To be compassionate or not

office musings

The moral dilemma on a dead cow

India is a country which holds its cows in high esteem; the irony being that we are (or should it be were?) one of the largest exporters of beef in the world. The recent ban on beef in Maharashtra did bring in a lot of comments for and against of the decision but one question that truly remained unanswered was the upkeep of he cows when they are not productive enough or when it is financially not viable to keep them.

A solution that was put forward was by some organisations(cow caring ones i suppose) was to make retirement homes for the bovine and all of their brethren and take them in with crowd-funding( i am pretty sure the funding does have a lot of influences into them) and see them off till death creeps in. 

But this topic is not about them, this one has a lot of discourse that i am not willing to get into right now.

I, personally do not want to interfere as what another persons beliefs or eating habits are and hence shall not go into that discourse.

Now, a fortnight back i happened to take a winger (Derived from the Tata Winger and called thus) on a highway that is flanked by the railway track on one side and Tea estates on the other. A pretty scene here in Assam that any person shall truly appreciate. The usual speed on the highway here remains at about 70km/hr for vehicles of these kinds. The drivers on them are usually employees of the vehicle owner and hence remain cautious of damaging the vehicle, cosmetically at least, their driving habits are questionable too.

As we were progressing from West to East, a train was on its track in the opposite direction. As it happened, a herd was grazing right alongside the tracks where there was a little grass, and some were on the tracks itself. The pilot on the train honked out loud to alert the cows; and scared they were. The cows suddenly jumped onto the road and the driver of the winger did not have time to react to this sudden movement. As it happened, the winder hit one of the cows in the head. The driver, scared as he was, did not stop the vehicle fearing a backlash and drove away.

I can surely say he was pretty much shocked. When he drove for about two kilometres, he stopped to assess the damage to his vehicle which included a damaged bumper and a broken headlamp assembly.

So the question now that remains is; who is responsible; putting down my three suspects, hope you give a solution,

1. The train pilot, as had he not sounded the horn, the cows were dead anyway.
2. The winger driver, who did not get a chance to react to it.
3. The person(s) who own the responsibility for the cow, for its upkeep, survival and harvesting(of milk mostly) as a stake on the cow might have saved it had there been a pasture to feed in.

The missile theory

Some days back, one of my followers in twitter happened to ask the question regarding missiles and how a cruise missile differentiates to a ballistic missile. Being the repository of some grains of the desert of knowledge (i feel knowledge is barren, application makes it fertile) and my undying attitude to reply any question, i went on send up a Wikipedia link (those guys did have a good article), however all troubles began when the article had too much jargon to confuse at times and the plea fell again to bring out in a simple laymen terms. So, here i am to do that bidding:: 

Disclaimer: potential terrorists please note that the following information shall not be of any use to you unless you are planning to buy some or trying to expand your horizons of knowledge. 

First things first; a missile in the present day world is described of such thrown objects which propel on their own i.e. they carry their own fuel and are unlike rockets where they are propelled by the power of the launcher.

Ballistic missile: I hope you reader knows Newton's third law of motion "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction" Ballistic missiles work on that principle to the word where their thrust produced mark their course, with the difference being, if you would manage to launch them like rockets too their path will be approximately the same. So in a usual day a ballistic missile shall have a parabolic path of motion, however they do have variable thrusters which help them change their course by some degrees. The easiest example being the fireworks that are used in celebrations.

Cruise missiles: Cruise missiles in the earlier days were nothing but planes on a suicide mission( usually unmanned, see they too had these UAVs then) but then the problem lies in the fact that these usually are subsonic in nature i.e they may not travel faster than 330 metres per second some of the well known of them being the Tomahawk and the Javelin. However, India and Russia in a joint venture managed to make hypersonic cruise missiles which travel at around 1650 metres per second, the BrahMos. Cruise missiles can be 'driven' it means they are preferred for targets in motion as you may alter its course as and when needed till either you hit the target or your fuel runs out. These usually are short range missiles and hence are quite small in size.

However both missiles being very different in their application and systems of delivery, making a comparison shall be unfair.

So that will be a short primer until then "try not to get struck

you mayfind me on twitter @prakashray 

Life and time being employed

It has been a long time since i penned down for the blog. Well maybe the devil was having other ministrations. Good news is i am employed again, the not to better part of it I have to get my ass moving a lot to earn my bread. However, today's post has something different in focus.

For the last 3 weeks i have been to my new place of posting, there has been things i have seeen and still haven't found out any convincing answers.

This hamlet's nerve centre is the National Highway and a major intersection in it. The place has been famous for quite a long time for some kind of entrepreneurial venture and even draws its name for the activity. So even to this day, people taking the path of earning their own bread is common.

In the time i have been here, almost every working day, during noon, i find a group of youth blocking the highway, to protest against either the government or individual under the banner of some organisation with the majority being student centric.  The interesting part of this act is that the guys are same, only the flags change.

The question in my mind which come up are:

1. Don't these guys have work to do other than shouting slogans or do they get paid for it?
2. The guys would be in their late 20s and since they are on the streets there remains a very small chance they still are pursuing some educational degree, so can they claim to be students?
3. From what they wear, the gadgets they carry and the metal horses they ride, who pays for that?
4. And at last, if that is their way of living, are they happy with it? Instead of just protesting couldn't they try to act on the problems and find out a solution?

The other point which crosses my mind at this juncture is does student politics in India go on to involve themselves in every situation of politics which happen in the nation. I ask this because, though student politics have brought about humongous changes in the state of our nation but in most cases what can be seen is a replication of "Animal Farm" which is alarming.

On an ending note, its not good to see protests, rather some brainstorm to solve the crisis is what seems to me a rather beautiful option. Many people have bled in the movements headed by student organisations, please do understand the organisation is never bad its the vision of the leader and the actions they choose to bring out that brings a bad name to the group.

Until next time, ciao!!

Political righteousness and the times we live in

These are the days of fans, of cheerleaders, of groupies; move aside sportspersons and rock stars for ‘politician’ is the ‘in’ thing. This age of social media has opened a new vista for the citizenry as all can now focus on the microcosm of their own small world where an unlimited data plan and uninterrupted power would surely win elections. Add to that bandwagon the promise of a steady employment option and some more tit bits and the ‘leader’ becomes ‘GOD’.

The troubles start brewing when he ‘leader’ is obstructed by an ‘oldie’, a guy with a generation gap, all because the ‘leader’ now wishes to relinquish his 2IC position and he the CO must step aside. My darling this 2IC has is reasons too, he has the popularity. But then the ‘eeevil’ CO thinks as why he should step away from a post which came to him after years of toil and labour.

Hell, but what will the groupie do? Chant the names, invoke powers unseen and follow; let go of inhibitions, ignore ‘his’ faults for ‘he’ too is human and take up arms on the ones who dare put up a challenge.

This is the situation right now as I see in politics; take some example in Congress, in BJP and the power corridors of Assam and the storyline is basically the same.

However, my problem with these so called leaders is their self anointed sense of propriety, of honesty and righteousness to such extent that the follies of their own or ones in their field of influence is conveniently ignored and efficiently let go.

The other aspect of the story is the admirers, for they are so blind to the flaws of he ‘leader’ that I am appalled to see some weird explanations just to hold the point. And I shudder when these admirers turn up to be highly educated persons, persons with their own field of expertise and an incredible potential to influence those with lesser faculties than them.

Luckily though I have been able to keep myself away from this mess and call me a psychopath but these politicians getting a beating literally cheers me up regardless of which camp the bloke belongs to.

I need a breath of fresh air for these people won’t forego their power to allegedly serve the people for it’s the power for which they stopped earning their own bread in the first place.

For the leader treads and unwalked path, following orders are just for a minion

Dye penetration test

A little technical stuff for today’s post, specifically aimed at engineers involved in the core sector of quality control.

Dye penetration test or DPT as it is popularly referred to in the industry is a basic test aimed at the detection of surface faults of machined surfaces viz. cracks, porous formation and flux deposit.

The test is carried out using a DPT kit which consists of:

1.  Cleaner: A transparent fluid used to clean the test surface and is the same as in paint thinner.

2.  Penetrant: A red fluid applied on the surface and as its name suggests penetrates into the surface faults.

3.  Developer: White in color, this fluid points out the surface fault; points on which correction is needed.

The test in itself is a easy 4 step procedure which is quick and provides for a quick surface check. However, microscopic faults are not addressed by this procedure and different methods are suggested for them. The steps to e carried out to conduct the DP Test are:

1.  Clean the intended surface with a soft cloth so as to remove all dust and grime and then apply a layer of the cleaner.

2.  Wipe off the cleaner with a cloth and then apply the penetrant on the surface. Let the penetrant to be on the surface for at-least 1 minute.

3.  Wipe the penetrant off the surface and apply the cleaner again to remove all visible traces of the penetrant by wiping.

4.  Apply a thin layer of the developer onto the surface. Coloring of the developer at various points suggest the faults.

It is usually assumed that points of red are usually pin holes or porosity whereas long continuous traces are either cracks or flux deposits.

However do remember that greater amount of developer may be applied to cheat the test as the penetrat fails to show up on the surface. If there is a doubt, scrape off a little of the developer film to check for any penetrant traces or conduct the test again.

Call it paranoia..

Though I have not lived long enough, but still somehow managed to see a miniscule part of this enormous creation and come across a fraction of all beings, but today the focus group is humans though.

As per my observation, one of the classifications of humans can be done as under

1.  Who sees, thinks and acts

2.  Who sees, acts and thinks

3.  Who acts, sees and thinks

4.  Who sees, has a laugh, summarizes and acts (if necessary)

For today it’s the second group who are at gunpoint (I assume myself in the fourth class, “the great holiness of me”). The reason for this choice is their potential explosive attributes which bring out extreme emotions and its just a time bomb with the timer set for an unknown value.

This group though is usually comprised of two kinds of people only:

1.  They are confident enough to take on the world

2.   People with a sense of insecurity with a mindset of having been cornered all through their lives

However, their common trait is the unflinching devotion towards a cause and that being so strong that almost no force is enough to budge that belief.

All hell breaks loose when they jump into battles, not of their making in the first place, just because the or their cause had been criticized or called names, even though that be in jest or any other context irrelevant to them.

The outcome of this trait is groups of people so hell bent on their needs and causes at even the social fabric is endangered. Their behavior is easily contagious and the followers themselves being vectors. Canvassing and rallying for support for some y seem no les than a cry baby’s rant.

For any individual, the problem become up close and personal when you are pointlessly dragged into a forum and told to pick side, either of which you are not interested in. The pressure o choose sides sometimes exceeds a pressure cooker and leaves only a fight or flee situation. The flee here being to choose a side and if not interested remain silent. The fight however means dishing out a negative reply to both sides and remain silent all to their inconvenience. The positive effect of this reaction is hat any future altercation by the same entity will be wary of engaging you in their skirmish.

Now for the target group, I do not despise you or wish you ill for you will either be hated or be loved nothing more, nothing less and nothing in between. It has been for you people that many revolutions reached their fruitful end. But just pause at times, look around, ignore some sparks and yes some pricks are meant for good.