Saturday, September 26, 2015

#SachchiAdvice : The people whose advice made a difference in my life.




Each one has one person in his/her life that makes a difference in their lives. My life has 2 such persons for the same reason. Not related to me by blood but they have a special place in my life. Others may quote different things of motivation in this regard but for me both have given me advice which is not motivation exactly but a bit different thing and where have they advised me ?? Let me tell you… blogging. Consider the fact that none of them are bloggers themselves. So let me introduce them to you.

1. Anshul Mathur – He is my immediate senior from my MBA days in Jaipur and I am probably the only junior he must have seen taking up blogging as an interest in quite a few batches he has known students. When I started working honestly on my blog from 2010 onwards, a few years down the line I used to send him one or two posts I had written for his views. Once I wrote something poetic and romantic and requested him to make his wife read it and let me know her views. Hilarity ensued when he got back to me saying, “ मेरा तलाक़ करवाएगा क्या ? तेरी भाभी कह रही हैं की इसको देखो कितना अच्छा लिखता  है और तुम हो की..” (Will you get me divorced? She is saying that he writes so well and here are you who don’t say anything). 

I had written it for someone and it seemed to touch a chord somewhere to both of them. Laughing first on this incident and then on a serious note he told me, “ Never stop writing Mathur. Years down the line you would see the difference in your writing style and how you used to write things in the past and now. Your choice of words and emotions would change but never change your style. Its that what makes you different from the others.” 


2. Paddu Menon- I haven’t met her ever in person but she is so much to me. For her I am a “ kiddo” who can have severe mood swings and for me she is my “ teacher ji”. She reads whatever I write and the problem being a personal blogger is that emotions and heart is my ink. Whenever emotions overwhelm or the heart aches it either comes out on paper or gets a writer`s block. I vividly remember her being astonished on the few starting posts in my series “Heroes” (which is my effort about bridging the gap between the people and Indian Armed Forces). She could probably sense what I was trying to achieve through this series. 

There was a stage once when I told her that I don’t want to blog anymore, thinking of shutting down my blog forever. She said to me, “Kiddo if you ever feel that you cant write, think about Heroes. Think about how you are trying to change people`s thinking towards the soldiers, how you are making them come close to them, realize their hardships while doing their duty, with just your one series. If you don’t want to do it (blog) about yourself, do it for the soldiers. Do it for them”.


The impact- When I look down the years the line by Anshul sir holds true. In over 200 + posts, I have seen a drastic change in my writing and I haven’t stopped. My style of writing has remained the same- damn descriptive for events, even critical of sponsors if something went wrong, poetries, thoughts.. I have come a very long way in this regard. Surely haven’t put down the pen until now. He is another keen reader of the Heroes series and more often than not prefers to acknowledge me as the “ Pilot”(after my craze for the air force).

Whenever I think about closure, Paddu ji`s lines stop me. I had started the series with the aim of not letting the soldiers fade into oblivion until I live and in some 2 + years and 27 posts later I have kept my promise still. With articles as wide as feeling of a prisoner of war, a war disabled soldier to the more awarded ones of the Kargil war, Param Veer Chakra, I am trying to think of more such things everyday.

To both of you, your words have made me go the distance much farther from where I would have normally stopped the writing journey.

"I am participating in the #SachchiAdvice Contest by MaxLife in Association with BlogAdda.”

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Heroes: I am Siachen



I am Siachen… the land of wild roses.

I am the highest, coldest battlefield of the world, the bone of contention between two countries.

Life is anything here… but rosy.

At 21000 feet above sea level and temperature as low as -65°C, I can be a cold hell; sometimes even worse than the arctic.

Yet those guarding me go about their job in the bone-chilling climate which freezes weapons and makes walking a mammoth task.

I cover an area of 700 kms… for I am Siachen.

The more “active” of my counterpart extends till here – the LOC.

The world treats me as a demonic place where angels fear to tread and death seems to be something which lurks at every corner for the soldiers.

But believe me, it’s not me who takes their lives, it’s my climate which is too extreme for their bodies.

The melting glaciers and avalanches aren’t my fault too, yet I am seen as a brat.

I am Siachen…the land of wild roses.

I have seen wars fought for my control; such heroic sagas are embedded in my history.

I have witnessed Operation Meghdoot in 84 and then Rajiv in 87.

I have seen sweat turn to ice, fingers and limbs lost to frostbite more than hostile fire.



Where kerosene stoves are used just to keep weapons warm, the green parkas becomes black, food comes from cans and oranges become hard as cricket balls.

Where hunger and appetite take a backseat at these heights and food is eaten just to keep the body energized.

Where choppers behave like oversized bumblebees.

Where artillery guns have opened up in support of the soldiers whenever needed.

I have seen Lt. Rajeev and others sacrifice themselves in the capture of Quaid post.

I have seen Bana Singh defy elements to capture the same post with just 4 men.

With a fury of a wounded tiger he avenged the death of his comrades and captured the post.

I have seen the dying light and soldiers raging against all odds and elements.

I have seen them climb near vertical walls of ice without second thoughts for this is what the Siachen Battle school trains them to do where only the fittest are sent to serve.

I am Siachen…

I share the jubilation of the troops at the bada khaana when they return to base camp after 3 months tenure.

They go as soldiers, return as veterans.

I share their gratitude to OP Baba for keeping them safe all throughout.

The faith in him so strong that soldiers vow to keep away from alcohol and tobacco during their tenure.

Ceasefire or not, soldiering continues, if not for surveillance, just to tread on trodden tracks so that the trail does not disappear in the snow.

There are angels here too, they are called as the Air Force and Army Aviators who make sure to keep the posts supplied all the year round in their choppers, in conditions which test both men and machines to their absolute limits.

Leave no man behind is their aim as they help bring casualties back irrespective of the weather.



Inspite of all this, I am worried about the ecology of my own area.

Bio-degradable waste generated is a threat to me and I am highly affected pertaining to that.

I can be peaceful and tranquil to the human eye, but my wrath comes to the fore when I am exposed to such treatment.

My glaciers melt away causing avalanches, crevices which can open up suddenly to nearly 100 feet. I die out daily because of the imbalance that is created here. 

It causes me pain and sorrow; pain because of my disturbed ecology, sorrow for the ‘purple’ bloodshed. 

Soldiers are not born every day, they are special and thus it tears me apart when I see their blood being ‘purple’, so rare, being shed. 

Whats the use of all this? Crores being spent on me just to maintain control and vigil on me.

Even then, we share a love and hate relation; they need me and yet tend to go carefree.

For now, I sit here as every year more bravehearts come to prove their mettle as I pose challenges in front of them, to protect me and then be proud that they served at Siachen.

For I am… the land of wild roses... I am Siachen


“Quartered in snow, silent to remain… When the bugle calls, they shall rise and march again.” 

“To every man upon the earth death cometh soon or late. And how can a man die better, than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods”. 

                           - Scroll of honour at Siachen War Memorial. 



You sure remember this, don`t you ?? 



The story behind this- Thought of shortly after I wrote Kargill, Siachen is our attempt to bring you face to face with the hardest battlefield in the world . The place which remains quiet and forgotten in comparison to the more active “ in the news” LOC, this is hell for those soldiers who serve there, strategically important for Ladakh and Kashmir. Inspite of the hardships, every soldier who has served here is proud to be a part of Siachen in his service career, thankful to have made it back safely during his tenure of 90 days. This place has seen the bravery of past martyrs who gave up their life for the control of this region and the now famous legendry tale of Capt. Bana Singh (PVC) who braved the elements to capture the Quaid Post in 1987 (now named Bana Top).

Its for dare devilries like these and the utmost commitment of every soldier that we salute every soldier serving there in extreme weather conditions and present to you a glimpse of Siachen you would have never known. This is Siachen for you…the most unforgiving battlefield of the world. 


This is my 2nd collaboration with Ila who wrote the previous post I`m Coming home with me.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Thekua : The delicacy now even closer to me




So that’s called as Thekua. Now I know its name. Would you believe that I tasted a delicacy  first time some 7 years back,  still remembered the taste but never knew its name. My first lip smacking brush with thekua happened during my hostel days when my hostel mates used to return from the holidays and bring that ghar ka chatorpan with them. All those years I tasted this thing without properly knowing what its called. Does it really matter when food is something which you really care about. That blast from the past was presented to me by Poonam ji ( Alok vats`s better half) during the fitbit launch at the oberoi.

One thing which constantly goes on between me and her is the invite to come to her home to try the various dishes. I have tried them and believe me I was hooked. After that she shifted her residence and for a lazy bum like me, Janakpuri to Faridabad seemed too far to travel. My constant nagging for months and she started preparing  these thekua at 11 in the night. These were her number 1 priority more than attending the launch.  These sweet delicacies are prepared in 3 variants- Atta, Suji and Maida. Only god knows which one I had that day ? I was not alone in having them, our whole group had a minimum of 1 each while some partiality was shown to Dipali ( she got a whole box to herself).

Loaded with sugar , raisin this is one thing not to be missed when it has been prepared by her. I can have these all day long, my only condition being that she must keep sending me these every day. Only recently I came to know that keeping lazyyy people like me in mind ( and who knows how many like me) she has started her own site dedicated especially to thekua where you can buy them.

 The site is thekuas.com .




You get a choice between the 3 variants prepared in either Ghee or Refined as per your taste. For 1st time sample testers , it starts with 250gms and goes upto 2 kg which you can order from the comfort of your home. This site has given Poonam ji the chance to spread the flavor of Thekua to places far and wide while for me its just a few mouse clicks away. So head there and taste this amazing dish from the comfort of your home. If she can prepare this dish at 11 in the night to give it to me the next day ( a promise which she kept and made sure to make Alok ji run around for ingredients at that hour), you can very well imagine how much happy she would be to make it for you.

Check the site: www.thekuas.com


Flavour update in 2021 - 6 years back there were only 3 flavours- Atta, Suji, Maida. Now there are 2 more- Oats and Kesar. Try them .

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

For novices - How to speed your computer without softwares Windows 7 amd Windows 10








How many of you have been plagued by slow systems and even fooled by the so called softwares which claim to speed up your system but don’t do anything substantial. Moreover for the technically challenged people it seems like quantum physics. So today I bring to you few things which would speed up your system and which is rarely found in any site.



Before proceeding let me tell you that it does not help in speed if your system is really old or has virus, malware. Follow these steps to speed up your system.




a. Disable Windows updates from installing



For Windows 7



- Go to Start menu , control panel and then click Windows update


- Click on “ change settings”.

- From drop down choose “ Never check for updates” and deselect “ Receive updates” and “ Who can install all updates” , click ok and you are done.


b. Remove Installed updates ( these make the system heavy)

- When you click ok in the previous step, you would be taken to previous window. Click “ Installed updates” on the left hand bottom.

- A list would be populated by the system. You need to deal with the “ MS office” and “ Microsoft Windows” updates only.. Leave everything else intact.

- Do this one by one.

- Click on any update in the list under these two ( Office and Windows) and a uninstall option would be enabled on the top besides organize. Click uninstall and wait for the update to be removed.

- Continue this process until all updates have been removed. The ones which are removable will have the uninstall option enabled, otherwise not. 

- If the computer asks for a reboot, choose “ reboot later”. Uninstall all updates and reboot one final time.

Your system is ready for use.

For Windows 8 and onwards (the same steps)

- Search for update in windows searchbox 

- Select windows update settings. Give time to system to calculate.

- Click on advanced options

- Select “ Notify to schedule restart” and uncheck “ Give me update for other miscosoft products when I update windows”  . Uncheck it but keep " Defer upgrades" selected. It would not check for upgrades for months now.

- Click on “ View update history” and then on “ uninstall updates” 

- Repeat uninstallation steps as mentioned for Windows 7. Rest is the same.


Additonal steps for Windows 10 (Professional editions)


Use Group Policy to Disable Automatic Updates (Professional Editions Only)

- To access the group policy editor, press Windows Key + R, type the following line into the Run dialog, and press Enter:

gpedit.msc

- Navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update.

- Locate the “Configure Automatic Updates” setting in the right pane and double-click it. Set it to “Enabled,” and then select your preferred setting. For example, you can choose “Auto download and notify for install” or “Notify for download and notify for install.” Save the change.

Visit the Windows Update pane, click “Check for updates,” and then select “Advanced options.” You should see your new setting enforced here. 

To disable this later, go back to the Group Policy editor, double-click the “Configure Automatic Updates” setting, and then change it from “Enabled” to “Not configured.” Save your changes, visit the Windows Update pane again, click “Check for updates,” and then select “Advanced options.” You’ll see everything change back to the default setting. (Windows Update only seems to notice the setting change after you click “Check for updates.”)

Do look at the description below which would explain what each would do and what would happen in case you click on disable or enable it. Various options are there which include no updates ever to no option of update and shurdown or update and restart in the main menu.

Although its said that group policy should be attempted by only professionals or person with knowledge of systems, this is the permanent solution to the automatic update downloading in Windows 10 as the above mentioned defer upgrade option is bypassed by Microsoft somehow and updates are installed automatically.

Additional steps to speed up booting in Windows 10 version 1809 -

There have been instances where the windows is taking a very long time to boot. Here is one step to disable fast startup (contrary to its name, its slowing down systems boot times)-

Click Control Panel

- Click Power Options.

- Click Choose what the power buttons do.

- Click Change settings that are currently unavailable

- Click Turn on fast startup (recommended) so that tick disappears.

- Save changes



c. Disk cleanup ( used to free space).

For all windows

- Click “ My computer”.

- Right click C drive and select properties.

- Click Disk cleanup and wait.

- Select the following boxes when the system presents you with a new properties windows:

  • Temporary Internet files
  • System archieved windows error report ( if there is any)
  • Temporary files
  • Thumbnails
  • Setup log files (if it shows huge space consumption)

- Click “ Cleanup System files” and wait.

- Click on “ More options” tab and click on cleanup under “ System restore and shadow copies”.

This would delete restore point copies which take up huge space.


d. Defrag.

It takes the max. time but is worth it. Although windows has an inbuilt defrag feature but I don’t trust it much. 

- Download and install “ Auslogics Disk Defrag” . Its free and small and I have been using it for years now.

- Once installed, select drives and click “ Defrag and optimize” from drop down.

A system begins to slow down around 4 - 5% fragmentation and anything more than that considerably puts a dent in speed. Do these 4 things and your system would be quite fast. For users of previous versions of windows, follow steps for Windows 7.

Remember that maintenance takes time. Happy fast browsing without the need for any software.

Disk cleanup

Auslogics Disk Defrag