We mustn't abandon our Native Heritage;at any cost!

Everyone will rush to tell you why the Government of Maharashtra (GOM) mustn’t build a Rupees 350 Crore monument of Maharaj Chhatrapati Shivaji larger than the Statue of Liberty near Bombay’s coastline. I am here to tell you why it’s a good thing.

First off, don’t call this just any monument! It’s going to be larger than the Statue of Liberty in New York City! Doesn’t that count for our greatness? The Statue of liberty will look so small in from of the monument of our Maharaj! What better way to show the world that we can do what America does, but better! This will have a lift to go up to the top, a revolving restaurant and a museum with artifacts of the emperor what more can you ask for! Does the Statue of Liberty have any of this?

Then of course the fact that we need as a city to grow to its destined greatness a gigantic and great monument of a great person! Let’s be honest, all the monuments or landmarks we have today are so badly maintained and/or damaged! Who wants to see those eyesores? We need something new!

These are stand-alone reasons to build it. What the many people will say is that we have so many social and civic problems that plague our city and state. The drought-hit areas are severely crippled. But they don’t understand the issue! First of all, the BMC is already spending several lacs of the taxpayer’s money for cloud seeding. So rain is imminent, and more over how can you say there is a rain shortage, when city wide basic services are being shut down because of water logging? Please get your facts right.

The social problems are primarily because citizen lack a guide in their life… This monument will be that guiding light. Just like “Lady Liberty” guides Americans our monument will guide us in following his ideals. Just renaming a vital train station, or our International Airport or having tiny insignificant statues all over the city is not sufficient to commemorate the ideals of a great human being. This one will be an equestrian statue, the way we have come to look up at him.

I have also heard many otherwise rational people saying- in times of recession should we really splurge on a monument?. The Indian Government has said that public servants shouldn't travel in business class, or live in 5 star hotels. So its not like they don’t want to save money. Moreover, its not like we will not be able to make anything from spending 350 crores, it will boost tourism significantly. At a time when tourists are low in number thanks to 26/11, this will help them comeback. The much written about and filmed slums that our tourists see as they land in the Bombay, and this magnificent statue will serve as a honey-pot.

So are they ignoring the apparent poor state of our public offices, the measly salaries of our hardworking (and in certain need of raises) public servants? Are they ignoring the so-called dilapidated education system, or schools, or hospitals? Are they turning a blind eye to poor maintenance of the roads, or poor quality of material being used? Or is it not bothered about the jam-packed trains? The answer is a big firm NO. Those are beside the point!

Sowing the seeds for Rain!

The shortage of rainfall is supposed to be a major problem in India. Now to be honest, from what I have seen of these monsoons in Bombay, I ended up believing that because of excess and un-manageable rainfall Bombay had water logging. But, shortage is the problem that the municipal corporation of Bombay (BMC)  is worried about.

I just read in the paper today that the BMC was planning to go to a "RAIN MAN" to make rain. Now, to a lot of people this might imply that the Rain man was going to perform some kind of dance or sacrifice to please the rain gods! But think again, the scientific method this Rain man will use is called Cloud seeding!

Now, I had heard of CLOUD OS, but Cloud seeding was news to me. So I did what any person of our generation with questions would do... I went online to find the answer. And to my surprise it wasn't just hog wash. Wikipedia had an article on it! 

It is a method that is used to increase precipitation. It uses hygroscopic agents that cause the water to come together, and therefore cause precipitation. The science behind it seems alright, if water molecules come together, they become heavy, and eventually fall to the earth as rain/snow or some form of precipitation. Of course, if it does work one can never really say if it was the effect of the cloud seeding or mother nature. What if it was going to rain anyway?! The rain will certainly bring down the agents that were sent up! 

 However from what I read, people have used this method at times to reduce precipitation rather than increase it. The case in point is China, where they used this method in the hope that there would be no rain during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Also Vladimir Putin had used this method to try to make sure it didn't rain during a G8 Summit...but it ended up pouring!

I guess you can't play around with nature. I just hope that in our attempt to increase precipitation, we don't end up reducing it! Instead maybe find a way to perform Rainwater tapping, it will be the stone that takes out two birds.  

 

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The Data Space Equivalency

I am sure many of you are familiar with Parkinson's Law:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

This is rather self explanatory, and therefore some computer guy came up with one more...the Corollary:

Data expands to fill the space available for storage.

This single line is so heavily valid in today's context! I have worked with computer when the HDD was 2 GB. That time this law didn't apply... maybe because there was nothing to put in a computer except small files, or that i just didnt know what existed. In the past few years however, having had a desktop with 40 GB wasn't enough. So we added an extra 80 GB for the data. Then when i went on to get my first Laptop, it had 120 GB in it. It felt like all the space in the world. Then soon enough, the internet Broadband became unlimited, so downloads happened. Friends with a LAN came over with oodles of binary data. Which is when I went and bought myself an external HDD of 80GB! Dearth of space continued and i upgraded my lappy to 160 GB of HD space.In the hope that that would solve my problems.

Before my recent trip to Singapore, where i went to visit a friend, i learnt that he had an 8 Mbps connection. Now that meant 1 MB per sec!!! Do you see what thought raced around my head!  Amazing Download speed. Take that one step further...SO MANY DOWNLOADS!

To accomodate these downloads i had to have space. I took with me a fresh set of blank DVDs. My external HDD was almost full with data, so i copied only what i needed and put it on my desktops old HDD. I picked up all the Pen drive i could see at home and didn't push off until i was sure i packed them all!

I am back home now, and not finding sufficient space on my HDD to put in new data, i removed my music library(30 GB). Now i have upgraded my Bandwidth, and to because i can download faster, i download more. I now find myself dealing with OS warning messages of low disk space :( . 

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As always, today too my curiosity and want to find new software and fiddle around with it overcame all other desires. Ascending Maslow's hierarchy i find that pretty low is a "want for knowledge" ;) 

Now downloaded a tool called blogger widget for Mac OS X. My first post from it. I hope it works right. For now short is sweet :)  

Too Busy to socialize???

Its been so long since i last wrote a blog entry, as i begin to write again i feel like i am getting re-aquatinted with an old friend. Even from my real-world friends, i have been kept away.

After the last post here, I had my College festival, the last one i would see. Then friends and I went to a trip to GOA-the famed vacation spot, which turned out to be just like any other place(PS-a lot of people would claim that i feel this way because i did nothing 'WILD'). Then came the most work, the final phase of the magazine i was responsible for.

I am not writing a report on the making of the magazine, although i should, but again there is no time for that now, i have a project presentation to make today and have to run.

My apologies to neglecting my social side, blogging is certainly back on track.

Improvement

You know how our parents or other forms of wise elders always tell us, keep at it, you will improve with time, and we feel one of two things...either that we are good at it already, or improvement will never come. Well, i have reason enough to believe it. 

I was reading my posts of 2006, i was then a sophomore, new to college activities primarily because we werent allowed anything in our first year. My head full of idealism, and thus poured into my posts. While they were not bad, the writing i'll admit was a little childish.It tended to ramble, and go onto tangents and make different points. it seemed like random thougts being noted. Also i think there was obsession to use big words which were unnecessary. 

 Today i am Editor in Chief of my college magazine, and its my job to make sure people can understand without shadow of doubt what another persons article says. It is a need that I be articulate and consice. 

I believe i am more so now than i was before.  

India-where are we headed?

I wonder how many of you read "A Thousand Splendid Suns", those who have will realize the potential danger of letting bullies  and vigilantes who shout out "OUR CULTURE IS OFFENDED" from the roof tops, and to those who have not read the book, let me explain.

The book is set in pre-Taliban Afghanistan where,  as the book reads, it is evident the country was doing well for itself. But the wars set in, and one thing  leads to another, and the taliban creeps in. The hard lined, regressive, and oppressive regime is not news to anyone. We all know, or at least have an idea of the awful state of affairs there. I am afraid that India is poised to get there too.

From the view point of a person fresh out of his teens, has not seen much of the world, let alone much of India, except through news channels, and what I know of the world -hearsay; India in its present state still scares me. These fresh attacks on "PUB CULTURE" are especially unsettling.

Do not mistake me for a person who is PRO pub culture. I am not PRO or ANTI anything in this context. I just do not agree that going to pubs is going against Indian culture. What i would like us to take note of is how the topic of discussion has shifted so conveniently. Instead of telling this moral police to mind their own business, we are discussing PUBS?? We can and probably should discuss pubs but later, once the message is clear INDIA is not a land to spew ones hatred, and ignorance on. AND NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. We let these "Protectors of culture" go today, tomorrow they will start banning books, tv shows, clothes, free speech, and slowly but surely we are back in time, when women could not vote, and men would be following bonded labor.

Which culture is offended when people go to pubs? Why is it other people's business to deal with it. Going to pubs is a personal choice. You can only offend people (that one can do culturally, physically, morally and in other ways). You simply cannot offend a culture. Let these moral police point out which culture is offended by going to pubs. Is it them who are offended? Most likely. Discussing ANYTHING else is moot right now, and will be off topic. Even saying that our gods and goddesses, kings and queens were all PRO what any MORAL police, or layman would be ANTI, is irrelevant. We are losing sight of the important issue.

A similar case is here back home in BOMBAY. We have another Hitler in the making. No one has the guts to do what is necessary. People are discussing what his ideals are, whether they are right or wrong can be discussed later, you just cannot be a vigilante.

Unfortunately, India is going to be a country that thrives on falsities, pseudo culture, pseudo ideology, pseudo secular, pseudo honest and pseudo hope. I feel jealous of America, they have an honest, straightforward and seemingly strong and intelligent man to lead them.

The Simple Cheese Sandwich

During exam time, when you are practically on house arrest(by choice of course) our Satiety Center in the brain refuses to comply with space in the stomach. Every 5 minutes, i find myself wanting to go around hunting for grub. The following experience is not lifted from Ghajini or Memento, and i do not have anterograde  amnesia, i hit the refrigerator, looking for the left overs from breakfast, i find nothing, so return to my books. Beside my books i find a plate with what was the leftovers from breakfast. I wonder hmmm...perhaps i did eat it some time back. That done....with food on my mind, i cant concentrate on my books can i? so i make a beeline to the kitchen cupboards. And to cut the disappointing story short...Old Mother Hubbard just moved down a notch. 

Grumbling i come back, I don't want to make Maggi or anything, nor do i want to ask my folks to cook  something for me. I come back to my books, and resume my session of study+ reverie. i recall seeing bread in my fridge, and some cheese. Now then.... :)

Swiftly i swing into action...2 slices of bread, one slice of Britannia Cheese, slam them together, put it on a place, and shove in the Microwave!!!

Voila!!!! There it is...the solution to my- perennial, and probably harmful in the long run- desire to be fed!!!

The cheese melting down the side, just the right consistency, and the flavor blending in with the bread perfectly. Couldn't ask for more i think....and head back with the plate to my books....

I read with maximum attention on my sandwich. Savoring each morsel. And before i know it....its gone.

One more i think...but i manage to control myself...like an old Malayalam story says (loosely translated)...if i eat the first one today, and the second one also today....then what about tomorrow? 

So thats my story, of the simple cheese sandwich. Lovers of cheese rejoice.....this is one for the books!