Yet another day when the free slack in my activities is allowing me to diverge from my critical path.

In other words, am a bit free today. So another one of the flashes....

Talked to some old friends after 4-5 years... Orkut-facebook is Great!! Felt amazing how the distances of years can be erased in minutes.... in the same world where minutes are deemed sufficient to wipe away an era of trust and friendship...

Sometimes, I feel whether it is wise to sit back and let life take its course or to take control of it...

Though a staunch advocate of the latter, right now I seem to be favoring the former. Just to see what happens, if for nothing else.

So for a while, life itself will decide. Unless of course, I revert back to my usual self, which I trust more than life, luck or destiny. I suspect I will...

Hoping against hope, but still hoping for the best...

Love thy neighbour? Not yet...

The Times of India has started a bold new campaign on this New Year... Love Pakistan. Some arguments and counter arguments are bound to come up there, but at the outset, I concede that I am on the side of naysayers.

I also dare say, this seems to be a gimmick but one with intent of doing something good.

It actually feels odd to see India, Pakistan and Love in the same sentence. And can anyone be blamed for this?

It is not just what we have been fed over the past 60 years of ‘hate propaganda' from the other side. Any well meaning individual who feels for the common man and especially for the armed forces will have this odd feeling.

Also, when all previous attempts of extending hands has met only cynicism and counterproductive results like terror attacks.

It makes common sense to be wary. The sadhu who keeps on tending the scorpion that bites back may not have to stop tending to the scorpion. But he definitely needs to take care of the sting before taking care of the scorpion.

After all these years of gore and attacks in my country having been repetitively propagated by Pakistan, I can still love the common people, cricketers, singers, etc on the other side of the border. But loving Pakistan... boss...

I know better than that. I love the likes of Karkare, Saluskar, Kamte, Nachiketa, Unnikrishnan, Suri and common Indians too much to love the hand that killed them all.

Lets all be bit more wary on this count....

Whenever my wife and I have to attend a party, there is enough chaos before we leave home for the kids to roll their eyes and for the maid to pull out her hair.

Gifts would have to be wrapped and clothes have to be ironed and worn, with seconds to go before out designated time of departure.

When we finally get into the car, we're invariably quite late and there has been many an argument along the way, which has resulted in that much more tension.

An even tenser situation results, however, when we have a 'do' at out home and when we have to put our best performances as to please-all hosts.

The scene at our humble abode, just minutes before the guests are to arrive, resembles that of a busy bazaar. One of us is usually busy with the laptop(me), another is shouting at all and sundry while running around the house (my wife), the kids are on tenterhooks and the TV is blarring. The maid and the borrowed 'help' look as if they've had enough and are never going to be part of any party again.

Indeed the pressure is really on!

Opinion is divided about the precise moment when i usually coax myself to leave the computer and join the frenetic clean-up operation on such occasions. What ever be the truth of the matter, the fact is that there is a frenzied period of activity
just before the guest arrive that is akin to the last over of a T20 thriller.

Our best efforts to host the perfect party have the tendency to go awry, however, to a variety of disruptive influences. Sometimes unwanted visitors arrive minutes before the party is scheduled. On other occasions, long telephone calls hold up preparations. One gaffe is to underestimate the quantity of food required.

Some guest evidently find our food so delicious that they polish off bowl after bowl of the stuff. The result is that a few diners are left staring at empty pots on the table!

Even such errors are pardonable, but not what happened last time. A certain gentleman and his wife turned up for dinner one evening and we kept scratching our heads because they were not on our list. An examination of my cellphone later revealed that I had texted him the invitation, instead of the intended person with the same name.

P.S: the above is an edited version of an article I read few days back, it's simple and straight, yet an interesting read, familiar to what happens in our homes.

Fools pretend to be intelligent, cheats pretend to be honest, foes pretend to be friends, and all of us go through such stress trying to be what we are not. We are so mindful of what others think of us. We fear hate and rejection.

But what I have learnt so far is that trying to please others is like trying to move a mountain. There are very few people who are really happy with one's success.

Whenever I have achieved something, with the exception of my family and a few close friends, I doubt people have really felt happy for me. Hence I have acquired this care-a-damn attitude about what others think of me.

I hate to pretend and always try to be my own self. It's difficult but once you acquire this, it can be the most comforting and liberating attitude to have. I am still pretty popular because I am a kind of fun character to be with. But I doubt how many of them will be around when bad times come upon me.

It's easy to be the centre of attraction at the hostel mess table, cracking jokes and sharp, witty one liner. What is difficult is to find a person to talk to when you don't have any joke to crack.

Its easy to gather "friends" for the party a class topper throws, what is difficult is to find a friend who will listen and comfort you when you fail the exam. Its easy to find people for company for a stroll in the garden, what is difficult is to find a friend to accompany you during a hard trip under a burning sun.

And I realize that there will be times in my life when it will look like a hard trip, when I will have no wit to entertain anybody, when I would have failed. It is in these times when a true friend is needed.

And for this true friend, I would not need to pretend. The friend would not need me to be someone him/her desires, but would accept me for what I am. Who would like me not for being at an NIT, not because I may have a good job, not because I am a "so called" academic under achiever but would like me for what I am, and not for what I have done or not done.

It is so very difficult to find such a person, but to find him/her; you don't need to pretend to be someone else, but to just be yourself.

I know the above crap would not make much of sense, and is nothing new, but just wanted to write it down, just wanted to express how phony this world can sometimes be. It's a sea of pretentions....

The Power Of Positive Thinking.....

I know a lot of people talk about “The power of positive thinking”, and how wonderful it is.

However, a lot of people think it’s a load of crap, and they’re partly right.

Let me explain… The thing is, thinking positive thoughts is very powerful, and can be a great thing for your life. However, there’s a difference between REAL positive thoughts, and denial and lying to your self.

Most people want you to be in a state of denial, where you’re telling yourself things that simply aren’t true. If you’re lying on your death bed, thinking that you’re in perfect health is a lie, and you’ll know it. If you have no money, thinking that you’re rich beyond your dreams is a lie. Lying to your self doesn’t work.

Here’s the trick: you need to think positive things that are TRUE. If you don’t have money, but you want it, and you need positive thoughts about money, try thinking “I like paying my bills on time.”, “I love having plenty of money in the bank.”, “I do good things with my money.”, etc.

If you’re sick, think things like “I’m becoming healthier every day.”, “I like it when I feel good.”, “I love having pain-free days.”, etc. Combine that with listing off the things in your life that are good, no matter how small they may be, and you start to change your way of thinking and looking at your life.

Make sure you really look for the good, even if a good thing in your day is that you got to eat food that you like, or heard a song you love. Remember, no good thing is too small to be thankful for.

So, no matter what people tell you, lying to yourself and being in denial is not going to make your life better. I know people that will see something bad in their life, or in another person, and they just pretend it isn’t there.

That is not going to get you anywhere. If something bad happens, denial won’t fix it. Accept that it is, and then allow yourself to think of what you would prefer.

As an example, if you get in a fight with someone, instead of pretending it didn’t happen, accept that it did, and think about how you would prefer your relationship with that person to be. It is crucial that you LEARN from bad things.

Every unpleasant event is a chance for you to change and grow. It happened to you or in your view, for a reason. You should learn from it so that it won’t happen again.

So, think positive things that are true, learn from bad things and mistakes, and experience the joy of growing into a wonderful and enlightened person.

New helmets with injury biomechanics built in....

Your helmet protects your head, but what about your neck?

Whether you’re on a football field, in a boxing ring or on a race car track, you wear a helmet to protect your head from concussions and other brain injuries.

But what about your neck?

Today's helmets are extremely effective at protecting their wearers against head injuries in a collision. However, their design does not protect the wearer against neck and spinal cord injury in a head-first impact.

Estimating the number of cervical spine injuries from head-first impacts while wearing a helmet in sports is not straightforward.

However, because they are so debilitating and there is no cure for consequences of spinal cord injury, prevention is of utmost importance, especially if prevention can be offered through a helmet that is the same size and configuration as a common helmet.

A helmet under development in British Columbia answers that question with excellent engineering that allows the head to respond in a different way when it’s impacted head-first.

The new helmet being developed by researchers in the Injury Biomechanics Laboratory at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, has an outer shell that looks like most helmets available today, connected to a rotating inner shell that hugs the head.

In head-first impacts, the neck has to stop the motion of the torso immediately after the head stops, and often, the combination of the torso mass and speed can exceed the strength of the neck, leading to a broken neck. An injury to the spinal cord can lead to permanent paralysis.

"injury to the spinal cord results in a complete and irreversible loss of mobility and sensation in large areas of the body in up to 45% of all cases"

A lot of progress has been made to protect athletes from injury to the head, torso, and limbs through the use of helmets and padding. However, injury to the neck is still a serious problem in sports such as football and hockey.

Neck protection devices designed to prevent injuries from excessive motion of the head due to inertial loading in race car collisions, such as the HANS device, have been successful in the prevention of certain injuries to the neck.

However one dangerous mode of neck loading, axial compression arising from head-first impacts, remains unprotected in sports such as hockey, mountain biking, football, horseback riding, skiing and snow boarding. While these injuries are rare, they frequently lead to paralysis and a significant loss of quality-of-life for its sufferers. There is presently no cure for this type of paralysis.

Hence, injury prevention is of the utmost importance in these sports. Progress towards prevention has been made through rules that banned head-first tackling in football and checking from behind in hockey. We believe that further advances in prevention in any scenario where head-first impact happens to a helmeted player can be made.

There is an engineered safety device (the helmet) already in place in many sports which could have its role extended to prevent the neck injury. This is the concept embodied by the new helmet.

The spinal cord is one of the most sensitive and important structures in the human body. The cord contains thousands of nerves that connect organs and muscles in the lower body with the brain and cerebellum. There is much research being done to improve clinical outcomes from spinal cord injury but there is currently no definitive treatment or cure for it.

Injury to the spinal cord results in a complete and irreversible loss of mobility and sensation in large areas of the body in up to 45% of all cases. This is especially the case for spinal cord injuries at the neck or cervical level, where injuries can lead to the paralysis of both arms and legs.

Even though the cervical spinal cord is protected by vertebrae throughout the neck, these vertebrae are relatively weaker than those further down the spine, and most spinal cord injuries occur in this cervical region.

The high speeds and contact forces that make many of today's sports so demanding and exciting are also responsible for the large number of spinal cord injuries amongst players of all skill levels in many sports.

Just being aware of the new helmet and then procuring them to protect themselves, will go a long way in reassuring the users of the safety built into this incredible helmet..

Big, Elegant & an overall Badass Macaw.....!!!!

I spotted this beautiful bird on one of my long runs towards the busier side of the city. The first noteworthy thing anybody would observe is the mere size of this bird. He’s huge! The cage he’s enclosed in is about 3 feet by 3 feet. The cage is 5 feet tall. This exotic bird imported from a south-eastern country is a perennial badass.

Check out what he’s doing in the picture below. It just seems to be hell bent to irritate humans around it.



He’s actually unhooking the metallic perch made specially for him. On asking the keepers to hook it back, they said they were tired of this bird as it was hell bent on being a constant headache to the pet store management. Smart bird if you ask me.

I clicked some more pictures of the macaw, see them and enjoy. This Macaw actually costs about Rs1,50,000 or equivalent of US$3750.







I liked the other birds they had there too, they were all beautiful, healthy and very attractive. Some of the pictures are attached below.









I managed to click all these pictures when the shop assistant began tinkering with his laptop. The cheapest bird comes to around Rs6000 equivalent to US$150.