We should really think about what we really are and what we want to be before we start running blindly.

Be Illuminared.

The world suffers a lot.
Not because of the violence of the bad people,
But because of the silence of the good people.
-Napoleon Bonaparte

True words.
Let all of us, the ‘good people’ expel the silence and get into action. Refute, revolt, reward(yourselves).

Cybercrime expert Mikko Hypponen talks us through three types of online attack on our privacy and data — and only two are considered crimes.

Source: TED

Be Illuminared!

The question that arises is even after such a huge head start, where did we lose out? The answer is in the ruthless conquests and the lack of science cultivation by the rulers. All the work in the field of science, religion, education and literature was mainly done during the Vedic period to the reign of Ashoka. After King Ashoka, very few instances have been found where the rulers had cultivated the spirit of research. Especially, during the Renaissance of the West when we Indians were being ruled by the various kings and the Mughals were getting a hold over the land, the spirit of science and education was killed in India. The Mughals were fascinated by art and architecture from the Western frontiers. In order to cultivate the Persian style of architecture in India, credit has to be given to them for the development of the Indo-Persian architecture that had Persian style mixed with various Indian styles. Post Akbar, not even a single example can be found where a ruler has encouraged the development of science. The other day a friend did rightly point out that Taj Mahal, one of the most awe inspiring monuments of the world was built in India post Akbar and I did agree with him but my point is, when the West was thinking on the lines of arches and suspension bridges and more innovative methods of constructions, could the Taj Mahal be credited to be an innovative architectural marvel? I have never been to Versailles but the photographs and the writings makes me think that why it is not called a wonder of the world? The furniture, the heating mechanism, everything has a touch of modernity and innovation to it. What better way to merge science with aesthetical beauty than the mirror room of Versailles? The Southern parts of our country however continued to cultivate science and technology and today the difference is very clear in India. Not only are the literacy rates of most southern-states high but also the development of science and technology is remarkable. Today if we talk about IT we talk about Bengaluru and when we talk about medicine we talk about Vellore. One might say that Rajnikanth living in south does make a difference, well my friends I cannot deny that can I? The revival of science and technological education in India was mainly because of the British rule in the country. If they had not had the need of skilled labours for the colonies then the education and science in India would have stayed one of the most under developed in the whole world.

The Chinese and the Indians have always had a very happening camaraderie. Right from Hewn Tsang till the Panchsheel to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We have a lot in common. It is heard that when the Chinese community started migrating to the United States during the mid 20^th century, like Indians they too went to make it big there. Today, India has ended up depending on USA for its economic and Chinese have a share in controlling the economy of the United States. It is pleasing to see that right opposite to the New York stock exchange is the office of a Chinese bank, FYI it has taken over the building where JP Morgan founded his first bank, stands symbolic to the increasing domination of the Chinese in the world. The question that arises here is what has the Chinese done that we couldn’t? The answer to that is ambiguous. Some people like the Communist Party of India has always credit the Chinese development to the Communist government, some others have spoken about the developments in the course of time, some have said that national unity is more in China than in India and some have even gone to the extent of putting the blame of the system and the attitude of the people.

According to me, we should not ask why the Chinese are ahead, this is the wrong attitude. We should implant the idea in every Indian mind and soul that we are the best and we can do things much better than anybody else can. If few of our citizens can bring back gold medals from the International Olympiads than all of us should try and upgrade our standard to that level. Abraham Lincoln said that the fact that some people achieve extraordinary success is proving the fact that others can as well. We have always talked about embracing American culture, our Chief Minister (I mean West Bengal) have said that she would make Kolkata the next London. I do have stern reservations about us being next London and not London being next Kolkata however, keeping language aside I would like to say that in which metropolitan city do secondary exams get shifted because of political rallies? In which civilised education institution are the teachers beaten up by college party workers? Under which London bridge do you find people living with television sets and music systems like you find under the Gariahat fly-over?

We put the blame on the government, the government on the system and the system on the people. This cyclic process of playing the blame game is very active in India. Like a Ferries Wheel it keeps going on and on giving an impression that the wheel of development is on the move whereas in actual context it remains in the same place. It is time when we, the people, especially the youth should take the responsibility in our own hands. We should try and work to uplift the standard of our nation so that we again become the best in the world. There is no lack of inspiration in each and every field of life. Right from Dr. C. V Raman to Ramanujan to Amartya Sen to . Chose any one to take inspiration, change the mindset and get on to make things happen. Instead of pointing fingers, it is time when we must fix things for ourselves. Are we that incapable that we won’t be able to meet global standards if people don’t hold our hands and take us forward?

Being from the land of Mahatma Gandhi, it is ironic that the quote I use is by Adolf Hitler but that being the need of the hour, Hitler said to the Germans that you don’t have to take the responsibility of anybody else but yourself. Do not expect people to drag you along because remember, there is always someone poorer and more needy than you are.

This is what I echo to all my fellow Indians, if we can take the responsibility of just ourselves then all of us are bound to move ahead for the ultimate national goal.

“Arise, Awake and Stop not till your goal is reached.”

Be Illuminared.

Picnik the brilliant photo editing tool is set for closure on April 19th, 2012 and to be integrated to Google+.

This is the screenshot @ http://picnik.com :

Gonna miss it so much. ‘Twas so much of fun.

Gonna miss you Picnik.

Have a look of this ~6 minute video.
Very interesting.
Do have a look.

A short ~11 minutes video about the history of the English language.
Do watch.

SOPA is dead after main sponsor and the person who started SOPA, Rep. Lamar Smith pulls out.
Hooray!!

Doesn’t SOPA/PIPA violate the Right to Freedom of Speech and Innovation? Doesn’t it show what the U.S Government is actually not meaning what they have proudly claimed Right to Freedom?
Same thing to the Indian censorship demands by the Government: Doesn’t it violate the Right to Freedom of Speech, and in general Right to Freedom proudly stated in the Indian Constitution? The Internet has always been a free place to exchange views, thoughts, ideals and ideas alike. It has helped in the downfall of many unfaithful and inhumane governments ; eg. the Arab Spring. It helps students, professionals and everyone alike. And they want to censor this beautiful invention?

Internet giants like Facebook and Google and not to forget, something which has helped all of us, Wikipedia are against this. Not only them, but even Sir Timothy “Tim” Berners-Lee is against these bills.

Have a look:
http://vimeo.com/31100268

Helpful links:
http://americancensorship.org/supporters.html
http://americancensorship.org/infographic.html
http://americancensorship.org/infographic2.html

Give your voice:

If you are a blog owner: put a black bar similar to the one on Illuminared on the header of your blog add this snippet on the header of you blog(without quotes):

<a style=”width:400px;height:100px;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;background-color:#000;position:absolute;z-index:5555;top:50px;left:50px;background-image:url(http://americancensorship.org/images/stop-censorship-small.png);background-position:center center;background-repeat:no-repeat;” href=”http://americancensorship.org”></a>

(p.s. please do take this seriously because if SOPA/PIPA is passed it is going to threaten YOUR blog too)

Others go to http://americancensorship.org/

“When ideas are blocked, information deleted, conversations stifled and people constrained in their choices, the Internet is diminished for all of us.. There isn’t an economic Internet and a social Internet and a political Internet. There’s just the Internet.” – Hillary Clinton (United States Secretary of State), against SOPA/PIPA.

————Censored Version————

All of you █████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ the ██████ ████ on ████/████ and the ███████ ██████ ████████ to ██████ ████ ████████(to be ████████ 21 of ████).

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█████’t it ████ ████ the U.S ██████████ is ████████ not ███████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ███████ █████ to ███████?
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█████’t it ███████ the █████ to ███████ of ██████, and in ███████ █████ to ███████ ███████ ██████ in the ██████ ████████████?

The ████████ has ██████ ████ a ████ █████ to ████████ █████, ████████, ██████ and █████ █████.
It has ██████ in the ████████ of ████ ██████████ and ████████ ███████████ ; eg. the ████ ██████. It █████ ████████, █████████████ and ████████ █████.
And ████ ████ to ██████ ████ █████████ █████████?
████████ ██████ ████ ████████ and ██████ and not to ██████, █████████ █████ has ██████ all of us, █████████ are ███████ ████.
Not ████ ████, but ████ Sir ███████ “Tim” ███████-Lee is ███████ █████ █████.

████ a ████:

███████ IP / ████ ██████ The ████████ ████ █████ for the ██████ on █████.

███████ █████:
████://██████████████████.org/██████████.████
████://██████████████████.org/███████████.████
████://██████████████████.org/████████████.████

████ ████ █████:

If you are a ████ █████: put a █████ bar ███████ to the one on ███████████ on the ██████ of ████ ████ add ████ ███████ on the ██████ of you ████(███████ ██████):
“”

p.s. ██████ do ████ ████ █████████ ███████ if ████/████ is ██████ it is █████ to ████████ ████ ████ too)

██████ go to ████://██████████████████.org/

“████ █████ are ███████, ███████████ ███████, █████████████ ███████ and ██████ ███████████ in █████ ███████, the ████████ is ██████████ for all of us.. █████ isn’t an ████████ ████████ and a ██████ ████████ and a █████████ ████████. █████’s ████ the ████████.” – ███████ ███████ (██████ ██████ █████████ of █████), ███████ ████/████.

Be Illuminared!