Saturday, October 31, 2015

What the hell?

How can people believe such things?
I am sure you know few of them, those shared on Facebook or forwarded to WhatsApp groups! I mean can't you think about it before re-announcing wholehearted the silly thing to entire world!
And there is no connection between qualification of that person and his/her forwards. The one thing we lack is critical thinking... Not common sense. Even thought it sounds nice to say 'common sense is not so common', in reality it is entirely based on your personal experience. So everyone can have different common sense. But promoting critical thinking should be the purpose of science education.

If you are still unclear on what I am talking about then remember those routine forwards about end of the world, some asteroid hitting earth, mars coming so close that it will look bigger than moon, scientists creating mini black hole!

This post particularly is triggered by some outrageous forwards recently received from close ones (that's why it hurts even more), like,

ये फोटो नार्वे देश के हायवे के है जहाँ चाँद व पृथ्वी बराबर होते है(मतलब पृथ्वी के आकार के वजह से चांद और पृथ्वी का अंतर सबसे कम रहता है।)अदभुत नज़ारा है। (literally means: these photos are of highways in Norway where moon and earth are equal,  that is, due to earth's shape the distance between moon and earth is shortest)
[Followed by some photos of moon taken at very good angle with respect to the highway]
I mean why can't you appreciate a well thought and executed photo for what it is. Why can't you praise the photographer instead of this bullshit?

NASA Recorded 👆the Voice of Sun. So all Scientist were shocked because it is a Sound of "ॐ"  OM...!!!!
[Followed by some video with narration in American accent in which actual sound is never played]
Again, with total disregard to what the scientists have actually done, someone comes with this propaganda. The key to making posts viral in India is to praise ancient Indian customs. How can we know better 3000 years ago? My concern is why the person forwarding this didn't think about using the same phone and Internet to search for more information. If he would have done it, the first link would have shown that this is a hoax!


🌺 JAI MATA DI  🌺
सवाल:-☝ मंदिर में मोर का ही पंख क्यों लगाया जाता है ?
जबाब :-👌मोर ही अकेला एक ऐसा प्राणी है जो ब्रह्मचर्य को धारण करता है । जब मोर प्रसन्न होता है तो वह अपने पंखो को फैला कर नाचता है और जब नाचते-नाचते मस्त हो जाता है तो उसकी आँखों से आँसू गिरते है । और मोरनी इन आँसू को पीती है और इससे ही वह गर्भ धारण करती है । मोर में कही भी वासना का लेश भी नही है और जिसके जीवन में वासना नहीं , भगवान उसे अपने शीश पर धारण कर लेते है...॥🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩
👏 जिनको नहीं पता है कि मंदिर  में मोर के पंखों की बनी पिच्छी क्यों होती है , उन्हें इस मेसेज को जरुर पढ़ाएं और अपने परिवार , दोस्तों को भी पढ़ने को दें ।।।।
🙏🏻 🙏🏻 🙏🏻 🙏🏻 🙏🏻 🙏
   🌺 JAI MATA DI   🍁
(Short translation of this: why peacock feather is used in Indian temples? Because, apparently female peacock gets pregnant by drinking tears of the male while he dances with eternal pleasure. Such a pure and lustless animal is adorned by God!)
What the f**k? This is forwarded by.... drumrolls please.... a researcher in microbiology! You want to praise so called purity for whatever reason, come up with some genuine reasons not some crap.

And the last one,
Buzz Aldrin was directed to step out ¹st but he got hesitated. In the meanwhile ordered came for Neil & he didn’t get hesitated & made the history to become the first person who landed on Moon.
Again same thing, giving false stories to support some moral teaching.

... will this ever change?

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

What?

So what? I skipped a day. That's why I have never committed to write an article a day!

OK, if you don't have anything new to write, then what do you do... you turn to memories. One such memory here, of my beloved son...

It was March 2015, he is 4 year old. The sky was cloudy and he was thinking hard while looking out of window. Suddenly he tell me that we will fly a kite in the rains and tie the other end to metro electricity wire. So when lightning strikes the kite, metro will run on the lightning (electricity).

Wow... naturally, a father within me was proud! 

I think a little backstory is needed for you to understand many layers of fascination here!
One, he was a bit scared of lightning since childhood. So, this way he is going to get rid of lightning!
Second, we used to read him stories of scientist from a little children's book. One of the stories was of Benjamin Franklin and his famous experiment of flying a kite in a storm. The kite comes from this story.
Third, he is thrilled with trams and metros and I am more than happy to provide him with all the (unnecessary) details. The electricity comes from here.

So, while my child is dreaming to harvest natural resources (yes he was), I hoped that he wouldn't really have to worry about it as someone else would have already done it before my son comes out of collage (day dreaming cliche!)

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Something same, something different

I feel routine is important. Especially for some indispensable habits, no mater great or small, for ex. exercising, reading, drinking water etc. Yet, the importance of trying something new, something you are not comfortable with can't be overstated. This is true for person of any age. The earlier you get it, the better.

It goes without saying that I got this pretty late. In fact, I am still in the process of assimilating what I just wrote in previous paragraph. That's why I go to fabulous app or zen pencils for inspiration.

So, on first opportunity, I went for learning to surf... and no, this is not some inspirational piece which takes you through incredible journey of overcoming obstacles to conquer the waves. Unfortunately surfing needs quite a bit of upper body strength, which I lack. Fortunately there was no waves after first day, as I was in no shape to continue.

That said, again, on first (second) opportunity, I went out with a group of fellow photographers on photo walk. This... was not a disaster. I get to meet some pretty decent fellows and had a chance to capture some amazing fall colors. Not bad at all...

Friday, October 23, 2015

testing ... testing

Aha.. first post. Lots of things getting tested here. Apart from technical stuff... the most important is will this post be followed by more. And if there are more, then 'when'? Should I commit to one post per day? I think its too much. Although one thing is certainly decided, that there are going to be short and sweet posts. Subjects are of course from my day to day experiences. Language will be mix of English and Marathi. I know blogging is so old school... but I don't want to use Facebook/Twitter/Google+(I wonder anyone use it) as I think identity puts restriction on expression. I might be wrong, who cares!

So, let's see... wish me luck!