Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Time Cooks all Beings!

The year 2010 is coming to an end. It's true time flies
and flies so fast that soon one forgets past. Mortals like
me fail to recognize the same happened earlier several times
- that is what Krishna told Arjuna in the Kurukshetra - in the
battlefield of Mahabharata.

Still, we don't forget so much to find the repetitive life
patterns enacting in every life. That has led me particularly
to midlife melancholy and self-questioning. In this state of
mind, once I asked my mother whether she felt satisfied of
being to herself. She didn't take my dilemma of life to her
and replied something very casually. What I could get from her
is, 'What else it could be?' Probably, she feels satisfied on
performing her swadharma and with char-dham pilgrimage. But,
in today's world swadharma has become I-maker's dharma that extends
to all the four-stages of life. Swadharma made by I-maker may
not have dharma at all; this is what I feel being vexed with
the happenings in almost every field of contemporary society.
Morning news papers and news media are enough to mirror the
both self and civil society in today's world. All these have
added to my midlife melancholy. The questions: What for I'm?
What did I do? What should I do next? Should I just float
along with the current? Or just enough to have a life in front
of a idiot box or Net-chat - an inconsequential life! True is
'Time is passing fast without waiting for you to decide.'

Is a being inconsequentially discreet? Does past extend to
future through the present (or makes a detour)? Does time bend?
If it can, then how much I can? Towards the end of the year
I find some peculiar questions for me: Do I have a right for this
birth? Either does the creator have? These questions
linked to my first question - Am I discreetly random?

These could be bizarre questions. My midlife melancholy may lead
to a search for truth of life. But as it now, the truth is :
Time cooks me. Time cooks all beings!

Wish you a very enjoyable search in 2011!
Happy X-Mass and Happy New Year!

Hrushikesha

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Selection Mallard

All had their own Gods for comforts except frogs at early days of creation.
After creation, Vishnu made many sectarian Gods and delegated his power under
specific SLA (Service Level Agreement) to take care of types of creations. The
last day of these delegation season, was a leaky day (not really like Wikileaks)
and frogs were enjoying rains with croaking, jumping and swimming across the watery
world and forgot to visit Vishnu for their own God. But, soon realised there was
danger in so much leaks and needed their God for rescue. They rushed to Vishnu, but
by that time Vishnu was retiring along with consorts on his favourite snake-bed floating
in milk-sea; and at the croaks of frogs he got annoyed, showed a log as their God.
Frogs carried the log with pomp and gaiety and soon got fade up its inertness.
And then went to Vishnu for change of Boss. Again for disturbing his luxurious nap,
frogs invited his wrath of choice - a snake God that makes frogs run for
rest of the life.

And that's the problem when most of the institutions don't make their own Gods (Bosses)
and rely on somebody; - so the Public Sectors, Universities, Institutions and many
more in our country.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

In the Realm of Swadharma 'Integrity'

PM has let us down on question of integrity: Gurcharan Das
Taken from : http://www.samachar.com/PM-has-let-us-down-on-question-of-integrity-Gurcharan-Das-kmqbMgeafji.html

We have a Prime Minister who has been admired for the last few years, but today we have been let down by him on the question of integrity," he said, while speaking at an event organised at IIM-A.

Two years ago, he (PM) knew about the greatest scam in the history of Indian telecom sector and wrote a letter to (then Minister) Mr Raja telling him what was wrong. Today he appears helpless and but that is not what we expect from our leadership, Das said.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

A Full - Circle

A Canadian yoga teacher traces her Indian roots
Taken from
http://www.samachar.com/A-Canadian-yoga-teacher-traces-her-Indian-roots-kmmlTpigggc.html

New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS) Shobha Rae had two missions when she came to India from Canada - complete a yoga teachers' training course and seek out her relatives for whom she had launched a search four years ago.

For Shobha, freedom of information (equivalent to right to information) administrator for Vancouver city, her first trip to India was a mission of sorts. She wanted to connect with the Indian side of her family with whom she had lost contact.

Shobha's grandfather Bhairon Rae had gone to the Fiji Islands in the 1890s; Shobha was born in Fiji but migrated to Canada in the 1970s. She knew that the Rae family had relatives in India; her father, Rajendra Rae had visited the ancestral village, Baijudhia in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh, over 20 years ago and told his children about his trip.

But India was too distant to think about then, and Shobha and her siblings listened to their father's experiences and forgot about them. In 2004, Shobha began thinking about her connections to India; her interest had been triggered off by reading a book and listening to a lecture by Rajendra Prasad of Fiji who had settled in New Zealand.

Prasad had spoken about his discovery of the indenture system that took his ancestors to Fiji and his own search for his ancestral village in India at the launch of his book on the subject in Toronto, Canada.

Shobha was deeply moved by the story of indenture. She said, 'We were never taught about the Indian community in Fiji. In school we read British history, European history, ancient history, but we were never told about the indenture system and how Indians were brought to Fiji. I resolved to find out more about my own family history.'

She began by contacting her cousins and other relatives to ask them what they knew about the family history. Finally, a cousin in New Zealand, Nirmala, recalled that she had jotted down some information that Rajendra Rae had given after his trip to India.

There was a phone number for Gorakhpur, and Shobha eagerly dialled the number but found that Ram Naresh Rai (the Indian part of the family spelt their name as Rai) had moved away from the house. That seemed to bring an abrupt end to the search.

Shobha then came in touch with a social organisation in Canada which helped her hire a researcher in India to search for the family's village in Uttar Pradesh. The researcher located Baijudhia village and sent her the address for another relative in Gorakhpur, Banwari Rai.

Shobha sent Banwari Rai a letter in Hindi and promptly got a reply with an invitation to visit India. She began making plans to visit India and decided to take leave of absence for a month-long yoga training course. She spent over a month at Rishikesh to attend the yoga programme and then made her way to Gorakhpur.

At Baijudhia village, Shobha met a large number of relatives, but she was most gratified to meet Shivmurthi Rai, her father's first cousin - her grandfather's younger brother's son.

'I was taken by surprise when I met my grandfather's nephew,' Shobha told IANS. 'I had not known about him; he is my dad's first cousin. It was an emotional reunion. I was deeply moved at meeting him because I felt that I had a father figure still alive.' She met a cousin, Nagendra, who had a strong resemblance to her grandfather.

Shobha was gratified to find that all the relatives had instantly taken her into the family fold. As she sat with the women relatives, Shobha was pleased to find that the women of her Indian family were strong-headed and independent-minded.

'I was surprised by one of the young girls of the family. She spoke fluent English and told me that she wanted to join the army and go to the National Defence Academy. There was a lively debate among all the women relatives who had gathered there about her joining the army, but she sounded so confident when she spoke about her ambitions.'

Shobha exchanged e-mail addresses and phone numbers with her cousins in Baijudhia and Gorakhpur and the extended Rai family - from Canada, India, New Zealand and Fiji - has promised to keep in touch.

(Shubha Singh can be contacted at shubhasingh101@gmail.com)

Some Quotes

Materialism, a Terror of Consciousness, Bhavan's Journal December 15, 2010

1. The paradigm of materialism has not only come to be enshrined at the heart of the physical sciences, but has also exerted its influence on all branches of scientific thinking. Page-28

2. Life is that which is not in conformity with its environment but in defiance of it! Page-32

3. The signature of life is that it does not like being buffeted by material forces; it stands up to them and attempts to harness them. Moedrn humanity reflects the culmination of this process. Pge-33


Politics: The greatest Myths

1. He said GDP, per capita growth rates and national poverty line are the "three dangers facing the people of India".
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/India-is-prospering-but-not-Indians-Aiyar/719140/

Friday, December 3, 2010

Calling of a Lesser

In a village of long history there are a variety
of people engaged in many things initially guided
by the village ethics, as the villagers use
to claim often, of having a rich virtuous past
particularly when something real different hunt them.
Probably that's take shelter.

Among a lively group of kids
there are a claimed virtuous student and another hated
one. The later usually gets engaged in all unaccepted acts
including copying in exam hall, for which he takes
punishment. Once, he found the virtuous boy was
engaged in the same copying. He felt bad and told
the boy that was bad. But, the claimed virtuous one with
arrogance reminds the other that he is not having
moral authority to advise.

A thief has lost moral authority. But an ostensibly
noble loosing all sanity of ethics claims to remain
on high moral ground! Calling of a Lesser is always
a No Call?

Hrushikesha
3rd Dec. 10

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Class Creators

It was a lovely morning on east-coast after night-long downpour.
Cool sea-bridge with freshness of washed flowers was flowing
through my spacious guest house. And I proceeded to dining hall
for breakfast- a formal one. Never, I'm used to it from childhood
- leave aside current days. I always find self in short of time
even after precisely planned morning destined to run for office
gulping a part of breakfast. But that day was special having a
couple of vice-chancellors on breakfast table. For me, if you
say or can say so, that is a luck or coincidence as I usually
keep away from power corridors. I find it suffocating formal,
probably for my upbringing in informal atmosphere in my village,
you can tell it my ..............

The issue I want to put before you is on the table talks happened
in that morning. I should quickly add here a bit on eating habits
many of us follow in India after accepting dining tables and discarding
our old habit of eating with elegant style of squatting. I remember
there were many formal procedures to be obeyed starting from laying
of asanas (small carpets) to spreading of food items on leaves. Now,
we don’t teach kids how to behave on dining table as we have no time
for it but for the idiot box. Now I remember- I developed distaste with
my the first job for its unbearable scenes in company canteen. I can’t
bear the sound of noisy chewing, sucking of all five fingers and throwing
of rice balls into mouths (seeing that, old coal engines come to my mind).
Near our dining tables, we don’t expect witty table talks. That morning,
I had to bear with some of those that I don’t like on dining table.

Excuse me, I have strayed bit of the main theme I plan to tell you.
That's, now the parameters of efficiency of a Vice-Chancellor is being
measured by the amount of money he could spend in his tenure, for building
thousands square feet of floor space and for recruiting hundreds of
teachers, for starting integrated courses/centres (as we have finished
many govt. undergraduate colleges) and finally for the number of shops set
in campus. One was vying against other reeling out their statistics.
There was a vice chancellor of a state university. Found, he was
keeping silent like one of the three famous monkeys but listening
to others in melancholy. The truth is only some central universities
corner so much funds proclaiming themselves as first runners. Ill
funded state universities are on life saving drugs, in shambles.
Many students from Odisha proceed to central univs at Delhi,
Pondicherry and Hyderabad. Seems, we are in the march of creating
a class of society trained at universities of different grades
created artificially by folly of potential of excellence!