Redefining Horizons

  The Promises ! An affordable ala carte of tests from a large array, possible on a tiny drop of blood drawn from a finger prick! No more uncomfortable, scary and painful veinal blood draws! The Story A n unbelievable biotech feat that can change diagnostics the way we now know. Defiantly disruptive an idea, marvellous the stated mission, formidable the connections, acclaimed investors and bountiful their investments, nothing could have stopped the young lady, who dreamt it all up, from endless possibilities, opportunities and an eternally enviable place in history. She was indeed crowned the youngest woman billionaire entrepreneur on the planet.  The story of Elizabeth Anne Holmes, former American biotechnology entrepreneur is a lesson for materialists, spiritualists, philosophers, scientists and every one else living and aspiring. In 2003, she founded the health technology company Real-Time Cures in Palo Alto, California to "democratize healthcare”. She later renamed the ...

Newport in Rhode Island is a beautiful place. Situated by the Atlantic Ocean it offers visitors with frames for perfect pictures. It also houses some stunning mansions.  I had never heard of Newport before, but was the recipient of the large heartedness of Issac Simon, my brother-in-law who not only suggested the trip but even offered to take us on the eighty-five  mile drive to the mansion town. The drive, one of the many such, he graciously hosted so far, was beautiful from the word go with the fall painting the entire route with colours, I had seen never before. With tickets in hand, we actually walked into a piece of American history. Ahead of its times, each room stood out well appointed carefully planned and exquisitely executed. In fact, everything about the mansion was bathed in audacious opulence and grandeur, all funded by slices from the immense riches the individual had amassed over his lifetime. We spent almost three hours within, what was once, someone’s summer...

English is a very interesting language. There are words with letters in it that don’t make themselves heard. They just add length and complexities but without them the word itself is misspelt. Then there are words, that individually meaning something, but collectively with other words say a lot different. They call it idioms. To a large extent even life is like that; interesting from many perspectives. There are many people around us, easily visible but insignificant to our existence. Their presence adds to complexities to our lives yet they remain unavoidable. Without them around, we would not have become the individuals that we have become and in the journey ahead what we will be. Similarly there are people who   individually may behave in one manner and in groups they could surprisingly be different, good bad or ugly, just like idioms. ‘Cherry picking'   literally   and literarrily are different; so is ‘apple picking’. Cherry picking literally means picking cherrie...

I had heard a lot about the Boston fall and the dramatic change in colours from green to hues of yellow and red. I timed my visit to Boston to see the faint footsteps of fall, experience it getting louder and more colourful as it sweeps the entire area awash in colours. I am enjoying every bit of it.  'Autumn' and 'Fall’ are used interchangeably to capture the same essence of time bridging summer and winter. Autumn wears an attire of formality whereas fall brings along a poetic and philosophical feel appropriate to the annual event. In the northern hemisphere fall commences with the autumnal equinox, the day, sun crosses the celestial equator, the imaginary extension of Earth’s equator in space. It normally happens between 21st to 24th September. Fall ends with winter solstice. Also called ‘hibernal solstice’, winter solstice occurs when the poles reach its maximum tilt away from the Sun. Winter solstice, therefore has the shortest day and longest night of the year. Then...

History The Teacher History talks of many an empire. What could be common to all the empires of the past? The Mauryas, Guptas, Mughals, Romans, Persians, Ottoman, Hans, Spanish and the British, each one a powerful regime, held sway over vast swathes of land and had subjects across geographical boundaries we now recognise. Geographically and chronologically spaced well apart, each one tremendously influenced populace it ruled upon and made lasting contributions to virtually every aspect of contemporary culture. Each came into existence and grew but couldn’t succeed in sustaining themselves to grow into perpetuity. Despite unquestionable powers, and repressive enforcement systems, perpetuity eluded each one of them. Having failed to sustain and grow beyond a time, they now remain confined to pages of history; their significance waxing and waning, at the mercy of contemporary political regimes in their attempt to attain perpetuity. History is a great teacher. Those who do not ...

Contranym Oversight is an interesting contranym! Too many incidents of oversight prove absence of oversight! Contranym? A contranym is a word with the same spelling but the opposite meaning. In other words, it’s a homonym that’s an antonym. A homonym is a word spelled like another with a different meaning while an antonym is a word with the opposite meaning, context in which it is used deciding the meaning. Oversight, in the context of ‘overseeing’, is about supervision but in its contranym context, it’s about errors unintentional or otherwise. Frequent incidents of oversight indicate systemic rot in the system due to ineffective oversight; disastrous and fatal for organisations. I can't help but narrate  such a story  I witnessed being scripted!  Sun Like Nowhere Else The story unfolds in the most unbelievably beautiful settings of the backwaters in God’s Own country. To believe, one has to experience the morning sun, reflecting itself in grandeur over th...

  Solutions! Really? The earth is infested with discarded PET bottles and plastic carry bags. Bobbing along waves, choking waterways and making up most of landfills, each piece a folly of mankind. Micro plastics have invaded potable water and aqua marine food source and our existence contaminated. Plastics, once touted as the solution to many a problem, have become the most pervasive environmental risk! Solution becoming a problem? Computers determine how we live, whether we use it ourselves or not. It is deployed even to influence our thoughts and emotions, thereby dictating our choices and actions, in ways beyond what we can fathom. Nothing is beyond the reach of these binary logic machines. While we enjoy benefits of information technology applications, we also suffer unstoppable loss of privacy and hopeless dependence. Control of mankind is slowly coming to rest at the mercy of these machines. Once purely meant for mathematical applications, they now evoke both awe and sho...