Aerial Odyssey: Guwahati to Delhi

 Capturing the Glittering Cities & Breathtaking View from Above

Starting my journey from Guwahati to Delhi, I was instantly captivated by the unfolding experiences. In the hot and humid weather of Guwahati, boarding the aircraft felt like a refreshing escape, as I was one of the first to enjoy the cool relief of the airplane's air conditioning. The AC vents were emitting visible ice vapours, hinting at the soothing journey ahead. After tucking away my bag in the overhead cabin luggage compartment, I settled into my seat, enjoying the rare luxury of empty seats beside me as passengers gradually boarded.

Boarding

Upon arriving at the airport, I received news of a 45-minute flight delay. With time to spare, I decided to label my check-in luggage as 'Fragile: Handle With Care' to protect its contents. Despite not having the necessary supplies, I was dertimined to mark my bag. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, a kind young lady from the Assam Police came to my rescue. She not only provided me with a white sticker and a sketch pen but also restored my faith in helpfulness and compassion. Her gesture left me overwhelmed with gratitude.

As the aircraft taxied towards the runway, I began documenting the sights around me. Another plane trailed behind, its red, blue and white lights flashing in the dusk. With a gentle drag and thrust, our aircraft ascended into the sky, the intricate movement of its wings plates captivating my attention.

Glittering City

While the video may be slightly out of focus, the vibrant lights at Guwahati Airport, also known as Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport, create a spectacular 'bokeh' effect, appealing to artistic photographers and videographers.

Climbing to a very high altitude, the aircraft executed a sharp 90-degree turn to the left, revealing the glittering lights of Guwahati below. This breathtaking sight filled me with awe, and I did my best to capture it on my mobile phone, mindful not to miss a single detail. The aircraft's movement as it orbited the glittered city below, resembling a drone camera capturing every detail, was a sight to behold. I imagined how much more spectacular the view would have been from a seat ahead of the wings, allowing me to capture the scene with even greater clarity.

Blueish Hue

Engaging with the fellow passengers around me, I found myself in a humourous situation. As I aimed my phone at the window to capture the stunning view, other passengers, perhaps intrigued by my actions, began to follow suit. It was as if my endeavour had sparked a sudden interest in capturing the beauty outside, creating a light-hearted moment of shared curiosity. However, as quickly as it appeared, the cityscape vanished as the aircraft made another sharp turn, this time to the right, and continued its journey into the stratosphere.

Later, we discussed the beauty of aerial views, local cuisine, and travel destinations. As we chatted, my fellow passengers shared captivating stories and visuals from their travels. One passenger, a middle-aged lady, delighted us with tales of her visit to Tawang and Kaziranga, showing stunning clips of these picturesque destinations. She also proudly displayed her finds from a state government cooperative store in Guwahati, including exquiste Assam silk, intricate cane and bamboo decor, 

and unique local delicacies like tiny green chili pickles which she had stored inside her check-in baggage. Her stories and souvenirs painted a vivid picture of the rich culture and beauty of Assam.

 

As we approached New Delhi, I captured another cityscape before landing at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. Although the video may not be professional-grade due to the scratches on the windowpanes and lowlight conditions, it captures the essence of the journey--a mix of excitement, 

Cityscape En Route

wonder, and the joy of exploration. The experience serves as a reminder of the beauty that surrounds us, even at 30,000 feet above the ground. 

If you've ever had a similar experience flying from Guwahati to Delhi or soared above the Indian landscape, you know the magic of seeing familiar places from a bird's eye view. Share your own airborne adventures or dreams of flight in the comments below -I'd love to hear them!

Finally, immerse into a mesmerising aerial journey with me as we orbit over the sparkling cityscape of Guwahati, resembling a scene from a dream. Witnesss the dance of city lights below, painting a surreal picture against the backdrop of the night sky. Discover the beauty of Guwahati from a whole new perspective in the video below.

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An Old Laptop Makeover

                
๏ Machine all set to become a workhorse

How does it feel to revamp an old laptop and make it work some of the heavy duty software on it? And how does it also feel to give it a cosmetic makeover to bring its original look? This is what I had experienced turning an old notebook into a workhorse which was lying at home waiting to be discarded.

Such initiative triggered me only when my trusted MacBook Air one fine morning during the pandemic lockdown all of a sudden gave up putting me in crossroads. Had checked with several Mac authorised service centres and all had stereo type response, suggesting to replace the battery module that costed a bomb.

Created hinge cover in the right 

Looking into the state of affairs, my younger nephew pulled out an old Lenovo notebook and handed to me saying that I was free to tinker with this machine since it was in the verge of being discarded and disposed off as junk.

After few days I took some time off to examine the machine closely. The model was Lenovo IdeaPad s400 with licenced Window'8 OS which immediately made me guess that the notebook must have been purchased sometime in mid 2010. The island keyboard appeared fine, but with marks of severe wear and tear particularly in the spacebar, tab, shift, ctrl, and arrow keys including the track pad.

The glossy dark screen had some stubborn horizontal marks in the centre and innumerable scratches in the bezel. Could be due to the changed alignement of the hinges which was on constant friction between the screen and keyboard when in closed position. Additionally, the right side hinge cover which prevents dust from entering the motherboard was missing that made the area look hollow and pretty odd. The two hinges holds the screen along with the combo keyboard and motherboard section.

The exterior of the notebook had a silver look, akin to an aluminium finish on a plastic, but with multiple scratches and slight dents in the front left corner edges.

Turning the machine upside down, I immediately spotted three screws missing while the rubber feet that prevents the notebook from slipping off when on a tabletop, appeared brittle due to constant change of weather and age related factors. The missing hinge cover now appeared clearer and was similar to bike without a mudguard.

Located the original charger and put the machine on charge. After several hours removed the charger, but the battery refused to store any energy and so I put it back on the mains again and started the machine. It took several minutes to boot up and to my utter surprise it was Ubuntu as the Windows'8 OS was missing.

My older nephew who is a software engineer, had installed this Linux OS few years ago and was unable to recollect the password or retrieve the original Windows'8 operating system inspite of the best efforts.

By now I was convinced that this Lenovo notebook had been literally cannibalised. There was lot of hard work needed to be done and I decided to take it up as a challenge to restore the machine even if it could help in light office works such as Word, Excel, Power Point and also primarily run some Ham Radio programs in the digital platform. The way-forward was first to check the hardware followed by software and finally a cosmetic makeover.

Procured a screwdriver set with multiple heads. Took out the battery and then carefully unscrewed the back cover. Cleaned mounds of dust with the help of a soft one inch paint brush and a vacuum pump. Removed the RAM and Hard drive, cleaned the terminals and put it back. Restarted the machine, but it was still taking ages to boot up.

Really could not figure out what was actually causing this slow booting and nor was it allowing to install an old Windows'7 OS version that put me in a fix. Took snapshots of the motherboard, system information and shared it with one of my Ham Radio friends based in Bangalore - alias, Karan Dutt (VU3HGG).

Karan is a software wizard who has been building computers since past several years. After examining the snapshots, he advised to get the hard drive checked and preferably replace it by a solid state drive (SSD).

Accordingly, I removed the hard drive and got it checked by an authorised service centre. The hard drive turned out to be faulty as it failed to install Windows OS even when inserted on a different laptop.

After a lot of soul searching of SSDs, I finally settled with a 500 GB WD SATA SSD

Hard drive replaced with SSD

variant and fixed it on my own. It has up to 560 MB/s read speed and 530 MB/s write speed plus five years warranty.

Had also cheked the CMOS battery which keeps the system's clock and date running among others and then started the machine. This time there was comparatively significant improvement in the time taken to boot up which was very encouraging indeed.

Next, was to trouble shoot the charging section of the notebook as it was not storing energy in the battery. I suspected the battery must have been dead and so searched for a new compatible lithium battery pack.

Checked the original Lenovo battery charger with a multimeter which showed it was fine, but surprisingly, even the new battery was not charging and neither the charging indicator light was glowing in the notebook.This drove me to return the battery to the seller.

After checking with few more sellers, settled with another battery pack which lit the battery charging indicator in the notebook. Though the retention of energy time in the battery pack is much less than the original one which came along with the machine at the time of purchasing, but its okay.

Meanwhile, installed Windows'10 Pro, Office'19 including few other programs. And guess what?! - This decade old machine now boots up as well as shuts down with a lightening speed. A preliminary opinion working on the different programs and applications so far sails like a feather. However, after thoroughly using it for the next few months will be able to give a better review of its performance.

With the machine's hardware and software back in order, the next piece of work was to fix the missing hinge cover and to give a cosmetic makeover too. Was wondering how to do that and just wished if I only knew someone owning a 3-D printer so that a similar hinge could be copied from the existing one and rolled out a brand new hinge cover. Perhaps, this would have been the easiest and quickest fix, though.

Ripped off soap dispenser

I found an empty Lifebouoy liquid soap dispenser, ripped off the bottom and cut a long strip matching to the breadth of the existing left side hinge cover. 

With slight heat gently moulded the plastic strip to replicate the original hinge cover. Once done, took the reverse side of a Haldiram peanuts packet and covered the plastic hinge with Fevicol glue. Yes, it looked silver metallic and with a black permanent marker pen coloured all over the strip until it  matched with the original one to a great extent. I am sure this hack may sound quite amusing to many!

The final stage was to get rid of innumerable scratch marks on the exterior and bottom side of the notebook. Tried cleaning with Colin liquid which only made some of the scratch marks more prominent. The only option left was to get it laminated with a metallic silver matt finish laminate which resembles close to the original colour of the notebook.

Today, this decade old notebook with just 1.50 GHz Pentium (R) processor, enhanced 8 GB RAM and 500 GB solid state drive looks sleek as well as functions smartly. With softwares such as Premiere Pro, Audition, Lightroom, etc running in this machine, it is all set to become a workhorse. Thanks to Karan for inspiring me in renovating this machine which was in the verge of being disposed off as a junk. Thanks also to my nephews who are more like friends, though. And yes, you too can do the same if you are having an old laptop lying in your home.

Below are images related to the article:

The old laptop transformed into a workhorse

Top: orignal hinge cover; Below: created hinge cover wrapped in silver foil 

Cosmetic makeover of the Lenovo notebook

Lookalike hinge cover created; Below, the original hinge cover

The original Hard drive

Hard drive being replaced with SSD 

The Lenovo notebook and the SSD

How Hospitals Treat Deceased?

Need of Ethics and Soft Skills! 

How are hospitals and nursing homes expected to treat patients who have died in course of undergoing treatment? By any standards, after the attending physician issues a death certificate, it is the basic decency of nurses to clean the patient and make them presentable before handing over the deceased to their kins.

Globally, the general practice is to lay the patient on their back with one pillow in place; straighten the patient’s limbs and place their arms by their sides; gently close the patient’s eyes if open by applying light pressure for thirty seconds. And finally, tidy the hair as soon as possible and arrange it into the preferred style.

Publisher-Writer Sujit Acharya

Soon after death occurs, one should be able to close the eyelids quite easily. However, after a while, once rigor mortis sets in, it can become difficult. 

All these are done to give the deceased dignity and show they are sleeping peacefully. It is an expression of respect and affection, part of the process of adjusting to loss and expressing grief.  

My uncle spent in a hospital at an Indian metro city nearly ten days dying. He was sleeping because his organs were shutting down, a natural process due to old age. He passed away on 30th November 2018. He was 91.

All hell broke loose in the lineage as soon someone shared half-a-dozen photographs of the deceased through WhatsApp. I was yet to receive though. My sibling who resides in a different city texted me that the images were extremely distasteful and was reluctant to show or share it with anybody!

After a week or so, those same set of images too landed up in my WhatsApp on a late

The Awful image of deceased

night. Honestly, I could not stare at the photographs for more than a second as it was just terrible and hurting me. Initially, I was fuming against the sender but then, a deeper thought came into my mind.

Observing the photographs, I felt that there had been serious deficiency on part of the hospital in handing over the deceased to kins without even caring to make it bare-minimum presentable! The eyes and mouth were wide open! And this only compounded lot of doubts and integrity of the hospital in question. 

If this was the state of affairs at a reputed hospital in a metro city, then one could imagine plight of millions of patients across the various Indian states who has to visit such type of health care centres on a regular basis.

The transformed image with closed eyelids and mouth

All these had choked me with emotions. I was convinced that our fun-loving uncle alias, Publisher & Writer Sujit Acharya, who was extremely health conscious, who took pride in his dressing and looks, would have never liked to be seen in such disgraceful images.

After months I was able to muster courage to view those photographs. Staring at them I was wondering deeply if anything positive could be done. With several hours of trial and error in my Mac, I was finally able to transform an appropriate image that should be acceptable in contrast to the ones shared! 

Yes, he is now peacefully sleeping - I am sure our uncle, affectionately addressed by many as Kuka, appears that his soul is satisfied!

Sujit Acharya

To conclude, hospitals, nursing homes and other health care organisations must

Publisher & Writer Sujit Acharya

ensure adequate dignity to the deceased. They should be trained in soft skills to deal with the deceased's grieve-stricken kins and loved ones. While there is a crying need of an effective competent government agencies to monitor hospitals and nursing homes from time to time, health organisations should also initiate punitive actions on its own against the erring personnel. 

Further, citizens who are armed with the power of internet can post their experiences in various social media. They should avoid circulating fake messages and instead genuinely report any such deficiencies as well as show whole heartedly praise for any good deeds shown. These steps may put the hospitals and nursing homes on their toes to thwart recurrence of such unpleasant episodes. 

My Mercedes Benz

Umbrella With Premium Insignia!

It was a perfect day to leisure around due to a public holiday on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. I woke up a little late, and after a quick breakfast and a glance through the newspapers, I

decided to get my wardrobe organised. You know, a thrilling way to spend a holiday.

Suddenly, behind heaps of clothes, I came across a fourteen-inch-long barrel wrapped neatly with several layers of

newspapers that appeared almost like a grandmother's parcel! Curiously, I unpacked the stuff and discovered it was the Mercedes-Benz pocket umbrella which I had hidden from sight ever since I bought it at the eleventh Auto Expo held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, in January 2012.

The reason for keeping it off from public view was primarily due to the guilt of purchasing it at a prohibitive price

unknowingly, which I realised only after scrutinising the bill and the SMS on the transaction sent to my mobile by my bank upon reaching home. Ah, the joys of impulse buying! 

For the first time, I took a close look at it and examined it from every angle. The two-fold telescopic umbrella is definitely made of high-quality spokes, designer waterproof fabric, and an elegant polished wooden handle. Who knew umbrellas could be so fancy?

The wooden handle sports a black square metallic button on the side that enables the umbrella to open up with a press and a big logo of Mercedes-Benz at the tip. Holding the umbrella gives a premium feel and appears to have been manufactured with utmost precision, just like its range of automobiles. It's almost as if I'm holding a miniature version of their luxury cars, without the risk of a fender bender.

At the Auto Expo, there were several pavilions set up by almost all major global automobile manufacturers. The Mercedes-Benz pavilion was one of the topmost attractions, drawing

maximum footfalls. During the seven-day event, I made several attempts to visit this pavilion but gave up due to the serpentine lines. It was like trying to get into a popular nightclub, but instead of bouncers, there were shiny cars.

On the final day, I decided to arrive at the venue early in the morning and squeeze in some time to visit this pavilion in particular. To add extra spice to the event, dozens of international models were flown in, each standing beside different Mercedes variants on display. It was like a car show and a fashion show had a glamorous baby.

After viewing a variety of sedans, off-roaders, sports cars, hybrids, and concept cars, I moved across to a stall selling Mercedes-Benz memorabilia. From cufflinks, tie pins, caps, keychains, badges, bags, jackets, umbrellas—everything had the Mercedes-Benz logo on it. The counter was crowded with fashionable young men and women, and a couple of models walked past, encouraging me to do some quick photography. Who knew buying a souvenir could feel like attending a celebrity meet-and-greet?

I spotted an umbrella and asked the price. The salesperson responded with an accent and a smile, "Sir, this is 378/-..." Although I thought it was slightly expensive compared to such

varieties found in the open market, I felt it was fine considering I was buying it at an event like this. Plus, I would hardly get time to go shopping for an umbrella. I mean, who needs practicality when you can have prestige?

Having made up my mind, I flaunted my debit card at the counter, and within seconds, the amount was debited, and the umbrella, inserted into an elegant paper bag, became my new possession. It was only after reaching home late in the evening

that I realised the blunder I had made—the original price quoted for the umbrella was in four digits, and I had missed the last one! This drove me to hide the umbrella completely from public view, the best way to forget about the episode. Out of sight, out of mind, right? 

But today, I realized that this is a wonderful piece and a remembrance of my visit to one of the world's best premium car manufacturer's pavilions. Even if I can never own a four-set of wheels of this brand in my life, who cares—I have at least a Mercedes-Benz umbrella. Let the Delhi monsoon rains start, and I am surely going to flaunt it! I might even start a trend with my stylish rain gear, becoming the envy of every pedestrian caught in a downpour. Plus, it’s a great conversation starter—who wouldn’t be curious about an umbrella with such a backstory? Now, every time it rains, I’ll have a reason to smile, knowing I have a piece of automotive luxury right in my hand. 

So, here's to hidden treasures in wardrobes and the joy of rediscovering them. Next time I feel the urge to tidy up, who knows what other forgotten luxuries I will uncover!

Video clips related to the Auto Expo:

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ASAD KHAN – FUSION MESSENGERS CONCERT

·       Indo-German Urban Mela in Delhi

Asad Khan and the band, "Fusion Messengers"

If Sunday was a crowd puller for guitar legend Carlos Santana’s concert at the Greater Noida’s Galotias University, Delhi’s Indraprastha ‘Millennium’ Park was not left behind as sitar maestro Asad Khan and the band, “Fusion Messengers” mesmerised a huge audience.

The group took on audiences with the most unusual mix, crossing classical Indian genres with jazz, flamenco, electronic and folk music. The crowd was left with raptures as unique renditions of the Indian and German national anthems were also performed.

The ecstatic audience at the show

“Mausam and Escape” – one of the themes from the original score of “Slumdog Millionaire” was another hit with the ecstatic audience.

“Fusion Messengers” who regularly play for A. R. Rahman during his world tours apart from many other jazz and world music festivals across the globe, gave Dellites a perfect Sunday evening with a captivating blend of music.

Asad Khan has earlier performed at the Classic Incantations tour with the German Film Orchestra – Babelsberg held in India and Germany.

“It is a matter of extreme pleasure for us to contribute to this huge project that will further strengthen the music and cultural ties between the two nations. I have been involved with the year of Germany in India since the Classic Incantations tour and it feels great to associate with the project again for a live audience at such a spectacular venue”, Khan observed.

The programme was held on the occasion of the ongoing nine-day event titled – “Germany-India 2011 – 2012: Infinite Opportunities” which is a special initiative to mark and celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Check out the video clip below: