Decisions and Implications

A group of children is playing near two railway tracks lying side by side, one still in use while the other unused. Only one child is playing on the unused track, the rest on the operational one.A train is coming, and you are just near the track interchange switch.You can make the train change its course to the unused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the unused track would be sacrificed.

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice a single person to save many others. You might think the same way.Initially it seems rational and sensible to save a group of children at the expense of only one kid.

But, carefully analysing the situation would give you a different perspective.The child who was playing on the unused track made the right decision. He sacrificed the company of his friends and was sensible enough to use the unused track.

Nevertheless, we think he has to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority is. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in this case he is sacrificed, and no one would feel they have morally wronged.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that the track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train speeding towards them. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come his way! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe and probably because it was under maintenance. If the train was diverted to the unused track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in our attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, we might be sacrificing hundreds of people to save those few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right.

Love and Lust

Love and lust are two most intertwinned subjects of great interest. The line of seperation between the two is so blurr it can barely be called a line. Or is it just a perspective? Is there a huge difference between the two, some would vouch for that to be true. Lust is a battlefield of hormones, and Love the medicine for everything in life.

Lust is neccessary for Love to happen. It is the "love at first sight" which is so similar to what we would define as lust. Lust is something that aesthetically pleases you instantly, but love takes everything into account, the mind, the empathy, the mannerism and the personality.

We use different parts of the brain to be in love and to feel lust. Researchers believe that early stage romantic love feelings are located mainly on the right side at the base of the brain, or the ventral midbrain, and in the middle of the brain, the caudate nucleus.Long-term attachment, on the other hand, appears to be centred in the front and base of the brain, or the ventral putamen and the pallidum.Feelings related to lust and sexual arousal occupy different areas, mostly located on the left-hand side of the brain.

But what is love without lust when you are young ? Isn't it right to lust for someone you love? But then the opposite would be a real problem, loving someone for your lust.Men can go crazy in lust . They don't want to know anything about the women, about what they like, where they are from and about how young or old they are.

Romantic lovers are a bit "crazy," since they can experience chemical imbalances within the brain.Mental health experts have linked somewhat similar imbalances to depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. And one thing is for sure, Lust and love can rob a man of his natural strength and defenses. He can become a mere puppet in the hands of a woman.

The Waiting

Another one of mine!

A moment not to be lost
A moment patiently waited for a thousand years
A cry that last centuries, a struggle forever
A hope of the heart, the patience of a mind for eons together
I have waited and have found you atlast
the most precious of all , worth the pain of an eternity
holding on to you with life so dear,
freezing time is not easy and that's the fear
for i don't want to let go, don't want to lose sight
Let us not go into tomorrow, let us not go to sleep tonight.

A Poem

A poem with unknown origins ( for me) , mailed to me by a friend........

But never either found another

To free the hollow heart from paining-

They stood aloof,the scars remaining;

Like cliffs which had been asunder;

A dreary sea now flows between them;

But neither heat,nor frost,nor thunder,

Shall wholly do away,I ween,

The marks of that which once hath been.

Gandhi and the Present Conflict!

My last post, for this month. Catch you in November.

I have always been a Gandhi Lover, Munnabhai or no Munnabhai. He is an inspiration, an idea that should come to every mind. It is Gandhi's Birthday, I just went through a question on another blog ,"Do you think Gandhi's principles would work with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation ?

And I ask myself, can Gandhi's principles work with the Palestinian struggle? For one, non-violence has not always worked. Probably because of the lack of the leadership abilities that a man like Gandhi possessed. He is a part of a crowd whose numbers can be counted on the fingers of my right hand. Second, this is not about an occupation about money and power, it is about religion and power. Thirdly, the British left India for a whole lot of other reasons too (not trying to belittle the non-violence movement here), they weren't afraid, they just couldn't control such a huge population stretched out on a huge land mass, profitably. The Palestinians are far less in number, and it’s not a huge territory, for example Gaza is only 150 sq.kms.

The task can't be worked out unless Israel stops occupying. That is easier said than done. The problem is Fear. The Jews need a place of their own. Nothing wrong in that. They want security from what they faced earlier at the hands of the Nazis. But it is their fear that makes them violent. And it is the oppression of the Palestinians that makes them violent. It is a cycle that keeps going on. No easy solutions to it. It just cannot be done, unless of course, a systematic teaching of non-violence is spread over Israel and Palestine, over a series of Leaderships. What we need is not one Gandhi. We need plenty of Gandhis who would turn it around in about a few decades. What we need is complete change in the educational system, which teaches peace and harmony. What we need is not one side to just insist on the other to stop first. They need to do it together. What we need is to also understand a few people who disturb peace are not representative of the complete population on either side. The styreotypical image the people on both sides have about each other, stops them from envisaging a better future.

But then how can we forget History? Jerusalem is probably the most conquered city on the planet. The balance has always shifted. Can we just ignore History? Can it be that History would repeat itself as it has countless number of times in this city revered by the bulk of the population on the planet?

Immortal

This is my favourite poem. Sometimes I think there are two of me, one who writes those poems, and the one who doesn't think I did.

Immortal

A silent whisper of yours i hear
like a loud noise , clear and near
My screams resonating through every part of me
calling in pain, pain too much to be real
sweat or tear hard to tell with my clothes moist,
all my vocals getting drowned in white noise
whats wrong and whats right, a clear answer i wish
lost the will, lost the fight, fight nomore can I death's kiss
You are the one to wake me from my nightmarish sleep
dig me from the deep, into the heaven with one gentle leap
without you i live half, I die half,I grapple for a life total
death shall not touch me, you shall make me immortal

Right to Emergency - truth or falsehood?

A forwarded mail

Right to Emergency Care:
Date Of Judgment: 23/02/2007.
Case No.: Appeal (civil) 919 of 2007.

The Supreme Court has ruled that all injured persons especially in the case of road traffic accidents, assaults, etc., when brought to a hospital / medical centre, have to be offered first aid, stabilized and shifted to a higher centre / government centre if required. It is only after this that the hospital can demand payment or complete police formalities. In case you are a bystander and wish to help someone in an accident, please go ahead and do so. Your responsibility ends as soon as you leave the person at the hospital.

The hospital bears the responsibility of informing the police, first aid, etc.

Please do inform your family and friends about these basic rights so that we all know what to expect and what to do in the hour of need. Please not only go ahead and forward, use it too!!!!
------------------------------------------------0---------------------------------------------
Is it really true?

I would like to remind you that this mail is not entirely true. I tried to check on the internet about it, and this led me to the official website for Judgment Information System of Supreme Court of India.

If you go directly to this site,
http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/chejudis.aspnic.in/supremecourt/chejudis.asp

You will find a link about Cases. Once you choose Appeal (Civil) in the drop down box and the Case no. You wouldn't find any record.Either the claim is false or it could well be a wrong case number. Many people claim that it is just a rumor. But it is also likely that the judgment is just listed with a wrong Case no. Anyway, it is important to really find out the truth, officially from the Supreme Court. We do not want to play with lives of people based on a wrong assumption.

Can anyone throw some light onto the issue ?

Goodbye my love, my only mistake!

Looking at the night sky
as many lonely hours pass by
not a breath escaped
without thinking of you
not a wish gone without
hoping for love true

Time is a fairweather friend like you
it all started so well
when you said, " I am stuck on you"
Leaving me lost now, when all was set by you
Now it looks like all faults are mine
You were the perpetrator , and I pay the fine

Truely, love is blind, and true love hard to find
Now stuck in this dark zone
I see no hope, I see your heart of stone!
Goodbye my love, my only mistake
For I have nothing to offer, nothing for you to take!

When the smarter lot speaks!

History has always produced some very smart people. Poets, Scientists, Artist, Philosophers, etc.. And when these guys speak everyone listens. They have an uncanny sense of humour too and with their talents produce some of the most memorable quotes around.

Well, if you are planning to read the rest of the article, light a cigarette, and try to figure out which end is on fire and which end is on the fool. Well, if the thought of quiting the butt ( the cigarette's) is dancing around in your mind, like MJ in his prime, you should do exactly what Mark Twain did. To him it is a walk around the park, as is proven in this statement,"Giving up smoking is easy...I've done it hundreds of times. "

If you are married, and one of your partners ( one of the your partners? what was I thinking!) is a smoker, just remember what Benjamin Franklin said," Keep your eyes wide open before marraige, and half-shut afterwards". If you didn't do the former , then you got to do the later with a lot of conviction and steadfastness. Or you could just forget that you hate the fact that your partner smokes. Forgetting is not a difficult task ( trust me, I have done it more times than I can remember), and it comes with a few perks as described by Friedrich Nietzsche ,"The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time. "

A small thought to ponder over as I leave "You can't say civilization isn't advancing; in every war they kill you in a new way. "-Will Rogers.

Science Proves God!

Following is borrowed from a seminar “New Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God” by Astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross given in 1994

The Extreme Precision of Physical Constants

Electromagnatism

Unless the force of electromagnetism takes on a particular value, molecules won't happen. If the force electromagnetism is too weak, the electron will not orbit the nucleus. If electrons cannot orbit nuclei, then electrons cannot be shared so that nuclei can come together to form molecules. Without molecules, we have no life.If the force electromagnetism is too strong, the nuclei will hang onto their electrons with such strength that the electrons will not be shared with adjoining nuclei and again, molecules will never form.

Strong Nuclear Force

Protons and neutrons are held together in the nucleus of an atom by the strong nuclear force, which is the strongest of the four forces of physics. If the nuclear force is too strong, the protons and neutrons in the universe will find themselves stuck to other protons and neutrons, which means we have a universe devoid of Hydrogen. Hydrogen is the element composed of the bachelor proton. Without Hydrogen, there's no life chemistry. On the other hand, if we make the nuclear force slightly weaker, none of the protons and neutrons will stick together. All of the protons and neutrons will be bachelors, in which case the only element that would exist in the universe would be Hydrogen.

It's so sensitive that if we were to make this force 3/10 of 1% stronger or 2% weaker, life would be impossible at any time in the universe.

Mass of the Proton and Neutron

The neutron is 0.138% more massive than the proton. Because of this, it takes a little more energy for the universe to make neutrons, as compared to protons. That's why in the universe of today we have seven times as many protons as neutrons. If the neutron were 1/10th of 1% less massive than what we observe, then the universe would make so many neutrons that all of the matter in the universe would very quickly collapse into neutron stars and black holes, and life would be impossible. If we made the neutron 1/10th of 1% more massive than what we observe, then the universe would make so few neutrons, that there wouldn't be enough neutrons to make Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, etc. So, we must delicately balance that mass to within 1/10 th of 1%, or life is impossible.

Electrons

In order for life to exist in the universe, the force of gravity must be 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10 to the 40th power) times weaker than the force of electromagnetism. It's essential that the force of gravity be incredibly weak compared to the other three forces of physics.

Gravity

Yet planets, stars and galaxies will not form unless gravity is dominant in the universe, so the universe must be set up in such a way that the other forces of physics cancel out and leave gravity, the weakest of the forces, dominant. It's necessary for the universe to be electrically neutral. The numbers of the positively charged particles must be equivalent to the numbers of negatively charged particles or else electromagnetism will dominate gravity, and stars, galaxies and planets will never form. The numbers of electrons must equal the numbers of protons to better than one part of 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10 to the 37 th power).

Earth: An Insignificant Speck?

Mass of the Universe

Astronomers have discovered that the total mass of the universe acts as a catalyst for nuclear fusion and the more massive the universe is, the more efficiently nuclear fusion operates in the cosmos. If the universe is too massive, the mass density too great, then very quickly all the matter in the universe is converted from Hydrogen into elements heavier than iron, which would render life impossible because the universe would be devoid of Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, etc. If the universe has too little mass, then fusion would work so inefficiently that all that the universe would ever produce would be Hydrogen, or Hydrogen plus a small amount of Helium. But there again, the Carbon and Oxygen we need for life would be missing.

We live in a Special Solar System, Too

It's not that easy to get the right galaxy. Life can only happen on late born stars. If it's a first or second-generation star, then life is impossible because you don't yet have the heavy elements necessary for life chemistry. There's a narrow window of time in the history of the universe when life can happen. If the universe is too old or too young, life is impossible. Only spiral galaxies produce stars late enough in their history that they can take advantage of the elements that are essential for life history, and only 6% of the galaxies in our universe are spiral galaxies.

Besides Hydrogen and Helium, the other elements are made in the cores of super giant stars. Super giant stars burn up quickly; they're gone in a just a few million years. When they go through the final stages of burning up their fuel, they explode ashes into outer space, and future generations of stars will absorb those ashes.

Births & Deaths of Multiple Stars Required to have Metals in Earth's Crust

When those stars go through their burning phase, they will take that heavy element ash material. This time when they explode, they make a whole bunch of material, capable of forming rocky planets and supporting life chemistry.

But we want these supernovae exploding early in the history of the galaxy. We don't want them going off now. If the star Cereus goes Super Nova, we're in serious trouble because it's only eight light years away. It would exterminate life on our planet.

We observe in our galaxy that there was a burst of Super Nova explosions early in its history, but it tapered off to where it isn't a threat to life that is now in existence. The Super Nova explosions took place in the right quantity and in the right locations so that life could happen here on Earth.

Life is impossible in the center of our galaxy, or in the heel of our galaxy. It's only possible at a distance 2/3 from the center of our galaxy.The stars at the center of our galaxy are jammed so tightly together that the mutual gravity would destroy the planetary orbits. Moreover, their synchrotron radiation would be destructive to life molecules. But we don't want to be too far away from the center, either. If we get too far away, then there aren't enough heavy elements from the exploded remains of supernovae to enable life chemistry to proceed.

There's one life essential element that the supernovae do not make, however, and that's Fluorine. Fluorine is made only on the surfaces of white dwarf binaries. A white dwarf is a burned out star. It's like a cinder in a fireplace, just glowing. Orbiting this white dwarf is a star that hasn't yet exhausted its nuclear fuel. It's an ordinary star, like our Sun. The white dwarf has enough mass relative to the ordinary star orbiting around it that it is capable of pulling mass off of the surface of the ordinary star and dragging it down so that it falls on its surface. When that material falls on the surface of the while dwarf, it ignites some very interesting nuclear reactions that produce Fluorine. We need a white dwarf binary whose gravitational interactions between the white dwarf and the ordinary star are such that a strong enough stellar wind is sent from the white dwarf to blast the Fluorine beyond the gravitational pull of both stars, putting it into outer space, so that future generations of stars can absorb it. Then we have enough Fluorine for life chemistry.

A Trillion Galaxies - but as far as physicists know, only ours can support life

Two American astrophysicists concluded about a year ago that rare indeed is the galaxy that has the right number of this special kind white dwarf binary pair in the right location, occurring at the right time, so that life can exist today. The universe contains a trillion galaxies. But ours may be the only one that has the necessary conditions for life to exist.

We can't have a star any bigger than our Sun. The bigger the star, the more rapidly and erratically it burns its fuel. Our Sun is just small enough to keep a stable enough flame for a sufficient period of time to make life possible. If it were any bigger, we couldn't have life on planet Earth. If it were any smaller, we'd be in trouble, too.

Smaller stars are even more stable than our star, the Sun, but they don't burn as hot. In order to keep our planet at the right temperature necessary to sustain life, we'd have to bring the planet closer to the star.

Tidal Forces

The physicists in the audience realize that when you bring a planet closer to its star, the tidal interaction between the star and the planet goes up to the inverse fourth power to the distance separating them. For those of you who are not physicists, that means that all you have to do is bring that planet ever so much closer to the star, and the tidal forces could be strong enough to break the rotational period.

That's what happened to Mercury and Venus. Those planets are too close to the Sun; so close that their rotational periods have been broken, from several hours to several months.
Earth is just barely far enough away to avoid that breaking. We have a rotation period of once every 24 hours. If we wait much longer, it will be every 26 or 28 hours, because the Earth's rotation rate is slowing down. Going back in history, we can measure the time when the Earth was rotating every 20 hours. When the Earth was rotating once every 20 hours, human life was not possible. If it rotates once every 28 hours, human life will not be possible. It can only happen at 24 hours.

Speed of Earth's Rotation

If the planet rotates too quickly, you get too many tornadoes and hurricanes. If it rotates too slowly, it gets too cold at night and too hot during the day. We don't want it to be 170 degrees during the day, nor do we want it to be below –100 at night, because that's not ideal for life.

We need the right Earth. If the Earth is too massive, it retains a bunch of gases such as Ammonia, Methane, Hydrogen and Helium in its atmosphere. These gases are not acceptable for life, at least, not for advanced life. But if it's not massive enough, it won't retain water. For life to exist on planet Earth, we need a huge amount of water, but we don't need a lot of ammonia and methane.

Remember high school chemistry? Methane's molecular weight 16, ammonia's molecular weight 17, water's molecular weight is 18. God so designed planet Earth that we keep lots of the 18, but we don't keep any of the 16 or the 17. The incredible fine-tuning of the physical characteristics of Earth is necessary for that.

Jupiter Necessary, too

Unless you have a very massive planet like Jupiter, five times more distant from the star than the planet that has life, life will not exist on that planet. It takes a super massive planet like Jupiter, located where it is, to act as a shield, guarding the Earth from comic collisions. We don't want a comet colliding with Earth every week. What astrophysicists discovered in their models of planetary formation was that it's a very rare star system indeed that produces a planet as massive as Jupiter, in the right location, to act as such a shield.

We Even Need the Right Moon

The Earth's moon system is that of a small planet being orbited by a huge, single moon. That huge, single moon has the effect of stabilizing the rotation axis of planet Earth to 23½ degrees. That's the ideal tilt for life on planet Earth. The axis on planet Mars moves through a tilt from zero to 60 degrees and flips back and forth. If that were to happen on Earth, life would be impossible. Thanks to the Moon, it's held stable at 23 ½ degrees.

At Least 41 Fine-Tuned Characteristics, to have One Planet that Supports Life

The bottom line to all of this is that we have 41 characteristics of the solar system that must be fine-tuned for life to exist. But even if the universe contains as many planets as it does stars, which is a gross overestimate in my opinion, that still leaves us with less than one chance in a billion trillion that you'd find even one planet in the entire universe with the capacity for supporting life.

Surf's Up

Is this one of those old Movie reviews that people put down at their blogs when they have nothing of great interest to share? Well, I got plenty to share, but I got very little time. And this Animation Movie “Surf’s Up” is the Picture of the year for me. I gotta put pen to paper about it, or more precisely, put finger to keyboard about it, don’t I?

It is a behind the scenes look at the annual World Surf Competition, yup, and all the competition is penguins, except for a chicken from Wisconsin! What’s a chicken doing among those cute and cuddly penguins is not a question that you need to ask, when you see how well placed the character is. Now, don’t get confused with Happy Feet. This movie is faster paced, less dramatic (in the sense that it is not slow, it has its own sagacity of light hearted drama with all those twist and turns) and less of a musical. The music is more hip, and man, is it catchy. It’s foot tapping and invigorating. The humor is fresh. The characters voices absolutely well casted. The voice by Shia La Beouf ( I hope I got the spelling right!) for the lead character Cody Maverick is great, it’s deep and provides a lot of life the character.

For some real nice moments, fast paced humor that only animations can offer you, and nice family fun, go watch this movie. And if you are really depressed with your life right now, which you shouldn’t be, and as a cure for that give this movie a shot!

A poetic note!

A light hearted poem, I wrote quite a few years back! Read it for the romance and read it for the humour.

Every time I try so hard
to make you look at me
I try to drive a sporty car
you don't notice, even when I drown in the sea

I drew a heart in the sand
plucked flowers with my own hand,
I sent you a poetic note
you asked me to beat the road
To me, I am your greatest fan
To you, I am an invisible man

You went swimming in a pool
I stood staring like a fool
I tried to hand you a towel
but you shoved me into the rubble
There I was, lying in the hospital bed
"told you this would happen!", my friends said
To me, you are the best God could make
To you, I am the biggest fake

I wanted to be a part of your shadow
You said I was walking the death row
I tried to talk one last time
You said I'll never make you mine
I knew now you were out of range,
But one day everything would change
I found an angel near the lake
my poetic note she did take
To me, I found the girl of my dream
To you, somebody stole your cream.

Busy?

Time fleets away, leaving nothing behind but a perfume of the past. I try to keep up with it, seldom winning the race.

Been busy with quite a few things lately. Also been getting on to the lazier side. All I need is some motivation, some incentive, a drive that would get me to the other side.

Nothing interesting to talk about except that I been regular to the swimming pool to perfect the secret art of swimming that few can master. It is amazing what you can learn from the internet these days. Watched quite a few swimming videos on the Internet, really helped my cause. Especially the video by Jimmy,a US Marine. Guy's really cool, and guy's good at what he does! Anyone who is new, should watch his tutorials.

Makes me wonder,what a gift YouTube has been. It's like everything is on there. Trust me, everything!!

So if you are busy doing nothing, like what I usually tend to do. Try some swimming , its really good for the body. And could save your life or the life of a loved one, if something terribly goes wrong. Now, don't be afraid of water and tell me that you will only enter water once you have learnt how to swim!

Earth's second Moon!

Earth has a second moon and you would know that when you get to the bottom of the post. And now that I have your attention, our first Moon, needs quite a bit of mention.

“The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand.” said Frederic Lawrence Knowles. What would the world be without the moon? Where would the hopeless romantics, the werewolf stories, the convinced astrologers, the questing astronomers and the sci-fi enthusiasts go?Into a vacuum of space that would be created if the moon seizes to exist?

The Moon inspires us all in different ways. Optimists have quoted some memorable lines like “My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon” and “Don't tell me the sky is the limit; there are footprints on the moon!” “The moon's an arrant thief and her pale fire she snatches from the Sun.” writes Shakespeare.

Through time the Moon has stood by Earth, Wolves have howled at the moon for centuries, yet it is still there. An inspiration that stands for eons together, a doorway to fantasy that opens up time and again. Some even think the Moon was put there by an alien race to monitor us. They have some good reasons to come to this seemingly weird conclusion. After all, we are always viewing only 55% of the moon. The orbit of the Moon is such that one rotation is just about as long as one revolution in its orbit around the Earth. Because of this, one side is facing us during its orbit. Always a side, only one side. In theory, the far side of the moon, often referred to as the “dark side” of the moon could easily contain an alien base, as this is the side of the moon that we never ever see, even radio signals are blocked in that area. The “far side” is always hidden, feeding the mystery the fuel it needs to burn! Isaac Asimov once commented that: “There is no astronomical reason why the moon and the sun should fit so well. It is the sheerest of coincidences, and only the Earth among all the planets is blessed in this fashion.” This "coincidence" means that the moon is just the right size and distance, to completely block the sun during an eclipse. Eclipses are infrequent events but are often linked to quite serious earthquakes. Was the moon placed in a very specific orbit by a higher intelligence from another world who wanted to either monitor us as a species or exert an element of control over our planet?

The words 'lunacy", "lunatic", and "loony" are derived from Luna because of the folk belief in the moon as a cause of periodic insanity. “I don't know if there are men on the moon, but if there are they must be using the earth as their lunatic asylum” concludes George Bernard Shaw. The Ancient Chinese say, “When a finger points to the moon, the imbecile looks at the finger”. No wonder, the “Looney Toons” are a big hit everywhere, we are under the power of the great Moon God. It is a feature of modern belief that shapeshifters such as werewolves drew their power from the moon and would change into their bestial form during the full moon.

There are dozens of anomalous facts concerning the moon that science is at a loss to explain, not least of which is how it is that according to the analysis of moon rocks, the moon, is at least a billion years older than the Earth itself. This fact alone seems to defy logic, and is something that modern cosmology is unable to explain, if the moon isn’t a fragment of the Earth, what is it, and how did it get here?

An interesting fact to end this discussion by……3753 Cruithne is an asteroid in orbit around the Sun. Due to its unusual orbit relative to that of the Earth, it is a periodic inclusion planetoid. It is sometimes called "Earth's second moon" although it is not a satellite of the Earth.

One little kiss

One of the favourite of my poems !

A million thoughts and a million words, a lonely emotion
A moment so bizarre, strange and stranger than fiction
An end to death, a beginning to life only at the end
A moment of pure untainted bliss, never one like this
A profound truth, a mystery disentangled, with your one little kiss

Blog title record

Well, if you didn't notice, here is the deal. The title to my blog keeps changing randomly in time but depending on my mood, depending on the article I publish. So I thought it would be really fun, if I put all the blog titles I have changed till now.Like a small blog title record.

So from the top of my mind, let me remember and write some of them down.

1. Perspective India
2. Red is the Colour
3. Watch this space for new headings
4. Atlast, a real blog!
5. Stay Gray . Stay neutral
6. Speaking the Mind
7. Frozen in time
8. In the prison of Happiness
9. Under Massive Reconstruction
10. The Butterfly Effect
11. Into Business of Busyness
12. Chuck It!
13. Surf's Up!
14. We live on a needle point of balance.
15. It's good. Trust me, I wrote it!
16. Perusing Thoughts
17. Pondering over nothing is genius!


List would be updated as and when it should. Can I have this as a blog post? Will somebody be interested. I don't know, I am. Somebody else should be too.

Crisis of Life: My Thesis

Life is simple, it’s just not easy.

I am in a hurry to finish my already stretched to the limit thesis. My only problem is I have a compulsive disorder of getting everything right. And in the mean time, I keep forgetting the golden rule….

"Just do what you need to do to finish"

I keep forgetting that the Master Thesis is not the end of me. It is not supposed to be a master piece. Well, even my Advisor feels I am dwelling too deep into the subject and that I am just not moving forward, but just digging myself deeper. Which is, obviously, not the right direction to move in, if you need to move forward. Unless of course, one is digging through a sphere like earth and you can get from America to China by just digging deep right through the core!

I need some serious help from people who got their thesis done on time, with hard work and the smarts!

I guess I am scared of the defense and I want to cover all of the weaknesses with a strong literature backing. But I guess I can always tell the defense committee if I have a very flimsy explanation for a particular question that, “If you don't buy this explanation, let me remind you that it's the same same explanation you bought a couple of defenses ago.”

Just doing it!

I thought I would start a new section on motivation. Every now and then I would post anything that would motivate my lazy A**! It could work for you even if you are not as lethargic as me!

Here goes number one....
"The Impossible is often the untried."

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day to people I know, and to people I don't but would love to know. I feel proud. I feel proud to be free. I feel proud to be independent. I feel proud to be an independent Indian.

To everyone who feels proud to be an Independent Indian, remember, real independence is about getting to do the right things. Are we ready to do the right things for India?

So what's cooking?

Ask me that question, “Can men cook?” and I would answer, “Yes, we can!” After all the best chefs have always been men, haven’t they? Most of the chefs in multi cuisine restaurants and hotels are after all purely male.Or is it just a tradition we follow, a convention that has lodged into our heads, like a baby monkey to its mom? Because everyone knows how superior the food is when Moms cook! They are few other things to die for. As Barbara Costikyan, U.S. editor and writer, aptly puts it in these words,"In the childhood memories of every good cook, there's a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot and a mom."

And where would we be without our cooking? The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of an ancient civilization right underneath our feet!

Someday, I am going to get married, hopefully to a wife who has always been a woman, right from the beginning. And hopefully she would know how to cook. But there is a little conundrum attached to it. “There is one thing more exasperating than a wife who can cook and won't and that's a wife who can't cook and will.” As rightly said by Robert Frost! I wonder why his Second name could be “Frost”? Did his forefathers put everything in the freezer and then later defrosted it. They were probably days, when they boiled water, put it in the freezer and then defrosted it. But, it doesn’t really add up, the name then would have read “Robert Defrost”, a more fitting one!

But cooking is easy, if you follow these easy guidelines….
1. Never count your eggs, before you fry them! You could always manage to break a few on the kitchen floor!

2. The early bird gets the worm; you better get her first, because you will have no worm!

3. If you or your wife fall into the second category Robert Frost was talking about, you better get ready to think about this quote by Rodney Dangerfield “Why, her cooking is so bad that the flies pitched in to fix the screen door. I leave dental floss in the kitchen and watch the roaches hang themselves."

I have a friend Mr. M, who cooks beautifully and like most connoisseurs his taste is very exquisite and is only limited in margin to very few things he loves. He is very choosy, I am not. He cooks quite a few stomach pleasers that I love, but he wouldn’t eat it himself, because he doesn’t like to debase himself to the common man’s taste. Whatever dude, you got the magic , I got the eat!

Ponder over this, before you leave ““If a pot is cooking, the frienship will stay warm”

Colours of your dreams

You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'”George Bernard shaw.

Dreams have always fascinated me. And when I mean dreams , it is not the aspirations we have, but the dreams we have when we fall asleep. Before I go on I would like to ask a question, do you dream in colour or do you dream in black and white? Try to answer this before you move on any further.

Dreams actually occur in the entire brain - all at once. Which is to say, there isn't just one area or part of the brain where dreams occur. When scientists first measured activity in our brains during REM sleep (REM stands for rapid eye movement sleep, when dreams occur), they discovered that our brains are as active during dreams as when we are awake. When we dream, our brains are stimulated from the inside, and all our senses are involved. This is why we can see, touch, taste, smell, and hear in our dreams - the entire brain is just as busy as when we are awake!

Recurring dreams let us know that there is an important, unsolved problem in our lives. This is why recurring dreams are especially valuable to try to understand. Our subconscious mind is sending us an urgent message! Here's a fact about recurring dreams that not many people know: If we are able to identify the issue and solve the problem in our waking lives, the recurring dreams will stop. My first question about color in dreams has an interesting history. Historically, no one ever believed dreams were in black and white. In fact, it wasn't until the late 1950s and early 1960s that the question came to be debated. The cause? People were beginning to watch a lot of black and white television in those days, and this made their dreams, on occasion, mimic the black and white worlds that people were seeing on their TVs at night.
The answer to my question, accordingly, is tricky. All people dream in color. The truth is that we only recently began to dream in black and white—after we saw, for the first time, what a "black and white" world would look like. Think about it. If you'd never seen black and white movies and photographs and TV shows, it would be pretty hard to imagine what a "black and white" world would look like. For example, if you lived in the 1850s, and if someone asked you whether you dreamed in color or black and white—the question wouldn't make sense. You'd ask them: "What on Earth do you mean by dreaming in black and white?" Because the only world we knew back then was in full living color.

So far this is true. This means we dream in colour and also in black and white. But why don't we have information of the colour itself, why don't we remember what colour we had in our dreams?

The first thing is that YES it's true there are dreams in which there is no colour, but that is not because they're in black and white!What happens is that in dreaming, the automatic checking systems that go on in the mind are turned off. So, if the queen of England visited and brought a few aliens round for tea you'd probably be working out if you'd got enough cups and whether the biscuits you'd got would be acceptable, rather than thinking that it was a bit odd to be visited by the queen and some aliens.

Also, in dreams, things which aren't relevant are just UNSPECIFIED, and there are no alarm bells to flag up that something is MISSING. So, when you're flying on a magic carpet, you can't necessarily say which shoes you might have been wearing.

But not being able to tell what shoes you had on does not imply you were barefoot. This is what happens with the COLOUR situation. In a dream, where the colour of something is relevant, you see colour, but where the colour is not relevant, there is NO COLOUR INFORMATION. But that doesn't mean it's in black&white.This is the same way, why we remember only one person we talked to in a crowded room. We remember the room was crowded, but we remember no other person than the one we talked to.

It is this, the fact that "missing" information is not noticed to be missing, that fools the conscious mind on waking up into concluding that therefore by implication the dream must have been in black and white, whereas in fact it was just that colour wasn't important in that particular dream.

Beauty and the Beast

I am back from my India trip. And there are some experiences I need to share. Well, as always there are two sides of the coin, the beauty and the beast. The beast no matter how ferocious is always belittled by the Beauty of India. So here are the two…

Episode 1: Day of Departure

The Beauty: Everything is all packed, for the first time I am actually ready about 5 hours before my flight.

The Beast: Air India is going to be late as it is our indian custom, delayed from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

The Beauty: A nice friend agreed to drop us at the airport.

The Funny Beast: We reach the airport, at 6:30 pm. I ask at the Air India counter, what time would the flight be actually in air. The official replies it’s “on time”. Scares the living hell out of me. I am sure they have cancelled my reservation. And I ask dejected, “At 7.30 pm?” Official replies, “No Sir, rescheduled to 9:30 pm Sir, on time Sir.” I am so glad “on time” in India, is about 2 hours later.

The Beauty: Nice dinner on flight.

The Beast: Since I was flying to Chennai then to Hyderabad, the in-flight movie is in Tamil, the blockbuster “Pokri”.

The Beauty: We had English subtitles, and the lead actress was way too hot!

The Beauty: We land in Chennai to a very pleasant weather. Nice South Indian breakfast follows.

The Beast: The Indian Airlines flight from Hyderabad to Chennai is late by an hour.

The Beauty: I found this cute little girl about 10 years old, traveling all on her own from Chennai to Delhi. So young, so confident and so independent. I wish I have a daughter just like her.

The Beauty: The Spice Jet employees look really hot in their designer red pants and shirt. Living up to their names.

The Beast: I wasn’t traveling by Spice.

The Beauty: “On time” delay of one hour and I am at my home, my Hyderabad.

This is how banks fleece you

No free lunches. Your bank might be offering you more services than ever, but someone has to be paying for them. And more likely than not, it is you. So, feel free to ask. Also, read forms you sign. Till 1999, the Indian Banks' Association used to fix charges. But since banks were freed to have their own charges, numerous charges have crept in. It is pretty difficult and, often, unnecessary to track them all. In most bank branches, charges for regular services are displayed fairly conspicuously. What is not as much in public display are the penalties, such as those levied for not maintaining the minimum balance and quarterly average balance and overdrawing from the savings account. According to a BBC report published in December 2006, that year, the top six high street banks in the UK earned an estimated pound 4.5 billion (approx Rs 36,000 crore) only from penalty charges incurred for unauthorised overdrafts, bounced cheques and clearing direct debits when there are insufficient funds in the account. While no such figure is available for Indian commercial banks, industry sources estimate that it could be around Rs 3,000 per annum for an account in a private sector bank. (See: Biting charges). For the banks, it is like hitting the jackpot. Things to do * Close accounts you don't use. If you open one as a requirement for term deposits, go for a no-frill account. But even one of these, if it lets you have a zero balance, may charge you for frequent cash withdrawals. The cheque facility is also free only up to a number of cheques. * Check every service you are using and ask the bank whether they are costing you anything. * Overall, use ATMs, Internet banking and phone banking. Most of it is free and can save charges for services such as 'stop payment' of a cheque, or transferring money from one bank to another when the amount is above Rs 100,000. * Maintain quarterly average balance at all times. Keep track of automatic payouts and post-dated cheques. Else it could cost you up to Rs 750 in a private bank. Also, a bounced cheque can lead to criminal prosecution under law. * Also keep track of all your consolidate student loan schemes, refinancing,debt consolidation,equity home loan schemes.

Marriage Counseling

Marriage is in the air. Or was it love is in there air? Whichever, it’s got to be one of them ,in some cases,both together. With Ash and Abhi getting married, and the whole media going crazy…that’s what I gather when I see the e-newspapers from out here, it was about time I seriously look into the institute of marriage. Ash took her time to get married didn’t she? How old is she, 35? Well, as George Carlin observed...."I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence? Seems that’s how the ball bounces nowadays. “I do’s” are getting really harder and longer. And seriously, people really need to get married early. There is no point in wasting time, in order to find a person that you can annoy for the rest of your life. Did I type “annoy” back there, sorry, the right word is “infuriate”. At last you will have someone who will tolerate you for your money, oops… for your love and affection.

And getting married is not easy. It is like going to buy a car. You somehow save up for a MERCEDES S-class; you buy it, and then realize that your neighbor has a BMW M5 which is faster, flashier, prettier and more reliable. Ditto goes for ladies too. I mean, it’s like they go out shopping, and then realize they need to buy one particular gorgeous set of shoes. Eventually they buy them, and then realize that they don’t go with any of their dresses. Ladies beware; buy a tailor-made man who matches all your inner needs and desires! And yes if you are not vigilant, you will most likely be the man/ woman who would say, "I never knew what real happiness was until I got married; by then it was too late."

Well, after what’s done is done, you know, after getting married somehow and barely managing to live it up. Things can eventually look brighter; after all marriage is the process of finding out what kind of person your spouse would have really preferred.A very smart husband will never let go of his wife’s hand in public. The wife feels very comforted, and the husband knows she can’t shop. And the wife makes sure the game of love is played on even grounds. No jewelry, no warmth and care.

As time goes by, even with the mutual benefit to each, a lot of marriages do break down. As someone once said, in America if a marriage lasts for longer than the milk takes time to sour than it is a success. An exaggeration nevertheless, but isn’t it true that you never know them until you marry them? Its like a shiny gift wrapped box, of infinite possibilities. As another anonymous guy said “I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was Always”
But before I go, I would like to warn all women….with this Mae West quote, “Do not marry a man to reform him. That is what reform schools are for."

One last kiss

Virtual cobwebs in my chat window, signifying you haven't been in here for long now
I just hope u do reply, dont want you to just read, smile and turnaway
better late than ever, you know i will keep waiting, you know i will be the last man standing
addicted to you i am to a lot of extent, simple to seem be my wish to see you, but ungranted
scar me not , my little scarlett, sweeten me with them sugary dimples once more
I cry one little smile, I die one little death in bliss, just seal my coffin with one little kiss.

Existence of God

Most of the people believe that the universe came into existence purely out of nothing but coincidence. They have some very "compelling" arguments against God. The Big Bang theory and the Evolution theory being two of the trendy theories that are used by these "science oriented" people. And I and others too, would call them atheist. And yeah, agnostics and atheist, there is not much of a difference between the two. I believe it is just politically correct to call an atheist an agnostic. Little do they know, they are lot of people that believe in both science and God, and they have some good reasons and basis to do that.

Recently, I came across a video on YouTube. It was by a convinced atheist. And he points out that, religions like Christianity believe, God answers a prayer in YES, NO and WAIT. And he claims, it’s merely an illusion. If say, you pray to a Milk-can, for 1000 dollars. And within a couple of days you get a $1000 check from a distant relative or as a tax reimbursement, it would be like the Milk-can had answered your prayer in a YES. And if you don't get the money in the immediate future, but you get it later, it would be that the prayer was answered by "WAIT". And if you never get anything, it would be like the prayer's answer was a "NO". So he adds, if you don't believe that the Milk-can is God, then how can you believe in something else as a God. It is a very convincing argument, if, that is, you do not possess the barest of wisdom.

But, say for example, my friend comes to me with a request to have a piece of the cake I have on my table. I give it to him, which amounts to a "YES". Then he asks me for another, and I say “WAIT" and give it to him only about half an hour from now. And then when he asks for a third one, I would say "NO". Will my friend, then deny my existence? Will he say I am not part of the real world. Because, as the milk-can, I had also answered in YES, NO and WAIT? So there lies the fallacy in that "convincing" argument!

And to my first point, of people claiming that the universe came into existence all on its own, and there is no Maker .Would they also use the same line of thinking, when they see a new car on the road? They never saw the maker, will they leap to the conclusion that the car just came into existence all on its own? If they cannot agree to this a mere un-complex creation of man, then how can they believe something as complex as nature, which from all probabilistic modals is impossible to recreate, with all the resources in the world, came into being just on a mere twist of fate. It’s like.....if I drop my keyboard on the floor, and let it lie there for millions of years, will it morph into something living? Even one living cell would be out of question and even a die hard evolution fan would agree that it’s not possible.

Isaac Asimov once commented that: “There is no astronomical reason why the moon and the sun should fit so well. It is the sheerest of coincidences, and only the Earth among all the planets is blessed in this fashion.” This "coincidence" means that the moon is just the right size and distance, to completely block the sun during an eclipse. Eclipses are infrequent events but are often linked to quite serious earthquakes. Was the moon placed in a very specific orbit by a higher intelligence from another world who wanted to either monitor us as a species or exert an element of control over our planet?


Now, let’s get into the evolutionary theory. When a living coelacanth fish was found in 1938 it was hailed as the scientific sensation of the century. Until then, the coelacanth (pronounced SEE'-luh-canth) was known to science only from fossils. Scientists generally believed coelacanths had become extinct 60 or 70 million years ago. Since 1938 many more living coelacanths have been caught. Evolutionary scientists used to think that amphibians evolved from a group of fishes that included the coelacanth, which was known only from fossils. The Coelacanths were their safest bet to support the evolution theory. But they dropped this idea when living coelacanths were found from 1938 showing no evidence of evolution from the oldest fossil coelacanths to the living examples. The evidence from the coelacanth is good evidence for creation, for it shows that DNA, the genetic code, has remained stable throughout time. 70 million years, and the Coelacanth never evolved. And just because God knows what we plan to do, he keeps this fish alive for all those millions of years, knowing before hand we would use it to discredit His existence by using the theory of evolution as our bludgeon.

Experts thought that once the Homo lineage debuted about 2.5 million years ago in East Africa with Homo habilis, things settled down, with habilis evolving into Homo erectus who evolved into Homo sapiens—us—like biblical begats .Two fossils discovered in Kenya suggest that evolution was a lot messier than that. One of the specimens, found just east of Kenya's Lake Turkana, is the upper jaw bone of a habilis from 1.44 million years ago; habilis was thought to have become extinct about 1.6 million years ago. The other is an erectus, say their discoverers, a well-preserved skull from 1.55 million years ago and the smallest ever found for this species. The more recent date for habilis shows that it and erectus were contemporaries for half a million years, from 1.9 million to 1.44 million years ago. The evidence that Homo habilis and Homo erectus lived at the same time in the Turkana basin makes it "unlikely that Homo erectus evolved from Homo habilis," says Meave Leakey, a lead author of the paper announcing the discovery in tomorrow's issue of the journal Nature. (A research associate at the National Museums of Kenya and research professor at Stony Brook University in New York, she is the wife of anthropologist and naturalist Richard Leakey; their daughter Louise, the third generation of her family to go into the fossil-hunting business, is a co-discoverer of the new specimens.


The discoverers are sticking by their guns, and even Tattersall agrees that their conclusion—that erectus and habilis overlapped in time and that habilis was not the direct ancestor of erectus—is probably right. Which leads to perhaps the greatest puzzle of all. Throughout human evolution, several species of ancestors lived at the same time. The most recent, of course, were Neanderthals, which made their last stand in the Iberian peninsula about 35,000 years ago. Then why is Homo sapiens the one and only species of human on the planet today?

One of the most brilliant lines of questioning employed by atheist is regarding God’s abilities. Here is one such question, and did befuddle me for a moment, because I really couldn’t answer it, until somebody told me, how tricky the question itself was. So coming to the question, it goes like this….Can God create something that he cannot destroy? Well, I am dead if I say yes, and I am history if I say no. A “yes” would mean, God can create something but he cannot destroy it, then how is he God? A “no” would mean, God cannot create such a thing, and it’s back to square one, then why can’t God create something like that. But a careful look at the question exposes the trick part of the question, which common sense ignores. The question contradicts itself. To understand how, I can ask you another question on the same lines, and you will understand the deception behind it. Can God create a tall short person? Or, can God create a tall person who is short? See, how the question is entirely unanswerable, but at the same time a huge rip off?


And then there are some unanswered questions I have before I end this discussion. If everything is science and natural laws, why do we have so many anomalies? Like for example, why doesn't light have a relative speed, everything else in the universe has? Why do superconductors exists, why can they pull and push magnetically the same time? If energy can neither be created nor destroyed, and if energy is consumed when work is done, what about all the work the earth does with gravity, where does the energy come from? What is an absolute zero? Is there no energy below it? Then if you read the equinox theory, you will find that there a machines on earth, that have efficiency over unity, do you have an explanation for that?