Comforts

The definition of comfort that I am interested in is the one that involves making our lives easier.
This definition makes me think of how comfort has upstaged passion/interest as a prime mover in our lives.
Of course, this is no value judgement, but it has always seemed to me that comforts are meant to be conveniences, things that exist in order for us to do better that which we are supposed to be doing. I find that comfort (and eventually luxury) is now not a mere convenience, but is an end in itself.

What is more important?

Happiness or satisfaction?
You can be happy to get something and yet unsatisfied because you haven't got enough.
You can be satisfied that you did your duty and yet deeply unhappy that you had to make a sacrifice for it.

A case of mistaken theism

The lady who stood besides the religious warrior had spent a lifetime criticizing his faith. He had just killed her in a suicide bomb-blast.
He was puzzled by the injustice. Here he was in heaven, religious warrior, having blown himself in the name of his god. Here she was, an embodiment of all the hatred that was in his heart. Surely, she was going to pay for all the blasphemy she had committed in her faithless life.
The Angels ushered them in for judgement. God almighty spoke to the two of them, in a beautiful baritone, "My Children, you have served me well. You have prayed well and you have done all that was expected of you. You shall live in heaven in this life, the hereafter, as you called it on earth."
The lady wore a confused look, as did the warrior. They were happy, the two of them, since they were not going to hell. But they were both puzzled. Both were afraid of questioning God almighty, especially since he had been kind to them.
While being escorted to the garden, the warrior struck up a conversation with an angel. "Angel Machaiela, may peace be upon you, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, my brother, please do."
"I followed my religion all my life and for that I have been justly rewarded."
"You have, my brother, you deserve it."
"But why has that evil woman been rewarded?"
"Evil? No, our angels have mentioned in their dispatches that she was pious and recited her prayers four times a day."
"She used to, but she became a blaspheming apostate and spoke against the Lord our God"
"My friend, two thousand years ago I probably would have opened an investigation into this allegation and we would have found out the truth about this lady, but you see, our angel brothers and sisters are overworked. We haven't been able to keep track of all activities of every human. So what has been recorded, stays. When we recorded her thoughts and deeds, she was fifteen years old and did everything expected of her. That was a long time ago, but that is the last record we have of her thoughts and deeds."
"But I thought God knew everything and recorded each and everything...."
"Brother, are you questioning God's judgement?"
"I dare not, but the injustice, the sheer injustice, it makes my life seem pointless"
"Nay, my brother, stop. Enjoy the fruits of the garden and your life here. Love all, since you are all God's children."
Having spoken thus, Machaiela disappeared from the scene, leaving the warrior alone with the lady.
At the first given opportunity, he lunged at her and tried to strangle her, but he was unable to. They had retained their thoughts, somewhat magically, but did not retain the matter of their bodies. She smiled at him and just continued to walk.
She was disappointed, of course, since she had been sure that there was no such thing as heaven, but she was happy that the prayers she had said thirty years ago were useful eventually.
The warrior sunk to the ground, helpless. In the distance, beyond an ethereal lake he could see his neighbor, a Kiskotist, seemingly enjoying himself, playing in the celestial waters. The warrior began to weep.

Software Employee?

This Link , contains the phrase/epithet "software employee". I wonder what that means? I mean the story contained in the link is tragic, but I think having a software employee would be pretty cool. As opposed to a hardware employee. Throw away those large clunky obsolete pieces of junk. Hire a software employee, now. I guess even making software employees will be a big industry if having a software employee would be possible. So what is an employee who writes software for a software employee manufacturing company called?

57% Male

Is the result of a probabilistic gender analysis of the person writing this blog by the following site.
You might want to find out your gender by clicking on this link.
They also mention that my blog (and probably me?!!!) is supposedly nearly gender neutral.

Hat Tip: Shiva

Interesting article

Netas, I think is short, for Net Assets

Kaun Jeeta?

I learnt last year that the PFMI- Universe Title was now secondary to the PFMI- World title and PFMI-World was actually number 1. Reading the articles written post this years event, I am damn confused. Why? Because you have a couple of contestants claiming that both had won the title, some writers writing that PFMI-World had actually won the title and a bunch claiming that both PFMI-U and PFMI-W were equal in status this year and both were actual winners.
WhoTF actually won?
Not that anybody cares about the 'change' and the message of love and hope that they are going to bring to the world.....

The land of Kashyapa Muni?

This has been discussed on several levels over the past years. Several trees have been cut, reams of tape devoted to this anomaly.
I was reminded of it when I saw some videos on YouTube highlighting the difficulties faced by Kashmiri Muslims in the light of the Indian army's so called 'occupation'.
Here is a video highlighting the other side: Kashmiri Hindus who have born the brunt of extremism since the rise of millitancy in the valley in the late 80's and early 90's. Refugees in their own homeland, victims of the politics of religion, are nearly 0.7 million of these people.
Surely, even these people deserve to be heard.
In times where 'going green' is a metaphor for secularism, we should not forget that there are people from the other side too.
Gaza and Kashmir seem to grab eyeballs. But the tales of these Kashmiris seem to be less newsworthy and highlighting it, patently unsecular.
Do spread the word, not the hatred. Voices of victims need to be heard, be it a Muslim living in squalid conditions in a ghetto in Ahmedabad, post 2002, or a displaced Kashmiri Pandit waiting to get official compensation for his father's death in 1990 at the hands of extremists.

Gandhi ki Neelami

How did Gandhi's belongings come into Otis' possession in the first place?
Any ideas?
If it was auctioned, then why?
If it wasn't, did Otis steal it?
Was it gifted to him?
Is guththi ko kaun suljhaega?

Ma-Kasam, WTF!!!

The movie Sorry Bhai seems, on the exterior to be a movie that has a good script, treats a sensitive subject well, has a good cast and has very good performances.
You read the reviews and think, yeah, maybe the movie is good. Let's watch it.
You start watching the movie and you realize that there's a hotshot Indian scientist who wants funding for his proposal that says everything is alive because 'sab cheezon mein molecules hote hain' and such things are supposed to reflect his love for physics.
WTF moment 1.
You say, chalo theek hai, maaf, lets watch on.
A female who falls for this passion of his (besides his good looks) despite being his brothers 'mangetar' and loving him for the last 5 years.
WTF moment 2.
Theek hai, watch on.
They decide that forbidden fruit must not be eaten but suddenly realize that forbidden fruit must be eaten. So they decide to spill the beans to bhai dear who doesnt care two hoots about his beautiful wife to be, but is bothered about a stock market crash in NY despite having settled in Mauritius. (He has a business too, it is said, but then he has one big client, Marco who, like him, is in Mauritius and is worried silly about the NY stock market)
WTF, WTF moment 3.
(Must I) watch on?!
Post legume spillage, lover boy and girl-who-wants-to-do-nothing-but-study-teach-and-slide-on-indoor-railings decide they will get married, but then OHMyGodWTFHappened type WTF moment happens. Mommy dear overhears bro spilling beans to elder bro and decides that her son cannot do such a 'neech harkat' and tells the bridegroom (new, scientist), 'tumhe meri kasam hai, tum shaadi nahin kar sakte, tum thodi der ke liye bhatak gaye ho' WTF!!!!!
Whats more WTF! is that scientist son fearing for his moms life, says no to the impending marriage (It has been mentioned early on in the movie why this ma-kasam thingie is important, but in a very stupid way, so much so that you ignore the scene)
WTF moment 4,5,6.
I've started, so I'll finish type sentiment occurs, and I decide that inspite of overwhelming WTFness, I shall finish the movie.
After dirty faces from daddy dear and a sudden epiphany that goes unmentioned, mommy darling realizes that shes made a mistake. So what does she do. Well, she does a ma-kasam once more. She tells scientist kiddo that you must live-in with your love, so that previous ma-kasam is fulfilled (and she gets to live!!). Now kiddo has to do it, because he's been ma-kasammed by ma once more. So he goes for it.
WTF moment 7, going on infinity!!!
Finish off this goddamn movie.....
End scene, scientist kiddo is marrying his live-in love after eleven years, with two kids in tow. Apparently, mom has ma-kasammed him once more into doing this.
Movie over!!!! Double cartwheels(in mind) and lemonade follow.

The essential premise of the film, that of the scientist kid-brother falling in love with big bro's fiancee, is dealt with in a fair fashion, but with so many WTF moments going around, it just gets overshadowed.
Good acting alone cannot bear the burden of propping up such a poor script and bad screenplay. It was good to watch Chitrangada Singh back in action after a long time, but every shot that she's in is pure eye candy and nothing more. She has a meaty role, only in terms of screen footage, but she sleep walks through it, looking disinterested at times, as does Boman Irani.
Sad, I'd watch Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye any day over this movie, many times over.
Ma-Kasam!!!

P.S: I think mommy dear agrees to come to Mauritius only after she hears that Elder Bro has Ma-kasammed younger bro.
Why Mauritius and why the flimsy premise of the bro having settled there, I do not know. Any other location wouldn't change the point of the movie. But yes, Mauritius is very, very very beautiful it seems from the movie footage.

Native festival in foreign land

We celebrate Diwali, Independence Day and Republic Day here at Purdue every year. I believe this is the case with almost all universities in the US. All these celebrations are, without exception, peaceful and do not cause any problems to local residents. We do not go around asking others to come and celebrate festivals with us, but if others are willing to come and join us, we welcome them. Again, I believe this is a uniform pattern in nearly all U.S cities and universities.
However, when I hear Raj Thackeray spewing his venom against Biharis for celebrating ChhaT Pooja or against UP guys for celebrating UP Diwas, I can feel nothing but anger for the man. I am almost certain that these celebrations do not disrupt normal life in Mumbai any more than bomb blasts, encounters, marriages and sundry other activities do. For that matter, I am sure that it does not cause more inconvenience to locals than festivals like Navratri (The large scale Garba-Dandiya version of which is essentially Gujarati in nature), Tazia processions during Moharram, Durga Puja and the biggest of them all (for Maharashtra, i.e.), Ganeshotsav.
Pray tell me Sir, are you going to support the Americans if they go around bashing Indians for celebrating their festivals and national holidays?

For God's Sake

Sake as in say-k, not saa-kay as in Japanese Rice Wine.
Stereotyping, as in a Jew distributing pamphlets about Islamists wanting to kill everyone. Shahjahan built the Taj Mahal and he was one of us? who us? Us as in Pakistani us? No Us as in Muslim us...and that Muslim us is as Indian as he is Pakistani.
Indian Guy screwing the pakistani over.
9/11 apparently bullshit. And what really did happen, might you enlighten us?
Deen mein Jabardasti nahin hai!!!Awesome!!!
Poorly edited... poor scene transitions etc.
Kashmir, while not mentioning the Uighurs and the Tibetans and the Tamils.
More importantly, whatever has been said, is reportedly true.
Why would a Pashto mullah quote Iqbal? Weak argument, but still, I wonder if that were possible.
Are pakistani flags displayed so prominently in courts?
Racial Profiling and radicalism....do not go together. they are poles that feed on each other, good contrast. one guy does the crappy stuff while the other pays for it...good concept.
Feel bad for Mansoor.
The daleel about music is wrong theologically, apparently it isn't saaz, but soz .

Wrote this a long time ago, after watching Khuda Kay Liye, for some reason, didn't publish this post

Praising 'The Raj'

This article in the newspaper Slimes, sorry, Times of India, made me wonder, when o when, willst thou cease to crap, o Times?
I knew that TOI had gone degenerate, but I did not know that they had taken to being apologists for Raj (If-you-are-a-northie-then-f.o) Thackeray.
Are the editors at TOI napping or what?

Sock in the plexus

It is one thing to read news sitting in a office cubicle, occasionally being affected enough by it to say, 'man that is bad'. It is a completely different feeling when the subject of the news is someone you have interacted with, even if briefly, someone whose kin you've been in close interaction with over a considerable period. Someone you didn't think could do what he/she has.
Such news comes and knocks the wind out of you. You get the feeling you are mindfucked because nothing in the world can explain how a person having a similar (economical) upbringing, similar opportunities, similar surroundings can do something unspeakable.
You hope that further investigations reveal that the person is not guilty as charged, has no hand in any of the said dealings. You hope. But something inside tells you it may be futile hoping.
Damn, again.

The Times of Chindhiaan

The decline of the Times of India from a bastion of solid journalism to a glamor selling, advertisement focussed newspaper is well known.
Their online edition, on the whole, was reasonably free from the above mentioned problems till some time back.
In the recent past, however, the online edition has introduced a section, wherein supposedly hot pics of celebrities are linked to. The site they link to, is called, well, what else, hotklix.
Now I'm sure that the guys responsible for getting this article online, and their bosses, know where these clicks lead onto. Which begs the question, why is a leading newspaper in India, getting away with linking to sites like 'masalababes--the hottest indian female celebrties', or 'xboards.us' which I am sure host illegally, the pics of leading film actresses. Why do they need to do this? People interested in watching Kim Kardashian's rear, or fashion disasters or even wardrobe malfunction can look for these things on the internet. That's why they have Google, retards at TOI...don't you get it?
Why waste a link on such trash, why not put it to some better use? Seriously.

Bell Labs kills basic physics research facility

This article mad me sad.
Not a nice way to start a weekend.
Woe betide!!!
Hark back to the summer of 2002, when a first year engineering student, studying for his Engineering Mechanics exam sees an article in an electronics magazine about this Mecca of Innovation, this former Shangri-la of the Sciences...this likeness of the all powerful mythical heroes of yore that inspires awe and at the same time humbles you.
Wonder struck, this student thinks to himself, won't it be wonderful if we get to work here, to interact with the some of the best minds in science, both basic and applied (though he didn't know it wasn't true anymore, even then), be a part of a wonderful discovery that impacts the world significantly?
Some things are never meant to happen, or so fatalists would like to believe.
Alcatel-Lucent claim that they will be focussing instead on networking, communication and nanotechnology.
The last term has become such a cliche that I'm guessing few know what they're talking about when they use that term anymore. How is one going to do nanotechnology without focussing on basic semiconductor research, the backbone of the promised nano-revolution? Are these guys instead going to do soft matter research? But doesn't that still fall under basic Physics? Does that even make sense? Are they anything but stark raving mad? Am I anything but? Are short terms gains the only things that matter?
Damn.

President precedent?

I always thought that Pakistan was a parliamentary democracy (when it was, i.e.) that was similar to India in many respects. The same federal structure, the same judicial structure and the same administrative structure.
So I was surprised when I saw Asif Ali Zardari visit Washington and address the UN as the head of state. I was under the impression that like India, the PM was the head of state for all practical purposes while the President was a titular head.
Did the constitutional changes that Musharraf made, also include the clause that the Pres will have greater authority than the PM? Haven't they rolled back those changes?
Or not as yet?

Have you ever....

Been in a meeting in which you're not needed?
You can do cool stuff like writing blog posts....

Some sense of humour

A fast track court has sentenced four people to death and awarded life imprisonment to 11 others in connection with the murder of a Dalit 15 years ago

These guys have some sense of humour, seriously.
If the link hasn't expired, you can read the article here.

The Devil's Delusion

Is a direct reply to Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and others who believe vehemently that god does not exist and use science and logic to convey their viewpoint.
It is an enjoyable read, mainly because of the belligerent feel of the book.
One cannot but help feeling that the author, David Berlinski, is totally pissed off with Dawkins and others of his ilk.
Strictly speaking about logic, though, I find the book getting its logic right 80% of the time, mainly when it exposes the logical flaws of the aforementioned atheists.
Clearly, that is the purpose of the book. To totally take apart these guys even if it is by nitpicking and taking small quotes and making fun of it.
The cosmological argument is discussed in great detail and Thomas Aquinas' views are given predominance here. Now Thomas Aquinas' views on an expedient/contingent god are complex, and on a first reading I had to literally ask myself, WTF? What exactly is this guy(Berlinski, presumably speaking for Aquinas) trying to say. Aquinas' arguments do not, logically, prove the existence of God.
However, one of the good points worth mentioning is the apparent leap of faith that scientists are willing to take when it comes to predicting that we will have a GUFT, that explains how everything works. (Why it does, will still be unanswered). This is compared with the leap of faith that believers in God take. There is a difference between firm belief and cautious optimism. The former, of course, attributed to theists, while I am attributing the latter to the attitude of scientists in general. I do not think that all scientific atheists are of the firm opinion that a GUFT will be 'revealed'/discovered in the near future.
One more point, Berlinski has, on several occasions in the book, supported his analysis, with mere quotations from people who are supposedly credible sources with infinite wisdom. Quotations cannot prove anything. Nothing. They are merely attention deflecting devices that are used when your core point isnt strong enough.
In his zealousness to 'take the case' of Messrs Dawkins and Co, Berlinski does go overboard most of the times, but I must admit, reading this book has had a positive after effect for me. I've looked up topics/personalities that I would never have bothered to otherwise and it did get me thinking on a couple of good points.