AIPS!

AIPS, That's what we call ourselves. Aditi, Indu, Pooja and Swati, yes, it is in alphabetical order. This has possibly been the most fun time in the United States of America. Indu, my room mate and Pooja and Aditi, my neighbors, are the reason, why there have been no depressing posts on my blog lately!

It's funny, we even formed a google group recently, which has a funny name, the name being its12peoplesleeping :). It's a misnomer which will most likely be interpreted in the wrong way by most people because they are not aware of the reason behind this name ;) But, then again, that's the funny secret we share...

The other day, we thought of having a girl's night! So, we got together, got out favourite chips and drinks, and spent an entire night talking, chatting and gossiping to our heart's content about everything under the sun. However, I had to make a deadly project submission the previous night, which had caused tremendous sleep loss, thus making me feel very sleepy and eventually making me fall asleep without even realizing it.

AND, when I woke up, I heard laughter and felt that I was the reason behind this laughter. Pictures were taken and videos were being shot, and I had a funny feeling at the back of my mind, that there was something wrong with my face. Indu asked Pooja to hand me a mirror so that I could look at my face. And hah! I was the face double of Gabbar Singh!

Haha! This is what they did to me while I was asleep! When I was finally conscious of what had happened, I laughed too! I was asked to repeat a dialogue from the movie Sholay, "Ye haat humko dede thakur", while a video of mine was being shot! And I replied saying, "Ye Camera mujhe dede thakur"!

Times, I will remember all my life!

Barakhaa

रंगीन

रंगीन मन का एक कोना
छुपाया है दुनिया से

इस कोने में बैठ के
हम घंटों तुम्हे याद करते

घंटों सपने बुनते
मीलों ज़िन्दगी निहारते

इस रंग में लिपटी
मेरी शर्म में मिटती
मेरी उल्फत की राहें
तुम तक मुझे पोहोचाके भी न पोहोचाएं

अजब रंगीन कोना है
जो सबसे छुपाया है
तुमसे भी....

बरखा

Making your own Gems Repository

I am so happy to write my first Tech Blog! Yay!

So, I will explain to you, how you can make your own gems repository for private use within a small organization. This article assumes that you have a debian based client-server architecture. This article also assumes that you have a way of reaching the server through your machine. You need the following to make your own gems repository

1. A web server running (In my case apache2) on the server machine from now referred to as S
2. Rubygems installed on S

Now follow the steps.

Server Side : (The actual gem repository)

1. Install builder using the following command

sudo gem install builder

2. Say, /var/www is the root directory for your web server (It can be anything as long as it is properly listed in the config file which in our case is /etc/apache2/sites-available/default)
3. Issue the following commands

cd /var/www
mkdir gems (If root privileges are required then a sudo mkdir gems)

4. Then copy all the gems into this directory with the following command

cp -r /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8 /var/www/gems

5. Your gems directory may be at a different location, you can look it up using the folowing command

ruby -e 'puts $:'

6. Once you have copied all the gems, issue the following command

gem generate_index -d /var/www

After running this command you can issue the following command to check your local gems,

gem query --local

This command will list all the local gems that will be present in the repository.
7. After running this command, your yaml indexes would be generated. Now you can run the following command to start your gem server

sudo gem server http://hostname.domain.com:8808

where hostname.domain.com is the name of your computer followed by the port number 8808.
8. This should start your gem server!!!!!

A note : You should repeat this process on the server each time you install a new gem if you want this gem to be in your repository for remote install in your clients.

Client Side : (Where all the installtions will be performed using the gem install command)

1. Add the repository to your gem sources list using the following command

sudo gem sources -a http://hostname.domain.com:8808

This will add the gem repository to your gem sources.

Testing on the client

To test whether your system is working, do the following.
1. Remove rubyforge source from the sources list using the following command

sudo gem sources -r http://gems.rubyforge.com

2. List the sources using the following command

sudo gem sources

You should see only your own gem repository listed. If you have others, remove them as well, they can be added easily again using the 'gem sources -a http://hostname.domain.com' command
3. And now try to install any gem that is not installed on your client but is available in your gem repository. For example if you do not have "god" installed on your client but have it in your gem repository, issue the command

sudo gem install god

4. If your installation succeeds, you can rejoice and shout woohooo (this is what I did when it actually happened!!!)

I hope this is helpful to beginners like me. I also hope I have the jargon right as I am writing a tech blog for the first time. More tech blogs to follow! If you have any question, leave me a comment and I will try to answer them.

Barakhaa

Girly date!

Today was the first girly date that I had in the US. It was fun!!! Annie took me out to Denny's and I had my favourite veggie cheese omlette and she had the spicy buffalo chicken melt!!! Yummy !!! It was fun, because for the first time, I felt that someone understood me and I was not the only one to think the way I do. We decided to do a lot of girly things later on for example, get dressed and wear a lot of make up and go shopping!! Or I could curl her hair and she could straighten mine.

This was the first time, I was not out with a boy, I hardly have any girl friends who I go out with. Finally, I found someone with who my frequency matched! I hope I haven't said it too soon. But I like being with her. She told me about her life at Delhi and I was so shocked at the things she told me. She said she was immune to eve teasing and similar things which just prove that Delhi is such a horrible place and such things happen so frequently that girls become immune to it, yuck! Good males in Delhi, please do something about it, to save your women from such agony... It disgusted me to hear about these things and just made me feel good about living in Pune.

Overall, it was fun! We cribbed, we laughed, we ate and we smiled! Thanks Annie :)

A slightly cheerful post

I've realized that the past few posts were really, really depressing. I think, it's high time I wrote a slightly cheerful post. :) Well, the past few days have been good. I haven't fought with my best friend for like 15 days now which is such a great feat. (Well, for the past 3 years, I have fought with him every alternate day, so this is really, really something!!!!) Yes, even if we fight so much, he is my best friend!!

But, the best thing of all is that my mother and my sister are going to be visiting me, YAYYYYYYYY!!! I am super happy about this. I am dieing to see them. I am sure, I won't be able to control my tears when I see them! I am just so so so so so excited about this!

Living here, in the United States has taught me so much about myself. I've realized that I am way too sensitive as compared to a lot of people. I have realized that I am prepared to face anything, come what may. Any failures, any setbacks, I can face them without fear. And hell, I can code, and I can code as much as I want :)

Anyway, I should get back to coding now!

I miss India

Well, sorry if this turns out to be a sentimental post. But, I really, really miss India.

I used to hate Pune when I was in Pune, but now, all I can think about is getting back to that city. A city where I could ride my motor cycle at 2 a.m. in the night without feeling unsafe. A city with so much culture dissolved in its day to day life. I miss Dancing. I miss Bharatnatyam, I miss you Ashwini Tai. I miss performing at the Ganesh Kala Krida Manch, at the Bharat Natya Mandir, at the Tilak Smarak Mandir, at the Yashwant Rao Chavhan Natya Griha.... I miss the feel of the wooden stage against my bare feet, I miss it, I yearn for it...

I miss going to Sweet Charriot in Koregaon Park, a dear friend had introduced me to it. Vaishali was always a small bike's ride away. I miss Bedhekar Misal. I spent such a great time with my mom and my sister there. I miss Ferfusson College, where I spent the best two years of my life, carefree and hopeful, ambitious and jolly. I miss the evening Boat Club at COEP, where somehow, the setting sun would mellow all the fears in my heart. I miss the rainy season, I miss the Khadakwaasla Dam, the NDA ride, it was beautiful and serene. I miss the Agricultural College and the Morning and Evening walks....I miss the Range Hills Road.... I miss the Pune University... The beautiful gardens there and my dance performance there...

I miss my old house near the MIT hills. I miss watching the rains hide these hills, I miss getting wet on the terrace. I miss studying on the terrace, miss that terrace so much!!!! SO SO SO SO MUCH!!!!

Pune, a city so close to my heart... A city where I first learned to love, to give.. to give without inhibitions, to love without any conditions...

The next city very close to my heart is Bombay. I am not calling it Mumbai, sounds very unreal to me, because since I was a child, I have visited my grand parents place in Bombay and not Mumbai, so I am not going to call it Mumbai. I miss the juhu Chowpati, a place where my Chacha chachi would take me and my cousins to. Where we got wet in the salty water without thinking twice. Bhelpuri and pani puri was delicious, no body was weight conscious, in fact our parents liked us being fat.

I love the Hare Krishna temple. It is so beautiful. I miss shopping in Vile Parle with my mom, where we would shop for hours and spend hardly anything. I miss having chilled Nimbu Pani after shopping and before taking the evening, completely packed local train to Malad. I miss all that. I miss my mom. I miss hugging her, talking to her like a kid. I had to tell her everything.

I miss playing cricket with Kutti and Unni, my friends in Bombay. We would play cricket in a small Verandah in front of our building. I miss our small 10 rupee parties which I would organize and my mother help me organize. I miss playing hide and seek on the terrace of our building. I miss my childhood Bombay.

And then, I miss IIT Bombay, a place which is magical, a place which introduced me to such a plethora of emotions, of pain, of ecstacy, of disappointment, of anger, of nothingness.... I miss IIT Powai, and I will always remember it as the place where I changed from being a girl to being a woman.

I miss India ... I just so miss India.... the place where I belong...

Life in the USA

Its weird how lonliness kills you into writing such sad posts. Thats a cheerful start to an otherwise dismal article....

But anyway, I landed here on the 28th of July, 2008 and ever since I have lived a life of total luxury. Blessed with tons of assignments, millions of projects and eons of hardwork. I wash, I cook, I eat, I code, I attend lectures, I write, I study and then attend more lectures and cook more, wash more and eat more and then when its time to sleep, I wake up again into another cheerful day.

I am so happy, I can hardly explain. I am so happy that I don't want to eat sometimes, its as if appetite suddenly looks up at me and tells me, "you don't need my, why bother?" My dreams are even more cheerful than my actual, living life. I dream of bald guys being tortured in my house, of wild bulls chasing me and of my getting pregnant.... Its so good, I love this life, had always dreamt of it... Its so good that I want it to get over, so that I can understand the value of a horrible life...

My house is a wonderful place to be.. It has lovely lights, and lovely carpets... They are so lovely that I never want to vacuum clean them... And my favorite piece of entertainment... My only friend in the united states... my amazing laptop... with the internet badwidth so high, I have an amazing time... At least the luxury of youtube videos being played without having to wait for them to get buffered...

Life is simply great... I wish it would end now!

हज़ार टुकडों में बट गई हूँ मैं,
कुछ इधर कुछ उधर ....
नाम के लिए जी रही हूँ,
हज़ार सालों से, सदियों से

मैंने जैसे खून से महेंदी लगायी है...
मैंने जैसे आँसू जेवर बनाये हैं...

बरखा

अकेलापन

अकेलेपन का कोई मोल नही रहा....
अनजानी गहरायिओं में कभी बहुत सस्ते में मिलता था....

आजकल तो लोगों की भीड़ में
बिना किसी मोल के मिलता है, खरीदना भी नही पड़ता....

बरखा

मन तो वहीं छूट गया है जहाँ मेरा घर है।
अलग राह की सीमा अब दिखी है जब घर नही पासमें।

लौट के जाऊँ तो कैसे,
मायने जो बदल गए हैं .....
हर राह जो बदल गई है
हर मंजिल जो बदल गई है......

बरखा

Mr. Handsome in America

Mr. Handsome in America turned out to be a non American ....

bhor

bhor hui...mangal mangal

kal ki purva...aaj bhi hai

dheemi dheemi raat bhi,

diya jale jangal jangal..

ganga gunje paas hee mein

karvat leti idhar udhar,

dharti ki halchal pe nirbhar,

maili hoti saath hee mein...

bhor mein milti...

chanchal ganga,

doob woh jaati,

dooba deti woh...

shubhra hai ganga

ke bhor pavittar,

saaf woh karti..

saaf hoti woh.

mai bhi nadi hoon,

mai bhi bhor,

khud mein milke

mil mai jaati...

maili hoti,
goonjti mai..
shubhra shubhra
khil mai jaati...

barkha

ek phool,
aaj maila hua...

haath ki kharonch se
aaj woh gila hua...

par koi dard nahi,
koi gam nahi...

koi ehsaas nahi
jo use mehroom hua

par pata chala ki
woh kharonch uski nahi thhi,
usse abaad karne ko nahi thhi...
bas kuchalne ko thhi,
usmein chhupi hui masumiyat ko...

Barkha

waqt

har waqt ek saans mein guzarta hai,
paani ki pyaas samjha ke....

nikalta hai mere kareeb se,
par ehsaas doori ka dikhata hai...

mai akeli hoti hoon, haath khole hue,
ek boond ke intezaar mein...

par asmaan barasta nahi,, lekin
meri aankh mein moti chhod jaata hai....

nirbhar

admi admi pe kitna nirbhar hai
fir bhi alag rehna chahta hai...
alag desh mein aake hee yeh kyun strike hota hai?