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Welcome

One Country. One billion Opinions....

This is the other side of me.

Blogged out for all to see.

This is a country of one billion opinions.

From Pak Attack to local Pub Attack,

everyone has an opinion of his own and push it hard.
In the local trains.. office lunch time..
over cellphone while driving etc etc.

This is just one more venue...

A digitised Gappa...
with my own Scripts and Cartoons.
These are 'Midnight Musings'-
'mused' and posted only in midnights,
when, in the depth of the darkness in a melancholic setting,
the only matching vision that conjures up in the mind
is the future of this country...
And the choices are -
Get spooky and scoot away or
turn spoofy and blog it out....
And the result is here for all to see...

No holds barred. Letting the hair down

on everything around to air my opinion...

where else except from behind a digital facade

like this blog....

So we begin....

Chain Mail Mania... 'Forward this mail to 10 people in 4 days or else ...

I respect and pity all those who are gripped by fear of being punished,

in case they dont forward the mails with the pix of a Goddess to 

atleast 10 people in four days or some such crazy no., 

as stipulated in the chain mail.

 

They expect punishment by the very God 

whom they hope would save them in any crisis. 

A disaster is certain they say.

On the other hand if you send, then you may get a windfall. 

They go to the extent of citing case studies. 

Mr.Shankar didnt forward the mail and he incurred huge business loss. 

Mr.Sharma forwarded and he was rewarded with a windfall.

This is one way ticket to Stone age back. 

The civilisation painfully progressed over several centuries and

discarded disgusting practices like Sati along the way 

after so many centuries of arguments and counter arguments. 

To discard an idiotic practice that seeps in to human conciousness 

surreptiously alongside the evolution exercise, 

it takes a few generations of hard work by good samaritans. 

And here we are - introducing a new one with all enthu by a pack of Mail-forward-Militants. 

On the one hand there are enough non believers and Atheists who are laughing at our faith in God.

Now on the other, these jokers invite them with Aao Bull Mujhe Maaro types adding to our misery.

The Atheists will have a field day adding this to their long list of superstitions.

God is beyond chain mails. 
Can God ever say that if you send this mail to 10 people within 4 days 
something very good will happen. Or punish if you dont.
It is God or a Goon?

Are we so gullible and weak that such incentives can turn us on.
Do we need mail -forward -linked incentives from God
like an upmarket Mall's incentive scheme?
What are we reducing our Gods to?
Whose cockeyed idea is this to push God to become our products.
God is our product or we are God's Product?

People may argue that "it is a matter of faith. 
If you dont want to forward leave it. who is forcing you?"
But why create a new faith in such cheap mail forwards.
Why drag divinity to this level.
Tomarrow someone will send an sms. If you forward to  5 

then you will get blessed..blah..blah..

And still the argument will hold good.

Look at the divinity in the breathtaking pix of the deity sent with the mail.
Look with all surrender-bhav and feel the intense divine vibes.
Such a God will punish us for not forwarding the mail ?
Or reward us only if we forward the Mail?

Read Adi Shankara's Saundarya Lahiri ..
And see the picture of the Goddess..
enjoying verse by verse

Lose yourself in that state of Meditation..
Probably that can get some rewards-
that too if that was not the objective...

Such elated divine experience is to be obtained 
from the forms of God in a very noble prayerful state.
Not the present day culture of SMS and Mail forwards
with strings attached - If you do it..then.. If you dont do it then..
It is a plain insult to the Goddess whose photo is attached.

Here Iam. 
In the witness box testifying that
I DIDNOT FORWARD such mails to anyone.
And I was not punished by my dear God.

I would definitely forward the picture alone,
to many whom I love and respect 
without strings attached saying -
"Please see the beautiful picture of the Goddess encl.
Thanks to the person who captured it painstakingly.
It is so nice."

Yours 'UnChainMailingly

R.Chandrashekar
9821482711

The God Funda

Religions are harmless, to say the least.

But the ones who act as their Guardian Angels are not.

It is time to save the Religions from their Protagonists

who seek political mileage with a hidden agenda.

Save Religions from Protoganists...

In a country where we have to save Students from teachers,

the Patients from Doctors, Children from Parents

and Public from the Police, it is not surprising to see

that Religions need tobe saved from these Protagonists.

Our little or No knowledge of God helps them.

They leverage on our ignorance .

They declare a war pushing us to save our respective Gods.

And we get Paranoid perceiving our Gods tobe in danger! And rush to save.

Even if it means demolishing rivals' place of worship!

...demolish others' places of worship.

Rushing to save their Gods in danger!

Gods save us or we save our Gods?

Its true - All Gods are one. All names are His.

But it seems a long way to reach that.

Firstly we have to see the same Gods in same names.

Then we have to see same God in different names.

And then see all Gods and all names as only one.

Ha…Ha…Confused?
Then you are close to discovering the Confucius in you!!

First things first. Seeing Same God in Same names.

Lord Ganpathi round your street corner in a small temple

is not seen as the same Ganpathi- Siddhi Vinayak of Prabhadevi.

The neighbourhood Church is not the same as in Bandra.

and so on….

(The reason why we trek long distance to visit the other shrines

bypassing the local ones of the same deity ....)

Then only comes seeing Jesus and Ganpathi as same.

After that only comes seeing Jesus in all .

Ganpathi in everything around.

And all names as His etc.

For the fierce consumers that we are,

even same-generic-name Gods in different temples

are not the same, but different brands .

Even if the look and feel are nearly the same

each one has a different History and in different Geography.

Hence possess different Brand Equity.

Otherwise why Tirupathi and Vatican rake in so much moolah,

when there are so many Balaji Mandirs and Churches nearshore.

We are great brand loyalists.

Whether it is our Newspaper,tobacco or our Personal Gods in specific temples-

we don't change our brands that easily .Unless they fail us repeatedly.

Because-

We nurture God as our Product! Forgetting that we are His products!!

This is the same nation which discovered the great Truth -Advaita.(without duality)

Oh! How far we have moved away from that great Desi Wisdom..

Shortly you will see how some yankee scientists claim IPR on this (Advaita)registering over there..like our Basmathi rice, Margosa and Baitak before Ganpathi Bapa.(click on the video link below to see how our own :Baitak is claimed as their discovery and this version copied from our Ganesh Mandirs is copyrighted as Super brain yoga by the Americans)...

Click on the line below-
Video Link : Our own Desi -"Baitak" before Lord Ganesha hijacked by Americans and branded "Super Brain Yoga" and Copyrighted already

EMI - The Eternal Misery Invited

A short story of shortchanged youth of India

With Globalisation and Liberalisation, it appeared as though all our past sins have been wiped out. We felt we were airlifted to a land of Paradise.

Our young ones got absorbed in the campus itself. The demand grew so much that at one point they wanted only able bodied young men and women with Reading and writing skills. Nothing more. The IT companies somehow felt that they were from a different planet with extra ordinary bio engineering skills with which they can manipulate the DNA of the mortals of this Planet to get IT reflexes even from the ones who did Botony or Biochemistry.

The marriage market is the best indicator of the market value . The going rate for dowry for IT guys should be 'heard' (from Andhra) tobe believed. All roads were leading only to the IT station.

And our folks went overboard. What their fathers couldnt earn even at the end of their career, these kiddos got as campus offer in the last year of their grad itself. The old serving men started losing importance in the home front from their respective spouses, who shifted loyalty overnight casting their votes in favour of their neo-rich young children . The response for the loving "Sunti Ho" from these A.K.Hangals stopped from the spouses. Low earning poor fathers became the first victims of the IT boom.

It seemed as though the party would never be over. We reached a point of including 'IT and computer' in the syllabus of even Nursery schools.

Except National Anthem we changed everything to include key words IT and Computer.

This Richness didnt turn into Real wealth. They all were in a tearing hurry.They discounted their future Pay Slips to live as on yesterday. The 'uncertain' future was depended on to fuel the 'certain' todays. And that mismatch did it in.

A guy in Bhandup with 1000 sq.ft flat would sell it and move 10 min drive southwards to Chembur and buy similar 1000 sq.ft flat in a tower, paying additional 30 lacs. increasing the EMI by 30-35k. per month. Extrapolate this and you can more or less state the cases of the most.

Essentially it amounts to paying 35k p.m. to save 10 min drive or thereabouts. The only excuse is - "You see it is a modern tower. The price appreciation will be much higher someday."

Now when the market tanked, the EMI remained where they were,while the property prices nose dived. Jobs became shaky.

Everything has become uncertain. Except of course - month after month, the ghost that haunts with sickening regularity called - EMI- Eternal Misery Invited or you can simply call it- Every Month Irritation.

The entire youth of the nation is now EMI-struck in some way or other. A new version of bonded labour. In many cases it is the amount of the evaporated value of the property bought whose value tanked.

Now the doting mothers who felt that they produced wonderkids without any contribution from their spouses, started replying in low tone to the A.K.Hangals' "Sunti Ho" with their erstwhile familiar lines -"Kyon chilla rahe ho. Idhari tho hun."

They dont understand economy or stock markets. But all that they see is their smart Munnas are not jubilant as before. They keep asking estate agents about the prevailing price almost everyday. They keep using the word EMI in hushed tone while talking to their pals.

The job has become painful. Bosses are making faces. Revenue targets are not reached. Salary cut is round the corner. Changing the job would mean ensuring a min.salary covering the stupid EMI-The millstone round the neck.

It is as though EMI is certain. Life is not.

Now the 1000 sq ft flat has also fallen in value by 25%. But the EMI remained where it was. Selling the flat would mean loss. And where to go. What will the relatives think. (as most of them live a relatives-centric life).Also whatever left over has been given to the Portfolio guys who promised astronomical ROI but now dont even lift the phone.And now when they say ROI, it is Return Of Investment. Not Return On Investment as it meant before.

It is as though the entire Youth of the nation has been short changed.

Youth is the Source Code of a Nation. The Nation which fails to protect them will get hacked.

This nation has a Uniqueness. It can be enriched only through Spiritual Inputs. Never with Material prosperity. Even at $ 1 trn GDP, 10% growth rate and trade surplus, Material Prosperity will still be in pockets stunted by sheer outgrowing no.of Native Indians...

Jai Ho....