life

2011-11-19T12:47:00.000+09:00

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I know a fair number of teachers, or so I think. Some have grown in their profession and some have reached their levels of incompetence. Well it is my article hence I am allowed these vitriol am I not?....and the music that goes with this title.

I have often heard bromides like teachers are human too, and need considerable considerations like other humans? Well the question mark is not a mistake I always had this question on my mind but never had the b…s to give it voice. A little more about my grandiose network of people in education, heh heh I happen to know at least one educator who is actually hardly an educator but runs a prosperous school. I have fond memories of him for not responding to my phone call when I had a PJ ready for him, the loss was mutual he lost a good laugh and me the thought of him having a pretty sick sense of humour. One can’t trust a friend to pick the phone these days if your number is seen on the screen. Transparency can be ruinous in more ways than while dressing I might add.

While it is common to find good teachers, what is even more common is how good teachers become pretty ordinary working with monstrous school management. My little theory on education is if a good teacher cannot become a great teacher he/she will become ordinary very soon and go to seed soon enough. … and by seed I don’t mean seed of the seedling.

The part B, of my theory states that good teachers become great teachers when they work in a management system which is not egoistical to begin with. Hence everyone is open to improve upon their skills and this can happen only and I repeat only, if they work under a loose, central guide line for teaching. This is fertile enough to give birth to peer-motivated creativity the principal driver of teaching excellence … as against peer - motivated bitching, the principal driver of creative sloth.

Why do we need great teachers? Just because we are getting great students these days and dismal parents and that includes me. Are we getting good school management? With the kind of money being invested in school education in the last few years the answer is most certainly NO.

These men must understand that running a school is not like running a huge dry cleaning operation. Heh Heh Heh.

We Are Poisoning Our Planet

2011-03-13T22:19:00.001+09:00

How does one think or write about pollution of water and soil without spreading guilt in the heart of people who take their humanity seriously? It’s not easy, though you will notice I have tried. There isn’t a new fact that I bring to you — but just the fact that we have so much inertia of inaction and perhaps more so in thinking.

All of us use the three-pronged plug for electrical appliances. The third, thicker pin is for the earth. So with any amount of electricity we consume, the earth has to be a party to it. This is fine, scientifically, but it reflects our attitude towards the earth, which we symbolically call “Mother Earth” in most societies. What if, someday, our mother stops taking all the third-pin electricity?

Just now this is a hypothesis of nonsense. But a very similar thing has happened. In many instances, the earth has stopped cleansing itself. If the earth had legs, she would have run away from us by now.

Toxins in the Water

As you take a sip of that wonderful hot or cold tea, think about the tea bush in Assam, India or Kenya that is sprayed with pesticides many times during a single crop season. All that pesticide gets washed into rivers and finally into the sea. The sea will take some time to show a red flag.

The grapes you and I eat could be from a vine that was sprayed 30 times in a single year with pesticides such as Endosulfan. That makes 300 sprayings in a decade. This chemical has nowhere to go, so it just gets washed into the groundwater.

Endosulfan has a half-life of up to 20 days in water and 60 to 800 days in soil. So, think of the accumulation of this pesticide in crop-growing villages. In the Indian state of Kerala, Endosulphan has been linked to the birth of malformed children.

Cotton and Cancer

Welcome to the world’s favorite fabric: cotton. The cotton plant is sprayed with Endosulfan sometimes twice a week all over the world.

In every cotton-growing village on Earth, there is a soil/water pollution problem. I venture to make this sweeping statement to provoke you to tell me about the happy exception, so we can find how to replicate it elsewhere.

In Malwa district of Punjab, a new cancer wing has been opened to benefit patients from the districts of Barnala, Bhatinda, Ferozepur, Muktsa, Mausa, Moga, Faridkot and Sangrun — all cotton-growing districts.

Spoilt for Choice

Have we broken some sacred self-rejuvenating system of Mother Earth?

We have done it before. After World War II, we misused penicillin. In the 1960s, we misused DDT. And now what chemical shall it be?

We are spoilt for choice: Phorates, Monocrotophos, Carbofuran, Dimethoate, Carbaryl, Endosulfan — and some or all of these already have entered our food chain.

Will the next chemical we abuse be Endosulfan? It does have the distinction of being used for a very long time and in huge quantities. India alone produces over 8000 tonnes of it.

The world production of this pesticide must be at least double this quantity. This is shocking, because the first reports of Endosulfan getting into the food chain came in the late 1960s. Endosulfan is a bioaccumulator in kidney, liver, and fat tissues. It is an endocrine disruptor and enhances the effects of estrogen.

Yet, scientists in India and many other countries are still debating if Endosulfan really causes cancer. Can there be a darker black humor?

Endosulfan in the Environment

According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), Endosulfan breaks down into endosulfan sulfate and endosulfan diol, both of which have “structures similar to the parent compound and are also of toxicological concern… The estimated half-lives for the combined toxic residues (endosulfan plus endosulfan sulfate) [range] from roughly 9 months to 6 years.”*

Endosulfan has relatively high potential to bioaccumulate in fish. It is also toxic to amphibians; low levels have been found to kill tadpoles. When Endosulphan is sprayed, it kills all little living things: insects, birds, and small animals. The area smells awful for weeks as the scavenging animals die, too.

Endosulfan travels long distances in the atmosphere from where it is used. It has been detected in dust from the Sahara Desert that was collected in the Caribbean after being blown across the Atlantic Ocean.

Dietary exposure to Endosulfan is 0.015 mg/kg for adults and 0.0015 mg/kg for children. For chronic dietary expsoure, the U.S. EPA reference doses are 0.006 mg/(kg·day) and 0.0006 mg/(kg·day) for adults and children, respectively. This is scary for a very popular pesticide.*

With Endosulfan exposure, humans die at a dose of 35 mg/kg body weight. At higher doses, we will die within an hour, says a WHO report of 1984. Is that an unreachable dose for a chemical with 800 days’ half life?*

As early as 1995, Endosulfan runoff from cotton fields killed tonnes of fish in Alabama rivers in the U.S.^ And it was only last year that the U.S. EPA announced that all uses of Endosulfan will soon be banned. Yet, in India, we are still debating. Why do decision-makers take 15 years to understand what others already know?

2010-11-01T17:12:00.003+09:00

Catch 22, of being overweight..

Overweight people may have a lot of vitamin D, locked with the fat tissue. Lack of free vitamin D, prevents the release of Leptin a hormone which signals to the brain that you have eaten enough. So…

a) Overweight people have an inbuilt system that can make them eat even more.
b) When there is less of vitamin D, calcium absorption will surely be hampered, which increases their risk of osteoporosis.
c) These people often take sugarless sweeteners which have fewer calories than sugar.
These products are also known to suppress Leptin, which again makes them eat more.
d) Overweight people are likely to have sedentary habits, which again makes them more prone to osteoporosis.
It is important that you don’t get in to this trap.

Will getting more Vit D, help?

Ask an expert.

The Spirit of Spiritualism.

2010-09-17T15:04:00.001+09:00

“From one viewpoint, religion can be seen as sort of a luxury. If you have religion, that’s good, but even without it you can manage and survive - but we can't survive without human affection. While anger and hatred, like compassion and love, are part of our mind, I still believe the dominant forces are compassion and affection. Therefore, usually I refer to these human qualities as spirituality.”….His holiness Dalai Lama on facebook (Sunday July 18^th 2010.)

I think I understand faith, why does a string tied on your wrist protect you against all evils? It does because you think so. No that is an understatement “you firmly believe so”. The effectiveness of the string is proportional to the faith. I have a string tied to my car steering too, and believe that my car is protected. I was told this faith story by Mr. Ramni, a long time back, it goes like this:

After two years of drought, the villagers (in a village) decided to have the great rain god, ritual - worship. It was said that just as the rites of the worship ends it shall rain heavily. A huge crowd had gathered as it always happens on important occasions. However on this particular day it did not rain after the rites were over. Why?

The wise man said “It did not rain because none of the villagers in the crowd save a little child carried any umbrella.” Only a child’s faith isn’t good enough to end this drought he added..

A long time back, when I was a medical representative (yea that I was) my job was to discuss “common products” as innovative products to doctors. I often showed doctors results of double blind clinical trials (none done in India though) where the composition was found to be more effective than other drugs and placebo. In most of these trials Placebo had an efficacy of 30% some times 40%. I found this amazing. How do sugar pills or other such material used as placebo work. I am sure if you took sugar pills to cure your headache it will not be cured 40% of the time or even 40 %.

A word about double blind trials: These are conducted on volunteer patients in very well equipped hospitals. The drugs are coded and kept a secret till the end or revealed only in case condition of a patient deteriorates. The key is that patents have faith that they are in good hands and all shall become well. So if faith can make a non-drug, give drug-like result, isn’t faith the all important thought process for mankind.

How does one have faith? By falling in love of course, with god, with a person, a craft just about anything.. Meerabai thought the poison was prasadam from Lord Krishna and so it became. To me faith is the most important step towards spiritualism. The spirit of spiritualism is faith.

Devotion is a relationship of faith and love to a very personal god. Is faith a sort of hypnotic state? It sure is. When Dronacharya asked Arjun what he saw of the bird (that was kept for arrow shooting practice) Arjun had to be hypnotized to be able to see “just the black of the eye” .and in the process miss the smell of sweets being cooked nearby. Bhim did not miss the whiff of sweets; he missed the bird’s eye though.

All of us, (I certainly do), have a problem of integration to belong to a purpose. Our life is what our soul decides. The soul is huge because it can think while the body is only so much. The computer could be a great analogy the soft ware being its soul. The soul can make or unmake a person, it give us wisdom to decide the means to the ends of this life. We humans need regular reminders that we are essentially a creation of god a hence a part of the concept of god.

It is said that when wisdom comes ignorance goes. When ignorance goes faith dawns…. and what of Science? Is science wisdom or just knowledge? Where does faith fit in it?

Science and the arts, (humanities is a better expression as it already tells you that it’s humanly) are the means and the ends. Humanities being the end. The means are often exciting, attractive and make us overlook the ends of life. The ideas of Right and Wrong do not belong to Science or the means of life – it must belong to Humanities around which our happiness ultimately depends.

The odd thing about faith is One cannot “not have faith” just like one cannot have vacuum in the open. Something goes and occupies that space. So if you must have faith in something good and substantial. Otherwise your faith would be in things that could be detrimental to you and the society. Here in comes the role of Parenting.

Ho Ho Brand Dad.

2010-08-18T14:32:00.001+09:00

To me even today Dad’s shirt is a prized possession, the greatest brand in life.

I remember in class X, I wore my dad’s white shirt, little collars and baggy at the belt.. it was a style statement. I’d told the guys it was my dad’s shirt.

Hey my son doesn’t see me as a brand. Is that because:

1) I am a no good for nothing dad.

2) The brands have become darn big.

3) My shirts are lousy.

4) The kid has far too many shirts.

5) It is a conspiracy against family values.

6) Any other reason. Tell me.

Independence Day.

2010-08-12T16:18:00.001+09:00

I think it was in standard 4, that I first wrote an essay on Independence Day. My essay was rubbished by the teacher, then he gave me ideas “write that Independence Day was celebrated in our school, a minister had come to hoist the flag, we ate lots of sweets, then we had sports and I won two prizes “and more such humbug.

Now you know what kind of education has nourished my personality. Now I celebrate Independence Day by shopping. Bazaars big and little are great help and those where reliance is the key are in it too.

…and what of the Chickens, god dammed chickens they get fried if it is Independence Day of India or of the US …. How many countries are there? Or if it is Sunday. Even a Monday, just a day and it is good for the chick to get fried and what.. You think we eat only cucumbers at night. Ha ha.

A friend has a soft corner for the Chickens; he likes to eat them 24x7.

In God I trust rest absolutely Bunkum.

2010-08-10T00:33:00.000+09:00

Those were the days when a child had to take small pox shots and invariably one would fall sick with high fever. The poke would create deep wound. Many old timers would show you small pox scars with relevant pride of having survived.

I have three on my left arm and my mother tells me that it was an unusually hot August and my wound had flared up. The Humerus bone was exposed. Lesser gods had given me up. There was a Dr Mehta in my Nana’s village my savior. Ma has a different take though; of course there was this doctor and some sweet homeopathy pills but I was saved by goddess Kali the supreme local deity.

Recently I e-mailed a paragraph on faith to a friend I should have added about Ma‘s faith in the goddess in saving her first born.

There is Science and Humanities in life. I reckon science is only the means while the arts make the “ends”. The ends make the rights &wrongs - good and evil. The means have changed in the last few decades the ends haven’t that is happiness.

The trust, the faith of Ma in the goddess remains.

While I gloat in the sea of science with little humanities.

This 1984

2010-07-24T00:06:00.002+09:00

On the night of December 2nd 1984, I was traveling from Jorhat to Guwahati, in Assam, more than 2,000 miles away from Bhopal. I, a medical representative, was in an overnight bus for the 250-mile journey.
I had to take this bus ride every month for my cycle meeting. I liked this journey immensely, as the bus passed through the Kajiranga forests, and I stayed awake in anticipation of spotting a rhinoceros. I had no luck on this night, and I recall telling this to my co-passenger, Jinoo, who sold baby food and prickly heat powder.
In the cold morning of December, bleary eyed, I knocked at Subrato’s door. I stayed with him to save on the hotel bill, which we spent on booze. The radio news was all over. We all understood something terrible had just happened.
On the night of 2nd December, while I was trying hard to get a glimpse of a rhinoceros, 42,000 kg of lethal gas had leaked out of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL)’s pesticide plant in Bhopal. By the time I pressed my friend’s doorbell, about 4,000 people were already dead.
Our cycle meeting started sharp at nine a.m. Mr. Ghatak from Calcutta had come to conduct the meeting. After the sales review, we had a tea break. He told us about methyl isocyanate (MIC). He also told us that our colleagues in Bhopal were in great danger.
Today, 2010, we know that more than 500,000 people have been affected by the Bhopal gas leak, and this is still not all the aftermath. Now, as you read this, 400 tons of chemicals that lie in the UCIL plant still trickle down into the groundwater resources of Bhopal.
“Business Decisions”
We know about the “business decision” at UCIL to use methyl isocyanate (MIC) instead of less hazardous (but more expensive) material to make Carbaryl, the product UCIL made. We also know of a “business decision” at UCIL that shut down the MIC tank cooling system, with the sole intent to save money — for the shareholders, of course — and, one could argue, to improve the performance of the management.
The most important “business decision,” of course, was to completely ignore the 1982 safety audit of the Bhopal plant, which had identified 30 major problem areas that could cause a hazard. Choosing not to correct these problems would not have saved a lot of money for the company. These problems, however, were fixed at the company’s identical plant in the U.S.
Was the Bhopal gas leak a disaster? It was going to happen eventually. UCIL’s management team knew about the safety violations. But possibly they wouldn’t have imagined the effects would be this enormous.
“D” People
Why do intelligent people at responsible positions tend to make such “business decisions”? These kind (they are of a kind, I have no doubt; let us call them the “D” people) have a priority of immense self interest, and they take huge risks on other people to save their own face. You will find this kind of people at the centre of all disasters. For example, we know of such people having an important role in the 2008 economic meltdown.
We should all be concerned that many such “D” people would be manning important positions in our society right now. “D” people cause disasters, given sufficient time. “D” people can also develop into dictators if the ground they walk on is fertile enough. Don’t we have such “D” people near the BP oil leak? Think of them, the ones who chose the cheaper designs.
Can we have a sieving system to identify and prevent such people from reaching responsible positions in our society? Maybe at the school, the university, and definitely at management institutes. Or, is it that human beings cease to be so when they are saddled with a certain kind of responsibility? Or, for some people, is looking good all that matters in life?
There are another set of people who are “oh, so true to their profession” but not to their evolution as humans. The lawyers argued in the courts of the USA that the compensation case of the native Indians be conducted in India. The laws in the US were far too in favor of the victims “and the company might go bankrupt
In addition to UCIL management and Lawyers, there have been hundreds of people — the police, the judiciary, and politicians of all inclinations — who worked hard 24×7 to ensure that the court case of UCIL would take only 26 years.
That is time enough for genetic defects to show up. Perhaps it is time for another court case — on behalf of the children born of survivors.
Of Standards — Poor and Double
Every day when I travel in crowded buses and local trains, I go through the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome. On the platform I am Dr. Jekyll, just eager to enter the train. The moment I am in, I turn into Mr. Hyde and do my best to prevent others from entering the train. I hate crowds, you see, though I am seldom alone.
The Mr. Hydes at Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) reportedly never shared any research reports of over a dozen studies on methyl isocyanate (MIC) with the medical fraternity. Either the reports were/are very damaging, in which case MIC should never have been used — or, the reports were not so damaging, in which case, antidotes to MIC would have been ready in 1984.
Today we know that injections of sodium thiosulphide would have saved thousands of lives on the night of 2nd December 1984 at Bhopal. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was then doing a double-blind trial on effectiveness of this drug as a de-toxifier, but the report came 22 years too late.
The gas cloud on that night was denser than air and stayed close to the ground, affecting children and shorter people and those who never woke up. In the area declared as “gas affected,” there were 200,000 children of age less than 15 yrs and 3,000 pregnant women.
On the morning of 3rd December 1984, almost all the trees in the “gas-affected” area had shed all their leaves and developed burn patches. The Xerophytes suffered more because these plants keep their stomata (nose) open at night. Chromosomal abnormalities have since been found in eggplant, tomato, radish, and other shrubs.

Time magazine called Bhopal "India's Disaster." Photo: Courtesy Dipak Kumar
The bank of the Narmada River was a horrific site of innumerable mass cremations of men, women, children, and cattle. Those who ran that night inhaled more poison than the few who had a ride. Of the 154 people studied between 1986 and 1988, more than 20 percent had at least two chromosomal abnormalities, the more common type being translocation in chromosomes 13 and 21. MIC was found to have changed ovarian epithelial cell production, leading to permanent damage and carcinogenesis.
Dow Chemicals USA purchased UCIL in 2001. Although it denies any responsibility for damages caused by UCIL in Bhopal, Dow fights more than 75,000 asbestos-related lawsuits for Union Carbide in the USA. Twenty-six years later, contamination at the site has still not been cleaned up.
On its cover following the Bhopal gas leak, TIME magazine wrote, “INDIA’S DISASTER.” To me, the Bhopal gas leak is as much India’s disaster as was slave trade Africa’s disaster or Hiroshima Japan’s disaster. It is a human disaster.
I guess we are waiting for some sensible evolution to occur in ourselves, so that no more disasters happen. Will we ever see the day that Mr. Hydes no longer run the world?
Dipak Kumar

Hole in the Hand.

2010-05-31T22:41:00.004+09:00

Life is flowing out thru the hole between my fingers. One time a palmist told me I would never accumulate money. Them holes. All my trouser pockets also have holes. I once lost a complete purse.
God bless the wife – it takes the woman one full year to mend a torn pocket.
What of it?
What the stitch could have saved the woman would have spent on sandals. A stitch on time couldn’t have saved anything. Life’s experiences distort these damn idioms, you see.
I once traveled thru the Mirik hills, in North Bengal. What a sight. ..The tea gardens look like a huge uneven billiards table. I thought I would die and be a cloud over these hills for the rest of my life – after death that is. Just then my son puked, and I thought I would die of the stench.
If the cause is such what of the result, death must be terrible no?
So we got off the car, finished a box of tissue in cleaning and a can of freshener, went near the tea bushes took three stupid pictures. The wife plucked polythene full of tea leaves. The doctor of botany thought she would brew champagne tea out of it.
Rare time the weather made me happy.
When I was a child in a school I wrote essays on “seasons of India” and sire, we have six seasons like nowhere in the world and people die of it every alternate season. Can you tell me “If more people died of winter of 1997 or summer of a1987 or the rains of 1995? To increase the intelligence quotient of my question I can ask you to contrast the figures with death figures of North Bihar train disaster. Now that is a UPSC question.
Which is better, a bad weather or a bad train?
Before it gets out of hand, and I begin to con you into garnering sympathy I think I will surely die empty handed I mean with all those, “them holes”.
I think I will wrap my hand in polythene.
It takes the plastics 450 years to become a part of nature, so i am told.
Chimps don’t use plastics they have 2% less brain than us human.
Then the wife tells me a joke or is she serious. I had asked her “what is the guarantee we shall stay married for ever?” Said she after a full day of meditation “if you want guarantees buy a car battery why get married” . Eh….all the wives seem to know this one liner.

The Manager.

2010-05-27T22:49:00.003+09:00

The managers face looks like a weathered sedimentary rock. Even at the college parents of fresher asked for direction from him. He looked the most harmless and pristine and stupid.
Manager knows all the theories of life, two kids, a wife and an ambassador car that lives in the workshop three days in a week. Life is full in fact brimming, almost overflowing with stress. 6am he is up, the wife teas. Presses school dress of the little one and big little one, today wife’s too. Little one gets ready at 7, drop him by walk at the play school lunch will go latter. Come back fast fill the washing machine. Goes for a quick incomplete shit, can’t afford to have constipation these days. Will the children ever realize delaying ones toilet is such a huge sacrifice. The manager brushes his teeth after bath, so in goes the white shirts in the wash. Wife hollers tell Babu to finish his milk; will you deliver little one’s lunch? It is ready.

It is past 8. Wife runs in to the toilet, Babu brushing his teeth in another. Quick you have got milk to drink. The white clothes are done, in go the colored ones in the wash. Wife hollers from the throne, put off gas. Oh my god why have you not put the geyser on she hollers again.
Ignore.
8.35 wife rushes out “help me god”.
Babu rushes out of the other bathroom.
“Help me god”
Little devil mimics.
Let’s rush to the bus stop, says the lady.
Manager rushes to start his Ambassador car.
Lucky vest?
The Limousine starts without pushing.
Wife and children come down.
The lady is a sight – Comb struck on the head
Fixing an, earring, checking the nose pin. Babu toddling not far behind.

By the time wife’s sandals are buckled and hair combed we know the bus has gone.
Some parents wave at us because it is polite and the wife is a teacher.
The usual chore of chasing the school bus begins.
Successful chase, got the bus at Bailey road.
Even an Ambassador car has her day.
It is 9.
Manager is at home.
Deliver little ones lunch.
9.20.
Phone Tarafdar “where are we working??"
“Rajendra nagar”
It will take 15 minutes to reach if there is no traffic.
The manager practices Yoga.
Only Yoga can combine office time& no traffic.
Take it easy.
Take it easy.
“Please wait if I am delayed.”
Leave the washing machine alone.
Bath and brush- teeth under the shower.
Press shirt, and trouss.. Ho, power is gone.
Break the fast?
Don’t.
Rush …
Car starts again, lucky vest?
Crumpled Pants?
No Jam on the bread and on the road.
Manager has an imploding laugh.
Rajendra nagar.
10.15….Not bad
Tarafdar was yet to come.
Have a Sudha lassi.
The day was taking birth.
Caesarean…

beauty is often pretty slow to grow..

2010-05-14T01:15:00.002+09:00

Oi God ...

2010-05-12T14:12:00.000+09:00

This was the second day at the war zone of Kurushetra , historians put the date at some 5500 BC. The mood of the flesh eaters had moved from utter despair to hope to hopeless ness. Thousands of vultures, foxes, wolves, eagles and crows had gathered to eat some fresh flesh. God don’t let us starve said the little fox. The first day saw no battle, no killing at all. Arjun needed some more motivation but it was clear that the god himself was for war.

“God is on our side” said the lame vulture; there was hope in the voice that spread like a killer disease. “This is going to be the feast of our life time, but for Arjun, can’t this man
see, what the god wishes?” Said a wolf. “He will spoil everything if we let him decide” said a young vulture. The lame vulture said “have patience the god always hypnotizes humans, you will see very soon Arjun’s brain will stop functioning and there will be war a big bloody war”.
“Humans are paralyzed in mind and body just by thinking about god, it’s their most ingenious invention which is self defeating ha ha, ha ha” said the hyena.

Mistaken Honesty

2010-05-10T15:39:00.000+09:00

Duryodhan was aching all over 18, days of war fatigue had numbed his body but the mind was still ticking with flashes from the past. Hiding in a pond breathing through a lotus stalk the thought ‘what went wrong’ popped.

His management of people was alright, Bhismapitamah, Guru Drona, dear friend Karn, such humongous egos he thought. The anticipated behavior of the enemy went wrong. Who would have thought that Yudhisthir would complete his one year for anonymous living after the twelve year of exile? One just had to ask him his name and he would have been revealed. It was a fool proof plan, the idiot deserved another twelve years of exile. Obviously Dharmaraj Yudhisthir was telling lies every day of the year morning noon and night.
How could anyone defeat us except by deceit? It was the brains of Krishna, with such deceit and manipulation he does not deserve to be called a god and Yudhisthir didn’t object to any of Krishna’s manipulation shocking;
These are certainly bad times;
One can’t expect decent behavior even from the most honest.

Only the dishonest have predictable behavior, ha ha ha Duryodhan almost choked, he had forgotten he was under water hiding from the world in a pond

catch 22

2010-05-08T10:39:00.001+09:00

Over weight people may have a lot of vitamin D, locked with the fat tissue. Lack of free vitamin D, prevents the release of Leptin a hormone which signals to the brain that you have eaten enough. So…

a) Overweight people have an inbuilt system that can make them eat even more.
b) When there is less of vitamin D, calcium absorption will surely be hampered, which increases their risk of osteoporosis.
c) These people often take sugarless sweeteners which have fewer calories than sugar.
These products are also known to suppress Leptin, which again makes them eat more.
d) Overweight people are likely to have sedentary habits, which again makes them more prone to osteoporosis.

It is important that you don’t get in to this trap.

growing up..

2010-05-05T13:05:00.000+09:00

We often do things in life for mundane reasons like hide a weakness. So in college while my friends chased girls, I was discussing Marx. I used words like bourgeoisie and proletariat quite liberally and it was huge. Birju and me were far too timid, introverted, un smart good for nothings. We did not have the guts and the guile of Ramesh. Birju of the English, major. He-me practiced dialogues for imagined girlfriends, Mahesh always came up with a wittier line and our inferiority complex was complete.

Dialectical materialism was our cover for the skewed personalities that we were. Only Ramesh had a complete ‘all roundly developed’ personality, he was almost holistic. Soon Birju graduated to Don Vito Corleone and we began to have our differences.

He thought Don Vito was a much more evolved specimen of humanity and communism was anti evolution. “if you don’t let anybody think and do differently and grow, then we might as well be bacteria or whatever there was at the beginning of the world”. That stumped me completely though I still couldn’t figure out why Don Vito had to make his fortune from bootlegging despite his intelligence? Birju said it was because of his intelligence, not despite of.

Once we had a heated discussion at the Baba’s tea stall on Vietnam. It was over Lemon tea when he said ‘continue the discussion girls are coming, it will impress them’. Ramesh said ‘only if you order another round of tea’. Tea was ordered.

I met Birju thirty years latter I had changed. Birju had not changed so the differences were glaring. I had become 300 pounds of lard and my movements were slow. He was still 90; we hugged after 30, years, lacerating affection at the reception of hotel Chanakya. Birju had come to attend a wedding reception. I waited for my driver. Soon I was hoping he‘d go to his reception. He didn’t.

We ended up at the icici atm, he borrowed 4000 bucks. He had asked for five thousand I bargained ‘expenses were mounting these days you see’. I had 1247500, in my account. It could have been a thousand less eh. When will I buy that Limmo. Could I lend such amount from my pay?

I still don’t get it. What is the need for every one to do every thing like, pay ones child’s school fees timely?

These days I dig Khalil Gibran.

2009-04-05T23:41:00.000+09:00

Have you thought?

Why..

Placebos have a great cure rate

in all drug trials.

as much as 51 %..

in a double blind drug trial of a

pain killer.

why are some children

not (even) like placebo..

THINK MINK, SAID WHO ??

TWO HOOTS :

2008-08-17T16:44:00.001+09:00

Those were the days when Jimmy Hines, did the 100meters in 9.95 seconds at Mexico City 1968 October 14^th. I was a child but the pride was immense even if I was an Indian in an Indian school. The pride was for being the right kind of animal on this planet. The animal that keeps improving breaks barriers keeps evolving, a teacher said.

Usian Bolt does it at 9.69 seconds at the Beijing Olympic on this date of 16^th August

At Beijing 2008, look at Phelps diagnosed with ADHD, put on Ritalin as a child and now the greatest Olympian. Two hoots to the normality of humans.

We are right to be proud of being humans.

Are we?

Some prides can be grossly misplaced. I am proud of my dad who had topped the univ in his days. But I have just managed to pass. I am proud of my ancestors the archery of Arjun, of Mohan Das Gandhi well even goddess Durga where would one find deities so powerful. We are proud of our system that produces one gold medal Kudos to dear Bindra, I hear he was never part of the grand system that we have.

Our great system has leaders with grand organizing ability. Who can doubt the jamborees?

Run for peace, run for communal harmony and such like, with all those shiny smiling faces of over fed politicians and steroid stimulated film stars?

Evolution what?

Well I am not really proud any more.

I have lived a life.

What did I do to live with such people who turn back the evolution clock?

Oh god.

Are you there?

BIS

2008-07-01T17:47:00.005+09:00

BPA the bis.

What is bis to most north Indians and may I add Indians from the east and west and central is poison. I don’t know the good word for poison in the south. You might have seen in many Indian movies how pretty heroines keep very well labeled little bottles of POISON that rolls out after the attempted suicide.
All that might be in for a change, not the heroines just the bottle.
One could be carrying a simple plastic bottle and evoke similar emotion still.

I am referring to Bisphenol A, (BPA for short)
Just the US produces about 3 billion pounds of the chemical; it is used principally in production of polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins. You and I come across this chemical in almost all plastic bottles including feeding bottles of babies, compact discs dental fillings, inner coat of metal containers that are used in food packaging etc .

Hundred percent of the (eleven in all) industry funded studies have found BPA to be harmless. While just ninety percent of government funded studies (one hundred four in all) found that BPA was harmful and can cause..
1. Childhood behavioral problem such as hyperactivity.
2. It can raise the chances of precipitating type 2, diabetes.
3. Raise the risk of certain cancers.
4. Hamper fertility and can lead to miscarriages in women.
5. BPA, mimics estrogen so it can cause a host of problems that are yet to be fully understood, and all this with a low dose of the stuff that you and me find in the inner lining of almost all packed food. BPA is quite generously leached into the food. This is clear from a US, study where 95% of those tested had BPA in their urine sample.

What can you do to beat the perfect delivery system of this slow poison?

a. Spread the word, please.
b. Don’t wash plastic bottles with harsh detergents it speeds up the leaching.
c. At least dispose the bottle before cracks appear or it becomes cloudy.
d. Use glass baby bottles for heavens shake.
e. Choose tetra pack of food and drink.
f. Watch for cracks in plastics used in microwave ovens.

And as if this was not enough, some wines are found to have up to six times more of BPA
Booze less.

WABI SABI

2007-05-13T17:32:00.000+09:00

Amidst this accelerating pace of thinking process how many of us will pause to think about WABI-SABI? Like so many things Asian, this can take a little time to sink. Think of the beauty in things as they are, like in a frayed shirt and the bee. Wisdom in a weathered rock which looked like, my grandmothers face. Or just come and look at an old car in my friends backyard,rusting away to become a
part of the earth.
Try handling plastic cutlery with the same respect and care as you would an antique china.
The wisdom in waiting and looking at things as they are. When we adults have it, we shall treat our children with wisdom. The Japanese or is it the Chinese - have a saying “to truly enjoy your tea you should know a little science, you should have studied poetry and literature, know the smell of air flowing thru grass and understand impermanence”.

What did they say about champagne?

Stress Vaccine ||||||||:::::||||

2006-11-05T17:35:00.001+09:00

What is active stress management?

When the enjoyment you derive from the activity you are doing is more than the enjoyment you would get, from the tangible rewards. When this happens who cares about stress.
The crux is fall in love, with a book, a subject, a person, a sport, a dance, a music
a car, an activity , even a god..

You hold the patent to your own stress vaccine.

One gram of thought

2006-10-11T03:22:00.000+09:00

Spoken Word is 100 000, years old in the form of language. Reading however can be traced to just about 5000 years. Five thousand years may not be enough for our brains to develop specific regions for specific purpose.

Is that the reason why some of us find reading so difficult to adapt to…?
Is that the reason why learning problems are seen much less in Asia?
Our alphabets have more, exact phonetics.
Should we not encourage Sanskrit right from pre-school?
Please give it a gram of your thought.

MUGSHOT >>

2006-10-03T15:32:00.000+09:00

Why is conceptual learning so hot?
Why is it wrong to mug?
I don’t get the point so I mug.
If marks weren’t in fashion who’d care?
I don’t learn the way you teach
Get it wise guy? ?
….. and this is no poem of mine.

. a cry in the wilderness.

Acceleration::::

2006-10-03T14:38:00.000+09:00

“What difference is there, between solving a Problem and Working on an opportunity” asked a dear friend and as friends go one tries to be very polite while letting them, be harsh. Love your friends and you will know what I mean.
To ye all my friends and unfriends (it is tantalizing to do a word like this) …. A problem to my mind is somewhat, a botched up opportunity a, has been opportunity not exploited well in its prime. Solving it is hugely satisfying even working on the problem feels good. But is it not quite like a cop catching or uncatching (ha ha) a robber? The best result will only bring a zero status sort of normality which prevailed before the problem existed.

I would say the real results come from choosing an opportunity and allocating all your resources to it the first time. The most important resources of course are your thought and your time. Of course all the problems can not be shrugged off - like my car, I still take it to the garage. Friends tell me it’s a mistake - but there are many instances of people falling in love with a problem. Not for nothing this thing called love, is blind. No not deaf and dumb too, being blindly in love is harrowing enough.

Leadership issues are very closely associated with “problem solving and opportunity search”. Leadership is not the work of a single person. It is a shared endeavor among the team members. The quality of leadership exists in the relationship of the leader and the team and of course the relationship between the teammates. I wonder if catalysts in chemical reactions have learnt to work this way. Call this Interactive, but this kind of leadership ensures better resource allocation to problems and opportunities.

So how is your RESOURCE ALLOCATION, send me a mail

Ace Child Empowerment

2006-09-26T01:12:00.000+09:00

Let us discuss an old folk story, the one about the hare and the tortoise.
1) We know that there was a race in which, slow but steady tortoise won the race while the over confident hare took a nap before the race was over.
2) Now that the hare had lost the race, he was quite ashamed to move around in the neighbourhood and was depressed. His parents got worried – naturally. They had a small discussion, there was to be another race and the clear advise was to first finish the race and then do any thing else, like taking a nap.
So there was another race and this time as you would guess, the hare won hands down. The moral of the story in this case is even more simple – Even when you are fast and talented to win a race you shall have to finish it…..and being slow and steady can win you a race, only some of the time.

3) Now it was the turn of the tortoise kid to get depressed. The kid had felt the
warm glow that comes from being successful. It was better than any TV serial, candy or a toy. His parents were deeply concerned. The mummy tortoise came up with an idea – which to my mind was brilliant. “To win a race you must run another race, that much is for sure only this time the race track should be through the jungle river.
So there was this third race and the tortoise kid won once more. The hare was stuck at the river bank despite reaching there early.
Let us discuss this part of the story a little –
a) The parents (of the tortoise) understood that it was all about winning the race and not about running. In life situations too it is more important to be successful in a chosen vocation and it is not about scoring 100 marks in maths or for that matter in any other subject all the time.
b) One can not win , from a point of weakness. So in our story just running to win the race was seen as , not possible. Weaknesses generally can not be converted to strengths, not easily any way. By hard work and practice the tortoise could never hope to run faster than the hare - so when hard work will not work a change of strategy can work. This is the key to good parenting , to be able to tell your child when to work hard and when to work on something else.
c) To be good and successful you have to know your strengths and plan the race of life accordingly and run it till the finish line.Swimming was definitely a strength for the tortoise and so the race course was tailored.
The greatest positive influence we adults can have on our children is to
i) help them in identifying their strength areas.
ii) Develop the strengths into core competencies.
iii) Encourage them to choose their vocation according to their core competencies.
By the way, there are (at least ) two lessons from the cricket world cup 2003.
Pointing foxed Ganguly when he told the press that “Indian seamers could pose a problem”. So Anil Kumble was not taken in the team.( that is what my friends and I think). Please recall how tantalizing it was to discuss the fate of Sri Lanka - Australia semifinal, because of Australian weakness in playing spin bowling. Sri Lanka lost the match because of their own stupid batting. It is important that children understand strategy, and develop thought flexibility. Lateral thinking process is one great idea.
The second important lesson is that, no amount of worshipping , numerology left handed captains alternating with right handed captains lifting the cup etc will win us the cup. We have to play better cricket, that is it. You must discourage superstition in your child always.
Thank you very much.

BIRDS

2006-09-26T01:03:00.000+09:00

This is not about the great Alfred Hitchcock movie, but I reckon you will find it interesting enough. As we do our living with our personal goals – we find that team work becomes very significant. Our position keeps swinging between being an individual and a team person. This is about birds, we know that birds fly thousands of miles in huge numbers. You would have seen birds fly in perfect formation. What you read now tells you how these little creatures have perfected the art and science of living.

A) As each goose flaps its wings it creates uplift for the bird that follows. By flying in a –V, formation the whole flock adds seventy one percent greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.
Lesson – People who share a common direction and a sense of community can reach where they are going a lot quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of each other. So if you are a lone flyer you shall need that much extra effort. Friends with common goal will always excel –individually.

B) When a goose falls out of formation it suddenly feels the drag and the resistance of flying alone and it quickly moves back in formation. When the lead goose tires it rotates back in to formation and another goose takes its position.

Lesson - If we have as much sense as birds, we should stay in formation with people going to the same destination. We should take turns in doing the hard task. As with birds we should be interdependent on each others skills, capabilities and set of gifts
talents and resources.

C) The geese flying in formation honk, to encourage those at the front to keep up their speed.

Lesson – We need to make sure that our honking is encouraging not irritating. In groups where there is encouragement the output is much more. Leaders must know what is quality honking.

D) When a goose gets sick wounded or shot down, at least two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay back until the wounded dies off or is able to fly again. These three then try to get in to any formation that is passing by and later catch up with their own flock.

Lesson – First never shoot a bird for gods sake. If we had as much sense as birds we would stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

All good things, indeed will have its fair share of flaws – so does this bird story. The idea is not to focus on weaknesses in life. Often it is very gratifying to find faults in a situation but mostly it is an intellectual trap, I hope folks you are not into it. Even the best Digha mango has hard ugly seed.