Set of 5 stories - 55 fiction, Season 3

1) The realization

Today was the death anniversary of his father, he had not called his mother to avoid the uncomfortable conversation. As he sat on the beach, his eyes filled with tears, he saw a soap bubble drifting & popping in front of his eyes. He realized the fragile nature of life, what is there today is gone tomorrow!

P.S: Sometimes the loneliest of situations bring profound realizations. It's okay to avoid the uncomfortable conversation. 

2) Non-Judgemental 

        As tears of happiness rolled down his cheeks, he thought that finally there was one person in the world who would truly love him regardless of his looks, financial status, behavior etc. & more importantly not expect anything in return except a little bit of love. The newborn held her dad's thumb tightly as she fell asleep.

3) Random events 

       Three insignificant events happened almost simultaneously on a pale blue dot revolving around a normal yellow star. A soap bubble exploded to the amazement of the boy, a man felt alone but ecstatic for no reason in the crowd, and a woman felt sad after successfully finishing all the chores at home.

P.S : Don't take life too seriously, your existence is just so minuscule on a cosmic scale. 

4) The returned help

            He often gave a rupee or two to a beggar near his office. One day, while leaving the office it was raining heavily & he wanted to reach home soon. When the bus arrived, he noticed that his wallet was left behind in the office. The same beggar came & said, "This 20 rupees will help". He thanked the beggar. 

P.S : Sometimes small acts of kindness will go a long way to help you when needed.

Set of 5 stories - 55 Fiction, Season - 2

 1. Move on with memories.

His eyes were wet signing the sale agreement of his home that was no longer needed, as he had moved to the town. As he closed the door to lock, he saw image of his parents in the empty house & recalled his dad used to tell to move on in life, no matter what happens.

P.S: Life moves on no matter what. Time heals things.

2. A new chapter 

Finally I spoke to her on the last day of college in library. I had seen her everywhere in class, canteen, gym etc. I asked: Do you get this strange feeling of missing these books, even though you were never excited to read them in the first place? Hey, Can we be friends? She replied: Glad that you asked, Sure!

P.S: Some good things have to end to give way for the better things in life.

3. The speaking tree

“You don't belong here, how come you are here?”, asked the saint to the tree, seeing it was a very unusual. The tree said “probably I am not from here. A comet or meteorite may have brought me down here when I was a seed. I have learnt the language listening to passing by people over the years.”

P.S: Based on the theory or concept that life was seeded on earth, probably brought down by comet or meteorite from another planet, where life was plentiful, probably mars or some other habitable planet outside solar system as well. Recently there has been enough data to confirm the existence of earth like planets. These are called Exoplanets.

4. The Umbrella

Two friends met for coffee, at a hotel close to their place. It reminded them of their student life. It started to pour while they were about to leave. "Take this umbrella, I know you dislike carrying it, but you are not as young as you used to be. I'll reach home in no time on my Bajaj” said one to another

P.S: This reflects the love, care & concern to minor interests of an old friend. I have a close friend who lets me win the computer games, against him. How nice of him!!

5. The Strangers

They were just strangers who exchanged a smile in lift while going office almost everyday. He had switched job & on last day he told her “I won't be working here anymore, just wanted to tell you, that you have really pretty eyes”. She said “thanks & wish you the best”.

P.S: Two people may not know each other but share a connection, like when commuting in a bus, train etc. They care for each other as their lives intersect for a while or so regularly.

Movie Review: The Big Sick

*This movie review contains spoilers*
Refrain from reading further if you want to watch the movie in the near future.

   

Image credits: http://www.impawards.com/2017/big_sick_ver3.html

           The Big Sick is a light-hearted romantic\ comedy movie - like the ones you watch on Romedy Now TV channel. After watching the movie you feel a kind of subtleness reflected in you from the storyline & the characters of the movie. Sometimes love is just about showing up, being there, being available, though the other person may not realize it. Everyone is super busy or they appear to be these days & sparing the few precious moments of your life for another person means that you are giving away something valuable part of yourself i.e your time. 

    Working on a relationship to care & share the little joys of life, means a lot in building a relationship. This movie tells that relationship are not built in a day, or there is a great attraction at work to make it happen instantly but takes courage & persistence to just make things right coz that makes sense. 

    Kumail, the actor plays his own character in the movie, does a superb job whereas acting doesn't come naturally to Emily. Kumail- A Pakistani, who drives a cab in the US tries to impress Emily parents, when Emily gets hospitalized for some serious problem, the subtle light-hearted humour in this context & situations is refreshing here. Kumail also tries his hand in stand up comedy which is catching up a lot these days. He is really not funny on stage & creates a pathetic situation pouring his heart out in front of the audience. That's the way the story starts when he meets Emily - one of his audience & ends too in a similar setup. 

        Sometimes love is the hope to hold onto someone or something, knowing that perhaps its not meant to be, perhaps its meant to fade away or die or fail, but still trying, waiting it out. The story revolves around the stereotypes and cultural differences between Pakistani & US mindsets.  

In nutshell, a good watch if you like a slow-paced, light-hearted comedy. 

IMDB link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5462602/

What have Indian advertisements taught me ?

Indian, Bollywood celebrities are having all kind of health problems like body odor, dandruff, hair fall, bad tooth etc

Your confidence & morale can be increased by a variety of things like cold drinks, chocolates, fairness creams etc.

You can clear interviews or impress people by using the right products, accessories, fairness creams would do the trick or washing your clothes with detergents.

Dentists are the most confused people on earth as they recommend each & every toothpaste as No.1

Experts come in white lab clothes.

Super rich category of people are really attracted in buy one get one offers, Rs 2 off, or that pen which comes free along with the soap.

Deodorants & perfumes are made with the sole purpose to attract men & women to the one who applies them. Somehow they have the secret ingredient which makes such a fatal attraction possible.

Every friend is essential to you.

Your life becomes miraculously adventurous & wonderful by taking bath with the soaps.

Children wont grow unless they consume those energy drinks along with milk, be careful not to overdo the same otherwise your kids may become too tall.

Fairness creams works in very scientific way, makes your skin looking fairer in just few weeks.
Make sure that you apply fairness creams to your entire body, you don't want people to know the difference, Do you ?

Idea is the company with highest number of patents. There are million of ideas in the pipeline to be patented.

You have to risk your life for that small bottle of cold drink. Apparently you are so motivated to do life risking things after you consuming such a drink.

Detergents clean your clothes to such an extent that they look better than new.

Your tooth can become self luminous. Its so white that it starts emitting light.

Shampoos have a lot of fruit contents, so perfectly safe for consumption.

Your dish wash bar comes with a concentrated essence of 100 lemons. Now you know the reason behind lemons being so costly.

When you buy that SUV, you can stop going office on city roads & go only on trips.

Ever wondered how IRCTC Tatkal tickets get exhausted within a minute?
Well obviously - Airtel 4G!

Santoor advertisement has changed the actors many times in the past decades to convey a strong message that it's an anti aging formula.

Kaajol is letting you on an anti aging secret which she has not even told to her partner SRK also. You know Olay !

Image credits : The images are taken from google search . 

Common man & the demonetization side effects

        If R K Laxman was alive in this time period, I am sure he would have had a lot of inspirations to draw some great & amazing humor, sarcasm arising out of this high denomination notes ban in India. Well I am not good at drawing, so you will have to just imagine the scenes below :
If anyone interested please draw the cartoons for the below quotes depicting the scenes.

       For those of you who don't know, Indian Govt banned the HDN(high denomination notes - Rs 500 & Rs1000) as a measure to prevent the holding of black money & stop corruption & counterfeit notes on 8-11-2016.

Scene  :  Village footpath
Beggar : Come Netaji, Please sit beside me, I may have some change to get you started, here is a crash course on begging. Listen carefully, always request the middle class...

Scene  : Common man's house
Housewife :  Dear husband, I have always loved you, I may have taken some notes from your wallet by mistake over several years, can you please convert it to change now, my PAN card is in my father's place, so are my other ID cards.

Scene : Bank manager office
Bank Manager : Who asked you to install 1000 ATM's in the city ?
Employee     : Sir, you did !!

Scene : ATM Withdrawal Que
Common man : Come Netaji, Did you bring your PAN card ?
Netaji     : I don't have one, I don't have bank account also, All your love & generous donations kept me running all these days.

Scene : Election Campaign rally
Common man : Sorry, I will vote for the candidate/party which will give me new 500/1000 notes, What should I do with these old notes ?

Scene : late night, common man house
Wife : Why are you late again today ?
husband : Darling , I swear I was in ATM Que, so were my other friends, you can check with Ramesh and Suresh.

Scene :Village footpath
Common man : I am sure, they wont come to load money into this ATM. After grand inauguration they have never come here to load the money, please stop waiting in Que here & search another ATM.

Scene : Bank
Employee : Manager sir, Whether we will get holiday or extra salary for the all extra work we have done these days for money exchange ?
Manager : No, however I am having an interesting reward idea, why not distribute all the counterfeit notes among yourselves as bonus ?

Scene :Village
People chatting : we never had problem of cash in our village, every year some or the other Neta was generously donating, we of course had the scarcity of power, water, toilets, schools etc. We never imagined the situation would become so worse, scarcity for cash also !!

Scene : Village panchayat
Apparently we are moving from paper-less economy to paper-more economy, I heard new notes would be printed faster to meet the growing needs of the people.

Scene : Common man house
Dad : We never had ID cards in our days, we all knew each other in our village.
Son : Oh, I knew I am going to be poor when I filled out the PAN card application, even before I started working in my first job.

Scene : Experts panel
Swach Bharat Abhiyan was good initiative, we thought it would fade away slowly, but PM shouldn't have handed over that broom to Income tax dept of India.

Scene    : Experts panel on national news.
Expert 1 : We are expecting a 0.05 percent less corruption with this move.
Expert 2 : The figures are highly exaggerated, we can achieve maximum of 0.04 percent less corruption, that too after certain conditions are imposed.
Expert 3  : This is not the way to go forward.
Expert 4   : People will find other ways to accumulate black money.
Expert 5  : This was the easiest option among many options available to prevent corruption & holding black money
Common man : Who the hell are these experts ?

Scene : Bank
Employee : Sir, I got info that one of our ATM's is being stolen, I am calling the police now.
Manager : Don't, please don't, if you see carefully, this reduced our work of loading cash for that machine.

Scene : Medical shop
Kid : Uncle, Can you give one Hajmola & Rs 999 change, My dad is very generous today, he gave me Rs 1000 note & told me to buy something only at the medical shops.

Scene : Restaurant, Bangalore - Shanti Sagar
Employee to customer: Welcome sir, you are the first customer today carrying debit card, We have executive Gold class lounge for you, same price menu as you were eating standing daily outside our hotel. You know we take of our customers like God.

Scene : ATM
Foreigner to his kid : No, They are not giving away Apple I Phones, those people are waiting in long Que for withdrawing their own money.

Scene : Common household
Maid : Madam, I want your or Sir's PAN number this time before you give me salary, I want to disclose my income & all sources to PM. Also I want to raise, I need to start paying my income tax.

Scene : Village
Common man : Welcome back Netaji after 5 yrs, have you come to withdraw the money from the ATM you inaugurated ? Actually no one has used the ATM, as there is no power to our village.

Scene : Village
Common man : Demonetization ??  Well, I have studied till 2nd standard & don't understand that word. No there is no impact on our village, we have not seen Rs 500 or Rs 1000 notes in our lives.

Scene : Common man house front door
LPG broker : Madam, Please take our LPG, many are in stock, you can give half the amount as you were used to give earlier, we will filled it completely this time. I will just wait here till you have the change.

Scene : Software engineer at the back of ATM Que
Thinking to himself : So this is how it feels like when I open a new window when my computer is hung up.

Scene : Temple
Priest : Sir, Lets buy a new hundi, one big hundi for high denomination currency & another small one for small change.

Scene : Bank
Customer : Actually I have a car full of cash to deposit in the bank, Can you do me a favor & keep the car also in your vault ? Govt may seize my car also which appears black....I meant my BMW is black color, purchased from white money itself. Please trust me.

Scene :  Temple
Uncommon man : God, I never asked you any favor in my life, I will drop Rs 1000 in your hundi, the white money I earned several years back, Can you please do a miracle to make the Rs 1000 crores black money I have at home transform to white money somehow ?


Images taken from :

http://www.india.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/rk-laxman-may-1967.jpg
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/media/images/80528000/jpg/_80528034_1b228e6a-8559-40d7-88e9-5445f252625d.jpg

Side effects of being a geek

Well, your family, friends & near ones have to just bear with you...  here are some side effects of being Awesome geek.
       
             You tend to be polite, humble & complacent, although you may act with ego certain times, probably because the social situation dictates, you know that you are insignificant in this vast universe, just a tiny spec of dust on this pale blue dot & you may go out of existence anytime

You keep networking with people who are exactly similar to you.

One of your worst nightmares is loosing all your data, so you take back up of your backup.. Ufff it has to stop at some level.

You tend to imagine living with your imaginary girlfriend.

Your family keeps asking you to loose weight, you just throw all such suggestions out of window, & you are happy to be on the couch.

You tend to keep away from people who are in leadership roles, probably fear that they may control you.

You strive for perfection, making lives of other miserable sometimes, sometimes developing OCD's - Obsessive Compulsive disorder.

You tend to dislike discussing about facts & figures, you like to brainstorm on bigger ideas, solve bigger problems.

What new qualities have you developed by being a geek?  Do let me know in the comments section. 

Nerd is the new trend

 

           Well, Nerd is the new Sexy, the topic of post being different just to keep the keen eyes of SEO away from my blog. With fast paced technology changes & jobs, the trend these days is shifting towards a greater percentage of work getting done on the computers, online or offline. Smartphones are like miniature computers invading our bedrooms & bathrooms as well. Actually many people just don't mind being plugged into a wall, away from the disturbances and outside real life events. The new algorithms, the new challenges in security, automation in various industries like manufacturing, monitor & control in various industries have led to more people move towards being nerdy - fashionably. A sitcom like Big Bang Theory is a hit worldwide not just in few countries. Many people like the show, although many may not admit that openly.

Here are the typical characteristics of being a nerd, well this is my opinion & limited to my experiences & my friends circle, my travel across couple of countries. But I guess you may relate to few of them.

You are a nerd if you watch mind fuck movies like Matrix, Inception, Primer, Donnie Darko, Triangle, Interstellar, Prestige, Momento etc. Nolan is one of your favorite directors, you wonder why there aren't enough such movies.

You keep an eye on hacking stuff, optimizing the existing stuff, like trying to improvise everything around you. Keen eye on incremental design changes.

You become excited & happy by associating the mundane everyday things with science /movie/comics concepts like when you see the number 42- probably you & your partner knows about that smile on your face. For those of you who don't know - 42 is ultimate answer to life universe & everything else- from the Hitchhikers guide to galaxy. Do read the book if you haven't already.

Your secretly wish something spectacular event like supernova, or reception of a message from outer space should happen in your lifetime, the events which are really unlikely to happen in next 100 yrs or so. In fact you have a secret bucket list of weird things to do like see auroras or visit strange phenomenon across the globe.

You are a nerd if you have watched movies like Matrix like for 5 times, trying to figure out each & every line. secretly feeling that you were the one or hoping that matrix should be true. There is theory in fact which suggests our lives are nothing more but an simulation. How depressing !

Religiously watched Big Bang Theory, hated Sheldon in public, but secretly admired him even a part of you wants to be like him, if not entirely annoying.

You don't have time to watch all the great movies or read popular books, so you just read the spoilers & move on.

You actually sat down with pencil & paper & drew the timelines of time travel movies.

You start thinking sideways or out of the box without grasping an interesting concept completely, imagining the most bizarre of the things related to it.

You have a sarcastic perspective towards things, not necessarily negative or depressing which you don't want to think sometimes.

You can quantify KLOC easily, rather than those rarely used units of measure like gallons or pounds.

You may like computer games, but you look for something more like learning or brain games etc or you use them to relax like others.

What in your opinion makes one nerdy ?

Well, there are side effects of being a geek, but that's a separate post - click here.


Image courtesy : https://thegoodbadme.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/nerd-letons-in-the-closet/

Maggi : The two minute affair

             

As I found the last packet of Maggi in home, I was delighted inspite all the claims of Maggi containing lead & MSG- harmful substances, I couldn't resist the desire to give a proper good bye hug by savoring it plateful & paying full attention without watching TV. These were the thoughts that ran across my mind while enjoying the last plate of Maggi. :

     OK baby we will do it one more time, the world need not know, just for the old times sake we need to do it one last time, for the thrill in it.

        We ate Maggi when we were hungry in middle of night, in hostel when nothing was available & this was the only food which used to bring excitement & joy. In outings & trips where the conventional food doesn't get transported easily. We enjoyed Maggi when we were desperately hungry when there was nothing in stomach or after cooking experiment failed. This was the plan B in case your newly learnt dish turns out bad. This was backup plan for newly weds. There are jokes on net that 90 percent of women removed Maggi as their cooking skill after this ban happened.

        But on a serious note, we need to wake up to understand the ingredients in the foods we eat. This Maggi was clearly the case of nestle under reacting & Govt overreacting. But we should react appropriately to other food stuffs we consume. How many of us care to bother the ingredients mentioned on the food stuffs ? There are so many local & international companies making & selling products which are not quality checked. There are local delicacies which are consumed from many years or even generations. What about them  ? I suggest govt & the food committees do at-least top 100 food stuffs quality checks first, then the later can follow.

The hidden risk

This post has been published by me as a part of Blog-a-Ton 55; the fifty-fifth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. In association with ​Rashmi Kumar, the author of Hooked, Lined and Single and Jyoti Arora, the author of Lemon Girl.

.
55-Fiction attempt for Blog-a-ton 55.

       Aakansha went out in the rain to cry pretending to get the clothes. Life had become too mundane, too predictable, taking care of her family. She was ambitious, she wanted to see the world, had so many great ideas. She thought there is danger in taking risks, more in not taking & getting bored too.

P.S : Sometimes there is bigger storm within leading to rain of tears.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. Participation Count: XX. Image Credits: Monsoon by Yann (Wikimedia Commons). Shared with GNU Free Documentation License CC Attribution-Share Alike.

Best movies ever - The ones with self-discovery

Good Will Hunting

    

   

        This movie takes you through an amazing physiological journey of a person - Will Hunting(Matt Damon), who has to figure out whether to follow the thing in which he is a good at or just stop caring about it as he is not interested in the same. Will is a genius in mathematics, the most complex problems are easy for his mind, but he is just not interested to be in the academics and teaching sort of lifestyle. There is this mathematics professor who identifies the genius in him & persistently tries to get him into the world of mathematics, to make him an achiever. He leads him to have counselling sessions with his friend Sean Maguire(Robin Williams), who in the end convinces to just follow his heart as this is what makes him happy. The movie ends in great friendship between Will & Sean, with Will deciding once and for ever that he just doesn't care to move away from the thing in which he is good at. He learns to take a risk & love someone as he has not dared to do the same ever. This movie has a lot of great memorable quotes & that scene in the park where Sean leaves Will speechless is just priceless wisdom. 

Into the Wild      

          This is a great & extreme story of letting go. Letting go of things which are embraced by normal people. After Chris graduates, he leaves behind parents, money etc and hitchhikes to be amidst nature. He takes a trip lasting his lifetime, never to return back home. He lives off the land, he goes sailing on long river, to reach Alaska. This movie has some great quotes too. Of course its  painful for his parents & near & dear ones to accept the fact that Chris is gone forever, but its a fact they have to live with if not accept it completely. Chris just aspired freedom from normal routine of life, freedom from criticism & trying to impress the society, giving himself the joy of experiencing new things & travel adventure as long as he could. Chris dies at the end but he lives a life he desired.

Lakshya

       We often tend to ignore the advices we receive from our parents, near & dear ones. Surprisingly an outsider's suggestion make an ever lasting impression & probably change our life for good. hrithik is easy going fun loving kid who has not even bothered to think what he wants from  his life. He enrols for army coz his friend did the same. He has to stick to his plan as he has nothing else, though his friend back off from this army idea.

He is greatly impressed by his girl friend's father telling him that whatever you become in life, excelling in the same is important. 

Note: This Post is under construction.

Set of 5 stories - 55 fiction -Season - 1

1. The need

Being a salesman, he went in search of durable & tough shoes from shop to shop, as his job would make them worn out soon. On his way back home he saw a beggar with torn sandals. He felt sad & gave his new shoes to him as thinking that he needed them the most.

P.S: Apart form the idea in the story, many a times we shop for things which we really don’t need. Donate generously the old things you don’t need. May be it will reach a person who is really in need of them.

2. The same old story.

"Hey, tell the story of how we met at first. I love the way you tell" asked wife to her hubby.

"How often do you wanna listen to the same old story?"

"I'm 70 yrs old & keep forgetting things”

“Eh, how come you never forget that you have a memory loss? Anyway here it goes...”

P.S : We dream of spending great time with our spouse on great vacation or movie or some outside country trip. But we rarely imagine a scene where we are just comfortable in old age in the company of our spouse in the coziness of our home. 

3. The Dilemma 

He was trembling with fear, thinking of reasons to avoid the situation. His wife would finally discover the truth which he has hid since many years. He was not concerned about the problem. He wondered if it was more than it appeared. Then the doctor came in & said "Come on, Step on the weighing machine"

4. The care

The small white one got scared seeing a big thing in Pooja's hand, but felt relief when it found that it looked similar. It was big & had a shiny leg. The small one couldn't see the sky as that thing was all above it. Pooja's mom called 'It will rain, Stop playing with mushrooms & come inside'

5. The promise

“Dad you promised me sweets today!” said the little one. “Yeah, I know son the store was closed today, and they had cleaned everything for tomorrow’s festival, not even bits & pieces were seen. Tomorrow I'll get you, big pieces of Laddu, barfi & all that I can carry on my head ”said the father ant.

Note: Please click on the label to read more of my 55 fiction stories. Happy reading. 

Guiding light

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 43; the forty-third edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The theme for the month is "LIGHT"

I am in your thought
I am in your breadth
I am in your every beat the heart takes

I am in your life
I am in your moments
I am in every page the destiny unfolds

I am in your smile
I am in your tear
I am with you here and always

Just like a shadow following you...
like a mystery surrounding you
let the magic of life sparkle as always
let the beauty of a forgotten moment
take your breath away as before

I may not be seen, heard or touched
but I will be there for you
you can feel me around,
when you need me the most and otherwise
till the end of this lifetime and the next

let my presence not go in vain,
coz I am there to guide you in every step you take
you need to move on in life
coz that's the way life is meant to be
to be grand in this moment and the next

I feel, could have told you
revealed how I felt about you
but waited for the time to be right
but destiny always plays its magic trick

We may be none
we may be someone
we may be a star shining up above the sky
we may be just a piece of glitter,
with a purpose to shine for now and forever.

let me be your comfort in pain
let me be the guiding light
let me be someone so close to your heart
for the body may not be one but our souls were never apart

I promised flowers
purple, pink and lavender
Oh I love you so much my dear
let me be bouquet of love at your doorstep
just for today
for tomorrow I'll return with more splendid colors of love my dear  

I can make out the tear on your cheek in the rain
Is there anything I can make to reduce the pain ?
coz all I have to say is making you feel more attached
life is sometimes about moving on and getting detached.

I hope you enjoy the future
as much as I loved being with you. 
remember the moment when we saw
all night long, the stars shine and shine
more intoxicating than the best wine

I am sorry for leaving you this way
I know you don't need my apology
but do take it anyway

Let your life be filled with more colors than ever
let your life be filled with more love than before
coz in the end perhaps what matter is only the moments
which made our lives so special together.


nothing is everlasting pain, fame or our name
but let me be clear
life is not something which has ends
It's something filled with moments 
which reveal I love you forever


Honestly speaking, this poem is inspired from movie P.S I love you. 
we see a movie, enjoy & learn so many things but foeget about it. later when we watch it after couple of years, we realize there are so many angles & perspectives which we really appreciate & there are handful of such wonderfully made movies. Some of my fav in romantic

Forrest Gump
P.S I love you
The Notebook
A walk to remember
A walk in the clouds
Gone with the wind
Once
Socha na tha
Last but not the least, the evergreen ones like DDLJ DTPH etc. 

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. Participation Count: 12

A tryst with oxymorons

Some PJ's are good, Some are bad, Some are just PJ's.

The 'lost & found' box was lost & found.

Things are gonna get pretty ugly.

A person or thing's presence is felt the most in its absence.

My love was successful, but did not get the girl.    ..from a kannada movie: Simple love story

You are very efficient, probably you know to manage your money well. Hence no salary hike this year for you.

My wardrobe are full, but still nothing to wear.

Don't forget to keep reminder for the thing you forget often. When reminded, remember the thing for which you kept reminder, don't forget to remember finally.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

Community work for a better tomorrow

1] Further to the video presentation of Myshkin Ingawale here or copy-paste the link below :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZrxaxNTxdCI

             The innovative ideas of today are the foundation for a better society of tomorrow. I think the healthcare sector in India is still much neglected one & needs much focus, attention & dedicated hard work to develop & more importantly to sustain the development. The aim should be to make the basic health care affordable & available to the masses. At least the routine checks must be done to warn about likelihood of major diseases. Many instruments are imported from abroad making healthcare expensive as there is a cost involved in employing skilled staff to operate the same & maintenance of the machine itself. The various medical institutes should encourage & create awareness of the challenges involved in the medical instrumentation domain. They must go visit the good engineering colleges & inspire students to take up projects which can make the low cost version of the imported machines locally. Design & implementation challenges will motivate the students to come up with innovative ideas. If the idea is really good & valuable then the project can be funded in the long term to design an affordable health check device. As part of corporate social responsibility initiatives by IT companies, employees can be encouraged to contribute for such a project. At least few of them will be interested to contribute to the software & hardware designs in their spare time. Similar to a device which can detect one disease or symptoms shown in video for anaemia, there is a need to make a single device which can detect a variety of diseases. Electronics students, Software companies & medical institutes can collaborate to make such a device. Thus this community initiative aimed at specific thing will lead to development & maintenance of such a device. Govt can make it a policy to supply to the govt hospitals in remote areas where diagnosis & testing facilities are poor. If the device becomes a hit, then it can be mass produced to be used by public as well. The device must be robost & user friendly & able to diagnose the conditions of disease for which the symptoms are not prominent.  Even nurses must be able to operate the same. Call it "Doctor IC" basically an All in One device. It must be able to monitor, diagnose, test the samples taken etc. say for eg for BP monitoring, heart beats, run basic blood tests etc

2] Further to the video presentation of Christian Sarkar here or copy-paste the link below :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=haMM-hiG6k4

                      About the low budget house, probably one can approach the CREDAI, which is the regulatory body for real estate companies. Some builders may be interested in coming up with innovative solutions for low budget houses. Taking Karnataka as example, in metros like Bangalore its a big challenge to provide low cost housing for masses, but the construction companies can try out such a project in Tier-2 cities like Hubli, Mangalore, Davangere etc, where there may be people in lower middle class and slums who may be able to pay & afford for such a low budget house. In highly populated areas, constructing a small one floor house is a challenge, so why not construct couple of floors more. The bottom most floor should be strong enough to support the top floors in terms of area materials used etc. The upper floors can be less stronger than the floor below it, but strong enough to provide sufficient protection to human life & property inside. The key here is to go vertical otherwise one needs to locate such projects outside the city. Placing a project outside city will bring commute challenges for people daily in cities like bangalore where ease of commute is still a dream, with the ongoing slow metro work.

     

This post is written for Franklin Templeton Investments partnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012.

The unknown ring

Tring-Tring, the phone rang.

I answered in desperation. 'Who is it?' asked the voice.
I began to wonder Who am I? I didn't know or remember my name or myself.
Have I lost my memory? Have I become insane? were questions popping in my mind. Just when I was stuck in this weird feeling, I woke up!

P.S: I'll never know who was the person who called in my dream !

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

Birds of same feather flock together on WeChat

            Rather than a story of connecting on IM with some people chatting I would like to put forth a few insights & potential ideas which may be the future technologies in mobile computing. India is on the verge of becoming a smart phone superpower. In few years smart phones would become more & more economical & make into hands of most of the Indians. Different people will use different apps based on their profession passion, hobby, day to day living, but surely everyone needs to connect with their family & friends anyway. So there needs to be a most economical method of information exchange quickly at least for small text messages like I reached office, on way to home etc. Sometimes we can do away with full duplex communication, isn't it ? This is where the currently competing IM's like WeChat, WhatsApp, gtalk/hangout, FB chat come into picture & really serve this purpose well.

            In some countries in past & even now I suppose, like minded people like scholars,  philosophers or so would hang out in small groups near a river or pub & discuss various ideas. This would enrich their knowledge in their respective fields, solve problems, make progress on a particular stuck topic. This is a great approach for creating community for working towards new ideas & achieving new frontiers in science technology or any other domain. This kind of unofficial meetings really help rather than closed room meetings which bind you to rules of an organization. Free thinking & connecting with the community can make faster discoveries & inventions. 

              If I could connect with five or more people in the past, then I would connect with the great physicists like Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Paul Dirac, Edwin Hubble etc. What a wonderful opportunity to learn new discoveries happening. There was so much physics happening those days. So may wonderful discoveries. It's the ideas which intrigue me rather than the end results i.e. the journey towards the end result is more fun rather than the end result itself. Besides the best teachers like Feynman etc could reach towards a larger set of audience if a video/voice chat was available at that time. If people like Einstein, Feynman, Dirac could create a community in which the public could be included, then the society would be more open minded to fund these scientific experiments going on. I suppose if mobiles with 3G internet speed & chat/audio video features were available that time, then all could come together for a casual meet from the comfort of their homes itself. Even today, we can have a cloud of like minded people discussing on various topics. People could join in in some community & discuss , ask questions get answers etc using a IM instantly.

       














             We are a group of Amateur Astronomers from Bangalore from a community called BAS- Bangalore Astronomical Society, a non-profit Amateur astronomy organization aimed at popularizing astronomy both as a science & a hobby. Such IM's & group chats can help people getting updates about something interesting events to watch out in sky for instance. Say a halo is visible around the sun, moon. Just drop a message to the group chat already created. It would reach to say 100 people. Some of them who may be interested in photography will grab a camera to capture the event. Some of them may grab their telescopes to view the Jupiter near moon or events like that. People can ask questions & get answers instantly.
      Coming from fiction to reality, my friends are my inspiration, they are my Einstein, Feynman etc. So a community can be created & nurtured & everyone learns in the process. It would be very nice to get a google hangout kind of experience on mobile phone with IM as well with the feature to turn ON/OFF video feed as that determines the data downloaded. there is a lot of potential for the IM's in advertising domain as well apart from the above topic. All the best WeChat. I will look forward to flock together bringing like minded people connected through WeChat. 

This post is a an entry in the WeChat contest. Check out WeChat at below link :
WeChat's Youtube channel.

A perfect love

           
                  He fell in love with her seeing her beautiful eyes, the most beautiful ever seen. He wanted to tell her she had the most amazing eyes but couldn't. Later he wrote a letter asking- will you be my friend? Second letter was will you be my love?  This is how Akansha and Ananth met at the school of deaf and dumb.

This post is a 55 fiction  - 55 Fiction is a form of micro-fiction that refers to the works of fiction limited to a maximum of fifty-five words.

Modern health care - boon to mankind

          Today we live in a fast growing technology, where a kid sees alphabets first on keyboard, learns to type instead of holding a pencil to write.On a happy occasion they don't expect new clothes anymore, buying new gadgets is their only interest.Modernization is not only affecting the way of living but also importantly health care.
          Gone are the days, where patients waited in long queue,so long that their symptoms would worsen waiting in the queue. The doc just records the symptoms in computer and keeps a record of every visit of the patient.As soon as one sits in front of doctor, unlike old days,you just find that questions asked by doctors are less,instead,they connect digital apparatus which beeps the BP and heart rate,another beeps the body temperature.
           While some deadly disease are being treated, research is on to kill other disease before they kill lives.Now-a-days all surgeries are less painful and no more long healing process.Each and every organ is treated by that specialized doctor.If you don't find the concerned person, no worries, he can be contacted over internet for your treatment.
               No matter how modern is the health care,there is still the lack of modern methods to touch the lives of poor people.While people spend for the treatment of their appearance, there are many unfortunate lives, who cant afford for the treatment of their basic sustenance.

For more info on cutting edge technology provided by Apollo Hospitals visit this link 
http://www.apollohospitals.com/cutting-edge.php

Déjà vu

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 38; the thirty-eighth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The theme for the month is "The Woman on Platform Number 10"

The woman on the platform 10

             Ananth was almost sleep, his eyes too exhausted closed in by themselves. He was feeling the soothing cool breeze & his head was resting against the train window, while the train silently made a pass through the villages. He was returning from exam duty from another city where he was assigned for a few days as examiner. He saw a station approaching. It was a small village with lush green fields everywhere. He saw a women turned backwards. She was looking at some advertisement so keenly that she never turned her back. Somehow this scene of woman at platform 2 stuck in his mind. He grasped onto this mental picture trying to decode it desperately, trying to comprehend the strange feelings associated with this picture. He was just wondering whether he knew the girl he saw there or more importantly was wondering whether he was actually sleeping or dreaming. The train moved on & Ananth felt asleep. He felt kind of deja-vu feeling when he woke up after sometime & somehow he couldn’t get over the familiarity feeling with the platform 2 & the woman he saw.
He was still confused whether it was  a dream or real scene. He had a strange feeling that he had been before to that place, the station or known that women. He told his wife Akansha over dinner that night that he had this strange encounter of being familiar with the platform 2 of a particular village station or known that girl standing there with back turned towards him. Akansha asked whether he had been to that village before which he recollects. Akansha told on the lighter side that this may have been your previous lifetime. Years passed after this incident where Ananth had forgotten about this when one fine day while cleaning the store room, Akansha jumped with joy as she had found the childhood paintings. She was so excited to see them after many years. She called Ananth & started showing them one by one. They started looking at the pics. Suddenly they came across a painting of a woman standing on the platform with the number 2. A shock ran though Ananth’s body due the striking similarity between the painting & the scene he recollected while travelling some years back. The scene I was telling you some years back...you remember I was returning in train & an mental image had stuck my mind of this woman on platform 2. I tried hard to recollect who that might be or what it meant. Akansha also had forgotten the context when she had made this painting. Was it for a competition, or exam or just she had made it. It was from her childhood. Akansha said probably I may have thought of a theme of train & platform & women waiting for the train or waiting for someone arriving at the station. They thought about it for a long time trying hard to recollect what that scenes & the painting meant to them. How can two persons have a strange feeling, a sort of connected familiarity about a similar thing? Later years passed they had discussed this with their friends & they got the opinion that this may be merely a coincidence where two people experienced & somehow trying to connect the dots, which when connected may mean just nothing.

      Ananth was a professor of physics, he believed in reason & logic & such things as last lifetime etc just were outside his scope of belief.  Akansha had studied history, but chose to do social work after their marriage & drawing, painting were her hobbies. One day at breakfast Ananth was checking their daughter’s essay about an abstract concept. She had chosen soul & she weaved a story with concept that souls are connected beyond time & space & they will be united in the lifetime as they were in the last or the next. Ananth asked Akansha to check the same about this striking similarity with their déjà vu experience. Akansha said this can’t be our story as we met in third year of our college remember & not in any train station or so?  They got to know each other in third year of college & soon it turned into love & marriage. But wait a second did you arrive to join the hostel a day before the college joining date. Ananth exclaimed yes I came the day before to joining the hostel. So it’s quite possible that we may have seen each other at platform 10 that day. They felt like they were connecting the dots their déjà vu experience & started making sense after many years. Ananth said the platform he saw while travelling was two & not any other number as it was a village & hardly two platforms. They checked & found that the train coming from Akansha’s home town to the city where they finished their graduation was 10. They impatiently tried to figure out the relation between the platform 10 & Platform 2. Their daughter who was good at math said 10 is binary 2.

       Ananth concluded the essay telling if we keenly observe the events happenings in the world, there may be a connection between all things, natural & unnatural happening around us. Some things live beyond time & space. They told about this interesting observation to their friends at dinner that night. But they all discussed about it, they couldn't prove or disprove anything as this really did not matter to them in anyway.  Ananth desperately wondered whether the woman in platform 2 was Akansha in last lifetime. Whether the woman in platform 2 & platform 10 were the same but probably different lifetimes?

Disclaimer: All the characters in the story are fictional & any resemblance with reality is just a coincidence.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. Introduced By: BLOGGER NAME, Participation Count: 15

P.S. I love you, now and forever

I am in your thought
I am in your breadth
I am in your every beat the heart takes

I am in your life
I am in your moments
I am in every page the destiny unfolds

I am in your smile
I am in your tear
I am with you here and always

Just like a shadow following you...
like a mystery surrounding you
let the magic of life sparkle as always
let the beauty of a forgotten moment
take your breath away as before

I may not be seen, heard or touched
but I will be there for you
you can feel me around,
when you need me the most and otherwise
till the end of this lifetime and the next

let my presence not go in vain,
coz I am there to guide you in every step you take
you need to move on in life
coz that's the way life is meant to be
to be grand in this moment and the next

I feel, could have told you
but waited for the time to be right
but destiny always plays its magic trick

// The kind and humble nature of the lover is reflected here,
who calls magic trick, though destiny took his or her life away

We may be none
we may be someone
we may be a star shining up above the sky
we may be just a piece of glitter,
with a purpose to shine for now and forever.

let me be your comfort in pain
let me be the pill which kills the pain
let me be someone so close to your heart
for the body may not be one but our souls were never apart

I promised flowers
purple, pink and lavender
Oh I love you so much my dear
let me be bouquet of love at your doorstep
just for today
for tomorrow I'll return with more colors of love my dear  

I can make out the tear on your cheek in the rain
Is there anything I can make to reduce the pain ?
coz all I have to say is making you feel more attached
life is all about moving on and getting detached.

I hope you enjoy the future
as much as I loved being with you.
remember the moment when we saw
all night long, the stars shine and shine
more intoxicating than the best wine

I am sorry for leaving you this way
I know you don't need my apology
but do take it anyway

Let your life be filled with more colors than ever
let your life be filled with more love than before
coz in the end perhaps what matter is only the moments
which made our lives so special together.


nothing is everlasting pain, fame or our name
but let me be clear
life is not something which starts & ends at main() {}
Its something which ends at P.S. I love you