Fraternity Blog

Ordinary Things..

2007-06-13T16:04:00.000-07:00

I was just looking up on great writers and ended up looking at Robert Pirsig's tidbit of an information which not only was interesting but was amazing as well. The Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance(ZMM) was turned by just 121 publishers!!

Also was reading Dan Brown's site in which he quotes Robert Ludlum as one of his favorite author. That was a much needed impetus to start reading Ludlum again. I like Robert Ludlum too. But the question I ask is "Why do authors,song writer's,pop artists stick to some sort of a theme they choose?" Ludlum sticks with conspiracy theories,Grisham mostly stick to Law, The rock group , The Corrs, stick with similar tunes,everyone does what they are best at... Is it not so ordinary? Maybe I get too much familiar with their ways I start feeling bored.But thank God we got a lot of writers to read from and a lot of music to listen to when we want to tune out of some thing particular..pretty ordinary post too,it seems! We should not spare our soul too. should we? :)

Vagabond Kings

2007-06-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

Vagabond Kings is a book by Mathhew Samoville about his travelogues in India mostly. He starts with a run of the mill but yet funny account of his experience in Israel. When he reaches India for the Kumbh Mela, it gets much more interesting. It gives a peek into a sadhus life. Their smoking pots and their self-punishments,for the sake of spiritual accomplishments.The author also ends up meeting people, the people he feels he must have known in his previous birth, and each meeting is so accidental and unplanned that they quit thinking it strange to keep bumping into each other in every place they met.And it made me think of my own experience with some people.

The author is open minded yet cautious about taking a spiritual Guru. He questions the purpose of a Guru,just like I do,until he finally meets,Satgurunath Siddhanath,a Guru who teaches him the Nath Kriya. By the end of the book, I fully realised my ignorance about a lot of things,about which Yuga we were in,what indeed was Hatha Yoga and what is like it being with a Guru.

Transsexual...

2007-05-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

One of the things that the world is gearing up to face is transsexualism,cross dressing, transvestite. Interestingly according to statistics of NewsWeek, more than 50 percent of the kids have this personality crisis,thankfully after 13,most of them realize which sex they belong to.The rest of them, they live in one sort of a hell.I went through this phase too. It was so much fun to wear a short knickers than a frock for me. It was as if I had some strength which I lacked in the feminine frocks and skirts. At some point of time, I had to strike a balance of these two elements in me, quite late though. I am sure plenty of us have this dilemma we go through some times even now. But I guess this is all natural. And we should respect transsexuals around us keeping this in mind.

My Friend

2007-05-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

She is young and beautiful

She gives me a knowing smile

To this stranger who came in to share her space

She knew of my short sojourn with her I reckoned

She and I alone in a mortal brick-house

Me with my thoughts

She as a companion, a kind listener

I read my poems, empty my mind

She shows her tenderness to my pain

My little sister.

Days pass by quickly and cruelly

Time for me to leave her

She from a girl into a woman now

Full bosomed, ready for a bouquet

To be crushed by a cruel lover

Or to settle in a vase as a piece of art,

I nod at her to say a grieved goodbye

She silent without any nods

Her silence and loneliness tormenting me

She looks at me with the pain I have not seen in me

I take her along with me to my little retreat

I am the listener now ,lying beside her,

Waiting patiently for her peaceful dissolution

A drop from my parched eyes waiting too.

What unites the lesser and the Greater mortals?

2007-04-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to write in my blog for some time. I do not find much pleasure to write for a number of reasons. I get this guilt feeling which is only possible to experience for people like me who is so damn obligated to every minute thing around me. No matter what.The pressure mounts up to write, the more the pressure, the more there is this part of me not willing to give in, so these two personalities keep having a dual and my blog is in a limbo waiting for someone to do some thing or not do something.Eventually the good wins, I decide to write.

It reminds me of a book I read recently, Star in the East, a book about the philosopher J Krishnamurthy by Ronald Vernon. J Krishnamurthy goes through this immense duress of turning into a messiah. He goes through years of spiritual practice,meets a lot of illumined people to learn, reads a lot of books on theology and spirituality. All the world around him is sure he is the next messiah after the Christ. But he has these immense self doubts which does not help him in the process until one day he does get finally convinced he is a teacher who should teach the world what ever he learns in the path of enlightenment. The story is long and winded, but what i want to say is people do come under this kind of pressure in their lives,lesser mortals like me worry about writing a blog and greater mortals like Kant worry about writing his book. Thats the difference. Chances are lesser mortals do travel to become a greater mortal. I am waiting for my traveling schedule. :)

Whats Truth and Lie...

2007-03-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

We come to believe with our whole heart the value of being truthful, honest and sincere. It is the most important virtue we long to have. Some times we do not tell the truth because it is not practical, other times it is not being smart and many times we do not want to hurt other's feelings. I have lied some times too. And I do think some times living a lie is what makes some see things differently. It is like this, a truth is plain, does not get you anywhere..while a lie could ride you in an imaginary plane, takes you to see the world in a different light altogether, it makes us live a little bit of who we are not, it is quite fascinating some times. I am not advocating to say lying is fine :) I mean discreetly liying for a small thing would make some interesting days, like our age perhaps, frequently people get my age and my mother tongue wrong and I keep my mouth shut for fun and it is definitely fun to look at how people look at you differently in their eyes :)

A Souvenir???

2007-03-08T21:32:00.000-08:00

I had been to the Fisherman's Wharf,San Francisco as a tourist where I found a row of trinket's shops, Eateries( at some point I found myself ashamed of finding a huge number of eateries at one stretch) and amusement shows which missed their mark in me.The souvenirs looked like the regular, over priced and delicate kind of souvenirs in any tourist place till I found this nerve wracking T shirts of the Alcatraz.

My mind went crazy. I had a lot of questions reeling in me?? I thought it was the most painful souvenir I ever saw.What exactly is a Souvenir? Do we make a souvenir of the prisoners who died the cruelest of deaths one can imagine? It did not seem too righteous to me. It seemed sadistic, barbaric and too commercial. The world is just too young for me it seems...

Saying Hi

2007-03-07T13:20:00.000-08:00

I am currently in one of the cities in the United States .A striking thing which I noticed here is that everyone from customer representatives, neighbours to strangers , are eager to be civilized and friendly. They do this by saying 'Hi' and giving a half smile.Thats good. They did gain a good measure of respect in my eyes. Until I observed them closely, Saying a 'Hi' and walking away...not waiting for my response, what a sham it was.Observation is always good I suppose...

Do we Practise to Preach?

2007-02-02T00:26:00.000-08:00

Not really, thats what I think. In conversations with my friends,brothers and other people ,I share a lot of ideas, concepts and theories which I beleive can be applied to our way of life. It is like they say in Job Ads in the news papers, "Nice to have" attributes in our life which I do beleive we should have. The things I share may not be the ones I follow. My point is just to share. I would not use the word preach here because thats not my intention but generally it would be treated as preaching. Coming to preaching, I do beleive that no man is the most perfectly evolved paragon of qualities. Every man has his own limitations to overcome, his challenges to meet and on his way he would err, learn after erring, grow into a better person, until he dies, he is never the perfect man even in his own eyes, If he is objective with himself, so when is the point he can teach or preach when he is certain he would not be perfect? So who would be the Master? No one. So who would preach? No one eh?

The Tao of Physics By Fritjof Capra

2007-01-21T00:25:00.000-08:00

To comment on the book by me is beyond my capacity I think. However, I remember reading Physics thoery as a novice wondering why these many theories have been piled up and getting no meaning out of various disjointed theories of physics.The various parallels the author draws between physicists and the mystrics is amazing. Only thing I was hoping was some more of the Koans which obviously is out of the scope of the book.The concepts, ideas and the theories in the book need to be read and understood by oneself. It would be a futile attempt if I venture to explain it. All I can say is it is a must read, every book lover must have it in his bedroom :)

Life's Like That.

2007-01-03T19:55:00.000-08:00

I follow the foot prints of my family closely.My maternal grandpa was an entomologist who worked with bugs and I am a software bug catcher.

Zen And the Art of Living

2007-01-01T02:24:00.000-08:00

I have been reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. For some reason I had not come to a point of intensification that one experiences with a book till I got into one of the last pages . This point of intensification gives me a moment of truth and bonding with the book.I just know when I have reached there .In that moment,I know I had taken what I wanted from the book.One of the things which is despicable about reaching the moment of truth and bonding with a book is,I know the book may not be able to give me any thing more after that moment, I am stuck to move any further, I sometimes even forsake the book, just like a heartless lover would do after taking what he wants.I become so blastedly practical...Logic goes like this...Who wants to read a book that is going to say what I know in the remaining pages...Who wants to waste time on this book? I now know what is in the remaining pages...

Most times for some odd elitist reason,I just finish the book anyway.But things between us, the book and I, do not remain the same.The reading now feels like a mundane earthly lovemaking, it is now I and the book, two entities, not one, it hurts to think that way. Nothing spiritual in reading the book now ,after that moment is reached.I had reached this moment after reading, well, almost on the ending pages, not that the book was not fertile. It was the best book I have read in some time.One best thing about reaching the moment of truth in a book late is you would love the book till the end of your reading, is it not what we all want?

The leitmotiv of the book is quality and the underlying actions that leads to quality is being with one with your actions, with your immediate things, not dualism, not different but same. You and the acted are the same, when you feel this, in that moment, you are able to do your actions agreeably, you are able to enjoy what you are doing, you do not have conflicts with the action or the object, the subject-object is one.This goes for the simplest of activity like washing a dish to writing a science paper.The philosophy of Zen is that, uniting everything. Tattvamasi, also of the Upanishads.

The book took me right to my young age when I used to look at my father's motor cycle wide eyed, at the choke, at the carburetter, the petrol aroma which made me fall in love with the cycle.Another interesting part of the book is the way the author observes people, their believes, their character dissection, this was one of the fun part of reading the book. The author’s struggle to disassociate with his another self, who was in a mental asylum,his relation with his son, his silences with people, his analysis of the classical theories of Science and Math. Makes a very interesting reading if you enjoy reading philosophy and analysis.You would definitely have a different view of Quality after finishing the book or you would be on a trip about thinking about Quality yourself. The author’s view of quality may not be true, but certainly closer to the truth I would think.

Stranded!!!

2006-12-27T02:05:00.000-08:00

I was on a short sojourn to a nearby city last weekend. My pilgrimage itinerary, things to do list, everything was in place. I was looking forward to my lonely half-spiritual, half-materialistic journey. I was a happy soul blissfully lonely, deep in Beethoven 37 on a lovely high glassed traveler bus at 11 pm. These high glassed buses travel comes a bit costly but worth every pie spent. Through the glasses, I enjoy seeing the horizon, the rendezvous of heaven and earth. They were meant to be that way, it seems to me, to love and declare their love to the world, to make love in the most innocent way. Love is lovely, like Eric Clapton sings. I love it. One of the reasons I hate to arrive in the cities; cities eat up the horizon by their skyscrapers. When I look at the sky lines, more often than not, I feel indifferent, claustrophobic and I get a frustrating feeling to just get away. I miss watching the horizon in the city.

Life could not have been happier for me watching the horizon ,the lonely trees and the stars on my way, listening to music and breaking away into a trance at other times that night. Everything was pleasant and nice and smooth. My artistic side was craving for some lonely days, to meditate on a short pilgrimage, reading and writing with tea and toasts by the side, and just a little bit of doing nothing. No thinking of paying the bills, no attending calls on mobile, no hollow words to people around me, to be compulsively polite, no smiles when I do not want to smile. Everything here would be voluntary, right from my heart, not from logic; my actions would not be dictated by people around me, subtly or otherwise.

The first day I had to oblige to my friend to stay with his family, the second day reality hit me when I found out that the home I was supposed to stay was ridiculously far off from the city. Kitchen was not set up even for a toast and tea! Nothing to sleep on in the bedroom on that cold winter night. How could I stay there! Bingo! I was stranded!!!

The feeling of being stranded gets one loaded with a lot of primitive feelings, a little bit of fear and insecurity, immobility, hungry, thirsty, cold and dry. I think each of us have to experience the feeling of being stranded. It puts me into perspective, makes me think about friends, family and the society in a new light. Tells me every man is for himself. Very true. A one-liner philosophy that I can think of which suits everywhere. Suddenly Existentialism makes sense to me. I think like an animal. I want some thing to sleep on, no clean sheets, anything would do! I remember all my fuss about my bedroom. I would be good to everyone now, if I could get a place to eat and sleep! I would think and act now, I wont hurt anyone. I would answer phones properly. I would be a good human being…sounds like a New Year resolution..

You finish my sentences, I think I love you...

2006-12-21T01:19:00.000-08:00

The above song is by Alanis Morisettee about her lover.This is one kind of love that I have for some people who finish my thoughts transmitted or not transmitted, finishing my sentences, half broken, full broken , no matter what, I bet most of us feel great about it. They just know,my twin can tell what I am going to say, sometimes I just have to look and he can tell me what I thought in that instant.A major problem with this sort of communication with me had been to decline to communicate with a lot of people inlcuding bosses, sometimes explanation-seeking parents, friends who do not vibe and almost always,to curious neighbours.

There were lots of times I used to just say a 'Yes' as an answer to not cause any further explanation; intellectually or logically to people so that I can spare my effort to a failed conversation.My childhood,adolesence and some part of my adulthood involved chasing away conversations,I liked tacit conversations which we all could make if we have rapport with the listener.Sounds stupid though. But it is not, trust me. I could be happy spending a whole day with a friend to whom I do not have to talk anything to make merry. Most times when we are with each other, my twin and I talk less and yet we are happy being with each other. The quality of time does not depend on chatters, with friends or siblings or anyone.

I knew words are not so much as they are intended to be.And lately I have been reading the Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra which re-emphasize my beleif in this.The words which we use in the daily vocabulary are a meagre 50-100 words, my rough guess here.could be 100 more perhaps.This is another trouble, self-imposed one nevertheless. We could choose to increase our vocabulary and speak eloquently, but this would not help either.People would still misunderstand although the basic law of communication says that the speaker has the onus of the effect of communication. I would definitely would not try communicating if I had an option to.

Fiddler

2006-12-16T19:29:00.000-08:00

I was going to simulate slow modem connection in my 1GB ethernet. I find Fiddler to be a great tool for this purpose. You need to download fiddler from www.fiddlertool.com/.

You need Microsoft .NET Framework v1.1 (4322) or later. In case you do not have it, fiddler site takes you to Microsoft and downloads it for you. No worries. Once done, you need a java script that you need to save it under the C:\program Files\Fiddler\Script to handle slow modem connection. You need to just go to the Fiddler UI, set up IE as the agent. Now you can actually simulate slow connections in IE. Check if it works by going to one of those numerous internet connection testing speed sites. If you connect through Firefox and check, the connection would remain at the Ethernet connection speed. And one more thing, if you need IE to be at the regular Ethernet speed, just close down Fiddler. Thats it!

An attempt to analyse SuryaNamaskara

2006-12-13T03:52:00.000-08:00

I was a ubiquitous Gym goer till a short while ago. I am through Gym now for various reasons and decided going back to my lost love! Yoga. It is the ancient system of physical and mental exercise which gives one a stable body and mind, it is amazing that it directs all your concentration to your body and mind when doing Yogasanas. Yogasanas are the various postures or exercises that one does in this system of exercise. This is the first time I am practising Yoga under a Guru and hence the first time I have started doing SuryaNamaskara. Suryanamaskara follows Pranayama and a couple of other breathing exercises.Suryanamaskara is praying the Sun God. In ancient times, people used to worship natural forces like the Sun, Moon, Rivers etc.I do not have information as to why we do only Suryanamasakara in Yoga, probably we do yoga in the morning and sun is the genesis of energy for us.

Suryanamaskara basically has 12 steps. It begins by a simple Indian Namaskar mudra and then takes up postures like the 'Parvathaasana'(meaning posture of the mountain), bhujangasana( posture similar like an amphibian) and posture of lying flat down( I would consider it like a posture of a water animal) .Another thing close to these poses I can relate to is the growing up of a foetus into a child. The amphibinic posture resembling a foetus in the womb, and the Bhujangasan, when the toddler rises his/her head up. The Parvathasan when he tries to balance when he/she tries to get up top walk and stand.

What struk me was the mystique surrounding the 12 postures we do , it unmistakenly resembles the various steps in the evolutionary cycle of of life I think or the growing up of a child. The reptilic, amphibianic and the two legged postures... Everymorning I do Suryanamaskara, it amazes me that I am a product of evolution...

Walk Into Yourself

2006-12-10T03:07:00.000-08:00

There is something bewitchingly seductive about taking a walk alone, the kind of pleasure I bet no sex or money would give you. The solitude which gives you a strange power, unbonded from the world, you do not require some one to give you the power, since power like everything is relative. Something which comes close to this is the times when you are naked, simple and plain. No pretensions, no covers, souls bared. You are one with yourself. The serenity and the feeling of freedom, overwhelming...something is miraculous in the way it is...You walk out onto the pavement,in the meadows, in the lonely roads, but strangely you walk into yourself, finding yourself, where have you lost yourself? The eternal search which some people find answers to. Each walk is like a rebirth, just that you bear yourself here, you are the creator.You will make yourself of to be what you want.

Elvis Pleas....

2006-12-09T00:45:00.000-08:00

Now and Then There Is a Fool Such As I.....For some reason, this song has been playing in my mind since yesterday..the more I sing out loud on my way back home, the better it makes me feel.Some thing's masochistically nice about it, I reckon..Going against the law of nature it seems!!!I disapprove of the law of Survival of the Fittest !!!I am not the smart one that I seem to be. Hey World I do not care to win! Not at all, if winning is the way you want it to be.... You speak your mind and see others cringe Brothers!!!

What is E Prime Language?

2006-12-07T04:54:00.000-08:00

E Prime is a form of English developed by Harvard graduate David Bourland. The interesting part of Eprime is it excludes all terms of the verb 'to be'. That includes the many forms of the verb such as " it's "," there's" etcetra. The verb 'To be' is the most widely used verb as you can guess and therefore most abused verb in the English language. 'To be' when used distorts and deletes the meaning. It is passive when used. For example, if we say "She is a doctor", it is only partly true, there is a probability that she could be working as a professor now, she was a doctor when you last met her.This is quite possible. The verb 'To Be' does not take space time entities, whereas in E Prime english, it is precise and without contradictions, check this site for a fun reading http://www.rawilson.com/quantum.shtmlz

Well, I could not drop using 'to be' here ironically. I have tried not using 'to be' when constructing a sentence and i find it quite challenging,stimulating and intellectually satisfying. Try not using "To be" and have fun this weekend.

Mind Your Language

2006-12-06T04:27:00.000-08:00

The next time you feel a little ruffled, do not say that you are upset or depressed. Just say to your self you are a little low on energy. You may not feel that upset or depressed. The words that you use determine and influence your state of mind. Most of us get into a rot using
these limited vocabulary for no reason at all.Using the right kind of language is a great stress buster and a solution to most of our problems. Instead of saying you are tired, try saying you need to take some rest.Instead of feeling your colleague is too hostile you could say to yourself he/she loves you too much. That way you actually may start liking your colleague. To put things in perspective, try using positive, active not passive words, makes a huge difference to your world..

It Certainly Is A Block

2006-12-05T05:06:00.000-08:00

There are lots of blocks that you have seen on your ways, roadblocks, learning blocks, writers block, thinker's block and now I got a block to write other blocks!!! They exist in every other mind, every where you see.And the saddening part is when someone tells you, I got this block, I am not coming out of this now! I am not willing to learn because I think I am right...I think I am not mistaken...I think you are wrong...Oh,come to think of it...do not you think it is unwise to be so sure of things? Think about it...Do not be sure of your blocks too...Nothing is certain...

Current Books Being Read

2006-12-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

Zen And The Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.
The Tao Of Physics by Fritjof Capra

Neuro Linguistic Programming

2006-12-01T22:20:00.000-08:00

Neuro Linguistic Prgramming,you probably may have come across this or you may not have. This is a science of its own rights and an in certain ways it is art too. NLP shortly could be described as a tool which helps poeple perform better in areas of education, self-improvement, sports and imagine-whatever-you-can areas!!! Developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, it promises nothing but attempts to realize the person you are and have been and consiously alter your choices and suit yourself. It is amazing in that it just duplicates and studies successful people and gets you the essence of what they do to make things successful, it works in more powerful ways as 'sitting by Nellie' works. It seems to say "Its all in the mind".If you seem to be all for it, the author suggests to read 'NLP At Work' by Sue Knight which is quite interesting. There are other advanced books available which would be shared in upcoming posts. Thanks!!!