Common misunderstanding

I have been receiving interesting responses by email regarding my comments on the CWG!

For sure, I am not against the Games. But I am definitely against the politics behind the preparation. Look, Delhi is also a part of India (although Delhiites don't think so), and as Indians, we should extend full support to all the good things that take place there.

But the way Kalmadi and company have gone about it, you would be surprised that a country that could produce the Chandrayaan at a fraction of its corresponding international cost could come up with a colossal disaster like this at five times the budget. Let's keep our palms crossed and pray that it succeeds.

Reading Between the Lines - 25 - Psychological Gerrymandering

Times of India, 29-09-2010: iPhone4 shows Arunachal Pradesh in China

P's C: iPhone5 shows old China across the world

Reading Between the Lines - 24 - Playing to the crowd

The Hindu, 29-09-2010: Sania Mirza keen to be at her best

P's C: Sania Mirza keen to be at her best dressed if she participates in the CWG next week.

Sania has confirmed that she will leave no stone unturned and no lipstick unused in her preparatory effort. She adds that if she does get a visa to India, she will definitely show her best, and also play for whichever country she might end up playing for.

Flash news: Resolution of Kashmir only solution to match-fixing scandal

New Pakistani evidence points at India as the main reason for the raging controversy of the current match-fixing scandal. Pakistan has shown that, with, India's reluctance to find a resolution to the Kashmir issue, the match-fixing will continue in Pakistan, and Pakistani cricketers will be forced to continue fixing in the name of the Jihadis.

The Kashmir issue, according to Pakistan, has also been the reason for the current flood in Pakistan and the nuclear facility in Iran. India's outstandingly lousy PR machine has politely and lovingly refuted the claims. Past events, stretching from Columbus' discovery of America, to Prime Minister Gilani's recent bout of diarrhoea, have also been attributed to the Kashmir problem.

Flash News: Attack on Indian not racially motivated!

Police investing a case of assault in University of Technology, Sydney, are relived and excited that a brutal assault on an Indian student yesterday was not racially motivated after all.

Australian universities, which provide world-class education and world-class racism, have been the setting for many an assault on Indians. This time, however, it turned out to be a different case altogether. Shyam Naidu, who is doing a Masters in Electrical Engineering, was pummelled by a group of Australians yesterday at the University cafe, after a discussion on cricket went sour. All things were going on well till Shyam's ignorant comment that Australian cricketers are gentlemen at the game.

Incensed that their cricketers, well acknowledged for their arrogance and overconfidence, were so grossly misinterpreted, his Australian class-mates had a got at him. Shyam is now recuperating in the University hospital with a broken nose and concussions to both knees.

I am no longer successful

I did my repeat blood test yesterday after my last one in January, where I was diagnosed with the standard symptoms of success, BP and sugar. After switching over from my high-taste low-health diet, to one consisting of 35% raw salad, I am back to health now, but low on the social acceptance rating.

All health starts from the tip of the tongue, but we currently live in a culture that promotes a tab for even the flab. The body thus becomes a mansion of medication, probably just what the doctor ordered... for himself.

You are what you ate.

Flash news: At least 50% of second-rung will compete!

It's a great relief that a large number of second-rung athletes will come to participate in our CWG. I guess there is no other positive way to look at things.

Kalmadi has done an amazing job to have spent close to USD 10 billion on the CWG to offer us this global PR disaster. When we ourselves elect such ethically bankrupt custodians of corruption to office, why should we raise such hue and cry? Every country deserves the government it brings to power.

One of the top five economies in the world in terms of PPP is also in a quite unenviable position of being absent even from the first hundred countries in terms of per capita PPP. We should have been communist in thought and capitalist in action. That's probably the only way the gulf between the government-supported rich and the state-disowned poor can be bridged. In China, you can get hanged for corruption. In India, you get hounded. End of story.

Why God punished Stephen Hawking right from birth

Hawking's new book, The Grand Design' suggests that 'Spontaneous creation is the reason why the universe exists, and why we exist.' In other words, God was not needed in the first place. The universe just began spontaneously.

My first point: The multiverse concept itself assumes an astonishingly large number of universes out there. I came across this figure of 10⁵⁰⁰ as a possible number.

My second point: Hawking himself postulates that, based on simulation, 'if protons were just 0.2% heavier, they would decay into neutrons, destabilizing atoms', thereby preventing any form of life to exist, much less, persist. Another point he uses to illustrate is that 'a change of as little as 0.5% in the strength of the strong nuclear force, or 4% in the electric force, would destroy either nearly all carbon or all oxygen in every star, and hence the possibility of life as we know it.'

Summing the points: With this ridiculously large number of universes out there, and Hawking's own points on the 'preciseness' of conditions for life, somebody as naive as myself would think that Hawking just shot himself in his foot by suggesting that so 'accurate' a universe would have come about by serendipity. His main point is that 'spontaneous creation is the reason why we exist'. Is that a proof or a premise? That's a premise, and that makes his statement philosophical rather than scientific. He also talks about the strong anthropic principle, which is, if you delve deeper, Advaitha in a three-piece suit of science.

To quote Kant or whoever it was, 'Infinity is not only unknown, but also unknowable.'

The Song of the Universe

This book explains the most important conversation of the last 14.7 billion years. Why this should be read is because this book is Krishna speak about what Krishna spoke. No other version can be more authentic in its interpretation and explosive in its intensity. The plus point to this book is that the Avatar actually goes on to exemplify through allegories that you and I can relate to. That is but the least of its merits. Read and eat it to succumb for good.

The Geetha Vahini has to be my Bible for sure.

Reading Between the Lines - 23 - Commonwealthy politicians

Gulf News 22.09.2010: Commonwealth Games in doubt.

P's C: Commonwealth Games in no doubt of political ineptitude.

Actually, we must admire their shrewdness to sabotage the games to pre-empt the dismal performance of Indian athletes.

That's India shining for you.

Death to Civilization by Stoning

Just returned from Germany, where there is a lot more coverage to the following case than is elsewhere:

Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani, a mother of two, could be stoned to death at any moment under the terms of a death sentence handed down by Iranian authorities for alleged adultery. Now, the Iranian penal code requires at least four witnesses for an adulterer to receive a stoning sentence. However, there were no witnesses in Ashtiani's case. Her conviction was based not on evidence but on the determination of three out of five judges.

If that is not barbaric enough, listen to the execution method. Ashtiani will be buried up to her chest, and the process will then begin. The stones that will be hurled at her will be large enough to cause pain but not so large as to kill her immediately.

(All sourced from CNN).

I don't know where we, as a human race, are headed. If this is not the age of Kali, then what is?

The most important Question of our life

What is the difference between existence and awareness?

I wear a Rolex chronometer, write with a Mont Blanc and drive a 7 series to work - this is pure existence.

I wear a Rolex chronometer which is accurate to 0.1 seconds, and which is what I totally don't need as i am not a 100 meter sprinter, write with a Mont Blanc which is no more purposeful than a Reynolds, and drive a BMW that I will not take with me to my next life. However, I continue to do all what I do, because I am a businessman and when I enact the role of a businessman, I must enact it to the best of my abilities. And, I must always remember that it is only a role, and that, after the game, both the king and the pawn end up in the same box - this is awareness.

Most of humanity exists, without any awareness. Vivekananda says that the spiritual mode can never be achieved till the material is eschewed. It takes enormous courage for a peacock to accept that its feathers won't last for ever.

Most of us work, make money, earn fame, become successful, get married, become more successful, earn more money, gain more fame, pray for intelligent children, get children, pray for their welfare, become more successful, watch our children grow and become successful, retire peacefully and die abruptly. A few do all the above, while being aware that someday this must all end, and in this awareness, he who thinks along these lines will distinguish himself to himself alone.

Are both paths right? Wrong question. Are both paths normal? Right, and yes. Is one path preferable to another? Purely subjective. But this will probably be the most important question a man asks himself in his entire life, and in doing so, sets on the path of self-awareness.

It had to be arguably the most intelligent man in all of humanity to make this very inconvenient statement: It is good to be a man of success, but better to be a man of value. If these words came from the mouth of anyone of even marginally lesser standing than Einstein, they would have been received with perfect derision from the intelligensia. However, since these have come from one who studied Sanskrit for years to learn the true meaning of the Bhagavad Gita, they cannot be cast asunder, and have to receive a little more consideration. What will we do with all the money we earn? It is in how many lives we transform that we distinguish ourselves, and embellish our legacies.

The peacock's feathers are most resplendent when they sit on the crown of the Lord. But how many peacocks would want that to happen?

Where do we go from here?

I have just returned from the longest vacation of my professional life, and much water has flowed during this period. For anybody reading, 33 comments have been made to one outrageous post of mine, which just goes to suggest that anything outrageous sells. But although I instigated this flood of words and thoughts, I should connect my hiatus to my future course of action.

This Parthi trip was as spiritually epiphanic as it was physically enervating. This Parthi trip taught me one thing which my mighty mind never taught me for two decades with the Organization, and more specifically with Dubai: The world is more than 500 people, in fact, it is more than 6,500,000,000 people.

Put in perspective, social acceptance should be the least of my interests, when my self has not been ordained to be centred. With great Blessings come great responsibilities, and it is time I choose what is necessary to what is lively.

Footnote: Of the +6,500,000,000 people alive today, only an insignificant 2,000,000,000 live in poverty.