Top five regrets of the dying

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying?fb=optOut

The chemical revolution effects

http://www.thehalsreport.com/2011/01/is-something-wrong-with-the-sexual-development-of-human-males/

The Time Machines

A facebook message:

"Memories, Dreams, and Love .... I believe they are all 'time-machines' in essence.....don't you think so?

Memories take us back in time.

Dreams propel us ahead of time. 

And Love, well, ... it freezes the time :)  "

Water & Ice - Then & Now

Ring a bell?

I watched a couple of uninterrupted hindi songs on late night tv after a year or so. Each song I heard took me to a certain past of my life. One of them sure did remind me of the poolside at AIM where this song was particularly popular and the other one reminded me a friend with whom I am not in touch now.  Well, the memories of the times I lived in is tied to the songs I used to hear or see.

Continous obsolescence

While I was walking on one of the Mumbai suburb roads last month, all of a sudden I smelt something that I hadn't smelt for more than a decade. That smell was of freshly made atta (powdered wheat) at one of the atta making shops. I remember going to a shop and grounding atta when I was in Mumbai in 1999-2000. Ever since, I have never done it and I don't even recollect seeing a shop that makes ground atta with that curious looking long mechanical machine. As a kid, I remember countering my dad on many occasions when he used to argue that during his days, he used to carry many kgs of wheat to the atta maker and get them back ground. That he used to work so hard and not have all the luxuries we have in our times. I used to hit back saying I too have done that. Now, looking back, I could be making the same claim to my kids, the problem is I don't think they will even understand what I am talking about. With all the commercial atta available in ready made packs of various sizes, the need of buying raw wheat or getting it from the ration shop and then grounding it with instructions of the coarseness of the powder (more like the short/medium/long when we guys go to the barber and instruct) has stopped by my family and many other middle class people. It is hard to even see these shops in the cities now.

Found this related article about the flour milling occupation written last year:
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/26/stories/2008102658640300.htm

Do feel free to add things that you once used to do as a kid and now our children can't even understand the things if we start claiming those things we did.

Past, present and future

Saw this great line on a friend's status message:

"Past...perfect, present....continuous, future....tense!!!"

The formative years

I have wondered as to at what age period does a person learn the values and principles that they believe in for their lives. There obviously will not be only a single time period as all people learn throughout their lives and the events around them shape or add new values and principles. But what is the most important time period, the most essential time period? I was not sure for a long time, but when I met my school friends this time in Bangalore and as we discussed a lot of stuff, I realised that almost all of us share similar values and principles. I studied with these people during my 7th, 8th and a couple of months of 9th standard before I went to another school. There are so many similarities among us even today. Starting from: none of us have a girlfriend/boyfriend to we all loved the school times. We all still meet after a decade or so whenever it is possible. We don't have a lot of day to day things to talk about, yet we meet. Most of us have lived outside our home and have gone through some of the life's hurdles. We all value our old friendships a lot. We all respect some of our teachers who taught us. If we were to need help, we wouldn't mind asking each other. The strange part is that we all have our own set of problems, but we usually don't talk about it in the group, but only with the one or two closest of friends during the school days. We all would love to go out in a trip sometime together, but as of now that seems remote. Coming back to the topic, I think the age of realising, imbibing values and standing for principles starts when a person goes through some tough times and is forced to make a hard decision or forced to do something against one's wishes or when someone who you respect a lot says something, and you totally accept it. I am not sure which of these it is for my schoolmates, but for me personally, the challenges came and I was able to realise the values and stand for principles during the times I was with these schoolmates of mine.