Memories of Midnight
So what if we are not going to dance till the wee hours! 
There are memories that we hold close to our hearts, which will get us by. Jigyasa kapoor Chimra shares notes with a few couples

Now that 2009 is knocking at our doors, our spirit is taking an upward swing. It's time for new beginnings and fresh resolutions. Though everyone has there own way of ushering the New Year, among the young, friends gain precedence over family, for family, kids gets priority and so on. This continues till you realise that ultimately it's not about which party you attend or whom you go out with, its more about spending time with those who matter the most. We ask people to share their most memorable New Year celebrations and also how they plan to do it this time.

Close-knit

I always spend New Year's eve at home with my family. Before coming back to India, my wife and I were working in Belgium, and would come back home to spend the New Year with my parents and in-laws. We would have a family dinner and flip channels, watching others party. The entire family would get together and spend the night joking and laughing. But now we have kids and they are our focus. We call over their friends and some of our close friends for dinner and have a gala time together. And for both of us our new-year celebrations start after we put our kids to bed.

-Tarun Sibal, owner, Kids Own-17

Snow stuck

My most memorable New Year was some 10 years back. Though we had planned a party with a few friends but I got to know that it had snowed in Shimla. I am a nature lover and this news led me to force my husband to drive uphill. One of our friends tagged along and we drove off. And then what happened was not expected, we got stuck in the snow for three hours, our hands and feet went blue, swollen with frostbite. My husband was mad at me. But thankfully he managed to turn the car and we spent the entire night in a hotel in Solan. Though it was a nightmare but the memory is still close to our hearts.

Since then I plan things wisely and this year we are off to a friend's farmhouse on Dehradun, Musoorie road.

- Betty Nangia, electropath and naturopath

Drawing-room party

When we were in our teens, there were not too many places where one could party. I still remember there was a couple in Sector-4 who would organise a party and today I can say, it was awesome and clean fun. Other than that people would clear up their drawing rooms and have a dance party there with some snacks to munch. This year I am celebrating the New Year in Goa. Though the security is too tight and shopkeepers are screaming a lull, it's good fun.

- Priyanka Khosla, managing director, Flying Cats

Doordarshan days

The memory that I hold close to my heart is of my childhood days when we would spend the 31st night huddling together in a quilt, watching programmes on Doordarshan and munching nuts. Then in my college days we would party out in the day, roam in Sector-17 and be back home before it was dark. But my best New Year was after I got married. That was my first year with my husband and we both went out to dinner at the Golf Range. After that went to Antidote-26 danced till the wee hours in the morning. This year? I have my exam on the January 1, so I will be studying.

- Richa Taneja, MCA student

jigyasachimra@tribunemail.com

Life goes on… 
…so, there will be a New Year eve and the usual rituals to usher it, but only on a modest scale 
Ashima Sehajpal

It is not the same this time. First the recession and then the Mumbai terror attacks, did dampen our spirits to celebrate New Year. We did empathise with the families who lost their loved ones and took our candle light marches in memory of their sacrifice. But then, we also have an inherent tendency to forget unfortunate events and live in the present. And that is exactly what we call human nature. Move on! In fact, most of us already have or at least are trying to do so and what better occasions like New Year for a fresh beginning. Though the bashes this year won't be as grand or flamboyant as previous years, but they for sure will help in diverting people's mind. Heavy booking at hill resorts shows that people are returning to the normal mode of life.

Munish Bajaj, director, Antidote-26 and organiser of the New Year's bash at the West Wood Resorts-Zirakpur, has arranged for a modest party this time. "The initial plans were really big. On the cards was an arrangement for 3,000 people and a performance by Milind Soman," says Munish. Well, the bash hasn't been canceled after the Mumbai's heartbreaking incident but there have been changes certainly. "The party will accommodate only 800 persons now and though Milind Soman will be present, he'll not perform." Unlike some other clubs in the city, which will have no celebrations at all, he has a justification for not canceling the party, "It is important to realise the gravity of what had happened and at the same time, also vital is to go on with life and take it positively."

The preparation for the New Year bash usually begins two months before the D-day. Karan Wahi, director of Wahi ventures, had plans to invite Bollywood star Celina Jaitely and a DJ from Mumbai this year. "To show solidarity with the rest of the country, we brought about a change in our arrangements. All we will have now is a party on a much smaller scale, with no Bollywood celebs and only a local DJ."

Similar would be the scene this time in Score, which would organise, comparatively a much low-scale party. Anupama Bhardwaj, MD, Score, says, "After what happened in Mumbai, we decided not to call any celebs. It will be an in-house celebration like we have on the weekends."

Some are also planning to go to resorts on hill stations to usher the New Year. Ajay Arora, GM, East Bourne Pine Forest Resort in Shimla, says, "After the Mumbai terror attacks, we thought that the figure of booking would fall. On the contrary, there were more queries this time and the most expensive rooms with us have already been booked." He feels that the people preferred to go on a holiday this time to forget the heartbreaking memories.

However, the resorts and hotels had to go an extra mile to attract people this year-end. Dheeraj Punj, VP, Surya Rock Resorts, adds, "The resorts across Himachal Pradesh didn't cut down on cost of the rooms but did some value addition to the packages. Other than the dining facility, we will have in-house parties on the New Year eve. Later, we will also arrange for a firecracker show to make it a memorable new year for people."

ashima@tribunemail.com

A fully-loaded year
From Apple iphone to Simputer to Santa Rosa, gizmo freaks couldn't have asked for more 
Jasmine Singh

One was the explosion that we heard in Mumbai, and one is the one that we talk about today, though this one is something that you'd rather be proud of - the explosion of technology. At every second blink, we had the geniuses whipping up a new chip in which you could store a gazillion data, every second minute we had someone give an extra storage capacity in our mobiles, and almost every day we had someone to give us a swanky laptop, which you could pack and tuck away in your purse. All said and done, it has been an interesting year for technology and those who thrive on it.

We begin with the most happening thing, that had everybody hooked to the television screens, some even queuing up at the booking counters to get one - the smart-looking Apple iphone. And wow, it looked smart, cool, bulky and very rich. Remember, the picture of the pretty girl, the first buyer of the phone and we so wanted to get it. Had it not been for the price, Rs 30, 000, one would have got it too. Also, the tech pundits asking us to wait and see the response from the market. Someone also told us touch- phones do not always work. And we waited, still waiting. While we were still craving for it, Nokia came out with more enticements. E-series, fully-loaded cell phone. And, you bet this one had easy accessibility. The verdict was out - good phone, must buy. They didn't stop here. Many more polished cell phones, with latest technologies, more functionality, more mega-pixels camera, multi-media tools. Technology exploded and rained. We collected many more samples. GPS-enabled cell phones, dual mobile sim phones. Sometimes, it made sense, but most of the times we wondered, do we actually need all this? I mean, we could do with inventions that would help in the betterment of technology, gadgets that could help in the security system of the country. But there was no stopping the grey cells from culling one product to the other.

We moved on, dual mobile sim phones, Simputer, a self-contained open hardware hand held computer designed for use in environment where personal computers cannot be sued. Samsung announced launch of Digi-cams and cam-coders, quad-core mobile processor aimed at high-level gaming, the next version of Intel's Centrino notebook platform, code name Santa Rosa, hit the market. It was raining still and we were lapping up whatever looked enticing on the shelves. Did anyone check what good they were? Were they good enough on the first place?

In the meantime, did anyone spare a second to develop a sim or a chip that would evoke sensitivity in people, a monitoring system that would detect vicious plans of terrorists, a device that would stop the politicians from taking bribe, a food supplement that would replace steroids in sports, or a device to be used in every Indian home that would give information about earthquake? Did technology touch this? Did those working on hi-end gadgets spare a thought for this? Maybe they will in 2009.

jasmine@tribunemail.com 

Mobile menace
For the Gen Past, a mobile phone is nothing but a cumbersome marvel
Jasmine Singh

A three GB memory card, 2.5 mega-pixel camera, touch screen, business card storage. Does this sound Greek to you? We bet it doesn't. Instead, swanky looking, fully-loaded mobile phones are 'life' for youngsters. But for a generation touching 60, these are a 'cumbersome marvel' and they can't make the head and tail of it. For them the latest mobiles are as difficult to figure out as the reason why Mallika Sherawat needs to lay more stress on 'her other assets' rather than acting and why Rakhi Sawant is such a nautanki and why there are more kissing scenes in Imraan Hashmi's movies than dialogues! We get to share notes with some of the city folks who would rather prefer a simple mobile set.

Says Satpal Singh, 61, a retired government official, who dreads these hi-tech mobiles, "I am scared of them. Had it not been for my kids in America, I would not keep one. My son gifted me one"…and he looks around for it. Manages to slip it out from under a pile of papers. Puts on his spectacles, and closely examines the black coloured mobile. "This a N-72 Nokia phone and I don't like it at all." Satpal suggests, "Mobile companies should make phones either specially for people like us, oldies.”

Satpal is not the only one. His 'chess friend' 59-year-old Inderjeet Aggarwal is sailing in the same boat. "I agree technology means advancement, but what about people like us? I have seen and read about new cell phone that are coming out in the market everyday. They have such 'amazingly difficult' features that it will take me another lifetime to understand it." He adds looking helplessly at his old mobile phone, "I only know how to take the call and how to abort it."

How about writing messages? "Are you kidding?" Satpal Singh looks at us. "I can barely manage to take a call. Messages are out of question. For me, it is as difficult as designing and flying a plane." On the other hand, 55-year-old Madhu Gupta tried to write message sometimes. "I have failed miserably.” she laughs. "Once, I managed to write a 'hi putar', fed the number and send it to my brother-in-law." She giggles non-stop.

Nevertheless, we can still find hope in people like Jaswinder Kathuria, 54 and the Nirmala Bakshi, 60. These two homemakers are fond of jazzy cell phones and both have a Samsung and Nokia Music Express, respectively. Says Nirmala, "I was not comfortable with the idea of keeping a mobile, and then I took rigorous lessons in how to operate it." Now, she proudly declares, "I can write messages and click pictures as well. It takes me a lot of time to write an SMS, sometimes really long. In the end, I manage to write one and send it to the right destination." All the same, Nirmala feels that it would be better if a company was to manufacture mobiles with simpler features that old people can operate easily." Adds Jaswinder, "Sab thek hai par numbers bahut chotey chotey hotey hain, kuch dikhta nahin. Baaki sab thek hai, bus movie aur video nahin banti. Aur haan, radio kabhi kabhi on nahin karna aata." All is well for Jaswinderji as long as the mobile is the size of a brick, with numbers printed in bold. Any takers for this model!

Gizmo girl

Girls' best friend. And we thought only diamonds were. Anyways. This is the story of a girl, who lives by two passions - one good work and second gizmos. Here is Jonita Doda, the lead actor of Chak Jawaana, opposite Gurdas Maan, who has nineteen to dozen to share on gadgets. Anything latest happening on the technology front, this shy girl would know it like the back of her hand.

Hooked to Google

Today, you can know anything and everything about the world. You don't have to sit in the classes, or go for higher studies. All you need is the hunger for knowledge. I like to read on anything that's happening in the world, in terms of new inventions, discoveries or anything that has to do with mankind. So, whenever I have time, I open Google, tap in what I want to know and read on it. I believe this is the fastest and quickest way to stay connected with the happenings.

Wikipedia, I live on it

This is another place where information hungry can take shelter. In fact, for everything that I want to know I go to Wikipedia, a site wherein I can get extensive information on anything. I don't have to go in for advanced search. It provides lot of information on just about everything.

Facebook, the good and bad of it

I quiet like the idea of chatting up with friends on the Facebook. At the same time, I don't like people getting personal. There should be some guidelines about sharing information, as to what should be written and what shouldn't be. It is good to share notes with people of similar interests, but making fun of someone or writing something weird should be discouraged.

— Jasmine Singh

Tech crime

If 2007 witnessed rise in hi-tech criminals, then 2008 was the year they started materialising their goals, say experts. "The underground economy is flourishing," said Dan Hubbard, chief technology officer at Websense.

"They are not just more organised," said Hubbard, "They are co-operating more and showing more business savvy in how they monetise what they do." Firms combating the rising tide of computer crime have gathered statistics, which show how busy professional cyber thieves have been over the past 12 months.

Sophos said it was now seeing more than 20,000 new malicious programmes every day.

Criminal gangs produce so many viruses mainly for two main reasons. Firstly, many variants of essentially the same malicious program can cause problems for anti-virus software that can only reliably defend against threats it is aware of.

Secondly, in the past security firms have tended to focus on the big outbreaks. By staging a series of small outbreaks the criminals hope to go unnoticed while their family of viruses racks up victims.

Spammers use tempting subjects to trick people into opening messages. — ANI

Geek SPEAK
One for the road
Amitpal Singh Grewal

At its most basic, there are two iPod car accessories which are required for some on-road music - one is to give a way, allowing us to hear music, and one to keep the power on. Most iPod car accessories will cover both needs, either in one unit or as a kit, but understanding these two requirements helps us to select the best product for our needs accordingly.

Listening to an iPod in car requires transferring music from iPod to the stereo and there are several accessories that can do this for you. The most popular option is an FM transmitter that can be plugged into the iPod and tune in to an unused station, which we can select on other frequency in case of bad transmission. All we have to do is tune the radio to the channel, which the iPod is set on and we get instant music.

If your car stereo has a cassette player, then there is an adapter that goes from an iPod to the cassette slot, just like the one used to connect a portable CD player to the stereo cassette player. If you already have one of these lying around somewhere you won't even need to buy anything because it will plug into the headset plug of the iPod.

A third option is to have a permanent connection installed for an iPod. Nowadays nearly all after-market stereos have an auxiliary input where an iPod can be plugged in. This option serves with the best sound quality. Many car manufacturers have even started offering this kind of iPod connectivity in their high-end models.

IPod speakers are also an option but they're not an ideal solution, since they can't be fixed in one place and may even cause accident.

Charged up

Most of these iPod car accessories are either power-neutral or draw power from the iPod. If all of your driving consists of commuting to the office and you charge your iPod between trips, this isn't so bad. But if you're driving long distance, you're going to need a way to power up your iPod so you don't drain its battery. So, if you have a USB system, it provides you with 5volts of power, which would charge your iPod just like your laptop or PC and if you don't have a USB port then a car charger is a necessity. It's a simple cable that runs from your car's power adapter or cigarette lighter and keeps your iPod charged while it plays.

Some of the permanent connections also include a power connection. If you're getting one installed in your car, make sure it is included or you'll still have to buy a power adapter. If it's a factory-installed connection, check your owner's manual to see if it provides power to your iPod. Generally, if the connection is made to the headset port, then you'll need a power adapter but if it's connected to the docking port, you won't.

Sound advice

Safety is an important issue when using iPod car accessories. Make sure you don't let your iPod distract you from your driving. Try to avoid changing volume or tracks while your car is moving. One of the great things about permanent connections is that many of them allow you to control your iPod using the controls of the stereo itself. This is especially handy if your radio has wheel-mounted controls even if your system does not. If you're using a stand-alone adapter, try to position your iPod so you can see it without taking your eyes off the road. If you can't, just plug the iPod in, hit play, and forget about.

amitpalsinghgrewal@gmail.com




HOME PAGE | Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Opinions |
| Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi |
| Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail |