Evening is starting to fall
The stillness... making my hair crawl
The overwhelming signs..oh so familiar !
I dread in apprehension...and fear...

For again you are  arriving !
In all your grandeur !

The same enveloping primordial stuffiness
The same resounding cries of desperation
That are your perennial company
Growing by the moments
Swallowing everything
Defeating visibility
Like the looming towering progressing dark clouds
Of a roaring Maelstorm
Churning everything in its path
Prevailing upon my hapless self
Enveloping..Choking..Carrying me away
To your blazing swirling world

How then it all seems so familiar...
So touching..

So....soothing ?!

In those tranquil afternoons
Lazying with the pretty flowers
and the soft grass and cascading waters
Under the calm rays of the descending Sun
You give me a nudge
reminding me..
of how you are always there
of how you missed me
of how...which I realise now...I too miss you !

Oh...My Beloved  !!
You have always been a part of me !

In those dull mornings and long silent nights
In those endless winding roads amongst green fields
In the mountains..in the meadows
In my most secluded moments
And in my most secret dreams

I feel you...I sense you...

My Beloved !

Please be at my side always !

Please give me eternal peace !

CORPORATE LESSON - III

A little bird was flying south for the winter.



It was so cold, the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field.



While it was lying there, a cow came by, and dropped some dung on it.




As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realise how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out !



He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing with joy.




A passing cat heard the bird sing, and came to investigate.



Following the sound, the Cat discovered the bird under the pile of dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him !







The morals of the story are:-





(1) Not everyone who drops shit on you is your enemy !




(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend !




(3) And when you are in deep shit, keep your mouth shut !!





Corporate lesson- IV follows....

In continuation with the Corporate lesson -I  posted earlier,
I post below:-


CORPORATE LESSON - II


A Turkey was chatting with a Bull near a big tree.


 "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree", sighed the Turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."



"Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings ?" replied the Bull,  "they are packed with nutrients ! they may give you enough energy !"



The Turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree.




The next day, after eating more dung, he reached the second branch.



Finally, after a fortnight, there he was, proudly perched at the top of the tree !!



Soon, he was spotted by a Hunter, who promptly shot the Turkey.






Moral of the story is:-







BULLSHIT MIGHT GET YOU TO THE TOP, BUT IT WON'T KEEP YOU THERE !!




CORPORATE LESSON - III FOLLOWS:-

The Corporates are going through a change. In the tussle between aquisitions and closures in the corporate sector, a number of us are left out.   In these hard times, here are some corporate lessons to be followed for surviving the change:-



CORPORATE LESSON- I


A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day.



A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, " Can I sit like you and do nothing all day long ?"



The crow answered, "Sure, why not ?"



So the rabbit sat on the ground below the tree , and rested.



All of a sudden, a jackal appeared, jumped on the resting rabbit, and ate it !




Moral of the story is:-










To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very very high up !!


Corporate lesson-II follows.....

Sorry Friends ! It's been a long time since I have posted anything. As things stand, I have not even visited the Island to view the posts of others till recently. And my Inbox is overflowing with mails about posts. But due to a heavy schedule and some depressing days alongwith a backache had turned me away from the drive to post something. But I think it's high time I have started all over again as my backache seems to be getting better and the depessing days seem to be my constant companion. I have always wondered during my bad phases whether what you go through in this life is a resultant of your deeds or not. Conflicting opinions are there in the sense that, while some attribute the bad times to the deeds done in this life, others take it as the result of deeds of both this life and past lives also. A third category say that whatever you experience in this life results from your deeds of earlier lives only, and your doings of this life will show result in your later lives. I never understood the logic of whatever force that brings about these retributions as if he or she is keeping a record of all and calculating/realloting retribution in a mega scale of cosmic dimensions. Let us consider the retributing entity as God. If God wanted to punish someone for his doings in one birth, he should do so in the same birth and not postpone it to future ones, as in the future births, the person is a totally different one without any link to his previous deeds as far as his knowledge or character goes. So it sounds like punishing Hari for the misdeeds of Ram, which is totally illogical. So it is difficult to believe in the theory that you get punished or rewarded for your deeds/misdeeds of earlier lives. Now, consider that you get the result of your deeds of this life in this life only. Then how are you going to explain the misfortunes of extremely pious men or the lavish lives of evil men who never face any problems in their lives? We may call them the so called lucky and unlucky people, but is that all the explanation we can offer, especially when luck is considered nothing beyond the gift of God ? If that is so, then we can safely deduce that there is simply no relation of your deeds with your experiences, and all this concept of Karma is bogus, and it is very practical to do whatever you like for your selfish ends without worrying about any retributions! Sounds enticing. Isn't it? Believe me, I am really confused about it.

For arguments' sake, let's presume that there actually is retribution as per your deeds. Then does the bad effects get reduced by your doing religious activities, like taking a dip in Ganga or performing Pujas? If that is so, then all evil men can go on committing any misdeeds they want and still wash them all off  by taking a Ganga dips !! That gives God the power of overriding one's Karma. But what we have read in the scriptures since childhood says that even God is bound by Karma, and there are numerous examples of it. Is that all wrong? Or is our doing Char-Dham and so on are all useless?

I think the answer to all this is your own belief. I still think, even during my bad phases, that whatever one have got in his or her life is good enough for him/her. It is wiser to never hope or aspire for anything better and experience despair/ bad times. This opinion may differ with the present trend of career/fortune builders whose philosophy is to rise high at whatever costs, but it seems one has to sacrifice a lot for the same. And sacrifices always seem to have  positive results. So whatever may be the truth about Karma or God and their distribution of power, there definitely is a logical link between our deeds and experiences, however erratic it may appear to be, that too maybe because our incomplete understanding of the process. I hope one day I will find the answer, even though I don't plan to be another Budhha !! 

Time and again women have raised queries why in this country girl children are not welcomed resulting in all these female foeticides irrespective of stringent govt. rules in place. We have to understand the root of the problem before taking it as one of law and order only. India is a poor country where there is no social security system for the aged people like in the developed countries. Further, there is virtually no system in place for effective assistance in case of emergency. The only persons you can depend on in such a situation are the members of your family residing with you.As only the son always stays with the parents and the daughter goes away after marriage, parents always want a son (possibly more than one in case one son neglects them). The matter becomes more complicated when the parents neither educate their daughters properly nor prepare them to be earning members because of the social codes requiring daughters to go to another family, mainly to look after children. Even though one is from an educated and cultured family (do not mistake this as a rich family, as rich families may buy some education now a days, but they often are extremely obscurantist and uncultured), the want of someone by your side in your old age always weighs the scale in favour of a son. No rules or regulations can change this as this is linked to our instinct of survival. Since the avenues open to us for better facilities are sinking day by day because the sharp increase in population breaks down any improvements we try to make in the system, we become more and more dependant on our own family whose value has remained more or less unchanged over centuries. So the quest for a son goes on.

Ask the third class politicians why they opposed one third reservation for women in parliament reasoning that there are not enough competent women to handle the job of MPs. Were there enough competent SCs and STs when reservation for them was effected? Or why there are no reservation for women in jobs? The very purpose of reservations are to bring parity in different sectors of society, but if they do not constitute a coherent vote-bank, our third class politicians will do nothing for them.Unfortunately, women do not even form a coherent vote bank as they usually vote where there husbands/fathers/brothers/sons tell them to vote.
Ask our religious leaders (with all these Sankaracharyas, Shahi Imams and Bishops around) whether they can issue dictats to the society  that daughters with their husbands can stay with the daughter's family also, or that daughters can also light the funeral pyres and perform the last rites of the deceased or that the daughter's title may not change after marriage and she may not be counted as one of her husband's family. They obviously will not, because they are as obscurantist and unevolved as the species that is going to become extinct.
Lastly, ask the well-to-do women themselves. How many of them want to become financially and socially independent by taking up a job, taking over a business or even move out of the house without (or even with) the permission of their husbands/fathers/brothers or even sons/grandsons? You will be surprised to find that most of these women would prefer to sit at home at the service of the family and watch the "bitching serials" like those aired in the evenings, because that is the only thing they think they are good at. That is why those serials are so popular. So you cannot expect these women to be torch bearers for bringing their kind into limelight, irrespective of individuals like Indira Gandhi etc.
All this can and will end. Start asking questions, however unpleasant they may be. There will no doubt be resistance, fierce resistance, but all this will go sometimes. There has to be the will in all like minded men and women.Only then will the social structure change. And the female foeticides will automatically stop even without any law in place.

You have seen the ancient temples of India,especially in the east and the south. They are huge,arent they? And if you observe closely, you will see that the crowns (tops) of the  temples comprise of  huge blocks of stones (sometimes by only one stone) weighing over a hundred tons each. Ever wondered how the ancients lifted and fitted such huge stone blocks so high without any modern technology?(The Jagannath temple of Puri is around two hundred feet high). But the Indian temples are dwarfed by the great Pyramids of Egypt.The largest Pyramids are comparable to small mountains. Even though part of their secrets are still unknown, what must have surprised you is how, thousands of years ago, such huge stone blocks were lifted to their upper portions? But the answer is a simple process used by the ancients throughout the world. As the construction of a huge structure commences from ground level, a path is created around the structure over which the huge stone blocks are dragged(not lifted) and fitted in place. As the height of the structure rises, the height of the path around the structure is also simultaneously raised in an upward spiral by constant piling of sand or soil, so that the top level of the path is always equal to the level of the construction. The heavy blocks are then dragged from ground level up the sloping spiraling path around the structure until they reach the level of the construction. This process is continued throughout the construction period. So never in the entire construction is there any need to lift anything vertically. In the end, the structure becomes totally hidden inside a  hill of sand or soil. After the construction is over, the entire hill of the sand or soil around the structure is removed upto the ground level to expose it in all its glory !! Simple and ingenius, Isnt it ?

Here's another puzzle for you. Why did the ancients who developed the number system (decimal system) took ten as an unit; instead of, say, seven or eight? Dont understand? to put it simply, why did they devise ten numbers from 0 to 9 ? Why not six or seven or even twelve? Think about the answer...it's really simple ! Tell me if you have guessed correctly.

Socretes was the greatest philosopher Europe has ever produced. Born around two thousand years ago, he was a Greek  and was famous for his deep philosophical insight and logical arguments. Unfortunately, his wisdom turned out to be his enemy and resulted in his spending his last days in the prison and his being forced  to commit suicide by drinking poison in the prison itself.
In one of his renowned riddles, he conveys the futility of  illogical application of meanings to statements. He framed two sentences, which, when taken as absolute truths, will prove themselves to be false and repeat the riddle continuously without end !! Dont understand ? See this:-

Truth One:- All Greeks are absolute liars.
Truth Two:- I am a Greek.

So what follows is:-
1)  If all Greeks are absolute liars, then I, being a Greek, am an absolute liar too.
2)  So my statement that "all Greeks are absolute liars" is an absolute lie.
3)  Which means that all Greeks are absolutely truthful.

4)  If so, then I, being a Greek, am absolutely truthful.

5)  Then my statement that "all Greeks are absolute liars" is  absolutely true.

6) From which it again follows that all Greeks are absolute liars !!

and so on and on...................

Reality is an illusion created due to lack of Alcohol.
---Sir Johney Walker

The vastness of space had always intrigued me. If you have never given it a thought, it will be impossible for you to gauge its size. The fastest speed humans have achieved is around 24,000 km per hour ie the speed of space bound rockets and the speed of crafts in orbit. But it will be too minuscule a speed to even enter into outer space. Let us take the speed of light, the fastest thing in the Universe (at an astounding 3,00,000 km per second) as the speed required to move through the known Universe. If you travel in that speed from the Earth, you will cross the Moon in 1.2 seconds, but to go out of the Solar system ie to cross Pluto, it will take you 6 hours. Still, to reach the nearest Star to the Sun, it will take you Four Years !!! Thats not all. Our Solar System is part of a Galaxy (a spiral mass of Stars) called The Milky Way, and there are 10,000 Crore Stars in the Milky Way, all more or less evenly spaced !! It will take you tens of thousands of years at light speed to cross the Milky Way and travel into outer space !!! At this rate, you will take at least a million years at speed of light to reach the nearest Galaxy to ours !!And thats not all. The expanse of the Universe is mind boggling !!The known Universe has hundreds of thousands of such Galaxies like our Milky way, all spaced vast distances from each other and moving away from each other at great speeds !! There are hundreds of Galaxy clusters also, with each cluster containing upto ten thousand Galaxies each !!! And then there are so many inexplicable things and objects observed in the Universe which science has not yet understood !! So where are we in the Universe??