Category: Uncategorized

A twin-headache turned into a compliment, how?

What was the best compliment you’ve received?

One year separates me and my brother. My brother Raman was born in the month of October 1965. I was born almost a year later, in November 1966. (Please, don’t blame my parents.)

We looked similar in appearance when we were young. So identical that people found it tough to differentiate between us.

My dad worked as an engineer for the government. We lived in a remote town called Sivaganga in Tamilnadu when we were born.

We often played together. We never missed each other. It took time for our friends too to actually see who’s who. It was good fun though.

(We are now 59 years old and still many can’t call our names right!)

My brother Raman started school at five, and I missed him so much. I couldn’t wait to go to school.

A year was soon gone. Ram was now in grade two, and I had just started. In the same school. 

As we were so close, I couldn’t see him sitting too far away in a different class. So I would give a miss in my class, run, sneak through and sit next to him.

That soon became a routine every day. Five days a week.

Teachers found this amusing. They sent staff and boys to bring me to my class. They used to drag me along the floor as I cried and rolled. No mercy.

When school announced the break, I would run back to where my brother sat. A classic Chaplin movie on display at school.

My parents were worried. They sat with the head teacher and staff discussing ways to stop me.

To make matters worse, my brother too joined the sit-in-protest (dharna). We both cried in buckets when staff tried separating us.

Teachers suggested various measures, ranging from punishing us to tying us with ropes to admitting us into separate schools, to some even giving a hint as to seeking a transfer for my dad. So sad.

The head teacher rolled her eyes and raked her brains. How just the two of us made the entire school sweat it out. Not a day passed without the teachers thinking about us.

A week was gone. How to separate us was now the talk of town.

My dad soon found a solution. He rushed to meet the head teacher. The staff were also joined.

If the school didn’t mind, my dad said he was ready to register his children as twins. And I could continue, from grade two, along with my brother Raman.

That let me give a whole year a miss in grade one. Wow!

Sounds alright. The head teacher was convinced. The staff heaved a sigh of relief. Necessary paper work was to be done.

When my brother and I entered school the next day, the whole school welcomed us with claps and I was called a ‘child prodigy’. Prodigy for what?

A prodigy for giving one whole year a miss and starting school from grade two.

‘Child Prodigy’ was the best compliment I received. Sorry! WE received. 

 

An Idea staying Immortal!

Who is the most confident person you know?

Who’s the most confident person I know?

History has plenty to choose from. But there’s one I should say stands out tall among all.

He was the most revered and is kept dear to the hearts of people in Tamilnadu, India. And he was loved by people around the world alike.

Who’s he?

The year 1543, saw the birth of ‘De revolutionibus orbium coelestium’ (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus. The mathematician-astronomer questioned the theory of the geocentric model of Ptolemy, who the Catholic Church considered ‘numero uno’.

While Ptolemy positioned Earth at the centre of the universe, Copernicus rebelled and said that the Sun is at the centre of the universe. He was penalized and asked to recant.

Then Galileo Galilei came in 1564. The Father of Observational Astronomy championed the cause of Copernican heliocentrism.

And he met (as usual) with opposition from the Catholic Church. He didn’t stop though.

The Roman Inquisition called Galileo foul in 1615 and termed him foolish, absurd and heretical.

There’s more.

Then came the Age of Enlightenment, or more precisely, the Age of Reason in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. That set the tone for a secular world.

Human happiness, pursuit of knowledge through reason, evidence of the senses, were central to this new reasoning movement.

Followed soon were the ideals such as natural law, liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and most importantly, a spark that called for the separation of church and state.

John Locke wrote “cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am) in 1637.

Issac Newton’s Principia Mathematica in 1687 gave birth to the Scientific Revolution in Western Europe.

Immanuel, the father of ethics, aesthetics, and modern philosophy wrote an essay titled ‘Answering the Question: what’s enlightenment?’

Louis XIV died in 1715. The French Revolution began in 1789. Monarchy died a slow death.

A variety of 19th century movements have set the tone for liberalism, socialism and neoclassicism.

Political revolutions have been the order of the day, and they have begun to question the religious authority in power.

People looked with awe at the works of Francis Beacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, Kant, Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith and Voltaire.

All set. And then an idea was born in 1879 in the South of India. 

An Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy a.k.a Thandhai Periyar, was born in Erode, then a part of Coimbatore district of the Madras Presidency.

He was an Indian social activist and politician who started the Self-respect movement in 1926.

He was the founder of the Dravida Kazhagam (the Dravida Federation) and was known as the father of the Dravidian movement.

He rebelled against Brahmin dominance, gender and caste inequality in Tamilnadu.

EVeRa (as he’s known to many) promoted the principles of rationalism, self-respect, women’s rights and eradication of caste.

He opposed the exploitation and marginalization of the Dravidian people of South India and the imposition of what he considered Indo-Aryan domination.

The state of Tamilnadu celebrates his birthday on 17th September every year as Social Justice Day.

On 24 December 1973, Thandhai Periyar (the Father and the Elder for many) died at the age of 94.

But his ideals still stay fresh in the minds of people of Tamilnadu today. 

He’s the one, I dare say, the most confident person I know.

 

Keep the good. But give the bad, the ‘kick’!

What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?

No big strategies. Just plain reading of how our brain works. That will do.

I’ve read on the internet that our body has a natural response to both positive and negative thoughts.

Our body secretes a hormone called dopamine when we read or hear good news. India winning the test series against touring Bazball-England should make us happy. So that’s loads of bright bulbs in the brain. No damage.

But, there’s a villain hormone at the same time. It’s called cortisol. It begins to flood the moment when you know you run to work late. And it doubles up in a deluge when you see the traffic on the road is moving too slow.

So our body basically plays both a good and bad cop. The bad guy is noticeably the dominant of the two. It’s tough calming him down.

There are no quick fixes to kill a bad thought, to say honestly. We should see the situation and act accordingly. 

Give an example.

Imagine, the traffic is now cleared. You start cruising along. Suddenly, you hear the sirens and an ambulance appears quickly in the rearview. Flashing and asking the right of way. You know clearly there’s someone in need of an emergency.

How would you react? Give way or keep pressing the pedal?

Giving way should naturally be the best way to react. Because you know you should help save a person in trauma. And the law says to give priority to an ambulance.

The same is the case with all negative thoughts put together. When the thought knocks at the door, do one of the following. Without thinking twice.

Just give in.

Walk away.

Drink a glass of water and relax.

Take a cold shower.

Shut down the phone.

Take the dog out for a walk.

Visit a local store and buy some candy.

Feed the fish.

Visit the beach and watch those waves kissing your feet.

Pay the guy at the balloon stall and pick up the gun. Check how good your aim is. 

Give no space for negative thoughts. At all.

Till about time your bad cop ‘cortisol’ runs completely empty. Leave no trace of him.

Life is a battle of wits. Keep calm when you win. Laugh whenever you fail.

Keep the good and give the bad cop the kick. On any day.

Be the winner. Always!

A job that fetches $200,000 (₹1.65 crore) a year. Work only five hours a day! How?

Threads don’t work. Images don’t work. You need a very tight, expertly crafted 280-character take, said a ghost-writer who made $200,000 (₹1.64 crores approximately) writing tweets to Venture Capitalists, anonymous.

And that is not his day job. He works only five hours on a side hustle.

Wow! How?

Social media nowadays are abuzz with products appearing up front ‘bold and beautiful’ and a real-life seller who’s mostly unseen sits on the other side. All anonymous!

Anonymity on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), guarantees a lucrative business now. All you should do is write a crisp 280-character tweet. And that’s it.

The tweets by an agreement pay the writer per tweet and some per month. The writer claims he was paid $100,000 for an original thread. Through thread, they announce big funding rounds.

That begs the question: Why do tweets cost a fortune?

The ghost-writer explains that funding on social media has changed.

Platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) have become the new landscape for funders and founders. They choose to visit these microblog sites for building a relationship and thereby grab the attention of the wider audience.

Funding now is no longer a one-to-one format, the ghost-writer says.

It’s a one-to-many format. You’re actually broadcasting to wider accounts. In one go!

While the writer is spending only a few hours, he says one should exercise a greater discipline with words.

His gospel: clarity, intention, and being concise.

And it doesn’t stop there.

It’s not just about a razor-sharp perfect tweet. It’s about understanding the nuance of the platform and who is engaging with a given account, what he calls; ‘being in on the joke’.

The writer attributes most of his success to understanding the intricacies of social media and how that helps build a relationship between funders and founders.

He says further that about 60% of the tweets he writes are “shit-posting” — meaning, the stuff you post when there’s nothing to post.

He says that “shit-posting” is the key to gaining attention and following. So much so that when there’s something real to post, you already have an audience. Clever job!

The writer is too strict. He delves on keeping boundaries, and told (an insider) that he’s had to fire clients before, as he doesn’t want his hustle-job to “take up too much space.”

Does he have an office?

No, he carries a laptop, a second phone, and a dedicated email address. And that’s all.

₹1.5 crore a year is no small money. And you work only five hours a day. Bindaas!

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com

 

A Guna-cave and how it became a memorial!

Salt Lake City, Utah, November 24, 2009.

News cameras broadcast live a rescue mission they never imagined they would ever do in life.

A 26-year-old father of two trapped inside a cave, called Nutty Putty. Upside down, about 150-feet deep.

It was a 27-hour ordeal and 137 volunteers worked through the day and night to rescue the poor man, an experienced caveman himself.

He lost consciousness and died of cardiac arrest. RIP!

John Edward Jones died leaving behind his wife Emily, a young daughter and a baby boy on the way (he’s named John).

Despite efforts, his body couldn’t be retrieved. The cave is now a memorial to Jones. So sad.

What happened? Read on.

Discovered in 1960, Nutty Putty Cave was a local favorite, attracting 5,000 visitors a year.

The tunnel, measuring 10 by 18 inches (25 by 46 cm), is 150 feet deep. The tight squeezes inside the cave are called “The Helmet Eater,” “The Scout Eater” and “The Birth Canal.”

From 1999 to 2004, six people were rescued stuck in those narrow passages. 

The cave was limestone and the walls were strangely viscous clay. Nothing holds on as the clay will change from a solid to an elastic fluid when pressure is applied.

Jones died a sad death as the pulley system employed didn’t help. They came off the wall easily, injuring the rescue crew themselves.

Records say the authorities closed the cave in 2006, fearing safety concerns. But, after an agreement with the local rescue agencies, the management decided to reopen it for visitors in 2009.

They set up an online reservation system by which they allowed only one set of people at a time, and they monitored the visitors.

The cave was shut at night.

Richard Downey, was a treasurer and historian, and he led some of the Boy Scout trips into Nutty Putty for decades. 

He says a lot of people going to Nutty Putty were first-timers, or they were on a date with their girlfriends.

They put themselves in situations that they probably wouldn’t have if they had just stopped and thought about it for a minute, he says.

That’s when Jones decided to visit the ill-fated cave with brother Josh and 11 others.

Who thought a happy occasion for a family would end in tragedy?

Visitors to Nutty Putty cave today will only find a plaque dedicated to Jones.

PS: as a tribute to the tragic death of Jones a movie by the name The Last Descent was made in 2016.

Source: https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geology/nutty-putty-cave.htm

Touchwood, Yes!

Are you superstitious?

India is home to many superstitious beliefs. And the beliefs have been passed through generations.

People often visit temples for a pass in an examination, a job in the government and to find a perfect match for a hand in marriage.

And the god(s) don’t disappoint us. He will bless the newly married with children and give the elderly a cure for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

We allow numerology a big say. We add alphabets liberally in names and call our children ‘Praggyaananndhaa’ and ‘Nitthiyaananndhaa’. All in the name of bringing luck!

We bang utensils, light lamps and sing prayers to ward off a killer epidemic as deadly as COVID-19.

Many in Mumbai took a day off from work when word spread in 1995 that one of our Hindu gods drank milk. I carried a can of milk and stood in a mile-long queue.

As COVID-19 was sweeping the country, a baba announced that he had found medicine to cure corona. The ministers and the officials jumped with joy. They called the PRESS to announce the new discovery. All in a day.

Tying threads, wearing an amulet, rings on all fingers, sporting a beard and consulting an astrologer for as noble a mission as winning in cricket are part of one’s growing up here.

We don’t visit a hairdresser on Tuesdays, nor do we eat during the Lunar Eclipse, sorry! 

Jet-fighters, Rafael, from France, were put to a tough test as officials placed lemons under the tires of the flying-machine and rolled.

No menstruating girls can enter inside the temples as our ancestors believed the act would bring evil-spells.

And we believe man goes through seven births in life, before his soul gets fully liberated. You don’t live just once in this part of the Earth.

Bless me, please. I just sneezed.

Thank you.

“மின்னுவதெல்லாம், பட்டுக் கன்னமில்லை”

“என்னப்பா, இப்படி கன்னம் ரெண்டும் குழி விழுந்து போயி, ஏம்ப்பா சோறு…கீறு ஒழுங்கா சாப்பிடுறாயா இல்லையா?” -ஊரில் இருந்து வீடு வந்திறங்கிய மகனிடம் அம்மா.


“கொழந்த நல்லா புஷ்டியா கொழு கொழுன்னு வளர்ந்துருக்கு” – வீடியோ தொலைபேசி அழைப்பினில் பாட்டி பேரக் குழந்தையை கண்டு பூரிப்பு.


“இது சாதாரண தொப்பை இல்லைடா, பணத் தொப்பை” – BMW வாங்கிய நண்பருக்கு பாராட்டு பார்ட்டியில் நண்பர் பட்டாளம், வயிற்றினில் தட்டி வியப்பு.


இப்படி மக்கள் பேசக் கேட்டிருப்பீங்க. ஆனா உண்மையில இவை யாவும் உடல் பருமனை பாராட்டி சீராட்டி பேசி வருகிற மனப்பான்மையே ஆகும்.


இது நல்லதல்ல!


உலகில் 200 கோடி பேரு அளவுக்கு கண்டமேனிக்கு தின்னு கொழுத்து போயி குண்டா இருக்காங்கன்னு அதிகாரபூர்வ அறிக்கைகள் சொல்லுது.


மத்திய வளைகுடா நாடுகளில் மட்டும் 48% பேரு ஓவர் குண்டு. பசிபிக் தீவு பிரதேசங்களில் 34% மற்றும் அமெரிக்காவில் மட்டும் 33% மக்கள் குண்டா இருக்காங்கன்னு ஐநா ஆய்வு அறிக்கை ஒரு பெரிய குண்ட தூக்கி போட்டுருக்கு.


இதற்கு காரணம் நாம சாப்பிடும் உணவு பழக்க வழக்கம், போதிய உடற்பயிற்சி இல்லாதது மற்றும் ஒருவர் வாழ்வில் தம்மை சுற்றி அமைந்த சுற்றுச்சூழல் எல்லாம் ஒரு காரணமாகிறது என நிபுணர்கள் கூறுகிறார்கள்.


CNN செய்தி நிறுவனம் அளித்த குறிப்பு ஒன்றினில், பெருவாரியான மக்கள் பணி நிமித்தம், நகரங்களை நோக்கி பயணப்படுவதாலும், அங்கு ‘வேலை-வீடு-வேலையோ வேலை-வீடு’ என வாழ்வில் பெருவாரியான பொழுதினை ஒரு நாற்காலியில் அமர்ந்தே (பல்லை குத்திட்டு) செலவிட்டு வருவதனால் உடற்பயிற்சிக்கான நேரம் கிடைப்பதில்லை. பலன்: உடல் எடை, ‘புஸ்ஸ்ஸ்னு’ ஏறி விடுகிறது.


உங்க எல்லோருக்குமே தெரியும். இன்போசிஸ் முதலாளி சும்மா இருக்காம, இந்தியாவில் இனி இளைய சமூகம் வாரம்தோறும் (குறைந்தபட்சமாக) சுமார் 70 மணி நேரம் வேலைசெய்யனும், அப்பதான் நாம நாட்டை ஒரு மிகப்பெரிய பொருளாதார வல்லரசு ஆக்க முடியும்னு ஒரே போடா போட்டுட்டாரு.


ஒரு பய கூட இதுக்கு ‘ஓகே’ சொல்லல. சமூக வலைத்தளங்களில் அவரை கண்டமேனிக்கு திட்டி விட்டுட்டாங்க. “என்ன மனுஷன்யா இந்த ஆளு! சும்மா இருக்குற சங்கை ஊதிக் கெடுக்கறது மாதிரி, நமக்கு நல்லா ஆப்பு வைக்க பாக்கறாரு” -ன்னு ஏசினாங்க, பேசினாங்க. நன்கு அறிவோம்.


இங்கேயாவது பரவாயில்லை. வளைகுடா நாடுகளில் உடல் எடை கூடிப் போயி அவஸ்தை படுவது அதிக பேர் பெண்களாம். காரணம் அங்கே கலாச்சார இடையூறு ஒரு முக்கிய காரணமாம்.
அவர்கள் பின்பற்றும் மதம் அவர்களை பொதுவெளியில் நடைப் பயிற்சி மேற்கொள்ளவோ, உடற்பயிற்சி செய்யவோ அனுமதிப்பது கிடையாதாம். ஆண்கள் பார்வையில் பெண்கள் படுவதை அவர் மதம் ஒருபோதும் அனுமதிப்பது கிடையாதாம்.


நமது நாட்டினில் பிரச்சனை வேறு.


இங்க பசங்கள நாம பாடங்களை படிப்பதில் தான் கவனம் செலுத்தக் கூறி வருகிறோம்.


கணக்கு பாடத்தில் இம்முறை 100/100 எடுக்க வேண்டும், கணக்கு, இயற்பியல், வேதியல் இம் மூன்றும் தான் உன்னை நாளை ஒரு பொறியியல் வல்லுநர் ஆக்க வல்லது.
இல்லனா, “உயிரியல் படித்து நீட் தேர்வினில் வென்று என் பிள்ளை நாளைக்கு மருத்துவர் ஆகணும் அதுவே எங்கள் கனவுத் திட்டம்” -னு புள்ளைங்கள பெற்றோர் கூட்டிட்டு போயி நாமக்கல் கோழிப் பண்ணை ஒன்றினில் அடைத்து விட்டு வீடு திரும்பி விடுகிறார்கள்.


புள்ள டாக்டர் ஆகுறானோ இல்லையோ, 200 கிலோ எடையில் ஏறி விடுகிறான்.


பயிற்சி நிலையங்களில் பல உடற்பயிற்சியின் முக்கியத்துவத்தை சொல்லிக் கொடுப்பது கிடையாது. “படி, படி, படி மேலும் படி”-ன்னு பசங்கள சும்மா 18 – 20 மணி நேரமா தூங்க விடாம படிக்க வைக்கிறாங்க பாவம்.


இது போதாதுன்னு, வீட்டுக்கு வரும் மகன் மகளுக்கு வாய்க்கு ருசியா ‘fast-food’ எனும் துரித உணவு பதார்த்தங்களை பெற்றோர் வாங்கி தந்து ஊக்குவிக்கின்றனர். அதுவும் உடல் பருமனை கூட்டி விடும் என்பது பலருக்கு தெரிவதில்லை.


துரித உணவு பிளஸ் இனிப்பு நிறைந்த Coke, Pepsi or Sprite எனும் குளிர்பான வகைகள் தான் இன்றைய இளைய சமூகத்தினரின் மிகப் பெரிய வில்லன்.


உடல் பருமன் இப்போதெல்லாம் ஒரு தனி மனித பிரச்சினை அல்லாது, ஒரு குடும்பமே மொத்தமாக சேர்ந்து புள்ளைங்கள கெட்ட பசங்களாக மாற்றி வைக்கும் ஒரு வாடிக்கை இங்கே புழக்கத்தில் இருக்கிறது, என மேலும் அந்த CNN செய்தி குறிப்பு கூறுகிறது.


பொய்யின்னா, வாங்க ஐநா அறிக்கை என்ன சொல்லிருக்குன்னு, நீங்களே பாருங்களேன், தெரியும்.


அஞ்சு வயசுக்கு கீழ உள்ள சின்ன பசங்க 1990 ஆம் ஆண்டினில் வெறும் 3 கோடியா இருந்தாங்களாம், இன்னைக்கு அதுவே 2013 ஆம் ஆண்டினில் 4 கோடிக்கு மேல எகிருடிச்சாம். எப்படி இருக்கு?
ஆப்பிரிக்க நாடுகளில், இது இன்னும் மோசம்னு ஐநா மிகவும் கவலைப்படுகிறது.


வாயக் கட்டி வயித்த கட்டி, ஒரு வேலை சாப்பாடு மட்டுமே சாப்பிடுப்பான்னு சொல்லி உணவினை ஒரு கட்டுக்கோப்பினிற்கு கொண்டு வந்து, பசங்கள, “யப்பா! நீ படிச்சது போதும், செத்த நேரம் அப்படியே வெளில போயி விளையாடிட்டு வாப்பா!


கராட்டே, கன்பூ -ன்னு போயி கொஞ்சம் கையை கால ஆட்டிட்டு வாப்பா!” -ன்னு பயிற்சி வகுப்புகளுக்கு அனுப்பி, அவஙகள இப்பவே ஒரு தட்டு தட்டி, சுளுக்கு-நெளிவு எடுத்தாதான் இந்த வெயிட் பிரச்சினை சரியாகும்.


செய்வோமா? சொல்லுங்க கோடானு கோடி எமது பெற்றோர்களே!