The increasing terrorist strikes on India makes every Indian sad or angry. But the question is how do we 'deal' with it ? First of all do we need to deal with it or do we need to rise above it.
There is always a choice to make when one is faced with adversity.
Of course we have to either fight it or accept it. We are definitely not spineless people to accept it.
Leaders are called leaders because they know more than the masses. They have seen more . They have always known more and their vision extends beyond the ordinary. That's why they are leaders. Else, they are ordinary people with extraordinary power in their hands. Now, masses in a democracy get excited when they see aam aadmi like themselves in a powerful position. Precisely the reason why we have characters like Mayawati and Naredra Modi as leaders. Are they true leaders ? These are not the kind of people we'd love to showcase to our next generation as examples of forward looking minds. We can atmost tell them that these people reflected the common mind of the nation. But they are not 'leaders'. True leaders forsee the future or have a vision of it and bring it closer. Their methods and means are different and hence their ways are different. Usually a real leader is never recognised by the masses. When it rains , an Eagle is the only specie in the world which soars above the clouds to avoid getting drenched. Many other species may find its method unconventional or even unthinkable but then its a leader and is the King of birds.
So what is the solution if not Modi and his POTA option ? The option is simple. Think Big. Think fundamental. A simple study shows that terrorism due to internal conflicts and dissatisfaction ( like the Naxalite movement and Khalistan movement ) can be curbed relatively easily and was done so in the past. However , when it comes to curbing cross boarder terrorism we have miserably failed.
Now if the above is true , why don't we redraw our borders ??
India has an incredible history and its not religion or language which binds us.Mere history apart, we have a compilation of Epics written over a period of 30 centuries more than 5000 years back which have defined and etched the borders of India in timelessness. These epics have in them the common reference of the Ganges and the Indus ( now Pakistan ), of the Brahmaputra and the Cauveri . In this incredible canvas, the characters of these epics crossed over the Vindhyas from the North or reached over the Himalayas from the south. This is the common heritage of the sub continent and nobody from any walk of life or religion can dare deny it . The borders of India were formed then and not when The queen of England hurriedly decided over the borderlines in 1947. These borders of separation should not be taken as settled facts . The history of the Indus valley and that of Ceylon extends and intertwines with that of us and is a part of the history of India in a way which cannot be denied or forgotten. Unfortunately the people of the sub continent live under the hardened borders created by a colonial rule which has left our land but made its mark. Its time for us to think freely and understand that its thru common action that the region can develop. India can take a leadership role and use its diplomatic initiative* in creating an atmosphere which leads to more and increased collective action. We would be beyond the problem of terrorism just as a Golden Eagle with its wing span of six feet simply soars above the clouds when it doesn't want to get drenched in the damned rain !!
*Hopefully Indian diplomacy is waking up from its slumber .The nuclear deal is a good step forward. Its time to join back the international stream and gain strength in commerce. The Americans can be good allies in putting pressure on Pakistan . Stopping Amercian aid to Pakistan can lead to a quicker destabilization of this unnatural country and might lead to a voluntary return of the four provinces under willed Indian Control. Continued economic support in rebuilding Afghanistan would not only lead to the prosperity of Indians there and lead to an increased business opportunity for us, but might also open up goodwill and new avenues .This is good for everyone in the sub continent. Nepal has always been a neutral ally and a favourable policy will only win their hearts. Opening up the sethu samudram project might kick start Colombo's dependence on India for economic reasons and that will hopefully show them who the boss is in the region. There are no real differences here and its just a matter of finding our roots and being honest. Hopefully India would show its spirit of larger statesmanship and take her rightful position in the world. A union on these lines is a reality which only a true leadership can visualise or bring in . Now since we are a democracy and we can only have 'leaders' who can represent our common thought , its time for us to express this in whatever way we can so that the idea takes root and gets the force of realisation!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The nuclear deal fiasco is super depressing. Here is one country with such diverse groups and self interests that it becomes impossible to take one step forward in the right direction without tea meetings, depreciatory remarks and no confidence motions. This treaty is all about civilian nuclear power. No one is forcing us to define which installation is civilian or which one is of strategic interest. In fact, America should say the deal is heavily advantageous to India and it should be the American congress or the NSG nations that have to say this is dangerous and India cannot be trusted on this. Instead our people, or at least our very own parliament is saying we cannot trust Americans. This beats sense. Its true the American record has been poor. In fact even Russian record was poor with regards to most of our defense deals. In the early 70's, America stopped giving us enriched fuel due to a change in the American Congress Policy. But they did follow up on an alternative arrangement and let France supply the same to us. If we look at deals and agreements thru the eyes of the Left, no one in this world can be trusted. We don't want to be in a situation where in we'll lose 90 things in our tense effort to hang on to the remaining 10.In any deal, what we lose should be weighed carefully and compared against what we stand to gain and then sign the dotted line.Instead, the Left simply wants to block the deal citing India's policy of sovereignty and independent foreign policy fuelled by its blind hatred towards capitalism and western powers. This deal helps the industrialised countries and the western Industry , helps India, and also in a way helps the world. The Left further says they do not understand the term 'corrective measures'. They say its merely in the preamble of the deal and therefore not sufficient. Well if the left is so worried about a continuous supply of fuel, aren't they worried about the current situation of no fuel at all ? The Tarapur plant is languishing with no fuel and every plant in India is either under utilised or is not working at peak capability and no one is bothered about that. Can India really afford the luxury of non functional Power plants in an energy hungry situation like ours? Its sad that the Left has a policy of saying 'No' to anything which is forthcoming from a capitalistic power like America. And the BJP has a habit of opposing everything the government proposes. If parties take and stick to positions based on such obsolete ideologies and prejudices, we cannot pass a single bill without horsetrading and tea parties which would in turn lead to a classic situation of missing the bus. All this leads to driving countless people into situations which are not warrented in the first place.
If we want to be truly sovereign, we have to carefully see if we are indeed so with our current policies. Not a single country is ready to give us enriched fission material and we are still far away from using Thorium as our staple fuel. Enriched Uranium holds the key and no one really knows if we are capable of producing this in substantial amount. If we cannot as the situation is now, lets take it from other countries and this deal is great still.The Left parties do not understand basic commerce and are always blind to economic realities. Why do they live in the 60's bubble. The days of communialism are long gone. The erstwhile USSR is a classic example of the Left's policy of being completely self sufficient and blocking international trade in the name of military might and policy. Where is USSR now ? What does the Left want to accomplish with their policies? Why are they trying to teach Independent Foreign Policy crap to National Congress ?Don't they know that this policy was the brainchild of Nehru.If we now want to deviate from it for our own foothold in international transactions,why not change with the times?
Its truly deplorable that the people of this country still vote on the basis of caste, region or religion. We cannot afford to be so blatantly foolish in our international policy. The aam aadmi has no clue on the potential India holds. We live in a world which shares resources . We call that trade.If we do not cooperate , we can never hope to become leaders. Self sufficiency is an end which can be achieved ironically thru cooperation and diligent deals. The Chinese have done this effectively and are now in a strong position to turn deals in their favor. India on the other hand wants to throw away every little advantage that comes its way thru sheer human imbecility and human selfishness. Hope such things cannot stay forever against the necessity of nature and a Higher Will.
In the meantime, lets not blame the govt if there is a power cut next time.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
21
21- . Like most greed based plots depicted in innumerable Vegas centered movies and books, the movie goes on expected lines with some minor change of backdrop.The story revolves around a group of youngsters of MIT who are supposedly smart and good at number crunching ( ! ) . The script is so totally obsessed with Casinos in Vegas and Black Jack in particular that one tends to completely forget that there are banks and financial institutions too in this world which can lend loans to credible 4 plus GDPA smart pants from MIT !!! So our poor poor hero who got everything else in life except money is desperate to get into Harvard Medical and the only thing stopping him is three hundred thousand dollars ! ( give me a break, the kid hasn't heard of education loans and he is in MIT ? ) . Anyway Ben, our poor hero, is noticed in the classroom by a crafty math Prof ( Kevin Spacey ) who quickly invites the guy to join his group which usually spends its weekends flying to Vegas and making money basically playing black jack. So here's what we got - this professional team who supposedly use their number crunching ability , word codes, body signs and some other glam sham tricks apart from probability to keep winning and stay unnoticed. ( I always thought playing cards is all about having a great memory and ability to read body language and conceal ones own ..anway..its all about math it seems ..we are told ) . So the wonderful smart team with two chinkis and two Americans ( and a perfect male / female ratio ) led by the maverick math prof goes from success to success until one drunken moment of Ben ruins it all. The second half shows him recovering from the situation he digs himself into. Anyway, the depiction of glamor, greed and the power of money keeps the audience mood upbeat. Of course the backdrop of Harvard and MIT tends to add some awe and the contrast of Vegas makes the movie interesting . However, I couldn't somehow believe that a MIT grad would save 315,000 dollars in a false ceiling when they could use few of their brain cells to beat thru Anti Money Laundering and easily come up with proxy accounts to save that money and earn some interest on it ( watch Shawshank Redemption, That's 'based' on a real story too ! ) . Guess for an MIT grad, beating the banking rules is as simple as getting a casino down. Well if you doubt that, look beyond Mezrich ;) .Anyway considering all my respect and love for MIT and Harvard institutions and Mezrich and Vegas , I would surely rate the movie gud :)
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Tales from Distant Lands
THE SPACECRAFT WAS LONG WAY FROM HOME, speeding away from the sun at 40,000 miles an hour, but in early February it was overtaken by an urgent message from earth. Obediently it turned its cameras back towards the now distant planets, it snapped 60 pictures,and stored them in digital form on its recorder.Then slowly in March , April and May it radioed the data back to earth. Each image comprised of 6,40,000 pixels . the space craft was 3.7 billion miles from earth , so far away that it took 5 and half hours for the pixels travelling at the speed of light to reach us.Its true that all the above might sound quite inconsequential and remote, but for the sake of records, the spacecraft's name is Voyager 1 . This ship and its sister Voyager 2 , have explored 4 planets and more than 60 worlds. Both the ships were on an outbound trajectory away from the solar system and they were guaranteed to work only till they reach Saturn ( that was the agreed critical mission objective) . So while Voyager1 was travelling, it was suddenly agreed* upon that it would be a great idea to take one last look at earth from that distance. It was this thought which was urgently messaged to Voyager-1 and one of the pics taken there formed the cover pic of Carl Sagan's amazing literary work titled the " Pale Blue Dot" .
Yes, it might sound inconsequential, but these simple but profound images are triumphs of human engineering and one of the glorious gifts of the American space program.They will be in history books when much else about our time is forgotten ..
*From the outer solar system the earth lies very close from the sun, NASA was not very sure if they wanted to aim the camera so close to the sun and thus risk burning out the video con system and hence wanted to delay it until all the images from the Uranus and Neptune system were captured first ..and so they waited .. from 1981 at Saturn till 1986 at Uranus ..till 1989 near Neptune ..and at last the time came ( even then a few instrumental calibrations were there to be done first before that pic could be taken in 1990 ) ..The planets were at the right alignment and although many were supportive of the idea, a few project personnel opposed it .." Its not science" they said ..and then it was discovered that the technical personal who devised and transmit the data from Voyager who were in a cash strapped NASA were to be laid off immediately or transferred to other jobs. If the picture had to be taken, it had to be done right then, at the last minute , actually in the midst of Voyager's outbound encounter with Neptune. The then NASA administrator Admiral Richard Truly stepped in and made sure that these images were obtained. The space scientists led by Kandy Hanson of NASA's jet propulsion Lab and Caroline Pokov of the University of Arizona designed the command sequence and calculated the camera's exposure times. So here they are, telling the tale from such distant lands ( in fact its our own tale of miraculous survival and existence as one living race which we so obviously fail to see or acknowledge and which ironically becomes so clear from such obscurely distant places ) . Enjoy the following inimitable Narration by Carl on what he calls the pale blue dot !!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Cinderella's Slip errs ~
In Perrault's retelling of the story of Cinderella , he used the phrase pantoufle de verre, which means glass slipper . However, he apparently mistook vair , an old french word for fur with verre which is glass . Now that means Cinderella was actually meant to wear slippers made of fur and not glass in the original narrative !!! Many may not know that , but that is not a big shock for blogger users who reconciled with the fact that google after all was the result of a misunderstanding of the original spell googol !
We all indulge in errors .. some are really fateful and there is nothing we can do about them ..here is a chronicle of some funny incidents in real .They are true,but they were never meant to be ..
Fateful error in college : During my first year at engg ..on a fateful afternoon ..I mentioned to my Bihari friend that we needed to show some will power ( in some context related to academics ) ..he misheard it as "we need wills" . During those days 'wills' was a popular cigg brand and he got me some.. and insisted I should try especially since I had 'asked for it' ....I had to give in and there started a life long addiction.. which continues to this day ..
Fateful wrong number : A Filipino friend of mine once mentioned to me that he 'met' his wife for the first time because of a wrong number . She erred while dialing the number ..but surely it resulted in a lot of rights ...they are still happily married to this day and are a very handsome couple ...
In WW2, Hitler was cruising towards world domination when during the decisive Battle of Britain, a critical error hapenned. Britain mistakenly bombed Berlin's civil areas ( a simple case of target miss ) and it made the Fuhrer Furious. He immediately ordered the London bombings and stopped concentrating on wiping out the British Royal air force. This gave breathing time for the last bastion of Europe to recuperate.Paris already fell and it was just a matter of time for Germany to take Great Britain and secure Europe. However , that never happened and historians know how crucial and how subtle that error in judgment was and how remarkably the tide of war changed in the favor of the Allies. The attack on Russia prematurely led to Hitlers sure downfall , but there is a story behind that too which cant be retold here. Few know what was at stake during those crucial moments of world history. Our own Indian leaders* were blind to the happenings of the world and yet providence made sure the world and India along with it didn't slip into the worst kind of decadence ever seen on the planet ..which surely would have resulted had Nazi Germany succeeded in its plans even partially..
I am sure there are hundreds of course changing incidents in any individual's life and just as it usually is in world events, they appear like apparent accidents or errors but leave a long trail .. So for a change, take it easy and enjoy the roller coaster ride ..after all ..sometimes our best laid plans are overruled by the hands of fate and what results is either simply called life or history .. and more importantly don't drool over your achievements or poke yourself for your failures ..remember there are hidden forces at work all the time and not all we do is our doing and neither is all you see 'yours' ...
* The war theatre of WW2 was not a mere another battle. It was undoubtedly the biggest war waged in human times ( Gandhi was openly clapping at England's fall as if that would free India like an ignorant kid and guess its a little Karmic that India had ignorant leaders leading her at the political level ) . How could India have become free if the Nazis won ? Isn't it the duty of a leader to look at the bigger picture carefully before taking sides? What gave Gandhi the right not to accept Cripps mission which in essence wanted India to put her force behind the Allies? And who is he to comment that the offer was a "post dated cheque on a crashing bank ?" The 'bank' never crashed ..we simply failed to en cash the cheque due to poor leadership and poorer vision. Hope the same providence which helped the world and ensured that the highest attained cultural goals, possibilities and dreams of humanity were kept open and free before the all consuming war machine of Nazi Germany, would, in essence, also help India realise her destiny of being a mighty nation it always deserved to be , in spite of continued myopic leadership at the political level..
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Golden Summers !
Its been a nice summer & its time to blog. Summers thru the years have changed so dramatically ! No, its not about global warming, its about growing up . Summers meant once upon a time endless cricket matches in the day , book fairs in the evening , local gangs and new ideas , expeditions , fun adventures with copy book execution of ideas from 'famous five ', drinking citra after chipping in money , meeting new kids in the colony who came from different places to spend summer vacations or go to familiar grand mother's village and get acquainted with endless mango trees.
Years rolled and summers meant watching 'cable TV' ..figuring out 'DOS' , getting to know cool older friends who were into weird things like computer games , floppy discs and 'magazines' ..years still rolled and summers meant wondering what that high school hottie' must be doing and wondering when school would reopen . That was when things started changing dramatically. The silvery dawns and the glowing noons of summers were not felt or noticed anymore ..how to learn to ride a bike and how to get taller than the rest of the guys 'this summer' suddenly became priority one.
Summers later meant just additional time to prepare for the next class in advance and crack competitive exams, summers meant endless rounds of studies ,studies and just more studies. There is nothing more important than this. Later on , summers meant movies, chatting on the internet or simply lazing waiting for college to reopen.
Ofcourse now all things are different. We don't need summers to freak out ..we freak out everyday ..just like we have cricket everyday in some form ( IPL or ICL or some other circus ) and the days of waiting for those original India England series to begin in beautiful summer settings at Old Trafford are all long gone. So I have planned to revive the summer concept with a vengeance. This summer me resolved to enjoy the silvery dawns and the glowing noons once again the vintage way ..
Years rolled and summers meant watching 'cable TV' ..figuring out 'DOS' , getting to know cool older friends who were into weird things like computer games , floppy discs and 'magazines' ..years still rolled and summers meant wondering what that high school hottie' must be doing and wondering when school would reopen . That was when things started changing dramatically. The silvery dawns and the glowing noons of summers were not felt or noticed anymore ..how to learn to ride a bike and how to get taller than the rest of the guys 'this summer' suddenly became priority one.
Summers later meant just additional time to prepare for the next class in advance and crack competitive exams, summers meant endless rounds of studies ,studies and just more studies. There is nothing more important than this. Later on , summers meant movies, chatting on the internet or simply lazing waiting for college to reopen.
Ofcourse now all things are different. We don't need summers to freak out ..we freak out everyday ..just like we have cricket everyday in some form ( IPL or ICL or some other circus ) and the days of waiting for those original India England series to begin in beautiful summer settings at Old Trafford are all long gone. So I have planned to revive the summer concept with a vengeance. This summer me resolved to enjoy the silvery dawns and the glowing noons once again the vintage way ..
Friday, March 7, 2008
Horror Corner
Disclaimer :This post is for mature audience who are exposed to horror literature. The author is not responsible for indiscriminate reading.
Popo was an ordinary instrumentation engineer from the dept of telecom who had gone thru a lot in life, and the following details have been extracted from memoirs he jotted down in Klupikistan, a place 29 degree north to equator and 79 degree east.
Six weeks prior to this recorded memoir, on a fateful Tuesday evening,popo received a stamped official mail with orders to relocate to a remote place in the northern cantonment zone, to repair a high radio transmission tower at a location code named as 'Hill 16'. The place was ear marked as 'remote' and 'sensitive'.He looked up the telecom maps and reality dawned on him. Fate is suddenly forcing him out of his moorings to the farthermost corner of India and he was to leave in a few weeks.
There were conflicting entries of differing dates everywhere in his recorded notes , but he spent the coming weeks equipping himself with maps, connectivity instruments , and household durables and mentally prepared himself for this coming spring time ordeal. Roughly 3 weeks later, popo found himself driving along virgin roads towards his destination, with sparse human population greeting him all along the winding paths.There was something about this beautiful area that made him feel relaxed, yet he knew something was different, is it the people around.. he wondered, but people were so few in number, and most of them looked like mindless zombies and none of them ever blinked.
Soon, he reached a comfortable vantage point and Hill 16 was in distant view with endless tracts of wild flowers filling the wide valleys spanning miles across ,filling the spaces between him and his radio tower and he continued his journey forward .Popo knew that he was on his own, and felt proud of his resourcefulness and Independence, and strongly felt he needed no help from anyone. While he started to have a visual of the Hill and the tower at a distance, popo decided to carry on with his plans to make that valley his new abode.
But there was one singularity which strangely didn't strike him as odd. Popo was yet to meet the people he expected to see at that location!
He moved along the valley enjoying the beauty of the flowers and the grand hills free of any fear or doubt. Nothing earthly seemed to bother him until gradually, a vague and discomforting feeling started growing within making him feel he knew this place intimately in connection with some dreamy fear and that he had been there in that dangerously beautiful valley before ..He remained still, tried to hold his thoughts and suddently he could'nt clearly distinguish between his past and present thoughts. Popo stopped blinking just like the rest of the villagers he saw before.He tried to remember incoherently, things he didn't fully understand and he repeatedly tried to ensure he was'nt dreaming, Everything around looked certain and familiar for a while ...
..A desolated house in the valley almost straight ahead of him caught his attention.He cautiously moved closer and still everything felt gropingly familiar. Popo was flooded by dajavu as if he occupied the house before, he opened the door and got overwhelmed with fear for the first time, when he saw his own FM radio, cofe maker and gaming console in the living room.Popo's mind was racing. Why did he come here and more importantly,when. He had to strain his thoughts to find an answer . Yes it was the radio tower, he looked at it longingly trying not to forget why he is here , but his hands shook as he opened the maps and visitor guide books lying on the floor and one wind fluttered page read as follows.
"This place is definitely not for the weak hearted.The place has a Strange past and is home to stranger creatures.Dark forces reign here and both Chinese and Hindu myths forbid travellers from traversing these parts.These places are doorways to the other world.In spring, the valley flowers would be in full bloom and their fragrance has mind altering affects.The traveller's doom is certain as he loses his memory and travels forever in circles never finding his way out of the valley"
Popo's eyes were strained and yet, he didn't blink.He crushed that paper without reading it further as he realised he was losing his memory rapidly ..but he remembered his primary objective still..and that was to repair the radio transmission tower ..he gazed at the distant tower from his window.. and a strong desire took hold of him that come what may, he'll set out and seek what he truly came there for.It was still noon and he stepped out of his house .
Popo looked back at his house and took the precaution of covering himself with a hankie to avoid exposure to the strong fragrance . The light around him seemed unreal and he wondered if his senses are being deceived again. He set out at a brisk pace, making sure his direction is constantly towards hill 16. The light around him faded further and it was 1.30 PM by the watch. The whole area darkened swiftly and Popo was convinced he was loosing his eye sight. He looked up in despair and realised it was a solar eclipse. He suddenly remembered that a solar eclipse was due in march at 29 degree north of equator and 79 degree east. He looked back at his house feeling a bit happy that he could still remember things like eclipses. His moment of joy evaporated suddenly when his house started shaking vigorously like a wild monster.Gradually the light around faded and everything around was soon eerie and dark.He couldn't take that sight anymore and started running towards Hill 16 ..his heart pounding fast in the pitch dark of the eclipse ....and what he heard then was a distinct rumble from all around and something overwhelmingly huge said from all directions " it is d a r k e s t now " ..tears flowed down popo's cheeks for the first time with fear, anguish and helplessness, but he continued the upward ascent as if his very life depended on it.
A part of him vaguely knew he was reaching heights he never ascended before and a thought crossed his mind that the tower cannot be far now. He nervously checked for his maps and got his instruments ready, but as the sun came out of the eclipse he realised there was no radio tower in sight anywhere . Instead, what he saw was a power transmission tower which was not in use.It stood huge and lifeless like a ghost structure in misuse before him. "Is this what I was chasing all along ?" he wondered with utter shock and grief.He soon realized he lost his way long back and can never get back to either civilization or his place of relocation.He didn't want to go back to that house, he was disgusted with his own footprints in that valley, with those crumpled memoirs and that rumbling house. He paused to look around and behold the treacherous climb he so successfully conquered in apparent darkness and wondered for a vague moment if it was indeed he who managed such a climb. He felt irrevocably far away from everyone he knew. He looked up at the ascending peaks of the sublime Himalayas and a strong desire to climb, was the only desire he had..
As he climbed along, amid ferns and rocks, a quiet wind flattered his heart to warmth and a finer perfume breathed from slender trees. Everything around him grew strange and subtle and beautiful.
Popo's last memoir described what he saw there, but his handwriting and language changed remarkably in this memoir and it ran as follows:
" Here on a boulder carved like a huge throne a woman sat in gold and purple sheen,armed with the trident and the thunderbolt , her feet upon a counchant lions's back.A formidable smile curved round her lips and heaven fire laughed in the corners of her eyes. Her body, was a mass of courage and strength with a halo of lightnings around her head"
Sovereign was her word of luminous command and her speech restored hope in his heart .
"' I stand upon earth's path of danger and grief and help the unfortunate and save the doomed. To the strong I bring the guerdon of their strength, to men who long I carry their coveted joy,to the weak I bring the armour of my force, I am fortune justifying the great and wise.I am Durga, goddess of the proud and strong,And Lakshmi, Queen of the fair and fortunate !!! "
Popo's incredible memoirs were archived and never saw the light of day.The area he ventured to was a no man's land and neither India nor China claims it as its exclusive territory.
Popo was an ordinary instrumentation engineer from the dept of telecom who had gone thru a lot in life, and the following details have been extracted from memoirs he jotted down in Klupikistan, a place 29 degree north to equator and 79 degree east.
Six weeks prior to this recorded memoir, on a fateful Tuesday evening,popo received a stamped official mail with orders to relocate to a remote place in the northern cantonment zone, to repair a high radio transmission tower at a location code named as 'Hill 16'. The place was ear marked as 'remote' and 'sensitive'.He looked up the telecom maps and reality dawned on him. Fate is suddenly forcing him out of his moorings to the farthermost corner of India and he was to leave in a few weeks.
There were conflicting entries of differing dates everywhere in his recorded notes , but he spent the coming weeks equipping himself with maps, connectivity instruments , and household durables and mentally prepared himself for this coming spring time ordeal. Roughly 3 weeks later, popo found himself driving along virgin roads towards his destination, with sparse human population greeting him all along the winding paths.There was something about this beautiful area that made him feel relaxed, yet he knew something was different, is it the people around.. he wondered, but people were so few in number, and most of them looked like mindless zombies and none of them ever blinked.
Soon, he reached a comfortable vantage point and Hill 16 was in distant view with endless tracts of wild flowers filling the wide valleys spanning miles across ,filling the spaces between him and his radio tower and he continued his journey forward .Popo knew that he was on his own, and felt proud of his resourcefulness and Independence, and strongly felt he needed no help from anyone. While he started to have a visual of the Hill and the tower at a distance, popo decided to carry on with his plans to make that valley his new abode.
But there was one singularity which strangely didn't strike him as odd. Popo was yet to meet the people he expected to see at that location!
He moved along the valley enjoying the beauty of the flowers and the grand hills free of any fear or doubt. Nothing earthly seemed to bother him until gradually, a vague and discomforting feeling started growing within making him feel he knew this place intimately in connection with some dreamy fear and that he had been there in that dangerously beautiful valley before ..He remained still, tried to hold his thoughts and suddently he could'nt clearly distinguish between his past and present thoughts. Popo stopped blinking just like the rest of the villagers he saw before.He tried to remember incoherently, things he didn't fully understand and he repeatedly tried to ensure he was'nt dreaming, Everything around looked certain and familiar for a while ...
..A desolated house in the valley almost straight ahead of him caught his attention.He cautiously moved closer and still everything felt gropingly familiar. Popo was flooded by dajavu as if he occupied the house before, he opened the door and got overwhelmed with fear for the first time, when he saw his own FM radio, cofe maker and gaming console in the living room.Popo's mind was racing. Why did he come here and more importantly,when. He had to strain his thoughts to find an answer . Yes it was the radio tower, he looked at it longingly trying not to forget why he is here , but his hands shook as he opened the maps and visitor guide books lying on the floor and one wind fluttered page read as follows.
"This place is definitely not for the weak hearted.The place has a Strange past and is home to stranger creatures.Dark forces reign here and both Chinese and Hindu myths forbid travellers from traversing these parts.These places are doorways to the other world.In spring, the valley flowers would be in full bloom and their fragrance has mind altering affects.The traveller's doom is certain as he loses his memory and travels forever in circles never finding his way out of the valley"
Popo's eyes were strained and yet, he didn't blink.He crushed that paper without reading it further as he realised he was losing his memory rapidly ..but he remembered his primary objective still..and that was to repair the radio transmission tower ..he gazed at the distant tower from his window.. and a strong desire took hold of him that come what may, he'll set out and seek what he truly came there for.It was still noon and he stepped out of his house .
Popo looked back at his house and took the precaution of covering himself with a hankie to avoid exposure to the strong fragrance . The light around him seemed unreal and he wondered if his senses are being deceived again. He set out at a brisk pace, making sure his direction is constantly towards hill 16. The light around him faded further and it was 1.30 PM by the watch. The whole area darkened swiftly and Popo was convinced he was loosing his eye sight. He looked up in despair and realised it was a solar eclipse. He suddenly remembered that a solar eclipse was due in march at 29 degree north of equator and 79 degree east. He looked back at his house feeling a bit happy that he could still remember things like eclipses. His moment of joy evaporated suddenly when his house started shaking vigorously like a wild monster.Gradually the light around faded and everything around was soon eerie and dark.He couldn't take that sight anymore and started running towards Hill 16 ..his heart pounding fast in the pitch dark of the eclipse ....and what he heard then was a distinct rumble from all around and something overwhelmingly huge said from all directions " it is d a r k e s t now " ..tears flowed down popo's cheeks for the first time with fear, anguish and helplessness, but he continued the upward ascent as if his very life depended on it.
A part of him vaguely knew he was reaching heights he never ascended before and a thought crossed his mind that the tower cannot be far now. He nervously checked for his maps and got his instruments ready, but as the sun came out of the eclipse he realised there was no radio tower in sight anywhere . Instead, what he saw was a power transmission tower which was not in use.It stood huge and lifeless like a ghost structure in misuse before him. "Is this what I was chasing all along ?" he wondered with utter shock and grief.He soon realized he lost his way long back and can never get back to either civilization or his place of relocation.He didn't want to go back to that house, he was disgusted with his own footprints in that valley, with those crumpled memoirs and that rumbling house. He paused to look around and behold the treacherous climb he so successfully conquered in apparent darkness and wondered for a vague moment if it was indeed he who managed such a climb. He felt irrevocably far away from everyone he knew. He looked up at the ascending peaks of the sublime Himalayas and a strong desire to climb, was the only desire he had..
As he climbed along, amid ferns and rocks, a quiet wind flattered his heart to warmth and a finer perfume breathed from slender trees. Everything around him grew strange and subtle and beautiful.
Popo's last memoir described what he saw there, but his handwriting and language changed remarkably in this memoir and it ran as follows:
" Here on a boulder carved like a huge throne a woman sat in gold and purple sheen,armed with the trident and the thunderbolt , her feet upon a counchant lions's back.A formidable smile curved round her lips and heaven fire laughed in the corners of her eyes. Her body, was a mass of courage and strength with a halo of lightnings around her head"
Sovereign was her word of luminous command and her speech restored hope in his heart .
"' I stand upon earth's path of danger and grief and help the unfortunate and save the doomed. To the strong I bring the guerdon of their strength, to men who long I carry their coveted joy,to the weak I bring the armour of my force, I am fortune justifying the great and wise.I am Durga, goddess of the proud and strong,And Lakshmi, Queen of the fair and fortunate !!! "
Popo's incredible memoirs were archived and never saw the light of day.The area he ventured to was a no man's land and neither India nor China claims it as its exclusive territory.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Bridges to Future
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." - Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives." - Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.
"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." - Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977.
Recheck the quotes above. The quotes were the result of world class research, feasibility studies and understanding of known facts by people who were considered experts in their respective domains. These are a few shining examples of our inability to foresee change.There are lots more. For a simpler example, tune in to the daily weather forecasts.
What could be the reasons behind our fundamental lack of grasp over the future.
Nature appears placid and calm without showing many external signs of change till a critical point in time is reached, as if she is waiting for the internal conditions to be really ripe and once this internal condition is met, the external form factor changes dramatically! Tough to predict this integrally, since even our deep studies are physical in essence and deal with surface realities which have to be seen or measured to be believed,usually by which time the effect is already on threshold and prediction becomes irrelevant .Simple examples are Volcanoes and Avalanches, A complex example could be the rise or fall of a Nation or an Advent of A New Age and the Crash of old forms and structures.
Things move at an accelerated rate after a critical point is reached.
Chain reactions are precisely that. They implode or explode in geometric progression and the rate of movement is tough to determine if the process which accelerates or fuels the change also undergoes change itself or is subject to forces which change based on intercepting conditions. A simple example is an explosion.
If we increase the degree of complexity by bringing in the human touch and the occult forces into perceiving and creating change while also being a part of it, the problem almost becomes mind boggling. Change itself is accelerating in our current times !! It takes fewer years now to change your perspective, or change views or change the way we live or for the landmarks of your city to change compared to corresponding changes in these 'variables' a decade back. So handling change is one thing, but if change itself accelerates, predicting the future becomes tougher by a degree. Whats the impact of this on the human mind? Why should we predict change ? Well a good prediction can save a few thousand lives or make a few million dollars ! A good understanding of the future can help channelize peoples thoughts and help bring about a more concerted effort towards realizing or averting that very future we envisage or predict !! This almost brings us to the panchatantra story where the King challenges the soothsayer to predict his own moment of death with a sword in his hand ready to contradict whatever the soothsayer predicts.But thats a fairly simple scenario.How about global changes ?Who exactly turns the wheel of change and who is being turned . Can we look past the maze of infinite variables which determine or propel the direction and rate of change of which we seem to be a part in varying degrees.
We might live in different nations, but more fundamentally we live in mildly differing tense* . A very tiny fraction of the population lives in the past ( as tibals,aborigins etc whose way of life is still the way it was probably before the metal ages) . A large part of the population live as food gatherers of the medieval past ( leading life based on agriculture , horticulture , farming etc etc) .A portion of the population live in the present times. This classification based on tense, is fundamental and has more relevance than national divide as it is the real basis of psychological reactions to truth irrespective of culture and nation. Culture shock is a misnomer, what shocks us when we interact with people is not the difference of culture but the mild difference of tense. One will be comfortable with a Chinese or an American as long as both perceive things at the same rate irrespective of ones dress, accent or 'culture' . The real difference lies in pace.Even among the urban groups of the same country, if the divide were cultural we would'nt have so many psychological clashes. The difference lies in tense and time. Some are obsolete, some are apt and some are futuristic. Thats the fundamental divide. The pace of evolution itself which affects all of us could hopefully bridge this gap among people all over the world by bridging the gulf of tense. I personally think this is hapenning every where around us with an increasing rapidity by a strange force of nature which seems to be almost pressing us into the future.
We all think our future is in our own hands. Is it the 'hands' that were created by our past habits or the 'hands' of the present with a will to act based on the current moment or is it the hands of the future trying to strangely determine or influence the current events to fulfill its own secret prophesy ? Or is it all three in varying measures ? It gets more and more clear that using the method of science and statistical analysis is pretty slow and self limiting and certainly, if we are dealing with extrapolations of variables to determine results, we are doomed to commit big mistakes. We might get small trends rite, but what matters the most appears as elusive as ever. What matters most is a state of errorlessness, of certainty, of non linear vision and a direct perception of the universe without limits . What matters most is non dependence on huge self limiting structures which were created based on past compulsions. What matters most is a supra abundance of knowledge which completes knowledge. Future predictions are doomed to fail if we don't see the whole . And what matters the most is a vision of the whole, the lack of which probably vexed man since he first began to think.If this was his first problem, an answer or response to what matters most to him could very well be his veiled future. Till then, the return and crash of imperfect forms and a haphazard growth of consciousness may come in handy. A safe prediction would be a fall out of old forms and structures to give place to new ones combined with an increased sense of transience of everything whose permanence was taken for granted in the past.Today,we see shifting forms resulting in an ever greater exodus of humanity towards a critical point in the future.After all, that is nature's style of working and we can collaborate with her to hasten that glorious future which in the grand scheme of things is already inevitable.
*( tense - noun form - dictionary reference of time, as past, present, or future,
expressed by such a category )
"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives." - Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.
"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." - Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977.
Recheck the quotes above. The quotes were the result of world class research, feasibility studies and understanding of known facts by people who were considered experts in their respective domains. These are a few shining examples of our inability to foresee change.There are lots more. For a simpler example, tune in to the daily weather forecasts.
What could be the reasons behind our fundamental lack of grasp over the future.
Nature appears placid and calm without showing many external signs of change till a critical point in time is reached, as if she is waiting for the internal conditions to be really ripe and once this internal condition is met, the external form factor changes dramatically! Tough to predict this integrally, since even our deep studies are physical in essence and deal with surface realities which have to be seen or measured to be believed,usually by which time the effect is already on threshold and prediction becomes irrelevant .Simple examples are Volcanoes and Avalanches, A complex example could be the rise or fall of a Nation or an Advent of A New Age and the Crash of old forms and structures.
Things move at an accelerated rate after a critical point is reached.
Chain reactions are precisely that. They implode or explode in geometric progression and the rate of movement is tough to determine if the process which accelerates or fuels the change also undergoes change itself or is subject to forces which change based on intercepting conditions. A simple example is an explosion.
If we increase the degree of complexity by bringing in the human touch and the occult forces into perceiving and creating change while also being a part of it, the problem almost becomes mind boggling. Change itself is accelerating in our current times !! It takes fewer years now to change your perspective, or change views or change the way we live or for the landmarks of your city to change compared to corresponding changes in these 'variables' a decade back. So handling change is one thing, but if change itself accelerates, predicting the future becomes tougher by a degree. Whats the impact of this on the human mind? Why should we predict change ? Well a good prediction can save a few thousand lives or make a few million dollars ! A good understanding of the future can help channelize peoples thoughts and help bring about a more concerted effort towards realizing or averting that very future we envisage or predict !! This almost brings us to the panchatantra story where the King challenges the soothsayer to predict his own moment of death with a sword in his hand ready to contradict whatever the soothsayer predicts.But thats a fairly simple scenario.How about global changes ?Who exactly turns the wheel of change and who is being turned . Can we look past the maze of infinite variables which determine or propel the direction and rate of change of which we seem to be a part in varying degrees.
We might live in different nations, but more fundamentally we live in mildly differing tense* . A very tiny fraction of the population lives in the past ( as tibals,aborigins etc whose way of life is still the way it was probably before the metal ages) . A large part of the population live as food gatherers of the medieval past ( leading life based on agriculture , horticulture , farming etc etc) .A portion of the population live in the present times. This classification based on tense, is fundamental and has more relevance than national divide as it is the real basis of psychological reactions to truth irrespective of culture and nation. Culture shock is a misnomer, what shocks us when we interact with people is not the difference of culture but the mild difference of tense. One will be comfortable with a Chinese or an American as long as both perceive things at the same rate irrespective of ones dress, accent or 'culture' . The real difference lies in pace.Even among the urban groups of the same country, if the divide were cultural we would'nt have so many psychological clashes. The difference lies in tense and time. Some are obsolete, some are apt and some are futuristic. Thats the fundamental divide. The pace of evolution itself which affects all of us could hopefully bridge this gap among people all over the world by bridging the gulf of tense. I personally think this is hapenning every where around us with an increasing rapidity by a strange force of nature which seems to be almost pressing us into the future.
We all think our future is in our own hands. Is it the 'hands' that were created by our past habits or the 'hands' of the present with a will to act based on the current moment or is it the hands of the future trying to strangely determine or influence the current events to fulfill its own secret prophesy ? Or is it all three in varying measures ? It gets more and more clear that using the method of science and statistical analysis is pretty slow and self limiting and certainly, if we are dealing with extrapolations of variables to determine results, we are doomed to commit big mistakes. We might get small trends rite, but what matters the most appears as elusive as ever. What matters most is a state of errorlessness, of certainty, of non linear vision and a direct perception of the universe without limits . What matters most is non dependence on huge self limiting structures which were created based on past compulsions. What matters most is a supra abundance of knowledge which completes knowledge. Future predictions are doomed to fail if we don't see the whole . And what matters the most is a vision of the whole, the lack of which probably vexed man since he first began to think.If this was his first problem, an answer or response to what matters most to him could very well be his veiled future. Till then, the return and crash of imperfect forms and a haphazard growth of consciousness may come in handy. A safe prediction would be a fall out of old forms and structures to give place to new ones combined with an increased sense of transience of everything whose permanence was taken for granted in the past.Today,we see shifting forms resulting in an ever greater exodus of humanity towards a critical point in the future.After all, that is nature's style of working and we can collaborate with her to hasten that glorious future which in the grand scheme of things is already inevitable.
*( tense - noun form - dictionary reference of time, as past, present, or future,
expressed by such a category )
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The Art of Sledging
Here are some general tips to Team India to help themselves until they find a specialist sledging coach ( these lads need to be taught everything really ).Team India , the below is for your action and its a stop gap arrangement.
(1)Check the net. Out there,some all time great sledges in international cricket are documented. Take some tips and stop acting like old women.Here is a link for starters.
http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=416788
(2) Please don't sledge in Hindi/Bhojpuri/Maithli and other Indian langs. Its really not gonna help in Australia . Always remember why you do things.
(3)Have some common sense. Don't show your finger in the direction of the pavilion. Its a straight breach of code and even pets know it. Stop inviting trouble. Give trouble. Thats the theme in case you guys still didn't get it.
(4) Stop calling up your mom in India in case you didn't understand what Symonds said on field. Its an ADVANTAGE if you don't understand what they say. Trust me ,even native Britishers don't understand Aussie accent and laf at it .Don't dig into your OWN complexes and inadequacies if you don't get something .For your information, even educated people out here in India who regularly interact with Australian Clients cant figure out their accent sometimes . You DO NOT have to understand everything they say on field and react ! Its NOT your primary objective!You are sportsmen, not linguists. Concentrate on Cricket !!
(5) Aussies speak the truth while sledging. ( Remember they have mastered the art and they know how to hit where it hurts) . Copy the trick . Paste wherever applicable.
(6)No more Maa ki's and Monkeys please ! Grow up ! Be sophisticated at sledging . You can do better than these kindergarden gaalis.Do some research.Aussies hate being called convicts. Coz they were a nation of convicts deported from Britain if you know your Ps and Qs. Be well informed while sledging. Remember point 5.
(7)Have a PLAN! Praveen Kumar would be placed with immediate effect in the slip, gully or silly point position.His orders would be simple. He will be chanting 'convict' 'convict' or 'butcher turned cricketer' 'butcher turned cricketer' whenever the batsman is facing the bowler . If they react and give him Aussie slang, he would anyway not understand a word of whats being told to him. Moreover, if the umpires or match referee is notified, well Dhoni would shoot back " How can Praveen Kumar who doesn't know English sledge Aussies, more over where's the proof ? " Case closed !! And thats the RULE.
(8)During over change ( that is the ad break ), one fielder would be engaging the leg umpire by showing him the beautiful pigeons on the ground and the bowling change would be engaging the other empire by giving him his cap, shades, hankie, wallet etc. While both the umpires are thus engaged, each player will personally interact with Aussie Batsmen to give an earful of filthy shit. Case closed. they cant complain. They don't have proof .If Australian's try the same tactic , they need to do all this and also learn Hindi. thats unlikely. But hell would surely break loose on them.Trust me none of this is an offense as per ICC code book.
(7) Play your strengths. You guys earn a million Aussie dollars or more every season because India is a cricket rich country. So call up THAT average Aussie on field if there is useless banter and tell him you'll buy the stadium and convert it into a museum if he doesn't shut up. Money talks.He would be momentarily stunned, spit your chewing gum and keep jogging. Tell him you are planning to order Kangaroo curry for your pet's dinner and ask him to SHUT THE FUCK UP !!
Post match scenario :
In case Aussies whine over a loss ,here's wot Indian think tank has to say:
We live in a wonderful world and India and Australia are a part of it, and outside the field we got more enchanting things to do than fight or prolong on-field battles, which were fought in the first place to enjoy success , life and all the beautiful things that accompany it. We played cricket in the FULL SPIRIT OF THE GAME .
(1)Check the net. Out there,some all time great sledges in international cricket are documented. Take some tips and stop acting like old women.Here is a link for starters.
http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=416788
(2) Please don't sledge in Hindi/Bhojpuri/Maithli and other Indian langs. Its really not gonna help in Australia . Always remember why you do things.
(3)Have some common sense. Don't show your finger in the direction of the pavilion. Its a straight breach of code and even pets know it. Stop inviting trouble. Give trouble. Thats the theme in case you guys still didn't get it.
(4) Stop calling up your mom in India in case you didn't understand what Symonds said on field. Its an ADVANTAGE if you don't understand what they say. Trust me ,even native Britishers don't understand Aussie accent and laf at it .Don't dig into your OWN complexes and inadequacies if you don't get something .For your information, even educated people out here in India who regularly interact with Australian Clients cant figure out their accent sometimes . You DO NOT have to understand everything they say on field and react ! Its NOT your primary objective!You are sportsmen, not linguists. Concentrate on Cricket !!
(5) Aussies speak the truth while sledging. ( Remember they have mastered the art and they know how to hit where it hurts) . Copy the trick . Paste wherever applicable.
(6)No more Maa ki's and Monkeys please ! Grow up ! Be sophisticated at sledging . You can do better than these kindergarden gaalis.Do some research.Aussies hate being called convicts. Coz they were a nation of convicts deported from Britain if you know your Ps and Qs. Be well informed while sledging. Remember point 5.
(7)Have a PLAN! Praveen Kumar would be placed with immediate effect in the slip, gully or silly point position.His orders would be simple. He will be chanting 'convict' 'convict' or 'butcher turned cricketer' 'butcher turned cricketer' whenever the batsman is facing the bowler . If they react and give him Aussie slang, he would anyway not understand a word of whats being told to him. Moreover, if the umpires or match referee is notified, well Dhoni would shoot back " How can Praveen Kumar who doesn't know English sledge Aussies, more over where's the proof ? " Case closed !! And thats the RULE.
(8)During over change ( that is the ad break ), one fielder would be engaging the leg umpire by showing him the beautiful pigeons on the ground and the bowling change would be engaging the other empire by giving him his cap, shades, hankie, wallet etc. While both the umpires are thus engaged, each player will personally interact with Aussie Batsmen to give an earful of filthy shit. Case closed. they cant complain. They don't have proof .If Australian's try the same tactic , they need to do all this and also learn Hindi. thats unlikely. But hell would surely break loose on them.Trust me none of this is an offense as per ICC code book.
(7) Play your strengths. You guys earn a million Aussie dollars or more every season because India is a cricket rich country. So call up THAT average Aussie on field if there is useless banter and tell him you'll buy the stadium and convert it into a museum if he doesn't shut up. Money talks.He would be momentarily stunned, spit your chewing gum and keep jogging. Tell him you are planning to order Kangaroo curry for your pet's dinner and ask him to SHUT THE FUCK UP !!
Post match scenario :
In case Aussies whine over a loss ,here's wot Indian think tank has to say:
We live in a wonderful world and India and Australia are a part of it, and outside the field we got more enchanting things to do than fight or prolong on-field battles, which were fought in the first place to enjoy success , life and all the beautiful things that accompany it. We played cricket in the FULL SPIRIT OF THE GAME .
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Traffic Jams are god's gift to mankind. . Traffic jams achieve with spectacular ease, what great gurus like Sri Sri Ravi Sankar couldn’t have accomplished in their collective meditation camps. Look around you when you are stuck in a jam. You usually see A thousand people from every walk of life with a single point agenda on their mind, and that is to move forward. You see an army of people seemingly unshaken by anything, be it stationary or moving, patiently working out the clutch and brake combination to go ever forward and grab every bit of available road space although its only potholes they find at the most excruciating turns and bottle necks. The majority carry on with a never die spirit filled with patience, grit, faith and tenacity of purpose as if they are sure of the target no matter how frustrating the path is, ever reminding themselves of the beautiful road ahead once this bad stretch is cleared, they go on practicing the kind of nishkama karma (dispassionate work) that would have made Sri Krishna cry happy tears.
Who needs Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's peaceful ashram when we can learn on the Indian roads the high art of living and surviving.
However, some common art lessons learnt thru practice in the jam program are quickly jotted down. The list is by no means exhaustive.
Corporate lesson one. Don’t be good in a true way, ever, to anyone. Show aggression and never lose an opportunity to put yourself in a comfortable situation. If you give space to others to show generosity, they will soon be pushing you into a corner.
Corporate lesson two. It’s all about timing, quick decisions and ability to take risks without skrewing it up. A momentary show of your vehicle's power at the right time can zoom you past a critical junction and save you tail gating for hours.
Corporate lesson three: The leader need not be always right. So don’t follow him blindly. Tail gating an SUV or a Truck can sometimes leave you in the lurch. The SUV crosses a pothole as if it’s a minor hiccup and if you are following it, you might be buried. Hyderabad crane service is not operational all the time.
Social Lesson one: Keep good company. Travel behind vehicles which match your vehicle type. Else get ready for some rude shocks.
Social lesson number two: Seemingly harmless & over cautious friends can be more dangerous than arrogant enemies. Watch out for those L board drivers. They usually brake for reasons unknown to even themselves.
Critical expectation number one: Pedestrians expect you to be vigilant of what they do. Their life is in your hands. Slow down and guess their next move and act accordingly and be prepared to tackle the situation even if they dance before you.
Critical expectation number two: Whatever happens on road, never lose your patience. Your dad or friend or spouse sitting beside you expects you to be a great human being in any situation. So behave yourself.
General and miscellaneous considerations: Never cut corners or try for short cuts when stuck in a jam on a major road,else, you will soon be very sorry. Stick to the royal path, be it traffic or life. It’s slow but sure.
The traffic in the other lane or the opposite lane is always faster. There is nothing you can do researching it, it’s an axiom.
The moment you change lanes after a lot of deliberation and thought, the above axiom proves itself again.
If you are driving an expensive sports car and someone is hit, irrespective of whose fault it is, you'd be blamed. Even the courts might rule against you! Ferrari's aint made for Indian roads and Show off has its disadvantages.
The list is endless and the teachings are timeless , but may be i'll continue an other time .. after all who can unravel a modern marvel in a single blog .. adios ..its evening already and i got to hit road ..
Who needs Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's peaceful ashram when we can learn on the Indian roads the high art of living and surviving.
However, some common art lessons learnt thru practice in the jam program are quickly jotted down. The list is by no means exhaustive.
Corporate lesson one. Don’t be good in a true way, ever, to anyone. Show aggression and never lose an opportunity to put yourself in a comfortable situation. If you give space to others to show generosity, they will soon be pushing you into a corner.
Corporate lesson two. It’s all about timing, quick decisions and ability to take risks without skrewing it up. A momentary show of your vehicle's power at the right time can zoom you past a critical junction and save you tail gating for hours.
Corporate lesson three: The leader need not be always right. So don’t follow him blindly. Tail gating an SUV or a Truck can sometimes leave you in the lurch. The SUV crosses a pothole as if it’s a minor hiccup and if you are following it, you might be buried. Hyderabad crane service is not operational all the time.
Social Lesson one: Keep good company. Travel behind vehicles which match your vehicle type. Else get ready for some rude shocks.
Social lesson number two: Seemingly harmless & over cautious friends can be more dangerous than arrogant enemies. Watch out for those L board drivers. They usually brake for reasons unknown to even themselves.
Critical expectation number one: Pedestrians expect you to be vigilant of what they do. Their life is in your hands. Slow down and guess their next move and act accordingly and be prepared to tackle the situation even if they dance before you.
Critical expectation number two: Whatever happens on road, never lose your patience. Your dad or friend or spouse sitting beside you expects you to be a great human being in any situation. So behave yourself.
General and miscellaneous considerations: Never cut corners or try for short cuts when stuck in a jam on a major road,else, you will soon be very sorry. Stick to the royal path, be it traffic or life. It’s slow but sure.
The traffic in the other lane or the opposite lane is always faster. There is nothing you can do researching it, it’s an axiom.
The moment you change lanes after a lot of deliberation and thought, the above axiom proves itself again.
If you are driving an expensive sports car and someone is hit, irrespective of whose fault it is, you'd be blamed. Even the courts might rule against you! Ferrari's aint made for Indian roads and Show off has its disadvantages.
The list is endless and the teachings are timeless , but may be i'll continue an other time .. after all who can unravel a modern marvel in a single blog .. adios ..its evening already and i got to hit road ..
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Trivia-Did you know
'Did you know' mania is back again :D. For example, did you know how the word "posh" came into vogue :). It was first used by British ticket collectors. During the 19 th century, passenger ships didn’t have the luxury of A/C accommodation, so while traveling from Great Britain to India and other eastern countries people who could afford more used to be given cool cabins on the left side of the ship (its called portside), since the sun rises and sets in the southern hemisphere during summers (esp at the mediterranean latitudes ). While coming back from India to UK, they were given cabins on the right side of the ship (called Starboard end in naval lingo) for the same reason, to beat the sun and travel in cool shade. So the Ticket collectors, used to mark the initials POSH (Portside Outbound, Starboard Homebound) on such tickets . That's how it all started .Since then the word "posh" became increasingly synonymous with luxurious accommodation , Privileged class etc etc :) ... :D .
Monday, February 11, 2008
A parable and a truth
Its a known fact that poachers catch wild elephants while young, and then tie them up with iron chains to tame them . The baby elephant tries its best to free itself of the uncomfortable chains to get back its freedom ( they are meant to live in forests ) . However it finds the chains too strong for it . So it stops trying after a few days or weeks of continuous effort and submits to man .
The interesting part is, in a few years it gains in strength to become the largest mammal on land and also arguably the strongest known animal in terms of raw physical strength . It never tries to break the chains though . Coz its programmed its mind that it tried once and tried hard with no results..what it doesn't know probably is the fact that its is no more a baby elephant . What it doesn't factor-in, is that now ,the iron chains are replaced by lose ropes ( the mahout knows chains are not required for ever ) . The situation is further worsened coz the elephant is now in the comfort zone . It after all gets food everyday and it sees other elephants submitting to ropes and man . So its memory and taste of the the wild forest is gone . Its no more a master of the deep greens it was meant to be . Its tamed for a cause it doesn't fully understand. It lives the dream of its new master , and forgets its own.
Humanity started with lots of odds against it . We needed fear , we needed limits , we needed to be apprehensive else we would have perished in the ice age, we were a frail, out numbered race & fear allowed us to lie low during the initial start-up period ,to survive those great predators higher up in the food chain . We needed religion in the middle ages since our reason needed a guidance and our instruments were meager . We have always carried with us the excess baggage of fear , religion , blind belief in tradition and an acceptance of age old precepts as true without even questioning its relevance in the current new scenario. Few among us remember in our drifting consciousness that we are probably the first generation with a real chance to see what none has seen before , to physically go where no one has gone before . Lets face facts . We have grown in strength, reached planetary conciousness and have arrived at an acme point in history & whats happening now to this race have never happened before ( at least not in recorded history ) . Yet we are no different from the baby elephant which thinks its bound by iron chains . We also commit the mistake of giving up coz we tried before but with no result . Many movements of social change , wealth generation , upliftings of society have come and gone throughout human history . But none had succeeded comprehensively. We have a chance to succeed where all others in the past have failed.
Humanity deserves to be free of all the accumulated burden of the past which was required then and not now. We do not need fear . We now know that we can handle accidents and catastrophes better by remaining calm . We would have become extinct if we didn't have fear during the ape ages. We'd lose our relevance and might seriously become impaired and weak if we continue with the past baggage of paranoid fear and mistrust in our daily lives.
Its relatively easy to see , but difficult to deprogram our genetic code which has persisted these thousands of years . Thats a long shot . Just a mere fresh perspective of things is tough for us to realise . We pity the baby elephant . Who pities us ?
The interesting part is, in a few years it gains in strength to become the largest mammal on land and also arguably the strongest known animal in terms of raw physical strength . It never tries to break the chains though . Coz its programmed its mind that it tried once and tried hard with no results..what it doesn't know probably is the fact that its is no more a baby elephant . What it doesn't factor-in, is that now ,the iron chains are replaced by lose ropes ( the mahout knows chains are not required for ever ) . The situation is further worsened coz the elephant is now in the comfort zone . It after all gets food everyday and it sees other elephants submitting to ropes and man . So its memory and taste of the the wild forest is gone . Its no more a master of the deep greens it was meant to be . Its tamed for a cause it doesn't fully understand. It lives the dream of its new master , and forgets its own.
Humanity started with lots of odds against it . We needed fear , we needed limits , we needed to be apprehensive else we would have perished in the ice age, we were a frail, out numbered race & fear allowed us to lie low during the initial start-up period ,to survive those great predators higher up in the food chain . We needed religion in the middle ages since our reason needed a guidance and our instruments were meager . We have always carried with us the excess baggage of fear , religion , blind belief in tradition and an acceptance of age old precepts as true without even questioning its relevance in the current new scenario. Few among us remember in our drifting consciousness that we are probably the first generation with a real chance to see what none has seen before , to physically go where no one has gone before . Lets face facts . We have grown in strength, reached planetary conciousness and have arrived at an acme point in history & whats happening now to this race have never happened before ( at least not in recorded history ) . Yet we are no different from the baby elephant which thinks its bound by iron chains . We also commit the mistake of giving up coz we tried before but with no result . Many movements of social change , wealth generation , upliftings of society have come and gone throughout human history . But none had succeeded comprehensively. We have a chance to succeed where all others in the past have failed.
Humanity deserves to be free of all the accumulated burden of the past which was required then and not now. We do not need fear . We now know that we can handle accidents and catastrophes better by remaining calm . We would have become extinct if we didn't have fear during the ape ages. We'd lose our relevance and might seriously become impaired and weak if we continue with the past baggage of paranoid fear and mistrust in our daily lives.
Its relatively easy to see , but difficult to deprogram our genetic code which has persisted these thousands of years . Thats a long shot . Just a mere fresh perspective of things is tough for us to realise . We pity the baby elephant . Who pities us ?
Sunday, February 3, 2008
India's highest awards of Honor .
Sir Edmund Hillary was honored with Padma Vibhushan posthumous .
He died a natural death when he was 88 . His major accomplishment was mounting the everest along with Tenzing Norgay way back in 1953 if i am not wrong . The govt of India had to wait all these years, for him to die to bestow him with this honor. For what purpose and to what avail ? what are we trying to prove here by awarding it posthumous , alright i can understand if its a person whose entire life stands monumental with continuous accomplishments until he dies ( like a Gandhi ..although he is a mistake ) ..or if he or she dies suddenly in the midst of world shattering iconic work ( like a Diana ) . he falls in none of the categories . Why didn't the govt see his single important achievement before ? they realized he conquered the everest only after his death ? . I asked my dad casually why Tenzing Norgay was not given the award ( both have equal claim ) and the response was ..probably he died long ago or didn't die yet !!! So death is the new benchmark for awards ? Dont we have the balls to believe in this person's merit or demerit while he was alive ? do we need to wait for death to look back on a person's life ? Are we stuck in melodrama ?
I have nothing agaist Sir Edmund Hillary, in fact i have a high regard for him ( few know that he appeared on a NZ 5 dollor note even when he was alive ! ) , he was honored with knighthood by the British way back in the 50's just after his ascent to the peak . We are giving our own civilian award to him in 2008. check out , the world doesn't bother whom india honors with what . And i believe its valid and well deserved with policies and methods like this which truly reflect the pathetic national pastime of doing everything for the heck of it..
He died a natural death when he was 88 . His major accomplishment was mounting the everest along with Tenzing Norgay way back in 1953 if i am not wrong . The govt of India had to wait all these years, for him to die to bestow him with this honor. For what purpose and to what avail ? what are we trying to prove here by awarding it posthumous , alright i can understand if its a person whose entire life stands monumental with continuous accomplishments until he dies ( like a Gandhi ..although he is a mistake ) ..or if he or she dies suddenly in the midst of world shattering iconic work ( like a Diana ) . he falls in none of the categories . Why didn't the govt see his single important achievement before ? they realized he conquered the everest only after his death ? . I asked my dad casually why Tenzing Norgay was not given the award ( both have equal claim ) and the response was ..probably he died long ago or didn't die yet !!! So death is the new benchmark for awards ? Dont we have the balls to believe in this person's merit or demerit while he was alive ? do we need to wait for death to look back on a person's life ? Are we stuck in melodrama ?
I have nothing agaist Sir Edmund Hillary, in fact i have a high regard for him ( few know that he appeared on a NZ 5 dollor note even when he was alive ! ) , he was honored with knighthood by the British way back in the 50's just after his ascent to the peak . We are giving our own civilian award to him in 2008. check out , the world doesn't bother whom india honors with what . And i believe its valid and well deserved with policies and methods like this which truly reflect the pathetic national pastime of doing everything for the heck of it..
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Unknown country is the website of Whitley Strieber and is TM protected. I was just going thru the site and also thought of blogging ..no intention of using the TM et all . Having said that , haven't yet thought of a topic to blog . One thing is true . I feel shallow.
One broad sweep of strained thought takes me to half baked experiences and fleeting moments and memories,acquired or gained mostly due to endeavors whose basic raison principale was to quell so called boredom and reach that perfect happiness which so comprehensively eludes losers who cant or don't know the secret of supreme silence.
None of those shallow moments deserves a special mention here, but the 'something' in the mind which stands witness to all these experiences definitely deserves one.For that something which survives all the hammers and the chaotic muddle of insensitive activity also works tirelessly in rain or shine and never sleeps ..in fact when the person is too recalcitrant it seems to work during sleep ..using it as a peaceful medium to express or explain its strain and also to divulge its ancient wisdom .
We usually fail to acknowledge or use the time we spend during sleep. A little will to be concious while plunging into deep sleep unlocks mysteries which eludes days of toil sometimes. Just like a flash of lightning sometimes lightens up an unknown countryside ..so do the revelations of dreams and sleep activity deeply convey to us things , events and aspects we never thought we could have figured otherwise .
I am not sure if i should describe more but would definitely keep blogging ...have a great night .. they are as important as your days .... :)
One broad sweep of strained thought takes me to half baked experiences and fleeting moments and memories,acquired or gained mostly due to endeavors whose basic raison principale was to quell so called boredom and reach that perfect happiness which so comprehensively eludes losers who cant or don't know the secret of supreme silence.
None of those shallow moments deserves a special mention here, but the 'something' in the mind which stands witness to all these experiences definitely deserves one.For that something which survives all the hammers and the chaotic muddle of insensitive activity also works tirelessly in rain or shine and never sleeps ..in fact when the person is too recalcitrant it seems to work during sleep ..using it as a peaceful medium to express or explain its strain and also to divulge its ancient wisdom .
We usually fail to acknowledge or use the time we spend during sleep. A little will to be concious while plunging into deep sleep unlocks mysteries which eludes days of toil sometimes. Just like a flash of lightning sometimes lightens up an unknown countryside ..so do the revelations of dreams and sleep activity deeply convey to us things , events and aspects we never thought we could have figured otherwise .
I am not sure if i should describe more but would definitely keep blogging ...have a great night .. they are as important as your days .... :)
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