The life of a . . . . . . .

Aaah, thats a nice breeze . . picks it up and carries it along through the twists and turns, throughout the world to all nooks and corners. It slowly detaches itself from the breeze and slowly settles down, to stay there for a long time or maybe just for a few seconds.

Very minuscule, weightless but very powerful . . does not die and is never born. What exists always exists, just moves from place to place occasionally with the wind and predominantly due to some mysterious magical powers of nature.

It likes to settle on stagnant bodies, loves to sit there for a long long time so long that it settles there permanently. It grows in size, attracts its numerous relatives to gather around its new found home. They settle, they accumulate, they Stay ! Often, certain octa limbed species frequent it's abode. It simply adores it's new found home that it just cannot leave it, so it Stays !
Day or night, afternoon or evening . . makes no difference to it . .all it cares is that its abode is stationary.

Then comes the villain - picks up a huge hairy weapon and with a mighty sweep demolishes it's resting place, kills its relatives, the villain starts shaking its abode, it falls down heavily with a heavy-soft THUD. Another might sweep . . SWOOOSH ! ..a gust of wind . . . and away it goes again. . . to be carried by the breeze . . to unknown places . . to nooks and corners . .to ancient buildings . . to hostel rooms ( :P ) . . . to many many unknown places . . . its there everywhere . . always there everywhere . . . it cannot die and is not born . . just carried from place to place by the mysterious magical forces of nature . . . . .

the life of a dust particle.........

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aaaaaaa...chu...aarghh...aaaatchu hcu....umm..aa..atchu....i have dust allergy - - -The Maharishi

Tata Nano -> A Revolution ?

An afternoon gossip with my armchair critic (click here for another of his critical idea) ventured into talking about the newly released Tata Nano - the famed 1 lakh car ! which is being portrayed as an social revolution and is said to take private transport in India to a new realm.

I, as usual, asked him his opinion -
"What do you think of the concept of the Tata Nano ?"
pat came the reply -
"I do not like it one bit, 't s a crass commercial effort at increasing Tata's profits, nothing else and is not at all a Social Revolution"

He then went on to reason out his opinion - -

" The last thing this already insufficient infrastructure needs is something that tells people to avoid public transport. Being a fan of public transport, it would have been nice if he could have a 10lakh bus with awesome comforts and facilities, now you will see 10lakh Nanos, each with one person in it. Develop something that everyone can benefit from, and I see public transport as a potential entity that can be developed. If the the government aint developing the public trans, who better than Tata, by far the most ethical business community in India, can do that ? He can develop a cheap, comfortable, revolutionary bus than making 40lakh Nanos. "

I asked him - " Okay, suppose, I want to travel with my family and only with my family, do you think I should go in some public bus eh ? I can't afford a Honda, Maruti or Toyota etc., so this Nano is a boon for me, I can get it for a very affordable price and at the same time, I can enjoy traveling in comfort , in privacy . . I need not compromise on traveling"

Armchair said - "See, you do not want to travel in a bus because its crowded, you need to catch multiple buses to reach your destination and can't stand the crowd. Why is it crowded ? Because there aint enough buses in this place to support the population ! So, let Tata make more buses, cheaper buses, cheaper minivans . Ask anyone in New York, Hong Kong or London - there the public transport is damn convenient and everyone prefers that"

This case is neatly being solved in Trichy, there are plenty non-governmental transport services that own public buses and run them at the same rate as that of an government bus.
Most are more comfortable and faster ! Now, Tata can, maybe embark in running such buses :P !

Okay, next point - "Our place aint like London, its full of winding streets, practically inaccessible streets, lots of nooks and corners and such places can't be definitely reached by public transport. This place is highly populated too, high population density. I would prefer to own a 1lakh car if it takes me my doorstep after a day's work and save me the trouble of walking all the way from the bus-stop to my home"

Critic retorts - "The roads in HK are equally winding as ours, and has a similar population density, but still, they have a beautiful network of trams that serve all these places as well. Consider Bangalore, wouldn't you prefer to travel by the volvo bus rather than your car ?"

The Rishi - "Obviously no, I would any day prefer my personal car over the volvo. Do you know how many volvos are there in the city ? Just a handful and they cover only the most prominent parts of Bangalore. Apart from that, their tickets are costly too."

Critic - "Exactly, thats the point I want to make, do not make Volvo buses, do not buy volvos, buy Tata buses and buy more buses, but...sadly Tata aint making buses nor are they buying more buses"

Rishi - "Hey, it aint easy to get buses to all the remote villages in India. In such places, families tend to travel in a single two wheeler - the Nano is targeted at those people."

Critic - "Why don't they make minivans or mini-buses for the villages ?. See, the point is this Nano is touted to be a Social Revolution - I do not like that lie"

Rishi - "It aint a lie and its not wrong call that concept a revolution. See, then why do the people in NY or any place own cars ? Considering that, they possess some of the world's costliest cars, they take tremendous care over their cars, the cars are a prized possession there and each owner would go out of the way to maintain the virginity of their car ! "

Critic - "See, I would like to use my private vehicle to reach places that are not serviced by a public bus. But, do you think people use their own transport ONLY for places that are not accessible by a public bus eh ? Check the percentage of population that uses public transport in any big foreign metro, take even London..... that would be far more than the other.There even a rich man wouldn't mind using a bus to reach a place that a bus would take him to as long as its comfortable for that you need more buses and trains and metro rails and trams not Nanos !
Look.. All I am saying is, even in developed countries, you can find people using public transport even if they are rich, because it is convenient and plentiful... which is not the case in India so the solution should be towards improving public transport facilites not having more private cheap cars. The point is , Nano aint a Revolution at all "

Rishi - " We should ALSO improve towards developing public transport facilites....and at the same time...give everyone achance ....or the pleaseure of owning a car...see da..this Nano..also might result in a reduction in accidents due to overcrowded two wheelers"

Armchair - "But increase in accidents due to overcrowding of roads and lack of space! The moment you get a cheap car into the market before you have good public transport, people will use this over public transport the damage is irreversible now if Tata Nano is released in a place where there is good public transport system, I'd paint the town red, asking people to buy it. So, again..my only point is - - "The TATA NANO is NOT a SOCIAL REVOLUTION,
it's a crass commercial effort at increasing profits, nothing else he is cashing in on the lack of good public transport.. "

For certain, Nano will lead to an increased number of cars on the streets and the roads of India will suffer, unable to bear the ever growing population weight . . .this is already prominent in Bangalore.

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Well, then we drifted on for some more time and I bid him TATA (Goodbye in Tamil) !!!!

So . . uhmm.... I do not how to conclude !! so . . . Sarve Janaa Sukhino Bhavanthu !!

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I think traveling aboard brooms will be a better idea ! - The Maharishi

Misunderstandings...

Three years at NITT, mingling with a mini India, talking and associating with a wide genre of people . . . . made me realize this . . . . there are so many friendships made and so many get destroyed as well . . . almost, or rather, every such breakup is due to Misunderstandings.

For example, everyone . . . anyone . . will have a friend, whom they know for a long long time, that person is their family friend and he/she has been entrusting that friend with almost everything happening in his/her's life and strongly believes that that friend can be completely trusted upon. Now, he/she has told that friend a very very arcane stuff, stuff that has to be so completely hushed up and treasured and this friend smilingly approves it and ensures his confidentiality. However, Murphy's laws aint termed as laws for nothing, these laws come into play and somehow this treasure is exposed to the buccaneers ! But, but, this friend is genuine, he aint spoken a word about it to anyone, but, he/she, immediately, without even hesitating a moment to think, simply calls up this friend and starts bashing him up, screaming, accusing with bawdy remarks and what not . . . . . Now, what can this friend say ? . . . he asserts his innocence, says he aint responsible for anything and repeatedly, politely and patiently pleads his innocence.....on the other hand...he/she, goes on bickering about the friend's betrayal, not even pausing to listen to his pleadings, completely blinded by the rage . . . . . . . now, this continues for some time and this friend. . . . loses his patience, completely irritated that he too starts spouting words and quarrels . . . . . . . . in the end . . . . . . they, sadly, pathetically end their lifelong, family friendship :(

So, this is just an example, . . . another cause. . just plain misunderstandings of a conversation. Say, he/she and the friend is having a conversation which slowly enters into an unwarranted territory. Now, he/she (or the friend) misinterprets a statement made by the friend(or he/she) and then . . the above said situation ensues. Another example, the very infamous game - "pass the message" . .. he/she says something to Mr.X and asks him to pass it on to the friend . . Mr.X bungles up the message but obediently delivers it to the friend - who misinterprets it and again . . the above situation ensues . . . .

Sometimes, I have had this experience, some of my friends . . they expect me to tell them each and every thing happening in my life, each every second of my life they want to know, but, ofcourse, I can't tell them everything, there may be some events so trivial that such events need no mention at all . . but the friend says - "hey, why din't u tell me that ?" . . again, misunderstandings and the above situation once again ensues .. . .

A budding young designer, a senior artiste, a fellow Ron's man - some people whom I misunderstood . . . and sometimes, repent for that.

This is one feeling, one phenomena, that is as big and endless as the Universe , it can never stop, can never be avoided and its really really really difficult to get rid of - misunderstandings - a bane on human understandings.

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When the Rishis themselves curse and abuse their fellow Rishis, what can poor mortals do ? When such high intellectual people themselves fall prey to misunderstandings (you can find many many misunderstandings amongst Rishis in the Hindu Myths) , what can you mere mortals do ? - - -sarve janaa sukhino bhavanthu - - - -The Maharishi

Culture.....Follow ??

Yesterday night, around 11, I was ambling back to my hostel sipping hot chocolate along with a dear friend, Mr.Ass, my neighbour in the hostel. We love to talk about all sorts of random topics and one such topic that ignited our idle minds was - "Are we really proud of following our culture in the hostel or do we just try to seem to follow some culture to please our peers?"

It all started when we noticed our batchmate making a weak attempt to adopt a western accent to impress a group of acumen freshers to whom he was giving some advice. I remarked - "Why do people tend to adopt or imitate some other culture by forsaking their own?"

With a nod, Mr.Ass aceded - "Yea, many of us have actually transformed and adopted a random culture with a false idea that it is a more "cooler" culture and that makes us a real "college dude" ".
The point is, many of my batchmates, have after coming to the college, seem to have forgotten their inherent culture and have started to emulate, adopt and follow another culture that is seemingly more cool. In most cases, that culture is actually "no culture". There are a set of students in our college, they follow no tradition, culture or philosophies, that is because that is how they have been brought up and that's how the life is in their native lands. They find that life natural and are comfortable with it. There is nothing to blame them for.

Now, many students, who astutely followed their religion, culture and tradition till their 12th, seem to have forgotten those and have found an attraction to this life of "no culture" and living a care free life, sticking to no rules. They seem to have forgotten their daily rituals, their beliefs and started ridiculing their own culture. Instead, they praise this new "no culture" and seem to have forgotten of God (in whom they once so severly believed that they even went to the temple thrice a week). Being a brahmin, I found many fellow brahmins losing their traditions. They stopped applying the sacred paste on their forehead, stopped praying, stopped believing in God, stopped taking bath daily (they think its cool to stay without bathing for days on end), tend to adopt a heavily accented way of talking by frequently absurdly using obscene words (another factor that makes them think its cool), tend to walk and behave like western teenagers with that slight swagger, tend to stop studying thinking being a cool dude means one should study the minimum etc., There have been many such people, some my very dear friends, they have completely changed in their lifestyle, their attitude, their way of speech, their behaviour, their way of life , a complete transformation in everything so that they can be a part of that so called "no culture" group. The sad part is, not many succeed in this "transformation", it results in such a weak profile for that person that it is very pathetic and seems that that person is very desperately trying to imitate someone. The end result, they lose their identity, they lose their originality and they lose their personality.

You would have been referred to as - "Mahesh?, oh the guy who plays the mridangam ?, they guy who wears the white paste on his head daily? they guy who plays the flute ? the guy who has a neat room ? the guy who has a beard . . .. so so "

Now, if you adopt some other culture, you will be referred to as - "Mahesh ?, oh the guy who roams with that gang ? the guy who smokes a lot ? they guy who tries to be like an NRI ? they who says "f*ck" for every 4 words ? ....so so "

Now,

On the other hand, there are quite a few who proudly exhibit their culture, show off every slightest property to claim that they strictly follow their tradition and culture.

I say, we should silently and humbly follow our culture, be proud of our culture and tradition, be proud to be whatever you are, always withold and support your culture, never unnecessary boast of your culture and at no cost try to dump or shadow or bring down your tradition.

There is yet another small group, that has been wooed by this "no culture" and tried to imitate it and underwent this transformation. Then, they decided that this new culture is not suited for them and it was a mistake!, this group was in a fix ! they din't know what to do , they had made a mistake and chosen the wrong culture. They finally realised the beauty and the scantity of their older inherent culture and tradition and reverted back to their older lifestyle. These people are the ones who have completely understood the norms and meaning of culture and tradition.

At birth, you are involuntarily made to follow the traditions of your family, whether you accept or not, you follow it till your 12th. When you enter your hostel, you are a free bird, your mind tends to wander and ultimately you might end up transforming. The transformed people are one set, some benefit and some lose due to the transformation. Now, those who lost, tend to return back to their own lifestyle, this time, they voluntarily return back, they know that their old methodology was the best and now realise its full potential and from then on, their life becomes a smooth ride !

So whatever tradition or culture you follow, pray follow it throughout, or if you want to imitate or adopt some other culture, do so with utmost devotion and do not take up any temporary change. Only when you lose and return back to your own culture, do you realise its true potential.

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Whatever culture the students follow in the hostel, back home they are the normal, astute kids and they follow their family tradition to the last letter ! So, in the hostel, it's only an attempt to impress people and give an false impression.

Always uphold your religion, never lose faith in it - The Maharishi

Be proud of what you are, never tend to change your beliefs and life style so that it may impress others, that is a false identity and is of no value, people appreciate and respect a person who follows his own lifestyle and upholds his ideals - The Maharishi