This one is most intersting!!
And this one too!
Friday, September 3, 2010
Facebook trending..
I started using facebook seriously exactly a year back. Before that I had an account with them, but never felt the need to check it regularly and my friend list was sporadic. I had an orkut account as well, that I used most prolifically to post pictures and share opinions with friends.
Now after about a year, I am very comfortable with facebook, and my regular day begins with checking facebook pages along side checking emails, to know what is happening in my network. Well, it is good to be informed about happenings in your friends/acquaintances life , but the one thing that is a put off with facebook is lack of privacy. Suppose say you have 50 friends and you can easily classify them as family, school friends, work friends1, work friends2 ... local friends and others. Now, when you want to share something on facebook, at the first sight may be somebody is tempted to respond to your post who belongs to the first group. Now, it is very unlikely that a member from the second group is ever going to comment on that post unless it is something very universal. In other words, people generally feel very comfortable to comment when the earlier commentator is known to them or they all belong to the same group.
So, I think it will be way more useful, if facebook has options on grouping people and allowing users to post comments that will be only visible to a particular group. I guess in that case, all will be comfortable and there will be no breach of privacy issues. Just my 2 cents. Hope facebook developers are listening..
Now after about a year, I am very comfortable with facebook, and my regular day begins with checking facebook pages along side checking emails, to know what is happening in my network. Well, it is good to be informed about happenings in your friends/acquaintances life , but the one thing that is a put off with facebook is lack of privacy. Suppose say you have 50 friends and you can easily classify them as family, school friends, work friends1, work friends2 ... local friends and others. Now, when you want to share something on facebook, at the first sight may be somebody is tempted to respond to your post who belongs to the first group. Now, it is very unlikely that a member from the second group is ever going to comment on that post unless it is something very universal. In other words, people generally feel very comfortable to comment when the earlier commentator is known to them or they all belong to the same group.
So, I think it will be way more useful, if facebook has options on grouping people and allowing users to post comments that will be only visible to a particular group. I guess in that case, all will be comfortable and there will be no breach of privacy issues. Just my 2 cents. Hope facebook developers are listening..
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Book Review - Stranger to History by Ateesh Tasheer
Recently, I completed reading this best seller written by a young writer named Ateesh Taseer. He is the same person who was engaged to Lady Gabriella Windsor (She is currently 33rd in the line of succession to the British Throne). This news had hit the newspaper headlines a while ago and most importantly, Ateesh Taseer is the son of famous Indian Journalist Tavleen Singh. I have seen many news items prepared/presented by Tavleen Singh before. The most interesting fact about this young writer is his paternity. He is the love child of Tavleen Singh and one Salman Taseer ( from Pakistan). Although the Pakistani gentleman had no roles to play in his upbringing(good riddance!!), but it is heartening to see how Mr. Taseer repeatedly attempted to reconcile with his father. I was just curious what would be there in this book, especially since it is compiled on the real experience, that the author had; post 9/11 in these Islamic countries.
Being an Indian, we never see Pakistan in any good light. The reason could be the continuous terror attacks, the problem it creates in Kashmir and its invasion on India 4 times. At the same time, my resentment is not that strong that I am not curious to know what people of that country think about India!! So, that was also part of the reason why I purchased this book from Amazon and started reading it.
This book brings a lot about the social, cultural, political scenarios in the Islamic countries such as Syria, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. In Syria, during his stay a violent streak broke out on the Danish cartoon fiasco. He saw a gradual Islamization in Turkey, that used to be a liberal, vibrant secular democracy. At the same time, he saw a reverse trend in countries like Iran, where there was this unexpressed suppressed anger against the government where the people have lost their freedom completely to the Islamic movement in 1979. In Iran large number of people are leaving Islam because they have realized what it is to loose freedom!! Every one is born free and would like to remain that way through out their life. But, the fanatics are trying to control lives of people. The scariest of all is everybody is under the antenna of the government. They know who is going where. If someone parties, if someone mingles with people and if someone has a pet. They even tap the conversations and calls made to people. This is a serious issue!!!
In Pakistan, the muslims those migrated to Pakistan post independence from India are called as "Mujaheddins". They have some kind of hidden tension with the aboriginal Sindhis. Situation is volatile all the time. In Sindh, most of the middle class community comprised of hindu business community commonly known as "sindhis" in India. These are the people that migrated to India post independence. So, there are no middle class population in Sindh. It is always "us" and "them" between the rich and the poor in that country. The major binding force he found among the muslims was the rejection of India. Whether, there was a real difference in climate, looks of the people or the life style, they were always in search of one. It appeared as though they are united in "looking for this difference" with India!!
Another very interesting feature he described among Pakistanis was about the "prayer mark". You would ask what it is. Typically muslims pray 5 times a day on a regular days and many more times during a spacial day. As a result of head banging, they have some sort of peculiar mark on their forehead called as the prayer mark!!
Another striking feature I would like to cite about Pakistan is total absence of women from the streets!! Having said that, Ateesh did not mean they are not there, but what he meant was unveiled single women were completely missing on the regular streets leave alone finding them going alone or eating alone or standing alone on a bus stop which is so very common in India. I found this quite amusing.
Another thing he described about attending a wedding ceremony. The government has ruled that weddings to be kept as unceremonious as possible. There should be no extra spendings and only one dish need to be served. This is particularly interesting when you think about one dish. Why on a lawless land do they bother about this rule? Ateesh looked closely and found that this has got something to do with Islamization of wedding. Wedding ceremonies and the festivities are borrowed from hindu culture and the government want people to shed that sooner...
Another interesting feature Ateesh noted in his book about the mention of caste in pakistan!! Although Islam is suppose to be caste less, most of the people call the other person as a "chooda"(low caste), "Rajput" etc. The Rajput muslims don't like to get married with Chooda caste and so on.
On the whole, I enjoyed reading this book and I recommend the book as a nice entertainer. It is certainly a very good engaging book.
-------------My ramblings-------------------
In the end, I don't understand why a journalist of the stature of Tavleen Singh ever got involved with a Pakistani married man in the first place? Although her decision to keep the baby was certainly a good one because Ateesh Taseer turned out to be a nice gentleman and a good writer. But I wonder why she kept the baby's last name as per the man who hurt her so much? Why did she circumcise her son even though the father had no role whatsoever to play in his upbringing? Why did she ever keep the photograph of that man besides the young boy? And most importantly why the boy while growing up, despite being subjected to his fathers extreme cold behavior, still continued his efforts on reconciling with him? I see people here in USA are least bothered about their paternity, I wish to see people grow in the same lines in India as well..
In the end I would like to quote Tom Robbins in Skinny legs and All
'Religion is nothing but institutionalised mysticism. The catch is, mysticism does not lend itself to institutionalisation. The moment we attempt to organise mysticism, we destroy its essence. Religion, then, is mysticism in which the mystical has been killed. Or, at least diminished... not only is religion divisive and oppressive, it is also a denial of all that is divine in people; it is a suffocation of the soul.'
Being an Indian, we never see Pakistan in any good light. The reason could be the continuous terror attacks, the problem it creates in Kashmir and its invasion on India 4 times. At the same time, my resentment is not that strong that I am not curious to know what people of that country think about India!! So, that was also part of the reason why I purchased this book from Amazon and started reading it.
This book brings a lot about the social, cultural, political scenarios in the Islamic countries such as Syria, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. In Syria, during his stay a violent streak broke out on the Danish cartoon fiasco. He saw a gradual Islamization in Turkey, that used to be a liberal, vibrant secular democracy. At the same time, he saw a reverse trend in countries like Iran, where there was this unexpressed suppressed anger against the government where the people have lost their freedom completely to the Islamic movement in 1979. In Iran large number of people are leaving Islam because they have realized what it is to loose freedom!! Every one is born free and would like to remain that way through out their life. But, the fanatics are trying to control lives of people. The scariest of all is everybody is under the antenna of the government. They know who is going where. If someone parties, if someone mingles with people and if someone has a pet. They even tap the conversations and calls made to people. This is a serious issue!!!
In Pakistan, the muslims those migrated to Pakistan post independence from India are called as "Mujaheddins". They have some kind of hidden tension with the aboriginal Sindhis. Situation is volatile all the time. In Sindh, most of the middle class community comprised of hindu business community commonly known as "sindhis" in India. These are the people that migrated to India post independence. So, there are no middle class population in Sindh. It is always "us" and "them" between the rich and the poor in that country. The major binding force he found among the muslims was the rejection of India. Whether, there was a real difference in climate, looks of the people or the life style, they were always in search of one. It appeared as though they are united in "looking for this difference" with India!!
Another very interesting feature he described among Pakistanis was about the "prayer mark". You would ask what it is. Typically muslims pray 5 times a day on a regular days and many more times during a spacial day. As a result of head banging, they have some sort of peculiar mark on their forehead called as the prayer mark!!
Another striking feature I would like to cite about Pakistan is total absence of women from the streets!! Having said that, Ateesh did not mean they are not there, but what he meant was unveiled single women were completely missing on the regular streets leave alone finding them going alone or eating alone or standing alone on a bus stop which is so very common in India. I found this quite amusing.
Another thing he described about attending a wedding ceremony. The government has ruled that weddings to be kept as unceremonious as possible. There should be no extra spendings and only one dish need to be served. This is particularly interesting when you think about one dish. Why on a lawless land do they bother about this rule? Ateesh looked closely and found that this has got something to do with Islamization of wedding. Wedding ceremonies and the festivities are borrowed from hindu culture and the government want people to shed that sooner...
Another interesting feature Ateesh noted in his book about the mention of caste in pakistan!! Although Islam is suppose to be caste less, most of the people call the other person as a "chooda"(low caste), "Rajput" etc. The Rajput muslims don't like to get married with Chooda caste and so on.
On the whole, I enjoyed reading this book and I recommend the book as a nice entertainer. It is certainly a very good engaging book.
-------------My ramblings-------------------
In the end, I don't understand why a journalist of the stature of Tavleen Singh ever got involved with a Pakistani married man in the first place? Although her decision to keep the baby was certainly a good one because Ateesh Taseer turned out to be a nice gentleman and a good writer. But I wonder why she kept the baby's last name as per the man who hurt her so much? Why did she circumcise her son even though the father had no role whatsoever to play in his upbringing? Why did she ever keep the photograph of that man besides the young boy? And most importantly why the boy while growing up, despite being subjected to his fathers extreme cold behavior, still continued his efforts on reconciling with him? I see people here in USA are least bothered about their paternity, I wish to see people grow in the same lines in India as well..
In the end I would like to quote Tom Robbins in Skinny legs and All
'Religion is nothing but institutionalised mysticism. The catch is, mysticism does not lend itself to institutionalisation. The moment we attempt to organise mysticism, we destroy its essence. Religion, then, is mysticism in which the mystical has been killed. Or, at least diminished... not only is religion divisive and oppressive, it is also a denial of all that is divine in people; it is a suffocation of the soul.'
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Good thoughts!!
were collected by Bob Hansen, formerly executive director of the Korean War Veterans Advisory Board and now executive director of the U.S. Botanical Garden National Fund. This previously appeared in Airborne Quarterly. There is something here for every one of us.
To the world, you may be just one person;
but to one person, you may be the world!
Measure wealth not by the things you have, but by the
things you have for which you would not take money.
If you bring macaroni and cheese to a covered dish supper,
don't expect to dine on lobster and filet mignon.
A coffee grinder on sale at a 90% discount is
not a great buy if you don't drink coffee.
The most destructive habit | Worry |
| The greatest joy | Giving |
| The most endangered species | Dedicated leaders |
| Our greatest natural resource | Our youth |
| The greatest “shot in the arm” | Encouragement |
| The greatest problem to overcome | Fear |
| The most effective sleeping pill | Peace of mind |
| The most crippling disease | Excuses |
| The most powerful force in life | Love |
| The most destructive pariah | Gossip |
| The most incredible computer | The human brain |
| The worst thing to be without | Hope |
| The deadliest weapon | The tongue |
| The two most powerful words | Can do |
| The greatest asset | Faith |
| The most worthless emotion | Self-pity |
| The worst thing you can lose | Self-respect |
| The most satisfying work | Helping others |
| The ugliest personality trait | Selfishness |
| The most beautiful attire | A smile! |
| The most prized possession | Integrity |
| The most contageous spirit | Enthusiasm |
| The most powerful communication | Prayer |
but to one person, you may be the world!
Measure wealth not by the things you have, but by the
things you have for which you would not take money.
If you bring macaroni and cheese to a covered dish supper,
don't expect to dine on lobster and filet mignon.
A coffee grinder on sale at a 90% discount is
not a great buy if you don't drink coffee.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Story of snow white and my laptop
Most of us grew up with stories such as snow white. This particular story strikes me most: since the laptops are getting sleeker and planner and resembles to that of a mirror - not literally but at least in dimension. So you ask why should I compare my mighty laptop to a mirror? Well, the mirror in snow white's story was a visionary one; it used to tell who was the most fairest of all, and probably had some global sensing schemes in it. Where as my laptop is something that tells me what is happening in everyone's life I knew or I did not know, what is happening in science, what is happening in conferences, what jobs are available just to tell a few. On the top of it, it has a camera, that I can not only see myself on the computer screen but also take pictures or record videos. So, it has the mirror like property with a zillions of enhancement!!
While growing up in the 80's and early 90's, I used to see the anxiety of my parents when the post man came at a particular time of the day. Even my father could not hold his anxiety any longer and he used to visit the post office daily. What if the post man misses a important letter was his argument. If a letter comes, then it will be read aloud to tell us what is going on with our relatives. That was the only way we stayed connected. And the letters used to get stored in a box. On an average a letter from each of the family members will arrive in a month or so time and that to if we send a reply. Otherwise it may take longer. Letter used to just highlight on important updates - not daily livings. Sometimes telegrams were sent/received to convey message that somebody died or there was a new born in the family. Things changed gradually by mid nineties where we had phones, but they did cost a lot to make an STD call. But post millennium, there is a sudden surge in communication mediums available. We have phones that are free to many International destinations. Then we have this high speed internet, that has completely revolutionized our lives. I consider google and internet as the biggest discoveries of the century. Ask why. Anyone having internet and basic computer operating knowledge knows how convenient life has become with these tools. We have social, professional networking, blogging, microblogging sites where we get updates on lots of aspects of ones life. Then we have this free online newspapers, we have pod casts, web conferences training programs, free online books, open access journals, online dictionaries so on and so forth. We have this friendly search engine google that helps us find the web page, that we may not otherwise find. Similarly, we don't need to remember the direction to a place, we don't need to buy card(there is always this e-card, print it out). Believe it or not, I don't even remember the url of my blog site, google tells me where it is located. Similarly, you can store your favorite books, links, research papers using large number of free tools that is mind boggling and empowering...
Another property of e-communication is: we communicate much better this way than we ever do on face! I am sure some of you will not agree with me on this, but I will give you an example here that may sound convincing. Dr. X is a great person and a greater scientist. But when you go to his office, he looks at you puzzled with a look that tells "Why are you here"? Initially everyone just get surprised with the look, but now I think I would rather like to behave like Dr.X than any different. The reason is, if I have a question in mind, and I just barge into Dr. X's office, who obviously being busier may be thinking about something more important. How good is it for me to just barge in and forcibly interrupt it? I should rather send an email asking what questions I have. So, depending upon the set up he may hear a bell ding on arrival of this new email and choose to open it or not. Sometimes, he may see the subject line and decide to do it the next day when his mind is relatively free. That way he does not have to get interrupted when there is a better option - on the hind sight, if your requirement is most urgent, then you may leave an urgent tag to your email. I think that should work most of the time. In my day to day interactions with people, I find people communicate best through e medium. They remember that you are out of town when they see the message on your facebook or elsewhere, where as if you had personally told them so, they have forgotten it!! Most of the people these days have a very short attention span and they generally don't tend to listen to the person talking to them. Similarly, if you want to argue with someone, or prove a point, it is better to send it through email. You not only have enough time to think and put the right words into it, you also have the privilege to hide your tone, which may reveal your true feelings. This is just my 2 cents and it has worked for me in the past.
So, well, then it all comes back to laptop and e communication and that is why I call my laptop as the mirror that tells me all!! For me information is knowledge and knowledge is power! I am glad that I am a tiny entity on this information superhighway. So I would say go people go just take advantage of this information explosion.
While growing up in the 80's and early 90's, I used to see the anxiety of my parents when the post man came at a particular time of the day. Even my father could not hold his anxiety any longer and he used to visit the post office daily. What if the post man misses a important letter was his argument. If a letter comes, then it will be read aloud to tell us what is going on with our relatives. That was the only way we stayed connected. And the letters used to get stored in a box. On an average a letter from each of the family members will arrive in a month or so time and that to if we send a reply. Otherwise it may take longer. Letter used to just highlight on important updates - not daily livings. Sometimes telegrams were sent/received to convey message that somebody died or there was a new born in the family. Things changed gradually by mid nineties where we had phones, but they did cost a lot to make an STD call. But post millennium, there is a sudden surge in communication mediums available. We have phones that are free to many International destinations. Then we have this high speed internet, that has completely revolutionized our lives. I consider google and internet as the biggest discoveries of the century. Ask why. Anyone having internet and basic computer operating knowledge knows how convenient life has become with these tools. We have social, professional networking, blogging, microblogging sites where we get updates on lots of aspects of ones life. Then we have this free online newspapers, we have pod casts, web conferences training programs, free online books, open access journals, online dictionaries so on and so forth. We have this friendly search engine google that helps us find the web page, that we may not otherwise find. Similarly, we don't need to remember the direction to a place, we don't need to buy card(there is always this e-card, print it out). Believe it or not, I don't even remember the url of my blog site, google tells me where it is located. Similarly, you can store your favorite books, links, research papers using large number of free tools that is mind boggling and empowering...
Another property of e-communication is: we communicate much better this way than we ever do on face! I am sure some of you will not agree with me on this, but I will give you an example here that may sound convincing. Dr. X is a great person and a greater scientist. But when you go to his office, he looks at you puzzled with a look that tells "Why are you here"? Initially everyone just get surprised with the look, but now I think I would rather like to behave like Dr.X than any different. The reason is, if I have a question in mind, and I just barge into Dr. X's office, who obviously being busier may be thinking about something more important. How good is it for me to just barge in and forcibly interrupt it? I should rather send an email asking what questions I have. So, depending upon the set up he may hear a bell ding on arrival of this new email and choose to open it or not. Sometimes, he may see the subject line and decide to do it the next day when his mind is relatively free. That way he does not have to get interrupted when there is a better option - on the hind sight, if your requirement is most urgent, then you may leave an urgent tag to your email. I think that should work most of the time. In my day to day interactions with people, I find people communicate best through e medium. They remember that you are out of town when they see the message on your facebook or elsewhere, where as if you had personally told them so, they have forgotten it!! Most of the people these days have a very short attention span and they generally don't tend to listen to the person talking to them. Similarly, if you want to argue with someone, or prove a point, it is better to send it through email. You not only have enough time to think and put the right words into it, you also have the privilege to hide your tone, which may reveal your true feelings. This is just my 2 cents and it has worked for me in the past.
So, well, then it all comes back to laptop and e communication and that is why I call my laptop as the mirror that tells me all!! For me information is knowledge and knowledge is power! I am glad that I am a tiny entity on this information superhighway. So I would say go people go just take advantage of this information explosion.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Calorie Burn in a Yoga/ Pranayama Session
Out of curiosity, I bought a heart rate/calorie burn monitor for my daily exercise routine. I have this fancy T3 Sunoto monitor that has way more features than I would ever need. Nevertheless, it also has the basic heart rate/calorie burn monitor as well. Today while doing Yoga, I decided to use it to monitor how much of energy is burnt in each yoga pose. Here is it:
Total 174 KCal/66 minutes
Now I have to deal with this instrument!!
A zumba session for one hour burns about 410 kcals for me at best. Zumba not only feels good, but helps sweat/detox a lot. I am all for thrice weekly zumba!
| Pose | Calorie Burn | Heart Beat | Time |
| Warming up | 19 kCal | 95 | 6 minutes |
| Kapotanasana | 4 kCal | 97 | 2 minutes |
| Surya namaskara | 40 kCal | 136 | 9 minutes(approx. 6) |
| VeerBhadrasana+Ardhachandrasana | 38 kCal | 132 | 9 minutes |
| Trikonasana | 10 kCal | 125 | 3 minutes |
| Prasarita Padottanasana | 17 kCal | 108 | 4 minutes |
| Janu Sirshasana | 18 kCal | 91 | 4 minutes |
| Baddhakonasana | 2 kCal | 85 | 1 minutes |
| Sleeping pose 1 | 3 kCal | 71 | 2 minutes |
| Bridge Pose | 2 kCal | 77 | 1 and half minutes |
| Sarvangasana+Halasana | 2 kCal | 88 | 2 minutes |
| Chakrasana | 1 kCal | 89 | 1 minutes |
| Supta Matsyendrasana | 5 kCal | 90 | 2 minutes |
| Savasana | 5 kCal | 75 | 6 minutes |
| Pranayama | |||
| Bhastrika | 1 kCal | 75 | 2 minutes |
| Kapalbhati | 4 kCal | 75 | 7 minutes |
| Anuloma-Viloma | 3 kCal | 75 | 6 minutes |
Now I have to deal with this instrument!!
A zumba session for one hour burns about 410 kcals for me at best. Zumba not only feels good, but helps sweat/detox a lot. I am all for thrice weekly zumba!
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