Naveen, the Life-Surfer's Blog

Naveen Raju & Naseer Ahamed

noreply@blogger.com (Cool Naveen) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:29:00 +0000

The following is a write-up of mine which I typed in 2006…

What do Naveen Raju and Naseer Ahmed have in common?

What do a Hindu student from India and a Muslim worker from Pakistan, both of whom in Malaysia presently, have in common? - Common opinion on human values.

I, Naveen Raju, study in a college in Seremban (65kms from the capital Kuala Lumpur), Malaysia and I come all the way from Coimbatore, India. I work part time in a shop where Naseer Ahmed, who hails from Chiniot, Faizalabad - Pakistan, also works.

I can remember well, when, on an autumn evening, we became acquainted on the very first day we met in this shop. At first, it was a casual self-introduction which slowly lumbered up to become close friendship. I call him “bhaiya” (elder brother) and he too calls me back as “bhaiya” - even though I am more than 20 years younger than him. In the beginning, I barely managed to communicate with him since I knew a little Hindi and his way of communication was Punjabi and Urdu - the languages that mostly resemble Hindi. To mention, I come from India where Hindi is widely spoken, whereas, I mostly speak Tamil and Kannada at home.

Now, I have picked up a lot of Hindi words and amassed a whole lot of ways to express my thoughts in that language, courtesy – my relentless pursuit to communicate well with this Pakistani bhaiya and, of course, the Hindi films which I watch on many occasions. He, also a big fan of Bollywood Hindi movies, has a small collection of them which we often watch in leisure.

By observing the way he works, I learnt a lesson or two. I could imbibe that he works hard to send money to support his wife and three kids in Faizalabad. He is very thrift and stretches every cent of money as far as it goes that, sometimes, he even starves himself to save money.

All my previously held beliefs about Pakistan faded away because of my friendship with this man. I developed a kind of empathy upon this Punjabi man from Faizalabad, Punjab - Pakistan and, to recall, it was surprising that our countries, India and Pakistan, have fought three bitter wars against each other.

Some times, he cooks food by himself and heartily invites me to his dinner. He makes such tantalizing Pakistani (or Indian, of course!) rotis coupled with keema or chicken, or mixed vegetable sabjis on some occasions. On some days, I buy him food from restaurants. I came to know a lot about Pakistan and its people through him. We exchange jokes and a lot of stories about each other’s cultures.

Alright, I am an Indian and he is a Pakistani.

Any third person would uncontrollably get curious and wonder - What about Kashmir?

Whenever this name comes in our long conversation, we suddenly become cautious and pause for a while not to hurt each other’s attitude. Even when others mock us up saying that India and Pakistan are eternal rivals and how could we ever get along well as close friends. We just reply that we are brothers who have some little fights against each other at times.

I will go back to India in a couple of months once my studies finish; but my time spent with this Pakistani bhaiya will be an enduring memory etched in my soul which would augur well with the quote “remembrances embellish life.” This bhaiya will go a long way in keeping me reminded forever that the spirit of humanity will spontaneously and eventually diffuse into humanity’s hearts and emerge victorious in a world where people are divided by differences in their minds.

To many, a student like me speaking about forging India-Pakistan friendship might sound like a kid talking about quantum physics. I don’t think so, and I strongly believe only the youth’s mind can be molded easily.

When we converse, we express thoughts like how united were we before 1947 (before the India/Pakistan partition) and why in the world should we have a difference in opinions against each other later on? We have so many similarities – we speak similar languages, have unique art and music, dress alike, we have a cuisine that is same and we were one family before we became neighbors.

Then how in the world did we ever let our paltry differences outweigh our ubiquitous similarities?

Naseer Bhaiya and I unanimously agree that we have our common enemies in various manifestations like poverty, illiteracy, economic and scientific backwardness and much more…

Let’s fight these common enemies…

And not each other…

In this flat world of globalization, the day is approaching fast when people will realize that…

People are more important than policies; and that the spirit of humanity will rule… eventually.

The Wisdom of Death

noreply@blogger.com (Cool Naveen) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:52:00 +0000

A few months ago one of my best friends passed away due to heart attack. It was very disheartening to me personally. Do we ever realize the true value of anything until it is gone forever? Not at all. This was the feeling I experienced when I lost him. I still feel that I might call him up one day and go out for a drink which we always do. Not possible anymore. He is gone forever. It is one of those rarest of moments when we sit and wonder - all that matters is that we, on the contrary, are still alive!

People are dying out there and I am still alive. One day, I would be gone forever as well. Life comes but once. This very consciousness makes us feel how lucky we are. Plane crashes, earthquakes, accidents – disasters are happening everywhere all the time. People are perishing young and old, the poorest and the millionaires, people we have never known to those who are celebrities.

People are disappearing from the face of earth - What are we going to do about it? Just go out and appreciate life! This is the least you can do.

You want a reason to be happy? The best reason is that you are still alive and functioning. This by itself is, though we don’t ever realize, momentous and, to more than an extent, endearing. Until the last few moments of our life and all along the way, we only fret and worry about things that didn’t happen or things we had missed out as a whole, in short, the sad and bad part of our life. We never comprehend the fact that we have come at least this far in life. We have achieved something – that is surviving until now through the rough and tumble of life.

Appreciate Life

What are you waiting for…? that special moment? That moment is now!

Go out and do things that you always love to do before we reach the end of the road and say it’s too late. Go to your favourite place, sit and enjoy that lovely sunset. Reward yourself for the feat you achieved lately or something that you accomplished that took a lot of effort. Dine out with your best friends and spoil yourself. Start something new – like writing a new book about your own experience of life or a particular interest that you are very good at. If you love exploring why don’t you go for a trekking to the nearest hill with all your camping gear?

All our life we are only half alive and never make the most of our life. What a waste! It is like, as if, God has given us a wonderful gift and we never happen to open the wrapper until the end. We forget that many of the best things in life are free – like enjoying a relaxing evening walk in the park devouring the lush greens and the birds’ chirping. Like going to the nearest library and reading our favourite author’s novel and a thousand and one other wonderful activities we could do without having to burn our pocket.

Start doing what you Love

Take a small bit of paper now. Write it down all that you ever wanted to do. Post it on your bathroom mirror. Have a look at it everyday or at least once a week. Make sure that everyday of your life, from now on, you move towards achieving them all however small a step you take everyday. Then see the difference. You will be amazed at how happier you are getting day by day.

When we were kids, can you recall that we only did what we always wanted to do? When we grow older, we are habitually transformed into responsible adults who do what we need to do. We start ignoring many of our wants – those activities we love to do and become who we are now. Just give yourself time and allocate your weekends to do things that you love to do the most.

Graboid - Download Full-length Movies & TV Shows for Free!

noreply@blogger.com (Cool Naveen) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:16:00 +0000

Graboid.com - A New Legal Rival to P2P?

Missed the latest episodes of your favorite TV show "Heroes"? Wanna watch all the episodes of the classic "The Wonder Years"? Head to cyberspace! And.. everything is free!

It is as simple as that.

TV has long remained a one-way affair. Not anymore! You can watch what TV shows you want, when you want and playback them again and again! It sounds cool, indeed. The TV's evolution has accelerated in the recent years, and Internet is the way to go for the Idiot box. All for free!

It is amazing. But?

The most downloaded video files over the Internet are the movies. Movies, along with TV shows, music, games, software and documents, it is estimated that 90% of all Internet traffic is sucked up peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfers. The recent past witnessed the dawn of the Internet File Sharing era. More and more people are jumping into this P2P juggernaut and they all find downloading movies and TV shows over the Internet a breeze.

All right, but is it legal?

We all have heard about the copyright infringement lawsuits that companies like Napster and YouTube had to bear. Netizens increasingly want to know how to download everything legally over the Internet. Many of us might have visited the major TV Networks sites of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. They offer webisodes of their own TV shows for free on their own sites. But these shows are not available in all the areas of the globe.

Graboid Video – A new Legal platform for downloading Movies & TV shows?

Graboid.com was launched in 2006 (Beta version), which promised downloads that are faster and legal. It indeed lived up to its promise; and above all it is free (4GB downloads/month).

This service easily differentiates itself from other P2P applications like Ares, BitComet in two major areas;

* First, is its blazing speed. Depending upon your Internet connection bandwidth, its speed goes up to 2,000 KBps. I have a 2MBps Internet bandwidth and I get download speeds of over 200 KBps!
* The other major advantage of Graboid over other P2P counterparts - you can stream the videos live. This application is meant to watch Movies and TV shows live by video streaming. If the connection is too slow you can't stream video.

But then, there is the option to download the video first and then watch it later. Now, eager movie and TV show enthusiasts from anywhere in the world can easily download them and watch without the menace of virus or other spywares.

Graboid is clean and devoid of any virus which is a far cry from other P2P applications that are ripe with viruses, Trojan horses and spywares. Graboid is legal because it doesn't violate any laws of any country and their site says that these files are posted by users not affiliated with Graboid, and do so as a way to show they admire these artists' works.

Graboid has recently released its full-fledged Graboid Video 1.02 (out of Beta) which has an even cool interface. Try this and you will absolutely love it. Currently it has more than 70,000 video files (both movies and TV shows) in its library and hundreds are being added everyday! People can download a total of 4 GB of DVD-quality movies or TV shows a month for free. However, HD content is exclusive for Premium members who are requested to pay a nominal amount every month.

I checked for "The Simpsons" on the Graboid and was surprised to find almost all the episodes in its library! Watching full episodes ranging from BBC's "Planet Earth" to "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" it has been a cool adventure with Graboid. No wonder that Graboid has been selected as one of the killer start-ups of 2007. Download this application here - Graboid.com

Relationship blues? Learn the Relationship basics

noreply@blogger.com (Cool Naveen) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:29:00 +0000

Relationship Rules

Why, after years, or perhaps decades of friendship, do we end up getting let down by our close friends?

All over the world, people, especially women, get frustrated or disappointed by these occasional snubs from those around them. Is it their mistake or ours? What are relationship rules actually?

Questions like these are often intriguing to all of us and help us understand, to some extent, the reason for the high demand for Self-help books on relationship. It is interesting to note that, if these issues arise between different sexes the impact is felt even more!

The reason, they say is - it's all in the mind!

How true it is? It is our die-hard opinions and habitual thinking patterns that influence our behavior with others.

Nature or nurture?

We should not blame others for their snubs; we should blame their childhood instead.
Many facts say that most of our opinions, habits and character are formed in our childhood and influenced by those incidents happened at that time.

If your friend was always rude to you, then say to yourself that he had had some bitter experiences in his childhood. May be, his father was rude to him or he was constantly under pressure from a violent neighborhood. These and other things influence when you grow up, making their way into your day-to-day thinking and become permanently recorded in your mind and forms the blueprint of your character and behavior.

Are you puzzled why your best friend acted so strangely with you? Or have you forgotten the basics on how to get along well with your spouse?

Do you want to know how to enhance, charge up or boost your relationship with anyone?
Have a look at my article on HowToDoThings.com

You can also write your own articles here..! and get paid!

Jumping into Blogging – Full-fledged !

noreply@blogger.com (Cool Naveen) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:21:00 +0000

This wonderful world of blogging

Ever since my first memories began to appear, I was as curious a kid as a cat that amuses at everything that moves. I have always wanted to share my ideas with others and get theirs as well. From a simple tip to a complex technique, or just about painting our trivial thoughts on others' minds, we have always wanted to speak our minds. All the creations we see around are the results of this ubiquitous and omnipresent urge in all of us - the urge to share, the urge to create!

How many of you still remember your first Internet chat? Did it happen in the 1990s or after the millennium? Well, I still remember that first online chatting of mine with a woman from a faraway country, and the subsequent thrill I got from that experience. Phew! What a revelation! I felt, as if, suddenly, the whole world was shrunk to my fingertip and that I can access the whole world through my fingers typing a set of keys. The monitor became the magical looking glass, and, the very thought that you can keep in touch with souls living half the world away would have triggered your "feel good" hormones a bit.

That was it! - the beginning. From then on, we have come across infinite possibilities taking shape on the Internet. Blogging is one such thing that empowers you to publish your whole life as a book at your own comfort!

A journey, full of hits and misses, agonies and little pleasures, achievements and adventures, can begin to look great only after a while; not in the beginning always. It's only when we get our rhythm and strike poise that every endeavor becomes a breeze. We will realize, only in the end, how wonderful the journey has been. Whether we achieve big or small in the end, we will always be charmed by the surprise that it all began with just one small step!

We all get worthy or wonderful thoughts all the time, only to disappear in the blink of an eye. A blog can be a wonderful way of journalizing our thoughts. This is why blogging seems so easy for those few who have the habit of writing a diary every day. If you have the habit of writing a diary, then a blog is like a diary on steroids for you.

Let's blog... let's pour down the heavy thoughts... let's share... let's unite all earthlings!