Thursday, September 23, 2010

Oh God!! But where are you??

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Existence of God has been one of the most controversial and debated topics across all over the globe & since the very start of our species. There has been many supporting the fact, that of the presence of god & many opposing it. Here is my take on Existence of God or how I feel about the Ultimate Power.

There has been no practical research work behind any of the things that I speak in this article and everything comes from my thoughts. You might or might not agree to what I have to say, so this one is intended to add another dimension into you already existing idea about God!

2 months ago I was reading this book, “The Goose is out”, an OSHO publication. Since then I have been trying to relate what god is, and how people describe many things as god. Since the existence of intelligent human beings, there has been gods. They found this new belief and found their gods on idols, in the sun, the moon, the earth, the rain, the clouds, the trees, the cow, the stone and the wind. The and at the end of the last sentence doesn’t mean it’s the end of the list, it’s just the beginning and human beings found a god in everything from the mighty sun to a mere stone.

Now think why would they have considered the sun as a god? And why, the wind as a god?

Who according to you now is god? How often would you have said “God Knows” to a question your pal asks you?! Why would you have answered in such a way? Because you may not have an answer to that question, right?!

Similarly, the earlier generations, the medieval people were left open mouthed at the question of who gave them this light and energy from every dawn to dusk. They found that a big ball rose into the sky every day at a particular time, travelled over their heads and disappeared later, taking away with it all the light & brightness. They, for then weren’t able to explain the physics or the chemistry behind the particular happening and for simplicity called the big ball the Sun God and prayed to him. Similar should have been the case with his worship for the trees, the rain, the wind, and the animals and so on.

I am sure every one of us believes that there is some extreme power which controls things, which controls the balance of the matter & the anti-matter, which controlled the birth of this earth, the solar system and the galaxies and the universe, one that controls everything. But the only thing is that we don’t know what is it that is controlling everything and we call it as god. Or we rather name this unknown, unexplained power or principle which controls everything as God! So is it really god or is it just a name, we had given to an unknown principle, the unknown quantity or the unknown powers, just like how the ancient people worshipped sun as god.

You, for once might be worshipping the same sun as a god, but not without knowing that the light and the energy you receive from sun is as a result of those nuclear fissions and fusions that take place at the central core of the star, and not because of someone godly powered, who rises his hands and a ray of light originates from it. So what I tried to mention here is that Sun is just a natural phenomenon, and not a godly one!

You are able to fly in the air, travel to outer spaces and even live there, those things which the earlier generations wouldn’t have thought possible to the human race ever. So by any chance, if they knew this, they might be calling us gods too, because they wouldn’t understand the logics behind the Space shuttles & the airplanes.

So my point still is that, we do attribute many of the present day happenings to be god’s play, not because it was really done by god, but more because we haven’t been really able to explain how it happened, or plainly we haven’t been able to crack down the logic behind it!

So as we move forward, as the human generation advances, we surely will find explanations to more of these unknown questions, which we now wrongly attribute as mere god’s plays!

So, What or who is God?

But i was not really contradicting the presence of god, or even I do believe in god or the extreme or ultimate power! I do go to the temples & I do pray to the god! And I have seen that ultimate power too, ask me where and I shall say through my eyes & in a mirror.

Yes, you read it rightly, and I do believe you yourselves are the gods, me myself is the god. If ever there was to be a god, then it is everyone of us!

We are gods because we have been doing things, once thought to be impossible and un-do-able. It was us, the human race itself who found the answers to all the questions we raised. The so called gods we pray now a days were actually one among us too. Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, were all just human beings who understood the meanings of their lives, and in a spiritual man’s words, they were the ones who got enlightenment. I wouldn’t want to take this post much into those streams because; I am equally un-enlightened as many of you and equally un-aware of all these terms as much as you.

So how do you reach to the god in you?

By above thought, that the god resides in yourselves, I am not asking you to quit going to temples or any holy places for that matter. Think what do you do when in a temple? You clean yourselves before entering the temple, you remove your slippers, yours shirts and you keep your bags at counters, but then these are all materialistic behaviors.

What do you really do once in a temple? You pray to the god, you tell him your wishes and your dreams and asks him take care of you and make you pass your class test, interview or that your daughter gets admission in a medical college, and blah blah blah...

Think what really happens here. Aren’t we actually reminding ourselves of the things we have to do, so that you get a bit more charged up to do it? Aren’t we reminding ourselves by praying to the god that, you need to study, since have an exam to do or you have to prepare, since you have an interview to attend or you have to drive carefully to be safely home? So by praying, aren’t you  actually reminding yourselves the things you need to do?

So the next time you travel alone in a bus or roam around by a silent paddy field, think about how your view of god should be? That of a global savior who has an answer to all your questions, one who cannot be seen, cannot be touched and heard. Or have you really understood that image you see in the mirror?

God is nothing but a creation of the people, but then it is sad seeing people being discriminated for the religion they follow, more so at the thought that none of us are following a religion by our choice! Religions do carry with it cultures and traditions, but are peoples happiness and peace secondary to any of these cultures and traditions? So stop discriminating people in the name of god, stop terrorist activities in the name of god, stop all such non-senses happening in the name of god, because they are nothing but mere Satanism.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

My Camera Speaks III : Shanghai Expo Unplugged

Check the previous post if you haven’t, to get an idea what World Expo 2010 – Shanghai is all about. This is a continuation with some details.

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Shanghai Expo started on the 1st of May this year and is about to finish in more than a months time, on the 31st of Oct. I was told that each day, the expo attracts anything between two hundred thousand to two million people. One day ticket allow you to stay inside the Expo site from 9 AM to 12 in the midnight, but if you felt that this 15 hours was good enough to see it all, you are terribly wrong. On a day’s ticket, it is not likely that you visit more than 5-6 pavilions. It took me some thing like one hour to get the security clearance to enter inside the Expo site. Our plans were to see all the pavilions  from outside, capture photos, and on the way visit the Indian, African & Aviation pavilions and see how the rest goes.

The Indian Pavilion

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To be frank, Indian pavilion was a slight disappointment. Not that it looked bad, but considering the powerful nation we are, and considering the kind of Super Power we are supposed to be, they should have done better and invested better. The theme looked okay, the greenness and the structure of it displaying a bit of our culture, but there lacked something that attracts your eye like those of the European, American or even our neighboring Nepalese pavilion. We had to wait for something like an hour to enter the pavilion and inside it were a couple of stores, some antique shops, a food store, and a store of Incredible India & Air India together. The big dome seen at the center is an exhibition hall.

…Several photos from inside the Indian Pavilion are below…

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What do you feel about the Indian Pavilion? Was enough work done? Didn’t it lack something from the other pavilions? Do share your views & thoughts through comments.

 

Some pavilion pictures that i missed last time…

…Russia & United States of America…

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…Mauritius…

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…the African Pavilion & Nepali Pavilion…

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…Estonia…

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…Romania…

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…Germany…

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…Winding off…

True, you have had to wait for 2-3 hours in queues to enter any major pavilion, but you can’t expect an easy passage when you know 500,000 people visit this place every day. And the 3 hour wait was made a comfortable one with various facilities and arrangements. Some of them included seating facility for the entire queue and fans every 5 meter or so, and then there was this innovative idea of spraying of water from the roof, every 30 seconds or so, which was nothing but a sudden escape from the humid, hot conditions.

To sum up the experience in a couple of sentences, engineering & organizing were all at their very bests, for this mega event. Pavilions that stole away your breaths, crowd control and voluntary works that made you jealous, free transportation services that made you feel home, an experience to cherish!

Walking through the Expo site, i was thinking how the Commonwealth Villages in New-Delhi would be looking like. Just like the Olympics 2008, this is sure to be a bench mark for any World Fairs from now on.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

My Camera Speaks II : World Expo 2010 Unveiled

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I am sure I messed up with the trust of my readers by faking an experience from a live football match, with out actually entering the stadium, but then this time is real and genuine and you wouldn’t want to miss this one.

The World Expo 2010 is a 6 month long carnival at Shanghai – China, one of the major economic centers of the world. Over 190 countries and 50 international companies have pavilions, which is also the largest World's Fair site ever at 5.28 square km. The exhibition which is to end in over a month’s time is expected to attracted around 70-100 million ( 7-10 crores ) visitors, the largest for a single event ever. An astounding 3 Lakhs visitors are told to be visiting the expo-site every single day.

These are some of the pictures from the Expo-site.

…At the entrance of the Shanghai World Expo Site…

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…The Tricolor…

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…The Long Queue, nearly 300,000 people pass through these queues every day…

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…The pride of China, Chinese Pavilion ( two views )…

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…This one’s a Chinese Cultural Pavilion ( my personal favorite from the site!)…

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…The Expo Axis…

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…Three outstanding buildings in Shanghai, as seen from Expo site, (left to right) the Oriental Pearl tower, the Jinmao Tower (11th tallest in world) & the Shanghai World Financial Center ( 3rd tallest in world)…

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…Country Pavilions…

…Australia & Finland…

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…Greece & Sweden…

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…Iceland & Ukraine…

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…Canada & United Kingdom…

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…South Africa & Argentina…

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…Inside the African Pavilion…

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…The Lupu Bridge, adjacent to Expo site…

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…The China Aviation Pavilion… 

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These photos are entirely clicked by either me, or on me. Please do not copy any with out my consent.

Further photos from the trip & a detailed report about Expo & Indian Pavilion shall follow. Please subscribe to my blog, to receive alerts on my blog updates. (Check back at the right side – top, to subscribe)

Friday, September 17, 2010

bid adieu Freddie…..

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This man probably had the broadest shoulders in the cricketing world, and the expectations over them were incredible & in accountable every time he crossed the boundary ropes. His sheer presence in the ground raised the spirits of the whole team. If there’s a man whose stature & credibility stands far above his achievements & statistics, it is Andrew Flintoff.

A hard smasher of the cricket bowl and a hostile hit-the-deck-hard bowler, Andrew Flintoff surely has been the greatest all-rounder I have watched in this game of cricket, and beyond all doubts, one of my favorite players. Watching the 2005 & 2009 Ashes series, where he steamed up to the bowling crease over and again with the whole crowd cheering behind him, chanting one & only name…“Flintofff,Flintofffff”, was much more exciting than even many T-20 matches. He might have been suffering from pain, so intense that he barely made it back to the bowling mark, limping, but then no pain in this world stopped him from his express-run, back to the crease and each delivery went past the batsmen as a fireball. Today after being at the receiving end of many a injuries, he has called it Quit.

A career which was hit hard by series of recurring injuries, his achievements are limited, considering the enormous talent he is. Andrew Flintoff probably was never a legend with his cricketing figures; there are not many centuries/five-wicket howls to talk about. But once fit, he was one of those bowlers of his generations that any batsman wouldn’t want to face, for his hostility & accuracy. A captain's boy in every aspect, a go-to man in any situation, he would present you a gem, when you had just dreamt of one. 

His passion for the game ensured that even his opponents spoke highly of him, clearly knowing that they will be at the receiving end of it all, his spirits, his powers and most terrifying; his fireballs. Now that the legend has finally come to terms with his body, the whole cricketing world shall miss him, shall speak highly of him, and will remember his monumental postures and power packed fist thumps for years. Let the smile in his face, remain for ever!

Andrew Flintoff’s profile at Cricinfo.

Andrew Flintoff’s page in Wikipedia

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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Happy Engineer’s Day! A Tribute.

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Happy Engineer’s day to you mate~!

I know you are quite confused as like, ‘there is a day for the engineers too?’

Yeah dude, there is one and it is today. The 15th of September is regarded as the Engineers Day in India, as a tribute to one of the first and finest engineers India has produced, Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. Today is his 150th b’day and let us, with all the pride, wish our fellow engineers a Happy Engineers day.

When i accidently came across this piece of knowledge, that of today being the Engineer’s Day, i knew nothing about him except his name, courtesy the Visvesvaraya Science & Technology Museum, Bangalore. Google and wikipedia helped me expand my knowledge of this great man and here are a few lines about him, a tribute.

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on 15th of Sept 1860, 150 years prior to today, at Muddenahalli village in the present day Karnataka. He earned his B.A. from the Madras University in 1881 and later completed civil engineering from College of Science, Pune. Upon graduating he took up some tedious projects under PWD & Indian Irrigation Commission. Visvesvaraya achieved celebrity status when he designed a flood protection system to protect the city of Hyderabad from floods. He was also very much responsible for the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam across River Cauvery in Mysore & upon completion, it was the biggest reservoir in Asia.

Upon retirement as an engineer, he was made the Diwan of Mysore and he was made the Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire by the British, for his invaluable contributions to the public. Sir Visvesvaraya was conferred with the honorary membership of the international Institution of Civil Engineers ( London based ), a fellowship of the Indian Institute of Science ( Bangalore based ) and several other honorary doctorates. He also received Indian Republic's highest honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He passed away on the 14th of April, 1962 in Bangalore. A true marvel who had lived for over 100 years.

I remember this true legend on his 150th birth day and i wish everyone a Happy Engineer’s Day!

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Engineers are the ones who create this nation, structurally. Respect & support them.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

…Reporting live from the Stadium…

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Few days back, I made it  to the first ever International football match of my life, in a stadium. China was taking on Paraguay in an International friendly at Nanjing Olympic Center. A visual treat even though the match neither created the kind of excitement an Argentina-Brazil match would create, nor were there the players like Lionel Messi & Kaka to create an Awe-moment.

…About the Stadium…

(The pics are both that of NOC – Nanjing Olympic Center)

It was the greenest of the turfs shining under a well-lit flood light, a sight in itself which beholds your breath. Now how about being surrounded by a sea, or rather an ocean of seats, red & blue in color, some 65,000 of them. The giant screen at the far ends of the pitch, up above the goal posts kept on flashing advertisements & right at the center of the pitch, 8 people stood with a big banner, above their heads, that of the main sponsor’s, the KIA Motors. The KIA motors had also arranged something like a motor exhibition outside the stadium where the newest models of cars were lined up.

I might not be able to stop the outflow of words if I start explaining the stadium & the facilities outside. There was a huge, a really huge swimming pool, there were signboards to the tennis courts, the warm up fields & huge underground parking lot, even though we never made it to any of them!

It’s not every day that an international football match got hold in any stadium in this part of the world & that ensured a decent audience of over 10,000 inside the stadium, many with & without flags, many in & out of their team jerseys, many with & without lays packets & the most popular of all, many eating & not eating barbeques.

So all in all, it was a night to remember, at least until I have a better experience of an international match, be it football, cricket or the upcoming F1 races in Delhi.

…Before you leave, hold on!…

….Hey, did I mention that I was in the stadium? Oh, no. Never! I am not crazy enough to spent $25 just to watch a crazy match between the retarded Chinese & unknown Paraguayans. We just visited the stadium to know how it feels to be in a stadium & we watched all the proceedings from out of it, there were more than enough space for you to stand and there was just enough openings between the stands were you could take a peek at the proceedings. Yes, I would have been happy enough to spend this $25 had there been a Messi or Cristiano or at least a Rooney ;)

Our positioning was such that we could clearly see the center of the pitch and not the wings & we almost cursed the Paraguay players for cruising into the Chinese defenders only through the wings. Our curse payed off too, with Paraguay breaking the deadlock as early as in the 8th minute.

Three pair of tiring legs and a goal - which was nothing compared to exceptional, we decided to leave or rather gift our balcony stands to those Chinese who were positioned behind us, eagerly following all the see-able moves of their national football team, National Heroes- may be!

The much talked about screen in our “minds” came into being again, and this time rewinding our memories to those awesome goals by the greats of the game. A long walk to the bus station, a silent nap in an empty bus and we were back in our hostel rooms in less than 40 minutes!

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This post was selected as one of the Tangy-Tuesday posts by Blogadda.ttp

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Lend your Voice for the Nature.

Introduction to Environment Engineering is one of my subjects for this semester and at the end of the first lecture, the teacher asked all of us to write an essay, citing those things that we can do in our day-to-day life, to protect the environment, which in turn enhances the chances of some pleasant living conditions for the future generations. So I thought, how about publishing the same essay here and enlighten those who read this blog, about those little things they can do, to preserve our Mother Earth.

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As per Wikipedia, the earliest forms of human beings took shape from Apes about 200,000 years ago and for the last 200,000 years human beings have been exploiting our earth in one way or the other. It all started with human hunting down other animals for their food and cutting down forests for shelter and other uses. As the race progressed, we became ambitious, striving for a better life, a better tomorrow and this ambition alone has been responsible for the comfy chair you sit in now and the computer you use now and the dress you wear and the car you drive and the posh flats you live in. But 200,000 years of exploitation of the natural resources have taken us to an irritating juncture, for now we are aware that the temperature is rising across the globe in a never-seen-before rate, the climate is changing all across in a never-expected manners, the reserves of those natural resources like the petrol,the diesel & the natural gas, those which fueled our vehicles for over a decade now are fast diminishing. Deforestation across the globe results in more and more CO₂ in the atmosphere and results adversely in the form of Green House Effect & Ozone Layer Depletion.

It must be noted that almost all the actions we do now a days destroys the environment in one way or other, and to live a life 100% environment friendly, you will have to boycott all automobiles, usage of paper, mobiles, electricity, wastage of water….well the list shall go on for ever. People are so used to all these luxuries that people starve for a day and they survive, but their mobile phones out of charge for a day and they might become mad. So lets look into those tiny aspects of life, which can be taken care of by a little concern.

1. Everyone quite know that wasting resources like electricity and water are not the best things you are doing as a citizen of this world, so please make it a point to switch off any un-wanted bulbs, fans & unattended computers, and ensure all the water taps are closed, when not in use. Use CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs) that draw almost 75% less energy than standard incandescent light bulbs.

2. Paper is one of the most widely used materials that you come across anywhere and almost everywhere, from your textbooks, bank cheque books, newspapers & magazines to the toilet paper. The list for sure goes on and on. Do you know the adverse effects of this paper? Paper is made by cutting down trees, which in itself is one of the big problems, called Deforestation. The next issue is that, the emission of Sulfur Di Oxide contributes heavily to air pollution, and this emission is largely due to burning coal in industries like that of petroleum products and paper production. So reducing the amount of paper you use could very well make a change. Recycling used papers is also a very economic solution.

3. Smoke contributes to air pollution heavily and some sources for this smoke like the heavy industries cannot be controlled by us, but we can do bits too. Please make efforts to use the public transportation system available in your town, instead of taking out your own personal car or motor bike. This not only reduces the air pollution, but also ensures the roads are lesser crowded, which in turn reduces the fuel consumption & occurrence of accidents too.

4. Every year one day is celebrated as the World Environment Day and each year, a new theme is proposed to be followed across the globe on that day. Last year, save power was the theme and the message was spread across to shut power at homes for one hour, voluntarily. Instead of shutting power for that one hour and utilizing the saved power the very next hour, make it a point to save an hour’s power every day. Similar to the “Save Power” are themes like “Plant a Tree”, “Save a Drop of Water” etc.

5. This might not be applicable to a student now, but keep this in mind. Airplanes burn 70 gallons of fuel per minute. So once you grow up and become a big business tycoon, teleconference can be an option for you, considering the amount of fuel saved.

6. Physical hygiene is as important as cleaning your room and saving the environment. Simple habits like washing your hands before & after meals, using a handkerchief, and staying indoors when you are sick, are little things that you can do to ensure that you do not pass on infections to others, as well as protect yourselves from other infections that might come by your way.

7. Keeping your home clean is one thing, but that doesn’t mean that you clean your home and throw the waste into your neighbor's courtyard. Treat the whole street as your own and don’t litter around, spit around or urinate. Try to keep it as clean as your own courtyard.

8. Reduce the use of plastics, and never burn them. It can destroy the Ozone layer and as a result, the earth could become one burning Oven.

It must be understood that the effects of you burning a piece of plastic here and someone cutting down trees in Russia & someone else polluting the water in Brazil, is not going to be faced by them alone, but by the whole earth.

I am sure you are aware of all the above mentioned problems and what you are supposed to do, this is just to remind you of your duties again. Understand them clearly and try to make all these simple steps practical, and spread the message to those who still exploit the nature for even their simplest needs, so that you can hope your children & your grandchildren also have the privilege to feel the nature & live in an environment like the way you do. Make a few adjustments to your life, be a responsible son of the Mother Earth and a responsible citizen of our great globe, or else, the future generations may curse us saying “ They destroyed everything and kept apart nothing for us, they destroyed the earth.”

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24th December

24 th December 2017 was a day that changed many a lives that I know of. I was in the middle of a nearly 3200 kilometre train journ...