The Day After

Morning mist,

Chirping of early birds.

Who recalled the night's sacrifice?

- Dag Hammerskjold

A Swiftean Moment- A Ghoulish Post

I read this wonderful book, ("Stiff- The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach) and there is this wonderful chapter, "Eat Me", from which I am making this post. It may not be tasteful, given what has happened these few days, but so what! (Life has to go on, and the more happy we are, the more depressed and frustrated the masterminds of terror are going to get. We know you, but you don't know us.

We know you have come and killed many of us. And we know many more of your kind will come and kill many more of us. But don't think we are going to get frightened by the sorts of you- we have seen off much larger fish than you. We will survive, you won't. In our three thousand years of history, you will see people come and people go, but we are always here, our culture is terror-proof.

This is India. You don't know us. So, as President Bush, now likely to be more popular in India than even in Albania, famously said, "Bring 'em on". We are not fazed.)

As the title of this book states, it is all about Corpses and how useful they are. And this chapter is about their supposed health benefits through time.

I did not know that in twelfth century Arabia people prepared and ingested mellified man. Old persons volunteered to mellify themselves, which meant that, they fed exclusively on a diet of honey. The volunteer even takes bath in honey. After a month, he urinates and excretes honey and soon death follows. Now he is placed in a coffin of honey within which he macerates. After a hundred years, the seal is broken open and the confection is ready for use in treatment of broken and wounded limbs, a small amount is taken internally for additional effect. Mellified and mummified men cured not only bruises and contusions, they also prevented the coagulation of blood, palsy, vertigo and flatulency.

It seems that the medicinal properties of mummified men were well recognised, not only in Arabia and China, but all over Europe. For example, Nicolas Le Fevre, in his 'A Compleat Body of Chymistry', praises the therapeutic qualities of mummies made from sudden death victims, such as from sandstorms ("This sudden suffocation doth concentrate the spirits in all the parts by reason of the fear and sudden surprisal which seizes on the travellers"). 

He also gives out a recipe for the preparation of a mummy, the victim should preferably be "a young, lusty man",should he be a redhead, so much the better. The mummy should first be prepared by a surprise attack on the material- through suffocation, hanging or impalement. The recipe for drying, smoking and blending the mummy is provided by Le Fevre (in case you want to know, the ratio is one to three grains of mummy in a mixture of viper's flesh and spirit of wine, but I don't know how you will procure the necessary ingredients).

Here is a materia medica of the human corpse: (mostly collected from The Chinese Materia Media by Li Shih-chen, 1597, and some European sources)

Mind: For insanity, take a snuff of the Spirit of Skull

Head: Dandruff ("best taken from a fat man"); shampooing with hair elixir cures baldness. King Charles himself was a medical man: in his private lab at Whitehall he prepared and distributed 'King Charles Drops' which contained opium and wine in addition to- um... ahem...- human skull.

Mouth: Tartar of teeth relieve wasp bite; spittle of women applied to eyes cure opthalmia; spittle for effect for nightmare due to attack by devils (there were several varieties of spittles: woman spittle, newborn man-child spittle, Imperial saliva- saliva from the royal mouth of the Roman Emperor himself); Saliva has many uses: in the treatment of dog bite, eye infection, and fetid perspiration. Eyeteeth is useful for the treatment of malaria, breast abscess and eruptive smallpox

Ears: Ear wax

Abdomen: Gallstones cure hiccough; tincture of navel is good for sore throat

Urinary Organs: a cupful of urine from the public latrine is the proper medicine for diabetes (better when given secretly); Urine cures jaundice; human urinary sediments counteract bladder stones.

Rectum and Anus: Clear liquid feces cures worms ("the smell will induce insects to crawl out of any of the body orifices and relieve irritation"). Feces could also cure anthrax and plague (according to Nicholas Lemery, member of the Royal Academy of Sciences- he describes the method of preparation: "Take four ounces of human excrement newly made, of ordinary consistency..."); in China, feces were used for everything from epidemic fevers to genital sores in children- they were available in liquid, ash, soup and 'roasted' forms.

Clear liquid feces antidotes the effects of poisonous mushrooms. Feces can also be applied topically in cases of prolapsed uterus. 

Male Sexual Organs: Powdered human penis taken with alcohol is good for epilepsy.

Female Sexual Organs: Old liquified placenta is a cure if your hair stands up without cause. In today's China, fetus is used to treat consumption and asthma, as "Tai Bao Capsules"

Extremities: Human knee dirt; Marrow and oil distilled from human bones ameliorate rheumatism; toe-nails are a sure cure for vomiting

Skin: Sweat, cadaver skin tied around calves prevents cramping, Human fat is good for rheumatism, joint pain and falling-away of limbs (during the seventeeth century Dutch-Spanish war, body snatchers would be pre-empted by army surgeons, who rushed onto the field with their scalpels and buckets in the aftermath of a pitched battle)

Blood: Fresh blood injected into the face cures eczema; blood itself is good for epilepsy, gout, dropsy (fresh blood from the slain gladiators were collected in the Roman Empire; in Eighteenth century France, executioners earned extra money by marketing the blood from the necks of the guillotined vicitms). For leprosy (please avert your eyes), the treatment is to take bath in the blood of virgins, better still, the blood of infants (Pliny wrote, "When leprosy fell upon the princes of Egypt, woe to the people, for in the bathing chambers, tubs were prepared, with human blood for the cure of it). 

Blood was branded and sold as  Woman Butter, Maid's Zenith (menstrual blood fragrant with rosewater), Even material from the brain had its medicinal uses: a recipe for the Spirit of Brain of Man included not only the brain in its entirety with all its membranes, arteries, veins and nerves, but also had peony, black cherries, lavender and lily added for flavor.

There is much more in this chapter, and in this book. The uses of human cadaver are truly wonderful. The author of this book, Mary Roach, deserves praise, accolodate and some sort of prize.

The Taj

All I am doing today is blogging, it seems.

It is a way of keeping control of emotions, I guess.

I have once come to Mumbai for a marriage, but have not seen Taj.

Here is an article by Aravind Adiga in The Times Online. Please click the link and  read it in its entirety, it is good- emotional, but not sentimental; angry but not outrageous.

And here a moving passage from him about what Taj means to him, and to the man on the street:

"But what has really made this particular attack personal, even for those of us who have not lost family or friends to the terrorists, is what has happened to this hotel.

"When other Indians say Taj, they mean the world-famous marble monument in Agra; when people in Bombay speak of the Taj, they mean India's grandest hotel, the Taj Mahal hotel at the Gateway of India. The middle-class can afford to have tea; richer people can dine here; and only the super-rich, or visitors from abroad, can stay in this hotel. And yet all residents of Bombay regard this hotel with an intensity of pride and affection. We love the Taj because it is, frankly speaking, better than anything else in this city.

"Life in Bombay is profoundly unjust; more than half the residents live on the pavement or in the slums. Naturally we admire the fact that the Taj was founded in a fit of egalitarianism and fair play. In the 19th century, the legend goes, an Indian tycoon was refused admission into a whites-only hotel; he decided to start an hotel where a man would never be judged by the colour of his skin. In a young city where so much is transient the Taj has endured for more than a hundred years; it has the aura of antiquity in Bombay that Caesar's Forum has in Rome. In a badly planned metropolis, where so much is a disaster - the traffic, the water supply, the general infrastructure - the Taj sets a standard of excellence. Thanks to its exquisite service, rooms and food it is regarded as one of the world's great hotels; indeed, foreign visitors to Bombay seem to love the Taj at least as much as the natives do.

"In a class-obsessed city, the Taj is exclusive - but never snobbish. (The other hotel that was attacked, the Trident, probably charges less for its rooms and food, but has the distinct reputation of being a rich man's hotel.) Many working-class Mumbaikars save for weeks to have a coffee at the Taj; and then they save their receipts so they can show their relatives and friends.

"The hotel's interior may be reserved for the rich, but the famous exterior can be enjoyed by everyone. The palatial façade is a whimsical blend of Renaissance, Mughal and Gothic styles, and the net result is a celebration of all that's hybrid, improbable and incongruous in this world, making the Taj a perfect emblem for Bombay - the city that was dredged out of swamp and sea and populated with migrants from across the world.

"In this city of dreams and cinema, this hotel creates the best-loved civic space - the plaza around Gateway of India, where you might go with your family for a Sunday promenade, or to watch the ocean, or purchase some peanuts for a quick snack. In many ways, the Taj is more like a town hall than an hotel. And to see it burning and wounded and charred and vandalised like this is like seeing St Paul's attacked during the Blitz."

More is the pain.

Adhithi Devo Bhava!

Homages are due for every one of the people that died in the horrible attack in Mumbai. But I will honour just one person, and through him, all those who have been slain by the bullets and grenades of the death machines.

According to the news report in Washington Post, twelve years ago, Alan Scherr committed his life to meditation and spirituality. Now he has been here and has died.

The Scherrs were among 25 participants from the Synchronicity community who had traveled to Mumbai on a pilgrimage to visit several ashrams, Now he and his 13 year old daughter have died, and four others pilgrims have been injured.

"Alan committed most of his adult life to meditation, spirituality and conscious living," the statement from Synchronicity, the spiritual group to which Scherr belonged, said. "He was a passionate Vedic astrologer and meditation teacher who inspired many people to begin a journey of self-awareness and meditation. He was committed to making a positive difference in the world and devoted himself to the community he lived in."

The Synchronicity statement described Naomi as "a bright and lively young woman who loved spending time with people and living life to the fullest. She was passionate, if not a little mischievous, and will be fondly remembered by many of us for colorful hair styles and radiant energy."

According to The News & Advance, "Scherr came to the organization in 1996 when his daughter was just two months old. She was home-schooled, finished the eighth grade a year early, scored 92 percent on her SSAT and had planned to apply to the Emma Willard Academy in Troy, N.Y., to attend high school." Now the little child is dead.

"In India, Naomi had been working on an essay to accompany her application to the boarding school, had gotten her nose pierced, obtained shawls and Indian garb, scheduled some massages and was enjoying her pilgrimage". Her life has been snuffed away by the rank breath of a stale and sterile ideology, smothered by the claustrophobic fumes of hatred.

The spokesman for the group to which Scherr belongs, has this to say about the terrorists: "They’re walking where their feet are.Like 95 percent of the people walking the earth, they are fragmented or in denial, so to speak." The people who inspire terror should be ashamed, but they won't, not until they come face to face with terror in their everlasting hell.

Tanya Anisimova, 42, a concert cellist and composer from the Moscow Conservatory as well as a Synchronicity member and a native of Chechnya, has this to say: "This is about peace, the whole place is about peace." She prays for her slain comrade the best way she knows how to: "We need to pray, and I need to make this cello sound" she said. In the end, victory shall be hers. Her cello shall definitely silence the guns and grenades.

Alan Scherr seems to have been a disciple of Master Charles, who trained under Paramahamsa Muktananda. There is a revealing article by Scherr at www.realization.org. Please read this, I found it moving, especially when I came to the last paragraph:

"For me, real freedom means living life in each moment, as it unfolds, without concepts or conditions. It is a life very few choose because it requires an orientation and re-prioritization of life that is, in many ways, antithetical to our modern Western culture. And yet, it is always available whenever one is truly focused upon self-mastery. The miracle of this life continues to unfold for me on daily basis." 

It is a pity that such a noble man as Scherr should die at the hands of these scum  with poisonous blood in their heart and empty words in the head. But it always has been thus in India. And there is no dishonour in such death.

It pierces me like a sharp dart, so painful is my anguish that we in India have let this happen to a guest who loved this country beyond belief: "Scherr has expressed a preference that he be cremated, possibly with ashes to be strewn in the Ganges River." How can we recompense his love and respect? No way is there, words are of no avail.

He is with God, and he has found a place more in tune with his heart than this loveless, shrivelled, doomed, divided earth, where 'God' is getting to be a curse word worse than all those four-letter words, and the priest rant and the fundamentalist chant carry more violence than gangsta rap.

The Nefarious Agenda of the Terrorists

I found this wonderful blog named in plain words, "Counterterrorism Blog". It has a panel of contributors who are responsible and know what they write about- they are experts with credence, people you can trust. They keep a series of posts on India running, and they give a very good group of newslinks. 

As far as I could tell, they are neutral, and their aim of being 'a gateway to the community for policymakers and serious researchers', able to 'provide realtime information about terrorism cases and policy developments' is achieved with credible amount of success.

If any of you are interested in what is happening in India and how this all fits in with the wider scenario, please check this blog. And I am sure the committed among you will follow this blog and find useful information.

Now this is what they have to say about the unholy and satanic attack on innocent civilians in Mumbai: 

"The "emirs" have sent these armed elements in their 20s to strike at Indian psyche. One goal is to sink the Pakistani-Indian rapprochement. In Islamabad, the new Government is engaged in operations against the big Jihadi boys ojn the north western frontier. It is quite possible that the Mumbai attacks aim at triggering tensions between the two old foes so that pressure would be released against the radicals in Pakistan. In any event, this is a large Jihadi operation against one of the emerging economies and the largest democraciy n Asia. The goal is to target India as a power engaged in the War on Terror but also to further destabilize the region, including Pakistan and its neighbor Afghanistan."

Going by the larger trend, I tend to agree with this.

So my request to whoever is reading this is, please don't blame the Muslims in general. Don't incite hatred through your comments. We are all one here, some of us might make mistakes, but in spirit we are all Indians. We used to be, and should continue to be an inclusive society.

Dreamy Drive

 

Her touch felt so very nice, gentle and warm-
She was across my chest and the effect was soothing.
The signal turned green and so ended my dream,
I awoke to lots of yelling, screaming and honking.
It did feel special and real, so near yet so far...

 

Bachelor-hood sucks..:)

A poem by Sid

Is Indian media overdoing its job?

Anyone watching the terror episodes unfold since last night cannot ignore how close the media have been covering the attacks. In one shot, the reporter is about 10 to 15 meters away from commandos (ready to counter-fire)! In hostage situations, does such close-range coverage really help the situation? Of course the journalists realize that it could cost their lives but they may endanger the situation, especially if terrorists happen to have access to television.Some points to ponder areCould the coverage give away details of the rescue operation and alert terrorists? Could media help terrorists identify high profile persons?
Is it just to sensationalize the situation?
Any thoughts?

Mumbai's pain is my pain

I woke up to the devastating news of gun men taking control of most high profile, high security buildings of Mumbai. It's perturbing to hear about an attack of such scale across Mumbai by terrorists. What a big intelligence and security failure? My prayers and thoughts are with those who died and injured in the terror attack.

Questions keep coming out of mind, as more and more news come out. We don't have the answers now and we may not know the answers for many of our questions. But one thing is for sure. We must all stand united and be brave. I was touched and also pained by the sight of ATS chief wearing the helmet and chest guard before entering the Taj Hotel. The top man of ATS walking to fight terrorists speaks loud about the situation. Soft governance and vicious politicians are the bane of this country. It is time we, Indian citizens, learnt our lessons.

In rediff B.Raman, Former deupty secretary at the cabinet secretariat has written an article on this situation. Please read it. He asks whether our nuclear establishments are safe. This, coming from a man who served as one of the top bureaucrats is highly disturbing. Unless he sees a motive in the top echelons of our safety and security, such a question would not come out.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/nov/27raman-are-our-nuclear-establishments-safe.htm

Corruption and the greed for power is corroding the iron of our safety.

My mind is clobberred by incessant thoughts coming out of my anguish and pain. All that I want to say is this. The union government and the state government have failed to save its citizens and the guests. They were sleeping or pretending to be asleep while terrorists planned and walked into Mumbai to carry out an attack of this scale. They are wholly responsible for the intelligence and security failure. What are they going to do? I guess, they will cling onto power, because that is what they want.

These Teams Are Not For Real...

Perhaps this is not the right time to be writing about sports, but I found an article in the guardian, too delicious to let go, so here it is.

It seems that in 2006, an advertisement agency ran a tourism campaign for Australia, with the header, "Where The Bloody Hell Are You?". There were complaints by the British, of course, but they were dismissed by the then Australian Sports Minister with suggestions that the British lacked a sense of humour.

Now, the Sun ran a campaign, comparing the 19 Gold Medals that England got with the 14 that the Australians notched up. Its header was "Where The Bloody Hell Were You", mocking  the earlier Australian Ad.

Of course, somebody has gone and complained that the advertisements could be seen by children and the offensive language would corrupt their innocent minds.

So The Sun advertisement has been handed out a ban.

But no such ban stops us from asking, here in India,  we would like to know from the Australian and English cricket teams, "Where The Bloody Hell Are You!".

I Got Your Number!

This post is about our cricketers, who despite all the money and fame they are earning, are likely to believe that their success on the field is more due to numbers than to skills. 

Read on, this is from The Times of India (may be you read this?)

Sanjay B. Jumaani, the numerologist, not Peter Kirsten is behind the success story, it seems.

Times of India has it that he  advises our players as to which numbers to wear on their shirts, and is the author of the turnaround that our team has had.

- Dhoni, born on 07/07 wears number 7.

-Yuvraj, born on 12/12 wears number 12

- Kumble was told to wear a diamond ring, and he got the captaincy

- Irfan Pathan, born 27/10, used to wear 56, which caused his ouster, and has now come back with Jumaani's help wearing number 63 on his shirt. His brother, Yusuf Pathan, number 9, wears 27.

- Uthappa, never plays without his red coral (for courage)

- Zaheer, born number 7, has his number 34 shirt working for him

- Ishant has a number 37 pendant going for him (the number of the powerful Sun)

- Sehwag, wearing unlucky 44 on his shirt, lost his cap, and having taken it off, is now steaming ahead (he is looking to get 37 for the Sun, who represents leadership- looking to upstage Dhoni? Maybe TOI has inside knowledge of our team politics)

- Raina, our young hopeful, who was given the unlucky 13 in the IPL, covered number 1, and the 3 gave him wind behind his sails

- Gambhir, number 5 has 5 on his jersey

- Rohiit Sharma owes his aggression to 45 in his jersey.

As an amateur numerologist, I suggest that Jumaani change his name to Jumanji. It fits him well.

Gate keepers are lax and greedy

My father is a retired government servant. He joined the TN state government as a typist in 1958 and retired as a Tehsildhar in 1995. His official stint was full of experiences with politicians, bureaucrats, public and to some extent media. He loves to talk about his experiences and the way he handled numerous and variety of situations that came up to him. It is after his retirement that I realised how much government officials with power can do and how responsible and at the same time thankless there job could be. He has a nice and witty style of narration that I never missed a session when he is on the topic, if I am around.

It was during one of our sessions we got into the powers of bureaucrats (IAS and the like) and how much they can do. My father said, a bureaucrat has enormous power to improve things and with out his sign of approval no file in the government can move. A dedicated bureaucrat with resources can make things happen, my father said. No politician would risk going against an official's stated position as that would mean they are personally responsible and can be easily trapped especially if it is in someway beneficial to them(as is the case nowadays).

When I heard him saying this, I asked, who is the real culprit for the corruption? Most of us blame politicians, general public and police. If there is no giver, there won't be a taker is a famous cliche. But when a poweful taker demands a person to give, what else can he do other than accepting the demand to give or giving up his right unless he is a revoutionary or a natural fighter. Most of the commoners have no power and can't really fight against the powerful in this corrupt environment. I am not justifying the giver but only highlight his desperation. I am not talking about the rule breakers who bribe.

Coming to the point, if bureaucrats don't bend and serve according to the oath or as expected of them by the Indian constitution, where will be corruption? It's difficult to bring all commoners under one banner. They are numerous and have different interests whereas bureaucrats are quite negligible in size and according to their service requirement must have only one interest that of serving the nation. If only they stand tall and not buckle under the political pressure they would have served this country well. Political class are powerful and there is no denying that. But then if all bureaucrats fight unitedly, corruption can be rooted out. Political class may be the drivers but bureaucrats are the engine of the government. If the engine stops the driver can't push the road roller. Can he?

As long as the gate keepers are lax and greedy, thieves, transgressors, tricksters, perpetrators and their lot will keep entering throught the gate. All that the inmates can do is not be part of them or try their best not to yield to the stealing party. However hard they may try, there is not much they can do but slowly accede to the illegitimate demands made on them and in turn become one of the fraudsters, tricksters, perpetrators,... because gate keeprs are lax and greedy.

The Broken Windows Theory

There is no saying what they will be studying next.

Here are the results of a research as reported in The Economist. The study was conducted byKees Keizer and his colleagues at the University of Groningen.

Some of you might click the link, but many won't. I don't, usually, unless I am given  good reasons why I should.

So here are some:

It seems that during the '80s George Kelling, a former probation officer now working at Rutgers University, coined the “Broken Windows Theory” (read on, this has nothing to do with computers). 

If the area you live in shows some signs of decay, such as broken windows kept unmended, more windows will get broken, and sooner or later some stranger will want to walk through one of those to take a look in. People do what they see others do, and they improve upon it. So if some small rule is violated today, may be it is an open invitation for crime tomorrow. Rudy Giuliani's 'zero tolerance' concept could be an improvement upon broken windows theory.

I don't know why, but no one has bothered to check this theory till now, and now that Keizer and Co. have put this to test we can be sure that where there is litter, there will be crime. To be specific, fifty percent more.

The experiment itself was elegant. They chose two alleys. One was clean and fresh. The other had graffiti in it. In both the alleys they placed bicyles, and in the bicycle some sort of advertisement, there was a large sign prohibiting graffiti but there was no dustbin. They found that when the alley had graffiti, 69% of the riders littered compared with 33% where the walls were clean. In the clean alley you tend to take away the waste paper, it seems.

Another experiment was also conducted. There was a temporary fence that shut out a short cut. The fence had a small opening, and two signs, stating this was no thoroughfare, and that you should not lock your cycles on the fence. Where these signs were obeyed, four cycles parked near the fence, but not locked to it- 27% of the people trespassed. And where the cycles were locked to the fence in violation of the sign, 82% took the short cut!

More amazing than all this is what happened when the researchers showed the money. They placed a Five Euro bill in an envelope (it was visible) thrust half inside a post box. Where the area was well-maintained and in good order, only 13% of the people took the money. But if there was graffiti or litter around, about 25% chose to steal the money.

What all this means is that it takes just one example of disorder to inspire another, of the same kind or one of higher magnitude. So, our police personnel are better employed and will do a more effective job of it if they were made to work at keeping our streets clean, not of criminals, but of graffiti and litter!

All this is astonishing, Kees Keizer and his fellow researchers deserve some prize for their ingenuity.

But what strikes me is that, in a clean and rich atmosphere like the board-rooms and five-star hotels, far worse crimes are planned and executed. Why is that?

I think we need a "Open Windows Theory".

The Day Looks Gash, Toot Aff Your Horn

This is yet another blog recommend, for the second day in running.

It is a post by Michael Gilleland in laudator temporis acti.

Please read this poem by the Scots poet Robert Fergusson (1750-1774).

"Ne'er fash your thumb what gods decree

To be the weird o' you or me,

Nor deal in cantrip's kittle cunning

To speir how fast your days are running;

But patient lippen for the best,

Nor be in dowie thought opprest.

Whether we see mair winter's come,

Than this that spits wi' canker'd foam.

Now moisten weel your geyzen'd wa's

Wi' couthy friends and hearty blaws;

Ne'er let your hope o'ergang your days,

For eild and thraldom never stays;

The day looks gash, toot aff your horn,

Nor care ae strae about the morn."

I think you get a general drift of what this is about.

To enjoy this poem better, please visit the blog, because to say more won't be fair.

If anyone translates this poem into one of our dialects, say Chennai Tamil or Nellai Tamil, he will get the award of 1000 Porkizhis.

More Chest-thumping!

I found that Times of India have published Sid's post here at Bloggers Park in their e-newspaper. Congrats Sid!

However, it makes me think. Is it likely that you will be noticed more when you make a critical post on some current event? I remember an advice I got when I started blogging: generate controversy, that will bring in traffic. I guess it is true. For some reason, negative comments have greater stickablility than fair and balanced statements.

I am not taking anything away from Sid. In fact I feel a bit of pride that we at V Belong Here have unearthed a talent by providing him with a window through our guestblogger invite. Here I look back at Sid's poem here (En route to Work), and I am reminded of Ogden Nash. He has the abilitity to rough up words with easy familiarity, and some of Nash's felicity.

They say that language is malleable, but Nash wringed rhymes out of words in a sort of live demonstration. Sid has some such talent, going by the evidence he has shown us.

Here are some short poems of Ogden Nash. Enjoy them, if you haven't seen them before.

Reflection On Caution

Affection is a noble quality;

It leads to generosity and jollity.

But it also leads to breach of promise

If you go around lavishing it on red-hot momise.

A Word to Husbands

To keep your marriage brimming

With love in the loving cup,

Whenever you're wrong, admit it;

Whenever you're right, shut up.

What's The Use?

Sure, deck your limbs in pants,

Yours are the limbs, my sweeting.

You look divine as you advance...

Have you seen yourself retreating?

Lather As You Go

Beneath this slab

John Brown is stowed.

He watched the ads

And not the road.

The Octopus

Tell me, O Octopus, I begs

Is those things arms, or is they legs?

I marvel at thee, Octopus;

If I were thou, I'd call me Us.

GOD POURS LIGHT...

I found this wonderful poem of Hafiz in Thomas Meehan's blog 'The Words of a Mystic"

GOD POURS LIGHT...

God

pours light

into every cup,

quenching darkness.

The proudly pious

stuff their cups with parchment

and critique the taste of ink

while God pours light

and the trees lift their limbs

without worry of redemption,

every blossom a chalice.

Hafiz, seduce those withered souls

with words that wet their parched lips

as light

pours like rain

into every empty cup

set adrift on the Infinite Ocean.

~ Hafiz ~

(Ghazal 11, translated by Jose Orez)

Words are superfluous, but still, a brief comment is justified:

Our heart is the cup that should be empty, but it is full of words, even when we are pious; and when empty and in its natural state, God will pour his light, like he blesses all nature with light,. The words of Hafiz are not empty words, but they carry with them God's light, and we who vainly seek happiness in words, shall find in them some comfort and a luminous passage to His Light.

Blogs

On 16th November in Mumbai Mirror's blog world section on Chandrayaan, Baskar's post 'This is sure to alienate you' found a mention. It didn't surprise me but then it's a good feeling that I thought of sharing with you all.

When we started to blog, we asked what is the purpose of this blog. We thought, not many are going to read it. We are not going to reach the world with our views and opinions, is what we felt. But then we started blogging to ensure a storage for our views, thoughts and rants in a orderly manner. It in a way is also like a post card that one can post to knowns and in this case also to unknowns. We enlisted knowns as contributors and they are the regular visitors to this blog.

The regular visitor (map) gadjet started surprising me with few dots across the world. "Ah, there is a visitor from Lima. Oh! there is one or few from Korea. Wow, these are places we know no one. Huh, good man" it brought the child out of me after a long time. We started thinking about the blog appearence and the gadjets. Why don't we do that? Why should not we put it this way? All this motivated us to focus bit more on this blog. But to be honest, I also have questined how reliable these maps and info are?

I have always felt that a man's exposure to outside world and experience shapes shim up. Better the exposure better the man, though there could be exceptions to it. Social groups that fight for human and moral values have become stronger with the advent of social network sites and blogs. This virtual world has earned me friends, whom I have not met yet, acquaint with people across the world.

I hope and wish this virtual world leads to emancipation of human kind from whatever it is held back and bound by as the day goes by.

Enroute to work

Hi guys

Real life incident..:)

I was enjoying my drive to work this morning
And i saw two men shamelessly peeing

Not by the road-side, neither on the pavement, nor suvar,
But on the ramp of our newly constructed Karthipara flyover!

* (suvar: tamil word for wall)

: Sid Shan

The Psychiatrist of the Typewriters

Typewriters are close to my heart. My father was a typist, and he used to bring the typewriter home when he had extra work to do. The incessant and purposeful rattle of the keys translating into words held a fascination to me. They still do.

Even now, I have a portable typewriter at home though I rarely use it. I got it from a freind whose brother brought it home from Kenya. It is a Smith-Corona, and it is a marvel. I maintain it in a working condition, its keys hit the carriage with a muted 'click!', and the stately movement of the carriage itself gives me some pride that I now own it.

So, it came as a pleasant and happy surprise when I found an obituary in the September 20, 2008 issue of The Economist. It reported the sad demise of Martin Tytell at the age of 94. He had repaired typewriters for about fifty years. I felt grateful that a magazine as famous and powerful as The Economist had taken notice of an ordinary mechanic.

In the obituary, The Economist calls Tytell "their (typewriters') last and most famous psychiatrist', who could, "draw from them after a brief while of blue-eyed peering with screwdriver in hand, when they had left the factory, how they had been treated and with exactly what pressure their owners had hit the keys".

This is a man who deserves any amount of praise. He re-engineered the ordinary typewriter into slot machines for use in Railway Stations, he made the American Typewriter speak 145 different languages, made the carriage move right to left so that it could type Hebrew and Arabic, and enabled it spew out musical notations and even hieroglyphs!

When he closed his shop in 2001 after 45 years of service, he held a stock about 2 million pieces of type in his office. Such dedication!

Tytell assisted the FBI in garnering proof by identifying which machine had been used to type out which letter. But his greatest moment came when he assisted the defence attorneys of the infamous Alder Hess, who had spied for Russia, in replicating a typewriter to prove that it is possible to build an exact copy of the typewriter that Hess had used. Tytell spent more than 2 years to construct such a machine, and succeeded in reproduced every smudge and flaw of type that was found in the Woodstock N230099 that Hess had possessed.

I think the kind of appreciation that The Economist has for high achievers in ordinary life such as Martin Tytell is proof that its heart in its right place.

Compassion

I like this poem by Vallalar, and now this comes back to mind. 

A Prayer For Universal Love

Evil regimes which lack Compassion,
May they wither away and die.
Leaders of Good Faith, Love and Honesty,
May they emerge and rule us well.
Noble, virtuous, selfless Souls,
May they be granted what they seek.
May we aspire for the common Good,
And be joined in Peace and Harmony.

Vallalar is celebrated for his compassion, he wrote many devotional verses, but I think this verse which talks about Governance is a rare one. He is usually pained by his sorrows, but this verse is one occasion where he seethes with anger.

Compassion is a quality of spirituality, much more than worship and acts of piety, I feel.

Hasty Pastry not tasty, turns Nasty

In a land where millions have not even heard the term Pastry (let alone savoring it!), do we really need a pastry-eating competition? Let profligate-nations resort to such insanity. Institutions and individuals in a developing nation as ours ought to think and act much better. As long as such insane competitions exist, there will be participants who would go to any extent to prove a thing or two.

It is really not worth a fig to lose one's life in such meaningless pursuits. The worst part is this is not the first time it has resulted in a mishap. The next time around, the organizers should have a stand-by medical unit. Even better, lets call for a ban on all such competitions and use the extras to feed a few million.

by

Siddhartha Shan

Pastry eating competition eats techie's life

Let's Find a Third Way Soon, If We Can

Ever wondered what sort of a post you should make, especially when you are fired up by some current event? If you are quick to hit the keys, you find that the post practically overflows with energy, especially when you are in a rage. Then the post will probably poke your readers in the eye, and in all possibility, you will get more responses. The more controversial, the better- it stirs them up.

But if you go back to the post a week or a month later, the post appears dated, you wonder why you wrote the things you did. Some of what you said then seem idiotic now, and much of the emotion now reveals itself as a pose.  Intellectually and emotionally, it is sure to embarass you so much, your toes curl inward on their own.

At least that is the way I feel when this happens.

But it does not happen often, because most of the time, I take up something that happened some time back- the more distant the event, the better it is. Now armed with the benefit of aftersight, you know what went right and what went wrong. The sort of things that withstand the vagaries of time stand out now, like those small red fruits we used to pick off the fence. What you write now is likely to sound sensible whenever you happen to go back and read it.

Quite a big build-up to justify the fact that I usually grind the same flour that has already been powdered!

Actually, I happened to read now, an interview of Naom Chomsky in Spiegel Online, published last month.

Naom Chomsky is not someone I want to admire. But there are quite a few interesting things that he says about US, and that made me think about us Indians and the discussion we had here and the brilliant post Soulberry made at TCWJ (This is sort of a rejoinder to you SB, I admire your post, no disrespect intended- I hope you understand).

Chomsky seems to think that the government and its laws are a weapon of the rich. He says, " James Madison’s position at the Constitutional Convention was that state power should be used "to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority." " And then, Chomsky has it, "Even liberals like Walter Lippmann, one of the leading intellectuals of the 20th century, was of the opinion that in a properly functioning democracy, the intelligent minority, who should rule, have to be protected from “the trampling and the roar of the bewildered herd.”"

"We are a society dominated by business interests", he says, and points out, "You cannot control your own population by force, but it can be distracted by consumption."

I think this holds true for India. Soaring or sinking, the stock market makes the headline, but not the price of tomato, one of the must-have vegetables in our homes, which has hovered at around 50 Rupees per kilo for nearly a month now.

Our middle class, regimented by the political class into neat, compliant lines of caste and community,  blinded by the white light of plenty and prosperity, have by a willing suspension of disbelief,  chosen to follow the siren song of business and entertainment industries. Sachin's record found a place on top of the first page, at Indian Express I think, the year by year chart of his growth spiking in sync with Sensex. Pride of India!

I read somewhere that in an interview in Britain,  Gandhiji was asked, "What do you think of our Western Civilisation?". He replied, "I think that would be a good idea".

I am sure everyone who reads this feels some satisfaction that the West has thus been shown its place, with such wit and humour, But in our heart, we want to be more West than the West, "Let's beat them at their own game" . We, in the middle class are proud that we are Indian, but our pride cloaks the anxiety that we are inferior to the west.

Gandhi and Nehru, sought- with what success or failure, time alone will tell- a third way, they had the courage born of the faith that they were the inheritors and heralds of a great culture, but today that culture and its values are perverted by the communalists, negated by the communists and ignored by the intelligentia.

At the end of his interview, Chomsky says, "The intellectual world is deeply conformist. Hans Morgenthau, who was a founder of realist international relations theory, once condemned what he called “the conformist subservience to power” on the part of the intellectuals. George Orwell wrote that nationalists, who are practically the whole intellectual class of a country, not only do not disapprove of the crimes of their own state, but have the remarkable capacity not even to see them. That is correct. We talk a lot about the crimes of others. When it comes to our own crimes, we are nationalists in the Orwellian sense.". 

We have chosen to align with the power of politicians, the business class and that of technology. Our, vast, wonderful heritage serves us merely to cock a snook at the uncivilised, 'materialistic', white, western civilisation even as we make the mad dash to overtake the west in 'westerness', chanting  a frantic chorus 'global power', 'mass consumption', 'GDP'  'Bulls/ Bears' etc.,- all mantras of the west.

By the way, I forgot to mention the poor, where they are, what they do, how they feel...

I don't see them.

Check This Blog

I found a very good blog on Hinduism, and it is inclusive- there are posts on Kabir and Christ. Unfortunately the author of that blog does not post frequently.

Please check this link if any of you are interested:

http://ashutoshg.blogspot.com/

Some of the posts are:

You Tube clipping of a Mangala charan by Kumar Gandharv

You Tube clipping of Pandit Jasraj singing a Soor Das composition

A Tulsi Bhajan

Text of Prajna Paramita Sutra

A post on Ramadan with You Tube clipping of a poem written by an Egyptian Imam.

The blog takes in all religions, but unfortunately, as I said, the blogger does not post often.

There are just 56 posts this year, 36 last year...

some more internet news

watchout for HULU and TWITTER

Hulu is a website that offers free, ad-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from NBC, FOX and many other networks and studios. Hulu videos are currently offered only to users in the United States.

Hulu provides video in Flash Video format in a higher resolution and bit-rate than YouTube, including many films and shows that are available in 480p. Also, some TV shows and movies are now offered in high-definition. Hulu also provides web syndication services for other websites including AOL, MSN, MySpace, Yahoo! and Comcast's Fancast.com. Hulu provides one of the largest free video selections from a collection of over 50 broadcasting networks. It allows the users to watch shows with limited commercial interruption by watching longer ads prior to the start of the selected program.

Screen Digest estimates that YouTube will make $100 million in US revenue this year compared to Hulu's $70 million. Next year, the firm estimates, both will make about $180 million.

Before moving on, it's worth noting that Screen Digest is presumably talking about gross revenue. Hulu passes a far larger percentage of revenue through to its content providers (70%-80%) than YouTube does, so with $70 million of gross revenue, Hulu's net revenue would be a paltry $14-$21 million. YouTube also shares some revenue with some content providers, but a far smaller percentage, which is why News Corp and NBC built Hulu in the first place.

Twitter

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service, that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as TwitterFon, Twitterrific, Feedalizr or Facebook. For SMS, four gateway numbers are currently available: short codes for the United States, Canada, and India, as well as a United Kingdom-based number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email. Twitter had by one measure over 3 million accounts and by another, well over 5 million visitors in September 2008 which was a fivefold increase in a month.

Faith, Conviction and Courage.

I am reading a book on Maths, and in it I found a superb passage:

"I remain completely confident that the labor I have expended on the science presented here and which has  demanded a significant part of my life as well as the most strenuous application of my powers, will not be lost. It is true that I am aware that the form which I have given the science is imperfect and must be imperfect. But I know and feel obliged to state (though I run the risk of seeming arrogant) that even if this work should again remain unused for another seventeen years or even longer, without entering into the actual development of science, still that time will come when it will be brought forth from the dust of oblivion and when ideas now dormant will bring forth fruit. I know that if I also fail to gather around me (as I have until now desired in vain) a circle of scholars, whom I could fructify with these ideas, and whom I could stimulate to develop and enrich them further, yet there will come a time when these ideas, perhaps in a new form, will rise anew and will enter into a living communication with contemporary developments. For truth is eternal and divine."

Stirring words.

Hermann Gunther Grassman was a high-school teacher, who lived between the years 1810 and 1877. He had studied theology and philology, and then  studied maths on his own.

He published his breakthrough in a book,  "The Theory of Linear Extensions...". That work laid the ground of what eighty years later became known as the theory of vector spaces. He defined much of its basics, and was instrumenta in the  invention of the modern concept of "algebra".

But his work did not find recognition. The only review of it was written by Grassman himself, no one else noticed him. He tried his best to promote the book, but Mobius, who read the book, described it as unreadable, though he helped and praised Grassman. Cauchy, to whom he had sent his work for it to be forwarded to Jean Claude Saint-Venant, who had developed similar ideas, failed to do it. Instead, six years later Cauchy published a paper which could have been derived from Grassman's work. Grassman complained, and a three man committee of enquiry was set up. Since one of them was Cauchy himself, we can well know what the finding was. Hamilton praised Grassman's book, but promoted his own method over its.

Eight years later, Grassman reprinted the book again, changing its language to make it more readable. The quoted passage is taken from the preface he wrote to that edition. But still he went unnoticed.

Disillusioned, Grassman turned to philology, and translated Rig Veda into German: this work was supported by a lengthy commentary, and was a massive 3000 page volume. He found recognition for this achievement: The University of Tubingen awarded him a honorary doctorate.

Seventeen years later, in the year after Grassman's death, William Kingdon Clifford published a paper, "Application of Grassman's Extensive Algebra". These Clifford algebras were applied in 20th century theoretical physics. The modern theory of spinors is derived from them.

All this, I read in this book by John Derbyshire.

His words, "There will come a time when these ideas, perhaps in a new form, will rise anew and will enter into a living communication with contemporary developments. For truth is eternal and divine.", proved prophetic. His conviction in the value of his ideas, and the faith that truth, which is eternal and divine, will come alive and illuminate the contemporary life of a later age, are moving in face of the discouragement and defeat that he encountered.

For every one of us, these words should ring a message of inspirational tone: we might be neglected and consigned to a dusty corner, but that should not deter us from pursuing our passion- truth, eternal and divine, is certain to  rise anew when the times call for it.

some interesting internet news

Spam Down 75% After ISPs Shut Down Host

Maybe you've been inundated by emails from spammers like Pills-pay .com or Pay4pills .com in the past? No longer. Worldwide spam is down 75% since Tuesday, when a Washington Post investigation led Internet service-providers Global Crossing and Hurricane Electric to shut down San Jose, California Web host McColo. The Post says McColo also hosted child pornography, but that its unclear if the hosting firm will be held responsible for the crimes of its clients:

World's Second-Largest Search Engine Starts Selling Ads

Google makes its billions selling ads against its text search results, charging marketers per click. Now its trying the same thing with YouTube, reports the Times:
An advertiser — or a video maker who wants to promote a work — can bid on keywords like “silly cats,” “financial crisis,” “James Bond,” or anything that strikes one’s fancy. The promoted videos are featured on the right-hand side of the YouTube search-results page with a small image and some text.Advertisers are charged when a viewer clicks on the ad, and can set a maximum price per click that they want to pay.
Smart move. Did you know YouTube alone sees more search queries than all of Yahoo's properties and more than twice as many as Microsoft's?

Microsoft's Windows 7 Another Dud?
The first reviews of Microsoft's Windows 7 are coming in, and for Windows fans hoping Microsoft would fix the problems that have plagued the unpopular Vista, it doesn't look good. InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy analyzes the next Windows (an early release) and skewers the product.
Windows 7 is "lipstick on a pig," he charges, the same old slow Vista with a cosmetic makeover:
Windows 7 is in fact just a repackaging of Windows Vista... Key processes look and work much like they do under Vista, and preliminary benchmark testing shows that Windows 7 performs right on a par with its predecessor. Frankly, Windows 7 is Vista, at least under the hood; if nothing else, this should translate into excellent backward compatibility with Vista-certified applications and drivers.
Except that it might not. The M3 build of Windows 7 breaks all sorts of things that, frankly, it shouldn't be breaking.
Ouch. But we'd like to offer a few points in Microsoft's defense: Windows 7 remains in pre-beta, with a late 2009 release (and rumors circulate the product may get delayed to 2010).

You don't have to be patriotic to understand India

India is a dichotomy, if I can put it that way. It is a land of contrasts. It gives you opportunities; it also robs you of opportunities. It has people dying of starvation; it also has people who throw millions on food and sending most of it sent to waste bins. When I look at India emotionally I am hit by anguish. When this becomes the way of life I either get alienated or overly critical.

We are in a materialistic world. Most of the people want to dominate their way into things, be it individuals, groups, societies or nations. You can’t escape this fact nor can you afford to be lax. It's all right and sounds great to talk about unifying people and fighting for the cause the great humanity. But then to walk the talk you must have strong legs.

We need to develop and grow. These are two different things. I am a strong critic of growth oriented policies when the economic development is in shambles. But then development cannot take place in the absence of growth. This is the situation that most of the developing economies will find themselves in. They got to strike a balance between development and growth for without development growth cannot be sustained.

When our children die of malnutrition, we send rockets to space, play commonwealth games and fete medalists with millions. That’s contradiction but inevitable for development cannot take place without growth. Our space research and exploration is now yielding return in dollars and is expected to grow well. Games bring lot of dollars through global sponsors, tourism and boost in local trade. When you lay foundations, for example 1982 Asian games, you incur loss. Take a shipping company or a mining company where investments are poured in for years and years before they see their money coming back. Not all investments make money on day 1.

We talk about problems. In fact no other citizen can match an Indian when it comes to highlighting the problems of one’s country. There is no denial here, nor one is blind folded. I see problems and I accept most of them are deep rooted. But then in what way any of these problems can be set right by abandoning space exploration or for that matter by not celebrating an achievement like Chandrayaan? India’s problems are more to do with men than materials. Not that India lack resources, it lacks good polity. India’s problems are structural and systemic. Money alone cannot solve these problems. India is not short of money or resources but short on moral grounds and that it is not just restricted to politicians.

Let us not allow emotions to blind our reason. Let us not allow media to dictate our reason. Let’s us not piggyback on India’s problems for that would mean we will never get down on the ground to solve them. Let’s understand our problems and also understand our challenges. Let us not allow under achievements rob our joy of achievements. Let us praise and criticize. Let us understand India, the land of contradictions.

To understand India you don’t have to be patriotic. In fact less patriotic you are better it will be as your emotions won’t blind you

On the topic of what is a third world, Soulberry has written an excellent piece on it. I will remove the survey on what is a third world tomorrow morning, as there is no point in trying to mock or match some one who do not know what it is. In fact even I didn't know what it is? Please take the link to read SB's article at TCWJ.

This Is Sure to Alienate You!

Balajhi, I wrote that post immediately after reading Times of India. I am sorry that I said some of the things that I did. It just shows what happens when you say things when you are feeling emotional.

Chandrayan is a remarkable achiement, there is no doubt about that.  But let's look beyond that.

This is what I read in Times of India, page 10.

Kalam is reported as stating, "It (the landing of MIP) will help in the mapping of various elements like aluminium, magnesium, and uranium on the lunar surface and will make moon our next station for the Mars mission", and then also, "I visualise that in another four decades, earth, moon and Mars will have economic and strategic importance". He has said much more than this, it all makes sense, but I am not quoting them here because they are not relevant to this post.

Now, is moon the place to take our nationalities? Are we going to compete with one another for a slice of the moon? Kalam's words, "I visualise that in another four decades, earth, moon and Mars will have economic and strategic importance" sound ominous.

What next? Bombing India/ Pakistan/ Iran/ Israel/ USA/ Russia from bunkers on the Moon? Strategic importance!

Does this not sound loony?

Forgive me, emotions.

I strongly feel that the moon belongs to us all (Ha Ha). Anything that has to do with moon and mars should be done in the name of mankind, not in the name of nationality, with its cometary tail of fanatical patriotism (Our Flag is Flying on the Moon!- As if you have conquered an enemy country. Does the Moon deserve this insult? Flags and nations are here, not over there. Let's not cut up everything because we ourselves are divided.)

We should be taking the lead in uniting the people here in the scientific enterprise which will profit the whole of mankind. But to plant our flag in the hopes of claiming a slice of it is idiotic, regressive and will definitely lead to armageddon.

We should not be wasting our resources, and our future, on this.

Instead, there are these issues that I find in the same newspaper:

"Lamps help Bill Gates' jet take off" (maintenance work)

"City mayor nabs corrupt burial ground workers" (They demanded Rs.3,800 to cremate a body)

"Fight in Engineering College hostel over beef on the menu" (North Indian students rough up the hostel warden, Tamil students gang up against them. The clash leaves 2 persons injured, and one is in a serious condition)

"PIL seeks to insulate students from caste politics" (In this case, BC vs SC)

"40 held for stone pelting" (They wanted to increase the frequency of buses)

"Sexual minorities still sidelined, say activists" (Gays and transgenders complain)

"Contempt notice against Corporation Commissioners" (Garbage dumping)

"School students stone government buses at Usilampatti" (Caste conflict)

"Tapping oursourced, says pleas in HC" (DSD Technologies Private Limited advertises in its website that it taps phones on behalf of the police of various cities and the  coastal security)

"Pandey alleges torture by ATS" (Malegaon blast)

"RSS to cash in on majority backlash" (Malegaon blast)

"Naxals engage cops in 24 gunbattles; trigger 2 blasts" (Elections in Chhattisgarh)

This is news today, in The Times of India. In vernacular press, it gets much worse.

These are the real issues. Not the strategic importance of Moon, the mining of lunar minerals, Man on the Moon, Mars Exploration. Good governance is what matters to people.

Not superpower dreams ("Strategic expert K.Subrahmanyam said the lunar landing placed India on a par with space powers like the US and Russia"). Let US, Russia and China pay the price for their pride, we don't have to join them.

If we are speaking about science, when did an Indian scientist living in India come up with a breakthrough in Maths or Science? C.V.Raman, Ramanujam and Subramaniam Chandrasekhar were products of the Raj.

We are going from bad to worse, but still we are buoyed up by stock markets and rockets to Moon and Mars...

Will we ever wake up from our dreams?

Hayden was wrong to call India a "Third World Country".

If he had read the newspapers, he would have called us "Third-rate Country", and he would be justified in that (Pawar, the BCCI and now ICC strongman,  a central minister, seasoned politician, is supposed to have perjured... He seems to claim ignorance. Will this happen in any developed country?)

There are no answers, right?

Just dreams... Wishful thinking, self-deluding dreams.

Please Don't Litter the Moon!

There are two news items that hit me on the head when I took a look at "The Times of India" today.

One is that India has put its tricolour on the moon.

This I knew already. Yesterday I had received a lot of smses, hollering, "Be proud to be an Indian. Our flag is flying on the moon".

Reading the news now, I realise that it was not literally a flag, but something called MIP (Moon Impact Probe). It wass about 29 kg and the Indian tricolour was painted on all its sides.

(I don't think it will be popular to knock this achievement.) But is it not enough that we have polluted the earth? Now we are littering the moon!

MIP is a brainchild of Abdul Kalam. This is what Times of India says:

"Kalam's rationale for including the MIP was that since Chandrayan was orbiting the moon at an altitude of 100 km above the lunar surface, it would be worthwhile if India lands and makes its presence felt on the moon's surface.

He believed that if this was done, India could always make its claim to a portion of the moon."

I feel a bit dazed that we have crashed a 29 Kg object painted garishly on all its sides (no disrespect to our national flag, but let's be objective, that is how it will look to a Martian) so that the Moon itself feels the impact of our presence, and we can claim a portion of the moon when they cut it up some time in the future.

Where is our imagination? Or, is this imagination?

This is like reading about some idiot with a gun, who while coasting along the South Seas, saw an inhabited island and shot and killed the defenceless natives for fun. I think he intended to stake a claim on the island on behalf of the Crown or something...

But what is the point?

All that the MIP did, apart from staking a claim for a piece of the moon, is this: its video camera took pictures of the moon, the spectrometer began its analysis, and the altitude meter did what is known as ranging (I think all it did was show how low it was falling).

Yes, but what is the point? Do we know anything about the moon than we did before?

This me-too syndrome is a welcome sign, especially in children, because it is an indication of the  competitive spirit. But in adults, it is pretty infantile.

Chandrayan is a great achievement, but this MPI is just waste, I feel.

Especially if you read down the page and come to the news item: "Lamps help Bill Gates'  jet take off".

Apparently Bill Gates was in a hurry to get out of Jodhpur. But the Runway lights were not working because they were under repair. So what they did was to light up hundreds of kettle-shaped lamps with wickers and fueled by kerosene to guide him go away.

May be there is nothing irregular about it, or may be the runway lights failed (there are thousands of such instances of things not working), but it tells you how lopsided all this Science and Technology build up is here in India.

We are crashing MPI's on the moon, and then we also have powercuts for hours together every day.

I feel we lack imagination, there is no creative use of our intelligence. It is just me-too, me-too.

So we get to boast a lot about our achievements, but on the ground, there is no real, sustained development.

The silent spectators

I assume most of you would have seen the chennai law college riots being shown on TV. Particularly, the heart-breaking scenes of defenseless injured students being heavily beaten, almost to death! It was very disturbing and agonizing to see a human being being so severely attacked. More painful to see was that so many policemen were standing in front of all that, doing nothing. They just waited for the barbarians to leave voluntarily and then helped take the injured to hospitals.

I really wonder what those policemen were having in their minds at that time, standing there without acting!

Any ideas?

a small message

I will delete this post, of course, but this is just to tell you all that there is a network problem at home, so there is no broadband access for me.

Will post as soon as it gets corrected, which may be in a week or a month (the ways of BSNL are mysterious, right?)

Regards,

Black or White, Vote for the best

When I heard that close to 95 % Afro-Americans voted for Obama, the question that crossed my mind was this, "Is this not racism?". For the record, close to 55% of whites voted for McCain. There will be more pointing fingers at those 55% of whites than the 95%.

Argument - 1
People may argue that Afro-Americans were oppressed for years and still are victims of racism. So when they had the opportunity to protest racism they voted to Obama. Hence it is not racism but more of righting a wrong.

Argument - 2
When someone chooses to vote to a person because he is from their race, irrespective of the merit, then it's got to be racism.

Argument - 3
We needn't see it from the racist angle. Obama is the right candidate and hence voted for.

Argument - 4
Yes, it is racism but so be it. For ages we have suffered racism and here is an opportunity that we don't want to let go.

Argument 1 & 4 are same things with different attitudes. Argument 2 sounds more valid while Argument 3 doesn't convince, unless empirical study supports such a huge support to one party by one section of people, based upon a candidate's credential.

To the naked eye, it is racism. But then could it be any different any where in the world, in different times and even with different races? I am afraid it won't be any different. It is natural of oppressed communities to stand behind their men when one of them rises to the limelight. It is racism yet expected and some what accepted. No white men were jumping on the streets to condemn it. There could be secret circles sulking, as one rumour on the net claimed, but there is none in the public. At least 45% of whites who voted for Obama are okay with it.

I do not know whether racism still exists in America but can be reasonably sure that Afro-Americans are no more an oppressed community in America. Other wise Obama could not have risen to the top in such a short span. I wish he serves the United States of America as a competent and successful president than as an Afro-American President. He has lot at stake. He has to tread a finer path. He could be mistaken easily. But he has nothing to worry as long as he is genuine.

Looking forward to an American President election where 90% Afro Americans vote for a white candidate, defeating an Afro American candidate. That will be the day of true victory for American democracy and there won't be Afro or White Americans on that day. There will just be Americans.