The Aristocratic cat..

When i bought my apartment 3 months ago, my intention was to have one flatmate that would help me in paying the bills and at the same time provide some company. Soon after i moved in, the wildlife in the area started getting attracted to my habitat, possibly because animals understand each other very well. Me - A social animal and them - wild animals. There was a cat, a fox, and some ducks that would come sometime. The cat, was the most curious about my place, not to mention because there was always the odd bite of chicken for it. I would get to see the cat only twice or thrice a week as most of the evenings i was away. Last month I found Alfredo, the italion stallion(?), who has now moved in and is my flatmate. I will not get into the nitty gritties of how he is as a flatmate as that is not the topic of discussion here. But with his moving in, there being two people in the flat, the cat started finding that someone or the other was available in the evenings. And thus started the making of 'The Aristocratic Cat'. Vey happy with an odd bite in the beginning, it has now started making sure that it gets treated almost equally whenever it comes in. As u can c in the picture below, Charlie (as we call it now) is enjoying the luxury of an IKEA sofa. Very uncatlike though, it seems to have certain religious inclination, we tried to feed it with pork and it would not touch it. Neither does it like alcohol. Making our flat religiously harmonious, a hindu, a christian and now a muslim as well. :)!

Tekken Freaks....!!!

Guess what these two blokes are doing... heavily absorbed in something called 'TEkKEN'. Time doesnt matter any more, they are going game after game, obsessed with teh fact that they wanto beat the hell out of each other in this game. Good to mention that one is german and the other indian, would have been good if the germans and indians in germany had tried to resolve their differences in this manner over a playstation instead of clobbering the hell out of the indi people.



You might be wondering what am i doing taking these pictures instead of being a part of the game. Well, I have smacked the hell out of both of them and getting bored in the side lines enjoying the under dogs battle it out. :)

Being Explicit is a dying form of expression. In the process of human evolution, this has always been a dying human expression and will always be like that. In order to be good at something, one has to move out of being explicit and let things be in the grey zone. Once u r in the grey zone, u start appreciating and enjoying the unpredictability of the both the present and the future. As they say life is not black or white... it is a mix of colours.. same with the form of expressions that we practise.


Graciously saved by Dobry Sztank

Chak dey... India

Yes, this is one movie that i wanted to c and it kinda broke a long time hibernation that i had been into from seeing hindi movies. unsure but possibly the last one i saw was the new don... (another shah rukh)!




This is a good one, a very unlike Shah Rukh thing. Emotional yes, but a little macho emotional kind. More than that the fun thing was that it highlighted one of the biggest issues in Indi land. The movie does not hide the pathetic conditions that most sports in india (other than cricket) face on a regular basis. the best one was when all the hockey girls are in aussie land and they fill their plates up with loads of food. nice expressive and original. lovely work.!

The Story of a Squash Racquet...

Yes, its me. A squash racquet, more precisely Gaurav's squash racquet. You can see my battered state in the picture. Today i died, or to put it better, it was the last day of my slow death. Ever since i got into Gaurav's hands this summer I have been thoroughly abused and thrashed all over the place. I am a HEAD, that is one of the best racquet companies in the world, I did not expect to die so soon. It felt good in the beginning, Gaurav's hands were soft, he handled me with care. Ensured that everytime the ball was close to the wall, he would let it die instead of thrashing me hard against the wall surface. But soon, he learned the tricks of the trade, albeit in the wrong fashion. He would smack me hard on the all the surfaces, ground, side wall or the back wall. Instead of putting his foot forward he would hit me on the ground to reach the ball. Running at full speed in the direction of the ball, i would get smacked on the wall. I would hit the ball on the way, but the momentum generated by his speed would cause the edges of my frame to brush against the wall. That did the maximum damage, as one side there was a hard strong grip driving me forward and on the other there was the frame that was being stopped by the wall. Causing high bending moments all along my whole length.


In the last few days, Gaurav had started throwing me hard on the ground if he lost a stupid point. Thankfully the floor is wooden and not solid brick and cement work like the walls. Everytime i landed on that wooden floor, i thought like an optimist. Hey, it could have been the wall and then you would have had it. And everytime Gaurav hit me on one of the walls, his favourite words were.. "Sooner or Later" and would look at my frame with a smirk on his face. As if he was an all knowing god who can see the imminent coming. Those were the times i hated him the most, more than the times when he threw me or abused me. I hate it when he thinks of himself an omniscient human.



I do not really know when this happened, but in the beginning it felt like the paint was chipping off, but it was really a deep fracture that had caused the rupture of the much expensive carbon fibre that my body is made of. Gaurav saw the crack and consulted Andy, who was also of the opinion that it was a chip of the paint than anything more. Not that either one of them could do anything about it. I had suffered a long deep crack on the inside and noone could do anything about it other than dump me in the bin and get another HEAD or maybe even a WILSON. That was the day when my slow death started. Though the best thing is that even i did not know that this was coming. I could still put in my best without having the thought of death lurking in the background somewhere, waiting for me to crack so that it could take my soul with it. Today death came unknowingly, without a warning, one point against the italian novice and there it was... I was no more. Even i did not know about it for a few seconds. The best way for a racquet to die.


My end is sweet yet bitter; beautiful yet ugly. Gaurav plays decent squash now, he has learnt his moves and moves well on the court. Though he is still a lousy arse, he knows how to make his opponent move more than himself. When he hits, he hits the ball hard, his forehand being stronger than his back hand. He used me effectively to place the ball as close to the wall as possible. Andy, his partner had to run from one end of the court to the other just pick up the return of the serve. Sometimes the ball was hit so hard and flat that it would just die before Andy could reach it. Those were some of the moments full of pride in my short life. Gaurav is not a master, but atleast he tries. And in the words of Paulo Coelho...."As long as there is enthusiasm, there is life". He lives it everyday.

Cheerios!

Willpower vs habit

The other day i got into a small discussion with my brother about 'Willpower & Habit'. Which one of these is more powerful and plays a greater role in our lives. According to merriam webster, habit is a 'behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance' and willpower is defined in two subtle words 'energetic determination'. I am the kind of person who would place habit over willpower, for a number of reasons as I would explain later in this passage. My brother on the other hand thinks that willpower is more significant.

The first step of achieving something starts with willpower - "The determination to do". As a result of this, new resolutions are formed, where things that have to be done to achieve the desired result are defined and the manner of following them is determined. Once this is done, the next stage is that of execution of ideas, where generally lies all the heat. For instance, a math student can have tremendous willpower (to begin with), for learning how to solve his problems and excelling in class. This is at the beginning of the academic year. Soon however this determination fades away for a number of reasons, one of them being lack of motivation. However a student who has developed an acumen for maths by working on it over the years would not have a problem in motivating himself to excel in the subject. The first student's determination is more a burst of energy, where he wants to capture the marvel of being good in maths in a nutshell and use that information in convincing himself that he should work hard to improve. However, when it comes to daily coaxing himself to work with fine nuances of mathematics he fails. If instead he gets himself into the routine of working a few hours with it ever week, with time he will definitely take strides and learn to walk. Soon, though not in a very short period of time, his math could reach a level as good as some of the other brilliant students and possibly even excel and do better than them. It is relatively easy to imagine and fathom ideas on the table, a completly different task of executing them.

Let us think of a man named Jack, 26 years old who once goes to a see the competetion of Mr. Olympia. He gets very impressed with the muscular build of Ronnie Coleman. Now Ronnie is 42 years old and posseses such a magnificient body. Jack sees that Ronnie is 16 years older than him and still winning and super fit. Jack on the other hand is a man with an average body. He likes the nutshell in which Ronnie is enjoying his fame and glory. Attracted by the nutshell, he decides to give it a try. Soon Jack is on the members list of the most expensive gyms in Houston. His membership includes three free counsellings with the instructor. He is very enthusiastic about the whole thing and talks in great detail with the physical trainer at the gym. Soon he is on his first day at the gym. With tremendous will power, he starts his work outs. Anyone who has spent some weeks in the gym, knows how tedious it is to shape up those sinews. Jack tries hard, trying to lift weights by keeping the image of Ronnie in his mind. Ofcourse with so much of energy inside him bursting to lift more and more, he tries too hard and ends up with a lot of muscular pain on his first day. Not to be discouraged he is back the second and the third and the fourth day, finally taking a much deserved break on friday evening, when he loves to party with his friends. Soon though he realizes that if you are a regular at the gym, alcohol dehydrates the body and is not recommended when you are training. Fatty food is also a strict 'no-no', but only if you are bulking up. There are a hundred supplements out there that he can take, starting from whey protein to ceratin etc etc. Ceratin is to be had only in the first month, when you are hydrating the muscels. Drink as much water as you can. Bodybuilding, ofcourse is a science and there are no shortcuts. All this load of information soon convinces Jack that his job as a sales manager is good enough and he should focus on his squash which is so much more satisfying. So his willpower of doing a Ronnie Coleman is dissolved in the practicalities of day to day life. In order to succeed he needed to go to the gym regularly, six days a week, two hours every day, maybe 4 (I dont know) for atleast 2-4 years, before he could have thought of getting into his first competetion. He needed a habit to supplement his imagination and willpower.

Now lets assume that Jack started going to the gym when he was 15 and had no dreams or desire of becoming a bodybuilder. His training sessions pump up his body and he loves what he sees in the mirror after a few months. He goes on and on for a couple of years. Soon he is 18 and a trainer recommends him to train harder for the local competetion, Boosted by his three year old habit of spending time at the gym, he has no problem in transitioning from an amateur to a professional, and soon he enters the big league, where he sees more competetion and enjoys the whole process of growing into it. Habit, got him to a point where he needed a small amount of willpower to boost himself from one level to another. Willpower, then according to me should never be very huge, for bigger the willpower, higher the chance that it will fail to convert itself into a regular habit. This law does not mean that smaller the willpower, greater the chance of it being successful. It implies that there is an optimum range where willpower thrives. Above and below that range it could be ego or plain stupidity that are doing the talking. And this range is generally different for different people and is very much dependent on a person's achievements, abilities etc.

Even imagination is more powerful than willpower, a good example of this has been cited by Paul McKenna in his book "How to change your life in 7 days". If I wanted to increase my heartbeat, could I just tell my heart to beat faster? It wouldnt work, irrespective of the heaps of willpower I am ready to put into it. If however I were to close my eyes for a moment and imagine that i am walking down a dark alley in the middle of a dark night hearing footsteps behind me getting closer and closer, that would surely help.

Willpower is an important part of an individual's decision making process, however this tool is often misguided and misused by our egos. It is very important to understand the power of 'willpower' and remember that every willpower has to lead to a habit. Without a habit, willpower is powerless.

A Short History of the Tallest Man made Structures of the World

The human desire to be the best has often been the single biggest reason for us to design and construct bigger and better. From the ancient times of the Egyptians to the very modern feats of the twentieth century, humans have gone on to build taller and bigger structures. Our desire supplemented by technological advances have urged and assisted us in making more complex architecture and using more diverse materials.

One of the oldest known structures, the Red Pyramid of Sneferu was built around 2600 BC and stands at a height of 105 m. Close behind this is one of the oldest and last remaining original seven wonders of the world, the Great Pyramid of Giza. At the time of completion in about 2570 BC it was 146m high, though it was eroded to a height of 139m by AD1439. It remained the highest building in the world for a period of more than 3500 years till 1300 AD when the Lincoln cathedral standing at 160m overtook it. These pyramids were typically made of stones or bricks. Such magnificent and potent structures stood and adorned our earth years before the industrial revolution.

Figure 1 - The Red Pyramid and the Great Pyramid of Gaza

After the Egyptian pyramids, it was the turn of the Europeans to exhibit their architectural and engineering skills. The English made the Lincoln Cathedral which stood at about 160m in 1300 AD. The height includes the spire, which was destroyed in a storm in 1549. A number of tall structures all of them religious in nature were built in Europe from the 13^th century to the end of 19^th century. In 1884 the Washington monument, which is an obelisk was made to honour George Washington. It was 169m tall and remained the highest man made structure in the world for 5 years till the Eiffel tower, the beauty of Paris was made in 1889.

The Eiffel known as La Tour Eiffel in French is made of iron, the first of its kind. Surprisingly, it overtook the Washington Monument by a huge 131m. The high stiffness provided by iron as compared to concrete or bricks enabled the construction of such a high tower. At 300m, located besides river Seine it is still the tallest structure in Paris. With its antenna of 24m, its total height is 324m. Astonishingly, the tower was never meant to last so long, the initial plan was to tear it down after about 20 years. However soon the public started liking it very much and it was decided to let it stay, only to become one of the most romantic structures in the world. At the turn of the millennium, the Eiffel was decorated with shimmering lights to celebrate the New Years Eve. The plan again was to take the lights down sometime after the New Year celebrations, but it never happened. And six years hence, the shimmering lights still beautify this wonderful structure.

Figure 2 - The Shimmering Eiffel

In the 20^th century however, the human fascination with ‘high and big’ moved over to North America, USA to be more specific. With a highly active economy, the need for skyscrapers became evident in the new America. The Chrysler in New York made in 1930, is still the tallest brick building in the world, it is 319m high. Soon after in 1932, it was surpassed by the famous Empire State building, which stands at 381m. It has 102 floors and together with the antenna it stands at 448m. This was also the first building to have more than a 100 floors. It’s needless to say that in the background, there was a fight to height in all these New York Structures. It remained the tallest skyscraper for a period of 41 years and the tallest man made structure for 23 (a skyscraper would be a building made from a combination of concrete, bricks and steel or iron, while the tallest man made structure could also be a tower like the Eiffel made completely out of iron).

Figure 3 - The Chrysler and the Empire State Building

Making a half a kilometre high building was beyond the requirements and the think tank of innovators and engineers in the mid of the 20^th century. In Russia or USSR as it was known in those days, a tower was made which exceeded the 500m height barrier, by making a television tower (Ostankino tower) in 1967 which was 540 m high and remained the tallest man made structure in the world for 10 years, before the CN tower in Toronto, Canada at 553.33 m exceeded it. The CN tower is still the tallest man made structure in the world.

Figure 4 - The CN and the Ostankino Tower

Coming back the stiff competition of high buildings in USA, the world trade centre or the twin towers had 110 stories each and WTC 1 became the tallest building on earth at 417m when it was completed in 1972. However the twin towers did not maintain their top spot for long. The Sears towers in Chicago the construction of which was completed in 1973 and is still the highest in USA, stands at 442m. With the September 11 attacks in 2001, the empire state building again became the tallest in New York.

Figure 5 - The Sears Tower and the Twin Towers (Before Sept 11, 2001)

The world has grown out of this competition now, at least it seems so. With so many potential booming economies in the world, the past 15 years have seen many skyscrapers being built outside the USA. Currently the Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan is the one holding the coveted position; however there are many buildings in the pipeline which shall soon over take this 509m, 101 storey square shaped marvel.

Figure 6 - Taipei 101

That which burns fast, burns out even faster.

A happy friend... from London

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.6
Mind:	6
Body:	8.6
Spirit:	4.5
Friends/Family:	3.8
Love:	4.3
Finance:	7.7
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

I took this life rating quiz lately. I am not very surprised that it has come out like this, but it helps to put things in perspective. Provides a better understanding of the areas in life that need to be worked on. Though considering the lousy 'arse' that I can be, I think i will just learn to live with these results. There are two things in this result that are quite optimistic, that of the body and the finance. I have been able to appreciate the value of money over the years and have learnt how to grow it in a fashion where it reaps what i sow. the body ofcourse has always been of interest. Being a fat (slightly overweight) teenager, I have learnt to respect the importance of sports in my life and how they keep my pulse going. If i do not play squash any day, it kind of creates a feeling of unrest inside, a feeling that pokes in my head to go out and do something. Thankfully, I have Andy, a very sincere and devoted squash player as well, and now there is Alfero as well. He is a beginner, but then so was I sometime back.

Love is made by God, ignore it and you suffer as you cannot imagine.

Isolade, Tristan and Isolade

The myth, the creations, the happenings

It is the only path and i m scared of walking it.
It is a way which will take me where ever I want to go, yet I am scared of walking it.
I know that it is the only way, and yet I am scared of walking it.
It makes me feel good, and yet I am scared of walking it.
I want to walk.. I want to learn how to walk.. I know the path, I know the way, I am just scared.