Thursday, July 15, 2010

Survive without food and water- FOREVER!

Yes, surviving without food and water is not impossible if some cases are to be believed. Some of you might be aware of "Inedia" or "Breatharianism" where people believe that food and water are not necessary.

There have been many examples of people who have claimed it.- Jasmuheen (born Ellen Greve), Wiley Brooks, Hira Ratan Manek and the one case I am interested in- Prahlad Jani (also called Mataji) who claims he hasn't had anything for 70 years now and has never fallen ill!

comments (0)

Save our tigers

Tiger- perhaps the most majestic animal on the face of the planet, India's national animal is in danger.
Though India is home to the world's largest population of tigers in the wild and according to the World Wildlife Fund, of the 3,500 tigers around the world, 1,400 are found in India but it has come down from 40,000 at the start of the century. This is why it is alarming. World Wildlife Fund for Nature has released its list of the world's 10 most in demand species being bought, sold, smuggled, killed or captured for trade purposes and tiger heads this list. In India right from earlier time, the tiger has been one of the Big Five game animals of Asia. Tiger hunting took place on a large scale in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, being a recognised and admired sport by the British in colonial India as well as the maharajas and aristocratic class of the erstwhile princely states of pre-independence India!

Some interesting facts about the tiger below.......

comments (0)

Weird, funny keywords for my blog!

After quite some time, a post from me. The 49th post! And this is inspired by few discussions with my friends on BC (Blog Catalog). For those of you who don't know, BC is a great place for bloggers to hang out and participate in discussions. Sometimes for knowledge, sometimes just for fun.

In that there was one discussion about the key words or the phrases that people type into Google or other search engines and from there arrive at your blog. For those of you who want to know how to find this out, there is one application called Google Analytics. If you get decent traffic or visitors to your blog, it is a good thing to have, to find out from where people are arriving at your blog, through what search engine etc. You have to put its code in your blogger HTML code and it tracks your blog and its statistics..lots of it like the number of visitors and many more.

So here are a few of the funny or weird searches through which people arrived on my blog. Sometimes it is not even clear how that particular search could have made those people land up on your blog!.......

comments (0)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Animal Faceoff

If the most deadliest creatures on the planet were ever to confront each other in the wild, which predator would win the ultimate battle? Many of nature’s deadliest confrontations are never seen and some of the mightiest beasts are destined never to meet - until now!

comments (0)

Fun with Google and other sites

I wonder if you have noticed this before in Google, since we all use it so frequently, while entering something in Google for search, it gives some suggestions and that is what I am going to put here. It is funny to see what kind of things people are generally looking for!

Here are the funny Google searches in order-

comments (0)

Solve Rubik's cube without any external help

* Even if you don't have a Rubik's cube, you can use a Java virtual Rubik's cube HERE

What I am giving here won't be the fastest way to solve a Rubik's cube, you won't need to understand the whole mechanics but neither will you have to refer to anything or need external help after this help of mine of course! This is for those who can solve a bit of the cube, not whole or those who can do it by following a lot of algorithms from somewhere. With this, you will be able to solve the whole cube and only remembering a few easy algorithms.

comments (0)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

10 interesting incidents with me

Here are 10 interesting things that I have done, or have happened to me, worth telling -

( Not in any particular order)

1. Once in class 6th (grade) during examination, by mistake I was given the question paper of class 7th. Though a bit surprised initially, I nevertheless started writing the paper till the time the invigilator realized his mistake and took away that paper - shocked!

2. Once, for some reason, I was there with a friend and I wanted to come back home leaving him behind. I was on a small scooty type "Sunny" and he was on a bicycle and he too followed me and thus we raced ahead at full possible speed through the busy street, not slowing down even at turns, surprisingly and thankfully without any mishap.

3. Once I got some mouth ulcers and was unable to eat properly and was frustrated at it. I suddenly decided to have all my food in liquid form! So I had all the things- chapatis ( Indian flat bread)+ vegetables + rice + dal( Pulses- lentils) + mix vegetable raita + butter milk and whatever else was there put through the mixer and drank it all at once!

4. Once when I was on the terrace of my home, studying, suddenly out of nowhere, I felt as if someone had put a huge load on my head. I looked up and saw that it was a kite bird ( like eagle), it had landed on my head! It was quite huge and it was flying above me. Again suddenly it came, landed on my head and took off (as they pick up their prey) now I was quite confused and bewildered and was trying to see where it was and out of nowhere, it came for the third time and did the same! I came down after that. I still don't understand it!

5. This is not something big or funny but I find it somewhat surprising. At my home, my father was reversing the car and I was just directing from outside and a wheel of the car went over my foot. Though it wasn't a very big car, still I didn't feel anything, neither was I hurt at all. Surely, cars are quite heavy & might break bones if they go over, but nothing really happened to me. Not even a bruise!

6. Quite a few years ago when I was just a small child, a monitor lizard- kind of similar to Komodo dragon came into our home on the 3rd floor! It came inside and went in my room. I said to my mother as per my understanding that a 'great lizard' had come inside. My mother thought that it must be the common house lizard or the house gecko which must be a little bigger and didnot take it seriously which I didnot understand why and kept repeating it. Little did she know and we got the fright of our lives and somehow managed to get rid of it!

7. This too isn't something big, but in school, I was in the class and the teacher was dictating notes and we were taking them down. The teacher lost track of how much had been dictated and thus wanted to see and since at that time, she was near me, she tried to see my notes. Suddenly my eyes fell on a mistake that I had done and since I was considered quite a good student, I feared that if the teacher sees that, she will scold me so I just bravely put my hand across my notes to prevent the teacher from seeing it and she was again and again trying and asking me to let her see them and she sure was utterly bemused at my behaviour!

8. Once again as a small child, I once decided that I wanted to meet and see God and having been brought up on Indian mythology and spirituality and having heard great stories of people who had done lot of hard penences and things like that after which God appeared, I decided to do the same. So what I did was pulled up the skin on my forearm and twisted it and held it for some hours till the time my parents came back from their clinics and my mother rushed and asked me what I was doing and stopped me saying such things don't happen.

9. This might not sound too great but after the final exams of class 7 when we had summer vacation, me and my friends decided to walk all the way from school to home which was around 10 kms or 6.2 miles. The thing is, in the summers the temperatures are around 44 degrees C or 111 degrees F which could be quite dangerous and we went around plucking mangoes from the trees and various things and no wonder, I fell quite ill afterwards!

10. The last one is really surprising and funny. I don't think it must have happened to anyone. Once I washed my hair with shampoo ........or at least what I thought was shampoo. But it turned out that my mother had kept the Phenyl- basically a floor cleaner in the shampoo bottle. No wonder I thought the shampoo wasn't working and I did go to school after that but I came back soon halfway through the school as I developed flakes on the scalp or perhaps dandruff and just washed my head- this time with real shampoo and only then I could relax!

This was my list. Which one do you think is the funniest? And if you have something similar, interesting, do write that too. Would be interested to know what weird things people do or happen to them!

comments (0)

Survival Lessons

I have always loved Discovery Channel and some of the shows there are truly fantastic. Many of them are my favourites. I shouldn't be alive, Man vs wild are just a few of them which can teach you a lot and also inspire you. Thus, with the reference of Discovery channel, here, I am going to tell you a few survival lessons. You never know when you might need them.


IN THE JUNGLE :

1. Landing in quicksand- Lay a pole on the quicksand surface, flop on your back onto the pole, and pull out your legs!

2. Finding direction- Point the hour hand of a watch towards the sun. South direction is between that and the 12 digit on the watch as the north-south line runs halfway between the hour hand and the 12.

3. Giant python attacking from over-hanging branch- Slash at its eyes and nose. They have hard heads - Just hitting with something won't help.

4. Crossing a roaring river- Use a pole as a rudder and deflector, & make it across the river.

5. Coming across a wild dog- Never run away or display submissive behaviour in this case. Charge/yell suddenly! You'll scare the dog back into jungle. Dogs are pack animals & submit to dominant behaviour.

6. Venomous bite by spider- Use the belt as a tourniquet to slow the spread of venom and hope the rescue party has anti-venom. If you make incisions across the bite site & suck out the venom, you may reabsorb the venom through tiny lacerations in your mouth while sucking out the poison blood and applying clay-rich dirt doesn't leach out the venom either.

SNOW SURVIVAL :

1. While hiking, you come across a bear- Don't try to run & climb a tree. Clicking jaws indicate the bear is on the hunt. You can't outrun a bear & most are also good climbers. Trying to stare down a bear won't work. It sees it as aggressive behaviour and attacks, instead display submissive behaviour like dropping in the fetal position & show the bear you are not a threat.

2. Dehydration- If you have corn chips, the oil in the corn chips burns, even in wet, windy conditions thus you can make fire to melt the snow into water.

3. Hunger- If you have nothing else for food but have a wallet and the leather is thin enough to chew, it can be eaten. Yes leather can be eaten..cooked or if not possible, directly, Other foods for survival when there is no food available- tree barks- Some of the most popular edible choices would be aspen, birch, willow, maple, and pine trees, insects - crickets, grasshoppers, ants, caterpillars, worms etc and even chewing on grass is a great way to get some added nutrients into a starving body. Do not eat the grass. Just chew on it to get the juices out and spit it out.

4. White-out Blizzard- Most blizzard deaths are caused by disorientation. Lay out the rope pointing in the direction you were heading and dig a snow cave. After the storm, you pull up the rope and follow the direction

5. Again dehydration- If you are thinking snow is frozen water and there's TONs of it & pop some in your mouth & drink, it actually dehydrates you. It lowers body temperature further & you come close to hypothermia. You can fill the empty chips bag with snow & stick it inside your clothes to melt it but the bag should be 2 layers away from skin. Or you can fill the bag with snow and urinate on it to melt the snow too though it's not the best choice.

6. A monster avalanche while hiking through a valley - Ditch your equipment and make swimming motions as the wave lifts you. It helps you keep you on top of the "wave" and cover your mouth to clear breathing room.


AT SEA :

1. Boat sinks- If you have to pick up only one nearby item, pick a sweater. Most lost-at-sea scenarios end in hypothermia, even in warm climates. Wool insulates, even when wet.

2. For water- When you look at the port side & see several items floating by, and you have to pick something for water, pick up Tarp. It rains often in the tropics now you have the means to collect rain and dew/condensation and can use it for shade and sweat less/ retain water.

3. Protection from Sun- When you are getting dangerously cooked out there, you can use motor oil. The raft's engine has heavy weight motor oil, viscous enough to provide protection from the sun- it can act as a sun screen so you can slather up.

4. Sharks- Use a wooden oar. As scouts approach, you can whack them on the nose with the oar sending them to hopefully distant hunting grounds. If you use a spear or knife to stab the shark, the blood in the water will create a feeding frenzy and you will be knocked out of the raft and devoured.

5. Lack of water- Even if you have been collecting water and it is not enough, you can use a fishing pole. Fish have potable aqueous fluid. You can slice the fish in half, drink the liquid along the spine, and suck the liquid out of the eyes. Gross but anything for survival!

6. Reaching an island - Don't paddle the raft in. Landing on islands is very difficult and dangerous. The breakers can capsize your raft and shred you on the razor sharp coral. If you swim in with raft in tow, the raft may slow and distract you and the deadly wave may smash you on the reef. You should go to the other side of the island. The side of the island not exposed to waves will have safer approaches/landing sites.

- In the sea, if you run out of fresh drinking water and are tempted to drink sea water, it is not a good idea. Drink sea water & your metabolism very quickly goes into crisis. From every cell, water molecules rush off to try to dilute and carry off the sudden intake of salt. This leaves the cells dangerously short of the water (dehydrated) they need to carry out their normal functions. In extreme situations, dehydration will lead to seizures, unconsciousness, and brain damage. Meanwhile, the overworked blood cells carry the salt to the kidneys, which eventually become overwhelmed and shut down. Without functioning kidneys you die. That is why we don't drink seawater. Truly water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink! But there is a theory that you can mix it in some percentage with fresh water to consume.

* One thing you can do if you are stuck out there in a jungle or somewhere with no water source at all is actually drink the fluid from a fresh elephant dung. Pretty disgusting but it could save your life. It's a last resort. There can be harmful bacteria in that water but if you have nothing else to drink, it can buy you some extra time!

Also regarding elephants, they have poor eyesight and if an elephant flattens its ears and curls its trunk, it means the elephant is about to charge.

- Water is so important because people can survive much longer without food but not too long without water. Generally it is said that a human being can survive an average of three to five days(it can vary) without the intake of water, assuming sea-level altitude, room temperature and favorable relative humidity but a human can survive for several weeks without food.

- If you are in the jungle with no food and see an animal hunted by a lion (like raw zebra meat of a lion kill), to ascertain whether it is fresh and can be eaten is - the first sign is vultures- as they only eat fresh meat. Also look out for maggots or if the carcass smells rotten, then obviously it isn't safe to eat.

- For water, if you see reeds surrounding a pool of free-standing water, a dead tortoise nearby, the water isn't safe at all, and is with parasites etc. Always try to drink from fast moving water.

* This was based on the Discovery channel and its games. Although the warning- The information provided is for informational and entertainment purposes only. By using this, you agree that you will not hold me or Discovery liable for any errors in content, or for any action taken based on information provided. Use the information at your own risk.

comments (0)

Chetan Bhagat's article in Maharashtra Times translated

Here is Chetan Bhagat's article in Maharashtra Times which was in Marathi, translated to English. It was a tough job and I have tried my best. Hope you appreciate it. And excuse me if I have made any mistakes while translating.



'मार्क'वादाची भीतीच वाटते ( Am scared of the whole 'marks' system)

"Best wishes to the readers of Maharashtra Times on the anniversary. Through my English writings, I have reached many people and since Maharashtra has a good tradition of book reading, many young Marathis are also my readers. Finally today I get to talk to you. Even though English may have a larger voice, the real India lies in the regional languages. Therefore if you want to change anything in India, only regional newspapers will work. Today's youth read my books therefore I am thinking of diverting their attention to different topics.

All four books of mine have received great accolades. My decision to leave a good job of Deutsche bank and to become a full time writer was a risky one. On the one hand, you cannot trust today's youth. Today they are on Orkut, the next day they might go to Facebook and Twitter. Even though they might be reading Chetan Bhagat's books today, there is no guarantee that they will like it in the future too. Many Publishers refused to print my first book "Five Point Someone". So I was really dejected. But I thought that anyone can do a job of working in a bank and having my wife working there itself, money was not a big issue. Many people's ego would hurt to ask money from their wives. If you can learn to gulp down your ego, many problems can be solved. And this is not taught in any school.

In the results that were announced yesterday, many got 100 % marks. I am really scared of these marks and percentages. In one commerce college, the cutoff list was at 97%. Just imagine what would be the environment in that class! How fearful would be the students. Each student would be tense. Without thinking about anything else, their whole lives would revolve around marks and only marks. This is a dangerous situation. The problem lies with the education system. We are not educating children but putting them in an elimination round. Those who can't cope up are thrown out and the Government is not doing anything about the education system.

If the Government can't solve the problems, the result, as an example is MNS's revolution. I am not saying that all the revolutions by MNS are appropriate but I feel that they have provided the people's stifled voice a medium and that is why people have supported them. Maharashtrian culture is really wonderful. It's economic growth is more than other states, there are cities like Mumbai and Pune but along with it, there is also the farmer's suicide in the Vidarbha areas and besides this there are issues like corruption which deserve a thought. Another thing- Raj Thackeray by going against the Centre has not done well. The Centre has the pulse of the states. Besides, whether the marathi issue is the remedy, has to be thought by Maharashtrians.
Many times you cannot avoid trouble, which is what I myself have witnessed. During the time of '3 Idiots', it was alleged that I was doing it for publicity. If I had to do that, I would have done that through my books by writing against a politician or something. "Three Mistakes of My life" was against the backdrop of Godhra riots but still there were no issues with it. To make a movie based on a book is really difficult. Many things are changed from the book in the movie and the writers voice is suppressed a bit. I felt I was being made the guinea pig and thus I voiced my opinion. The condition of Indian books and Indian writers isn't particularly good. Even today, books on small children, social subjects, information related, self help books are scarce. There haven't been many writers after R.K.Narayan, Gulzar, Amrita Pritam, Premchand. This is not something to be proud of. On the other hand, in the regional languages, there would be changes in the future. The script of languages would change, mixed languages would come. Even now you can get the idea from the SMSes and Twitter. In Indonesia, they have accepted English script for their Bahasa language. In such times, more importance should be given to get such languages flowing. In some Hindi and Marathi newspapers, it has started, which is worth praising."

* Here is the link to the original article in Marathi, in case someone wants to read it (Even if you don't know marathi, the letters are practically the same as that of Hindi)- http://maharashtratimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6061352.cms

And although Chetan Bhagat did not retweet as he had promised, he did reply on Twitter- "@achyutktelang will do buddy...just did column so in a bit..thx for the hard work! " And that is fine for me.

comments (0)

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Narendra Modi- A different picture

The Indian general elections are just round the corner making this a good time to write about this topic.


First of all, let me tell you that as far as I am concerned, I am a completely 'a-political' person. I cannot understand politics; just like Amitabh Bachchan confesses. And that's why I myself am surprised that I am writing on something related to Politics which I could never have thought! I don't particularly care for politicians either, whom I consider to be a different species altogether. But still there are a few people in there who do seem to be different from the rest and do seem to be nice people indeed!

Without talking about too many other things, I will come back to the topic that I want to actually write about, but before that a few interesting things about this -


A FEW INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT ELECTION 2009
-India will hold general elections to the 15th Lok Sabha in 5 phases in April & May 2009, starting from 16 April upto 13 May. The results of the election will be announced in single phase on May 16, 2009.

-714 million people are eligible to vote in 2009, up 6.4% (43 million) from 2004.

-This time, there are many who are vying for the post of Prime Minister, as Bal Thackeray has said- "People should enjoy 'Grand show' for PM's post. The Prime Minister candidate for Congress being Dr. Manmohan Singh and for the BJP being Lal Krishna Advani and many others like Sharad Pawar, Ram Vilas Paswan, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh, Mayawati etc are interested; though some are now denying it.

-The Congress party has bought the rights for the Oscar winning soundtrack 'Jai Ho' from the movie Slumdog Millionaire and this song will be used as the official campaign tune by the party. To counter this, the BJP coined the phrase Kushal Neta, Nirnayak Sarkaar which translates to 'Able leader, decisive government' specially using Advani as their main leader and trying to brand Manmohan Singh as a weak P.M.

-I could not help but notice the use of internet as a medium for L.K.Advani. His blog page, the websites, the advertisements everywhere on the internet etc. This is a conscious effort and a Marketing strategy I feel to reach out to the youth and to project the image as someone moving with the times and to give a youthful feel which many feel is their answer to the challenge from the young Rahul Gandhi with even pictures of Advani lifting weights in a gym! No doubt that Advani seems to have taken a cue from Obama's highly successful campaign using technology and internet and having various IT related things in their vision including 10 million laptops at Rs 10000!

MODI
As I have already said that I am not a political person so I don't understand it too much and I will not be taking the side of any political party. I just like a few individuals in this political scene and one of them is certainly Narendra Modi. He is one person about whom I felt it was absolutely necessary to write about to create awareness because I have seen that most of the people specially outside Gujarat have a certain negative image about him. It is because they have only one way of knowing about him and that is through media and from what I have seen, even a blind person can tell that the media is always against him, no matter what. I am not saying that he is the best or flawless person but because it has been onesided so far from media and overall, thus here I will focus on the other half and concentrate only on the positive side of him to balance or even things out. So please don't write to me accusing me of taking his side or some other arguments as I have already mentioned my purpose clearly. However I will do this with valid points and honest opinion.

Now I will not go into his past or his background but focus more on some important events and milestones in time.


THE RIOTS-
No discussion can happen on Mr. Modi without talking about the Gujarat riots of 2002 for which Modi has been the villian in everyone's eyes. Communal riots are not new to Gujarat or even India and this wasn't the largest in history either, with more extensive and prolonged violence with higher death tolls happened in 1969 and 1985 under the rule of Congress Government and even the cause of Gujarat riots is conveniently downplayed or misrepresented. It wasn't a few stones thrown at a procession or some petty quarrel but a terrible Godhra carnage where bogies of Sabarmati Express were set on fire!

Certain facts do stand out, even from accounts in the English media, not particularly known to be generous to Narendra Modi :

a) The Congress Union Minister of State for Home, ShriPrakash Jaiswal, in Parliament on 11 May 2005, said 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed - hardly consistent with a Muslim genocide. And the figures in Delhi massacres in 1984 were: Sikhs: 2733 killed in Delhi alone. as per Ahuja Committee, which submitted the report in August 1987

b) The entire police force of 70,000 was deployed in Gujarat on 27th Feb in apprehension of riots, police fired more than 4000 rounds, "shoot-at-sight" orders in Godhra, 827 preventive arrests, immediate deployment of Rapid Action Force and CRPF hardly agrees with the accusation of a deliberately inactive police force.

c) As early as 5th March 2002, out of the 98 relief/refugee camps set up in Gujarat, 85 were for the Muslims and 13 were for the Hindus and as on 25 April, out of 1 lakh 40 thousand refugees, 1 lakh were Muslims and 40 thousand were Hindus which is not consistent with the unilateral Muslim sufferings that has been portrayed.


NARENDRA MODI - THE PERSON
His biggest challenge when he took over as the C.M was the reconstruction of the earthquake affected areas. Bhuj was a city of rubble with people living in temporary shelters without basic infrastructure. Earthquake recovery became his first priority. His dynamic vision and quick decisions have put Gujarat Reconstruction Program as one of the best on global map and set a benchmark for reconstruction and disaster recovery, not only in India, but also in entire Asia, for which he achieved global recognition.

He is perceived as an honest, capable man who has taken Gujarat to greater heights of prosperity since then. He was re-elected for the third time in 2007, after a hard fought battle of ballots where he single handedly fought not only the Congress lead opposition but also the biased and prejudiced media and his own disgruntled party members. With a reputation revolving around his incorruptible image and ascetic style of living, he is a workaholic, with a no-nonsense attitude who is unafraid to call a spade a spade. A person who cares less for political correctness and social connections whose vision is to make Gujarat at par with developed nations.



QUOTES
On being asked whether it hurt him not getting a US visa, he responded' "I take this as an opportunity. I want my India to be so strong and prosperous that Americans will queue up to come to India. A day will come when Americans will yearn to come to Gujarat."

Perhaps the best compliment comes from Mr. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani- " If Gujarat was a separate country, it would stand in a different league among some of world's most flourishing and prosperous countries."

Modi remains untouched and unfazed by all the filth and accusations. "Do you think the Centre would have left me like this if they had any proof against me? I have a Goverment that is unfavourable at the Centre and their quietness says it all." He once shot back at an Interviewer.

"We have a vibrant media, an active judiciary and global human rights groups working in the country. If there was even the slightest evidence that I had committed a crime, I would have been hanged long since." he said to another.

Mr. Advani said, " I can think of no other example in Indian politics of a leader who, after being subjected to a malicious and prolonged campaign of vilification, has been able to impress even his critics with his determination, single-minded focus, integrity and a wide array of achievements in a relatively short time."

Asked once by the Sachar Committee about what steps his Government has taken for Muslims, Modi bluntly replied," I have done nothing...I have done nothing for the Hindus too...Through river linking, we brought the Narmada river to the Sabarmati. Now am I going to find out which community is drinking how much of this water? That is divisive politics."


ACHIEVEMENTS -
Honestly speaking, the achievements are so many that if I list down all of them, you will get bored even just going through them. But still here are a few achievements:

- In the past few years, Gujarat has made excellent progress and received various awards for infrastructure building, water distribution, economic freedom, environmental protection, e-Governance, energy conservation, health accessibility, heritage protection, sanitation, software development. The agencies conferring these awards include International Bodies like The United Nations, World Bank, UNESCO, various ministries/agencies of Government of India etc.

-Gujarat ranks number 1 in The Economic Freedom Index as per the research conducted by none other than The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
-Gujarat has only 5% of India's population and 6% of Geographical area but its contribution to India in terms of "Value of Output"is 16.10%
-Gujarat is one of the most Industrialized states of India with 16.2 % share in India's Industrial production and percentage of man-days lost due to labor strife is 0.52% lowest in country
-Gujarat surpassed the target of 10.2 % set by Planning Commission for 10th Five year plan compared to the average of 8.2% for entire country, achieving growth rate of 15% in 1st year itself.
-Gujarat accounts for 54% of India's onshore crude oil production, 50% of India's natural gas production, 46% of India's installed refining capacity, 60% of India's total crude oil import facility
-Gujarat today has one of the best infrastructures in the country comprising of 11 airports, 1 international airport, extensive rail network and a robust road network of over 74,000 km. A total of 17, 763 out of 18,028 villages (98.53 %) are connected with pucca (concrete) roads, the best in the country.
-Gujarat coastline of over 1600 kms , longest in the country, is dotted with 41 ports, which handle over 25% of India's total cargo.
-On Education front, there have been 11 new Universities, 400 new colleges, 1.25 lakhs new teachers, 38,000 new school rooms and the Government has set a deadline of 2010 to ensure a 100% enrolment and 0% drop out rate at primary level.
-Gujarat is now an emerging Global Medical Tourism destination. WHO has appreciated Gujarat's school health program and the Chiranjeevi program bagged International recognition and was appreciated in UNICEF's report.
-Modi's mission of "Water for All" has been a revolution. There has been interlinking of 21 rivers of the state, state wide Water Grid.
- The Jyoti-Gram Yojana to provide 3-phase, 24-hour, uninterrupted power supply to all villages has enabled Gujarat to become the first state in India to achieve 100% electrification of villages.
-When other chief ministers accumulate crores of personal wealth as birthday gifts, Modi deposits each and every gift/souvenir received by him in the Government treasury for the cause of "Girl Child Education" and has deposited Rs 287.37 lacs in a period of 5 years. Touched by this, people have directly started donating and have given more than Rs. 11 crores for this.


GUJARAT CASE
In the last two years many bomb blasts have occured in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Jaipur. None of the cases were solved. The only case that was solved is that of Gujarat. Why? Because Modi and his establishment took it up as a major endeavor and a challenge. They made sure no riots occured, and even if they would have, the order to the 11 or so investigation teams was to ignore it and keep working. He gave to the investigating teams complete authority and full support - they had money, resources, people and also a chartered plane to pursue whatever they wanted.
For almost 3 weeks the team members did not sleep. They worked round the clock to get to the bottom of the case.
-More than 11 teams were formed within the first few hours of the blasts. One team was asked to handle the investigations into the material used in the bombs. Another team was asked to investigate the use of bicycles. Another team was formed to thoroughly check all the phone calls made in Ahmedabad from certain areas just before and after the blasts. Another team was set up to reach out to all the police informers and gather their opinions on and information of the blasts. One team followed the cyber crime aspect of the case. The overall investigation of the case was assigned to the crime branch of Ahmedabad where more than 100 people started following whatever little leads that were available, from the midnight of July 26.
What has happened and what was uncovered is nothing short of amazing given those three weeks. Yes, the administration failed the residents in not preventing the attacks, but thankfully this administration did not wallow and start finger-pointing in its aftermath. It went into action from get go. Also, and importantly, it prevented any reactions and went about their work professionally
It is no wonder that Modi has been recognized as No. 1 Chief Minister by the people, thrice in last five years in India Today- ORG MARG Survey, a unique recognition ever achieved by any C.M in the country.

The recent drama that evolved was when Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal, Ratan Tata and other industrialists lauded Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the investors" summit in Gujarat, claiming his leadership as "national level material" and wishing that "person like him should be the next leader of the country".

* Below are the results so far of a Poll on Orkut for the person people want to see as P.M and Modi gets the highest 40% votes and growing even though he isn't a Prime Ministerial candidate this time! :



Perhaps this small joke best sums it up:
BJP: 100% electricity in rural areas only in Gujarat; revolution in rural economy - 12000 villages covered under Jyotigram Yojna. UPA: But Modi is communal
BJP:Gujarat was awarded Gold and Silver shields for outstanding performance in the energy sector by the Central Government. UPA: But Modi is communal
BJP:The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation has adjudged Gujarat as the best governed state. UPA: But Modi is communal
BJP: Modi created 7,316 kms of rural road network, the best in the country.UPA: But Modi is communal
BJP: For the third successive time, Gujarat's Narendra Modi was voted as India's No. 1 CM in an AC Nielson's ORG MARG survey.UPA: But Modi is communal
BJP: In Gujarat , Housing provided to 46,263 Below Poverty Line families at the cost of Rs. 13672.94 lakhs.UPA: But Modi is communal
BJP: In Gujarat,To ensure that no girl child remains illiterate, three lakh students have been enrolled under Kanya Kelavani Rath Yatra and Praveshotsav Abhiyaan.UPA: But Modi is communal
BJP: In Gujarat,Rs. 94,357 crores of industrial investment, the highest in the country.UPA: But Modi is communal
BJP: With gas reserves of Rs. 2 lakh crores, in the Krishna-Godavari basin, Gujarat has become the Petrocapital of the nation.UPA: But Modi is communal
BJP:Gujarat has touched the benchmark of 15% growth rate.UPA: But Modi is communal
BJP: 2200 kilometres of gas grid in Gujarat - longest in the country.UPA: But Modi is communal. How Long will we say this.......... Surely we need a leader who performs.


* References- 1. Narendra Modi as Prime Minister? Why Not? PART - I By: Bandyopadhyay Arindam
2).Narendra Modi for Prime Minister- Desh's Blog

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interesting Fact - The CEC also announced that the polling station in Banej village in the Una segment of Junagadh Lok Sabha constituency, Gujarat has the unique claim to being the only polling station in the country that caters to only one elector - Guru Shree Bharatdasji Bapu, a priest of a Shiva temple in the middle of the Gir Forest!

comments (0)

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Myriad Mumbai


Call it Mumbai, call it Bombay, or Bombaim (for the Portuguese), whatever you call it, the name does not matter.

Mumbai which was basically named after the Hindu goddess ‘Mumba devi’ and ‘Aai’ meaning mother in Marathi was earlier famous as Bombay- meaning ‘good bay’, a name which a lot of people outside India still know it by. A group of seven islands was merged into one to have what today is Mumbai. Appropriated by the Portuguese, ceded to Charles II of England, and in turn leased to the East India Company, Mumbai has imbibed from a lot of influences and as it stands today it’s an amalgamation- a cocktail, a concoction. You can clearly find the mark of the Portuguese and English mainly on some of the monuments and structures still present.
I have been here for 16 months and it has been an enriching experience to say the least. It is the ‘Mumbai’ I had always heard of in television, read in the papers and heard in conversations. Even now, suddenly once in a while I seem to remind myself that I am in THE Mumbai because once you are at any place for a certain amount of time, you do get used to it and start taking it for granted. This is the place where you are very likely to spot a celebrity- an actor or a cricketer; or anybody famous for that matter because they all seem to reside here. This is the place where by the time you realize it’s raining and you take out your brolly (umbrella) or your raincoat, you would have been already drenched by the downpour and by the time you put it on, it would have already stopped raining.

Called as the’ Maximum City’ or ‘The city that never sleeps’, one of the world's top ten centers of commerce, home to important financial institutions as the Reserve Bank of India, the Stock Exchanges and the corporate headquarters of many Indian companies and numerous multinational corporations, the city that houses India's Hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood, featuring in the Top ten in the world in Financial hubs, expensive streets, office rents, world’s largest billionaire cities and even in filthiest cities. Mumbai is a city of dreams, despair, drama and dazzle; heartbreaking poverty amongst staggering grandness. It is the bubblegum glamour of Bollywood cinema, shopping malls full of designer labels, cricket on the Oval Maidan, promenading families eating bhelpuri on the beach at Chowpatty, red double-decker buses queuing in grinding traffic. This pungent drama is played out against a Victorian townscape more reminiscent of a prosperous 19th-century English industrial city than anything you'd expect to find on the edge of the Arabian Sea. It's a city with vibrant street life, India's best nightlife, and a wealth of bazaars. Millions travel everyday by trains and buses. Nearly eighteen million people live here - wealthy industrialists, flashy film stars, internationally acclaimed artists, workers, teachers and clerks - all existing cheek by jowl in soaring skyscrapers and sprawling slums. They come from diverse ethnic backgrounds and speak over a dozen tongues adding colour, flavour and texture to the Great Mumbai Melting Pot.

This is the place where the buses are called BEST buses. Well it is not a word but an acronym but a good one to go with it. I have lived in another state- Gujarat all the time before this and I did notice some differences. Firstly I found that the bus conductor or the fare collector does not get a seat of his own! This I found to be very strange because in the most crowded city of India, at least he is entitled to a seat. This makes his job so much tougher. Someone needs to give this suggestion to the concerned authorities. This way they might be able to save some money as the job would not be as distressing as it is now, so they might easily find candidates at a lower pay for the post of Bus conductor. It would also help him remain cool in the midst of the sweltering heat and more crucially the humidity. Another thing I noticed in the buses is that there is no facility for the people to keep their luggage unlike what I saw in Gujarat. I don’t know the reason behind this but if it is provided, it would provide a lot of relief and comfort to many. As I have seen people clumsily hanging on the bus bars with their bags taking up too much of the precious space and if someone has to get down, God save everyone! And I often laugh within on reading the sign in the bus- "19 standees only". I swear I have seen double the number at most times.
A strange experience that I had in one of the BEST buses was that I was sitting in the last seat and there was no one around me; either beside me or in the seat in front of me; by chance. A man and a woman presumably husband and wife were sitting in the second seat ahead of me. Now the woman was looking back a few times and I realized that there was a plastic bag hanging in the window above the seat ahead of me. She asked if it belonged to me. I shook my head in negation and said no. And mind you this was just after the days of the blasts in two big cities of India- Bangalore and Ahmedabad. And we decided to bring it to the notice of the conductor. Now suddenly the whole bus realized that something was wrong and all the eyeballs were pointed in this direction. People even asked a woman who was getting down from the bus just in case it belonged to her and she forgot to take it with her. But it wasn’t and I was sitting there wondering what to do. It was also green coloured as those that were used in the blasts. I was sure though it wasn’t a bomb. Twice I thought about moving away from it and my place but eventually I didn’t. The conductor came, took it down and peered down the bag to find a shirt or a piece of cloth. Phew! It was harmless after all and the conductor threw it out of the bus!

Another experience that I had was on the railway station. It was really crowded, to state the obvious, especially with the time of festivals being around. I was moving around tugging three big bags and I found a small place where I could park myself. There was this man who just started talking to me. We did not know each other. He started on that he was sick, that he had been travelling a lot recently and he was in a lot of distress. For some time I was just there wondering about the possibility that the man was either mad or drunk or a thief who wanted to draw my attention elsewhere while someone would steal my things. So I wasn’t paying too much attention to what he was saying as I was preoccupied with these thoughts. He looked normal enough. He started telling me the whole story and he had seen and met me just seconds ago! He went on that he had three daughters (which is considered somewhat of a liability and this has led to the want of a male child and which I think is a major factor which has contributed to over population) and that they were good at studies and though they got over 80 percentage, they were still unable to secure a seat in the college. Now I was also tormented by an eyelash that had found its way in my eye so it was watering and I was there with a handkerchief over it, unable to get it out or find water to splash it in and this man then kept apologizing to me for bothering me and ‘making me sad’ as he thought and I was there like –‘It’s ok, no problem.’ Now I am the kind of person who would listen to people and I also somewhere wanted him to share his grievances so he could feel better and lighter so I did not stop him from talking either. He went on about the reservation systems in education and how everything is for the rich and the poor have just no hope or means to do anything. And in the end he departed with the wise words that - always take care of your parents. The position of parents is even above that of God. And he left and I was sitting there a bit sorry for him that such a normal looking from the outside could be under such tremendous stress from within and I also do wonder why he selected me? There were many people around him, in fact too many all over the station and he immediately started talking to me on seeing me. Maybe it is just the way I am that he was able to see it or just my presence there brought it out of him. I don’t know but I was amazed that even such things could happen!
That’s Mumbai for you!!!

* A few of the references have been taken from a few web sites

comments (2)

Monday, September 15, 2008

Cracking the CAT

Well I don’t really know when can this phrase be applied- Cracking the CAT? When a person gets a call from IIMs or for doing well in general? And if the later, than how well?

Actually I received an email from a relative who congratulated me for “Cracking the CAT”! I did manage to get around 96 percentile in CAT this year, by learning from my previous performance which was quite pathetic.
Actually I feel that it all depends on the kind of paper, its pattern etc. Like for me, English has always been my favourite right from kindergarten I would think! And I always depended on it for that lead ahead of others even in school. Similarly in CAT, all those mock tests that I gave previous year, English would always be my forte. My usual pattern would be that the number of questions I would attempt in Maths and DI combined would be equal to the number I attempted in English and I would be confident of most of my attempts in English. If this happened, I would know I have done quite well. Last year that was the problem, English was tough and so my main run machine was rendered ineffective. And this year it again fell in place. I attempted 45 overall out of 75 (compared to last year’s 23!) with 20 attempts in English itself . And I was confident of most of my answers in English and as expected, I got good marks in it at 99.66 percentile with 45 marks out of the total 90 I got!

I do feel though that a lot of unnecessary hype is created around something that is quite popular or famous. People try and find things when they don’t exist. Like for famous people too, people are always guessing the motive behind their every statement and act which I feel is mostly creating something out of nothing. For CAT too, people are always trying to figure out what would be the surprise this year. With all kinds of analysis of the past papers, trying to find out a pattern of some sort, and even the statement that – “CAT not springing any surprise might be the biggest surprise” has become a cliché too. Now even if there is no surprise in the CAT paper, that too becomes a surprise! What a surprising thing! It means whatever it does, that will be a surprise. I would like to know the thinking of the people who set the CAT paper. All these things must be falling on their ears too. I even think they might be laughing inside seeing and hearing so much being made out of it when all they want is to set a paper and I don’t really think they set the paper always with- ‘giving a surprise’ in mind. Keeping their requirement in mind, they would be proceeding.

CAT is surely a really big phenomenon, termed as one of the toughest competitive exams all over the world. Throughout the year all coaching classes, which I don’t think are necessary for everyone, coming up with some innovative idea for an ad, and giving the figures of the number of students of their coaching class that have got IIM calls and not to mention as CAT gets closer, the kind of attention it gets from everywhere. Even in the television, news channels continuously talking about it, bringing in experts and students asking questions (don’t know what they will get out of it asking at the last moments!?) and ironically the experts telling- "Don’t do anything different at this stage now and go with what you have done! "

Seriously I would recommend everyone not to listen to or read to anything related to CAT, much as Cricketers are advised not to read the articles about Cricket during the Match so it goes for all fields as well. It only puts unnecessary pressure, with some articles saying it is a battle or a war and you have to be on the offensive right from the start, others telling you to relax and give it coolly as just a mock-test.
Tell you what; no one knows it better than you yourself as to what is best for you. Just listen to yourself.

Well, going by my way, I don’t know if I can recommend it, after the CAT last year, I did not prepare for CAT again for the whole year, neither read or saw anything in news or news papers related to CAT and looking at me it would be difficult for anyone to say up to the day of CAT whether I am going to give it or not!

I am pleased with my performance but it also made me realize how great is the difference between 96 and 99 or 100 percentile. Maybe it is not so great either but it definitely requires a little extra of everything to get just that much ahead. And this goes on every year, lakhs of aspirants come and many go disappointed, a few get success but this phenomenon is going to continue for a long time for sure.

So I don’t know if I cracked the CAT (Don’t know why they say so!?) or ‘belled the CAT’ but I think having had a crack at it, if not completely then at least I managed a small crack!

comments (0)

Saturday, August 9, 2008

My Body- Health Enigma!


WANTED- Experts.

Today I am going to write about one topic that almost every human being on this earth has faced at least at some point of time in their life- your body and health.

It is such a complex thing to understand at sometimes and seems relatively simple at others. I guess around 90% of people face the problem of being over- weight or obese! Well, why do you eat so much then? So, as you might have guessed, I am in the other 10 %. The simple indication for this statistics that I have written are simply from the fact that you will always see advertisements for weight loss everywhere. I am yet to come across an advertisement that even shows- “GAIN WEIGHT”- 10 Kgs a month with people testimony etc, leave alone an exclusive ad like this.

Coming on to my situation, let me tell you that I am 24 years old, almost 5’ 10” (178 cms) with a weight of 50 kgs (110 pounds) for the past 10 years I think! Since the past 10 years, I don’t think anything has changed. My height is still the same, my weight is still the same and even I look the same! No matter what I do, not even a kilo changes on either side with the exception that I feel a couple of times it has gone down or come up 2-3 kilos. You just have to visit my Orkut profile and you will find my school friends writing that I still look the same!!! Perhaps I look 18. No harm, but I would prefer to look my age though and it has everything to do with weight. Only if I weighed 70, I would definitely look 24 or even more.

According to the BMI (Body Mass Index), I am very clearly underweight at 16 BMI for which 18.5 is the starting range for normal weight. According to my age and height, my ideal weight needs to be between 65 and 70. That means I need to gain atleast 15 to 20 kgs of weight! Which in itself means 40% of my weight!!! Just see the arduousness of the task in terms of percentage. In terms of numbers it isn’t too difficult, people lose 15- 20 kgs quite regularly, atleast according to the ads but putting on 40 % of your current weight?!! That looks impossible right now.

A little of my back ground as well, I actually have a long, lean frame and I am deceptively strong. At the age of 12 I joined Taek won do and I was surprisingly good at it having won a trophy and standing first in the very first exam for Yellow belt. It is another thing that after that year itself, it closed down. But now if I look back, I surprise myself. How did I manage to do everything so easily? I remember others always complaining when they made us do hundreds of push-ups, running many kilometers, doing the fights, getting punches in the stomach or breaking things and other things and I tell you, I performed every single action sincerely and with dedication. At no point I felt that I wouldn’t be able to do it, my body managed it perfectly.
That did help me with strength and flexibility. I became as flexible as I can be. Splits which many found impossible, I performed with consummate ease and could hold that position for as long as I wanted.

Around that time, I came across Arnold Schwarzenegger of course through movies etc, and I was fascinated and wanted to have a muscular body like that. And I used to do all kinds of things- push ups, pull ups, weight lifting- of course never by joining a gym but doing it at home with whatever I could find.
And I did get good muscles for the people of my age group but still I was lean.

Nothing’s changed and I still have good strong muscles but not big or bulky at all. At rest, my arm may look absolutely thin with no strength but when I flex my muscles, it might seem like a very strong, muscular person. Just see my pictures to understand.

As a child I wanted to be like a body builder- Arnold Schwarzenegger type and used to exercise, lift weights. But obviously I never became big and bulky and not even in the normal weight range and am still an underweight by some margin. Now I don’t want short- term or unhealthy measures to gain weight etc. Right now I am facing the problem of deciding what really do I want. Do I just want to put on weight? But I have a love for exercise and having muscles and there can be 2 things. Either you can have big bulky muscles or long lean muscles. Both are for different purposes. After thinking and analysis, I have come to the conclusion that obviously I can almost never belong to the first category and it’s no use either being big and bulky. It’s basically unhealthy. Nothing should be done in extremes. It is very easy to go from one extreme to the other. The most difficult thing is to stay in the middle. The “middle path” of Buddha and walking on the razor’s edge.

I had figured it out a long time ago that Flexibility = strength. The more flexible you are, the more strength you actually have. From being extremely flexible, I have come down a lot and flexibility only decreases with age. I have tried many times unsuccessfully to get back to the shape I was in by all terms during my Taek Won Do time.

And one thing that has had me thinking and is responsible for me writing this blog post is that recently I came to know of a website called hundredpushups.com. It is a 6 week program at the end of which you will be able to do hundred push-ups consecutively. I loved the idea and am going to do it, in fact have already started but it also made me wonder, what would be its result. It should definitely make me stronger but would I put on weight or lose it? Would I put on muscle mass or have leaner muscle which, with the same weight would make me look thinner? It is a complex thing with many myths attached to fat and muscle and various theories.

So in the end I am quite confused. I only know that in the end what I really want is to be in a normal weight range- around 65 to 70, with good strength and flexibility and a nice muscular look. Now what diet should I have, the percentage of protein, carbohydrates etc, the kind of exercises I need to do- has to be ascertained. I do have some idea about a variety of topics of health that to put on weight or bulky muscles mass, heavy weight lifting with a high protein diet is the way to go. But what I have to decide that what I really want in the end as mentioned above, is it possible to have it all at the same time? Or would I first only need to put on weight first, then take on strength and flexibility training!

Some other information is that my diet might be less with people always saying that I eat too less, but I eat all kinds of foods that is vegetarian, occasionally eat eggs too for the proteins, but will definitely not have meat, fish etc for personal reasons and is almost out of question. I eat all kinds of vegetables and have a balanced diet. I have reduced milk consumption and only have it with tea. And currently I also walk a lot but otherwise have pretty much sedentary lifestyle, not like most people have but still not a very active lifestyle either. If I play a sport etc someday, some muscles ache that day or the day after.
But I also have an excellent heart rate or pulse I guess at 60/min which I know that only meditators or athletes have less than it.
So this is my situation .
ANY HEALTH EXPERTS OUT THERE?!! HELP ME!

comments (0)

Friday, August 8, 2008

Gambling- a game of chance?

Around a month back, I and a few of my friends had gone to Mahabaleshwar. And most of my friends know that I blog, and a few of them have started too. So there were talks about what I would write in my blog about our trip, with my friends saying that do write about this thing or that thing or don’t forget to mention our names etc. I knew that I wouldn’t write about our trip per se but there was one thing that stuck with me and thus in this way at least there would be some mention of the trip.

There is one thing we did in that trip that I was quite fascinated by later on. And as you can guess from the name of this post, it was a game. I don’t really know if it falls exclusively under the ‘gambling’ category but here is what it was all about.

Starting with the trip, it was quite a good experience overall and the places Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani – in Maharashtra, India are worth seeing. We did face some problems in the initial part of the journey itself but such things are almost a given. No trip is an absolutely smooth trip. The mountains and the valleys etc were the most wonderful part of there for me. See the picture below:

There is a special feeling being in the mountains- the peace and solitude that you can feel there is unmatched. It is a spiritual experience. It makes you aware that you are just a tiny speck in front of the mountains and thus in the entire universe, almost nonexistent. The amount of importance we attach to ourselves, our thoughts and beliefs seem exaggerated then. The boating, echo point, Pandava’s foot prints and locations where many movies have been shot etc were some notable features of our trip. Also there were a few foreigners paragliding and I had even taken a video which you can see on You Tube at- PARAGLIDING VIDEO

Alright then, about the game. Firstly I wasn’t too interested in the game because it was around midnight after a long day’s journey and I was more interested in catching some sleep and getting a much needed rest especially in the warm blanket in a cold place. But my friends were really keen. The game consists of a board large enough, consisting of many slots that are numbered. See the picture below:

Now the rules of the game are simple. You have to throw 2 white colored balls and they will fall in any of the numbered slots. But before that you have to mention what you are betting on. For example, firstly you have three options-

1) 6 and below
2) 7
3) 8 and above

Since the slots are numbered from 1 to 6 and you will be throwing the 2 balls, whatever slot they end up in, that will be counted. So firstly you put your money in any amount, like my friend first put in 10 Rs to bet on 8 and above. He threw the first ball and it landed on the slot numbered 3. Now he needed at least a 5 or a 6 with the other one to reach 8 or above to double his money. But he got only a 4 and thus lost his money.

My close friend and roommate Rajesh Sethi who has an unmatched enthusiasm was very keen and always targeted 8 and above option. But we all being new to this, did not know the exact rules or procedures of this game. Actually when you initially give the money, he gives a kind of a token representative of the amount and you have to keep it on the option you are betting for i.e. 6 & below, or 7 or 8 & above. He did get it right but didn’t put the token so didn’t get the money. He tried again and this time did the right procedure and got 20 Rs for the 10 he put in and then backed out. He even insisted that I too try my hand at it. I initially refused but since he said that he will sponsor the 10 Rs for me, I agreed. I put the 10 Rs on the option 6 and below meaning the 2 balls that I throw need to land in slots that add up to 6 or less. He seemed dissatisfied with this decision and tried to dissuade me from it and coerce me to bet on 8 & above. However I persisted and it proved to be a lucky decision. I got a 1 with the first ball and 3 with the other. I got 20, returned his 10 and thus got 10 for free. I withdrew from the game and didn’t play after that.

I found this such an interesting game. I had never done anything like this before. This was not just about luck, this was about probability as well; a very interesting concept. How do you decide what are you going to bet on and how much? And why would the owner of the game have such games in his place if he doesn’t earn profit. One thing is sure that in the end after all play the game, overall more people lose than earn and for the owner, he earns more than he loses that is why he is doing this business in the first place. The thing is that it is not divided into 2 equal parts so that the probability will be 50 :50 but it is in 3 parts.

- 6 & below,
- 7,
- 8 & above.
Thus the probability is distributed.
Now some connotations:

1) The minimum you can get is 1 + 1 = 2
2) The maximum you can get is 6 + 6 = 12
3) That means total 2 to 12 = 11 possibilities.
4) Thus the 3 options are 2 to 6, 7 , 8 to 12
5) So the possibility of any of the 3 options is less than 50 and thus in the long run you lose more than you earn.
6) If you put on 7 and get 7, you earn triple and if you don’t, you lose it.
7) For 6 & below, you need both balls to fall preferably in the slots 1, 2 and 3 to be safe. Get a 6 in any ball and it’s game over. Similarly bet on 8 & above and if you get 1 number in any ball, it’s again game over.

I would say that Probability is based on a long term and thus you might lose if you are playing just on that basis. I would advise you to play up to that point where you win. If you are getting more than what you have put in, it is best to exit. Though it happened with me in the first try itself, I still left the game there.

At least this experience gave me an idea why such gaming parlors, casinos around the world are so popular and what a potentially dangerous thing this is. You literally get sucked into it. The temptation of playing on and the hope of winning and the greed to earn even more than what you have got spell disaster to me. The wise thing to do is just take this as fun and enjoy it as a game and not get too worked up over it or be too greedy. Just play, enjoy, if you win a little, take it and leave or bet just little so that even if you lose, it wouldn’t bother you much.
What would be your strategy? Which slot would you bet on and why? How long will you play? What would you do?
Do drop in with your comments, opinions and strategy that you would follow and what you think of this concept.

comments (0)

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)