Posts

Showing posts from July, 2006

Why I want to be a cat in my next birth?

Image
When people who believe in life after death asks me who I want to be in my next life, I say cat. Why? Because cats, they are the beings I love most in this life. Refer to my home to know why I am a feline aficionado. Yes, I want to be a cat. Because I love to be dynamic in my life. I always love the dynamicity, the change in me, try different things and to adapt with the reason why I changed. Being a cat would be just amazing, Changing into an altogether different perspective, an identity matchless to the material universe defined by human. Playful with anything I like, arrogant to the everything I hate, forgetting what has happened and possessing no grudge, adapting to an altogether different environment, play the prey before it's death or consumption, play the life to it is fullest...that is a cat, the most wonderful being on this planet. Cats, they are the model beings for the 'neutrality' as per the human perception are concerned. Do I think being faithful matters much

stairway to heaven

How to recover and archive hidden flickr photos if you are not a pro user?

Image
Flickr is unarguably most popular photo site in the world. I have been using it from 2003 but unfortunately I could never change my subscription to paid 'Pro' status due to economical constraints. Successive to the Yahoo take over, Flickr has changed it's policy for free users by limiting the number of photos to 200. This means that though you can very well upload 20 MB each month for any long period, only last 200 photos are accessible through flickr site. After seeing disappearance of thousands of my old photos that I have been uploading since 2003 at the flickr site and could not be found on 'archives' section, I contacted the flickr team. This is how they responded: On 6/30/06, Flickr Support < case104601@support.flickr.com > wrote: Hi Felix, You will have to delete your newer photos or upgrade to Pro in order to recover your older, hidden photos. Regards, Ana If you are a huge flickr fan and have similar difficulties in accessin

Name, that matters

Image
Many (thanks to social network services) asks me why did I change my name. To tell you that, let me give you a little of my back ground. In India, there still exists thousands of years old hierarchical caste system in which there are 4 prevailing classes where topmost class is known as brahman . If you look in to history, brahmans are in fact not original indians, they are a clade migrated from Europe and conquered native indians (Dravidians) a long long time ago. A Recent rDNA Profiling evidence traces Brahman clade back to finland. I was born in a hindu family, aristocratic and priestly as it has a tag of brahman. I remember when I was young, my grandma used to say we are living gods and goddesses and I have to be very reserved while making friends outside brahmans. She did not even care to touch low caste people, and this untouchability still exists in many part of greater India. Brahmans are vegans, and I was brought up as a pure vegetarian too. Till I was 18 yrs old I never even

Me and my cat, honest arrogance justified!

Image
Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change He was a man of great creative energy. His architectural style was revolutionary in its design. The Journal of the American Institute of Architects at the time of his death stated that "his place in history is secure. His continuing influence is assured. This country's architectural achievements would be unthinkable without him. He has been a teacher to us all." Frank Lloyd Wright , famous American architect and writer said the above quoted words and I find it pretty much like my own life. It is not that I upheld a puritan philosophy, but honest arrogance is what I value than the humility which is hypocritical. I was much attracted to him, his words and his style such an extant that if ever I have to name my model individual, just Lloyd! For those who have never heard about him, let me provide you a brief sketch of his life, mostl

Taepodong and me

Image
Now that North Korea finally did it , irking the powerful nations. I have always been a pacifist but I find no reason why to condemn the test done by the North Korea a day ago. North Korea is after all a republic with all the powers of a free state and the decisions are ultimatum of that republic. The missile is obviously part of a future offensive, but I couldn’t digest it why powerful nations only have to possess the arms. US or Japan have no moral or ethical right to speak a word against this latest missile testing of the North Koreans unless they disarm all nuclear and chemical weaponry in possession. They indeed have the right to impose economic sanctions , and I believe that in that case Pyongyang must have been well prepared to phase it prior to the decision of missile testing was taken. And I am in favour of such sanctions if any, that might limit their further proliferation of arms. Yesterday in the BBC webcast (full transcript here ), I saw the reaction of president Putin t

Asia Union 2006

Image
I spent the last weekend (1st and 2nd of July) with Japanese students of Kochi university in the so called 'Asia Union'. When I got a call from Miss Ai masuyama requesting me to participate and give my talk, I commented that the very title 'Asia Union' invites location based prejudice that shouldnt be done in a university campus. Obviously she didn't listen, hence the banner remained AU when I arrived. Well, KU has so little foreign students if any from out of Asia , yet I have friends who are from Kenya, Chile and Poland with in this university. That was the exact reason why I strongly suggested her to consider renaming. It was fun, being with teen japanese in the venue. Almost all were girls aged 18-22, and the organization was funny. I did try my usual culinary skills, with the so called 'Indian Pork Curry' and few really enjoyed it (believe me!). AU is more like booze party and watching soccer in the big TV in a group of some 30 people (but alas,