Catch me if you can

I have a huge collection of video cassettes though half of them are not in the working condition and the other half cannot be played as the video cassette recorder itself is not in the working condition. Read More

Cyptic e-mails

A large part of the first impressions you create on others come from posture, expression, eye-contact and gestures. Studies indicate that 55% of communication happens through body language, 38% through tone (paralanguage), while just 7% happens through words. Being in a profession where I need to communicate through e-mails with people from different walks of life, professions, ages and gender, I have come to believe that e-mails too exude body language and a major part of the message can be comprehended through the sender’s choice of font, font size, punctuation marks, spacing etc. It is interesting to read between the lines and understand the sender’s mood and emotions. Short forms used in the e-mails like u, v, 2, 4, wanna, luv, ur indicate that the sender is a carefree and casual person and is not very serious about the message or, in short, at this moment you are not taken very seriously by the sender. A mail festooned with gestures like smiles, frowns, etc reflects the emotive mood of the sender — jovial or gloomy.
On the other hand, a mail complete with all the punctuation marks and appropriate spacing between words and paragraphs not only emanate the professional attitude of the sender but also indicates that he or she is ‘to the point’. It also conveys that the sender is a kind of person who values the relationship. A simple, unambiguous and brief mail with clear queries points towards the sincerity and no nonsense nature.

A mail addressed to you by your first name specifies intimacy and conveys that the sender is keen on building a rapport with you whereas a mail beginning with the message or a simple ‘hi’ connotes that you are one amongst many and don’t have a special place in the sender’s heart. Some of the mails are quite challenging and one needs to go over it a few times to understand things left unsaid. This is particularly true of a mail written fully in upper cases (caps). It may mean one of the two things — either the sender is yelling at you for something or the Caps Lock key was left on by mistake!

What are dreams made of?

In Chandigarh, when I was in school, I remember a friend who lived exactly six houses away. She was always very simply dressed and wore boyish clothes. She did not exhibit any ‘style’ in dressing, talking or anything else which generally the high school girls and boys like to exhibit at that age. Very unassuming character, all I remember about her is playing cricket and talking about becoming a pilot. She went to a non- convent school and was an average student. One thing I clearly remember about her that she was very bold and would often take out her kolhapuri chappal if any boy passed a remark at any of us. My mother felt very safe if I would go anywhere with her. We would meet every afternoon and either sit in my room or stand at the gate and chat for hours about irrelevant things. Unlike the children of these days, we didn’t have to run from one activity class to another to unearth our hidden talents.
After high school, we went to different colleges and got busy in our own lives. Few years later I shifted residence and we gradually lost touch with each other.
Fast forward to seventeen years later…
Last week I learnt that Sunita Sharma is Capt. Sunita Sharma now. She is not only trained commercial pilot but also has been a flying instructor for the past fourteen years. At present she is working with Kingfisher airlines.
My mind goes back to flashback. The face of that plain Jane, thin, tom boyish girl flashes my mind who was an average person by all standards. Yesterday I spoke to her. She was taking a day’s break after flying. We spoke over the phone for an hour or so, talked about good old days, spoke about relevant as well as irrelevant things and giggled on silly things. It was as if nothing had changed in the past two decades.
Two morals of the story: Dreams do come true; you should have belief in them and the perseverance to make them true. One doesn’t need to be a superhero to do extra ordinary in life. The bigger moral - old is gold, nothing like childhood friendships.

Duties are as sacred as rights!

Democracy is a strange beast. History is replete with stories of nations shedding blood to have a small pie of democracy; on the other hand unrestricted democracy and freedom is said to create more problems than it resolves. Read More

Cell ored

Just a decade ago, owning a mobile phone was a luxury. Today, it is neither a luxury nor it is just a phone.
Forget about mobiles. There was a time not so long ago when one had to measure the red tape length wise for eight to ten years to get a phone connection. In this fast track age, mobile phones have become indispensable for us. We wonder how life existed without cell phones. Today’s fast paced world requires us to multi task not only to stay ahead of the competition but just to stay afloat. Mobile phone is one of the innumerable technological devices that help us keep in touch not only with the outside world but with our inner self. With time, they are becoming smaller in size but better and wider in features. Rightly so, you can judge a person by the mobile phone he keeps. While on my way to office every day, on the six km stretch I marvel at the sight of people balancing their tiny handsets between their right ear and neck. Doing this while riding a two wheeler is a true test of their driving skills and requires courage and speaks volume about their ‘I care a damn attitude’. Causalities in the road accidents due to cell phone usage become mere statistics. We are capable of using our cell phones all the time and don’t feel shy of using them during presentations, interviews, lectures just to communicate ‘I am in a meeting and will speak to you later’. We often forget that all mobile phones come with a key to put it on silent mode. Mobile phone was invented to improve our communication but has this really improved communication? Have we made new friends or are our relationship better just because it is anytime anywhere communication now? Definitely not.
Earlier we made an effort to remember the important dates and numbers, now this is done by our computer or phone. Our life revolves around this tiny gadget. We can live without our family or friends but not without our cell phone.

Chained……

By Kavya Shankre Gowda
Let me warn you. You have no choice but to finish reading this write up now or else bad luck will befall on you in the next few days. It happened about a month ago. A reader paused to attend to personal necessities after reading the first paragraph of one of my previous article and forgot to return. Before he could blink, Mike Tyson appeared from no where and bit his ears.
However, if you read this column every month and e-mail your friends about it, you will be showered with nothing but good luck.
Okay, okay, I'll stop.
Did you believe me when I said you must read this article or you will invite bad luck in your life in the coming days?. Are you one of those internet freaks who believe and forward every chain letter that you receive? Chain letters that annoy but still you fall for it.
What are chain letters? Anything that says "If you do not forward this e-mail then bad luck will prevail forever and if you forward this to 5 people then something( Like your boss will not assign you any task) good will happen within 5 minutes" or something along that line is considered a chain letter. Not just that but anything that gets forwarded to so many people even if there are no promises of good luck, like virus alerts or asking help for a cancer patient is considered a chain letter!
The most common form of chain letter nowadays are friendship stories, wishes and poems that urge you to pass them to everyone in your address book. Most of them promise a favorable but mostly impossible outcome if you pass it on to enough people.
There are more, like for every person you forward the message to; Microsoft will send you $500 or so. If you believe this then you badly need to brush up your math. Have you ever wondered that handing out $500 each to an ever-expanding number of people would bankrupt even Bill Gates? Or how on earth would he get your bank account number to fill it up?
I got an "Angel Wish" chain letter from a friend last week but instead of telling me to forward it; she asked if I could write about the stupidity of it. And that’s what made me write this article.
What's the big deal about these chain letters then? Is this really a problem? One website explains: "There are two main problems, which affect any type of chain letter. The first is quite simple; the sheer volume of mail generated by a successful chain letter clogs up mail servers and connections, slowing down the whole Internet. The second problem is even more annoying. Did you ever wonder where the scum who keep offering you credit cards and related spam got your email address? They buy addresses in bulk from "marketing" companies (you've probably been offered some of these as well.) Where do the "marketing" companies get addresses? Absolutely anywhere. Take a look at a chain letter. Isn't it great how the names and, often, email addresses of everyone it's been sent to are listed on it? I've counted over 200 email addresses visible on one chain letter. A simple program can strip all of these from the message, ready to be sold to someone who will then send you ten messages a day offering you a free life insurance quote. Whoever sent the chain letter to you has already, quite unintentionally, exposed you to this risk. Please don't expose anyone else. A related tip: When forwarding jokes (which are not chain letters, because they benefit everyone that receives them and not just some geek) clear out all the email addresses on it before forwarding. This both makes life hard for spammers and reduces the size of the message, so it sends faster."
There is a solution to this chain-letter plague. Delete them. If a poem touched and inspired you deeply, you may save it, print it, pin it on your wall, but please do not forward it to others.
Finally, every rule has an exception. If you ask your pals to read this article, I won't mind. In fact, I'm encouraging you to do it and all the good things that you've been experiencing will continue to happen to you.
For example, the sun will still rise in the east tomorrow.