हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन

If I haven't told you before, I am saying it now. I love this song. This song is from hindi TV serial Chanakya that was aired on Doordarshan in 1990. I don't know how I missed it, but when I saw it years ago, I was so impressed and fascinated that I bought the whole DVD set of 47 episodes and watched it everyday after work till it was over. It shows how Chanakya, a pioneering professor of Political Science and Economics around 300 BC, brought the whole nation together and installed Chandragupta Maurya as the emperor of united India, "Bharat", for the first time in the history. This song is sung by all the students of Takshashila University in the TV series. I couldn't find when this song was written, but it seems that it was written by D.Lit Mr. Vishwanath Shukla. You can see it here and here are the lyrics for this song..

हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन
हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन.. आराधन

तन से, मन से, धन से
तन मन धन जीवन से
हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन
हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन.. आराधन

अंतर से, मुख से, कृति से
निश्चल हो निर्मल मति से
श्रद्धा से मस्तक नत से
हम करें राष्ट्र अभिवादन
हम करें राष्ट्र अभिवादन

हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन
हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन.. आराधन

अपने हँसते शैशव से
अपने खिलते यौवन से
प्रौढ़ता पूर्ण जीवन से
हम करें राष्ट्र का अर्चन
हम करें राष्ट्र का अर्चन

हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन
हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन.. आराधन

अपने अतीत को पढ़कर
अपना इतिहास उलट कर
अपना भवितव्य समझ कर
हम करें राष्ट्र का चिंतन
हम करें राष्ट्र का चिंतन

हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन
हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन.. आराधन

है याद हमें युग युग की
जलती अनेक घटनायें,
जो माँ की सेवा पथ पर
आई बन कर विपदायें,
हमने अभिषेक किया था
जननी का अरि षोणित से,
हमने श्रिंगार किया था
माता का अरि-मुंडों से,
हमने ही उसे दिया था
सांस्कृतिक उच्च सिंहासन,
माँ जिस पर बैठी सुख से
करती थी जग का शासन,
अब काल चक्र की गति से
वह टूट गया सिंहासन,
अपना तन मन धन देकर
हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन
हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन.. आराधन

तन से, मन से, धन से
तन मन धन जीवन से
हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन
हम करें राष्ट्र आराधन..आराधन

Meaning of difficult words brought to you by http://www.shabdkosh.com/:

आराधन - worship, adore
निश्चल - calm
निर्मल - pure, clear
अभिवादन - salutation
शैशव - youth, childhood
प्रौढ़ता - adulthood
अर्चन - worship
भवितव्य - destiny
अरि - antagonists
षोणित - N/A (Couldn't find the meaning)

Around the world on trains

Just as so many who grew up in India traveling by trains, I also love traveling by trains. As my dad used to work in Indian Railways, we used to get two free passes to travel by first class anywhere in India. So, we used one of those passes to travel to Delhi every summer. I used to look forward to this journey and get so excited on the day of the travel. The journey back was always painful. Some times, we used to go up to Delhi from Gujarat during Diwali, but almost always, we would make this long journey at least once a year. This was a month long vacation which I used to look forward to. The day long journey, 10 AM to 7 AM the next day was an adventure in itself. So many stations to see, so much of land to discover, people to meet on the train. As I grew older, I used to love standing on the door and get down at every station and then wait for the train to start so that I could run and get on it. This also gave me nightmares of having missed the train at some point but the fun was worth the risk. Traveling by train also served to fulfill my innate curiosity of exploring new lands and people. I was a wanderlust and still believe that "not everyone who doesn't know where he/she is going is lost". Traveling was pleasurable then and comfortable unlike the travel by plane.

So since I am sick and can't really do anything productive with my mind, I let it wander. I let it wander to the deserts of central asia, to the peaks of alps, to the valleys of smokey mountains, to the icy peaks of himalayas and humid river plains of Vietnam and wondered, wouldn't it be awesome if I could go around the world on trains? Carrying with me the message of peace and brotherly love. Raise awareness of common human suffering and climate change. (shh...something good should come out of this) Wouldn't it be awesome to actually see this wonderful world from 5 ft instead of 35000 ft? Yes, that would be great. That is my dream. To be able to one day take the time off and have the resources and courage to go around the world on trains, automobiles and ferries instead of planes. I don't want to travel alone of course, it would be great to travel with others who would love to make this historic journey as well. I do love my life, so it would be great to know which areas to avoid and how to travel through the not so hospitable places without getting noticed/killed.

So I googled this and came up this website - http://www.seat61.com/India-overland.htm

This website explains how to travel from London to India and beyond but it also has other interesting train rides.

If I were to chose, of course, I would make every train ride going through each continent, but given that a journey around the world itself would be quite time/resource consuming, I came up with this itinerary.

San Francisco - Washington D.C. - New York

then fly over the pond to London.

Follow the London - Paris - Venice - Budapest - Istanbul - Tehran - Quetta - Amritsar route.

Since I have been thinking about doing a similar journey throughout India, go from Amritsar - New Delhi - Ahmedabad - Mumbai - Panaji - Bangalore - Thiruvananthapuram - Kanyakumari - Chennai - Hyderabad - Vizag - Kolkota.

Kolkata - Dhaka. Find a way to get to Yangoon and then to Bangkok - Phom Penh - Saigon - Beijing - Shanghai - Hong Kong - Tokyo and fly back to San Francisco.

Of course not all the cities are connected by train and I will have to travel by bus or ferries at times, but its do able... at least in my dreams. I will do the Trans Siberian, Silk Route, African, and Australian journeys some other time but this would be my first journey around the world on land, if it is a possibility at some point. And I would certainly take way more than 80 days to savor the journey...

Plastic bottle takes how long to decompose?

These numbers are just mind boggling.

We all know trash in the landfill is not a good idea. It takes a lot of time for things to decompose. We all know recycling is good for the environment. Just how good is it? Just read these numbers to realize how big of a mark you leave on this earth when you don't recycle.

Time Required To Degrade:

1. Paper - 2 to 5 months
2. Fruit - 6 months
3. Plastic Bags - 10-20 years
4. Diapers - 20 years
5. Aluminium Cans - 80-100 years
6. Plastic Bottles - 700 years
7. Glass Bottles - 1 Million years

There is a visual disintegration timetable here but the numbers are a little different.

Baron Funds Update

One of the funds in my portfolio must be Baron's so I received a note from them in mail.

Effective 30 days from the date of this Supplement, in connection with Baron Asset Fund, the definition of mid-sized growth company is one having a market capitalization of $1.5 billion to $12 billion at the time of purchase. The Prospectus of the Baron Funds, which currently defines a mid-sized company as one having a market capitalization of $2.5 billion to $10 billion at the time of purchase, is modified as follows: ....

This reminds me of the way you reduce the people living under the poverty line: reduce the line of poverty. Signs of the times we live in.

R.I.P. Good Times - Sequoia Presentation

Sequoia gave this presentation to all the CEOs of their portfolio companies. Gives you some idea about the severity of the crisis and the indication of the times to come.

Khuda Ke Liye

खुदा के लिए (In the name of the God)

Just saw this Pakistani movie yesterday. I must commend the effort of the writer and director Shoaib Mansoor to make such a movie at this day and age. Technically, it starts out very choppy hopping between Chicago, London and Lahore but from midway onwards, the flow gets better and the movie becomes gripping. Lots of the scene sequences, choice of words in dialogues and dialogue delivery sounds amateurish but when you have a big crew and a massive project like this, its hard to get all the players at the same level of professionalism. Overall the actors Shaan, Fawad Khan and Iman Ali carry the movie forward smoothly. Shaan's acting is cool and smooth but his father is very awkward and lifeless. Fawad Khan and Rasheed Naz' role is well done. Iman Ali is beautiful especially in her afghani dress. Naseeruddin Khan has a very small role but one in which his talent and experience shows. The highlight of the movie though, at least for me, was the court scene where Naseeruddin Shah's character talks about various conteporary issues as they relate to Islam and his interpretation. The music is very good and limited to its place in telling the story rather than being a nuisance as in many bollywood movies.

The movie, I have heard, has broken box office records of all times in Pakistan and aptly so. It has also started a debate among the moderates and the fanatically orthodox on the topic that now affects the whole world, religious fanaticism.

Fly Through your Wall of Pics

This is one of the most creative firefox plugin I have ever seen. It makes the collection of pictures come alive in a clickable, zoomable, browsable wall of pictures in full screen.

All the major pictures and social networking sites are supported including the results page in google, ask.com and yahoo image search.

Thanks to JG for this. You can download the plugin at www.piclens.com