Monday, June 20, 2011

The Beginning of an End


The Mayan calendar stops on a particular date in 2012. We are just a few months away if at all there really is anything serious on the cards. Scientific theories such as the magnetic poles shift, increase in solar flares, etc. can give an insight into how true the dreaded date can be. Natural disasters such as Earthquakes, Avalanches, Tsunamis, Floods, Famine, etc. can push us to the last step of human existence. But, nothing will force us to give up on humanity and the life after everyone’s death. That can be caused on to us, only by the US, for the US and of the US. May be that is why Democracy is a widespread tool to tackle the human race. Having said about the tool to tackle us (the people and not the country), another tool to destroy ourselves (probably a better word than US) is the Nuclear arsenal that we carry on our shoulders.
We have problems galore with six billion humans on a single planet. When one goes a few centuries back in time, the frequency of sighting a UFO was a lot higher than what it is now (nearly nil). When one goes a few millenniums back in time, the occurrence of an alien visit is corroborated with the evidences in the form of cave drawings, temples, monuments such as Pyramid, Stonehenge, Nasca plate, etc. which are spread sporadically on different places across the globe. The question is not about whether they really visited us in the past. Hands down they have! But the real question is why did they visit us? Was their race coming to an end? Were they searching for a place to live, sustain and transfer their learning to the untransformed human mind? Were there too many of their species like how we have right now on Earth, that they had to move out? If given the crunch, do we, the Earthly people, have an alternative to go somewhere else?
To defy the logic of the existence of extra-terrestrial life, all we have to do is to think from a bird’s view (or say a space ship’s view). We have nine planets in our Solar System and the closest place where we can find, nearest to the existence of life, is Mars. We don’t know anything about the other planets. Our Solar System is on one of the corners of our Galaxy – Milky Way. How many stars (For starters, Sun is a star) would be there in our Milky Way (approximately 200 billion stars) and how many planets (approximately 50 billion planets)? And imagine how many such Milky Way type galaxies are there in our Universe. And yet, we think we are alone in this Universe? Man has got some nerves!
Firstly we haven’t ascertained that we are the lone beings in our solar system. Secondly, the nearest star to our Earth that is proposed to have planets is at a distance of 10.5 lightyears away. That being, if one travels at the speed of light, one needs 10.5 years to reach that star which has a couple of planets. Finish the assignment there and then head for the next star. And to do all these things, we first need energy systems to propel our ships to travel at the speed of light. Considering human’s lifespan (the elaborated one, that one has in space as well), we need atleast two educated families to travel the ship. The children have to learn the trade from their parents, procreate and their offsprings have to keep on continuing the same for a lifetime and beyond a lifetime to ascertain that we are indeed alone or until we find somebody else.
All this is possible and we can do it to find alternate planet to live on, to do the things that the aliens did for us in the past, to teach them our findings and learning, to attain the Godly image, to make them worship us (some irrationals already do that here on Earth) and to live our extended lives. We, the humans can be aliens for someone else to whom they look up to.
For that we have to do two little things. One being, not to decimate ourselves with the Nuclear warheads pointing at each other. The current Political arrangements encourage a lot to see the “The End”, but will there be anyone to see it in real time. We have to avoid a Nuclear War at all costs lest we destroy ourselves before 2012.  The other being, spending time, energy and money on finding an energy source, may be Nuclear Fusion (taking a cue from our own Sun) to travel through space.
 We have a long way to go before we find a breakthrough and patience is the key. Every finding should be recorded and things have to be made easier for the next generation to carry on from where the current one leaves. If only the secrets of the Pyramids and other prominent structures were recorded, we wouldn’t have had to start from scratch again. Nevertheless, if we don’t pay heed to the first point, we have to start out all over again with the primitive man scraping a piece of wood unless we leave a Mentos behind. Once again, there will be races – F1, MotoGP, Tour de France (if France is found once again) and Stone-Copper-Iron-Nuclear Arms and we will be visited by aliens once again and wait for another 2012 or the Sun to give up. 

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Genesis of a habit


One fine day in July 2009, we all decided to give the CAT, that year. Oh yeah! The (un)Common Admission Test that one, born in India, gives to fulfill one’s as well as one’s parents’ dream, not to dare to think beyond the IIMs. Five of us set ourselves to tame the CAT and get ourselves released from the pressure-filled Aluminium smelter. To bell the CAT, one had to be thorough with the concepts and, in the process, give a lot of mock tests, which, in turn, makes a mockery out of one’s self-respect. Concepts were at the back of our palms and we had the self-belief that concepts can be created out of thin air, like the lies that we create, while reporting to our managers at the end of our shifts. The only hitch was giving the mock tests as that required us to register ourselves with one of the premier coaching institutions. Spot one coaching institute in the whole of Jharsuguda, let alone a premier institute, and there will be torrential rains in Thar Desert.
After a bit of research and a lot of money out of our bank accounts, we made the brave decision to register ourselves with TIME, Rourkela, which was 134 km from Jharsuguda, on the ‘Diary Milk Silk’ road SH10. It was a Sunday, and a supposed off for the five of us. I was apprehensive to ride a bike for that much a distance as it was raining cats, dogs and tigers. I took the pillion seat in the Pulsar 200 behind Narayan, with Manish and Pratap on the Hunk, while Abir was the loner with the Pulsar 150. The raincoats were robust, and we never got wet inside until we stopped for our breakfast at a dhabha, some 30 km from Jharsuguda. With some hot Badas (Vada in South India) in our tummies, we reached Rourkela after two and a half hours.
Circling around Rourkela, with its sharp cuts, twists and turns, we finally reached the centre. To our amazement, we learnt that Abir had already enrolled for the course (which he revealed then) and our view of him changed from the innocent chap who drove in the rain without a raincoat, to the traitor who was already on his way to the IIMs. There was a mock test in the process and except Abir, none were eligible to take it as we had enrolled just then. We questioned our commitment in travelling 134 km every Sunday to take up the mock tests, but when we thought about our plight in the plant, we readily convinced ourselves that distance should not be an issue. The TIME-center person happily pocketed the money and told us that all we needed was an internet connection; that we could indeed take the tests from back home. And the reason being; CAT was to go online from that year. What a relief! Within a few seconds, money transferred hands and we were on our way to the IIMs.
Jharsuguda being a place without a proper theatre, we took balcony tickets in a theatre in Rourkela for a stupid movie “Shortcut”. Like the name of the movie, we took a shortcut half way through it and made our way to Moksha – the bar. Joined by a friend, Nitin, from SAIL, we had a nice time and it was five in the evening when we started back. Pratap was in no mood to ride and that was my cue to take reins of the Hunk. I did ride on that smooth road during our onward journey for a few kilometers, but, a whole of 134 km with Manish (he didn’t know to ride a bike then although he owns a Karizma now) as the pillion was an exasperating thought. It was fearsome, yet I enjoyed more than I thought I would. With a slight drizzle and the serene silhouette of the mountains, the ride was refreshing. The ride enchanted me and made me relax the nerves of a long ride.
As expected I didn’t make the cut in CAT ’09, although it was one of my best performances. And, as expected, Abir and Manish didn’t even bother to give the exam. And, as unexpected, Pratap cleared it and made it to IIM Lucknow. And then I understood why there was “Luck” in Lucknow.
The trip made a deep impact on me. Not because of the drive to bell the CAT, but the drive on the highways. Wasting no time, I bought a Royal Enfield Thunderbird and was on the same road “n” number of times to go for a coffee at the nearest CafĂ© Coffee Day. Biking, that started as a necessity, turned into a passion and became a habit. And 134 km was just a start to the life of biking thrills and frills as I was back on the road again and again..

Monday, June 6, 2011

Fast at Fault


India has never invaded any country in the past 10000 years. It has been invaded by many countries, individuals, kings, paupers, you and me. Startling, isn’t it? When did you and I invade our own country? Let me just recall what I learnt in History. I learnt it because all that my History school teacher did was to spit on the first benchers when she delivered a lecture (Another main reason why I was a back-bencher). As far as I can remember, the Pandavas and Kauravas fought with each other for the kingdom. Although clear facts are not established if they came from somewhere or they belonged there. If one has to go into the past that is even before Mahabharata, there are these Ancient Aliens invasion, which theoretically proves the invasion.

Now, coming to known facts, there was this Alexander dude, who sooner or later succumbed to Indian melodramatic emotions and returned back. The movie-name starrer Ghazini, his mate Ghouri, et al. raided the then Bharat. Then came lots of other dynasties and along with them came from Mongolia, the Babar with his Mughal Empire. Not to take anything away from the Europeans, the Brits, French, Portuguese and their entourage, they made their presence felt. We have come a long way from all those things, and then we have the Chinese and Pakistani invasion.

In Pakistani terms, it is India’s invasion, proving our premise wrong. But, Pakistanis are never correct. They said, they didn’t have Osama-bin-Laden, but they had him safely guarded. They said they had nothing to do with Mumbai attacks, but, upcoming evidences show otherwise. The only thing that they said which came true was that they said that they won’t allow Sachin to hit his 100th century against them. That came true despite dropping 6 chances and we solely have ourselves to blame for this mishap. Talking about China, since they feel that people from our North Eastern states resemble them in physical features, it’s their birthright to have a share of Arunachal Pradesh, as of now. We don’t have invasion problems from our other neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but, if you and I can invade our country so well, they too will be soon drawn to the temptation.
For long now, we have had this corruption thing going on. I personally feel that it dates back even before those 10000 years of anti-invasion policy that we hold close to our heart. Then why crib about it now? Insensitive question to be asked, but, we have poor policies that encourage corruption. Let me site you an example from my own life. I bought my bike in Orissa where I registered under the “OR” code and paid Road Taxes worth Rs. 5000. It turned out that I had to shift base to Tamil Nadu. Now, I need to re-register the same bike under the code “TN” and pay an additional Road Tax of Rs. 5000. We are a country and everytime I move my base station, I need to pay more cash. Since, I already paid a lumpsome, why should I not pay only a handful and get done with the formalities? Why unnecessary hassles? I lose out more than what I can possibly earn. What is the shortcut here when a traffic cop holds you? No prizes for guessing, yet, we throw blatant tantrums against corruption.
It was just a small-scale example bolstering the argument on policies. Taking a cue from “Atlas Shrugged”, all the policy-makers think that there is no way to rule innocent people. The only power any government has is the power to take on criminals. When there aren’t enough criminals, they make laws and policies to make some. Our government declares so many things as crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws. When we break laws we are susceptible to be corrupt. And that is how you and I invade our own country. We need policy changes, the root-cause of all corrupt, not a bill to bring the corrupt to the face the law, which again is corrupt. We need to stop invading our own country to stop others from invading. As long as we don’t address the base question, we will be invaded by countries, individuals, kings, paupers, you and me.