Friday, June 4, 2010

Gulmohar

They are not green.

If you remember the gulmohar trees on the way to your school, or along that sunny road on summer afternoons, you'll know what I am visualizing.

The pretty red flowers of gulmohar tree that bloom on hot extremely sunny summers are a respite to anyone's eyes. They make a thirsty, sweaty and half blinded traveller believe that shade is around the corner, that its possible to stand calm even in this extreme weather, that there is beauty even in barren pastures.

You must know all this about gulmohar trees. But what you don't know is that gulmohar trees are not an Indian specie of trees. They are from Madagascar.

Yes..you got it right.. from the land of "You like to move it move it!"

Now the unfortunate side of these pretty somethings is that they do not attract the local birds. This is not good news for the birds. Not even for us. We don't want our Indian birds to hang up there in air, just because we like looking at red flowers on trees.

So I am writing this note to spread the awareness, so that next time you decide to plant a tree, you know your bird's opinion and mine too.

Plus, the sparrows I think have become extinct. Let me know if you spot one.. I am keeping count. There are 3000 tigers left, I don't know if sparrows are ahead of them or behind.

When Erection is a problem

I know what you are thinking. But I am not talking about that which you think I am.
I am talking about steel structures instead.

Its a cheap publicity gimmick to get readers to start reading this piece which deals with a complex engineering construction related subject. But I guess all is fair in blog publicity and war.

Steel structures, for the uninitiated, are basically heavy multi-story high-rise buildings made entirely out of steel. Such structures are composed of complex nutting and bolting together of heavy steel beams, columns, and bracings to form the main skeleton and then wrapped in steel cladding. This building is then furnished to cover up the steel and enhance the structure aesthetically. It basically leads to doing away with the entire conventional RCC framework. Now although this technology is being widely used globally for fast track heavy construction, India is yet to completely adapt to it.

This is when you should be asking why?

Experts believe that one of the key challenges for this industry in India is a lack of “erection” capability. Here you go. I have busted the mystery. I am talking about erection of steel fabricated structures. India doesn’t have enough contractors who possess the expertise to erect this type of structures.

But that is not the point I am trying to make. The key message that I am manoeuvring my way into is how important context is while you ascribe a meaning to anything. One word can swing into two entirely different contexts and have completely different meanings. And worse is that you can’t always react to it the same way, just because you reacted in a particular way in one particular context.

Hence, next time, don’t laugh at a double meaning joke. Roll at it. Because the beauty of the joke lies in the fact that its funny both ways!! Most words (or phrases) aren’t that lucky, they are often comprehended in the wrong contexts and lead someone into rocky waters. However, double meaning jokes are like palindromes of humour...funny both ways.. you can call them “palindumour”!!

The last one was not a double meaning joke... it was poor joke :P.


Tell me that my blog now officially sucks.