Some pictures from TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), Pune, Hinjawadi
Phase-3:
- Rahul Tiwary
Saturday, June 15, 2019
Friday, June 14, 2019
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Songs: Ye Tere Do Naina: Ankit Tiwari
It is nice to see Ankit Tiwari and Aparshakti Khurana, both talented
individuals, in one video.
- Rahul
Monday, June 10, 2019
Photography: Ranthambore National Park, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, India
Bing.com has come up with a wonderful wallpaper with picture from Ranthambore
National Park, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, India:
You can read more about this place on the web, for example at following sites:
- Rahul Tiwary
Sunday, June 9, 2019
History: Tulip Mania and the Dutch East India Company
I watched the wonderful movie "Tulip Fever" which is a
romantic drama film set in the 17th century Amsterdem. The plot follows a
17th-century painter in Amsterdam who falls in love with a married woman whose
portrait he has been commissioned to paint. You can read more about it here on Wikipedia. This
movie shows an interesting episode from history, called "Tulip
Mania". Following is an extract from Wikipedia about it:
"Tulip mania (Dutch: tulpenmanie) was a period in the Dutch Golden Age
during which contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and
fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then dramatically
collapsed in February 1637. It is generally considered the first recorded
speculative bubble. In many ways, the tulip mania was more of a hitherto
unknown socio-economic phenomenon than a significant economic crisis.
Historically, it had no critical influence on the prosperity of the Dutch Republic,
the world's leading economic and financial power in the 17th century. Also,
from about 1600 to 1720 the Dutch had the highest per capita income in the
world. The term "tulip mania" is now often used metaphorically to
refer to any large economic bubble when asset prices deviate from intrinsic
values."
The collapse of Tuplip Mania is explained in following para:
"Tulip mania reached its peak during the winter of 1636–37, when some
bulbs were reportedly changing hands ten times in a day. No deliveries were
ever made to fulfil any of these contracts, because in February 1637, tulip
bulb contract prices collapsed abruptly and the trade of tulips ground to a
halt. The collapse began in Haarlem, when, for the first time, buyers
apparently refused to show up at a routine bulb auction. This may have been
because Haarlem was then suffering from an outbreak of bubonic plague. The
existence of the plague may have helped to create a culture of fatalistic
risk-taking that allowed the speculation to skyrocket in the first place; this
outbreak might also have helped to burst the bubble."
Along with this interesting phenomenon, the movie also spoke about
"East Indies". In this context we are talking about expeditions of
the Dutch to India and Asian countries of those times. Amsterdam merchants were
at the center of the lucrative East Indies trade, where one voyage could yield
profits of 400%.
"The Dutch East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie;
VOC) was an early megacorporation founded by a government-directed amalgamation
of several rival Dutch trading companies (voorcompagnieën) in the early 17th
century.[1][2] It was established on March 20, 1602, as a chartered company to
trade with India and Indianised Southeast Asian countries when the Dutch
government granted it a 21-year monopoly on the Dutch spice trade."
"United East India Company (VOC) was a successful early pioneer at the
dawn of modern capitalism. It was the first corporation to be listed on an
official stock exchange. It was influential in the rise of corporate-led
globalisation in the early modern period."
Both are very interesting subjects in themselves.
- Rahul Tiwary
Saturday, June 8, 2019
Thoughts: The Idea of Making Things Right
My flipflop (slipper) had got broken. I had a spare pair of flipflops
which lied near the door of the bathroom. But out of habit and comfort, I still
wore that broken flipflop that day for some time. At that time I was on the
bed. My little son came and saw the broken slipper lying near the bed. He
instantly said, "We should not wear broken slippers, papa". And then
he picks up the broken slipper, goes to the bathroom door, drops the broken
slipper and picks up one of the slippers from there which was not broken; and brings
it to me and leaves it near the old slipper. I was left amused.
What made the kid, who is such a baby, to try and make my slippers
"right". He not only had an idea that "we should not wear broken
slippers"; but when he saw me wearing one, he exchanged it with the
unbroken one to "make things right". At such an early age, he not
only has this wisdom to judge and differentiate between right and wrong but
also the inclination to go the extra mile, making hands dirty, and to make
things right.
I know all of us are "righteous" till some point in our life.
Then after going through the grind, in due course of time, most of us gradually
lose that sense of righteousness. Often when we see wrong things, we tend to
just "mind our own business" and walk away. And this tendency some
times ends up making life hell for a few people. Where are the good Samaritans
which civil society needs? Where are the role-model employees which all
organizations need; to inculcate the right values and realize their vision statements?
Someone said that the burden of improving this world lies on
"unreasonable" folks; who decide to "make a change" instead
of "minding their own business". I realize how right this statement
is. Looking at the experience with the kid, I am left impressed and also
hopeful. That our world will become better every passing day; until there are
people who make it better every passing day.
- Rahul Tiwary
कविताएँ :: मानव कौल
जूता
जूता जब काटता है
तब ज़िंदगी काटना मुश्किल हो जाता है।
जूता जब काटना बंद कर देता है
तब वक़्त काटना मुश्किल हो जाता है।
तब ज़िंदगी काटना मुश्किल हो जाता है।
जूता जब काटना बंद कर देता है
तब वक़्त काटना मुश्किल हो जाता है।
आश्चर्य
खिड़की से खड़े
पेड़ ताकते हुए
उस पेड़ को भूल जाना…।
लाल गर्दन वाली छोटी चिड़िया का उस पेड़ पर आना-बैठना-उड़ जाना…
पेड़ का उड़कर दृश्य में वापिस आ जाना है।
Friday, June 7, 2019
Society: On Selling Feminism as a Product
I happened to be watching a portion of a CNN interview of a feminist
play writer who was talking about her ideas of feminism and about her play. She
was of the opinion that women are often expected to behave in a certain manner
and this needs to stop. While speaking, she herself was blushing, laughing,
shying, being chatty - all traits someone could put into "feminine"
traits. But the question is, is that something which should make her ashamed
of? I don't think so. If her natural instinct asks her to be like that, she has
freedom to be like that. But if we go deeper, the reason she was behaving like
that was perhaps the traits she had picked up from other females including her
mother and other members of the community. That is the natural way kids pickup
behaviors and some of those behaviors stick with them for life. Is that
something wrong? Of course not. If the behaviors picked up by kids were not
aligned with their inner self, their natural self, then in due course of time
those kids would abandon those traits and go the way they want to go.
Therefore, a naturally extrovert kid who lived amongst introverts and hence
remained silent most of the time, can go back being extrovert at some stage of
her life when she gets the right environment. It is difficult to make someone
eat salty food for whole life if the natural instinct of the person dislikes it
and the person has a sweet tooth.
At some point, we should also think about why there are so many
writers, poets and journalists who are giving us so much free lessons on
feminism. But wait, are those lessons really for free? While pushing their
agenda, are they not trying to make us buy their newspapers, magazines, books
or watch their TV shows or movies? Looking from this angle, this whole feminism
business becomes a "marketing exercise".
I truly believe in the freedom of an individual. Each individual, be it
a man or a woman should have right to live his or her life with dignity, making
one's own choices. But beyond a level, these champions of a certain line of
feminism do not allow men and women to think or act on their own. When these
feminists teach us what not to be; they are in a way teaching us what to be -
and thereby violating the free spirit.
At some level, these feminist writers must also be mediocre and
insecure. Taking a parallel with politics; is this not true that only weak and
insecure politicians try to use people's caste, race or linguistic identity to
play a kind of "identity politics"? That is true; if Barack Obama
exerts his "black" ethnicity, he is trying to pass on the message to
all the black skinned people that they must not use their brains to decide
which candidate or party is better; but they should just vote for him due to
the singular reason that he is "black". This is how the divisive
identity politics works. And this is also the way these feminists try to swing
public opinion in their advantage.
I remember the time when a so called "feminist" Bollywood
movie called "Pink" was released in India. Women were hoarded inside
cinema theatre, there was a huge marketing campaign, and women were seen going
to the movie theatres wearing "pink". The movie's promoters had tried
to encourage the idea and pressurize women to believe that they must watch this
movie, not because it was a good movie, but just because it was a feminist
movie. It is obvious that if movie makers were able to sell this idea, they
would need not focus and work hard on the quality of the movie; they just had
to do more marketing. Therefore, such a trend to sell mediocre products in the
garb of feminism is a kind of dirty little business.
I truly believe that that people should be using their own conscience
to make their own decisions and these feminists are a kind of moral police who
try to control people's minds into making them think like they want them to
think. There is a saying that if you fight a demon long enough, you would
become a demon yourself. Similarly, radical feminists become just another kind
of species like male-chauvinists are. And women should be watchful to avoid
such radicals getting control of their minds.
- Rahul Tiwary
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Travelogue: Bhubaneshwar, Capital of Odisha
Bhubneshwar is the capital city of Odisha. It is a well organized, calm and decent city with good roads. Here are some of its pictures:
(Above) Outside view of Bhubneshwar Airport which was damaged to a large extent due to a recent cyclone. Even in this picture the structure can be seen damaged at several places. Restoration was in progress at the time of taking this picture.
(Above) Inside view of the first floor of Bhubneshwar's International Airport
(Above) Beautiful wall murals inside the airport
(Above) Zooming on the portion below the stairs, an artistic representation of sand, boat, sea shells, a tortoise and some birds can be seen
(Above) Splendid building of Police Commissionerate Office, Bhubaneshwar
(Above) A road junction near Nalco Chowk, Bhubaneshwar
- Rahul Tiwary
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Hinduism: Origin of Yoga And Lord Shiva
Here is an interesting article on the origin of Yoga and Lord Shiva.
There is something in Lord Shiva which makes Him relatable and relevant in all
aspects even in today's time and beyond. Amazing read:
Origin of Yoga And Lord Shiva in Hinduism
By Abhilash Rajendran Wednesday,
June 05, 2019
Yoga is believed to have been first taught by Hindu God Shiva and it
was compiled by Sage Patanjali. In Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma), Origin of yoga
begins with Lord Shiva’s unhappiness over the world created by Brahma.
Legend has it that Shiva was unhappy with the pain and suffering in the
world due to Maya. Shiva complained to Brahma about this. But Brahmadev was
proud of his creation and sprouted four heads to view it from all sides. He was
so proud that a fifth head popped out to watch His creation.
This enraged Shiva who took the terrible form of Bhairava and chopped
off the fifth head of Brahma.
Brahma complained that he did not create unhappiness or misery. It is
mind which is the result of all misery.
Shiva retorted that it was Brahma who created mind.
Brahma then answered that the mind can be controlled and enlightened.
The mind which is the cause of unhappiness, if controlled is the path to bliss.
Shiva soon realized that Maya had overpowered him. He felt remorse for
his anger and for the sin committed.
Shiva then went to Avimukta in Kashi and meditated on ways to control
the mind.
Finally he came with the secret of Yoga.
All living beings who were frustrated with the materialistic world and
sought to attain moksha crowded near Shiva.
Shiva as Dakshinamurti then unraveled the great cosmic truth.
Shiva first explained the main aim of yoga and then taught the physical
postures.
Shiva is believed to have showed 8, 40, 000 postures – each
representing a bird or animal.
Sage Patanjali compiled the teachings and saved it for the future
generation. Today a miniscule part of the original teaching is available.
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