Forward Call.

In the face of temptation don't press FORWARD.
That is my modification to my uncle's popular saying "in the face of temptation Yield"
Yes the world wide web or the net as popularly known has been around for more than 15 years now.  For early adopters like me the path traveresed has had hotmail, yahoo, rediff and google accounts. Now all these jokes, warnings on drugs etc  have come back and forth so many times that it is now difficult to count or keep track of  when,why or who started it.
Any new user who has joined the cyber space is sending forwards, left, right and center. That sounds confusing?
Our woes don't stop there.
Those who send forwards are not just sending them but there is also a followup enquiry as to why there is no response.With kids( matured in the cyber world) you can yell, with friends( growing in the cyber world) you can request but with the elders( laggards in the cyber world) well less said is more.

It would help if we had a system of identifying the date of origin of the mail which could stop people from pressing the forward button.Would it possible to have an Expiry date on forwards as well? If wishes were true some one would develop an application for that. Hey Google guys is anybody listening??

Right now the world is divided into those who send forwards and those who receive them and till the time  I am at the receiving end I have no choice but to press the DELETE button on the mail. That is infinitely better than DELETING friends.
I just hope that in the face of temptation I don't FORWARD so what I will do is SHARE !! haha....

By birth or by choice?

Mother's day brought this message for me. Before you were conceived, I wanted you. Before you were born, I loved you. When you were born, I saw your face and knew I was in love. Before you were an hour old, I knew I would die for you. To this day, I will. With Mother's Day approaching, repost this if you have children you love more than life.

I ofcourse had my own retort for it!!
My reply: "before you were conceived I didnt know you, Before you were born, I didnt love you. when you were born I was not there. Before you were an hour old I didnt know soon I would be ready to die for you. Today I want to live for you. You were born in my heart and I love you more than my life"Not just on mother's day I Love you everyday and Hope you will love me always too".
For some of us both the messages are applicable and for some just the second one.
What difference does it make?
Those who find this post difficult to understand have not realised that the second child is the one which became a part of life not by birth but by choice.

Measuring for heart attack

Last couple of years I have been listening to so many stories where people who were on the driving seat had a heart attack and died while driving.
I wonder why car manufacturers do not put a heart rate meter or a meter for measuring pulse on the steering wheel.
If one can put such measuring instruments on treadmill or cycles particlarly smart meters which show ranges going into red or danger zone etc.why not in cars. The machine can be battery operated connected to the car battery or have one for itself.
Many lives can be saved and the driver will maybe decide to not commence on his last journey at all.

"Principal - "Gone in the Hair"

Today's news headline carried a news item - Prinicpal of a school has been fired for having cut the fringe of a girl in school. Its all good
what about the fact that the fringe was too long in the first place.
No one reaches the level of a Principal of a school without having adequate academic experience apart from peoples skills.
There is no justification for cutting the hair and now the child is undergoing trauma for life!! Its not good at all.
There is no mention of how many warnings the Prinicipal or before that the teachers gave the child or why the parents were not warned or why the parents themselves did not take any action.(fringe falling on the forehead obstructs and spoils the eye sight)
One might think that we are old school of thought!
So what we wore two plaits to school till grade 12th. yes we made fun of teachers just as kids do but those were not insults which we could think of hurling at them or in front of them. Principal of school was very revered.
My parents are teachers as is my sister and it must have been in the genes because now,I am one too.
Respect has to be inculcated :Guru devo bhava( Teacher is God)
Mata, Pita , Guru, Daivam.(Mother tells the child who the father is,the father takes the child to the teacher and the teacher shows the path to God)
Even now I call my kids teachers Mam though many of them are much younger than me.
As such the teaching profession particularly is not very well paid, and day by day the parents create more hassles for teachers than what the teachers are ready to take so now we have additional reasons to discourage our next generation from taking up another noble profession.
All these years of nobility and teaching for what"gone in the hair".

Musings on war by an ordinary adult

8th April'03

'I TOLD YOU SO',SAID MY HUSBAND TO ME THE OTHER NIGHT,'YOU KEPT SAYING IT WONT HAPPEN BUT IT DID'.'I DIDNT WANT IT TO HAPPEN AND WAS IN THE PROCESS OF SELF DENIAL ,YOU CANT ACCUSE ME FOR NOT WANTING IT TO HAPPEN'.

THE HOT DISCUSSION WAS OFCOURSE THE ONGOING WAR.HE KEPT WARNING ME IT WAS ON ITS WAY AND I KEPT SAYING NO THERE WONT BE A WAR.BUT SADLY THE WAR CAME AND WE ARE WELL INTO THE 20TH DAY OF IT.YES WE SEE ALL THE PAPERS AND THE TV CHANNELS SHOWING IT TO US THROUGH MOVING PICTURES AND WORDS.THERE IS NO DIGNITY EVEN IN DEATH.

WHETHER THE WAR IS FOR POWER OR OIL OR ARMS I DONT KNOW WHAT I DO KNOW IS SO MANY INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE DYING OUT THERE AND THEY DONT EVEN KNOW WHY.HOW MANY CHILDREN ARE BEING ORPHANED.FOR MOST OF US WAR GOING ON THE TV CHANNELS FOR MORE COVERAGE IS A PART OF THE DAY AND ONCE YOU SWITCH OFF THE TV ITS GONE BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE WHO ARE LIVING THIS WAR DAY IN AND DAY OUT.

WE WERE HERE ONLY DURING THE GULF WAR IN '91BUT THAT TIME IT DIDNT SEEM SO HORRIFYING FOR ONE THERE WAS NO MINUTE TO MINUTE COVERAGE OF THE SAME BESIDES WE WERE YOUNG AT THAT TIME AND ABLE TO LET THINGS PASS US BY.NOW WE ARE THAT MUCH OLDER AND HAVE COMMITMENTS.WHEN I LOOK AT MY SON IT SCARES ME TO THINK WHAT THE WORLD IS COMING TO.HOW DO I EXPLAIN THE WAR TO HIM .WHAT DO I TELL HIM ABOUT ALL THE REFUGEES AND THE WAR ORPHANS.NO I HAVE NO ANSWER TO THESE AND JUST HOPE THAT HE DOESNT ASK ME THESE QUESTIONS.

THOUGH I AM A VERY POSITIVE PERSON THE WAR SHOWN ON THE TV AND DESCRIBED IN DETAIL IS HEART WRENCHING.THE PCITURES ARE HORRIFIC AND PATHETIC AT THE SAME TIME .THERE ARE SOME KIND SOULS WHO HAVE TRAVELLED FROM FAR AWAY COUNTRIES TO HELP THE WAR TORN PEOPLE AND KUDOS TO THEM.ALL I CAN DO IS SWITCH OFF THE TV AND PRAY.PRAYERS CAN WORK MIRACLES .THATS SOMETHING PREACHED BY ALL RELIGIONS.

I AM SURE THIS IS ONE ARGUEMENT MY HUSBAND WOULD HAVE PREFERRED TO LOSE TO ME AND I WISH I HAD WON WITH 'THERE WILL BE NO WAR'.

Revamping with Windows 7 good or.....?

I am all excited about my new laptop with 4GB RAM and 500 Gb Hard disk. Cant get better than this at least right now.
Then I receive a message which says you cant use Internet explorer 9 with anything else except Windows 7 or Vista.
Now having used Vista for 3 years I dont even realise that people still use XP.
Microsoft a great organisation and I am all for it and it amazes me no end how they keep creating new software solutions and products and force you into a situation where all the old material becomes redundant.
Good for microsoft bad for us.
I have this whole lot of cd's and games(from Windows 95 days) which just does'nt work anymore so eventually what are we to do with all that? The whole purpose of a CD/ DVD was longevity in terms of data safety so when the programs associated become redundant what is the use of longevity?
When one window closes does a door open or is it another WINDOWS?

When personal is public.

Yesterday was a busy day.I went to attend this conference. There was this guy who trying to upload the presentation to the Laptop connected to the projector using the USB drive. Though the conference had not started there was a fair amount of crowd sitting in the audience.
Our man is searching up and down his files, visible to all and sundry, and he looks at each file name and then next which means the audience is able to read the file names. It was fine till he had folders named CV and Australia and Pictures.Then lo and behold!! suddenly one realizes that every 5th file was a video file with titles like ..... hot babe..., again.....sexy something....,....blond...... so on and so forth.
Now I am the last one to judge people on their personal preferences but in a public forum one should maintain certain decorum.
This again brings me to how much do we reveal about ourselves in public without realizing.
Imagine the audience had this guy's Boss what would he perceive of the folder CV? does it indicate the guy is looking for other jobs, does not feel safe in this job or is making a statement by keeping his CV folder apparently updated enough to carry it on a USB drive in his pocket.
As such many feel that people share too much stuff online which others have no business knowing about but I disagree and say it is up to the person to decide how much he/she wants to reveal and should do only that much.
Good thing to remember is if you live in a glass house rest assured all your actions will be observed so be careful and treat the web as a glass house, infact not just the web but all gadgets which store information.