I have been frequently getting minor electric shocks every time I get out of a car and try closing the door behind me. It has been such a frequent affair that nowadays my hand sub-consciously goes for glass window or the plastic handle.
It didn't intrigue me much, for it was always with the same car and I thought there must be some earthing problems leading to a small leak, and hence the tiny electric shocks. But then, it started happening when traveling in some of my friends' cars. And it also started happening with random metallic things like the fridge, the steel plate and what not.
Now it did intrigue me a lot. It was like the feeling spider-man must've got when he realized that he had superpowers. Ok, I may be exaggerating, let me try again. Its like the feeling, the mutants in x-men must've got when they realized that they had special abilities. Ok, I am lying, one last try. Its like the feeling Newton must've felt when the proverbial apple fell on his head. Really, that was how I felt, or probably that was how I felt I felt, or probably I am lying again, again. In any case, it was a weird feeling with a reasonably happy air of achievement around it.
And then one day it all came crashing.
A colleague of mine who travels by the same vehicle to office as me, casually remarked that he has been getting those shocks too. I was ready to believe that he too was gifted like me and is having the same realizations. But that was not to be. He continued, saying that these are because of static electricity and that the combination of dry skin and woolen garments in winters lead to such electric shocks.
So that was the sad story of how I became the "electricman" from a "normalman" , or probably its the reverse. Nevermind
ElectricMan
As My Country Bleeds ...
I can but feel helpless as I see a few terrorists take over an entire city and also the psyche of an entire country. I can only feel how Americans must have felt when they saw the iconic WTO twin towers were taken down.
Well, that's that.
But what about the Indian economy? How much will it be affected by such an incident. I think the long term implications would be significant for some sectors to say the least.
As part of my project, one of my tasks was to profile Chinese IT vendors. And in the course of doing so I found out the stress each of the companies laid on Intellectual Property safegaurds. They even have whole sections on their websites detailing all the measures they take!! For most companies who wanted to outsource, weak Chinese IP protection was the deal breaker.
I think Terrorism, in its current form has all the potential to become the deal breaker for India.
I can only hope, I can only pray it doesn't,
Relief
I really don't know why but I felt a great sense of relief when I read that the endless Saas Bahu soap opera Kyunki... is finally coming to an end.
Not that I have anything against people who watch such soap operas out of choice or having nothing better to watch. Its just that its success spawned a multitude of similar senseless serials on every damn network!!
Now that its gone, I can only hope that something more original and less contrived takes its place
More about the news here
Alpha Beta Gamma Google
Did you know that Gmail is still in beta. Its been more than 3 years since it has come into existence and since then it has been in beta!
Given that the company in question, you would expect it to have moved out of beta long back. But as the googlesystem blog says ,
"Gmail still has problems with scalability and server errors are still frequent"For me, Gmail has hardly thrown any errors. Maybe 5-6 times in a year perhaps. Hardly noticeable. High standards perhaps but I am still curious how different the final release will be from the current version.
And Then We Could Go No Further
Memories of a great trip to Sikkim. Will write more some other time :)
Pure Genius!
Its a joy to see pure genius at work. I always wondered how it would have felt when Einstein's Theory of Relativity was first published, or when the news of the Wright brothers' first flight got around. How it must've felt to have witnessed history in the making.
I guess it wouldn't have been different from what I felt during the recently held Wimbledon Finals between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. It was an epic struggle lasting for 4 hours and 50 minutes!!
Well that's beside the point. All I want to say is that it feels really good to have grown up in a time which has seen its own share of geniuses( a fairly large share at that ! ) and feels even better watching them create history. Like watching Federer make a sublime backhand return, or Sachin hitting a boundary with a cover drive, or Amitabh delivering a dialogue in his trademark baritone or Rahman dishing out fresh songs with even fresher sounds!!
Buffalo Buffalo Had Had Had Had
1. Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
2. James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
The two sentences you see above are grammatically correct ( except for missing punctuation marks ! ).
Surprised??Unbelievable??
Check out the Wikipedia links then
The Buffalo One The Had Had One
So much for lexical ambiguity !!
P.S: It took a while before I could comprehend the wiki entries :D
The Magical World Of Hayao Miyazaki
Advanced graphics and animation, with 3d figures and great motion physics can be awe inspiring. But then, what is animation? why should we use animation?
Profound questions. No I won't even attempt to answer them. Its too much effort and every answer I can think of would be too trivial. So thats it.
But then I have to share with you relatively unknown but so creatively refreshing animation style of a Japanese animator - Hayao Miyazaki.
Miyazaki follows the clear animation style, much like the style used by Herge in Tintin. Clear and simple lines, and simple colours. And like his animation the plots are equally uncomplicated.
There are no villains in his stories. And the hereos aren't invincible either. They are plain simple folk, like us, often enmeshed in a magical world. Like Chihiro in Spirited Away, whose parents are trapped as pigs by the witch of a bath house( meant for spirits), or the two kids ( Satsuki and Mei ) who find a magical creature as they explore their new home in the country side in My Neighbour Totoro .
Each movie is a treat to watch and it is impossible to be untouched by the magical world of Hayao Miyazaki !
Of Democracy & Intelligence
Just came across today's (1st July, 08 ) news article on CNN-IBN regarding the nuclear deal with the US and the UP chief minister, Mayawati's reaction ,titled : Maya lashes out at UPA, calls N-deal anti-Muslim
Her logic , as the article states .... ‘‘the deal is being made at the cost of cheaper gas from Iran and the Muslims are vehemently opposed to it.” ...
She took a stand on the n-deal, and is now giving reasons far more worse than what a 5 year old kid might give. I mean, the only Muslims who "might" be affected in an adverse way would be the ones in Iran.
Take two hot issues ( in this case, the n-deal , and the Muslim vote bank ), use them in a sentence and you've got a nice press statement. Way to go !
Of Suicide Squads & Leadership
Thackeray calls for Hindu suicide squads
As the title suggests, Bal Thackeray wants a Hindu suicide squad to counter Islamic terrorism in India.
My only question - will he volunteer to be a member of such a suicide squad? will he give up his life for the "cause" and blow himself up ?
Me, Myself and The Elevator
I believe that the most embarrassing and wasteful moments of my life have been spent either waiting for an elevator or being inside it.
Imagine all those wasteful moments ,doing nothing, waiting for the elevator to arrive. If you sum them up they might even add up to a day.
It often happens that I reach the elevator, and finding it unavailable I pace around, walking and moving in circles until the elevator arrives. I mean, how unfair is it to first walk briskly to reach the elevator then suddenly having to stop. Its like Newton and his laws of inertia being put to test. And in case the elevator arrives early, I walk around inside it (only if its empty, mind you :D). Must be a bizarre thing to even imagine for most , but for me it happens all the time!
The trouble doesn't end with the arrival of the elevator. Then starts the embarrassing/boring phase of getting into the elevator and looking blankly around waiting for your floor to arrive. It becomes even more difficult if you have some really beautiful girls sharing elevator space . So microscopically close yet all you end up doing is either looking up the ceiling or looking at the watch ( with an astounded look suggesting that it has stopped working all of a sudden ). But in case the elevator is crowded,wriggling your way in and excusing your way out can be quite an ordeal.
Sometimes I just feel like pressing the red alarm button or the emergency stop button just to see what happens if I do that. One day I gotta try that.
Elevators are one of those places cursed with deadly silence. Even the most boisterous and loud-mouthed ones get tamed once they step inside. People just get lost and seem clueless. They look around trying to read/observe ( things which they might've read/observed a hundred times ) every damn thing that's there on the walls. Random ads, phone numbers, scratches on the steel doors, the dust on the fan, the do's and don'ts, the manufacturer's note. Effect of the closed spaces I guess.
Too much of cribbing in a single post. So here's how I sometimes have fun inside the elevator. Whenever its empty, that is. I walk across from one side of the elevator to the other just when the elevator starts. So when its going down, you can feel lighter and when its going up, you can feel heavier. Now that, relatively speaking, is a lot of fun:)
