Cellphone, Cancer and You!

We all have been hearing this since our parents handed us a my-connection-to-the-world device- Cellphone. And this, somewhat, was the piece of advice given to us before we got it- please use the cellphone as the last possible option as it is not good for your health to keep using it constantly. As if their bodies are made up of steel and that they could breach their own slated rule. :P


Cannot blame them too. They have been hearing from different media about the hazards of using a cellphone, rather over-use of it and caution us due to family interest.


I cannot help but fail to understand everytime I read the excessive-cellphone-use-is-not-good-for-health news. We can never cut down our usage, can we? Even when you are sitting in a corner of a big wedding hall where you can see your pal at a visible distance, you still tend to dial him, don't you? Cellphones and internet have become conquered the centre of our lives when it comes to communication. It has become more of an indispensable device than owned by choice.


The carcinogenic characteristics imparted to us by the use of cellphone is being studied and researched by the researchers. According to a recent report by WHO, the harmful waves emitted by cellphones may cause brain cancer in the long run. The degree of harmfulness is still a doubt, however, its nature is known. Still, can we manage to cut down our use? Hardly.


My friend who believes in maintaining good public relations which he doesn't by sending(read annoying) everyday sms forwards and emails sent me one on the topic few days back. I'd like to quote his forward mail below-

Today's economic times has an article :"Mobile Phone Radiation causes Cancer".
Mobile phones should be kept on silent mode and kept away and should be seen every 2 hours. U can than reply to all your missed calls and messages. All big people do the same. Follow that practise. Also do not sleep with your mobile it is very very harmful.

I appreciate his concern for all our batchmates to whom he forwarded to(yes, this too was a part of his daily spamming! :P ), but this, my friend, is really difficult to apply! 


Are you going to stop your cellphone usage even by a minute? Too much to ask, no? Silly me!


To conclude, I'd like to leave you with the cliched thought-
Cellphone is the necessity, Cancer may be the byproduct but You are the master!

Accepting False Limits

"I will never be able to dunk a basketball. This is beyond discussion.

Imagine, though, a co-worker who says, "I'll never be able to use a knife and fork. No, I have to use my hands." Or a colleague who says, "I can't possibly learn Chinese. I'm not smart enough."

This is a mystery to me. A billion people have learned Chinese, and the failure rate for new kids is close to zero. If a well functioning adult puts in sufficient time and the effort, she''ll succeed.
I don't accept for a minute that there's some sort of natural limit on your ability to do just about anything that involves creating and selling ideas.

This attitude gets me in trouble sometimes. Perhaps I shouldn't be pushing people who want something but have been taught not to push themselves. Somewhere along the way, it seems, I forgot that it's none of my business if people choose to accept what they've got, to forget their dreams and to not seek to help those around them achieve what matters to them.

Not sure if you'll forgive me, but no, I'm not going to believe that only a few people are permitted to be gatekeepers or creators or generous leaders. I have no intention of apologizing for believing in people, for insisting that we all use this moment and these assets to create some art and improve the world around us.

To do anything less than that is a crime."

--- These are the excerpts from Seth Godin's Blog. There is an interesting analogy that we can derive from the above post for ourselves as young gunners of the country. Of course, we have our own interpretations though.

Quora: The Next Big Thing?

A few days back I heard a few students talking in the train about Quora. Nothing that I was hearing it for the first time but they got into an interesting discussion - Is Quora going to be the next big thing?

Surprisingly, no one differed and all were contributing in favor of positive side of the topic. That's when I thought I'd better check that site again. That's when it clicked - Yes! 

BTW, Quora is a website where you can post your questions and people answer your questions, answerer could be anyone - from a school kid to an executive in a company to a research scientist, anyone! Having said that, Quora looks to me like an exclusive discussion forum in a magnified manner. Any question you post will be answered by someone interested in that area and there are frequent discussions you can choose to have on your selected topic with different people. That is, you can expand your contact list too if you've been frequently getting a participation from the same set of people. Who knows? You people may collaborate and work out on some problem together.

I went too far with it, didn't I? But that was my first impression of Quora. The fact is, wikipedia describes Quora as 'online knowledge market' and I think that is pretty much what is required to describe it. 

Is Quora The Next Big Thing? Certainly. It will serve as a replacement to online forums. Instead of going to different portals and posting your queries, you might get all your answers here, all in one place. Frankly, there's one more factor that influences my opinion here - founder. He is the ex-CTO of Facebook. Afterall we all know how Facebook is a part of our lives, just as Google. I expect Quora too, to be on that list, soon!