Perpetually Perplexed

If you are stuck with windows 8 machine like me, you better start learning how to live with it. Start desktop after login First problem I faced was after logging in,  app screen  was displayed instead of desktop. There is a solution to that. 1) Right click on the task bar . Task bar is bottom bar on your desktop. 2) Select properties 3) Go to Navigation tab and check next to show desktop when I login or close all applications Your task is done. Next time you login, you can be happily on the desktop. Run command Windows 8 does not even have run to run your commands. Start icon on task bar just takes you to store apps. And I know how frustrating it is to go to charms bar (at right edge) and click on search and type command and wait for the result. Here is what you do. Click start button (Button with four squares)  on keyboard simultaneously with key r . You will see run dialog. Now type in your command like "cmd" for command prompt, "mspaint...

Better late than never. I have some ideas for essay competitions of tomorrow's "Sadbhavana diwas". Sorry it is not "Sadbhavana divas", but "good governance day". What do you call it in Hindi? Anyways here are some interesting topics suitable for the occasion. 1) We are better than everyone. Because... 2) Only we are legitimate.  3) If you don't agree, migrate to neighboring country 4) She should learn to dress decently 5) We are letting you stay here. So be grateful

Two positive news today 1) NRIs might be able to vote in Indian elections without having to come here. The solutions being considered are proxy voting where they can authorize someone to vote for them or keeping ballot boxes in Indian embassies abroad where NRIs can go and vote. It is very good thing because NRIs tend to be more patriotic than us residents. Just like we feel nostalgic about an object forgetting how it caused all kinds of problems :).  And more importantly these Indians contribute a lot to India - monitoryly. They keep sending money every month to India. 2) Govt has banned pharmaceutical companies from giving free gifts, holidays, samples etc. to doctors. This may help the common man because after being in "runa" (debt?) of these companies, the doctors are bound to prescribe their products to us. So they will be serving the best interest of pharma companies, not us the patients. Next let us come to really exciting news. Nasa scientists have emaile...

I have been reading "Pickles from Home" by Sugatha Srinivasaraju. I felt nostalgic. Funny. Feeling nostalgic about home, while staying in home land for the past 15 years. We the readers of English newspapers, and viewers of Hindi and English TV channels do not hear most of the events of our "Kannada nadu." Many articles -  be it about A pontiff writing about how it is wrong for "maths" to appoint children as swamis or about the communalization of coastal districts or even the controversy surrounding the 300 Ramayanas by AK Ramanujan are sparsely heard in namma Bengaluru - and more so to English reading populace.  Do we live in the same state? We don't read Kannada papers saying they don't go beyond our state. We don't watch Kannada channels saying they are substandard. So it is more our fault. Not the fault of English papers who concentrate on more important issues - around the world. Coming back to the book Pickles from home - an Eng...

Among all freedoms to humans, freedom from fear is very important. Because most of our actions and inaction are controlled by this fear. We see injustice, but we dare not protest it. Because we are afraid of antagonizing people or authorities. We, most of Indian women wrap ourselves in 4,5 layers of clothing. Lest men feel attracted by us and try to harm us or pass lewd comments. And we are afraid, these comments some how reflect on us, not on them. Family members of some of us go even further and ask us to cover our faces too with a burqa or a ghoonghat We see our boss fire a co-worker for trivial matter, and we feel angry. But we do not protest. We have to protect our own a###es. Some of us - men and women sometimes do muster enough courage and protest injustice. But inevitably we will be punished - get scolded or beaten, or get arrested on some false charges. What ever happened to the dream of our forefathers who said? "Where the mind is without fear And the hea...

Installing Ubuntu Ubuntu knows the mindset of new generation. It gives you an option of try-before-you-buy or rather try before you install option. You just insert the cd and try ubuntu, use it and if and only if you like it, install it. And while installing, it keeps on informing you, what files it is copying, what packages it is installing etc. all the while showing you colorful banners with features of ubuntu. So things appear to be transparent. And you will love it because you know what  installer is doing. Installing Windows Try-before-you-buy? You are joking right? Microsoft will not dare to do so because - once some one tries it they will certainly not want to buy it. And when you are installing windows, you will be lucky if you see what percentage work is completed. And  installer  says files are being copied. What files? Why? It can not say. Because most of these files are unneeded . So you keep wondering whether you should physically hand over so...

The Sadhvi is from village, she is new. She does not know how to talk. So does it mean villages are not cultured at all? Let me just give you an example of how villagers handle things. We have been hearing all these stories about Bangalore garbage handling fiasco. How about villagers? What do they do with their garbage? My example is from our village in interior Karnataka. I am sure many of the villages would follow similar approaches. All the kitchen waste is fed to the cattle including water used to wash rice and vegetable skins, left over butter milk etc. The left over food is put in the "gobbara gundi" - a pit where leaves and cow dung and other things are put to produce bio fertilizers to be used in the fields. What about plastic? How do they dispose plastic? They do not. First of all, their only time-pass is not shopping, as they hardly get any time from their work (and I am talking about women here). So they do not collect so many plastic bags. What ever pla...

Why is many  holy men and women in this country are in news for all wrong reasons? The latest to the list is Sadhvi Niranjan Jyothi who asked the people whether they would like to vote for Ramzade or Haramzade. Great! What a language? Considering the said holy woman Sadhvi is also a union minister. What an invitation to communal harmony! It is not a parliamentarian language. And it is certainly not the type of language to be used by a some one who has left all the bindings and all raaga-dvesha of this world. Any ways, let us remind these people that our religion tells to love everyone, not just Ramzade. 

Ek chutki sindhoor ka keemat tum kya jaane Ramesh Babu, This Sindhoor makes a girl servant to the entire family. It makes her dumb robot who will only work without answering back. It makes her the machine who produces babies and cares for them until one day these little ones start bossing her around. It makes her more forgiving than the earth itself. It makes her forget all about her abilities, her talent, her dream. It metamorphoses her dreams to only be a good wife and good mother. This sindhoor makes the woman a person whose  eulogy might be she was a very good wife and mother to the people who were not very kind to her.

Two young girls from Haryana have shown us the way. They have shown us we fairer sex are not weaker sex. And hence we should not wait for some one else to help us - not other people, not the police. We should try to teach the molesters, eve teasers a lesson ourselves. We are all proud of you, Pooja and Aarti

In Kannada a person is said to be susankrita if he/she is cultured. Opposite word is asanskrita. I am not debating who is susankrita here. But the current fight going on about German v/s Sanskrit brought back the old memories of my school days. Those days 35 years back, a school child - in fact high school child could either study full course sanskrit or half course sanskrit. In full course, you had to study more of Sanskrit grammarr, and you had to write all answers in Sanskrit. We were half course Sanskrit students and we studied first language as 100 marks Kannada and 50 marks Sanskrit. We wrote most of our Sanskrit paper answers in Kannada. So even today my knowledge of this ancient language is half (baked). Did I say half? Only thing I remember is गच्छति गच्छतः गच्छन्ति There were also students who opted for Hindi or Kannada instead of Sanskrit. But the main attraction of Sanskrit was marks. We could score in the range of 90s here. I don't know the status today. But...

I was reading about Karnataka minster planning to spend the night in grave yard in an effort to eradicate superstitions. And was reminded of what I heard yesterday on TV. The program is in Kannada TV channel. The show is a cookery show. The guest is making groundnut chutneypudi and giving many home remedies for different ailments. So far, so good. Then there is a caller who asks this guruji about her diabetes. And the answer made me surprised and then furious. He was saying he will hypnotize the lady and gradually she will realize her diabetes is caused by some paapa - sin, done in previous birth. And after 2- 3 months of this treatment she will be completely cured.  Diabetes is caused when the body is not making insulin. This should have been his answer and he could have given some recipes meant for diabetic patients.  Now the serious question is why do regional language channels show such programs? The programs which instead of enlightening and educating the people, ...

We all love news. And juicier, the better. So to know the latest news on your android phone, download latest version of my "Indian newspapers and magazines". Well, the new version has many more magazines and many more science sites. It also has more regional language papers. Best feature is you can keep only those papers which you need, on the screen. Do I sound like those bold lettered, capitalized irritating advertisements we all hate? Kya kare, I need to advertise my app. As I am the whole and sole of hegdeapps . Manager, CEO, CFO, coder, team lead, ui designer, HR and sweeper. :) So check my app. And let me know your opinions.

Computer Engineer: I think by another 5 years there will be at least one computer engineer in every home in India. Every parent wants their child to be a techie and children willingly agree. Again was reading about the maker of idols in "Nine sacred lives.." by Dalrymple. Srikanda whose family is making bronze idols of Hindu Gods for 700 years says his son wants to become computer engineer instead of "shilpi" and is sad that the tradition will not continued after him. He also says that making idols is hard work unlike computer science and children do not want to work hard. But the more basic question is what will happen to other trades and professions if this trend of "computerization" continues. Already there is a huge shortage of labor in agriculture. A time may come when we may have to import workers from "fourth world" country. Fourth world because we are third world.

Every problem has an solution. No matter how tangled or intricate it is. You only need to ask the right question. google the right question.

I am currently reading William Dalrymple's Nine sacred lives from modern India. Let me tell the back ground story here. Me story. People think me reading books and I read only novels, is some how a sin. Some other people think that I read only fiction because some how I am intellectually challenged and can not understand non-fiction. With that in sub-conscious mind I picked this book. I was not sure whether I will read much of the book as it is not a fiction, and not even a self help book. But I was wrong. The author has a beautiful style which some how touches us. The book describes stories of nine different people of modern day India. And each story is different. But similar, as all these people of religious people. Not the religious people like our politicians who ask for good time to take oath as ministers, so that the throne will stick to their bottoms as a "Feviol ka jod. Not even religious as the swami, sadhu who use God to loot and explot the common people. ...

Kashinath is bus conductor from a village in Maharashtra. With his small income some how he is managing his wife and 4 children and old mother. Until one day, when  he receives electricity bill of 70,000 Rupees. He takes the bill to electricity board and tells them this must be a mistake. They will scold him and send him back asking him to get back previous bills. His wife has used previous bills to wrap the medicine for old mother. But she also gives a solution. Why doesn't Kashinath ask for duplicate of bills. He asks but does not get. In this confusion, the last date for paying the bill is lapsed and board disconnects electricity for his house. His son has to appear for 10th exam and should study. His mother falls down in the darkness and hurts her leg badly. Next he hears about RTI and a lady who is fighting for RTI helps him to fight electricity board. A good marathi film by Sumitra Bhave. Only question is, in real life will a poor common man fight government usin...

I am really getting sick of people praising  a certain person. As if he is the 11th incarnation of God himself. Everyone including media, politicians, techies and even intellectuals. So when I saw in "Swarajya" about the truth behind "India wants to know "(Arnab's show in times now), I got curious and read it. He says India Arnab is talking about is less that 0.033% of country's population because only those many people view his show. Why did that make me happy? Arnab is one of the most vocal (around 100 db) supporters of you know who and he achieves this by grilling poor other people. Come on people. Grow up and try to collect some courage. Do not be all sycophants

After luke warm response I received for my game " MemoryPro " I wanted to develop another app. Due to limited resources and lack of much graphical skills, the game should not involve not of graphics and animation. Then the idea came, why not add the numbers to 100 in a grid? So was born GetHundred the game where each row should add to 100 and each column to 100. What about the data generation? That is which numbers am I providing the user? First set was calculated by me on paper. Then I generated few more sets. And thought I can hard code the solution numbers and store them in the app. Some how that did not seem right. How many sets do I store in the game? What will the game do after all the sets are cleared by user? Won't it be better if the numbers can be generated dynamically? So that each time, the numbers would be different. Hence I started scribbling equations. Some thing like a11+a12+a13 = 100, a11+a21+a31=100 etc. To cut the story short, I did find the ...

I was reading about how sufi shrines are being attacked by some wahhabi muslims in Sind. Their objection is these praying to dead people is the practice borrowed by Hinduism. That made me wonder. All these prophets preached against idol worship. Budhdha, Jesus etc. But what is the result? Instead of idol of God, Christians worship idol of Mary, Jesus, Cross. The reason could be because when we want to pray, it is difficult to pray to a God without any attributes. But tell us that, God has blue color, a peacock feather in his hair, a flute in his mouth and a chakra in his hand, we happily see such a God and pray to him. We can not imagine "niraakara" brahma. So if some one tells us do not pray to idol of God, we take some other symbol and pray to it. Am I trying to defend idol worship of Hinduism? But Hindus do not think so. Because for them I am the godless atheist!

I am easily impressable? Or is it impressionable? Particularly so, if it appears in the net. Ha! So when I stumbled upon mental hacks to make you like a jedi (I googled it up. Jedi is an academic/spiritual institution in the Star wars . Fictional), I liked it so much, I would like to share it with you. When you are talking to some one standing, observe their feet. If the feet are pointing away from you, they want to go away. If you want to feel happy, smile. Since you are smiling, your brain is fooled to thinking that you must be happy. This one works for me - chew gum or something similar when you are in situations when you will be nervous.  In a conversation, if some one is telling you incomplete fact, pause without talking for a while. They may tell the complete thing. In a meeting, if you think some one is going to attack you or take you to task, sit right next to them.  Well see, stumbling upon or spending too much time in net may not be a bad thing after all....

I did publish the app "Shataka". More about the problems later. Do you know how many day I have spent for UI? Me with my limited imaginative powers and my solo efforts and GIMP, not even photoshop? Finally I did complete the backgrounds of the app. Then I spent 3 days for designing the icon. One icon. The sizing of the icon for various sizes is done by "android asset studio". Now I am ready to publish. I even take 2 screen shots. But I am being held back by google saying I need a feature graphic for the app which must be 1024 by 500 pixels. What is this torture? What do I draw in this feature graphic? I did draw something and did publish. Turns out, the new google policy is each app must have this feature graphic. Any changes you want to make to your app, a simple one line changing description, you now have to add this graphic image. I should either hone my graphic and imaginative skills or ready to shell out thousands and graphic designers.

Nobel peace prize shared by an Indian and a Pakistani for their work on child education! Is it an irony ? Or a suggestion for Almighty that the two countries should use peace not war?

There was a non-technical talk in google io 2014. - Some thing called "Solve for X". A lady speaker Sara Menker from Africa was talking about how big data can help African farmers by making creditors lend money to farmers. One thing that stuck me during the talk is technology is really helping us all. It has made technology cheaper. Now a days every common man can have a mobile - more often smart phone, a TV, a fridge etc. Because the prices of these have been coming down year by year. Is it due to competition, or improved and viable designs, I am not sure about. But what about food? Food prices have been steadily increasing each year. Why can't technology help in this? Help in agricultural production, distribution or storage, so that food prices will come down. Hence help in bringing down inflation and poverty. Any thoughts?

How do we solve many problems our cities in general and Bangalore in particular are facing? Water, roads and traffic, electricity, crime. To name a few. The solution could be to "Bangalore" the Bangalore to make a better Bangalore. I am not trying to create a tongue twister here. According to one suggestion in newspaper, by outsourcing the city management to private companies, this city's problem might be solved to some extent.

There were two neighbors. Let us call them A and B. Sorry, we are not in algebra class. Let us call them Ramanna and Somanna. Ramanna some how prayed to God and got a boon by him that God will grant his every wish. Some how Somanna came to know about this, and he too prayed to God for many, many days, And his only request to God was "anything Ramanna gets, I should get double of". God agreed. Of course Ramanna also came to know about this and was infuriated. So if he gets rich, Somanna gets double rich. If he gets a car, Somanna will get two cars, If he gets a beautiful wife, Somanna will get two beautiful wives. Ramanna used his evil mind to find out how to harm Somanna. He prayed to God and asked him "O God, please make me blind in one eye". Why is this story relevant at this time? India and Pakistan are out to play acting like this Ramanna. It does not matter if our own soldiers die, our own civilians die in the border, We want to shell the other country...

We all would like to believe we are "ajata shatru"s.(one with no enemies) But sadly that is not true. Since childhood our aim will be to please every one. Please the parents, the teachers, siblings. So that they would call us "such a good boy/girl". But some where along the line we realize that this would harm us most. We should think of ourselves too. Even if it displeases some people. And then there comes a time in life where we see that  "raah me chhod ke saaya bhi chala jata hai" (even our shadow abandons us). We don't understand what have we done to antagonize so many people. We feel sad, upset and helpless. What we don't realize is when we feel    perceive we are hurt by others, we try to correct it by  fighting with the perpetrators.  In this process we hurt these people intentionally for their slights, many times perceived rather than real. That is how a 'shatru' is born. And the numbers keep increasing. The more we feel ...

Who says Bangalore has water scarcity? It has enough water. In fact it has more than enough water, to drown a little child who came to visit this beautiful city. It had enough water to drown an entire family few years back. P.S. In a few days everything will be forgotten. Until another life is taken away by the carelessness of the government and town planners. 

A girl is waiting for bus. A man standing next to her is whistling at her, making funny faces and "eve-teasing" her. Girl is trying to ignore, what else can she do? A woman is observing all this. Suddenly she screams loudly "AAAAAA". Once. People look at her. Again. "AAAAAA...". People look at her and see the man who is whistling also. The man slips away. This was one of the ads coming on TV channels and I liked the concept very much. Yesterday, there was one more ad. In a restaurant, a couple are starting dinner. In a near by table, a man is shouting at a woman. Continuously. May be his wife, may be his girl friend. But poor thing, she is not uttering a word. He keeps on shouting. Then he pulls her hand. Now this gentleman who is observing stands up and says "Aye...". The abusive man leaves the hand and turns quiet. The victim thanks this gentleman through her eyes.  Again a superb ad with a message. You need to raise your voice w...

Should this post go to my other blog - which is about me, me and me? Let me decide later. I got a call from an old friend 3 days ago. A friend from my childhood. M. M and I were inseparable 40 years ago. We were classmates, neighbors and best friends.  So her call really made me nostalgic about Haliyal. It was a really small town. Torn between amchi party and tyanchi party. Amchi party were all Marathi people and tyanchi were us - Kannada people.  Even the single Highschool in the town had this fission and constant frictions. The head master of the school was Marathi speaking person, well respected by all students and even his enemies. In each class, section A was reserved for Marathi medium children, B for smart children and children of rich and famous and C was ordinary students. Of course I was in section D and of course I stood first to school.  The school had uniform. Like any other school. But for children - girl children of 9th grade and 10th grade, it was...

We feel newer is always better. So we buy the latest product with latest software. But in this case, if you have an option between buying a laptop with windows 7 and windows 8, go for the older windows 7. No one told me that and I have ended up with this (expletives) windows 8.1 machine. Why I hate windows 8 This has a start icon which shows a set of apps instead of folders and files.And the result is no one uses that start icon anymore. There is also a desktop where we can still put items. But the hilarious thing is, there is no option in start icon even to shut down your computer. You go to right end of screen, hover there till you get settings icon, then use power icon. That would have been bearable, if not for booting time. I switch on the computer, keep glaring at blank screen for what seems like inifinity, then appears a screen which tells me to please wait. Then the login screen. And after login, another wait. Why the hell does it take such a long time. I tried everyt...

One of my resolutions was to write about positive news. To inspire people, to convince people that world has not become a terrible place, but has many good people. This week there was this positive news. A woman - Esha Gupta - is planning to take a bike journey alone on the golden quadrilateral. Her intention is to convey the message that our country is safe for women. Kudos, Esha

The journey from Sirsi - my hometown to Bangalore is picturesque. Even more so now because of rains all over the state. Green forests with tall trees, paddy fields some of which are swallowed by rain water,  rocky hillocks and concrete jungle.  But one word which describes my journey this time is "sandas". As in toilet, loo, rest room. Yes, I can see your sarcastic grin there. As everyone who is anyone is talking about Sandas, she is doing same. To get more page views. But that is not my reason. My reasons are - my age, a long weekend of happy time at maternal home and my gender. As our journey started in the morning, I needed to relieve myself some where. But we the women, can not relieve ourselves anywhere. We need a proper toilet. Who will build a toilet for us in the middle of jungle when there are very few such toilets even in cities like Bangalore? Hence the search started for some decent restaurant - decent enough to have ladies toilet. And the search was diffi...

She was in an unfamiliar territory and she was tired. Of thinking how much time all these are going to take. She was supposed to make some karjikayi and modaka. She counted and made 28 small balls of dough, being sure she will make those many sweets. And in the first run, she rolled small circles for karjikayi, 11 of them. And fried them too without much hiccups. Then the next part was easier modaka. Because they need not be shaped properly. Put stuffing inside the dough circle, wrap and twist the top. Or so she thought. But was the dough becoming softer? She tried stuffing 5, just five of these easy modakas and 6 were torn. A torn modaka is not like a torn dosa or chapati. When you try frying that, all the stuffing - made of sugar and coconut basically will come out in to the oil and oil will be black. And next whatever you fry will have that black burnt thing stuck to them . With lot of struggle, she did manage to make 5 modakas. But what should be done with the remaining stuf...

We are all compassionate people. We want justice for everyone. We want everyone to be happy and any injustice will anger us and want us to fight the injustice. But we don't. Because what can one person do in a such a system of goons and corrupts. Or that is what we say. Now let us hear a story. He is a regular villain. Vastly rich, uses people and throws them. And owns the entire town almost. And of course everyone hates him. Rightfully. He decides that people should praise him and love him and respect him. And for that he uses the most influential way. He buys off all the media. Print and TV channels. And all of them will praise this rich man. There is this little girl. Who has her own small newspaper. And rich guy tries to buy her. In vain. He tries bribing her, bribing her father, removing power supply to her house and finally writing some gossip about her. Finally she gives up. So now the entire town has to listen to what the rich man says. But no, suddenly every...

Ideaphone has developed an app called "Autofare" which will tell people the fare and route between two locations. And more importantly, they also have a SMS service for the same on feature (non-smart) phones. By sending an SMS to 51115 with source and destination, the info will be sent back to you. SMS will be charged 50 ps.   To find the information about the fare and route between Jayanagar and Indiranagar, send @autofare Bangalore, MG Road, Indiranagar                 to the number 51115

I am slightly busy and have reduced my TV watching to only 3 hours per day. :) What do I do in the spare time?  I was trying to find some kind of a game in Android. That is create. And there is this concept called model, view and controller there. I took around 5 days just for view - that is what users gets to see in the game. Trying various permutations and combinations. And now since it is time for controller - that is game logic - it has got really interesting. I was not able to write the solution myself. Great. And after thinking before sleep and in the dream, I finally got the solution. Why am I blogging about all these? How does it concern my readers?  My anger, sad feeling and all other assorted negative feelings take a back seat, as long as I am working on that program. And the during the rest of the day, mood is tolerable.  So all of us need to find our passion and work towards it. Every day. Not for an hour or two as a routine, but as a project with a...

चाहे हम ऊपरवाले को अलग अलग नाम से पुकारते हो लेकिन हमारा धरम एक है |  हमारा मजहब एक है इंसानियत This dialogue from Kranitveer (forgive my Hindi, and errors in wordings. My Hindi is a little - or a lot rusted) acted by Nana Patekar, had me thinking. for a change Do our politicians ever talk in this tone? If not, why not. The translation "We may call god in different names. But our religion is same. And it is humanity" Dear leaders, (it is not a typo for readers), please do not open the Pandora's box in the name of religion, region or language. It may prove fatal to yourself or your kin. You have seen it in our history.

In foreign films, when a man and a woman or even otherwise get married, they say "I do" So when they get divorced, do they say "I don't" Gnan - 2 If a "Hanuman chalisa" mantra is made with a "made in Germany" metal is it better than the one made in our "Bharata varsha". Or the one made in China is the best - as it is highly economical.

I heard in Tech show that now, google and yahoo have made it compulsory for users to provide their phone numbers to open mail accounts. And I am very glad about it. Not only will it reduce the spam mails. But it will also help women. Social networking sites like facebook ask your mail id to open accounts. And men out of spite, anger or sheer maleficence, create an account in the name of some woman and post vulgar photos and videos in them. In a country like ours, we can only guess, what effect it may have in the woman's life. I am not telling the story from some "crime story" episode or something. I have seen an account with obscene photos and the person forgot and gave the gender as male. So at least now, if the mail account can be tracked to a phone number, one can hope that such persons will be slightly scared that they may be caught. Next step which will help women would be if Facebook which is so common in India, should also make it compulsory for users to...

When I saw the book, I paused. Am I ready at all for Nietzsche? Can I read philosophy not one liner philosophy, not something put in pinterest, but the real hard core stuff? Nearing fifties, I have no illusions about getting any more mature intellectually. But still, can I read non-fictitious, philosophical book. In the 10 minutes at most I read per day when I am eating my dinner? But I did what I always do. Unplanned, impulsive action and brought the book of Nietzsche from the library. But first day, I felt rejoiced, thinking my bold action was not completely foolish. Introduction is talking about - deicide. No, I will not tell you what deicide is. But thrilled I was and I started reading introduction. A mad man is holding lantern in broad day light in the market place and is searching for God. So the first essay starts. Then he tells " what are all your churches and temples, but graves of god." This is a serious book. Well, a book worth reading. Few pages, at least. ...

I have been wondering the correct word for "jeevanasakti" in English. Jeevana is life and asakti is interest. The context is, few days earlier I saw the branch of my "Brahma kamala" plant lying on the ground. Cut, not even planted on ground, just lying there. As these plants grow a lot, I cut them often. So this branch was on the garden floor, no way of getting any nutrients as there are no roots, no water also. It was Bangalore rainy season - rains for few minutes, not continuously, not even daily. But still the branch was as green as ever and it had 4 small buds. Yes, buds which had the promise of blooming into beautiful, fragrant flowers.  If this is not jeevanasakti, what else is? This plant -  Epiphyllum oxypetalum - is its scientific name. Has no stem as such. Similar to cactus it grows leaves on leaves etc. And flowers in the night. The flowers are large and have mild fragrance. So if this plant can live and thrive, when uprooted, thrown away , why ca...

At times, when everything is mobile and everything is on mobile, there is at least one thing we expect to be fixed. Which is buildings - your homes and offices. But a building  - Sharif house -  in Teheran can in fact move at the touch of a button. The sections of the building can be rotated. Great design!! This project is from nextoffice

May be I should blog more about what matters to me most. There could be other people who may find these post relevant. If not, at least I may find it useful at a later date :) Yes, binge eating is one of the many unwanted things I do. I start eating with TV and watch all repeat shows and feel bored and eat more and see more. And then I will be all bloated and upset and do not want to do anything. I read an article today in Beliefnet. Yes beliefnet had an article about binge eating and how to stop it. Some points are Do not skip meals - especially breakfast.  Eat frequent but small meals Do not diet Find out your triggers When you feel the need to binge, do some other activity like calling a friend If you do binge eat, do not think it is all or nothing.  Etc, etc. You get the idea. Of course all these points are known to us. But still we need to be reminded of them. Frequently. So read the complete article at beliefnet

Bangalore is having a cold cloudy weather. And the best thing to do in this weather is curl up with your favorite book. And for that you need this! Why can't we ask our local carpenter to make such a cozy chair? Source: http://design-milk.com/cradle/      

I saw this vehicle in Discovery Science show. It looks like a box with two handles. And has two wheels at the bottom. It is more of electronic vehicle. Once charged will run for around 100 miles. Maximum speed is 40 kmph. And the battery unit can be detached and charged inside your homes. I think it is perfect for us ladies. But can it run on Indian roads? Could not find any info on google. When I searched in google images I found another vehicle. C1 electric motor cycle, which looks like a child of electric car and bike. Enclosed like a car. Can seat two people. But balances itself when stopped by Gyroscopic stabilizing system and claims to give 220 miles once charged. And after charging for 6 hours, it can  zoom at 120 mph! More info about this vehicle by Lit Motors in gizmag Image courtesy : http://alizul2.blogspot.in/

I have progressed. From reading self-help articles on web to bringing self-help books from library. But this makes me wonder, if the people (me included) could help self, would they need the above mentioned books or articles? Anyways. The current book I have brought is for improving self esteem. Or in some cases (mine included) bringing the self esteem from the farthest corner of the mind where it is hiding holding its breath. One of the methods - book says - is to watch for inner critic. The critic who always tries to downplay you, insult you and degrade you. And it is not your spouse. It is your own mind. See now my critic is saying "not all will blame their shortcomings on their better halves. Not like you" So you need to understand this inner critic and shut him up. Tell him that he is NOT helping you anyways. So would he please go AWAY.  Wrong English? It is ok as long as you get gist. Next step would be to write down your strengths and weaknesses in differe...

Does it look like our government did not do enough to bring home at least the nurses before they were captured? Not that they are kidnapped and bussed to Mosul, their fate along with other 39 Indians who were captured earlier is uncertain. Will they ever come back?  There was a report last week about Indian ships bringing back around hundred of our men from Iraq. Has it happened? Or do we wait till even they are also captured?

Yes, of course. Where else can a sitting "member of parliament" openly ask his party-men to shoot the opposition party people and rape their women? And still does not get arrested or disqualified? It happens only in India.

If you are planning a picnic to big banyan tree in Bangalore, cancel the plan. May be you are smarter and you already know that the so called big banyan tree is no longer there. Instead what we see is many banyan trees surrounding a small temple - Muneshvara temple. Main tree which was supposedly destroyed 35 years ago, is replaced by a small temple. I was hugely disappointed. I could have seen the God in the tree but not the other way around. But the branches themselves are huge. The area is serene and well maintained. And for child in you, there are monkeys. Not the big banyan but "big enough banyan tree" nanna tale melondu gida My little friend Tree is fragile Unsuccessful Attempt of selfie with spouse Ratnakar Hegde and tree

I was reading an article about blame. And one question made me think for long time. "Why are we so sensitive when any one blames us? But are least sensitive when blaming others?"

I got this jnonodaya. No I was not sitting below "bodhi" tree. And no, I did not find a method to bring world peace or any such grandiose thing. I think the reason behind the increased violence in our country or else-where is the statement " I could have been that". I could have been driving that beautiful sports car. I could have had that huge bungalow. I could have married that beauty. And so on. Unlike good old days, the division between rich and poor has vanished. Today even a sweeper can be the proud father of an IAS officer. Or today's newspaper boy can be an IIT graduate tomorrow. So poor can also have grand dreams and aspire to become rich and famous. But very few - poor or rich - have the capacity and inclination to work hard and smartness to achieve these dreams. The rest are unhappy. They see successful people around them, the people with whom they studied and played.  And they feel let down and deceived. By the society, by the system, by their...

India has changed. A lot in the last 20 years. People have become more affluent or at least less poor.  Every family, whether rich or poor, whether urban or rural,  has a TV and a mobile phone at least. Using these any message can be sent to the entire nation. As has been seen in the last election. TV is a very strong media in this aspect. TV is available to everyone in the country - almost and it is available in their own languages, not in the vilayati English. And men, women and children watch TV. A lot. So how do our leaders use this media for the betterment of our society? They have used it for canvassing in the election. But after election, what else? Do you think, TV can be used to make people more aware of their rights? Or to make people less er.. dumb - for the lack of better word. And who should do this work? My rouse is against TV channels who show nothing other than serials of family drama or movies with violence and sex. OK, some channels have dedicated ...

Omnipresent - present everywhere What is one thing you see wherever you go. Towns, cities, or villages? Roads, homes, farms or any where?  Did you just say mobile phone? How sacrilegious? You are supposed to say God! Did you say you don't see him. Exactly. Since you can't see him,  you don't know where he is and where he is not. So He is said to be omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.  omni means all. Another word with omni is omnivorous. Omnivorous is the one who eats everything. Like a bored house wife. :).   But seriously, this word is related to herbivorous- vegetarian and carnivorous - meat eating. And vora, I think means to consume. You have heard about a voracious reader, isn't it? Omniscient - one who has capacity of knowing everything. Like you and me. Given a google and a computer we can be omniscient. Almost. And scient is related to science. Omnipotent is one who can do anything.  Now let us look at a paradox here. Can omnipot...

From the poem by Maya Angelou who was an author and poet,  who passed away last week. ........ But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. ....... The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.

Since IT revolution, many of the asian countries, India and its neighbors have improved a lot. Standard of living has improved. Along with that, people have become less poor, more educated, more liberal. But has the situation really improved? For women? Yesterday, a 25 year old woman from Pakistan Farzana Parveen was buried. The previous day she was stoned to death by her relatives including her father, for marrying against their wishes. She was 3 months pregnant . Last year another woman was stoned to death, for possessing a cell-phone. Each year thousands of women are stoned to death in the name of honor-killing. What is the use of development? And  freedom? Why can't the governments ban such heinous and barbaric acts and punish the guilty?

I saw a nice poster which said If the path is all clear, you are on some one else's path. So true. But many a times, we are the ones who complicate things than what is necessary. So If you struggle a lot with many, too many complicates solutions, none of which work, there is a really simple solution which you have overlooked.

Do we never learn a lesson? How many Nithyananda, Asarams will take us the understand that most of these holy men are mortal like us with all good and bad qualities of humans. More bad qualities than good. And they exploit innocent people. People who become devotees because they need a some straw to hold on, are misled, their money looted, they are physically abused. Devishree Yesterday many Bangalore channels were showing the video of a holy man called Devishree of HSR layout Bangalore in compromising position with a woman.  This swamiji reportedly told women that touch with his body will cure the women of all ailments. And the video which was  being shown incessantly (yes it was shown continuously in few Kannada channels) was taken by his own CCTV. One of his associates was blackmailing him and taken 10 lakh from him. When he did not pay another 10 lakh she released the video.  Media   At least some good things  are happening from these pr...

Modi has not yet been elected. His government which will take India away from corruption, will apply Gujarat model to entire India, has not yet been formed. Already his followers are in full swing. Of talibanizing our India. Togadia says muslims can not buy land in Hindu areas. Giriraj Singh says those who oppose Modi should be sent to Pakistan. Did we really want these people to rule our country? Or rather ruin our country? In the name of religion? Or are we seeing emergence of another emergency?

Today I read two articles in times of india, pointing out that modi may be a good answer for the assorted problems our country is facing right now.  I did not understand the first article so much, but guessed that the author is saying modi has good managerial qualities but he should ensure that his supporters will not polarize the country. Second one was about intellectuals opposing him on the basis of 2002 etc. I know little about politics except to oppose modi and support kejriwal :) But I still have a small doubt. Are these people supporting him because they like his qualities or they do not want to be put on a train to Pakistan? Me? The bhakts may find it difficult to locate this anonymous middle aged woman. India is filled with so many stay at home moms, middle aged and strongly opposed to modi. But if they find me, they may ship me not to Pakistan, but to even farther Afghanistan. On a camel.

Have you observed how Arnab Goswami of Times Now does not let others to talk. How he keeps interrupting their sentences? His 'karma' caught up with him. His interview with Raj Thackerey was hilarious. Raj kept on calling him 'Tum', not 'aap'. He also told he has gone from 'middle school to montessari'. He threatened to remove his microphone if he was asked the same question again and again.  I loved the interview. No, I am in no way supporting Raj Thackeray. His views are more of a goon, than of a politician. And God save India, if a person like him comes to power in Center. And God save Maharashtra if he comes to power there.  But for once, the incessant interrupter Arnab had his match. My propaganda here   I used to be a fan of AG. But since he started slanting towards right wing party and more importantly since he started commenting on AK  and then completely boycotting AK and APP, I have understandably started disliking him. Still r...

When ever we used to fight about politics, my husband would say, when you don't vote, you do not have a right to talk about politics and politicians. (But of late he has stopped saying it (a) he has recognized my fundamental right to speak or (b) he is too concerned and worried about you know who may not win to bother about my blabbering. I am slightly ashamed to say that in all my 49 years, I have voted only thrice. Last time I voted was in 2004 I think. And I had voted for BJP. Yes, you had voted for BJP. Because BJP had Vajapayee, one leader I had respect. I stopped voting after that   Because I did not have any party which was good, which cared for people, not just for kursi (power). Which talked about development, instead of personal matters of other candidates. And most importantly which was honest. And remember there was no option NOTA (none of the above) that time. So I did not vote all these years.  This year But this year, NOTA option is...