Beautiful Flowers From My Home Garden

Here are few snaps of flowers from the garden at my home in Payyampally. I took these snaps during my home visit with my cousin- Jose Abins; during last week-end. (12th June 2005). The monsoon was about to start. After the baking heat of summer, there were not many flowers in the garden. Even then my mother, brother and his wife made the plants survive the summer.

Click on the thumbnails to view the enlarged picture.

Nature at its Best - Wayanad

Let me describe two wonderful events I have witnessed during my trekking in the hills of Wayanad. These events are at the best when we watch them live. The description may not give the real feeling which I experienced.

When I reached the top of the hill it was almost 3:00 pm. I can see rain clouds in one side of the hill and the other side was clear atmosphere. As time neared 4:00 pm, I was able to see cluster of clouds touching the sides of a tall nearby mountain. Now I am standing at a higher altitude than the clouds. The wind increased and it started to rain. But it was not raining in the top of the hill where I am standing. It is raining from the clouds below me to the valley. It was a wonderful experience. I watched the scene half an hour. It was the most beautiful natural scene I have ever scene.

The next scene was of a falcon standing still in the air. The bird was bout 10 meters high from the top most part of the hill. The wind was blowing from the valley below to the top of the hill in a slanting direction. So the king of the birds was able to just stand still in the air, a few meters above my head, watching me and the valley below. Relative to the wind it is flying down against wind direction, but relative to the hill the bird is perfectly standing still without flapping the wings or moving any part of the body. I thought that it might be watching for prey below in the valley, since the falcons do have telescopic view by which they can view very small things like a worm moving on the ground below from a very high altitude.

Some times I have a feeling like all lands of our mother earth are explored by us or our ancestors, and now we don’t have a chance to discover something new. But, in the silence of nature, there are still a lot of things undiscovered, left for us to discover and enjoy.

Learn to Tolerate - Swami Vivekananda

During his speech in Chicago, back in 1983, Swami Vivekananda shared his wonderful ideas about religions and the tolerance that we should practice in our life. People who believe in any particular religion generally will have the feeling that what they believe and worship is the right and all others are doing sin against god. He asked us whether we interpret the children's behavior as sins! We are grown up and behave and think in many better ways than a kid can. Does this mean that the kids are not doing well? According to Vivekananda, religions always aim to reach perfection. When believers of a particular religion possess better practices, they should not blame other religions. And blaming others is not a sign of growth. It shows that we are immature. We should be able to tolerate.

I would like to extend his thought not only to religious belief, but to my whole life. If we watch carefully, we can see a lot of intolerance in our daily life activities. Suppose you are walking through a busy street and if anyone accidentally hit you. How do you behave then? Most of the victims will curse the other one, or make a scene or at least stare each other for a while. But nobody thinks that the next time it may be he/her who will be in the other side. Just think of a guy or gal who got his/her vehicle turned off while trying to get out off traffic. The vehicles behind the victim will immediately start blowing their horns like anything which creates an irritating scene. It is like they believe the will be able to remove the vehicle or who ever creates the obstruction in front, by blowing horns! The final result will be like the poor victim will be more frantic and in hurry he/she takes more time to get the vehicle started and move forward.

India is a nation where a people who belongs to many religions exist. Day by day the frictions between different believers are increasing. It’s high time we should practice tolerance. And I believe that we should practice tolerance towards others from these very small incidences, which may last for only a few seconds or minutes in our life. A small drop of water creates the ocean. We won't be able to tolerate other religions unless we are able to tolerate this kind of small incidence.

Swami Vivekanada's Chicago Speech - Part I
Swami Vivekanada's Chicago Speech - Part II

NASA - Voyager Enters Solar System's Final Frontier

Got this link through email. Interesting to read.Those who believes that man has not landed on moon cannot believe that a satellite crossed the boundaries of solar systemNASA - Voyager Enters Solar System's Final Frontier

Unbroken Rules of Animal Kingdom

As I wrote in one of my previous post in this web log, I love climbing very high locations like hills and mountains and spend a lot of time there, simply watching the sky, the valley and nearby mountains. Let me describe one of the strange things I noticed about the dense forests, during my visits to Kurisumala in Wayanad. Previous post about trekking through Kurisumala and pictures

I saw round patches stretching on an average of 2 or 3 acres here and there in the dense forests without any trees or tall vegetations. These places are covered with green grass. I wondered why trees are not growing in these areas, for the surrounding places are covered with big trees, and the sun rays won’t touch the ground even at noon time.

First I thought that the phenomenon was due to the geography of the specific location. But my further inspection found that there was no any difference between the green patches and the surrounding locations with dense vegetation. During one of my visit to Kurisumala with my friend Rajesh, I asked him about this. He described me about the wonderful rules of nature.

If there is only dense forest, without enough plain grounds with grass, many animals won’t survive. Animals like deer, elephant, and other grass eating creatures need these green patches for their survival. Rajesh told me that he has watched many times, elephants and other grass eating animals moving towards these open areas in the jungle during the time of heavy rain and wind. Otherwise they may get seriously hurt by the falling trees and other actions of the wind and rain. And these green patches are essential for the mazing animals for their food. So these green patches are vital for the survival of the animals. And strangely, there will be green patches in all the forests around the world, without any specific reasons. Wonderful!!!! This is another miracle of the creator.

And he described one of the amazing rules of the Jungle. That is 'the animals won’t attack each other for food or anything while drinking water'. We can see predators like lion, tiger and other animals like zebra, deer etc drinking water from the same pond or lake. These kinds of rules are never broken in the jungle. There are many strange rules in the animal kingdom, that human can’t understand and can’t follow.

The More Silent, the More Powerful

The more silent the starting, the more wild will be the storm.
A silent dog will be so ferocious.
Try to be silent and wait for the outcome.
When you feel angry, don’t explode.
Feel the power inside.
Your silence may be more powerful than the showering of words.
Always withhold the outburst.
I used to react suddenly in most of the situations.
But later I understood the power of silence.
These are not only true for spontaneous activities.
I felt great when I practiced silence through out my daily life.
Now I can feel the great strength inside my mind.
Just feel that you have enough strength to do that, but be patient.
Never strike, accumulate the strength in your whole body and mind.
You will earn more will power, and you will be more positive.
If you are able to practice silence in your life, you will always feel that you do have the power to accomplish anything.

The Story of the 25 Paise in My Wallet

I am hopeless.
I walked aimlessly.
I am too hungry.
The sky is cloudy.
The sun is already set.
The twilight mood added my anxiety.
I reached a big play ground.
A small boy is playing alone at the far end of the ground.
I walked towards him.
He is throwing a small coin as high as possible again and again.
I asked him to hand over the coin.
He stopped playing.
His face turned sad.
He started stepping back.
I got the coin from him forcefully.
He started crying.
He ran away crying and looked back at me 2 or 3 times.
It is a 25 paisa coin.


Now it is night.
I am sleeping under a big banyan tree.
The crying face of the child flashed repeatedly in my mind.
I felt sad.


The next day I went to the same ground a little bit early, lots of kids were playing there.
The coin is still in my pocket.
I couldn’t find the boy.
I waited till it was dark.
I went to the same place the next day also.
I went there many times.
Never again I was able to find the boy playing there.
Oh! God, how can I give the coin back?

Years passed by.
Still the crying face of the child is in my mind.
The coin is still in my wallet.

Spectrum Completed One Year In Mind Tree

To celebrate the event of one year completion in mindtreeMindtree, Spectrum went on a trip to Ranganthittu, a bird sacntuary near Mysore and the near by places on 15th April 2005. Spectrum consists of me and my friends, who joined Mindtree on Arpil 19th, 2004. We are 31 in number. We consists of people from almost all parts of India.

We assembled near Mindtree Consulting Pvt ltd, around 8.00 am and started our journey towards Mysore around 8.30 am. 17 spectramites joined the trip. On the way, each of us talked about our one year experience in Mindtree and about their interests, and about how do they feel about other spectramites. On the way we had our food from a restaruant, don't know which place it is.

We reached Ranganthittu around 12.00 PM and after a small rest, we went inside the bird sanctuary. It was a very beautiful place with lots of greenaries inside. The main attraction of the place is boating in the lake. While boating, we can see lot of different kinds of birds in the tiny islands in the lake, as well as corcodiles in the lake.

Later we went to a nearby temple, went inside the temple, after that we had some sncaks and cool drinks. We moved to a river nearby, and had the lunch which we have brought packed with us, from the bank of the river. We rested there for some time, then spent the rest of the time in the water.

Here are some more photos.

Spectrum's First Anniversary Celebration

We, Thirty-one graduates joined Mind Tree on April 19th, 2004. Our batch includes people from almost all part of India, and it’s a perfect mixture of Indian culture. During the last one year, only one of us left Mindtree. On Tuesday April 19th, 2005 we decided to arrange a small cake cutting function at Mind tree’s cafeteria, which is named as Neem Tree. We invited Subroto Bagchi, COO & President of Mind Tree and delivery heads and those who lead our training program when we joined Mind Tree. We called ourselves spectrum and the individuals as spectramites. We enjoyed a lot during the training periods and organized many programs in Mind Tree. The SPARCS activities where mainly done by us, the spectramites. Our training was over by 2 months and we were allocated to different projects. Even though we were separated by projects and distance, we were in touch through small gatherings and mails.

This kind of a program is organized in Mind Tree for the first time by a batch. The function started at 6:30 PM, few of the spectramites shared their experience in Mindtree. The guests like, Subroto Bagchi, Babuji Abraham, Srinivas B Rao etc, shared with us what they felt about us. Later we cut the cake and sang Happy Birthday to spectrum. Subroto pointed out that spectramite's willingness and mentality to come out with the celebration themselves, and not waiting for somebody else to come and say "Congratulations for the successful completion of one year in Mind Tree" is really great and he asked us to keep up this enthusiasm through out the life. Nandini Ray and Sharmila Prakash presented us with to nice Hindi Songs. I played the Tamil song, “Ennavale Adi Ennavale – Kadhalan – Unnikrishnan” for spectramites. Later we all went for the dinner in Chung's restaurant, Jayanagar 4th block and reached back home around 10:00 pm.

The one-year in Mind Tree changed our life a lot. We learned many things technical and many other soft skills through organizational training programs and from people of Mind Tree.

God, the perfect Artist

I took this picture from Ranganthittu, a bird sanctuary near Mysore. This was taken during the picnic with my batch mates (Spectrum) from Mindtree, to celebrate the successful completion of one year in Mindtree.
Notice, that the creeper has perfectly wound over the bamboo. This is only one of the wonders I noticed there.

Bangalore, Is it a safe place?

Bangalore city is not growing fast enough to accommodate the sudden increase in human population due to the IT boom. Neither is it capable of accommodating the increased number of vehicles. Even though BDA (Bangalore Development Authority) is building new roads and over bridges, by the time the project completes, the need is almost doubled. IT industry is the major share of business in Bangalore and every individual here is having at least one or two vehicle. Government has proposed the idea of quota based registration for vehicle dealers, like each of the dealers will be allowed to register only a limited number of vehicles per month. But restricting the growth will not work and I believe that the Government will not be able to implement it.

Three things that BDA should take care:-
  1.  Increase the efficiency of public transport.
  2.  Make strict rules to reduce atmosphere and sound pollution.
  3.  Take strict action to reduce the crimes happening in Bangalore.

Need for increased efficiency of public transport.
Even though there are city buses reaching every location in Bangalore, its not sufficient to handle the morning and evening rush of people going and returning to offices and institutions and back to their home. Big companies are therefore forced to start their own transport facilities for their employees. Even at the non-peak hours the number of the BMTC (Bangalore Metro Transport Corporation), is not sufficient. One may have to wait from 30 to 60 minutes to get the particular route bus. So, currently the situation is like no one will hire the BMTC bus if he has to be in time. One another important profit from the public transport being efficient is that, individuals will start using the service, which will reduce the number of private vehicles and auto-rickshaws, which will definitely decrease the noise and air pollution. We can feel the intense level of air pollution if just drive away from the outskirts of the city. The air will suddenly become cool, and we can feel the difference easily.

Atmosphere and Noise Pollution Issues.
Sound pollution is mainly due to the very old auto-rickshaws, which are barely alive, still running as taxi! The riders with the modified engine, especially in bike add to the sound pollution. If we are behind a rickshaw in Bangalore for 10 minutes in Bangalore, we will become almost deaf. That’s the condition here in Bangalore city. Its mainly due to old vehicles, especially rickshaws, which are not maintained properly. I feel that there should be strict rule against modifying the vehicle in such a way that it increases the sound. There are lots of vehicle modification centers in Bangalore, which should be under observation. If we are riding an open vehicle like a bike for about 30 minutes in the city, we can see the dark lining in our dress due to air pollution. Another reason for air pollution is the use of adulterated petrol and diesel; the rickshaws uses kerosene mixed fuel.

Increasing Crime in Bangalore.
I am thinking that Bangalore police is supporting the gundas or local "dadas" here. It is not at all safe to travel alone in Bangalore after 7.00 pm and before 6.30 pm. Last month two of my colleges working in Mindtree were robbed and injured by Gangsters who turned up in the form of a taxi driver and his gangsters who appeared to be passengers. He was offered a lift by the taxi, at 10.00 pm to his house. They took his mobile, credit cards, money, watch and left him in some lonely place after a lot of physical attack. The worst thing happened after that, he went to the nearest police station around 11:00 PM, and the police was not at all ready to here his complaint. They were just behaving like; it’s not a matter of them. They asked him to go to the nearest police station where he hired taxi, and when he reached there, they pointed to some intermediate police station. They demanded bribe from that guy, to register the case whose everything was just robbed!! The Bangalore police is not even ready to register a crime, because they want the crime percentage to be low, so they won't be forced to work more. They just want to sit idle and collect bribe to satisfy their wives. It is the case with mobile theft. Mobile robbery (pick pocketing) is a common thing in Bangalore. The police will not at all register a mobile theft in FIR (First Investigation Report), they will make a report saying that a mobile is lost. So no mobile theft is happening in Bangalore!!!!
One another big crime is rickshaws with false meter. I have experienced this many times. The taximeter may just jump to some few points. Once I had this experience, the meter was going like 17-00 ... 17-50 ....18-00 .... 18-50... then suddenly 29-00 instead of 19. The taxi driver threatened me when I questioned him. And many of my friends shared the same experience with me when I described it. Another problem is that most of the rickshaw drivers will not be willing to take us to our destination. And the rule in Bangalore is one and half charge from 9.30 pm to 5.30 am, but never kept. They will charge us double and more. I have heard about rickshaw drivers attacking the passengers in gang, like if we are hiring an auto, their gangsters will be following our taxi and we will be eventually attacked for money. While I was coming back from my hometown to Bangalore, I reached the city around 3.00 am. I hired an auto and the total charge was 140 INR. I had exactly that much change with me( 4*10 + one hundred rupee note). I first gave him the 100-rupee note, and I took the other 4 ten rupee notes from my pocket. Suddenly the guy showed me a 10-rupee note and argued with me that I handed over him a 10-rupee note initially. It was dark; no one was there to help me, no help lines. At last I lost.

So dear Bangaloreans, think about this. We have to do something against this injustice.

Golden Palm & Spa, Bangalore - Team Outing

Me and my project members working in Mindtree went on a team outing to Golden Palm & Spa, located at 40 kms away from Bangalore. We spent there one complete day. The place is very cool, away from the polluted and noisy environment of Bangalore, very calm and beautiful place. We reached there around 10:30 am, had some snacks, then played tennis, squash, snooker, billiards and later we started to enjoy swimming.

Around 2-O-clock we had our lunch, and by evening 7:30 pm, we had the dinner. The food was good, and at dinner time one of the artist who's name is Frank; if am correct, played Violin with the accompaniment of a key board. The performance was super.

We reached back our house around 9:00 pm. That night, I was not able to sleep well, since my muscles started aching, because I was playing tennis, squash and swimming throught-out the day. Any way that day is still in my memory.

Some More Pictures From The Location

Eternal Love

Pope John Paul II

Once Again god says that his kingdom is not earthly.

Our dear Pope rest in peace in his eternal kingdom

Can I Be A Child Again?

When I was a child, everything seems to be complete. Complete in the sense, suppose I am playing something like pretending to be a cab driver, or pretending to be flying in an airplane with a toy airplane or some kind of silly things in my hand as the aircraft and immitating the sound of the cab or the aircraft, I felt like I was indeed flying an aircraft, or the taxicab. Whatever I was doing then, my mind was completely satisfied with it. I might be playing with a small football or something in my courtyard, alone, but my mind was satisfied with my own world.

As we grow older, it will become difficult to satisfy our mind. A 15 year boy or a grown up man, can never get the feeling that he is controlling a plane by playing with a toy. And if he or she is feeling the completeness in doing like that in an older stage of life, others will mark the human being as mad. Does it mean that, being satisfied with what we are means that are we mad!!!!! Or if a human being can never be satisfied with what he is doing, then is he a normal man???

A beautiful painting done by a small kid will be complete for him. If the kid draw a house, and the surroundings, with some domestic animals around, chimney at the top of the house, some trees near the house, a rainbow in the sky, a few birds flying in the sky, some distant mountains, some fussy clouds in the sky, it is perfect for him or her. But to an yelderly human, the picture may seems to be having broken lines, may not be perspectively correct, the ratio between the objects cannot be real, the color may not be perfect, the 3D may not be correct and a lot of things not correct.

Now I feel nostalgia about my childhood. Everyone wishes to be a perfect man or a perfect women. But as we grow up, we are becoming more imperfect. We were perfect in our childhood. I love remembering my childhood days. When can I become a child again? Jesus loved children very much. Every one likes to play with kids and every one will act like a kid when they are extremely happy. So, be a perfect child, love children, act like them atleast when you are alone.

Scenic Overlook

This is a superb photo blog which I came across while surfing the blogs.
Click here ==>Scenic Overlook

---

Photography is a thing which I liked mostly as a hobby but due to many constraints, I was not able to continue it.



Here is another blog which contains a lot of extraterrestrial pictures
==>ofantasmadaobra