An Art for Drinking

Last week we went to Mc Donald café for a cup of coffee Latte and when they served it we were pleasantly surprised.

It’s called Latte art of coffee art and I have seen such pictures earlier. But honestly, I never had an opportunity to drink a painting of sorts. The coffee tasted good and the artwork added the little extra that gives us happiness.

Conventionally the decoration is done by pouring the steamed milk on espresso coffee to generate the foam and creating a pattern on the surface of the drink. This art is particularly difficult to create due to lack of consistency in the top layer of the foam.

A little google-search enlightened me further.  I also discovered that a company called “Steam CC” has developed an appliance called “Ripple Maker” which can print incredible beautiful and artistic foam prints like the one above. Read more here.

Commercials - kabhi bhi aur kahin bhi

The advantage for people who have been around during the seventies and eighties in India is that they have witnessed Indian television bloom, closely followed by the IT and telephony sector. Then came a revolution of sorts riding piggyback on smart phones, tablets and pads and it combined all of the above into one device.

Commercial break, I remember was not despised so much in those early days of Indian TV. Advertisers then were few and far in-between and the scheduled commercials brought in welcome break for the viewers to run out and complete some chores. This used to mimic the intervals we experienced while watching a movie in the theatre. However, what irritated the viewers were the unscheduled breaks the results of technical glitches. The most hated screen shot of the television that I can still vividly remember is “rukawat ke liye khed hai” or its English translation, “sorry for the interruption”.

When I walked into the TV room of our hostel during college days, I discovered another facet of life with realization that people could actually cheer a commercial in the TV. Some of the ads were always welcome and Cadbury perks by Priety was one such good example which the boarders were ready to embrace kabhi bhi aur kahin bhi. Chitrahaar was immensely popular then and the lyril soap advertisement surpassed it in popularity and not surprisingly some students even contemplated request Doordarshan to play the advertisement after each song.

Things have changed since then and excessive commercialization has taken over the media with advertisement taking precedence over the program they sponsor. The most effective way of tease a viewer is to deny them when they want it the most and our TV bosses has mastered this art. This philosophy could be seen in action during the cricket matches with commercials kicking in every time something exciting happens in field.

The companies appear to have made it their mission to make us learn their ads by heart. I wish one of these days they take it on themselves to make our kids learn some of their school lessons.

Imagine in place of commercials, multiplication tables keeps repeating for umpteen numbers of times with a small logo of the sponsoring company in a corner. In no time the entire nation will learn their tables by heart. Alternatively they could start repeating some formulas from physics or organic chemistry test books in-between a Salman khan thriller. At the end of the movie students across the country will master classroom chemistry alongside the on-screen chemistry of the artists.

What a noble cause that would serve!

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Painting our Home – A Lean Philosophy

Pablo Picasso once said "Colours, like features, follow the changes of the emotions”. With a going to be 8 years doting daughter, it’s her emotions that changes and our family follows. Very few will disagree on the benefits of involving children in decision making process early in their life. This is particularly valid for such decisions that touch their lives constantly and colour of the living spaces is quite high on that list. Colour can communicate easily through symbolism and no wonder that white have been reserved by Priests, doctors and politicians.

This probably is the scenario in most households though the adults have to bring some rationale or even overrule their suggestions at times. Adults in this context usually refer to the ladies of the house as when it comes to colour schemes, the man even if he is a pro, doesn't stand a chance.

However, not everybody can visualize the final looks of any particular space based on a small swatch of colour available in the shade card. Many a times the final product comes as a bitter surprise to the owners generating unwanted stress and leading towards expensive rework. The "smart paint finder tool ” has ushered in a revolutionary new era where the family could gather around to select the colours looking at the end product painted virtually before splashing a single drop of paint on the wall. It is now less stressful for families who are looking forward to having their new dream home painted or having the house repainted.

This is an efficient method for saving cost and time for the owner at the same time friendly to the environment. This is a striking example of “lean philosophy” put into practice.

When it comes to the choice of colours, our genes are pre-coded and my daughter’s selection based on the “ dusted pink ” doesn't come as a surprise. As a girl moves towards adolescent her choice of colours shifts from pink towards purple. This embodies the balance of red simulation and blue calm. This dichotomy however, can be the cause of uneasiness unless the undertone is clearly defined letting purple take on the characteristics of its undertone. For adults like us this creates a sense of mysticism through its royal qualities like uplifting, calming mind and nerves and offering a sense of spirituality. Purple is often the favourite of very creative or eccentric people.

“I am participating in the #PaintFinder activity in Association with BlogAdda & Bed Bath & More“

Wish They Taught This in Our School

We have grown up in the seventies and the eighties in which could easily be classified as a utopian society. Since child hood we have been hammered with only one mantra and that was Health is wealth. While there can be no argument that in today’s world health as the only wealth is not good enough. We often wish that somebody taught us these fundamental principles of life early in our lives.

Alas! The days of agriculture based economy does not exist any more for most of the urban generation. One could be as fit as a race horse but will still need other form wealth to gallop through a decent university to be worthy of picking up a job and start a family.

Today I give a sachchi advice to the young generation. It’s important to leave no stone unturned early in life to develop sound body and mind. But it is equally important to take all necessary steps early in the life to start the process of developing wealth with a firm footing. There are other aspects of health and wealth in addition to starting early that I would like everyone to focus. A few of those has been listed below for ease of reference:

• Always maintain asset diversification
• Remember to obtain assistance from subject experts
• Review portfolio regularly to keep them relevant
• Engage the services of a qualified financial & tax planner
• Invest regularly during good economy as bad economy
• Have enough risk coverage but strictly implement stop loss policy
• Have patience during tough times and market volatility
• Maintain liquidity in the portfolio, as you never know when there will be an emergency
• Stay wealthy and live peacefully

Just knowing these is not enough and one has to put this into regular practise so that it turns into a habit. In the words of Aristotle “we are what we regularly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.”

“I am participating in the #SachchiAdvice Contest by MaxLife in Association with BlogAdda.”

What is DCIM Anyways?

The other day I was whiling away my time while my daughter was taking her music lessons. The pictures I have posted here are not worthwhile but something one would categorize as pure time pass. Nevertheless I tried to capture the moon in a night sky with a Samsung phone camera.

One thing has intrigued me was why pictures from all cameras gets stored in a folder called DCIM. What is DCIM anyways? 

I now discovered that many many moonlit nights back DCIM, which is an acronym for Digital Camera IMages, became the default directory structure for digital cameras.

Once a memory card is inserted into any camera, the camera immediately looks for a folder by the name of ‘DCIM' folder. That is true for every camera – whether it is a DSLR, other dedicated digital camera, Android phone or an Iphone. If it doesn't find one, it creates one and similarly some desktop image-editing programs are designed to look specifically for ‘DCIM' folders on any media inserted into the PC.

The DCIM folder and its layout come from DCF, a standard created back in 2003 by JEITA, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association.

There is more information available in the World of Internet for anyone willing to dig further.

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Investment Idea Max India Ltd – A Sachchi Advice

Image Source

Advices are available in abundance these days and given half a chance, we don’t hesitate to deliver one. An American comedian once stated that it is too bad that the only people who run the country are too busy driving a taxi cab or giving a haircut.

This makes it a bit more difficult for us to decide whom to listen to or whom not to and more importantly which one is genuine. There is no denying that we need advice to sail through our life, after all we cannot afford to make all the mistakes ourselves in one lifetime. The best strategy probably is to let other people advice but not let them decide for us. We need to be like the mythological swan that can drink the milk and leave the water behind.

But humans are strange animals. Most of them suffer from the congenital weakness that they know everything until off course when it’s too late. Only exception being the medical doctor but that too is now jiggling as people use Google first and then call for the physician.

The most difficult of all is to seek advice with our financial matters, primarily because of our suspicious nature. When we do decide to seek an advice, we check the age before considering his knowledge and expertise in that particular field.

The author of the blog Sense and Nonsense with Nirmalya Deb Roy who also happens to be my younger sibling once gave me an advice financial advice on 20 August 2010. It was about investing on Max India limited which I considered with all seriousness. I did invest around 300 thousands and it grew 3.15 times before I sold it for close to 1 million rupees. This for me was one of the Sachchi advices in life that ended as a success story worth sharing.

But it was not only recipient of this advice as he had also published the same in his blog post Investment Idea Max India Ltd. However, we cannot be certain as to how many people benefited from this or how much.  

But unfortunately he has stopped reaching out with financial advices to all through his blog and when I reasoned with him sometimes back, he reminded me of an old Irish proverb that says; don’t give cherries to pigs or advice to fools.

“I am participating in the #SachchiAdvice Contest by MaxLife in Association with BlogAdda.”

My First Selfie on a VR tour

Virtual Reality or VR is not a new phenomenon.  During 1950s, Morton Heilig described an “Experience Theatre” that effectively engages all the human senses drawing the viewer into a on-screen activity. This vision was subsequently transformed into reality and a prototype called “Sensorama” was built and patented in 1962. When a stereoscopic bike ride scene of a movie was viewed in this, one would also have the hair blowing and complete with sound, smell et al.
Sensorama pre-dated digital computing and is a mechanical device but still considered the forerunner of today’s VR and Morton L. Heilig has been referred by many authors as the father of Virtual Reality.

VR has come a long way since then, riding piggyback on the gaming industry. This is also being extensively used to train the armed forces by simulating war front like situation,training commercial air plane pilots, simulating parachute jumping and the likes.

It has been making inroads into the life of common person through virtual museum or 3D imagery of popular architectural destination or archaeological sites. However, we are yet to witness virtual travel coming through at a commercial scale. I have a dream .... I want this to impact the life of all; the lazy, the crazy and everyone in between.

When that time comes the unable, disabled and differently-able person will become equally fortunate to experience joy of visiting popular, exclusive and exotic destinations from the comfort of the living room. That journey would be as real as physical travelling and not just talking to a fellow traveller along the way. It will effectively encompass all the other senses too.

I would want to feel the cold metal of the stainless steel hand rail standing on the edge, subconsciously trying to recognize the perfume the person standing next to me is wearing while I see the yacht on Thames getting smaller as we rise up on the capsule of the gigantic London Eye.

We hope to see this technology invade our lives sooner than later through our television screens, pads, tabs, smart phones and their apps. I am waiting for the moment when I will be taking my first selfie on a VR tour deep inside the Amazon or deep in the space.