The illogical argument for Dry HOLI...

There is nothing worse than giving a "Symbolic response to a serious problem". If global warming is the issue then "Earth Hour" is the symbolic response. The substantive action involves "Reduce - Shrink - Reuse - Recycle". 

Ask yourself if you can buy a smaller car or use public transport or reduce the usage of plastics? The answer from a majority of us is a firm NO for the above questions. If that's the case then let’s not pretend concern and sensitivity to ecology with symbolic responses. Without reducing the carbon footprint, without shrinking our actual requirements if we believe switching off lights once a year would solve our problems then even the gods can't save us.

If there is a terrorist attack having a candle light march is one of the symbolic responses we have mastered. There has been a campaign to encourage DRY HOLI without any wastage of water in certain media houses. I have been part of some of the discussion groups in Twitter and blogs on this topic. In some of the groups it takes a communal angle but I want to focus on some facts which many of us are not aware of.

Do you know?"

1. It takes 2487 gallons of water (one gallon is 3.75L approx.) to produce a 40g chocolate.

2. It takes about 1800 gallons of water to make a jeans pant.

3. It takes about 7 litres of water make one litre of beer.

4. It takes about 10 litres of water to make one litre of petrol.

More interesting facts on high water consumption is seen in this link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/22/world-water-day-2011-cost-footprint_n_839189.html#s256633&title=Cup_Of_Coffee

It is very important to be ecologically prudent and conserve water, but we should not give a symbolic response for a serious problem. There can be nothing worse than that. 

Let us see few more examples:

1. It takes about 40000 litres of water to manufacture one car. If you fill 50 litres of Petrol every month then we use 500 litres / month and 6000 litres / annum of water. Have we stopped buying cars?

2. It takes about 45.4 litres to manufacture a computer chip. If you work for a telecom company or bank with 1000 employees, the data center equipment and personal computing requirements would consume upwards of 500000 computer chips. That's about 22.7 million litres. This is just to create and not sustain it. If we assume it’s the same amount of water Consumption is required to sustain it for 3 years then we are taking about 45 million litres being used for every 3 years. Should we stop all the data centers and personal computing usages?

Responses to water conservation and ecological protection have to be individual, community and government levels. I can suggest the following ways to conserve water at an individual and community levels which are substantive actions instead of symbolic responses.

1. How about foregoing washing our cars for 1 day a week periodically?

2. How about closing the swimming pool for few days this summer to conserve water?

3. How about a free maintenance on all the leaky pipes in your apartment complex?

4. How about installing water levelers with auto switch off in all the pipe outlets.

5. Well, how about cutting consumption of chocolates, wine, hamburgers, meat etc...

6. How about buying less cars, jeans etc...

And the list can go on.

At a macro level we have seen governments like Delhi drained INR 1700+ Cr for cleaning rivers yet have achieved nothing. Subsequent governments in Maharastra has systematically looted to the extent of INR 70000 Cr on irrigation projects and delivered nothing. In the same measure governments like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu have successfully improved water management and increased the ground water levels in the last decade.

"Pluralistic uniqueness is nature's own manifestation..." Nature manifests itself in innumerable ways - colors, shades and hues. Each one of us is the product of this manifestation. If nature did not wanted us to be so, it would not have created and sustained us.

Each of us is inalienable and inseparable part of the cosmic whole, linked to the unmanifested interconnections. We should just don't talk of tolerance and acceptance, but move beyond and celebrate the pluralistic uniqueness.

For me, HOLI is a very colorful festival that highlights the pluralistic manifestation of nature that every color and hue we see essentially asks a child to celebrate that plurality. It cuts across age, gender, caste and creed and one of the socially inclusive festivals that we can ever see across the world. Look at the joy on every child’s face celebrating this festival.

Let’s celebrate the plurality in the individuality and do that when you see the colors of different hues and shade on a HOLI day. Let’s celebrate HOLI with full JOSH.

Happy HOLI to all my friends and relativesJ ...

Happy reading!

Survival of the fittest - Sanskrit sayings

Be it an English naturalist Charles Darwin who professed about the branching pattern of evolution based on natural selection "On the origin of Species" or the polymath philosopher Herbert Spencer of the same era who drew an economic parallel to the Darwinian biological evolution terming it as "survival of the fittest", there have been lot of debates over the "Creation Vs Evolution" theories since long. The theory that the strong will overcome the weak and the might shall always be on the right side of evolution has been widely accepted.

You may have read my blog which argues that most evolved things in nature are weak  and I urging you to Hail the frailty here 

http://ragsgopalan.blogspot.com/2010/11/musings-hail-frailty.html

But i was reading some nice Sanskrit sayings and few of them arguing in favor of the Social Darwinism and wanted to share them with you.

वनानी दहतो वन्हे: सखा भवति मारुतः!
स एव दीपनाशाय कृशे कस्यास्ति सौहृदम !!
Translitt. 
Vanaani Dahato vanhe Saka BHavati Marutaha
sa eva deepana saaya Krshe kasyaasti sahrdam 

The meaning is when it catches fire in the forest, wind is there to assist it (sakha bhavati marutah). But the same wind destroys a lamp. (sa eva deep nashayay). 


The nature in the form of wind would be a friend to a fire that is strong but would extinguish the same fire when it is weak. So if one doesn't have power/wealth, he doesn't have friends (krshe kasyaasti sahrdam ). 


Now I am tempted to quote Poet Bharati here who said,  
அக்னி  குஞ்சொன்று  கண்டேன்  - அதை  
ஆங்கொரு காட்டிலோர்  பொந்திடை  வைத்தேன் 
வெந்து  தணிந்தது  காடு  - தழல் 
வீரத்தில்  குஞ்சென்றும்  மூப்பென்றும்  உண்டோ !!
Translitt. 
agni kunjondru kandaen - adhai 
angoru kaatilor ponthidai vaithaen
vendhu thanindhathu kaadu - thazal
veerathil kunjendrum moopendrum undo!!


He found a spark of fire and kept that in a tree in forest. The whole forest got burned down. Is there a difference between a spark (small) and big fire? So here we see that there are some things where its quality is the same irrespective of its size.


Now lets look at one more saying that bolsters the argument for Social Darwinism. 


अश्वं नैव गजं नैव व्याघ्रं नैव च नैव च !
अजापुत्रं बालिं दह्वात देवो दुर्बलघातका :!!


It not the horse (Ashwam), its not the elephant (Gajam) and its never the tiger (VyaGhram). No, Not at all!! Only the baby goat (AjaaPutram) is sacrificed during any ritual. And the conclusion is that even God does not protect the weak!!

In the same measure, I have also come across another saying that defines a powerful person. Its not about just physical power or authoritative power or money but a person with enthusiasm is a powerful person. There is nothing as powerful as enthusiasm.

उत्साहो बलवानार्य नास्त्युत साहात परम बलम!!
Translitt. 
Utsaaho balavaanaarya nastyutsaahat param balam!

Now if we try to reconcile both the arguments - on the one hand the most evolved things in nature are frail in nature and on the other hand that the nature through its social behavior would eliminate the weak and helps the strong, then are we not left with contradictions?


I agree that this is not as complicated as we sometimes encounter "Headache - But nothing" situations from our wife / girlfriend. :) But, I still don't have an answer to solve this contradiction but would certainly say that the non-dual yet bipolar quality of nature seems to balance all such contradictions very finely and it seems that this dynamic interplay would appear to vanish as we evolve in our mental plane. Or so they say.


Lets just wish that we evolve ourselves to see the truth above such apparent contradictions.  


Yours enthusiastically
Happy reading!
(happynhandsome@gmail.com)

The nicest and safest place in the world!

What is the safest place on earth? This was the question i was mulling as i saw pictures of Muammar Gaddafi being dragged out of a sewage pipe and given the treatment that isn't different from the ones meted out by him to most of his opponents for the last 4 decades.

With due respects to the departed soul, i was giving myself a dry smile at his very "karmic"ally apt last words 'Don't shoot me". Do you need any more proof that "Time is great leveler"?

I would not disgaree if you call him "mad dog from the middle east" with a nauseating sense of dressing, usurping power with a single tool called "merciless elimination of dissent" and who ruled with an iron hand on the foundation of nature's oil reserves. But my memory of Gaddafi from my college days were firmly rooted in adulthood jealousy when i read about his female virgin body guards :). His quotes like, 

"Were it not for electricity we would have to watch TV in the dark" 

"A woman has the right to run for elections whether she is male or female"

were quite revealing and inspiring in making me realize that nature isn't entirely logical and it can endow power and wealth to absolute merciless morons like Gaddafi. Then nature started revealing more such morons exist in the world like Dubya Bush and i think i am quickly reaching a stage where nature is suggesting that vast majority of our world leaders are rooted in ignorance, idiotic and dogma driven without any trace of logic and rationality in their genes.

The Gaddafi's clips on screen led me to recollect the images of Saddam Hussein being pulled out of a underground pit and hanged but the ending was a shade more gracious than his African counterpart.  

News of Jaya being questioned in Bangalore was also noticed by me on the day. A trial for 66cr, has been going on for the last 15 years and with more than 1500 policemen deployed for 2 days and the cost of just these 2 days should be more than 25 lacs to the state. I am sure by now the overall cost of trial is more than the tax from the wealth that could have been realized. 

Irrespective of country, creed, religion, and nationality, corruption has attained the qualities of god - Omnipresent and Omnipotent. With most of our leaders being mentally corrupt usurping power and wealth without any limits, but all the accumulated power and wealth does not provide the safety and protection when the time is not on their side. 

Chanakya in his "Chanakya sutra" says "Stinking riches are not possible without evil" 

(नास्त्यपिशाचमैश्वर्यम् । - nāsti apishācham aishvaryam)

So coming back to the question i started this blog with, what provides safety against the vagaries of time and life? This is not just for our leaders but for all of us in general. If enormous Power and wealth does not seem to provide that safety consistently, then what provides this safety.

Then i read this old email accidentally which said, the most valuable places to be,

"The nicest place in the world to be is in someone's benign thoughts

The safest place in the world to be is in someone's prayers"

Be it Saddam or Gaddafi or Bush or most of our leaders neither existed in benign thoughts nor in people's prayers. I understand that there cannot be a sweeping generalization and the argument that a person can never exist in everyone's prayers.

So, the next question i have, "Is there a easy way to be present in everyone's prayers that gives us an affordable ticket and visa to be on the safest place?'.     

I don't know the answer to this question but thinking logically about the “Law of reciprocity of nature” or you call it “Law of Karma” which states that "As you sow, thou shall reap", then the easiest way to be in the safest place / in everyone's prayers is to have "everyone in our prayers". So the trick seems to be,

For a healthy life, pray health for all, 

For a wealthy life, pray wealth for all

For a prosperous life, pray prosperity for all

For a safe life, pray safety for all

For a peaceful life, pray peace to all,

To be in everyone's benign thoughts, be benign to all

To be in everyone's prayers, pray for all!

2 aspects of this concept is concisely captured as under:

• தீதும் நன்றும் பிறன் தர வாரா - Theedhum Nandrum piran thara varaa (Translitt) (In Tamil it means Good and bad things to you does not come because of any one else but because of your thoughts and deeds only.)
• Shreyo-bhooyat-sakala-Janaanam (In Sanskrit, it means may the whole humanity be blessed with excellence).

From time immemorial nature has been teaching us the same lesson with many characters Ravans, Kamsas, Hitlers, Gaddafis, Saddams et al, and that does not seem to register with us. Guess, we shall continue to do what we would and nature would continue to teach us what it should!..

I am signing off wishing you and your family a very happy Diwali. 

May the festival of light help us lit the light within.

Happy reading!

When error is a sign of maturity…

 

Few days back you would have come across some news clips that Khap Panchayats were actually barring people marrying within the same Gotras. This went to the extent of encouraging honor killings, some politicians supporting it and most of the media and “rationalist” variety opposing it.

Curious to understand the origin of Gotra and the reason behind it I was reading some articles and came upon very interesting pieces which i thought would share here. Now the disclaimer would be that these are part of the Hindu scriptures and we always have a choice to discard them as mythology or read them with an open mind. I decided to stick to the later.

Lets start with few questions:

1. Are you aware that there was a stage when fire did not burn anything and everything like it does now and it started doing it after it was cursed?

2. Are you aware of an instance that a male sage was pregnant (by mistake) and delivered successfully through C Section millions of years ago?

3. Are you aware of the origin and history of ayurvedic vitalizer Chyavanprash? You would have heard as Dabur Chyavanprash or other brands as Chyavanprakasam etc?

4. Are you aware of a pregnancy that lasted 100 years + and also instead of it being in the uterus the fetus was preserved and nurtured in the thigh for about 100 years?

5. Do you know who generated Fire /Agni from water first?

If you are interested in any of them then read on.

Seven great sages:

I am sure you would have heard about Saptharishi or the 7 great sages in Hinduism. The  constellation with 7 stars (Ursa Major aka Big Dipper) represents 7 great sages not only in Hinduism but also in many of the other far eastern texts like Chinese & Japanese. You can Google for further information. Even if you have not read about this, i am sure you would have seen this constellation in a clear night sky.

Here is a quick link of Wiki.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saptarshi

Gotra to my understanding signifies ones family / lineage and they are innumerable depending on which lineage you belong to. Everyone is assigned a Gotra whether we know it or not and the belief is that all these Gotra evolved from 7 sages Bhrigu, Angiras, Atri, Vishwamitra, Kashyapar, Vashishtar, Agasthiyar. Now the objection of the Khap leaders is essentially saying that you can’t marry from the same lineage for what ever reason. But side stepping this topic and coming to our questions some of the interesting aspects i read are as follows:

1. Sage Bhrigu, who is son of Lord Brahma (born from Brahma’s Skin) is a very renowned and revered sage. Interestingly he is attributed with generation of fire from water. The scripture notes that the fire can produced from items like stones, leaves, space etc, but Sage Bhrigu is attributed with the generation of fire from water. Presence of Oxygen in water which is the basis of fire proves this theory today, but this was documented many years ago.
2. It was believed that Agni / fire consumes only items which were offered to it after a Yagna. That means it was not burning anything other than that. This state changed when Sage Bhrigu cursed Agni that you shall consume anything and everything. The term he used is “Sarvapakshakan”. So why did the sage curse Agni?
3. It is told that Sage Bhrigu instructed Agni to protect his wife Puloma from a demon during his absence and Agni neglected his duty and allowed the demon to carry Puloma. This invited the curse from Sage Bhrigu. Hence fire started to consume anything and everything from that day… so goes the story.
4. Sage Bhrigu’s son is Sage Shyavanar again with great qualities and very respected. It seems that in those days invitation to a Yagna and receiving the produce of Yagna is a very exclusive thing. Sage Shyavanar once invited Ashwini devas for a Yagna and as per the protocol these Ashwini Devas were not supposed to attend. Yet the sage invited them for some reason and honored them with the produce of Yagna despite stiff opposition from his peers. Ashwini Devas are the doctors / ayurvedic experts for the gods and they pleased with the Sage gave him a potion to regain his youth and vitality. This medicine which Ashwini devas gave to Sage  Shyavanar is called as “Shyavana pracha valeham”. Leham means Lehyam which is a medicine in thick gel form and the original ‘Shyavana Pracham” is what is currently branded, labeled and sold as vitality medicine.
5. After Sage Shyavanar in the same family his successors started marrying from “Kshyatrias”/ warrior clan. If you read the scriptures then its clear that the Brahmins actually married from different caste without any problems and I am not sure why this is being made such an issue now. Some of the great sages had quick over night stands too. (You may be interested in this http://ragsgopalan.blogspot.com/2010/01/yours-weakly-part-22.html ). Some difference in opinion grew so strong that the Brahmins and Kshatriyas started fighting each other and no marks for guessing that all the Brahmins especially the kids / pregnant woman were killed to eliminate Brahmin clan altogether.
6. Sage Shyavanar’s wife was pregnant and to escape being killed by the enemies she moved her fetus from Uterus to thighs and sustained / nurtured it there for about 100 years. The kid who was born after 100 years of pregnancy was called Sage Auravar”. Aurava signifies thigh.
7. If you have heard of Sage Jamadagni, Lord Parasuram (Vishnu’s avatar) and Sage Vishwamitra – all of them are from the same Sage Bhrigu’s clan. This may also give you some idea as to why Lord Parasuram (grandson of Auravar) was against the Kshatriyas and eliminated 21 generations of them.
8. But lets focus on another Sage called Angiras. Sage Angiras is again a son of Lord Brahma and you may be interested to know that Lord Rama (Raghu vamsa), Guru Dronacharya (of Mahabharata fame) are part of Sage Angiras clan.
9. Sage Yuvanas (son of Sage Angiras) did a Yagna to beget a good son. The holy water which was to be given to Mrs.Yuvanas the next day was kept in the house. Sage Yuvanas by mistake drank that water in the night without knowing that this is the holy water that is capable of producing an offspring.
10. Since the water was powerful there was no way the effect can be reversed. Ashwini Devas (the medical team) came to the rescue. This became the first male pregnancy in the history of mankind, successfully delivered to give birth through “C-Section” and Sage Mamdatha was born.

Rising above some of these interesting tit bits and studying the articles with a deeper contemplation reveals that:

• So called Hinduism has always stressed the importance of Intuition subordinating the Intellect, Experience subordinating Inflexible dogma, Inner realization taking precedence to outer expression and more importantly Conduct subordinating Creed / belief.
• Even the so called perfected souls / sages have faltered in their conduct not in our eyes with contemporary values but per the standards they had set for themselves. The so called “best of periods” did have brutality that is spine chilling.
• The effort has never been and never should be to create a common creed but align ourselves for a common quest.

Instead of using a brutal force imposing an opinion to develop blind faith in an inflexible creed, the society and more so the leaders need to inspire the community to aspire for experiential living and self realization.

Lets realize that the great ones have faltered and yet recognized the mistake and evolved out of it. Then the society and environment was open enough to allow these mistakes and corrective enough to put them back into the right path.

I think we need to be open enough to encourage the sinners to condemn the sin instead of condemning the sinners.

“There never was
There never will be
There is no now
A man for whom there is
All blame or all praise!”

As one wise man said “The muddy roots justify themselves with the gorgeous flowers…”

Lets long for a society where errors are seen as a sign of maturity and relive our lives When errors are seen as a sign of maturity…

 

Yours Erroneously…

Happy Reading!

Musings: Hail the frailty

 

We are conditioned and brought up in a world which eulogizes qualities like strength, hardness, manliness, power and mightiness. There is a very small section of people who recognize softness, womanhood, frailty and yielding can overcome the qualities of hardness and brutal force. This blog is an attempt to highlight that softness which is apparently a weak, meek and frail nature of things is superior to its manly counterpart on the following accounts:

1. In the process of evolution the more evolved things / beings are softer / weaker / meeker / more frail. That is harder and so called manliness are less evolved…. in the scheme of nature.
2. We can also see that the higher the complexity and criticality the softer the beings / things are. The same is true that the essence and quality of softer things / beings is higher and better than the hard / grosser items.

While it is true that manliness (Yang) and womanliness (Yin) are two sides of the same coin and one cannot exist without the other, but it is important to highlight that while celebrating the “Yang”ness we seem to belittle or condemn the “Yin”ness in anything.

So without ignoring the importance of Yin-yang balance, i am going to bat for the “Yin”ness and encourage you all to “Hail the frailty”, “Celebrate the meekness” and “Be proud of your weakness”.

First lets look at the nature’s scheme of evolution:

• In the plant life, the roots are the strongest part and the roots are stronger than the stem. The stem is stronger than the branches. The leaves, flowers and fruits are progressively softer / weaker than the earlier one. The seed which evolves from the fruits are the softest, weakest and most frail thing in the plant life. So what we see is essentially that as the evolution progresses the nature of things becomes more frail. The gross becomes subtle, and the hard evolves into soft.

“The duty of the root is in taking but the duty (beauty) of the fruit is in giving”… Isn’t giving is more evolved than taking?

Next lets look at the composition of human body:

• I am going to quote some concepts from TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) for it to be little more authoritative but if you ignore the framework of TCM and just logically look at this argument still this will hold good.
• There are 12 major organs in the body and these organs are classified as Yang organs and Yin organs. You can Google about Yin and Yang but broadly they refer to the bipolar nature of things viz. Yang / Yin represents - light / dark, hard /soft, man/woman, Heat / Cold etc in that order.
• The 6 Yang (male / hard) organs which are Gall bladder, Large Intestine, Small Intestine, Stomach, Urinary bladder and Triple warmer.
• The 6 Yin Organs are heart, Lungs, Liver, Kidney, Spleen and Pericardium.
• Needless to explain that as the internal body organs evolve the more critical the functions are the softer / weaker / more frail the organs.

Next lets look at the Yogic way of explanation on nature of bodies:

• Every living organism is made of multiple bodies primarily ranging from 3 to 5.
• They are Annamaya Kosha (Physical Body), Pranamaya Kosha (Etheric Body), Manonmaya Kosha (Astral Body), Vignanamaya Kosha (Mental Body) and the Anandamaya Kosha (Causal Body). Kosha actually means ‘Sheath” and not body. So it can be considered as layers.
• It is told that organisms like plants have the first 3 sheaths / bodies / layers and human beings and animals have 5. But irrespective of how many we have each one is more subtle than the previous one and causal body is the most subtle of them all.
• The point i am trying to make is not that one is superior to another since all the 5 form one organic entity but certainly in the scheme of nature the more a component / organism evolves the more subtle / frail / softer it becomes.

Let me also quote the words of our friend, Lao Tzu, highlights the importance of being soft, yielding etc. Generally Taoists say that we should be like water, very soft, very yielding, takes the shape of the container yet it can exert the greatest force and can overcome the hardest things like steel and rocks. In Tai Chi and other internal arts the brutal force of the opponent is not countered with an equally / more brutal force but with a soft / yielding force.

• “Yield and Overcome”…
• “Soft and weak overcome the hard and strong”… The softest thing in the universe overcomes the hardest thing.
• Returning is the motion of Tao.
• Yielding is the way of Tao”

• "To bend like a reed in the wind, that is real strength" - Taoist philosophy

We can stack more and more examples that highlight this phenomenon. So, let me summarize the argument:

• The secret of the nature and nature of the secrets are in Subtlety and are frail. At the primordial source the subtleness merges into / as formless. In other words the source has devolved into more gross things in nature and our evolution is in moving towards the source.
• If we claim woman to be more frail / weak than men, then does it not mean that they are more evolved than us.
• As one wise man said “Women when made equal to man, is superior to him”. That’s the reason in many cultures / races it is designed as a male dominated society.
• No wonder women, being more subtle, they are tuned to finer things. They can see 15 odd shades between any 2 colors segments to pick up a matching dress but most men cant see anything more than 7 colors… all hues and tints put together. It applies to other aspects also.
• Isn’t rather unfortunate that we see a “Yang” driven world where woman having ignored their “Yin”/ feminine qualities want to live and behave like a man? Isn’t this a downward spiral movement?
• If this is applicable from every organism to macro universe then why is that we shun and belittle the subtler, frail and weaker scheme of things within us. Why is weakness abhorred? Why should it be strengthened?
• By this logic, is it not the weakness  and frailty in us the most evolved aspect or part of us? Should we not recognize this and celebrate this instead of shunning / belittling this?
• Isn’t love forgiveness and divinity are the most subtle aspects of human life?

The pendulum of nature has swung too much to the Yang side and the desire is to see the pendulum swing back before it balances itself close to the median.

“Might is right only if we are in a fight". If we consider life is a journey and not a race then lets celebrate our meekness, be proud of our weakness and Hail the frailty.

 

Yours frailly

Happy Reading !

Key Indian gene decoded as I-1H-3C

 

Self proclaimed scientist, notorious individual well known in the field of lunacy Dr. Rags Gopalan is claiming to have decoded major part of the Indian gene, which has remained so far a mystery to many of the leading scientists. Instead of protecting the discovery with patents and intellectual property rights he has publicly disclosed the mystic code for the general benefit of the Indian public.

The rest of the article given below is the transcript of the disclosure done by Dr. Rags Gopalan.

“From time immemorial man has been inquisitive about nature. Composition of man’s own nature has been very illusive and not known to us for a long time. Currently it is believed that the field of Genetics and human gene details may hold the most primordial and secretive key code for the nature of all living beings.

While for the last half decade we have been making progress but the break through which we have achieved today is significant because of the following reasons:

1. So far all the genetics studies points that the genetic composition of one human being is very unique from the other. Hence it was difficult to establish a common gene across a race or a population. This revelation seems to have identified a common gene that is predominantly available across 1 billion population and more.
2. Many of the theories are formulated from research labs assiduously conducted and researched experiments, collating test results over a long period of time. This is the first time such a eminent result has been published using introspection, retrospection techniques, inducting and deducting reasons from behavioral science and that too at 30000 feet above sea level.
3. Most of the DNA codes represent the chemical composition of the gene but this discovery actually reveals the behavioral composition of the human gene.

While many of may be little perplexed at the above techniques and may not agree fully with the results, but lets understand as to when has the world and the “so called erudite society” has learned to appreciate anything from contemporaries. If you are little smart and believe in “Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion”, then consider this as opinion and read on.

Lets look at the composition of the human gene now.

3C: The 3Cs that make up our gene are Corruption, Caste-ism and Chaos.

• Corruption: The latest report from Transparency Index (2010) suggests that India is ranked in 87th place out of 1787 countries. It has slipped from 84th position to 87th place.

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results

I am pleasantly surprised at the results like many others. Considering there could be statistical errors and bias in a large global study we should be happy that we are not yet listed among the last 10% though we may be seriously there.

Check this site out… http://www.corruptioninindia.org/

Every effort to estimate the extent of corruption in India would fail. Recent study suggested that 30% of the Indians are totally corrupt and 50% of them are on the wall who would use bribery as a tool under necessity. Lets also give credit to the 20% who are either very upright and honest based on value system or due to the fact that they are not tested enough.

As one wise man said “Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country”.

Much to the chagrin of some of you i can confidently state that corruption is one of the founding pillars of Indian democracy and i would tend to believe that the concept of democracy in India would crumble if corruption is to be eliminated tomorrow. While this is a sweeping statement, the belief comes from the fact Corruption as a phenomenon is a democratized social tool that enables anyone from the bottom most rung in the society to come up in politics and make money unlike countries like Pakistan where very few of them make it.

“Corruption party of India” is not certainly an acronym for CPI but every party has a stake in it as an “adjective” and it has become an equal opportunity phenomenon.

• Caste-ism: Lets agree that we are the most “caste-ist” society in the world. The difference between being a casteist and racist is in the width and depth and nothing else. This concept is deeply rooted in our subconscious mind and cannot be easily uprooted. The fact that every election is fought on caste / religion is not the root cause but a symptom that exploits the disposition. This is deeply rooted in our genes and culture and let me quote a very simple example from history.

Current day Kerala is called as “Parasurama Kshetram” (land of Parasuram). For the benefit of few who don’t know the pedigree of Parasuram… he is the 6th Avataar of Lord Vishnu before Lord Rama. He is the guru of King Karna in Mahabharata. He was born in a Brahmin family and hated the Kshatriyas clan and took vow to clean Kshatriyas for 21 generations. This deep rooted hatred came from the fact that his father (Sage Jamadagni) was killed by a king and Parasuram’s mother died along with her husband beating her chest 21 times.

In Indian mythology in those times there was no place called Kerala and the ocean (Arabian sea) started immediately after current Tamil Nadu border & Gokarna in Karnataka. Sage Parasuram, wanted to retire and he donated all the land he conquered. But after donating he noticed that he did not have any place to live / retire. He meditated and the Lord Varuna (God of water / Oceans) who came about to gave him a boon. “Throw your axe into the sea and till the distance the axe falls the sea shall withdraw and shall become your land”. Parasuram throws his axe and hence Kerala was formed reclaiming land from sea.

But beauty of Psychology of people and the importance of caste is revealed then. He got 64 families from the current Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to settle in his land and wanted to build the society. Since the place received incessant rains and for other reasons the families returned back to their native place. Sage Parasuram tried this few times and failed to retain them there. That’s when he thought that the only way to make them stay permanently in his land is when their native society rejects them as “strangers / people of different caste”. So he changed 64 of the existing customs / rituals and appearance to the new families ….like the Kerala Namboodri’s hair style which is different from the other clan in south India.

After this change in appearance and ritual when the families got back to their native place, the localities found these people to be very different from them and rejected them. So these families came back to Kerala and built their societies.

So the bottom line is as follows:

1. As human beings we have a very innate and deep rooted psychology to differentiate ourselves from the society, thinking that we are very unique with our customs and traditions and appearance. Our ability divide ourselves based on external factors are very high. Does not matter how well we preach about equality this is inherent. Lets be clear that this is not unique to India but to every country, every religion, every state, based on very language, and understandably to every human being in this world. If we belong to the same state then we want it divided into 2, If we are in the religion then we want different castes in it. These castes splits further into tribes of castes and so on.
2. The psychology of this deep rooted phenomenon is very well known to smart people and this has been exploited very well from time immemorial. This continues even today and this would continue till the world exists.
3. In modern day the concept of caste is more embedded in societal status and materialism than actual belief. Today this is about lower middle class, middle class and upper class mentality. In corporate world its about senior management, middle management and working class. The division exists in every aspect of our life and we just have to be sensitive enough to recognize it.

So since this phenomenon is a global factor we are the most caste-ist society since this is embedded in our genes for time immemorial.

• Chaos: We should take pride in the fact that one of our key differentiators is the ability to find a “method in madness”. While this is again a symptom and the way we have adapted ourselves as a society, the deep rooted reasons are a blend of “Indiscipline, contempt for a process and our deep rooted noncompliance to anything without a carrot or stick”. I am not going to elaborate anything on this as the best way to understand this to be little more circumspective. If you still don’t agree then  the circumspection isn’t sufficiently deep.

Now lets get to the next part of the code.

1H: Hypocrisy. We are also possibly the most hypocritical society. We seem to pretend that we represent the most ideal society in the world and seems to throw up a tantrum and utter surprise if anything that crops up in the society. This is basically because we want every one around us to be ideal but the same standards are not applicable to us.

Every idiot in the country knows how rotten the real estate market is. Its impossible to buy a house / property in Mumbai or Delhi without a significant % of this being in cash. Needless to add that a cash transaction is necessarily to subvert the legal charges and to generate a black market economy. 99% of the real estate transactions in the country are corrupt and i am excluding 1% since i sold my property with no component of cash, … just to include some suckers like me in this club.

While this is not surprising, but the way we react to something like Adarsh Scam is very surprisingly interesting. That’s where the hypocrisy is rooted. Every guy who commented against this scam would not have had a real estate transaction that is fully legal. I can bet on this.

This extends to we imposing exacting standards to Judiciary, Defense, Educational institutions, religious institutions, Adult entertainment etc. Every thing has emanated from the society and everything is as good or as rotten …. partially or substantially. The variation is just in the degree.

Maharashtra Chief Minister should still be wondering as to why he was asked to quit. My reasoning is “May be some one very close to power did not like his face. Nothing more, nothing less”.

I: Indifference: As a nation we are very Indifferent to ourselves. May be we don’t take pride in ourselves as a society. May be we don’t feel strong enough  as a part of this society. Does not matter what the issue is but this is the root cause. Every other problem can be solved if we can address this deficiency, but unfortunately this is the deepest and the strongest problem. As one wise man quoted “Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil”.

We can even safely conclude the Indifference and Hypocrisy are the parents of all other deficiencies / off springs of our nation. I would be happy to live in a society that is little intolerant than fully apathetic for they may be some hope that the pendulum shall swing to the other end. But in our society its indifference - firmly rooted in the middle, well balanced - for any meaningful movement to the desired end has become an eternal longing.

Had we been less indifferent then we would have legalized corruption or eliminated it, we would be having a more matured censor board and managed adult entertainment in  a better way, than taking a moralistic approach and have a thriving private adult entertainment industry, we would have legalized prostitution, for we would have better sense of cleanliness & social hygiene in our neighborhood etc etc...

Is it wrong to say that “our democracy thrives in the indifference of the majority.”

The best example i can think of Indifference and Hypocrisy is the fact that we still call Mr. Manmohan Singh as the most clean prime minister. If one has the distinction of presiding over some of the the largest scams in Indian history and that too with silently active complicity then being called as Mr. Clean makes me feel nauseating. There are millions of Indians who are as clean as Mr. Singh (there are no reasons to believe that he is a personal beneficiary in these scams), but if one is complicit in his subordinates looting the country, his party & colleagues being the beneficiary then that person is far from being Mr. Clean. The hope for judicial and governance reforms under Mr. Singh’s reign was given a deep burial even before this was hatched.

On a serious note dropping the sarcasm, as one wise man said “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”

Such a long blog is not because i have given up hope on our nation but its the helplessness and anger that hurts the ego, pride and love for our nation.

So the need of the hour is to be less Indifferent and less hypocritical and that change would possibly mutate our genes for the better. Till then please understand that its absolutely fine if I state “Yatha Praja, thatha Raja, Yatha Raja, thatha Spectrum Raja :)” (The way common man is, so is the king) and till then lets not agree that our genetic code certainly is “I-1H-3C”…. (for if we all agree we shall be less hypocritical).

 

Happy reading!

 

Bandh-e-Mataram

No. It is not a spelling mistake.

No. It is not adhering to classical linguistic style... as linguists claim that the letter "Va" is pronounced as "Ba" as in "Vangal" has become "Bengal".

Yes. This article is inspired by the very successful recently concluded Bharat Bandh and the chatter that preceded and followed it. Unable to resist, I decided to contribute more to the noise.

As a kid or a student or as an office goer, Bandh is always a welcome phenomenon for me since it is always accompanied by a holiday. Few years back I used envy the "Bongs" where the left ruled state averaged about 40-50 bandhs a year. Ignoring all the other ills due to Bandh, considering it making a 2 day weekend to a 3 day weekend was certainly an attraction to work in the state!

Thanks to the 6 year UPA's rule, my sympathies with the people who strike / organize bandh has substantially increased. I am completely frustrated with this government's performance or rather non-performance:

• The key priorities for the government were very clear (atleast to me) for the last 6 years. At a very high level the Top 3 are:
• Judicial reforms.
• Tackling terrorism and threat from Naxals.
• Decriminalization of politics to minimize corruption and state sponsored looting.
• We seems to be going no where on any of the above issues. 
• If I were to rate the government's performance,  then it has scored (-11342) on a scale of 1 to 10.

I think this government also does not believe in the value of every Indian life. I feel very anguished when I read that X number of CRPF personnel were killed by naxals almost on a daily basis. I believe that the days are not far off for a open revolt that you cannot take the life of the security forces for granted. 

But lets come back to "Bandh-e-Mataram" topic: 

• First and foremost I believe Bandh should not be unconstitutional and is an excellent way to express disapproval, involve in a civil dis-obedient movement by the people. In a democracy this is an excellent way to register the protest when debates and discussions take us no where.

• But what we are lacking is a framework that allows this genuine out pour of emotions in an organized way. In our country if one person kills another then it is murder but if 1000 people kill another 1000 then it is riot with no responsibility or accountability.

• Instead of just complaining let me offer few thoughts on how to get a framework around this bandh:

• Bandh on account of price rise issue is a very genuine concern. Frankly it is an irritant to me, but does not affect my livelihood. But I feel there are millions in India, who have been pushed deeper into poverty / struggling to meet both ends meet. If that is the case then how can I express that I am struggling to make a living?
• As Indians we need to have pride in our country. 
• Economic loss to the state can never be a solution to tackling any problem, leave alone price rise. Its sad to note that debates are on as to how many 1000's of crores  we have lost. We need to realize that its actually going from our pockets.
• Also we cannot allow any impact to emergency services. Any disruption to this should be considered as criminal.
• If the bandh is peaceful without "Civil unrest" then emergency services and economic losses could be avoided.
• The prime reason behind Civil unrest is that the metric we use to measure the success or failure of the bandh has to be recalibrated.
• The success or failure cannot and should be measured how shut down the state was and how heavily was the normal life affected. This is the root cause of the problem.
• We need a political party that redefines this metric. We need a way for people like me who actually want to go to work on that but still register my protest. We don't seem to know how to do this.
• May be with 650+ million mobile phones (55%+ penetration) we can have a mobile SMS based survey on such topics. It should be the responsibility of every citizen to respond for such polls. Before mobile companies say "What an Idea Sirji", let me clarify that these SMS are non-revenue generating polls. Or with every response the subscriber gets an Rs.1/- credit to him. I strongly believe that "Economics drive human behaviour".
• The principal political party responsible for the bandh has to be accountable for the following:
• Any loss of property to the state or a citizen has to be borne by the political party. The local authorities should have an machinery that can record instances and create evidences of party sponsored damages.
• A situation where 50-100 odd state buses are burnt are damaged is a shameful phenomenon and some one has to pay for this.
• Any violation of citizen rights like intimidation, physical assault on people who want to work etc, should be registered as a criminal case against the local MLA of that political party. If 5 such incidents are reported then losses the right to fight elections.            

For all these to happen, we need leaders who take pride in the country. 

For that to happen we need decriminalization of politics and judicial reforms. 

For that to happen we need to pray for better sense to prevail on our current leaders. 

For that to happen, the answer lies in this popular joke. If "pro" is the opposite of 'Con", then what is the opposite of "Progress"? :)

Till then,

Bandh-e-Mataram!

Yours Strikingly!

Yours Weakly!..... Part 2/2

...Check out part 1 of this article @ http://ragsgopalan.blogspot.com/2010/01/yours-weakly-part-12.html

Having deep rooted interest in history, i was going through some very old Indian stories. I also have to highlight the phenomenon that the word "History" becomes "Story" with time. Asian cultures which boasts of timeless past and have documented history are generally discarded by the west as "mythological stories".

So it could be history or mythological stories of India which caught my attention that am sharing here.

The point i was making is that "Power blurs", people who feel that they are powerful tend to be less restrictive about rules and regulations that they have formed / are guarding. Lets see how the mighty heroes of ancient India stepped outside the framework they created for the larger world time and again!

• I thought i shall start with a primer for those who are not very familiar with some characters in Indian mythology... Brahma (You can note the anagram of Abraham), Vishnu and Shiva are the divine trinity who Generate / create, Protect and Destroy. The world has always been with Angels (Devas / Gods men) and demons and Lord Vishnu takes multiple Avatars to support the devas and kill the asuras. Brahma gives birth to few sons, who are supposed to be the topnotch sages of the universe sharing the wealth knowledge and secrets with the mankind. So if you expect as i used to do that these Sages and Devas should be on the right of the law ALWAYS... then you are up for a big surprise. Lets see them.
• Indra, is the head of Devas / Angels,  he and other Deva's actions on promiscuity and evil deeds are baffling:
1. Enamored by the beauty of Akalika, wife of Sage Gouthama, tricked the sage and got him out of his house and made love with her. Akalika who is otherwise a model wife to the sage, got carried away by the pride in her beauty, lost control momentarily and consented for a physical relationship with Indra. Ofcourse both got cursed by the sage and suffered for some time in their life.
2. Indra's father Kashyapar (He is the grandson of Brahma) had 2 wives - Thithi & Athithi (Indra's mother). When Thithi was conceived, both Indra and his mother connived and aborted Thithi's kid. Athithi got cursed and she became Devaki - Krishna's mother and lost 7 kids in front of her eyes before Krishna was born as the eighth kid.
3. Chandran (Moon) according to mythology, is another grandson of Brahma, he eloped with his guru's (Brahaspathi) wife Tara. Guru's wife is equivalent to ones mother and even thinking of a relationship is an heinous crime. Despite repeated advice and requests he never agreed and in fact he got a son too - Budha (Mercury). It is interesting to think that Mercury - the nearest planet to sun and the smallest one, is a piece of moon and got into sun's orbit from this story. Leaving astronomy and origin of universe discussions aside, lets move forward with more FACTS.
4. Budha had a casual fling (consensual one night's stand) with a lady called Ilay and she gave birth to a king called Puruvan.
5. Puruvan lived with Urvashi - she is one of the key model and stakeholder of the " modern day Escort agency equivalent" run by king Indra in the heaven.
6. Urvashi later got bored with Puruvan and lived with Sage Vyasar and gave birth to Sage Sukhar.
7. Now, its interesting to know this family's lineage as this family has gifted the most important treasures for Hinduism. This family tree (Father son relationship) runs as Vishnu - - Brahma - Vashishtar - Sage Shakti - Sage Prarachar - Sage Vyasar - Sage Sukhar. This means Brahma is the son of Vishnu and father of Vashishtar. Each and every one of them is a role model, very divine, competent, wise and offered wealth of treasures in terms of knowledge & scriptures. Some key highlights are:
• Sage Vashishtar compiled Yoga Vashishtam. (Told to Lord Rama by the sage.)
• Sage Paracharar compiled Vishnu puranam.
• Sage Vyasar compiled Brahma sutra, 4 Vedas in the current form we see, Mahabharata and hence Bhagavad Gita too. He was considered as a form of Vishnu as in "Vyasaya Vishnu roopaya, Vyasa roopaya Vishnave....."
• Sage Sukhar compiled Bhagavatham.
8. The point i was trying to make is to highlight how esteemed and sacred these sages are in the Hindu scriptures. Sage Paracharar wanted to cross Ganges and requested a boatman to ferry him through. Boatman's daughter (her birth is very interesting but not relevant here and hence am skipping) Makksanthi was ferrying the sage since her father was busy. The Sage fell for her beauty and insisted that she should consent for making love with him as they were travelling in the boat. Though she was very unwilling she finally agreed as the sage promised few interesting boons to her. This is nothing different from a modern day sex trade for "necessity is the mother of all strange bed mates."  
9. If you are wondering what happened next, Sage Vyasa was born to that boatman's daughter. So one of the greatest sages of Hinduism is born purely out of his father's uncontrollable physical urge and a low caste woman, in the midst of the sage's business / personal trip. Sage Paracharar did not take her as wife, did not pay her any alimony but gave few boons and went his way.
10. Makkasanthi renamed herself as Sathyavati, married a king (Santhanu), gave birth to 2 sons who died very early after marriage without any offspring to manage the kingdom.
11. Sathyavathi requested her son Sage Vyasa to make love with both her daughter-in laws. Both of them did not like Sage Vyasa but yet went through the  act and gave birth to Pandu and Dridrurashtra - and here starts popular Mahabharatha. Sage Vyasa also gave birth to the Vithura (intelligent minister in Mahabharata) through a prostitute.

These are some points which i could remember from what i read. So, whats the point? We could agree on one or more of the following points and get on with life!

1. Be it a king or Devas, or Sages or Brahmins or any powerful personality whoever it is there are multiple instances of cardinal sins - conceived and indulged and they are still revered. For the sins they committed, they have got cursed went through the punishments and washed their sins away. There is nothing as 100% pure in this mortal world. Lets agree that there are black spots even in the best of the person's life.
2. In fact Thiruvalluvar went one step ahead and told "தேவர் அனைவர் கயவர்" - All god mens are mean and evil.  
3. Another perception is according to scriptures "Why you are the way you are?" is already precoded. Its a fatalistic or Causal theory which is very deterministic about macro aspects of life. Whether we agree with it or not is a matter of choice. If you agree with this, you also need to agree that we (the common man) don't have the power to change things and has to go through life in a detached way. Thats a monkish view of life. 
4. A man who thinks he is powerful / who is powerful always has a red line that appears blurred - with some -ves in their lives. But their +ves far outweigh their negatives. Whether we want to say that the glass is "Half full or Half empty" is again a matter of choice.
5. Finally there is a section of people who firmly believe that they are not all powerful because either they understand their limitations or they submit themselves to an higher authority like god or parents or Church or Imams or law of the land, or they are fear ridden due to uncertainty or death - could be any reason - which form the majority of this world. They stick to the framework, play by the rules, have a value system - voluntary or forced by the society or life has not given them the opportunity or an environment to make mistakes. This set of human beings are called the weaklings but yet they are strongest link in maintaining worldly order.  
6. Scientifically speaking this character and disposition is there in our genes - at least in many of us!. 

Above all we need to recognize the fact that this world has long back moved from a "Character centric / Value centric system" to more shallow "personality centric system". Much of our problem is solved if we recognize this movement and we taking membership in either one of the clubs and not both.

So in the near future if you hear that some one like President Obama is involved in a sex scandal or a corruption case and if it impinges on your value system, then just recognize which group you belong to.

Till then,

Yours weakly
Happy reading!