Times of India had this right up on the front page, but later removed it: Footwear store in Geneva uses Buddha statue to hang shoes
PATNA: Sight-seeing in Switzerland does not leave a vacationer horrified, but Patna’s Prabhat Choudhary, his wife and daughter were shocked to see a Lord Buddha statue garlanded with a pair of shoes at a footwear shop in Geneva.
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…)
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.
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!
Wonder what is happening in this patch on the globe called Pakistan. With all due respect to the Pakistanis I’ve met in person during my foreign trips who have all been really nice friends, going by the news, there seem to be so many armed and dangerous segments of its society that generally seem to be having something against the whole world! For example the latest attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, though one can’t imagine what they have got anything to do with anything…
March 03, 2009 10:11 IST
Last Updated: March 03, 2009 10:22 IST
Gunmen killed at least four people in an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team’s bus on Tuesday as it drove to the Gadaffi stadium in Lahore [Images], according to witnesses and cricket officials.
Sri Lankan media, quoting the sports minister, said four players received minor injuries in the attack — Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis [Images], Thilan Samaraweera [Images] and Tharanga Paranavithana.
Pakistan television channels said four people were killed.
I’ve been an occasional reader of the Pakistani newspaper Dawn. In the past few years, and maybe it was a series of wild coincidences as I’ve only seen it at random times, it seemed to be more of an anti-Indian rather than a Pakistani newspaper! Most of the headlines had something or the other to do with something bad that India was supposed to be up to! Today I saw it after quite a while, and was pleasantly surprised to see something refreshingly different. Apart from having more Pakistan centered news and nice improvement to its site design, it also had something positive to say about India…
Indian women of brilliance and grit
On the hope that ever so often springs up from the deep recesses of India.
Hopefully this will kindle the idea that Indians aren’t so bad after all, esp considering cases like the four year old Pakistani boy’s heart surgery in India recently.
A four-year-old Pakistani boy, Mohammed Moshin, a ‘blue baby’ – born with a congenital heart defect-, was cured of his ailment in Chennai at the ‘Frontier Lifeline’ hospital of the Dr KM Cherian Heart Foundation, named after the ace cardiac surgeon who pioneered heart transplants in India.
“We performed a very complex and rare heart surgery to rectify the congenital defect by relieving the boy of the obstruction without touching his right ventricle,’ Dr Cherian who led the team of doctors to successfully accomplish this task, told reporters here today.
Though we’re witnessing the results of some dark past… this kind of positive turn in the media and opening up to the world by means of the blogosphere in the same site, should facilitate good reason for optimism going forward in the future.
Today I received a handwritten letter. Its been a long time since I got a handwritten letter in the mail, many years (I don’t even remember when the last time was!) So it was a good surprise to find one today.
The contents had a photo of a little girl, and a copy of her marks card which had only Goods and Very Goods, and the following letter, that quite made our hearts jump…
Priya* is good in studies. Father works as a coolie and mother as a maind servant. The income of the father is very meagre as he does not go for work regularly. He drinks a lot and does not care for the family. Mother is taking care of the children and is interested to educate both the children. They stay in a small house for rent. Grandmother helps the children for food. Priya met with an accident & got hurt in the head, she had underwent operation at NIMHANS and still under medication. Our assistance is needed to educate Priya.
* name changed for privacy
We felt deeply touched and grateful at this opportunity to be part of someone else’s life. There is a certain almost inexplicable quiet joy.
We will be receiving this report regularly every few months, and depending on our time and inclination, can provide whatever support we like to Priya. This was after sponsoring a year’s education for her through the Karanata State Council for Child Welfare, which costs Rs. 2500. This is an annual commitment till she completes her 12th standard.
Priya studies in Gnaneshwari Vidya Mandira in R.T. Nagar, Bangalore. Not only money, they can use some help in teaching the children as well – anyone interested please email me for further details.
Not being some millionaire but only a common man running a middle class family – and I need to work hard to support my family and try to sustain some kind of security for the future especially amidst a very uncertain market with all the economic gloom.
Nevertheless, I feel the satisfaction of having made a good investment for the future (even though if it may not my own future! 😉 ) A song sung by Whitney Houston I’d first heard years ago still rings in my head (and heart)…
I believe that children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be
In physics, a quantum leap or quantum jump is a change of an electron from one quantum state to another within an atom. It is discontinuous; the electron jumps from one energy level to another instantaneously. ~ wiki
Electrons keep changing – leaping – vibrating – all the time. But minor changes are insignificant. Its said that the only thing constant is change. Only when the energy level jump is significant, does it really matter as a quantum leap.
In the monkey story, the monkey is living a happy life initially, then it starts to pick up some wooden apples, becomes so posessive about them, and eventually learns to let them go and get on with life. It’s decisions (i.e. its behaviour) was based on an evaluation. The monkey evaluated the real satisfaction it got from eating fruit (which it probably took for granted), and a hypothetical far superior taste it imagined from the wooden apple. I guess this evaluation of the real with the unreal was what lead the monkey astray.
But the irony is… that though for a reader it is clear that the monkey’s perception of wooden apples was flawed, for the monkey, it appeared to be very much real. So being in the monkey’s situation, how to overcome this flawed perception?
There are plenty of situations. Just one example would be a typical case of a person having a more active life online, than facing offline reality.
In the monkey’s story, would it be possible if the monkey thought long and hard about it? Most probably the monkey wouldn’t even start, wouldnt even acknowledge that such a thing was necessary. And even if it tried that, going by what Einstein said… “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it”, that might not even have worked!
So some kind of quantum leap is vital.
In the story,… the monkey’s acute hunger and fatigue was the driver for such a quantum leap.
But does it always have to happen the hard way….? For many it may never happen at all… as Henry David Thoreu had observed:
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
There is a well known saying…
A mind is like a parachute, it works only when its open!
and another maybe lesser known one…
Nobody ever complained of a parachute not opening…
Choice seems to be between letting life pass/rip by and plonking ungracefully into a grave some day, or actually landing there with a parachute 😉
The basic premise of the Arbinger institute is the concept of self-deception, and ignoring it amounts to self-betrayal. As the book Leadership & Self-Deception says, even acknowledging that there is some scope for improvement by itself is a significant first step. (Of course it goes on to give various approaches to going forward).
There is a phenomenal movie – Patch Adams starring Robin Williams.
[Of course one might recognise that Sanjay Dutt’s popular time pass comedy Munna Bhai MBBS was based on it it, but while the story line is similar, there is really no comparison at all. Patch Adams has a beauty, quality and depth and in a class of its own]
The movie begins with Patch (Robin Williams) in a mental asylum with several other patients. One of the patients is an old man, Arthur. Arthur abrubtly confronts people showing them four fingers, asking them “how many do you see??” and getting exasperated with anyone answering the obvious “four”. Patch answers four as well initially. While everyone treats Arthur like yet another lunatic, Patch encounters him again and makes another attempt to answer… here’s the dialogue from that scene script…
Arthur: How many do you see?
Patch: There are four fingers, Arthur.
Arthur: No, no, no. Look at me.
Patch: What?
Arthur: Y-You're focusing on the problem.
If you focus on the problem, you can't see the solution.
Never focus on the problem. Look at me!
How many do you see?
No, look beyond the fingers.
How many do you see?
Patch: (looking at him, sees a reflection in his eyes) Eight.
Arthur: Eight. Eight. Yes! Yes!
Eight's a good answer. Yes.
See what no one else sees.
See what everyone else chooses not to see...
out of fear and conformity and laziness.
See the whole world anew each day.
What is our real potential, and how little are we really living up to it?
This idea is beautifully explored in the Disney-Pixar movie Ratatouille…
Tony Robbins in his book Awaken the Giant Within You talks about how powerful a decision can be. This of course is a powerful aid by itself. I don’t know how much resolutions work – there might be a shadow of failure involved as well. Just having a strong intention could make a bigger positive beginning. Both Tony Robbin’s book as well as the Seven Laws of Spiritual Success by Deepak Chopra talks about how important an action, however small it may be, is vital to getting things rolling!
This is not a comparison of the above books, I’m just relating them to each other as I see things from my point of view. I feel each of the books say something very positive and significant, and are well worth reading.
In general I’m a kind of lazy fellow, and for me I’ve found that this approach works better for me: work on being more clear on what I really want. Once that’s done, do something atleast one small thing, to actually get things rolling.
I don’t know – maybe one cannot really make a quantum leap in the quality of our life just like that. If we look at nature, a ripe fruit falls naturally, there is no grand plan, it just happens on its own. So I feel instead of resisting it, because a leap is generally into unknown and involve certain amount of risk – one only needs to facilitate it with an open mind
What I feel is that any kind of leap isn’t just some one time event… I hope to make it a way of life… like a mountaineer would continuosly ascending a mountain, like the solution to the nine dot puzzle…
Now, well after almost a decade after my dad died… this year of 2009 we decided to celebrate his birthday a little more significantly than just remembering him.
So we went to this place called Samarthanam Trust in a quiet corner of Jayanagar, and asked them about any deserving candidate who was a good student but just lacked the opportunity to take their talent further. The caretaker there thought a while, and then came up with the name of a girl who was doing her 10th standard but was in real poverty with her parents struggling to make ends meet. We even got to meet this girl, of course we only had a general conversation with her, and she had some fun playing with my baby son for a few minutes and then went on her way.
It was nice to have met her, and after she left we wrote the cheque for her, wishing that it would give the chance for the sparkle in her eyes to keep shining!
We left the place with a sort of undescrible feeling of a quiet joy, and wished the same for my Dad. 🙂
Among all my family and friends… it seems that a lot of them in recent years seem to be more and more busy, hardly having time to keep in touch with each other (its not just with me 😉 ) And I’ve not made enough attempts either.
We seem to hardly be having time to even simply acknowledge, let alone respond to any email.
Twitter is a recent stunningly SIMPLE technology that helps people keep in touch.
That’s how simple twitter has made for people to keep in touch with each other.
One can follow one’s friends. Many ways of doing this as per one’s convenience – apart from the web, it also includes among others mobile text messaging or email integration 😎
I’d heard about it quite a while ago probably from Leonid‘s site, and that time though it was merely a curiosity. But recently when I installed a firefox plugin TwitterFox that allows me to send updates from my browser, I felt convinced that it can really be one possible way of keeping in touch.
There’s no substitute of course for meeting in person, but when that doesn’t happen for a while. What can happen is good friends can unknowingly, despite the best intentions, very unknowingly start drifting apart. As they start aging, they start becoming strangers to each other. That pure beautiful friendship, the very elixer of life, gradually starts becoming more of a mere memory. Probably that’s why its said that older we get, more lonely we may start feeling.
We can choose to not allow this to happen or atleast reduce it, simply by becoming aware of this and of ourselves.
Then, keeping in touch if not through emails, atleast through twitter, is one of the many practical actions that helps to stay in touch.
Again I reiterate, I’m sure we all agree that technology is merely a tool that facilitates, and cannot be a substitute 🙂
(type “d twitterid message” to send a private message to an individual instead of broadcasting)
——-
Hmm after writing this, I felt compelled to “reach out and touch someone” and took up my phone and caught up with some friends and family members (over skype and it was really nice 🙂 )