Last week i went to Chennai to take part in some culturals. Though we dint taste success(which we should have?!?), we had the chance to experience one of the best bus travel ever made. The recently introduced AC buses MTC :- the Volvo B7R -8400 low-floor bus. It made us feel the effect of traveling in any foreign transport system.
The floor is really low and rises at the rear(where the euro III 290 hp, 7-liter, 6-cylinder, diesel engine is mounted with a top speed of 121 kmph!).More than this it the first bus to have true bus chassis (in India). Surprisingly the bus has automatic gears-it does not even have the gear nob, just 3 buttons : one for forward, one for reverse and the other for neutral!!!(its surprising cos it is bus so it must have low mileage, still lower because it an AC bus and a automatic gear would further reduce the mileage!!!). Anyway it still feels great. The automatic gear and combined with the 290hp engine give the bus a car-like-drive feel(great pick-up). And the air suspensions complements the powerful engine to give a great feel.
With 18 rs of min ticket fare it might be on costlier side, but for long intercity travel especially after a "long working day" , it is more than worth the money you pay. Travel in it and "get VOLVOfied"( to put in our college terms).
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
World of Misnomers
An 8-year old kid in the heart of urbs prima of India searching for a correct word. There were 3 different spelling used in the locality :XEROX, ZEROX, ZEROH(the last one used by one shops in a slum area).He dint ask anyone ,rather he wanted to find it out all by himself(as he usually does). After analyzing various possibility he thought it would be ZEROX(as it was how the word was pronounced).
Few years later i find that none of them meant what it was supposed to mean . The correct spell ling was XEROX but it was not the actual word after all. The word photocopy has been completely replaced by the word XEROX. In fact most ppl don't even understand if we use the word photocopy. XEROX was probably one of the 1st companies to introduce the photocopying machine. But before the word photocopy became famous, the company`s name became famous. That is why ppl started calling it a XEROX machine rather than a photocopying machine. The word is so famous that some local dealers advertise like this
"10% off on HP xerox machines" or "with every CANNON xerox machine get 5MP digicam free!"
In India Parle argo`s "Kaccha Mango Bite" candy ran a tagline claiming "Kacche Aam Ka Xerox" which means "Xerox of the raw mango". The tag was later modified to "Kacche Aam Ka Copy", which means "Copy of the Raw Mango." Many dictionaries mention the use of "xerox" as a verb!!
XEROX is not the only company to have done it. JCB is another common misnomer. And it worse than the previous one. In India 99% of ppl refer to it as JCB(because JCB sells 2 out of 3 backhoes sold in India!). And the term is so popular that one of my friend said JCB is actually "jammer cum bulldozer"!!(Oh my god). JCB stands fo Joseph Cyril Bamford ,who founded this company which produces distinctive yellow-and-black-coloured excavators. The actual term "backhoe loader" is used very rarely.
Some of the commonly used misnomers are :
BISLERI for packed drinking water(Bisleri is a product of Parle Agro ltd)
METADOR for travel van(Metador is a product of Bajaj Tempoo ltd)
TEMPOO for Light commercial vehicle(Tempoo originates from the company name Bajaj-Tempoo ltd)
JEEP for off-road/police vehicle(Jeep is an american company belonging to Chrysler group)
cable channels were earlier called as SUN TV in many parts of Tamil nadu.
VOLVO BUS for Luxury buses in India
AIRBUS for any luxury buses(Airbus is a European aircraft company)
PARKER PEN for any costly pen
CADBURY for chocolates
i-POD for music player with display
WALKMAN for audio cassette player(Walkman is a trademark Sony corp.,Japan)
DISCMAN for CD Player(discman is a trademark Sony corp.,Japan)
and so on.....
Few years later i find that none of them meant what it was supposed to mean . The correct spell ling was XEROX but it was not the actual word after all. The word photocopy has been completely replaced by the word XEROX. In fact most ppl don't even understand if we use the word photocopy. XEROX was probably one of the 1st companies to introduce the photocopying machine. But before the word photocopy became famous, the company`s name became famous. That is why ppl started calling it a XEROX machine rather than a photocopying machine. The word is so famous that some local dealers advertise like this
"10% off on HP xerox machines" or "with every CANNON xerox machine get 5MP digicam free!"
In India Parle argo`s "Kaccha Mango Bite" candy ran a tagline claiming "Kacche Aam Ka Xerox" which means "Xerox of the raw mango". The tag was later modified to "Kacche Aam Ka Copy", which means "Copy of the Raw Mango." Many dictionaries mention the use of "xerox" as a verb!!
XEROX is not the only company to have done it. JCB is another common misnomer. And it worse than the previous one. In India 99% of ppl refer to it as JCB(because JCB sells 2 out of 3 backhoes sold in India!). And the term is so popular that one of my friend said JCB is actually "jammer cum bulldozer"!!(Oh my god). JCB stands fo Joseph Cyril Bamford ,who founded this company which produces distinctive yellow-and-black-coloured excavators. The actual term "backhoe loader" is used very rarely.
Some of the commonly used misnomers are :
BISLERI for packed drinking water(Bisleri is a product of Parle Agro ltd)
METADOR for travel van(Metador is a product of Bajaj Tempoo ltd)
TEMPOO for Light commercial vehicle(Tempoo originates from the company name Bajaj-Tempoo ltd)
JEEP for off-road/police vehicle(Jeep is an american company belonging to Chrysler group)
cable channels were earlier called as SUN TV in many parts of Tamil nadu.
VOLVO BUS for Luxury buses in India
AIRBUS for any luxury buses(Airbus is a European aircraft company)
PARKER PEN for any costly pen
CADBURY for chocolates
i-POD for music player with display
WALKMAN for audio cassette player(Walkman is a trademark Sony corp.,Japan)
DISCMAN for CD Player(discman is a trademark Sony corp.,Japan)
and so on.....
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Are Medicines really making us healthier?
The world is developing at rapid pace and the field of medicine is no
exception.We have medicines for almost all the health problems. But
are we really healthier? Comparing ourselves with people who lived,
say 100 years ago, we get a big NO as an answer.
The first thing a person does when he has a slightest hint of body
disorder is taking a medicine. He does not know which bacteria or
virus is causing the disorder. He assumes to have a disease and takes
medicine for it. If he is lucky the medicine works and he recovers
(else the story is totally different!!). But he is prone to get the same
disease again(as it was the medicine which cured him). There
after,the person constantly depends on medicines, even for the
simplest of disease. Moreover most of the common drugs have
side-effects (especially in the case of developing countries where
many drugs available in market are banned in developed countries
for their dangerous side effects).
In one way,the situation is similar to Afghan war. The U.S led
troops came and completely destroyed the Al-Qaeda. Now we find
the rebirth of Al-Qaeda and the local govt is asking for outside
help again. This would not have happened if the local government
was strong enough to counter the Al-Qaeda by itself.
Human health is not how quickly one recovers from any disorder
by taking various medicines, but how well one’s body is able to
fight the disorder by itself. Does anyone care to remember
that we have something called immune system in our body???
Our immune system has enough strength to fight against the
bacteria or viruses causing the deadliest diseases provided we give
the system time to fight the foreign organisms. But people don’t
even believe the existence of immune system, leave alone giving
time for it to fight the disease.If you don’t believe in the powers of
your body, who else will?
In those days when the medicines were not easily available people
were completely depending on their immune system. And their
immune system was strong enough to combat the common
diseases. With the development of science and technology our
dependence on medicines increased the role of immune system
decreased, which in turn decreased its strength.
By Charles Darwin`s `On the Origin of Species':
“….while individuals more suited to the environment are more
likely to survive and more likely to reproduce. The individuals
that survive are most likely to leave their inheritable traits to
future generations.”
for more details see The Origin of Species
This means that if we keep using the medicines, our immune
system becomes weaker. And this “inheritable trail” i.e. weaker
immune system will be transmitted to future generations.
This may lead to a vicious circle i.e. humans dependence on
medicines weakens the immune system which in turn increases
the dependence on medicine!! Such events can lead to
dangerous results.
This doesn`t mean that we should close all the drug companies.
There are deadly diseases (most of them created by “the
extraordinary Human intelligence”) which require medicines.
Medicines should be used only when it is beyond the human
powers to recover automatically. It should support immune
system, not take over its job. For example, If you have
a fever, give a day or two to your immune system and take
complete rest. If you are cured all by yourself, I bet you won’t
be affected by the same disease again. If it still doesn`t
cure, you need a doctor. Health is Wealth.
So take it seriously.
exception.We have medicines for almost all the health problems. But
are we really healthier? Comparing ourselves with people who lived,
say 100 years ago, we get a big NO as an answer.
The first thing a person does when he has a slightest hint of body
disorder is taking a medicine. He does not know which bacteria or
virus is causing the disorder. He assumes to have a disease and takes
medicine for it. If he is lucky the medicine works and he recovers
(else the story is totally different!!). But he is prone to get the same
disease again(as it was the medicine which cured him). There
after,the person constantly depends on medicines, even for the
simplest of disease. Moreover most of the common drugs have
side-effects (especially in the case of developing countries where
many drugs available in market are banned in developed countries
for their dangerous side effects).
In one way,the situation is similar to Afghan war. The U.S led
troops came and completely destroyed the Al-Qaeda. Now we find
the rebirth of Al-Qaeda and the local govt is asking for outside
help again. This would not have happened if the local government
was strong enough to counter the Al-Qaeda by itself.
Human health is not how quickly one recovers from any disorder
by taking various medicines, but how well one’s body is able to
fight the disorder by itself. Does anyone care to remember
that we have something called immune system in our body???
Our immune system has enough strength to fight against the
bacteria or viruses causing the deadliest diseases provided we give
the system time to fight the foreign organisms. But people don’t
even believe the existence of immune system, leave alone giving
time for it to fight the disease.If you don’t believe in the powers of
your body, who else will?
In those days when the medicines were not easily available people
were completely depending on their immune system. And their
immune system was strong enough to combat the common
diseases. With the development of science and technology our
dependence on medicines increased the role of immune system
decreased, which in turn decreased its strength.
By Charles Darwin`s `On the Origin of Species':
“….while individuals more suited to the environment are more
likely to survive and more likely to reproduce. The individuals
that survive are most likely to leave their inheritable traits to
future generations.”
for more details see The Origin of Species
This means that if we keep using the medicines, our immune
system becomes weaker. And this “inheritable trail” i.e. weaker
immune system will be transmitted to future generations.
This may lead to a vicious circle i.e. humans dependence on
medicines weakens the immune system which in turn increases
the dependence on medicine!! Such events can lead to
dangerous results.
This doesn`t mean that we should close all the drug companies.
There are deadly diseases (most of them created by “the
extraordinary Human intelligence”) which require medicines.
Medicines should be used only when it is beyond the human
powers to recover automatically. It should support immune
system, not take over its job. For example, If you have
a fever, give a day or two to your immune system and take
complete rest. If you are cured all by yourself, I bet you won’t
be affected by the same disease again. If it still doesn`t
cure, you need a doctor. Health is Wealth.
So take it seriously.
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