the 'G'rand 'P'icture of 'A'pplied-electronics..

I happen to know two people... Arjuna and Krishna... they're fellow engineering students.. krishna is the all-knowing omnipotent one.. arjuna is his friend who admires him endlessly... (hey, now wait a minute.. this sounds a li'l familiar... aha!! mahabharata.. bhagavat gita.. bravo!! u're a genius..)

krishna is a very knowledgeable fellow.. encyclopaedic, if i may use the word.. he talks abt technology, business, global issues, sports, philosphy... and arjuna simply gapes at him for his sheer intellect, speechless.. awestruck.. inebriated with the nectar of krishna's raw magnetism...

then one day, something happened that turned the world upside down.. no, not an earthquake or a tsunami.. no, no..not a hurricane either.. just take away the natural-disasters-category from ur mind..

arjuna had asked krishna a question to which he had no answer...
none at all..
krishna blinked.. (but blinking didn't help him find the answer either..)

this was what happened..

Krishna: (finishing lines of prev speech).. and that's how nutrigenomics promises a great future for mankind...
Arjuna: (dazed, awestruck, dumbfounded etc..):.. wow, krishna.. wow!!
K: (very unassumingly).. yes.. its great, i know..
A: krishna... krishna, can i ask u something?
K: sure..go ahead..
A: krishna.. what's ur GPA??
(silence)... (krishna thinks he didn't hear the question properly)...
K: er...my what... arjuna?
A: dude.. ur gpa...

Krishna thinks hard.. finally shakes his head.. and says, "dude.. i don't have the foggiest idea what u r talking abt.."
The world stood still.. Sea waves stopped in mid-tide and turned around to look at krishna.. the winds halted, surprised and shocked.. a guy trying to kill himself by jumping off from a flying jet, paused during mid-fall to wonder at what krishna had just said.. he had not heard of GPA..

A: Du'uh??!! krishna.. u've not heard of gpa??
K: ok now.. enough of this non-sense.. u r just bluffing.. well, what's this gpa anyway??
A: (takes a deep breath).. krishna... GPA.. is a way of life...
K: carry on..
A: u see.. GPA.. is like this philosophy that runs the wheels of the world..
K: eh??
A: well, how shall i explain it to u?.. GPA is like the universal answer to any question... ANY question..
K: Arjuna! u've kindled my curiosity.. kindly enlighten me..'
(psst..above line adopted from translation of Srimad Bhagavath Gita..hopefully blogger.com won't arrest me for copyright violation!!)

Arjuna: like i said.. GPA has all the answers..

Arjuna elaborated thus...
"Any question, my dear krishna..
Why did the chicken cross the road?..GPA..
How shall i find a suitable life-partner?.. GPA..
How to allot electives to students in CET?.. GPA..
Which brand of underwear should i buy?.. GPA..
God!!! Why me???.. GPA, my dear child..."



Krishna: (dazed, awestruck, dumbfounded etc..).. arjuna, i never realised all this...
Arjuna: don't worry krishna.. u r perhaps the only person in this world who hasn't heard of gpa..there's still time.. to catch up with everyone and learn the ways of the world..
Krishna: Arjuna, but u haven't thrown light on what GPA stands for.. what does it all mean, o arjuna!

Arjuna takes another deep breath.." Its a long story.. Years and years ago..when good men still walked on the earth(??).. GPA was called Grade Point Aggregate.. a mere indicator of students' academic performance (in KU exams)... later on, it gained so much importance that it was used as a "General Policy for (any) Allotment"... it was seen as unfair by a vast number of people.. but they were too timid to protest against the policy... later, they suffered, as they saw their "Genuine Passions Attacked".. their passion for knowledge.. their true aptitude thwarted.. they were denied the electives they asked for.. the knowledge they craved...BUT they were too timid to protest..
This remained so for a long time.. till the rules became rigid.. till it was too late to question the authority.. a big "Goodbye to Protests and Arguments.."..
gpa has ruled our college lives ever since.."

Arjuna finished his speech rather dramatically.. Krishna was overcome by nausea..
He cleared his throat..(for it had become choked.. well, y else would anyone clear their throat dammit??).. he mused for a while, and collected himself...

Thus spake GoPAla Krishna:
Remember, my dear Arjuna.. To survive in this college life and in the web of mundanity that the GPA spider (Genetically Programmed to be Atrocious) has spun.. it is not enough to have worldly knowledge alone.. it does not suffice to read the newspaper everyday, build up ur general knowledge, develop ur extra-curricular interests.. it doesn't spur u forward.. all u need to do is score well in Kerala University's "extremely fair" exams.. get a good gpa.. and do the practical thing.. You are known by ur gpa.. as a number.. just as prisoners r known by a number in jail.. U r trapped inside a bubble... gpa is ur only way out..

Does a thing called soul really exist?.......

As in the words of the all great Avinash," It is God and only God who has the power to create life and destroy life".. so wat does God create other than just a body?. He creates a divine quata of energy that controls the body.. When the body becomes weak to hold this energy.. the energy shifts to another body.. this is the basic thing behind the Hinduism's Reincarnation theory..

Humanity was entirely satisfied with this theory for centuries..Then came something called CLONING.. It proves that not just God, now human beings can also create life.. Humans create the small embryo from the DNA of an organism and implants it in the womb of a female of that organism.. All the other processes r same.. so now the fundamental law or the only way by which God created life has a loop hole?.... Now this newly formed organism is entirely same as its DNA donor.. But it has an entirely different personality of its own.. So does it means that it also has something called a soul that only God could create?... or is there really something called the soul or just like in the words of N5, is "life just a consequence of some natural action"? ..

Ponder on This

this is a story by Jalal-ud-din Rumi a Sufi. Many of us would have read this but it is what follows from this story that is important.

There was a country where there was a city entirely inhabited by blind people. One day the news came that an elephant was passing outside the walls of the city. The citizens held a meeting and decided to send a delegation of three men outside the gates so that they could report back to the city what an elephant was. The three men left the town, found the elephant and felt the animal with their hands. Then they all returned back to their town to report what they had felt.
The first man said:"The elephant is like a snake, but it can stand vertically upright in the air!"

The second man said:"The elephant is like a pillar. It is firm and round and solid. No matter how much you push you cannot knock it over."

The third man said:"The elephant is like a broad pankah (a fan). It is wide flat and leathery. "

All the three men stuck to their story and argued with each other till they vowed to never speak to each other. each professed that they and they alone knew the whole truth.
But we know that each person had felt only a part of the elephant. The first had felt the tail, the second the leg and the third the ear. All had a part of the truth, but none of them had begun to grasp the totality or the greatness of the beast. If they had listened to each other, they might have realized the true nature of the beast. But they were too proud and instead they preferred to keep to their half truths.
So it is with religion. Muslims see Allah in one way, Hindus have a different conception, and the Christians have a third. To us, all our different conceptions seem incompatible and irreconcilable. But what we forget is that to God we are like blind men stumbling around in total darkness.

The Rock n' Roll Philosophy

Whoever said that Rock and Rap was all about headbanging, violence, sex, etc????
Here N5 has brought to you some examples of lyrics from some of his favorite songs which have some real meanings. For some of them you might have to dig a little deep.

Master of puppets Im pulling your strings
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams - Metallica (Master Of Puppets)

Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said enough - R.E.M. (Losing My Religion)

Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Celebrity skin is this your chin
Or is that war your waging...
Space may be the final frontier
But it's made in a Hollywood basement - Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Californication)

I think I'll take ahold
Of whatever comes my way
Then we'll see what happens
Take it day by day...
Tell me what you can hear
And then tell me what you see
Everybody has a different way to view the world
I would like you to know when you see the simple things
To appreciate this life it's not too late to learn - Iron Maiden (Different World)

If you're havin' girl problems i feel bad for you son
I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one - JayZ (99 Problems)



These are just a few of the examples. Wait for more

"Thatho Bhootha Pretha Pishaacha Brahmarakshasa Yaksha Yamadoota Shakini Dakini Sarpashwaapatha Vrishchika thaskaraath upadrava athyupaghaathaaha"