Democracy in action

So after a day of American midterms and transfer of power of house, you would imagine the light house of democracy has ones again exercised a cherished trasure. But I am from india, and the first sign that greets you once you enter India from Wagah border from Pakistan is 'Welcome to worlds biggest Democracy' So are the two democracies different? The way of government is, but are the ideals same? Yes they are, they all mean government of people. But this blog isnt about comparing democracies, it even isnt about comparing nations. The origin of this blog is to be found in the article on CNN.com (not my fav) it was by Louis Dobb. Articles was about how middle class of america struck back. I cant agree more with the fact that middle class has taken for a ride in last six years (again I am not making remarks on any country, since India opened up its market in 1995 its going to happen there too some time in near future) But I think people are being used as a pawn by few and powerful. How can you explain gas in atlanta being at 1.97 (read importantly <2) for a month and then go up to 2.09 day after election and then I read in CNN a quote from an independent oil analyst on why it went above $60/ barrel, something like lower oil reserve in US, problems in Nicaragua !!!! what a bull !! then why was Saddams trial so mysteriously done with at a time just before election and yeah the best yet, not a single bomb in Iraq on the curfew period after saddam decision..actually it was a week before the elections..Why was so popularistic important decision mysteriously appear before important people democratic events? If you believe in miracles, you are reading a wrong blog! but I have always felt and know a fact that up there are few powerful people (businessman and politicians) who are making and controling how we live our life, so is Bush telling me how I should eat ? how i should breathe ...nope.. but he is telling me i am eating spinach which looks all good and dazzling, but in reality it has been grown by a farmer who has used artificial seeds, used chemically perfected fertilizer, which is spread in the air by a plane, and on the way to my table cleansed and shined by i donno what chemicals stored for how long in storages.. he is also telling me sit in a car and drive to work, cos that will help car makers make more money and oil companies richer. and why not use a train or a bus where we can save money or interact with other people so I ask is this democracy? is it the rule of people? is it because common man cant think past his daily life cycle of earning money to buy HDTV or pay mortgage, because big banks, credit companies and lending companies have screwed him so much that he is living in a neck deep credit society. has the human become so materialistic that he has been curtained by the general good of society and humanity. How is this democracy making my life being stopped by being governed by big business and politicians. I am sure there are some people who will talk away from from it. But the fact is that I dont trust anybodys word nowadays and there is a reason to it. when media campaigns by politicians bombard you with the goodness of some one and evilness of others, you are taking the word from them. But do you go and investigate those facts being presentated by them? No, cos you are being considered as a dumb sponge absorbing whatever is being dished out by someone. So I ask you again is this democracy?

History and its relevance to culture

History repeats itself..one of the most golden proverb you would hear time and time again.. civilizations rise and fall..only to be grown better next time they rise..If you believe in Darwins theory of survival, every generation is born smarter and smarter than the previous one. Which means that today we are much smarter than my ancestors. The lives we live in present is a part of history for a future generation, so as we live, we are creating out history. Given the fact that we are smarter and creating our own history, why do we still repeat the same mistakes that lead to downfall of our civilizations, arent we smarter than our ancestors so why dont we learn from our history to avoid the same pitfalls which led to downfall of our ancestors. So if we still repeat our mistakes even after learning history, what is the relevance of it? Should we just burn the books of history? I think the relevance of history is in its value to retain culture and present historical facts. Interpreting them is where each civilizations differ. To quote 'Hitler' who thought that the history is not mere dates and names to remember but is forces which created those dates and names. Coming back to culture, what is culture? Is it the way a man/woman handles himself in front of a bunch of upper class stiff noses? Is eating with knives and fork more cultural than slurping with hands? How do we define a civilization is more cultured? In the end you will be amazed that it doesnt mean any of the above material things, it is the way people in a civilization treat humanity on whole. Culture adds value to meaning of life. the importance eachs own culture is quite apparent when one is placed in other country. It makes its importance stand out more because his identity is his culture then. The way he does things. The way he makes his decisions are all influenced by his culture. It is the important unkowing part of his soul which differentiates him from others. Man is born in this world clean slate. He is his influenced by his parents, by his society, by culture of society. You are born in this world naked with no jewels, no money and eqo, he earns all the materialistic things in life, he also earns his culture, but when he dies he can only take with him his culture with him. so doesnt it become imperative to respect one's culture and his heritage. I am in midst of seeing one of the best serials ever created on India's most cuning diplomat Chanakya, we are talking about BC's now. If i can recommend anything out of this blog, it is to buy those DVD's and watch it. Its just amazing when the world around him was waking up to civilization, kingdoms in India were talking about taxes, state welfare, etc. One of the things which i want to bring in relevance is his statement on various kingdoms in India. Land can be divided into kingdoms. people can be seperated by kings, but in the end we are allbinded with common culture. You can create 100 partition of land but in the end people to people contact is invariable. If they are binded by same culture, you cannot keep them apart for long. Well i think this is good enough to think about for future.

Its just another friday

Friday! its here, makes the world go home, bars and places, makes you mentally unwind from week's grind. Just the fact that it signals weekend, lets a tingle in the part of cerebrum where overtly long sleeping, partying out and lazying comes naturally. so why is this Friday special and why does it deserves the honor of being written today. The reason is that i am dead tired, so why am i tired? cos i had to drove 400 miles and not that it would tire me but the fact is driving accross Atlanta during peak hour may mean a pinnacle reaching in time. And just when you thought you have reached home, that you forget a local high school game can make your last 4 miles living hell.
But something else made this friday special..i had to sell myself for this job .. it is one of important part of my life and this job would be critical in shaping my future career. On the whole this interview was real good.. but what made me realize is that u have to hardsell yourself and not just interview but in every fact of life..

Family relationships and their importance

Family relationships and their importance

I wonder how many of us ever, stand back and think what are we in this world for, why do we belong in this world. What is the main purpose that a man goes through this cycle of birth, life and death? Every stage of mans life has a purpose, when he is child he is thought to study hard and get into good college. When he is young he is told to study hard and make a good career out of his life, and when he is older he wants to earn enough money so he can enjoy the riches of his success. So are we chasing our own dreams, which are set forth upon us by our parents, society, and friends? During this phase of our dream chase are we forgetting what makes a man, a man. What differentiates him from animals? Isnt civilization inherited by just being born a man? Is it just civilization what he inherits by being a man doesnt he also inherit a family when he is born. So why is that as he grows older, does the very basic fabric which keeps him civilized keeps growing thinner and thinner. Why does he want to continue on his mirage journey of success by blinding out the very basic emotions which make a man. Why do we not make that extra step of going out of our way to meet our aunts or uncles or cousins whom we grew up with and equally grew afar with while chasing those dreams, that one day it hits you that this was my closest sis and I havent seen her for ages. Why do very people we grew up with are so strangers that you dont want to make that extra trip to meet them. Is it because we are chasing our elusive dream of being successful in life? Besides what is success, isnt its final frontier something which can bring joy to you, may be its luxury, may be its standing on top of mountain and saying I am the richest? But in the end its bringing joy to you. So what if the same joy or happiness be achieved by something else.
What is that connection you have with your family that you want to meet them? Is it the momentous time you had with them or is it that you have that special warmth with your loved ones that makes you happy when u get that Christmas card or an email. I think if we take a little time off to contemplate on these small things, it will make some of our lives more richer. I know for sure that for a fact no one is born alone in this world and no one has to die alone. In the end you will known for how many lives you touched in your life, and not how much money you made and the way you spent it, offcourse if your bill gates that is true too !

artificiality and religion

Artificiality and religion
Current mood: tired

Hi
I just returned from detroit. really good trip since i could meet my relatives, especially my aunt who just landed in US. Ironically its not relatives why i will remember this trip, but its becos lot of unseen artificiality of people towards religion, is why i will remember it. The only time i have been to temple in last two years is when i have been to Detroit, which leads to me ask a question? ru religious becos u show ur religious. or ru religious becos u practise ur religion in ur heart. Why do people have to tell me that if u do this u will be religious. By Hindu religion i am a Brahmin. By birth i should be the keeper of religion and preach people about my religion and my god and perform religious ceremonies. Till date i have never performed any ceremony, nor have i preached anyone abt Hinduism. Point being i have noway near practised my faith or like people like to call it wear it on my arm. Why am i asking these questions? becos when i was at this temple something triggered me to seek answers to these questions. I saw some people majjority of whom were ABCD's (american born confused..indians) who seem to trying to show their blind faith toward religion. were they trying to show that nobody but themselves are real religious followers of their faith, and why were majority of them ABCD's is it becos they have been brought up in a society which judges a person's morality on the number of times he goes to a church or temple?
So this brings me back to my original question am i religious becos i show i am religious or am i religious becos i practise my religiousness !! (new word ?) in my heart.After all what is religiousness..isnt it telling the good from the bad. Go and read any religious book..Bible..Bhagvad gita ..Koran and u will find that basic gist is that all these books ask u to live a life of purity and moralness. It asks u to do good and not do bad, they lay down the distinguishness between good and bad. However great deal of message might be lost in translating these books, various ppl might interpret various meanings from these books, hence we have the preachers or the priests. the so called keepers of religion. In any religion you will see that the most power is invested in the hands of priests. they control the way people live their lives. they control the way you think about any incident, in many cases they are also the vote gatheres. yes it happens in india and US and i am sure in many other countries. Why should so much power bein the hands of some one who tells us how we should live our lives? Cant each individual think on its own what is moral and what is not? if not then isnt education system a part of imparting morality, the more educated ur the less chances u will have of tripping in loose morals? and what is morality. it is not immoral to drink alcohol in chrsitianity, but it is considered immoral in hinduism..
Well i can only contemplate how my faith will be towards my religion. It will be what i thinkis good in my heart and not hurt others in my daily life, as long as they dont hurt me..
I can only say this much, offcourse people will disagree and have other ideas..which according to my religion ;) is OK

target and books

Targets and books
Current mood: awake

After a long hiatus i have decided to write again today
I had left at setting my targets, After four days of thinking about my future and present situation i have finally decided my path, but todays blog is not about targets, i am reading this book, the monk who sold his ferrari, by robin sharma. Remember how conincident it is when something you are doing and somebody has already done that and printed it out in a book and is making money about it. I had read this chapter yesterday where he talks about setting your targets, writting it down, breaking it up in smaller targets nad setting time on them. Well why do i keep reading these books about autobios and self helps where in i kkep coming across these similiarities in behavioral aspects. Its my belief that there is something called common sense which a man keeps loosing as he matures enough, how can you explain a one year old touchsomething hot and retract his hand, never in his life time will he do that same mistake again, he has learnt an important lesson in life, yet we as adults have learnt lessons throughout our life and failed to act on them. we have stashed our daily learnings, tagged them as common sense and thrown them in some long forgiven part of our brain. Why do we need self helps and autobios to trigger our beliefs and experiences to come forward and steer our progress. They are called experiences becos we have gone through them and learnt something. so that next time you are in that situation you know what else to do. How many of our selves let the mundaness of our life take cover on our beliefs and our goals and forget what you want to be and when? surprisingly enough a lot !!
I have set goals for me for this week and yet how much i have achieved 0 % If i had set this goal for my exam or a deadline, i would be slogging my butt out to achive it, yet being somewhere in life is not inspiration enough for me to act. What more trigger will i need to do it, i probably dont know, but i know for sure one thing, everyone has that little flame in him which makes him burn for desire for achievement. He may not do it first day,second day but if that desire is large enough he eventually will achieve it. The difference between achievers and non achievers i think is that threshold point for being consumed by the fire to act is less then that of those of non achievers.
I think i have to start thinking about my targets and act on them, cos i know nobody got succesfull writng blogs.

blog 2

Blog2
Current mood: optimistic

So Second Day second blog, atleast promises are kept at this side of my comp.
The moments which I talked about yesterday make you step back and help u take a perspective of what is going around you.and where you wanna be. Also these introspections beg you to answer if you are doing what ur supposed to be doing to get where u wanna be.
so if these moments were meant to raise me from my slumber, they sure did, atleast my mind. the question which arises is just how much encouragement you need in urmind to make ur body follow the decisions taken up there. If you think its a second or minute or hour, then India would be independant in a year or so. To me the spark has to be ignited in sombodys belly to lead the fire in each house. Coming back to orignal question what am i doing and why and where do i have to be, I can definitly tell you am not doing what i should be doing. Where am i in my 5 yr plan somewhere around 50 % on what I should be at. The thing which i have understood what works for me is what works in every other phase of life, is that if ican create achievable targets in a time span and follow it with utmost heart ..anything is achievable. the secret is how much heart u have set up on it. having said that i think i will sit down to write my own targets and se where i reach.
hope it will taek one night of sleeping on it. so see you guys tomm