Forgotten Days

Quite recently, I received couple of friend requests in my Facebook....one of them was from a person called 'Clara' (name not changed in the interest of larger audience). It took me a while to figure out who is this girl and how do i know her.
The story goes back to my young school days....
It was in grade 6th. Back then, our class teacher used to nominate toppers as class leaders who had authority to keep the class noise free, write down names of mischief students (usually boys) on the blackboard and at times mend the talkative ones using a stick. This girl was our class leader and arch rival of boys. however, I found her intelligent and attractive - one who was first in raising the hand for every question teacher asked and also because she used to be strict and furious with boys.

One day, it so happened that me and some of my friends were playing this game of trump cards (WWF wrestlers pics with their body characteristics printed on a small card...remember ?? ) inside the class while waiting for next teacher.
She noted my name on the board and rest is foregone conclusion....
Today, she is an MBA grad working as HR executive at an MNC.

Another request was from a guy called, Emad Shafi who used to be one of those very naughty boys in the class doing things like never completing homework, sneaking underneath the bench and eating lunch in the middle of the class, coming late from PT classes etc. During tests, sitting right behind me, he used to copy my answers. Poor fellow, little did he know that he is following a bad example...
It worked fine for few months until one day when we both were caught with same answers in humiliating fashion. Last section in question paper i.e Essay (common topics included "Population Explosion in India", "Hazards of Pollution" etc ) played the spoilsport. Back then, our marks for essays used to depend largely on the size of content rather than quality of the content. So our objective used to be fill up the paper with lengthy writeup...
One day I completed all I knew about the topic within 2 paragraphs and I ran out of words to write anymore...while time was running out, I needed a solution to lengthen the content to at least 2 pages. Just then a brilliant idea stuck my mind from a TV programme i used to watch every Saturday called "Ek se badkar ek" in doordarshan. I decided to sneak in some popular hindi songs inside the main body of essay and then concluded it neatly.

I went home jubilant thinking who would have patience to read entire 2 page essay of 60 students. Trouble started because, this boy was copying all my answers....he went on to copy the songs also in essay..
Teacher sensed smoking gun as she hadn't expected shafi to fare so well in test, so when she read his paper carefully...it was all over.
I remember he was asked to read his essay loud in front of class. One of the song was Jackie Shroff's ..
ammaa dekh haan dekh teraa mundaa bigadaa jaa e
bebe dekh haan dekh teraa mundaa bigadaa jaa e
ammaa dekh ammaa dekh dekh dekh dekh teraa mundaa bigadaa jaa e
ammaa dekh

Today, Shafi is managing a electronic store in Dubai. For the first time since I used fb, I realized its potential to connect old forgotten friends and people across the globe.

Innovate India - Instead of Investing $$ in India

To be frank, 90% of revenue I earned since I graduated 6 years ago has been spent for anything little more than building a house for myself in Bangalore and greasing some corrupt palms in BBMP offices. The question is, Does the special skills, knowledge and talent I acquired with my engineering degree when compared to rest of the population is worth for just a single house to myself ?? Thanks to rising Inflation, the cost of living in Bangalore is so high that there is hardly any savings left to be able to do anything else.

Many talented and skilled workforce in India who go on to win lucrative jobs abroad are doing very little to give back to the development of country. There is so much brauhaha being created about success of Indians abroad as I see some spam emails floating around stating- as many as 12% scientists and 38% doctors in the US are Indians, and in NASA, 36% or almost 4 out of 10 scientists are Indians, One-third of Silicon Valley engineers are Indian etc etc. There is unnecessary hype generated around them saying they represent India in the World, act as cross culture exchange, make India proud and other crap like that. I believe, single benefit they bring to our nation is making huge deposits in banks here. India is the world's leading receiver of remittances from its citizens spread around the world and account for approximately 3% of the country's GDP. Together with software exports from in house engineers, 10% of our country's GDP comes from highly talented engineers and doctors. Software engineers and Doctors are supposed to be creme de la.... All that best of the best workforce contribute to our nation's GDP is 10% which is still less than 17.7% GDP from Agricultural exports from illiterate farmers and laborers.

Is foreign exchange reserves the only advantage we can derive from these best minds ?

Little do we know that, these huge cash remittances only end up in corrupt babus/netas pockets through various corruption scams like 2G scam, CWG scam, land scam etc. Today, land mafia and politician nexus has ensured that buying a land or flat in metropolitan cities is nothing less that 30-40 lakhs which means 8-10 years of average software engineers savings. India loses two billion a year in resources, through brain drain of 1,00,000 skilled computer professionals to the U.S alone, according to a UN report. Business Week called IIT graduates one of the hottest exports India has ever produced. The same foreign companies who hire/import Indian cheap labourers sell their end products to India with huge profit margins.
Indian Defense import costs more than remittances of Indian workers abroad. Thanks to low wages at ISRO and DRDO. Today, India is world's largest importer of arms and ammunition from other countries.

There is a need for Indian skilled Diaspora to use their special skills to catalyze changes in social, and economic attitudes in India and help bring in technological innovation and drive the reforms.


Here is my wish list of the opportunities for applying the skills towards betterment of our country :-

1. India has the largest area of cultivable land, after only the United States, and enjoys growing conditions suited to most crops, vegetables and fruit. Yet it imports many oil seeds and crops from other countries. There is a need for another wave of Green revolution which should be targeted at attaining self sufficiency in agricultural produce.


2. 20% of food crops either go rotten or eaten by rodents in FCI godowns of India. Yet about 380 million Indians suffer from hunger and malnourishment today. There is a need for better public distribution systems and technology.

3. We pay billions of our foreign exchange money to French and US based Nuclear companies to build power generating nuclear reactors to fulfill our energy needs. Yet, we are utilizing only 18 percent of the hydro electric potential, 10% of wind enery potential, 5% of Biomass potential to generate electricity. India has 6000 Km of coast sea surface, it has potential of about 40,000 MW tidal energy, its currently harnessing none. UK having much less coastal surface is tapping 10% its electricity from ocean. There is a need for Research and Development targetted at harnessing our natural resources.

4. Korea having coastal surface area which is about 10% that of India still captures 70% of world's fishing export market. Reason being...Indian fisherman do not have technological fishing aids such as cheap mechanized boats etc. There is a need for better weather forecasting and fishing cultivation technologies.

5. Of the total world's area under cultivation for floriculture, India has 25% share but Kenya exports much higher than India. There is a need for agricultural innovation to increase the yield and efficiency of cultivation.

6. We boast our self that nine out of 10 diamonds used in the world are made in India but very few of us know that 20% of gold in the world is used by Indians alone. There is a need to cut down on cosmetics and get rid of goldphilic women mentality.

Back in 1970's, when our country was reeling with acute shortage of food, we brought in 'Green revolution' to boost agricultural production. Now its time for 'Silicon revolution'.

* Views expressed here are my own and statistics collected are from various economic publications which might be obsolete.

Dare to Bare

While I was following the news this morning, I came across this hilarious story about a model named Poonam Pandey who is proposing to go nude if Indian team wins world cup. She says..."I'm ready and willing to go nude at any place and time that the Indian team chooses, to boost their sporting spirit to perform better.
And I am serious about it as many studies conducted by various universities abroad confirm such performances boost and inspire people to perform better in any field,
be it sports or otherwise. Even books on psychology confirm this."

Damn !! if at all i knew that universities allow research on such subjects, I would have chosen that topic and scored good grades. that aside, I'm even more perplexed at the assumption that men give their best only in order to see a naked woman.

Poonam Pandey says: "Mere strip karne se team ka man-o-bal badega"!
Aray o bevkoof kanya, "Bal to zarur badega"! uske saath saath aur kuch bad gaya tho musibath hai !!
Centuries ago a game was lost. A woman was asked to remove her clothes for loosing a bet and that trigerred a war known as Mahabharath. It remains to be seen, who would be today's dushyasan. Will it be Sachin or Dhoni ? Nevertheless,
Aaj ki Draupadi, does not need a karna to strip her.

In few years to come, do not be surprised if a new store for morale booster and therapeutic value comes up in our streets.
Tring Tring...
hello.. Poonam's performance improvement and theraupatic help centre, how may I help you ?
hello poonam, my college cricket final is tomorrow..will u come to college ground for a strip ?? plz..
"Sure, if you win, i can strip for your team, if you loose, I can strip for your opponents"

why study history ?

I always wondered what is the benefit of teaching history as a subject in schools. I used to hate history just because it was hard for me to memorize the facts, dates, events and vomit them in the examination paper. I still hate to remember things which can be fetched easily such as birthday's of friends, recipe for cooking or instructions to fix a unrelated problem. I just think that...our memory is limited just like a RAM in the computer. Instead of stuffing this precious little memory with useless garbage or easy to fetch data...use the brain cell energy for imagination, remembering stuff which will make things fast etc

okay okay okay....let me not bias the argument because of my own prejudices on the subject....let me present the facts and try to make open minded analysis around the topic.

First and most important fact to consider is that, By far almost all students view of history is that, it is merely a collection of true stories rather than an interpretation of the past. Most of the history which is taught in schools is basically nothing but interpretations of some smart ass which means they are very debatable. For example: Few years ago, there was a controversy created when BJP came to power, HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi had ordered all CBSE syllabus to alter their presentation of history ( which were predominantly covering Islamic dynasty ) to give more importance to Hindu rulers and their successes against Muslim invaders. The changes were short lived as they were re-written by Arjun Singh when BJP regime was overthrown by Congress party.
Here, it is quite clear that each party wants to force their own view of history on public....to be either seen as sympathetic to a cause or garner more votes in the election. Furthermore, in some cases the history is totally distorted just to keep national secrets and pride high. Example: The facts surrounding India's defeat against China is largely missing in the history books. Our netas feel its just not necessary for our younger generation to learn about their forefathers humiliating defeat against enemy.

The situation is not very different in other countries. While I was talking to my friends from Pakistan and US. I learnt that History books in Pakistan tell that Pakistan defeated India in 1965 and 71 wars. In US, almost every high school student thinks that America and German joined hands to fight Russia during world war. Thanks to the cold war and its ramifications on history books. African Americans were typically defined through the eyes of other, usually the writings of whites, who depicted blacks as mindless slaves.
At the end of day, readers do not get to see actual picture...they are forced to see the one painted by the government.

More disturbing consequences of studying this 'interpreted history' is breeding of continuous resentment and hat redness of one community over another.
All the wars in history were fought for more or less same reason i.e some past humiliation by one king over another king, family feud, power struggle, love failure, religious supremacy etc.
Moreover, the influence of past events on the current issues is not always clear for students. Are we expected to find a solution that will please everybody ? i.e next to impossible task. People live in the present. They plan for and worry about the future. History, however, is the study of the past. Instead of working on future, why bother with what has already been?

Of course, teaching history involving controversial issues allows students to realize the complexity of the society they live in. History also teaches us how to learn from the mistakes of others.In general, History helps us understand people and societies. But are these benefits worth time and effort involved in studying one subject all through school age ?


Thoughts to Ponder over :-

"All modern wars start in the history classroom". Anonymous

"History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind". Edward Gibbon

Mistyped Mistakes

I had two major blunders this week.....both of which made me feel i'm a big dumb ass.

I recently had to face an embarrassing situation when I was chatting with one of my female colleague using instant messengers. There are lots of short hand notations used by instant messaging which if mistyped can create bizarre meanings.

the word 'sec' is short form of second and the fact that character 'c' and 'x' are placed right next to each other on the keyboard makes the usage of word 'sec' highly risky.

By now..you must have figured out what situation was I in...when I mistyped 'c' with 'x' while I was typing ' can you please give me a sec?'

Recently, I found a note stuck to my door saying 'UPS representative was here yday and package was not delivered as the recipient was not available at home- For more details call xxxxxxx'. I decided to head out directly to their office and collect my package. When I got there, it was a long queue...after about 30 mins of wait.. my turn came and teller immediately looked at my receipt and told.. i have come to wrong place, the package is from UPS not from USPS !!
I wondered how on earth can there be two mail delivering companies with almost same name.

Are we learning right science ??

Recently, while I was browsing through books in Milwood library in my neighborhood, I found an interesting book which talked about what really goes behind a scientific discovery, creation of new theories, laws, axioms, hypothesis etc.
I for long had an assumption or misconception that scientists and researchers who come out with new astonishing discoveries and inventions every year must really be ultra genius or other-worldly smart ass. But after reading that book, it makes me believe that thinking like a scientist does not require incredibly sophisticated logic.

It states that, just like any layman, scientists go through series of simple steps before making any new findings.
1. Observation: - It all starts when we see, hear, feel or taste a specific pattern in the events or strange coincidence.
For example: - Lets say a dog starts barking in particular way at certain times. We tend to observe what makes it bark and find that it barks usually when it finds any other dogs or strangers around the house.

2. Hypothesis: After making those observations, we make a generalized basic phenomenon with dog barking. It barks when it senses a threat to its territory.
The threat could be either other dogs or other animal or fire, wind etc.

3. Prediction: In the next step, we tend to substantiate our hypothesis or add more credibility to our hypothesis by forecasting future occurrence of weather change or stranger visits consistent with hypothesis.

4. Experiment: In the final step, we carry out test to see if the predicted event occurs i.e. we physically observe if there are any intruders in its territory or change in weather after it started barking. Depending upon the outcome of experiment, we accept or reject the hypothesis.

Many of the science’s greatest ideas and discoveries were made by following the same reasoning. When Galileo was walking on the beach, he noticed that sand looks continuous from distance but when looked closely its actually collection of fine grained particles. Similarly, he thought water and air may also not be continuous and must be made up of much smaller molecules. This observation gave rise to discovery of Atoms (basic building blocks of all matter).
When Geologists observed that Latin America and Africa fit perfectly well with each other like a jig saw puzzle, it gave rise to Tectonic plate’s model of earth.
Newton discovered the law of gravity when he observed mango falling from the tree.
Alchemedis discovered the law of buoyancy while taking shower in his bath tub.
Alexander Fleming while working on flu research noticed something blue and green growing in one of his Petri dishes. Further investigation revealed that this mold soon to be known as penicillin had killed the other bacteria in the dish.


But there is a serious question which you and I have to think about……have we wondered what is the problem with this kind of inductive reasoning…… which uses set of observations as basis to support hypothesis but not to guarantee it ????
All the hypothesis is based on observations only....Suppose we find a snake which is venomous.. few days later we find another one which is also venomous...so it goes on and we would have found 100 different kinds of venomous snakes then we form a hypothesis that all snakes are venomous. This hypothesis stays on as long as someone dares to check if any newly found snake is really venomous.


Its something like Geocentric belief…..i.e everyone observed that sun rises in east and sets in west, so they came to conclusion that Earth is the center of universe and all other planets and sun revolve around the earth….This belief stood for many many ages only to be disproved by Galileo’s one simple experiment with his telescope.

We saw Maurice Greene winning all running races in 90’s, so we concluded Maurice Greene is the fastest man on earth. One day Usain Bolt walks in and shatters all records held by Greene and disproves the fastest man theory.

Thus every scientific law is tentative by its very nature.... each successful experiment is only partial support of hypothesis...it always stand on edge of error.
This concept is very well pictured in the movie 'The Beautiful Mind' where the scientist will go on to disprove some of very basic or fundamental laws of physics and eventually wins a Nobel prize. So funda is never be too attached to a theory...rather be open to surprises....

Quote to Ponder over :-

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right....A single experiment can prove me wrong -Albert Einstein

Laughter series continues....

Hindi Names and their Chinese Version

Ek Aashik: Hiro Hito Hun
Aashik's mother: Hiro Ki Ma

Now follow others in the same context.....

A secretary: Li Kho Li Kho
A Waiter: Chai En Pao Lao
A cook: Pu Lao Pakao
A Sadhu: San T' Sa-Tsung
A Soldier: Tien Shun
A Watchman: Kuon Hai
A milkman: Pa Nih Mi Lao
A Rich man: Ma La Mal
A deaf girl: Kya Kaha
A Beautiful girl: Hsein Ah
Kolhapuri girl: La Won Gi Mi'Chi
A villager meeting kolha-puri girl: Hakka Bakka
Stripper: Sabu T'aro

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Confusing Name

An Indian guy named "Anantharaman Subbaraman " arrived at the New York airport and ended up waiting for his visa for about 2 hours for the authorities to call his name. He got fed up and went to them and asked why they haven't called his name yet.
They said that they have been calling him for the last 2 hours as

"Anotherman Superman"

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ಗುಂಡ : ಗುರುಗಳೇ ನೀವು ಬರೆದ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ನನಗಿಂದು ದಾರಿದೀಪವಾಯಿತು.
ಗುರು : ತುಂಬಾ ಸಂತೋಷ ಗುಂಡ. ಅದು ಹೇಗೆ?
ಗುಂಡ : ಗುರುಗಳೇ, ನಿನ್ನೆ ರಾತ್ರಿ ಮನೆಗೆ ಬರಬೇಕಾದ್ರೆ ಲೈಟ್ ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ, ನಿಮ್ಮ ಪುಸ್ತಕಕ್ಕೆ ಬೆಂಕೆ ಹಚ್ಚಿ ದಾರಿ ದೀಪ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಬಂದೆ!

A good side and a bad side.....

I have had some bad experiences before in temples particularly in US as Indian priests there are more of temple managers than being vedic scholar or devoted priests. They do manage to learn few verses of puranas or gita and utter the same over and over again. What irks me so much is their greed for small donations of funds by devotees called as Dakshina. Though dakshina is supposed to be voluntary contribution... bogus priests literally ask devotees to contribute funds and treat devotees differently depending upon their value of contributions. So I seldom visit temples in Austin.
Quite recently a friend of mine wanted to visit an ashram in outskirts of Austin called Barshana Dham and i had to accompany him. I decided to not take part in prayers or rituals and instead sit back and relax. I sat in the last row and started observing the people around.
A Caucasian (white American) lady who looked to be in her late 30's was playing an instrument (Veena), she was attired like a priest, a white sari...long hair and bindi on her forehead, chanting hymns from the bhagwad gita texts like a devout Hindu. A little later I realized that, I'm seeing not just any devotee but a supreme artist in action. She was reciting songs one after the other with her eyes closed and playing veena parallel. Her pronunciation of the Sanskrit words, control over language and ease with which she sang was quite palpable. It was like she was in a flow. I was caught by surprise as I saw for the first time an American women leading the prayers in a temple which is largely visited by Indians.
Everyone else in the hall were found sitting on the floor with their eyes closed....clapping their hands...in to sort of deep listening mode..and forgetting their very existence in the hall. I observed her carefully and was stunned by her bhakti/devotion towards the god. Her body movements, her voice, sound of her Veena elevated the realm of a prayer to a sublime form. Every wave of her sound was suffused with the unique aesthetics, gentlest touch of the strings of veena which reverberated in the hall giving an experience of floating on the water or flying in the air. what is the verb that comes closest to describing such moments? Self-engrossed? Self-immersed? I think the two Sanskrit words, tanmay and talleen, best captures the experience. I felt, that lady was in a secret conversation with her god, and when she sang, she makes me feel that she has become dissolved in the sound of her own creation, as if the sound itself is coming from a distant, mysterious, non-material source. I was very elated to see that lady on that day, For the first time in my life, I came across a true devotee who was confident, completely at ease, who sang with conviction and character. I think all Indian priests should learn a lesson from that American lady's devotion who serves as best example of how to practice bhakti and what it means to be a real devotee of god.

Bhakti is the faith, love, trust, loyalty, devotion, attachment towards god or teacher, parent or some loved one or it could also be our daily work. Hindu scriptures bhakti or path of devotion as one of surest and easiest ways to god. Bhakti is like highest love, that is like Amrit or Holy grail, finding which a person becomes perfect, becomes immortal, becomes satisfied, finding which he desires nothing more, neither grieves, nor hates, neither engages nor gets enthusiastic about anything else. Yes it can be attained through our daily work or relationships also. It is one of my own principles of attaining bhakti through karma yoga.

Austin Rocks during Fall

Every year just after summer, the trees start to shed leaves during fall and this preceded by a beautiful display of color changes in Austin. It is now November and the nights are beginning to get cooler...even the days have changed to a much more brisk wind. I love this time of year..its neither very hot nor too cold...sky is still blue, but the temperature gets crisp..it brings out the hot coffee, soups and other tummy warming recipes and it welcomes the return of big, comfy sleepwear. I like to hangout on a pair of dorky shorts or pyjamas. Snuggling up with a good book or a light music...loved one is also a good choice.

When the leaves begin to change colors, drive towards lake and mountains...the view is just breathtaking. Let's go for a ride! pockets of trees around my neighborhood produce scenic drive to my office everyday. The spectacular display of fall colors on deciduous trees..the green colors will transform in to red, orange, gold and browns before leaf fall off the trees. This phenomenon is not very common in my home town probably because the winter is not very cold, and trees do not run out of water and sunlight due to shorter days. I think i'm lucky to be in this part of the world where nature has one last fling before settling down into winter's sleep.

Austin has an amazing weather, summers are very hot which posts temperature between 40 degrees and winters get very cold sometimes below 0 degrees Celsius.
But one thing which always catches me by surprise is the sudden change in the weather in Austin. There's a saying in Texas that "if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute, because it's likely to change". Sudden changes in the weather, especially in the summer when late afternoon heat can spark brief thunderstorms, aren't uncommon. So people keep an eye on local weather forecast almost every hour.

How fun would it be to enjoy a Beer at 6th street on a mild winter evening listening to Cool blues and rockabilly ? I'm off for it now.....

Trick or Treat ?

I had a rather interesting Halloween experience this time in Austin.... we had been to downtown looking at people in many different costumes, watched horror movies etc.
However, I also had a humourous incident which still makes me laugh.

On halloweeen night, we went out for dinner to a Indian restaurant, it was a buffet with unlimited food for $10...holla holla !!! bang on target !...we eat n eat..gulping n hogging like pigs. needless to mention, our every visit to that restaurant leaves the restaurant owner's face grinding and miffed.
we went home and layed flat.. my friend went to wash room and started his usual late night throat gargling and toungue cleaning.

Knock...Knock !
Who’s there?
Franc
Franc who?
trick or treat ???

ah ...argh !!.. alas... I recalled its a halloween night, Children go in ghost costumes from house to house, asking for treats. I knew if there is no treat, trick means i will be stoned with eggs n rotten food, so...I ran off to refrigerator to see if i have something for the kids. While i was walking towards the door...my friend is making gargling sound inside...garrrrrrrrrrhhh....garrrrrhhhhh (sounding like a devil's cry). I slowly opened the door hiding myself...just extending the chocolate cake in my hand...Just then.... a loud sound of ghost crying out... aaaahhhhaaa, blechhh.... blarghhh....

All the kids screamed and ran away throwing their candies at the door. geez, it was actually my friends tongue cleaning noise...scrubbing his toungue forwards and backward against the very end of the reed. man o man !! that puking noise is so horrible...I had never before imagined it to be so frightening. Since that night, every day before i come out or get in to my house, i peek out to make sure there are no kids around and then slip away silently :-)

Museum of Weird

"We've seen it!

What?

Mermaid!

Geez… Where? What is it?


I remember seeing many comics and stories surrounding Mermaids during my childhood days. I had never seen a real mermaid and always believed that it must be a fictious creature. But when we went to see “Museum of Weird” at downtown Austin, we were in for a surprise. The Fiji mermaid kept there looks like the torso and head of a baby monkey with the body of a fish. It is claimed to be real catch at a Fiji Islands by American Navy. There are many theories floating around mermaids, some say mermaids must be real since all things on land have their counterpart in the ocean — sea-horses, sea-lions, sea-dogs, etc. So therefore, we should assume there are also sea-humans. There is also a theory that, Fiji Mermaid was an example of a traditional art form perfected by fishermen in Japan and the East Indies who constructed mermaids by stitching the upper bodies of apes onto the bodies of fish. They often created these mermaids for use in religious ceremonies. Nevertheless, ths museum piece is worth a shot !!


There is another artifact in the museum which took us by surprise. It is a seed from a tree which is shaped like a women body. It was called Nareepol or something like that. It seems, there exists a tree bearing fruits that look like a woman and this amazing tree named Nareepol existed in Thai and eastern India. Naree means "girl/woman" in sanskrit and pol means plant/tree in Malay...meaning..women tree. There are also claims that, some species of this tree can still be found at Petchaboon province about almost 500 kms away from Bangkok. I read the entire story described below the artifact and it said once their lived a saint who was performing a tapsya beneath a tree. His tapsya (form of meditation) was disturbed by a women… enraged by this… saint cursed the women to become fruits of the tree and be eaten by all animals.

There is also a 3000 year old mummy which was claimed to have recovered from Mexican pyramids. The mummy is well preserved and it still has corpse retaining its shape intact.

Rituals and Rites : China

Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven

Beijing is enmeshed in ritualistic and religious artifacts and beliefs of Chinese. Forbidden City is a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design which graphically illustrates a evolution of one of the world’s great civilizations. Temple of Heaven in Forbidden City is one of the most dazzling architectural masterpieces in the world.

The Forbidden City takes its name from the fact that entry to the city was forbidden for any common man in this world. It was only used by kings and his servants. Ever since it was opened to public viewing few years back, it has become one of the most visited places in china. Much of the building design and meaning of carvings is still shrouded in mystery. The emperor’s lifestyle can be guessed by looking at the buildings.In the temple complex the Emperor would personally pray to Heaven for good harvests. Earth was represented by a square and Heaven by a circle; several features of the temple complex symbolize the connection of Heaven and Earth, of circle and square. Dragon is considered as a daemon sending drought, diseases and floods to people. So inscriptions of dragon in all the Chinese buildings are a common sight.

The Forbidden City, displays an extraordinarily harmonious balance between buildings and open space within a more or less symmetrical layout. The Purple Forbidden City, the emperor established himself as the Son of Heaven, with the mandate to maintain harmony between the human and world. He and his city became linked to the divine forces of the universe. The fearsome Mongolian/Chinese warriors of the 13th century have ruled the largest empire in the world. Their empire extended across Asia, from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea.
The chilling north was regarded as a harmful direction. Because all invasions of China had originated from the north, it came to represent evil spirits, cold winds. Hence, nearly all the buildings in the Forbidden City face south, the direction of holiness, giving protection from icy winds and also permitting subtle decoration by catching infinite variations of sunlight. Many treasures (about 1 million) are now housed within the Forbidden City - and many of these are on display to visitors, including gifts of state, military campaign treasures, and the furnishings and possessions of the imperial rulers.

Texan Adventures !!!

My friend Ismail is irked over me for writing just abt cemeteries part of our tour. So I decided to write something more about tourist attractions we visited in our last weekend.

After the scary ride of previous night, next day morning, we caught a glimpse of beautiful sunrise from our seashore condo. It was a multi-storied condo and we were in top most floor room with a verandah facing the beach. I thank both Ismail for booking such wonderful spot and Taskeen for making us see that beautiful sight in morning. The sight was amazing..we were directly looking in to sea.... straight in to line of sun rise...we could see the colour of sky changing from yellow to pink to rose and then bright red as sun was rising swiftly. Small boats and Ships sailing just in front of sea was as if like they are on its way to Sun's mouth.

Our first stop of morning was USS Lexington - Aircraft Carrier of US navy in World war -2. I never knew aircraft carrier was an war factory cum battle field cum navy soldiers home. It had everything right from manufacturing small weapons to producing food,water for soldiers till fighting the war with enemies in sea. This naval treasure had destroyed hundreds of Japaneese aircrafts and ships in world war 2.
We got to go inside the ships deck and see the world within...
Steam Turbines engines, huge Propellers, Boilers, were of sizes we had never seen before....
Though the ship stays in water 24*7 but still crew has no water to drink, as its all saline water..soln ?? Fresh Water Production unit..using process of electrolysis they break salt water molecules an produce 180,000 Gallons of fresh water per day.
In house medical facilities has surgical rooms, Dental Facilities etc.
We also saw Library, Church, Canteen, US mail room, etc underneath the deck. Weopons storage unit had huge torpedoes, landmines which looked like a big iron ball with small cap at the top (just like how we see bombs in cartoons), its just layed on top of sea bed to destroy submarines.
Jet aircrafts need high speed taxiway before taking off but ship deck is just few metres long, solution lies in Jungle book of Mowgli ? yes its Catapult.
Huge catapult will be pulled to one end using heavy machinery under the deck and then pull the trigger....bang !! there is goes....it recoils itself with high speed pushing the aircraft on its way and hence giving it the required take off speed.
Same concept is reversed to stop the high speed landing aircrafts on the deck !!!
I salute the Naval engineer who came up with this ingineous concept.
Hangar Bays was just like manufacturing line of any big industry with cranes, trolleys, heavy equipments to to repair aircrafts.
The ship Anchors was so huge that all six of us couldn't dare to move it an inch...
The Landing Deck has many fighter aircrafts parked with control room, radio station, captains cabin etc.

We then visited Texas State Aquarium seeing Dolphins, Sharks, Aligators, different kinds of Fish and sea animals etc.
Finally, we went to a beach at 'Port Aransas', a small town outside of Corpus. The drive to the beach was wonderful...as soon as we crossed Corpus...we noticed unusal traffic jam...we stranded on road for about 15 mins and we were wondering if it could be passport check.....as we slowly moved ahead we noticed that road we were driving will come to halt as 'Gulf of Mexico' waters making it way between corpus and port aransas. As we got close to water, we were asked to drive our car in to big steamer boat and boat took us to Port Aransas. We stayed inside the car and enjoyed a boat ride inside a car. Gulf of Mexico waters are the warmest...we played a small gamed of football on beach and then dived in to waters till the sunset in evening.
Next morning, we set out to San-Antonio on our way back home. Our first stop was at Almao. Alamo is a fortress built by Spanish empire for native american Red Indians. Later there were series of battles between Mexican army and Texas army to hold that fortress famously known as 'Battle of Alamo'. Itseems, when the Mexican army retreated from Texas at the end of the Texas Revolution, they tore down many of the Alamo walls and burned some of the buildings. The Alamo was then used to garrison soldiers, both Texian and Mexican, but was ultimately abandoned. Several years after Texas was annexed to the United States. Alamo is still one of the top most visited tourist attractions in Texas. Though most of the buildings and structures are destroyed, people throng to pay a site at that location. Similar to our Hampi temple in Karnataka.

We did visit River walk before Alamo but I didn't enjoy much as its mostly for romantic couples ...probably Ismail can write about it.

A Scary Drive !

We started from our home Austin at 6pm on friday and were kinda thrilled by some of the sunset scenes we had met while crossing through old Texas towns with people wearing cowboy hats, jeans and long boots...people riding old vintage cars....ferrying horses and buffaloes...old cotton mills , huge agricultural tractors on farms....old wooden stores....small farming aircraft taking off the fields...big texan buffaloes seen grazing on vast green farms etc.

traffic was little..not a typical US state highway ..our new dodge SUV was cruising at 65 miles per hour on Texas 183 along Guadalupe river....It was fast getting cold and dark, .just then we noticed a small town called Luling, texas with very few houses and restaurants around....we decided to stop and pick up some dinner as we weren't sure if we will get any restaurants later in the drive. After dinner, we started our journey back to our destination i.e Corpus Christi. I was seated at the front right next to my friend Ismail who was driving the car.
It was roughly about 8 pm when we started our drive and as soon as we were out of Luling, some wierd scenes started treating my eyes....the view outside was pitch dark on either side of the road, all i could see was the road right in front of our car illuminated by headlights. After every few miles, I was seeing a sign boards with names of a cemetry pointing towards the field on both sides of the road.......that sight started making me think and heart beat faster.....as we drove along, i continued to see many more cemetries on the road..we were driving through one of the largest graveyard of texas...one cemetry for every 2 mins of drive...and i dared to turn my eyes through the side window... that drive made me revisit memories of my childhood the day when my grandma passed away, when I had been through very frightening events which makes me still think if there was some external force which was controlling it all...i still find it hard to to rubbish it away as mere coincidence. As we were 6 of us in the car, we tried to cheer up the moment by talking some jokes, playing some games....but i found it hard to take it off my mind...then suddenly one sign board comes in front of us which read 'cliff-ton church'... Ismail was quick enough to show that to us...most of us tried to overcome that fear...but i continued to see many more cemeteries along the highway...we roughly crossed about 12 cemeteries along our drive from 8pm to 11pm and finally when we arrived at sea shore, illuminated flyovers, windmills, skyscrapers of downtown started appearing and I was through that fear.
Nevertheless, that drive we had between Luling and Corpus along Tx 183 was one of the scariest drives i have been through and i will continue to remember that forever...

Riveting Rites and Rituals - Africa

Though Nelson Mandela brought democracy to South Africa in 1994, villages are still governed by a single person called as Chief. (Similar to our King or Raja concept of olden days). He is neither elected by voting nor selected by govt. Its like dictatorship, son/daughter of Chief becomes next Chief. Tribal chiefs still settle rural disputes and allocate land for home building and agriculture to villagers. The chief owns all of the rural land under his province by default. Chief rules over all decisions pertaining to his people and region. The Chief summarizes discussions and arguments and gives his verdict slowly and softly taking long breaks in between his sentences...pin drop silence prevails during Chief's talk and everyone listens to him patiently. People do not address their chief with his/her name and they always tuck their head down while they talk to him/her to avoid direct eye to eye contact.

Most of the festivities like marriages, birth, harvest season etc laced with non-stop soul-stirring drumming and dancing. The chiefs appear in their most charming royal attire and sit in state to acknowledge and receive homage from his villagers. The festival starts around midnight, when women and children sneak out of their huts and, naked, carry out nocturnal rites to exorcise the village of evil spells. The frenzy continues until late afternoon of the next day. We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of their dance. The rural ladies sang and danced in front of us just like how they do in front of their Chief’s.

Another interesting aspect I found in Africa was the concept of Dowry reversed i.e. groom having to pay dowry to bride’s family before he can marry her. Its called as ‘lobola’. The traditional custom of lobola was set in place as a trust fund for the new couple’s children. The amount of lobola, which typically consisted of cattle, or piece of land was determined by many factors, including the background of the bride. This amount was negotiated in a series of meetings between the bride and groom’s parents. The payment of lobola showed the bride’s parents that the man was serious about his love for her and was financially secure to provide well for her.
When we were invited for a lunch at a local villager’s house, we were surprised to find that very few chairs were kept and a mat was laid out on the ground. We were told that, in African tradition men have their meals sitting on the chair and only after they are done, the food left over is eaten by women sitting on the mat. It was a hilarious sight as we enjoyed eating first while our female colleagues watched us with their hungry look sitting on the mat. Finally a moment of male prowess and superiority :-)

Mysterious Dreams

Why does man dream during asleep? How do those new imaginary thoughts come in to mind during sleep? Can we control those thoughts? What really happens to man while he is dreaming?
These are some of the questions which Man or Technology hasn’t been able to answer yet. It has remained as mysterious secret since evolution of Human being on earth.

Recently, I got some more food for thought on dreams when I watched movie.
Last weekend, I had been to English movie ‘Inception’ after hearing lot of hu ha about it in the media. I found the movie to be quite interesting and puzzling.
The essence of movie is planting an idea in some ones mind through a dream and then controlling his actions, extracting info etc.
The movie peeks in to world of dreams that makes the potential of the human mind infinite.

I found this concept to be interpretation of Rene Descartes’ (Greatest philosopher, scientist and thinker of all time) theory. The author of infamous quote “I think therefore Iam”.
Rene Descartes started imagining the world by stripping away all things open to doubt.
Our thoughts cannot possibly be true bcas we are not altogether perfect. He removed the evidence of senses as they don’t give true impressions of external world.
Thereby he conceived he could have no body and it disappeared. But he could not think that he did not exist. As long as something is doing the thinking, he couldn’t release final bonds of existence and fly to great bed chamber in sky. Thus came statement “I think therefore Iam”.

So he asked whether enquiry is better conducted while awake or sleep. Dreams may produce all sorts of illusions out of pure imagination. Our reasoning’s are never so evident or complete during sleep as during wakefulness. So Descartes concludes “thoughts during sleep must infallibly be met with in our waking experience.”

I guess this is rather stunning theory wherein Descartes tries to give some reality to our dreams. The movie ‘Inception’ also digs out this imaginary world of reality by inducing the mind in to cycle of dreams i.e dream within a dream.

I wonder if this idea takes any shape in real world what would happen to human actions and their limits. Their perception of reality changes….they do things they have never done before in state of wakefulness….and one can get in and out of new different world, a world where there is no control over ones actions and thoughts….just go with the flow.

Riveting Rites n Rituals

Social rituals n rites have been a part of human culture for thousands of years. Rituals of various kinds are a feature of almost all known human societies around the world.

In next few blogs, I wish to bring out some interesting Rituals n Rites i have seen/experienced during my adventures in different parts of the world.
Specifically, my conclusions are based on observations of rites n rituals of caucasians (white americans), black africans, chinky or Mongoloids and ofcourse native brown indians. I think it preety much covers entire human population in this world.
I'm starting to see some connections between rites and rituals of certain races around the world. As always those will be just my own interpretations only.

Politicians can be funny too.....

Though I don’t listen to our politicians daily jeber jabber….sometimes they do entertain me with their funny statements and utterances.
Here are some statements i can immediately think of.....

Lalu Prasad Yadav had once declared… “I will make Bihar's roads as smooth as Hema Malini's cheeks" :-)
Regardless of Bihar roads are improved or remains like Ompuri's dented cheeks, that statement certainly added cheer to many Bihari cheeks.

Sometime back when sugar prices had sky rocketed at Rs 40-45 per kilo in market, Our hon'ble Union agricultural minister Sharad Pawar had a funny logic to avert criticism over rising sugar prices.
He said “consume less of the sweetener as no one dies due to not eating sugar. On the other hand, by eating items made from sugar, diabetes increases. So, it is not necessary that everyone consume sugar”.

Mani Shankar Aiyar on hearing that lots of condom vending machines will be installed at CWG event in Delhi.
"What is the game that is going to be played at the Commonwealth Games? Is this sex tourism or sports tourism?”

This one beats them’ll…
Our hon'ble Union Minister for Health, Ghulam Nabi Azad says late-night TV will help slow India’s birth rate. So he wanted to give electricity and TVs to all rural areas of our country. His theory was… If there is electricity in every village, then people will watch TV till late at night and then fall asleep. They won’t get a chance to produce children,” Mr Azad said. “When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies.”

From the Land of Golden Valley.....

I take a special pride in my native place i.e Golden valley of Kolar district as it gave birth two of our nation's greatest personalities.
guess who ??............. what ????.......... did u just say its me ?

oh wow...good guess, close one, but its not me :-)

One of them is former Lok Ayukta Justice N Venkatachala. It all started in 2001 (just when I joined my degree), he took over as Lokayukta chief of Karnataka (Anti corruption task force established in 1984). Well....honestly, I didn't even know such a post existed in our constitution. Thanks to all its previous incumbents. Our corrupt govt officials had a free reign on public's hard earned tax money.
A survey, entitled India Corruption Study, conducted by Transparency International had ranked Karnataka the fourth most corrupt State in India.
After a rather passive existence of 20 years, things suddenly changed in 2002, when Venkatachala galvanised the institution in to a modern day crusade.
Ssssssshhhhhhhhhhh !!!! Attention greasy palms, Lok Ayukta Justice N Venkatachala is in action"...... was the hush hush talks behind the scene.
He stole the headlines of all leading news papers in the nation with his sting operations against corrupt govt officials. Since day one of his taking over the office, his blitzkrieg started....relentless fight to end the corruption continued...unabated....day and night...traveling length and breadth of the state ....showing no sign of mercy or fear....trapping the officials red handed (some of them included rank of ministers). Despite being 76 year old, despite receiving many threats and escaping many attempts to kill......in his four and half years of service, it is said that he did not take a single day off. He remained unfazed and undeterred to his cause. Number of complaints the office of Lokayukta was receiving dramatically increased from 20-25 per day to 200-250 per day while Venkatachala was in tenure. In just four years in office, he exposed more than 50,000 cases of corruption.

No wonder, over five lakh people had then written to Dr. Abdul Kalam to extend his tenure as Lokyukta. Human rights activists went on dharnas to support his cause.
Finally, govt gave up and awarded him the state's highest honour, 'Rajyostsava Prashasthi' and 'Varshada Kannadiga Award'. Buoyed by his public success, a kannada movie based on his service 'Lancha Samrajya' is on the making. Venkatachala is said to have put the fear of god in the Karnataka administration.. He has truly set a high bar for subsequent occupants of the position.
All I suggest is, Lokaykta has to be renamed as 'Venkatachala Task force or Venkatachala Anti Corruption Bureau' for future generations to know his contributions. Hats off to him !!!!!

The other person is from the very neighborhood where I was brought up in BEML nagar. My schoolmate and senior...fondly remembered by us as Machan....Manjunath Shanmugam who shot to national fame in 2005.
He was a marketing manager for the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) who was murdered for sealing a corrupt petrol station in Uttar Pradesh.
While working for the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in Lucknow, he had ordered two petrol pumps at Lakhimpur Kheri sealed for selling adulterated fuel for three months. When the pump started operating again a month later, Manjunath decided to conduct a surprise raid around November 19, 2005 where he was brutally murdered by corrupt goondas. Manjunath was a very bright student in his class who went on do MBA in IIM(L). True to its saying, 'A Man with Principles is a Man without opportunities', despite having lucrative offers from MNCs and firms abroad, he chose to serve the nation and joined public sector unit IOC.

This incident inspired several students at IIM, IIT and other institutes and a pan IIM initiative, "The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust" was registered on 23 February 2006, Manjunath's birth anniversary.
With immediate objectives of fighting the case, they have a broader agenda of improving governance in Indian public life. The 'Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award' was instituted in his honour by the Government. It carries a citation and a Rs. One Lakh Cash Award, to honour those who have reported and worked to rectify systemic corruption.

Whats wrong in Kissing ?

While I was reading newspaper this morning, an interesting article caught my eyes.

A Health Research Group did a study on how often people touch, kiss and hug each other in world. An experiment as part of the study consisted of going to cities around the world and simply counting how many times couple touched each other while sitting together in a cafe. In Paris, the average was 110 times an hour. In San Juan (a city in Puerto Rico) — the highest average of any city — people touched each other 180 times per hour. In Florida, it was twice per hour, which wasn't quite as bad as India where they didn't touch at all. In some Arabic countries, touching in public is illegal, so no question of any study. The research published the standings on world’s best and worst lovers. Of course, the top spots for former category went to Spain, Brazil, Italy and France. The top spots for latter category went to India (too shy), England (too lazy), and Sweden (too quick).

I got some food for thought and hence this blog… :)

I can’t help but wonder about why we Indians seem to keep our distance from others. Public physical contact between men and women is far less acceptable in India than in other parts of the world. Everywhere boys and girls are segregated. There are separate queues for ladies and gents. In the public buses and trains special seats are earmarked for women... Separate education at school and colleges, Sitting side by side, meeting and talking freely is treated as obscene. Forget about kissing, hugging and holding hands together in public. Even within a family, couples tend to shy away from touching each other in front of their kids, brothers/sisters, parents etc.
The gestures of greetings also differ greatly from west where this may include shaking hands, hugging, kissing, and rubbing noses etc. In India, it is just folding hands themselves. Surprisingly, the Indian KamaSutra describes the exotic use of touch and massage in love making, yet those practices have been suppressed over the years and it is believed to be consequence of rule of Arabic invaders in early 19th century.

Touch provides warmth, love, caring, reassurance and support to the person who reaches out for it - and to the person who gives it. When your spirits are low and you reach out to your mother, friend or lover for a hug, it has the effect of comforting them in return. It fulfills within them the basic desire to connect, strengthens the bonds. The thing I really love about the touch is, I can feel, not just the physical sensation of the hand on my skin, but also I can feel the emotional content of the touch…that sensation travels in both directions. And when you are both really in tune with that exchange of pleasure, it can be absolutely awesome. It is medically proven that, touching like hugging, kissing and holding hands with the people in your life releases a special hormones in brain called Oxytocin. The Oxytocin makes us feel calm and relaxed, trusting, generous, and affectionate. The experience of feeling loved and loving. Almost all human beings are born with a sense of touch, when a baby cries, it runs to mother who holds it in her hand and kisses it. The baby stops crying… its not bcas its pain disappeared suddenly, it is bcas of soothing effects of mom's touch. So hurry up and Kiss someone you love today :-)


If you are ever in doubt as to whether to kiss a pretty girl, always give her the benefit of the doubt. -Thomas Carlyle