Infinite loop

 

Looks like Dr.Watsa like people exist everywhere :-). Thanks to lolsnaps.com

God, Soul auf Life -III

Before i get beaten up for following the ekta kapoor way with my blog, i will try to conclude it by today's last post. A few of my friends have asked me to look into the vedas and Upanishads to get more deeper insight into God and creation. Wow, that is cool. Maybe what science is proving today was already known to us long time back. Anyway, this is not to discuss if Modern science is really so modern? 

The question that we left for this blog is based on the assumption that from the earlier post, that God is a net summation of the energies in the cosmos. And now it is for us to decide if the energy, read a part of that god, that resided in the dog that bit you; is good or bad. To cut the complicated sentence short, is God good or bad. My take on this is that God is neither good or bad. He is what is known in Sanskrit as "Sthitapragya" ( literally means someone who has control on his mind). This God energy knows just one rule, that it cannot be created or destroyed. God is not good...he doesn't help you pass your examination or help you get a date with the beautiful girl in your class. God is not bad...He doesn't make the tree fall on your car or make you slip on the banana peel, carelessly thrown over by your friend. Then why do we want to pray God. Why do you we spend so much of our time worshiping idols, doing rituals and spending time looking at horoscopes or going to churches and temples?

Well if you have not guessed it up until now...then it is just so that the process of of energy balance that happens is in our favor. Confused? Let me try to explain. 

Gita says "Death is inevitable if there is life. Everything that is born has to die". This means that the energy balance has to happen. On one hand there is new life coming up and there is death which is trying to balance the energy equation. By the rule that we discussed in the first post in this series, every organism wants to thrive. This means that every organism does everything in its power to ensure that the energy balance doesn't go against its existence. However, mother nature or lets say God ensures that the energy balance at every point is maintained; That being the fundamental law. Our efforts thus via prayers, rituals etc is just to try to make this energy balance act in our favor.

"Karma" or simply put "What you sow, you reap" is perhaps one of the irrefutable facts of life. It is seldom that something happens on its own. Every act that we are doing is somewhere balancing some energy equation or creating a new one. The whole gamut of things will keep happening for ever based on only one rule...Net energy is constant.

So next time you think of God, Revenge, Soul...Afterlife etc etc etc....just give it a thought...maybe you already know the answer :-)

If you have found my arguments dumb, foolish or hurting...I am sorry...! If you have other ideas, do leave a note and i would appreciate it greatly.

Ms & Ms Khatua

After reading this report, the title is what i could think of....

It took more than six months for 27-year-old Minati Khatua here in Rourkela to realise that she had married a woman and not a man. 

This is perhaps one of the first lesbian (unknowingly though) marriages in India. What is surprising is that the lady managed to pull off the act for more than 6 months. It is very clear that the motive of the marriage was just cheating from day one.

One of the best solutions to such problems -  "Pre-maritial Sex" ;-)....Food for thought!!

Inflation leads to deflation

The article here claims that the inflation has gone down this month...Hmm, the only thing i can see getting less inflated or deflated for the English enthusiasts; is the common man's wallet (Which includes me too). My dad does the shopping of the fruits in the house and if i may be a bit wordy here, he is one of the most persnickety person's when it comes to making note of prices and comparing. He tells me that none of the fruits are any cheaper than the last month. On one had there are crores of rupees being discussed in Air-conditioned rooms over "under the table" deals for almost everything under the sun starting from "Road Projects" to " Telecom bandwidth allocation", From "Cricket Teams" to " Land allocation"; On the other hand there are people who are dying everyday on our streets because of hunger and poverty. 

While Mr.Mukherjee claims that it (Inflation) will ease to just 6% here  I really have my doubts if this is really going to effect my expenses in anyway. 

I hope my manager dudes take a note of this...when they decide upon my salary for this season...

God, Soul auf Life - 2

I have been such a wonderful writer ( especially going by the experience in my blog) that except for myself and a few forced readers...my blog is not even read by the google-crawler.  However, the last post generated some interest among a few i know. And that is why i am typing this continuation to this. 

There are wonderful things written about the soul in the Gita. Starting with the fact that it is neither born nor can be destroyed, is perpetual, cannot slay or be slain etc etc. However, if we try to compare this with some of our known physics then that is almost matches what energy is. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, and really we know that nobody can really answer how did energy come to being. Ofcourse, the clever would say matter can transform to energy. Wow!! Great realization :-). But how did that matter come to being ?

Quoting from one the great physicists of our time, Feynmen has explained in one of his lectures a bit about how matter and energy are so related and how matter can be thought of roughly as a battery that traps energy. You destroy the matter you get the energy back which in turn can again be converted to matter. Well no explaining here for this part because then we would get deviated into a completely different path of physics. However, we have to believe scientifically or spiritually that there is a need for energy to be there for life to exist. So for those who can get easily convinced, i would like to make a direct comparison or even claim that soul can be equated to the energy that exists and drives our life. 

Assuming that i have been able to put forth my idea of the soul, i think i am now better qualified to present my ideas on god, which again would be fully based on the arguments and hypothesis that have been discussed in the previous paragraphs. The simplest way to understand god is to understand him or her as someone who knows the answer to the question, how did everything come to being. Matter or energy. We know that the SUN which is almost the entirely the source of every form of energy, note almost every form of energy on earth ( directly or indirectly) is something which is getting its energy by fission of Hydrogen into Helium. But Why should Hydrogen or helium exist? Why be there? Confused? I am too!!! 

Astronomers and Astrophysicists have come to a theory that the universe started from a blackhole that blew up. The universe is expanding and some day the expansion is going to stop. It is hypothesized to be like a big rubberband that is being stretched and some day it is going to stop and it will fall back. Is God the one who is stretching it? That is something I cannot answer. Nevertheless, my take is that if one has to simply visualize god as something or someone who is making the whole show run i.e. conversion of matter to energy, energy to matter...making new organisms come into being by adding some life into them, exiticntisizing (if i may use the word like this) some other races etc, then God can be considered as a Summation of all the energy that is there in the world. 

Which means he exists in you, your neighbor and neighbor's dog. ( Maybe thats why bible has ...Love thy Neighbor...Though most of it think of as Love thy Neighbor's Daughter ;-) ). He also exists in the thief who picked your pocket, and also the Nuclear bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki. So is god good or bad...? From the second line he look bad ain't he? Why do we pray him them? why are such great things said about him? .....

Well my ideas on that are for another post....I hope its worth the wait :-)

 

God, Soul aur Life

Finally I got the time to update the blog. The reason being that i have finally finished the Deutschkurs or the German course as they say it in English. This gives me time to write sometimes, somethings on this blog. The good news is that i have a few hours extra per day...the bad news is that i have many more things to read and a few extra things to do workwise. I have been having a lot of discussions with parents, friends & foes alike on various topics starting from "How our Education system should be?" to  "What should be done to express our ideas in the best way"...

One such interesting topic, though a bit sensitive and intriguing in nature was that of Religion and God. Yeah! Yeah ! I know, i am not qualified enough to comment on this because I am no saint or Godman. However, I am not here to preach people or tell them what to do to vanquish all their problems or how the mighty fist of God will slay all their enemies. I am just trying to understand the concept of God over the past few years and have got many answers; some from within and some from the people who tried to help me by providing their versions of the answers. 

There are a lot of people who just do not believe in God. Poof!! That is dumb. Or at least in my perspective it is dumb. Why dumb? The reason is to say something doesn't exist, one should understand what it is? However, To understand "God" itself is a quest that takes a lifetime. What the so called atheists really consider god, is what their "god-fearing" brethren consider as god. Idol worship or worship of a book doesn't qualify to be called god worship. So what really is "God" ?

In my point of view, "God" doesn't exist in the forms that we know him as. Energy is what drives us all. There is a process (Metabolism) to convert the food that we eat into energy and this is the energy that somehow  makes our existence possible. The key word here is somehow. Because, if we provide the same energy by for example burning a piece of wood or by doing some kind of a exothermic chemical reaction we still cannot produce what we commonly call as "Life".  There is something unique in the way things have to work together in tandem, in harmony to result in this stupendous thing called "Life". Arguers may state that Brain coordinates everything!!...Yeah true, but there are more things apart from just commanding the different organs; There are feelings,emotions and what we call as conscience, which if strong enough can make one take decisions which are perhaps counterproductive to the Logical Goal of a being i.e. Survival. This is because there is unknown or let me say un-understood by me force that connects all these well explains things together. This is what i believe constitutes of the soul. Spirit as we more often call it in the Christian terminologies, i guess is this special energy that binds and keeps the show going. 

Every organism that has come to being, has at least one purpose..and that is to thrive. Because without this the very fact of existence doesn't make sense. However, to bring it into existence there needs to be that some extra force, which is capable of creating the raw materials to something which can live and thrive on its own. We can create a culture on a petri-dish in a lab, however if i give you a dead amoeba, scientifically it is just not possible to make it do what it was doing as it was alive. Which means, there are parts of existence, that are still not understood fully by science. This defeats the purpose of talking about atheists who claim the Non-existence  of something which they don't understand anyway or cannot be fully explained by science :-)

What about the initial question of GOD?....Hmmmm, that is for another blog i guess.

Sambar death!!

I cannot fathom the torture the boy would have gone through while he was in the hot "Sambar Kadhai"...Yes, You read it right. A boy was killed when he fell into a sambhar vessel. Though some might find it really funny that a death occurred due to Sambar...and there would be some wise asses who would call this a tasty death, I find it really unfortunate and also inconvenient to come to believe that we are staying in the same society as these poor children, who have to live under hazardous conditions even to get their right to education. 

After having a look at the above state of affairs in the Bangalore university examinations...i wonder if the boy jumped into the sambar to show his protest against our pathetic system???

 

 

The rhetorical cracker story

As the skies are getting illuminated by the bright sparks from the innumerable number of Firecrackers being lit by kids and adults alike, i began to ponder over the topics which gain popularity each year during the Diwali season and that is "Ban Crackers because it leads to child labor". Each year scores of hours of discussions and talk shows happen in air conditioned rooms where intellectuals discuss over the evils of crackers and talk about how they blow a dent in our environment. Then there are environmentalists who boldly come to the studio's in their 4 and 6 cylinder cars to tell you that the pollution level rises by 40% during Deepavali. 

What started with the color matches and the mudpot based "Diya" better known as the "Bhakthapu" is today an whole industry, which has been plagued perhaps since its very inception by child labor. However, while we try to point fingers at this industry, we some how fail to see that the whole town of Sivakasi or lets say the best part of Sivakasi, Tamilnadu feeds off firecrackers. A complete ban on fireworks would as well mean stealing the livelihood of this town. Further to this what most of might not be aware of, thanks to our media which promotes what is juicy, is that there is a big racket of crackers being produces illegally without proper licenses or safety measures taken into consideration. This is where you would find most of the child labor, since that would bring bigger profits to the cracker-mafia (Funny that we have mafia in India for everything). Instead of every season playing a blame game and by having some dumb jokers come on the television to tell us about the ill effects of Crackers and how it promotes child labor, why cannot we treat this an opportunity. Why cannot the industry be better controlled by avoiding child labor, enforcing strict quality control on the manufacture of crackers and promote innovation in this area. A google search tells me that the Indian fireworks industry once locked horns with the Chinese Firework giants only to ground down to dust. The reason is not only that our varieties of crackers is scarce, but also that like many or of our other products, they are considered sub standard, unsafe and mostly unpredictable. Anybody who has burst a couple of bombs during Diwali would tell you this. It is a saddening fact that each one of knows most of these things and we still try to solve the wrong problem. 

Yes, crackers pollute....but so do our cars, bikes industries. However, no one protests then!!. We tends to love or hate something based on how it is portrayed. Why cannot open spaces be organized where all the residents can come together in burst their crackers? That way the pollution is to some extent localized. The changes are necessary, but not at the cost of someone's livelihood. One would prefer to live 40 years and die with respiratory problems than dying in the next 1 year due to hunger. It makes sense to gradually reduce our habit our crackers, giving sufficient time for the industry to look for newer options. Or how would it be, if we start concentrating more on creating crackers for the export market? Atleast the pollution is not ours anymore? Or how about creating low polluting crackers? Norms in the automotive industry have given us cars that promise to pollute less, why not norms for crackers?

Something for the MBA's and decision makers to brood over???

 

 

 

Has the Internet...netted us?

Out of my class today my classmate asks me ..."Why do you blog?". It got me thinking, why i blog or better why people blog, tweet use more of the so called social networking sites? Is is that we are not able to express ourselves well enough in our physical forms by talking to people, by interacting with them ? or is it because we live a dual life were we are what we want to be, in our internet self and are what are expected to be, in flesh and blood?

At the outset of internet, there was a huge rush of people who found it as a wonderful way to express their ideas and let their creative juices flow all over the electronic media. People used it to connect to people who were earlier only available via the telephone. Soon the internet manifested itself into a space where people not just ventured to express their creativity, but also to express their views over topics which otherwise were out of their bounds. It also became a playground for demonstrating ones wit and wisdom. Mud slinging via internet is no more new. Attention grabbing via controversial statements on social networking sites has become a modern day fad. Sashi Tharoor being the baton bearer for the Indian youth by making statements about  "Cattle class" and sorts. 

What was initially designed to just transfer information between a group of computers has gone to become so huge that it has a personality of its own. It is almost like the internet is something that has its own life and we all have made this a part of our life. I for one cannot imagine a life without internet, because for every bit of information that i need, i just google it. This shows how much i am dependent i have grown to this beast. I call it a beast because when it is good it is great and when internet turns bad it can be worse then your darkest nightmares. There have been umpteen number of cases where Internet has played a lifesaver. At the same time with malicious worms, viruses and hackers on the prowl it is almost as scary as a walk in the darkest streets of Pennsylvania in a cold winter night. 

Online gaming, chat sites and public forums give us a new perspective of life. We can be what we want, who we want and do what we like to do . However, we have got so much involved in this that we have started to be more of what we are online and in reality we are trying to lead a life which suits the demands of the polished society that we try to impress all the time. It makes me wonder if there has been more that the necessary amount of intrusion into our lives by the so called " Social Networking". 

Food for thought, ain't it?

 

The profession less chosen!!

These days we are having quite some interesting discussions going on in our German class. These are usually based on very interesting social aspects like Child Education, Vacation and various other topics like alternative medicines and their influence on our life. Though the main aim in the German class is not to make us aware of these social problems or provide us with interesting topics to brood over, it does influence my mind and my thinking during the day to day activities that i do. 

Last week i saw a really heart rendering sight. It might not be what many people would find amusing. Most might not even agree that there was anything heart-rending in what i am about to describe. However, I am sure who ever is doing it, is doing it because there is a very good reason to do so. The scene - Heavy rain is pouring down with all its vengeance on the pothole ridden streets of Bangalore. On the dark corner are standing a few girls who are inordinately dressed in dresses which neither suit the climate or the location. They don't seem too happy about standing there but stand there trying to manage their makeup in spite of the wrath being showered by the rain gods. Some are negotiating with potential customers, some of whom shamelessly are feeling them, as one would normal touch and feel a vegetable in the Saturday market before deciding to purchase it. Yes, I am talking of the scores of Sex-workers, Prostitutes or any other sick name in the abundant set of Indian languages.

I am sure many of you who belong to the class of people, who consider even reading the word "Sex" is a crime would have started creating opinions about me. However, Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and it stinks to the other!!. I am sure that the girls standing on the side of the road on that cold evening were not thinking about making money but rather were perhaps trying to make their ends meet. It is quite clear, that on an evening when most of us would love to sit in our houses and drink a cup of hot tea, let alone venture out in the cold rain, these ladies or girls ( some of them being too young to qualify to be called ladies) were standing that side of the street, upholding their bosoms just to attract the potential customers. Yeah, they have to do this else most would just feel them an leave. It is such a sick thing that this is all being done just to meet their frugal needs and to ensure that some of their loved ones are not dragged into this flesh trade. Neither do these Sex workers get proper education nor do they have a regular income. Use of condoms and ensuring safe sex is a luxury that these beings can barely afford. 

My question is very simple. Are they also not doing a job like any of us? I am sure the highly critical would start protesting that we are selling our skills while doing our job and not our body. India being a highly cultural land, we are not supposed to do such things!! Bullshit!! Hunger or basic necessities in life do not understand the borders of land or greatness of our culture. When a girl ( these days guys too) have nothing else to offer, they can offer their bodies. Sickly enough, we have enough buyers in both categories to buy these wares that are for offering. This brings us to the pointed question - Should this be banned? For whatever reasons!! Maybe we turn passionate towards prevention and revival of our culture or maybe we realize that Sex-workers are leading a life no better than slaves in the yesteryears and try to uplift them...However, the question still remains...should we ban them? 

This question has been lingering in my mind, not because i am a pervert but because i wonder if banning solves the root cause. The Root cause is that there are lot of girls who are not able to make their ends meet by any other means or because they have already become a part of the so called "Dirty" class of the society and can no more come out of it. Instead of banning which anyway will do no good and ensure that our law enforcers can further more extort these people, how would it be if we legalized the whole things. Provided the Sex-workers with a decent identification, ensure that their kids go to decent schools...make laws for them by which they can ensure that condoms are used, ensure that they get proper medical care and social recognition when needed. I am sure that such topics would mean shaking up the hornet's nest but these are hard issues that one needs to think over and come up with solutions that can really stand the test of time. 

I find it funny that we all live in the society, understand the problems and most of the time know the root cause...but unfortunately try to choose the solution that is the most inappropriate, inadequate and sometimes introduces further social problems....

Food for thought...ain't it?? 

 

Miniscule gadget collection expands a bit

I have never particularly been a fan of Laptops, though the idea of being able to type your blog sleeping on the bed did entice me many a times. However, today i am writing this blog after successfully installing Ubuntu-Netbook remix on my new 12" netbook (Asus 1210T). The machine is powered by a AMD processor running at a neat 1.6GHz with ATI GPU trying to ease some of the load from the processor. Out of the box, this netbook doesn't have an OS. However, who needs one when you have Ubuntu or better Kubuntu. The installation of the OS however was a bit of a bitch...This is primarily because i did not know something that i should have known...After creating the startup disk on a memorycard which inserted in a card reader, i made the USB as the first boot device in the 1210T's extremely frugal bios. However, to my surprise and dismay every time the boot device was not recognized and all i got was a screen with the Minimalistic OS from Asus. This apparently is because memory card and the usb reader somehow don't seem to work. Finally, i created a usb startup disk and then booted...

Finally came up the ubuntu screen which i know almost by heart now, having done the installation on many a machines many a times. Partitioning was not a big issue, i chose to keep one partition with multiple mount points in Fat-32. I know for sure that for some time in future i am not going to invest in a Windows variant of the OS...so nothing to worry in that regard. I could have very well chosen ext4 for all of the disc, but decided against it.

The netbook remix version of the Ubuntu has a side bar by default when you log in. This is really kinda cool because it gives the whole things a rich look and kinda makes you feel great looking at the bright screen. Note that coz of the GPU from ATI this machine can play full HD videos at 1080p.

Connecting to the Internet is not a problem if you have a BSNL connection and the rain gods have been kind enough. Once the net was running, first thing to do is to get the Graphics driver to update. You should be able to get the ATI/AMD driver by using Synaptic. Or just navigate to System->Administration->Hardware Drivers to get them.

I have still not got all the things in the netbook working however, i am already liking it because i can type very fast thanks to the flat keyboard with well spaced keys...and yeah i can do it from my bed ;-). However, i don't like the keys provided with trackpad..they are too hard...either time should soften then or is should invest in a good wireless mouse.

I would be updating more as i learn about the netbook...now its time for me to sleep...Finally, i have a "Laptop" of my own...Btw, the reason for my investing in this small piece of hardware lies in the strict (read dumb) policies of corporates which disallow the use of wifi on coporate laptop in unsecured ( read hotel) wifi network!! This will keep me good company when i go aboard next time and i have to stay in a hotel with free wifi :-)

[UPDATE]: To use the various buttons and the special features which come with the laptop like the clock change feature, enable disable of the trackpad etc you would need some additional tools which are thankfully provided in ubuntu. However, to do this you have add the repository to your existing sources. Refer here how to add this repository. After adding the repository the next step would be to install eeetray using synaptic. Then  a reboot should bring a new tool on your startup called the eee Tray too using which you can control almost everything like wifi on off, processor settings etc. You can avail the same features by using the Fn keys too..

 

 

 

Idea Ad and My life...

Venue : My office

Found via google...

Osama wants to create Mumbai in Europe.

In the report here Osama claims big as per the report below

World's most wanted terrorist is masterminding an unfolding plot to launch Mumbai-style attacks on European cities and top US officials have told Islamabad that LeT and Haqqani network are working on the plan with al-Qaeda.

All i can say that if anywhere in the advanced European countries like Germany or France anything like this is planned, then Osama would be soon more than sorry. Going into the land of Walters and Heckler&Koch is not a childs play. Though Germany is a generally peaceful country, the cops are very well equipped and trained. Unlike the Mumbai police quipped not more than Qualis and world-war-2  leftover iron helmets these European nations have access have latest intell coming from multitude of sources, drive fast Mercs and carry powerful firearms. 

My message to Osama : Dude how many more innocents will you kill? Is killing your passion?

 

 

Tech Robber

Now that is intelligent use of technology....

"Robbers loot using vaccum"

What is interesting that they could do it so many times. Monoprix has nothing to comment...can it?

 

Hard work at CWG

Child labor is something i abhor. However, after the debacle that has already unfolded in the past few days with respect to organisation of the well known "Common Wealth Games-2010" a new dent in the already dilapidated International image of India came when CNN reported here  about incident of child laborers being used for the construction work at CWG. It is a well known fact that some families in India can make the ends meet only if the children bring their earnings at the end of the day; Be it by toiling hard in the sun and rain or by begging on the streets or by turning into a pickpocket. Having said that, i think it should have been at least a point on the agenda for the CWG organizers to ensure no use of child labor for the activities related to the CWG. Any team now taking part in the CWG would look as if they were supporting the act ( i was tempted to write cause, because in a poor country like India it might be a cause!!).  

Listen to the comment by Ms. Dikshit below 

If this gentleman, whoever this student was from Harvard, if he had come to us, told us that this is what was happening there, we would have taken immediate action," Dixit said.

Wow...now Dixit wants to get "Student Labor" done...that too for free of cost without even recognizing the person. 

How i wish there is a bomb threat or even a short bomb blast (claiming Mr. Kalmadi for example!!) that would at least qualify us to declare the venue unsafe for the event and postpone the event. I think we have had enough of embarrassment already.  I don't want a country to sue us if an athlete gets killed when for example a tile lands on his head. 

"Bharat badnaam hua, CWG Tere Liye!!"

 

Homeopathy gag

I do not hate Hoemeopathy, however i don't believe it 100% too. Nevertheless found this harmless fun via India Uncut. 

How to make 25 crores a month

After looking at the stats in the picture above taken from here , i wonder who can rate india as a third world country.
I wonder if there is a possibility for a single Indian to live a lifetime without paying bribe?
Do you think our children can do this? again...Food for thought!!
Read more here

The past days

No i have not been very busy with work. However, I have really been a bit busy with a variety of things at office and home which are playing a toll on my blogging frequency.
To start with there is this "So-To-Say" Lead activity at office which means u do all the other stuff + your normal software activity!!. To follow that up we have a house rennovation activity that is under progress. I couldn't do much but still i have to search on the internet for costs of stuff and things like what needs to be done and when.
Next we had an activity at office which was technically christianed "Cubicle Decoration". Well it meant some sleepless nights and lot of Thermocol chopping, typing, countless amount of printouts and then sticking them together.

Though these have been three different activities there was something common that i could observe. In each of the activity be it the lead activity, or the research being done on house rennovation activity and the cubicle decoration activity, if i could cooperate and ask the right questions i could get my way out through tough situations. Be it arranging the pulley system to make our octopus ( ChadraPaul - The limping Paul ) pick up the Mercedes car among the other cars on display ( Audi & BMW)...or be it ensuring that a team short on man power is able to work on complicated testing of Transmission software.
 

From cubedeco-MBRDI

Quite often we fear ridicule and dont ask the questions & at times we create an image of the person we are dealing and close ourselves. I think sometimes it is easier to live life if we just start accepting people and co-operate with them to help them in their weak areas and request help in areas where we need the same. Food for thought!!

Crank Crank Crank

It is shocking to know that people derive fun out of something that could be a matter of life & Death. The latter in most of the cases because our traffic situation ensures that one cannot get to place in time if he starts early let alone if it is an emergency. 

It is not as if there are too many people taking ill all of a sudden. But of the 7,19,489 calls received in June, 40,000 were from kids simply out to play a prank.

The report here says that in many cases the adults encourage their kids to make such crank calls. The problem is that in the end we just put off these crank calls by saying that "Oh! he is just a boy!!". Sometimes a simple call done for fun or to derive some momentary enjoyment can mean that a bevy of people are on road running from pillar to post away from their loved ones, leaving perhaps more important tasks to attend to what the caller has just alerted them about.

A prank call to the police control room by an unidentified boy, sounding eight to 10 years old, Sunday afternoon that a bomb would explode in the upscale M.G. Road sent the city police into a tizzy and caused a scare in the area.

This just shows how irresponsibly can we behave at times. It is this lack of sense of responsibility in our youth that at time leads to many a crisis. Be it bomb scares or delaying flights by making hoax calls. The fact is that we just getting degrees will not help; one needs to be really educated to learn to live and also respect others lives.

The growing crowds

The sole consolation in the following headline was that atleast we were world leaders in one category.

India's burgeoning population has seen a five-fold increase over the last 100 years and will surpass that of China by 2050

The problem of population has plagued this country for long and even though there have been initiatives taken up by the government, not much has really come out of it. Yes we have arrested the population growth to some extent but not to the extent we would ideally like to have. While some countries have to worry about a diminishing population, India has to worry about managing its depleting natural resources among a mammoth population which only seems to keep growing. Sustained growth is only achievable when the stress on the natural resources is not extremely overwhelming. The problems of crime, exploitation and a widening social chasm is only looking northwards even in the backdrop of a growing economy primarily because we have many more mouths to feed, more bodies to clothe & bathe.
Lack of proper education is one of the driving factors behind teenage pregnancies. Uninformed youth, poverty and lack of awareness leads to unplanned growth of families. Religious beliefs are good to have, however individuals should understand that these ideas of avoiding contraceptive measures etc were coined in a different age where the demands of the society were completely different from the socio-economic conditions of today. Today we are at a point where the social economic fabric is already stretched to its extremes and may not be able to support the kind of population explosion we are talking about. Anarchy, increased crime rates and woefully low health and Sanitary conditions are in store for us if we do not act now and act well.

This is something of a black humor ...real meaningful cartoon

Some Sense from Youth in our neighboring country

This video was very good and i just request you to see the whole video...

Pakistani girls about India

Profound sense displayed by the speaker and also by the girls...
Salute to the ideas presented in the video

Abortion - disguised Evil?

The telegraph here reports an alarming rise in the number of teenage abortions being conducted in England. Although abortions are not new to the western society, what is deeply concerning is that there are women who have had their 8th abortion. According to me this just shows the callous attitude that has developed among the youth towards abortion. Further more the Telegraph reports here that

“It is increasingly clear that abortion is simply being used as a form of contraception by a growing percentage of girls and women, and that tired policies of values-free sex education, condoms and morning-after pills are not working,”

There could be many reason including the one that is illustrated in the cartoon strip below. I am sure that in India also the same problem exists.

However, in India it is not just teenage pregnancy that we need to worry about. In India a major portion of the abortions do happen based on the sex of the fetus.  The girl child is still not the preferred choice of many a bunch of parents who still trust that a son can only ensure that the blood-line progresses. Well so much for the so called "Khandan" which might soon be non-existent.
Given the fact that the literacy rates in India don't show a very rosy picture it is very difficult to ensure such activities are curbed. Only stringent laws and greater awareness in the youth can ensure a change in the outlook of people towards abortion or the need for the same.

Sports India

This shows the apathy of sports and sports-promotion in India. No wonder we hardly win medals at the Olympic games. Imagine that on hand there is so much of hype associated with Cricket. Money seems to be flowing to cricketers, BCCI being the richest Cricket Control Board in the world; and on the other hand talents in other all areas seem to be not only neglected but also insulted.
A wonderful article here shows us why China can manage 100 medals in one Olympic season and we can manage only 3.

Status update from Germany

I am in Germany at a good time by "Jahres Zeit" or Season and at a bad time in practical. Why good time? because the outside temperature is around 30 degrees today, the sun is shining bright and the birds are all happily chirping all around. Further to add some icing over the cake it is almost like vacation time here with schools closed and folks cycling around in their bicycles which look at times as complicated as our mopeds with around 40+ gears. Why bad time? I have very little company that is interested in going around and enjoying what nature has to offer us. Though i could travel alone everywhere, which i did a couple of times with not much fun, it is always advisable to travel in Germany in a group.

There are many reasons why group travel is better than an individual travel in Germany. For one you have company to talk to and express what you feel when you feel it. Furthermore it is extremely cheap when we travel in groups. For example a ticket to the entire Bundesland or State of BW ( Baden-Wuttenberg) will cost you around 20 € if you are alone. The same will cost you just 27€ when traveling in a group of five people...bringing it to roughly 6€ per head. If that is not just enough, you will be entitled to get some discounts at some museums if you are in a group of 5 folks.

There are many ways to travel in Europe. The car being the most common transport for an earning European. However, for folks from India who go more on a shoe-string budget...or simply get enough per Diem just to manage their meals, it is better to use the public transportation. bahn.de   is a good place to look for cheap offers to travel various places within Europe. By common sense it is clear that the slower transportation mechanisms like RE (Regional-Express) or the IRE ( Inter-Regional Express) are way cheaper than the faster trains like IC (Inter-City) or ICE. However, that does not mean that you cannot travel by the IC or ICE. The IC or ICE tickets will be very cheaply sold about 6 weeks before the day of travel. However, then you cannot afford to miss this train because the amount is not refundable and not valid on any other train too.

The big problem that i faced in booking tickets in advance was that my date of travel was not decided for a very long time. This is the reason why i could not get some good offers which otherwise would have been normally available.
Anyway so much for now....need to get ready for the office tomo...signing off until next time...chio

BlackForest tour in Germany

Though i should have done this much earlier...however earlier i had not internet in the room and no proper time too to write something on a blog. Finally i have got 4 days of free time out of which yesterday (4th of June) was the first day.....

I was at the so called and famous mostly because of the cake from here "Schwarzwald" or the "Black forest". Extremely scenic and calm, the place could be a heaven for an introvert....but was almost like hell for an extrovert. For long distances all you get to see is thick forests with a few houses here and there. Yeah and mind you most of the houses will be occupied but you will not see a single soul on the street. Yesterday being a holiday in Germany, it was more so. Thankfully to save grace and not to make my 20 Euro expenditure on the Baden-Wuttenberg ticket which allows you unlimited access to the Bus & Train network with BW for 1 whole day; I had the Triberg Wasserfall or the Triberg waterfall open. An entry fee of 3.5 € and after a huge climb you can get a great view of the waterfall. It is very nice to see how the trees provide and extremely wonderful cover. Squirrels can be seen around the waterfall and will come to you if you are kind enough to offer them some groundnuts.

From Kaala Wan

Click to get the clear pic...

Also dont forget to visit the worlds biggest Kukoo clock in Triberg...apparently quite old. However, shops are very expensive and you will end up spending anywhere between 40 € and above for a good clock.

Frieburg is about 1.5 hours journey from Triberg. One search on google will tell you that this is like the capital of Schwarzwald. Well surprisingly, this place failed to impress me much. For one the tourist information center is quite a walk from the Hauptbahnhof...or the main railway station. Frieburg has a lot of churches, the old and new rathaus which can be both visited by folks who have interest in taking some pictures. The Saint Martin Kirche (Church) and the gate with the same name are some of the good tourist attractions. You can also do some shopping on Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse on a working day....Dont forget to click a pic of this bull there....
 

 Bottom lines-
 Travel to Black forest in a group else u will be bored to death...u might as well look like this lonely bull
 Take your camera with you, you should go there only to click pictures...

B Natual

Some time back i had written about this.... Looks like someone was really acting upon this...

Sweden bans fake boobs over explosion risk

Imagine the kinda hit the Swedish Porn industry took because of this. And some very hilarious comments by folks who read this article

Just keeping abreast of todays news

I hope Taliban is not recruiting some female comrades after reading this article...

Procastination once again

After undergoing enjoyable ( read torturous early morning classes) i finally managed to complete by German B1 level examination. Due to various reason including some bright plans of my company to send me across seven seas i have been busy like a bumble bee....The anxiety of a trip and the excitement never seems to leave me, So i have been going over and over my travel items list. I wonder how some people can travel so carefree...maybe i should make more trips around...( Hope my managers have plans of that for me).
I hope to get some more time once i am across seven seas to update my blog more regularly. As of now the blog update graph looks very much like the Bangalore rains! Highly unpredictable
In the meanwhile there have been some very nice Engine models and openup engines that have been brought up at my firm...hopefully i will be able to write more in the other blog of mine about them in the coming days.

Hindi or Hinglish?

So if you thought You know Hindi and You know the national language....Think again...You might just be wrong.

Does India have a national language? No, says the Gujarat High Court.

In fact as per what we read in the article we don't have a national language. What do we have instead?  Hindi is an official language and not a national language.
Well for someone who is more familiar with languages like "C" and "Python" ...i think i don't give a damn about what language is chosen as National. However, what is sad is that we are still fighting based on languages and religions. When we are so divided internally do we really need an external power to divide us....after the British used the "Divide and Rule" policy....Indians have made it and habit to "Self Divide" and let others rule...Be it in the name of Religion, caste, skin color or geographical locations....

Use Diaper

Courtesy Rakesh and Mumbaimirror. ....
My comment: With such kinda traffic and such trucks, one better use more than just a diaper (might just work better than the dipper)!!

Pic of the month -Apr-10

More reason why we should stick to natural stuff :-)

Imagine a savita bhabhi with a ...ahem "burst" boob !!

Air Hosting Nude?

Well that is a unique way of showing your protest ....but i am not really sure the authorities would be willing to give the paychecks after what these air hostesses did.....

So how can we make sure people take us seriously? I know, let’s take our clothes off and pose for a nude calendar!

I have two problems when i see the same problem in the Indian context....

1. The most troubled air line in india.... Air India has a very old crew...i don't know if posing nude would be an option even if they air hostesses did want to. Also the crew is known for its display of "Indianism" via flexing of muscles. 
2. Even if some young ones got a job of posing nude to make a few extra bucks....All i expect our ministers to do is show their support by buying the calender with nudies instead of trying to "really" help them.
   

But then we have another good way of showing protest ain't it...the one which we have mastered.

The time's running out!!

Today after a while, i could spend a long day shopping for a impending journey. I had to wait at the restaurant in the mall, while my trousers where getting altered for the right length. On keen observation what i saw was that most if not all of the couple who were feasting there had a few things in common. All looked to be in their late 30's or mid 40's, all had atleast one kid ( obviously meaning that they were married!!) and apart from a high end mobile phone were sporting a really huge bulging waist (waste) line. With great feeling of guilt i looked southwards to see my own miniature version of a paunch that i had just seen a couple of minutes back and wondered, "Was this the same way a decade back?".
                                Sedentary lifestyle, high calorie diets and extremely stressful work atmosphere combined with the lack of interest in physical exercises seems to be taking its toll on a vast majority of the Metro population. Though it is very easy to see this with number of gym's and Spa's that have made home in towns like Bangalore and Mangalore, what really is more shocking is that it is not just the in the people on the wrong side of 30's that suffering from Obesity related problem, it is also the kids who prefer to spend more time in front of the Television or the Computer playing "Ungli Cricket" and "FIFA" as compared to the real versions of the sport. A report from Hindu here states that obesity is taking the form of epidemic. On one hand an argument crops up, and very rightly so that the youth these days are more health conscious and visit Fitness-Clubs more often then the youth from the yesteryears, What needs to be understood that inspite of this the figures of health problems relating to obesity related are only going northwards. Wiki here gives a list of how the obesity profile of India is currently.
                                Brisk walks in morning when you still have a chance of breathing clean air, a diet with controlled amount of saturated fats with higher concentration of fibers should help us in fighting this. However as with everything the first thing that needs to change is the mindset. We should try to accept and realise that we are sitting on timebomb that is ticking fast and realize that if we don't take care of our bodies then we would be ending up suffering from the same issues that we read about in newspaper and wonder ...."How could they let that happen to themselves??". It is something to a spare a thought to. 

How long does it take to prosecute Kasab

It took them one year...but finally they sentenced 17 to death for killing 1.
"Seventeen Indians were sentenced to death by a sharia court in Sharjah on Sunday for killing a Pakistani man during a clash between gangs in January 2009"
They did takea long time to convict them but nevertheless they did. In India, we are still wondering and trying to prove or disprove that Mr.Kasab was responsible for the massacre in Mumbai...Ain't that a bit demoralising?
The problem with India is that everything goes at half the pace it is expected to work and then there are too many people trying to look for oppurtunities to satify their vested interests.

Unique attack

Well that is the most "Brave" use of the Organ!!...

Marium Varinauskas, 28, tried to strike the officer on the head with his penis when she was called out to his flat, but she got out of the way.

Thank god the female officer did not use her baton against the Weapon of attach...

waste management and disposal technician == BIN MAN

Now that is interesting....I am sure I too can add a few things to the list.

While at university I had a relatively well-paid job with the title surveyorship enumerator. I counted cars going through traffic lights.
Joe Wright, Glasgow

I am a Senior Engineer and i dont know what i am doing...:P. It is very often that we look at the lucrative job title or for that matter even the company name and take a decision to join it. However, only later we realize that what he have just decided would perhaps count in our worst decisions ever made. A job change should always under go sufficient research which includes talking to the folks who are in the organisation and also those who were in the organisation. This will give you with a picture which contains both Pro's and Con's. Also, putting forth the right questions will only yield you with favorable results. Just asking for someone's opinion would provide you with answers which you cannot compare or use to help you with you decisions so easily.
Anyway, I am sure each of knows tons of Job-Switching guru's ...who can perhaps even tell you what a company is looking for in you...
Bottomline...Do not take a decision based on Company or Job Title.

Agent Deepak and 5230

It is been atleast 3 months since i have been using Nokia's budget offering in touch phones; The Nokia 5230. The phone is quite cool with all the basic stuff chugging cooly on a symbian OS and and ARM processor. The design and outer looks match that of the 5800 express music. However, the phone comes hardly with any accessory as compared to 5800. Don't be surprised to find no Memory card or free screen guard. You will have to shell out money for these from your own pocket. After bargaining for what looked like a eternity to me, I got a 4GB memory card and the phone together for 8.5K. A deal i thought!! However, there are a few glitches. The phone doesn't have all the wonderful software that you would expect from a phone with Symbian OS. I missed the document viewer and pdf viewer. These are available with the 5800 without extra payment. A search online revealed that i could get "QuickOffice" for my mobile provided i was ready to pay $19 for that....No more a deal :-(.

GPS and 2 MP camera in the phone are quite good to use. I have used more or less all the functions of the phone. One thing that irritates is that with the sensor turned on very slight movement will make the phone screen flip 90 degrees. However, irritative as it might me the feature helps when you want to do some photo or web browsing. Funnily the 90 degrees tilt works only in one direction...i.e. if you tilt the screen 90 in anti-clockwise the screen turns so that you can read it ...If you tilt it 90 degrees clockwise...well the screen still turns as if it was a anti-clockwise turn :-o. Well that could be easily fixed...i cant understand why or how Nokia did not think regarding this.
The one touch music, gallery and internet access is very useful. Further there are multiple options for the default screen. However, do not choose to change the theme to anything apart from the ones which come with the phone, lest you would be struggling for standby time. Again a question why that happens????

This phone doesn't hang....rather it just reboots when things go bad. Happens very often when you add new themes or keep switching the phone direction while browsing photos.

Overall rating for the phone outta 5 would be a max 4. I would have been happier if i could get a company supplied screen guard and also a few more softwares. ...

Better reviews here

English is In

There has been a spurt in the number of bollywood movies which are using "English" Titles. While on one hand this shows that the average movie goer now is able to understand the title of the movie even though it is in English, it also shows that with tons of multiplexes opening we are able to get the educated class also into the theaters. ....Only worry i have now is that after reading this our MNS or ShivSena dudes should not get offended!! and burn down posters and theaters quoting that the films do not have a "Marathi" name!!

When the fox bites

Firefox is a great browser. With the right plugins it provides literally everything that you really ask for in a browser. However, plugins are sometimes a bit dangerous. Recently with one of the plugin + firefox + ubuntu made my firefox bookmarks, Menubars etc completely garbled. And with great difficulty when i would try to get to the add-ons section it would just crash...Poof!!...
For a moment i wondered should i reinstall Firefox .....but then i remembered that when one man is down the other one should help. I fired up my Opera and did some "Internetting!!". Soon enough I found what i was looking for.....Command line options...they come handy when everything else fails...
So....What i did...just fired up my FFox with the following option
firefox %u -safe-mode
Guess what, it offered me with a window asking what i would like to do ...like disable all addon's, restore defaults for Ffox etc....I just said continue and then disabled the plugin that caused me the pain...
Ain't that cool...actually there are a whole bunch of command line things that you can use to get stuff done...Check this out..

Powered by ScribeFire.

My first Phone art....

I know it is not some art to look at...But this is what i created using my Symbian phone, Python and a wonderful software called Scribble. Not bad ain't it. You can get Scribble from Online Nokia stores.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Jump they said!!

Who was really the cause of her death? Was it the fire? Was it the firemen? Or was it as we most nonchalantly put....she herself?
The sources say that he fire was caused because there were "serious lapses". Whatever that means....
The fact still remains that very little percentage of us really know what to do in case a fire breaks out. Though most companies conduct fire drills for their employees, most consider it no more than a break from routine activity. Infact some people enjoy these drills, as it gives them a chance to get away from their bosses and make up excuses for other things.
We have to face the fact that our buildings are not really built considering fire hazards in mind. Fire exits are often blocked, unmarked or seem to manifest into storerooms almost as soon as the main storeroom is full. It is therefore in our best interest to understand a bit about fire and also about how we could be better prepared to face a fire outbreak.
A fact that some folks don't know about a fire-outbreak is that more than the fire, it is the smoke that kills. CO or Carbon Monoxide the abundant gas in any fire-outbreak, emitted as a result of incomplete combustion of stuff ,is by itself a very big health hazard.
CO can react quickly with the Haemoglobin in our blood rendering the blood cells useless. With the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood cells lost, the cells cannot carry oxygen to all the organs that need it leading to organ malfunction.
What is the best way to keep breathing in a fire?
Stay low....Hot CO will always be lighter than the surrounding air and will occupy the upper layers of the air in the room leaving cleaner air at the lower layers.
Breathe through a wet hanky if possible....this will keep the soot out of your lungs.

And Finally, just pray that someone quickly rescues you and also that your rescuers don't think of you as a acrobat and expect you to jump into nets from 7 floors....
 

Powered by ScribeFire.

Bearded Wife

Imagine what would have happened if this marriage had taken place..

Arab ambassador discovers bride is bearded and cross-eyed behind veil

And the best part is that the ambassador demanded that all the money he spent on her be returned. Either the ambassador is too naive...or the girl? Was she wearing the veil to hide her irregularities or to just maintain a religious outlook?
Powered by ScribeFire.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Marathi Manoos again

What i cannot understand is what is this whole hue and cry about "Marathi Manoos". I can understand linguistic patriotism...but what is happening in Maharastra is linguistic fanaticism. Some things that our great politicians forget is that what Maharastra is today..."Maha" is because we the rest of India help it to become like that. Would it be right if IT companies just laid off every marathi? Would it be ok if all the other states ban the movies made out of Mumbai...or so to say the heart of Bollywood which gave rise to stars like Amitabh Bacchan? What good would be Tendulkar's talent if he was not a part of the national team?
Well by now the Thackerays would have a room full of apologies!! Though I am they care a damn about the apology, vis-a-vis the publicity they create for themselves....
Got save us and the Marathi manoos!!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Busy Busy Busy

Beschaeftigt....or busy in english....That is what describes my situation right now. Is this because I am doing much more...well not on paper. On paper i am still a Senior Engineer...but got to work "apparently" as a team lead...So for a few days there will be lesser posts...much lesser in my other blog...www.embeddedlive.blogspot.com. However, i will try to be as awake as possible on Twitter and keep putting up some juicy tit-bits...

till then....Aufweidersehen...

6 lettered colors..

Some times software guys really screw up bad and it is frustrating...
Recently i visited the NSDL site...and there wanted to register myself for viewing my Annual -Tax statement. The form to do this has a important section which says Security question which is used when one forgets his password.


It says...What is your favourite color?...and it expects an answer which is atleast 6 characters....
Voilet,Blue,Green,Yellow,Indigo,Orange,Red...out of these only 4 qualify...Black, Pink etc...No....So government wants you to have your favourite color only from the limited set :-).
Either i am being too picky...or this is really weird..

Powered by ScribeFire.

Pilot says TimeOut!!

I was greeted by the WTF news of the day....

Seventy passengers of a Mumbai-bound Spicejet flight were left stranded in Visakhapatnam on Saturday night.... A harried passenger Sumit said, “A bizarre reason was given for the pilot's duty hours which were prescribed by the DGCA.

What is really bizarre is that the airline scheduled a flight to be flown by a pilot who was beyond his duty hours and then  did not even acknowledge the mistake fully.
On the lighter side i just thank god that this pilot's duty hours did not expire when they where mid flight....Imagine this announcement...
'Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your caption and pilot speaking...Since my duty hours have just got expired, I will be parachuting out now. However, Worry not....You will land somewhere and I am sure you will be more than happy to have traveled a longer distance than you planned for, that too at the same price...'
Funny way things work in India....dont they?
You can subscribe to this blog by using the links under "Subscribe" section.

The First Day

There is always a magic linked with the things when they occur for the first time; be it the first kiss, first day at school or first day of the year. Even i have invariably sensed only two feelings in all my "Frist time" ventures; either I was extremely excited or hopelessly scared. The first day of the year however started on a very exciting note but eventually ended up more like any other day....This made me ask myself that why these days are considered special and are over hyped. I remember my parents telling me as a kid that what i do in the first day of the year is likely to determine how the rest of the year will remain. Though i have realised that this is definitely how the "First Day" works, a small part of me still believes in this and unconsciously I try to control the day to be like the way I would like it to be the rest of the year.

On the other hand while a major part of the world was enjoying on the 31st of December and trying to welcome the new year in their own style, there are a lot of people who are just continuously struggling to ensure that this Party of ours goes smoothly. I can hazard a guess that most of these folks ( Policemen, Parking assistance staff, Bartenders, Shopkeepers, Party organizers, Cooks etc. etc) would be in their bed most of 1st of January, tired of the exhaustion of the previous night. To my knowledge these people lead normal lives the rest of year be it rain or shine. These are the real people to whom the new year matters the most because for some this means very huge business opportunities while for others this means extra work hours etc.

There is another category of people to whom the new year really doesn't matter. This is so, while they really cannot understand how after very 365 days there can be something that will drastically change their lifestyle. These people are those whom we don't really see but play an important role in our society. These are the peasants to whom we owe our daily meal, but who himself might not be able to get meals twice a day. I think in India this a vast majority. Being a country of peasants (big and small) it means that a major part of India is more worried about how its going to make the ends meet rather than bother about How the new year is going to be. I think we will be really going a long way if we create an environment where instead of thinking about how to repay the Zamindar's loan everyday, if this peasant is able to think about the First day of the new year like us. That is when we are going to see a developed India. This year one of the things that I have thought of doing is to do something to put a step in this direction. I have however not thought about how this is going to be realized but then these are  some initial thoughts i have and I am yet to figure out how things shape.
You can subscribe to this blog by using the links under "Subscribe" section.

Powered by ScribeFire.