Joseph Stiglitz Interview

Yesterday, in canteen, as I was queuing up for lunch,a friend revealed that he had quit from the stock market. He has had 2 lakh rupees worth of shares, and in the past two days, they had come down to 92000 rupees. He is accepting the advice of his astrologer, who has suggested that he should refrain for the next eighteen months from trading even an old shirt. He is getting out with what he has.

The crisis in US is not so far away from us, then. It has its impact.

Here is an interview with Joseph Stiglitz, on globalization, and the financial crisis that threatens to engulf America. I found it in LA City Beat.

From what I could understand, he says that the Iraq War has become a waste on American resources, the administration has not been mindful of its monetary deficit. These two factors have contributed to the economic disaster of today. Globalization has helped US so far to keep its head above water- they have globalized their losses, and have benefited from exports through weak dollar. But hard-core, unfettered free market capitalism as The American Way of Business has suffered loss of credibility. People outside America realize that American economic policies have ruined them.  Globalism-as-market-fundamentalism is over, he says.

I don't understand these economic issues, if something is put in plain and coherent language, I tend to believe that. This interview is plain, coherent and has an aura of authority.

Do please read it.

A Little Fish Learns to Hop

(I am bringing here to share whatever seems interesting to me. This is a short story by my son. Of course, I find it interesting because he wrote it!)

One morning at sea in Canada. A little fish lived in the sea.

He was not satisfied in his swimming. He was sad. He was unhappy.

He told himself, "I want to learn to hop. Then, I will be very happy.'

One day, he was swimming in the water. He saw a Dolphin in the sea.

He asked him, "I want to hop. If I ask, you can teach me or not?".

"Yes, I will teach you", the Dolphin said. The fish was very happy.

The Dolphin said- "One step you move and jump from the sea to the sky".

The little fish was very happy.

One day, the little fish saw a shark in the sea. The shark was coming fast to eat the fish.

The fish had an idea. He hopped and escaped over the shark's open mouth.

The shark was very very angry.

And he got a heart-attack and died.

Moral: We should not be angry.

The Dragon's Foul Breath

If you listen to the communists here, you would get the feeling that they hate imperialism, after communalism, of course.

But when you exercise power, it is difficult not to exploit the weak. 

I read an article by Peter Hitchens in Dailymail today about the Chinese version of imperialism in Africa.

Even if you read it after dosing yourself heavily with handfuls of salt, it is hard not to see that China is up to no good.

The article speaks mostly about the inhuman working conditions in Congo and Zambia, is more a polemic. It does not mention any figures, makes its appeal to our emotions- even so, I feel there is truth in it.

As long as the empowered people are prepared to live with inequalities, there will always be the exploitation of the weak, and justice will not be the same as fairness; and democracy, a swindle on the dispossessed.

It is a sad fact that even a nation such as China, with such long history can't resist from making the mistakes of old European States.

The best thing that could happen is for the western corporate businesses not to outsource their production to China. There is quite a lot of public vigilance in the west, and in third-world countries it is nearly always absent.

If the west does not bring some ethics and values to its outsourcing business model, it will mean that it shares some of the blood with the hands of totalitarian states such as China.

Neocons are so desperate to spread democratic values they are prepared to lay down lives, but can they shell out a few more cents and pennies?

That would be a real help to the poorer people all over the world. It will help them find their voice.

Peace

"There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum"

- Arthur C. Clarke

What is the use of nationalism if we are all going to end up dead?

Nativity

Yesterday I saw a blog in Tamil, and I immediately wondered why there is no native references in my posts here. There are only sparse references to our home culture, right?  One reason is that at present I am not able to type in Tamil. The more pertinent one would be that the western civilization has very much become a part of our consciousness.

Here is an excerpt from a novel by Pazhaman, "Kallum Mullum" (Stones and Thorns). This part is a recollection of the narrator's college days in the 1950s.

"How sublime were those days! Is it possible to forget the classes of M.R.P., the Tamil Professor? He would teach heart-grabbing Silapathikaram, helping us cherish every word of it. He would place every morsel of Kamban's refined poetry for our delectation. He shocked us once by declaring in the class on Avatars, "Even Periyar is an Avatar!". 

Sivaka Chintamani was as life-breath to Gnanamurthy, our Head of Temil Department. He would narrate many a tales from the life of Sivakan. He used to go to Chennai frequently to write the dialogue for "Kalaiarasi", the  film in which MGR and Bhanumathi acted: we eagerly listened to his experiences.

Our English Professor Koilpillai would bring Oliver Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World' alive before our eyes. Its City Night Piece is an unforgettable portrait. Julius Caesar would come alive in his words.

With what simple words did our young professor Sundararajan describe Thomas Gray's poem, "Elegy"! How he shook our hearts with multiple illustrations for the single line,"The paths of glory lead but to the grave"!

Lean-bodied Narayanan who taught us Contemporary History would have no notes with him while he poured out in English as a flood rushing out from a barrage. One must have had good karma to have listened through his tongue the French Revolution and the adventorous victories of Napolean that it calved. My friends laughed at me when I told them that Napolean came in my dreams that night. After the fall of Napolean, in the Vienna Conference that was assembled, they volunteered to reconstruct the previous European Empires once again. "The plants of Legitimacy failed to flourish upon the soil still covered by the lava of the French Revolution": this quote is still green as a poem in the valley of my mind.

Ramadoss, who taught us Indian History was a great dictator. There was no one equal to him in dictating notes.

I wonder what great Tapas we had done to have had them as teachers! How many debates, controversies and competitive challenges we had every day! All the tiredness of riding a cycle to school dissolved in the air, and what fresh feeling, as if we had entered another new world! Happy dancing! Emotional torrent! The days of college are an unforgettable season of early spring in the life of every man."

Does this support my contention?

Positive Parenting

I think this has some relevance to our parenting discussion. I found this in ScienceDaily.

Dr Eveline Crone and her colleagues from the Leiden Brain and Cognition Lab used fMRI research to study three groups of children: those aged  8-9, children of 11-12, and adults aged between 18-25 years.

Their conclusion is that  Eight-year-olds learn primarily from appreciation, and the learning centres in the brain do not listen to our negative training. They just don't see why we are yelling at them.  But twelve year olds can process negative feedbacks, and  use it to learn from their mistakes.  Adults do the same, but more efficiently. 

Crone says, "From the literature, it appears that young children respond better to reward than to punishment... The information that you have not done something well is more complicated than the information that you have done something well.  Learning from mistakes is more complex than carrying on in the same way as before. You have to ask yourself what precisely went wrong and how it was possible". Young brains have not learned to do this.

What developmental psychologists have been drumming into our unlistening and unwilling ears, has now been underlined by scanning the  workings of the actual brain itself. It is better to appreciate, to reward. To punish, yell at, beat and curse the child is idiotic, and useless.

This does not mean that you are allowed to hit your wife on the lip, just to teach her to watch her tongue. According to the researchers,  the basal ganglia, just outside the cerebral cortex, responds strongly to appreciation. It remains active in every one of us, whatever the age: so you better give her a kiss.

The beast could well be a beauty.

An Epitaph

"I measured the skies, now the shadows I measure,

Sky-bound was the mind, earth-bound the body rests."

_ Kepler's epitaph.

I think for an astronomer, it is a wonderful thing to put down on his grave. This perfectly describes the limitless breadth of  vision and the narrow boundaries of existence.

Words Do Not Speak!

A friend recently forwarded this message to me:

"Mahamati, the Tathagatas do not teach a doctrine that is dependent

upon letters. As to letters, their being or non-being is not attainable;

it is otherwise with thought that is never dependent upon letters. Again,

Mahamati, anyone that discourses on a truth that is dependent upon letters
is a mere prattler because truth is beyond letters. For this reason, it

is declared in the canonical text by myself and other Buddhas and

bodhisattvas that not a letter is uttered or answered by the Tathagatas.

For what reason? Because truths are not dependent on letters....

Therefore, Mahamati, let the son or daughter of a good family take

good heed not to get attached to words as being in perfect conformity with

meaning, because truth is not of the letter. Be not like the one who

looks at the fingertip. When a man with his fingertip points out

something to somebody, the fingertip may be taken wrongly for the thing

pointed at. In like manner, simple and ignorant people are unable even

unto their death to abandon the idea that in the fingertip of words there

is the meaning itself, and will not grasp ultimate reality because of

their intent clinging to words, which are no more than the fingertip....

Be not like one who, grasping his own fingertip, sees the meaning there.

You should rather energetically discipline yourself to get at the meaning

itself."

-Lankavatara Sutra.

Words do not describe reality. Even such a commonplace statement as, "I love you" is meaningless if you do not share the feeling of love. How often we have seen the shock/scorn such a statement brings on!

It is more difficult then, to understand through words, the kind of reality that is non-dual in nature.

This quote from Lankavatara Sutra is a beautiful exposition of the futility of words. To be dogmatic, to take the literal meaning of words, is the worst form of faith. Ultimately God/Reality transcends words. It would be foolish of us to cling to narrow definitions of what is expected of us as people of faith. Rather, we must abandon all the words and concepts. This is the true discipline that helps you get at the meaning of life.

conversion

the recent poll has as many as 4 options but short of one.
"nothing mentioned above" is also to be added as 5 th check box.
forcible convention is one in which you are forced against will to get converted. at gun/knife point or under life threats and so on. once you are induced theresnt any force.
one can follow as many religions or gods without subscribing any. if the purpose of religion is to make man good and god fearing, he can be without that.
so the final line is that the conversions are only for personal benefits which they are not getting with the existing setup.

Entrophy

"Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy" - Vaclav Havel.

A comforting thought in these days of threatened chaos.

Am I Right or Wrong About Economy?

In yesterday's issue of Financial Express, I read an article by Steven Kurutz, "Playing the real estate game with a raffle"

I don't know anything about economics, except that you don't get paid unless someone is capable and willing to pay you, and if you borrow you have to pay. So this post carries no authority, as you well know.

I think the crisis in US is really desperate. The article mentions that people are giving away their houses through raffles- there are two sites for this: HowToWinMyHouse.com and USAHomeRaffle.com. And the case of Crawford and Kelly, the owners of HowToWinMyHouse.com holds some lesson for us, I am not sure what it is.

Two years ago, the couple bought a house for $375000. They hoped to sell their old house and pay for the new one  with the proceeds of the sale. Two months after that, with real estate prices down and burdened with costly mortgage, they decided to sell their new house. Even after a year, it remained unsold. So, they decided to do it different.

They held a raffles for which the entry price was $100  per head. They sold almost 6500 tickets, and thus they gave away their house for $100 dollars and still made a profit. Spirit of innovation, right? If everyone had gumption of this kind, the world will be different, eh?

They worked on this business model and put up a website where people can get rid of their houses and make a profit. But it seems in some states, holding a raffle to give away your house is illegal. So there, they are holding skills contests with entry fees, and award their houses as prizes. So for a $100 entry fee, you can write an essay on the theme, "Aloha, what does it mean to you?" and win a house. 

Or if you are more comfortable with painting than with writing, for $49 entrance fee,  you can download a black and white line drawing of a dancing couple; and then color it by hand. Your creativity will be rewarded with a one-story ranch house in Florida, worth $250000.

All this shows that when you are innovative and daring, you can get out of trouble. That was what I thought till I came to the part where it says what happened to the man who got lucky and won the raffles for the house that Crawford and Kelly put up.

Dennis Weaver who got that house in that $100 raffle, had to take out a mortgage to pay the $135000 in taxes on the prize. Which means he has to pay interests on the mortgage, right? Well, he couldn't, so he has decided to sell this house. He has held an auction, no bidders. Should he hold a raffle now?

As I said, you don't get paid unless someone is capable and willing to pay you. There might be individual winners in an economy on a freefall, but people on the whole will end up worse than before.

Like in Tsunami, individual bravado carries no weight.

Cricket

In The Spectator dated 19.7.2008, Roger Alton recommends an obituary in  Daily Telegraph with these words :  "The obit is one of the best bits of sports journalism I have seen all year. Read it please."

That sent me to the article on Bryan "Bomber" Wells. It is good, I think there are many such characters in India too, but no one bothers to write about them.

I will try to give you the parts I like, in case you are not looking to click the link to Daily Telegraph Obit. 

It seems that Wells took 998 wickets playing for Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire. They cost him 24.26 apiece. His career batting average was 7.47, and in Wikipedia it says that he scored about 25% of those runs in sixes. Wells himself is supposed to have remarked, "If I hit the ball, it went a long way and the crowd and I were happy. If I missed it, well, I was that much nearer bowling."

He seemed to have loved the bowling part. In his debut, he came in as the sixth change bowler, and got 6-47. On returning to pavilion, he told his team mates, "I can see if I'm going to play for this side, I'm going to have to do a lot of bowling. I shall have to cut my run down."

And Wells did cut down his run up. Overweight and undertrained, he took two steps when he was cold and one when he was hot; and sometimes he simply delivered the ball from a stationary position. Once when reprimanded by his captain for this, and ordered to take eight paces for run up, he obeyed. But then, he took just two steps forward and delivered the ball spot on the length!

He seems to be a maverick cricketer, always changing his pace,  mixing off-spin with away swingers and leg breaks. Even Brian Close felt that Wells's unpredictability made him  dangerous.

His irreverent attitude can't be replicated in anyone, not these days, when cricket is played for money. It is serious business now, not a sport. Wells,  awful in his running between the wickets, infuriated his team mates with his nonchalant attitude. "Can't you say anything?" Sam Cook once shouted, stranded in mid-pitch by Bomber's failure to call. "Goodbye," Bomber volunteered.

(Bryan Douglas Wells, born in Gloucester on July 27 1930, an off-spin bowler for Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire,  one of the funniest and most eccentric county cricketers of the 1950s and 1960s,  suffered a stroke in 1998,  was confined to a wheelchair, died on  June 19 this year.)

How to discipline a kid?

It's a question that will generate different responses from different people. It depends on what one believe in. In the west beating children is a crime, whereas in India it's the way to discipline. Even there is a proverb in Tamil, 'Adiyadha maadu padiyadhu'. It can be roughly translated as 'The bull that is not beaten will not obey'. This I think has not changed in India. People still condemn and beat up children but nowadays for different reasons. In early days children were reprimanded for being indisciplined. Nowadays adults reprimand and even beat children for their lack of effort in studies and for breaking their (adults) comfort zones. I hardly see a child being censured for being naughty as was in my days. Not that I am for that but just an observation.

I am strong believer that children should be taught the value of discipline and respect. I know the ill effects of being indisciplined. To me discipline means doing the right things at right time and not procrastinating. Sticking to chores that you can't do away with and learning things wholeheartedly. This is very much important. But how do we go about it.

1. Don't encourage indiscipline. Never support a child's indiscipline acts be it not studying, be it not getting up in time for school, be it not willing to learn self-management (according to age) etc.
   
2. Let them face the consequences of being indiscipline. Don't cover for your child's home work and don't protect him from people questioning him. Never protect him. But by all means don't allow anyone to beat him.
3. Talk with them on discipline and how it will benefit them in their own language. It's like "if you get up on time then you will be able to prepare well for the class test so that you answer well. Your teacher won't scold you and you will not feel bad. It is good you see".
   
4. Keep interacting with your child on what is important and what is not important for him. That gives you an idea on how he thinks and where he needs to be taught. Confront on topics that are close to his heart but you don't think will help him in the long run, 'like getting up late'. Keep the discussion going as long as you think it needs to be.
5. Talk with them on people in your life and how each and everyone is related and important to you and why. Give them a picture of what you respect and why. Why it is important to respect. Keep such interactions growing.
   
6. Fabricate some real life situations (that calls for discipline, respect, responsibility etc.) and ask them what you should have done. See how they answer and what their thought process is. If you think they needed to be realigned with the larger goals of life that is discipline and respect then you will know where to start and how to go about.
7. Give them small tests of discipline once you are sure they respond positively to your intervention. Check how they fare and discuss on the result. Tell them how you felt afterwards and how it would have been if he or she (the kid) acted the other way.
8. Give a clear picture what discipline is in terms of specific activities. Draw up a excel matrix and ask them tick their performance on a daily basis against each specific activity. Have a chat and help them on how to improve. Don't censure them but help them with a friendly hand.
9. Never sit for them, never do for them what they can do it themselves, never pamper them, always walk the talk and talk the walk.
10. If possible, lead by example. We may have allowed many indisciplined acts creep into our life and no one is better than us to tell kids about it's ill effects. So if you fail to lead by example and the kid questions you, don't lose your temper. Tell him, "it's nice to know that you spotted my indiscipline. I will improve and am sure you will lead in front. We both can together become better".
11. Spread the approach and make all the adults understand and be aware. Seek their cooperation and act in unison.
    

I hope this helps. In fact I am discovering it for myself so that I can practice what I have typed above.

The First King from Reading

There is nothing on King  Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II in the Wikipedia. I looked it up and was disappointed. If someone were to write his biography, it will be interesting. So interesting, in fact, it could possibly be made into a film. "The Last King of Scotland", may well be followed by "The First King from Reading".

I came across him in an article in The New Statesman. The magazine said that King Ronnie, before restoration to his throne in Uganda in 1993, worked as a gas-fitter in Reading, and was a double-glazing salesman in Kilburn, where he made only one sale.

To know more about his life, I looked up at Wikipedia, where there was not much about him.

Then I googled some.

I got an article in BBC which, in reporting his marriage, glazed over his past, describing his life during exile as "trying his hand at law, journalism and business". In 1966, his kingdom had been taken away from his father in a military coup. Idi Amin, who followed Milton Obote , used the royal palace as torture centre.

Then I found an interesting article in BNet, of The Independent report dated Jul 30, 1995. It describes his present life as King of Uganda in some detail.

According to Independent, "Whenever King Ronnie tours his kingdom, as he did last weekend, peasants kneel by the wayside as his entourage passes, schoolchildren sing and clap in an ecstasy of excitement. In each village along his route, bleating goats and squawking chickens are offered as gifts, while men prostrate themselves on the ground before the Kabaka." He is surrounded by a royal retinue, which includes Royal Cook, Royal Seating Attendant, Royal Door Closer, Royal Toiletry Attendant, Royal Tour Manager, Royal Palace Treasurer, and the Royal Drummer.

Having been crowned as the King of Uganda, he has now married Sylvia Nagginda Luswata, a British-born former World Bank employee and public relations executive. True to the background of her Royal Husband, the Queen, who has lived in the United States for the last 20 years, comes with rumours that  members of her clan were employed as cleaners for the British royal family.

It seems that King Ronnie has learned from his travails as a common man, because on the eve of his wedding, "he  granted the people of Uganda permission to break a tribal tradition - that no one but the royal couple should have sex on his wedding night." Apparently Ugandan Tradition believes  "any man who fails to resist temptation on the King's wedding day will be attacked by a sheep and become impotent" . King Ronnie has done away with that piece of tradition. Good of him.

(I am not making fun of the King, Queen and the people of Uganda. These are the interesting times we live in, and it is reflected in the story of King Ronnie. Actually I saw the film, "The Last King of Scotland", in which Forrest Whittaker gives a breathtaking performance as Idi Amin. The film has wonderful music too. But, for all that, the film is not a happy one. It is heartening that Ugandans have picked themselves up, and have resumed their lives. In that sense, the life of their King is a tale of endurance overcoming the disasters of dictatorship.)

This is Your Circulatory System

There are some excellent photos, illustrations and interactive media in New Scientist. They are the award winning entries of the 2008 International Science and Technology Visualization Challenge. Please do visit it for some wonderful pictures.

Perspective

And I seem to be reading a lot of books lately. "50 Physics ideas you really need to know", by Joanne Baker is another book I happened to read. There are some great quotes in there. I will post some of the quotes here. Hope you find this interesting.

"It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small." - Neil Armstrong.

I remember a neighbour's child. As he went out of our house, and into the sunlight, he turned back and saw his own shadow fall across the floor like a monster. He took fright at that and wept inconsolably.

I think the fact that you can see Earth glimmer like a blue marble has had a profound impact on our consciousness. No longer do we think we are special. We are in just another planet. Probably the only one that supports life.

And as if upon a string, we are poised precariously between life and death.

Positive Parenting

This is in continuation of the Parenting post I made yesterday.

I happened to read "Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder" by Henryk Holowenko. Considering that all children with problems suffer either from inattention and/or distraction, even without labelling your child, you can use this book.

I don't know how true it is that inattention and distraction are physical complaints. Are they the same like measles and mumps? Because if you are going to go to a doctor and take tablets for inattention and distraction, there has to be some reason for that. Can't you just correct that by talking to him? Are the medicines really necessary?

Some people say it is absolutely necessary. Behaviour modification has no effect on this condition. May be it is true. I don't want to be dogmatic about this.

I had some decent people as friends at schol, but they were no good at studying. If they could have swallowed some pill and scored 90 marks or 95, it is alright. Better than beatings and verbal abuse. They could have had a happy time in school.

Okay.

In this particular book, there is a question, how can you be a positive parent who monitiors, comments and rewards the good and desirable behaviour of your child?

And this is how you you do it:

1. Make praise contingent of behaviour.

2. Praise immediately.

3.Give labelled and specific praise.

4. Give positive praise without qualifiers or sarcasm.

5. Praise with smiles, eye contact and enthusiasm as well as with words.

6. Give pats, hugs and kisses alongwith verbal praise.

7. Catch the child whenever he or she is being good; don't save praise for perfect behaviour only.

8. Use praise consistently whenever you see the positive hehaviour you want to encourage.

9. Praise in front of other children.

These are good suggestions, and I think scientifically proven to be effective. But how many of us have the time and energy for this?

The easier option is to bully the child and call it discipline.

A Haiku

Yesterday it started to rain in the evening, and poured heavily for about two hours. At about six thirty this morning, I was surprised to see the sun out, shining brightly. Except for the water collected in the dents of the playground, the rains yesterday were as if a distant dream.

A small haiku I composed, to express my surprise at this:

Overnight rains

Glint in pools of sunlit dawn:

Tear-stained dreams.

Is it any good?

A Personal Post (Rant)

This is going to be a personal post. And this is about bringing up a child. Your suggestions will be appreciated.

I think whether intelligent or idiot, quick to learn or dull, all people, especially children, deserve to value themselves highly, and to have some happiness.

But what happens is that if a child has problems in studying, or problems with his personal habits, we impose our views on him/her. The dignity of the child is undercut by derogatory comments, and in the name of discipline, he is made to suffer for his lethargy, carelessness, inattention, whatever.

My own stand on this is that, whatever you do, don't devalue him- don't treat him as if he is not worth anything. Especially, if he likes to do something, don't take it away from him because he is not good at things you want him to be good at.

You can be a fool: some are born fools. But when parents and teachers work overtime to turn your foolish mind against yourself, teach you to back yourself into a corner, train you to think you are not capable of anything- it is terrible what we do in the name of love and discipline.

Let him be happy. Let him feel good.

Why should it bug us?

Haiku

I liked this Haiku lately:

PLAYGROUND HAIKU

Everyone says our

playground is overcrowded

but I feel lonely

: Helen Dunmore

50 Buzziest Blogs

I found this page that lists 50 very good blog posts on the net. Please check them if you got time for it.

Dream Me a Good Dream

You can be suspicious about much in Homeopathy, but there is  wonderful literature out there. Sometimes when I am bored, I take out J.H.Clarke's "A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica", and usually get some stimulating reading material.

It is not dull, not dull at all.

For example, this is what Clarke has to say under "Oleander", a night-flowering plant:

"A young man, 18, fell, sick, had attacks of vertigo, suffered from great weakness of the muscles, headache better in evening, worse every morning after waking, which was a difficult process. In addition: pale face; white-coated tongue; slow pulse. On leaving for change of air he soon got quite well; but ill again as soon as he returned. Some Oleanders in his bedroom were then suspected by his doctor, and on their removal all the trouble vanished. The doctor then recalled that when a student he had some Oleanders before his windows, and in autumn, when the nights were cold, he took them into his bedroom with this result: On waking in the morning heavy head and sensation of weariness, could only leave his bed by great exertion. As soon as he put his foot to the ground was seized with vertigo and reeled. Having traced this to the Oleanders, he purposely repeated the experiment, and always with the same result".

Can you believe that you can go to sleep in good health, and during the night, flowers could bloom and poison you? How wonderful if this were true. Makes life more interesting, adds mystery to it.

But you don't have to go to any doubtful material for all this.

There is this article I read in New Scientist, which put the Oleander case in my mind.

Apparently a Boris Stuck of University Hospital Mannheim, Germany, exposed 15 sleeping volunteers to chemicals that mimicked the smell of either rotten eggs or roses. And then he woke them up and asked about their dreams. People exposed to the fragrance of roses reported that they had a positive dream experience, and those exposed to rotten eggs, well, they had rotten dreams.

So if you are not waking up happy,  it is a good idea to put some fragrant perfume in your pillows and bed. I shall do that, definitely. There are two mosquito mats burning over my head all the night. I always wake up groggy. Those mats not only do not keep away the mosquitoes, and now I am sure, they are making my sleep experience miserable.

I shall be going to bed with some jasmine flowers about me: I would love some libidinous dreams at my age.

Of Mothers and Daughters

I remember our neighbour  who used to talk a lot with my mother. We were all lower middle class, but she had ambitions. She loved her daughter, who, about fourteen or fifteen, was crazy about boys. She looked nice, okay, small upturned nose, wide, darting eyes that asked of you questions. I don't think she was good at studies, but her mother had her hopes hung upon her like you would string up washed clothes on the clothesline and hope they would come out clean and bright. I did not think that would happen.

I am reminded of that mother, and her faith and love for her daughter, because just now, I read an article, "How ambitious mothers breed successful daughters",  about the study of  the expectations of about 3,300 mothers as to their daughters' future.  They were asked what they expected  their 10-year old child's educational achievement would be.

The study concludes that "those participants whose mothers predicted that they would stay in school longer, tended to earn more money at the age of 26, and to report having a greater sense of control over their lives at 30, than the participants whose mothers predicted they would leave school early."

It is good news for daughters, but not for sons. The study finds that no matter what their mothers faith in them, it had no effect on the educational achievement or self-confidence of boys.

I don't know why.

As for my neighbour's daughter, she completed her degree, married a good boy, and is happy.

Melamine in Milk Disaster

I have immense admiration for the Chinese. They have the longest civilized history, I think, and they are really wonderful, hard-working and inventive people.

But somehow, in the race with the Western Way of Life, they seem to have lost their soul.

The latest crisis, they face, Melamine laced Milk, that has affected more than 13,000 children, I think shows the consequences of secrecy and greed, as TimesOnline observes.

According to the report, twenty one topics were banned from discussion in the Chinese media, the eighth on the list was food safety scandals. This kind of absurd secrecy has resulted in this state of affairs:

— Half of all dangerous goods seized in Europe in 2007 came from China

— Last year China found two companies guilty of intentionally exporting contaminated pet food

— US authorities last year gave warning that monkfish imported from China may be puffer fish, containing a potentially deadly toxin

— In 2005 Sudan 1, a carcinogenic food colouring, was found in Chinese branches of KFC

— In January a survey found almost two thirds of Chinese people were worried about food safety

Hope they wake up before it is too late.

Russian Maths

Do you remember how we used to get cheap New Century Book House maths books and devour them greedily? They had good quality, but everything in the world was discovered by a Russian we did not know, and the notation they used was different (I still remember S.J.Perelman)

But they had quality. They showed us Russia deserves respect and admiration when it comes to Maths, right?

Well, here is a photo I found, about the Russian way of studying math.

They do it in parks.

Wonderful, right?

A Site For You

There is a wonderful site, it is notalwaysright. It is funny and entertaining in some ways. I got to read a conversation between a customer and a photographer, it made me laugh, made me feel good.

What Darwin Thought...

There is a bitter debate raging between the evolutionists and creationists, about how this world came about and how life came into it. Dawkins is the most aggressive one as far as I know, and the Christian Fundamentalists of US.

But how did Darwin really feel about all this, his theory of evolution and the world he saw around him, the belief systems he found about him?

Was he an atheist, agnostic, or a believer?

In TimesOnline, there is a really good article, which gives you ten quotes of Darwin about this.

Darwin comes across as a reasonable and self-aware, not a fragmented thinker. He put enough value on his findings, he was an agnostic. But convictions did not have overriding value for him, he contributed to the South American Missionary Society. He thought science and religion should go hand in hand, he trusted his science, but he says he never ever could go as far as to deny the existence of God.

I think religion trusts the logic of association, and science the logic of inference, induction, causation, whatever. We might prefer one over the other, but it is our mind that does it: the reality of the world exists outside the mind.

It is better to be practical and accomodating.

Don't You Ever Care?

May be it is because we are overpopulated, or may be it is because we Indians are like this only, life has no value. You would think it is just plain common sense responsibility to be careful, not put lives in danger out of carelessness. Your balconies are safe, your electrical wiring in your house are safe, when you dig a well, you carefully put something about it so that no one walks into it, right?

But when it comes to public places, no one cares. We do as we please, even public authorities.

Here is an incident that happened in Coimbatore, and reported in New Indian Express.

In Gandhi Managar, Peelamedu, the Corporation authorities had dug a 16 feet deep pit for drainage by the sides of the street. There was no lighting, no barricades. What happens? A student drives into the pit and gets killed.

Do you think anyone would be punished, or at least feel remorse for this  irresponsibile act?

Coimbatore City Corporation engineer P Ganeshwaran, gives the explanation that the students and the residents there had been careless and were disobeying the  traffic rules, hence the accident.The residents claim that they have been asking for streetlights for the last six months. 

They would have better off not using the streets, the city engineer might say. And with some truth. If you don't use the road, there would be no road accident.

Kali Yug

Is it possible for a hen to give birth to a snake?

There is hard evidence in Bihar that whatever is probable can come to pass,  sooner or later.

According to a UNI report, people in the village of Samthu in Samasthipur are sure that a particular hen is laying eggs, from which wriggle out live snakes- sometimes two inches, sometimes four inches.

Veterinary Doctors are working on the hen, its eggs and its snake-chicks to find out a solution.

Some kind of genetic mutation, may be?

A DNA analysis should reveal the truth.

Watch this space.

Will Terror Ever Be Outlawed?

The recent spate of bombings in Delhi and elsewhere has energised our politicians and commentators. We are looking for solutions, and making a new law is most attractive, it is easy, it makes a statement. But will it work?

We have to remember two things in this. The first is that the people who are behind the bombings, are willing to die. They don't think twice before sending trained people to go and get killed. Will a more draconian law deter them?

The second question we should ask ourselves is, will our police behave? What will keep the new law from becoming another instrument of torture, injustice?

These are hard questions, but they need to be asked before we rush to enact another law which will take away even the remnants of our liberties.

For example, in The Indian Express today, I read that a Ramesh of Thiruvallur, who reported the murder of his friend was arrested and beaten by the police to confess. He was in jail for eight days. After The Indian Express, in yesterday's issue, reported his incarceration, the police slapped a petty charge on him, and produced him before a judicial magistrate, who levied a fine of Rs.500. The police gave Ramesh the amount so that he could walk out. May be Ramesh is lying about all this.

But what about the parents of the victim? They say that for three days, the police have been harassing them, their two daughters and the son-in-law to name Ramesh as a suspect. "We were treated like animals," says the father of the dead man, " If the torture continues, our family will be forced to commit sucide"

If this happens to a common, ordinary citizen of this country under the existing laws, what will be the situation of the suspects of a bomb blast if more draconian laws come in?

Let us get this clear. No amount of law making will staunch the flow of blood. The people who are behind this are out of this country. They don't care who gets killed. And if, we in our desperation, take away our liberties, it will only inspire them to greater excess.

I am a devout person. If I were a Muslim, I would want to instil in my son respect for my faith. But if his faith will make him a victim of terror, how would I feel about it?

I do not want to be in their place. If he is too devout, he is likely to gravitate towards violence. And even if he does not care, by some chance, by some hint of suspicion, his freedoms could be taken away from him. This is not right. A law that is seen as unjust in conception and implementation, will produce only victims, martyrs and will inspire revenge.

Looking at the immediate future of our nation, I think we should have the courage to accept the fact that there will be blood, and the vision that will accept that there could also be peace. 

Karma

Retribution is swift.

This evening, I went to a browsing centre,  parking my scooty by the roadside.

I had to rush out when somebody ran in, shouting, "The police are towing all the bikes away"; indeed they were. I saw my vehicle on top of their lorry. They had manhandled it, and were moving away.

There was no "No Parking" board there, or anywhere near it. But that could not stop the long arm of the law, could it? The laws are clear, but its enforcement is arbitrary. It is the prerogative of our police.

Then what? I shelled out hundred and fifty rupees as fine.

A Run In

This morning, coming back home after dropping my son at his school, I switched the indicator to right, and then after a second or two,  put my right arm out,  and then,  after a second or two, turned right. All the while, there was someone shouting something.

I knew it had to be the man in the Honda Activa who had been trying to overtake me on the right side. I saw him in the mirror. I slowed him down, and had gotten my way.

As I was about to enter the gate, I stopped and turned back to see who he was. I still don't know who he is, but I confirmed that it was him who was shouting.

Okay, this is how we ride. No sense in stopping in the middle of the road to  give him way. Someone behind would have knocked me down, and I would have been the one  shouting,  more likely,  screaming.

I make it sound something casual, an everyday happening that you take in the stride. It did affect me, and how?

Here is a quote, which made me think of the incident:

Sir Joseph Porter : My pain and my distress,

                                   Again it is not easy to express.

                                  My amazement, my surprise,

                                  Again you may discover from my eyes.

ALL                        : How terrible the aspect of his eyes!

Not terrible, but terrified, in my case.

The quote is from a play by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Love and Hatred

Yesterday, I received a sms which said, "There are men who cannot bear to see the happiness of others". It was in reply to a quote from Mencius, "All men have a mind which cannot bear to see the suffering of others".

Coincidentally, when I got the message, I was reading about Mohammed Atta, the 9/11 suicide bomber. The book was "The Cell', by John Miller.

Mohammed Atta was born in a family that was moving upward in the social scale. He was driven towards academic excellence. He was a bright student, but not with much imagination. He trained to be an Architect, but found it difficult to be creative. He grew up relatively secluded, a protective upbringing. His father complained that he was growing up like a girl, and used to exhort, "Toughen up, boy!'. He was sensitive, and empathised with the suffering of others, 

especially that of the poor, in Egypt and in Palestine.

Yet we know what he did. Why was he driven to do what he did?

He hated the Western way of life. He thought Western values had brought injustice and oppression to his homeland, and the western way of life, especially those that involved women, were dangerous, and threatened the world. He hated independent, free women, who smiled at strangers, who dressed skimpily, uncovering their arms, and who did not hesitate to shake hands, touch the men in the shoulders.

So, even in the same heart, there can be compassion and cruelty. We can do without cruelty, but we cannot do without love.

People who embrace evil, don't renounce goodness. It is just that instead of trying to alleviate the suffering you see in front of you, you banish happiness to a different time, a different place.

The love you have, is removed far away, it is in another time and another land. With that vision in your head, you turn your heart to stone, kill your wife with a word, stifle your son with a stare or crash a plane into a wall.

What They Say..

About four or five days back, I read a blog by a Czech String Theorist. It was about two Czech entomologists who had been arrested in India for trying to smuggle some insects out from here. In his post, he had some nasty things to say about us Indians, calling us barbarians, wild animals who ought to be under British Rule etc. Some of what he said was true, but in general he was venemous and boorish.

It infuriated me, of course. But it should not have, may be. I think, if we were a confident people, we won't be bothered with what others say about us.

But I do feel happy when someone has anything good to say about us, and unhappy when abused. All our praises are deserved, and the abuses unreasonable and insensitive, right?

So when I read "Passage Through India" by Gary Snyder, who came here in the 60s, I felt happy about some of the things he had to say.

I will put them in for you now, and if possible, a more balanced post later:

"Such intelligence, pride, and poverty- India is a developed world, but anciently developed in a different way. Today, its joining the new "developed world" is in some ways a decline."

"But this is about India. East of the Indus river, the land that gave us Beginning Linguistics (Panini's Grammar) and Beginner's and Ender's mind: the teachings of Shakyamuni the Awakened One. Plus all that yoga practice and devotion to a host of Gods and Goddesses that will cleanse the whole universe of pollution (but it's not time yet). That's the high culture. (Whenever I want to get some help with my software I call up somebody who just happens to live in a place like Bangalore. We talk. I take this to be an after-effect of Panini's great work.)"

"I honour India for many things: those neolithic cattle breeders who sang daily songs of love to God and Cow, as a family, and whose singing is echoed even today in the recitation of the Vedas and the sutra-chanting of Los Angeles and Japan. The finest love poetry and love sculpture on earth. Exhaustive meditations on mind and evocation of all the archetypes and images. Peerless music and dance. But most, the spectacle of a high civilization that accomplished art, literature, and ceremony without imposing a narrow version of itself on every tribe and village. Civilization without centralization or monoculture. The caste system as a mode of social organisation probably made this possible- with some very unattractive side effects. But those who study the nature of the rise of the centralized state will find India full of surprises. And lastly, no culture but India prior to modern times imagined such a scale of being- light years vast universes, light-year size leaps of time. Dramas of millions of lifetimes reborn. How did they do it? Soma? Visitors from Outer Space? Nah. I think just Big Mind drank in with Himalayan snow-melt rivers and seeing Elephant's ponderous daintiness, and keeping ancient shamanistic sages and forest hermits fed on scraps of food, to hear and respect their solid yoga studies. The Buddha Shakyamuni, one of those, was loved and listened to by cowgirls, traders, and courtesans.

"India has had superb times- now fallen a while on hard times. And, beginning to end, irreducible pride. The sharp-tongued, sharp-eyed village men and women, skinny with hard work and never a big fat meal to eat a whole lifetime, live under an eternal sky of stars, and on a beginningless earth .They might need aid-dollars or aid-food but they don't need or want pity or disgust. An anvil the spirit is pounded finer on, India. Skinny, and flashy eyes"

There are a lot more things I love in this book, and will post them later, if possible.

Be you thoroughly saturated with happiness.

Something I Want to Say

Hail, kind-hearted reader! Peace and Happiness be your companions! 

Some posts that you find here, are for myself, and the others are meant for you. This results in some confusion in the choice of material and tone. I don't want to keep making posts about what I read, wrote, saw and felt. I think it would come across as self-centred. Anyway, nothing much happens to me, so I am bored with myself, to tell the truth.

But if, on the other hand, I do posts like Bacchylides, Kempis and Darwin Wall Stain- things we don't really worry about, not even when we feel grown up and universal citizen- how interesting would that be? They are interesting enough for me to spend some time and read, change some words, add comments and post, but how would you feel? 

Hope I don't come across as a self-important, opinionated, bloated pseudo-intellectual, which I may well be.

The point of these posts is- I bring here stuff that I want to share with you, that I find so interesting I want to keep it someplace where I can go back and read.

The Sense of Poetry

(How would you feel if you had written this:

"I totally agree with the perceptive words of Groucho Marx, "Capital is money, capital is commodities. By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs."

Only, it is not Groucho Marx, but Karl Marx.

Anon has pointed out that the Alexander for whom Bacchilydes wrote the poem is not Alexander The Great, but Alexander I, who lived hundred years before him.

I am grateful to Anon for this correction)

Recently I read about fifteen lines that were written by Bacchylides, who lived about five centuries before the Christian Era. These fifteen lines were all that could be retrieved from the ravages of time, the fifteen lines that follow these are mutilated, and the others entirely lost.

The poem, not really a poem, but the opening lines penned for a public performance in praise of Alexander the Great, who commissioned this eulogy, follows:

My lyre, cling to your peg no longer,

silencing your clear voice with its seven notes.

Come to my hands!

I am eager to send Alexander

a golden wing of the Muses,

an adornment for banquets at the month's end,

when the sweet compulsion of the speeding cups

warms the tender hearts of young men,

and hope of Aphrodite,

mingling with the gifts of Dionysius,

makes their hearts flutter.

Wine sends a man's thoughts soaring on high:

immediately he is destroying the battlements of cities,

and he expects to be monarch

over the whole world;

his house gleams with gold and ivory,

and wheat-bearing ships bring great wealth

from Egypt over the dazzling sea.

Such are the musings of the drinker's heart.

Further lines are lost.

Not remarkable, when you read these lines, they look a very ordinary preamble, though imaginative.

But consider Alexander the Great, not really Greek, but an eastern monarch who when the Persian Wars broke out, initially supported the Persians, and when the Persians seemed set to lose, offered intelligence to the Greeks: a double-dealer.

And consider that Bacchylides wrote this before that war, during the period when Greeks had grounds to be doubtful about Alexander. He had to praise Alexander, who had commissioned this work to court popularity with the Greeks. Yet, in the flux of politics when no one knows what the outcome will be, Bacchylides should not go overboard, lest his praises bring Bacchylides notoriety in the eyes of his fellow Greeks if Alexander should go out of favour.

So it is tempting to think what Bacchylides set out to say: is he praising Alexander for daring to dream a drunkard's dream, or is he subtly likening Alexander's dreams to a drunkard's delirious ravings?

When a poem suggests, and compels you to fill-in, then, I think it is successful.

Poems are not prefabricated material, you create them in your head: when they come alive, you realise the power and sense of poetry.

The Religion of the Twenty-First Century

I don't know whether you have come across this news item, it is more than a week old. It is a delightful spoof. I think many have literally read this article and have made their comments, wherever the article has been posted. I have enjoyed those comments, and have had considerable trouble deciding whether I am meant to read them literally or not.

I found this news and the image in The Onion issue of 5.9.08.

It brings to light the miraculous image of Charles Darwin that had manifested itself on a concrete wall in Dayton, a small town in Tennessee. And it reports that devoted evolutionists are flocking to see the Darwin-like stain on the wall, and to to lay wreaths of flowers, light devotional candles, read aloud from Darwin's works, and otherwise pay homage to the mysterious blue-green image.

There are also entertaining quotes capped with, ""It's a stain on a wall, and nothing more," said the Rev. Clement McCoy, a professor at Oral Roberts University and prominent opponent of evolutionary theory. "Anything else is the delusional fantasy of a fanatical evolutionist mindset that sees only what it wishes to see in the hopes of validating a baseless, illogical belief system..."

Please read the article in its entirety. I don't want to fill this space with words copied and reformulated in a different order.

Singur's agricultural status

Few days back 'nasaki' raised the following point in response to 'Singur
stalemate' post.

---
"lot of talks were done before the factory is halted. like fertile land
given to tata and so on. i sincerely want to know what crops did WB were 
growing and is popular for. because punjab is famous for wheat, 
maharashtra for grams and andhra for chilly cotton and rice. 

I havent found any cash or other crops as far as i have travelled or 
heard about. i wish somebody look into facts and figures so that we know 
if mamta deserves anything."
---

In response to that I attempted to support the agricultural richness of
Singur through online sources. I have pasted below the information I
could gather on this front. With two rivers (Hoogly and Damodar)  flowing
through the district of Hoogly (under which Singur comes) Singur is
naturally well supported for agriculture. I am further convinced that
Singur should not be touched for industrial purposes. Please leave your
views / comments after checking the following links.

From WB state marketing board web site - Stat pertaining to
Hooghly district agri produce  (Click on the link)


From  Singur: A Report by Amitadyuti Kumar


"The famous Ratanpur potato market is in Singur. One of the biggest
Multipurpose Cold storages of the state, meant for storing vegetables
as well as potato is situated in the area. As the fury of flood has been
tamed to a certain extent, the farmers  have been making a modest
earning thanks to the harmonious blend of fertile loamy soil and labour.
Besides paddy and jute, potato and vegetables are the  main cash
crops here. Even the young graduates or the masters of these poor
and the middle class families have engaged themselves in farming
once the prospect of getting a JOB proves to be an illusion.

Because of improved farming techniques, application of fertilizers
and pesticides, Singur two-thirds of Singur flood plain has by and
large become a multi-crop land.

According to the statistics provided in a state government booklet
the block uses a whopping 10, 001metric tonnes of fertilisers and
3061.5 metric tonnes of insecticides and other plant medicines
every year. To cater the needs there are 303 agricultural inputs
trading centers in the Block, whose 83% (8830 Hectares out of
10,526 Hectares agricultural land) is irrigated. The crop density of
the Block is 220%, a step higher than the district average of  215%."

From the article Why is the Left giving up Singur's arable land
for Tata's cars?

"There is no need to consult the state agriculture department's
statistics or 1970 land reports to find out that Singur is agriculturally
rich. It is enough to just take a walk through the area. Apart from
paddy, potatoes and many other kinds of vegetables are
grown in this green stretch. Farmers in Singur say they grow
not just two or three crops in a year, but six or seven. It is
because this land is so rich that farmers are resisting the
acquisition of land for a factory.If most people in Singur are
engaged in non-agricultural work, do fairies till the land to grow six
crops a year?"

From an online petition
10. We also draw your attention to a vitally important research,
which your government seems to have ignored. The Geological
Survey of India, on request from the West Bengal state irrigation
department, conducted a survey of the Bhagirathi-Damodar region in
1987-88. The Report shows that the retention of Singur as an
agricultural area is crucial for the ecology of the entire region east of
the Damodar.

On Kempis

I had misplaced it somewhere deep inside the clump of books I have, but today by some accident or purpose, it surfaced again.

The book is, "The Imitation of Christ", by Thomas A Kempis. The copy I have is published by The Bombay Saint Paul Society. I got it for Rs.40 in Ramakrishna Mutt. It fits my pant pocket, I have carried it around with me, kept a copy in my office desk, and have gifted two copies, lost one.

It is one of the best books I have ever read, combining spiritual wisdom with common sense. It is positive in a way that is not apparent in the first reading. It guides me well in the conduct of my life, in the adjustment of attitude that everyday life demands of all of us. If only I could keep its lessons in mind, I would be lot more peaceful and happy, that is what I tell myself.

To sample its virtues, I will quote a few lines from Chapter 16: "Of Bearing the Defects of Others"

What do you do when you find someone repeating the same mistakes? Your gentle pointers are useless, criticism provokes enmity and your aggressive postures raise the stakes higher.

Kempis offers this sage advice: "If anyone, being once or twice admonished, does not comply, contend not with him, but leave it all to God, who knows well how to turn evil into good, that his will may be done, and that he be honoured in all his servants. Endeavour to be patient in bearing the defects and infirmities of others, be they what they may; because you also have many things which others must bear with".

Take people for what they are. Don't make them worse by your criticisim, condemnation. Resign yourself to the situation. Be patient; do you not expect others to bear with your faults?

Anyone can say this. But it takes a true Saint to put it in proper perspective:

"But now God has so disposed things that we may learn "to bear one another's burdens" (Ga 6:2); for there is no man without defect; no man without his burden; no man sufficient for himself; but we must bear with one another; comfort one another, assist, instruct and admonish one another. But the measure of each one's virtue best appears in occasions of adversity. For occasions do not make a man frail, but show what he is".

A difficult situation does not make you weak, it demands the best from you: it is then that your true nature is revealed to you. We are all joined together; we live or fall together. Relatedness is as important as Individuality. It is in the enduring relationships that we can cherish our individuality.

I hope to bring Kempis again in my future posts.

The Man Who Deserves a Smile

I think twice before bringing up the US Elections, because it is likely to generate more controversy. People are so passionate about this, it is as if their vote matters.

Here in India, most of us support Obama, I think. Most of us always support Democrats, and the colour of Obama's skin helps.

But recently I came across a very interesting little snippet that makes this election more interesting- even colourwise.

Apparently, one of the McCain children is adopted from an orphanage in Bangladesh.

The story is that Cindy McCain was visiting Bangladesh, and in an orphanage there, she saw and was attracted to two children, one child had heart complaint and the other had cleft palate, her condition so severe she could not be fed. Cindy took them to US primarily for their medical treatment. One of their friends adopted the child with the heart complaint, and the McCains adopted the girl with cleft palate.

The child is Bridget McCain, and i googled, even though she has grown up real big, she is every inch an Asian, her big happy smile reflects the fulfilment of a dream that is denied to many a child here.

Whether McCain wins or loses, I am happy for him. He did not broadcast his Asian child, the way our newspapers went to town with a Hanuman-like lucky charm that Obama was seen with.

See the photo of the girl, she looks hale and healthy.

Why I Won't Take Out the Garbage in My Scooty

When I started to learn to drive, there were a set of actions I would perform daily. I would get up at six, take bath, pray and then only take out the scooty. I would take it only after I got myself cleaned, won't take the garbage in it. If I felt it was a bad day, I would opt to go by bus than drive. There were more, but I've forgotten them since I am more confident now and don't follow any of those superstitions.

Ae superstitions good for us or bad?

Given my experience, I would say good, though it was a bit of a bother at times. But if I refuse to pay someone money because it is not a good day for me, that would be a problem.

I feel if it does not disturb too much, me or others, then superstitions are therapeutic.

But what about science? Is it scientific or superstitious?

Some aspects of science are definitely superstitious. If, for example, you are a string theorist, and hold that there are more than twenty dimensions to this universe, all of which are hidden, except the three we know, then you are superstitious, however mathematically you formulate your beliefs. Even the fields- electric, magnetic etc., are beliefs really, because what are they? they don't really exist as fields.

I think I can go on and on, displaying the full glory of my ignorance.

But what brings me to this is an article I read in New Scientist, "Superstitions evolved to help us survive', by
Ewen Callaway (http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/dn14694-superstitions-evolved-to-help-us-survive.html).

It says that when you are in a dangerous environment, the cost of ignoring a threat would be higher than mistaking a threat. Suppose, in a forest you ignore the rustle of grass, you are likely to become lion-food. It is far better to believe that the rustle of grass portends some impending evil.

I guess that is what helps me survive the concrete jungles of Chennai.