War or no war?

War or no war ?

This one to address something most impending on each of us, even though I remain no accredited expert to deliver on it. My mind is a free world where any thing can click, and here is on such uncommon calculations:
The 26/11 Mumbai carnage has brought us to an unprecedented position with our western neighbours. What routes further from here? When reading about the event, minute by minute, on the Times of India news site , accessing the internet using a USB doggle from China, I was feeling the pain within. Perhaps every one of us , all Indians-- Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs-- each one of us must have questioned to himself if we were meant to die away suddenly by an unknown, un-understood bullet, or a bomb blast, while dinning in a posh hotel, or taking a tough journey in a train? What will be the purpose of our life? To suddenly die away?
And this bastard-y act from Pakistani soil has put every single mind under a mountain of self-doubts. Yes, that would contain Indian Muslims as well, whose allegiance to this nation has always been subjected to scrutiny by all non-Muslims, even myself, until the Mumbai carnage. Mumbai doesn’t settle the dust from their allegiance issue, but perhaps leaves them with no option but to side with the country they were born on, even if they didn’t like the cricket match victories of it. The ‘unknown’ bullets and the bombs have its targets quite as much unknown to itself; - it could be any --Muslims and non-Muslims - alike.
The 26/11 sent a message across to them too, that they are as much subject to the fear as the rest of us. Same fate and same Hoors or Angels wait for the non-Muslims in the Jannat or Heaven above as for the Muslims, even if the Indian Muslims are indirectly and silently intending to support the Jehad , if they are welcoming a self-sacrifice for the cause of Islam. Even Indian Muslims have families, and as much deep-rooted in the soil of this nation as the rest of us.
The question then reduces to that of life and death for all of us, A decision has to be made-- whether to break the 5000years of our history of never attacking a country, or, an as much old history of taking attacks from the outsiders. Changing times induces us to change the history from here on. It is a post independence India, taking steps for a self-improvement and struggling to make a good relations with its neighbours, unless the neighbours have some hidden agenda, like the victory of Islam, for themselves.
China is also slowly waking up to understand the inherent desires of us, even as the agendas of Pakistan become visible to the whole world. A nation created after a fragmenting of this continent, has no other purpose but to win us over, and then the whole world.
The US is as much in bad shoes as us. It may rather be seeing us coming in the same bad shoes as they already were in. The whole world criticized them, and Mr Bush, for his invasion of Iraq. This carnage leading to Indian assalut would give them a good partner to stand-by to face the bombarding questions from the whole world. The two could explain it better to the world, why they did what they did. Further it would ease the pressure, the workload in particular, from the cleansing job they are on, in Iraq and Afghan. The assault will leave us, Indians, less choice post the attack, but to become one with the US. And that is a cost much less to ask of us today, than the huge collateral damage we are taking otherwise. Repeated incursions in Pakistan by the US drone planes would not yield as much result as one single full-scale assault by the Indians.
The other Gulf states, despite sharing the common religion with Pakistan, are themselves undergoing some sort of democracy-kind of social-welfare awakening as the oil is weeding out or evaporating from their soil. The new world order, of Globalization and multi-nationalism, has taught them to start pushing the religion behind, into a closet and accept the advance of Indian Keralites with an open arm. They minght not be taken by the fact that Pakistan is Muslim state too, while the king of Saudi-Arabia takes some measures to establish the sincerity of Muslims people and Islamic religion to the whole big world staring suspicion at them. Maybe they would sense that Pakistan, now, is the one bringing a bad name to them, when India remains the home of one of the largest population count of the Muslims. SRK, Salman, Aamir, and many more belong to this country.
Pakistan seems to be cornering itself into an unperceived isolation by assuming more arrogance and denials to apparently us, but deep within, to the whole world. To the world, it is now becoming a common Bollywood story of two brothers, born of same mother, and who arrive a different fate some 60 years hence. Something like the movie ‘Race’.
In case of war, Pakistan, which is at present looking up to its nuclear arsenal will have lesser free-will to use, as many Indian Muslims over here stand along and wait for what there western brothers have kept in store for them for all the direct and indirect allegiance they had paid to the former. Nuclear bomb is an end device, meant to kill Muslims as much as the Hindu ‘Zionist’ and the western ‘Zionist’.
This becomes a question of life and death for each of us on the eastern side of the disputed border...

Open letter to a blog pal, A

In my thoughts today :
1. If there are no rules, then let there be ethics. Else, the world will go wild again.
2. Some things which can be done in stupidity cannot be done in smartness.


Dear A,
Thinking about this blog, 'Forks', of yours last night, I felt little sleepless too. “ You can choose to live to impress someone OR you can choose to live for yourself” . I also went through the SENG site which you have linked in your blog. I don’t really know if I had this of not, because unlike your case where you have undergone a proper therapy for it mine is undiagnosed. But my symptoms, which are now my memories, tell me that it was the same.
You also mention about various authors of existentialism to Raghvan, of which I have heard not a single. Thankfully, much like your background, I also had a strong academic base, particularly in the field of sciences and mathematics, when I appear to have been affected by this condition.
Also noteworthy at this point is that this crisis of self-existence is very common in people from my region of our country, I can’t really say why, but I have lots of persons, males and females, who have taken deep inquiry into the questions listed to yourself.
One such classmate, T Khare (complying my policy of ‘No Names’ ), (Orkut link :‘suppressed’ ) did his engineering, BE, from Agra and later decided to renounce everything to pursue his vocation in Astrology. On orkut he puts his ambition to be ‘working to find medical cures through combination of ayurveda and astrology’(!!). His story is that even during his school-years, Class X (ISCE) he would abandon his house to go to Haridwar, Shantikunj Ashram, of Gayatri parivar, to enrol as a pupil. In those days the Ashram did not take him (perhaps fearing) owing his underage (and thus a Police action upon T’s parents complain). He was 15 yrs old at that time. In fact, the first such attempt by ‘T’ was just a few days before the Boards. He returned home on the morning of English paper (a compulsory subject !).
T’s story gets me to think about the theories on ‘belief’, which I know not many, but assume that it must surely be having something about prodigious affect of Beliefs on humans. I myself do not accept the scientific scope of Ayurveda(very feeble chances to unraveling new medicines), and not a dime of the Astrology( a nautical astronomer, I myself am), but would have to at least give room to placebos. Some odd times, placebos have worked miracles.
Some (strong) Beliefs, I think, cannot be fought by non-believers. It is better that non-believers(a strong believers of one kind) give room to believers (strong believers of another kind). Better to settle dispute by adopting mutual respect.
Then, in my vague memories, there was also one D Choudhary, often questioning the same issues enlisted by yourself. He later did his engineering from IIT-Kharagpur, and now working (or doing something) in the US.
Such enquires are common for people of this age experiencing intense competition. It is bound to provoke thoughts within us. Most of my blogs are an outcome of the same activity within. How these queries develop an individual depends a lot on his cultural, social, domestic and academic setup. Some chose to take the path of Isaac Newton, Some of Sigmund Freud, some of Osho Rajneesh, and many others of man-killers (the terrorist).
In the light of the above I would conclude by saying that I see yourself not much different from me. I propose that formative conditions will have to be treated to contain the spread of the existential-crisis condition among people. I mean mostly people should be living happy, cheerful, debonair, not self-inquisitive.
:-)
Regards,

Brainwashed!

LIFE IS ABOUT ADJUSTMENT, BUT NOT TRYING YOUR ADJUSTMENTS BY ADOPTING A SITUATION DEMANDING ADJUSTMENTS.
(My cry to the arguers who put sentences like ‘what will you do when…’(so that I should start doing the emergency actions as a routine procedure).

Brainwashed!!
Reading the news reports on the terror attacks of yesterday in Mumbai, the argument went on to say how deep indoctrinated is the psyche of a suicide bomber that s/he is ready to destroy self for his beliefs. In raw words, he is brainwashed. I proceeded to think - are we all not brainwashed to some good extent in some larger sense?
The arguer would often describe the malpractices in business and governance, the helplessness of person--something or other-- to establish ‘the ways of the world’ . “ sh*t floats and it floats everywhere”-- the great scatological management thought to prove own point, implying - wrong is unacceptable, no matter where. Isn’t that a brainwashing in some other deep sense, and which eventually facilitates in the ‘brainwashing’ of terrorists. To me this same thought was given to mean that it was I who was creating sh*t-- doing a wrong by attempting to report one wrong.
The argument was primarily around whether the ship-yard will charge the ship for picking ship’s stores by its crane or not. I insisted - they would not; my reasoning being that at a repair yard, the use of crane is the vary foundation of all work. Who accounts and how does he account whether one single move was for ship’s personal work or the yard staff’s work. Then, what when the ship’s own crane is rendered unusable for n number of reasons, not distinctly known to all the yard staff involved with the crane accounting, if there be any. Also, there is no known agreement in regard to usage of yard crane - between the ship, the ship owners and the yard. All personal work of ship staff is a ship’s work only.
Arguments kept coming that money is directly involved in giving all the services - however big or small; and hence a cost would be billed on the ship’s account. Some inquires from some yard staff even sprang an amount of ¥ 500RM for this particular lift. I argued if that will show up specifically in the bill anywhere? Reply said- No, because we were as it is working in a project where million dollars are anyways involved. (exiguous amount could not be reflected in thus).
I insisted that even then the break-down has to be clear-- so that even I may delegate my staff to keep track of such cost-incurring movements, and keep them in checks to reduce the cost.
Cost-cutting was the motto gladly accepted but with words that not everything is disclosed, and that bills won’t even come to our hand anyways. (the fundamentals of ‘Transparency’ are commonly flayed like this)
I agreed that we generally remain impervious with such details, but if money saving is really intended through the means of making ship-staff use the ship crane, then such things will requires a diagnosing from us too.
We are small fishes in the big oceans-- I was made to understand. There is no such thing as free lunch, and hence I was told, I should not assume that cost will not be incurred uselessly. There are many sneak-viewer who would inform that to the owners and the yard to count the exact thing-- I was told.
My ignorance of details was admissible to me, but the same was getting utilized to poke in other more theories to, taking things away into self -willed direction.
I argued that- I would agree to the demand of co-operation, --would offer the best ‘good faith’ that can be- but the same not to be mis-utilised to mould things in own favour, and/or to create any economy pressure where there exist none.
The arguer was my senior capacity. I FELT I WAS BEING BRAINWASHED.

(My) Rules of Arguments:-

The commonest problem of Debating in our Indian culture is that it mostly goes into meaninglessness, inconclusive, un-recapitulated, and un-acted. The gem aspect of debating - that it is the very basis of scientific discoveries and inventions, - that it is the source of philosophical and artistic progress - has not been identified by us. Most debates tend to become blame-charging and un-analytical.

1. Written arguments help in speaking out the points with out being disturbed by the audiences. Audiences have the advantage to refute the arguments point by point. Both the arguer and the argued get the advantage of acting( or writing) after getting due time to think over. Patience is streamed in more mandatory manner in this.
2. The rules of convincing, evidencing the Arguments should be clearly understood by all. In other words, there are established Test of Arguments, much like there are test of metals, or test of welding.
3. Verbal arguments are required in situations, say, which demand instant decision-making, or when truth of intentions has to be established. Delayed arguments give an appearance of getting crafted to suit the needs of the occasion.
4. Arguments are the ground work for a functioning Democracy. Social and scientific development is pillared on delving arguments. Hence the norms of humanity-- say, sensitivity, tolerance, gullibility, --and also norms of democracy-- freedom of expression, sense of justice, equality of arguer and the argued, -- should apply.
5. Negative attitudes in arguments should also be well-recognized, which can themselves to subject to inner arguments for future applicability from time to time. Thus, abusive words can or cannot be allowed. Criticism anyways has to be allowed in some form or other. Abuses are sometime just an extreme kind of criticism-- more human way, less divine.
6. Absurdity should be allowed, to aid new things to emerge. ‘Test of Arguments’ can later filter away these at a later stage.


Test of Arguments:
1. Plausibility: Should sound probable to the highest degree possible to maximum number of people possible. Un provable reasons should have extreme sense of likelihood-- for occurrences. It should not be far-fetched.
2. Evidenced: As much as possible should have proof for correctness. Plausible reasons should not always be overturned by proven facts because there is always a chance of something more ,something else, something new.
3. Tenable: Should win support from as many people as possible. In case of two equally agreeable reasons, whichever makes more appeal based on its intrinsic valve, should be awarded.
4. Logical: should be interpretable by brain to as much extent as possible. Some arguments are based on abstract things, agreeable only to emotions. Logical reasons are less debatable than abstract issues. Inordinate reasons raise more doubts.


Thanks to blogging, different things are happening now.!

In my vagueness

Arguments are the furnace in the heat of which Pure Truth is smelted out from raw talks.


When a man is struggling...
Often i have enquired myself on various intriguing behaviours that i myself display, or i see in others. even with all our wisdom, the great repository of knowledge that we maintain. in our struggling chore we all end up acting in a manner contrary to what we would ever imagine ourselves to be.1. sometimes we get insulting towards others in order not to accept what others are suggesting-to/imposing-on us.2. sometimes we take the talks into the realms of strangeness, or sometimes maybe into intense questioning in our fight to prove ourselves.3. then, we tend to make things a prestige issue or an ego-point when we feel confronted by somebody a deemed junior.4. we also tend to become 'preachy' to people whom we think to be inferior or 'junior' to ourselves,in a manner by telling our experiences as some consequence of nature's design.
Arguments are the furnace in the heat of which pure truth is smelted out from raw talks.



Introductions
Introduction plays an important role in creating liking/disliking for something.How u are introduced often ends up making the basis of your choice n outlook towards it. that's how presentation matters. the role of a teacher in school is very important in this regard. How he introduces the topic to his students, how well he connects those topics to the contagious environ of them, all of these count in creation of and sustaining of interest in the topic. Storey-telling thus transforms into an art, to be practised better by its own experts. Like making a movie, or managing a big company, for commanding a unit of soldiers. what krishna did with arjuna in the battle of mahabharat was nothing but a finesse of story-telling which we today call as Gita, just another form of so-much in-demand nowadays---the good communication skills. Men, by nature, like to have queries, and more queries. When one query is solved, another comes up from the answers to the previous queries. A good Krishna will aim to settle a humble and agreeing answers to the prevailing queries so that the next query may be laid to rest for time being. that's why gita doesn't get solution of every query to all individuals. Gita was to arjuna alone, from Krishna , specific, an for that times of the Battle. while each of us Arjuna would want our own Krishna for our own queries. The job of a good teacher, or a good presenter is to settle out the same.never try to settle a query by telling a farce rule-of-life as an explanation for it.things don't happen by whims of somebody. there are immediate causes for every action. Distant causes and immediate causes are two distinct issues.Like i find it hard to digest that Rahul raj, the unfortunate bihari youth had taken up gun, by listening to that inflammatory speeches of Raj Thackery. it my have a distant cause, but not the immediate cause, to explain why only rahul, of all the thousands of unemployed youths from bihar.
the opinionated minds take longer to find peace from their queries. the more we know, the more we query.ignorant minds are easy to appease.
in the context of relationship, enormous opinions tend to do bigger damages. therefore we see so large the failed relationships of educated people, even that of Einstein and Newton. Ignorance helps at this front. Ignorance is not all that bad.It is so difficult to find a right groom for a well-educated , high placed girl. A slight amiss, and the chances of breakup are high.

Lately i saw this movie, DIL DOSTI ETC. The story is in the background of our big metropolitan state.. N Delhi. The eternity of Confusion flows as the undercurrent of the whole movie...the protagonist himself standing confused- for always-- about what happened, how it happened, why it happened.! well that's the greatest truth that the movie tells its viewers. also coated up with the previous theme is the eternity of confusion-in-love, well-scripted in the movie.
Cities like delhi seem to be becoming the epicenters of Materialism and Lust. The big shopping malls, the fast and sleek cars, the smooth roads, the night life --all are lying somewhere in between the truth and false. So much is the confusion that Love from Lust cannot be differentiated, nor can the philosophy of honest life from a developed life. Honesty and truth bring development or is it the Instant-necessities? True love-- is false, or that everything is time-defined! (i have foregone the word Opportunism.)What is the real thing is an all-pervading confusion of this city? Delhi is caught midway between the Aristotelian west and the Buddhist India. and then she is constantly circling around its own tail to catch anything that can get grabbed in its mouth! the youth is so happy-in-life(no,not distracted) and need-driven(no,not Confused) that it's so movie-like-excitement(no, not Difficult-to-understand) to see what is happening in their life.
If WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR tells, in the story, how a young rural woman of eastern UP is married to a dog to get rid of her jinx, then DIL DOSTI ETC shows of how a young urban woman of Delhi is herself a bitch sleeping around with any man who comes in her way!
The eastern Buddhist philosophy talks of things like self-control, self-deprivations etc. while the Aristotelian West talks of True-or-False only its chief decision replies. Neither is bad, but in course of time both of these had suffered aberrations to result into something an eternal confusion. the characteristic of youth is to question itself about the purpose of life. and the diverse approaches result in the two divulgent youth i met in two capital cities of these two philosophies-- varanasi and delhi. My cousin from Varanasi is delving deep into the whole and absolute truth of Gita that he doesn't believe in anything else, while my delhi friends are so confused to scoff at adopting any principles for leading a life !!
True love to me is a phenomenon well-existent in human society. Sometime back there was an argument with my friend's wife about the belief of human society in the institution of marriage. The varanasi gal was adamant that there is true love, as though lust is something devilish and sinful. i was arguing from anthropological standpoint as to what is love in first place. Is man actually a monogamous animal? or, is there really anything truthfully monogamy that we indians have put in place. i argued there is nothing so severely monogamous among human beings as what we indians call as 'only yours for life'( and for seven lives after-on). No animal is monogamous from its whole life point of view. But yes some of them are monogamous, for the time duration when they are in relationship with another animal. The Ram-Chandraji-kind of one-woman-man--for-life is an imposed proposition, we should understand. Perhaps humans are also time-bound-monogamous species only.
The confused delhi has gone into believing that there is nothing like true love, while the rural varanasi has rejected the truth of monogamy-under time frame.
There we see the confusion so much at large. the Aristotelian west perhaps better understands the truth, and thus agrees of monogamy under time constraints, Over there, we see people getting married without caring much for each other's past, and even getting divorced without bothering about its implications on life and children!!Delhi and India has yet to come of age in this regard,.
However the problem that will surface then would be about how the belligerency of youth would be handled should india go Aristotelian, where parents would join and unite so frequently.!?
Or should I live life the way it has been culturally passed on to me! i would prefer that for my answer for time being.

The Bermuda Triangle transit.

Yes, peopole, the Bermuda triangle is not forbidden waters.
In the picture above, U can see the Bermuda Island , which i have enclosed in a red square for highlighting.
the pic is a portion of the navigational chart, (maps of sea are called Charts), on which the ship's route ("course") is drawn in pencil. My ship traversed through this "mysterious" zone between 20th and 24th May 2008 while enroute to Miami/Port Everglades.
The big circle around the Bermuda indicates a protected fishing zone. As per the instructions of the Chart, (issued by the Admiral of British Royal Navy,) mariners are advised not to approach the island at night hours owning to insufficient navigational marks. This is the only restriction in place in regards to this world acclaimed "mystery" zone.
Recent researches claim the the Atlantic basin in this zone is rich in hydrocarbon deposits, particularly the methan(CH4) gas. The gas has property of being very much lighter than air and water.; and of being highly inflammable.
Whenever the bubbles of methane emanate from the sea bed, they start rising up towards the water surface. In this event, if any water craft get trapped in the bubble then it has possibility of sinking due to foundering (loss of buoyancy),or being exploded away if any heat source ignites the methane gas.
The same happens with the air crafts also, traversing through the zone.
the worst recorded loss is that of the US Navy aircraft carrier during the second world war, with all its equipment and men.

Character of a happy life

"CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE"

How happy is he born and taught
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought
And simple truth his utmost skill!

Whose passions not his masters are,
Whose soul is still prepared for death,
Not tied unto the world with care
Of public fame, or private breath;

Who envies none that chance doth raise
Or vice; Who never understood
How deepest wounds are given by praise;
Nor rules of state, but rules of good:

Who hath his life from rumours freed,
Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
Nor ruin make accusers great;
Who God doth late and early pray
More of His grace than gifts to lend;
And entertains the harmless day
With a well-chosen book or friend;

--This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.

By Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639).

Shippies: job and profile

The management organisation onboard merchant ships is hereunder:
1. Master ( Captain)
2. Chief Mate/ Chief Officer/ First Mate/ First Officer
3. Second Mate/ Second Officer
4. Third Mate/ Third Officers
5. Deck cadet/ TNOC
6. Chief Engineering officer
7. First Engg( In foreign Companies)/ 2nd Engg( In Indian companies)
8. 2nd Engg (in foreign companies)/ 3rd Engg (in Indian companies)
9. 3rd Engg ( in foreign comp) / 4th Engg(in Indian Companies)
10. 5th Engg (mostly in Indian Comp only)
11. Trainee Marine Engg (TME)
12. Petty Officers
13. Crew ( aka Ratings)
Total complement on ships is from 18 to 24 people.
(In Pic: The Cargo Control Room of a merchant ship)

In this, the management structure is divided into two parts : Deck and Engine. Primary job of Deck dept is to operate the ship, like—navigation, cargo handling, personnel management( including administration, food and provisions, hygiene of accommodation), communication, medical chest upkeep/assistance, Safety of personnel, and last, safety and security of Ship and personnel.
Primary job of Engine is to provide Machinery support to deck in carrying out all its duties. For example, engines and steering are required for navigation. Hence the ultimate execution of commands for engines and steering rest with the engineers. The driving power( electrical, hydraulic and steam) for all the machinery required in cargo handling, is under the charge of engineers. Maintenance of all machinery is under their charge. The task is so enormous that, in fact, personnel management, safety of personnel related to their department and communication related to engine dept is rested with Chief Engg only, although a procedure has been put for sake of formality to route them through the Master(aka captain).
From the list given above, the deck Dept consist of 1,2,3,4 and 5. While the engine dept consist of 8,9,10,11 and 12. Considering the significance of each dept, a chief engg has been equated to master, chief mate to 1st engg, and so on.
Captain is always from the deck department. Thus, the Chief mate is next successor for master. Being the overall in-charge of ship, sometimes he is placed slightly above the Chief Engg, and thus, paid slightly more than him.
Rank –wise duties of each rank are as follows:
Master – overall in-charge of ship at all times, normal and emergencies. His words, even by word of mouth, are orders required to abandon a ship in case of emergencies. He is the person who attends to all the people and government authorities coming on board. He is held liable, indiscreetly, for all the actions and mishaps on his ship. He the person incharge of all communication, internal and external.
Chief Mate: - is the Incharge of cargo handling, personal management under his department, HOD of Deck Dept, Incharge of Ship’s overall Security, internal and External. In-charge for accommodation upkeep. maintenance in-charge for ship’s hull. Does navigation, under charge of master, and as per navigation passage plan made by the Second Officer. Substitute for master, in case master is incapacitated.
Second mate: incharge of ship’s navigation plan, directly under the control of Master. Incharge for upkeep of medical chest, maintenance of navigation machinery (like the radars, the autopilot, the radio equipment, depth recorders, etc.). Performs cargo handling under the charge of his HOD, the chief mate.
Third mate: Directly under control of his HOD, the Chief Mate, he does maintenance of all Life-saving-appliances(LSA) and the fire-fighting-appliances(FFA). Does cargo handling under control of Ch/Off. For navigation, he is directly under the Master.

Thus, one can notice that for Navigation, the Master is the direct controller, while for cargo handling, the control is applied through the Chief Mate, (aka Ch/Off). And all the ranks of deck dept do a navigation job also, while the ship is at sea, and also do cargo handling job while the ship is in port.
At sea, the navigation is conducted in shifts as follows, and every days:
Second Mate: 1200- 1600hrs , 0000hrs- 0400hrs (SMT, Ship Mean Time)
Chief Mate: 1600- 2000 hrs, 0400- 0800 hrs
Third Mate: 2000- 2400 hrs, 0800- 1200 hrs.
Thus all three do an 8 hr navigation each day, in two shifts of 4 hours each. Master does not do navigation, but comes only when called, (for which he is bound to attend anytime when called), and when the ship is “manoeuvring”. “Manoeuvring” is when the ship’s engines are required to increase or decrease, like-- when coming or going to port; dropping anchor, coming inside harbour, passing through heavy traffic area, etc.
At sea, when the ship is cruising at its full speed because there is no traffic and no obstructions, and engines are not required to be increased or decreased, it is called “navigation”. Remember that a ship does not have anything like what u have as brakes in your car. A moving ship cannot to stopped *suddenly* by any means, except by reversing the propeller direction by reversing engines, or by dropping the anchors. Otherwise the ship will always drift with the waters. The propeller is very easily reversed by automated changing of configuration of ‘piston firing’ , in the engine casing.
A ship consumes, like 35 tonnes of Heavy Diesel Oil, in a day to travel at speed of say 16 knots ( 1 knot= 1852 mtrs/second, nearly 2 kilometers per hour).
A nautical mile, in true definition, is the distance between two points located at the earth’s equater which would subtend an angle of 1’,( 1 minute, of a 360 degree notation), on the earth’s centre. It is 1852 mtrs.
The cargo is the most important commodity on a merchant ship, of course after human lives. 70% of world cargo moving at sea, in these days, is petroleum or its product. My last ship would carry 45,000 tons of gasoline( what in India we call Petrol), which would worth some 400million US Dollars!!!. Thus, u can make out how expensive it is. The cost of the ship is only 80million USD. The freight that ship charges for carrying it is, say like, 20,000 USD per day. However, the other bigger ships, which mostly carry Crude Oil only, carry something like 3 lakh tones, and charge freight say, 80,000 USD per day.

Thus, the rank of Chief Mate is very sensitive, because he the person incharge for most expensive commodity on ship, and the very commodity for which a merchant ship exist.
Other ships carry containers, in counts like 2000, 4000, and sometimes even 7500.!!! U can imagine, a merchant ship can carry what the entire depot in Kanpur’s Juhi Nagar, or Delhi’s Faridabad Depot contain! These hubs are called the ICD(inland container depot).
Other ships carry, bulks, like wheat, iron ore ( i have carried hell ot from India’s Paradip/Vizag/Haldia to China), Coal( from Australia to Vizag/Paradip/haldia).
Odd time cargos, carried in the ‘general cargo ships’, that i have done , are like- Graphite blocks of sizes 9 tonnes, to Italy; the rocket launch fuel of ISRO to France; the warfare items for Indian Army from Isreal to India; the fibre boards; the steel slabs of 18tons weight from UK to India(for BHEL), etc.
At sea, the job is mostly about the maintenance of ship’s hull for which ‘chipping’ and painting is done, with the help of ship’s crew. The Engine dept does it’s overhauling of machinery, with the help of its crew.
But what makes the job very important is the compliance of rules and regulations which are made by the International Maritime Organisation.
In truth, a modern day sailor, deck or engine, has the greatest and most enormous task of executing the regulations alone, as made by the IMO, the company and the government authorities.
Ships undergo ‘surveys’ and ‘inspection’ almost every month, nomatter what port of the world they are, to ensure that the regulations are being complied. The list of regulations is so exhaustive that putting a good-luck locket on your neck, to proper full-functioning of all LSA/FFA is “regulated”. The ship’s charterers are also bound to “vet” the ship before employing ‘her’ to carry the cargo.(BTW, a ship is treated as a female in English Language). This is because, if the petroleum cargo leaks out to sea water, then, in foreign countries where the beaches are so scenic, it becomes big public out-cry. And then, the charterer can be made to pay for the ‘environmental damages’ which can soar to amounts like 4.2 billion USD. In fact, the world’s most expensive environmental lawsuit is from shipping industry, where the charterer, the Exxon, has suffered this much damage and have virtually gone bankrupt after one of their ships leaked from 10000tons of crude oil in Alaska.
Also, as the IMO suggestion, the ‘limitation of liability’ for such lawsuits in desired to be fixed to order like 200million SDR,(a SDR is world’s theoretical currency, which does not fluctuate through the Stock Markets). This is so big a figure that India has refused to be a party to this suggestion as our entire national eoonomy will crash down in paying the damages, should one single merchant ship leak the petroleum oil.!
But, in turn, India has agreed to be a part of the Fund Convention and Civil Liability convention to deal with environment disasters caused by crude oil leakages from merchant ships. In this, the cost of clean-up of sea water is paid by the country held responsible. The affected(aggrieved parties) like the Fishermen, beach-tourism industries, can be dealt later.
The job of merchant mariner is this ‘regulated’ scenario is so bad that people have started to quit sailing, to work even for paltry amounts, on shore. I personally feel extremely stressed when at work on my ship.
Most land-lubbers think that a ship’s job is all about navigating the ship. But the fact is that navigation is not as important as the cargo handling. Navigation is looked after by Second Officer, while Cargo is looked after by the Chief Officer, which is the next promotion of Second Officer. One can understand what that means.
Having undergone the lessons of nautical astronomy, required for ships navigation, and *lighter lessons* of - electronics related to ship’s equipment, physics required for ship’s cargo loading, deeper lessons of maritime legislation, a mariner is quite an ‘educated’ and ‘intelligent’ person. Additionally, he has the experience of personnel management, working with a multi-national crew, executing hi-tension legislations, insight into a very important leg of Logistics and Supply-Chain, Communication, Administration and high-table decision-making. That is the reason why the profession of mariner has been agreed for a Bachelor’s degree in nautical science.
Having travelled through different countries and cultures, a mariner is sometimes also repository of the travel wisdom. Owing to professional training, he can sometimes have keen interest in the environmental issues, the diplomatic relations (intiated into through his duties of Ship security officer, and visit to various countries like Iraq, Nigeria), Industrial decrees( factorial status Safety Officer), and knowledge of world history, political science, cultures and traditions.
The training of mariner is also regulated by an IMO legislation called the STCW( standards for training and certification of watch-keeping(of Mariners) ). The STCW categorises the ranks of Master, Chief Mate, Ch Engg,and 1st Engg as “management level” ranks; the ranks of Second mate, Third mate,(and corresponding Engine Dept ranks) as “operational level” rank; and, the crew as “support level”. The medical standards, the academic standards and everything required to be a mariner of what rank are given there in. India is also a party to this ‘convention’ of the IMO, the most recent STCW convention in force being the ‘STCW-95’.
In India, the convention is implemented through the wing of Ministry of Shipping called the Directorate General of Shipping (the DGS). The exam conducting body of the DGS is called the Mercantile Marine Department(the MMD), which is headed by two surveyors, the nautical and the chief engineer. The academic function of teaching is looked after by LBS-CAMSAR(Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Advance Maritime Studies and research, located at Bhayculla in Mumbai). This is the only govt college for the preparing examination syllabus. Other govt and private colleges can only conduct the classroom teaching, to help people gain access to maritime education at places near-by to their homes,(Or at their convenience). These are, TS Chanakya(Mumbai, for Deck Dept only), MERI(Kolkata, for Engg Dept only), TS Rehman( private,Mumbai), The MTI( of SCI,a psu, Mumbai), the ARI(private, N Delhi), FOSMA(private, N Del), NIPM(govt, Chennai), IIPM(govt, Kolkata), TS Jawahar(Private, Mumbai).
Not all these colleges conduct all the classes.
The ARI, in New Delhi, is the most popular college for the north Indians.(near PVR Saket in delhi)
The highest technical ranks in the government for a Captain and a Chief Engineer are – Nautical Advisor to the GOI, and the Chief Surveyor to the GOI , respectively. The other subordinate ranks are called the nautical-surveyor and engine-surveyor. These all are governed by an Act of the Parliament, called the Merchant Shipping Act 1958.

Imagine what the people think! It’s all for high money to some poor grade of people!

Motor tanker "Captain Gurbachan Singh Salaria PVC", owners The SCI Ltd.


the MTI- SCI.


Sagar Gyan Complx of Maritime Training Institute, Powai , Mumbai.

Shippies: job and profile

Why do people despise merchant navy job???
Oh, these ignorant land-lubbers.
I have suffered three matrimony rejections by far on the grounds that i am under-educated for the girl. Although i initially felt the setbacks but later i realised that it's coz those girls are too ignorant to understand what today's merchant naval officer's work profile is. Sometimes i even ponder if they would have had courage to speak those words if they knew what my school years profile/achievements were like. If not flabbergasting, i can safely assume myself to be an average or an above average student. and most girls in my co-ed were far below my level. In fact there were hardly 7 or 8 above me in a total strength of 60 students, of which 25 were girls. In my section composed on maths students only there were just 7 girls out of 41, 4 were better than I in terms of final marks sheet. but in overall performance including the extra-curricular, perhaps only 1 or 2 could stand out.
and the matrimonial rejections have been from even those who would be inferior to even the below average girl co-eds of my grade 12th.
But it's not these girls fault totally, as ignorance alleviation should have been our professional responsibility as also the reputation-building to shake off the image of "a wife at every port".
After 12th, year 1997, I was selected in an all-India exam conducted by our central govt PSU the Shipping Corporation Of India(the SCI) Ltd for training as deck cadet, officially called the Trainee Navigating Officer Cadet(TNOC). to me, the training was imparted at the SCI's own institute, Maritime training Institute(MTI), located just opposite the Powai lake, in Mumbai. I took my training from April 1998 to Aug 1998, and enrolled to batch 28-29, the first among many many "batches" i was to enrol with in years to come. Two batches 28 and 29 were conducted together, each consisting of 20 cadets, sorted in Alphabetical Order, hence the batch name 28-29. A parallel set of cadet, total 40 again, were sent to Training Ship Rehman(TS Rehmam), located in Raigarh and accessible from Nhava Sheva, and they too refer to themselves as "MTI 28-29, parallel Rehman".
Thus, total 80 of us were selected by the SCI for that batch, after a written , objective kind, exam of level slightly tougher than the NDA exams, and after one small interview. I wrote the exam on Dec 14th, 1997 in New Delhi and appeared in the interview on 11-12 Feb 1998 at "Shipping House" in Mumbai. (the head office of SCI is called Shipping House, located at Nariman Point just adjacent to the Mantralay(Legislative Assembly) of Maharashtra. In fact the Shipping House and the Express Tower(the Air India HQ) are the two more prominent buildings of this posh locality).SCI would induct some 180 cadets in one year.
After this, I joined my first ship for the on-board training on 22nd Nov 1998, a crude tanker called 'Maharshi Karve', which has been stationed in Mumbai High oil fields to store the crude oil that is dug from sea bed. Karve even till date remains the largest entity of this oil fields, among all its Platforms.
Anyways, just a week after my joining, this ship sailed away straight to Bahrain, for Dry docking. (every ship is bound to undergo repairs/overhauling every 2.5 yrs, in which she is taken off from water into a basin called Dry Dock, hence dry docking.)
I left Karve on 20th May 1998, after a 6 months haul, due to my grandfather's demise, and after that joined my second ship "State of Andhra Pradesh" on 11th of June 1998, from NSD 2( Netaji Subhash dock 2) in Kolkata.
Away from this, the more recognised gate to entry into merchant navy in those years was through TS Chanakya, for which the entrance till date is conducted through IIT-JEE. Actually, looking at the income that we people make by way of working with the foreign companies, the government was planning to put in some more high qualified youngsters into the field. Hence that was considered the core entry and mine was the side entry. the core entry would get a BSc nautical Science degree after a straight 3yrs training at TS Chanakya, located in Navi Mumbai, while we would simply get a Pre-sea Certificate after our 3months course. We were required to undergo 24months (actual time, not calendar time) on-board training to appear for the junior officer's exam, the rank being known as 3rd Mate. The 'degree cadets' would simply join ship directly as 'junior officer' for 1 yr, come back , take their BSc NS degree and join back ship as 3rd mate. But, later it was noted that the ship work required more of practical on-site training, not that the-classroom stuff. and hence by year 2000, the Govt changed its plan to make the 3-months pre-sea course an equally important gate to entry, as the 3-yr degree course. the deeper causes of this are as follows:--
The high-intellect IIT-qualified people from Chanakya were not much impressed with the profession, and even till date look for means to quit sea faring as early as possible. In the job scenario, the govt noted that sea-faring had become the fiefdom of Indian in past so many years, but due to soaring competition, under impact of globalisation, (opening of Chinese fronts to English Language, and the Philippines resurgence), the Indians had started to lose grounds in ship jobs. The growing economy of India was offering better and as much lucrative jobs on shore itself, like in software, engineering and management that IIT kind of people would naturally opt for. hence the only lot of people to stay back and work on ships were the 'pre-sea' kind of people. also, the degree cadets, joining as officers from day 1 of sea career had nil experience, and a few of them underwent some fatal accidents either on themselves or for the whole ship, that the govt was forced to re-consider their training procedure. In years to come, the govt modified it from, 3yrs course and degree straightaway to --> 3yrs course and six months on-board , giving the degree thereafter, --> 1 yr on-board --> 1 yr on-board + oral exam of 3rd mate. for us the course improved on as -- 3 months pre-sea + 24 months onboard , 3rd mate written and oral,--> 3months+24month onboard+ 3rdmate written and oral giving diploma in NS--> 1 yr pre sea+ 18 months on board + 3rd mate written and oral giving BSc Nautical Science from IGNOU.
The govt in its course of time had probably begun to realise that sea-farer, degree or pre-sea, whatever, in any case where not to "unqualified" stuff to be deprived of eligibilities for post like President and MP/MLAs considering the kind of people that flourish there. Also the growing hold of specialisation in all the technical fields was prompting everybody to accept the sea-farer's work also to be of equally high skills for a 'degree'.
All the oldies sitting in the govt were themselves ex-seafarers who didn't have a degree and they knew how stupid it was to imagine politicians of today are more eligible than themselves. The management skills required in the sea-faring job were rising to unparalleled limits, and there couldn't have been reasons to differ a "pre-sea' from a 'degree' guy when both were doing the same job. In fact the 'pre-sea' turned out to be better performer due to more practical lessons from early years. the 'degree' guy being from IIT and someone looking down at the profession was quite often a snooty guy.
in present, it is mandatory for anybody doing a deck cadet course coming from any training institute in India , to do a BSc NS course, by way of correspondence through IGNOU or by classroom course through TS Chanakya(which awards it's BSc degree under Univ of Mumbai).
but at the last, we guys had missed our bus for the degree course. but I personally had identified the importance of a degree in my school years itself, and so enrolled with IGNOU for a BCom course.
Taking the matrimonial rejection issue again, any land-lubber would not be aware of these developments in the shipping field, and continue to see it through of eyes of disparity. In reality, the govt, sort of realised its mistake of giving 'degree' as an Award to the IIT-guys alone, ( because education is every citizen's legal right and the "pre-sea" was also happening through govt defined procedure only, which meant there couldn't be any justification for depriving person of his legal right,) hence govt corrected itself by awarding 'degree' to all officers coming through any entrance channel. It also would aid the country's need for better skill manpower for handling even more advanced technology ships of future. even of now, I feel we are the fortunate few to get experiences of working amidst such high technology machinery, the ships and terminals, that any land-lubber cannot think of.
the shipping field in these many years of my service ,I have witness, has grown in leaps and bounce , in all the lines- the technical, the technological and the managerial. The SCI underwent the pressure of Disinvestment, and all in my seeing exploded out of its India-centric trade to take on the world in every corner it could. the ships began the carry cargos of fully not-India connection. the charters, the consignee, the receiver all from abroad. this until before was difficult as competitive behaviour of ours was lying inactive in the sack of social security. Oil giants of the world, the Shell, the Exxon, the Mobil, the British Petroleum, the Chevron , all had woken up to form one OCIMF(Oil Companies International Marine forum) and the ICS(Intern Chamber of Shipping) to set the highest of standards for ship's design, operation and management. for our desi PSU, adopting those standards till date is a predicament under all those national compulsions of welfare society, to be able to incur same revenue( cargo freight) from the charters that the best of the ships do. The International Maritime organisation, on the other hand has made things more stringent, enforcing more use of advanced technology, in order to attend to world's cry for zero-pollution marine environment. Sometimes I smile within myself that the procedures that I do on board , if they will ever be adopted by my country in its land for controlling the pollution. International regulation under IMO, the MARPOL, forces me to go to those limits to actually attain those standards, which our Air Act and Water pollution act don't call for even in theory.! the commercial operation exposes me to some understanding of the mercantile laws as practised among the traders at international level, the handling of ship's crew, attending to their medical needs, the provisions, the accommodation, the security aspect, bring to me the skills of Personnel management. the handling of cargo, navigation of ship, maintenance of ship and few of it's machinery are purely technical work requiring little bit of the operation management. In truth, as a chief mate, I feel myself to be what a District Magistrate would be to a town. Only thing that my domain is smaller- of length say 300 mtrs, human beings only 25, and property worth some 100million dollars(the petroleum oil) and the ship (worth some 80million dollars).
Wary girls also need to be assured of new-age mariners' faithfulness as life partners, an aspect which has been tremendously maligned with notions like "a wife at every port", and songs like " a little bit of monica in my life...". Actually the modern day sailors, who are coming from background like myself, are highly conscious of such maligned image and end up becoming more sober, good-habited guys than what other guys on land are. To aid us in this, our extremely busy schedule on ships(Particularly on management ranks like Captain/Chief Mate/Chief Engineer/1st Engineer), and very fast operations while the ship is in port, keeps us so tightly chained to our ships that shore leave is not availed in months of sailing tenure.
the other problem beams light over the issue of our nearness to our spouses in times of her need. In this regards, it is worthwhile to mention that one reason why India's mariners are losing the grips of Indians in sea-faring to the Philippines is primarily because they are going all out to settle on shore jobs as early as they could to join wives in setting and running their houses. the prospects of shore jobs are brightened up for Indians as of now. the chief engineers normally take up the technical management of ships from shore, while the Captains( Master Mariner, as they are professionally called) take up shore based personnel management and sometimes the commercial operations related to chartering and brokering of ships. the other lucrative jobs are like - joining as trainer/teaching faculty; as surveyors for the insurance "Clubs"( as they are known as, in our parlance); joining as Govt Authorities for Surveying and examining of ships for sea-worthiness and selection/examination of officers/manning staff; joining as Surveyors with the Standardisation organisation like the Indian register of Shipping, and many more; joining the port authorities; joining as 'Pilots' (professional navigators who haul the ship in/out of the ports).
being a management professional with an excellent work-experience in the field of logistics, many people have also chosen to formally do up an MBA and switch to other logictics, Supply-chain, charter/brokering firms and so on. Additionally, to the shore job in the shipping company, they keep their doors open to us for all ranks including that of the Chairman-cum-MD. In SCI itself, there has already been on Captain Radhakrishnan, who served the company from rank of cadet to CMD, until retirement.Foreign companies also offer job in their branch offices at equivalent portfolios.
Most of us switch over to these streams by the age of 35. Only issue that hangs is that though these all are also high-income jobs, but not so in comparison with our on-board salaries. Sometimes people choose to continue sailing life long as sea-life is more hassle-free than shore jobs, and more yielding too.
If only, the common land people knew that !

22.06.08
I always feel disgusted at hearing that there is so much widespread corruption and malpractices everywhere, or say in any given field. Such talks when done in is privacy, and in certain abhorrent style, give me a feeling of **surrendering to situation**. they subvert my will to fight. they deter , they discourage the feeling of truth fullness and honesty within. They are the admission and justification of self being corrupt, by the speaker. they are a cultural propagation and continuing of corruption and ill-actions once they have happened anywhere in our society. they have no desire to bring change, to rectify and to improve. there is no remorse and apology.they make dishonesty even more blatant.


21.06.2008
What could be wrong in my behavior?? i am quite serious and stressed at the time I am on ships. when the orders are given i am unable to take them with a receptive heart.The senior on the other hand is himself a serious person mostly. Then the two serious thoughts collide trying to surmount each other.like when he ask me to do tank cleaning seriously as a matter of need, i begin to seriously think of the period of rest. When the cargo is halted due to generator troubles, i am told that i should rush to attend coz the cargo is my duty, but i begin to seriously think if i have to be there necessarily all the time.
seriousness arouses ego. hinders dissolving of frustration and anger in work. We have to learn to be cheerful.it's just that being cheerful is not easy job while on board. People have their own ways to enjoy. Most shippies, like the one on "Challenge Plus" used alcohol, cigs, movies for de-stressing. My way is by communicating the social and political thoughts coz somehow i feel too connected with them.then the seniors use their learning to push you into their kind of working while u are, and even admitting, of being unaware of methods in your jobs.They tend to take advantage of your ignorance.Private get-togethers also get consumed in surmounting each other.there are less narratives to explain the situation or the job requisites. on the explanation thought, it brings me to say that, like i have always been saying, most of us people are too poor in story-telling, it's as though story-telling is a bad deed. and that's where we lack. we dont have much skill to explain and convince people. we often go on to ask Arjuna to shoot at Bhism explaining that it's coz he is old, unworthy, insane, aged, etc..the other demeaning thoughts. The skills of Krishna , of how he expounded on the Karma, to convince Arjune to shoot at Bhism is too high up in sky for us to practice. How many of us read literature so deeply to be able to *communicate* even the sinful sounding thoughts to people around.People got to learn that skill.

"Different context, different narrative, different imagination"

still discovering myself?!!

"even i dont know about myself ", " still discovering myself.."
i feel disappointed at such a statement from any 25 plus. becoz people are known by various choices they 've made in their life. some identities are inherited, some chosen, some awarded.25 summers are good enough to accord recognition to them. Rest of the life is for living up those id's. a person has nationality, caste, religion, profession, gender, for his/her many more id's.
Mostly 'even i ...' words are specious. the subconscious minds knows the answer but the front mind denies. Person needs to be helped out of his front mind's unawareness.

True love is like ghost, which everybody claims to have seen, but only few have actually.

ps: Most of them have started believing there is no ghost!

Cards and Cricket

Cards and Cricket have got some elementry dichotomy:
In cricket, in a 11-person squad every one has got his own bat; in cards, each one person has got 11 cards in his hand.
Cricket is fight against talent; cards is fight against destiny using talent and brain.

The Brahman

Debating on the topic ‘Brahmins: The saviors or the culprits ’, I just got into thinking what is brahminism?
Lots of input have already come in the topic and much knowledge shared and created. Someone has also thrown some light on the difference between Brahmin and Brahman
(ब्रम्ह) (different English spelling) as featured in the Wikipedia. The former is a caste in Hindu varna system, while the latter is a quality of a person who was pastorally entitled to adopt this caste. In later days, the caste system became rigid and birth-defined.
My friend’s father tells us that the one knows ‘Brahman’ is a ‘Brahmin’ . So what would be this thing knowing which made the difference in earlier times? Here is what came to my mind—
Brahman purely is knowledge of self; the realization of influences upon own self by virtue of belonging to some environment; a struggle with own self to overcome own vices, prejudices, shortcoming, or in the least acknowledging their presence in the self.
Every man by nature would desire to live a happy life on this planet but which practically does not happen. Sometimes some odd men wake up to begin arguing and question themselves about the sufferings in the world. It is them they look for the causes of pain and suffering and begin to discover/unravel their own mind, thoughts, and grown up in their self knowledge. It is this compilation of such knowledge that was perhaps given the name Brahman.( ब्रम्ह) (different from Brahma, the god). However the knowledge they acquire does not remain applicable to self but also helps in understanding the others.
The essential elements I note in such an awakening of self is the realization of pain and suffering. Perhaps that is why practices like self-denial, abnegation, self- deprivation came into being. The idea might have been to subject own self to pain to understand how deep it could be, so that the soul may shiver up and awaken to begin finding answers to it. In the course of time the practice almost turned in a ritual just literally followed without achieving the intended motive. Plainly because he understands pain, such a person would be very humble and polite in addressing things, as also continuously mediating upon consequences of own words or action in invoking any sort of pain anywhere.
The other element is the highly emotional behaviour, which in my truest opinion (as also suggested through various knowledge-based television channels) is the root cause of intelligence in human beings. Emotions help in realizing the pain. Implicitly, a Brahmin should be expected to be an emotional and intelligent man; an intellectual man.
In modern times, people of high academic caliber should be most likely candidates for such a realization. Something like the IITians or the IIM’s . This is because they are required to undergo intense self-deprivation and self-control to acquire so much knowledge to be able to compete through these places. However others can also acquire it if the living environment by some means has created a similar situation around. The concepts of Emotional Intelligence (by Daniel Goleman) begin to apply.
Looking deeper into this precept, I would also think that the other consequences of realization of pain could also be characters like terrorist and hardened criminals. Sometimes they are reported to be polite, intense, intelligent, appealing etc. These positive qualities may just a product of progresses to the Brahman but with some distortions or fallacies somewhere in the arguments.

Go the distance..movie Hercules

(feat Micheal Bolton)

I have often dreamed
Of a far off place
Where a hero's welcome
Would be waiting for me
Where the crowds will cheer
When they see my face
And a voice keeps saying
This is where I'm meant to be
I'll be there someday
I can go the distance
I will find my way
If I can be strong
I know ev'ry mile
Will be worth my while
When I go the distance
I'll be right where I belong
Down an unknown road
To embrace my fate
Though the road may wander
It will lead me to you
And a thousand years
Would be worth the wait
It may take a lifetime
But somehow I'll see it through
And I won't look back
I can go the distance
And I'll stay on track
No I won't accept defeat
It's an uphill slope
But I won't lose hope
Till I go the distance
And my journey is complete
But to look beyond the glory is the hardest part
For a hero's strength is measured by his heart
Like a shooting star
I can go the distance
I will search the world
I will face its harms
I don't care how far
I can go the distance
TillI find my hero's welcome
Waiting in your arms...
I will search the world
I will face its harms
Till I find my hero's welcome
Waiting in your arms...

{Go the Distance }(ost Hercules}

(One of the Testimonials to Rishi from his profile.>>)
people think they will love only when they find a perfect man or a perfect women nonsense you will never find them and if they exist they won’t bother a love .love needs a climate of gratitude, thankfulness love need s a non demanding and non expecting atmosphere

Never argue with stupids, first they bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience.