winds of yore

in a room so dark;

and the air so dense;

wind-chimes rang;

and bards they sang;

when whispers wafted in the air;

and he felt another presence in the lair

of wizards and worms

We currently as a nation are the connoisseurs of misconstruction. We are teeming with desire to track down a reason as preposterous as an actress' ethnic background or a singer's nationality to go ban something as far as a good film.  Their vociferous rebuttals without even taking up the pain of watching it. With all due respect to my kinfolk and all those ingenious people who take to the streets at the mere mention of words, do you actually sit down patiently, watch the entire film, mull over it and then arrive on an opinion or do you just feel the need to make a fool of yourself in the middle of this big farce. What good is your faith if it is shaken by a mere display of others' viewpoints?
            We ban dairy milk commercials because some kid is licking chocolate remnants off her fingers; we protest against a movie because an indian girl falls in love with a pakistani boy.
          Why protest against issues which are beyond their comprehension, to me, is an aberration. The least you can do is finish your homework before misconstruing incomprehensible theories. Our definition of idealism has taken a severe turn to the surreal. Our political outfits in all their wisdom have stopped feeling the need to be rational in their protests. Now its either about political rivalry, publicity mongering or sensationalism(i am hoping I'm wrong on this one). Gone are the days when these folks needed an agenda.
            In this pointless pursuit however, we're overlooking the issues that are waiting to be highlighted. These incidents herald a bad taste of things to come. We neglect the need to infuse civic sense and ethical morality or the need to provide basic amenities to our law abiding tax paying citizens. Off late, we also tend to abominate a scandalous actress. Shouldn't what he/she does in their spare time, be business of their own of course  unless its harmless or lawful. Another hypocrisy I wanted to point out is why are we so tabooed by sex? Weren't we the nobles to invent the greatest existing literary work on sex?
            Don't you think we owe to ourselves to pay more heed to vital crisis which are clouding our society instead of the petty issues we currently partake in. Human sensibility has taken a leap of ignorance into a cesspool of nonsense. The question is, are we going to continue with this nonsensical behavior or are we going to overcome it? Do you chose to be a wise wizard or a witless worm?
            

From luxury to necessity

Gone are the days when the 'stay connected' campaign professed by Nokia at the dawn of Y2K built a network of personal and professional relationships with the increasing boom of the mobile market while Internet at the time was an unquestionable luxury floating in the air like a chimera. Little did we know that one day, clubbing both these technologies will splurge into a humungous market, probably the dawn of a new digital era.
     The role of internet has since evolved beautifully from a luxury to a necessity. Internet has wet its feet in every single strata of the society. Information today holds a godly status in our lives. No matter which profession we're in, Internet can longer be restricted to just I.T. Every urbanized household today prides itself on using the Internet albeit for Googling pretty actresses or downloading pirated torrents. Internet has become the next big thing after food, clothing and shelter or probably more significant. The increasing impetus of the cloud has seemingly glorified this further.
      However widespread its applications may be, we as citizens of India are still lagging behind when it comes to ubiquitous penetration. Still only a fragment of our population has access to Internet whereas all the other interiors of india are still locked away inside their labyrinths. Its not wise to blame them either because its our Government which has to realize the noteworthiness of this issue. The world is moving at a pace where lack of Internet would just leave the outcasts behind. There are global campaigns led by some visionaries like Mark Zuckerberg which emphasize the need to penetrate the petty towns not only in India but also around the rest of the globe. We as a nation are in a phase where we're afraid to adapt to internet despite the availability of a 3G or an 4G LTE network around us. I personally believe that the future of data management is going to be migrated to one big repository, the Cloud but then again, thats just mere conjecture.
      Our government must exhort a similar movement to fuel up this process. Why must we be labeled as technological hub when our own kinfolk are denied Internet access in their dire need. Needless to say, today a ten year kid knows the monumental value of it when his/her internet connection is cut off even for an hour and they go berserk over it. Information today is out there and no where else and theres no reason to disrupt this natural process.
     It gives me immense satisfaction that our very own Prime Minister has realized its pros and met with Mark Zuckerberg to drive the 'Digital India' campaign forward. Why not support them in this noble cause rather than wasting our time protesting against puny causes like banning PK and passing ridiculous comments on what girls must wear and refrain from wearing. Let us rise to the occasion, put down our feet and say, "We're going to transform this nebulous dream into a successful reality". 

We are developed you say?

In a nation where enjoying Game of Thrones and myriad other TV shows or swaying suavely to compositions by Eminem and Pitbull (also Honey Singh just in case you thought you were being ostracized out of the hollywood league), civility is not a big driving factor of our etiquette as a group. How many of us paid heed to the value education class and the moral science class in our schooling days? Is academic education enough to get us through the rest of our lives or does civic sense equally contribute to shape what we are and what we turn into? Why aren't these values imbued into our daily activities of our everyday lives?
           I've mulled over this contrast in our society on several occasions and many confrontations have substantiated my opinion on this issue in a succinct manner. Given our exposure to everyday life, social etiquette may not be counted as one of the ingredients in the soup. Take instances like commuting in local trains, local buses, standing in queue for buying movie tickets or while strolling through the local zoo or a museum(the most common hotspot for uncouth behavior). Regardless of which public place we're in, its highly expected of us to behave in a civil way towards the environment but sadly frequenters to such places don't behave in a way that is deemed appropriate.
          Let me clarify my point before i begin to hear of my transgressions and bear the brunt of certain creeds. Aristocracy and elitist behavior is not what I'm pointing out here but to be gentlemanly and civil towards your peers or your environment is the mark of a developed and an elevated society. One doesn't need to be wealthy to be civilly refined. Our society has blossomed into an organization where you see an average joe possessing etiquette and a spoilt ignoramus leaving entrails of cigarette ash and garbage behind. Industrial progress although economically viable in the absence of moral values is socially liable. Social regress equally stuns our development and its this epidemic we need to cleanse.
         I've confronted this regress on numerous occasions. The absence of 'sorry' when you're remorselessly elbowed inside a local train or when you're volleyed with oral spits spewing accurately out of people's mouths while walking on the streets are merely some of such instances to name a select few.
       Why do we roam around in RayBan's with Armani Suits, our wrists nestled with Rolexes and our feet assuming designs by Jimmy Choo when we can't utter an 'Excuse me!' after a royal burp or a 'Please move aside' (again, not being an elitist. you might as well utter it in Hindi or your local language but kindly do so) when you're traversing through a dense crowd clogging the entrance of a train or a particular place. Let us first endeavor to grow as a society first and then, professionally. Absence of either will cause a hindrance in the development of ourselves and our society. These are minute actions with huge impacts. After all, moral values pave the way for social development.

Are bio-metrics and e-wallets, the future in the making?

The world as we know it, is transforming by the minute and new elements are responsible for the transformation. The era of digital age between the 80s and the 2000s was the birthplace of technology where art and science were amalgamated into a unified masterpiece. Software gained impetus along the line while hardware was perfected with increasing emphasis given to design. Concepts such as Operating Systems, client/servers and the internet boomed abundantly and flourished under the visionaries of the era. The birth of GUI marked an epoch in the history of the Digital Age.
          Today's world is no different from what it was before the advent of the Digital Age and something in the back is stirring its way to becoming something chiefly necessary for the tomorrow. The next thirty years of the tech world would be defined by the marriage of technology, art and biometrics. While some of you may be quizzed by this development, it may eventually dawn to you that biometrics has a pivotal role to play in our lives.

Working of a Biometric registration and extraction model

    Biometrics was first cited in the dusty research papers published by French antrhopologist Alphonse Bertillian in 1870 but it only saw the light in the latter half of the twentieth century. This field, if you think about it has always existed since the dawn of humans. The facial recognition is the oldest form of biometrics we all have come to know. However this nascent field has seeped into several streams and is spreading wings across new platforms namely security, finance, corporate logistics, travel, medical. Security and the Medical industry are the foremost torch-bearers in standardizing biometric configuration. Facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, retina scanning, DNA scanning, cardiac analysis are the kinds of biometric analysis to name a few. While many are putting their foot down and adopting this technology, there are a dissident few who are unwilling to do so because of the redundancies.

Bitcoin currency

Mobiles have already joined the brigade in developing Health apps that detect pulse rates, calibrate the blood pressure and calculate fitness parameters. SmartWatches can be the ideal tool to wield biometric calculations because its not only a personal wearable device but also an inexpensive one to keep track of your health and shed light on daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual improvements. Adding to this, keys and wallets will be soon rendered obsolete due to smartphones

Apple Pay

Start-ups like Kwikset's Kivo Locks and Lockitron while Apps like PassBook on the iPhone are already giving these old school gadgets a run for their money and now with the introduction of iPhone 6 and Apple Pay, Bitcoin, m-Pesa, carrying digital money has never been so convenient. Imagine securing these devices with your biometric data and the impact it could have on your daily life. Ofcourse implementing every single part of this picture is gonna take another 8 years to paint but the canvas is set and its a matter of time ere Biometrics, eWallets and eKeys find a home in everyman's pocket.

Wearables - what? why? when?

Last week Jonathan Shieber from TechCrunch quoted, "The future of wearable technology is for the enterprise for now". Being factually and sadly accurate, i decided to shed light on this clouded technology that could branch into endless applications with the proper user base. It all began with the coining of 'souseveillance', a concept which dictates a recorded activity by a participant typically by way of a small personal wearable technology. Souseveillance in particular opened a new horizon of possibilities in the ubiquitous world of computing. The wearable bluetooth headset was the primary inaugrator in the race. However it didn't quite hit the register when it came to market share. Gradually the chatter died into hibernation. Now with the introduction of the Google glass and myriad other products following suit, the quest for exploring a new world has flung ajar.

        This is portable technology we are talking about. Dating back to the inception of the digital age, we stand at a crossroad of avenues unbeknowst to any of us. Ranging from health, logistics, defense, domestic, culinary, sports, fitness and travel, the wearable technology has the potential to span across platforms multitudinously.


                This opportunity unbolted with the launch of other major releases like Oculus Rift and Apple Watch with competitor companies like Augmate, Pristine, Google and Apple joining the brigade in the hope that several other organization might follow down the untrodden path because the tech titans have kept projects surreptitious. If there's one wisdom that the digital age has imparted in the last three decades, it is the fact that users don't know what they want unless they see something they haven't seen. Google has enlisted ten partners for its 'Glass at Work' program which enhances their development towards driving the Google Glass.

What remains to be seen, nonetheless is the rate of user adoption and the market share these technologies manage to haul. Considering the gloom surrounding the wearables, we can only hope the mist will vanish into thin air in the next 2 years. Theres a booming market filled with an expansive set of possibilities simply lying in wait.

chimera

At what point does passion stop being an inspiration and give rise to cynicism. what have we learnt not to do and what to do with the time given to us. How many of us are venting our anger towards the folks  in the local train and how many of us are trying to instill civility? Is passion driven by cynicism or is cynicism driven by passion.
        I’m baffled by this overwhelming need in us to please the people around us by catering to their needs and renouncing ourselves in dire pursuits of such needs. The reason I wet my feet into the waters of this issue is because i am often confronted with people withholding their right to express and therefore, the right to information. Is this what conformists would term as ‘equilibrium’  in a society? if not, then what else are we supposed to renounce to achieve total equilibrium? We all have brief experiences with the vagaries of this excessive and almost obsessive need to achieve this equilibrium. 
      The biggest question that lurks at the back of my mind is whether fulfilling what others want you to fulfill is the same as what you want yourself to fulfill? The ignoble would concur with the latter while the nobles of our society would concur with the former. Why you ask? Nobility dictates we abide by the boundaries lawfully and culturally  albeit pretentiously or  unpretentiously. This gives rise to non-conformism as law dictates an existing force shall spawn a repelling force as well and this avenue is no different. Which category do we fall under? thats a vague question to be asking. The question we must ask is whether traits like selfishness, rebelliousness and cavalierness hazard our existence within the socio-economic barriers while the servile, benevolence and restraint consolidate our eternal existence within these very barriers. 
         While the extremists would argue that borders are merely a construct, I personally want to ask each of us, are we all slaves to our opinions or are we masters to our opinions?  Increasingly the very fabric of our nature revolves around this brief stint with such crises that many may argue, is puny. Think about what great, an impact it may have on our actions. Our actions speak more than our inactions do, do they not? 
        The internet today is a hellhole for many and an oasis for a some. Some treat technology as a genuflection while others, as an arcane hellish curse hanging over our ‘perfectly built cultural society’. So when are we going to get rid of this disdain for internet that the majority think, has scorned their children’s childhood. These are among the many anecdotes that i happen to share with those reading this.  I am tempted to speak more on this but i am not certain its righteous of me to anticipate these utopian transgressions from our denizens. However i’ll leave the townsfolk to realize this zany dream when someday this utopian dream would come true and we could all gorge in the fruits of our own actions without any chains of blandishing conformism. In the end, disagreeing can be equally impactful as agreeing.