Problems

Do you feel sad?
Is the world trying to bring you down?
Are negative thoughts clouding your mind?
Do you feel down for no reason?

Look up, my friend
Look up at the sky so vast
The stars that are light years away are looking over you!
Don't be perturbed by your problems
Bigger questions lie unanswered in the Universe!

Life is a journey riddled with twists and turns.
Don't fear it, rather embrace it.
Let the light fill up the heart!
Why live in fear and in a shell when you are born free?
Conquer the world! Its waiting out there to be conquered!

The troublesome day shall pass too!
Problem and its solution lies in the mind itself.
So chin up and face the world head on
Every problem has a solution.
Remember my friend,
Problems kneel down in front of a stubborn heart!

Spread your wings and fly high!

Making of Jack Daniels

We all have heard of the legendary Jack Daniels whisky and its rich taste and aroma, but how is this exquisite whisky really made? Where is it made? Who was the pioneer for developing this masterpiece?

Jack Daniels was  a extremely talented man born in 1950. He opened his distillery and produced whiskey. The speciality of jack daniels is its unique charred flavour. The Jack Daniels unaged spirit is poured into a series of pipes where they are fed into vats(72 of them).

These vats contain sweet mash charcoal(wood burned in jack daniels ethanol). The spirit in the pipes run down 10 feet of charcoal into the vats and come down the bottom of the vats. this reduces the pungent and conc whisky to a much lighter and sweeter variety. This is half the job.

barrels containing the Jack Daniels whiskey ageing a the warehouse

the rest is done in the special wooden barrels in which JackD is stored.
The barrels are specially built and burned from the inside for 25 seconds which makes it black inside giving the woody charred flavour to the JD whisky.

The whisky is stored in this barrel and kept in the warehouses for 5-7 years before it is sent out for supply.
The best are the barrels kept at the highest racks in the warehouse where the evaporation is max. This is known as the angels meeting. They are hardest to keep and turn out to be the best.
One of the finest whiskey with good company is another definition of a happy life!
 Cheers!

Cheers!

Tastes best on the rocks!

The ordinary train journey

Working 12 hours a day in the laboratory for the past 7 days to finish off some pending work of Zircon processing I head home for a day before again field work follows. I sit in Black Diamond Ex.in the middle seat sandwiched between two fellow passengers. Utterly bored listening to my playlist repeatedly I turn to writing to pass the time.
When I was young I would listen to the radio, when it played my favourite tune I would smile. It seems so far ago now. Those times were simpler and while listening to the songs now I feel happy turning back the clock would be so great. But alas stuck in this train I can't go back nor forth.
Reaching my destination would take another hour and till then I would try to paint the picture of my journey in this ordinary train of the extraordinary railways of this country.
The woman sitting next to me seems to be of a dominating stature. One who loves to rule the roost and everything ready at her beck and call. She is dressed in a conservative fashion in saree  and the hair done in a bun adding to her domineering personality. She seems organised and confident but is arrogant in the way she talks and glances at the fellow passengers. The man next to me is dozing off on my shoulder while I try to nudge and keep him awake. Opposite to me the seats are occupied by a newly wed couple. Mostly keeping to themselves and talking infrequently. Next to the couple is an elderly man well into his sixties with grey hair and rectangular spectacles in formal attire. The old man is with his colleagues probably from work who embarked the train at the same station and are about to get off the train. Ahhh! My destination still an hour to go.
The lady in white saree chews on 'jhal muri' and keeps typing on her iphone while the others gaze on aimlessly, bored I guess.
The couple gets ready to get off as the pretty wife signals her quiet husband to get the luggage from the luggage stand.  What a relief with their departure I occupy the window seat. After having a hearty cup of tea and a couple of samosa I feel refreshed.
Time passes so quickly. We rarely give value to the present moment we are in. Opening our senses to the surroundings and concentrating on the present might bring the best out of us and more importantly keep us much more happier than usual. Life is like a un unplanned train journey. We should watch out and be on the look out. You might never know when your station might come! Live the present as now is the best time.
Adios! I have reached and would be catching a cab.

Rain, tea and pakora

What a relief! The rains have finally arrived and quenched the thirsty lands of eastern India.
The frogs and toads have come out of their burrows to welcome the rain. The perched river bed breathes a sigh of relief as water again flows through its veins.

Tea and Pakora

The relationship between tea, pakora and rain is an old one for most Indian household. Having hot crispy pakoras of onions, potato or brinjal with a cup of tea and the rain pouring outside is just pure bliss. Firstly, its a great relief from the sweltering heat wave that comes to a stop for the time being. The connection though between pakoras and rain is kind of inexplicable. The amazing sensation of crunching on a plateful of pakoras and sipping tea cannot be expressed but just experienced. 

The sense of happiness as the rain comes to greet our tropical lands is something that we might have inherited long time back from our ancestors as they too might have felt the same sense of joy when the rains arrived.

Sitting by the window of my room and watching the rains pour down is something I have enjoyed since childhood. The pakoras and tea used to be ready and Maa used to serve them at home. Here, though far from home, I had a similar feeling of happiness while eating the pakora and tea while watching the rain and lightning-thunder show which was presented by Mother nature.
In a flash, I was a boy of eight again sitting by my window and watching the eucalyptus tree dancing in the rains at my hometown.

Watching the rains from the windows- bliss

The lazy life

"Wake up, wake up it's a brand new day"- that's my alarm ringtone that blares at full  volume every morning at 8am. It is just so  depressing to hear this. End of sleep, go to work that's what the brain keeps shouting. Me on the other hand feel like staying on bed for another good fifteen minutes. But eventually I wake up to go to work. Somedays, I just dont wake up and am late. I feel anxious at first as to what the boss is going to say if I'm 1 hour late but trust me the lazy weekdays are the best. Makes you come alive and feel more optimistic.
Let me come to the main point here. Simply put in words is that I just love to sleep. There's no better thing than taking a good old nap. No worries no tension, just lay back and doze off. I think people who can sleep a lot are more happy than who sleep less. I can sleep whenever I want- be it day, night, afternoon.
Life has so many facets and dimension and what do we keep doing? Keep running to work and keep jamming our heads with profits and losses. Take a seat! Relax! Have a few days off and live the lazy life. There's no better way to unwind.
I dream of having a house in the hills with nothing to do but write and watch nature, listen to classical music and oh yes take naps. Live the lazy life. It's important in today's world. Give some time for the world to heal itself and stop that damn car engine.
The lazy life beckons me.
Goodbye folks. Signing off to take a nice nap.
Happy napping!

Chelsea bid adieu to Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho- a manager of immense talent, acute mind and a never say die attitude was sacked by Chelsea Football Club for the second time after a disastrous start just 5months since winning the Premier League title. Chelsea have lost 9 of their 16 matches under Jose this season and lying 1point above relegation. In Chelsea's 110 years he is the most successful manager with 3 Premier League titles, 3 League Cups, 1 FA Cup and 1 Community Shield. Before the start of the 2015-16 season Jose managed 98 matches at Stamford Bridge losing only one match.

The astounding record of Mourinho before this season

What prompted Jose's sacking?

The results and controversies this season are enough to sack any manager in any of Europe's top flight clubs but Jose-'The Special One'- is not the commonwealth. His brilliant ability to read games and the way he makes his team play especially those 'big' matches are something everyone respects and adores him for. His record speaks for itself.
Jose's sacking has to do with a number of factors the most obvious is Chelsea's awful campaign so far. His bad habit of getting involved with match officials, staff members of the team as well as the players and owners are well known. This time around it was a combination of these factors which led to his demise.
The loss at the hands of Leichester City started the avalanche when Jose said his players betrayed him. It looked likely that the end was near and within a couple of days on 17th December 2015 he was relieved of his duties at Chelsea.

What next for Chelsea?

Gus Hiddink has been appointed as the interim manager till end of season after that perhaps Chelsea will be trying to rope in the likes of Pep Guardiola or Diego Simeone the latter being the most favoured to get the job. But after the horrible stint with the Holland national team it will be a real challenge for Gus Hiddink especially at his age to tackle the ups and downs of the English Premier league.

The Squad

Chelsea players celebrate their win over Sunderland

Looks pretty good up front with midfield players of the ranks of Pedro, Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Fabregas Matic and Ramires Chelsea have lot of options with Loftus-Cheek on the bench. Cesc Fabregas should be given a more attcking role and played upfront so that he can orchestrate the Chelsea attack. Oscar could be a key player though he often looks out of touch but the Brazilian does have that X-factor. Hazard is one of the best players in the Premier league and the Player of the Season should be back to his best soon. Diego Costa needs to fire if Chelsea has to have any chance of progressing in the Champions League or climb up the League table. Chelsea's defence looks fragile and they need a good center back next season.

Chelsea Fans remaining loyal to their manager even after his exit

After watching the first match without Mourinho at the helm, against Sunderland- a team currently fighting its own problems at the bottom of the table- Chelsea players looked a rejuvenated lot. Oscar was the best player on the pitch for Chelsea having good support from Pedro and Willian. Chelsea won comfortably 3-1. The majority of fans chanted "Jose" for most periods of the match and booed off Fabregas and Costa when they were substituted.

Jose Mourinho a manager with 'Special' qualities and vibrance which only he can bring would be missed sorely at Chelsea FC and if he does depart England would be a great loss for English Premier League as a whole. He is rumoured to join Real Madrid next season or might be given the top job at Manchester United after repeated failures by Van Gaal reently loosing to promoted AFC Bournemouth, Norwich City and getting knocked out of the first round of the Champions League.
Jose Mourinho's dream run as manager has come to an end but still commands respect as one of the world's finest and tactically sound managers. Thank you Jose for all that you have done for this club!

Chelsea's Best manager in 110 years

Dreams

All of us have dreamt multiple times in our lives- some are vivid, some are vague and most are forgotten the moment we wake up. We dream almost everyday but not always can recall the dream when we wake up.

Lets just have a brief idea about what is a dream in scientific terms--

"Dreams are successions of images, ideas,emotions, and sensations that occur usually involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep".

Many psychologists believe that these are thoughts in the sub-concious region of our brain which are manifested in our sleep as dreams.

In spite of our attempts to demystify the phenomenon of dreaming, human beings simply have not yet come close to answering the question “Why do we dream?” According to Jim Pagel, MD, Director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Southern Colorado, "If dreaming has an actual function, it really supports why we spend a third of our lives sleeping." For now, we will have to be content with simply enjoying the show our brain puts on for us each night.

Though scientists say that dreams are a manifestation of our inner-most thoughts, I feel that may it is something entirely different.

What if I say that a dream might be a portal to an alternate universe?
May be in our dreams we are projected through some dimension (still unknown to man) to some other spatial frame, where we see different versions of us. If you notice carefully, you would recognise that we never see our face in our dreams. Isn't that strange? Of the billions of dream all humans have each day not a single can picture one's own face . The probable reason might be that our soul can't be seen. When we are travelling in our dream its not our human self but the soul that's taking us on the ride!
I have various weird dreams often and luckily whenever I sleep I dream. It's like an adventure everyday.

The scientific truth is not known and I don't know when our dreams can be understood fully!
But I know that Dreams do hold a more powerful meaning and purpose than we realise.
May be someday it will be proved that dreams can be used as a portal though it might seem far fetched and absurd but who knows what the future will reveal!
So keep dreaming!

Dream: Portal to another Universe!

As Edgar Allan Poe had said:

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."