NARA'S NOTEPAD
VOULUME 9
OCTOBER 2013
NUMBER 10
Monday, September 30, 2013
SPONSORS
NARA’S NOTEPAD thank
Dr. K. Karunaichamy, Scientist, Rubber Research
Institute of India, Kottayam, Kerala
for sponsoring Sept., Oct., and Nov. 2013
issues
and
Dr. V.V. Ramamurthy, Principal Scientist (Entomology)
and National Coordinator, IARI, New Delhi
for
sponsoring Dec. 2013, Jan. and Feb. 2014 issues.
MEMO FROM NARA
Healthy people are happy people. Is it true? I
think it is true to certain extent. Of course good health is a must for our
good living. In order to achieve good health we need to follow some principles
in life. In fact one comes to know this only when he/she becomes unhealthy.
Even if one is healthy, he/she may not be happy in some cases. Although health
is the primary requirement for happiness, if someone is not feeling happy, then
it is due to some other problem, probably due to unhealthy behaviours and
habits.
All these are taught from the primary school
onwards to children by the teachers. Good food, clean water, personal hygiene,
disciplined life, exercise are some of the important things that make us
healthy. One has to understand the physiology of one’s body. It’s also taught
in class rooms. We have forgotten those golden lessons and follow some unwanted
habits such as smoking, drinking alcohol, over eating, inactivity etc. All
these habits hamper our health in the long run, then how can one be happy?
Happiness and peace of mind come only because of good health. Wealth may also
give happiness to certain extent; but the primary and essential factor needed
for happiness in life is good health.
Most of the youngsters do not pay attention to
their health because of their robust body strength. Once they enter their late
age, they feel weak and their health starts deteriorating. This is the way life
goes on. Weakness affects health. One has to listen to the body and observe
carefully the symptoms of uneasiness. Immediate attention will certainly pay
the dividends. If we postpone, then it would be too late to take care of our
health. We all know that healthy life always bring peace of mind and happiness.
Everyone loves to be friendly with healthy people.
Poor health is one of the painful aspects of old age. One has to use his/her
experience to take appropriate steps to improve health and thus happiness.
There are ways and means to keep one’s health at the safer side. We need to
understand the needs of our body and feed it properly. Physical health leads to
mental health. One gets self-confidence because of good health. Spoiling one’s
health is easy but to build good health we need self-discipline and
self-control. Temptations and bad company may break the self-control. So, one
has to be careful in defeating those unwanted habits. Good habits in fact, bring
good health and thus happiness. Let us try to get good health through good
habits.
Q & A
What would
happen, if earth starts rotating 30 times faster than at normally does?
Guess
What?
We would
get salary every day.
How can a
man stay eight days without sleep?
No
problems. He sleeps at night.
AMUSING DEFINITIONS
Major
General: An army officer who has his men behind him before the battle and
ahead of him during it.
Love
at first sight: The world’s greatest time saver.
Man
of few words: One who takes three hours to tell you he is a
man of few words.
Microscopic
Expert: A person who magnifies everything.
Modern
Girl: A girl who wants to go with every Tom, Dick
and marry. She marries for money in order to make her dream come through. She
is not so much concerned with what a man stands for, as what he will fall for.
She loves a man for all he is worth.
Optimist:
One who takes a frying pan on a fishing trip.
Laughter:
The sound you hear when you stumble, or lose your hat in the wind.
THE SECRETS OF OLD AGE...
v Before middle age - do not
fear.
v After middle age – do not regret.
v Enjoy your life while you can.
v Do not wait till you cannot even walk just to be sorry and to
regret.
v As long as it is physically possible, visit places you wish to
visit.
v When there is an opportunity, get together with old classmates,
old colleagues and old friends.
v The gathering is not just about eating, it’s just that there is
not much time left.
v Money kept in the banks may not be really yours.
v When it is time to spend, just spend, treat yourself well as
you’re getting old.
v Whatever you feel like eating, just eat! It is most important to
be happy.
v Food which are good for health – eat often and more but that is
not everything.
v Things which are not good for health - eat less once in a while
but do not abstain from them totally.
v Treat sickness with optimism.
v Do not be afraid or worried when you are sick.
v Everyone has to go through the birth, aging, sickness and death.
There is no exception, that’s LIFE.
JUST TO LAUGH...
A milkman dying in hospital is surrounded by his two sons, daughter, his
wife and the nurse.
He says to his eldest son, "To you Peter, I leave the Beverly houses."
To his daughter, "My pretty Rose, to you I leave the apartments in the Los Angeles Plaza."
"And Charlie, you being my youngest son, I leave you the City Center offices".
And to his wife, "Darling, you get the three residential towers downtown."
The wide-eyed nurse, obviously impressed, tells his wife, "Madam, your husband is very rich! And what's great is he is bequeathing all his properties to his family. You are all so lucky!!"
The wife retorts, "Rich?, Lucky? Are you kidding me?? Those are the routes where he delivers milk!"
He says to his eldest son, "To you Peter, I leave the Beverly houses."
To his daughter, "My pretty Rose, to you I leave the apartments in the Los Angeles Plaza."
"And Charlie, you being my youngest son, I leave you the City Center offices".
And to his wife, "Darling, you get the three residential towers downtown."
The wide-eyed nurse, obviously impressed, tells his wife, "Madam, your husband is very rich! And what's great is he is bequeathing all his properties to his family. You are all so lucky!!"
The wife retorts, "Rich?, Lucky? Are you kidding me?? Those are the routes where he delivers milk!"
COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Cognitive
Science (CS) is the study of the processes by which the humans and other
animals come to know properties of their external environment and convert that
knowledge into action as well as relay that knowledge to others by means of
communication. As a result CS has a vital role to play in several socially
important areas such as mental health, social engineering, education and
computer technology. It is assumed that CS one of the four pillars of the 21st
Century along with Nano, Bio, and Information Technology. Of the four, CS is
the least represented in the Indian scientific scenario. In view of this Dept.
Science and Technology (DST) has identified thrust areas in CS for special
consideration in the 11th Five Year Plan. These are: Foundations of
cognition; Language and cognition; Computational intelligence; Cognitive
psychology and cognitive neuroscience. In addition to basic research and
infra-structure, human resource development has been identified as an integral
part of success of the initiative.
Cognition –
Process of
acquiring knowledge by reasoning or by intuition or through senses.
LINES I LIKED
Ø Don’t
compare yourself with anyone in this world… if you do so, you are insulting
yourself.
Ø A
mind that is present and in the moment indicates well-being, whereas shifting
our energy to the past or future can lead to unhappiness.
Ø Too
much fun makes you inattentive to your responsibilities.
Be clear
about the things you say!
Meet you
next month – November, 2013
Prof. A.
Narayanan, Ph. D., FISPP
Ph : 0422 2423017 Mobile : 098422 42301
www.nara.tumblr.com (NARA’S
DIGEST)
www.nara2007.blogspot.com (NARA’S
NOTEPAD)
Saturday, August 31, 2013
MEMO FROM NARA
Recently I read an article on
aspiration and expectation, in which the author tried to bring out the
difference between the two words. I could appreciate the difference but of
course, the meaning of these two words dragged me to think more deeply. The
author’s contention was that aspirations are good and expectations are bad because
aspirations create strong desires and ambition in life whereas expectations
make us lazy and leave us in a state of inactiveness. Ambition is the aim of
every individual of all ages. Even an elderly person of 90-year-old will have
certain ambitions which turn to be strong desires. Life itself is full of
ambitions. The progress we see today in the world is because of peoples’
ambition. In fact, ambition leads us to action; hence aspirations keep us
active, both in body and mind. Aspiring for great things better job, beautiful
spouse, happy and healthy life is not a fault. In order to fulfil the
aspirations we need to act and take appropriate actions. Many of our
aspirations remain as ambitions only, unless we try to act and make our
ambition a reality. Great people – scientists, politicians, engineers, doctors
– are ambitious to achieve something in their life time. Those ambitions have
made billions of people to enjoy a reasonably comfortable life all over the
world.
On the contrary ‘expectation’ remains
in ‘hope’ and ‘firm belief.’ We expect something to happen better. It is a
confident feeling. Most of our expectations are theoretical not practical in
the sense, they remain in paper not in action. We expect our society should be
rich, happy and healthy. If it is not, we feel that it’s not to our
expectations. Even in a simple arranged marriage, the bridegroom or the bride
will be having great expectations for a happy married life, for which marriages
are performed religiously following traditional rituals for many of which the
couples do not even understand the meaning of those rituals. However, they
expect good things to happen in their life because of performing those
formalities in front of fire etc. Such expectations sometimes come true and may
not be always. So the beliefs we hold on our expectations in a way make us idle
and inactive.
It is very common to hear at railway
stations that such and such train is expected to arrive at 10h 45min. It
indicates that it is only an expectation, not certain and sure. In other words
there is an element of doubt in the announcement. The authorities are safe in
telling ‘expected’ so that no one can claim that the train is delayed in its
arrival in spite of the announcement. Uncertainty is an element of expectation.
People expect favourable things for them. If not, they are not happy. They
start finding fault with others. It is a human nature. Expectation sometimes
leads to disappointment too. We do expect our guests to arrive in time for a
dinner. If they are late or not coming at all, then we get disappointed and
worried. So
expectations may bring unhappiness at times also.
On the other hand, if our expectation
comes true, we are happy and say we are lucky. Such things are very rare.
Keeping someone to expect is an act of suspense. If I meet someone’s
expectation, it would be a great joy for both of us. Moreover, expectations lead to
dependency. We expect everything from others. Instead expecting from ourselves
is essential to lead a
successful life. It needs
self-discipline and self-determination. I feel expecting is not a bad act as
long as the expectation is simple and possible.
Aspiration too is achievable if it is
simple and possible. Certain aspirations are beyond our capacity to achieve
whereas those may be simple for someone else. Therefore we need to put a limit
to our aspirations so that with our available resources and ability we will be
able to achieve it successfully. Aspire and expect are the two activities every
one of us carries out every day. Good aspirations are always welcome because
they are beneficial for us whereas expectations without action are not at all
useful in anyway. I have lot of aspirations which are strong desires or
ambitions. I try to achieve them by appropriate means. I do expect something to happen
because of others help or kindness. But my expectations may happen or they may
not happen. However, I have to be happy in either case!
LIE
Telling a lie is a...
Sin for a child.
Fault for an adult.
An art for a lover.
A
profession for a lawyer.
A requirement for a politician.
A management tool for a Boss.
An excuse for a subordinate.
A matter of survival for a married man!!!
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