Today as I was sitting in the class, while changes in Indian Polity from 1950 to the present were being discussed; a thought came in to my mind.
We always take pride in saying that India is a country, where inspite of all the differences, inspite of all the dissent - our democracy has survived and we beam with pride, when we compare this with our neighbours who so often slip into the other side with anarchy, coups and military dictators!
People attribute several reasons to this thriving of democracy. Some say its the prudence of the constitution drafters, some say its the structure that gives it the inherent stability of proces, while some say that we are a nation of such vast differences that we cant have one single military dictator landing in the scene who can carry the entire nation with him/her.
But just to think of it - could this have been the reason? - India’s lead of the Non Alignment Movement(NAM). This ensured that we kept away from any real alignment of our country with the US of A or in the old days USSR. Therefore, our military establishment didnt get that might - which they would have got/assumed if there was any alignment of our military/foreign affairs strategy directly with that of the US. This would have given the generals greater power and we could have been part of plans - larger or otherwise to dethrow governments and replace them with mightier generals with covert(and sometimes not so very covert) Uncle Sam’s support!
The whole feeling of watching the night morph into dawn is something truly magical. Its not just the lights that change, not just the skyline which brightens but its the changes in emotions that makes the whole experience surreal. The Solitude of the football field, marked golden yellow by sodium vapour lamps, accentuating the earth’s orange. White goal posts, standing far apart from each other and the emptiness of the field. The field seems to tell you several journeys of its own. Further into the night, the gregariousness of conversations, of pockets of people and conversations. You drift further into the night, the boisterousness of gangs, of celebrations over alcohol, loud shouts, of merry chants and of the want to forget everything happening around you. The night progresses further, the rush to eat something before dawn catches up. The sky doesnt reveal it yet, but watch tells you that soon its going to come to an end. Walk further into the campus, and to the terrace; of guitar and fine music, of romantic strains and songs of longing and belonging with cold winds and a cloudy sky for company. The sky is already brightening up at the other end. Walk through continues, journey through lives, of new friends, old stories and older truths. Sleep seems a distant companion, its not something you seem to be pining for. You have smoked passively more in the one month here, than ever before. Mellowing of mood soon, its almost bright; the sky is clear blue in color. Dawn has arrived. Along with it the realization of the day ahead. The merriness of the night has vanished. You step outside and walk through the corridors. There is remains of chaos everywhere. Tattered plastics, Assortment of containers - tins, bottles, bottles, spilled liquids, spilled food, assorted smokers’ packs. The night must have been a good companion. You walk across the hostel blocks, back to the solitude of your room. You are fresh as ever. Today is going to be a long day, you tell yourself and proceed to power on your laptop. MSS’ divine voice fills the room, calling on the lord - the merciful to awaken, and bless the day - Suprabhatham. The Day has arrived.
Have you ever asked yourself this question, “What is that one piece of software without which my computing experience, is just incomplete?”
I bet, if and when you ask yourself that question, one of the answers would be a popular browser like Mozilla Firefox(Flock, in my case) and much above anything else in that list would be Microsoft Office. A computer just seems incomplete without Microsoft office. To this day, I would say that Microsoft Office is the best thing to have come out of the Microsoft Office(pun definitely intended).
And since moving to Ubuntu over the last month, I didnt have many reasons to miss my Windows XP, which lost its position as the primary operating system to Ubuntu Hardy Heron(8.04). Everything I wanted was available on Ubuntu. Browser of Choice - Flock. Video Player of Choice - VLC Media player. Audio Player of Choice - Amarok, plus rhythmbox.
Office Software - _______________________? I know many of you would jump at me at this stage and say - “What about Open Office?”
Well lets face it guys, the guys at Open Office have been doing a good job no doubt, but nothing can replace Microsoft Word for me. Google’s Online Documents are great for collaborating editing, but still an offline utility is a must I feel. Google Docs can just not replace Microsoft Office.
Amongst utilitarian Software - Adobe Photoshop is another that ranks high on the list, due to sheer utility rather than frequency of use, and sad - PhotoShop CS2 is available for Windows, and also for Mac, but not for Linux.(Clearly because of the proprietary nature of the software - point taken).
So my computer experience, was sans Adobe Photoshop, and Office. And then I got hold of WINE, and installed the Wine windows emulator for Ubuntu.
Well, for those who are hearing wine for the first time in a context other than what involves tall greenish tinted and corked bottles, WINE is a windows emulator, and to cut a long story short, provides a middle layer between your application and the underlying unix, which leads the Application(designed for windows) to believing that it was actually running on a windows machine, rather than a linux one.
Thanks to wine, I installed the emulator and then installed photoshop. For more on how to go about doing the same, read the instructions at this lifehacker site.
http://lifehacker.com/396590/run-windows-apps-in-linux-with-wine-10
All things fine so far, and photoshop installation goes on like a charm. And then I click on that photoshop Icon and I get this weird error, saying there is an error and Adobe PS CS2 needs to be reinstalled to continue. So if any of you gets this error, on Ubuntu hardy heron, its a simple tweak suggested by this site that will help you
$sudo sysctl -w vm.mmap_min_addr=0
Site: http://wiki.winehq.org/PreloaderPageZeroProblem
More at the site.
Well thanks to WINE, now I have photoshop running on my Ubuntu Machine! Hurray! Now, if someone helps me install Microsoft office on Ubuntu, in addition to words like gratitude, thankfulness and appreciation, I would also give away my windows XP cd gleefuly.
Cheers!
Well in other news, I went to the hostel office today and picked up the lot for my room. Was hoping pretty hard to get the K or L block, which would mean new blocks with balconies, ceramic tiles and designer wardrobes. Well that was not to be - yours truly landed up with a old block. H 110 is the room number, a dusty old room - but the window opens to a land which I in my usual exaggeratory tone could call - FOREST, so might be I might have good stories to tell about that place.
Did I ever tell you, that it was always my dream when in Surathkal to have a hostel room overlooking the woods, with a trail running throught it - Might be a few birds thrown in to add their sounds,there is a possibility that H110 could offer all that.
Good Night,
