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.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
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.
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.
Friday, October 21, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
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.
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.
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