23. Sneaks and Kicks

 ‘Space Jam’ Movie 1996, Starring Michael Jordan and       

                          Bugs Bunny 

The most popular shoe in the popular culture. Popularised by Michael Jordan himself. He wore them as a rookie in 1984 in the NBA. It became instantly famous for going against the colour regulations which stated that sneakers have to be at least a majority of white colourations and had to match team uniform colours. The Air Jordan was introduced in 1985 by Nike, made in collaboration with Michael Jordan himself, designed by Peter Moore. The first ever model was dubbed Air Jordan 1, which sported a majority of Black and Red colours, to match the colour of the Chicago Bulls uniform, the team Jordan was playing for at the time. Nike was issued a $ 5,000 fine for every game, Michael wore the black and red Air Jordans 1. 

A sneaker head is someone who collects sneakers, with a passion for it and a intuition of the history of the shoes. The Air Jordan line of sneakers is one of those sneaker which changed the game and the culture for the better, without flaws and drawbacks.

These sneakers line were further popularised by many celebrities. Actors, rappers, singers alike. 

                              

                                       Tom Cruise in the Jordan 11 ‘DMP’

                                        The Backstreet Boys with Jordans 

It became a dream for every sneaker head to include these sneakers in their collection. 

Retro Air Jordan shoes are introduced that were the classic remake of the Air Jordans that Michael wore back in the day, slightly modified to match with the current trends. As a part of the 23 year celebrations, the Jordan brands started a multi year campaign ‘fusing’ the Air Force 1 with Air Jordans creating the Air Jordan Fusions.

        

          Below is a look at each and every pair of Air Jordan shoes released by Nike, a total of 26 in all (not counting variations). Next to each pair is Nike's motto for the shoe and the year in which they debuted.

Air Jordan I "Notorious" 1984-85

Air Jordan II "Italian Stalion" 1987

Air Jordan III “Gotta Be The Shoes” 1988

Air Jordan IV “Taking Flight” 1989

Air Jordan V “The Fighter” 1990

Air Jordan VI “Promised Land” 1991

Air Jordan VII “Pure Gold” 1992

Air Jordan VIII “Strap In” 1993

Air Jordan IX “Perfect Harmony” 1994

Air Jordan X “The Legacy Continues” 1995

Air Jordan XI “Class Act” 1996

Air Jordan XII “The Dynasty Continues” 1997

Air Jordan XIII “Black Cat Pounces” 1998

Air Jordan XIV “Race Ready” 1999

Air Jordan XV “Speed of Sound” 2000

Air Jordan XVI “Marching On” 2001

Air Jordan XVII “Jazzed Up” 2002

Air Jordan XVIII “Last Dance” 2003

Air Jordan XIX “Full Flex” 2004

Air Jordan XX “Living Greatness” 2005

Air Jordan XXI “Performance Luxury DNA” 2006

Air Jordan XXII “Hit the Afterburners” 2007

Air Jordan XXIII “The Number of Greatness” 2008 

Air Jordan 2009 “Beyond” 2009

Air Jordan 2010 “Full Speed Ahead” 2010

Air Jordan 2011 2011

Air Jordan 2012 “Choose Your Flight” 2012

Air Jordan XXVIII “Dare to Fly” 2013

      Michael not only wanted his shoes to be famous on the court, but off it as well. The first Air Jordan to employ this philosophy was the Air Jordan III. Co-Designed by Tinker Hatfield along with Michael in 1988, this Air Jordan is famous for implementing elephant print on a basketball shoe, as well the first Air Jordan to have the, famous Jumpman logo and a visible air unit. This style of design made it so that the Air Jordan would be seen as a shoe that you can wear while playing ball, but also as casual dress wear for the urban kid or teen. This design process would evolve with every new Air Jordan released every season. This always ensured that Air Jordans would always remain in style, as they still do to this day. 

The high price tag made the desired shoes out of reach for the low income kids that craved them the most. Thus Air Jordans became subject to violence and crime. Around the U.S., reports would come in of kids getting robbed and killed for their Air Jordans. Today, even campouts at Air Jordan release days are dangerous things to attend, forcing stores to employ raffle systems and other means to control crowds of consumers who want to get their hands on the latest Air Jordan. Violence wasn’t the only thing to come out of the growing popularity of these sneakers however. In the more recent years, reselling became popular as Air Jordans became harder and harder to get due to the exclusivity and somewhat limited numbers for some pairs. Resellers are usually looked down upon in the sneaker community as they buy Sneakers by the bulk for retail and resell for double and even triple the original cost. Jordans are the most common sneakers resold due to the reasons mentioned above, and some even say the reason why resellers appeared in the culture. This made it near impossible for true sneakerheads to obtain a pair they wanted unless they got lucky and were able to get theirs for retail. Even though Air Jordans have made negative impacts on the culture, measures are being taken by the community to ensure that these problems are being noticed and hopefully acted upon.

Relapsed

         The North Eastern part of India, due to its topographical features, stays as a land-locked region from the mainland. From time immemorial, the region is also misaligned with daily cycle of the sunlight. Indeed we live a lifestyle different from the mainland. The economic status of this region is also mediocre when compared with other parts of India.

         We also always feel a sense of alienation, living in a different world, calling them foreigners in our own words. The problem of adjusting to the distant relative's lifestyles has always been prevailing. This difference is still not solved by any of the reforms, from the ever changing Indian policy making.

       Similar big countries like the USA, Russia, Australia have more than a single time zone and some of them follow daylight savings, notably the US. They adjust their clock either back or forth based on the climate, in a bid to save more energy by synchronising the time standards with the cycle of the sunlight. China and India happened to be the only two countries in the world that is following a single time zone despite their respective geographical sizes. China being a communist country, it is politically perfect to follow a single time zone to ease the high command.

         A crucial factor in which the rate of productivity of an economy depend is the period of working hours. Two scientist from National Institute Of Advance Studies, Bangalore had already proposed advancing the clock to 30 minutes forward at +6 GMT, predicting that it could save India of 2.7 billion units of electricity annually as the citizens will rely on energy for a lesser time and depend more on the solar energy from the sun. This advancement can also make us more attuned to the biological clock, if we happened to sleep and wake at the same time as before. The advancement will make our sleep cycle more harmonious to the daily cycle of the sunshine.

        It also reported of the 'Twin Burden' of very early summer sunrise and very early winter sunsets in the North-Eastern part of the country. Social benefits were even cited, with this proposal in advancement of time. However, the proposal for a twin time zone was scrapped citing possible difficulties in the operation of airline, railway and communication services.

      The current Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi has announced that Assam will start to follow a time zone different than the Indian Standard Time zone of +5.30 GMT. India's second time zone will be one hour ahead of its first one, to +6.30 GMT. He a stated that this could increase the productivity in the state and ease the tea gardeners of the the famous, Assam Tea. The gardeners have to plan their harvest accordingly with the daily cycle of the sun. This change will translate into more yield and help boost the economy of the state.

        Nevertheless, the tea gardeners of Assam had been following a 'Tea Garden Time', at +6.30 GMT, introduced during the British's times. They work from 9 to 5, Dolly Parton could not get the lyrics, which, roughly translates to 8 to 4 in the Indian Standard Time. It's been followed before independence in this part of the country owing to the early sunrise in this part of the country.

      Daylight Saving Time (DST), usually referred to as summer time in the United Kingdom is the practice of advancing clocks during the lighter months so that evenings have more apparent daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in the autumn.

        Since independence the North-eastern region of India had been suffering from huge productivity losses due the difference in the sunrise and sunset in this part of the country and the mainland. This is problem will go profound and still persist until a plan is chalked out for a solution. Loss of 27 years and 11 months since independence is not a small number to be ignored on pen and paper.

      In the generation's search for renewable energy and strict measures followed everywhere in the planet to reduce and conserve energy, this huge potential to save tremendous amount of energy should not be let gone in vain and must be tapped. The poor economic status and main dependence on agriculture for livelihood in the North-eastern states of India is a great reason for this part of the country to adjust the time zone and make it more aligned with the cycle of the sun. Jokes apart, maybe we could go ahead in time in this race for never ending growth and productivity.

        With India's western and eastern borders stretching to some 2000 km apart each other, India could well have three time zones. Originally in 1884, two time zones, Bombay Time, +4.51 GMT and Calcutta time, +5.30:21 GMT were introduced. In 1905, during the colonial times, a uniform time zone based on Allahabad at +5.30 GMT was later introduced, for a uniformity in the railways system. The big cities in British India followed their own time zones. However to avoid confusion the railways companies decided to follow one time zone, called the Madras time zone and the government followed both Bombay time and Calcutta time.

          The railway signals are not fully automated and many routes have single track. Resetting the clock at each crossing of the time zone, will lead to confusion. The trains may meet with major accidents owing to human errors. To solve this, the railways department in the country can alter the time zone they follow and popularised a different time zone, like the Madras Time Zone, as they did before independence. The reason being the location of Madras, which mid way between location of Bombay and Calcutta, in the layout of the country's map. Recently, a fresh proposal to shift the IST reference from 82.5 degrees East longitude near Allahabad to 90 degrees East near the Assam-Bengal border resurrected a two-decade old debate in India's policy making circles.

          India has a large population, and it covers a large boundary. Undoubtedly the biggest democracy, the center has indeed a humongous work load and time factor in maintaining the country. Considerably, the center has kept up with this huge task to maintain the large population, so that the citizen can enjoy the reform, with a pride of republic. A sense where the citizen has the freedom to express their motions and notions.

          A solution to this compensate this difference in time zone could really be a gift to the North – Eastern India, this republic day. This could reward to bridge the gap between the developed and developing regions of the country. Additionally counting the blessing to the underdeveloped North-Eastern region of our country, so that this underdeveloped region of the country can exploit more of the untapped potentials and resources and look beyond the conventional ideas of increasing the production of the economy.

The Second Virgin

“The lips and the vagina are only the the two self cleansing organs in the human body.”

- #Fact

           The Second Virgin

  A second chance, we always count on them chances, irrespective of the first or the last that you had a long time ago. Had we not been counting stars, realisation of the world beyond us, should be a lucky chance that stumbled upon discovery at a perfect time. A world beyond our reach. However never it will be over, if we keep on relying on chances and counting them forever. Considering a life period of score that we are biologically blessed with, our chances on score must be high on number, mathematically. Ironically, as it my seem, time as it passes us, through the clock, everyday every moment, we never realise that on the other hand of our journey along the score of our life time, we had been counting on these chances and simply living through our times.

“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”
John Lennon.

 

  Things such as second chance does not exist, because our chances are paired with time. It may be a couple already, but help comes to the reminder that, we pretty much have a second chance that we can count on, with whatever the topic our minds are on at the moment.

  Following the usual trend of counting on these chances, we have a possibility of results, with every results yearning to only one conclusion, the number of chance on counting these chances is always more than once in the end of the outcome. If we look through the time of our lives, we can conclude that chances are just second chance after all.

         Who might knows, if we all had been just a second chance when at that time, at that place, whoever traded their own version of the religion they had chosen to count with the swap meet with a God. 

    We can live happily ever after in our lives, which God has blessed us with these, threads of chances filling our own motions through time, as we travel with it until the end of the day. Cancelling the the grief through solace and trying to be a better person every next day. There's nothing such as lack of opportunity, your dignity takes you through time to make worth of it.  

The Trip from Bangalore to Delhi

        The other day i got to the joint and went on an aeroplane, i could see the clouds below from the above, what you see in the poles like the ice, and the clouds, if you flip with nature, you become the environment, you will flood your own floor. Never sip on ice like its the dancers on the poles, you could go ways with the clouds high up in the sky, flowing among those hails, helps not to go to a place where hells breaks loose. We traverse like its blessing from the heavens, high up in the skies, boarding these crafts of our Gods. Let us promise a pleasant rainfall, don't let those tears melt the ice and global warm the planet, make love instead and make the house safe for the kids.

          Promising a race that i never want to be part of, never to be watched of an unseen result.

Ethical use of Technology

I think photocopy is literally correct than Xerox. But Xerox was the way it was meant to be!! I doubt many people know that 'Xerox' is the name of a company. It doesn't mean getting a photocopy of our documents. But this is just an example.

Let me get straight to the point. People have a misinformation/misguidance/misconception on how to use and refer to technology and the internet, and for some geek like me, it is not right when the society tells me that technology and such things are not the tools for development. It would be wrong to assume that they pollute the young minds, that they deteriorate the society. We don't have high speed, reliable broadband connections in Manipur.

But we do own smartphones with 3G connections here. How do we use them mostly? Facebook, porn, most probably sexting and sometimes to download songs and movies illegally from the internet. They were not solely created for such personal desires, they can be of great help in developing general knowledge, one's character, outlook and quality too.

Technology and internet when combined together is of very huge power, no single government, no society can stop it. Remember what our famed actor 'Bonny' said in the movie 'Thajagi Maihing', "Ei na phone asigi button ama metpada ng gi punsi kari oiba yai khangbra?" That's the dark side what everybody sees!!

But not everybody sees the bright side, and people often take to bad criticism, instead of taking up steps to correct them. More than half of the story lines in the Hollywood movies always have some relation with computers and the internet, I think they almost do the same thing in real life too!! So I think we need to remind ourselves that 'With great power comes great responsibility'.

Back in 1997 I got to watch the movie, Titanic. The scene my elders emphasize was that of the 'Jack' and 'Rose' intimate moment. How would I develop to the urge to know that this very movie got 11 Oscars awards out of 14 nominations and that it was a record. Instead I'm being misled. If I had gone this way, Life would have been miserable for me when associated with technology and the World Wide Web. Fortunately that didn't happen to me.

Had we known properly why technology and the internet, we would not have misused them. If all of us had known the real reason why and how social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter were developed, video sharing apps like Whatsapp, Wechat are produced, SMS and MMS service are being integrated into mobile phone service on top of the call services that are a compulsion, I reckon the society's notion on technology and the world-wide-web will change.

The name itself tells you what they are for, they for 'socializing', 'sharing' and 'communication'. Technology and the internet can be of great resource to the development of a society like ours. So why do we still indulge mostly on personal desires and leisure using technology and the internet, instead of using them for developing? As I have said before it is due to misguidance, misinformation and misconception. This has happened because all of these great tools came at a very unfortunate time of us, a time when load shedding are over-regular, rather than electric current being regular, let's just forget about 24 hour electricity at the moment and also at a time when the national newspapers arrive more than a day late, to name a few.

We had no proper guidance on how to use these tools properly which in turn leads to a way that is much easier for us to find ourselves and much easier to follow, the improper way. Even sex which is a natural phenomenon has so many books on how to do it properly! We had no one to tell us what's wrong and what's right on the usage of these 21st century tools because even ours elders are foreign to it.

We just had mere mouth-to-mouth guidance of which half of are not true and half of them makes no sense at all. So we need to find out ourselves on the ethical use of technology and the internet. The solutions are within oneself, for one has to develop a good and a broad outlook when they refer to technology and the internet. We can find unlimited information on the internet, when combined with it, computers and mobile phones can be of a great resource to us.

As for example, if you are unsure about the medicine the doctor prescribes, you can cross check them on the internet. You can find Do-It-Yourself instruction on how to carry out simple repairs on your prices possession such as your cars, motorcycle. Students can take a lot of help from Wikipedia while doing their homework and assignments. By the way www.wikipedia.com is website of the largest online encyclopedia. We can find out about the personal lives, instead of the lives they live on-screen, of our idols, favorite actors, singers on the web, which in turn can be of great inspiration to our lives.

Online business is also an undeniable resource. Upcoming artist can increase their exposure on sites like Instagram, Soundcloud. You can find any information on anything on the internet. Even information on the current interest of our state, AFSPA, 1958. We can even learn our own 'Meitei-mayek' online on e-pao.net. You can create music just by using your smartphone, before going professional with real instruments.

Also ethical use of such can decrease the rate of those nasty MMS and video clips scandals occurring every day, if it can't be completely stopped. Hope this is an eye opener to my fellow mates, so that our parents, the society, and most importantly to those who speak ill of such great 21st century tools. 'Akhoi swaida da mobile atangba, laptop atangba mayam na pungpai painei haina painaba doh fajana sijinase natradi paisa doh lemna manganiye!!'

The Virtual World

Can we solely depend on the internet for our daily lives? You can find every bit of information on the internet. But are they trustworthy? Some of them have no solid proof. Some of them have reliable sources. Some of them are utterly false. Some of them are already available since time immemorial and elsewhere. 

The internet serves as a first-hand source of reference. A lot of people rely on them. But sometimes the outcome is not the desired result. This is because of unreliable source and unfavourable reference. It is also an undeniable fact that the internet can boost productivity in phenomenal way, better than what we could get without it. But to entirely depend on the internet is not a viable option. Many people now a days are living a virtual life throughout the day. 

The internet can also make you a dummy if you depend on it every time, leaving you intellect behind. Combined with some logical reasoning however, it can complement in everything, in our daily lives. With the virtual world developing at light speed, it is an absolute necessity to know if our real world could go in absolute parallel with the virtual world and if harmony is not possible, how do we keep it under control. 

It has also become a source of livelihood, a source of income, to be precise for many. A blessing for them in fact. It has helped many, mainly those whom are deprived of man-power and financial aids. 

So what happens if we live entirely on the internet? Will all the books be lost one day? Can all those resources be ever uploaded on the online database? However, we should be reminded that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So, once such resources and knowledge are shared on the internet, it can be a weapon if they fall into the wrong hands or a curse rather than a blessing. 

Cyber-crime is also a big issue. Theft of confidential, financial and political data to name a few can also result in huge losses of an administration. Exchange of personal data and financial transaction are also susceptible to robbery as a consequence of online scam and fraud. There are a lot of cyber wars among the powerful countries, which involves hacking and stealing of political, administrative, military data among each other. 

Call it an overstated idea but the internet can be the next weapon of mass destruction. It is a well-known fact that terrorist all over the world rely heavily on the network for their operation. The 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks can supplement this idea, wherein the terrorist relied heavily on satellite phones for communication and on Google Earth for building locations and targets. 

The internet is also a place of hoax, scam and fraud. Hoax but of which are too good to be true are always a common occurrence in the internet. A lot of fake online lottery and offers also lure some into losing all of their money at the end. 

The internet can also become an addiction for many. This addiction can cause one to refrain from the real world and real people. It can also change one's behaviour, integrity and personality. One's personal belief could be changed, their personal integrity could be destructed. On the whole the internet culture can creep into our own real-life culture which can cause more harm than good. 

This platform has also resulted in the creation of many acts with regards to censorship of information and intellectual property. The main acts are Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). They have spawned many other similar acts. However such acts are often criticized, discussed and debated over their potential effectiveness. People like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange has also exposed many classified information and mass surveillance program conducted confidentially by some of the powerful governments around the world. Hence this platform is a victim of criticism, thereby generating mixed response over its application and potential. 

But on the contrary the internet can become a substitute, perhaps replace many services like television, radio and also offer better results than them. Internet TV and radio is a rapidly growing sector. There are also many online photo editing widgets which do not need much resources unlike similar offline software. Sometimes the internet is a first-hand source of live telecast of events and ceremonies substituting television and radio. 

Information could be shared the internet far and wide, better than any other means of communication. Exchange of information could be faster on the internet. People with common interest and idea can grow up their ideas through sharing in this virtual world if they could not reach out in the real world. 

Some business could be expanded better on the internet. This yields better profit too. The economy can be boosted. 

There are a lot of DIY information on the World Wide Web, even sometimes information that couldn't be found elsewhere. A lot of archived media is also available only on the internet. Softcopy of written records are kept documented on the database as a backup and for sharing them on the platform. Sometimes commodities that are nowhere to be found in the real world, could be purchased right off the internet in an easiest and a comfortable way. 

Total dependency is not opined, but interdependence on both the real world and the virtual world for our productivity can boost it to a whole new level. 

So it can be therefore concluded that the internet is indeed creeping into our daily lives, plausibly a complete invasion. But it would be wrong to accept this complete change and become 24 hour online and leave the rest of the world. By keeping it at in a perfect parallel with our daily lives, we can reap the fruits of our labour with extreme ripeness and one day who knows we can brought about a change, with a big awareness in the real society with the help of the virtual world.