Isn't it a wonder

Isn’t it a wonder?

Finally I have some time today to spurt on my blog :)
I have been thinking, while my blog was quiet, waiting for me to fill in.
It has been long, last post was on Monday, August 23, 2004 … whew that’s a really long break from blogging. Anyways, I am back and blogging :).

As a kid I was very curious and always playing the “why and how” game that I guess every one does. In the process I discovered many things, although at that time I had little understanding of what exactly I was up to, and not to mention I caused a lot of trouble to my parents but I know they love me.

I recollect as a kid, I got hold of a caterpillar roving in my garden. It was very beautiful all black with red, white and yellow dots all over it and two beautiful black antennas two in the front and two at the rear. It was about and inch and a half long and must have been slightly less than a centimeter thick, it was big as far as the size for a caterpillar, that as a kid I could have imagined.

It was harmless. When it moved on my hand I had a tingling feeling when its thoracic legs and the abdominal legs clung on my hand, it was very soft, like silk. I picked it up and brought it inside my home. I prepared a home for it using a shoe box. I gave to it the leaves of the plant on which I found it feeding. I had read in the school text books that a caterpillar turns into a cocoon and then in to a beautiful butterfly. Now I was about to experience the same in real life. It was very exciting. I love my Mom and Dad they never said no to what I was doing :).

Days passed by I kept feeding the little thing with plucked leaves from my garden. I played with it, allowing it to explore on my arms, enjoying the tingling feeling it gave. The time came, one fine day I saw it weaving the cocoon! It was a sight to behold. Using its spinneret it was spitting a sticky liquid and then weaving a cocoon around it. The day it happened I watched it for hours and my mom was really angry as I was not studying, but I was happy as I was experiencing something different, I was extremely excited, and I know she too was pretty enchanted by the experiment. Finally it made the cocoon in 2 days. The silky black skin was shed before it entered into the cocoon. The cocoon had a hard shell unlike the silky touch of its past life.

It was still, no movements, I wondered if it was still alive. The next day I dared to pick it up in my hand and to my astonishment that thing wriggled in my hands! It was an amazing feeling, to feel a budding life in my own hands. I could see it now filled with some liquid and white grainy matter towards the translucent front end of it. I was taken aback by the metamorphosis process. Once a caterpillar, it was now trapped inside a hard shell and the whole body turned into liquid and some white lumps.

I could feel the thing move inside the cocoon, but I had no idea what it was. It was no more a caterpillar and it was definitely not a butterfly. It was awe-inspiring. I had a feeling of pride flaunting it to whoever came to my home. It was a different! I kept a careful watch on it all the days, the liquid inside kept getting dense as the time passed, one fine day it broke open the shell and came out. I was unfortunate not to see this happen as I was in the school at that time.

When I came home I heard something flapping inside the little shoe box. I knew my efforts had fructified and I was very excited. I opened the box very carefully so as not to frighten the little life and before I could see the fruits of my labour, it flew out of the box and sat on the ceiling of my room. I was overjoyed but for a moment. It failed my expectations badly. It turned out to be a large Moth instead of a fascinating Butterfly in myriad colors that I had imagined it to be.

Nevertheless even today when I am writing this I am filled with excitement about the rendezvous I had with “Life”.

The sheer thought of being aware of the existence of our life is mesmerizing.

One powerful thought – “It’s a great feeling to feel the life itself”.

424

I'm not getting enuff time lately to update my blog :(

Will fill in JIT some time soon :) .. keep blogging though.. :)

====
An IT HR Manager talking to a prospective employee "Santa Singh" ...

HR Manager: Choose any figure between 5 and 6 lacs as your salary package.

After a minute of silence...
Santa Singh: Ummm .. I choose 5.5 lacs
====

'Njoy.

Commuting Comfortably

I come to office by the shuttle bus service provided by my company. It’s a small 14 seated, Tempo Traveler kind of vehicle. It is normally a very short journey. It takes around 20 minutes to reach office.

It has been happening recently, by chance, that I am having the pleasure of occupying a seat next to a gentleman in his 40s, I guess.

In effect I am the victim of this whole thing and unfortunately I board the bus at the last pickup point and it seems every one else is aware of his demeanor and the only place, in the bus, left for me is next to this gentleman [LOL].
Following is a snapshot of what this gentle man does.

This gentleman hopes to make full use of his time in the bus so he brings with him his News Paper, typically The Hindu. The Hindu is definitely a nice paper, but this gentleman, I doubt. Throughout his, although short, twenty minute, journey to office he will keep turning leaves of the News Paper, around 3.5 feet by 2.5 feet in size, and in the process he will keep brushing his shoulders against, poking people on his either sides by his elbow and keep adjusting himself so as to position the paper in a readable position. To worsen the situation if he doesn’t get enough room to turn the leaves he will grunt and make low sounds.

This is causing discomfort to whomsoever sitting on his either sides. He does not notice or fails to notice or does not want to notice is beyond my comprehension.

God save us from such commuters.

Proud to be an Indian?

Proud to be an Indian?

Think it all over again … don’t confuse between patriotism and pride!!!!

Patriotism: Love of country and willingness to sacrifice for it
Pride: Satisfaction with your (or another's) achievements

India has hugely failed as far as growth and development efforts are concerned!
It’s a shame that even after 57 Years of independence India is not a developed nation!

Can there be any reasons to justify that a country cannot develop in 57 years?
Leave aside the IT boom and a couple of millions savoring its fruits, real India is still in the villages and rural areas.

It pains to say that the heart of India still suffers even after 57 years of independence.

Here are some facts to feast your eyes:
- Out of every Re. 1/- the government spends for development mere 12 paise reaches the common man
- Every MLA gets Rs 2 Crore for the development of its constituency every year, where the money goes?
- Every one out of 3 Indians do not have access to safe drinking water
- Even if we adhere to “Hum do hamare do” Indian population will exceed that of china by 2010
- Current Indian Electrical production is short of 100000 MW of electricity

These are just a few pointers to the deteriorating Indian system. It is really hard to envisage a solution to the problems that India is facing in immediate future. The intricate and rotten web of Indian system is devouring India, slowly.

Just like another Indian, I hope things to change.

Consumerism @ India

Consumerism: “A movement advocating greater protection of the interests of consumers.”

In Indian context the word doesn’t carry much weight. The typical attitude of an Indian shopkeeper is like, once he gets the money whatever happens to the buyer he gives a damn. Let the consumer suffer whatever he is destined for. There have been several incidents where such an attitude has been consistently noticed, I am citing just one in this blog.

I bought a Study table last weekend from a Godrej showroom. It appealed to us and because it was in our budget so we immediately placed an order for it. In an hour the study table was delivered to our home. We were happy.

While we were deciding on where to place the table, I noticed a Godrej sticker on one of the edges of the bookshelf attached to the table. When I peeled it off, to my surprise there was a patch! Almost one square inch of the wood was chipped off and another wood chip was glued on to it externally.

This was really upsetting.

I immediately reverted to the Godrej showroom and apprized them of the situation. The manager at the show room said they were not aware of such a defect and they said that a replacement will happen but it will take another 3 weeks!

I was shocked to hear the time line for replacement. When I asked for the deal to be revoked and amount to be refunded the Guy said to me:

“You can continue to use the commodity and you can ‘Trust’ us for a replacement as soon as the stock arrives.”

See this guys audacity he is requesting me to have ‘Trust’ on him when in the first place he betrayed me.

Can it happen that, they failed to notice the “one inch” wood chipped off the study table and to hide the defect, they did not stuck a Godrej sticker on it?
In a normal situation the buyer will ignore the sticker considering it “Godrej Brand” label unaware of what was under it.

Eventually I had to accept his proposition. I had no choice! I had already paid for it!

Although I have the study table at my home now and it is serving our purpose but the whole episode was upsetting.

Consider this, you buy something new with a lot of wanting and then you find a scar on your object of desire, doesn’t it feel awful?

I am definitely going to raise this issue to Godrej management, unless the study table is replaced in their suggested 3 weeks time.

Moral of the Incident:
Its time now that consumer of India should realize that they have to be taken seriously by the vendors and the business community. They should not hesitate to raise the concerns and fight for the value of their hard earned money.

Muskuraiye ki aap Lucknow mein hain

Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, is a great place.
It has some charisma inherent in its culture and in the way people live their life. The "Tehzeeb" of Lucknow and the famous words from Lucknow "Pehle Aap!" are known to everyone. In essence it reflects the gentle and suave ways of people who stay there.

A great joke goes around about “Pehle Aap” phenomenon in Lucknow:

“A Begum in Lucknow got pregnant and to every ones surprise, the kids were not borne for 4 years!!!! On consulting the doctor’s and on doing MRI scans it was found that there were twin ‘Nawab’ kids saying ‘Pehle aap’ to each other”.

Rightly informed by a friend from Lucknow @ “Confusing Musings”:

“Lucknow hum per fida, Hum Fida-ai-Lucknow
Kismein hai dum itna, Jo Humsey Chhudwai Lucknow”

Also

“You can take a person out of Lucknow,
but can't take Lucknow out of that person :)”

One want's it or not, the spirit of Lucknow lives in every person from Lucknow.

Buzzzzz

Q: Why do mosquitoes always buzz in your ears?

A: For the simple reason that you cannot hear, except from your ears!

From 'Julie-t' to 'Julie'

Last weekend I saw the much talked about movie “Julie”.
A lot has been said all over the media space about the movie and the sex-sational scenes that Neha Dhupia has dared. The words going around, about the movie, are not far from credible.

It definitely has what it takes to call the movie X-Rated. The steaming scenes executed by Miss Dhupia in all but clothes are as good as a love scene in a typical X-Rated English movie. This is not typical of Indian movies.

Reflecting on the idea behind the movie and the maverick content, there are certain distinct ‘things’ that I noticed:

• The movie is definitely not typical of the Indian types as far as explicit sexual scenes are concerned
• The movie definitely conveys a message to the society in general
• The movie depicts how an innocent girl, driven by circumstances, can take to prostitution, this being an eye opener

The movie draws attention of audience only in the second half of the movie when ‘Julie’ decides to air her voice via ‘C TV’. The audience, simply enjoying the steaming scenes of the movie is suddenly taken out of the trance of the sexually explicit scenes and, is forced to contemplate, until the ‘climax’, why ‘Julie’ has taken this bold step of coming live on TV and expose her identity.

The arguments offered towards the end of the movie are bold and enlightening and justify the step of ‘Julie’ as far as the movie and the deep rooted love and sentiments of ‘Julie’ are concerned.

I don’t deny that the situation depicted in the movie cannot happen in real life but the solution suggested in the movie is not an acceptable one, I do not concur on the same, not without reason.

How many people that belong to the masses are like ‘Shandilya’, in India?
‘Shandilya’ is able to take this step because of his position and people are ready to listen to him out of the magnanimity he possesses.

The movie is for the masses and not for exceptions. Reflecting at the Indian social setup, a common Indian accepting a prostitute as his wife is far from credible, exceptions will always be there and we cannot consider exceptions as milestones.

The situation and the solution in the movie are common in western countries, and are a part of ‘There’ social setup and culture. The movie suggests this for India. This is outrageous. We have our own social setup and culture that is far from what western countries have. Such solutions to social problems have the potential to upset the delicate balance of the beautiful Indian system.

The movie has completely messed up with the sentiments, on love, of the masses and the idea of projecting prostitution as a social problem and the rebellious way to resolve the same.

The conclusion of the movie with the maverick decision, of marrying ‘Julie’, of ‘Mr. Shandilya’, reflects the essence of the movie, the rest of it is just to make the movie earn petty bucks.

I have a question for ‘Julie’:

• Why does she have to be a ‘Julie-t’ for every other guy that approaches her???? Which eventually degrades her psychologically and the basic instincts for survival force her to take up to prostitution.

Above question in essence puts a question mark to the making of ‘Julie’. I feel it’s an attempt to create a commercially successful box-office hit.

Hello !

“Hello” is a very powerful word of expression and people seldom realize its value.

Let us get on to its etymology first.

hello - 1883, alt. of hallo (1840), itself an alt. of holla, hollo, a shout to attract attention, first recorded 1588. Perhaps from holla! "stop, cease." Popularity as a greeting coincides with use of the telephone, where it won out over Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion, ahoy. Central telephone exchange operators were known as hello-girls (1889).

"Hello, formerly an Americanism, is now nearly as common as hullo in Britain (Say who you are; do not just say 'hello' is the warning given in our telephone directories) and the Englishman cannot be expected to give up the right to say hello if he likes it better than his native hullo. [H.W. Fowler, "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage," 1926]
 
Have you ever tried to say Hello to a stranger?
I am sure most of us have not done this. But I am sure if you did “Hello”, you have won a smile from the person receiving it. It has the power, inherent in it, to open a new channel of communication, a new road towards co-operation and a new area of collaboration for you. It helps to acclimatize you to the new situation.

In this age of communication and information interchange there is no time that you can spare exclusively for fostering relationships and developing contacts. It has to be dynamic and spontaneous and of course an offset can be “Hello”.

In India I have noticed that people are more than often reserved and do not open up easily to neighbors, co-workers, etc, the list goes on. It takes considerable time for a person to open up and communicate. The most common assumption being: “the person next door is no good”.

It is also an observation that when two strangers start to communicate they start associating the information exchanged to there own life-sphere, and many a time they are able to foster a new relationship and collaborate to the advantage of each other. I have observed this mostly in the Trains, in India. I must say Indian railways must be a fertile ground to many new deals and relationships that are based on a simple “Hello”, what if the “Hello” done was to feel good in the journey.

Why do we find it so hard to say “Hello” and beam a smile to a stranger?
I claim a “Hello” has the power to make life easier and a rosier place.

Start to “Hello” today!

Life is about living it!

Life is about living it!
Just look at how the time, you have at your disposal, in your life span flies away and you never realize it.

One third of life is gone sleeping, half of it is gone working away from your family. What remains is a mere fraction of your life that you can spend with your loved ones! These are not exaggerations! Just reflect upon it and you will concur on the similar figures!

These figures really put you to re-consider the way you have been living your life!
A mere one part out of six is the amount of time you have in your life to spend with your loved one. So make the most out of it, live life to the fullest.

An apt saying from India goes like this, “Samay ke baal aage hote hain, peeche nahi”.
[Time has hair only on the front of its head and not at the back]. Time once gone never comes back.

Life is all about living up to this minimal time, to the fullest extent possible, we have at our disposal! Don’t ever forget to tell your loved one that you love them and you care!

So live it up!

Blog and Colors

A passing thought .... Just in Time !

Blog is like a water color balloon used in "Holi" festival in India!
Every one blogs with "colors" that the life has bestowed upon them!

Holi: The religious significance of the festival of Holi is to mark the burning of self - conceit, anger, selfishness, greed, lust, hatred, ego and pardoning or forgetting any grievances against any one and to restart afresh on a clean slate. The victory of righteous forces over demoniacal forces.

An Excuse

Dear friends,
I have removed your member entries from Just in Time blog.
Watch out for this space for a new blog dedicated to friendship !
 
Till then keep blogging !

You Vs You

It’s hard to understand life, as you live it. It’s only when you take time out from you busy schedule that you start reflecting upon what is going on. 

  Many times when things are not going such as to make you happy, one starts feeling low on morale and starts carping and finding faults with what others are up to. These are clear signs of frustration and must be handled with utmost care and understanding, not only by the individual experiencing it but also by those who love him. Understanding by the latter is extremely important.

  Actually the things are never as bad as they seem to be (note this), and you see what your mind is interpreting and your interpretation can be wrong. Your understanding can be based on information that is partially correct or not correct at all! Many a time you ponder so much on a situation, inflicting pain upon you, that you distort its image due to lack of available information. 

  Now the way out! Once you develop the acumen and the art of understanding what is happening to you and how the external forces are influencing you and your temperament, it is easy to alleviate the pain inflicted upon you in such mental state, by taking a time out to reflect on your condition and “forcing” your mind not to acknowledge such events. I call this a state of oneness with self and spirit. In this state your mind is able to communicate your mental state and your feelings to you. You become aware of yourself.   

Its “You Vs You”!

WOW

Good Morning folks! [I think there are people reading my posts :)]

Launching a new blog WOW today, 19th July 2004.
Contains Words of Wisdom from the nook and corners of life.
 
You are encouraged to add your valuable WOWs to this blog!
 

A Fledgeling

Introducing another blogger "Abhinav Nigam".

The sheer charm that the blog phenomenon has inherent in it and ofcourse some time to spare, he is now blogging in full swing.
 
The free wheeling bench is here to rest your eyes upon.
He has some of his own notions about Einstein and his philosophy. Go on take a look!
 
'Njoy!

Roads revisited !

Today morning a colleague, Girish, met with an accident. He is severely bruised in his arms and knees. Fortunately he wore a helmet today and was very near to Malaya Hospital, so first aid could be provided in time.

It is a very common observation that people commute to office for almost 20-25 kms, one way, on their two wheelers, driving almost one hour to reach the workplace. Every day the road traffic is increasing by leaps and bounds whereas the roads are still the same. The traffic is worse during rush hours.

How much traffic the present roads in Bangalore can handle and for how long? Stretching to limits one day the system will succumb to the mounting pressure. To make things worse, the roads of Bangalore are in terrible shape, decorated with bumps, puddles and garbage. Not to mention the air pollution that keeps your eyes red, your face painted with a layer of dust and your temper at an all time low threshold.

Traffic Police in Bangalore seems to be sensitive to this issue. Such pro-activity is commendable. Many roads have been converted into one-ways to accommodate the manifold increase in traffic volume. This is a good step albeit it is inconvenient in the sense that now I have to drive 1-2 km to reach a store that was at a walk-able distance. Similar is the story of many residents in Bangalore. But this is an acceptable trade-off to the worsening traffic condition in Bangalore.

The moral of the incident: “Please wear a helmet”, the traffic is not getting any better or the condition of roads improving hence in order to protect your head and to keep your lungs shielded from pollution, to some extent.

I think introduction of “Metro Railways” will alleviate the current problem of commutation, driving for 1-2 hrs daily is serious job. Owing to the fact that Bangalore has very little or less space for construction of rail roads connecting different parts of the IT hub, it will be a boon for people, if there can be underground rails laid or more flyovers/ bridges are built that too in less time. Also it is your duty to cooperate with traffice police and abide by the set rules and regulations.

Drive Safely!

Black Hole

Black Hole, a region of space resulting from the collapse of a star and has extremely high gravitational field is called a “Black Hole”. The term is coined with support from theories that suggest that nothing comes out of the super massive cosmos entity. It is postulated that even light doesn’t come out of it, you see only what is reflected when the light strikes and object, hence the term “Black Hole”.
 
What actually leads to the formation of a black hole is explained as follows: When a star consumes all its fuel it succumbs to the gravitational forces and implodes. The entire mass of the star is compressed into a single point, beyond imagination. It can be safely assumed that even a tea-spoon full of matter that constitutes a “Black Hole” can weigh equal to the mass of our earth! The star virtually disappears from the universe into a point of infinite density, a place where the laws of general relativity that govern space and time break down. The gravitational pull is so strong that the space time continuum gets convoluted near the “Black Hole”.

What actually happens might get answered as Hawking is due to present his new findings on “black hole information paradox” at the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation in Dublin, Ireland, on July 21.

An artists redering of a black hole. Black Hole

Findings

Its been a day full of "blog-ploring"[ex-ploring] in to the myriad blogs on the i-net. Read a lot and learned a lot... Found some really colourful ones and some really informative ones and not to forget the lovely ones and the insightful ones... Also discovered many sites that exist other than http://www.blogger.com, but I think this one is really cool, lets you talk more with less of props to support you... good thing.

I admit I did very less work today ... [I dont have much ;)] and more of blogging!!!!
Its addictive... I wish more friends to take time out and blog.
Till next blog.
Take Care !

Just in time - The Begining

Just in time, and off the events in chronological order, in my blog!

This blog "Just in time" is inspired by "Confusing Musings", a blog created by one of my dear friends Manish Chauhan, currently located in Pune. Find out more about him and his "Confusing Musings" here.

This being a very subtle and effective media, I intend to update this blog religiously unless Time plays otherwise. So keep in touch and keep blogging!

blog Blog BLog BLOg BLOG !!!!

NASA - Cassini-Huygens: Close Encounter with Saturn

NASA - Cassini-Huygens: Close Encounter with Saturn

The quest for the unknown has taken man made automaton "Cassini" to the outer limits of our solar system. This reach may seem like a grain of sand when compared to the Brobdingnagian nature of the space-time continuum, it definitely reflects the understanding that the Homo sapiens have developed, towards the laws of nature that have ever since perplexed the mortal and still they never cease to surprise.

Cassini, designed to explore Saturn, one of the most beautiful things in the sky, is the symbol of the unquenchable thirst that we Homo sapiens have for exploring the unknown, reaching beyond imagination, unfurling the mysteries that the dark skies hold.

I am in awe, wishing that I was a part of this “Holy Mission”.

Rain and Roads @ Blore

Now this is a combination to dread.
Although Bangalore is fast growing and developing, the condition of roads here is not far from pathetic. Come rainy season and the roads are picturesque with puddles and eroded roads all over Bangalore. Not to mention the garbage strewn on the roads that causes havoc. The worst are roads when there is a construction work in progress. I envy the car owners who manage to keep themselves secured from the mud splashes and pools of sewage water that is abundant during rainy season.

I really wonder why in India we cannot have good roads constructed once and for all. Why we need to mend the roads every year?

Come rains and the roads are washed, I mean literally washed away, what remains is bumps, puddles and the remains that were once a road.

I recollect the pun inflicted on the collaboration between the various Indian departments in the advertisement from "The Times of India" shown as a feature film before a movie in theaters. Its one forceful expression of what actually happens in Indian context and how a common man reacts to it - "Yeh aise hee chalta hai!" [This goes on like this only].