Those two words decided how life came into existence on the earth.
Of the 300,000,000 (roughly) sperms ejaculated during coitus, only about 200 actually reach the oviduct. Only a lone lucky fellow out of the 200 does a further climb and dares penetrate the egg. Bravo!
Fate plays a part up to this point. No one has control over embryogenesis.
How the fellow later on grows up to become an Einstein, a Theresa, a Gandhi, a Martin Luther King or an Usain Bolt is all part of destiny. That’s very predictable though.
If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?
Robert Oppenheimer for a day.
For sure. But for a cause completely opposite to what he lived and stood for.
I would have nothing to do with the Manhattan Project in 1942. Nor would there be a director appointed at Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico.
Why?
No nuclear weapons could have been invented. At all.
No one would have known there was a Trinity test on July 16, 1945.
And life in two Japanese cities will be like ‘business as usual’. The world would not have seen egotists showing off in a conflict.
Bombs would have spared both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Many million people from the ill-fated cities would live to see a ChatGPT answering their questions about planets, the Goldilocks-zone and hope of life on distant planets.
And lastly, they would have laughed their hearts out listening to a Google-AI, Gemini calling current leaders of the world ‘incompetent’.
If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?
You won’t miss a Youtuber today. He/she should be everywhere. Sitting next to your house, a co-traveller on the bus or on the tube, a parent right across the table filming their kid eating, a motorist whizzing past your car, a couple on the seashore posing against surging waves quite unmindful of you present and a cop filming himself issuing a ticket to you for a traffic violation. Bizarre!
They all have a mission on hand. Carry a smartphone, turn on the camera and start filming.
Film whatever moves and emits a noise on Earth.
And hell! You watch them coming up on screen in a jerky, jump-cut, jarring, boring and long video on YouTube, every day. Crazy!
Many cram their loudmouthed, dimwitted and cut-not-to-a-grammar production on another similar (madding crowd) platform called TikTok.
All have one thing in common. They’re amateurs. Not trained to shoot a video or checked through a well-scripted audition.
They call it citizen journalism.
As the media in the world have gradually evolved over many hundred years, from radio, print, television, digital and social media, people have suddenly seen an untapped space in independent media. A free space to say anything. Do anything. And show anything.
And address themselves proudly as ‘Youtubers’.
That’s alarming!
But freedom of speech has often been misused here. Scholars debate now if censorship should be enforced on these free-roaming citizen-journos who show no regard to the ethics of filmmaking.
The debate is raging. And for that reason, therefore, please ban the word ‘Youtuber’ from general usage. Period.
What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?
Allow me to rephrase the question: What is the biggest challenge I and my nation will face in the next six months?
Our nation, India, is gearing up for the general election between April and May 2024 to elect new members for 543 Lok Sabha seats in Parliament.
I shall be looking forward to a feverish campaign nationwide by political parties of all hues and colors.
This election is going to throw some huge surprises though, as the country is now divided between people who continue to call India a secular democratic country and those who seek to create a new nation which holds religion and faith supreme.
Who will win this time will create a new path for India. To achieve the objective, we as citizens face a huge challenge: which way should I take India forward?
The current government at the center, headed by PM Mr. Modi has been ruling the nation since 2014 and is rooting for a third term in a row. A hat-trick performance is what his party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is aiming at.
But the leaders of the opposition have come together and formed an alliance in the name of the I.N.D.I.A (INDI Alliance). They are more determined this time to stop the juggernaut of the ruling NDA.
While the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP is strong in the north of the country, the opposition alliance (INDIA), on the other hand, is putting up a better show in the South.
The next six months, therefore, is indeed a challenge for the political leaders and the citizens, alike. Each of us has a vote that’s going to seal the fate of a nation of 1.43 billion people.
Do join us and help in our prayers for a more vibrant and stronger India.
A long time ago, at the beginning of the 20th century, a Scottish farmer was returning home. He heard someone crying for help.
He saw a boy struggling in the water. He was drowning. The farmer quickly found a long branch of a tree and threw it to him. The boy picked up the branch and swam to safety.
The boy was safe, but he couldn’t hold back his tears for a long time. He was shaking.
The farmer told him to calm down and asked him to come home so that he would offer him some warm clothes.
The boy said no as he was worried his dad back home must be worried and waiting.
He thanked the farmer and left.
And the next day, a carriage came to the farmer’s house.
A well-dressed gentleman jumped out and asked if he was the one who had saved his son. The farmer said, yes he was.
The man asked how much he owed.
The farmer said he did what a normal person should do and, therefore, he owed nothing at all.
The man insisted he should say an amount as his son was so dear to him.
The farmer wasn’t interested and turned to leave.
As the conversation was going on, the farmer’s son appeared and stood surprised at the door.
The gentleman asked if that was his son. The farmer said yes as he was putting his hand out to pat the boy on the head.
The man continued. He said to take the farmer’s son to London and pay for his studies. If he was as noble as his father, then neither he nor the farmer would regret their decision.
Years have gone by.
The farmer’s son graduated from school, a medical school, and soon his name became universally known as the man who discovered penicillin.
He was none other than Alexander Fleming.
The name of the gentleman who took the farmer’s son Fleming to London was Randolph Churchill.
And the man’s son was Winston Churchill, who later became Prime Minister of England.
There were occasions when Winston Churchill recalled saying: “What you do will come back to you.”
You know this is a big ocean. There is plenty to explore. You wake up every day, visit the shore, pick up the best instruments, ride against the monstrous waves, reach a lone rock at a distance, sit quiet, throw the bait into the calm waters and wait. Wait for hours. From dawn to dusk.
And come home empty. No fish. Every day.
No one notices you fishing nor do the blogs you write get likes or replies. Doesn’t that bore you?
"சென்றிடுவீர் எட்டுத் திக்கும்" 