Back Pain

Sitting without any workout is boring. But what to do? I am advised to keep away from it for a while.

Today I met my Physiotherapy doc to evaluate the progress. (usually, when I am there she wont be there when she is there I wont be there, since I either go in the late evening or early morning). She was happy about the progress. I said:

“So, I may not be meeting you again, is that OK?”

She responded…

“All the best, do all the exercises we taught you WITH WEIGHT , never forget warm ups…when you start playing again , wear knee braces……. and don’t come back here again..”

And she gave a broad smile when she said the last sentence….

I want to be ridiculous for a change... so, without any reason I am going to talk about how we can maintain a good back. Or how we can avoid a back pain

While folding cloths or ironing, keep one foot on a step stool or something which can server that purpose

Standing or sitting in the same position for a long time is bad for our back. Take a small break and walk a while or at least change position

While picking up something from the floor, bend your knee, even if you can do that without bending

When sitting on a chair, make sure that feet reach the floor, comfortably

Make cleaning the house a regular habit. So that there is no need to spend long time with brooms or vacuum cleaner. Or, take a little break every 3-4 minutes, while doing such work

Use only ergonomic chairs

Keep only your laptop in the backpack. Don’t keep unwanted stuffs which can make it heavier. At least don’t make the backpack a mobile office desk.

While driving long distances, make sure that the seat is good enough and gives good back support. There are stuffs available to make it more comfortable and ergonomic. Or try folded towel or blanket. And don’t forget to take breaks and walk at least a few steps.

These days, there are mattresses that can give great support for the spinal chord. It may be costly, but its worth buying. If there is no choice, to the extend possible, sleep on side.

Make exercise a habit. And never forget to warm up and stretch especially if the workout is for backs.

All the best !

Naked Singularity

What happens when a measure (space time curvature as per general gravity theory or density of matter) of gravitational force becomes infinite?

Then we call it gravitational singularity. The best example to understand this (theory) is to consider a black hole. What is believed is, at the center of a black hole, the density is infinite. This is coz the mass is compressed to zero volume. So, this situation is a singularity. But we cant see any such thing since black holes wont allow even the light to escape. So, we can’t ‘see’ any such thing.

We have another theory. Here the singularity can be observed. I think this theory came into existence from a thought ‘can we see the collapse of an object to infinite density?’ . If somebody says NO with solid proof, then this theory will not exist. Since it’s not proved that way, the theory exists and such (observable) singularity is called Naked Singularity!

Pope and 11th Commandment..

This year, the Catholic World Youth Day was held in Sydney, Australia. Those who attended it got a chance to listen to Pope Benedict XVI. So what? Yes, it has nothing to do with me, nothing at all. But when somebody says something good, I don’t mind listening to it. What Pope said was true.

“In so many of our societies, side by side, with material prosperity, a spiritual dessert is spreading, an interior emptiness, an un named fear, a quiet sense of despair”

(Well, that’s not in India. That’s what a recent survey (happiness among youth) shows. We are not facing any spiritual dessert.)

He also asked the youth to avoid:

“..the shallowness, apathy and self absorption which deaden our souls and poison our relationships”

He did not forget to say he is deeply sorry for the evil act of sexually abusing the children by clergymen.

Finally, he asked the Christians (yes, I think he asked the Christians and not just Catholics) to become the messengers of love to counter a world that that is increasingly becoming spiritually barren.

I liked that coz of two different reasons. One, if every Christian becomes the messengers of love, (forget it, that is next to impossible thing , don’t forget Bush is alive), if at least a big majority live up to it, they can change the world for sure coz they are there in almost every country.

Secondly, living like the messengers of love and merely spreading just religion and washing the hands is different. Pope is very much aware of the (forced) evangelism cum conversion around the world. He has the statistics. But he did not hide the fact that a spiritual dryness also is growing. He stressed on being spiritual rather than religious. That’s a good sign…

Is there any 11th commandment? I don’t know. Anyway, Jesus said:

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I loved you” – John 15:12

BJP Bangalore and BomB Blasts !

On Friday there happened a serial bomb blast in my city (8 blasts). An act of the terror, killing one or two people and injuring a lot. Yesterday, a series of 17 blasts in Ahmedabad, killing at least 45 people. Some cunning people saw something common in both these incidents. The ruling party in both States is BJP ! . And they weren’t much interested in who did the blasts, though the Muslim outfit named ‘Indian Mujahideen’, one anti-Indian pro-Pakistan organization (consisting of “Indians”!!!), took the responsibility for the blasts.

So, why BJP is blamed for? I am not a person who blindly supports any political party. What does every political party in this world want to achieve? They all want power. They all want to rule. They will try everything possible to be in power. This is a FACT. So, will BJP cut the branch sitting on it? And in my State, this is for the first time in the history of whole of south India that BJP comes into power with absolute majority. Do they want to spoil it? So, what is the relation between the blasts and BJP?

BJP is labeled as a communal party. Labeled as a pro-Hindu political party, though they don’t have any pro-Hindu manifesto. Did the Hindu community receive any favor over Christians and Muslims when BJP was in rule? Nope. This is a reality but still BJP is always treated as ‘the only communal party’ in India, the ‘untouchables’. There is this Kerala Congress which is a pure Christian political party where even the church puts its head. There is this Muslim league, which clearly says it’s a political party stands for the benefit of Muslim community. Such parties are NOT called as communal which is ridiculous. That’s why I have called these politicians pseudo secular.

What about the so called secular parties headed by those who are Hindu by birth but sports a secular image? They spent hundreds of thousands for visiting temples (not churches or mosques), conducting poojas and Vaasthu corrections. Then there is this money spent on astrology. In reality , all political parties, except the actual communal ones like Muslim league, differ only by the color of the flag. If we check the manifestos released during elections, we can’t see much difference. When they rule, we don’t feel any difference (we just pay more tax). There are corrupt people in every political party (in fact they have the majority). There are people who favor their community people in every ‘secular’ party. But in India, every one has one common enemy, the BJP… the Christians, the Muslims, the left parties, almost every political parties…. Why? From where did BJP get this communal robe? It should be from its connections with RSS, for sure.

I have studied RSS. The best way to study anything is be with it. Think like them and them come out and be normal and think again. I did that. I got involved with them, then I quit. Why was the RSS formed? Before that, where was its founder?

The organization was founded in 1925. When the British were in rule and freedom movements were going on. The founder, Dr.K.B.Hedgewar too was part of it, with the Indian National Congress. And he quit that organization and founded RSS, after thinking a lot about ‘ why is this happening to India?’ The British came here for business and Indians treated them well, trusted them and finally they showed a new face - a gun in one hand and Bible in another hand. He found out the answer – Indians lacked patriotism. The men who took orders from the British and fired bullets at Indians weren’t mostly imported from Britain , but they were Indians.

Then Dr. Hedgewar decided to found an organization for patriotic Indians. If any Christian start an organization, even if it’s for the service of humanity, they might start offering a prayer to Jesus. It has nothing to do with Christianity in particular. In the same way, Dr. Hedgewar might have started it by offering a prayer to some Hindu deity. He DID NOT keep Rama or Krishna as its symbol. He himself DID NOT become its 'Guru' coz he said he is a human and no human is perfect. Hence he showed the flag and said that is the 'boss'. He tried to impart Indian values through his organization. He wanted to organize a group of people who are patriotic and don’t want to deceive the motherland. I have personally attended many of that organizations private meetings and I never heard a leader preaching – go and kill the Christians and Muslims..Never ever.

We need to understand one thing. India speaks thousands of language. Every State has its own culture, food, way of living, faiths etc etc… Then how this nation stood as a single Nation? There is a thread that links all these diversities. And that is ‘Indianness’. If that Indianness has something to do with Hindu Dharma, its quite natural coz, it was known as Hindustan and the 100% of nation’s people belonged to that dharma, which never was against any religion. Hindu Dharma was ready to embrace good from everywhere.

There is a country (only country ) in Asia which has 95% of Christians, the Philippines. If somebody starts a sports club there and it has 100 members, its natural that it has a Christian majority when looked wearing 'religious glasses', glass with the color of religion. But is that the reality? It is a sports club and that’s beyond religion. It was the same case with India, hundreds of years ago. When you see things ONLY through the eyes of religion (which is man made), you see people of the same religion standing together.

BJP was not formed to uplift the Hindus. BJP had nothing to do with the killing of Gandhiji . But still many ignoramuses think that way. They better check out the court verdict.

Then why these bombs got blasted in States ruled by BJP? Not all Muslim who live here in India are terrorists. There are a lot who consider this as their motherland. But the rest are anti-Indians, their number one political enemy is BJP (and enemy is Hindus), which stands for the Nation (this doesn’t mean that every BJP member is like that. This political party too has dirty men with them who swing from one place to another for personal benefits, but am talking about the majority or at least its senior leaders).

So, why BJP ruling States? BJP governments are said to be bit strict about these banned militant groups and terrorists. Indirectly the terrorist outfit can enjoy the company of all others - the left, the right, the evangelist groups, other Muslim organizations- since everyone is interested in seeing a BJP government being troubled. What other political parties want is political instability so that they can pull down the ministry and then try their luck to form a government. So, when a bomb blasts, they can ask the government to resign for the inability to protect. They conveniently forget how deep the infiltration is. This infiltration of terror groups did not happen overnight. It took decades and at this juncture we should remember that it was a single party that ruled India for decades. It was their soft measures and pseudo secular attitudes that lead India to this present worse situation.

When I see things as an unbiased common man, I understand that BJP got majority ONLY once at the central government, after independence. That is, in 60 years, BJP did not rule India even for 6 years! This is a big reality.

This is nothing but cheap, dirty and filthy politics…This is as good as shaking hands with the anti-Indian militant groups. We have even seen terrorist camps being run not just in the border, but deep inside our country. It is a big security threat now.

The need of the hour is all political parties joining hands and do their best to fight against terrorism, then you fight with each other for power and corruption.

SEVEN !

What is the significance of the number seven (7)?.If we look around, we see many things leading us to or ending in seven. I think it is religions which gave so much significance to the number seven, irrespective which religion (or at least Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism).

Swaras

In Indian classical music, we have seven notes ( Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, and Ni) and we call it ‘saptha swara’, where saptha means seven. In western music also it is the same (Do, Re, Me, Fa, So, La and Te).

Lokas

As per Indian belief, its not just heaven and hell, but there are other planes too. It is said that there are 14 ‘lokas’ or planes. Earth is the seventh one. There are six above earth and seven below.

1. Satya-loka
2. Tapa-loka
3. Jana-loka
4. Mahar-loka
5. Svar-loka
6. Bhuvar-loka
7. Bhur-loka (Earth)

8. Atala-loka
9. Vitala-loka
10. Sutala-loka
11. Talatala-loka
12. Mahatala-loka
13. Rasatala-loka
14. Patala-loka


Chakras

There are seven major ‘chakras’ or energy centers in our body –

1. Muladhara (base chakra)
2. Swadhistana (sacral chakra)
3. Manipura (solar chakra)
4. Anahata (heart chakra)
5. Visudha (throat chakra),
6. Ajna (third eye)
7. Sahasrara ( crown).

Bodies

In a previous blog, I had mentioned about other components of our body. That too has seven aspects.

1. Physical body
2. Etheric body
3. Astral body
4. Mental body
5. Spiritual body
6. Cosmic body
7. Nirvana /Moksha body

Seven Seas

1. Black Sea
2. Caspian Sea
3. Persian Gulf
4. Red sea
5. Mediterranean Sea
6. Indian Ocean
7. Arabian Sea

(in India there is a different classification of seven seas – Kara, Kheera, , Sura, Ghritha, Rusa, Dahi and Jala)

Saptharishis (seven Sages)

1. Arthri,
2. Kasyapar,
3. Vasishtar,
4. Jamadagni,
5. Gautamar,
6. Bharatwajar
7. Viswamithrar

In Christianity too there are lots of mention about ‘seven’. Some in Bible and some as beliefs.

Seven Sacraments (as per Catholic Church)

1. Baptism
2. Confirmation
3. Holy Eucharist / Holy Communion
4. Penance
5. Anointing of the sick
6. Holy Orders
7. Matrimony

Seven Joys of Mary

1. The Annunciation
2. The Nativity of Jesus
3. The Adoration of the Magi
4. The Resurrection of Christ
5. The Ascension of Christ to Heaven
6. The Pentecost or Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Mary
7. The Coronation of the Virgin in Heaven

Seven Sorrows of Mary

1. The Prophecy of Simeon over the Infant Jesus.(Luke 2:34)
2. The Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family. (Matthew 2:13)
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus for Three Days. (Luke 2:43)
4. The Meeting of Jesus and Mary along the Way of the Cross. (Luke 23:26)
5. The Crucifixion where Mary stands at the foot of the cross. (John 19:25)
6. The Descent from the Cross where Mary receives the dead body of Jesus in her arms. (Matthew 27:57)
7. The Burial of Jesus. (John 19:40)

Seven Virtues

1.Chastity
2.Temperance
3.Charity
4.Diligence
5.Kindness
6.Patience
7.Humility

Seven (deadly) Sins

1.Lust
2.Gluttony
3.Greed
4.Sloth
5.Wrath
6.Envy
7.Pride


“And on seventh day God ended his work” Genesis 2:2

“…..bowed himself to the ground seven times…” Gen 33:1

“….he made a mourning for his father seven days..” Gen 50:10

“And Elisha sent a messenger unto him saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times…” 2 Kings 5:10

“…..Mary called Magdalene , out of whom went seven devils..” Luke 8:2

“…having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God..” Rev 5:6

“And he had in his right hand seven stars….” Rev 1:16

So on…….

Not just in Hindu or Christian (Roman Catholic) belief, the number seven has significance in Judaism, Islam and other religions too….What is the significance of this number in my life? I don’t know. But I know that there is only Seven books in the ‘Intimate Note’ series by my Guru…

What exactly is the importance of number seven? When am writing this, I don’t know. I just noted down ONLY some interesting things that I have observed in connection with seven and just like many others, wondering what is the secret behind it….

A Rehabilitation !

I got rehabilitated. After a short period of explosive activities, finally am back to the garage.

I had developed a knee injury about two months ago. From the kind of pain and my experience with injuries during martial arts time, I guessed that it is not a minor muscular pain. But I did not want to admit it. I wanted to fight it out. I tried to hide my pain from my wife so that she won’t put any restrictions. But finally, my body asked me to take some rest. May be I asked more from my body. Gym, badminton, swimming, squash… people even started being jealous of me, my figure and my fitness…

Today I met an orthopedic surgeon, since the pain came back. He was a nice guy. I liked him. Pleasant looking with a smiling face. I had consulted him 4-5 years ago or so when I had a minor rib fracture. He did not recognize me (Well, had he did, then it would have been a wonder). The thing I like about this doc is that he is ready to explain things and hence I can ask questions. Thus I used this chance to clear some other doubts.

So, he took a paper and a pen and drew a diagram of knee joint and explained to me what has happened. There is a severe sprain with a ligament. And hence I need to stop all my physical activities. Very bad news… not just that, I need to undergo physiotherapy (Ultra Sonic, I.C.T - Interferential Current Therapy- which gives funny 'pin and needle' sensation coz of electric impulses, and then about 5 different exercises!!!) for 7 days..very very bad…

Another disappointing thing is this hospital is 6 km away from my house and this physiotherapy room is always full! So, now is the time of testing patience. This is how life is...

“…Whatever is happening, is happening for the good…” - Bhagavat Gita..

Friendship is Costly !

The other day my son and another boy had a confusion over a pen. Both had similar looking ones and hence both said

“It is mine”

Finally the other boy allowed my son to have the pen (which actually belonged to my son) and said:

“Ok, you take it..Friendship is more costly than a pen…”

I liked that. May be he read that somewhere. Or if it came from that small kid, he will become a great philosopher or teacher in future (at least mentally). I don’t want to look for the other possibilities. Whatever be it, what he said is right.

Friendship is costly than many material things around us. The company of a true friend is incomparable. Sometimes it’s beyond reason and it always is beyond season. In a true friendship, there is:

Love
Compassion
Care
Compromise
Beauty
Understanding
Affection
Service
Loyalty
Sharing
Trust
Sympathy
Empathy
Honesty…….

It is not wise to be pragmatic and stick to the typical definition of a friendship (“co-operative and supportive behavior between two beings”).

Friendship is a precious and priceless gift from God..

Playing Cards

Do I play cards? The typical playing cards? Nope!

Why?

If l look back to my childhood, I have never seen my dad playing cards. Nor did I see his brothers (my uncles) play.

Somehow playing cards got linked to ‘bad guys’ in me. In many movies, I saw police chasing the card players and thus may be that ‘feel’ got more reasons to think so.

I grew up.

Society had/has good and bad people around us. I observe people. Some of my classmates used to steal minor things like pen etc. A friend of mine used to ‘steal’ stuffs during school science exhibitions.

I grew up

I met different people. Some even had criminal records. I still remember a neighbor of mine getting arrested and then that guy escaping from the police van. He had something to do with drugs and it is said that he had some connection with a prostitute. I saw (knew all of them personally, since I was a social worker too) many guys who steal tender coconut at night. I observed some of my old buddies who parted away from me and joined other gangs who were into drinks and smoking.

I grew up.

I got acquainted with people who evade tax. Who’s first option for everything is ‘out of the way’ approach. I met people who used to make duplicates of popular brands. I saw who misused passports, I saw people who used to stamp forged stamps on passports.

If I make a list of all those people who had some criminal mind, did actual crimes, or were into drinking and list out their interests,one thing was common. They all played cards. This is not an assumption, but an observation. I think if we extend this study to jails, we will get more solid data.

This doesn’t mean that all who play cards are bad. But the reverse thing. Almost all bad guys play cards. And one thing I observed is, those who play it for fun just plays and those who had some criminal mind always did some gambling. Or there was a money aspect. I saw one guy, who wanted at least 25 paise (or one cent) get involved into it.

For me, card players looked like pests in trains..

Somehow I happened to see a connection between drinks, crime and cards. It was a gambling that lead to Mahabharatha war. Jesus might have taken wine for some reason(but not for fun or to get drunk). But ever heard of his playing cards or gambling? I think he kicked out such people from the place of worships. Same should be the case with Mohammed, though I have no idea. He might not have even taken drinks. Rama is mentioned as ‘Purushotham’ or the ideal man. He never was into any such things, same with Buddha……

We always have chess and caroms competitions from school level. But we won’t see a card competition neither in schools nor in colleges…Why?

These kinds of observations and thoughts could be a major reason why I did not show any interest in cards. And then, by nature, I like physically active games.

Let me say it again. I did not say everyone who play cards are criminals. But if we closely look, we would see that majority of the criminals, cheaters and drunkards show interest in cards, irrespective of from which part of the world they are from……

Encouragement

I was not used to any encouragement or appreciation. If I go years and years back, I don’t have any incident that is coming into my mind where I got appreciated or encouraged. Not from my parents or relatives, none from my teachers, nor anything from my friends. I was telling this to my wife and she asked:

“Didn’t I do anything? What about those assignments?”

Yes, when I think about encouragements, I can not forget that. It happened about three or four years ago when I was preparing for the first semester (Masters in Computer Applications). Me gave up hope and thought that I could not write all those assignments and submit on time, and then my wife said:

“Yes you can”

I still don’t know whether she was telling that based on her writing speed (I am slow and she is fast so the gap widens) or it was encouragement. She even sat with me and made sure that I finished it. I submitted my assignments on the last day at the last hour. But I submitted.

As I said, it happened three years ago or so. That means when I was about 37. What will happen to a person who spent his 37 years without getting any encouragement? In my case, not only that I did not get any encouragement, at many stages of life, it was discouragements that I received from relatives and even from friends.

I had great respect for one of my acquaintances. But unfortunately it was he who stood against me taking some Para-medical course which had lots of scope abroad that time. What about his personal life? He took his doctorate and became a ‘Dr.’ . Was he academically well ahead of me? It wasn’t so. But there was one noticeable difference between me and him – he was rich and I wasn’t…

When I wrote this, one anecdote that comes into my mind is me going to attend an interview. Coz of my honesty, I told my then boss that I am going to attend a job interview in a better company and requested for a leave. His first and straight away response was this:

“They might have already selected somebody…so I don’t think you will get it….any way you go”
……
“I am going to learn swimming”
“Don’t get drowned”
“I am going for a long trip by car”
“Mind the accidents”
“I got wet”
“Hope you won’t fall ill”
“I wish to learn C language, which book you suggest?”
“It is not easy.”
“Can we try that giant wheel?”
“No, I think you will vomit”

I was waiting for my turn at the Karate tournament. A friend came with me and I requested him to stay there till my fight is over since I was not sure in which condition I would become after fight. He looked around at the other guys and said:

"... look at that person's fist...and he is brown belt. what if you have to fight with him in the first round itself?. so you better quit right away.."

(as he said I had to fight with him...and that too my first fight. I looked at my friend, and he had a broad smile on his face with a ' I told you' expression. Then I looked at my opponent who was staring at me, and that gave me butterflies. But I tied that match with equal points and it went for extra time and it was said who takes the first point wins and thus he won, and got defeated by another guy from my dojo, in the next round. )

The story went on, on and on…

Those are not imaginary questions and its probable answers, but the real ones happened in my life. They may not be serious but look at the first response…

So, am I going to make a negative note? Nope. What I am going to tell is something different. Lately I heard some encouraging words, which were surprises for me…

I was in the swimming pool with another guy. We both were standing at one end. He kicked off and moved and when he reached half of the way (ours is a 25 meter pool, lengthwise), I started and I reached the other end first that too with a margin of one or two meters. He wasn’t competing with me, but still.

I panted and said:

“I think I can swim really fast…faster than this.”

“Yes, YOU can…Had you been into swimming at an early stage, you could have been in the national team..”

I know he is not serious about it. But it wasn’t sarcastic either (There were about 10 men in the swimming camp that I attended, that includes this person and I am the fastest among them).

That comment made me laugh…and laughing is something good and pleasant and positive, provided we are not laughing at others.

........Me standing very disappointed after losing a badminton game… A guy who plays well and smashes very well comes to me and tells:

“you are playing good”

“I don’t know ….I don’t think so….I am not convinced…. when I play (pair) with that guy…I don’t know…may be he expects more from me…”

“Look, you need to understand that, that guy was playing like this from the day I started playing here. …you are playing well considering when you started playing…. We too were like you only when we started playing…so don’t feel bad about it”

It was a big surprise for me. Words of encouragements….that made me feel good….I came home with that ‘feel good’ and I don’t know how the topic Everest came between me and my wife.

“Yes, I am ready for it” Me

“You think you can make it? Do you think it is easy?” Wife

“Look, don’t pour water into my enthusiasm. I know it is not easy. But given a chance, I am willing to give it a try and I think I can make it”

And now back to the loop….that is why or where I started talking about a man who lived 37 years with no encouragement but only discouragement…not just that…. during my childhood, I even didn’t have any good cloths to wear. That never gave a comfortable feeling when I had to attend a marriage, visiting a relative’s place etc… I remember, I had even gone to such places even without a foot wear. Were my parents poor? The irony is ‘No’…

We may not be able to encourage everyone around us, but at least let us not discourage others. If we really care for somebody, we can’t help but encourage them. Encourage someone (not just kids) and look at the smile on that person….isn’t it worth? Won’t it bring happiness even for us? At least I think so…

If any youngster, who is going through series of discouragements, is reading this, I have one thing to tell. Take a lesson from my life and don’t wait till it happen to yours. If it is full of discouragements, don’t worry too much about it and start building a belief in yourself. Believing in you helps to fight out this negativity of discouragements. And yes, prove yourself.

(A funny note: I was in the badminton court. The guy who I mentioned above (with whom I paired and lost the match) was playing. When he did a good return, I clapped. Then there comes a lady’s voice: “hey, don’t support him….”)

Death Anniversary

Time flies very fast. Is that so? Will time change speed every now and then? Time and mind are connected. When we are happy or busy, we feel the time flew fast. When we are unhappy or bored, we feel it moving slowly.

Whatever be it, it was on this day, a year ago, my mom left her body. Is what is left my mom? Or was it the body that I cremated who was my mom? When we are here in this planet within a body, we feel emotions towards even the dead ones. I don’t know what it is like with the departed ones. I think in every religion, people do something for the departed soul on this day, at least a prayer.

The memories of my mother still lives in me. I read my own blog which was connected to this day, that I wrote a year ago. Apart from mom’s memories, one more thing had something to do with this day. A year ago, it was the presence (though not physical) of a friend of mine, today it was marked by the silence of the very same person. It wasn’t something good or I liked or I expected. I wished to share/tell something about my mom with her.. ..But I couldn’t. ..Did I forget to tell that I am always available? ALWAYS..

I better I remember something good about my mother than trying to think how good a mother she was or how good she was as wife or how good she was as a granny or how good she was as a mother-in-law. Who am I to comment on how good a wife she was? That should be done by my dad. But where is he? Are my mom and dad living together? Did they meet somewhere? When they were alive, he told my mother well in advance that he will pass away before her, though they were of the same age. And he did the same thing, though he had nothing to do with the heart failure; though he wasn't fully ready for it(he wished to see his daughter complete her masters). Did he wait for her or did he carry on?

My mom loved food. She used to visit restaurants more frequently than my dad, when she was working. Many a times, I was part of those visits, if not, she used to bring something for us. 'Us' means mostly me and my sister. Sometimes we avoided dad coz we were scared that he might scold for wasting money.

Hey dad, I know you cant read my blogs, but can you read my thoughts? If yes, I want to ask you one thing. If mom was wasting money, what about you? What was your savings? Why couldn’t you send your son to a medical collage to fulfill his dream?. No, am not angry with you, but I still I want to ask you that.

Yes, I was talking about mom and food. If we had some snacks at home, it always was coz of mom. When I say mom loved food, it doesn’t mean that dad did not. Dad was vegetarian and mom a non vegetarian, may be that is the difference. One tried to not to spent too much on restaurants and the other one didn’t bother about it. As a cook, mom was quite ok, though she wasn’t exceptionally good. She could cook most of the traditional dishes. As a cook, her sister flared well.

When I remember about mom, I can not forget one thing. May be it is the same with most of them who knew her. Her neatness. And she was very particular about having a neat bed. When she was with a cousin of mine, I visited her and her bed wasn’t that neat. It really pained me, though I did not comment on it.

Mom was very good at handling newborns. Giving them bath, giving them food, make them sleep, sing lulls for them… she liked it. I had seen one thing; many a times people from the neighborhood used to bring the babies to her to give them a bath.

One more thing I can not forget about mom is that it was she who kept in touch with all of our relatives. I don’t even know many of them!

I am not sure about the life after death. But mom, if you are continuing some journey, I wish you all the best !

Its all LOVE...

When love glows, it is bliss
When love flows, it is compassion
When love blows, it is anger
When love ferments, it is jealousy
When love is all “no’s”, it is hatred
When love acts, it is perfection
When love knows, it is ME!

- Sri Sri Ravishankar

You Dont Understand !

A subordinate wanted to have an one to one with my wife. So, she discussed this with me and asked me to comment on her positives and negatives. Yes, she knows that I am good at understanding people. I don’t want to blog on my wife’s plus and minus. But at some point of time, I told her this:

“There are some kind of people in this world who disclose partial information and lets the other person go for a guess work and on listening to the first guess itself, close the chapter and say “ you don’t understand”. Personally I don’t like that coz, I do understand. I am not talking about people who are debating on rocket science or nano technology but the common man's day to day life. You don’t tell that to me unless you are talking about a complicated SQL statement”

(My wife is exceptionally good with SQL statements and I am nowhere near her, though I too can handle some basic queries.)

Yes, its not a good idea ‘trying to make’ others a fool by not telling what is what or hiding things. May be the other person can understand it. Even after explaining the situation, if he/she cant understand it, give them a chance to say ‘ I don’t understand’. That will be fair.

War, War and Mr. Bush

“Prepare to attack Iran, Bush tells Israel” that was one (sort of big) heading in the world news, in my news paper.

Don’t you have anything else to do Mr. Bush? You already destroyed Iraq saying this and that and fighting a personal war. You tortured the innocent Iraqis using your soldiers. Are you on an Anti-Islam war, that too flirting with Pakistan?

Isn’t that enough? If you believe in good and bad, understand that you have done enough bad for your this life. Now join Bill Gates and do something good for the human race. Big people can do Big things,don't forget that...

Pope in Oz

Pope Benedict, in a news conference said everything possible would be done to prevent a recurrence of sexual abuse in Australia and healing among the victims.

Why should he comment on a sexual abuse? Well, this sexual abuse was by clergies.

Why just Australia? What about other nations? Why the church did everything possible to destroy evidence and influence the investigating agencies in Sister Abhaya’s murder?

Rest In Peace, Olive

Olive Riley, the oldest (by age) ever blogger passed away. She was from Australia and was 108 when she died. As a blogger and a member of blogspot community, I pay my last respects. May your soul rest in peace.

Weekend Surprises..

Lessons And More Lessons

Its weekend again. I never thought I could play badminton. Coz, usually there will be a big crowd to play. On Saturday, when I peeped into the court, I saw only three people playing. One old man, a lady and a kid. My trainer said it’s a family. I thought:

“This is a chance to play, an old man and a lady, anyway I could win a game”

After sometime (was in the gym), I went to the court and there were more people. Thus, me and another person joined against the old man and another person. And we started playing…

I was not a match for the old man. What I mean is I was nowhere near his caliber. What a fantastic player he was! . we got defeated and I smiled at him and went to him for tips. He pointed out many mistakes in me and said it will take some time and practice to fix those, starting from how I hold the racquet. That was a great lesson playing with him. He had full control over the racquet. And he could place the shuttle where he wanted to. He said he was playing for over 40 years….

And then that lady, I played against her too, who was the old man’s daughter. She has got her dad’s playing abilities and she too was into the game from childhood.

Sunday was a real shocker. I could have played as much as I wanted to. I played a doubles and then they all left except one. He was a damn good player and he won 15-3. I was coming after gym and he made me run by hitting here and there. At the end, he too gave me many tips and told me:

“You just started playing, right?”
“Yes, not even one week”
“Then you are playing well”
“Thank you”
“Want to play one more single game?”
“Nope, I don’t have any energy left…”

The A/C was on in the Billiards room and I sat there to take some rest. Then those guys made me play. But since I paired with a State level player, I could save my face. There too I learnt a lot…

A Birthday Party

Reaching there was a big problem and it even lead to some exchange of words between me and my wife. I had asked her to get the directions well in advance. But that did not spoil the mood. I kept my cool. It was a party arranged by wife’s one of the colleagues. There were lots of fun activities for kids. (Alcoholic) drinks were too arranged for those who drink. I liked the ambiance, arrangements and food. Everything went fine except that while coming back also I had to be a little harsh with wify since I don’t like her interfering with my driving…..

A Dream/Vision:

Crowd. The road was crowded. I could make out which road. It was the one leading to the nearby apartment. Or I better say it was the road just opposite to the entrance of that apartment. A short, fair girl with long straight hair came and stood. She wasn’t a south Indian. I don’t know whether she was even an Indian. She stood near a saloon where I used to get my hair cut. Opposite to it, there was a beauty parlor for women. She did not enter the parlor. She waited there, thinking, then looked at the wrist watch…. May be she was in a hurry, and she disappeared…

Why?

Just close the eyes… and now open it and see…

Trees, they are there in different shapes and forms. Even with different root systems. Hundreds of thousands of different plants. Orchid itself comes in 22,000 different species. The fragrance of flowers is different….leaves looks different…. None are same. Look at roses; we see many different varieties….its all different.

Cats and dogs.. They too differ. Different shapes, size, color, hair, eyes…..Ants, 12, 000 different species are known to humans…over 35,000 species of spiders...27,000 types of fish with bones and 10,000 boneless ones…..its all different.

If somebody has 10 children, do they look same? Nope… there are people with same blood group. But what about the other components? Can we find two people with exactly same blood? No chance…so far, I might have spoken to/listen to at least 1000 humans in this life so far but I never noticed two people with same voice…there are similar voices but not same… coz its all different.

Countries , cultures, people , faith , believes, the way we eat, the way we feel, the way we dress, the way we see, the way we smell, the way we react, the way we respond, the way we laugh, the way we write, the way our finger prints are….its all different

If one does not believe in God, its Ok, just accept this reality….if one believes in God, its OK, just accept this reality else its as good as one calling Him a fool for making this world so different. Coz,

Its all different…

Appendix:

We humans greet each other, we ask ‘how are you?’ , we ask ‘how do you do?’, we ask ‘how are you feeling now?’, we wish ‘get well soon!’, we ask ‘ have you had your breakfast?’ we ask ‘what is your favorite color?’, we ask ‘what is your favorite food?’, we ask ‘what is your favorite music?’, we ask ‘what is your favorite movie?’, we ask ‘ how was your weekend?’, we ask ‘what are the activities you like to do?’, we ask ‘which sport you like?’, we ask ‘what are your hobbies?’………………

Why? Why coz we are humans and its there in our nature for a normal person to show some interest on other people who are known to us. Sometimes it is to have a conversation, sometimes its out of love (a mom asking ‘what happened in your school today?’ to her kindergarten kid is not curiosity but she asks out of her motherhood and love… I asked this question to my wife, who is a mother, to get a second opinion), sometimes it is to share some emotion, many a times we do this coz we care for them...

Did Krishna talk on every aspect of our life? Did Jesus do that? What about Buddha?, Mohammed? Mahavir? It is not coz they don’t have the ability to do so, but it is coz even they expect something from our side other than the guidelines and clues.

Why?

Coz we are humans and not animals…

This Is Not The Way, Doc !

I had wondered why some people take noble professions like nursing and medicine. Long time ago, I was confined in a hospital for an appendicitis surgery. A nurse was friendly with me and I asked her

“Why did you take this profession?”

“Coz, I like this”

“May be in your case its true, but I personally don’t think all those who came to this profession are service minded”

“yes, that’s true. Many of them are there just to get a job”

The result?

I was referred to a specialist with an X-ray of my spinal chord (in connection with the surgery I mentioned above). Instead of me just showing the X-ray film and handing over the referral letter, I tried to give an intro to start a conversation

“As per the X-ray, it looks like something could be wrong…so my doc asked me to meet you”

“So, it is the problem with the X-ray and not you, right?” with a kind of expression in his face..

That was the way the specialist responded. He knew very well what I was trying to tell. Is that the way to talk to a patient? No, not at all. At least he could have kept mum instead of being rude like this.

Well, I got reminded of this incident coz of another incident. A colleague of my wife fell ill. And finally it was confirmed as liver cancer. How did the doctor tell this to his patient?

“Look, come to the reality, you have liver cancer”

Yes, that is that was the doctor’s expression. And the patient really felt bad, so did his friends and even me.

Yes, the doc was telling the truth, but this is not the way. These days, a person spent hundreds of thousands to become a doctor, unless he/she is on merit seat. They need to pull that money with interest and hence all they want is money. So, even for silly cough and cold, docs sends the patient for so many tests *. But still, don’t they need to be a little polite? At least doctors who believe in a holistic approach believe in body-mind connection. And hence, it is always good for a doctor to not to be rude with his patients, if he/she really care for them.

( *How do I know these tests are not required? Well, since 10 years, I am with a doctor who is a real doctor and a human in the first place. I personally discussed this thing with him. And he smiled, and said:

“As you know, its all business. Doctors have their interest…” . He showed me a prescription pad given to him as compliment by a lab and continued “ ….even if I have to send a person to this lab, I wont use this pad, coz that is as good as me asking my patient to go to that particular lab. I won’t do that…”

I had seen lots of docs in my life so far. Some times as a patient, many a times as a by-stander, many other times during visiting a friend or a relative or an acquaintance (when they are hospitalized). But so far I saw ONLY TWO good docs who kept/keeps values in their life. I owe a lot to these two for listening to my stupid questions and answering it… they both did not hesitate to share their knowledge at all).

Unhappy Mind

Unhappy mind always sees things through a binocular. It sees small things as big. It gives even big shadow to small objects...

Mind Uploading, the Praise the Lord Aspect !

Every one of us know that there exists something called Artificial Intelligence (yes, the concept). To what extent it is true or to what extend the scientists achieved it? If that question is for me, my answer is : I don’t know !!

Though this area is not at all clear, Computer Science students have to study some basics. Since, as on today, it’s a ‘leading to nowhere’ and dry area, I did not even read a book I have with me on this topic (my wife’s text book when she was doing her engineering). But yes, I thought of it many a times, about the difficulties and challenges.

Though we might think of it as a computer related concept, is it just a computer stuff? Not at all.. Why? Why coz, look at SOME of the other areas linked to it :

Accounting, body language, speech recognition, facial recognition, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, linguistics, economics, data mining, operations research etc, etc and etc.. So, this can not be achieved by a person who is good at system programming with ALP, C or C++.

(If anybody thought Deep Blue, the super computer created by IBM had artificial intelligence, its wrong. We all know how that Chess match ended. If anybody forgot, let me remind it. There were 6 matches between Deep blue and then world champion Kasparov. Three matches became draw, computer won two and Kasparov won one. But Kasparov wasn’t convinced and he believed that he got cheated and hence he asked for rematch which IBM did not agree. Kasparov had defeated the previous version of Deep Blue).

Since the idea scientists want to implement is intelligence, its all related to our brain, in the first place. So, how does our brain handle this? Is it only the brain work? Or it has something to do with mind too?

We have studied in schools about neurons. Our brains contain more than 100 billion such nerve cells. These neurons are connected to each other using axons and dendrites. One connected to another and that one connected to another and thus it’s a very big network. And now scientists believe/understand that intelligence is not something connected only with brain but it involves mind too.

We all know the basic components of a computer. It has hardware and software. Many a times, I used to think of what these modern scientists are trying to achieve. Its very much similar to trying to copycat God’s work. Or trying to find out how God did this or that, though scientist’s view on this is different. Here too it is the same case. Some section of the scientific community compares this brain-mind connection as hardware and software. If brain is the hardware, the mind is the operating system.

This is where mind uploading fits into. Here what they want to achieve is transferring the software to another artificially created hardware. That is, transferring the mind into an artificially created environment which has high processing abilities, may be a super duper computer.

Now we know why its not that easy. Not just that, how wonderfully God has achieved all these….its simply amazing, fantastic and what not? So?

Praise the Lord !

??

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God – John 1:1

Ghosts, Masters And a Boooo !

Are we just the physical body? The answer is no. Is that the modern scientific view?

Well, if that is the question, the answer is another question, what is meant by scientific? View of a well educated person or a scientist? Even in that case, there are lots of ‘modern’ scientists who believe that we are not just body. I will blog about the components of our body later since what I am going to say is about ghosts …boooooooooooooooooooo

What are thy? Or who are they? Do they really exists? Like everything, there are two opinions. So, where do I stand? For the time being, I want to stand with those who believe that there exists ghosts. Why? Why coz, I believe that we are not just this tangible body. I may not have believed in this had I not seen my own aura with my own eyes. I even gave a demo to my wife on this reality (yes, I think I should write about that too, though not now).

So, if there exists other components for us, ghosts are total minus body. For easy reference people call it as souls. Or clinically died ones without a body. It’s a kind of energy body. In another way or belief, they did not enter into the white light. They exist as the subtle body. It is said that even this ‘whole minus body’ stuff wont go as a single thing to heaven or hell (if somebody believes in heaven/hell). Sunlight contains UVA, UVB and many other components, can we see it? In a similar fashion, ghosts exist as some kind of energy body. (I have never heard or read anywhere a human becoming an angel after death, as on today and I wonder why?). Thus it looks like, just coz they are ghosts, we cant say they are all bad, or at least that’s what that came to my mind while writing this.

What might have happened to Buddha, Krishna, Jesus etc? They were Masters when they came to this earth and took a human body. They did not leave any karmic liability when they left their body. They are free birds. Their karmic cycle is complete. If we look at their life on earth, we can find that they were not just living for the sake of having a body, but they were helping others to understand the purpose of our life and they were trying to help us to complete our karmic cycle. So, where are they now? I personally don’t think they are living in a place called heaven enjoying all the good things. If they were, how do they listen to us and answer us? They too must be energy bodies since they left the physical body here (which got decomposed and will not come back even if they return to earth once again….they have to look for a different body, sorry buddies…).

Well, in that case, some Masters are same soul but came at different time as different humans. Yes, that theory looks fine. Now I can go to bed….If any ghosts comes to scare me, Masters will scare them away, so I don’t have to worry…. booooooooooooooo