Intellectual Man...err!

Lukha that I am these days, on one of my pointless surfing on the web resulted in finding this piece of news on yahoo which got my attention before I hit the end of Internet page for that day.

Scientists at MIT's Media Lab in the United States have invented an alarm clock called Clocky to make even the doziest sleepers, who repeatedly hit the snooze button, leap out of bed.
After the snooze button is pressed, the clock, which is equipped with a set of wheels, rolls off the table to another part of the room.
When the alarm sounds again, simply finding Clocky ought to be strenuous enough to prevent even the doziest owner from going back to sleep," New Scientist magazine said.

I happen to mention about this piece to few of my friends in one of the recent parties and for some reason no one seemed to be thrilled about it. Infact, they seem to come up with contingency plans to deal with it, if they ever come across with that situation in future.

Our conversation went something like this.
Me: Hey.. I have read this news...blah..blah..blah.

Friend1: * thinks a bit* ...hmm!!!..... I would have a rope tied to it and the other end to my hand, so that its always in my reach.
Friend2: *seems little agitated* Rip off the wheels..I say.!!!
Friend3: *with a beaming smile* .. I would never buy one!!
Friend4: *little irritated* Don't MIT have better things to do rather than wasting funds. That's why I always advise not going to these weird schools.

Alrite! The Progressive,Intellectual Men have spoken. Intellectual Man..hmm!!..What an oxymoron!!(no offense to oxymoron, the writer).

Reflex action vs Subconsciousness

I had this discussion with my cousins the other day about Subconsciousness and Reflex Action. You might have noticed that sometimes when you get in your car you put on the seat belt subconsciously. On contrary giving an example for reflex reaction can be quite easy, trying to duck in defense while something is thrown at you, can be one example.

But the topic of the discussion we had is not about what they are or how do you define them. But the debating question we had was out of these two actions either reflex or subconscious which one of them access your brain while performing any of these actions. One of the arguments was that Reflex action could be a routine, the brain stores somewhere that gets activated or called when it its needed fast and not necessarily makes a fresh access of the active brain and hence does not literally keeps your brain engaged.

Can the same thing be said of subconscious. Does brain gets involved during subconscious actions. It differs from reflex action that while subconscious actions do not have the same priority as the R.A but still could be accessing a routine that doesn't need live access to the brain. What's your take on it.

Now you show your reflex actions or subconscious mind by writing a comment on this post straight away and tell me if you have used your brain.
And remember not to use your brain too much as better sense might prevail and show a different reflex action of running away from this post.

More over using too much brain hurts ….eeeewwww….*holding my forehead with my palms in pain*...see it hurts already writing a ,what one of my friends door ka acquaintance would say, "Cerebral" post for a change.

Caffeine Deficiency Syndrome - 3

"The conspiracy theory is that the soap industry and the bath tub designers in USA have a secret understanding to keep the soap holder so low in the bath tub that the soap gets soaky wet during showers, gets so thin in few days that you need a new one and make you buy huge packs of them thus making the revenues. And ofcourse the designers gets their share of the profits for their work"

and sips the fresh cup of coffee I just made.

Messing with your heads!

I was in a mood listen to songs yesterday, not the ones on computer but something different for a change. Not sure of what to listen, I closed my eyes and picked a cassette( yes…I still have bunch of cassettes that I bought from India when I first came here) from the box and it turned out to have songs of different languages from different genres. It has the songs of Prema Desam(Tamil dubbing version of Kadhal Desam ) and some old Lata songs. Well, its funny how some songs stick to your mind from the time you start listening. I guess this happens to everyone. You listen to this song ,the last song you heard in particular, and its stuck for the whole day or two. You keep humming,singing all the time and can't get it off your head. The same thing happened to me. Now I can't get it off my mind and its been two days already. So I thought I would pass this on to my readers and mess with their heads a little bit. So don’t blame me if its get stuck with you, just assume you are giving me company in humming this song, not that my company is great...as a matter of fact its much worse than having the song stuck in your head, see.....Don't you already prefer listening to the song than giving me company.
Anyway here goes the song and its lyrics.

Ajeeb daastaan hai yeh, Kahan shuru kahan khatam
Yeh manzile hai kaunsi, Na voh samajh sake na hum

Yeh roshni ke saath kyoon, Dhuaan utha chiraag se
Yeh khwaab dekhti hoon main, Ke jag padi hoon khwaab se

Mubaarakein tumhe ke tum, Kisi ke noor ho gaye
Kisi ke itne paas ho, Ke sab se door ho gaye

Kisi ka pyaar leke tum, Naya jahan basaaoge
Yeh shaam jab bhi aayegi, Tum humko yaad aaoge

Phew! I feel so relieved now that I have passed on the bug.

Caffeine Deficiency Syndrome - 2

The theory is that ,after all the hard work they do trying to make a mark with their studies till then, teenage for a typical desi guy starts around 20 and stays till 28 and from there on the hangover stays rest of their lives. So expecting guys to be mature about anything and to behave all grown up is pure stupidity.

*Steps down the stage and heads for the coffee break room*

Change and allied heart breaks!.

Change in life is such a painstaking effort. You think you have the perfect ,ideal one at last. You think you found your match, explored the "taste" of love, your search is over and finally one puzzling piece of your life is resolved for good and think you never had to spend any time anymore looking for one. You think it’s a "happy ever after" story. The "Instant" sparkles and the love at first sight*sigh*. It felt like a fairy tale ending.

Well its not to be. There comes the change. As I recollect the instance when one of the contestant in a Miss India contest (few years back )did not make it to the final round when she choose the former option after being asked whether she prefers " a totally happy world that involves no change i.e. everyone's happy with what it is right now without making any change or a world that "may be" a happy place with change" , I told myself I should make the change not bcoz it was my choice, but was forced to. The memories keep coming back and haunt me. You keep reminded time and again about all the good times you had making it real hard to make the change. How you wished you never had to change. Why is letting go so hard and heartbreaking. You never know what's the change can bring you. Will you like it, will you be able to find the same love again, Can you trust again and what's the guarantee you will not be parted again. How long should I wait. Ain't it unfair that after all the things you did , you hadn't had a fair chance and you deserve more.

So many thoughts, so many questions , so many uncertainties go across my mind as I tentatively walk to the Coffee/Tea aisle of the local desi store and nervously pick the new pack of the ONLY brand of coffee bag available on the rack. As I get hold of the packet sulking at the store owner for not keeping my fav brand, I couldn’t help myself uttering in my sad, unsure mind

"Bye bye BRU Instant …you have been such a doll to me..miss you...Welcome to my life Nescafe" :)

* Dammit!..I need a life!*

Poker Party

Okie.. it’s a guys night out. The extravagant plan initially started out (a week back) with camping and some outdoor activity away from the city, but considering the participants involved are married with at least a kid , no one could ever come to any consensus(read as too scared to even talk to their better-half's about the idea) and finally and aptly ended as a poker night. This time it did not even take minutes for them to come to a consensus on where to do the frenzy. Who else.. of course...Yours truly's apartment... and more that suits them is my "living alone" status and an easy excuse to put the blame on, for initiating the idea if confronted by their wives. You can imagine my reputation and the grief I gonna get, if ever in my cotton-picking mind, I wish to go to their homes. Anyway, noting that the gang involves my bro and his friends who apparently happens to be mine too, I couldn't say no.

Well there I was... cleaning up my place only to be trashed in few hours. Every one showed up in their usual IS Timings(read IST as Indian Stretchable Timings). People ,especially women folk ,curious about what goes on a guys night-out would rather wish to be darned they ever asked. But if you are not curious to know please stop reading from here. To imagine the assembly of some smart minds ,engineers, senior managers who excel in their fields would bring out the best of conversations , think again. Of course the obvious culprit is the omni-present "som-ras" in such kind of gatherings. Rather than more constructive and lively arguments that would at least remotely make sense , the topics ranged from circumcision and the need for it or the lack of and the comparison of the water level inside toilet pots at our work place and in Infosys in India(one infosys guy even made a case out of it on why its so efficient to do outsourcing..no I am not giving in any more gross details) and the detailed description of the different poses their work colleagues make in restrooms while answering N.calls. For obvious reasons I stopped eating after that. Fortunately and expectedly there wasn't much discussion about any "girl stuff" probably due to the age group they all belonged to. Thank God for small mercies *phew*. So any girls reading this, if your hubbies gives a one line answer of their account on guys night out, please end the conversation there.

Coming back, I still couldn't figure why it was called a poker party. Once the poker expert explained the rules of the game to everyone who by then had a attention span of a 3-year old boy(not girl), the game started and finished within 2 minutes after people started betting whole coins even before the cards were dealt. That’s the only poker I ever got to see for the night. So there was no "poker" and it not even looked like a "party" (I guess you would agree with me after reading the above interesting conversations we had).

Oh well. It’s a guys night out and as you all know, nothing makes sense when they all get together(for that matter I don't think it happens only when they get together)

BTW here's a Don't on these kind of nights, when you are drunk and making coffee, make sure you don't have the salt bowl next to the stove. You are not going to enjoy your coffee that much:)