“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” Ralph Waldo Emerson


I really do believe this is true. Well, I should elaborate - I used to believe this at a more magical level... recently, the magical thing around this has gone completely missing for me and I see logical elements of that phenomenon (how sad, right? ;) )


Why do I think this?


Well, okay. To explain that I have to first introduce you to Ms. danah boyd (yep, no caps :)) or zephoria. She is one of the most coolest social media expert around. Or well, at least thats how I've always thought of her and the  information she tweets/buzzes about. Lately, I've seen that I see a lot of concepts around education(which is my most relevant to me right now) that seem to be coming from her and a whole bunch of other people I follow/read/watch etc. This sudden increase in the information coming my way reminded me of that quote... the one that says that the world will conspire to make it happen for you. All of this information that I am seeing is so highly relevant to me right now that i feel like there is this healthy conspiracy going to lead me in the right direction (a phenomenon also called Pronoia). So here's my little twist on what Emerson said - once you make a decision, the world of information conspires to make the connections for you and get you closer to your goal. Its not that the entire world has suddenly realized that I needed this information around learning/education and supplying me with it but its just me who is looking at all of this information from the angle that is influenced by my present state of mind. And I think thats really what it is.. and there is really no serendipitous or magical element to it (did i just ruin something for you?)


Well the good news is, if you believe this theory is true then real world also to a large extent makes sense. When you are focused a lot on a certain thing/object/concept you start to see a lot of things in your life that are in some way connected to this desired object. The world isn't especially conspiring, its always been on your side... its just that you've never noticed it :)


Wish there was a similar explanation for Murphy's law though ;)

back of a bus in Andhra Pradesh that an 'artist' used as canvas to display his feelings towards the political leader KCR
a Telangana lover in Hyderabad changes his bike's number to depict that he is in Telangana (as opposed to being in AP)

Me: Hello
Telemarketer 1: ~pause~ Hello Ma'm
Me: Who is this?
TM1: Hello Ma'm
Me: Yes, tell me. who is this?
TM1: Mam we are calling to offer you a flat in ..
Me: Sorry wait, how did you get my number?
TM1: Mam?
Me: My number, how did you get it?
TM1: Serial wise only I am calling ma'm
Me: Excuse me
TM1: I am calling serial wise.. like 740, 741, 742
Me: Oh so you are randomly calling people and asking them if they want a flat? (in my most non-sarcastic tone)
TM1: *hangs up*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Me: Hello(this time on my landline number)
TM2: Hello, I'm calling from ING vysya bank, we are offering a home loan..
Me: I'm sorry, who do you need speak to?
TM2: Hello mam'm
Me: Yes, who do you need to speak to, there are four people in this house. Who do you need to speak to?
TM2: Are you a user of this phone?
Me: Yes
TM2: Then I can speak to you
Me: Eh? you don't care if i'm unemployed or employed or a psychotic killer on the prowl.. you'll offer me a home loan nonetheless?
TM2: My management has given me this number and I am calling ma'm
Me: Well you can be assured that we don't need a home loan. Now if you will please be kind enough to take our number off your datab...
TM2: *hangs up*

I think I am on a hat-trick here. If I manage to make one more telemarketer hang up on me I'll take that as a personal victory :)

                   

Anindyee Dhar - a student from Pune lost her life at the German bakery blast
Yadiah - a student from Nagarm Andhra pradesh, immolated himself at the OU campus for "Telangana"

Two students. An entire lifetime ahead of them. Charred to death.

One lost her life to the evil plans of a terrorist organization while the other gave up his life for the false hopes and instigations made by selfish politicians. I can't decide which is worse.

We all have enough problems in our life. Enough things that threaten our existence - including terrorism, incurable diseases and natural disasters. Despite all of these, if you think killing yourself is going to achieve something  - well then you probably don't deserve that life anyway. You don't respect it enough to so carelessly throw it away.

Its disgusting when media tries to show Yadiah's death as some sort of a sacrifice. If anything, its a sad event that a 19 year old was made to believe that setting himself ablaze was going to make him a martyr.

The media scene in Andhra Pradesh, especially Hyderabad is any geeky media student's wet dream. The series of 'unfortunate' events in AP is as follows:

2nd September 2009: Helicopter crash of YS Rajasekhar Reddy, the chief minister of CM:
3rd September '09: K Rosiah swears in as the (temp)CM
- Is followed by hue and cry of many many YS Jagan(late CM's son) supporters to make Jagan the CM. Rosiah's appointment as the permanent CM of AP is followed by many a Jagan followers resigning their MLA positions.
- Rest and peace restored until K. Chandrasekhar Rao, former leader of Telangana Rashtra Smithi starts to make some very interesting comments which the media starts to paints a comic color to.

9th December 2009: KCR starts-stops-starts to fast for a separate Telangana state which ends on with a rather 'vague' statement from the central government .
This is followed by 165 MLAs(of 250 MLAs) resigning and expressing their demand for Samaikhyandhra - united Andhra state.

20th December 2009: Lagadapati Rajgopal - an MP and united AP protestor disappears from a Vijayawada hospital.

21st December: L Rajgopal reappears in NIMS - the same hospital in Hyderabad where KCR fasted.

23rd December, 2009: The Central government asks the MLAs consensus is needed before going ahead with the formalities of forming a separate state.

25th December, 2009: Meanwhile, ND Tiwari, the 87 year old governor of Andhra Pradesh is caught in a sex scandal

28th December, 2009: Government accepts ND Tiwari's resignation on 'health grounds' and appoints ESL Narasimhan as AP's governor.

8th January, 2010: Fans of YSR attack Reliance stores in the city based on a news report by a Telugu TV channel that claimed that Ambani plotted the crash.


5 years ago, about the same time now - I picked the topic '20 years of AP's politics' as my topic for presentation at my graduation in Political Science. I would love to be a naive BA student right now, trying to choose between so many exciting diverse topics from AP politics! Alas, the age of innocence and ignorance is long gone.. now it is time to sit in front of TV and watch three knucklehead politicians all talk at the same frikkin time and none of them making any sense anyway.

If you don't remember my passwords, who will?

"Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated"

"Customer service is the new advertising."

Then what was the old advertising? Word-of-mouth, I think. Which in turn was dependent on just the usefulness of the product.

What happened before that, you ask?