How I carried the Swiss knife in cabin bag (unknowingly)?

How I carried the Swiss knife in cabin bag (unknowingly)?

It was Air France return flight to Mumbai AF 218. Departure time 10.50 hours, I was already late in dropping the baggage in. Police checking was bit tough & lengthy. Many passengers going to Africa were crying due to same “delay” reason. I was only late guy in queue who was supposed to be boarded at 10.10 am, time was 10.30am & I was still in Police cabin bag checkup. They were going in same lazy way at Paris airport.

Immigration aitport checkout stamping hardly took any time as my record was pretty clean. I asked a security guy to promote myself to go ahead as it was too late for me. French security guy told me straight way,”sir, its same for everybody, you have to wait!” Oops!

At Paris Airport bag checkup:

I was carrying a 2 bags, 1 bag has all cloths. Another had laptop & some art books to read on the way back. I really hate AF; I had really bad experience with AF, which you can read in my earlier blog. Coming back to cabin bag checkup, the bag which had Swiss knife!

Security guy said asked me to re pass the laptop bag. Security sensor has given him some indication that there is something fishy but he has still confused. I was still asking him to finish it fast as I had to catch the flight as soon as, it was just 15 min to take off!!! He rechecked my laptop bag, but couldn’t figured out what wrong. I had worn my belt & shoes, was ready to catch my flight. But, police man asked me to stay back to clear laptop bag.

I was opening all zips of laptop bag, policeman shouted, “Don’t touch your bag sir. Please stay away from bag. We need to check it”. I was bit confused, what’s wrong? I was still shouting I ‘ll miss my flight. C’mon ask someone to check my bag. I don’t anything wrong. I‘m just carrying some books & electronic stuff, nothing more! Pls make it quick.

Lady on next desk came to check my bag manually. I helped her to show the stuff. There was a towel, laptop charger & painting books. It was all packed up at last moment. I was still confused what’s wrong with my bag. I was carrying some eye drop medicines which I showed to police lady. She finally agreed & said “it’s alright!” They talked something in French & asked me to go. I run & catch my flight at gate C87; some guy was announcing my name & seat number L24. I ran on plan entrance & was on my seat just before 10 minutes before the take off. Cabin crew guy was happy to see me & said, “Mr. Tipale, you are welcome. We are happy to see you hear, whatever reason you are late, I don’t want to know.” I was muttering,” pardon, pardon!”

At Mumbai Airport bag checkup:

I had nice flight back to Mumbai. There is law by which your baggage came out from any Airport. It’s LIFO-Last in First out! First check-in remains the last. So, I got my bag at #1. I was happy to see my Blue colored Polo Star bag. I was first in custom checking queue. Custom guy was looking for liquor bottles in bag. I had nothing much catchy for him. He found something doubtful in same laptop bag,

he asked me,”wapas daal uss bag ko, kuch to bhi layer jaisa hai” (put that bag again, something like layers are there on laptop.)

I said,”okey, let’s check it again sir”

I pushed my bag to check again.

He wasn’t happy much. Shouted,”yaar, tera laptop nikal ke wapas daal. Thada clear ho jayega.” (Friend, remove your laptop & push the bag again.)

I just remove my laptop & pushed bag to recheck. People from back started shouting,”ab laptop bhi nikalana hai kya edhar.” I replied,”Nahi bhai, it’s for me only”

This time he was satisfied. He still wanted to see “thing which was looking like layers”. I just pulled out my art books to shown him. He understood. He asked me to go by saying,”Thik hai yaar, koi problem nahi. Ja sakate ho.” & I moved on.

At my home in Mumbai:

After coming to my place, I was searching for my key chain, which has all my keys (my flat, my room, office drawers, some more locks). After a day I found the key chain with Swiss knife was in my cabin baggage-Laptop bag’s side pockets. I was shocked!!!

At my Mind:

OMG, I carried a well known weapon in cabin. It helped me understood, “how gang of 4-5 terrorist can easily plan a complete hijacking of the flight?” No some seems to recognize the part of gun or knife if carried separately in large cabin bags.

Anyways I was in no mood to hijack AF flight. I just don’t hate them so much although they delayed my luggage by 3 days in Paris! I love them for providing only direct flight from Mumbai to Paris & back. Thanks for all. I wish they could add more security checks at airport. This is too easy for any terrorist to break airport security. Even they are working on things to work out with bio-weapons. It’s really scary but would be challenging to fight!

Here is picture of it:

Air France took my luggage for 3days.

Story of my luggage n travel thru AF !! I can't belieave AF flight had more mosquitoes than any of Mumbai's Guttar or nulla..

Worst flight experience for me in life !!

http://www.google.com/buzz/106641652710990032488/hoRzKPDa26R/Finally-reached-Paris-Oops-Air-France-said-luggage

Mar 3 Mahendra Tipale: Finally reached Paris ! Oops. Air France said, luggage will come with in 1-2 days!Its bad.I hardly have cloths to change.got to shop.
Mar 3 Sunil Bhatia: Man this is bad... same case with Basheer... What did they say? Why is the luggage delayed? I am now considering to book Emirates instead of Air France for next week!!!
Mar 3 Sumit Rusia: ur screwed man... :(
Mar 4 Mahendra Tipale: yup guys. It was really bad. we purchased few needful stuff today. I think so luggage will come 2maro evening or day after 2maro.

Its not for me & Basheer but it happened to all passengers. We r lucky ones who r staying in Paris. Many had to go to US or something countries & their plans r cancelled or may not be feasible.

Anyway, AF keep on saying sorry sorry many time.

i brought new shoes as i had forgot my shoes while coming..

Underwares too.. cant live with same undiz for long time... JJJ
will rest for next 10 hr in peace. no worry.
i hav 1 dress n laptop.. nothinig else !

Cheers!!
Mar 4 Mahendra Tipale: ha ha .. I got 5 new undiz. multicolored , multi designed.. n few more cloths. yest day we did shopping of ~100Euro each @ La Defence to servive another 1-2 days in paris.

we r gonna su AF if the baggage didnt came b4 weekend. we hav lot of stuff in checkin.

Apache httpd benchmarking

Simple command to check apache httpd benchmarking. Goes in similar way for DSS.

====================================================
[root@mahendra ~]# ab -n 100 -c 10 http://IP/webapp/xyz.jsp
This is ApacheBench, Version 2.3 <$Revision: 655654 $>
Copyright 1996 Adam Twiss, Zeus Technology Ltd, http://www.zeustech.net/
Licensed to The Apache Software Foundation, http://www.apache.org/

Benchmarking (be patient).....done


Server Software: Apache
Server Hostname:
Server Port: 80

Document Path: /webapp/xyz.jsp
Document Length: 292 bytes

Concurrency Level: 10
Time taken for tests: 0.691 seconds
Complete requests: 100
Failed requests: 0
Write errors: 0
Total transferred: 54200 bytes
HTML transferred: 29200 bytes
Requests per second: 144.68 [#/sec] (mean)
Time per request: 69.118 [ms] (mean)
Time per request: 6.912 [ms] (mean, across all concurrent requests)
Transfer rate: 76.58 [Kbytes/sec] received

Connection Times (ms)
min mean[+/-sd] median max
Connect: 19 30 5.4 31 53
Processing: 23 37 8.0 35 59
Waiting: 23 36 7.6 35 59
Total: 44 67 9.9 64 92

Percentage of the requests served within a certain time (ms)
50% 64
66% 71
75% 73
80% 76
90% 82
95% 86
98% 92
99% 92
100% 92 (longest request)
====================================================

Updating status on twitter,facebook, gtalk, Buzz using twitter

Updating status on twitter,facebook, gtalk, Buzz using twitter :

With launch in G Buzz, there are many social n/w playground.
Funny thing is, Buzz 3rd party integration just says, ur twits will be shown on buzz.. but it didnt work :( .. buggy google... sad to say but true!

Googles bad habit of launching products in beta n making them bug free with help of users.. are we the gunny pigs to experiment on ??? i forgive G ! just a favour for providing so many free services ;-) never mind G!

I wondering how long it'll take to update my status each time on all of the sites ! its really bad idea to do it manually on all sites..

Here i got way around to do it :
1. How to add to facebook status : Search twitter in search box of Fb. u 'll cool twitter icon.. just get the app for Fb.. u ;ll be prompted with twitter login & check for settings to update your status from twitter. DONE !!

2. For Buzz & Gtalk : Go to free app site http://twitter2gtalk.appspot.com/ ! Many Thanks to http://twitter.com/broderboy for providing such a cool app :
This web service will read ur latest twit on regular basis (currently its checking on half hourly basis ) & updates ur Gtalk status ! The itself is cool enough to say that.
Once gtalk status is updated. Buzz too get gtalk profile text to update. G has done it properly.
http://twitter.com/broderboy is smart enough to not take msg with "@" from twitter status. thats good thing.

U can get thousands of cool mobile & desktop apps to update ur twitter status. This is how I update my status.. twitter is now my most favourite on line digital open diary !!!

in reference to: Facebook (view on Google Sidewiki)

Pdf documet creation & encyption

Just encounted with pdf creation :

One can simply find our Oracle's (earlier Sun's, although i'm not too happy to say non-open oracle) OpenOffice ! U can convert any doc, ppt, xls to pdf file.

Now comes the important part of protecting the document.
Here are some FOSS tools to get it done
[root@mahendra ~]# yum -y install pdftk*
Not loading "blacklist" plugin, as it is disabled
Not loading "whiteout" plugin, as it is disabled
Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit
Config time: 1.676
Yum Version: 3.2.24
Setting up Package Sacks
pkgsack time: 4.772
rpmdb time: 0.424
Setting up Install Process
Building updates object
up:Obs Init time: 0.272
up:simple updates time: 0.479
up:obs time: 0.016
up:condense time: 0.000
updates time: 36.928
Resolving Dependencies
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependency Process ending
Depsolve time: 161.988

Dependencies Resolved

====================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
====================================================================================================
Installing:
pdftk i586 1.41-21.fc11 updates 90 k
Installing for dependencies:
bouncycastle i586 1.44-1.fc11 updates 3.3 M
bouncycastle-mail i586 1.44-1.fc11 updates 502 k
bouncycastle-tsp i586 1.44-1.fc11 updates 107 k
itext i586 2.1.7-5.fc11 updates 3.1 M

Transaction Summary
====================================================================================================
Install 5 Package(s)
Upgrade 0 Package(s)

Total download size: 7.2 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/5): bouncycastle-1.44-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 3.3 MB 00:21
(2/5): bouncycastle-mail-1.44-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 502 kB 00:05
(3/5): bouncycastle-tsp-1.44-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 107 kB 00:01
(4/5): itext-2.1.7-5.fc11.i586.rpm | 3.1 MB 00:23
(5/5): pdftk-1.41-21.fc11.i586.rpm | 90 kB 00:01
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 125 kB/s | 7.2 MB 00:58
Running rpm_check_debug
Adding Package pdftk-1.41-21.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-tsp-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package itext-2.1.7-5.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-mail-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
rpm_check_debug time: 0.336
Running Transaction Test
Adding Package pdftk-1.41-21.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-tsp-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package itext-2.1.7-5.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-mail-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Transaction Test time: 1.141
Adding Package pdftk-1.41-21.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-tsp-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package itext-2.1.7-5.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-mail-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Running Transaction
Installing : bouncycastle-1.44-1.fc11.i586 1/5
Installing : bouncycastle-mail-1.44-1.fc11.i586 2/5
Installing : bouncycastle-tsp-1.44-1.fc11.i586 3/5
Installing : itext-2.1.7-5.fc11.i586 4/5
Installing : pdftk-1.41-21.fc11.i586 5/5
Transaction time: 15.280

Installed:
pdftk.i586 0:1.41-21.fc11

Dependency Installed:
bouncycastle.i586 0:1.44-1.fc11 bouncycastle-mail.i586 0:1.44-1.fc11
bouncycastle-tsp.i586 0:1.44-1.fc11 itext.i586 0:2.1.7-5.fc11

Complete!
[root@mahendra ~]#
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependency Process ending
Depsolve time: 161.988

Dependencies Resolved

====================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
====================================================================================================
Installing:
pdftk i586 1.41-21.fc11 updates 90 k
Installing for dependencies:
bouncycastle i586 1.44-1.fc11 updates 3.3 M
bouncycastle-mail i586 1.44-1.fc11 updates 502 k
bouncycastle-tsp i586 1.44-1.fc11 updates 107 k
itext i586 2.1.7-5.fc11 updates 3.1 M

Transaction Summary
====================================================================================================
Install 5 Package(s)
Upgrade 0 Package(s)

Total download size: 7.2 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/5): bouncycastle-1.44-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 3.3 MB 00:21
(2/5): bouncycastle-mail-1.44-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 502 kB 00:05
(3/5): bouncycastle-tsp-1.44-1.fc11.i586.rpm | 107 kB 00:01
(4/5): itext-2.1.7-5.fc11.i586.rpm | 3.1 MB 00:23
(5/5): pdftk-1.41-21.fc11.i586.rpm | 90 kB 00:01
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 125 kB/s | 7.2 MB 00:58
Running rpm_check_debug
Adding Package pdftk-1.41-21.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-tsp-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package itext-2.1.7-5.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-mail-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
rpm_check_debug time: 0.336
Running Transaction Test
Adding Package pdftk-1.41-21.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-tsp-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package itext-2.1.7-5.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-mail-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Transaction Test time: 1.141
Adding Package pdftk-1.41-21.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-tsp-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package itext-2.1.7-5.fc11.i586 in mode u
Adding Package bouncycastle-mail-1.44-1.fc11.i586 in mode u
Running Transaction
Installing : bouncycastle-1.44-1.fc11.i586 1/5
Installing : bouncycastle-mail-1.44-1.fc11.i586 2/5
Installing : bouncycastle-tsp-1.44-1.fc11.i586 3/5
Installing : itext-2.1.7-5.fc11.i586 4/5
Installing : pdftk-1.41-21.fc11.i586 5/5
Transaction time: 15.280

Installed:
pdftk.i586 0:1.41-21.fc11

Dependency Installed:
bouncycastle.i586 0:1.44-1.fc11 bouncycastle-mail.i586 0:1.44-1.fc11
bouncycastle-tsp.i586 0:1.44-1.fc11 itext.i586 0:2.1.7-5.fc11

Complete!
[root@mahendra ~]#

Examples :

Merge Two or More PDFs into a New Document

pdftk 1.pdf 2.pdf 3.pdf cat output 123.pdf

or (Using Handles):

pdftk A=1.pdf B=2.pdf cat A B output 12.pdf

or (Using Wildcards):

pdftk *.pdf cat output combined.pdf

Split Select Pages from Multiple PDFs into a New Document

pdftk A=one.pdf B=two.pdf cat A1-7 B1-5 A8 output combined.pdf

Rotate the First Page of a PDF to 90 Degrees Clockwise

pdftk in.pdf cat 1E 2-end output out.pdf

Rotate an Entire PDF Document's Pages to 180 Degrees

pdftk in.pdf cat 1-endS output out.pdf

Encrypt a PDF using 128-Bit Strength (the Default) and Withhold All Permissions (the Default)

pdftk mydoc.pdf output mydoc.128.pdf owner_pw foopass

Same as Above, Except a Password is Required to Open the PDF

pdftk mydoc.pdf output mydoc.128.pdf owner_pw foo user_pw baz

Same as Above, Except Printing is Allowed (after the PDF is Open)

pdftk mydoc.pdf output mydoc.128.pdf owner_pw foo user_pw baz allow printing

Decrypt a PDF

pdftk secured.pdf input_pw foopass output unsecured.pdf

Join Two Files, One of Which is Encrypted (the Output is Not Encrypted)

pdftk A=secured.pdf mydoc.pdf input_pw A=foopass cat output combined.pdf

Uncompress PDF Page Streams for Editing the PDF Code in a Text Editor

pdftk mydoc.pdf output mydoc.clear.pdf uncompress

Repair a PDF's Corrupted XREF Table and Stream Lengths (If Possible)

pdftk broken.pdf output fixed.pdf

Burst a Single PDF Document into Single Pages and Report its Data to doc_data.txt

pdftk mydoc.pdf burst

Report on PDF Document Metadata, Bookmarks and Page Labels

pdftk mydoc.pdf dump_data output report.txt

Most imp command to set read passwd for pdf :
pdftk my.pdf output mydoc128.pdf owner_pw foopass user_pw passwd



Reference :
http://angusj.com/pdftkb/
http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/

NOTE: Use pdf OR ps before thinking twice to print the doc & sending on snail mail..

save nature.. save humans

Explorer...

Explorer...: "Date 28/Nov/2009
I was flying back from Paris Charles De Goule airport. While waiting in boarding queue, i found a English guy reading 'Shantaram'.
I asked him.'Hey, have u finished reading shantaram'!
'Not yet, i'll soon finish it. Its nice book'
'Yes. I have read it once. Its really wonderful book with pace & every details'
he accepted, 'yeah, right!'
I tried to check how much he remember about Shataram,'So, hows Karla, Khader, linbaba? Do you like them?'
Surprisingly said,'You know all of them!!Good. Karla is good, mysterious beauty & soul. Its good story!'
We discsussed few more thing like, where are you flying & bla bla..

It was good to see someone who knows & think as you are thinking...at such unexpected time :-)"

Help Mysql to survive! Its the BEST!

Michael Widenius, the creator of the MySQL server, one of the most widely used and popular open software software, is now asking for everyone's help to keep it that way.

With the imminent takeover of Sun by Oracle, a move which will put the MySQL server in the direct hands of it's competitor Oracle, the future of the MySQL server will be jeopardy. While it is an open source project and the community is free to continue development of a fork, it will have to be under a different name, and names matter.

MySQL is a reputed database server and while there may be many forks of the server available in the community already, many which may offer better features of better speed, the MySQL server is definitely the most widely favoured and used.

MySQL has also supported a commercial license which is attractive for enterprise customers who need professional supported software. MySQL Enterprise makes the server available under a proprietary license and with support.

Michael claims that considering that Oracle is the developer of competing technologies, it has a huge incentive to discontinue further development of MySQL as on open source software. The absence of MySQL as a free open source solution contender which is constantly developed is sure to tilt the scales towards Oracle's own database solutions.

If Oracle does pull the plug on MySQL, Michael believes that simply forking the project will not be enough to keep the project alive, as only the GPL code could be forked, and not the economy around it. In a previous blog post, he mentions two ways that MySQL could be killed:


* If they stop selling licenses of MySQL or price them really high.
* If the development resources of MySQL are drastically reduced. (Considering that most of the development of MySQL is not done by the community but Sun)

He also goes on to explain why simply creating a fork will not work.

While MySQL will continue to exist as on open source software no matter what Oracle does with it, it will no longer be a competitor, which is Oricle's biggest gain. In order for it to survive Oracle he believes they should promise the following:



* To keep (all of) MySQL under an open source license
* Not to add closed source parts, modules or required tools.
* To not raise MySQL license or MySQL support prices
* To release new MySQL versions in a regular and timely manner.
* To continue with dual licensing and always provide affordable commercial licenses to MySQL to those who needs them (to storage vendors and application vendors) or provide MySQL under a more permissive license
* To develop MySQL as an Open Source project
* To actively work with the community
* Apply submitted patches in a timely manner
* To not discriminate patches that make MySQL compete more with Oracles other products
* To ensure that MySQL is improved also in manners that make it compete even more with Oracles' main offering.



He advocates that anyone who has gained from the MySQL project try to stop this acquisition at it's last barrier, the approval from the EU -- which seems to be more wary of the effects this might have. The power of open source is such that it is difficult to kill a project such as MySQL, however it is quite easy to remove its competitive influence, and that is what Michael and the EU are worried about.



If you are worried about the effects as well, do follow his instructions at the end of the post.

in reference to:

"Michael Widenius, the creator of the MySQL server, one of the most widely used and popular open software software, is now asking for everyone's help to keep it that way. With the imminent takeover of Sun by Oracle, a move which will put the MySQL server in the direct hands of it's competitor Oracle, the future of the MySQL server will be jeopardy. While it is an open source project and the community is free to continue development of a fork, it will have to be under a different name, and names matter. MySQL is a reputed database server and while there may be many forks of the server available in the community already, many which may offer better features of better speed, the MySQL server is definitely the most widely favoured and used. MySQL has also supported a commercial license which is attractive for enterprise customers who need professional supported software. MySQL Enterprise makes the server available under a proprietary license and with support. Michael claims that considering that Oracle is the developer of competing technologies, it has a huge incentive to discontinue further development of MySQL as on open source software. The absence of MySQL as a free open source solution contender which is constantly developed is sure to tilt the scales towards Oracle's own database solutions. If Oracle does pull the plug on MySQL, Michael believes that simply forking the project will not be enough to keep the project alive, as only the GPL code could be forked, and not the economy around it. In a previous blog post, he mentions two ways that MySQL could be killed:   If they stop selling licenses of MySQL or price them really high. If the development resources of MySQL are drastically reduced. (Considering that most of the development of MySQL is not done by the community but Sun) He also goes on to explain why simply creating a fork will not work. While MySQL will continue to exist as on open source software no matter what Oracle does with it, it will no longer be a competitor, which is Oricle's biggest gain. In order for it to survive Oracle he believes they should promise the following:   To keep (all of) MySQL under an open source license Not to add closed source parts, modules or required tools. To not raise MySQL license or MySQL support prices To release new MySQL versions in a regular and timely manner. To continue with dual licensing and always provide affordable commercial licenses to MySQL to those who needs them (to storage vendors and application vendors) or provide MySQL under a more permissive license To develop MySQL as an Open Source project To actively work with the community Apply submitted patches in a timely manner To not discriminate patches that make MySQL compete more with Oracles other products To ensure that MySQL is improved also in manners that make it compete even more with Oracles' main offering.   He advocates that anyone who has gained from the MySQL project try to stop this acquisition at it's last barrier, the approval from the EU -- which seems to be more wary of the effects this might have. The power of open source is such that it is difficult to kill a project such as MySQL, however it is quite easy to remove its competitive influence, and that is what Michael and the EU are worried about.   If you are worried about the effects as well, do follow his instructions at the end of the post."
- The Creator of MySQL calls out for your help (view on Google Sidewiki)

Paris for tourist

Where, what & how:

Places MUST see (if you have time) :
Need not to mention Eiffel, Triumph arc, Lourve (Monalisa, Venus statue, many beautiful sculptures & paintings)
Few more special places to see : Nort de dam, Opera, Orsay, Museum, Art de Material Museum, Pigalle (red area), boat trip in seine river from Port Alma (near Eiffel base), Invalides & Museum Army, Grand Arc(La Defence- good place for shopping). There are many more local areas you must visit !

Food :
Good for pizza, pasta lovers. Be careful if you don't want to find uncooked meat in food. You can find plenty of Italian stuff as well Chinese, Korean & Susi restaurants are available.
For veggies : “poulet“ mean chicken, see red, blue mark on food packet before eating. Blue is for fish, red u know.
Never miss to take some perfumes, as France is home of world trade of perfumes.
India restaurants in Paris : Don't expect same too spicy food as people eat in India. Its still like it was 10-20 years before.
Desserts : you 'll find awesome deserts in Paris. Its specialty of France to have yummy chocolates & cheesy cream.

Wine: If you didn't taste it in Paris, you missed the best! Get some Bordeaux wine (don't pronounce in English, just say “bordo” ). There are many more wines you can try out.
Pastis : Another special local drink of France. Its taste very good but be aware of 45% alcohol percentage! It gives nice kick.

if you want to see India in Paris, visit La chapelle ! You 'll get lot of India stuff & brands. Ready made chapati, roti, vegetables, calling cards, ready to eat stuff & rice place. You can easily find some kannada, tamil magazine too. You can figure out how this place is Indian on first sight. Lesser rules & regulation. More shops with names like “Madras, Tirupathi, Balaji, etc etc”. You simply have advantage in bargain or too find places if you use tamil to communicate with locals.

NOTE:
Carry tourist map while traveling, its helpful in worst time.
Get refreshed before you start your journey, as there are very few public toilets & they charge you 40 cents as well as they are open in specific time window.
Always follow ground rules of city while walking, driving & public places.

Few French words you must know :
Merci – Thanks
Pardon – sorry
Excuse me remains same, pronunciation changes.
salut – Hi, bye (Its funny to use same word for hi & bye)
chin-chin – cheers !!
Mind it, In France, g is pronounced as J & vice-versa. Same is for a & e. R,T are always silent !!

Shantaram- Shantaram Kisan Kharre - Gregory David Roberts.

Shantaram - Shantaram Kisan Kharre.

Shantaram is a very lively book and touches vast canvass. It captures Bombay’s life, sponsored terrorism and deals with unified Islamic power also. It deals with refugee problems, it tackles slums, it covers human trafficking, it shows police atrocities and it describes illegal trades also. Mystery, drugs, sex and violence etc are parts of the plot and bounty of human emotions like love, hate, intrigues etc, are also there and faith and miracles also occupy a place in the plot. Its like combining Shidney Sheldon and Paulo Coelho. I think its much more interesting than both of these.
This is a pity that neither any Hindi cinema director could pick up this interesting book nor any big Hindi cinema producer could buy the rights to make a film on this wonderful book. Johnny Depp is doing what biggies of hindi cinema should have done.
To do full justice with this subject one has to have the capability to maintain international treatment of the subject and at same time Indian flavor should not be lost because that is the basic ground beneath the subject.
Right casting is very important in such a vast subject.

0. Main character Lindsay, Linbaba aka Shantaram :
Demands an actor like Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp who could look tough at times and who could also handle emotions well. Johnny Depp is playing the central character. He has vulnerability to do full justice to this role.
The name came after his simple indian mother Rukhminbai Kisan Kharre , mother of close friend Prabhakar.

1. Khader Bhai:
Amitabh Bachchan has rightly been selected to play this character. Khader Bhai basically belongs to a ruler family of an Afgan tribe. He controls the organised crime in Bombay. He is powerful, mysterious and yet so many times he looks so humane whenever he is filled with emotions only, towards his dear ones. Different facets of his character are revealed slowly in the book. His character consists of many twists and its difficult for Lindsay to define him in clear cut black and white category. It has more shades and this character has more relevance in modern times because of his association with Islamic powers trying to make a union. His life, from childhood to his death, demands a separate film.
David might have created character of Khader Bhai , the Mafia boss, on the basis of some real life mafia dons of Bombay but he certainly had kept personality (may be on screen persona) of Amitabh Bachchan in his mind while defining traits of this character. While reading the book, it seems at so many places that Amitabh is present in the book in the form of Khader Bhai.

2. Prabhakar :
He is a young (24-25 years old) Indian tourist guide with whom Lindsay meets as soon as he gets down from the bus after reaching to Bombay. Prabhakar is very important character in the book as he is the first person who introduces Lindsay to India and Indian realities. Prabhakar takes Lindsay to his village in the interior of Maharashtra and where Lindsay actually gets the name Shantaram from Prabhakar’s mother. Prabhakar is first Indian friend of Shantaram. Through Prabhakar, Shantaram’s views about India are formed. He has an emotional relationship with Prabhakar. When Prabhakar dies then this loss is not less emotional than the separation of Jai and Veeru in Sholay, after Jai is killed. Prabhakar’s death leaves a sad void in the plot and in the life of Shantaram also, a void which can not be filled again.
Prabhakar has an infectious laugh. He wants to help Shantaram in any case whether he has capability or not. He first gives him name Lin on the basis of Shivlinga. He calls him Lin Baba.

3 Abdullah Tahiri :
He is an Iranian by birth and basically he is a fighter in the gang of Khader Bhai. A quiet person by nature and he is a devoted follower of Khader Bhai but dangerous for their enemies. Abhishek Bacchan suits well for such roles.

4 Qasim Ali Hussain :
He is a friend of Khader Bhai and manages the slums developed on the grounds occupied by Khader Bhai. He is also a powerful person but he is calm and caring person in nature. He takes care of the people living in the slums controlled by him. He is chief of the slums in every sense. He is not educated but he is sensible and he motivates Lin to do social works in slums and arranges every kind of help he needs. Nana Patekar actors for this character if he has to be shown in age category of Khaderbhai

5 Prabhakar’s parents,
Rukhaminbai & Kisan, typical farmer family from North Maharashtrian village. Story of gunddas/dakeths from near by village had been kicked aways by Rukhaminbai and villages. If scenes of Prabhakar’s village, given in the book, are kept in the film also and scenes when they visit slums in Bombay are also kept then these are good supporting roles and have enough scope for actors to make their presence visible and appealing.

6 Karla:
She is a beautiful European woman. She is always a mystery for Lin. He is attracted towards her but she has always something hidden about her which brings a new facet of hers before Lin and he is left astonished. Kate Winslet (she is quite old not to do the role, can go with make up) fits the role and consideration that she already has enough exposure towards India, closely and living with Indian family there for days might have exposed her more about India and these things may bring authenticity in her performance. Later, during the shooting of Holi Smoke also she had lived in India. In the book, she has been living in India for years and now its her real home and she does not wish to go back.
Karla and Lin’s love story has western shades and its like a regular love story based Hollywood film where characters meet and separate many times before final union or departure. It’s a mini film inside a big film and will bring an interesting watch specially because of the fact that Lin does not know all things about Karla and he even does not know that all this time when she was dating him, she was working for Khader Bhai. But their love story will bring many interesting romantic scenes, specially when they visit Goa.

7. Vikram Patel,
He is son of a rich man. He is highly impressed with Client Eastwood and other western films and always appears in that get up only. He makes friends with Karla and Shantaram and Dildier. He ultimately marries Karla’s friend. He is funny at times but he is not scared in going with Lin to fight with criminals. He is also not a character with single dimension characteristics and an actor needs to show different moods of the character. Govinda perhaps will not do it and Arshad Warsi is other name who will shine in this role. Vikram does many stunts to impress Litty – Letita in love. Finally gets her to settle down.

8. Madam Zhao,
This mysterious madame runs a brothel for rich and powerful in Bombay. Very few people have seen her as she lives in her mansion and does not come out. Many stories are floating there about her. Karla and Lin meet her to take away a friend of Karla who is working as a prostitute in her brothel.
Simi Garewal and Rekha both are capable to play this role if role has to be played by an Indian actress. Madam Zhao in the book is most bad character in book. With Proper make up Kangana may look like the character described in the book. Otherwise many aged Hollywood actresses are there to play this role.

9. Kanu the Bear,
Kanu keeps an important place in the book but its not certain that film will also keep this animal in the film. Not sure if shooting with animals is still allowed in India or not? To keep joy factor intact in the film, Kanu bear, should be there.
Yes, the bear was sent by Abdulla as gift to give a actual bear hug. It was great fun to read around bear story, This bear once goes to jail, finally sent safely outside Maharashtra along with Ganapati statue to avoid trouble.

10. Other characters,
There are many characters in the film and in the international gang of Khader Bhai there are several characters which have importance in the plot like Khaled Ansari, Abdul Ghani – the traitor, Raju bhai, new lads who join the concil after Khader bhai like Sanjay, Salman, Farid, Andrew, Aamir. Nazeer – body guard of Khaderbhai.
Many actors of Black Friday team can be used in the characters living in slums and who are friends of Prabhakar and Lin. It includes characters like Johny Cigar, Jeetendra, Radha (Jeetu's wife), Parvati (Prabhakar's wife), Sita, Anand (man who killed Rafig in hate), Satish- kid, Joseph & Maria, Andhkar (dark black man in seen of Joseph's punishment), Ranjit-medical drug, Ranjeet- Jeet- Karla's bf, Big Rahul – in Jail, Manoj – in jail, Ulla, Medona & his friends rival of Lin, Lettita, African don based in dongari – who disperses dead bodies in hole, Member of Khader bhai's council, blind singers & their story, friends on the way to Afganistan-Kandhar via Quatta (Pak), Lin's friend while running away from Australian jail, Lin's philosophy proff, Khader bhai's scientist connection from Bhabha, spiritual guru fro m Varanasi, Abdulla's love & Farid's cousin from Delhi, Ramesh, Anand- Hotel/Lodge owner, standing babas, Guptaji's den, small kids' selling den, . It goes on :-)
There were other small roles like Habib- the madman, Ahmad, Allaudin, Muzahiddin fighters and helpers.

I think its really difficult task to put whole book in single movie. I don't mind if director make it part-1 part-2. Roberts is busy with writting another book on his next life. That can sure be part-3 depending on movie's box office collection.
Khader Bhai loves his nephew Tariq and role of this child can be played by any of the child actor. They may make this small role memorable.
Lately AB has not been getting challenging roles. Good roles, which could help him to grow further as an actor, have been away from him. All of his present days directors are not thinking beyond the work, already done by him in the past. And in such scenario Khader Bhai’s character brings a golden opportunity before him to show his fine acting skills.
Khader Bhai is the call of Amitabh Bachchan only. He fits very well in the role in every sense. This is not call of any of the actor Pankaj Kapoor, OM Puri or Naseeruddin Shah as book does not contain their influence on the character.

To select AB in the role of Khader Bhai indicates that Mira Nair is walking on right path and it shows that she has understood the character well.

Depp has selected Mira Nair as the director for this project. It will be first of its kind for Mira Nair and perhaps Salam Bombay could have been the basis for Johnny Depp to decide in favour of Mira Nair as her first film deals with slums in Bombay and Shantaram also covers life in slums. We have to see what kind of treatment Mira Nair gives to this big subject. She has adapted books on screen in the past also but first time she will be handling organised crime which covers burning issue of unified Islamic power also. It’s a wonderful opportunity for Mira Nair as a director, as seldom directors get such a subject where they have to cover different kinds of sub plots also.

There are many great quotes from the book :

• Its important to do right thing but reason is more important that thing. Its right to do wrong thing for right reason, but its wrong to do right thing for wrong reason.
• We always need to reach to complexity which ultimately revels to discovery of God.
• Men look away while saying wrong, women do it with deep eye contact. So, difficult to understand whats right or wrong !

Many more said by Karla & Khaderbhai.

Here is link to public website : http://www.shantaram.com/


Date 28/Nov/2009
I was flying back from Paris Charles De Goule airport. While waiting in boarding queue, i found a English guy reading "Shantaram".
I asked him."Hey, have u finished reading shantaram"!
"Not yet, i'll soon finish it. Its nice book"
"Yes. I have read it once. Its really wonderful book with pace & every details"
he accepted, "yeah, right!"
I tried to check how much he remember about Shataram,"So, hows Karla, Khader, linbaba? Do you like them?"
Surprisingly said,"You know all of them!!Good. Karla is good, mysterious beauty & soul. Its good story!"
We discsussed few more thing like, where are you flying & bla bla..

It was good to see someone who knows & think as you are thinking...at such unexpected time :-)

Saving data & config dual boot System

Dear all,

Usually we face backup and OS formatting issues on dual boot systems. Here are few more tricks to make sure you have all mails safe (only for Thunderbird) & same firefox history, bookmarks, themes & plugins.

Case 1: If you have only Microsoft Xp/Vista installed on system, you can just install another linux. Grub will take care of your Xp installation.

Case 2: If Linux is installed already & want to installing Xp without loosing Linux.
Once XP has been installed, it will boot happily into Xp but there's no sign of Linux. To reinstate GRUB as the system bootloader it needs to be reinstalled into the MBR. Use any live CD to go in rescue mode and have your harddisk mounted in /mnt/sysimage/ (usually in Fedora/RHEL)

To enter the GRUB configuration mode, type in "sudo grub" and press Enter. Then type in the following commands after boot with live CD & excute below commands :

Commands to follow :
- sudo grub: This will open grub menu.
- root (hd0,0) : deciding hd0,0 is really important factor ! Be careful, wrong hd selection may format data.
========================================
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
                       23G  7.7G   14G  36% /
/dev/sda3             190M   14M  167M   8% /boot
tmpfs                 501M  1.3M  500M   1% /dev/shm
/dev/sda2              30G   28G  2.0G  94% /mnt/d
/dev/sda5              20G  6.5G   14G  33% /mnt/c
========================================
It shows /boot mounted on sda3 from hard disk 1 so you need to select (hd0,2) if /boot is installed on sda1 then it'll be (hd0,0). 
- setup (hd0) 
It 'll simply install grub on selected sda partition. It gives clear confirmation saying "Successfully done".

- quit & exit
Reboot system. You will find Linux, Xp is not available. Now open your  /boot/grub/grub.conf , add below line to see your Xp back in position.
============================
title XP
    rootnoverify (hd0,1)
    chainloader +1
============================
Now grub.conf 'll look like

========================================================
[root@localhost grub]# more grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,2)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=15
splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686)
    root (hd0,2)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686 ro root=UUID=c7681502-97bc-4344-b8ff-7c231db6a741 rhgb quiet
    initrd /initrd-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686.img

title XP
    rootnoverify (hd0,1)
    chainloader +1
========================================================

Reboot the system. You'll get the GRUB bootloader but Vista won't be an option - we need to add this to the boot options.
If Xp is not booting, go back to Linux & add below text in grub.conf :

title Windows XP
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Save the file and reboot. When the GRUB loader launches hit ESC for the boot menu. Windows XP is the last option - select it and XP will load.

If you want to make the GRUB menu always available, boot back into Linux and edit the grub.conf file. Find the hiddenmenu text string and change it to #hiddenmenu.
To increase the menu timeout, change the default timeout 3 to something more appropriate.

To Save your mails :

Just backup your folder  /home//private/jzk0qj4u.default/Mail/Local Folders  from Linux to some FAT or NTFS partition which is also available in WinXp & mounted in Linux.
Now if you boot in WinXp.
Just install Thunderbird and change "Local Folders" path to Xp path to same Local folder  Eg: "C:\private\jzk0qj4u.default\Mail\Local Folders" .
Restart Thunderbird . You'll get all your mails
Matter of fact I drafted half of this mail in Linux & remaining half in Linux !! Its really a great advantage to use :-)

Firefox Plugins & history :

Profile stored at location can be copy pasted and used for Linux. Off course only supported plugin will be seen at respective OS.
Win Xp path: C:\Documents and Settings\Mahendra\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
Linux : /home/uname/.mozilla/..

You'll always have your all bookmarks. You can keep them safe on Foxmark site. Google chrome has released this bookmark sync feature now , which is easily done in Firefox from years !
Its always trouble less while doing any re installations and formating.  All above experimets tested ok on my own machine. Welcome if need any help :-)