Life is an illusion

 Susan met Tracie in the maternity ward in the industrial town Corby. Corby which had a steel factory and now is being rebuilt. Where older people have various diseases including cancer.  Susan is a working class woman with a son, but Tracie is an accountant - so must be smart. And this is her first child.  Both give birth, but tragically. Susan's son Connor has a hand deformed - without any fingers and Tracie's daughter has deformed ear, only two chambers in her heart and missing kidneys. And the daughter does not survive.  Here Connor undergoes surgery after surgery to give some kind of fingers to his hand using his own toes and each time infection causes the procedure to fail. The funny part is Susan's husband leaves her as 'he did not sign for it'. As if it was Susan who deliberately created a deformed child.  As Connor grows, Susan notices there are other mothers and other children with deformities and she wonders is it due to the air or water in this town....

 One method of winning is to make the opponent weak - mentally, physically and socially. This seems to be a successful tool in the hand of ruling parties in many countries. Funnily it is employed more by right leaning parties. Does that mean, the left leaning parties or center-left parties are morally superior and have higher values? May be, may be not. I am of course prejudiced against right parties.  Watched a serial - zero day. You all know about zero day vulnerability. A software has a serious vulnerability which is found out by hacker before the developer. So in this Netflix series, the zero day bug has been used to control all the digital networks of the country and stop all network activities for few minutes. Results in multiple accidents and few casualties. And the government sets up a 'zero day commission'.  The commission is led by a former president of the country- George Mullen. An elderly man with very high standards but had a personal tragedy. But the day he...

We, Indian middle class women do lead a sheltered life in India. More so if we are not working. We are surrounded by elders who protect from bad bad world out there, most of the time. That was the feeling I had when I watched Rain Dog in Netflix. It is a story about a single mom in London who is battling to have a roof over her head and put food on the table for her and her young daughter.  One of her colleagues suggests that she should apply for homes by the government. And the answer is she could get it if she were a foreigner (I think they meant immigrants).  Contrast this with the story of Sandhya in the Hindi film Pagglait. She has the entire family taking care of her. Her in laws, her parents. Though her six month old husband dies suddenly, he has left behind an insurance of 50 lakhs in her name.  I am not belittling the struggling we go through. But we more often have to worry about how to buy the next not-so-necessary thing. Not about roof over our head or food fo...

 I woke up earlier today and was browsing one site after another, frustration rising every moment. Then I decided to get up and work out. Worked out for around 10 minutes and you can't imagine the magic it brought. I did not even touch the fruit, instead grabbed a glass of water. Aha, why didn't I think of exercising 2 hours earlier? Any ways, things in the outside world are getting weirder by day. I think the proper 'kaliyuga' has arrived in full pledge. And how long will take for pralaya to end this sinful age?  Did you read or hear about yet another stampede in our capital Delhi. But we have learnt our lesson. The dead are compensated immediately - with cash. And their mortal remains released from hospitals to their families in quite a quick transactions. The accident site cleaned up in no time. The injured treated a little bit and sent back home.  Everything happened in such a high speed that one wondered did it happen in our Indya?  But again, we have learnt our...

ಬಹುತೇಕ ಹಿಂದೂಗಳು ವೇದಗಳನ್ನು ಧರ್ಮ ಗ್ರಂಥಗಳೆಂದು ನೋಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಇದು ನನಗೆ ಬಹಳ ದುರದೃಷ್ಟಕರ ಎನಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಏಕೆಂದರೆ ಹೀಗೆ ನೋಡಿದಾಗ ನಾವು ಅವುಗಳ ನಿಜವಾದ ಮಹತ್ವವನ್ನು ಗಮನಿಸುವದಿಲ್ಲ - ವೇದಗಳು ಆ ಪುರಾತನ ಕಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ, ಆರಂಭಿಕ ಹಂತಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾನವನ ಸ್ಥಿತಿ-ಗತಿ ಹಾಗೂ ಮನೋವೃತ್ತಿ ಹೇಗಿತ್ತೆಂದು ಹೇಳುತ್ತವೆ. ಆಹಾ, ಅದು ಎಂತಹ ಅದ್ಭುತ ಮನಸ್ಸಾಗಿತ್ತು!  ವೇದಗಳು (ವಿದ್= ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದ) ಮೂಲತಃ ಅಂದಿನ ಕಾಲದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಜ್ಞಾನದ ಸಂಗ್ರಹಗಳು; ಅವುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಹಲವು ವಿಷಯಗಳು ಕಲಸುಮೇಲೋಗರವಾಗಿವೆ: ಸ್ತೋತ್ರಗಳು, ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥನೆಗಳು, ಯಜ್ಞಗಳ ಆಚರಣೆಯ ವಿಧಿಗಳು, ಮಾಟ-ಮಂತ್ರಗಳು ಹಾಗೂ ಪ್ರಕೃತಿಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಅತಿ ಸುಂದರವಾದ ಕಾವ್ಯಗಳು ಇವೆಲ್ಲವುಗಳನ್ನೂ ವೇದಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಬಹುದು.  ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯವೆಂದರೆ ವೇದಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂರ್ತಿ ಪೂಜೆಯ ಪ್ರಸ್ತಾಪವಿಲ್ಲ; ಅಲ್ಲಿಯ ದೇವತೆಗಳಿಗೆ ದೇವಾಲಯಗಳಿಲ್ಲ. ಆದರೆ ಈ ಗ್ರಂಥಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಆದಮ್ಯ ಜೀವ ಚೈತನ್ಯ ವ್ಯಾಪಿಸಿದೆ.  ವೈದಿಕ ಆರ್ಯರು ಜೀವನದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ  ಅತೀ ಉತ್ಸಾಹ ಹೊಂದಿದ್ದ ಕಾರಣ, ಬಹುಶಃ ಆತ್ಮದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಗಮನ ಹರಿಸಿಲಿಲ್ಲ.  ಆದರೆ ಮರಣದ ನಂತರ ಯಾವುದೋ ಒಂದು ರೀತಿಯ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವವಿರಬಹುದೆನೋ ಎಂಬ ಅಸ್ಪಷ್ಟ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಯನ್ನು ಮಾತ್ರ ಹೊಂದಿದ್ದರು. ಕಾಲ ಕ್ರಮೇಣ ದೇವರ ಪರಿಕಲ್ಪನೆ ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತಾ ಹೋಯಿತು: ಮೊದಮೊದಲು ಗ್ರೀಸ್ ದೇಶದಂತೆ ಒಲಿಂಪಿಯನ್ ಪ್ರಕಾರದ ಅನೇಕ ದೇವರುಗಳ ಪೂಜೆ (...

ಮೊದಲ ಮಾತು: ಈ ಲೇಖನವನ್ನು ಶ್ರೀ ಜವಹರಲಾಲ ನೆಹರು ಅವರ 'The discovery of India' ಗ್ರಂಥದ ಸಹಾಯದಿಂದ ಬರೆದಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಈ ಪುಸ್ತಕದ ಈ ಅಧ್ಯಾಯವನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿದಾಗ (ಮೂಲಕೃತಿಯ ಧ್ವನಿ ಸುರುಳ Audibleನಲ್ಲಿ ಲಭ್ಯವಿದೆ) ನನಗೆ ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯ ಮತ್ತು ಬಹಳ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆಯೂ ಆಯಿತು. ನಮ್ಮ ಪೂರ್ವಜರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನಾನೇನೂ ತಿಳಿದಿಲ್ಲವಲ್ಲ ಎಂದು ಮುಜಗರವೂ ಆಯಿತು.