That is what I think India is.
Changes are often bought about here after lives have been sacrificed. Progress is purchased with blood of innocents.
Three incidents which highlight this fact are:
1) Uphaar Cinema fire in New Delhi (June 1997) in which over 50 people (mostly families with children) died.
2) A school bus full of children plunged into the Yamuna (November 1997) killing 28 children.
3) The earthquake which rocked Gujarat (January 2001) killed more people than it should have because most buildings were made outside building regulations.
After the Uphaar incident the Munciple Corporation of Delhi (MCD) cracked the whip on defaulting cinemas. Many cinema halls across Delhi were closed because they did not have adquate fire saftey measures in place. Similarly after the bus incident it dawned on the Delhi Govenment that they should probably have some kind saftey regulations (and enforce them!) for school buses.
In India rules and regulations always get made after people have lost their lives. Thus it is logical to suggest that the people, who have given the ultimate sacrifice so that our city becomes safer, should be given sainthood.
I dont know if this total disregard for human life is unique to India. But it surely drives all progress in India.
The flames of yesterday burn long and hard.
Recently I was in Cambridge (as can be seen from the pictures). It is a lovely old town. When I was there it felt as if I was no longer in England. No Tesco at every corner. No huge super-stores. No empty lots growing weed. No run down houses.
It was all so sophisticated and posh. I almost felt out of place. And as a joke when I said to my supervisor that 'I feel inferior here' he turned around to me and told me 'Never feel that way'.
That single sentence was enough to set fire to my brain and inspire me more than anything else!
Sometimes some very simple things can inspire us to achieve great things.
rere25: most women dont know what they want in life until they are at least 25 or older
rere25: the younger ones are sometimes scatter brained
XY: i dont think women EVER know what they want in life... till they get a kid
XY: then they r more focussed than a kamikazee
Yesterday I saw the M57 'Ring' Nebula from my telescope. The first real deep sky object I have managed to see with it. I have a 130mm Newtonian reflector telescope.
Image taken from: http://home-3.worldonline.nl/~ppsmeets/Deep%20sky/Messier%20nummers/M57.html
"The civil works for the Bandra Effluent & Influent Treatment Plant, Mumbai is almost on the verge of completion. This will be the largest pumping station in the world in terms of capacity and discharge. The project is being funded by World Bank. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation are the clients for this project."
Taken from the HCC India website.
As the Frost Princess spreads her icy fingers over the land I come alive.
It is winter where I achieve the most.
It is winter during which I live the most.
The season of the dead is the time I live the most.
Walking in a dead land I dream the most.
As the White Dance of Death speeds up I laugh the most.
As the bitter wind cuts through the bone my heart warms the most.
As the nights become long I stay awake the most.
- by Azahar Machwe
Everyday we see so many things that, even though small, get us thinking.
Simple things like looking at the stars on a clear night can sometimes fill us with
a deep sense of joy and at the same time that of loneliness. Joy because we know that
our reality is just a very small part of the reality of the universe. If we someday
do manage to escape the confines of earth there are so many worlds to explore and
so many realities to experience. The loneliness we feel because we may never
actually leave this planet in large enough numbers since the human species is very
good at destroying itself.
The goals of our species as a whole are highly divergent.
Everyone lives their own private lives and the society itself is highly stratified. With so many
divergent paths and stratified flow of lives most of our energy gets wasted as friction.
The friction between different people and their lives. How are we to progress if
friction takes away all the energy?
I believe everyone should read the Rama series of books by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee.
Maybe it will open our minds.
Today I was watching a hindi horror movie (named 'Raat' meaning Night). In the end when people start asking how and why questions (with respect to the supernatural) the priest (who helps to get rid of the 'evil force') gives a very impressive answer.
He gives the example of how when we light a lamp in a dark room the darkness doesnt dissappear, its boundries are just thrown back a bit. Similarly what we know (with respect to science, logic etc.) is like a narrow area of light in an infinite black sea of what is unknown. What things lie just beyond the circle of light who knows? How these things affect us, we have absolutely no idea!
People will argue that science will one day explain everything. That one day will not come in our lifetime, maybe not even in our grandchildren's lifetime. But assuming that one special day does come when everything is explained in a balanced equation, the big question then is: will we like the explanations provided. What if the truth turns out to be stranger than fiction? Quantum mechanics already has many such tales which are much more entertaining than any gossip. The way we lay down the rules is not always the way the game is played! Thus what happens when we know THE TRUTH. Will we accept it or will we call it a lie or a mistake and move on in our search?
Most people would counter me by saying that ifTHE TRUTH is a scientific work then it would be testable. Thus the choice of accepting or rejecting is purely cosmetic. If tests prove something to be right then whatever it stands for must be right to. I would ask the people who raise this issue a simple question: How do you test the unknown i.e. how do you analyse something when it changes when you attempt to scan it (Heisenberg's Uncertainity Principle).
Maybe the truth has already been given to us but we choose to ignore it for something that (atleast on the surface) appears to be more 'testable'. Wouldn't it be tragic if 100 years down the line we realise that the 100 year research effort could have been spared ifwe had just reached back into history and tapped the knowledge of the ancients. If we had just started understanding how minds free from the daily assault of TV, radio and the iPod actually worked!
If we had just tried to learn what people already knew after years of dedicated searching (and not just 3 years of post-graduate re-search!).
Whatever happens, whether the darkness is pushed aside or the light of our 'society and science' goes out forever one thing is for sure, that THE TRUTH will most certainly be stranger than fiction and some people will always wonder: what does the darkness hold for us beyond the light?
Azahar Machwe
Bristol 1st October '05
honey_blossom0: wah
XY: in ur wedding u gonna be walking down in ur virgin whites with a switch blade strapped to ur thigh and a 9mm in hip holster
honey_blossom0: lol
honey_blossom0: nah
honey_blossom0: that day is special
XY: ok so u gonna finally bringout that Stinger launcher
XY:
honey_blossom0: lol
honey_blossom0: shut up
honey_blossom0: that day is special
XY: oh.. damn
XY: that M1A1 tank is gonna rip up those cute trini roads
XY: cant u just use a limo
XY: like normal ppl
honey_blossom0: lol
honey_blossom0: u got a sick sense of imagination
honey_blossom0: lol
honey_blossom0: nice
XY: thanks
XY: i love u for saying that
