India walon main aa raha hoon.. :)

By the way just realized that I'm planning to visit India, probably this week itself so may be I'll post the remaining part next month.

Screw the post.. I'm going home :)

Simply Complicated

Recollecting a conversation that I had with Arvind a couple of years back about an incident that happened during my school days. You see,in school I was with a bunch of extremely talented and brilliant people that used to challenge each other in problems in mathematics.On one such day we were trying to solve a trigonometry problem and during the process I tried to solve the problem by using theorems after theorems in order to arrive at the solution but I only ended up making the problem more complicated. On the other hand a friend of mine, who apparently is a genious, was able to solve the same problem in just 3 or 4 steps. The lesson learnt was that best solutions to complicated problems are always simple and are beautiful. And a real genious can solve a problem in the most simplest way.

Later in life I came to know that the revelation above that I had was somewhat in line with Occams Razor which says, all things being equal the simplest solution is the best. Added to the fact that for quite some time now the smartest minds of our species too are trying to find out the common pattern in all that there is or should I say the single theory of everything. It makes sense, right? There can be nothing simpler than being able to explain all that there is by a unified theory.

Now the obvious question that comes into my mind is that if a possibility exists that there is a unifying theory that explains everything in the physical aspect of our life then what about the spiritual aspect of our life? Is it possible that here too only one possibilty exists and if that is true than who is this God and what is the means to know him. Well this post is not entirely about the God conundrum, it's about simplicity, so I'll move on but I will discuss this one more time in this post because it's important.

I held my views about simplicity for a long time and I was pretty convinced about it too. Untill recently I read a few things that made me question my original set of beliefs. And I realised that those beliefs were based on a certain set of assumptions that now stand on shaky ground in the light of some new discoveries.

~I always like to keep my blog posts small and also my mind is over crowded with ideas and is running in many directions so I'll take a small break and get back on this in a day or two.~

Random Thought

A few days back one of my friends shared a video on facebook. Have a look at it :



This is a time lapse video of the Perseids meteor shower that was visible in Tokyo around the same time last month. Also before I dwell in the philosopy check out this video as well.



These are just a few examples of the both discovered and undiscovered wonders of the universe that can be seen from our planet. Over the last century our technology has enabled us to witness and understand much more. And as our equipment improves - which it has and will- we will, no doubt, be even more astonished by what we get to see and understand.

But I've realised that man can't really understand the universe, we only observe and make notes of patterns. I mean we only understand the patterns. Even the greatest mind of our civilization Einstein was looking for a common pattern in everything. But we all know that he failed to figure out that pattern. May be towards the end he realized that a thing so vast and so complex cannot be weaved into a single theory. It's like an ant trying to understand the purpose of an aircraft.

Some of us on the other hand think that everything is for us. Even-though we don't even know what that "everything" comprises of, again it's like an ant thinking that the aircraft was made for it.

The ant can never comprehend the aircraft nor the aircraft was made for it.

I guess may be sometimes we should take a step behind, relax an enjoy this amazing ride.

My Life's Score Card

Truthfulness - F
Honesty - F
Humbleness - F
Love - F
Discipleship - F
Principles - F
Kindness - F
Content - F
Faith - A
Grace - A

RESULT - SAVED

Adventure in Summer Vacations - Sea Paradise

I did perhaps the most darest acts I have ever done - A non-stop free-fall ride from 108mts. And considering the fact that the world's tallest free-fall ride is 120mts, it was a personal landmark for me. And I think, Arvind would know what I'm talking about. But what Arvind doesn't know is the feeling that creeps in when you are at 108mts high and ready to be dropped at any moment. What's more terrifying is the fact that they've made the seats in such a way that you don't see anything other than the sky above and the sea below. Yes, you can't even see the ground and your feet are just hanging in the air. No footrest at all. Further, to add to the terror, the music in the background is nothing but pure horror. It's the sound of a rapidly pounding heart... dhak dhak.. dhak dhak.. the tempo of the heartbeat keeps on increasing till you reache the top. Then there is a moment of silence, and that sinking feeling of the inevitable creeps in. But you don't fall for another moment or so instead they linger you on for that little bit longer. Long enough to confuse your nerves - whether to be calm or not. And just when you think you have an opportunity to scream and bail out there is a sound of a scream and the free-fall. You can check out the free-fall ride video (not taken by me).



There's another adventure here. The roller coaster at hakkeijima sea-paradise. I must reveal a little secret, I wasn't really scared when I boarded the roller coaster, I mean not as scared as I stepped on to the free-fall (At free-fall I was about to piss in my pants type scared) but at the coaster I was a bit more relaxed and confident. But the moment it started dropping and turning, I screamed... I screamed out my lungs on the roller coaster. On the other hand at free-fall, I was pretty OK after the bloody thing was on it's way down. I mean, right at the moment of fall I was scared as hell but during the ride I was OK. Although I did feel a little buzz in my head after the free-fall was over.

Here's another video of the roller-coaster.



I guess the next obvious adventures in my to-do list are
a. Bungee-jumping and
b. Skydiving

woohoo.. I can already feel the adrenaline rush...

Here are some pictures from Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea paradise.

O yes! I forgot to tell you that the main attractions of Sea Paradise are not the rides but an amazing aquarium and a wonderful dolphin show.

Adventure in Summer Vacations - Disney

So last week was summer vacation in Japan. Yes, we get summer vacations here!! and winter vacations and spring vacations too... mwaha ha ha haa....

Anyway, I had a pretty good time and got to do things and visit places that I always wanted to. One of the main items in my to-do list, for a long time, was to visit Disney Land in Tokyo. Well actually, visiting Disney Land was my childhood dream. So I now strike-off visit to Disney Land from my Bucket-List. And for people like me who love a good bargain I got to see Disney Sea as well. You see unlike other cities, Tokyo has an equally awesome Disney Sea amusement park as well.

Here are a few moments captured on camera.

The rides were fun but I think they have been made keeping the kids in mind. The roller coasters & the free falls were not really as scary as the ones in sea paradise (look out for other blog post on sea paradise) but then Disney is not about scaring the people. It is about fun and wonder. Every ride, every coaster and free fall had an amazing story and an amazing set to back-up the story. Designed to perfection taking care of every minute details. Just spectacular.

It's OK

After a very long time the poet in me woke up. Just a few seconds before I woke up this morning I had a dream that I was singing in a church. Actually, I was singing only the "it's OK" part again and again with "coz you are there" tossed in occasionally. Obviously it must have been the chorus. So the first stanza of the song has been composed in my complete consciousness. And therefore sounds a bit of a cliche but it's OK as long as it is my own composition. Well, I think I'll try to complete the song and make it more deep and meaningful. But right now I must brush my teeth. :)

It's OK

My heart can sing
in you o Lord,
My life is true
with you o Lord,
And even though
I fail and fall
at every single step

coz when you are in my life 
It's OK (repeat several times)
coz you are there....

Collages

Thanks to Ms. Sangeeta and picasa I have leared that collages are a better way to make pictures tell stories. I've just created 2 collages of the recent pictures I took. The one on top is Tokyo Tower and the second one is Komatsugawa, my dwelling place in Tokyo.

Nothing

Dcat - Gman!! what have you done??????? %*##*@#@#&#$*
Gman - Nothing.. Absolutely nothing significant... ever... :(

Why the Universe Has No Limit?

Very intriguing !! But there is a reason why we say that the universe has no end? The answer is equally fascinating too...(yet pretty simple, and that's why a bit funny and worth blogging).

The reason why we say that the universe has no end to it is because if we define the limits and say that this is the end of the universe then we have another question --> What's after that?

Similarly, (and this is not a mere product of my hyper imaginitive mind) we cannot say that a particular particle is the smallest one because then we will have to answer the question, What's smaller that this?

Interesting Huh!!

Ja Mata Bharat Mata...

The time just flew by and it's time for me to go back to Tokyo. And even though my heart sinks like that of a child whose summer vacations are coming to an end, I can say that I completely enjoyed every moment of my stay here.

The day I boarded the flight from Tokyo (end of Apr), I was wearing a full sleeve sweater, a leather jacket and a monkey cap. Of course, I was suffering from cold that time. But the moment I landed in Delhi, I felt that somebody has thrown me right in front of a furnace. And all the warm clothes that were keeping me alive a few hours back became excess baggage. And believe it or not but I felt a burning sensation when I touched that sweater later.

One of the greatest fears that I had when I departed for India was the powercuts. But I must thank God that at least the situation in Delhi has improved tremendously. Although there are powercuts but they are almost non-existent. Did I hear a hallelujah for that?

It took me sometime in getting used to the driving conditions here. But during my entire period of stay I was always circumspect on the road and frustrated by the way people were breaking rules while driving. Every single day, during my long drives to Manesar or Noida, I could see an accident or two always. Leading to major traffic jams. One of the most frustrating experiences that I had on this trip was to reach "Punjabi by Nature" restaurant in Cybercity, Gurgaon from Sikanderpur Village gol chakkar area at 6:00pm. For no apparent reason it took us almost an hour.

Anyway, as I've always mentioned, in the past, for me it's never about the place, it's about being with the people, I love. And that's why, inspite of all the traffic, road and weather conditions and inspite of experiencing some uncivilized behavior on road (I'll write something on it very soon), I can surely say that the last two months were the best time I had. More on this in a day or two :)

Horn Please

Alright, I had almost forgotten that I had this blog. :)

I am back in India and it's awesome!!*

*Except for the frikkin' iron melting blast furnace like weather.

Anyway, after what seems to be a very short amount of time, I am back in India. And right now, I have a surface coating of "The Japanese way" on me. And before it whithers away and before I too get back to "The Indian way", I must point out some typical and some not so typical differences between the people of India and Japan.

It will not be a surprise for most of you to know that people aborad honk only at dire circumstances or to express their frustration at the someone on the road. I was wondering why then people in India honk for almost every thing until I saw HORN PLEASE written at the back of a truck. It was a moment of epiphany where I realised that it is not that we want to honk all the time, it is the person in the other vehicle or on the road that wants us to honk. Because only when we honk, will they do something.

My mom was very sick when I arrived in Delhi and so I had to take her to the hospital. Nope, I am not about the rip apart the health care system of this country. But I wanted to talk about the attitude and manners of the people who run these places. Starting from the receptionists and to every single staff person (clerks, nurses, lab techicians and doctors) that I met in that night behaved badly. I wondered why these people are working in a hospital in the first place. So yes, Mata Chanan Devi Hospital in Janakpuri is the worst hospital in Delhi in my list.

I guess this post is turning into hardcore criticism instead of light hearted sattire. So, I'll continue this very soon. No promises :)

Valentine/White Day

I should've posted this last month, as it would've been more appropriate then, but anyway here it is.

One more thing, I don't want to make my blog some sort of information center about Japan so this will, hopefully, be my last post about Japan. Unless, of course, I find something strange about Japan, again. About this White-Valentine... one of the reasons I am posting this is that I want to spread the word across. And I hope my girlfriend will read this. :)

Valentine's in Japan is a totally different than that of any other country across the globe. On Feb. 14 girls buy gifts and tons of chocolates for their male friends, co-workers and bosses. Yes, this is the day for men in Japan, not for women. Girls of course buy chocolate (or gifts) for their special loved ones too. These are more expensive gifts and very special chocolates. While Giri-chocolate is for everyone else and Honmei-Chocolate is only for a serious love.

Isn't Japan great? Nope, now the sad part of the story...

To balance the gift giving, another holiday called White Day is celebrated exactly after one month - March, 14th. On White Day, men return the favor. Gifts from the men can be chocolate too but as we all know Japanese men are real pervs. so sometimes they give lingerie too. And these are not Honmei guys, these are just Giri guys. Just imagine what Honmei guys must be giving back to their Honmei girls? ;)

By the way, in Japan both Valentines Day and White Day are Holidays! I'm serious guys.

Reflections

As my stay in Japan draws to an end, I think I'll pen down a few final thoughts about Japan. Two years of my precious life went by in this weird country but it was fun being here in Japan. So, here are a few of the interesting and weird things about Japan that made me say huh!!

1. The Raw and Crazy Seafood

Sushi and Shashimi is for the beginners. I am talking about really crazy stuff here. Live octopus, live fish, fish eggs, raw beef and raw chicken. If your are about to puke already then fearnot they eat some normal stuff too such as soy beans, plums, squids, eels. Having said that, most Japanese food is pretty yummy.





2. Bizarre-o-TV

I think even if you understand the language, you may well not understand the shows. They are so bizarre and so unreal. The studios look like a .... well there are no parallels. Just imagine a small room with pink walls, stars and balloons hanging everywhere, card-board cut outs of Hentai girls and a bunch of people sitting on sofa chatting about some meaningless stuff. To make things even worse, more than half of the TV screen is covered with Japanese script and a satellite image of the street reporter, who is in a market place taking public opinion over the most mundane subject.




3. Golf-mania

It's true. I don't know about any other country but in Japan as the weekend approaches you can see them practicing their shots in offices, in swimming pools, in restaurants … I mean everywhere.






4. Comic books


Japanese of all ages and particularly the adults read comic books a lot. Most of these Manga books are Hentai and some of them are written exclusively for adult audience. There is a special section (center pages) in all these comic books which contains semi nude pictures of women. At any given time during the day you can see Japanese men checking out these middle pages in the departmental stores.

And yeah one more thing... Japanese guys read these manga books and stare at the semi-nude (topless) pictures of women even in trains.

5. "L" and "R"

Let me start this in defense of the Japanese. You see Japanese people don't have the "L" sound in their language. So when they speak any other language they substitute the "L" sound to its closest relative i.e. the "R"sound. Having said that, it's pretty funny to hear Japanese English speaker make this classic mistake.

So, Quickly becomes Quickry, English becomes Engrish.
Imagine a Japanese boy proposing to a girl in English - "I Rabu you" LOL!!

(they also don't have the "V" sound)

Amir Peterpan Khan

Amir Khan is definitely from Neverland. The actor never seems to grow old. It has been 22 years since Khan first got noticed in 'Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak' in 1988 as a young college graduate. And 22 years later when most of the kids that were born in that year are now graduating from colleges, Amir is still doing college flicks (he also did a movie as a school student 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander'.) To put it simply it's absurd. Oh wait... Amir is from Neverland, he has decided to never grow old.

I saw 3i a few days back and I think Chetan Bhagat did a good job by creating a controvercy. because if it wasn't for the controversy, I would have not been able to connect 3i with 5PS. The two stories, except for a few parallels, are totally different. I guess Chetan must have felt as if he got kicked in the nuts when the movie started making billions where as he had sold the story to Vidhu Chopra Co. for a meager sum of 1 million rupees (before taxes).

Gross revenue generated by 3 idiots may be highest ever by any Indian movie. But I personally think that even though 3i and Ghajini (the 2nd highest grosser) have been the most financially successful Indian movies of all times yet they cannot be kept at par with movies like Sholay, Deewar, DDLJ etc. I can illustrate this with a simple example, how many of you can recall even a single dialogue from Ghajini? I can't. And even in 3 Idiots, "Aal iz well" was force fed to us. They devoted a whole song to this phrase and Amir Khan kept repeating it  through-out the movie. Consider, Sholay on the other hand, "Tera kya hoga kaliya?", "Kitney aadmi the?" and many more such dialogues have become colloquial. Movies like, Deewar, DDJL, Lagaan, Sholay, Mughal-e-Azam have proven the test of time and have stood out from the crowd. But same is not true for Ghajini? We don't even talk about Ghajini anymore and neither will we talk about 3 Idiots in a few years.

Anyway, 3i did touch a critical subject which is very close to my heart i.e. our education system. But I would like to talk about that in a new post.

The Avatar Experience

Yesterday, I went to Toho Cinemas to watch Avatar. About Avatar, all I can say is that James Cameroon knows how to create a lot of hype. On top of everything, I am surprised that these so called movie critics 'the experts' got carried away by the hype. Or are these critics a part of the publicity machinery? Anyway, I didn't feel the 3D the way I was expecting. I was told by the media that Cameroon had invented a new 3D technology for this movie. The Titanic's famous "I'm flying" scene was much more exhilarating than any scene that 3D saga Avatar had to offer.

Here are some fun facts about the movie Avatar:
1. The Man-mounted killer robots were exactly same as the ones in Matrix III
2. The rituals that Jake (the Avatar form) had to perform in order to mount the flying creature was a complete rip-off of the rituals that Harry Potter had to do in order to mount Buckbeak in Prisoner of Azkaban.
3. The style of narration by Jake (the paraplegic) during the entire movie reminded me of the narration in Max Payne 2 (the game).
4. And at the climax when Eywa suddenly sends the entire wildlife of Pandora to attack humans is totally Chronicles of Naria.
5. And yeah one more thing, over all it was sort of reverse of Independence day.

Anyway, this was my first 3D movie and I'm guessing that this is just the beginning of 3D movie era. A front line movie maker, such as James Cameroon, has entered into the 3D movie making business, I'm sure that other movie directors will join in too and soon 3D will completely replace the existing technology. Isn't it amazing to see that in period of just over 100 years we've traveled from
Silent >> Talkies >> Color >> Digital >> Animation >> 3D (My grand ma still refers to the Movie Theaters as Talkies).
And I do think that 3D is the next-gen movie technology and I'm really excited about it except for the heavy and annoying glasses. Somebody will have to do something to get rid of the them . They are annoying and stupid and I got a severe headache after the movie because of the glasses.

One really silly thing happened at the theater that I must mention here. You see we Indians have a habit of springing out of our chairs as soon as the movie is over and the credits start rolling in. In fact, the minute the movie is over some of the theaters in Delhi even turn off the projector. And frankly speaking I don't really see the point in reading the names of the people who made a contribution in making that film, unless I am an agent or a casting director. But to my initial astonishment which turned into annoyance after a while (because I got stuck in between, next time I'm taking corner seat) these stupid Japanese sit right till the end. Up to the point when 'THE END' appears on the screen and the whole thing goes blank and the lights are turned on. What's the deal with that?

MTV Rock On!

In a recently concluded series on MTV India, finally we got to see MTV giving us a show which was actually based on music. Well congratulation are in order! I hope the success of this series will prompt MTV to remove non sense like Roadies and other such programs and focus on producing more shows based on music.

A lot has been said about the contestants but this post is about the judges.

Well, to me, the guy who impressed the most was Ram Sampat. Before the show, I only knew Ram Sampat as some guy who sued the Roshan's for plagiarizing Sony Ericsson 'thump' soundtrack. I guess just like me there are many others who knew nothing more about him as well. During the course of this show I learned that Ram is famous in the ad. jingle circle and had released a rock album many years back, although it didn't gain much popularity. But this show has brought him out of ranks and established his career for sure. He now has several projects in pipeline that include directing music for bollywood movies and releasing another rock album. Well done Ram.

Kailash Kher, unfortunately for me, came out as a moron who doesn't really understand music. I found him picking up cues from Ram and Nikhil in order to make up his mind about a performance. I found his comments lacking in originality and I found him lacking in confidence and character. Later I checked out his old music videos (not just the hit ones and found a similar trait, I guess we all have overlooked this because of the fantastic voice he has). He is a great singer, no doubt, but I don't think he is a great judge. Also, he was there to judge the desipann quotient (I don't why he kept saying 'deshipann') of the contestants but I don't think he did that at all. Most of the time he was commenting only on the singers, that's just a proof of his limitations. I guess, if anybody has hurt himself in this show then it's Kailash Kher.

Nikhil Chinnapa was a delight to watch. He wasn't messing around with words. I don't think I have much to say about him except I think he lost his interest in the show towards the end, I mean the guy was absent in the last few episodes. But apart from that he was as pagal and as cool as he can be. Nothing more, nothing less.

One last thing, I must mention, is the website. For people like me who don't live in India the only way to watch this show was the internet. MTV India website is really bad. MTV Rock on's website was full of dead links, the videos were being uploaded way too late after the broadcast on TV (ITV's Britains Got Talent show was being uploaded the very next day) and the video quality was pathetic. It seems that MTV has outsourced the website maintenance to an incompetent company. For a media company like MTV, such poor maintenance of the website is unimaginable and unacceptable.

Autumn and Lily

The park near my home is telling me that autumn has completely set in. The orange, red, yellow of the leaves that had turned into brown is gone too. Thanks to the rain last Sunday, the leaves that were clinging on their branches couldn't hold on any longer and fell off. Leaving the tress behind to face the unforgiving winter alone. The park that was once brimming with life, color and excitement now lies barren, dark and lonely.

Just around the corner of this park is Hana kōnā, a small flower shop, owned by an old Japanese lady. Today, when I saw her setting up her shop for the evening, laying down the roses, tulips, lilies, daisies, orchids... Red, white, blue, pink, purple... sprinkling water over them and trimming the petals. I said to myself, "What! Spring? Now? Is this right? Surely, this isn't right. Why is she doing this? Why is she robbing me and everyone else the joy of waiting for the spring. When the buds will pop out of the branches and the trees will be full of beautiful flowers. Why can't we leave the somethings the way they are? Aren't we already we living artificial lives, manipulating our environment living in air conditioners and room heaters. Is there nothing called Seasons anymore?

I approached the shop, I read "Sale - only 198 yen per pc". The old lady saw me and gave me a little smile. I smiled back to her in response but more than that I was smiling over myself as I said to her, "One lily please!" and then said to myself, "Happy Birthday". :-)

Motorcycles that don't Fall

So I've been toying with this idea for a very long time now, definitely more than a year. And so I far I haven't done anything about it except for writing it down on a piece of paper. But then I saw this and thought that the least that I can do is to post this on my blog. Unfortunately youtube has disabled embedded video, so you'll have to go to youtube to watch the video.

See the video before you read any further.

All right! I hope that the motorcycle terminators got hold of your attention. More interestingly I hope that you were impressed by their maneuverability, how these motorcycles/terminators skillfully tackled the obstacles, that were being thrown at them, without losing their balance.

It may seems like an act of genius, although with out a doubt it is, but the science of falling while turning is very simple. When a motorcycle is turning there are two forces acting on it; the centripetal force and the centrifugal force. Centripetal force pulls the vehicle towards the inside of the circle and the centrifugal force pushes the vehicle outside. For a perfect turn these two forces should be balanced. In other words if centrifugal forces is higher then the vehicle will fall inside and if the centripetal force is higher the vehicle will fall outside.

I hope you haven't dozed off already. OK! if you are with me till now then let me continue. :)

The challenge is to make sure that every single time someone takes a turn, or in case of the terminator motorcycles dodging objects at 50mph, these forces remain balanced. Meaning that these forces remain equal an opposite to each other (remember Newton's 3rd Law of Motion?). Because this mismatch of the forces will make the motorcycle to lose its balance. And this usually happens so quickly that by the time the rider realizes that he's about to fall he actually falls.

So what are the factors that are governing these forces and affecting the fall? Well, there are 2 factors namely ; speed of the motorcycle and the radius of turn. That means to prevent a motorcycle from falling or to ensure that the forces acting on a motorcycle are balanced while turning all we need to do is tweak these two factors.

All we actually need are a couple sensing device and a couple of actuating devices that can perform the following functions:
a. A sensing device to measure the radius of turn (we already have that kind of device - it's called lean angle sensor - all FI bikes have it as a standard regulation but for a different reason.)
b. Speed sensor (all motorcycles have a speedometer)
c. An actuating device that will control the front wheel of the motorcycle. (meaning it will increase or decrease the radius of the turn by bypassing the rider and turning the front wheel based on requirement) - this thing needs to be invented
d. An actuating device that will control the speed of the vehicle (meaning it will increase or decrease the speed by bypassing the rider based on requirement)
e. And of course a small computer that would interpret and analyse the data sent by the sensors and direct the actuators to perform the action in micro-milli-seconds.

So how will this work? Well, I'll explain that later, the post has become too long already.

Red Chilly Powder

My First ffffuuuu comic. This is partially based on personal experience. Meaning only the second block is true. Enjoy!