Karma

My atheistic journey started with Krishna's famous views on Karma.. "Karma karo magar phal ki chinta mat karo".. My argument (as that of many others) was that if I dont worry about the result, why the hell would I do any work.. More than 15 years have passed, but these thoughts still linger on, though these are not a basis for atheistic inclinations now.. Infact I am beginning to like these thoughts.. Just do the things that you like to do or rather whats right to do.. I dont like the right part much.. But I think most of the times the things that you like are the ones which are right.. So what this means is that you get completely involved in the things that are right and those that you want to do.. This in turn results in achieving what you want.. I dont know whether Krishna said this to bring more focus and hence achieving results..So what he s doing is bringing in more focus to your efforts.. I dont know whether this interpretation is correct.. But I dont like this interpretation.. What I like is that merely doing something without any focus on the result is much more enjoyable.. Results are by products.. These can enhance the experience of doing the thing, but ends are not ends in themselves.. Doing your "karma" is!

Value System

I talked about this with a friend here in US.... the discussion was concluded by agreeing that we should talk more about this......it might be tied to a few points listed in "points to ponder"......so the basic question was: do Indians (well at that time it was more directed towards the two of us) have any kind of values or do we just believe in existing/surviving and hence act only because of self interest. We were also comparing ourselves to the americans and my friend S gave example of the debate for presidential candidate, wherein two people put forward their views and its almost like black and white (although they are politicians) and the people decide on whom to choose......

i don't think i have explained the problem well...... will come again later ..... and at the same time need to answer whether it is always possible to remain in either black or white, or is there a gray area? although right now it appears that cannot do without the gray area, it seems conflicting with the value system theory (although i have not put forward any sort of theory) .......

And again the usual dilemma of someone's white area becoming other's black... what good would the principles/value system do then... e.g. bin laden's idea of jihad and his actions based on his principles have created a quite a bit of problem for others... I guess dilemma like this sometimes makes me appreciate the 'chalta hai' attitude of the desis. Recently watched a CNN documentary on 'God's Warriors' which highlights the strong value system of a group of people (jews, christians and muslims) and their actions based on the principles.

It appears that this is going to be one big messy post, since i am trying to write about various other connections.

Points to ponder ....

Here I am with my first blog. (Technically this was my first post : 1 2 3 testing ...
Need to do some tests before i start writing ...).

Few reasons for being so late in joining the world of blogs:
1. I could never complete writing about anything that I started.
2. Never felt comfortable with the idea of putting my thoughts out there in the open.
3. What about spelling and grammatical errors!!!
4. Never was good at writing....

But now here i am. And why am I here? Because :
1. I don't care if I don't complete a post. I can always come back.....
2. Only the chosen few know who I am.
3. & 4. Don't give a damn about them now (mainly because of 2 above).
5. Its a good place to collect my thoughts. I have tons of notepad files on my machine and i have never gone back to complete my thoughts. Here, I might come back.........

(and unlike mr amolratna, i don't plan to keep track of how many dots (.....) i put after the end of a sentence.......;);))

For now I will just list down the topics i plan/hope to write about, and maybe a few lines about them. Maybe amol or parul can complete them.

• Define right and wrong, good and bad, true and false:
  Summary: (I guess I should have mentioned this before: "Look at the tag line in the blog title. Its a quote by Plato (I think) and conveys the idea to follow) Its all relative. eg. killing is ok if you are on a battlefield else you can rot in jail, its okay to listen to pirated music or watch pirated movies but its not right to steal a car......the list goes on. recently i thought i might be able to define (those attributes) based on logic, which brings me to the next post.
• Man (and woman too) is not a rational being:

(Now how do i go back one line ?? (like i did for the first bullet) .........) main point, we don't have time to think logically before we take any action (we would be robots otherwise....... first guy i remember getting this from was the author - Nassim Nicholas Taleb in "fooled by randomness.....") , there are things we love/enjoy doing and we don't care about the consequences ...... eg. people smoke, even though they know that its harmful....sometimes our actions are guided by history and sometimes we forget about the history....(AND now how do i go back to the original font? man this is difficult than i thought....) , people cry while watching movies .......again the list goes on.....
But can people logically analyze themselves or their actions to justify them consistently (according to their own standards)? Or is there a need to justify any of the actions? Should we have a "consistent" reason to do what we do? i guess yes, yes and no...... will come back to this later.....

• Religion and god and all that "crap"
  
• terrorism: india-kashmir, bombay and the rest, 9/11, iraq, UK, israel - palestine ........
  
• passion to do something
• comparing life in US to that in india..... can we take something good from one and put it in the other.
• what's going on in india: decline of democracy vis-a-vis (i always wanted to use that in a sentence :) ) "parzania", "da vinci code" , "fanaa", "the satanic verses" - actually the philosophy behind those.

Done for today. will come back some time soon .................

The Great Indian Line Trick

You can find queues (henceforth called lines) everywhere in India. There is a line outside shops, inside shops, for using washrooms, banks, atms, bus stops, railway stations, restaurants, for buying movie tickets, entering a mall, exiting a mall, for eating pani puri, pan shop - everywhere . Think of any place and the first thing that comes to mind is a big line. Worse part is that the line never looks like a line. Its curved / distorted and cluttered around at the origin – near the counter (and / or destination) with one person at the centre and two at the left side, two at the right side - reminds me of a crooked – not so straight - ‘trishul’ - like the ones in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan.

Not only is the line big, people stink in these lines. You can smell all kinds of hair oils, perfumes, deodarants, hair gels – these are supposed to smell good, but don’t smell so good when mixed with sweat and body odour – believe me. Mobile phones keep ringing in these lines, people keep talking on phones or with each other – which allows smell of gutkhas or cigarettes or onions or bhajiyas coming sweetly out of their big mouths and spreading all over.

I have not come to the worst part yet. People just keep pushing and leaning over each other, touching you from behind and allowing you to be touched from the front side. I just hate this. So you have these fat people with bulging tummies touching your back and people with fat asses touching your front. Believe me it’s a royal &#$%, if you know what I mean. I think that people have just started enjoying all this touching each other business. I mean this gives them a feeling of satisfaction, makes them feel as if they are doing something and helps in removing boredom of standing in a line with increased expectations of reaching the counter faster and quenches their curiousity of whats happening at the counter – more closely you stand in the line, faster your work gets done – that’s the mentality.

Recently, I found out a way of dealing with the line problem. What you need to do is fold your hands so that your elbows are extended backwards. This way the person who is standing just behind you is sure to get hurt, so he/she will maintain a distance. You can of course maintain a distance with the person standing in front of you. I tried this and was successful w.r.t. the person standing behind me. The only problem that cropped up was that other people who are not part of the line start crossing sides since you have provided for a way to them by maintaining distance w.r.t. the person standing in front of you ! So my elbows went down and now I think that I will carry a big rod on my sides, which will create a distance between me and the people ahead of me and behind me. Let me try, will get back to you with results.

What if I avenge ?

Revenge is the best form of eliminating one's frustration.. One of the best emotions that I have come across.. Its focussed and needs planning.. It involves you completely, motivates you., is demanding and powerful.. What if I did.. What if I lied.. What if I avenge.. What if eye for an eye.. Hats off Scott Stapp.. Revenge is a dish best served cold..

If you believe in God its ok, but don't hurt my "irreligious" feelings

I don't understand why they have to do this all the time.. People just keep on hurting my irreligious feeling.. I keep on hearing chants of Swaminarayan - this especially used to happen whenever I used to concentrate for studies while doing my engineering.. This even happens now.. Whenever I seriously set out to do something I keep hearing these chants.. I am hurt for god sake with such behaviour.. Who gave you the right to hurt my irreligious feelings.. Why do you believe in God.. Critics will think the other way round - that why do people hurt someone's religious feelings.. They conveniently ignore the fact that someones irreligious feelings might be getting hurt by all the religious work in this work.. Why is this point of view not important - no one bothers.. I had a good discussion with Kaviyesh on this point.. I think Kaviyesh - you should write something on this.. Why do these people dont understand this point of view.. Most of the problems in the world is because of religion.. World would be a better place to live in without any of these religions.. Whenever I say this, critics say its not because of religion its because of wrong interpretation of religion which leads to fundamentalism.. Is religion so confusing that most of the time people misinterpret it.. Or is it so complicated.. I hate all complicated and confusing things.. I hate all isms of this world.. This includes nationalism.. Now thats bad.. Being anti national is bad - the worst thing.. But not being a nationalist does not necessarily mean that I am anti national.. I just hate all kinds of groupisms.. Groups of any kind are bad believe me.. Groups tend to care about the interests of the groups and we really dont have so intelligent people who will act in a way which will not hamper interests of others.. I like individuality.. I dont like groups.. Ayn Rand ishtyle.. Though I never say this in interviews and talk about all craps related to me being a good team player and stuff.. More on groupism later.. More on everything that I have said - later..But dont you dare hurt my irreligious feelings..

I blog, therefore I am

Technology kills me.. I am here because because everyone else's here.. I hate typing.. Writing with pen - fountain pen is more fun.. I still like Chelpark and my Hero pen.. The only problem is that I don't find Chelpark anywhere anymore.. I also don't find Hero pen anywhere anymore.. I have the pen but the nib is broken.. People are simply refusing to repair it.. To add up to my problem Berty has lost the cover of the pen.. I do have a Waterman and Lamy and Scheaffer.. And believe me these are wonderful pens.. So why am I here.. Its probably I can not put two dots after each statement after all statements.. Just two dots.. Neither one nor three.. Only two.. One dot indicates end of statement.. Two dots indicate something more needs to be told.. Three dots are too much.. Either indicates complete end of statement - over and out kinds or a lot needs to be told.. Two is just perfect.. Anyway (mind you, not anyways with an S), I just love this invention of Bill Gates.. MS word.. Somehow I always end up thinking that everything related to computer is invention of Bill Gates.. So I am because I blog - so am here.. This is not so good as I blog, therefore I am - which is actually a bad copy of Rene Descartes - I think, therefore I am.. I know I am not making sense.. I dont want to make any sense in the first place.. Two, things which dont make sense are like outliers in data.. Outliers can be useful though.. Outliers make more sense when you slice and dice data.. Anyway (without an extra s), blogging will continue - I think..