Social Networking

How many friends do you have? May be like 50 no no wait I think my orkut says 245...huh? really....oh I wonder when was the last time I spoke to the 245th person on my list, yeah the 245th person doesn't even have a face..I mean there is no photo, which means there is maybe like a 1 in 245*1000 chance of the 245th person replying...Nevertheless I will not give up. How many friends of friends do you have, now everyone is familiar with that lingo. Ok lets do it again, how many connections do you have....15? think again...oh yes around 50 and still going thats Linkedln....how many connections of connections do you have...yes I exactly don't know how useful this talk is becoming. Lets try again? which Jane Austen charachter are you? what?...ok never mind...Can I cast a spell on you or send you a hug, yes you got it right the Social networking site Facebook just cast a spell on you!! Ok lets do a different round, how many minutes did you spend on your account 5 may be, on your friends, I think about 15 min or maybe 30min. And on friends of friends ooooohhhh I just kept on going from one account to another, lost count of minutes....Yeah right whoever said time was precious, forgot to say friends of friends are more precious. Who in the world has that much time? Last week my roommate asked me did I see her photos on orkut...nice one, I um forgot to look at orkut....and she said...you what? you did not log on? don't tell me this is true? I don't think so? I mean common what...I know social networking is important,but I like to do my monologue sometimes without the need of any other social network...Social network is becoming easy these days with these sites, but how much of the friends or friends of friends or connections or connections of connections we maintain is the point. We hardly get time to maintain it...So atlast I decided to curb my curiosity and let it grow only to the point of my friends and not their friends. After all we can give a gift or a jaddu ki jhappi or real flowers all in person and cast a much loving spell...he he...I had to explain it in your lingo people!!

My Mom's Philosophy

Mom, are you studying? Yes! How long to your finals? one month precisely!! Howz the subject coming along?...Its difficult to follow, but I am getting there! Yes this is a conversation between Mom and her daughter, completely reversed. Talking to my friend who asks..."which subject does your mom study"...Philosophy is my proud reply. Now there it is. I personally think that Moms have their own philosophy, and hence "Mom's are always right" and when they study a subject called philosophy, sure it will be darn difficult for them to follow someone elses won't it be? Jokes apart. I am not 12 and my mom is not in her 30's. She is around 45 and just finished her MA in Yoga and philosophy topping her class. She has come a long way from studying in Marathi medium to getting an MA in Philosophy in English medium. I have attempted to read her books, but Kant, Aristotle, Plato were smart and people of heavy words. I have learnt in an English medium through and through and still the first para of book was enough for me to open up a dictionary. But dictionaries give literal meanings of words and not the hidden philosophy in them. So there you go reading the same lines in the book again and again, unless you have a good teacher.

Journey of my Mom in 3 years of Diploma in Yoga and MA in Philosophy was not easy for her age but definitely entertaining. No I am not mixing the words serious and entertaining. You will be surprised to know it is nothing related to serious and so people stop giving weird looks to people who study philosophy. It is not Psychology either and hence not a study of human behavior. So lets get our ideas straight and for beginners that is those who are still looking at this article weirdly you might like to entertain yourself with a book called 'Plato and Platypus walk into a bar'. Even if you don't get to the deeper meaning of the book, it is definitely a wholesome entertainment.

So let me give a bit of introduction of this course offered by our own Kalina University in Bombay. It is a one year diploma in Yoga and a two year MA in Philosophy course. The teachers had definitely designed the subjects well by which I mean: Over the period of the course, the students had a lot many guest speakers from here and abroad sharing their views on western philosophy, Hindu/Jain/Buddhist philosophy and yoga philosophy etc. While the airing of movies like matrix and Ice age and a talk of philosophy of those movies was definite entertainment as we all know. I was just glad my Mom watched some good movies :) The course also offered an opportunity to make projects and present them in front of speakers and have them evaluated. Its awesome to see how well the course is put together with fun and turned into an extremely interesting journey.

After her MA, My Mom went ahead and gave an all Maharashtra test for Lecturers, in order to qualify to become a lecturer for such course. She met a lot of ladies in her exam hall all in different age groups and she asked one of the 25+ girl why was she studying the subject. And her quick reply was, its definitely not boring as it sounds and it will go a long way to help me lead my life with a extremely different and practical approach. Another lady of my mom's age in the hall was also of the idea that its never to late to learn anything at all. After which my mom came home and gave me the example of the 25 year old girl to me and also made some of her friends join the course, for which all of us were thankful to her later. So ladies, well not many men were in the course, but then as everyone knows if you educate a woman you educate the whole family, its a profitable deal, if you are interested in pursuing something think of what your Mom would have said...because after all this the fact remains "Mom's are always right" :) Pursue it!!

Changing the car break light

This is the first time I have done any kind of work on my car. My roomate checked the break light and announced, it was not working. When at a friends place for dinner during a conversation I realised that anyone can change the break light of a car. Even a girl! Now I had to win against me. So I decided to do this break light repair myself....ofcourse with a lot of help from friends :D.

Ok, so here are the steps:

1) Get a light!!, not a life... (so I went to autoparts and guess what there were rear light, front lights, break lights, some fancy lights..overwhelming!..so usually at such shops there are computers and list of inventory which match your car and parts. That was great!, In 5 min I was off from that store with a rear light. While, at the store a mexican was buying a huge part of engine ---I assumed he was a mechanic....and I dared myslef...one day to change that part of some car not mine...I love my car...:D)

2) The rear lights of car lie beneath a covered panel which can be unscrewed from inside the trunk. thats the best I can describe it in lay woman's term...
So get a toolkit!!
Well I nearly spent 2-3 days enquiring to my friends on toolkits they have and reminding them to it till finally I got a nice trendy red toolkit with all kinds of instruments...

3) Now we require the kit, lights and lot of broaddaylight.
I started working towards unscrewing the screw and after 15 min of effort and sore back by standing in awkward step to unscrew the panel, I decided to take a break...
This was starting to become a pain...gardening is definitely more effortless though equally backbreaking...I sit on the hood thinking, then I devised a plan, get halfway into the car trunk and start to unscrew the panel again..less effortful...and definitely worked faster...Now, the panel is off and I wonder where the bulb is as it is nowhere in the vicinity except for wires. So here I get some help from my friend, he pulls out the bulb and clicks it loose...thank god I din't have to think this one through. Because, all I could see was another huge panel to unscrew and at the end I would have had car parts...:P

4) I clicked the new bulb back and put the panel on it and cried to my roomate to come check it out. After she gave me the heads up...We declared me the official mechanic of girl gang, btw we also already have the official toyota nation advisor in the girl gang...:)

5) Don't forget to check how much you saved,
....Well I spent only 2.5 dollars on the bulb...rest of my manual labour and toolkit came for free