The "Rock" Show

Each of us comes across incidents which we think over and just can't stop laughing. I have many such incidents which I remember but the one that stands out happened during my first year engineering.

Our college till that time had not had single "Rock show" which was surprising as other college's in Bombay used to always host such a mega event. The reason for that was the authorities of the institute were very conservative and of the opinion that "Rock show" play a very strong role in disrupting the smooth functioning of the college.

During those time we had a cultural department which used to take care of the activities. So the representatives of the of the cultural committee gathered courage and went with a lot of skepticism to ask the Head of Department the permission for the rock show.

Here are how the events turned out

Representative of CC - "Sirr..uh..we are thinking of hosting a "ROCK SHOW" in December"

A gulp, followed by a silence of 2 minutes ... the other 3 members trying to think now we are going to be blasted


HOD - Hmm..that's a good thought..

A sudden surge of blood filled with happiness and surprise flows across and then comes the statement that has lived life long with most of the students of the college

HOD - Few of the "Rocks" you can use from the Geological department and but where will you get the other rocks for the show
Then iit was extremely difficult to manage a straight face, but with all the courage we looked at each other, asked for more time for research, left his room and burst into a stomach aching fit of laughter.
That incident stands out as the most humorous incident of my life and has always been a topic to share a laugh whenever we friends meet.

Well all said and done what is a life when there is no humor in life ;)

For you..A thousand times over

Dearest Khaled Hosseini,

I write this letter to you to thank for one the most soul touching and incredible work of fiction I have read in recent times. I had bought this book two days back from my office book store and two days after it I have finished reading it. The thing about this book that led me to read it in two days straight was not that it was thriller, or was literature rich book, but for the simple fact that my soul kept stirring, my eyes getting moist, my minds trying to picture the changing picture of Afghanistan, where I have never been.

All the characters that you depicted were just so realistic and in the end I just could not decide whether Amir, Hassan, Rahim, Suraya, General or Baba I liked the most but for sure I did like all of them as each of them in some parts of the story represented me, a human. One thing for sure, I did hate Assef from the beginning. Your writing made me hate him and in reality I am sure I do hate such people. The tears that moistened my eyes are a tribute to your writing because, I feel so different after reading this book, I feel that around the world there are people, children who suffer enormous and do not lose the humane personality and people like me whom the Almighty has granted most of my wishes and has not even given 1/20 of the pain of suffering that Sohrab or for that matter Hassan went through and yet happiness eludes me.

There is so much to write to you about the bonding that you showed between Hassan and Amir, Baba and Ali, Baba and Amir and all the other characters but when it come to writing I wish I had a small percent of your skill.

To me your work of fiction is more real than any current affair book I must have read in recent times.

In the end if somebody asks me would I recommend this book I would want to answer
" For your writing.. A thousand times over"

Tashakor,
Sajid

Award winning UNICEF ads

I got this interesting forward which featured the award winning UNICEF ads. I really liked them and wanted to share with everyone who visits my blog.

Hope you all like them


This one is on "Women Equality"



This is one is the best of the ones I saw which brings forth the "Save animals" theme.



The below to convey a very good message for "Safe Driving".




Indeed some very smart brains came up with this witty and thought-provoking ads. Congrats to all the minds behind these excellent final messages :)

Why I dont want to move again?

Its been a year since I moved to New Jersey for my work and in two days I will be shifting back to India. The excitement of leaving for India has been totally setback by the month long moving activities that a person needs to do. Of all the activities, the most taxing one is "Packing" for the Air-travel.

The thing that I hate about packing is the limitation of luggage one can carry ( within free limits) and the limitation of human-beings ( including me) to give away stuff or leave behind stuff. And as the image suggests I am a victim of my own administration as I should have seen this coming and administered it accordingly.

Well, I am still struggling to get the right combination of things I need to carry and things I need to give-away and the clock is ticking but hopefully, the mix will be met and I wont have to go through the embarrassment of moving luggage at the airport due to weight restrictions.

But one things for sure, if I have my way, I do not think I want to make short one year- two year trips any more.

After this ordeal the best thing that awaits me is that I am back to my home-country where I feel at total ease and comfort.

Well, hopefully my next blog will be when I will have settled back in India :)

VISA Power

Great advertisement !!!

What a waste of iPhone !!

The Google effect

I read this article on MSNBC which talked about Yahoo CEO Semel stepping down and I thought for a moment what Google effect is doing to big corporations. Lets see who gets the axe next as a part of this effect.

Tagged by : Taqdeer

Taqdeer of http://desertscape-taqdeer.blogspot.com/ has tagged me to know 8 things about me which no one knows

Following are the 8 things which I think are not known to many

1) My family comes from India and I was born, raised up educated in India and have been residing in US for work purpose since 3 years

2) I live with my wife and parents and have 2 elder brothers, 2 beautiful nieces ( 3yrs and 6 yrs) and 1nephew ( 2.5 yrs old)

3) I love my family the most in this world

4) I believe a person is the most unluckiest person in the world, he who has both or one of his parents alive and they are not happy with him or her

5) I had an arranged marriage and saw my wife in person for the very first time on the very first night of the wedding :)

6) I just love to make people around me happy and I am extremly sensitive to harsh words.

7) I believe that we all in this world to get educated are forgetting about being civilized.

8) I am good at shooting pool and love to play tennis and badminton and watch probably most of the famous sports across the globe.

Few Quotations I like

"Life is not the number of breaths you take, but those moments which take your breath away".

This is the a statement which Will Smith says in the opening of the movie "Hitch". Its been some time since I have seen this movie but this statement has been etched ever since. Its amazing how 28 years have just went pass and then when I recollect my life most of the moments which I recollect are the those which did take my breath away.

"You do not love people because they are beautiful, they seem beautiful to you because you love them"

How true is this statement !! I came across this in my 4th grade English reading. It talked about a story where a small girl gets lost and then the villagers ask her "Who is your mom ?". She replies by saying "My mom is the most beautiful woman in the world". For that the villagers call upon all the beautiful women in the village but her mother is not found. Eventually they do find her mother but she by appearance was not beautiful but to the little girl her mother was the most beautiful woman in the world and thats what the above quotation signifies.

"We can be dragged along by change, or we can be the change"

This I read very recently in one of my fellow blogger Taqdeer's Blog. And it really made me think. Today I feel, I am moving in the direction which is laid by others and there are times when I wish the system would be different, but I sit back and wait for some one to come and change the system, rather than doing that myself. So as of today I feel "I am dragged along by change" but I hope and I am sure some day I will gather courage to be the change.


"Its better to try and fail, rather than not trying due to fear of failure"

I do not know if I have eactly reproduced the statement as I had read it but I have just put it across in the form I remember it. This is very much linked to the above quotation. There are so many things I want to do and I am sure some day I will make an attempt at those, so that down the line when I sit back I will be content that I gave it a shot rather than feeling sorry that I did not do something that I wished all my life.

Well those are some of the quotations I like. If you folks come across and read this post do put in your favourite quotes and the reason why you remember them. I am sure there will be always something new that will stir the soul in me.

Chat transcript of Dr Devi Shetty..Very Useful !!

Recently a chat with Dr.Devi Shetty ( Heart Specialist, Narayana Hrudayala) was arranged by WIPRO for its employees .
The transcript of the chat is given below. I am posting this on my blog as I think it is extremely useful information for everyone.

Qn: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart ?
Ans:
1. Diet - Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil
2. Exercise - Half an hour's walk, at least five days a week; avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longtime
3. Quit smoking
4. Control weight
5. Control blood pressure and sugar

Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart?
Ans: No

Qn: It's still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy person gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in perspective?
Ans: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups.

Qn: Are heart diseases hereditary?
Ans: Yes

Qn: What are the ways in which the heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress?
Ans: Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in life.

Qn: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive exercise required to keep a healthy heart?
Ans: Walking is better than jogging since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints .

Qn: You have done so much for the poor and needy. What has inspired you to do so?
Ans: Mother Theresa , who was my patient.

Qn: Can people with low blood pressure suffer heart diseases?
Ans: Extremely rare

Qn: Does cholesterol accumulates right from an early age
(I'm currently only 22) or do you have to worry about it only after you are above 30 years of age?
Ans: Cholesterol accumulates from childhood.

Qn: How do irregular eating habits affect the heart ?
Ans: You tend to eat junk food when the habits are irregular and your body's enzyme release for digestion gets confused.

Qn: How can I control cholesterol content without using medicines?
Ans: Control diet, walk and eat walnut.

Qn: Can yoga prevent heart ailments?
Ans: Yoga helps.

Qn: Which is the best and worst food for the heart?
Ans: Fruits and vegetables are the best and the worst is oil.

Qn: Which oil is better - groundnut, sunflower, olive?
Ans: All oils are bad .

Qn: What is the routine checkup one should go through? Is there any specific test?
Ans: Routine blood test to ensure sugar, cholesterol is ok. Check BP, Treadmill test after an echo.

Qn: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?
Ans: Help the person into a sleeping position , place an aspirin tablet under the tongue with a sorbitrate tablet if available, and rush him to a coronary care unit since the maximum casualty takes place within the first hour.

Qn: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart attack and that caused due to gastric trouble?
Ans: Extremely difficult without ECG.

Qn: What is the main cause of a steep increase in heart problems amongst youngsters? I see people of about 30-40 yrs of age having heart attacks and serious heart problems.
Ans: Increased awareness has increased incidents. Also, edentary lifestyles, smoking, junk food, lack of exercise in a country where people are genetically three times more vulnerable for heart attacks than Europeans and Americans.

Qn: Is it possible for a person to have BP outside the normal range of 120/80 and yet be perfectly healthy?
Ans: Yes.

Qn: Marriages within close relatives can lead to heart problems for the child. Is it true?
Ans : Yes, co-sanguinity leads to congenital abnormalities and you may not have a software engineer as a child

Qn: Many of us have an irregular daily routine and many a times we have to stay late nights in office. Does this affect our heart ? What precautions would you recommend?
Ans : When you are young, nature protects you against all these irregularities. However, as you grow older, respect the biological clock.

Qn: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs cause some other complications (short / long term)? Ans : Yes, most drugs have some side effects. However, modern anti-hypertensive drugs are extremely safe.

Qn: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart attacks?
Ans : No.

Qn: Are asthma patients more prone to heart disease?
Ans : No.

Qn: How would you define junk food?
Ans : Fried food like Kentucky , McDonalds , samosas, and even masala dosas.

Qn: You mentioned that Indians are three times more vulnerable. What is the reason for this, as Europeans and Americans also eat a lot of junk food?
Ans: Every race is vulnerable to some disease and unfortunately, Indians are vulnerable for the most expensive disease.

Qn: Does consuming bananas help reduce hypertension?
Ans : No.

Qn: Can a person help himself during a heart attack (Because we see a lot of forwarded emails on this)?
Ans : Yes. Lie down comfortably and put an aspirin tablet of any description under the tongue and ask someone to take you to the nearest coronary care unit without any delay and do not wait for the ambulance since most of the time, the ambulance does not turn up.

Qn: Do, in any way, low white blood cells and low haemoglobin count lead to heart problems? Ans : No. But it is ideal to have normal hemoglobin level to increase your exercise capacity.

Qn: Sometimes, due to the hectic schedule we are not able to exercise. So, does walking while doing daily chores at home or climbing the stairs in the house, work as a substitute for exercise? Ans : Certainly. Avoid sitting continuously for more than half an hour and even the act of getting out of the chair and going to another chair and sitting helps a lot.

Qn: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood sugar?
Ans: Yes. A strong relationship since diabetics are more vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics.

Qn: What are the things one needs to take care of after a heart operation?
Ans : Diet, exercise, drugs on time , Control cholesterol, BP, weight.

Qn: Are people working on night shifts more vulnerable to heart disease when compared to day shift workers?
Ans : No.

Qn: What are the modern anti-hypertensive drugs?
Ans : There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose the right combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to avoid the drugs and go for natural ways of controlling blood pressure by walk, diet to reduce weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles.

Qn: Does dispirin or similar headache pills increase the risk of heart attacks? Ans : No.
Qn: Why is the rate of heart attacks more in men than in women? Ans : Nature protects women till the age of 45.

Qn: How can one keep the heart in a good condition?
Ans : Eat a healthy diet, avoid junk food, exercise everyday, do not smoke and, go for health checkups if you are past the age of 30 ( once in six months recommended)...