With all this campaigning about having to vote to excercise one’s right in a democracy, one of the factors of someone educated not wanting to vote for, was that one has no clue about who’s who, and this ends up in a murky generalisation that everybody is useless, and there’s no point in voting either way!
However, this election is being quite different with the extensive use of media and technology. (more…)
Tumkur is supposed to be just an hour’s drive from Bangalore, but the bus (which we got almost immediately, both to and fro) took well over 2 hours each way. But the journey was enjoyable, and more than anything the trip was well worth it! Visited the Siddaganga Mutt and stayed overnight in the simple residence provided by the mutt for a rent of Rs. 20 for the night.
The ancient ambience takes one back in time to a more historical era of India…
A small online comic strip… (click on the Forward link below to continue reading)
I wrote “Living Forever” in a coffee shop in the spring of ’97. I had been thinking about how wonderful it would be to meet children’s book author and illustrator, William Steig, but I wondered why he would want to be bothered to speak to me. Like a bolt of lightning I realized why. The idea just flowed out of me nonstop. I composed and drew it on napkins. I decided not to redraw them, rather to scan them in as is.
I am a strong believer in mentorship and sharing our gift with others.
Enjoy.–Peter Reynolds
Charityfocus’ twitter feed (really nice one to follow on twitter) had this video…
Sudha Murty is an Indian social worker and an accomplished author. She is the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and is known for her philanthropic work through the Infosys Foundation. Among other things, she has initiated a move to provide all government schools in Karnataka with computer and library facilities. An MTech in computer science, she teaches computer science to postgraduate students. A prolific writer in English and Kannada, she has written nine novels, four technical books, three travelogues, one collection of short stories and three collections of non-fiction pieces. Her books have been translated into all the major Indian languages and have sold over 150,000 copies. She was awarded the Padmashree in 2006.
Pretty interesting site I came across from Leonid – which as he warned on his twitter feed, can be pretty addictive!
Omegle is a brand-new service for meeting new friends. When you use Omegle, we pick another user at random and let you have a one-on-one chat with each other. Chats are completely anonymous, although there is nothing to stop you from revealing personal details if you would like.
Prashanth’s photoblog Payaniga is usually pretty good and I’ve often used the monthly calendar wallpapers that he shares. But this particular picture simply left me breathless… 8)
UG‘s quote comes to mind…
If you have the courage to touch life for the first time, you will never know what hit you. Everything man has thought, felt and experienced is gone, and nothing is put in its place.
—-
See also:
ಜಿಮೇಲ್ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರಿಯಬಹುದು ಈಗ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿದೆ ಇಂಟರ್ಫೇಸ್ ಸಕ್ಕತ್ತಾಗಿದೆ!
For a long time off late, I’ve sort of deteriorated in many ways, having trapped myself into the habit of waking up late every day, and in the psychological trap of thinging myself as ‘not an early person’. I could justify myself by saying I can stay awake at night for any late hour, but just can’t wake up in the morning before 8 AM! Waking up late took its toll… my days were relatively more sloppier and lethargic, and I often felt dull and lazy.
I used to attend Yoga classes a few years ago, but has been quite a while. We came across a sign for some class near our house, and after a few weeks of procrastination, actually visited the place but it turned out that the actual classes were conduced somewhere else. And they started at 7 AM, and I found that I never made it there for several weeks.
My wife found another class being conducted in a hill-park and once we actually visited that park and it was so beautiful, that I felt more motivated to come there earlier in the morning. Timings were 6 to 7, and after a couple of attempts, I finally managed to reach there in time before the classes ended, and actually registered – this was early last month. So in the month of March I made it to 50% of the classes so far. In April its 100% attendance, but of course since its just been 1 day its not much of a record 😉 but I hope to keep it going for the rest of the month!
As long as its simple and there is no hi-fi talk about stuff like energy centers and chakras and so on, I quite enjoy these classes. Not that these aren’t any chakras or whatever, but theory can easily become more than practice or actual experience. Psychological suggestion can happen too easily and I feel one could be suceptible to start imagining things, instead of just doing it.
Initially my body felt like it was made of wood – so inflexible that that it would break if I bent it a bit too much. But gradually day after day its started feeling more comfortable.
On the whole, I feel light and energetic, and some parts like muscles and so on inside my body which I didnt know existed feels more alive 🙂 Also I’ve started becoming more aware of what kind of food I dump into my stomach. That delusion of mistaking bad (junk) food as good food just because its tasty is reducing! 😛
Recently a friend forwarded a nice e-book on yoga here: Yoga Guide (pdf).
We begin this New Year with dampened enthusiasm and dented optimism. Our happiness is diluted and our peace is threatened by the financial illness that has infected our families, organizations and nations. Everyone is desperate to find a remedy that will cure their financial illness and help them recover their financial health. They expect the financial experts to provide them with remedies, forgetting the fact that it is these experts who created this financial mess.
Every new year, I adopt a couple of old maxims as my beacons to guide my future. This self-prescribed therapy has ensured that with each passing year, I grow wiser and not older.
This year, I invite you to tap into the financial wisdom of our elders along with me, and become financially wiser.
Hard work : All hard work bring a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.
Laziness : A sleeping lobster is carried away by the water current.
Earnings : Never depend on a single source of income. (At least make your Investments get you second earning)
Spending : If you buy things you don’t need, you’ll soon sell things you need.
Savings : Don’t save what is left after spending; Spend what is left after saving.
Borrowings : The borrower becomes the lender’s slave.
Accounting : It’s no use carrying an umbrella, if your shoes are leaking.
Auditing : Beware of little expenses; A small leak can sink a large ship.
Risk-taking : Never test the depth of the river with both feet.
(Have an alternate plan ready )
Investment : Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
I’m certain that those who have already been practicing these principles remain financially healthy. I’m equally confident that those who resolve to start practicing these principles will quickly regain their financial health.
Let us become wiser and lead a happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful life.
Its not uncommon to see vehicles on Bangalore roads, typically autorickshaws, leaving a trail of billowing smoke, as if they were one of those sky-writing planes, road-writing some message on the road especially by the convoluted way they drive. Whenever feasible, I try to talk to them about it. I don’t have much of an expectation that something will change but anyway I want to atleast try bringing it to their attention. The easy way is to end up picking up a fight as they can become pretty self-defensive (and most people follow one of the Old Concrete Jungle sayings… offence is the best form of defence!). The hard way is to not end up picking up a fight, and atleast part with just conveying the message. Let me get this straight… I’m not some kind of missionary, I like doing this because I like interacting with people and find this experiment fun (most of the time!), whenever feasible.
In the first place, feasibility of conveying any message to a speeding auto rickshaw driver flitting through traffic like a butterfly does through flowers (oh what a horrible analogy) is pretty hard without jeopardising one’s own safety which is the last thing I want to do, having already jeopardized it enough by the very fact that I’m driving on the road. In any case, there are occasional situations like traffic jams or signal lights when this actually becomes feasible. Probability is further reduced if its not easy to navigate my own vehicle alongside his (if its not easy then its not worth the trouble!)
Then if all that works out, and I’m actually alongside the perpetuator of evil smoke, there’s the issue of communication. Ask an autorickshaw driver about directions to any place and he’ll kind heartedly all but draw a detailed road map for you. But talk to him about the pollution from his exhaust, and he might all but run you over with his three wheeled rattling contraption.
One more factor – its usually just a few seconds gap that we get to talk, before the signal lights up or the traffic jam starts moving/crawling again. So there’s not much time for friendly introduction or light some small talk to get warned up 😉 One needs to get straight to the point. This is quite a challenge, without sounding unfriendly and aggressive – it has taken a continuos refinement of technique – sense of humor, gentleness in tone of voice, smile, creativity, and most importantly, a good deal of empathy for their situation that they might have been toiling in traffic all day (driving can be quite strenous) for a frustratingly meagre income – all these count.
Eventually when I have talked to them, I have got a few replies like “then pull over to the side, don’t drive on the road!“, some “ok fine, you are right” just to humor me, but some positive cases as well. This post is about one such positive case.
I pulled alongside this guy – a prime candidate with real thick smoke – at a red light. A little ahead of us,was another auto with thick fumes emating from its exhaust as well. I spoke to this guy next to me – “look at that fellow, so much of smoke… so many diseases like asthma allergy etc he is freely distributing to everyone behind him“. This guy stared long and hard at the smoke with a concerned look, and sort of seemed to agree with me… And then I added “er… actually, your auto as well…” and he said “oh… I’ll definitely get it checked up”
Btw reminded myself to ensure my own vehicle got serviced soon 😉 (Actually I prefer commuting by bus a lot of time. After I got over my apprehensions about it, found that its pretty cool else for longer distances and esp in the more recent range of buses, and esp during off-peak hours!)
Most thoughtful people have the desire to help the world. They think of themselves as apart from the mass. They see so much exploitation, so much misery; they see scientific and technical achievements far in advance of human conduct, comprehension and intelligence. Seeing all this about them and desiring to change the conditions, they consider that the mass must first be awakened.
Often this question is put to me: Why do you emphasize the individual and not consider the mass? From my point of view, there can be no such division as the mass and the individual. …
So the mass is ourselves. You are the mass and I am the mass, and in each one of us there is the one and the many, the one being the conscious, and the many the unconscious. The conscious can be said to be the individual. So in each one of us we have the one and the many.
The many, the unconscious, is composed of unquestioned values, values that are false to facts, values which through time and usage have become pleasant and acceptable; it is composed of ideals which give us security and comfort, without deep significance…. This I call the unconscious, the mass, of which each one of us is a part, whether we know it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not.
If there is to be a clear reflection, the mirror must not be distorted, its surface must be even and clean. So must the mind-heart, which is an integrated whole, not two distinct and separate parts, be free from its self-created perversions before there can be discernment, comprehension, balance or intelligence. To live completely, experience must continually be brought into the conscious.
Reminds me of a scene from the brilliant movie Finding Nemo. In the fishtank, Nemo meets the different fish in the tank… one of them is Deb. Deb feels that her own reflection inside the tank which looks like another fish to her, is her sister, and says to Nemo…
Kid, if there’s anything you need, just ask your auntie Deb, that’s me. Or if I’m not around, you can always talk to my sister Flo. [turns to Flo] Hi,how are you? [Whispers to Nemo] Don’t listen to anything my sister says, she’s nuts! Ha ha ha ha!
