e-Wedding

When one of my best friends told me about his wedding date a couple of months back, I was pretty distraught. There was no way I could attend his wedding, as I would be out of the country at that time. Not only was I sad about missing this momentous occasion in his life, I was also disappointed at missing a chance to catch up with all my old friends that I would have met after years, at the wedding. I could also feel the disappointment in my friend who was getting married, that one of his closest pals would not be around to see him get hitched.

Then one day, over a telephonic conversation, we hatched a plan to overcome our geographical boundaries. As with almost all life's problems these days, the web came to your rescue. We decided to use my friend's laptop and webcam, along with his wireless internet data card connection to webcast his wedding LIVE via Skype.

And thus, the web helped Me and his Grandma, who was unable to attend on account of ill health, register our e-presence at wedding from different parts of the world.

Related Post - GBM

Yeh Jeevan Hai..

Over heard in the Boston Metro..

I woman on crutches, with her right leg heavily plastered, gingerly hops onto the subway train. Due to office hour rush, she is not able to find a place to sit. She somehow manages to balance herself and stands next to a vertical support.

An old man standing nearby, moved by the situation, speaks to her. “It must be difficult travelling in the subway in this state. You should have stayed home.”

“I need to go to work every day.” the woman replied with a smile.

“Oh! Going to work everyday must be a challenge. I guess you must be happy that the day is over and you are going home to take some rest.”

“Not really. With this broken leg, I find it harder to do the household chores as compared to my office duties, especially with 2 young kids at home.”

“Ya, I guess so. Hope your husband shares some of your burden at home.”

“I am a single mother”.

The old man pats her on the back. The conversation ends.

The incident highlights a couple of things for me. One, how tough and lonely life can be in extremely individualistic societies of the West; where the concept of family life as we know it in the East, simply does not exist. And two, no matter how tough your life is personally, you can always find someone else who is going through worse times. Hence, we should always be thankful for what God has given us.

Favorite Star Trek Episodes

As a big Star Trek fan (of The Original Series, not The Next Generation) since my childhood, I was pleasantly surprised to see that most episodes of The Original Series up on Youtube a couple of months back. Since then, I have seen most of them again on weekends. Here is my list of favorite episodes.

1. Space Seed (Sci-fi at it's best)

2. The City on the Edge of Forever (Most critically acclaimed)

3. Tomorrow is Yesterday (Sheer time travel fun)

4. Amok Time (Spock's "human" side)

5. The Trouble with Tribbles (Funniest)

6. The Enemy Within (Great concept of good and evil)

7. The Devil in the Dark (Moral tale)

8. Spectre of the Gun (Shades of Matrix philosophy)

9. The Corbomite Maneuver (Core Star Trek concept)

10. The Way to Eden (Hippies in the Star Trek universe)

Salt Lake City Airport

When I recently happened to make a stop over at Salt Lake City Airport, I was quite dazzled by the natural beauty surrounding it. The airport is flanked by picturesque mountains on several sides, and the view before landing is something to behold. I understand that all of Salt Lake City is flanked by such wonderful mountains, as if they are guarding the city against enemies.

Here are some pictures. (Sources - I, II). More pictures from Salt lake City are here.

Darr ke aage jeet hai..

I have had a fear of heights right from my childhood. I always tend to avoid peeping from high rises and mountainous cliffs. The same goes for roller coasters and thrill rides as well. One incident 5 years back, when I was coaxed into jumping onto a roller coaster by a few friends and felt horribly giddy afterwards, further increased by reluctance towards taking up any activity involving high G-forces. I decided never again to undertake any such ride in my life.

Hence, when a friend of mine invited me to join him on visit to an adventure park that had many high intensity thrill rides earlier this year, I was naturally very apprehensive. As I reluctantly joined him on the trip, I kept telling myself that I would not take any of mind-numbing thrill rides on offer under any circumstances. Yet, I finally bowed down to my friend's repeated requests and took one of the rides on offer.

To say that it was a petrifying experience would be an understatement. My head was swiveling like a top. But once done, I felt a strange feeling of accomplishment within me. I felt I had overcome an internal demon. I had "survived" a roller coaster ride!

So, when my friend asked me to join him on the next thrill ride that promised even greater G-forces, I said yes. Even though I knew my heart would be in my mouth again during the ride, I wanted to take that experience to see how I cope with it. Surprisingly, though the second ride scared me as well, it did so much less than the first one.

Ride after ride followed next. Though I felt an element of fear in all of them, it slowly ceased being a mortal one. By the end of the day, as I gingerly walked away from the amusement park with my head still feeling the aftereffects of all the twisting, turning and falling, I almost felt that I had overcome my fear of heights to a great extent.

I few weeks back, when I visited Las Vegas, I wanted to re-test the extent to which I had overcome Acrophobia. Hence I decided to take pay a visit to Stratosphere Tower, the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States and the second tallest in the Western Hemisphere, and take the Big Shot and X-Scream rides, which are the world's highest amusement rides.

Big Shot

X-Scream

I was surprised at the relative lack of fear these rides were able to induce in me as compared to the previous ones I had taken. It reinforced my belief that it is possible to overcome one's deepest fears and insecurities, provided one is willing to take the first step.