When the mind explodes

The cloudy weather and the half sleepy me – is not much exciting until and unless if it is a weekend or a holiday. To kick back before applying 5 second rule, lying on my bed I opened Facebook- all-time favorite time pass.  One of the timeline quote put up by a friend stroke me hard. It said:

“The dearest things in your life became a part of your memory by giving you a lot to things to remember and cherish.”

It’s damn true! But I don’t know if the things or people close to our heart always give the happy memories which we could cherish. From the lessons and experiences I have come across, the dearest to your heart have the power to pierce and break you down. They say love unconditionally. But how can we love unconditional?

The quantity of the love and care you give to the people you care differs. The amount of affection you show to the people who you come across differs- depends on the intimacy levels. When we provide care for the ones in our life, we expect some love back from them. Maybe that’s the mistake – expecting back. But we as a normal human being, expects. Probably when we reach a level of solitary or self-less, it is possible.  When the mind laze around, I always get this question out of nowhere, why do people get attached when they know that they are not going to be the same down the line, maybe within a few days , months or years. Why are they changing their priorities? If they know that they are going to be change, why can’t they be within the boundaries?

Sometimes I wish if I could to stop the time so that the things remain as it is.  If it is that way, the life would have been easier.

Maybe all this questions are silly or it’s only my way of perception or my frustrations are popping out as this questions. After all life should be a mix of sweet and sour. Otherwise one day when we get the love back that we squandered until then, you won’t realize the value. 

This is Her World Too

 Union Ministry of Women and Child Development  is now busy planning a draft Bill that would allow housewives to have a monthly income from their husbands.

Just like any other woman, I also wish the bill will get implemented. I am sure that this news should have a soothing effect on all the women in India, though the “gentlemen” feel the other way. 

According to the patriarchal system, it’s a usual scene in almost all families, which, woman who is doing all the household work, day and night are jobless. At the end of the day, they are supposed to hear the question “what are you doing, sitting at home... is it a work?” OK guys did you ever try to put yourself into her shoes?

Though it says that, we are living in a modern society, and the both genders are having equal rights, both of them are equally earning to sustain their family, how many men are there around us who really helps their wives after her long office hours? Though there are men who believe and understand their wives as human being and help her out, still majority are in the same patriarchal boat.  Helping his wife in kitchen, and household works are strictly prohibited areas for him. What will happen, if she tries to make him understand it? Here is his answer- “I never had seen my mother taking any help from my dad... All this are woman’s work, her monarchy, that too without this much facilities she has managed .You are too lazy to do that’s all” What a fantastic answer! 

Brother, the time is up to renew your thinking. Woman is no more a slave, gone are those days where we have seen, she eat food only after him. While the man have rice with curries woman adjust herself with dried tapioca and black tea without sugar. She adjusted herself and made him happy and instead of giving her happiness he took it as a chance to dominate over her, made her more or less a slave.

Now here we arrived at a transformation in the way of thinking- she is not a free cook, and don’t take her for granted.  I know, most of the men cannot accept it, and they may add excuses that this cannot improve a woman’s situation and it doesn’t make any sense on paying them off, and it may destroy the holiness of marriage or this law is trying to involve money in relationships. But there are so many women struggling with irresponsible husbands, who never care about her and treat her as a servant. In such scenarios, this decision of the Ministry on woman empowerment would be most welcoming if it gets approved, if not at least this may open the eyes of gentlemen.

A Chit-Chat about Dosa!

Recently I came across an article about Cauliflower in a mainline supplement. It was a very good article which made me feel that the flowery vegetable has got interesting features.I feel almost all the eatables in the world have some unique features or stories of their own. Let’s take the example of Dosa.

Dosa or Dosai is a staple food in India, especially in the Southern States like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.  In most of the parts of world this crispy crunchy golden brown dish is available but in different names. In Malaysia and Myanmar the dosa is thosai. In different taste and names, now around 100 varietes of dosa are available, with different flavorings and stuffing like, paneer, egg, onion, masala etc, which you can have with different range of chutney.

I still remember the story about Dosa which I heard in my childhood- “dosa and demon”.  (So even demon know about Dosa I guess) According to the studies, it is believed that the dosa has its origins in Tamil Nadu as its first reference occurs in the Tamil Sangam Literature from around 6th century AD whereas there are some conflicts on this view, saying it is originated in Udupi, Karnataka. There is no clue about how this flat round sauté got the name “Dosa” But I think it derived its name from the sound when the dosa batter put on the pan.

Unlike the other dishes, you can have Dosa at any meal. It is always there to relish your taste buds with so much health benefits. This fermented pan cake is a good source of protein and essential amino acids, especially for those suffering from malnutrition.

And also it has high concentrations of zinc, and iron which are important nutrients in the diet for crucial molecular processes.

The wide range of dosa with western flavoring as well, will never depress with its lingering aroma served with pinch of love. That is why even the brands like The Dosa Plaza which started as a street side shop; now a brand name in the Dosa world, to prove the taste of Dosa is unique and popular.

eLearning - The New Domain

The name as it sounds, it is all about learning over an electronic media. We can broaden it as the distance learning with the help of technologies and methodologies.

I came across this term after I joined in my new firm- where my job is to design eLearning modules based on the business requirement. Once I attended a training of two months about I got an outline about what it is. According to me eLearning courses are blend of content and technologies, which are created with collaboration of instructional designers, graphic designers and subject matter experts.

Nowadays corporate world is choosing eLearning for training purposes of their employees than class room training as it is more cost effective as well as flexible for the learners.

In order to become a good instructional designer, who designs the eLearning course, you need to be an active learner. Only when you learn yourself thoroughly, you can teach the learners. You have to put yourself in learners’ shoe.

We can divide learners to three types- Novice, Intermediary and expert, as per the learning theories. You have to design courses depends upon the audience.

Before developing the actual course in the technology platform, first we have to create a story board on it.

 The storyboard can be authored in MS Word, PowerPoint or even in a paper. But the development of a course takes place in certain particular tools. Some of the major tools used in developing courses are PowerPoint, Flash, Captivate, Articulate, Presenter and Camtasia.

    

The Other Side of Social Networking

A study on the influence of social networking in India showed that about 68.5 per cent of India's web population accessed social networking sites in February last year , visiting sites on an average of 13 times. An average user spent about 2 hours 10 minutes on various sites. One side it is appreciable that people are more enthusiastic to share what is in their mind and to keep their relationships alive through various sites. Through the social websites lot many have got back old friends and lost relatives. Thanks to the masters who innovated the idea of online platform to care and share.

At the same time one can’t just simply avoid the harms of these sites. For example whether it is a professional or fun type or socializing network, one would share all the personal data on the sites and then from the very next day itself one can see unwanted mails pouring into their inbox as it is very easy to take the email ids from social websites.

The problem would not stop here, from the social networks one can find friends’ friends. And then someone can send emails or photo or links which would be sending by indirect friends. Tagging and commenting on face book is a good example. When one gets the notification that his/her friend is tagged on someone’s photo or wall, they would get tempted to know the context. Then it might take one to some other site and it may ask to login to some other applications which is similar to that of the particular social network home page. And even if one won’t login also, mails from the site would find a place in ones inbox.

Another trouble of social networking is making friends unwantedly. The main victims of the issue are teenagers, the more excited group who generally won’t follow the proverb “look before you leap”. They simply keep on adding all the strangers into their friends list as they interested with number of friends in the list than whether they know the particular person or not which end up in some or other problems for them. Most of them keep their photos and contact details in “Public” which are really risky.

Moreover psychologists have found out that these kids may find the real world boring as in the virtual world things happen much faster, with a click of the mouse and so they will look to more extreme types of behavior to get a kick out of life. At the same time making new friends with strangers may develop their quality of social interaction and communication skills which would result both in negative and positive ways on them.

Have a safe and fun filled holidays..!!!

Summer has started and so as the people also stared looking for holiday destinations. They are busy exploring the new destinations as well as the offers on the holiday packages. With the overwhelming joy, thinking on the fun holidays, most of them becomes careless about the safety measures, giving a sad end to the happy journey.

It's important to take the proper measures in planning a safe holiday trip. Checking the vehicle, using hand-free devices, and getting the proper amount of sleep are a few things which have equal importance with the places to visit and the stay.

There are a few things which one has to remember while planning a trip.

• Sleep at least seven to nine hours the night before the trip

• Stop every two hours and walk around

• Be a defensive driver and watch for fatigued or drunk drivers

• Schedule a routine maintenance check on your car before leaving (tire pressure, oil, battery, windshield wipers, etc.)

• Pack emergency equipment including first aid kits, flashlights, water, and blankets.

Shame on you... Kerala

Recently only I saw one of my friend’s comments about Kerala… It is not Gods own country...it is dogs on country. Now I also agree with her on her comment on the particular context which forced us to change our concept about the beautiful place.

It was on February 1^st 2011, Soumya, 23 year old was raped and killed while she was on her way to home in train. The interesting part was she was travelling on the secure compartment for women- ladies compartment. Travelling alone in the ladies compartment of a Shornur - Ernakulam passenger train, Soumya was pushed out of the running train to the tracks by a male goon and then raped her. She died on Sunday after battling for life for five days in hospital.

This time the police was more active and the CRIMINAL was arrested within a few days… One should appreciate them to take so many efforts to track the culprit.

Whatever happened is happened… The poor girl with lots of dreams about her life is now a memory for everyone. Coming to the present, now one can hear lots of howling from here and there about the issue - the security of women in trains. But when would the new measures be implemented is a question for which “Don’t know” as answer attached with.

One other part of the issue is that the government recognizes the seriousness of matters only when some tragedy happens because of it. Most of the novel changes that have benefitted the public are the outcome of some or other tragedies, especially when it comes to women as well as students. Even the educational loan gained its popularity with easy bank rules since a student committed suicide because of economical issues to continue her study.

After the incident also male passengers boarding the ladies compartment is a regular sight. So my dear sisters better get in to the general compartment while travelling in Kerala… It might be crowded, and you may be stared at or nudged. But it’s safer than the ladies compartment at the end of the train with so called security and no connectivity with the rest of the train.