Planet Earth

A show that has left me gaping with pure awe. I am not exaggerating when I say this- hold your horses, this series is the greatest show television has ever seen. No doubt about it . BBC World takes us on a journey of Our mother Earth, And what a documentary they have created ! Once you start watching this series , you will be left dumfounded, and you will be asking yourself how in the world did they make such a documentary ? I was left with my mouth wide open. Sights you have never seen, locations never ventured, phenomena you have never known, taking us to places man has never ever dreamed of in a million ages. This is undoubtedly the best television has to offer.

Planet Earth is a pure visual treat. I would say the actual context of it being informative and knowledgable would be secondary, and the prime focus of the show in enthralling its viewers lies in its power to attract beyond reason. No matter how many great writers review this show, it will still in no way do justice to what you are witnessing here. All credit to BBC World and its team. What an effort ! Such tenacity, such hard work ! To the benefit of millions of viewers, the folks at BBC world deserve all the applause. The programme also carries out a function of an encyclopedia into unexplored territory, but it does it in a far far interesting and engrossing way that can leave it viewers flabbergasted. Narration, music and editing in the legendary way of the BBC, in a subtle, very light and soothing for the senses.

If you haven’t watched Planet Earth yet, I would suggest you buy a DVD pack from a good retail store. It is one of the greatest treasures that your electronic medium can ever house. Your television or your PC screen will be honored it is playing such a masterpiece. And I am not the one you would associate with fanatism, nor am I going overboard with my slightly descriptive review here, but this according to me just goes to show that such shows deserve all the recognition. I myself am privileged to get an opportunity to watch a series such as ‘Planet Earth’. This is probably the finest of all documentaries ever created, and i would doubt if any other infotainment even in the future can measure up to the gist of this one.

Once again, for all of us who have watched this magnum opus, we ought to thank BBC for everything. For those of you who haven’t, get ready to put on your thanking caps. This is one show that every human on the planet needs to watch. And I am serious.

P.S. Watching this show in a resolution lesser than a high definition format or a Blu-ray would be really insulting to the series, please try and watch it in HD to properly appreciate the essence.

Each day i think
The familiar roads I tread on and the people i used to see seem to sink
Each day i see
People with dreams and dying ambitions walking alongside me
And I ask myself
When will i realize the meaning of life

Each day my face is weathered by the eye of a storm
Each experience teaches a bountiful unknown

Out of the cocoon that I was writhe
Struggling to find my place in this blue sphere
No longer in the protective care of my folks
I have to make my mark in this world
One day i will find those wings
Those imaginary feathers with which the song of life I shall sing

All I am asking is to love and be loved
I want to live my life
And one day I will know
And the world will know
That my day has finally come
Until then I am still trying
To find my heaven in this earth

I want to reach the place where there is sunshine
Go and spread my hands wide
Everyone have their own dreams
Everone have their own ambitions
Everyone have their own reason to live their life

The memories haven’t faded
To this day I remember seeing my infancy
The days which seemed so happy
And I don’t know whether I can find such happiness again

Life as a mixture of colors in a album
I see myself back in time
Its time to live in the present
And I realize that I have to live my life yet
How i would love to see someone look at me
And gleam with pride

I am still struggling
To find my place
People are walking, people are running
The roads they tread are without a trace
My mind has become an illusion
Happy with the so called facts of delusion
And I ask myself
“Who am I ?”

Come to believe that there is a force that is greater than what drives everyone
The spirit of ambition
The burning heart of desire
Everyone’s seemed to have found theirs
And I ask myself
“Where’s mine ?”

The dream needs to be caste upon me
The inspiration needs to manifest
I am still struggling to find them
And without a doubt I am sure
I haven’t figured out the meaning of life
And I still ask myself
“Who am I ?”

 Jan 8 ,2009- We had our lunch in a hurry and got ready as we headed to out (me, Rags , Praddy and Kamikaze rushed out to meet the 11 others on a trip to Manali and whereabouts). We rented 2 cabs- a tata sumo and a chevrolet tavera. We started at around 2.30 PM from NIT and started on our long journey. I was lucky to get the middle of 3 occupiable rows in the cab. We then proceeded for some distance and then stopped as the other cab had to undergo some repairs. ( around 1.5 hrs were wasted ). Then we proceeded till long throught the night until we came across a long deep underground tunnel. The engineering marvel had to be appreciated as the whole tunnel was carved from a single mountain. We took some snaps and then proceeded further to our destination. We then reached a place called Mandi at around 9.30 PM – the place where an IIT is coming up. Then finally we reached Manali- our destination at around 12.30 am in the night and slept peacefully in our dens.( a nice hotel for tourists with a tv and running hot water). Three people were in each of the 5 rooms which were actually meant for 2. Individually , we each payed around Rs.160/- for 2 days(which is damn cheap). 

 Jan 9,2009- We got up at around 8 AM, went to a nice decent hotel and had our breakfast. As we are ethnique south, we just tried a hand on dosa as we wanted to know if they can prepare the south dishes good too. All i can say is they didn’t do it bad. But the onion parantha was good though. Then we walked around a mile and a half and climbed some 75 zig zag ascending steps to visit the Hadimba temple. ( According to mythology, Hadimba is the asura married to Bheema and the mother of Ghatotkach). We had a good time there and then went to a museum where we saw artifacts and items of historic himachal significance. As we walked back , we realized that we were walking in beauty indescribable here. Paradise, scenic beauty with its snow capped trees and orange and red trees donning unparalled whiff of God’s own country. Those people who are in awe of Switzerland better take a trip here too.  Manali is one such place.Then we returned and took a long trip on the cab to Solang valley. The journey was a long 3 hr one but it was the one to be  permanently etched in our minds. The roads to this were snow laden and the mountains were snow capped which had us staring with raw awe and had our cameras clicking. We then unarguably had one of the best times of our lives, once we reached there, we payed Rs.150/- for renting some protective snow clothing which included thick leather boots. We then walked uphill on thick snow paths where vehicles weren’t accessible. A large ground was in view and people were playing all kinds of sports. We tried our hand on skiing. I fell down 2 times at the start, but boy, once I got the hang of it , I enjoyed it like anything. I mean anyyyythinggggg. My hands started to pain a little from vigorous pulling and my back started to hurt from the supposed posture I was maintaining. Then we tried our hand on tube- slide, 2 persons were made to sit on a tube and then pushed from a steep incline of the snow mountain. We had unbelievable fun here. As Vijay(a senior) and myself made our way to the bottom from the top of the incline , he was pushed out of the tube due to some bumps in the incline. Then I fell out of the tube at high speed and slided in the ice for around 20 feet. Luckily, neither of us were hurt or even scratched thanks to the protective clothing. Then we did some mountain climbing. We spent a lot of time there and finally as dusk was approaching, we made our way back to our  cribs.

Jan 9,2009- 8 am- We didn’t have our breakfast as we started out earlt for Manikaran- a place known for its natural hot water springs. We had some chowmein for Rs.20/- on the way . The roads to this place were very beautiful. We then reached Manikaran in the afternoon at around 4pm and had an amazing bath at the hot spring. We then went and had free food inside the Gurudwara. Nice food. And one thing I like most about these Gurudwaras is that many of them give free food as well as some give free lodging as well. We then went inside the Shiva temple and then saw some exquiste places where the steam was oozing out of the hot unbelievably hot spring.( The temple was built around some of these place). We then took some recluse inside a hot cave. Slowly , we approached the end of an amazing trip – wait , not amazing- a legendary trip. The trip cost each of us around Rs.1700/- including around 950 bucks for the cab.

         We then started at around 6.30 pm in the evening and returned to NIT at around 12.30 am on Jan 10, 2009… What an exhirilating trip!!

Jan 2,2009 -The time is 8AM.  I woke up from my everlasting slumber to a lot of commotion. A lot of boys were heading out of the hostel to see what was happening. Even the sleepy legs of mine, eagerly interested in the ‘awakening’ developments, rushed out to see and get a glimpse to see what this melodrama was all about.  And there i witnessed it , dozens and scores of police walking around. If this was not enough, I took a stroll near the Administrative block to see what is happening. And lo behold  ! hundreds of scattered police walking around in an protective circle while some eager looking students were trying to get a peek of what was happening inside the circle. The entire campus had become sort of a fortress and all this just happened overnight!! An overtly eager hand pulls up on my shoulder and I was asked,” Hey, Did you catch a glimpse of him?” . Myself not really the one having the latest insight into the happenings of a college, replied in a meek submissive NO!!!??? coupled with a confused ‘what in the world is going on’ look.  Only minutes later did I realize the gravity of the situation when I was told the man himself, our beloved former president DR.APJ was visiting the campus ! Myself with awe and dumbfounded excitement, I was told to whisker away from the place by the security. Well, I registered myself to attend a lecture cum interaction by him the following evening.

NIT Hamirpur played host to Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam, former president of India invited as chief guest for the convocation of the students who passed out of the college. At around 6.30 pm in the evening, students started pouring in the auditorium where Dr.APJ was to make his presence. We had to go through thorough security check ups and metal detectors before we proceeded to the auditorium. We were also told not to carry any mobile phones inside the large hall capable of seating around 500 odd persons. Minutes later, the noisy crowd came to a halt. The man stepped his way into the auditorium to a standing ovation. He started with 4 inspiring stories of 4 nobel laureates to explain strong principles with concrete examples. But before that he addressed the gathering with the following words,”Dear friends !” I was  being a avid listener of his speech, which not only spoke volumes about the man but also showed in me the compassion and belief that he radiated to other fellow human beings. An useful interaction session with the students followed. A wide variety of topics were being discussed pertaining from economic development to fighting terrorism.

An enlightening session for many of those who were present at the audi that day, the words that he spoke have to be treasured for a long time and hopefully his dream India 2020 and now – our collective dream of a developed India will be realized…

What i am going to write is probably prevalent in some of the major residential institutions with a ready local area network. No prizes for guessing.. They are the lan games. More of an electronic drug.. is what i would like to call it. The intent to which it has taken up part of the daily routine of the hostelers is sickening, and in my case, insanely maddening. If lan games were a drug, then Counter-strike would be the big momma of all drugs. The more you play this game, the more and more people get addicted to and lesser and lesser people focus on other imporant things, such as academics. Guys go late into the night planning strategies, playing matches  ( 5 on 5 ) or simply random head shotters. Whether a hostler has attended classes as a part of his regular routine is debatable, but his absence from the regular gaming circuit is only rare. Another drug, if not like CS, is Age of empires. Although this drug can only be administered at certain times when there are enough people and this drug is more a brain triggering one rather than the former’s mouse navigational abilites. CS involves mouse skill and strategy(if you are a serious fragger) while AOE is all about strategy.

One thing that seems to be redolent of all these games are that they seem to have a huge impact on one’s academics, but the almighty is not benevolent when it comes to having poor grades… .. These games seem quite alright when it is played in MODERATION, else there are debates of it being able to spark aggressive behavior in teens, and it is really not that worthwhile to be playing it at the cost of your health , your grades and ultimately your life ! If i were a doctor and you asked me what would be the drug rehab for such a case, i would say first uninstall these games, then go for something extra curricular, say hit the gym or go play some ball ! It does not seem exciting at first(considering you can stay in your room all day and do nothing but CS) , but once you have become a part of that small regular group, you can be rest assured you are going to have a great time.

Give it a thought and you wouldn’t disagree with me when i say that lan games have very much become a drug- definitely not for the good of ‘mankind’( hehe ye i know i have exaggerated but here mankind refers to a special kind of men- the gaming hostlers). Well, CS is no medicine but it is actually a poison and you know what happens when it is taken in overdose!! My friends are literally going to kill me considering I wrote this post, myself being a serious CS freak!!He He

when do people basically get inspired? When they see someone marvelling at their job so damn excruciatingly well, that they would like to emulate them in a similar fashion. Well, sometimes, what may be found as inspiring to some may be perceived as not so appealing to others. Now, what makes for these set of differences? yeah, you get loads and dozens of self-help books on the market which do nothing but shell out your hard-earned money. Sometimes, they do help. many a time, they don’t.

Now, in no way am i suggesting that there aren’t any good self help books at all. But, many do lay emphasis on the obvious niceties on life and telling us that one is right and one is wrong, but all these will mostly depend on how receptive your reader is. The most fascinating thing of a great writer is obviously how well he can anticipate his reader’s perception. And sometimes ,hitting on the deck is exactly what most of the authors do without much dressing up, bit more in vague like the executive management style. And it pays off pretty well too. Now, what appeared to me as a pretty decent way of summing up things is- many of these self-help books finally centre down to one basic thing- that thing called LOVE.

A bit confused? Don’t be. Why do successful people called what they are called? because they love what they are doing. Yeah Yeah , you mostly end up getting advices like you have to improve in that area of discipline and this and that, but if one tries to focus to love what they do, all these other factors come after that automatically. All these proclaimed beneficial factors spring up by itself. pronto.  LOVE whatever you do, wherever you do .Learn to LOVE your life, and the life loves you back. This is what i learnt after so many experiences(not all of them my own).  LOVE ,love, love .that is it. Well, if you do not know how to love whatever you are doing, no one can teach you to love. The burning desire to love comes from within the heart ,not the intelluctual mind, thus free from any other specific want based desires, instead just aspiring and ambitious ones. Well, once you have learnt how to love your life the way you don’t love anything else, all these countless self-help books seem nothing but a heap of dust, and the world will dance to your music.

To sum all this up, THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IS LOVE.

2008 – a year that has witnessed the fall of the big players in the investment field-

Bear sterns was taken over by JP Morgan

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were nationalized

Lehman Bros became bankrupt.

Merryl Lynch taken over by Bank of America for a meagre $50 bn !

With financial institutions falling prey one after another to the global credit crisis, the bailout packages announced by various governments across the globe are inching towards $2 trn mark — an amount nearly double the size of Indian economy !

The Wall street tremors will have aftershocks the world over, with global markets plummeting to new lows and with liquidity crisis in perspective, the world is facing a severe economic crisis and many are blindly hopeful of a bail-out plan. But …….let me guess what you are thinking…..

Q 1)  what in the world is going on right now?

Q 2 ) why does all this matter to me? and how do I, the Indian citizen stand to be affected by this?

THE WHOLE STORY:

The first signs of the sub-prime crisis was evident in the form of Bear Stearns whose 2 hedge funds collapsed in the mid of June 07 . Sadly , help in the form of $ 100 billion in liquidity courtesy Federal Reserve Bank and European Central Bank didn’t do much to solve the prevalent sub-prime crisis as the housing market continued to elevate without increase in interest rates. Then the wall street virtually went on a wild horse ride with one of the prestigious players Lehman brothers posting huge losses and eventually they din’t become lucky as the others as both Bank of America and Barclay’s refused to save the investment giant. The sole cause- Lehman Bros and Bear Sterns had relatively small balance sheets, they were heavily dependent on the mortgage market and were humungously reliant on the repurchase market (use as a short-term financing tool). The final nail in the coffin of the Lehman Brothers was put as it applied for a bankrupt protection on September 15th, which created a violent storm in the world financial system

AIG which was supposedly a basic insurance company also committed the erraneous speciality of investing in derivatives. Now for non- enthusiasts like some people out there, what are DERIVATIVES? Well, more on that later in this post.

IMPACT ON INDIA:

With many of the top IT companies save HCL having half their revenues from financial and banking segments, no doubt they are going to take a harsh beating, with Infosys already losing $2 bn the past week(Sept end) out of an approximate $10 bn lost by Indian IT companies listed on the US market. Banks may suffer as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch had invested substantially in the formers’s stocks.

Supposedly, some of the PSU banks are also said to be affected even though assurances by the FM P.Chidambaram that none of the former are influenced. Well, that remains to be seen.

Now with traders possibly selling their stocks in India, Indian rupee stands to decline and hence imports will become costlier, one of the many things that stand to be affected, in line with many of the innumerable crisises that our country has still looming at large.

WHAT IS DERIVATIVES ( In Layman’s terms) in this case also know as HEDGING

–>The main use of a derivative is reducing risk for a party.

–>Derivative products derive their existence from actual market indices, hence the name derivatives.

I am not a expert on this, but with a great amount of thanks to my dad( who is pretty good at this stuff), I can put forward a vague idea what this is all about. Now supposing Mr.X  enters into a FUTURES CONTRACT with Mr.Y, say he pays a certain amount of money for a certain commodity from Mr.Y in the future(any fixed amount of time in the future) , now as the market can be totally unpredictable with fluctuating interest rates, such an agreement can reduce risks.

BENEFITS:

1. Mr.X now has an assured supply of commodity in the future at the existent market rates at that time.

2. Mr.Y now has an assured price for his commodity in the future from Mr.X

Something like this.

Now there are many forms of derivatives, one which caused the epicentre here in the sub prime crisis being mortgage-backed security (MBS). For more information on MBS, you can easily refer … say wikipedia or the article by Mohit Satyanand in Outlook MONEY was pretty awesome.

Now in the present case , since the housing rates didn’t shoot up, the investment banks couldn’t recover money and the growing housing markets only added to their downfall.. Voila !! this almost does it for a layman’s understanding to the current global economic crisis.

Around 2 months back, I had approached the Bangalore one center inside RTO at Rajajinagar for applying for passport. The person was before me was an elderly gentleman who was angry with the authorities for their bad service. Apparently the passport required a proof of marriage. The previous day, it seems the authorities had actually told him since he was a senior citizen, such a proof wasn’t required and he was actually sent back since the photo of his required to be in a white background . But on that day, he was told that they couldn’t continue with the process since there wasn’t a marriage photo or certificate for proof of marriage. Hence it was natural of him, considering that it was the authorities’ mistake, that they acting as if it was no fault of theirs was not acceptable. So imagine the mistake on the authorities part that there were 2 women who were in charge of processing the form, one would tend to be a little forgiving for their mistakes, considering pity since they weren’t rude. The gentleman had come from a considerably far-off place( think chandra layout). So such a experience , that too considering his age was truly harrowing for him. He might as well considered another place for his submission but he thought this wasn’t that busy so he might approach here.

Such an experience did not elude me as well. At first I was sent back stating that there needed to be an attested copy of the Xth report card(which served as a proof of date of birth). The next day I submitted the particulars and they apparently told me that nothing else was wrong  with the other documents. Around a month and a half, I completed my police verification by going to the police station and submitting some necessary documents( There I had to submit some extra records, some which was missed by the authorities, again I had to take the trouble of doing that). After the verification, I thought everything would finally fall into place. But last week, nearly 50 days after applying , I received a letter saying that there needed to be a proof of date of birth and that after further enquiries, that the Xth report card wasn’t enough was what I was told. Hence I had to first get my original date of birth certificate, ( That was another time consuming process), then i had to submit the attested xerox copy of it.

Will the concerned higher authorities take notice, apart from easing the red-tape work that usually takes place? ( There are several instances where certain people, if they find out that you are new for things like , say renewal of passport at such places say RTO, then they would misguide you to saying that the process if carried out by them would take lesser time and in the process force you to shell out more money from you for processing red-tape work. The time taken would generally be almost the same even if you did it on your own, and at the half the expense. No doubt there are link ups between the some of the officials and the middle-men, and these middle-men if they come to know that there happen to be people who are unaware of the processes, force them to fall into this predicament. This is a true instance of my friend’s).

SUGGESTIONS :

1.There needs to be more clear protocols that people need to be known about before approaching such places for such purposes. This way it would discourage corruption.

2.Also people need to be enlightened about the procedures involved for carrying out their requirements( such as issue of pamphlets saying what needs to be done where and so on).

3.The service at such important centres such as this passport outlet at bangalore one needs to be improved and feedbacks/complaints need to be seriously considered.

ADVICE:

Take any friend/ family member who knows all the processes involved along with you if you are there a particular reason for the first time.

Ask the officials who are seated inside for instructions and help

Do not talk to any strangers who might look like prospective middlemen. (They might cleverly lure you by saying that the work can be done faster, but do not pay any heed to them). Such middlemen usually keep wandering around without any fixed place, looking for people they can lure.

Do not have a look on your face saying you are lost. Be confident and try to look as if you know what you are doing even though you really don’t.

The last month and this one have witnessed the rise of a small country whose legionaries are well known for conquering many places centuries ago. Known for their bull fighting matadors, Spain, apart from being a lucrative tourist destination, have some fine achievements to their name. Mostly remembered now is in the field of sport, where they are dominantly making waves in soccer and tennis. From the land of Raul and Moya, Torres and Nadal, 2008 has been quite an eventful year for the land of the matadors.

Coming last month, Spain won its first major international tournament in over four and a half decades- the EURO 2008. Thanks to amazing performances from Torres, Fabregas, Xabi and others ; the spaniards had a big reason to celebrate. And they were received amidst much pomp and celebrations- fitting the champions.

Surely coach Aragones must be a happy man. Amidst all this victory celebrations, I would also have liked it if they made a mention of Raul, one of the world class players produced by Spain . May be in the time of Raul, Spain didn’t make any significant international presence excepting for their wonderful league football- Spanish La Liga. One must also not forget that Raul played a part for what the present team is today. However, all credit to Spain.

July 6,2008- History was made by Spain. This time in another sport-Tennis . Rafael Nadal becomes the first Spanish player in over forty odd years to win Wimbeldon- his fifth Grand slam. In the process, he prevented Fedex’s attempt for a sixth consecutive Wimbeldon victory. It was unarguably the most emotional grand slam victory for Nadal and even more undoubtedly the most tearful loss for Roger, considering what he just lost out on. Rafa had Fedex’s weak backhand as well nature’s forces to his command. Clearly, he has breached to what has appeared Fedex’s stronghold. While the world celebrates the king of clay as the newly crowned grass king, it also asks another question- Is Fedex’s dominance slowly coming to a halt? That can only be a spontaneous question. Even though 2008 hasn’t been a great year for the Swiss Master, he will be back. For real. He will be back better than ever.

Spain is really making a mark in the International arena and it is just forcing the other nations to stand up and take notice. The land of the famed Matadors has finally awoken- it seems.

It seems Spain is saying—World! Take notice! Do not even try to take a bull by its horns! We are the bull tamers!

Watch out world!

Last week, I had been to Chennai, better known as singarachchennai.  I had been to my aunt’s place at mandaveli.   I stayed there for 3 days.  On the first day, I had the privilege of visitng the famous kapaaleeswarar kovil and it was a very good experience.  The whole locality is a place jostling with enthusiasm and I felt really at home during my visit here.  I saw orthodox iyers moving around , carrying on with their usual routine .  I also happened to see teppa kolam .  I put some some fish food in the kolam.  The kolam is surrounded by four directional MADA street.  Here in this street, one can find many places where one can buy pooja items., devotional things etc.  the whole surroundings of mylapore and mandaveli are blessed with lot of trees and one can feel at ease while staying here.

The morning the next day, I happened to visit marina beach which is around three kilometers from my aunt’s place.  It was around 6 am in the morning…. the active routine of the chennaites were apparent as many people were jogging at the pavement and many shops were already functioning to the full capacity.  I had a lease of fresh  air and I was lucky to see the beautiful sunshine over the bay of bengal.  On my way back ,   I happened to see a Lambhorgini Gallardo zoom across the beach road at more than 160 kilometers/ hour till it disappeared near the napier’s bridge.    Later that evening , I went to luz corner in chennai and I had icecream in ORCHARDS, chennais answer to corner house. The quality was really good and the prices were comparitively lower .  Hence one can find many people thronging there.    Hence words are not the right parameters to describe about this wonderful place..

The next day , i was visiting adyar as i had some work there.  i was really impressed with the design and structure of house layout and it was a very serene and quiet place.  there were lots of apartments very much similar to the ones in mylapore.

on the third and final day, i had been to a relative’s marriage in south boag road.  The marriage was lavish and the whole marriage hall was centrally air conditioned and it also had concerts where two reputed singers sang popular tamil numbers.  Not to mention the delicious food that was very traditionally south-indian.

Chennai is by-far the best place for living, excepting the hot weather, there are exceptionally good educational, health-care facilties to name a few. Hail Singaaara Chennai!!