குறட்டை

கொடிது கொடிது குறட்டை கொடிது
அதனினும் கொடிது சத்தமான குறட்டை
அதனினும் கொடிது அடிக்கடி வரும் சத்தமான குறட்டை
அதனினும் கொடிது முறைதவறி அடிக்கடி வரும் சத்தமான குறட்டை!!

Mad Chennai Mad Money

I'm mouthshut by chennai's mad shopping spree, buying power and cost of living. I have travelled to the worlds most expensive cities NewYork, Washington DC, Vancouver, Seattle. None of them can stand before the cost of living in chennai currently.

I went for shopping yesterday and wherever I pay for my food or cloth, I remember I signed a bill for not less than 1000 rupees. I didn't find any property for less than 50 lakhs even in the outskirts of chennai, rent for not less than 10000 rupees.

The greatest shock of my life was when I went for breakfast with my family to my fav. Saravana Bhavan, I was alarmed to see a dosa cost 90 bucks and mushroom pepper fry for 120 bucks. I wonder how there was huge crowd waiting to pay so much for the same food we got 5 years back. Not everyone looked like software people. I have eaten in Saravanan Bhavan in NY, Vancouver and SFO, but have only paid 10-15 $ for Buffet meals equivalent to 50 rupees as income/expenditure ratio without conversion.

I guess only people who earn in dollars can spend in chennai. People who earn in rupee might have to find some other city for living. Me, who is very much interested to come back to chennai very shortly, to stay with family and friends might find nowhere in the city. I might very well stay in Newyork downtown for a affordable living than in chennai's suburbs.

This is mad money.

What shall I do

Global warming, poverty, corruption
War, hatred and environmental destruction
problem, problem, problem
problem everywhere
what do I do, where do I start?

Action is needed
action is warranted
for surely, I cant step back and relax
when this world, my home,
my pale blue dot
is on fire,
a fire that can well be controlled

Should I turn into an activist to campaign against injustice?
or turn into a tree hugger and regenerate forests?
or turn into a peace activist and go to a war zone?
or turn into a philanthropist and give it all away?

This is a quick fix,
so is that and
so is every action that I can imagine
so is every action that has ever been done
every solution is partial,
every solution has its limits
which partial solution do I pick?

What would Gandhi do?
Would it work?
Is that the way to think?
Every action has compromises
and even Gandhi compromised
can I do better than him?

Or should I follow Ramana and not do nothing?
But isn't no action selfish?
Why didn't Ramana busy himself in action?
Is no action like Ramana really the best action?
Would he appear here to clarify?

Being confused this way
am I wasting time?
when instead, something precious can be accomplished
Isn't my laziness masquerading as confusion?

As I was in this state
confused and torn by agony
moved in every direction
by the winds of fate
came a sudden state
of implosion of the sense of me
the me was then under constant focus
and it started collapsing under its own weight

The me still remains
but it is no longer the boss
It needs attention sometimes
It commands response sometimes
but not always
many times, it is not responded to
some times, it is not even present
and this clearly shows the way
to individual and universal peace

I thought deeply, I felt deeply and was present deeply
to find the core of the problems
I then understood without doubt
that the problem is the identifications of the me
the identifications have to be fed constantly
with pride, hope, happiness and what not

Surely, its a mirage
and when the mirage that causes trouble everywhere
was found in myself
I decided to root it out
and it was immediately clear as daylight
and that that's the best I could possibly do
Which is what Gandhi did
which is what Ramana did
Now, there is no confusion
Both were right, both did their best

What better can one do to this world
than what a banyan tree or a frog does?
can one do better
than to lose one's ego
Can one do better than to
not search for identification
can one do better
than to fit snugly into natures cycle
When that is done
then how can peace not follow?

What do I do then about external realities?
what about direct action?
Its clear to me
that anything other than cleansing oneself
is a quick fix
and any action combined with self cleansing
is the best one can do

Then, I can be a Gandhi and fight
either at a war zone or against corporate injustice
or be a Ramana and
be an epitome of perfect peace and silence
or, equally greatly, be no one and
do whatever quick fix that I can

For it is clear
that I am no paramatma
cleansing the world is not my mandate
but, cleansing myself
and changing what I can
is certainly my mandate
as it was
for Gandhi, Ramana, Jesus or Buddha

Absent minded Me

I am usually not absent minded but I just realized that I have been doing a ridiculously absent minded thing for the last two months.

The main number keys (the ones above the alphabets) on my keyboard does not work but the ones on the right extreme of the keyboard works. So, in order to key in numbers I should have used the ones in the side. I did use them but in a very weird away. I somehow decided that to obtain digits, I need to use Alt + Ascii code of digit!!! For example, to obtain zero, instead of pressing zero, I was using Alt + 4 + 8 :D.

For obtaining symbols like *, @ etc.., I needed to to combine Alt with Ascii values but it was obviously not needed for numbers!

My first experience with total absent mindedness for such a long time :).

வினை

வினை விதைக்கும் சமூகம் வினை அறுக்கும்.

A society that sows ills will reap the same.

எருமை

எருமை வருங்கால் நகுக!!!

Smile when the buffalo* visits!!!


*buffalo is the vehicle of the lord of death in Indian mythology

உயிர் எழுத்துகளில் குறள்

I was thinking if it is possible for me to recollect one thirukural (kural) from memory that begins with every uyir ezhuthu (this is translated as vowel in wikipedia; and I am not sure if I agree with that translation). It was quite easy for the letters அ, ஆ, இ, ஈ, உ, ஊ and எ. For the letters ஏ and ஒ, it took me sometime to recollect a kural from memory. I could not recollect any kural starting with the letters ஐ and ஓ from memory but managed to find them after briefly scanning through a kural book. Lastly, I still do not know a kural that starts with ஔ.

This is an interesting intellectual exercise and if you know something about kurals, you could try it out :). Ill post the kurals that I have in mind for all the letters except ஔ in the comments later on. In the meanwhile, if someone knows a kural starting with ஔ, please do let me know.

PS: Finally, after three years with blogger, I figured how to put a title to my posts :D

Five point something senses

The life series is a documentary series by Sir David Attenborough consisting of 9 parts and is a comprehensive survey of terrestrial life on planet earth. The more I see it, the more the phrase 'five sensed creatures' grates against my senses. I think its an extremely uncharitable statement. The more episodes of the above series I see, the more I am convinced that every species possesses an additional sense that can be termed 'intelligence' within its context.

After having seen spiders that make clubs of silk to hit moths flying around it, insects that practice a type of genetic engineering, crows that break nuts by throwing them into the line of traffic, pigeons that close wings and fall down straight from air at the last moment to escape an eagle, octopuses that camouflage by changing color, texture, skin pattern etc to match nearby algae and a million other wonderful adaptations, it seems to me that these creatures are actively and consciously working to adapt better and better to their surroundings. I am totally for calling this conscious effort by these creatures to adapt as their sixth sense. In comparison with the human sixth sense, we should at least call those creatures as the five point something sensed creatures.

I had about an year ago read the book 'Beyond reductionism - reinventing the sacred' by Stuart Kauffman but I really couldnt get his high level idea clearly then. I think I now understand the book a bit more. His basic idea is that natural selection is not the only force active in the evolution of species. He says complex systems self-organize and then natural selection kicks in after this stage. His motivation for this line of thought is much more clear to me after watching this series.

Yield mode

If you do not know about the great Indian traffic madness, check out videos on youtube. Most of them are not far removed from reality.

After coming back to India, I have been trying my best to not drive any vehicle. But, occasionally, I am having to drive so as to ferry dad / some old people around. I noticed a lot of things that I never noticed when I was driving here once upon a time. The most important thing is the extremely high amount of unnecessary honking. As I was trying to reduce my personal contribution to the noise pollution, I found that the best way to reduce honking was to not compete with others for the road. I am terming this new driving technique that I am following as the yield mode driving.

Yield mode driving is to just yield the right to use the road to anyone and everyone who competes for it. Its almost a spiritual practice as it requires extreme presence every moment to actively look out for people who are competing for the road with you at that moment. It might immediately appear to be an extremely slow way of driving but it actually is not. I have been trying it out, albeit not always in peak hour traffic, and have found it to be be quite useful. My estimate is that there is not more than 10% increase in driving time even in the most extreme case. The main advantages that I have found are:

• It is much more safer.
• One uses the horn extremely rarely and that does go a long way in reducing the Indian traffic madness. I have driven about 100 kms inside the city and through arterial roads in the last two weeks and have had to use the horn (not blare, not honk, just a simple small sounding) only about 4 times in that.
• Increases the fraction of time of the day one has one pointedness of mind and that in itself is a good start for a spiritual practice.

To some, this might look as a no-brainer but when the system is in a Nash equilibrium whose cost is way over the optimal cost, the pressure on every infinitesimal agent to conform to the average strategy is extremely high. If you drive in India, try this for a week and count the number of times that you had to use your horn. I am sure that it would go down significantly. Happy, safe and minimal noise driving to all of you!

Best effort basis

My mom was lamenting today afternoon that if the first gastroenterologist whom we referred my dad good, he would have identified my dad's troubles earlier and my dad's life would have been much simpler. I was then supporting the doctor and said that they always work on a 'best effort basis' and one really cannot blame them unless they have been negligent. My mom was convinced. After sometime, I was not.

I think it is quite insane to have a relationship where the doctor works on a 'best effort basis' but the patient cannot pay on a 'as you please basis'. It really irks me that a 'best effort basis' effort commands a flat Rs. 200 or a flat Rs. 500 fee. I am not blaming any individual doctor but its the system that everyone is being part of. A flat Rs. 50 fee is a different affair as almost all 'as you please basis' payments would be that much.

So, a 'best effort basis' effort should probably go hand in hand with a 'as you please basis' payment. This logic can naturally extend to all fields and need not be applicable only to the medical field.

Discipline - reward

It hurts the most when discipline is not rewarded!!!

Violence

After coming back to India, I have met a lot of, so-called, unconventional people. Folks who have quit their regular jobs for the sake of some ideology, who have not been school educated, who do not vaccinate their kids etc. In my interactions with them, I have many times a mostly covert but sometimes overt aggression towards, so-called, conventional folks. I have also observed this violence (in words and thoughts) flaring its ugly head in myself. This needs to be worked on for this violence is what causes the us vs them divide. Now, this thought is quite well known but the purpose of this post is to point out one of the factors that cause this violence.

Most people who quit their conventional roles to do some thing 'alternative' end up facing a lot of violence from friends, family, strangers etc. I guess many of the outbursts I have heard and some of my own feelings can be attributed to this. Constant nagging about the 'silliness' and 'foolishness' of their decisions and an unwillingness to hear them out from a majority of folks is something that could disturb even the most well grounded and calm people. It certainly requires a tremendous amount of courage and inner strength to deal with all this and still remain absolutely peaceful and loving!

Sadhana forest

This is one of the first places I visited after I came back to India. Its an organization that is part of Auroville, Pondicherry (India), and in its own words (from its facebook page) its primary motive is

to ecologically transform 70 acres of severely eroded land in Auroville, into a vibrant Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF)

I have visited it just once and am very impressed. Am planning to visit the place more often. Do check out Sadhana's facebook page for lot more details regarding it and if you come down south in India, do plan to visit the place.