Sea Sands Séance

My Sea Sands buddy Sai suggested that I add some childhood photos to my blog. So, I am adding a few photos that I found in my recent (March 2008) Vizag trip. These are of low resolution to begin with, and now they show the signs of aging (naturally, like the subjects in them!). My dad collected lots of photos, and I brought only few of them with me.

My అత్త and మామయ్య during their wedding in 1964.

Visalakshi of Sea Sands No. 6

At Marine Biology building. Looking at Chandu then (ఫని గాడి ఒళ్ళొ) and now, we sure aged a bit!

With so much parking (of butts), this concrete block probably eroded about six inches.

We shot lots of pictures this day, running around Vuda Park, R.K. Beach, etc. in a big hurry! It was like క్షణం తీరిక లేదు, దమ్మిడి ఆదాయం లేదు!

We were experimenting to find if we could take good pictures even with direct incidence of light on the lens! It didn't work this time:-)

Exploration for groundwater at Somandepalli near Ananthapur, with Geological Survey of India folks. We spent about a month there in 1988 (in the field, in tents) looking for water, as a part of final year Geophysics project.

Zillions are worth Zilch in Zimbabwe

Right now, the fifty million dollar bank note in Zimbabwe is not worth the paper it is printed on, though it is a valid legal tender! One US dollar recently was worth about 20 billion Zimbabwe dollars (give or take a few billion!).

Amid Zimbabwe's mind-boggling hyper inflation, a new 100 billion dollar bank note has more value as a novelty item on eBay than on the streets of the capital.

The note, launched this week, is worth enough to buy a loaf of bread — if you can find one on Zimbabwe's depleted store shelves. Meanwhile on eBay, the bill was on offer for nearly US$80.

Notes in the millions of dollars are useful only as toilet paper and it's cheaper to light a fire with low denomination bills than with newspaper.

House prices and lottery prizes are quoted in quadrillions — that's with 15 zeros. Zimbabweans says it's only a matter of time before big ticket items will be priced in the quintillions, which have 18 zeros.

Official inflation is quoted at 2.2 million percent but independent finance houses say it's closer to 12.5 million percent.

A cup of coffee at a government-owned five-star hotel was 130 billion Zimbabwe dollars, or US$5.30 this week. A waitress at the hotel said she earns 100 billion Zimbabwe dollars, US$4 a month.

The daily grind for Zimbabweans to survive in the economic meltdown has won them a rating as the world's unhappiest people in the World Values Survey of the Michigan Institute for Social Research.

The worst inflation was recorded in Yugoslavia in 1990s, where 500 billion Dinara bank note had to be printed to deal with the inflation!

I read some where that during peak inflation in Argentina, a restaurant posted the sign "prices are subject to change during the meal".

Most of the stories come with a moral. On reading news like this, I feel less inclined to complain about petty things like noisy office neighbor or rising gas prices.

What in the Hell...?

Surprised to learn that according to Pew Survey (on polling 35,000 people), while 74% of Americans believe in life after death, only 61% of Hindu's (in the US) believe in reincarnation.

A Pew study reports that 98 percent of Mormons believe in an afterlife, the top percentage in the U.S. The biggest believers in hell: evangelical and African American Protestants, and Muslims.

Evil is always a hot topic among people who study religion, and it's one of the big questions people always grapple with: 'If there's an all-powerful God, why is there a Holocaust?' " said Bart Ehrman, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of "God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question — Why We Suffer.

Major organized religions fail to provide a convincing answer to this fundamental question. When we are well fed, well cared for, and are assured of food and shelter in the foreseeable future, it would be a breeze for us to preach things like "pain and pleasure are mere illusions" and "God loves all". I will believe in this illusion theory, if someone smashes his toe deliberately with a brick, and still manage to keep a smile on his face. For all practical purposes, this world is real, and reality can bite hard.

What Counts...

...is action!

The Power of the Four Letter "F" Word!

An excerpt from a review of Predictably Irrational, on our unusual craze for free stuff.

Ask people if they'd like a 15-cent Lindt truffle or a one-cent Hershey's Kiss, and 73% buy the truffle. Drop a penny off the price of each — a 14-cent truffle or a free Hershey's Kiss — and only 31% choose the Lindt. Is eating the chocolate you don't really want worth saving a penny? Probably not. But in the economics of life, we often show bad judgment, like allotting too much value to things that are free.

Strangely, even though the best things in life are free, we don't get attracted to them.

Quick Starve

I wouldn't touch a Quixtar (formerly, Amway) representative with a ten-foot pole. They mislead people and once you are targeted, they won't leave you alone. They act as if they don't know the meaning of the word "No". Most of them have the knack of finding their way into your living room. Then, they will try to persuade you to become an Independent Business Owner (IBO) under their tutelage. In actuality, this IBO is a door-to-door sales person job. There is nothing wrong in door-to-door sales, I think. My issue is, Quixtar should be forthcoming on this information when they attempt to lure potential inductees into their coterie. One of my friends was a victim of this cult for a brief period (until I successfully brain washed him to get out).

I was surprised to see their one-page ad on back cover of a recent Time magazine. It says that they have $6.8 billion in annual sales from the efforts of over three million people. This works out to be about $2,300/head/year! How can an average sales person can make a living with this money? Like the Lottery, they don't talk about the millions who lose money; they advertise the fortunate few who manage to make the system work for them. My heart does go out to the folks who gets sucked into this quagmire for the lack of better alternatives. I think most of the people who join Quixtar to make a quick buck will (unfortunately) end up experiencing a quick starve.

Achtung, Affluent Destitutes!

Buddha was once asked: "Who is the richest man in the world?" Buddha replied: "He who has much satisfaction (with what he has) is the richest man."

To the question, "Who is the poorest man?" Buddha replied: "He who has many desires."

Dancing Matt - 2008

This video is from Where the Hell is Matt? Loved the vibrancy this guy created with a simple idea. Also, I loved this song - melodious voice, and the lyrics that suited the theme as if they were tailor-made. Lyrics of this song Praan were adapted from the poem Streams of Life by Rabindranath Tagore (see below).

Streams of Life - Rabindranath Tagore

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Dodge Automated Service

When we call customer service, it is very hard to reach a live operator these days. Reminds me of a Simpsons episode involving a 911 caller. The automated voice goes something like, "if you are being robbed, press 1, if you are injured, press 2,... if you are being murdered, press 9 or hold on the line"

Here are a few tricks for reaching live operator, from the Reader's Digest.

1. Push zero repeatedly, say "Operator" or "agent" or simply stay on the line until the end of options.

2. Check out gethuman for shortcuts for reaching an operator, for the company you are looking for.

3. Opt for sales. Someone will be with you immediately!

4. Select "Spanish" and reach a bi-lingual operator

5. Call from a friend's phone. Because, if you are a registered through your phone, you will not get the special "potential customer" status.

6. Call the company collect on their international toll-free number.

Spinning in Tennis

While enjoying the spectacular Wimbledon 2008 finals, I was wondering about the kind of energy these champs manage to transfer to the ball. I read in NY Times that on an average, Agassi and Sampras managed to spin the ball at 1,800 RPM. Compare this to Federer's 2,500 RPM and Nadal's 3,200 RPM. They recorded nearly 5,000 RPM for Nadal! Not sure if it was in the first serve, or during volleys.

In Wimbledon 2008 finals, I was wondering if the law of diminishing returns was at work for Federer. Sure, he played superb tennis and fought every point with heart. But, would he have taken the risks that he took (unforced errors at the net), if it were his first grand slam finals? Federer was very gracious soon after the match (so was Nadal), when he said:

I tried everything. But, look, Rafa's a deserving champion. I played the worst player on the best court.

That is the way it should be - win without boasting, and lose without excuse. Regarding his bluntness in the post-game press conference, gruelling five hours mach will take its toll, esp. from the non-winner.

The Great Wall of America

The US is scheduled to complete a 650 miles/$1.2 billion fence along part of its border with Mexico (total border is about 1,950 miles) this year. Time magazine recently published an article on this border fence. It is amazing how desperately some Mexicans try (and risk their lives) to get into the US illegally. Based on this, one of my desi acquaintances concluded that we Indians are keen law-abiding citizens when compared to Mexicans!

I think he was not comparing apples to apples. I say, put Bihar, Orissa, and Jharkhand along the US border, and then start making comparisons on illegal entries into the US. A majority of desis who enter the US are financially well-off, and in spite of that, we try to enter the US as desperately as Mexicans. It is pretty easy for us to cry foul on these poor Mexicans, while sitting comfortably in climate-controlled rooms. I don't blame the US either in aggressively defending its borders - I think it should. Here are a couple of excerpts from the article on border fence that I mentioned above.

Osmosis explains why concentrations of water seek equilibrium across a barrier. Something similar applies to money. The difference in per capita income between the U.S. and Mexico is among the greatest cross-border contrasts in the world, according to David Kennedy, a noted historian at Stanford. As long as that remains true, the border fence will be under extreme pressure. People will climb over it; they'll tunnel under it; they'll hack through it; they'll float around it.

Poverty makes people desperate. We got a glimpse of that when we watched a family boost their 10-year-old boy over a 12-ft fence, where a slip could easily mean a broken leg, miles from the nearest doctor. Or when we stood at the rusty steel barrier between the U.S. town of Calexico and the Mexican city of Mexicali in California's Imperial Valley. Through a gap in this wall flows the New River, perhaps the most polluted waterway in North America--a foamy, green mix of industrial waste, farm runoff and untreated human sewage. This river has been found to carry the germs of tuberculosis, encephalitis, polio, cholera, hepatitis and typhoid. We'd heard stories about people entering the U.S. by floating along this nightmare stream with white plastic bags on their heads to blend into the hideous foam. A CBP agent in a Jeep sat overlooking the spot. We asked him, Does that really happen?

"Every day."

George Carlin on Religion

I thoroughly enjoyed watching George Carlin's Saving the Planet on Raama's blog. I love George Carlin's comedy and the only thing that discourages me from blogging his stand-ups is his frequent use of obscenities. If not for that, I enjoy his persuasive presentation of his view points (even though I don't agree with all of them).

Fortunately, as Raama judged prudently, his occasional flagrant language in Saving the Planet is pretty tolerable. Also, I agree with Carlin's view point, most of our love for Earth, has "I" factor in it.

On attending a couple of live comedy shows, I realized that the folks who attend these shows (with families!) have high tolerance for vulgarity. There are a few comedians like Josh Blue and Raj Sharma who refrain from using vulgarities; at least, they didn't, when I saw them live at Capitol City Comedy Club last year. Now that I watched George Carlin on a highly respectable blog, I mustered courage to post the following Carlin's classic. I do not agree with his atheistic views, but I agree with his (to put it mildly!) aversion to organized religions, some of which are being run like large corporations now. Be warned - the language in this video is not appropriate for children.

Protocol for Prayer

Sri. Craig Sastry's dedication, organizational abilities, and modesty are truly amazing. It didn't take long for him to realize the need for developing these "customized" guidelines! These were published in his recent news letter and are good and necessary for any satsang, I think.

1) Always remember and be convinced that Lord Sai is presiding. He has said "Wherever My glory is sung, I install Myself there."

2) Do not look at others or smile or say "hi" or "hello" during Bhajans, thereby disturbing their concentration.

3) Sing familiar Bhajans, so that all can share bliss.

4) Any devotional song, in any language can be sung as long as all can follow.

5) Never be ashamed to sing the name of God or to do Bhajana. Be proud that you get the chance. Be glad that your tongue is put to the best use.

6) The Bhajanas must be sweet to the ear.

7) Bhajans have to be sung and offered to God in an attitude of utter humility; they are not to be taken as exercises in an exhibition of talents and as a competition for mastery of musical skill. They have to please the Lord, not your fans.

8) Bhajans must be a felt experience. Do not sing with one eye on the effect the song makes on the listeners and the other on effect it makes on God. Let your heart pant for God; then the Rag and Thal will automatically be pleasant and correct.

9) Do not monopolize the time in Bhajans, by singing one song for six or ten minutes, repeating the same line often. Repeat each line only twice and no more. Have only two speeds, one slow and the other, fast. In this way you can have in one hour Bhajan, more songs on more forms, more tunes and more variety, giving more people the chance.

Self-Imposed Limitations

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right. - Henry Ford

We would be living in Utopia right now, if not for our submissiveness to social conditioning, I think.

The story of Roger Bannister is an inspirational one. For many years it was widely believed to be impossible for a human to run a mile (1609 meters) in under four minutes. In fact, for many years, it was believed that the four minute mile was a physical barrier that no man could break without causing significant damage to the runners health. The achievement of a four minute mile seemed beyond human possibility, like climbing Mount Everest or walking on the moon.

It was a windy spring day, on the 6th of May 1954, during an athletic meeting between the British AAA and Oxford University, that Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. He crossed the finish line with a time of 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds, and broke through the “four munite mile” psychological barrier. John Landy a great runner of that day never run faster than within 1.5 seconds of the four minute barrier. Then 56 days after Roger Bannisters breakthrough, John Landy ran the four minute mile in 3 minutes and 57.9 seconds in Finland. Later Bannister and Landy raced in the Mile of the Century where Bannister won in 3 minutes and 58.8 seconds.

The breaking of the four minute mile was so significant, that is was named by Forbes as one of the greatest athletic achievements. What made this event so significant is that once the four minute barrier was broken by Roger Bannister, within three years, by the end of 1957, 16 other runners also cracked the four minute mile.

Sir Roger Bannister breaking 4-minute mile record.