Déjà vu -"The creepy feel"

Have you ever felt like you have already been to this place before,though you are visiting it for the first time? Similarly, meeting the person for the first time but feel you know him/her before? If yes...Cool...(hi5 :P )... Am not alone...I get this feel many a time!  I will have this eerie feel that I have  relived the entire situation that's happening now, already! I know it sounds weird, funny, terrified, spooky...Whatever you term it ! But its true...Initially I thought I had some special magic powers and that so called ESP power :P

During my schooling I came across this word Déjà vu... That was the time when I was in a quest of finding new words to use in my daily vocabulary in school...So this new word interested me and immediately I started learning more about it! I just got to know that it is a french word meaning "already seen"...
When I read more about it recently, I found it very very interesting!!! Déjà vu in simpler terms can be interpreted as "been there, done that" feel...It is defined as "familiarity without awareness"! Arthur Funkhouser, describes about 3 types of déjà vu in Perspective-A Mental Health Magazine...

•  Déjà vecu(Already experienced) - It is the most common of all the types...It is the sensation of having done something, being in an identical situation and knowing what happens next!
• Déjà senti(Already felt) - It is rare... It is a feel of experiencing sensations like smell, taste etc.
• Déjà visité(Already visited)- Feel of being in the same place before.

I also found a reasonable scientific explanation for this kind of feeling. One possibility is simply the occasional mismatch made by the brain in its continuous attempt to create whole sensical pictures out of very small pieces of information.Another explanation for déjà vu is that there is a slight malfunctioning between the long and short-term memory circuits of the brain.When the new, recent piece of information is drawn upon, the person thinks that the piece is coming from long-term storage and so must have come from the distant past.A similar theory says that the error is in the timing of the perceptive and cognitive processes. Sensory information is rerouted on its way to memory storage and, so, is not immediately perceived. This short delay causes the sensation of experiencing and remembering something at the same time, a very unsettling feeling.

But the psychoanalysts have a different take on this. They feel that it is a manifestation of wish fulfillment..déjà vu is the subconscious repetition of a past experience, but with a more positive ending. I found that they link it to the other debatable topic, past life. They feel it gives a sneak peek into our past life.Most scientists scoff at these "magical" explanations for neurological events, citing that they break many of the laws of nature. Some, however, point to more recent findings in physics, such as the possibility of particles that can travel backwards in time (tachyons), time loops and multiple universes. They say that these may give cause for more non-traditional ways of seeing causality and for the possibility of neurological "time travel".
Déjà vu, the more you read about it, the more unclear it becomes!I have feel of Déjà vecu right now...of having written this blog already ;)


PS: Learnt about it from various sources....Would require a separate blog to list out all the sources ;)

Idioms and Their Origin!

Idioms play a very important role in English! They beautify the language...I was coming across few idioms that we use in our language and decided to find out the same ! It is interesting to know how these idioms originated...

• To put a spoke in someone's wheel: 

Meaning: To deliberately hinder someone's plans.                                                                          
Origin    : hundreds of years ago cartwheels were made from solid wood. The front wheels of a cart would have holes in them through which a spoke could be thrust in order to prevent or slow the cart from running away downhill.

• To kick the bucket:                                                                                                                

Meaning: To die.                                                                                                                                     
Origin    : In slaughterhouses, the rail on which pigs are hung after slaughter to drain off the blood is known as the bucket bar. Muscle spasms after death sometimes lead to the dead pig twitching as if to kick the bucket bar, hence the expression.

• Back handed compliment:

Meaning:A compliment that also insults or puts down at the same time.    
Origin    : Back-handed is synonymous with left-handed. For example in tennis, a backhand stroke is a strike by a right-handed player from the left side of the body.The left side of the body has always been deemed sinister. The Latin word for left is sinister. Hence, back-handed means round-about, indirect, or devious.

• Crocodile Tears: 

Meaning: Pretending to cry in an attempt to manipulate or exploit, phony tears.                              
Origin  :  It was often thought that crocodiles shed tears that slid down into their mouths, moistening their food and making it easier for them to swallow. Hence the tears appear to be an expression of emotion but are in fact a means to make it easier to swallow (possibly the observer).

• At the eleventh hour: 

Meaning: When a person wants more than is good for them.                                                          
Origin    : On a 12-hour clock (rather than the 24-hour clock used by scientists, the military, et al) the hours of 12 noon and 12 midnight seem to hold special significance. De-marking the transition from morning to afternoon and the end of the day, they are often used as deadlines (high noon, the stroke of midnight).To come at "the eleventh hour" implies that it comes in the last hour before the deadline. The choice of "the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" as the time to end W.W.I was quite apt.

• Face the music: 

Meaning:To accept the truth.                                                                                                            
 Origin    :Comes from the British military. When someone was court marshaled, there would be a military drum squad playing, hence face the music. The term "drummed out of the military" came from this practice....
 
These are few of the popular ones.There are many more which are available in the source that am giving below. Its fun to know how these words came into play!


Source:http://www.pride-unlimited.com/probono/idioms1.html

The Girl's World !

I was reading Revolution 2020, I came across this "Girlese" (It is the term,the writer, Chetan Bagat uses to describe about the language of girls)...Why not write a blog on this?
The way of thinking of girls is completely different from that of boys. Being a girl, I completely agree with what's given in the book...If a girl replies to a text message with "Fine"...Note: F caps... Then its actually not fine! There is something that is not going down well with us about it!
If we reply with "Hmmm" or "gud" etc...One word texts, then understand its time to change the topic! If the text is a long one with lots of smileys then infer it to be a happy mood...
Not only texting when it comes to many other activities like shopping, girls have their own way. We analyse each and every detail before spending on it...We ensure that we buy the best ( This makes the shopkeeper get irritated always)...After its bought, we expect people to notice it and ask about the product when we use it. If this happens...Shopping successful! Else mission failed...We'll have second thoughts before going to that shop again :P Girls always "pull" a door when its written "push"...Then change the direction by realizing the mistake (Most of the girls will smile while reading this).
Girls are superb at bargaining...Its an inbuilt talent! The person at the other end must be a person with strong heart...else he'll die of heart attack ! There will be several rounds of bargaining and finally a compromise will be sought...where both will be the winners :P
Girls keep their things very neat and clean! A girl's room will always be clean...things in its place...bed neatly made...clothes folded or hanged neatly in the hanger...90% of the girls are perfectionists...Everything should be done as it is supposed to be...Any change will cause a strong reason to be upset! When a girl is upset, she is very quiet...She hardly talks unlike usual :)
All said and done both, boys and girls are unique in their own ways... There are always these kind of differences between boys and girls in order to strike a balance in nature! Once you start respecting these differences...life will be much better!
Proud to be a girl :)
PS: Exceptions are always there...These are just generic statements what I felt! 

Interesting Acronyms!

I came across few acronyms....It was interesting! We use them in our day-to-day life but many of us wouldn't know these full forms... Take a look!
COLD : Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease
JOKE : JOy for Kids Entertainment
DATE: Day And Time Evolution
AIM: Ambition In Mind
PEN: Power Enriched in Nib
BUS: Break Under Stopping
NYLON: NewYork LONdon (manufacturer)
SMILE: Sweet Memories In Lip Expression
BYE: Be with You Everytime

Expect the Unexpected !

These days I have started getting addicted to my blog...I keep visiting my blog more than 20 times a day! I take care of it as if its my pet animal...changing the theme, look, adding widgets..etc etc! It has become my best friend these days...Whenever am happy or at all time low, its my blog that I feel like being with...
Anyways today I just thought of sharing an incident that happened few days before! My friend and me had gone out shopping and while returning we took an auto! We started chatting and somehow the topic  of best universities in bio-tech came up...At that time the automan(who had been a silent listener till then)invited himself into the convo...He gave us a list of many universities around the world with a complete information about its facilities! My friend and me were completely dumb-struck!
We never expected the auto man to be this knowledgeable! We later came to know that he is a Bsc bio-tech student and he's planning to pursue Msc soon! He drives auto as a part-time job and pays his fees on his own!
I was completely stunned! I learnt a very important lesson that day...Never judge a person by their appearance or the profession they do !

Bloopers in English !

English is a very beautiful language! It is by and far the most popular language ...!  Especially in country like India, right from businessmen to beggars, the knowledge of English language has spread far and wide... In such a language, errors that we make while speaking are also aplenty! The saddest part is that we don't realize that it is a mistake...(When a mistake is made by all , it is never categorized as a mistake)! So in this blog, I'd like to throw some light on the most common mistakes that is made while speaking!
During world cup, I had been to a restaurant...The entire crowd  was watching the match on the exclusive TV there...When a batsman was run out in a very silly manner, a guy shouted out in fury "It was a blunder mistake"... The word blunder means "big mistake"... The correct sentence should have been "It was a blunder".
The next blooper is "I want two xeroxes of this receipt"... The term xerox is used in North American English as a verb...Actually xerox is the name of the company that supplies photocopies. So the correct way to put it is  "I want two photocopies of this receipt". 
Another very very common mistake is "One of my friend lives here" ...Am sure many would ask whats wrong with this sentence? Correction, people! The perfect form is "One of my friends lives here".
By now you all must be wondering "It would have been more better" had I taken a different topic to blog...Found the error? "Better",by itself is a comparative degree...Why add a "more" to it? It should be "It would have been better".
Use of propositions in the correct place is always a matter of concern.. "Into what did he fall?", " Tell me from where did you get?", "For what are you waiting?"...All these may sound correct but actually they are not! "What did he fall into?", "Tell me where did you get it from?" and "What are you waiting for?" are the perfect ones instead.
While writing, we get confused with the use of loose/lose, advice/advise, week/weak, weather/whether, decent/descent, of/off... so on and so forth...Its a never ending list :P
English may sound easy but according to me it is one of the most toughest languages... There are numerous chances of going wrong... Nuances must be found and mastered in order to become a perfect speaker.So please ensure that you use the right word at the right time to the right person! :)

Food for thought!

It was a sports stadium. Eight Children were standing on the track to participate in the running event .
* Ready! * Steady! * Bang!!! With the sound of Toy pistol, all eight girls started running. Hardly have they covered ten to fifteen steps, one of the smaller girls slipped and fell down, due to bruises and pain, she started crying. When other seven girls heard this sound, stopped running, stood for a while and turned back. They all ran back to the place where the girl fell down. One among them bent, picked and kissed the girl gently and told 'Now the pain must have reduced'. All seven girls lifted the fallen girl, pacified her, two of them held the girl firmly and all of them joined hands together and walked together and reached the winning post. Officials were shocked. Clapping of thousands of spectators filled the stadium. Many eyes were filled with tears !
YES. This happened in Hyderabad ! The sport was conducted by National Institute of Mental Health. All these special girls had come to participate in this event and they are spastic children. Yes, they were "mentally retarded".
Do you think we would have done the same had we been there?Of course not...We would have rushed to the finish line grabbing the opportunity! There is always this comparison...right from schooling! Parents first ask the so called bright student's marks and then only their ward's! If their child has performed better than that kid...then they'll be on cloud nine! If not the child is screwed for the "so called poor performance".
The seeds of jealousy and selfishness is sowed from a very tender age.So its hard to change those qualities in the later days( We actually don't realize its bad first of all)! 99% of us bask in others failures which we term as our success.
What did these special kids teach this world?  Teamwork? Humanity? Equality among all?????Successful people help others who are slow in learning so that they are not felt far behind.
After reading this, do you really think it is these kids who are mentally retarded? It is a question  which we have to think about... 

In the memory of 11/11/11

I actually didn't have any plans to blog today... I didn't find any interesting topic to share with you all!When I was done with my day's work, a wonderful idea struck me! Today is 11/11/11, its a very very rare day...It happens once in a century! This made me write, rather dedicate a blog to this very special day!
Such unique days are always a hot topic of discussion...! We all would have heard of the proverb make hay while the sun shines...The people who have rightly understood this proverb is none other than our astrologers... There will be hundreds and thousands of predictions about such kind of unique days. Mostly it will be forecast of some dire consequences...They warn us about the effect of planetary change in our life... The statements like Saturn entering Libra, mercury getting out of virgo, jupiter and venus are sitting together in your house would always perplex me...I used to wonder how does saturn or mercury enter or leave your house?
I can never forget this incident...There was this daily prediction column in the newspaper..One day, before leaving to my school I quickly read the prediction for my sign...It was given..."Congratulations! Saturn is leaving your house today...Happy days ahead!" After reading this I was completely shocked...The entire day in my school I had umpteen number of questions like who was this stranger who lived in my house so long and how come I didn't see him? Why didn't he have a home and why my house? :P
But later I realised all these are "virtual houses" and the planets are "personified"...But such personification of planets makes me giggle even today! :D
The reason for me to write about this topic is I read an article that there are tremendous planetary changes that are going to  take place on 11/11/11...This makes our dear friend saturn entering some house...neptune going opposite venus thereby warning us of mishaps! I really found it funny as well as a good blogging lead :P Planning to write a detailed blog about "our homeless planet friends" soon :P
Eagerly waiting for 12/12/12 prediction :P
PS: Am posting this blog on 11/11/11 at 11:11 pm :D

Rain...Rain...Rain

Everybody loves rain…don’t we? The reasons may be different though! As a school kid I used to love monsoon season as we get many rain holidays:-P But as I grew up, I started to enjoy rain by just watching it with a hot cup of coffee in my hand(may be few hot snacks along with my tea would suffice)…I would define it as “the moment” always!!!

The start of monsoon is directly proportional to the number of umbrellas we see on road..Umbrellas are so colourful these days…I have actually seen many of the unseen shades of colours(it reminds me of the which colour do you choose game which we used to play in childhood…we have to run around to find the colours that the catcher tells…it becomes difficult to locate certain shades of colours then…I used to get out soon, owing to the lack of availability of such different colour shades).

Another thing I’d like to observe is the rainbow colours that is formed on the stagnant pool of water when a vehicle passes through it…The oil spilt on the water will reflect the rainbow colours and the sight will be very beautiful…

The birds and animals are always something cute… When its about to rain the fluffed up feathers and fur will make them look fat!!!Its a must watch sight(most of us will miss it for sure)

Watching the waves on a rainy day will be mind blowing…The grey and fierce of the storm will be exactly depicted by the waves(going to the waters will be very dangerous of course!)The point where the grey sky meets the grey waves and mist covering the ships are a must watch from a distance!

Nature is something wonderful…We have many such beautiful things around us which we fail to realise because our busy lifestyle…Life is short…Make every moment beautiful:-)