A journey into the jungle

I'll be listing the three extraordinary memories of our trip to Uttarakhand.

The first one was a jungle safari...

However, let me first give you a description of the places we visited before the jungle safari.

Our trip started from Rishikesh, a place near Haridwar. 

From Rishikesh, we went to Chilla. Rajaji National Park is located in Chilla, and we stayed in GMVN resorts all along, so getting a jeep for the jungle safari was not a problem at all. However, the problem was the time. The core area remains closed  till the 15th of November. So, there was no way we could actually see wild animals. We were only taken to the buffer zone.

This was the first time I would be riding an open jeep. I was pretty excited when the jeep arrived...

...and so were the others!

Then the journey started. The jeep blazed through the road beside the canal that was created by trapping water from the Chandrabhaga. As the jeep blazed through the road and the wind gushed past my face, it felt refreshing! I tried to take several photos but most got blurred. However, I like this particular photo...the blur brings out the motion!

After a while, we spotted the first animal...

...on the other side of the canal. 

Anyway, after that, the jeep journey continued. After a few minutes, I was starting to think the whole road was actually the buffer-zone. We then diverted into a muddy path that led into the forest!

This was thrilling, especially when we arrived at a certain point, that was surrounded by forests on three side, and a hill slope on one side. There was silence. Complete silence. And the occasional sounds of certain insects. But, sometimes, we could hear some low rumbling noises. The silence was deafening...

We could go back only by the way we had came.

When we reached the main road again, it was slightly darker. We then progressed through the road until we came to another muddy road that led into the jungle. We first went through a village and then moved deeper. The path was slightly uphill. 

        We saw two peahens on the way.

That was the last animal we saw. Usually, if one goes to the core area, an elephant is ALWAYS visible.

        We simply traveled deeper. After a certain point, it was getting really dark. We had to turn back. The driver drove a bit faster than before. This journey was amazing!

        It was mystical! The cool, moist air, filled with oxygen traveled into our lungs and rejuvenated us...

        Apart from that, as we moved on, a certain central area would become visible from time to time. This is something that has been etched in my mind. It was simply a collection of trees that formed a canopy at the top, but whose lower portions could not be seen. In other words, from a moving vehicle, we could never realise the depth of that region! And the trees continued on and on. I tried to capture this, but we were moving fast, and it was really dark. Still, I got this, but one can't realise what we saw from this picture:

As we progressed towards our resort by the main road, I plugged in my earphones and played a few songs that would match the atmosphere. The air was extremely cold, but the journey made me feel limitless...

        We stopped at a small tea shop before going to our hotel. The tea shop was located adjacent to the core area, and the walls were filled with paintings of the forest. Snacks, and even some forest-gear was on sale!

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Something I noticed...

It's about websites, and a certain software so you might find it boring...

I noticed something about certain online video players. I don't know if I'm right, but I think it's ok to type it here...certain video players use a technique of layering skins, to hide the actual player.
Don't know why they would do that...
For example, in a certain website, I found that it had its native player, however, it had somehow managed to copy YouTube famous Flash player...not the YouTube player, but the skin. I noticed this since my internet connectivity had slowed down then.
It's not really that useful, unless someone does the opposite thing, that is utilize YouTube's player, and upload his/her video to YouTube's server, and then apply a skin on it to make it look like a native player...silly pretension...:P

Anyway, now for the exciting news...
I had been searching for a proper digital audio workstation...here's my definition of proper:
It should support MIDI and audio editing, and ReWire (from Reason 5), and should have some nice stock plugins for mastering audio...and it should have a nice interface ;)
Pro Tools HD 10 was the best option out there (Logic Pro would require a Mac :P ).
I have been using Reason for quite some time but I have Reason 5, and it does not support audio recording, apart from sampling audio. Pro Tools was the only thing I wanted (Cubase was complicated, to me at least). I had been searching for a proper torrent with a crack that would unlock iLok, but got nothing...even Ching Liu's version failed...finally, I got one from KuchenPlauf. It's brilliant! I have to pump up the CPU power, and reserve 99% of CPU power for Pro Tools when it is running...but that's ok...I can actually link each of Reason's instruments, and use them in Pro Tools using ReWire...thus I don't have to let go of the Steinway Grand piano, or the Yamaha C7 Grand! ^_^
The only problem is if I add EQ to all my tracks, and use several Native plugins...that's making the software lag. But still, that's not an immediate problem...I'll try to record a song with my band after the 20th...hope everything goes well...here are two screenshots:
Both are for the same song - I Giorni...check it out in the adjacent player from ReverbNation :)

Reason 5

Pro Tools HD 10

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Mac 1.0

It's pure genius! I got an emulator online that allows users to run the first ever version of the Macintosh OS.
It was created in 1984. I got it yesterday. It's brilliant! The first ever GUI based OS!
And here's the amazing thing: it has all the basic features of our modern day OS. It's black and white, lacks networking, and I am facing a problem to link it to my hardware (printers and stuff). However, I downloaded a few vintage games. As it turns out, in those days *.dsk files would run on the Mac. These 'disk' files stored a collection of softwares. Even in those days, the games were pretty advanced. The refresh rate was much lower, but that's obvious.
Here's something I found interesting. A few of my friends and myself included have made a few simple games in Java (although they made games that were much more advanced than mine). Even though I tried to eliminate the screen from flickering using a buffer technique my friend had suggested, the fps wasn't enough. In those days, these problems were faced! :D I was playing the classic brick breaking game, and there I saw the flash.
It was really amazing to see the OS work. It even had a basic version of Windows Paint (the original mac version from which Windows got the idea, of course). All in all, I'm pretty excited to be using an OS from 1984.

Btw, I forgot to upload a screenshot...here's something better; here's a video:

P.S. I am sorry for this unexpected return. I have been writing some 'specially descriptive' blog posts, but they aren't ready to be posted. Lots of things have happened since my last official post. I'm trying to include all the exciting stuff. And, I'll probably try to customize the blog design later.

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Swimming Alone...

It was the last day of our 4 day trip to Shantiniketan. The day was gloomy from the time the very first rays of the sun hit our house. First of all, the night before had not gone as expected. I was not able to spend much time with my sister or my parents. It was mostly boring, apart from the period between 9:30 pm to 10:00 pm, when I strolled around in the compound of Aamar Bari, listening to music, and occasionally talking to my friends. Thus, the next day, I was  thinking of how to spend the remaining 3 hours. Then, my parents suggested to go swimming! I was already a bit tired, but still I took my towel, clothes on my bicycle, and cycled off towards the swimming people...from a distance, I realized the water was absolutely calm, and NO ONE WAS THERE!!! I parked my cycle near the pool, took off my shirt, and just jumped in. It was a wee bit colder than the normal temperature, whereas the previous day it was probably perfect because we had gone swimming in the evening, and the sun had already warmed the waters by then. I took a deep breathe, and started a free style stroke. After completing four rounds, I stopped. Then, I was acclimatized! :) I then frog-styled and moved about the whole pool for relaxing. For perhaps the next 30 minuted, I did the various strokes I know. I practiced underwater from one end of the pool to the other as well. Then, the weather came to my favour...

The sun came out of the clouds, and sparkled the water! This was my all-time dream while swimming, something I couldn't enjoy in the city. I immediately took a deep breathe and moved below the surface of the water. The sight immediately pleased me and made me forget about all other worries. The floor of the swimming pool was shining with the rays of the sun, and beautiful patterns were forming. Mostly they were rhombuses with curved sides, and in motion. It was really magical, as it had always been...the power of the sun was reduced to beautiful shapes which soothed and amazed us! I touched the floor with three fingers and tried to trace out the patterns. However, soon out of breathe, I had to come up to the surface again. Now, the pool isn't too deep. Maybe 1.5 metres or so. But, that helped to move fast from surface to surface. The water surface was sparkling as well. Then, I had an idea...something I had tried out only once during my swimming classes, where the pool is perhaps 2.5 metres deep. I used to go deep underwater, and turn about to face the surface of the water from below. This pool was not that deep, but still, it was manageable. I again took a deep breathe, and sank, and turned about, in a flat posture, like we do while we sleep. 

The surface was glowing. Actually, I could see the rays of the sun pouring in from the top! Now, goggles usually give a clearer sight of the water, but this was equally nice. The streaks of light were just penetrating the surface like laser beams. I was holding my nose with my fingers, because under that pressure, and in a reversed position, water easily go into my nose. After a few seconds of eye-satisfying sights, I came to the surface again, to find that my sister had come to tell me that my parents were calling me to get up and get ready for returning back home. It was time to end the wonderful experience...

You see, in a normal swimming pool, there several other swimmers wading about in the waters. Alone in a pool, the waters around you are completely calm. It feels like staying below forever. In a movie, one of the main actors had described this as addiction. He had been corrected: this is purely meditation! :) I realized the truth from that day's experience...my mind had really gone completely blank. It was only absorbing what my eyes saw. Not many days have passed, but I think this sight will always be alive in my mind. It's absolutely vivid and clear. Maybe I'll be able to experience this once again when I go back, but that won't be happening for the next one year. This was the best form of refreshment I had had since a long time...

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Escape to Shantiniketan!

Yep! For another four days, I enjoyed life to the fullest at that place. Nothing new, but yet refreshing.
Actually, something was new: a swimming pool!

The compound that encloses the 150 houses, of which one is ours, contains many modern facilities, and yet the looks are rustic, once you enter into the area where the houses are placed. After entering through the main gate, you can see the parking lot to your left, and a wide expanse of a field on your right. I don't know what that expanse will ultimately become, but currently, it's a playground. And beside it, is the swimming pool! Earlier, that is seven months back, it was nothing but a cemented pit. But this time, it was totally different...but I am getting ahead of myself. Let me first describe how we arrived this time...

It was three o' clock in the afternoon. We started off during the hot daytime. We picked up my mother, and then my father drove on continuously for three hours, and arrived at Shantiniketan! After seven months, I truly had a fresh feeling to be there. We shared the bags we had brought and walked through the red soil, towards our house. The area in front of our house is quite large. This time, it was even better: the grasses had been trimmed and small plants of three colours had been planted-purple, fresh green, and dark green. It looked amazing! Even in the diffused rays of the sun, the door glowed with it's new colour: golden. Then we stepped into the house. After that, we had a great disappointing sight: the whole house was covered in a huge amount of dust! We took two hours to clean the whole mess up, and when it was finally done, we relaxed outside, and waited for another family to arrive: my father's friend's family. Each of their members made a good match with us. Their son is four years younger than me, but he is a great friend! And their daughter is an old school friend of my sister.

That night, we chatted on for a long time! The two of us, me and my brother-friend...:D, bicycled in the night time and played badminton, and at 11:00 o' clock, we had our dinner of chicken bharta and rotis. At midnight, we went to sleep. We two slept on the floor, on a nice and comfy mattress. That was how the first day ended...

The next day was even more fun filled. In fact that was the most memorable day of the small vacation. It was the day of holi. Now, I must tell you this before you understand anything else. Holi, the festival of colours in India is usually spent with water colours(I mean buckets of them, used for spraying at other people...:D) and abirs (powdery colours that are usually applied to the face and are much more peaceful). In Shantiniketan, the tradition that was started since Rabindranath Tagore's time was simple: In the central part of Shantiniketan, the university - Bishwabharati - students start a musical event by singing and dancing through a fixed route in yellow traditional dresses. This starts the start of the cultural event. After one hour, the main anushthan starts onstage, with various students, artists displaying their talents through singing, dancing, plays, etc. At around 9:00 AM, the function ends, and the audience throws abir into the air, making the air above them more colourful than ever! That was the memory I had, in fact, most people have had, until this year...their was a chance of a STAMPEDE! Hundreds of people had arrived to the function in an unorganized manner, and more importantly, the venue had been moved to a bigger area. The original flavour was absolutely lost. I could not see any part of the function...no one could, in fact. Later, while returning to our home, we stopped on the way, and played Holi in a small fashion with abirs. That was quite memorable. At home, we bathed, and then played a bit, after which we went to have lunch in the most popular ashram that also serves food to 'guests': Banalakshmi. A scrumptious meal inside our tummies, we moved towards a small dried up lake, and then at home, I watched a movie with my brother. And, also played a few games on my laptop....now for the main event.

Swimming: 

Splash! We jumped into the swimming pool. Even better? There was NO ONE ELSE IN IT!!! Only four of us: the two sisters, and we two! For two hours, we enjoyed and made ourselves dog-tired: Frisbee, underwater races, 'running', and splashing on and on...well I can't really describe the fun in a swimming pool, that to all to ourselves, in words. All you need to know is that it was LEGENDARY!

During the next two days, it was normal nature-enjoyment-protocol. I cycled 16 km roughly, and this time I took videos too! Then the amar-kutir photography...:D And, finally swimming again, on the day we were about to leave, only this time I WAS SWIMMING ALL BY MYSELF!!!

That was how I spent my 4 days trip to Shantiniketan...blog you again later! :)

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Creating ebooks

You know that my ebook reader had almost been damaged permanently. My friend Tanmoy fixed it and made the software as good as new. My target for rooting the device was to use ad-hoc WiFi connections(from my laptop). Along with that I also had a plan of installing a calendar app. Now it functions as a normal Sony Reader PRS T1 does. I still had the desire for a calendar...so that I would be able to set reminders and stuff like that, or atleast memos. That's why I started to search the net for various ways on how to make ebooks. My idea was this: to create an ebook that have the calendar of 2013 in tabulated form, just like a normal calendar is. Each page would be a separate month.
        The only softwares that I found for free or which had a small size were small editors and did not support tables or stuff like that. They just allowed the creation of ebooks in writing. Then I came across Adobe InDesign. Another software from the world renowned company that makes heavy duty professional applications like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc., this one let's us create professional ebooks! And yes, that includes the calendar making thing too.
        So, for two hours continuously, I went on making (actually trying) calendars, and finally got one optimized for my Reader. Now, at last I have fulfilled my dream of having a calendar 'app' for my Reader...:D After that, I made another ebook for my friend Anish, who is actually one of the best young writers of our time. Now, I have asked several other friends to give me their writings so that I can make ebooks out of them and send it back to them with professional formatting styles like good headers, contents, hyper links, and foot notes...:D :) Well, that's it for now. And, oh yes! I'll be going to Shantiniketan again during the festival of colours - Holi, that is on the 26th. I'll describe Holi in that post later...bye for now!

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My current happenings

Right! Let's move into the topic directly. First of all I must tell you that LOTS AND LOTS have happened to me since I had last blogged on 'Common yet my own 2012'.

        I had my excursion in January. Earlier it had a synonym: 'education tour'.
Now, it was actually a fun tour with my friends. We all went to an amusement park, Rose Valley Amusement Park in Barasat. The bus journey was HORRIBLE! The roof was really low and dancing in such a cramped space was almost impossible. However, we managed to somehow start up a song in the bus' defective audio system and had a fun time. When we reached the spot, we were taken to a spot for having breakfast. That was truly delicious. Inside the amusement park we got free tickets for awesome rides! Actually, we were about to ride most of them for the first time, because most of us hadn't rode on such thrilling rides before...at least that was the case for me. There was a rotating wheel with sitting arrangements for two each. That was truly thrilling. I went on with a friend of mine and before it started to move in full speed, we were petrified! We didn't know what it would be like, whether we become nausea-tic or would feel scared. It would all be solved within minutes...that's all we knew. But when the thing started, and we got accustomed to it, we started to enjoy it in full swing! Apart from that, the other ride we had was on frogs...we would sit on a frog and it would jump and move at the same time! I almost got knocked out of my sit! There were 4 other rides but they weren't as thrilling as those. Inside a scary house, we were the ones who were actually scaring the others...:D Overall, the rides were good, and so was the delicious lunch! But, while we were returning it was not fun at all...:'( There was no audio system, no one to dance, and everyone was sleepy. This was certainly not the best tour for us. The one in 9th standard had been much more enjoyable.

        After that, January was somewhat exciting because I learnt to play Fifa 13...the game. I now support a football club (at last)...in fact I support two clubs. FC Barcelona and Manchester City. That apart, I also modified the blog a bit (as you can see). Apart from these two new improvements, the latest thing I learnt about desktops is that they can be heavily modified using a software called 'Rainmeter', which is going viral in our school nowadays. My current desktop is quite awesome. I have started using Google Drive, a free cloud storage service giving the user 5GB of storage! There I have uploaded some screenshots of my desktop.

        Right...now for the main NEWS that I want to share with you. It's about my ebook reader. You know that my Sony Reader PRS T1 runs on the Android OS 2.2 'Gingerbread'. Well, you must also be knowing, if you are an android user or programmer or have interest in computers, that Android devices can be hacked, or in the best term - rooted. It's kind of unlocking the full capacities of the device. My ebook reader has no Android capabilities. Only certain apps like the browser or the notes app, or the audio app can be used. Others have been stripped down by Sony. Well, they can be run but only on by rooting and unlocking a third home screen that allows me to run the Android goodies from Google. I did do that in the month of February. I rooted my device.
Now I knew what consequences I would have to face if the rooting would not work. My device had a chance of becoming a brick...yes, it would no other function other than a brick. That's called a bricked android device. But I read the stats and found that the cases of bricking are extremely rare. Thus I took the chance. And oh yes! My warranty would become void. I didn't mind that because anyway, the warranty would not work outside the USA. Thus, I downloaded a rooting package by rupor and rooted it. My main target was actually to enable ad-hoc WiFi connection capabilities. Oh! And I also learnt how to make my laptop a WiFi hotspot using the broadband connection that I already have. Anyway, that was my main interest. All was going well. I added quite a number of apps from Google to my device. But, I wanted the WiFi. For that, I would have to write a small amount of code in an ADB and use it for the Sony Reader. That bricked my device. For weeks, I had no option but to continue searching the internet on how to fix it. Well actually what had happened was that the Reader would not connect to the computer, and it could not detect it's own internal memory! The case was hopeless. However I had a friend in my school who was a real expert in the field of Android rooting and flashing devices to fix them. He fixed it within one half of a day!!!! And that too really easily! Now I can again read my books for free and have learnt that before knowing adequately on something as advanced as Android, and getting ample amount of experience, I should never experiment with anything...:P Anyway, now my annual exams are going on, and I have two more theory test left and three practicals. 

That's it for now! Bye!

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Common yet my own 2012

The year that left us...a common topic.
        This was the most common topic in Facebook. Everyone posted their own collection of memories in Facebook through status updates, pictures, notes, etc. That's why blogging is kind of useful to me. One thing I know for certain. My list might go too long, and no one will care to read through the entire post. That's why blogging is much better. I can freely list myself here. Anyway, let's move on...
        January: I won't go on listing like this, but still, it's a good option for starting. The year started with our class 10 selection tests. Only one term can describe our school's selection tests for both class 10 and 12: horrible. No description needed for that.
        Then, the rest of January and February was spent in preparing for our first board examinations: the ICSEs. It was truly a tough time. People say that scoring is easy in ICSE, but those two months require some amount of hard work. Anyway, after that, in the end of February, the exams started. In January many of use had given mock tests in different centres, although I hardly know how much that helped us...:D
        The month of April was a unique one. Right after my boards ended on the 26th of March, I escaped to our house in Shantiketan with my parents. A five day trip, it is still the longest stay that we have had. On returning, I started heavy practice for playing with the presentation that I had made for my father's 50th birthday anniversary. That was my first stage experience. And, it was quite satisfactory.
        April was quite eventful. Our ICSE results would come out on the 19th. That day was the most tense and yet enjoyable day. At first it was filled with tension. When the results came out at 3pm, tension was replaced with joy!
        Then started the class 11 rush. Although it had already started I didn't pay much attention at first. Then, as the humongous syllabus slowly unwrapped itself, I came to know that I had start studying. However, the half yearly examinations were really poor for most of me and my friends. The effect quickly wore off (temporarily) as the pujas arrived, and so did our trip to Kedarnath. Photography was quite satisfactory, although I believed it wasn't really good enough. When we had went to Mandarmoni or Shantiniketan, I had been more satisfied. Anyway, after that in the month of December came the best experience - website designing!
        Christmas wasn't really special, and neither was New year. However, dryly said, this was my list of memorable events that took place during the year 2012. Oh! And I forgot to mention doomsday...:D The biggest hoax of the year. And also the Delhi rape case...something that shook us from our very insides and showed us what we 'civilized' people could create. A memory that will haunt most Indians forever...
        So sum up like an essay, this was my list of 2012 events. It wasn't a really enjoyable read, but this was supposed to be a 'list'. The detailed versions are included in other blogs...:) Enjoy reading those! :D :)

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Website making: Part 3

The shock! Our school also had another team. They had brought a website a few days back which they had designed not by programming but by using MS FrontPage. Thus, it had lacked the modern features like CSS, and looked a bit like Avirup's 'Government Website'. But, that day, they were desperate for flash technology. On the day of the competition, on the 7th, they brought something that literally brought our eyes out. He had a 3D VIDEO GALLERY!!! And a 3D PHOTO GALLERY as well!!! We lost hope. The only thing that we had was huge information, simplicity, and a user-friendly navigation system.
        During the competition, the judge asked us various questions which Avirup answered smartly. I told him the technologies which we had used: HTML5, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Java Applets. At the end of our session, he looked at our masthead. I had made a section called 'About the website', where I had included all the information sources. This was our savior. This is where the other team got beaten. Yeah, our info, and design were also an advantage...the navigation bar which linked to each and every page was another savior. But, the judge did say that they had violated copyrights of YouTube. In the end, we did win. I had become quite doubtful then, because of their fantastic layout. But, I was satisfied with my work, and had made myself ready to accept the loss as well (but, yes...had we lost, I would have been deeply grieved. The hard work would have all gone to vain).
        I have learnt a lot about the internet, and of course about website designing and HTML, CSS, JavaScript coding from this project. That's what I am happy for apart from the competition...

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Website making: Part 2

The home page was done. But, the whole thing was still left. It was a Saturday. I wanted to make a simple, user-friendly, and sophisticated-looking design for most of the other pages. I write in a blog...:P You know that, of course, but that didn't strike my mind then. I just surfed the web for more and more webpage designs. Then, came a blog called 'The Flower Blog'. Actually, it was a tutorial for creating a blog like design. I opened it, and although the page was huge, I knew that this was the thing that would be the standard design for all my other pages. All I needed to do was implement this design and a huge part of my work would be done. Thus I decided to come back home from my maths tuition and start working on the design. I would learn new things as well...

        At 8:00 PM, it was on!

        I opened the bookmarked tutorial page and started studying. This was the first time I came across the concept of CSS: Cascading Styling Sheets. This was the thing that would actually help my website look 'sophisticated'. I created the page, the basic HTML version as the tutorial instructed. Then, I opened another file and wrote down the required CSS. The file was 'master.css'. By 11:00 PM, the thing was done! A huge job done! The basic layout without any content looked like this:

Yeah, well there was one director, but it did not have any pictures, and it was an un-edited version. I had just copied and pasted it from Wikipedia. Well, I don't have pictures of the first looks. This one is a bit different. The menu on top is actually a navigation bar that remains fixed whether you scroll down or not. I introduced this 'hanging-menu' in school. That was another major achievement. But, anyway that was it! I went to sleep that night with a sense of peace. Little did I know that still a HUGE JOB was left. 

        The next day I had a lot of problem in including another article to that page. But, ultimately I did it. Then, within the next 3 days, I finished the video and photo collection pages as well. The photo collection page was a good one. It was one where I used JavaScript to include two arrows that would move the gallery on either sides as soon as the mouse was moved over it. The gallery was actually a collection of thumbnails. Above it was the preview panel. The photo collection looked like this:

Well, above it was the headers and the usual menu. But, this was the main content. This saved a lot of space.

        Then came the video gallery. Now, that was a problem. I came to know about a concept called 'inline frames'. That would help to open multiple things in the same portion of the page, not at the same time of course. However, I could get nothing in mind as to how to implement it to open the videos. There would be the usual layout, and on top would be the thumbnails. On clicking, the corresponding video would open. However, I could not achieve it that night (the night I was working on). A kind of worrying sense crept into my head. While I slept, the HTML tags were floating in my head. Now, it's a case of belief for you. The next day at morning I had the whole thing cleared out in my head. It was a simple logic again and within an hour I implemented the idea. Thus, the video gallery was ready!

        With that, the basic layout of the whole website ended. The only thing left was the quiz app. I decided to make it in school using Java Applet and later embed it into my website. I thought that now the major job was done. Because Avirup would be bringing in the information and providing it to me. This was my biggest blunder. I wasted time in my school creating the quiz app slowly and chatting with my friends(because the Rhapsody mood was on...no studies at all!). Avirup had a lot of jobs to do. He was in a one act play, he had prefect duties, and he had other jobs as well. He became so busy, that ultimately although he downloaded the info, he did not create the final matter that I would include into the website. 

        The last two days were the busiest days of my life. I worked from morning till night and woke till 4 AM for the two days.

        But, in the end, at 3:50 AM, on the 7th of December, the website was complete! I simply smiled at the huge work that had been done. I created the masthead of the website. Finally, I did not have the mood to re-check the whole thing. The finishing corrections were not made that day, rather that night. I went to sleep with a huge sense of satisfaction, relief and happiness inside me. Smiling mildly, I dozed off to sleep. The next morning, after all my daily morning routine habits, I went to school with a new blazer, the pen drive and disc, and my synthesizer on my back (I would also be playing the background score for some of my friends who were doing the one act play).

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Website Making: Part 1

Hello Yoko! This is gonna be really exciting to describe. 3 weeks ago, our computer tutorial ma'am had asked two boys to get ready for making a website. Unfortunately, she didn't ask me. I didn't know much about HTML coding and other stuff then, but I still had the interest of doing it. And, that naturally saddened me a bit. I tried to forget it as much as possible, but it stayed on my mind. Finally, one day when I was entering the computer laboratory in my school, the same ma'am (who also teaches in our school), and our two other teachers were discussing something. I had incidentally entered first on that day. Suddenly, ma'am looked up and said something to the other two teachers. I became a bit hopeful, although not expecting much. Quite surprisingly, as everyone came to the lab, she asked us to sit quietly as she would be making an announcement. We all followed. Then came the news. She said that on that day, she would be making choices and even asking us to start working on a new website for the inter-school competition that would be occurring during our school fest(that was just 10 days away). The first person she pointed was me!!! I held on to my excitement firmly, as she asked me if I would like to participate. Calmly, that is as calmly as possible, I said "Yes ma'am", and nodded my head. Next she chose the first boy of our class. We were made a team...:) Then, as the class started, she gave us a page which contained all the instructions for the competition and the guidelines and of course, the topic: Bengali films. The thing is that I don't really remember the original topic, but the idea was to make a Bengali films timeline showing the transition of Bengali films from the old times, to the modern times, laying stress on the three legendary directors: Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak. Anyway, ma'am asked me if I knew a bit of HTML coding to start with. The truth was that at that time I knew very little: only how to include text in a webpage...:P Still, I said yes.
        As the class ended and we went back to our classroom, I started discussing with Avirup(my team-mate) the plan. He added newer ideas, and then we finally decided what the different pages would be: a timeline, the three contemporary legends, directors, actors and actresses, a video collection, a photo collection, a review page, and an interactive quiz. We sort of decide how the home page was at that time, but later I changed it. Anyway, I told him that I would create the home page on that day and the next day I would be bringing it in school. Thus, the project started...the project that was quite a sort of dream to me. And, believe me, I never thought that I would ultimately be able to finish it. I visualized the pages in my head, but like my previous school project: a shopping application in Java(my first application), I only assumed that the thing would somehow be done...I had no idea HOW it would be done...

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        That evening after I went home, I connected my laptop to the internet, and started searching for a complete HTML tutorial for beginners. I never found a good one, but ultimately I found a site that provided a good tutorial. I knew of one from before called w3schools.com, but it was a bit vague. The other site was good enough. I searched for a good HTML editing software, but found none. So I started coding in notepad. I finished creating the first layout of my homepage after an hour! There was so much to learn. Although it was pleasing, it didn't yet have the real content. I changed fonts, backgrounds, but, still the main links and contents were missing, and my conception was still hollow. I continued this 'researching' till 2 AM, but still hadn't made much progress with my homepage. Too tired to continue any more, I fell asleep.
        Next day, in the morning, I again coded a bit. I had a holiday on that day. I did a bit of my school studies, but not much. I studied HTML on my laptop mostly that day. At night, I was beginning to worry. I still hadn't made the links. The trouble was that I didn't know how to include soft buttons, like the ones modern webpages have. 

        Then, luck struck me! I was looking at various websites, when suddenly I saw one which had those soft buttons, and quite suddenly like a brainwave, the idea of how to make the buttons struck me too! I was simultaneously chatting with Avirup on Facebook...on discovering how to do it, i started typing gibberish in my chat box. Avirup said, "pagol holi naki?" As if screaming, I wrote in caps: BUJHTE PERECHI!!! ETO SIMPLE JINISH TA MATHAAY ASHCHILO NA!!!

        Using Photoshop, I created buttons, and using Picasa, I included the text that was supposed to be on the buttons. The logic for highlighting the buttons whenever the user would move his/her mouse over it was simple: on detecting the mouse, the image for the button would simply change, in other words, a new image would replace the old one with a new colour, and on moving the mouse away, the old image would be restored! Thus, my 'soft buttons' were ready for use! I made 8 buttons in Photoshop that night, and by 3 AM, the home page was ready: a nice textured black background, a heading on the top of the page, then the 8 buttons, a small description, a picture of the three legendary directors, and finally a footer: a copyrighted name (The Bengali Films Timeline), the year, and links to the about us and contact us pages. After saving it, I went to sleep...the next day, Avirup was really delighted, and he constantly said, "Government website hoyni ekdom!" Our government department websites have a poor layout. That's what he didn't want to happen to our website. I knew that he was pleased too...:) Thus, the first challenge ended. Although my concepts about websites were not 100% clear, I got the idea of how to design a basic, yet complete webpage.

My Home Page

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While sitting on a rock...

        Our Kedarnath trip started on the 20th of October, at 4:50 pm. As was planned, we boarded the plane at 5:00 pm, arrived at Delhi at 8:30 pm, and had a wonderful dinner which had been prepared by my mother...:) The next day we went off to Haridwar via train, stayed there for one whole day (which was mostly boring, because we just went to see old temples and all religious stuff). I found it very boring and uninteresting because of the fact that we had actually come to tour mountains and go to a place - Kedarnath - at 11,500 ft. - so as to reach the ultimate destination of God, and not to worship some mere idols of God!
        Anyway, the next day we started off for the next destination - Chandrapuri! The car that we had hired was an Innova. The car itself is good, but the previous day we had got a Tavera, an equally good car, but the condition was extremely poor! That day, however, we got a really nice car. It was almost new! Only six of us would be travelling in such a huge car, so it was quite comfortable. The moment we entered into the real mountains(and not hills and temples...:P), I started to have the feeling that I usually have when I am on a tour!!! I felt fresh, and then I realized that the tour had started(for me). We traveled for 6 hours, during which we had a nice time admiring the wonderful view of the great green Himalayan ranges!
        After that, we reached Chandrapuri! I was half asleep when we reached the place. I don't remember what dream I had had then, because I always have one when I fall asleep, even if it is for a small nap. But, trust me on this fact - it could never be more heavenly than what I could see in front of my open eyes. Our GMVN rest house was located on the bank of the river Mandakini, whose serene blue water was flowing by the rest house and making a wonderful sound on the rocks that had been rounded by it! It was a real treat for the eyes. I ran down (the GMVN rest houses have a typical style - the restaurant is located at road level, but in order to go to the cottages, one has to go a few steps down, in this case down towards the river), and entered our cottage. There were a few chairs outside the cottage, but then I saw my uncle pointing out a small gate. Aluminium wires were surrounding the whole compound on all sides. Our cottage was river-facing, and the wires were the only thing between us and the river.
        On discovering the small gate, I ran towards it, and to my delight, found out that it was just an entrance into the actual river! There were numerous rocks...

 ...and I knew by the sight of them that they were extremely slippery. Still, I slowly moved forward, placing my feet steadily on each rock, and proceeded towards the river. And, I was right in the middle of the river Mandakini!!! I steadily sat on a comparatively flat rock...

This was the view just in front of me!

The river wasn't actually deep, but the force was tremendous, and although I didn't try, I knew that it would be hard to stand.

        While sitting on the rock, I had with me my camera, and my phone. Due to some reason, I found it difficult to let even one of the scenes go out of my camera. The crystal clear water created a wonderful sound by clashing on the rocks...

 ...most people believe this is superficial stuff, and don't really exist, but I felt that the sound was like pure music. It didn't have a tone, but the overall effect made it so pleasant to the ear that I didn't even take out my phone to listen to Yanni. I sat there in a half inclined posture for quite some time, and then as the sun was slowly going down, I took out my phone. I had enjoyed the pure view and the sound of the waters; now I wanted to try listening to Yanni. 'Until the Last Moment' and 'Seasons', along with 'Truth Of Touch', made the experience even more pleasant!

       After a really long time (not hours though), I opened the camera lens cover and shot a small video of a tiny 'waterfalls' - a thin stream of water that was crawling through a small gap in a rock. For an ant, it surely had the effect of a waterfall...

        I took a few more shots that day and the next day as well...

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My first experience on an airbus!

Hoho!!! Let's start off with this.
        We were lucky enough to have a flight that was also a connector flight for those going abroad. So, we got an airbus. Well, when I heard of the flight number, and came to know that it was an airbus, I wasn't actually overjoyed. All I knew was that our airlines - Air India - would surely give us refreshments. My uncle said that I would enjoy the experience. But, still I did not expect much. We waited for an hour at the airport.
Then the boarding started at 4:40 PM.
        The bus that took us to the aeroplane was extremely unimpressive. It didn't even have an A.C.! Anyway, I was still not a bit unhappy because I knew that our flight would give us refreshments.
        Then we entered the huge aeroplane...for the first time I saw a plane with a 2 - 3 - 2 seating arrangement, and along with that EACH SEAT HAD A SCREEN ON ITS BACK! I was really overwhelmed. Then, I sat and followed the usual procedure...I tightened my seat belt and took a chewing gum inside my mouth(it prevents the popping of our ears). After the plane took off, I started checking out what Air India offered us - headphones(yes the ones with a soft padding!), a touch interactive screen, with apps, movies, music, games, etc.; and, lots of food (they served it later on)!!!
        I did various things on our flight, including reading my ebook...:D Even an air host asked me whether I was reading a book...I said, "No...it's an electronic book."
        Well, that was it! Till now, I mean this moment, this has been my most enjoyable flight experience! Air India is (till now) the best airlines that I have personally seen!

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Need to blog out a lot!

I know I am blogging after a long time. But that's because there wasn't anything that I had to say about. Well, I did have to say about the results of my half yearly exam...:P Those were horrible. But, that apart, I didn't have much. But now I do...
        Let's start off with computer....:) I abandoned the notepad project, because I knew, that no matter how much user friendly and stylish I would make my notepad, it could never be popular. I just had the idea of how to make a word editor. Next, I also left the password storage facility on a pause, because the filing system was creating huge problems. I wanted to use generalized methods that other methods would be able to use for accessing files without having to use up much of the RAM memory. That was the hitch. I failed to create an efficient, low memory file system. Anyway, next I suddenly had the idea of making my game using applet. I went to shop for the Pujas, when this thought struck me inside a trial room! It was however after one whole week that I was able to write the code, and I did write it on this Monday, that too within one single day!!! I gave the final touches in my school(yes, I smuggle these codings of mine in Java to my school). I made a hangman game. It has a two player as well as a one player mode. The fun thing is that I was able to create this game with little bugs from the beginning only! Anyway, that was a lot about my computing history...now about Durga Puja!
        Durga Puja is the most festive seasons for use Bengalis, and the most enjoyable period of the year. For five days, we go out to friends' relatives' houses, see different idols of the goddess Durga, eat fast food, and enjoy to the fullest! This was the first year that I went out to see the idols in Kolkata with my three friends...
Well the part that needs to be highlighted is the small walking adventure we had. It was truly an adventure! In fact, we had actually lost our way when we were coming back. You see, the roads of Kolkata have so many sub divisions, that it's too easy to get lost. But, we don't usually. However, one of the idols were located in such a remote location, that we could reach it by asking the local people, however we had problem in returning back...:P Well, thanks to my new RealFlex Reebok shoes (which I got for my birthday, for trekking), my feet never got too tired!
        And now for the biggest and most exciting NEWS. Today, we are going off to the mountains after two whole years!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!
        Okay, got to go now. I can't hold back the excitement. I won't be able to blog my different experiences, from the mountains only. But, I'll try to say as much as I remember after I come back home...:) Bye!

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Lot's to say!

Ah! I am again blogging after a really long time! I have been quite about 3 weeks or so. Well, that's because my half-yearly examinations were going on, and I didn't want to blog then, as blogging usually fills my head with loads and loads of new ideas to write about. Anyway, that's the past. The exams were okay. Chemistry was horrible. Others went okay, not really good, or good...:P

Now about my present situation. First of all, I have progressed a bit with my new password storage app in Java. Here's a screenshot:

It's not much yet. Only the design is more or less ready.

I have also recorded the 50th anniversary music collection on the synthesizer. It just needs to be converted to a digital format, so that I can include it in my presentation. I will go to my father's friend's studio and it will easily be done there. I tried doing a lot of times at home. I didn't get the right software, and the professional software that I found is about 3.6 GB. So there's no question of getting that...:( 

My brother in America got a new iMac. But, honestly I feel sorry for him. He took quite a number of games to play at home, but ended up getting a Mac. Now, most of our games are created solely for Windows, or a separate version is created for the Mac OS, which I don't have. Now he can't get the advantage of having 2 GB of graphics card! I wish he got an Alienware from Dell. Now, that would be useful to him...;(

I have finished playing Call of Duty Black Ops. And, now I found out from a special website that checks the compatibility of a computer for playing a certain game, that my laptop is does not support any of the games that I have played till now!!! Black Ops requires 256 MB of dedicated graphics...I have only 64 MB (1696 MB total)! But, the game ran fine on my laptop! It's really quite strange. 

I was also reading Steve Jobs' biography lately. That's one of the best books I have read! It basically shows the reader how the whole GUI concept came up! How bit-mapping system helped to create special fonts, and circles, and rounded rectangles, and many more!!! And, how the PC came up! It's really thrilling to read the evolution of computers. 

That's all for now. In my next blog, I have planned to tell you about my experience in Mandarmoni...a really special experience(after staying so close to the sea). Bye!

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Memories of nature-from Shantiniketan

OK! This is the first time I am posting my photos to my blog. I hope you enjoy them! They can be considered a gift from Shantiniketan...

Took this while cycling around inside our boundary walls

Same as the above. This has a Harry Potter like effect...:)

I had missed the silver lining of the clouds(as always). This was the after-effect

This is not our house. It is another model inside our compound-the deluxe model

Our house is like the house on the left side.

I took this from our car, while we were going to a place called 'Amar Kutir'

Same as above

It was raining. The trees provided me enough protection in order to take this pic...:)

Ah! The river-'Kopai'

Long grass by the banks of Kopai

...as white as milk? or, as white as the clouds?

River life!

These ripples have a wonderful cooling effect on me.

Water droplets that made the simple flowers sparkle!

Simple foliage

Natural crystals!

Check out the picture below

Getting ready to bloom!

The sky is on fire!!! :D

Heavenly rays of the sun (from the car, while we were returning home)

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