Ind vs Pak today!

I’ve been restraining myself from writing anything about the touchy topic of the ICC Cricket World Cup for last few days. I know that most of the people in this world have a hard time respecting other people’s opinions if they don’t match up with their own. They sincerely try to ‘convert’ the others by arguing to the point where the other gives in and accepts their own opinion. I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Opinions are just that, they can’t be right or wrong. So let me say at the outset that whatever your opinions are about what I’m going to write today, I completely respect them as long as they’re your own and you stand for them!

That said, let me explain the title of this post. It is definitely going to be about today’s match between India and Pakistan but it is going to be about much more. I’m using this title as a good marketing gimmick to attract maximum readers because that’s what the world is about these days, marketing gimmicks. The post is going to have a lot more questions in it than answers. Because it is going to mirror what’s been going out in my mind in last few days. I haven’t been following the media too much (thank God?) but FB does a perfectly good job at showing us what goes on in the world and in people’s minds. Also, since my father’s closely involved in the preparations for the final on Wankhede, unfortunately, I’m privy to a bit more info than others regarding the same. All this input has triggered many questions, some anxiety and a bit of sadness in me today. So I felt the need to express myself and hence the end of self-imposed moratorium. For the most part, I’m writing this post for my own sake and so, if the marketing gimmick of the attractive title fails to get this post any readers, so be it! Enough said, to the main points now.

Today there’s a match between India and Pakistan. Yes, it is a match. It is not THE match, a war, a jihad, a question of anyone’s life and death, or at least it should not be, in my opinion. Of course, the media has made sure it is made to feel like all of the above and we, the people, are more than happy to feel so. Every time there is a cricket match between these 2 countries, what I call ‘the negative definition patriotism’ of Indians (and may be Pakistanis, I don’t know) pours forth with all the gusto. Let me explain the term. It means “Its not that we love our country or anything, but we sure hate those bastards to the core!” In last few days, I’ve seen all the wiseass, cynical comments about the Pakistan team on FB, people calling our neighbours Fuckistan and all that jazz! Today I saw that MaNaSe (it’s a political party in Maharashtra) has built a podium in a street and is going to have a huge screen put up to show the match live in the street. Yes, I know this is done in many other countries, especially for football/soccer matches. What I find objectionable is, why wasn’t this done for all the matches or at least all the matches India played? Aren’t we ourselves giving the so called ‘most hated country’ a special status by doing this? This is sort of like one of the aspects of feminism to me. By imitating the haircuts and attires of men, aren’t women increasing their importance and implying they are imitable? How is that supposed to work to boost women’s self-esteem? Similarly, if we hate Pakistan so much, why do we want to watch them on big screen? “Well, dummy, because we want to watch India crush them!” I hear you say. But then we didn’t have so much enthusiasm in seeing any other country being crushed? Notice that the enthusiasm, in this case, is about watching Pakistan lose than watching India win! You know that’s true! That’s what I call ‘the negative definition of patriotism’.

So that was about the cricket. Now let me come to the social aspect. You may or may not know how many security personnel of all sorts have been arriving in Mumbai in last few days. There’s the local police, the RAF (Rapid Action Force) and thousands of them. There are 184 CCTVs installed. There are security drills going on every day. The personnel concerned with managing the event, the ground staff, the officials, everyone got their fingerprints taken and photos of their eyes (irises) taken yesterday. They’re being issued an ID card only after that. They are to arrive at MCA the day before and stay their overnight for security purpose. So no coming to the venue on the day of the match for those who have access to ‘sensitive’ areas. It feels like a freakin’ warzone! Or an emergency! Or at least, it definitely doesn’t feel like a sporting event! What kind of a city, country and world are we living in? We need thousands of army men so that we can enjoy (?) a game? Of course, I’m sure we will enjoy it and call it the invincible spirit of Mumbai. Does Mumbai even have any spirit left in her? Do we have any spirits and sensitivity left in us? Do I even want to go to Wankhede through this entire circus to watch the match?

May be India will win the World Cup, Indians will get ever more involved in Cricket, the sponsors will mint ever more money via these ever more addicted consumers, and we will get ever more distracted from things that are called life. Because cricket is our life, we bleed blue and we’re proud of it!

TED Tuesday: Kids take charge

Kiran Bir Sethi shows how her groundbreaking Riverside School in India teaches kids life's most valuable lesson: "I can." Watch her students take local issues into their own hands, lead other young people, even educate their parents.

TED Tuesday: Importance of "soft power"

India is fast becoming a superpower, says Shashi Tharoor -- not just through trade and politics, but through "soft" power, its ability to share its culture with the world through food, music, technology, Bollywood. He argues that in the long run it's not the size of the army that matters as much as a country's ability to influence the world's hearts and minds.

International Mother Language Day

Today, 21st February, is observed as the International Mother Language Day as proclaimed by UNESCO. From the event website:

"The International Mother Language Day, proclaimed by the General Conference of UNESCO in November 1999, has been observed yearly since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

It originated as the international recognition of Language Movement Day, which has been commemorated in Bangladesh since 1952."

On this day I felt like sharing a video with my readers that I have made from a poster I had made some years back. It was to showcase the linguistic diversity of India, probably linguistically the most diverse country in the world with 23 official languages and 1600+ dialects spoken. I hope you will enjoy the video and the poster below.

(click to enlarge)

Showcasing India (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1 last Saturday ...

Showcasing India (Part 1)

Stay tuned for Part 2 next Saturday!

Organ Donor Awareness Week 2009

This is one of those occurrences where for no apparent reason I think about something and then bam!, there it is. I had no idea that this (8 - 14 Aug, 2009) is the Organ Donor Awareness Week 2009. I have decided to myself for a few months now that the next time I go for a visit home, I will be registering myself for organ donation. And today on a spur of the moment I happened to search the web for "organ donation India". The above link and the knowledge that this is the awareness week is the result of this search. So I thought I'd quickly share this link and fact with my readers and encourage them to do their part in "recycling" of human organs. I usually post about "green" and "eco" recycling but today this is a call for different kind of recycling. I hope at least some of you will be inspired to register yourself for organ donation after reading the article.

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Sunday Spotlight: Devavision Productions

Some time back I came across and watched the video Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge on Google videos. This video is made by a group of people who call themselves Devavision Productions. The website homepage spells out their moto to be "Revealing the hidden treasure of India's ancient Vedic wisdom and culture".

I was really impressed with the research these people have done and the efforts they are putting in to get the word out there. I believe that there is a lot of ancient knowledge (not just in India but in other cultures as well) which is still "hidden" from us because we infact haven't reached the spiritual, scientific and cultural maturity that is needed to comprehend it. So I'm delighted to see someone put in some serious effort towards "uncovering" that knowledge. Hence I thought I would do my bit of "publicising" this commendable effort and write a blog entry about them. Check them out if you are interested in ancient Indian knowledge!

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India votes!

The largest democracy in the world is currently holding its general elections to decide who will be the next set of politicians that will run the country. More than a month-long process hits its third phase today and my hometown, Mumbai, is voting today. While I sincerely wish that I could be in my beloved hometown to cast my vote and exercise the most fundamental right that democracy gives me, the truth is I'm not there. And I'm wasting my vote. However, there are quite a few younger generation NRIs like me who wish to vote and hope that soon India will have a provision for casting the vote online. Till then, all I can do as a true Indian is to encourage those who ARE in the right place at the right time to exercise their right and vote. And vote wisely!

Indian railway goes green

Indian Railway, that began its journey in 1853 during the British rule, has come a long way, literally and figuratively, in 150 odd years. It is a multi-gauge, multi-traction system with total track length of 108,706 km. However, only 1/4th of it runs on electricity, rest still consuming humongous amounts of coal and therefore polluting the air as it chugs along. But it looks like the Railway Ministry has finally taken some initiative to reduce its carbon footprint and employ solar power to run the railways. According to this article in Energy Business Daily, "At present, 128 level crossings and four stations in West Central Railway have already been provided with solar panels for electrification purpose."

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Vedic mathematics ..... for dummies?

Vedic Mathematics is a system of Mathematics demonstrated in the ancient Indian texts called the Ved (or more popularly known as their Anglicised plural form, the Vedas). According to the website of Vedic Mathematics Academy, “ ... all of mathematics is based on sixteen Sutras, or word-formulae.” (Sanskrit word ‘sutra’ means formula.) The website also goes on to describe the ease which the Vedic mathematics affords in doing difficult calculations. “In the Vedic system 'difficult' problems or huge sums can often be solved immediately by the Vedic method. These striking and beautiful methods are just a part of a complete system of mathematics which is far more systematic than the modern 'system'. Vedic Mathematics manifests the coherent and unified structure of mathematics and the methods are complementary, direct and easy. The simplicity of Vedic Mathematics means that calculations can be carried out mentally (though the methods can also be written down).”

The tutorials on the website give examples of simple applications of the sutras, to give a feel for how the Vedic Maths system works. Some great examples of how the maths is made easy are also shown in few of the videos I found on YouTube. One video shows how one can use simple straight lines to multiply two big numbers without knowing the multiplication tables. Another one shows how to square big numbers in your head using simple observation of number patterns. This video sort of implies that Taoist maths is derived from Vedic. The same person also demonstrates how to divide a long number by a small one quickly. There are many such videos that come up but I just wanted to share a few to show you the easiness of Vedic maths.

I would like to end this blog entry by once again sharing a few words from the Vedic Mathematics Academy website. “Interest in the Vedic system is growing in education where mathematics teachers are looking for something better and finding the Vedic system is the answer. Research is being carried out in many areas including the effects of learning Vedic Maths on children; developing new, powerful but easy applications of the Vedic Sutras in geometry, calculus, computing etc. But the real beauty and effectiveness of Vedic Mathematics cannot be fully appreciated without actually practising the system. One can then see that it is perhaps the most refined and efficient mathematical system possible.”

Lost treasures of ancient India

While surfing through the myriad of videos on YT, jumping from one to another related one, I somehow ended up at a playlist of videos about ancient civilisations and their technological know-how. If you read my blog regularly you probably know by now that this is my favourite topic to read and write about. So being true to my character, I’m going to share a 5-part video series which is about ancient Indian civilisations, the ancient history and technology. It is the episode(s) of Discovery Channel’s series Lost treasures of the ancient world.

The programme gives a fairly detailed overview of ancient Indian history, social and political, and how it influenced the ups and downs of scientific and technological progress of India. There are some well-executed animations that bring back to life the ancient town of Mohen-jo-daro. However, I will warn my viewers about the narrator’s pronunciations of Indians names and terms. He absolutely mangles them and it is a horrible exercise for an Indian to listen to him. So in case you plan to use any of the Indian terms in this documentary for your research, please make sure you find out what it is REALLY called. Other than that, it is a great watch for non-Indians and modern Indians equal.

Medicine in ancient world

I came across an article about medicines and medicinal practices in ancient world that was a bit unexpected in Biblical Archaeology review (BAR). It is a good review article, short but informative, written by BAR Managing Web Editor Sarah Yeomans, who is also an archaeologist and historian. She starts with the Greek beliefs in gods of medicine and their use of secluded but beautiful sanctuaries called Asklepions. Various medicinal and surgical techniques used by the Greeks and Romans as well as their use of different natural substances for treatment have been summarised. Works of Arabic scholars and physicians also finds mention. The author then goes on to write about how archaeology has helped shed some light on the elaborate surgical practices, such as brain surgery, of ancient civilisations which were not believed to have reached such a level of sophistication. The funerary monuments and/or graves of ancient physicians and surgeons seem to yield lot more information, in form of the instruments used, about their expertise than any other source.

However, I was really surprised by the lack of any mention of two of the most prominent ancient medicinal personalities from India, Sushruta and Charak. Sushruta was a well-known and well-respected surgeon and teacher of Ayurveda from the Indian city of Kashi around the 6th century BC. He compiled the medical treatise Sushruta Samhita which contains multiple detailed references to diseases and medical procedures. Charaka, born c. 300 BC, was a physician and one of the principal contributors to the ancient art and science of Ayurveda, a system of medicine and lifestyle thought to be developed about 5000 years ago in Ancient India. He is said to be the first physician to present the concept of digestion, metabolism and immunity.

Besides this one (glaring) omission, the article by Sarah Yeomans is a very informative read for someone interested in knowing about the medicinal knowledge of the ancients. It also provides the references to the information given in it for those who are keen on pursuing the “knowledge hunt” further.

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What goes around, comes around

This blog entry has been long overdue, since November last year, when I listened to John Anthony West’s (JAW, for short) PhoenixFire show, episode 8, Consider the Kaliyuga. However, I wanted to write a well thought piece and so I didn’t rush into it. I read his article by the same title on Graham Hancock’s website. Amongst other things, JAW reminds us of his favourite belief that progress is not linear. Progress does not go, in his own words, “from dumb, primitive caveman to smart old us, with our weapons of mass destruction and bobblehead dolls.” To support this, he gives the example of Plato’s concept of ‘Cyclic life’ and the even more elaborately explained ‘Yuga’ concept in Hindu Vedic literature. I agree with this form of life and progress/regress myself and do not believe that we are the first advanced human civilisation this planet has “endured”. You will find this opinion mentioned in few of my other blog entries as well. Human race has reached the pinnacle of progress and then has tumbled off the throne at least once, if not more times, before. As JAW points out, almost every civilisation has legends of ancestors who were more progressed, materialistically and spiritually, than us. Up until recently we have called them a myth, a fantastic invention of some innovative mind etc. only because we were never progressed enough to grasp the ideas in those stories. Only when we exploded our first atomic bomb did we realise that one such bomb, Brahmastra, was used in epic war of Mahabhaarat. Only when we ourselves fly around the globe in Boeing 747s do we understand that the flying machines appearing in legends worldwide can actually be manufactured and used. These are only couple examples that should help us open our minds and consider the myths and legends more rationally. And, more importantly, not think of us as the most progressed homo sapiens ever.

As illustrated in JAW’s audio show and his article, ancient Hindu philosophy measures the time in ‘Yuga’, age or epoch. There are 4 different Yuga, each characterised by a virtue that is accorded the highest value in each one.
Krita / Satya Yuga: Dhyana (meditation). In the highest yuga, the great majority of people can experience spirituality by direct intuitive realization of truth. The veil between the material and the transcendent realms becomes almost transparent. It is a period free from any kind of unhappiness or misery. [Plato’s Golden age]
Treta Yuga: Yadnya (sacrifice). The Treta Yuga is the mental age. Mental power is harnessed and men are in power. There are inventions that dissolve the illusion of time. Clairvoyance and telepathy are common skills. [Plato’s Silver age]
Dwapar Yuga: Archana (worship). In the Dwapar Yuga, science flourishes, people experience the spiritual in terms of subtle energies and rational choices, inventions are abundant, particularly those that dissolve the illusion of distance (between people and between things), and power is mostly in the hands of women. [Plato’s Bronze age]
Kali Yuga: Daana (alms). In the lowest epoch, Kali Yuga, most people are aware only of the physical aspects of existence. The predominant emphasis of living is material survival, and power is mostly in the hands of men. [Plato’s Iron age] (Source: Wikipedia, text in [ ] mine.)

The occurrence of these Yuga best makes sense when considered as illustrated in the figure at the top which depicts the ideas of Sri Yukteswar. There is some dispute over the time scale of each of the Yuga, the one in Hindu scriptures requiring 4.3 million years for one cycle to finish. Sri Yukteswar revised these estimates to 24000 years in total and JAW feels these are more agreeable. I’m not going to comment on which time scale is correct though I feel the original 4.3 million year one is way too long based on the rate of progress/regress of modern humans in last few thousand years. I keep typing ‘progress/regress’ because that is a relative term and also it will depend on which Yuga we are in right now, which will be clear in some time. The cycle of progress/regress should, logically, go like this: Krita/Satya (descending half) → descending Treta → descending Dwapar → descending Kali → ascending Kali → ascending Dwapar → ascending Treta → Krita/Satya (ascending half) ..... and this continues to cycle. So now based on the “definitions and characteristics” of the various Yuga mentioned earlier, below is my interpretation of what could be happening,

• In descending half of Krita/Satya, a great majority of people can experience spirituality by direct intuitive realization of truth. But the spiritual consciousness decreases over time. The veil between the material and the transcendent realms, which was almost transparent, becomes less so. Communication and experience are still possible through mental power, physical aspect is redundant. It is a period free from any kind of unhappiness or misery.
• In descending Treta, the spiritual consciousness is about 75% of that in Krita [source here]. But mental power can still be harnessed and men are in power. Clairvoyance and telepathy are common skills. But the veil between the material and the transcendent realms thickens. People lean towards reuse of various inventions that allow physical transcendence of time and space.
• In descending Dvapara, people experience the spiritual only in terms of subtle energies and rational choices and spiritual consciousness is reduced to 50% of Krita [source here]. Scientific and technological regress makes lifestyle more materialistic. Some knowledge is lost and science and technology become limited to 3-d of space instead of 4-d of space and time in Treta. People become more warlike. It is definitely not a period free from unhappiness or misery as in Krita and Treta.
• In the lowest epoch, Kali Yuga, most people are aware only of the physical aspects of existence. The predominant emphasis of living is material survival, and power is mostly in the hands of men. Spiritual consciousness is reduced to 25% of Krita [source here]. In descending Kali, whatever remains of scientific and technological knowledge is lost, people are forced to adopt primitive lifestyle, that of cavemen or hunter-gatherers. There are some signs of “religion” in form of rituals whose meaning has been long lost. Then the march of progress begins again, with the ascending half of Kali, which is probably what we know as “history” today.
• In ascending Dwapar, science flourishes, inventions are abundant, particularly those that dissolve the illusion of distance (between people and between things). People experience the spiritual in terms of subtle energies and rational choices and power is mostly in the hands of women. I feel that we are on verge of going into the ascending Dwapar now. Or in fact, it looks like not whole of the human race makes the transition all at once. Some sections of the society and some nations are already showing signs of being well and truly into ascending Dwapar but majority of the world population is still struggling in Kali. May be it always happens that some lead the way and rest follow, which can only be logical reflecting on our history so far.
• The ascending Treta is the mental age. Mental power is harnessed and men are in power. There are inventions that dissolve the illusion of time. Clairvoyance and telepathy are common skills. People become more peace-loving as the ability to transcend time and space makes warring over anything futile. We are obviously yet to reach this stage but we do have examples of such inventions and skills in legends and mythology, which might be from the descending Treta. It is plenty clear that we will only be able to grasp the features of a given Yuga (descending, in the past) when we ascend back to it.
• In the ascending half of Krita/Satya, the highest yuga, a great majority of people acquire ability to experience spirituality by direct intuitive realization of truth. The veil between the material and the transcendent realms becomes almost transparent. It is a period free from any kind of unhappiness or misery.

If we think of life on this planet in such cyclical manner, so many things become clearer. Myths do not seem like myths anymore. According to the article in Wikipedia, “Inventions are characteristic of both Dwapar and Treta yuga. Temples, wars, and writing are hallmarks of Dwapar and Kali yugas. In the higher ages (Treta and Krita/Satya), writing is unnecessary because people communicate directly by thought. Temples are unnecessary because people feel the omnipresence of God. Wars are rare but they do occur.” So then does it not make sense that the archaeological finds are never those indicating very highly sophisticated societies? If things that can be “found” tens of thousands of years later are made only in Kali and Dwapar yuga, how will we ever see an evidence for a society that has attained Treta or Krita/Satya yuga progress? If such finds are a rarity that is only logical! And if they get classified as OOParts that just shows our lack of understanding of the history of human race and the manner in which life has continued on this planet.

Bleeding city.......

Today's blog is completely different than all my previous ones.....and it is about something that I really care about and am distressed about these days. Its about my most beloved city in the world, my hometown, my Mumbai, maajhi Mumbai.

The previous blog entry was about something that India should be proud of, Chandrayaan lunar probe. This one is about something India should be ashamed of, Mumbai terror attacks on 26/11. You'd say, why should India be ashamed? Those who did it should be! Well yes, but we should be ashamed, politicians and common people alike, that we let it happen.....and we HELPED it happen. The terrorist caught alive has clearly mentioned how the locals helped him and his colleagues with all the required info, places to live etc.

This blog entry will probably not have any logical flow as I'm just going to spill out my emotions, sorrow, anger, frustration, respect.....everything. I'm sad that once again my city has been attacked and wounded, about 200 people dead, including 3 of the topmost police officers of Mumbai police. But I did not write "200 innocent people". Because I'm not sure they should be called innocent. They are guilty of not protecting their home, not being alert, not being proactive. Of course, how many people who live in Mumbai think of it as home? Very few! For most, it is just a shelter, to which they have come to prosper and send the wealth to their actual home. So no wonder Mumbai doesn't have anyone to look after her. Mumbai is for everyone, no one is for Mumbai.........that's the sad truth of my cities life.

Why do these attacks keep happening over and over again and no one bothers to stop them? Because no one cares. "Jaane de yaar, apne ko kya karna hai? Kaun padega lafde mein?" (Forget it, bro. Whose going to get into the mess?) is our typical response to any crisis situation. Mumbaikar (as the residents of Mumbai are called in native language) makes a mistake of thinking his/her indifference towards the situation is actually "courage". No its not! People in and from Mumbai are proud of how Mumbai gets back to normal within 24 hours of any kind of crisis, bomb blasts, communal riots, terrorist attacks, you name it. Well, resilience is good but it should not be confused with, again, indifference. Getting back on your feet real fast after being punched hard is good, but then you should at least try to fight back after that. Not just keep getting punched and stand up again. That's NOT courage! This is something I find lacking in my fellow Mumbaikars. We light candles, have silent marches, black days, protest rallies for a few days after anything ugly happens. But then we get back to our lives.....because if its not your home, you don't care if its dilapidated. You just think, I'll find another "shelter" when this one bites the dust.

A favourite escape route for all us Indians is to blame everything on politicians and then sit quietly ourselves. Our definition of democracy is "for the people, of the politicians, by the politicians". All we want to do is cast one vote every 5 years, our responsibility ends there. All these factors add strength to the already strong resolve of those who want to blow India to pieces, in every sense of the word.

I do not expect this little blog entry of mine will bring on any revolution but I do believe that if 1 out of every 10 Indians puts in some effort to do their bit for the country, there will be a HUGE difference in the way our nation runs. Lets use the 2nd (almost 1st) largest population in the world for some good of its own!

JAI HIND!!!

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Indian impact probe lands on moon

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/video/video.aspx?id=44111

Chandrayaan is the cheapest lunar probe and it has as its payload 14 (the highest number to be carried at one time) different instruments from different countries. India has become the first country to have made a lunar probe to have succeeded as an orbiter and a lander on its MAIDEN mission!

Proud to be an Indian! :)

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The Other Side Of Planet X

The ancient Indian epics of the Mahaabhaarat and the Raamaayan describe many "fascinating" machines, weapons, commodities that can easily be identified with our contemporary gadgets. Indians are told/read these epics as history and not as myths. So the concept of technologically advanced civilisations existing in ancient times is not unfamilier to Indians. Raamaayan has a passage that talks about spaceship and how the "outer space" looks from it. Mahaabhaarat describes "brahmaastra" which can easily be identified as nuclear missile from the peculiar description of its aftermath. Mahaabhaarat is full of examples of genetic mutation, test-tubes babies, CCTVs, IVF and many such modern scientific "feats".

So just because we do not see anything around us similar to a given ancient incident doesn't mean that its a flight of fancy. Mostly it just means that we haven't yet advanced (scientifically and socially) enough to attain that ability.