2011 in my view!

Hi Guys,

I was thinking of writing a post about New Year celebrations for the past one week. Just then, I visited the archives of my blog to see what I have written during the past two years. During 2009, I had been writing a series on Holiday Activities and I wished my readers at the end of a series. Last year, I was in Chennai and I was busy as I underwent In-plant training and so I didn’t write any post for nearly 20 days.

So, what comes into my mind as I think of 2011?

Personal Life

First thing is my carrier. All these times, I had never felt myself as a matured guy and I had a sort of childish attitude (which I enjoyed very much). The final year of my Engineering began and all of a sudden I felt some pressure. I had responsibilities and I had to work for it (the same was the case for most of my classmates). July and August went past very quick and we worked the way we had never worked before. For some the next few months were sweeter and for most it was bitter. (read my interview experience here). Hope, they will get better opportunities for the wait. Personally, I am expecting 2012 to bring in more good news.

Blogging Life

As far as my blog is concerned, I have written 79 posts (including this one) this year. It is 20 more than last year (last year it was 59). Sometime in the middle of the year, I changed the URL of the blog and it lead to little confusion for some time. Towards the end of the year, I rebuilt my photo blog and introduced it again. It has received a very warm response and I am very happy about it. After a long time, I have added 14 photos this year and I am planning to do more with the photo blog. But, I was not able to expand the number of blogs I read drastically, though I read a few more blogs now. I am thinking of expanding my subscriptions this year. Many of my friends started to blog, but none were successful in continuing. Everyone stopped after writing one or two posts. Blogging requires passion.

Cricketing World

The next thing that comes into my mind is Cricket. It could be divided into four phases. In the first phase, Indians were facing huge expectations. Everyone wanted India to win World cup in front of the home crowd and the players exhibited brilliant team work and the dream became true. The second phase was the dullest IPL ever. Players didn’t have time to rejoice and they came back for IPL. People were exhausted and not many cared about it. The third phase was a very bad period for India. They went to England and came back without a single win. Probably India’s poorest performance in the recent times. The fourth phase was West Indies touring India and this series created waves just because of expectations on Sachin’s hundredth ton and it never happened. Now Indians have already lost the first match against Australia. Let’s see how Indians play in 2012.

Indian Politics

This year state elections were held for 5 states and there was of change of power in many states. In particular, in west Bengal a three decade rule came to an end and in Tamil Nadu, people closed the doors for a very corruptive government. Later, Anna Hazare stormed Delhi with his fast and pressured the government to introduce Lokpal (read my post on Support Anna Hazare here). The most important thing was that youngsters were very eager to participate in this movement. Now, there are lot of confusions and controversies over this movement and government’s attitude. Let’s hope 2012 will bring in solutions. There were lot of people’s movements and politicians creating controversies for their benefits.

That’s what I remember right now.

Wishing my readers a very Happy and prosperous New Year, I sign off this year’s blogging activities.

Happy New Year 2012!!!

Karthi

Working Conditions in Industries!

Hi Guys,

Life is just mysterious. It is difficult to find out reasons for some questions. I and few of my friends are going to various industries at various places. We have been wondering a lot of things in our mind.

One of my project mates underwent In-plant training in one of the well known public sector industry last year and now we are doing our project in a leading private sector industry that has won lot of awards for quality and is well known for concepts such as employee involvement and empowerment.

First thing my friend said was workers were very liberal there. They had association and unions and they used to stop the work even for the tiniest of problems. If 8 hours was the shift time, they used to come to work late and then sit and play with cards or sleep and enjoy the time. The work carried out is less. Here, relaxation is only when there is some gap between change of work or after feeding a job in the machine. If the shift time is 8 hours, they stand for 7 hours, excluding the lunch time. We guys were not even able to stand for 3-4 hours and we find a place to sit (there will be no place to sit inside the modules).

When we were observing a process for our project, we found out a friendly operator and we were speaking with him. He has finished his ITI and he said that he was working there for 2 years and he is not yet a permanent employee (he said that even some workers with 20 years experience are not yet made permanent). We were asking about the work times and he said it is shift based and they have just four days leave per month (only Sundays or they come to industry on Sunday and take comp off on some other day).  He said he receives something around 4.8k per month. We were asking about the chances of him joining another industry and he said the condition is same everywhere. The point to be observed here is that the industry racks up hundreds of crores of profit.

Another friend of mine is doing his project in an industry at Chennai and he says the working conditions there are much worse. They have recruited labors from Bihar and the surrounding states. This is because they don’t know the language, so they work without talking. They work like anything for 10-12 hours for just 3k per month. He says that at least our people used to complain about the works, but those people work like robots. They finish a job, their hand automatically moves to the next part.

He says that there is not even a place to sit in the industry. Their main objective seems to be production. The worst part is that there is no water nearby to drink. Those labors work without drinking water. This industry too sells the product at double the manufacturing cost and all goes into the owner’s pocket. My friend was saying that he was going to suggest the manager to adopt better working conditions on the final day of his project.

The first day I went there, I was struggling to walk back to home. Now, my legs are adopted, though the pain is still there. If you are someone who complains for minor problems and hate to go to college or office on Saturday, know that there are people receiving lower salary and having worse working conditions.

Happy Reading!!!

The Whole Truth - Book Review

Hi Guys,

I am going to write about the novel ‘The Whole Truth’ written by David Baldacci. I seldom read books written by less known authors and I took this book from library to just go through in my leisure time. I started reading the book and after reading the first few pages, I decided to read the full book.

David Baldacci has penned the thriller so interestingly. Though the story is revealed in the beginning itself the curiosity of finding out how things are done adds interest in the mind of a reader.

The novel is based on a concept called Perception Management. Perception Management is the art of creating a truth or story out of nothing and making people believe that it is true (you can find these types of things being used frequently with the help of Social networking sites). Perception management firms are organizations that specialize in creating truths in a large scale.

The protagonist of the novel is Shaw who performs the dangerous jobs of finding out crimes and preventing them. He is permanently slaved to Frank, because he shot Frank when he tried to arrest him years back. Shaw loves a girl called Anna Fischer. Anna is a genius and works for an organization called The Phoenix group in London. The Phoenix group works for betterment of people and its leadership is unknown. Its base is believed to be Arizona.

Meanwhile, Katie James, a two time Pulitzer winning journalist is doing a poor job of collecting news for obituary as her second Pulitzer affected her mind. She is trying to find a way back and in a particular instance, she is saved by Shaw.

David Creel is an arms dealer and is one of the richest persons in the world. As the business is quite dull, he plans to create a Cold war. So, he approaches a perception management firm and together they create a movement called Red Menace, a movement that is against the Russian Government, because they are torturing people. But Russian Government denies it and is trying to find out who created the fuss.

Meanwhile, Anna Fischer doubts the involvement of Russian Government and replies to a blog that doubts the same. The blog is a trap. When the place is traced, they search who runs the Phoenix group. It is not run by an American as said. A mob enters the building and demolishes the building and makes an appearance that the Russians did it.

Shaw is affected and wants to take revenge. Katie wants to revive her carrier and Creel wants to resurrect his business. So, who wins the race forms the remaining part of the story.

A very gripping novel, that is not to be missed if you are a fan of thriller stories.

Happy Reading!!!

Through My Camera Lens V2.0

Hi Guys,

My photo blog was dormant for a long time. Today I sat around for 2 hours and worked with my photoblog to create a new look. I hope you like the style.

I will be updating the blog as frequently as possible.

My photo blog's URL is http://karthicksdays.wordpress.com

I have added it as a page too.

Happy Viewing!!!

Current Education Standard in Government Schools!

Hi Guys,

A few days ago, I was travelling in a bus on a 3 hour journey. I was one of the last passengers to board the bus and hence had to sit in one of the few available seats. I was sitting nearby two friends and later found out that they were teachers in government school. It seems they work in different schools and became friends during a training session. They were discussing about the happenings in their respective schools. Mostly the first person spoke and second person listened.

First they were discussing about the quality of education. It seems they are really interested in teaching and their colleagues were not interested. He said that the school conducted no meetings for setting the class timetable, deciding ways to improve education. Meetings were conducted only to find out how to spend their leisure time and how to enjoy the work. They never cared about the children. The only time when the children were taken care of was when the teachers had quarrel among themselves. After a week or so, when the quarrel settles, the children were left uncared again.

They were appreciating the newly setup syllabus. Till now, I have only heard the views of the private players on the equitable education system, which they say is very poor when compared to the old standards. But, these teachers were saying that it was really good and particularly the colors and pictures created interest among the students. They were also saying, the teachers were able to learn a lot from those books (OMG – so what’s the standard of teachers?). They were complaining the stand of the new government of the education system and said Education Department should be self run like election commission (?)

One of the friends was saying that he had no guidance during his young age and hence chose a wrong field and so he is guiding his students properly. He also said that he along with a few of his bright students form a group and goes to their respective villages and creates awareness on education. A really good teacher, I thought.

After this their discussion turned into various topics on writing exams for promotion, attendance, internal conflicts. I just plugged my mobile’s headphone into my ear and became isolated for the remaining 150 minutes of the journey.

So, what do you feel right now?

Happy Reading!!!

Dropbox - the story of the digital storage service

Hi Guys,

It has been a long time since I wrote a post in my blog. I have been thinking of writing this post about Dropbox for a long time and I never got the time to do it. I read the article about Dropbox in the November issue of Forbes Asia magazine and it was an interesting article.

What is Dropbox?

Dropbox is a digital storage service that has 50 million users around the world. Dropbox was developed by Drew Houston. These days, the concept of Cloud Computing is so common. You keep your resources in the web and use the resources at any place with the help of Web. Dropbox provides the cloud storage for you. Dropbox provides you a free 2 GB storage when you sign up. You can upgrade the storage to 50 or 100 GB by paying monthly or yearly rental.

How did Drew Houston get the idea?

Drew Houston was a code geek right from his young age. At 14, he signed up for a beta version of online game and began rooting out security flaws. So, the company hired him. He has worked in 5 projects before starting Dropbox. His mother wanted him to be normal and tried everything to make him normal. But he spent most of his time coding at the MIT. By September 2006, he completed his MBA from Phi Delta Theta at the MIT.

His idea of Dropbox was formed 3 months later when he was travelling from Boston to New York. He planned to work during the four hour ride, but forgot his USB memory drive and had no code. He immediately started to build technology for syncing files on web. Four months later, he landed in San Francisco and got $15000 from Paul Graham of incubator Y Combinator. He spent 20 hours a day reverse engineering all the computers and understanding the concepts.

They presented Dropbox at Y Combinator event and it attracted investors. By 2008, it had 9 employees and 200,000 customers.

How did they attract Customers?

They used the right advertising strategy. They used Google Adwords. It sucked them $300 for one signup. It was not working. So, they turned their small customer base into sales people. They give 250MB of free storage for each referral. One quarter of customers still come to Dropbox in this fashion.

How I started using Dropbox?

I saw an article about Dropbox somewhere and started an account some 5-6 months ago. Recently when I was having lot of important stuffs, related to my higher studies I needed a backup device. My DVD drive was not working properly. Even if it works properly, I can’t keep on replacing files. USB drive was a good option, but then I was afraid of viruses. Just then, I remembered Dropbox and it is just amazing. I work with all the word documents and excel sheets inside Dropbox. It gets updated in web as soon as I save the file.  Now I have no fear of losing the files. 2 GB space is more than enough for me.

Interesting facts from the article

In the article, I read a few interesting facts about Dropbox.

• Steve Jobs wanted to buy Dropbox, but Houston was determined not to sell the company.
• Its revenue in 2011 was $240 mn, despite the fact that 96% of its users pay nothing (they use the free 2 GB storage)
• Dropbox has only 70 employees.
• Everyday 325 million files are saved to Dropbox.
• Dropbox’s main competitors are Apple (iCloud), Google, Microsoft, YouSendIt, IDrive and conventional email.

Happy Reading!!!


External Links
Dropbox: Inside story of Tech's Hottest Startup - Article on Forbes
Join Dropbox now - Click here

Photo Collection -2

Hi Guys,

I found some newly grown chilies in my garden yesterday and took my Camera to shoot them. To my dismay, there was no charge in the batteries and hence I had to charge my batteries. Today morning when I woke up it was raining and the climate was awesome. I took some pictures and here I present them.

White flower with water droplets.

A single flower!

To me, it seems to be some sort of formation, but don't know if I am imagining too much!

Water droplets on a leaf

A left over part from coconut tree

Light from a lamp

Chilies hanging

Here's the link to the album in Picasa Web Albums

Happy Viewing!!!

A Special Series - Fibonacci Series!

Hi Guys,

I hope all of you know about Fibonacci Series in mathematics. If not in math, all of you would have heard about this number while learning computer languages as writing a program to generate a Fibonacci Series (I learnt it this way from my brother 7-8 years back). For a few days, a video has been roaming in Facebook portraying the specialty of Fibonacci Series.

So, what is a Fibonacci Series? It was Leonardo of Pisa (who was known as Fibonacci) in 1202. The series is got by adding 0 and 1, followed by the result and the previous number.

0+1=1; 1+1=2; 1+2=3; 2+3=5…. The series is 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34………..

Fibonacci Numbers also form Golden Ratio. Golden ratio is a set of very special numbers. Consider two quantities a,b (and a>b). If a+b:a is equal to a:b, then it is said to be Golden Ratio. All the Fibonacci Numbers are in such a ratio.

55/34 = 34/21 = 21/13 = 13/8 = 8/5 and so on.

A rectangle formed by two consecutive Fibonacci numbers is known as a perfect rectangle or golden rectangle. This rectangle can be divided into squares until the square of size 1*1 is formed.

A Fibonacci Spiral or Golden Spiral can be formed by connecting two ends of a square starting the 1*1 to the largest square.

So, what is special in this? We are able to find this spiral in lot of nature’s applications. A lot of medieval artists have used the Golden Ratio to construct the buildings or statues.

If you consider flowers, the petals are having Fibonacci Numbers. One and 2 petalled flowers are not common. Some flowers have 3 (lily), many have 5 (hibiscus, rose), some have 8. After that there are only 13, 21, 34,55… petalled flowers. It is interesting that these flowers have the same number of petals as found in a Fibonacci Series. Why is that there are no other number of petals? Similarly the head of sun flower, the cone of a pine tree, the diagonal of pine apple all have the same number as that corresponds to a number in Fibonacci Series.

One possible explanation given is that Fibonacci numbers fill the space effectively without leaving any gap. In any other pattern, spaces will be left, but in this type of pattern, there will be no spaces (see reference site for more details).

Human Hand is also said as an example. There are 5 fingers, divided into three parts separated by 3 knuckles (to me it appears as coincidence).

Common Shells have the same shape as that of a Fibonacci Spiral. Similarly Human Ear also has got a shape of Fibonacci Spiral. Similarly lot of other natural elements has got the shape of Fibonacci Spiral. Check the reference site to gather more information.

Some people say that as Fibonacci Series is found everywhere on Earth, it is a symbol of God and it is the unique touch of God. If these people want to prove that there is God, then I think they need not go too far. Everything in Earth is symmetrical. Isn’t that enough to say that God created everything in symmetry. If there is man, then there is woman. Heaven – Hell, Day – Night, summer – winter, etc. (just a reflection from Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons)

Happy Reading!!!

References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number
2. http://www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-sites/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibnat.html#rabeecow
3. http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_17.htm

Revival of Cricket's Craze!

Hi Guys,

I was quite busy for the past few days and it has been really difficult to think about a topic to write and I was also not able to read my follower’s blogs. It feels so good to be writing something again. Also, I am going to write about Cricket after a long time.

Last time, I cherished watching the match was the 2011 World Cup Final, when Dhoni sealed the Cup with a six. There was no time for celebration and within a week, the players were in IPL. It turned out to be very boring and people hated to see players in different teams. Gayle’s blitzkriegs lighted the tournament towards the end and the last few days were much better than the first few.

Then India went to West Indies and… Well, what happened there? I don’t remember exactly. Many of the key players were down with injuries and some were given rest and young Indian team managed to win the ODi series and test series.

Then came India’s worst ever performance in the last 10 years. A team, that was performing well in overseas failed miserably and didn’t even come close to the performance of the English. Except Rahul Dravid (and occasionally Sachin Tendulkar) no one else seemed comfortable. Contrastingly English Players were so comfortable against our bowling. Even their tail Enders batted well and Indians came back without winning a match.

Then England came back here for an ODI series. I think Champions League was conducted in between. I was expecting some tough competition, but English surrendered without fight. It was tough to believe that the same team thrashed India two months back. So, the hunter became the hunted.

So, slowly my cricketing interests were diminishing and then came the India vs West Indies series. I had no interest in the series. I thought India would be comfortable. But, life is full of surprises.

Indians were trailing by 95 runs in the first innings. I thought, it was tough and Indians may lose. But, then our spinners bundled out the West Indies batsmen and after a long time our top order clicked. Everyone contributed and India won.

Then, it was day before yesterday. I was seeing some video in Facebook, when my friend pinged, ‘Karthi, watching SA vs Aus match?’ I replied no and thought something interesting was going. I just then checked the score and OMG! Aussies were 21-7. I started to type a message to send to my friends and now they were 21-8. I started sending and now they were 21-9.

I had checked the scores in the starting of the day and Clarke was batting brilliantly. So, I was confused how Aussies were playing their second innings. Then, I came to know SA was all out for 96. 17 continuous batsmen (SA’s last 9 and Aussies first 8) were having single digit. It was heaven for bowlers and hell for batsmen (or, was it?)

I thought in the conditions, it was difficult for SA and Aussies had an upper hand. But, then I didn’t know Smith was always brilliant in fourth innings. He hit his fourth consecutive century in fourth innings and increased his fourth innings average to 85. The match was over by the third day. What a match!

Both the matches have some similarities. The team that batted first had a huge lead and then collapsed in the second innings (though the magnitude was different). Both team’s batsmen failed miserably in first innings and came back strong in the second innings. Two debutant bowlers (Aswin and Philander) collapsed the opposition batsmen in the second innings and both of them got Man of the Match awards (only third player in their respective countries to do so).

So, Cricket has again become an interesting game to watch!

Happy Reading!!!

Things that crossed my way!

Hi Guys,

I was busy for the last few days and I was not able to observe and follow lot of things, including my favorite F1 race held at India for the first time.

A mixed post in my blog after a very long time.

7am Arivu – My View

I watched the movie 7am arivu today morning. The reviews I heard before were mixed. People who watched it first day said it was very poor (due to the over promotions). But in the following days, the movie started to get good responses and I went with a neutral mind. I found the movie interesting. The movie had quite a huge number of flaws, but it was compensated by a good story line. With 3 songs less and better back ground music, the movie would have been much better. Comparing to the current commercial movies, the movie was better in many ways. I would rate this movie higher than many of this year’s hit commercial movies.

Auto Up gradation in Trains

Whenever I used to book train ticket, there would be an option known as Auto Up gradation. Passengers booking in lower classes will be updated to higher classes if the higher class seats are unoccupied. I often think why this option is there as all the seats are occupied generally. Last Sunday I travelled with my friend from Chennai and when I booked, the status was RAC. When I checked the chart, to my surprise the ticket was updated to First Class from Sleeper. I never expected it and out of nearly 100 confirmations, only 3 were updated. It is interesting when something that we never expect to occur, occurs.

Vigilance Awareness Week (Oct 31 – Nov 6)

On October 30th, we were celebrating the success of Indian Grand Prix and it was a proud moment for us. On the other hand, October 31st marked the beginning of Anti corruption week, a phenomenon in which India has been at the bottom of the table for a very long time. It is probably one of the worst weeks celebrated. Government officials (who are also citizens of this country) must have a social responsibility and it is shame that they have to be remembered by creating awareness for a week. This week is observed for the past 10 years and I see no difference (or rather to say, the corruption has only increased).

That’s it for now.

Happy Reading!!!

Diwali Special!

Hi Guys,

Many of you will be surprised with the new template. The older one was better and sadly I lost the template when I was experimenting and I never got the same one back. So, with a hard heart, had to change the template.

Here are some pictures of Diwali.

Maavurundai (made by mixing green gram's flour with hot Ghee and tightly holding by hand)

Muruku in hot steaming oil (made from Urad Dhal's flour)

After taking out

Gulab Jamun - before frying

Gulab Jamun fried

Steaming Sugar mix

Gulab Jamun-finished

Ulundha Vadai (made from Urad Dhal's flour)- a dish that mom always makes with perfection

Now, here are a few pictures I took in the terrace at night. There were lot of fireworks and the whole place was filled with smoke, causing lot of pollution.

Sparklers

Red Showers

Gold Sparkles

Colorful!

Happy Viewing!!!

Photo Collection-1

Hi Guys,

The number of photography posts keeps on increasing and naming them is becoming difficult. So I decided to name it as a series. Well, I began a photography blog and maintaining two blogs was quite difficult. So I decided to post the photos here itself.

A glowing Lamp

Inside the Washing Machine

Mite

Guess what this image shows?

Mushroom

White Flowers

Stitches

Happy Viewing!!!

Encounter with Ghost - or was it a Ghost?

Hi Guys,

An interesting event happened a few days ago.

My parents had been on a 10 day trip to Varanasi and other holy places around. So, I was alone in my home for those 10 days. The days went quick as I had some works to do and I was also in charge of organizing a Quiz competition in my college. One evening I went with my friend to take printouts of the posters. We came back by 8.30 pm and I went to his home. He is residing with some of my classmates in a rented home. When I went there, power was not there and the whole room was dark.

He asked me, ‘Karthi, are you alone at your home?’ I said yes and he asked me, ‘Don’t you have any fear?’

I said I was used to it since my parents go to many functions frequently. He said, ‘I too don’t have fear sleeping alone in my home (at his native), but here I am afraid’

I said, ‘Yeah, it’s a big house and its quite bad in shape too. So, you may have fear’ He replied, ‘No karthi, the size is not a problem. There is something is this house’ I was shocked. I said ‘What???’

He said, ‘Yes karthi, everyone here has experienced that’ I thought there was really some ghost and got afraid. There was no power and my eyes were looking everywhere around. I said, ‘Ok mate. I have an urgent work and need to go home. Bye!’

Next day, in college I asked him what was there in his house? So he narrated his experience.

‘A few days back I was sleeping in the second room and all my roommates were sleeping in the other room. I didn’t sleep there as I was having cold and that room had two windows and cold breeze would intensify my cough. I was sleeping quite well until 2 am.

‘I woke up by 2 am and went to the bathroom. I came back to the room and I saw that someone was standing outside the hall window (which is visible from the bedroom). I went to hall and asked who it was. There was no reply. I came back and lay down.

‘Two minutes later the person was knocking the window heavily. I went to the hall and shouted who he was. There was no reply for some time. I switched on the light, but the person was invisible. I switched off the light and then I heard a reply “Why are you concerned about who I am. Go and Sleep”. I went back and covered my face with bed sheet and slept’

I was expecting a big story and when he finished his narration, I was furious. A few days later the whole story spread in my class and he got famous with his ghost encounter. I and few of my friends sat with him and convinced him that it was not a ghost. He doesn’t believe and says that he is sure that it was a ghost.

Here are a few reasons put forth my me and my friends

1.  It might have been a thief. My friend says that the door to the balcony was locked and there is no way a thief may come. We say that there are lots other places to climb or fall other than the door.
2. The house owner is a drunkard. His roommates say that he often drinks and babbles. There are lots of possibilities that it was him as he has a key too.
3. We asked him why he didn’t awaken others and call for help. He came with the greatest explanation. I didn’t do anything to the ghost and so I knew that the ghost would not do anything to me.
4. The other possibility is that it was a dream. But he says that it was real and he remembers things, but half his explanations look imaginary.

Half his roommates are more afraid than him and now they are having sleepless nights and this story has become a big comedy in my class with lot of imaginations flowing in.

Happy Reading!!!

Energy Sucking Aliens!

September 04, 2004

It was an unforgettable day in my life. I was 14 then, a dreamy boy wondering about things that would never happen. I came across this interesting news in the daily newspaper.

The International Space Station (ISS) was orbiting over Madurai and it would be visible to naked eyes for the next few days and there was a time table. The time schedule of ISS crossing Madurai along with the directions was given. The first day, it was early and I knew it would not be visible. For the next three days it was between 7 pm and 10 pm. After that it was in the early morning. So I decided to watch the ISS on all the three days.

September 06, 2004

The first of the three days came. The time specified for observation was 7.18 pm and it was given that the station would be moving from Southeast to Northwest. It was the first day and I didn’t know what to expect. I went to terrace by 7.15pm. I called my brother and parents, but none were interested. I was looking into the space constantly. A few minutes later, ISS appeared. It looked like a bright star moving at a constant pace. It was brighter than other stars and it just moved across the sky. It was just majestic to see. I was just wondering about the brilliance of scientists at Space Centers across the world.

September 07, 2004

I was very eager to see the ISS again. The specified time was 9.13 pm. I was feeling very excited that day. There was fervor inside me and I was not able to eat properly. I didn’t know why. I was feeling feverish, but I thought the excitement created that. I went to the terrace by around 9.10 pm. My subconscious was saying something was not good, but I was not hearing.

The ISS appeared in the northwest direction. I started looking, before I realized the ISS was supposed to appear in southwest direction. I looked in the southwest direction. Well, the ISS was coming out from there. So, what was in the northwest direction? I looked again there. It was something different. It composed to three symmetrical dots and each dot were in separate color. One was Red, the other orange and the final one Violet. It was brightly glowing as it became more visible.

I have heard of UFOs and Flying Saucers, but never thought I would see one. It was travelling is such a way that it was going to collide with ISS. Danger, said my mind. I was awestruck and I kept watching both the flying stuff moving towards each other. When they came at the same spot, I realized that the UFO was flying higher than the ISS. But, when they were in same axis, ISS stopped moving. There was some sort of an invisible bridge between the two stations. One moment I was able to see, the other moment I wasn’t.

Suddenly the invisible bridge extended all the way down to earth. All the creatures in the trees started to hoot and cry because of fear. I felt a sudden drop of energy inside me. It was as if someone was sucking my energy. I was able to see someone coming down through that bridge. It was a different creature, something I had never seen before. The more closely it came, the more energy I lost. I was not able to stand there. A lot of heat was emitted and there was an invisible heat circle. The circle was growing bigger and it pushed me farther. At one moment, the heat was so great and I lost all my energy. Last thing, I remembered I fainted and fell down from the terrace.

September 08, 2004

I was startled and I was awakened suddenly. I was about to fall down from the bed. I suddenly stopped myself and I was not able to recollect the dream quickly.

I remembered I didn’t visit the ISS the previous day. I was more afraid to visit it that day. I thought my dream might come true. But my mind insisted me to go up. I went upstairs to see ISS. Well, there was no issue that night.

The energy sucking Aliens never came back!!!

The Story of 3 Apples! Part-2

Hi Guys,

I said I would write about the third apple yesterday. But sadly, there was no power for about 3 hours and hence I was not able to write anything.

Already, the history of Steve Jobs has been there in the net at various places and I don’t want to repeat that. I just want to share about the story behind Apple Logo.

In 1976, Steve Jobs wanted to name his company and the first thought that came into his mind was Apple, because he had worked in an Apple farm. They thought of some other terms such as Matrix, but Apple Computers seemed more perfect.

Apple's first logo- Newton sitting below Apple Tree

Their first logo was a big one. It depicted Newton sitting beneath the Tree of Knowledge. But Steve didn’t want a complicated logo and wanted a simple one. So, Rob Janoff, the logo designer of Apple came out with the Rainbow Apple. It was apple with the colors of a Rainbow and a bite taken of the right side. There are two stories behind this. One story says that the logo was designed to tribute Newton for his discovery on gravity and separation of light rays into various colors. It was also depicting transfer of knowledge from Tree of Knowledge. Another story says that the logo was an advertisement to Apple II computers depicting its wide range of color capabilities.

Apple's later logos - From Rainbow Apple to Blue Apple to Metallic Apple

The modern logo is a little varied one. It has monotonous color and apart from that the design remains the same. The most used color is either white or silver which looks perfect. The literal meaning of the logo is ‘Bite/Byte into the Apple’. It denotes Apple as the Tree of Knowledge (yet again).

I also got an interesting piece of information that Macintosh, Apple’s computer series is the name of a variety of Apple.

Happy Reading!!!

The story of 3 Apples!

Hi Guys, 

The whole technical community is shocked by the death of Steve Jobs. Just yesterday I was scanning through the website of Apple to see the technical features of iPhone 4S and other new products. I was wondering about the innovations that Apple creates. Today morning I woke up and saw that the brain behind the innovations was no more.

Social Networking sites were full of RIP messages. Just now saw this message in Facebook.

Three apples have changed the world. One seduced Eve, second awakened Newton, the third one was in the hands of Steve Jobs. 

I was interested and surfed the web to find information about the three apples.

First Apple 

The first Apple is a biblical reference about how humans came to Earth. When God created Earth, he created Adam at last. In order to get him a companion he created Eve. He advised Adam not to eat fruit from a particular tree, which was called the Tree of Knowledge. It was the Apple Tree. A serpent convinced Eve to eat the Apple, saying she will get supernatural powers. Later Eve made Adam to eat the apple. After they ate, God appeared and asked why they ate the fruit. He punished Adam by making men to work hard for food and punished Eve by making Women to undergo pain in the process of Child Birth.

So, here Apple is the Tree of Knowledge. Really, apple might be the Tree of Knowledge.


Second Apple 

Descendant of Newton's Apple tree at Trinity College

This apple is associated with Sir Issac Newton. Till today I thought Apple fell on Newton’s head and he found gravity. But that is completely false (most importantly Apple never fell on his head) Newton already had the idea of Gravity. But he had lot of confusions toward the concept and Apple tree made him understand the concept better. He arrived at the solution that gravitational force is directly proportional to height. If the tree is twice higher than the current tree, the gravitational force will be much higher. So, why is not moon coming down? He again found out a theory and associated with the gravitational force of Earth. He found out what we call Newton’s second law.

This is what is said about Newton’s association with Apple


‘when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the Earth's centre? Assuredly the reason is, that the Earth draws it. There must be a drawing power in matter. And the sum of the drawing power in the matter of the Earth must be in the Earth's centre, not in any side of the Earth. Therefore does this apple fall perpendicularly or towards the centre? If matter thus draws matter; it must be proportion of its quantity. Therefore the apple draws the Earth, as well as the Earth draws the apple’

So, now Apple helped Sir Issac Newton to gain knowledge and proved itself as the Tree of Knowledge.

Third Apple will be continued tomorrow...

Happy Reading!!!