Welcome 2013

The last year, 2012, had been a great year for me for a variety of reasons.

1. I changed to a new place of work, Amity International School.
2. My one project got selected to IRIS Science Fair where we won the third prize.
3. My other project got selected to the finals of National Children's Science Congress (result awaited).
4. My research paper got selected at IIT Bombay for SciPy.in conference.
5. I got admission to BEd.
6. I started to do my research work in computational physics again. Hopefully this time I will do justice to it and to the person who has shown confidence in my abilities.
7. Two more great things happened in my life which I will reveal in due course of time, when the time is right. But their seeds were sown in the year 2012.

Now I am looking forward to 2013 to fulfill some more of my ideas and aspirations.

Hope the same for you too.

My motto of life has become
 "THE ONLY EASY DAY WAS YESTERDAY"

Let us stop Rapes ... let us be the harbinger of change

Seems the mayan prediction was not wrong after all. They said humanity will come to an end and it did, atleast in India and specially in Delhi. Friends with the coming year a new beginning is being looked at by all and sundry but will it bring a new beginning to our nation and its women?? It depends on US. We cannot blame the government for inaction because it never acts anyways. We cannot blame the police for they have the history of making a mockery of the very justice system they are supposed to uphold. We cannot blame the political parties for they are here to play politics, doesn't matter what the topic is. It is WE and US who are to be blamed. It is our mentality and when we say OUR it includes we MEN of every generation and WOMEN of past generation (in general). MEN because we all are potential rapists, whether you like it or not this is the truth. And if a married man, like me, had ever forced his wife into having sex against her will he is already a rapist. So I am very much pained to say and accept that we all men are potential rapists. I included WOMEN of past generation (in general, BTW exceptions are always there) because most whom I have come across are still living in a world where girls should stay covered from head to toe and should stay indoors etc, etc which undermines the very philosophy of freedom, equality and basic human rights. Hence I included them.

Friends we need to change this mentality. Unfortunately it is now way beyond our efforts to make the MEN and WOMEN of past generations understand and sensitize about this ghastly act and how one needs a mental and attitude change to stop it all.

But our present and upcoming generations can be sensitized. It is we, who empathize and feel the pain, it is we and only we who can bring about the change. Guys this is not a movie where we shout and say that "yes we will not let her sacrifice go in vain...." and then everything fizzles away. To overcome friction we always need a force and she has provided the force. Let us not waste it and wait for another innocent girl to sacrifice her life for us to overcome this friction.

Remember one thing guys, NO ONE IS SAFE ANYWHERE. If it can happen to Damini/Nrbhaya, it can happen to any one and anywhere. So if you want your sisters and daughters and friends to feel and remain safe, it is we who will have to do pro-active policing and sensitizing of younger minds.

Guys on this last day of this year 2012, let us take a vow to do something, anything in our capacity and beyond to make this world a better place for everyone.

Am I a rapist !!!!????

Now that NIRBHAYA is gone I am asking myself a simple question, AM I ALSO A RAPIST?

How so ever disgusting it may sound but it is true that every MAN is a potential rapist.

I have been forced to seek answers to several questions which are hard to think off, let alone answer.

Why do men rape? Is it a libido related problem or does the problem lie somewhere else?

And most importantly AM I ALSO A RAPIST?

I seek to answer these questions with a logical and analytical bent of mind.

I somehow feel that libido has nothing much to do with rape than is a sadistic attitude. How else can one explain the horrendous atrocities that rape victims are usually subjected to after being raped? In Nirbhaya's case an iron rod was inserted inside her and that literally ended up killing her. Now an iron rod is not an extension of one's libido infested organ, then how and why was that used at all?

No. rape is not all about libido. It is about male dominance. Nirbhaya suffered because she resisted her friend from getting beaten up. She put up a fight and that turned the men into monsters. So it is the men and their bloated ego along with dominance in their blood and complete disrespect for others in their genes that make them monsters.

So what can be a solution?

I believe if we MEN are the real cause of troubles then the curfew should be imposed on the movement of MEN rather than of women as is the case now a days. Every tom, dick and harry (read Politicians) are putting their foot in their mouth by suggesting that women should stay indoors at night. Now if we MEN are the real culprits then is it not logical to impose curfew on MEN after say 7 pm? or section 144 all over India from 7 pm to 5 am everyday against MEN ONLY.  That will actually serve the purpose given our presumption that ALL MEN ARE POTENTIAL RAPISTS. 

May Nirbhaya's soul rest in peace and guys let us do our bit to make the nation a safe place for all and sundry.

My First Scooter drive and my last one too

This incident dates back to my graduation days. My friend Pawan used to stay near sector 10 market, here in Ghaziabad. I told him to teach me how to drive a scooter. So brought out his vintage Bajaj scooter and asked me to mount it, and I did so.
Now he taught me the procedure.

1. Hold the brake and the clutch and kick start the scooter while rotating the accelerator.

2. Once the scooter's engine start release the brakes and slowly release the clutch.

3. As you release the clutch slowly increase race and then off you go.

4. And ya not to forget I was supposed to put the scooter in the first gear before releasing the clutch. So that means step 4 was supposed to take place before step 3.

With this enlightening knowledge I kick started the scooter and off I went. Well sort off. The moment I released the clutch the scooter stopped with a hitch.

But I was not one to give up so easily. So I tried again. And again and yet again ....... on my 23rd attempt the scooter finally started to crawl. First gear, 10 km/hr and I was driving a scooter. Wow!!!!!

But this wow!!! was short lived. I turned right around the first corner off the park and 3-4dogs started to chase me barking. I couldn't figure out why they were chasing my scooter which was hardly crawling. But I kept my cool. Then came the second turn and it went smoothly. Another 50 meters later came the third turn and the moment I turned I saw the beast heading for me. Well the beast was a car heading straight to me and that unnerved me.

For the first time in my life I was driving a scooter and then on that narrow road I was face to face with a car. My previous experience with cycles had been pretty disastrous and those things went through my mind. In a bid to avoid crossing the car I sped up to around 15 kmph. As I neared the turn I saw that the car would cross me before I can make the turn so I took a detour. Instead of turning through the road I went straight through the dirt track. Unknown to me there was a pot hole on the dirt track which I was in no position to avoid. So went in my scooter's front tyre and then the rear one as the front one emerged out. So I had avoided crossing the speeding car.

Now I gave some race to the scooter but it won't move on. Rather after revving up my scooters engine the scooter just won't go forward. I couldn't figure out what went wrong.

Pawan came running only to find the reason why the scooter stopped suddenly. When the scooter's front tyre went into the pothole my extended palm was not only holding on to the scooter's handle but also the clutch. So unknowingly I clutched the clutch and the gear turned to neutral. So when I cam back to the road the scooter was in a neutral gear and hence won't go forward.

That was the first and last time I drove a scooter. So much for driving a scooter.

Century !!!!!!! Yeah

This is my 100th post

When I started a few years back, I never imagined that I will be at my 100th post.

To all those who have been regularly reading the crap that I write, thanks a lot for reading.

For those who are yet to read, please feel free to see and feel of what all things that I keep doing in life.

Thanks a lot guys for reading this and stay tuned !!!!!

Are we really civilized ????!!!!

Are we civilized human beings?
This is one question I had been asking myself ever since I read about the rape of the Physiotherapist in Munirka.
That rape in itself is a horrific crime and on that the brutality met out to the girl has been too hard to gulp. It is like a tight slap on our face who claim to be living in a civilized society. Society is made of people like us and also includes those guys who committed this horrific crime. I think it is high time we restore the balance and make our country a safe place to live for women. It is high time we do something, anything.
A day after the incident I happened to go to a shop to buy something when the shopkeeper started to speak about this incident and pinned the entire guilt on the girl. According to him the girl should not have ventured out like this at night and she wanted to have this so she got it. I got so infuriated that I blasted him back by saying that it is this mentality like his' that these incidents are happening.

Why should a girl not venture out at night? Why should she not wear what she wants to? We teach our daughters and sisters to dress up properly; but do we teach our boys not to RAPE girls? Do we teach our boys to have respect for GIRLS? No. I suppose not.

I believe that a girl has all the right to venture out even at 2:00 at night and dressed whatever she feels like and no one ABSOLUTELY NO GUY has the right to even touch her let alone do anything else.

If this cannot be taught easily, this should be done the tough way. Sometimes violence becomes the only way to end violence as America did by dropping atomic bombs on Japan. And I think something can be done now.

As a reader what do you think should be done?

1. The criminals, not only these ones but every rapist, and molester should be castrated in full public view and then they should be allowed to live with the sign of what they did. This would be worse than death as death would be an easy way out.

2. Children, specially boys, from early life should be sensitized about these horrific crimes and what that can lead to. Sometimes fear is a good deterrent.

3. Our police should be sensitized too to handle even the minorest of issues carefully and positively.

4. Our society needs to be sensitized and taught that a girl has all the right to be what she is and live the life her way. A boy comes late and he was working hard.... a girl comes late and her character is questioned..... such stupid mentality has to be cleared .....

Probably we will be able to make our society better for our offsprings....

My prayers and wishes are with the girl who is fighting for her life ......

21-12-2012: The world will end!!!!! Or not.

The world will end on 21/12/2012.
Yes it will, atleast that is what the doomsday proponents and media has to say.
And to support their claim they present the following ideas which I will try to nullify one by one.

Claim 1: Our planet will collide with another planet called Planet X or Nibiru on that day destroying everything. 

Contradiction: Today is 16th of december and there are only about 5 days left. Now a planet of the size of  Earth or even Pluto would be seen from low powered telescopes and be reported by millions of observers from across the world. But nothing has been reported yet. Forget that, with just 5 days left the planet would be very close to us by now and should be one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Has anyone seen anything yet??? NO. And on that no body, no astronomer has ever cataloged this planet ever. So will it appear out of no where and hit us ???? Think for yourself.

Claim 2: The Earths Poles will shift and everything will come to and end.

Contradiction: Well which poles ???? There are two poles of earth, Magnetic and Geographic. To rotate the geographic poles of a planet of the size Earth, basic physics tells us that the amount of energy required will be so monumental that unless a planet atleast 100 times the mass of earth does collide with Earth this can never happen. In fact my estimate of even 100 times can be unfounded and the size and mass may be thousands of times more.

If it is about Magnetic pole, then I would say YES the process of Magnetic pole shift has already begun. Generally earth's magnetic poles reverses every 20-25 million years and this one is long overdue. But the process itself takes millions aof years and we are in no imminent danger. Also when the pole shifts it will be more of a danger to certain animals and some of our instruments than us directly. So don;t worry, nothing is shifting as of now.

Claim 3: The Solar flare will destroy us.

Contradiction: Solar flares are generated by cycles of solar maxima and solar minima. This is due to a simple funda that the sun is a gigantic ball of hot plasma and its dynamics creates huge magnetic flares which spew out billions of tonnes of charged particle, some of which may head for earth. In fact occasionally  such particles do hit the earth but our magnetic shield saves us from its harms. The only thing that it can harm are our communication satellites and not US.

Claim 4: Kalki Avatar is coming.

Contradiction: By far this is the most stupid reason I have found so far. God, if it exists, has no other work than becoming Kalki and ending us and that too when we have less than a week left and Kalki has not revealed itself so far, if it at all exists. This is one of those news propounded by popular hindi news channels. They are experts in GENERATING NEWS.

So guys, believe me, there is no fear of the world coming to an end. Atleast not now.

Arachnophobia

I am a self proclaimed President of Indian Coward Association and I am not afraid to say this that I am a proud coward. Anyways insight into my cowardness will be provided some other time, as of now this incident I just recalled which happened quite some time back.

I am dead scared of spiders. In fact I am so scared of spiders that if I am given an option of facing a tarantula on one hand and jumping off a cliff, I would take the latter option.

So that day, rather that evening, around 6.30 pm I was getting ready to go out with a friend of mine to a party. Having dressed up I sat down in our bed room waiting for my friend to arrive. I have this annoying habit (annoying to myself !!!) of scanning the corners of the rooms at all levels for spiders or cobwebs. So as per my habit I was passing my time by scanning for cobwebs and spiders when I happened to locate something at a corner just above my sleeping place. Being curious I went forward to look what exactly it is.From a distance it looked like a thick curled up cobweb with a lot of dust in it. I was horrified to find that it was a spider. A pretty healthy spider at that. Curled up in its own fashion but looking ominous.

I decided to do something. So got hold of a slipper and was about to hurl it when my friend arrived. This is one thing I have never understood. Why do people arrive at the worst moments??? Specially when you least want or expect them to arrive. Anyways I didn't want to display my valor !!!! in front of my friend so decided to deal with the spider when I return. Also as I have studied that spiders are mostly nocturnal and usually move around in darkness. On that I felt the spider was pregnant !!! (what a close study I did) and I assumed that like human beings it won't move around much either.

Around 11 in the night I returned and went straight to change my clothes. I was very tired and decided to sleep. So I went to my bed and suddenly I remembered the spider. I looked at the spot I found it previously and to my horror it was not there.

Now that is a very bad news specially for a person with arachnophobia (fear of spiders). I started to search it frantically. A missing spider means it can be anywhere. And imagine I am sleeping and suddenly I wake up to find something crawling on my face. !!!!!!! Yuk!!!! It sent shivers down my spine... Armed with a slipper in one hand and a insecticide (Hit - Red one) in another I was frantically searching for it. It was 12:15 when I gave up my search and prepared myself for a long night. There was no way I could sleep on the bed. I mean just imagine a spider on my head ...... Ahhhhhhh I would be so very very dead. ..... probably a heart attack ....

I have read that sudden fear can lead to over secretion of adrenalin which can lead to cardiac arrest ..... Oh ..... I was too young to die .... and then dying because of a titsy-bitsy spider ????? I kicked myself for my fear of spiders but then what can I do ..... I have always been scared of them ......

That round shape with legs protruding from all sides and the strange way of walking ..... it is hard to say which way they are looking ..... isshhhhhhhhh it was the most dangerous thing on the earth .....

But I was tired and a long days work awaited me. So I went to sleep on a chair. ..... Somehow I managed to keep my thoughts at bay and my eyes closed ......

It was 6:30 in the morning when I woke up finally. As i stood up the bottle of Hit fell down as did the slipper. I looked at the same spot and found nothing ..... The spider was really gone for good ....

It took me three more nights of self hypnotism !!! to make myself to sleep on the bed.

Columbus and his insight

After Columbus returned home with discovery of a new land, America, in his kitty he was asked to join in a grand ceremony by Isabella, the monarch who gave Columbus the permission to voyage across Atlantic.

At the feast the men in the court were not much pleased at the prospect of Columbus being conferred the Great General of Ocean by Isabella and so they started to poke fun of Columbus. Their weapon was simple.

"There is nothing great that Columbus did. If any other sailor was patronised and chosen by Isabella to undertake the journey, he would have also succeeded as America was there for the taking."

But Columbus ignored their reasoning and taunts for a long time after which he could no longer take it any more. So he decided to do something.

He had some boiled eggs kept on the feast table in front of him. He took one boiled egg and removed the shell. Then he asked the men in the court one question. "Is there anyone who can keep the egg on the table on its vertical side?". The men said, "Why not? It is simple.". And so they tried, and tried and everyone tried till they got exhausted. Finally one of the men asked Columbus whether he can balance the egg on its vertical side. Columbus said, "Why not. It is pretty simple."

Columbus took a knife. Sliced a small part from the vertical end of the egg and placed the egg on the table which balanced itself and stood erect. Seeing this the guys said, "Hey this is cheating. Anyone could have done that. What is so new about it?"

Columbus replied, "Exactly. Everyone and anyone could have done that but no one actually did except me. Similarly anyone could have trevelled to America, but no one did, except me."

None of them ever bothered Columbus again.

## NOTE: This story is part fiction, part fact. But the real intention is to make you understand the logic. When we do something good, something new, people will say that anyone could have done it. But you must remember that though anyone could have done this, no one actually did except you. So, always keep your head high in these situations.