.....and , so, it happens in life......

Finally done with Common Internal Assessment Test - I for semester - 01 in MBA.

Feeling highly stressed!

A small voice inside me still says "No Hema, this is not even the beginning, and not even the end of beginning; Miles to go before you sleep, and Miles to go before you sleep."

For the first time ever since I started studying under Anna University Affiliated Institutions syllabus, this is the very first semester that i am facing papers that are all theory and not even a single practical paper.

People will think I am kidding if I say that MBA's theoretical papers are very simple, as my parents always say, but as I have experienced, simple things are the most difficult to mug-up and reproduce, but very easy to understand and answer.

I am determined that what may come, I will complete my Post - Graduation because , as of now an MBA is all I would love to have after B.E., next to my name.

There are future academic plans in my mind after MBA, but I do not even wanna think about all those and waste the precious and valuable "this moment" in life.

Thank God for all the blessings that I am enjoying in life!!!

Jai Sri Ram!!!

My passion changed with paradigm shift

What a morning! The sky is not full of stars but it is full of heavy water-laden clouds, ready to pour down as rain anytime.
Happy to say that i am starting such a cold October morning with a hot cup of coffee in my hand and reading my favourite subject in 1st semester MBA, Accounting for Management.
Oh! What a feeling? Is it happiness (or) satisfaction (or) the peace of mind that i feel?
Only God knows!

MY PASSIONS DURING DIFFERENT AGES IN MY LIFE SO FAR

(0 - 5) Gardening and hence comes the word "Botany"
(5 - 10) I was in love with my elder sister
(10 - 15) History and Geography
(15 - 20) Astrology , Archeology & Aeronautics
(20 - 25) MBA , photography & writing blogs

So, as i got grown - up and matured, there was paradigm shift in my mind which was influenced by many other external factors, some of which are too personal to share in my blog.
Only my family knows everything about these external factors.

(0 - 5) GARDENING AND HENCE COMES THE WORD "BOTANY"

When i was a child doing kindergarten, i never used to study and i always spent time at home not watching Cartoon Networks either. But i had a rather strange habit. We did not have a very big garden at all. But we had something small enough to be called as garden. We lived in a rented house, and so were stolen the opportunity to expand this small garden, because if we do, we cannot live there anymore. I still remember how bad i was at geography those days, that i used to visit garden only to dig out the soil as deep as possible, so that, if i had dug out deep enough, i was under the notion that i can see stars, moon and the night sky and the entire cosmos under the soil. See how bad i was @ geography in those days. Blimey! This natural interest in digging out the soil, slowly drifted towards plants and i started studying all the parts of the plants without even knowing their names. I collected seeds (mostly neem seeds) and i sow them into the soil, water it regularly and man, i know that neem was a Dicotyledon even before my Botany mam has taught me in Class 7.Skoal!

(5 -10)I WAS IN LOVE WITH MY ELDER SISTER

This was the most difficult period of my life, because my elder sister, who was like another mother for me, left home to pursue her career in medicine. I loved her a lot and i still love her. But since I was a kid, that made things simple for me. I did not go through what was called depression and all those stuffs. My parents were there for me, and my studies kept me occupied. Once in a couple of weeks, she used to visit home, and I still remember those days when she was doing I - yr Medicine, I took out her Anatomy record notebook and scribbled in all the pages with my pencil. Poor girl, she has submitted it without even checking it, and got nice scolding from her Anatomy Professor. But she proved she was studious. She got a bronze medal in her first year in Physiology. My father was very proud and i was a bit jealous. :/

(10 - 15) HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY

O my favourite Geography! How can i forget those days, that we lived together as a book and a student? lol. :D . I was really mad at Geography, because i think i have already told you how my notion of the earth was when i was at kindergarten. The earth was no more flat, after i read geography. The sky and the stars that I was searching for was no more under the soil, but it was in the oposite direction, straight above my head, after reading geography. Geography made me look up at the sky and wonder at the stars and moon and not searching for them in the places where earthworms lived. There was a paradigm - shift in my mind as I read geography more and more. I loved the change and I enjoyed every bit of it. When I was a kid, (still living in that rented house with my family), one nice day , my father, gathered entire family and all our attendants with our immediate neighbour's family on the terrace and he held a binocular and we all were waiting for something to happen in the sky patiently. It was the day of Halley's Comet which happens once in 75 years. I saw the comet through the binoculars and so was everyone. That was a great thing in my life, as it had sown the seeds for interest in Astronomy in the later days.

(15 - 20) ASTROLOGY , AERONAUTICS AND ARCHEOLOGY

As I have said before, Halley's Comet has sown the seeds in my mind for Astrology. The thing with me is that, if I get attracted towards something, I will never leave it , until I am satisfied with it after gaining sufficient knowledge about it. And so was the case here. Archeology --> It all started with me reading an article about the Egyptian mummies in Siruvarmalar and watching the Blockbuster Hollywood Hit "The Mummy". I started my research. I read more and more, Howard Carter -  Tutankamun's curse , Tutankamun's tomb , paraohs , Cleopatra , Nefertiti and Akanethan , The Great Pyramids of Giza , The Cradle of Egyptian Civilization the Nile and more and more and more. Recently, my sisy while coming from Scotland, had brought a miniature statue of Tutankamun's coffin. When I told her that having something negative like this inside the house, is not a good omen, she replied, "Donot be so superstitious papa! Let me keep it inside Pooja room, so that whatever bad vibrations that it creates will be nullified by God". So, I let it go.

Aeronautics--> This is something which I got attracted to purely by myself. There were days in my life when all I wanted was to become an aeronautical engineer or a pilot. I was deeply obsessed with flights and aeroplanes. I still think they are cool. The first chapter in my std XI English book was about Kalpana Chawla which added fuel to the fire inside me.Then, there was a paradigm shift once more.

(20 - 25) MBA , PHOTOGRAPHY & BLOG WRITING

Omg!!! The coffee has become cold and I have lots in Accounting to catch up with. See you all later. Bye!

THE "MAGIC" IS TAKING ITS TOLL ON ME?! :)

Happy! Happy! Happy!
Be Happy and make others also Happy!
Read Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret" , "The Magic" and "The Power" , while working with TCS.
The most happening , life - changing books they are.
OMG!!! Man I can't believe how much these books have changed my life, when practiced strictly.
IT WORKS!!!

But I had one thing pricking my mind always, all these many years. It is that i do not possess a Gratitude Stone.
I had a chance to visit Singapore, even there i cannot find one as described in the book within my budget.
I felt sad and completely lost.

My sister bought this silver-plated chain for me from London, which has a single large oval shaped white stone (which looks more or less like a pearl) pendant in it. I was using it for the past 7 years.

Yesterday, all of a sudden, when i was arranging my wardrobe, i came across this chain and my longing for the Gratitude Stone striked my mind like a flash.

"I GOT IT!" I screamed in my mind, and took it out and touched it to feel the Blessings from the Almighty.
Hah! It was with me all these years, only thing is that i could not recognize it. I was having this chain even before i started reading the book.

Good, that my version of Gratitude Stone came in the form of a chain, so that i can wear it and whenever i look at myself in the mirror, it makes me recollect all those "magical" stuffs that i had read in that book.
Thus it makes my life even more magical and it feels great to possess a Gratitude Stone!

Thanks God!!!!

People Madness!!! :P

People are imperfect!
God has created them like that, and we cannot change them.
Nobody on the earth is perfect.
Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses.
We cannot try to change them.

Scientists say that human beings finger prints are unique and two human beings are born with the same pattern of finger - prints. Even identical twins have different finger - prints and tongue - prints.
Similar to finger - prints , tongue - prints are also unique for all.

Recently, while i was chatting with a friend, who felt low and depressed, just to console her, me and one other best friend of mine were telling her jokes to cheer her up. I told her the well known example about the way the five fingers in our hand look like.....

Me: Hey Buddy! Just look at the way God has designed the five fingers in your hands. They are all different.
       They differ in length, thickness and purpose. But have u ever noted that all these different five fingers        always work together in creating a beautiful art or rangoli or a beautiful story while writing. Similarly, the world is made up of different people who work together forgetting their differences to create harmony and peace in the world. That is how the equilibrium (probably that is what physicists call as dark energy / Gibbs free energy in the cosmos) is always maintained in this universe. And you have to accept it, because we have no power to change it.
Other friend : Hey Hema! Your example sounds very childish!
Me : Ok friend, then u give some other example which will convey the same news in a far better way than mine.
Other friend : Give me some time ,  I will think and let you know.
 (FYI, It has been weeks, since i have last heard from her about this topic. Whenever I start talking with her about this, she will make it a point to change the topic immediately.)

I just stopped asking her about this after sometime. Because, she is very good friend of mine that i dont want to loose her for the sake of winning an argument.
I remembered an old adage which says "YOU MAY WIN AN ARGUMENT WITH YOUR FRIEND, BUT YOU WILL LOOSE THEIR FRIENDSHIP". I always argue with all my acquaintances of my age, but never with my close buddies.

Life teaches so many people, many different things. I have also learnt so much in life to share in my blog.
Finally, "Men may come. Men may go, but I go on forever"

Your comments are the most precious stuffs for me as far as my blog is concerned.
Posting your valuable comments is highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
See you after sometime!

SECRETS ABOUT THE COSMOS HIDDEN IN THE VEDAS

The structure of the universe and its entire physics has been described in detail in many Hindu scriptures like Srimad Bhagavatam and vedas dating back to thousands of years still not precisely traceable to historians!

CREATION OF UNIVERSE

According to Srimad Bhagavatam, the total life of the universe is 100 universal days and 100 universal nights where each universal day/ night lasts for 4,320,000,000 earth years. Two types of recreation are described.
1.Partial recreation
2. Total recreation
After each universal day, partial dissolution takes place which starts a universal night. After this universal night is over, partial recreation occurs starting another universal day and so on. Total destruction of the universe takes place after 100 universal nights and days in which all planetary systems collapse.

PLANETARY SYSTEMS

According to vedic cosmology, there are 14 planetary levels in our universe which in descending order are:
1. Satyaloka
2. Tapaloka
3. Janakloka
4. Maharloka
5. Svarloka
6. Bhuvarloka
7. Bhurloka
8. Atala
9. Vitala
10. Sutala
11. Talatala
12. Mahatala
13. Rasatala
14. Patala
Srimad Bhagavadam tells that the earth is located in the Bhurloka planetary level and in the Bhumandala planetary system.
The Bhumandala planets are divided into 7 subdivisions.
From a vast distance, the Bhumandala planetary system looks like a disk.
Below the 14 planetary levels , a planet called Pitriloka is located and below the Pitriloka planet is the Narakloka planetary system(hell) which has further 27 sub divisions containing hundreds of thousands of planets more.
It isstated that the consciousness level of the souls that are sent to the Narakloka is shrinked to extreme low levels.

THE SUN AND ITS ORBIT

Bhagavadam allows us to calculate the exact age of Sun and its life span. The sun manifested 155,521,960,853,098 years ago (taking 1990 as the present year) and will dissolute after 155,518,039,146,902 years from now.
During its life span, partial dissolutions take place periodically at which it cools down and its light diminishes. The last partial dissolution occured 6,280,853,098 years ago and the next one will take place after 2,359,166,902 years from now.
Bhagavatam 5.21,8-9:  People living in countries at points diametrically opposite to where the sun is first seen rising, will see sun setting and if a straight line were drawn from the point where the sun is at midway, then people in countries at the opposite end of the line would be experiencing midnight and vice versa.
This tells that the spherical nature of planets were known hundreds of years back before people like Thales, Aristotle proposed the flat structure of the earth.
Bhagavatam 5.21.19:  In its orbit through Bhumandala, the sun traverses a distance of 95,000,000 yojanas (ancient Indian measurement unit)at the speed of 2000 yojanas and two krosas in a moment.
When converted, the traversing distance becomes 760,800,000 miles and the speed of completion of one revolution comes out to be 16,004 miles per second which is very close to modern scientific calculations.

THE MOON AND ITS ORBIT

The Surya Siddhanta or the book on vedic cosmology informs that the diameter of the moon = 2,400 miles and the circumference of its orbit = 1,620,000 miles.
Bhagavatam 5.22.8:  Moon travels at a speed faster than that of the sun. In two lunar fortnights the moon travels through the equivalent of a year of the sun, in two and a quarter days it passes through a month of the sun, and in one day it passes through a fortnight of the sun.

SPACE TIME THEORY

Vedic physics states that time is a subtle energy or force which is manifested before the cosmic manifestation. Time moves the unmanifest material energy and controls the movements in the universe. Without the manifestation of time, the unmanifest material energy cannot become active and take form. Only after the time fluctuations agitate the unmanifested material energy does the cosmic manifestation begin!
Bhagavatam 3.11.4:  Elementary time is measured according to its covering of a particular elementary space. That time which covers the unmanifest aggregate of the elementary particles is called the great time.
The space time web structure is clearly evident from the above statement pointing out to the existence of 4 dimensional Euclidean geometry. Note that the concept of great time ( time irrespective of the reference taken ) is also mentioned here.

TIME DILATION

Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity results in time dilation for inertial systems.
Bhagavatam 9.3.30 - 32 narrates how one spaceman went to the highest planetary system due to an urgent situation in panic and stayed there for 20 minutes. When he returned to earth, 116,640,000 years had passed by on earth. He neither found his friends, relatives or sons, grandsons. He could not find a record of their family tree!

TIME MEASUREMENT AND CALCULATION

Bhagavatam 3.11.5 - 6: The division of gross time is calculated as follows - two elementary particles make one double particle, and three double particles make one hexaparticle. The time duration needed for the integration of three hexaparticle is called a truti, and 100 trutis make one vedha. Three vedhas make one lava. It is calculated that if a second is divided into 1687.5 parts, each part is the duration of one truti, which is the time needed for the integration of eighteen elementary particles.
The duration of three lavas = 1 nimesa, the combination of 3 nimesas = 1 kasana. 5 kasanas together combined make one kastha, and 15 kasthas make one laghu.
Bhagavatam 3.11.8 : Two laghus = two minutes. 15 laghus make one nadika, which is also called a danda. Two dandas make one muhurtha , and 6 dandas make one fourth of a day or night.
Bhagavatam 3.11.10 : It is calculated that there are four praharas, which are also called yamas, in the day and four in the night of the human being. Similarly, 15 nights are a fortnight, and there are two fortnights ina month.
Bhagavatam 3.11.11 - The aggregate of two fortnights is one month. The duration of life of a human being is said to be 100 earth years. One day and night on Satyaloka planetary system =8,640,000 years on earth.
Bhagavatam 3.11.8 - The Universe exists in time cycles. Four time periods during each cycle of the universe are
1. Satya yuga
2. Treta yuga
3. Dvapara yuga
4. Kali yuga
Bhagavatam 3.11.19 : The duration of these periods is given in terms of years of devas ( inhabitants of higher planetary systems ).
1 year of devas = 360 years of human beings.
Duration are thus as follows:
1. Satya yuga = 4800 * 360 = 1,720,000 earth years
2. Treta yuga = 3600 * 360 = 1,296,000 earth years
3. Dvapara yuga = 2400 * 360 = 864,000 earth years
4. Kali yuga = 1200 * 360 = 432,000 earth years
We are currently living in the second half of kali yuga.

BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

Vedic evolutionary theory differs from the Darwinian in that the coommon ancestor is a super intelligent humanoid, not a single-celled bacterium. In addition, all species evolve from a complex form to the simple structure and not vice versa. Genes of complex species contain all the necessary genetic information to build genes of simpler species. In addition, vedas describe another type of evolutionary process : that of Consciousness!
The units of consciousness within the bodies of all species are indestructible. These individual units are qualitatively identical with each other, yet display a certain range of powers and abilities based upon the particular characteristics of the physical form they inhabit. During the evolutionary process, the imperishable conscious units transmigrate from lower to higher species for example ape to man. Thus vedic literatures describe the evolution of forms descend from higher to lower and the evolution of consciousness ascend from lower to higher!

NATURE OF MATTER

Bhagavatam states that matter exists in two conditions:
1. manifest condition
2. unmanifest condition
When matter is transformed to a manifest condition, the universe is created and when the universe is annihilated, matter is transformed back into its unmanifest condition.
According to the second law of thermodynamics, the entropy of an isolated system always increases. The entropy is a physical quantity which measures the degree of disorder of a system. It is a common experience that entropy of a system must always increase if a system is left alone.
One can create order out of disorder, but that requires expenditure of effort or energy and so decrease the amount of energy available. Thus, for matter to be ordered, requires a conscious being! Without a conscious being behind matter, matter's only tendency is to increase disorder. This tendency of the universe to expand comes from the conscious being who activates matter by injecting consciousness into it!

DIMENSIONS OF UNIVERSE

According to vedic physics, space inside our universe is multi - dimensional. There are 64 main dimensions and each dimension is further divided into many sub-dimensions. Since the inhabitants of earth can perceive 3 dimensions, their senses have no access to many other realms of universal reality!!
It is said that through the ancient process of yoga ( specifically kriya yoga ) , one can obtain access to many other dimensions. When a yogi obtains access to other dimensions, he can perform unusual activities!
A yogi can achieve 8 mystical perfections. Each perfection gives him access to 8 additional dimensions. Thus by achieving all 8 perfections, a yogi obtains access to all the 64 (8*8) dimensions making his body unaffected by space time bound physical laws!

Excerpts taken from COMPARATIVE COSMOLOGY by AKIF MANAF J.

LOVE FOR GRAND DAUGHTER!!!

Every weekend, it has become an inevitable work for my parents at home to see their sweet grand daughter Diya Harinath Pillai through Skype. They get so much involved that they often forget what is happening around them!

Diya is a lovely little angel born on November-21-2011 to my elder sister.

I cannot understand how it feels for my parents whenthey see their grandchild through skype.

The sort of love they have for their grand daughter cannot be measured.

Singapore :) :) :)

It feels awesome to write a new post in my blog after a really long break.
One fine Monday morning as i was reading "Education Plus" which comes along with every monday issue of "The Hindu", i came across this ad from NUS (National University of Singapore).
I was working with TCS at that time and this ad is actually a "call-for" for all experienced IT professionals to pursue M.Tech in either Software Engineering or Knowledge Engineering in Institute of Systems Science (ISS), a subsidiary organisation of NUS which functions independently.

They asked us to come for an overview session about the course on a sunday morning at a 5 star hotel in T.Nagar, followed by which we had entrance exam for the above courses in the same hotel.

I attended the exam. To put it in black and white, i am not at all satisfied with my performance. The list of selected candidates for interview was released at the same night around 9:00p.m. I remember every moment of it, the nervousness i had was unforgettable.

I was expecting a positive outcome very much because, i took a whole week leave from TCS to prepare for this entrance exam. I cracked the exam. I had interview within the next three days.

My sister who was in India helped me in preparing my SOP. I performed well in the interview. By God's grace, i got the offer letter from NUS ISS to pursue M.Tech in Software Engineering within the next month.

On October-2-2012, i resigned my job with TCS.
I was eagerly preparing myself to live a happy life in Singapore.
Thus the Singapore era began in my life.
CLICK HERE TO KNOW ABOUT THE PROGRAMME.