How to make 5year old Dell brand new

When my 5 year old Dell Inspiron 600m, started giving me trouble, I decided enough is enough, let us restore it to factory setting, but I had reinstalled Windows number of times, so original dell MBR was overwritten, and with that factory restore option Ctrl F11 was gone too. So first I booted through live linux CD, and backed my important files to a pen drive.

Then I found this website, which gave me information regarding how to restore Dell MBR. I downloaded this DSRFIX iso, burnt a CD out of it, booted from it ran the utility. And it was in a no time that original Dell MBR was back in action and so was Ctrl F11 option to restore the system. And that also did not take much time.

I got my laptop back to factory setting, just like the way it was shipped!

Shahrukh would have said Happys Endings!

3 Idiots: Tussi great ho!

You expect your movie to be good, if it is a Raju Hirani one. And you wont be disappointed, when you come out of this movie, there is a sense of elation, and you are feeling great. Plus, you vow to go back and watch it all over again.

I think that says it all. The Bollywoodwallas seldom get it this right, but I guess you can bet on Raju Hirani; the man has got the knack. First it was Pyar ki Zappi, then Gandhigiri, and now Aal ij well, the messages become a part of popular folklore.

Take a good story, develop good characters, cast them with the right people, and get out a performance from them without anybody really going overboard with their bit. And you got your film – 3 Idiots.

Taking line from this film, if you would like to salute Raju Hirani, you will say Tussi great ho! Tofa Kabul Kkijiye!

This is a story about 3 people, Rancho (Aamir), Raju (Sharman) & Farhan (Madhavan), right from their engineering student days to present day, where they are successful in their chosen way of life. From their hilarious college days mingled with Chaplinesque tragedy, the 3 idiots, storm through all their predicaments, and come out with flying colors. Rancho is obviously the protagonist with extraordinary flair in machines as well as matters of life. He helps his friends gain confidence and follow their hearts. Makes Pia (Kareena), who is Principle’s daughter, discover her true soul mate. She has a small role in the film but does justice to it without being too filmy.

The tough principle Virus aka Viru Sahastrabudhe, is played with usual élan by Bowman Irani. You can not help but find similarities with Munnabhai M.B.B.S, here, the same tough principle, the same college (this time it’s engineering though), the same maverick protagonist, and secretly in love with principle’s daughter too, solving problems of one and all. Though there are some filmy scenes like, the delivery on T. T table, and baby crying only when they chant ‘Aal is well!’ but you got to excuse those filmy liberties if you could, after all this is a Bollywood flick.

But you gotta watch this one – Surely it is Paisa Wasool and More!

Aal is well!

Love Aaj Kal

The emotion of love.. mysterious, delicate, tender but potent & powerful; it is unlike anything else. It was shown in full force in the movie. How an all brawn Sardar, melts in front of his lady love Harleen, what he goes through to get her, was amazingly shown. Turn to present, the modern relationship between Saif and Deepika, and how it turns from practical to the ethereal.. the force of that love, how it torments them and how they can not live without each other was touching.

Good thing is everything falls in place in the end.

Worth watching definitely ! 2/08/09

Below is a post that I did when MJ passed away, now 1 year down the line, his charisma refuses to die down.

They do really care about you MJ!

Michale Jackson

Well, his life was not exactly a dream life, but his music and dancing was. You will agree that he was an entertainer par excellence, the combination of the music, the dance and energy was simply unmatched.

R.I.P. MJ

Rant: Give me a smart enough phone

After using/exploiting HTC s710 for few months, its rebooting routine is getting on nerves. All I want is consistent WiFi internet browsing, a battery that lasts whole day, and phone that cleans its memory after applications are closed leading to less slow down and forced or automatic reboot. And all this should come under Rs. 15K . God! I am dreaming.

Mumbai 26/11/08

It just proved, how underprotected we are. It appears as if, common man is safe only if terrorists decide to ignore him, if they decide to strike, there is nothing to stop them. While we, our political class and our administration fight over how to share/devide available limited resources baesed on cast, religion, region, main issues like justice, law, order get sidelined. As many news channels were saying we and our politicians should rise above opportunistic selfish attitude and concentrate and improving infrastructure, educational facilities rather than trying to get most of the same available pie by hook or crook.

Tryst with Fujack.K1

Beware if this worm/virus, it can really screw up the PCn (no data loss as of now, but browser redirecting to gcafe.com); your USB drives, other USB devices like digital cameras, cellphones are are infected and it infects the folders, and making it executable file, PC not being able to open the folders. It spreads though, USB very smoothly. So it is really dangerous and it can really make your life difficult. Making your digital images or other data, unavailable when you need it. And free antivirus that I was using did not seem to detect and cure it. Still not able to open images from digital camera to computer, though I can see them in camera. Quick Heal anti virus seemed to detect it. But still no solution for image transfer to PC from the camera. Hope I will get it solved.

Microbiology resources

For those who really want to elevate their microbiology work to higher level, there are atleast two resources that can really help you this include the microbe library. Where thousands of images of bacterial gram stain, colony appearances are present. this is a very huge and authentic resource. Secondly you can be helped by this Univ Of Leeds initiative. If you want great details and SOPs, this is a UK site for you.

National Seminar on 21st Century Medical Education in India at SMIMS

Hello All,
Came back from the southern tip of the Indian nation, Kanyakumari,
where (at SMIMS) it was my pleasure to deliver a talk on telemedicine.
Other speakers were Dr. Devanayagam who spoke on integration of modern
medicine with Siddha system of Medicine, he made one interesting
observation that modern medicine treats the disease where as ancient
Indian medicine treats the patient. Modern medicine gives same
treatment to all the patients with same disease, while same might not
be the case with Siddha, as each patient is different. Of course there
were (rather was single) voice of dissent. But majority seemed to
agree with Dr. Devanayagam.
Then it was my turn speak, and look at the irony, I was delivering a
talk on I.T. in medicine; and LCD and my laptop did not want to
communicate with each other! But ultimately we resolved the issue and
I went on with my talk. This same presentation can be found at my home
page - http://sachinkale1.tripod.com.
I got the feedback that there was excess of information for the time
allotted (45 min), so I had to keep going for 15 more minutes (I
think!) (I do not know whether it sounded like eternity to the audience!)
But number of people did ask for copy of presentation and they also
thought it was interesting.
Then there was lunch and cultural dance entertainment program. The
girls and boys really danced their way to everyone's heart. You can
also check out little bit one such beautiful dance on Mukunda Mukunda
(Dasavataram song) on my home page.
Then there was a session on microteaching and Problem Based learning.
That evening there was nice dinner at Baywatch theme park at
KanyaKumari. Next day also there were good topics like "Medical
Ethics: Current Scenario" "Economics of health care" and Doctor as a
leader of health Team" But could not attend them as I had important
business back home. But full credit to organisers and especially Dr.
Srinivasa Kannan, for excellant arrangements, as such it was really an experience to remember for a long time.

HTC s710 continuous reboot solution

If you have this phone and if it starts giving you starting trouble, for some reason you switch it off and it refuses to start completely again, goes into sequence of starting halfway again rebooting, then solution is here. People have suggested removing SIM card or storage card and starting the phone, switching it off again, putting the card back and starting again. Just worked for me!

The Life and the work

There is always so much to do. How everybody manages, I am not sure. All I can say is life is not easy. But can be fun if it is managed well.

How to solve tough cases?

Understand what u r examining.
Collect all the data.
Add gross and microscopic data.
Compare it with all possible lesions.
Rule out the possibilities one by one zeroing on the diagnosis.
If still not comfortable consult a colleague with more experience in that area.
Amen.

Trying to post through mobile

If this post apears on the blog, it wil be a success!

Mondays are always tough!

So many things have to be done on Mondays only. Takes away every little enjoyment done on Sundays.

How to unclutter life and work

Battling with the clutter most of the time. Got to take decisions then and there (mostly). If I keep it for later, things get lost, and I end up spending more time looking for them.
Must have proper places for everything.
A set of rules for taking decisions.
This should happen at spinal level or as a learned reflex.
Let us see...

MIgrating from Nokia E50 to HTC s710

Posting after a long gap, lots of things have happened in between, got the new mini Vidas machine, started number of new tests. That took lot of effort, but in the end things seem to have settled down.
Little bit of alteration is going on in the premises, not much attention being paid there, hoping that things will take care of themselves; afterall mother and better half are paying attention on that front.
MGM medical college - work has multiplied over the years. Everybody has to elevate their performance to next level.
Respite is hard to get, when it comes it should not squandered in watching TV, it should be spent in thinking about how to improve work efficiency so that day to day work becomes less bothersome.
Anyway, let me return to my experience with s710, yeah it has that Windows tag and all. Not used office much, except ofcourse the outlook syncronisation, that is a dream, though it needs some tweaking to get emails from mobile memory to memory card. Again people have had this issue and they have solved it through a hack in the registry. Details are can be found somewhere on the web.
Then came the big problem contacts, again that was not as difficult as expected, once they were backed on to desktop outlook from E50 and then went to new s710... time consuming but so far so good.
Camera looks better, as expected, being 2 megapixel; got to play with it some more to get the feel.
Overall phone is little bit slow and bulky compared to Nokia E50, contacts keep disappearing time and again, and need reboot to make them appear again.
I don't what is it about windows that makes reboot such a important routine!
Anyway overall it is good change. Especially the email sync, it is cool! When nokia gets this on their lower end phones, that will be tough to beat.
BSNL broadband wi-fi and vodafone GPRS still not configured, will try...

Bottomline - this is definitely worth a try.

Festival of Lights!

Come diwali and markets are bright with Diyas of every kind. The shops selling these diyas were taking my breath away. See what I mean...

Ledias and Jents!

Karnapura festival offers many attractions. Could never muster courage to take a ride in giant wheel, but my son's enthusiasm prevailed, off we went, through this entrace!


On to this giant wheel, we went, first three rounds were horrible, but then I got the hang of it, and we enjoyed the ride.

Two festivals...

Lord of Drums!

Ganpati festival is time for everyone to brush up their skills on drums. Growing up in this part, I have always been fortunate to be part of this amazing 'josh'.
Check this year's procession

Iftar Party!

Never been to any such event, and it was such a pleasant thing, when I went there. Fruits, Falooda, and samosas were mouth watering.

My father achieves his freedom on 15th Aug

He was another common man with some uncommon qualities. He could be strict, he could be angry but he understood what a child feels. He was a best friend a child, and a young man can have. Surely, those who knew him will agree.

He had such a zeal for life. He always wished that we have great time.

When I was a child he made mathematics easy for me; as a young man, he encouraged me to read books & magazines . He helped me through the tough life of a medical student and saw me become a self sufficient doctor.

He was ill for couple of years. Like many of us it was tough for him to bear his illness; but his spirit outshone his health problems. When he got little better last year, he purchased a used Maruti 800, against my trepidation. And then onwards he used to travel 100 kms every day, visiting Devgadh, Nevasa, Ranjangaon, Paithan, Kankaleshwar number of times.

He just loved to travel, I was worried; but he always used to return, with my dear mother and driver by his side.
On 13th August, Monday morning, he had a freak accident; neither he nor we know how he fell from his bed where he was reading newspaper; and, I think that accident broke something more than his femur, it broke his spirit; and on Wednesday, he developed pulmonary embolism and passed away.
Now when I look at his bed... his TV remote control, eyes fill up with tears; and mind fills up with his fond memories.

To every child, father occupies a special place in his heart. Of course my feelings towards my father are no different; he was truly special.

He gave me more than my life; he gave me a way of life!

Om Shanti, Shanti, Shantihi!