Camping at Arrowhead Provincial Park

We had a close encounter with nature at Arrowhead Provincial Park, Huntsville for four days. Arrowhead Provincial Park spreads to an area over 1,200 hectares in maple forest and has two beautiful lakes and rivers. We stayed at the park for from July 31st to Aug 3rd.

The site that we got at the park was large with huge trees all around. After reaching the site on 31st evening, Ankur and Anuj helped me to quickly setup two tents. Meanwhile, Savita (Ritu) warmed the food on a small electric hotplate that we ate before it became dark. One observation that fascinates me each time I go for camping is the experience or feeling of darkness that I can’t feel in the city. In the complete darkness, if one can manage to look at the sky through the trees, the stars look so beautiful.

Next day, our friends – Shirodker and Narayan families joined us at the camp. Their sites were next to ours. The kitchen was setup only at one site, so we used to cook and eat together. We also setup the badminton net at the site. Every night, we used to sit around a campfire, singing, talking and eating marshmallows heated on the fire. Daytime activities included hiking on trails through forest and along the lake, enjoying the sun on the beach and canoeing/kayaking in the lake and river. We also spent time at a beautiful waterfall on the East River. While we were leaving the waterfall area, we saw an accident where a canoe went down the waterfall. Fortunately, the occupants were able to get out safely and no one was hurt. I had my camera in my hand, and I was able to capture pictures of the canoe going down the fall.

We went to camping for the first time in 2000 at Lake Mara. This year is the 10th year of our camping, and to celebrate this occasion, we went for dinner to the East Side Mario restaurant, Huntsville.

We returned back to the city on August 3rd after enjoying a fun-filled vacation. To view pictures we took at the camp, click the following link.

My Writing Career and Mrs. Indira Gandhi

During the last 20 years, I have published several technical books in India. One person who really deserves a credit for my writing career is Mrs. Indira Gandhi, India’s Prime Minister. I never met her, though I did see her from distance during two public functions. I never liked her policies, and her policies indirectly pushed me into the writing career. In fact, it happened in steps – I started with drawing cartoons and then progressed to writing technical articles, and finally to books.


The story started in June 1975 when President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, declared a state of emergency upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. I was in high school at that time. We used to get the Indian Express, an anti Congress newspaper in our home. Because of its anti Congress and anti emergency writings, the publication of Indian Express was suspended during the emergency period. Since Indian Express was not available, my father switched to the Times of India newspaper.


One feature that was distinctly different in Times of India from Indian Express was the daily cartoon by R K Laxman. Though Indian Express also had a staff cartoonist Abu Abraham, his cartoons were more political in nature, where as Laxman’s cartoon were more geared toward common people’s life. I started liking Laxman’s cartoon, and soon developed an urge to draw cartoons.


In July 1976, after passing the school, I joined Pusa Polytechnic in the Electronics Engineering Diploma course. Though the Polytechnic was open to girls, in those days, they used to stay away from engineering courses. However, in Aug 1976, two girls joined our class. Both girls were the daughters of the staff working in Pusa Polytechnic. Because they were girls and daughters of the senior staff of the Polytechnic, they were given special treatment by lecturers as well as students. I noticed significant changes taking place in the class, which triggered my desire to express my views through cartoons. First I started drawing quick cartoons on my desk or the class blackboard during the gap between periods, and later moved to draw cartoons on paper and put those on the college notice board.

As you know, each cartoon has two components – the message and the characters. I used to get average marks in my drawing class in my school, so I had to struggle with drawing characters in my cartoons. For example, if I drew a dog in my cartoon, it looked like an animal from another planet. In fact, because of my poor drawing, once I was expelled from the Electrical Engineering class because the dog that I drew in my cartoon looked like buffalo. (I learnt later that students used to call that over-weight lecturer buffalo!) To improve my drawing skills, I bought a few cartoon books by R K Laxman and Sudhir Dhar, which used to give me idea about drawing characters in different moods. Slowly, my drawing capabilities improved and I got courage to approach newspapers and magazines with a request to have a look at my cartoons.



In 1978, I met Abu Abraham, Indian Express’ staff cartoonist in his office in New Delhi. I showed him a couple of cartoons. He gave me a few suggestions and kept a few cartoons for possible use in the newspaper. The newspaper editor found one of my cartoons on adult education suitable to go with an article on the adult education. So, that was my first cartoon published in the Sunday edition of a national newspaper. I was paid an honorarium of Rs. 50 (about 6 US$ at that time) for my cartoon, the highest so far all my published cartoons so far. Here is my first published cartoon.



After my first cartoon was published, a few more were published in Sarita and Women’s Era magazines.

This post is getting too long. I will write about the story of my articles and books some other day. I end this post by thanking Mrs. Indira Gandhi for pushing me into the wonderful world of writing.

CBS's 60 Minutes Program Features IITs

Just before the World War I, a person in USA decided to start a bank. He rented a small office and put the bank's sign on the outside wall. Next day, one customer came and deposited $100 in the bank. On the following day, another customer visited the bank and deposited $200. After two more customers deposited their money in the bank, the person who had started the bank thought that the bank was doing good business and decided to deposit his own $200 too in his bank! Many people feel good or secured when others express faith in them. On the same note, India's IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) are world class institutes for the study of engineering. However, we feel good when an outsider says so. Recently, IITs appeared on CBS Television's famous 60 Minutes program -- an interesting documentary worth watching. Here is the link to that program.  

Why dieting does not work?

On the New Year day, millions of people take a resolution to reduce weight and do dieting. Usually, the dieting resolution fizzles out before the first month of the year ends. And, countless people never bother to diet and continue to gain weight. I am confident that most people know that overeating and eating unhealthy food is bad for them and would lead to health problems sooner or later. Yet, most people don’t do anything to lose weight or not gain it in the first place. Let me rephrase the previous sentence – most people are helpless to do anything to keep their weight in check. And for the same matter, dieting programs too rarely have a lasting effect. Have you ever thought why we are unable to control what we eat? The reason – our brain has been conditioned to eat junk food!

 You would recall from your science books about the experiments Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, the Russian scientist, conducted on conditioned stimulus on a dog.  At the regular feeding time, Pavlov would ring a bell. After several repetitions, he observed that the sound of the bell alone, even without the food, was sufficient to stimulate the dog’s brain to release saliva from the salivary glands. In the same way, after watching advertisements for the junk food that is rich in fat, sugar and salt everywhere – on TV, magazines, billboards, grocery stores, restaurants – and watching others eating that unhealthy food all the time, our brain gets stimulated by not only the sight of the food, but even the thought of the food. The moment we see food, regardless of whether it is healthy or unhealthy, the first thought that comes to our mind is to move forward and taste it. The power of food comes from its feel, smell and image that activates the brain even before we taste the food. And, unhealthy food that is rich in fat, sugar and salt is usually tasty and therefore more powerful, and we continue to eat until the food is finished or we can’t eat any more. While eating the food, the question whether we are hungry or not does not come in our mind. And, even when we are not eating, we are continuously thinking about food – this is what I will eat in the evening, at night, tomorrow morning, and so on. Many Indian housewives spend most of the day cooking the food for the family.

 The power of food is so great, and our brain that has been conditioned for so many years is so week that our dieting resolutions rarely work. So, what can we do to conquer the power of food and to make our dieting plans work? Well, we have to recondition our brain! This is similar to an alcoholic or drug-addict person who is sent to a de-addiction centre for treatment, though we can win over the power of food while staying at home and without the need of any medication. From my experience, there are three steps involved in the process –

 

1. Truly accept that overweight/obesity is bad in the long run and will lead to bigger problems at the later stage.
2. Always remember and continuously remind your brain the kinds of food that are bad for the health. (Refer to good health book to know what kind of food is good for your health. In general, food stuffed with fat, sugar and salt is not good.)
3. Eat food at regular time and slowly decrease the amount you eat each time. (Don’t try to fool yourself by compensating reduced food intake by eating between meals!)

 The first step is very important. We can’t lose wait unless we really want to. The second step will help us to reinforce the first step. And, the last step will take us toward the goal. I will elaborate my experience with dieting using these steps. In 1980s when I started working, my mother used to pack my lunch box. Besides cooked vegetables and curd (yogurt), my lunch box was packed with 4 rotis (chapaties). One day I realised that I was gaining weight and concluded that this was not good for me. So, I decided to reduce the number of roties I used to eat during the lunch time. First, I reduced 4 roties to 3.5. After a few weeks, 3.5 roties were reduced to 3. After a few weeks, it changed to 2.5 and then to 2. During this process, I never felt that I was dieting or doing anything special. I have used the same technique again later in my lifetime with success.

 I would love to receive your views on this topic. Please feel free to post your comments. 

During the current time of financial meltdown, it is worthwhile to examine who the economy will flourish if people in different countries get two cows. I hope you would enjoy the following description.

TRADITIONAL ECONOMICS

You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies and the economy grows. You retire on the income.

SOCIALIST ECONOMICS

You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbour.

CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT ECONOMICS

You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbour.

REPUBLICAN ECONOMICS

You have two cows. Your neighbour has none. So what?

COMMUNIST ECONOMICS

You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. 

AMERICAN ECONOMICS

You have two cows. You sell one and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You profess surprise when the cow drops dead. You put the blame on some nation with cows. And naturally that nation will be a danger to mankind. You wage a war to save the world and grab the cows.

FRENCH ECONOMICS

You have two cows. Half of you go on strike because you want three cows. The other half paint the cows on different landscapes

GERMAN ECONOMICS You have two cows. You reengineer them so that they live for 100 years, eat once a month and milk themselves.

BRITISH ECONOMICS

You have two cows. They are both mad cows. You wait for the Americans to go to war; you join them in saving the world and get two sane cows of your own

ITALIAN ECONOMICS

You have two cows. You don't know where they are. You break for lunch.

SWISS ECONOMICS

You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you. You charge others for storing them.

ARAB ECONOMICS

You have 5000 cows, all of which belong to you. You call others to come and milk them You charge them for the permission to milk your cows and keep a portion of the milk You have a great economy Until the Americans decide to steal your cows to save the world.

INDIAN ECONOMICS

You have three cows. You are fiercely protective of the third cow which tends to walk over to your neighbour You think that the third is a gift from GOD But just in case you worship all three You do nothing with your cows but somehow the economy works. You thank the cows and continue to worship them.

PAKISTANI ECONOMICS

You have two cows. Your neighbour has three. You are sure that his third cow has wandered over from your side of the fence. You wage war for fifty years trying to recover it In the meantime your two cows die. Now you appeal to the UN for help to retrieve the cow

JAPANESE ECONOMICS

You have two cows. You redesign them so that they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create cute cartoon cow images called Cowkimon and market them worldwide.

RUSSIAN ECONOMICS 

You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 17 cows. You give up counting and open another bottle of vodka.

CHINESE ECONOMICS

You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity and arrest anyone reporting the actual numbers.

TERRORIST ECONOMICS

You have two cows. You don't know economy. Your two neighbours make money with their herds of cattle. All three of you started out with two cows. You tie a bomb round the neck of each of your cows and let them loose on the neighbours' herds. All is peaceful till the neighbours get prosperous again.

Why are we stressed?

After spending more than two weeks looking for a used car, finally we got a four year old Toyota Corolla. It is a clean car with no dents or scratches. Searching for a good used car was a frustrating experience for several reasons -- each member of the family had different preference for the make, model, age and colour of the car. It was like forming a collation government. Even after we have bought the car, we keep thinking about other choices we had, and whether we made the best choice. What is a best choice? A few hundred dollars cheaper or having a little more appealing interior/exterior or little more reliable? I am sure that with some patience, I could have found the so called better car for less price, however, is it worth getting the stress? One of the reason we are always stressed is that we always want to be best and want to have the best. And not only the best, it should be better than what my friends or relatives have. In 1980, I used to listen to an advertisement for Super Rin detergent cake on Indian radio -- भला उसकी कमीज़ मेरी कमीज़ से सफ़ेद कैसे है ? (Why is his shirt whiter than mine?)

A few days ago, I read another story that nicely explains why we get the stress unnecessarily.

A few young people went to visit their college lecturer. The conversation moved in all directions including stress in the daily life. After some time, the lecturer went to the kitchen and prepared tea for them. He brought the tea in a teapot and lot of cups on tray. The cups that the lecturer brought were of different kinds -- fine china, porcelain, plastic, glass, etc. After all students had picked up a cup and filled it with tea, the lecturer said, "If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal that you only want the best for yourselves, that is the source of problems and stress. What we wanted was tea, not the cup, but we unconsciously went for the better cups."

The lecturer further said, "Good tea may taste better in a good cup but a good cup does not make the tea better. Similarly, if Life is Tea, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold/maintain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. If we only concentrate on the cup, we won't have time to enjoy the Tea in it."

If you have a dream, go after it

Recently, I was sent a link to a very inspiring video that I would like to share. This is a story of 30 years old D J Gregory who was born with a medical condition known as Cerebral Palsy. D J Gregory was born with underdeveloped lungs and entangled legs and his parents were told by Doctors that he would never walk and would be in wheel chair for the rest of his life. Initially, DJ could only crawl, however, after a few surgeries, he first started walking with the help of a four wheel walker, and then with two crutches, and with single crutch and finally with a cane. DJ liked sports and started playing Golf. One day in 2008, he decided that he would walk every hole of every round of every Golf tournament of USA in 2008, and he achieved his goal. D J Gregory says, "If you have a dream go after it. Don't let any one tell you that you can't do it."

Click this link to watch the video.