1:1

Ever wondered how the sex ratio of 1 female for 1 male gets maintained in most of the species? Well, that's the beauty of natural selection. This is very much important for monogamous species like human beings so that one gender doesn't get wild on the other sexually. Without any artificial manipulation like infanticide, gender conversion, etc, nature will always continue to establish the balance of 1:1 among dioecious species (one's with male and female organisms). So for example, if a generation ends up having more males naturally, nature will balance it with more females by genetically favoring and strengthening them in the course of the time thus maintaining the ratio very close to 1:1 always. That's the science part of it. 

Now, did disturbing this balance by Indian ancestors artificially (by female infanticide in previous generations) is causing more sexual harassment against women in India recently? Well, the data suggests that it is one of the factors. Top 5 Indian states in terms of 'reported' rape cases in 2011 had a poor sex ratio against female with less than the average of India which is 95 female for every 100 male. On the contrary, Kerala, in spite of a favorable sex ratio on female with 108 female for every 100 male is still seventh is the list of Indian states with highest rape cases. So, proper sex ratio is just one part of the puzzle and there are many more social evils that are to be tackled for this problem. The solution? Death penalty is a reactive and superficial solution to this problem and may be, middle east countries with even poorer sex ratio against female, having cruel punishments against female sexual harassment is helping them. However, eradication of female infanticide and gender based abortion (in rural areas too), co-education, respecting and treating both genders equally from mind, etc are much more holistic and proactive solutions to this problem and thus tackling at the root level. Only these would tame the animal in human to avoid the insane and impulsive crimes in the name of sex and saving more Daminis of Delhi in future.

So, India should become a country where a girl is safe inside the womb to make her safe outside too.

To Bee or not to Bee

This post is based on a documentary movie 'Vanishing Of Bees'. Before watching this film, like many, I had assumed that bees are insignificant and their only purpose is honey collection and they stung if someone approaches or disturbs them. Well, I was wrong and they are one of the most significant catalyst in the human food chain. Even the once great British empire, where the sun never set, was also ruled in colonies like beehives. A queen, Worker bees (which collect honey and water), Nurse bees (which nurture the new born and heal the injured), Guard bees (which protect the beehive from intruders) were all part of a robust and sustainable beehive. So, what's their contribution to us? No, it's not just honey but cross pollination of flowering plants. I used to wonder why nature is letting the flower plants survive if their only purpose is beauty. Well, I now get it that they survive because of their exchange of nectar (honey) for pollination by bees and insects. Wind and Insects are the carriers of pollination between flowers and of which, bees are the major carrier and the problem now is that bees are vanishing mysteriously in countries like US, India,Canada and many countries in Europe! A case has been reported that as many as two billion bees have vanished in a week and obviously died (because a bee cannot survive living outside it's own beehive). Through research it was found that this condition, which has been termed as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), is possible only because of the byproduct of human behaviour in agriculture, that is, use of pesticides.

Only a few know that pesticides in agriculture are nothing but the ingenious and business-minded transformation of usage for the abundant leftovers after the end of World War II, that is, Explosive chemicals. So, ironically, a part of the food that we eat today has traces of the same chemicals which was once used to kill human beings in war. This is even more rapid now because, the pesticides which were once sprayed over plants, are now coated over the seeds, which is to allow pesticides to become an integral part of the crop itself to kill pests. But they also become a slow poison for bees and may be to human beings in future. In addition, we no longer have true agriculture followed i.e. growing of variety of crops in neighbourhood and rotation of crops whereas what happens now is a monoculture i.e. growing of the same crop over a vast acreage and repeatedly. All these have deteriorated the immune and nervous system of bees and hence they die of disease or get mad not to return to the hives (CCD is also called as Mad bee disease). If the same continues for the next 10 years, we may have very limited fruits and vegetables but a plenty of man-made crop like corn. There is every chance that there could be a Mad Man disease, where a child does not return home. Autism is an already occurring symptom for this in human beings.

Well, I am not an environmentalist or an activist in this but my only intention out of this is awareness as knowledge is the first step in solving or avoiding a problem. Even if a few people like you read this till the end, that is a primary success of this blog and to the direct success, any one can contribute to solving this by growing or at least occasionally buying organic vegetables and fruits grown without pesticides or by maintaining a garden or at least, one flower or fruit plant in your house. Remember it is there the trade starts for the food to us. So, it is finally up to your help to bee or not to bee.

Investment on precious metals - Pool accounts

Investment on precious metals is an effective and reliable way to multiply your wealth. Even returns (ROI) of 100% in a year is possible through this and with less risk compared to other mode of investments including real estate, stocks. Pool Accounts, or unallocated accounts, are precious metal account deposits in which the investor does not have the title to specific bars or coins. However, Pool account holders own a part of a pool of precious metals shared with others. Thus, Pool account is an excellent way of investing in precious metals without a need to 'physically' buy and sell thereby avoiding or sharing the cost of shipping, fabrication, storage, security etc. So, Pool account is a smart way of riding your investments exploiting the craziness of the world on precious metals and also on the industrial demand. Also, Pool account holders have a choice of converting their holding to physical metal by redeeming finally by paying the charges of shipping, fabrication etc. If you are able invest in USD, CAD, Euro or pounds sterling, www.kitco.com is a very good site which provides this pool account service.

Specifically, I am more impressed on the investment on silver than other precious metals (even over gold) and even any other investment vehicles for that matter. This is a link (http://www.moneycontrol.com/sensex_timeline/investing_tool_2010.php) which shows you that in 2010, silver had the highest ROI of more than 80% over other investment modes in Indian market. The following is a nice article on the potential of silver http://www.i-newswire.com/is-silver-the-new-gold/81916. So, try to have a significant portion of investment made in this on any dips and thus diversifying your portfolio in a healthy way. However, since this is all speculative and based on historical data and future predictions, use caution in determining your risk level and the appropriate fund allocation.

This is based on few investment methods that I have explored over the past couple of years and just a thought to share the experience for the benefit of others.

A strong and consciuos effort on investment is very important to any individual to multiply the personal wealth and in fact, this is more crucial than even promotion, salary hike etc in your professional career as they surely cannot drastically multiply your wealth to fight the inflation and become rich.

Nth Sense

Movies like Matrix, Avatar, I-Robot remind you that our mind is the only limitation for imagination. So, I just started to think how crazy the world will be after some 500 years from now and I started extrapolating and imaging that future world....People no longer take food. Instead they take a pill exactly customized for their own nutrient need which will simulate all the effects of the required balanced diet. Hence, there is no vegetation ...wait a minute, there is not even a tree. People dont go out. Instead, each of them have a programmed 'avatar', who will perform all the action as directed by the host's mind including going to office, meeting friends (or their avatars)...In fact, the avatar need not be a physical entity but it can just be a 3D projection of visible rays, who can attend the conference anywhere and anytime on behalf of you...in fact, it is you and you are it...People with special license can get more than one avatar and so they happen to do more than one physical task at a time...People with more money can buy an avatar of a 'dead' celebrity. You can be ugly but your avatar can be Brad Pitt or an 'lovely lips' Angelina Jolie. There are no mobile vehicles (no war for crude oil, no pollution, no drama of global warming)...Instead, the roads are mobile and the avatars can just hop on and travel...I am sorry, there is no need for that...Avatars travel via wire...Oh, come on...they travel wireless...You (the rest of the blog will address avatar as you) get a monthly pass to travel through a network...on the way, you may meet another pretty avatar and fall in love...Remember the host gets the senses of your action...so you get to sing, dance, ****, etc. You live electronically as 1s and 0s in circuit boards and projectors. The homo sapiens have become dormant as they have even outsourced the mind control to the 'special' avatars. You live and the host who created and controlled you slept forever..My mind goes crazy and I am going to stop at this point and let you say your imagination as comments to this post...For those of you who think I was blabbering...please check in few years from now, there wont be any physical billboards and there will only be laser projection of the advertisements overhead and there will be no wires and hence less need for copper and aluminium (metal industry - watch out)...ok, let me stop at this point...

Just for laugh...

While I am working on the draft of another blog, I thought of writing this one as a light filler one for time pass.

I was in the train of my 'school days' thought and this incident came to my mind. In my student days, I am one who believes that subjects can be studied just before exams and the ultimate concentration in the class would be to look out for timings and pass on witty, smart and humorous comments. One of the primary reason is to impress the female section of the class. Some of the attempts will be very successful that I get a full load of laugh from the entire class and I end up thrown out of class. This particular incident (12th Std, I guess) was a pleasant one whenever I remember. This one was quite different. The intended person to be impressed was the beautiful and charming teacher herself ;). She is the english teacher for us. There would be a fight among us (boys) to capture the first bench for her class and during othertimes, for the last bench. The competition would be very high among us to make her laugh or atleast, smile (she has got a lovely smile) and impress . On one day, it was her english period after the biology class and it was a class on dialogue writing and she requested us to write a formal conversation between a doctor and patient. I used this opportunity to write a funny one, though the request was to write a formal one. Below is a rough recollected enhanced excerpt of what I wrote
...
Patient: Thanks, Doctor. What is the result of my tests? I am optimistic and you can tell me whatever the case may be.
Doctor (pulls out the test result sheet): I am sorry to say this and you have got these problems - Diarrohea, Loss of appetite, Nausea, Cancer, Jaundice, Malaria, Typhoid, AIDS....*
Patient (with smile): Oh...ok...That's fine doctor. Anyway, I will try to live the rest of my days happily without worring. What's the fees, doctor?
Doctor: Very good. I haven't seen any one with such a strong heart.(He then pulls out the bill and this list was even bigger than diseases list). Your fees comes to !@!#@@$$$
Patient: Ah...(Dies).
Doctor: Oh..shoot...I forgot to take heart checkup on him...poor guy...seems like he has got heart attack too...

* - I took a big list from the diseases chapter of the biology book, which was taught in the previous period.

After reading this, she couldn't stop laughing and she got so much impressed that she took this dialogue sheet with her :)

Cool

'Do you always have a smiling face?', 'ஏன் எப்பவுமே பல்ல காட்டுரடா _____?', 'Do you manage to stay cool always?', 'உனக்கு எப்பவுமே கோவம் வராதா?' . These are all some of the questions which some have asked me. I would be lying if my answer was 'Yes' and I am not one of the most coolest person on face of this earth. OK, 'cool' is a filler word in english which has multiple meanings. The cool I mean here and in the rest of the blog is - not getting panic, staying calm, not getting angry etc. Phew, this is a multi-multi meaning word. Coming back to the topic, I have seen and inspired from many living examples, whom I have admired on their ability to stay cool even when tormented and under pressure. My first mention has to be my Mom (should we keep the initial letter of Mom as caps. Never mind, I feel that it should be this way like the rule for the word 'God'). Come on, focus and stay on the original topic :). OK, after a typical day of a software engineer's work at Chennai, I am the most eruptable dormant volcano on the earth backed by some frustating moments and off course, the horrible traffic. I would become 'active' automatically and erupt furiously just for a couple of 'kind' questions from my Mom. But she remains cool and pours the hot lava (I mean குழம்பு) over the சாதம், the serving for which she has been waiting for until I return. Oh man, she stays so calm turning a storm to a gentle breeze. Partly, I have either inherited or groomed my character from her.

Next, I have admired and inspired from Rahul Dravid. If you have been following cricket, I dont need to explain much here. His ability to stay focussed, never getting panic or not even losing his temperament with the toughest of situations is a character worth holding no matter what business you are in.

Then, there is a friend and college mate of mine, who after losing his hall ticket on the morning of the final exam searched for it (didnt get it), took bath, applied for and got an alternative one from college office and then went to exam. I didnt even see a sense of panic or frustration on him. He was like - 'Yeah, it happened. what next?'. I mean, there are some people who try to be cool but he was naturally cool.

There are many more characters worth mentioning here but I prefer to keep my blog brief. What makes them to stay cool? I have thought about this and tried or trying to stay cool most of the times in my life. I hope my writings here may help some of you to get an insight too. You may get angry or panic by either a situation or a person or both. You can stay cool if you perceive the problem outside of you but once you pull it into you trying to solve , it becomes part of you and hence you vent it as anger or frustration. Most of the times, passing the moment is a good option as you may repent over your action later if you have reacted silly. Now, what are the cool (this cool is of different meaning) advantages of staying cool?

1. Save it for the ultimate moment - I mean, if you get angry often, you lose the speciality of possessing that and no one cares if you get angry. If you get angry once in a millenium, it catches other's attention even if it is a silly matter. The slap and shout which I gave to my classmate silenced the environment of my classroom from a 'fish market' to a 'meditation centre' for 5 mins and it was for such a silly reason which I dont even remember now.

2. Employ your mind at its best - You can be at your best if you dont panic or dont get hyped with anger or nervousness and thus you get an advantage over your peer.

3. To be a winner - In an encounter, if you are the last one to stay cool, you will be the one to have the last smile too.

4. Girls can skip this point - As far as I have known about the Eve's section, most of them like it if you stay cool. Because extra angriness and shouting are their (I dont mean all but most of them) own charateritic assets corresponding to the muscle power of Men as gifted by the Nature. So, it is nice to be complementary which can be miserable otherwise. This is an advantage when you happen to share your life with your angel.

Cutting the crap, I am closing the blog with some of Kamal Haasan's touch.

If you are not naturally cool, 'Cool-na enna-nu theriyuma? Kadupaagatha maathiri nadikurathu'.

All said and done, one has to lose his temper and express when it is really needed but it should be constructive and also calculative and cool! (like the nose punch of Kamal to Madhavan in the movie 'Anbae Sivam').

Home...Sweet home

I recently watched a documentary movie 'HOME' from the spotlight of youtube. Not many will have the patience to watch that movie. Hence, I decided to write a blog with that movie as base and with the digested, interpreted and projected view of mine on the core theme of the movie. It was a visual treat to watch the movie, which, in my personal opinion is a 'must watch' for every human being. The movie is packed with some unseen and absorbingly pleasant scenes of mother earth. It gives a brief history of formation of earth and creatures on her. Then, the bitter truth of the exploitation and abuse of her by homo sapiens is evidently portrayed. It was a shame to know that our planet formed over 4.5 billion years was irresponsibly corrupted by us in just 200, 000 years. OK wait, I am not a green activist, who is going to advice you to stop using plastic from tomorrow because we know that it is one of the significant sector employing at least half a billion people around the world. So, the tranformation towards any correction has to be seemless and gradual; recycling is an option and also as consumer you have the power and intelligence to slowly shift the demand to eco friendly products.

Water is becoming less accessible and non-usable to human community. Do you know that one out of the four major rivers no longer reach the ocean? Also, I am not a great fan of integration of rivers, because as you disturb the natural veins of the earth, you are disturbing the plates and planting the seed for a devastating earthquake for your next generation. Lets learn to live with the 'natural' nature and not foolishly try to nurture her and thats what she teaches us with the occassioanal aggressions. Now, 80% of earth's resources are accessed and exploited by just 20% of the population. Be it any resource of nature, a consious and fair usage are crucial and yeah, shifting to renewable sources of energy would be a great advantage for the generations to come because you can never provide a stimulus package to reverse natural's recession. Global warming is no longer just a 'topic' to be discussed by a set of U.N. people in a closed conference room. It is already affecting you and me through the climatic changes. Antartica is melting, Wisconsin is becoming an Antartica :) and chennai is becoming Sahara :). Global warming, if left unattented now, one-fourth of species of the earth will become extinct by 2050 or earlier, well within the horizon of our life time and can potentially displace millions of lives. The movie ends with a showing of resolution and measures taken by various countries in realization of this and the ways to make earth survive for more years. You can decide your own penny to the contribution of this cause, which can make earth survive one more minute than it can now. Even an awareness can be a good first step.

If not for the heavy message conveyed in the movie, it can be watched for the delightful scenaries shown and you would be amazed to see such places. I believe that there is heaven and it is on earth. It is upto us to postpone 'was' in the previous statement.

As suggested by my friend, adding the link to the movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

PS: I know that this first blog was with a heavy message. Like Director Sankar, I am bouncing back with a lighter one for the next. To be released soon :)