Men are Obsolete

“Either war is obsolete or man is. To not evolve beyond war is to choose oblivion over utopia.”

My heart bleeds every time the news of the death of civilian or soldiers come in. Useful lives of our country are being wasted and families are getting devastated by mindless killings.

The idea above is of R Buckminster Fuller, a great American Architect and it was discovered on his desk after he had passed away. In my opinion he was a true dreamer in his own rights, otherwise  who in his right frame of mind would have dared to dream of a world without war. After all it's the arms industry that keeps the economic engines of so called great nations lubricated. They have made wars their birth right and seldom hesitate to bestow one upon others!

. ….. and of course we cannot undermine how much craving so called great people with ego have for absolute crude power and wealth.

Or else we all would have lived happily ever after!

Zero ka Funda

Most of the time Zero is considered more negative than any negative integer and we seldom hesitate to say “he or she is a big zero”.

While the size of a zero definitely doesn’t matter, there are some excellent lessons one could take home from Zero.

We learnt that one can add colossal value in life by positioning oneself in the RIGHT place. When 0 (zero) collaborates with 1 (One) in the right position they make 10 (Ten).

Zero (0) degree, where the water starts to freeze, could give us immense warmth once arrived from a minus 10. We learnt that in spite of being the smallest, Zero does not carry any negativity.

Though careful usage Zero could be encouraging, as a manager once appraised someone. “He has improved tremendously” the manager wrote. “His English has now become zero from totally non-existent”.

How is my driving

I believe in parallel universe: Multiple versions of us are living in alternate worlds that interact with each other. Nah! I am not going to bore you with quantum theories to explain "multiverse". Rather, it’s quite simple for us to perceive.

One world exist in our home, offices, parks or movie theaters while other one could be viewed in its full glory on our roads. Once behind the wheels of those moving metals, each actor has a different character ever ready to clank at the slightest opportunity.

I once encountered a driver, who started his argument by accepting he was an idiot while questioning if I did enough to prove my genius. He must have been a lawyer of the Road world and the realization dawned on me that in this parallel world all professions exists.

The Professor: When they happen to observe someone break the law, they make every effort to let the errant know that it was wrong. Given an opportunity they give a lecture on it.

Makeup Artists: They consider cars as moving parlors with drivers’ seat their dressing couch. It’s brings in lot of convenience with many mirrors allowing them put everything from foundation or lipstick to nail paint. Usually they don’t mind a honk or two to remind them that the traffic lights have gone green.

Late Risers: To complement those who could not manage makeups before leaving are the ones who missed breakfast. They are expert in completing a full course breakfast with sandwich, coffee et al and all without losing control of the steering wheel.

The Correspondent: Always interested in what happened along the road, slowing down to stick the neck out of the windows if there is an accident or there is a gathering of any sorts More often than not they will try to put their camera on duty.

Peeping Toms: These Toms spares no effort to find out what’s going on inside the car next door.

The learner: Someone who will frustrate everyone with their cautious driving and worst part of their behavior is they slow down even if the traffic light is green.

The Manipulator: They are expert in manipulating the situation and finding a way to arrive at the frontend of long queues most of the time exploiting the kindness of others or flouting the rules.

Multitasker: One mother of Multitasker was a colleague of mine who could put all his limbs into action. A cigarette in one hand, a mobile on the other while one foot took charge of the steering wheel while the other worked on accelerator and brake. Beating all odds, he is still alive and kicking!

Divi Divi - A natural Compass

Aruba's trademark: the Divi Divi or watapana tree

This is my sketchy sketch version of the famous Divi Divi tree I chanced once upon a time in the internet. It is found in exclusively in the tiny Island of Aruba, which is 180 square kilometers in size and part of the kingdom of Nederland in the Caribbean Sea.  

The Divi Divi tree is Aruba’s natural compass, always pointing in a southwesterly direction.  The local adage is that “if you are lost in the wilderness, follow the bend of the divi-divi trees and they’ll lead you to town”.

It is believed that attempts to plant this tree in other parts of the world have proved futile. The cooling wind that gust steadily from the northeast have carved the native divi-divi trees into natural sculptures, shapes that would rival the most artistic bonsai.

O Architecture

Architecture isn’t just methodology and science, nor can be practiced as a formula. It’s an opportunity to infuse emotions to art forms and create a new reality.

Architects' pencil is a wand that could construct a magical realism, where fantasy seamlessly blends with reality and everyday spaces around us appear different while remaining familiar all the time. The arches winks as it entices you to take the step while the handles of doors reaches out for your touch as you turn it on.

Welcome to the magical place where the future has already happened and the past is yet to arrive.

Organic, Hybrid or GMO.... Its so confusing

These days while doing grocery, we have started to look for seedless fruits. The seeds are a nuisance inside the mouth and particularly so as one can no longer consider spitting those out in our urban spaces. I am carrying a guilt because of this disturbing trend of laziness. Deep inside I know that seedless variety of fruits being against the rule of nature cannot be healthy.

I knew that these are hybrid fruits but not genetically modified and recently carried out a bit of research to understand this better.  I learnt that new varieties are created when compatible plants are crossbred. Sometimes this happens in nature due to cross pollination and sometimes it is made to happen on plantation. Grapefruits for example is a hybrid of a pomelo and a sweet orange which were crossbred on plantations in the 18th century. Oranana along with the above image however, is purely my imagination.

In addition to natural and hybrid food, we also have Genetically modified or transgenic food and crops. These food are produce of genetically modified organisms and known as GMO. The majority of GMO are engineered in the laboratory for herbicide tolerance through introduction of toxic chemicals into their genes with the intention to kill weeds or pests.

We would be naive to think that the chemicals that are engineered to kill pests and weeds will not harm mankind. The environment is not safe either as the environmentalists are concerned that GM foods can disrupt the entire food chain.

The creation of hybrid fruits and vegetables create a larger variety, while GMO produce does not add to the available range. The hybrid foods are known to have the following shortcomings as compared to the natural ones.

• They have a higher sugar and starch contents which are not completely absorbed or used by our pancreas and liver.
• The have a mineral imbalance which may lead to mineral balance in our body after consumption over an extended period of time.
• These plants absorb excessive minerals from the soil, making it unsuitable for cultivation.

I also do not want to strangle the efforts of science and engineering as GMO does have some definite advantages if those could be made safe for human consumption. It could help meet our growing demands for food by arresting the loss from weeds, pests and crop diseases. And also save the cost incurred by farmers towards pesticides and herbicides. Bio scientists could also come up with different varieties that would resist drought or frost and save people from starvation.

…  till such time it will be prudent to  start our own organic farms with strategic ties with partners for successful barter trades.

Magical Reality ... Real but inside a dream

Dreams are illusion and could also be described as magical realism for good reasons. Although science would love to explain dreams through “alpha beta and gamma” stages of our sleep. I look forward to blog on that aspect at another time but now it’s time for surreal dreams.

Like magical realism, in this dream we find distant past present in every moment while the future had already happened. Here the protagonist is part of a dream which might be scary but without a doubt magical.

While inside the airport facility in a foreign country, he unintentionally loitered on to the tarmac. He had been following someone who was getting into an aircraft, a smaller one. The realization suddenly struck that this he is in a place that is normally out of bounds and must be illegal. He started to rush back towards the terminal building but could not find the place he exited. From the outside it is so very difficult to distinguish between doorways and glazing, most certainly done on purpose. He finally located a set of doors, but his relief was short-lived as to his dismay they led to an internal courtyard with high walls. It was virtually impossible to scale and moreover was partially covered on the top.

One of the doors could be opened from outside letting him re-enter the building. Otherwise he would be a sitting duck in front of a hunter or a prisoner inside a prison cell. He then discovered a series of exit ways from the building. Something quite similar to the checkout counters in a supermarket. Unfortunately they were all manned by armed personnel and there was no way he could get out of this place without verification.

Strangely, he told himself in his dream, “this seems to be serious trouble. Do I wake up and end the dream or let it continue and find out what happens at the end?” He decided to take the chances.

A nice Pakistani lady, slim and young, appeared from nowhere and bailed him out. The people manning the exit decided after a bit of persuasion to let him go. Though it was illegal to loiter around within the prohibited zone, they agreed it was a mistake and a pardonable one at that.

He still remembered her name the next morning. She was Shazia Khan.