The sun sets down on yet another sem....a semester marked with so many defining moments, so many first-timers, so many eventful events...yet as I stand at the fag end of it, and look back, it seems so bleak –nothing tangible was achieved out of the semester...Just a sigh!
Like a deep sigh –involving so many complex co-ordinated actions of the diaphragm muscle, the intercoastal muscles, the rib cage and the lungs –yet seen as nothing more than a simple sigh...a longing for something...a desperate grasping at the invisible air...
This infinite-loop question was brought once again to the surface by Bro during one of our casual chit-chatters.(Well…Umm…er…not a casual talk exactly –Bro was actually trying to ‘train’ me for GD(group discussion), which I’ll be inevitably facing in the very near future…as hopefully companies might soon start plying the campus).
That got me into thinking…(yea I do think at times)… and imagining…and googling…
I wonder if the chickens would be as interested in tracing their family trees as we humans are! :P
If you are a staunch believer of the Bible, then you can easily conclude that chickens came first –It was on the Fifth Day of Creation Week that He created every winged creature (Genesis 1:21) complete with the DNA to reproduce that kind. Then He blessed them, saying,” Be fruitful, and multiply" (using that DNA). For the chickens, this meant lay chicken eggs. Problem solved! :)
However big shots like Stephen Hawking and Christopher Langan along with Darwin argue that the egg came before the chicken.
While ol’ Aristotle seemed to be unable to come up with a definite solution and played it safe. He was quite puzzled by the idea that there could be a first bird or egg and concluded that both the bird and egg must have always existed.
Another popular theory holds that genetic material does not alter during an animal's life. It does however change in the egg. Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in the era when dinosaurs roamed around at large, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg. Confused??? To put it in simple terms, two non-chickens mated, they may have been the same species of another bird, but some mutation happens. It mutates in the cells that created the egg. Thus, the egg hatches the first chicken.Voila! :D
In this light, both the egg and the chicken evolved simultaneously from birds who weren't chickens and didn't lay chicken eggs but gradually became more and more like chickens over time. Hmmm…..
But if the dinosaurs came first, who laid the dinosaur egg?... And again, it is no easy path from dinosaur to bird either, as legs must become wings, scales must become feathers, solid bones should turn hollow, cold-blooded should heat up to warm-blooded. :O
"The origin of birds is still up in the air.";)
So the question now becomes: Is a "chicken egg" an egg laid by chicken or an egg that will hatch into a chicken? Any "eggsperts" out there who can explain??
Wiki says, an equivalent situation arise in engineering and science known as circular reference, in which a parameter is required to calculate that parameter itself(van der Walls equation, Colebrook equation). To fella civil engineers, another example is calculation of thickness of roof of a tank or structure. To calculate the thickness requirement, we need to know the self weight of the roof, which is possible only by already knowing the thickness. This situation is solved by initailly assuming the parameter and by repeated iterations converging towards finer values…Alright that’s too much of tech!!!
I come up excitedly with all these facts and findings and blabber them to Bro, only to hear from him, “Whichever was ordered first, came first” .…(Argh! Talk about IIT level PJs! :)
Disclaimer: the post contains a lot of stuff from the web and a lot of my bullshitting too. So if anyone feels like suing me, go ahead :P
Around 262 months back(ie. 1048 weeks to be precise), an army of Spermies entered the territory of Ms. Eggy. One brave li’l Spermy, fighting against all odds, succeeded in conquering Ms. Eggy, and so was I conceived!
Days passed and months passed; and my mommy kept growing fatter and fatter( so much so that the docs even thought that she was gonna have twins). After days of practicing kung fu and martial arts inside my comfy abode, I was forced to come into this world(harsh, wicked and cruel). My cries of protest was mistakenly taken as a ‘good omen’ by the docs, as they started shaking and spanking me(yea, I was already subjected to the brutality of the world!)
Days passed and months passed yet again; and I kept growing and growing…(er…though the process wasn’t really a fast paced one!) And today, here I am, turning 21 –though some think that I’ve got the units and tens placed mixed up!(How rude!)
Alright! Disclaimer: I do not have a growth retardation nor do I have any genetic disorder –though some people think so. If anybody thinks so, all I have to tell them is that, I was just grooming myself for doing the ‘Santoor’ Ad. (But only that ...um…now they might give me the role of the girl who comes running, calling “MUMMY!”)
And one heck of a B’day did I have today. No, I did not have a B’day blast. But I did indeed have a nice day spending time with my loved ones and reflecting on the wonderful life that God has given me, and the ways in which He has led me throughout
“For you created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful,
I know that fully well.”
-Psalms 139:14
And there were surprises in store for me! Loads of ‘em.
I got a domain, MY OWN DOMAIN! all for myself. Thank you so much Mr Red Pill! I seriously never thought that you were serious about the gift!
Thank you MultiMamma, for the ‘BLAH’sphemy! I was expecting a post from you, but you gave me a whole blog. Wow!
Well, the list doesn’t end there(but my day does.Sigh!). I’m so grateful to have been blessed with a wonderful set of parents, bro, kith and kin, who have made my life so wonderful in this world(yea the same harsh, wicked and cruel one!)
In this era when sibling rivalry is a more heard of term than sibling love, it’s good to take one day off to reflect on how our siblings influence our lives, how much they are a part of our lives, and how much love they deserve from us.
It’s funny that our siblings are the only ones whom we can hate as much as we love them. It’s amazing, how the first rival of our childhood, over the years, transforms into the one we love, admire and adore. Differences, how many there may be, our siblings are made of the same stuff as we are, and has been at our side, (whether figuratively or literally)from the beginning.
One needn’t necessarily be a blood relation to be your brother or sister. There are so many wonderful brothers and sisters out there, who make life so marvelous for us.
Today, is that special occasion to celebrate this wonderful relationship –by tying the holy thread which ‘pulsates with sisterly love and sublime sentiments’. And indeed I'm elated to, have ‘tied the knot’ today.
The compartment was empty when we entered it. Phew thank God! We have the place all for ourselves! The sun was fading behind the horizon, as the train slowly gathered speed. Each of us(She I, She II & Me) was in a rather contemplative mood, and therefore the empty seats by the window side helped us much. Time passed by, and we were lost in our own world (And of course, we have a whole lot of things to think about –life, studies, future, guys, films, dresses, friends, politics, world peace, economic crisis…yea, the earth would stop spinning if we stopped thinking:P) when all of a sudden, a little commotion at the door woke us up from our reverie.
It was a couple with two small kids, who had just boarded the train.Alas! We had to bid goodbye to the comforts of the lavish empty seats (and to our privacy) and resign ourselves to the side seats.
Back to the contemplative mood……nah! The two pesky kids were making too much of a rattle for us to engage in any ‘serious’ thinking. Hardly half a dozen year old, the kiddos were chattering away to glory(Perhaps they too must have thought that the earth would stop spinning if they shut their mouth!)
The ‘Grown ups’ –(yea the 3 of us again) –try to engage in some ‘serious’ ‘grown up’ talks throwing irritated skeptical glances at the kids every now and then. They had now started playing ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’…
The compartment echoed with their – ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’… ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’…chant.
Having exhausted our topics to talk, we next sought refuge in one of our lappys to evade boredom…listened to some songs, watched some video clips…
Rock, Paper, Scissors’… Rock, Paper, Scissors’…the kids kept on chanting.
The kids just wouldn’t go to sleep! Don’t they have anything better to do? Isn’t that a dumb old worn out game? Come on kiddos, grow up!!!... The ‘grown ups’ smirked.
Time ticked by. The lappy ran out of charge. Once again, we found ourselves having nothing to do.
‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’…‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’…
We threw meaningful glance at each other. We badly wanted the children to go to sleep. Come on! Stop it! Go sleep! We waited…
Rock, Paper, Scissors’… Rock, Paper, Scissors’…
Finally…finally…after tiring us out(rather than tiring themselves…)they settled themselves down, pulled the sheets over them…and went to sleep for good! Phew!
The lights were turned off…only the dim glow of the night lamp lighted the compartment..
The watch displayed the Titan Ad.
Out of the darkness, silhouetted against the dim light, appeared three hands and in the silence of the night, in almost muffled whispers, there could be heard, a faint chant… ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’
Two tiny heads popped out from under the sheets, and gave the ‘grown-ups’ a meaningful smirk.
Author’s note: This happened when RAC, Crazy and I were going home for Easter. The kids were actually very adorable, though quite annoying.
They say that the best way to keep oneself awake in the class is to keep a watch on the rest of the lot who are sleeping –might be true. I tried to experiment this and see for myself! Couldn’t help take a pic, when this guy dozed off and finally banged his head on the table
Spotted the ‘red head’?
When they said that the mess menu was gonna be upgraded, I never thought they’d go this far...
New item in the mess menu?
Don’t mistake this for a haunted house…it’s one of the rooms in the LH…good thing that our mothers seldom pay a visit to our hostels!
Haunted house?
. Gee..dats ma room(the day when I cleaned it;))…
Yea I know… I should grow up!
This is the instruction sheet that one of our sirs gave us, the day b4 the exam! No wonder I ended up getting an A in the exam
All that matters!
When animals and humans share the same seat…(notice how the feline family have carefully chosen the best chair for themselves..)
Feline Recline!
Ah! This is the view that we get from our LH top floor…I always love to gaze at the evening sky. It’s so amazingly beautiful…Each day, at dusk, the sky turns itself into a new canvas, playing with different hues and shades!! I bet the morning sky would be equally beautiful (sheesh! only if I had the habit of waking up early)
Nature’s treat!
Classes needn't necessarily be restricted to the classroom alone...
And there’s more!
Oh yea…you will get to see such sights too! No need to rub your eyes; it’s Mr. Chettan Bhagat himself! Thanks to the various clubs which try to out-do each other, such people set foot on our campus.
One night @ NITC!
Uncanny things seem to find their way into the trash box…
