Conversation with God

We are the luckiest. We have the biggest fortune to have been born as human beings. We have a way to commune with god. Animals cannot worship, meditate or commune with god. Humans are endowed with all the divine qualities such as love, faith, devotion and prayer. The only problem is that these qualities and the all-powerful and covered by veils of delusion. 

The second fortune is to have a mater or guru; he as an embodiment of god, shows us our true self, teaches us to meditate and how to commune with god. If we are devoted and faithful and allow ourselves to be guided by the guru, we experience a sea change in us. He teaches us with love how to converse with our biggest friend- The Lord we can engage ourselves in endless conversations with Him. Pour our hearts out to him; he is a patient listener and a loving one at that. He is so near us, within each cell of our body, mind and soul. He resides within the inner depths of our being and so easy to talk to.

God is so close to us, nearer than our own heartbeat, closer than anyone else in this world. When are thoughts are stilled, we are calm and peaceful, when the rigmarole of life refuses to accept us; God listens to all our prayers; whatever we say is portrayed easily and clearly to Him.

Just as the reflection of the moon is clear in still waters, whereas its image is distorted in disturbed water; similarly, when we have a barrage of thoughts and endless worries in our minds, then our contact with God is faulty and broken. To renew the link with which been born, to re-establish our rapport with the loving God, all we have to do is purely love Him. When we love only him with all our heart and soul, he cannot stand the separation with us and he comes with his entire kingdom..

I am a true believer in god, I know science and spirituality have and always will contradict each other, as one believes in the divine miracle, and the other wants a reason for everything. That is how it is, but what I think is, that science is right, there is an explanation to everything, but also it does help the human race to believe that there is a power greater than themselves who is watching and controlling their every action. That is what keeps us in check and stops us from doing anything that we want to do. So I believe that spirituality plays a very important role in the society, it keeps us in control. This is why i always say, 'I am a spiritual person and not a religious one'.

Hope to hear some comments on this. Its a never ending debate I know, but still would like to hear something from my audience.

:) Dewa Mata...

Courtesy: Inner Voice, TOI.

FRINGE

As promised a little while ago, he is the post of a new TV series that I am presently watching.

Fringe is a show I came across on IMDB just browsing for a new TV series to watch as I had just finished up with Dexter and house. There must have been a description but I did not bother to look at it. I saw the name fringe and decided to give it a try.

Fringe by definition means, ‘one of the light or dark bands produced during the interference of light waves’ and ‘a social group holding marginal or extreme views’. Both these definitions attracted me to the show. I decided to download the pilot and a few more episodes; although it is the pilot which decides whether the show will run on air or not, but I never make my decision based on the pilot. I don’t think it’s fair to give the producers just one chance, so I always download the next couple of episodes as well. From the first episode itself, I was sure that I am going to love this show. I don’t remember whether I have mentioned it in my ‘about me’ section of the blog, but I am a huge fan of sci-fi stuff. I believe that it is this sci-fi stuff which is sci-fi right now, but is going to be reality in the near future. So as this show turned out to be sci-fi, I knew that I am going to love this. After that it has been episode after episode. There were days when I watched fringe fro morning to bedtime, doing almost nothing else. Completely glued to my computer.

So lemme just tell you what fringe is all about. SPOILER ALERT: Fringe as I have said is a sci-fi show, there is this scientist who believes and experiments in domains where no scientists do. He works on parallel universes (which I completely believe in- especially after the ‘string theory’ by Brian Greene). He also works on several other fields mainly neurology and mind related. He has showed ways on how we can tap into the human mind to extract information, how we can modify the brain waves to accomplish un-imaginable tasks. I would not go into the details, because that would spoil the show and also I do not want to over-sell the show. Anybody who likes sci-fi and has a thing for futuristic science, would love the show. There are several things in the show which seem completely justified and plausible. However, I admit some of the things seem to be too farfetched even for an open-minded person like myself. But of course, you never know what may actually happen in reality in a couple of decades. The things that I consider far-fetched may be real life then or maybe in a century. That is the reason I used the term far-fetched and not impossible.

They have shown several things that make complete sense and would make you ponder on whether this may have already been done in some secretive labs and agencies. You would see that the reasoning that the scientist gives for the new possibilities that he explores to be quite interesting, plausible and satisfactory to yourself. However, you would also see some of the complex things that he talks about and does on the show are not explained at all. I do not blame him for that; he has given understandable reasoning’s for a lot of things that we consider just fiction and about why they will work. Some of the things he should be allowed to just cite without details, after all it comes in the fiction genre. For example, he explains several ways that we may use brain waves and alter them to get different stuff to work out, but he does not explain in detail, how he was able to use a looking glass into the parallel universe, or how he was able to travel between universes. So I don’t blame him for that, people are still trying to prove parallel universes exist; at least he travelled between them. J

This show has inspired in me a lot of ideas. You see I think out of the way, I believe in radical theories and try to explore their possibilities in our time. I am a researcher in the head and the heart. So I have found this show to be just awesome as the scientist is working in my genre. Some of your may not like it, but for all the sci-fi buffs or even intellectuals, I would suggest that you definitely give it a try.

Xaire.

Nature, Nature Japanese Nature

Not one but three cruel ironies are being played in Japan as the country tries to comprehend the apocalypse of the past two weeks. The Japanese prize nature, beauty and order, yet the tsunami has mocked all three. It has been distressing to see a people whose culture values cleanliness, refinement, delicacy and graciousness, wandering around in the clothes they fled in and sitting on the street near giant saucepans waiting to be served from soup kitchens.

The love of nature is the very basis of Japanese aesthetics. They show their joy at the arrival of ‘sakura’ or cherry blossoms with picnics, tea parties, musical concerts and special meals. The Japanese cherry tree is not cultivated for its fruit-- it is not fruit-bearing—but purely for its ephemeral beauty while in blossom.

The Japanese homes, the sliding partitions are invariably painted with scenes from nature. Traditional wooden homes flimsy looking, are not built as fortresses against the elements but rather intended to blend in with the surroundings because the Japanese approach to nature is different from the western desire to subjugate it to man’s will.

They are taught that there is no dichotomy between man and nature and this temperament finds expression in traditional scrolls or ink drawings where nature dominates. The artist instead of treating nature as a backdrop for depicting people lets nature take pride of place while limiting humans to marginal figures. Although, the ultra uncontrolled Japanese gardens with its clipped and pruned tress and rakes stones is the opposite; an attempt to bring some order into nature’s occasional unruliness.

The passion for beauty and exquisite refinement immediately strikes any new visitor to Japan. You enter into a new universe where its subtle aesthetic sensibility is woven into the fabric of daily life. Everywhere you look, you see delicate mannerisms, the ticket inspector on a train who turns to the seated passengers and bows before leaving the compartment; shop assistants wrapping mundane purchases in beautiful paper with as much care as they would a sacred offering for a temple.

Anything that offends their aesthetic sensibility is shunned. Worshipper’s shoes outside a Hindu temple may be strewn randomly, but outside Buddhist and Shinto temples in Japan, the slippers that you put on before entering as tucked into each other and arrayed neatly in a line on the steps. If a monk at the shrine chances upon a pair that is uneven or slightly askew, he will instantly bend down and straighten it.

The television pictures of the devastated towns and mile upon mile of debris would be agonising for any nation, but it has to be excruciatingly painful for a nation that has turned love of beauty into something as reflexive as blinking. Japanese conduct in public is a perfect manifestation of how this pursuit of refinement, transported into the external domain brings harmony and order. Very rarely do you see anyone speaking loudly. There is no aggression. And they must certainly never push, elbow or jostle. Even now, surrounded as they are by horror and calamity they are unlikely to abandon their customary decorum.

It is this consideration and respect for others that allows almost 130 million people to live together peacefully despite one of the highest population densities in the world and boast of one of the lowest crime rate in the industrialized world. There qualities of politeness, honesty and genteelness will enable the Japanese to come through this catastrophe with their dignity intact.

They are already in display; no one is looting (unlike New Orleans hurricane Katrina or during the Gujarat massacre) or panicking and people are queuing up for water and food. In the midst of flattened towns and muddy fields where one their homes stood, people are still seen on television bowing and talking to each other is the most formal courtesy. Even in normal times, vending machines stand undamaged by vandals. Pedestrians bend down to remove a tiny scrap of paper from the immaculate pavement.

A Tokyo resident who was in a restaurant when the earthquake struck told to the interviewing camera crews that everyone ran out into the street. But when the tremors subsided, they all walked back in and formed a line to settle their bills.

Such is the country and people of Japan. I really admire their manners and intellect. I would request you to join me in spending two minutes praying to god to bring back relief and order into their soft and humble lives.

Goodbye.                                                           

Courtesy: TOI

Supermoon

About a week before 19^th march 2011, we heard news that the moon is going to be on its perigee on the 19^th. The predictions of various natural disasters started rolling in. We have heard and read since our childhood geography that the tides in the ocean are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon. So when the moon was coming so close to our planet, we expected bigger tides. But the predictions that were coming in warned or disasters from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to tsunamis and hurricanes.

I had put up a post a couple of days back thinking in the same direction and postulating what will be the adverse effects of this perigee on the pre-existing condition in Japan. Several newspaper articles and TV news did all they could to worry us out of our wits. And once that day was here, the only disasters I saw was that the moon was brighter and only slightly bigger in the night sky. No disasters, not even a hard breeze. And the next day, the same newspaper that was publishing humdrum articles, publishes another article saying that all the claims of disasters were hoaxes and scientists say that the perigee would not cause any disasters, perhaps slightly higher tides and nothing more. That did piss me off.

You know guys I never watch news on the television. The reason for that being, the news here in India is extremely negative. If there is any negative thing which has happened, or even if there is a remote possibility of something bad happening, that would make the primetime news for a couple of hours at least. Can you image, if shah rukh khan were to slap a cameraman, that would make the prime time news and would be telecasted on almost all the news channels for at least 4 hours, with that slap recording being shown after every 2 minutes, and in super slow motion. This really pisses me off. Even if there is no bad news to report, they will make up stories of traumatizing the common man, like ‘is your ketchup made of tomatoes or of poisonous chemicals?’, ‘is your house maid plotting to loot and kill you?’, ‘is your tube-light emitting ultra violet light which can cause skin cancer?’ and so on. Apart from this, what is even worse is, that when they do not have anything cooked up or anything worth reporting, they would show other channels soaps on news channels, I mean not some scenes or something important, the complete show. For example, I have seen news channels show the complete running episode of Rodies on the news channel. I mean if we wanted to see roadies, we would tune into MTv and not watch a news channel.

Newspapers are not much different these days, a bus crashes and you have ten articles and almost a half front page of the terrifying pictures. Whereas, even if a man discovered a cure of cancer, he would not make it to the front page. The same thing has been said by our former president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam in his letter to Indians, which I have put up in an older post. News is not news anymore, it has become a business of viewer ratings, and they don’t give out any useful information anymore. Also, the poop on top of the mud pie that the news channels have become is that they really talk in a piss off accent. For example, just to sound more ridiculous, they would dress up and tame their accents so bad that you would wanna break your TV set. Like this program where an anchor dresses up like a police inspector and even holds the cane and talks about police crime. Can you image? is this a costume party? The professionalism in news has totally disappeared. All I know for sure is that the only professionalism that you will see in any news channel would be those which work on the stock market, only they seem to appear professional and courteous to me.

So all I can say in conclusion is, I am glad nothing bad happened in the world on this perigee of the moon, and FUCK-OFF you piss-off news channels.

Widersehen..

Japan, what else..

Nuclear power... The only thing that comes to my mind reading about the latest happenings at the Fukushima reactor are the words of Shakespeare from the Hamlet; ‘To be or not to be, that is the question.’

After the series of incidents that have taken place at Japan’s nuclear reactor, the world is starting to debate on the act that is world a better place with nuclear reactors in it, or should we completely stop and focus our energy to solar and wind power for fulfilling our energy demands and reducing our dependency on coal.

I am a believer in nuclear energy; I feel that nuclear energy is a very important and good source of energy as it provides constant energy for a long time with one time constructional expenses. Also if used properly, and with the coming technology, I believe that soon a time will come in which we will be generating nuclear energy in many cycles from the same reactor. What I mean to say is that is like plutonium reactors consume plutonium and the end product after fission is uranium, which is enriched and again used as a fuel. So what I believe is that soon, there would be a time when we would have one nuclear reaction generating an end product which would be fissile and then that would generate another fissile product, and this cycle would continue for a couple of times, making  a nuclear reactor a really long source of energy, making it cheap and useful.

About the present situation at Japan, I recently came across a great article, which offered several insights on what actually happened and is going on in the Japan reactor.

At the onset, I would like to apologize for my last post on this topic, in which I had asked the question that why was the Japanese reactor not shut down immediately when the earthquake struck, criticizing indirectly, or perhaps even directly, the Japanese government and the nuclear agency. I would like to apologize, because the latest facts which have come to my knowledge suggest that the reactor was shut down, immediately when the earthquake struck. Now I will mention some important parts of the process which took place and what exactly happened.

In a crisis, reactors automatically shut down. Control rods are inserted between fuel rods to prevent further reactions. But they're all still very hot and emanating heat. This is exactly what happened at Japan. The reactors were shut down, but even after the shut down, the reactor needs to be continuously cooled — and that is done by using water, draining out the steam, putting fresh water, etc. This process needs some power, which wasn't there with Japan's electricity gone due to the Tsunami reaction, and the limited capacity of backup generators. The process is now being carried out by supplying water from the ocean and even that is steaming up so fast that water levels are dangerously low.

Three explosions have since occurred at the plant, attributed to hydrogen reacting with air; hydrogen is produced when the fuel rod cladding reacts with water. That is not a bad sign if there is no breach of the primary containment vessel inside which the reactor is housed. (The secondary, or external, containment structure is designed to burst on high pressure, to protect the primary or inner shell) Reports about the damage to the internal vessel housing the fuel rods, everyone I hear from is postulating his own theory with no concrete evidence or facts from the government.

Additionally, steam has to be continually released into the atmosphere to relieve the unit of some pressure. In the early part, this steam was "clean" — radioactive elements were within limits. Now, with the damage, exposure of fuel rods to air and explosions, even steam release is turning out to be dangerous. Helicopters and measurements outside the main zone have detected higher-than-safe levels of radiation. Japanese authorities have requested people living 20 to 30 kilometres away from the plant to stay indoors, close windows and use no air conditioning.

The danger now is of a complete meltdown and a breach of the containment vessels. The Japanese government has admitted this is a possibility and evacuations around the plants are on. If this happens, this would affect the world is a very grave way. The research on nuclear reactors would seize and there would be no progress in this field which requires progress more than anything, because with the technology right now, it is not safe and it produces highly radioactive products on completion which cannot be disposed off at all. So all this research would stop for the next decade at least which would push us back in this field, adding to the fact that we are already lagging behind in this sector. Also it would raise serious debates on the construction of new nuclear reactors. US have not constructed a new reactor after the Three Mile Island incident in 1979. So there is a large possibility that this would happen in Japan which presently has 54 functional reactors and derives 25% of its energy from nuclear power. Losing one nuclear reactor or even a couple would not be a big deal, but if the public demands that all the reactors be shut down, that would be a grave problem for Japan, and following suit, several other countries which depend on nuclear power.

I shall collect some more info on this topic and will write on it soon again. Also there is going to be a post soon, coming up on the ‘Super moon’ scare...

 Ciao...

Saving Energy

Hey guys, 

As you might have noticed, I just changed the background of my blog. There are two reasons, behind this change. For the first reason, I will have to tell you some details.I  use a black google as my default search engine. The reason for doing this is that it is a well known fact that white illumination consumes much more energy that dark lights. So whenever I open my Chrome, i get a black background whenever I search for anything.

I know you skeptical people out there would say, "yeah? you use black google? BRAVO, you saved a watt of energy after running your computer for ten hours; big difference you made today, thanks for saving the earth!". Okay I admit, that was going too far. Also another thing that many of them would say is that I rather keep my computer off for an hour consciously everyday; that would save more energy in a day than me using black google for a month. I agree, all these people are most probably right. But here's my reasoning, I know that I will use my computer when i need to, and at that time even unknowingly if I use black google, that saves us some energy which I would forget to or not bother to save otherwise. So black google is a small initiative, and like every small initiative, would make a definitive and substantial difference in the world if adapted widely. It is very easy to use, I have attached the link for the website, just save it as your default search provider. For people who do not use chrome and are still stuck, or actually prefer Microsoft explorer, drop a comment and I shall send you a hyperlink which when used as your search provider with by default search your keywords in black google.

This is a very small step which definitely would make a difference if accepted widely. As the Hindi proverb goes, " Boond, Boond, se sagar banta hai", i.e. an ocean is made out of a large number of droplets.

So guys switch over to black google, your small step to save the earth from Global Warming.

Also, I completely forgot, I was telling you why I changed the color of my blog, one reason is to save energy, and the other is, 'I just wanted some change'. LOL.

Adieu. 

Nuclear Reactors

At the onset, I would like to offer my condolences to all the people who were in direct contact with the havoc and disaster that struck Japan. I believe that we should pray for them for two minutes.

Now, I have been hearing several reports and news telecasts about the situation of the Nuclear Reactors in Japan. There were several questions which arose in my mind after and while listening to these reports.


1. When the earthquake struck Japan, and they measured it to be quite larger (10 times more) than what the reactor had been designed to handle, why weren't the reactors shut down, why pull till the end? If they would have shut them down at that time, the damage and risk caused by the Tsunami which followed would have been minimal. Salt water was pumped into the reactor to cool it down, which toasted it. It can never be used again now. If they would have shut the reactor down following the earthquake, they could have restarted it at a later time, when all this was over; not to mention the huge risk or radiation and meltdown that they could have avoided.

A report said, that the reactor withstood the earthquake which was ten times more powerful than that for which the reactor was designed to withstand; but it is the Tsunami which caused it to blow up. So why not just shut it down when you saw the warning? Why try to be superman?

2. In Japan, or even the US for that matter; which by chance derives 20% of its energy from 104 nuclear reactors that it houses, why are all of them built in coastal areas? Why not centrally locate the reactors? If you see the location of the nuclear reactors in the US, you would fine, not even three built centrally, all, and I literally mean all, are located in coastal areas. What is the reason behind this?

I admit that perhaps when they were built, 10-15 years back, the world had not experienced the wrath of a Tsunami, but there were a zillion other disasters associated with water and sea which have been there for ever; cyclones, hurricanes, huge tidal waves, and what not. I also admit that I have not researched on the reason that they decided to build all the reactors in coastal ares, but i do feel what ever the reason was, it wasn't good enough.

3. What are the disaster preventive measure which are taken before building a reactor? I mean the report said that the reactor in Japan withstood ten times powerful earthquake than it was designed for, the magnitude of the earthquake was 8.9 on the richter scale. So does that mean that the reactor was built to withstand an earthquake measuring 0.89 in the richter scale? Cause for one thing, that is too low a preventive measure. You rarely find an earthquake of magnitude that low causing massive destruction, so how does that design classify as disaster preventive management? How does it become a preventive measure? Strange.

I know India is planning to build thorium reactors soon, i just hope that they are not coastal-ly located.

However, the biggest thing that bothers me right now is the supermoon coming up on the 19th of this month. If you are unaware, the moon on this 19th would be the closest to the earth in the last 20 years. And why is that a reason for worry? Because, the gravitational effects of the moon cause the tides that you see normaly, as in the low and high tides about which i am sure everybody would have read about in school geography. So when it is coming so close, imaging the effects on tides. It is expected to result in a lot of natural disasters like earthquakes etc. and also to wreck the power and communications.

Japan, facing a Tsunami already, and this coming up. I just hope that the Japanese government is preparing for that as well and not only working on the present. Because if the reactor withstood this Tsunami and earthquake, it would definitely not withstand the coming ones. So please shut them down, you can always restart them once all this is over.

Au Revoir... and see you soon.

Quote

Today I came across this quote on my phone. Let me just mention it before I start to think about it. It goes like this:

Topic: Ability and Achievement.

"There are two kinds of people; those who are always well and those who are always sick. Most of the evils of the world come from the first sort and most of the achievements from the second."
- Louis Dudek.

The first time I read it, I was not sure that I had read it correctly, so I read it again. Then again. Then finally I realized, that this is what the author means to say. The people that are always well bring evil to this world. I used to think that it is the other way around. People who are well bring goodness to others. If I am happy, I shall try to make others happy too, but I guess the author feels otherwise.

I do not know what to make of this. However, if you try hard enough, you might realize that he is not entirely wrong. People who are sick try to find a way out of their sickness, and definitely do appreciate the smaller things in life. I mean if I do not have something, I shall definitely appreciate it more than a person who has it and has probably had it forever.

Like I said to a friend of mine recently, ' Vaccines and cures always come after the disease.' If I suffer from something, I shall definitely try to ensure that others do not have to go through what i have been though. I also strongly believe that this is not always the case. There are a lot of people who suffer and feel why is it only me suffering, and in this thought of mind, they take it upon themselves, to make sure others suffer as they are suffering.

Take for instance, there was a time when the world was just seeing the first face of  AIDS. There very several reported instances, of needles filled with infected blood being stuck in chairs of theaters just to infect others, bearing a note, welcome to the world of AIDS. How mean is that? and it did successfully cause a lot of panic.

I believe however, that this concentration of people is far lower that those who would try to help the world in their times of suffering rather than making it worse. So i believe that the author has a point.

But do people who are always well try to make other worse? If you are in the peak of health, would you not sympathize and try to help a person who is sick?

I would love to hear some reviews and thoughts of people about this quote. Looking forward to both sides, people who agree with the author and people who find it to be false.

Adios for now.

PS. There will soon be another post coming up on the blog. Its about a TV show called FRINGE. Something that I just started watching, and how I feel about it.