प्रवचन - शंकर अभ्यंकर

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हिंदुस्थानात असताना शंकर अभ्यंकरांचे प्रवचन ऐकण्याचा योग अाला. झालं असं की बाजुच्या शाळेच्या पटांगणात दहा दिवस त्यांचे "वंदे मातरम" ह्या विषयावर प्रवचन होणार होते. सुरुवातीला मी खरं म्हणजे निरुत्साहीच होतो. म्हटलं वंदे मातरम ह्या विषयावर दहा दिवस काय बोलणार. अाणि त्यातून अापल्याला भारताचा अाणि वंदे मातरमचा इतिहास तर माहितच अाहे.

पण झालं असं की तेव्हाच अाजोबा पण अाले होते. अाणि शेजारच्या काकू अाणि माझा मित्र मंदार सारखा अाग्रह करत होता की "अरे, चल तर खरा. चांगलं सांगतात ते". मग एका दिवशी अाजोबांना घेऊन मी पण प्रवचन ऐकायला गेलो.

अाणि गंमत म्हणजे मला ते प्रवचन एव्हढे अावडले की मी दुसरया दिवशीही गेलो. खरंच, एखादी गोष्ट नुसतीच माहीत असणे अाणि तिचे विविध पैलू समजावून घेणे ह्यात जमीनअस्मानाचा फरक असतो. शंकर अभ्यंकरांनी वंदे मातरमचा इतिहास समजावून सांगितला. त्याचे स्वातंत्र्यलढ्याशी असलेले नाते सांगितले. अाणि एवढे सांगताना त्यांनी लोकांचा रस कायम ठेवला. विद्यावाचस्पती काय असतो ते मला ह्या प्रवचनांनंतर समजले. साधा पण अत्यंत नीटनेटका पोशाख, स्वच्छ वाणी, स्पष्ट अाणि खणखणीत उच्चार, भाषेवरती वादातीत प्रभुत्व, शुद्ध भाषा (त्यांनी सगळे प्रवचन मराठीत केले), अाणि प्रसन्न व्यक्तिमत्व. खरंच, अाज अापण घरी अालो की टी. व्ही. वरच्या त्या बंडल अाणि बोगस सिरियल्स बघत बसतो. त्याऐवजी अशा कार्यक्रमांना अापण का जात नाही? का स्वत:च्या देशाविषयी अाणि संस्कृतीविषयी जाणून घेणे "अाउट अॉफ फॅशन" अाहे?

अजून काय हवं?

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अॉफीसमध्ये प्रचंड काम होते. त्यामुळे घरी मी दमुनच अालो होतो. रात्री सुप पीऊन अाणि सफरचंद खाऊन झाल्यावर मी कॉम्पवर जरा टी. पी. करत होतो. खरंतर फ्रेंडस पण अॉनलाइन नव्हते. त्यामुळे जरा बोअर झालो होतो. लोकांना बोलायला माणसे लागतात. मला माझी बडबड ऐकायला माणसे लागतात :)

मग मी अॅज युजुअल गाणी लावली. अाजकाल मी जगजीत सिंग मनापासून ऐकतोय. गझल्स मला खुपच अावडतात. पण कधी शांतपणे ऐकली नाहीत. पण बॉस, मानना पडेगा! एकेक शब्द असा सुरेख वापरलाय की तबियत एकदम खुश पण होते अाणि अावाजतला दर्द काळजाला भिडतो. डोळ्यांसमोर सीन उभा राहतो. "तेरे बारेमें जब सोचा नही था, मैं तनहा था मगर इतना नही था", "शामसे अांख में नमी सी है", "मुस्कुराकर मिला करो हमसे" सप्तसुरांचा खजिनाच उघडल्यासारखं झालं होतं.

नेमकी अशावेळेला मला भुक लागते. मग जुने दिवस अाठवले. अाणि मी एक टोस्ट सॅंडविच बनवले. व्यवस्थित पुदिना चटणी, बटर अाणि टोमॅटो अाणि काकडी वापरून. मला खरंतर बीट पण वापरायचे होतं पण घरात नव्हतं. एन. टी. एस. च्या क्लासला रुपारेल कॉलेजला जायचो. रुपारलेलच्या बाहेर एक सॅंडविच स्टॉल होता. माझी अशी अॅम्बिशन अाहे की एक दिवस मी त्याच्यापेक्षा चांगले सॅंडविच बनवीन. :)

अाता सॅंडविच बरोबर कॉफी पण हवीच! मग नेसकॅफे पण बनवली. फर्स्टक्लास सॅंडविच, कॉफी अाणि जगजीत सिंगच्या गझल्स. मन एकदम भुतकाळात रमलं. कर्जतला राहत असताना रात्री अंगणात गाणी ऐकत बसायचो. तेव्हा अाई बाबा अाणि मी अाणि कधी काही फ्रेंड सर्कल असायचं. अाता एकटा ऐकतो. तेव्हा लता-रफी-मुकेश-तलत ऐकायचो. अाता जगजीत ऐकतो.

दिवस परफेक्टपणे घालवायची माझी एक कल्पना अाहे. संध्याकाळी घरच्यांबरोबर झकास मराठमोळे जेवण, नंतर बडीशेप किंवा सुपारी. अाणि मग अाइसक्रीम किंवा मिल्कशेक किंवा कुल्फी किंवा कॉफी ह्याच्याबरोबर शांत गाणी एन्जॉय करावी.

अजुन काय हवं?

OS X : How to see the hidden folders using Finder

We all know that OS X is based on FreeBSD i.e. a flavour of Unix. So you can use command line along with GUI to browse folders. But you can notice that the folders that you can see using Finder are not exactly the same as those you can see using the command line or Terminal.

When you open the Finder window, you see the options to view iDisk, HD of your machine, the Home folder for the current user, Application etc. If you open Terminal and type pwd, you are in the home folder of current user under the Users folder. If you go to the root folder you can see many more folders than you can see using your Finder. Thus using the Terminal, you can see bin, dec, etc, sbin i.e. the Unix folder structure.

So what would you do if you want to see these Unix folders using your Finder. The answers is rather simple.
1. Open the Finder window.
2. Open te Go menu.
3. Select Go to Folder
4. Type in the name of folder you want to see in the Finder such as /usr or /bin.
Now there is a catch. You cannot directly see the root folder by typing '/'. But you can see any folder under root, which is a good news right?

Finding C header files on OS X

This is a very simple yet interesting problem. By the way; simple things are interesting a lot of times, because simple does not mean easy. The problem I had at hand was to determine the range of different data types on my ibook. Yes, that is right, on my ibook with PowerPC architecture.

I know that I should be able to find the answer in limits.h file. So my task was to find limits.h file. Hmmm.. sounds too easy right. You bet!

I started with searching for limits.h in spotlight. But alas, spotlight does not search in 'hidden' folders by default and I got pretty useless results. Then I used 'find' command on the terminal. But it gave me a scrolling screen of results and I realized that this approach was not going to work optimally. So I needed a different thought process. OK. Lets step back and think what I want. I want to find a header file that gcc would use. So I searched where all header files would be stored. This location will be /usr/include. Now this directory will have a bunch of folders such as gcc, ppc etc. This /usr/include folder will contain the header files required for C. If you go to gcc folder, you will be able to go to the folder for the C++ compiler on your machine e.g. /usr/include/gcc/darwin/4.0/c++ etc. You will notice that the C++ header files do not display the .h extension the way C header files do.

Well anyways, so I opened the limits.h file in /usr/include. But hey.. wait a minute. where are all the variables in this file i.e. where is, CHAR_BIT or CHAR_MAX? That means there must be another limits.h file. To find the correct file, you have to go to the folder /usr/include/ppc. There was another limits.h file. Now this file had all the variables that I needed.

Now it falls into place. The parent folder /usr/include is correct. But since my ibook has PowerPC architecture, the relevant header files would be stored in a separate folder which is ppc.

Although this exercise took some time out of my weekend , it was worth it. I always wanted to find where all these files are stored. The joy of finding something on your own is unique and now I am sure I will never forget it. And I should acknowledge help of web search in the process.

And the times they are a-changing

This line by Bob Dylan fits quite well to India in 21st century. India has since long back attracted the world's attention for its wealth. Since then a lot of water has passed down the Ganges and the Thames. And in this era, foreigners and Indians alike are flocking to India again. But this time they are creating wealth by utilizing local and international talent.

In my recent trip to India, this was quite evident. I had visited Bombay in March 2006. In that trip, I had taken the role of a sponge and just absorbed the changing faces of India. I was simply amazed by the speed of development and infrastructure work taking place. I was also surprised by the increasing buying power of Indian consumer. This had to some extent scared me a bit as growing up in a different India; I had not seen this spending attitude before.

In this trip, I was more vigilant and critical. I went through local newspapers and tried to figure out the new business deals and M & A activities. I asked some questions regarding the real estate prices. I observed the widening gap between the 'haves and the have nots'. I tried to understand the growing influx of FDI. I travelled by road on new expressway and actually saw the roadworks. I travelled by a crowded local train and found out that I still love the Bombay life.

This trip has bolstered my earlier observations that India is indeed changing. The recent success of Indian economy in general and IT industry in particular is not merely a flash in the pan. But a new sun is rising over this ancient land. Every MNC has to have an office in India these days. It is not only true in the case of software or BPO. It will also apply to legal, manufacturing, R & D and education. Also people need to understand that this is not only cost-cutting, but getting talented people at reduced cost and most importantly, running your company 24/7/365. So in future India will not only attract back office work, but also advanced R & D. This is already happening to some extent. The hurdle is neither talent nor attitude, it is money. And the capacity to run multi-billion dollars projects simultaneously and successfully.

Today's Indian youth is booming with confidence and a positive attitude. They have best of both worlds, they have western materliasm and Indian spiritualism in one go. So you can wear Pepe or Levis, enjoy your movies in multiplexes, shop in the malls and still have all the festivals and good family life. Thus they have the option to believe Indian, think American and live European.

Of course, having said this, I do have some thoughts. I am not going to paint all the rosy picture, neither will I say that everything is hunky-dory. The new culture has created some problems and as Indians we need to figure out how to solve them before they grow out of control. First and foremost, India needs a national ID card and some kind of a social security number. Even for small things you have to fill so many forms that you lose the joy of getting the service. There is PAN, there is ration card, then there is new MIN also there is a DMAT account. Can we make life simpler please? Has anyone thought how difficult it will be to manage all these things in future for a billion people?

Also, I strongly believe that India needs public surveillance cameras at places like all train stations, traffic signals. I hope that this will deter the road-romeos and public-spitters to some extent. Smoking and chewing tobacco in public places should be banned. However the major problem is the huge and widening gap between the rich and poor. I am sorry to say that Bombay is becoming out of reach for middle-class people. The real estate prices have literally reached the sky in the metros. Daily commute has become an ordeal for many people as the population and traffic is growing. All these problems are not unsolvable yet, but to solve them needs resolve and patience. Solutions do not fall from the sky they have to be grown ground-up.

We were taught in school that our first Prime Minister Pandit Neharu used to have a poem by Robert Frost on his desk,
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep”.

As a nation we all should have this in our heart for a better tomorrow.