Xtra Celluloid

Small Town Data Business

2013-01-03T06:01:00.001-08:00

All softwares are available here..
If you are living in a town, then chances are that you would have seen it quite often at several internet shops. Not just this.

Mobile ringtones, songs are downloaded here..
And by the above sentence, they are trying to tell you that, downloads, are something different from regular browsing and that you might have to pay for them, if you want any. And what about the charges ? Almost as much as Apple Inc. is charging for (in many places). And what about the Quality and Genuineness? Not a bit. What's more? The people who work there will try to convince you that, the content that they are trying to sell you, is 100% Original, and only they are doing it for the lowest prices in the town, and might even add an extra clause saying, 'This content is very rare'.

To conversation between such an Internet Shop owner and a customer (who apparently do not know much about internet) goes somewhat like this.

Customer : I have a mobile phone. I want to copy some songs to it. Will that be done here?
Shop : Of course, Sir. Please sit down. (A small pause). Tell me! What is the make of your phone?
Customer : What do you mean?
Shop : Is it Nokia or Samsung or Sony or LG?
Customer : Oh! Its Celkon, actually.
Shop : Oh. Ok. What songs do you want, Sir?
Customer : Old movie songs from telugu.
Shop : Here are all the songs we have. (He tilts the monitor to show all the songs)

Customer : This one, that one.... that one too.. (Selects a shy less of 2 GB)

Shop : Sir, the total cost of the songs you selected is 120 rupees.

Customer : 120? Cant it be little less?

Shop : Sir, these days, a music CD costs 60 rupees, and you get hardly 12 songs in it. I am giving you 300 songs for just twice the price. Trust me, no one in the town can offer you the same.

Customer : (Thinking to be true).. Please take 100 rupees. I come here regularly. So!!

Shop : I cannot do that, Sir. If you want, I will install some software for free, on your phone.

Customer : (After a small pause).. (Gets up), and asks him to do so.

Shop : (Installs google search engine app, and gmail app on that phone) Here sir, done.

Customer : (Pays the money silently).. (After walking a while).. (Turns back).. Please get some new songs next time. I will come in 2-3 days.

Shop : Very well, sir.

This is not completely fictional. This is in practice in nearly every internet shop, in my town.

Not just these, even learned people (Not knowing contemporary technology) falls into the trap of pirated software. In one of these shops, the cost of softwares are like this.

Windows 7 Ultimate 300 rupees

Windows Vista 250 rupees

Windows XP Home Premium 200 rupees

Adobe Photoshop CS2/CS3/7/8 200 rupees

Total Video convertor 50 rupees

Microsoft Office 2003/2007 200 rupees

And its on and on and on.. I just saw a few of them, and they are as posted. Hilarious! And he is making some serious money on these cracked softwares. *He even comes to your home and install himself, at no extra cost. How generous of him!

This is what I intend to call - SMALL TOWN DATA BUSINESS.

An Act - A Day

2012-12-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

If one keeps track of the state of Happiness, one can find that the Genesis of that, has simple roots.
When I travel around the city, I find people begging, selling goods near the traffic signals and some others, though having some job, living life in miserable conditions. I can say that, many such people are from rural areas, migrated to a city, in search of a job or a better life, which is only a mirage they are chasing.

The city has betrayed them. And the city does not have life. The city is its people. The people betrayed them. We betrayed them.

For 30 seconds, just close your eyes, and imagine yourself in their position. Jobless, homeless, not even with a proper clothing, no food. How long can a person live like that ? Even if he do, is the life worth it ? Is there anything, anything at all we can do, to make his/her life infinitesimally better than it currently is ? I think, there is. Here is what I do.

When you see any child who is begging, NEVER give him any money. It is bad in two ways. One, he never gets to use it, as there will be another group of people behind them. Two, it makes them think begging is the easy way to earn some money, which, apparently is not the way we want the next generation to think.
If you see any lady, begging with a child, call child care centers. (Look up the NGO numbers here). Chances are that, she is using the baby just to earn some money.
Help old people. Buy them something to eat. Give them some money. Not some change, give them 10-50 rupees. Its not much, if you think.
And, last but not the least, when you find someone selling something that you might like, please buy it. Chances are that, it will be under 50 bucks and the money you spend does more than just buying the product. It makes the people who sell, believe in hard work.

Make everyday worth while. Help people, anyway you can. Only then, you can expect help, anytime you want. :)

Life of ME and Life of PI

2012-12-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

Not always can a movie inspire you, test your convictions and question the strength of the faith you hold. Not always can a movie touch the YOU of you.

Life of PI is the story of a person named PI who happens to live with a tiger named Richard Parker on a life boat for over 200 days in the midst of Mariana trench, the deepest part of the Earth, near the pacific ocean. Its the story of his survival.

On the outset, the story appears as if it is a fairy tale, having some amusing characterizations out of ordinary animals with no apparent special powers. For people who look at things as if they are just ordinary, this movie appears ordinary. It is for those, who can see beyond the ordinary.

PI is a vegetarian and believes in more than one religion at the same time. According to his faith, killing animals is a sin, even if it is for the survival. Among his several other belief systems, one is that animals do not think and act, and they always care about survival, and that they do not have any soul like we do. This is particularly taught by his father, who, for his own reasons, does not believe in God.

When he find himself on a life boat after his boat is capsized in the midst of pacific, with a Tiger, an Orangutan, a Zebra and a Hyena, his journey starts.

In a dramatic sequence of events, Hyena kills Orangutan and Zebra, and the Tiger kills the Hyena. He now finds himself only with a Tiger. The Tiger being with him is not a coincidence. It gave him Alertness, Vigilance and above all A reason to live and a way to keep his mind occupied.

As the time passes, survival becomes difficult, with the sea draining away the energy and the hope fading away. This is a classy situation we all face at least once in our life times, may not be like this, not with a tiger, but the essence is the same. PI holds his hope. Just when he is about to give up, submitting himself humbly before HIM, HE shows the way. It leads them to a magical floating islands which kindles his hope, again. But, as with many things in our lives, everything is a test. Yes, everything.

That magical island breathes in life in the day time and takes away whatever has been given, in the night time. Its mystical in nature, but, real enough to live in it. The way the island behaves is the way God behaves.

When PI realize this, he decides to leave the island with a hope of finding land. And he does. When they reach the island, PI would be so tired that he could not muster up the strength and even get up. He simply lies down on the warm sand bed. He describes that as being on the cheek of the God. The tiger, Richard Parker vanishes into the thick forests over there. PI expects a formal, ceremonial end to their unconventional relationship. The Tiger never does that.

And thus ends their remarkable journey. It certainly provides a lot of food for thoughts and if you can take it a little more deep, an entirely new message is waiting for you down there.

As for myself, I watched it twice already and I am planning to watch it again. Like any good book, it feels different every single time.

One Movie.. Multiple facets..

2012-12-09T14:03:00.002-08:00

There are three forms of learning.

Learning by reading
Learning by watching
Learning by doing

Books offer us the means to learn by reading. And books, as many say, offer you the freedom to think and construct your very own perceptions and hold your own belief systems without spoiling the essence of the book. Without any doubt, books are the most powerful form of learning and has been so, for thousands of years.

Movies! The very name invites thoughts of violence, romance, love etc., Its more about glamor and less about content. But behold! Like any other living being or entity in nature, it is evolving! Movie, as we know it, is a very young idea. It is learning by making mistakes. And given the reach and power of technology, thankfully, the learning cure is fairly good and we are, as a result, able to see some masterpieces.

In this blog, I want to share something about one such movie, which is evolved.

------------------------------ KRISHNAM VANDE JAGADGURUM -------------------------------------

God is an idea. God is not an entity. It has no physical form. The idea of God is the idea of Helping. The popular Dasavatar, which is about the ten different forms Vishnu took to save people, has more to it. Each and every story reveals the idea of Helping.

In this modern world, where people are more self-centric,without or with less worry about the society they live in, or the people they are among, this movies teaches something. It occurs as a conversation between two characters. One old person who wants to live and die in his own village with his own people and an young person who says there is nothing to look forward to, in this village and says he wanted to go to city to earn more. And that it the idea of Humaneness.

One can easily argue that, every one, if one looks close enough, can find opportunism, greed in everyone else. For people of this kind of thinking, an example is offered which makes you learn the difference between good and bad. The difference which is shown in the way to perceive things.

Art. Art is above everything else. It is the true form of learning. It teaches you not just about how to entertain or do some art-task, but also about how to live. The life which is worth living. One such art form - dramas - is explored in this movie. Art is not a money making job. Its not a job. Its a duty. And there is a lot of difference between them, even if they sound alike.

Above all, the movie has a high-spirited back ground movie, which lifts the mood up, and is sure to pin to the screen for all its 136 minutes length.

P.S : PLEASE DO NOT ENCOURAGE PIRACY. IT IS EQUIVALENT TO ROBBERY.

Tips to make a successful IRCTC Reservation : TATKAL

2012-12-06T22:24:00.000-08:00

Given the traffic of IRCTC server, making a reservation through Tatkal has become increasingly hectic. However, there are some tips, which, if followed, can greatly improve your chances of getting out with a successful reservation.

USE Chrome web browser. Mozilla Firefox can also serve the purpose. But, Chrome is preferred
LOGIN before 10 AM (Before Tatkal actually starts). This is to bypass the heavy incoming requests for login.
Once you are in, MAINTAIN the access. If you are dormant for more than 5 minutes, you will be asked to login again.
Chances are that, the connection will be lost in the process, and you might see messages like 'Service Temporarily Unavailable'. You can use ADD ON's to store your user name and password, so that, once the connection is lost, you don't need to scurry around, and you can login in a very short amount of time.
Last, but not the least, keep all the information ready. This includes Starting, Ending point, ID proofs and payment details.

One might also need a tea spoon of luck for all this to work. Bon voyage! !

PERSEVERANCE

2012-12-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

Perseverance - One Word. If you randomly pick 10 quotations on SUCCESS, majority would be having this word. This little word means, to never give up. Perseverance, as such needs some little introduction. We persevere when we are inspired.

We all need inspiration. If you are all like me, we seek inspiration from outside. Some seek it in academicians, some in social heroes, some in even fictional characters. And this inspiration that we get, unfortunately, lasts for a small amount of time. Just like when we take bath to keep us clean from germs, it only lasts for a period of time, after which we take bath again. Inspiration, as such should be constantly fed into our brains, just to be sure that we are always charged.

I personally like Swami Vivekananda. I was inspired by his words. Who wouldn't? I took him as inspiration during my childhood. It so happened that, I thought I need inspiration from a new person. So, I searched. This time, I wanted to choose a person as good as, if not better than, Swami Vivekananda. About the same time, I stumbled on the book - "Wings of Fire", which, as you all might know, is about Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam. I carried this on for about an year and half. I needed another person to seek inspiration from. This happened for quite a while, and I found one thing. To keep moving forward, to be inspired and be charged, you need to seek inspiration from YOURSELF.

We all are capable of doing great things. All our brains are wired more or less the same way. The only thing thats stopping us from achieving great things is our lack of perseverance.

How far would you go to achieve what you wanted in life ? It all boils down to this.

If you are hit, there is no need to feel disheartened. There is no shame in failure. But, there is shame in not trying because of fear of failure. I personally have so many experiences where I did some great things, which I initially though could not be done by me. I failed. I tried. I failed. I tried. I failed again.
This is not an endless chain. It has to break. It will break. And when it does, you will understand what I am saying.

So, go out and start creating wonderful things. Remember! Perseverance is the KEY.

My Imaginary Electronics Store

2012-03-04T03:42:00.002-08:00

Many of the electronics stores I have seen in India, are nothing but a disaster. When I enter any popular electronics store like chroma, Reliance digital etc., I would encounter a enthusiastic sales man who would tell 'Welcome to Electronics store sir! How may I help you?'. While many people find this pleasing, I find it weird. Because these days, people who come to electronics mega stores are not exactly clear as to what they want. Even if they had come to the store keeping some product in mind, many times they would be buying many things which are initially not on their list. Reason? Electronics is Inspiring. It defies reality. Fixing a price for an electronic device is so difficult these days. I have some ideas over how to run an electronics store in a country like India. Read to find out more.
Except the goods that are being sold, it's hard to find any electronic devices that are actually being used in the process of everyday interactions of the store with the customers.

In my store, I have some plans to keep the environment exciting. There are really only two things to take care of.
The first thing to take care of, is look of the store. The more spacious and ambient it looks, the more comfortable customers feel during their visit.
Next important thing is feeding customers with information. Only information. Clear and useful information. Thing is, now a days, anyone can find out about anything at just the click of a mouse. But, what results most of the time is unclear, false and may be biased information. So, the difference lies in providing exactly the same information that customer needs.

Setting up Information Kiosks

Finding the right device of right specifications and in the desired price range is so tough these days. Many times, people end up picking up every product in hand, compare the prices, specs etc., on their own. This can be changed. Customers on entering the store, can just directly go to the kiosk and enter the kind of product they want and they can customise their search by selecting Price ranges, Specs, Brands etc., the kiosk directs them to the appropriate location in the store to buy their product.

Streaming information on WHAT'S NEW on LCD in every product category

Even the brilliant products need advertising and promotion. And good advertising will inspire people. If you don't believe me, watch Microsoft's FUTURE adds, Apple adds etc.,
As Steve jobs puts it, customers don't know what they want, unless we show them. So, it's important to show all the recent developments that are taking place in electronics industry through vivid visuals in LCD TV's hanged in every product category. Many a times, customers change their decisions based on what they have seen, or heard in the store.
Targeted Support

Rather than having store full of sales personnel who are of little worth, its better to have a very few of them with sound knowledge of what is happening in the electronics world. Each customer who enters the store is not guaranteed to buy something. Sometimes, they might just have come to see what's new. I have seen sales personnel who bother customers to buy something even if they are reluctant to. A friendly and informative chat is all it takes for a good transaction.

In short, business is not so tough. It plays by simple rules. It is us, who makes things complicated.

See you in next post.

New GRE Revised Test

2011-09-16T01:09:00.000-07:00

About to take new GRE?? And did not undergo any coaching? Do you need to bother?

NO.YOU.DON'T.NEED.TO. Unless and until you know certain things!

New GRE is more like GMAT. Meaning, more than your vocab skills, your analytic and critical thinking skills are exploited. It is highly likely that all the words they use are the ones you are already familiar with. So, what should you worry about? The trap lies in the fact that, many of a times, all the options given seem to be so good to fit the blanks provided. So, to get these questions right, start reading newspapers, magazines apart from practicing ETS questions regularly. Remember that, more than reading Kaplan, Manhattan, Princeton, Barrons, or whatever solving questions framed by ETS is very important. That is to get familiarized with the way ETS frames questions.

And regarding math, it is very very easy to crack the section and bag a score of 750-800. And getting a score of 500+ in verbal entirely depends on how well you are comfortable with reading. And a little bit on your vocab bank. If you can get to see a tougher section in Vocab, it is 90% assured that you will score 500+.

Remember that it is not very much necessary to score well in AWA. In fact, many schools do not need AWA score for their evaluation. So, if you are determined as to where you want to do your graduation, it is better to check through their website to find out whether they need AWA score or not.

However, it is imperative to get scores if you want to send your scores to B schools as well!

Calculator is probably the best among the best features that are added to new GRE. Other good features include :

Section wise adaptive, rather than question wise adaptive.
You can change your answers, bookmark the questions, review them anytime in the time frame for that particular section.
You are only needed to take two sections of each, verbal and quant, apart form the experimental section which can be either verbal or quant.
You can select your colleges after receiving your scores.

NOTE: In order to select the college, you want to send your application to, you would need to know the location of the college. (State in which it is located). So, make sure that you know where those colleges are located.

You can find some guidelines and tips regarding AWA here :

5 Thoughts To Avoid on the AWA (Part II) | Knewton Blog

www.knewton.com

Keep watching this blog for more updates!

JEOPARDY EVENT SURVEY

2011-09-07T11:04:00.001-07:00

Hi friends,

Please take this survey. And provide your Name and Email ID at the end of the survey for the 'last question'..
Follow the link below

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SB5VSBX

Death Sentence : Is it necessary?

2011-08-27T01:28:00.000-07:00

Recently, this discussion was sprouted as a result of another discussion we (Me and Raju Sir) were holding. The discussion was pivoted on 'How far it is necessary to award a death sentence-however serious the crime may be' and he (Raju Sir) seems to have good ideas and opinions which actually make sense, not only in a humanitarian way, but also in an economic and social ways.

Is it necessary for a person to be killed as a punishment to his crimes ?
Not exactly. The intent of a punishment is to make people know that they have done a crime and they are not supposed to repeat these acts, and also serves as a precedent to others who even think of committing a crime. Killing a person does nothing to him, although it triggers fear in certain people who think of committing the same offense. But, that alone is not enough, especially if you can do a lot more in addition. As the number of crimes being committed are increasing these days, fear of law is clearly declining which challenges your methods of punishment. Imprisonment is not so easy as it seems as it needs a lot of revenue, in terms of the food, shelter, water, medic care and others for the prisoners.
If jails can somehow be restructured to become self sustained, economically, that would mean a lot to the government which can now ease some amount to divert for other activities. So, for that, prisoners should be engaged in working most of the time they can, without paying them any salary, for 6 days a week. Of course, living conditions will have to be improved for this idea to sustain. And the generated income can be used for a variety of developmental activities in and around prisons.
In addition to that, as the prisoners will be kept working for 6 days a week, they need good medic care and that can be supported by the income generated. Blood can be collected from the healthy prisoners for blood banks and even organs can be donated to the hospitals after their death and may be even given to medical institutions.

As seen in the movie 'Shawshank Redemption', if the authority-in-charge are determined enough, he can find out the interests of the prisoners and allot work for them accordingly, based on the availability of such work. Not all the prisoners are illiterates. I think, there are many educated among the ones who have committed crimes. This coherent employment of prisoners not only instills self confidence in the prisoners, but can also generate free income which can be several lakhs an year, if tailored to the prisoners properly, with a little bit if care.

Follow the link for some more insights http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/05/california-prison-industry-authority.html
If such good things can be done with those in the prison, why kill them?

Prostitution : An insult to Humanity - Remedies

2011-08-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

The following content is originally a mail I have written to panelonsexworkers@gmail.com in order to give my views and ideas to curb prostitution and providing remedial solutions for those who are involved.
The 'Article' that is referred here is as appeared in Hindu dated 25the August, 2011 by the name 'Court:Impart technical skills to sex workers'

While the court's decision to impart technical skills to the sex workers is laudable, it is limited in terms of acceptance of their services from the major section of public. So, apparently, this decision of court is not seemed as a remedy for those who are in the sex-working domain, instead, simply as a loss of existing livelihood, as correctly put forth in the article. I suggest a few solutions to solve this problem :

A possible solution for this could be their relocation and complete wipe-off of their previous identity, which helps them to face the public confidently and lead a normal life. This means, there should be no records of what they were doing earlier before coming for a job.
The most effective way to deal with any problem is to deal with its roots. Preventing young girls, especially from the rural background who enter this business, as there seems to be no alternative, from entering this monstrous field can solve the problems at a large scale. An effective way to find the roots could be, by employing certain section of women among prostitutes to find the roots and stop girls entering the field, by explaining them how humiliating life could be, once entered. And just this is not enough. Employment generation schemes such as stitching, household workers (a very strong demand in urban areas), internet and xerox centers, and many more. And they have to be applied well before they were entered which would solve the problem in the first place.
And as being pointed out in the article, there should be employment schemes who voluntarily leave the field, not just for the rescued. The reason they find the coaching futile and feel imprisoned in the process is that, they are not actually confident that their problems can be solved by that. And thus there has to be awareness sessions conducted across the country for all the sex workers which presents all the schemes available for them (as many were not even aware of government's initiatives, let alone their implementation') and also quote some successful business which have flourished generating a handsome income.

These solutions may not be complete enough in the sense, as they have not accounted for vast complexities, socially and economically, but surely can help.

LOKPAL MELODRAMA

2011-08-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

Anna Hazare fast against corruption claiming to be following Gandhiji who never supported satyagraha in a republic INDIA

The fierce battle between Government (UPA) and the Anna Hazare's team over whose version is more acceptable has been the hot topic of discussion among media, different NGO's, opposition parties, different sections of people these days. Everyone discussing the issue in what areas it helps or affects them, their sphere of social, economic and political life, if applicable.
While the agitation over passing civil society's Lokpal bill is gaining support among people, certain sections have difference of opinions in the way he chose to stage his protests. First of all, a person claiming himself to be Gandhian should understand that, Satyagraha, Civil disobedience and other tactics that hinder normal life or pressurize governments are completely unacceptable and unconstitutional. It is completely unfair to take Gandhi's way of dealing with British as a precedent.

Whatever happened in the case of Gandhi, happened before Independence and against a government that is actually not elected legitimately and foreign. Implementing the same against a democratically elected government is unacceptable. And Gandhi, though initially believed in Satyagraha as a true and pure way to protest, changed his views eventually and when India became republic he accepted that making 'Satyagraha' legal and offering impunity to it, should not be accepted as a legitimate way to protest as it can create a political downfall, and that power if remained with the public, may lead to malicious results.
As many may have read in Hindu Editorial article regarding 'lokpal' dated 23-08-2011 and a Frontline article which states that Dr.B.R.Ambedkar, after drafting our constitution in 1949 has warned of 3 possible unwarranted outcomes of a democracy.

Socio-economic inequalities
Using unconstitutional methods
Hero worship

What I am talking about is the second point which states exactly that unconstitutional methods should not be used to protest. You can find it in detail in the sources stated above.
So, for time being let us set aside the way of their protest and look into what they actually want. The civil society members represented by Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and other prominent methods drafted a Lokpal bill, which they say, can curb corruption and promotes national growth. No one can object that fact.
When the talks began on Lokpal bill between government and Anna team, many points of the Anna team were actually accepted, though a few, which were assumed impractical, were left out.

Let us start with the provisions that civil group insisted and rejected by government.

Inclusion of PMO and higher Judiciary in its ambit
Including crime wing of CBI under its jurisdiction
Mandating the supervising of all level government employees
Immunity or Independence, as they call it, from the government

So, all the clauses that were stated just now may seem reasonable. Now, lets discuss it one by one and both pros and cons

Inclusion of PMO and higher Judiciary in its ambit

Pros

Everyone is equal before eyes of law. No exceptions should be there. If there are exceptions, then it is not a democracy. Moreover many countries which have a Anti corruption agency have their PM's under its ambit without any discrimination.
Recent events such as 2G scam, CWG scam, shows the involvement of PMO, however small it may be. In such cases, when it is mandated to prosecute the PM, CBI has to wait for a long time before getting a grant, even though under criminal law, there is no immunity to PM. That is why this new bill should have provisions which can launch a prosecution on a PM who is still in office. PMO is no exception to corrupt practices, as no one can ever say that all those in the PM's office are gentlemen.
So, we need PMO under Lokapal.

Cons

Making Lokpal supreme to PMO is not justified as PM is legitimately elected and experienced and has to be trusted upon. Government says, 'If you cannot trust PMO, how can we trust YOU?'. And that is a good question. Lokpal has to be answerable to some authority, in addition to people and that as anyone can guess, has to be, PMO. Getting PMO under it gives it political supremacy and that results in more corruption against reducing it. As the saying goes,'Too much power in too few hands is the root cause of corruption'. And hence, it is not advisable.

Including crime wing of CBI under its jurisdiction

Pros

Two independent organizations functioning for a single cause makes no sense, as it mandates heavier expenditure in terms of money and man power. So, CBI coming under Lokpal makes sense. That avoids the need to set up an investigation authority inclusive to Lokpal.

Cons

CBI has a different functioning style than that of proposed by Lokpal and changing that may need to be given another thought. Moreover, including CBI under lokpal, makes government devoid of its own crime related investigation team to rely upon. This may make Lokapal a dictator, which has to be avoided.

Mandating the supervising of all level government employees

Pros

Clearly, corruption will not happen at just a single level. It involves many people of different levels and thus for an effective investigation, all level employees has to be supervised by a single organization. Clearly, if CBI starts investigating on some issue in the grass root level and soon finds out that the issue involves higher authorities, cannot hand over the data to Lokpal, just like that, as however extensive the documentation may be, that cannot provide a clear view which is needed to go further.

Cons

Getting all sectors of employees under lokpal, only makes things worse as it crams all the investigations, generate unnecessary delays, giving the sheer size of government sector. Having only central and state level vigilance results in lack of understanding of situations of corruption, as it is not always bad and sometimes can do good to the society too.

Immunity or Independence, as they call it, from the government

Pros

When there is immunity for an investigating agency, it could certainly do its job better as the people involved cannot threaten them. And many a times, as people involved are high level bureaucrats, they seem to avoid investigation by some unlawful means. And also having immunity or independence from government speeds up the investigation process as it avoids unnecessary delays.

Cons

If such an immunity is granted, it is a monarchy. If even government cannot stop it from doing certain things, which may be perilous in long run, then who can? Keeping Lokpal in such a critical place with so may powere is certainly inadvisable. If team Anna wants some such thing, it is very much advisable that they stand in the elections, prove their mettle, statistically prove their support and then face the ugly truth of politics staring at you all along, and you realise that, no single law can curb it. The whole system has to be restructured.

I will be posting a few other posts on Lokpal, based on news papers and magazine articles I read , soon.

The power of perceptions :: What a student can do about it

2011-08-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

Perceptions:

Good and bad, useful and useless, interesting and boring, vivid and dull has nothing to do with the subject or the situation you are in. All that we feel is the play of perceptions. What we perceive good may be perceived as bad for someone else. And these perceptions, as many may feel, are not hardwired and can, instead be changed, in a way that is productive to use.

Problem with the wrong or unfruitful perceptions:

When you have been asked to do a job, say, to prepare a document that has nothing to do with you, and of course not a regular job for you, you feel disgruntled. Instead, think of it this way, ‘hey, I got an opportunity to learn something new, which I do not do often, so, let us give it a try, being poised.’ That is how you have to think. After all, if not to learn about things, what else is the life for?’ And once you feel a positive urge, you will see things dramatically changed, for good, and outcome, grand.

What as a student, you can do, to make your days, count?

When I speak of this, I say about what I did, and currently doing. Time is a very valuable, limited asset, equally shared among all of us. What defines us is how we utilize that time. When you are in a class, however boring it may seem, try to gather all of your energy to focus on what is being said. Remember one thing ‘WHATEVER WE ARE LEARNING IS HOW THINGS WORK’. And once you are into it, you will definitely want to learn more and more, not to gain marks, but just out of pure interest to know more about them and you will, one time, think for yourself, of ‘how to improve this thing, so that it can be used like this’, and that is when you feel the laurels of knowledge, by watching others using your work.

And if you feel something difficult, think like this ‘I should not feel it difficult, as I am not learning about the working of some alien world, I am learning about my world, its technology, which is created by humans, who are much like the same way as I am, and If they can do it, why cannot I?’ and this should trigger the underlying knowledge seeker in you, in short, a student in you.

Gaining more knowledge makes you feel more confident, less dependent and will change the way you think, drastically, in a good way. No longer you think about your placements, and what you might be doing after a given amount of time. You get the confidence that you can convince anyone in the group discussion, because you now know more things. As I say, perceive in a positive way and you then really enjoy doing it.

So, wish you a good luck for your future.

MOVIES ARE GOOD FOR YOU

2011-06-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

I see many people disinclined to acquiesce that movies do good to oneself. It is difficult to grab the intent at first mention. Before getting to the point, I would like to share with you a quote I stumbled upon in Forbes India magazine, this month.. It goes

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; third, by experience, which is the bitterest." - confucius

You might have got an idea by now. Exactly!! that is what I am talking about. If you want to know about yourself and in turn about the society at large, you need to follow what confucius said, knowingly or unknowingly. The first method is what people advise you to follow and the last method is what most of the people end up, following. But recently, the second method is gaining pace and popularity for you have a good option of watching so many movies( not the morally bad ones and the emotionally damaging ones) gives you a bird's eye view of how society works under various situations and what are the traits you should possess in such conditions to withstand. Not just that!! If you are keen on learning English language, you have to love it first and then use it wherever possible. To do just that, watching English movies really helps along with delivering a great entertainment value.

Now, if someone criticizes you of watching too much of movies, think of it as a complement, as it construes several benefits.

ACER ICONIA

2011-05-20T02:15:00.000-07:00

This always happens in college!! If you buy some laptop, as a student, especially a college going one, you expect others to feel envy about the laptop you use. And that is not wrong. Naturally what happens is, friends easily kill your argument about the best things in your laptop, by quoting that they have seen all those in the past. So, its really important for a student to select a laptop which would host technologies that are not so common.

As an Acer user, I am not so proud of my laptop as it has nothing special. Although it has a brilliant 1360X780 HD display with a stunning 732 MB video graphics memory, that would only help enhancing your movie experience. It does not appeal much for a geek as it has less appreciable computing power and storage capabilities.

Acer has released recently, ICONIA series which features 15.4" HD touch screens. I said 'screens' because there are 2 such touch screens and they name it as manipulation area and display area. Hosting a windows 7 platform, it delivers exactly what you are looking for. Its exceptional user interface will make you awe.

You can watch a movie uninterrupted, still send a mail, work on office documents, social networking and what not!! And I bet, HP and SONY are yet to enter this domain. You can visit acer site for more details..

Lokpal Bill - Will it succeed?

2011-04-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

Anna Hazare

Firstly, I would like to express my full support to the formulation of Jan Lokpal bill, with norms as suggested by Mr.Anna hazare, a former army man. While it is becoming increasingly popular to threaten or black mail the government by non-violence and violence methods, we cannot quote this sort of action badly!! He grabbed the attention of public and media so quickly because he is in no way connected to any political party or any organization that involves in political activities. This sort of protests have been made before on the issue of corruption and none of them were taken so seriously as this. This might be because, all those protests are concentrated on a single segment of corruption and seeks to get justice in that issue. A single issue that's brought into front light is always vulnerable to criticism as a lot of loop holes can be found to get out of it. But, Hazare's protest is very different. He is not asking for justice in a segment, he is asking to address a devil that is so deep rooted that threatens the very foundations of democracy. He is also not asking the government to do something new, but asking to do the old thing in a different way. He want the Lokpal bill passed in the parliament much the same way he wanted it to be, involving people from civil society to have a higher say in the internal affairs of the country which boasts of largest democratic government.
Critics say, Mr.Hazare's agenda in this issue is much deeper than it seems for it has other intentions besides a strong institution monitoring corruption. He wants to make people have a more significant role in the law-making process and other political activities that is connected with their lives directly or indirectly. That is exactly what Lincoln said about a democratic government. For the people, of the people, by the people.
According to NDA government that act is nothing but a lack of faith in the Indian Constitution and the proceedings of the Parliament. What do you think? Do you think we should have a set of civil society representatives in the parliament monitoring the proceedings or not? It seems sane to me.

Lokpal bill is in many ways similar to Lokayuktha institution operating in Karnataka under Justice Hegde, a former supreme court judge. There are some people who say Lokpal bill will be not much of use as the similar institution in operation in karnataka is not effective in dealing with corruption. While accepting that it is right, it should not be forgotten that the people under whom Lokayuktha is functioning is itself corrupt, or at least facing allegations. Justice Hegde, in an interview with NDTV said, "While I am accepting the fact that Lokayuktha is not effective in abolition of corruption, it certainly has curbed its growth".
We tend to behave more responsibly if we are aware that someone is watching over us. And that is what Lokpal will do. There are a few allegations that, establishing such an institute with supreme powers, accountable to no one, would have devastating consequences. It is not true that Lokpal is not accountable to anyone. It is monitored for sincerity and corruption inside, by a panel of supreme court judges, who if find anything wrong, have the power to take legal actions against the accused.

While the government is not publicly against Lokpal bill, it suggested a few reforms to it, like

It should be headed by 3 retired judges of supreme court
Should be run under the control of parliament
Should have the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha speakers in the panel
Not permitted to include CVC and CBI to the institution
No power to start an investigation
No power to take criminal charges
Should take legal action for frivolous complaints
Should not be open to public directly

I want to ask this one thing!! If all the above are applied to Lokpal, there will not be much of a difference in the existing system.

There is one more important thing to be addressed to make Lokpal bill and institution, effective. We also need an effective bill dealing with corporate liberty and the way it interacts with our government. We should not be ruled by a bunch of guys under corporate demons, who only work for mutual benifit. A lot of scams have surfaced recently just showing this, that corporate culture is rotting and needs serious reform. Until then we are only looking at one side of corruption, receiving side. A bird's eye view..

Adarsh Housing society scam
Uttar Pradesh Land allotment scam
2G scam
ISRO rare spectrum lease scam
IPL scam
CWG scam

To deal with this, we need much more than Lokpal while I acknowledge the fact that Lokpal with current recommendations is a perfect way to start that.
" A JOURNEY OF THOUSAND MILES START WITH A SINGLE STEP "

Love @ 18

2011-04-30T03:49:00.000-07:00

Honestly, no one in their teens can experience true love. At least, that's what I believe. And to believe in something, you have to have a strong point with you. I got mine, after watching a few movies about love in two ways, teen and adult.
When we are in our teens, we tend to attract towards girls ( assuming you are a boy!!) or boys (assuming you are a girl) and it is also very natural to get these sexual feelings at times. Suppose, you met someone special in the first day of your college, without a second thought you want to walk all the steps for a relationship that you don't even know you wanted. Its all about getting noticed and being popular among friends or peers.
Once you stepped in a relation, now see, that will be a roller coaster ride for you as you don't have serious views on the relation to stand up. It starts with SMS and a few calls a day. Goes up to like a few less in the coming days, and you suddenly start thinking that you were wrong about the other person and you should sort it out straight with him or her. It will be less of a success, either.
Neither of you think logically or practically, you know why? Because you are in the most delicate, confucing, interesting and important phase of your life. You eventually either break up or remain hi-bye friends. Even in the midst of all understanding you might still love him/her. You can't express your love by texting hourly or calling regularly. Its about the care you have and concern and compassion you express towards others. And mostly this maturity comes when you become an adult. These days, as I have read in a post on my wall in facebook, these days no one cares the feelings of others towards them, they only need sweet words and magical sentences.. We are not artists..! Are we? How do we cope up then? Because, certainly relationships like these are very serious once we start our new life. It should not move like these did.
So much for love in teens. You know what? Even Prince William and Kate Middleton behaved almost like this in their teens and you see now how they are.. Its time to move on. You can download the movie or documentary or whatever in www.mediafiremoviez.com and also check out for the movie blue valentine which is also a very different love movie, in the same website.

SAGA OF COLORS

2011-04-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

SAGA OF COLORS

Speaking of colors is not as simple as it seems! It intertwines physics of light, the physiology of vision and our psychological perceptions. Colors have been used in psychology for mental and physical healing. They have been used across almost all cultures and countries to represent certain beliefs and ideas. For example: Indians consider white as the color representing peace, saffron for sacrifice, green for happiness and likewise red has been considered as the color for danger all over the world and hence it is used in painting danger boards, important instructions that are not supposed to be missed etc., Although many such things are formulated based on aesthetic appeal made by the color, some have scientific explanations too, which I will be covering in this article. Similarly, we will also discuss the role of colors in science, entertainment, psychology, photography, art.

Colors intertwines physics of light, physiology of vision and our psychological perceptions

In order to understand those we need to know the basics of colors, like, how can they be defined scientifically? And classification of colors, nomenclature of colors and so on... which we will be discussing under “Theory of colors”.

Theory of colors:

The adjacent image is called the color wheel and can also be considered as a derivative of HSV which is a popular way of representing colors. Anyways, we will discuss the basic idea first.

Colors can be considered in three sets which you may call as primary colors. The set one considers as primary depends on the application and situation.

RGB (Red / Blue / Green), CMY (Cyan / Magenta / Yellow), YRB (Yellow / Red / Blue)
RGB is used by most electronic and transmissive-light technologies such as TV and film, and CMY (actually CMYK including Black) is used with reflected light technologies such as printing inks.
When it comes to color mixing we can take any one set of first-order colors and produce 9 sets of second-order which then total the sum of colors to 12. Of course we can produce hundreds of thousands of colors by mixing various proportions of primary colors, again here, we are only discussing about basics.
Though traditionally RGB is considered as primary colors, we in this discussion take up YRB for producing second-order colors just to compound the statement that any set can be taken as first-order colors.
Blue                             Primary
Blue-Violet                 75% / 25% mix of Blue and Red
Violet                          50%/50% mix of Blue and Red
Red-Violet                   25% / 75% mix of Blue and Red
Red                             Primary
Red-Orange                 75% / 25% mix of Red and Yellow
Orange                       50%/50% mix of Red and Yellow
Yellow-Orange           25% / 75% mix of Red and Yellow
Yellow                                    Primary
Yellow-Green             75% / 25% mix of Yellow and Blue
Green                          50%/50% mix Yellow and Blue
Blue-Green                 25% / 75% mix of Yellow and Blue

Complementary colours:

A complementary color is an important idea in perceiving colors as it tricks our eye. Before elaborating the idea, it has to be known that a complementary color for a specific color in the color wheel is the one which is directly opposite to it in the same wheel. And technically, a complementary color for a primary color is the one which is produced by mixing the other two colors in the set chosen. For example:

Complementary color for red is cyan as shown in the figure.

An anaglyph movie requires a complementary color set to produce a 3-D effect.

Consider the film shown below. When you wear anaglyph glasses which has red and cyan filters for left and right respectively, the shade of red in the picture is filtered by red filter and only cyan is visible and similarly for the other eye, the shade of cyan is filtered and only red is visible. These two images intercepted by two eyes in two different ways with regard to the position of colors in the picture.

NASA has used the anaglyph picturing technology(as shown above) to map surface of mars in its various rover missions in order to enable scientists and researchers, a 3D view of terrain.

These days in picturing 3D movies, technique of polarisation is being used which works this way- film is shot using two cameras resembling our two eyes one capturing the picture in vertical polarisation and other, horizontal polarisation. While viewing, audience will be given goggles which has vertical polarity filter for one and horizontal for the other. This way, a perfect 3D image is produced. This has been in practice since 1958, though!

Some interesting facts about complementary colors:

1. When you stare at a certain object (of a primary color) for long and divert your suddenly, you will notice the same object flashing before your eyes but with a complementary color.

2. When you observe the shadow formed by an apple, you can observe the hint of its complementary color.

3. Complementary colors when seen together in equal proportions compounds their brightness. Examine the adjacent pattern:

While anaglyph is a popular practice to represent 3D on 2D, another popular method is stereogram which require no equipment to watch 3D effects.

How does a stereogram work?

Stereography (stereo=repetition) is a scientific way to represent 3D in 2D which requires no instruments but tricks on how to look at a stereogram. The illusion of depth in a stereogram is made by intelligent mixture of color combinations and vision physics. A stereogram consists of a repeated pattern of images or textures in which the distance with which the pattern repeats is considerable (too high nor too low).

When we try to look at something we try to focus both of our eyes in unison onto that particular thing. And now if the object is close enough, try closing watching the object with one eye closed at a time, what you watch is linear displacement in the position of the object w.r.t your eyes. Now, in order for you to feel 3D effect on a 2D paper, we need to provide the eyes with two displaced images of the same object (the same way we perceive in reality). In order to do that, stereo grams have repeated patterns. When you try to focus on some object (imaginary) which is behind the stereogram you are looking at, we observe our eyes processing the displaced images together. And now if such displaced images have a coincidence in patterns, we can feel a 3D or reality effect in a 2D picture.

Try the above stereogram and feel the 3D for yourself.

Guidelines:

1. Do not focus on the image as such. Instead, imagine a hypothetical object behind the image and look at that.

2. If you feel you are having two images before you, linearly displaced, it is good, you are looking in the right way.

3. For good results try looking through the center of the image.

You too can measure a star!!

2011-04-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

Study of STARS

How do you measure the size of a star? How do you estimate it’s mass? How do you know hoe distant it is? When you are asked how distant is place-A from place-B (assuming these two places are on Earth), you same some x km. When you are asked, how do you know that, you try to say that I measured it when I traveled by bike or you can say any measuring technique including Geo-mapping. But, you have never been to a star, nor did any machine, nor anything that we know. Still, how are we so certain about the parameters of a star? Read on to find out...

DISTANCE AND LUMINOSITY:

When you look at a star, what you see is the apparent brightness of a star rather than its absolute brightness. This apparent brightness is measured in terms of magnitude. The scale is same as that of old catalogs which assigned 1^st magnitude to the brightest and sixth magnitude to the just visible. At any point, a given difference in magnitude corresponds to definite ratio in brightness. Suppose, some star X is 5 magnitude times brighter star Y, it is said to be 100 times brighter than star Y. If any star is brighter than 1^st magnitude, a negative value is assigned to it. For example, Sirius has -1.52 and Sun has -26.72 magnitude of brightness.

Sun is apparently bright, but not brighter than many other stars which are very distant.

What is the brightest star in the sky? Well, it depends on whether you are talking about absolute or apparent brightness. Sun is apparently bright, but not brighter than many other stars which are very distant. As they are very far, the light is getting faded and absolute brightness cannot be seen as such.

HertzsprungRussel diagram can be used to classify stars based on their luminosity and temperature.

Enough about brightness! How to measure the distance of star from earth? We will discuss the popular method of parallax, using which we can find the distance of about 4000 stars which are not too far from earth.

Parallax is a method used to determine the distance to the closest stars. This technique for measuring astronomical distances is very important because it is a geometric method and independent of the object being observed. The principal of parallax can easily be demonstrated by holding your finger up at arm’s length. Close one eye, then the other and notice how your finger appears to move in relation to the background. This occurs because each eye sees a slightly different view because they are separated be a few inches.

If you measure the distance between your eyes and the distance your finger appears to move, then you can calculate the length of your arm. This same principal can be used on a larger scale to calculate the distance to an object in the sky, only we use different points on the Earth’s orbit instead of looking through alternate eyes. Calculating parallax requires that the objects right ascension and declination be recorded accurately so that we know the objects precise location on the celestial sphere.

TEMPERATURE, SIZE and MASS:

Now that we know the distance, apparent brightness (as seen by the naked eye) we can find the absolute magnitude by fixing a standard distance at which it is defined. It is chosen to be 10 parsecs. (Parsec=parallax + seconds).Parsec precisely means the distance at which a star makes one second parallax. i.e., 1/1296000 part of a circle. At this distance, sun has 4.86 magnitudes.

Parsec precisely means the distance at which a star makes one second parallax

As we can observe the color of the star can be seen, we can find out its temperature. Once the temperature is known, intensity of radiation can be found out as it varies as the fourth power of temperature. Absolute magnitude found out earlier is used to find how much energy is being emitted per square unit per second. The ratio of these two gives the surface area of the star and hence we can find diameter of the star.

Mass of the start can be found out, in most cases, only when there is any significantly large heavenly body in the vicinity. The mass of the star varies in direct proportion with the absolute magnitude. This is also called mass-luminosity law.

Now that you know how we can find the details of a star which is demonically distant.

A brief note on Earthquakes

2011-04-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

While it is very commonly held notion that earthquakes are random and natural disasters, it is also possible that they can be triggered in an artificial way. I will explain you how, although in a trivial manner. Let us assume there is an event 'A' which generates an output variable say 'x', twice during the entire process. Once before the event has occurred and once after the event. And now, the possibility that the variable 'x' can somehow along with a few other variables could create the event 'A',should not be overlooked.
People who are taking 'Physics of Earthquakes' as their elective very well know that, a lot of cases have been documented showing the anomalous appearance of radio waves ranging from ELF to VHF, in the area of earthquake prone region, both before and after the earthquake has occurred. Now as I said earlier, we should not rule out the possibility of radio waves triggering an earthquake. Although, it is unknown, how a radio wave can trigger an earthquake which usually needs a great deal of energy?

Now, there are two possibilities, it could be that, a radio wave is causing an earthquake, or an earthquake is generating a radio wave! If we consider the first one, it could possibly be untrue as, earthquake is observed even in areas where you don't find a electromagnetic generated by humans.

We know that earthquakes only happen at places where there are faults and at plate boundaries. Due to natural movement of earth (i.e., rotation and revolution), the plate movement at equator is more rapid than at poles. Wait a minute ! ! Now, this could explain why earthquakes are less common at poles. And if you ask me why Japan and Chile experience more earthquakes, I will say this- they are near plate boundaries, particularly these two places are located near ring of fire which is an active chain of volcanoes and plate boundaries. Also earthquakes could happen at places where there are faults inside a plane which is more inhomogeneous. Also, I did not say that all places which have either plate boundaries or faults experience earthquakes! I said, it is possible for them to occur.
It entirely depends on whether there has been accumulated stress at a region and the possibility of the energy in that location being released at once.
Now, what could be the possible force that could release the accumulated stress?
And here, there are a lot of explanations. One possibility is the planetary forces. You can know more about that by Google by searching for "Planetary configuration-Implications filetype:pdf".
And in addition to that, the other possibilities includes the

Sunspot formation
Ionospheric disturbances due to other factors
Tidal waves etc.,

Whatever may be the prediction theory you choose, you end up with either radio i.e., electromagnetic waves or gravitational force.We can understand if I say that gravitational force can release the accumulated stress in fault locations, as it is a kind of physical force which we know that, can act on any body. EM force is not like that, I can show many objects that don't respond to EM energy or force, because they remain passive.
Are we missing something here??
What if the electromagnetic disturbances are getting transformed to gravitational force and triggering an earthquake. You may immediately say, that's impossible and ridiculous. Well! Wait.. Don't cross off the possibility. Studies are underway to find out the relation between two basic forces of nature as they have very important commons, like:

Both EM and gravitational force travel with the speed of light
Both forces' magnitude is inversely proportional to the square of distance between them

The GUT (Grand Unification Theory) exactly deals with this. It tries to unify the four basic forces in the universe, Strong Nuclear Force, Weak nuclear force, Gravitational force and EM force.

What not to do while organizing an event in college! !

2011-04-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!
The purpose of this blog is to share with you guys, the events and situations that lead to the failure of my event hosted in Daksh 2010, a quiz on astronomy, by the name "Cosmic Panorama".

I am an astronomy freak. Night skies have always fascinated me. That crush has even led me to make a visit to ISRO, SriHarikota which only enhanced my interest. So, when I returned to the college, I had a thought of organizing some event that shows how interesting and fascinating astronomy is..

After a long pause, me and two of my friends, came up with an idea of conducting astronomy quiz. This may not be very interesting, but that is all we could think of!! May be this is the FIRST thing you should not do. i.e., don't contain yourself with the thought you got first, keep thinking, you could get a better one, like, some Jeopardy style, creative solutions type, like that. Appeals more than a quiz,right?? Alright, then we shared our thoughts in the meetings. They liked it!! They want to keep my event under shunyakaal and the organizer of shunyakaal asked me to submit 20 sample questions and he want to evaluate the quality.
Its time to form a team to do this task. Now this is where a lot of people fail(I failed here). I do not mean that the people who worked with me for the event are not supporting or hardworking. It is just that they are not ready for such things and they lack passion and vigor for astronomy. They might have been good at many other things, but not this!! So, here is the SECOND thing you should not do. Don't fill your team with people you know,just because they will think something bad if you don't take them. If you want your idea to win credits, you should work with people who share your passion and interest.
Happened is happened. I prepared the questions with little assistance from my team mates. I am glad that we crossed our check-point and they accepted our event. Now, we are supposed to submit the format of the game and make everything ready well before Daksh 2010. We have submitted the format of the game and time now has come to decide the equipment and support we need. Here is the THIRD thing you should avoid. Don't be numb or don't try to obey what your seniors say, demand what you want and get them upright. Because, you know, many of a times they have all the resources, its just that they may not be really interested in what you are doing, or there may also be some genuine reasons.
This third one is my next major mistake. Anyways, we are all set for Daksh. Its just a few days away. We have done a lot of work to make the event successful. In fact, just for the sake of the event, we have learnt using the powerpoint in a more professional way. Of course we have copied a few things from the internet... :)
Here is the next thing you should DO. Trust your teammates fully. Share your work and believe that they will do it with the perfection required. This is what I have failed to do. I did not trust them fully. As a result, I have done most of the work which drained me inside out. Friends!! Please avoid this.
Now, the night before the big day, we were asked to come to the room of shunyakaal organizer, and he asked us to change the format overnight by introducing a new level to screen people. He said that, as if 1000 people are going to attend the event. I know, by my heart that this would not work. I dare not to go on my own way. "What if I fail?" is the question I had in my heart. Now the fourth thing is "play by your rules, do what you feel is right. Take risks. Don't feel sorry for yourself at later time. It is you who are most responsible for the outcome, not others"
As a result of adding the preliminary round defeated the whole fragrance of the event, as I wanted the first round to be open house. People turned for the event fairly well. I thought, the same trend would follow!!Guess what.. I am wrong. Utterly mistaken.
We were allotted Nirman vihar audi for the second round. We asked for buzzers, 10 hand mikes, so as to conduct an open house in an easy way.But then, our cluster head said he could not arrange any of that. Now, we should plan an alternative. That too, in a few minutes!! We should have thought about this situation. I really felt that I have done a mistake for not thinking of alternatives while planning.. This is the 5th thing. Never go for the event without having alternatives in mind. Because, anything could possibly go wrong and you should be ready to atleast some of them.
Without having adequate mikes, we resorted to writing method which is utterly flop.
And here is the last thing.. This is not about what you should not do.. Rather, this is about what you should do. Once you want to be the host of the event, be as jovial as possible and entertain the audience or participants with your jokes, short facts about the core topic in the event, addressing the participants by name,wherever possible, and stuff like that. In fact, this may determine the success intensity of your event..
GOOD LUCK to all those who are going to conduct events in the future. .
This article particularly pertains to auditorium centric events. I am really thankful to the readers.
I will be glad with your comments and I will try to improve the quality of my blogging.

4th and 5th dimensions of personality

2011-04-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

Recently, on 9th of April this year, I have attended a workshop that was conducted in our college campus by Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari. The session has been so influencing that all the people who were there in the workshop have been magnetized by the words of the swamiji who presided the session. They did not expect even a single penny from our side for conducting workshop, what they expected from us was, to spread the message that has been given to us to the masses! When we have been blessed with such a great wisdom, it is our duty to be gratifying for them.
Personality can be divided into 5 types, they say.

Mental
Physical
Intellectual
Emotional
Spiritual

Those 4th and 5th named ones are what I am talking about.. We have been taught well right from the inception of our education, or even before the first three dimensions, by our parents,teachers and maybe,friends. But, we stopped the pursuit of achieving good personality as soon as we feel that we have those three things. Contradicting our usual perceptions, those two remaining divide the subtle lines between failure and success, happiness and sorrowfulness, fulfillment and achievement. And regretfully we don't know how to learn them. Here are what swamiji said in small snippets...

Swami Vivekananda

Pray regularly(daily). This keeps our inner self calm and contained, which helps us to stay focused on the task at hand. We, Indians always had it! Unfortunately, this tradition is disappearing slowly, even before you notice. "A scientist from UK or USA(I don't know) said to have done some research on influence of prayer on materials and human beings, what he observed was marvelous. He took some chemical crystals which realigns into random shapes once it has been kept in some chemical 'X',what he has done was, he dropped some crystals in the solution and started praying with a positive mind and observed the shapes it assumed. Amazing!! They took perfectly regular, symmetrical, aesthetic shapes you only expect out of an artist. " Such is the power of prayer. So pray everyday.
Vivekananda, when he was young, and when he was the disciple of Sri Ramakrishna paramahamsa, lost his father and his family is facing a lot of problems. He then rushed to his guru and asked for help. His guru directed him to Kali matha temple and asked him to pray her. Swamiji as soon as entering the temple did not want to pray for money, wealth and happiness. He only prayed for knowledge. Such is the wisdom one should have. Pray for knowledge, pray for wisdom.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Swamiji
Be strong,physically. Most of the youth these days seem less confident of what they are doing.Much of this can be attributed to not having a strong personality. There is no point going after spiritual and emotional excellence without the base of the other three,which includes physical personality.Swamiji once said,"You will get nearer to heaven, by playing football rather than reading Bhagavadgita". This implies the importance of youth being strong, as backbone to the nation.
Show empathy towards the poor.Show compassion.This makes you feel good. And feeling good,is good for everyone, is it not? You can visit ted talks website and type the key words 'compassion' and watch the popped up videos.
As some famous personality said,"Be the change you want to see", you change your way of living, and for that you change your perceptions and for that you change the way you think. Everyone should come forward to take this nation to new heights.
Be patriotic. Many of us show patriotism in different ways, much of it was decided by our surroundings and the way we live. Some show by planting trees, some show by doing their duty with devotion, some show by helping poor, some by charity and all. Many Indians show their patriotism by painting their body with Indian flag, waving flag in the cricket stadium, praying for cine-stars for the success of their movies and many such things. While it is not objectionable for being like that, it is also expected for them to be patriotic in a more useful way. Check my previous blog for my view on patriotism.
Cultivate healthy food habits. Most of us don't like when I say this, but it is very important to say that. Consume only those foods which have prana, an element they say will be there when the food item is still farm fresh. Avoid fried and baked foods.
Avoid multi-tasking as it really hampers the ability of the brain to think and respond in its own way. Before throwing this idea away, please check this month's reader's digest magazine which enumerates the same idea. Lage bet?

We have discussed enough. I think, I have only completed 50% of what I have been entrusted. Well guys! I will talk more about personality,as Swami Vivekananda said. I would like to finish this with an exercise that proves the existence of an unknown energy flowing in our body.

Close your eyes slowly!! Take deep breaths. Fill your lungs with air. Slowly inhale a lot of air and slowly exhale. Observe the breathing patterns while you do that. Do all this by sitting in a comfortable position. Now, our exercise is, you have to get your hands close enough that they would touch each other if moved further even a single mm. They should not touch each other. All this you have to do keeping your eyes closed.Now,if you do it as instructed you should have felt something,you never thought possible.

I don't want to spoil the thrill by revealing what I felt. If you want to know more, you can mail me your experience with that and I will try to respond in time.
I value your comments and I will try to improve the quality based on your comments.
Thank you very much

You don't need to be Gandhi to serve your country

2011-04-14T03:58:00.000-07:00

On the day of World cup match between India and Sri Lanka, a banner caught my attention. It said "India has only two religions, Cricket and Movies". I am surprised and of course what it states is true, looking at the fact that cine actors and cricketers are demi gods in India, than in any part of the world. Is this trend healthy?
I feel that most of us take it for granted that the best way to show our patriotism is by partying, shouting and celebrating- cricket winnings and movie awards mostly the ones that were awarded abroad. And we are least bothered about Indian Politics in a larger scale, environmental awareness.. and to be blunt, to even do our regular duties.

IF YOU REALLY LOVE YOUR COUNTRY, YOU DON'T NEED TO BE GANDHI TO SERVE IT. YOU DON'T NEED TO MAKE SACRIFICES AS THEY DID.

Living a carbon efficient life is one of the best ways to show your patriotism.

Start with avoiding meat on selected days. You don't believe me if I say, if everyone in the country follows this you can save as much as 1000000 L of water.
If you can afford, install solar heating systems and solar power systems on your roof top so that you can utilize a great deal of energy.
Replace your regular bulbs with energy efficient ones and instruct your neighbors and friends to do the same.
Before buying home appliances, check for energy ratings and make sure it has got at least a 4star.
Habituated to A/C or want to install A/C? Install a smart A/C system which monitors the room temperature and maintains optimal cooling, saving a ton of energy.
AVOID PLASTICS. Use paper bags wherever necessary. You can buy a bulk of such bags in any popular grocery store.
Dedicate at least 10% of your residential area to garden. In addition to growing flowers that render beauty to your living area, also try some vegetable plants that assists your daily life. (Like carrots, tomatoes etc.,)
What do you do to your clothes if they don't fit? Do not throw them away!! Neatly wash them and donate them to the needy. Find out any social organization nearby.
Reduce the garbage in your home. Try making a compost pit where you can shed your vegetable wastes, to produce organic rich manure to your garden.
Try buying products with less packing.
Participate in some social activities. Money cannot do everything. Dedicate some time out of your life and try getting grouped with your neighbors and be socialized.
Do not express any laziness to cast your vote on a polling day.
Keep your locality clean and green. Just arrange a get-together with your neighbors and formulate a method to best do that.

There are many more to do, other than these!! I am trying to follow all those I have stated here.
If you are interested in knowing more about "Energy efficient living", you can visit www.takepart.com..
I value your comments and based on them I will improve the quality further

"Energy star" rates many appliances regarding their energy efficient functioning