Winter Sport !

I have blogged about many of my vacation trips in the past. But I have never done this kind of a trip in my life so far where I almost reached my destination but could not make it…where there were signs/omens but I did not read it…

I was waiting for the winter to come to see some snow and do some winter sport. Since there is no snow in our place, I decided to visit Lake Tahoe where it snows and lot of winter activities happen. 

I booked a hotel well in advance to get a competitive rate. The trip was planned on 20^th of this month (December). On 19^th, I did some last minute purchase (some gloves, caps etc) and we were all set. We wished to reach there before check in time (3 pm) coz the sun sets very early and then it will be difficult to drive since there will be snow fall during evening/night.

I could not sleep well at night and I woke up with severe headache and thus the trip got delayed for 2 hours. When I was about to enter the road from driveway, there came a ‘red’ truck and there came a thought in my mind ‘ is that any warning?’ then I thought ‘how can I be such a superstitious person?’. As soon as I entered the road, there came a red car for which I had to stop. Then I thought maybe these are coincidence or just a warning to be a little careful. So, there we gooooo

Since we started late, I wished ‘if only the traffic lights were all green, I could save lot of time’. The first light was green, so was the second, third, forth, fifth… hey this is great !

We had checked the Google map for planning and I use GPS to drive. GPS showed a different route than the Google one. But we followed the GPS. But all of a sudden, for no reason, the GPS said ‘recalculating’  and came with a different route. Usually this happens when there is traffic jam/block etc and it also depends on the settings. This time, we had no idea (usually it is my wife who handle the GPS and route and I just drive. So she is good with GPS stuff than me but even she could not find out why the route changed). We missed a billboard which gave a warning about some road closure. We did not care much coz our GPS has traffic update and it can tell us which road is closed and where the traffic is heavy.

We started climbing hills. The temperature started dropping. 5, 4, 3, 2 …I was thrilled and kept looking at the thermometer. I was waiting for 0 to come and finally there it is minus one…wow. It was a great feeling and there it is – SNOW. I saw a board ‘Chains required’ but did not see any car with tire chains. I have seen similar boards like 'ICY' and something related to tire chains during summer too. So, I thought these boards are always there.

Before traveling we asked one person who already have done this route and he said he did not use any chain though there was snow. And I read that there are places where we can stop our car and put chains and there will be professional people who we can hire. I had practiced how to put chains but since I did not feel any difficulty in driving and saw nobody is using chains, I went on. I thought there will be BIG snow ahead where we might require chains. On and off, I saw these guys who were removing snow from the road driving bulldozer and some other equipment (I still do not know its name)

Then, the GPS stopped working…it could not load maps. There is no phone signal and hence we can not make any calls, nor any search. I told my wife:

“I wonder why we are the only people in this road”

Then there I saw another black car (mine is black) ahead of me. It was a relief but then I saw him turning back. I went ahead and it looked dead end for me. There is no road but HUGE ice or snow or whatever. And there goes a road on to my right. Wife said she is sure that our road was supposed to be a straight road and there is no need to take right turn. We were just 30 miles or less away from our destination

So, I turned back and asked a driver of one of those bulldozers. He said

‘Lake Tahoe is that way but the road is blocked and it might take a day to open this road. You have to go all the way down…..” and he gave us a different route (which was the Google route, which had less trouble).

Then there came another guy and he told me:

“You are not using chains. If the highway patrol see you, you MIGHT get a ticket”

I said thanks to them , turned back and proceeded. My wife started getting worried coz – it is snowing, we need to climb down all the way and this will take longer than we expected, may be 2-3 hours more and by that time it will be night.. and she said

“This is what that billboard said, I guess…it said this road is closed ”

But then why the GPS did not inform us? No idea..It gave us the worst route..…

Everywhere it is snow and ice and it made me happy rather than worried and the happiness weighed more, may be. But this does not mean that I was not worried. And I felt I better put chains but there came a thought:

“the road is closed so, there is no chance for police patrolling this road and that driver said I MIGHT get a ticket so chains may not be mandatory ” and wife just said “yes” she was not worried about the chains but other things coz I was driving without any problem. Then….

I spotted a police vehicle well ahead of me and I pressed break. I was on the right side, obviously, closer to the center of the road, but the car started moving to left, skidding. I am going in the wrong direction. There is no control even after putting the hand brake. The car moved slowly and hit a huge chunk of snow and stopped (luckily, coz I think else we could have fallen into the valley....I do not know coz everything was covered in snow). I wasn’t worried and did not lose my presence of mind and managed to back it slowly and proceed further. By that time the police van disappeared. But I said:

“I think we need to put the chains”

We were going down and hence I thought I will stop at some level/even place or turn out place. There was one such place but it was already occupied by the cop! And he caught the other black car. I stopped my car and started putting the chain. Then the cop reversed his van and asked what happened and I told him that I am putting chains. Then he said:

"Follow me and pull over there". I did.

He came out of the van, so did I (we are not supposed to come out of the car when a cop stop us. But he will come to us. Not like India). He asked:

“So, you stopped there coz you knew that you cannot pass me without chains, right?”

“No, sir… Those bulldozer drivers asked me to put chains and I was looking for a right place…I am driving on such conditions for the first time in my life”

He stared at me and asked:

“Did you see those board reading chains required?, there were many of them”

“Yes”

“Then why you did not put chains while coming up? You were supposed to do that”

I had no proper answer and I said I did not find a proper place. As a matter of fact, I expected some special places with pros available to help (that is what the internet say). He did not agree:

“No, there were lots of places”

I just said “I am sorry sir” and he said “can I see your driver license, registration and insurance?

So, it is a ticket ! So far I have a clean driving record and here I am going to get my first ticket…This really made me very sad.

He asked me to go ahead with my chain thing and wrote a ticket. I was wearing a normal woolen glove and the temperature was minus 5. BIG mistake. There was a chunk of snow between the tire and the body of the car. I wet my hand…when I finished putting the chains, my hand/fingers froze (then I remembered my Romanian friend saying “if you do not protect yourself in minus temperatures, it will result in frostbite. And even might result in amputation” )

Cop gave me lots of advice and issued a ticket. My hands was paining like hell and became numb. I switched on heater and changed into another thicker glove. Slowly the pain started going away and I can feel my fingers…what a relief…

After sometime, the GPS started working and said some direction and then again it failed. This time it did not even turn on. But last time, what it said was to take a left turn. But that left turn was filled with heavy snow (coz snow wasn't removed).  I turned and my wheels got stuck, I cannot move at all. Wheels started spinning and the car started coming back. I told my wife:

“It is impossible for us, even with chains. Only 4 wheel drive cars can go through this road”

We were already late (coz of the chain I was driving at 20 miles per hour)..the sun started setting, GPS not working, no phones working, no cars passing, no food to eat, there is no restaurants around, no houses around, it’s snowing and the temperature is minus 5 or 6…

I managed to back my car from the snow, safely and started moving very slowly coz the road has become icy. I went further and said:

“I feel like there is no chain”

I stopped the car and checked…the chain is gone ! we need to turn back safely, go up and get it but what if the cop finds me again without chains?

I was sure that it might have lost in that huge snow.. and yes, it was there buried deep inside that snow I pulled it out but it was damaged !! Luckily I had some tool to fix it. But will it last for the entire trip? No idea.

Chain again and there we go…then the road looked better and I decided to remove the chain. There still was snow on the sides of the road but the middle looked fine. I stopped the car, removed the chain and said:

“what about taking a picture of mine?” and my wife became angry and said:

“Are you crazy? I just can’t believe you, really, I just can’t believe you”

“Ok, fine, no photo then.”

I told I want to make this trip and ready to drive through snow at night, taking the risk. But wife said we better go back home. It was a big disappointment for me. But I said:

“Yes, it looks like something tells us to go back… we are going back home…when you can make a call, call up the hotel and tell them that we cannot make it”

GPS started working and it worked all the way till we reach home and then became dead again.

Finally, its home sweet home….

Man ! , what a trip !

Life in the US - Part 2

County Libraries are one of the wonderful things here. The membership is free and we can borrow 75 books at a time! But the same reason becomes a con because people take more books than they want and thus most of the popular books will not be available (we can book a book). Libraries provide almost all info we need, for free. Means, they will provide free internet, info on schools and colleges, the California driver handbook, info about social security, upcoming events in that locality etc. There are lots of big print edition books for the elderly people. They keep lots of magazines and lots of other language books too (like, Hindi, Farsi, Chinese, Tagalog etc). Apart from books we can borrow Audio and Video CDs/DVDs too. With a single membership, we can use the facilities of the other libraries that come under that county.  

One thing when could not avoid noticing here is the lack of electric switches, in most cases. Most of the panel has only sockets but no switch. This is mentioned by Jackie Chan in his latest ‘Karate Kid’ movie. When the kid says ‘we do not have switch in America’ he says ‘keep switch and save the planet’. Yes, we have 24 hours hot water. Electrical equipment are just plugged into the socket and there is no ‘on or off’ concept, in general (of course there is switch for stuffs like in sink garbage disposer)

Unlike India, we cannot directly consult a specialist. As per the ‘system’ we need to consult our primary care physician and then that doc has to refer to respective specialist. If we break this system and visit Urgent Care or Emergency Room, we will end up paying more money. Some basic insurance might not even cover such visits.

Initially I thought I will take up some university course here. But the reality is education is very expensive here. So, most people (citizens) avail educational loans to study. Back in my native place, lots of people have a college degree and here it is not the case. Even in IT field, many of the locals are not computer engineers. That is one of the reasons why Asians dominate here in IT field.

It’s a rich country, but there is poverty and unemployment here in US too. And at present, it’s very high.  Recently the government cut funds for most of the things. But surprisingly they have funds for war, always. One reason for unemployment is the outsourcing. It’s not just some software but lots and lots of other things too. Go to any shop and try to find something ‘Made in USA’ and its tough time to find. Most items are Chinese and Americans really do not like it. They consider it as cheap quality. But there is not much choice left. This might sound surprising, but it’s a reality that Dell do not make any computer here in US, though Dell is a US company. There is not even a single company in US which makes spoons, forks and knives. Same with canned sardine, Levi jeans and cell phones (including iphone4) – none of these are made here. Here the labor cost is high and hence the corporates just invest their money on other countries to double or triple their return.

This country is strange. Here we can find people from almost every other country. Many ‘real’ Americans do not like this (including one of my acquaintances). This country gives citizenship even through lottery system. People from most of the Asian counties like India, Philippines, China etc cannot participate in the lottery system currently since their population is very high here. But people from lots of other country can participate in the lottery and if they win, they can come here and get settled. Looks like the founders of US wanted to make this a cosmopolitan country. 

That’s how things are here….

So? 

So, God bless America !

Life in the US - Part 1

It’s my first ‘living anniversary’ here in US. Time just flew. How was my life here, so far? It’s good, of course. No complaints. I said no complaints coz what I am going to write are not complaints but some of my observations.

This is my first firsthand experience living in a capitalist country. I had read a lot about US before, including some travelogues. But travelogues have a different approach. How similar it is the life here compared to a country like India?

Quarter dollar is an important aspect of those who live here. We need them for using public phones, coin operated laundries, parking lots etc. And hence we can ‘buy’ quarter dollar from most of the grocery stores. It comes rolled and a roll will contain 40 coins. So, if any increment comes in coin operated services, we need to pay at least a quarter dollar extra, not 5 or 10 cents.

The public school system here is very good as far as the easiness of admission and interaction with teachers etc are concerned. Every child here has got a seat in the school for sure and there is no choice but to attend a particular school (not talking about private schools). Unlike India, a job in a public school is not a permanent job. One can get fired. Here the teachers are there to teach and not to play politics. Most of the teachers like teaching and they are not there just to make a living. Every school keeps its own fund and every school district has its own fund. If a school district has to cut funds, it even cut teaching jobs. Dental hygiene is important here. And there are no kids with disarranged teeth (like the one I have). They all align it (this has become a common trend, which is good, around the world, these days) when they are teens and it’s a big business too.   Head lice is also considered as a serious issue here. Kids can even stay home during the lice treatment period (they have to make some arrangements to pick up homework and assignments). 

One aspect I did not understand is the ‘Drugs’ and ‘Drinks’ aspect. One day, when my son told me how to drink wine without getting drunk, I was surprised and I asked who told him that and he said his Physical Education teacher and its part of his job! Drugs are the funniest part. From elementary school they will start issuing the ‘anti-drug’ awareness pamphlets and newsletters. Drugs are a common problem in high schools and some schools are particularly known for drugs. Now, the ‘what I do not understand’ part. It is not a big deal to find out where it comes from, if the police and school authorities work together and use some technology. But why it’s not happening? From where all those drugs are flowing into schools and what is the police doing? Instead of issuing newsletters, why can’t they burst the network? Another ‘I do not understand’ thing is the school bullies. Every year, lots of kids commit suicide here in US coz of bullying. (In India, there is this ‘samam, vedam, krodam and dandam’ principle to up bring kids. Means, first you tell in a way the kid can understand; if that fails, then give advice; if not solved, show anger.. if that too fails, give physical punishment) 

There are no small here in US, in general. Almost all retail shops are chains. Target, Home Depot, Trader Joe’s, H&M, OfficeMax, Best Buy, Macy’s, Starbucks, Costco, Safeway, FoodMaxx, JC Penny, Toys R Us,  Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Denny’s, Wendy’s, Walgreens, CVS….its a long list. Most of these chains have got their in-house brand and they even sell generic drugs in their label, apart from the pharmacy stores like Walgreens and CVS. Pharmacy stores are not just pharmacy stores. They sell all the medicine plus they stock almost everything else including toys, greeting cards and even alcoholic beverages.

Medicine is divided into prescription drugs and over the counter (OTC) drugs. But there is no need to worry if one wants to do self-medication. Almost all the essential drugs are sold OTC, including some ‘sleep aide’ ones. These sleep aides are kind of cheating. They are all mostly antihistamines (anti-allergy drugs) which has the side effect drowsiness. Apart from this, hormones like melatonin, which has a lot to do with sleep, is also sold OTC. Cold medicines come in two versions – day and night. Night one contains something (usually antihistamine or some decongestant) that makes you sleep/drowsy. Anti-biotic comes under prescription drugs and usually the doc sends the prescription directly to the pharmacy (any pharmacy of our choice) and we can pick up the medicine from the pharmacy store; we cannot choose the brand. Knowingly or unknowingly, most of those who live here take vitamins in excess. This is because most of the bread, milk, cereals etc comes with added vitamins, many a times the same vitamins. Plus many of them take vitamin supplements for no reason at all. Again, B group of vitamins along with some minerals are sold as vitamins for nail, hair, skin etc. 

 Speaking about the pharmacy, this country is ‘ruled’ by Pharma and Insurance giants. Every year most people take ‘flu shots’ during winter. Do we really need it? How do the scientists know which virus is going to hit this year? What if we catch a cold/flu even after getting vaccinated? Well, don’t ask such ‘stupid’ questions. If you want, get the vaccine or keep quite…Medicines are ridiculously priced. A small tube of antibacterial cream which can be sold for less than 5 dollars costs more than 10 dollars. We can hardly find anything for less than 5 dollar in medicine category. My son had to do a physical exam, a vaccine and a tester drug before his school admission and the bill was over 500 dollars. They make 10 tablets for less than a dollar (by outsourcing) and sell each for nearly 10 dollars. A TT injection for my son was 110 dollars. How can somebody afford it? Angels comes in the form if Health Insurance.

This ridiculous rate makes insurance a must. Will that policy cover our teeth? Eyes? No, we need to get dental insurance and eye care separately. Almost all the primary care docs have got only the basic medical education (in India, if one has only a bachelor degree in medicine, he/she will face a tough time to get patients). Most of the dental ‘work’ can be paid in EMIs. That tells how expensive it is. If one has to do a consultation, a cleaning and couple of root canal treatment with crown, it is cheaper to go to some other country like India and get it done. Same with many surgeries. This was the reason why medical tourism was picking up in India and then all of a sudden a ‘bug’ originated from India which seriously damaged the medical tourism. From where did that bug come from? Who created that? Shhhhh…

Vehicle insurance is another trick. Here the insurance is not for the vehicle. Vehicle insurance is tagged to a vehicle and a person together. In India, insurance is for the vehicle. Anybody who has a valid driver license can drive a vehicle which is insured. So, if there are 5 members (with valid driver license) in a family, all of them can drive/share the same car without paying any additional amount for insurance. Here the insurance goes up when more people are added up. And different insurance agency will give different rate. If we just take a policy we might end up paying more for no reason at all. Some credit card comes with some basic insurance too. But most people, including me do not know the exact terms and conditions for such coverage. Usually car insurance will cost a few thousand dollars per year; it depends on the make of the car, where we drive, the driver’s driving history, age etc

Among the chain stores one is interesting. Costco. This is a wholesale store but for individuals…weird? We need a membership ($50 per year for the basic membership and $100 for the executive). Things are supposed to be less priced here. To what extend it is less? I asked couple of people, including myself and nobody has got a clear answer. The trick is every item we buy from Costco is specially packed for them, in large quantities. If we want a tooth paste, we need to buy a minimum of 5. If we want to buy milk, we need to buy 2 gallon minimum. If something is comes in 100 grams at a normal store, here it comes at 325 or 475 grams. Who is going to compare gram to gram? I admit that I have not done that kind of a calculation so far and as of now, I do not know any CPA here (they might have tried this for sure). Everybody who go there end up spending at least 100 bucks at a time. What if we don’t go? We get this feeling ‘hey I paid 50 bucks for membership. I need to make use of it’. Some of the branded cloths are specially made for Costco and there is quality difference. I am not saying that there is no saving at all, of course there is this cash back. But there are some under currents. The more we spend on in-house brand (Kirkland) the more we ‘save’, possibly. In US, the maximum retail price is not printed on the products in human readable form but only in barcode. This allows retailers sell things at a price of their choice. For a pack of lay’s chips, we have to pay a lot more if we buy from a gas station (there almost everything cost more). And every gas stations sell same gas at different price. If we live in a posh area, they charge more. The first gas station after we exit from a freeway will charge more. We need to pay more on weekends too.

Mobile phone or wireless phone as we say here is another ‘experience’. We need to pay for everything, including incoming calls and texts (Back in India, all incoming calls and texts are free, for all telephone service). If we want an iphone, we do not have any choice but to get service from AT&T (as of now). Each carrier has their models. We cannot simply buy this or that phone unless we are ready to change service provider too. Basic service is only for basic phones and smart phones comes with mandatory data package (In India, we can buy any handset we want and use with our current service provider. No particular service is compulsory. We can buy a HTC android and still stick to basic service if we want). 

Here, auto mechanics (and lawyers) are known for charging very high fee. Back in India there was something called ‘servicing’ the car. Means, we can give the car to a workshop for ‘service’. They will do complete checkup (bumper to bumper) go for a trial run and fix problems if any. There are pickup and drop service too. Here they cannot pick up or drop coz they do not have insurance for that vehicle and hence cannot go for a trial run on the road too. Here service is part by part, generally. Most of the workshops have this ‘break package’ ‘oil change package’, ‘timing belt package’, 'headlight package' etc. While doing the wheel rotation, they will check the tire pressure of only 4 tires and the spare tire will be spared. Almost all the time, the labor will cost more than the parts. Hence, a lot of people do most of the minor works by themselves, to the extent possible. 

 

Out of the Box

It was about why Indians don’t say ‘I love you’ very often just like the people in the west. I was told:

“I hate it when people don’t say it”

Why a typical Indian don’t say ‘I love you’ to his spouse or kids or friends just like that? And why somebody from the west should hate that Indian attitude?

 I was thinking about that. My father never told “I love you” to me. Nor did my mother or sister. Never heard that from any of my relatives or Indian friends too….Does that mean that they did not love me? I don’t think so..

Take a generation back. What is the divorce rate among old fashioned Indians who almost never said  ‘I love you’ to their spouse? Almost zero (among my parents’ generation, I don’t know even a single relative or acquaintance of mine who got divorced). What about the same with the west? Not much change from the current rate. What does this mean? At least this does NOT mean that those old fashioned Indian did not love their spouse. Btw, this also does not mean that Indians never express their love and care. How do they express is out of scope of this blog.

(I was thinking about my mother tongue. What is the equivalent for ‘I love you’? The closest is – ‘Njan nine premikkunnu’. For us, it is too dramatic. May be we can use it in love notes or in movies but hard to use in a face to face conversation. Of course we can say that in English. But in that case, how can that be part of Indian culture? India speaks over a hundred languages and every language is totally free from English. Zero influence; in fact, Indian language has influence on many other world languages, including English)

There are certain things in this world we should not ‘why’. It is meaningless. For example, in many countries (including India) there is one hand gesture for expressing ‘super’, ‘great’, ‘fantastic’ ‘excellent’ ‘awesome’ etc by touching the thumb and index finger and keeping the other three fingers straight. But this gesture is something filthy in some other countries. If one Indian goes and ‘why’ somebody from that country will that help? Nope. Most of the Asian countries have got traditional dress for wedding. Why can’t they dress like the west, in a ‘modern’ way?

Is there any point in an Indian pointing finger at west and a westerner pointing finger at India without trying to understand the cultures and undercurrents?

Recently Philippines and Indonesia had floods in some parts of their country. When asked, couple of Indonesians started with

“Alhamdulillah…..” (it means all praise only for Allah) 

and Philippinos did not start with any particular expression. Why? May be because they don’t have an equivalent expression, as per their tradition, I don’t know.

Once somebody told me

“I have all the answers in my scripture, so I don’t have to read any other one”

Here that person meant the scriptures of other religions.  

Some people say:

“My God is the only true God”?

So, all ‘other Gods’ are pirated, right? 

Why is it so?

How did ancient Indian Rishis say there is fire deep inside the Earth without even seeing any volcano in their lives, that too thousands of years ago? How did they say it is Earth which is rotating the sun when even glass was not known to humans? (no glass, no telescope). How did they foresee tissue culture, bore well etc? How could they talk about virgins giving birth (thousands of years before Jesus’s birth). How did that happen?

It is the BOX. We all have a box around our ‘thought factory’ the mind or we sit inside a box, when it comes to many things. That is why it is said that we need to think out of the box, at least sometimes.

Albert Einstein stands out from among the past and present scientists (Looking at the earth, he had wondered how earth stays at a perfect distance from the sun so that earth gets the right amount of heat. He could not come out with any equation. He did not think it as a coincidence nor did he believe in the conventional God). So does Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. They were capable of thinking out of the box. Not just them, those ‘rain makers’, inventors, designers, researchers, scientists and most of the ‘successful’ people. If they had seen only the obvious ones, they would not have been there where they are now. Computer, airplane, mobile phone, missile, satellite, submarine….. all those thousands of items around us are there because somebody thought out of the box. Every one of us may not be able to contribute like them. But every one of us has some area where there is scope for a little bit of out of the box thinking….

 

 

 

Keep Moving..

When I posted the psalm 22, I wasn’t just quoting something from the Bible but it had something to do with something else. Well, God gave me this answer:

‘You are on a journey. In this journey you will see many wonderful things but don’t get caught up by something thinking that it is the most beautiful thing. Keep moving. You might see more wonderful things.…”

Some buts…..

Thank you God for walking with me… Thank you for staying with me, when I stopped….Thank you for pushing me further when I felt tired.

I love you…

 

 

Why?

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?


O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

Psalm 22: 1-2

Read This too:

http://theworldofjayaram.blogspot.com/2010/11/keep-moving.html

Is This World Real?

Some 4-5 years ago, I was reading the Indian scripture Yoga Vasishta . It wasn’t easy to understand. Just like any other scripture, we need a teacher. Rishi Vasistha tells this to prince Ram (Lord Ram’s era was 7600 BC) –   

‘..this world you see is not real’

(not verbatim or translation).

I did not really think much about it when I read that, coz the concept of maya (illusion) wasn’t anything new to me. So, I thought it in that direction, though I knew that Yoga Vasishta is very hard to digest and it has great depths.

Today, I was checking my son’s school bag and there comes a worksheet about Electromagnetic spectrum. I had studied this and still remember some basic things about it. But I happened to stare at the diagram and then it was a real surprise for me.

Look at the range starting from Extremely low frequency. It goes to super low, voice frequency, very low, low, medium, high, very high, super high, extremely high, radio waves, far infrared, mid infrared, near infrared, VISIBLE LIGHT, near ultraviolet, extremely ultraviolet, soft X-rays, hard X-rays and gamma rays. From the range of 1 meter to less than 1 Nano meter, what we humans can see is ONLY 700 to 400 nm. Not even 10 percent of the whole range.

How does a snake see us? Its vision is infrared vision. They see the world in a totally different way than we humans do. We do not know how every species of living things exactly see this world (scientists say bulls are color blind but I have personally been attacked by a cow when I was wearing a red Tshirt. Same thing happened with my wife on another occasion by another street cow. I still do not understand this)

So, what we see with our naked eye is the only reality?

 

 

You and What Army?

Almost every country in this world has got their own defense department with 3 major divisions to take care of their Land, Air and Water borders – Army, Air Force and Navy. Generally speaking, the duty of these soldiers is to protect their nation or fight for their nation.

What about God’s Army? It’s funny that there exist human armies for God.  They are ready to fight for their God (But some do only aggressive marketing of their God). Many of the killings and attacks which have some religious interest were operated by such army men.

May be they never heard of Earthquake/landslide (The Army), Hurricane (The Air Force) and Tsunami/Flood (The Navy)… God speaks through nature and He has his means to handle His things.

You and what army?

 

 

A pain for two...

What could be two possible worst and painful situations in our life? 

A believer in God could not pray

An overnight vanishing act by a close friend, when friendship is at its best and the other person sitting a thousand miles away thinking what is happening at the other end …

Math and Sleep

Some days back, I had to answer a simple mental math question. But it wasn’t easy for me, though I knew how to solve it. It took more than the standard time required. I became sad about it and thought – what is wrong with me? Why is my brain dull today?   

After analyzing how my days were in the past couple of days, I zeroed in to one thing – lack of sleep. I observed how well I am with math whenever I had sleepless nights.  I found out that many a times it even takes more time to understand a question, hard to recollect the formulas and methods...

Then I decided to write down the names of all the people I know who are good at math and check how well they sleep daily. I had to wait for couple of days to get replies form some people.  I knew 15 people who are really good at math and surprisingly, ALL of them sleep very well.  Among those 15, there is one particular guy who is kind of math lover. He still keeps his math text books with him and solves problems when he is bored or after a ‘fight’ with his wife. When I asked his wife how her husband sleeps, her answer was:

“He sleeps like a baby”

Should I tell more?

God and Ocean

The other day I asked one of my contacts how things are at their end. That person knows that we both do not belong to the same religion and responded starting with “my God's blessings…” . That (business) person was very happy because it was festival time and the business was doing well. But again, the festival belonged to people who believed in a different faith than this person. So, most of the money this person received was from people who believed in some other God. And there was no problem in accepting that money. (But I know one lady who asked her son to tear a currency note he received for playing guitar on an occasion held by a different faith group - super faith !!) Isn't it interesting? May be those two Gods made a deal to help their followers, a mutual understanding?

The ‘my God’ in the expression ‘Oh My God’ is different from the ‘my God is taking care of me’ expressed by somebody to a person who believes in another faith.

When the burn a scripture thing was going on, I read a ‘my God can't stand your god anymore' kind of statement. This is sheer ignorance. How stupid it is to believe that God created everything and at the same time He created a set of believers and non-believers and then asked the believers to kill the non-believers to reserve a seat in heaven? But still people believe in that theory in this modern world. And we see the results.

Scriptures are the result of observation of nature and not the other way around (I am talking about the concept and not interpretations). That is, nature is not the result of any scripture but it is THE scripture by itself.

God is like the ocean. It is one water body. It has different names in different geographical locations for a better understanding – The Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean…they are all one and the same.

 

Burn A Koran for Instant Popularity ?

 Pastor Terry Jones

The day is nearing , September the 11 and his popularity got shot up. Pastor Terry Jones fond an easy way to super popularity by declaring an international day for burning Koran – 9/11

Look at the people who commented against this – The Vatican, Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie…..unfortunately the list includes the church founded by him in Germany too. 

He wanted to organize this as a major event and hence even applied for a permit with the Florida fire department (but got denied). But he says he will go ahead with his plan. If this event becomes a success, it will result in political issues between US and some Islamic countries. 

This is another example of religion falling in the hands of wrong people. When it happens, a minority or even a single person can cause damage to the majority who might have a different perception.

Isn’t it just a cheap way to instant popularity?

 

Ladder

She asked him to

Hold the ladder

So she will not fall.

He held the ladder

Coz he heard her say

She climbed, up

Up, up and away.

Away she went

Alas! She went.

Still he holds the ladder

Coz he can’t hear her say

 

Science, God and Creation

The other day a book written by a famous theoretical physicist/scientist came in news. Mainly because of his views on God and creation.  He says, the universe is capable of creating itself without God because of the laws of the nature. I am not being sarcastic but it was amusing for me. I don’t have a PhD, I did not win a Nobel either. But I wonder from where did these laws of nature come from? 

Dear scientist, its your ignorance about other cultures and their scriptures that lead you to anti God theory. What you are thinking now was already been thought by some wise men, that too 7000-10000 years back.

Science and religions should go hand in hand and not the other way. If somebody want to keep science and religion separate, all the religions in this world goes to one place labeled as ‘Religion’.  Isn’t it so? If that is the case, understand that, when we consider the essence of all religions together, it do not think that God is an old man sitting up in the sky with stick to punish us for our sins. The forms of God and different ways of worship came in to existence with some reasons. 

My dear scientist, I am not disagreeing with you, but I agree. Your theory about this creation is right. The creator is ‘swyambhu’ which means the one who created himself.  This is not any invention but known to some part of the world, thousands of years ago. 

Thanks for the book, it looks like things are going in the right direction.

May be one day another scientist would say the cause of creation became the creation itself...

 

Ramadan Thought for Whomsoever,,,

This is kind of a long due blog considering my precious response ‘records’. I had a question from one of my acquaintances asking me (mainly) why I didn’t write anything good about her religion (Islam). Plus why I have a pro-Jesus attitude….I am not sure whether that person would come again and check my blogs or not. Still..

I thought about this many times and I don’t know how to express my thoughts in this connection coz this cannot be answered with an one-liner and a lengthy one is not worth the time I need to spend. I lost at least 2 friendships because of my blogs.  As Gibran said, friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity. True friends do not ditch us just because we have a different opinion on something, I know that…Still

There are two things we should avoid discussing with our acquaintances if we want to maintain a healthy relationship – Religion and politics; provided both share the same views.  I lost one friend purely because of one of these reasons. I am an Indian and if I try to explain the whys’, I need to talk both politics and religion and that is the difficult part.

If somebody thinks that I am a pro-Jesus guy, I can’t help it. Sorry, I still love Jesus… This does not mean anything else, especially this does NOT mean that I am against any other religion; after all, I am not a Christian myself (provided the meaning of ‘Christian’ is not somebody who love Jesus).

I am not that religious and I am not against any religion. It’s about how things are getting interpreted and what happens when good things fall into the wrong hands…well, as I said, it’s a loooooooooong topic and its kinda mess.

This is the month of Ramadan. Month of asking forgiveness…. So, please forgive me, if I hurt anybody in anyway…It wasn’t personal or intentional…

Yes , I am asking forgiveness from all of you…

 

 

Back in the bench

I sat on the bench

With tears in my eyes.

You opened the window

And sung a song for me.

I strolled your trails and

You left a fortuitous rose

In my dreams you came alone

And stole my heart from me

Back on the bench with

Tears in my heart…

You opened the window

And sung a song for him…

 

My world, Your world...

If this world is for real, there also exists a different world within every one of us which may not be real for others, though we think/feel it is so real. 

We create that world with our personal experiences which might differ from person to person for the same thing, prejudices, judgments, feelings, emotions, fears, desires, jealousy, memories, inhibitions, expectations, imaginations, selfishness, love, lust…

If that world can be imagined as a helmet, we all are wearing helmets of different color, design and smell.

My world might not look like your world. But still, we always have a common world to share…

 

Did I or Did I Not?

Are the days flying these days? Some days did, if not all days. Two days back, one of my first cousins' husband passed away. Among the elder relatives I have, he was the only one close to me. I last saw him 9 months back.  

The world around me is changing. Many familiar faces which still flash through my mind do not have any physical from any more. My mother, couple of my cousins, couple of my uncles.. they all became just memories. Since I was with my mother when she passed away, it is comparatively easy to believe that she is no more. But the death of others came to me as phone calls or mails. So, if I visit those houses, I will not be able to see those familiar faces again.  This kind of thoughts are capable of inducing a flavor of fear in us. But they are also capable of giving us some lessons about life. The choice is ours

Sometimes, there is no need for anybody to die to give us a lesson relating to life. Even a broken friendship is capable of doing that. May be the flavor is different, but it still can teach something about  how our thoughts and memories becomes pains and how it hurts.

Today, I could not write what I wished to write.. Today, will I be able to console myself telling 'Hey, they are just thoughts, its just a memory, just relax'? I don't know...

I wanted to write something and I ended up writing something else?… I don't know

But I know one thing for sure – there is pain in my heart and it hurts 

Just a thought

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit. - Gibran

Stanfording a Dream

Last weekend, I visited the Stanford University campus (just a drive through). Studying in Stanford was one of my dreams, long ago. But I never thought that this visit would end-up in such a dream which would have given me a heart attack while asleep.

My-sister-in-law tells my father-in-law that I wish to study at Stanford and my father-in-law tells me that he will take care of the expenses!

When I woke up, I pinched myself to make sure that I am not dead but alive and still can feel…

PS: No offence meant to anybody

Hold me !

A little girl and her father were crossing a narrow bridge over a river.

The father asked his daughter: 

"Honey, please hold my hand so that you don't fall into the river."

The little girl said:

"No, Dad. You hold my hand."

"What's the difference?" Asked the puzzled father.

"There's a big difference," replied the little girl.

"If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."

Don’t try to hold HIS hand, let HIM hold your hand.

Friends and Sheep

You have 100 sheep. One of them is missing. What will you do?

Well, you will hardly notice it….

(Not referring to Bible story)

If you have hundreds of friends, you can afford to ignore/avoid a couple of them, you won’t feel much difference

 

Friends and Fruits

Many a times, friends are like fruits. Juicy ones are perishable. Dry fruits might not look appealing but they stay longer..

A Better Tomorrow !(?)

I happened to put my head into one online discussion. The topic was ‘ A better tomorrow’.

People expressed their views/concerns about war, poverty, women being ill-treated and traded like a commodity, society lacking moral values etc.  Some even tried to sell their religion taking advantage of the opportunity…

How can we change this world into a better tomorrow? Is that possible?

How can we prevent war? Here in the US too the gas (gasoline/petrol) price goes up year after year, just like any other country. If I convert the price of stuffs from dollar to Indian currency, for almost everything we need to pay more than double, compared to the price for that item in India in Indian money (I know this conversion is not logical but still this has a point here). One Kg of Lay’s potato chips would cost around INR 200 in India. And it would cost around INR 600 in the US.  But look at the cost of petrol, even if we convert it into Indian money, it’s cheaper here. So, the gulf war paid off, right?

Most of the wars we see/seen have/had some political agenda behind it starting from World War I. To what extend can we prevent it (or influence the political system), that too when there always is a section to support the wars/political decisions? 

Can we ban the following three things which strongly influence crime and morality?

1.Alcohol

2.Drugs

3.Porn (including so-called adult media in any form)

If we cannot, our tomorrow won’t be much different from today.

We cannot ban religions, can we? The other day I read a Christian saying this:

“We will not forgive the Jews because they killed Jesus”

I see, so, that is how it is…This is a very ‘strong’ view. 

I am not talking about a particular religion, but in general. Islamic rulers did damage to Hinduism and India in the past by destroying temples, looting wealth, killing innocent people, forcefully converting people into Islam etc. But this is not the time for Hindus to take revenge in the same coin.

 Those who sell religion should understand one fact – Lord Ram, Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha, Lord Jesus, Prophet Mohammed, all these guys became ‘popular’ ONLY after their death. This means even if God is living among us today, in human form, we will come to know about Him only after his death (or probably after somebody kill him).

With the money spent on Gulf war, they could have fed every single hungry human in the world for months (one Tomahawk missile-used in the Gulf war- costs about $600,000. US spent 61 billion USD for this war alone) or even years. And the worst, war creates poverty ! But that is how system works, around the world. 

Changing the world should start from us, by we changing ourselves. Better ourselves for a better tomorrow..

Life In A Day - July 24 2010

YouTube says:

“Life In A Day is a historic global experiment to create the world's largest user-generated feature film: a documentary, shot in a single day, by you. On July 24, you have 24 hours to capture a glimpse of your life on camera. The most compelling and distinctive footage will be edited into an experimental documentary film, executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.”

“The film will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011 and will be available right here on YouTube. If your footage makes it into the finished film, you ‘ll be credited as a co-director and you could be one of the 20 contributors brought to Sundance to celebrate with Kevin Macdonald.”

 

For more details:

http://sites.google.com/site/lifeinadayfaqs/

Lake Tahoe and a Jet Ski

I do not remember when this desire to do a Jet Ski sprouted in my mind. May be it started when I saw a picture or more possibly when I saw it in a movie…still can’t recollect it. But I am sure about one thing – this desire was there in me since many years. What should we do when we get a chance to fulfill one of our long cherished dreams? May be we will try to make it as memorable as possible..

Lake Tahoe is one of the most popular tourist attractions in this part of the world. A lake shared by California and Nevada. This is the largest high altitude lake in the U.S. which is located at 6225 feet. This is the second (16^th in the world) deepest lake in America with a depth of 1645 ft.  This fresh water lake is particularly known for being clear and has got 2 million years of story to tell. She is a blue beauty. The surrounding area is known for skiing and snow related activities and tourism is the main income in this area, but this lake never freeze.

When a suggestion came to visit Lake Tahoe, I had nothing to rethink about it because Jet Ski is one of the main water sport activity here during summer. And it is near Reno, the mini- Las Vegas and the ‘biggest little city in the world’ a place with Casinos Casinos and Casinos.

When I sat on the Jet Ski for the first time, I was thrilled. I took my son with me and we both were very much excited to do our first water sport.  

Since I had 30 minutes left,  I decided to go far from the shore. I was very excited and drove madly. Out of excitement I had no idea where I am going, I even forgot in which direction I am going. Yes, this might sound stupid but I should admit that this is what really happened. When decided to go back and turned and travelled towards the shore, I realized that I am approaching a different shore. I got lost….what a place to get lost….I did not carry my mobile, I cannot see any other Ski people near me . there were some speed boats moving here and there and they did not notice me and it wasn’t easy to attract their attention. Then I saw a ship near the shore and decided to move towards it and I felt it bit difficult to control the Ski. What the hell is this? I looked around and I saw the board ‘Danger Zone’. WOW, I have crossed the boundary and standing in a wonderful wavy place…

For a moment the fun started moving away and made way to fear. From the danger zone I read this on a boat ‘POLICE’. Are they coming towards me? Am I in trouble? I shot towards them and waved my hand for help. They came to me and one of the officers asked me to turn off the Ski. He looked 'cool' and I told him :

“Sir, I lost my way”  

“From which shore are you coming from?”

I forgot the name of the shore and I told them the name of the organizer and they could not make out where it is. Even at that stage, the officer was very cool and this made me bit relaxed. Then there came a good Samaritan in a small boat and he looked at my Ski and told them the name of the shore. The officer pointed his finger to some direction and said:

“OK, you go that way”

“Should I cross that?” I pointed to some rocks I saw and then the officer who was driving the boat smiled at me and said:

“Follow us”

They started moving and I followed them. Now that the U.S. marine police is piloting me and what is there to fear about? This made me happy and the fear slowly faded away and I started enjoying the ride. One minute, two minute…we are not reaching anywhere and then I thought we are going in the wrong direction.  We were moving slowly and then all of a sudden the boat picked up speed and went very fast. And I too shot after them  though it wasn’t easy to control it and at some point of time I thought  the Ski will topple…Then I saw the officer to whom I was talking to showing me a ‘Thumbs up’ and  now the distance between me and the boat was more. I thought they were asking me to go further all by myself and then my son said

“They are not asking us to follow them any further” 

So I stopped and looked around..

But where is my shore? I could not see it from where I was. So I stopped there and looked at the police boat and using some hand signals tried to tell them that this is not my shore. Then I saw the officer asking me to follow them again and this time they reduced the speed.  And finally, using hand signal he asked me to go right and there I saw my shore!   We both still had some distance and I thought if they get a chance to come near me, they might scold me. But I really wanted to thank them and test the luck. So I ‘ran’ after them and said thanks. To my surprise, he just smiled at me and nodded his head.

It was a ride filled with fun, thrill, action, suspense, horror and what not?  I wanted it to be a memorable one and God said

“So be it”

How can I forget my first Jet Ski?

Thank you God !

The feast

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

-Revelation 3:20 

Beautiful Hair...

He first saw her in that corner café. The first thing that attracted him was her long hair.

‘WOW, it’s beautiful’ he told himself.

He could not take his eyes from her, because of that hair.

She saw him sitting jaw dropped and gave him a glance…

Days passed and they started sharing the same table, enjoying coffee and chit chatting. Every time they met, he did not forget to praise her hair and she giggled.

Months passed and they started sharing the same house, as wedded husband and wife. He was so happy that day, so was she.

One day, when opened his lunch box in front of his colleagues, he found a hair in it and he got embarrassed.  He scolded his wife that day.

Days passed and the beautiful hair appeared here and there..in the kitchen, in the wardrobe, in the living room, in the bath room…

“Did you see that hair?” he asked

“Yes, I will pick it up later”

He did not feel comfortable with that and hence he picked it up. Not once but..

He felt some distance…he felt like something is wrong. May be she too felt the same. It looked like all the problems started with a strand of hair but it got branched into many areas and they found this or that reason to blame each other. He realized that life is not just about beautiful hair, or may be eyes, or smile…

Days passed and so did months..

One day, they met in the same café and said:

‘Hi…how are you?’

Driving in California and International Driving License/Permit

I think I better make this correction regarding driving in California. In one of my earlier blogs which I wrote during the initial days of my CA life, I had mentioned something which could mean that if we have international drivers permit (IDP) we can drive in California. That is wrong and I am sorry if it sounded that way.

The reality is the State of California does not accept IDP as a valid driver license irrespective of our nationality. This does not mean that driving in CA is complicated; the driving rule/law is simple and people friendly. 

If you are a visitor on Business Visa (less than or equal to 90 days), just carry the valid driver’s license you have from your country. CA accepts it and no further license is required. If it is in any language other than English, you need to have IDP with you. You can drive a car straight away ( at your own risk ..if you forgot to stop at a red signal, you could  get a $500 ticket. If you do not stop (some conditions apply) when a School Bus's red lights are flashing, its a $1000 ticket).

Those who are on long term visa are considered as resident aliens and in that case, things are different. In this case, we have only 10 days to apply for a California driver license (this means our license from home country is valid only for 10 days). But if we have a valid license from home country, upon passing a written test, the motor vehicles department will issue a temporary permit which is valid for 2 months (apart from the student permit which is valid for a year). With this permit, we can drive alone ; means there is no need for a licensed adult sitting next to us. But if we do not take a license within 2 months,  we can not renew this temporary permit and hence an adult with valid CA license should sit next to us, when we drive.

Paul the Octopus, Germany and a Soccer Cup

Paul the octopus was born (some two and a half years ago) in Weymouth (England) and now by profession he is kind of an oracle specialized in soccer match prediction, exclusively for Germany. Currently he lives in a German aquarium. He started predicting Germany’s matches since 2008 and so far, he has 100% accuracy. 

In the 2010 world cup, when he predicted Germany’s win over Argentina, many people laughed. How can Germany beat Argentina? Well, Argentina lost the match very badly and from that day onwards Paul is getting many death threats. Now, many people want to kill him (and some even want to eat him).

Some people had predicted that Germany would win this year’s cup based on some ‘magic number’. That number is as follows:

Brazil won the World Cup in 1994;   before that they also won in 1970.  1970 + 1994= 3964

Argentina won World Cup in 1986; before that they also won in 1978. 1978 + 1986= 3964  

Brazil won the World Cup in 2002; before that they won in 1962. 1962+ 2002= 3964 

Germany won the cup in 1990; before that they also won in 1974.  1974 + 1990= 3964  

Germany won the cup in 1954 also. So, 3964 minus 1954 = 2010 and hence Germany will win the cup since none of the other team’s data match with 2010.

So I was curious about this year’s FIFA world cup since Paul predicted that Germany would lose the match to Spain in the semi-finals. Many people, including his care taker thought this time he will go wrong. It was said that Germany has good players and Spain had no star players (personally I don’t know. My knowledge about international soccer players and teams are poor) usually I do not watch soccer matches but today I decided to watch the match live, out of curiosity.

Once again, Paul’s prediction became perfectly right and now he has become a big celebrity, who might even need some extra security.  The way he predict the winner is like this – his care taker provides same food in two square boxes marked with two flags, one being Germany's and the second being the opposite team's. The octopus predicts the winner by opening and the winner’s box and eating that food first.

For me, octopus was kind of ‘sea-spider’ since it has 8 legs and I never was comfortable with octopus. But just like spiders, they always fascinated me (But whenever I read about spiders, I read it with a little fear). Somewhat same with octopuses too. I did not really like them (so far no octopus came to my dreams as nightmare….touch wood). But just because we do not like octopuses we cannot deny that they are smart, right?

Just like a cuttlefish, an octopus too has 3 hearts. Two pumping blood to gills and one to the rest of the body. These creatures have very complex nervous system and brain functions. It is said that each arm/leg can work with its own intelligence and hence some people say an octopus has 9 brains (I am not sure about this). They have great vision and they observe very keenly and analyses well. This is one reason why many octopuses managed to escape from places where they have kept as ‘captives’. They have some 'extra sense' like cats and dogs, it seems.  I saw how Paul open that box and eat his food. 

Whatever….. Great work Mr. Paul. Keep predicting.

But won’t his predictions before a match affect the team psychologically?

Kind of a Surprise

Surprises can offer more happiness (than how it would have been if that thing or situation was expected) when it brings something good.  Is there anything which can came as a surprise, neither good nor bad, make us sad and make us happy as well?

Prologue

I watched the Prison Break only recently, after coming to US; though it was aired internationally (most of us might have heard about this very popular American serial. If not, this serial is about a man who got sentenced to death for killing the brother of the Vice President of USA. When this guy’s brother, who is a genius structural engineer, comes to know that his brother is innocent, he deliberately ‘tries’ to loot a bank to lead him to the prison where his brother is and then successfully breaks him out from that high security prison.  Though the story looks simple, it’s a brilliant work with further twists and the story was written by different people and episodes were directed by different people). 

I am a fan of Clint Eastwood and I have seen most of his popular movies, including ‘Escape from Alcatraz’. Alcatraz was a high security prison built on an island in San Francisco Bay. Only three people ever broke that prison and escaped (they broke the prison and their dead bodies were not found; so it is assumed that they escaped, though some people do not agree).   In that movie, Eastwood plays the lead man Frank Morris who made the escape possible. Alcatraz is not a prison anymore but a tourist attraction.  Last weekend, I paid a visit to San Francisco to have a sightseeing cruise which included passing this island.

The Surprise

Yesterday night, I felt like checking the mail box at 10 pm (since I wasn’t expecting any mails, I did not check in the afternoon) and there is  summons from  the Superior Court of California. I checked the address many times, yes, it is addressed to me. I got worried, what could be this? I used to get some calls from the debt collectors. But they were looking for one Italian guy and not me. So, what on earth is this?

 I opened the envelope and just below my address line, I read this

‘ Failure to respond to this summons will subject you to a fine, a jail or both’.

 Jail? If this innocent man goes to jail, who will break the prison for me?

Looking at my face, my wife grabbed the paper from me and read (she reads at least 10 times faster than me) and told me

“They want you to become a Jury in that court for one trial and you will be paid fifteen dollars’

This is great ! I am the jury of the superior court of California, excellent job ! who care about the pay. I became very happy.

See?

Note: In the U.S. there is this ‘Jury service’ in which the judiciary asks people to become one of the juries. They select people randomly.  It is mandatory for that person, including disabled people, to become the jury if one is qualified (it is not educational qualification but some other criteria and the first criteria is that one has to have U.S. citizenship).  If one is not qualified, one must inform them.  In the case of working people, the employer must give time off. I wasn’t aware of this till yesterday (June 28, 2010)

Can Snakes hear?

Around the world, in how many countries human(s) depend on snakes to meet their ends?  Mostly in India (and a few more countries). For some illiterate village people, snake charming was a profession in India. Even now we can see them here and there (it’s against law). Lately, I happened to see one snake charming video in the Internet where that guy plays the traditional musical instrument to make the snake ‘dance’. Among some comments posted by some people, I read something like this too “you fool, snakes cannot hear” I accept the fact that this charmer is performing this act since it was his tradition and not because he has extensive knowledge about snake’s hearing abilities. But still, are snakes deaf?

I remember that I studied that way in my science class in my schools. Snakes do not have external ears and hence they cannot hear. They sense the vibrations on the ground and they have a special tongue which is capable of sensing on ground, air and water. The end. This is where the science or may be some section of the scientists went wrong – instead of accepting the fact that ‘we do not know’ they made that as a statement. Thus this ‘fact’ became part of biology/science text book.

But there were some biologists and scientists who did not hesitate to say ‘we do not know’ and nobody cared them. Who cares those doesn’t know something? But they were the people who were standing at the right side.

 Somehow, some biologists/scientists got attracted to the jaw of the snakes. Snakes have special jaws which help them swallow food bigger than their (mouth) size. But now it is known that these jaws have got ability to pick up sounds. And this mechanism works like two ears and hence they can hear in stereo. 

Snakes can hear better when they keep their jaw on the ground but this does not mean that they are deaf if they lift their head off the ground. If we keep a paper in front of our mouth and speak or if we touch the cone paper of a speaker when the speaker is working, we can clearly feel the vibrations. So, snake too should be able to pick up vibrations travelling via air, though it can do that better when grounded. From the jawbones, these vibrations go to the inner ear (to the cochlea, to be precise) and nerves carry this to brain.

Some earlier studies showed that snakes do not respond much to louder sounds. Now the same is interpreted as a defense mechanism exhibited by snakes. It is like soldiers lying on the ground when they hear a ‘bang’.  When they ‘hear’ such big sounds, instead of being panic, may be snakes prefer to stay motionless and make use of all its gifted sensing abilities, who knows?

At least snakes understood what Lord Voldemort said, didn’t they?

 

Acid Reflux Remedies … The Secret Ingredients

What are the remedies for Acid Reflux, especially the home remedies?

There are so many websites that offer two secret home remedies which they claim as cure for acid reflux or GERD; remedies which just hide in the grocery cupboard in our kitchen. Those sites contain a lot of ‘testimonies’ too. To know what they are, we need to pay 30-40 dollars. That is one way of making money via internet. It is just a business and it usually comes with a disclaimer saying they do not have any responsibility or liability if anything goes wrong..

Here is that top secret ingredients info for free:

1.Apple cider vinegar

2.Honey

(Then comes Chewing gum, milk and 7up, baking soda etc )

I am a person who have faced severe acid reflex and I even underwent endoscopy to get it confirmed or to determine the severity. But I am not writing this to recommend above mentioned remedies but to ‘expose’ those secrets so that there is no need to pay for just two names.

Me being a GERD man, what do I suggest? I suggest doing a neat search in the internet and read more. Give weightage to those sites which are more health and medicine related than sites which sell particular brands of apple cider vinegar or honey.  A spoon of vinegar won’t give us any serious damage, even if it backfires.  So there is no harm in trying at own risk.

This blog is not about what acid reflux is, its causes and remedies or even how I personally manage it (I might write that…may be next time)

Anyway, I would like to make a special note on this apple cider vinegar (ACV) thing. There are two theories about how it works and they are contradictory.

 Look at the two possible situations of acidity – body producing more acid than needed and body producing less acid resulting in indigestion and reflux. In the first case, the theory says if we take ACV, body will start producing less acid considering there already is enough acid. In the second case, ACV helps fill the lack of acid and helps digestion. Which one is right? Second one looks logical but I really do not know. If both theories are right, anybody who has GERD can take ACV, which I don’t think so. 

 

Words and Silence

When we arrange alphabets in such an order that it appears in the same way in a dictionary, we make a meaningful word.  We can make people relax, laugh, cry, angry or even hurt by arranging some alphabets in one way or another. Then it can convey emotions.

Words are not just a collection of alphabets but it also has got some meaning.  So is silence, sometimes…

Height of Technology

The other day, I was listening to radio using my Nokia E51 when I felt like going to toilet. It was too late when I realized that there is no toilet paper.  That phone had no SIM and hence I cannot make any call or send any text. I used the phone to connect to my WiFi in offline mode and logged into Gmail and sent one mail with subject line ‘URGENT’ to my wife (who was working from home that day) in her official id. In few seconds the toilet paper got door delivered. 

Geee

India, Idols and a Rat

Following is taken from a mail (my reply) to one of my friends...Yes, copy righted by me. That friend (lives in another country) saw a TV program about Indian culture where they say we Indians eat food with rats (sharing same plate) and we worship animals as God. My friend wanted to know whether I am such a person or not...Interesting

Selamat Pagi !

[ removed some paragraphs which are not connected to the above]

Understanding Indian culture is not easy. Hinduism is not a religion founded by somebody but it’s a way of living. Christians follow Bible, Muslims follow Koran and what about Hindus?

Hindus have 4 Vedas (or may be 5, when we consider Ayurveda, the Indian system of medicine), over 108 upanishads, Smritis, 4 Ithihasas including Ramayana, 18 Puranas, Bhagavat Gita (its part of one of the Ithihasa – Mahabharata), more than 4 Agamas, 6 Darshanas…there is a scripture about love making (Kamasutra) there are books about how to construct buildings (Vaastu)…I really don’t know how many scriptures we have got..we have scriptures dealing with every aspect of our life. What I know very clearly is that one human life is not enough to study all these.

One of the most popular  ways or learning  basics of arithmetic is by way of using counting frames or Abacus. Initially, a student physically see what is 1 or what does it mean when we say 2.  Once the skills are achieved, a student moves on to mental math. The more skilled you are the more you can do mentally ( for example, the Indian math genius  Shakuntala Devi can perform  all the math YOU teach  your students using  black/white board or paper and pen/pencil, just mentally).

In a similar fashion, in Hinduism, the idea of a supernatural force (God) starts with forms (pictures, idols etc) and end in a formless God. When a person finally realizes that God is not just a creator but he is there in his creation, they sees God in everything around them and this includes trees, animals etc. Sounds stupid?

Consider that somebody prayed to a formless God and his/her prayer got answered. Had that person prayed to a tree with same intensity and devotion, then also the prayer would have answered. If first one did not work, the second one also would not work. 

As per Bible, one is not supposed to worship idols. But as you can see these days, there are lots of Christian denominations (mainly catholic) who worship  the idol of Jesus, Virgin Mary, and the Cross. Same with the  Hindus too. They go to temples and offer prayers. Are they just fools and idiots?

No, they go there coz their prayers are getting answered (I am not saying every prayer..why is it so? this universe has some subtle logic). It doesn’t matter to whom you offer your prayer, to Allah, Christ or Krishna, it goes to one direction. That’s the reality.

Enough introduction. Now you know why some people worship a snake or a tree, I mean the logic. Some people say the worship or snake started from fear. That has some sense, possible. Worshipping the form is the easiest way of worship. For a 5 year old child, if we show the an idol of Krishna or Jesus and say ‘ That is God’, they can understand it better, than we pointing our finger to Sky and telling there sits the God (An Indonesian’s up is an American’s down. When an Indonesian and American points to sky, they point in opposite direction. When people from different parts of the earth points their finger up, they point to different places of the universe. Either this (God concept) is total nonsense or it means God is everywhere, there is no third possibility)

Then why can’t we directly worship the formless? It is not easy to digest. Osama Bin Laden may be able to recite the whole Koran without looking the Koran. But don’t you think he miss the whole point of spirituality? Did he understand God? When I say this, I am not telling that only those who worship idols understood God better. There are millions who get stuck to the idol itself for their whole life and think that idol is God. On the other side, there are millions who worship a formless God (since they are taught worshipping God in form is sin)and never sees the presence of God in his/her life here (on earth) when they are actually living. For them, God sits up in the sky and stuffs related to God happens only after their death. There are some others who believe God is giving some test here and he/she is going to get the result on the day of final judgment.  As a teacher, you know why you are giving your students a test. It is to measure how much they learnt/understood, right? You are testing them because you don’t know to what extend your student know. Why is God giving us a test? Coz he don’t know what we humans know? After all it is He who created us. And he need to give us a test? Then I would say he is not worth calling God.

Now, the straight answer to your question – No, I do not worship a rat or a monkey nor do any of my Hindu friends or relatives (I am very sorry to admit that I had even killed snakes). We do not share food with a rat, which is not at all hygienic (some people eat rats, you know that?). I have never heard of anybody in India doing that. May be some minority sect somewhere might have done that and that TV people got it.

Outside India, people will hear only the bad side of India. India is a nuclear nation,  every software you use has some Indian connection, including the one which helps you read this mail, India sends the satellites of many other countries into the space, zero was invented here, we have thousands of years old scriptures which deals with math including trigonometry, airplanes, architecture,.. the first brain surgery was done here (thousands of years ago by Sushrutha). Thousands of years ago, Indians knew that earth is round in shape and it is the earth that is circling the sun and not the other way…we have books on astronomy and astrology.....it’s a long list. But outside world see only the bad things, even today.

A Russian friend of mine thought that in India there are no toilets. Another friend of mine from Paris did not believe me when I said I live in 11^th floor of my apartment coz she thought India is a poor country and we Indians live in small houses and huts.  That is how India is being promoted by the west with some vested interest.  After that ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ movie couple of my friends from abroad asked me ‘ do you still have such slums?’ they did not ask ‘do you have such brainy boys in your slums?’, do you see? So I am not surprised if you saw such a TV show about India.

[removed the rest]

Rgds

Jay

Internet Security, a Joke?

Some long time ago, I had mentioned in one of my blogs that Google is one of the major players who is after digging up stuffs from our computer. If we are using any of the Google products, we knowingly or unknowingly share some of our personal details with them - it can be the searches we made, the sites we visited, our IP address when we accessed internet, the browser we use, the operating system with version and service pack, our MAC address, mail ids, passwords…

Now it’s official that they were sniffing on our wireless routers, whether it’s secured or not. If it was secured, they collected the IP and MAC address and possibly the number of connections. If it was not a secured one, well, they might have sniffed out everything that was possible when their Street View cars were passing through our neighborhood roads. To some extent, by combining IP address and MAC address (as a composite primary key in their database) they can even point their fingers to specific people. We already know that they read every mail in we send/receive via Gmail.  (since its millions/billions of characters, they use software to read and it’s not read by any individual. But this does not mean that no individual can access these data. The relevant ads we see on sides of the  Gmail is placed using Business Intelligence (BI)technology and those who develop that definitely need sample data)

 It is said that some (government) agencies are going to check/audit the data they collected by sniffing the wifi networks. Google’s explanation about this spying is too silly and childish. How can somebody inject a chunk of code without the project manager or testing team know? And how can they keep such HUGE data (they sniffed out data from around the world) in their servers without the network admins know? Who were taking the backups then? They say they did not use these data for any of their products. Then why were they keeping these terabytes of data they collected over many years?

It is good that somebody made this public..Now they are going to offer  (probably by next week) some secured search engine! As if they care about our privacy !

This Google story was the best joke I read this week…

Golden Day !

Golden Gate Bridge was in my ‘must watch’ list since months. But ‘the time’ did not arrive till last Saturday, that is  May 8^th  2010.

I had heard about this bridge loooong back, when we studied about the wonders of the world. But that time, I had no idea that one day I would see it for real. This bridge, built on Pacific Ocean to connect the SF peninsula to the Marin County, is THE symbol of San Francisco. When we consider this was built on 1937, this is really amazing.

Apart from being one of the seven wonders of the world, this bridge holds another credit – United State’s most popular suicide point…. the place where world’s most suicides happen.  Now, pedestrians are not allowed in the bridge at night. Somebody suggested and designed a suicide net to prevent the jumps but there is no fund. The documentary film ‘The Bridge’ is based on this bridge and its suicides. I did not watch that documentary yet but it is said that they captured some real suicide jumps. Wonder what was important, filming a suicide or preventing the jump…I don’t know. If they prevent, may be those guys would go to some other place and die.

What if one do not die after jumping from this bridge? Should we call them lucky or unlucky? I don’t know. The bridge is very high (abt 75 meters from sea water) and when somebody jumps from there, he/she reaches at a speed of over 120 km/hour before hitting water.  If we fall from such heights to water, it is as good as jumping from a 75 m high building onto the floor. Science says the property of water is like that……its kind of immediate death.  But still, some people did not die… lucky or unlucky?

Anyway, I would call myself lucky and unlucky. Lucky, for being able to see the bridge myself…and unlucky?

My Golden Gate visit gave me another everlasting memory. I accidently passed through the FastTrack toll gate without paying toll and now eagerly waiting for my first ticket in the US !

 

 

Blog in the Mind

The other day, one of my acquaintances asked me:

“Why are you not blogging anymore?”

I said:

“Thanks for asking; but I was asking the same question to myself”

Yes, I was kind of regular and I wrote over 450 blogs…

Is it just laziness? Or maybe I was after something else …or maybe it’s a mixture of both

At least one or two of my old blogs need some correction/update...

 I will be back, very sooooon

Old Age Home

The ornamental tree

New leaves got trimmed

Old leaves stayed.

 

 

Be Truthful ! Boss bless you .

Should we always be truthful to our employer?

More than a decade back, one day, I went to my boss’s cabin and said, 

“Sir, I want a day’s off day after tomorrow”

“Why?”

“I am going to Cochin to attend an interview”

“Which company?”

I tell him the name of the company and he immediately replied:

“You won’t get that job….they might have already taken somebody else”

I became sad.  He read that from my face (I am a poor actor)

“OK, go ahead”

This is the kind of blessing you would get if you are too truthful, idiotically truthful !

 

 

 

Happy Candle ...

"Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared..."

- Gautam Buddha. 

Jesus ! A Good News !!

To veg or non-veg, that is NOT the question.

When a (virtual) friend of mine came to know that I am a vegetarian, told me that she will make me eat cow’s meat when I visit her. Why cow? Because I am a Hindu and Hindu’s (generally speaking) consider cow as a holy animal. Of course, I know she was not serious about it and even prepare some vegetarian dish if I ever visit her. But since cow’s meat got dragged into the talk, we happened to discuss some ‘religions, eat meat !’ things.

Muslims do not eat pork not because it is holy for them but they consider pig as one of the dirtiest animals in this planet, unlike a Hindu’s view on cow who considers cow as mother.

If I am not wrong, Old Testament is applicable for all Abrahamian religions (in general. I understand that there are new religious sects who keep a Bible which has only New Testament and they do not read or follow Old Testament).

The Bible says:

Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

- Genesis 1:29-30

Adam and Eve were provided with fruits and vegetables, as food, in the Eden garden.

Ah, then comes Saint Paul and his letter to Romans saying all food is clean (Christians who eat pork takes cover under this). More than half of the New Testament is written by St.Paul…. Who is this St.Paul?

During my Bible study period (and even now) I got this feeling of ‘Bible is tampered with or manipulated’ feeling . This St.Paul was not one among Jesus’ direct disciples and the worst, he never even met Jesus. If we check a Red Letter Bible (there is something called red letter bible where whatever is spoken by Jesus is printed in red and rest in black), red letters are very few. It would be just couple of pages. So, I have never taken this St.Paul very seriously and even suspect many things are written by somebody else in the name of St.Paul.

Jesus is considered as somebody who preached love and compassion. There is a popular picture of Jesus with a lamb. When we look at it, what impression we get? Does it look like he is going to kill that animal and eat?

That answer is a big NO

.

There was a research done on ‘the Last Supper’ picture and it was found out that the food items on the table are growing more and more, though it started with bread and wine. Why there was no meat on last supper? After a decade or so this bread and wine picture will slowly vanish and it can even end up with pork with an apple in its mouth!

So, was Jesus Christ a vegetarian? Recent studies tell that there is high possibility. Some even believe that he indeed was a vegetarian. A Google search ‘was Jesus a vegetarian’ now gives over a million results, see? Lots and lots of people started thinking that way, because he was man of compassion. Lots and lots of people are now curios about his life between his thirteen and thirty period. The journey of Jesus the carpenter to Jesus the Christ…any search on this connection also leads to a million search results…

Read Bible a thousand times and we cannot find a teaching from Jesus which says ‘Have compassion only to humans’. His compassion and love was not just limited to human race. He did love animals and he had compassion for them. How can such a person kill an animal and eat it?

How do we get meat these days? Those animals are grown just for meat. They are genetically grown in such a way that they have more flesh. Thus most of the grown up chickens, pigs and other animals cannot even stand on their feet. Of course they try to stand up since its natural instinct and then breaks their legs. Then its pain, agony…

Just like we humans, animals too suffer from pain. That is why the pharma companies and the researchers try their new medicines including the pain killer drugs on animals… Some religions do not even allow animals to be stunned before being slaughtered. If we check YouTube , we can get some idea how these animals are being killed for meat in modern day….Will Jesus eat meat if he see how this animals are grown, treated and killed? No way !

Jesus in the Cross tried to tell us about such pain…He tried to pass some message....but who cares?

To veg or non-veg, that is NOT the question…