Transformation

Ola readers, this is going to be a very short post. I just wish to inform all my followers and readers that I have decided to shift to Wordpress from Blogspot. I have started my blog there, with the same name. It is atimerncans.wordpress.com. So this one here is not going to see any new posts from me. I hope you guys to visit me there as you did here.

I had over 1700 page views here, and that is something I am really going to miss. My writing and my posts will continue with the same enthusiasm and passion there as well. I hope to see you guys visit my new blog on Wordpress like you did here. Please do stop by, that one is empty right now, but I am soon going to fill that up with posts too.


The reason why I shifted over is I hear that Wordpress has better functions/ features. I am going to miss this one, but I am sure, I will have readers there as well. .I also hear that Wordpress is a more happening 'blogsphere' that Blogspot, so lets see. I hope this move turns out to be a wise one...

Goodbye, Alpha over and out.

PS. I have copied my latest post to my new blog to ease recognition. The ones that follow will be new.

Awards

Award is something which is conferred upon someone in recognition of their great work. I have not looked up the definition, but this is what came to my mind. :D

We as human beings desire attention and appreciation; we are social animals, as it is always said, being picked out of a the plural and honored for anything that we have done, gives us the necessary energy to do it even better. Motivation drives humans, in every form, in every field. My apologies, these facts are not limited to humans, works on animals as well. Every field that you look upon has a way to award its associates in some way or the other. In work, the award comes as a promotion or as an increment in salary. In the classroom, the responsibility/award of being the in-charge says it all. Heck, the joy one gets from the kind words of an elderly person whom you just helped to cross the road, makes you smile. Even if that is not what you did it for, you did it as an act of humanity and kindness; but those words are like the cherry on the Ice-Cream.

A few kind and praising words can do wonders. It is a known fact that polite words can make one do things which a ‘stick’ cannot. Such is the importance of awards. Awards may not always be physical, words, actions; sometimes even a smile can motivate one to go a step further.

I decided to write this article when I was nominated for a blogging award, ‘The Versatile Blogger’, by a fellow blogger and dear friend of mine. Frankly, before today, I did not even know that bloggers confer and have awards amongst themselves. It felt wonderful. My blog is not a revolutionary blog, I started it just to share my views and the tagline of my blog is the same since its inception. My blog is not famous in the blogging world; not many people visit it, but the objective of me writing this was to share my thoughts and feelings. I had started with the theme as pure science, as I am a very scientific person, science-buff, one might say. It has changed course, but if you look carefully, most of the posts-which are not many- do have science present in them in a subtle fashion. My aim was to spread the knowledge which I have and am gathering to others.

I do not have an agenda for this article, which I do for most of mine, so this one’s gonna be a little haywire. What I am trying to communicate here in this article is the satisfaction and happiness that i have received by being nominated for a Blogging Award.

My only thought which I wish to share is, “Kind words, words of Appreciation don’t cost you anything; yet they may make someone else’s day. So speak kind words, appreciate the smallest of things others do right and spread happiness. It definitely comes back to you.”

Baasi...

Photograph

Everyone of us has some childhood fantasies, some dreams. I am not talking about what you wanted to become when you were adults, but what you wanted to do. For example, I wanted to study astrophysics; couldn’t happen.  I have accepted that. There are also other things that one wishes to do, for example, I wish to drag race; drive a race car on the slopes of a hill, see how it feels to be so close to death and yet survive, be so close the edge of physics, to decide when to pull the brakes and skid, and when to pump the gas.

There are a lot of things which one [every human] desires to do, and of them is to photograph nature (or something else- the point being, to photograph), I have had a passion to photograph since I was a kid, I always liked nature, the depth that it had, the detail and the beauty it possessed always fascinated me.  Now that I am more knowledgeable than before, I respect and admire nature for its perfection. I always took pictures of stuff around me to keep as mementos, but mainly to satisfy my inner urge to photograph.

The reason why I am writing this article is because I know someone who has not only been able to photograph, but also learn, advance and develop in that field. I am sure that all of my readers [however few that may be],  have at some point in their life have had a feeling and liking to photography. I write this article in the name of only one person, Nandini, who has set examples on how to photograph. She has not only taken and takes good pictures, but has studied and implements the techniques of photography. She has taken from silhouettes to landscapes, in perfection.

My inspiration of this post is her; her blog and gallery can be viewed at:

http://nandinidhiman.wordpress.com/

I hope you enjoy the link I have mentioned and frequent it for she posts much more frequently than I do, and every post has beauty to it. Recently I developed a liking to a song which has been stuck in my head for weeks now, and it is related to this topic; its called ‘Photograph’ by Nickelback, so I post its video link here:

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB0DU4DoPP4&ob=av3e

With this I take you leave, if there are some great blogs out there which you know of, do share them with me in the comments for this post. Cheers!!

Tschüß...

Stargate

Just one word, read it over and over, and I thought, I imagined. It says, ‘Star’-‘Gates’, does it mean gates to other stars? If yes, how come? Also where do we land on a star and not vaporize? Or land in another star system?

                I came across this word, I do not remember how. I think there was a reference in a newspaper I saw. Sounded sci-fi, so I came home and searched about it; came across a couple of articles on Wikipedia itself. Checked on IMDB, found it’s a bunch of TV shows and two movies. Thought wow! Two movies is ok, but two series of TV shows, on exactly the same topic. I mean we don’t see that happening, you see, ‘How I met your mother’ like ‘Friends’, only cooler-;), but not the exact same thing. I was intrigued. I will mention the first couple of links on wiki which I actually read completely. They are very long, but if you are a sci-fi buff, I’m sure you would really enjoy the time spent in reading them. Try searching for stargates, ancients, precognition and the likewise. A lot of the parts sound really plausible and those which have been much pursued or thought about. Here are some links which I found really worth reading:

      1.       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recurring_alien_characters_in_Stargate_SG-1

      2.       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_characters_in_Stargate

Some of you may wonder if reading direct articles about this ‘show’ would spoil the actual watch, don’t worry, I mention the SPOILER ALERT; so by me, reading these articles would just deepen your understanding of all the episodes. Reading about it would actually help you appreciate and imagine things in the episodes in a much better fashion.

                Stargate SG-1, as I have been following is a TV series about a ‘Stargate’ which was discovered by some people (archeologists), and which turns out be a device which can create ‘temporary wormholes in the fabric of the universe between several destinations (each of which have a stargate)’.

                Anyone who has studied wormholes or the science of the wormholes, would know how they are postulated to be formed and how they work. The series concentrates on the similar principles.

                There might be a lot of things which one might argue, as wrong, but I would say, there are many more which do sound very plausible. Also, this series gives a very profound or detailed understanding of the civilizations which existed on the earth thousands of years ago. There is a lot of drama in the show too, but that’s ok, I mean every sci-fi show needs to include drama in it to catch the general crowd. They cannot just focus on the sci-fi audience which is too small. So watch the show, see the drama, but concentrate on the science part of the show. SPOILER ALERT: Samantha Carter is a good source. The spoiler is only for the name, I wouldn’t say more. J

                Without revealing much in detail, I would suggest every sci-fi buff reader of this blog to watch a couple of episodes of this series, keeping in mind that it was developed almost 10 years ago, and try to understand the plausibility and probability of something like this actually happening. When I start to watch a movie series or shows, I do so in a chronological manner. I mean, if the first movie was made in 1970 and the 3^rd sequel just came out, I would watch the 1^st, then the 2^nd and then finally the 3^rd. I also suggest that you do the same. So if you are planning to give this a shot, please watch ‘ Stargate’, made in 1994, and then start watching SG-1 season 1 episode 1 onwards. I hope you like it as I have. 

Senebti...

Twitter

Hey Guys,

This is not actually a post but just a FYI, I have just created an account on twitter for posting thoughts, and ideas which come into my head, but do not get a chance to become a full fledged post here. I shall be using twitter for sharing instantaneous thoughts, which are open for all. So if any of my readers are on twitter, you can find me as 'raman_alpha' on twitter too. 

Ma'as salaama...

The Fountainhead

I am just 150 pages into the 700 something page long book and I wish to put up my first review of it.

The frequent visitors of my blog would know that I had put up an article 'Writing styles' in reference to this book, you may say this is a continuation of it.

The first very visible attribute is the writer’s writing style, which I have mentioned in my earlier post. The next thing you would notice is the immaculate description of all the locations and scenes by the writer. The description will not make you feel as if the plot is happening right before you, by what makes it stand apart is the immense architectural terminology used. Good writers would describe every event in so detail that you would feel that you are right in the scene, but here after reading the thorough descriptions, you would pause to admire the research and the depth of architecture expressed in every scene.

In the preface, Ayn says that it was difficult for her to write an architectural themed book as she had no idea about architecture; but once you read the book, you would know why it was difficult. She has not only written a book about architects, but actually stepped into the shoes of one. The intricacies would astound you. An architect would definitely 'relish' this book.

About the characters, what I notice in this book is a depiction of certain traits which can be noticed elsewhere too. What I am referring to is the character of Dominique Francon; in one word, apathetic. Maybe that’s not the right word, but I cannot think of any other word to describe her either. She is devilishly beautiful, with an air of arrogance that would choke a man a kilometer from her. Her hurtful rudeness would make an eavesdropper (on a conversation) shiver with Goosebumps, not to mention the fate of the other party in the conversation. With such features, she is still the only female who captures every heart. Her dad fears... Err... dreads talking to her; her boss hates her guts and yet is so attracted to her physically, that he ignores all the bullshit she throws at him.

Such a character can be seen in many of the soaps running on TV in India now-a-days. An unimaginable hot female with such a turn-down sense, that you may never raise your head again, who everyone 'wants'. I wonder what does the author wish to convey through such a character? I have never understood the meaning or reason of defining such a character.

The next and the center of the plot is Howard Roark. A genius, with a frank and don’t care attitude. Never thinks of the consequences of his actions but is sure of them. Takes all the right steps, is un-realistically optimistic and righteous. In contrast to Dominique, is extremely polite and sees through other people as if they were a transparent as glass. Somehow it is quite obvious after just 150 pages that he is going to fall in love with Dominique, or the other way around.

The third central character is of Peter Keating. A cut-throat architect, who is certain of what he wants in life and is willing to do (almost) everything for it. Much like the typical working person in today's world. He is portrayed as the evil character in the story, but if you ask me, there is a lot one can learn from him. His determination for one, his diplomacy which may not be a quality appreciated but everyone, but deep down, you know it's importance.

It is a good book till now, gives you a lot of points to pause (reading) and think about.

Will post more about the book soon...

Poka...

DRUGS...

When you hear of drugs, the words that come to your mind are cocaine, hash and maybe brown sugar. And of course, the most common and popularized in the fashion industry by the film ‘Fashion’, HEROIN. The images that flash in front of your eyes are of people dying and getting addicts, end up on the streets; and if you watch a lot of movies, in a ‘Rehab Centre’. But what I think of are two things, umm… three, MARIJUANA, CRYSTAL METH and HEROIN (the local favorite). I think of MARIJUANA and I think of people like Bob Marley, I think of the songs they made. To quote a few, “I smoke two Joints”, “Don’t worry, be happy” and my personal favorite, “Buffalo soldier”. I think of the great scientists, I think of the great musicians, I think of Heath Ledger, the legendary actor, who redefined his role in the movie by setting new ‘Acting Standards’. I agree, you would say that he died of a drug overdose, but think of what he could have done if he had controlled (yet maintained) his habit of ‘DOPE’? Think of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ series, Johnny Depp, made billions, and what was his theme of acting throughout the series? ‘Drunk’. Makes you wonder, you enjoy hearing ‘Dope Songs’, you like watching ‘Drunk Movies’ and yet you despise SMOKE.

I have no agenda for this article; I am not-biased, neither in support of DRUGS nor against. I just wish to compare. You look on the internet and you get a zillion pages quoting the history of MARIJUANA, its good effects and its medicinal value; yet it is banned throughout the world. You will find tremendous history of WEED filled with famous people and huge discoveries; and yet there is only one place in the world which not only “Openly serves it”, but also holds a world cup in its honor. I am not sure if you have heard about it, ‘The cannabis Cup’, Google it. BTW, I intentionally kept the ‘C’ in cannabis small, ‘cuz that’s how you see it everywhere, it’s mostly small. J

People are protesting 24 hours a day at least somewhere in the world to legalize MARIJUANA. Ever thought why? What makes them so fond of it? Are they all addicts? If yes then why are they running on the streets shouting slogans when they should be doping in some corner of a dull and ill-managed apartment? It is because, they have realized, ‘Man made Cocaine/Heroin/Crystal Meth, but God made GRASS”. So they protest, they see and hear the words of DOPE, they listen to trance and Nirvana and they THINK…

Now against, I know, people have lost their lives, their families and their entire world because of their addiction to drugs. I am a huge fan of ‘Requiem for a Dream’. I completely agree on its meaning, I would also go to the lengths of saying that it has a message, a teaching. All the people, who are reading this blog, and who speak English (I have Russian readers too, J), please do watch that movie. I could discuss every scene of it. I have integrated its dialogues in my daily life, and my close friends know it. Definitely worth a watch, I have personally watched it for over a hundred times. All the stuff shown in that movie happens. The governments throughout the world have banned these drugs in almost every form, spare a few; but they continue to sell all around at night. I mean everywhere. Name one place where you would not find DRUGS in some form selling on the street with a guy in pajamas and a hood? It’s still present everywhere, world-wide.

People use them, mostly during college life, I would even say that you may not have done WEED in college, but I bet you know someone who did, maybe a friend of a friend, but you knew he was doing it. It is that prevalent. Let’s take one of my favorite TV Series ever, ‘How I met your Mother’. You know it, the ‘Sandwiches’. Form an integral part of many of the episodes, and they were great episodes.

If you’re looking DRUGS up on the internet, or planning to do so after reading this article- Please do look up ‘The cannabis Cup’, I will post a link for a nice video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPcOUuWhLgc&feature=related. Have a look, now try to look up for the uses of marijuana, I am not sure, but think that I read somewhere that long ago, paper was made out of Marijuana.

Let’s talk about religion and faith. Picture something about religion in a second, what came to my mind is ‘Incense sticks’ and ‘Sadhus’. You think Sadhus, and you think people with long beards, and orange dresses. For those of you (readers) who have heard about them, would know that they frequently smoke MARIJUANA. Hinduism clearly says that Lord Shiva used hash in some form (I forget the name). Look up OSHO on Google, you will read about the ‘OSHO Ashram’ located in Pune, India; and people all flocking from all over the world to visit it. He preached that love making is necessary for attaining bliss; and I have been in Pune for 4 years during my graduation and I know, they have DRUGS in there. They grow the GRASS in a separate way, if you know what I mean.

If they are so prevalent, so common and so medicinally useful, why are... err, ‘is’ (Marijuana) banned? What is that the governments, after hearing processions and witnessing rallies all over the globe from decades, still choose to ignore and still ban WEED? Ever hear of a person fighting after smoking GRASS? They are always happy. Millions of people die every year in road accidents due to drunk driving, people who DOPE, do not drive, they sit at home and look out the window; and yet, drinking is open after 24 years of age (in India). I wonder if we can file an ‘RTI’ (Right to Information Act, here in India) for the DOPE related section and question of no amendments ever?

I know I have much exceeded my word limit for a ‘Read-able’ article, but I could talk on about HASH forever, but I am sure that my readers have understood my point. I request all the readers of this article to once, ‘re-think’ their ‘Prejudice’ against WEED. Think about it for five minutes with an ‘un-biased’ mind with facts from the Internet, and during the time you are looking up the facts, do listen to a song by ‘John Lennon’, ‘Imagine’, link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b7qaSxuZUg

People who like Nickelback, listen to ‘If everyone cared’. Link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IUSZyjiYuY&ob=av3e

           

     Both these songs do not say or support drugs, but you listen to them, and you would know they were inspired (the artists) by JOINTS.

Jumpa lagi…

RIP... you know WHO...

Buenas readers,

It has been a while since I have been thinking about writing this article. I wanted to write a short article for Steve Jobs on the day he passed away (‘died’ avoided intentionally), but then decided to hold on for a while as all the blogs and the whole of the internet would be flooded with articles about him.

                Steve Jobs, a name anyone tech savvy would know, has (‘had’ avoided intentionally) become an icon of entrepreneurship and innovation. Much like ‘Dell’, Apple too started in a small garage making computers; or rather ‘assembling’ computers. I am aware all the readers of this article would have read lot of stuff about Apple, so I would not venture into those grounds. I wish to write about my feelings and my interpretation of Steve Jobs’ life and working methodologies.

                As seen on Wikipedia, and any other source, Steve can be described as a ‘perfectionist’, ‘temperamental’ and ‘erratic’. I would say, all the great minds of the world would comply with these three descriptions. This is how great minds think. Steve Jobs as a kid was inspired by Edwin H Land, a person I have no idea about, nor have I tried to find out about, most of the kids have Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Salman Khan or Slash as their icons. (By the names mentioned, I refer to their genres) What I mean to say is, you go in any direction looking for a person to follow or to learn from, you will definitely find him to have the three features, or rather, characteristics as used for Steve. I wonder if he would ever become some kid’s icon…

                I appreciate the products of Apple a lot, I am a hardcore fan. I personally own an iPod and an iPhone only (Plan to buy a Macbook soon), but what pulls me to Apple is that Apple never came down to selling cheap products. Even during the critical years when the sales of Apple were low and pink slips were distributed like candy, the products did not come to dirt cheap price selling like many others in the market did. When Steve was fired (or resigned) from Apple, and when he formed another computer company (NeXT-in the same year) with an initial investment of about 7Million USD, he targeted only the research based and educational market to provide a high quality product with a high price tag. NeXt suffered 8 lossy years before making the first profit, but Steve did not compromise on quality or on aesthetics, be it apple or NeXT. This is, probably, the most important factor which makes me an Apple fan. 

                When I heard about the passing of Steve jobs, and read the following articles on the internet and elsewhere; a thought that erupted and stuck in my head was, “Legends are born after their Death”. Look around, all the people we call ‘Great’ or ‘Geniuses’ were acclaimed to be so after they died. Whilst they were alive, they led difficult and suppressed lives. Also this has made me wonder if this is how the world is; we condemn revolutionary thinkers or innovators by using the terms like ‘impractical’, ‘non-profitable’, ‘too-futuristic’ and the worst of all ‘Impossible’. What comes to my mind while writing this article is the typical life story of a genius:

1. A genius is born.

2. He tries to show the world his ways.

3. He is condemned with the above mentioned words.

4. He fights/ or works alone and proves himself right.

5. He dies an unknown man, and after his death, he is acclaimed as god of his field and people suddenly love him and respect his work.

This makes me wonder, whether the people who hold the topmost positions in companies are jerks (highly unlikely) or that’s how we are, we don’t want to change anything unless we know that its hugely better than what we do now. We resist change. These 5 steps that I have mentioned may not be true to every word for all the intellectual ‘Legends’ that you know, but if you look closely, I am sure you will definitely find resemblance of this life story to the one of your ‘Legend’'s.

Any-hoo, I do not wish to take much of your time as now I am typing in word and I am on the 2^nd page, which would make a very long article on my blog. J So, I will check out now with these words:

“O’ people of the world, occupying the high positions in the intellectual and commercial world, please be open and help young minds. We see your ‘Young/Smart mind/champ/etc. development programs’, and we also know they’re all a lie. Be true, be futuristic.”

Also I would like to quote one of Steve Jobs’ quotes which was quoted originally by ‘Wayne Gretzky’ (A hit Ice hockey player):

“'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ 

And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will.”

Learn something world, look beyond the horizon, that’s where the new stuff is; getting where others are is no big deal, set new standards. Don’t follow others, make followers.

Namaste.

Writing Styles

Ola amigos,

                So any new happenings in the stereotypic life? Well, I just got the news that my Favourite author has finished written yet another book. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I am talking about, ‘The Aleph’, by Paulo Coelho. I just came across this article which mentioned the Aleph and I clicked on some hyperlinks, jumping from one page to the other and reading about this new book that Paulo has written. Just as an FYI, I am a very huge fan of Paulo’s and also try to read his blog whenever I am in a pondering mode. I want you guys to have a look at it too. So the link to his blog is: http://paulocoelhoblog.com. Do drop by.

So while reading some of the reviews of the book, and some of the interviews that Paulo has given about the book, I came to a place, where Paulo was asked whether his book has anything to do with the one written by Jorge Luis Borges, as Borges had written a book titled, ‘The Aleph’ a long time ago. Paulo’s reply to this question is what made me research this guy. Paulo replied, “No this book has nothing to do with Borges’ The Aleph, however he is surely the icon of my times”. Reading this, I thought, whoa, Jorge Luis Borges, is Paulo Coelho’s Icon? I surely have to read this guy’s work. Anyhoo,  you would be amazed to know what I found out about him. Borges is a man who wrote legendary (Yes, this is in reference to Barney using this word in How I Met Your Mother) essays and short stories. He did not write novels, but he wrote essays which would shake you to the core. One of his essays titled ‘A new Refutation of Time’, took me by surprise. It had a sense of physics in it which, I’m sure you guys know is something which I cannot resist. So I read about him on Wikipedia, and download an English translation of this essay (He originally wrote in Spanish).

Reading that article shook me, I was amazed, I mean it is like impossible to understand, it was 3 pages printed, and I can say this confidently, it would take you over a week of insight, intricate reading and several hour long thinking sessions for it to make any sense at all. At the end of which you would definitely spend another hour admiring this guy’s writing style.

After reading this specific essay for like a dozen times, I sat to wonder, I mean out of the tiniest experience have with books, I have seen some very different writing styles. I mean there is Paulo Coelho, who talks, simple like in Eleven minutes to thought provoking, like in the Alchemist. There is Dan Brown, who writes to show that he has finished his homework. I mean, he is thorough with the facts before he starts writing, be it the ‘Masonry Museum’, or the secrets of the hidden cults of Catholic Church. I have seen Ayn Rand, which you must know from my last post, but this guy, Borges, he would make you wonder. I find his writing style too impeccable to be imitated by myself and so I shall not quote or paraphrase anything from the essay. I would however be deeply joyous if anyone would like to have a read. Just like the last post, leave your email id and I shall email you the English translation of his essay.

Sziasztok,

Avid Reader.

Just Thoughts

Hey folks, hello there...

I think about writing of various things that I encounter in life. There are so many moments in life when I’m there, I say, “That’s something I should mention in my blog”. Out of ten times, I write down one incident in a pad on my iPhone or on my Blackberry. Sometimes I even observe the happenings in more detail so that I have more facts to write about. But it so happens that slowly the list grows and the older of those incidents fade out of my memory, so when I sit down or open that list again later, I say, “Hey, I don’t even remember this completely, I am never going to be able to write about this, let’s just remove it from the list”. And there goes a nice incident which I thought was worth sharing.

As you all know, I have a liking to reading books. I read many types of books, I wouldn’t go to the limits of saying that I read ‘All sorts of books’, ‘cuz I don’t. Novels I like, my original genres were Sci-Fi and Philosophy. Lately, however, I have dared venture into other areas as well. I have, for the first time in my life, bought a drama or I don’t even know where it fits, type of a book, which I am sure most of you would have heard about called, ‘The Fountainhead’. I have started reading the same, and it is not like the books which I read usually which make a huge revelation after every couple of lines, but it’s one, which shows you new styles of writing and when there is a nice scene, you can only wonder of the writing skills of the writer and how she has used random and even contradictory terms together to make the sentences even more interesting, more strange, more out-of-the-blue.

You see there, I tried to imitate the writing style of Ayn Rand, not that I can or I am in any way comparable, but what’s there In trying? She often does this; end sentences in a way like I did, “more interesting, more strange, more out-of-the-blue”, you see, I used ‘Interesting’ and ‘Strange’, kinda makes you wanna wonder, how would it be exactly. In the first couple of hundred pages that I have managed to finish as yet, I found this style of writing very evident, very subtle, and very enticing. J

So, apart from wanting to share this specific, mystifying and enthralling writing style of Any Rand- OK I know I am over doing it, but it’s fun ;), I had a couple of more things I wanted to put of on my blog.

Firstly, I have been watching that lately, the history and hidden truths about Sonia/ Rahul Gandhi have been a common shared thing on Facebook. Suddenly, all the youth have started hating Rahul Gandhi, which Is apparently supposed to be the youth icon of politics. I have never found myself to be in any way related or interested, or let see, a better word.. ‘Bothered’, about Indian politics. Like most of the youth out there, I just hate the Indian Government. Especially since I am a working individual and I know, that the Indian government takes 30% i.e. literally one third of my salary as taxes; and does not give me anything back worth even a dime. I mean, not that I do not know the problems and other shit that the government has to deal with, it’s just that I do not find it to be efficient or properly motivated for that matter.

So coming back to the original track of things, I know many of you must have already seen this letter by a person (specifically not mentioning the details, as the IITians are already highly over hyped), has written as a reply to one of Rahul Gandhi’s statements on TV.

I was planning to put it up as a continuation of this post, but I see that no one actually reads long articles, so I am just gonna leave it at that, and anyone who wishes to read that letter, can leave a comment on this post with your email Id and I shall mail it to you. Don’t worry, you shall not be spammed as this is a real blog, and let’s face it, we all are busy people and have no time for sending out spam.

So just leave a comment and I shall share that letter with you. It’s a good read.

Phir Milenge,

Leisure Writer.

Mistakes...

Hey guys, I know I come to post on my blog once In a while, but I am sure that you understand and possibly look forward to it...;)

               Today, I plan to write a short article about another part of ‘Brida’, one of Paulo Coelho’s novel which I had read recently. While I was reading the novel, which was almost two months back, as I reached this part, after reading a couple of lines, I knew that this had to go down in my blog. I really enjoyed this passage as it deals with something simple, and gives you an all new perspective about it. It talks about ‘Mistakes’.

                We as humans all make mistakes. As goes the English proverb, ‘To err is human, to forgive is divine.’ I am sorry, I am a little mixed up, perhaps that proverb is not the same as I quoted, but it definitely carries the same essence. Inevitably, we all make mistakes, they may be as simple as forgetting a pen while going to work, or huge like forgetting the train tickets when on the way to the railway station. Some mistakes go unnoticed and do not cause problems, while others can cause huge disturbances in personal and public life. So mistakes are something which everyone is afraid to make. If any of my readers out there are working, they would realize the weight of the fact, how much harm can mistakes cause in one’s work place; because there everything you do or say matters. And to top it all, nobody ever forgets your mistakes. Good deeds are soon forgotten, but mistakes stick around for a long-long time.

                So when I came across this passage in the book about mistakes, and that too stressing the ‘importance’ of mistakes, I penned it down, to put it up here for my readers. So here it goes for all those guys who have not yet read ‘Brida’ [SPOILER ALERT]:

This part is when Brida (the main character of the story, for more details, read my last article) in the story completes her initiation as a witch and has a vision about the Teacher of ‘Wicca’ (Wicca was Brida’s teacher). The teacher says that you are lucky for you have realised your gift, most of the people on this earth do not realise their gifts and thus fail to fulfil the purpose of their births. Hearing this, Brida feels that she now has a huge responsibility of fulfilling her life’s goal, worried that she would not be able to life her life as simply like she used to, she says:

                “ I have a life ahead of me, I want to live that life like anyone else. I want to be close to people,  I want to be able to make mistakes, to be selfish, to have faults.’

The teacher replies: “ You can only be close to people if you are one of them. Life is about making mistakes, Cells went on reproducing in the same way for millions of years, until one of them made a mistake, and introduced change into that endless cycle of repetition. It was a mistake that set the world in motion, never be afraid of making a mistake.”

                “But adam and Eve were driven out of paradise because of a mistake.”

                “And they will return one day knowing the miracles of the heavens and all of the world. God knew what he was doing when he drew their attention to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If he hadn’t wanted them to eat it, he would have never mentioned it.”

                “So why did he then?”

                “In order to set the world into motion.”

...

The story goes on, but this is the part I wished to share with you. The logic and thinking that Paulo has applied to the event of making a mistake, citing the examples of mutations in cells and the beginning of the world due to the Tree of Knowledge In the Bible, make you really wonder about the importance and effects of mistakes. The story of Adam and Eve eating the apple from the Tree of Knowledge is so different in the Bible. The Bible states in a very aggressive manner that they were banished from Paradise due to not obeying the words of God. But Paulo has given it an entirely new meaning and reason, which I must say s quite convincing and makes you wonder.

And the examples are so not limited to these, most of the discoveries in the world were by mistake. Take X rays for that matter, heck, take America for that matter. Columbus discovered America by mistake, while on a quest to search a route to India-I know you already know the story, but just wished to write a line. So this point that Paulo has made in this chapter of his book, really touched me and made me wonder. We think so much about trying to avoid mistakes, worry our wits out, and yet the greatest things on the planet are mistakes.

So guys, don’t worry about making mistakes, that is how you learn. ‘Its not winning if you know how to run, it is winning, if you know how to stand up every time you fall.’

I hope me writing this article was not a mistake and you guys would show your agreement by liking it in the check box below... ;-)

Valete...

Brida

Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog...

                As i had mentioned in my last post, i just finished reading ‘Brida’ by Paulo Coelho, and i had also said that there were a few things that i would like to paraphrase and discuss from that book, well here is that article. Anyone who has not yet read the book and plans to do so in the near future, please don’t read any further SPOILER ALERT...

                Well, this is a part almost halfway through the book, this is the conversation between Wicca and Brida. Wicca is a witch in the book who made Brida realise that she is a witch too and became her teacher to open the eyes of her soul. The following is what Wicca says to Brida when she was having some doubts about what to wear at her initiation into the witches circle:

                “ Never stop having doubts. If you ever do, it will be because you have stopped moving forward, and at that point, God will step in and pull the rug from under your feet, because that is His way of controlling His chosen ones, by making sure that they follow their appointed paths till the end. If, for any reason, we stop, whether out of complacency, laziness or out of a mistaken belief that we know enough, He forces us on.

                On the other hand, you must be careful never to allow doubt to paralyse you. Always take the decisions that you need to take, even if you’re not sure that you’re doing the right thing. You will never go wrong if, when you make a decision, you keep in mind an old German proverb that the Tradition of the Moon [is one of the two traditions of how to cross over from the visible world into the invisible. The other being the tradition of the Sun. More details later...] has adopted; ‘The devil is in the detail’. Remember that proverb and you will always be able to turn a wrong decision into a right one.”

                They were riding in a car which Wicca had recently bought. I would like to take you through their conversation further as it just gets better.

Wicca suddenly stopped outside a garage.

                “There’s a superstition connected to that proverb too. It comes to our aid when we need it. I have just brought this car and the devil is in the detail.”

She then spoke to the mechanic who came over to inspect the car for any faults. Both of them, meanwhile, went over to a coffee shop just opposite to the garage and ordered two cups of hot chocolate.

                “Watch what the mechanic does”

The mechanic opened the bonnet of the car and stood there just looking at it, not moving at all.

                “He is not touching anything. He’s just looking. He’s done this job for years, and he knows that the car speaks to him in a special language. It’s not his reason that is working now, it’s his intuition.”

Suddenly, the mechanic went to one particular part of the engine and started fiddling with it.

                ‘He’s found the fault. He din’t waste a moment, because between him and the car, there is perfect communion. Every good mechanic i have known, does the same. “

                “So have i thought Brida. But she’d always assumed that they behaved in this way because they never knew where to start. She never noticed that they always started at the right place.”

                “If they have the wisdom of the Sun in their lives, why don’t they try to understand the fundamentals of the Universe? Why do they prefer to fix cars on work in bars serving coffee? said Brida.”

“And what makes you think that we, with our path and our dedication, understand the Universe any better than other people? I have many students. They’re all perfectly ordinary people, who cry at the movies and worry if their children are late home, even though they know that death is not the end. Witchcraft is merely one way of being close to the Supreme Wisdom, but anything you do can lead you there, as long as you work with love in your heart. We witches can converse with the soul of the world, see the point of light above the left shoulder of our soul mate, contemplate the infinite through the glow and silence of a candle, but we don’t understand car engines. They find their bridge across to the invisible through car engine, we find our through the Tradition of the Moon, but the bridge connects us to the same invisible world.

Play your part and don’t worry about what others do. Believe that god speaks to them, and they are as engaged as you are in discovering the meaning of life.”

Another very important part which needs to be mentioned here for better understanding and contemplation of the above mentioned text is as follows:

When Brida asked the magus (a different person-look up the meaning of the word) as to what magic is, he replied: “Magic is a bridge, a bridge that lets you walk over form the visible word to the invisible world and to learn the lessons of both these worlds. There are two forms of crossing the bridge, the Tradition of the Sun which teaches the secrets through space and the world that surrounds us, and Traditions of the Moon, which teaches through time and the things that are imprisoned in time’s memory.”

I know my dear readers that this post has been rather a long one. I hope i have not bored you through it and also wish that you would have enjoyed the essence of this article as i did. Discussions and doubts always welcome.

More soon,

Do videnja.

Ola

Hey guys, hope life is treating you in the best possible ways.

I just wanted to update you guys that i have just finished reading ‘Brida’ by Paulo Coelho. Another wonderful book by the literary magician. The book is about a young girl who in the search for the lost wisdom of magic and love turns out to be a witch. The book was great and i would love to paraphrase some of the parts and dialogues; which i will in a different post.

I have read several of Paulo’s books, but till date ‘The Alchemist’ and ‘Eleven Minutes’ remain my favourites. Recently i also had a chance to read his latest book ‘The winner stands alone’. It was good too, but for those of you who haven’t yet experienced his magic, i would suggest the alchemist. The Alchemist is for those who wish to look at life in a much deeper level, it would touch your heart and would make not one or two but several revelations, which would change the way you look at things. However if you wish to read something rather light, Eleven Minutes is the book for you.

Paulo Coelho’s first book was the pilgrimage, and that is the book i wish to read next. I want to see, when he began writing in 1987, what was his mindset then and whether it has evolved over the ages as he continues to fascinate the world with his ideologies and revelations. The book after that i plan, is ‘The manual of the warrior of Light’. The title is quite intriguing, i must say. Although all these plans of mine for this sequence of reading depend on if i find the books and the time.;)

Finally i got some time off today to write to my blog, or rather i should say, that i decided that come what may, i definitely have to write a post today. I think of new things to write to my blog every other day, but the ideas wither fade off my mind, or lie on a piece of paper in my jeans backpocket or somewhere. Very careless attitude, gotta write down to change this. LOL.

Anyways, take care and keep reading.

Salaam.

Back with a BANG!!!

Hey readers, how are you? And most importantly, how have you been. I am indeed apologetic for disappearing away from my blog. I know it has been quite some time. I have been busy but you and I both know, I am a lazy person and excuses are never the answer.

Anyway, there a reason why I suddenly decided to post on my blog, the inspiration....

Well you know, there are days when you feel in the pits; when everything becomes wrong, when all the things which used to make you smile, now make you wonder, “I used to smile at that?? What a waste!!”. I had one of those days yesterday. The cause, was some stuff going on at work and then there is stuff that makes you worry at home. It made me wonder about the feeling I was experiencing at that very moment. I thought...

                This is not a time when everything is actually wrong. These conditions, these circumstances that surround me were there yesterday and the day before that; so why am I feeling so low today? I realized, that at any point in time, a person has a million things to be happy about.

Someone has rightly said, “if you thank the Lord for all that you have and that makes you smile, you shall not have time to complain about the bad things.”, and it was yesterday that it struck me, I always believed this to be true. But yesterday I realized, at every moment in life we have more things to frown upon that those which make us smile; but it is us who chose to look at the good parts and ignore the bad till they come directly in our faces. Yesterday was a day when I still had those good and bad things, but I decided to concentrate on the bad rather than the usual good. And boy did I think... I was literally depressed. After a certain point of time, I actually wanted to come out of that depression and start living the usual life, focussing on the good things, but I couldn’t.

I did realize, that one person stuck in the stage, where I was yesterday for two days could actually turn suicidal. I mean my depression was infectious, I actually scared a friend and made her think about all the shit that was going on in her life. That is when I realized how dangerous that state is. I also started to think about this, ‘thank god for all the stuff’ part. It seems that there may be some scam-like feeling to it. I think, it’s like a person is fooling you into thanking for the good stuff as he knows there a million of those and you would be too tired to start on the billion-long list of the bad things. You still have the billion bad things, but he cheated you into thinking about those million good things and at the end of the day, you’re happy!

I mean it is definitely good, but the feeling of being alone and thinking about all sorts of stuff made me discover a Hindi song which touched me. It has been in my top list for a couple of years now, but yesterday it took itself to new peaks. It perfectly fit the situation and also provided a way out. The song is ‘Tanha Dil by ‘Shaan’. He is a beautiful singer and has sung a zillion good, ahem, great songs. But this one is really apt. It points out, you started alone, stopped at towns in your way, met people made friends, then you had to move on, and there you are alone again. But soon enough you see another town and that phase of life is back again. It also shows you that the destination of the path you are travelling upon, is something you have to reach alone; so bro, do not get distracted.

I was really in the pits yesterday, but one thing is for sure, like the scam I mentioned, this also brought some good. ;)

I actually realized on how wasteful I was and how much of my life I have wasted. So it got me working again. And that is the reason, I am back on my blog.

True story- ;)

Hmphfff...

At the onset, my heartfelt apologies for disappearing from the blog for such a long time. I have been real busy with work. How I got the time to post up something today is that from the past 4 days, I have been down with a terrible fever. While just lying around the house doing almost nothing at all, a thought crossed my mind. So thought of discussing it here..

You know they say that if a dog infected with rabies bites a person, the victim develops hydrophobhia... I was just thinking how would that happen. I mean of course dogs hate water, but if one bites you, how do you end up getting his characteristics?

I agree that there is a transfer of germs, but that should make you sick and not behave like a dog. Is it like there is DNA splicing from the dog's DNA from his saliva and the victim's? How does one get the characteristics of another animal, without DNA interference?

Another example, you know when a person is infected by malaria, he develops chills before he has the fever. Us it like, Mosquitos fly at night and feel cold and when they bite a person, transfer their characteristics or rather feelings to the victim. Just like in the case of rabies.

These thoughts really intrigued me, so thought should put up on the blog and see what people think about these phenomena... I know they sound stupid, but you never know what might come out of stupid ideas.;)

Would love to hear views.

PS. I am having cyclic fever, it goes up suddenly stays high for a couple of hours and then comes down by itself. Has anyone heard about such a 'cyclic fever'? If yes please comment and suggest me how to get well ASAP. your help is highly appreciated.:)

bangladesh

Hey people,

Just wanted to let you know that I am presently in Bangladesh on a business trip. Will put up a post on it soon as soon as i land back home.

Asta Lavista Baby..

Conversation with God

We are the luckiest. We have the biggest fortune to have been born as human beings. We have a way to commune with god. Animals cannot worship, meditate or commune with god. Humans are endowed with all the divine qualities such as love, faith, devotion and prayer. The only problem is that these qualities and the all-powerful and covered by veils of delusion. 

The second fortune is to have a mater or guru; he as an embodiment of god, shows us our true self, teaches us to meditate and how to commune with god. If we are devoted and faithful and allow ourselves to be guided by the guru, we experience a sea change in us. He teaches us with love how to converse with our biggest friend- The Lord we can engage ourselves in endless conversations with Him. Pour our hearts out to him; he is a patient listener and a loving one at that. He is so near us, within each cell of our body, mind and soul. He resides within the inner depths of our being and so easy to talk to.

God is so close to us, nearer than our own heartbeat, closer than anyone else in this world. When are thoughts are stilled, we are calm and peaceful, when the rigmarole of life refuses to accept us; God listens to all our prayers; whatever we say is portrayed easily and clearly to Him.

Just as the reflection of the moon is clear in still waters, whereas its image is distorted in disturbed water; similarly, when we have a barrage of thoughts and endless worries in our minds, then our contact with God is faulty and broken. To renew the link with which been born, to re-establish our rapport with the loving God, all we have to do is purely love Him. When we love only him with all our heart and soul, he cannot stand the separation with us and he comes with his entire kingdom..

I am a true believer in god, I know science and spirituality have and always will contradict each other, as one believes in the divine miracle, and the other wants a reason for everything. That is how it is, but what I think is, that science is right, there is an explanation to everything, but also it does help the human race to believe that there is a power greater than themselves who is watching and controlling their every action. That is what keeps us in check and stops us from doing anything that we want to do. So I believe that spirituality plays a very important role in the society, it keeps us in control. This is why i always say, 'I am a spiritual person and not a religious one'.

Hope to hear some comments on this. Its a never ending debate I know, but still would like to hear something from my audience.

:) Dewa Mata...

Courtesy: Inner Voice, TOI.

FRINGE

As promised a little while ago, he is the post of a new TV series that I am presently watching.

Fringe is a show I came across on IMDB just browsing for a new TV series to watch as I had just finished up with Dexter and house. There must have been a description but I did not bother to look at it. I saw the name fringe and decided to give it a try.

Fringe by definition means, ‘one of the light or dark bands produced during the interference of light waves’ and ‘a social group holding marginal or extreme views’. Both these definitions attracted me to the show. I decided to download the pilot and a few more episodes; although it is the pilot which decides whether the show will run on air or not, but I never make my decision based on the pilot. I don’t think it’s fair to give the producers just one chance, so I always download the next couple of episodes as well. From the first episode itself, I was sure that I am going to love this show. I don’t remember whether I have mentioned it in my ‘about me’ section of the blog, but I am a huge fan of sci-fi stuff. I believe that it is this sci-fi stuff which is sci-fi right now, but is going to be reality in the near future. So as this show turned out to be sci-fi, I knew that I am going to love this. After that it has been episode after episode. There were days when I watched fringe fro morning to bedtime, doing almost nothing else. Completely glued to my computer.

So lemme just tell you what fringe is all about. SPOILER ALERT: Fringe as I have said is a sci-fi show, there is this scientist who believes and experiments in domains where no scientists do. He works on parallel universes (which I completely believe in- especially after the ‘string theory’ by Brian Greene). He also works on several other fields mainly neurology and mind related. He has showed ways on how we can tap into the human mind to extract information, how we can modify the brain waves to accomplish un-imaginable tasks. I would not go into the details, because that would spoil the show and also I do not want to over-sell the show. Anybody who likes sci-fi and has a thing for futuristic science, would love the show. There are several things in the show which seem completely justified and plausible. However, I admit some of the things seem to be too farfetched even for an open-minded person like myself. But of course, you never know what may actually happen in reality in a couple of decades. The things that I consider far-fetched may be real life then or maybe in a century. That is the reason I used the term far-fetched and not impossible.

They have shown several things that make complete sense and would make you ponder on whether this may have already been done in some secretive labs and agencies. You would see that the reasoning that the scientist gives for the new possibilities that he explores to be quite interesting, plausible and satisfactory to yourself. However, you would also see some of the complex things that he talks about and does on the show are not explained at all. I do not blame him for that; he has given understandable reasoning’s for a lot of things that we consider just fiction and about why they will work. Some of the things he should be allowed to just cite without details, after all it comes in the fiction genre. For example, he explains several ways that we may use brain waves and alter them to get different stuff to work out, but he does not explain in detail, how he was able to use a looking glass into the parallel universe, or how he was able to travel between universes. So I don’t blame him for that, people are still trying to prove parallel universes exist; at least he travelled between them. J

This show has inspired in me a lot of ideas. You see I think out of the way, I believe in radical theories and try to explore their possibilities in our time. I am a researcher in the head and the heart. So I have found this show to be just awesome as the scientist is working in my genre. Some of your may not like it, but for all the sci-fi buffs or even intellectuals, I would suggest that you definitely give it a try.

Xaire.

Nature, Nature Japanese Nature

Not one but three cruel ironies are being played in Japan as the country tries to comprehend the apocalypse of the past two weeks. The Japanese prize nature, beauty and order, yet the tsunami has mocked all three. It has been distressing to see a people whose culture values cleanliness, refinement, delicacy and graciousness, wandering around in the clothes they fled in and sitting on the street near giant saucepans waiting to be served from soup kitchens.

The love of nature is the very basis of Japanese aesthetics. They show their joy at the arrival of ‘sakura’ or cherry blossoms with picnics, tea parties, musical concerts and special meals. The Japanese cherry tree is not cultivated for its fruit-- it is not fruit-bearing—but purely for its ephemeral beauty while in blossom.

The Japanese homes, the sliding partitions are invariably painted with scenes from nature. Traditional wooden homes flimsy looking, are not built as fortresses against the elements but rather intended to blend in with the surroundings because the Japanese approach to nature is different from the western desire to subjugate it to man’s will.

They are taught that there is no dichotomy between man and nature and this temperament finds expression in traditional scrolls or ink drawings where nature dominates. The artist instead of treating nature as a backdrop for depicting people lets nature take pride of place while limiting humans to marginal figures. Although, the ultra uncontrolled Japanese gardens with its clipped and pruned tress and rakes stones is the opposite; an attempt to bring some order into nature’s occasional unruliness.

The passion for beauty and exquisite refinement immediately strikes any new visitor to Japan. You enter into a new universe where its subtle aesthetic sensibility is woven into the fabric of daily life. Everywhere you look, you see delicate mannerisms, the ticket inspector on a train who turns to the seated passengers and bows before leaving the compartment; shop assistants wrapping mundane purchases in beautiful paper with as much care as they would a sacred offering for a temple.

Anything that offends their aesthetic sensibility is shunned. Worshipper’s shoes outside a Hindu temple may be strewn randomly, but outside Buddhist and Shinto temples in Japan, the slippers that you put on before entering as tucked into each other and arrayed neatly in a line on the steps. If a monk at the shrine chances upon a pair that is uneven or slightly askew, he will instantly bend down and straighten it.

The television pictures of the devastated towns and mile upon mile of debris would be agonising for any nation, but it has to be excruciatingly painful for a nation that has turned love of beauty into something as reflexive as blinking. Japanese conduct in public is a perfect manifestation of how this pursuit of refinement, transported into the external domain brings harmony and order. Very rarely do you see anyone speaking loudly. There is no aggression. And they must certainly never push, elbow or jostle. Even now, surrounded as they are by horror and calamity they are unlikely to abandon their customary decorum.

It is this consideration and respect for others that allows almost 130 million people to live together peacefully despite one of the highest population densities in the world and boast of one of the lowest crime rate in the industrialized world. There qualities of politeness, honesty and genteelness will enable the Japanese to come through this catastrophe with their dignity intact.

They are already in display; no one is looting (unlike New Orleans hurricane Katrina or during the Gujarat massacre) or panicking and people are queuing up for water and food. In the midst of flattened towns and muddy fields where one their homes stood, people are still seen on television bowing and talking to each other is the most formal courtesy. Even in normal times, vending machines stand undamaged by vandals. Pedestrians bend down to remove a tiny scrap of paper from the immaculate pavement.

A Tokyo resident who was in a restaurant when the earthquake struck told to the interviewing camera crews that everyone ran out into the street. But when the tremors subsided, they all walked back in and formed a line to settle their bills.

Such is the country and people of Japan. I really admire their manners and intellect. I would request you to join me in spending two minutes praying to god to bring back relief and order into their soft and humble lives.

Goodbye.                                                           

Courtesy: TOI

Supermoon

About a week before 19^th march 2011, we heard news that the moon is going to be on its perigee on the 19^th. The predictions of various natural disasters started rolling in. We have heard and read since our childhood geography that the tides in the ocean are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon. So when the moon was coming so close to our planet, we expected bigger tides. But the predictions that were coming in warned or disasters from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to tsunamis and hurricanes.

I had put up a post a couple of days back thinking in the same direction and postulating what will be the adverse effects of this perigee on the pre-existing condition in Japan. Several newspaper articles and TV news did all they could to worry us out of our wits. And once that day was here, the only disasters I saw was that the moon was brighter and only slightly bigger in the night sky. No disasters, not even a hard breeze. And the next day, the same newspaper that was publishing humdrum articles, publishes another article saying that all the claims of disasters were hoaxes and scientists say that the perigee would not cause any disasters, perhaps slightly higher tides and nothing more. That did piss me off.

You know guys I never watch news on the television. The reason for that being, the news here in India is extremely negative. If there is any negative thing which has happened, or even if there is a remote possibility of something bad happening, that would make the primetime news for a couple of hours at least. Can you image, if shah rukh khan were to slap a cameraman, that would make the prime time news and would be telecasted on almost all the news channels for at least 4 hours, with that slap recording being shown after every 2 minutes, and in super slow motion. This really pisses me off. Even if there is no bad news to report, they will make up stories of traumatizing the common man, like ‘is your ketchup made of tomatoes or of poisonous chemicals?’, ‘is your house maid plotting to loot and kill you?’, ‘is your tube-light emitting ultra violet light which can cause skin cancer?’ and so on. Apart from this, what is even worse is, that when they do not have anything cooked up or anything worth reporting, they would show other channels soaps on news channels, I mean not some scenes or something important, the complete show. For example, I have seen news channels show the complete running episode of Rodies on the news channel. I mean if we wanted to see roadies, we would tune into MTv and not watch a news channel.

Newspapers are not much different these days, a bus crashes and you have ten articles and almost a half front page of the terrifying pictures. Whereas, even if a man discovered a cure of cancer, he would not make it to the front page. The same thing has been said by our former president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam in his letter to Indians, which I have put up in an older post. News is not news anymore, it has become a business of viewer ratings, and they don’t give out any useful information anymore. Also, the poop on top of the mud pie that the news channels have become is that they really talk in a piss off accent. For example, just to sound more ridiculous, they would dress up and tame their accents so bad that you would wanna break your TV set. Like this program where an anchor dresses up like a police inspector and even holds the cane and talks about police crime. Can you image? is this a costume party? The professionalism in news has totally disappeared. All I know for sure is that the only professionalism that you will see in any news channel would be those which work on the stock market, only they seem to appear professional and courteous to me.

So all I can say in conclusion is, I am glad nothing bad happened in the world on this perigee of the moon, and FUCK-OFF you piss-off news channels.

Widersehen..

Japan, what else..

Nuclear power... The only thing that comes to my mind reading about the latest happenings at the Fukushima reactor are the words of Shakespeare from the Hamlet; ‘To be or not to be, that is the question.’

After the series of incidents that have taken place at Japan’s nuclear reactor, the world is starting to debate on the act that is world a better place with nuclear reactors in it, or should we completely stop and focus our energy to solar and wind power for fulfilling our energy demands and reducing our dependency on coal.

I am a believer in nuclear energy; I feel that nuclear energy is a very important and good source of energy as it provides constant energy for a long time with one time constructional expenses. Also if used properly, and with the coming technology, I believe that soon a time will come in which we will be generating nuclear energy in many cycles from the same reactor. What I mean to say is that is like plutonium reactors consume plutonium and the end product after fission is uranium, which is enriched and again used as a fuel. So what I believe is that soon, there would be a time when we would have one nuclear reaction generating an end product which would be fissile and then that would generate another fissile product, and this cycle would continue for a couple of times, making  a nuclear reactor a really long source of energy, making it cheap and useful.

About the present situation at Japan, I recently came across a great article, which offered several insights on what actually happened and is going on in the Japan reactor.

At the onset, I would like to apologize for my last post on this topic, in which I had asked the question that why was the Japanese reactor not shut down immediately when the earthquake struck, criticizing indirectly, or perhaps even directly, the Japanese government and the nuclear agency. I would like to apologize, because the latest facts which have come to my knowledge suggest that the reactor was shut down, immediately when the earthquake struck. Now I will mention some important parts of the process which took place and what exactly happened.

In a crisis, reactors automatically shut down. Control rods are inserted between fuel rods to prevent further reactions. But they're all still very hot and emanating heat. This is exactly what happened at Japan. The reactors were shut down, but even after the shut down, the reactor needs to be continuously cooled — and that is done by using water, draining out the steam, putting fresh water, etc. This process needs some power, which wasn't there with Japan's electricity gone due to the Tsunami reaction, and the limited capacity of backup generators. The process is now being carried out by supplying water from the ocean and even that is steaming up so fast that water levels are dangerously low.

Three explosions have since occurred at the plant, attributed to hydrogen reacting with air; hydrogen is produced when the fuel rod cladding reacts with water. That is not a bad sign if there is no breach of the primary containment vessel inside which the reactor is housed. (The secondary, or external, containment structure is designed to burst on high pressure, to protect the primary or inner shell) Reports about the damage to the internal vessel housing the fuel rods, everyone I hear from is postulating his own theory with no concrete evidence or facts from the government.

Additionally, steam has to be continually released into the atmosphere to relieve the unit of some pressure. In the early part, this steam was "clean" — radioactive elements were within limits. Now, with the damage, exposure of fuel rods to air and explosions, even steam release is turning out to be dangerous. Helicopters and measurements outside the main zone have detected higher-than-safe levels of radiation. Japanese authorities have requested people living 20 to 30 kilometres away from the plant to stay indoors, close windows and use no air conditioning.

The danger now is of a complete meltdown and a breach of the containment vessels. The Japanese government has admitted this is a possibility and evacuations around the plants are on. If this happens, this would affect the world is a very grave way. The research on nuclear reactors would seize and there would be no progress in this field which requires progress more than anything, because with the technology right now, it is not safe and it produces highly radioactive products on completion which cannot be disposed off at all. So all this research would stop for the next decade at least which would push us back in this field, adding to the fact that we are already lagging behind in this sector. Also it would raise serious debates on the construction of new nuclear reactors. US have not constructed a new reactor after the Three Mile Island incident in 1979. So there is a large possibility that this would happen in Japan which presently has 54 functional reactors and derives 25% of its energy from nuclear power. Losing one nuclear reactor or even a couple would not be a big deal, but if the public demands that all the reactors be shut down, that would be a grave problem for Japan, and following suit, several other countries which depend on nuclear power.

I shall collect some more info on this topic and will write on it soon again. Also there is going to be a post soon, coming up on the ‘Super moon’ scare...

 Ciao...