Was it really a ghost !!!

The other day i logged on to GTalk as usual and found an interesting status message of one of the friends - whom i'll refer to as "Prince". It read - "I saw a ghost for the first time in my life". I was as surprised and intrigued to read this line as he must have been when he saw this supposed(or real who knows !!) ghost.

I got damn curious and called him up that very moment.He told me that he saw somebody fast asleep besides him when he woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning (5:13 to be precise). Thinking that it was his brother , Prince went back to sleep. When he woke up in the morning , he found himself all alone in the flat.It was when he called up his brother that he discovered that his brother had left at 3:15 in the morning itself !!!!!!!!!!

Thus he concluded that it could only have been a ghost that was keeping him company since his brother's departure as he lives alone in his flat. He also managed to come up with a description of the "ghost" saying it was very dark colored , had a big round tummy and was asleep at the time he looked at it. He has been a little ill ever since !!!

Hearing this i just did not know how to react - my brain was saying it could not have been a ghost but then he had seen it and one had to believe his narration.I would have loved to convince him that there was no ghost but i did not try hard since everybody has their own perception of the Supernatural. What leads people to believe in ghosts and witches and souls ?? Maybe they are just too fearful in some situations for e.g when somebody is alone in the dark you are never quite sure of your surroundings or what's happening around you. This possibly leads to a vulnerability of mind and the fear converts itself to an ugly supernatural form in front of your eyes. Add to that the numerous "horror" stories you have heard from almost all quarters which add to one's belief of such ghosts. Even every little sound heard at such times feels like a ghost whisper.

I am a firm believer in Science and there's nothin there that proves the existence of any such thing. There can always be a proper explaination of any "ghostly" activity if one just dares to investigate what the cause of the activity is. In the case of Prince, i feel that firstly he was still half asleep when he got up at 5:13 and secondly he was expecting to see a human figure (and by that i mean his brother) besides him that time. The combination of these two things made his eyes believe there was some human there at that time, which he could not explain when he was completely awake and so he conveniently labeled the whole incident as a Ghost sighting. What cannot be explained is by no way "Supernatural" but it's just something that has not been investigated or discovered as yet by the great scientists of this world. It's a challenge for human intelligence to raise the bar to unearth the yet-unexplained secrets. One should not fear the Supernatural but just try and convert it to "natural" :)

The point should be re-stressed that it's fear most of the times as also the insufficient knowledge about an incident that is the creator of horror creatures. Somehow in the ancient times when science was at it's infancy or even virtually non-existent, people just could not explain what they perceived as unnatural happenings and they have created these ever-lasting myths like witches and ghosts. Even solar and lunar eclipses were termed as acts of the demon but see how they have been proven to be something very natural occurence far far away from any "Evil act".

Ghosts are just mental images in the minds of a vulnerable and frightened being. All such unreal and unnecesary ideas can be abolished only through proper education mainly in the rural areas and proper enlightenment.

Folks , I can't see the keyboard ......the lights have gone out suddenly and it's dark...and , and OH NO there's a white human figure out here hanging from the ceiling !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See ya if i am alive tommorow.

IT Industry - The Dark side

If you think to yourself , what's the fastest growing thing in India, you would think of many things. But one such thing which is not obvious is the rapidly expanding IT industry. From just being a fun toy in and before the early 90s , the computer has become your pocket filler today. And the extent of the bucks earned no doubt is attracting huge masses to this industry. At the outset itself let me make it clear that i am not too much of a computer crazy guy , infact i hate it more than i love it when i come to think of it as my buddy in my day to day job.

Why you wud ask , when you cud do so many fascinating things with it. Sure , but i feel except if you are really making a difference to anybody or creating something REALLY happening like Rocket Science/Super Computing , everything else that gets produced in the IT industry is just the same wine in different bottles. However the the most sorry part of it all for me is that the IT industry makes you sit at one place for hours together. I mean why stare at the "new version of the idiot box" and keep tapping your fingers the whole day on that key-bored when you can easily be out of the office somewhere in the arms of nature or arms of your loved ones. I like to be fit and healthy , the IT industry it seems objects to a person being healthy by giving him/her some bad habits which i will discuss later. The computer is in many ways like an adhesive , keeps you firmly routed to your seat and your cubicle . Well talking of cubicles , remember that even the prison has a 4 sided structure to which the prisoner is confined !!!! Difference being a prisoner does not have to bear the computer within his cell like an IT guy... That brings me to the second part of this topic - the guy itself : the IT PROFESSIONAL henceforth referred to in the article as the "IT PRO".

If you wake me up in the middle of the night , place a massive crowd of people before me and ask me to identify the IT PROs among them , I am confident i would be so accurate that it would place me above Einstein in the "Genius" rankings.

Firstly the dress itself gives it away.... tip-top, well ironed formal shirt , formal trouser , shining pair of formal shoes , a mobile pouch , expensive gadgets.... shirt always tucked in with a belt to keep it tucked in around the ever growing tummy. But the biggest characteristic of an IT PRO is his laptop bag..doesn't matter if there is a laptop inside or not, the bag is an inseperable part of an IT PRO's persona. Also the ID card hanging around the neck , for me bears a great resemblence to the garland put around a photoframe :) ... the ID card sits around the neck sometimes even as early as leaving home and comes back intact around the neck till you reach back home late night , midnight whatever time !!!!! For an IT PRO , it's much much and more much valuable than say an Olympic Gold Medal around an athlete's neck. Interestingly whenever i am walking out on those streets, I see a similar thing around the neck of the canines of this world.

A GENUINE hardcore IT PRO MUST MUST always talk about releases, bugs , database , requirements while being not only at his workplace but also at the lunch table, snacks , lifts and even nature call rooms..believe me i have seen people talking only IT related things in places where you would better concentrate on something else:))))

Also if u ever notice real close, most of the IT PROs, specially those who have found their feet in this IT jumboree, always move around with a swagger, like they just conquered Everest or got an affirmative response from a Miss World. They just somehow seem to try to give a feeling that everything about them and around them is so cool , when deep in their minds they also know they are just the prisoners of these computers confined to the limited space of their workplaces. I used to wonder and now I have no doubt , that thru the span of their life , they see their computers more than they see their wife and kids !!!!!

With IT job comes a plethora of bad habits like very little activity thru the day, negligence of health and fitness , drinking "Coffee" innumerable times a day ( a dangerous trait ) , absolute disregard of the eyes and the brain etc etc. A person tends to bog down and become monotonous and routine in his daily life.All and all the IT Industry , as well as it pays , also eats you away mentally and health wise big time.

All i feel is that computer work is no special talent as such , it can be taught and brought out of the most common guys..there's no semblence of a real physical talent as is required in acting , singing , sports etc. Not everyone can become a player , singer , actor but almost all with some guidance and buffer of time can become IT PROs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EMBRACE OTHER PROFESSIONS AS WELL.....Leave the IT line to those who wanna spend a stereotypical, routine life doing ..well nothing !!!