first DSLR camera. It comes with a 24.2 megapixel APS-C size CMOS sensor, capable of getting crisp pictures apart from having the flexibility to crop image with without compromising on the quality. The in-built DIGIC 7 image processor can increase the ISO speed to 25,600 which is helpful in reducing motion blur in low-light conditions and thereby getting good quality pictures. The Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology ensures that the camera focuses really fast and continues tracking the moving subject during Live View and movie shooting modes. It also features a Vari-angle LCD monitor, Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth for your convenience. The Canon Camera Connect app lets you control certain features from your phone.

Canon EOS 6D Mark II may be suitable for people who have photography experience with DSLRs and want to switch to full-frame photography. It is the lightest camera in the segment of EOS full-frame DSLR line and has a 26.2 Megapixel CMOS sensor. This sensor delivers exceptionally clear images even under low light conditions apart from getting you the background blur effect. It also has the Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology for high-performance focus tracking. The DIGIC 7 image processor provides high image quality in dimly lit situations. The camera has a versatile Vari-angle touch panel so that you can use it from different angles. With 45-point all cross-type AF system, you can focus more effectively on different subjects. This camera is equipped with a 7650 pixel RGB+IR metering sensor, a color detection AF, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS receiver, Bluetooth which will come handy in professional level photography.

How to fix Error code OX80070091

How frustrating it an experience is when you come across an error message on your computer. You might have seen the Error Code OX80070091 when trying to delete a folder. The message further says, “An unexpected error is keeping you from deleting the folder. Error 0x80070091: The directory is not empty”. This sounds creepy to you. If you are the administrator of the computer, why can’t you delete the folders? What’s worse! Because of this error you may not be able to install new apps / app updates and therefore it becomes important to troubleshoot this error asap.

Let’s have a look at some of the probable causes because of which this issue can happen:

·         Check if you have logged in as an administrator. It is important to check this because as a secondary user, you can not delete some files / folders.

·         The hard drive has bad sectors

·         The drivers have become corrupt

·         The temporary folder is flooded with junk files

Below are some methods which will help you in resolving this issue.

·         Method 1: Use your existing antivirus.

o    Login with your administrative access and scan your computer with the existing antivirus / Microsoft Defender. See if the problem still exists.

o    Restart your computer and try deleting the intended file / folder to see if the issue is resolved.

·         Method 2: You should remove the junk files on a regular basis which doesn’t just occupy unnecessary space in your computer but can also make your system unstable.

o    Hold Win, Press X

o    Click “Command Prompt (Admin)”

o    Click “Yes”

o    Type “cleanmgr” and press Enter

o    Select the drive which you want to check (we recommend doing this for all drives one by one)

o    The process will start and you will be notified the space you can claim on the respective hard disks.

o    Review and Check all the Radio Buttons to remove unnecessary files

o    Click ‘Ok” for the process to start

o    Check if you are still able to delete the intended folder (the Error Code OX80070091 is resolved or not)

·         Method 3: Check the folder’s properties to confirm if you actually have full administrative rights

o    Open Windows Explorer app

o    Open the Parent Directory of the folder with this issue

o    Right click on the folder and click on Properties

o    Click on Security > Advanced > Owner

o    Change the ownership to “New Owner”

o    Select “Replace Owner” in both “Sub-container and Objects”

o    Once the changes have been saved, try deleting the intended file / folder

·         Method 4: You can take help of the File Checker Tool to resolve this.

o    Click Win logo

o    Type cmd

o    Hold Ctrl & Shift simultaneously and press Enter

o    Type chkdsk/f/r and press Enter and press Y

o    The Disk Check will start working once the computer restarts. Give it some time before trying to delete the intended file / folder.

·         Method 5: An alternative way to run the File Checker Tool is below. The difference is, this one focuses more on repairing bad sectors:

o    Hold Win, Press X

o    Click “Command Prompt (Admin)”

o    Click “Yes”

o    Type chkdsk C/f/r/x

o    Press Enter to let it scan your computer. Once this is done, restart your computer and try deleting the intended file / folder.

·         Method 6: Sometimes, the drivers are not updated resulting in Error Code OX80070091 and other errors. You need to update drivers to check if this issue gets resolved.

o    Open the path Control Panel\System and Security\System in Windows Explorer

o    Click Device Manager

o    Expand all the options and check for a yellow exclamation before any device

o    If you find one, right click on it and click on Update Driver Software...

o    Restart your computer and try deleting the intended file / folder to see if the issue is resolved.

·         Method 7: Use System Restore as one of the last options. ‘System Restore’ restores the settings for a specific past date but it doesn’t affect your files. This options comes in handy if you had created a Restore Point at that point of  time when the error was not there

o    Click Win logo, type and click on Settings

o    Click Update & Security

o    Click Recovery

o    Select ‘Go back to an earlier build’

o    Choose the date when this issue was not there

o    Run the tool and restart the computer

o    Either the intended file / folder got deleted or you should be able to delete it manually now.

·         Method 8: If even after using the System Restore option, the file / folder is there / you are unable to delete the file / folder, the last option is to erase everything from the computer and take it back to Factory Settings.

o    Take a backup of your important files offline or online

o    Click Win logo, type and click on Settings

o    Click Update & Security

o    Click Recovery > Reset this PC

o    Click Get Started > Remove Everything

o    Further there will be two options ‘Just remove my files’ and ‘Remove files and clean the drive’. We suggest you to go with the second option.

o    The computer will restart and take a considerable time to go to Factory Settings.

o    This option will start your computer afresh and all the old folders (including the folder with the error) will get deleted resolving your issue.

The last step will make your computer in the state when you bought it. You need to move the old files manually to the computer and install programs / apps from scratch. Your issue should be resolved and you should be able to delete that creepy file / folder using the steps mentioned above.