To Make it Short..

I got my first Cell phone during the first year of my Graduation and then the coolest trend was “SMS”. It sure was fun but 160 char. limit was the only problem and the solution was “Abbr.” aka abbreviation. Addiction to SMS led to its usage even in the exams, wrote ‘thru’ instead of ‘through’ and ‘n’ instead of ‘and’, and so on, but if realized, scrapped and corrected..! Phew..!


Then started YM (Yahoo Messenger), Gtalk and the trend of Chats and hence, more acronyms, like ttyl, gtg, Bfn, Gn, Sd; (Talk to you later, got to go, Bye for now, Goodnight, Sweetdreams) etc. For the trendy tech-literate, nothing was new, but for others, everything meant nothing and they would end up scratching their heads.


Formal usage of words may not be accepted graciously, but is informal usage like C U L8r inappropriate? Now to throw some light, using abbr. isn’t new, but Victorian poets were writing in this manner long before anyone dreamed of mobile devices, as per [1]


Usage of acronyms is not bad. When shortening a message for a telegraph was perfectly legal, so why take it out on SMS?

There are certain acronyms we use in day to day life and don’t realize it, like
• General Usage: ATM, FAQ, PIN etc.
• Officially Used: PS, NA, w/o, B2B, 4GL etc. and some companies just love this concept, like IBM, HSBC ;)
• Science: Laser, radar, (S, Pa, A, V, N, Wb, W), (siemens, pascal, ampere, volt, newton, weber and watt)
• History: AD, BC.
• Entertainment: LotR, RCHP and the list goes on.
• Politics: PM, CM, MPs, MLA etc.


And now that we are educated, we have one acronym in front of our names PhD, M.Phil, Dr., Prof. :)


As abbr. are used everywhere, in every field, would you still consider it wrong to use it formally as well? I know that there are certain limits to its usage, like if a Dr. would message you stating “C me 4 Ur <3 “, you sure would be mad at him. But limited usage, shortening of words OK?

PS: To add a little audio-visual effect to this: check this out.

Empty Mind

“An empty mind is a devil’s workshop”, three out of four people would agree to this statement. I’d like you to think about it once again. Is it really a devil’s workshop or is it a state of bliss?


People think that mind must have something in it and if it has nothing, it is not mind.
Has our minds always been occupied with something or the other and was it always the same?


To make this thought process easier, let us consider the mind of an infant, when he cant speak and does not understand what words like Mom or Dad mean and he doesn’t know the reason for his existence & meaning of life, he does not know the outside world, his mind is pure and empty.


The attainment of pure and empty mind is “Samadhi” and is “Buddhism”.
I do not preach Buddhism, yet, but agree to certain things I know about it.


In Buddhism, during meditation, it is said: “Don’t close your eyes; you will be bothered by your own thoughts. Don’t keep your eyes open; you will be bothered by outside things. Keep your eyes partly closed and meditate upon your soul”


So, if we engage our mind, consciously or sub-consciously, with our arising thoughts and feelings, they do have the capacity to manifest further and if we don’t, they die or fade out and that is when, we can experience “enlightenment”.


So I pray for all of you, for your minds to be empty and enlightened :- )


Any thoughts? :- )

Mumbai and Me

Mumbai, a city which never sleeps, a city of dreams for some and of necessity for others. For me, there has always been a weird connection with it. Why weird? Here it goes…

I have always been visiting Mumbai, from the time it was Bombay; to meet my relatives, to go to Essel World and later.… out of shopping sprees..! And to put some gravity to my reasons, it was Tech Fest at IIT or some or the workshops..! Ahem…! (patting my back :-P )


This city has had and still does have, some spell on me. Whenever I’m trying to run away from it, it calls me back, whenever I curse it..Oh lord…Imprisonment..!! When I had some free time in hand, before joining my job and after my course was over, I came to Mumbai for a while and ran away ‘coz of the huge dirty traffic..!! But, here comes the U-turn, was back again at IDC (IIT Powai) for quite sometime..!! Traveling everyday for 3hrs a day… and brain storming during the rest.

Phew….that was some experience and I went back as soon as I got my joining date (definitely not Mumbai) :- )

Again came to the city to chill out for a couple of days and Bang! 2nd job..!! Definitely a good one, but at the wrong time..!! Monsoons..!! Mumbai rains welcomed me reeaaallllyyy well..!! Oh yeah.. Ask me about my love towards Umbrellas…couldn’t live without it. And I’m still here, with rickshaw strikes, infinite traffic….it seems like you are time traveling when going from one place to the other.

But, looking at the brighter side, now when I’m exploring the city, making new friends, having a blast with ‘em over the Weekends, I’m sorta liking it :- )
Just can’t say anything bad bout it..!! Nah..Neva……..!! :- )
And now, God knows what comes next….in the chapters of Mumbai and Me.