Life is an illusion

 As I lamented on multiple occasions, I have lost the ability to read a book - fiction, non-fiction, critical essay, poetry .. any type.  So I have adopted another technique - audio books. I religiously pay the subscription fees each month for audible. And I listen to some books. Some days. While I am walking.  Interestingly enough, one book I completed listening and was really captivated was 'My experiments with truth' - the autobiography of Gandhiji. Initially I was listening to Hindi version, then continued with English version.  The style of writing is good without being pedantic - which often happens with autobiographies. And more importantly it also educates us on the history of our freedom struggle.  After finishing that book, I have started to listening to 'the discovery of India'. Which is even better. Well, Nehru is a great writer and the subject matter is history.  I am liking it.  So much so that, I searched around, downloaded a few books, discarded a few an

Stranger and stranger events keep happening - a racist, misogynist person convicted of 34 criminal cases and many more, a person responsible for insurrection has been elected back as the president of richest and strongest nation in the world. And we lamented our election! I was reading a post on Twitter about how the people who are fans of such and such a political party are idiots. I would change it a little bit. People who are fans of any politician or a political party, anywhere in the world are not very smart individuals. Easily swayed, unwilling to employ their gray cells and followers of herd.  And unwilling to see the flaws (flaws there in plenty) in their idol. But that is what a fan is. A fan is devoted to his 'God' in every possible way and sees him as a God on earth.  But in good old days there were fans of movie stars and sportsmen only. Not fans of politicians. And the people they idolized could not do much harm. And the future of entire country and of generations

Legend : After Mahabharatha war, Pandavas were advised to seek the forgiveness by Lord Shiva. As they had committed fratricide, brahmahatya and many many other cides. That is what is war for you - it makes you kill your family. Say no to war - say it to Israel and Russia.  So as they had killed their cousins, their teacher and their grandfather, they come in search of Shiva to Kashi. Lord Shiva is angry by their sins and is in no mood to pardon them. So he goes to GuptaKashi disguised as a bull - Nandi and hides among other cattle.  Pandavas follow him there. Bhima grows in stature and size and forces all the cattle to walk between his legs. Of course Lord Shiva wouldn't do that. Now Bhima catches Nandirupi Shiva by his hind legs and tail. And the Lord disappears from there. He appears in 6 different places - hump at Kedarnath, face at Rudranath, arms at Tungnath, navel and stomach at Madhyamaheshwar and the locks at Kalpeshwar.  Vishwanath Temple in Guptakashi The temple is simila

I climbed 5 kms of the steep Himalyan hill to reach Yamunotri. Correction - I was carried by 4 people in this uphill climb. Not in a wheelchair, but in a chair attached to 4 poles - a kind of palanquin. Four men were supposed to carry me after my death, not when I was hale and healthy. And if I was unable to climb the hill, why on earth would I want to go to this holy place. I don't think I will ever get a little bit punya by this act.  Then something happened. I got down from this doli to cover last 50 meters or so by walk. I started shivering, and I could not control the shiver and started whimpering. The same doli carriers, helped me by giving me hot tea and asking me to rub my palms vigorously. And then taking me to the hot spring. Who says humanity does not exist? You find it unexpected places and situations.  But then once in the temple, a priest almost dragged us by hand and performed a puja in our names. OK, that is good. We semi-believers deserved that. But what was not pr

Ganga Arati- we are sitting in the charan of Ganga maa And suddenly the dry and dirty river starting flowing with gutso.  So much so that a lady and a man sitting in one of the bottom steps had to climb to upper ones lest they flow away (and acquire eternal liberation). In its gush, it has brought all kinds of garbage. My worry was, what if the water flow increases suddenly and we are unable to come out of water.  Or there is a stampede and we become yet another religious stampede statistics.  Luckily any of these didn’t happen- as there was no cloudburst or even a tiny bit of rain that day. The authorities must have released water for Arati or because it was a special day- a full moon day. I must have been the only person holding such sinful thoughts - people were busy singing 'jai ganga ma'. Oh, we love to say jai - as we hardly ever get this jai - victory.  And the security is busy trying to collect 'daan' from gullible devotees.  I have a tiny little question - why

On the way back we came back to Haridwar. We had missed Ropeway visit to Manasadevi temple. I found the ropeway journey lacklustre and the temple loud. Literally. The music accompanied to the puja was loud and fierce. More suitable for Bhairav temple than Manasadevi temple.  And a funny thing happened, I observed in temple-let, a mini temple on the side, a priest asking the name of one's wife and then blessing both man and wife by touching both with peacock feather multiple times. I wanted that experience. Our names were told - and the priest starting blessing - but he wanted to know how much money are giving the God. When we said none - he tried to chase us away. When my husband tried to take the tilak - sandalwood paste which is common here and all the priests apply it to the devotees. When my husband tried to take the tilak, the priest wouldn't let him touch it.  Just like kindness has a price, divine blessing too has a price. In this 'ghor kali yug'. Hardwar and Hra

We started our Kedarnath Badrinath journey( in fact it is called char Dham, the other two dhamm being Gangotri and Yamunotri)  without collecting a lot of information. What little information we collected was nowhere near sufficient.   I want to help you readers not face similar problems if at all you plan on such pilgrimage . First of all, these are two holy places are located in the himalayan mountains, so it is not for feeble hearted or feeble bodied. The temperature will reach around 2 to 3°C. You will need layers and layers of warm clothes and like any other tourist place, it is swamped with all kinds of hawkers  trying to fleece you. Kedarnath temple is at a distance of 16 km from the base - a place called Gaurikund where no vehicle goes. You should either hike the distance, if you’re strong  or you should ride a pony or you can go in a palki.  Of course there is a helicopter service too which is extremely difficult to get and not very unreliable too. You have to book the helicop

 Gangotri is the starting point of River Ganga in the state of Uttarakhand. The place is also known for its scenic beauty, situated at an elevation of 3100 meter, surrounded by Himalayan mountains. There is shrine of Ganga. Every day thousands of Hindus visit this place to take the blessings of Ganga and to wash away their sins in the river. Mythology: There was king called Sagara in Ikshvaku dynasty. Once he was performing Ashwamedha yaga. Indra captured this horse and sequestered it in Patala.  Sagara’s 60000 sons went to Patala to release this horse from captivity. Their mayhem disturbed king Kapila who was performing penance. He got angry and by his stare, the 60000 children of Sagar were burnt to ashes.  The responsibility of final rites of these children passed on from one king to next until this duty fell on Bhagiratha. He prayed to goddess Ganga to descend down to earth. But she replied that force of her flow will play havoc on earth and Bhagiratha should pray to lord Shiva for

 I am sure I will make a great bhakt- as I have a large amount of half-baked knowledge. I can speak with vehemence. I can be vengeful.  And on the inside, I am fearful, mean minded and suspicious person. And I always blame others. And I always speak with righteous indignation. More so when I am at fault.  Sadly I lean in the opposite direction - at least in my speech, not so much in my action.

 Uttarakhand still has libraries - not digital libraries, but brick and mortar ones. I rarely see one in our silicon city Bangalore. You can justify its absence by saying - we all have infinite, endless library on all topics imaginable, at our fingertips. In the form of our mobiles. You can also state the actual reason - nobody reads now - we all get our infinite wisdom from “shorts”. The state is picturesque- your eyes will have a feast. And the road from Haridwar to Barkot follows river Yamuna. A river flows from mountain peak to ocean - to join its destination. We in our all wisdom go from mountain foothills to its peak - thinking we are somehow defying gravity. Or we fool ourselves that we are  king Bhageeratha who prayed for thousands of years to bring Ganga to earth.  Through out the path, we see mountains on the opposite side and start believing we are going round and round around the same set of mountains. We may be foolish to do that, but not the river. What actually happens i

The rate at which our cities and towns are growing vertically, all around the country, the day is not far when we literally reach the moon. Before our scientists or Elon Musk make moon touring a reality, our Bangalores and Delhis will be already there. Am I wrong?

The reason I prefer google tourism to physical one - you can visit the places as close as you wish. You can see each part of the architecture, zooming to your eyes’ content   I don’t do well with people. People in a group- for more than a small encounter. So obviously I am in a kind of a soup. And as usual thinking about quitting.  Here comes yesterday’s events. We visited Indira Gandhi memorial preceded by Birla Mandir. Which is not so majestic as Hyderabad mandir. And marble idols - they look more like dolls to us than Gods. We want our God to be black - like our hearts. And another grouse is they did not allow our mobiles inside in this Mandir. Mobiles have now fused into our body and we feel physical pain without it. And know this ye temples - allowing mobiles inside will result in free publicity for you.  Looking at old photos of Indira Gandhi in Indira Memorial you realise how beautiful and regal she was. And how like you and me, attending school(in a saree? - it was 1930s though

 For our Yatra, we started our visit with not so sanatani place - Qutab Minar in Delhi. The minar was started by Qutub Uddin aibak in the year 1299, founder of slave dynasty. What an oxymoron- Slave dynasty! Or a great feat by him.  Anyways this five storied minar representative of Islam architecture has inscriptions from Quran in calligraphy. It has had a colorful history- having been damaged and rebuilt multiple times.  What interested my spouse’s interest is an iron tower in the complex - a Vishnu dhwaja from 375 AD. It was probably brought from Udayagiri caves in Madhya Pradesh. What makes it unique is its rust resistant composition. The tower has inscriptions of Sanskrit.  This massive pillar is 23’8” tall and weighs 6 tonnes.  There was also a gate with intricate inscriptions in I assume Arabic.  My vain attempt to capture sunset 

The tragedy of modern day when many of us have no worries of roti-kapada ya makaan is that we don't have role models. We don't have a father figure or a mother figure we can aspire to. Every one seems to have feet of clay.  Take the example of Elon Musk. Before twitter, I read some where that he is this crazy genius, who is inventing one revolutionary technology after another - space travel, electric cars come to mind. Now he has taken over Twitter and facing hate and ridicule every single day.  That could be one of the reasons I am still continuing listening to Experiments with Truth by Gandhiji. He is some one our generation can look up to and idolize.  The Hindi as well as English translation (by Mahadev Desai) are written so well. And the story never appears self-righteous nor dogmatic. The words so sound so honest.  It is down to earth story of a down to earth man who shook the entire nation and the world. And it is the story of a man who is revered and respected all over

ಎಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲೂ ಹಬ್ಬ ಭರ್ಜರಿ ಮಾರಾಟ - ಸೀರೆ ಯಿಂದ ಚಡ್ಡಿಯ ತನಕ ಗೊಂಬೆಯಿಂದ ಗಾಡಿಯ ತನಕ ೫೦-೬೦-೭೦ ಪ್ರತಿಶತ ಕಡಿತ   ನಾನು ಅಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲ ಹುಡುಕಿದೆ ಎಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲ ಹುಡುಕಿದೆ ಚೂರು ಖುಷಿ, ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ನೆಮ್ಮದಿ, ಇಷ್ಟೇ ಇಷ್ಟು ಸಮಾಧಾನ ಸಿಗಲೇ ಇಲ್ಲ ಎಲ್ಲೂ ಸಿಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ -ಸ್ಟಾಕ್ ಇಲ್ಲ  ಯಾವಾಗ ಬರುವದೋ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ  

 I had read already 3 books of the author Ann Patchett. So I decided let me read this 4th book by her.  Though I sat and completed the book - it did not reach the standards of her other books. The narration is excellent, but the story line is somewhat not as good as her other books.  The magician's assistant is a 50 year old Sabine whose husband, her long term associate and her only true love has died. And she is deep depression and spends her days just lying down. Until she receives an unexpected guest - her lawyer - who reveals a strange secret.  That her husband Parsifal has his family back in Nebraska - a mother and two sisters. And he has left behind some money for them. And also his real name was Guy Fetters.  Sabine is shocked beyond words - he had always told her that his family - father, mother and a sister all had died in an accident. And he would just not talk anything when ever she broached the subject of his parents. Why did he lie to her?  Sabine's parents suggest

 By the time I set the font, its size and also search back the site which has the book I was reading online, I remembered something in the kitchen and ran there.  See, the problem with free sites like readanybook, is they don't bother about prettiness of the site much. So it is slightly irritating to read your favorite book.  Yes, I selected comic sans. I am a boomer.  But this was just an unrelated rambling.  I have yet another enlightenment about democracy. The industrialists pay uncountable millions and buy the politicians. These politicians come to power and pay some millions to TV channels and buy them. And the TV channels do not pay a single penny (or paisa) and buy all of us - the gullible citizens. (Great is the power of jingoism and 'faith') So who is the ruler here ? The industrialists? Money? Our blind faith? Can I call this form of governance   buyocracy?

We are all angry about illegal immigrants - Rohingyas, Bangla-deshis. And in the case of America, everyone else. But do we really know their story? Do we bother to know those? Why would we? We see them as terrorists who have come to destroy our country.  Dunki - a Hindi film is about such immigrants - not from Bangladesh, but from India - from Punjab. Mannu and her friends want to go to London - to earn in 'Pounds' so that they can help to alleviate poverty of their parents. Their dream has its seed from people in their town who have 'havai jahaj' on their terraces. Those parents whose children have gone to UK, put up a plane on top of their terraces. And they proudly tell the success stories of their kids.  And these successful kids, come home occasionally and take away the pretty girls, breaking the hearts of local young men. So these trio want to go to UK. And they come across a kusti coach - Hardy -Hardayal Singh.  Hardy - SRK was one of the reasons I wanted to watc

When a person fears something, he becomes deluded, and is unable to think clearly. Makes mistakes often and as a result, faces further difficulties. So what does one fear? As we progress in our age, and become wise old men/women, there aren't many things we need to fear.  We don't fear the loss of our beauty, as it is a long gone. We don't fear the loss of our youth, again same argument.  We only have to fear jaraa mratyu - old age and death. And of course vyadhi - disease.  But me, I don't fear vyadhi much, because by God's grace, I am reasonably healthy. Except for occasional digestive disorders. And my laptop and phone are filled with remedies for bloating, acidity etc.  I think I fear uncertainty. For example take today - I had sudden stomach cramp. Now I started my endless cycle of thought-process. What might have caused it - did I have slight burning in my tongue as well? Do I have food poisoning? How and why?  Unfortunately these questions are not easy to ans

 I was happily writing ashtavakragita translation. Then I went back and saw that my viveka chudamani translation was incomplete and in a bad shape. So started fixing it - most of the work I do is to change colors and fonts and add some links. And reading and confirming that I understand the words and they are typo free.  Then some how I started reading about Sankhya philosophy. It appeared simpler and more non-abstract than advaita philosophy of Shankara.  So I discontinued Chudamani too. And have been currently watching youtube shorts and cursing the day I was born . And when I don't feel great due to any reason, I start to wonder - should I start my reciting again. Like all semi-believers, I try this clutch when I don't understand what to do.  It is funny to be thinking about repeating some prayers verses in an unknown language while trying to understand Sankhya. Because though Sankhya is an astika(accepts the authority of Vedas) philosophy, it does not say there is a God. 

For all the 'leader' of the world title we have obtained recently and all the 5-10-20 trillion economy we will soon be having, we may not after all be a very great nation. See, in all these 76 years, we have never had any coups either by the military or citizens. Unlike all our neighbors. We have never had any capitol hill kind of riot - where people collected all their danda- machchu and other handy weapons and seized our parliament.  Strangely enough, there were no coups, even  in previous regimes of last 70 years, when not very brave, not very patriotic, not very great politicians were feigning to rule our country. Some thing might be right( or wrong?)  either with our politicians or with our people to have had a successful democracy for 3/4th of century. Touch wood.

ನಿನ್ನೆ ಒಂದು ಯೂಟ್ಯೂಬ್ ವಿಡಿಯೋ ನೋಡುತ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದೆ. ಅದರ ಕಂಟೆಂಟ್ ಕ್ರಿಯೇಟರ್ ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶದ ಒಂದು ವಿವಾದಾತ್ಮಕ ರಾಜ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಅವನು ಹೋಗಿ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಜನರ ಜೊತೆ ಸಂವಾದ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದ. ಒಬ್ಬ ಹೇಳಿದ - ಅವರಲ್ಲಿ ಟ್ರಾನ್ಸಫಾರ್ಮರ್ ಪದೇ ಪದೇ ಸುಟ್ಟು ಹೋಗುತ್ತದೆ - ಯಾಕೆ? ಯಾಕೆಂದರೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಕೇವಲ ದಿನದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಗಂಟೆ ವಿದ್ಯುತ್ ಇರುತ್ತದೆ - ಆ ಸಮಯದಲ್ಲೇ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಜನ ಅವರ ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನೆಲ್ಲಾ ಮಾಡಲು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಓವರ್ ಲೋಡಾಗಿ ಟ್ರಾನ್ಸಫಾರ್ಮರ್ ಪದೇ ಪದೇ ಸುಡುತ್ತದೆ. ಅವರು ಕಂಪ್ಲೇಟ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಮಾಡಿ ಸೋತು ತಮ್ಮ ದುಡ್ಡಲ್ಲೇ ಟ್ರಾನ್ಸಫಾರ್ಮರ್ ರಿಪೇರಿ ಮಾಡಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬ ಹೇಳಿದ - ಅವರ ಹಳ್ಳಿಗೆ ವಿದ್ಯುತ್ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೇ ೨೦೧೬ರಲ್ಲಿ. ನಾನು ತೆರೆದ ಬಾಯಿ ಮುಚ್ಚಲಿಲ್ಲ. ನಮ್ಮ ಊರೂ ಕುಗ್ರಾಮವೇ - ಆದರೆ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ್ದು - ನನಗೆ ನೆನಪಿದೆ - ನಮ್ಮ ಹಳ್ಳಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಕರೆಂಟ್ ಬಂದಿದ್ದು  ಸುಮಾರರು ೧೯೭೫-೭೬ರಲ್ಲಿ. ಇವತ್ತಿಗೆ ಸುಮಾರು ಐವತ್ತು ವರ್ಷದ ಹಿಂದೆ. ಅವರು ಪಾಪ ನಗುತ್ತ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಾರೆ - ನಾವು ಇನ್ನೂ ೧೯ನೇ ಶತಮಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದೀವಿ. ಅದಾಯಿತು ಬಿಡಿ - ಜನ ಅದಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ಗೋಳು ಹೇಳಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವದು ನೌಕರಿಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ. ಯಾವುದೇ ತರಹದ ಸರಕಾರೀ ಅಥವಾ ಖಾಸಗಿ ನೌಕರಿಗಳಿಲ್ಲ. ಓದಿರುವ ಯುವಕ-ಯುವತಿಯರು ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಖಾಲಿ ಕುಳಿತಿರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಪಿ. ಎಚ್. ಡಿ. ಮಾಡಿದವರು ಸಹ ಕೆಲಸವಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಈ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ

 ಹೆದರಬೇಡಿ. ನಾನು ಓಪನ್ ಆಗಿ ನನ್ನ ದೋಷಗಳನ್ನು ಹೇಳಿಕೊಳ್ತಾ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಶಬ್ದಶಃ ನುಡಿಯ ಅರ್ಥ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ನೀವು ಭಾರತೀಯ ಮಹಿಳೆಯಾದರೆ ಒಮ್ಮೆಯಲ್ಲ ಒಮ್ಮೆ ನಾನು ಈಗ ಹೇಳುವ ಸಂಕಷ್ಟವನ್ನು ಅನುಭವಿಸಿದ್ದೀರಾ. ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ಎದ್ದು ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಹಾಲು ಹೆಪ್ಪಾಗೇ ಇಲ್ಲ. ದಿನದಂತೆ ಹಾಲಿಗೆ ಹುಳಿ ಹಿಂಡಿ - ಅಂದರೆ ಹೆಪ್ಪು ಹಾಕಿ ನಿರಾಳವಾಗಿ ಮಲಗಿದ್ದಿರಿ. ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ನೋಡಿದರೆ ಈ ಭಾನಗಡೆ. ಈಗೇನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕಪ್ಪಾ. ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ - ಚೂರೇ ಚೂರು ಬಿಸಿ ಮಾಡಿದರೇ ಹಾಲು ಒಡೆಯಬಹುದು. ಬಿಸಿ ನೀರಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾತ್ರೆ ಇಟ್ಟರೆ ಹೆಪ್ಪಾಗದೇ ಉಳಿಯಬಹುದು. ಏನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕಪ್ಪ. ಒಂದು/ಅರ್ಧ ಲೀಟರ್ ಹಾಲು ಹಾಳು ಮಾಡಿದ ಪಶ್ಚಾತ್ತಾಪ ಒಂದು ಕಡೆ, ಇನ್ನು ದಿನವಿಡಿ ಬೇಕಾಗುವ ಮೊಸರಿಗೆ ಏನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕೆಂಬ ಸಂದಿಗ್ಧ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಕಡೆ.  ಅಮ್ಮ ಹೇಳದರು - ರಾತ್ರಿ ಹೆಪ್ಪು ಹಾಕಿದ ಮೇಲೆ, ಆ ಪಾತ್ರೆಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಪಾತ್ರೆ ಮುಚ್ಚಿಡು. ಅದನ್ನು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನಿಸಿದೆ. ನನ್ನದೇ ಅವಿಷ್ಕಾರವಾದ - ಹೆಪ್ಪು ಹಾಕಿದ ಹಾಲಿನ ಬೋಗುಣಿ ಮೇಲೆ ಭಾರ ಹೇರಿ ನೋಡಿದೆ. ಕುಕರ್ ಒಳಗಡೆ ಹಾಲಿನ ಪಾತ್ರೆ ಇಟ್ಟು ನೋಡಿದೆ.  ಉಹುಂ, ಏನು ಮಾಡಿದರೂ ಹಾಲು ಮೊಸರಾಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. ಕೈ ಚೆಲ್ಲಿ ಛಳಿಗಾಲವಿಡೀ ನಂದಿನಿ ಮೊಸರು ಅಂಗಡಿಯಿಂದ ತಂದು ಬಿಟ್ಟೆ. ನಂದಿನಿ ಮೊಸರು ದಪ್ಪಗೇನೋ ಇತ್ತು, ಆದರೆ ಏನೇನು ಹಾಕುತ್ತಾರೋ ದೇವರಿಗೇ ಗೊತ್ತು. ಈ ವರ್ಷ ಒಂದು ಐಡಿಯಾ ಹೊಳೆಯಿತು. ಅಡಿಗೆ ಮನೆ ಮೂಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಗುಮ್ಮಣ್ಣನಂತೆ ಕುಳಿತು

We have all heard the classification of religions as monotheistic and polytheistic (and atheistic if you want). But what is henotheism? Max Muller - British orientalist  coined this term to describe Indian religions - particularly Hindu religion. Henotheism is the worship a single God while not denying the existence of other Gods.  He noticed that the scriptures in our religion mention various deities as if they were one ultimate God/Goddess.  The origin is hen (one in Greek ) + theism (theos in Greek = God).  A related word is kathenotheism is the worship of one God at a time. Which we can relate to - Ganesha when starting any task, Shani on saturday, Goddess on Friday and Tuesday etc.  The abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) are all monothiestic. They believe that there is only God and often ridicule other religions for multitude of their Gods.  But again we Hindus always know that the God is one and we just call him by different names and give him different attrib

 What is a slur nowadays in India? One of them is left liberal. Where as right wing is a title of honor almost. So what are these words and what are the origins of these political terms?  A leftist ideology is liberal, rooting for change, for equality and modernism. It advocates the rights of poor people. Right wing ideology gives importance to order, it is conservative and it is on the side of rulers and rich people.  According to wikipedia which is modern day bible -  Generally, the left wing is characterized by an emphasis on "ideas such as freedom , equality, fraternity, rights, progress , reform and internationalism" while the right wing is characterized by an emphasis on "notions such as authority , hierarchy, order, duty , tradition, reaction and nationalism". And these words have their origin in French revolution. Soon after french revolution, in the french assembly, people who were loyal to the church and the king sat to the right of the president and suppo

 I re-watched House of Cards series in Netflix. Is it scary, very much so. But not in a sci-fi or ghost-zombie type of scary? It is real world scary. Looking at the dealings the politicians make, which we will never be aware of, I will re-iterate my previous quote - "आसन्द निमित्तं बहुकृत वेषम्". Asanda in sanskrit means chair - kursi - the throne if you may.  I wonder when ever our politicians take oath on the Holy Gita or other holy scriptures - will be they be imagining this book "the house of cards"? Will the new interns into political parties be taught this book/videos one lesson at a time? In times of crisis, will the 'leaders' lock themselves in their chambers and look into this book for guidance? For those of you who are living under rocks - 'House of cards' is a TV series about a very ambitious couple Frank Underwood and Claire Underwood and all their 'struggles' to become president and then to retain that power.  The struggle involv

 There are too many elections all across the world, that took place this year. And most have the same result - throw out the current government and bring in a new one. It does not matter if it is right wing, left wing, pro-rich, pro-poor. Just kick out the old government.  So people all over, are frustrated with inflation, unemployment, poor infrastructure and lack of accountability of their governments. And they hope (a faint hope)  that the other party they are voting to power may some how be a better one. Even a tiny bit better.  So the winner is not left or right, but anti-incumbency. Then what did happen in our good old country? Why didn't we kick out the incumbent government? But the numbers tell us that people were not happy with incumbent government.  Is this change, the change people want and change people brought in is any good for the society? It is a little bit good - because the governments, and the politicians will have to be more careful. They must have realized that

Some times we write on topics which we need to know, realize and practice. So here it is - yoga poses for various age related ailments.  Currently I am using an app called " Yoga " (concise name, no frills). It has a lot of guided sessions in free version too. Like yoga for back pain, for digestion, for anxiety etc.  I think I have been benefited by that app.  (Well, when you eat, drink and sleep with the app, the least we can do is use the app for some long term benefit.) But when suddenly, you realize you need to know which  poses should be practiced for a particular problem,  or you want to tell your friends and family about the yoga poses which are helping you a simple diagram - either line or normal, will help a lot. Provided you have some idea about these poses already.  And here are the pose-sets for digestion.  Now suppose you suffer from bloating - that feeling when your stomach has swelled with gas and you have lot of uncomfort. Here are the poses for bloating. An

 I have been trying to translate Ashtavakrageeta to Kannada. Is it the effort of my subconscious mind to make me a little bit stoic? Or is it my silly mind just doing the things because it can.      By the way, any one can now. Without much effort. Because apparently google translate can translate from Sanskrit to any language. But at times, I think the words and phrases are repeated so often in this book. For example something like - "you see yourself in all beings. And see all beings in you".(सर्वभूतेषु चात्मानं सर्वभूतानि चात्मनि ).  How many times has it appeared in the book? Ya, ya, repetition makes the concept sink into my thick brain, agreed. But ye to kuch jyada hi ho gaya. And then there is verse which says - "Know that passion and hatred are the nature of the mind. And the mind is not yours"(रागद्वेषौ मनोधर्मौ न मनस्ते कदाचन ). Alright, if the mind is not mine, then whose is it? And why do I feel the feelings of "not my" mind so strongly?  Or is

An old post from an old blog.  It was late in the evening. I was walking on the street to purchase curds. Suddenly it started raining - pouring heavily. I ran and ran with all my might to the near by temple. See! This is dramatization. It was evening but did I say it was dark? Nor was it lonely. It was a busy street.  Nor did I run a kilometer. Temple was just across the street. Then why did I run ? It was raining, right. I did not want to get drenched completely.  Why temple? Why not? Though I have not made up my mind whether to be an atheist or a budhdhist or a plain half-believing  hindu, waiting for the rain to subside in a temple is better than waiting outside a grocery shop for the crab  I am (Less people in the temple you see. If you do not include the multitude of Gods!) I made one circumambulation  of God (pradakshina) or rather Gods. There are 3 of them (I am not a believer of holy-trinity. In that temple, there were three gods). I did one big bowing as well. See Ramdev says

Now Satyavati is married to Shantanu and is living happily ever after. But what happens to her children. She has two children called Chitrangada and Vichitraveerya. The elder son Chitrangada is coronated as the king while Shantanu goes to the forest for his last days. Chitrangada - her elder son. has to fight a war with Gandharva’s - people from Gandhara. And is sadly killed in the war. So the throne comes to her younger son Vichitraveerya. And he, with the guidance of Bheeshma is ruling the country from Hastinapur.   Now the king of Kashi had three daughters of marriageable age. What was the marriageable age in those days - thousands of years ago? Who knows? May be as soon as they hit puberty. Anyway, the king arranged a swayamvar for his daughters.  Swayamvar is a  gathering of suitors - all kings and princes. The suitors will stand in a line and declare their qualifications. And the bride will chose the groom and garland him. This  was called swayamvar - swayam - self, vara - to wed

Ha, isn't it ludicrous? Me writing about kitchen tip is as appropriate as a politician writing about honesty and hard work. Kitchen Tip : If you have a lot of oil left out after frying, store it in a pet bottle and use it for lighting diyas for God. Backstory:    In the initial days of my friendship with net - was it 2000's?, I used to search for kitchen tips and save them in a file ! Imagine that! No, even then I wasn't a kitchen  person. Lack of awareness. I did not know back then, that there are million better ways, to kill time on   use  internet.      The second part of the title, is because mom (may be even my spouse) would be outraged if she reads this tip. Is it not sacrilageous to use used oil for God? Won't he(God),  be unhappy with her daughter and what if something bad happens to her?       But my opinion is, no he will not be outraged. First of all, he won't be bothered. In fact, he will be glad that, at least I did (finally) light some diyas fo

Why is he so helpless? Let me make myself very clear here. I am not talking about any ministers, or governments or even citizens. I am not at all talking about any mortals on this earth. Instead I am talking about mightier than all, the almighty God. We have been told that, he is supposed to help the good and punish the bad. (परित्राणाय साधूनां, ...) But if you look at newspapers everyday, you can very well see,who is being paritranified - saved and who is being vinashified - destroyed. Why, why, why is HE letting all this happen? Now let us look into little bit of physics.  Laws of physics says that matter can not be created , nor it can be destroyed. But the same physics laws state that mass can be converted into energy and vice versa.    Initially there was nothing.- Shunya.  No matter, no earth, no sun, no moon, no nothing. Then HE created it all. How? By conversion!!! He converted his energy to create mass.  And lord, that does need a lot of energy. 

Frank and Cee are just two scared children. Running away from home and then coming back, never really finding where their home is.  First they run from Texas leaving behind their field, their crop and their horse Sarah. In fact at that time, Cee was still in her mother’s womb. They escape from Texas, from what kinds of atrocities, we don’t know. They arrive at Lotus, Georgia with the hope that their grandpa Salem Money will give them shelter.  He did give shelter - but barely that. His new wife Lenore, did not like the arrival of this large family in their house barely large enough for 3 people. And she expressed it often. Salem did not dare to criticise his wife, as she is the one who held the purse string. As Franks’ parents were   out of the house working, the children were the ones facing the brunt of Lenore’s anger and frustration. Frank and Cee never really complained to Ma and Pa about the mistreatment at the hands of their step grandmother. But even if they had done so, their p

  Devavrata So it all started with goddess Ganga marrying the mortal Shantanu. With a condition that he should not question her - no matter what her action is. And that results in 7 children of the Kuru king being thrown into the river Ganges. When she tried to carry the eighth son too, king stopped her and questioned her. And the end result is she deserted him, but didn’t drown the eighth child - our protagonist Devavrata.  Ganga nurtured this boy in heaven and when he is eighteen brought him back to the king. And everything was hunky dory for a while. Until a day, the king ventured to the river again.  He is attracted by a heavenly fragrance and went in search of its origin. Of course it is a young lady, this time not a goddess, but a young girl. King is enamoured by her beauty and wants to marry her. He approaches her father and asks her hand in marriage.  Funnily the fisherman was not so subservient. He asked whether the king will promise that his daughter will be a rajmata. Will h

 Continuing my efforts with "maha" bharatha, I tried reading the story of Shantanu. Shantanu was the king of Hastinapur and was the son of Prateepa. He spent most of his time hunting. May be because, his time was peaceful and his army was strong and people were happy.  One day in one of his hunting expedition, he saw a beautiful maiden - as beautiful as an apsara.  He fell in love with her and begged her to marry him. The lady in question turned out to be Ganga from heavens, daughter of Jahnu.  It is a funny story that this Ganga had previously begged Shantanu's father Prateepa to marry her. She straight away sat on his right thigh. He being a gentleman told her that he does not entertain other women. And also she sitting on his right thigh, can be his daughter or daughter in law, not his wife. Rejected Ganga went back to heavens after promising him that she will marry his son. So coming back to Shantanu, he asked the pretty lady to marry him. She obliged but with a pre-c