It so happens that sometimes I begin thinking (I admit it does have a strain on me) and this time I came up with some completely zany ideas to help improve the state of affairs in this country. And as usual, they make a lot more sense if you read this after a glass of wine (how much sense? depends on how large the glass is). Here goes
1. Remove all traffic rules but give everyone a gun. This way all the aggressive drivers will eliminate each other over time and we will end up with docile, law abiding citizens. We can then bring back the traffic rules.
2. All water sharing disputes shall be handled by water rationing. Every individual will get water in proportion to his IQ. So in about two weeks, we would have got rid of all politicians after which the dispute will get automatically resolved.
3. Corruption should be permitted but the catch is that the person who has accumulated the maximum bribe for that month shall be hanged from the nearest lamppost. So if you are corrupt, you only have to make sure that you take one rupee less than your colleagues.
4. All communities that ask for, shall be granted reservations on a first come first serve basis. But reservation status over the years shall be determined by the total tax paid by all the members of the community. If the tax numbers are below expectations, it means that reservations have not worked for them and the community shall be removed from the list and the status will pass on to the next in line.
5. The planet ‘Uranus’ shall be renamed to ‘Ureyes’ this will help in replacing disturbing images that flash by your mind by more pleasant ones whenever you are talking about this planet. Ok, this has nothing to do with our country but will help the whole of mankind in general.
Do you have any crazy thoughts yourself? If so, share them here and let’s see if you are as cuckoo as I am or if your wine glass is as large as mine…
Monday, June 11, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
Update Post - Infrastructure Woes
There is a thin line between humour and prediction. A couple of months ago, I had uploaded a post titled 'Infratructure Woes'. Looks like someone else at CNN-IBN thought on similar lines.
Check this out http://in.news.yahoo.com/070603/211/6gld6.html
For the record, it was me who first thought of this brain dead idea...where is my royalty cheque Mr.Sardesai !!
Check this out http://in.news.yahoo.com/070603/211/6gld6.html
For the record, it was me who first thought of this brain dead idea...where is my royalty cheque Mr.Sardesai !!
Friday, June 1, 2007
Maya
Everyone has a story, stories that intersect those of someone else at different points of time. How many of our stories have triggered completely new ones for so many others?. The stories happen all the time and will continue to do so long after we are gone.
We have always strived to understand this, not the stories themselves but why they have so many ramifications on so many people. The explanations are beyond science and into the realms of philosophy.
In India, one of the oft quoted philosophies is Maya. The world is thought to be an illusion. I am uncomfortable with this thinking. There are so many things happening all the time and yet people philosophize that it’s all an illusion. So is the Hiroshima bombing or the holocaust or the carnage that followed the partition an illusion ?. Yes say the proponents, it is but God’s will. Once you bring God into the picture any objective discussion of Maya ends since you can pretty much attribute any nonsense to God and end all questioning.
The concept of Maya is very interesting and I have come to appreciate it by looking at it differently.
Everything seems real, is real and is life for each one of us. It is the truth called ‘Maya’. Maya is the emergent behavior of the world where each of the components is too trivial to make a difference by itself but when they come together create a complex, ever changing, ever dynamic system that beats all efforts to understand it. This is when the behavior of the system far extends beyond just the sum of behaviors of the participants and no individual can have any control over it. This system of constant churning of life is what we know as Samsara.
Believing that Maya is about illusion and nothing is real is a mistake and is actually an over simplification of Maya. Yes, it is about illusion, an illusion that one person is bigger than the system, an illusion that one individual has control over Samsara. But it is also about reality. For me, Maya denies nothing, the pains are real, the pleasures are real, the senses are real and the events are real. The Samsara is real and so is our bondage to it.
Each of us affects the Samsara by our actions and thereby influencing the outcome of events in subtle ways. We can only control our behavior but not that of the Samsara. The melting pot of chaos and order brought about by actions of each one of us, our karma, is what defines Maya – the effects of karma on Samsara.
It is impossible for anyone to conquer Maya. People have tried and have failed. From God incarnates to spiritual leaders, from political giants to tyrant dictators have all tried to promulgate a homogeneous way of thought and action and have failed. The attempts will endure and the failures will continue.
Maya is the illusion of reality
We have always strived to understand this, not the stories themselves but why they have so many ramifications on so many people. The explanations are beyond science and into the realms of philosophy.
In India, one of the oft quoted philosophies is Maya. The world is thought to be an illusion. I am uncomfortable with this thinking. There are so many things happening all the time and yet people philosophize that it’s all an illusion. So is the Hiroshima bombing or the holocaust or the carnage that followed the partition an illusion ?. Yes say the proponents, it is but God’s will. Once you bring God into the picture any objective discussion of Maya ends since you can pretty much attribute any nonsense to God and end all questioning.
The concept of Maya is very interesting and I have come to appreciate it by looking at it differently.
Everything seems real, is real and is life for each one of us. It is the truth called ‘Maya’. Maya is the emergent behavior of the world where each of the components is too trivial to make a difference by itself but when they come together create a complex, ever changing, ever dynamic system that beats all efforts to understand it. This is when the behavior of the system far extends beyond just the sum of behaviors of the participants and no individual can have any control over it. This system of constant churning of life is what we know as Samsara.
Believing that Maya is about illusion and nothing is real is a mistake and is actually an over simplification of Maya. Yes, it is about illusion, an illusion that one person is bigger than the system, an illusion that one individual has control over Samsara. But it is also about reality. For me, Maya denies nothing, the pains are real, the pleasures are real, the senses are real and the events are real. The Samsara is real and so is our bondage to it.
Each of us affects the Samsara by our actions and thereby influencing the outcome of events in subtle ways. We can only control our behavior but not that of the Samsara. The melting pot of chaos and order brought about by actions of each one of us, our karma, is what defines Maya – the effects of karma on Samsara.
It is impossible for anyone to conquer Maya. People have tried and have failed. From God incarnates to spiritual leaders, from political giants to tyrant dictators have all tried to promulgate a homogeneous way of thought and action and have failed. The attempts will endure and the failures will continue.
Maya is the illusion of reality
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