NEWS, VIEWS & SERENDIPITY

Distorted Brain True Images

2009-11-06T05:45:00.002+05:30

I have an issue with those who claim that the world you see around is just a holographic projection of what your senses tell you. And that, that is not the reality.Let's examine this for a little while. Right now - this very moment - what you see, or rather what you do not see is because of your brain's limited capacity to process electro-magnetic radiation beyond the visual range. The sound that

The Next Nobel Peace Prize Winner

2009-11-04T05:37:00.003+05:30

Bill Strickland.No, he is not a Nobel Laureate. Not yet.But if his job training centre and crafts school model is successfully replicated all over America and the World then it wont be long coming. If microcredit can win Prof. Mohammad Yunus a Nobel Peace Prize than why not Bill Strickland? I am terribly impressed by Bill Strickland's achievement.He lives The Secret.Want to know more about

Enhance Your Egyptian Experience

2009-11-01T11:54:00.003+05:30

Ancient Egypt has a strange attraction to most of us. Many of us yearn to go to the land of Pharaohs. But do you want to be just like any other tourists: been there, done that? Of course not.Now here is a way to enhance your experience. Learn how to read ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Imagine yourself in the ancient rock temples of Nubia, reading the script for yourself instead of depending on

Think Hard Before You Buy Amazon Kindle

2009-10-31T10:54:00.000+05:30

I have been drooling after Kindle since ages. (See here, here and here). Now that Kindle is available in India, I am hesitant to buy it.Why? Because of negative reviews by an Amazon Kindle user who calls herself Gadget Queen.And then there is this other problem to do with DRM and ownership. Kind of freaks me out.What of the 1400+ positive reviews?Valid question; but my approach to any product

Real Life Ayn Rand Character

2009-10-30T06:05:00.001+05:30

Remember Howard Roark? The hero of The Fountainhead. The architect who never gave up or gave in in his quest to achieve the sublime? I always thought he would remain the figment of Ayn Rand's imagination. Apparently I was wrong. Totally.There exists at least one such Howard Roark in real life.Here, read this ...I stumbled upon another kind of jazz as a high school senior when I participated in,

The Other Hero of The Goal

2009-10-29T21:02:00.001+05:30

Almost everyone has read (or at least heard) of The Goal written by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. The sequel too turned out to be very popular - though not immediately in India; only when It's Not Luck was re-titled as The Goal II that the sales picked up!Personally, I think It's Not Luck is a far more important book that The Goal. It's Not Luck discusses a more comprehensive Thinking Process whereas The

Repaying Mother's Debt

2009-10-16T06:46:00.001+05:30

And then there was a king who wanted to repay all his debts before he dies. Debts of even those who helped him in his childhood. If someone had shared lunch with him when he was small, he gave them a palace. Finally, he approached his mother and wanted to repay her debts too ... for all the love she had showered on him, for all the nights she was awake when he got fever, for all the lies she told

Tower of Babel and Irregular Verbs

2009-10-14T19:58:00.002+05:30

We missed out on a golden opportunity to redress the wrongs done to us by the Gods at Babel. Different languages ensured that we will not be able to build the Tower of Babel. But surely the grammar was codified long after the languages themselves evolved to a quasi-steady state. SO WHICH IDIOT INVENTED IRREGULAR VERBS? Or perhaps Gods introduced to ensure that people may never master each others'

See With Your Tongue

2009-10-13T21:49:00.001+05:30

When we were small we were told that snakes can see with their tongue. Some of us dismissed it as old wives' tales and others believed it.We had no way of verifying such facts on Internet those days, you see?Turns out that the "fact" was not that far off.Snakes use their tongue to obtain directional sense of smell, which is as good as seeing.But what about humans? Here is an extract from The

Our Belief System

2009-10-12T23:27:00.001+05:30

You do not believe in God? Fine with me. Nor do I.You believe in spirituality? Again, fine with me, though I think spirituality is religion in disguise.You believe in E=mc2? I do too. Or that's what I thought till this morning.But why do I believe in something that some scientist said and most others agree to?It could be wrong, no?Newton's theory of Gravity lies in shambles since Einstein came

Scrap the Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-10T12:42:00.001+05:30

The Nobel Committee has failed in executing Sir Alfred Nobel's will.The peace prize is to be given to person(s) / society who meet very specific criteria: that [which] renders the greatest service to the cause of international fraternity, in the suppression or reduction of standing armies, or in the establishment or furtherance of peace congresses.Intentions are not sufficient; nor are

Eco-friendly couplet

2009-10-10T09:34:00.001+05:30

This is not exactly a bhajan. It is what might be called a nazm, I think. Anyways, coming back to the topic ...This is from the collector's item of a musical album called Sajda. Sajda is one of its kind because it brought together the Nightingale, Lata, and the person who gave a new meaning to Ghazals, Jagjit Singh.In the album Sajda, the first song - sung by Lata, the first has a wonderful

Falling Coconuts and Management

2009-10-08T19:19:00.002+05:30

This might seem like splitting hair, but then I could not pass an opportunity to highlight native intelligence over management knowledge.As per this article called, The Illusion of Control: Dancing With Chance, based on a book with similar name, the authors discuss subway and coconut to illustrate the difference between the predictable and the unpredictable:"The authors pinpoint two kinds of

Stimulating Creativity

2009-10-08T19:15:00.001+05:30

Some management studies surprise me no end. Take this study on How To Stimulate Creativity? for instance. "Go live abroad", it says. Immersing yourself in local experiences for a prolonged period helps stimulate creativity. People who are bi-lingual or tri-lingual are found to be more creative in the study.I have no doubt it does. Different inputs fire different neurons in your brain. variety of

Indian Wins Nobel - Wish Comes True

2009-10-07T16:00:00.003+05:30

Didn't have to wait that long, now, did I?I blogged my desire of an Indian winning a Nobel in the Sciences just yesterday (here) and just now received the news that Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has won this years Nobel for Chemistry. (see here) He shares it with two others - Thomas A. Steiz and Ada E. Yonath.Now if only all my desires were fulfilled this rapidly!!PS: I am not that hung upon "achieved

Srinivasa Vardhan

2009-10-07T08:25:00.000+05:30

Have you ever heard of S. R. Srinivasa Vardhan?I bet you haven't.This is a country that worships cricketers and movie stars. How could you have ever heard of a mathematician of International repute!!!He is the only Indian to have won the Abel Prize. This prize is also known as the Mathematician's Nobel Prize. He received this Prize in 2007. And I do not recollect his photograph splashed across

Waiting For Indians

2009-10-06T20:24:00.000+05:30

I am waiting for ...the first Indian to break the 10s barrier in 100mthe next Indian to get a Nobel prize in sciencethe first Indian to get the Fields Medalthe next Indian to become the world chess championthe first Indian to walk on the Moonthe next Indian to swim the English channelthe first Indian team to win the World Cup Footballthe next Indian team to win the Olympic Gold in hockeyDon't

Will Google Last Forever?

2009-10-06T07:17:00.000+05:30

Today we take World Wide Web and Google to be synonyms of the Internet. But what of tomorrow? Will Google still be the force they are today. Let us take a brief look back at history ...This book, Permission Marketing, written by Seth Godin, is dated 1997 (though it was 2007, Seth desisted from rewriting the book. Good!). That is just 12 years ago. And here's what the messiah of internet marketing

My Top 10 Lata Mangeshkar Songs

2009-10-05T19:09:00.002+05:30

30,000+ songs. How does one choose? Obviously I am not going to sift through this huge data. I have a simpler way. I will type in whichever Lata song comes to my mind as I blog. Blogging does not get much live than this.So here's my list of Lata Mangeshkar Top 10:1. Lag jaa galey ki phir yeh haseen raat ho na ho, shayad is janam mein mulakat ko na ho - from Woh Kaun Thi? The music is by Madan

Hounouring Gandhi the Montblanc Way

2009-10-03T19:21:00.003+05:30

Two reasons to be proud of India: Mahatma Gandhi and Lata Mangeshkar. These two people define the essence of India for me. One the apostle of peace - the greatest human being to have walked the earth; and the other the sweetest voice known to mankind. A country that gave birth to these two gems is definitely a country worth living and dying for.But then you come across an advert (in India Today's

Good and Evil and Durga Puja

2009-10-01T06:05:00.003+05:30

Durga Puja - celebration to mark Durga's yearly visit to her father's house on earth - the central theme of a Hindu Bangali's religious, cultural and social existence, can be extremely disruptive to a blogger. Here I am trying to pick up threads of my regular blogging activities, still recovering from the hectic 4 days of fun. A typical day of a Durga Puja - get up in the morning, skip breakfast,

In Search of a Rapid Language Learning Technique

2009-09-24T23:54:00.001+05:30

I have been on a personal mission to find out a technique that helps me learn language faster. I think I have managed to find one. Check out my Squidoo lens on Learn Spanish Rapidly. What do you think? I would love to hear your ideas - you may leave a comment here or in the Squidoo lens. Thanks!

The Great Indian Drama ... Continues

2009-09-20T19:47:00.000+05:30

The Congress Party leadership evidently doesn't read a lot. Otherwise, Shashi Tharoor definitely wouldn't be in Congress Party. The tweeting ("cattle class") controversy pales in front of this.In the brilliant satire, The Great Indian Novel, Shashi Tharoor has very cleverly casted the Indian Leaders as characters of the Mahabharata. And guess who is Jawahar Lal Nehru in the novel? The blind king

The Spanish Understand Marriages

2009-09-17T21:28:00.001+05:30

The Spanish language has two words for "be".Thus, for example, "I am" could be "soy" (=saw-ee) or "estoy" (=es-toy-ee).Soy is used for things that are permanent in nature, whereas Estoy is for those things that are in transition or if it is about location. (the infinitive forms are "ser" and "estar")Example:I am Amitabh = Soy AmitabhI am ready = Estoy listoI am from India = Soy de la IndiaI am

Our Collective Escape Mechanism - Temples

2009-09-13T10:30:00.001+05:30

I compose this blog in my mind as I stand in a temple wondering at the milling people around me, eyes closed and palms clasped, mouthing barely audible prayers. Normally, I wouldn't be dragged into a temple by ten wild horses but in a battle of strength between the wild horses and my wife, my wife wins hands down - one command and I follow her into temple(s).Anyways, getting back to the point ...