Got a new ride!

With ride I mean a bike.

After lots of analysis and considerations and re-considerations about various pros and cons of various options available in the market, I decided to take a bit risky option guided by the excitement that this new bike seemed to promise.

Apart from a couple of things that a conservative buyer will really miss, this new entrant promises the best of both the worlds.

A month or so was spent in (over) analyzing the available options and weighing them each on the scale of freshness, power, reliability, personal taste, practicality and safely etc, it was a tie between the Suzuki GSX 150 R and the new Honda CB Unicorn Dazzler. Dazzler won due to it's fresh looks, aggressive styling, lots of advanced features, lower weight that definitely adds to performance, and age old reliability promised by the Unicorn engine. Not to mention the attention to details and workmanship.

So, assisted by a colleague who was more enthusiastic than me in getting the bike (such gestures only show how closely people relate to each other sometimes) off we went to the show room stealing a few hours from the office (legally!)

Only to find that there was a truckload of new arrivals waiting to be unloaded. After a little coercion, little convincing and some requests, the whole scene turned its attention towards us.

And after a couple of more hours of wait (that seemed longer at the time) I was finally able to start it to actually ride it off!

As of now its the second day and the Dazzler has managed to impress me with every thing it does right from the animation on the HUD when it is first turned on to the effortless sweeping past every odd thing on the road act.

Also got two queries at the traffic stops asking what bike it is? Not a surprise because it is launched just a couple of week ago and mine is first of the first lot! Great value for money isn't it? ;)

Finally, I thank the overseer for finding me worth bestowing this pleasure.

You are invited for a free ride anytime!
Good night

What works for you?

Every once in a while we tend to be overwhelmed by the effort of trying to draw a straight line for ourselves out of the chaos of so many obscure, wavering, incomplete scribblings of fate on our daily routine. So much so that that we completely forget ourselves as we are created by the Almighty!

Wao! that got kinda heavy. Wasn't my intention. In short, we ignore ourselves in the chaotic life that it has turned into these days meeting all the demands of family, career and society.

All of us have a 'chill-factor', a 'stress-busting-mantra' that we act upon to connect with our real inner self. Or for those who are not much inclined towards spiritualism; the term is 'chill-out'.Whatever makes us forget that sense of emergency, schedule and targets that always hovers on our mind and soul, is what provides the ultimate relaxation to our minds and rejuvenates our controller:the mind, I would define as the 'stress-busting-mantra', 'chill-factor' or whatever nomenclature we may choose.

So, the point remains, what to choose to 'let-the-steam-go'?

What is your 'stress-buster-mantra'? What is your 'chill-factor'? What is that doing what you forget the universe and are totally engrossed in the task/activity at hand, Freeing your mind of all the worries?

I never made an inventory of these factors but these days it is the health regime that I have subject myself to.

At gym, you do not think about pending bills, career goals and latest technology update that you need to obtain. You only think what you are going to do in the next few minutes. How much to breath. How much to stress yourself. What weight to use. What is the next exercise. And on top of that you know that it is working for you. Eroding the lipids in your blood stream is the first thing we need in this pizza infected world :-)

It will be foolish to generalize this very subjective matter. But an the core, whatever makes you forget the stress causing factors is something worth pursuing each day even if it is for half an hour.

Some forget the world while painting, some while shopping, some enjoy cooking while some forget the world in meditation of the creator at a temple. While there are also some who prefer to loose sense of world and responsibility for an hour at a tavern!

Whatever the method, we should be wise in choosing the time and nature of indulgence for the betterment of  self and the society. Of course someone is going to be really off the budget who shops an hour daily to relax!

-Akashdeep
aka Aki

Back on!

Hi there!
I know you might be wondering where did I went during the last few days. Making the long story short, I would recommend this:
Blogging Blackouts

Whatever the reason, it was a spell of Blogging Blackout that engulfed me for the last...how many days??... I don't know...anyways..here I am...for how long, I am unsure..lets let it go on its own pace...

My latest read

English translation of Panchtantra (the five ways). As of now, I am not able to read Sanskrit but translation suffices for the time being. :-)

Also I am not a literary scholar so can live with the imperfections and deviations from the original Sanskrit text that must be there due to limitations of the modern language. I also learnt that many Sanskrit terms have no equivalent in any of the modern languages like French, Gernam, English and Persian. To me that indicates that the translations will always remain imperfect from most of the Indian languages that derive from Sanskrit.

About the book, it is a collection of five sets of stories known to have been taught to sons of a king by his priest promising him that his sons will be able to follow the stories to survive the real world and if not, he may give up his name!

Just started to read so no major opinions but yes, the author has said that no other literary work has ever used such a plot and style to teach wisdom to the real world through stories that are mostly based on animals as characters.

One thing however I noticed that the translator has translated the names of characters literally, so you get names of kings as Powerful-Fighter and his clergymen named Increase and Thought etc. That sound  tasteless whereas original name might be having some relevance to the nature of the character.

Well, some day I hope to read the original Sanskrit script as well. The language that has the most ancient and valuable literary work ever produced.

I go into the bed with Arthur W. Ryder's Panchtantra today. Good night.

Power shortage's impact on Punjab's progress

Lack of power. I mean the ACUTE lack of power and exceedingly high prices of power in Punjab are pushing everything towards a devastating situation. I will discuss impact on Industry, Education, Information Technology and Agriculture here.

I am into IT, had tough time coping with power cuts when I was studying, have friends from manufacturing industry and I belong to traditional Punjab. So I can relate to many problems that Punjabis are facing due to power shortage.

Please do justify the post by providing your frank opinions.


Industry:
Already fighting the inflation, rise in fuel prices, industrialists are forced to use Gensets which are far more costlier than electricity (which is again getting costly). Government forces the industrialists to reduce working hours in peak demand season while they have to pay the same price to labor and employees. Economy of production is also lost due to lesser productive hours. All these conditions lead to non profitable business, less paid (and unhappy) labor, unstable businesses and tough competition from the neighbor states and imports.

Education:
Although much much profitable venture, there is no direct impact except the students belonging to lesser privileged families who cannot afford/have alternative energy sources. In the hard-to-live months of summer and post-rains humid period, the lack comfort of even a fan poses enough distraction that the level of concentration goes down considerably. This especially applies to the students of higher education and the ones preparing for competitive examinations.

During the night hours, either students don't get enough sleep or enough time to do late study or enough distractions due to power failures that it is enough to impact the students from Punjab gearing up for National competitive exams.

Given the high number of daily hours of power cuts, the above facts cannot be deemed inconclusive at all.

Information Technology:
IT no doubt survives on power! The online systems and development tasks, services and international collaboration all depend on the devices/equipment that needs 100% power supply.

Lack of power gives Punjabi IT industry a major cost-challenge. Moreover, IT has very small share in India, let alone Punjab. Most of the IT business flows in from international arenas. Lack of continuous power leads to poorer service as compared to the competing industry in other states.

A teleconference ending in the middle of a management meeting due to a power failure is not going to impress the international community at all. Leading to what? Lack of confidence and interest on the IT industry.

On the contrary, indirectly, use of backup equipment and alternative power sources impacts the IT industry much in the same way as other industries discussed above.

Its a well known fact that IT industry has not moved further northwards than Chandigarh due to this (infrastructure is another issue but not to be discussed here) reason. Anyone needs more explanations why IT Park, Mohali cannot pick up much big names in IT?

Agriculture:
Bread and butter of more than 75% of Punjab.

It is not that electricity is free for them that means there is enough of it for them. One water pump needs enough power to run the home equipment for around 5-10 households!

So if there are few of them around the place, enough power is needed to keep them running. Also, most of the time, the tube-wells are shared among various fields and households as well. The schedule of watering the crops are dependent on season and amount of rainfall. Also, various crops have varying demands. This causes a tight schedule for irrigation. The schedule also depends on the combination of crop needs, weather and number of fields and households sharing the tube-well.

Farmer community has been wailing for the power, even if paid, but at least it should be provided. When it is free, there is no accountability for anything. Neither the production, nor the consumption.

Realization:
Or is it?
Time to wake up for the govt? I think it has passed already!

Now that they have come up with the wonderful power plant projects to be completed in 2013. Advertising their ninth-stitch in full page newspaper advertisements. These plants are not to be completed in coming couple of years if we be optimistic. And the power they will generate will barely be enough to sustain the energy needs at that time.

How about the energy needs for five or say ten years later? Still no plans!

And the cherry on the cake is that they always come up with funny ideas to save electricity. For instance, shut down shopping malls earlier, open govt offices for shorter hours, shut down industries earlier (see above for repercussions of this), even compromise citizens' safety by shutting the street lights earlier at some places.

Why don't they just ask us to shut down all the electrical equipment and stop earning, studying, progressing, enjoying and live in caves? Seems like we will end up like this one day!

Till the fan turns, I sleep. Or I sleep at the office!
Good Night.