a quick post

Yahoo is more popular than gmail although functionality and ease of gmail is better.

Currently we are facing tremendous issues with delivery to yahoo mails. We have tried lot of stuff to get rid of this problem, but to no avail. Tried to get in touch with yahoo customer care people, but I face a problem with such 'support teams' where they don't provide a telephone number. Lot of efforts but all in vain.

This is leading to high customer dissatisfiers. Yahoo has given some guidelines on 'best practices' during mailing. Well, to a layman like me, only 10% of those points made sense. Understandably, the problem remains.

But the rising customer escalations is a problem. Let's see.

Just had 5 quick minutes with me, thought of sharing my concerns with y'all!.

Sunday Times

This Sunday has come after a long time. With the mad rush of things I have recently gone through, I don't remember the last time I encountered a Sunday.

Yeah well, I got married, for one, then went to a week-long trip to 'God's Own Country' Kerela. After my return, I had to immediately rush to another friend's wedding 30 hrs away in Andhra Pradesh.

In my total travel to Kakinada, I only attended the function for about 6 hrs and then started my journey back. Phew! That was the day preceding last Monday.

The adjoining week was action-packed, with no time to breathe. And like a small commercial break in a long movie, came Sunday. It will fade into time as soon as it has appeared, while I try to figure out what I am going to do in it.

So while I make a check list of things to do, you go ahead and enjoy Sunday!

Happy Diwali!

A very happy and prosperous Diwali to all the readers!

May this Diwali bring new opportunities, hope and success to all of you!!

understanding the worth by spending more

have you ever experienced this?

you think something is worth something , but you had to pay more amount just to realise that it was worth less.

Free as hell

"Free as hell", an angel said while promoting heaven

"what price would you pay to get to heaven?" - "Life", said the angel

so why die, why not continue living and ponder upon more tangible things like Life and the Materials that it constitues, rather than speculate about such intangible notions.

Why dont we have the freedom to live, as we have to die? why can't we 'choose' to be immortal? how do some people die and still become immortal due to their deeds while others continue to just live life of a living dead?

"dont remember to forget" - I said to myself, "and dont forget to remember"

Should we be like lighthouses, who just stand at a place and show the path? Naah! "Thats just so passive". "Be Active. Get a torch in your own hand and illuminate your path"

"Choose someone who has faced bottlenecks, who has stumbled in a pothole sometime. Someone who can guide you and if you stumble, can come to your help to lift you and provide the necessary impetus and the drive and the energy to continue your journey"

Thoughts of an unarranged kind

[what appears in your mind is not to be ignored, but to be pondered and remembered; expressing free-flowing thoughts without speed-breakers or potholes] 

Striking similarities between two events,

separated by time and unassuming distance,

Unknown, and sometimes incognito, remaining in oblivion

two spirits finding their true mettle

Two turns facing each other,

oblivious of the road that passes through,

stand ignorant of the past and an unknown future

relishing the present that exists

saving thoughts of an unrational kind,

bridging void, searching for the l'il connect,

that joins the dots, to form the large picture,

two minds resonating, waiting to create...

...Like Hell

I hate him like hell...

I ate like hell...

Like hell I'll do it...

I am busy like hell...

where the hell do you think you're going?

To hell with you... 

what the hell is happening?

No seriously, what the hell is happening?

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? These are some typical 'like hell' statements we use in our daily lives. So now, if I ask you, which is more popular? Hell or heaven? Like hell I like heaven. Like hell I like hell.

We all want go to 'heaven', but still popularize 'hell' more than 'heaven'... what the hell!

If Hell and Heaven were celebrities, Hell would win hands down in popularity!! :)

Okay, again, which is the more popular word of the two? Of course, hell...

So what's the verdict?... To hell with it.

Feeling short of words

Really. I am.

There are moments when you have to say a lot. There are moments when you feel so strongly about a subject, but you curse yourself for feeling so terribly short of words. Have you experienced this before?

There are moments like these that annoy me. Is it why you can think and still not speak everything that you can think? Anyways. I am not making sense, am I? See, thats the point.

There are moments when you are full of excitement, full of enthusiasm, full of grief, full of anger, full of lot of things; but heck, those feelings don't form words. They just stay feelings. And nobody is able to clearly understand these feelings.

Even as I type, I am in desperate want of words to express something important, but I am just short of words.

Good, bad or ugly? I don't know. I am just short of words.

G-Forces and Potholes

My driver gave me an experience of a lifetime. I have neither sat in a centrifuge, nor have I felt centrifugal forces of high magnitude. But my driver, who possibly isn't even aware of this jargon, was the key facilitator.

And it happened on Mumbai-Agra highway. And it happened in a Scorpio. And it happened for two consecutive days and a night. Phew.

I, with my family, had gone to pick my bro from Mumbai International Airport a week back. We had enagaged a travel agency's Scorpio to drive us and receive him at the Airport. Well, I was prepared to face the highway in the potholes, err, the potholes in the highway, but, to experience G-Forces on the way, was out-of-this-world and totally unexpected. [In retrospect, I should have got a G-Suit for this travel. Anyways.]

So there I was in a fully-geared Scorpio, next to the driver, remotely unaware of the experience ahead. How interesting! Ignorance really can be a bliss sometimes.

Soon after we crossed the city limits, the potholes started actively showing themselves. As though having a strong clairvoyance, the driver began dodging potholes with remarkable accuracy and consistency. OH-MY-GOD! For those of you who thought G-Forces affect only at high Gs, you're sadly mistaken. They can even affect you at 40 kmph, much to the driver's credit and skill in maneuvering the vehicle in acute angles. The sharper the turns, better are the chances of experiencing the G-Forces.

All my bodily fluids begun shaking me from the core, to the core. Literally. [I recalled the concepts in Fluid Mechanics in Engineering, and started thinking of ways to overcome this Fluid Dynamics experience.] But it was nuthhing. I also let my bodily fluids come out in a few spells during this trip.

And then during the treacherous mountaineous terrains between Mumbai and Nasik, I experienced centrifugal forces of severe magnitude. Combine them with bad rains, brutal G-Forces, misplaced potholes and a talkative driver - and what you get is an experience of a lifetime!

Anyways. This journey has been so special to me that I can't share it with my readers any further. Sorry people, I need to keep somethings special and just for myself. Right?

no poems since a long time

I'm just too busy writing prose. Whatever happened to poems?

I believe that poems essentially have to just 'flow' within you. You should not 'consciously' think while writing poems. The last poem I wrote was in mid-Jan. Woah!

I had once read that "at the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet!'. So does that mean that I am not in love anymore? Should I infer that I was in love earlier?

Or simply that I am too busy to think passionately about 'metaphysical' or 'intangible' things while I am passionately thinking about 'material' or 'tangible' things? Simply, complicated.

Or that I have run out of patience for writing poems? Or it is that I want to focus more on prose?

Okay. Forget it. No more attempts to evaluate reasons for not writing poems. I am not writing poems because I am not writing poems. I'll write poems when I'll write poems. End of the matter.

I am rubbishing all such options of not writing poems. I'm still in love, possibly more. I'm still passionate, possibly more. I am still inspired, possibly more. I have not run out of patience. I can profoundly think of metaphysical and material things with equal incompetency. And lastly, I am very busy. Everything is perfect.

Therefore I think that the time is approaching. Watch out for this space.

And then I cried...

Do any of these strike a chord?

1. Baje sargam har taraf se gunje bankar des raag...
2. Mile sur mera tumhara...
3. Hamara Bajaj (original)...
4. Hamara Bajaj (badal rahe hai hum yahan)...
5. Cadbury India Ad - Kuch Khaas Hai...

The first 2 in the list are gems and were aired on Doordarshan in 1980s, which we have grown up watching. After all these years, today morning after I completed Prayanam, I thought of listening to these. And one click led to another.

I am an ad freak. So while I am keeping a track on the latest ads running in print and tv, those listed in the 3rd, 4th and 5th point still rank amongst the top 3 ads in my list.

Why?

Because of the idea that drives them, profound emotional appeal, the marvelous rendition and background music and most importantly, the flawless execution. W-O-W!

The old Hamara Bajaj ad is an iconic ad. No doubt. I know I don't need to validate my statement. Bass naam hee kaafi hai. It speaks of unity and India's progress and Bajaj's contribution to it. It was an ad whose time had come then, and was required to give a boost to the New Face of India. The newer Hamara Bajaj ad, speaks more of the changing trends in India, the modern lifestyle, but what it quintessentially communicates is that our beliefs and values are still strong.

The 5th ad is another iconic ad in my view. For me it speaks of ecstasy, breaking barriers, breaking conventional viewpoint and most importantly, celebration! The soulful rendition of Shankar Mahadevan's voice creates such a magic, that you just want to see it more.

But all this, courtesy YouTube. Without it, I would not be able to relive those moments, when I could cry only due to sheer joy and excitement.

While I am writing this, I am listening to the rendition of 'Aaj Gaawat Man Mero Jhumke', a masterpiece composed in Des Raag from the film 'Baiju Bawra'. This is giving an additional effect and am totally in the mood. One cuppa coffee and I'm all geared up.

Happy listening folks!

PS: You can also search these keywords in YouTube, and actually see what I am talking about! If you're not convinced, well, then watch again! :)

[I'll be refining the article as I get more time. Be patient.]

Random Thoughts: Ideas, Awareness and God

6.684 billion minds on earth.

Potential of generating 6.684 billion ideas every second.

India has the potential of generating 1.129 billion ideas every second. WOW!!

How can we harness that? Shouldn't there be an 'idea meter' which just ticks every second, counts the ideas generated and also registers them somewhere so that we can refer to them sometime?

Forgetfulness is a sin. We tend to forget easily than we remember. It just struck me that we have to 'work hard' in remembering something than in forgetting something. That's why we generally 'choose' to forget. Cuz, that's easier. Anyways.

Maharashtra, the state I belong to, has a population of 96 million. Nasik has the population of over 1.4 million. See the potential?

We are in the knowledge economy. Knowledge comes from Awareness. Awareness is the fuel to generate ideas. Or is it? Is is 'chicken first-egg first' thing? Think. What controls what? Do ideas control awareness? or the other way round? or it is a vicious cycle? Ideas generate more awareness which generate more ideas.

Why is memorizing a mental function while forgetting is not? Deleting / Erasing is a special command in computers. Then why not in us?

We don't have an effective Idea Log mechanism. Why doesn't anything that comes to our mind gets registered somewhere, 'naturally'? May be in an inter-dimensional void? This is considering that the storage space will run out on earth!! Even the most high capacity storage devices would run out of space. [Just a parallel thought: There could be a mutant, Ideator, whose superpower is to store other people's ideas without letting his brain run out of memory. He is able to tap and utilize ideas from any part of the universe or even multiverses. Someone like Forge, a genius who can create anything he can imagine. But much more powerful.]

May be that's why we don't have a 'natural' Idea storage house. We save on space. God must have figured that humans would breed and populate the world."It's best left to their own discretion to decide which 'ideas' have a future and which don't". Naturally, if ideas are stored, they would occupy more space than the total humans on the planets. Ideas can cross-pollinate and breed and grow.

But would there be an uneven spread of ideas across humans? That brings to the next question. Is God partial to humans? Why should one human generate more ideas than the other? Why did God not give equal brain 'potential' to humans?

Endless questions. Endless debate. Incessant Ideas.

PS: Since 1850, when the world population has exceeded a billion, we could have potential generated 4.983 x E18 ideas! And this is considering that a single mind generates ideas on its own. We have not even considered cross-pollination. I wonder if the world even had these many problems to solve!

We had to make more problems just to solve them! [Well, that's very humane, so it's possible.]

Thank you for your patient listening to all the gibberish! :)

Nostalgia Strikes Back

Its that time of the year when the power cuts prevail in the city. The State Electricity boards love to shed power during the raining season.

Historically, they are known to cut the power lines at the drop of a 'bolt'. These are erratic power cuts. These boards conveniently blame 'Mother Nature' for unleashing its fury on the weak distribution houses. This year, nostalgia strikes back...with a vengeance. Why? Read on.

Nasik generally does not have unscheduled power cuts. But they can be 'staged' every 2 hrs! Now you can imagine what would happen when power cuts are UNSCHEDULED. Their effect is catastrophic. Specially if your work COMPLETELY depends on computers! Even if you have invertors to support. [I think during such times most flourishing business would be for those who deal in Power Management systems like Invertors, Generators etc]

Till last year, we had power cuts to the tune of 4-5 hrs in a day. They plan to touch new heights this year. Yes, we are talking about 12 hr power-cuts! You can recover using AutoSave, but what happens to that time lost? Words labor lost. [Why dont they have more power plants to support tier-2 cities like Nasik? No wonder residents in metros like Mumbai and Delhi, with power cuts, are happier.]

It would happen from tomorrow. 'The' power cut. Stay tuned.

Maeri

WOW!! Another WOW!! I am thrilled and excited. Amazing!

I am presently in an ecstatic mood. Why? From a long time I was trying to understand what the opening lines of the song 'Maeri' by Euphoria meant, and my mom after just hearing it once explained what it meant. The lines are in Punjabi, and I wasn't able to figure them out. And its meaning has given me more thrill!

Yes, that means, I am going to listen and recite those lines throughout the day till I am thorough with its pronunciation and tune and lyrics!

Till then, happy singing! :)

The 'Haunt'ing

Move over Hugh. My latest haunt is visiting Hallucinations and reading Shruthi's thoughts on diverse topics ranging from her concerns about certain public issues to Movies to Humor to Health to Parenting. The list is endless.

I like her clarity of expression. Period. That is one thing I want to learn from her writing. Actually, for the very same reason I starting reading gapingvoid.com. I closely followed it for around 4 years and gathered insights about how his strategy for Stormhoek, a small South-African winery, tranformed it completely and still increasing profits multifold.

Infact, gapingvoid gave me insights about blogging, marketing, branding, consumer perception, 'Social Objects', cartoons, ideas, etc etc. Lot of things. Again, the list is endless.

Since many days I've not been able to read and write much about anything. Blogs and Books were a regular feature in my schedule earlier. Now I am just trying to maximize my work in the available time. [I reeeallly wish I were 'Flash'; I would have done everything efficiently and in a 'flash'. But reality can be brutal.]

Anyways. I am trying hard to work out a way of balancing my work and my hobby. Incidentally, my present work was my hobby earlier which I have transformed into work now and got busy in it. Yes, I am very happy with it. No doubt.

But when your hobby becomes your work, you need to start developing some other hobby. It should become a habit slowly. Anyways.

Now that I have revisited my thoughts, I think Hallucinations and Hugh should have a equal share in my schedule. Hallucinations can have the bigger half!

[Just a self-note: I think I need to revisit all my articles and add newly gathered insights to them. Cheers.]

A new dawn. A new begnining. Everyday.

Hey people, hope things are fine at your end!

About me? Life has never been more interesting. More opportunities to discover myself. More opportunities to learn. More opportunities to grow. I am about to be myself again.

I must have met more unknown people in past 2 days than I met in the entire previous year. Good thing is that I know most of them now. Meeting them was the easy part. The real fun part is trying to remember their names along with the corresponding faces.

For the time being, I am just happy. I am happy that I am meeting so many people who had assembled for a common purpose and shared the same common source of happiness. I'll get more opportunities to meet them at different occasions now. More opportunities to meet more people. Nuff said.

I discovered that people share radically uncommon idiosyncrasies. And such things are at their glaring best during such events when idiosyncrasies meet idiosyncrasies. And they interfere and interact. Ehem. Forget about it.

>> More about it later

'Atlas' Shrugged

bubbles caught in hexagon

gigantic cloud & wee mountains

the multi-colored halo