To Blog or Not to Blog is the Question

OK I took a break and a good one at that not that I am a regular blogger.

I needed a break and got a good one . Got a break from school for almost a month. Oh its such a relief when you have the whole weekend just for yourself. I took a vacation from the blog world not even checking on one of those regularly visited blogs. Dont want to visit them either.

What did I accomplish during my vacation? read lots of Western philosophical books Nietzsche, Hume and kant et all. These guys were long overdue .

One can find lots of philosophical books here http://eserver.org/philosophy/

Other than that I have been running, have done half marathon a few times. Probably next marathon season I am IN or I might be commuting to work if the gas prices keep their northward trend.

Other than that getting enough rest, food and learning music.

School has started and as it turns out no more weekends ( Will try to blog more. Lots of stuff going on. Just wanted to get a post on the blog after such a long time.

Dear God,

I hope you got my first letter. What you did with it is your concern I will keep on writing and flood your mail-box with lots and lots of spam.

Anyway the reason I am writing to you is to know about CREATION.

God as you said in Bible “I created man in his own image, in the image of I created him” . You emphasised it twice. God you said in Hindu scriptures that you created that you created this whole world in your imagination. Its cool God that you did that else I wouldnt be writing to you and cribbing about it.

Tell me God is it that you created Man or is it that Man created you in his image ? Is it that You created the world in your imagination or is it that Man created You in his Imagination?

Fine you created a male(Adam) and a female(Eve) and put them in Garden of Eden and then you commanded Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit only from this one tree. C’mon God it doesnt take a big physchologist like Pavlov to run experiments on mice to figure out what the response will be. And then you decided then and there that these two people cannot stay in the Garden of Eden and should be thrown out of there. Then the humans multiplied and called the eating of Fruit and the ensuing fun Adam and Eve had the “Original Sin”, and started praying you for dumping them.

God, how complex set of human beings have you created, they will pray you for dumping them and will hate their own fellow beings for not calling you by the name they think is right. Look at all these religious people fighting over what your name is or how they should reach you.

Now make me understand God why exactly did you create Man ?

Also please tell me why in the hell would you create a woman too? I am no male chauvinist but hello why did you want them to multiply ?

Also please tell me why should we pray you? Excuse my arrogance but isnt that very egoist ?

Its just mind-boggling to understand why you created this universe. As one of the great Western philosophers Rene Descarates, once said “I blog therefore I am ” errr “I think therefore I am”.

Arroganly yours,
An Atheist.

I called up a very cheerful, good friend of mine and suddenly I saw a very different picture of her. She recently broke-up with her boyfriend of 5 years and she now feels horrible and cheated. And it got me thinking.

I asked myself isn’t betrayal first nature to a human being? Everyone betrays and everyone gets betrayed. One who betrays never thinks that he/she is betraying someone, may be as an afterthought when he/she goes through similiar circumstances.

There is no way one can be immune to it, even if one is the most powerful person on earth or even if one is son of God. I am talking of the two biggest betrayals in the history of mankind which most of us know. One was the betrayal of Jesus Christ, the son of God and the other was that of Julius Ceasar , probably the most powerful person humanity has ever known.

Betrayal is usually done by someone whom you trust (duh ???) very well and these two cases show it in all its gory colors.

Jesus christ was betrayed by Judas, one of his twelve discipiles. Of all the people in the world He chose twelve and one of them betrays Him.
Julius Ceasar was betrayed by his Senate and his adopted son, Brutus. Ceasar chose and adopted Brutus to be his successor and the senate was composed of members whom the Ceasar almost chose himself. These people brutally stabbed Julius Ceasar to death in his very own seat of power, the senate ,where he should be safest. The whole episode is so well recounted by Shakespeare in his famous book ‘Julius Ceasar’. And who can forget one of the most tragic statements in literary history when Julius Ceasar says “What, you too, brutus” when he is stabbed by his own son,Brutus.

Have been thinking about how to end this. Its better I end it with a great Hindi poem about one of the great Indian warriors ,Rani Lakshmi Bai,queen of Jhansi, the Joan of Arc of India. Rani Laksmi Bai fought for independence of India during the revolution of 1857 against the British and the legend is as big as that of William Wallace of Scotland(movie Braveheart of Mel Gibson).

The famous lines of this poem is known to probably more than 50% of all Indians

bundelo harbolo ke muh
hamne suni kahaani thi
khoob ladi mardaani wah to
jhansi waali rani thi

(From the singers of Bundelkhand we heard this story, the queen of Jhansi fought like a man)

Dont remember all of the poem but know a few relevant lines .

lakshmi thi ya durga thi vah svayam veertha ki avtaar
…..
….
(Was she Goddess Lakshmi or Goddess Durga or was she an epitome of courage)

ghayal hokar giri singhni
usey veer-gati paani thi
bundelo harbolo ke muh
hamne suni kahaani thi
khoob ladi mardaani wah to
jhansi waali rani thi

(During the ensuing fight with the british, she attained martyrdom. The poet compares her to a lioness.)

dikha gayi path , sikha gayi
hamko jo seekh sikhaani thi
bundelo ….
…..
….
…..

(She showed us the way, and taught us some good lessons)

jaao rani yaad rakhenge ham kruthagya bharatvaasi
…
…..
….
…..

(the author bids good bye to the queen saying the people of the country will be indebted to her)

tera smaarak tu hi hogi
tu khud amit nishaani thi
bundelo harbolo ke muh
hamne suni kahaani thi
khoob ladi mardaani wah to
jhansi waali rani thi

(The authors says that she will be her own tomb , she will always be remembered)

Had no school this weekend . Hurrah . Had the whole weekend all to myself for the first time in more than a year. Decided not to tell any of my friends that I dont have school this weekend, so escaped their calls Saturday .Moreover had no CPU at home so no internet , thanks to the robber(see earlier posts). So decided why not have a no-technology weekend no cellphone calls, no internet and no TV. Didnt pick up any calls over the weekend. All in all had the best weekend in over a couple of years. Read a book ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Yogananda Paramahansa, played guitar and soccer.

‘Autobiography of Yogi’ has been long due on my list of books. I rememeber one of my old flames suggesting it to me, and I mocked her on what would an atheist like me do with a book like this? Then one of the days in a bar in my drunken state, one of the chicks asked me if I read this book. I was so piqued that I told her that the only Indian book I have ever read is the Kamasutra, and went so far as to suggest that it was one of my ancestors who wrote it . Needless to say the only position I was in was a BAD one. Then one of my good friends suggested it to me saying that there is a lot of stuff in it and some of the chicks dig it. Now it all made some sense to me .

So I finally decided that this weekend is the weekend. The story started off in a very lovey-dovey-and-ah-so-happy-family and oh-I-am-such-a-rebel and I was like please dont do the David-Copperfield type of crap(ala Salinger in Catcher in the Rye). Still decided to slug it out as it was raining outside and my skating plans were not materialising anytime soon. Amazingly, the story took off with his meeting various saints and His description of how they were able to perform all the cool stuff that they were doing and story of each saint had some kind of philosophy in it. The story then goes into His search for a guru, which takes him to various places and how He finds His guru. The story now focuses on His studies with His Guru, Sri Yukteshwar and his studies at school , the accounts of both I found to be very uninteresting.

The story goes well where He is not talking about Himself but about other saints. The stories of Babaji, the immortal Yogi-Christ of India and His teaching of the long lost Kriya Yoga to his famous disciple Lahiri Mahasya are amazing. The back-bone of the whole book seems to be the Kriya-Yoga which Yogananda Paramahansa took to the masses both in the east and west. His mastery of Bible and various religious Indian texts, his ability to draw parallels between the two religions, and scientific explanations of the various phenomenon kept me hooked onto the book. But the best part of the book is His explanation of the science of Kriya Yoga .

His fascination of the West has perplexed me throughout the book and some of His accounts didnt exactly seem credible. I skipped the last 10 chapters of the book as I figured out (all by myself) that there is nothing more He has to say which I want to listen to.

What this book did do for me was

1. Renewed interest in Hinduism and Yoga. For me Hinduism was the gazallion Gods and superstitions, the utterly materialistic priests and the fanatics .This book has completely changed my blasphemic attitude towards Hinduism.

2. Gave a scientific explanation of the lives of saints and Yogis.

3. Somehow showed me that Hinduism is more atheist and scientific than I am (sad but true)

With this renewed interest and a week before my classes begin , I plan to read ‘Idiots Guide to Hinduism’ to know more about Hinduism.

My Inner voice says ‘Shame on you Rock you were a born Hindu and have lived in that country for better part of your life and now you have to read Idiots Guide. I guess it is for people like you ’

The full book can be read on the net at
http://www.thenazareneway.com/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi/

My passport was found . Yahoooooo. It was found lying on the street by the cops and took a long route to me, but it did find me.

My theory still holds that it must have been one of my countless female fans Why would she return it to me ? May be she might have heard of the famous Richard Bach saying.

“If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they’re yours; if they don’t they never were.”

My house got broken into over the weekend and I lost some stuff. The cops asked me whom I suspected could have done this. I told the cops that i might have to think who could have done this and after lots of thought i have this theory. It must have been one of my countless female fans . Here is the reason why

1. She took my camera , which had lots of my photos.
2. She took my CPU , which again had lots of details of my life. She might have wanted to know where she fits in .
3. She took my diamond ring as a souvenir. She must have thought it must have been for her.
4. She took my passport so that I dont go away from her.

LOL .

On a serious note “I am a simple man with nothing to lose” and the thief must be regretting his/her decision to rob me.

Been out to Boston last week and am travelling this week and the next too so blogging will be very difficult. Am reading ‘Da Vinci Code’ interesting read. Also got ‘Complete Works of Shakespeare’ in my travelling kit.

To Blog or not to Blog is the Question.

Contemplated for a lot of time and decided why not give it a try. Anyway I am not doing anything earthshattering nor will I do it anytime soon until someone buries me deep enough inside the earth and some creepy reaction causes the Richter Scale to move.

Disclaimer.

If you feel things offend you easily this is not your blog .

The views expressed are completely mine and does not reflect anything that my company ,my school or anyone related to me in any which way have to say. I dont blog for anyone else except for me. I publish this blog for like-minded people I know of. My writings might sometimes reflect ppl I have read or interacted with. My writings will not conform by the rules with English grammar nor any consyderation gifen to speallings

Why Blog

For my friends : What I am up to at any point of time . I have not been succesful at individual mails or phone calls .
For my enemies : So that they know where I am at any point of time . Love thy enemy .

What will I blog ?

Good Question . I remember ‘Alice in WonderLand’ .

Alice reaches at the fork in the road and asks the Cheshire cat “Which road should I take?”

Cheshire Cat says “where do u want to go?”
Alice says “I don’t know.”
Cheshire Cat says “Does it matter which road you take?”

I guess I will blog whatever comes to my mind. Nothing in particular will categorize as I go.

What do I do?

Try to live life , celebrate it in all hues and colors. Other than that I go to school trying to finish my MBA from University of chicago and work at the same time. One of these days I plan to go back to India and work on Rural development. More on this in coming posts

What’s the deal with Rocksom ?

It does rhyme with blogsome . I suffer from a very bad condition called Dual personality disorder ala Jekyll and Hyde . Rock and Som are names of the two persons that reside inside me . Rock as u can imagine is the rock hard persona and Som the softer one. Som in an Indian language means soft .

Two distinct characters very different from one another as chalk is from cheese. There is always tussle between the two of them and everytime I lose

More on this in coming posts

What are my hobbies ?

Rock loves working out at gym, playing all kinds of sports and plans to run a marathon .
Som loves doing photography (owns a D70) and tries to strum guitar.

Rock loves going partying
Som loves sitting at home watching a movie.

Rock loves hard music . Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Queens, Doors, etc etc.
Som loves Urdu poetic Ghazals Jagjit Singh, ghulam Ali and Mehdi hasan and mushy Hindi music.

Rock loves reading serious books FountainHead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Catcher in the Rye, Nine Stories, Raise High the Roof beam Carpenters, Seymor an Introduction and Franny & Zooey by JD salinger, The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, To Kill a Mocking bird by Harper Lee, Oliver Twist and Tale of Two cities by Charles Dickens, War n peace and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Prophet by Kahlil Gibran and other hardcore philosophical stuff.

Som loves reading all the mushy, non-serious, funny stuff like H2G2 series by Douglas Adams, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carol, Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Sun Signs by Linda Goodman, Personality types by Franz Littaur, Aesop fables and religious philosophy like Conversations with God by Donald Neal Walsh, Bhagwad Gita , Bible , Kuran, Zen and Buddhist books. Som plans to read ‘The Complete Works of Shakespeare” and “The Canterbury tales” next. Som also reads Hindi literature mostly Rahim/Kabir/Tulsi Dohas . His favorite is “MadhuShala” by Harivansh Rai Bacchan .Som also reads Urdu poetry by greats like Ghalib,Mir,Daag, Gulzar, Mazrooh etal