The - Tech "Generation Gap"

I am Techie who have seen days where computer world was limited to 5.2 Floppy and having a CD writer was status symbol and people used to show-off of having 7 GB disk and 32MB RAM in their Desktops.

..wait..don't think i am 50+ old man..i am talking about a technology revolution which happened in last 15 years!.

Recently i was talking one of the new joines in my team who have 3 years of experiences in IT industry so he might have finished in engineering graduation in 2012, we were talking about storage in CD and moved back in floppy days and he admits that he haven't see a single floppy in life..wow..i can't imagine how come someone on this planet haven't see floppy but later realized that he is not on the only person and we may be dealing with " Technological Generation Gap" which is growing day by day.

I still remember the day when i first time when saw Computer in glass covered room A/C with a note on entrance door stating to remove the shoes out side the room. I was exited but also worried to not to touch anything as i heard that computers are highly expensive. BTW it was NIIT center where they teach "computers".

The lab instructor was sitting on a decent chair and playing chess on Black and White monitor ( i guess it was 12' screen).  So far i have only know chess can only be played with fordable plastic/wooden broad and it requires two persons but here lab instructor was alone playing..God knows.. if that was chess or something else.
That was the day when i have first SEEN computers and i could still visualize that moment.

As in those days everyone was going after computers which was BIG taboo, after completing my 10+2,
i also joined BCA ( Bachelor in Computers Application) in MCRP Bhopal which was the formal path in learning computers.

its worth to mentioned here that i have studies in small town with Hindi medium schools with no so called "computer classes" facility in school but i never regret it and always cherries the real life values which was taught to us in school which was foundation and can not be learnt in in day.

We have been give list of books for first semester which also includes "Computer Fundamentals". i don't remember the number of pages but it looks almost like Ramayan in width and weight.

We had 3 days of theory and 2 days of practical classes which was the most existing time as we chance to do hands-on or say play games on computers.

Some of the classmates were already familiar with Computers as they have studied it the school and for them it was not that great thing but for someone like me it was a new era with excitement.

I remember a memorable incidence from the lab sessions where someone from classmate used DOS command netsend * that would flash a message on all the computer screen and would stop any of working program. It was fun to see how the message is getting sent from one computer to all the computers. Later he was caught by senior lab instructor who found his workstation number from similar DOS command.

The days then moved from Black screen to Color CRT monitors with curve in new lab setup with Internet access..with limited time and everyone wanted to create their email ID on Yahoo so that it can be used on Yahoo Messenger to Chat ..may be AOL(American OnLine) was booming in US but in India  YM was the pioneer in making "Chatting" popular.

Since it was difficult to get time slot in lab to access internet, we looked at the "Cyber Cafe" which were outside collage campus. I never understood why its called "Cyber Cafe" where there was not coffee shop.
May this term was also came from western countries.

Internal access was only available via BSNL phone lines with "Dial-up" network where we need to plug phone line to modem and using dial-up connection, we have to dial some numbers like *1234# and you will hear strange sounds like chee..pee..chiee when dial-in was in progress and of-course when line is used in modem to connect internet you will not receive any calls on your land-line so either you can talk or use internet.

At the end of 2nd semester itself, i had brought my own computer..yes..it was awesome feeling to have my own as so far i have used others computers or worked in lab.

My Computers Configuration -  Brand - Zenith , 800Mhz CPU, 64MB RAM, 20 GB Hard Disk, 14' monitor, color- white, two tine speakers.

I still remember my friend used to ask me what you would do with 20 GB HDD..is its too much :)

The idea to have computer was to do programming but other advantage slowly taken over like watching movies..playing music (Winnamp was my favorite player )..playing games..NFS, RoadRash ..i am must say NFS was additive as we spend times in crossing levels and unlocking the cars.

Now almost everyone in class have their own PCs so it was common to see people carrying the HDD in collage bag and visiting others house to copy new movies..songs..Yes you have read correct we used to carry our PCs hard disk and people will always have PCs cabinet open to easy plug-in in master-slave and struggle with booting with correct HDD. We started with Windows 97 to 98 to ME and last OS was XP on my PC.

Also in collage libraries we used to go first approach to get magazine with CDs (free software)  like PC Quest. it was more like garbing CD rather then reading magazines as you would get new music players..wallpapers. I still remember when Windows XP was announced and i saw the default Desktop's picture in one of the magazines..it was thrill and how to get it in my computer first.

By the time, BCA was finished i was more enjoying the troubleshooting, breaking-fixing stuff and was already point to contact for my fathers office where they have got new PC.
During my home visits, one of neighbor who used work for NIC (National Informatics Center) used to call me to discuss about their issues and plan to create website to track passport information. Even i designed and made a passport information system for them in ASP/ MS Access.

Later i moved to Pune for master (MCA) in 2003 where things were almost same but this Bhaiya had gifted me Mobile Phone to stay connected.

Brand - Nokia
Model - 5110

I only had the mobile among with other room-mates so all calls used to come to me. it was like a movable PCO where you call someone and talk to someone.

At that time other mobile service providers have also started their operations and to attract customer daily they will publish adds and offers. So i had taken a SIM card for BPL provider which i guess later taken over by IDEA.
The BPL use to provided bulk SMS packs like 500 SMS per day and literally at most of the time we were able to reach limit and sometime over limit and had to pay later.

Everyone will send SMS to some other friend in same state other state ( other state SMS was separate pack) and people was chatting via SMS :)

During the same time email on mobile service was launched by Rediff.com and one of my room mate used to check email by sending SMSs to Rediff.com's number and would get SMS in part 1/5 ..2/5..5/5 ..it was fun in reading email via SMS.
We also made few miss call patters to save money on outgoing calls ...
1 missed call = leaving ..2 missed call = class started ...lol ..this was our own invention and used to work almost all time  :)

At that time Nokia was the leader in Mobile phone and in 2005 they launch Nokia 6600 which had color display and you have have MP3 songs as ring tone and Bluetooth connectivity , VGA camera, Java Games.

if someone have Nokia 6600 then people will see him with different angle as it was expensive device.

As far as i remember Nokia continued with their Symbian OS for next 4-5 years and launched business phone - Nokia communicator, E63/72 and later ExpressMusic edition which popular in market till 2009
Meanwhile Sony had also started spreading its presence in India.

And finally the arrival of Android have change the world that no one imagined ..booking ticket..Social networking..WhatsApp replaced SMS/MMS and so on...and as they say "the best if yet to come " :)

So stay tuned for more from technological revolution !!

Trekking Trip to RajGad Fort !!

Trip to Rajgad :

On Thursday 16th July morning when i came back to office after 2 days of illness , everyone was asking me ..ab kaisa hai? and my reply wads "ab theek hu" . was looking my overloaded MailBox, then my desk phone rang , other side was one of my team mates, he called me at cafeteria at 11 am ..i said OK , since i was also not in mood to start work at this early hour.
I was surprised to see so many people gathered at one place at one! ( usually only 2 -3 people get together for tea at a time) , when i entered, the discussion was almost over and i was just asked.. we are putting your in the RajGad trekking list ..hope its fine with you? i took a moment since i was not keeping well from last 2 days then said OK i am in !!..

so we start putting our questions in front of Sham (one of team mate) who had visited the place in past. where is the place? ..how we will reach?..blab la. our most of the questions was answered by him. we have decided not to involve so many people in the trip due to limited number of people that can comfortable travel in Tata Qualis so the final figure was 10 including cab driver.

Trip Member :
Guys :Ashu ,Chandu ,Sameer ,Mehul ,Sham ,Jeetu
Gals :Megha ,Mamata ,Seema

We decided to call our Admin department since they have the number of Bus / cab contractors and we could also get good discounts.
So we spoke to one of the travel guy and booked a Qualis for Saturday morning i.e. 17th July and we circulated a formal mail to all the trip members regarding timings , thing to carry , maps, blog links and money to be deposit etc.
Decision was made , we were given a rough idea about time to reach respective pick points.
The cab has to start for Borivali and it has to pick everyone from their mentioned stops till vashi railway station.
On Friday evening, returning from home i went to purchase few food items that we all have decided to carry along with us for the trip, since we knew that the place is not having anything !
I took my beg pack and started to fill it ..few cloths..shorts since we know that we will in lots of rain during our trek.,my iPod ..and few extra carry begs. i put my mobile and iPod on changing and move to bed.

My pickup time was at 5:20 am , so per my habit i set my mobile's alarm clock at 4:45 am, to have sufficient time in hand. I was so much exited for the trip , i wake up even before mobile start buzzing .

I received call from Mamata , she was the one who get into the cab from starting point i.e. Borivali and she intimated me about the time they expected to reach at my stop. My stop was at 5 min walking distance from my flat so i picked my bag pack and plug my iPod ear phone with a latest song from Mohit chowhan from movie 'Love Aaj Kal' and moved out of flat.
One the way i was thinking i should try to get up early, to see such nice weather , hope that day will come soon ;)

I reached my stop on time , was standing and waiting for cab ..and listening songs after few min i realized its 5:45 am and we are getting late. I called up Mamata to know the status, she said they just picked Megha from Powai and will reach in 15 min since they also have take Seema & Sameer from Bhandup station..i said ok..i am waiting.

suddenly rain started , i moved towards the near by restaurant shade, after few min rain was completely stooped as it never happened. In pune we used to have such rains that last form few min and keep the temperature balanced , so it remind me my collage days when i was in Pune.

Finally , i saw few waving hands from the cab window so here is my cab and mates...everyone wish me Good Morning !! , it is just two letter word but means a lot when expressed with smile.
Anyways..we moved to next pick point where Chandu was suppose to be standing but as of always there was not sing of him , so we started dialing his number and we saw a man at a distance wearing a read cap ..we all shouted wo raha chandu !! , he is south Indian fellow but staying in mumbai from almost last 5 year, so his Hindi is now quite improved but his accent still needs to be updated , he is a jolly fellow and we have a good bonding.

Next we move towards flue station and keep on moving till vashi fly over , where we need to pick Sham and Jeetu , let me tell you about the sham first , he loves gym , and eats 6 eggs in a day ..so if you are thinking him a body builder so its not like but he is fit. Jeetu is the oldest member of our group he is married and blessed with 2 kids but he still joins us on trips and easily get mixed with young people like us . we also get great help from him since he is from Maharashta and familiar with many places in Maharashtra and easily get connected with local peoples.

so finally, we all are in cab and we moved towards Pune Mumbai Express Highway. sameer and mehul was given responsibility to play good music since they were sitting in front seat near to music player..we were calling them DJ's sami !!
Sham took his cam out and clicking here and there ...in side out side..road..people fighting on road ...anything what he likes ( we come to know this later, when we saw pic from his cam).

We decided to take a tea break near to pune ..so we reached Katraj- Pune at 10 am near to new bypass road for Satara and had tea there. Jeetu told us we will have good breakfast in mid way ..where we will have famous wada and bheel . so we quickly moved towards our destination. as decided we stooped near to a village where we have saw many holdings related to famous wada and bheel so we come to know ..there must be something interesting ..let see.. really bheel was quite good..we had it and also took parcel.

we get into the cab and once again started hitting road towards Gunjavani village from where we have to start trekking. once we left B'lore high way and we were crossing small villages and witnessed to natural views spec the dark clouds we superb and everywhere we can see completely green fields and tree, small floating rivers , school going kids reminds us our school days and we took few pic of them.

Finally, we reached Gunjavani village , we were surprised to see the parking ..it was full with bikes and few cars , Pune is only city in India , having highest number of two wheelers as it has more number of collage students from all part of country and now days it has also become a big hub of IT companies, due to the maximum young crowed and 5 days work culture, people keep on looking for good destinations around pune.
we took selective items in our begs and left others in cab and started trekking , its was around 11 am , where we started our trekking. we asked sham where we need to reach , he pointed out a peak far away on Shahyadri Hills . we all said ...what !!! that's too far come on, how one can reach there? without having any road etc.

We keep on moving , with our raine jackets and with begs with food stuff and water .
beginning was good but soon we started feeling it is not going to be a easy task to climb up hill. since it was a raine session and that too with red soil that slips a lot and increasing our difficulty level on by one.
we were trying to push our self to move ahead . i must say, weather was superb and with rain we were fully exited and feeling recharged.
well , at one point we all said that's all ! , we will move back but jeetu and sham was full with energy and motivated us to move further and kept on saying its not very far.., based on my past experience i know that means to a lot more to travel .. :)
we had come here for trekking so we have to do it ! and we were also inspired by the many other trekking fellows on mountain range.
The trek was really difficult to make it ..stones with mud and without any support we were moving ahead ...we were feeling that now we should also think about our body and go for regular walks as we spent hours in sitting and looking to in computer monitor and hardly go for long walks ..
At one point we all were shocked to see a difficult rock , it was really not easy to make it specially for girls so we decided to go one by one and one boy will be on front and other will remain in forward direction in case any help is required by fellow. somehow we made it but was worried as we also have to get down , so we were discussing it, if we come to know any other way to come back then we will that while we return.

Finally we enter in RajGad fort from Choor Darwaza ( a shortest safe way to enter in fort). its was completely fog on the fort , less visibility .

There was nothing as such on the top except to a small temple of Devi Mata , i had seen this in blogs before , many people who come for stay need to spent night in this temple it self , there was a sweet bore well next to temple for all water needs on fort.

we all were freezing , wind was in its full swing and rain was making it more colder. we all were in wet cloths and there was no point in changing them at that time. we were hungry so we took out what every we had with us in begs and started sharing with others ..its really fun to eat in such a wonderful weather with friends.
Jeetu was carrying bread and butter that was the voted no. 1 at that time . we started rooming on the fort and clicking pics . we saw few people drinking tea , we all were also in great need to have something hot to drink, to keep our self warm , so we also decided to go for it,even i was also ready , usually i never take tea but at that time it was feeling better then capachino that we had in CCD or in office.
Now we were feeling really good , it was all most a hour on fort since we reached there at 2 pm . it was time to way back as it is more difficult to move back then to climb up hill . one of the villager lady told us there is also an option to go back by stairs but that take us to a different village then where our cab was parked , and there were not mobile network coverage neither on hill nor on the village , we checked it when arrive there.
but he ( villager ) told us that we can get some vehicle from that village where stair will end up , jeetu and sham was not agree with this approach since there was more chances that we end up in a condition where we don't get any vehicle and since its a very small village with to electricity we could get late.
After a lot of discussion it was decided we will go back from the same route that we have taken to reach fort and it was decided to move slowly and be together.
we started slowly on the wet slippery rock and we all were helping each by sharing experience like come from this side..' take this route it is more simple'..and we were following each others. The place was so beautiful that can't be expressed in words , its was full of nature's its own color ..that is green!!
we also have spent some time at few small natural water falls..and also captured moments.
few of the members were going fast and few were moving slow..so after something we were split in two small groups but we were still together and moving ahead only after seeing behind group.

Gradually we have learned how to take next step...which way is the perfect path ..that's the life we learn from the things when we do something wrong , if we don't commit mistake we never know the inside story...we should take challenges and face it with confidence.

clock was ticking and we can see light was getting dim so we wanted to get out of here as soon as possible as it will be very difficult to moved ahead in a dark and in such time. we pushed our self bit faster. My foot was slipped in many occasions in red mud. near by plants were very much helpful , i took their help by holding their hands to move further , at few steps my palm got cut by the sharp edge , Chandu even was slipped and was injured by his own umbrella.
we were so much tired that can't be explained specially my back pain was again rising , i wanted to get out of here soon and need to take rest but i have make it till the base location anyhow. my hands were red with red mud. finally we felt that we are now near to village ..it was really good feeling and we all were happy but soon we have found that we are not in the same direction from where we have started !

we spoke to few villages in our broken Marathi language and tried to communicate them for the location where cabs are parked , as that was the only place we know in village ..we move further and again try to check whether we are moving in right direction ? village seams to be very old .it was almost 6:30 pm and we could not see any light in village ..we were discussing among, in Mumbai if we don't get electricity for a Minute we feel so bad and here people have adjusted their life style without it.

Villagers are mainly depends upon the farming since there is no other source of income. we have seen many small small fields with rice plants as this is perfect time of it. Many of us had not seen village life so they had so many questions and those who have seen they were tell their story ..we were enjoying it.

I was moving bit ahead , i shouted ' guys ,i can see parking place' all were happy to know it but there were no straight road that move towards that place. we knew the target direction , so we walked towards it ..crossing many small house , follow few narrow paths that was made by villagers. Finally we have reached !!!
We all were completely wet and wanted to change its was around 7:15 pm , you can imagine a place were no electricity and that too in a raine session when sun is behind the clouds and this village was surrounded by big mountains.

although we were in rain for almost 6 hours but we still need water to wash hands and face. there was a water big water flow from mountain and its going towards a dam , we moved to that place and took a dry bath. flow of water was rapid and before we could say ..we saw a man with a stick started crossing river , its was unbelievable but it seams it was his regular route but for us it was not easy task.

oh, i forgot to mention on the way back i kept my spects in my pocket as they need to be cleaned every time after rain and when i took out from the pocket , i found a skretch in one lens...but that could be used with safety for while .
we all set to move back , it was i guess 8 pm ..dark ..no light else to our vehicle on the road. we all were taking about the trip and feeling like come back from Himalaya's.
Since it was Saturday , i decided to get down in Pune to meet my best friends there. I get down near to chandni chowk in Pune- Mumbai highway and rest of the people moved towards Mumbai.
its was really difficult to explain the fun we had ..its just the un-erasable memory that will be with me always..