Frandships and friends

Time flies faster than Rajnikant! I'm coming back after two months! Hopefully I'll be regular from today. I'm already grinning cause I know that's never gonna happen.

Last two months were wonderful. May and June were the months of friendships and gatherings with some of my best'est' friends. Some new, some old, some sober and some with whom you could just laugh your guts out loud (really LOUD). Friends definitely put me in an very good mood as there's more (nonsensical) laughter when I'm with my friends. 

There are others whom I would like to meet but somehow its not happening. Of course, I know that I need to take out time and blah, blah, and blah. But sometimes, it just not possible. I never really thought this day would ever come when I'd get so busy that I won't be able to take out time for my friends. I used to laugh at people who'd say, 'Oh! we are married, so you know...it's difficult'. Well, now I know what it's like to get married. Basically, you loose all your FREEDOM! Not exactly, but yeah.


That's why I'm going to pledge to meet (atleast) one set of my friends every month.

I hate/love cooking!

I really don't like to cook. Well, I wouldn't of course mind if there were somebody to do the preliminary stuff of chopping and cleaning vegetables and also to do the post-cooking affair of cleaning up the whole mess. :) 

But well, yes, I do enjoy it at times like I did today, and the dal and bhindi-curd turned to be quite nice, edible and most importantly tasty.

The microwave's lying wasted. I'm yet to try it to make some food and not just use it as a heater. Probably, this coming weekend I will. I must! 

Now, that's a resolution.

Hole-in-the-Wall

In my quest to make a world a better place to live, I started researching on ways and means to spread awareness on education with the sole aim to make life better.

Now, it does help when you share your thoughts with everyone around you. One of my colleagues promptly dug her memory and recalled a training session wherein another brilliant colleague (rather a senior) had enlightened the group about hole-in-the-wall by sending them this link.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html

Hole-in-the-wall is a brilliant concept envisaged by Sugata Mitra in the field of primary education for under privileged kids living in remote locations in rural India. 

It started out as an research experiment on unsupervised learning with computers. 

In a hollow space of a wall, a computer was installed to be freely accessed by everyone and anyone. Some of the tiny super curious beings – children – from the nearby area fiddled with the device for a while and viola! – the children had taught themselves to use the computer. That was not the end of it, the kids not only learnt basic math and science, but also taught themselves English because the computer spoke just English. The kids were learning and teaching their peers – without the intervention of any teacher.

This idea completely blew my mind! I was so impressed by the simplicity of the idea and the curiosity of the young kids.

This is one of my favorite sites that I visit whenever I’d like to get inspired. Someday I’d like to contribute to an idea worth spreading and be featured on TED! 

A long time...

Seriously, I had forgotten the existence of my own blog!
But, now that I'm back, I'd better stay here. It's time that I write for myself again.
Cheers!
Happy New Year! :)

Isn’t it comical!

‘Comic books helped me to define myself and my world in a way that made both far less frightening. I honestly cannot imagine how I would have navigated my way through childhood without them.’ – Bradford W. Wright, Comic Book Nation

A lot of us would vouch for that statement!

My first encounter with comics was the glossy Sunday Times of India. It felt so good to touch that paper, almost rich.

I loved ‘Beetle Bailey’ and the sarcastic humour of ‘Garfield’ who personified laziness. At times I hated the droopy eyelid cat which I guess was probably out of my dislike for cats. ‘Hagar the Horrible’ was also fun. I loved the conversations between him and ‘Eddie’ and the regular bickering of his wife ‘Helga’. Poor Viking! Reading Sunday Times was a ritual with the entire family. Each one waited for his/her turn or an opportunity just to snatch the paper when the other wasn’t looking. Our animal instinct bubbles at times.

‘R.K Laxman’s’ humour on politics and current affairs were my only updates on the subject J

As kids, we used to subscribe ‘Champak’ because it was just Rs.5 and had more stories than ‘Tinkle’ which used to be Rs.10. The middle class mentality usually takes over in these cases and we’d prefer ‘Zyada aur Sasta!’ any day (even today J). ‘Tinkle’ was borrowed from our neighbour who always insisted that we read the book in her house and not take it to our home. We weren’t too fussy about the place where we read, as long as we did. J 

Most of the ‘Champak’ stories revolved around ‘Cheeku’ (Rabbit), ‘Meeku’ (Monkey), ‘Appu' (Elephant) and other talking animals. Each of the story had its moral contribution to the kids (like me!) reading them. Believe me, never once did it felt like preaching. It was so good and entertaining! The best part was the values were instilled without much effort.

I could never get over ‘Shikari Shambhu’. He was the luckiest chap! I don’t ever recollect any picture of him where we could see the colour of his eyes. And oh! I loved the adorable and stupid ‘Supandi’ screwing up things and being foolish because of his sweet and simpleton nature.

Revelled each time ‘Tantri the Mantri’s’ plan of getting rid of ‘Raja Hooja’ was foiled and it backfired on him!

I occasionally read ‘Chandamama’ and ‘Panchatantra’. ‘Chacha Choudhary and Sabu were good enough for an International acclaim. These were the only comic which I read in Hindi. My favourite line from these, ‘Jab Sabu ko gussa aata hai to Jupiter pe jwalamukhi fat-ta hai!’ I’m sure ‘Chacha Chaudhary’ had a hidden computer under his ‘pagdi’. His logic was super!

From there on I went international and took to reading ‘Indrajal’ comics which featured ‘Mandrake’ and ‘Phantom’. This was my first interface with jam-packed comic digests which went on and on.

‘Mandrake’ and ‘Lothar’s’ magic tricks did not quite interest me and hence I moved on to ‘Phantom – The Ghost Who Walks’ and fell for him instantly. ‘Devil’ and ‘Hero’ remained my all time favourite hero buddies.

‘Richie Rich’ who owned awesome stuff was always a like a dream. A theme park, lot of gadgets, an entire toy house to himself! Wow! ‘Casper’ and ‘Wendy’ would feature as guests in these books. And both adorable too!

Well, isn’t there a similarity between ‘Richie Rich’ and ‘Casper’? If I were to shed Richie’s clothes and hair, he would look exactly like Casper!

I read ‘Harvey Comics’ and ‘Indrajal’ comics during the period I was admitted in hospital for various illnesses. About three or four times during my secondary school. I know, it sounds unbelievable, a lot of my colleagues did not believe it too till I made them hear my mom. Being admitted so many times is not something I’m proud of but I guess that was the only time I began reading ‘Indrajal’ and ‘Harvey’ comics.

And I’m happy that I read!

Penny for your thoughts!

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, We make our world - Buddha (563 BC-483 BC) Founder of Buddhism.”

There is a lot of anxiety in the air with sprinkle of uncertainty and incertitude.

Countless thoughts are crossing each other intersecting their paths, colliding with each other, some ignoring the other, some intruding upon the other. It somehow never seems to stop.

At times one cannot fathom the twist, turn, road, lane, gully, highway, expressway, route that thoughts take as you age.

Thoughts – sometimes, never under our control. It flows and explores as it wills. Wanders along the unknown path, comes back home when tired. Rejoices when it goes back in time and meets old memories, gets excited on a beautiful prospect. It dreams its own future and walks as far as it can into the future. Splits itself into millions under strain and anxiety. And becomes one when the mind is asleep or the heart is at peace.

Cheers to the ever meandering thoughts without which life would not be.

A pledge to myself

The following pledge popped up while I was working on my computer.

It’s psychic because it is exactly the thought running through my psyche and displayed in my some of my actions since past couple of months. I wish I’m able to practice it whole-heartedly for life.

“I'm poisoning myself and my world. By polluting rivers, oceans and the soil with toxic waste.

Waste that is produced, consumed and disposed off by no one else, but me. 

And nature has its way of making things come a full circle.

So these poisons end up in our bodies through water, soil and various other means, resulting in every living species having at least 700 man-made chemical contaminants in their bodies.

But now I won't keep quiet.

I won't destroy myself and my world.

I will reduce, reuse and recycle.

I will only buy products that I require.

I pledge to do my bit for a toxic-free future. My future.”

 GreenPeace