There is a rabid dog on the loose. Kill him or cage him.

I choose not to even mention the person referred to in the title, as this blog should in no way give him an ounce of mileage.I would quickly breeze you through some facts and try to awaken anyone who reads this, because we as a nation need to wake up not only against terrorists from Pakistan, but more dangerous are the terrorists and evil element functioning inside our own country. These elements are killing us from inside.

It is sad that any one can threaten the whole public through multiple mediums and unleash terror across the nation and can still get away with things. I didnt know the law of the land of the worlds largest democracy is so frivolous.

Alcohol consumption and ancient India (yes women too..read on)


Woman With Wine - Ancient Depiction

Shastras (applied science treatises) sculptures, literary works, wall-paintings and inscriptions bear witness that drinking was quite common in several communities and on certain occasions, the Kannada Kavyas (literary masterpieces) give picturesque description of drinking rituals, modes and practices.Karnataka is homeland of a variety of tasty and well flavored indigenous alcohols and liquors.Sculptures and Kavyas depict drunkards and drinking scenes, attesting thereby that drinking was fairly prevalent and provided necessary amusement and essential relief.Drinking was undertaken leisurely.



Goddess of wine (Madhudevate)-(please note its a GODDESS and not GOD) was invoked and the Mother Earth was propitiated.Drops of liquor were put on the head (as mark of respect). Then it was poured into artistically shaped bowls with bird heads and carved from mother pearls, beautiful shells etc. and offered to elders. Then it was turn of youngsters to help themselves.

Lovers, married couples, family members, friends and relatives joined in drinking bouts. Drinking among women along with gossip was common

. Various snacks were consumed in between roast meat, onion bondas, fried gram etc.
The dialogues which follow are quite colorful:
"Drink, the celestial beauty!
Drink my golden doll,
Drink the moon-faced, curly haired mate"
The lover made his beloved drink and women who got intoxicated quickly forced made their boyfriends gulp down more and more by words:
"Drink my heartthrob,
Drink the civilized one,
Drink my Handsome.
I can't go on if you stop!"


Sculptural Evidence


Besotted women who lost control over their body and dress had to be carried off are depicted. Classics provide vivid description of such scenes:





The basic difference regarding drinking among Indians and Western world is clear. For Indians it is amusement (Vihara or Kirda), for westerners, it is part of food (ahara) in moderation.This clearly indicate that westerners are more balanced and mature in handling alchohol.Their climatic conditions and food habits drive their consumption of alchohol.
A sculpture of about 578 A.D. in the III cave Badami (map - pictures) depicts an *inebriated young man lecturing on temperance!
*Three couples have forgotten themselves over glasses of goblet when two servants are ready at hand to fill them again.
*In another panel two women are sipping toddy amidst chattering.
*Kolaramma, the presiding deity at a Kolar (map - pictures) temple (pictures) was a *Shakti Goddess, and wine and meat were essential ingredients in the Shakti worship.
*An inscription of the place mentions grant to mattiya pana on intoxicating drink.
*Even the deity holds a goblet in her hand.
*Khetappayya Narayana in Bhatkal temple (article) has sculpture of drinking couple



If we deep dive more we can find more ancient practices which prevailed in India where women had the freedom to drink and do what ever they wanted to.

The point is my friends, not to encourage alchohol consumption or moral degradation.Any damn sena out there who call their heinous act as "curative violence", please feel free to use against female foeticide, atrocities against women,child marriage,corruption in the society,global warming etc etc. And lawyers and members of judiciary system, these gundas are threatening the entire society, don't tell me there is no clause in our legal system to take action against them.

Source - Courtesy

An extract from A.P.J Abdul Kalam's speech

Its been a long time since I have blogged. The reason is definitely not laziness, but a more productive in nature, which shall reveal itself at the right time. However I just could not resist capturing and sharing this extract I came across which is supposedly from A.P.J Abdul Kalam (11th President of India) who is still known as the People's President.

YOU say that our government is inefficient.
YOU say that our laws are too old.
YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.
YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke,
The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.
YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.

YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?
Take a person on his way to Singapore . Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a
face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International
best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in
the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay
$5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim
Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking
lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or
a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity... In Singapore you
don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during
Ramadan, in Dubai . YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered
in Jeddah . YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange
in London at 10 pounds ( Rs.650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD
calls are billed to someone else.'YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph
(88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop,
'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son.
Take your two bucks and get lost...' YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell
anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New
Zealand .
Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo ? Why don't YOU use
examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston ??? We are still
talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system
in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and
cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an
involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the
same here in India ?

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay , Mr.
Tinaikar , had a point to make. 'Rich people's dogs are walked on the
streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,' he said. 'And
then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the
authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the
officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure
in his bowels?
In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job.
Same in Japan . Will the Indian citizen do that here?' He's right. We go to
the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility.
We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do
everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the
government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all
over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper
and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms
but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.
We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and
toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.
This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to
the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to
women, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room
protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? 'It's the
whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my
sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system?
What does a system consist of ? Very conveniently for us it consists of our
neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the
government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually
making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with
our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far
away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a
majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away.
Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their
glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to
England . When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out
to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and
brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape
the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is
mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great
deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too.... I am echoing J. F.
Kennedy 's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.......

'ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA
AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA
WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY'

Lets do what India needs from us.

Dyslexia - It might be a good thing!

A recent Bollywood movie named Tare Zameen Par (Stars on Earth) is a huge success and is also receiving accolades for a quality movie.I agree with my friend and I quote him " Taare Zameen Par is an endearing movie about the innocence that forms the core of life"

All of a sudden Dyslexia is being spoken about and Im sure we might also see some initiative spur up trying to help this condition in individuals.Here is some information I gathered on Dyslexia.

• Dyslexia is caused by a neurological dysfunction, which affects the links between the left and the right hand sides of the brain. Recent research indicates that it is hereditary and that it does not affect intelligence or ability

Some typical effects of dyslexia

• Limited and unreliable short term memory
• Persistent difficulty in expressing fully and accurately in writing what has been learned and understood
• Higher marks gained for coursework than for exams
• Lack of confidence
• Low self esteem
• Aggressive or uncooperative behaviour
  

• Summary of common problems
• Poor Concentration
• Inaccurate spelling
• Limited written vocabulary
• Slow reading
• Unreliable memory
• Possible misunderstanding of instructions, essay titles, exam questions
• Difficulty in planning and writing reports, essays, portfolios, dissertations and presentations
• Difficulty in meeting deadlines

Underdeveloped Skills:

• Handwriting
• Spelling
• Punctuation
• Grammar
• Reading techniques
• Taking notes
• Remembering ideas, information, names, dates
• Planning and organisational skills

Having said that I did a bit of reading after I read some where that Sir Richard Branson is a Dyslexic.Well a little more reading showed that there are more famous personalities who are Dyslexic and now I'm wondering if it has its own advantages of being Dyslexic.Check out the list below,

Bob Hoskins: actor
The teachers thought I was stupid because I read so slowly. They used to tie one of my hands behind my back because I drew pictures with both hands. My brain works both ways, but they didn't notice that. I didn't go home in tears: I just thought I was stupid.
Now, although I still read very slowly, I take in every word and that's fantastic for learning my lines.

Linda La Plante: creator of Prime Suspect, screenwriter and novelist
I wasn't diagnosed until I was twelve. They used think I was backward. I didn't feel at home with the written word until someone gave me a typewriter. Even today, I never send anything out unless it's been checked by my assistant.

Sir Richard Branson; entrepreneur
At the age of eight I still couldn't read. I was soon being beaten once or twice a week for doing poor class work or confusing the date of the Battle of Hastings.

Brian Conley: comedian and actor
As I couldn't keep up with the others in my class, I was simply written off as being thick. A teacher once said to me 'Brian, you'll never get on because you don't concentrate. All you want to do is play the clown'. Now I can read, but my spelling is terrible and I spell phonetically.

A.A. Gill: journalist
My work at school was atrocious. I still remember some of the unkind comments, such as 'There's no point in you studying history, you can't even write'. I still go to extraordinary lengths to compensate for my dyslexia, though I have to dictate my articles because my writing is illegible

Hamish Grant: Chief Executive of Axeon Technology Group
He had nightmares about schoolwork. 'I forced myself to be good at sport and I think this helped me not to be so nervous of failing and to see that every obstacle can be seen as a challenge'.
'I had to learn to live with my dyslexia. But I still remember my B.Sc. finals in chemical engineering, when I missed a huge chunk of a question. Then it reappeared on the paper, just as time was up'.

Tom Cruise: actor
My childhood was extremely lonely. I didn't have many friends and a lot of the kids made fun of me because they thought I was stupid cos I was so very slow with reading.

David Bailey: photographer
At the age of 59, I have yet to write a letter and still write figures the wrong way round. At school, I was singled out in the class for the stupid!
The British denigrate the visual as something to do at the weekend, not realising that visual people are luckier than verbal people: they are not limited by their vocabulary. And who's to say what's normal anyway? Maybe dyslexics are the clever ones. Who wants to be an academic? Most of them are visually illiterate - and art isn't one of those things you can teach. It's natural and, if you're not careful, you can beat it out of someone.

Anthony Hopkins: actor
His childhood was 'awful', just because he was so hopeless at school. 'I couldn't read properly and my writing was a joke. Numbers meant nothing to me at all'. His parents were worried because he had no friends and was moody and difficult. All he liked to do was to play the piano 'very loudly, but not very well'.
He started to act as a way of expressing himself through the words of other people.

Nicholas Negroponte: founder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
His Lab tests new technologies for companies such as Microsoft, Nike and the US Federal Bank. He is profoundly dyslexic, but says 'This is a huge advantage because I am so at home in the digital world of communication rather than in the atomic world of paper and print. Being dyslexic has also made me learn how to address audiences without notes or any other prompts'

Steve Redgrave: oarsman and winner of 5 Olympic Gold Medals (2001)
He felt he was always seen as either lazy or stupid at school or both, because he couldn't 'get things right quickly enough'. Even now, he dislikes autograph sessions, because his signature is only a scrawl and 'I never write best wishes or anything else!'
He can still feel inadequate and avoids confronting his problems as much as possible. 'I feel at my best in a boat where I am in absolute control and winning'

Robbie Williams: singer, songwriter
He was always in trouble at school for not doing his work and for being disruptive in class. However, he never minded being the centre of attention and this helped him when he started to perform.
Now he is a multi-millionaire, but has said that he can still feel that there are important things that he will never be able to achieve because of his dyslexia.

Jamie Oliver: TV chef, restaurateur
He has talked openly of his dyslexia and the problems it can still cause him Jamie always coped best with practical subjects at school and hated reading and writing. His father encouraged him to help in the family pub and he began to see this as a possible career because ‘you didn’t have to do so much with a pen in your hand’. He completed a college catering course with some difficulty and later made his name as a TV chef. He has written several best selling cookery books and owns a fashionable London restaurant and has been influential in changing school dinners.

Also....
Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, General George Patton, Pablo Picasso, Hans Chrisitan Anderson, Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Winston Churchill, Gustave Flaubert, Alexander Graham Bell, Michael Faraday, Henry Ford, Eddie Izzard, Thomas Jefferson, John F Kennedy, Jackie Stewart, George Washington, Benjamin Zephania.

Also....... Me. I do feel that even Im Dyslexic. Is there any online test or self evaluation tool to find out if one is Dyslexic? Please do revert and share if any one has any information on this.

Benazir Bhutto(1953 - 2007) Who is the assassin?

The world lost another young, visionary, liberal,dynamic leaders to the hands of dark coward forces. Benazir Bhutto assassinated at 1830 local time was the two time and the only woman prime minister Pakistan ever had

The moment the incident happened, media and information sources started going all out to cash on their EVENT, or some to drill in information they want people to believe for what ever motives they have.Numerous TV channels got people glued to their TV sets with stories on what kind of a lady and leader Benazir was, what would be the future of Pakistan as a nation, and PPP as a party.Several archived interviews were played to show probably the association those tv channels had with Benazir Bhutto.

The question which now would surface and much stronger too would be Who is the master mind behind this assassination?

Is Pervez Musharraf the assassin?

I was surprised that a reputed news channel much praised as The Channel for News kept on driving the point that it could be Pervez Musharraf who is responsible for the assassination.There were statements which were made to the effect that it was Pervez Musharraf's brain behind this assassination. Now well, I'm not a journalist and neither am I looking at monetising this unfortunate incident.I'm just using common sense here.Pervez Mushharraf who is the military dictator of Pakistan who is always been at the receiving end for being the dictator and for every wrong reason, would be according to me the last person to do such a stupid act.Come on and think about it, are we saying that Musharraf does not have simple common sense to understand that he would be the obvious prime suspect and accused in the event such an incident happens? Especially at a stage when Musharraf is trying his best to build a public clean image, this would be the last thing he would do.

Is Navaz Sherrif the assassin?

If a person can benefit out of the entire incident that was executed with only cheese cakes to take home, would be Navaz Sherrif.He and the media has already managed to put Pervez Musharraf on the spot for the assasination of Benazir Bhutto.With the people of Pakistan believing the media and using their spontaneous reaction to label Pervez Musharraf as the culprit, it is again common sense that Nevaz Sherrif would take home sympathy and winning votes in the event next election happens in Pakistan.

Hey where is Mr Bush?

Even after two hours after the assassination White House kept mute on the event.CNN correspondent did not do a great job of covering up what she honestly spilled that Mr Bush is in Mexico enjoying his holidays and probably does not know about the event.She had to come back later probably on a scodling from her boss to remind the world that Airforce one has the best communication systems on this planet and for sure Mr Bush is informed and would comment on the incident a little later.Yeah right, we remember how Mr Bush reacted after the WTC was brought on 9/11.Now does Mr Bush get benefited again if political unrest continues or gets worse in Pakistan? Well, if Benazir Bhutto was against militancy and terrorism and she would put an end to it if she had to come on power, does that mean that Mr Bush would probably lose out on a possible market for his arms, ammunitions and military parading?How would he repeat another Iraq and Afghanistan and edge closer to India if terrorism is killed in Pakistan? Is it favorable to Mr Bush that terrorism and militancy continues in Pakistan.We all know that Mr Bush has always been on the look out for politically disturbed nations to sell his arms, ammunitions and capitalise on that nations resources.

"Haircut Of Your Life" - Optimicician fun time :)

Click On The Image Below For The "Haircut Of Your Life"



Click On The Image Above For The "Haircut Of Your Life"

Why do ordinary people commit evil deeds?

Following is an interesting article I thought would be of interest to any one. We might not realise the number of times we ask this question to ourselves, over and over.

The debate about ordinary people committing evil deeds rolls on. But in a personal viewpoint Prof Phil Zimbardo, creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment, says its time to get to grips with why wrongdoing happens.

In 1971 I became superintendent of the Stanford Prison, a mock prison run by psychologists. I was a young psychology professor at Stanford University, and I wanted to understand what happens when you put good people in a bad place.

To do so, it was necessary to conduct a controlled experiment, so my graduate assistants and I selected college-student volunteers - normal, healthy young men with no history of crime or violence - and randomly assigned them the roles of prisoner or guard.

During the extended experiment, we would observe and record everything that happened. The inmates would live in their cells and the prison yard 24/7 - the guards would work eight-hour shifts.


Ordinary people can succumb to social pressure to commit acts that would otherwise be unthinkable

Our simulation tried to create a psychology of imprisonment in the minds of all participants, with all-powerful guards dominating powerless prisoners. To increase the real-life feel, we arranged for actual mass arrests and booking by the Palo Alto police; visits by a prison chaplain, a public defender, and parents; even parole board hearings.

Though not part of the plan, there were also prisoner rebellions. And, notoriously, there was chilling abuse and torture by the guards.

The experiment was supposed to last two weeks, but we had to pull the plug after only six days because nearly half the prisoners had emotional breakdowns in response to the extreme stress and psychological torments invented by their guards - good, young men who'd been overwhelmed by situational forces in the roles they were playing.

Fast-forward to April 2004. Horrific images flash across our television screens - nightmarish abuses of Iraqi prisoners by young American soldiers, the male and female military police reservists stationed at Abu Ghraib. Military commanders condemn the criminal actions of a "few bad apples," asserting that such abuses are not systemic in our military prisons.

The images were shocking to me, but not unfamiliar. They were, in fact, strikingly similar to what I had seen at Stanford - prisoners naked, bags over their heads, forced into sexually humiliating poses. Could the perpetrators of these evils be like the young men in my prison - "good apples" who happened to find themselves in a "bad barrel"?


Was their behaviour shaped by the same sort of social psychological forces that had operated in the Stanford Prison Experiment? My conclusion, after becoming an expert witness for one of the military policemen and reviewing all the evidence of the investigations into these abuses, was that the parallels were palpable. Indeed, one investigative report highlighted the fact that the "landmark Stanford study" should have been a cautionary tale in preventing the Abu Ghraib abuses.

Historical inquiry and behavioural science have demonstrated the "banality of evil" - the fact that, given certain conditions, ordinary people can succumb to social pressure to commit acts that would otherwise be unthinkable.

To be sure, few of us will ever end up as inmates or guards in military or civilian or mock prisons, but many of us find ourselves in relationships where we dominate other people or are dominated by them.

We spend our lives in institutions of one kind or another, from families, schools, and businesses, to homes for the elderly. And many times we bow to the will of the group even when it conflicts with our values.

Prejudiced beliefs

In the prisons at Stanford and Abu Ghraib, men and women did terrible things to other people in part because responsibility for their actions was diffused, rather than focused on each of them as individuals; we find ourselves in a similar situation whenever we witness someone else's trouble but fail to help because we assume others will.

Likewise, the prisoners at Stanford and Abu Ghraib suffered unnecessarily because the guards regarded them as less than human; dehumanisation allowed the guards to treat prisoners as lower beings. The same applies to us when we allow members of a minority group to be derogated as inferior.

Prejudiced beliefs lead to discrimination, and in turn to abuse. Situational forces affect us when we're acting in the capacity of a role we've assumed; when rules govern our behaviour; when we're in uniforms or dressed in ways that conceal our identity; and of course when we're in a group whose acceptance seems vital to our self-image.

We want to believe that we are "good," moral, and self-aware. We want to believe that we're different from "bad" or "evil" people. Thinking so is essential to maintaining a sense of personal dignity and self worth. But the line between good and evil is permeable, like the cell walls of our body that allow movement of chemicals across their boundaries.

Anything that any human being has ever done - anything imaginable - is potentially doable by any of us in the same situation.

This is not to excuse immoral behaviour; the point is simply that understanding how someone could have engaged in wrongdoing, rather than dismissing it as a bad deed done by a bad person, allows us to identify corrosive social forces - the very same forces we need to counteract if we want to avoid going down the same wrong path.

Prof Zimbardo is author of the Lucifer Effect - How Good People Turn Evil.

On the way to cannibalism - Riots

A group of persons claiming to be supporters of DMK leader M K Azhagiri today allegedly set fire to the office of Tamil daily 'Dinakaran' and indulged in protests resenting a survey published by the newspaper on the possible "political heir" of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. Survey on "Makkal Manasu" (What People Think), published in the daily today had given 70 per cent chances to M K Stalin, the second son of Karunanidhi and just 2 per cent to elder son Azhagiri, who controlled the party cadres in Southern districts.

Riots is nothing new, and is not unique to India. Following are some facts about riots.

Riots occur when crowds or even small groups of people gather to commit acts of violence and property damage, usually in reaction to a perceived grievance or out of dissent. Historically, riots have occurred due to poor working or living conditions, government oppression, taxation or conscription, conflicts between races or religions (see race riot and pogrom), or even the outcome of a sporting event. Some claim that rioters are motivated by a rejection of or frustration with legal channels through which to air their grievances.

Types of Riot: Race riot, police riot, prison riot, student riot, hooliganism, street fighting.

Political parties find it easy to whip up mob fury and destroy public property to express dissent, rather than explore civil and legitimate forms of protest.Political parties, rather than stem the tide, have sought to exploit the situation by pitting one community against another.Politics has been reduced to a cynical exercise of managing identities at the risk of compromising the collective well-being of society.

It is time political parties and civil society realise that a people succeed only when they stand together and negotiate their differences peacefully.