Impediments? Break and Make[ Part –II ]

This the concluding part of my last blog. I mentioned only a few famous people but if we explored in our surrounding you will find many unknown faces who are struggling against all odd and getting the success.

Stephen William Hawking

Stephen Hawking is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity. In 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Almost completely paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Stephen Hawking is an academic celebrity known for his theories concerning black holes and his best-selling book “A Brief History of Time.” While few people could completely grasp his concepts without an in-depth explanation, his theories have become as well-known as Galileo, Newton and Einstein in the scientific community.

John Forbes Nash

John Nash is an American mathematician and famous for his works in game theory, differential geometry and partial differential equations. His theories are used in market economics, computing, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, accounting, politics and military theory. Serving as a Senior Research Mathematician at Princeton University during the latter part of his life, he shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi. Nash began to show signs of extreme paranoia and He was admitted to the McLean Hospital, April–May 1959, where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Hollywood Movie 'A Beautiful Mind' was loosely based on his life.

Claude Monet

Claude Monet was founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. He eventually went blind due to cataracts. In the last decade of his life despite his failing eyesight, he continued to paint including the famous paintings of water lillies, “Nymphéas.”  Though Monet was not blind during the most productive painting period of his life, his work is still inspirational.

Ray Charles/Stevie Wonder

Both Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder will be known long after their deaths for their lasting impression on Rock ‘N’ Roll, blues and soul music despite both being afflicted by blindness. These Black American men are both Grammy winners and pioneers in the music industry opening doors for artists of color for years after their own time in the spotlight.

Ray Charles Robinson started to lose his sight at the age of five. He went completely blind by the age of seven, apparently due to glaucoma. He is  known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records.  He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums.

Though Ray made his mark in the 50s and 60s, Stevie topped the Billboards in the 60s and beyond.  Either way, they were both gifted musicians who could paint beautiful pictures with music.

Stevie Wonder (Stevland Hardaway Morris) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist. , Stevie was blind since birth, Wonder signed with Motown Records' Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day. Among Wonder's best known works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You".

Marlee Matlin

Marlee Matlin is an American actress. She is the only deaf actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which she won for Children of a Lesser God. Her work in film and television has resulted in a Golden Globe award, with two additional nominations, and four Emmy nominations. Deaf since she was 18 months old, she is also a prominent member of the National Association of the Deaf.  Also an Emmy winner, Matlin is a prime example of an artist who has succeeded despite her disability; few other actresses have had as much success even without the disability.

Sudha Chandran

Sudha Chandran was born to family in Chennai, South India. She completed her Masters in Economics from Mumbai. On one of her return trips from Mumbai to Chennai she met with an accident resulting in the amputation of her right leg. She was given an artificial leg and despite this terrible disability, she became one of the most accomplished and acclaimed dancers of the Indian Subcontinent. She has received and still receives invitations to perform all over the world. She has been honored with numerous awards and has performed all over the world. She appears often on Hindi television and in films.

!!!Sky is no limits for those having loads of willingness and courage.!!!

Impediments? Break and Make[ Part –I ]

Last week we lost a great innovator and as well as an inventor, the Apple-man Steve Jobs is no more with us. Last eight years he was suffering from cancer but that not prevented him from his inventions.  Sad that great mind always short lived.

Back home we lost a golden voice, it is Jagjit Singh the famous Gazal singer. I don’t think we ever interested in Gazal before he started singing.

Every one born with certain god gifted qualities but then we all failed to utilize it. Sometime I amazed by the people who made it big by conquering the shortcoming. Today and as well as next week I am going to throw lights on the life of these luminaries.

Helen Keller

Helen Keller, American author having overcome considerable physical handicaps and served as an inspiration for other afflicted people. She was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. When 19 months old, she was stricken with an acute illness that left her deaf and blind. No method could be found to educate her until the age of seven, when she began her special education in reading and writing with Anne Mansfield Sullivan of the Perkins Institute for the Blind.

In 1890 Keller learned to speak after only one month of study. Ten years later, she was able to enter Radcliffe College, from which she graduated with honors in 1904. Keller then served on the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. Throughout her life she worked and raised funds for the American Foundation for the Blind, and she traveled and lectured in many countries, including England, France, Italy, Egypt, South Africa, Australia, and Japan. Keller was also a pacifist and was active in socialist causes.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein did not talk fluently until he was nine and believed to have Asperger’s Syndrome. He failed his college entrance exam and had a difficulties to remember simple things such as his phone number or how to tie his shoes. He also he was also rumored to have been dyslexic as a child. He was having some problems with language. After having early drawbacks the man was possibly the greatest mind to lived the earth.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 17 December 1770. Beethoven was named after his grandfather Lodewijk, who was a musician too. Beethoven started taking his first music lessons from his father Johann van Beethoven. 

At the age of twenty, Ludwig van Beethoven hearing began to deteriorate in the late 1790s, yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, even after becoming completely deaf. Beethoven then used special hearing tubes and felt the vibrations of his piano to compose music. One of the most well-known composers in history, his accomplishments are as dazzling and spell-binding when taken into consideration that he was never able to hear his own work.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt was paralyzed from the waist down by a form of polio. In August 1921, when he contracted what was diagnosed, after an unfortunate delay, as poliomyelitis. In great agony and completely unable to walk the disease that left him bound to a wheelchair. However, backed by the determination of his wife and Louis Howe, Roosevelt decided to return to his work as soon as possible. Roosevelt is known as one of the greatest presidents in American history leading the population through many tumultuous times. The Great Depression and World War II were two of the worst periods in American history known for their volatility and the loss of both human lives and many Americans’ livelihoods. However, Roosevelt was the man for the job leading America through these times with confidence and grace that was not marred by his disability. 

Marla Runyan

At the age of nine, Runyan developed Stargardt’s Disease, which is a form of macular degeneration that left her legally blind. Marla Runyan is a three time national champion in the women’s 5000 meters. She won four gold medals in the 1992 summer Paralympics. In the 1996 Paralympics she won silver in the shot put and gold in the Pentathlon. In 2000 she became the first legally blind Para Olympian to compete in the Olympic games in Sydney, Australia. She holds various American records such as 20,000 Road (2003), All-female Marathon (2002), 500m (2001) , Heptathlon (1996). In 2001, she co-wrote and published her autobiography ‘No Finish Line: My Life As I See It’.

Today I will end with a quotation of Steve Jobs.

!!!Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.!!!

Massacred by the (power)^2

Every contemporary accessories and gadgets are there to fulfill one’s need. As technology thrive forward and everyday it has given us a new invention but a few of them brings a lot of dangers along with the comfort package.

A simple example, a cell phone that is indispensable for each and every citizen of the world but this useful gadget too having some demerits in it. Today my topic in wider thing than a cell phone, it is about Nuclear Energy.

When Manmohan Singh’s Government own the debate for Indo US Nuclear Agreement in the Parliament emphatically, I was one of those happy person but at the same time the nuclear power plant stands on the border between humanity's greatest hopes and its deepest fears for the future. On one hand, atomic energy offers a clean energy alternative that frees us from the shackles of fossil fuel dependence. On the other, it summons images of disaster.

What it is all about

The process of generation nuclear power starts with the mining and processing of uranium and other radioactive elements. These elements are used to feed the reactor of a nuclear power plant, generating a reaction known as fission which creates intense heat, turning water in the plant into steam. The steam powers steam turbines, which generate electricity and feed the electricity into the electrical grid.

When nuclear power is used to power something like a submarine the reactor runs the engines, with the steam directly powering the engines. In both cases, the reactor requires careful supervision, because runaway nuclear reactions must be stopped as quickly as possible to prevent serious problems. Many nuclear power plants have extensive automated systems which help to identify potential trouble spots, and these systems can also re-route power, turn off parts of the plant, and perform other tasks which make the plant safer and cleaner. The water in the reactor also serves as a coolant for the radioactive material, preventing it from overheating and melting down.

Safety is both a pro and con, depending on which way you see it. The results of a compromised reactor core can be disastrous, but the precautions that prevent this from happening prevent it well. Nuclear power is one the safest methods of producing energy.

Disasters and severely effected areas

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine

It's estimated that up to 100,000 people died in the worst nuclear disaster ever and radiation levels are still 700 times greater than normal. The Chernobyl nuclear accident is widely regarded as the worst accident in the history of nuclear power. It is the only nuclear accident that has been classified a "major accident" by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Kyshtym, Russia

The Soviet Union was also home to the second-most disastrous nuclear accident, at the Mayak Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Kyshtym. IAEA classified the event as a Level 6 Disaster, which is a "serious accident."

Windscale Fire, Great Britain

Windscale fire occurred in 1957. It is estimated that 200 people in Britain developed cancer because of  Windscale, half of them fatal.

Three Mile Island, United States

The United States' most disastrous nuclear accident took place at the Three Mile Island Plant near Harrisburg, Penn., the state's capitol. It all began with a simple plumbing break down. 

Tokaimura, Japan

TOKAI POWER PLANT: In 1997, uranium from about 2,000 barrels escaped in a shaft at the plant.

THAR DESERT, RAJASTHAN, India: Used for five atomic tests as recently as 1998

FUKUSHIMA UPDATE: "It will take three, five, ten years, or eventually several decades to take care of the accident." Fukushima has been upgraded to a level 7 disaster.

I am not against it but after repeated disasters, government never learned the lesson. Yet there are some loophole in the necessary safety norms for prevention. Only sufferer are the peoples who are living in the surrounding areas of the said plants.

!!!Often demons of the comfort is bigger than the comfort itself.!!!

Kiss and Make up? Not always!

As, not every dirt can be washed away, every feeling too, no matter how good or bad, it is difficult to wipe out. The days are gone when life was easy as needs and expectations were very scanty. World is no more a place where people lived with love and harmony. The time when we are armed with a mobile in our hand and an accesses to a couple of dozen social networking sites to keep in touch yet we hardly do anything for each other that are close to our heart. We are living in a glass bowl, that contains I, me, we and ours. In older days, it was difficult to get lost, miles away from your home you would still have been recognized. Today you may even not know your next-door neighbours.

Some of its blame goes to the current breed of politicians and different political parties, those are exploiting the young generation for their personal gain, their mantra is hate and hit. When we look at different political parties, of course I am quite neutral but not denying the fact that having little weakness for the Congress. Once an old Maharashtrian woman whom I met while traveling in a local train in Mumbai, she disclosed innocently that she always supports Congress because the generations before her were supporting the same, quite traditional. If my grandmother was still alive would have been very angry with me for this revelation because she was always reluctant to disclose about her political inclinations. Even my support to the Congress, I never liked Nehru as a prime minister but he was a gentleman and knew how to respect the oppositions. It is no secret that politicians promised a lot and failed in their promise but in older times they used tell us what they are going to do for us rather than telling about others failure. Therefore, life is more is finding fault in others than knowing and acknowledging ones own mistakes. It is not always an easy task to forget all bitterness and forgive others, living with hatred feelings is no good, it is more self destructive than hurting the subject in question. 

Just giving a sermon to forget and forgive is easy but not easy for those whose life is severely affected. It said that in love and war everything is legal, so Maria Susiraj and his boyfriend killed an innocent guy, chopped his body in pieces and then bag full of innocent flesh thrown into a remote area. A woman who went to destroy two innocent young lives and yet today’s media chasing her around the city, then there is Ram Gopal Verma and the Big Boss team waiting for her with a red carpet. I do not except the victim Neeraj Verma’s family to forgive Maria Susiraj. I, myself will never forgive the killers of Neerja Bhanot , the Indian airlines Air Hostess, who died in Karachi airport while saving passengers life from the hijackers. Not in a mood to forgive Kashab or people behind the 26/11 attack in Mumbai. Always wanted to see them to the gallows and same for the culprits those time and time bombing a crowded place and killing innocent peoples. Cannot forget that horrible afternoon of March 12, 1992, when serial bomb blast rocked the city of Mumbai. I was very much around their and still cannot forget the sound of blasts that interrupted my and my colleagues lunch session.

The above incidents are so huge, therefore, there are no places for forgiveness but we often bring out small things in personal front that causes a personal enmity with close ones.

Like global warming and greenhouse effect that damages the environment, needs a serious constructive step, same way the word tolerance is also vanishing from our syllabi.

!!!Why not small thing can be overlooked for the wider happiness?!!!