Learn and unlearn

Life offers many teachings. We learn multiple good things while unlearning unwanted things. This process of learning/unlearning is lifelong process. As it happens quite often I am in mood of preaching. So here go some words from the preacher in me.

To begin with below things could be added to learn activity.

1: Empathy : One has to interact with large number of people in modern world. So one has to understand what others think and feel.This becomes prerequisite for understanding new problems , decision making , conflict resolution , successful negotiation . Consideration of empathy can induce long lasting peace, happiness, harmony, fraternity. In present times of conflicts , wars , intolerance empathy in way ahead.

2: Stand for others : We should stand for others rights , help them , empower them . This is required for larger good of the society and world. In era of interdependence it is critical to help others when they are stuck up. Helping others should be done in good faith e.g. without seeking any specific return for oneself. Civilization has progressed with collective effort . This is requirement in present era as well as we face new challenges and concerns.

3: Love and care : Spread love and care for people around you. This can be done by keeping all channels of communication open. Acknowledge dignity and existence of others. Power of little smile , act of love and care is immense which is underestimated. Excuse of fast paced life laced with stress takes us away from social life. Idea is to remain close with people around you while you walk your chosen path.

4: Hobbies : Everyone has own way of maximizing happiness . Having multiple hobbies is one way of doing this. Not doing anything is not an option , so choose what you love to do . Try multiple things till you find something according to your wish. As a motivating factor hobbies help in remaining healthy , increases creative potential , lets you make friends and provide wholesomeness to life. Go ahead with dance , music , painting , reading , exercise , games . Options are galore , find what you love. It's never too late.

Below things may be added to unlearn tasks.

1: Prejudices : This reflects in form of negative attitude towards people , places . Removing prejudices can be done by application of logic , reason ,seeking facts , rational scientific outlook . Constant vigil can minimize prejudices which we might have developed.

2: Stereotypes : Generally this goes with prejudices which we may have generated. This shows in way be eat , talk , walk , wear, think , believe , act. Stereotypes can limit our potential. Narrow outlook towards people around us and ourselves is harmful for progressive outlook towards life.

3: Ego : This is basis of negative personality and fuels other negative things e.g conflict , hatred , violence etc. Solution lies in being humble and have long term perspective rather than short term show of muscle and power. Ego can be easily controlled by having good sense of humor. 

4: Comfort zone : With mundane life activities a sense of inertia develops. This limits the possible progress . Change can be painful but nothing is as painful as being in situation/place you do not belong. Way forward in this case is to seek challenges, enhance capabilities, rest but not too long , choose freedom over comforting chains , broaden the outlook and expectation from life. Rise and shine,  which is not possible by remaining in comfort zone.

The list can certainly get longer for learn/unlearn. May be those can be added in later blog posts.

Goal of human life is to be good human being while maximizing happiness. Let good things get attached with you while leaving bad ones. Let the process begin and continue...

From the Cook in Me

My tryst with cooking has been fairly old affair. Starting with simple tea i did try new things and experimented with the ingredients and the process of cooking . I had fair count of finger cuts , burns , spilled milks etc to make the story full of exciting moments.

Cooking certainly tests multiple things as human being . To be one good cook one should carry fair amount of patience , ability to learn from mistakes , innovate , experiment , be careful , good observer , learn from others etc. Honest effort and love one adds shows in the end result. Cooking is one way to show how much you love yourself and people around you. Here goes some of the learnings from my cooking experience .

1: Time : As a cook one has to develop sense of timing for adding ingredients. Order of ingredients matter as well . End result can be drastically different based on the timing and order of adding ingredients. One example can be taken of oil. As general rule oil should be added to the frying pan when the pan is moderately hot. Further let oil get hot before adding other things e.g onion , spices etc.

2: Chemical reaction : Cooked food get flavor and color due to chemical reaction which take place. Ensure that you understand the ingredients and what you expect from resultant product. One example can be taken for smoke point of oil. All oils have smoking point above which smoke starts coming. At smoke point trans-fat is created. This should be avoided during cooking i.e. Cook at low flame or choose the oil as per cooking needs having smoking point in mind.

3: Salt : Cliché statement is applicable in case of salt e.g. add as per your taste. Oil helps salt in uniform spread e.g. inside of vegetables. So add salt after initial around one minutes of frying in oil when the vegetable starts turning reddish. Considering health needs less salt should be part of meals.

4: Onion : This is part of gravy base of innumerable vegetable dishes. Try onions chopped in different sizes to add variety to your preparation. Onions of small sizes added as whole can be good experimental proposition as well. Same can be said for using baby onions.

5: Khichdi : This has been one of my favorite dishes . Saviors for the times when you are too tired or too lazy to do much manual intensive tasks. Add rice , pulses , vegetables , spices and salts into pressure cooker and boil everything for 3-4 whistles . Give takda to the preparation using cumin seeds and oil. Certainly an activity of optimal returns for minimum effort.

6: Washing Utensils : You can not be good cook without good at taking up clean up act e.g washing utensils , cooking area etc. This is important for hygiene and aesthetics as well . How to proceed with washing utensils? I think act of patience comes into play here. Let your favorite song play in your mind and proceed with the task. Clean utensils present happy picture and is motivating factor to accomplish the task of cooking wonderful dishes. Use minimum utensils for cooking to avoid dealing with mountain of them for cleaning.

7: Buying vegetables : Always go for the fresh and seasonal vegetables . Out of season vegetables are excessively costly and lack taste and nutrition value as well. Here again choose the desi varieties which may not look great but they are far ahead in taste compared to the hybrid ones . e.g. desi tomatoes have more water content. One side comment can be made to carry your own bag while buying vegetables. One weird fashion has crept in recent times to use plastic bags . That is bad for environmental reasons. So discard plastic as far as possible.

Cooking and related activities can add good value to one's personality . Healthy mind lives in healthy body and being a good cook is a step in that direction . I have introduced myself into this world , i shall continue with the process and try to become better as time passes. Bye folks

p.s : In due course I shall share some of my recipes. 

address , can be funny.....

image : butt hole road , south yorkshire , England
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some words will be understood by people who know hindi. Sorry to visitors who don't know hindi. btw..plz do ask any confusion if meaning of words gets lost.

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other day i was discussing with one my friends about how funny addresses can become ( specially in india). At least in US i think address are plain with "downtowns" and "avenues" making their presence felt. Agreed , "address" in other countries must be equally "crazy" but i need to explore . My "desi" friends please help me in this regard :)

So i would like to start with what sunil pal did sing in "great indian laughter challenge". So funny it was...actually he was mimicking one village fellow reading his brother's address while singing...

"on 14th road my brother living , his name kalu rasia......opposite post-office there is telephone 'boothwa'.... "(missing later part of this song..failed to trace the video on our college LAN , hence full lyrics ).

Moving on i would to cite some funny names of roads in india
#dharamsala road (almost in all indian towns )
#amroodwali gali (in patna )
#maachali wali gali (in patna )
#parathewali gali (chandani chowk, want to visit this place :) )
#puriwali gali (varanasi )
#hartali more (patna )
many more...list can be really long. I think this can be material of proper research..hehe

In india we have "gandhi chowk" and "gandhi maidan" in every indian town..err cities as well. And funny part comes when the addresses get into conversation....ex in patna there is "income tax chauraha".
so asking "autowalah"
hey...will u go to income-tax?......so funny!!

when we write address..some things easily get into the address like..near the "temple/mosque", "transformer" (really happens) ,"post-office","in-front of particular persons home".....hehe...list goes on and on.

before closing : everyone please do write some "strange" things about the addresses you know.
cheers!!....by folks

Typecasting

Typecating,
this word can immediately generate interest for programmers ( C , C++ , JAVA )
I am confused when i try to relate "technical" meaning of "typecasting" with "real-life" meaning of the same.

Technical : Converting an expression of a given type into another type is known as type-casting.

Real Life (actors): the process by which an actor is strongly identified with a specific character, role, or trait.

So confusion all around.Actually we all "love" to get type casted.Consider what "algorithm" we follow while "walking", "shopping","talking". How many times we use words like "I always do this like this".Once KK menon said , "Everyone is type casted .... why else everyone is know by particular name :) " .

I remember my childhood days , when i used to do some "mischief" and others complained that to my mother , her first remark used to be "my son can not do this!!!". Oh! sadly i became "good-boy", don't know for "good-or-bad".

But, there are times when we do try to break "the typecast".If others can do why not me?.It's fun to be slight "out-of-box-doing-things"...after all we all should taste the different "flavours" which life has to offer.

so let's try to break the cast.....come out of "Jerry's hole" (from tom-and-Jerry)....have fun....and we all know, we have to come to our "cast" to be safe from "tom"...hehe

before closing , i would like to quote dialogue from the Prison break
"We are captives of our own identity living in prison of our own creation".
Let's break that prison.

by folks,

Status update : going public

i did come across beautiful article in "times of india" (6th march 2009).I was tempted to cut that piece of the news paper containing this article. Another idea also came simultaneously to present this article on my blog so that others who missed it in TOI can read from here.

Dedicated to everyone who keep their statue message as
"available, available,available" on gtalk. :-)

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GOING PUBLIC
richa jha
TOI: 6th march 2009

My social networking inertia makes me an anomaly in the web world.And what's is worse, one lacks the necessary spunk to announce it through one's status message on Facebook and Gtalk! I find myself at sea, surrounded by souls who wear their lives and emotions on their sleeves, changing their virtual 'status' each time their kitten coughs or the doorbell rings.

I have nothing more to offer by way of originality or wit than the perpetual drab 'available' while real people in the virtual world chronicle, comment upon, celebrate, debate and deliberate every smile, every toilet break and every mood swing. My alter-ego says, girl, cheer up, you at least are a netizen with couple of log-in IDs in your name; look at many around you who still think Gtalk is a dirty word invented by the G-string G-spot brigade and Facebook is a scrapbook full of portraits. But there's little solace in that argument, you'll agree.

We led perfectly non-defunct lives even before we began drawing almost-voyeuristic pleasures out of people's self-advertised mental, bedroom or boardroom one-liners. So since when did the human race get this eloquent en masse? And why this sudden urge to go public with the most personal of mood swings? I know, on any given morning, which of my 'contacts' slept late, which one woke up with a nightmare, who had what for dinner! Must one be told? To be honest, the status tags do make for some interesting eclectic reading! I read these personal opinions of people who, until a couple of years ago, i thought were just like me when there is nothing better to do.

The only opinion we freely dispensed then was whether the latest Govinda flick was more crass than his previous one. Suddenly, to read from them supremely profound, at times abstruse and even comic sentiments like, "life, blanched, smoked, it passes me by", only makes me more insecure about my own linguistic, cerebral and existential prowess. A friend, who has long since taken me off his list of contacts, commented in exasperation, "Available, available, available. Don't you ever have anything interesting to say about yourself? You don't deserve to be online!" Well, he said it.

"lost": Project complete

After some demanding days , today was some relaxation as there was 1 day gap in my mid-semester exam schedule . So last night i "cashed" this situation by watching remaining episodes of "LOST" series . To be more specific , i did watch 14 episodes ( within 14 ) hours (b/w 4pm and 6am).

I started watching "LOST" on 28th january . So this was long project watching 95 episodes ( 4 complete seasons and 7 episodes of season 5 ). This was certainly not easy work considering 50 mins each episode and weird storytelling concept used in this series . There were moments when i really felt , "why i am watching this". Finally it feels good , i have successfully watched them all.

Those who are still confused , "lost" is story of plane crash survivors who crash on a mysterious island . The location of the shooting , hawaii , was really great . without any doubt "the island" is the actual hero in this series ( as aptly shown ). While watching the series , i did know why this series is called "most expensive series ever ".
Like all other series many things i did learn from this series. All the caracters were so good ( many more episodes are to be aired ). Somethings that i did learn from some characters are....

Jack: Always be helpful to others and don't let others decide what you can not do.

Kate :there is always chance of getting over our past mistakes. we can't chage past but can live present in our own way (difficulties will be there).

Sowyer : being emotional doesn't mean one has to show them .

Sayid : Never be so sure of anything, let there be scope of plan B.

Claire : Be so nice to others , it works most of the time.( her style of speaking was so good ).

Ana lucia : Being tough can lead us becoming trouble for others ( oneself as well ), so flexibility required.

This blog entry is getting longer, before closing , those who have not seen this, watch when you have ample time to kill and watch out the beautiful setting of this "tv-series" the mysterious island and what the mysteries are.

Movies...All the way

watching movies was one of my "things to do in 2009 " . I thank myself for considering this and guess what , i have already watched 11 movies after coming to BIT ( Good from my standards ) . If one asks the name , here they go

1: Slumdog Millionaire
2: Rab ne bana di jodi
3: Schindler's list
4: Dark Knight
5: The sweetest thing
6: P.S.I love you
7: Legally blonde
8: What happens in vegas
9: Apocalypse now
10: City of God
11: Finding Nemo

My comments about 3 of them is ...

City of god :this one is special one ( my favourite in 11 above ) . One of the special movies i have seen in my life . I did understood nuances of excellent direction ,editing , story telling etc . Very correctly this movie is in all time 100 list . I recommend this movie to everyone , watch this movie before you die ( one website E! , ranked this movie 2nd in movies to watch before you die ) . If one can believe , this movie is based on true experiences of a photographer living in slums of rio-de-janerio ( Brazil ) . I would like to mention special information here , most of the actors were real life characters ( amateurs ) . The situation was so dangerous in actual " city of god " , that most of the shooting of the movie was done in different locality .

Slumdog millionaire: everyone has written so many things in praise of the movie , thumbs up from my side as well . But i regret one thing the use of english ( more then 70%) just reduced the magnitude of impact the movie was capable of producing . This is one of the reasons slumdog will be ranked below "salaam bombay " by me . Everyone is saying this movie is academy award material , i accept this feeling . Finally music of the movie was mind blowing , who else can do that , a r rehman .

Schindler's list : This one is epic movie and is about the Nazi's crime against humanity during second world war . They say every thing is fair in war , i am not going to buy this theory anymore . While watching this movie i just wondered , humans can go to such an extent with theory : Our race is better then theirs , shame !! . This movie is ranked 8th in all time 100 movies , worth watching in one's life time . Mostly in black and white , direction prevailed over everyone . Rightly the movie got 8 academy awards .

Rubiks Cube.....1 year with me

Hi folks ,
my association with Rubiks cube is going to be 1 years ( on 4th december 2008 ) . On this date i first took notice of color cube ( which i thought was for kids to play with ) in Ammar's room . I didn't know it was called rubik's cube ( Obviously on name of it's founder Mr. erno rubik ) . next 10 days were very interesting with i kept on thinking about the method to solve the cube . Using Google was not same after those days . I devoted many hours searching for any algorithm . I found many , but failed to implement any one . I finally gave up and went home on 17th december . My hard word finally paid in january when i was able to solve the cube ( around 10th january i think ).

There is interesting thing to add here . I started working on programmed solution of the cube ( till now i am unable to do that ) But i was rewarded for this also . I did mention this in my Resume for Google internship . I think on basis of this only my name appeared in list of students whose names were recommended from our college to google . I didn't get dream opportunity to give telephonic interview , but still this was special thing .

As i am associated with Rubiks cube for one years , i would like to celebrate this with thanks to Erno Rubiks who created this cube . I know working with one's hobbies does gives satisfaction . So everyone should look for what their hobbies are and go for it . One can learn beautiful things .
bye for now,
Neeraj

Of Course I love You.......

TILL I FIND SOMEONE BETTER........
Hello friends , Yesterday i read this novel ( "Of course I love you...Till i find someone better ") by Durjoy Dutta and Manvi Ahuja .Prep leave started yesterday i felt void ( what should i do to before going for end semester preparation .) I found the book in Satyanarayan's room around 7pm on 19th nov . Ok , a date with the book was fixed . So, i started around 00.45 am 20th november , and i was able to finish the book by 23.30 pm same day .

It was refreashing novel , with some chetan bhagat flavour . Last 100 pages were good and i did appreciate the storyline the writer had to say . Many things from college days were there ( writer is DCEite , 2008 passout ) so it was fun going through the pages that talked about p*rn , movies , s*x , alcohol , and girlfriends ( around these things , days of a normal engineering student revolves ) .No points for guessing only a few are able to get girlfriend .

Some practical points came ....for example
" I was tired of heart wrenching stories of success around me ." This told about peer pressure one has to go through . One has to work to remain at par with one's friends . One more line was also regarding this . " I prayed for her to do well . I knew she would get it and felt little sad about it ." Yes , in real life also we pray for our friends success and knowing that if they succeed they will not be in same league as us , we become sad and sometimes envious ( "I hate to be envious" ..but ...).
Two-three points i would like to talk about before closing ( that i did like )
1: Subjects fail to make their presence felt even during examination ( during last semester of engineering ) and one spends time thinking about what to do in next few months ( best days of life ) .

2: Plastic surgeons still can't rival god ( nature can be better word , as i am non-believer ) ( yes !!! sometimes we come across some faces which justify this statement ).

3: richer the girls get sexier they are . ( a debatable topic .....can be topic of our group discussion )

However , everything is not good about the book .I don't think use of so much of dirty words ( i don't call them dirty anymore ) ( f**k , D**k etc ..) was required to make the novel look youthful . A better editing is required , some pages are really unnecessary . May be those pages can be removed . Still , best complements to young writers ( Durjoy and Manvi ) . I would like to thank Chetan bhagat , who has inspired so many to write and so many to read as well ( i am one of them ).
My next blog entry will be GONE WITH THE WIND!!!
BY folks
neeraj