Bomb Blasts and Arithmetic Progression

After having a near-close encounter with September 13 Delhi Blasts, the least expected was the shocking November 26 Mumbai Blasts. 

Now, the mathematically inclined have 'discovered' an Arithmetic Progression of these blasts:

13 May 2008: Jaipur  (nine blasts within a span of 15 minutes)

June 2008: ---

26 July 2008: Ahemdabad (21 blasts within a span of 70 minutes)

August 2008: ---

13 September 2008: Delhi (5 blasts within a span of 31 minutes, and a few more)

October 2008: ---

26 November 2008: Mumbai Mayhem 

Indians seem to have FINALLY woken up:

• Mumbai terrorist attacks are a wake-up call for India
• Mumbai Terror: Last Wake up Call For The Country
• Zero tolerance only answer to terrorism
  
• Mumbai Terror: Citizens against inaction against Pakistan Petition
  
• Citizens target politicians post Mumbai terror attacks
  
• Mumbai terror: Angry citizens protest
  

 Hopefully, INDIA WOULD NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP.

HOPEFULLY, NOTHING HAPPENS ON 13 January 2008.

Serial Bomb Blasts in Delhi

5 Serial Bomb Blasts in Delhi; one of them 500 meters away from an Auditorium where I was watching a musical program performed by children associated with an NGO - Nritya Sangeet Natraj Kala Kendra.

I walked out and saw ambulances racing by. Decided to drive back home, and heard news of live bombs being diffused, 20 people getting killed, 90 injured....

So, that is what we have...a few people whose job, business and career is to plant bombs! Is it insanity? Do you think you and I are any better? Insanely, we rush through our lives, while these guys hold everyone at ransom....If we think that THEY are bad, them how has OUR BEING GOOD made situation any better?

Wanna be a writer?

How to be a prolific writer?

Leo Babauta, shares in Learn from the Greats: 7 Writing Habits of Amazing Writers:

Stephen King is most prolific -writing 10 pages a day. Ernest Hemingway competes with 500 words a day.

Hard working writers are Vladimir Nabokov & Philip Roth.

Vladimir Nabokov wrote standing up, and all on index cards (to re-arrange later). Philip Roth works standing up, pacing around as he thinks and writes in an isolated studio.

Hardly working Truman Capote wrote lying down, in bed or on a couch.

James Joyce displays amazing freedom - A friend asked him if he’d had a good day writing. Yes, Joyce replied happily. How much had he written? Three sentences, Joyce told him.

My vote goes to James Joyce, though Truman Capote is close!

What would you vote for?

But, what will you REALLY TEACH & IMPART?

Teach India | News and Features :You must be familiar with the street children who stare at you blankly (mostly, hopelessly, but, a few rare ones, mischievously!) at traffic signals, while you comfortably wait for the light to turn green! There was an interesting Hindi Movie on these 'special' children of our society: Traffic Signal (2007).

Now, you have a chance to contribute - Times of India has launched a social initiative that invites you to take out a few hours from your leisure to teach underprivileged children. Initially, this is only for the metros, but TOI assures us "that once the programme is up and running in the four metros, we will extend it to our other editions as well".

Over sixty NGOs, corporates, schools and social organizations have committed to this cause to target "a population of over 287 million illiterate Indians".

More that 10,00 have joined up - Delhi has shown the largest response, followed Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

So, we have all happily signed-up and WAITING for that CALL from Teach India Cell!

NOW, imagine you are in presence of, say, 20 underprivileged children, and you have started teaching a SUBJECT to them.

BUT, ARE YOU REALLY AWARE OF THEIR WORLD? WHAT ARE THEIR REAL ISSUES? Back home OR back on the streets WHAT ARE THEY UP AGAINST? A hostile world? Scared Parents (or, worse, abusive parents) ? How can they experience freedom from such severe conditioning?

WHAT DO THEY REALLY NEED?

Self Esteem? A glimpse towards a world of exciting possibilities? A concrete evidence that that they can CREATE an enriching life for themselves?

PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS!

LET US GIVE OUR BEST TO THESE KIDS!
...............................................................................................
Anyone interested in participating can visit the Teach India website at www.teach.timesofindia.com. Alternatively you can also fill out the Volunteer Registration form submit it to The Times of India office in your city. To receive the form on email, SMS TEACH to 58888.

Thank God It is Sunday!

Today is Sunday.

I can't enjoy it TOTALLY, because I am scared to wake up EARLY MORNING tomorrow!

Society allows us to rest today, so that we can run tomorrow.

If you are in a similar space, try the following tomorrow!
....................................................................................

Once, a colleague reached very late to our office on a Monday morning.

Someone taunted him, "You were expected here at 9 AM!"

He replied, "Why? What happened at 9 AM?"
....................................................................................

But, you may disagree and say that you have to RUN and complete a ton of things!

In that case, try the following!
....................................................................................
I was astonished to see a stream people RUNNING running on a SUNDAY.

I asked a volunteer, "What are these people up to?"

He said, "This a marathon."

I said, "So, what will they ACHIEVE from this marathon?"

He said, "The one who comes FIRST will be REWARDED".

I said, "But, why are the OTHERS running?
....................................................................................

Let me know how it turned out:-)

Gandhi's 10 Commandments

How big a factor was Gandhi's philosophy in enabling India's freedom? How do you practice your Philosophy? How does your self-expression impact your society and world?

Inspired by Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi's thoughts, Henrik Edberg posted Gandhi’s Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World:

1. Change yourself.
2. You are in control.
3. Forgive and let it go.
4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere. More tips on this at How to Take More Action: 9 Powerful Tips.
5. Take care of this moment. More at 8 Ways to Return to the Present Moment.
6. Everyone is human.
7. Persist.
8. See the good in people and help them. More at Do You Make These 10 Mistakes in a Conversation?
9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.
10. Continue to grow and evolve.

The last one quotes Gandhi:

”Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to
maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false
position.”

The fourth one quotes : “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

Hmm..let us get some practice on the above ten points now....

Which ones are you planning to practice?

Freedom From Pain!

In her latest post, Sirensongs shares, "I am having "problems" (mostly health related....horrible migraines and backaches)."

Come to think of it, many of us have been in this place and it is NOT always "easy" to "BE AT EASE" all the time! You have 'internal' dilemmas, relationship conflicts, pressures from 'society', and so on!

So, here is some help. There is an online "The Pain Relief Center", which is not-for-profit and invites everyone to "Use the power of the mind to eliminate pain regardless of the cause, heal the body, and improve your quality of life".

They use an integrated psycho-spiritual-physical approach to help you free yourself from pain.
Apart from other products, they offer free pain lessons. An excerpt from "Using Meditation for Pain Relief / Variations":

• At the first sign of pain, say a migraine attack or back spasm, try to relax and bring yourself back to a meditative state. The more you practice relaxation and meditation training, the easier it is to do this. Pain naturally causes us to fight and struggle, or try to escape. This is itself unpleasant, and it also causes physiological effects that make pain worse, particularly headache and backache. Our fight or flight defensive reaction creates changes in hormones, blood flow, and muscle tension that make headache and backache much worse.
  
• If we can relax and stop struggling, fighting, or trying to escape, we can break this "spiral of agony" and defuse the pain. You must experience for yourself that trying to fight the pain or to escape from it makes the pain worse. You can also experience that the pain changes when you stop fighting or trying to escape.
• One of the best ways to stop fighting or trying to escape is to turn your attention TOWARD the feeling of pain in your body, and to stay with it. This works particularly well with headache, backache, gastrointestinal pain, and other types of pain that are especially made worse by the emotional component.
  
• When you learn to turn your attention toward the pain, to examine the sensation of the pain, and to examine the emotion associated with the sensation, you will experience a most extraordinary thing. The pain will change in quality, move around, or abate entirely. Most people continue the fight -- they never stop struggling with the pain, so they never see what happens when they stop fighting.
• A variation of the above technique is to try to locate the pain precisely, and to determine its size, shape, and quality. For example, when your back hurts, try to describe exactly where the pain is in your back. Imagine a picture of your back and try to localize it exactly on the picture. How spread out is it? What kind of pain is it? Is it burning, crushing, dull, or prickly? Pay attention and make sure you are right, particularly about location and extent. This forces you to bring your awareness to the pain.
  
• A related technique is to use imagery. For example, if you have a headache, you might imagine a window opening in your head and the pain leaving through the window. Or you might imagine cool water flowing over the pain. This also forces you to bring your attention to the pain.
  
• If you do any of these exercises while remaining relaxed it will counteract the emotional component of pain -- the tendency to fight or escape. In many cases the results are dramatic. Some people find they cannot localize the pain at all, because when they pay attention to it, the pain moves away. They find themselves chasing the pain around, and it eventually dissolves.

TRY IT OUT and share your experiences.

Say "YES" to freedom from pain.

Feringhee: The India Diaries

Feringhee: The India Diaries

Checkout photos of monks from Tibet expressing themselves: photos by Sirensongs who lives "somewhere on the Great Asian Road between Kathmandu, Kailash, & Kashmir, India".

Her disillusionment and childhood memories of "Tintin In Tibet" have led her to adventures throughout India, Nepal and Sri Lanka (Tibet and Bhutan are next on the list).

Sirensongs is "inordinately proud of her ability to read street signs and argue (successfully) with taxi drivers in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, French and Nepali languages. Her Tibetan, however, is still a total disgrace. She's working on it."

Quote: "Why do people go to India to find themselves? India is where you go to LOSE yourself."

Amen.

Don't hesitate! Go out, express yourself FULLY!

Dan Kretschmer, is the author of a book called “Masters of the Renaissance,” which takes a look at 18 of the most important artists of the Renaissance in Europe.

He has talked about "What is Art"?

The wiki entry puts it as "The term art is used to describe a particular type of creative production generated by human beings, and the term usually implies some degree of aesthetic value. An artist makes a work of art for various purposes, such as creating an experience for others or as part of a ritual. ..."

Dan says:

To understand the art of the world we must first define “culture.”

Culture, anthropologically speaking, is everything about humanity that hasn’t been inherited biologically.

In short, it is our human expression.
... ...

Ever since man became a cognitive entity, homo sapiens sapiens, or “Thinking thinking man,” he has needed to express himself in one way or another. The origins of language could have been a series of grunts and gestures, a way of communicating thoughts and ideas in tangible ways. Long before alphabets and writing came into play, symbols were created to represent ideas, and were painted on the walls and other surfaces to convey messages. This early way of putting ideas into visible cues is the origin of art.

Art, therefore, is and has always been a means of self expression.

The power to ponder and associate thoughts and ideas, the ability to differentiate dreams from reality, and the assigning of perceived value and significance to real objects are what separates us from our chimpanzee cousins.

Since the beginnings of humanity, our feelings and ways to express them have been a staple for our survival as a species. Once the basics of communication have been established, ways of showing others a higher form of feeling must be achieved.

This is art as we know it. Individuals with their own unique thoughts are expressing it in ways their fellow people can understand.

...

The leaps and bounds of art throughout history, however, have been a challenging of such readily accepted ideals. Society as a whole has their own set of values of what is acceptable and many pioneering artists who were ahead of their time were shunned.

...

So, in a nutshell, art is what you make of it. You, as an individual, have the power to decipher art, and to express your own art in any way you see fit. Art can exist anywhere.... ....Artists of all ages, skill levels, and backgrounds produce their art in their own way. Not all art is going to be as great as Michelangelo‘s David, and this is important in your critiques of what art actually is. Good art, crummy art, corporate art, scribble drawings, advertisements, finger paintings, rug designs, body painting, found art, digital paintings, you name it- it’s all art. So it is unfair to the artist to say that something simply isn’t “Art” because you don’t understand it, and it may not smile back at you like the Mona Lisa.

He concludes:

One thing is for sure, no one can predict the future, therefore it is impossible to say where the art of tomorrow can be headed.

I say:
One thing is for sure, no matter who and where you are, ART is about WHO YOU ARE!

In a survey conducted in schools, kids were asked to raise hands if they thought they were artistic. RESULTS OF SURVEY: With every progressive class, number of hands went down and hesitation in raising the hand increased!

Someone has said, "Hesitation is sin". Now, we know why there are so many sinners:-)

So, don't hesitate! Go out, express yourself FULLY!

And, raise your hand (by commenting) IF YOU THINK YOU ARE ARTISTIC;-)

[Check Dan's articles about how learning art doesn’t have to be boring, and how you don’t need TV when there’s art.]

Tibet - Global Day of Action, March 31

Avaaz.org - The World in Action

China has got it all, except love and respect. Can it FREE ITSELF from a "negative" past?

Would Chinese President Hu Jintao CHOOSE freedom and peace FOR China?

Members of Avaaz - the organization that has collected more than a million signatures in the last week calling on Hu Jintao for dialogue with the Dalai Lama - will join Tibet organizations around the world in a Global Day of Action for Tibet on March 31st.

Please see here to find an event near you.

Sign the Petition to Chinese President Hu Jintao -it will be delivered Monday, March 31st to Chinese embassies and consulates worldwide:

As citizens around the world, we call on you to show restraint and respect for human rights in your response to the protests in Tibet, and to address the concerns of all Tibetans by opening meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Only dialogue and reform will bring lasting stability. China's brightest future, and its most positive relationship with the world, lies in harmonious development, dialogue and respect.

Celebrating February 11: A Story of Freedom

Around 100 years ago, one of the earliest thoughts on freedom of South Africa came from Gandhi. In the year 1908, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi spoke to a gathering at Johannesburg:

"If we look into the future [of South Africa], is it not a heritage we have to leave to posterity, that all the different races commingle and produce a civilisation that perhaps the world has not yet seen?"

Fast forward to February 11, 1990: Nelson Mandela is freed from prison after 27 years (Watch video). Thousands danced and celebrated on the streets of Cape Town. Addressing 50,000 people assembled outside the balcony of Cape Town's City Hall, he declared:

"Our struggle has reached a decisive moment. Our march to freedom is irreversible."

He was the 466th prisoner at Robben Island in 1964 - he was anointed as prisoner number "46664". After his freedom, he immortalized this number by using this number as an icon for a global HIV AIDS awareness campaign.

In his book, Long Walk to Freedom he said:

I have walked that long road to freedom.
I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way.
But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill,
one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
I have taken a moment here to rest,
to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me,
to look back on the distance I have come.
But I can rest only for a moment,
for with freedom comes responsibilities,
and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.

His ideas on freedom:

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

Read this line again - "respect and enhance the freedom of OTHERS"!

Amazing!

Now, how would you define freedom?

Man versus God: The Truth about Us

Peter Legge has a copy of an anonymous poem which "often seems to fit the struggle of humanity".

He shared the poem in "How to Soar With The Eagles".

The poem takes us through pain, sin, hate, hell, wars, despair and disaster ....but, finally reveals the truth about us - Who is to blame and who is to take responsibility?

I walked today through the slums of life,
Down the dark streets of wretchedness, and of pain.
I trod today where few have trod
and as I walked I challenged God.

I saw the sots in the bar rooms.
I saw the prostitutes in the dance halls.
I saw the thieves as they picked pockets.
I saw men and women devoid of life,
living in a world of sin,
and above the din I whispered, "Why God, Why?"

I walked today down the lanes of hate,
Hearing the jeers of bitter men,
Hearing the names as they cursed and spat
"Dago, Nigger, Kike, jap."
I saw the defected men they stoned.
I felt the anguish of their cries.
I saw them as they slapped the lonely,
as they turned their backs on human needs.
Snarling, growling were the fiends of hell.
These, God called his sons!
Gasping for air, I cried "Why God, Why?"

I walked today through wars of grim dregs...
over graveless men.
I saw the dead, the crucified, the headless,
the limbless, the pleading, the crying.
I saw the pain, the waste.
I smelled the odor of rotted flesh.

I saw the children gathered round..watching naked, hungry, weeping, diseased, dirty....
The baby trying to nurse from a dead mother.
The ruins...the agony...the despair!
Disaster..........disaster............all around!

Blinded with tears, I fled down these streets.
I stumbled, then stopped.
I shouted "Why God, Why?"
Why do you let man sin, hate and suffer?
Unmerciful Father! God, are you blind?
Are you wicked and cruel?
God, can you watch and do nothing?
Why must this be?

The world grew silent.
I awaited reply.
The silence was heavy.
I started to tremble.
I waited long..haft rebuking, half fearing,
Then I heard from close behind me
"Why.....Man.........Why?"

~Anonymous

Foreign Brand Names!

For years, I have smiled at small Photocopier outlets in some regions like Maharashtra displaying, "Zerox" instead of Xerox.

But, when a recent visitor from "The Auto Expo 2008", Delhi told me that her friends loved the "VOKS-WAGON" car, I thought a quick look at the pronunciation of some Foreign Brand Names could be useful to many!

He were go!

Adidas :AH-dee-dass
Bayer :BYE-er
Blancpain :Blahn-pa(n)
Braun :Brown
Cartier :Kar-t-yay
Christian Dior : Cree-st-yaa(n) DEE-or
Hermes : Air-mez
Louis Vuitton :Loo-wee Vee-tuhh(n)
Piaget :PEE-uh-jay
Porsche :PORSH-uh
Renault :Ray-NOH
Tissot :Tee-SOh
Versace :Ver-sah-cheh
Volkswagen :Folks-VAH-gn
Yves Saint Laurent : Eaves-sahn Lore-rahn

The above pronunciations are indicative only. For accuracy or wherever you are not sure, please download specific sound files which are available at many sites.

And then, there are many more brands out there!

Please feel free to add to the list!

The Calendar Girls!

Aalochana! In Sanskrit, it means Critical Review. As a NGO, it is the Centre for Documentation and Research on Women, set up in 1989 by "five feminists".

Their Vision:

"Our vision is to work towards the creation of a gender just and democratic society based on equality and freedom for all. To achieve this we have committed ourselves to the creation of awareness amongst women about their rights and what they can do to change their lives and the lives of their communities. It
is towards achieving these goals that Aalochana was set up."

Their annual calendar features 12 women achievers from rural areas in Haryana, Uttaranchal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. Freelance writer-cum-photographer Vidya Kulkarni travelled for a month across these states to capture "the strength and the confidence that the women exuded" on camera.

The list includes Bele, a zilla parishad member and chairperson of Women and Child Development Committee from Latur, and Latifa Sheikh, sarpanch of Raimoha gram panchayat in Beed.