A very inspiring and interesting video about girls affected by HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe...

[Click on title to watch the video]

And if that video doesn't move you....read this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michealene-cristini-risley/gratitude-musings-after-_b_62791.html

While we have worked extensively on AIDS patients in India, I was shocked to watch this video and read about the cultural myths in Zimbabwe. Too often, we take democracy lightly. We don't pay attention to the blessings we receive to live in a society like India.

Though there is a lot of stigma, you can still help these folks in a country like India. I am not saying things are necessarily easy, what with idiotic parents preventing innocent children with AIDS from attending schools.

However, it is not as bad as things are in Zimbabwe.

Goes to prove that real non profit work is so different from "arm-chair" non profit work!

It is disheartening to see all this going on in Zimbabwe, however, it is also heartening to see people struggling to let the world know about it!!

It is time to be inspired by such efforts!!!

Pass this on...

"Do not put child in the bag" - This is what the world is coming to...

What has the world come to? These warnings choked me up - with laughter for a change!

Do companies even realize what they are doing when they are designing these labels? Yeah, sure blame the lawyers..they are the reason why your sense of sanity took a really long hike....

If this doesn't inspire the heck out of you...

[Click on title for YouTube Video]

nothing else will...!!!

And, if you shed a tear or two, it doesn't hurt either...

Click on the title to watch the video - How not to judge quickly!!!

Never pass judgement quickly! You may be mistaken. But do remember, judgements can go both ways....also laugh out loud!!!!

Posting after a long time - Bloggers' Rights!

[Click on the title of the blog for the link to the external article]

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This portion of the blog is verbatim from my own medical devices blog - http://chaaraka.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Tim Oey [ http://oeyweb.com/timoey/ ] for the link to the story.

This post is Off-Topic only in one sense.

As bloggers, we often tend to write about companies and sometimes if not all times in negative light.

I have very little respect for "Professional Bloggers", especially in Medical Devices who just rehash news articles and try to write nice things about everyone - a true betrayal to journalism.

We all have our right to our opinions and our ability to express them.

As such, I have not written anything overtly controversial yet, and have not been harmed in any way, but should such a time arise, I would like to see my rights protected. Wouldn't you?!

Anyway, just go to the link and read about how BidZirk tried to harass Philip J. Smith, a blogger and lost.This should be lasting proof to any of those in doubt.

Remember to defend your rights, otherwise they will be taken away from you, one way or the other!Good Luck Bloggin'!

OLPC: Adding strength, one idiot at a time...

So now PCs won't carry the old Intel label. Atleast not the OLPC ones....It will now be called "Idiot Inside".

Negroponte's work in India, or the lack thereof is only too obvious. Lets also not worry about the Media Lab and their "work" in Ireland.

So now Negroponte is onto newer strategies : COERCION!

What the hell happened at Intel? Why did they decide to do the proverbial "bend-over"?

God knows what Negroponte's next stop is....maybe its God!

London might have the saddest cops yet...

It doesn't matter if your wife or mum is dying, we need to ticket you. This seems to be the attitude with London Police. And whatever strange name it bears, the office or authority responsible for this greed just lets you know after a few days of furore that the ticket is cancelled. They don't see any reason to apologize to the mere mortals of London city anymore. I would like to thank any supreme powers that exist up there, for not making me one of the unfortunate people who have to live and pay for tickets in London, while their relatives are dying...

Boy, am I glad I graduated... [or, Boy, am I glad I did not go to UCLA]

Okay, this is the one posting which needs no link. And unless you are Rip Van Winkle who just woke up (in which case the internet itself wont make sense to you), you must have read about what UCLA has been upto - trying to, well ignore its students after trying to injure and mutilate one of them.

Here are the first signs that a school is advertising itself as "not safe".

--> "We have a famous rule that lets us demand you show IDs to us after 11pm."

Problem: A school that has this rule must be facing problems. If it were safe, they would not be doing this.

Where would the lax in safety come from?

Paranoia - why paranoia? Why not thugs, rapists and murderers?

Because, they would not be carrying an ID anyway, silly.

So, this is an excellent example of school - sponsored paranoia. I dread to set foot in an environment where, a video shows a kid being tasered, and the school is still "investigating".

This basically means, they really don't give a s*it. And I don't like to pay money and spend time in such a place. Not all of us get to go to school free. And get tasered, hopefully!

What if the student was wrong?

So what, do teachers now start tasering kids for being wrong, refusing to do homework and refusing to confirm? Isn't that what we all do as students - atleast a little.

Here is a scene from the future if you thought, heck ya, you do wrong, we "taser" thou. You go to class without finishing the homework. And your teacher lets your muscles twitch involuntarily at 8am. You did not finish your homework right? Well, enjoy the consequences.

------

So, would I tell my cousins or friends it is safe to go to UCLA?

NOT ON YOUR FRIGGIN' LIFE.

Would I recommend it in the very unlikely event UCLA fires the cops (after dancing around the event, living in denial for months)?

HECK NO.

You gotta do it as an automatic thing. These are students of a university. Not some wierd reformatory kids from the middle ages.

Would I recommend my cousins and brothers to be chivalrous enough to show up on the UCLA campus after the current board of directors, or whatever indecisive, apathetic people that rule the roost retire?

Maybe, after I examine any available public UCLA "taser" records. And, if they stop giving cops awards for actually using those menaces. Maybe...

Till then, "Hey kids, watch out, here is UCLA."

Traveling my style

[Click on post title for link to New York Times article. Requires free subscription, however.]

I have been traveling very little by flight. However, I believe in total simplicity and relaxation. I simply refuse to stuff myself like a dead puppy so that some stranger I am unlikely to meet again in my life might approve. Yes, there is that teeny tiny possibility that this person maybe responsible for all those millions I may earn in the future. But, if I do have to look like a showpiece, am I going to be comfortable earning the millions?

Yes, traveling on your job is different. However, I sincerely wish people were to loosen up a little bit. Till then, when it is for pleasure, it is shorts all the way..even to Alaska, wait, maybe that's a little uncomfortable!

Coming to a museum in the air city next to you, 18000 years from now

A monster upgrades!!! What would the poor Earth citizens of 20007 do? Something that should have been buried in the deepest craters of the galaxy was left around by mistake.....

[Click on the title of the post to identify the LochNess of the future]