Demystifying Time Travel

Raunak and Neel (http://talesofiit.blogspot.com/2009/10/time-travel-x-02-pure-time-travel.html) recently wrote an article about Time –Travel. That reminded me of a very detailed piece I had written about Time-Travel (with respect to the Harry Potter series) when I was in Class IX. Frankly, I do not believe TT is possible, and if yes, it does lead to zillions of paradoxes, but I still liked the way it was treated in the series, and it was certainly better than most Sci-Fi treatments.

It included a pictorial representation too, and I admit I was rather proud of it. I managed to unearth it and am putting it up here. Do read and comment. Sorry if the language feels a bit immature. It was written around 5-6 years ago!

Most of the HP fans are very fascinated by time-travel (henceforth referred to it as TT), but after reading a few articles by fans about Time-Travel, and some questions put up by HP fans about TT, I noticed that most of them have too many misconceptions about the whole thing.

Many of us, including myself, overlooked the concept of Time-Travel when we read PoA for the first time. But, after a lot of reflection over the whole thing, I noticed that it is not that easy as it seems on the first instance. But, at the same time, it is not difficult to understand if we give it a thought.

What is Time-Travel?

TT is the action of going back (or ahead, though it is not mentioned in the books) in time.

What is so special about it?

What makes TT special is the fact that after Time-Traveling, the actions of the Time Travelled person directly affects his past form. The other thing is that it results in two copies of the same person.

What makes it dangerous?

Well, TT is dangerous because your actions affect the past. In other words, what you do after time travelling will affect your past selves. Time travelling is extremely easy if you know you are going to TT in advance.

Also, keep in mind, the following question is meaningless – "What if this had happened instead of that? What if Harry had taken Buckbeak without letting MoM members see it?" The reason you can't ask such questions is because whatever happened in the book was because characters did things that led to it. It is difficult to digest this but it will ultimately sink in.

OK, I will elaborate everything with an example:

Let's imagine a person X. He is living an ordinary life. He has not yet time-traveled, but, plans to do it after an hour. The time now is 9:15 AM. He plans to go back 1 hour in time at 11 AM. At exactly 10 AM, one more X is added to the scenario. One X was already present and the other X has now come.

For one hour, two X's exist in the scenario. At exactly 11 AM, the original X time travels. Now we jump back to the past again. For the original X, it is PRESENT, but for the TT one, it is PAST. If they were to meet, the TT one would know what happened between 10 and 11 AM as he has already seen it, but the original X has not yet seen it. Actually, both are the same persons. A look at the diagram will make everything clear. You can see a timeline. The red line indicates the original X at 9:45 AM. Now, at 10 AM, the new X arrives. This is the blue line. At 11 AM, the original X (red) TTs and goes back to 10 AM whereas the new X (blue) continues the life. So, in the period of 10 AM to 11 AM, two X exist. I call this time-zone as the dual-existence zone.

Here, I come to a very very important part of TT. This is also a question that is asked by many.

Does Time-Travel mean that a TT person will be trapped in an infinite loop?

There it is… The most popular question. It was especially for this question that I drew the diagram of the timeline. It is clearly visible that there is only one loop. See, the red line goes on till 11 AM, and then the black line joins the red with the blue line that starts at 10 AM. Keep in mind that there is only one X. It is just that there are two copies of X between 10 AM and 11 AM. At 11 AM, the blue line continues forward. It DOESN'T loop. To understand it, take a rope and make a loop in it as shown in the figure. So, the red line goes on, turns around, becomes the blue line and then the blue goes on. So, there is no chance of being trapped in time forever like some Sci-Fi story or movie (not a very pleasant thought anyway!). There is only one loop. I think I couldn't explain it better.

I think I have answered most of the questions directly related to Time-Travel. I will now attempt to answer the two most burning topics about TT in GoF and OotP.

Is it possible that Fred and George TT'ed during the World Cup and thus told Bagman about the outcome about the match?

I will answer the technical portion of the thing (related to TT). I have imagined what might have happened.

After seeing the match Fred and George TT'ed and went back to the time a little before Bagman asking them for a bet. The original Fred and George new they will TT in the future so they went away to make the coast clear for their future selves. So, it was the TT'ed F and G who betted with Bagman. Later, the TT'ed ones either hid somewhere or stayed there. The original F and G either came back after ensuring that their future selves were away. I will quote my earlier lines - Time travelling is extremely easy if you know you are going to TT. See, how smoothly the plan worked.

P.S.: It is mentioned in GoF that Fred and George went away for a while during the cup.

Now, the most asked question:

Couldn't Harry TT and rescue Sirius?

The first mistake – Do not use Couldn't.
I will explain why you can't use it later.

I wished it were possible, but unfortunately, it is not.

If you refer to Mugglenet's Time Travel section, you would see that Harry couldn't have prevented Sirius's Death. Remember this:

You can prevent a thing from happening. You can't undo it once it has happened. (^Z won't work here!)

In PoA, Sirius was NEVER kissed by the Dementors. NEVER. Buckbeak was NEVER killed. NEVER. The reason Sirius was not kissed and Buckbeak didn't die was because Harry and Hermy-Own (OK, kidding! Harry and Herm-own-ninny, OK! OK! Harry and Hermione) time travelled and DIDN'T let it happen.

If Sirius had been kissed by the Dementors, nothing could have prevented it.

The main thing to understand if one wants to fathom the mystery of Time Travel is that Whatever is happening is happening because we did things that led to it.

This is the reason why I told you not to ask the WHAT IF THIS HAD HAPPENED INSTEAD OF THAT questions.

TT is possible every time. What makes the difference is that we don't do it. That is because we don't know when we need to TT. TT is running parallel to the normal time (this is to be understood). Harry and Hermione knew Sirius was going to be kissed. So they could prevent it from happening. If they had not TT'ed to save Sirius and Buckbeak, Beaky would have been dead and Sirius would have been kissed. Afterwards you couldn't have asked WHY DIDN'T HARRY AND HERMIONE TIME-TRAVEL TO SAVE SIRIUS AND BUCKBEAK? That is because, they DID TT and so Sirius and Beak are alive.

The reason why I forbade you to use couldn't is because nobody had stopped Harry from TT. He could have TT'ed if he wanted. But the fact again is that he didn't.

If Harry really had Time-Traveled to save his Godfather, Sirius would NEVER have died. The fact that Sirius has died shows that either Harry didn't TT or did but was unsuccessful in saving Sirius. Therefore, Harry couldn't have time-traveled. But, just to prove you that it was impossible for him to have time-traveled, I will change the story line a bit:

> Harry saw Sirius fighting with Bellatrix. Bellatrix launches the killing curse. Harry closes his eyes with fear. He hears footsteps and explosion. When he opens his eyes, he finds, to his surprise, that Sirius is not present in the room and Bellatrix has just gone to the other room.

> thinks Sirius died and fell through the veil. He runs towards the veil but Lupin comes from behind and says, "Harry, nothing to worry, Sirius is safe."

> Harry doesn't understand what's up but keeps quiet. After sometime, Lupin explains to him that Harry has to time-travel and save Sirius. Harry goes back in time (how he does it is no concern of ours). Now the story is from this Harry's point of view (the one who time-travelled). I will use "Potter" for the original Harry and "Harry" for the time-travelled one.

> Harry runs and hides himself. He sees Sirius and Bellatrix fighting and sees Bellatrix launching the curse and Potter closing his eyes. Harry runs and pulls Sirius out of harm's way. Bellatrix goes to the other room and Potter opens his eyes to see nobody but him.

Thus, the time-travelled Harry rescued Sirius.

> Potter goes to Lupin who tell Potter that he has to TT. Potter TT's and goes back and hides, and when the time comes, jumps and rescues Sirius.

What I have presented is a very crude description. I want to impress upon the fact that Sirius has DIED and Harry cannot undo his death by TT'ing. He could have prevented it. So, Sirius fans should not be hopeful.

Re-painted!

After a year with the progressively fading abstract Sun, I desperately wanted a new design on my Laptop. What with the professional services of Hakuna Matata Inc. and one whole day at our disposal, we finally worked out a design, but unlike the previous one, this one was intended to ring deeper.

Have a look.

[And yeah, the array index is using Base 1 :D]

(1,1) & (3,3) - The same sentence One language is never enough written in four languages. English, Korean, Spanish and Greek. www.omniglot.com is an excellent website for all Language Geeks, do visit it! The thought of having only one universal language scares me.

(1,2) - The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci. Saluting not only the Science and Technology of the past, but also the infinite symmetry, beauty and organisation of nature and mathematics. The Divine Proportion; The Golden Ratio; Nature's Building Block. Ping me if you don't find that grand!

(1,3) - These are lines from Sangam Poetry (a poem by Kanniyan Poongundran), purpotedly the oldest Tamil literature we know of, dating to 100 BC. The words யாதும் ஊரே - யாவரும் கேளீர் - (Yaadhum oore, yaavarum kelir) roughly translate to any town is my town and any man is my kinsman. Boy, do we need these sentiments now!

(2,2) - If you, like me, spent your schooldays watching the Oh-so-awesome shows on Discovery Channel, you might have caught this on TV. The OneEarth campaign. We have but one earth. And it's in our hands. Totally. And we aren't behaving exactly nicely with it.

(2,3) - The Parthenon in Acropolis. Was a temple to the Greek Goddess Athena. Features on my laptop for many reasons, one being my profound liking for Greek Mythology. Also, it is a beautiful architectural specimen too, built in the Doric and Ionic style. The smart guys figured that if you make the columns straight, an optical illusion makes them look thinner in the middle, so they made their columns a little thicker in the middle, so the columns would appear to be straight (Source). And of course, the building is virtually a tribute to the Golden Ratio. 

The German text reads Die Luft der Freiheit weht, which is actually Stanford's motto and translates to The wind of liberty blows. Since the general theme is global peace, unity and cultural diversity, the wind of liberty signifies to me, not only education but also freedom from the shackles of narrow thinking the world is suffering from.

(3,1) - The colours of the French flag - Blue, White and Red. There due to my love for the French language. Also, the Eiffel Tower, an engineering marvel, a wonder of the world. The text reads, Vouloir, c'est pouvoir, which literally translates to To want is to be able to ~ Where there's a will, there's a way. 

If we want to do it, we can.

(3,2) - I am sure these are pretty familiar lines. वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्. The Earth is a family. If only we could get rid of the stupid blame game and just embrace each other as one big extended family (LitCon :P). The text which reads a bit like LOLFUN is my name in a code which I myself am unaware of. Hakuna's asked me to figure it out. You guys are welcome to give it a shot.

So, that pretty much covers it all. Wrapping it up, the message I wanted to convey, while portraying the cultural diversity of the world, is that if we wish, we will be able to let the wind of liberty blow and free ourselves from all these shackles, into a world where the whole Earth's a family, every village my home, and every citizen of the world my kinsman. 

Of course, these are big words, and such stuff is easier said than done, but the one thing my exploration into languages and cultures has done to me it is to help me appreciate that golden thread that weaves the sheer diversity in the world together into one seemless, multi-coloured fabric.

What do you think?

P.S. @Hakuna. Couldn't thank you enough. You're a genius.

Commented-Demented

Warning: Occasional mature content. Reader Discretion Advised.

YouTube's been a revolution. Yes, in ways more than one. The videos are of course fantastic, but a whole new world lies (!) below them. In many cases, the comments on videos provide more entertainment than the videos themselves. Most of these follow steady patterns and can roughly be grouped into 7 types. Have a look. Can think of more? The comments section is open!


Brainy Buggers
They can’t wait to show the world their mental prowess or their detailed knowledge of everything under the sun. They explain things with panache, and make you feel you have wasted all your life in useless activities when you should have devoted it to the pursuit of knowledge which you could then have eloquently passed on through the comments section. Their knowledge is absolute, and cannot be contested.















Brawny Buggers
Remember that big guy from school who weighed 40 pounds more than you and was a head taller? The one who just couldn’t help bullying everyone around just for fun? The one who found it pleasurable to challenge every other scrawny guy to a fight but became a sissy the moment he found a match. The Brawny Bugger is the electronic incarnate of your favourite school bully and the physical version of the Brainy Bugger. He is passionate about challenging people to duels and would not lose an opportunity to punch, kick, beat and crush the life out of you. In this carnal bliss, he has, however, forgotten that you can’t yet throw punches over the Internet.

The WTF Files
Reading these comments makes you begin to contemplate deep questions about the very reason for human existence. These comments don’t last longer than a few words, nor does the poster’s mental prowess. Not only do they not relate to the video in question, they are so brainless you actually begin to pity the poster. By the way, this is the most common category of comments.

It’s fun to see that this stuff is mostly written by scrawny, emaciated guys who probably would not have survived to tell the tale had they shouted this stuff in real life.

Now, now, dear. If my literary talents extended only as far as three words, I would make sure I spelt them meaningfully.





Incoherent Babblers
Be prepared for long lines of text talking about everything in general and nothing in particular. These smarty-pants love writing tons of text which does not, even in the slightest, have anything to do with the actual video posted. In most cases, it is written in horrible English, and the best you can do with them is laugh out loud. Be prepared for a lot of meaningless random ranting. Alternatively, these guys try to answer questions posted by other users, but only end up increasing the general chaos of the comments section.

Automated Appreciation
Be prepared for comments from mike217642kd which wax lyrical about your video and make you feel that at least one guy in cyberspace appreciates your stuff. In your moment of bliss, you realize that the comment goes on further to give you a link to www.anypornsitehere.com and you suddenly wish that the LHC Experiment had just turned the Earth into a black-hole and you had been sucked in. Yes, they multiply faster than rabbits, and they are unbeatable. Welcome to automated bots, who go about placing generic comments on YouTube videos and blogs which just sort of seem to fit well. But then, the comments section was never place for intellectual discussion, was it?

I confess, I was pretty pleased with this one. Until I realized every single person who was on my roll had got the same.

Politically Motivated
These are people in late teens who thought it might just be wise to know some politics. Now, as their only source of information is blog rants written by other deluded individuals or some silly conspiracy theory movies, they are ready to buy that Obama is actually Osama with a clean shave and a hair-cut (Yes, Hakuna!!!). With their half-baked and stir-fried knowledge, they set on the mission to increase global political awareness. They post dire remarks about how the country is going to the dogs and how the president should rather be bound and sent to Antarctica. Funnily though, most of the times, these comments are posted on videos which do not, even remotely, relate to politics.

Skeptically Yours
Welcome to the new age skeptics. They demand proof, absolute proof. According to them, all that is there on the World Wide Web is either morphed, Photoshopped, warped, zoomed or zapped. They know. They don’t need no education. They can see right through you. They feel insulted to see cheap cinematic tricks trying to insult their intelligence, and they don’t take kindly to such acts. The same smart-asses will however, believe that the LHC is just one massive black-hole or that Sun is the largest star in the universe. So much so for the facts.

Khoon Chala

मी आज रक्तदान केले... ह्याचा अभिमान वाटतो : I donated blood today... It feels great

That's what the shining red and white badge said.

When MoodI organised Khoon Chala, the blood donation campaign, it was something I appreciated whole-heartedly, but something I was equally sure I didn't want to be a part of.

I don't know why I had an inhibition in the first place (which was intensified after hearing stories about people almost fainting and feeling exhausted and the standard Indian construction weakness feel ho rahi hai), but I had pretty much decided I won't go for it (despite it taking place in my hostel lounge). By the time it ended though, I was pretty much regretting having not donated blood.

Anyhow, when, on 23rd, the camp was again set up in H3, I decided to go for it. The kind guys asked me to fill up a form and forwarded me to the Doctor, who enquired about my disease history in the past year, which turned out to be satisfactory for the situation. From there, it was on to the temporary beds they had set up. He asked me to look away, and I felt something piercing my arm (obviously, now), something being stuck, and that was all. He said I could look now. I thought the donation procedure was over, something that was just pure scary. I mean, if that guy could take out 350 ml blood from my body in a matter of 5 seconds, it was something to be horrified about. Thankfully though, the process had just started, and I felt real stupid for thinking otherwise. Anyhow, the entire procedure took about 10 minutes, with blood slowly getting collected in the standard plastic container (it contains anti-coagulant solution and was kept on one of those kitchen balances, to keep track of the weight). I was asked to lie down straight and hold a rubber ball in my hand, which I was supposed to pump, to facilitate blood flow. After chatting with the guy for sometime, I found it best to listen to music while the Khoon chalaa.

All in all, it was pretty copy-book style, and after the bag was full, he asked me to continue lying down with my legs bent close to my body (so that the brain gets sufficient blood). Some blood oozed out from the prick, but after some time, it was all pretty patched up.

It was time for Tea and Biscuits, and I happily munched on a packet of ParleG (God bless this brand). In the meanwhile, I got my certificate and blood donation card (along with the badge I could flaunt), which mentioned that I could donate blood again after three months. That card also enables me to claim blood in case I need it in the future.

The whole thing was done very nicely, and you do get a pleasant feeling of satisfaction and happiness. The folder that they gave talked about how Human blood cannot be synthesized in the Laboratory and how there is a great deficit of blood which leads to many deaths which could have been prevented.

The blood loss is corrected in 24-48 hours (in volume) and the RBC deficit is filled up in about 56 days. Some people believe that donation actually stimulates Bone Marrow to produce new cells, which leads to a cleansing effect, but all concur that Donation does not cause any harm.

Do donate blood if you get the chance.

EDIT: I read on the Internet that blood has a shelf life of about 35 days, something I was quite unaware of. But, the demand for blood is so high that no unit actually reaches expiration date. Puts the whole thing in perspective, doesn't it?

Ta da,
Antariksh

A word in time (TwoPence)

I had this Reader's Digest booklet titled (if I remember correctly) A word in time, which was a collection of witty replies, repartees and other verbal bullets. It was one interesting read, and the amount of sarcasm that was filled in a few words was purely amazing.

Today, I StumbledUpon (yes) a site which had a similar collection. It's a pity we don't find such brilliant verbal battles anymore. The reasons are simple. The language, as far as arguments are concerned, very quickly degenerates to four-lettered (or more) asterisked words. In the prevalent youth culture that relates Xpletives to X-factor and where vulgarity is de-factoit, arguments requires absolutely no wit, humour or creativity. The one who can degrade himself further in this manner emerges as the winner, and the vanquished has to concede two forms of defeat.

True verbal bullets hit at the perfect spot and render the recipient defenseless. My favourite quotes about profanity are:

Profanity is the common crutch of the conversational cripple

Profanity is the weapon of the witless

I wish we had more people like Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, whose sharp wit did more than any physical assault could...

Dedicated to the masters of wit and sarcasm.

Growing up with Cartoons

Disclaimer: Nothing really. Oh yeah, all the cartoons and characters mentioned below are the property of their respective owners. May they live/rest in peace.

Just the other day, I, Mehul and Amol were sitting in H-13 mess having dinner when I told them about how I was listening to theme songs of the cartoons I loved watching when I was younger. One thing led to another, and we were soon reminiscing about the cartoon shows we all grew up with (the discussion then turned to lamenting about how K-serials have kompletely kaptured TV channels now, but that won’t make its way into this post).

These cartoons always have a special place in your heart, more so because you grew up with them and they never fail to bring back beautiful memories. The amount of education they impart to young kids is incomparable. Be it the merits of eating spinach or the importance of saving the environment, they do it all, and boy, do they do it well! It takes a mother countless teary and tiresome nights but one ‘Choti choti magar moti batein’ episode is all dear Shaktimaan needs to make kids brush their teeth before going to bed.

The oldest memory I have is of watching Flintstones and Captain Planet. The interesting thing is that the way I saw looked at these shows changed as I grew up but they never seized to be funny and entertaining. When I was 4, I would just enjoy the funny sounds, the Yabaa-dabaa-dooooo (!) and the cozy Flintstones, yeh hain Flintstones title song. As I grew up, I began to be fascinated by how effortlessly they depicted the pre-historic counterpart of almost every modern amenity. The run-along-with-them cars, bird beaks for disc players, dinosaur cranes… the simplicity, and the brilliance.

Captain Planet was a different experience, but equally nice. When I watched it for the first time, I was five/six-ish, and the show used to be in English. I hardly understood a word. They could have been discussing the reasons for the Gulf war for all I knew. But what I used to love was the way the five heroes raised their hands, some super cool light rays came out from their rings and arose Captain Planet with his traditional ‘When your powers combine, I am Caption Planet!’ It wasn’t until I was about ten and Captain Planet started being aired in Hindi that I realized there was some planet saving involved!

Back when our cable operator didn’t oblige us with Cartoon Network, Disney Hour on Sony was the savior. Duck Tales (my all time favourite), Alladin (Yeh hai Araaaaabian Nights), TaleSpin (Baloo, kid and Madam Mahalingam), Chip and Dale, and many more… one hour of pure fun! I have such nice memories about all of these shows... By the way, Disney Hour was also a major break for the anchor Vishal, who has since moved on to bigger and stupider things.

Another thing I now realize is the wonderful dubbing quality (content and expression) of the cartoons, something which Harry Potter translators of Choomantar Gali fame have not been able to achieve. In fact, in many cases, the dubbed Hindi voices are of a much better quality compared to the original ones. Case in point: Mickey mouse. The English guy sounds like he has something permanently stuck in his throat. Of course, with dubbed voices, you might normally hear the same set of four people in both Richie Rich and Pokemon, but they were good, nonetheless.

This would of course be incomplete if I didn’t mention our beloved Tom and Jerry. If there were one cartoon show that any person, regardless of age, could watch and enjoy, it would be T&J. The immersive experience, sans dialogues and sans human faces, is simply magical. The toughest thing is to take the clichés and put new life in them, and T&J achieved it beautifully. Of course, later versions like Tom and Jerry Kids were quite annoying; NO. Sir, we do not want to watch a baby cat chasing a baby rat, however adorable they might look.

I don’t know whether it is because we’ve grown up, but the present breed of cartoons just doesn’t seem to have the class and style of its predecessors. You have the same old recycled stuff in both Action and Manga alike. People seem to be running out of ideas. Quality is degrading, and kids are being made to watch crap. Some of the shows are so nauseating, they give me goose bumps. The malady called Shin-Chan tops the list. Lets ignore its content for a while, which could actually be used to good results. It clearly gets the award for the most horribly and childishly drawn cartoon. It looks like the work of a three year old who’s been taught to hold a pencil for the first time. And the voice! Luckily, it borders on the upper end of the Human Auditory range. Sadly, it’s on the inner side, and we humans have to stand this garbage. A few hertz up, and only dogs and bats would be tortured by it. I am seriously considering using it to drive away mosquitoes and insects. As Susmit (of ryubahamut fame) rightly puts it, such shows are the counterparts of the sort of poison adults swallow in the form of soap-operas and reality shows.

I asked some of my friends about their take on the topic, and here are snippets:

Susmit held a strong stand (quite like him!) about theme music. Not a lot of songs do come to mind, but one thing can be said without the shadow of a doubt -- the cartoon theme songs of yore far surpassed their younger siblings that the present cartoon watchers, well, endure. There's no effort done at making things sound good, the music is stale, everything is so unimpressive… However, there are a few songs that strike out as worth mentioning, the Power Rangers theme for instance, which had the craziest sickest guitar solo I'd ever heard in a cartoon theme song, and perhaps a few others like Swat Kats (just music, no lyrics -- the way I like it) and Flintstones. I can't remember any strong contenders from the Disney side, however. (Does being musically challenged from a decade ago cause them to vent frustration by creating abominations like HSM and Hannah Montana? A topic for another evening maybe. It's amazing how most of the 3D animated films have great musical scores!)

Here’s Mehul’s version.

Cartoons... as we shall come to think of them, are not only cute, sweet and adorable but also have a charisma that appeals to children and grown-ups with great effect. Ever since this world of acute imagination and creativity, earlier restricted to print media and comic strips, has extended its reach to television, it has made the phenomena more dynamic in every sense of this word. All those reading this article would almost instantly recall being glued to Cartoon Network or Disney Hour while their mommas were shouting at them. Since then, it has only increased its grip with new cartoons coming from televisions to commercial stores, video games, computer games, flash cards and what not!! From Mickey Mouse to Dragonball Z, all have proved their mettle giving real human-born actors a run for their money. My favourites (and I hope many people will not subtract much from this list although they are free to add) are Tom & Jerry, Chip & Dale, Swat Cats, Talespin, Jhonny Quest and Dexter's Labratory.

Karthik pitched in too: One of the cartoons that really had me engrossed was Beyblade (Antariksh’s note: Thank God I never got intothe whole Digimon and Beyblade stuff). I think I never get enough of anime whatsoever :).The determination of Tyson to be the best and how he managed to do that without harming friendship was fantastic. 'Let it rippp', 'dragoon attack' ... are they ringing any bells in your mind? Above all was the engineering aspect of the blades. With each level/tournament he won/lost, the design of the blades would be improved with different weight distributions which would enhance their spinning and hence the attack. Unfortunately, the series is a short one (compared to the likes of DbZ, Naruto) and truly one of best entertainers in the Anime industry today!

Though I never caught on with the BeyBlade mania, I was quite amused at how ordinary tops could be glorified in such a manner!

Whenever you think of these cartoons, you are reminded of the glorious days when heads were lighter and happier, when the world was smaller but ambitions larger. I salute the stalwarts who excel in this art and bring home such wonderful creations.

For oft when on my couch I lie,

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye,

Which is the bliss of solitude.

William Wordsworth

Thanks to Susmit, Mehul and Karthik for their inputs. What I have written is merely a dip into this wonderful world. Do share your reminiscences… what cartoons you grew up with and which ones, even today, fill your heart with thrill… You can’t deny you loved them! :)

Ta da,

Antariksh

Hard Work Pays

Clicking on the page title will take you to the NDTV website which tells the story of a village laborer (named Narsimha Rao from Andhra Pradesh who cleared JEE 08 with an AIR of 453.

Of course, the boy deserves kudos for braving it and making it, and NDTV gets the credit for reporting something really meaningful and thought-provoking. But, the post did strike a deeper chord.

Think of houses where a gas stove is a luxury... Contrast, keeping on one side the entire household on full throttle preparing a guy for college, and on the other side, not having enough money to make it to the counseling.

It is this wide economic disparity that is our enemy, and it cannot be filled by mushrooming 6 IITs overnight.

We don't need as many premier institutions as we need equal opportunities to all who want to make it up there.

What do you feel?

If you want to help Narasimha Rao, write to him at the below mentioned address:

Narasimha Rao Magenti
Son of Appaiah
Garikapadu Post and Village
Wyramandal, Khammam District,
Andhra Pradesh Pin-507165

Or you can call him- Mobile No. 9949927498. This number belongs to A Prasad, a resident of the same village.

For online transfer of money - A Prasad, Account No. - 52112028333, SBH Wyra Bank.