Category: Personal

The exams are knocking on the door. 2nd semester starting from 21st 24th May and 1st Prof. MBBS exams from 28h June. Time for some serious studies. Wish me good luck!

• From Tools menu, select Internet Options.
• From Internet Options window, click on Fonts (on General Tab).

• Click on the drop down list for Language Script. Select Bengali from this drop down list.
• Select Siyam Rupali for Web Page Font (ofcourse, you can choose any other Bangla font). Then click OK.

• From Tools menu, select Options.
• From this Options window, click on Contents.
• Click on Advanced button in Fonts & Colors section.

• Click on the drop down list for option Fonts For. Select Bengali from this list.
• Complete all the option fields as in the following image (you may choose your any favourite Bangla font) and then click on OK.

The Siyam Rupali font developed under the Avro Free Bangla Font Project is the best Bengali font I have seen. There is really a dearth of good Bangla font. The ‘matras’ of Bengali letters make the fonts look very small thus compromising readability. Siyam Rupali font, a modified version of Rupali Bangla font with hinting by Md. Tanbin Islam Siyam, has come over this problem and looks great on screen. Say for example, you can use this font while chatting on a messenger – there won’t be any problem of ‘small font size’.

You can download it for free from the Download section of my site. I highly recommend this font.

OmicronLab has just released version 4 of Avro – the best Bangla writing software on Windows platform. Upgrade to this new version to enjoy a host of new features. Avro is now completely skinnable and you can design your own skin. Also, you can create your own keyboard layout.

Compatibility:
+ Windows Vista (32 Bit) support added.

Interface:
+ Full Skin Support added
+ Magnetic docking added in Top Bar.
+ Unicode support added in menu system
+ Option for changing menu font added
+ Skin Editor added
+ New splash screen added
+ ‘System Default keyboard mode’ term is changed to
‘English Keyboard Mode’. Users understand it quickly.
+ Startup dialog added as reminder to Configure
user’s system for complex language support.
+ Few menu items renamed for better realization and
meaning.
+ Option dialog is much more lightweight now.
+ Setup behaviour changed a lot.

Typing System:
+ Full OLD STYLE Typing support added (like Bijoy)
+ AltGr and Shift+AltGr Keyboard layers added.
+ Jatiya Keyboard layout updated.
+ Fixed keyboard layouts are no more hard coded. They
can be edited via Layout Editor.
+ Layout Editor added.
+ New typing automation: Automacally Fix Chandra
position added
+ Double pressing link key now automatically add ZWNJ
– Option Global Key Generation Method Removed.
– Option Key Generation Level removed.
> Fixed Ra-Ja Fola Bug

Input Locale:
+ Option added for Locale in English Keyboard mode
– Automatically restoring previous locale removed, it
was proved buggy.

Layout Viewer:
+ Imporved interface
+ Use much less memory
> To & fro motion bug fixed
– Removed feature of automatically showing in
Bangla keyboard mode

Avro Phonetic:
+ Preview window updated for better positioning and
easy viewing
– Word based parsing mode removed
> Fixed Bracket typing bug.

NEW – Web Buddy:
+ RSS Feed support (all versions) added
+ Automatically checking for new version added

Bangla Fonts:
– Removed all Bangla font from setup package,
except Siyam Rupali

Documentation:
+ Font Embedding guide added.

Internal APP changes:
– Dll dependency for keyboard hooking removed.
+ Avro keyboard now maintain keyboard hook more
“aggresively”
+ Top Bar remains always on top more “aggresively”
+ A lot of tweaking has been done.

I am back home. Finally! A break from the boring lectures, creepy professors and not to say the terrible food! This brief week-long Dol (or Holi) holiday comes as a blessing. A little late, and I would have lost all taste sensibilities.

Happy new year folks! BSNL has kept their promise. I am getting more than 1700 kbps of speed. Here is a screenshot of uTorrent. Incredible. I am just witnessing an overnight revolution in Indian broadband!

It has been a few months here in NBMC and it’s time I blogged about our college campus. Well, our college is situated far from the madding crowd in the outskirts of Siliguri, about 7 km from town proper. Here we get a breathtaking view of the mountains and on a clear day, the Kanchenjungha can be seen. The campus is spread over a very large area. The college and hospital buildings are two-storeyed and most of it are connected by very long corridors.

The government has made it mandatory for all medical students to serve in the rural areas for one year after internship in an attempt to ensure a steady flow of physicians to the remote villages where doctors are usually hesitant to go. This means that after the five-and-a-half years of MBBS (4.5 years study + 1 year internship) we will have to go to a Primary Health Centre in some remote corner of the state.

When I first came to my college at the time of admission, I had no idea where it is located. So I am giving a location guide of the campus.

North Bengal Medical College is located in Sushrutanagar, to the west of Siliguri, connected to the town by the 3rd Mahananda bridge. Sushrutanagar, otherwise referred to as ‘medical’ by the local people, is more or less 5 km from the Siliguri town proper.

Trains

The nearest big station is New Jalpaiguri (NJP) that connects North Bengal with the rest of the country. With the extension of broad-gauge railway track to the Siliguri Junction station, people can now travel directly to the heart of the city without having to alight at New Jalpaiguri.

Some of the trains plying are:

Darjeeling Mail – 7 days
Teesta Torsa Express – 7 days
Kanchankanya Express – Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday
Kanchanjanga Express – 7 days
Kamrup Express – 7 days
Guwahati Express – Tuesday
UttarBanga Express – Monday, Wednesday, Saturday
Saraighat Express – Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday

Bus

The Tenzing Norgay Central Bus Terminal is the major bus stop wherefrom state-owned NBSTC, CSTC and private operators runs rocket buses to Kolkata and other areas. The few air-conditioned sleeper Volvo buses plying in the route provide a very comfortable journey but come at a price.

Airlines

The following airways operate from Bagdogra, a suburb 12 km away from Siliguri.

Jet Airways
Indian
Air Deccan
SpiceJet
Kingfisher Airlines

Fare

For railway fares, refer to the IRCTC website.

The fare of the North Bengal State Transport Corporation run rocket bus is Rs. 250. CSTC bus fare is Rs. 235. A ride in an AC bus by CSTC costs Rs. 280. Private rocket buses rates vary a lot from time to time, season to season. Private operators may charge less during off seasons.

For airline fares, refer to the respective company websites.

Road

City autos are the chief means of local transport. The traffic rule is to take 6 passengers though drivers flout rules taking from 8 to upto 13 passengers. Bus service is not well developed.

There is however no direct NJP-Medical College route. Either one has to reserve an auto for about Rs. 120 or
1. Go upto Venus More in auto and then catch another Medical College-bound auto from there.

2. Go upto Noukaghat More in auto and then catch another Medical College-bound auto from there.

3. Bus passengers alighting at the bus terminal will have to go by auto. If direct autos are not available then go to AirView More by rickshaw and then catch a Medical College-bound auto.

4. Airlines passengers landing at Bagdogra will have to catch one of the Bagdogra-Medical College autos. If, in any case, direct autos are not available then go upto Shibmandir and from there catch another auto to Medical College.

Shibmandir, a suburb of Siliguri, is where the North Bengal University is located. It is about 4 km from Medical College and accessible by auto.