Personal Subtitles

Wouldn’t it be great if people had subtitles? It would save people having to learn new languages. It would also be handy for those times when you’re having trouble understanding what someone is saying. Like Closed Captioning for real life. And if you lost your voice? No worries! Your personal subtitling would spell out everything you were trying to say!
I think it’s a wonderful idea. In fact, I propose that someone invent a device to do just this. I’ve already played my part by coming up with the idea. Surely there’s some brainiac out there with the necessary means to make personal subtitling happen.

On the down side, personal subtitling could land you in a lot of hot water. Like if you accidentally left your subtitling on while whispering to a colleague about what a tool your boss is. Or if you were playing Chinese whispers. And it’s probably not very helpful for people who can’t read. Or are dyslexic. Or for when you’re on the phone to someone you can’t understand.

Still, it would be useful a lot of the time. So I’m offering this invention idea for free. Tossing it out into the world wide web so that some techno boffin (I love that word!) can stumble across it and invent a truly useful piece of technology. I'd be particularly pleased if Apple were to come up with this little knick knack - not because I particularly like Apple products, but because they're the only company who could get away with calling it the 'iUnderstand'.

Who am I? - The bigger question of life

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer.

When a child is born, his brain is like an empty book. He starts filling the book based on what he sees around himself. He develops his personality based on the words in that book. As kids, everybody asks us: "What do you want to be when you grow up?". We all have our own answers. But, as we grow up, very few of us are able to be what we really wanted to be. Why, when as a child what seems possible, starts becoming a little more impossible every time, as we start growing up? As a child, I put a cloth on my shoulders, and I became the superman. Then, why becoming superman became impossible as I grew up? Probably, because my definition of superman has changed. Who changed it? The circumstances? The people around me. The people around me gave me their own definition of superman and the picture I had of superman in my mind altered and altered and altered - and suddenly, it was somebody I did not recognize. I became somebody I did not recognize.

There is a saying that "A tree that does not bend often breaks during storm". No matter how flexible the tree is, it still remains a tree. I was always told that we should be like water, that can fit in any container it is put in. No matter in which container it is put, water does not lose its identity. It is still what it is - water.

It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I AM NOBODY BUT MYSELF! I have defined myself and nobody else will ever do it for me now. I have my own picture of myself - the superman.

~PeAcE oUt~

Old is indeed gold

When I have some spare time to myself (which isn't often lately) there are two things that I enjoy doing.

I love to read. I'll read just about anything that's put in front of me. I love a good book more than anything else. I can find myself getting completely lost in them, losing track of time and just reading until I reach the last page.

The other thing I do when i'm relaxing on the couch after work is to play with my laptop. I'm completely addicted to it. Mostly it's scrabble or card games (pretty low-tech for such a high-tech device) and also a lot of web browsing and IM-ing.

Given these two uses of my time, one would think that the concept of a book that I can read on the laptop would be ideal! And, given the gadget-freak I am, and add to it - dying to try out new things, it was really only  a matter of time before I would give it a go. I wasn't much interested in the idea at first, because I spend my entire day at work reading things on the laptop screen, so the idea of coming home to do the same thing didn't really thrill me. But the idea of having any book I decided I wanted to read in a matter of seconds was something that did appeal to me. So after failing to find a book that I wanted at the local bookstore, I bit the bullet and arranged for it. Yes, you heard it right..I "arranged" for it. ;)

At first, it seemed kinda cool. I mean, reading on a brightly lit screen was a bit odd at first, but that aside, being able to change the font style and size was great. Not having to hold a book open while I lay in bed was also pretty great. I could read without moving a muscle, which is really what you want when you read.

But after a little while I began to miss the feel of the paper in my hands, and the satisfying feeling of flipping through the pages, watching the heavy side of the book move from the right to the left as I made my way towards the end.

Then I came across the biggest flaw in the entire e-book concept, something that would put me off e-Books altogether.  Something that no amount of touch screen and processor technology could overcome. It's the reason why e-books, or even ibooks will never replace the trusty old paperback. The reason that Sony, HP, Dell, even the iPad, the Kindle, the Nook will never ever take the place of beautifully bound sheets of paper with plain, black type.

After a particularly long and draining 11 hour work day, I came home and ran myself a nice hot bath. As I was preparing myself to get in, I realized that the ridiculously over-rated e-Book had left me in the lurch. When all I wanted to do was relax by soaking in a hot bubble bath and reading a good book, I found myself without anything to read - because you can't take a laptop into the bath with you.

A paper book - yes. Sure, it's not waterproof, but if you drop it in the water, you can still dry it out and use it again. At worst, you've ruined a 500rs. product. If you take a laptop into the bath with you and drop it in, no amount of drying can repair it. You will have killed a 40,000rs.(minimum) product by trying to use it in the way you would a regular book. You can't really take it into the bathroom with you at all.

So, Sony, HP, Lenovo, Dell, Apple - you may have invented a product that was not so long ago just a thing of science fiction books, but you haven't created the greatest product the world has ever seen. Because until you make that thing waterproof, it's just a toy that will never be as good as a couple hundred sheets of paper bound together.

After all, old IS gold..!!

~PeAcE oUt~

Creating a storm, but unable to bear the rain!

Today morning itself, I read it somewhere: "Some people create their own storm, but get upset when it rains". The moment I read it, I related myself with it. This is one of many other such incidences happening since the past couple of days. It's like the universe is trying to bring my own reality in front of me, so that I can see it as a third-person's point of view. As they say, "When you really want to do something, the whole universe will conspire for you to achieve it". Nobody told me what the dear universe will do when I really, badly don't want something to happen. If you answer it with this: "The universe will conspire for that thing not to happen", then either you are wrong, or the universe should really get its facts straight, because it is doing only those things nowadays, which I really, badly don't want to happen.

Anyway, enough of universe stuff. The real thing here is: I am getting affected by a new symptom, a disease or whatever word from the dictionary you chose and call it. It is something that is unpleasant. Really, really, really unpleasant. There is a thing called "Midas touch". I am having just the opposite of that. I touch, and things screw up. In fact, it's even worse. I don't even touch, just the thought is enough to mess up things. Should I call it an "Anti-midas touch" or a "You-das touch"??? Anyway, I know I am in a really screwed up state of mind right now, and before I start seeing hands emerging out of my laptop screen to slap me, I should stop all this.

This usually happens to me. I go out as a very strong person, thinking whatever has to happen, will happen. I'll manage. But the fact is, the moment things start to go out of order, the loser in me strikes back again, who starts bothering about what people are thinking of me, why they are pissed off with me, what should I do to make them happy - there it is, I said it - to make THEM happy - and then, my actions start getting influenced by my thoughts. I start doing things to make others happy, not myself. 

While I was writing this article, suddenly, from somewhere a mail came flying in my mailbox, which said, "Success is not about being the best and winning the race. It's about facing the worst, and still finishing". That's what I am trying to do here - no matter how tough things are, I DO NOT want to QUIT. 

This was like a drop of rain in the desert. It suddenly opened my eyes, and I began to saw the immense love dear mother universe has for me. It is, indeed, trying to do what I badly want. I want to overcome this negative side of my persona - where the loser in me strikes back the moment the equilibrium of things start to disbalance - and that's what it is giving me - opportunities to improve myself!! 

~PeAcE oUt~

BaCk AfTeR hAlF a YeAr..!!

Whoaa...what is happening..?? I am coming back to write after like 6 months and 9 days to be precise..probably the writer in me is waking up again..!!

Seems it will take time for me to be back in the flow..keep waiting..!!