My mobile under attack

My mobile under attack Since the time I got my first mobile way back in 1996 I added a source of new trouble to my life. To start with, my first mobile, which was bulky for my pocket so mostly I used to leave it on my office desk, practically my mobile, was used as a cordless phone. This story of my not carrying mobile on my body went on until 2003 when I retired from BHEL. After my retirement in 2003, the age of smartphone with Blackberry started, which became a kind of status symbol. I too owned one which was basic one given by the company with which I am associated now. It was with keypad, I switched to a swanky one by exchanging the basic one but it was not that smart as the latest one, good for messaging with roller for navigating instead of keypad. The roller had issues and I got that checked n number of times. In 2008, Android operating system was launched. First, I owned a Nokia set but it had recurring problem with the hardware so I switched to Samsung Note. I discovered that all these mobiles last only for 2 years trouble free then frequent freezing of the set start, I would pull out the battery and then reinsert the same, and the mobile would start working. So I reconciled with the fact that I have to change my smartphone every 2 years. I am seized with new type of trouble now. There have been two attempts from hackers on my phone to access my bank account, which of course I could dodge. But this call which I received last week is quite unnerving. Generally, I do not lift unknown number but somehow that day I attended the call. There was no sound initially but then I heard my own voice at the other end. I was giving direction to the delivery boy of Swiggy about the location of my flat. The line got disconnected. Then again got call from the same number and again I heard my own voice of some other day when I was discussing about Windmill with my team at Madurai.Again the line got disconnected. I could know that my voice had been recorded. Quite often I get call from my mobile provider when I am informed that the call is being recorded for training purpose but this was not such a call. Then I read about Pegasus, thought to myself that “OH, my God, my number is in the hallowed list!” “Why me?” I was worried and wanted to take some action. My wife noticed that I was worried so she advised to get in touch with Babulal and Soumya , my team mates, Soumya is a nerd. They came to my flat next day. Soumya took my set, played with the setting, and informed me there was no recording in the set. He explained that when I am talking then the sound bites gets recorded in a third location and not in my set. He asked whether I have been downloading from unknown sources and I replied in negative. Then he informed that all those videos forwarded in WhatsApp could carry such spyware. I remembered to have seen some forwarded funny videos but never gave a thought to that. He took my set and systematically uninstalled all those apps of social network sites. Deleted all cache memories. He transferred all my media files to my desktop and thus did some kind of software cleaning. Now I do not get that ghost call but still I am worried, “Why target me, I am just an ordinary citizen and not a person of interest”. There must be some mistake by those agencies to put me in the network of that spyware, a kind of technical glitch. I am still wondering why did someone played the record of my voice? Was it to intimidate me? Are they trying to find out whether i am doing inside trading or they want to blackmail me. Come to think of it i have Google Home and Alexa which are constantly listening and who knows may be recording all the conversation in my house. Now i attend my mobile by keeping a distance between me and my devices, though Amazon informed me all my privacies are secured.

My tryst with hockey

My tryst with hockey …………………….. I belong to that age when India was top in hockey and a gold medal in Olympic was sure. During my school days, I played football, cricket and badminton but not hockey. Among my childhood friends none played hockey excepting Teja ( Tejbahadur Singh Ahluwalia ). It was a treat to watch Tej’s stick play. He would scoop the ball from the ground and then bounce it on hockey stick for minutes together without letting it fall. While returning from school he would be walking with a hockey stick in hand and ball sometimes rolling on the ground and then again scooping it up. Our school on Reading Road ,New Delhi was next to a municipality school known as MB school for boys. There was no hockey game in our school, our school was mostly in football, in the recess all would be playing football. The boys of the neighboring MB school would play hockey. We used to hear about one particular player Gindi a lot. Whenever Gindi would play, we would watch him play from the rampart, he was a magician with hockey stick, and the ball would stick to the toe as though a magnetic force is holding it there. Whenever we would return from Connaught Place, we would walk down from Madras Hotel towards Gole Market when on the way we would come across National Hockey stadium, where sometimes we would drop in if any match were in progress. In IIT also I played mostly football and badminton. Our hostel Patel Hall had a very good hockey player, senior to us known as P J Singh and he representing IIT,Kharagpur . Dheer was in my hostel who had studied in MB School next to our school so we were pretty pally. In 1964 sometimes-in winter, he brought one Olympic hockey player to our hostel. That year India had won Gold medal in hockey. That player was Joginder Singh, Dheer introduced me to him. Joginder was carrying the Olympic gold medal. As usual, most of the boys were not interested in a hockey player as they were all cricket fan. Soon common room was bereft of students excepting me, Dheer and Joginder. I started having intimate talk with Joginder and to my surprise I discovered him to be Gindi of MB school, Delhi. He was also happy to know that I had watched him playing during school days. He allowed me to hold his gold medal. Those days there was no stmart phone to take selfie with that Olympic Gold medal in 1964. Today when I heard the news of India, winning Bronze in hockey then my hockey moments were passing through my mental screen in sepia colour and taking me back to that Golden moment in my life.