Fact for the Day 13

Part 1
Some time back I was troubled by a strange problem. My keyboard started behaving in a strange manner on which a number of keys got interchanged, most notably the "@" and the " (quotes) key. I thought it was due to some software problem since the Windows version I was using was a pirated one. I tried to find a solution to this problem but in vain, and sometime later got used to this "different" keyboard. A few months later, the computer was formatted and now Windows XP was installed, but after some time the problem appeared again. I was confused as to why it was happening because I was the only one amongst my friends who had faced such a problem. I asked a few of my "geek" friends the reason for this anomaly but even they were clueless.

Part 2:
I have always been fascinated by British English and prefer to use it over its American cousin. It always irks me when I see people using "color" and not "colour" or when I see a red line appearing under "defence" while using MS Word. Probably it's the way I have learned it and don't want to change.

Now my room mate Anurag uses a Linux machine instead of a Windows one and falling for my obsession of using British English, I changed the language settings of this computer from English (U.S.) to English (U.K.).

Lo & Behold!!!!!!

The problem in Part 1 appeared again. I immediately wiki'ed for different types of Keyboards and got my answers immediately. You can read about it here.

Random Musings...

As a child I always used to believe that nothing bad can happen to me. In the end, I'll be successful, that I would fare better than others and that eventually it would be a happy and comfortable life. Come what may, I'll be a winner in the end. That belief, is now shaking. I've come to realize, that I will have to "make" those things happen. And to "make" those things happen, it would require a lot of effort. Now, I actually am the Master of my own destiny. I know these thoughts sound very cliched. I've read similar stuff all my life and never gave a second thought to it. But only now I feel the depth of these thoughts and understand what they actually mean.

*****

India plays Australia, and like many other Indians, I want Sachin to score those two centuries as soon as possible. I hardly care about anything else regarding cricket these days. India will tour South Africa sometime in December, and again the only thing I want is that Sachin, Dravid and Laxman should play the best innings of their lives there. I might be sounding unpatriotic, but I am not concerned with India's win or loss anymore. Sachin should be ahead of Ponting, ALWAYS...Dravid should retire on a high, so should Laxman...My passion for cricket will retire with these greats...

******

So much has been said and written about Commonwealth Games. And we were supposed to feel proud about them. In my case, they have made me feel the exact opposite.

******

Time seems to be running out very fast right now. Few of my friends(both college and school) have got married, a close friend, Prashant will marry in January next year, so would Jyoti and Shivpriya. Gaurav Dugar has already fathered a son. Another friend Shashank has set up a business in USA. Most of my batchmates from school have completed their studies and are all set to lead a well settled life. They have laid down the road map and are all set to build upon it. People have been places and here I am, still considering myself a kid, fully uncertain about my goals and aspirations, questioning about Life, Universe and Everything, doubtful as usual, indecisive, perplexed, confused....

*******
Babri Masjid case has arguably been decided in favour of Hindus, in spirit if not in name.If communal forces like RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal etc. are happy about it, then it's a cause for worry. I don't know every nitty-gritty of the case, but if a Judge can rule in the high court about the place being the actual birth place of Lord Ram, I can't help but question the credibility of the appointment procedure of the High Court Judges. Was he in the right frame of mind when he made the ruling???? He seems to be talking as if in his previous incarnation he christened Lord Ram himself. Maybe he really did....I am waiting for a detailed report on India TV.

*******
ESPN Cricinfo has come out with the concept of an All Time XI Test Team. The jury will decide on that but you can make and vote for your own team. You can check it out here ...

My team is

(openers)
Sir Jack Hobbs ,
Sunil Gavaskar ,

(middle order)
Sir Don Bradman,
Sachin Tendulkar,
Sir Viv Richards,

(wicketkeeper)
Adam Gilchrist,

(allrounders)
Sir Garfield Sobers,
Imran Khan ,

(bowlers)
Wasim Akram,
Shane Warne and
Curtly Ambrose .

Given a choice, I would have kept Brian Lara as my twelfth man and Imran Khan as my Captain. What would have been your team??

Happy Gandhi/Shastri Jayanti by the way :)

Guilty

Do you ever feel guilty for being more privileged than others????

Purity...

can be a religion in itself.....

Narcissists all around

Do we love anybody else more than ourselves?? Or for that matter, do we ever really love anybody else ...
Mothers....well, they are an exception :)

An anniversary of different kind

Today, it's 19th May, a day which is somehow difficult to forget.
Today I spent almost 12 hours in my office, doing something I am not very good at, devoid emotions, just working like a machine, completing the task at hand. A day, just like the other days I have gotten used to. A year back, around the same time I had made 3 trips to the railway station, taken food at two restaurants, and bid farewell to 6 very good friends of mine.
Mayuri, TP, Mishra, Bansi, Malli and Chuggi, all left within a span of 24 hours. Jain, Goutam, Prachi had already left earlier, but this day almost marked the end of college. I returned home almost at midnight, after Ankush left.
A year has passed and time, literally has flown by. A lot has changed in the past one year. A number of batchmates (both from school and college)have got married or will be married in the next few months. A few of us got committed, some tried, but failed...:).
Howsoever hard we may try, but now we are distanced from each other, a distance, which unfortunately, will only increase...
Something was gone, that will never come back.

Dhanno, La Poderosa and Rampyari
Together for the last time... 18th May, 2009.

Ambitious

Why are people Ambitious???

After a lot of thinking, applying my super duper analytical and observation skills and wisdom acquired through experiences of life, I could think of four possible reasons...

1. They love what they do. The ambition is not to get anywhere but to remain immersed in the work they do. They work not for themselves but for something they love doing, kind of selfless service. In the process, they move ahead and inspire others. The most suitable examples I can find are those in the field of art.

2.Because they are ambitious. There don't need or seek motivation from external sources. They don't care where others are and just want to move ahead for their own selves. Great businessmen belong to this category.

3. They have to survive. If they don't move ahead, they will cease to exist. Most common of them all. They can be found everywhere around us.

4. They don't want to be left behind. It is not a survival problem but a fear that their contemporaries will move ahead of them. If asked, they'll cite above three reasons for being ambitious.Given a choice and an ideal scenario(for them, that is), they will continue to lead their life in present condition.

I believe most of the people belong to the last two categories and I, specifically fall in the last one..:) . It's those in the first two categories who actually create something beautiful and leave a mark. The rest....well they are just a part of the rat race.

PS. I had nothing to do and this is just an example of one of the stupid things I do to kill time....

The Atheist

He is a brave man...

for he does not place his fate, his success and most importantly, his failures into the hands of the unknown..

A very very Late Realization

There is absolutely no fear bigger than the fear of FAILURE.

The Saviour

He does not switch off the lights when he leaves the room.

He leaves a lot of food on his plate once he is done with the lunch.

He drives a big car to the office a couple of kilometres away.

He keeps the tap running in the bathroom when he shaves/brushes.

He spits on the streets while taking a walk.

He litters the streets with empty plastic bottles and wrappers.

He takes unnecessary print outs from the office printer.

He leaves his desktop on sleep/hibernation when he leaves the office.

On 27th March, 2010 he switched off the lights at 8.30 pm , went to sleep, woke up at 9.30 pm and updated his orkut/facebook status message that he had done his bit in "saving the earth".

Un-Wiki'ed

I did it some days back and though I should be feeling happy about it, I am not. I am talking about Wikipedia. Last week I edited a page on it where I found a mistake and then I found some more mistakes on it and edited it more, even added some stuff. Now the very purpose of my visiting Wikipedia is reduced to finding mistakes on the page and correcting them. I want to get out of this obsession.

Moreover, this has shaken my belief in the authenticity of the content posted. Though I always knew that wiki pages were editable, I had never done it. Now that I have, it seems like there can be a lot of pages with plenty of mistakes. Moreover, a person can edit the existing content and make it look entirely different from what it initially intended to be. Wiki has the features of 'discussion' , 'edit' and 'citation needed', but I really doubt if majority of people pay attention to them.

Where to go in such a scenario?? Earlier whenever I came across a fact, I used to verify it from Wikipedia. Many times, it turned out the facts were lifted from Wikipedia itself. On one particular occasion when I wanted to counter check the fact, all the other sites quoted essentially the same content as on Wikipedia and gave its reference as well. What if the content on Wiki is wrong in first place?? Wikipedia authorities should come up with a solution where the content which is authentic and is not going to change in future can be made uneditable. For the rest I guess, people are doing a good job and modifying the content wherever and whenever necessary(for this I give myself a pat on my back...:) :P ;)).

Happy Birthday :)

So here I am again, Single and not yet ready to mingle on this yet another Valentine's Day. Another year has passed at the end of which I find myself still searching for the same goals as last year. Still trying to find a place for myself both in and out of me. A few disappointments, some joys, a new life and a new world have marked this year. Though I find myself learning many things a little late on every frontier, not all of which can be put down into words (at least not by me). And love or a relationship is certainly not a priority on the list. And I am quite certain that by the time it becomes a priority, I will be late for it as well. I wonder if it ever will be.

On a serious note, I for one, never found the need for a relationship a very compelling one. Don't we have our friends and family to love already??? And why forget old relationships for new ones. I simply detest those who do it. Not all are guilty of this crime but I have lost some very good friends because of "Pyar vyar and all that". Love grows as we spend time with those with whom we like to be. So why raise such brouhaha over getting into relationship with a member of opposite sex and call it commitment/love etc. Aren't we all already committed to preserve the relationships and friends we already have. I thought I was in love once. "I thought" because I am not any more now, neither was I then.Though I must admit that it felt great at that point of time, living in a dream world. It was infatuation that came and went. Love stays. And I don't understand why people who want to get into relationship are so offended when someone says that "I love you but as a friend". Isn't friendship one of the greatest forms of love. Besides, I seriously wonder that people who constantly jump from one relationship to another are ever in love. I believe they are insecure, insecure of being alone, insecure of being devoid of attention,always seeking assurance that someone is there for them. I may/may not find a girl with whom I would like to spend the rest of my life. But I know one thing for sure, if I do find her,she is going to be a great friend above anything else. I do hope I find such a girl :) :P.

By the way, my blog celebrates its first anniversary. I remember writing my first post on this blog on 14th Feb 2009, when I had come back from a quiz, a little sad for not clearing the written rounds, suffering from mild fever and wondering if the number of entries would cross single digit. Well, here I am, writing 61st entry on this blog, special thanks to all those who cared to read and comment despite it being full of horrendous grammatical mistakes and absolutely meaningless posts.

Happy Birthday My Dear Blog and Happy Valentine's day by the way :) :P

Fact for the Day 12

The most beautiful city in the world i.e. meri apni Jaipur was founded in the year 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II. The names of the rulers of Jaipur is preceded by the title Sawai. This tradition began with the founder of Jaipur, Maharja Sawai Jai Singh himself.
At the age of 15 he defeated Marathas in a war in the year 1701 and captured the fort of Vishalgarh. Thus Aurangzeb conferred upon him the title 'Sawai' which means that he was a quarter more than a man (Sawa= 1.25). Sawai Jai Singh was a patron of Science and Astronomy and he went on to build the observatories called Jantar Mantar at Jaipur, Delhi, Mathura, Benares and Ujjain.

Game, Set , Match...

As a kid, I always used to wonder why in a pack of cards, the Ace values more than a King. I mean, it always seemed illogical to me that why in should '1' have more significance than a king. I got my answer a couple of days back.

The word Ace comes from latin word 'As' which means 'a unit'. In earlier times, the ace had the least value. Then something happened. This something gave birth to the ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. "Something" established the rule of the peasants over the ruling class. The ruled became the Ruler. This "Something" was The French Revolution of 1789.

Quoting Wikipedia "The lowest number card was changed to the highest card in the deck ostensibly to represent the victory of the common man over King Louis XVI(citation needed)"

A French Revelation indeed....:)

The Idea of Indianness

It's a strange world out there. Somehow, everybody seems to be there for his/her personal gains, caring for nothing whatsoever. And still one person stands out.....Shahrukh Khan. I am not a huge admirer of Shahrukh Khan the actor or Shahrukh Khan the businessman. But I like this guy as a person. If not anything else, this man is at least honest. There might be some arrogance in this honesty but there is no hypocrisy for sure.

So it was nice to hear him say that he won't apologize to Bal Thackrey/ShivSena for backing Pakistani cricketers. What he said might be for his own motive, for his own gains as an owner of IPL team. But he refuses to back down from something he stands for fully aware of the fact that this could cost him and his upcoming movie heavily. At the same time one wonders, why are Marathi people not coming out in support for this man. Why can't we see actors like Ritesh Deshmukh, Nana Patekar voicing the same opinion as Sachin Tendulkar did a few days back??? Or probably they have sold the sense of National pride along with their souls.

And then we have people like Amitabh Bachchan. He might be a great actor but somehow I have lost all my respect for Amitabh Bachchan, the person. He does not seem to be affected by the plight of artists or his fellow actors in Mumbai. Instead he praises the biggest goonda who virtually rules Mumbai with an iron hand. He was only affected when Raj Thakrey was coming out all guns blazing against him. But since he is friends with probably the most influential family in Mumbai, he won't utter a word against them, even though they are doing almost similar to others what had been done against him a few months back by a relative of theirs. Probably...probably the fact that now he has lost his backing in Samajwadi Party (Amar Singh is now thrown out of party) has forced him to show the true colours of this "farmer". Seems like he himself is playing the role of Jai Malik(his son in Rann) in real life.

It's strange that the central government is not taking any strict actions against these goons. How long will they keep on running from such issues remains to be seen. Democracy does not mean letting loose people who are a threat to countrymen just because they have a backing of a minuscule percentage of population. It's amazing that a man(Manohar Joshi) who used to occupy an extremely prestigious position of Speaker in the Lok Sabha opines that Mumbai is only for the Marathis. How low can one stoop for petty gains???

I remember in my school days, we had a teacher who used to say that if our country follows what Bal Thackrey says, we would be on top of the world. Fortunately we didn't pay much attention to her (the fact that we didn't pay attention to anything else taught in school ever otherwise is a different story) I wonder if she thinks the same now.

Somehow all this was going to happen someday or the other. First we'll hate people of other religion, then of other state, then of other caste/community, then of various sections of the same caste and then we'll hate our neighbours. It's high time that we stop being patriotic only when it comes to cricket matches or publicly bashing Pakistan. We are bringing about nothing but our own downfall. Let's be Indians first and everything else later...Time to wake up fellow countrymen....All RISE

Fact for the Day 11

Execute the following steps.

1. Go to Google.

2. In the search bar type 'recursion' and press Enter.

3. Observe

4. If you don't understand, read the first comment on this post.

5. Enjoy :)