Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Where are we heading to with this uncontrolled consumption?
On a Sunday afternoon, as I was flipping through various channels on TV, a colourful sight on a particular channel caught my attention... I saw a group of American kids reveling themselves with the world’s biggest sandwich… each kid celebrating the moment and relishing every bit of it. There was so much food in front of them…. Cans of orange juice, cereals, vegetables, bread, meat, cheese,coffee etc etc. I was amazed to see that could all this do to their bodies…eat,burp,get bigger and finally collapse unable to take all the pressure..???
I moved on to another channel and there was this documentary on starvation in Somalia.. a lanky three year old kid ..poverty was oozing out of every bit of his limb..i could see his ribs through his skin and it was a heart-wrenching sight… I doubt if his waistline measured to 1/100th of the celebrated sandwich..
My heart skipped a beat for a minute…
How thoughtless can we get??
On the one hand, there are 1 billion people over-eating and putting stress on the whole environment....and on the other,there are 4 billion people starving. Given the theory of evolution the 1 billion rich will have to destroyed. Don’t our modern lifestyles and the so called quality of life marketed through the televisions go against the very grain of preservation and evolution of nature?
Going in this pace, in the next 20 years there will be a massive environmental crisis. And sheer common sense and logic can tell us who would have the last laugh! The 4 billion poor who can live under the hot sun, drink dirty water, live in houses surrounded by disease and muck – they become conditioned,rather immune to survive any ecological crisis. But think of the the 1 billion rich who live a well-cocooned life in air-conditioned houses with central heating,drink bottled water, eat lots of food and canned juice ...they will be like fish out of water. What would happen to them?
What a cruel joke of nature? As we insulate ourselves more and more against the vagaries of nature and live a cocooned life, the same nature enters ours home, drags us out of our houses, floods them and then leaves us to die!
Why else do you think there has been series of natural disasters across the world?. Nature is telling us – Listen,Dude, hide wherever you want, I am coming to get you! Just like I got you with Hurricane and Tsunami! Just like I invaded Bhuj, Haiti and the Andamans…and Guys, watch out!! Nature's fury is knocking at our doors!
I moved on to another channel and there was this documentary on starvation in Somalia.. a lanky three year old kid ..poverty was oozing out of every bit of his limb..i could see his ribs through his skin and it was a heart-wrenching sight… I doubt if his waistline measured to 1/100th of the celebrated sandwich..
My heart skipped a beat for a minute…
How thoughtless can we get??
On the one hand, there are 1 billion people over-eating and putting stress on the whole environment....and on the other,there are 4 billion people starving. Given the theory of evolution the 1 billion rich will have to destroyed. Don’t our modern lifestyles and the so called quality of life marketed through the televisions go against the very grain of preservation and evolution of nature?
Going in this pace, in the next 20 years there will be a massive environmental crisis. And sheer common sense and logic can tell us who would have the last laugh! The 4 billion poor who can live under the hot sun, drink dirty water, live in houses surrounded by disease and muck – they become conditioned,rather immune to survive any ecological crisis. But think of the the 1 billion rich who live a well-cocooned life in air-conditioned houses with central heating,drink bottled water, eat lots of food and canned juice ...they will be like fish out of water. What would happen to them?
What a cruel joke of nature? As we insulate ourselves more and more against the vagaries of nature and live a cocooned life, the same nature enters ours home, drags us out of our houses, floods them and then leaves us to die!
Why else do you think there has been series of natural disasters across the world?. Nature is telling us – Listen,Dude, hide wherever you want, I am coming to get you! Just like I got you with Hurricane and Tsunami! Just like I invaded Bhuj, Haiti and the Andamans…and Guys, watch out!! Nature's fury is knocking at our doors!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
The beauty of THIS MOMENT...
THIS MOMENT in front of us...
Is for us to plunge into it..with every bit of our being....
Is not laden with hopes or regrets...
Is not burdened with ambitions...
It is there for us to get completely dissolve into...
To just BE there...to live..JUST LIVE..
It is far too precious to be traded off for anything else in this world..
Fellow travellers, lets join hands to live it!!!
Is for us to plunge into it..with every bit of our being....
Is not laden with hopes or regrets...
Is not burdened with ambitions...
It is there for us to get completely dissolve into...
To just BE there...to live..JUST LIVE..
It is far too precious to be traded off for anything else in this world..
Fellow travellers, lets join hands to live it!!!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
WHO AM I?
Who am I?
The usual everyday person.. (with my bundle of hopes,fears,angsts,hurts and dreams)
Someone who has given myself to life, unconditionally…
I do not fight my fears, but live through it …digest them to give me the energy to live…
I do not succumb to pressures, rather I let them squeeze the juice out of me...
I’m not attracted to power…I rather enjoy finding strength in my weaknesses..
I’m not enthralled by ambition…for I see life as one long pause between death and activity.
I do not look for guarantees in life….for I strongly anchor my persona to my own self and throw myself into life with no cautions…
I’m not dragged by my past…neither too tempted to look into the future…I’m someone who has allowed myself to submit to this moment…
Many times, the Ms.Cynic in me is overpowered by the Ms.Compassion in me..
So, backbiters, creeps and unkind human beings don’t hurt me anymore…
I walk past them with a sigh and a sense of amusement…
Sometimes, the romantic in me raises its head to invite me to plunge into the various hues and contours of life..
But the realist in me reminds me of the self-set boundaries and the hundred million deprived people around me…
So, I let them battle for a while…
At times, the pessimist in me wakes up to take stock of my losses..
Parallely, the optimist in me reminds me of the countless blessings of my life…
So, I resolve, I really have nothing to complain..
While I tread this path of life with my head in the clouds,but with my feet firmly planted on the ground…
I have resolved to live every moment fully...
Love unconditionally...
Give generously...
Think relentlessly...
Resolve quietly...
And recycle myself through the series of events called life …detached from life, yet not hostile to it..
The usual everyday person.. (with my bundle of hopes,fears,angsts,hurts and dreams)
Someone who has given myself to life, unconditionally…
I do not fight my fears, but live through it …digest them to give me the energy to live…
I do not succumb to pressures, rather I let them squeeze the juice out of me...
I’m not attracted to power…I rather enjoy finding strength in my weaknesses..
I’m not enthralled by ambition…for I see life as one long pause between death and activity.
I do not look for guarantees in life….for I strongly anchor my persona to my own self and throw myself into life with no cautions…
I’m not dragged by my past…neither too tempted to look into the future…I’m someone who has allowed myself to submit to this moment…
Many times, the Ms.Cynic in me is overpowered by the Ms.Compassion in me..
So, backbiters, creeps and unkind human beings don’t hurt me anymore…
I walk past them with a sigh and a sense of amusement…
Sometimes, the romantic in me raises its head to invite me to plunge into the various hues and contours of life..
But the realist in me reminds me of the self-set boundaries and the hundred million deprived people around me…
So, I let them battle for a while…
At times, the pessimist in me wakes up to take stock of my losses..
Parallely, the optimist in me reminds me of the countless blessings of my life…
So, I resolve, I really have nothing to complain..
While I tread this path of life with my head in the clouds,but with my feet firmly planted on the ground…
I have resolved to live every moment fully...
Love unconditionally...
Give generously...
Think relentlessly...
Resolve quietly...
And recycle myself through the series of events called life …detached from life, yet not hostile to it..
A CHAPTER IN THE LIFE OF A PSG Techian
A chapter in the life of a PSG Techian – From the Lens of an Invigilator
A prelude to the final 3 hour trial as i captured it on a boring afternoon!!(Like most teachers, i dont enjoy invigilation duty as well!!)..
Welcome to April/may.. the two agonizing months which every Techian would die to trade them off for something more exciting and interesting in his life!!!
What a horrible time to be in? – Sans movies, sans girlfriends, Sans corridor gossip, Sans intercollegiate events, Sans IPL’s ..What a 360 degree turn to his life!
From a shiny, clean-shaven to a hollow cheek decked with stubbles...
From a neatly-pressed branded jean and shirt to a half-dirty pant and a badly creased shirt...
From the world of IPL’s to the world of polynomials and semiconductors..
From Dominoes Pizzas and Boomerang Ice creams to midnight teas at the NMB..
Over to the hostel…
Rooms so long littered with DVD’s, USB’s and sports shoes are replaced overnight with calculators and data books..
Wall papers of Britney Spears or Kareena Kapoor do not distract them anymore….they peer through them with a saintly detachment to figure out the dynamics of socket programming!
Talk time thus far reserved for girlfriends are distributed in all fairness to the 9- point day scholars..
The palates that mercilessly cursed the hostel mess food humbly submit themselves to ANYTHING served in the name of food!
While the 9 pointers discuss and share knowledge, the 5 and 6 pointers catch the tidbits of knowledge thrown by them with bewildered eyes and rapt attention!!!
Corridors so long reverberating with peals of laugher and rail rokos are suddenly overwhelmed by a pall of uncanny silence!!!
Boys don’t look like boys anymore – while the electrical engineers draw electric fields in the air as they walk, the mechanical engineers piously discuss heat and mass transfer while crossing the bridge…
Over to the examination hall....
One cannot but help watch him put a finger on his forehead trying desperately to dig out the answer for the questions in the question paper... Rubbing his cheeks and fingers restlessly, just hoping for the invigilator’s one moment of negligence so that he can share notes with his classmate to sail through the objective types.
What a sticky situation to be in !
Girls are not any different… they hardly resemble their faces in their ID cards..- shorn of all makeup, grace and matching dupattas..
A plain salwar and a kurta and a care-strewn face with her spectacles in place of contact lens…Oh Boy! She does look like the reincarnation of Marie Curie…One wonders…
Was this the same face that turned the faces of many a boy to look at her and broke many a heart as she walked past them in the corridor?
As she bangs the desk helplessly in a desperate moment to recall the answer, one wonders even if the army jawans at the LOC go through such intense moment of anxiety at the sight of the enemy..
Never have I seen students get so restless about blank papers..the same “Arrow”Space engineers who could bend papers to any shape to dart arrows and paper balls now treat the same paper with so much reverence.
The same moving finger which relentlessly and shamelessly replicated assignments in all confidence has suddenly become so rigid and frozen as if she was writing the Book of God (I could listen to her whisper “Gosh! I Wish I had listened to that professor for once!)
Almost reconciled to his plight, he turns around to find comfort in the shared agony of his classmates. To his dismay, he notices them fill in the papers with a dogged determinism! To add to his agony , he sees a girl in front him stand up and ask for an additional sheet from the ever-willing invigilator..
(Alas, he doesn’t know the fact that these are the smarties who have mastered the art of presentation skills – presenting the same first paragraph in many different ways in the subsequent paragraphs)
This is how my lens captured his myriad expressions and mental states in the grueling three hours time
1.50 – 2.00: The Mr.Morose in him morbidly walks through the sea of humanity, locates his seat and lands himself there as if he were attending a funeral
2.00-2.10 : The Optimist in him waits in all anticipation and hope as the invigilator distributes the question paper
2.10- 2.30 :The Meditator in him sails through the questions, sets the mental compass right and tries hard to unearth the answers from his cerebral cortex with the intensity and academic rigour of Einstein or Spinoza. Alas! Yet, more than 80 percent of the contents in the question paper look no familiar than the characters of the old Greek alphabet!!!
3.50- 4.15 The strategist in him tries all possible strategies – right from exercising his prowess of peripheral vision to picking answers from forward and backward roll numbers/ asking silly doubts from the invigilator with the faint hope of getting ONE SMALL clue for the answer!!!No trick of him seems to work!
4.15- 4.30: Mr Gymnast now tries squatting his legs on the chair, reclines a bit on the table, stretches arms on the chair..scrathces his head... No amount of physical activity seems to fill his mental void
4.45- 5.00 The stoic in him throws in the towel, and for once, he remembers the powers above, calls them for help and hands over the paper to the (still) cold invigilator and walks out in spirit of despondency overpowered by resignation…
A prelude to the final 3 hour trial as i captured it on a boring afternoon!!(Like most teachers, i dont enjoy invigilation duty as well!!)..
Welcome to April/may.. the two agonizing months which every Techian would die to trade them off for something more exciting and interesting in his life!!!
What a horrible time to be in? – Sans movies, sans girlfriends, Sans corridor gossip, Sans intercollegiate events, Sans IPL’s ..What a 360 degree turn to his life!
From a shiny, clean-shaven to a hollow cheek decked with stubbles...
From a neatly-pressed branded jean and shirt to a half-dirty pant and a badly creased shirt...
From the world of IPL’s to the world of polynomials and semiconductors..
From Dominoes Pizzas and Boomerang Ice creams to midnight teas at the NMB..
Over to the hostel…
Rooms so long littered with DVD’s, USB’s and sports shoes are replaced overnight with calculators and data books..
Wall papers of Britney Spears or Kareena Kapoor do not distract them anymore….they peer through them with a saintly detachment to figure out the dynamics of socket programming!
Talk time thus far reserved for girlfriends are distributed in all fairness to the 9- point day scholars..
The palates that mercilessly cursed the hostel mess food humbly submit themselves to ANYTHING served in the name of food!
While the 9 pointers discuss and share knowledge, the 5 and 6 pointers catch the tidbits of knowledge thrown by them with bewildered eyes and rapt attention!!!
Corridors so long reverberating with peals of laugher and rail rokos are suddenly overwhelmed by a pall of uncanny silence!!!
Boys don’t look like boys anymore – while the electrical engineers draw electric fields in the air as they walk, the mechanical engineers piously discuss heat and mass transfer while crossing the bridge…
Over to the examination hall....
One cannot but help watch him put a finger on his forehead trying desperately to dig out the answer for the questions in the question paper... Rubbing his cheeks and fingers restlessly, just hoping for the invigilator’s one moment of negligence so that he can share notes with his classmate to sail through the objective types.
What a sticky situation to be in !
Girls are not any different… they hardly resemble their faces in their ID cards..- shorn of all makeup, grace and matching dupattas..
A plain salwar and a kurta and a care-strewn face with her spectacles in place of contact lens…Oh Boy! She does look like the reincarnation of Marie Curie…One wonders…
Was this the same face that turned the faces of many a boy to look at her and broke many a heart as she walked past them in the corridor?
As she bangs the desk helplessly in a desperate moment to recall the answer, one wonders even if the army jawans at the LOC go through such intense moment of anxiety at the sight of the enemy..
Never have I seen students get so restless about blank papers..the same “Arrow”Space engineers who could bend papers to any shape to dart arrows and paper balls now treat the same paper with so much reverence.
The same moving finger which relentlessly and shamelessly replicated assignments in all confidence has suddenly become so rigid and frozen as if she was writing the Book of God (I could listen to her whisper “Gosh! I Wish I had listened to that professor for once!)
Almost reconciled to his plight, he turns around to find comfort in the shared agony of his classmates. To his dismay, he notices them fill in the papers with a dogged determinism! To add to his agony , he sees a girl in front him stand up and ask for an additional sheet from the ever-willing invigilator..
(Alas, he doesn’t know the fact that these are the smarties who have mastered the art of presentation skills – presenting the same first paragraph in many different ways in the subsequent paragraphs)
This is how my lens captured his myriad expressions and mental states in the grueling three hours time
1.50 – 2.00: The Mr.Morose in him morbidly walks through the sea of humanity, locates his seat and lands himself there as if he were attending a funeral
2.00-2.10 : The Optimist in him waits in all anticipation and hope as the invigilator distributes the question paper
2.10- 2.30 :The Meditator in him sails through the questions, sets the mental compass right and tries hard to unearth the answers from his cerebral cortex with the intensity and academic rigour of Einstein or Spinoza. Alas! Yet, more than 80 percent of the contents in the question paper look no familiar than the characters of the old Greek alphabet!!!
3.50- 4.15 The strategist in him tries all possible strategies – right from exercising his prowess of peripheral vision to picking answers from forward and backward roll numbers/ asking silly doubts from the invigilator with the faint hope of getting ONE SMALL clue for the answer!!!No trick of him seems to work!
4.15- 4.30: Mr Gymnast now tries squatting his legs on the chair, reclines a bit on the table, stretches arms on the chair..scrathces his head... No amount of physical activity seems to fill his mental void
4.45- 5.00 The stoic in him throws in the towel, and for once, he remembers the powers above, calls them for help and hands over the paper to the (still) cold invigilator and walks out in spirit of despondency overpowered by resignation…
Precious, little, intense moments of life…when I’m in touch with myself…
When I feel the first waft of the cool morning breeze during my morning walk while listening to Pavarotti,Beethoven and Balamurali …
When I walk through the morning drizzle feeling the fresh air embrace all parts of my being….
When the little bit of chocolate cake dipped in chocolate sauce at Coffeday slips slowly on my vibrant palate to dissolve into my stomach….
When I see my grandfather glow in love as I read my grandma’s last love letter to him ( he had lost his eyesight recently) ..
When I first felt the rosy palm of my newborn niece….and bundled her up to draw her close to me…
When I saw the joyous dimple on my nephew’s cheeks when he first learnt how to hold the cricket bat and hit the ball...
When my mother puts her warm, selfless and comforting palm on my fevered brow while I’m sick…
When I catch the gleam in my student’s eye as I complete explaining the Johari Window...
When I experience my Aha (eureka) moments after I crack the data-triangulation code following a long incubation of thought….
When I debate Plato, Nietzsche and Dahlia Lithwick with my peers and teachers….
When I share the goof-ups of the day with my bosom friend during our evening closing chat…
And finally, at the end of the day, when I sit at my altar thanking Him for all such little joys in life…
Who says only accolades, trophies and achievements alone make life worth living??
--------------------------
When I walk through the morning drizzle feeling the fresh air embrace all parts of my being….
When the little bit of chocolate cake dipped in chocolate sauce at Coffeday slips slowly on my vibrant palate to dissolve into my stomach….
When I see my grandfather glow in love as I read my grandma’s last love letter to him ( he had lost his eyesight recently) ..
When I first felt the rosy palm of my newborn niece….and bundled her up to draw her close to me…
When I saw the joyous dimple on my nephew’s cheeks when he first learnt how to hold the cricket bat and hit the ball...
When my mother puts her warm, selfless and comforting palm on my fevered brow while I’m sick…
When I catch the gleam in my student’s eye as I complete explaining the Johari Window...
When I experience my Aha (eureka) moments after I crack the data-triangulation code following a long incubation of thought….
When I debate Plato, Nietzsche and Dahlia Lithwick with my peers and teachers….
When I share the goof-ups of the day with my bosom friend during our evening closing chat…
And finally, at the end of the day, when I sit at my altar thanking Him for all such little joys in life…
Who says only accolades, trophies and achievements alone make life worth living??
--------------------------
How did Plato get married the dot.com way
How did Plato get (re)married the dot.com way? - A modern version
adapted from Plato’s original question on love and marriage…
One day, Plato asked his teacher, "How can I find love the second time around? I want a traditional, intelligent, beautiful girl”!”
His teacher answered, “Phew...Is this concern at all? Dear son, today’s alpha male has hell a lot of options...girls galore on dotcom sites...Explore …women are such an easy catch… There is a vast field in front of you– trophy wives, traditional women, size zeroes, intelligent gals. You can walk forward and backward and pick your choice - the most beautiful, intelligent and traditional of all women in no time – Remember you are a MAN!!!”
Three months passed… Plato walked forward and backwards on gchats, sms’s, phone calls and emails...he floated his profile, posted attractive pictures, met women, spoke to them and not before long, he realized that he had picked none!.
His teacher asked, "Why did you not pick any single woman?"
Plato answered, "Because I got so confused going forwards and backwards and I could not pick only one. I did find a beautiful, intelligent, traditonal girl, but did not know if there were some more beautiful, intelligent, traditional women ahead … so I did not pick her. As I walked further, I realized that the women there were not as good as the earlier one, but in the meanwhile, that girl got hitched with someone else… so I did not pick any in the end.”
His teacher then said, "Continue you search child… There is a thriving forest in front.. There are many desperate women… But do remember, age is not on your side....Also, finding a perfect match is an ideal...Ideals are meant to be held, not to be achieved! So, cut down your expectations a little and continue with your search!!”
This time Plato decided to take a slightly different approach…He walked forward, and before long, he returned with a damsel. The girl was neither stunningly beautiful nor intelligent. She was a very ordinary girl.
His teacher was puzzled and asked, "Why did you settle for such a mediocre woman?"
Plato answered, "Because of all my experiences…
I met a very beautiful girl, but she was too dumb to discuss even my country’s politics with me...
I met a traditional girl who could be good mother to my children, a good wife to me and a good daughter-in-law to my parents... But she did not convince me as someone whom I could present to my social circle as my equal partner!…. .
I came across a really intelligent girl who could talk on anything under the earth … but it dint look to me that she would respect my parents and relatives. She seemed to be ok for a Coffee Day chat, but not for a 24x7 living! Also, she is not all that young!"
I was too drained and suddenly I stumbled upon this girl …..First thing, she did not resemble my ex in any way …Second, I felt that she was halfway through the mark and matched half the parameters I had set for my partner... I did not want to miss the opportunity master, for I don’t want to die alone!"
His teacher then muttered to himself, “And this is how I got married the non-dot.com way years back, my dear child! Medium doesn’t matter…it is mind that matters”!
---------------------
adapted from Plato’s original question on love and marriage…
One day, Plato asked his teacher, "How can I find love the second time around? I want a traditional, intelligent, beautiful girl”!”
His teacher answered, “Phew...Is this concern at all? Dear son, today’s alpha male has hell a lot of options...girls galore on dotcom sites...Explore …women are such an easy catch… There is a vast field in front of you– trophy wives, traditional women, size zeroes, intelligent gals. You can walk forward and backward and pick your choice - the most beautiful, intelligent and traditional of all women in no time – Remember you are a MAN!!!”
Three months passed… Plato walked forward and backwards on gchats, sms’s, phone calls and emails...he floated his profile, posted attractive pictures, met women, spoke to them and not before long, he realized that he had picked none!.
His teacher asked, "Why did you not pick any single woman?"
Plato answered, "Because I got so confused going forwards and backwards and I could not pick only one. I did find a beautiful, intelligent, traditonal girl, but did not know if there were some more beautiful, intelligent, traditional women ahead … so I did not pick her. As I walked further, I realized that the women there were not as good as the earlier one, but in the meanwhile, that girl got hitched with someone else… so I did not pick any in the end.”
His teacher then said, "Continue you search child… There is a thriving forest in front.. There are many desperate women… But do remember, age is not on your side....Also, finding a perfect match is an ideal...Ideals are meant to be held, not to be achieved! So, cut down your expectations a little and continue with your search!!”
This time Plato decided to take a slightly different approach…He walked forward, and before long, he returned with a damsel. The girl was neither stunningly beautiful nor intelligent. She was a very ordinary girl.
His teacher was puzzled and asked, "Why did you settle for such a mediocre woman?"
Plato answered, "Because of all my experiences…
I met a very beautiful girl, but she was too dumb to discuss even my country’s politics with me...
I met a traditional girl who could be good mother to my children, a good wife to me and a good daughter-in-law to my parents... But she did not convince me as someone whom I could present to my social circle as my equal partner!…. .
I came across a really intelligent girl who could talk on anything under the earth … but it dint look to me that she would respect my parents and relatives. She seemed to be ok for a Coffee Day chat, but not for a 24x7 living! Also, she is not all that young!"
I was too drained and suddenly I stumbled upon this girl …..First thing, she did not resemble my ex in any way …Second, I felt that she was halfway through the mark and matched half the parameters I had set for my partner... I did not want to miss the opportunity master, for I don’t want to die alone!"
His teacher then muttered to himself, “And this is how I got married the non-dot.com way years back, my dear child! Medium doesn’t matter…it is mind that matters”!
---------------------
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