Call to Arms: Imperfect Action or Exalted Inaction

Many things have happened over the past two weeks, least of which includes the reconfiguration of the spiritual centre of the universe. But let's follow time, since we are not Avataric enough to work otherwise.

This goes back to the beginning of last week, when a couple of us were discussing quite esoteric topics in the Mandir. And in our midst was a member of the highest echelons of the Centre. I won't name him, but it won't be difficult to guess. He is the only one who still smiles at normal devotees and has not ended up getting more and more stone-faced as he has climbed the spiritual ladder.

So, we were discussing why we should never judge anyone else (which is an excellent point to pontificate on), and why everything is his or her destiny. And, as a self-confessed anti-establishment guy, I ended up getting ineluctably polarized during the course of the conversation. The bulwark of their collective argument was that everything is perfect, and nothing is wrong, and that it is our drishti that creates this skewed srishti. All well, but for the fact that our group was constituted by normal guys who did normal things and didn't hesitate to call a spade a spade, even though the same Atma pervades that inanimate tool as well. I kept wondering during our conversation, whether, happening to see their brother getting belted by the road-side, it would still not warrant any action from their side. We live in a world full of 'yes-men' who are ever ready to let loose the fusillade of 'Swami says this' and 'Swami says that'. It's about time we have people who didn't have to live on borrowed self-esteem. As always, he who thrives by social recognition will die by social rejection. We have to live for and by bigger reserves of strength and vigour, that will push us to do what is right, irrespective of what is convenient.

The easiest thing in a group is to be part of the group, immune to the cold gales of conscience and muted to the calls of action. And normalcy is defined by 95% of the population. Nobody can afford to be different, when they can afford to be popular. But popularity is the easiest goat to sacrifice, at the face of gross injustice. When can we stand up with courage and ask ourselves if we should not be doing something what we perceive is wrong, though we can always shield ourselves with the lame shield of 'Dontjudgeanyone'?

At the end of the day, it's cute to be a lemming, but always more worthwhile to be a lion, popular or otherwise.

The Bowler for all reasons

Many things have been happening, and my keystrokes have remained in the mind.

Ram defeated Ravan at the Wankhede (though the islanders were really not too Ravanic in their mannerism), my daughter started formal indoctrination at Modern High School and Sharad Pawar is finally out of the committee that he joked himself into (thanks to Hazare). But the news item that really dragged me to my blog had to be this:

Sreesanth's mother mentioned in an interview post the Cup, "If my son had just one more over to bowl, Dhoni could have had his Century!"

Talk about the magnaminity of an exalted soul... or maybe the motherly angst of a capricious cricketer!

Humble Australian Pontiff

An era of gallantry has come to an end.

Humble Australia, the world's best sledging team, has been forced out of another well-undeserved World Cup win by a low-intimidating Indian side. Ponting, a humble and chivalrous sportsman, whose principles will force him to stand his ground till the umpire declares him out, will ride into the sunset with an impeccable record as the captain of the team that raised the bar for non-walking, sledging and gentlemanly chicanery. Among the many things that went wrong today, Australia failed to capitalize on the extra man playing for them in Munaf Patel, their bowling focused more on the bodies more than the stumps, and their back-up verbal volleys proved quite impotent.

However, Ponting can find solace that there are TVs on the flight back to Australia, and Indian students still left in the sledging capital of the world. May he find a suitable opportunity to bequeath his wealth of character and vitriol to aspiring cricketers back home.

Good bye Australia, and good riddance Ponting.

Ponting and the art of perpetual impertinence

Ponting always aims to raise the bar, whether it relates to banging the TV screen, or blathering about probity, his version of probity, that is.

Ponting preferred to stand his ground even when he knew he had edged the ball, but preferred to stand his ground, till the umpire confirmed he was out. He later reconfirmed that he preferred to wait as he had never been a walker. That is the way the gentlemen of Australia always address the game. His principles are pretty clear,- you can be a murderer only if you are caught for murder.

Not surprising why Australia seems to a microcosm of the world at large. From foreign students to cricket, they set the standards. And their standards are always right. Why? Because they say so.

Land of the Rising Spirit

I was watching the news on TV in the comfort of my hotel bed in Brussels last night, and the hot news as always had to do with Japan.

Two short scenes of life post-tsunami-earthquake-radiation caught my attention. One was that of a phone bank which was offered for the use of Japanese trying to get in touch with their relatives. There was a long line of disciplined people in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties and seventies, waiting for the police to allow themselves to enter make-shift tent. The phones were placed in a long line. As soon as the police removed the barricade, you could notice every person in the queue walking in a resolute, poised and polite manner to the nearest phone, without even the minimum of unconscious jostling and pushing. This is after a day or two had just passed from probably the worst tragedy of their lives. I can't even fathom a similar Indian reaction. Not surprising that the news also highlighted that a similar cataclysm in another country would have resulted in consequences of far higher magnitude. Incidentally, not once did I hear of any news article suggesting looting and theft, while these could be natural propensities in many other countries.

The second scene was that of a restaurant in Tokyo, which has not been affected physically (of course, paranoia does not need substance to propagate itself) by the multi-cataclysm. They showed the owner removing bulbs from the ceiling so that he could save power for people in the affected areas. Nothing could be more empathetic in something so infinitesimally small. And the message could not be more timely for me. I was shaving the previous morning with glasses of water, as the tap gushed too much water too uncontrollably, and asking myself whether this made any difference to anyone.

Everything does make a difference. A drop saved or a watt reined, both are important. This is an inter-connected world, and we all make a difference to everyone else. Profligacy has brought humanity to its knees, and only the opposite will make us walk again.

International woMAN's Day

TOI - 09-03-2011: 48-mile cap for women travelling sans escort

This seems to be just what the religious doctor ordered for women who are waiting for an excuse to remain shackled. This latest fatwa by Darul Uloom Deoband, which comes at the most appropriate moment - that of International Women's Day, insists that women cannot travel alone beyond 48 miles without a male escort who should be either husband or father or brother. My colleague just returned alone from work, which is exactly 49 miles from her home. What will become of her?!

When modern Muslim cities like Dubai encourage women to join the police force, we have our desi outfit just wanting to ensure that reality remains frozen in time.

Reading Between the Lines - 36 - Please interfere in our problems

TOI - 05-03-2011: Wish to resolve all issues with Pakistan, including Kashmir: PM

P's C: Please read as: Wish to resolve all issues with Pakistan, specifically our internal issues. The finest of lame-duck governments would still not welcome outside interference in internal issues. I mean, have you ever read, "Pakistan wishes to resolve all issues with India, especially Karachi" or "China wishes to resolve all issues with Japan, including Hong Kong"? It is only this Italian government of ours that is always willing to engage everybody in Antartica for sorting out our problems. How spineless can our PM be?

Every country is punished with the government it elects.

Power-ful Gujarat

Trivia time: Which is the only state in India to have surplus power?

You guessed it,- Gujarat.

Gujarat Shining

In Narendra Damodardas Modi's Gujarat right now.

Gujarat is the home state of the father of the nation. The way things are going, it will soon be the state to father the industrialized nation. dubai's debt is USD 80 billion, MOUs from the just concluded vibrant gujarat summit is a pretty USD 450 billion. Just to let you know that Gujarat has the highest percentage of MOU conversions in India (50%).

People here seem well-dressed and seem to actually walk rather than just move, like they do in Kerala. Also, there are real roads and I have been accosted by only one beggar in the last 48 hours. Incidentally, not all shops are gold shops. Also, havent seen many policemen yet, as I havent seen any bar yet. Prohibition will kill a state like Kerala; it has neither killed the Gujarat government nor suffocated it.

This government is agonizingly rich (inspite of no liquor-dollars) and enviably efficient (inspite of being a government). It was none other than Ratan Tata who mentioned that their approval for Nano in Gujarat took even less time for processing than it would take Tata themselves to process approvals. Apparently, the lowest number of criminal lawyers in the country are in Gujarat,- not enough business for them.

What's the difference between Gujarat and Kerala,- if you will? A government can make or break. In Gujarat, it has broken mental barriers and made tangible progress. In Kerala, neither. If India is shining, the sun has to be rising here.

Reading Between the Lines - 35 - We might be broke, but we're nuked!

The Economic Times: Pakistan all set to overtake Britain as world's fifth largest nuke power

The prosperous nation of Pakistan is all set to overtake Britain as the world's fifth largest nuclear power, while simultaneously reasserting its position as the world's largest nuke powered terrorist state. The country, well known to house over a 100 well accounted for nuclear missiles, give or take a couple in the hands of friendly Afghans, and a few with, maybe the Somalis, is very much in control of its arsenal. The closely guarded stockpile in the command of its military, the ISI, the police, parliament, Nawaz Sharif, the Chinese, North Koreans and a privileged-few jehadis, will ensure that no third-world country will mess with Pakistan, other than Pakistanis themselves.

Magnanimous Ponting

Just wanted to note the gallantry of Ponting.

There were Indian students ready for the bludgeoning in the vicinity of this proud Australian, and yet, Ponting chivalrously decided to avoid clubbing them, and let loose his natural emotions on an innocent LCD.

Australians are known to be prophets of self-declared uprightness, whether it refers to banging Indian students or to sledging on the field. Ponting is not known to be an exception, but why vent your anger on the LCD, when there are cricketers on the field or students in the stadium? And besides, they are Australian, and so, everything will be perfectly acceptable.

Extra man doesn't help Bangladesh

In spite of having an extra player, Sreesanth, on their side, Bangladesh still could not manage a victory against India. Sreesanth who currently plays for any country that India is playing against, did his level best to help his Bengali team-mates, but the Indian total was too high for the Bangla brigade to scale.

If this is how we have bowled to the minnows, how will we manage the mighty?

Nuclear and beautiful

We are now in sovereign territory of the former Shah. This is Kish Island. The weather is beautiful, the water is blue, and the corruption is in-your-face. Just like India, but more beautiful.

Thousands of years of history, culture and civilization have led to Kish blossoming into a playground for daylight state-supported corruption. We are just past passport control when we are accosted by an official in plainclothes who eventually turned out to be just a plain hotelier in plainclothes. He kept seizing the passports of all those who were supposedly travelling for visa change, and kept instructing all such passengers to collect their luggage and wait in the hotel bus outside. When he collected ours, and we protested, he confirmed that if the passport officer agreed, he would return. So, we had to protest to the passport officer to 'instruct' this hotelier. The security-officer-hotel nexus is smooth, effective and runs with the efficiency of a steam engine.

The five star that we end up staying in might technically be five independent stars, one for breakfast, one for interior and so on. But then, we shouldn't complain. The whole island is engorged with mainlanders at the moment. The average Iranian in Kish would seem to economically better off than an average Indian, definitely more attractive, and decidedly more indifferent. Most are also seemingly nice. The vegetable vendor next to our hotel would have given Ajay Devgan a run for his money any day (I agree, anyone can given Ajay Toygun a run for his money). The food is incredible, if you are a carnivore. Else, you have the choice of rice and yogurt. Water is vegetarian.

The weather is chilly and cool, and the natural topography can inspire an epic. The elements must surely have something to do with the physical attractiveness of these people. Worth the visit? Definitely, if you are on a visa change.

Also, if you are Iranian.

Rushing back to home-grown violence

Taking a cue from other developed countries in the world, Pakistan has also been airlifting its citizens from restive Cairo to bring them back to its restive home soil.

Pakistanis stranded there are fearful of the violence that has besieged the country, and are anxious to get back to the comfort of home-grown violence. The paranoia of getting looted, mugged or blow-up in Cairo or Alexandria has driven many to the nearest airport to get a chance to return to Karachi or Islamabad to get looted, mugged or blow-up there.

Back home in Pakistan, the establishment has detected a foreign connection to its indigenous problem. I mean, people would really bother to immolate a self-immolating nation, wouldn't they?

Crying Ad Infinitum

Sri Sri Sri has got a way with all things illusory.

Recently in a Satsang, Guruji cracked a joke. People laughed hysterically over the joke. Then he repeated the joke and fewer people laughed. Then he repeated the joke again and again there was lesser laughter. This went on for some more time and each time there was lesser laughter.

Then Guruji said: "If you don't laugh over a joke if it is repeated more than once then why cry over the same grief again and again?"

World Day For the Abolition of Disease - 31st January

Technically, it's the World Day for the Abolition of Meat - but then again, it means the same thing. Interesting quote on this:

Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. ~George Orwell

Indians insult J&K by hoisting national flag

Indians have once again insulted the sentiments of the people of J&K, Pakistani Omar Abdullah and Italian Rahul Gandhi by raising the national flag on their hallowed separatist soil.

Riding an unflattering wave of desecrating scandals and demoralizing sentiments, Manmohan Singh truly seems to behave like timid Caesar's wife, totally under the command of an iron-fisted Italian husband, ironically, in the guise of a sari-garbed woman.

Re-public Day

On this day that reminds us that power rests within the people, here's two interesting titbits for your reading pleasure:

• India is the largest English-speaking country in the world
• In India today, we have a lady born Catholic (Sonia Gandhi) stepping aside so a Sikh (Manmohan Singh) could be sworn in by a Muslim President (Abdul Kalam) to lead a nation that’s 82% Hindu

Year of Taste

The Year 2010 has ended and another has begun. And the last Thought For The Day I received for 2010 has to be the most profound, and, as always, most apposite. The Avatar is always apposite.

"Never feel depressed when you are weighed down by difficulties. God will never impose on you ordeals that you cannot bear. He tests His devotees in various ways. Test is the ‘taste’ of God. Never fear any test. Be ready to sacrifice even your life for the sake of God. Only then will God protect you. There are no defects in God. All His words and deeds are perfect. What you see is the reflection, reaction and resound of your feelings. They are psychological in nature. God always grants us welfare alone. Understand and experience this Truth."

Hope the New Year ushers in peace, purpose and contentment for all.

Living in the (past) moment

The English truly have to be living in the Past.

Just read about the Revenues of the Royal Family of the British empire. This is where the sun never set till the clock struck 21st century. However, a lot of the British public still seem to believe it's the Imperial Age, if the way they support the expenses of the Royal family is any indication.

Funding the escapades of a Prince who became an emotional pauper to a mistress old enough to be his mother's elder sister should not really be a concern of the British public. This thoroughly British gentleman adulterer already has a netstimated fortune of nearly half a billion USD, while his official duties range from polo to inauguration work. And the British public still feel duty-bound to this time-bound tradition which has no present-day conviction.

Well, if Indians can be French enough to be led by an Italian, so can the British continue to be English.

Living life just like in the movies

You gotta hand it to Andhra Pradesh for innovation.

Through raising the bar on photogenic revolt by self-immolation and hunger-strike, Andhra Pradesh seems to live life just like the movies, specifically, Telugu movies. Things surely have changed a bit since Marie Antoinette's era, when cake was a good substitute for bread. In these digitized times, if farmers in AP don't have tractors, let them have Tablet PCs.

In Telugu movies, you kill two stones with one bird, and even this makes for serious viewing. So, you will surely understand the students and their politicians.

Aspiring for greatness or great awareness?

I was, only two mornings back, going round Modern High School, to determine whether this would be the right housing for my child's formal learning process. I was impressed with the suit-wearing executives, and the murals on the walls and, finally, the picture of the All-India ICSC topper swung things in Modern's favour. For, I too wanted, at least for that morning, my daughter to ace her education in the way modern education is expected to be aced.

That afternoon, I read about some issues of children in schools, and of various levels of intelligence, and of health issues, and the rest of the works, and it quickly came to mind that, contentment has to be the best gift you can give yourself.

Being contended for the way your child is (growing up to be), for the way you are, for the way your family is, reflects on the level of your harmony with the universe. With so many children around with no chance for education, I should be glad that my child is getting one. The ranks and rankings should be aspired for with detachment. The spirit of competition in the child is fired as much with the spirit of competition in the parents, as is with the overtures in the classroom. But so are consideration and empathy, and more so, as you will not find a lot of these values being nurtured in the classroom.

Education for the child has to be introspection for the parents. What do we raise our children to be? What for do we raise our children to be?

And, that afternoon, as I was evaluating my initial motive to (hopefully) send my daughter to Modern, I got a news that a close friend of ours had been admitted to ICU with MI. And this is a gentleman with no symptoms to suggest heart-disease. Normal BP, normal sugar, normal cholesterol. And it came one unsuspecting moment, the happenstance to underscore the point of the delicate house of want against the shaky ground of reality. Thankfully though, he is fine and was discharged yesterday.

Of all aspirations, the aspiration for contentment ought to be the most exalted. Ironally though, it cannot seem to be an aspiration at all, rather an endeavour in itself.

The world's largest democracy (up for sale)

On my way back to Dubai last week, I was reading the transcript of some of the taped conversations that Nira Radia had with just about everybody who is anybody in India, and this is the conclusion: Anything and anybody can be bought or sold at the right price.

The conversations range from the soap opera within the Karunanidhi family to the Reliance drama to the inconic scandal of recent times that dwarfs even CWG and Adarsh, the 2G disaster. All suggest one thing: our hallowed banana republic headed by the venerable Italian (I didn't say mob) is scripting a story that actually might make BJP's communal ideology seem quite acceptable.

If you read, you will figure out that even our benevolent PM might not be the white sheep that we assume his gracious smile to be. He was privy to the processes that at the Info Ministry that has cost a cool $39 billion loss to the exchequer, and ultimately to the common man. Going by the article, this figure can escalate if current subscriber fees are calculated for the licences allotted. One thing's for sure, you have to admit that this is a very impressive statistic that Raja can lay claim to. In politics, guts and shamelessness almost mean the same thing.

The ultimate icing on India's cake of corruption is the fact that the media itself is, as opposed to FT's slogan, with fear, and with favour. You have got Bharka and Sanghvi canvassing and conniving. So, even the fourth estate is economical with the truth and generous with the generous.

Who can you trust in India???

And here I start life as in l-i-f-e

On Wednesday, 1st December, 2010, my daughter became one of India's 96 million children who are Blessed to be able to go to school.

She woke up early, bathed, dressed up and took the elevator to the entrance of her building where an air-conditioned bus came to drop her to her play-school, all for a monthly fee that will take care of the annual education of 15 of her Indian siblings. I hope she will learn someday to show gratitude for the fact that for the 3 million children on the streets, and, especially for the majority of her sorority, there will be no school. As of April 1, 2010, the Right to Education (RTE) Act made schooling a fundamental right for all children. But for 50% of India's 192 million children, the RTE will remain an April Fool's joke. Even more significantly, for the girl child, who actually grows up to be a woman and a mother (like the India-is-my-Motherland joke), this fundamental right is far from fundamental. It is much more of a privilege.

I hope and pray that she gets a meaningful, purposeful and socially beneficial education, so that the equally deserving, but less fortunate of her sisters may one day be able to read, understand and smile at how the RTE has benefited all children of our country, male and female.

SERIOUS STUFF: Talking your way to Cancer

Ok, this might be a wake-up call to drive home the ironical point!

Everyone knows that excessive cellphone usage is harmful. Also, as always, everyone is a resident expert on how it harms, though no one knows how it actually harms, beyond the two-minute cellphone-you-know-what-radiation-cancer spiel. Here is a report, with references and credentials on how radiation from phones and towers really cook you. To whet your thinking

SAR (Specific absorption rate) - Rate at which radiation is absorbed by human body, measured in units of watts per kg (W/kg) of tissue. In USA, SAR limit for cell phones is 1.6W/Kg which is actually for 6 minutes. It has a safety margin of 3 to 4, so a person should not use cell phone for more than 18 to 24 minutes per day.

This information is not commonly known to people in India.

There is quite a bit of theory, empirical data from research, and analysis stuff that Electrical Engineers might decode better (the author is a Professor from IIT-B). And there's quite a bit on the Medical stuff as well. But to cut the conversation short, the cancer theory might not just be theoretical.

Please do take the effort to go through this document. If you can't access it, please let me know and I will be glad to forward it to you.

http://www.adrive.com/home/downloadfile/412242807

Userid: praveen.prabhakaran@gmail.com

Password: Radiationhazard9

She's beautiful, so that's ok

Sarah Palin proves that she has the right credentials to make it to the White House. I mean, she proves that if Bush can make it, so can she.

She was asked to comment on the South Korean crisis, currently getting media attention for all the North Korean reasons. She replied in typical Bush style, but without the grammatical errors as well, "Obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies.” Thankfully, it was clarified to her promptly that the US is actually on the side of the other Korea. I am sure she will also be able to pinpoint South Korea on a map. It's just to the west of East Korea.

So, what does it take to become the Leader of the free world? If not brains, a bit of charm will do.

Wandering minds less happy than focused ones

Finally, proof that success is 99% concentration and 1% inspiration. It seems people who focus on their work are happier than those daydreaming, though daydreaming is ofcourse a pleasurable activity. The research also suggests that although difficult situations require more effort-expenditure, the very same will increase our happiness in the long run.

This article might really be worth the distraction from whatever you are doing right now.

http://news.discovery.com/human/mind-wandering-distracted-happiness.html

Reading Between the Lines - 34 - Lizard gives hope to women around the world

POPSCI, 09-11-2010: Scientists Discover Self-Cloning Lizard Species

Scientists in Vietnam have discovered an all-female species of lizard that propogates by self-cloning, giving hope to countless women around the world.

Further research on this might help some feminist scientists in discovering the secret of making perfect copies of themselves (horror?) without outside support. I should ask, why can't men advance scientific research along similar lines? They'll save a lot of money on shopping, for instance.

For more info on this exciting discovery for womankind, click

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-11/scientists-discover-self-cloning-all-female-lizard-species-vietnamese-restaurant

Akhand and Inspired

The Avatar says that bhajan is only kindergarten and that we have to move on. However, the first hour of the Akhanda Bhajan of 12th-13th Nov. might explain why bhajan is also the primary reason why people wish to remain in spiritual kindergarten. Mind-blowing might be a good word for it. They really pulled off a good one here, and kept it going till the hours really wore out the voices. The gents medley between 3-4 PM was worthy of a stand-alone session.

Incidentally, this might well be the last Akhanda bhajan for, probably the best singer of the Dubai Centre. And the singer proved once more why this label suits well. May the empowered voice find a sincere ear elsewhere that yearns for the ever Holy name.

Talking about Holy name, this Akhanda Bhajan seemed to be more of a genuine Krishna-fest than the Bhajan of Janmashtami past. With Hari's names being invoked by the singers around 5,184 times as per my MBA estimate (a guesstimate, nonetheless), this was a course on Krishna Consciousness.

Hail to the Hailers.

Reading Between the Lines - 33 - Ideology of Convenience

Christian Science Monitor, 10-11-2010: China puts Ai Weiwei, co-designer of the 'Bird's Nest' stadium, under house arrest

P's C: Ai Weiwei, one of China's best-known artists (and a vocal critic of the Chinese government) has been arrested for being an artist.

The Chinese government has now clearly defined that an artist's freedom of expression should only manifest in buildings and pictures of Hu Jintao. Shortly after his house arrest, Beijing police also arrested another couple for not aborting their second pregnancy.

In an unrelated development, the US has condemned the Communist dictatorship in Cuba for human rights abuses.

Reading Between the Lines - 32 - Insecurity about the Security Council

The Hindu - 10-11-2010: Pak criticises U.S. for backing India’s UNSC bid

P's C:

The Pakistan cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, has expressed “serious concern and strong disappointment' over Obama's backing of India for a permanent UNSC seat. With a distinguished legacy of providing a safe haven for international jihad and blowing up its own people on all working days, Pakistan is disappointed that India has been favoured, while the aspiring emerging world (terrorist) power has been overlooked.

Pakistan, with it's scintillating track record of electing one military after another and, of course, possessing a comprehensive international policy that chiefly consists of Kashmir, is deservedly upset that the world's largest democracy and one of the top ten economies is promoted in spite of its lack of any significance on the world stage.

Shortly after Gilani's statement, he rushed to offer PR solace to victims of yesterday's Sunni-Shia bloodbath, while hinting that this was the work of external agencies envious of Pakistan's amazing growth.

Festival of Lightness of Being

We have just celebrated Diwali, the Festival of Light, that dispels darkness. And what darkness would that be? The Darkness of ignorance.

Most vegetarians celebrate Diwali with sweet relish, in more than one sense. So, this must be the right time to bring on the topic of Varakh, which I myself have conveniently forgotten to remember.

Varakh is the silver foil used on sweets,- most of us know that. Some may not know that these sheets are made by hammering thin sheets of silver between booklets made of a bull's intestines. Therefore, you can be sure that the vegetarian sweet that you eat is bloody soiled physically, and is wholly sinful spiritually. I kind of knew this for a very long time, but chose to forget. There are overloads of sites which you can google for the actual process from guts to taste.

So, what better time to break a bad habit than yesterday? As of yesterday, I have quit Varakh laced sweets. Another small step forward spiritually and one more step backward societally. May Diwali be the occassion for you to light the lamp of conviction within, and dispel the darkness of ignorance, both circumstantial and convenient.

You are not what you don't eat.

Reading Between the Lines - 31 - Chidambaram and the Virtue of Impotency

The Hindu, 01-11-2010: Chidambaram on Arundhati: Not taking action is also an action

P's C: Chidambaram says that not filing a case for sedition was in accordance with the letter and spirit of law. More precisely, this seems to be accordance with the letter and spirit of the spineless. If not taking action is also an action, this Home Minister would have his autobiography written entirely in pause mode.

Wearing white makes you a wearer of white, not a white of heart or a clear of conscience, if there be any for those in politics. Chidambaram has proved yet again, that some politicians are better of firing with words than resorting to clear action that will define leadership.

Well known for doing nothing more than making interesting sentences, our Tamil Tiger, nay, pussy cat, is better of tending to Italiah homes than guarding the letter and spirit of the Indian conscience.

Being articulate, yet ineffectual, is giving a donkey a mike. Both serve no purpose.

Che

We celebrate the style because they applaud it too

Laugh in tragic synch with all else

And critique the abstract absurdities for social arts's sake

Never saluting the individual spirit that whistles a different note

While stifling the consciousness to permanent asphyxia.

The iconoclast among the lemming humanoids ran a solo marathon

But a marathon nevertheless,

Levelling stark peaks and valleys of self-interest

The revolutionary walked the spirit of love

Violent for the sake of virtue.

Only one in a million will lift a guitar,

To strum the rage against the machine,

Indifference at injustice is common,

Indignation less,

Action for the self-anointed few.

And in death, gain immortality

For, Che asks to kill only a man,

But indeed, it is killing a man,

Of whom,

Few walk the earth.

NB: Korda's photo of Che shown here is supposed to be the most reproduced photograph in history. Che's body died at the age of 39, and spirit lives from that day onwards.

Spirit of the Spirited

One of the most self-motivated, dynamic and capable guys from the Youth Wing is leaving Dubai soon, and thought I should share online what I shared with him:

It is the bold of spirit that prewrite history.

In the epic movie Cleopatra, Antony makes a statement to Octavian (Caeser's nephew) that goes something like this: When you die, you will realize that you died without ever having lived at all. History is embellished only with the chisel of defiance, and the hammer of counterculture. Intellectual, spiritual and cultural entropy form the watermark of civilization.

Alas, most of us exist watching life from the spectator's arena. It takes guts even to be foolish.

Reading Between the Lines - 30 - India disappoints yet again

TOI: 26-10-2010: Pakistan world's 34th most corrupt nation

P's C:

After a bribe-fest of a CWG, India still lags way behind Pakistan in the list of most corrupt countries in the world. Pakistan, with almost negligible opportunities of a CWG scale bonanza that allows for all-round embezzlement, still scored way ahead of India, and is proud to be the 34th most corrupt nation on earth.

India came a dismal 84th, and has to beat 83 more countries to become the coveted title-holders of Corruption. However, politicians like Sharad Pawar and Kalmadi have assured the masses that they will do their level best to ensure that we reach the top before they flop.

Reading Between the Lines - 29 - Supreme Scam

Times of India, 26-10-2010: Satyam scam: SC cancels Raju's bail

P's C: Supreme Court of India has condescended to continue the national tradition of offering bails to only politicians and policemen by cancelling bails to Satyam founder Raju and co. While rescinding the AP High Court's order, the Supreme Court clearly chastised the lowly High Court by clarifying that Raju was not criminalized enough for bail. With this, the Court has definitely reinforced the common's main faith in the politicians' judiciary.

Reading Between the Lines - 28 - Arundhati's absurdities

The Hindu 25-10-2010: Kashmir was never integral part of India: Arundhati

P's C: Her eminence, Arundhati Roy, international know-all and mother of Indian geopolitics, has declared that Kashmir was never a part of India. Arundhati who is qualified in architecture to know everything about everything has declared that Kashmir should be free and is part of India's colonial instincts.

The self-declared last arbiter of history, who is Indian by accident, will also announce shortly that India is a part of China. Indians can respond by showing her the door to Pakistan.

Why did we even celebrate the success of this Indian passport holder?

Father Teresa - Vote for him!

If you had not heard of Narayanan Krishnan, as I had not, it is a collective failure. This is one of the most incredible stories of personal commitment.

Narayanan Krishnan, all of 29 years old now, does what he was professionally trained to do as a chef. Feed people. Only Krishnan does not do this in the swanky confines of a 5-star hotel. Every day, he wakes up at 4 am, cooks a simple hot meal and then, along with his team, loads it in a van and travels about 200 km feeding the homeless in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Krishnan feeds, often with his hands, almost 400 destitute people every day. And for those who need it, he provides a free haircut too.

According to CNN, eight years ago, this award-winning chef with a five-star hotel chain was all set to go to Switzerland for a high-profile posting. On a visit to a Madurai temple, he came across a homeless, old man eating his own human waste. That stark sight changed Krishnan's life.

Much to the dismay of his parents, CNN says, Krishnan abandoned his career plans and decided to spend his life and his professional training in looking after those who could not care for themselves. He has provided more than 1.2 million hot meals through his nonprofit organisation Akshaya Trust, and now hopes to extend this to shelter for the homeless too.

Krishnan is the only Indian in a list of 10 heroes that CNN has picked worldwide to honour. One of them will be chosen CNN Hero of the Year, selected by the public through an online poll. If many Indians get together to vote for this inspiring man, he can win by a long mile. If Krishnan wins he will get $100,000 in addition to the $25,000 that he gets for being shortlisted for the Top 10. Akshaya Trust needs all the monetary support it can get to build on Krishnan's dream. Let's help him get there.

Vote for Krishnan here. (http://heroes.cnn.com/vote.aspx) The poll continues through November 18 at 6 a.m. ET.

Note: Entire post is reproduced from NDTV. I have blogged on Krishnan before albeit, if I remember correctly.

International insult to China

Nobel Foundation insults China with Peace price for Liu Xiaobo

China is outraged with Norway and the Nobel Foundation for honouring Liu Xiaobo for his crimes against inhumanity with the Nobel Prize for peace. Liu Xiaobo is currently facing criminal charges in his home country for inciting peace, in addition to other inhuman rights violations. Also, Liu's wife is currently under house arrest for being Liu's wife.

Although we are at least a generation behind China, there are some things in India worth shouting about. And imprisonment of speech isn't one of them.

Eating arrogant pie

Indian cricketers have been forced to eat arrogant pie after defeating Australia in this Test series. Already uncomfortable with the status of No. 1 test playing country in the world, India is having to face the humiliation of maintaining the widest margin in points among the top three teams.

Mighty Australia is on top from bottom, the first time in their history they have achieved this feat.

Reading Between the Lines - 27 - Idols represent the appropriate ideology

Xinhuanet, 08-10-2010: Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga named as "World's Most Powerful Women"

P's C: Womankind has asserted herself and her equality with Mankind by including highly influential global socio-political policy makers like Lady Gaga and Beyonce in the list of World's Most Powerful Women for the year 2010. Lady Gaga, well-known for her micro-economic model for social development and her meat-clothing, truly seems to represent the advances made by womankind over the past zillions of years.

Similarly, the powerful physicist Beyonce, who postulated the Bing Bang and near-naked strutting, is also on the list, which Forbes compiled "based less on traditional titles and roles and more on creative influence and entrepreneurship."

Reading Between the Lines - 26 - India fails to impress doomsayers

The Hindu, 08-10-2010: India springs a surprise on Australia

P's C: India springs a surprise on itself.

By successfully managing to retain 50% of volunteers for the CWG, staging a successful inauguration, and even winning a serious number of golds, India has surpassed its own expectations of itself. Negative-sell and over-perform.

Flash news: Pakistan passes 07-10-2010 without single bomb blast

Real News: Pakistan passes 07-10-2010 without single bomb blast

The Ammunition-friendly Republic of Pakistan quite strangely passed 7th October, 2010, without a single bomb-blast on the streets of Karachi or a tanker explosion over the Khyber Pass.

Regretting the incident-free day, both the government and your friendly neighbourhood insurgents have assured that such aberrations will never take place again. True to their word, they have quietly blown up a few moving cars in Peshawar, as of 7.00 AM GMT, 08-10-2010.

Where do we start?

I have of late been trying to review certain procedures in the company, and have realized that the older you get, the less willing you are to toy with something new. We have such deeply entrenched ideas in mind, that nothing new will be worth even thinking about.

Unfortunately, we will never explore new ideas, because we don't like new ideas in the first place. And because we don't like new ideas, we will never explore them. Convenient cycle.

Similar to spirituality probably. Few people are courageous enough to explore a new spiritual path, because 95% of the population thinks it's stupid. And because 95% of the people think it's stupid, we will not explore any new path.