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Sankha told me about this link..

http://www.technorati.com

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Laws of Nature

We don't have to be a Mendle or a Newton to observe and infer from nature. We don't even have to make significant "discoveries" and contribute to the world's knowledge pool. We will do ourselves a big help by first helping ourself.

I had recieved the following story via email. Maybe it will enlighten a very simple law of nature to us ....

Take a look at an apple tree. There might be five hundred apples on the tree, but each apple has just ten seeds. That's a lot of seeds!

We might ask, "Why would you need so many seeds to grow just a few more apple trees?"
Nature has something to teach us here. It's telling us: "Not all seeds grow. In life, most seeds never grow. So if you really want to make something happen,
you had better try more than once."

This might mean : You'll attend twenty interviews to get one job. You'll interview forty people to find one good employee. You'll talk to fifty people to sell one
house, one car, one vacuum cleaner, one insurance policy, or a business idea. And you might meet a hundred acquaintances just to find one special friend.

When we understand the "Law of the Seed", we don't get so disappointed. We stop feeling like victims. We learn how to deal with things that happen to us. Laws
of nature are not things to take personally. We just need to understand them - and work with them.

Pure breed Vs Hybrid

Much to my joy, i have been making more trips to chennai lately. Had been to chennai for the past two days. Spent time with my parents and brother. Wanted to catch a tam. rajini movie running in the theatres (to get the same old feel of the tam. spirit :-) ) but then my brother has become very busy with his work. He has no time for such trivial things these days. I made myself happy by listening to the non-stop FM channels.

My husband was amazed to see me dressed as this typical tam. girl. I think the atmosphere sorts of gets into u. Rather into ur skin. With lot of coaxing from my mother and my aunt (mother's sister) i got dressed to their likes (to the great dislike of my husband.. he was giving me d looks !!!).. Why is it that people want everyone around them to be garbed in the way as them (or should it be themselves ?? effect of extra doses of english grammar)

Oh, sankha was feeling happy that he got nice deals on some mp3 and CDs in chennai. He influenced my father to such an extent that the very next day my father took me to the same shop to buy some CDs for his personal collection.

Anyway, all said and done, quite a nice trip. Now, let me get back to my work of writing on an issue.

Next issue topic, i think the second in line:

"Instead of requiring students to take courses in a variety of disciplines—that is, courses ranging from the arts and the humanities to the physical and biological sciences—colleges and universities should allow students to enroll only in those courses that will help prepare them for jobs in their chosen fields. Such concentration is necessary in today's increasingly work-oriented society."

Half baked knowledge is dangerous. True but equally dangerous is absolute ignorance. In my view point, students should be exposed to a variety of disciplines but to a certain level. In today's technologically progressing society, barring a few extremely different disciplines, there are no distinct demarcations between others. Most of the sciences tend to overlap or rather merge at boundaries. Limited understanding of such overlapping subjects will prepare students better for their future jobs in their chosen fields.

My university believes in the principle of imparting knowledge of every overlapping or common field to students. The educational curriculum of my university is excellent as it imparts both generalized and specialized knowledge for all the students. Every fresher has to undergo a certain prescribed set of courses in the first two years. During the second year term, they are gradually exposed to some of their chosen field subjects. At the end of the second year, the students are given a choice to decide about their specialization. Those students who find their pre-selected specialization interesting continue with teh same field and those find some other field more absorbing are given the option to move into that field. All subjects in the third and fourth years are entirely dedicated to their specialized fields. This way the students can exert their own volition to choose their future career and also they have a broad understanding of how other fields work or operate.

Extending this scenario in my personal case, let me explain as to how i found it beneficial. Armed with Pharmacy and Biotechnology degrees, i decided to work in the upcoming field of Bioinformatics. When i joined my present employer, a software consultancy company, i was easily able to understand the computer concepts and college level mathematical and statistical concepts, which were prerequisites for my job. Apart from understanding, it made communication with my engineering colleagues very easy and smooth. I found the knowledge that i had gained at college very helpful in my work life.

I have seen many a pure science graduate, who find working in an industry ver y difficult. Also, the opportunities available to them gets drastically reduced. An industry is an amalagation of various forms of knowledge and technologies. In a quest to make pure breeds of professionals, one should not miss out on utilising the versatility of the hybrids.

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End of the issue topic.
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Weekend atlast. How i wish i could sleep off the entire saturday and sunday. But no i cannot.

"I have promises to keep and miles to go before i sleep."

;-)
Promises to myself. Another 15 days and then, ah , i can see heaven !!!

New resolution

I have decided to take up an issue everyday and express my opinion about it. This is to hep me improve my writing, formulating ideas and commenting.

So, here i go ..............

"Creating an appealing image has become more important in contemporary society than is the reality or truth behind that image."

First impressions always matter. Oscar Wilde was of the opinion that only shallow people don' go by appearances. With appearances being given so much of importance, it should not come as a surprise that many people, corporations and societies resort to fabuluous displays. Whether all such displays are just ostentatious is a matter to be considered.

I would not state that the entire society has become ostensible. There are always cases where what is displayed is what is valued. Lot of big corporations lay stress on ethics and proper code of conduct. When ethics come into picture, ostentation doesn't stand a chance. When corporations deal with stakeholders or with other clients, they cannot take a huge risk of creating a false image. Once the false image is exposed, then the trust of the stakeholders, clients and society at large is lost. And that is a very heavy price to pay. The organisation i work for places a lot of importance on values, ethics and integrity. These are upheld as prime values of the company. Organisations which command reverence from the society would never stick to false proclamations or impressions.

Looking at a microscopic level, people with their values indeed make or mar a society. There has always been a feeling that celebrities lead a false life. Driven by the lust to potray their lives as successful, many end up creating appealing images to the public. Most of their personal lives is out in the electronic or print media, thus creating a misconstrued feeling that all celebrities without exceptions lead such glass-like lives. There are quite a few of the theatre personalities who have taken up and fought for certain genuine causes. Few of the popstars have decided to conduct musical performances to raise money for the tsunami victims.

Not all that glitters is gold but it doesn't necessarily mean that glittering gold is a fantasy.

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Comments are welcome.

Paradox

"What are you after in life, Priya? Deep down, are your most intimate desires satisfied by the kind of work you have decided to do? The little problems you encounter in your professional life this week could be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Take a look around you to see just how much the work you do, and how much the people in your personal life take into account your profoundly spiritual nature."

No one is preaching to me. These were my astrological predicions for the day. More than just satisying my naive curiosity, today's prediction has actually forced me to think.

There has been a lot of change happening at my workplace. Lot of people whom i had been working with for the past 3 years have left. Now we are just a group of three instead of the original 35. This just gives me a feeling of stagnation. A rather sedantry work life.

If no change is equivalent to being stable or steady then that is what my work life promises to be. In our lives, aren't we all trying to settle down or stabilize somewhere ? Then why does the current stability in my work hurt me so much ? Why do i crave for change ? Why should i ask for a bit of perturbance ?

Paradoxical desires !!!

Answer to the final question ??

I have a habit of jotting down quotes, questions, statements, ... rather any kind of utterance made by people, if i find them interesting and stimulating. Presently i have a substantial collection of such jottings. When i was going through my office papers, i chanced upon this specific statement:

"A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the 'why' for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any 'how'. "

Simple yet profound !!! Perhaps the answer to the ultimate question :-)

Insults

As the last week was dedicated to words used as insults in a famous mailing list on "words" , i added 6 new words to my very own "insults" dictionary :-)
Added to that one of the members of the mailing list provided this nice link which displays insults from Shakespeare's works.

Shakespearean Insults

Another member of the same mailing list reproached the entire idea. And as a mark of disapproval removed herself from the list. She had felt "insulted" being a part of such a mailing list.

And me, on the other hand, felt quite excited about improving my vocab. :-)

Breath of fresh air

Just like the momentary relief produced by the short summer rain spells, my recent trip has acted like a good emollient.

Prime reasons for my visit:
1) Need - (Satisfied. Met my parents and brother)
2) Greed - (Satisfied. Met my husband after three long weeks)
3) More greed - (Satisfied. One of my cousin sisters wedding. She being slightly physically challenged, her parents had been having quite an arduous task of finding a life partner for her. In addition to their misery, they had to bear with the torment of attending the marriages of girls quite younger to my cousin. Voila, the wait finally ended with her marrying this patient guy, who had been waiting for her for the past 6 years. Quite a bit of patience. Warm wishes to this couple. )

Not bad, greed also pays off sometimes. :-)

Feeling bored

I am feeling thoroughly bored and restless now. I have the freedom to walk out of office at any time i please as of now (both my PL and Supervisor are out of office). But some unknown force is holding me back on my seat. I tried reading all the old senti - type mails i had recieved. Even that has not helped. I just initiated the usual "cribbing chain " mail to my friend. Awaiting her response now.

Don't feel like going home also. I find it very boring to listen the sob stories being told by my mom in law and i cannot even tell her to stop those. My husband is currently posted in another city for official reasons. And the future looks worse as both my husband and my cribbing mom-in-law will leave for their respective destinations. And i, for one will be left grappling with all these new changes.

I will write (crib) later. Now, let me check my inbox for some reassuring word from my friend.

Anxiety soars

Another day has gone by and i haven't done anything about my future/career. Day started with a warning from the Astrocentre.com in the form of a mail to my inbox. It predicted a depressing day with me feeling all drained down. Voila, i did get to hear some bad news. And a pretty bad one too.
I don't know if what i am about to say would qualify for murphy's law , if it doesn't then i'll call it priya's law -
Bad news/events always come true. Good news/forecasts never materialize.

MATHS - the subject

Today i recieved a newsletter containing an abstract on Mathematics - the Universal Language. Since my schooling years, i have dreaded Mathematics. The main reason was the importance laid on scoring 100% in that subject. Even at my senior and higher secondary exams, i was not able to manage a 100%.
With such a track record, no wonder i am always scared of that subject. The opening lines of the article that i was referring to at the start, spoke with such reverence for the subject that i plunged to read more. Here are some of the passages from the article which made me think - maybe Maths is not that bad :-)

""" .................. No matter how you figure, mathematics is included--even the quantity and density of the air you breathe, your degree of sight, and the amount of your appetite, or capacity for liquids, the extent of or degree of your smell and taste.

Try to separate anything from mathematics and there will not be anything left, not even a degree of your intelligence or sense of humour. No wonder it is a divine law of being, not merely a man-made principle of measurement. It is truly the universal language; even the state or balance or discord is mathematics."""

Passing thoughts

After a long silence, today i decided to break it. I don' t know how regular i can be with my blogging but i want to give it a try. It's like writing a diary.
At the end of the day, when i try to recapitualte the events of the day, i have loads of ideas to write about.
I spent the entire day in office making modifications to the documentation files. What a way to spend an entire working day. :-)
Monotony has become rampant in my life these days.
Normally, I get thrilled listening to forecasts about my life (only good predictions go down well!!!). To get a break from the monotony, i decided to ask an astrologer. But after consulting one, i am still left waiting for the "good" time to arrive .

Priya decoccoons

Ah, here i am !!! atlast crawled out of the coccoon....

Now, let me get some fresh air .. then i'll get into action.