From Hema Malini to Einstein

I went to fedex some document the other day and the Fedex guy (who was from Senegal) asked me If I knew Hema Malini. I asked him how did he know her and he told me that when he was a kid, there were many a Hindi movies which reached Senegal, and Hema Malini was a rage then.

This reminded me of a common story that I have heard from my father and indeed other people of his age, that during Hema's peak, the best compliment a girl could receive was that she was looking like Hema Malini.

If that was the case for beautiful girls, an intelligent guy, even now, is often told, "yeh bhai Einstein banega". Since my childhood, I had heard about this name Einstein, and knew that he got a Nobel Prize, but it was only when I read his biography that I realized what a genius he was. His work touched from the smallest (quanta) to the largest (universe). From transistor to airplanes relying on GPS, his work has applications in all and sundry.

This post isn't about gory details of Einstein's relativity principles, but, about some amusing quotes/incidents/learnings from his life.

1. Charlie Chaplin once said to Einstein:

   "They cheer me because they understand me, they cheer you because no one understands you"

2. What about this :

   "Newton was born the year Galileo died, in similar way, Einstein was born the year Maxwell died"

3. We all know about the famous e=mc^2 equation. How about this as a fallout of that :

   "Energy in the mass of one raisin, could supply NYC energy needs for a day !!!!!"

4. And to top it all :

   "Einstein’s ashes were dispersed in the Delaware River … but his brain ended up for more than 4 decades … a wandering relic"

5. Reading about Einstein, I couldn't escape but notice deep spiritual underpinnigs about certain things. For example Einstein said:

   "God is subtle, but he is not malicious ... God would not keep anything beyond our reach ... God isn't hiding ... He is just asking to search a little harder."

When a Hand Became a Finger

I read about Varun Gandhi's alleged communal remarks (well, they haven't been conclusively proven yet) during an election rally and after watching this video the other day, I thought it was time to blog. Well quite a hot (or controversial, if you want) topic for one's first blog-post ever.

So, the story is something like this. Varun Gandhi said something like this in HINDI that

Agar koi kisi Hindu pe haath uthaayega, to woh uska haath kaat dega

which roughly means in English

"If anyone attacks a Hindu, he will attack him back (or cut his hand)"

But, the media houses in India, who are well-versed in Hindi and English both, translated this to

"If anyone raises a finger towards a Hindu, he will cut their hand."

There is a sea-difference b/w both the versions. I simply cannot accept that there was no person in the media who didn't notice this discrepancy. Now if you are wondering as to why the media did it, believe you me, the feeling is mutual.

This conscious effort on the part of the media to sensationalize the news-item, uncannily reminds me of a late-night crime investigator program on one of the news channel, where the catch-line of the anchor was

Agar chaiin se sona hai to jaag jaayiye

which means

If you want to sleep peacefully than WAKE UP ....!!!!