We however, were more interested in playing than attending those sessions, and would find every way to escape from it. But we were forced to sit through them; I’m happy and appreciate it now.

I don’t remember all of the speeches I’ve heard, but some of them have etched themselves into my memory. I remember hearing an ornithologist speak and how he and his team managed to save a rare species of owls which were hunted down because the villagers thought they brought bad omen. I remember a social worker speaking of how important “Ahimsa” is and why we should practice it. I remember an eminent cricketer speak on how he would like to groom the future cricketing talent and urged us to join his cricket coaching camp.

I remember hearing a talk on how we remember things and little tricks on how to build a story around a series of events you wish to remember. I remember hearing a talk about superstitions and the speaker also debunked many of them giving scientific explanations. I remember hearing someone from ISRO talking about the Indian Space program and how it had succeeded in many ways. I remember a drama workshop in which we were made to sing, dance and jump around.

In many of the posts I write, the title hardly makes sense until you’ve made it half way through the article, and yes, this is one of those posts. I first heard the term body-parking in one such talk sessions during my school days. According to the person (unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, I do not remember names), body-parking means the idea that your mind wanders off elsewhere while you park your body physically where you are present. He used the term to describe students who seemed uninterested in his speech.

We are all “guilty” of body-parking some time or the other – in meetings, boring parties, during travel, or even on that occasional rainy Sunday afternoon. I say guilty because traditional thinking describes body-parking as a bad thing. You aren’t mindful; you aren’t concentrating. But I feel, body-parking is a necessary process of creativity. You have to think beyond your limits and boundaries, only then is it possible to think of something new. Writers, artists and musicians would agree with this. They usually live out of their bodies.

This reminds me of Sir Ken Robinson‘s description of university professors. He says, university professors live inside their heads all the time. They consider their bodies to be a vehicle for their brains, nothing more. In that sense, these university professors are perpetual body-parking entities. See, not a bad thing. (If you haven’t watched any of the talks by Sir Ken, you definitely have to!)

So, do you park your body often and let your mind wander?

We were quite literally “buzzed” into the new office – buzzed by the swarm of mosquitoes, which would greet us everyday during our initial stint at the new building. The mosquitoes gracefully sang melodies after melodies in perfect symphony that would even shame the great Mozart or give our own Himesh Reshammiya a run for his money! And in turn, many of us became skilled mosquito-hunters, nothing short of the famed Ninjas. By week 2 at the new office, I was pretty much adept at catching them mid-air (though not as good as Rajnikanth catching a bullet) and debilitating them. I had not felt this murderously vile ever before! If you had the chance to walk by my workstation, you would notice a picture of a solemn graveyard overlooking a persistent funeral of numerous mosquitoes.

My murdering ways came to a stop, thankfully, by the efforts of the facilities staff who managed to drive (almost) all the mosquitoes away by week 4 (I think). And further more, I’m happy none of us caught any mosquito-related illnesses.

On the bright side, we were welcomed by a flash mob dance routine by some of our colleagues.Here it is, if anyone’s interested.

We must beware of trying to build a society in which nobody counts for anything except a politician or an official, a society where enterprise gains no reward and thrift no privileges.

- Sir Winston Churchill

It is painful to admit that India of late, has successfully built the diseased society that Sir Winston Churchill described. Every Indian at birth comes with a price tag on his soul. It does not take much money to have someone killed. It is very easy to start a communal riot.

It is said that India has never attacked any other nation in all its history. It was perhaps because we Indians never had time to do so, as we were, and still are busy fighting each other. Truth be said, the real Indian does not exist anymore. There are only north Indians, south Indians; Bengalis, Biharis, Malayalis, Tamilians, Punjabis, Kannadigas, Gujaratis, Marathas; Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs; hundred other sub-castes under each of them; and lastly the rich and the poor. It is hard to believe that India is a single democracy. It is more like an unwilling unity between communities of people living separately under one flag. The only solace in this dysfunctional existence is that it beats the alternative. If India were actually broken down into separate countries, we would have fought and killed each other long ago.

The world sees India as the land of the intellectuals, the software hub of the world and the “yoga-land”. That’s all true, however there is a magnanimous skew in the ratio of such people who are contributing to the progress of the country to persons who leech off the loop holes in the system, the worst possible way. There is a way around every law in this country. Got caught over-speeding? Want to avoid the ticket? Cost Rs. 100 (~$2); Free, if you are the son of the brother of the barber of some minister. That’s how far and deep corruption has engulfed us. Many of our ministers and bureaucrats have criminal investigations pending against them – such are the people who are running this country. Rapists and murderers are released without so much as a slap on the wrist; and justice in many cases is an eluding illusion. Celebrities and cricketers are worshiped (literally) as Gods while soldiers who fought for the country are abandoned. Our women are not safe – female infanticide, rape, eve-teasing, molestation, dowry-related violence, domestic violence – have plugged them into a shell of insecurity.

When security (Police), well-being (Housing, Health, Water, Electricity) and literacy (Education) departments in a country are among the top corrupted, there’s very little to say about what remains. We Indians suffer from the disease of complacent indifference towards all these social vices. And unless there is an intellectual and social revolution, the situation will not improve.

Have you heard of the Bechdel Test? Read no further if you wish to enjoy your movies or books (stories) anymore. Why? Well, because of this peculiar rule, I’ll now have a mental checklist every time I watch a movie! The Bechdel Test is described as follows:

The Bechdel Test, credited to Liz Wallace, was introduced in Alison Bechdel’s comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. In a 1985 strip titled “The Rule,” an unnamed female character says that she only watches a movie if it satisfies the following requirements: (1) It has to have at least two women in it, (2) who talk to each other, (3) about something besides a man.

This blog post introduced me to this topic and opines that the above rule exists as a litmus test for Hollywood directors to check how much they cared for their female characters. I’m somewhat bothered by this. No offense to women but isn’t this somehow destroying the experience of a movie to every one? If a story does not permit having two women, will a director or story writer be forced to introduce unwanted characters for the sake of satisfying this rule?

That said, let’s break down the rule. Firstly, it says, the story must have two women in it. That isn’t asking much considering not many stories (or movies) exist without two women. (An extension of this idea is that both these women must be named characters – that is, it cannot be a random cleaning woman who would just appear on the screen). Secondly, these named characters must share a dialogue. This is where it gets a little tricky. You have your two women, right; now why should they be forced to speak to each other? Finally, this is where it gets confusing – now that they are talking, they should not talk about men?

I remember a story that I had read in my school days – Dusk by Saki (H H Munro). It has no female characters. But a great short story nevertheless. (Read it online) My story – The Cold Rain – also fails the test. Although it has two named female characters, there is no dialogue between them.

The only sane explanation that could have an “irritated woman” come up with this rule for herself, and by extension to every other person who feels the same way is that, in the 80′s there were an exceeding number of movies that ‘used’ women in unimportant roles and all male characters drove the story. Was it the case? I do not know. I haven’t watched many movies from the 80′s.

The question is, how relevant is this test in today’s cinema? Of course, Hollywood and Bollywood, the world’s two most money-raking franchises are male-dominated, with actors being heavily overpaid than actresses. In fact, the 2012′s list of 10 richest celebrities do not feature an actress at all.

On a lighter note, here’s the list of IMDb’s top 10 movies and whether they pass this test: **

Notes: ** Tabulated from memory; may not be completely accurate. * Tabulated from sources; again, accuracy questionable. If you know of variations from the above, please leave a comment, I’ll fix it.

Visiting a well-built website designed for accessibility is also an experience. Many websites have realized this and there has been a huge improvement in terms of time and resource dedicated to user experience when building a website. One example that I noticed was the recent change in the dashboard of Tumblr where adding a quote would automatically truncate and create a 140-char twitter message (If enabled). Before this update, I had to manually copy the quote and paste it into the twitter box and truncate the message manually. I was impressed by this little feature that reiterates the wonderful things Tumblr has been doing to improve user experience. On the upside, the new feature would save about 15-20 seconds of my time each time I post.

P.S.: The new feature has not been advertised anywhere on their staff blog or the design blog or the engineering blog. A silent, likable update. Try tumbling if you haven’t already. You will be bowled over by its simplicity and ease of use.

Is this the (in)famous writer’s block? If it really is so, I’d be gloating because I’m not much of a writer anyway!

According to Wikipedia, a writer’s block occurs because of:

• lack of creative ideas – Does not really hold true for me because I have no dearth of ideas.
• lack of inspiration – Hmm.. Not really, I do visit my blog very often to reply to comments, visit other people’s blogs that I follow. So, I’ve not lost interest as such.
• stress, illness, depression, etc. – No, none really.

So, (un)fortunately, I don’t think I’m suffering from a writer’s block, just procrastination. Well, simply put, it’s time to clean up my dusty draft-shelf with dedicated blog time.

The word ‘Manoj’ is a ‘samaasa‘ (compound word) in Sanskrit. (To be specific, it is Avayeebhaava samaasa).
It derives from the explanation: ‘manasi jaatah iti Manojah‘, meaning “he is born in the mind, hence he is ‘Manoj’”. When expanded:
Manasi = in the mind
jaatah = born
iti = therefore/that’s why/hence
Manojah = he is Manoj

It is used often as a reference to Kaamdev (the God of Love, in Hindu mythology, who was burned to ashes by Lord Shiva’s third eye). It is said that Lord Kaama was born in the mind (of Lord Brahma, the creator).

Thanks to this post that reminded me of it.

One would expect a loof to be rich after he invented the remote control.

Loof (v): To act with an air of confident carelessness.

Don’t loof around as if you know everything.

Loofily (adj.): To behave like a loof (see above).

He loofily went about creating stuff.

I so wanted to come up with a word for “a foolish genius” after reading this oatmeal comic. And I dedicate this to Nikola Tesla. The greatest loof there can ever be.

P.S.: Somebody add this to the dictionary!

- Enigma

 The truth of the above statements is quite unimportant. Yet, it sparks silent questions in our minds. And the answer we get, is silence again. Science may have taught us “how” the earth revolves around the sun, or “how” sun rises and sets everyday. But our search must not end there. The real question is “Why?”. Why should the earth revolve around the sun? More feasibly, what makes the earth revolve around the sun?

Gravity? Their mass difference? The distance? Ultimately, Big Bang?

Well, why should the Big Bang have occurred? “Who made the matter, the elements, defining perfect roles for each of them? The complex symmetry in nature is not yet understood completely. As much as Charles Darwin might have explained the theory of evolution, the question “why” still remains unanswered. Why was the evolution necessary at all? We could have ‘happily’ remained amoebae!

Coming back to the idea of creation of the universe, we will, sooner or later, have to accept the role of a ‘supernatural power’ or a driving force that sustains all the happenings of the universe. Call it anything – For me, it’s God.

My understanding of God is far from being religious. For me, God is gravity. God is light. God is the unwritten law that makes fire burn, water flow and perhaps the spark that triggered the universe. God is the human intellect, that conjures so many wonderful things each and every day. I believe God is in every act of man that benefits another and hurts no one. And God is the conscience that guides, the intellect that inspires, and the heart that helps.

In today’s scenario, God is largely related to religion, festivities, and to a never-ending myth of existence. God is often spoken of, when debating upon topics like life, death and sometimes even life-after-death. Yet, why do we think of God during times of distress, disaster and impending danger? God is hope; the light at the end of the tunnel; the maker of the universal law of life and more than anything, God is the eternal faith that burns in each and every one of us. If it is a form of faith that builds harmony among people, why not? But if that faith is to kill and plunder; it is misguided.

Someday, I wish we will have enough knowledge and ‘science’ to understand my God.

#1 Calvin and Hobbes

Probably the most liked comic on earth! The adventures of Calvin and his (toy) tiger Hobbes and his take on the mysteries of life. Highly recommended read for all ages!
Follow Calvin and Hobbes:

#2 The miserable world of Prometheus

Based on the mythological story, the comic is mostly a dialog between Prometheus and the Eagle that eats his liver every day. Though the comic has been discontinued, you can read through all the comics in one page here.

#3 Spud Comics

Spud Comics isn’t theme based. It is a comic about random stuff put together. It is one of the longest running comics starting in 2008!

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#4 Doghouse

Doghouse is a web-comic conjured by three friends which is also random musings about every day life. Many of their comics are very witty!

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#5 XKCD

XKCD is a very popular, geeky web comic. Comics generally trend on Science, Internet, Geography etc. etc.

Follow XKCD:

#6 Abstruse Goose

Abstruse Goose is also a comic that does not delve on a theme. Does lean towards the geeky side a little, but not always. Generally a fun read for all.

Follow Abstruse Goose:

#7 Dilbert

Dilbert is a very popular comic among us IT folks. Though whatever described in the comic (about the hazards of working in the IT industry) is mostly superlative, we can relate to it!

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#8 Piled Higher and Deeper

PHD is similar to XKCD in its tendency to be geeky most of the time. But is a great fun nevertheless.

Follow PHD:

#9 Sunday Morning Breakfast Cereal

SMBC is updates on theology, science, history including everything in between and many times is not-safe-for-work (NSFW). So, some discretion may be advised.

Follow SMBC:

#10 Urban Jungle

Urban Jungle is about the main character’s work hazards. Something unique to Urban Jungle is that it uses animals as civilized co-characters.

Follow Urban Jungle:

#11 Questionable Content

Questionable Content is a web-comic series revealing the lives of Marten, Dora, Raven, Faye and Hannelore. And not to forget, the awesome robots!

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Phew..!

There you have it. Those are all the comics I follow regularly. Got any more suggestions?