Enlightened ... There are no special effects.

When I was about 19-20, on the day of Vinayaka Chaturthi, my father was performing the pooja. My brother and I wanted to go to our uncle's place - some 15 kilometers from where we were, to watch a cricket match on TV.  We didn't have TV at that time.  We were rushing our father to finish the pooja fast so that we don't miss even a minute of the game.  My mom was quite upset that we preferred a game over God.  I asked my father - "What would you do when you were my age and got a chance to play/watch cricket?".  Sounded like a good question at that time.  My father didn't say anything, but finished the pooja quickly and we went off to watch the game. Apart from this, I've asked my mom and other elders on a number of occasions on why should we do this or that - to justify my actions and inactions.  The responses can be broadly classified as follows: Some science  (often supported by statistics) that no one understood were behind  the rituals.  An example woul...

Yesterday Prakash blogged about sentiments on Nano . On the points that Prakash had mentioned: 1. Bridge the status for many people Are we looking at a more or less equal status of people because all of them can have a car? Is this the end of all differences and do we start treating people equally? Nano is just a product that would attempt to cash in on the small segment of city people that can afford a bike but can't afford a Maruti 800 or such a car.   Status differences are there and will be there. There will always be a comparison. 2. Allow people to convert their dreams in reality The one who managed to buy a Nano would want to sell it the next year and move up to a bigger better car. So, if someone can dream of a Nano, the next dream would be an i10 or Getz or Maruti 800. 3. Ensure safe travel Agreed. A car is safer than a bike just because you can't drive a bigger vehicle as crazily as you would drive a bike. But sir, what about the safety of the poor souls that hap...

This is an often repeated topic by the Nityanandas, Jaggi Vasudevs and JKs. Still, there is nothing wrong in I, being a common man like you, repeat it. The context of this topic came up during a once-a-year meeting I have with my brother. The meetings usually span about three days when we cover topics ranging from music (his favorite subject) to films and literature. He being a fan of www.itwofs.com , had problems in appreciating music that he knows is copied. To him, good music is one that is original (as far as his knowledge goes). I see this as two different activities - one is the listener's experience of the song, two being the problem of plagiarism. By knowing that a certain music is copied shouldn't come in the way of experiencing the music. Rahman's rendering of "What are you waiting for (Album: Vandemataram)" and "போறாளே பொன்னுத்தாயீ" (Album: Karuththamma), were expressive of the respective moods. I happen to hear a fast paced party song ...

Friend Nag responded to my earlier blog on being free . His comments were: 1. Brain will never give up its superiority (functioning) until it cease to exist or the functioning is stopped. Let us assume, the brain evolves to attain freedom, by then it would've realised to stop procreation to ensure freedom. I'm unable to foresee such a evolution process. Well, if it turns out to be true, that will be the end of man kind, as procreation will stop. As for any creature, expanding itself, is so primal, I really doubt that can happen. If it were to happen, then freedom comes with human extinction. 2. The way I see freedom is, when everything becomes an abstract and you don't see the cause and relationship and not affected by what is happening around. That could be the state of bliss. This state of bliss, could be attained by a few percentage of the human race and not by all. Still freedom will be achieved by all, in their own definition and not in a common parlance. Nag has g...

On India's Independence day, here is my attempt write about real freedom and to demystify the philosophy on Maya, self etc. Imagine the brain as a computer (crude, but simple to explain) with all its CPU and buses; the sensory organs being the peripherals. One important difference is, there is an experiencer - that is you. When inputs come from the senses, the brain processes the inputs and there is an experience. Now add the complexity of memory. Memory evolved with humans and it has been a pretty useful one, just like the computer's memory. It is able to remember more, information gathered over generations is stored better resulting in more complex ideas and innovations. With its evolution, the memory managed to get a higher priority over the inputs from the senses. In computer terminology, we can say that the bus between the memory and the CPU has higher capacity than the other buses. The experiencer explained in the first paragraph is more and more dependent on the memory. ...

I asked my 11 year old son on where he lost his geography notebook. He was clueless. It wasn't new for him to lose things and look lost in front of me. Last month it was geography book, another day it was another book and so on. In the first year of school, he used to lose pencils and erasers so frequently that we always bought boxes of them. Like most dumb parents I too tried telling him on how I used to take care of my possessions. It just struck me that I didn't have too many things to care for. Until 3rd grade, all I need to carry was one notebook for Mathematics, 3 or 4 books and a slate. That's all. The number increased gradually, but some kind of laziness prevented me from carrying more than 10 items to school until the 12th grade. And now, I stumbled upon the 50 year old psychology theory on the limited capacity of memory. And how did I arrive at this information to blog about? I was reading on a technology blog, that talked about interviews, linked to M...

முத்துக்குமரனை கப்பலின் மேல் தளத்தில், ஒரு பலகையில் நிறுத்தி சுட்டு விட்டார்கள். சனிக்கிழமை வந்த குமுதத்தில் வந்தது செய்தி. செவ்வாய்க்கிழமை, சுஜாதா தில்லைநகர் மகளிர் மன்றத்தில் பேசப்போகிறார். ஒன்பதாம் வகுப்பு படித்துக்கொண்டிருந்த எங்களுக்கு ஆர்வம் தாங்கவில்லை. ஆனந்த குமார், ஸ்ரீகாந்த், பரத்வாஜ், சுஜாதாவை சந்திக்க முடிவு செய்து விட்டார்கள். Agenda: முத்துக்குமரனுக்கு என்ன ஆயிற்று என்று தெரிந்துகொள்வது. முதலில் எனக்கு போக ஆசையாகத்தான் இருந்தது. ஐந்து நிமிட சந்திப்பு சுவாரஸ்யத்தை விட மிக அதிகமான சுவாரஸ்யம் படிக்கும் போது இருப்பதாலோ என்னவோ நான் அவரை சந்திக்கப் போகவில்லை. குறையொன்றுமில்லை. ஆனால் இப்போது, சுஜாதா இல்லை என்று நினைக்கும்போது, மிகப்பெரிதாக என்னவோ குறைகிறது. எத்தனை பேருக்கு inspiration? அறிவியலுக்கும் உணர்வுக்கும் இடையே நடுவில் வாழ்ந்தவர். உணர்வுகளை சரியாகப்புரிந்துகொண்டு ஒரு பார்முலாவைக்கண்டுபிடித்து கதைகளும், திரைக்கதையும் வசனமும் எழுதியவர். தான் special என்று உணர்ந்தும், எல்லோரும் சமம் என்று நடந்து கொண்டவர். பல நாயகர்களைப்போல இவரையும் சமூகம் மறந்து விடக்கூடும். மறந்து விடுவோ...