Journey of Life

With much pains I tried to create a rhyming poem. Much of the lines & words had to be painfully contorted to keep the original meaning intact. Whew, poetry is tough!

We are all born blind with open eyes
To the truth at first no one finds
Then there occurs at some point a strike -
A ray of light from the inside
Not any lightning is ever so bright
Than this calming, soothing light
A light so divine that makes you realize
'Tis not in the oceans, hills or skies
But in the depths of our own heart lies
The light of joy that is truthfully right
No more illusions of daily life
Can block your vision to cause you plight
In keeping this light is one's true might
That guides you through to Moksha's heights!

Quote for the day (and life)

Your treasure is deep within you: it holds all you need.
Hui-Hai

Hitlers of India

After a media expose about the beating to death of H.S. Sabharwal, a professor of Madhav College by two ABVP activists, the sole person to testify against the criminals is left in the open threatened that his life will be taken away any moment.

What is startling is that the media has exposed the video of the professor's plight (which yet is not in its full version for reasons still unknown!). It clearly shows there were atleast 50 people witnessing the cruel beating to death of the late professor. Despite all that, the only person to have bravely testified as a witness is Komal Singh Sengar, a peon at the Madhav college in Ujjain. This, despite orders to keep quiet and offers of money and a good life for his children thereafter. But who with a clear conscience can accept anything like that? And it takes extraordinary love and courage for someone like Mr. Komal Singh to shout out against the wrongdoers. Although he fears for his life now, he will surely have a better life eternally. Kudos to the real hero.

Now to the whole political dirt of the matter. The two people who beat the professor to death are ABVP activists. The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan gave a clean chit to them even before investigation began on the case, clearly exposing the much behind the incident. Sad part is such political gundaism still exists in a nation priding itself on its values.

Full marks to the media for exposing this and atleast providing a chance to hear out the truth from the sole 'human' in the tragedy. Incidentally, the late professor's son has also braved all odds and come out against the murderers in public. Pray that no one else gets hurt in letting out the truth.

How many lives have been taken and how many more will go before India eradicates itself off its Hitlers? Even fatal diseases like malaria can be eradicated by a nation wide vaccination program within a few years. But more murderous diseases such as our politicians..?

Honestly funny, but not in India!

While in the US, one of my favourite T.V shows was America's Funniest Home Videos or AFV. Why was it funny? The audience weren't a sadistic lot to see others plights in vengeful humour. It was funny because it brought to light in a very funny way the nuances of daily life. It created a sense of empathy and we quickly connected with the people in the videos. It made us take a look at our own life and take time to laugh at ourselves. It did wonders to a quarrelling household, for instance :) And hence, it improved a nation's lives.

So why isn't anything like AFV still not popular in India? AFV as such isnt aired here, but great substitutes are available on AXN and other channels. To be fair, there are some goof shows on many local channels. But they are all the same, painfully - they all capture the host(s) putting other people in wierd situations and the camera crew secretively capturing it on tape to play it to the delight of the sarcastic viewers (if any).

Again, why isn't an honest show like AFV not popular in India? In my view its one of the subtle things that can improve an otherwise quarelling and greedy society. I suspect, in our daily lives of dealing with the corruption and pollution (of all sorts), we find it hard to suddenly put ourselves to some honestly good stuff. For we have to be impure to surivive in an impure place. Corruption breeds corruption. Anger breeds anger. Everybody is involuntarily now busy getting suspicious of everybody else and thinking about riches they once will make. But the subtle riches of laughing together is lost in this moment. Thanks to the society.

Honestly, how many of us are loving each day, anywhere in India? The clean air, the green pastures, the friendly neighbours - well, really? Not in India. Maybe in a few corners tucked away, for brief spurts of time.

Wake up India!! This isn't how it is in other places. And we vehemently claim to be a quickly advancing nation, proud of all its values and culture? "I love India" they say - well, I do not; even though deep down I have an attachment to this country due to my roots and childhood experiences. Money or material wealth might have increased here. But that cannot be a substitute for clean crisp air, friendly society or the cheap thrills as clean places to enjoy a hike or bike with friends. Fight for the right to an honest life..however close!

Thank You!

Of late, many of my friends have been saying they like what they see on this blog and have encouraged me to write. Thank you so much for your words and encouragement! Infact, any honest comment would be an equally good morale booster.

My aim is not just to state my feelings for the sake of it but to try and put it to good use too to (hopefully) have a positive impact on the way things are. So thank you so much for visiting and please do feel free to comment on anything you would like to discuss. Thanks again and peace to all :)

Multitasking @ work

Most of the employers nowadays seek employees with the ability of multitasking. Be it in the IT field or elsewhere. However, I have come to realize that nobody can have a customized set of skills as demanded by certain employers with blind expectations.

By observing a variety of people during my two and a half years of work experience, I've realized that those who can mulititask are better at technical concepts but poor at attention to detail, usability and aesthetics. On the other hand, those who have high creativity, sense of perfection and high involvement into their job are generally poor multitaskers. But the blind trend now seen shifts the scale towards recruiting only people with mulititasking ability. They are loosing out on the fine pool of resources who can lay that final touch that altogether elevates the appeal of a finished product making it really appealing to the customer. Be it in a software company or a florist's.

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