Fool around

A new software, Simedia SounderCover that runs on Nokia mobile phones allows you to play background sounds that help you to pretend to be where you are supposed to be, or are not: a hip party, a traffic jam or by the sea. Your voice will be heard on top of the appropriate background noise.
After having downloaded the program, when you get a call on your mobile phone, a small window alerts you to whether you would like to play some background sound.
Simedia SounderCover offers nine background noises, like traffic, the grinding of machinery, a storm, etc.
I need not tell when to use this and with whom. Also I don’t know if this is available in India.

A process called Death

I always thot that death is an event unlike birth. The heart snaps and in a split second the person is dead. But I was wrong, death is not an event..its a process. I sat and watched death from a distance of less than 5 foot for around 5 hrs. Its a terrible experience. My uncle was gasping for air since 10pm in the night. The doc asked us to inform the near and dear ones. He said that it was the last few minutes not even hours. Cancer was going to kill him. The hospital room was filled with around 25 relatives in no time. Thanks to mobile phones. But the doc was wrong. Uncle had hours remaining. The oxygen pumped into the nose nor the drips pumped into the veins would help. I counted that uncle used to take 20 deep gasps every minute. The mouth would not close. The eyes were semi open. I got the "Ganga jal" in a small sealed container and kept it in the drawer next to the bed.

11:30 night
Uncle could hear and he would turn his face towards the voice. Eye balls used to move. BP was very low 90-60. He would close his mouth to gulp in the water put into the mouth.
12:30 night
He wouldnt recognise voices. The eye balls still moved in pain I belive. Hands and legs stopped moving. He would still gulp the water. Death has started.
2am
My cousin who is another doctor checked BP. There is no BP. No pulse. She says the heart is not powerful enuf to pump blood to the hands and legs. But the heart still beats. The beats are just enuf to pump blood to the head and heart itself. Water still goes in. She touches his chest and after some examination says that the lower body has reached coma. She puts light into his eyes using torch, and the eyeball moves indicating that brain is active. Death is continuing.
3am
The gasping reduces to 12 per minute. Water can still be gulped in. Eyeballs wont move. Heart continues to beat. Legs and arms turn cold. This was the first time I touched and to my surprise it was ice cold. Head is still warm indicating blood circulation. Tears (I will call it fluid) starts flowing out of the eyes slowly. Was it because of the pain caused by the cancer? Death is winning the battle with life.
4:15am
There is a loud cough and gasping stops. Cousin puts stethescope on the chest and tries to hear. She can't hear anything. The mouth is still open. The eyes are semi open. Death has taken over.

It took 5 long hours to kill. I have lost 2 more relatives in this calender year. But their death was less painful. One died in sleep and the other just collapsed in a shop. This was terrible. You know that the person will die but you wait for death. It's really painful to sit. To be honest when all hopes were lost I prayed for the death to take over quickly. After death events are even more painful. To console the family is in itself a big task. Experience helps in this.

Like finger prints and DNA, they say that no two death process are similar.

Impossible figures

In the Landmark quiz, there was a visual that showed Uma Thurman walking up and down a stairway in the movie "The Avengers". The question was "Whats the structure?" Answer - Penrose stairway.
I did a google on this and found that there are a category of figures known as "Impossible figures". These can only be drawn but they can't be realised. Wondering what is so great about drawing something that can be real? Check out the pictures in the link and it looks so stupid. Somebody draws something and people all round the world start doing phds on it. People like me discuss and blog it aswell!!!
Other funny aspect is that these figures fall in the maths category. I just had a discussion about this with my friend here. His arguement was that its all geometric shapes, so its geometry and so its maths.
I dont agree with this. Then any drawing is maths!
By the way, Penrose stairway is a staircase which neither goes up nor goes down...Huh!

Lord watching strip-tease

Near my house there was the Ganesha festival organized by a group (Don’t wonder that’s its Nov and still Ganesha festival…that’s how we celebrate). As part of the celebration, in the evening there was an orchestra and dance show. Film songs were being sung. I somehow love orchestras. I had been there to see it. 3 girls in jeans and full arm shirts came on stage for a dance. After some jhatkas, the girls took off their shirts and threw it to the crowd. Now they were in sleeveless body hugging T-shirts. I am stunned by this behavior. Look at the occasion. Ganesha festival and a semi striptease.
Where am I?

Where is Vanamahotsava?

Does anybody remember Vanamahotsava?
It was the day we used to plant trees(plants) when we were in schools. I remember taking some plants in plastic covers to the school and planting it in some pre-planned locations, watering it etc. Now we dont even remeber that such a day existed. Nowadays we celebrate every other stupid day like Smile day, Heart day, Hug day...but not the important ones like this plant day. We need this more now in most parts of Bangalore. The garden city is slowly loosing its green charm. There used to be lots of plants in all the new layouts with the protection (black sticks with mess, to prevent cows from eating). Now I dont see this here.
Sometimes I get this sudden josh of we should do it...But there it stops...
I was googling for some forest trek spots and hit upon this festival in one site. I then read an interesting article regarding this.

All in 3 days...

Saturday
Finally, I found a library which has English novels near my house. It has old collection but there are lots of magazines, kannada books etc.
I had been to the play "Love letters" along with my friends in the evening. The seating arrangement, the crowd and the play were all good. The play is actually reading of letters exchanged between a male and a female friend. They start off from childhood till they die. It shows the different feelings of friends as they age and how business etc affects them. Also talks about the same "Men are from Mars, women are from Venus" stuff. How true!

Sunday
After lots of planning, finally 4 friends of mine decided to meet and go for a movie. At the nth moment rain spoilt the plans and 2 guys couldnt turn up. It was a big dissappointment. 2 of us went to Collateral. Oops, such a horrible movie. No story, just mindless drives and killings. No philosophy also. Please avoid this crap.

Monday
Some sudden development and spent the entire day in hospital. Looks like alls well now. Hopefully!

Back to work now..after the hectic long weekend..