Reading habits from the very childhood builds the person a child grows up to be.
Having been a restless child, I have become friend of books very late. Having an additional impatient sibling could have been another reason that book and me did not have a good timing to build relationship.
I remember our Living room to a typical modern Bengali household decorated for exhibition with series of Rabindranath Tagore and Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. The exhibit also consisted of Dostoevsky, Wordsworth, Chekhov and so many others whom I never related to. I loved the smell of the new books when they came to be a part of our household, I flipped through the pages hunting for some pictures and I nicely put them back according to the number in the series. The only book that attracted my attention was a Sukumar Roy's literary nonsense called HaJaBaRaLa. The hilarious poems and the striking pictorials kept me hooked to the book. Then came Alice in Wonderland as a gift from Dad and Mom. A transition of linguistic literary nonsense masterpieces by Lewis Carroll.
I always had a lot of people surrounding me, never was shy as a child and as I grew up, my knowledge and literature took a turn through elocution and debates. Again the ardent need to
participate and talk and exhibit my view point in a topic never imbibed the necessity of sitting down and reading books never found any growing hunger towards reading.
It was only during the days when I started traveling alone for my higher studies and Grad School that I became more confined to myself. traveling 16 hours during the weekends to and fro college to home left me with no other company than the Wheeler's Paperbacks in the railways stations.
I started reading.....first one at a time during traveling and then between studies during weekdays. My fleeing home during weekends on a regular basis cut me off from the hostel conversations and canny discussions of the girls, hence more books.
Book reading became my favorite pastime and I started reading Paperbacks, novels and then started pulling books that I had grown up with from the living room exhibits. My college days got over and I never felt sad to leave my room mates or my college mates,I became a professional and still broke the ice with lonely as I had my books with me. I broke handsome conversations
and won debates and cracked communication barrier with the help of the acquired knowledge from the books.
I have literally never been alone, never been lonely, never been hurt because my closest companion never left me. I too have learned one thing from this....You'll Never Have to Look for friends as quoted by Jhumpa Lahiri in REFLECTIONS, Notes from an apprenticeship, The New Yorker's !!
Thursday 30 June 2011
Bizzare true facts from Digital fortress:Dan Brown !
In large cities, Americans are photographed on the average of 20 times a day.
Everything you charge is in a database that police, among others, can look at.
Supermarkets track what you purchase and sell the information to direct-mail marketing firms.
Your employer is allowed to read your E-Mail, and if you use your company's health insurance to purchase drugs, your employer has access to that information.
Government computers scan your E-Mail for subversive language.
Your cell phone calls can be intercepted, and your access numbers can be cribbed by eavesdroppers with police scanners.
You register your whereabouts every time you use an ATM, credit card, or use EZ PASS at a toll booth.
You are often being watched when you visit web sites. Servers know what you're looking at, what you download, and how long you stay on a page.
A political candidate found his career destroyed by a newspaper that published a list of all the videos he had ever rented.
Most "baby monitors" can be intercepted 100 feet outside the home.
Intelligence agencies now have "micro-bots" -- tiny, remote control, electronic "bugs" that literally can fly into your home and look around without your noticing.
Anyone with $100 can tap your phone.
a new technology called TEMPEST can intercept what you are typing on your keypad (from 100 feet away through a cement wall.)
the National Security Agency has a submarine that can intercept and decipher digital communications from the RF emissions of underwater phone cables.
Everything you charge is in a database that police, among others, can look at.
Supermarkets track what you purchase and sell the information to direct-mail marketing firms.
Your employer is allowed to read your E-Mail, and if you use your company's health insurance to purchase drugs, your employer has access to that information.
Government computers scan your E-Mail for subversive language.
Your cell phone calls can be intercepted, and your access numbers can be cribbed by eavesdroppers with police scanners.
You register your whereabouts every time you use an ATM, credit card, or use EZ PASS at a toll booth.
You are often being watched when you visit web sites. Servers know what you're looking at, what you download, and how long you stay on a page.
A political candidate found his career destroyed by a newspaper that published a list of all the videos he had ever rented.
Most "baby monitors" can be intercepted 100 feet outside the home.
Intelligence agencies now have "micro-bots" -- tiny, remote control, electronic "bugs" that literally can fly into your home and look around without your noticing.
Anyone with $100 can tap your phone.
a new technology called TEMPEST can intercept what you are typing on your keypad (from 100 feet away through a cement wall.)
the National Security Agency has a submarine that can intercept and decipher digital communications from the RF emissions of underwater phone cables.
Tuesday 28 June 2011
The Teacher
It had been a very tiring episode for my mind to run back and visit the last 6 years of my short and vivid life.I met almost everyone there,missing out a few less impacted people whom I tend not to remember.At every turn I took,I failed to see myself today where I stand when viewed from then.What a dilemma I was in during those deciding years of my career and self?I laughed at myself........kiddish as I was!!!One thing surprised me a lot.All the people who seemed to be a significant someone for me does not exist today...in fact they don't even make a difference to me today.So I decided to come back to where I am.I thought for a long time!!!
Today I have a new set of acquaintance who promises to be with me for the rest of my breath.However,after visiting the last 6 years I do not believe them either.At these deciding edges,I had come across people counted in fingers who had been a pillar to my thoughts.......
There was one instance where a man, a substitute teacher, inspired me. It was in an English class and we were all snickering at the fact that this man was a assigned educator for us.I still remember the day when he 1st entered the classroom.He cleared his voice and began to talk to us. Never before had I seen a whole class stopping and listening to a teacher, regular or substitute. He told us of life,..... philosophy. His voice was so quiet and smooth that not a single student made the slightest move for the whole half hour he talked to us. He just said these things off the top of his head about writing what you care about. He was truly the most inspiring man I have ever known.Throughout the duration of my seemingly short life i have searched for the person who would open my eyes to the world. Someone who would challenge me, helping me to discover who i truly was. He told us the reason why he liked being a substitute was that he liked being able to throw away the plan for the day and inspire. Amazing!!! At the end of the class, he gave another eloquent speech about how he enjoyed teaching us. "Maybe we will get to see each other again. All we have to do is hope," he sang. He made me aspire to do something different and to follow my heart no matter what it says. Thinking that I might never get a chance to meet him again makes me sad. At the end of the class, we cheered. In my heart, I believe at least I had a hope that we shall meet again.
The most obvious position in which someone can be in to have an effect on other people is a teacher. And yet my calculus teacher is undoubtedly one of the the most surprisingly and profoundly influential person I've ever met in my entire life. Not knowing an answer is not an excuse for not getting it right. Never in my life would I have imagined I was capable of the things I have undertaken in her class. For the first time I understand the plausibility of "you can do anything you put your mind to". My whole view on life has changed dramatically, and I now look forward to the challenges and successes I know my life will bring. I wake up every morning knowing nothing is impossible and I can be free to dream whatever I wish because it could very well become reality. Evoking inspiration is the true aspiration of passion-is truely what I believe today.
Today I have a new set of acquaintance who promises to be with me for the rest of my breath.However,after visiting the last 6 years I do not believe them either.At these deciding edges,I had come across people counted in fingers who had been a pillar to my thoughts.......
There was one instance where a man, a substitute teacher, inspired me. It was in an English class and we were all snickering at the fact that this man was a assigned educator for us.I still remember the day when he 1st entered the classroom.He cleared his voice and began to talk to us. Never before had I seen a whole class stopping and listening to a teacher, regular or substitute. He told us of life,..... philosophy. His voice was so quiet and smooth that not a single student made the slightest move for the whole half hour he talked to us. He just said these things off the top of his head about writing what you care about. He was truly the most inspiring man I have ever known.Throughout the duration of my seemingly short life i have searched for the person who would open my eyes to the world. Someone who would challenge me, helping me to discover who i truly was. He told us the reason why he liked being a substitute was that he liked being able to throw away the plan for the day and inspire. Amazing!!! At the end of the class, he gave another eloquent speech about how he enjoyed teaching us. "Maybe we will get to see each other again. All we have to do is hope," he sang. He made me aspire to do something different and to follow my heart no matter what it says. Thinking that I might never get a chance to meet him again makes me sad. At the end of the class, we cheered. In my heart, I believe at least I had a hope that we shall meet again.
The most obvious position in which someone can be in to have an effect on other people is a teacher. And yet my calculus teacher is undoubtedly one of the the most surprisingly and profoundly influential person I've ever met in my entire life. Not knowing an answer is not an excuse for not getting it right. Never in my life would I have imagined I was capable of the things I have undertaken in her class. For the first time I understand the plausibility of "you can do anything you put your mind to". My whole view on life has changed dramatically, and I now look forward to the challenges and successes I know my life will bring. I wake up every morning knowing nothing is impossible and I can be free to dream whatever I wish because it could very well become reality. Evoking inspiration is the true aspiration of passion-is truely what I believe today.
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