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Brush with Ganesha
There is something about Ganesha! This elephant-headed, pot-bellied, cuddly and happy-go-lucky God riding on a rat, gorging on laddoos and drinking milk may not be a high- profile deity when it comes to the hierarchy of divinity, but the very mention of him brings a smile. And lo and behold! He keeps springing up a miracle or two from time to time, the latest being his appearance in the form of a papaya in the garden of city-based A. C. Singal, a former Indian Navy officer. The fruit of his two-year-old tree in his Sector 34 residence resembles the face of Ganesha, complete with a turned up trunk.
Don't we all remember how this deity, a few years back, was the centre of a miracle, which sent Hindus all over the world into a tizzy, by accepting milk from devotees. Idols of Ganesha in temples and homes were reported to have accepted milk offered to them simultaneously everywhere in the country. Interesting form, cheerful disposition and colour — enough to capture any artist's imagination and become his muse. Practically, all artists at one time or the other have painted Ganesha. After all, he is the Sidhivinayaka, and he sells! Maqbool Fida Husain too has painted Ganesha and this is one time when he has not run into any trouble. Do we need any more proof that Ganesha's magical power? R. K. Laxman, in his autobiography The Tunnel of Time, has made it obvious that he has a special affinity for Ganesha when it comes to drawing. He sees the God in stones, hills, banyan trees, seeds and clouds. There are others like Anjoile Ela Menon who experimented with the form in Murano glass, Jogen Couwdhury humanised Ganesha, minus his embellishments and ornaments. F. N. Suza, Anupam Sud, Jamini Roy - the list is endless. According to a popular belief it is auspicious to keep not just one image of Ganesha, but as many as 108 reproductions at home. So, artists have a valid reason for painting him over and again. "I too did Ganesha in 1983 when I did my first solo show in Mumbai," says Balvinder, city-based artist. His explanation for taking up the elephant-headed God was an interesting one, "Whoever gave Ganesha his form had an interesting imagination power. In my series, I co-related him with a bird, human and nature," says the artist. Though by Balvinder's own admission the idea to paint the God was initially forced upon him as Vinayak sells in Maharashtra. Later, it was the artistic inspiration that compelled him to take up this subject once again in 1999, when Balvinder did a series of computer-generated art. Satwant Singh too did paint Ganesha some 20 years ago somewhat in abstract form and later did some sketches for greeting cards. "He is a good form to paint, his pot-belly and the colours," says Satwant. Among the new generation, we come across Kavita Singh and Narinderjeet Singh Maloya, who have captured Ganesha's form in different media - Kavita embossed it in a metal plate and also in form of masks while Narinder made a sculpture in white marble. There may be a generation gap among the artists, but the reason to do Ganesha remains the same - his interesting form and his pot-belly. Voluptuousness may have given away to size zero, but in the human psyche the girth still has its uses. Or, how else do explain the popularity of the Laughing
Buddha? parbina@tribunemail.com |
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When in Roam…
“ There is no catch with roaming charges,” says an industry insider. “Now, almost all telecom companies have very low roaming rates, so, there shouldn’t be any problem in taking calls. The only section that still avoids calls in roaming is the students. They are price cautious because they, as it is, sustain on pocket money. Otherwise, be it the working class or the corporate, people don’t have any issue on roaming. Even then, if you want to avoid calls, just put your mobile on the manual mode. This facility allows you to select the operator, and you don’t have to face the so-called roaming problem,” says the source. As for Adarsh Purthi, supplier of electrical wires from Industrial Area, Phase- 1, Mohali, “Roaming charges were exorbitant when telecom companies started with the facility. Now, the scene is totally different. The rates are as low as Re 1, which sits easy on the pocket.” Adds Adarsh, “The billing system is computerised, and I don’t think there is any issue of bungling in it. The only people who fear avoid calls in roaming are the students, and those too school-going ones.” Ditto for Inderjeet Sethi, pre-paid head for Idea Punjab, who also looks at avoiding calls in roaming as an old phenomenon. “Now, the companies have reduced charges for roaming. The incoming call is Re 1 in roaming, which is low.” He adds, “What the users sometimes tend to overlook is the duration for which they have taken a call in the roaming, this is reflects in their bill then. This is almost similar to a situation wherein you are using an Internet connection and are not aware of the downloads you’ve made.” It is important to hear it from people who avoid making or taking calls in roaming for the fear of hefty bills. Sulks Mehak, a city-based model, who has put up with the inflated bill situation many a times. “I haven’t been able to figure out till date what goes wrong and where when I am in roaming. My work takes me out of Chandigarh frequently. And, when I see the bill, I am shocked. It crosses the given limit always, even when companies claim that roaming charges are low.” May be, the pretty girl needs to keep a watch by her side when she takes or makes a call in roaming! jasmine@tribuenmail.com |
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Roam-an additions
Will you take a call when you are in roaming? Family over unknown
— Archana Sharma It depends
— Mohanjeet Singh Jral Tread carefully
— Pankaj
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Geek
SPEAK Use a docking station for better flexibility Amitpal Singh Grewal A docking station is a bridge to the past for many new computers, but you may find you need one even if you have the latest on-the-market laptop computer. A docking station is a device into which you can plug your laptop in order to gain extra functionality, such as access to printers, mouse, scanners, full-sized monitors and keyboards, and external hard drives. All of these peripherals can be plugged into the docking station. Then, when you connect the laptop to the docking station, you can gain access to all of those peripherals without having to plug each one into the laptop. This can be especially helpful if your laptop has a minimal number of USB or Firewire ports.
couple of things to remember before purchasing a docking station is to get the right model for your make and model laptop. Not all docking station models fit every laptop. Also remember to purchase the docking station power supply to boot both the laptop and docking station. The power pack that comes with the laptop does not have enough power to supply both. amitpalsinghgrewal@gmail.com
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More is not merrier
In their study report, the researchers have revealed that they were looking for the secret to good media multi-taskers, but instead found broad-based incompetence.
“Rather than finding things that they were doing better, we found things they were doing worse,” Ophir added. During the study, the researchers questioned a group of Stanford students about their use of media to categorise them as either heavy or light media multi-taskers, and then conducted a series of tests that involved comparing two patterns of rectangles shown 900 milliseconds apart to determine if they were identical. The team observed that, without distractions, both groups performed equally. However, upon adding distractions, the researchers observed that the heavy media multi-taskers took longer to respond and made more mistakes. The experts said that similar results emerged when they conducted a second test, involving switching from a number task to a letter-based task. Based on their observations, the researchers came to the conclusion that high media multi-taskers had difficulty focusing, and were not able to ignore irrelevant information. “Heavy media multi-taskers are more likely to respond to stimuli outside the realm of their task. They may be sacrificing performance on the primary task to let in other sources of information,” they wrote in the study paper. The researchers believe the study is significant as multitasking is becoming more widespread, with some jobs requiring workers to keep an instant message window open. Ophir, however, says that there is one bright side to such distraction — media multi-taskers will be first to notice anything new. — ANI
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Ah! This is one thing that most of us avoid doing pretty often. Taking incoming calls when we are in roaming. And, if we are compelled to take it, thanks to our dear friends, colleagues and relatives who call the minute we enter the roaming area (God knows how they come to know), the bill inflate like a space shuttle. Even when telecom companies offer attractive offers for roaming, the mobile bills say a different story. Now, where is the catch? We try to scrape a bit.
If I am in roaming, I will never attend any call until and unless it’s from some important number or from someone dear to me. It is not because it will cost me but it is because if I am out of my town, I am definitely there for some important work. It could also be some important family function. And while attending that function, I would not like to attend unknown and unwanted calls. After all, family and work are more important than anything else. Therefore, only important calls while in roaming.
Well, this depends on person to person. If a person is a businessman, then he will definitely attend the calls even while in roaming. For me, if I think the call is important then I will take it otherwise I will not.
I have never had a problem with taking calls while in roaming. Wwhen I am out of station, I only take calls which are extremely relevant, and only call when it is not necessary. The problem is not with the rates or the inflated bill, it has to do with the time span for which the call is made or taken. For instance, if you make a call in roaming for about 20 minutes, you would be charged accordingly. Better still, subscribe for the operator that offers lowest price.
Actually, most newer laptops have more than enough USB or Firewire ports for casual use. You might find, however, that you want to access your desktop monitor while using your laptop. You might also find that you want to use a larger keyboard than the one that comes standard with your laptop. In each of these cases, you can certainly plug the monitor or the keyboard directly into the laptop. Plugging that laptop into the docking station, however, allows you much more
flexibility.
One instance in which you would probably need to use a docking station is when you want to hook up a newer laptop to an older printer. Printers of even the recent past routinely have serial port connectors, something you won’t likely find on the latest laptop. In this case, you can certainly buy an adapter, but you can also use a docking station, which has serial port connectors as well. 
In essence, using a docking station converts your laptop computer into a desktop computer, even for a short period of time. You can plug the laptop into the docking station and have all the comforts of home, while accessing the laptop’s data and functionality. When you’re done, just unplug and walk away with the laptop. In some cases, the laptop, which is likely a newer computer than the desktop, will have more up-to-date or advanced features. For example, the laptop may have a super-charged graphics or video card that can play games or movies that the desktop cannot; hooking the laptop up to the docking station and accessing the desktop’s larger monitor can make the video or gaming experience all the more rewarding.
An American study suggests that media multi-taskers who like watching YouTube, following Twitter, writing e-mail, and talking on the phone are generally not very good at any of their tasks. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the study was led by researchers at Stanford University.
“We knew that multitasking was difficult from a cognitive perspective. We thought, ‘What’s this special ability that people have that allows them to multitask?’” ABC Science quoted lead author Professor Eyal Ophir as saying.