May
18
Day/Night 2 – Still in train
May 18, 2008 | | 1 Comment
Posted by mobile phone:
1. 7 hrs late
2. At Gorakhpur, U.P. now at arnd 1.30 A.M.
3. Engine failure at Dighawar, Bihar
4. Hailstorm in morning triggering railways delay
5. Awaken now by quarrelling neighbours
6. Rahul and Vishal snoring away to glory on upper berths.
7. Pics to follow 
May
18
Day/Night 2 – Still in train
May 18, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
Posted by mobile phone:
The title of this post isn’t something v dint knw b4hand. Wt v dint knw was that i’ll b writin this 4m a place (Gorakhpur) at around 1 am, where we ought to have been 7 hours ago! Courtesy Indian Railways, v now run the risk of not reaching Kathgodam b4 evening n hence not reaching Bageshwar by 18 night, which delays our trip by a day.
2 hours at Dighwar, Bihar due to an engine failure warranted a new engine to be sent before the train could leave. But a storm early morning sent railway schedule haywire.
May
16
Off to Himalayas
May 16, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
Posted by mobile phone:
3019 Bagh Express, S2 – 17. This is the precise location from where i\’m posting this. In less than 5 minutes i\’m embarking on my first ever trek – to Pindari Glacier in the Kumaon Himalayas! After a gruelling 36 or more hours me train journey and an insanely sounding 70 stoppages, we\’ll reach Kathgodam from where our sojourn begins.Will keep writing more
May
5
Khuda Kay Liye – In the Name of God
May 5, 2008 | | 13 Comments
1) It is the best Pakistani Movie ever made.
2) It has to be an entry to the Oscars 2009.
3) It depicts the backlash Muslims faced after 9/11.
These were the only notions which I had before I went to see the movie – Khuda Kay Liye – In the Name of God. I had no clue about the history of its director Shoaib Mansoor, his multi-talented background, nor was I aware of the reason he made this movie, until I bumped into this blog post by Adnan Siddiqui. Now as I am a bit more learned about the circumstantial aspects of the movie, the inspiration behind the character played by one of the main protagonists – Sarmad , i.e. Fawad Khan, and the hullaboo (read: outrage) regarding the subject of the movie in Pakistan, I guess I can give a better shot at narrating what I experienced.
The movie has 2 parallel plots running – based on the experiences of 2 young brothers, who come from a so-called modern and unorthodox financially well-off Pakistani family. Both the brothers are into music and while the elder choses to go to the US to attend a course in music, the younger brother is inspired by an influential Islamic cleric – who is said to depict the real life Maulana Tariq Jamil, and foregoes his love for music and eventually is brainwashed to become a Mujahideen fighting for the cause of the fundamentalists supporting the likes of Taliban.
However different paths were chosen by both, destiny had the same irony in store for them – being USED in the name of God, albeit in completely different geographies, starkly opposite social and economic backgrounds and being victimised to such an extent that even the most gruesome acts of inhumanity would be put to shame. A 3rd victim of the whole fuss was a British born Pakistani girl, 1st cousin of the brothers, whose character threw light on the medieval treatment still being meted out to women in many parts of the world, especially in conservative societies.
What makes the efforts of the director a feat ever unheard-of, is the conviction which he showed in the subject and had the audacity to not only complete the movie, but release it as well in Pakistan and around the world to an astounding critical acclaim. Seldom has an artist dared to touch such tantalizing issues which are no less sensitive than a ticking bomb, and in societies such those of India/Pakistan, where self-acclaimed guardians of the religious/moral values are always on the prowl to harp on anything which displeases their hollow and chauvinistic ideologies (or lack thereof?), such heroics are all the more commendable.
The issues addressed were plenty – position and rights of women in a Muslim society, the conflicting views on the inclusion of arts and music in what is called Halaal in a Muslim society, fundamentalism being preached in the name of God, violence being retorted to belittle one’s enemies, the various codes of conducting oneself with regards to dressing and appearance as per Islam, etc. Apart from these, which would irk any average Muslim devout (as I’ve been witnessing in this case), there were other issues raised too – the ones which tried to show Muslims in a light, most non-Muslims fail to see. The misconceptions regarding them which westerners have had, particularly after the 9/11, the oppression which many had to undergo just because you have a surname similar to Khan or Ali, or simply because you are a Pakistani citizen, even today the situation is not so easy for Muslims around the world – these are the areas which the director interspersed fantastically well with his depiction of the more controversial. But unfortunately, people as always prefer to nitpick only matters which can generate more buzz and cause less good.
I won’t go into the details of the movie plot or what happened of the characters, partly because it is much more than a movie – an experience which one should see for himself to get aware of the facts, and partly because the finesse of the craftsmanship on view is beyond any words. Myself being a non-Muslim, I have been close to many a Muslim friends, peers and have been among people who hated Muslim-haters, was intrigued by seemingly strange characteristics of Islam, and of late had been critical (rather skeptical) of what most of us believe it preaches – was taken aback by the mind-numbing sequence of events as they unfolded during the movie.
It definitely was a food for thought for hardliner Muslims, fundamental Muslim-haters and moderates alike, as the legendary Naseeruddin Shah deposed in court to deliver about 10 minutes of what according to me should be made a compulsory read/listen not only for Muslims, but also for Hindus, Jews, Christians and all those who are still refuse to open their eyes and see what the reality is, rather prefer to mould the preachings of their sacred texts to satisfy their mythical traditions. For one, nothing that does not cause any harm to anyone, and further provides a way of life to many, can be classified as being blasphemous, whatever might be the interpretation by the people.
Obviously I’m no Islamic scholar and have no authority over their religious preachings, but surely I can sense that the beliefs which are said to be the WORD OF GOD have been misconstrued since centuries to falsify the only truth that is humanity. Ditto can be said of almost every religion, however, such intensity of fanaticism and unawareness is rarely witnessed among them.
If only such cinema can be dared to be made in more places and more frequently, and people actually be allowed to learn what they can and should, and not what they mustn’t construe of something which is not there in the fist place – we can have a better world to give to generations to come. Only after watching RDB was I so stunned that I deemed it much more than a movie. If it was something that made a generation awaken w.r.t India, then KKL is something which should make the world awaken w.r.t. religious fundamentalism.
Hats off to Shoaib Mansoor.
Apr
28
Ant & Grasshopper – The story of India
April 28, 2008 | | 10 Comments
The following is a copy-paste from an email I just received. More than being funny, it’s satire on the present day India, especially Bengal and Kolkata, seems to be remarkably mind-numbing and true. Food for thought.
Ant & Grasshopper
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the
summer away.
Come winter ,the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or
shelter so he dies out in the cold.
Indian Version
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant’s a fool and laughs & dances & plays the
summer away.
Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands
to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others
are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper
next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with
food.
The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor
Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant’s house.
Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that
Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Indian Government for
not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the
Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support
as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .
Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for ‘Bharat Bandh’ in
West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.
CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in
the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and
Grasshoppers.
BJP wants Sonia Gandhi’s apology.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway
Trains, aptly named as the ‘Grasshopper Rath ‘.
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ‘ Prevention of Terrorism
Against Grasshoppers Act’ [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the
winter.
Arjun Singh makes ‘Special Reservation ‘ for Grasshoppers in Educational
Institutions & in Government Services.
The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left
to pay his retroactive taxes,it’s home is confiscated by the Government and
handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it ‘ A Triumph of Justice’.
Lalu calls it ‘Socialistic Justice ‘.
CPM calls it the ‘ Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden ‘
Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
..
..
Many years later…
The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar
company in Silicon Valley ..
100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere
in India …
As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the
Grasshoppers, India is still a developing country!!!
Apr
28
हिन्दी में प्रथम लेख
April 28, 2008 | | 2 Comments
नमस्कार,
यह लेख मेरा अपनी मात्रिभाशा हिन्दी मे प्राथम लेख है. इसके द्वारा मैं अपने इस जर्नल में एक हिन्दी कैटेगेरी आरम्भ कर रहा हूँ, जिसमें मैं क्षमतानुसार योदान करता रहूंगा. हमेशा से ही मैं हिन्दी भाशा में इंटरनेट पर कुछ करना चाहता था, परन्तु आज प्रथम बार उस विचार का क्रियान्वन करने मे सफल हुआ हूँ. आशा है आप पाठकों को मेरा यह प्रयास पसन्द आयेगा एवं आप भी मुझे प्रोत्साहित करेंगे.
आपका,
नवीन
Feb
22
All Text/Data is some kind of executable code or program
February 22, 2008 | | 1 Comment
I just love to see where these technical discussions sometimes end up, or start off for that matter. Reading on a /. post on Largest Hacking Scam in Canadian History, an interesting debate shot off on “There is no data which is also not a program/piece of executable(in some way or the other) code“. Following are excerpts from the thread:
It doesn’t even really matter at this point. Let’s be honest… the average computer user doesn’t know the difference between U2-Somesong.mp3 and U2-SomeSong.exe.
To make matters worse, some attacks may even occur if you are dealing with safe file types, like a PNG [microsoft.com] or even PDF [softpedia.com]. Some security problems exist due to the user’s ignorance or idiocy but “some” isn’t exactly the same thing as “all”.
There are no safe file types. All files can be viewed as programs meant to run in a specialized virtual machine (the program which is used to open them). For example, a PNG file is a program which, when run, will compute an array of bytes (the image pixels). The same goes to PDF. In this view, since all files are programs, it is in principle possible that any of them could contain code which can result in unexpected behavior of the virtual machine executing them.
Of course some file types are easier to compromize than others, either due to sheer complexity or ambiguity of the specification or because they are Turing complete. However, it is impossible to guarantee that every viewer for any file type is free of defects. Anyone still remember ANSI codes for DOS, which could be embedded to text to change color but also to set macros to keyboard keys when the file was viewed ? And of course SQL injection attacks are based on formatting a text string so it will cause unexpected results, not to mention causing a buffer overflow with an overlong string.
I repeat: there are no safe file types. They all have a potential to contain malicious code, because there is no such thing as data which is not also a program. From a certain point of view, GIMP is simply a very specialized compiler…
Is a text file containing a single line of text followed by a carriage return a program? How about the standard input device? When I type at the console keyboard, is that a program feeding into a “virtual machine” created by the console driver? If not, why is a disk device different from another device?
I think you’re missing the fundamental theorem of modern computer science — that “data” and “instruction” are completely interchangeable. See generally, the halting problem.
Is a text file containing a single line of text followed by a carriage return a program?
It can be. For example:
'; ROLLBACK; UPDATE users SET admin = true WHERE username = 'ultranova'; 'If the virtual machine which handles the username field of Slashdot login form naively passed this string to the database layer without specifically quoting it, this text string would make my account an admin account; well, actually, since I haven’t studied Slashdcode, it propably wouldn’t, but the point still stands: even text is not an inherently safe data format in all circumstances.
How about the standard input device? When I type at the console keyboard, is that a program feeding into a “virtual machine” created by the console driver?
The virtual machine in this case would be whatever program receives the input. And yes, the text you type is indeed a program being executed by that machine; each time it receives a keypress from you, that keypress instructs it to do something, right ? Even if that something is merely to output the letter (altought a text editor would also store the input internally, of course). And that is what a program is: a list of instructions.
If not, why is a disk device different from another device?
It isn’t.
I’m with you on this. I know there may be a True Computer Science definition that makes the GP true, but I don’t tend to think of data as a program. Some binary data could be considered code to execute, but surely not text files that are parsed?
Okay, sure, there are scripts, but they have special parsers that turn the text into Real Code that CAN execute. I don’t think notepad can turn a text document into Real Code.
The OP has suggested a view that I have often thought about myself, although I have rarely found anyone who quickly grasps the concept.
Think of notepad since you have mentioned it. When notepad opens a file it looks at the contents and does certain things depending on the content of the file. If the first character is hex 61 then notepad will display an “a” in the first character location on the screen. OK, so that is because hex 61 is ascii “a” but that is an arbitrary choice that has been standardised. You can if you like look at notepad as if it is an interpreter for a rather strange and limited language where 0×61 is one of the commands. In some ways it is rather like those old interpreted basics since it is responding both to the file you have opened and to the keys you press on the keyboard. There have been attempts to make languages where instead of typing in commands you select icons with a GUI and join them up in a flowchart like sequence. The ones I saw were interpreted but there is nothing to stop them being a compiled language and thus eventually resulting in real code in a binary file. It is only a small step from there to looking at say photoshop as being a sort of real time mode interpreted language. (Real time in the sense that the commands execute straight away, like the mode in the old basics.)
In some ways this insight is interesting, although not necessarily very useful. But it should serve to remind us that much of our thinking about computers is based on elaborate analogies which the computer itself has no knowledge of. So the distinction between data and code is purely arbitrary. This tends to be more obvious when you play around with assembly, where the machine will happily let you attempt to execute data. For example you can set up a jump into a block of what is meant to be data and the machine will not object in the slightest. The results will of course be unlikely to have any meaning in terms of the analogies we have set up for ourselves, but the machine neither know nor cares since it has no means of doing so.
So Notepad will in fact execute certain real code in response to both the contents of the data file and the keyboard actions of the user. That is fine and good and need not be of any concern to the user, unless what it does is not what we expected in terms of the intended behaviour. An example of this sort of thing would be a buffer overflow allowing an external person to push what should (in terms of our analogies) be data into a place where it will get executed as if it was code.
This is the case for Von Neumann machines [wikipedia.org] because they have a single memory area for programs and data. An attacker only has to move the current program control flow to some compromised place in the data (say some lines of machine code hidden in a corrupt bitmap) and the processor will happily compute those instructions. In other architectures, namely Harvard architecture [wikipedia.org], there are physically seperate memory locations for programs and data and the processor WILL not carry out instructions “hidden” in data. A shift towards seperate memory architectures is required to secure computers. Unfortunately a paradigm shift at this level is all but impossible in general purpose computing.
No, but whatever program is running on the processor and interpreting the data will. SQL database, Python interpreter, Mozilla… all of these are based on treating text (data) as a list of instructions (program). It is obvious in the case of Python, since that is openly a programming language, but HTML itself can be considered a series of instructions for building the DOM tree, which then gets rendered, as dictated by default rules and those given by optional CSS; and of course there is always Javascript.
It is impossible for a general purpose computing to be immune for this class of attacks. Not just “all but impossible”, but flat out impossible due to a logical flaw: the very ability to simulate different machines which treat data as a list of instructions – program – is what makes it a “general purpose” computer. If you can program it, you can program it to misbehave when it reads a suitably malformed PDF/PNG/HTML/SQL/whatever file. The only way around that would be for the computer to be intelligent and capable of common sense, so it could understand that the programmer propably didn’t mean for it to execute any random piece of SQL someone feeds into a Web forum login box; but then it would be vulnerable to social engineering.
Dec
18
Eavesdropping ain’t always bad
December 18, 2007 | | Leave a Comment
I just stumbled upon this post by a waiter wherein he narrates his account of a conversation between two customers in his restaurant, which he happened to eavesdrop. A fantastic read, the conversation, followed by the waiter’s take on it, it kinds of provides an alternative way to handle your negativities. Click on the following link to read the story -
Dec
5
First post from mobile
December 5, 2007 | | 2 Comments
Finally i got my GPRS activated yesterday and its been a great experience so far! With apps like Opera browser, GMAIL mobile, Nimbuzz, surfing from your cell is a temptation which you can’t resist. And my SONY ERICSSON is well equipped to provide a pleasurable surfing experience. So here goes my first GPRS blog post, with many more to follow! Keep watching
Nov
21
Curfew in Kolkata
November 21, 2007 | Tagged India, Kolkata, west bengal | 1 Comment
December 6, 1992. Precisely the day that triggered a curfew across many places in India, including Kolkata. Right now myself sitting in 1 of the 6 curfewed police station areas in Central Kolkata, witnessed a glimpse of those horrific days once again. Approximately 2 hours have passed into the 8 hour curfew imposed to put a leash on the vandalism and the dirtiest form of people-manipulation being carried on under the aegis of RELIGION, MINORITIES (so called!), COMMUNALISM, COMMUNISM and what not.
Churchill had said – Democracy is the mechanism to ensure that people get governed by a government no better than what they deserve. But unfortunately in India, and more specifically, in West Bengal & Kolkata, the same holds true other way round too. With people so glad to be puppeteered by the power-mongering parasites camouflaging as politicians, added to the fact that illiteracy, poverty, blind faith and lack of respect for humanity take precedence over civic sense, humanity and self-respect, no force in the world can bring about an atmosphere of civilisation. If you widen your eyes and push back your chairs to ask me if ain’t what we live in, is civilisation, I’d say – NO. Not by the farthest stretch of imagination.
Had it been, I wouldn’t have been writing this in the first place. Now, cutting on the
prelude, let’s take a look at what happened. An Islamic organisation called All India Minority Forum (in India, the word minority = Muslims) , which is not even known by people (i.e. minorities) in Kolkata itself, let alone ALL INDIA (as its name suggests), decided to organise a CHAKKA JAM (Road Blockade) between 9 AM – 12 Noon in Central Kolkata, which is the nerve center of the city with many arterial roads leading to schools, offices etc.
This protest was against the Communist West Bengal State Government for allowing Taslima Nasreen to stay in Kolkata. Here there are few things worth mentioning, which are the crux of the matter.
1) It is a prerogative of the Central Union Government and NOT the West Bengal State Government to decide who is going to stay in the country and who not
2) It’s not been that Taslima came into Kolkata recently, in fact she has made Kolkata her home since long time back, so why the protests now?
3) By parading a rowdy group of people which consisted mostly of teenagers and people who don’t even know what the dynamics of the situation are, what could have been achieved in the matter, if anything at all?
Incidentally these areas of central Kolkata also house a vast density of minorities in various pockets. After a couple of hours of peaceful protests, no matter how much trouble they cause to general public at large, violence started erupting suddenly as mobs starting chanting slogans laced with religious sentiments and started to pelt stones at shops, vehicles, and whatever they could see. In fact, more than 15 vehicles, including 4 Media vans, were set ablaze, more than 200 vehicles smashed and damaged and many journalists beaten up. They tried their best to prevent the media from covering the deadly dance of chauvinism and the rampage only increased.
Without any valid cause, people were barred from moving around, kids stuck up at schools and colleges, shops looted and hooliganism portrayed throughout the day. After the police could not control the situation, para military forces were brought which fired tear gas bullets and lathicharged, but even that couldn’t sort the menace out. So the last resort had to be taken in the form of Army which staged a flag march to dampen the ill spirits of the demonstrators and reinstated peace to some extent.
Night curfew has been imposed in the 6 affected localities of Central Kolkata – Entally, Beniapukur, Karaya, Topsia, Park Sreet and Tiljala.
Under the guise of Nandigram, Rizwanur and Taslima, a handful of people today carried out the wishes of unscrupulous anti-social elements, whose intention to de-stabilize the state government seem to be getting larger and larger. Already the state of West Bengal is cursed with a government which in its reign of 30 years has done nothing but hammering nails in the coffin of the state’s fate and that of its people, complemented by an even worse opposition political culture where the only wise activity seems to be rallies, bandh, protests, agitations and every other anti-people activity which take us further down the barrel.
What is more appalling is that the majority of people of West Bengal, be it Hindus, Muslims, Communists or whatever, have imbibed this culture so deeply and religiously, that any attempt to awaken them is futile. The world is moving at the speed of light, so are West Bengal and its people, but in the opposite direction.
Leaving REAL ISSUES aside, like those of poverty, agriculture, industry, unemployment, terrorism, population etc. the masses deem it fit enough to cast their support in favour either the so-called people-oriented government, or the good-for-nothing except bocking roads and organising rallies, political oppositions, both of them having only one motive: continue making a fool out of the junta and taking the state as far away from civilisation as possible.
Where the Shahi Imam himself says after such horrendous acts as of today – “This was no violence, this was raising of our voices against anti-Islamic forces”, and where another leading religious leader proudly gives the government 2 days of time for corrective action, else warns of dire consequences, where the most inconsequential temporary immigration of a foreign author takes centre stage beating back the more serious concerns like health, wealth and hygiene of one’s own people, and where widespread violence and vandalism is followed by its justification as a means to CLEANSE the society – WE ARE LIVING IN SUCH A STATE.
SHAME.
Whoever wanted DEMOCRACY in this country…….
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