Excursions avatar

Essays

I am superstitious

What follows is just a prologue. If you want to directly hit my thoughts on me being superstitious, surf to the last line :)

A guy named B.F.Skinner once carried out an experiment on pigeons to demonstrate the formation of superstition. He placed a series of hungry pigeons in a cage attached to an automatic mechanism that delivered food to the pigeon “at regular intervals with no reference whatsoever to the bird’s behavior.” His discovery in his own words:

The bird behaves as if there were a causal relation between its behavior and the presentation of food, although such a relation is lacking. There are many analogies in human behavior. Rituals for changing one’s fortune at cards are good examples. A few accidental connections between a ritual and favorable consequences suffice to set up and maintain the behavior in spite of many unreinforced instances. The bowler who has released a ball down the alley but continues to behave as if she were controlling it by twisting and turning her arm and shoulder is another case in point. These behaviors have, of course, no real effect upon one’s luck or upon a ball half way down an alley, just as in the present case the food would appear as often if the pigeon did nothing — or, more strictly speaking, did something else.

More on this and its connection with me and my being superstitious here.

Twitter in Blog/Website..

I always wanted to add my tweets to my blog, to pen in the sudden and randomly generated vibes in me. I use to do that at twitter. But i wanted to pull in the thoughts at one place. As i owned the place now, i thought of a dedicated section for the purpose and hence came into existence the “Blabber Land”.


If you follow the link, you can find the live demonstration of twitter in blog under the first section named “Abrupt Blabberings”. The procedure is pretty not-so-complex sorts. And with a simple but informative article like this your work is greatly reduced. Thanks Remy …


But still it would need a bit of a scripting and customizing on your part, for better results that is. Few points to remember (basically the ones i didn’t :P)




  1. Make sure you add the <div id=”twitter”> section at a proper place. Before pulling the tweets, book the place holder and test the looks with the dummy data. Customize the div section.

  2. Add the pre-fetch message at the blog. Let user know something is about to happen in the section. A progress indicator would be a plus.

  3. Now add the scipt that fills in the place holder booked earier i.e. the <div> section. Make sure you rename the tweet in getTwitters('tweet', to the id you have mentioned in the <div> section above. So in this case, it should be renamed as “getTwitters(twitter,”

  4. Adding the script section towards the </body> tag of your page would always be favorable. The simple reason being the browsers don’t start any parallel downloads i.e. of images etc as long as they don’t download the scripts. It is always recommended that scripts, wherever possible, should always come right at the end, after most of the page is completely loaded.

Superstitious and Me??? ..Nah...

Superstition Cross your fingers

Yep that’s the way it is whenever you ask that renowned question to even slenderly educated guy. There is this eerie feeling in being superstitious. But i feel knowingly or unknowingly, we do follow superstition. Ok, lemme not talk about the universe for whole. Taaadaaa … I, myself, do follow superstition. Or lemme say i am the most superstitious guy among the people i know. No better proof than my following acts …




  1. I maintain my position for the whole match whenever india is winning a cricket match. Or whenever something, out of my control, is happeing in accordance with my wish.

  2. I try and change whatever i can when something is not betiding as i wish, to find out that right position to maintain (refer 1)

  3. As far as possible, i try and avoid … Uhhh … the path crossed by a cat. I know thats really foolish of me. But that is just to keep my mind away from any unwanted superstitious thought, if something bychance goes wrong.

  4. I have my own “tasks-not-to-do-now" list which i, by all possible means, avoid to carry out.


Ok, i will stop this whole self-bashing ceremony now. I know there would be pretty more. Will add them whenever am frustrated with myself. Anyways, I feel most of my superstitious acts are more of an attempt to prevent my mind from wandering in the dusty desert of superstition. You see if something does go wrong if i didn’t do __, at the back of my mind it keeps tinkering me, further adding to my superstitious feeling. That’s superstition to prevent increasing superstition.


But i know whatever i say, i need to stop doing this. I need to stop falling to superstition just for the sake of not falling for the greater ones. I know .. I am working on that … Have already overcome few of mine. Blog on them soon …


By the way, i did find an interesting article. A guy named B.F.Skinner carried out an experiment on pigeons to demonstrate the formation of superstition. He placed a series of hungry pigeons in a cage attached to an automatic mechanism that delivered food to the pigeon “at regular intervals with no reference whatsoever to the bird’s behavior.” His discovery in his own words:



The bird behaves as if there were a causal relation between its behavior and the presentation of food, although such a relation is lacking. There are many analogies in human behavior. Rituals for changing one’s fortune at cards are good examples. A few accidental connections between a ritual and favorable consequences suffice to set up and maintain the behavior in spite of many unreinforced instances. The bowler who has released a ball down the alley but continues to behave as if she were controlling it by twisting and turning her arm and shoulder is another case in point. These behaviors have, of course, no real effect upon one’s luck or upon a ball half way down an alley, just as in the present case the food would appear as often if the pigeon did nothing — or, more strictly speaking, did something else.

So i guess i now know how it all started for me. I was ruined socially. Heres all my energy to end that … :)

Vande Mataram..

Wishing all Indians, including myself, a Very Happy 62nd Independence Day. Been a great start, let me revisit the most prestigious moment for an Indian.

Its really an amazing feeling watching Indian flag raised above others. Kudos to the Golden Boy, Abhinav.

Update: I dunno for some obscure reason, i see most of these videos are pulled out from youtube, for some copyright infringement i guess. You can watch the video here.Thanks Shrirang for bringing this to my notice.

Journey to a self-hosted blog ...

Finally i succeed. I have been working on this site for around a month now. I, though, had finalized my contents quite a long time back. But it was because of my random vibes, i could never really convince my mind for a dedicated hosted weblog. But finally…  Though am not sure is it a simple blog or a ‘blogsite’?


Anyways this the first draft of the site i had in my mind for myself. I will note few points which, according to me, really heighten the user experience levels. It was all as a result of hours of skiing along the web and the constant feedback to myself of my experience as a user. So let me begin ..




  1. More space for the actual content on the page

  2. Clear separators between two posts

  3. Easy on eyes font family and sizes

  4. Non-disturbing ads

  5. At hand list of recent post and comments

  6. No bulky colors

  7. Easily accessible links and catchy titles

  8. A consistency in the overall site


I have thrived to please most of my expectations. Anyways i will, for now, not talk about my real journey right from ‘Blogger’, where it all started, to ‘Wordpress.com’, where it all beautified, to ‘Wordpress.org’, but just the final phase. The final shift, for me, was never a real pain in … uhh… head. And it shouldn’t be for anyone either. Only thing it requires is more of interest for designing and blogging.


So it all started, once on a frustrated day, with research on the preprocess. Had to earn my domain name ‘elatedamit' which i did. Bought the domain at rediff. Few pitfalls, never ever search for the domain you are planning to buy. Especially never on GoDaddy. The reason being various sites internally use GoDaddy for booking domains and, due to some random problem with their coding i guess, they are under impression you bought the domain even if you haven’t. Best example, Google Apps.


Moved to the host part. This was the most reasearched topic by me. I compared rates, providings, user experiences, expert comments and even overall look and speed of the hosting site itself. I really could not single out the best hosting site. Various people said, it depends on requirement. I feel the only thing it depends on is your luck. Choose, depending on how much you can spend, the best appearing host and leave it to luck. Hope that you won’t face any problem.


Roamed and jumped from Dreamhost to Bluehost to eWebGuru. But finally i stumbled upon Lunarpages based on the cost to feature analysis. I have hosted my blog with lunarpages for around a month now. I haven’t faced any issues of downtimes or slow responses yet. One valuable and important suggestion. Never complete the process right at the first time. Let them know you are interested. A guareented bargaining is about to happen.


Once your domain and hosts are connected, what remains to do is limitless. Remove your age-old thinking cap. Upsurge your creativity buds and dive in the vast sea of designing 'blogsites’. There is lots to learn and bit to earn too.


PS: Do let me know your views on the overall experience of the site. Let me confirm if  i am normal or has randomness caught my mind too :)

Reduced activity

Yeah .. even i know my love for this buddy looks deteriorated. But i would say thats not the case. I am on task to bring in a new entity in world. Nah ... no family planning stuff. Not so soon.

Am working on a 'blogsite', been working late nights after office hours. Designing it. Filling sections up with interesting contents, interesting enough to read. Though not sure when i will be drafting the final version. But soon i will. To grab the peek in the site, you can surely find the link at this page itself. Open your search glasses and come visit me there.

Till that time, its reduced activity at this blog.

Still in the womb ...

9 months are not over yet … Am still taking shape … Everything is getting put in place. Resources are working hard. My profile and color are getting designed.


In short, am still under construction. But lemme assure you. You are gonna like me. Keep visiting. One day i will emerge … For now ..


under construction

Gulped...

Tired. Bored. Empty-Skulled. I gulped another cup of cappuccino. And on my way back, i just churned my head out to find why do i usually drink coffee/tea.

The mentioned three properties are just few of the ones that make me amble towards the vending machine.  In reality, i feel i don't need any reason for supping coffee. Earlier it was to make sure, with sleepy patches of time curling over my head, i don't drivel down the office desk to the ground. But along my stroll through the professional life, the life itself mandated me to sip that muddy liquid each day on specified time. Now is the case that i feel tottery if i don't drink the coffee at the time prescribed by my life.

I feel my life is getting hold of me. I feel it should be the other way round. I need to do something. I need to think. I need to drink a cup of coffee. But this time its non-prescrbed. Thats the start...

Else the day won't be long when my situation would be as shown, with coffee howling "You used to gulp me because you wanted to. Stop gulping me because you have to"

Just tweak Google search box.. Concentration Gauranteed

"I start reading something" ... "I need to blog this" ... "Wasn't the other topic better?" ... "Okay stop. Let me read this out first" .. "Am done; I need to blog this" ... "I will blog this" ... "Let me get the topic open" ...  "Yeahh... my N93" ... "Oh blog;  .. theme ... no..  blog .. title .. wait ..post ... " .. "Where the heck was I???? "

Ok so this is how my thought train has been when i thought i will write this post. And lemme say, this just acts as the 'POF' (Proof of Fact) for what i will be writing now. Let us get on the same platform first. This post (Will you please not follow the links directly and loose this topic..Thanks) was inspired partly by this and this. I hope you are still there with me. Because if you were not for some significant amount of time, thats what this post is all about. Reducing concentration levels... POF you see ...

I am pretty sure most of the so-called experienced internet surfers would have reached at this point far late than they would normally have. Because i have become one of those and i damn know that he would atleast have done few of following:

  1. Google for some random text (Default)
  2. Peeped into GTalk friends list
  3. Checked whether have received any new mail
  4. Checked if all social friends are up and running
  5. Followed into void via atleast 3 Links
  6. If yes for 3, Gave a thought and made a point for each one of them
  7. Oh ya .. paid some bill
  8. Rejected atleast a single credit card offer
  9. And oh ya .. worked :P

I guess the list would build on n on. Anyways the point is surely you wouldn't have, if you have become one of us, read till now at a single strech. (I would really like to know what you indeed did. Put in the comments section. Hold on... Read completely first)

Ok i won't try and find the reasons for why this is happening because that is not going to help me understand any damn thing. Let that job be left for some XYZ research group of companies. What i would actually try is provide some ways i can become a normal being from a 'skull-headed vaccum with rags of information' which am now. Let me start listing them down.

  • Update Google searh bar: I feel google can hugely impact a large sector of us concentration loosers. If only they ask for some not-so-privacy-threatning but self-embarrassing queries before returing the result. Lets say, "For how much hours have you worked today".
  • Redesign Operating Systems: Huge step i know. The one i would design is, i would say, mainly a build over on MS Vista. Ok , so you want switch program? Start. "Do you really want to open ...? Yes/No", "Enter your Password ******", "Please re-enter the password ******", "Thank You! Please select the program you want to open. Enter the number in from of the selection", "Enter the text in captcha", "Thank you! Click Finish to open the program" and finally "Your request to open ____ has been successfully served. OK/Back" I am damn sure this will majorly kill the frequent ALT+TAB s
  • Introduce Sticky Books: Ok what if i want am not the comp junkie and still cherish the hardcopies? How can i be glued to the plot in the book? Fine. We will manually and physically do that for you. The books will be fitted with microprocessors programmed for secreting glues for defined time period which would be not less than 1 hour. You see. Its that simple.
  • Rename weekdays: Ok so point is inject a standard work schedule through out the human fraternity. Lets make each focus on a particular kind of job on the specified day. I would suggest let the week names be Funday (random fun), Moneyday(Money Matters), Teamday(Social Team Building), Workday (I know .. Boring Day), Surfday(Random Internet Surfing), Reworkday(Yeah .. 2 of them. Afterall thats what one is paid for) and Saturday (!!!!)

I know these options do sound rather ludicrous and more apparent changes like stop building multiprocessing processors or build 'one system one application' OSes might sound sensible. But then it is a "Build dam for water leaks" kinda solution. Anyways that's my foolish take on this not-so-foolish topic. Comment in your solutions, however foolish they may sound. Remember, there are many like you around you...

Finally must say I have always been a workaholic enthusiast ... What remains now is just an -aholic enthusiast surfing endlessly in void.

PS: If you have read this post in a single strech, i am damn sure you have just crumbled into wrong space. Click the back arrow button at the top-left corner of this window.

Update: Another interesting take on the same line. I am stupid and the Internet made me so

Mysterious Me...

The title does sound, atleast for me, a bit self-boasting one. I dunno about others for whom ‘being mysterious’ may quite well turn out to be ‘yuck’ish. (I know even my use of words sometimes is mysterious. You would surely have, if you have roamed round this blogosphere enough, come across many.)

Anyway mysteries has always kept on the edge of my seat. I have cherished even the worst of the mystery movies ever made. I even have a darn respect (!!!) for the makers of few of the movies, whose reason for existence itself was a mystery. Same goes for books or for TV shows. But more than anything else, what turn me on are the mysterious real life experiences. I have spend lots of my network bandwidth digging through the news stories about however foolish but mysterious incidences that happen around us. And it was this interest of mine that led to the existence of another blog of mine. Realm of Mysteries


Along the journey there, I will keep on jotting few mysteries i, over the net, bump into. The stories may not be fully inclusive of all details as I have no intention to ‘wikipedia’ize the blog. Though they surely will provide required links for fully understanding them.


Let the journey begin …

Here I blog ...

All thanks to the most limited blog templates and still rather basic fuctionalities provided by “Blogger” , here I move to WordPress. I blocked my mind from entering into many territories where it always moved whenever i tried the shift. If i mention below:

  • My tacit devotion to Google products
  • My concern about losing my Google Pagerank ( whatever it had earned in its prolonged stay at dusty Blogger)
  • My concern for my randomly displayed 10-15 readers, i mean subscribers.
  • AND one with foremost importance, My fear of unknown

Overcoming all these today I finally made the shift. Won’t forget to mention the great guide for people like me who are Moving from Blogger to WordPress

IPL should end ...

Finally I planned to blog today. I had been dropping quite a few shitty n weird ideas over notepad's bald head. But all thanks to my random weirdness, i flew far away from the thought lane and settled spending my complete time over choosing a blog template. Surprisingly, the decision to change the template was not a result of spontaneous wave of randomness. Rather it was with a thought that a simple and neat theme may load faster. (Not that i wanted not to loose the readers. What i wanted was not to make my readers loose there precious time pondering over what will load in.)

So all the ideas still remain spread over notepad. From the day IPL has started, i have found no time for 'nothing'. And as i could never do nothing, i could find no time for anything but IPL. Hence i wish IPL ends soon so that i can get back to my state of nothingness in the evenings. Then i would have ample time for doing 'nothing' so that i would be able to do many things.

I know this post is of no sense at all. Still it does bring in an interesting thought to ponder over:

No time for 'nothing' means no time for anything

News media tickled my thinking brain again...

Sometimes few news stories do make me go mad. Some call them weird, some call them funny, some call them odd or even feverish at times, but for me, they make least sense with any tag you tie them with. But, however brainless it may sound, i am always on hunt for such stories at various loci (and as a result of that, i have this collection of all such hotspots). Blame it to my idiotic hobby of running random or to my faithful affection for going mad, i do look out for a chance, chance to turn mad.
Here's one such recent story. It seems that researchers have found out some weird frog with no lungs. No, I have no problem with them churning out so wondrous a finding. What my juvenile mind never understood was how these men of brain flooded with boundless wit carry out such humongous tasks. What was it that they have in them that any normal person didn't? And then this story rose, like a sage would from foggy nothingness, to content my ignorance.

But before moving straight to the answer, let me take you through the line of thoughts my mutable mind followed along. A plain look at the title and it made me think ‘Damn!! How on earth did they find that? Were they running around, scissors in hand, chopping each and every frog they cross, looking for their bloody bellies (pun intended) for any abnormalities in them? And what did they think of as an answer they would provided to all those normal, but with a robbed sac like belly, frogs? Would a “Hey sorry mate! We are searching for your deviant buddy. By the way, do contact a doc soon.” do? Nah it won’t. How can they be so irresponsible towards the nature. They indeed are answerable to the frog fraternity.’ Now i don’t think this path is too abnormal. Any sensible one would have thought on the same lines. I felt mighty of myself for being so empathetic and felt that this needed to be blogged. But that feeling wasn’t there to last for long.

As i strolled through the story, the reality came into picture. The answer for “what was it that they have” earlier arose. It takes loads of patience, time and prolonged interest for hitting something so uninteresting and so “evolutionarily unique”, as they call it, head-on. How else can you explain the fact that when the friends of this enlightened scientists were busy lurking behind the materialistic pleasures, his majesty was busy searching for this mighty frog community, one of whose member he saw when he was 30 years younger. It required a mind full of unsatisfiable quests and determination not to find solution. How else would you explain the fact that once he did find one of them, he continued his quest to find 8 of their kinds and tore their lungless tummies apart before going “EUREKA”. I thought this answer that i mined was ‘pen’able and again felt that this needed to be blogged.

I wish this was enough. But they went on to explain how their closest relatives had lungs and what that really means. Finally they didn’t even forget to connect this with manly attempts to ruin the mother earth and a need to stop doing the same. Also a call at the end to protect earth from facing this “huge impact”.

Now all this was enough to make me feel that this needed to be blogged. And hence this attempt. Anyways now their’s some other line my thoughts are following. It is after i saw few similar titles that read “Man charged with theft left his son”, “Robber left name on job application” and “Suspect took cab to and from the bank he robbed”. Let me know your line of thought. I will post mine soon. Think… Think… Think…

Am still not dead...

Title sounds quite harsh, but i needed to be told that. Another day of incremental blunt looks at the same old view of my blog, and i thought am i "dead". I, myself, am not sure why i didn't post any posts in last few days and a month, but i really feel it has everything to do with my MTWThF-Office-Home routine. Each time i see the same old blog posts, i thought i need to motivate myself to start writing again. I tried everything. First thought of all the possible random, 'scribble'able points, came up with many and forgot about almost all of them, unpenned. I will note down the few still crawling in my volatile memory lane.
  • My well thought "to-be bad" predictions of where world will stand after, say, 20 years (Hmmm motivation was a list of few predictions from biggies that went wrong. I think you need to predict harsh facts to be biggies. Doesn't matter if they go wrong. That will further elevate my predictions and in turn my biggie status.)
  • My untouched list of sources linkable to the Global Warming (This topic is on my hot list. My only concern is i lose atleast one bullet point from the list with each passing day. No surprises, as the global warming topic itself is warmed more than the warming earth. I fear the debatable issues have more threat of extinction than earth)
  • My innovative ways to save our dear planet "earth" (Save as in save from so called Global Warming. Not save as in save from getting thrown out of solar system. Though i don't want to post more of this, but few interesting questions did rise in my mind. If we threw Pluto out, where did the poor little chap go? Do the "Pluto" ions know that they are not the part of our solar system? Is our solar system their solar system or do they milk some other milky way? I guess i should stop here.)
  • My view of our universe ("There was no big bang. There are no laws. There are no forces. There are no planets, no stars, no solar systems. There is no light. It's just HIM. Unrevealing this summer" Are you still expecting something more? Dude.. thats all you get in a "Teaser", you see :P)

All of the above, though being pretty random, just couldn’t motivate me. But as i was bluntly looking at my blog today, few striking facts about my previous post held my attention. First, my post was on Feb 14th, Mr.Valentine’s ‘some’day. And topic was “Earn Security, but at a price… “. Though quite unintentional, but see what great sense it makes. Its this rosy day, that if you enjoy, you have to lose your liberty (control myself?? forget… ), equality (how dare one asks to be equal with the almighty partner), justice (when i know i have to agree that the person in front has to be right, whats the point asking for justice), freedom (what freedom can a criminal expect when he sentenced life imprisonment for himself). You do this and you sure will earn security, security for commitment. Just make sure you do burn your entirety.

I am breaking....

Truly i am. Work is really not effort-worth. I am unable to do the tasks worth effort. Those interest me are not around me. Mind seems to be blogged with unknown demons. Eyes occupied by elephantine tiredness. It seems each and every body part is trying to move in altogether different direction. Trying to tear me apart. Each help offered just seems helpless. I want to run away. I want to hide from every minutest thing. Wish i could do that so simply. Wish i could hide that simply...

A Commute through Orkut Communities...

Here is another slippery weekend sliding beneath my feet. As i sit acting idle, with feeling rather unsuccessful with my attempts to follow "Operation Afraid", i start scanning my social appearance at Orkut. (P.S. I did succeed in beating one dreaded task. Successfully washed the clothes, a task no less than a feat. Though the fear of uncompleteness did keep me away from taking a bath and shaving. You see victory ask for persistent efforts :P) And along my stroll, I again dashed into a place i find the most meaningless. The Communities.

I always thought that it should be wrong to say that i completely hate them. The fact that i myself have joined around 50 communities should signify that. But then it was today i thought to drill into my communities' choice. And then rose the truth. All the communities i have joined can largely be divided into following categories:
  • Ones i joined as a newbie, similar to a kiddie thrown into a toy shop picking random toys
  • Ones which i was forced to join with an ultimatum of sort "Join now" ('or you will be hanged alive' was always silent :P)
  • Ones wherein you just feel great to be part of. It hardly matters how much sense it makes in you joining them
And it was then i realized that communities are indeed quite a boring and meaningless places to be in. More meaningless than boring. Include one more of ones which i created and I guess we have the categories generic enough to include the whole 'orkut'ers. First, it hardly has any sensible activity going on. (One can surely not mark people proving themselves to be superior by posting last or naming there predecessor or playing jokers as sensible.) Secondly, thanks to the first point and the second and third category, it hardly reflects what the person's interest really are. So a weirdo playing a "Rate the person above you" game in C++ community places him straight into the third category just in for senseless fun.

Moreover mostly are the occasions wherein the common interest projected itself is quite confusing. There are majority just to display one's liking for blah blah singer, writer, director, actor, books, sports-persons, nations, places and every such namable entity. For each one mentioned above there is an anti-community of haters. Each one of these have various levels of followers: country wise, state wise, city wise, university wise and the digging just goes on. Then there are those which say they exists for common purpose like "spreading happiness", "cutting sorrows", "making healthy", "shit happens: you are not alone" and bhah blah. And finally those which are quite weird which do make you raise your eyebrows. Few to mention "I hate orkut" (wouldn't it be a good idea to group such interesting people in Facebook) or "Announce new orkut communities" (Community with a goal to promote other community?? how innovative) or "Absurd Communities" or "I hate orkut communities" (need i say anything??). How i wished to be innovative enough to come up with something so fascinating and new. No wonder each community has atleast a single copy with equal number of members.

Anyways whatever i say, they do exists and exists with thunderous activities. I know i do have missed to crown many others which indeed need a mention. But then considering the vastness of this community world, i dare you try that out!

Security and Privacy!!!

Just found this amazing image depicting how security and privacy are inter-related in todays web-world. I guess its pretty simple.

"You won your security. But they own your privacy"
Update: Apologies to all those who indeed saw quite a supposedly "private" image here. All thanks to the dynamic image whose contents were "weirdly" played with. Now that was quite an experience, something worth learning from.

Operation 'Not Afraid'!!!

Throughout my student and professional life, i have been named and renamed hundreds and thousands of times. If i was made dada, manu etc at home, each one followed that up by gawande, amit, amith (southernized), wasudeo (!!! thats my father's name. Isn't that ironic that it was called when i wanted it to be the least, while distributing the checked answer sheets), strato, gaws and recently to few more. I felt like a bot in quake3 arena getting named for each player. Yeah!! as if this wasn't enuf i myself tagged myself with "the great", "the warrior", "gaws", "gamer" and simply "the player" in gaming arena. But there was the one that kept following me and i dreaded the most. "Phattu" (meaning "the fearful". Quite interesting isn't it? I feared the name itself). Though i felt it wasn't fare enough, I feared the things every normal one did. And if someone didn't i always felt he should be called the fearfree (physo??? :P).

Anyways today it was just by chance that i thought why not untie this tag from myself. But the first step was to list down the things i feel i fear the most in recent time. Because the countless times i was afraid is the past now and past hardly counts. So here goes the list of my recent 'fearmakers':

1) Weekends: Yep. These dudes come with a promise to let me complete all my jobs i have been postponing to meet just to slide under my feet with a lighting speed keeping me awake every sunday night. And thats the night i go to sleep with mostly zilch completed. Few uncompleted jobs include random internet surfs, itemized jobs like meeting, following up with XYZ, completing uncompleted work over the weekdays, do some shopping, paying bills, calling someone and and... Uff the list really goes on. Few which always top the list and remain unbeaten include washing clothes and shaving. Its all because i keep fearing each one of them, i hardly take a bath on sunday. You see i hardly find any time. Facing the monday morning with every planned thing untouched shivers me up.
2) News reports boasting someone: It may seem its fully faltu to fear something so stupid. But boss you should watch news channels catching random roaming people and making them comment on blah blah attaining blah feat. And then follow the unending murmurs: "East or West blah blah is best", "Blah blah is great", "we love u blah blah", "i feel in todays world .... hjhsdjsa.... sjdhsaj" (a sudden break from news reporter finally breaks his non-abating tempo). I fear heavily that one day it would be me who would end up on either side of the conversation: i mean either boasting someone or holding mic (Nah me getting boasted over a news channel seems hardly probable. Though the speed with which news channels are turning insane, the possibility cannot be negated. And believe me, that would be no less fearful)
3) Reality shows and SMS: I don't know if the show producers really know that but sending an SMS here at our place does get charged. But lemme be clear. No horror serial/movie isn't as horrifying as these shows. I really worry if i keep on watching the reality shows, time's not far when i would unknowingly type "&*&* A" or "LEAD #" and send that to 56789. Lines are open from saturday 10.... Arggghhh You see the side-effect. It just sticks and stinks inside. And even unknowingly you start blabbering the rules. Now thats the fear.
4) Google Homepage: Seemingly harmless bot, this is the most dreadful thing among the lot. I myself feel am addicted to this dude now. After atleast every 1 hour of joblessness, I feel to face this faceless creature. I fear he would one day take over my mind one day and and spread his crawler bots to digg out the information hidden inside. The phrase (and widely used "About me" statement in social profiles) "My mind is an open book" would literally turn into "My mind is an open searchable entity. Just google it dude". Its really scary.

I guess i should stop for now. Its the Sunday night, have just seen an episode of reality show, been targeted by the boasting news reports recently and just now ebbed myself my visiting google.com. So before I really get bogged down by fear, let me reveal the plan. Plan is i am going to not fear any of these things. Simple solutions is not watch television, no web surfing (surfing without googling??? Just can't imagine) and yep no work postponement. I know that's pretty 'new year resolutions'ish type of statements, but a start need to be made. Once i regain my control over these things, i will move to few other fearmakers. Till then good night. Its me signing off for tonight. Will meet next Sunday same time .. Argghhhh need to sleep. Fearmakers on their way!!!

Update:As if the "Google" fear i talked about earlier wasn't enough, there struck this video which intensified this fearmakers effect on my "blogged" mind. Thats quite creepy.



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Laugh Monkey Laugh...

"Give me a strip of laughter dose please."

I know i do blabber pretty brainless sometimes. But then thats what comes to my mind whenever they yell "Laughter is the best medicine". So if thats the case, why pretend that its not sold in the medical stores? It is indeed sold by a lot of agents, with political leaders leading the race followed by the so called "Blah-Blah Rights Protection" buffs. Anyways thats not the purpose of this post's existence (Hmmm ... Interesting!!). Why this post lie here has its own insight.

Along my stroll down the web's spider lane, I came across an article "10 Benefits of Laughter, and How to Use It". Triggered my weird thoughts. As each point scanned under my eyes, my mind blogged through the idiotic wanderings. "Why"'s and "What if"'s started cracking under my skull. And the only way to abate that was to pen it down. So here goes the autopsy....

Imagine a comment from a person something like "Buddy, i finally reduced the level of cortisol, epinephrine, adrenaline and dopamine man. Been long since i laughed." I mean may be thats true, but is there any need to know that? How does that matter which '-ol' or '-ine' i reduce. Really makes me think why do these dudes have to break down something simple like "Stress level" to all these '-ine's. Put it simple yaar. "Laughter reduces stress level" and one doesn't require any scientist to tell him that. Its instinctive.

Plus they say laughter is a great workout. Okie, point taken. So from tomorrow onwards i will go to gym and break into a huge roar of laughter. Being highly contagious as they say, it won't take long to spread all through the company. Now come the two threads from Butterfly effect which my life can take.
  • It instills the positive mind frame in all the employees. And similarly all the city dwellers and finally to the whole country and then comes world. I win Noble prize for spreading happiness all around.
  • Employees feel a complete physical release of tensions and all deadlines are forgotten. The behaviour spreads to the country and i am charged with contempt. I find the scientist who did this research and kill him. I am hanged.
Moreover a research suggests that optimistic (where's the connection with laughter dude?) people live healthy and longer. Now thats obvious. An optimist would never say "I have got cancer buddy". Rather he would insist its a kind of a roller ball running round his stomach providing him guffaws. So never would you see him saying he is ill. Thats it. He is healthier for the world.

Anyways fun apart, one point does hit the bull's eye. A smile costs absolutely nothing. So why not spread it on the face. I just wear it on and live on. Without really caring if it does benefit me or not. But one thing is for sure. It does spread some kind of freshness to one's mind and to the face. So cut the crap buddy and spread the smile. It does make difference!!!

An Apple a day...

We Rule!!! Another instant thought! Throughout my life, from a tender age when i was railing on my knees, I have never been a "Frutomaniac". I mean i have never been an idiotic fruits lover. When kiddies around me were busy drooling over all sorts of fruits, i was busy enjoying fats. Parents kept forcing me to push fruits in myself and i kept on running away making faces and crying like hell. And as always, the childish weeping bomb won over the parental force. And as i grew up, i was installed with an image for each fruit i was made to eat, forcibly. Follows the list (Don't expect this list to be exhaustive. If you do, stop eating fruits and go visit a doctor)
  • Custard Apple: This is the one who i met earliest. And as i visualize this guy, up stands the Tom Hanks from "Forrest Gump". Poor Chap who everybody just rips apart and relish. Hence goes my sympathies with this rusty.
  • Orange: This guy stands as one of the protagonists from any of the "American Pie" series. I mean he is all time dressed up just to get undressed. Capable of bring tears rolling down even with its peels. And a simple aim in life; lose his virginity (remember how you undress an orange with your thumb :P)
  • Pomegranate: Here come another rusty guy. But he is by no means the sympathy earning one. I mean, to start with, its no child's play to name and start relishing him. Even if you if do open him up, he starts poking his seeds in your tooth cavities; once his choco mate has played its part.
  • Watermelon: The chubby fat dumb a**. His black seeds depicting his face with pimples all over. As expected he has to be juicy. And its enough to drivel along your arms over your shirt. I never remember me mating him with my shirt over.
  • Mango: The dude in the gang. Luck has always favored this guy unlike the poor custard apple. He is smart, he is rich, smells and tastes heaven. In short has all the qualities that can draw any female counter part in the fruit fraternity crazy. The news is he is dating Banana these days, you know that stripper round the corner. Yep the same fair chick ;)
  • Apple: And finally comes the most opportune guy among them all. Reasons unknown, this brat runs along every corner right from the mommy's kitchen (Apple pie, which is mostly without any 'apple'ish touch) to the Doc's clinic (An Apple a day ... the real interpretation follows). I mean he does hardly anything to earn fame. But sometimes its just divine providence and hence he earned the blog title too.
Thats just a small list of chaps who have significant thrust over my memory. There are many others like the ugly fat jackfruit or the sexy berries or the fearful grapes or the sleepy papaya. But then these don't stand enough ground.

And before I end the post, lemme just clarify one thing. There is more as to why Apple earned the title here than just his fortune. For last few days, i have been made to eat apple daily claiming that "An apple a day keeps the doctor away". Its been just two weeks or so, and lemme assure you one thing. An apple a day does have guts enough to keep anyone away. Doc was just the poor guy who fell into the trap!!!

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Blank....

Blank... Thats how i have been for almost a week now. Truly speaking work apart, life's really following a pattern. 'Pattern' itself is trying to poke its head out of the blogged mind, but will somehow prevent it from doing so for a bit.

This post of mine is more of a "puch" to my blog. It has been throwing the same faces at me for more than a week now. It looked totally rusted, highly demanding a post. So thought lemme push down what i have been doing for a while. So the pattern goes something like this...
  • Come to office : Is it really a step?? Though the efforts required does make it one.
  • Check mails : Doesn't matter even if i did it just before i left for office. Thats how work dawns at me
  • Remain updated with my social contacts : Name sounds big. In simple words, i look at my un-updated profile again searching for new updates. Even a look at lame updates from friends would do
  • Get coffee : Dude, it draws one fresh. Makes me totally ready for work
  • Start Working and keep working : Works always there boss. But all work can make one a turtle head in an office. So simultaneous tasks include keeping an eye on notifications from Outlook, Gtalk, feed readers, communicator, fellow workers and "hope they were my fellow workers" types. By the way, a basic click continues. Check mails and social networks!!!
  • Lunch : Have to take it boss. Can't jump over it. I can give my 100% only when my tummy stays 100%.
  • Scribble about everything : "Why just aloo/paneer?" "Need a small nap yaar!!" "Boss i shouldn't have filled my tummy 100%. It really makes work difficult!!! [paradox???]" "Oh wow.. Man I never get a chance to praise beauty. Is it me who choices the wrong places to fall in or its just my luck that throws me in??? [Men will be men ;)]" And when i do think this is getting too out of work context, only the scribble context change "Tomcat sucks big time man!!!" "Eclipse slows like damn dude" "Uhhh my system needs a dose buddy!!" And as this continues ...
  • Get Coffee : One has to get fed up. Nothing works in noon. Coffee has to make me fresh
  • Start Working and keep working : Work again. And stays the simultaneous threads. Just that an another thread with look at the clock gets added. And as EOD arrives...
  • Check mails and Social Networks : I do it only twice. Once in the morning and again in the evening. Anyways no one mails. So why waste time checking mails. (An inner thought cries "Uhh still no mails.. no scraps")
  • Leave Office: I have a common statement to end my day daily "Today's was the worst day mate. Nothing worked yaar!!!" Scribbling continues....
And as i end this post, an instant thought strikes. Does any software engineer spends a routine even an inch different than this one? Out comes the answer, obviously yes. Afterall every software engineer has new scribbles to scribble and new notification to look at. Also not everyone drinks coffee ....

[PS: Though the above mentioned steps seem bulky, but they hardly take 5 % of my working time. Reasons are simple. I hardly get any checkable mails or replyable scraps or readable feeds. Moreover work does succeed to pull me in]

By the way, follows a nice video on juggling. It does provide another work synchronized thread, a look at "Buffering ..."



When is a kilogram that is no longer a kilogram still a kilogram?

Another random crawl through the web brought me to this interesting fact. It seems it really is a big riddle to find a solution for. I mean look at the riddle. It does ring a bell for an ardent Hindi movie buff. (won't call it Bollywood!!! Though am not sure why, but as they say some things are better unexplained. May be a bit Patriotic feeling, which pops up every now and then).

A famous dialog from the movie “Chupke Chupke” starring Dharmendra and Amitabh. “Gende Ka Ful Ful Ho kar bhi ful kyun nahi hain?” starts guffawing into the ear.

By the way here goes the main story:

"A riddle: When is a kilogram that is no longer a kilogram still a kilogram?

Answer: When the chunk of metal that serves as the official international standard for the kilogram, under triple lock-and-key in France since 1889, inexplicably sheds a little weight.Very little, though. The cylinder of platinum and iridium, sitting under three concentric glass bells like a metallic round of goat’s cheese, is 50 micrograms lighter than the average of several dozen copies."

Weighty mystery: kilo standard sheds 50 micrograms - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)