D - Year

Another year passed without even realising that I even lived that year for a momentJ. It’s interesting to think how many of such years would end before my journey ends ;). Any way that’s not my point for writing this blog. It’s good to write a compilation for whole year so that I could read it in years to come and could live my unlively memory ;).

Despite being forecasted as dooms year and marker of end of humanity, 2012 had something which had potential to infuse positive energy. Of course it was the number ‘2012’, which is a very positive number and happened to be my favourite too (I favour even number over odd number). It was also a leap year (I also love leap year) and it also started on Sunday J. So I was buzzing with excitement in Dec, 2011 in anticipation of a year which would finally be mine. But year started with lots of personnel disappointments and family problems and I am not going to bore you with all those detailsJ. But as always, disappointments and problems proved as a disguise in blessing and infused a new resolve in me to fulfill my dream (although these D&Ps moved along with me throughout ;)).

When I try to take a look back to 2012, it all seems blur, Blur not of forgetfulness but of fast moving jet. Year passed so quickly that I have a feeling of nausea which you usually have after the roller coaster ride. Any way if I press my eyes hard into those blurs, I get some silver lining, so I can’t say that year was so bad.

Despite being trap in the cyclone of double recession, worsening situation of global market, bleak public morale, endless  crime, corruptions etc etc, I think it was the magic of number 2012 that made us walkthrough the year unscathed.

Don’t scowl on my logic, I need some optimism and here I find it in magic number, so go to hell.

Any way I’ll stop whining about myself here and instead whine for others, lets Analyse D-year for other (Doom or Dream)

Doom:

•  Definitely for Iranian people as European union decided to walk the path of big brother and imposed embargo against them
•  History too was not spared when Ansar Dine destroyed the shrine (UNESCO Cultural heritage site) Timbuktu (Mali) on the name of religion. Can you believe that?
• Our beloved former Army chief (I hope you understand), when he tried to go against corruption. Recently I heard that Z-security has been snatched from him. Definitely not good for us to see that L
• Corporate world too didn’t love this year with high interest rates maintained by RBI, GAAR brought by Pranab da and 122 spectrum licence cancelled by Supreme court, could anything be more worse :P
•  My Dravid left cricket, a fatal blow for ‘my’ cricket world L (sorry started about me again :P)

Anyway lots of other things like death of so and so, Greek economic crisis, Social crisis in India (Corruption and rape at the top), terrorism, natural disaster, ethnic clashes etc etc, but I don’t want to scare you all a lot before the beginning of new year so let’s talk about people for whom it was a happy happy yearJ

Dream:

• Of course Obama comes 1^st for getting his 2^nd term, though Modiji is not far behind for getting his 3^rd ;)
•  Don’t forget our young CM Akhilesh Yadav, ascending on the throne with all those promises and freshness. I wonder where are all those now?
• Pranab ji finally bid good bye to politics and got his place in history book with the chair of Presidency of India. Now he can finally drool on his chair peacefully.
•  Hey just remember, 6 medals for India in Olympic, that was my happiest J (oops)
• The Illusive Higgs particle has finally been found after years of expensive search ;)

Any year would be always a mixture of dream and doom. 2012 is not unique in this case, but still it would be imprinted on our mind with its vibrant sweet and sour memories. I know 2013 is exactly not my favourite number, it’s not even leap year and it’s not starting with Sunday but one thing I know that it’s in my hand to make this year as a dream year for me. So just let’s forget 2012 and leap into the dreamy world of 2013.

A happiest new year to all of youJ. Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

call a spade a spade

Modi is on the verge of winning the Gujarat election again. I never had even a speck of doubt on his impending victory. In fact I would have voted for him, had I been in electoral roll of Gujarat, after all what choices we have. Modi is the best among the worst surrounding us. 

The vicious campaign around Modi cult (by media) has drawn attention of common man and made it to the hot topic of social media. Politics is a complex game which is beyond the comprehension of common person like us. But if I could claim to understand the ‘ABC’ of politics then I would claim my life that these campaigns are orchestrated by Modi and these Media moguls are nothing but his puppet.

How convenient is for a politician to percolate all his politics to the masses without even trying much. This is what happening here. Media spew venom against Modi which in turn unite the common man to save this so called ‘Vikas Purush’ who is so called victim of the mindless campaign of intellectual society. Media plays the ‘Muslim Card’ (Which exactly acts like a Hindutva Card), which mobilise the Hindu vote for Modi.

It is often asked that why Gujarat (2002), issue is still alive when it did not take much time for other riots to be buried in the course of history. I ask the same question – ‘Why is that so? How come media still has the interest in the same issue when it does not show any hesitancy in throwing many issues into the dustbin in search of new one, until they have not any vested interest hidden in this? My question is who is benefiting more from this controversy? Who is winning election after election and support of more middle class from this? Definitely it’s not the victim of Gujarat or the supporter of democracy or secularism. Secularism has only gone to the brink and left the space for more division in the society – a division between Modi supporter and Modi opponent.  Had the media been more interested in getting justice for riot victim they would have left the matter on court on worked behind the scene instead of jumping up and down on every breathe taken by Modi. They have acted exactly like the way Modi’s PR would work. I can’t say what they have got in exchange for this service.

What sadden me most from this whole affair is that the real issues have been left miles behind. It’s only about the personality war. Today its Modi, tomorrow somebody else would be following his path and the real question is whether this path is really taking us forward or we are being pushed way backward by this whole set of illusion weaved around us. Is there really any way to get out of this deep web? Future looks bleak. There is no one around us who can show us some light, which is not an illusion but really a flame of enlightenment. It’s not about Modi; it’s about whole breed of politicians like him. They are the only alternative and we are forced to accept that. My only hope is that we could stop making fuss about it and start calling a spade a spade.

Cradle of life

Not a while ago I came across a tweet from Narendra Modi "From time immemorial India has been the mine of precious ideas to human society". My purpose to quote this specific tweet is not to discuss Modi ji or his ideology, which is immaterial in this context. The meaning hidden in the sentence drew my attention. Statement itself is not extra ordinary and we come across it several times

From time immemorial India has been the mine of precious ideas to human society

From time immemorial UK has been the mine of precious ideas to human society

From time immemorial Egypt has been the mine of precious ideas to human society

From time immemorial Ethopia has been the mine of precious ideas to human society

From time immemorial USA has been the mine of precious ideas to human society

From time immemorial Christanity has been the mine of precious ideas to human society

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From time immemorial Islam has been the mine of precious ideas to human society

A cursory glimpse at the statement forced me to think – What is actually India? What is human society and what ideas are precious? What is special with India or any other countries to claim to be bearer of humanity?

Each individual serves the mother earth in his/her own way so do the each country. Evolution of human spawn human society and hence any place on earth bearing human imprint can claim to be a mine of ideas for human society. Claiming to be a contributor is not wrong but when this claim turn into arrogance then there starts the real problem.

This simple statement is the root of “clash of civilization”.

The base of each problem the world is facing today which may even be termed as existential threat for human being belongs to a simple thinking – “My belief is better than yours, my ideology is better than yours, my religion is better than yours, my god is better than yours”. It may look too simpleton cause for the problem of humanity but it is as basic for conflict as the food for life.

Who decides the definition of civilisation, who decides what is modern and what is traditional and who decides what is good or bad for the humanity. Constantly bringing new ideas forward is the basic human tenet and this is what differentiates human from other mammal. Hence bringing ideas are good but arrogance creeps in when one assumes inevitability of these ideas to survive.

16^th century onward the industrialisation of western countries brought enormous fortune hence industrialisation become norm for modernisation. It’s a sacred philosophy which has been accepted blindly to achieve prosperity.  Tenet of our belief can be summed up as:  more machines -> modernistion -> prosperity -> happiness.

The ultimate aim of human life is to achieve happiness and contentment. Moving forward to achieve happiness is the ultimate definition of modernisation. Hence it makes me curious how a person with tons of gadget and adequate technical knowledge (but still unsatisfied) can be more modern than a happy farmer with small land but ample produce for his/her family and his/her society. Who decides who is modern and who isn’t? Who decides the scientific discovery of nuclear war head is more modern than a discovery of contour farming to sustain farming in hill side. What is more modern?

To be continued....................

The God Particle

I have collected data from Wikipedia and some other site (mostly copy paste) for the benefit of myself and others who want to understand the god particle. To understand Higgs Boson first we need to understand the standard model. This is why I have explained it at first. Higgs Boson is the only elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model that has not yet been observed in particle physics experiments

Standard Model
The Standard Model of particle physics is a theory concerning the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear interactions, which mediate the dynamics of the known subatomic particles. Developed throughout the mid to late 20th century, the current formulation was finalized in the mid 1970s upon experimental confirmation of the existence of quarks.

The Standard Model is the simplest set of ingredients - elementary particles - needed to make up the world we see in the heavens and in the laboratory

The Standard Model includes 12 elementary particles of spin known as fermions. The fermions of the Standard Model are classified according to how they interact (or equivalently, by what charges they carry). There are six quarks (up, down, charm, strange, top, bottom), and six leptons (electron, electron neutrino, muon, muon neutrino, tau, tau neutrino). 

In the Standard Model, gauge bosons are defined as force carriers that mediate the strong, weak, and electromagnetic fundamental interactions.

Quarks is an elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei
Hadron: Hadrons are categorized into two families: baryons (made of three quarks) and mesons (made of one quark and one antiquark). The best-known hadrons are protons and neutrons (both baryons), which are components of atomic nuclei.
Leptons come in charged and uncharged versions; electrons - the most familiar charged lepton - together with quarks make up all the matter we can see; the uncharged leptons are neutrinos, which rarely interact with matter
The "force carriers" are particles whose movements are observed as familiar forces such as those behind electricity and light (electromagnetism) and radioactive decay (the weak nuclear force)
The Higgs boson came about because although the Standard Model holds together neatly, nothing requires the particles to have mass; for a fuller theory, the Higgs - or something else - must fill in that gap 

Higgs boson 

The Higgs boson is an elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics.

The Higgs boson is often referred to as "the God particle" by the media after the title of Leon Lederman's popular science book on particle physics, The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?. While use of this term may have contributed to increased media interest, many scientists dislike it, since it overstates the particle's importance. Lederman said he gave it the nickname "The God Particle" because the particle is "so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive," but jokingly added that a second reason was because "the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing.

• It belongs to a class of particles known as bosons in Standard Model, characterized by an integer value of their spin quantum number.
• The Higgs field is a quantum field that fills all of space.
• Fundamental particles (or elementary particles) such as quarks and electrons acquire mass through the Higgs mechanism.
• Higgs boson is the quantum of the Higgs field, just as the photon is the quantum of the electromagnetic field.
• The Higgs boson has a large mass, however, which is why a large accelerator is needed to study it.
• The existence of the Higgs boson is predicted by the Standard Model to explain how spontaneous breaking of electroweak symmetry(the Higgs mechanism) takes place in nature, which in turn explains why other elementary particles have mass.
• It is the only elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model that has not yet been observed in particle physics experiments.

According to the Standard Model, all elementary particles are either bosons or fermions (depending on their spin). The spin-statistics theorem identifies the resulting quantum statistics that differentiates fermions from bosons. According to this methodology: Particles normally associated with matter are fermions. They have half-integer spin and are divided into twelve flavours. Particles associated with fundamental forces are bosons and they have integer spin.

Elementary fermions (matter particles):
Quarks:
up, down, charm, strange, top, bottom
Leptons:
electron, electron neutrino, muon, muon neutrino, tau, tau neutrino

Elementary bosons (force-carrying particles):
Gauge bosons:
gluon, W and Z bosons, photon Other bosons
Higgs boson

Of these, only the Higgs boson remains undiscovered, but efforts are being taken at the Large Hadron Collider to determine whether it exists or not. Additional elementary particles may exist, such as the graviton, which would mediate gravitation. Such particles lie beyond the Standard Model.

I Protest

I feel like doing bakwas again after long time. There are thousands things in my mind, which is impossible to pen down, and what purpose it would serve. Nothing?????

Confused???????

I know, even I am confused about what I am talking about. But it’s a confusing time. Isn’t it?? Ok, I don’t know about you all, but it is for me.

Rupees sliding like never before (Making all my predictions wrong), Sensex is in downward spiral. I have stopped reading economic section. That’s my way of shutting down the unpleasant news. A very idiotic but an effective way, works for me all the time. It might goes till the Sensex jumps up again.

Any way you must be thinking why I am talking about Sensex, Forex, market or etc etc. What that’s got to do with me or you.

Any way if you don’t like i’ll stop it, but what should I talk.

Politics???

UPA is celebrating completion of 8^th year of its power and demanded an expensive gift from the people of India in form of unprecedented petrol price hike.

Lokpal has again gone into dustbin and would probably go to same way as its 2 predecessor.

Democracy is at its low with not even one credible party or person in sight to bank upon, nothing good happening in political, economic, judicial or journalism circle. What all you can hear is bicker, bicker and bickering only. Newspaper is coloured with the news of a textbook cartoon or beef festival or ever growing extra sensitivity of Indian politicians who jump at the slightest prick and cry foul of hurting mass sentiment, blasphemy, blah, blah and blah.

The Big issue in Indian politics now is sentiment: Our religious sentiment, identity sentiment, sentiment related to iconic figure, caste sentiment and thousands other sentiments

Indian Preamble should be changed like this:

We the people of India having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sensisitive, sentimental and intolerant crap and provide its citizen with

Justice: social, economic and political sentiment

Liberty of only and only extra sensisitive sentiment

Fraternity: only with people with our caste or religion and matching sentiment (optional)

On this 21^st century, hence hereby give ourselves this progressive sentimental constitution.

Our politician is diligently trying to bring this constitution in spirit by trying to legislate, curbing media, banning books and movies, banning and gagging persons. How lucky we Indians are that our representative is so much concern about our sentiment. What if hunger, malnutrition, poverty and all doesn’t figure in their concern? That actually doesn’t matter, feeding sentiments matter the most as we can afford to die of hunger but not to live with our so called sentiment hurt.

Anyway now I am feeling I might be hurting lots of apolitical people’s sentiment by continues to write on politics.

Oops, sorry but I have to remind you people, who subscribe to “apolitical, aesthesis, non-casteism or non-regional ideologies”, your sentiment doesn’t matter. So don’t cry foul and be silent.

 It’s the sentimental country and I am being sentimental about you thinking that I have done enough Bakwas and I should stop it.

My sentiment is being hurt with you malign insensitive intension and I protest.

End of Toy Story:

It was the year when I started watching cricket. Having grown in a family where cricket was a battle ground with band of children at one side favouring India and a hostile uncle always favouring opposing team at other side, I found passion for cricket at very early stage of my life. None of the passion can take a complete form until and unless it doesn’t revolve around a personality, a personality which not only arouses an intense passion around you but also gives you an ideal form to idolize. But that time none was around in cricket whom I can make my icon (Sachin hype was too much for me and my small mind was not ready to accept him, in fact I never liked him much), but I didn’t have to wait for long. Arrival of the magical Rahul in cricket world marked the beginning of magical passion of cricket in my world. He is my favourite icon from that moment. In that way I have a very long relationship with him that has touched every sphere of my life, directly or indirectly.

News of his retirement was devastating for me, and I could not help myself from being sad and desolate. Today I was bombarded with the tweet related to Rahul’s retirement with everyone had something to say about Rahul. I too wanted to express but felt 140 words tweet or facebook status message won’t be enough. I decided to write blog. Sadness in me was so deep that it had to be channelled through some medium, and being a private person, writing is the only option where I can dump my emotion and feel relatively lighter.

Each and every inning of Rahul was something for which I have always looked forward. Passion is some rare event in my life and there are bunch of sport stars who have successfully managed to infuse it into me and Rahul was in lead among them. He has always been with me, from my childhood to till now. I ruined my IIT mains while following each and every moment of ongoing India Pakistan test series, but I don’t regret it ;) . Among all form of Cricket I love Test match the most and credit goes entirely to Dravid.

He was a perfect role model. A guy who looks so familiar and neighbourly. I never met him and I don’t want to, in future. I want to keep him in my mind as the person I idolized and revered. He has a very special place in my life and I doubt whether it would be filled by someone else. With the end of era of Rahul Dravid a whole era in my life has come to an end, an era that is marked with my passionate childhood, my toy story. An absolute vacuum has engulfed the next phase of my life. I wonder, would this vacuum be filled in near future? Answer is not so easy J

Chain of Chains:

“””””””””“A little boy asked his mother, "Why are you crying?" "Because I'm a woman," she told him.

"I don't understand," he said. His Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will."
Later the little boy asked his father, "Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?"
"All women cry for no reason," was all his dad could say.
The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry.
Finally he put in a call to God. When God got on the phone, he asked, "God, why do women cry so easily?"
God said, "When I made the woman she had to be special.
I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world,
yet gentle enough to give comfort.
I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children.
I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.
I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly.
I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.
I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly.
And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed."
"You see my son," said God, "the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart - the place where love resides."”””””””

Today I spent around 5 min for finding the above quotation written by someone and shared by many on Facebook. Reason for wasting my time over particularly search of this piece of waste is: Well I can’t exactly say what but it could be the chain of events which have been unfolding in my day to day life for some days. Now don’t you go thinking about something very special and exciting, it’s actually very mundane and lame (for you). I read this piece on Facebook long back but a sudden hatred which I developed upon reading this (I was actually disgusted) kept prompting me for the long time to vent my anger in writing and I kept dithering. But every day observation and upcoming women’s day compelled me to write as it’s my duty as a citizen to channel my thought (Though I am not sure whether Kapil Sibbal would find it appropriate ;) ).

At first I would request any individual reading this article to not read it in context of woman right activism or so on. As a person I don’t concur to this activism and idealogism.

It’s the 21^st century, so called century of science, logic, emancipation, Human right and enlightenment. But have we emancipated?? Have we emancipated from our prejudice and bondage or are we shackled so intrinsically that reality is so blurred for us to realize?

It took several centuries for black to realize, it took more than 2000 of years for oppressed castes in India to realize. It’s true that realization haven’t alone made life better for all of them but atleast they know their right and know what is to be an equal human being as they are entitled for.

 But even after the 5500 years of civilization this reality is not dawned on half of the human being: That is called woman. World today pride on themselves with data, the data on improved percentage of educated women, improved %age of women working outside. Is it the sign of emancipation? Have situation changed by just getting education and working outside. I don’t think so.

I travel in bus and watch lots of co-ladies. And these are the ladies of other part of India (The Shining India), who have excellent education with lucrative jobs. But at the 1^st glance on them reveal that not even 0.01% of them have self-esteem and confidence (Of course I count myself among for the forth described reason). Most of them with self-consciousness about their dress, holding their duppattas, eyes down, some with fashionable dressed with high pencil heels and calculated steps, most of them rigorously trying to avoid body contact with guys (which is often impossible in crowded bus). Are these present the picture of an emancipated woman? No they don’t. And I don’t blame for them.

The moment a girl open her eyes in this world she is being constantly taught about what its mean to be women at each and every steps of her life. And the passage underlined at the starting of this article pretty much sum up the angle through which society see an ideal women. This ideology is so intrinsically woven in women’s life that they have already accepted it as their fate and part of life.

I saw Lots of liking for this piece of crap (pointed out at the starting of the blog) and the strange thing is that, well not exactly strange that lots of women went emotional and gaga over it

"""""I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.
I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly""""".

 Don’t they see what it is? It’s not a praise of a woman’s endurance, rather than it’s a code of conduct failing to which you would fall into category of bad women and be shunned from the society.

When Slavery was prevailed in USA then this kind of things was printed for the praise of black slave who serves their master unfalteringly. At that point of time any attempt to alter this philosophy was resisted by none other but black slaves themselves. It’s because the reason that they have been taught from their childhood that what it’s to be an ideal slave and any aberration will lead to disgrace. The whole thing was implanted so deep inside (and of course by white people) them that it took them centuries to realize their own human rights.

Problem of slavery or untouchability (though still prevalent in India) was a small part of humanity; hence it was addressed to an extent gradually. But problem of women emancipation that constitute half part of humanity is huge and capable of damaging the entire fabric of society which was woven gradually by male dominated society by securing its own right for the millenniums gone and the centuries to come.

How do we suppose a complete personality development inside women in such closed and prejudiced scenario? How to we suppose a society to be flourished with half of its member being grossly under-developed and over-shadowed.  

Though I am writing all these but one thing I know that I am no different. And how could I be? Being born in same society and spoon fed with the same social code of conduct. At some level and at certain extent, knowingly or unknowingly all of us (women) accept these code of conducts as our way of life. But some time it’s excruciatingly painful to acknowledge this. I know it would take me hundreds of years to throw this complex web woven around me (and I would not be around to see that day J ) and more centuries for women of this world to realize their position, But day would come. What we need to take step by step and realize this.

We as human being disown the Women’s day or any other celebration of so called womanhood.

We are human being and want to celebrate the humanity in us.