Thursday, April 24, 2014

Having expectations is the trait of a valiant

manuscript in accra
This is an excerpt from the book 'Manuscript in Accra', by Paulo Coelho. People are asking questions here, answers to which is being explained by the Copt (a learned character in the book). A merchant asks him, ‘Describe the defeated ones’, and the Copt replies. The snippet in the image is a part of that answer. I loved this part because it essentially focuses on having expectations. Yes, like all other traits of a valiant, having expectations is also one of them. It might make us disappointed when something does not come as expected. But to stop expecting in the next go is like letting go off the spark from our lives. Having expectations is like carrying the spark, the purpose within ourselves. And I believe it defines characteristics of a human. Why are we so determined to turn inhuman? Why are we so determined to let go off all the expectations? Just because we don’t wish to get hurt?

Getting hurt, nursing ourselves, and getting back into the battle should be the spirit of our lives. When expectations break it is a defeat. But it can also be a failure by our choice. Failure does not allow us to expect again. We should know that defeat is a part of our lives. Only the defeated know love. Only the defeated ones will know the honor of losing and the joy of winning.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Calling Humanity

Once upon a time, there existed a land of Gods. The emblem of an ancient civilization, it was the kernel of culture with enormous values. That country was where love dwelt, the art grew, and harmony existed among people of different tastes. Its rare spices added an unforgettable flavor throughout the world.

But then there came an epidemic. An epidemic which diseased more than half of the population of that country. Gods had already departed from their homeland long ago, they left the remaining humans to trample in the waves of epidemic. Many waves came, and they kept spoiling the population. With consecutive spoliation, the ancient glory started to fade off. Love, harmony, peace, and humanity, they all started to pine away. That country now is at the verge where humanity ceases to exist inside people and their ruthless facets rule. The epidemic is killing us with its effects. A new culture has evolved which is the manifestation of this epidemic.

Today’s politics, the corrupt leaders, and their corrupt governance, these come much later. Before we comment on this why shouldn’t we contemplate where has the humanity at each individual level gone? Is it now a mistake to expect a person to behave humanly, and should we apologize for expecting this? Whatever views you may lay upon this, I personally believe that indeed that’s a mistake to expect of some humanity. From big cities to small towns, the new culture dominates now. Lets not talk of what big portion of the country has gone affected by the waves of this inhuman epidemic, and try to realize how less is left from being affected. In this epidemic what not is coming up on the population as its effects. Rape, abortion, child abuse, child abandonment and what not. Daily newspapers after advertising the Lotus and the common man’s hand, only mentions of these effects on the people. By the people, on the people, each day there is a new ruthless tale to read. Read, sympathize, and forget.

Like the way waves of this epidemic comes, waves to stand up for change and bring a revolution comes too. The only difference is that the epidemic’s waves never leave but waves to stand up for change and bring a revolution come and go. The churn to speak out on this issue came inside me after having watched 'Thanks Maa', directed by Irfan Kamal. I know the churn will subside soon, because like many I have grown a tendency to get used to and to move on. But I will never forget the inhuman sides of people now.

I own a very little knowledge about politics and the way it works, but I get to have at least the feel of what’s going on good and what’s not. And this post is not about the politics, it’s about social evils created by the people that exist around us. Those who have watched ‘Thanks Maa’, they would relate to this post quite easily. The movie focuses on the issue of child abandonment. One can easily make out from the movie that how much degradation has incurred to humans, and how they have been adding other evil as well into the society. At many scenes I kept saying to myself, ‘Oh God, no not this.’ Irfan Kamal through his movie has made his audience shiver terribly by some brutal depictions of truth published in the newspapers. Having watched those scenes in the movie was atrocious. It has been rightly said by someone that both heaven and hell exists on this earth.

If we try to mend our own localized holes, slowly we would find that the whole of the unified garment has been restored. The garment which covers all of us its underneath, needs to be refurbished. We can’t survive in the nakedness. The humanity is expected from each one of us. And to expect this should never be a mistake.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

The Third Eye

They have always listened to what they wanted to listen. They have believed what they always wanted to believe. Sacrifices, good deeds, love, affection, they are all tested by the terms they keep within them and by their mind’s frame. Someone might die caring, loving, or fighting for some cause, but those who cannot understand the true essence of it are bound to fail on their mind-frame’s test. Since ages the human race has stayed afflicted, and shall likely stay to be so tomorrow too. Truth, it will continue to stay obscured and people deluded. Because they will always see what they want to see, they will listen what they want to listen, and they will believe what they want to believe.

Words matter the most. And harsh words matter even more. Beneath the effect of few harsh words, millions of words expressing love and affection goes crushed. An honest heart has broken ten times more. A selfless action has always been challenged, and mutual profits have been praised. Comfort lies in staying deluded, and satisfaction in abiding by the terms within mind’s frame. But what forms someone’s mind frame? Words flow down, their meaning muster up, and start to build a mind frame. Who cares if the meanings were right? They will see what they want to see, they will listen what they want to listen, and they will believe what they want to believe.

The truth is strange, and people weird. Diplomacy is the tool to success, straightforwardness in truth a hindrance. Truth won’t win hearts, it causes suspicion and people believe easily on what they find near to reality. And the reality is a kingdom where corruption rules, and each government change places and take their turns. An honest truth is difficult to endure, a manipulated truth goes down easily. Everything that happens in and around us, and the way we accept them, it’s all guided by our mind’s frame.

I wish if the almighty had gifted a third eye to everyone. That third eye could have helped to see the truth in its purest form which we can't see now. I wish our mind’s frame is carved out only after having seen the truth. And the third eye could be the tool for making this possible. What we accept, what we perceive, and what choices we would make, I wish if these could be arrived at only after having seen the truth. That third eye, if it existed could have wiped out deception, delusion, and confusion from this world.

the third eye

Friday, April 11, 2014

Multiple Commenting System widget for Blogger using jQuery UI

This blog post covers in detail those steps that will help you include a jQuery-UI based multiple commenting box widget to your blogger blogs. jQuery user interfaces are being used extensively as they provide an eloquent user interface and are light weight, ie they are faster to load. Moreover, they are compact and in a small screen area more of controls can be dealt with within its interface. I used the same jQuery-UI and developed a multiple commenting box widget for my blog. Currently I have included the Facebook comments, Blogger comments, and Google+ comments. This post is in continuation with my earlier post, where I described how to add different commenting system except Blogger’s default commenting system. Lately, I figured out a way in which Blogger’s default commenting system can also be used in the widget. And thus, here I am to share my code. If you find my code not working, or you get struck anywhere, feel free to comment and ask your query. You can connect with me on various social media platforms as well. I will feel glad to help you.

Step1 > Make a Facebook App. I hope you already know how to make one. This is required because we need the ‘App id’ for Facebook comment to start working.
Now, in the template editor, paste the following code before </head> :

<link rel="stylesheet" href="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.4/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css">
<script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
<script src="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.4/jquery-ui.js"></script>
  
  <script>
  $(function() {
    $( "#tabs" ).tabs();
  });
  </script>
<meta content='YourFacebookProfileUserID' property='fb:admins'/>
<meta content='YourFacebookAppID' property='fb:app_id'/>

Just enter your Facebook Profile UserID and your App ID in the required place before pasting the code.

Step2 > Go to Blogger’s Edit Html section, and find <div class='comments' id='comments'>. If you click just before <div class='comments' id='comments'> on the template pane, you will find that the code within this <div> tag gets collapsed. This will help us to select the entire content within these tags. 
(the highlighted one in the screenshot is what we will select and paste there the new code)
Now we need to cut this selected content and paste there the code below:


Step3 > Save the template. And refresh your blog. You will find my multiple commenting box instead of Blogger’s default commenting interface. You will get Facebook comments, Blogger’s and Google+ commenting system in this widget. If you wish to add some other commenting system, then that can be done too. Just leave me a message. And will help you out with that.

Note: This widget can be customized to different styles by overriding the default CSS. I am using the same widget with a slightly different styling done by me. The different styling can be done either by altering the default CSS or by explicitly using an inline CSS.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Search for the life

As the train takes me through the darkness
My eyes search for the light,
To find in the thickets
If somewhere the life survives.
Rattling of wheels on tracks,
Keeps me mused and awake
Against the envelope of sleep
Embraced over the stretches of darkness.
Blindfolded on my open eyes
My ears make me see now;
Bridges, tunnels, plains…
All I hear, and in my mind I see.
But where is the life?
That, I can’t see.
I search for the light
To find in the thickets
If somewhere the life survives.
In sky is embellished,
Stars and the pearly moon.
And the rest is swallowed
In the endless depths of darkness
Through which I am moving
And in them my eyes keep looking
For if I can find light.
Who knows…
Somewhere out there the life still survives.




Image Courtesy: Google Images Search

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Looking back for a moment...

What has started, will someday come to an end. Be it my journey, yours, or someone else’s, or be this universe, all that has started will someday come to an end. Our lives in totality comprise of several small and big journey’s whose start and end are the subset of the set ‘the life we lived so far’, which in turn is the subset of a Godly universal set. Human’s thoughts and perceptions, they belong to a range of output from a philosophical function. This function drives the way a person enacts. With experience this function updates, and so does the output. Sometimes I wonder, how closely related philosophy of life, mathematics and science are. I can mathematically, programmatically relate different aspects as I see in my life. 

At the back of my minds, I am being flooded with memories I reminisce about the start of my college life. I always aspired to be a Computer Science Engineer. Having failed at IIT-JEE, my moral was pathetically down. In the year 2009, I was sent to Kota for pursuing the coaching at Bansal Classes. Even after the rigorous study, I admit my mistakes had been there, all investments turned unsuccessful. I reattempted the IIT-JEE in 2010, and failed at it again. But through West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination, I secured a significant rank that helped me to get Computer Science at Bengal College of Engineering and Technology at Durgapur. The college life that started on 10th August 2010 is about to end now. As I said before, this journey is just like one such journey among many which is a subset of the set ‘the life I lived so far’.

I have always been a kind of person who develops attachments very easily, and finds it difficult to move on. I had the same feeling at its peak when I was about to leave Kota as I am having right now. Various incidents, good as well as bad, they start to toil down the memory lane as I sit back for a moment in silence. I still miss Kota, lovely people I met there, and my friends whose friendship I will cherish forever. And I will miss Durgapur too. With million slaps of bitterness, there are several notes to sooth me off too, which are like mementos for achievement. 

I remember, I even wrote a poetry to express my attachment with our hostel. In these four years, I am the one who have lived in the hostel for the maximum amount of time. I have written several short stories, many poems, and innumerable random blog posts. All of these, they will still be with me, connected with incidents from the past. Now that in a month I will be leaving college, I want to thank all of them who contributed towards building a better 'me'. Durgapur, it will be special to me always. A part of me will live here forever, amongst the silence of roads gushed with wind and dead leaves in them, in those corridors of hostel where I stood alone for hours thinking what I don't know, in all those rooms where I lived in these four years. Its not a ghostly feeling and its description. "I will come back", and this will give a hint of what part of me will continue to live in Durgapur.

But as I said before, this journey is just like one such journey among many which is a subset of the set ‘the life I lived so far’. There shall be more journeys for me.

(when I was in first year of my college)