Rain

Rain…by Vishesh

You illustrate a pouring cloud…
Harmonic with lightning..and thunder loud.
Sloshing and splattering from the shower above…
Sure does inspire our intellects within.
Celestial bands of colors… wraps us the gift…..
Gift of perseverance..which will give us the lift.

Priceless (or) worthless

Technically both mean the same… ie something onto which you cannot put a price-tag
When we hear ( not listen) these words as a reference towards us / our actions / things of our liking.. we either feel glador sad. So what actually constitutes the difference in these two words ? Is it the person who speaks about us ? Is it the tone used ? Or does this have any relation to the history of usage of these words in particular context only

A worthless-gem would be a paradox as to a Priceless-filth. But it is more socially acceptable to say “The Gem is worthless to me .. if I don’t have your love ! “….Or to say ” I am into the Recycling business.. so all these filth is priceless to me “
I happen to read somewhere ( I just cant remember exactly when and where)…A Certain VIP was giving a lecture to a bunch of upcoming professionals .Before he actually imparted any words of wisdom.. all he did was ..He took out a 50/- Note and asked who would like to have it…No prizes for guessing. ..several hands shot up in the air. He crumpled the 50/- note and raised the same question.. The hands shot up this time too.. Not satisfied.. he stashed the crumpled note into the dustbin and retrieved it and rubbed it on the floor.. making it all dirty and raised the same question.. Not to be surprised .. hands still showed in the air .. That’s a priceless piece of advice he gave to that gathering

Allow me , to brief about the above action and the forceful message that come across. He says that .. No matter what he did to the 50/- note ..crumpling ..rubbing in dirt and all… it was still worth 50/-. All these actions do not diminish the worth of the 50/- note.

We may come across situations in our personal and professional lives , when we feel let down by the people whom we thought would back us up, when we will be called as worthless by people who shall be influencing our careers , remember to equate worthless ==priceless ( and never vice-versa). All these people can only influence the activities beyond our control.. they can now way influence our attitude. One’s (positive) attitude is his greatest asset

So next time anyone tells you that you are worthless…just remember that perhaps he doesn’t know how else to convey that you are priceless

Revolution is a State of Mind :-?

Before reading any further.. try to be honest
(at least this one time.. be your own judge):-W

How many of us (including you and me) are willing to go for an HIV-Test without somebody telling us to do so?.. Do we have to guts to drop Whatever we are doing ( yes.. reading this blog post too) , shut down the system and pay a visit to our nearest Blood-Test center for an HIV- test on ourselves.. “NOW… nah..but i promise i will later”.. yes.. i also thought the same ..Well… I am not blaming you for thinking like that.. because we carry with us “The – burglar – will – come – only – to – our – neighbor’s – house” kind of attitude … And, we proudly call ourselves as Educated – Intellectual – and Civilized #-O

Lets go a step further and ask ourselves.. when we cant command ourselves to this NOW.., do we have the guts to ask for a pre-marital HIV certificate when we plan to marry or when one of our kin , friend(s) are getting married.. I can hear you say…what if they say “Its none of your business” ..

Even though the above mentioned scenario is true in many cases , we can’t ignore how the AIDS-Demon has spread is tentacles in our society ..We see huge hoardings for AIDS helplines and the importance of Safe-sex and Single partner.. All of us respect the effort taken by the various communities and organizations that are doing their bits to curb this demon.

The Karnataka (India) Govt is trying hard to make the Pre – Marital – HIV – test mandatory so that any couple entering into a wedlock has to produce a HIV-Test certificate….This will infact save the embarrassment for both the bride’s and groom’s side :-S .With so much happening in the cities.. with AIDS Awareness programme and the Red-Ribbon helpline , the revolution had already begun in a place where the nearest public health center is about 80km away…

In Karnataka.. at about 80kms away from the village of Bagalkot is a smaller village with about 600-800 families. Here the villagers have made it mandatory for any bride / groom willing to marry the boy/girl from their village to produce the HIV test certificate ^:)^ . Its has been understood that they used to give their girls in marriage to grooms from Mumbai- Goa -etc.. and after few months/years these girls would come back to their home-town as widows after loosing their husband to AIDS.
It was also seen that the children of these girls were also infected with the HIV virus. Thats the reason the villagers gave to the Times of India (31-Jan-07) on why they have made the test mandatory.

They also credited the local Devadasis in the village who brought about this change in the village..This small step taken by the remote village is indeed a gaint leap for all of us..

We, Urbanites are forced to eat a humble pie..We are always “planning” :-@ to do something.. while the so called illiterate – uneducated – rural lot has already put things in action …Shame on us :-< .. NOW is the time to act

:) Smiles :)

🙂 Smiles :)…. by Vishesh

Wise eyes..sees hope’s light
As love’s doves soar over waves
Kindling kindness..and hating humbug
Peace prevails with a smile thats never hidden

Orkut – Love it , Hate it.. or even better Ignore it

This is my view of things that i have been observing about orkut in the past few weeks There are hardly anyone reading this who is not aware of Orkut. For those who don’t know.. Orkut is popular networking site..where you sign up using your Google accout and start connecting with your Friends and their Friends and their Friends online. Its more-or-less a web within the world wide web . Of late.. lot of things are being said and written about Orkut in orkut scraps and in blogospere. Serious accusation’s are made against orkut for promoting biased political – social views. For more information regarding this which is in circulation in the Internet.. take your peek here

My personal experience with Orkut:-

I signed up for Orkut when my friend ,couldn’t stop talking about the possibilities of finding long lost friends. So just to satisfy her.. I just joined in. And for me.. that was the end of Orkut. during the initial days.. i too searched around for my classmates and long lost 3 – 4 th cousins. After a couple of weeks , the novelty wore off…and.. Orkutting did not interest me anymore.. But every now and then I used to get scraps that said ” I want to be your friend”…I hate this kind of scrap…Its like tapping an absolute stranger on a busy street and saying “Please register me as your friend “….So i just delete those scrap and don’t bother to reply them…And that’s the end of Orkut for me

Now the scrapbook just rests there…When i get some genuine scraps..I do reply and maintain contact..Not otherwise.

Is Orkutting a sin ?
Def of Orkutting (verb) :- Logging into Orkut for almost 4-5 hrs a day / 4 days a week and spend time writing scraps to your friends – friends of friends -friends of friends of friends

Well.. those who can afford to spend this kind of time in Orkut must be the ones with lot of time at their disposal and very little idea on how to use this time. So For those who believe.. wasting time is a criminal offence.. the orkutting is a Sin

To Orkut or Not

Primarily we must realize that this is a social networking site. And all are entitled to their opinions and the way in which they present their ideas. So when some one pats in your back ( in orkut) someone else might even slap you on your face ( or rather scrap book).. for the things you have said / written. After all we all must face the consequences of our words.. good and bad.

Just as a coin that has two sides, every social networking site also has the two types of users.. those who just move around for fun and stuff… and not causing any serious damage to the psyche of others and.. the other type..who have made their life’s ambition to unleash all the ill feelings they have in the most dis respectable manner on a public platform..with the sole intention of leaving displeasure in the minds of those reading it.

Now.. its up to us ( Orkut users) to decide which side of the party we want to join.Being respectable and educated citizens ( Orkutters may be uncivilized.. but don’t tell me they may not be educated).. its purely our choice on how we conduct ourselves… and how much personal information you are willing to disclose in orkut ( for all the eyes to see)

So.. What’s the issue with Orkutting

there have been reports that some Orkutters are having problems with obscene messages in their orkut and getting calls form unsolicited numbers at odd times.. Publishing biased political messages – porn links written into scrap books.. and things like that. So there is a rage among a certain sector of people ( mostly politically motivated) who are demanding that Orkut be banned completely.. thereby shutting off these kind of activities..

Love it…. Hate it .. even better Ignore it

Come On people.. get real… will such a ban really serve its purpose.. As far as I can tell.. Orkutters who are (had been) facing these kind of problems personally have resolved to solve these problems in one / some of the following manner

  • Removing their Tel numbers and postal address from Profile
  • Avoid giving personal detailes to “net-pals”
  • Removing themselves from the community which they suspect with unacceptable behaviors
  • Refusing to reply to suspicious scraps
  • Get a new Orkut account and share among “personally-known-frinds” only
  • Not join evey community that comes your way
  • Ignoring unfamiliar friends request
  • Ignore the tempation to scrap every time you login to Orkut

Lightbox code to zoom ( enlarge) pictures without moving away from your blog

After receiving a request from Priya, who is very much interested in photography and wanted to have her photoblog in blogspot. But the only thing that was refraining her to do so was.. the behavior of blogger to show the enlarged version of the picture in a new window. Like many other’s she too felt that this would inadvertently take here viewers away from her page.

In this quest with priya.. i landed at an excellent lightbox code at Huddletogather by Lokesh. This entire script( s) is Lokesh’s work and I am putting this here to let my readers know as to how wonderful this feature is.. A must have for any photoblog.. Even otherwise..its a great way to zoom the pictures in your blog..See it in action here. Read more for instructions on how do this

  1. SAVE AND BACK UP YOUR TEMPLATE
  2. Add the following lines just above the </head> tag in your template
    <script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://deepa7476.googlepages.com/prototype.js”> </script>
    <script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://deepa7476.googlepages.com/scriptaculous.js?load=effects”> </script>
    <script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://deepa7476.googlepages.com/lightbox.js”> </script>
    <link rel=”stylesheet” href=”http://deepa7476.googlepages.com/lightbox.css” type=”text/css” media=”screen” />
  3. You may choose any of the layout provided by blogger for uploading pictures ( Small – Medium – Large).
  4. If you notice the html part of the image code you will see something like
    <a href=”url of the picture at blogger”>
    < img src=”url of the pic..the full size” style=”width – height etc depending on the layout”/>
    </a>
  5. Here is what you need to do to activate the lightbox code
    <a href=”url of the picture at blogger” rel=”lightbox”> < img src=”url”>
  6. If you wish to show the pictures as collection (…say..flowers..animals..etc etc).. then all you need to do is

    <a href=”url of the picture at blogger”
    rel=”lightbox[flowers]” > < img src=”url”>
    <a href=”url of the picture at blogger” rel=”lightbox[flowers]” > < img src=”url”>
    <a href=”url of the picture at blogger” rel=”lightbox[flowers]” > < img src=”url”>

    <a href=”url of the picture at blogger” rel=”lightbox[picnic]” > < img src=”url”>
    <a href=”url of the picture at blogger” rel=”lightbox[picnic]” > < img src=”url”>
    <a href=”url of the picture at blogger” rel=”lightbox[picnic]” > < img src=”url”>

  7. The above step does not involve blogger labels… so no conflict on codes.
  8. Remember that the lightbox code will get fuctional only after the entire page loads.

This code works for me and I hope this works for you too. Drop a comment and let me know

ADD ON:-
If you want to have a “Zoom Cursor” appear over your pictures as shown here.. the this is waht you need to do
LOCATE THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR TEMPLATE
And add the line shown in red.
.post img {
cursor:url(http://deepa7476.googlepages.com/ZoomIn.ani);
}
This is best viewed in IE. I dont know if FFox supports cursors in Stylesheets.

Your appreciation is my motivation

Rolling Tears of Sorrow…

Rolling Tears of Sorrow…by Seema

My dear,….
……It pains me… to see you in pain.
……It chokes me.. when your heart throbs in agony.
……It aches me.. to see you all blue and gloomy.
At Trying times..when nothings works our way,
Vile Depression-could, clouds our happy-place.
Peek into a mirror..for a sunshine shall greet you,
Seek hope from self..for your best friend is you.