Walk Alone

Started using sitecopy. Had some initial config problems but a mail to the users-list sorted it out. After all, it was ported to win32 - I hardly expected it to run out of the box. So what does it do?

From the site

sitecopy is for easily maintaining remote web sites. The program will upload files to the server which have changed locally, and delete files from the server which have been removed locally, to keep the remote site synchronized with the local site with a single command.

I was a bit troubled when I saw my bandwidth usage go vertical - I do have 3 GB of it, but hey, we all are suckers for bandwidth. A look at the stats showed two things.

• The wiki functionality, while being a good feature, was guzzling the b/w.
• FTP transfers - upload, check, correct, upload, repeat cycle - was also taking up b/w.

I first locked all pages and set ACLs for those that were setup for collaborative stuff (that’s what a wiki is for). Next I setup Apache on my machine to carry out modifications locally. The final version would be uploaded. This caused another problem. Being impulsive by nature, I upload to my remote site after every trivial change. Using an FTP client became an agonizing experience - waiting for the client to connect, navigating to different directories in local and remote panes simultaneously, uploading and deleting stuff as necessary without missing out any edits… and watching the COMMAND-RESPONSE sequence go by. As the saying goes, I was ready for the next level.

Sitecopy fit the bill exactly. I just keep editing my local site, turning it into what I want the world to see. When I feel like it, sitecopy -u mysite updates the remote site. And it works in the reverse too, with the -s switch. So I can download any pages that visitors to the wiki may have edited. And it may be an initial euphoric reaction, but I feel sitecopy is faster than an FTP transaction.

The experiences of 26th and 27th of July would rank as my most unwanted adventures. It was the first time I was a part of an urban disaster - I didn’t enjoy it.

The day started with me bunking the college. I left home at one in the afternoon. It had started raining. At the college, the schedule had been cancelled and I found myself sitting for a grand total of one lecture instead of the elective and tuts I had expected. By three, our college looked like it had been set down in a swamp. The quadrangle was filled and water had submerged the steps at the entrance. All we could see was a flat expanse of water - no road, nothing. I was ready to wait it out (though not for 24 hours), but my friends prevailed upon me to start the journey home. Four of us moved out.

Twenty steps outside the building and it was clear that an adventure lay ahead of us. Fully drenched within a few steps and facing roads under 2-3 feet of water, sometimes flowing with great force, we covered one-third of the way home - upto Oshiwara.

The floods had worsened by then. Traffic was breaking down. The water, now clearly sewage water, was climbing above the waist. I discovered what a struggle it is to just stand in waist deep flowing water, forget moving through it. In accordance with Murphy’s laws, my sandal gave way at that moment. We moved around in the flooded zone for close to twenty minutes.

The others decided to crash at a friend’s place in Andheri. I grabbed a friend’s arm and limped through the water as we made a dash for a BEST bus. As it crawled down south, I finally gave up and decided to go to my aunt’s place instead - it was in the locality. Packed away the sandals in plastic, got down and marched barefoot to her place.

The bus broke down a few metres ahead of where I got down. My friends tried to walk ahead but neck-deep water forced them off. They finally landed up at an acquaintance’s house. The next day, they simply walked home, like the hundreds, if not thousands, of Mumbaikars who had been stranded overnight.

As for me, I tried getting a rick in the morning. Not seeing any, I stepped back into the house. As the day wore on, the enormity of the disaster finally rang home. At noon, my father called me up - it was a Long March. My friends had done it in the morning when I was looking for a rick. I stepped out thirty minutes later after fortifying myself with lunch. Amboli to Malad. In just under two hours. The longest walk I ‘ve done to date.

And it was all true. Crushed cars with hay stuffed in transmission housing. Buffaloes lying dead and swollen in the streets. Lines of BEST buses - our usual rescuers in floods - disabled on the roads. The sewage drain at Oshiwara, flowing like a muddy river. Volunteers helping out in flooded areas - marking out lanes on the flooded roads for people to walk through safely. Giving tea and eatables. Flagging down vehicles to carry those walking upto Borivili and Dahisar.

It was a memorable experience. But one that I could have done without.

Thats my life this year. I had predicted the first half to be tough - it turned out to be disastrous. I appeared for the semester exams contemplating jumping ship. Hardly the best frame of mind. And so, worsened my situation. Now I’m the last among the equals, if I ever was among the equals. And I don’t have to predict it - the rest of the year is going to be (tough? no way!) a one way ticket to hell.

I’ve led an amazingly dichotomous existence through it all. Even as college grew more frustrating, I slipped effortless into the world of computers and anime (thats what I’ll be calling manga here). I spent more time than could be justified watching Japanese animation on TV and designing websites which nobody ever viewed. Collected a bunch of experiences along the way. Even as the situation worsened, I turned more towards my other activities. It reached a nadir just as my college restarted.

Things snapped into place when I took stock of my situation in the face of my peer group’s achievements. And it was bad. I guess its never too late to fight back. Maybe I can salvage something.

After all, we get as much time to do our job as everybody else. We get one lifetime.

I’m back. Again. This time for good.

The template you see is a direct rip from the DokuWiki template. Due credit has been given - just above the bottom bar below. Oh yes, I’m using DokuWiki on my site now. Its better.

Among other things, I find myself frequently sitting in front of my machine, doing nothing in particular. Ironically, I’ve taken on more things to do. Plus there are a lot of things that I have to do, perforce.

Keep watching this space.