When you are extraordinary and you still do the simplest things with great care.

Dec 31, 2005

Welcome 2006!!!!

By 6:31 AM 3 comments
Assamees -- Rongaali Bihur xubhessaa lobo
Bengali -- Shuvo Nabo Barsho
Farsi -- Sal-e no mubarak
Gujarati -- Natal ni shub kaamnao & Saal Mubarak
Hindi -- Naye Varsha Ki Shubhkamanyen
Kannada -- Hosa Varushadha Shubhashayagalu
Marathi -- Nveen Varshachy Shubhechcha
Malayalam -- Puthuvatsara Aashamsakal
Oriya -- Sukhamaya christmass ebang khusibhara naba barsa
Punjabi -- Nave sal di mubarak
Sindhi -- Nayou Saal Mubbarak Hoje
Tamil -- Eniya Puthandu Nalvazhthukkal
Telugu -- Noothana samvatsara shubhakankshalu
Thai -- Sawadee Pee Mai
Turkish -- Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Urdu -- Naya Saal Mubbarak Ho

Dec 30, 2005

quote

By 7:30 PM 1 comment
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
-- from movie "Coach Carter" [The passage quoted from Marianne Williamson]

Dec 28, 2005

Exploring FireFox

By 9:21 PM 1 comment
I never really got hooked to firefox...

But today I have done some exploring and liked these few listed here

Wizz RSS
IE Tab

Let me see maybe I will switch to Fire Fox(I have done this before and end up going back to Opera)

Dec 27, 2005

A positive move...

By 10:50 PM 1 comment
Stigma bogs down pre-marital HIV screening from The Hindu

But what about other states????
Most brides-to-be still shy away from seeking a pre-marital health screening of their suitors for HIV/AIDS, despite growing evidence about women being infected by their spouses.

A strong undercurrent of stigma and little power to decide about their life are preventing young women from insisting on a health report of the prospective groom before agreeing for marriage.

...

There are already 275 such centres across Tamil Nadu where anyone can get their blood tested for Rs. 10 besides free counselling.

Quantum Theory

By 8:40 PM 1 comment
Quantum Trickery: Testing Einstein's Strangest Theory from NYTimes

I just can't sum up this article. Full article is must read.

Nary a week goes by that does not bring news of another feat of quantum trickery once only dreamed of in thought experiments: particles (or at least all their properties) being teleported across the room in a microscopic version of Star Trek beaming; electrical "cat" currents that circle a loop in opposite directions at the same time; more and more particles farther and farther apart bound together in Einstein's spooky embrace now known as "entanglement." At the University of California, Santa Barbara, researchers are planning an experiment in which a small mirror will be in two places at once.

Niels Bohr, the Danish philosopher king of quantum theory, dismissed any attempts to lift the quantum veil as meaningless, saying that science was about the results of
experiments, not ultimate reality. But now that quantum weirdness is not confined to thought experiments, physicists have begun arguing again about what this weirdness means, whether the theory needs changing, and whether in fact there is any problem.

...

The Silly Theory

From the day 100 years ago that he breathed life into quantum theory by deducing that light behaved like a particle as well as like a wave, Einstein never stopped warning that it was dangerous to the age-old dream of an orderly universe.

If light was a particle, how did it know which way to go when it was issued from an atom?

"The more success the quantum theory has, the sillier it seems," Einstein once wrote to friend.

The full extent of its silliness came in the 1920's when quantum theory became quantum mechanics.

In this new view of the world, as encapsulated in a famous equation by the Austrian Erwin Schrödinger, objects are represented by waves that extend throughout space, containing all the possible outcomes of an observation - here,
there, up or down, dead or alive. The amplitude of this wave is a measure of the
probability that the object will actually be found to be in one state or another, a suggestion that led Einstein to grumble famously that God doesn't throw dice.

Worst of all from Einstein's point of view was the uncertainty principle, enunciated by Werner Heisenberg in 1927.

Certain types of knowledge, of a particle's position and velocity, for example, are
incompatible: the more precisely you measure one property, the blurrier and more
uncertain the other becomes.

In the 1935 paper, Einstein and his colleagues, usually referred to as E.P.R., argued that the uncertainty principle could not be the final word about nature. There must be a deeper theory that looked behind the quantum veil.

Imagine that a pair of electrons are shot out from the disintegration of some other particle, like fragments from an explosion. By law certain properties of these two fragments should be correlated. If one goes left, the other goes right; if one spins clockwise, the other spins counterclockwise.

That means, Einstein said, that by measuring the velocity of, say, the left hand electron, we would know the velocity of the right hand electron without ever touching it.

Conversely, by measuring the position of the left electron, we would know the position of the right hand one.

Since neither of these operations would have involved touching or disturbing the right hand electron in any way, Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen argued that the right hand electron must have had those properties of both velocity and position all along. That left only two possibilities, they concluded. Either quantum mechanics was "incomplete," or measuring the left hand particle somehow disturbed the right
hand one.

But the latter alternative violated common sense. Such an influence, or disturbance, would have to travel faster than the speed of light. "My physical instincts bristle at that suggestion," Einstein later wrote.

Bohr responded with a six-page essay in Physical Review that contained but one simple equation, Heisenberg's uncertainty relation. In essence, he said, it all depends on what you mean by "reality."

Harivansh Rai Bachchan - Jo Beet Gayi

By 6:21 AM No comments
Jeevan Main Ek Sitara Tha
Maana Vah Behad Pyara Tha
Vah Doob Gaya To Doob Gaya
Ambar Kay Aanan Ko Dekho
Kitne Iskay Taare Toote
Kitne Iskay Pyare Chhoote
Jo Chhoot Gaye Fir Kahan Mile
Par Bolo Toote Taaron Par
Kab Ambar Shok Manata Hai
Jo Beet Gayi So Baat Gayi

Jeevan Main Vah Tha Ek Kusum
They Us Par Nitya Nichavar Tum
Vah Sookh Gaya TO Sookh Gaya
Madhuvan Ki Chaati Ko Dekho
Sookhi Kitni Iski Kaliyan
Murjhaayi Kitni ballriyan
Jo Murjhayi Woh Fir Kahan Khili
Par Bolo Sookhe Phoolon Par
Kab Madhuban Shor Machata hai
Jo Beet Gayi So Bat Gayi

jeevan Main Madhu Ka Pyala Tha
Tumnay Tan Man De Daala Tha
Wah Toot Gaya To Toot Gaya
Madiralya Kay Aangan Ko Dekho
Kitne Pyale Hil Jaate Hain
Gir Mitti Main Mil Jaate Hain
Jo Girte Hain Kab Uthte Hain
Par Bolo Toote Pyalo Par
Kab Madiralaya Pachtata Hai
Jo Beet Gayi So Baat Gayi

Mridu Mitti Kay Hain Bane Hue
Madhu Ghoot Phoota Hi Kartay Hain
Laghu Jeevan Lekar Aaye Hain
Pyale Toota Hi Karte Hain
Fir Bhi Madiralaya Kay Andar
Madhu Kay Ghat Hai Madhu Pyale Hain
Jo Madakta Kay Maare Hain
Vey Madhu Loota Hi Kartay Hain
Va Kachcha Peene Wala Hai
Jiski Mamta Ghat Pyalon Par
Jo Sachchey Madhu Sey Jala Hua
Kab Rota Hai Chillata Hai
Jo Beet Gayi So Baat Gayi

[via neeraj]

Dec 24, 2005

Dec 23, 2005

Dec 22, 2005

Euthanasia -- during Katrina

By 5:11 AM No comments
Katrina investigation focuses on more than one person from CNN

When I heard this new I felt something twist inside. I was wondering what effect crisis can take on human nature that within days life savers become life takers(if that is the case). Then something else struck me... weren't there more than one natural disaster in India(being an Indian that is the first comparision that I draw). Did the same things happen there? If yes were they reported/investigated(since I did not read abt it I do not know)? If not... then why not? We need to know what drives people to change so suddenly? Is it that the more you are use to tolerating the more you can?

More than one medical professional is under scrutiny as a possible person of interest as Louisiana's attorney general investigates whether hospital workers resorted to euthanasia in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina shattered New Orleans, a source familiar with the investigation has told CNN.

Dec 21, 2005

Dec 19, 2005

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

By 8:22 PM 2 comments
Explore real history of the nation: Kalam from The Hindu

Sometimes I wonder why the other leaders of our country do not think like this. Then there is another thought we don't have leaders we only have politicians.

There was a common thread to his utterances at these programmes: The real
strength of the nation lay in the values its people had nurtured down the history and these should form the basis for the country's march towards the future, exploiting the exciting possibilities that new developments in science and technology presented.

Inaugurating the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Kerala History Association in Kochi, he said that dogmas, rituals, systems and norms of the historical past, imposed by the last millennium of invasion and conquest, continued to condition the minds of the people of India even after 58 years of independence. "Now time has come, in the 21st century, [when] we need a new breed of historians who can make the past meet the present and create the future," he said.

...

The document dealt at length on how the State's farm sector could "graduate from grain production to food processing and marketing," bringing its full benefits to the toiling farmers. He said Information Technology could be used for maintaining an updated and enriched database of region specific agriculture information and also timely dissemination of information on seed selection, arrival of monsoon and demand for specialised crops. At Parumala in Pathanamthitta district, he inaugurated an International Paediatric Cardiac Services and Rural Telemedicine Connectivity at the St. Gregorios Cardio Vascular Centre there.

anonymuncule

By 4:01 AM 3 comments
kyo hota hai zindagi main kabhi aisa ke
her muskan - ek dhokha,
her asha - sirf sapna,
her kushi - ek saya,
her manzil - nayi raha,
her asoo - bikhre vishwas.

ya phir zindagi hai --
yu he bavajah muskarana,
bikhri ashao per naye sapne sajana,
saye ke piche chipi kirne talashna,
nayi raho per kisi nayi manzil ke oor chahle jana,
her vishwas ki boodh sajoker karna jivan sakar.
--शोभना

Dec 18, 2005

Dec 17, 2005

thought

By 5:20 PM No comments
So many people cross our paths... not everyone leaves a mark! We give right to people to enter our lives, our emotional relm. But it is not us who deciede when they leave, how they leave. Sometimes only there departure lets us know that they were a part of our lives. Strange as this maybe sometimes you have to hold on to some people to prevent them from leaving and sometimes you have to push people out. Neither of the transitions being right.

Dec 16, 2005

Google Music????!!!

By 5:02 AM No comments
Google whistles a new tune [from CNET]

Google Music will allow a person to type in the name of a band, artist, album or song in the main Google search bar special, and results will appear at the top, accompanied by icons of music notes, said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google.

Dec 14, 2005

quote

By 5:42 PM No comments
When it is near the end you think about the starting.
-- Mr and Mrs Smith

Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Dec 13, 2005

Dec 11, 2005

Dec 9, 2005

anonymuncule

By 3:07 PM 3 comments
Kinta sare hain jasbaat, kitne he armaan, machalte hai jo dil se hoto tak aane ko.
Per na jane kyo kabhi main unko shabd nahi de pati aur kabhi awaaz.
--शोभना

Dec 7, 2005

Highway all the way...

By 2:11 PM 2 comments
All Roads Lead to Cities, Transforming India from NYTimes

Hmmm what I am wondering after reading the articles in NYTimes is that there is nothing in India except the highways? It seems to project that everything else was in a complete state of mess adn the highwys are changing this... not sure how much of this is true and how much is just hype sourrounding the highways. But why so much hype about this?

India found its niche in the cutting and polishing of low-cost diamonds for the global middle class, and today more than 7 of 10 diamonds in the world are polished in Surat. It has created close to 500,000 jobs here alone.
That is nearly half as many jobs as India's entire information technology industry.
Bangalore, the symbol of India's knowledge economy, may be a global buzzword, but the fate of India's rural poor depends more on industrial cities like Surat.
Together, the cities' dominance means that India will never return to a farming-based economy. The urban portion of the gross domestic product is roughly double the urban population, a fact not lost on Mr. Santoki or his boss, Savji Dholakia.

By 4:11 AM 1 comment
Women of Al Qaeda from MSNBC Newsweek

Jihad used to have a gender: male. The men who dominated the movement exploited traditional attitudes about sex and the sexes to build their ranks. They still do that, but with a difference: even Al Qaeda is using female killers now, and goading the men.

THis is not the summary nor the most interstin part of the article. But I simply could not decide which part to pick to took the introduction and quoted it. Never have I understood it nor do I think I will ever understand it how can people kill and on top of that the reasons sound well unreasonable.

Trucks Highways India and AIDS

By 2:18 AM 1 comment
On India's Roads, Cargo and a Deadly Passenger from NYTimes


Some 80 percent of truckers' wives who came in for voluntary testing and counseling tested positive, she said, usually because by the time they came in their husbands were on their deathbeds, and denial could no longer be sustained.

G. Karuna, 24, was another woman who fell prey to the peregrinations of her husband, a long-distance driver from a family of truckers. When they both sought treatment for tuberculosis or opportunistic infections at hospitals, they hid his occupation, since many private hospitals now turn truckers away.

After her husband died, his family blamed her, a cruel vengeance some in-laws inflict on the widows. They have made treatment and prevention that much harder.

She was forced to sleep on the path outside; the family refused to share even a loaf of bread that she had touched. Soon their whole village had ostracized her.

Ms. Karuna cried as she told her story, but that story also conveyed an uncommon
strength. She had left her husband's family and her village to start a new life on her own. She became an activist with the Social Educational and Economic evelopment Society, an advocacy group in Guntur, trying to save other truckers'
wives.

She showed women pictures of her handsome husband before he sickened, and after.

She told the wives to know what their husbands were doing outside the home, to negotiate the use of condoms with them, to get treated for sexually transmitted diseases. Her husband's relatives still teased her: "Why are you working so hard? You also will die."

Dec 4, 2005

quote

By 5:45 PM 2 comments
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
-- Author Unknown

A person isn't who they are during the last conversation you had with them - they're who they've been throughout your whole relationship.
-- Rainer Maria Rilke

Let each become all that he was created capable of being.
-- Thomas Carlyle

Analysis of Indian HWYs

By 5:25 PM No comments
Mile by Mile, India Paves a Smoother Road to Its Future from NYTimes

It is tooo long (7 pages) but then it covers all bases of what happens when we have to construct highways in india. Really complete analysis and I found it unbiased though I would have prefered to have read in an Indian newspaper. Good read with how moving the temples or mosques could be an issue or cutting pipal trees etc. and lots more.

Dec 3, 2005

Science

By 5:51 PM No comments
The changing identity of the scientist from The Hindu

I always felt that science and a scientist was pure persuit of knowledge where other "benifits" were just by products of the process.
Point to ponder about--- has such kind of thought bought about theories like ID in the scientifice domain? Surely it does "benifit" some people. Has science become business much like everything else?

The individual has slowly become part of a collective. "A single instrument is replaced by an orchestra, with each individual striving towards the same goal. Of course, in science, as in any respectable orchestra, there will always be a couple of virtuoso soloists". It is these that the Nobel, Lasker, Dan David, Fields and such prizes go to.

Such shifts in science policy by governments and international communities, has led to a new model — that science should ultimately serve society. Industry wants science to make money. Governments want science to enable development. Citizens want science to clean the air, the water and make life healthier, safer and enjoyable.

All of these are possible only through ideas — ideas that need to be thought of, that need to be tested, found working and then applied to achieve the ends. And ideas come from individuals; this cannot change. Therefore the individual scientist cannot be replaced. It is him that we need to make more and more of.

And a sure way to do so is through schools, colleges and universities. It is these that we need to sow, nourish and multiply.

:(

By 5:38 PM 2 comments
It looks like the rain Gods don't want cricket in chennai!!
On second thoughts it might be that they might be taking the lead away from the moral police for being the disruptive force.

Dec 2, 2005

:(

By 12:24 AM 3 comments
Nopes it does not ... if anyone know how to save last sesion on firefox let me know.........

Dec 1, 2005

FireFox 1.5

By 11:24 PM 1 comment
The one thing that I missed in firefox has been fixed.
They can remember sessions!!!! Maybe I will switch to FireFox now :)

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