Through The Senses

Dawkins vs. Dawkins

2010-12-30T20:41:00.004+05:30

My rationalism keeps flitting between Agnosticism and Deism. Today is one of my "A-days". Rolling around in my bed last night, I had the usual debate of 'God vs. No God' running in my mind and once again, I've reached an agnostic position, fortunately or unfortunately. This post will argue for and against God.

AGAINST: With due respect to the theory of evolution, shining in all its glory with sufficient evidences to exemplify the following statements, I shall be obliged to point out that evolution asserts the fact that the first step involved in it, namely mutations, is random in nature. Dubious over the knowledge if all randomness is utilized, in which case my argument would be futile, I would asseverate that there are many a possibilities that could emerge from the mere stretch of my imagination. Assuming that the process is completely random and yet, only a few possibilities emerge, the notion that the creator, if one exists, does not know what could result seems to belie the very nature of GOD. It might seem that I've jumped to a hypothesis of an evolution uncontrolled by the creator but the wide diversity of flora and fauna apart from one of my Deistic impressions that GOD doesn't play with the physical universe, once the laws have been constituted, tend to serve my assumption. My Deistic judgment stems from my observation that GOD doesn't intervene in the day to day affairs of any of the lifeforms. Noticeable in the statement is the fact that I've stepped on yet another assumption that the physical world and after-death world ( if exists ) are unlinked. Indeed, karmic law also doesn't seem to work in "one" life though it might be spread over "various reincarnations". At this point, I would like to stress that all these statements are just statements from my repository of thoughts, feelings and beliefs. However, I request you to ponder over them and then establish your conclusion.

The question of free will is yet another puzzling one. I remember my friend arguing that GOD knows everything of every time. If we humans are indeed endowed with free will, which I believe we do, then the very notion of an All-knowing GOD is shattered.

I understand the weight of each of the assumptions made above, possibly owing to my limited imagination. However, this looks like the only strand of thought that makes sense to my knowledge of the world.

FOR: For a second, try to describe the colour RED. If you start stomping me with your notion of a photon of a certain frequency, I will be very disappointed. For I cannot make a blind man/woman comprehend the entirety of the colour with this obscure definition. Another interesting thing that I would like to emphasize here is from the documentary "Is Seeing Believing". The documentary claims that the colours we see out there are not actually out there but in fact, they reside inside our wonderful heads. What this means is that the photon of blah blah frequency doesn't have any colour at all until it reaches our brain. Our brain interprets the colour whenever it falls in the visible range. Interesting, isn't it? It might even lead us to consider the Law of attraction. That aside, what about smells or sounds or tastes or what about NUMBERS? We know what 1 is. But can we give a definition for it? As ironic as it may sound, we've built up a whole series of courses and stuff basing it on mathematics but doesn't all this stem from our so called- understanding of numbers? Now, how does any of this support a GOD centered regime? All I'm trying to point out is that we feel certain things, which cannot be described or given evidence for. At least, we haven't evolved to that stage. May be a spiritual connection is just one of those "to be felt" things. I agree that almost all of us have access to the previous feelings. But what about GOD? Are we to believe in those few people like Acharyas, Brahma Kumaris, Buddha, Guru Nanak, Jesus, Mahavir, Mother Teresa who claim that GOD does exist? Are we supposed to explore and feel a higher power?

I sure had a long night. However, the questioning in itself gave me some comfort because we humans are curious creatures and curiosity may kill the cat but it also heightens our self worth as creatures which can reason. To conclude, I would like to indulge my curiosity again in knowing what you think about the above topics. I'm sure that many of you will find a flaw with my assumptions and I would be very interested to conceive what the neurons firing in your brain have to say.

By the way, the title is just an indication of atheism fighting against the very core element of feelings in any human being.

Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon!???

2010-10-18T20:47:00.004+05:30

I'm just back from dinner. However, one thing constantly stung me while I was away. This feeling was generated when I was reading Jeffrey Archer's "First Among Equals" ' first chapter. Before going for dinner, I put an alarm for myself of 15 minutes to take some time out and read at least one chapter. By the end of it, I stood with a sense of fascination wiping out little tear drops that dripped down equally compensating the feeling of 'betrayal by this society'. My friend Jerry once remarked what a beautiful story teller Archer was. However, I had not paid heed to those words. Today the lightning of illumination hit my ignorance. However, something more deep hit me from inside. When I read the three accounts of Charles Gurney Hampton, Simon Kerslake and Ray Gould, I was moved. A deep feeling of dissatisfaction hit me. I asked myself 'How many people do I know around me, who aspire to become a Prime Minister?'. I felt sad for myself that I had such little respect for politics. This thought haunted me during dinner where I had a conversation with my friend Satish, who is an 'all happens for the good' type. However, this deep seated imbalance within me did not sway. I felt the urge to jot this feeling down and here I am. What upsets me the most is that in the present day world around me, I don't see people who dream of becoming the Prime Minister because the word 'politics' has become so synonymous with corruption. What people think is required to be a politician is some genetic stuff or a dogmatic (in a negative sense) influential candidate ( or rather rowdy in comprehensible terms). And I would not beg to defer, for this is my opinion too. It's just sad when you view people in the assemblies fighting like barbarians solely motivated by self interests. In fact, professions like cinema industry, fashion industry and such are expected to be filled with majority of people who have little integrity. Even when I look at the current generation, I see so many of them being pushed into engineering against their interest. I don't really think that this is wrong because which parent would after all want their children to have dreams of working in film industry or politics? I don't really know how the characters in the novel will shape out, but at this moment all I feel is that I want to live in the fantasy world where people are rated for their talent irrespective of other blah blah discriminations. Wouldn't it be so nice to see so many people around you with hopes and dreams and most of all will-power to do something different? When will we reach utopia where all professions will fun, talent rewarding and most of all unbiased and fair?

I would like to conclude this post by quoting a few lines from the book that touched me the most:
"
He stared at the two thousand expectant faces but showed no sign of apprehension, partly because he found it difficult to see beyond the third row. When he announced the title of the essay, some of the younger children began to snigger, causing Ray to stumble through his first few lines. But by the time he had reached the last page the packed hall was still, and after he had completed the final paragraph he received his first standing ovation of the career.
Twelve year old Ray Gould left the stage to rejoin his parents at his seats. His mother's head was bowed but he could still see tears trickling down her cheeks. His father was trying not to look too proud. Even when Ray was seated, the applause continued, so he, too, lowered his head to stare at the title of his prize winning essay: "The First Changes I Will Make When I Become Prime Minister"
"

The External Locus Of Identity

2010-05-04T17:16:00.005+05:30

This post is inspired by the TV series 'The Big Bang Theory Episode-The maternal capacitance'. Beverly Hofstader, one of the most impressive women on the TV show shoots off a dialogue towards Penny which goes as follows " There are many studies that suggest that people who go into the performing arts suffer from an external locus of identity." i.e. they seek approval from others about themselves, typically due to unmet childhood emotional needs. This was a very thought provoking statement. I looked at myself and thought whether I had an external locus of Identity and then I was shocked that there was a part of me which actually did. But, then, a more shocking part lay ahead. When I looked around me, I realized that there are many many people who suffer from not being themselves just to impress others. Isn't it satirical? We allay our ambitions, desires and convert them to our own fears just to get along with the radically changing society. Call it Darwnism? I disagree! We have the capacity to stop this and lead a more satisfying life. Do you think you are in control of your life? Well, ask yourselves. Is everything you do something you really want to do and enjoy? How many times a day have you done something just because you want to project 'this whatever image' on others? We all tend to think that the industry of fashion is boring because it sets new trends daily and people who wear designer labels do it for the sake of being this someone that everyone thinks is outgoing and social. But the bitter fact is that many of the things we do in our daily life are actually directing towards 'the want to be accepted by the society around us'. What do you think of while making any decision- what he/she thinks or what you want? Is your life turning out the way you want it to be? I truly hope this post reaches out to many many of you out there and be of some good use to you. We are all something we like to think as 'people with free-will' but apparently it doesn't seem so. There's another force operating which pulls the threads and is deciding our actions. We can get rid of it by just looking at the fact that we are being manipulated by that thread. May be, we'd get to see true freedom then!

The super woman!

There are many factors that are guiding towards this prevailing attitude these days. Since I've decided to keep my posts short, may be it will have to come some other time. Comments, suggestions and criticism are always welcome.

767*039737463687

2010-05-04T13:23:00.004+05:30

Here's a fun experiment ( which I realized it was one after it was over! or did I? :P). Basically, I had texted 16 people just before leaving my institute with the message as follows " Heya...me leaving insti ...have a great summer and intern...ciaooo:) " and the responses were as follows:

1) Mr. 'Let's get things right' replied as " Hey... Tata ... Have fun.. Have a nice summer .. Do your intern well :) :) ..Goodbye :) " Why do so many people use ... or smileys? (Including me :(:(:P)

2) Mr. Jovial- "Ta ta:)" Tata vs Bye -any comments?

3) Mr. bulb "Oye enjoy :)" I find naivety in this message. The 'oye' part. Comments?

4) Mr. 'I've got work to do!!'-- "Thank You and same to you ... C ya ... I hope you will be available in this no , in case i wanna talk to you later... " Woa. This one has a comma, a few ... (lemme(?) call it dots), a C ya. Comments?

5) Mr. Confused " I am doing project dude...tnx and wish u the same..." Only the tnx in sms lingo?

6) Mr. laughing gas " Bye dude..." Short but not sweet! NO 'thank you same to you? '??:P

7) Mr. Political " You could have told bye in person. have a good time. the ani boy....:) c u " Mr. Political as expressed. LOL

8) Mr.'Do I have any work with you?'-- "Bye" Straight forward and upto the point? What do you think?

9) Mr.'Perfect?' "Have a great summer and intern. All the best.see you.bye." What do you think of this message? NO smileys or dots. Interesting isn't it?

10) Mr. 'Emoticon' :"Happy Journey!!!Best Wishes!:):(:):( Omg lol XD :(" I tend to see his mockery of the usual "Happy journey" quote which is typical of him.

11) Mr 'mentalist': "K. You too profile your company members and make a report. :)" The typical K response! Well the second part was a part was a reply to something else but why do some people think the 'K' is not annoying? Why does an 'okay' sound much better than a 'K'?

12) Mr. 'evangelical' replied "Ok bro... Have fun... Bye..." though I was expecting a Bible excerpt :P. Again the usage of ... here. What do you think of this message? 'Written from the heart'?

13) Mr. 'P.S.eud' : "have a gR8 time ani. see you afteR hols and njoy uR inteRn. ctRl" Notice the usage of R. What does it signify? A style signature?

Mr. busy (I have a million assignments to do!), Mr. absent minded (must have left his phone in some other room), Mr.I dont care (who cares da?) dint reply though.

Which message from the above do you think is the most interesting? Why? Also tell me about my message (;;) ). Also you can try identifying the people based on the message they sent above. Think of someone we both know of. That'd be more interesting. Do post your opinions on the messages, on my message, on my post and my joblessness (not really if you thought so!! ) :P.

Wzlwwhu VXA....ARAR

2009-11-09T21:50:00.005+05:30

Well, if you haven't figured the title yet, go through the post.

TWITTER!!! Huh, where do I start with Twitter? Well, get ready for a couple of lines of bashing and thrashing because that is all Twitter deserves. This is the most boring and pathetic social networking site I know ( yeah even horrible than orkut ). If you wants to poke your nose in and interrupt by saying "Wait. It's a micro-blogging site too." , I just have one thing to say to you "FYI : You seriously need to GO Get a life!"

All Twitter has to offer is a bunch of irrelevant status messages(mostly PJ's) which could be accommodated in gtalk or Facebook. With the advent of Google Wave, I don't know if Twitter will still stand for those users who use it for "social networking". I don't understand why another website has to explicitly use this idea under its banner. IMO Twitter is a total hype. Just because the celebrities intend to join it, it has become popular overnight among people. It is like one of those 'have you see this movie' ( no matter how pathetic the movie is! ) or 'this dress is so cool' ( yeah we all see the tag behind it ).

When I go through the tweets, I experience this phenomenon of dreaming in which someone is stuck in some other parallel universe is trying to tell me something and has no one to share his/her feeling there. The situation is not similar to a gtalk status message mind you! In gtalk I can only see the status when the person is online and hence communicate with that person about whats the cause of the status but Twitter is just getting updated yourself with the latest local "country" gossip. Suits gossip girl but not me! No wonder she's so jobless. All she's gotta do is pry over the 'Elite' in Manhattan, grab and spill all their dirty details and insert an 'xoxo' at the end which is merely a ' You're dumb. OOPS...no offence'.

Anyway the worst part is that some people come online just to update their tweets which would be full of personal life trauma and every second and this is like they're sharing some sort of a relationship with the online world. The main purpose of a social networking site is to build interactions but sticking behind a computer all day is no way to interact. The interface between any two users or comments to a tweet is also completely shadowed off.

Plus the looks aren't really awesome( probably trying to show us its simplicity). If you don't have a twitter account I would suggest you not to make one! And believe me I even get tweets like 'sleeping' and 'doing laundry'. It is a micro blogging site( my foot! doesnt even let you type more than 140 characters. Pains you in the neck if you want to post a link).

And guess what there are a bunch of such similar sites another one of which I know is identi.ca and believe me I get a request daily( humpph...cool factor? :P ). I don't know who these people are but they just keep on pouring in to read your updates status messages.

Now the title should be evident I guess. Yeah "TWITTER SUX...XOXO"!

Figure it OUT

2009-10-11T12:34:00.005+05:30

This is supposed to be a competition where the best comment on the topic given below is awarded.

The award is going to be really interesting( which you would have never thought of---btw don't expect any Mercedes or Jimmy Choos or something). So watch out and start commenting. Please note: only one liner-comments. You can send as many comments as you want. So more the comments, more the chances of winning! The competition will end after a month of the publishing date.

Note that there's a twist somewhere in this post. TRY FIGURING IT OUT ( The colours might help you out).

The topic is

"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DID YOU THINK THAT I HAD NOT GIVEN ANY TOPIC?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"

A typical "Regional" Movie

2009-09-21T18:33:00.005+05:30

1) The hero has a nice childhood. Suddenly everything goes BOOM! ( Tragic music flows in, people munching on popcorn waiting for more. A few melodramatists start pouring their emotions out)

2) Hero is now of 20 years. He thrives for revenge. But now he has a lot of "life experience" and lot of wisdom!!( PLEASE!!!) .

3) Heroine comes along. She is a typical drama queen, coy with hero and threatening to others ( supposed to be the "comic" element for those who like MASS LOVE).

4) Something bad has happened. The VILLAIN is here( audience is clung to their chairs giving a reaction as if they'll rip it off! )

5) FLASHBACK -- Some local fights in the name of superiority of clans ( typically 'your family, our family' type(the 'maa vamsha pourusham' part in telugu movies). [ Audience is shocked by the deceit and the women are crying ( DUH!!!) and the men are building up their adrenaline ( Double DUH!!!) ]

6) Hero was totally deceived( COME ON....He was so dumb!!!)

7) Heroine falls in true love, knowing how much the hero has suffered(Yawning)

8) Perfect time for ITEM song + drinks. Hero wears a lungi and is totally drunk and dances with ten half-naked girls around him.(AND HE'S THE HERO!!) Heroine's role in the movie is over after this. ( Love for those pitiful morons. Pluses for male chauvinists)

9) Now comes time for revenge. Everyone seems to be twisting their moustaches as if it's the key of one of those dancing toys.

10) GOOD wins over EVIL. Heroine makes a special appearance with some bedroom jokes. TADAAA!!! Movie is done! (The perfect 'happily ever ever after' ending )

And it's a BLOCKbuster???!!! GOD SAVE US!

P.S : The post is supposed to be for fun only. No offence meant!

The IITM quiz scenario

2009-09-15T19:10:00.003+05:30

KCL and KVL are the basic circuit laws for those of you who are not familiar.

Do comment where you fit in! No offence meant. I've been through every stage of the graph.

Quoting Shaw

2009-08-22T21:29:00.011+05:30

“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.” - Bernard Shaw

In this post, I shall be weighing the pros and cons of the above statement.

               I personally believe that religions were fabricated by our ancestors on observing the growing confusion of the human mind apart from a line of thoughts directed towards a better generation. Note that the 'better' here is w.r.t the then current status of their colonies. To convince yourself that this is a plausible reason, just drift away into the thoughts of the meaning of life, why we perspire, what are we achieving or what anyone has ever achieved in this world and take my word, you will end up in utter dismay. This was the basic motive of a religion i.e. to explain our existence and our purpose. Religion is also a story woven to distinguish the right from the wrong. It is just a philosophy of life. Come to think of it. Why doesn't a religion talk about the laws of the universe like the constancy of the speed of light or number of existing species of animals. Also, if any single religion were really the 'complete' truth, it should have been that it was spread through out the world right from the beginning of time which is not. But it is also to be remembered that every religion has its own bright side and is responsible for moulding a stable personality. Try making your own philosophy of life based on your everyday decisions and you'll end up having at least 75% of the same principles as given in any religion. Then where exactly does every religion fail to get people to adhere to it? It is the interpretation of the religious holy book that creates many indifferent attitudes. The most common one is discrimination of other religions with statements like ' Are you of so and so religion?' This creates the first barrier among people. 'My GOD is the only GOD' follows that. These may not be explicitly mentioned but there are definitely such feelings in every 'religious' person. Contradiction of interpretations of different texts also leads to internal hatred and a religion fails to impress here. Though every religion talks in the most basic level about love towards every other person, we, the interpreters( be it die hard orthodoxy or agnostic), don't accept it when further delving into other areas. A very natural human tendency is to  want everyone else (openly or secretly) to have the same opinions that we do (like I am currently). And this results in fights over petty matters (cold fights, mostly, which are more dangerous). Either the person is very religious and has developed such feelings or a person is not as religious (and is hence not a true religious person!) The religious books also limit our thoughts or opinions to a confined set. It is in fact just like any other superstition which we take for granted. Of course, if you've really had a foolproof account of the issue and you've come to the conclusion that whatever the opinion is, it's right, it is fine. But we shouldn't just believe that walking under a ladder would get you a bad day without logically reasoning it over. But note that the above statement should be restricted to the sense of blindly believing social principles. When it comes to the concept of GOD, the higher power responsible for this universe today, every religion has a say about it. There is definitely a higher power, call it the ENERGY or the CREATOR or ALL THAT IS which is the beginning of events. There should either be a start to everything or that thing should always pervade and that thing is GOD. The above statement does not imply an atheist, it implies a skeptic viewing the social tendencies and questioning them. 
Basic principle of any religion - Love one another!

Coming to Philosophy, I believe it is most difficult subject to be studied. If a student of philosophy wants to gain expertise in the field, he/she needs to have lot of varied opinions on the topic, implying a lot of skepticism. And this is the part which influences your day to day life. Your daily principles need to be looked over and questioned for a thorough analysis of the subject. And what does this give? Just a lot of cynicism, confusion and a mind of troubled thoughts, though the creativity is enhanced as the subject is open to many interpretations and is considering different views of life. For example, Einstein would have never found out the theory of relativity had his mind be confined to thinking the persisting notion of time.
Hence, I conclude that being cynical is not the aim of life, but believing or accepting something without us actually knowing anything about it, may be because it seems common sense, is dangerous ( It might hurt someone else in the process...for example, the subjugation of women throughout history due to male interpretations in every religion ). Or talk about the prejudice on the heliocentric theory. I mean, just because it is widely believed, we don't have to believe it unless we've made a self analysis over it- either that or have no opinion! If we have one, see to it that it is logically arrived at after weighing all the possibilities.

Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence, of man, and of man's relationship to existence. … In the realm of cognition, the special sciences are the trees, but philosophy is the soil which makes the forest possible.

~Ayn Rand, Philosophy, Who Needs It (p. 2)

"The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates

The Idiot box has a point!

2009-08-09T21:46:00.005+05:30

While flipping through the channels on my television set, I happened to stumble upon an astonished look on my face after finding a news channel providing explanation and probing into the minor details of a regular soap. It just depicts the extent to which people are willing to watch these melodramas. Teenagers however detest such soaps and are averse to the idea of watching something like "Kyonki Saas Bhi....whatever!!" Talking about that, there's an interesting observation one can make about the shows watched by the different generations(most of them at least) i.e. about how they identify life.

Kids : Kids generally prefer to watch fantasies like Aladdin and Tom and Jerry. All the worldly perils and charms are oblivious to them and hence, they are least bothered about stuff like politics, love etc..

Pre-teens: They generally tend to be in the process of grabbing attention from around them, even without knowing it. The nurture process starts off here in life boosting a part of the nature. It is so interesting to see innocence culminating in mischief and romance.

Teens & Post-teens: Teens generally tend to be into movies and MTV shows, which show the brash and 'want to protect you' nature of guys and mean and backbiting nature of gals.

They also are the ones who mostly involve in movies. It is interesting to distinguish between movies at various levels here. The international movies are a product of extreme action, drama and romance.

The hindi movies are slowly following the trend (especially the action and romance). The Hindi movies can be viewed as a spectrum ranging from something like the western to something that is regional. There are movies which mix western views with our social values. To grab an appeal over the local masses, they also use item numbers! India, though always talking of its great culture, has people who place importance to culture only when it does not inhibit their personal ambitions or attitudes.

Most of the regional movies talk about the aggression and extraordinary feats of heroes and the soft submissive nature of heroines. In these movies, heroes succumb to smoking and drinking and item numbers but the heroine is shown to be very 'pure' and very homely. Typical stuff for male chauvinists who think showing off anger is all one needs!

40-60's: The set of people around the spectrum of this age generally indulge in Indian TV serials which have a female protagonist who is struggling against the evils of the society. It is so strange when you contrast it with the Indian movies which generally have a male protagonist (Think about it!) . Probably because these people realize the 'nature of reality' by that age. They are also bothered about the changing perspectives of the world and tend to be into news to see if their opinion is in the public propaganda or not.

Beyond that, people tune to spiritual channels which spend half of their time talking about how bad the world is! The viewers seem to have overcome all troubles of life without finding out what it means. They give up on the meaning of life and consider that their role in the big plan is done.

Humphh...what's more? This list can go on and on. No wonder, there is so much of misunderstanding between different generations in India. There are no intersections of mutual interests. There's no trying to understand the others primetime. This is probably the biggest reason why most of the Indians are someone else at home and someone else outside.

The traditional 'Splitsvilla'

2009-08-03T10:45:00.008+05:30

The long saga "Rakhi ka Swayamvar" ended on Sunday ushering relief to all those viewers who couldn't bear watching it nor digest their food without listening to her melodramas. There were days I watched it commiserating for Rakhi on her cruel life. They were days I doubted her totally cuz it just looked like a whole new 'Splitsvilla' only embedded with the concept of love rather than lust. In fact, I would love to see her on "Sach Ka Saamna". I know you might find me ridiculous for watching the stupid swayamvar, but I guess it's a nice means to capture psychology of people. Especially the puerile Atirek, the over-romantic macho Luv, the humble Chittiz, the timepass Manmohan and so on.

Apparently Rakhi chose the baldy Elesh Parujanwala. The shocking thing is that she didn't even know his surname three weeks ago(Yeah, I'm speaking like the media). My grandfather, a very jovial person, always used to say that she would marry him cuz then she could oil his clean shiny head:D. Rakhi's marrying Elesh is philosophically accepted by consequentialism because he had come all the way from Toronto for tying the knot on an immature reality show. But I thought she would marry Manas as the guy seemed to charm her from the very first episode. I guess it would be really awkward for the other two families who have lost on the "show". Anyways, I just hope that she stops using those micro clothes atleast after her marriage because as a celebrity she would influence many viewers. But, at the same time, as a human being, I would congratulate her for getting engaged and would wish her a happy married life. (LOL ... yeah ... as if she reads my blog!)

P.S: Does anyone know the english word for 'swayamvar'?

Attack on the Indian transgendered behaviour!

2009-08-02T10:12:00.015+05:30

It all began with a journey. I was travelling back to Chennai yesterday through train. I wouldn't have got up until 7:50AM (the train reaches Chennai at 8 AM) had I not been in the middle berth creating discomfort for people who wanted to sit. And I had the experience of watching two "typical" Indian transgenders shouting and abusing when they entered the coach. They came into our compartment. One of them, thin and tall, rushed towards a slightly plump man sitting on the seat opposite to me and clutched his shoulders in the pincers of her hand and yanked him towards her, though she was successful in only moving him an inch. She complimented him in a very rude way and then started demanding the others for money. Once, she realized that she wasn't getting any, she just strode to the pathway cursing the people and calling them 'kojja'. The other lady who was short and fat hit on my head and rushed away. I looked to scare her away, but then realized that they were the ones that were scary.

Rose Venkatesan, India's transgender celebrity

I was shocked after this incident. They were literally demanding money. I totally understand the problems of the LGBT but this is no way to behave in a society. Firstly, she curses others what she herself is, meaning she herself thinks being a transgendered is disgusting. If they don't accept themselves how will they expect the society to? I seriously think these people should stop begging (or should I say demanding) and start working somewhere. They will get a job if they try hard to really want one. They will soon gain acceptance also if they use decent ways of expressing themselves. I strongly believe that they should try to change their general perspective among the people. Their attitude would affect the increasing awareness of LGBT in India brought about recently by the repealing of section 377, which I believe would lead to more equality among gender thus minimizing one form of a discrimination apart from enhancing psychological studies. But with such attitudes still prevailing, why would heterosexuals allow them into main stream. It is time they realize that we don't like beggars who scream at us apart from being physically fit. They should take inspiration from Lynn Conway or Rose venkatesan and try to augment their respect in the society rather than going around, cursing people and demanding money!

Lynn Conway, a Computer science and electrical engineer

Art at its best!!

2009-07-28T22:14:00.008+05:30

The fiery soul which takes a human shape is stuck deep beneath the cruxes of the society. The various parts which obstruct the development of soul can be viewed by the numerous colours that surround it. The green nature which signifies grass shows the natural hindrances in the path of every individual. It is true that nature opposes a few things like your lifetime. The pink worldly desires which seem so good and make us feel chic about our belongings is yet another obstruction in the path of enhancement. The rocks taking the top spot prevents us from exploring the deep parts of this world- the deep parts of our innate knowledge. Above all is the dark blackness which expands beyond everything else, signifying our ignorance in many issues. The greenish gray part represents the damp nature we are responsible for. Thus, the painting can also be viewed as an indicator of the destruction in nature we are causing. The importance of water as perceived by human life is also depicted by the light blue colour. The pink and green colours also seem to signify a carpet which we think we are moving on so rapidly, but guess what? We are moving no where ultimately. Cuz everywhere around us there is darkness. The part above the green and pink colours obscurely show us a head which is craving for enlightenment in the darkness. Also, it can be seen that the conscious part (brown) is not the only part. There also exists a subconscious part in each one of us (signified by the non-brown colours in the head like shape).
P.S. the image is an original piece of modern art and is copyrighted;).
Well. I'm really open to more suggestions on this painting worth $10000 (lol). OK. Seriously, I'm fed up of blabbering on and on. So, I guess I'll stop it here with my ridiculous 'modern art interpretations'. I just wanna express that maybe this is how I feel when I listen to people expressing their awes over modern art where all I can see is a bunch of lines stacked in a disheveled manner. My intention wasn't to hurt anyone. It's just my perspective on modern art. Hope you've had fun. Do leave your interpretations in the comments section.

A - forehead B- eyes C - mouth D - chin

2009-07-25T11:22:00.013+05:30

I was sweating profusely. For a moment, I had this fear rising in me that I would have to leave the examination hall. It was the day of my computer science exam. I was cursing myself for not being cautious especially while doing something like this. I could feel sweat dripping all over my face. I felt every tiny voice like a huge tycoon approaching. I reprimanded myself for having come up with the worst idea ever. The fear kept rising in me. I brought my palms together and intertwined my fingers and started clenching my hands so tightly as if to crush them, as if in an act of intense praying. I hoped for the teacher to go away. The lady knew me well, so I thought I could be exempted from severity, yet this thought of confronting her while being on the wrong side scared me to death. I was hoping the incident would not attract much attention. My anxiety kept building up and rose to its peak when the invigilator asked me "What are those numbers on that sheet?" I had to come up with an immediate answer. I pushed a lie out of my throat " I had written the answers I got to the questions during the math examination on the question paper". The lady (Padma teacher, for those of you who know) looked sceptical for a minute but then walked away with her head bobbing up and down as if in agreement. I felt a surge of relief and impudence at the same moment. I dint understand whether she really digested it for a fact or whether she just was empathizing for how much I had gotten down or whether it was an indication for me not to do it again. But, one thing was clear to me then. And as if to emphasize my ashamedly act, the one thing was that I had done a good thing by writing the numbers instead of words. Like for example, I had written "20,8,5 15,14,12,25" for "the only". I was accustomed to this, so I had not taken much time to decipher it in the exam hall. But, the bad thing was I dint feel guilty then. It was my Computer Science exam and Moral, GK and Comp Science were not considered as core subjects in SSC. So, we never really bothered about it. And, because the marks were included, we detested having to read it on top of having a very unsuitable teacher for the subject. The shocking fact is that all the questions were given before hand. On the day before the exam, I had a choice to study or prepare for cheating. But my laziness overtook me and I succumbed to cheating so vigourously.

The realization that it was wrong dawned upon me much later, though. In my tenth standard, I used to help a few people and to my shock, their ranks rose rapidly without them having sufficient knowledge over the topic. People had become more dependent. I had too become dependent on others. The worst part was we used to get ranks we dint deserve. I felt very bad for one of my best friends (who used to refrain from copying) who was working very hard and yet not getting the best fruit for his endeavour. Of course, he got the joy in being honest. But we cannot defer from the fact that we sympathize for a good person in this BAD BAD world. Would I not feel bad if someone cheated and got a better place than me? The conclusion also came from various other areas of work. Like say cricket. I'm not a fan of cricket but I would be lying if I said that I don't hear a comment saying "this person has cheated...the umpire cheated...the players were bribed" very often. Also, take the example of WWE, where you can see many people being dissatisfied and unhappy with the fact that almost everyone cheats on the show. We are so bothered about others cheating. What about us? Don't we have a responsibility not to cheat? I know that this might seem like a juvenile post but somehow I feel it needs a space. Comments are always welcome!

5 reasons to blabber...

2009-07-24T09:24:00.009+05:30

Heylo all,
My blog, hereby, is gonna be inclusive of posts mentioning 5 reasons to/ not to do something.

So starting off,
5 reasons to include these posts having '5 reasons':

1) To express my diversity in topics: what is a better way of reaching out to myriad topics without feeling the digression in the trail of innumerable topics?

2) To break diversities in several issues : Having diversity is good in that we get to reach out to appreciable opinions we couldn't have thought of, thus enhancing our scope on a particular topic. But diversity shouldn't be profound enough to lead to contemptuous hatred

3)To have your valuable diverse comments(Ehem..). Like I said, diversity in opinions should always be welcome for consideration, because every opinion has a deep set of thoughts buried under it. It also enables you to progress to the more authentic understanding.

4) Uh..come on! I can't go on with 'diversity' anymore. This is the best excuse to increase the number of my posts.:). LOL. What's better than commenting on things in five sentences and including a number of pictures associated with it?;) Also, it increases the scope for picking more number of topics. It's like 'you wanna write on so many topics which would seem offhand on a blog, hence include them under this category'.

5) And the main reason of all-- It was my bathroom idea. LOL. Bathroom ideas are supposed to be really good because they occur to you in the early mornings which brings you a fresh day, fresh hope and fresh smell(ehem... I mean the atmosphere!!). And this reminds me of Archimedes' buoyancy principle, which he too discovered while having a bath :D .

So pals, stick around for more of these posts.

Chuddy Buddies......:D

2009-07-20T12:31:00.007+05:30

As the title says this post is about a few best friends of mine with whom a day seems totally complete. The idea for the post came from the uncontrollable laughter and non stop excitement I had yesterday when we had gone to seen the formidable Harry Potter. The three pals are Sweetu, Zerry and Puppy. LOL! Yeah, these are their nick names. But let me tell you, with all the three around, it is so much of fun. Even if one of them goes missing, there's this scarcity of excitement around you.
Let me go into the details. Sweetu and Puppy love to fight with each other all the time! Sweetu is this person who loves to irritate Puppy even with the slightest of things like "your dress" or "your college". One more fascinating thing about Sweetu is his vast imagination. Believe me he can spice up a story like "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna" into an action filled flick like "The Dark Knight". He has the immense patience to keep explaining all of his heroic adventures where he just escapes falling from a huge mountain! He is really funny at times and never sulks while getting ridiculed for his stories(yeah a bit but he immediately goes into further details trying to emphasise his heroism).
Puppy loves to show off and no matter how much he gets irriatated he continues boasting about himself until a point of time where "no one is listening to him or if someone immediately picks up the flaws in his imaginative stories where he goes with the most popular group in his college to the most popular place in the city" and then gets sullen up at it and then tries to be snobbish and then finally the Hungama begins. Puppy and Sweetu start quarreling.
Well, you might think that "OK let's grab a pack of Kurkure and settle down". But right here there's a twist in the story. These pals start fighting so ugly and use words so offending and then it even ends up sometimes in someone hitting the other. You are made to feel like "Aw...stop now" and this is best done by none other than Zerry. Anyway the peace is momentary as the fighting gets on in the next zippy. And Zerry continues his peace making.
But Mr. Zerry has this really really bad habit of following Indian Standard timings. He manages to come late by a minimum of half an hour. The last time he made us wait for like forty five minutes. So this time we resolved to the idea of calling him at four thirty when we all had actually decided to turn up by 5:15 or so. And guess what? He was successful in displaying his patriotism by appearing at 7:00!!! The worst part was that I had to bear with the quarrels of Sweetu and Puppy till then. But once Zerry had come, it was fun. We had loadsa time gossiping, freaking and humiliating and what not. It was one of the best hangouts. There is one really big adveture involving the four of us which I will definitely post the next time. Till then, keep BLOGGING!(or atleast reading my blog:D)

Music makes the people

2009-07-18T20:10:00.014+05:30

Music, music and music!!! That's all that is revolving around us lately. The art that impresses all, the flow that makes us sway with it, more exactly the undying genre of human activities. It's just so amazing that we have so many new songs popping out daily with so many new funky beats and yet we never digress from its track. Listening to music never gets monotonous. For a second compare it with the fashion industry. We all know of the fashion weeks which just keep sweeping by like very often. But what's the point? Most of the people are not attuned to fashion at all. It is this part of music which is very influential- It reaches out to like almost everybody. Now one thing you have to agree. Most of the songs we listen to do not catch our interest in the very first trial. And that listening to any song at least two to three times will make you hop along with it. But yet we prefer to choose songs of a particular genre only. I was intrigued the first time I thought about why I chose a few particular songs. I think it has to do something with my inner self. The music, you prefer to listen to, definitely has something to do with your psychology, the way you perceive things in life. Add the music video and it tells a lot more. And by inner self here I mean your thought process which has been inculcated into a heap over the years through a bit of nature and a bit of nurture.

Music is never "So Yesterday"

How does music make me feel ? Well, whenever I put on my headphones, I can feel a surge of emotions and adrenaline within me. I select the song that matches my mood at the moment and run deep into a hysterical mental act. My mood keeps shifting as the song changes its pace. For example, the song "Stronger" by Britney Spears always starts off with me feeling down and low and as the lyrics move along I can feel myself strengthen. Many a times, I also connect with the lyrics. They give out an interpretation apt with my current situation in life. Or they strengthen a feeling I've been trying to preserve deep inside. Most of the songs seem like love songs and expressing love towards a 'you' which most of us perceive as the significant other but try replacing it with a really strong talent/worry of yours and you will just love the direction it takes. We never know what the artist was actually thinking while composing it. Words when sung with the emotional pith livens me inside. Voice modulations make me feel the soul of the song. Even when I don't understand the lyrics ( The ketchup Song , Um Bos Thres, Lilali) the music just beams out the mood inside of me. If I had seen the music video, I tend to imitate the moves which I guess is most probably to hasten the adrenaline flow. But it tends to be really good when you sing along and imitate the artist because it makes you feel like you are really the one pushing your strong feelings out (even though the feeling may not be relevant to the song, you tend to connect the two back in your mind). More often I tend to philosophize while listening and my approach is determined by the mood of the song. Even though my mind is wandering off to some place while listening to a song and I like the direction of thought, I replay the song as soon as it's over even though I am not concentrating on it as it leaves me off in another fascinating world. Thinking about a song anytime during work hours completely leaves me off in another world. "All the people in the world" gets me high at some point for sure every time I listen to it. And the best part about music is that it can make you fall in love. Love with life. Love with the thought of being yourself. Dares you to dream. An apt music video increases all these emotions exponentially. As I started off with, "Music, music and music". There's so much to it!

Westlife

I would love to post my interpretations to some of the songs, which I will definitely do it on this space. Till then, see you around!

I totally forgot to add that music is one tool which helps us remember our deep emotions and feelings from the past. It plays a wonderful role in cherishing memories. Listening to 'Dancing Queen' by A-teens always reminds me of my school life because I first heard the song when I was in school and I've associated certain feelings and memories to the song. And, thus when I happen to listen to that song anytime now, I dig into the past (Works like a time machine for feelings!)

TIcK a TaCky ToE

2009-06-21T12:00:00.021+05:30

Have you ever tried moving your toes individually? It might sound as simple as that but it's, in fact, a very arduous task. Why are we able to move our fingers so easily whereas to move the toes is, apparently, a herculean task? If you've ever tried moving your toes, not the big one, you would know why I am blabbering. But if you haven't, then try it right away. I caught myself in a maze trying to do the same thing today and you cannot imagine how such an insignificant thing might get you so confused and glaring. Try this out right away. Concentrate on a toe of yours which you wish to move and try, by hook or crook, to move it and what you'll end up with is a hysterical outburst of stress and confusion. But then ever thought why we could move the big toe. May be its because of the use of slippers which pushes the big toe on one side and all the others on the other side or the fact that it is used to balance. And yeah, did you know that I could move my pinky toe?? Yeay to me. I actually tried that during childhood and I successfully managed to move it. And I can still do it today. How about a little fun experiment? If you know any small child then I guess you should ask him/her to try this out i.e. try moving all the toes individually. Odds are against it not happening. Maybe it's just a matter of cultivating things since your childhood.

Matt Parkman can make you move your toes;)

Lately I've been watching a few scifi movies which show telepathic skills. I've also gone through a few websites which say communication with animals is possible through telepathy. By the way for those of you out there who are unaware of telepathy, it is supposed to be a way of communication where you can sense others emotions without moving a thing. Scifi shows I watch explain this through the interaction of electric fields of different minds. Try thinking this. We all are born with telepathic skills but intrusion of language has made us totally forget how to perform this skill. And maybe that's the reason children cry and smile and stuff.i.e when they can sense emotions around them fluctuating. May be we just need to enhance these skills to be able to use them. It might sound a little crazy but why not? After all, that's how Theory of Evolution proves why we can't differentiate a millisecond and a nanosecond (it's because we don't need to!! And guess what? May be we all can echolocate like bats. It's only that we don't need to .
Check this out : Human_echolocation).
Think about this. Let's not shudder such thoughts away just 'cuz they might seem petty enough. It is after all a possibility among infinitely many ones.

Dude!!....stop observing us all!!

A frog on the net

2009-06-15T21:39:00.007+05:30

Finally, the incessant knocking was heard. The long tiring periods of my awaiting for the internet to show up at home was finally over. I pranced over to the seat in front of the comp and started messing with it already. It was like the dream come true. The offer was one of a maximum download=1GB and I was like "Hah...those fools think we would download!!....just check out the websites and have fun...who wants to download???". And then began the endless journeys to websites, refreshing them for fun at times but all this time, something was constantly bothering me. The BSNL icon on the taskbar showed measures of the sent and received bytes which were increasing daily and the growth was rapid whenever a new site was opened. I thought maybe this has something to do with the downloadable bytes "They aren't that foolish after all" but on second thought "Naah....lite le...they are jobless to include such listings". The second feeling really stormed on me only while browsing particularly watching some youtube video.:D. The rest of the day went in philosophy and debate over it. The voracious use continued until finally the bill showed up which was a whopping two thousand bucks just for the net!!! I blamed it all on my bro;) and silently smirked under the blanket. But one thing was for sure- The next month was gonna be hard. And guess what?? Adding to my dismay, the next day itself my cousin told me that opening a web page is also considered downloading. For that matter, even having internet connection enabled with no window open would cause in downloading some petty bytes. Well, I just wished he were a little earlier. Or did I??
My college was over and it was holiday time. I thought of starting my social networking. "Pop up windows are being blocked" said the top of the window with a clicky sound. For that minute I was like "wow, this thing is so good. It is like probably trying to prevent viruses". Yeah I know, I WAS dumb!!;) . I quickly thought of creating a yahoo account, because it was the buzzword around. I thought I could open an arkoot account, or whatever that was which my friends kept talking about, later. I headed up to the google page, which is like the easiest thing to do. I typed yahoo in there and rushed to the first link. The page looked pretty rich in content and then i figured out what I was looking for. I clicked on mail and then led to this page that had two options login and sign up. I wondered what sign up was, but then since I dint have an account I figured it could probably be what I was looking for.Smart me!!:).And then there was this long list of details to be filled up. I thought I was probably running into too many pages and hence quickly resorted to the idea of closing it because I thought I was downloading too much for a day.:D. The nervousness ended when I finally closed it. Anyway, I had satisfaction in the fact that I led to the page that would pave way for my future internet profile;).
The next day I had again found myself on the comp desperately eager to create an account and the thought of sitting on the messenger made my heart fly for a second. After all everyone had an account and kept talking about and I felt "dumbstruck". I rushed to the yahoo page and thought "Ok...let me just finish off making the account today...it won't be much time". Now I filled in all the petty stuff and gave the id a name anirudhkulkarni@yahoo.co.in and also typed the stupid "4zse6G" or something wierd like that and to my dismay, the page popped up a message saying "this id is not available". I din't really understand the meaning back then. I had to refill the form with some other id and again the message popped up. I was beginning to worry about how many bytes had already been downloaded and immediately shut the window. began to wonder if there was some problem in my filling the form. The next morning I gathered all my guts and filled out the form again and had my bro suggested a few names for the id and guess what?...my id ended up having a "cool4u" and a "007"....damn it...Anyway it was sort of cool..well..not really...people are like "what's that?Cool4u???....Bullshit!!". Anyway I had atleast created an account for myself then:D. And then I bravely created a gmail id:P and an orkut profile. Yahoo messenger was in now!! And guess what? Now I have many more ID's that visit your profiles almost daily:P.