Human nature.... or rather.. nature displayed by 'humans' .. the less said about this, the better. Just yesterday.. I came across two polarities in human behaviour..

There was this old 80 plus something .. young cheerful man who runs a watch repair shop... He knew me cos I had gotten a wrist watch battery replaced from him less than a month ago. When I told him that the watch had stopped working because it was dropped, he was surprised!

He then spent a good ten minutes in bringing the watch back to life.. He peered at the minute innards of that watch.. apparently his eyesight was better than mine.. and then proceeded to carry out a couple of complicated yet delicate procedures with some strange looking apparatus before handing the now kicking, I mean ticking watch back to me.. Upon asking what his charges were, he calmly said "Five thousand rupees" Now, I ought to digress here a bit and let my valued readers know that I do not fully trust my hearing at the best of times.. .and after witnessing firsthand his obviously spectacular eyesight.. I had serious doubts on my own faculties.. so, I politely asked him again "How much do I owe you" and again he calmly repeated the same sum. I wearily put it down to his youthful sense of humor and handed over a hundred rupee note. Imagine my surprise when he says "I said Five thousand rupees" Now, I was getting a little irritated, cos I had a dozen errands to run before I could reach home, and here was this Gentleman stretching things a bit too far. I patiently waited with the note in hand.. till he laughed out loud and said.. Its my pleasure M'aam.. no charges... I walked out with a smile, blessing his soul (worth much more than the few rupees he might have charged me)

My next stop was a silver jewellery store. Here I was served by a young couple who apparently owned the shop. I was looking for a silver bracelet, and this lady was extremely watchful. The moment I picked up one piece, the rest she would gather together and immediately lock away. Finally, inspite of all the hide-n-seek, I managed to find a piece to my liking and after paying, picked up my purchases to walk out. The man however, insited I open the boxes in front of him to check that he had indeed packed the pieces I had chosen (costing a few hundred rupees).

I was amazed that he could not trust my trust in him!

Such is the nature of we the 'humane' beings...

Merry Christmas folks!!!!!!

Here is a Spectacular Space Photo of the Christmas Tree Cluster.....

Known as the Christmas Tree cluster, this colorful collection of stars lies 2,600 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Monoceros, the unicorn.

The cluster was first discovered in the 18th century but was captured anew in this stunning image by by the 2.2-meter Max Planck Society/ESO telescope at La Silla observatory in the Atacama Desert. The telescope was outfitted with a specialized astronomical camera called the Wide Field Imager and a series of filters, and then aimed at the cluster for 10 hours to get the full-color image above.



The swirling gas clouds appear red because of ultraviolet light emanating from the young, hot stars that look like blue ornaments on a Christmas tree. The triangular feature near the bottom of the photo is an area of gas called the Cone Nebula.

The brightest star, at the top of the image, can be seen by the naked eye. The furry texture of the light to its right earned that area the name Fox Fur Nebula.

The whole cluster is in a star-forming molecular cloud, and the area between the brightest star and the tip of the cone is a great place for studying how stars are born.

A great pic.. to wish you all a very merry and joyful Christmas.....