Pink Floyd

There is a certain magic to music. It speaks what words cannot. It says what the heart says, and not the brain bullies the mouth to!

It also adds that extra kick of adrenalin to express the most severe shocks of life. Period. This has always been the most popular genre of music. Yes, my favorite too. There's Pink Floyd, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Rammstein, Pink Floyd, System of a Down, oh, and did I mention Pink Floyd?

Below is a song from the masters of Rock, the Fathers of 'Psychedelic' music; Pink Floyd's "Time". The music is weirdly haunting..... wakes you up inside sort of. One cannot 'like' a Pink Floyd song. He is a devotee of the band. The lyrics in this one bring tears to my eyes everytime I listen to it.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.

The mood is set perfectly in the first minute, where ticking of clocks is heard. Followed by gentle guitaring. Glorious.

jokes apart!

10000 dinars and a sentence was what a guy in Morocco earned after he posed as King Mohammad IV's brother on facebook.
The judge seems to have been mesmerized by what the virtual world can offer... and so am I.
Human rights activists from Amnesty International are saying, the sentence is inappropriate. The false image is a joke and is played by many.
Looking at the other side,
Does this kind of deceit in revealing one's identity, cause any harm to the society in general? Is there anything wrong about the new fantastical world that provides room to become 'another' , with a click on the mouse? Can one really 'network' through a false identity?
When we observe the number of relationships that internet can foster.. it is truly amazing. But what happens when the person you know does not know exist in reality? I believe, such a situation is just more than a dissapointment. I think it is equivalent to a feeling you get sometimes when you feel, this world we live in, is not real.
The way it looks,this sentence may soften one's appetite to be a celebrity by adopting another's identity in Morocco, though the punishment is harsh and difficult to digest.

A creed, some thoughts!

Australian resident Indians - confused, riches- loving, uncaring, wretched souls???
Not really. Of course, they are a creed of varied nature, like any. Yet, some characteristics are worthy of note.
My analysis reveals that they are still bound to India- each individual clinging to a different string. They take interest in sports, like the natives- to the extent that they personalize activities like fishing, camping, skiing, sailing- that which are unheard of, in India. Some even
follow rigid timetables which includes an ealy dinner ( 7:00 PM!!).
They are mostly hardworking. They do more than 1 job sometimes, to keep the big bucks rolling in. The women in the families face very little barriers. But the responsibilies do not depreciate. They are effecient, part- time homemakers, socializers and career- oriented individuals.
The kids, with their Australian accented English often overwhelm their parents with questions. Fortunately, the internet is at their disposal!
Thats a short description of the indivduals...nothing more!

Little daunting errands!

The other day, my mother needed me to buy her medicines. This of course isn't a tough task, given that i have a bike, and there are half a dozen medical stores within a stone's throw of my house. But here's the catch... she needed "womens' medicines" and she also wanted sanitary napkins. Now that's downright embarrassing for a guy of my age to walk up the steps of the shop and demand such things! Wearing my heart on my sleeve, like Gandalf in LOTR, I set out with firm resolve, quoting in my mind different versions of the dialog I'd have with the chemist. Well rehearsed, I strode purposefully up to him and made my request. Shockingly, he wasn't the least nonplussed with this, and treated this situation like any other. So much for all the fish!

Might of the Mirage

Behind their hooded faces of lies,
There is a facade of an evasive smile.
Can this their mirth idealize?
Life and lies they deem facile!

False hope they foster within;
The spark of light is no more bright
than the chance of fate; Ever in sin,
Yet they don't give in without a fight!

Thin lipped satire never awakens
to the need of want and lust.
The looming towers of greed and might
belittle the urge to lie beneath the crust!

Feigning death and glory they strive
to swallow the darkness of dismay;
Yes, darkness they need to bury their dread
More than they need the mirage to light their way!

LOTR: A descriptive dream

The Lord of the Rings is an exceptional series of books, which have long captivated peoples' fantasies. These were written decades ago, but still holds everyone in awe. JRR Tolkien has indeed created a masterpiece, which can never be imitated even, let alone paralleled.

Below is an excerpt from "LOTR: The Two Towers". Gimli is a dwarf, Legolas an elf. Dwarves and Elves were at war for a very long time, but these two are good friends. Elves are extraordinary beings, with long lives, fair skin and quick magic. Dwarves on the other hand are geniuses at handiwork. They are very good diggers, and own many of the world's precious stones and gems in their possession. They carve out entire cities from mountains, burrowing into the ground to create magnificent caves and tunnels,all richly decorated. I have picked out a slice of the book, which clearly places Tolkien above all others in descriptive imagination.

'Then that is the most perilous wood in Middle-earth,' said Gimli. 'I should be grateful for the part they have played, but I do not love them. You may think them wonderful, but I have seen a greater wonder in this land, more beautiful than any grove or glade that ever grew: my heart is still full of it. 'Strange are the ways of Men, Legolas! Here they have one of the marvels of the Northern World, and what do they say of it? Caves, they say! Caves! Holes to fly to in time of war, to store fodder in! My good Legolas, do you know that the caverns of Helm's Deep are vast and beautiful? There would be an endless pilgrimage of Dwarves, merely to gaze at them, if such things were known to be. Aye indeed, they would pay pure gold for a brief glance!'

'And I would give gold to be excused,' said Legolas; 'and double to be let out, if I strayed in!'

'You have not seen, so I forgive your jest,' said Gimli. 'But you speak like a fool. Do you think those halls are fair, where your King dwells under the hill in Mirkwood, and Dwarves helped in their making long ago? They are but hovels compared with the caverns I have seen here: immeasurable halls, filled with an everlasting music of water that tinkles into pools, as fair as Kheled-zâram in the starlight.

'And, Legolas, when the torches are kindled and men walk on the sandy floors under the echoing domes, ah! then, Legolas, gems and crystals and veins of precious ore glint in the polished walls; and the light glows through folded marbles, shell-like, translucent as the living hands of Queen Galadriel. There are columns of white and saffron and dawn-rose, Legolas, fluted and twisted into dreamlike forms; they spring up from many-coloured floors to meet the glistening pendants of the roof: wings, ropes, curtains fine as frozen clouds; spears, banners, pinnacles of suspended palaces! Still lakes mirror them: a glimmering world looks up from dark pools covered with clear glass; cities. such as the mind of Durin could scarce have imagined in his sleep, stretch on through avenues and pillared courts, on into the dark recesses where no light can come. And plink! a silver drop falls, and the round wrinkles in the glass make all the towers bend and waver like weeds and corals in a grotto of the sea. Then evening comes: they fade and twinkle out; the torches pass on into another chamber and another dream. There is chamber after chamber, Legolas; hall opening out of hall, dome after dome, stair beyond stair; and still the winding paths lead on into the mountains' heart. Caves! The Caverns of Helm's Deep! Happy was the chance that drove me there! It makes me weep to leave them.'

The Pleasures of Gardening

‘Darelle, thank you so much!’, aunty exclaimed. Fidgeting with a pin in my hand, I smiled graciously.
‘ That man is very hard working’, she continued.

Darelle was mowing the lawn, a few minutes earlier, while I was discovering the garden.

When I stayed in Banashankari in Bangalore, I had had a huge garden too. I remember a very talkative gardener unloading large amounts of fertilisers to enhance productivity. I also remember my parents incessantly complaining how the coconut tree would never grow in spite of the nourishment.
Except during the times when I had spent time holding a pipe, watering and removing jasmines or hibiscus flowers from the captivity of their parents, I had no emotional attachment with the vast space in front of my house.

Ironically, today, I spent admiring the lemons, mangoes and strawberries magnificently growing in their space in aunty’s garden. I helped her remove weeds, shift pots and jumped on the soft grass enjoying the rain. It was splendid.

Talking of Mr. Darelle now – He is not a gardener. He had not received any money for his work. Just respect. He works with uncle and drives a truck. Yet, he holidays abroad frequently and is apparently, a multimillionaire!!

I was stunned when aunty told me his story. He had worked for the government for forty years and after retirement, had received a lot of money. He did odd jobs, not for money, but satisfaction.
She told me, he even spends time in the church working in the garden there, when he is free.

She concluded her story with the most suitable conclusion – ‘ What he does, is truly, a form of worship!’

Jaggesh!

This is the man. The man with a tan. The man with fans. The man who can. The man who ran. The inimitable Jaggesh at his best! Ladies and gentlemen, here's a cut from the movie 'Shivanna'.

Speed

Adapting to speed has never been man's problem. Or creating it. Pushing the limits of processor clock cycles and internet connectivity have been two of the main contributions in creating a faster and closer world. Perhaps we can learn a bit from this, comparing the phenomenon with life's philosophies.

The situation now is such that we have reached such heights in technology that processor speed is no longer a hindrance for computations. In fact, we are yet t think of applications for these super-fast yet cheap processors. The focus of late has been on the development of 'dual core' processors, which better manage data, without further pushing the speed limit.Thus too in life, we sometimes feel that time just flies by. Things happen too fast, and what's more, we can push them even further. But we must pause and think, "Hold on a second, am I going in the right direction? Perhaps I have built enough momentum, now I have got to channelize it in the right direction."

Likewise, the internet connections are more than sufficient for our daily use, there is no point making the speed better in most cases. But no, we always a faster and more expensive connections, without regard to the use. What a waste! An analogy to life would be, "Maintain a reasonable scale between the resources used to the output produced. 'Fuel efficiency' is the motto of the day!"

The Political Turmoil in Karnataka

Source: www.viewspaper.com, Author: Nanda Kishore

The political scenario in Karnataka is dominated by 3 parties: The Indian National Congress, Janata Dal (secular) and The Bharatiya Janata Party.In the 2004 election results, no party held a simple majority in the house. Though the BJP had the most number of seats, the Congress and JD(s) obtained a majority through a coalition. It was headed by the then chief minister Dharam Singh (Congress) and deputy CM Siddaramaiah (JD(s)). This coalition ended in 2006. When the BJP and JD(s) formed a clever coalition, on a power sharing basis, taking over power for 20 months, each. Each party would have its candidate as the CM for the specified duration. The coalition started off with Mr. H.D.Kumaraswamy from JD(s) as the CM with B.S. Yedyurappa of the BJP as the deputy CM.All was well for the first 20 months of the coalition tenure, until time came for the power to be transferred to the BJP. The JD(s) refused to hand over the reins to the BJP, alleging it to be a ‘communal’ party. The JD(s) supremo and ex-PM, Mr.H.D.Devegowda, was quite obviously the person pulling the strings for this power struggle.Meanwhile, President’s rule was imposed.The credibility of the JD(s) started falling by the day. The BJP demanded fresh elections as this was the only way out. Meanwhile, trouble started brewing within the JD(s) camp, as some members were clearly distraught with the selfishness of H.D. Devegowda.This rebel faction led by Mr. Prakash, ex-deputy CM, threatened to leave the JD(s) camp, and enter into the Congress fold. With the BJP hankering around for a new mandate, and its credibility at an all time low, it would have been impossible to gather as many seats as the last time, so the JD(s) resorted to a ‘U’ turn in its stand, and agreed to support the BJP, despite the said allegations.Yeddyurappa was sworn in among much fanfare, with the south receiving its first BJP CM. However, the BJP’s happiness was not to last.The father-son duo of Devegowda and H.D.Kumaraswamy refused to support a floor test for the BJP in the State parliament. And with barely a week having gone by, Yeddyurappa resigned preferring not to face the floor test which would have turned out to be humiliating. It resulted in the imposition of the President’s rule yet again.Fresh elections were speculated to occur before May, but the Congress has objected to it as they feel time is not enough to woo the people who, after the fiasco, have their sympathy towards the BJP. The JD(s) is struggling hard to stage a comeback after being responsible for the mud-slinging and their selfish intentions, but with the Prakash faction, which recently joined the Congress, the JD(s) has received a serious blow.The citizens are hoping for elections to occur soon, but with the Congress and JD(s) trying their best to postpone them, the possibility seems bleak. The BJP, however, riding high on their success after the elections in Uttarakhand and Gujarat, hopes to continue the trend in the south by obtaining a clear cut majority.

Good Morning ... Radio!

After the government began to provide licenses for air time blocks, the radio has become an essential part of our cosmopolitan lives. The auto wallah, the college- goer, the commuter and the shop keeper- all indulge their time in the spice of music and endless chatter.

Our RJ’s, keen to hold the attention of their listeners, don’t ever seem to lose their enthusiasm. They babble into their mikes in zest- stricken voices about the city, hold contests, entertain callers and offer advices. That is the kind of entertainment that has gained tremendous popularity and approval among the masses.

When I had attended a conference by A P Parigi, CEO and MD of ENIL (handles radio mirchi) about two years back, he had announced with fear, the entry of his competitors and its probable consequences. He had talked about the research that was carried out every week, by his company inorder to understand the needs of the listeners and thereby maintain the audience for their channel. He had presented a chart outlining what people in the cities, would mostly do at a particular time. These studies, supposedly, had helped the company to stay on its toes and offer programs that were suitable to a wide section of the society.

What I learnt through this was that -Music is big business, and so is any other form of entertainment. To know the extent of the radio raj, all we would need to do is change 12 channels ( in Bangalore) on our radio sets.

Brand ' rationalism' or feeling blue?

When I was in Australia, I spent the last few months just before the exams, buying clothes and accessories. It's anybody's guess that i had taken enough of them when i had left my dear land. But what was so unique about this expedition of mine, was the fact that this act is explained by ' misery not miserly' phenomenon.
That's exactly what an artcile on NDTV's website reported. It is believed that during depressed times, buyers are ready to pour more money than usual on shopping. It is believed that sadness has the ability to trigger different emotions that drive one towards being a spendthrift.The growing self- focus is considered the primary reason. And advertisers and psychologists have documented this phenomenon, much for their benifit.
Mc Donald's jingle ' You deserve a break today!' in the 1970's can be quoted as an example.
It is amazing how one can relate to Consumer behaviour ( a branch of marketing). Now, when i think of it, I realize that i have always known my friends to indulge in cosmetics or bags or slippers, especially, when they are feeling blue. One of my very close friends always told me ,'When you see me getting depressed, remind me to go and have a hair cut!!'
In fact,unaware of this phenomenon, while i was budgeting for my stay this time, I had a different category included-' the depression easer'!

There's this things about mothers. 20 years of careful observation has had me believe that the maternal instinct is so strong, its almost capable of telekinesis! Just yesterday i remembered to shut the back door, even without my mom having told me to. Coax, cajole... this is maternal instinct. Freakishly, though I just got up, even now my thoughts are on "Oh boy, how'll I manage to talk on the phone when I get back home?" or "Sumanth, why haven't you finished up breakfast?"

But we all love our moms. At least i love mine :). The ever-sacrificing, ever-watchful, ever-ready race of motherhood is never out of vogue. The goddess beyond all religions. The person who personifies 'Mother' in 'Motherland'. The person who cries when she's sad, and cries harder when she's happy.

"Let's Make A Deal"

There's a game show called "Let's Make A Deal". The game is very simple. There are three doors: door #1, door #2, and door #3. Behind one door is a million dollars. The other two doors contain worthless joke prizes. All you have to do is pick which door you want to open, and you get whatever is behind it. But you only get to open one door. By simple math, then, you obviously have a 1 in 3 chance of picking the correct door and becoming an instant millionaire.

You pick a door. As soon as you tell Monty (the game show host) what door you want to open, he stops and says, "Okay, you've made your choice. I'm going to open one of the other two doors for you that I know has a booby prize." And he does so. Then he asks, "Okay, now, would you like to stay with your original guess, or would you like to switch to the other door that's still closed? You only get one shot, so do you want to stay with your original choice, or switch?"

Here's the question: is there any compelling reason to switch doors?

To be clear, there is no trickery, and Monty is not cheating. Furthermore, the money has not moved, will not be moved, and if you open the right door, you win the cash. Money is either behind the door you first picked, or behind the remaining unopened door. Should you switch?

Logically speaking, this seems obvious to anyone: you can switch if you want to, but it makes no difference. Monty has just eliminated one of your choices. Now you're down to two. You didn't know what was behind the doors before, and by opening one of them, you still don't know what's behind the other two. Your odds are 50/50 no matter which door you choose. So, switch or don't, it makes no difference.

Perfectly sensible, right? Absolutely. But it's dead wrong.

The surprising answer is that you should switch doors.

You are probably reading this and nodding--and then you're thinking to yourself, "No, that's not right. There really is no reason to switch. You can if you want to, or if you think there's cheating going on, but in a pure game, it's 50/50! You've gotten rid of one of the doors is all!"

But if you try it empirically, you'll find that if you stay with your original guess, you'll lose two times out of three. If you switch, you'll win two times out of three. By showing you an empty door after your first choice, Monty's given you information. Your original choice had only a 1 in 3 chance of being right. Odds were 2 to 1 that the money was behind one of the other two doors--and he just showed you which of the other two doors was empty.

It's not my cup of tea!

Relishing hot bondaas ( veg patties?), sipping an intoxicating cup of filter coffee and listening to a romantic number from the latest bollywood flick - was the way I would spend a cool, rainy day in Bangalore. ( yen maja!). My cushiony sofa would just add to my comforts on such a pleasant day.

My mom would cook other delicious eatables while I watched from a distance. Her patience or interest in culinary activities didn’t affect me much.

When I descended on a foreign land, spectacular changes took place.
To say the least, I could enlist my ‘Discoveries in time’ after about two months of my stay in Australia.

I recall with splendid clarity, the way I had entered the kitchen in my hall, for the first time - ripe with anticipation and longing to engage in food preparation. Even the stench of raw meat failed to deter my spirits. What I didn’t care to process, was the fact that I would not only have to cook but cook, mighty well, to keep my spirits high.

In a week, I learnt, that I had failed terribly at this activity. I would not get the number of chillies right or the precise amount of sugar or salt to be added. I would sometimes make the upma soggy and uneatable, sometimes end up making the sambar too watery.

Thankfully, before I starved myself in the pursuit of making delicious food, I began to be mentored by some friends. During these sessions, I would involuntarily recall my mom’s warnings of how I would suffer if I didn’t take enough interest in cooking.

The learner in me would emerge in the kitchen (expertly chopping onions) on certain days. On other days, one would see me slouched in a corner soothing my stomach with milk and corn flakes.

Such was the saga of an inexperienced cook in the midst of academic and social pressures – a saga that extended for about three months.

When I saw the first ray of hope, I had had a pan full of sabji, carrying an aroma in all directions in the same kitchen, at about midnight. The relief was paramount. I had finally learnt to cook.

It turned out, after all, that I could never utter ‘It’s not my cup of tea!’ again!

The words that i learnt today-

• Penitent- expressing remorse for one's misdeeds
• Vie- to compete
• Voluble- Talkative
• Poignant- profoundly touching
• Belie- to contradict

Paradoxes

A paradox is an assertion that is essentially self-contradictory, though based on a valid deduction from acceptable premises. A paradox can be an apparently true statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition; or it can be, seemingly opposite, an apparent contradiction that actually expresses a non-dual truth. Here is a famous paradox.

Zeno's Paradox
Zeno of Elea (circa 450 b.c.) is credited with creating several famous paradoxes, but by far the best known is the paradox of the Tortoise and Achilles. (Achilles was the great Greek hero of Homer's The Illiad.) It has inspired many writers and thinkers through the ages, like Lewis Carroll.
The original goes something like this:

The Tortoise challenged Achilles to a race, claiming that he would win as long as Achilles gave him a small head start. Achilles laughed at this, for of course he was a mighty warrior and swift of foot, whereas the Tortoise was heavy and slow.
“How big a head start do you need?” he asked the Tortoise with a smile.
“Ten meters,” the latter replied.
Achilles laughed louder than ever. “You will surely lose, my friend, in that case,” he told the Tortoise, “but let us race, if you wish it.”
“On the contrary,” said the Tortoise, “I will win, and I can prove it to you by a simple argument.”
“Go on then,” Achilles replied, with less confidence than he felt before. He knew he was the superior athlete, but he also knew the Tortoise had the sharper wits, and he had lost many a bewildering argument with him before this.
“Suppose,” began the Tortoise, “that you give me a 10-meter head start. Would you say that you could cover that 10 meters between us very quickly?”
“Very quickly,” Achilles affirmed.
“And in that time, how far should I have gone, do you think?”
“Perhaps a meter – no more,” said Achilles after a moment's thought.
“Very well,” replied the Tortoise, “so now there is a meter between us. And you would catch up that distance very quickly?”
“Very quickly indeed!”
“And yet, in that time I shall have gone a little way farther, so that now you must catch that distance up, yes?”
“Ye-es,” said Achilles slowly.
“And while you are doing so, I shall have gone a little way farther, so that you must then catch up the new distance,” the Tortoise continued smoothly.
Achilles said nothing.
“And so you see, in each moment you must be catching up the distance between us, and yet I – at the same time – will be adding a new distance, however small, for you to catch up again.”
“Indeed, it must be so,” said Achilles wearily.
“And so you can never catch up,” the Tortoise concluded sympathetically.
“You are right, as always,” said Achilles sadly – and conceded the race.

This may look very trivial at the first glance, but the concept of paradoxes has always had far fetched weights in problem solving. How irritating it is to come up with a solution to a problem and then realizing that the answer has an inherent drawback, which continues in succession up to infinity!

Beat the Heat!

‘The argument you just won with your wife isn’t over yet!’

Is this a dull attempt at displaying wry witticism or words of wisdom, or both?

As a woman, I would quote the anti-thesis of the statement with great fervour and many of my friends of the same sex would agree.

Letting my ego rot, when I dispassionately analyze this, I see a win- lose situation always leaves loose ends in a fight (not an argument). These loose ends have the ability to tie knots with emotional distress, lack of communication, coldness in the air and tear-filled eyes.

Our Indian moms have a ready made solution to these situations. The girl must be demure, docile and should adapt to the needs of the ‘family’. Note: The ‘family’ often excludes the girl!

Back to my analysis- Today, rapidly increasing constraints and pressures often leave people with less time to think, even lesser time to react and counter-react. For example, one cannot make a loved one ‘understand’ in the midst of a critical meeting with the boss, one cannot cure insecurities in the midst of other uphill tasks, one cannot charm in the midst of an ever-present family!

How to deal with the insane number of disagreements and disputes? I wonder, if an overbearing- calmness/ silence is a solution to them. My communication books have volunteered information that is contrary. Never let the fissure widen, is supposedly, the mantra of the day.

Yup- life thankfully isn’t that bad. Heated conversations that I have observed often can be terminated with a little bit of patience and logical explanations, or even love (love, being the best cure!). When there is a mutual understanding about the individuals’ ability to make each other happy, the room for unpleasantness drastically shrinks.

Make way for the big L, I say!!

No, that's not sweet!

Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of illusion. A lost soul searches fruitlessly the ancient maze of queer, almost hereditary concepts by way of 'self realization'. Our grandiose assumptions of life aren't always the absolute, no, not even in a generic sense. Take for instance a society, where beliefs have found root in the most trivial of tasks, such as performing a short 'enaction' of prayer before eating. Performing a brief but rigorous study would reveal that even the most rigid societies have cogent arguments, which are cleverly disguised exceptions to the web of myriads of logic that they themselves have enforced. A theory goes thus: All that needs to be done to complicate a society will be done, either in parts or wholly, either by the same society or otherwise. This is perhaps for lack of something better to do, or in other words, in accordance with the law of entropy. We humans usually complicate matters beyond a point that requires the introduction of something axiomatic to convince us, such as believing that the right way to start the day is to get out of bed from the right side. In contrary, though, successful civilizations have always had a rule-base, however axiomatic it might have been, to encourage a particular pattern of living based on either ease, or uniformity. Care must be taken, however, not to follow this 'Bible' with closed eyes (or minds). An appropriate conclusion would hence be, Choose always the path of light, not so intense as to blind you, not so dim as to beguile you, but one that keeps the glimmer of logic aglow.

The Indian woe!

As the entertainment-news channels incessantly questioned the spirit of a Mumbaikar in accepting the north Indians, after Raj Thackray’s initiative towards segregation, I was dismayed. If it had only been a war of words between two groups, that had taken up fifteen minutes of show time, none, would have fretted. Turning an issue into a bloody affair, making the minorities run for cover, is another.

The situation fuels another ongoing debate of what is more important – nation (a word that refers to the sense of belonging that the people of a region share) or the state (a word that refers to the physical boundaries that unite a region).

India is a nation as well as a state. Is there a need to divide further? There is, for administrative purposes. What about the psychological separation in the minds of the citizens? Are the physical barriers, reason enough to separate individuals? Are they reason enough for Maharashtrians to sing the ‘anti- north Indian’ anthem?

Refuters of this think it is the spirit of Mumbai that discourages these thoughts.
As I see, there is no point in calling Mumbai a large hearted mother-like city. One can clearly notice in India, that there is a need to surpass linguistic and other barriers. Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and other such cities have paved a path to acknowledge this need.

Looking at the bigger picture, the world is watching India grow- not Maharashtra, Karnataka & Tamil Nadu! We better imbibe this notion before the world notices disparities.

Chak De India!

Lateral < Thinking

This one is a true incident. It goes as follows...
"Some time ago I received a call from a colleague. He was
about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics
question, while the student claimed a perfect score.
The instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter,
and I was selected. I read the examination question:

"SHOW HOW IT IS POSSIBLE TO DETERMINE THE
HEIGHT OF A TALL BUILDING WITH THE AID OF
A BAROMETER."

The student had answered, "Take the barometer to the top
of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to the street,
and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The
length of the rope is the height of the building."

The student really had a strong case for full credit since he
had really answered the question completely and correctly!
On the other hand, if full credit weregiven, it could well contribute
to a high grade in his physics course and to certify competence
in physics, but the answer did not confirm this.

I suggested that the student have another try. I gave the student
six minutes to answer the question with the warning that
the answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the
end of five minutes, he had not written anything. I asked if
he wished to give up, but he said he had many answers
to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. I
excused myself for interrupting him and asked him to please
go on.

In the next minute, he dashed off his answer, which
read: "Take the barometer to the top of the building and
lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer,
timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, using the formula
x=0.5*a*t^2, calculate the height of the building."

At this point, I asked my colleague if he would give up. He
conceded, and gave the student almost full credit. While
leaving my colleague's office, I recalled that the student had
said that he had many answers to the problem, so I asked him
what they were.

"Well," said the student, "there are many ways of getting
the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer.
For example, you could take the barometer out on a
sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the
length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the
building, and by the use of simple proportion, determines the
height of the building."

"Fine," I said, "and others?” Yes," said the student, "there
is a very basic measurement method you will like. In this
method, you take the barometer and begin to walk up the
stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the
barometer along the wall. You then count the number of
marks, and this will give you the height of the building in barometer
units."

A very direct method, of course. If you want a more
sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a
string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of g
at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference
between the two values of g, the height of the building, in principle,
can be calculated."

"On this same tact, you could take the barometer to the top of
the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to just above the street,
and then swing it as a pendulum. You could then calculate the height
of the building by the period of the precession". 

"Finally," he concluded, "there are many other ways of solving the
problem. Probably the best," he said, "is to take the barometer to
the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the
superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows:
"Mr. Superintendent, here is a fine barometer. If you will tell me the
height of the building, I will give you this barometer." 

At this point, I asked the student if he really did not know the
conventional answer to this question.He admitted that he did, but
said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors
trying to teach him how to think."

The student was Neils Bohr and the arbiter was Rutherford.

The Global Market Tsunami

The Indian stock market plummeted by a whooping 2062 points on 21st January, 2008 reverberating an echo of distress, engineered by the waning market in the United States. As 6.7 Lakh Crore worth of net capitalization vanished from the Indian market, the investors rummaged around for the culprit.

The sub prime mortgage crisis brought about due to the reckless lending by American financial institutions to borrowers with low credit rating was identified as one of the primary causes for the liquidity crisis and a general slowdown in the US market. Europe, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore were all victims of this devastation. Leading financial institutions like Citibank, Bank of America, Macquarie bank, and several mutual and hedge fund companies had several billions wiped off from their profits.

The voice that persisted in the leading emerging markets, India and China about being insulated or decoupled could no more be trusted. They had failed miserably.
On 23rd January, the biggest intra day fall of 2300 points on the Sensex was recorded.

The responsibility of this crash in the Indian market would also have to be shared by foreign investors who imprudently, sold shares worth 15000 crores, killing investors, portfolio managers, and stock brokers financially. One may also point an accusing finger at our market regulators who failed to acknowledge that several shares had been overpriced for their valuations. Excessive speculation could have been cured by imposing hefty margins on brokers. The failure to do so cost our retailers and small investors, 30- 50% of their investments in the matter of 2 days.

In the aftermath of this dramatic fall, it becomes indispensable to understand that stock market operations are price- time opportunities.
It must also be noted here, that the point of investing is not to guess the future, but to act on new information before the whole world pounces on the idea. The new challenges like US recession, dollar’s vulnerability against major currencies of the world, the interest rates cut by the US Fed, the final Indian budget (election budget) leave room for conjecture about whether our market will fight the onslaught and revive or turn docile driving the Sensex below 14000.

The Preamble

Cradle a thought,
Nurture the soul,
Foster the gleam of light within.

Evoke the rigid pride,
Calm the pained,
Foster the gleam of light within.

Express the candid,
Rave about the unknown,
Foster the gleam of light within.

Love and lay faith in the hearts that ache,
Pass the passion and the magic,
Foster the gleam of light within.

Do we need a picture to speak a thousand words?

Words we have to speak, pictures we have to show. What do we have to express? Is it logic? Is it art? Is it tact? Why are we actors in this noisy but picturesque world? Erase the guile, let loose the thoughts. For thought is expression, and express your feelings in picture and song!

Or start a blog!

Stars

Beyond the frigid mists of time,
where I thought my future lay
I (fore)saw only dreams sublime,
and my past-I wasted away

Tormented souls have not true eyes
for crystalline realities (are they at stake?)
The to-be me, will he also fantasize?
Harrowed imaginations do not a life make

I see through the gray skies, see the stars
They cannot help me find transcendence
But their mere glance resolve my scars
When they insuperably look on with glazed eyes

I trudge on with relentless fury,
The dreamer knows not that he must fight
Half-wrapped in the folds of fate
I faced the world under those stars

For, my only light were they
who blazed a billion miles away.
They know not why they shine,
half aroused they are in the nocturnal hour

But they light the embers of the souls
lost in the haze of the worlds below
Time's an illusion, and the gale of death
weakens in their glimmer aglow

The stars lighten my path for me
The burdens they lighten for those that see
The stars that shine, they shine for you
A wish upon a star comes true