Just & Must

  O nce a man consulted the astrologer and found out the exact time and day of his death, he was a sculptor and a very skilful at his talent. he made nine clay models of himself and painted them and dressed them exactly as he was, No one could tell the difference as they all looked like the sculptor. That fateful day Yamaraj arrived and he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw ten similar-looking clay models in a row and sculptor standing among them. Puzzled he thought " this man is going to be the first person trying to cheat death". But Yama is one of the *twelve Mahajana's extremely intelligent, he said:" Whoever has done this reflects lousy workmanship, I have seen better work than this." This was enough to upset the sculptor since he was the best in his craft, he could not remain silent and he said:" What do you mean?" and gets caught. Moral of the story: One cannot escape from the laws of nature in spite of the best material and intelligent a

T he Akshardhama or the conversation between Yudhishthira and Yaksha (in the form of a crane), Crane poses 33 questions in order to bring back four dead Pandavas.  (One of the questions and answer from the conversation) The Yaksha asked,—“What is the best of all laudable things? What is the most valuable of all his possessions? What is the best of all gains? And what is the best of all kinds of happiness?”   Yudhishthira answered,—” The best of all laudable things is a skill ; the best of all possessions is knowledge: the best of all gains is health : and contentment is the best of all kinds of happiness .” Yaksha Prashna is synonymous to most difficult questions of life which can only be tackled by wisdom and a pure heart (dharma). Many of us must have read or seen this story several times and Yudhishthira practised what he preached all through his life. Which brings me to the most difficult questions when normal people or Organizations are faced with the situations of cybercrime or

  O ne day you wake up in a different body which is much stronger and programmed to have military skills and a virtual assistant feeding you with the necessary information before you venture into this new planet. A scene from a sci-fi series looks impossible. There is this web series on Netflix "Altered Carbon" depicting infinite life span and AI-based hotel and AI unicorns and the concept of body-switching called changing the sleeve as you change clothes. How far it seems from reality or just a matter of time, well you may find some of the things changing our lifestyle and we are being programmed to use them. Believe it, they are part of our lives and we can't imagine living without them, Hey Siri! Please play my favorite classical music...Hi, Shakti playing your favorite music.   The Future Intelligent assistants 24/7 at your disposal and it's not a sci-fi movie but in reality. Hey! Alexa or Hi Cortana and other less popular programs are a necessary part of our dail

O ften games are part of childhood memories and each of us may have played several board games that were not only intriguing but hold a deeper meaning to existence. Games are a microcosm of real-life strategy and problem-solving skills.   Many of these children grow to be the likes of Bobby Fischer, Vishwanathan Anand, Garry Kasparov, or Lee Sedol, These are some of the great human minds or Tendulkar of board games.   Games lead to an interesting evolution in modern-day computing and other technological developments such as deep learning, in simple terms machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI). Refer to my last blog on AI and there is a glimpse of challenges thrown at the human race by them.  Who will be the Master? It can mimic the brain functioning of human beings in detecting objects, recognizing speech, Translate language and make decisions, Deep Learning AI is able to learn without human supervision and use data to draw interference. AI Guru Kai-Fu-Lee predicts nearly 50%

I t was a dark and rainy night in a deep dense forest, a pair of foot steps moved with a confidence of reaching the destined location. Winds carried the howling sounds of Jackals and echo of laughter from spirits seems to prevail in that hour of night. Raja Vikramaditya climbed the tree and brought the corpse down, and as he carried the corpse on his shoulders the ghost possessed the corpse spoke “ Dear Vikram, People enjoy this time of night to sleep and not do what you are trying at this hour”, And so began the journey of Vikram and Betaal which many of us must have read, heard or seen in their childhood. But as I read these today, the stories makes more sense to our life than ever.   Puzzles and question raised by Betaal during the multiple failed attempts by Vikram as he answers them with full earnestness. Assuming the role of Betaal, I begin my modern day story for all of you:  Small town man named Shyamu began his business of manufacturing, his made to order hydraulic machines fo

T he nineties were amazing and exciting, lives were simple, who can forget melodies from Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan, and Ashiqui the musical or Sreedevi from Chandani and Chalbaaz, or Maine Pyar Kiya, this was the era of magic for many of us while growing up in our teens. All of these in audio cassettes and walkman to play them with limited 60-90 minutes tapes. Or, when we could memorize about 30-50 telephone numbers. during that time, the telecom was limited to a few households and the concept of PP(Padosi ka phone number) was prevalent and we would share their number as our own with pride, and neighbors obliged with a smile and a cup of tea. PCO booths were the place to call and people’s identity was easily associated, identified, and verified with a thick yellow book called a telephone directory. Friends were real, not virtual and people always found time to meet in person. Today, We live in a smart society with access to a high-tech internet world with smartwatches and smartphones, a

T he announcement was being made during the school assembly and those being affected were looking at each other, as if asking "Bhai, Ab to lag Gayi" and I had no idea till people in the know gave me a reality check. Yes, it was time for cholera shots before NCC camp, but why would it scare me? This was my first camp but fear was forthcoming. There were many such routines that make me smile today but in those days it was tormenting, one of them was hair cut shot. Let me share it this way, the injection may or may not be painful but as the tradition in the hostel goes the hand that gets the vaccine injected receives honorary punches randomly by anyone you pass during your breakfast/lunch or dormitory visit, and there is a callout by puncher "vaccine shot" and it is veerry paaiinnfuul . Therefore, the doctor injecting the fluid may have mercy but escaping the inevitable "vaccine shot punches" was impossible. Shri Shivaji Preparatory Military School, Pune Ever