I have often heard people saying there is no equivalent English word for the Hindi Jugaad. Guess what, came across something today that seems to nearly fit the bill (even though it's a slang usage). There must be other words too, but this one sounds good.
So I read this answer on Quora about how someone was selling a child for Rs. 500 on OLX website. (it's more like selling child services, but keep that aside for a moment).
Some people have commented that the person who posted the ad should be jailed.
I suppose the same people wouldn't do a thing when they see a child working at a roadside dhaba.
OLX promptly took down the ad after a social media hue and cry. But I think it only sweeps the issue under the carpet. I think people feeling good about "how they forced OLX to take the ad down" are celebrating a pseudo-victory. Perhaps the ad should have remained there, reminding people of the reality.
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Then there are people who blog about others' hypocrisy on child labour without doing anything about it.
Today is 15th August. The day India won her freedom and independence. If you ask Google English to Hindi translator, both independence and freedom are translated as स्वतंत्रता. Is there a difference between these two concepts?
Can one be free despite being dependent?
Can one be independent despite not being free?
On a personal level, answer to the first question seems to be yes. One may get freedom to do X, *because* s/he is dependent on other people helping out in some other tasks.
What about being independent despite not having freedom? That seems impossible.
You are walking along the road, lost in thoughts, and suddenly some stranger (usually a security-man) says Hello/GoodMorning/GoodEvening. That was something unusual for me to get used to after coming here.
My first reaction was to freak out, oh, Who is this guy! Why is he smiling at me! Is there something wrong with my clothes?
Later I managed to force a smile under such situations and learnt to quickly reciprocate the greeting. But one needs a good reaction time. Often these fellow greeters have a lot of time to plan their hello, whereas we, the victims, don't know which way the next hello might be coming from.
Even now, sometimes I get startled by unexpected hellos and then sheepishly realize after walking forward that I haven't properly reciprocated. And then I wonder whether he's wondering if I'm rude or something. Shrug!
First problem with time travel is time travel itself, but the second problem is that of space travel.
Time travel writers seem to forget a crucial detail about journey back into time. They will show the time and place on their time machines, but they never mention the reference frame of co-ordinates.
Given that the earth is rotating around the sun and itself, the calculations about where in space the destination is, must be difficult to make. Besides, the solar system itself is moving in the universe at its own velocity. It's possible that the dinosaurs were at a particular x, y, z place in the space where we have never been to again in history. And without knowing what those x, y and z were, how can we build a time machine that will take us there?
PS. There may be something wrong with the logic above.
I take pride in my taste in movies (and a zillion other things, but forget that). The other day, I decided to watch Dan in Real Life simply after listening to this beautiful track Modern Nature by Sondre Lerche (and two positive reviews).
Towards the end it's a kind of feel good movie. Good in parts. Much better than average garbage.
Then, I went back to IMDB site and read the discussion threads. People were quite mean and pointed out various flaws in the movie (some of which, on second thoughts, I agreed with). As a result, I felt I enjoyed the movie less, retrospectively. Since then I have decided not to read IMDB discussion threads unless the movie has a high (8+) rating. For 8+ movies, the discussions are more knowledgeable, bring out the hidden nuances, make you appreciate the movie more. For such movies, generally people have both positive and negative things to talk about. Even then, it is better to first have one's own opinion, before listening to others. Otherwise we'll become like this.
On someone's Quora profile, I read about this test that tries to tell your personality type. I had heard this kind of stuff before but never tried it. If you have seen some usual psychological questionnaires in magazines, they are of the type "If most of your answers were A then you are adjective1, adjective2, adjective3", "If most of your answers were B, then you are .." so on. Even if we assume for a second that these tests truthfully assess you (and this is a big IF) they suck so much that their creators haven't even bothered randomizing the choices. (I think) After going through first few questions, the reader understands the pattern and from that point onwards they try to (probably not fully consciously) conform to their previous choices. For example, if someone selects choice A for first three questions, if they are in doubt about the fourth question, they are likely to choose an option that is consistent with their previous choices, irrespective of what they actually feel. So, the readers trick their minds trying to paint a consistent picture, rather than fractured bits of truth.
Coming to this particular personality assessment test, look at some of the yes/no answer statements. While some questions have relatively straightforward answers, others don't. For example,
You feel involved when watching TV soaps. Yes/No?
Firstly, let's put all the serials, series, and soap operas into one bucket. Since everyone's tastes are different, most people will find themselves more involved in at least one series (different for each person). If most people answer Yes to this question, how is this supposed to give insight into their personality?
You are more interested in a general idea than in the details of its realization. Yes/No?
Well, sometimes I am and sometimes am not. Depends on how critical the situation is.
It's difficult to get you excited. Yes/No?
This is an amusing question. It's difficult to get you excitedby what or whom? There could be a myriad number of situations, how am I supposed to answer this? Also excited means what? It could vary from mild to mania. I suppose this and most of such confusing questions could be answered by comparing ourselves with those around us. If these people get more excited than you (about things in general), then you are difficult to get excited.
You know how to put every minute of your time to good purpose. Yes/No?
This is such a pretentious question. Every minute? Hardly a few people on earth would be able to truthfully answer this as Yes. (And would they take this test?). Ok, I get it, we shouldn't take this literally. Still. The situation changes from day to day. There are uptimes and downtimes.
Anyway, despite such confusion, I somehow managed to finish the test. INTJ.
On an unrelated note, I will leave you with this video :)
A very good 3 part documentary series on the "obesity crisis", better than "Supersize Me" in terms of information content. Most interesting part was how the food industry influenced decision making bodies and ignored warnings of academic scholars.
I didn't know that the obesity problem had reached an epidemic level in the US and UK. Quite alarming.
After reading a lot about disadvantages of sitting for longer periods of
time, and hating the disgusted feeling of sitting for hours (even with
short breaks in between), I finally decided to stand while coding. Not
full time, sweet spot for me seems about 4-5 hours. (Relevant reading).
Today marks 30th day since I started doing it.
Setup:
I
have two setups, one at home another at office. My home desk has two
flat top surfaces at different heights (I'm unfamiliar with the
parts-of-table terminology) as shown in this side profile -
Monitor is on the topmost surface (red) and keyboard goes on a cardboard box on the lower black surface. Office desk is somewhat different, it doesn't
have a top surface so I just used old boxes to raise the height of the
monitor. Monitor height is such that even if I sit in the chair the
height is just about right so I don't have to adjust monitor (apart from
changing the facing angle).
Changes felt:
General feeling of wellness/feeling more energetic (could be placebo effect)
Better concentration for longer periods
Less occasional back pain
My recommendation:Try it!
Here's this week's fav track (also check out other tracks in the same album)
