A world where one colors the sounds and tastes the words

I recently read an article that talks about this peculiar genetic condition that people experience called  synaesthesia. It is a condition which I understand as the various nerves connecting the sense organs to their respective control lobes in the brain are cross-wired. This results in the signals being interpreted differently for example, like the heading suggests when a synaesthete hears music the person can visualize colors like red and green based on the music being played.


The article introduces the condition with the example of a 11 year old girl who is a synaesthete by birth, which by the way is the only possible way of acquiring this medical condtion. How the girl views her world in a different angle owing to her condition is described quoting examples from her life such as in her kinder garten, during music class all she would associate the music she hears with colors like deep red is what she visualizes for a disco track that plays in the background. Her peculiar condition did not seem very rare considering the studies statistics that were put up following this-


  The study suggested that there are several types of synaesthesia based of what kind of feelings the person experiences. One person generally has only one them, the ability to visualize colour when listening to music, tasting flavour in one's mouth while reading a book, or imagining a colour while eating food. It's one of these or a permutation of these senses two at a time. The statistics reveal that about 4 percent of the british population are synaesthetes.
 

Apparently synaesthesia has no cure and its more of a mental condition than a psychological condtion. A person who has synaesthesia is more likely to be easily distracted and may find it hard to focus on tasks as simple as reading a book. However it doesn't really affect anything more than the fact of how synaesthetes experience the world differently. They too find themselves careers often using this unique trait that they possess. Charlene Soraia for instance the little girl about whom was discussed earlier is now a successful song writer in the UK. She has released her first Album "Moonchild" which has so far peaked to number 3 in the UK singles chart. The album also feature the cover of  the song by band "The Calling" - "Wherever you will go"
http://www.jango.com/music/Charlene+Soraia?l=0
Check it out!
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/charlene+soraia/midsummer+moon+in+june_20987749.html

The Work Phase of life- the beginings

My first day in the company, the induction day and seminars on corporate functioning was a flood of information and followed by some advice as to how to approach work life in my company. I should admit that as much as it was exciting it was also in a way intimidating. The latter emotion more out of the fact that little had I realized the magnanimity of what is going to follow.

I took the fact of getting a job in campus very lightly at first but eventually due to the long waiting time I went and  I tried other companies for more job offers as back ups and it was only then I realized how lucky I was to have a job in hand through placements in college and how much value the job holds. After that initial struggle and long wait now I finally am in the company. I took it as a good start and I saw it as some training followed by a job where I can prove myself to be quite good at what I do.

There's more to it than just work, If I can define every phase of life with a major activity then it is only in school that it was academics college it was a mix of  academics and  friend circles and contacts. But work place attitude seem to be drastically different. Good grades in academics can only go as far as getting you a job, how you manage your job is completely based on the skills one has acquired interacting with people.

My uncle called me up before my joining and we had this chat about this new era of work life I am going to start off and all he emphasized on was- yes learning during the training was important but that's not  all, because eventually its all just going to be tests that determine how much we comprehend and more or less all of us in the batch would be at the same level or at least only considered so owing to our lack of industry experience in what we know.

What matters most according to him was how I project myself, in the way I dress to work, how I interact with my peers how good my communication skills are. This way I would be able to interact with people better and more effectively. How this works, according to him is that it's more pleasing to listen to a man dressed in a suit than one in ragged clothes and well dressed people are the ones who are more likely to be taken seriously.  I realized how true his statement was during the induction they did mention there are opportunities during work where we can brush up our skills as even the company agrees with the fact that a one time training is not going to effectively educate us in a comprehensive way, so they have a system which we can use and re-evaluate ourselves and work on our technical weaknesses.

What they expected out of us is to decide how we portray ourselves as company employee and of the moral responsibility we carry along with that ID card. One of the personnel did exemplify with a story that if one was arguing over the meter charge with an auto driver on your way to work, even if you mention your name to him, he will remember you by associating you with the brand you are wearing around your neck and that people from your company are more likely to be a bothersome lot. Hence the way the way you speak, the way dress are a little more important than what you know when it comes to the workplace.

Anyway all this work philosophy can make one go bonkers if delved into too deep, so as of now I am just very eager to know what's at stake for me during this period, and the important thing is to get the most out of what is offered to us, and that's what is the best thing to do with life in general as well. And to the end result is happiness and peace of mind.

Bus hikes in the state

From midnight last night, Tamil nadu saw major overhauls and hikes in the prices of milk and bus fares. Government got the hike sanctioned in order to generate funds for sustenance. When times are this bad it is only normal that the Government has resorted to such drastic changes especially that the central government is reeking with inefficiency. With no way out the Government puts the people in deep shit.

With the hike in bus fares to almost double the previous ticket prices much to the plight of public transport users, there no alternative to getting place to place or to work than cough up the extra cash for the bus fare.
But there is little to blame, we elected this government so can expect only so much out of them.

But the adverse affect of such a change is saddening. Some vendors use the bus service to get their produce from the market to their shops and they plan on how much money can be spent for their travel well in advance. Such a revision in bus fares will see them suffer as they probably have to cut down their daily expenses severely.

However for us, it would just be a matter of travel costing a little more than usual, at the most it would annoy us that we have less money to spend. Some would probably care less about such a hike and continue their splurging ways as it concerns only those who use the bus service to commute. The scooties and bikes are unaffected.

Today I had to travel to Mylapore and back in the morning, it cost me 15 buck what normally would have cost me 7-8 bucks, almost twice. To add to the price hike, the whole bus was quarreling with the conductor refusing to buy tickets and the whole trip was uncomfortably noisy. Perhaps we should have thought back into how much money was spent by the parties buying us things like free color t.vs free one incandescent bulb's electricity think out from where they conjoured up enough money for such luxorious provisions while neighbouring states can't even manage one of them.

Saving up the 10,000 Cr that is required for an attaining this apparent stability could have been saved up by the Government if they had not spent precious revenue on the poverty ridden fulfilling their childish fantasies Not to put down the already down trodden, but of what use is a color t.v that runs on free electricity when one can't afford their daily staple? People have to rethink their priorities and all will sail through quietly during these hard times.

The fault is like always on the Government's side, the poverty ridden class would do anything to uplift themselves, to give their lives a little more dignity, if I may compare them with kids who want every toy available in the toy shop, the Government pose as a parental figure. The child obviously craves for more toys, but the parent should not spoil him buying him more and more but instead constrain the child to some and make sure he has maintained them well and carefully. This way the child realizes the value of what he has got hence strives to keep safe what he already has and only then should parents get him more as a reward.

Well, what the Government has done is they've spent too much on the toys so they have little money left for basic resources like food and travel and it obviously exposes the government lacking in forward thinking.
Lets hope atleast that the governments learn from their mistakes and we can expect better governance from our future leaders.

The snack shack

Today I went over to the inauguration of a bakery opened by my friend along with some of his school mates as partners. It's a bakery shop located adjacent to the PSBB  k. k nagar school campus, chennai.
I must say the pastries and cup cakes are really good and to add to that, they are homemade by an aunt he knows. Besides that, the snack shack, as what they call it, also serves a variety of sandwiches, burgers, milkshakes and mocktails.

The location they managed to get is awesome! right next to a school, they'd get good business in the evenings as children would eventually make it a hangout place just after school and in the mornings too as the heavy sandwiches offer to make great breakfasts.

Yumm!

The shop is open from 7am to 10pm and does offer take away facilities and they aim to pose as an equally healthy alternative to breakfast at home.
That would greatly help working parents and kids who are fussy with what breakfast they want, they can drop by at the snack shack before they get to school and pack their break and lunch boxes with food.

Cupcakes!

I see it as an amazing opportunity for my friend who sees himself owning a successful business like his father so such a venture would definitely teach him first hand what he must do to successfully start off a business and sustain it profitably. He sure would get a idea where to invest in, what risks can be taken, what not to assume, learn from mistakes, its all working out to be a practical MBA and a really cool way that too!

He's got a good business minded friends too and that's help his cause and it's a great potential step to making a good start to a business career. If all goes well, I see really good profits that they can use to comfortable establish more branches, possibly even in some of the upcoming malls in the area and get first hand info about apparent research that may go underway in choosing an ideal shop location and space, this being important as it's food related shop and quality maintenance is of utmost importance.
Anyway good luck to him and  his future ventures

Do check out their facebook page as well:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.183050235120679.43066.168851219873914&type=1

At the fork

Everyone in life will or have come across situations where one has to make crucial decisions. We all tend to ask everyone around us for advice on how to go about it. Some encourage a certain decision others discourage, some end up confusing you even more. You tend to value a more learned or elderly person's advice more, but it still remains your decision to make no matter what.

Gathering all the advice you sit down and assimilate what you have heard and draw a conclusion and analyse it again and again to see whether everyone's opinion was taken into consideration.

Many a time, we consider others' advice and suggestions so much that we forget to respect our own opinion on the issue. This is quite sad. And it is as though it hardly matters. But one can be so wrong. If we look at how people resort to giving advice is by telling you how they would decide to act upon the choices they have been given or that fork on the road where they have to choose a path. At times the advice they give can be so impractical yet it value it more than ours.

I right now am faced with a situation where I have graduated from college. Got placed in a IT company that recruited me from the college campus placements but have been delaying the date of my joining for just about have a year now. I should admit I am no extraordinary student, I have decent grades but feel this is not the way to start my career, waiting indefinitely for an offer. I resorted to try other companies and have got a job at a small  IT firm of just over 50 employees doing some financial sector software product business.

The company I got through college is an IT giant, offers standard pay, insurance and other benefits, stable job, not so great on the learning curve but compensates quite well with other facilities. This small firm offer, the pay probably is much lesser, can't expect a perk filled benefit package, another unprecedented recession will wipe this company out. The only advantage that has a lot of hidden potential is the fact that the office is very near where I stay so I can save on travel time and expenses.

My parents expressed disapproval and said jobs got in campus has added value and that it was best I wait, but the very same day I got a letter from the IT giant that my wait can extend over another 5 months or so. They asked me to decide upon something by myself because either way there is something to lose. But I didn't believe it was that pathetic.

Plus points in my small firm job is that, it is run by a bunch of IT veterans as you can call them, went to the US during the IT boom, made a lot of money, now settled down with an IT company within walking distance from their homes. I only see it an opportunity to grow and learn from these pioneers in the field. The company has been around for around 13 years and that didn't sound bad at all.

It is a big question, a big risk that I am taking, will I benefit from a decision of choosing  David over Goliath? Will I be in a better position than my big company peers, at least at par if not more? How big is the risk that I am taking? How much can I bank upon the fact that my learning curve will be robust and steady. Obviously I'm looking at two years maximum three in this company but it is crucial as it defines how the rest of my career will be shaped in a big way. My choices will be scrutinised.

The fact that worries my parents are that small companies can be so unpredictable, they can go bust in a matter of a string of bad decisions in a week. And close down in a month. But if I take that risk and go for it then all I can do is gain, and gain in a big way considering the exposure, the experience, the responsibility and this happens to be a research and development division of it's parent branch in bangalore so that's another big plus point.

Taking chances can work both ways. If it works fine, then there is much to gain from the fact I willed to take that risk.

Since all I want to see myself do is go with flow once something has been decided. Following the path I have chosen,if into the road  less taken i tread, then maybe, maybe, there may be a day several years from now, when I look back and reminisce that I saw, 


two roads diverge in the wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that made all the difference.

The need for reforms- Employment laws for Commercial establishments

The headlines of The Hindu newspaper 1/11/11 shows that Chennai metropolitan development authorities (CMDA) have taken the initiative to lock down illegal and unauthorized establishments in T.nagar following a court order to demolish unauthorized buildings 2 months ago. Such an extreme decision was invoked owing to the 12 year battle between the traders and government officials regarding the issue. It started off with a regularization of illegal commercial establishments for a fee which the shop owners challenged in the court. What the shop owners claim is also impractical; they request the court to condone all illegal establishments in the T. nagar area and declare the region as a special retail economic zone.

To me T. nagar is the least preferred place to travel to be it for shopping or just driving through because of the traffic congestion in the region which is perennial, this is a step which will be lauded by residents and users of the T. nagar roads as we can see slightly more free flowing traffic thanks to these developments which according to the papers will encourage bringing more shops into the scanner.

On page 2, however there was an article about the plight of the employees in these textile and jewelry firms who are hoping that they will get their end of the month salaries today being the first of the next month but the shop owners claim that they are unable to do so until the shops are opened. The people working at these firms are helpless as most of them soul bread winners of their families, need the salaries to send home money. They are desperately cling on to their jobs to feed their families. The employers I believe will smartly play their cards not paying their workers unless this issue is sorted out and this will entail employees supporting their cause.

All these issues really seem to surface only due to the fact that not much of the developments in the city are monitored. The monitoring which has started is a little too late as there was found to be too many defaulters a case such as this one where many more commercial establishments are likely to fall under the unauthorized category. They in turn will penalize their workforce until a compromise is reached and the fragile microeconomics present in running their families will be affected.

The authorities will have to deal with the encroachment issue with these issues also in mind because if the process of demolishing illegal constructions get delayed then it is going to in turn affect the government themselves as they would have to address the issues of the families of the affected employees following this.

What can really be done is that employment regulations should be brought about from the state government level itself and also educate the people working under such firms about how they will benefit from such a scheme and how to exercise their rights. These laws would enforce textile and jewelry firms to treat its employees with a little more respect for it is they who run the shop. Also such an intiative from the government would not put them in this situation where they not only have to regulate the city buildings but also keep in mind the fragile familial situation.

Now lets see how the proceedings go. I see it as a huge challenge for the CMDA officials but I also see them learning from it thereby they show more insight the next time such radical decisions are to be made.

More to it than meets the eye.. Studying in the US

Quite a number of my friends and classmates have set off to study abroad for their masters degree and back in August there was this hustle and bustle of friends leaving for the U.S and Europe, the whole crowd both excited and a bit sad for bidding goodbyes and seeing close friends off at the airport, talking of ways that we can still keep in touch and all..

And now three months into their courses it almost seems as though for few of them it hasn't quite been the experience they had expected. Supposedly the first few months flew away with settling down in the University and making new friends and acquaintances but now it is apparently hitting them how hard it is going to be studying in a foreign country and taking care of themselves.

I was a little skeptical in the beginning and accused one of my friends of just being plain lazy when he said it was getting quite hard to manage. But then later I realized that these guys need to manage cooking food 3 times a day, washing clothes, going to college, managing college work, pushing through a part time job, managing expenses all by themselves and also keep in mind not to burden their parents to send more money. So it was no  simple issue that was plaguing these guys, the responsibility of managing their life all by themselves.

My immediate reaction was to blame the parents was pampering their children so they tend to take simple things like food given on time, clean clothes to wear all for granted. But then, its fault on the student's part of not foreseeing all these issues and being prepared. Many of my friends found cooking meals very hard and adjusting to the food that can be got cheap near where they stay was also to be taken into consideration.

I guess if someone is in such a situation.. with the advantage I've had from hearing about how it can be once a student gets there.. I'd say one should take it up as a challenge to try and manage all that is to be done, discipline oneself, make to do lists, ensure they are taken seriously. give yourself rewards if you had a hard week of work and all activities have been completed. all this easier said than done, but rest assured it works.

The two states- A note on the difference in religious practices

Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the two south indian states which though they share quite a long border are so different from each other.. In fact in every aspect! be it food, culture, attitude of the people, ethics, ideologies, economics, terrain... the list is endless. But this is more or less true between almost every other state.
Something that reminded me of this distinction was a string of events that happened in my neighborhood. Its Diwali so in my house we had organized a pooja of sorts for the auspiciousness of our home and we had this kerala brahmin poojari called a nambhoodhiri who came to do the pooja. He insisted on several things to be readied before he was to begin the yajnam  my dad and I ensure all that was done and that we were all supposed to have finished our morning chores by 5 the next morning. the pooja commenced and the nambhoodhiri whisper chanted mantras igniting a fire and sacrificing ghee,flowers etc. into the fire. A sense of discipline and serenity is brought into the atmosphere and the whisperings of the nambhoodhiri disturbing the smoke around him a little bit. He gives you a sort of feeling that he is talking to the fire and addressing the Gods. Its an amazing thought.
The pooja now being held in our neighbors house on the other hand is purely tamil nadu culture. The initial preparation is the same however the house echoes of veda chants uttered by the swamiyaars. So much that I can hear it all the way on my way back home from their house and could still hear it from my room!
Its really nice to analyze what methods of performing yajnams have been passed down in each of the cultures, one involving inaudible murmuring of mantras as though talking to the smoke and fire, another with mantras being chanted out aloud so its goodness can be heard all around in the home. I perceive it as  the namboodhiris through their veda chanting communicate with the divine powers through fire and sacrifice oblations to receive blessings. The smoke from the yajna I believe carries around the goodness to every corner of the house.  The Tamil nadu religious culture possibly believes that the vedas themselves are powerful enough hymns that which by chanting, blessings maybe sought from the divine beings hence they are chanted out loud by the swamiyaars so its vibrations reach all the corners of the home bringing goodness. A lot of swamiyaars together chant the mantras for a stronger vibration which aids the purpose.
So profound is the cultural diversity in India is. and this is inspite the fact that the mantras chanted in either yajnas are more or less the same- The Vedas.

iMPACT

These are my first words about the the new iOS 5.
Before that, you should know how it got here...

When I first got my iPad back in january 2011 earlier this year, I spent sleepless nights admiring its features and downloading and enjoying the awe inspiring apps available for download from the app store. I have seen times when there were over 400 apps present on my 16 Gb iPad and I used almost all of them with equal frequency. Apps ranging from utilities, marvelous wallpaper collections apps, games, apps for pure entertainment, some of them downloaded just for the heck of it or that it did something I never could have imagined a computer in my hands could have done with me doing something as simple as touching a 9" glass plate which is what acts as the interface for the iPad. It was incredible that something this compact, this light in weight, so rich in graphical content is cable of doing mesmerizing not only me but my entire family as well as every child or adult who comes to witness the thrill that is invoked upon using this landmark device. The iPad was the only thing in my mind several months into me owning this device. It has had a tremendous impact in my life, it is almost that my life revolves around it! It contributes to almost everything I do throughout my day!, the iPad alarm wakes me up, I read the newspaper.. er.. The news on the iPad (I can imagine a time when news in paper is non existent) I watch the news program on a t.v channel on the iPad while I have my breakfast. The iPad has a plan of my day stored in the calendar app, I listen to music on the iPad while I work. For when I get bored, I play a game, take a break and watch a funny video stored in the iPad, update my status on Facebook with the iPad, I tweet from the iPad, I browse the Internet from the iPad. I type my blog drafts on the iPad, I draw on the iPad using an app similar to MS-paint on the iPad, mail the image or even print it wirelessly and use it for some purpose it serves. I listen to the internet radio through the iPad, I refer YouTube for help to fix a problem on my phone, to cook a dish, to learn some fitness exercise. I read books on the iPad, almost any book I want to read, fortunately, can be found in the ebook form in the Internet if one searches hard enough. I download magazines on the iPad to read. Subscribe for them or buy them when I need. To top all this I get instant news updates about the latest happenings around the world as notifications, since typing an article can be done a lot faster than presenting it on a television channel, I can get all the latest news if I am just willing to read.
I should should admit that at times I can be a jackass. After a point using the iPad became a little too redundant. I was using it all the time everyday, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I route every activity that I do through this device so after a point the iPad became so much a part of my life that it was equivalent to moving an arm or leg so I stopped noticing it being used to do my work. At times I even get bored of it to the extent that I would prefer going out for a walk and a have a snack than stay at home in front of the iPad. That is normal yet would be termed abnormal for a human being surrounded by such technology in this modern age of the 21st Century. Apple fans would even call my act blasphemous and many of them if by chance was reading this would probably be looking for my email ID to send hate mail just for that sentence. But sadly it was true. I used up the iPad so much that it slowly lost its charm and using it had turned into a more mundane activity. I feared that it would remain so for the rest of the gadget's lifetime... But Apple inc. the company which seems to have the workforce which is oozing creativity somehow foresaw such a moment like this occurring in an iGadget user's mind. They will forever keep us guessing how they visualised such a scenario but I must fall at their feet and admit that Apple is by a really huge margin the most creative company in the history of the world.

As an answer to my, an apple product user's eventual loss of enthusiasm to curiously explore already explored features of his product, Apple released an operating system upgrade the iOS 5 upgrade. To me, it was a ray of light at first to pep up my already but now only adequately enchanting device. I was to be hit by lightning for my lack of insight. iOS 5 upgrade comes packed 200 new features to the existing platform. TWO HUNDRED!. that includes so many so many tweaks, major overhauls of the interface, multi touch actions at a whole new level, more features, more default apps, richer graphics and over all, from being called merely an upgrade it is set to transform an already special device into some extraordinary, mind blowing, into something mankind has never witnessed before or never even imagined that some aluminium back glass front, electronics inside all compactly packed into a single pad shaped object thinner than a human finger but to be operated by touch would be capable of such magic. I did annoyingly elaborated how the iPad contributes to my life and now I am just as excited as before, like how I was when I got it at first, curious to know what more the iPad can do. The transformational upgrade has just provided me with a dose of resurgence to further explore what a masterpiece, what a work of perfection this gadget has turned to become sourced from a company, which like most of its competitors, was started off by two people in a garage.

Indeed Steve jobs, the co founder, recently deceased, may rest in peace as Apple has truly revolutionised what a person can expect technology to do to his lifestyle, the impact it can make to his education, career, hobbies, passion, interests... A benchmark his products have set that which competitors try and match but seldom will surpass because what Apple has achieved with the technological advancements in today's world is transcendental.

Bedtime poetry

I lay down here in my bed
 Close my eyes to get some sleep
Numerous thoughts come being
 Makes shift about sleeplessly
Thoughts of what happened today
 At times, of the past or the next day
They seem to disturb relentlessly
Doubts keep me wide awake
Sleep to me would be far away
 As I slowly fall asleep,
I wonder What in the future lies
 Alas, the veil of time prevails
Fogging out what lies ahead.
 Why should life be such a mystery?
 So unpredictable it seems to be
Perhaps there is a reason behind it
The cause maybe as trivial
as an element of suspense life holds
 for itself so it brings into being to bring,
 those emotions of shock and surprise.
 Life is just plot filled story book
 There is no point in reading at all
 if  you know how the end comes
 about It's best enjoyed when one goes about it
Reading one chapter at a time
Before I sleep every night
 It's nice to think of how the day went by
 Events, scenes to remember
Thoughts and sounds to keep in memory
Then close the chapter that was today.
 Enjoy life the best a step at a time,
just like the hands of a clock ticks on
 Be patient and wait for the moments.
 More fun filled days in life
 Are the that are still to come
 So much thought bustling through my head
 Somewhere there I find something to dream
 Random places it takes me to and makes me see
 nevertheless it'd give me a goodnight's sleep.

The American teacher in the Indian school

In the school where my mom is a teacher, Bala Vidya Mandir, a teacher exchange program is being conducted in which a teacher has arrived from US to chennai to this school and a teacher has left for the US in turn. This guy Mr Jeffrey Peterson is from a school in Indianapolis and teaches biology in high school. He has come along with a group of 10 teachers under this program who are at present in different city schools in India. He is in my mom's department so I heard there was this ice breaking session where he got to know all his would be colleagues for the next 6 months. My brother went to see him earlier as my mother had heard he was interested in animals and my brother was also studying to be a veterinarian and while they discussed Jeff happened to ask if he would take him to the beach just for some sight seeing. My brother later asked if I would tag along so we hit the beach couple of weekends back with this teacher from the US. It was cool to hear this guy who finished his bachelors degree at ohio state univ went on to do research in the university about African elephants and has been to Africa to observe the species in the wild. It's cool to observe the exposure of school teacher in the US and of how much he can contribute to a science class experience wise. He says the schooling system there is very relaxed and that there was no strict syllabus. The teachers can teach whatever the class as a whole find an interest in. This way it is not hard a child to take school seriously because he doesn't have to force himself to learn.However he said the competition is higher as every student is learning something that interests him/her so he says he sees good grades in the tests. Jeff claimed the teaching system in India is very methodical, having chapters to be finished with a period of 3months at a time. The students have an idea what portions they are up against as the syllabus is well defined. He says students can study in advance and be prepared for class. (I don't think I've heard of any 'Indian' in a school do that though) We then probed into whether he finds any particular purpose in this exchange program or is it for mere international exposure. He replied saying most kids in the US tend to prefer going into the business field rather than take up science. Only a smaller fraction of students actually take up science or engineering for undergraduate studies. He wanted to study what teachers do to inspire more students to pursue science over commerce by making them take more interest into studying subjects like physics and biology. He asked for my opinion and I just joked talking about how there is this great "ambition" among students to pursue engineering especially in south india and that the actual reason is that job prospects are better with an engineering degree since the IT industry grows healthily in the country. It was a good chat we had regarding all this while we had a walk around in Besant nagar beach and over to broken bridge. He took some snaps of the fishermen children. I was happy a man stopped throwing stones at a dog when he saw this foreigner walk past his home clicking photos. Anyway that was a day spent fine. Jeff like Dosa a lot apparently, one of the only things he's had as indian food as of now, my mom had asked us to take him to murugan idly shop nearby but we ruled it out as in our conversation with him he told us that he found indian food too spicy and has his dosa with jam at times since the chutney was too hot for his tongue. Had a decent insight into how an average american was like from this guy. Was not too curious about India though, maybe because he wasn't here on a vacation. However, He said he liked New Delhi a lot, this group of ten had stopped over at Delhi just to have a look around on their first visit to India.
Hope he has a good time here.

The first step to studying abroad- an insight into an educational fair

I happened to go for a Education fair organized by Edwise which features universities from UK Europe Canada Australia and Singapore. The visit to the fair was quite useful in a way that I got an idea why people go to education fairs in the first place. According to me it is just meant for people who have enough money to spend and are desperate to show to progress education-wise so they tend to join colleges at random without any insight into what they are actually doing. However by accusing a certain set of people of such foolish decisions I am only referring to a particular section of students I saw at the fair. Others are parents with a mindset to get some info on how to send their children off abroad for higher education. If one wants to find the real focused student groups who have a firm resolve and purpose of going abroad to study one needs to look very closely into the crowd as this category of students would have done their research at home and shortlisted schools they would prefer to join and only attend briefings by those universities that are in their list. However the main thing was that generally the universities that come to fairs are those which are not popular names in foreign countries or those which are new to the foreign student enterprise. There are few universities that come with the intention to boost their brand image, more likely to officially sponsor the whole education fair to emphasize their purpose, one can try to apply and get through at these universities. Coming to what I learnt about universities in the U.K are that most of them require IELTS and decent academic credentials. That's it. Application processing takes a whale of a time so it is best to apply  at least 8 months in advance. Quite a lot of importance is given for good profiles with paper presentations. So I'd say don't go to a fair if you are just desperate to do something about your career because they are more likely to push you to make a decision in a matter of 3-4 hours.. that's not exactly advisable. I'd say if you feel all confused then go to some free counselling centre, I believe the counsellors at Edwise itself are quite good themselves, and sort out what you really want to do. You need to decide keeping in mind your academic background, what your field of interest is and what sort of coursework you want to study and the exposure that you want to get. Define a set of colleges that have prospective courses you can apply for and get. break into top class intitutes, gettable institutes and sure shot colleges. Go to a fair now after you have done all this and ask about how good chances are of securing admission and then apply. 

Such an effort ensures you are not stuck with a course that you had no interest in doing and to make matters worse, in another country altogether just because of a hurried decision made in a couple of hours.

I'd like to believe I've got my message across

"I'm going overboard by saying anything is possible if I just put my mind to it." This is probably a common thought that plagues an average mind. If we encounter something that is a little beyond our reach at that particular moment we tend to catergorize it as "impossible". Nevertheless we see miracles happen around us that can't go unnoticed. But still our mindset doesn't get influenced too much despite witnessing them. The reason that only certain people make it big while the others watch with awe arises from the simple fact that people are unwilling to change the way they think about things. Every action that we do, according some philosophies can be categories into positive and negative. Believe it or not, stuff we learnt in physics back in school about something as trivial and gravity has a lot of... I stress on it, a lot of influence far beyond what we can imagine. The universal law of gravitation is in fact universal at an unimaginable level. Let me quit exagerating and get to what I try to make you understand. I suppose you must have full belief in the law of gravity, simply because of the reason that you are still on earth is a result of the law. In physics, gravity is a result of an attractive force that exists between the earth and us i.e. between two bodies. There exists such a force between anything and everything in this universe. Hope I've made that clear. Now, lets get to my hypothesis. Our thoughts, what we think are a result of brain activity. This activity consumes energy and I guess produces some energy as well (I dunno, possibly as heat or something) and some energy is lost. This energy is extremely negligible of the order of 10^-##. But it's still energy. What did the guy with big thoughts, Einstein propose? E=MC^2. The mass-energy equation. I'll extend this to my previous statement and say, our thoughts, which actually is energy, at some level can be considered as mass. And there exists an attractive force that exists between masses. so it can be proclaimed that thoughts attract other thoughts and actions. Now, if I say that masses that share a common frequency are more likely to attract each other, I wouldn't be wrong in saying positive thoughts are more likely to attract positive actions. So if one actually thinks positively about something, there a likeliness that it may lead to a positive result. The first step according to this theory possibly is to believe that what you've read till now actually can be thought of to be possible. Well, it is quite not my intention to convince you that this is true because all I want to do is give you something to think about and decide for yourself whether it may be true or not. On actually believing that it can be possible to influence actions happening around us by the way we think and what we think, we can give ourselves the power to channelize our thoughts and ensure only favourable things happen to us. This requires a great deal of effort and belief, something an average person might find hard to do, it is this fact that separates the winners from the rest of the crowd. What is meant by "putting one's mind into it" is focusing on that favourable positive result that is to be achieved and working towards it. The positive result can be something extraordinary, the focus that is required for it to become reality also grows with its extraordinaryness!.
So this tendency to "categorize" things as impossible is total nonsense and impossible may be called as a bad word. Also, No one is going overboard by saying if anything is possible. This focus also gives you the ability to change whatever that is written here to suit your thoughts, this explains the fact that I had mentioned earlier- if you believe in it, its more likely to be true! Likewise, I can also focus my thoughts into believing that I actually haven't bored you too much with this article and that you've benefitted from reading it at least a little.






Post Script: While editing this blog entry, I did some reading about my reference to the einstein's equation. My reference was ridiculous and wrong. So please don't try to infer any physics concepts reading this blog (it also shows how pathetic my knowledge of physics is) , but do try and figure out what I've tried to convey.

Are we all thinking right?

All of us Indians have been following the news and media closely following up this uprising against corruption in our country. Anna Hazare is doing a good job with stirring up a sense of doubt and questioning the Government of its ways of ruling the nation.. I've found it hard to stick to one side upon this issue and as to how effective it will be even if I take sites.. Should blame it on this lack of regard for things I have in general though.. Anyway.. At first when the movement started with Anna and that other saint guy were protesting over how things were running, the first thing I did was google Hazare... ex army, social worker built up the only self dependant and richest village in India (somewhere in MH). Lol couldn't quite figure out the term "rich village" but anyway.. He struck me as a guy who starts off good things and does them well.

Reading articles here and there gave me an opinion of what was going on and about Hazare fasting here and there...But this guy fasting in front of a helpless government was hopeless because it only made me recollect my childhood when I stop eating if I wanted my dad to buy me some toy or crayon set. It's childish. At one point it only really looked like all that Anna will succeed in doing in over turning the Government than anything else. However, to see an old man fasting for a cause on t.v instilled some sort of unrest among the public and he became a popular and crowd pulling personality. Another thing I don't understand is why people in India especially need some sort of leader who is at a level above the crowd to lead the pack. Why can't we all all fight by ourselves? Coming back to Anna's fast, it gathered steam as I found people even in my city huddling up here and there and shouting slogans, but all I saw was people who are just generally upset with how the Government runs comparing it with western countries and their level of development and the general mentality of joining the mob just to have fun. Of course there are people who are serious about the issue I should mention, like that fellow who flew down from Honk Kong just to support Hazare.. No lay man would put his job at stake for something like this unless they've been gravely affected and I don't see that levels of patriotism in the general public either as in thinking so far ahead for the nation.. People really don't care even about the garbage that may pile up in a street corner within a week if they dump their waste there today and the host of germs and diseases it may bring.

As far as I see it the Lok pal bill and all that will work for people who are oppressed by corruption. But corruption will still persist because it has helped many get their work done faster or when they need something that they don't quite deserve fully. Its the public attitude that needs to change for something such as corruption to be removed. Remove corruption from the root level we say, but the root is in fact our attitude and it is to change for such a social menace to be eradicated. There are a lot of factors some uncontrollable that has lead to the growth of corruption and now to such an intolerable extent that some local vigilantes rise up for the occasion and perform some stunts.

All we really have to do is give it some thought. It's a cruel world out there all right. Your benefit of getting your passport faster, or getting your son an admission into a college which is in demand is someone else's loss, hawkers need to bribe the local policemen so that his shop is not brought by them claiming some non existent law. You got to sacrifice a little on your part for the greater good. Its not just you but the country as whole. Show some patience, wait for passports to be processed at its own pace, talk to your son about the fact that he get only what he deserves because he ruins someone else's chance at it who is more deserving as well.

This engineering and medical admission scandal if I may call it actually has lead to lessened interest in students pursuing other branches of education such as fine arts, social sciences, core sciences or management at the graduate level. This is because students either get admission working really hard to get to study engineering simply so that they have better job prospects and not for the course. They really don't think about doing well in something they would like to work in. Parents too pressurize their children to aim for engineering for the job surety and even if they don't make it they get in through the management quota of bribing the college officials for a seat. (does anyone think that all this money dutifully goes into the development of the college? hence called a bribe).

All in all the actual fight of corruption just does not involve blaming the governement for their inefficiency. We too contribute to the prevailing corruption problem that exists so we rather first practice what we preach. If we want our governments to stay clean of black money we should abstain from offering bribes in the first place. When we change the system changes as well. Change is always resisted that's why it's so hard so some effort from our part can inspire someone else to stop corruption as well. We all need to find that Anna element within us for India to really become corruption free.

When the doctors give you the headache

Recently I had the good fortune of listening to one of my uncles
sharing his experiences and woes about how he has been taking care of
his father who is bed ridden and old. He found it very difficult to
find a caretaker to look after his father as they were either
exorbitantly expensive or his father would not gel well with the
person. He, let's say is very fond of his father because he has right
now, quit his job to look after daddy dearest. :). What a son eh?
Well... That solved one of his worries, the one where he didn't have a
caretaker. His dad who's is close to 90 years of age requires monthly
check ups of his health (BP, ECG ) so the problem of getting a doctor
to come home to perform the routine health check up sprung up. Well...
To be honest doctors seldom cooperate for these home visits because
once he makes trip to the patient's house then they become morally
obligated to the patient's health and well being and it would be his,
that contact number the relatives would call at times of an emergency
and that ill fated moment maybe in the middle of your son's 1st
birthday or the day when you called sick and took the day off to take
a well deserved break. This being the reason why my uncle found it
extremely difficult to get a doctor who was up for the task. Then he
later came across this person, a doctor who does these routine check
ups for rich NRIs' parents who've left their parents alone at home in
India and he fixed an appointment to go meet him. And wow! he said
that it was a mansion full of nurses, the doctor's clinic laden with
the latest equipment and all for geriatric care. And as he entered the
doctor welcomed him in and my uncle put up his problem about his sick
and bed ridden father and since his knees aren't too strong he he
finds it difficult to travel even for these monthly hospital visits.
The doctor patiently listened much to the relief of my uncle then he
said- "Mr. Varma, you see, geriatric care good business" rubbing his
hands. That really gave all that was to be known of what medical care
is in the eyes of this doctor. "We handle patient records on an annual
basis so we shall put down this proposal comprising what all tests we
offer to do and the overall expenditure you will incur... Hmm... Where
do you work Mr. Varma?". The answer to this question in the end will
decide what that 'overall expenditure' will amount to and it actually
has very little to do with what all medical tests will be conducted!.
Leaving my uncle little choice, he did what was required. A
comprehensive file would be delivered over to his home which which
comprise of all the apparent care that his dad would receive and how
much money he'd be laundered for it. Fortunately, it was something he
could manage despite not having a job currently over an indefinite
interval. Satisfied that both issues were sorted out, though after
much difficulty, the doc did his job for around 3-4 months quite well
for the money he was being paid. But then gradually he started sending
his students over for looking after the dad and saw less of he himself
monitoring the condition. This vexed my uncle quite a bit because this
one time he chatted with the person who came for the tests and found
out that he was a 3rd year student of nursing and that he was a little
nervous because it was one of his patients who is as old as 90+ in
age. End of story.
My uncle also narrated this story of his friend who tried homeopathic
treatment for his mother's knees and the doctor gave some weird
medicines in unnamed containers, with no date of manufacture, no date
of expiry, nothing! Skeptical about what he was administering to his
mother, he had it tested by his friend who told him of what the
ingredients were... An exact match of some tonic from ayurveda it
was!. Bottled and sold at Rs 450 with no name, nothing, market price
of the same medicine in the field of medicine it 'really' belongs- Rs
95.00...
Hmm...
Money laundering doctors, fakes, all plague the world of indian medicine :(
Another really scary story my mom told me was about one of her
colleagues who got her root canal done at some clinic in mylapore. The
dentist wrongfully anesthetized the patient and it affected the nerve
ending on the jaw. The consequences were so severe, that the left side
of her face, one of her facial muscle suffered spasms and her mouth
was yanked open and locked in that position resembling a half joker's
face, horrifying!, and the nerve started giving here severe back pains
and she couldn't walk properly for days... It took 3 odd months of
agonizing pain and physiotherapy for her to return to normal!
What is the reason why there are so many careless, ill trained, money
minded doctors? And why has not this problem been heeded earlier
itself? India boasts of excellent medical care. Oh common! We compare
ourselves with the 3rd world countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Africa and the Arab countries And its good only at the highest level,
in the best of medical colleges and hospitals. If we are in the
position to boast then it should be when such facilities trickle down
to the lower most level of medical care, that of in the villages.
India always had problems with this trickle down effect phenomenon. It
somehow seems almost non existent and impractical as a solution.
Well leave that aside, we do have certain standard of medicine we can
be proud of, because our MBBS degree is recognized in most parts of
the developed world.
If one may notice it takes 3-4 Lakhs for a engineering seat free of
academic requirements, whereas close to 15-16 Lakhs for a medical
seat. Parents who do what they can to help fulfill their child's
dreams or in fact their dreams!, go for education loans with the
thought in mind that their child can help pay it back once he gets his
job. What is actually happening is that lazy students who anything but
deserve to study at the medical college get admitted and just barely
manage to scrape through and make pathetic graduates simply because
they lack the commitment a doctor requires to his work. These
'doctors' are then burdened with the task of paying back those
educational loans taken on their behalf. Medical treatment is a
necessity to the public. A doctor is actually trusted with the
patient's life hence are forced to cough up cash as he demands, for
his services. Corrupt doctors!, As if that's the only thing left to
defile!, plague the medical system, thus.