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Friday, August 17, 2018

When Will The Floods in Kerala End?

The people of Kerala are suffering from floods on an unprecedented scale. Incessant rainfall has filled all the dams and the government had to open 35 of them to release the waters. As a result many lives (97 as of today) have been lost, properties damaged.

People are stranded in their homes without basic supplies and electricity. The Indian Army, Navy, and various voluntary groups are working round the clock to rescue the stranded.

I'm no expert in astrology, but cast a horary chart to see how long this ordeal would last. Some of my extended family have also been hit.


In the chart, the fourth house represents my state. Its ruler is Mars.
It is square the Moon and the aspect takes about 4.5 degrees to perfect.

Moon is in 3rd house and Libra. Cadent+Cardinal should give the fastest time unit. In this case, days can be considered as the time unit.

Therefore one can hope that the flood difficulties will last for another 4.5 days from the time of the chart that is 16/8/18 5:46 am. Hopefully the worst should be over by 20/8/18 evening.

The meteorological dept has also issued an advisory that the floods will last for another four days or so.

Monday, June 25, 2018

Why is This Called a Dream

In Vedanta, there are frequent exhortations that this Universe and human life is like a dream, experiences are transient, and so on. Buddhism echoes similar thought when it says the self is void.

To us who are embedded in the turmoil of worldly existence, this may seem like a contradiction, out of touch with reality.. We could argue: then why is pleasure and pain sensations so persistent?

The real meaning of dream or illusion is that it is not what is appears to be..or what we conceive it to be..

We cannot possess anything in its true sense, we only have custody of our possessions for some time. Even the material objects which we possess and enjoy everyday, are not in our permanent possession. They leave us, or we leave them, at the time of death, if not before.

Even this body of ours is no exception. We cannot possess it forever.

Sunday, June 03, 2018

Why you should speak English like you’re playing a video game | Marianna...

Some years ago, I was in an e-learning company. I was creating web based tutorials for its client. The project required a lot of instructional designers, but they were in short supply. So the company hired writers from various fields. They had to meet quality standards, but could be from any field- web content writing, technical writing, journalism, even teaching. The company would provide a crash course in instructional design and we would be put on the project.



I myself was a technical writer.



Because it was a huge project for a huge overseas client, we tried to deliver ahead of schedule. There was hardly time for training.



It was a steep learning curve--the various learning models and theories, expected learning outcomes, content analysis, lesson design, assessments-- all the nuances of instructional design packed into hardly a week of training. We would learn the rest on the job, we were told.



Needless to say, the first tutorials that we produced weren't up to the mark. The senior instructional designers put them through several rounds of reviews to bring them up to quality standards.



The stress levels and the attrition rate was sky high. New employees came and went. To add to their woes, many of them had relocated and were still adjusting to life in the megapolis.



At the end of a particularly frustrating day, I opened the company's employee feedback site and wrote down my concerns. I remember having written that learning has to be a fun process, not something to  dread. Even toddlers, when they learn to walk, fall down many times.,,



Naive, was'nt it? Tell that to the MNC that's billing you by the minute and you lose the contract. But something had to be done. Atleast explore the options.



I thought nobody had read it, for there never was a formal acknowledgment. Then one day, in the midst of a brief elevator conversation, a middle level manager told me, chidingly: ...and that is why, you've to get it right the first time..


That was my reply. But would it do any good if the employees on that project never again wanted to work there?







Another Reason To Do Just One Thing At A Time

Several years ago, as a novice instructional designer, I was struggling to learn everything about the trade in a crash course at my company.



It was my first e-learning project. I was frustrated as the rest of the team that there wasn't enough time. The disapproving glares of the senior instructional designers weren't helping.



I had, if you may, the audacity to write in the employee feedback site, that learning should be fun and that even toddlers fall down many times while learning to walk.



It was the fear of failure that was preventing us from making the effort and enjoying the process.



In this video, Marianne Pascal reveals another secret why trying to do it correctly while learning a new skill is counterproductive:



While you are learning  a new skill, that itself is a major task. When you try to do it well as well, then you are multitasking. The brain cannot multitask, it shuts down on one of them.



So while learning a new skill, it is enough that you just do it.




Tuesday, May 29, 2018

The Power of a Word





This reminded me of Dr. Masaru Emoto's experiment on water crystals and rice. Below is the rice experiment video which might be shocking.


This experiement below also includes ignore and is even more graphic:



Results of Masaru Emoto's original water crystal experiment


Sunday, May 20, 2018

Ayesha Noor- Karate Prodigy From Kolkata







The  State and Central governments should be encouraging people like Ayesha Noor with awards and recognitions, so that more women take up martial arts.

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