Small Wonders

I was actually very much confused about the title of this post. I had to choose between ‘small’ and ‘big’. Finally I decided upon ‘Small Wonders’ because when I was small I used to watch a TV series by the same name. It was a comic series that narrated the story of a robot which lived with a human family. Now you can catch the Hindi version of the same concept, ‘Karishma ka Karishma’ in Disney Channel (I once discovered this while flipping through the channels).

One of the 'Big' Wonders of the World

To begin with, there are indeed a lot of wonders in this world. That was exactly why we had to vote and select the Seven Wonders of the World. The other day I was thinking about the small and big wonders we come across in our day to day life. We are always too busy to notice them. So I just thought I’ll share these new discoveries to you.

I have no idea about how to start off this long list of wonders which I recently observed. Fine, I’ll start from there-Ever wondered how you can always visit my blog from anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds? I know about networks and servers and all that (after all, I study Computer Science), but still think about the whole process-I write my blog, upload it in a server located somewhere and then you get to read it from anywhere you are. Wondered how the data packets in the network (which are actually electric signals) reach the right place in the right format when there are millions of other packets and signals flowing through the same network. I know you can explain a lot of theorems and formulas – but ever wondered how some great people could frame out these theorems with such accuracy-simply on the basis of their observation.

Coming to everyday life, ever wondered, how neatly, a country is divided into states, states to districts and districts to a large number of places. How have we been able to describe the boundary between two places? And then ever wondered how you can listen to a person’s voice through air in your cell phones and how your text messages travel safely through air to reach the recipient. Ever wondered how you get a near constant supply of electricity while it is produced at a place hundreds of kilometer away from your home- and that too enough to light up your whole area and many others? Ever wondered how you can always reproduce a song from magnetic tapes or from an mp3 file?

I know that this list of ‘ever wondered’ questions seems endless. But then there is one thing in common between all the ‘wonders’ mentioned above-they have been created by man. Some great minds framed these wonderful ideas that have provided to be quite revolutionary in the history of mankind. And the impact has been so huge that we rarely recognize them as ‘wonders’.

So what is the big lesson? Look around you, marvel at the wonders and then, then what??Try to find more about those wonderful brains who actually created these. And see if you can actually make some contribution. We belong to an age where we have competitions like Imagine Cup that encourages students to think hard and come up with ideas. So are we actually facing a shortage of ideas? Well I don’t know, but I strongly feel that we still have lots of burning issues in this world that needs to be tackled. Just think how marvelous it can be if you can actually come up with that big idea that can help in making this world a better place to live. Now if you feel you aren’t the right person, then you can contribute by asking yourselves- why things are the way they are? And once you begin the search for the answers, you’ll be amazed at the vast stretches of knowledge that opens up before you. And this will inspire you to learn more and more. So I guess this ‘wondering’ business can actually do some good to you. Before I sign off, here’s another small wonder-how can a ‘quiet’, ‘studious’ girl wonder much?