Vizag Trip ..

It was a much needed break from work and a memorable trip in all sense. I left Delhi on Friday morning for Hyderabad where all the friends were leaving for Vizag in the evening by train. The most interesting part was that I had told everyone that I would not be coming and yet I had booked all my tickets and wanted to surprise Lini. I reached IIIT and went straight to her lab with my cellphone recording a video to capture the shock on her face on seeing me. I really enjoyed surprising everyone :)

I had plans to meet other friends in Hyderabad but it started raining pretty heavily. We had to leave for station in the rain and as expected, we all got wet by the time we reached the station. My new spectacles broke, my bag got wet and even the clothes inside it got wet. The joy of surprising everyone and the excitement of the trip seemed to fade a little bit but not for long.

Reached Vizag on Saturday morning and checked in a hotel - Hotel Prince. Satya B had a marriage to attend in Vizag and it was his friend who was getting married who had booked a couple of rooms for us in the hotel. That was a nice gesture and we were spared of room hunting. We all got fresh and started for Araku Valley in a sumo. The route to Araku valley is a treat to the eye and a heaven for the photographers. I never stopped clicking snaps from the front seat.

Midway there was a waterfall and all of us unanimously decided to stop for a while and climb up to wherever we could parallel to the water fall. It was fun though I hurt my thumb there. Even Neema di slipped while coming down but nothing serious as she is a "seasoned stumbler" :D

Next stop was Borra caves which was a very interesting and calm place. Its very deep down and lighted with golden lights everywhere. I had never been to such a place. There was a river flowing in the valley near the caves and P! and Lini suggested that we trek down to the valley and come back. It would have been real fun but I had a severe headache so I decided to stay back. Later the idea was dropped.

Araku Valley is more a natural beauty than a commercial place. We went to a small museum which was a very ordinary place. Then we went to a garden where there were tree houses, a toy train, some rides and flowers and trees. My photographer within me had woken up once again and I took some cool snaps there.

It was a tiring first day and we reached back to the Hotel by 8pm. Next day we planned to go to the Rushikonda beach early morning (5am). We woke up at 4 and left the hotel by 4:30. I had been to a beach only once before in Chennai and that too for a small time. I jogged for a while on the beach and then went for a long walk with my camera. When I came back everyone was in the sea already :) So I also kept my camera and got into the water. And we gossiped and played for more than 2 hours in water. Some waves were small and some quite big and each time we prepared ourselves to be on the top. Sometimes we won while other times the waves succeeded in passing over our heads. It was a great experience. Moreover, P! being there with us, we never felt any fear in the sea. Had he not been there I would have been washing my legs on the edge and would have never even thought of going any further into the sea. It was the best part of the entire trip. My mind still keeps drifting towards the beach from time to time and as Neema Di puts it, it will take another week for the "HANGOVER" to go :D

Later that day in the afternoon we headed towards Simhachalam temple. There are two ways to reach the temple. Either by road or you can take the stairs. We took the "path less travelled" i.e. the stairs. The stairs were at quite an elevation and they were 1000+ Neema di and I had a testing time reaching the top but nevertheless it was fun. On the contrary, Tarun soon vanished from our sight as if he was walking on a plain meadow and not on the stairs. On the way we came across two guys who were going to climb these stairs on their knees :O That is some dedication !! Coming down was a much easier task :)

We boarded the train to Hyderabad in the evening and bid adieu to Vizag. Last 2 days were fun packed and we all were already planning for the next trip in the train. We played dumb charades for a long time and that was the second best part of the trip after the beach experience. We laughed and pulled each others legs. We had to get down at Vijaywada and take another train to Hyderabad from there. Neema di took a train to Chennai from there and the rest of us proceeded towards Hyderabad.

Highlights of the trip:

• Reaching Sec'bad station all drenched :(
  
• Neema di's graceful stumbling from time to time :)
• Rushikonda beach experience.
  
• Lini's attempt to enact Asoka while playing dumb charades :D
• P!'s perfect accounts management, and his biscuits, laddoos and chikkis from roadside shops which were a nice "crunchy munchy"

Vizag through my lens:
Click here

Colorization of Mughal-E-Azam

Call it my latest muse, I really wanted to know how are these black and white movies colored and what all effort and time goes in that process. It seems to be a really cumbersome task which not only requires time but also resources and dedication to achieve perfection in colorization. Here are the basic steps involved in colorization of Mughal-E-Azam. (Information source: Mouthshut.com).

Restoration:

"Restoration is an essential process of colorization. Intense restoration was undertaken as the frames were in bad condition. The negative that was being scanned was actually a Dupe negative that was made in early 80s after the original negative had been used for more than twenty years. Restoration included digitizing the 300,000 frames of the film at 2K resolution, gamma correction, contrast correction, scratch removal, pinholes removal, digital stitching of torn frames, stabilisation, fungus correction and various other digital restoration techniques. Each step involved processing 3000 GB of data. The work was done shot-by-shot or frame-by-frame depending on the condition of the negatives. All the above work was performed by a team of restoration and specialists working on high-end computers at Iris Interactive, Chennai. These frames were then made ready for colorization.

Colorization:

"In the west, colourisation has been looked at as an artificial work or as an unethical attempt to touch an artist’s creation. In this case, the purpose was to complete an unfulfilled dream of the creator. The task was undertaken by the original production company, Sterling Investment Corp. Pvt. Ltd. The original music composer re-recorded the music in a digital environment and the original artists always supported the idea. Hence, there is no unethical attempt." The software that was used has a very important feature that accepts only those colors that match the gray shades of the original input. This ensures that the final colors are as close as possible to the original. Since, the kind of colorization required for MUGHAL-E-AZAM was never done before (Mughal-e-Azam has a rich use of exquisite jewelry, fine clothing, grand sets), a special software had to be written to incorporate such features and that too for a 35 mm release. Since the film is an historical film, the color scheme was regularly discussed with historians. History books of medieval times were referred in order to get the essence of the Mughal Era. An in-depth research of 18 months was undertaken before the actual colourisation started in Oct, 2004 at Indian Academy of Arts and Animation, Mumbai. The whole technology development and execution was undertaken in India.

Post Production:

"The whole film (frame-by-frame) was then given a finished product look through colour balancing and was digitally converted to Wide-Screen format and then recorded to make a new negative at Rajtaru Videosonic, Mumbai."

original article

Reliance Fresh ?

Someone here needs to be told the meaning of "fresh". And its the Reliance people who have opened so many outlets which they proudly call Reliance Fresh. Its my third experience of buying vegetables from there and "not-so-coincidentally" every time i was disappointed with the condition of vegetables that they have. Dirty, stinky, stale and everything that qualifies as an antonym of fresh. I am talking about the outlets in Ghaziabad. They might be selling at a lower cost but I feel those days are a thing of a past when people compromised on quality over cost. And that too, the difference in cost is very marginal in this case. I have no idea whether all the outlets sell the same quality of vegetables but at least the Ghaziabad outlets SUCK !!

Creating transparent images in GIMP

Transparent images are useful when you are not certain about the page/image background where you want to put your image which could be an object, a logo, a signature or even a watermark to copyright your photographs. By making the background of such images transparent, you essentially create a mask which could then be overlay-ed on any other image and only the non transparent object/text/logo will float on the output image. This post gives a step-by-step tutorial on creating such transparent images on GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation Program). I find GIMP easier to use than Photoshop or any other image editing software and best of all, its open source ! :) There is a lot you can do with GIMP, but for now, lets see how can you make transparent images.

• Open the image in GIMP from which you want to remove the background. The more uniform the background is, more easier it is to remove it.
• Add an alpha channel (transparent layer) to this image.
  
• Right Click on the image->Layer->Transparency->Add Alpha Channel

• With the fuzzy selector (Keyboard shortcut is Z), click on the background which you want to remove and based on the uniformity of the background, all or part of it is selected on clicking on it.

• Now the last step is to remove this selected background. Click on the menu (Edit->Clear) or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+K. If there are still some patches left in the background then repeat steps 3 and 4 on each of those patches separately till you succeed in removing the background completely.
  
• Your transparent image is ready. Save it as a PNG or a GIF which support image transparency.

Happy Independence Day !

"Where the mind is without fear 
and the head is held high; 
Where knowledge is free; 
Where the world has not been 
broken up into fragments by 
narrow domestic walls; 
Where words come out from 
the depth of truth; 
Where tireless striving stretches 
its arms towards perfection; 
Where the clear stream of reason 
has not lost its way into the dreary 
desert sand of dead habit; 
Where the mind is lead forward by thee 
into ever-widening thought and action- 
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, 
let my country awake." 

  "GEETANJALI -  RABINDERANATH TAGORE"

K-Bakra - Part II

I once installed Airtel Messenger on my cellphone which is just like a yahoo messenger where email - ids get replaced by cellphone numbers and Instant Messages are replaced by smses. When you send a message to any number, the message is received as an sms but the sender is not you. Rather sender's number appears in the message at the starting which we somehow ignore noticing. Today I had taken a break from work and was lying on the bean bag and trying to explore this Airtel Messenger. Suddenly I thought of doing some mischief. I sent a message to Atul which said:

"Dear Mr. Atul. We would like to confirm the receipt of Rs.3257 spent by you on 3rd August,2007. Thanks for using HDFC Credit card"

Within a minute Atul's cellphone beeped and I really enjoyed seeing his expression turn from a smile->serious->tensed->frenzy till he had finished reading the entire sms. I was somehow confident that he will not pay much attention on the sender or even my number that would have appeared at the starting of the message. And I was right :) Atul started reading out the sms to everyone who did not know till now that this sms was sent by me. They started advising him. Someone suggested that he called HDFC customer care center while another person said he should check his transactions online. And Atul kept wondering (loudly :D) that when did he spend so much money and infact he had never used his credit card till now. By now I had let everyone know that it was me who had sent the message and everyone was enjoying . Only after 2-3 minutes of pure panic Atul read out the number from which the message had been sent. But obviously he did not remember my number so he had still no clue what was happening. But I finally told him that its my number and then we all laughed. Now I think (not only me, even others think) that we should have continued the drama a little longer. Atul was all set to call HDFC people. Also, it would have been great had we recorded the whole episode. But anyway, everyone (including Atul) had fun once the mystery was solved.


Atul bhai, apne is chele ko maaf kar dena ;)

CVM ...

Just yesterday I had taken a paddle rickshaw till Sector 18 from my office. I reached there in 15 minutes and another 15 minutes were wasted fetching change for my Rs. 50 note. I needed Rs. 15 and I asked at all the shops near the Center Stage Mall (CSM) but all the shopkeepers denied (read LIED) about having change. As a last attempt I went to a momos & rolls stall and asked if he had change. As was expected, he said he did not have. I had lost my temper till now. I asked him if I buy a roll from him will he have change then and he smiled shamelessly. Felt like slapping that guy but it would have been injustice if I slapped only him :) I would have to slap each and every shopkeeper then who lied to me about not having change even though they had been running their shops since morning. Anyway, I had to buy an egg roll so that I could pay that poor rickshaw puller who had been waiting all along.

Yesterday's incident just made me feel more strongly that just like we have ATM's everywhere, we should also have something called CVM's (Change Vending Machine) distributed across the entire city. CVM's (i like to call it the "Chhutta" Vending Machine) is something that I have given a lot of thought and being an Image Processing guy, I even thought of an Image Processing solution to build such a system. The machine should also not be a problem to build and infact I have a complete design of such a system in my mind. Probably I should think of patenting it :D Just kiddin. But I have no idea about the feasibility of CVMs and if need for such a machine is only felt by me or there are other people too who think on similar lines.

KritiKalSecureScan completes 2 years today

KritiKal SecureScan, a subsidiary of KritiKal Solutions Pvt. Ltd. completed two years today on the 8th of August and to celebrate the day we had a cake cutting ceremony in the evening followed by a group photograph. It was decided that the youngest member of the "family" should cut the cake and so Ravi, our office boy, cut the cake and it felt so great that I am working at a place where all are treated as equal irrespective of their pockets. I am not saying that other companies wouldn't involve everyone in their social events. But this is something I like about KritiKal and probably we are still a small group which keeps us a close knit unit. Way to go !! ..

The KSS Family

PB bole to Piyush Bakra ....

I was in the office basement discussing a Vision problem with Anoop and Phani on the white board when Shome came in. I just strolled upto him and he pulled a buckle of my jeans from behind. As is his playful nature, I just ignored him and got on with the discussion again. NS was busy on the phone while Nehul and Apurva were busy staring at their screens when I last turned my back towards them. A minute later Nehul came up to Phani and took away his cellphone. And seconds later I could hear giggles behind my back. I just looked down and a network cord had got entangled to one of my legs. When I tried to get rid of it I realized that it was hanging from the buckle of my jeans just like a tail :D And there was a burst of laughter suddenly and it wasn't long before I realized that I had been made a "Bakra". Apurva had taken a couple of snaps with one from "closeup" of my tail-ed back view :D Here is that unfortunate snap :( :)Good one guyz ! I owe you one ;)

Videos of KalaKriti's events on Youtube

1. Gajodhar ki mumbai yaatra - Akhilesh, Saurabh, Gaurav, Tarun
2. Guncha Koi Mere Naam Kar Diya - Piyush
3. Teri Deewani - Piyush

KalaKriti rocks the stage ...

It was almost an year ago when a bunch of culturally active members at KritiKal formed a cultural club named KalaKriti to promote and organize cultural events at KritiKal from time to time. Yesterday (5th August) was KritiKal's anniversary and we had a function at Hans Plaza, Delhi where there were a host of cultural events organized by KalaKriti.The KalaKriti members (Atul, Phanindra, Karthik, Saurabh, Gaurav, Deeksha, Akhilesh, Nehul, Tarun and myself) reached the venue by 5pm since we had to set up the stage. The function was scheduled to start at 7pm. We started with our pre-function preparations. Nehul started setting up the buzzer right away while Atul positioned himself with his synthesizer. While the music system was being set up, we had a last round of practice of all the events. The buzzer ditched us at the last moment, though when we tested it at the office it worked perfectly. The guests started coming by 7pm but we had to wait till all the professors had arrived. Finally the function started at 8pm with ganesh vandana by Atul and me. Then Nehul (Master of Ceremony) requested Prof. Bala to say a few words before we started with the cultural events. Tarun's high voltage (rocking) song performance of "Aadat" set the perfect mood for the rest of the evening. Next in line was Phani's rendition of In Dino from Life in a METRO which had a charming effect on the audience. Then came the star event of the evening, "Gajodhar ki Mumbai Yaatra", a skit performed by Saurabh(Baijnath), Gaurav(Manohar), Tarun(Chachcha) and our local raju srivastava - Akhilesh(Gajodhar). And boy !! From the moment these people took the stage, people were rolling with laughter at every dialogue of Gajodhar bhaiyya and every action of Chachcha ji. Then I had a couple of solo performances one of which was special in the sense that I had never before played an instrument on my own song on stage. Last event of the evening was Antakshari hosted by Gaurav and Deeksha. Though Deeksha seemed nervous at the starting but she soon got used to the stage and it went kewl (read cool). There were four teams whose names were based on our products and the captain of the teams were members of that product. The teams were Trazer ke Deewane(Phani), LPRS ke Parwaane(Me), Zenscan ke Mastaane(Akhilesh) and Amsaki ke Afsaane(Tarun). There were four rounds, normal word round, dumb charades, hint round and Audio/Visual round. Not only the teams but also the audience enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Finally we had a sumptuous dinner but the party was not over yet. We had a cool sound system, we had laptop with cool numbers, and we had the perfect tempo for a DJ nite :) So we danced and danced and for a moment everyone was back to his college days. People who were scattered around the hall were dragged to the dance floor and we ensured no one had been spared from doing a jig or two. A fun packed night, smiling faces all around and most importantly, a satisfied mind that our efforts paid off. All the events were thought and practiced in not more than 5 days. And with busy schedules and everyone being in different projects it was only commendable how each one of us practiced after office sometimes in the office basemet and sometimes at my house. In all this I missed out an important event. The background music for all the events be it the skit or the songs. Atul was on the synthesizer all along standing at one corner of the stage. And he is the best keyboard player I have ever met in my life. He is just too good. But at the pace I am learning from him, the day is not far when I'll be the best, hehe. Just kiddin.

Three cheers for KalaKriti, hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray
Three cheers for KritiKal, hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray

Photographs taken by Deepak, Phani and Me. Do visit the album KritiKal Anniversary 07 for more photographs.