Earth

Just two days before, the Kepler was launched by the NASA. The main mission of Kepler was to find whether there are any planets in galaxy which can support the human life.

But the question is that can’t we keep Earth, our planet a little more habitable and peaceful instead of exploiting our beloved Mother.

We all in some or the other way are exploiting Earth for our benefit. We have become so selfish and cruel that we no longer care about Mother. We are indirectly decreasing the lifespan of Earth. We are acting as if we no longer consider the benefit of future generation. Are the present generations of people trying to be in the history books to be called as destroyers of earth by the future generation?

Look at the present scenario, everywhere there are some kind of disasters happening at every nook and corner of earth. Be it the natural calamities like earthquakes, floods, melting of glaciers, extinction of species everyday or tsunamis. They are slowly taking the toll on us and making the earth a dangerous place to live. But don’t forget that we are also creating manmade calamites like constantly exploiting the belly of earth for more minerals, wars, nuclear bomb testing, building dams on rivers and changing their course and polluting the environment to name a few. They are just a small portion of things we are doing to degrade earth. There are many things we are doing that made NASA to send Kepler on this mission.

Can’t we stop it?

Can’t all the world leaders come together and find a solution to problem before it gets out of our hand?

We can do it. We can start from our part to stop this degradation of earth by doing simple steps such as recycling plastic, using public transport to name a few. We can try our best to stop it and maintain the Earth’s ecological balance. After all we are humans; we should have the will power to prevent this type of calamity.

I hope the day doesn’t come that we are celebrating that the Kepler has found a planet like earth and we are leaving in batches to go to that planet. After all I feel that no other planet is as beautiful and hospitable like Earth.

But my good wishes are with Kepler to find another planet just in case………………….

A funny way of protesting in India

I find this type of protest in India particularly funny and I always have a small laugh at the protestors doing such a kind of protest.

This kind of protest of burning effigies (dummy statues) of person or the organization against whom you are protesting leaves me wondering, what kind of satisfaction do these people get by burning these effigies.

I really don’t know whether these types of protests take place in other countries other than India. It really amuses me seeing the television footage of people taking out their anger on a dumb statue. The scene of people garlanding the statue with ‘chappals’ or pouring kerosene on it and burning it provides a good opportunity for the protesters to showcase themselves on the ever increasing twenty four hour airing news channels in India and also a good chance for news channel to provide a good breaking news.

Poor Effigy……how much it must be suffering the brutal force of the angry public I thought………… 

What I feel about Slumdog Millionaire...

Every day or the other I hear of the movie ‘Slumdog millionaire’ being in the newspaper for some reason or the other for being in the race for the Oscars or grabbing awards at the Golden Globe awards ceremony or the controversial remarks by the great ‘Big B’. I too being an Indian would like to express my views on the movie.

I too had discussed this movie with all my common friends whose views matched with mine. Though this movie is winning accolades everywhere I found this movie a bit disgusting. Though this movie has excellent cast, a good directing and good music I found it a normal movie with the tag, from rags to riches and it is worth watching only once. It is not as good as the Hindi movie ‘Taare zameen par’ which is hundred times better than Slumdog. Also it hurt me that a big city like Mumbai is shown in dire straits with the dumping grounds, slums and antisocial elements. Though I really admit that these elements exist in Mumbai it was a cheap way of earning money for film by showing all this stuff to westerners. Also such antisocial elements are also present in all western countries and it shouldn’t have been pin pointed only at India. It hurts me that this film shows India in such a poor condition to the world audience.

I would like to tell you all that it is a good movie worth watching once and forgetting it. Any patriotic Indian would feel unhappy about the conditions in which a common Indian is living………….

Mumbai- a city that soaks all your energy

Once I was traveling late night on Mumbai local trains after seeing a recent Hindi movie, I was tired so were many people in the train. I boarded a Dombivili bound local at about 10:35 p.m from Thane station. I could see the tired faces of people after a day’s hard work only to find yourself in a crowded local train trying to find a seat to sit in order to rest your badly aching legs. As far as I know, most of them would have been thinking about their family and money problems.

Let me give you a quick overlook of Dombivili railway station. It has five platforms out of which platform no.1 serves all local trains which have to go beyond Dombivili. Normally the trains which terminate at Dombivili arrive at platform no.2. Trains arriving at platform no.1 have a good facility that you can get down at Dombivili from both sides of the train. You can compare it with the platforms at C.S.T station where you can get down at both sides of platform. Most suburban stations have facility to get down on a platform only on one side. I hope you would have understood it.

Well as Dombivili terminating train arrives only on platform no.2, it is the same platform where you can get down only on one side of the train that is the left side of train. As the train approached the station I could see people flocking on the both sides of train unaware that there is no platform on your right side. Still I could see the crowd growing more on the right side. So much tired were the people that they were unaware that this local train arrives only at platform no.2. Finally as the train approached the station the crowd of people realized their mistake and unknowingly admitted their foolishness.

I thought that this is the extend at which a big city like Mumbai can make you tired!!!!!!!!

Engineering in Mumbai

            This post is all about my experience of doing engineering in Mumbai for past one and a half years. I hope this post will be helpful for all those who are staying in Mumbai and are eager to get admission in engineering colleges in Mumbai.

            I can say only one thing to all 12^th standard pass outs; remember keep Mumbai engineering colleges in your last option. First try the IIT’s and NIT’s, and then try Mumbai. The main reason for this is that traveling can really punishing and it can waste your lot of time preventing you from doing other activities such as taking part in many inter college competitions and doing research related work. The main reason for avoiding all this is that you really get tired and by the time you think of doing all these things, the time has ticked so fast that it keeps you wondering. Though there are some of my colleagues who do all these activities and still get time to do study.

            For all those students who live outside Mumbai do a complete analysis of college. For example check which colleges have hostel facilities. Most of the colleges don’t have it and trying to obtain a room can be troublesome for new comers in this city. Also the first semester goes in adjusting and all other stuff.

            Second thing I would like to say all those who travel a huge distance of about 20 to 30 kilometers to reach college take care that you take all the necessary things to the college. Never forget to take the assignments that you have completed with you always as the professor can ask assignment any time and if you don’t have it you are in big trouble as some professors don’t take late assignments and keep you in air for the whole semester. I have seen it happen with many of my friends. Also take care from all those who have bad temper, always keep some distance from them and try not to do any kind of mischief in their lectures. They keep a record of those students and harass them in practical exams and at the time of submissions.

            The time of submissions is one of the difficult periods in the semester as you have to keep your cool as you receive lot of assignments and you have to submit it on time or it keeps your fate hanging as sometimes you don’t get the professor. Also try to keep your attendance at least 50% and try to attend college as it will be helpful. Also going for private tuitions and wasting money is not a good option. You have to be independent.

            At last time management is important. It plays an important role in your success. This all I can say friends, rest all is in your hands. BEST OF LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mumbai terror attacks

Finally I got the time to express my anger over the MUMBAI Terror attacks that took place on 26^th of November. The last week was frustrating for me as I couldn’t study with full focus for my university exams due to the ongoing happenings nor could I switch on my laptop to express my feelings for the fear of my family shouting at me for doing time-pass in exam period.

            Well what happened for the three days was just tragic and I felt as someone has stabbed me with a knife every time I went to sleep on those three days. Were the security agencies sleeping that they lacked the co-ordination between them? Would so many casualties have been avoided if we were more vigilant in doing our job? Is the Indian central government weak enough that they are going soft on extremists? No tough laws in India, is that the only reason for terrorists frequently targeting India? The politicians have become just sort of dumb statues who are using the people of India for their benefit and also profit. Still there are many questions that are popping up in my mind like that of millions of Indians.

            Look at Israel who recently attacked a neighboring country for just a reason that a militant organization had kidnapped their soldiers. The result…continuous bombing of that country till that militant organization admits their role in the plot. Though I am not in favour of war, some steps have to be taken or such attacks will take place and India will no longer be a safe country to live in.

            We should take concrete steps to prevent it or India will always remain a soft target for terrorists. As a young Indian I respect for all those who were killed in that attack and I pray that their soul rests in peace.

National Geographic magazines

I remember the day when I had first seen the National Geographic magazines. The occasion was way back in 2001, when I had given a competitive exam and a question was asked that as follows: On mars the rocks and craters are named after which of the following nouns?  The options were as follows:

1.      Astronomers

2.      Greek Gods

3.      Cartoon characters

4.      Historians

Seeing this question I was dumb. The answer to this question was found in a national geographic magazine which was of year 1999 which one of my friend possessed (Actually at that time internet penetration in India was very low with few homes having only dialed up connection. Now things have changed a lot) the correct answer for this is cartoon characters like Scooby doo, Mickey mouse, Dexter etc. This was the first time I saw this magazines and from that day I am engrossed in reading them.

      What I like the most about these magazines is that they cover all about our surrounding earth, people and places and let us get acquainted with all the beautiful and exotic places on earth. Moreover they have beautifully pictured photographs of birds, animals, nature and people living on earth. They include a wide variety of articles ranging from history, science, nature, wildlife and about various places on earth. Sometimes the photographs represent the harsh truth on earth.

      The topics that I liked the most from the issues I have at present are current topics like ‘Healing the Heart’, ‘Growing fuel crisis’, ‘Journey into Sahel, Africa’, ‘Memory-Why we remember why we forget’, ‘India’s shadow city-Dharavi’, ‘The big thaw’, ‘Amazon forest to a farm’ and case study based topics like ‘Human-animal trade diseases’, ‘Light pollution’ and history based topics like ‘Ancient Iran’, ‘The rise and fall of Maya culture’, ‘Afghanistan’s lost treasure’ and many more.

      I really admit that the pain taken by the authors and photographers should be appreciated for them who represent such a beautiful article. Though I am a member of society and I receive magazines on regular basis I take some extra efforts to go to Flora fountain, Mumbai to buy some old magazines at a cheap rate. At the start of month I eagerly await for the post man to deliver the magazine. Reading them gives me immense pleasure to know about the world.

      Hats off to all members of the society for giving such a beautiful presentation of earth.