Redefining Horizons

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...

Destroying Models Opinion and truth, make a strange couple. Opinions, are created. It can even destroy truth.  Loud anchors and doctored visuals dish out facts distorted beyond recognition, tell-tale marks intact, persuading us to believe. As truth lie buried deep, opinions cloud our thoughts and dictate our actions. Welcome to the world of prime-time TV discussions! The prime-time discussion one day was dedicated to the figures of seroprevalence in the country. Results of the fourth round of national sero-survey conducted by the ICMR had just become 'known'. Some participants seemed genuinely concerned. One, visibly upset, was breathing fire.   “ Look at the s erosurveillance figures! Kerala is the lowest in the country! Their immunity is the lowest. One of the smallest states, the biggest contributor to covid cases in the country, more than half the country’s cases from there. ” In another outburst on a regional channel a self-depreciating participant lamented, “ T...

  The Last Run The aircraft had been on the search and rescue mission for quite some time. The sailor ‘over board’ had still not been spotted. The crew had done whatever they could have, but to no avail.  The weather wasn’t great and the sun, too was about to drown.  The captain could feel the knots in his stomach.   A sense of defeat filled the cockpit. It was time to call off  the mission and  set course for the base.  He took a hard look at all those dials in front. The fuel onboard could hold them up a little while more. Something within told him , “May be, one more run, One last run…” He then took a long deep breath and spoke into his radio "Running once more, One last time”. The aircraft banked and turned right back into search and the crew pressed itself to the mission one last time, It was now or never. Suddenly, as if from nowhere appeared, someone, bobbing in the seas below. 'One last time' and a life saved. A decision that snatche...

  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...