Candle in the Wind (Goodbye England’s Rose)
Perhaps one of the greatest classic of our generation that was viewed by billions of people worldwide in 1997. Sir Elton John performed Goodbye England’s Rose as a tribute to Lady Diana right before Earl Spencer (Diana’s brother) described her as “the most hunted person of the modern age“. Sir Elton John has declined to perform this version of his original ’73 (dedicated to Marilyn Monroe) song (unless requested by her sons). The lyrics are by Bernie Taupin.
A truly powerful and poignant song about the short yet remarkable and benevolent life Princess of Wales lived just like a candle in the wind.
Lyrics
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart
You called out to our country
And you whispered to those in pain
Now you belong to heaven
And the stars spell out your name
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England’s greenest hills
Your candle’s burned out long before
Your legend ever will
These empty days without your smile
This torch we’ll always carry
For our nation’s golden child
And even though we try
The truth brings us to tears
All our words cannot express
The joy you brought us through the years
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart
Goodbye England’s rose
From a country lost without your soul
Who’ll miss the wings of your compassion
More than you’ll ever know
How does the Canada’s CRTC’s Usage Based Billing policy affects me
DSL seemed like a bliss with unlimited internet in Mississauga, though at the time I felt I will miss my previous 60GB/month cable provider. Currently, we are paying 31.95 + 9.95 + HST per month with Teksavvy for a 200GB cap. Then I thought in mid-December, “Teksavvy came up with cable with unlimited Internet (in my area), that’s progress!”. Now my thoughts have changed.
Come CRTC, and the anguish follows . Bell and Rogers lobbyists successfully pursued CRTC to end their competitors like Teksavvy. How ? They simply introduced a fair usage policy called as Usage Based Billing. Once again fair. 25 Gigs maximum per month (in Ontario) followed by 2 CAD per Gig after that. That is download and upload included. And then they introduced a totally new class of insurance called as the Bandwidth Insurance. Want to go beyond 25 ? We need some (read as lot) insurance. At 14.75 CAD per month you can get up to 120 GIG. At 55, you get 275. That is the new unlimited. How is this fair ? Bell and Rogers are so scared of the competition, that they changed the law. I think we should follow their footsteps and change the definition of fair.
Let us keep aside the politics of this sad and disappointing policy. I have been thinking how this will affect me in everyday life. So, 25 GB, here we go.
I am student at McMaster University. For those who don’t know, it is in Hamilton, 40 Kms from Mississauga. I pay 169 CAD for a monthly GO pass. Being a Ph.D student means I don’t necessarily have to go to university everyday in non-teaching or no-course term and can work from home with remote desktop. That means I take the 66.67 CAD student 10-ride tickets as and when I need. I think I probably cannot do that anymore. At least, not often. Which means, GO gets more out of me. (remote desktop = lot of bytes)
Me and my husband’s family stays back in India and we video chat with them few times a week. I also audio chat on skype everyday. How much of that needs to be checked now ?
Can I upload those 500 MB of photos on flickr ? Already dropping the plan to get Netflix.
Got bored of reading that research paper ? Let me check some new songs on Youtube. Can I do that often now ? Can I upload the 2 GB high def video that I took in Cuba on Youtube which takes more than 2 hours on my internet ?
I think, I might as well uninstall peer-to-peer softwares like utorrent.
Well, I have an iPad with Global and CityTV apps on it. I stream Fringe, House, Modern Family and few other TV shows on it. It also keeps on polling my g-mail every few minutes (15 or so) to check my e-mail. Many such apps need to use internet-on-the-run. I think Roger wants me to buy their Sim card. I am not.
So now the evil plan of CRTC (potentially working for Bell or Rogers or both) is revealed. They want me to buy every other service they provide, including the cable. They want to tell me there ain’t no difference between Bell and Teksavvy. The rates are competitive – after we killed the competition. They will remind me that “I could go the new unlimited at only 100CAD/ month (and the bill comes out to be 113CAD)”.
Is CRTC filled with educated illiterates ? Or are they just ignorant folks employed by the Corporates ? Should we also change the definition of Customer Service ? Will Oxford hear us ?
Before I can start using my Internet today, I will have to visit Teksavvy’s Internet Usage page and then decide my Internet Surfing Potential for the day. Probably it’s the day to surf the static html page with no images on them (defined as Normal Potential) or the day to switch off the modem for rest of the month (defined as Null Potential). I am already wondering, at this rate, will my cell-phone provider, WindMobile, survive ? Oh well, I might as well move to USA or even India – where unlimited actually means unlimited.
I have so many more thoughts to speak out loud but I need to stop writing and publish this ASAP, loosing my bytes already.
PS: Despite that rant, I am not loosing hope. Raise you voice. Sign the petition at http://openmedia.ca/meter
Moving a step ahead. Blogging from Apple’s iPad.
I am in the habit of beginning a new post with the lines – “it’s been a while…” or something similar. But it has indeed been a while. A lot has changed during this while. I have moved from being a bachelor to married and from desktops to laptops to iPads. Recently as a wedding gift my husband – a man whom I impressed with this very blog – gifted me an iPad, Apple’s very new product and as usual a “revolutionary one”.
I thought I would use it as a blogging machine as well and here I am writing from Columbus in Ohio while searching for the popular German village on this very device. Here are my few cents about this device.
General opinion: Mind blowing. Exceptional graphics. Damn expensive. High recurring costs – you have to pay for the best apps, and subscribe to at&t’s data plan to have Internet on the go. Needless to say the services are ok at best in Canada.
For the reader: Excellent reading on this book-size machine. The brightness is awesomely controlled so that I can read with ease in extreme brightness or darkness – something that has always bothered me about LCD. I won’t mind saying that device will successfully replace the concept of physical books. And why not, when I can download all the classics for free ( you need to install amazon’s kindle with whisper sync application for free for this) or a negligible price and help Canada keeps it’s Kyoto promise? I guess the later is just a by product.
This device is so cool that Kindle has gone down by 60 USD since I got this little thing in my hand. I am glad that we did not opt for amazon’s Kindle.
So let me return to hunt the German village again. Adios!
When knowledge is a trap
We are all unknowingly narrow-minded for our thoughts can only span as far as our senses can perceive.
Tolerance is what keeps this world as peaceful as it is, so much so that wisdom is imitated as suppression of intolerance. Our actions and thoughts are limited by the society, the people, the city, the religion that our neighborhood recognizes with. We are so consumed by our despise and intolerance that we cannot see beyond the horizon, and before we realize we are trapped in the vicinity of our own knowledge.
The thought about ‘traveling the world’ is not merely exotic but rather intellectual and wise. Its people, the conversations and the ability to perceive life from all its facets are the key to release ourselves from the trap of our little knowledge.
The 15.
So, I had a meme few days back from Madhuri. The electricity dripped in the ITB today, and I returned home to write this. The first 15 books I can think of, in 15 minutes, that will always be within me.
To them I tag a word –
A word that reminds me of that book.
Thus, the 15.
- Relationships – Of Human Bondage, Maugham.
- Sarcasm – Cakes and Ale, Maugham.
- Spirituality – Razor’s Edge, Maugham.
- Victims – All quiet on the Western Front, Remarque.
- Freedom – Mother, Gorky – Freedom
- Dreams – The Alchemist, Coelho – Dreams
- Love – A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway – Love.
- Power – The Godfather, Puzo – Power
- Catcher in the Rye
- Savor – The Prophet, Gibran
- Wisdom – Theater, Maugham –
- Expression – My Name is Red, Pamuk
- Innocence – The Curious incident of the dog in the night time, Mark Haddon
- Growing-up – To kill a Mocking Bird, Lee
- Disgrace – The Disgrace, Coetzee
And it makes me feel stale. Last one I read was Scarlet Letter.
To friends that I pass this meme,
shall list those 15 they can think of in 15 minutes,
tagged by a single word
For all of their wisdom.
or None.
Library Thing
Really ?
Sequestered Words 