The "Beautiful" Brain

 And now my thoughts actually ponder on the source of all thoughts….”Brain”

 I clearly have to admit that there is certainly an advantage as well as a blessing to actually have a Brain which can remember the good ride we had on a holiday but not the “Please God help me find my car key aftermath”. This is very much the same as relationships. I mean we remember those great moments of intimacy love and passion with great ease while those sleepless nights on a bed with enough room to park a car is nothing but a dim memory. Also during exams we can easily remember that how good the exam would have gone but not those sleepless nights and those in numerous cups of coffee enough to make your room a cafe shop for a night.

Anyways my point is that the Brain has to be automatically designed to remember more leisure than pain. To cherish all good times we would have had and to actually dismiss the bad.  The brain actually is hard wired to push the organism towards more of pleasure and to get away from pain. In that way we can make ourselves happy and failures might be treated as just a lesson learnt to devoid us pain and make us happier.

The image above has nothing much to do with the context of writing but just sharing it to give each of us a second of humor and ease and yes!! I am a Simpson fan. Cheers!!!

Where's my Problem

125 days!!! I was looking in brief actually staring at this particular number 125. History has it that there is no significance of this particular number but as I would know it’s been 125 days since I last published any thought or any random topic which would have its inception ever since I want to write about it. 125 days where I would give some lame excuse to myself but today I've decided to be true to me, my inner self.

So enough with those little stats above there and Yes I am here back to my BlogSpot. Life has not been that good for the past 3 weeks now. The air is open and a Vacuum is created in the airspace over here which is slowly eating up everybody right now. These are hard times where you really ask questions that do God’s really exist or are they some mythical characters like The Superman. I went through some series of motions in between these 125 days which I would like to share on the blog as I consider this as my first blog.

Writing the story “The Journey” which by the way is finished and to handful some who still want to read a not so happy ending story I shall be pleased to mail you after a couple of weeks though as I still believe that being the creator of the story I can always change it as per my convenience. Anyways I built this character Chander in the story that always used to create problems to keep his life occupied. And this has really been my problem right now thinking that do all persons or at least the maximum of earthlings live in a world which is full of problems? Let’s go for a deeper roll now!!!

Image Source: Google

Sometimes I feel that deep within us is always a human who hates us for what we are. It hates us of what we’ve made of ourselves in this perpetual search of victory and success. In this time it is really difficult to live in a world devoid of problems.  In a near future if at all there is a world without any problems then at that particular time I would consider that to be my biggest problem. We create problems only to solve it at a later stage and those the cycle of life goes on! Waking up having breakfast create a problem solve it and then have dinner and sleep only to wake up again. This has become the life cycle of almost everybody (I assume I can generalize at this stage). So what is the solution to this problem of problems? It’s Simple, Death. No Man =No Problem.

At times I wonder how I land up in such silly stupid thoughts and yet I decide to write them. But it gives me ease within myself. A power to actually remind me that no matter what the solution I might come up to the li’l problems they are only the gateways to newer problems. To be frank I am not happy. And making these statements and thinking might make me realize is it my common problem or a general problem. How do I tackle it? Where can I get motivation to move ahead of time and create a general space where I can be happy and satisfied? But then the questions which might look simple require complex answers and deep after years I should be confidently able to read this blog again and rethink was I correct? and until then I shall live with whatever and wherever Life is taking me or asking me to do & I shall keep asking myself…”Where’s my problem???”   

The "Journey"----Part II

                                                    The Journey- 2

"The captain has turned on the fasten seat belt signs. please ensure all seat belts are fastened and all trays are secure in their upright position. We will be landing shortly so on behalf of Qatar, thank you for flying with us and we hope you enjoyed your flight"

The voice from the cabin crew coming over from the intercom was almost faint and yet robotic in speech. A faint buzz passed through my ears before the voice almost broke down and then stopped. This was almost a long journey flying around half the world finding pieces of my life still open. I almost fell sleep the last night when i begin remembering the bad memories which i had in my early childhood days. Yet i was reluctant to take up this journey. As its told a bad phase is always a god sign that there are good days ahead. the night is always dark before the dawn. and somehow I found myself related to this phase quite a few often. Not that my life was eminent of only bad goings it did have some good and positive things to look forward to. The body was almost numb after being seated for 7 hrs flight from Doha to London. The book I got the other night from the pavement was still in my bags and yet for this long hrs i didn't want to read this book.

The flight was rough with regular turbulence but the people were more interesting to me than the weather. Much to my luck of which bad luck had the largest count if it had, I got the middle seat. An overweight women was on my right who would use me as her pillow on almost the maximum duration of flight which i even willingly allowed her and to my left a grown well teen of around 17 with god knows why he was travelling alone on this full flight. While the descent announcements were made the young teen was courteous enough to offer me a half eaten pack of peanuts. When I shook my head he sniggered and stuffed a handful into his mouth chomping with bits tumbling from his mouth on his almost white shirt.

As my little bit of good luck would have it i was one of the first off the plane only to be the last to collect my luggage. A failed attempt of an Anger Management student would have found himself in the middle of yet another session but i tried to keep myself relaxed adjusting my Watch to a new time zone and keeping the track of the snow that was ahead of me when i was to go out of the airport. With all the procedures of the immigration and visa finishing i went out of the airport and signaled a Taxi to begin a new chapter of my life where there is a quest for finding solutions to some questions which were left unanswered. some people who never cared and some issues which needed to be resolved. I call this part of my life "The Journey"

The Journey

                                                The Journey

                                      PROLOGUE

Words of wisdom

"God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way."

      When Chander came upon this piece of writing it struck a very deep chord within him. This was mainly attributed on his personal circumstances too. As Stephen Greenblatt had quoted “Art always penetrates the particular fissures in one’s physic life”. He just found out to be true. How strange that simple things which he books had to offer shows a lot of light on oneself. Today he would relish for the fact that he has survived 10000 days of existence in this wicked world. It would merely mean a number to others, but to him it meant 10000 days of struggle, pain and all complexities that life would have been better had he born a different person.         

      With just little hope he went to the central library today when he saw a book which just costed him 100 bucks. With such a rate he would certainly not buy a diamond but that would even not stop him from buying a book.  He would always consider books to be an open source of wisdom that preach some important lessons without paying much. 
      The night was just a regular night in his life where he would embark on a 10 min walk from his work place to home. Then it was followed by his regular dinner which included some shrimps and rice and would occasionally settle down for boiled potatoes too. However today he did have that book which he carried from the central library. Having finished his dinner he just embarked on a journey that the book had to offer him once he started reading it with the words of wisdom at the top.

                                                                CHAPTER 1

Cluttered in the protective arms of my mother was me where I could possibly behold all the happiness of my life. Well to be frank I never felt the warmth of the sun as enduring and caring as I felt being hugged in her arms. My memory would be faded as I was born but to the farthest corner of the world if I remember I could recall my innocence of the age when it came when I was around 2 yrs old. Those little memories I had had flown along with me since I grew in this miserable world.  A very diminishing image of my father had grown in me and I could recall him coming back to see me as soon as the clock would strike 5 PM. A little could I believe with both of my parents around me I would surely have been one happy Soul? Probably one last time where I could have been happy was on the second of March.

With all the little I heard from my momma was that my father was killed in the road accident. He would have been a careless person to just cross the roads while answering to an important phone call. The call surely did the most fateful thing that could have happened to the child. I was 2 yrs 08 months and 12 days old when suddenly my momma was left with the toughest responsibility she had to face in the coming future.

As a child I would often believe in fairy tales. Those stories which i grew up listening would somehow not fall in the correct place. I would listen to ma talking of an old rip van winkle that would sleep for as long as 20 yrs in some old days. How I wish i could have slept throughout those 20 yrs of my early days. Something I would have surely been happy of. But life teaches lessons of its own and sometimes the simple lessons of life would come from miseries and pain.
My mother on the other hand was not afraid of the afterlife. Of what is death after all? Where the soul leaves the weak body so that it doesn’t endure the suffering of a body. But all she was afraid of was the death which was imminent because of her lifelong of family sufferings which she have seen throughout her life. Her brother died of some cancer some decades ago, probably the time when the cure for the disease was not found and also the death of my father was before her. She would often hold me tight whenever I was to go away from her. Be it the school days where I where she would hold me tightly in her arms and would often talk about distinct possibility of not seeing her again or of those tiring long nights where she would often be awake ensuring i slept in peace which i thought was just to express her unconditional love. I would often be afraid to ask her of her actions which resulted in the beginning of unrest in my heart. But my curiosities of the questions were far less than the reality itself. I never thought that when the reality would strike this unrest would take the form of fear which would perhaps stay with me forever.  

A Review: Johnny Gone Down

A new thing which i am starting in my writing.. yes other than my curious minds is all about the books i read and which had deep impact in me. A vivid book reader which i am, i have gone through many books of world literature but yet there is something good which i feel about this book by the second time novelist Karan Bajaj.

After reading "Keep off the grass" i must admire Karan bajaj for the kind of writing he has, which is mature logical and dark. yes the author himself says in his interview that movie like old boy (Korean) were his inspirations.

Johnny Gone Down is a complete story of Nikhil from his appointment letter in NASA to being ending up first as a monk, then an accountant to a drug mafia and then a software mogul. The story starts with the graduation day at MIT where Nikhil is with his best bud sameer. Nikhil has just landed up with his dream job at NASA and is expected to join by next month. Suddenly sameer lands up with an idea of leaving to Cambodia for vacation. Everything is well planned except that when the two reach Cambodia they find themselves in the midst of a war. Nikhil in his act of selflessness saves Sam and he in turn stays there only to be caught by the revolutionists and for many a years being in jail he escapes back only to find himself in Thailand and hence becomes a monk even when his heart still wants him to get back to US for his dream job. He continues with monk for full 10 yrs and finally on a trip to Brazil decided to move out and now he finds himself in Brazil being an accountant to a drug mafia. falls in love with a Brazilian actress and gets married. but now again circumstances forces him to flee to US where he becomes a software giant but life comes as a full circle and now he returns back to India to complete the full final journey whose destination is "Death".

With the above synopsis with very li'l spoilers included, the book continues to move at a pace of its own not forcing its reader to be lost somewhere or feel sleepy. An extraordinary journey with little philosophical touch and a time frame covering more than 25 yrs and 6 countries. this is an extra ordinary journey of a man. While reading the book we can still feel the touch of Bollywood in the narration. of course the book and the plot make up a spicy Bollywood movie. A sense of realism brought in few portions were just remarkable.

But still the character Nikhil tries to arouse curiosity among the readers. he might well be regarded as a superhero but a hero who is about to die in the first chapter of the book, looses his hand in the first 100 pages of the book and a dedicated monk lived up in monastery for 10 long years and still ending up in drug business. How do you rate this hero. may be the one which is not seen much in literature. a very difficult book to lay off, that's precisely the reason why i finished the book in one go.

A word for the author Karan Bajaj: Take a bow. In line with the current Indian writers i admire him just because of the style of writing covering almost all aspects: philosophy, thriller, darkness. just like his former book the character is confused and almost wants to take up whatever the life is offering him not knowing of the consequences. In recent days never seen a writing so true and dark.

Lessons learnt: Live life king size, live the life as its a canvas and paint it with bright colors, live the life at present and never to think whats gonna happen next. A life which we regard as a perfect could change overnight and yet instead of pressing the panic button we must continue on whatever life offers us and be patient enough to get the correct fruit.

For me to sum up with the book and the character: "A life once lived, but fully lived"

My Rating: 8.5/10 for good writing and a fantastic plot.

A tribute to "Nothing"

Well i am starting this post not something which i can say is my own writing but thanks to John D Barrow book i am able to understand some concepts of nothing and zero and just sharing it.

Nothing in itself is a concept. the dictionary have 10 different meanings for nothing. so it got to be something right

zero in itself is circumlocutary. i.e it is using more word than required to express an idea. in tennis the use of word "love" comes from a rather unromantic french word "leuf" which means egg which symbolically represents zero "0"

plus when we all say he is fighting for love (not money).. which means nothing..

A null operation is a technological crap for nothing in computer. so when the initial computers were designed, during the difference between one key stroke and the other key stroke the computer would run the null operation meaning nothing is to be processes now.

but not all usage of zero were derogative. in earlier 15th century when french used to escape to scotland they used to keep their names secret by using the surname nimmo derived from latin "nenot" meaning no one.

writers also embraced the theory of nothing in their own sense. elbert hubbard book "essay on science" was a neatly bound book of blank pages. The ray craft used it as an autograph book
also in 1974 the nothing book was published which is a beautiful bound book in a nut brown denim building full of empty pages for the delight of dedicated scribbler

Elbert Hubbard

Zero became a great trouble for the early days of computer. in the days where all documents and applications were processed with the help of computer. Now the dates were recorded with the last two digits of the year. little did the computer and their developers knew that as year progressed to 2000 the literal 00 was of no significance and the calculation would start backwards. now just think if the credit card expiry instead of 01-Jun-2001 becomes 01-Jun-1901. what a blunder the world would have caused.


There are other amazing stuffs in the book one of which is a paradox explained through a small story

There is a man and a turtle. The man walks at 400 metres per hour. The turtle walks at 40 meters per hour.

The turtle starts the race 400 meters in front of the man.

By the time, the man has travelled 400 metres, the turtle will have travelled 40 meters so will be 40 meters ahead.

The man travels another 40 metres, but by then the turtle is 4 meters ahead.

The man travels another 4 metres, but the turtle is 0.4 meters ahead.

And so on…

The man can therefore never overtake the tortoise.

The point here is we keep going in relatively smaller amounts but we would never go to exact zero, each time just the difference is leading towards zero 

Well this book would serve a great fact book and an awesome read which it is. so all facts are just from the first chapter of this good book. so just track this book on

For all Indian Readers:Flipkart: http://www.flipkart.com/books/0099288451?pid=pnw3f1adtf&_l=oMITT7hLtDgRhkHnIEH7fA--&_r=OJHxb7ljLS4UQpxFegA5DA--&ref=158fa884-4bb0-4236-8b7b-d0cf6c5d9b48


For all outside India: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Nothing-Vacuums-Origins-Universe/dp/0375726098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321701418&sr=8-1

My path to prosperity!

Its just strange that "Circumstances laid in front of us have a part to play in shaping up our entire life". We all act together and some choose to throw it away while some might want to redeem it. Its just the way we look at it, act strong and achieve the goal.

Just to state a small instance where there were two good friends. They used to stay together, had the same goal  but different yet strong ideas to achieve it. They knew that if they acted smart enough they would turn their small investments to big fortunes. But suddenly the market collapsed and the bank in which they put their money had hopelessly failed. The former said to latter that worry and tension might not bring the money back but hard work and positive approach would definitely help them. Saying this the former went to work with optimism but latter went to work mourning the loss of money,

Its so strange that the situation in front of them were same where one chose to follow the path of prosperity the latter chose to curse it and let go off the positivity in him.

If circumstances had the power to bless and harm they would bless or harm each one alike but the same circumstance would prove fruitful or disaster to different person only proves that its not the circumstance that is good or bad its the human soul. I do hope that this particular instance would help in the enlightenment of my friend who just challenged that the path we chose is the path that is shown in front of us. Well most of you who will read this would agree with me on the thought i pondered upon.