Anything Under The Sun

It seems like an unusual topic to write about, specially for a guy like me. But when I read an article in the papers recently, I got so engrossed that I tried to find out as much information I could about this. And I'm keen on sharing it with you.

 

More about narco-analysis:
The term narcoanalysis was coined in 1936 for the use of narcotics to induce a trance like state, where the subject talks freely and is deprived of his/her self control and will power to manipulate his/her answers. In a narcoanalysis test, the subject's imagination is neutralised and reasoning faculty affected by making him/her semi-conscious. In this state, it becomes difficult for the subject to lie and his/her answers are restricted to facts he/she is already aware of. Some well known truth serums are seconal, hyoscine, sodium pentothal and sodium amythal.

Next blog will be about Polygraphs and Polygraph Tests.

 

Kowshik

A couple of days before new year's eve, I got my invite.. It was supposed to be a formal sorta party. The invite specifically mentioned a dress code.. Man! I wasn't even gonna go some place where they want me to wear a suit.. I wasn't keen on this one, coz I dont like being decked up for a party, I like my casuals a lot more than you think I do. Hehe.

But somehow I got conned into confirming my presence. And so I got into my suit, all set to reach the venue. I was sure it was going to be a drab. What could you expect at a place which would probably be full of middle-aged men and women.

The schedule said the party begins at 9pm. We all know it doesnt mean anything, coz nobody follows whats printed on the invite, do we?

I reached the place fifteen minutes before 10 pm and I was surprised at the turnout by then. There were more than 200 people by that time. Wow, I never knew people turned up on time to parties. This was new to me. Once inside, I found it was rocking. The DJ was good, the music was kewl, and the atmosphere was just amazing. However, not many were on the dance floor. Once could hear the wine glasses clink, friends chatting up, and loads of laughter, but no one was dancing. I like to dance, but I didnt want to look like the lone ranger out there. So I waited.

Twenty minutes later, people began getting onto the floor. I guess the alcohol takes its time to work ;-) hehe.

By about half past 10, almost everyone was on the floor. Youngsters, middle aged people, men & women. A few songs later these guys were actually rocking. The suits were unbuttoned, the ties aside, coats off and shirts loosened. Everyone was dancing away to glory. (Of course, the definition of dance is a bit different with each age group, but by and large it was awesome).

Fifteen minutes to midnight, and each and every person was on the floor (Irrespective of their ability to shake their body or not). Not once have I seen a party where everyone's on the dance floor at the same time. At the stroke of new years, the fire crackers and the music on full blast made it a very lively way to invite the new year.

I had a great time at this 'different' kinda party.

Waat A Paah-tyy!! Man!!

Kowshik

The state-run buses in Karnataka take one step further in reducing vehicle emissions and reducing running costs. And how do they plan to do this? Simple.. For about 3 years now, they've been experimenting with alternative fuels.. And it looks like finally their experiments will be put into full-fledged action from the end of January 2006.

 

Here's the secret... The authorities have been testing a mixture of diesel and edible/non-edible oils for their buses. They mixed diesel with sunflower oil, groundnut oil and honge oil. Now the results show that honge oil is the best among the three. Honge oil costs Rs.28 per liter while diesel costs about Rs.35. The mixture uses 90% diesel and 10% honge oil.

 

Honge oil is obtained from the honge seeds of the honge tree. It is a wild tree seen commonly in Karnataka and the authorities see no problem getting their required quota every month. This tree grows with minimum water and doesnt need a lot of tending to. So we can expect more honge trees being planted in the future. This will also add to aforestation.

 

The state run buses in Karnataka consume about 12 crore liters of diesel annually. Using honge oil will reduce about 1.2 crore liters per year. At the current price different of Rs.7, this will mark savings of Rs 8.4 crores annually for the Govt.

 

Not only will this turn out to be economically feasible, it will also reduce emission levels by about 20%.

Just like buses in Gujarat are experimenting with CNG, buses in Karnataka are using bio-diesel.

It seems like the bio-fuels are beginning to make in-roads into the energy sector. Lets hope we see a day soon where we stop being completely dependent on petrol and diesel.

 

Saving the ecology is an act of greatness. And if you can save some money in the process, its even greater. A penny saved is a penny earned.

 

Kowshik

FLorida Lawyer

Early Monday morning while I was sitting with my friend, he got a call from a Florida lawyer. Whenever anyone hears 'Florida Lawyer', one gets a feeling not everything's right. And a serious of thoughts rushed through my mind. Why would a lawyer call my friend? And that too a lawyer from Florida? A brief 8 minute conversation later (considering lawyers and their ability to speak loonng, this was really brief), my friend slowly hung up the phone.

 

A mixed bag of emotions ran across his face. He was a bit anxious, a bit worried, a bit angry, and a bit hurt. The moment he glanced at me, I blurted out "Kya hua? Tere chehre ka rang kyon utar gaya?" He started to say something, but stopped instantly. I didn't wish to pursue further; and left it at that. I know if he wants to talk about this conversation with the 'florida lawyer', he will in due course of time.

 

A few days passed on and I'd completely forgotten about the whole lawyer thing. With such hectic schedules who wouldn't? Frankly I'm more worried about my deadlines and work responsibilities than think of some florida lawyer. In what way was I concerned? Yes, my friend was involved in something, that concerns me, but what can I do about it until my friend wishes to involve me in it?

 

One fine morning, the doorbell rang. When I answered the door, it was my friend. Mostly with moist eyes, like he was in tears. He stood there, at my doorway, staring, a blank stare actually. I took him inside and made him a hot cup of filtered coffee (a South Indian favorite). And I asked him what the matter was.

 

He began his story, explaining what had been going on in his life for the last 5 months. It was his wife, who'd wished to divorce him. She'd sent him notices through her florida lawyer and each time that particular florida lawyer called, he would go into a shell; feeling miserable. (That explains my friend's behaviour some time ago when he had a phone call). Citing each and every example of what caused this wonderful couple to end up in a soup. I don't think it would be wise to share what he said to me because I promised not to tell anyone. However, I will surely keep these instances in mind when I write a book on husband-wife relationships.

 

Coming back to my friend, I consoled him saying that if his wife wasn't happy with him, maybe it was time to move on. (It seemed like the best advice I could give him at such an advanced stage of his court proceedings). But he wasn't ready to give in. He wanted me to speak to his wife and convince her to stay with him. He had come to see me for this. Anything for a friend, I thought.

 

So I called his wife and setup a meeting with her that afternoon, over lunch at The Ritz. We reached bang on time (Something unlikely for my friend). She arrived a few minutes late; with her florida lawyers. We were surprised to see the lawyer, for this meant she wasn't keen on any informal arrangement. We requested her florida lawyer to stay out of this, only managing to gain time for 10 minutes alone. So this was it, without the lawyer, I had 10 minutes to convince her to stay with him.

 

A deep breath, a short prayer, and a lot of anticipation, I took out my photo album which had photos of the 3 of us ever since we knew each other. Luckily, I'd thought of carrying these photos. One by one, I showed her the photos and reminded her of the happy instances of our lives. With each photo, she seemed to mellow down bit by bit. In my mind, I wanted to hurry through, as I had a short time, but where emotions are concerned, nobody can rush through, can they?

 

We had barely finished half of them, when the florida lawyer guy turned with a frown. When he saw her face, he was apprehensive. Maybe he thought she'd change her mind. And this lawyer might lose his court fees. (These florida lawyer guys probably charge an arm and a leg). It seemed like all my efforts would go in vain, when thankfully, she stopped him and asked him to leave us alone for a while longer. That was a small 'win' for us. We went through all the photos and discussed the fun times we had. Slowly my friend and his wife began losing their tough stances and began talking, getting back the glimpses of the old times when they were at the peak of their relationships.

 

10 more minutes later, they were in each other's arms. Yes!!! That was such a happy sight. And you should have been there to see the face of the florida lawyer. Haha. He was shocked. But what could that lawyer guy do anyway. He accepted what he saw and left in a huff.

 

A short prayer to God and a heavy sigh of relief later, I wished my friend and his wife good luck and left the restaurant. A few steps after leaving the restaurant, the florida lawyer was in a state of non-acceptance. He probably hadn't seen such a thing in his life. When I crossed him, the florida lawyer called out to me. I stopped, and he came over. After a momentary silence, he said he was going through a bad phase with his wife and reluctantly asked me if I could do something to help him.Wow, now suddenly I'm a psycho-analyst; psychiatrist; marriage counsellor. And a perceived expert too. Hehe. With a sly grin, I said I'll try my best to help him though I'm not supposed to be an expert in this matter. That brought him cheer and we were off to see his wife. Perhaps that was the beginning of a brand new career, a psychologist, maybe.

 

The florida lawyer will vouch for me, I'm sure.

Kowshik

My friend - The Florida Lawyer!!

 

This is in continuation to my article on 'Florida Lawyer' I'd written early last week. If you've forgotten or haven't read it, it's there below this article. Do spare your precious time and go through my work.

 

A couple of months into my psycho-analysis, I kept getting people who wanted to see me and talk to me about their lives. And I wondered who these people were; and how did they get to know about me. So I asked each of them how they heard of me.. and their reply was always the same.. Thanks to the 'Florida Lawyer' (By now, I think everyone started referring to my friend as the Florida Lawyer). I guess he is only trying to re-pay the favor. Nice man, the lawyer!!

 

Last weekend, he visited my work place and was pleased to see me write articles. He was surprised that I'd named an article after him, The Florida Lawyer. His surprise went deeper when I told him that I'd probably write about his visit to my work place. Hehe. (That's exactly what I'm doing right now).

 

Coming back to him, I enquired about his wife and how things were at the moment? The sparkle in his eyes, and the ray of confidence on his face said everything. He didn't have to utter a single word. (For a lawyer, he speaks a tad bit too less, I thought). A brief conversation and a couple of coffees later, abruptly, he asked me if I could work with him. It was too weird too sudden to figure. I frowned with confusion, and with a blank face, asked him to repeat himself. And the 'Florida Lawyer' repeated. He asked me if I could work with him?

 

Hey.. wait a min.. I'm not into law.. In fact I wasnt into psycho-analysis either, but this was different. Once he'd got me into a field, but getting me to change my field just when I was getting a hang of things was not possible. But the persistent man he was, he put it across as a simple few tasks and somewhere down the line, I got coaxed into agreeing to him. Whatever does he say to get me to say yes. Maybe he was a direct descendant of Dale Carnegie. Hehe.

 

My friend, The Florida Lawyer. Imagine me, going to work with him. Hehe. Sounded weird, it still does. I haven't really decided when I'd join him, but knowing him, it'd be soon.

 

Next article: My work with the Florida Lawyer.

Kowshik
Read more about my blogs on http://anythingunderthesun.blogspirit.com