Disrupting the pink aisle

It is great but I am not surprised at the engineering toys for girls. Of course there is a mechanical engineer from Stanford behind it, who came up with the idea of inspiring girls from a very young age to get into engineering. Oh, did I mention that the CEO of GoldieBlox toys is a lady? Her name is Debbie Sterling.

When girls are submerged in pink and mauve shimmery things and their role model becomes Barbie or Princess Sophia, this "disrupting the pink aisle" video looks like a draft of fresh air. Take a look...



This reminds me of the innumerable afternoons I spent "experimenting" with muddy water, filtering them and then stirring water color into different glass cups and imagining them to be dangerous chemicals of my lab! Later, those changed to proper science projects with electric wires and batteries when I did electrolysis and copper coated a paper clip, made a nice pin-hole camera by sticking a magnifying glass to the pinhole and did experiments by overlapping colored lights. It is a pleasure to see principles of physics in action. Same about the mechano experiments where pulleys pull loads, electric fans move and motors rotate. Even creating simple circuits - bulbs in parallel and series connection and "see" how things work can make a big difference in someone's interest in science and technology.

I'm proud to belong to this class :)

Now that I have crossed all those stages and can spend my time working on cloud computing stuff, I understand how important it is to not stereotype science and technology as a boys' only thing. The best way is to start early with gender neutral toys, or rather not associating gender with toys. You go and get the one that interests you. That is the right thing to do. Then only we can increase the 11% women engineers to some respectable ratio.

Some things I am thankful for

As it is Thanksgiving in November, I like the practice of finding the things one is grateful for and write them down. Some people do it everyday as a journal, some do differently... but it is the same at the end. Here are some things I am thankful for.

A safe and happy childhood
With news of all sorts of child abuse showing up multiple times everyday all over the world, now I understand what security means to a child. It provides much more than happy childhood memories, it helps a person grow to a normal healthy human being. A baby who is loved, a child who feels happy in his home can grow up to become confident adults.

Pursuing my dreams
Be it a career or knitting a blanket, I generally get to do what I want to. And that is not negligible. There are millions of people all over the world who don't get a chance to do what they want to for various reasons. Some don't have the economic independence while others are swamped in the quick sand of society.

For a healthy body and mind
It is easy to overlook these things as granted. Only when you see someone who doesn't have these things then you realize what great gifts you have been given. The simple thing of an eyesight or having both legs of the same height can make a very big difference in a person's life. To think about what can happen when someone's mind is not healthy just overwhelms me.

A roof over my head and food on the table
... and that I didn't really have to fight for any of these.

The people I am surrounded with
 from family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, professors, hair dresser, pet sitter....all the great, funny, hard working, honest, humble, smart, helpful people that I interact with on a daily basis. I love being with people and good ones make me love that even more.

My fur babies
...unless you love an animal, a part of you remains un-awakened. My fur babies have taught me so many things...they love unconditionally, simple things like a cardboard box or a tennis ball can make them happy beyond words. Just give them enough food, a cozy place and lots of love - that's all they need. Hmm...don't we also need such few things to survive?

My family
For supporting me to have everything I needed from day 1 to this moment... :)

PS: I'm also thankful for the armed forces and law enforcement people who keep us safe and the medical people who keep us alive :)

The Y-chromosome

I have written many posts on girls and women and how to emancipate them, blah blah... but since November (or Movember) is guys' month, I decided to write about men for a change. It will be very bad if from my other articles, people think that I kind of brand guys as mean or hateful. They are surely not so. Here's to the people in my life with the Y-chromosome. They also come in various relations, from father and uncles, husband, brother, brother-in-law, mischievous friends and classmates from South Point High School, equally mischievous friends from CIEM, crazy guys the world over at UAB, peers and managers at work, neighbors, teachers, cops who were my driving instructors... a bunch of men from all over the world who mean a lot to me!

When I see little boys playing (we have dozens of little boys in the neighborhood) it feels so strange and different to what we played with as kids. These boys are always play-fighting, they are running around with crossbows and guns, killing aliens and dinosaurs...I don't know it's so very different! One of my neighbor who has three boys said it's about one or more of the following things that his kids are interested in - cars, guns and dinosaurs! That's it! Now compare it to a girl - pink shimmery things, rhinestones, Hello Kitty, Princess Sophia or at least playing keep house, dressing up, tending to the teddies and attending tea parties! They are so different and that is the fun part.

An honest and hardworking guy is a great thing to have in your life. Girls, there are so many guys in your life who make you feel special - the brother who taught you to play cricket or the uncle who listened to all the silly stories you made up, the father with whom you first mowed your lawn, the grandfather who spoilt you with as many candies you wanted, the firefighter who came to help you when your office caught fire, the coworker who mentored you when you took on a challenging project, they all make the society a better place to live at. They love us, they care for us, they motivate us and as a whole enrich our lives with their silly pranks, heroic deeds, gentleness and companionship. Cherish the people with Y-chromosome, they are great :)