Sanjay Varanasi

Hurray!! After 10 months of living in a foreign land, and after having completely settled and adjusted to the new environment, I came back to my home land on 20th May. I stepped out of the terminal expecting the shock of my life.

Initially I found the place to be wierd, coz I was used to US airports, and their way of handling people and issues. The new Shamshabad airport left a lot to be desired. It was awesome by all Indian standards, but, pathetic by any global standard. I found the staff at the airport very non-professional, and the immigration officials very unfriendly. Luckily, I didn’t have to put up with them for long, as the immigration process was short. Baggage collection was equally quick too. After coming out, I had to wait for my parents for quite sometime, and I heard people were still waiting for their baggage.

My uncle had come to pick me up in his car, and when we drove back, I was quite uncomfortable with the lane-less bumper-bumper driving, especially as I was so used to US driving.

When I finally reached home I still wasn’t sure if I was really in India. I needed some serious sleep. It was only after I woke up I realised I really was in India. (I hate these spell-checkers. Why can’t I use ’s’ instead of ‘z’ in realised?)

That very day, I met my friend in the evening, and I ventured out to explore my favorite city. I was apprehensive if I would be able to drive.. duh .. ride my motorcycle in the city’s extreme traffic conditions. Nevertheless, I decided to try it out, and was surprised that I fit so well into the messy traffic. Initially I felt a li’l uncomfortable, but that was shortlived. Very soon, I started zipping and zooming through the traffic like always.

Went to visit some of my ( and all Hyderabadis’) favorite spots - Necklace Rd/ Eatstreet, Prasad’s IMAX, Hyderabad Central). I liked the experience, but not to the fullest, since there was little youth around, mainly due to the fact that it was mid-week. I came back happy to have rediscovered my Indian-self.

I still do find a few things to be wierd, esp. after knowing for a fact that we can do better than this. Like for ex: the utterly  pathetic download speeds of BSNL - 256kbps as compared to 1.5Mbps I get with ATT at the same price (in rupees), the list of requirements - Photo, ID, proof etc required to acquire a SIM card for a cell-phone, etc.

Enough said. I’ve been enjoying the new-old experience of being in a hip and happening city, that is Indian, and that I can relate to very well.

I’m sure you’ve heard that the latest version of Ubuntu - Hardy Heron hit the servers on 24th Apr. After abandoning ubuntu for one full release (Gutsy Gibbon), I’m back to it.And I’m loving it! I’m just pleased to see Ubuntu getting better with each release, especially since I’d began using it since Breezy, way back in Apr 2006.I started out with Breezy, and the experience was anything but breezy. But, I’m happy with the fact that I started with that release, coz I got to learn a lot, as most of the stuff wasn’t as easy as it is today.

But the reason why I’m back to Ubuntu is something unrelated to Ubuntu. My Gmail was hacked recently, and repeatedly. Paypal was linked to it, and so credit card information was misused too. Though I don’t want to explain much of it here, I could say that s.o.b created a mighty mess, and I’m still 1/3rd drowned in it. I got to say, he gave me an entirely new picture of security on the Internet. Now I know its f*cking easy to mess with public systems like Gmail and Orkut. I’ve decided to take Google out of my diet to the maximum exten possible, and have almost completed the task. No details here.

Someone suggested that the hacker might have installed s/w on my Vista, say, a keylogger or something. And that was when it struck me. I had actually tried the Beta a few days ago, so I was aware that there was the Final releasing sometime soon. I checked the Ubuntu site, and there it was, the Final version of Hardy up for download.

I now don’t use Firefox for anything related to Google (Orkut). Its a security hole.. It is.

I’ve had no instance of a hack/ password change since, and you can guess the rest of the story.