I Dreamed A Dream lyrics

There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hopes apart
As they turn your dream to shame

He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came

And still I dream he'll come to me
And we'll live our lives together
But there are dreams that cannot be!
And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

Today i was facing a new type of scenario, where my friend has lost all the data and files, which was a collection of past three years. yes.. you read it right... all the efforts and documents collected over the period of three years. When it comes to data, just like wine, the older it is, the golden it is. But whatever it is, how many years it is, all data are just data, combinations of binaries stored somewhere. Most of us, when a file gets deleted accidentally or unintentionally, we just try to live with missing it forever, than trying to find a way to recover. Even if we think otherwise, there are lot of File/Data Recovery Softwares available now. And with those, you just do recover the files, just like that.

But consider the following scenario:

> You've Win2000 installed in your machine

> You wanted to upgrade to WinXP (or Vista, etc). So, you asked someone (A Computer Administrator / Support Engineer from the Software/Hardware Provider) to install WinXP

> He just comes and installs WinXP and leaves. (everything is good till now..)

> When you login to your system, you find your D Drive "EMPTY"!!!!!!!!!!!! (What!!!!)

All the files and folders inside the D Drive is gone now. He does not have to touch D Drive, at any cause. But, he did choose to format and partition D Drive also, and the innocent OS Installer, obeyed the master and formatted D Drive. The entire drive is gone, adding to that, you have a completely different OS Version on your machine now.

I faced this challenge today, from one of my friend. And my friend was so much concerned, as there was no backup taken ever, and decided to write these files to DVDs just yesterday, and this tragedy happened today. My friend called me immediately, hence i could tell her few very little , but very very very important, things to follow, in order to , atleast try recovering files.

"Try!!!!!"

"is there any way to do that????"

well... i'm now typing these lines, as the files are getting recovered and copied to another drive, with the exact folder structure as it was.

coming to the precautions.. (here, i'm referring to the things to take care, after this tragedy happened and for successful recover of files)... also these are the constraints, for recovering the files/data successfully...

> Make sure that no files/activity is done involving the formatted Drive. Any new files copied to that drive, will overwrite the previously formatted files, resulting in unsuccessful recovery of those files infected by these new files.

> thats it.. no other constraint. i would actually give more stress on the previous point.

Once the above constraint is met, you just need an extra storage space, to store/copy the required formatted files. I would suggest an External HDD, with atleast twice (just in case) the space required to backup the data.

Just download a command-line utility called TestDisk. (i know, you're waiting for this s/w or utility name to be mentioned...). Its completely an Open-Source Software with GPL. This is not just for File/Data Recovery, it does magic and wonders, plays very well with your storage and partitions. It really an awesome tool and has features for both novices and experts. Let me give you a short intro about this Magician called TestDisk:

Whats TestDisk?

TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.

What can it do?

Fix partition table, recover deleted partition

DOS (either real or in a Windows 9x DOS-box),

Actually, this is the second time i'm using this software. First time, my C Drive got corrupted (because of the security feature in Vista), and while trying to format C Drive, since my D Drive was the extended partition of C Drive (all Dell Laptops comes with this kind of configuration, when you ask for separate D Drive), D Drive also got formatted. My situation then was far worse than what happened to my friend now. That time, i had a laptop, with nothing in it, no OS, no partitions, nothing. just a blank 60K worth piece, having lost my 250GB of files. Even to run this software, i need something.

so, this is what i did then, 

> download this software in my External HDD

> insert bootable OS CD

> go to the command prompt option, while booting

> invoke this TestDisk Utility

> Try to partition the corrupted partitions, and caz of the security feature in Vista, it wont allow to partition/format few areas in HDD (reserved for the system safety)

> No luck with partitioning and couldnt write MBR, hence switched to Recover Mode and recovered all my 250GB of data.

so, next time, use this tool, but take utmost care while using. A Very big warning from me, on handling this software, and misuse, would make you to throw your computer to trash.

(about the subject, what to do.. nothing but the twitter effect.. ;)  )

This one is a cross-post, of a very good post which i read today. i dont know the author, but me and him has one major thing in the common list (i.e) watched "Kolangal" serial. I really dont know, how i managed to watch few episodes of it, when my mom is here. i dont have any other choice, than watching it. utter crap it was. one such person, who got blessed by watching this serial, has made a commendable work , in penning it down in words (i still believe, words cannot describe the amount of satisfaction you get as soon as that serial ends).

Few words/sentences i totally enjoyed in his post were:

read it and get mokcha (the only way to heaven, if u had ever made the sin of watching this crap) 

 “What Crap!!”……. was lying on my bed on a Saturday morning..

 ‘who the F is banging on the door on a Saturday morning’, I mused..

 I stood up… rubbing my eyes… walked upto the door… opened it…

 “Hello”

 I looked down… and saw a short old lady standing at my door smiling at me…

 I tried my best to respond in a same tone… “Hii”… with a forced smile…

 “Son, I stay in the apartment right above yours. I wanted to discuss with you something…”… I guess I heard this

 only … was too sleepy to pay attention…

 Still… I replied, “ok…”

 “Can I come inside…?”, she asked

 “Yep… sure…”, I led her to the drawing room which was obviously – messed up (being a bachelor’s apartment).

 She looked at the sofa… bent a bit… held the side of the sofa… other hand on the seat… her legs and arms trembling…

 and she finally bent further and sat down..

 Well… that for sure opened my eyes…

 “Son, I am an old woman, so I am sorry if I am bothering you at this time of the day.”, she smiled.

 “No problems aunty. Please tell me”, I said

 “Son, I came to know from neighbours that you work in some computer related stuff. I was having a problem in

 sending an e-mail. I am new to this. I have never worked in this thing. So I thought, if you can help me”, said the

 old woman smiling…

 ‘What the F. The production support which I do in my company was already on my nerves. And now this lady comes at

 this time of the day and asks to repair her computer. Sending a Mail!!!!!!...’, I mused

 “Sure”…  ‘I don’t have an option’… latter half was not audible... I hope…

 I went back to bedroom… pulled my towel underneath the pile of clothes… cursing my fate… went to bathroom… washed

 my face… came out… and what I see…

 Her smiling face…!!!

 “Lets go aunty”, I said…

 The alley outside my apartment was not broad enough… and her baby steps assured that I walk the snail’s speed till

 I get bored to death…

 “It is such a beautiful morning… Sun’s out… cool breeze… perfect time to go and do some jogging…  … …”, she went

 on… every statement of hers was followed by ‘yaa’ from my side…

 Anyway… we reached…

 I entered…

 It was silent…

 … I heard something… I guess it was my heartbeat…

 I heard her breathing…

 She looked at my feet and said “You can take out your slippers over there…”

 ‘Hmm… cleanliness freak!!’

 I took out my slippers… went inside.

 It was one of the most beautiful drawing rooms I have ever seen.

 “Nobody at home?”, I asked her

 “I live alone, son”, smiled the old woman.

 ‘Alone, it was so difficult for me to believe that. This old lady who even found it difficult to sit on a sofa… had

 such a beautiful drawing room.’

 “There it is, my headache”, she pointed towards the laptop on the desk.

 ‘Koool….. log in… send a mail for her… and run back to bed…’

 I switched on the laptop… asked her the login id and pass and opened the outlook…

 “Well … my son bought me this laptop. He is such a sweet boy…”, she smiled

 I smiled back… concentrating on the screen.

 “He came … gave me the laptop… connected everything for me… the internet… I don’t know what it does… how it helps…

 but he told me using internet I can see the world… he taught me how to send the mail… how to receive it… how to

 make an email… how to start the computer… how to shut the computer down…”…. Second round…!! she went on and on…

 I smiled back…

 “So what is the problem, aunty”,  I said pointing towards outlook.

 She looked at the screen. Her eyes almost closed with the radiations from the pc.

 “I … I used to send mail…”….

 “I don’t know where I can find the mail which I sent….”, she said

 “In the Sent mails probably…”, I replied…

 “Ahhh… Where’s that…??”, she asked…

 I took the mouse from her… “Give it to me aunty!!”

 I went to Sent Items and showed her the sent mails.

 “Aunty, are these the ones you sent?”, I asked

 She touched the screen…. clapped her hands in jubilation… “ohh yesss... wonderful…. here they are…!!!.... they got

 stuck here… that’s why they did not reach him” , she smiled as a child.

 I was confused but I guess I understood her ignorance.

 “Aunty, If you see the mails in this folder which is ‘Sent Items’, this means… that the mails have been sent.”, I

 said.

 “Ohh… You mean… the mails are already sent to him!!”, she asked

 I saw the screen. Saw the name to which the mail was sent.

 “Ya… Aunty. The mail has been sent to Ashwin Tyagi”…”Who is he?”, I asked.

 “He is my sweeet son… I call him Ashu”, she smiled.

 “Hmm…”

 “Aunty, Why did you think that the mail was not sent?”, I asked.

 “Son, Ashu told me that if we click on the receive button, we receive emails. So I used to send a mail. Then I used

 to click on Receive. And I used to find no e-mail. I again used to send one. I clicked on receive. I found no

 e-mail. I have been doing this past 5 months. I guess you are mistaken. There is surely some problem”, she said.

 My heart skipped a beat.

 5 months!!

 I opened the Sent Items again.

 My sleepy eyes missed the long list of e-mails sent to Ashwin when I saw it the first time.

 ‘Beta Ashu…. How are you… ? I hope you are fine. I am missing you so much. Come home some time.’

 ‘Beta Ashu… did you get my previous mail? I did not get your reply…’

 ‘Beta Ashu… I understand you will be busy with your work… don’t worry… reply whenever you are free’

 ‘Beta Ashu… I thought I will mail you… I am doing good… I have made kheer for you. Do come’

 ‘Beta Ashu… yesterday I had some pain in my neck… now it is fine… I applied jhandu balm.’

 ……

 ….

 ..

 List was endless…

 And painful

 Was it the radiation from pc or was it something else in my eyes…!!

 Last email with the same ID was –

 ‘This is the test mail’

 Swallowing what I saw, “Aunty”, opening the last mail, “Who sent this mail?”

 “Ohh… this mail was sent by Ashu only to show me how to send the mail”, smiled the old woman.

 I did not know how to react… when she spoke

 “I know there is some problem with the computer. I am sure. He called me a month back. He was in a meeting. So I

 could not ask him”

 “He works for a big company…. Earns a lot now. I am so proud of him”, she smiled.

 I did not want to. But I did say – “You should be aunty…”

 “Yess…”, she said with her charismatic smile … “He is such a grown up now… so responsible… he is married to a

 beautiful girl who used to be his classmate. Now he has one boy and one girl…”, she smiled and said like a child…

 “Both used to work out of town, so they shifted over there 3 years back. He used to call me earlier, but then he

 got busy… so we could not talk much. My ears started giving me some problem and I was not able to listen to him on

 phone, so he gave me this laptop.”, she said.

 I was still… I was listening to her… and was watching her smile which was excited by the thought of her son.

 “So, can you fix this son?”, she asked

 I did not want to say that it is working fine.

 I didn’t have an answer better than this - “Aunty, I guess, the send button is working fine but the receive button

 is not working. So Ashu is getting your mail but he does not know that you are not getting his mail. But I don’t

 know how to fix it.”

 “ohh…”, she looked a bit sad.

 I was silent.

 All I could do.

 “…. Can you do me one more favour?”, she asked

 “Sure aunty… sure”, I said. If I could do anything today for her!!

 “It is very irritating for me to type. Hitting those buttons! It takes me ages to find the characters. If Send

 thing is working, I want to send one last mail to my son. Can you type one last mail for me?”, she smiled.

 I had no option. Yet again. But this time I guess I wanted to do it. I wanted to relieve her from this expectation

 of receiving a mail.

 “Sure aunty, tell me what should I type”, I opened a new mail.

 “Type…”

 “Beta Ashu… This is my neighbour typing from my pc…”

 “There seemed to be some problem in sending mails. So I called him to help me.”

 “He also works for a big company like you.”

 “He found the problem but he does not know how to fix it.”

 “The problem is that send button is working fine… but the receive button is not working. Hence, I am not able to

 receive your mails when I click on the receive button.”

 “Beta, it has been 5 months. Please come and meet me. I am missing you so much.”

 “I do not want this laptop. I do not want to see the world in internet.”

 “I want to see you.”

 “Come home.”

 “Your mother…”

 I typed the last words…

 I gasped and turned towards her…

 I guess I saw tears in her eyes … with the same smile…

 She wiped her eyes… smiled “Yess….please send the mail”

 I clicked on send.

 She stood up. Turned around. Went to the bedroom.

 I guess I heard her crying.

 I felt lonely…

 She came. Hurried towards the kitchen.

 “Do you love kheer??”, she asked.

 I smiled… with the tears which just didn’t go “Yes aunty…”

 From the refrigerator she took out the bowl and gave it to me.

 “Have this. I made it with my own hands…”, she smiled.

 I took the bowl from her. And I saw my hands were trembling.

 “Thanks Aunty… Thanks a lot”, I said.

 “Thank you Beta. I am so sorry… that I disturbed you this morning”, she said.

 A ‘tear-let’ fell from my eyes. But I guess I did well in hiding it.

 “No Aunty… Please don’t say so… do let me know whenever you need me”, I said.

 “Thanks beta”, she said.

 I put on my slippers. Went outside. “Bye Aunty”, I said.

 “Bye Beta”, I saw the last look on her face which saw the loneliness that was going to come.

 She closed the door.

 I stopped at the stairs.

 I cried for the lady who “sent” her love many a times… but did not “receive” anything in return…

"ur Parents expectations are not ur money... they want ur love.."

"

we might have had few friends in school,

  by the time we come to college,

    they become child-hood friends...

we might have had lot of friends in college,

  by the time we finish college,

    they all become golden friends...

but we get lot more friends,

  as we start working in company,

    as tenure in a company is temporary so are they...

but as we go around the world,

  we still have few friends left,

    whom we call as very-close friends...

and they grow older just as us,

  their priority changes just as ours,

    they get busy with their personal life just like us...

and why the focus just on friends,

  why not the respectable relatives,

    most importantly our parents and family...

our relatives are always there to make occasions special,

  they are there when we want them and also when we don't,

   i think otherwise for our day to day life...

our life is nothing without our parents and family now,

  but our journey is little longer,

    as they have arrived here long before us...

by the way whats this all about,

  nothing too complicate or intricate,

    'just someone to talk with at later part of our life'...

by no means its so simple,

  neither it can be taken for granted,

    nor it can be ignored...

now we're too busy,

  too many things happening to us,

    too little we get time to think about that...

now we have all those persons,

  whoever we like to talk with,

    whenever and wherever we need to...

when all these running-around slows down,

  just walking alone in the roadside,

    makes us feel like your life is hell...

when no one is around to talk then,

  its scary to even think of that,

    a situation worse than nightmare...

we cant get adjusted so easily to new person then,

  just to avoid that situation then,

    'get married now'.

"