The Smiling Child

The child is happy
not a worry, not a care.
What's it to him
if the world is in despair.

Millions die of hunger
While some dig for gold
But the child is content
In his own small world.

Religion killing people
Women have no say
and he's glad to have lived
his life happily today.

"But, he's only a child
what can he do?"
That's the tragedy my friend,
The child is ME and the child is YOU!

For better or worse.

In life there are days when everything goes right for you.All your decisions are right on, you have no worries, you are smiling all through the day(atleast you are not crying!) and your prospects look bright.Even the teacher who's given you hell praises you.Things seem to fall into place and everything is just perfect.
And then there are days when you wish you had never been born.You are gloomy all through the day, are all but broke and you just want out from the hell-hole that is life.Today was one of those days.

It started out like any examination day.I stayed up till 4 in the morning to study(something i hadn't done in years).I got up at 10 for the exam at 11.Then the horror started.I woke up with a headache, arrived late for the exam, screwed it up, realised i lost my wallet,then had a tough time convincing the bank authorities i wasn't a prank, almost got hit by an auto( again) and starved the whole day.To make it worse, i got drenched in the rain on the way back to the hostel only to find out that i lost the key to my room.
By this time i'm hungry, wet, running a temperature and with no money.

I went to the common room to catch the IND vs PAK 20-20 FINAL encounter.The starting stages of the match were a perfect reflection of my state-pathetic.Then things started getting better. It was wonderful to watch the match with all my friends.We cheered, we jeered, we cursed, we praised.Every wicket was applauded and every misfield frowned upon .The match provided some truly memorable moments(RP Singh's and Pathan's spells, Gambhir's batting and the Indian fielding in particular were heart-stopping).The end of the match celebrations in the common room were something i will never forget.India had won and were world champions.We hugged each other, we jumped, we shouted, we went crazy.
Amidst all this i totally forgot what a crappy day i had had.Suddenly, my day hadn't been bad at all.It was one of the best one could have had.

I guess life isn't about good days or bad days .It's what you want it to be.You don't need money or luck or a full stomach to have a great day.Sometimes all you need is a cricket match.A really special one.

CURSE

She was walking on the road

there was no one in sight

there was joy in her heart
She was singing to the night.

There came a group of men,
drunk to the bone.

They maimed her and tamed her
and sped off leaving her alone.

She lay there weeping
helpless and cold
She wanted to scream out her agony
but no words her mouth could hold.

What a curse it is to be born
a woman in this world , She thought.
Morality is all but gone

and humanity's been left to rot.

She was walking on the road

there was no one in sight
there was fear in her heart
She was crying to the night....


HEADLINES LAST WEEK:
Eve-teasing nightmare for 10yr old-July 23,2007
Teenager gang raped in moving car-July 24,2007
Man convicted of rape-July 26, 2007
SI arrested for rape attempt-July 27,2007

a CURSE indeed....

Harry Potter and......

The seventh and final edition of the Harry Potter series will be out by dawn today and here i am with a fractured leg and a sutured chin.What hurts even more is that it's going to be atleast a week before i get my hands on it.With my parents flatly refusing to buy me the book and my savings not being even a quarter as to what's required, i've nothing to do but wait a few more days to finish reading the series.

It started out like any other book and has become a kind of addiction for me.Parts of the book are mind-blowing and stick with you long after you've finished the book(especially, the duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort is to 'die-for').The final edition will see Harrry finding the remaining Horcruxes and destroying Lord Voldemort (or himself) .No matter how the final book turns out the journey will always be memorable.We'll all miss the characters, the setting, the plots, the magic and most importantly Harry Potter.(I hope no one spills out the ending !).

All I wanna say is Thank You J K ROWLING, for giving us an experience worth remembering
and taking us to a world we wish existed.

A crash course in buying a Telescope.

Let's get one thing straight-this post is informative.So, if you are not the least bit interested in astronomy or anything related to it, you'd do better to skip this post.
This post is for all those people who want to, or are in the process of, buying a telescope.I've given as much information about telescopes as i can fit in here.Before starting, here's a description about my telescope.

CELESTRON 31034
76mm Dia-600mm FL
Accesories: Two eye-pieces(4 mm and 20mm FL)
One Barlow lens



Any telescope consists of two main lenses:
Objective-It is the lens that recieves the light from the source.
Eyepiece-It is the lens that is near to the eye.

A telescope is as good as the apperture(diameter) of its objective lens and not the length of the telescope, as is the popular opinion.This is because a bigger apperture collects more light and hence gives a better view.In the description above, 76mm is the diameter of the objective lens and 600mm is it's focal length.Similarly, 4mm & 20mm are the focal lengths of eyepieces.Any one is used as per the viewing requirements.

Calculating Power(Magnification): Power is calculated by dividing the focal length of objective by that of the eyepiece used for viewing.Ex:When i use a 4mm eyepiece i get a magnification of 600/4=150. similarly, with 20mm i get 600/20=30.
Barlow lenses are also called doublers.They are used for doubling the magnifications.When i use a Barlow lens in combination with a 4mm eyepiece, i get a magnification of 3oo,ie 150x2.

Useful Magnification:Some telescope manufacturers claim that their small but powerful telescope gives a magnification of 600.Though this is possible using appropriate lens combinations, it may not be useful.Every telescope has a magnification limit(which depends on it's apperture size) beyond which even if you increase the power there is no visible use.A rough formula for calculating useful power is to multiply the apperture diameter(in inches) with 50.Hence,my telescope's useful power is approx. 3x50=150.So, there is no point in using my 4 mm eyepiece with a barlow lens as it would give a power of 300, way past my telescope's limit.

If you are low on budget then a telescope with appertures of 3 to 5 inches should do just fine for an amateur observer.It is quite useful to get to know how to use a telescope. As and when you think that you have utilised your "small" telescope fully and are getting serious about observing, you can always shift to bigger apperture telescopes(which are costly, i must add).

Mine is a small telescope, but it more than serves my purpose of a leisure activity.It has given me some of the best viewing experiences of my life.Someday, i'll get a bigger better telescope, but this one is my first love.

If you need more information about telescopes, binoculars or astronomy in general, visit the following links
http://www.televue.com/engine/page.asp?ID=140

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/equipment/basics

Binoculars

I can't sleep at night....

Shocking, though it might seem to my friends, who are all too familiar with the amount of time i'm off dozing, it is true that i just can't get myself to sleep these days.

It has been three long, boring months of summer vacation and the end doesn't look anywhere near.It seems as if all i did this summer (xcept for the 1 month of project work) is stay awake at night.My 'day' starts at 3:00 in the afternoon and goes on till the early hours of dawn.That's when I realise something's wrong and when my parents' admonitions reach fever pitch I go to bed(reluctantly, I must say).And end up waking up at 2:00 in the afternoon and then the unending cycle of food,tv,net and sleep begins.

So here I am, on the world wide web (GOD bless the internet!) at 4:15 in the night to write a post about the one thing that keeps me awake all night.... sleeplessness !

I've spent the last hour doing some research( if you can call running a google search research !) on this very topic and it turns out it's pretty common.Apparently, I am a Night Owl.
These are people who are active at nights and hence feel sleepy in the day.Their opposites are called Early Birds.( are we humans or what??)

Night Owls (my clansmen !) tend to be active at night and hence find it easy to do their work during this period.But, it turns out that a majority of people are early birds.These are the kind that wake up early in the morning, religiously do their work and go back to sleep early.So, schools, offices and colleges run according to their schedule and we poor souls have to suffer.

But not anymore.The night owl has woken up!(Is it 2 already??).People have started taking us seriously and the timings for offices have been made flexible.The same can't be said abt schools and colleges.Students still go to school at 8 and collegians are punished for attendance shortage.I mean what's the point in going to college if u r asleep half the time.Wouldn't it make sense to let the students decide what's best for them? Beats me ....

ne wayz, that's all i got for now.It's 5:30 a.m now and i can already hear the birds chirping, the rooster crowing and....there's my mom getting ready to kick my ass.

If you are a night owl, then here are a few links u might find interesting:

• Rise and shine: coping tips for night owls
• Delayed sleep phase syndrome(Dsps)
• Famous night owls

If you are an early bird, then i suggest you go ahead and try getting a kick out of staying up late.

Kevin.

LAZINESS.......(yawn !!)

Lazy as I am to write this post, I must do it for the enlightenment and general welfare of the happily ignorant people who refrain from anything or anyone lazy.

Laziness for me, is the 'ability' to do little or no work yourself but get the work done somehow.
Some call it sluggishness, some call it slothfulnes.I like to call it indolence, it makes my laziness seem classy.Whatever people say, for me laziness is a virtue.Who would want do all the work when you can just postpone it or dump it on somebody else.I mean, why pick the fruit from a tree when somebody can do it for you?.


Laziness is inherent to us humans,for that matter all living beings.Ever since the ancient times, lazy people have shaped and reshaped the course of history.
If it weren't for the laziness of God, we would have had more people( than just Adam and Eve)to start the human race.
If it weren't for the sloppiness ofThetis,Achilles would have had a better heel to show.
The tv, the radio, the telephone,.... they are all manifestations of our laziness.The revolutionary internet owes it's origin to the laziness of our postal department.And how lazy must one be to order food to their home !
I could go on and on and on, if it weren't for my own laziness.
The point is laziness ,as i said, is inherent in us.It is even in our genetic code, but only too lethargic to show up.

The great philosopher Kevinus Intellectus was an ardent admirer of laziness.He quotes in his book, Confessions Of A Bumbling Moron,

Of the many ways of doing a given piece of work, the laziest is the easiest.

This is popularly known as the law of laziness or (ironically) l o l !!

I myself am a gr8 fan of his works and nothing defines my life like lol. Infact, contrary to popular opinion, i find laziness quite useful.For one thing, u can cultivate the healthy habit of procrastination, the best part of which is that u have nothing to do today...(how good is that !!).
For another, u don't have to think about tomorrow, or the next day or, the day after that- life suddenly seems much simpler, doesn't it ?
And admit it, if Newton wasn't lazy enough to wait for the apple to come to him,science would have come to a standstill !!

There's a lot more to tell u actually, but i can't do that much work.I'll let u find it out yourself.

So, until next time, lay back, relax, let nature and time do their job and don't forget;
Laziness is a virtue and those who tell u otherwise are clearly lacking it.

Yours slothfully,
Kevin.