Science behind a prayer

The vibes of a being or a thought have been pondered & commented upon by many .. today I'm trying a different touch to it, to understand the science behind a prayer.
When one prays, one first meditates & concentrates on a thought / supreme being, the concentration being the key, that makes the vibes around us, very strong, about attachment to that entity (thought / being). When done with enough time devoted to a prayer & performed regularly, this attachment becomes so strong that our actions push us towards the realization of the thought (or becoming contented by feeling the shelter of the almighty, as the case may be). All these changes are so subtle that most of us think that prayer does magic; it's really the strength of our conviction & the burning desire to realize a thought. You tell me how better to describe a prayer's science ?

Sher - not a tiger, much better than that ;-)

जब कोई १००० डालर अपने स्वदेश (इंडिया ) दूरभाष पर बात करने में लगा दे ,

समझ जाइए कि उसे अपने देश लॉट जाना चाहिए :-)

(15 Nov, 2007)

प्यारी , फुरसत हो गयी होगी , आशा है

अभी तक जगी भी न बैठी हों , ये भी आशा है

milte हैं phir कभी kisi झील के kinaare

बतीयायेंगे ढेर सारा ... पहले झील तो ढूंढो !
(26th Oct, 2007)

The realization of a portrait ... the making

I'm sketching a portrait for my wi-fi tonight & I would take its photographs at each stage, to see , show & remember for myself - how a portrait develops. This sequence may help someone who's new to sketching real faces or someone learning how to sketch a face !
Let's start (Pencil used - 2 HB) ...

1. I'm capturing all the photos of the sketch I'm making, with my 6 MP Cybershot, in night-mode (no flash, delayed shutter). So, the backdrop may appear somewhat dark, however not so much to deviate attention of keen observers.
2. First, the shape of face & orientation - I took the mid-line (vertical) passing the center of nose & the line joining the 2 eyes (horizontal) as imaginary reference lines (without drawing any actual grid) . This usually helps in keeping the size of eyes, nose, cheeks proportionate.
3. I'm trying to complete an eye, along with the shape of the face & some nose too ...
4. See ? Using a light stroke for the pencil is useful, if we need to alter the shape of the face / nose later.
5. Second eye ...
   
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1. She's staring at me :-( ... Redid the whole nosy :-) ... I felt it was too small - thanks to the imaginary reference lines. I'm starting the lips now :
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4. Ghostly stage ... Boooo !
5. Lips completed now ... not pink yet ;-)
6. Lips touched up & some features sharpened. Added bindi (the holy dot on forehead, between the eyes). Hair formation started ...
7. Dyed the hair a bit ;-) ... colored the bindi and accented the lips with pink (light strokes of a RED pencil) . Note the left earring.
8. I jus showed it to my wi-fi & she found somethin missin ! Can you guess what ?
   
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10. My wi-fi jus approved this one with the neck :-) ... Hurray ! I gifted her the sketch.
    

Music of the night : Cheeni kam hai (Movie : Cheeni kum ; Sung by : Shreya Ghoshal ) - unique music, good bass, hindi song. This one makes me hum it all day long !

The chicken came first or the egg ? ... the science behind it !

I have always been bothered by this unanswered question since childhood - the chicken came first or the egg ??? Last week I applied some science to it & figured it for myself ... and the world ;-) ...
The egg came first.
Science behind this : For a chicken to develop, an egg is necessary. However, the same does not apply to an egg ! We learnt in basic science, about the history of evolution, the initial life forms were microorganisms (unicellular & then multicellular) that dwelt in water. Such forms kept developing, multiplying into different forms, adapting to various types of local ecosystems created on earth. Such a combination of life creating forms, or all the ingredients that exist in today's usual egg, must have gotten together into some protected / enclosed area (which is not necessary - the components just need to be together, under the right temperature, with enough air) & it gave birth to the first form of chicken. It might not be as developed a chick as we see today, however some preliminary form of chicken. Slowly, this developed into a modern chicken that is seen today.
Now, how much do you agree with that, lemme know through the blog comments.

Music of the night : Bulla ki jaana main kaun (Album sung by Rabbi Shergil) - a sufiyana style, punjabi song, with modern rhythm & touch of guitar

Is my company ( Infosys ) a good place to work ?

Thought of posting this here, as this is the place my friends can read & get some food for thought - have I really left any food for you folks to think about ;-) ? Lemme know - the comments area is OPEN !
Is my company ( Infosys ) a good place to work ?
Yes it is !!!
... and this not a kind of the answer that you get when you ask anyone , "How're you doing ? " And what you get "Fine :-(" - doesn't matter as to what is really going on with their life, but everything is FINE ;-)

Prologue:
Someone asked me today, "Who do you work for ?" and my proud answer was 'I work with Infosys ' ! (notice the difference beween 'with' & 'for') "And what does Infosys do ?" My generic answer was "Software consulting" . Now, he generalized it more by saying, "Oh, so you are contracted to someone for a period & then you go to another company ... is it the way you work ?" . This is when I thought about the real question more, & came up with a brilliant answer (in my opinion ;-) ) , "Infosys doesn't have contracts with its clients, however we have relationships. This is what sets us apart from what you think we do ! Almost 85% of our clients like & trust the way we work & make things work & make them go on. Thus, they remain with us for very long times, doing repeat business all the time. I hope even the TCS, Wipro & Satyam folks folks feel the same about their firms - we are all competitors, however we ought to project the large organazations (MNC's) of India in the right way. I hate people thinking of us as mere contractors :-) ... we are not ! We are the brand ambassadors, we are the relationship executives & managers for our company & the client. I hope all of you have the right representation as well as within our country, India. Talk to me (through comments) if anyone differs .
Most of the times, people don't move to another project because the contract ended, however they tend to change because they got bored of similar work for 2-3 years in a row ! GS (Goldman Sachs) is with Infosys for more than 8 years, Schlumberger is with us for about 9 years, Aetna is one of the largest & oldest accounts, Apple, Citigroup, NY Life, Bank of America, Nordstrom are building up for more than 6 years . The point here is once we are into the customer relationship, our customer doesn't want to get out ! It's the quality of work, the knowledge, the capability, the responsiveness, understanding of finer details and ability to instigate measurable trust - that keeps the clients with us for long times. In short, we don't like being called as contractors. Those are the people who really HAVE TO change their client / type of work / location every now & then (3-8 months) because their contract ended or the client got his /her task done. I remember IKON didn't have any distinction between the Infosys or IKON's staff, however our recent client does - they don't even issue convenient badge holders to non-employees ... which is plain funny ; forget about other things they try :-)
After all, we will still hold on to our Indian patience & wait for the right word to go around, so that people can make out a difference between an Infosys employee & a real contractor.
I stick to Infosys because of its great culture, the values, the simplicity of the way it works - there's so much transparency that I could bump into Mr. Murthy in our canteen & talk to him ; or I could even walk into his cabin & discuss an issue ! I don't think this happens at many other places. 3 cheers to Infosys ! Long live Infoscions !

Music of the night : Sathiya ye toone kya kiya (Movie : Love ; Music by : Anand Milind ; Sung By : SP Balasubramanyam, Kavitha Krishnamurthy ; As sweet as a song can be ... once I hear this one, it doesn't stop echoing in my mind & on the lips for next 2-3 days :-) - fun to sing & play on my Yamaha synthesizer)