First, you’ll need a jailbroken iPhone. There are hundreds of posts on the Internet explaining the process. You can find a good one here or this youtube video tutorial. It only takes a few minutes using blackra1n.

Assuming you have a jailbroken iPhone, open up Cydia, search and install a package named 3Proxy. This software lets you run a SOCKS proxy server on your iPhone. Next, you will need to install MobileTerminal. This package allows you to run a terminal on your iPhone. This is available on Cydia as well.

On your computer, create an adhoc wireless connection. On different OSs, the process to create an adhoc wireless connection is different – consult the Internet for a guide to create one on your OS of choice. I have Windows 7 and it can be done in a very stratight forward manner.

From your iPhone, connect to the adhoc wireless connection you created.

Tap on the network and get your iPhone’s IP on the adhoc connection.

Fire up Terminal from your Spring Board and type socks and tap return. This command starts an instance of the SOCKS server on your iPhone on port 1080.

Now, in Firefox, go to Tools>>Options>>Advanced>>Settings

Provide the IP you got from your iPhone and the port 1080.

Now, go to about:config in Firefox and set network.proxy.socks_remote_dns to true.

<<Click to open full size image in new window>>

Finally, launch Safari on your iPhone and go to any random existing website — this is an important step which allows your iPhone to determine that the adhoc network cannot be used for Internet and it needs to use its 3G connection to connect to the Internet. Typically, your iPhone needs a minute to figure this out. Once done, the website should show up in Safari.

That is it — you are done. Now you will be able to use Firefox on your computer to browse the interwebs! If you need to use any other application like Skype or Bitcomet, you can do that as well. All you need to do is provide the SOCKS proxy IP and port in advanced settings of the respective application.

Hope you found this post helpful.

Generation upon generation of humankind has asked these questions. Some of our ancestors, insecure in their inability to accurately answer them by means of simple reason and observation, created a rather convenient answer — “why, the universe is a world created by a superpowerful, all knowing, superintelligent being.” It is easy to imagine how powerful the insecurity was — different regions of the disconnected old world have at some point, attempted to answer these questions by creating some kind of God – Jehovah, Brahma, Allah, Ra. Some looked towards the sky and observed different stars, planets and patterns created by these entities and said, “these bright lights in the night sky — they’re our Gods!” Others observed basic elements of the physical world — wind, fire, water and said, “these elements here — they’re our Gods!” Still others, created God; not from stars and planets, nor from physical elements but out of nothing at all but some really potent imagination! Each time a God or Gods was/were “created” so was religion. All religions had one common theme — subscribe now and you will be saved from eternal damnation!

Remember, these were disconnected times — so, each religion matured and grew locally. Membership to some religions could only be received by birth — these were consumed by human mortality and in a sense, they died with the race that practiced them. Other religions were receptive and even aggresively recrutive. These flourished and exist even today. As humankind discovered advanced science and technology, travel between disconnected regions of the world became possible. Civilizations clashed. So did their religions. The civilizations with advanced technology engulfed the ones with meager technology. In that way, as ironic as it may sound in the context of the raging science v/s religion debate today, civilizations with greater prowess in science and technology were able to impose their religions and Gods on those with less advanced science and technology. Yes, science helped in the propagation of all major religions that exist today.

It is easy to believe in God and have a safety cushion to fall back on all the time – I almost envy you when I think about my dry, lonely, atheist existence. And yet, some would say, it is easier to be an atheist and do what you like without the fear of reproach or judgment.

At this junction, I will ask a philosophical question — are we better off today as a species – as believers or would we be better off without God and religion? Could we have developed the moral codes and structures that have become the basis of human society on our own?

Let us look at the downside first — God and (in effect) religion has become the major cause of death and conflict in today’s world. Hundreds upon thousands of men, women and children have lost their life in wars and other conflicts caused by religion. In that sense, some would call religion the most deadly, fatal, genetic, contagious epidemic — deadly and fatal because it kills so many thousands, contagious and genetic because it has a tendency to spread within society and from generation to generation and an epidemic because almost everyone in the world is afflicted by it. Religion also makes people believe in extremely unlikely, impossible  (sometimes bordering on insane) things and events — what else can make a grown, highly educated person believe in an entity with the head of an elephant and the body of a man, born to another human-like entity with three eyes and a holy river flowing out of his mane – or in a man who was born without the aid of reproduction, to a virgin mother, was tortured and died for the sins of others and then came back to life only to arise and disappear into the heavens.

Now for the upside — without a set of rules telling us what is right and what is wrong, human beings would eventually resort to cutting each other up. Society would not develop and there would be no organization – and yes, another irony here – science and technology would not be as advanced as they are today. Because, humankind can only develop science and apply it to create technology if the basic existential questions have been answered – the questions would eat into our hearts and we would be so obsessed with finding answers that little else would occupy our minds. This obsession would not let us rise above our basic instinct – survival. Deep down, owing to our evolutionary drive to survive, we are dark, evil things. Yes, without religion we would cease to be human and would become cold, terrifying, incestuous animals. It would be interesting to see if we would be able to weave the moral fabric that religion has woven for us over the centuries without the fear of an all powerful entity watching us or without the fear of eternal damnation. With the kind of evil we have demonstrated in every generation within the scrutiny of religion, it makes me shudder to think of how we would behave without it. Oh, how lonely, miserable and insecure we would feel. Oh, how evil and meaningless our existence would be!

Having presented both sides of the story (with an obvious bias towards one), I would like to end by saying something about tolerance. Whether you are a believer or an atheist, Hindu, Jew, Muslim or Christian; it is important to be respectful and tolerant towards each other. I have a simple philosophy – You have an opinion and I have mine. And if anyone of us thinks we have it all figured out, here is the triumphant, unwavering truth – engrave it in your mind and teach it your children – no one does.

No one ever will.

Serving Size: 1

Ingredients:
60 ml Captain Morgan 100 Proof Rum
1 ripe banana
100 ml Tropicana Orange Juice with “Lots of Pulp” (substitute fresh orange juice with pulp)
2 tsb Hershey’s Chocolate syrup
1 cup of ice

Preparation Method:
Blend ice, bananas, orange juice, 1 tsp chocolate syrup and 30 ml Rum at high speed.
Pour the remaining 30 ml Rum in a cocktail glass. Add blended mixture.
Add 1 tsp chocolate syrup.
Garnish with a lime wedge.

Enjoy.

I recently discovered the joys of drinking Sake, by complete chance.

Nandu and I were at The Pub one evening after a particularly stressful day at work. We were feeling a tad exasperated with the prospect of finishing the drinking session with the same old English cuisine (curry chips, fish and chips, bangers and mash etc.) so we decided to head over to RA Sushi which is right next to The Pub.

Now, I’ve heard about Sake before — I’ve even tasted Sake before (long break between flights at the London Heathrow Terminal — en route to USA) — but that was some weird bitter stuff. The Sake at RA Sushi was surprisingly refreshing and just what we needed after all the beers we’d downed at The Pub.

Anyway, the next day, I put the word out at work — Sake is the new Glenlivet! Inspired by my advertising, Awanish purchased one bottle from Leti’s Liquors for $8 (well apparently, Sake is very inexpensive). He left it at my place on Thursday(the one pictured above).

Today, I decided to fry some shrimp like Mom does back home — on a tawa and with rawa breading. Turns out, Sake and home-style tawa fried shrimp go superbly well together.

Cheers!

I remember, people were really scared, in the days that followed. That, in itself, was a great achievement for these terrorists. Bombay is seldom affected by anything. We, Mumbaikars, are one solid bunch. It takes a lot of terror to terrorize the people of Mumbai.

 Apparently, the success of the July 11 bomb blasts — the perfect synchronicity of the explosions, the flawless execution of this intelligently planned terror attack, the scale of destruction & loss of life, the utter failure of government machinery in preventing these attacks, was our threshold. We caved in. Widespread paranoia ensued.

 Eventually, life did snap back into shape. And as these things go, most people forgot. Others, the friends & relatives of those unfortunate men, women and children, who perished or were irreversibly disabled, do not have that luxury.

It was under these painful circumstances, that, with a mix of fear, revulsion and a strange sense of love & tenderness for my great city, I wrote these words.

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Oh hell yes. I’m spent. Spent and lent. I’m not going to make you roll in agony. with my sad prose. My lack of comic timing. My timid hellos and mighty(wannabe) goodbyes. I will not let you tell me that the sun’s still shining. no-permission-no. no permit granted-thank you -Govt. of Maharashtra. jai Bheem, jai Shivaji. jai Maharashtra. My Bombay, but a whore, will look at you and will sleep with you and make ugly babies with you. You yellow-livered-nilly-hearted-fcuk-wasted young-mistress-of-green-paper. I will damn you to hell. never-ever-heal. I will cry foul. I will give you away.

O Apollo-Bundered-Marine-Drived,Mumbadevid-Malabar Hilld-Chowpatty-breasted Bombay. Squatting-potty-clutching-The.Times.of.India(Mumbai Edition). With a Wills Classic Milds in the dark slit between your lips. The bum-bum-Bholenath. The Tadi-Madi-Vikri-Kendras. The Babloo-Da-Dhabas. With it’s Salted-Kebabed Lamb-Balls and Bombay-Ducked Masalla. Critter Fritters. Angry mobs of facist Sainiks-Communist Maharashtrians. Religious Fanatics-the Muslims. The angry fangry. The lolitta-I-fcuked-your-daughter thrice. The Maratha-Proud-Bhenchods. The Musllman-Minority-Madarchods.

The Racist regime. The fcuk-chut-Kamathi-randi-Pura whores. The Bhandup-Sonapur hijras. The Night-Lovers-Mulund-Checknaka. The Fcuk-me-while-you-cans. The Chicks-In-Hot-Panties. The Nirmal-Life-R-Malis of Gutter Gardens. The Kentucky-Fried-McDonalded invisible poor. The shit laden slaughter houses. The Hijra-Bazaars. The general hostility against Muslims. My brothers. My brahmin father. My whoring myself to the world. Accepting the ways of Hindu India-Muslim India-Christian India-Sikh India. Fcuk you, you religio-casto mongrels. You cocker-spaniel-disguised-strays. You St. Bernard-wannabes. You saffron-robed-religious-disinfectants. You green-loving-five-times-namazee-terrorists. You sister-fcuking-tonga-riding demi celebrities. You know what you’re doing to the world????

You half-livered-one-testicled monsters. You religious fanatics. You Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Christian-Dalit-Agri-Junglee-Jhopadpatti-hating sea-faced-building-walas. O, my Bombay bleeds. My Bombay hurts. You bomb-exploding after-life-harem-seekers. And you, the ones with the smirk on your faces – the saffron-clad-masjid-burning-religious-cleansers. You modern-day-21st-century-many-headed-Hitlers. How many lives will your prejudice claim? Did your father fart you out of his ass that you behave so badly?

You Hindus haters. And, you Muslim despisers. You have done us in.

O joy.

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Originally Posted here.