a common man ಸಂಜಯ

Category: info

  • communication among ants

    I’d written an article many years ago on ants but I regret its unlikely I’ll ever trace it again. [Thats why I’m now maintaining a blog where I have a single repository for all these kind of things.]

    Why do they walk in a straight line? I read that the first ant that discovers food leaves behind a scent trial, which is picked up by other ants. The ants keep walking over the same trial every time. Almost every ant shortens the trail a minute bit, optimises it a bit, so eventually the curved path ends up becoming a straight line.
    (more…)

  • book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

    The Alchemist is a beautiful small book that makes easy reading, has simple language and one can certainly relate to it.

    One might be familiar with the word in the title which refers to Alchemy, a process of transformation of a common ordinary substance, which over time refines into a substance of great value.

    Prerequisite 😉 for reading this post … first read his book Alchemist

    Also, I had to look up this word:

    disinter: To dig up or remove from a grave or tomb; exhume.

    Rakesh sent this letter by Paulo Coelho… on why it is so hard to live our dreams, why we don’t have the courage to confront them.

    (The link no longer works so putting in the contents here, which happens to be in the introduction in a later edition)

    “What is a perosnal calling? It is God’s blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something to fill us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don’t all have the courage to confront our own dream.

    Why?

    There are four obstacles. First: we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear, and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deepy buried in our soul as to be invisible. But it’s still there.

    If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream. We do not realize that love is just a further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward. We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey.

    Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on our path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn’t work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: “Oh, well, I didn’t really want it anyway.” We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is no easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.

    I asked myself: are defeats necessary?

    Well, necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.

    So, why is it important to live our personal calling if we are only going to suffer more than other people?

    Because, once we have overcome the defeats—and we always do—we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure. Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and its stays with us for the rest of our lives.

    Having disinterred our dream, having used the power of love to nurture it and spent many years living with the scars, we suddenly notice that what we always wanted is there, waiting for us, perhaps the very next day. Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives.

    Oscar Wilde said: “Each man kills the thing he loves.” And it’s true. The mere possiblity of getting what we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who have failed to get what they want and feel that we do not deserve to get what we want either. We forget about all the obstacles we overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the tings we had to give up in order to get this far. I have known a lot of people who, when their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal—when it was only a step away.

    This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.”

    Paulo Coelho
    Rio de Janeiro
    November 2002
    Translated by Margaret Jull Costa

  • free ebook Yoga and Zen: yoga without tree hugging – by Paul Barncroft

    Excellent very small book on Yoga… brilliant and very humourous.

    It doesn’t really teach yoga (best learnt from an instructor), but explains it. Of course, there are 1000s of books on Yoga, but this book explains there’s more to Yoga than just managing to get into confusingly convoluted postures.

    I had never imagined that Yoga and Zen were actually related until I read this book – I also got to meet the author Paul Bancroft

    Later he took it off his website, but it was such an excellent book that I requested him for permission to put it up somewhere myself, and he kindly granted it as long as I linked to his copywriting services all-write as well.

    Yoga Without Tree Hugging – by Paul Barncroft

    Somewhat related… some quotes by Yoga guru BKS Iyengar…

    Intelligence alone will not solve problems,
    unless it is linked with observation.
    First observe, and then use the intelligence.

    Use your intelligence to control the body
    Before starting the movements of the body.

    In the beginning,
    The brain moves faster than the body;
    later, the body moves faster than the brain.
    The movement of the body and the intelligence of the brain
    Should synchronize and keep pace with each other.

  • healthy habits

    I have seen people suffer from heart problems when they least expected it. I would say I was ‘lucky’ that I I’ve had a lot of health problems like tendonitis, knee pain, etc at a relatively young age! I did some research at sites likes health.yahoo.com and realised that being overweight is one of the primary causes of most diseases.You may not necessarily *look* overweight, but consult a height/weight scale to be sure. Also, these habits would be preventive too.

    This is a compilation of information from various sources, its quite likely that you already know many of the things that are here, but there’s a good chance that you might pick up atleast one new habit thats useful.

    There are countless ways to reduce one’s weight… including exercise/aerobics/yoga/diet, etc. I am neither a doctor nor a physiotherapist… and definitely not any “icon of good health” ! I am writing this article solely on the basis of what my health is now *compared* to what it was around a year ago.

    Many of us lack the time or discipline to consistently follow any of the conventional ways of maintaining health. No doubt we should nevertheless give it our best shot.However, I am not writing about those methods… I am listing three simple value-adding *habits* which can easily be incorporated into one’s routine.

    • drink atleast a litre of water as soon as you wake up in the morning
    • avoid eating any fattening/oily food after around 6 PM (not being superstitious 🙂 …just defining “evening” 😉 )
    • walk whenever you get the opportunity

    Water helps burn fat

    Water is necessary for your body to burnfat. Without water, your kidneys can’t dotheir job properly and your liver has topitch in to help them. While it’s helpingthe kidneys, your liver can’t burn as muchfat, so some of the fat that would normallybe used as fuel gets stored in your body instead. Drinking more water lets the liver get back to its own job, turning fat into fuel. Dieting people need more water because they want to burn more fat, and because they have to get rid of more waste, like all the fat that has been used up. Water also helps keep muscles toned and skin soft.

    You will also get rid of extra salt.

    (I came to know recently that drinking warm water with honey and lemon in the mornings is highly recommended though I havent tried it out)

    Heavy Dinners

    Avoid eating anything within three hours of bedtime. Your metabolism slows down at night, so if you go to bed with a full stomach, your body won’t deal with the calories as efficiently as it would during the day. If you’re used to munching on chips or sweets during prime time, you’re putting weight on yourself. Ideal habit is to have a good breakfast and a very light dinner, and eat nothing else after dinner. Hence always give preference to arranging any lavish get-togethers with family/friends over lunch instead of dinner.

    Walking

    This is an idea I picked up from a speed reading book: for a few days, walk much faster than you normally do… not just by rapid paces, also by taking long strides and breathing deeply. It may be tiring at first. After a few days, relax and walk casually from then on. Your new casual speed will be much faster than your original casual speed. Take care of your posture: keep your back erect, allow your arms to swing freely, and regulate your breathing by taking deep breaths, and try to keep your mind in the present instead of letting it wander around… esp important while crossing busy roads in Bangalore!! Advantages of walking fast: its good exercise, and it saves time since you get wherever you want to go faster.

    Walking is ideally done in the morning, but if you’re like me… you’re never awake to see the light of dawn… so it’s a good idea to always create opportunities for walking at any time – for eg choosing the staircase instead of the elevator, alighting at the third bus stop instead of the first one next to home, etc.

    Brushing teeth at night

    I find many of my friends lack this habit – it seems to be more a part of western culture. Believe me… I know its importance because I got so many silver fillings in my teeth (plus a root canal… ouch) that a customs official might suspect I carry some kind of weapon in my mouth every time I pass through a metal detector! I used to hate brushing teeth at night since it would spoil my lovely drowsiness and I wouldn’t get sleep till late in the night. However once it became a habit, I can’t sleep very easily if I havent brushed my teeth!!

    Its also important to mouthwash after eating anything, atleast with plain water… its just a simple 10 second activity!

    4 Rules of Eating
    Here are the four rules of eating:

    1. Be relaxed and happy while you eat. If you have tension in any part of your body including the inside of the abdomen, relax.
    2. Always sit down while you eat, don’t stand, lie down, or move around. (its an excellent idea though may not be an easy one, to squat on the floor instead of sitting at a table. – my Yoga instructor)
    3. When you eat, do only that. Do not engage in any second activity, no matter how simple it may seem.
    4. When you eat, “put your mind where your mouth is.” Concentrate on the process of eating itself, chew every bite 20 times, especially the first bite. Chewing your food 20 Times Satisfies your body psychologically.Do not take another morsel or piece of food in your mouth unless you have swallowed the one you are already chewing. Keep that spoon, fork, or straw down at the table until you have actually swallowed the morsel in your mouth. Bringing your unPided attention to the process of eating. Follow the entire sequence of tasting, chewing, swallowing, and mentally follow it all the way as food descends into the stomach.

    Breathing

    Breathing correctly helps regulate your entire psychophysical structure. Calm breath calms the mind, and heavy, rapid breathing accelerates the tempo of your thoughts and leads to tension of the body. The function of the breath is to supply oxygen to the body and to cleanse and purify the dark impure blood into vitalizing red blood. The breath indirectly supplies energy to the body by the explosion of oxygen into atoms of life force. Through habit, our bodies have become accustomed to food and air, but if we de-condition ourselves and train ourselves to life more by the life force, the less will we need to depend on secondary sources of sustenance, such as, food, oxygen, water, and sunshine.

    To breathe properly, it is important that you also maintain a proper posture. Look carefully around you and you will observe the apathy with regard to this vital statistic of life. Right now, stop and check on how you are sitting or standing. Slouched, are you?!? If you exist all-folded-up, you’ll restrict your breathing, squash your internal organ functioning, and generally limit the effectiveness of your clarity, awareness levels, and overall perspectives in life. When you breathe, remember to keep your spine straight and upright. The head should be held relaxed but looking straight ahead with the chin only slightly upraised. If the whole vertebral column is taut and rigid, moving upward from the coccyx (the tailbone at the base of the spine), seek to loosen and relax each of the many vertebrae turn by turn, all the way to the crown of your head. Simultaneously, lengthen up the front of your body from the pubic bone to the upper portion of the breastbone. Never sit with a crooked spine and squeezed lungs. As you breathe, deep and slow, remember that your diaphragm should (the area just below your ribs; the muscular partition between your chest and your stomach) expand with every inflow, and should contract with every outflow of breath. Throughout the day, cultivate the habit of doing spot checks on your breathing process. Speak with your diaphragm, and encourage it to expand a little bit more than it normally does. When you breathe in, the region of the abdomen must expand, and when we breathe out, it must contract; so many of us do just the reverse. Make a conscious and then unconscious habit of this and see the effects it quickly weaves into your life.

    (dont have the exact URL… one of the Speaking Tree articles )

    Different kinds of food

    According to the Bhagavad Gita, energy (Gunas) has three qualities that exist together in equilibrium: Sattvic (pure), Rajasic (over stimulating) and Taamasic (dull)

    Sattvic Foods: These render the mind pure and calm and generate equanimity, enabling it to function at its maximum potential. Some food products which come under this category are milk, cereals (corn, wheat, unpolished rice, oatmeal…), fruits, vegetables, etc. Eating slowly with awareness is also sattvic.

    Rajasic Foods: These feed the body at the expense of the mind. Too much rajasic food will overstimulate the body, making the mind restless and uncontrollable. Meat, fish, eggs, coffee, cocoa, chilies, prepared mustard, spices, highly spicy or salty or seasoned foods are all rajasic foods. Eating in a hurry is also considered rajasic.

    Tamasic Foods: These cause a sense of inertia and laziness to set in. The body’s resistance to disease is reduced and the mind filled with dark emotions, such as anger and greed. All intoxicants, stimulants, stale or half-cooked/overcooked food are some examples of tamasic foods. Overeating is also regarded as tamasic.

    Different people have different opinions of which food falls under which category… but you get the general idea!

    I think one observation if you’ve been to both North and South India, is that in North India people are much more rough and aggressive whereas in South India people (on an average) are relatively much more mild. I suspect this could be because of the spices used in North Indian food, compared to the relatively more bland food in South India. Also if you compare the temperament of people in North Karnataka (who eat chillies for lunch!) and those in South Karnataka… this difference is visible too.

    Overeating to avoid wastage of food

    Most of us Indians know the value of food and don’t like to waste it. I have seen many situations where people, including me, have overeaten just to avoid the food already on their plate going to waste.

    My friend gave me an excellent suggestion… before putting anything on your plate, make an estimate of exactly how much you’re going to eat. Do not be absent minded at the time of putting something on your plate, whether you are helping yourself or when somebody is serving you. Be assertive enough to say a polite no, no matter how much the host may try to persuade you.

    Eye improvement techniques

    “Fundamental rule: Listen to your eyes. Whether they are sore, tearing, itchy or tired, they are sending you a message. Listen to them. If your eyes hurt when you have been working at the computer for too long, stop and take a break. Be receptive to your eyes.”
    ~ excerpt from the below site.

    eye exercises
    eye care tips
    Bates techniques

    The technique of Palming described there (or here http://www.seeing.org ) is very relaxing. Another relaxing technique is to splash cold water on the eyes (with the eyes closed) every now and then. This was from a book Eye Care by Dr. Gala (not 100% sure of the name… its a very thin book with a yellow cover costing Rs 15) which has many useful techniques and excercises. Another tip from the same book: hot water on the head weakens eyesight and should be avoided as far as possible.

    Laughter is the best medicine

    No explanation needed for this one 😉 Don’t laugh just during comedy movies, but try to see humor in day to day situations around you, and especially dont hesitate to laugh at yourself!

  • movie: Life is beautiful

    A few years ago, a friend Rahul verma asked me to not miss a movie that was to be aired on TV on a Christmas Day. He said “no matter what happens … DONT miss it” I asked why whats the story about… etc but he refused to reveal any details except the bare minimum.

    But then there were some relatives visiting at home; and I didnt want to watch the movie in pieces so I ended up missing it. And then I eventually forgot about it.

    But I did see it recently … and must say it really captivated my heart!! 🙂

    Though I would like to write a lot more about it, I’ll keep it to the minimum…

    [Btw I wouldnt set expectations too high, because sometimes I find a movie truly outstanding, eg Finding Nemo, and find that somebody else wonders what on earth I found so extraordinary about it 🙂 ]

    ——————————
    Life is Beautiful
    (Italian movie with English subtitles)

    Vita è bella, La (1997)
    Directed by

    Roberto Benigni
    ——————————
    A Jewish man (in Italy) has a wonderful romance with the help of his humour. Then he gets married, and later he, his wife and five year old son are taken by a NAZI concentration camp.

    It is starts off as a comedy, and when circumstances change – it remains a comedy – under the most contrasting circumstances.

    Probably it would be available in any VCD/DVD rental. Of course its easy to get the rest of the story outline through google/etc, but I’d suggest to avoid that and just watch it letting things unfold (without waiting for something dramatic to happen because its the entire movie thats good).

  • movie: Finding Nemo

    This is a movie that a lot of adults are likely to miss dismissing it as a cartoon movie – which are after all supposed to be for kids. But luckily I saw it, and felt its nothing short of a brilliant masterpiece! The story, animation, the ideas, the funny one-liners, so many facts of real nature inspite of the unlimited creativity, every single thing… simply beautiful! 🙂

    What Kind of Creature Is It? Finding Nemo – Cast of Characters

    This link lists not just the “actors” but the real ones! Explains each fish and description of each of them. Particularly interesting is Jacques – Cleaner Shrimp 🙂

    I wondered if I was the only one who got totally lost on Mr. Ray’s song so dug up the script (pdf file) and here it is… 😀

    MR. RAY
[singing]..mesopolagic, bathyal, abyssalpelagic. All the rest are too
deep for you and me to see.

MR. RAY
Huh, I wonder where my class has gone?

KIDS
We're under here!

MR. RAY
Oh, there you are. Climb aboard, explorers. [singing] Oh, knowledge
lyrical, when you think thoughts that are empirical.

MR. RAY
Don't worry. We're gonna stay together as a group. Okay, class, optical
orbits up front.And remember, we keep our supraesophogeal ganglion to
ourselves...that means you, Jimmy.

JIMMY
Aw, man!

...

MR. RAY
[singing] Oh, let's name the species, the species, the species. Let's
name the species that live in the sea.

NEMO
Whoa.

MR. RAY
[singing] There's porifera, coelenterata, hydrozoa, scyphozoa, anthozoa,
ctenophora, bryozoas, three! Gastropoda, arthropoda, echinoderma, and
some fish like you and me. Come on, sing with me. Oh...!

MR. RAY
Just the girls this time. [singing] Oh, seaweed is cool. Seaweed is fun.
It makes it's food with the rays of the sun...

MR. RAY
Okay, the drop off. All right, kids, feel free to explore but stay
close. [gasps]
Stromalitic cyanobacteria! Gather. An entire ecosystem contained in one
infinitesimal speck. There are as many protein pairs contained in this...

TAD
Come on, let's go.
...

    There were some interesting things in it that really reflected human nature, especially in the aquarium…

    Bubbles: This fish is so crazy about air bubbles (that rise from the aerator) – he just keeps running after them saying “my bubbles – my bubbles” as they rise up – and then he’s so posessive, that he slams the aerator shut, just to “protect” his bubbles! Here we see that he is shutting off the very source, without realising that its actually infinite!

    Deb: She thinks her reflection in the glass tank is her sister, Flo. And she says to Nemo discreetly “Don’t listen to anything my sister says, she’s a bit crazy”! And, when the tank gets murky and no reflection is seen, she swims around asking, “Has anyone seen Flo?” –

    ————-

    There’s an example of real faith – absolute devotion – in the scene inside the whale’s mouth. Marlin and Dory are inside the whale’s mouth, Marlin is absolutely terrified because of the uncertainity there, but Dory’s just cool about it and is swimming around cheerfully. Finally there’s this moment when they go towards the back of the whale’s throat and Marlin’s absolutely sure that the whale wants to eat them! They’re both holding on tightly for life to the whale’s tongue.

    MARLIN
Dory!

DORY
He says it's time to let go! Everything's gonna be all right!

MARLIN
How do you know!? How do you know something bad isn't gonna happen!?

DORY
I don't!

    And in that one instant of time, Marlin for a change takes one step beyond the boundaries of his fear. He does close his eyes, and lets go.

    ———————

    Plenty of pretty profound concepts beyond the subtle humor – really hits you when you’ve finished laughing! There’s plenty to learn from this movie.

  • book: Book of Pages

    “When Jiriki, a young monk, is sent by his Abbot from his mountain monastery
    to the Metropolis, he finds the modern world a confusing and illogical place; the technology of the modern world, which supposedly exists to make life easier, to Jiriki’s simple eyes only makes living more complicated.

    And as confused as Jiriki is by the modern world, he is even more confused by the Book of Pages that his Abbot has sent him to find – a book of which he has been given no clues as to the appearance, the whereabouts, or even the content…”

    Some extracts (if the Full link dosent work, view Half)

    ———–

    I read this book and found it a mostly funny & interesting perspective of technology. Especially view the excerpt regarding Button 🙂

  • quote: the pale blue dot

    Carl Sagan on the view of Earth from 3.7 billion miles away as a pale blue dot:

    Pale Blue Dot from wiki

    (image from wiki) Earth is a tiny dot about halfway down in the rightmost streak of sunlight.

    “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home, That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering,
    thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. … There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To
    me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

    -“You Are Here,” Pale Blue Dot, pp. 8-9.

    Video of the same in his own words:

  • miserable reality?

    [based on an email to family]

    The idea of me writing this is not to show you what I have discovered/believe [anyway I expect it will probably change later, esp after I get married] but hope to elicit a reply on what *you* think about it. And there is no “correct” or “wrong” answer, so I don’t have any plan to counter-argue and try and to prove myself correct or something.

    ——————

    In a book by Richard Bach, there is a chapter about movies. He talks about how people *choose* the movies that they want to see. Some like to watch horror, some like comedy, some like tragedy etc… For any kind of movie, it is the person who buys the ticket! He says a movie is like a lifetime.

    (more…)

  • where in the Universe are you?

    The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida has put up a very interesting Java applet on their site. It begins as a view of the Milky Way Galaxy viewed from a distance of 10 million light years and then zooms into towards Earth in powers of ten of distance. 10 million, to one million, to 100,000 light years and so on and then when it finally reaches a large Oak tree leaf. But that is not all it zooms into the leaf until it reaches to the level of the quarks viewed at 100 attometers.

    This is a fantastic representation of how magnificent the Universe is and how vastly infinite it is both in the macroscopic and the microscopic level.

    Copy and paste the link below to your browser address bar to view this:

    http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html

    —————————

    Here is another story in this context:


    When Svetaketu, at his father’s bidding, had brought one of the tiny fruits from the massive banyan tree, his father said to him, Split the fruit in two, dear son.
    Here you are. I have split it in two.
    What do you find there?
    Innumerable tiny seeds.
    Then take one of the seeds and split it.
    I have split the seed.
    And what do you find there?
    Why, nothing, nothing at all.
    Ah, dear son, but this great tree cannot possibly come from nothing. Even if you cannot see with your eyes that subtle something in the seed which produces this mighty form, it is present nonetheless. That is the power, that is the spirit unseen, which pervades everywhere and is all things. Have faith! That is the spirit which lies at the root of all existence, and that also art thou, O Svetaketu. (Tat-tvam-asi).

    (Chandogya Upanishad)

    ————————–

    Also consider what Albert Einstein has said…

    A human being is part of the whole, called by us “universe,” limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons close to us.

    Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty.

    ———–

    Consider the java applet, the upanishad story and Einsteins statements… don’t they somehow all seem to be some clues towards solving the grand mystery of life… like pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle! 🙂