- Rahul Tiwary
Monday, June 17, 2019
Saturday, June 15, 2019
Travelogue: Electric Buses in Pune
Pune now has air conditioned Electric Buses (in some routes of PCMC
area). 3 years ago there were no such buses.
India is changing...
- Rahul Tiwary
Travelogue: TCS in Pune
Some pictures from TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), Pune, Hinjawadi
Phase-3:
- Rahul Tiwary
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।
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