Open letter to the device who is highly unlikely to respond..

Dear gadget,

This is a letter of grievance where I would like to highlight the different plights I go through on a day to day basis. YOU, are this slim looking, tentacled manifestation spread across my table. You, are the one I stare at admiringly, day in and day out. A window to my outside world! You might be a dummy object, but WE have given you the power to obey us and make my life easy. I, on the other hand, am small in stature (my 3 big monitors make me look like a dwarf). The connection I have with you extends beyond the simple shooting of keys. Or so I thought.

Clearly, you crave for freedom of speech and expression. You throw tantrums although I adorably stroke the mouse (which leads to continuous incessant clicks of frustration finally). I fix you on the left and you go berserk on the right. I dust you up externally and you cry to clean up your internal space. I dump all that is deemed unnecessary(with a heavy heart ofcourse) into that recycle bin and you complain about the network connection! oh, did I miss the fact that you make your point clear by whirring that fan of yours like a maniac?

Alright, I get a different network cable and heave a sigh of relief. I can talk to aliens again, in case they decide to contact me through the internet! At this moment, what do you do? You just shutdown without any warning. I panic due to the loss of 100 tabs I had opened before the grief of losing other work hits me. "Everyone deserves a word of caution!!" At this point I start wondering if I allowed you to have a backup of yourself! (who would not procrastinate a software installation?! heck, I do it till the last second).

In this frenzy, I frantically do a hard reset and reboot (in case, you magically start working and would like to atone your sins!). And what do you do? You present to me scary lines saying things are not looking good. You want to check all the disks and you think I have all the time in the world. In the disdainful pain, I hit all the random keys and something clicks and you shoot me the windows screen. Boy, am I happy to see that?!

I pray to all gods to have everything restored fine. (All gods? You are just going to trust me on that). The beautiful wallpaper appears where the distant mountains seem as calm as ever. I drag my sorry self to restore balance in the universe ( re-do all my unsaved work and try to hit that sweet spot in my memory to remember things).

When I thought nothing more can go wrong, you lifted your ugly head with a popup "100% of your computer problems exist between the keyboard and the chair! "

Arrghhh!

"Hello.. This is IT services.. What can I help you with today?"

God's Debris

I am not the one who gets flared up with the talks of God, consciousness, free-will, scepticism. I heard about 'thought-experiments' from my friend. Albeit reluctant, I figured to give it a try. Google threw me a clean pdf of this book in the first search. Skimming through this, a 100 odd page book seemed quite appealing. After the foreword, there was no stopping. Will you believe if I point out that the author of "Dilbert", Scott Adams wrote this serious piece? Hold on, it aint serious. It aint humor either. In his very own words: "This is not a Dilbert book. It contains no humor. I call it a 132-page thought experiment wrapped in a fictional story".

It is a very fast read and it stimulates your rusty neurons, piques it right and shakes those thoughts. You will look at probability with a whole new light. If you wonder why a normal package delivery guy engages in such a though provoking discussion with a wise old man, I dont have an answer. But before you ask this, you would be so into this book and the trivial things seem all the more trivial. I was distraught when he elucidates 'God's debris'. I was dangling in between before I got fastened to this new belief system. We can cogitate about each topic in this book for hours. He covers a gamut of motifs and you go through elation and betrayal at the same time.

The best part about this book is his approach. He does not impose anything on you. It is not a new system. You wont change the way you are, although you might start questioning more. You can sail through gravity, physics, relativity without having prior knowledge. Play with your thoughts, create more, destroy some more and modify the remaining. The climax is even better. It is a light hearted thought provoking book. You say, oxymoron? Spend some time with this creation. I can vouch for it!

Excerpts-
Most people believe they have goals when, in fact, they only have wishes.

Have you ever had the experience where you hear a strange word for the first time, and then soon afterward you hear the same word again?

“Ideas are the only things that can change the world. The rest is details.

What more? This is exactly how I felt when I finished the last sentence.
The city had bright edges. Sound was crisp. Colors were vivid. Objects seemed more dimensional, as if I could see the sides and backs from any angle. I heard a phone call being made a block away and knew both sides of the conversation. I could feel every variation in airflow..

Courtesy: At times, tea-time conversation can lead to fruitful results

FreeBird

I was flying. What they had mixed in that bite, I could not have said, but it was airy. Suddenly, I had strong wings not prepared to plummet. I could go for a speedy ride or keep lurching in circles to make the onlooker dizzy. I soared high, dived down, streaked sideways and made merry. The sky was outlined with various hues and the collocation with the dark blue background looked extremely pleasing to not just a sore eye. I was painting a rainbow and the whole azure sky was my canvas. I mocked how one could think that sky is the limit. This scene was boundless.

Indeed! I could gaze at the world from a bird's-eye view!
I encircled the Empire State building till I felt dizzy.
I had an eye-to-eye moment with the statue of Liberty.
I gaped at the symmetry of Palm Islands.
I perched on the magnificent Golden gate.
I flew above the luscious green terrains of Machu Picchu.
I flocked along with the other birds meandering the Great Canyons.
What I could accomplish , no one could fathom. I was free from the perils of mundane life. It was a journey fraught with excitement and excitement alone.

'Thud'! I was jerked from the dream by a blowing trumpet. I was piqued. When the mists of sleep veered away, I could see a figure in front of me much obliged to put an end to my fabulous dream. Alas!

But if I stayed here with you, girl,
Things just couldn't be the same.
'Cause I'm as free as a bird now,
And this bird you cannot change.


The last 4 lines is from one of my favourite songs- FreeBird from Lynyrd Skynyrd.

***** is the secret of my energy

I grew up eating that brownish gooey mass. My mom used to scoop it in a spoon and had a condition that I better swallow it if I had to continue playing. It had a stark tangy taste and I yapped the moment it hit my taste buds. Realizing the contortions in my face, I would change it back to a sheepish smile denoting I am indeed relishing it. I would not let her have this as her Pet Peeve. No one could stop me from playing and frolicking. It used to come in a White plastic bottle with red lid with a portrayal of a sage meditating his way to glory.

My objective was to finish that bottle as soon as possible. Once over, mom used to give it to me so that I could store marbles or colourful pawns. It used to make me so happy. That was my treasure. Who cares about immunity or being hale and healthy to even be able to play!

Today, I sit here preening about the aftermaths of childhood. It was as if the whole goodness of health delivered to you in a small spoon. The sage descended to give a potion, which transformed the kids into super healthy beings.

I have had the benefit to consume it. What about today's generation? Can you lure them to have it just so they can play? Would they savour the bottle as collectibles?

Am no expert to talk about today's kids or the best way of growing up. But am sure they prefer no disturbance while playing video games, they prefer the bar of yummy chocolate over looking into the picture of all-knowing sage. And why not? They do what is appealing and what is delivered to them by others and the media.

It would be a losing battle to tell them to munch on green leafy vegetables.

'I', the so called informed, look for an excuse if I have to do it before the table of calories and nutrients invisibly appear before me. Coaxing kids to nibble on 'extremely healthy' nuts and fruits is not going to be an easy task. 'Hell', they dont care about Iron or calcium or the amount of calories per servings.

Maybe they do care about who is on television and telling what!

If immunization is a vital part of staying healthy, diet is important too. In this fast paced world filled with pretentious things, its a challenge to emphasize on good and simple things of life. Its a no-brainer to see why kids would love Complan or Boost over the plain whole milk. Deliver it to them the way they like.

I would not know of Spinach and its niceties but for Popeye.


A nutri-bar with all the nuts and berries combined will be an instant hit compared to asking kids to pop some nuts or squeeze some citrus berries. Its all about innovative ways of finding a product which will attract the masses and is healthy too. Its in the packaging, manufacturing and in the core values.

Sluurrrpppp ..! Mmmmm..thats the sound of sipping a cool melon juice with the benevolence of Mint and herbs and ofcourse the little tiny umbrella! Healthy? You name it!







This post is written for An Immune India contest by Indiblogger.

I am a new wave, but am old school!

I am no expert, nor qualified to speak about the benefits. But what I do know is its pretty straightforward that 'Natural' is the way to go. We have been there. We tried everything available in the market, consumed all the colourful things, applied all the fairness creams in the wake of turning into a white reflective body! In plain, we were stupid enough to fall for the propaganda.

We pay, pay more and hope that we will be transformed into everything beautiful and healthy. We trust in the people wearing white lab coats researching with the test tubes with whirring fumes coming out. Infact, if we pay for it, it should be good. If we paid more, it 'ought' to be better!

Go to any grocery store and you see a sudden onslaught of everything 'organic'. They are trying to push in less chemicals into the body. Where is this circle ending at? We started with everything natural, then realized that its easily perishable. Half the vegetables are reaped even before they grow full size which in turn reduces the activity inside them which makes them to last longer. In this process, half the nutrients will not be present in the food we eat. To offset this, we started consuming synthetic products loaded with preservatives. Deficiencies? swallow that multivitamin tablet. Fatigue? Drink that energy drink.

They almost taste good, easy to buy. No hassles to store. More like adopting allopathy over good old traditional Ayurveda. No one has the patience to wait and think it over. We wanted fast relief. Again, we went ahead and realized that these chemicals are doing more harm than good. We are slowly shifting to 'organic' stuff now. 'Vegan', 'Decaf', 'Low-fat' are the words of the day. Intense workouts, green smoothies, low carb diets are the new fads.

This battle of methodologies never ensue an answer. Probably because one is not better than the other. What you follow is your creed. It affects you directly and you are solely responsible. After trying all products, all means and after hundred different hapless pitiful trials, we realize that what our mom and grannies told are the best. Go back to roots. Home remedies work most of the time. Even though we dont have such cleaner, unpolluted produce now, we atleast are controlling the intake of known chemicals.

Its so easy to pop a pill of Aspirin but tougher to just endure it for a little longer to cure that headache. Stress is causing all the pain but in the process we forgot to stress on basic important points. Its more for a holistic development of the entire body and soul.



P.S: The title is from the most legendary standup comedian George Carlin

This post is part of the Indiblogger "Traditional Knowledge, Natural Growth" contest!

Stumbling upon Stumbleupon

The google search autocomplete throws up some absurdly ridiculous results. Often times, making us to digress from the original object we were searching for. On one of those boredom trials, I searched for things to do when bored and feeling lousy (yes, it can get to that sometimes! ). It lead to Quora and to a particular post catering to the same. Stumbleupon can help you keep entertained for hours. Come here, 'entertained' is a mere euphemism for addiction. Am hooked on Stumbleupon.

Am not complaining. The way it works is pretty neat. You give a list of your interests and it customizes the webpages according to it. Ranging from science, entertainment, arts to pretty colourful pictures, anecdotes, trivias : they cater to everything.

There are thousands of things to do when bored (or not). Why I chose this was pure luck. I have read many a dozen articles on this before, but the moment you find something interesting and want to click on that, it prompts you to subscribe. It lures you uptil there and I usually give up when I have to sign up.

So this time, on the pretext of boredom, I mustered the courage to sign up to go beyond the homepage (They always have a breathtaking natural wonder or a sight of wilderness which entices you).

A serendipitous occurrence, I saw this- http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4thYJO/360vr.com/2011/06/22-discovery-flight-deck-opf_6236/index.html/
Fine, I love rockets ! But this is something unlike I had seen anything before. The panoramic shot of the cockpit of Space shuttle is simply stunning. Turn it, stare at it long enough and you feel you are infact inside that with a zillion switches. "Oh Boy ! one click and am ready to zoooommm...."

I felt like Calvin for a moment.

Other interesting finds- http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/6hJDaz/www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-ultimate-guide-to-writing-better-than-you-normally-do/
Timothy McSweeney's 'Internet Tendency' is pure bliss for me. Maybe its boring for everyone other than bibliophiles, I like the organization and language (content comes last to me).

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/324fat/www.streetartutopia.com/?p=10554/
I dont want to use my brain or feel responsible to save earth, Streetartutopia is a visual treat. It oozes with creativity and brings a smile.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2Vlo4M/:2rztrjfs:jnHO5sTy/www.wannalol.com/p/72138/
I want to have a hearty laugh watching Ellen.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1QGIv5/:u_3EAr8J:eRMUZJ+x/www.gillesvidal.com/blogpano/paris.htm/
For a breathtaking view of Paris!

I click thumbs up or down, but constantly I 'stumble'. In the span of two weeks, I feel I suddenly know more than my neighbour, I suddenly have seen more places than the hikers, I suddenly am gazing at more art than the people strolling the museums ;-)

It has something for everyone. Hold on, I gotta change my next wallpaper.
Er..I meant 'Happy Stumbling' :-)

Courtesy-StumbleUpon

Gravity- sure does attract you !

I was glad that am standing on the surface where I dont have to struggle to walk. Thanks to "g". A movie which lives upto its hype. Seeing it in IMAX 3D makes you actually walk in space. Being a space enthusiast and sharing a dream of being an astronaut someday, am contented for now. Its so gripping and jaw dropping that I dint realize almost till the end, that the cast of the movie was mainly just Sandra. Clearly explaining the plight of the astronauts and the loneliness in space, it strucks you hard when your hear the voices in her head. You hope that her conscience can hear it, leave alone the mission control. I found it scientifically apt till I searched for the inaccuracies out of my curiosity, to be so meagre that one would not realize unless he is an astronaut himself.

Breathtaking view of the earth, the shimmer of sunlight and the lovely soundtracks engulf you with excitement. I shuddered everytime she let the rope loose, I sighed with relief everytime she got a thing working, I lost hope everytime she conveyed the whereabouts to Houston. I lived through the whole experience. Its so humbling that I appreciate immensely the ability to 'walk' the surface of earth, to 'hear' the fears and hopes, to 'breathe' the air here. I know how heartening it is to hear "copy that" from the other side !
Coz, 'In space, no one can hear you scream'. Amen.