pedagogical pips

New Passions.. (maybe eccentricity rather)

2011-09-17T01:44:00.000-04:00

Hey PP,

I hope you're not thinking that I have orphaned you. I had preoccupied myself with other things thats all.. But this time, I am not gonna use it just as a pensieve, a memory and rubbish thought reservoir. I am gonna make you a knowledge reservoir too. Well I am thinking of writing blogs on various aspects of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. It sounds crazy!! I know, but I kinda feel really 'motivated' to do that coz of some very influential and equally inspiring events which are unraveling in this new land where I am currently trying to make a life in.. So stay put right there! I'll clean and spruce you up in no time! And hey, if things do go well, I may even compile my blogs into an e book and circulate this to other needy and desperate students like me who need a lot of assistance in decoding the jargon of thermodynamics.. So here goes!!!

FREE ASTRAL PROJECTIONS..

2009-12-13T23:54:00.000-05:00

The ability to travel beyond the realms of the physical body by means of an “astral” or subtle body commonly termed as “Out of the World Experiences”

Despite the seemingly complex definition of astral projection, it is in fact a common phenomenon which occurs in one out of ten people at some point in their lives. Termed as “Out of Body Experiences” (OBEs), this concept was popularized by Robert A. Monroe who is a famous researcher on Altered Consciousness. This phenomenon can occur spontaneously during bouts of physical and mental trauma, by use of hallucinogens, psychedelic drugs or during lucid-dream state. It is also possible to deliberately induce such experiences by synchronizing the brain accordingly or during meditative and trance-like states.

Induced forms of OBEs are referred to as astral projections since it is practiced for some form of religious or spiritual atonement by traveling to higher subtle or astral levels in the form of the practitioner’s astral o subtle body. The astral body is an intangible vessel which is an intermediate entity between the physical body and the soul. The astral planes or the subtle planes are of varying degrees which may or may not resemble the actual physical surroundings of the individual and may or may not involve other living beings. In theory, the astral planes can be distinctly classified as Heaven and Hell, but there are numerous, obscure levels in between which obfuscate their characterization.

Though regarded as a mysterious and fearful power in the past, the practice of astral projection has received much attention during the 1960s and 70s and has cleared several misconceptions revolving around its practitioners. However the exact benefits reaped from practicing astral travel remains unsubstantiated. Religious beliefs claim that transcending higher astral levels opens certain mystical portals to access the “Akashic Records” described as a compendium of mystical knowledge encoded in a non-physical plane of existence. These records are said to encompass the entire knowledge of human existence and the cosmos.

Numerous books and treatise on astral projections have been compiled since the ancient times. The earliest works describing astral projections are the Hindu scriptures “Yoga Vashishta- Maharamayana" by Valmiki. The latest works on the esoteric nature of astral projections were compiled by Robert Monroe, author of “Journeys Out Of The Body, Far Journeys, Ultimate Journey”, Oliver Fox, Sylvan Muldoon, Robert Bruce, author of A “Treatise on Astral Projection”, William Buhlmann etc.

CONFESSIONS OF A KLUTZ

2009-07-21T03:21:00.000-04:00

Hola to PP.. I'm extremely sorry if i had left my ardent fans gasping for more of my mind-blowing anecdotes and serious articles on geo-politics. No dramatics, I wasn't able to write because I had crammed every single minute of my life with some work or the other since Feb '09. In a matter of 4 months,

1. I presented a paper on Climatic Conservation

2. Enrolled in gym and started preparing for an inter-collegiate meet which was later cancelled due to incomprehensible reasons.

3.Extracted more time and started pursuing my passion for Carnatic music.

4.Started laying the foundation for a dying student body in my college which has now completely changed my life's outlook.

5. Started going for Western dance classes to participate in College Day.

6. Then came Sports Day and I ran away with the Individual Championship.

7. I forgot to mention, while framing this student body, i made arrangements to attend a Nanotechnology workshop to be conducted in Pune, so off I went to Pune and came back to college 10 days later.. (Boy oh boy, those 10 days changed my life beyond imagination!! It turned out to be a positive change eventually)

8. Immediately after touchdown on home turf, College day! That wasn't smooth either, my dance troupe "QUANTA ACE"(God knows why we coined such an absurd name, too much of quantum physics during the workshop i guess) was rejected first due to "inappropriate demeanor". We were selected later on anyway.. The BEST Performance of the show!! (Btw, this is the first time I've danced for a cultural program!)

9. Fairy tale stories.. but there's still more to go. About this dying student body, me along with a band of loyal pals redeeemed the college SIFE team.(Students in Free Enterprise). This is the only space where i can blow my trumpet as loud as possible. It was ME and only ME who took the efforts to spread the word about SIFE and recruit more people into it, research about it and come up with scores of ideas, all of which were rejected, except one thankfully.

10. Now the question of what I'm exactly driving at is bound to arise. Me along with a handful of friends framed a community development project aimed at emancipating the status of Two Wheeler Mechanics. Does it sound weird to you?? (If yes, golly I'm happy! If no, well you're too foolish to understand market economics)

11. I kinda find it boring to explain about my SIFE project, who wouldn't feel it that way when every waking hour of your life for the past 3 months has been weighed down with different tasks and responsibilities revolving around the same idea?? I'll tell you one thing though, the title of our project is "Mileage of Autopreneurship" - An Automotive Innovation by an Innovative Automation. Hows that for a tongue-twister!!

12. Immediately after the College Day celebrations, I started roaming around the city under the sweltering heat of the April sun running on errands for our SIFE project. That was the trend for the month. Then came model practical exams, then model theory exams.. My attendance was at an all-time low, I didn't have notes for most of the subjects, I flunked in one of the model exams!! Semma gethu, I just fell short by 3 marks.

13. Semester exam study holidays, start of Agninakshatram.. My last errand for SIFE before I packed off to my hometown. I'm stressing this instance in specific because my intuition tells me this small incident led to big consequences 15 days from then. After finishing the work, I gulped down a glass of watermelon juice bought from a potti kadai infested with flies. I reached home in the evening with my head pounding..

14. Finally, a reprieve from kathriveyil only to be consumed by another deluge in the guise of semester exams. Man, most of the topics were worser than Greek and Latin, more like Martian and Jupiteran..

15. Back home, I was too tempted to lay my hands on Sony Playstation 2, a rather magnanimous gift from dad to my brat of a brother. That burnt a few more hours into my already time-starved study schedule.

16. I was a wreck by the time i came back to Singara Chennai (in literal sense). The D day finally arrived, 21.5.09 Molecular Biology examination. I entered the exam hall shivering and came out of it with a pounding head.. again!

17. Things just got worse with passing day, I looked evidently sick by the time I took up my Probability and Statistics paper. I went back home with boils all over my head only to realize that I've contracted chicken pox.. Juice aala vandha venai!

18. The next 4 exams were all about just attemping the papers and trying to clear 'em. Somehow, I did a decent job outta it without my condition relapsing.

19. Finally, semester holidays... the real challenges started cropping up just now. Our project came to an uncomfortable standstill owing to exams. Day after day, the tasks to be executed increased with the team strength dwindling to an abysmal figure of just 4 members. (at some instances, it was just me and another pal of mine, who's become my best friend now)

20. I was presented with one helluva challenge alright! To prepare a powepoint presentation spanning for 22 minutes with woefully limited data.. I did that somehow by simply staring at the computer monitor for 2 days and creating the presentation in 1 hour and 20 minutes.

21. The woes didn't end there either. I had to beg friends and foes alike for a laptop as it is mandatory for the SIFE participants to bring their own electronic equipments. We got a laptop finally, but the number of installation and software compatibility problems we faced! I dunno about my teammates, but my nerves were reduced to shreds. This was further intensified by a 4 hour powercut in my house the day before the presentation due to sudden thunderstorms. The worst part of it was, my teammates were in my house practising the script!

22. It was useless anyway, because the presentation was subjected to changes till the last 30 seconds before its commencement at the SIFE regionals conducted at Hotel Savera dated 25.06.09.

23. Well, I was never able to believe it till July 1st arrived, we won the regionals by a very comfortable margin. We had to work again, this time for the All India SIFE Nationals which was held in Mumbai on July 3rd.

24. I along with 8 of my team members were greeted by grey, overcast skies in Mumabi. We were accommodated in NITIE campus, Powai.. Man, the lush green campus and the crystal clear Vihar lake still conjures up beautiful memories of my brief stay there.

25. The big day arrived.. there we were, in Hotel The Intercontinental Lalit, clad in elegant business suits and laced with expensive perfumes.. We had our semi-finals in the morning, and surprisingly we qualified for the finals. All this frenzied excitement ruined my appetite sadly.

26. For all the bravado we displayed during the semi-finals, we got cold-feet during the final presentation. The sheer size of the podium sent my head reeling. We didn't win the finals, thankfully that was not a surprise. I started getting tired of surprises by that time.

27. It was only the day after the SIFE Nationals I realized what "getting tired" exactly implies. The Chennai Zone SIFE Teams comprising of nearly 50 students were supposed to catch the evening train departing from Dadar. Floods played spoilsport, we were stranded in a traffic jam near Sion for 7 hours and we had no other option but to return back to NITIE, which we did.. at 2am.

28. Ready, set, action again!! We scrambled all the way to Victoria Terminus to catch some stupid train arranged for us through Emergency quota. Oh boy,what a journey it was.. I really cannot reveal details about this alone because us thrifty 50 might become liable to legal action. We reached home alive and well, if not clean and hygienic!!

29. Now, my life is drab and normal again.. I don't like it this way though. So, any questions about why I haven't been blogging of late??

A WAR WHICH CHANGED THE WORLD:

2009-05-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

World war II was the bloodiest war in human history. It ended on May 5th 1945, and continued for another four months, until Japan’s surrender, although its outcome had already been predetermined. Participants in the war began to gradually sum up the results and consolidate its experience. Every big war, especially a war with the participants of great powers on each side, changes military art. WWII was special in this respect. Changes in the armed forces’ structure, equipment and concept of use were unprecedented in its scale and importance. Even WWI with its massive use of combat aviation, submarines and tanks did not bring on such a transformation.

By the beginning of WWII, the armed forces of major powers had not changed much since WWI. Infantry with magazine rifles continued to the backbone of the world’s armies; tanks still looked clumsy despite modernization’ cavalry units existed in all armies, while the bulk of combat aviation was formed by plywood-cloth biplanes, albeit with improved specifications. However, in the fall of 1939 there were prerequisites for a revolution in the military art, which took place in a few subsequent years. Reliable mass-produced cars formed the foundation for mobile ground troops, which turned upside down all former ideas about operational art. By the late 1930s, technical progress enabled the leading powers to develop a new generation of tanks, which were capable of not only providing fire support for the mobile infantry, but also of breaking the defences, and exploiting in-depth success instead of cavalry units. The war requirements quickly removed obsolete planes from the scene; improved specifications of aircraft turned the air force into an independent arm, capable of solving strategic tasks. The development of jet aircraft by the end of the war made this leap even bigger.

Radio equipment was not marking time either. First mass-produced reliable radio transmitters fundamentally changed command chain functioning by markedly increasing the information awareness of headquarters and the speed of their response. Combined with higher mobility of ground troops, these factors allowed them to translate into reality the concepts of in-depth operations. Second, radio allowed headquarters to secure arms coordination on the battlefield. Third, by the beginning of WWII, the leading powers developed the first RADARS, which drastically changed the tactics and operational formations in all services, first and foremost in the air force and navy.

Radars and new combat aircraft undermined the dominance of big artillery warships, which seemed immutable for centuries and reached its peak with the appearance of dreadnoughts in the early 20th century. Aircraft carriers, which were considered to be auxiliary ships before WWII, ousted battleships from their superior position. They became fundamentally new strategic vehicles- floating bases for dozens of powerful aircraft capable of controlling hundreds of kilometers around them. Submarine fleet, which had already gained respect as a serious force WWI, also underwent a revolution. During 20 years between the two world wars, submarine specifications changed very little, but in subsequent five years they made a big leap. Before, they had been able to go underwater for a short period of time, but the development of the air force and surface ships compelled their designers to turn tem into full-scale submarines capable of staying underwater for weeks. There was only one step from the submarines, which operated by the end of WWII, to nuclear-powered submarines, and this step was made before long.

Radio equipment soon turned into radio electronics, and led to the appearance of weapons that only existed in science fiction before. WWII gave birth to ballistic missiles, guided torpedoes, adjusted air-bombs and pilotless vehicles, not only air-borne but also ground based, which were the prototypes of modern robots, and centralized air defence systems. Finally, WWII brought into being the first computers. They were developed for strictly military purposes- new armed forces and their maintenance required fast calculations.
These serious technologies changes were bound to affect tactical and operational art. It would be no exaggeration to say that practically all current military art is rooted in what was done in 1939-45: action by combined units, close teamwork of different arms and services, task force operations, fleet against-shore operations, strategic bombardment, radio electronic warfare, mass-scale information-psychological warfare, to name a few. War has become truly total in terms of information, psychology and technology, and has radically changed the requirements to logistic potential and stability.

The revolution in military art has fundamentally changed the ratio between the big and small countries in the world arena. Before, the difference in their armed forces was mostly quantitative. When it became qualitative, very few countries could afford to develop a full-fledged armed forces of the nuclear era. It is only natural that these countries form the big nuclear five and the nucleus of the U.N Security Council. New operational concepts backed by the nuclear bomb, strategic bombers and missiles with an increasing range have practically put an end to the notion of a “tension build-up”. Transition from peace to war for major powers has become very thin. Even in peacetime they had to plan their infrastructure based on a possibility of an attack any moment and to any depth.

WWII was preceded by many big and small local conflicts, which determines the configuration of blocs and alliances in its course. The exacerbation of these conflicts and their drawing closer to the borders of leading countries signified an early start of a big war. After WWII , a victory or defeat in a big war became a life-and-death issue. A country defeated in a big war is bound to lose everything and cease to exist as an independent political entity for a long time of forever. Indicative in this respect is the example of Yugoslavia, which lost its own identity as a result of defeat. Under the circumstances, the continuous modernization of armed forces is becoming a priority for the preservation of a country, its freedom and independence. It is as important today as it was 64 years ago…. –RIA Novosti (The Hindu)

MY QUESTION, MY ANSWER..

2009-04-11T13:41:00.000-04:00

How long has it been since i woke up at 10 in the morning, brushed for 20 minutes, sat down with the day's paper along with a steaming hot mug of coffee and doing crosswords?? Eons, i think.. My academic and social life has taken over the last shreds of my private life. Too many responsibilities and expectations have made me a workaholic. I question myself, "So, you think life is fruitful only if you spend every minute working"? Working aint the word in this context either. I just got involved in too many things at a time. Has it yielded fruits? Now, thats a terrible way of thinking.

See, now do you see what I have become? I know very well that this is not life. Everything I'm doing right now bears no meaning. Not just me, it applies to everyone. Then what drives me? What drives the world? I start it all to end it all. In the ultra-narrow perspective of my mind and also the 5 billion people with whom my fate is inexnorably and unknowingly connected, everyone's life has a destiny. And things work based on that pre-programmed sequence of events designed by The Almighty. No, its much more simpler than that. The only thing which was pre-programmed in our brains was this belief, the hope and the thought implant that our lives are ruled by this so called fate devised by God. Where did this belief come from? Because, humans have no other way of explaining how their lives shape up. But, we do know that the way i live is gonna affect the people surrounding me. Maybe, the guy next door knows that his habit of smoking is gonna affect his son, but he doesn't stop it. Why? Because he doesn't care for him? Na, definitely not. Then? Because, its his wish, his character. Why is his character like this? Why is my character like this? There again, a common question. Beacause, everybody has a distinct character. Why goddamit? How am i supposed to know?? Lets try explaining it. Family, fraternity, surroundings and education moulds a person's character. Ahaa! So a character is just moulded. Where does the dough come from? I mean, there is a basic character in every human even when it is in the form of a foetus in the mother's womb. That again.... is a belief.

A person's life is not mutually exclusive from the lives of other humans. From a bird's eye view, we're the salt of the earth. Our lives are in no way, glorious and divine. Life carries on as a knee-jerk reaction initiated by billions of other knee-jerk reactions. What triggered that first? I know the answer, but its so obscure. Why is it obscure? Because there are so many ways to answer it. There is no singular solution. But it points to a singular truth. What is the truth? I am the living proof of it. Do you have to know the truth? No i wouldn't wanna. WHY?? Maybe, that is what is driving this world. So simple, yet so complex.. I know.

Now, I think about the reason which made me think about the very thought of how a thought is thought.. No matter what you do, nothing will change. Its a ethereal hologram over here, living in this planet. Then you still submit to this world? Yes, because I'm a hologram myself. Even a hologram requires an element of reality to e generated. What is the reality? I am blind to that, I have no other way of explaining it. Good.. So you realize that nothing is going to affect y0u. Yes. Are you prepared to lose your family and friends? No, its not me who needs that kind of preparation. Its you. I know, I am the truth and you are the hologram. Atleast I am pleomorphic, You can only remain at peace. You can never give up your ego can you? What is ego? Did it breed because of Your existence? Forget about your ego, what are You??

I don't know.............

SLUMDOG AGAIN....

2009-02-23T11:51:00.000-05:00

After the euphoric success of Slumdog Millionaire at the Golden Globes.. Will it weave magic at the Oscars?? (With a TV anchor's lilt)

Don't even think about biting your nails. Man! Hollywood sucks in mystifying reality.I'll cut short the satirical verses for a change. Slumdog aint a jaw-dropping, out of the box, out of the planet movie.. Our very own "thalai of Gore" Bala's latest gore marathon "Naan Kadavul" is worth every award this goddamn film business has got to offer. Hollywood is not spared from the economic crisis either. A movie-mad country like India is a mouth-watering opportunity for the industry to rake in serious moolah. So, they elevate Slumdog Millionaire to towering heights in the filming fraternity.

Had this movie been directed by any Indian, it would've fared for a month Bollywood. Jemima Khan wouldn't have even known who Freida Pinto is, let alone dressing her up...

When will Caucasian dominance come to an end? It is downright shameful to trade the agony of a child in Dharavi for a shapeless golden-colored brittanium junk! And this movie is bringing not one, but 8!!

Lessons from Lanka: In war, fight to the finish:

2009-02-06T00:38:00.000-05:00

Hey folks, I'm back again. This post is an officious one though, straight from the op-ed section of Deccan Chronicle. Here's another piece from Vice -Admiral Arun Kumar Singh. His articles are a treat to read as it is written in simple and lucid language and he conceives his points only after an in-depth analysis of the situation. My salutations to you sir! I gotta write to him some day appreciating him for his remarkable approach to all the geo-political issues of the world. If any of my faithful readers know his email address, please mail it to me. Righto! Here it comes...

“ Over the last four decades, I have had some exposure to Sri Lanka, though I cannot call myself as an “expert”. As a young officer I first went to Colombo in 1971 on a war ship when some Indian Navy units were deployed, at the request of the Sri Lankan government, to tackle a Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) uprising. In 1989, I spent a few months in Trincomalee as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF).

In 2000, as the Eastern Fleet Commander, I wondered whether the LTTE had won a decisive victory when some 60,000 Sri Lankan Army personnel were trapped in northern Sri Lanka. I subsequently visited Colombo in 2004 when the LTTE was still on the upswing. Finally,in my last job in 2007, I studied Sri Lanka closely and came to the conclusion that this conflict would continue forever. I may hastily add here that this might still be the case today unless the LTTE surrenders or it is totally destroyed and the Lankan Tamils are visibly rehabilitated into Sri Lanka's mainstream at the earliest.

Something had happened in the last 18 months which has made me revise my earlier assessment. Media reports coming in since June 2007 indicated a new resolve in the attitude of the Sri Lankan political and military leadership. Many fierce battles were fought on sea and on land and it slowly became clear that the LTTE, despite its past record of victories, was now facing a more determined and professional Sri Lankan military. How did this come about? The answer lies in new-found political will, along with adequate funding and reorganization of their military and intelligence network, to fight the war to the finish. In addition, the LTTE made a cardinal mistake of shifting from guerrilla warfare to a more conventional war-fighting against a larger military force.

The LTTE, which since from 1983 had gradually evolved into the world's first terrorist force to boast of an Army, Navy, Air Force and even a fledgling submarine force, is slowly but surely facing defeat. The various factors which have resulted in the LTTE being limited to a small 250sq km pocket, with just the sea behind it, are as follows:

Post 9/11, the world accepted that there are no “good terrorists” or “freedom fighters”. Global crackdown on terror networks and funding (37 countries banned the LTTE) had a decisive impact on the LTTE's ability to bring in supplies into Sri Lanka.
In 2005, the Sri Lankan military increased its strength by 40% and its Navy completely cut off ingress of seaborne LTTE supplies of arms and ammunition, in addition to evolving new tactics to defeat the LTTE sea Tigers. The Sri Lankan Army received fresh supplies of artillery and rockets from Pakistan and China, while its Air Force was gifted a few fighter jets by China. India's contribution was understandably severely limited due to the strong emotional sentiments emanating from Tamil Nadu.
The Sri Lankans revamped their intelligence and took decisive measures to drastically reduce the capability of LTTE to strike targets in major cities. Once forced to fight a conventional war in the jungles, the numerically inferior LTTE became vulnerable to the superior Sri Lankan firepower and manpower.
Unlike India, which has been debating on the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) issue for decades, Sri Lanka decided to introduce a four-star CDS in 2005,(the three service chiefs are three-star). This ensured that the government received direct, single point professional military advice and there was greater synergy between the three services.
There has been a qualitative change in the leadership of the Sri Lankan military with deserving young officers being promoted and given demanding combat roles.
On the diplomatic front too Sri Lanka has displayed strong political will and reacted with flexibility to the international outcry (including from India) against collateral damage and loss of civilian life, while continuing the fight against the LTTE to its logical conclusion.

The lessons for India are self-evident. I will only add that the long-overdue police reforms need to be introduced, and the 1.5 lakh existing police vacancies filled up at the earliest.

India has boundary disputes with two nuclear-armed neighbors who are openly colluding to dismember us after having initially grabbed some territory in Kashmir and Aksai Chin. It would be extremely foolish to expect Pakistan to dismantle its terror network or to give up its nefarious designs to destabilize India. Adding to this complexity is the possibility that the new Obama administration may attempt to link the Kashmir issue to the war in Afghanistan and also enforce the implementation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) followed by the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT)- these two treaties will ensure that our strategic deterrent, already handicapped due to insufficient testing, will never provide even “credible minimum deterrence”.

The possibility of nuclear-armed Pakistan either disintegrating and becoming another lawless Somalia or another Afghanistan is fast becoming a reality with the Taliban imposing its writ in NWFP, Fata and Swat, while parts of Balochistan are in flames. In either scenario, India will be flooded with millions of refugees along with thousands of jihadi terrorists. These will add to the security and economic problems caused by about 25 million illegal Bangladeshis already in India. The expected influx of Tamil refugees along with the LTTE, from Sri Lanka to Tamil Nadu will have its own security implications.

Post 26/11, India is internationally perceived as a weak, indecisive nation, unable to defend its own citizens, leave alone provide any regional leadership. Indeed, a few think tanks which earlier clubbed India with China, have begun to delete any reference to India as a superpower- that position is now being reserved only for China.

What will be the political implications in case LTTE supremo Prabhakaran is captured and extradited to India? What steps is India taking to counter or preempt the latest LTTE threat that “the war will now be fought in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu?” why has the DRDO consistently failed in various high-profile projects costing thousands of crores when even the LTTE appears to have built midget submarines in jungles?

In response to these questions, I can only quote, a line from a popular anti-war song by Bob Dylan..”How many deaths will it take , till he knows that too many people have died.. the answer my friend is blowing in the wind” “

FRITTLE AND BRAGILE...

2009-02-02T12:04:00.000-05:00

An ode to the frittle and bragile, for they own the earth but not their destiny.. And unassuming they live, spewing out their kith and kind which is nothing more than a felony.. NANDA

I'm on a blogging spree. I can cite three reasons for that, 1) I'm vettifying at home 2) I had a good night's sleep after days 3) People have finally read my posts.( The things i had to do for publicity :( ). This is the month of February, oh yeah! you guessed it. Its the time when the Cupid is at its uncensored best, promulgated by highly vociferous commercial ads. Times are changing now though, not many of us Gen N makkal actually try wooing potential baaifriends and gaelfrands on Feb 14. Reasons? Maybe we're bored with the opposite sexes ( thanks to Dostana), or maybe we've become highly intellectual ( not happening) or maybe we've met too many failures....

The last line rings a bell. Failures, body-blows, mind numbing defeats, excruciating pain, psychological scars, these are the abrasives which shape up the psyche of every N teen. Sadly, we're tuned to identify anything that shadows our life as a failure coz we react more poignantly than our predecessors.Its like, the upcoming generations are a soppy combo of toughness as well as sensitiveness. Yes, we are able to handle immense amount of pressure from all sides (thats one pressure which can't be measured as yet, perfect for liberal exploitation ;) ) but at the same time we are taking way too many precautions.. (YES YOU ARE TAKING PRECAUTIONS, don't contort your face with that hoity-toity expression... peace) I'll give you an instance.There was an article in an eminent newspaper (an equivalent of British tabloids) about the latest trends in marriage. It quoted "More and more youngsters prefer ARRANGED marriage over the much hyped love marriage because they feel its much SAFER and SECURE". Bring out the bravado now you lowly Gen N hotshots! What is wrong with us guys? Weren't men and women supposed to be the direct descendants of Casanova and promiscuous Hussies respectively? Though the number of pre-marital relationships stands at an average of 3 in other countries, hell who cares? Its our country and our makkals' woes that matter more.

I'm not Socrates to churn out possible reasons to elucidate this paradigm shift, but hey Socrates wasn't born with a tag to become what he eventually became. Righto! And the possible reasons are... MARIMBAS!(you'll understand provided you read my previous post)

People, we've saturated this puny planet. We have managed to produce 6 billion pathetic snivelly vermin in a matter of a million years.
"Too many cooks spoil the broth". Likewise, too many humans spoil your libido.
Teen boy- teen girl love spawns antipathy. When the physical dent can create such an impact, then the equivalent mental exertion is 5 times the former.
Darwin's theory of evolution is manifesting itself in the most obscure way thereby obfuscating a man-woman relationship. In a nut-shell, to stop producing more human babies, stop the elements which lead to it. Believe me, this is one point worth introspecting.
How do all this crap relate to Gen N being frittle and bragile? Thats upto you to find out. I only create the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and mind you, that is more difficult that joining the pieces together to get the picture.
So, my dear friends, Indians and non-country men.. If you find yourself highly in adept to tolerate the pain and misery of a failed relationship, especially with your lover, then its not your fault. Blame it on evolution.
And ladies, here's food for thought. We possess this amazing power of creating and nurturing human progeny. It was a duty on the part of a woman when the world craved for human population.. Now the world groans at the birth of the same. To get pregnant is not a necessity anymore, its an option. Sounds preposterous? Well its sounds practical too...

"MORAL POLICING"- puhhhleeease!

2009-02-01T01:17:00.001-05:00

Women in pubs.. Well, it was high time women competed with the "men" in this aspect too. But its the quality of women who hit the pubs is what that pisses me off. Just like great male thinkers classify men into different categories (kinda weird, coz all men are the same ;)), women too, can be distinguished into systematic categories. DRUMS!!! And they are:

The Brainless and Poor:

This class of women are the most suppressed lot. And contrary to the title I've so cruelly bestowed upon them, its the poverty that has clipped the wings of their IQ. Mind you, these women are fierce (in all aspects), and they know the price rates of all commodities ranging from kodaimolagai to kondakadalai which can put any Economics student to shame. They are highly practical, which is why the smell of booze nauseates them.

The Middle-Class:
Hail the middle-class! They represent the trends, moodswings and the mindset of the nation. The middle-class girl "still" represents the women of India. And so, she is the one who is stigmatised by all social elements of the country. Inspite of being level-headed, she secretly desires to break free from this chicken coop and wishes to venture into the exciting dark world of booze, drugs and sex. But only one in more than fifty would do that. Why is that? Read on..

The Creme' de la Creme':
Oh yeah! They're the divas flaunted by glittery magazine covers, the page-3 makkal, the style icons and the proprietors of all immoral activities. Their heads are so inflated by their outward looks that no amount of education can refine their mindset and they can never put themselves to work for good causes. They're so busy busting off fat in their asses, edging past their rivals in making bitchy remarks and surviving all catfights.This is the most unproductive population this country houses and the men are proud about it.

There are other species too like the super-intelligent and the women in power, but they have their own voice mind you.. Men are the same, whether its a coolie or a CEO, they booze. Now, ladies look at yourselves. You are a human being first, next comes your gender. Women are born with a highly functional brain, God knows where it disappears when they come of age. The whole attitude changes, such that it "pleases" a male counterpart. Sadly, it is a part of the growing up process of a girl but hey, it can be altered. I am a shining example of it :)! We have all played hide and seek outdoors till the age of 12 and after that?? We're simply cooped up inside our houses coz its "ungirlish" to play outside after puberty! Who said that exactly? I was deprived of that joy as the other girls were sissies and blindly followed that norm.

Women have to realize that the world is theirs, provided they act smart. Firstly, be educated meaning educated in the real sense. Its not enough if you just be a goody goody girl, stay at home, help your mother with household chores and please your father. Try fixing a leaky tap all by yourself instead of crooning to your father or that bossy big brother of yours. Its not enough if you just learn riding a two-wheeler, know how to handle engine snags too. And learn to travel alone, instead of being shepherded by a male. Hell, you know how to take care of a baby, can't you take care of yourself? Be well-aware of the world's current affairs instead of just reading junk like Women's era and Femina. And please, don't switch off your self-esteem in front of your boyfriend and bawl. I hate Avril Lavigne and Loony Lewis just coz of this! Most of all, being a "Delicate Darling" (read Goongi Gudiya) may fetch you brownie points from the neighborhood hunk, and also a guarantee of being raped by mindless goons from Ram Sena (Dusshasana Sena to be precise) blah blah..

The women I'm targetting will be obvious by now. A perfect example of female stupidity is that recent advertisement of Saif and Bebo(ugh!). To think that pouty female doesn't know how to set a dialer tune all by herself and that she has to rely on "Oh so brainy & brawny" Saif to do it for her. When women act like that, it aint cute, its STUPID! Its these kinda females who end up getting humiliated by horrendous, brainless men. In a nut-shell, the embarrasement for the women is not regarding boozing, but its their incapability in saving their own skins. Girls, learn to become technically smart. Smart doesn't mean taking a dig at your X-boyfriends or by acting coy. Transform yourselves, you will see the change...

SUPERPOWER INDIA: Don't just talk, ACT LIKE ONE

2009-01-10T13:27:00.000-05:00

This is an excerpt from the op-ed section of the daily Deccan Chronicle newspaper dated 9th January, 2009, written by Vice-Admiral Arun Kumar Singh (retired as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Naval Command, Vishakaptnam)

THE SERIES of events after 26/11(including the January 1 Guwahati bomb blasts) have left no one in any doubt about a few facts. Any naval specialist will agree that the manner in which the 10 terrorists attacked Mumbai, including the transit in the Indian fishing boat Kuber, could only be possible with the involvement of the ISI, the Pakistani Army and Navy. There is an urgent need for certain regulations to be implemented in full force, since the roller coaster-initial "vehement denial" followed by "Yes, Kasav is Pakistani", ISI leaflets given to Pakistani Army about dismembering India by 2020 - indicate that Pakistan does not have peace on its mind. Poonch firefighting indicates the shape of things to come from the "epicentre of terrorism" aka Pakistan.
The manner in which the Pakistan military, hell-bent on destabilizing and dismembering India, took over the decision making process from the President Asif Ali Zardari and his nascent government to win public support for the discredited military and from the terrorists to "defend Pakistan" in case of war, has left no one in doubt that the Pakistani Army Chief, General Ashraf Parvez Kayani, is the decision-maker in that troubled land with the Pakistani government acting as his spokesperson. Indeed, temperatures went up last month when Gen. Kayani said "Pakistan will act in minutes", and things cooled down only when, on Dec 29th, he said "There is a need to de-escalate" Why did Gen Kayani raise the war hysteria pitch to such levels, and why did the media report that the Pakistani Army has withdrawn troops from the Afghan border? The answer may not be too difficult. Unlike India, where the Indian military has been denied hardware viz the Comptroller and Audit General(CAG) report of Oct 24, 208 showing gaping holes in air defence, submarine force levels etc. The Pakistan military machine on the other hand, has been kept well-oiled with the $10 billion in aid received in the last seven years. It is, indeed, amazing that Pakistan despite being totally bankrupt has managed a $8 BILLION IMF loan, asked for a $60 billion "grant" to boost its economy, is acquiring three German-type 214 submarines, co-producing 150 Chinese FC-17 light fighter jets, inducting 36 Chinese FC-20(J-10) heavy fighter jets, three Chinese frigates, Swedish and Chinese AWACs, F-16 fighter jets, artillery and Brazilian SAMs.Buoyed by the "success" of the 10-man terrorist strike on 26/11, and emboldened by the "civilized and diplomatic" response of the Indian government and international community (the US is planning to give Pakistan another $15 billion, God knows how could that be possible!!), the Pakistan military, ISI and various terrorist outfits would be planning more devastating attacks in the near future. These attacks could be form the sea, air or land, or a combination which would aim to saturate India's response mechanism, cause maximum damage and pull us into the "failed state quagmire" of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

So how does India prepare for this "doomsday" scenario? The answers are equally complex. The government has taken a few punitive steps by introducing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and making the 1967 Act stiffer. A few other highly publicized steps are on the anvil. However, preventing future attacks will require a series if urgent and transparent steps. In addition to deporting the estimated 25 million Bangladeshis, and introducing a proposed single accountable window, a homeland security adviser, electronic data link and bank, it is essential to introduce accountability in the bureaucracy. The same needs to be done with so many non-performing DRDO projects which have consumed thousands of crores of rupees and still left the nation with no option but to import hardware - even the DRDO electronic transponders for fishing boats have been "on the anvil" for over three years. It is hoped that past bureaucratic delays are not repeated and the nation gets the hardware and the man-power needed to deal with terrorism.

The government needs to promulgate by Jan 31 a list of organisational changes (including single window accountability), along with manpower and hardware which have received financial approval for a time-bound completion, particularly with regard to intelligence, police, industrial and nuclear plants' security, maritime security(port, coastal and blue water), artillery, night vision devices, radar cover, air defence and strategic deterrent. The dragon entered our "porous blue water backyard" when the Chinese Navy dispatched two destroyers and a logistics ship on December 29, 2008 for a prolonged anti-piracy deployment in the Gulf of Aden. No doubt these Chinese warships will now use the Gwadar port(which China built and gifted it to Pakistan) for 'operational turnaround" of its warships and submarines.The Chinese naval presence will further embolden Pakistan and the security implications of this "blue water" capability, augmenting the current asymmetric "brown water" coastal threat to India, need to be understood by the Indian Government. While coastal security measures are finally on the front burner, the only antidote to Chinese blue water capability would be Indian nuclear hunter killer submarines (SSNs) and Long-Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft(LRMP of the recently contracted Boeing P8i type). Four SSNs would need to be inducted on priority.

The next few weeks will be critical as India gears up for national elections and the political leadership may need to remind itself that the security of the nation is paramount. In addition to raising the military's morale, India must prepare contingency plans for the "almost inevitable" terror strikes in future. Our options are, perhaps, limited to initiating prolonged covert strikes(by "non-state actors") against "official and unofficial" terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Bangladesh(i.e reversing Pakistan's policy of "death by a thousand cuts"). Diplomatic pressure alone is not expected to provide early results given Pakistan's geo-strategic location and multiple power centres. The option of withdrawing the Indus Water Treaty is a non starter since China will then have a precedent to divert its rivers from flowing into Assam and Himachal Pradesh. Similarly, the talk of a "naval blockade" shows ignorance of the fact that such a blockade(like a surgical strikes) is a declaration of war.

The time will soon come for India to "stop talking" and start acting like an emerging superpower of one billion people, "exercise the covert option" and not expect other nations to provide security to our citizens. And if a combination of diplomatic and covert operations fail to eliminate terror networks in Pakistan and Bangladesh, THEN INDIA SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR WAR....

JAI HIND!!

AN HONEST APPROACH

2008-12-31T08:20:00.001-05:00

Its common knowledge now, the whole world is grappling with a severe economic crisis. Every newspaper is devoting at least half a page to impress that fact, the business section of the electronic media has been broadcasting nothing but plunging statistics, dwindling figures and unbelievably sluggish trading. Now, this topic is one of the most talked about by the masses ranging from the elite creme de la creme to the legendary middle class people. To be honest, this blog I'm attempting to create is equivalent to jumping head-long into an ocean without any diving kit. But contrary to that life-threatening situation, I don't stand at any risk of being fatally harmed. I may be at the receiving end of brickbats rather than bouquets, but its a worthy attempt. The primary aim I wish to achieve through this post is to elucidate the gravity of the current economic situation in simple words by which, particularly the student community can be enlightened. So here I go..

The symptoms of the current economic recession started showing up in the year 2006. Check out this video http://westtnliving.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/peter-schiff-predicting-the-us-economic-recession-in-2006-watch-video-here/. Those big fart-mouths who had smugly rejected Peter Schiff's predictions as downright outrageous would be very glad to evaporate from the face of this planet. Peter, though said this just 2 years back. Some reknown economic gurus of our country predicted this as early as 1992! How was that? Well, it took the Americans a lot of time to get to atleast half the depth of this economic abyss. Or to be precise the Western minds just don't want to get to the bottom of this problem; its more than an economic crisis. Its a sociological, cultural and a policital crisis which is gripping the United States of America. It all started with the advent of GLOBALISATION, the merging of all discrete markets of the world into one humungous world market in the year 1991. The very idea of globalisation has its roots in the very framing of the American economy.

The concept of Communism was given a death sentence during the 1980s. The West looked upon this event as a victory not only for Capitalism, but also for unbridled democracy and individualism. Francis Fukuyama, one of the most widely acknowledged intellectuals of the West, in his book " The End of History and the Last Man" said that the end of Communalism has brought an end to the possibility of human conflicts in the future after the Cold War period and the fall of the Berlin Wall. He predicted that the society will achieve the highest perfection after embracing the ideals of free market and liberal democracy based on individualism. Before we make any judgements about this intellectual, let me also point out that Mr. Fukuyama is one among the forty co-signors of William Kristol's September 20, 2001 letter to President George W. Bush after the infamous 9/11 attacks that sugested the U.S to 'capture or kill Osama and to destroy his network of associates'. But after witnessing the gravity of the sacrilege committed by USA, he began shying away from the arena of Neoconservatism, his forte. And later on, he flipped sides and voted for Barack Obama during the 2008 Presidental elections. He's an intellectual indeed!!

Here are the reality bites... "Individual-centric liberal democracy and free market capitalism are eroding the civilisational and cultural assets and unbalancing the society." The validity and legitimacy of Fukuyama's thoery underwent the acid test during the last couple of years and now the time has come to declare the result. Let us assess the performance of the Capitalist market from various points of view. It all started with the passing of the Federal Reserve Act on December 23 1913, which paved the way for private bankers to gain control over America's money. The then President of America, Woodrow Wilson repented deeply mind you, for having signed the act to come into full force. Therefore it is no accident that America is an empty shell of the great economic power it once had. Bled dry by debt imposed by those whose sole intent was to profit, the US is now bankrupt at a time it desperately needs the resources it no longer has. The Federal Reserve Bank is controlled by a small group of dominant men-private bankers who through their control of the Federal Reserve now control America . This group comprises of the Rothschilds of London and Berlin; Lazard Brothers of Paris; Israel Moses Seif of Italy; Kuhn, Loeb and Warburg of Germany; and the Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and the Rockefeller families of New York. The Federal Reserve is so sinister in its existence! I'm not able to log into any of their official webistes!FED is the only-for-profit corporation in America that is exempt from both federal and state taxes.The FED takes in about one trillion dollars per year tax free! The banking families listed above get all that money.Their practices are equally sinister as it is the only banking system in the world which creates "money from nothing". How is that?

This is achieved by a form of banking called "fractional banking". The money created is then lent to the concerned party and an interest is levied on that sum. This practice existed before the birth of banks. Goldsmiths rented out space in their vaults to individuals and merchants for storage of their gold or silver. The goldsmiths gave these "depositors" a certificate that showed the amount of gold stored. These certificates were then used to conduct business.

In time the goldsmiths noticed that the gold in their vaults was rarely withdrawn. Small amounts would move in and out but the large majority never moved. Sensing a profit opportunity, the goldsmiths issued double receipts for the gold, in effect creating money (certificates) from nothing and then lending those certificates (creating debt) to depositors and charging them interest as well. Since the certificates represented more gold than actually existed, the certificates were "fractionally" backed by gold. Eventually some of these vault operations were transformed into banks and the practice of fractional banking continued. Hence the concept evolved. The first bank of the United States, BUS practiced fractional lending at a 10:1 rate i.e ten dollars of loans for each dollar they had on deposit. This abuse was eventually discovered and the BUS was forced to stop operation.

The current functioning of FED is just equivalent to "an old wine in a new bottle". For further details on debt monetization, refer to this link http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2005/09/what_is_debt_mo.html. The plight of the faithful citizens of USA is woeful. Many of them are not aware of the exact functioning of the FED, which thrives in its complex functioning matrix. The people of USA are waking up to the impending doom that may befall their homeland gifted to them by their mighty forefathers in 1776. Thomas Jefferson, though envisioned this 150 years ago. And this is just reason #1. The second cause for the fall of the US economy will be discussed in the next post. Dear readers, i kindly request you to understand every point of this blog. Your self-awareness will be your only trustworthy armor in times of trouble.

(References: Excerpts from S.Gurumurthy's coillection of speeches, The World Beyond Marx and Market by S.Gurumurthy, wikipedia.org, petitiononline.com,economistsview.typepad.com,www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article7920.html,fdrs.org)

SOPHOMORIC TALES....

2008-11-16T03:00:00.000-05:00

Well, i know these are exam days where a typical college student is expected to keep her/his nose bent to the textbook. FORGET IT MAAAN! I tried so hard and got so faar... In the end...... (sadly) it DOES matter!:( Linkin park lyrics become pathetically defunct when it comes to hard-hitting realities like exams, big scores, more exams, university ranks, outtta-the-planet placements, fat salaries,job securities blah blah... to put it short, professional life. That sickening word is soo cliched in my college. I can still remember the way my collegemates snigger and rib each other when JAILER JEEVA hollers at us to act professionally, dress professionally, walk and talk professionally! Hey man, how about sleeping professionally?? Oops.. that already exists!
Anyway coming back to the point which I was about to point, sometimes no amount of trying can prick one's conscience to sit and study. I prefer giving up and engaging in a more meaningful activity, discovering my true-self.. Sounds too airy and artificial though. Coz, this "identifying the true-self" activity has been rather exaggerated. One tends to conjure up images like taking off on a pilgrimmage marathon extending from kanyakumari to the mighty Himalayas, reading endless holy scriptures and stuff like that. I'm deviating again.. Free. This process of self-discovery can be done in many ways. I'll tell you how i keep discovering different aspects of myself by this small memorable incident...
"It was a pleasant september day. it was a working day in college and so there i was, sitting in my class and dutifully carrying out what is expected from a typical student... Chatting(duh!!). This incident took place in the post-lunch session. We had PCE in the last hour, so my class was at its loudest best. Being a last-bencher myself, I enjoy talking to my benchmates about the latest current affairs ranging from new mobile phone launches to the ever increasing misery of having to deal with PCE semester exam.(We're exactly 6 days away from it!!YIKES). I was engrossed in conversation with my pals ayiyls, pinky, mali and aj. We were talking about life in 12th standard(1st mistake!). I studied in CBSE while the rest of them studies in state board. To add to the insanity of our discussion, we started talking about physics! To be precise, i initiated that topic as i was under the impression that I am a "Miss Know It All even if I'm A Pain in the Butt". I was saying that physics in CBSE is more tougher as its application oriented, and of course i unfailingly bleated out that i scored 96% in my boards in that subject.
I was so wrapped up in my own world of academic achievement that I didn't notice any of the intermediate exchange of words between ayiyls and pinky. In a flash, pinky flamboyantly whipped out a question "Nanda, are you aware of Outthakutty Transform?" I was like, "Ou what?? Come again, i didn't hear you clearly" even though his words registered in my head crystal clear.Ayiyls let out a teeny weeny giggle. I felt bad, coz I didn't know something what they did.( yeah right!2nd mistake) The sucker in me erupted out in full form and there i was, literally pleading pinky to tell me the entire concept of Outthakutty transform. He said it alright, its something similar to Laplace transform and has aplications in a lot of fields like probability. Mali continued next saying that Outthakutty was a very important detail question for state board students and that it spans nearly 8 pages with a hell lot of derivations. I was at the height of repentance, repenting for having shifted from matriculation board in 10th std to CBSE for 11th. I pushed them further to explain about the concept, that was when abhi came into the scene. Pinky was thinking hard about the exact derivation and aj was prompting the different steps. Then all the Outthakutty brainiacs majestically penned down the most stupidest equation according to any sane person in the planet but me! I thought it was brilliant and i was proud that our country houses mathematical prodigies like the revered Outthakutty apart from the famous people like Ramanujam and Shakuntala Devi.
I wrote it all down. vowing that i will reseach about this mysterious Outthakutty transform. Then i accidentally caught abhi's eye, who was looking at me the way he would look at a squished cockroach. Then he drawled in his aristocratic accent "Nanda, you seriously trust everybody around you".. I replied "Hey dude! come on you were in CBSE too.. How would you know about Outthakutty transform?" Then ayiyls suddenly told me to write down about another mathematical concept called Muthukumaran's laws of intersection of lines or something like that. That made me miss the sight of abhi getting ribbed by pinky and aj. Meanwhile back here, i was beginning to wonder whether my knowledge levels are sufficient to face the outside world. I was ranting aloud "I'm doomed, i'm doomed, i don't think i can even get a decent job at this rate!(that is absolutely true, but in a totally different sense)
The crucifixion finally ended.. Armageddon did spare me! Thankfully pinky brought out one more question that finally lit that divine light and enlightened my rather ill-informed mind. Had he delayed in asking that question, I would've gone to the math department first thing the next day and questioned my math teacher about Outthakutty transform. That last question was "Have you come across Bakri theorem?" Oh yeeeaaah... I did come across it alright, coz I'm the definition of Bakri.... Man, after this i felt glad that i didn't become a journalist. My reports would've spelt disaster to the Indian electronic media.. See I 've learnt a lot.... Cheers for that!!!"

Jittery Start!

2008-11-08T22:45:00.000-05:00

Well! I'm finally into blogging! After a lot of introspection and shuttling decision-making process, I feel I am ready to put in my own thoughts about diversified topics and affairs this world harbours. First thing I realized when i was typing this introductory post was that i lacked the spontaneity to let my fingers pepper the keyboard! This apparent ineptitude in me has further justified my decision to take up blogging as my big-time hobby. It does help in improving my command over psychedelic language called English. And moreover, I wish to let the readers of my blog know this quality of mine in striving to be accurate in providing factual information and also avoid plagiarism of ideas. Also, one may wonder why one has to think so much to start a simple blog. Its a piece o cake, which i realized just when I was typing busily. I do know that I'm not invading into anyone's intellectual property nor will anyone lose her/his sleep if I start voicing out my gyaan on different aspects whose degree of worth will be solely decided by the readers!

Its just that I was unsure whether I had enough exposure to the ways of the world in order to commend or criticize it. Free.. Guess I went overboard in trying to be saintly and virtuous. And also, I felt that this process would work even the other way around for people who're suckers for information, I know I am one. I still remember how i literally banged my head in the bathroom when i was doing my 8th standard, trying to remember the name of the one more actress in Charlie's Angels after Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu. Who the hell could forget Cameron Diaz you schmuck!! Umm I did, of course one does have sudden lapses of memory. Coming back to the saintly part, I was thinking that if i wish to post a blog about something sci-fi as String theory (romba over thaan), I will be terribly inclined to study about it and obtain a clear idea. Clarity of mind is essential to provoke thoughts and ideas.

Putting it all together, blogging is a fantabulous idea for half-baked teens like me to understand the essence of life. To put it short, its a catalyst which triggers the grey cells to transmit nerve impulses to those deep dark areas of the brain especially the amygdala. In case one's wondering what that is, its the region in the brain concerned with correlation of various events with memory. In this world where one can so very easily spend 60 years of life cocooned in monotony, engaging in an activity that involves the joint effort of the brain's frontal lobe and the amygdala is not exactly a day- to- day ritual you see. And that too, this can be done using the bare minimum necessities as per 21st century's definition.. A computer, decent internet connection and infinte leisure hours! The intro came out pretty lengthy, didn't expect that! Naaah, what gives.. Its my blog, my world, my NICHE!!