Cheers, we are entering in the last year of the 21st century, after today. I wish you a happy new century. A phone call from my residence made me think a little about this celebration. For your information (people who do not know) there is a lunar eclipse on the 31st December 2009. The earth will cast its shadow on the moon tonight prime–time (9:30 to 1 AM). Most of the Delhi clubs, restaurants and discotheques will be full and hic, spirits will be high.

But a word of caution comes from my mother, “son, during a lunar eclipse people should not eat anything.” I said, “What do I do now?” She says, “try and have your dinner before 9:30 and celebrate (if you want tomorrow).” There is no sound on the other side of the phone, Ma hung up. Our astronomers today can predict when such an event will occur, I read it’s 2018. This magnificent clockwork of the heavenly bodies have displayed signs of grandiose time to time, at the same time encouraged conservatism and superstitions throughout the globe.

Let me tell you some popular beliefs associated with lunar eclipses. Apart from the most common belief which is terrible that protracts that an eclipse of the sun or moon is associated with destruction and the end of the world. The world would have destroyed a million times by now, if that belief was true. There are some more….

• Pregnant woman should be careful and not touch her belly.
• Ancient Chinese call the eclipse as lunar yueshi (lunæ devoratio) and ascribe that to the plotting of a dragon. The Chinese believed that the dragon was eating the Moon. To scare away the dragon they will shoot cannons.
• The people of India still hide inside during the eclipses, because they believe the moon allows bad rays to hit earth.
• People in India break and bang pots and lot of other noises to keep evil forces at bay. The evil forces are taking away the moon, they believe.
• Some noises are still being made by various instruments in Persia and some parts of China.
• Some Americans believe that the sun and the moon are tired.
• The Indian credence is that a snake eats the sun and moon when they’re eclipsed.
• Eskimos will turn their utensils over to avoid them being contaminated.
• Some Hindus believes that a demon devours these heavenly bodies.
• Babylonians somehow believed that the Moon being hidden was a bad omen and some place in the world is doomed for sure.
• One of the extracts of bible says that when a moon turns red Apocalypse or catastrophe will come. (Genesis 1:14-19 DAY 4)

Cant say about mama, but I look forward to see this once-in-a-blue-moon event tonight. Join me if you want to be a part this awe-inspiring and wonderful heavenly enigma which we are about to witness. Happy new year, friends, see you next year.

Keep me rolling

Rolling on down them hills

Just keep me rolling

I’ve had my share of thrills

I don’t care who you are

Just go ahead or stay away

We don’t race strangers

I don’t care what you say

So go ahead and stare

Me and my bike, we’re outta time,

Moving memories in her engine.

Takes more than your motoring maturity

To understand that previous line

Meanwhile here’s a smile

Obviously you recognize the bike

Maybe your daddy had one

I simply earned mine

It didn’t stop me

Becoming a collector

Of a specific time

Average age increasing

Especially those of my kind

Well kid, I stick my chest out

In pride but all I can see

Is you sticking out your behind

Take it away; take it away

That’s all I can say.

Let’s meet in another five years

And count your parts that rot away

New things are hardly built to last

Unless you know the questions to ask

Another Yezdi will always come my way

But I’d keep just one and buy a Jawa any day

Look! I gotta admit it

I’ve got decades of my life

Now behind this handlebar

My pillion even became my wife

Still everyone wants me to buy a car

Here we go again, staring ahead

Through dust, traffic and rain

I will always defend what I love

Life is Gods maintenance bill

For the heart’s an engine we cannot kill

If you love your bike, it’ll last

Don’t forget; headlights and brakes don’t last

Not my will but Yezdi’s be done

Now excuse me, I gotta run.

— Arunesh

International Anti-Corruption Day- 9 December

When I think about Corruption in India (check the links), I think of a friend, S Jolly his name, who was so pessimist that corruption in India cannot be eradicated. He accepted that corruption is the cancer, but also believed that this is inseparable from the system. The corruption is all-invasive, systematic and ubiquitous. The MOST corrupt people in India come under different spheres the politics, military, religious institutions, NGO’s, everywhere. Cash is the oxygen where corruption thrives.

The top performers

• Lawyers/ judges
• IT officials
• Excise officers
• Attenders and Nurses
• Customs
• Police
• Government clerks
• Anti corruption officials
• Municipal officers

You’ve got money, you get education, fake degrees, and the police will encounter innocent people and hide their inabilities. Under the table syndrome is so popular and apparently it has turned into regular practice. I am sharing a personal story with you. Just today came to know that my aunt cannot sell her legitimate property without the order/permission of local goons. The goons read local politicians and real estate middle men have stated a simple dictate. Give them 30% of the total deal or sell the property to them (their price). Atrocious!

FYI Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India and according to the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) it also happens to be the least corrupt state in India. Will this imply that education has the capacity to remove corruption? Not necessary, because educate people are also corrupt.

I believe that transparency in the system can remove this cancer. India needs really good, capable and educated leadership in India. India needs dedicated foot soldiers. India needs their basic requirements completed food, shelter and jobs. We cannot think of a ‘corrupt-less’ society with hungry stomachs and mind. A corporate campaign by Tata is noble thought….What do you say?

Hello Folks,

It’s competition time again! Since Harish has patented the idea of blogging contests, we thought we should have something new (don’t worry, the blogging contest will also be held).

Here are the details:

Contest:

Best Idea for an Internet Company

Format in which you should present the idea:

Compulsory:

Idea - What is your idea?

Problem statement - What is the problem you are trying to solve?

Competition - Name the three sites that pose the most competition for your idea.

Uniqueness - What makes your idea different from the competition?

Optional

Revenue Model - How will the idea generate money?

Scope of Expansion - How will the idea grow?

Prizes:

1 prize for the best idea – Rs5,000.

Last date for submission of idea:

December 21, 2009 (Monday)

Date of declaration of prizes:

December 23, 2009 (Wednesday)

Judges: Piyush, Harish and Swapna

How to submit your idea:

1. Go to http://sites.google.com/a/vedainformatics.com/what-an-idea-sirji/ (you will have to log in using your veda mail ID and password)
2. When the site opens, you will see a “create page” tab on the top right-hand side of the page. Click the “create page” tab.
3. When the new page opens, write the name of your idea. (Do not change the default setting of “web page” and “Put page at the top level”)
4. Click on create page
5. When the new page opens, put down your idea
6. Click the “save” tab

So start thinking! Airtel ko chodo aur Idea apnao!

All the best,

Priya.

As you all know Christmas is approaching. So we have planned an activity called “Secret Santa” for all. There is a bowl having chits in which the names are written. You need to pick one. See the name written over it and you should not disclose it to anybody.

Now you act as a Santa for the person whose name is written on the slip and give him surprise gifts along with some hints. Till the Christmas Eve you have the opportunity to guess who is your Santa . If you guess it right you are the winner.

Gone With the Wind is the story about a Southern girl’s (Vivien Leigh) hopeless love for a married gentleman (Clark Gable). Set against the background of the shameful slavery trade and the tragedy of American Civil war, the film plays with Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a roguish wealthy man from a Charleston’s family falling for the feisty and self-centered Scarlett (Vivien Leigh). Directed by Victor Fleming and based on Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind, this movie is considered one of the most popular epics of all time. But it is not without some serious criticisms. Charles Spencer reviewed this movie long back and wrote in The Daily Telegraph, “Soullessly efficient show merely feels like one damn thing after another, an endless parade of unexciting incidents that leaves the viewer feeling neither shaken nor stirred.” The way this film glorifies slavery is atrocious. However, this movie depicts some real art. In “What is Art” Leo Tolstoy writes, “There is one indubitable indication separating real art from its counterfeit, namely, the infectiousness of real art. It must transmit the simplest feelings of common life, but such, always, as are accessible to all men in the entire world.” I believe that Gone with the wind fits Tolstoy’s bill. Even the title of this film mirrors the artistic simplicity. (Four one syllable words with a poetic charm).

Rhett Butler is an exemplary scoundrel and I like him for what he is. Scarlett is a product of proto-feminist literature. She is a Machiavellian manipulator with a perilous charm and even the smart Rhett cannot help falling for her. Socially-conscious critics of films and literature always consider themes centering on women an inferior subject matter. I do not see any feminism in this movie, despite many reviews suggest the opposite. Butler tells to her girl “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” He might have realized the effect of ‘not giving a damn” to the woman who loves him until he loses her; more or less like Almasy’s mental predisposition in English Patient, a brilliant movie showing heady romance. Both movies are about tragic and doomed romance., still very different from each other.

Many people compare Scarlett and Rhett Butler to Rick and Lisa in Casablanca. But I would say this is no way close to that great movie in terms of spirit. Clark Gable is not a great gentleman like Humphrey Bogart. Bogart sacrifices everything. He says in many places that “I stick my neck out for nobody.” But he gives up everything for his lost love, even his livelihood and passion. He is a more gutsy man too. See his eyes when he tells the chief of Third Reich “I was running guns in Ethiopia.” When his girlfriend does not show up in the railway station according to their plan to get out of France, he is teary eyed. I could feel the warmth of the tears on my cheeks when I saw this movie. That is the power of love and the respect he shows to Lisa. A thorough gentleman he is. Unfortunately, I could not see any of these elements in Gone with the Wind, if these two films are compared for their romance. However, seen with a different perspective, I find some real love, and lost opportunities to show it, in Gone with the Wind.

I enjoyed this movie for its artistic simplicity. The film set a paradigm for an inverse presentation approach where even glory dooms to shambles and the real effect is a conclusion of introspection.

What is the speed at which a balloon travels?

People who have been told the answer are requested not to disclose it. People who have not been told the answer are expected not to use any law of physics.