Disturbing

Violence is not uncommon. But it is disturbing to note that the age of those that commit violent crimes is dropping. The latest news is about a pair of 12 year old girls. I still cannot digest that they stabbed their "friend" 19 times, and for what? To please a fictional horror character they found on the Internet. I'm not blaming the Internet for this. But, I'm thoroughly upset that the parents had not notice that these two girls were planning such a thing since February this year. - News courtesy: CNN.

The other day, one of the cable channels was airing a program on children who became killers. I just could not watch it and I turned away. The world out there is becoming scary every day. As a father, I'm not only worried about children becoming victims in such situations; I'm equally worried that we have not done anything about educating our parents community on how to help children especially on the Internet.

I had been to a DARE graduation recently. For those that have not heard about it, DARE is a program at schools to teach students about making right decisions. It teaches them the ill effects of bad habits and encourages them to stand up against bullying. Well, that is a good start. But just not enough. We are now talking about children committing criminal acts, instigated by faceless elements that no government seems to have control over. Parents will need to be guided to take more responsibility here.

As parents, we need professional guidance on how to herd our children away from such devilish elements. I would like to strongly recommend parent education to the PTA, and see how this can be addressed across all towns and cities. Any thoughts, well, and actions?
 

Are Female Hurricanes Deadlier?

I read an interesting article published by CNN about a study conducted on how hurricanes with female names caused higher degree of impact. The study revealed that storms that had female names seemed to cause far more damage than their "male" counterparts. The real reason the study concluded was because many people undermine the potence of a storm with a female name! Sexists.

Now to some intriguing statistics that got me thinking.

* The study was conducted between 1950 and 2012. Thats about 62 years. The study range is considerable.

* Until 1979, all storms carried Female names. This renders the data from the first 29 years unreliable.  

* Two storms that caused huge devastations were not included in the study and were called "Statistical Outliners". They were Katrina (2005) and Audrey (1957).

The study however says that the conclusion is not just based on data. And that some psycho-analytic experiments were conducted to back up the claim. In those experiments, participants were observed to simply underestimate the impact of a storm judging their intensity by their names.

My take: There could be some truth in what the study concludes. Take that with a grain of salt. Not being judgemental - sexism is still rampant in our society, world-wide. It is thus not surprising why a "female" storm is perceived to be less deadly. To me, the learning from this study is how social-psychology plays a large part in saving people's lives! The question is, should we go by the result of this study and call all storms with male names?

Where are we going with Wearables?

You may be smart but do you have a smart phone? Well if you do not (I was in that league until a few months back), you do not belong to this year and age. Seriously. But smart phones are quickly becoming a passe. There are wearables taking over very soon. Didn't you hear that Google Glasses are now available to those in the US for over a thousand bucks!

Read about LG coming up with a device for your wrist, very similar to the Samsung smart watch, only that the LG thing monitors your heart rate through an ear plug (no kidding) and even quietens your phone if you put your other hand over it - like you would close someone's mouth to make them stop talking.

Medically, Google's contact lens takes the cake. Wear it in your eyes and it detects your blood glucose levels throughout the day. It links to your phone and informs you on the readings. The better news is that if the reading is "critical", it will inform the paramedics to attend to you immediately. Howzat? I heard that Google is promising to keep this data out of the other information it gathers about us. Yeah I believe that (smirk).

There are devices monitoring your heart beat, driving habits, happiness quotient, sleep patterns, diet, blood sugar levels and the list is growing. Take it with a grain of salt - there are people against such devices calling them invasive. Swing to the other side and you will find people going gaga over gadgets. The key is to stay in the middle ground. I go with the flow, choose what I need, and invest in a devices that I know I will definitely use. I'm not an early adopter. I'm a cautious consumer.

Care to join my league?

Dog Pal

It had been a while since I petted a dog. Yeah. I vividly remember my first dog. After she died, I developed an aversion towards all dogs. I was chased by a couple of them, and that sunk the nail hard on the fear I had developed for dogs. But all that changed recently. I had been to a friend's place recently and his dog, an English Golden, caught my attention. He was a big dog with an intimidating bark. but was soon to befriend me and let me be his pal for the evening. He is one soul I will never forget.

Born Again

Usually September is the month I wake up to things that I've left on my back burner for too long. Blogging on Squiggles this time. I'm not sure if it is because September is my birth month or just a coincident that September is when I tend to restart certain dormant activities, lost amongst the routines of life.

I have not stopped blogging. I have continued to blog on my corporate blog. Just that it has restricted access. I felt bad that I have not blogged in three years now when I read some of my own posts. How my writing style has changed. May be not much but certainly a tad different.

There has been plenty of happenings in my personal life in the last year and a half. I've relocated to the US. I've recently experienced the fear of returning back. Finally got a project. Now planning to relocate to a different state within the US.

I've decided to use this space more as my personal diary to reflect on what I think, what I hear and experience. I'm sure I will enjoy reading these posts someday when I'm all done.

Train Thrill

I had not taken a suburban train in the last 10 years and the idea was as enticing as a plate of jalebis to me. It was a warm Saturday morning and I set off on my trip to visit our appartment-in-making at Pallavaram. I rode my bike to Guindy and parked it at the shed next to the station. I then paid five buks to a sleepy pair of eyes to watch over my priced two-wheeler and went in search of the ticket counter.

There were three counters and almost all of them were nearly empty. A ticket to Pallavaram costed me four rupees. I slipped the ticket into my pocket and walked through a reception of beggars to reach the platform. It was just a few minutes wait until I heard the thundering iron boxes screeching to a halt before me.

I hopped onto the bogie before me and found a seat next to a young couple. As the train started to move, I plugged my ears to listen to an audio book on my ipod. A few minutes later I could hear some simple rhythm. It had nothing to do with the audio book I was listening to. Ah! there they were - mobile jukeboxes. A mother and her daughter had decided to entertain us with a song in Telugu, two pieces of broken tiles for the metronome. I quickly reached out for my wallet and drew a rupee coin, knowing what was coming up.

The singing sensations hadn't finished the first stanza in their cacophonic recital and the little girl raised her arm in style to ask for tips from the passengers. One rupee and some pity were all that I could spare.

- more to come

Quota - Quoted Epithet

India has been a free secular republic since 1950. I mean it. I have to repeat this statement at least a thousand times to remind myself of this fact. Let me come to the point. The very idea of introducing quota was to help those specific communities destitute of a stable standard of living to gain ground. Now that was justifiable because India had just disengaged from the clutches of colonial powers and was struggling to bring all her subjects at par in living standards.

We have now crossed 50 years of independence. We seem to have accomplished a few key goals that our leaders envisioned, and yes our constitution and governing policies have provided ample space for everyone in this country to grow and to gain ground in the last five decades. We are now seen as a nation developed in all capacities. So why continue to be partial towards so called "Backward Caste"? If we call ourselves as beyond caste and creed, why still give preferences in the name of caste? You learn that the caste system has been abolished in India while your admission into the school was based on a caste quota. What an irony!

A quota of 27% reserved seats for those who would proove that they belong to a backward caste. Isn't that a self instilled insult? Does this happen anywhere else in this world? - ah.. I would call the whole system as an epithet.