Keep your switch ON

One should always keep their switch ‘ON’, I’m not saying to keep your electrical switches ‘ON’ but to keep your mental and physical switches in ‘ON’ state or better to say in a running state. Do not switch it ‘OFF’, even when you are tired or when somebody or your boss scolds you. When you make your switch ‘OFF’, it is not only your switch but you are making many switches OFF. Always put a smile on your face even when you are in trouble. If you show sadness, others will hesitate to talk to you as they might think you are not in a good mood, and will ask you ‘Is anything wrong with you?’ Now you may become sad and even the other person. So you are making many switches OFF.

Take an example, first a funny one:

Once Sukhi Ram was walking on a road and suddenly a bird shits over his head, Sukhi Ram smiled and took out his handkerchief and cleans his head. Dukhi Ram was watching all this and asked Sukhi Ram, why you are smiling when that bird shits on your head, you should get irritated. Sukhi Ram told I thanked God for not making buffaloes fly.

So there could be lots of persons like Dukhi Ram who wants to spoil your mood but you have to keep your head calm and keep it in ‘ON’ state.

When you had a bad day or quite a tiring day at work, do not keep your switch OFF while going to home. As when you will enter your home, your family members can easily read your face and will also feel that you are tired and may not talk much and you will feel more exhausted and tired. But if your switch is ON, everyone would talk to you and will tell the incidents happened that day, kids may tell some funny thins, so you may forget all bad incidents and will feel afresh. It is a bit difficult to always be in ON state but if you will start practicing it, you may not find it very difficult.

Sometimes, unknowingly, we make others switches OFF, by asking un-necessary questions or by telling something that one is not interested in. Suppose somebody bought a new car, and you ask about the mileage, power and some other stuff, till this it is all fine but if you start comparing with some other car, and saying that car is good, it is having that much mileage, pick-up is good, so you are making other persons switch OFF. So one should avoid all this and make his and let others switch in ON state.

When you enter the office every morning, always say ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Hello’ to your colleagues with a smile. It starts your day with a positive note. And when somebody asks you how are the things going on, do not say “ yah just going on” (bas chal raha hai OR kat rahi hai), instead “ yah everything is fine and good”. This will make you feel good.

Let us take one more example from our mythological story ‘Mahabharata’ (hope everyone has seen it and remembers),

When Duryodhana fell into the pond of water, Draupadi from the top watched him, and laughed at him and said “andhe ka putra andha”. This made Duryodhana switch OFF and was the major cause of great Mahabharata. So if Draupadi’s switch would have been ON, she would not have said all that.

So always make your switch 'ON' and try to avoid these kinds of situations or Mahabharatas.

Friday, the 13th

Superstition is a belief that is not based on any knowledge. It gives us the illusion of control over events that we don't understand. It is a false belief based on ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in chance or some other mis-conception.

Another way to put it is that superstition is an irrational or nonscientific belief in the existence of certain powers operant in the world, with positive or ill effects.

There are few familiar examples of this:

• Breaking a mirror will result in years of bad luck.
• The number 13 is "unlucky" and the numbers 7 and 9 are "lucky."
• Finding a four-leaved clover will be a boon to your fortune.

Superstitious beliefs are universal. You will find different superstitions in different countries. Every culture has its irrational causal beliefs, but some cultures are exceeding superstitious even in the 21st century. For example, the use of astrologers is still widespread in India, a country with many superstitions.

The Chinese are particularly superstitious, especially about numbers.

Thirteen is considered as an unlucky number to some people in the U.S. Others consider thirteen a lucky number.

In India, there is a superstition that a pregnant woman should avoid going outside during an eclipse in order to prevent her baby being born with a facial birthmark.

And the most famous superstition in History is Friday the 13^th. So let's look what this superstition is and from where it has believed to come.

Friday came to be called "witches' Sabbath." For it was believed that on this day, each week, twelve witches and the Devil met - thirteen evil spirits up to no good! This is one of the reasons for today's superstition about Friday the 13th.

Though it's hard to pinpoint the exact origins of any superstition, several Internet sites are devoted to the history of this legend ‘Friday the 13th’.

The word "Friday" is, in fact, derived from a Norse deity who was worshipped on the sixth day of the week and who represented marriage and fertility. Fridays in the early Norse culture were associated with love and considered a good day for weddings.

Over time, however, mythology transformed the Norse fertility goddess into a witch, and Fridays became an unholy Sabbath. Incidentally, the goddess' sacred animal was a cat, which may explain the legendary connection between witches and cats, as well as the superstition about black cats heralding bad luck.

Fridays, for example, are hailed as a particularly significant day in the Christian tradition. Obviously, there is Good Friday, the day Jesus Christ was crucified. But according to Christian lore, Adam and Eve also supposedly ate the forbidden fruit on a Friday, the Great Flood started on a Friday, the builders of the Tower of Babel were tongue-tied on a Friday and the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday.

The number 13 also has been associated with death in other cultures. For example, the ancient Egyptians, believed life unfolded in 12 stages, and the 13th stage was death. The Egyptians considered death a part of their ultimate journey and looked forward to the spiritual transformation, thus 13 was not an unlucky number in their culture. But like so many others, the tradition changed through time and cultures, eventually associating the number 13 with a more negative and fearful interpretation of death.

So, who knows?

The date may be forever cursed by one event that occurred nearly 700 years ago, or by a series of cosmic coincidences.

So in the end we can say that Superstition is any belief, based on fear or ignorance, that is inconsistent with the known laws of science or with what is generally considered in the particular society as true and rational, esp., such a belief in charms, omens, the supernatural, etc. And any action or practice based on such a belief.

Environment

Environment – first thing that comes into mind is beautiful climate, blue sky, big-trees, cold breeze. This is what we expect as a good environment. But unfortunately, our environment has not remained same as it was some decades ago. It is becoming more polluted day by day, thanks to our high salary, increasing life style, affordable cars, use of more electrical and electronic equipments.

Unknowingly, we are making our life more polluted by using and adapting products to make our life easy, but indirectly these are the only things that are disturbing our environment, making our lives in danger and also the life of our future generation.

There are many things that we can do to decrease the pollution or at-least not to increase it further.

Switch off anything that uses electricity. This is helpful for environment and for your pocket also. When you do not use any equipment, simply switch it off to save your electric bills and thus helping environment.

Turn off the water when not in use. Try to minimize the wastage of water, repair all tanks and toilets in case of any leakage.

Use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable batteries. If you have the choice, plug in the device instead of using batteries.

Avoid using plastic whenever you can; it is a poison for the earth (things like disposable plastic cups, plastic bags, nonsense plastic items you don't need).
Use resealable, reusable containers instead of plastic wrap or plastic bags.

Switch to compact florescent light bulbs. While these cost more, they are also longer lasting than conventional light bulbs, and they use only one-quarter of the energy. They may cost more money, but last much longer. And as they use less energy, electricity bill will get reduced.

Close doors after you leave a room. When you leave the house, or even when you have dinner downstairs, try to close the door to all the rooms you don't normally use or need. Doing this often will save a lot of excess heating that is needed to make your home warm. Something simple anyone can do.

Reuse glass bottles. Glass bottles are much better than plastic ones. You always have heard of not using plastic bags, as they release some harmful chemicals, so if you are using these bottles for drinking water, they can also be harmful for you after a long use, so better stick with glass bottles.

Donate old clothes. If you don't have time and space for clothes that you no longer need, donate them to charity. Every time you do, you make a lonely soul a grateful spirit, as well as motivate others to do something good.

These were some of the things that one can easily do without much effort or pain, and there are some more things that needs a bit of efforts to do but they would be quite beneficial even for you along with your environment. Look at some of the things below:

Plant a Tree: Remember that trees absorb CO2. So by planting more trees in your community you can reduce the amount of harmful gas in the atmosphere. Well if you cannot plant in your community, plant at-least in front of your home or in balcony to inhale the fresh air.

Rely on Public Transportation: Many cities have buses, subways, or other forms of public transportation. Using these systems helps to keep fewer vehicles running and polluting, which contributes to global warming.

Buy Fuel-Efficient Cars: Burning gas is one of the leading causes of global warming. By having a more efficient car, you will release less CO2 into the atmosphere.

Carpool: These days, many people are going to school, work, or other places by themselves. By carpooling, you can save money and avoid unnecessarily polluting the atmosphere. You can ask your friends and colleagues who live near-by you and form a group, so that daily you all will come by a single car, it will make less traffic, less pollution, less use of petrol/fuel and will also save you money.

All we need to do to reduce the problem is simply to be less wasteful.

Imagine, one day you come out from your house and all you see is big puffs of black smoke and no trees. All you hear are cars and no birds. All you smell is gasoline and no flowers. What kind of life is that?

This would be our future or if not ours then of our next generation, if we will not try to reduce the pollution. This is our right to live in a healthy environment, so make all possible efforts to make it clean and green. And if you found others polluting your environment, make them aware or take some appropriate action as that person is trying to take that right from you. Think if someone asks you to live without breathe, can you?, so make the proper use of your rights and power.

We have to show leadership in protecting our environment so that we have a future for our children and grandchildren.

"Save the Environment"!!! Saving the environment should be one of our aims. Each one of us should have this need embedded in our mind and all should join together to make the world a better place to live in. So let us join hands and make a better environment for a better and green world.

Addiction

Addiction – any habit of a person which is continuous in nature, without which that person feels very exhaustive or restless.

Addiction was a term used to describe a devotion, attachment, dedication, inclination, etc. Nowadays, however, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individual's health, mental state or social life.

It is generally accepted that addiction is a disease, a state of physiological or psychological dependence or devotion to something manifesting as a condition in which medically significant symptoms liable to have a damaging effect are present.

Addiction can be for anything, may it be gambling, shopping, internet, chatting or any other thing. It is not restricted only for drugs, any habit which is in excess termed as addiction.

It is truly said,

“Excess of anything is bad.”

Any habit could be fine or atleast it may not create much problem to you and your dear ones. But when these habits turned in to addiction, they could be quite dangerous. They can spoil your relations, mentally or physically, you can become ill or you may always feel tired and exhaustive. It can have a severe effect on you, your body and also on others.

Factors that have been suggested as causes of addiction include genetic, biological/pharmacological and social factors.

Psychological dependence does not have to be limited only to substances; even activities and behavioural patterns can be considered addictions, if they become uncontrollable, e.g. gambling, Internet addiction, computer addiction, sexual addiction / pornography addiction, reading, eating, self-harm, drug addiction or work addiction.

“It is not heroin or cocaine that makes one an addict, it is the need to escape from a harsh reality. There are more television addicts, more cricket and football addicts, more movie addicts, and certainly more alcohol addicts in this country than there are narcotics addicts.”

One could be addicted to helping others, which, on the surface, would seem to be a good thing. But taking that thought a step further, if you're addicted to something, it also implies that you do everything you can do to feed that addiction, which could possibly lead to unsavory behavior.

“There is only one reason why men become addicted to drugs, they are weak men.
Only strong men are cured, and they cure themselves.”

Importance of 'WHY'

To do any task or to make any decision, one should always ask ‘WHY’. Why I am doing this; why to do this; what are the benefits or pros/cons involved with this. Is it really worth doing this or not. One must always be clear about the ‘Purpose’ behind any work he/she wants to do. So, it is always important to ask this question as if you will know the purpose behind any work you are doing or any decision you are making, then you will do it with more efforts and chances of success are more. When you are clear regarding your work, then chances of getting success are more and you will try to do it in all possible manners.

After ‘why’, second question comes is ‘HOW’, how also plays an important role in accomplishing any task. But WHY is having more significance than HOW as it makes you clear of the goal you want to accomplish. Then you can think of how to achieve that task after knowing the importance.

80% of any SUCCESS is WHY and 20% is HOW.

Why can be there in any situation even you can ask this for why I am doing this job?

There can be different answers to this question. It depends on the individual’s perception, like most will say to earn money or to eat. But is this the only purpose behind your job, if it is then it will be quite difficult for those persons to be really successful in their career. They can earn handsome amount of money but they cannot make their image in society, they cannot do any constructive thing for society, hence their life will be no more than personal life. No one can remember them for long.

If somebody says to achieve my goals and for the welfare of society, they will always focus on higher goals and achievements. Everyone who is successful today had higher goals in mind and wish to do something good for the society, for nation.

“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

Another example is if you want to wake up early, then first you should ask why I need to wake up early. One may say to keep myself fit, I will do exercise, go for a walk or jog, so there will be a purpose behind this. But if one would say I want to wake up early so that I can get enough time to get prepared, to read the newspaper, or to have a cup of tea. Now purpose behind this is quite weak, so there are less chances of getting awake early.

To know the answer of WHY and to judge whether what you have think, the purpose involved is correct or not, it involves two things that one should take care of. These are PAIN and PLEASURE involved.

It means how much Pain is there if you will not do that task and how much Pleasure you will get after doing that task. So you have to analyze this whether Pain is more or Pleasure is more.

Now if you take above question of waking-up early, one who wants to keep himself/herself fit, will see more pleasure as he/she will be active for the whole day and will feel fresh. But another person will see more pain as that person has to wake-up early and will feel he/she is compromising with sleep. So purpose needs to be strong to do any work.

“Winners are people with definite purpose in life.”

Lets take another example, when you need to catch a flight/train early in the morning, you will definitely wake-up early as you know if you will miss it there will be a lot of ‘pain’ instead of some minutes pleasure of more sleep. Here purpose is very strong, so you get up early even if you have slept late in the night.

Sometimes you may have to look for the Pain and Pleasure of other persons also. If you will do some thing, whether it will create pain to other person or it will be a pleasure for him/her. Always think of others also if situation demands.

So always have a strong and constructive purpose while doing any task.

"Purpose is what gives life a meaning."

Solar Aircraft

This article is to make you aware of the latest technology and innovation going on in the aviation industry.

For environment-friendly persons, its a great news that solar powered aircrafts are going to become a reality in just some years. These days aircrafts uses fuel that releases large amount of hazardous gases that is threat for nature.

Coming from a family of explorers, Piccard made history in March 1999 with a nonstop, around-the-world flight in a hot-air balloon. Now Piccard has set his sights on another ambitious adventure: an around-the-world flight in a solar-powered airplane, the Solar Impulse.

He imagined an aircraft that would take off and climb under its own power, using only energy derived from the sun. At night, the aircraft would remain airborne using battery power.

The proposed aircraft will have to harvest as much solar radiation as possible, store it in extremely high-density, low-weight batteries, convert the energy to propulsive force with superb efficiency, and lose as little as possible in aerodynamic drag. When all the components of the plane are integrated, the result will be an aircraft engineered to razor-thin tolerances. Even the pilot's clothing will be made of special lightweight material.
Piccard hopes his solar plane will be completely self-sustaining and capable of flying continuously, even at night, at altitudes up to 32,800 feet (10,000 meters). "It's a huge project," Piccard conceded. "The plane will have an 80-meter (262-foot) wingspan, which is larger than any commercial aircraft."

Piccard estimates that enough power can be generated to sustain a flight of roughly 60 miles an hour (97 kilometers an hour). The batteries used to fly the plane at night must be incredibly dense, capable of storing 200 watts per kilogram (2.2 pounds).

If the first flight is successful, the 1.5-tonne plane will make a 36-hour flight through the night in 2009, piloted by round-the-world ballooning pioneer Bertrand Piccard.

While pilot-less planes have already accomplished the feat, it is far more difficult with the added size and weight of a pilot on board.

One of the big challenges for the solar flight is how to store enough energy in batteries from its array of solar panels to keep the ultra-lightweight aircraft flying in darkness.
Another issue is how to stretch carbon sheet just a few tenths of millimetres thick over lengths of up to 20m.

The final version of the aircraft is expected to have 250 square metres of solar panels stretched across an almost 80m wingspan, similar in width to the new A380 Airbus superjumbo that made its maiden flight to Australia last month.
However, while the Airbus A380 weighs 580 tonnes, the Solar Impulse will be a mere 2 tonnes.
The US$101 million project aims to emulate the achievements of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, who in 1927 made the world's first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight, but with a solar-powered twist.

The Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (EPFL) has signed on as the project's official scientific advisor.

The reduced-size model, which has a 61m wingspan, is now being built in northern Switzerland to test the technology involved in the full-size Solar Impulse aircraft.

The project's goals include a transatlantic crossing in 2011 before what would be a historic, fuel-less circumnavigation of the globe.
About 150 specialists from six countries are involved in designing Solar Impulse, which is expected to break new ground with its aerodynamics, control systems, energy efficiency, materials and structure.

Hope, this will put an ignition to make other innovations for the effective use of solar-energy utilization and make our Earth less polluted.

ULIPs vs MFs