Blue Hills Beckon

Another year has come and gone, time passes by with the glimpse of an eye, seems like only yesterday when I left my hometown, towards Bombay (not Mumbai!). I remember watching new year celebrations of the year 2000, hail a new millenium. I think Aamir Khan won a filmfare or maybe performed that year (may have been someone else). It's a decade since that day, 31st of 2000 to 31st of 2009, enter 2010, a new year, a new decade, and presumably a lot more. Throughout these years, I changed residence 4 times, currently on 5th, and juggled between 3 Metroes of India. What an experience it has been, hiding behind those trees after dark (hide-and-seek in Bombay), or partying late night (Kolkata!), or just seldom running around the community part (New Delhi), 4,5,6 rounds. And then, this year saw the realisation of my long (almost lost in between) longed dream of my own GAMING RIG. With a configuration that makes Tech Jargons drool, I now spend some of my free time playing Industry's Best PC games (rest of free time for recreational activities and FOOTBALL!). This year also saw the birth and slow demise of my blog BlueHillsBeckon(yep, this might just be the last post), succumbing to growing workload humbly offered by my IIT Coaching centre (this is India).

Right now, I can hear the wails of a 4 year old in my house (my relatives not-so-quiet daughter who have come over for the winter). Well, time for me to get back to Ionic Equilibrium. On the bright side, I'll be going to watch AVATAR today, now that should lighten things up!

Greetings 2010

I had bought an Altec Lansing 2.1 Speaker set last year. This was my first 2.1 speaker set and I had never used or heard properly speakers with woofer(especially in my own house). The new sound levels were amazing, I mean compared to a pre-historic 2.0 Creative, this baby was like "O' sweet honey" to my ears, literally.......

But pretty soon I got a li'l bored of the exaggerated bass and sounds of the new speakers. Then I began looking for solutions in the internet, and my sights fell on SRS Audio Sandbox. I never even imagined how good this piece of software could be. The presets "WOW HD" and "TruSurround" worked like a charm on my entry level baby and yet, my speakers now produced sound that was crystal clear, and a league ahead of it's own self.

Here's a description of the software:-

" SRS Audio Sandbox is the ultimate audio enhancement software for the PC. Experience amazing sound tailored to any PC speaker configuration - headphones, stereo speakers, or surround speakers, all with the click of a button. Users simply select their audio content (e.g. music, movie, game or voice) and then choose from many presets (i.e. rock music, classical, jazz, country, etc).
For users who want even more customization, SRS Audio Sandbox lets you personalize your audio through the use of advanced controls, which provide deep, rich bass, restore the clarity to vocal and high frequency sounds, provide 3D enhancement for stereo and mono content, and more.

Best of all, SRS Audio Sandbox allows users to experience surround sound on their PC, regardless of their speaker arrangement, even over headphones. SRS technology is able to overcome the physical limitations of poorly placed or small size speakers, delivering the best entertainment experience available on a PC.

• SRS WOW HD – improves the audio performance of compressed and uncompressed audio by expanding the size of the audio image in the horizontal and verticle sound field and creating a deep, rich bass response. The patented techniques in SRS WOW HD also retrieve information lost in the mixing process to create a more natural audio experience

• SRS TruSurround – accurately reproduces multichannel content over two speakers for a realistic surround sound experience

• SRS Circle Surround II – creates multichannel surround sound from any audio source, including mono and stereo, when played over a 5.1 or 6.1 speaker playback system

• SRS Headphone 360™ – delivers true 5.1 surround experience over headphones
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I don't think the person needs an introduction. He is known worldwide, and more lovingly, as the father of India, if not the world.

Gandhiji was born on October 2nd 1869, and his birth was no less important that of a god's. The first person who followed "ahimsa" or non-violence beyond any other's dare, and the person who achieved the impossible all without the use of force, but with just the power of truth.

His famed Satyagrahas are still remembered, and chapters of him in our textbooks can be found all over the world's different history books and other texts as well. It was this man who made possible the independence of India, and also winning of equal rights for blacks in South Africa before.


Even now, after 61 years of his passing away(1948), we still remember this father figure and idol and shall always try to follow his principles throughout our lives.

It was just another day. I was going to the football ground. Everything was the same, the people, the trees, even the squirrels. Except...everything did not go according to what happened daily. Just ahead of me, I saw an aged woman slip and fall.

I immediately ran towards her..at first a little stunned..and my mind praying the hurt's not too serious. On reaching her location, I noticed blood, dripping from right beside her eyes. In my horror, I was transfixed, rooted to the spot. Then I somehow regained sense and asked the dadi(english translation grandmom) to stay there while I get some water.

I ran towards the field where I played, hoping someone had brought water. None had, but fortunately, I found an unused bottle lying there on the ground. I picked it up and sprinted across the field, crossed the road, and reached the other side to a tap, where I hurriedly filled the bottle.

Having done so, I rushed back at the quickest of pace, jumped over the entire entry gate(not too high but nonetheless), and ran like an olympian gold medalist to the spot where I saw dadi fall. But, by the time I reached there, she was nowhere to be. Another person said that dadi has gone already.

I silently prayed that she be alright....and went to play my football game.