The GPS

I have a very good friend from school, Khushi who shifted to a town a little away from Ahmedabad, where I live, around six years back. She shifted after school but still misses Ahmedabad and always wants to know about the famous and new hang out places and asks me “What’s new?” whenever we talk or chat. The other day I went to the IIM food festival, a very exciting event, where people from all over India come together and put up stalls of various delicacies from their cities. It’s a three day festival celebrated every year where you can literally see Ahmedabadi’s numb their other senses except for taste buds and simply enjoy the spread laid out at IIM campus ground in cold Decembers.

I saw an advertisement of a new tea lounge that opened up recently in the city at the IIM food festival. Khushi messaged, “What’s new?” just as I came home and was un- numbing myself from the cold winter chill as well as the lip-smacking dishes that I had devoured. I sluggishly replied, “Wagh Bakri Tea Lounge”... She was prompt, “Where, where, where??”...  I replied, “Navarangpura”... She wanted to know the exact location for the sake of it even though I knew she was not going to visit the lounge anytime soon. So I gave up explaining and she curtly replied that she will look up the GPS co ordinates on her phone and get the location.

Oh yes, we use the GPS not just for getting directions but even finding places and exact locations. It saves time, brain-energy :P, and even the lengthy process of giving directions to a person who doesn’t really want to visit the place... :)  Over the years, there are so many things which have been developed, invented and modernized on our planet. The global positioning has helped various sciences, technologies and even astrology! Astrology deals with the positions of not just the earth but all the planets in the solar system and their effects on the earthlings. People wear Rubies, Sapphires, Topazes, Emeralds and various other stones and gems which symbolize the Sun, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury and other planets respectively to ward off the appalling effects which  these planets may cause on them. Whether they actually help or not, is debatable, however I wonder why don’t we wear a gem or a stone symbolizing the Earth? Our own planet, which bears us and also the good and bad effects of the other planets on us?

Its 2015, and the mighty earth is a year older...  We really wouldn't know how to calculate its age as we don’t know whether to start from The Big Bang, or which calendar to follow as there are several in use; but scientists claim its 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years old. And it’s aging oh so gracefully!

It’s beautiful, huge, and is home to so many living creatures. The wildlife, forests, mountains, valleys and oceans make our abode the most amazing in the solar system. I saw Amir Khan’s movie PK recently in which he is an alien who falls for an earthling... not surprising! We are complex and difficult to be understood by aliens if they exist with so many different cultures, calendars and languages; but we sure are the most interesting! That’s because our planet is one of its kind... simply unique, as its home to so many different and interesting species...  Earth- land has accommodated the vast history over the years and is rotating and revolving around the Sun since 4.54 billion years. There are earthquakes, eclipses and tsunamis, but it never stops.

As I wish you all A Very Happy New Year, I would also like to ring a bell that it is our planet which just turned a year older. Respect it and love it. We celebrate “Earth Day” once a year, but every day begins due to the earth. Plant trees and make efforts to bring down pollution this year. And oh yes, please don’t use the GPS so much that you forget friendly talk with your fellow earthlings even if you are just going to ask for directions... :)