Life is an illusion

 If you like maths puzzles, here are some recent ones from my blog. Running track.

Dharmadhvaja (धर्मध्वज).—1. adj. one who displays the flag of virtue, a hypocrite.  A historical event! We got back our freedom! Freedom from colonial mindset! A triumph after 500 years of wait! So what do these quotes refer to? Well, you all know what happened yesterday on Jan 22nd 2024. "The" temple has been consecrated - fulfilling the promise the incumbent government and prime minister. (Funny the only minister we could see was the prime minister and RSS chief. The rest were absent!) So entire nation - the visible and vocal one - is celebrating with pomp and fervor. In far away Bangalore, in this upscale apartment complex, there have been pheris (parades)- not the saath phere type, but the orange type. There are recitation of holy books, distribution of akshata - holy rice grains etc.  So is the case in smaller towns in Karnataka. In our hometown, people have distributed forms along with akshata - requesting devotees to say 108 hymns of Lord Sri Ram.  And as far as t...

 I never expected I would like a non-fiction. The new generation reads non-fiction - and only non-fiction, it appears. But most of these books - at least the best sellers are either dry or full of cliches. Neither do they educate you, nor entertain. And they don't even make you sad. But this book, the famous book by the famous author - 'The discovery of India' by Jawaharlal Nehru is wonderfully written. (Published in 1946 - one year before independence) It teaches us about the pre independence times. And also describes 'entire' history of our entire nation.  So I did download the free book to read, along the audio book.  Well, the initial chapters dealt with the author's personal life and his views. And I started to wonder whether it is an autobiography. Not that, this part was uninteresting. I could relate to his view about ancient Indian religious texts and their vagueness. I was intrigued by the lives of people in that era.  Then came the description of Indu...

ಕಲ್ಟ್  ಎನ್ನುವ ಶಬ್ದ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಬಹಳ ಪ್ರಚಾರದಲ್ಲಿದೆ. ಈ ಕಲ್ಟ್ ಅನುಯಾಯಿಗಳನ್ನು ಭಕ್ತರು ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಲಾಗದು. ಯಾವುದೊ ಒಂದು ನಿಗೂಢ ಗುಂಪಿನ ಅಂಧ ಭಕ್ತರು ಎನ್ನಬಹುದೇನೋ. ಒಂದು ಭೀಕರ ಉದಾಹರಣೆ ಕೊಡುತ್ತೇನೆ  ೧೯೭೮ರಲ್ಲಿ ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಅಮೆರಿಕಾದ ಗಯಾನಾ ದೇಶದ ಜೋನ್ಸ್ಟೌನ್ ಎಂಬ ಊರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಜಿಮ್ ಜೋನ್ಸ್ ಎಂಬ 'ಗುರು'ವಿನ ಒಂದು ಆಶ್ರಮವಿತ್ತು.  ೩೮೦೦ ಎಕರೆ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಈ ಆಶ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಅವನ ಅನುಯಾಯಿಗಳು - ಹೆಂಗಸರು, ಗಂಡಸರು, ಮಕ್ಕಳು ಎಲ್ಲ ಇದ್ದರು. ೧೮-ನವೆಂಬರ್ ೧೯೭೮ರಂದು ಜಿಮ್ ಜೋನ್ಸ್  ಅವರಿಗೆಲ್ಲ ಧ್ವನಿವರ್ಧಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಅನೌನ್ಸ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಾನೆ - 'ನೀವೆಲ್ಲ ಸಾಮೂಹಿಕ ಆತ್ಮಹತ್ಯೆ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳಿ. ಇಲ್ಲವಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಜನರು ನಿಮ್ಮನ್ನು ಬಂಧಿಸಿ ಡಮ್ಮಿ ಗಳನ್ನಾಗಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ, ಫ್ಯಾಸಿಸ್ಟ್ ಗಳಾಗಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ' ಎಂದೆಲ್ಲ ಪುಸಲಾಯಿಸಿ ೯೧೮ ಜನರ ಸಾಮೂಹಿಕ ಹತ್ಯೆ/ಆತ್ಮಹತ್ಯೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾನೆ.  ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ  ಏನೆಂದರೆ ಅವರೆಲ್ಲ ವಿಷ ಕುಡಿಯಲು, ಅಥವಾ ವಿಷದ ಇಂಜೆಕ್ಷನ್ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಹೇಗೆ ಒಪ್ಪಿದರು? ತಮ್ಮ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಹೇಗೆ ವಿಷ ಕುಡಿಸಿದರು. ಇದು ಅಂಧ ಭಕ್ತಿಯ ಪರಾಕಾಷ್ಠೆ - "ತಮ್ಮ ಗುರು  ದೇವರು, ಅವನು ಹೇಳಿದ್ದನ್ನು ನಂಬಿ ಅದರಂತೆ ನಡೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳಲೇ ಬೇಕು. ಅವನನ್ನು ನಂಬದವರು ದುಷ್ಟರು, ಇತ್ಯಾದಿ, ಇತ್ಯಾದಿ.". ಇಂತಹ ಬೋಧನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕಲ್ಟ್  ಅನುಯಾಯಿಗಳಿಗೆ ನೇರವಾಗಿ, ಇಂಡೈರ...

 So I pledged - is there a simpler word for it - I pledged that I will read 12 books in this year. Considering I had 30 in last year's target and could complete only 11, I have accepted defeat.  Currently the book is Brooklyn - a book by Irish author Colm Toibin. It's about an Irish girl moving to America for work. So far, it's good. The protagonist is a young girl who surprisingly managing her life in a new country.  Then an idea stuck me - why don't I create pages with Sanskrit quizzes - pattern would be same. I can even add an intro page for each quiz. With sentences, meanings, glossary and multi-choice questions. How will that be? Imagine duolingo - without all the images - without help for word when we click on them. But I can add hover action for each word in each sentence. But may not be image. And it will just be initial phase. It can evolve into something better and beautiful. How about that? (Dear blogger - an app I am using for journaling corrects my words, w...

 Do you know what has happened? We have stopped being funny, as we can only joke about ourselves which is boring, or about our families which may prove to be dangerous ;). I was watching a stand up comedian whom I once admired - he kept on talking about himself, his wife and his kid. It was boring or cringy or both. I remembered his previous shows where he talked about important things like politics. Earlier it was funny, succint and thought provoking.  Now politicians all over the world have done the most dangerous thing possible. They have converted people to be their followers. We have to fear these fans rather than the government, when we write anything political. These people equate the government and ministers to their Gods. So for them, one word against them is a blasphemy. And they start their ruthless, cruel attack. This has gagged writers, comedians and bloggers (we write too, you know. And we do have opinions. Our opinions matter - so we would like to think) all ove...