Friday, July 18, 2008

AD WARS 2

Checkout this Real Billboard in Mumbai — First there was Jet Airways, then Kingfisher responded to Jet Airways by putting up their own Billboard and then it was GoAir which responded to both.


AD WARS

READ TEXT FIRST

I trust you will find this amusing....

Some information that you need to know before you see the Ads:-

1. BMW started this Advertisement

2. Audi Answered

3. Subaru needed to say something

4. Bentley Chairman wanted the last word








Monday, July 14, 2008

JK Rowling address at Harvard

Check this it's really good:

http://webonly.harvardmagazine.com/159-Rowling.mp3

http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

My Stupid Suicide Plan -CHETAN BHAGAT


Last week, an IITian committed suicide. People who commit suicide do it when they feel there's no future. But wait, isn't IIT the one place where a bright and shining future is a foregone conclusion? It just doesn't add up, does it? Why would a young, hardworking, bright student who has the world ahead of him do something like this? But the answer is this-in our constant reverence for the great institution (and I do believe IITs are great), we forget the dark side. And the dark side is that the IITs are afflicted by the quintessential Indian phenomenon of academic pressure, probably the highest in the world.

I can rant about the educational system and how it requires serious fixing, or I can address the immediate-try my best to prevent such suicides. For this column I have chosen the latter, and I do so with a personal story.

News of a suicide always brings back one particular childhood memory. I was 14 years old when I first seriously contemplated suicide. I had done badly in chemistry in the Class X half yearly exam. I was an IIT aspirant, and 68% was nowhere near what an IIT candidate should be getting. I don't know what had made me screw up the exam, but I did know this, I was going to kill myself. The only debate was about method.

Ironically, chemistry offered a way. I had read about copper sulphate, and that it was both cheap and poisonous. Copper sulphate was available at the kirana store. I had it all worked out.

My rationale for killing myself was simple-nobody loved me, my chemistry score was awful, I had no future and what difference would it make to the world if I was not there. I bought the copper sulphate for two rupees-probably the cheapest exit strategy in the world. I didn't do it for two reasons. One, I had a casual chat with the aunty next door about copper sulphate, and my knowledgeable aunty knew about a woman who had died that way. She said it was the most painful death possible, all your veins burst and you suffer for hours. This tale made my insides shudder. Second, on the day I was to do it, I noticed a street dog outside my house being teased by the neighborhood kids as he hunted for scraps of food. Nobody loved him. It would make no difference to the world if the dog wasn't there. And I was pretty sure that its chemistry score would be awful. Yet, the dog wasn't trotting off to the kirana store. He was only interested in figuring out a strategy for his next meal. And when he was full, he merely curled up in a corner with one eye open, clearly content and not giving a damn about the world. If he wasn't planning to die anytime soon what the hell was I ranting about? I threw the copper sulphate in the bin. It was the best two bucks I ever wasted.

So why did I tell you this story? Because sometimes the pressure gets too much; like it did for the IITian who couldn't take it no more. On the day he took that dreadful decision, his family and friends were shattered, and India lost a wonderful, bright child. And as the silly but true copper sulphate story tells you-it could happen to any of us or those around us. So please be on the lookout, if you see a distressed young soul, lend a supportive, non-judgmental ear. When I look back, I thank that aunt and that dog for unwittingly saving my life.

If God wanted us to take our own life, he would have provided a power off button. He didn't, so have faith and let his plan for you unfold. Because no matter how tough life gets and how much it hurts, if street dogs don't give up, there is no reason why we, the smart species, should. Makes sense right?

Sunday, July 6, 2008

A view about life

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor.


Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.



Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large po
t of coffee and an assortment of cups porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.


When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the profes
sor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other's cups.



Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."


Don't let the cups drive you... Enjoy the coffee instead.


Thursday, June 19, 2008

Understanding Engineers !!!

UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS - TAKE ONE

Two engineering students were walking across campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?"


The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike. She took one look at me, threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said to me, 'Take what you want' , so I did."


The second engineer nodded approvingly.
"Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit."

UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS - TAKE TWO


To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half-empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.


UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS - TAKE THREE


What is the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers?


Mechanical Engineers build weapons and Civil Engineers build targets.

UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS - TAKE FOUR


Three engineering students were gathered together discussing the possible designers of the human body. One said, "It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints."


Another said, "No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections."


The last one said, "Actually it must have been a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?"


UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS - TAKE FIVE


Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.

UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS - TAKE SIX


An architect, an artist and an engineer were discussing whether it was better to spend time with the wife or a mistress. The architect said he enjoyed time with his wife, building a solid foundation for an enduring relationship. The artist said he enjoyed time with his mistress, because the passion and mystery he found there. The engineer said, "I like both."
"Both?"
Engineer: "Yeah. If you have a wife and a mistress, they will each assume you are spending time with the other woman, and you can go to the lab and get some work done."

UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS - TAKE SEVEN

An engineer was crossing a road one-day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.


The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week." The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket.


The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want." Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.


Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess and that I'll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?" The engineer said, "Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girl friend, but a talking frog, now that's cool."

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Free Rice......Play the game and help millions....

Play this game online and feed millions:

An Internet game launched by United Nations World Food Programme six months ago has proved so popular that it has generated enough rice to feed 1.1 million people for a day.

The interactive vocabulary game allows a player 20 grains of rice for each correct answer. The money raised through advertising is used to underwrite rice donations.

Thus it allows children simultaneously to bolster their vocabularies and help feed world's hungry children. With between 3 lakh and 5 lakh people playing it daily, it has generated 21 billion grains of rice for WFP.

The first recipients of the website's aid were refugees from Myanmar taking shelter in Bangladesh. Ugandan school children and pregnant and nursing mothers in Cambodia were among other beneficiaries.

Next batch of rice will be distributed among Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.

"I never imagined that things would move this fast or that it would be such a success," said the game's creator, John Breen, an online fundraising pioneer from the United States.

"Quite apart from the actual amount of rice generated, FreeRice is a fantastic way of spreading the message about world hunger."

A new audio function lets players hear how words are pronounced, and Breen said a team of lexographers is working to expand the database of 10,000 words. To scale up the game's appeal to younger and non-native English speakers, visitors can now select the level of difficulty.

Teachers have voiced their appreciation for a vocabulary game that has the power to draw their students in, WFP said.

"You cannot imagine the joy in my heart when I look out and see 25 kids doing vocabulary homework and enjoying it," one teacher from California told the School Library Journal.

The appeal of the online game to children is such that freerice.com 'communities' have blossomed on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

"Wow this is so great! You prepare for English tests and help out others. My total count so far is 6,100 grains," a New York high school student said in a comment on Facebook.

please help UN to donate the rice by playing the game at :

http://freerice.com/index.php