I am a jerk! If only I could go back in time...

Another year.

I am 26 today. :-)

Naiharva

Yup - this song is creating ripples through the country through the bewitching voice of Kailash Kher in his new album, Kailasa. Not many however do understand the lyrics. Neither did I until I really paid attention to them and until I heavily used the services of Sergey's and Larry's enterprise.

If one thought the song was beautiful, the lyrics are divine, and I mean it in the true sense. Originally expressed by Kabir, the words come out with all the knowledge and wisdom of the world that one has come to associate Kabir with. Here is the reproduction of lyrics and meanings (literal and interpreted) of this beautiful song - Naiharva. Some more pearls can be obtained HERE .




Naiharva Hum Ka Na Bhave
Sai Ki Nagri Param Ati Sundar,
Jahan Koi Jav Na Avey
Chand Suraj Jahan, Pavan Na Pani,
Ko Sundesh Pahunchave
Dard Yeh Sai Ko Sunave
Agey Chalo Panth Nahin Sujhe,
Peeche Dosh Lagawe
Kehi Bidhi Sasure Jau Mori Sajani,
Virha Jor Jarawe
Vishai Ras Nach Nachawe
Bin Satguru Apno Nahin Koi,
Jo Yeh Rah Batawe
Kahat Kabira Suno Bhai Sadho,
Supne Na Peetam Awey
Tapan Yeh Jiya Ki Bujhawey


Meanings of selected words -
Naiharva - Wife's house (or, Mayka in Hindi)
Sai - Beloved (or, Husband)
Panth - Way
Bidhi - Method, scheme, way.
Virha - Separation
Satguru - Holy Teacher
Tapan - Fire
Jiya - Heart



Literal Translation
I Don’t Find any Interest in My Parent’s House
My Beloved’s Town is Most Beautiful
However, Nobody Goes or Comes from There
There is no Moon, Sun, Wind or Water There
Then Who Will Take My Message There?
Then Who Will Tell My Pain to My Beloved?

There is No Visible Path to Move Forward
And You Blame the Past for It
How Should the Bride go to the House of the Beloved?
Powerful Pangs of Separation are Burning from Inside
Dual Reality is Fashioning a Dance to Its Tune

There is None Other Than the Guru Who is Mine Who Can Tell the Way
Says Kabir Listen oh Aspirant
Your Beloved Will Come in a Dream-like State
That Alone Will Quench the Thirst of your Heart



Philosophical Interpretation
n this song Kabir portrays himself like a bride who has gone to her parents house. But having gone there her soul burns from the pangs of separation from her beloved. The bride’s trouble is further complicated because there are no messengers (such as the Sun, Moon, Wind or Water) who can reach and convey her message to the beloved. She has no path or way to solve this problem. Meanwhile the separation is killing her from inside.

Kabir, in his mystical way, is comparing the separation of the individual from the universal self like that of a bride from her beloved. He explains that this insatiable thirst comes from the feeling of separation whose root lies in duality.

He then explains that the only person who can help out of this problem is the Guru. In his final parting signature note, Kabir reveals that the way to reach the beloved is not outside but Inside (similar to a dream-like state) which alone will satisfy the seemingly unending burning thirst.

Decision Taken

Not going.

A tough decision

This piece of news may not be known to most of you (I am assuming there are at least 5 readers of this blog besides me) - I have got a call for admission from IIM Lucknow for PGP starting this June. I have to send them a reply by the 26th of May. I have decided NOT TO GO. Unfortunately, the story does not end here. I am in such a pitiable state of confusion that I am zero confident of this decision. It has apparently not made my parents very happy and has left some of relatives baffled and I don't have any concrete reasons for the same.

So, here is my request to all my friends who care about me a bit - please give me convincing reasons one way or the other on why I should or should not go for this course. I have only today to make the decision. Tomorrow is the last day on which I could send a draft in case I am convinced to take up the course. I hope you guys will come out and help me.

Ah! Who can forget this?

"E lo kar lo baat. Are babuji aisi english ave that I can leave angrej behind. You see sir, I can talk english, I can walk english I can laugh english because english is a phunny language. Bhairon become baron and baron become Bhairon because their minds are very narrow. In the year 19 hundred and 29 sir, when India was playing against Australia in Melbourne city, Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare they were at the crease and Vijay Merchant told Vijay Hazare, look Vijay Hazare, this is a very prestigious match and you must consider this match very carefully. So considering the consideration that Vijay Hazare gave Vijay Merchant, Vijay Merchant told Vijay Hazare that ultimately we must take a run and when they were striking the ball on the left side sir, the consideration became into an ultimatum and ultimately Vijay Hazare went to Vijay Merchant and said...

- (Ranjit says) oh shut up -

Similarly Sir, In the year 19 hundred and 79 when India was playing against Pakistan in Wankhade stadium Bombay, Wasim Raja and Wasim Bari they were at the crease and Wasim Bari gave the same consideration to Wasim Raja and Wasim Raja told Wasim Bari look sir, this ultimately has to end in a consideration which I cannot consider. Therefore, the consideration that you are giving me must be considered very ultimately. Therefore, the run they were taking, Wasim Raja told Wasim Bari, Wasim Bari you take a run and ultimately both of them ran and considerately they got out."

ab kis se kahe.n hum apne dil ka fasaanaa
jab khuda hi nahi sunta to kya sunega zamaanaa

Proud and Loud declaration, a strong reprimand, an unexpected
rejection, and a tame denial.

All along in this drama, one thing became clearer - politicians are
not interested in the welfare of the society; to them the single most
important thing is the votes that would keep them in power.

Arjun Singh, notorious that he has been, once again played the crudest
form of a political gimmick that has eaten into the social fabric of
our country and in an attempt to be the messiah of the underprivileged
pushed the country further into a future of social disharmony and
intellectual incapacity.

With all due respect to Dr. Ambedkar who himself realized the
long-term implications of the reservation system, I do feel sad to
note that he inadvertently set a vicious cycle into motion that is not
only becoming difficult to end but also in the manner of a snowball
increasingly growing into being a major cause of social conflicts in
the country.

I have often mused over possible solutions to the very problem that
the policy of reservations seeks to address, that is, the problems of
inequality of social opportunities and an end to discrimination. None of
the solutions that seemed most intuitive to me indicated that the best
solution to tackle a form of discrimination is to reverse its
direction.

Creating awareness about the problem is one step, but utilising it to
cause further divide in the minds of the general populace is criminal.
If indulging in activity that harms the integrity and unity of our
country is a crime, then it is my firm belief that the propagators of
the reservation policy must be put behind bars and, in ideal cases,
hanged to death.

I as a citizen of this country strongly believe against
discrimination. I believe that all of us must be given equal social
opportunities in life and career. If there is one among us who is
unable to gain access to the opportunities due to constraints of money
or education or social stigma, then we must address the issues so that
the constraints are eliminated but the equality of opportunities is
not disturbed.

If a government is not able to address these issues and instead
indulges in encouraging the flames of discrimination among its own
countrymen, then such a government must not exist.

You can visit the following sites

http://iitiimres.blogspot.com
http://www.petitiononline.com/No_Quota/petition.html

To Hell

is all we would go towards.

Heard in a hindi-dubbed version of Vertical Limit -
"Jews kehte hain ki Jesus ko maanoge to nark mein jaaoge.
Isaaii kehte hain ki Jesus ko nahi maanoge to nark mein jaaoge.
Catholic kehte hain ki Pope ko nahi maanoge to nark mein jaaoge.
Matlab, kuch bhi ho, mujhe to nark mein hi jaana hai."

Well, the writer could included some more of world's religions. Alas,
he/she chose only two/three.

Isn't it strange that one who - saves our lives while we are hanging
precariously over a cliff, lends us a helping hand in our
times of extreme needs, lives a life of kindness and compassion
towards all - WILL go to HELL only because he doesn't happen to belong to
the faith we deem as right?

Sounds ridiculous, right? Yet, why is it so goddamm difficult for people
to understand? Why?

I am really really really upset today.

Kitna Badal Gaya Insaan.

It is funny how easily 'tolerance' is mistaken to be 'submission' to other's ideas. Indeed tolerance is defined by one's characteristic dislike of others which is marked by an overwhelming feeling of compassion that suppresses and to a great extent controls one's dislike from taking precedence over one's thoughts.

Yet, to us, it must always be clear that tolerance of our actions and thoughts does not indicate our acceptance and certainly not appreciation. It therefore becomes important for us to ensure that our actions and views remain right where they exist - on the boundary between others' compassion and dislike.

Obviously, it will be extremely difficult for us to cross over to others' territory of compassion entirely because that would entail shedding our beliefs and accepting theirs, but we should not take the tolerance of others for granted and try to push back their boundaries of dislike further, for that would result in fierce retaliation and redefinition of the boundaries more in favour of the feeling of dislike and, in extreme cases, obliteration of the other.


ps: Goa witnesses its first communal riot.


pps:
duusro.n ka dukhadaa duur karne waale'
tere dukh door karenge Ram!
kiye' jaa tu jag mei.n bhalaaii kaa kaam
tere dukh door karenge Ram!

Simple, enchanting, honest philosophy. I wish everyone followed this.

Douglas Adams

Something inside me compelled me to dedicate at least one blog entry to the second greatest humourist I have encountered in my literary expeditions. (The first one is PG Wodehouse to who I will probably dedicate an entire blog someday. But that, I guess, is already done by many).

I cannot even in my entire linguistic capabilities elaborate on the kind of humour that Douglas Adams deals with.

Go read "The Ultimate Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy" if you haven't already. :-)

p.s. - "All it takes to fly is to hurl yourself at the ground... and miss."

:-)

From the internet when I was trying to gather some Perls of wisdom.

http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/Perl/Misc/electricity.txt

It was originally posted by David O'Brien in in Leed's University's CS Dept's local news system. (at least, that's what I gathered from the page that had this link!)

ps: In case there are non-computer geeks reading this, that misspelling of 'Perl' was deliberate. :-)



-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a dissertation on physical science for your enlightenment.
I don't know where it came from so it must be true!

[ Update: This appears to have come from Dave Barry, and the same text
can be found as:

http://www.uk.research.att.com/~fms/electricity.html
http://rachel.albany.edu/~jc9334/barry1.html

and many other places on the web. I'd check with Dave, but he
doesn't respond to email any more (and life's too short for snail
mail) ]
.....................................................................


Today's scientific question is: What in the world is electricity and
where does it go after it leaves the toaster?

Here is a simple experiment that will teach you an important
electrical lesson: On a cool dry day, scuff your feet along a carpet,
then reach your hand into a friend's mouth and touch one of his dental
fillings. Did you notice how your friend twitched violently and cried
out in pain? This teaches one that electricity can be a very powerful
force, but we must never use it to hurt others unless we need to learn
an important lesson about electricity.

It also illustrates how an electrical circuit works. When you scuffed
your feet, you picked up batches of "electrons", which are very small
objects that carpet manufacturers weave into carpet so that they will
attract dirt. The electrons travel through your bloodstream and
collect in your finger, where they form a spark that leaps to your
friend's filling, then travel down to his feet and back into the
carpet, thus completing the circuit.

AMAZING ELECTRONIC FACT: If you scuffed your feet long enough without
touching anything, you would build up so many electrons that your
finger would explode! But this is nothing to worry about unless you
have carpeting.

Although we modern persons tend to take our electric lights, radios,
mixers, etc. for granted, hundreds of years ago people did not have
any of these things, which is just as well because there was no place
to plug them in. Then along came the first Electrical Pioneer,
Benjamin Franklin, who flew a kite in a lightning storm and received a
serious electrical shock. This proved that lightning was powered by
the same force as carpets, but it also damaged Franklin's brain so
severely that he started speaking only in incomprehensible maxims,
such as, "A penny saved is a penny earned." Eventually he had to be
given a job running the post office.

After Franklin came a herd of Electrical Pioneers whose names have
become part of our electrical terminology: Myron Volt, Mary Louise
Amp, James Watt, Bob Transformer, etc. These pioneers conducted many
important electrical experiments. Among them, Galvani discovered
(this is the truth) that when he attached two different kinds of metal
to the leg of a frog, an electrical current developed and the frog's
leg kicked, even though it was no longer attached to the frog, which
was dead anyway. Galvani's discovery led to enormous advances in the
field of amphibian medicine. Today, skilled veterinary surgeons can
take a frog that has been seriously injured or killed, implant pieces
of metal in its muscles, and watch it hop back into the pond --
almost.

But the greatest Electrical Pioneer of them all was Thomas Edison, who
was a brilliant inventor despite the fact that he had little formal
education and lived in New Jersey. Edison's first major invention in
1877 was the phonograph, which could soon be found in thousands of
American homes, where it basically sat until 1923, when the record was
invented. But Edison's greatest achievement came in 1879 when he
invented the electric company. Edison's design was a brilliant
adaptation of the simple electrical circuit: the electric company
sends electricity through a wire to a customer, then immediately gets
the electricity back through another wire, then (this is the brilliant
part) sends it right back to the customer again.

This means that an electric company can sell a customer the same batch
of electricity thousands of times a day and never get caught, since
very few customers take the time to examine their electricity closely.
In fact, the last year any new electricity was generated was 1937.

Today, thanks to men like Edison and Franklin, and frogs like
Galvani's, we receive almost unlimited benefits from electricity. For
example, in the past decade scientists have developed the laser, an
electronic appliance so powerful that it can vaporize a bulldozer 2000
yards away, yet so precise that doctors can use it to perform delicate
operations to the human eyeball, provided they remember to change the
power setting from "Bulldozer" to "Eyeball."

Weak example.

That is how I found Rang De Basanti! The concept to somehow merge two events in different times as one may be the first of its kind, but a good deed done in vain is worse than a bad deed.

WARNING: The plot is partly revealed below

There are a few things that did not convince me in the movie:

1. The reason - Yes, death of a loved one is very painful, but that leading them to justify killing of another man was not entirely convincing. In this respect, it was like any other Hindi movie of late 80s and early 90s when the HERO only needed a reason to take up and machine gun and go tat-tat-tat-tatting into the Villain's lair.

2. The method - Killing! Taking life of another person is a very extreme step; one that is taken as a last resort. The characters, and indeed the character of Flt Lt. Rathore whose death caused them to resort to the extreme step, exhort the youth to take up positions in IAS, IPS, politics to fight the system. Yet, they seem to conveniently forget this and take the easy way out.

3. The comparison - Likening a few disillusioned young boys to great freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh and co. was a little hard to swallow. They had a dream, had a passion, had a spirit which was solely channelled towards the freedom of their motherland and not to settle petty scores with individuals. The film ended up glorifying and equating disillusioned killing to patriotism and might influence the young to think that going about knocking out people/politicians/leaders/administrators who, I emphasize, 'they think are evil' is the right way to fight the system. The very idea is frightening!

All in all, it was way below mark when compared to movies like Swades and Yuva that had a very positive and constructive message to convey and were equally inspirational. I had goose-bumps for the entire duration while watching Yuva. Such was the impact of the movie.

In RDB, the only moments when I felt a surge of adrenaline was when Atul Kulkarni sang 'Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna' and when 'Jallianwala Bagh Massacre' was depicted.

Auspicious day coming

Feb 2, Vasant Panchami, is one of the most auspicious days in Hindu Calendar. It is so auspicious that a boy and a girl can get married on this day without any need to look for a muhurtham (an auspicious time). This is a day when there is no need to match Kundalis, Gotrams etc. Just the boy and the girl are enough to complete the marriage requirements.

Why am I publicising this information here? Well, one never knows how important such information may turn out to be for some people! :-)

Caste-ing doubts.

My recent trip to Rajasthan made me realize one thing - Caste is a fact that is so well entrenched in the minds of people that a person's introduction is incomplete without it having been mentioned. It is not just limited to a section of people but almost anyone who you get acquainted with pops this question to you with nonchalance that can unsettle anyone who is not comfortable with the idea of carrying that aspect of one's identity on one's sleeve. In my life, I have never had to answer the caste-question as many times as I did in my three day stay in Rajasthan.

The reason I am mentioning this is not malign the people of Rajasthan or their culture. By far, they have been the most hospitable people among all the places I have been to in my little life. I am mentioning this because despite belonging to a caste traditionally considered to be privileged I never had my caste identity in my consciousness until I reached IIT Bombay for my M.Tech. Throughout my childhood, either at home or in school, this equation was never brought into active thought or conversation except in some vague chapters of history books. Yet, to find children as young as five year olds who would have barely started uttering their first words coming and asking me my caste bewildered me.

Caste, I thought till not so long ago, plays a more secondary role in the Southern India gaining significance only in finding matches in arranged marriages. But after a house-hunting experience in Bangalore, I became wiser. "Sir, are you a veggie?" was a question that was hurled at me at regular intervals which I innocently answered everytime in affirmative. It was only after the twenty-fifth time in two days that I realized that "being a veggie" was a mild allusion to "being a brahmana". And I said to myself, "There you go again!"

Let alone we Hindus, I was amused and surprised to notice that Catholics in Goa follow the same Caste equations as Hindus and do not marry outside their castes! In fact, one of our ex-landlords had lent us our house only because we were "Brahmanas" and he was what he claimed to be a "Roman-Catholic-Brahmana". One only needs to look at the matrimonial columns of any local Goan newspaper to understand what I said.

All this has made me realize one thing - Caste is not something that can be done away with in our society. In fact, having castes is not a bad thing per se. It is the discrimination that must be checked. No society will ever be rid of castes/classes. In some it is "Brahmana-Kshatriya" equation, in some it follows "Believers/non-believers", in some it follows "comrade/non-comrade", whereas in some it might follow "white/non-white" pattern. There will be different types of people in a group and it is natural for them to form a clique. It is natural human tendency.

In short, Caste is here to stay. I just have to learn to live with the fact that people other than me will be interested in knowing this aspect of my identity.

Blog profiles

Its been a while since I was introduced to the blog world and in the same while I have also witnessed many of my friends getting initiated into blogging. It is in this 'while' that I have noticed certain patterns emerging in various blogs and it would be interesting to note if my observations are indeed accurate.

Aldrin - A blog for poets, lovers, romantics, artists, losers, Devdas', etc. Definitely not for sane people. One of my favourites.

Ashutosh - If all the comedians of this world were cursed to transform into a blog, they would have probably found themselves embellished in this blog. From crass to sophisiticated, to outright tear-my-hair-out kind, this blog is a sure remedy for someone feeling under the weather.

Rupesh - A site for geeks who seek truth of life not just in formulae but also in children, family, weather, I, you, me and practically everything conceivable. It is a reflection of a balanced mind that is neither influenced by inebriance of emotions nor ebullience of laughter.

Zoheb - There is something about this blog that makes people want to visit it often inspite of it lying unused for long durations of time. It could probably be attributed to the candidness of the content devoid of hypocrisy that makes it so pleasing to read.

Shyam - This is a secret blog never to be updated and never to be found out by anyone unless some idiot like me deliberately publicises it. Blurty Management is still hoping (in vain, I am sure) that the 10 Mega bytes of space that they have isolated for this user would one day be put to use. We too are waiting.

Billu - Well, there are some like Shyam who create blogs to create them, and there are some who create blogs to announce to the world that they have created one. Billu dear falls in the latter category. A blog was created for him (by someone else) on which he cared to post a couple of entries to inform the world that he knew how to blog. I am guessing that the next post on that blog will be the one announcing his marriage to his beloved.

Well, that's it. Maybe, someone will carry out more profiles of their friends' blogs for us to visit them and know more about them.

99.00

It is finally belled... don't ask me how. 'Tis a mystery to me too.

While ABC don't find me good enough, ILK do.

ps: the period of confustion ensues.

pps: please help

who has the answers?

1. Why does one who desperately wants something does not get it, but one who does not want it as much gets it anyway.

2. Why does the girl a guy falls in love with never loves him. If there is a girl who loves a guy, then why doesn't he find her attractive?

3. Why does a human being want to be remembered after his life?

4. Why are we afraid of darkness and death when they are as obvious as light and life?

5. How does a child learn to learn?

6. Is love an attribute cultivated or genetically encoded?

Any ideas?

Even geniuses need inspirations

From rediff - RD Burman's inspirations...



Tumse hai dil ko pyaar (Teesri Manzil): The Beatles' I wanna hold your hand


Mehbooba O mehbooba (Sholay): Demis Roussoss' Say you love me


O jabtak hai jaan (Sholay): Iranian singer Googoosh's The prelude of Jomeh


Tumse milke (Parinda): Leo Sayer's When I Need You


Milgaya hum ko sathi (Hum Kisise Kam Nahin): ABBA's Mamma Mia


Aao twist karein (Bhoot Bangla): Chubby Checker's Come lets twist


Sapna mera toot gaya (Khel Khel Mein) from Ennio Morricone's The story of a soldier (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)


O Maria (Saagar): Opening line inspired by Paul McCartney and Wings' Mamunia


Aa dekhe zara (Rocky): Partly from Jeff Wayne's Eve of the war