A picture is worth a thousand words

A picture is worth a thousand words... it is so true and we all use this phrase very often in our lifetime. And Wikipedia puts it as "The adage A picture is worth a thousand words refers to the idea that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image. It also aptly characterizes one of the main goals of visualization, namely making it possible to absorb large amounts of data quickly."

For me, it is more than just visualization and data absorption, but great piece of treasure with bundle of emotions associated with it. Gone are those days when Raja Maharajas used to get their portraits done with great artists. Thanks to cameras, we don't need to sit for hours to treasure our memories.

God gifted us with the invisible camera which stores images of people and places that we like the most or hate the most. But poor memory, it has limited capacity...can't store many pictures for long...so we need external storage as an add-on for human memory...unless we are human camera...see the video clip shared by one of my FoF (Friend on Facebook):

Digital cameras make our life even more simpler. Share your memories with family and friends with just click of a button. Today, we got a chance to browse through 2000 pictures which were on hard prints before. I've been bugging my husband to get them scanned and finally got the digital prints. The picture browsing session took us on a journey from Kurnool to Hyderabad to Trivendrum to West Bengal to US and back to Kurnool to Tamilnadu to Karnataka...great ride of beautiful memories. What a pleasant gift for the new year!!

And the most beautiful memories for any mother are the first few years of her babies. Within one year after birth, babies change so much...it is really hard to recollect how they looked each month. Honestly, if I don't have their pictures taken, I'm sure I can only recollect few important moments. Thanks to my kid's nanny Kim Markly and Shutterfly who inspired me in doing baby books for both my kids. Whenever I open those books, they bring big smile on my face and it's great fun for kids to see their life's first actions and reactions with dates imprinted. 

Harshita's first year baby book with milestones:

  

Harshita sat with support on November 14th 2002.

Harshita's first laugh on December 09  2002.

And Parinita's first year baby book with milestones:

Pari rolled over unassisted on Jan 19th 2005.

Pari sat without support on May 9th 2005.

If you think that I've so much time to capture and treasure my babies beautiful memories, what will you say for this father who captured his baby's growth for years. 

Gosh....should have got this idea before....may be time for another kid j/k ;-).

That reminds me of new year resolution. To all my friends with new resolutions, wish you all the best and a very HAPPY and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR. Enjoy your time with family & friends and do treasure those fun times.

The Soothing sounds of water

Last year, I had send-off party by my roomies in a Thai restaurant. It is Sweet Thai Basil in Foster city, California. Thanks to Anusha for reminding me the name of the restaurant, in less than a year, I totally forgot its name ..effect of aging ;-). 

We had great time talking with each other and in the middle of our chit-chat, gossip, laughs.... something attracted my attention. I felt some soothing effect, it was the sound of water with water flowing restlessly in the fountain. That very moment, I decided to have a water fountain at home. After lots of window shopping and 60% discount during festive season last year, rewarded myself with this water fountain.

Didn't realize that it looks like Ganesha until some of my friends told the same. Feels good whenever I see Ganesha in the form of water fountain. The only problem... emptying and refilling it every other week. But the sound of water and the coolness around it is worth taking the pain... especially in summer.

Read more on the benefits of water fountain at http://www.waterfountain.in/ 

The soothing sounds of a waterfall help focus the mind, and bring the tranquility of a mountain stream into any room. As if this wasn't enough, waterfalls also produce negative ions, tiny electrically charged particles that help you feel more alert and relaxed. These also remove impurities in the air, alleviating allergies and decreasing indoor pollution.

But from last one month, I stopped this recycling process as it's bit cold here in Pune. One fine day, sound of water woke me up and when I peeked out of our balcony, it was from a sprinkler installed next to swimming pool. It dances daily for one hour...dunno the exact purpose of it. Anyways, I'm happy to wake up for the soothing sounds of water. When all I hear is the sound of water in the serene morning....feels very relaxed.

When it rains, the view from our balcony, with cup of coffee, takes me to heaven and brings back all the old memories. 

And whenever I listen to my most favorite song "Aye Dil E nadan", it reminds me of dancing droplets. Been listening to this song on tape for years. Always had the feeling that it was filmed near water fountain. But when I saw the video for the first time yesterday, I told to myself..."Aye Dil E Nadan(Oh, foolish heart!)", as it was filmed in the desert. At least happy to see water and its ripples towards the end of the clip. Lataji's sweet melodious voice combined with beautiful background music (Santoor I guess) tempts me to relax and listen to this song. And the slight pause and photography for "ye jameen chup hain, aasmaan chup hain(this earth is silent, the sky is silent)" is breathtaking. Enjoy the song on YoTube and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Love kids in a right way

Today, one of my friend forwarded this email to me. Thought I'd share this on my blog. Here you go...

This is a powerful message in our modern society. We seemed to have lost our bearing & our sense of direction.

One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company.

He passed the first interview, the director did the last interview, made the last decision.

The director discovered from the CV that the youth's academic achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never had a year when he did not score.

The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarships in school?" the youth answered "none".

The director asked, " Was it your father who paid for your school fees?" The youth answered, "My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees.

The director asked, " Where did your mother work?" The youth answered, "My mother worked as clothes cleaner. The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect.

The director asked, " Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?" The youth answered, "Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me.

The director said, "I have a request. When you go back today, go and clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning.*

The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back, he happily requested his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to the kid.

The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother shivered when they were cleaned with water.

This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fee. The bruises in the mother's hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his graduation, academic excellence and his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office.

The Director noticed the tears in the youth's eyes, asked: " Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?"

The youth answered, " I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes'

The Director asked, " please tell me your feelings."

The youth said, Number 1, I know now what is appreciation. Without my mother, there would not the successful me today. Number 2, by working together and helping my mother, only I now realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done. Number 3, I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationship.

The director said, " This is what I am looking for to be my manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired.

Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team. The company's performance improved tremendously.

A child, who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted, would develop "entitlement mentality" and would always put himself first. He would be ignorant of his parent's efforts. When he starts work, he assumes that every person must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager, he would never know the sufferings of his employees and would always blame others. For this kind of people, who may be good academically, may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel sense of achievement. He will grumble and be full of hatred and fight for more. If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying the kid instead?*

You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow gray, same as the mother of that young person. The most important thing is your kid learns how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learns the ability to work with others to get things done.

Unique Identification Number

For friends in IT, you know what I mean. I'm not going to talk about the unique id or primary key used in relational database, but unique 16-digit identification (ID) number to be issued to all the residents of India. Yes...UID is the concept recently introduced in India and managed under the guidance of Nandan Nilekani, former Infosys CEO. After a person is allotted an UID, his/her identity linked to biometrics would be established to uniquely identify the person. This is similar to Social security number(SSN) in US. 

The project is named Adhaar meaning foundation to remove confusion over the name among the people. The Numerological Meaning of the word Adhaar seems very interesting. "They are extremely reliable and are often found taking care of others. They have a deep need to try and create harmony in their surroundings. Unfortunately, this can sometimes lead to getting taken advantage of. " So true...if the card falls in the hands of bad guys...Govinda GOvinda....

All these identity stuff is being stamped for each person to protect and identify his/her OWN identity. Why do we need this identity? God is great... he gave unique identity to each person. No two persons are same in features...even though twins look the same, there are still some differences that are unique to each person. So the first identity given by God is the FEATURE SET. <getting distracted by Abhilasha's song on SaReGaMapa...too good>. So is feature set sufficient for unique identification? Nope....each person needs to be tagged with a NAME. 

Without name, imagine how your friend will call you with God gifted feature set "hey...long hair, brown eyes, short nose..." or may be a Tarzan yell. But human raised one step further and TAGGED each person with a name for easy identification. But with so many names in the world, LAST NAME came into picture to identify certain set of people based on region, religion, profession, caste etc.etc.. Slowly ID cards and biometric measures came into picture to identify or authenticate a person's identity.

All these ID cards and identity theft seems to be part of new era. How about olden days? Did they have identity theft back then? First thing that comes to our mind is NO.. as there were no ID cards ;-). But the identify theft back then seems to be more dangerous than today. Hope you heard of ParakAya Pravesham - leaving one’s body temporarily and entering the body of another person. Shri ShankarAcharya used the ParakAya pravesha vidya and entered body of the king amaruka. Recent Hollywood hit Avatar also has the concept of Parakaya Pravesham. Read more at Avatar The Movie – Similarities with Hindu Teachings and symbols and concepts in Hinduism.

Not just Parakaya Pravesham, but Gods and demons used their powers to take different forms to disguise their identity. In Ramayana, Mareech assumed the guise of a lovely golden deer and moved about in the presence of Sita and then Ravan took the form of Rishi and kidnapped Sita to his kingdom Lanka. In Sasirekha Parinayam,  Ghatotkacha takes the form of Sasirekha to avoid her marriage with Lakshmana Kumara, while the real Sasirekha is married to Abhimanyu. Being an Andhrite, who'll forget the good old Maya Bazar song with great actress Savitri playing the role of Sasirekha.

Also Krishna replicated his identity with each Gopi during Rasa dance, that way each Gopi thinks that Krishna is with her. And in the latest movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, many people take the form of Harry potter to protect him from bad guys. Krishna followed one to many entity relationship whereas Harry potter followed many to one entity relationship ;-). But at the end, it is the disguise that matters.

Now coming back to Kaliyug, man has many measures for uniquely identifying a person including ID card, blood group, finger print, polygraphic test etc...etc.. Then, what will be the future identification of a person? 

My vision into future.....once a baby is born, implant a small chip inside the body...let's say inside finger and then swipe the finger under/over the scanner. I'm sure all the electronic gadgets will have in-built scanners in the future. This relieves a person from carrying a card. Oh....wait...is it safer than carrying a card? What if the thief cuts the finger and uses it to scan and steal the identity. Man....this is more dangerous than carrying a card...you'll lose your life for the chip :-(. 

So what else can be done? May be the scanner will be intelligent enough to detect if the chip is inside a living entity that sends and receives signals from the brain. Oh...well...the thief can hijack a person and use him/her as a card....too bad again. So what next? May be the scanner will be intelligent enough to figure out if the person swiping the finger is not under any pressure...the integration of Lie detector/Polygraph test. Punya....you are giving new product ideas....time to patent your invention ;-). Anyways, human identification has long way to go....

Today's Maya Darpan - Skype

When I was a kid, may be around 6 to 7 years, I watched a Telugu movie (Pathala Bhairavi?) that has this concept of Maya Darpan... where villain looks at a magical mirror to track people and fulfills his evil desires. I still vaguely remember that MAYA DARPAN...but not the plot and the story.

Today, I called my parents to ask the movie name. They laughed and asked me why I want to know. Anyways, THAT Maya Darpan concept rooted in my mind because I was fascinated by the way villain looks at the mirror and finds out what's going on on the other side. I always used to wonder, someday somewhere, if someone can invent something like that.... how good it'll be...of course, not for any evil plot ;-). 

In Hindu mythology, there are lots of stories about how people communicated with each other...including birds carrying messages and people personally traveling on horses to covey messages to other party. This followed by snail mails, phone calls and now video calls. 

When I was working at this company called Liberate that got liberated during dot com burst :-( , there were big TV screens in all the conference rooms to video chat with other team members in Utah. Meetings were seamless with the feeling that the other team is sitting next to us, but on a table setup on the wall ...virtual collocation :-).

In the same way, if you want to see and chat with your loved ones, there are so many video chat services from so many vendors. But the one we constantly use is SKYPE. The hype of Skype is so deep rooted in my kid's minds, they love using it even when mamma  is around. Especially watching mamma and daddy on the screen and typing so many stickers (other name for emoticons by Pari ;-)) is a huge fun for them. Last year, when I was away from home, Skype helped me to keep track of my kid's progress and help them in doing their home-work. My roomies used to look at me in amusement and over time, they got used to it :-).

I love Skype, regardless of how many times you call anyone, wherever in the world, the call will always be absolutely free, and it is simple to get going. You just need a computer with an internet connection and a web cam...that's all today's Maya Darpan needs...and of course, the other person has to acknowledge it....so no peeking into other's life like the good old Villain ;-).

Not only that, we used the power of Skype for Thanksgiving shopping. My poor husband...he has to return the items not approved by me and kids. But it's a great way to see and select items instead of repenting later.

So is Skype limited to chat with friends and families?  Nope...glad to know that Skype is being used for Campus placements. 

Campus placements across the seven older Indian Institutes of Technology got off to a colourful start on Wednesday. The highlight of this placement season was at the IIT Madras, where for the first time hiring went high-tech with the popular social networking site Facebook conducting interviews for short-listed students via Skype, the Internet voice protocol service.

Read more at: Facebook interviews IITians via Skype, placements - The Times of India 

So what is the next thing I wish for? I wish the person you love is in front of you the next moment you think of them. And somebody already stole that concept from my heart ;-). If you want to see for yourself, enjoy the AIRTEL ad for video calls Airtel's New AD - Endless Goodbye. 
And here is another Airtel ad with music composed by none other than A.R Rahman Dil Jo Chahe Paas Laaye.