Tid Bit from My Diary

There is a new NATIONAL MUSEUM OF QATAR, which is nearing completion. This is how the museum will look once it is completed.   National Museum   Nature is known to inspire and influence human being’s creative mind since time immemorial. The interlocking disc design of the museum by Jean Nouvel is inspired by the desert rose.   Desert rose is the colloquial name given to rose-like formations of crystal clusters of gypsum or baryte which include abundant sand grains. [Wikipedia]  The flattened crystals has a great resemblance to petals of rose. Holding in her hands Last weekend me and my daughter went to the museum gift shop and bought a sizable piece of this desert beauty. We were quite excited with the new toy and had a quick photo session to treasure the moments forever. Posing with a yellow rose The desert rose may also be known by the names: sand rose, rose rock, selenite rose, gypsum rose and baryte (barite) rose.

Napoleon had cautioned long ago that " Mankind's worst enemy is fear of work ". But centuries have passed but the fear of work doesn't seems to go away. One of my ex-colleague used to question " why we need to complete this today while we could do it tomorrow? " Another one's philosophy was to leave office early if you happen to reach for work late. " one should not be late twice in the same day " he used to advice. But the winner is one who left office in the morning because his boss wished him " have a great day! " Obviously he had figured it out that he could not be in the office and have good time. I looked high and low all these days to find a word that would describe this attitude towards work. On the 6th of March 2018, I got this word sent to me and I am glad to share with all who were not aware of it.

Everyone would unanimously agree today that the need for saving water is no longer an option, it's our responsibility towards the generations scheduled to arrive in our planet in the future. When we say generations, it is not limited to a specific race, species or lifeform. The earth belongs to all. Life is a balance between what we can control and what we cannot. There is however, another dimension to this old sayings…Life is also a balance between what we should try to control and what we shouldn’t. While any idea to conserve water, #CuttingPani , is potentially a noble initiative, we should interrogate it with all seriousness to make sure that it would not send wrong signal. Inadequate consumption of water will have negative implications leaving the world with a generation of dehydrated people, quite similar to the anorexic population of today. Our bodies are made up of about 60% water, more or less and constantly loses water through its excretory system. This need...

You are Braver than you believe, Stronger that you seem and Smarter than you think.

Sometimes you need to look at life from a different perspective.....

We form a cusp generation, as we started treading the cyber path after we graduated from a teenager. Not too late, but it was not too early either. Long distance calls were exorbitantly expensive and the known way of communication was through letters. Phones were meant to be used in case of emergency or to deliver short messages like … “I reached hostel safely.” Message was not the only interesting aspect of letters, it was the entire Jing bang. The pen pals, the paper, ink color, handwriting and not to forget the precious little things on the cover… the coveted postage stamps. I enjoyed every aspect of this process and it’s not only stamps I collected, I also treasured many a letter. An artist friend managed to remain untouched by computers creating an opportunity to communicate through lengthy personal letters. Not frequent, but immensely satisfactory feeling, nevertheless. An email announcing the receipt of my letter last year brought down the last bastion of letter writing...

A painting sold for a stupendous price of $72.84 million at an auction at the Sotheby, New York on May 16, 2007. I was introduced to this bit of information while watching an old Documentary.  We generally accept that art can be very expensive but this work by Rothko baffled me completely. Name of the Artwork: White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) Dimensions: 6’- 9” X 4’ – 8” Painted in: 1950 Style: Color field – Abstract Expressionism Name of Artist: Mark Rothko (Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz) An American painter of Russian Jewish descent. 25 September 1903 to 25 February 1970. I gathered these information but miserably failed to equate the product with its price tag and decided to dig deeper. Expressionism was an artistic movement of the mid-twentieth century where the artists were at the liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through nontraditional and usually non representation means (Merriam Webster). Tate org further elaborates t...