Robot

                                            

This is my (suggested) story for Shankar’s upcoming movie – Robot. In case if this one becomes the screenplay, you’ll always know that it wasn’t just a coincedence.

 The Era of Genetics: <2108 A.D>
An Extract from “News Today”

“…Call it a miracle, call it a breakthrough… We have finally succeded in creating a robot with a brain engineered through Genetics and Nano-technology. At last, we bid adieu to our good old semiconductor chips. The advantage of using nano-technology is, the robots can not only speak, listen and understand like human beings but it also has a brain that is atleast 100 times more efficient and faster than the human brain. Thanks to the concept of artificial intelligence, we have now moved on to supplimented intelligence and then applied intelligence. This not only makes the robots to think on their own, but also imbibes emotions into them…”

The Era of Crataceous: <60 million years ago>
An Extract from “Dino Today”

“…The new robots which we invented have all escaped into the jungles. This morning, when Prof.Duno was conducting his regular experiments, they somehow managed to hurt him severely and went away. Members of our community were surprised to know that they can actually hurt us. But news from the laboratory suggests that we better be ready for more surprises – For the robots can think atleast a hundred times better than us. It also seems that the robots could recreate themselves just like us. A hundred questions have been put to…”

The Era of Genetics” <2508 A.D>
An Extract from “News Today”

“…The Presidents decision to allocate a seperate land fo the robots has come to severe critisism. Questions are asked on why were the Robots allowed to think and take their own decisions when we always knew that we wouldnt be able to control them. We have already witnessed a lot of violence against humans and this move could just provide to strengthen the robots further….”

The Era of Crataceous: <60 million years ago>
An Extract from “Dino Today”

“…This war might just become a clash between two species. It is not just a question of power. We are far more powerful than the robots. But it is a question of technology which our robots have developed: We might very well lose this war…”

The Era of Genetics” <2508 A.D>
An Extract from “News Today”

“…This will most probably be the last edition of ‘News Today’ as the few thousand humans left on earth have began to flee into the jungles. Meanwhile, our researchers have found out the reason for the extinction of dinosaurs. It was not any meteor or comet. It was’nt even drastic changes in the climate. It was actually because, the dinosaurs invented robots, just like we did, which they were not able to control, just like us. But the most interesting part is, they called their robots “Human Beings”. It means that ‘we’ were the robots invented by the dinosaurs!!…”
 

Destination Infinity.

PS: Dinosaurs were extinct about 65 million years ago (at the end of the Cretaceous period), after living on earth for about 165 million years. If all of earth time from the very beginning of Dinosaurs today were compressed into 365 days (1 calander year), the dinosaurs appeared on January 1 and became extinct the third week of September by this scale. (Using the same scale, the earth would have been formed approximately 18.5 years earlier). By comparison, human beings have been on earth only since December 31 (New year’s EVE). And we thought we were the greatest testament for Survival on earth! For more such information on Dinosaurs, you could visit this link: http://pubs.usgs.gov/dip/dinosaurs
 

Bhutan: Gross National Happiness, Democracy and ****

                                       

                                       

Bhutan: Gross National Happiness, Democracy and ****

Gross National Happiness:

* The official criterion of the Bhutanese Govt to measure the Gross National Happiness is by the levels of environmental protection, cultural promotion, good governance and economic development. The last factor is only as important as the other three.

* The king of Bhutan was responsible for the definition of development in terms of the Gross National Happiness of its people, instead of an abstract economic measurement such as GNP.

* Bhutan has always emphasised that development can also be based on non-material values such as cultural, social and environmental values. The country has followed a traditional model of development which is based on improving the quality of life while respecting natural and cultural constraints, rather than the quantity of material production and consumption.

* 50 Years ago, Bhutan was not even an monetarized economy. Everything was barter.

* A 1995 Law in Bhutan mandates that 60% of Bhutans land must remain forested, while another 26% is already protected as parkland.

* Tourism and Industrialization is limited and restricted, which is viewed as a deliberate tactic to preserve national culture.

* Forests are safe-guarded and only a small amount of timber is felled each year.

* Healthcare services are free in Bhutan and education is funded by the Government.

* The entire country has more or less been declared a no-smoking zone.

Democracy:

* The king of Bhutan ordered legal experts to study constitutions of all the worlds great democracies and arrive at the final version.

* The final version, beginning with “We the people” was mailed to every home in the country.

* For contesting the elections all the contenders HAVE to be university graduates, despite no nominations being filed for four districts in the recent polls.

* In the mock elections, people voted for Drukyellow, which was about the preservation and promotion of Bhutans rich cultural heritage and tradition. This implied favouring the monarchy as they were happy with it.

* The Bhutans king voluntarily abdigated power and ruled in favour of democracy. This is in total contrast to the rest of the world where peoples revolution,overthrowing of monarchs, stronger country forcing democracy on weaker ones, moral policing, subjugation etc which brought about democracy through sheer force.

* Some people of Bhutan say why change a system that works, while others said that they were not educated enough to make decisions on their own and hence the king should be knowing better.

****:

* One of the kings main initiatives, after deciding on democracy, was the establishment of an anti-corruption commission, on which a lot of ordinary people pin their hopes in case the new national parliment which would be elected next year sinks into money politics and electoral skulduggery.

* Says a 18 old resident of Thimpu(Capital city) – “We see all the commercials on TV (Which was introduced 7 years ago) and ofcourse it is tempting to say we want to have all the latest products”

* For the king, living in the modern world means accepting both the good and the bad from outside Bhutan: Not only TV, but also mobile phones and the internet.

SHIT!

Now you know what **** means!

Destination Infinity.

PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/satisfaction_with_Life_Index is an interesting link you would want to visit to look at the happiness index and rating for each country. In case you are eager to know India’s rating, I suggest you better not click the link. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss indeed. But yes, we are better than Pak.

You could find similar articles in the People Places and Culture section of this blog.

The Painting and the Photograph

                                   

                                    

03 Jan 1808, Ooty.

Diary of Col.Richard Bentlee.

If there could ever be heaven on earth,
This would surely be earth on heaven..

Never before have I been so eager,
To colour nature with its wonder..

Could I do justice to this splendour,
By wanting to paint the thunder..

So many strokes, so many curves,
So many brushes, so many colours,

How can I paint thy exuberance,
With my limited lead and limited pallete..

For a man, who has never spoken a lie,
I have just painted several – Thouugh my eye..

How many hours and how many days,
How many sketches and how many colours..

All self made excuses,
Only to get more glimpses..

How I wish I could lend my eyes,
They cant feel but atleast they could see..

How better could I glorify falsehood,

By first attempting to paint,
And then reciting through these words..

For I cannot recreate thy truth.
But atleast,
I can paint the nearest lie..
And send it to them along with this ode,
Which atleast is mine..
 

03 Jan 2008, Ooty.

Gtalk

HE: Did you get the photos I sent you?
SHE: What photos?
HE: The ones I emailed yesterday from Ooty.
SHE: Yeah, I remember getting the mail. But was busy. Not able to see them yesterday.
HE: Take a look at them. This new 10 Mega Pixcel Digital SLR Camera is really wonderful. What excellent and high quality pictures it gives!
SHE: Glad you liked my present.
HE: Yeah. I sometimes wonder, what people would have done, when there was no camera and no internet. We are so lucky!

Gmail

It was not there in the inbox. He said he had sent it yesterday. Yesterday night – came home late, checked mail, deleted some mails..

May be it is in the Trash.

It was.

Destination Infinity.