Now from Chennai

The world definitely is a small place. Afterall heaven, hell and earth are just a plane ride away.

On my return trip, I had the wonderful opportunity of flying over the breathtaking snow filled Alaskan mountains and crossing the Bearing Strait. Never did I ever imagine I would get so close to a pole. We infact traced the entire west coast of the US from California, over Seattle and onto Alaska to cross the date line and travel south over Siberia and then land in Seoul, to further take us to Singapore.

Chasing the sun wasn't fun though, with 16 hours of continuous sunshine threatening us to disrupt our biological clocks. I also had the good fortune of getting out at Signapore in transit. We had about 19hours of layover time. We were offered temporary visas to get out and see Singapore for ourselves. A neat bargain for the long layover. But the place was hotter and humid than expected. No doubt, with it being so close to the equator. I found a colleague of mine was in the same trip, so we hopped on to a taxi to get around Singapore City. We visited Little India (which was totally indistinguishable from Chennai!), Esplanade, Suntec city, Orchid garden etc. And my impression of Singapore was just a place full of first class hotels, shopping malls, apartments and pretty much thats it. Natural beauty was quite limited, and so I would rate Dubai higher overall. In my whimsical thoughts, I think one would develop into an incurable shopaholic if he/she is to live in Singapore for long. But the construction and architecture I must say was marvellous.

Well, seeing many places were only the minor takeaways from the entire trip. The spiritual lessons and occasional sparks of enlightenment during this period is what will benefit me in the long run. I learnt that a lifetime's perceptions, beliefs, fears, and notions can be shattered/changed by a single hop to a different place on this very earth. Different places have different problems. The simple gem of a lesson that I got was how to use my heart always, in destroying my ego, being polite and more importantly, being courageous to face life. Bon jour.

To heaven and back, voluntarily!

I've been...

"Afterall, heaven and hell are all an illusion. Reality denies both."

- An agnostic saying from somewhere, but I truly believe in.

Caste still tearing us apart

Thanks to Arjun Singh, we have once agained surfaced the once suppressed behemoth of class and casteism back to India. Although we thought modernisation had educated us, we still seem to be having heated debates over the issue.

Whether Reservation for OBCs is justified or not is not the issue. The fact is its tearing up our society again. Remember the divide and conquer rule? This time, its by ourselves!

Photo Competition

hi5 is conducting a photo competition. Your submissions are free of cost and you can immediately see the easy-to-fill submission form when you log in. $10,000 is at stake!

So all you photographers out there do give it a chance to get lucky.

And pass on the commission.

Some crap scribblings about success from me..

success is illusory as it is temporary, for everybody. Because nobody can be successful all the time. So if nobody is successful all the time, then sucess is achieved by everybody - a possibility. So nobody is a looser or a winner. Or, everybody is only a temporary winner or looser.

Hijacked

Like how Trojans and other viruses affect your Windows computer and use your CPU and bandwidth without your knowledge, is it possible for others - through meditative prowess - to control your brain without you knowing it? We wouldn't be able to realize it cos the very instrument to detect it is being controlled by a third party. The brain waves could be hijacked, just as radio waves can be hijacked.

The Imax experience and a police street chase

Leowes theatre has inexplicable Imax experience. Due to this, I watched two movies on Saturday there. V for Vendetta and Ice Age 2: The Meltdown.

First for Ice Age 2. The story line was pretty drab I thought. Atleast for the 17 and above group, quite unlike its prequel which had all of my friends and me rotfl. The animation, I admit was marvellous. The depth of detail into the scenes were good. You could see each strand of hair on the mammoth's body animated. Now that was amazing computer rendering and would love to know how they did it and whether it was open source technology to the rescue again!

V for Vendetta. On the Imax the action was superb and it actually felt like I was there in each of the locations. The dialogue rendition by V, the hero is superb and all the actors do good acting. Set in the near future and based on the wars raging now, it also mixes some thoughtful 'ideas' from 500 years ago. No spoilers here.

Ah, now to the police street chase. My first full blown police chase on the streets of Sfo. Hence this hubbub about it in this blog. Twas very much like in the movies. Somebody had robbed a bank and sped away in a Cadillac. The sirens through the streets soon echoed the arrival of the high-speed police cars. 2, 5, 10 I counted about 15 of them go past where I stood at a crossing. Perplexed but excited, I kept walking and soon came by another junction where a few police cars had stopped and were questioning a witness. Apparently they had lost track of the theive's car!

The passion and committment of the police to spring into action are praiseworthy. Much unlike the squanderings of a typical Indian Police Dept. But this chase reminded me of my wild school days where we used to play police and robber and the excitement with which we played it, and this tickled a small laugh in my mind seeing. Difficult to judge if it was real or an act, I left the scene.

Random Pics

My favourite so far.

City Scape. All the looks of a great city.

City Scape, another view.

Ah! the calming, magnificient, enigmatic ocean.

Today's Link: Finding the Meaning of Life.

The name game

A little about names...

My co-workers and I, last Friday, thought of lunching out at a buffet place. Over lunch, I guess fueled by the really good taste of the food, our conversation moved over to the interestingly silly but factual stuff about names!

Scandinavian Sons...

In the real past, the Scandinavians had a particular way their sons got their names. They had their first name, given to them by their parents, and their last name was their father's name with a suffix 'son' added to mark the relationship and association. So if Peter had a son whom he named John, John's full name would automatically be 'John Peterson'. Likewise, if John's son was George, he would be George Johnson. And so on the names peacefully hung around until Scandinavia had to go to war.

The military addressed their men with their lastnames. And so if the leader wanted to talk to a particular Anderson, about 20 of them sprung up! They quickly decided to patch up the naming convention. So each person was asked to choose two totally different objects of nature and combine them to form their last name. So they picked mountains and clouds, rivers and flowers and so on, in the local dialect, and the permutations were many. Interestingly, this method stuck on and to this day, thats how the Scandinavians name their sons!

Irishmen...

At this juncture, our Irish coworker pitched in his 2 cents of the name game. But err.. yours truly was so obsessed about getting his second share of food that I carelessly missed the first part of the Irish story. Nevertheless, I did arrive to catch the last fact - that Irishmen did/do name their lastname with respect to their occupation. So you have John Shepherds, Adam Shoemakers, Thomas Cooks, etc...

Well, I knew a little about names too. Names of the type McGraw or MacMillan mean 'son of' Graw of son of Millan. But I don't remember - was this an American or an Australian style? I didn't dare ask, as I might have been offending the two Americans with us :-) Whatever it be, naming has been a subtle yet historically interesting procedure, sans nations, thanks to which we have the many jokes today.

Of reincarnations

Did you know..

To the Hindu, time and space are multidimensional. According to a Hindu classic called the Yoga Vasishtha, your next incarnation, or your last incarnation for that matter, may be happening right now. Your next life may actually occur in the past! This is because your innermost spirit exists outside of time and space, and can travel to wherever and to whenever it wants.

Now whatever that means, it sure is going to change a lot of perceptions for me!!

Pain relief - a distant truth

I have always thought we are scientifically advanced day-by-day and have all the equipments, techniques and concepts to take care of any situation. Like an incurable disease for example. But when it strikes you or someone near you, you realize the primitive jungle of human thought and emotion that can't be cured easily. But wait. Haven't we all heard about the new reality called pain relief techniques? Where is it, and how does a poor guy like me though literate (duh, with all the junk about the 100 years war, Hitler's suicide, Moon's craters) get it when I or my friend needs it the most?

Pain relief is a distant truth that many know exists, but never really get the opportunity to learn it.

'It is all in the mind', they say. But how do we practice it? How can we control pain with our minds, as it is said to be possible? Hello researcher, hello cutting edge scientist, you may have won the Nobel prize, but you have learnt haven't been applied and reached the ordinary people. Neither does an onlooker like me know how to help them. Help me help them. What improves lives? What decreases pain? What changes to the society can benefit us? Go out of your way and put it into practice. Few people will help initially. Gradually, a whole nation will be behind you.

Which society has modestly realized that life truths like these have to be incorporated in their school curriculum? I have a junk of knowledge which I won't use. But everyone needs some amount of knowledge which they will all use. But sadly, most of such 'creme' knowledge are not taught!

A lot of highly valuable information is limited to the conference halls and thesis-presentation halls of the high strata of scientific community for eons before it reaches a dying person, who could have been benefitted from it at its point of discovery. Many researchers spend about half their lifetime preaching and proving their work to the scientific fraternity than really going out with compassion to give it to the sufferers to help them straight away. This is how the scientific community is functions. This sort of system should change.

There are a few exceptions that laymen like me are now learning of. Thankfully. Take for example, Dr. Devi Prakash Shetty, or any doctor at the Cancer Institute of Adyar who provide their valuable knowledge with confidence and compassion to the people who need it. That's what makes them respectable - that they took their knowledge to the people who needed it knowing that wasting time takes lives. Trusting in what they have perfected, they go about their duty. Free of cost to most! This is justice to their knowledge. The real heroes. May more be like them. (Pray I would too.)

Well, yes this post conveys an exaggerated amount angst and ill feeling towards the scientific community. Although they are the path-breakers, they aren't really heroes until they get their knowledge to the people.

For, what good is he who earns the gems of knowledge and do not take pains to get it to the needy, thus completing the circle?

Baker Beach

Away from the city...

Another Saturday;
and another opportunity to explore the place!

I'm posting pics from this latest trip here, some of which are pure scenic, like this one. There are more coming up, while I am deciding which is the best place to put it online. Till now I have been using Yahoo photos, yeah outdated I know. The photos were getting compressed and they lost their quality. So I am contemplating on Flickr. Will soon post the remaining pics there.

Before I begin, here's a tip: San Francisco is a large city. Take a day pass ($11) and you can hop on any Muni, Trolley, or Cable car for the whole day. Its a good way to see the city real quick. The route numbers 29, 28 and 18 are quite scenic, although I didn't try all the routes..I guess there would be better ones too.

I decided to do some trekking this time. Went to Baker beach, on the west coast of SFO. Its one of the beaches that has a long way you can tread all to the Golden Gate bridge. Also a good view of the mystic (also misty) pacific ocean. 'Twas an opportunity to look from near end of the world (virtually) and stare into the vastness and beyond the International Date line, to Asia.

Heard it had interesting terrain, and was right on that. Beautiful hills, though not steep enough, lead directly into the pacific ocean. Scenic winding roads adorn the hills like a necklace basking in the glory of sun gleaming into the waters nearby.

So I did eventually do some trekking, climbing small hills and traversing easy routes. But I loved challenging rock climbs. And I got that just here.
At one point I almost made a mistake. Climbing up was easy. But getting down was real tough, especially with moving sand. I almost got myself killed atop this small climb. One slip and I'd be dead meat.

Somehow, I did manage to climb down. And when I did, the folks at the shore applauded and I flashed my embarrassed-sheepish smile. It was funny. I never knew it was dangerous trekking terrain. I simply fought my way up. And once I got there, I had trembling feet and moving sand beneath. A look down would kill what's left of my consciousness. I did manage to put on a brave face though and also took some snaps from above. God helped me, and I was back safe land. Why on earth did I attempt all this? The challenge was good, the terrain was inviting. The thrill and real scare made it memorable. So no complaints ;-)

Well, that's about the trekking part...Here are some more pics from there..

Beautiful; just beside the shore.

Quite Poetic..Steps..Ocean and beyond. Your first step counts..

Lonely warrior returning from the unknown...

Adios..!

Nobody's world.

Imagine ...

• you have totally failed in your job...,
• that you stand no more scope in your career...
• Your future is bleak -
  
• you're gonna loose almost all your earnings..
• ..and you have nobody close to share your grief with..you are an orphan...

Imagine.

Give it some time - quite some time (maybe hours). Talk to yourself and allow the feeling to sink down.

At first it would be really disheartening and heart breaking. Keep talking to yourself to find an answer.

How do you feel? Its not catharsis. But its nice.
Nice to know that you are a nobody, and that actually everybody is a nobody..and that what you are striving for is foolish, and...

Peace.

Google calculator

Ok, I may be the last person to know this, but the thrill of finding out yourself is something unique. So while that feeling lasts for me, let me jot it down here.

Google can be used as a cool calculator! You can enter any (yes ANY) calculator related stuff on google.com and it will get you the result - be in scientific computation, currency conversion, what not..!

Sample tries:

• sqrt(-4)
• 160 pounds * 4000 feet in Calories
• 1 USD in INR

SFO part 2

Here's another day's out travelogue in SFO, complete with pics for those interested.

This was my second visit to downtown and I could feel the pulse of the city better. Boy, its big! Every spot is so happening. So modern and quite fascinating. Theres a lot of variety in the kind of poeple you'l meet. I remember awe-ing at the big city streets of Dubai in my childhood. But I never thought I'd see a place this huge in every sense. I guess its second only to New York.

O.k, coming to my latest trip..I thought I'd try the world famous San Francisco cable cars all the way downtown to Fisherman's Wharf. It takes you across really steep hills going up and down. Its a nice ride. The crowd today was amazing. There were all kinds of people just out to enjoy the day. The vintage cable cars are quite fast for its age.

The other highlight of the day was a huge bunch of deep baritoned sea lions and seals awaiting my arrival at peir 39, complete with all the sound effects of their welcoming snorting and barking! Well, I didn't know, but they do give off a real barking sound. And today I saw about a hundred off them in the orchestra. Some of the people watching just joined the show....(the sea lions were better)

I had been to Fisherman's Wharf last time. But the place, the views and the crowd made me come back. Its a fabulous place with shops, restaurants, scenic bay views and lot of rides. Lot of street performers (wish I could be one) dancing and making music for money. There were also some who came there just to vent their feelings. Like a man I saw singing ballads, a red-head who just yelled at the top of her voice and using her violin in some frenzied ballet, created some sort of fusion music..all in all it was a place to be. My favourite was this person who played on deep flutes (the ones they use for Sufi music). It was so soulful and I wished I could lay in the grass there all day listening to that music.

Lot of crab eateries all around the place. Lot of shops on souvenirs and just about everything. Lot of rides and for the happy hour folks, a really jiving hard rock cafe! Aquariums, pools, rides, just about everything. People showing public displays of affection(!!), people proposing, and what not. Its fun. You'l find just your kind of place there. Oh and not to mention, lots of Indians too with the elderly gaping at, I guess the culture shock for whom it hadn't mellowed down yet! I just hung around the area a little longer and did some shopping for the folks at home.

And then I made my way back, yup in the cable car again. This time another route. And hey, what did I find!! A..secret, staring at me right in front of me. I did hang around a while though, trying hard not to be noticed and taking a peek inside, except when I was directly in front of the doorway an elderly dame just opened the door and walked out queering at my interesting pose, now frozen, looking inside. I walked the other way.

Well, the place I was then was the Union Square, a good place to hang out with friends. With artists painting potraits, all around the square. I hopped into Macy's, a high end shopping store, looking to buy a belt. The Calvin Kleins and DKNYs with their price tags made it just a frivolous visit with me rushing to the door. Duh!

Now dusk hit me sooner than I expected and it was time to take my train back to Redwood city where I stay. It was dusk. And I had planned to go to a Sushi place near my house for dinner!

Coming to my dinner - Sushi sucks (depending on which you have). Raw fish with some intoxicating sauce almost made me puke. I washed it down with some beverage. I tried oyster for starter and it was good. One thind I really loved was chicken teriyaki a dish similar to our chicken biriyani, with more chicken and more rice. The foods generally have a taste of vinegar and soy sauce, which when taken in excess is just not right for the first time. I tried using chopsticks to blend into the culture, but I found myself ordering a fork after having made enough fool of myself at the table.

So that's it from another round of updates travelling. Not to mention I'm in full awe with the city and striving not to get too attached. Until I get another time to visit the city, thought I'd pen today's experiences, first hand for those who missed...

Take care folks & have a good time. Adios!

As always, more photos here.

Evolutionary Collectivism

Here's something I scribbled as a reaction to, well something! 'Twas in my email drafts for a long time.

My idea of evolutionary collectivism

I see the present world filled with madness. All energies wasted on materialistic
and unyielding activities totally unproductive to the development of freedom and
eternal happiness. Those deeds that are so entwined with self praise, pleasures
and self empathy that feeds itself to glorify its presence as a necessity and a fashion.

While the unattended truth lurches in the dark corners of the background awaiting
the right soul kind enough to lend it a hand and show it some light. People have to
reinvent themselves..there's no other go. They have to seek out the real nature
in them to collectively produce ever-shining light, if we have to have lasting peace
and dignity in the society.

Everybody collectively - the media, the schools, the employers, the government -
should understand the consequences of proceeding like the present and the huge
pit we are digging ourselves beneath us unknowingly. One day its certain the
ground will give way and we will all fall into this pit we created ourselves.
We have to hold back.

Resist the quarrying into human values, search for the holistic pursuits and
feed the pure thoughts to cover up the nation of muck we have dug up.

Guess it was some bad day :)

Maya and reality

I was just curious the other day what google would spurn out for the search on the above topic. The wikipedia article seems to be quite engrossing , and I haven't finished it yet.

I later laid my eyes on the first result of my search - a book 'MAYA - The world as virtual reality'. Thought I would provide the link for those intrigued and the sci-fi fans atleast. This book by the way deals with vitual reality in a computer science perspective, which I think would interest many.

An excerpt:

"In the world of modern science, consciousness is reduced to a fading epiphenomenon, left over after the brain has been physically explained. It seems to arise when matter is suitably organized, but scientists and philosophers have been unable to explain why complex organization should produce anything beyond complex physical behavior. Yet consciousness won't go away."

Well, a goldfish cannot even get close to how much we can explain - it has a memory span of just 3 minutes. We definitely have limitations too regarding the extent of intellect we are built with. We are afterall just another animal in this universe. Ant is an animal too. Do you think it can figure this with the limited brain it has? We too are ants relative to this universe. (Btw, does the ant even care? Hah!) Explaining metaphysical aspects and super-science thus requires another dimension of thinking, which we lack.

So I would term such books bogus if it is just mathematical proofs coming in. Because mathematics cannot define conciousness, not even quantify it. (Unless of-course you are interested in science-'fiction' which to any scientist would be an oxymoron).

A day out in San Francisco

(Warning: most pictures in the post cover my head; sorry the incumbent was travelling alone and had to take his own photos most of the time! You could use the map here for reference.)

I landed in America without knowing the conversion cents to dollars or how many cents made a dime. Well it was on a real short notice that I came here you see. Since my stay here is for just a good month or so, I started backpacking and moving around the city the very first weekend I got. Today was the first day and I decided to visit the places according to my priority list. Right on top was the Golden Gate Bridge.

I started from my hotel in Redwood City at about 9:00 AM to the caltrain station to catch the train to SFO - a 45 minute ride. From there I began my journey to the Golden Gate bridge. (Mind you, I was totally unprepared for this). I walked downtown to catch a glimpse os its unique architecture. The climate was akin to Kodai or Ooty. I found this interesting place closeby. Its by the Zeum art center.

Downtown just got me snapping away for pictures. Adding just one shot here, as its quality is nice. There were skateboarders practicing, both serious and fun-minded joggers, yougsters revving their fast cars, crowded trams (very noisy) running down the street, people just out to enjoy the sunshine, and a lot of people with dogs (Americans love pets).

As I walked on, I reached the Bay Bridge. I thought it was Golden Gate bridge at first and hung around there for a long time until I simply asked the hot-dog person and found out to my horror. The seagulls there are huge and not scared of humans. Caught this inquisitive person staring at me :)

From there on I walked on towards the Golden Gate bridge, and in between went through Fisherman's wharf. There are many sights and sounds to capture out there. All I am posting here is a picture of this awesome musician performing. There are other dancers, musicians and street delights.

Also in the route was Alcatraz in the background. I used the biking/skating path to the bridge. There were folks on Segaways, bikes, roller skates and many jogging on. I just walked on taking in the breathless scenery along the way. The smell of eucalyptus wafted over the air. Its amazing that America has laid so much concern for bikers, setting aside bike trails and other conveniences for them. Nice to see that.


Okay so i got onto my last leg of the trek up towards the bridge and it was a nice climb. The trek reminded me of my Ooty days. Anyways, yours truly did manage to take a shot on his own, standing the camera up on a pier and setting the timer. I am pretty pleased with the result :)


Finally (yay!) I've made it to the bridge!! I start getting pictures in a frenzy. Luckily I carried two memory cards and I filled them both!
Now that was what I was waiting for! A glimpse of the famous landmark. As a bonus, I also got some astounding views of the city. There was a large crowd at the bridge on this saturday evening.

Well, I walked my way back as I couldn't get a single bus!! On the way, I passed through the art palace and the exploratorium. The art work and architecture is extraordinary. It felt like a mythical Greek setting. An English touch to it was a calm lake full of soothing-to-look-at ducks.












Well, that was about it. It was a long day. I took the bos 30 back to the Caltrain station and got back home. And my legs are aching and eyes are closing. So I don't have the capacity to spell check this post (not that I do normally) or check for grammatical errors. I'll do all that later. Till then, ciao.

Note: Entire set of photos here.

TIDBIT: cisco got its name from the abbreviation of San Francisco!

Large company vs. Small company - working for each

Well, I have to say that there is a large amount of difference working for a large company compared to working for a small company. I have essentially spent a year and a half with a large company (25000+ employees) and am currenty visiting and working for a smaller company(30+ employees), as our client.

Well, as a newbee to work, one would think your immediate surroundings and colleagues are all that matter to you. But your colleagues themselves are part of the organisation and they act and react as per the environment too. Ultimately, its a world of a difference.

In a nutshell, its like studying in a small village school run by your own uncles or someone like that [working for a small company] compared to
studying in a prestigiously run convent school with lot of rules [the larger company]. Both schools have principals (and also principles), but the way they hit you are different :)

Processes are well implemented in the larger company and due to that all the paths are firmly laid - you just have to follow the advice of your seniors to know how to advance.
With regard to the smaller company, its a silent tug-of-war that happens due to certain hapless situations too.

Well, this immature rambling here is primeval and I intend to make sense out of it later, but this is nevertheless a good placeholder. Am interested to know what others think about this too.

A sunny lunch

The climate in California is pretty good now compared to the rest of America (atleast its not snowing and chilly)!

This afternoon we had a pretty good lunch outdoors at the Pacific Shores office. Till yesterday evening it was damn cold to go out, but todays lunch made us feel we could sit out all day there enjoying the sun. Its also the time of the year when cherry blossoms bloom in this part of the world (sad I didn't get my camera today, but if I will soon, I'll out those pictures here).

By the way, did I mention my lunch cost $7? It was like this - I entered a self-service area (where almost everything looks relishing) and you pay by the weight of food that you take. I took a little extra and damn, the weight in my stomach reminds me of my today's expense (gulp) :-) This may prompt me to bring my lunch from tomorrow (if I can stand the catching sight of all that good food in the food-court)!

Indian Panorama - feb 7

Just would like to put in a few interesting headlines today:

a. Happy to know that Indian scientists have found answers that eluded Eintein and that Phillipines and India are the biggest spoilers of Coca-Cola's party!

b. In one way good that we're getting better buildings and on the other hand, its a mark of mistrust on our Indian builders! Foreign architects eye India's huge IT projects

c. And hey, is he true when Emraan Hashmi says: 'Women like bad boys'?

Go figure!

Sorry for the really uninteresting scheme of colours of-late, but I will change it when I get time!

Thanks to rediff.com for todays digest!

I am not the pilot, I wanna be the plane!

Ok, I know it sounds a lot cliched, but I'd like to be the planes in this video.
Its exactly like the spirit I have in myself if I am let loose - (like doing some soul-searching).

I share the fascination of flying with many others in this world, but I don't know what or how specifically they feel about it, I very much want to be the plane in this video, rather than the pilot.

Socrates

One is often asked who is their idol. While this keeps changing for me, for long during my childhood it was Swami Vivekananda.

Of late I have been thinking more and as it progresses, I seem to have developed a deep respect for Socrates. Something compels me to answer him as my idol at this point of time. It maybe how he took philosophy to new heights, constantly improving it and making use of his intellect. He strived to conquer ill-thgoughts using his rationale and of-course, the very philosophical manner in which he accepted his death! I dunno, there's a lot of respect I have for that man!

Needless to say, its not a tug-of-war between two great thought leaders who changed the world :-) Its just that certain ideas seem to influence my little mind more that what I have already perceived, this thanks to Socrates.

Maybe I will learn more. Maybe I will one-day be able to assimilate all that I've gathered for the betterment of the people. Maybe. Hope so!

The One Thought (a very personal ramble for myself)

I'm bad. I'm always manipulative. Of situations, of God-given rules.

All, for what? Well the beginning reasons were all for the good - so that I could simulate certain situations to make myself stronger. It was a way of teaching myself and disciplining me as I was almost self-taught on non-academic knowledge and was a loner during childhood.

I would force bad thoughts onto myself and wouldn't accept good things, only to discipline myself. But by then the reasons began to eat into me and it became an addictive habit. Now its really eaten into my life and is destroying it. Its affecting other lives too!

Maybe God would have had a purpose of doing that through me. But now I realise my bad habit and I also realise the power of God which makes everything happen in this world of illusions. So I now know the only truth - God. The only power is God.

He is the only aim worth having, because its He who does everything. So what I should be doing is to think of Him always and sing His praise wherever I go. All other material benefits would come and go - they are illusions of His making after all. In all this, only He is constant throughout time. Sages say our souls are eternal too and is a part of Him.

There's still a lot more to learn and to realise by this little person who is not even a quark in the ocean of His universe. So much to understand that even 100% usage of the human brain can't understand. But we can definitely make ourselves get to the point of transcending to the realm that would make us understand it. And thats only through the meditation of the One Truth.

Some truths uncovered

From my recent experiences so close and touching life, I've experienced some well heard of truths.

* There is an extraordinary amount of energy and capability hidden amongst us. To me this revelation came at a time of need and it surprised me how much different I can be from my lazy, less powerful self that I thought was.

* When in need, God does give power to the one who deplores him for it.

* How much ever circumstances change you, its an illusion; you are the same unchanging soul throughout. Its your body and sensory perceptions that change and hit highs and lows. Realizing this brings considerable amount of confidence even in the most trying situations.

* Angst, pain, happiness and pleasure are all sensory perceptions of this illusory world and is like a bubble waiting to burst. This also suggests that you can use mind control to save yourself from any of these feelings, although its a difficult task.

God Bless, people!
p.s: I know I haven't put the experiences in the right words. Hopefully when I am in the position to realize and to write at the same time, I shall put them better!

Long time I updated my blog. Atleast got this Sorry note posted as my classmate reminded me. Well, all's not well in my home front and my dad's not well. So am devoting my time for him and work.

So here are some quotes that I read of late..it shows the current state of my mind :-)

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. ~M. Kathleen Casey

If you're going through hell, keep going. ~Winston Churchill

Anytime you suffer a setback or disappointment, put your head down and plow ahead. ~Les Brown

• What I've learnt at this moment of suffering is fear of God.

• What I've experienced from others and now am trying to give back is unconditional human-love.It has to be experienced to know it. I also came to know how many people actually pray for us! My heartfelt thanks to them all.
  

Wanna know the worst software bugs in history?

Not joking. WIRED has come up with a collection of the world's worst software bugs recorded so far! Makes for an interesting read :-)
Link

Top 101 web sites - PC Magazine

The latest compilation of the world's top 101 web sites from PC Magazine is now available here. The web sites are well classified for the lay user to pick at them, although I have to say that only 5% of the page is real content. The rest 95% are splashed with all kind of ads and links!! What an irony

Google's AdWords in-kind advertising for non-profit organizations

Yes, you heard it right. Google is coming up with Google Grants as a part of their Google Foundation Google.org. The good thing I like about Google Grants is that it provides the use of the highly popular Google AdWords product to non-profit organizations. The exposure your organization would get though this is tremendous. Check it out and see if you can register your non-profit organization with it.
Way to go Google!

"Why not make your mistakes, enjoy the ride, explore all your abilities and discover new ones?"

Yet another forward. Its on the 'ambition syndome'. Very nice, read on..

Don't Hurry, Be Happy
All you have are your experiences. Why not make your mistakes, enjoy the ride, explore all your abilities and discover new ones?


I've spoken at well over 25 colleges in the last year, and I see this strange phenomenon. Our best and the brightest are in a hurry to go places - and worrying themselves insane about making the right career decision.

One of my students called a few months ago saying he hated his job. I asked him why; after all, it was from college placements. He said it was the highest paying job offered and with an overseas stint - he couldn't imagine not taking it up. He was, in fact, proud that he had 'won' it. I then asked him what he wanted to do - and it was something completely different.

All I could tell him was that he would be happier if he followed his heart - and that it was more important to trust your gut than your designation, location or paycheque.

I can't blame him. I was victim to what I call this 'ambition' syndrome. Each of us is taught that we need to have clear, specific goals - and that we should do our best to attain them. I was no different. A long time ago - or so it seems - when I'd settled down in advertising after a few false starts (trial-and-error, as I called it), I decided to prove things to everybody by having 'ambitious' goals. I secretly aimed to become a creative director by the time I was 28 and to run an ad agency by the time I was 30.

As things came to pass - I did become a creative director by 28 and, two years later, ran an ad agency - that too in the US, having started off in India. I thought I should be incredibly happy.

Surprise. I felt empty. The world didn't change. The sun still rose in the east. People still treated me the same. If that ambition was the purpose of my life, it suddenly felt completely meaningless. By focussing on the 'destination' and working insane hours and driving myself crazy to get there, I felt life had gone by in a blur. I suddenly felt 30 and old.

It came to me that carrying on further on this path (I had thought I would then set goals like earning my first million by the year X and so on) would make life even more meaningless.

Now your mileage may vary, but I decided to change. I consciously said I would forget about the 'destinations' and try enjoying the 'journey' instead. Out went targets and ambitions, in came simple things like enjoying every moment, seeing beautiful places, making room for serendipity and actually getting to know people. Some years later, my wife and I had a baby, and this belief only got further cemented. I was sure I wanted to be at home with him - and not go off tromping to work every day.

Perhaps, I've been inordinately lucky - but in the eight years since I made this call, I've had the time of my life. I've done different things: design front-ends for Yahoo! and Amazon, think-up programmes for a youth channel, pick VJs, create software, write ads, start companies, sell companies, help entrepreneurs and even write a fun column like this. All mostly from home. I'm not sure I could have consciously planned and been ambitious about any of it. The rolling stone didn't gather moss - but who the heck wants moss on oneself?

I can't imagine retiring and doing nothing, toodling around in a garden. Neither can any of the young people I speak with. Here's my belief - you're going to be doing something productive till you're well into your 70s. And if you're starting out today, or even in your 30s, that means you have another 40 or 50 active years ahead of you.

My point is simple - what's the darn hurry to get anywhere? We all end up in the same place anyway - I understand there's a 100% probability of death for all human beings, regardless of monetary wealth. All you have are your experiences. Why not make your mistakes, enjoy the ride, smell the flowers, explore all your abilities and discover new ones?

Back to my student - he called again a month later, said he'd changed lines, and was ecstatic. With due apologies to believers in reincarnation, I think this is the only life we have. Can we make the most of it?

Article on Love

This is one of the rare intriguing forwards one gets nowadays. I read through it quickly in office and understood it needed some profound thinking. So I though of putting it here for now so I can come back to it later, while you take a look... hope it helps..

For those who doing research on truth and love, read …..

The demand to be safe in relationship inevitably breeds sorrow and fear. This seeking for security is inviting insecurity. Have you ever found security in any of your relationships? Have you? Most of us want the security of loving and being loved, but is there love when each one of us is seeking his own security, his own particular path?

We are not loved because we don't know how to love. What is love? The word is so loaded and corrupted that I hardly like to use it. Everybody talks of love - every magazine and newspaper and every missionary talks everlastingly of love. I love my country, I love my king, I love some book, I love that mountain, I love pleasure, I love my wife, I love God. Is love an idea? If it is, it can be cultivated, nourished, cherished, pushed around, twisted in any way you like. When you say you love God what does it mean? It means that you love a projection of your own imagination, a projection of yourself clothed in certain forms of respectability according to what you think is noble and holy; so to say, `I love God', is absolute nonsense. When you worship God you are worshipping yourself - and that is not love.

Because we cannot solve this human thing called love we run away into abstractions. Love may be the ultimate solution to all man's difficulties, problems and travails, so how are we going to find out what love is? By merely defining it? The church has defined it one way, society another, and there are all sorts of deviations and perversions. Adoring someone, sleeping with someone, the emotional exchange, the companionship - is that what we mean by love? That has been the norm, the pattern, and it has become so tremendously personal, sensuous, and limited that religions have declared that love is something much more than this. In what they call human love they see there is pleasure, competition, jealousy, the desire to possess, to hold, to control and to interfere with another's thinking, and knowing the complexity of all this they say there must be another kind of love, divine, beautiful, untouched, uncorrupted.

Throughout the world, so-called holy men have maintained that to look at a woman is something totally wrong: they say you cannot come near to God if you indulge in sex, therefore they push it aside although they are eaten up with it. But by denying sexuality they put out their eyes and cut out their tongues for they deny the whole beauty of the earth. They have starved their hearts and minds; they are dehydrated human beings; they have banished beauty because beauty is associated with woman.

Can love be divided into the sacred and the profane, the human and the divine, or is there only love? Is love of the one and not of the many? If I say,`I love you', does that exclude the love of the other? Is love personal or impersonal? Moral or immoral? Family or non-family? If you love mankind can you love the particular? Is love sentiment? Is love emotion? Is love pleasure and desire? All these questions indicate, don't they, that we have ideas about love, ideas about what it should or should not be, a pattern or a code developed by the culture in which we live.
So to go into the question of what love is we must first ideals and ideologies of what it should or should not be. To divide anything into what should be and what is, is the most deceptive way of dealing with life.

Now how am I going to find out what this flame is which we call love - not how to express it to another but what it means in itself? I will first reject what the church, what society, what my parents and friends, what every person and every book has said about it because I want to find out for myself what it is. Here is an enormous problem that involves the whole of mankind, there have been a thousand ways of defining it and I myself am caught in some pattern or other according to what I like or enjoy at the moment - so shouldn't I, in order to understand it, first free myself from my own inclinations and prejudices? I am confused, torn by my own desires, so I say to myself, `First clear up your own confusion. Perhaps you may be able to discover what love is through what it is not.'

The government says, `Go and kill for the love of your country'. Is that love? Religion says, `Give up sex for the love of God'. Is that love? Is love desire? Don't say no. For most of us it is – desire with pleasure, the pleasure that is derived through the senses, through sexual attachment and fulfilment. I am not against sex, but see what is involved in it. What sex gives you momentarily is the total abandonment of yourself, then you are back again with your turmoil, so you want a repetition over and over again of that state in which there is no worry, no problem, no self. You say you love your wife. In that love is involved sexual pleasure, the pleasure of having someone in the house to look after your children, to cook. You depend on her; she has given you her body, her emotions, her encouragement, a certain feeling of security and well-being. Then she turns away from you; she gets bored or goes off with someone else, and your whole emotional balance is destroyed, and this disturbance, which you don't like, is called jealousy. There is pain in it, anxiety, hate and violence. So what you are really saying is, `As long as you belong to me I love you but the moment you don't I begin to hate you. As long as I can rely on you to satisfy my demands, sexual and otherwise, I love you, but the moment you cease to supply what I want I don't like you.' So there is antagonism between you, there is separation, and when you feel separate from another there is no love. But if you can live with your wife without thought creating all these contradictory states, these endless quarrels in yourself, then perhaps - perhaps - you will know what love is. Then you are completely free and so is she, whereas if you depend on her for all your pleasure you are a slave to her. So when one loves there must be freedom, not only from the other person but from oneself.

This belonging to another, being psychologically nourished by another, depending on another - in all this there must always be anxiety, fear, jealousy, guilt, and so long as there is fear there is no love; a mind ridden with sorrow will never know what love is; sentimentality and emotionalism have nothing whatsoever to do with love. And so love is not to do with pleasure and desire.

Love is not the product of thought which is the past. Thought cannot possibly cultivate love. Love is not hedged about and caught in jealousy, for jealousy is of the past. Love is always active present. It is not `I will love' or `I have loved'. If you know love you will not follow anybody. Love does not obey. When you love there is neither respect nor disrespect. Don't you know what it means really to love somebody - to love without hate, without jealousy, without anger, without wanting to interfere with what he is doing or thinking, without condemning, without comparing - don't you know what it means? Where there is love is there comparison? When you love someone with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your body, with your entire being, is there comparison? When you totally abandon yourself to that love there is not the other.

Does love have responsibility and duty, and will it use those words? When you do something out of duty is there any love in it? In duty there is no love. The structure of duty in which the human being is caught is destroying him. So long as you are compelled to do something because it is your duty you don't love what you are doing. When there is love there is no duty and no responsibility.

Most parents unfortunately think they are responsible for their children and their sense of responsibility takes the form of telling them what they should do and what they should not do, what they should become and what they should not become. The parents want their children to have a secure position in society. What they call responsibility is part of that respectability they worship; and it seems to me that where there is respectability there is no order; they are concerned only with becoming a perfect bourgeois. When they prepare their children to fit into society they are perpetuating war, conflict and brutality. Do you call that care and love? Really to care is to care as you would for a tree or a plant, watering it, studying its needs, the best soil for it, looking after it with gentleness and tenderness - but when you prepare your childrren to fit into society you are preparing them to be killed. If you loved your children you would have no war. When you lose someone you love you shed tears - are your tears for yourself or for the one who is dead? Are you crying for yourself or for another? Have you ever cried for another? Have you ever cried for your son who is killed on the battlefield? You have cried, but do those tears come out of self-pity or have you cried because a human being has been killed? If you cry out of self-pity your tears have no meaning because you are concerned about yourself. If you are crying because you are bereft of one in whom you have invested a great deal of affection, it was not really affection. When you cry for your brother who dies cry for him. It is very easy to cry for yourself because he is gone. Apparently you are crying because your heart is touched, but it is not touched for him, it is only touched by self- pity and self-pity makes you hard, encloses you, makes you dull and stupid.

When you cry for yourself, is it love - crying because you are lonely, because you have been left, because you are no longer powerful - complaining of your lot, your environmment - always you in tears? If you understand this, which means to come in contact with it as directly as you would touch a tree or a pillar or a hand, then you will see that sorrow is self-created, sorrow is created by thought, sorrow is the outcome of time. I had my brother three years ago, now he is dead, now I am lonely, aching, there is no one to whom I can look for comfort or companionship, and it brings tears to my eyes. You can see all this happening inside yourself if you watch it. You can see it fully, completely, in one glance, not take analytical time over it. You can see in a moment the whole structure and nature of this shoddy little thing called `me', my tears, my family, my nation, my belief, my religion - all that ugliness, it is all inside you. When you see it with your heart, not with your mind, when you see it from the very bottom of your heart, then you have the key that will end sorrow. Sorrow and love cannot go together, but in the Christian world they have idealized suffering, put it on a cross and worshipped it, implying that you can never escape from suffering except through that one particular door, and this is the whole structure of an exploiting religious society.
So when you ask what love is, you may be too frightened to see the answer. It may mean complete upheaval; it may break up the family; you may discover that you do not love your wife or husband or children - do you? - you may have to shatter the house you have built, you may never go back to the temple.

But if you still want to find out, you will see that fear is not love, dependence is not love, jealousy is not love, possessiveness and domination are not love, responsibility and duty are not love, self-pity is not love, the agony of not being loved is not love, love is not the opposite of hate any more than humility is the opposite of vanity. So if you can eliminate all these, not by forcing them but by washing them away as the rain washes the dust of many days from a leaf, then perhaps you will come upon this strange flower which man always hungers after. If you have not got love - not just in little drops but in abundance if you are not filled with it - the world will go to disaster. You know intellectually that the unity of mankind is essential and that love is the only way, but who is going to teach you how to love? Will any authority, any method, any system, tell you how to love? If anyone tells you, it is not love. Can you say, `I will practise love. I will sit down day after day and think about it. I will practise being kind and gentle and force myself to pay attention to others?'

Do you mean to say that you can discipline yourself to love, exercise the will to love? When you exercise discipline and will to love, love goes out of the window. By practising some method or system of loving you may become extraordinarily clever or more kindly or get into a state of non-violence, but that has nothing whatsoever to do with love.

In this torn desert world there is no love because pleasure and desire play the greatest roles, yet without love your daily life has no meaning. And you cannot have love if there is no beauty. Beauty is not something you see - not a beautiful tree, a beautiful picture, a beautiful building or a beautiful woman. There is beauty only when your heart and mind know what love is. Without love and that sense of beauty there is no virtue, and you know very well that, do what you will, improve society, feed the poor, you will only be creating more mischief, for without love there is only ugliness and poverty in your own heart and mind. But when there is love and beauty, whatever you do is right, whatever you do is in order. If you know how to love, then you can do what you like because it will solve all other problems. So we reach the point: can the mind come upon love without discipline, without thought, without enforcement, without any book, any teacher or leader - come upon it as one comes upon a lovely sunset? It seems to me that one thing is absolutely necessary and that is passion without motive - passion that is not the result of some commitment or attachment, passion that is not lust. A man who does not know what passion is will never know love because love can come into being only when there is total self-abandonment. A mind that is seeking is not a passionate mind and to come upon love without seeking it is the only way to find it - to come upon it unknowingly and not as the result of any effort or experience. Such a love, you will find, is not of time; such a love is both personal and impersonal, is both the one and the many. Like a flower that has perfume you can smell it or pass it by. That flower is for everybody and for the one who takes trouble to breathe it deeply and look at it with delight. Whether one is very near in the garden, or very far away, it is the same to the flower because it is full of that perfume and therefore it is sharing with everybody.

Love is something that is new, fresh, alive. It has no yesterday and no tomorrow. It is beyond the turmoil of thought. It is only the innocent mind which knows what love is, and the innocent mind can live in the world which is not innocent. To find this extraordinary thing which man has sought endlessly through sacrifice, through worship, through relationship, through sex, through every form of pleasure and pain, is only possible when thought comes to understand itself and comes naturally to an end. Then love has no opposite, then love has no conflict. You may ask, `If I find such a love, what happens to my wife, my children, my family? They must have security.' When you put such a question you have never been outside the field of thought, the field of consciousness. When once you have been outside that field you will never ask such a question because then you will know what love is in which there is no thought and therefore no time. You may read this mesmerized and enchanted, but actually to go beyond thought and time - which means going beyond sorrow - is to be aware that there is a different dimension called love. But you don't know how to come to this extraordinary fount - so what do you do? If you don't know what to do, you do nothing, don't you? Absolutely nothing. Then inwardly you are completely silent. Do you understand what that means? It means that you are not seeking, not wanting, not pursuing; there is no centre at all. Then there is love.

A hopeful thought

I was walking to my office the other day. Its a 5 minute walk on the IT highway in Chennai to Tidel Park. On the way to my left is a slum beside one of the stinking waterways that are common in Chennai - the stinking waste water of the Buckingham canal below the elevated metro railway. I am not new to contrasts in India now. I have seen opulence and poverty rubbing cold shoulders with each other in most major cities of India. Here too, beside one of the most modern areas of Chennai's IT hub is a stinking sewage canal and slums lining it. This got me thinking and wanting to write about it for a long time.

As I have seen it, one of the strongest reasons still keeping India in the category of third world countries is its lack of cleanliness. No I am not talking about physical cleanliness. The lacking factor is the responsibility of keeping not only your body, but your surroundings also clean. Most of us do not care to keep our neighbourhood clean. We got better things to do, right? Think twice

Most people do not know how much difference a clean environment can make. The responsibility of keeping a clean neighbourhood is absent amongst most of us; 'Its not my business' - complain to the city corporation. And we keep living in this plight thinking the corporation is our slave that money can buy to clean up your neigbourhood. And even if money could buy a clean neighbourhood, how many would be ready to shelve out money for anything more than personal cleanliness? Having lived in another country, I have seen how responsible the people are to their neighbourhood and surroundings. Pure air to breath and clean living conditions are some of the simple pleasures I enjoyed. Of course, I too did my duty of disposing waste only in the common waste bin, never littering on the streets etc. But in this country, I see people lost in the gleamy hopes for material happiness and a better future that they neglect the present. Its a sad attitude. Not even a handful realize that their present living could be elevated to much higher standards if they consciously do their part to keep their homes and their surroundings clean.

In Chennai and in most metros, I have seen the city corporation installing waste baskets in almost all residential areas. But to the people of developing India, it is something new and they had lived without it for so many years that they don't know its use, so they conveniently ignore it. Everyone's world is frantically paced. But we truly need to stop and look at ourselves because the present is what we need to enjoy and we are living in a un-clean present hoping for a better future.

Most people in India hope one day to settle abroad. Why? Because we envy their clean environs and living conditions. Just try to go there and you realize subtle truths like you need to dump your waste in the waste baskets ONLY, along with a whole list of rules which the people there happily follow for a clean living. And most Indians realize this only when they go abroad. Till then, its all a rosy picture as if it is paradise.

So if its just all about doing your part to society, why can't you do your part in your very home place? You've got the present to act on, rather than waiting for the future!

We have all that we are yearning for, but never can open our eyes and realize it. India is beautiful. It has got all the types of climates, all the types of terrains, all kinds of people, a culture to be proud of, and a multitude of things for everybody. But its the poorly laid out waste management that mostly paints a gory sight to the public. And we are fools to shy away from a truth like this. Its a common sight to see people dumping waste in an open area outside their house, whereas there is a public wastebasket a couple of blocks away. Is it laziness or ignorance? Neither. I think it is irresponsibility and egotism; egotism because people deep down think its a pathetic plight to have to dump their own waste by walking a few blocks in their neighbourhood and using the waste basket. The more affluent fools have employed servants to do this work. But how could the servants care more if the masters themselves are lurking away from cleanliness; cleanliness of the mind.

True living is realizing your own potential, counting your strengths and building up on them. Do your part and enjoy a happy living! Heaven and paradise are after all a state of the mind :)

Rita? Oh head up one of the freeways quick. Pyaar? Whats that!!

I want the title to say it all. There has been a lot of noise over the movement of people from Texas fearing Rita. True, they have little else to do for safety. This article is not about their act, but to criticize the un-justified media publicity to a major 5 hurricane hitting the US (once in many years), where the whole world is informed in advance. Also, to criticize the un-justified amount of sentiment given to the world's most developed nation, where people have got fast cars, express-ways and all the support and money to save themselves. They call this a major catastrophe huh?!

Now, come to Pyaar. Its a cyclone thats in the process of devastating Andhra Pradesh and adjoining states in India. Nothing new. Just a familiar story, as regular as the monsoons in India. As of this writing, more than 150,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. Only about 60 dead so far! And they got no cars, no freeways, no phones, nothing! And they have to save themselves from highly in-accessible regions far from the luxuries of hostpitals and food. These are people going about with events in their life without any noise. Yearly 5-6 major storms hit India. Thousands are affected by each storm. Many thousands of deaths are even not reported, as the coverage cannot get to their areas. Its a quarterly chaos for India in some state or other.

Watch any of the popular news channels of the world and their major headline is their coverage in multiple helicopters of the long snake lines of cars leaving Texas. I cannot help but laugh in disgust. First I think - is it such an amusing sight to see so many cars jam-packed? Or is it to show a major human catastrophe happening live? That catastrophe is at the max being to relocate to another state in the US in the cozy comfort of their cars?! Do these channels know what exactly they want to tell the world? Basically here is the case of a catastrophe avoided, thanks to the media publicity that bought it to the people too, and to this far as India, to me. So everbody in the world knows about Katrina and Rita, evoking high public sentiments. Does anyone know about Pyaar? This cyclone is ravaging the totally poor and ill-equipped people who didn't even know what was coming! Who is there for the poor villager in India whose name itself is unknown, to tell their story? If the global news channels pride themselves for their world-wide, un-biased coverage, why didn't we see enough about Pyaar in these channels?

Think World, think. Un-biasedly. Is there any point in telecasting an interview of the 'run to safety through the highly treacharous freeways' of a rescued Texan, now safe in some other state? Rather show the plight of the still sufferring people of Andhra Pradesh who have no roads to take them to safety. That would atleast bring rescue to that person. Any idea what a highly logistical operation the Indian Govt. is doing to airlift all the affected citizens? But many outside India do not know, due to the yet un-reached media coverage by the so called 'global' channels!

"Because helping the victims of past wars is an action towards lasting peace in the future"

Do you know what the Vietnam-Dioxine Collective is?

I didn't, until I chanced upon it in this blog.

Whats the collective about? Created at the initiative of the young Vietnamese of France and of Vietnam, the Vietnam-Dioxin Collective is a gathering of people and organizations whose goal is to participate in an international campaign of inform public opinion and raise awareness on the continuing effects of the massive use of herbicides and pesticides (of which the infamous "Agent Orange") in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos between 1961 and 1971.

Today still, hundreds of thousands of children and adults suffer from diseases and handicaps linked to their exposure to these chemical products containing high levels of dioxin. Highly contaminated zones subsist as well.

The Vietnam-Dioxin Collective aims at drawing the attention of citizens and institutions to the problem so that economic, sanitary and environmental aid can be brought to the populations and regions, which need it the most.

And what is Agent Orange? It was the herbicide most heavily used by the American army during the Vietnam war. Herbicides were used to defoliate forests (to prevent the Viet Cong from hiding), to clear military areas and to destroy enemy crops. Agent Orange is actually pink-brownish. Its name comes from the orange-coloured bands that appeared on the drums in which Agent Orange was stored. Other herbicides used by the US army include Agents White, Blue, Pink, Green and Purple.

What are the effects of dioxin? Dioxin provokes cancers, foetal malformations, skin diseases... It also affects the immune system, the reproductive system and the nervous system.

Find out more: http://www.vietnam-dioxine.org/

From the heart of kids :-)

These are some letters written by kids to God. Catch their innocence here!

Google's new blog search tool

Google just released http://blogsearch.google.com/ which searches just the blog world (or anything that publishes a feed). It'd be interesting to see how long before we have commercial sites start popping up here abusing the result sets!

The children of Beslan - a harrowing episode

Last night sitting alone at home, I happened to watch a BBC programme recounting the harrowing incident of a school seige that happend one year ago by Chechen terrorists in Beslan (in Russia).

To know that those victims are mostly kids, is deeply disturbing. I just kept watching the show as numb as I got. I wanted to change the channel but couldn't. Those kids need a life! They can't keep living with such trauma so early in their lives. Most of them who survived had to see their parents getting killed.

The male adults were taken to a separate room in the school and shot at. One kid in the show, sprightly shows the reporter the room in which his dad was shot and thrown out of the window. The kid must be about 9 years old. Another kid recollects matter-of-factly how she had to drink pee to quench her thirst during the 3 day seige. Can't say disgusting - its pathetic. One sweet kid promptly offered some roubles he had in his pocket to one of the terrorists during the seige and asked for his mother instead. The terrorist coldy said he didn't want the money. What did he get instead? And what did the child get?!

One girl now draws the pictures of the terrorists and burns them to take out her anger on them. That said, almost all the kids interviewed in the show, wanted to avenge the terrorists and took it up as amjor ambition in their lives. What guarantee is there that most of these kids won't turn into future terrorists themselves? They are just too much in shock still. What therapy can solve their mental anguish to bring back normalcy to their lives? They are still in the formative stage. What can be predicted about their future? All that's sure for now is, they'll take a long time to get smiling again.

Well, we are left to face the facts now. Whats over is over. Its upto us to act today and plan our tomorrow. We really gotta say NO to terrorism and make our noise heard. Our children are the future of tomorrow. Lets imbibe in them sense of happiness, belonging and the qualities that make them energetic possitive individuals of the future. So that when they grow up, the world would be a safer place to live in.

Save the children!

Spam!!

Ever wondered if Bill Gates would really share his profits if you sent a mail to 10 people? Or your fiance would suddenly get delighted to propose to you if you sent some mail to a dozen other victims? If you really were in the dark on that matter, let this site quash all your doubts away! Its a very nice and apt take on all those folks originating mails like that ... lol!

The other side of the coin - is rusting!

Found this site (requires macromedia flash player) in one of the forwards that I got today, and it got me thinking.

The site offers an excellent flash presentation on the 'other side of the coin' - a look at the contrasts of the happy western world (generally) and the malnourished masses of Africa. Follow the flash till the end and you are provided with enough links and resources where you can give your help simply by sitting in your seats and clicking on - what seems to be - mundane buttons!

Go ahead, the world needs your help...

Vinayaka Chathurthi

Tomorrow is Ganesh Chathurthi. Amongst the flood of forwards that I got, I particularly liked this picturization of Lord Ganesha. Its a modern, surreal and quite transcending image which is soothing to look at.

Effect of the damage...

Veiw here for astounding pictures of the areas affected by hurricane Katrina...as God would have seen it! (requires macromedia flash player).

Katrina - the road to hell!

What can I say.. It was straight out of a horror movie! People drowning in one of America's popular cities. A city that new this monster could rip them off, since they lie below sea level. Peronally I never know of any such city below sea level! And considering the fact that the US govt. saw the destruction coming, they did nothing to contain the mess and the span of destruction. Our prayers are always with the lost souls.

The first pic shows the topography of the ill-fated city. The bottom pic is a cemetery by the pass. :(

Yahoo's 3600

Yahoo has launched its 360⁰ which seems to be a combination of a:

Blog + a public messaging space called 'blast' + Photo Album viewer (connected to photos.yahoo.com of course!) + Networking tool like minimal hi5 or orkut and.. LAUNCHcast.

I have to tell you I haven't used 360⁰ myself (more due to the pains of shifting from blogger.com and stuff ..). But it sure seems more hi-tech and could be a super tool. It also seems easy to use. So at-last its a revenge of the titans - Yahoo's answer to Google's www.blogger.com!

How to increase traffic to your site

Most of us who want to keep our blogs public would like to drive as much relevant traffic as possible. We can make use of HTML and the search engines' functionalities for that. Here's how...

First, the meta tags. These are tags like
<meta name="tag type" content="whatever">

View the HTML of this page to see how I have used them.

The common meta tags are: Description, Keywords, Robots, revisit-after and distribution

These tags are placed between the <head> and </head> tags. Metatags are a useful tool for search engines, a crawler/spider comes to your site and instead of searching the entire site, it just looks at your metatag for a description of your site. The 2 mainly useful metatags are the desciption and keywords tags.

The description metatag is returned to the search engine and is used for the summary of your site.
The keywords metatag is used to associate your site with those keywords listed, when somebody searches for one of those keywords, your site appears in the list with the description from your metatags.
The revisit-after tag is used to tell the search engine to revisit your site every 'n' days.
The Distribution tag tells the search engine that your page has global relevance.
The Robots metatag needs a special mention: If you don't want to be indexed by a search engine you would place this tag on your site, however if you want to be indexed you don't need to include it as the search engine will index it.

These are the values that you can use in between the braces after content= in your robots metatag:
index: robot will index your site
noindex: robot will not index your site
follow: robot will follow all links on your webpage
nofollow : robot will not follow any links

If you want to create specific meta tags for your site, use this meta tag generator.

Paradox of our times..

We have bigger houses but smaller families;
More conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgement;
More experts, but more problems;
More medicines, but less healthiness;
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour;
We built more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less comunication;
We have become long on quantity,but short on quality;
These are times of fast foodsbut slow digestion;
Tall man but short character;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It's a time when there is much in the window, but nothin in the room.

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

A take on QEMU

In one sentence, QEMU is an open source CPU and system emulator. As an emulator or virtualizer, QEMU has two modes of operation: it can emulate a full system so that an operating system can run on top of it (system emulation), or it can just emulate a CPU in a mode called user emulation (this mode is Linux specific), so that binary applications can run on a different CPU that they have been compiled for.

Check it out and do let me know your comments..

OpenSource in Kerala

Boy, ain't I happy to read this!! All proud Keralites, this is for you: Article on Open Source in Kerala

A little bit on Pi

Two links for fans of Pi.

Pi to 1,000,000 places

Am I in Pi (to know if your birthday falls in Pi!)

As you see, some people are really jobless. Including me. Not to mention even you if you visited the above links, especially the second one ;-)