Who Am I ?

Your Birthdate: November 10

Independent and dominant, you tend to be the alpha dog in most situations. You're very confident, and hardly anything ever shakes you. Mundane tasks tend to drain you - you prefer to be making great plans. You are quite original. When people don't "get" you, it bothers you a lot. Your strength: Your ability to gain respect Your weakness: Caring too much what others think Your power color: Orange-red Your power symbol: Letter X Your power month: October

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Stolen from Micromysore :)
More about me 'Bakwaas':D here

For...My Best Friend....

Hello my friend
Last night was a special night.
Something happened as I strolled back home,
I finally found the words to put forth,
How and What I feel for you.
I know this is not new to you,
Nor is it a surprise for you.

Since every thought I feel
Is because you make me feel so.

It has been months and years,
That we have been together,
An unquestioned presence for each other,
Even when we never expected to be together!
Be it love or pain,
Be it fame or shame,
We shared them first,
Before we shared it with others!

I feel blessed to be with you,
And I know that so do you.
Soon will be the day,
When we will have to walk our own path.
But we always will be residing
In each others heart.

I can see the smile as you
Read this,
I can feel the lump in your throat
As you read
But soon will be the day,
When we will again meet,
Soon will be the day,
When we will board the new fleet,
With new memories and people
To share the fleet,

So my friend,
With all our love
And the beautiful moments spent,
Lets thank together
The one, who made us meet.

So dont you think,
yesterday , Indeed
Was a wonderful night?

Be the Change you want to see in the society - M.K.Gandhi

THIS HAS BEEN MY FAVOURITE QUOTE FOR YEARS NOW...

Why do I say so ..because I believe in it...read the following link ..if you want to believe in same. Cheer's for changed India...Thanks to Movies like Swadesh and Yuva, which seemed unreal yet possible :), if only we choose to believe in it!

Enjoy
I have deiced to put all the links to Changing India here ....(6th Feb)
Momentous week in Economic History, 12th Feb 2006
Indian Economy 6th Feb 2006
India's Anti-poverty plan 2nd Feb 2006
IITians join politics "Paritrana"24th Jan 2006

Prior to blogging
Globalization
Narmada Issue

Is It Love Or Is It Infatuation?

These aren't my thoughts, but somebody's who shared them with me, which I though was wonderful!

Infatuation is instant desire — one set of glands calling to another. Love is friendship that has caught fire. It takes root and grows, one day at a time.

Infatuation is marked by a feeling of insecurity. You are excited and eager but not genuinely happy. There are nagging doubts, unanswered questions, little bits and pieces about your beloved that you would just as soon not examine too closely. It might spoil the dream.

Love is the quiet understanding and mature acceptance of imperfection. It is real. It gives you strength and grows beyond you — to bolster your beloved. You are warmed by his presence. even when he is away. Miles do not separate you. You have so many wonderful little films in your head that you keep replaying. But near or far, you know he is yours and you can wait.

Infatuation says, "We must get married right away. I can't risk losing him." Love says, "Be patient. Don't panic. Plan your future with confidence."

Infatuation has an element of sexual excitement. Whenever you are together you hope it will end in intimacy. Love is not based on sex. It is the maturation of friendship which makes sex so much sweeter. You must be friends before you can be lovers.

Infatuation lacks confidence. When he's away, you wonder if he's cheating. Sometimes you check.

Love means trust. You are calm, secure and unthreatened. He feels your trust, and it makes him even more trustworthy.

Infatuation might lead you to do things you will regret, but love never steers you in the wrong direction.

Love is elevating. It lifts you up. It makes you look up. It makes you think up.

Silence....

Ssssssshhhhhhhh...silence!

Have you ever experienced it? As for myself - no, never!
More I try to remain or become silent more aware I become of every small movement, either in my appartment, nearby streets, people walking by the path behind our appartment, movement of the heat or water through the pipes, people walking upstairs....

I went for a walk the other night trying to feel silence when most people are possibly asleep. It was a very pleasant and wonderful walk. But it was not silent. I choose a place inside the canyon away from the main street so that I don't get disturbed by the cars. I lost track of time as I was trying to find silence. I could hear the wind, my heart beat, my breath and the snowfall! It was amazingly peaceful but NOT silent. So then what IS silence?

I could even hear the snowfall pounding on the ground, on trees or on my jacket. If I describe in words 'it was like being in rain with FAT and SUPER LAZY raindrops'. Although it was a quiet night but the wind seemed to be wanting to have a conversation and breaking all attempts of mine trying to find silence.

So, anyways going back to silence, I think it does not exist. I have wondering from past couple of weeks now, what exactly does it mean? Who coined it? Did he or she really experience it? The dictionary defination suggests it to be

1. The condition or quality of being or keeping still and silent.
2. The absence of sound; stillness.
3. A period of time without speech or noise.
4. Refusal or failure to speak out.

Except for no. 4 all others are impossible to define. There is nothing as stillness or a condition of being silent. How could it be? Even if decide not to speak, and achive the condition of being silent we still hear so many things. So, silence - refusal to speak is a human concept, since the other explantaion does not exist. According to me, it is the most disillusioned word. 'Silence' cannot be experienced till we are consciouos or alive! The closest I can think of silence is when I am asleep, because that is the only moment that I don't remember having heard of anything.

Truely said - a peaceful sleep!

Pursuing further on this, does it mean then that animals never experience silence? Animals are know to have a very storng 6th sense and can hear beyond human audible range. So they possibly hear more than we do and hence possibly wake up even at our slightest movement.

Thanks to Google, I came across some sites discussing the etymology of 'Silence'! Notable among them was this one with some thought provoking questions - http://humanityquest.com/topic/faq/index.asp?theme1=silence

'Permanent Head Damage'

Yup, thats the degree I am pursuing, known among intellects as Ph.D !

We were having lunch and today was another buzy day. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Deciphered the above 'Acronym' at lunch.

Makes me feel more passionate and excited about the whole process to finally get a PhD.

Am taking this Stats course on 'Multivariate Analysis'. Was introduced to it during my masters but never understood it completely. However, my excitement level for the current class is going through a gradual decline. It was the 3rd class, and the professor still keeps talking about, R!!

THE STATS SOFTWARE - available free !!
aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggghhhh!!!

I hate it when people invest their and force us to invest our time on stuff not related to the subject. He has been teaching us how to execute different arithmatic operations in R or how to use the software. It jsut forces me to wonder is it an orientation course to use R or to learn 'Multivariate Analysis' of data!

I don't know what the others feel about the course till now. But for me it sucks BIG time! and I sincerely hope that it changes soon!

Ok, so anyways, with my recoining of the actual acronym for Ph.D, I should get back to working towards it!

The Journey Begins.............

Blogging...or Writing in cyber space !!!

When did I first hear about blogging ?

Well as far as I remember I heard or came across it first time in 2003, there was something as rediff blog!! I never understood or was facinated by the idea of just writing in cyber space or in public. Am not still. I prefer to write for myself. But offlate I have been enjoying sharing my thoughts or writings with some close friends. Besides, at times it's nice to get other peoples opinion on one's thought.

So am here finally. I dont know what I would mostly write about, but as per my current mood I was reading a paper on Ecosystem Management (a review) for the 'Watershed Analysis' class tommorrow. It is an excellent summary of the whole concept and idea of ecosystem management in the US. The key points or issues that came across my mind as I was reading it were-

"The whole idea of ecosystem management originated in the US way back in 1930's with the major contribution from Aldol Leopold in 1949. However, the first effective acceptance and practical application of the concept happened in 1988 by Jim Aggee and Darryll Johnson.Finally in 1991, California became the first state to address biological impoverishment through policies based largely on ecosystem concepts. "

It took neat FIFTY YEARS !! to initiate the process and another 3 years to finally let the whole idea of ecosystem management and conservation percolated in their society!!

When I say 'Ecosystem Management' it means the integration of social, ecological, political, biological, environmental policy towards the protection of native ecosystem over time in context to accomodation of human resource use. There has been intensive debates during above years to define the word 'Ecosystem'! So I won't get into it! All I would say is, that 'Ecosystem Management' basically means adapting strategies for a sustainable planet (offcourse its just 'Earth' in this context) under the prevailing context of global economical and political change.

Ok, back to where I was, given the above trend we can expect to see acceptance of environmental issues and policies in India in 2030!! given that the first ever initative taken by the Govt. of India was in 1972 by creating the Wildlife Protection Act and the establishment of the first govt. insititute (Wildlife Institute of India) dedicated towards conservation in 1982 [just 10 years, :), looks opimistic].

I don't know whether to feel...2030 is too far to visualise anything!! It would be interesting however at this date to just review the actual on ground application of the idea of conservation. All I can say is, yes, things are changing, and I feel it won't be too far when possibly the idea of 'Ecosystem Management' will seep into our society as well.

Just don't know 'WHEN'!!because conservation just does not mean the protection and conservation of elephants, tigers, or 'biodiversity' (a more recent buzz word to get funding)! To me, it is the conservation of the 'planet' and all its processes.

Pheeeeewww! a deep breath, I need whenever I try to visualize the whole complexity and how to work with it, in it and for it!

Thoughts provoked from:
Grumbine (1994). What is Ecosystem Management? Conservation Biology Vol 8.(1)pg 27-38.