Saturday, April 15, 2006

The Road...



The M5 motorway (towards Exeter).


Some castle along the road.


Distant shoreline.


A wall..


Harland Lighthouse


The shipwreck of 'Johanna' (shipwrecked 31st December 1982)



Hartland Lighthouse


Life is a bed of rocks and water to drown yourself in.

Hartland Point


Towards Hartland Point - narrow roads!



From the Hartland Point Radar Station.


The MoD Hartland Point Radar Station


Towards Hartland Point Lighthouse

Dreamscapes along the Devon Coast!


Me and Rishi


Countryside of eternity


A house in the fog.


House on the borderland.

Atlantic Highway (A39)

On Good Friday I went along the Atlantic Highway (A39).



The Travellers:
Front Left: Bhuvan (Pilot)
Front Right: Azahar (Navigator)
Back Right: Rishi (Treasurer)
Back Left: Prashant (Catering)




Dreamscapes along the Devon Coast!

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Emotions.. the lack off.

I was watching a Hindi movie yesterday. It had some scenes of family life. An almost complete family with a grand mother, father, daughter and son. A happy family.

It made me realise that living away from home and having no contact with any kind of family out here has made me loose those emotions. I just feel cold emotionally. Three years of living away from home with a month long trip back once a year. It hasn't left much scope for exercising these basic emotions.

I guess everyone must feel a degree of emotional vaccume when they live away from home for a length of time. Does it make us very cold emotionally? Do we loose the ability to love someone from the depths of our heart? Can we ever feel comfortable in a family setting? Or have we lost the ability to have any kind of 'family' based emotions?

One thing I do know, when you leave home you need to kill a part of you. Some people manage to kill it off completely but with me I have just damaged that part... it continues to bleed... and it will never heal.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Ghosts..

I haven't seen or felt one yet.
I don't believe in them.

In horror movies they show ghosts running around in a graveyard. How is that possible? Aren't people laid to rest under the sign of God? How can we have restless spirits there?
I guess you are safest in a graveyard from all kinds of evil spirits. :D

But in the end it is just about opening your mind to superstitions. Once your mind is open you end up seeing all kinds of funny stuff!

Remember mind is the most powerful engine around. It can lead to great good as well as great evil!
;)

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Truth and TV

Yesterday me and my housemate were watching TV while eating dinner. I was going through the TV guide when I saw that we had some of the Hindi TV channels (Star Plus and Star News) free for a week.

Now since we had nothing better to do we decided to watch a soap opera (something which mostly women watch back home!).
The name of the soap was 'Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki' which means (approximately) 'story of a common house'. The only problem is, as my friend put it, the serial had nothing to do with reality. In fact it was SO far from reality that probably it would make a nice fairy tale for children. Of course there was also nothing 'common' about the houses or the people they show.

Here are some common trends in Indian soaps:
1) All women are super sexy looking even the old ones.
2) Women are decked out in 'full gear' through out the day which includes jewellery, sexy saris, makeup and ofcourse that good old sindoor.
3) Inspite of all the clothes and stuff they manage to do their daily duties (god only knows how but I hope I get a wife like that!) without breaking into a sweat or smearing their makeup.
4) People never look their age. Often mother-daughter pairs look like sisters.
5) Kids grow at exponential rate into adults (about 6 months worth of episodes) or don't grow at all (like good old Archies comics).
6) Adults always look and stay the same year after year (magic of makeup and soft focus!).
7) Old people never die and look like all nice and presentable (nothing like real life.. hell no!).
8) All the families (even the poor ones) life in houses that look more like a small luxury hotel!
9) The households never seem to have any problems with electricity, water or any other such day to day problems.

:D
And the name of the serials inspire such commonality.
Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki -> Story of a common house.
Kasauti Zindagi Ki -> The foundation of life.
Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi -> Because Once upon a time even a mother-in-law was a daughter-in -law.

Amazing!

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Why bother...

I am not drunk (for once!) and I am not depressed.
Sometimes you just need to think some things through. Even if it does seem counter-productive to think them.

I am in a catch 22 situation.
I haven't spoken with the girl I love for a long time now. She is busy. I am free. Yet I don't see myself making that extra effort to reach out and touch her. Why do it I ask myself. Why bother her specially since she doesnt believe in outward show of emotions? Keep the pain inside you my heart thinks. It is just a matter of time before she would be well and truly beyond my reach. I don't mean the geographical seperation. I mean a seperation of emotions. A seperation lasting a life time. A seperation of the mind, body and soul.

But maybe I don't get a response because I am not responding myself. Too confusing.

Why does love have to be like a detective novel where all actions (implicit and explicit) have to read and re-read to find out their correct meaning. Clues pieced together bit by bit.
Where if you assume wrongly you loose more than just your self-respect. Where does the scrambling of signals take place and cause confusion to prevent two humans from just admitting that they love each other.


The tree-lined avenue
Begins to fade from view
Drowning past regrets
In tea and cigarettes
But I can’t seem to forget
When you came along


The world I love
The tears I drop
To be part of
The wave can't stop
Ever wonder if it's all for you
The world I love
The trains I hop
To be part of
The wave can't stop

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Darkness comes at Dawn..

A Theoretical Research Firm...



This is what a research firm should look like (in my humble opinion).
I shall give a few features of this set up.
1) Research and Management is seperated. Each is treated as an internal customer of each other.
2) All professional services like HR, Finance and Legal have their own research set up. Therefore they are conducting in house research as well.
3) Dedicated, adaptive and dynamic sales/research team which carries out market research and other activities to guide research set up. Also responsible for public relations and image enhancement.
4) Services like Financial and Legal hired out to other companies as well (on consultation basis).

The Helicopter!


For people living in Bristol (north Bristol area specially).. this is THE Helicopter.
I am sure all of us have heard/seen this atleast once. It is based at the Filton airfield (saw it land once).
This pic was taken once again from my canon camera utilizing the full 12x optical zoom.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Burning Moonlight


Moon in all its glory!

Stupid it is!

XY: chintu
deepak_scorp: hey pintu
XY: bus yaar im in love
deepak_scorp: wow
deepak_scorp: kiske saath
XY: but the girl i love dont love me back :(
deepak_scorp: who is the blessed one
XY: **NAME CENSORED** :D
deepak_scorp: hahahahah
deepak_scorp: hahahah
deepak_scorp: hahahah

Moon and more!


Moon: Taken from my Canon S2 IS camera at maximum zoom (digital+optical).


Moon: Taken through the telescope with my Sony DSC-P100 camera.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Taking a chance..

Everyone takes a chance atleast once in their life.
Well I have made taking chances an artform. My life seems to be about shooting arrows into the dark waiting for a strike. Just to see them coming back at me with a nuclear bomb attached!
It is just amazing how I end up making a fool of myself (and I seem to enjoy it) EACH and every time. Sometimes I think I am too comfortable playing the fool. Doing stupid things and just taking life in a very non-serious manner.
Some proof:

XY: hehehe tell me something if a girl tells u tht she has fallen in love with me how will u react
deepak_scorp: i will laugh
XY: hahahahahha me too, but plz explain y
deepak_scorp: well
deepak_scorp: trust me
deepak_scorp: i dont have any reason
deepak_scorp: but i know i will laugh
deepak_scorp: but i wud respect her feelings, just that i will laugh, dunno why


One has to be a bit foolish when you have a luck like mine. :)
For me PATIENCE IS THE KEY.

I need to wait watch and then react. Whenever I try and do things quickly I end up with weird results.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

A White Ghost...

Last night while returning from my friends house I thought of taking a walk along Filton Avenue (Bristol).
The time was around 12:20 AM and it was windy and quite cold. The streets were deserted and now and then a taxi or car would pass me by (either heading to or coming back from the center I guess).
As I was walking I saw something bright from the corner of my eye. I turned around and to my surprise I saw a white limousine, all lit up, coming up behind me like a silent white ghost. It passed me by as stealthy as a tiger on the hunt, with a white hand waving to me from the inside. I couldn't help but break out into a smile since it was such an unusual and amazing thing to happen.

The reason being Filton Avenue is not the kind of road on which a limousine would travel around any time of the day. Especially the King George pub end of it.
Local Bristol people will know what I mean.
:)

Saturday, April 01, 2006

About Ourselves..

First read this interview.



Below are a few quotes from the above interview.
But science is not about knowing for sure. It's about knowing beyond reasonable doubt - so there's more in common with the law here than people realise. You can only be beyond reasonable doubt that something is true.

Next time you get into an argument with someone on something scientific (like I did recently) and they argue that '.. oh but you can't know for sure' just tell them what science is really about. ;)


The only thing I will say is there have been all these revolutions in science. If you think about it, each of them has had a dehumanising impact.

First, for example, there was the Copernican revolution saying there is nothing special about this little speck of dust, which is what the earth is. That's already humiliating - that you don't have a privileged place in the cosmos.

Then comes the Darwinian revolution saying you're just a hairless ape. That, again, is humiliating - that you are not the climax of creation, but are, in fact, the product of random processes of natural selection.

Then this Freudian revolution, saying you are not in charge, that your behaviour is largely governed by unconscious motives and drives.

And then the most recent thing, the DNA - that there is no vital spirit, it's a molecule. As Watson said, there are only molecules, everything else is sociology. He was, of course, saying this tongue in cheek. And now the neuroscientist's version - Crick's astonishing hypothesis - that you are just a pack of neurons; that's all a human being is. Now the question is: is that true? We don't know yet. We have to remain agnostic. But we have to take that as far as we can. That's the way science works.

Thus we are another cog in the great cosmic machinery of the universe. Or is it that simple? Us humans have this unique gift of 'self-discovery'. The fact that we know we are not the big bosses of the universe is in itself unique.
The more we know the greater mastery we have over our surroundings and at the same time our importance in the scheme of things reduces. From center stage to side show.
How much longer can we humans keep on discovering things about our universe without starting the journey back from side show towards center stage?
Have we passed the mean or are we moving towards it? What do we need to discover so that the human race can actually call itself unique? Secret of everlasting life? Travelling millions and billions of kilometers by merely thinking about it? What is it that we need to discover that will make us stand out?



It turns out that if I tell somebody to wiggle his fingers whenever he wants to in the next five minutes, the amazing thing is, when he wiggles his finger, you can measure when he wants to on the second hand of a clock and you can check where was the second hand at the time he sent the command to wiggle the finger - and usually he sends the command just before the clock was at the twelve. But you have picked up the brain signal a full second before!

So you can tell the guy, ahead of time, that you are going to will it now, in principle - we haven't actually succeeded in doing that yet because of technical problems. Now, if it's his will, how can you tell him ahead of time when he's going to will it?


This is totally amazing! That means there is a gap of around 1 second between our thoughts and actions. This is easy to figure out since the speed of the electrical impulses in our nerves is not infinite. No signal can travel faster than light (which has speed of around 3x10^8 m/s in vaccume) and the signals in our nervous system travel at a lower speed than that!
So basically what you are doing now you decided one second ago (approximately).
It is a strange concept if you think about it.

Friday, March 31, 2006

Dawn!






Here are some pictures I took on the 31st of March. It had been raining since the previous evening. A windy and fresh March morning. Feeling like a million bucks, I decided to snap some shots with my Canon S2 IS camera.

About Discrimination

First read this excellent post.



I believe some discrimination is needed for society to function normally. The problem is discrimination allows people to choose what they are comfortable with rather than facing their fears. It is difficult for people to be open minded to all things all the time.
You talk about discrimination in the job market. That is because people feel comfortable working with their own kind and very few people like the challenge of new situations. That is I know a close minded approach but then again it is surprising to see how many of us are actually close minded about some things in our life without realising it.