Being independent....

We admire a man who is independent. But independence is a nasty trait to have. I am not talking about financial independence.

Before discussing pros and cons of being independent , first we have to discuss how to be independent. The definition of independence clearly indicates that it's a trait which enables us to not to depend on others while making decisions. That is what our common understanding of the term teaches us. But the definition is incomplete at a subtle level.

Proving to others is one criteria a person wants to fulfill before he completely understands the definition of personal independence. Often independence is identified with the different things he does or follow. Why both are associated ? I think , the universal notion is , if you are no different than the neighbor ,then you are just following him. So just to prove myself as an individual with own taste , i have to differ with rest of the world.  So, i have to do things which i might not like just for the sake of being different. I should not accept a generalized thing told by someone, though its benign. And that becomes the primary influential force in making decisions. But indirectly  my decisions are based on decisions of others. I was in that trap when i was younger.

Another problem with that trait is, its a gullible one, its the glass construction around the house. The trait of independence gives us nothing but the self satisfaction that, i dont fall in the pit everybody falls, i shall fall in a different pit. And we have to pay huge price for that feeling, in terms of human relations, career, time, money etc etc. We need to protect it everytime, everywhere till we die. We have to procure the armor made up of nonchalance and weapons by melting knowledge and argumentative skills. Do they protect us from getting wounded? No. They only help us to sustain the attack.

The annoyance wont stop there. Sometimes a the thought of whats wrong in being like everybody else? Why  should not I accept things which are fine by others? irritates the guy behind ribs will start kicking inside.

I agree, being independent is difficult. But , there are some positive side affects once you extend the idea beyond decisions. If the person dont depend on opinion of others,then he has to to give lot of "Benefit of doubt" while judging.  As the person understands and digests the fact that each individual is different, he is less prone to generalize things .As he makes his  own opinions , he will have no prejudices and shall  get the trait of "Down-to-earth". Once he become practical, he would not talk loosely about others. Because, people talk in that manner to make others believe that they belong to a elite group, as he is independent and dont gravel for the acceptance of others,  the words which come out of him will be sensible enough to gain respect. Understanding that each one is different with different set of problems, might lead to the path of forgiveness. We develop grudge over mistakes of others, because, we assume that he didnt react but chose to behave like that.

As the person develops opinions based on his experience , he is less susceptible to the influence of religion or  racism which spread hatred. So the person will hate less, and shall have more peace than others.  Once these traits has gone deep down, he will be become skeptical of everything. He might ask for proofs for everything , leading to disbelief in god. It does not mean he is atheist , it only means he is skeptical about the existence of  God , which makes him an agnostic.

I am still trying to understand the side affects of individuality. If i found few more, i shall post them.

There is one personal experience i would like to share. My Uncle, who is a commoner, once told me that, a person should follow the path of others, because if there are any hurdles in that path, some one or other would think of the solution, so that we shall have solutions ready made. And thats why they are commoners. People dont remember them, worst, they have done nothing to feel proud of themselves.They cant be examples and they dont make a change in the world. They dont inspire.  If they look back in life, there is nothing but boredom , their trials for acceptance of others, and depression when someone didnt recognize them. And for us, there will be lot of memories, might be failures, but still worth remembering . Whenever you find a person like that, just read the this poem by Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

My photography

Clash of the kings

Second book in  "Song of ice and fire" by R.R. Martin. I found the first book interesting, and this one gripping. The war was initiated in the first and battles started in the second.

Personally I liked this book because, unlike other war stories, it didn't confine itself to strategies of war or how many got slyed etc etc. Author talked on how lords hated wars and how they tried to strike the peace. And how equations of society change in the time of war.

My favorite catcher , Tyrion Lannister, has bigger role than in the previous. I am happy for that. I really liked the way author portrayed the character of boy-king, for who ruling a kingdom is more of executing his wishes than looking after people.

The book has all the elements which made me to flip through pages. Love, betrayal, morals, magic , dragons and a story line which we can't predict. What else we need in a fantasy novel?

Ever since Shastri ...

One has to wonder politics from view point of general wisdom people get. For example, resignation of an official or a minister.

Whenever a terrible incident happens we naturally assume that it's because of the person in charge and removing from his will undo the bad. Since L.B.Shastri resigned taking responsibility for a train accident, the act of offering resignation became the proof to integrity of the person.

Ok , Shastri resigned and got personal glory as a man of integration. Now, let's talk facts. Was it because of his mistake the accident happened? Is it the job of railway minister to check if rails are joined properly and all nuts n bolts are tight? Was it not his job to do an enquiry , learn the lesson , and make sure that the employees who are responsible are punished? Or initiate a mechanism which reduces such accidents? His resignation added glory to him but added nothing to ministry of railway.

If every official resigned for the mistake of subordinates, in every office , the authority would change for every few days which leads to chaos.

" people elected me to take responsibility, not to run away from it" said Lalu Yadav when asked to follow the foot steps of Shastri after a train accident in his tenure. He might be corrupt, but he got it right. Imagine, every doctor leaving the profession after he failed to save a patient. Imagine every kid leaving education after he failed in the examination.

In the name of integrity, can we ask the army personnel to resign when we lose a war? What would have happened if every  independence fighter stopped fighting in the first battle he lose? Could India won the cricket world cup if Dhoni had resigned after losing a match?

Take the case of Nirbhaya gang rape, after which Delhi police mooted  policy to have women's wing in every police station and to have an emergency line for girls. Integrity is one factor administrators should have. But that's not all, they should be learners who refuse to do the same mistake twice and go-getters.

My photography

Economics of Ugadi.

Yesterday I.e on Ugadi, I started off to Rythubazar to get a mango which is not ripe for the preparation of ugadi chutney. There were many hawkers on the way selling mangoes and mango leaves.

I felt happy and went to them. To my surprise, I found neem flowers
for sale. I live in outskirts and there were many neem trees in our locality. Flowers of neem are available in plenty and there is no need for people to buy them. But people are buying them. So, I was wrong about availability of neem flowers in my area.Then I realized, my area is developed and trees were chopped. I knew it , but I never really cared.

Because of lack of trees, people were forced to buy things which are naturally available to them previously.  But the same so called development created business opportunity for the nearby villagers. They are getting profited. So, is development  a bad thing or a good thing?

Similar kind of scenario can be observed near industrial areas too. Govt gives land to an industry, like SEZ. Companies gather there, they recruit people. once people are coming to that area, the local business picks up. There will be tea shops, dhabas and  puncture shops. Soon the house rents go high, which helps the locals to get more money, real estate develops as people starts pouring in. Next, the area will be filled with labor huts, steel n cement shops. After completion of two or three apartments, there will be a Green Bawarchi, chicken centers, vegetable markets , mobile recharge shops, kirana and general stores, medical and pan shops.

With in two or three years, there will be schools, bars and restaurants , internet center, a nursing home, an auto stand. And all these small businesses are run mostly by locals who have nothing to do before the SEZ.

The problem is people inherently believe in zero-sum game. And we naturally tend to believe that if somebody is getting  profits means his neighbor is at loss.

My photography

Been experimenting on photography, since I got 8MP mobile. These are some  pics I liked.

Low budget films, Short movies & Plays.

Better than high budget movies, I am beginning to like artistic, offbeat low budget movies. Let me be very clear,  I am not talking about shakeela movies.

Recently I watched the "swamy ra ra", "Tere bin laden" , " The president is coming" and "pizza". I liked everyone of them. What's not to like?

Unlike in high budget movies, where , it's the stardom of the actors which pulls the audience to the theaters, where best movie is the one with highest budget and popularity of the movie is decided by number of theaters it was released.  I always believed that, unless the fans watch the many times it's impossible for any movie to stay in theaters for that long. So, to trick the fans into movies many times and producers choose the stars with high stardom. Sadly, in India, stardom can also be achieved by belonging to a particular cast or by being offspring of a star. OK, I think I am going off the topic here.

I started liking low budgets movies, plays and short movies on YouTube, because they are not shy of experimentation. Their producers are more art lovers than business men. It's the response of critics they seek, not news paper pieces thrown at the screen. They don't aim at 200 days , 150 theaters. Without so called macho nature of heroes with heavy dialogs, item songs or compulsory fights resembling Bruce Lee fights, dumb characterization of heroines and most of all , dedicated comedians, plays seems to be fine. At least I get to see different story lines.

Predictability always kills art. Short movies don't have to bother about it, nor plays. Some low budget movies like " pilla zameendar" have predictable climax, but screen play compensates that.

Anyway, once I have moved from main stream art, the whole world of art started parading before me. Before that I am not aware of " La makaan" at Hyderabad which encourages young artists, now , I am a regular visitor there. I am watching old Hollywood movies, dubbed movies on world movies, modern plays. In other words, now I am that boring guy who watches  art movies.  I am enjoying this new change.

The killing Truth !

Truth is like the fire which burns us to the core , says the telugu proverb.  For me the hard truth has two facets .

One is like a big boulder which pins us down. May be after some time, we learn to carry it and move forward, though it controls our pace. When the boulder is on the shoulder it's so hard to move and even a small elevation in the path or small hurdle might depress us. The stronger the man the faster he moves forward with it. If the person is weak, he is dead beneath it.

Another personality of hard truth is that of a spear. We knew the truth, but when it is explicitly stated by others, it becomes a spear which cuts through our body. The other person need not be the enemy even a stranger with knowledge of truth can slay us.

Unless, we have the shield of arrogance or acceptance of truth, it's tough to survive the spear attack.

Missing Orkut !

People might laugh at me, but I shall stand to my opinion. I actually miss Orkut. Not that scrap count, ratings etc etc, but I am missing communities.

I made few good friends through orkut communities. I think that's best way to make friends. Normally, we meet people , after a long chat we might find out their likes and dislikes. If we share common interests with them, then we get closr. Its time consuming.

In Orkut, we join  a community, so we meet people whose interests concur with us, so the probability finding the people with whom we can hang out is much more. And the discussions which happen in threads are so informative.  And the communities a person joins gives us an idea of his personality.

Seriously, I miss Orkut communities. I hope people ditch Facebook and participate more on
Communities of Google plus.

American history X

I always found prison movies interesting. A group of men , who came under one roof, for not following the rules of the society. And how those men will behave? Most of the actions of freemen are influenced by the fear of punishment by either God or court. But how those men behave, when they are punished.

But in most of the prison movies, the protagonist is either falsely accused or did the crime impulsively. So, the emotions of the hero would be " paddling against the bad luck" or  " regretting impulsive actions".

This movie didn't follow those. The lead character, full of ego, arrogance, racism and hatred
, did the crime, went to prison, learned lessons from fellow prisoners, returned home as a responsible man, tried to stop his brother from walking through the ugly path he took.

Well, I might have said it in a boring way, but the action of Edward Norton, the gripping screenplay and photography, will leave clear prints on mind. I became fan of Edward Norton after this movie. Playing the role of a arrogant man who can't hide hatred towards other race is no easy thing.

The protagonist lead life in an illusion that, white race is superior to others. He participates in neo Nazi movement and forms a gang and started hurting others. In the world he is living, white race can't be touched, in that arrogance he kills a black guy who tried to steal his vehicle. He felt like a judge while killing him and felt proud of what he did in front of his family. All those superficial feelings vanished, when police caught him, the coldness of handcuffs brought him to reality, that he is not a God.

He might be small town rowdy, but in prison, in the presence of all those criminals, he felt helpless, scared, and started looking for friends. When he found few others like him , felt safe but disgusted by them when gang leaders of every race cooperate each other. When he expressed his disapproval, he was humiliated by them and left alone. 

He was forced to accept the fact that, life is like a prison with every kind of person in it. To beat the prison  guards or God, we need to cooperate.

When he got back home, he surprises his family and friends with his cool nature and felt sad and angry when he realized that his little brother treats him like a hero for what he did and following his foot prints.

A must watch watch drama.

Django unchained

For a long time I was waiting for a good drama movie. Somebody suggested me that it's a drama, so I watched. The movie is above average. It's by some famous director, they said, I didn't really care about that. Presence of waltz and decaprio is good enough reason.

The story is all about the friendship between a German bounty hunter who doesn't believe in racism and an African-American , and their quest to search and rescue the wife of the Blackman. It's one of those which requires empathy , but as I belong to another nation and another time, I could not really get connected with those characters. Its less drama and more cowboy style of shooting movie. Anyway, the first meeting of KKK was hilarious.

According to me, this movie is neither avoidable nor a must-watch. Shared from Google Keep

Open letter to Justice Katju

Dear sir,

Just read you blog post which argues that actor Sanjay Dutt should be given mercy.

As a normal citizen of India, I could not accept with some of the reasons you have mentioned.

The mercy given by governor or president is left to their wisdom and is not a right of the criminal. Mercy should not given by comparison. Each individual case is different.

Just acting in a Gandhi movie doesn't make him a Gandhi.

Getting married and having kids don't make his crimes go vanish.

Mercy can't be given because parents of the criminal did something good for the society.

Sunjay Dutt procured an assault rifle, which is not a weapon of choice to defend life.

I was astonished to see such arguments from a renowned jurist like you.

Regards,
Ordinary citizen of India

Life of my maid !

First let me produce my argument in the form of case study.

When we moved to outskirts  i was a kid of 5 years old.  At that time, our area was filled with huts inhabiting construction workers.As the open land became colony, some of the construction workers changed their profession to auto drivers etc etc  and their wives become house maids. Our present maid is of my age, and started working when i was in 10th class. She has two younger sisters. My mom used to teach them elementary maths and how to read and write. Among the three sisters, the youngest one is bright. She made into SC/ST hostels of Govt , finished SSC and got into nursing profession. The other two got married and continue being maids. Last month, our maid, Jyothi, broke her wrist.

When i went with my mom to visit her, i was amazed to see that, their home is not a hut anymore but a cement house. Her husband is  an electrician. We knew each other on first name basis but never actually spoke to each other since the end of our childhood, she was a good runner then. The youngest sister, moved to some other town and started working.

Now the question is, why didnt parents of our maid , made all three sisters to go to school. If that had happened, life style of everyone of them would have been uplifted. I guess, it didnt happen because, the elder girls had to work to create the surplus money , which elevated the burden of last girl.

The thing, I understood from this case is that  the general argument of OC, to remove reservation to the backward caste is highly ridiculous. The reservation offered to the backward class does not force them to accept the reservation. Many might not use that reservation due to various reasons. Change does not happen  suddenly.  In our maids case, the reservation was used by only one member. The other two had to work , to support the family. If reservation system is abandoned, the children of jyoti might not get proper education. So, the reservation system, has to be there, may be till all SC/ST members of our society enter creamy layer.Change does not happen  suddenly.

Of course , in this post, my argument is against removing reservations for backward class. I have no objection against , poor OC people getting reservation. In indian culture, for centuries, the economic status of person is tied up with his caste. So, govt adopted caste based reservation. I support abolishing the present system of giving reservations based on caste and rewrite the system so that only and any economically backward person will enjoy the fruits of reservation.

 Its funny how many girls who enjoy 33% reservation are against the SC/ST reservation.

How we perceive Govt.

Like God, or a parent. I am not joking, thats how we see govt.

For most of us govt is so powerful that, it can do anything. It is so powerful it can produce gold and currency with a wish. But thats not reality, govt is just like head of a family who manages things, or the house wife who manages finances.

Probably we should start seeing govt as a company. You cant, expect a company to buy raw materials for higher price and sell the final product for lower price and still run with salaries duly paid. Similarly , we cant expect govt to give people subsidized food, oil , travel fare and run programs like NREGA, build projects, maintain roads , military , police, etc etc . The thing is govt cant produce money by just minting more currency. The oil we are using is bought by govt and it used to sell at lower price. The same with food grains. Once the oil subsidy is lifted , the fiscal deficit will go down and govt can build few other things like nuclear reactors.

Of course, we have an argument to counter that. Kill corruption and use that money. Is it? Look at YS Jagan case. When allegations were made on him, his newspaper started spreading false opinions and a section of people are buying and reading it. Though notorious for corruption Lalu Prasad Yadav got elected many times, Raju Bhayya of UP is a criminal but got elected. How could we explain that phenomenon?

Virginity and Rape

Last evening at cafe i read a short story in Eenadu Vasundhara. Its about a village boy who meets a 'modern city girl' at a street protest against Delhi Gangrape incident.

Later he finds out that, she has many boy friends. Then he realizes that she is kind of a play-girl. And the story ends with questioning the integrity and morals of the girl while participating the protest against rape.

Though the author is a lady ( May be its a pseudo name), i would not mind to knock her on the head and explain her about rape from a feminist point of view. And the editor who accepted that story to get printed deserves a slap on the face.

Do people think that , rape victims suffer because they lost virginity or they are forced to participate in sex which they hate? According to feminist philosophy, rape is not about sex, its about power. Imagine , you are a good host and you have lot of friends. You invite friends to your home for dinners. One day a stranger enters your home and demands a meal. Would not you be offended ? Its not that you are not good host. Its about someone making you do things against your "Will" . If you do not appreciate intrusion in to your home, then imagine how helpless and humiliated the rape victim would feel.

The conversationalist view of rape always places blame on the girls. And according to those dumb heads, being raped can be avoided by wearing traditional clothes and by not using mobile phones. If there is a good, he must save us from people like these.

Bomb blast means....

The purpose of terrorist activities is to terrorize people, but there are side affects too

1.  The notion that all muslims are terrorists will surface again, and thanks to movie tupaki, now the term "sleeping cells " would be added to that

2. india pak relations will go down again, complaints from india, assurances from pak will fill the headlines for the whole year

3. Being indian would be equated to being a hindu

4. A blame game among intelligence , police, central and state govt will touch its pinnacle , which is already started.

5. Opposition blames the whole thing on govt and ask for the resignation of home minister.

6. Budget session would be disrupted

7. Security guards at shopping malls and multiplexes would literally molest us.

8.  News channels would try to scare us more.

9. Whatever celebrities tweet on bomb blasts will be on news channels.

10. Arnab Gosaswamy of  NDTV raises his voice pitch to the level of cracking the TV.

11. Arindam Chowdary and Chetan Bhagat will write nonsense articles on terrorism.

Of course , we forget about blasts soon and move on.

YSR దీక్ష చేయు విధానంబు ఎట్టిదనిన ....

అట్టి విధముగా , చెరసాలలో ఉండిపోయి బయటకు రాలేక , లోపల ఉండలేక , ఎన లేని బాధలు పడుతున్న మన అన్న జగన్ అన్న దగ్గరకి, ఒక తింగరోడు వచ్చి ఉన్నాడు.  అప్పుడు దీనమయిన మొహం పెట్టుకుని ఆ జైలు పక్షి ఈ విధముగా అడిగెను " అయ్యా, తింగరి , ఒక టీవీ ఛానల్ పెట్టి, రెండు సంవత్సరాలుగా దాన్లో మా తండ్రి గారి నెత్తి మీద పూల వర్షం కురిపిస్తున్నా, నాకు ఈ కష్టములు తప్పుట లేదు, ఇక ఈ కష్టములని నేను భరింప జాలను, తమ తింగరి బుర్రని ఉపయోగించి నాకు ఒక పరిష్కారం సూచించమని " యాచించినాడు.

అప్పుడు ఆ తింగరి వాడు, కాసేపు గడ్డం గోక్కుని, కాసేపు గజ్జలు గోక్కొని, ఆలోచించి, జగన్ కి ఇలా సెలవిచ్చెను . " బాబు, మద్రాసు నుంచి ఆంద్ర రాష్ట్రము విడిపోయాక, ఆంధ్రులలో పిచ్చి తగ్గుతూ వచ్చింది.  ఒకానొక కాలములో NTR వచ్చి వోట్లేయ్యమని అడిగితే వేలం వెర్రిగా వేసిన జనం, మొన్న మెగాస్టార్ కి అంత అదృష్టం ఇవ్వలేదు . కాని , మన సహోదరాలు అయిన అరవం వాళ్ళు మటుకు అప్పటికి ఇప్పటికి సిని తారలకలే వోట్లు వేస్తూ, వాళ్ళకి గుళ్ళు కడుతూ తరతరాలుగా తమకున్న పిచ్చిని కాపాడుకుంటూ వస్తున్నారు. అదే విధముగా, తెలుగు వాళ్ళలో కూడా పిచ్చిని పునరుద్దనిచవలసిన సమయము ఆసన్నమయినది.

అది విన్న జగను, " అయ్యా మీరు చెప్పినది సత్యము వాలే తోచుచున్నది, మరి తెలుగు వారిలో కూడా పిచ్చిని పెపొందిన్చావలనేన్న విధానమును సెలవియ్యుడి " అని ప్రాధాయే పడిన పిమ్మట, ఆ తింగరోడు ఈ విధముగా పలికెను " జగనా , మీ తండ్రి గారి పేరు మీద ఒక వ్రతమును ప్రారంభిమ్పుడి , అయ్యప్ప మాల వాలే. ". ఆ ఆలోచన విన్న జగనుడు " ఈ ఆలోచన కొత్తగా , చెత్తగా తోచుచున్నది కావున, పిచ్చి వాళ్ళ మీద పని చెయ్యవచ్చును. ఆ వ్రత విధానమును కూడా సెలవిచ్చి నన్ను ధన్యుడ్ని చేయవలసిందిగా కోరుతున్నాను " అని మిక్కిలి ప్రాధేయ పడినాడు.

అప్పుడు ఆ తింగరి వ్రత విధానమును ఇట్లు వివరించెను " పిచ్చివాళ్ళు, శుచిగా స్నానం చేసి, రాత్రి తాగిన మందు వాసన వదిలించుకుని , తెల్ల బట్టలు వేసుకుని, మేడలో YSR పటము ఉన్న ఒక మాలని ధరించి, నెత్తి మీద అటుకులు బెల్లం మూట పెట్టుకుని , కాలి నడకన మీ తండ్రి గారి సమాధి వరకు నడుచుకుంటూ వెల్లవలె . బయలు దేరే ముందు సాక్షి చానెల్ కి పరిస్తితిని వివరించి, కెమెరా ముందు "స్వామియే YSR " అని అయ్యప్ప భక్తుల తీరులో అరిచి, మీ తండ్రిగారిని పొగిడి, వారి పిచ్చితనమును చాటుతూ , సమాధి చేరిన పిమ్మట , అటుకులు ఉప్మా , బెల్లం తో పాయసం చేసుకుని తిని, మంచి నీటికి బదులు బీరుని తాగవలె . ఇట్టి విధముగా చేసిన, తెలుగు వారి  పిచ్చను ప్రపంచానికి నిరూపించిన ఘనత లభించును " అని సెలవిచ్చెను.

అటు పిమ్మట జగనుడు, తింగరి కి పాదాభివందనం చేసి, తాను బయటకు రాగానే, తన సలహాదారుగా ఉండమని ప్రదేయపడెను . తింగరి , జగనుడి కోరికను మన్నిస్తానని మాట ఇచ్చిన వాడై నిష్క్రమించెను.

Chasing the monsoon by Alexander Frater

A big disappointment. The book might be interesting for foreigners who wish to think of India as a land of snakes and poverty.

Though it is non fiction, the writing style is pure fiction. The book is the journal of an Australian who traveled from Kerala to chirapunji, following the south-east monsoon.

The story begins with his neck injury. The co-patients talked about chirapunji so he embarked on the trip.

As the author flew from one place to another and lodged in expensive hotels , whatever views he expressed are similar to what elite of India usually have. He talked a lot about meteorology , without explaining the terminology. How many can understand lines like "sky is filled with cumulus "? What is the percentage is readers who know that cumulus is a type of a cloud? Instead of boring me with his childhood memories, he could have made it informative. And I don't understand how the marital problems of the couple who gave him the idea of chasing the monsoon are related to this book.

There is more description of beautiful women he came across in India than the monsoon. Everywhere he go, he met people who either speaks good English or none at all. None of the Indians in the book talked in pure butler English. Interestingly many use the phrase " touch wood ".

" Never since Somerset Maugham has rain seemed so romantic " - Observer .

Above line is printed on the back of the book. If observer is right, then Somerset Maugham's works on rain must be pathetic. No part of the book can really considered as poetic or philosophical. His difficulties with Indian bureaucracy and his experiences in Kolkata are the only parts I enjoyed reading. Extensive description of hotels, people he met coupled with many dialogs made it look like work of fiction.

After I finished, I cursed Hyderabad for not having a good library , I could have saved the money spent on it.

Poor Swami Vivekananda !!

Gouthama Budha is walking in a garden and met Bhagat Singh. After a small talk, Bhagat singh asked Budha for fool proof techniques to control anger. Budha understood that singh is unhappy about something but could not guess the reason. The young and dynamic man wanted India to be free, he fought for it, he gave his life for it. After India got independence he could not control himself with happiness. Then slowly he become moody , and over the years his fuse is getting shorter and shorter. Its the first time he openly talked about his anger issues. But, angry on what? Bhagat singh started explaining , " Its because of RSS, they didnt take major part in Indian independence movement, I never subscribed to their idiology when i was alive. Now, they talk as if i am one of them. Religious freaks. I am a socialist and dont believe in religion. But these RSS people are really tarnishing my image !! "

Budha openly laughed at the face of Bhagat Singh. For Singh, at the moment, he looked like a laughing budha without tummy. Soon, LOL of budha turned into an ironic smile and tapped the shoulder of Singh and said , " Thats the problem with Hinduism, centuries ago , i relented hinduism and started my own religion. After few centuries , they made me avatar of vishnu and cleverly wiped out my religion. How i become avatar of vishnu? I dont know. Now you are also a hindu for those freaks though you are a Sikh.  So is the case with shiridi sai baba. He is a fakir, who made an old masjid his home and treated both hindus and muslims equally. Now see his fate, he has got temple in every colony, and a dedicated brahmin priest to look after his marble statues.

"You guys dont pay much attention to current affairs of the nations" came Gandhi with his long stick in his hand. Bhagat Singh was horrified " What happened now, did they tarnish my image further? "

"No" said Gandhi, "RSS turned Swami Vivekananda into a religious bigot and started sharing whatever they want to say using his image as background on Facebook ".

"Thats terrible" said Bhagat. "Not only that , they celebrated his birthday at a grand-scale to prove them he is one of them , soon they will leave you alone".

Bhagat is very much irritated with that , " Thats a good news for me, but this thing cant go on like that. They complain on  Christianity because of the religious conversions. And these idiots are converting great people into hinduism. At least missionaries offer money, education and hospital facilities"

His irritation reached one more step with the smiling face of Budha. "And he knows all these?" he questioned Gandhi.

"Dont think so".

"He is a great philosopher and wise man who understood Hinduism , unlike these fellows, lets go and wake him from meditation , i cant tolerate watching his image moving from a philosopher to a bigot" 

When they saw Vivekananda doing meditation, Bhagat Singh shouted " Arise, awake and stop not till you beat them all" .

Swami Vivekananda opened his eyes and Singh told him what was happening.  He didnt loose his cool, got up slowly and said " May be its because of the saffron cloths, from now on i will follow my guru Ramakrishna parama hamsa and drape only in white " ! !

Land of seven rivers by sanjeev sanyal

The book received good reviews on flipkart.com. So, I ordered it.

Initially it is more like a book by Romila Thapar, I.e explained geology and then started real history. This technique is followed till the end of Harappan civilization. After that the economist in the author woke up and delivered opinions on historical develoments. The economic view of history is really interesting.

History was explained in a linear fashion till Mughals. From that point, he started on hopping. Author mentioned importance of lot of things in and around Delhi which are not famous tourist spots. Few anecdotes , trivia and lot of local stories which are useful for a tourist guide but not for a history reader.

The views of author on slums around a city and path of
transformation of a village to suburban and then to urban in the liberal India are amazing. Its good to read a popular economic cum geology cum historical book on India.

But there are few faults. The caption of the book is  " A brief history of India's geography " . But there is less geography, it's not even history in the back drop of geography. Definitely not a reference book for either history or geography of India.

Author has mentioned " Rudrama devi of Golconda". Its a blunder.

Cover page of the book is the geographical map of India showing its rivers. In those rivers Godavari is missing. As name is the book is " land of seven rivers", graphic designer , author and publishers should have checked if the map on the cover page is correct. The word Geography on the cover page made it look more silly.

But, on the whole, it's a good read. It just didnt deliver what I expected from the book title.

My theory on birth of Astrology

Since the first time I visited Birla Planetarium as a school kid, one question started rupturing inner walls of my skull i.e, how did they found zodiac signs? There are infinite number of stars in the universe and ones which are visible to the naked eye in the sky are scattered randomly. Then how did our ancestors observed patterns in them and named them?

Everybody seems to have observed the pattern in my class, i would be the dumb fellow if i asked the question , so i played along with everybody else. As a kid who grew up in the outskirts , i was forced to enjoy the sleeping on the roof in summer. Many times i tried to find the pattern by myself, but it was impossible. All i could find is the saptarshi mandlam which is more like a distorted parallelogram with a tail.

I googled for the answers and landed up in the wikipedia as usual. Normally we see the lines which connect the stars for our understanding and assume that there is a pattern. This time, I observed the stars which are connected.

Apparently,  the stars which form a particular astrological sign need not be having same characteristics. The stars which are connected by the lines dont have similar size or brightness. So our ancestors , imagined a picture in the sky and then pointed out the those particular stars. Its cheating. Its a lie. And all major countries adopted this system.  There are books, based on this system, daily future predictions on news papers, channels, magazines etc etc. A big fat lie.

After i finished laughing, i started thinking about the scholars who invented this system. Of course there is no information available on them. But one thing for sure, they are all insomniacs. And were thinking deeply about something, and hallucinated objects and then thought of zodiac signs with the stars which are behind the hallucinated objects. Most of them must be hunters because we have many animals in that list ( Aries, Taurus , Scorpio, Capricorn and Leo), Sagittarius must be representing a hunter. Apart from hunters , we have fishermen ( Cancer , Pisces) , gardeners or slaves (Acquarius) , retail merchants (Libra), infertile women ( Gemini ) , farmers ( Taurus ) and perverts who masturbate under open sky ( Virgo) .

Somehow, the system became famous and since then we have been cheated for generations.

If the modern insomniacs want to design a new system, may be we will develop signs representing bus, laptop, chicken  etc etc .

ఛత్తీస్గఢ్ స్కూటర్ యాత్ర by పరవస్తు లోకేశ్వర్

ప్రస్తుతం జరుగుతున్న హైదరాబాద్ పుస్తక ప్రదర్శన లో కొన్నా ఈ పుస్తకాన్ని .  ఈ పుస్తకం పేరు చూసి స్టాల్ లోకి వెళ్లి మిగతా పుస్తకాలు చూస్తుండగా, అక్కడి వ్యక్తీ తో మాటలు మొదలయ్యి, ఆయనే పరవస్తు లోకేశ్వర్ అని తెలిసాక ఆనందించా చాలా. ఇదే మొదటి సరి ఒక రచయితని కలవడం. పుస్తకం కొని అయన autograph తీసుకుందామనుకున్న మొదట్లో, కాని, మాటల మధ్యలో ఆయన నా పేరు అడగడం, వెంటనే నా ఇంటిపేరు అడగడం తో కాస్త చిరాకేసింది. ఇంటి పేరు ఎందుకు అసలు ? నా కులం గురించి ఎందుకు అసలు? ఫలానా కులం అయితే ఎక్కువ డిస్కౌంట్ ఇస్తారా ?

నిజం చెప్పాలంటే, కాస్త అదే చిరాకు మీద పుస్తకం మొదలు పెట్టా.  ఒకసారి అటు ఇటు తిరగేస్తే కమ్యూనిస్ట్ కంపు కాస్త అనిపించింది. సర్లే, కొన్నాం కదా అది చదవడం మొదలు పెట్టాక పుస్తకం చాల నచ్చింది. రచయిత , అతని స్నేహితుడు , ఒక Honda Activa మీద ఛత్తీస్గఢ్ లో పది రోజుల పాటు తిరిగినప్పటి అనుభవాలు , ఆ తర్వాత మరో స్నేహితుడితో రెండు సంవత్సరాల తర్వాత మరల తిరిగిన అనుభవాలు.

ఛత్తీస్గఢ్ చరిత్ర, సాంఘిక స్తితిగతులు, నక్సల్ ఉద్యమం , కొత్తగా ఏర్పడిన రాష్ట్రము పట్ల ప్రజల ఆనందం., గిరిజనులు , ఎక్కడి నుంచో వచ్చి అక్కడ స్థిరపడి పోయిన వాళ్ళు, భూత వైద్యుల మధ్య ఒక అలోపతి డాక్టర్ కస్టాలు, చాలా బాగా కవర్ చేసారు.

ఇదే నేను చదివిన మొదటి travelogue. నచ్చింది. కాకపోతే రచయిత భాష విషయం లో కాస్త జాగ్రత్త వహిస్తే బాగుండేది అనిపించింది. కాసేపు తెలంగంగా యాస, కాసేపు text book లాంగ్వేజ్,  కాసేపు నాటకాల భాష, కాసేపు ఉర్దూ, మధ్య మధ్య లో ఇంగ్లీష్ సూక్తులతో కాస్త వింతగా అనిపించింది. హిందీ , ఉర్దూ వాక్యాలకి పక్కన అనువాదం కూడా ఇస్తే బాగుండేది. 

ఇక, మధ్య మధ్య లో రచయితే ఆలోచలనలు కాస్త చిరాకు పెట్టాయి, తెలంగాణా ఉద్యమం జరుగుతున్నతీరుమీదకాని,గిరిజనులలోదొంగతనాలు లాంటివి ఉండవు అన్న ఉద్దేశ్యాలు ముఖ్యంగా నాకు నచ్చలేదు . Of course ,అయన పుస్తకం అయన ఇష్టం, నా బ్లాగు నా ఇష్టం .

కాకపోతే,  రచయిత  ఎంత  చిరాకు పెట్టినా  ,  పుస్తకం  లో  చెప్పిన  విషయాలు  చాల  విలువయినవి ,  పుస్తకం బోర్ కొట్టలేదు.  అన్నిటికి  మించి కేవలం 6 లీటర్లు  tank capacity ఉన్న , Honda Activa మీద చత్తీస్ఘడ్ లాంటి వెనక బడిన రాష్ట్రాన్ని చుట్టారంటే ,  రచయిత ధైర్యానికి నా సలాం .

Chokher bali by Tagore

Long time ago I read few stanzas of Geetanjali, since then started avoiding works of Ravindranath Tagore. Found this small novel at home and started reading . It took me just few pages to realize why he is great.

The novel surrounded 6 characters, among which five are emotional and impulsive and one knows what he wants and knows his limits regarding others personal life. Its a multi dimensional love story, and most of them get confused between love and flirting.

Thinking flirting as expressing love, jealousy, a bit of misunderstanding , revenge, etc etv sounds like a TV serial, but not at all boring. I guessed at the end there will be a widow remarriage , but he kept the novel realistic.

The problem with reading classics is, it's hard relate them with our present customs and norms. As the society gets progressed, when we come across the old custom in novels, it's not easy to feel the pain the character who is been suffering because of the customs. Problems of widows is one such issue.

I have checked Wikipedia and came to know that the novel got adopted into a movie starring Aiswarya rai in the lead role.

A good refreshment, from the contemporary novels.

Internet Hindu

Hi, My religion is Hinduism and I live in the land of internet.

I can be only seen on internet, all over internet, blogs, twitter, facebook, orkut... you name a site,I will be there spreading hatred towards other religions.

I actually don't know the difference between Indian sub continent and India, but it doesn't matter, for me both are same.

I hate Muslims, Christians and communists. Somebody told me that budhists, jains and sikhs are not from Hinduism, but I don't care, I don't have time to dig into details, I am too busy updating stuff on Facebook and drinking beer.

You can find a Sri Madbhagavdgeetha in my room and picture of sivaji on my laptop. By the way what's the difference between ordinary bhagavadgeetha and madbhagavadgeetha? Who cares anyway, I am a Hindu, nothing else matters.

I perceive India as Hindustan, a land of Hindus, here hindu means person belonging to hindu religion not the person lives beyond river Indus as named by kings of middle east in medieval era.

I have no idea how Hinduism spread across south east Asia but I forward mails saying India never invaded other nations. I feel good when Hindus construct a temple in USA but I get agitated when a church is constructed in my area. I listen to Bollywood item songs early in the morning, but I believe that people should not have problem with incomprehensible suprabhatam. But damn, I hate Christian songs n quawwali songs. They should be banned. I may not watch SVBC or Aastha but I hate watching those Christian channels.

When I am not with others and think alone, I get a doubt that my bhakti is based on hatred towards other religions but not with the appreciation towards Hinduism. How can I appreciate something which is very vast and hard to understand. But, that's not a problem, I love my Hinduism because it's a great religion.

Lovers day? What the hell is that? It's western concept, but new year is not, because it's awesome. Nor I have any problem with freshers day in college. They are fun.

I think narendra modi is the incarnation of lord vishnu. Doesn't he look great? People call him religious fundamentalist but I call him a hero, a visionary. Gujarat was an underdeveloped state before him, I believe he did homa n puja and now see gujarat. I wish I am in gujarat, but the problem is there is prohibition of alcohol.

I don't see any difference being a nationalist , a patriot and a hundu in Indian context. Don't why people differentiate these. How can a non-hindu can be loyal to India?

Would not it be great, if non-hindus of India die over night? It would be pretty awesome. Then we can bring back the glory of India. May be we will be so rich again to sell diamonds on streets again.

Recently I have seen this picture "oh my god". It raised few questions in my mind, but I chose to not to ponder over them. Why mess the thought of being great and being spiritual.
Ok, I have expressed myself enough today, I enjoy insulting secularists and communists and trying explain my opinions without an argument is pretty tiring. It's time to listen some item numbers, but if you are a true patriot, you listen to gayathri mantra.

Discussion with a Doctor after a quarter

He became little drunk and started acting as if he is totally drunk.

From satires on one other, the discussion moved to cars, drifts and accidents. Probably the alcohol started kicking his mind a bit, we have moved to serious discussion.
He is kind of a guy who doesn't share much and talks about things objectively. Alcohol must have put his brain cells related to objectivity to sleep , loosen his jaw muscles and crushed the social filters between his mouth and mind.

When he told me about how he searched for answers when mother of his close friend got breast cancer, how he cried when she passed away along with his friend and how he had to see the postmortem of his friend when he died because of drunken driving, I started seeing doctors as just humans with emotions.

So often, we try to understand a person based on his profession and the abilities he needs to survive in that.

We all choose our professions because of the hype attached to it. But not everyone is cut out to be perfectly fit into the profession they have chosen. It's ridiculous to expect that every soldier should not fear death in the battle field.
We normally, focus on "how it's going to be when he got success", but not on the skill set required to be successful in that profession. May be a soldier to be recruited will dream of saving his countrymen with a machine gun , but might not focus on bullets he has to dodge in the battle field.

Similarly a biology student must be dreaming of getting appreciations from the relatives of patient when he saved him, but not concentrate on how it feels when a patient dies in the operation table.

But what it feels like to cut open a person or even a dead body? Or when he could not save a patient? He must have entered medicine because it's all about extending life, like  god. But death of patient will remind him that he is not even a  demi-god. The gap between the a success and failure must be twisting his heart because death is synonym to fail in that profession.

Not every human is born to cope with that trauma. But sadly that can't be known unless one becomes a doctor.

From here  Munnabhai MBBS occupied my mind. Now it is known to me personally that, when a patient dies with or without his fault, the doctor will be devastated. I am referring only newbies here, experienced ones will learn how to deal with it through years of practice. And what if the newbie to the profession is emotionally weak or thinks he is? He would left the profession after first death. So, should not the medical schools teach them on how to handle that frustration? Should not they learn to treat patients with objective approach?

Next time I should ask him for his opinion on Munnabhai MBBS !

A different food chain

On one idle day, my thought-train made a stop at the station called " difference between animals and humans".

I thought of family structure and politics, but most of the apes form societies, fight for power even form coalitions too. So that difference is not valid. The opposable thumb and bipedalism are also observed in apes.

Is it talking? Even parrots can talk. So, this thing can't be considered.

Ok, we have relatively large brains. No other animal has it.  But the question is what did the brain do to get control over the earth?  The answer I found is " Defying nature ".

Yes, that's the only answer I can come up with. No, I was not referring to pollution.

When climate is cold, we refused to get chilled and made sweaters to escape wrath of nature etc etc. Nature lost its power to make us suffer with climate change.

We diverted the course of rivers for our advantage. We are not satisfied with natural habitation so we made our own shelters.

Rest of the animal kingdom, depends on other naturally available living beings for food, so they have to hunt, or move to other lands once the food supply is stopped in a particular area. We found a better alternative, we grow food in our vicinity, or else the preparation of grill chicken might have started from preparing the nets or guns , instead of just going to a nearby chicken shop, so is the case with veg food.

Now we have our own food chain, which is different from natural one. If all the deer in the world have evaporated, tigers will go extinct. That's not the case with us, either deer goes extinct or tiger , we will have our paddy fields and poultry farms to feed us.

So accepting what we get is not a human trait. While rest of the animals get adjusted to nature, we try the opposite way.

But this raises another question, by defying nature, are not we messing up with natural process of evolution? May be, the under weight child or the kid with a hole in the heart should die according to law of evolution. These kids are born with mutation, which won't improvise the human species, but we don't just let it happen, we get it cured, in the name of love.

Oops, love. Is it the reason we are superior than others? The concept could be used by poor hero while explaining to rich villain to justify his love for his daughter. But sadly not, animals also love. It is not the trait which separates us from animals. So we are back to defying nature thingy.

So far, all the articles on the subject " man and nature" depict man as the villain. May be to some extent that's true, but it's law of nature with nature.

Now, the next question, what motivates us to defy nature like that? Is it the comfort or safety or our rejection to get subdued to power?

Krishnam vande jagadgurum

One thing which pulled all of us to balapur theater to watch this movie is " Directed by Krish "

Seems krish is experimenting with the stories. Gamyam has one main story, there are four stories in vedam.

But krisnam vande , is the conglomeration of social, love n revenge kind of story. The movie resembles old chiranjeevi movies, where hero comes to save the village from villain and then realizes that he has to take personal revenge on the villain. Krishnam vande also has similar story, sans one extra heroin.

Anyway, its an average movie, as I didnt feel the urge to walk out of theater. And it's fun to watch a helicopter-using-villain, who throws a party at his mansion after a long time.

Songs were randomly placed. The comedy of brahmanandam  seems to be funny, but comedy of posani sure does.

Care should be taken while making a movie on social issues, the affords to make it a commercial movie were seen in stone aspects.

The intelligence of director is clearly visible as expression -less face of rana is covered in drama company make up.

Director should have used subtitles when the dialogues are in kannada. Anyway , krish didnt do the film with whole heart, his magic was missing.

Anyway, I really hope this movie would give lift to surabhi naataka company.

Midnight in Paris

The movie targeted the audience with literary interest. But the message is for the people who believes that life is more elegant in the past.

The protagonist is a Hollywood actor, who wants to give a shot at writing novels. When he was lost and searching for the hotel, a guy invited him to join a party and offered lift in his vintage care. In that car hero travels to the time and place which he thinks great i.e Paris in 1920's. From that day he travels to the past every midnight in that vintage car and hangs out with his literary idols and kind of fell in love with girl friend if Pablo Picasso.

The girl is just like him who happens to think that life 1890's is more elegant than in 1920's. When they both travel through the time in a horse cart, protagonist observes that artists of that era are admiring their predecessors in literature and arts. Hero understands that the artists of every generation think past is more glorious and more classier  than theirs. He explains that to ex of Picasso but she choose to stay in the time what she believes to be filled with elegance.

The story ends after our hero cancelled his engagement and started dating a girl from "nostalgia shop".

I never shared the beliefs of hero regarding past except for cigars. What caught my attention is the relation between him and his fiance. She is more of a woman who likes to be on  top of the world, and she always seem to try to fit him in her version of boy friend,  instead of accepting him as he is. When he didnt bend, she started sleeping with her crush from college and wish that hero learns from him. She could not understand the simple pleasures of hero like walking in the rain and thought that he is little weird. The more she treats him with disparagement  the more i hated her. Director has done a great job in showing such a character.

The dialogue of Hemingway character explaining fear of death as outcome of lack of love has lifted me up and then dropped me in the well of thoughts. I am sure, much contemplation is needed in that area.

The movie is good, gives us something to think about and reminded me to resume the book of Hemingway which i started long back.

If all artists are dead....

Of late i started wondering , what would have happened to the world, if there are no artists.

I always  consider an artist not as an entertainer but as the one who will show us ways of expressing an emotion in different forms of media.

They say beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, but those eyes are controlled by the brain which learns many things including identification of beauty while growing up. The society teaches us whats beauty along with many. Here society does not refer to the rules and customs of the society but the widely accepted entertainment.

Da vinci felt that the half smile of a women is beautiful, and he is an artist, so he drew whats in  his mind , and ever since monalisa become the synonym for beauty.  In fact the whole bunch of authors , who are majorly from European, made being fair is equal to being beautiful. The same thing with long hair. I believe, we think those are attractive only because we learned to believe so.  The same logic goes to political opinions. 

This pattern is observed not only in forming opinions but also the way we act in a situation. Its not unknown that die-hard fans have the same mannerisms of their favorite actors. Of course some of them are trying to impersonate them but still....

But i was not able to decide if this concept is negative or positive at an individual level. I no longer have to think  and feel to form opinions on something, and i have ready-made action bits and dialogs to use in a social situation. That takes load out of my mind , but am i not becoming a slave to my surroundings ?

But i think its ok, because it could not affect the world as a whole , there are many out there who think and not ashamed to announce that they dont like music of ilayaraja at all. And not every A.R.R music is a hit, not every chiranjeevi movie or Bapu movie is a hit. I belong to the minority which believes aiswarya roy looks stupid and dusky girls are more attractive. Not all people like books of chetan bhagat. So, no matter in what length the society wants to teach us, not all of us want to be taught something based on popular demand.  As long as there are  humans who behave like sheep, there will be a black sheep to show less popular options to rest.

Bribing a police

This tutorial is not for murderers, rapists and politicians.

This how - to guide consists of 3 parts based on police officer.

1. The police who caught you for the bribe will imply what he wants. Like saying nonsense rules which don’t exist. For example, once a police caught me because I have earphones plugged in my ears and according to him its violation of law. It clearly indicates he is looking for money. There will be no way out, because we can’t argue with them about laws. He will simply say discuss those with the judge. So agree soon and give him some money.

Another way a police will ask for money is by cooking a story, like telling us that they have received a complaint against us, so they have come. Easy way to escape is to bribe him; it could be as low as 25% of the fine amount.

This type of police is easy to handle, they know what they want and we know what they want and without much ado both parties jump into the actual business talk.

2. Type two are like opportunists, they wait for you to offer bribe with no specific cues. The only clue to offer money is , he will hold the pen and pad, and asks you as if threatening “you want me to write a fine or not?”

3. While first two types are mostly rude, the third type is soft. Like bargaining tomatoes at vegetable market. They literally beg, “give some amount you like” will be the phrase. Or they are too sophisticated and act as if bribe taking is part of the job, there will be no change in the modulation of tone. The constable in safari suite, who come to enquire when we applied for passport is the example.

And those who don’t take bribe, they simply fill the form, collect the fine and will ask you to leave.
In any case, its just not the money the police is looking for , the power of uniform and arms will be in the head. One cant afford to talk in a disrespectful way with them,

The Mine by Arnab Ray

The author is one of the widely read blogger.  The Mine is his second book and first in fiction I guess. Anyway I like his tweets (@greatbong) and enjoy reading his blog posts. He has that subtle sense of humor where you can admire the sarcasm with a smile. 

Somewhere in the Rajasthan, some rich people started digging for something, and bumped into an old shrine with bizarre sculptures and sayings in old Hebrew language under them.  After that there were mysterious deaths happened in the mine and a highly paid team is formed to enquire into the matter. Our protagonist, an old spy of India is part of them. 

The head of the mine, after some incidents informs them that, they all have done fatal things in the past, so there  are here to suffer for their sins. The twist is, she has released a nervous gas, which might enhance their physical abilities but gives them a mental torture. And the route to get out of the mine is filled with sophisticated booby-traps.   

By the end of the novel, I was clutching the book hard and my eyes are moving like crazy over the lines. 

But there are too many loose ends. First of all, why a bunch of wealthy people want to dig up a hole in the earth , and inviting all the criminals who are never punished by the law , then kill them there.  Morgan Freemans movie seven , and aparichitudu came to my mind.

And author completely neglected the way the shrine which aroused in interest in the readers. He tried to strike a balance between thriller, a psychological thriller, a drama and a historic novel. But he settled on thriller for most of the part.

The Mine is gripping, a page turner and all that. But it didnt not made sense when I finished the novel and had a tea.  But considering the fact its just second book of the author and the book made me sit and read. I have hopes on this author. I think he is writing a new book now, I am going to pre-order it.

Why do we have to ?

Sometimes i wonder what would have happen to world if we dont have nothing to engage ourselves like a hobby and a religion, and nothing which keeps us from thinking like alcohol and a structure prescribed by society to fit it.

Surely, an idles man mind is a devils workshop and everything around us tries to make sure that it wont happen.

If those two factors are not present, what we would have done? Just work?

To satisfy " actual needs " we dont need much. A saint and a begger also surviving with minimum things. But they have religion or something to keep their mind occupied. Why do we need arts in the first place? They dont provide food,cloths are shelter.  Why do we need others to survive? Why do we need to feel alive or achievements. Why do we have to make babies , knowing that they will die eventually. Why do we need shelter and clothes, knowing the early man and rest of the animal kingdom survived without them.

Why do we have think about others, make affords for their betterment,knowing the fact that they will also die.

Why do we have to watch tv serials and movies, or read fiction to feel how other ppl persons in those situations would feel, knowing that its not our lives.

Why do we have to crave for acceptance of others or even to laugh, which will not add anything extra to our lifestyle.

Why do we have to know the information of others business including celebrities, when we have little knowledge about ourselves.

Why do we have to judge others? Which will not bring us one more meal?

Why do we have take alcohol and drugs and forget our problems and then switch on tv to know about / feel problems of others?

Why cant we earn our meals, then sit idle till we are hungry like rest of the animals.

Is it because of love, or because its hardwired in our brains, or for entry pass to heaven?

From all the above i conclude that, i have become little cynical and need to do something to retain my smile.

పెనం మీద నుంచి పొయ్యి లోకి ....

అలా దూకినట్టుంది, ఉత్తరప్రదేశ్ , బెంగాల్ రాష్ట్రాల పరిస్తితి.

కమ్యునిస్టులు వద్దు అని మమతా బెనర్జీ ని ఎన్నుకుంటే, ఆమె తనే అసలైన బుర్ర లేని కంమునిస్ట్ ని అని , కాకపోతే తనకి ఎరుపు కాకుండా నీలం ఇష్టం అని తన విధానాల ద్వారా చెప్తోంది..

మాయావతి వొద్దని , SP ని ఎన్నుకుంటే, ఆరు నెలలలో 2437 హత్యలతో ఉత్తర ప్రదేశ్ వర్ధిల్లుతోంది .

పాపం ఆ ప్రజలు !

ప్రభుత్వం తో నిషిద్దాక్షరి ఆట

అష్టావధానం లో నిషిద్దాక్షరి లాంటి ఆటని మనం ఆడుతూ ఉంటాం ఎప్పుడు.

ఉదాహరణకి , కరెంటు కోత సమస్యని తీసుకోండి, కరెంటు కావాలి అంటాము, అక్కడ బొగ్గు నిల్వలు అయిపోతున్నాయి, దేశ జనాభా పెరుగుతోంది, కాబట్టి ఇంకా జల విద్యుత్ కేంద్రాలు,నిర్మించాలి అని ప్రభుత్వం అంటుంది, వెంటనే మనం, చ చ అదేం కుదరదు, జల విద్యుత్ వల్ల కొన్ని జంతువులు చచ్చిపోతాయి, అడవులు అంతరించిపోతాయి, మేము ఒప్పుకోం అనేస్తాం, సరే solution వోద్దన్నారు కాబట్టి సమస్యని భరించండి అని ప్రభుత్వం అంటే, అదేం కుదరదు, నువ్వే solution చూడాలి అంటాం, తర్వాత ప్రభుత్వం అణు విద్యుత్ కేంద్రం అంటుంది, వెంటనే అది కూడా వోద్దనేస్తం, ఎందుకంటే nuclear అనే మాట వినబడగానే మనకి హిరోషిమ నాగసాకి మీద బాంబు వేసినపుడు తీసిన ఫోటో అలా కళ్ళ ముందుకు వచ్చేస్తుంది, ప్రభుత్వానికి కాలింది, సమస్యని భరించలేరు, సమాధానానికి ఒప్పుకోరు , ఇక లాభం లేదని, అణు విద్యుత్ వైపు అడుగులు వేసింది, దానికి ఇంధనం కావాలి కదా, అది మన దగ్గర దొరకదు, కొన్ని చోట్ల uranium దొరికినా, దాన్ని భూమి నించి వెలికి తీసి వాడడానికి మనం ఒప్పుకోము, ఎందుకంటే గునపం కొట్టి కొత్తగానే ఆ ప్రదేశం అంతా పేలుతుంది అని మన నమ్మకం. ఇంకేం చెయ్యాలి , చచినట్టు బయటనుంచి ఇంధనం తెచ్చుకోవాలి, వాడు ఫ్రీ గా ఇవ్వడు కదా, డబ్బులు అడుగుతాడు, ఛా మన నాయకులు వేదేశాలకి వెళ్లి అక్కడి మందు తాగేసి, వ్రేలిముద్రలు వేసేసి మన భూమిని అమ్మేశారని నారాయణమూర్తి లాంటి వాళ్ళు చెప్పగానే మనం ఒక సరి చప్పట్లు కొట్టి అవునవును అనేస్తాం.


పోనీ  ప్రతీ దానికి కాలు అడ్డం వేస్తున్నారు, పరిష్కారం దొరికేదాకా ఉన్న విద్యుత్ ని జాగ్రత్తగా వాడుకోండి అంటే, అదీ మనం చెయ్యం.

రోడ్  మీద కుక్కలు ఎక్కువ అంటాము, వాటిని చంపడానికి వస్తే వద్దు అని అడ్డం పడతాము,  ట్రాఫిక్ ఎక్కువ అని గోల పెడతాము, రోడ్డు వెడల్పు చేస్తుంటే వద్దు అంటాం, ధనవుంతులకి పేదవారికి వ్యత్యాసం పెరుగుతోంది అంటాము, సరే పన్నులు వేసి ధనవంతుల దగ్గర నుంచి ఎక్కువ పిండుదాము అంటే కుదరదు అనేస్తాము, ఉద్యోగ అవకాశాలు కావాలి అంటాము, మళ్ళి కాలుష్యం ఎక్కువవుతుంది కాబట్టి పరిశ్రమలు వద్దు అంటాం, అందరు సమాన ఆర్టిక స్తితికి రావాలి అంటాము, మళ్ళి రిజర్వేషన్ ని వ్యతిరేకిస్తాము,

చేనేత శ్రామికులని ప్రభుత్వం ఆదుకోవాలి , మనం మాత్రం చేనేత వస్త్రాలు ధరించము, మన ఆరోగ్యం గురించి కూడా ప్రభుత్వమే పట్టించుకోవాలి అంటాము, సిగరెట్టు తాగొద్దు, పంటలకి ఎండోసల్ఫాన్ వాడొద్దు అంటే మళ్ళి వినము, ప్రభుత్వం పెదాలని ఆదుకోవాలి అంటాము, అలా ఆదుకోడానికి ఏర్పాటు చేసిన NGREA పదకాలకి డబ్బులు సరిపోక పెట్రోలు మీద సబ్సిడి తగ్గిస్తే ఒప్పుకోము,

ఏంటో  !!

Fear And Facts

Hyderabad muslims celebrated independence day of pakistan by hoisting pakistan flag in old city

The Nizam dynasty is behind the Neo-telangana movement, because they want to capture power again.

Once, the separate telangana is formed, people from andhra cannot come here.

The sikhs have poisoned the Delhi water supply  (rumor spread in 1984 after sikh massacre )

 The computer savvy Chandrababu had tricked all the EVM machines, no matter who you choose, TDP will get the vote.(2004 elections)

People of rest of the india are killing NE people.

etc

The fear of something feeds on rumor and destroys us eventually. So, to believe in something, it does not have to be true, it has to strengthen our argument , or our fears.

Life without a phone !!

Many complain that phone is disturbing their normal life, and life without it is cool. I disagree.

Phone is not the reason, its our inability to handle pestering calls makes life miserable. Why blame phone for that. In fact, after i lost my android, my life became boring and tedious.

Now i have to go to computer to check emails, to make railway reservations, to book movie tickets, to recharge my mobile, to pay bills, to check my bank balance, to write blog posts, to read newspaper, to buy or sell shares.  I dont have smartphone, so , i have to read the paperbacks, and use those irritating bookmarks whenever i stop reading. Now i have to open that bulky Cambridge dictionary to check meaning of a word.

No phone means, no google maps and i have to ask strangers for directions,  whose probability of being right is not 100%. When i had it, i just have put ear phones on , set the directions and my phone will give me the audio directions wherever i required. It was easy to find a petrol bunk or appolo pharmacy or a coffee day with a smart phone. Now i have to stop the bike and ask people.

Now i have to rely on google or newspapers to know which movie is being played at which theater. I have to write down , to remember things as there is no smart phone with calender.  No alarm, no camera, no emergency flash light, no twitter news,  ....... life without a smart phone sucks (Once got used to it)

Dressed to get raped ?

Whenever a rape case surfaces, first feminists occupy the TV screen condemning it, then "analysts" will steal the show by raising questions on ' character of the victim'. Like how revealing her dress before the act, how many tequilas she had , how flirtatious she was etc etc.

Based on these analysis, " traditionalists " will complain  about the freedom of  women in the society and how western culture is influencing us.

Then again feminists come to picture with an answer to traditionalists. As they have already on TV for this issue before, they had to confine them selves to op-eds this time. Now, their point is , ask rapists not to rape and stop asking women to be inside.

Well, i agree with traditionalists at some level. The counter argument offered by feminists sounds dumb to me. Its like  saying " i wont lock my home but ask the thief not to rob me". As Friedrich Nietzsche indicates, men are only good till they get a chance. Then why give good men a chance to become bad.

 It does not mean i am supporting traditionalists. They tend to link every negative incident to the change in culture. The sexual harassment is everywhere, including rural areas. TV channels dont popularize them because the victims are not so photogenic.

Rapist, he wants to have sex with a girl and cant be reasoned. But whats wrong with girls keeping a pepper spray or something like that with them. The pepper spray might not give 100% protection , but it could help.

But there a point, where i agree with feminists. Why media is trying to show more of victim details than the rapist ?