Hel(met) with it

So, finally we Punekars have managed to throw another of those annoying traffic rules out of the nearest window. The courts have given their nth verdict on the helmet rule and while not extending the deadline for its imposition, asked the government to basically to do as it deems fit, which when loosely translated into government action, means nothing. Its time to party, yippee.
And while we are at it, will all the social activists, politicians, luminaries, and the general people who strived so much for the benefit of the city by saving it from the terror of the helmet, be so kind and do me a big favour? You see, I have this huge problem. By some absurd law, the government makes me carry around this useless but seemingly important little pink paper they call a "driving license". Now since it is so damn important, I have to take great care of it, make sure I don't loose it. It takes up tremendous amounts of concentration to do so, and I am worried that so much tension will cause deafness, loss of sight and possible permanent brain damage. Apart from that, since there are 12 lakh two wheeler riders in this city, catering to all those license needs is a big hassle for the hapless RTO. In light of the above, I would really like if this compulsion of having a driving license was removed too. After all, who is the government to tell me how and what I can and cannot drive, eh? This is a democracy and I will decide it for myself unless the government can create an enlightening awareness about it. But till such time, lets pull off a helmet rule on it too.

Who's fault is it anyway?

Blogs and forums all around have found a new reason to blast Ferrari for the whole mess that the yesterday's US Grand Prix truned into, but I think Ferrari are being unfairly blamed here. Now, this isn't my bias towards my favourite F1 team, but most people seem to ignore the FIA's role in the whole controversy. While the perception is that Ferrari vetoed the request for adding a chicane on turn 13, it was the FIA who stood firm on denying any modifications to the track:

However, the FIA had already stated that changing the track layout was not an option, informing Michelin that their teams could either use their existing tyres and run more slowly through 13, make tyre changes on safety grounds if necessary, or they could start with new tyres and risk being penalised for breaking the regulations.

How much of this steadfastness was influenced by Ferrari is of course, a matter of speculation. The other aspect that is going unnoticed is that Michelin are trying to shield themselves under the emotional blanket by putting "driver safety first". There is absolutely no doubt that driver safety should be the number one priority in any decision about car design or equipment, but the bottom line is that Michelin did not have a solution to their tyre problems. Why should the other teams pay the price for Michelin's inadequacies? If Ferrari were convinced about their tyre safety, they are well within their limits to go ahead and race. Also, the fact that too many teams are using the same tyre has amplified the impact. Had there been 3-4 tyre manufacturers in the fray, and only 2-3 teams had had to retire, the incident probably would not even have made headlines. If all the teams had boycotted the race, all it would have meant was a big financial loss for the organisers. The spectators would have been refunded, but Michelin would have gone scot free with none their teams suffering in terms of points and standings. People would have just forgotten about it in a couple of years. But this race will remain in public memory for long.

Another issue that I think has not come up is about the track itself. If a manufacturer like Michelin can't provide tyres robust enough for the track, then is the track really safe enough for F1 in the first place? Ralf Schumacher crashed at almost the same spot as last year. Alonso also had to retire last year to tyre failure on the straight leading to turn 1. There have been similar problems in IndyCar races on this track. The surface had to be made more abrasive to offer more grip. If that is the case, the FIA needs to also think about conducting races on this track.

Irrespective of who is to blame for the whole farce, the only loser was Formula 1 and its fans. The FIA needs to rethink some of it's absurd and unforgivingly strinct rules and regulations before they wreck this sport and its popularity. The die-hard fan just hopes that everything will return to normal at Magny-Cours and that this incident will remain only as an unfortunate memory rather than a precedent.

The customary Visa interview post

Since this is a customary post, true to tradition, I will try not to skip the well known facts. I had the visa interview appointment at 8:15 am, reached the consulate at around 7:20 am. This incidentally was my longest drive in Mumbai ever, during what has been my longest stay in Mumbai– a whopping 16 hours.

Got in to a typical Indian queue, which thankfully is a special subclass of the normal queue where addition to it is possible at both ends as well as any point in between. Finally went in at around 8:10 am to be greeted by a security check. Here you are given a wooden token which you have to carry around for no apparent reason. Gents please take note – you have to undergo a particularly unwelcome exercise of taking off your waist belt before going through the metal detector – so don’t wear loose pants :P

Went through the detector only for it to beep and give me a little shock. So went through it again, and this time it obliged. Strange. Wonder now if it was the new shining armor for my capped teeth. Collect your belongings and get into another queue to collect your application papers. Take them to the next queue and get your fingers snapped. (Just electronic fingerprints – don’t bite your nails off just yet)

Take the pink token and then await the moment of destiny. Now, I had been advised to try and stir up conversation with anybody sitting near you to show off your calmness and composure to who ever is watching, but most consecutive seats were taken and so headed for the next empty row. Heed to the call for your token number and go to the said counter. Stand in the row to watch people ahead of you get grilled over their finances, and pray to God that you don’t mess any of this up.

On your mark… get, set, go……………….

Me: Good morning officer. How are you?

(The token opening greeting - do this irrespective of whether you mean it or not, and irrespective of whether you possess any ability whatsoever to make the morning worse for the visa officer)

VO: Good morning… I am fine, thank you.

VO: (Looking at the computer screen and typing something) What will you be studying in the United States?

Me: I’ll be doing my Master’s in Computer Science at the Arizona State University

VO: Why ASU?

Me: (stuff about faculty, research, infrastructure, and some more similar stuff)

(I happened to mention some particular research areas, so the guy asked me about the professors that are working in them, told their names)

VO: Who’s sponsoring you?

Me: My parents are sponsoring me.

VO: What do they do?

Me: (occupation)

VO: What’s your family income?

Me: ___ Rs. (this is simply a fill in the blank answer)

VO: How will you fund your studies?

Me: Told him about the fund flow… savings accounts, deposits et al.

At this point he was carefully inspecting my passport at various angles, during which he happened to glance upon the UK visa stamp on the passport after which he suddenly seemed to run out of questions and/or I had managed to convince him enough of my intentions.

VO: Ok, you have been granted a visa. You will get your passport in a few days.

Me: (Collecting my I-20) Thank you sir, have a nice day. (Now, this I really meant :))

(The customary document case was purely excess baggage in the whole thing - didn’t have to open it until later to put the I-20 back!)

Coolly walk out of the room, hand over the wooden token to the guard, leave the air conditioning behind and re-enter the terribly pleasant Mumbai weather. Its all about composure, confidence, and some quick thinking.

In the end, it only took about 3-4 minutes to get a Visa, but this whole tale has been going on for almost 4 years since that day in May 2001, bang in the middle of the prep leave when I registered for D.O’s GRE training center. Of course there now remains that small matter of studying for 2 years, but this is a big milestone in the grad school story.

How do you do that???

I have been inundated with queries asking how I have managed to acquire this new ability to type marathi into things like MSN Messenger so that now I can really chat with a person in my mother tongue - provided of course the other person is electronically equipped to decipher what I send across. So, to save me time and effort of repeating the procedure to everyone, I am scribbling up this basic "Steps to follow" blog. With the proper setup and a little bit of luck, most people should be able to read, if not write unicode while chatting and stuff. (All this applies to Windoze only... haven't tried anything on Linux/Mac yet, and neither do I intend to in the near future. If anyone has, let me know too :P ).Here goes:

1. At a minimum, to read any Devnagari text, you need to have the right fonts installed. If you are running WinXP, you would probably have a font called Mangal installed already. Otherwise, you need to download some devnagari font. At the time of writing, Mangal was available here. Just copy the .ttf file to Control Panel/Fonts and you are off.
   
2. To be able to read devanagari in MSN, you need to install the latest version (7.0) from the link at the top pf this post (I have no idea if unicode is supported in 6.x).
   
3. Now the interesting part. To be able to type in marathi, you need a good and simple editor that will convert your keystrokes to the appropriate unicode. The one I am using is Baraha. Download and install that.
   
4. Run Start ->Programs ->Baraha ->Baraha Direct. It will put an icon in the taskbar, double click that. On the settings window that pops up, select the language you want (Marathi, for instance), and the format as Unicode. Close the window and run it again (annoying, I know).
5. Run MSN messenger and start typing in marathi text as you would in a normal minglish chat :). You should be able to see it get converted to some devnagari text. Now, it won't be exactly what you had in mind of course. So, now you need to read the Devnagari translation rules (in Baraha's help) for a little while. They are really simple and with a little bit of practice, you can type away in your preferred language.

PS: You can keep the tool running and toggle between Marathi and English input using the F11 key.

Happy typing!

Devnagri

आपणांस हे शब्द वाचता येत आहेत का?

If you can/cannot see (and/or read) the devnagri stuff on the line above, please let me know. Do also let me know what browser you were using and the operating system. I am trying out some unicode stuff on this blog so that I can post in Marathi if and when I feel like it.