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Creases in time

Sunday, May 31st, 2009
plain paper

plain paper

Origami – The ancient art of paper folding. One of the things that everyone of us learns as a child. As far as I can remember, the first few things that I had learned was the airplane and the boat. And if I am not wrong these are probably the first two most common thing which we learn as kids or are fascinated to, simply because they can be put into action.

As we grow up and if we retain our interest, get some guidance, help form some books, we get to learn more technical details of this ancient art of paper folding.

One of the very important aspects of this art is that it does not ask for complicated tools. And the very basic material that is required to created any shape is a sheet of paper (generally square). Then depending on what kind of guidance and references you have got and used, you usually end up learning some basic shapes and figures. And as you learn more, complexity of these shapes increases.

Boat

Boat

Starting form simple shapes like the boat, which requires few basic simple half division folding and creases, you may go to complex designs like the frog (my personal favorite) , swans, lily, rose, rockets etc, which require good practice of folding the paper properly, generating creases and including some tricky maneuvers like the mountain folds and the valley folds when some section requires making a crease on the same line for both the sides of the paper and then inverting that section.

Once completed these images display their complexity and beauty both at once ( that is if done properly).

creased paper

creased paper

All this time most of us appreciate the final shapes, the plain simple paper with which we started has been forgotten and even if you open up this shape, the crease have been set so deep and strong, the simple plain paper is lost behind these creases, which we created during the time we learned this art, and probably, now, cannot appreciate the beauty of the plain paper, even though all the shapes are and are only because of the simple plain paper.

God is simple, over the ages we have learned to fold him into such complex shapes and designs. These creases have been set so deep in our minds that we cannot see past through these shapes and see the “Simply Divine”.

Had written on 13 December 2004, and was previously published on horizontalrings.com

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Why do we pray ?

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
Gauhar with Mamu

Gauhar with Mamu

Few days ago my sister and 5 year old daughter ( Gauhar ) were here. I was lots of fun and how last two weeks passed god only knows.

On that note I remember a simple conversation between her and my dad, here it goes.

My dad does his daily prayers, which takes around approximately 30 minutes to complete.

My niece used to sit next to him most of the days during this time. Here is one very intresting question she posed to dad,

“Nanu, why do we pray ?”

Instead of answering her dad asked her

“Why don’t you tell, why do we pray”

And her simple reply was:

“Because god give us everything we need!”

The world for a 5 year old is so simple, I hope for her god remains as simple as “we pray and he give”

God is simple let not make him/her complicated.

Had written something similar long time back. Will put it up when i find it.

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refrigerators do cool, but earthen pots quench your thirst.

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

You have woken up and got ready for your office and you are having your breakfast. Suddenly you look at your watch, its 08:45 AM, you are getting late, you should have had left 15 minutes ago. Hurriedly you take that last bite of your breakfast and rush towards the refrigerator, pick up a bottle of chilled water, drink some and dash for your office………………………….

P h e w !!!

Today again you overlooked the earthen pot sitting quietly next to your refrigerator.

Today we all have refrigerators to have cool water.

And, By the way, why do we have refrigerators ?

Well if your answer is to have cold water, and ice etc etc, think again,

well, what could not Guess!!

Ok the answer is, Refrigerator are fast, they can cool water faster, they also give us ice. Now a days there are refrigerator with five way cooling technology, door cooling systems and what not. Some refrigerator also have a magical option of making ice in few minutes!

Wow now isn’t that great. Refrigerators can do things fast. But, ever noticed, why is it that almost every house, even though has a latest refrigerator, always have an earthen pot too ?

Well refrigerators do cool the water, this water is what we usually drink, and usually gets us a sore throat. By the way ever noticed that even after drinking this chilled refrigerated water, we still feel thirsty!

People who are used to drinking water form earthen pots, or even if you have had been in a habit of using the earthen pot once in a while, will say that a glass full of water of the earthen pot has always felt better and more refreshing.

WHY?

Earthen pots are made out of mud and then baked in a kiln, these earthen pots have very very small pours, which lets the air pass through them, so when we fill these earthen pots with water the air flowing around the pot evaporates the water that very slowly had trickled out, this process reduces the temperature of the water inside, and slowly the water in the earthen pot cools down to a certain level. The temperature to which the water is cooled is always optimum and gets adjusted automatically according to the room temperature. This water will always be refreshing and will quench your thirst, whereas in a refrigerator a certain temperature is set, and the water is cooled to that level, this temperature of the cooled water is not in any proportion with the surrounding temperature.

Earthen pots use a slow natural way of cooling, but sometimes people do try to speed up this process by adding ice to the water in the earthen pots, never do this, this damages the earthen pot. FOREVER.

So, Refrigerators or Earthen Pots ?

You will notice that today many people have turned to earthen pots even though they have refrigerators. In todays fast paced life style, every-one is looking for things happening fast. Everyone wants to go for refrigerators, because they can cool faster, make ice quicker, some very rare people choose Earthen Pots, why, because they know that every process takes its own time and drinking water should be cool enough in accordance to the surrounding temperature, otherwise it can give you a sore throat.
Though the process of earthen pot is slow, it gives reward in its own time. And that too without recurring expenditure.

So have you been pushing your life like a refrigerator, slow down, think about a earthen pot, do you really need ice that fast, and if so at what cost. Is you thirst being quenched. Slow down, look at the earthen pot sitting in your house, it will take time for the water to cool, but it will quench your thirst.

…………………You wake up in the morning, get ready, have your breakfast and you look at your watch, its 08:30 AM, you get up to drink water. Your hand is at the refrigerator’s door and today you notice the earthen pot. You leave the refrigerator door, pick up a glass and fill it with water form the earthen pot. You quench your thirst with this water.

Next, you pick up the phone, call you office and tell them that you are not coming today…….

Had written this long time ago (9th April 2004 ), was there on some old website, now back on this :)

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