Pebbles...

I read both the KAMASUTRA and ARTHASHASTRA from this site which I will mention later. I cant express the feeling that I am struck with on reading these masterpeices. So little of human behaviour changes. Just replace the "Kings" of Artha shastra with "Prime/Cheif Minister" or replace the words "Public Women" in Kamasutra with that of "Glam Girls" and its eerily familiar territory. It seems nothing changes over centuries. This is the gist of Artha shastra Book I, "Concerning Discipline" Book II,"The Duties of Government Superintendents" Book III, "Concerning Law" Book IV, "The Removal of Thorns" Book V, "The Conduct of Courtiers" Book VI, "The Source of Sovereign States" Book VII, "The End of the Six-Fold Policy" Book VIII, "Concerning Vices and Calamities" Book IX, "The ...

Oops...! I guess reading the Kamasutra should not be professed in public. But having done it I feel nice that I have ....! Unless one is too stuck up , one cant but marvel at the myth that KAMASUTRA is a book full of nude bodies engaged in tantrix pornography. Far from it. Kamasutra is a book that has only the second chapter dedicated to sexual congress(he he ..congress!!! Sonia must be goin crazy) . The rest are dedicated on finding out what is ones DHARMA in this life and what are the codes of living. The book is divided into following parts Part I: Introductory Chapter I. Preface Chapter II. Observations on the Three Worldly Attainments of Virtue, Wealth, and Love Chapter III. On the Study of the Sixty-Four Arts Chapter IV. On the Arrangements of a House, and Household Furniture; and About the Daily Life of a Citizen, His Companions, Amusements, Etc. Chapter V. About Classes of Women Fit and Unfit for Congress with the Citizen, and of Friends, and Messengers Part ...

It may sound blasphemous but in a predominantly hindu country whre cremation is the preferred mode of disposal of a dead body, what could be more hygienic and convenient than having an electric crematorium in the hospital it self. It would not only stop un necessary expenditure but also lead to a scientific way of disposal without going into the travails of carryin the body all the way to the external crematorium .... When I suggested this to a few of my freinds they appeared shocked. To them it was un emotional and rude. And may erode morale in the hospital. Well ..I think we can shift the crematorioum to the basement if it offends people..but the "rude" part is not clear to me. I mean whats so polite about death. Its something that comes un invited. ...causes a lot of pain and suffering in its aftermath and doesnt make any difference to the person it has occured to. And whats so impolite about burning a body next door to the ward where it was treated? Think over it.

For all those who do not know Mumba Devi, She is the presiding deity of Mumbai(or shivsena would have us so believe)...and lives behind the Mangaldas Cloth Market at Crawford Market. Now there is a temple dedicated to her , a small one , but in the busiest if not the poshest areas of mumbai. This temple is what I had the misfortune to visit today. Misfortune ..Well Every visit to the temple reminds me of the narrowness of human thought process of confining a GOD to their standards and of course the filth spewn around that goes around with the name of "Holy Shit:...anyway I am digressing. The Main topic here is the gateway to the temple at which I stood for half an hour while mom took a leisurely walk inside the premesis. Now the best part of the gate was that there were infact two gates. One for the entrance and one for the exit. By some holy logic the EXIT gate was the bigger of the two ,and entrance was a peephole by comparison. So every other family ended up at the EXIT gate th...

ये हिन्दी में मेरा पहला प्रयास है। क्या ज़माना आ गया ....अब अंग्रेज़ी में टाइप करो और हिन्दी में लिखो। आक्च्ची बात है..बहुत अच्छी....बाद में कुछ लिखने की कोशिश करता हूँ....

Yesterday I had a small talk with my freind on the film "Khuda ke Liye"...Of course both of us found the film one of the good films of late...Infact that it took on issues directly without any bias was something that we both appreciated.. But we hit a roadblock when we came to discussing characters. Off the cuff I told him that the most spineless and dishonest character was that of the London based muslim father who has four concubines but wants his daughter to carry the burden of protecting his "Deen"(Religion). My freind who happens to be a muslim sympathized with this guy. His argument was like this. The father has committed a sin ...now he is screwed(in figurative and well ..literal sense) so he is justified upon trying to "save" his daughter. And that way he can redeem himself in eyes of allah. Well I do not know about Allah but this seemed a real real surreal and out-of - logic argument to me . My logic is this. If one has commited a "sin" ...

When people decry the loss of moral fabric, society going to dogs, etc..it makes me notice one thing very clearly....Memory is short. We remember the ethical arguments we are having now ..but we forget that we "Dont" have so many arguments ... Let me start with a simple example.. How many of us participate in the ethical argument of requirement of money in todays society..? Or look upon some one who is making a lot of money as an agent of satan? I wud say very very few. Infact the most likely answer wud be that as long as he is making money the right way..who cares? Linking the fact of caste , religion and character to riches or allowing it to bias our support is sumthing that is considered real real stupid. But it was not always so. There was a time when these questions were big questions and engaged the media in a debate that seems so passe now. I will give some such arguments which ..if u discuss now..u would be considered a man from stone age.. 1. Any industrialist owe...

I love the song .."awarapan banjarapan" in Jism. Love means reallly really really love. I mean the kind of love that makes u drink countless cup of stupid coffee at cafe cofee day just because they have a wonderfull bose system which does justice to this song. The thing that strikes me hardest in the song is that its a bike song..I mean that its a song i wud love to hear when i am cruising on a long stretch of desolate highway. And hear it over and over again..coaxing the last drop of acoustic nirvana from this sonorous classic. The soundscape it creates is that of vast expanse of mountains and clear skies with a smattering of dull sunlight ...with clear water flowing through and you reading the words as they float thru the empty sky. Its a song thats a remorse and a beautiful remorse at that....I stand by the fact that there is nothing more beautifull than pain and nothing more touching than remorse. And wat can be more touching than simple and heartfelt remorse which is p...

---Content deleted on suggestion of a freind---- I want to be a film director ... I want to be able to see and choose an interesting story. Real gross and bloody. ...With lots of slashing and hackings and that theme would be death. Not just any death..real gruesome and planned death. Death...not murder. Death as in the finality of the life ..not just end of a cycle but begining of one. I know the film will start with credits which will have the actors name written in wall graffitti with blood being splattered over them ..Blood and slime will trickle down an old dilapidated wooden pole and end up on a road. Then the atmosphere will change from dark and stormy one to that of a sunny and open sky. The first scene will be that of a small house with a nice rose garden in front. Quaint and old. Ideal kind of scene with peppy music in the back ground.. The camera will roll along the path way and reach the door, the door will open slowly and an old man's hand will tumble out...along with ...

I can count myself as one of the "begaana abdullah deewana " who is fanatic about films. But I have often asked myself as to what is that attracts me to a film. Why do i pay that much to watch a two dimensional screen for three hours and then cry for joy that i have been through one of the happiest moments of my life..? What makes me look at those images and see a life beyond them ..? Why do i find magic on those images that fleet across the screen? Why does it make me see a world that lies beyond my reality? Why do I see a mind and method to this madness? Why do I feel happy staring mindlessly into the screen..happily giving myself with abandon to the director and trusting him to not betray me ..? Why do I feel happy when he/she does me justice..why do i feel sad when i feel that he has not done justice... Why do i bore my freinds with how profound the film was? Why do I blab on and on as to how heady was the ride? Am I an escapist like millions of Indians? Or do I still po...

There is an oriya film called "sesha Srabana"(the last monsoon). I had seen that film when i was in school ..the film was made even when i was not born. The film was so tacky technically that i am sure that given a lumix cam myself I cud have done a better job. Shoddy print , jerky cam movements, lack of continuity and horrendous make up. But that was the film that got me hooked to the fact that films are more than the physical aspects of filmmaking. The film made me feel that the most important aspect of the film is honesty. Honesty to the story that one is trying to tell. The sheer rawness of this honesty is enough to affect the guy sitting infront of the screen. This honesty is which tears thru tackiness of the technical details ..and manages to sear a guy born 7 years after the film was made. The film tells a very very old story of a girl who gets rescued by two low caste guys from a flood and stays with them . She loses her memory but these two guys know that she is from...

Here is an open letter to the terrorist uncle who has been using bicycle for more than err..bicycling. Dear Sirs, Congrats on your last successfull attempt at Jaipur. Your boys added one more city to the glory table. Infact with a lil help from our own RDX guys ur boys have been doin a wonderfull job. But u see its a futile attempt. Why? 1.We generally dont find u agreeble but u see We Indians dont fear u. Thats because we fear our politicians more. Infact we shudder to think what Arjun Singh would have exploded had he given another press conference . By that comparision your planning was a crows fart. 2. Secondly u see we have grown so used to tragedies that befall us by our own builders and civil engineers that your bicycle seems a wee bit primitive. Either u admit that u are just novices trying to fire crackers or learn a lesson from the numerable bridge collapses and borewell tragedies ...Wats the harm from learning from the professionals. 3. Thirdly, there is a fatal flaw in ur p...

Sometimes I think all of us (atleast in India) live in two worlds ..and it has got nothing to do with economic strata we stay in. Its a state of mind thingy. Sample this..We tell our kids that its better to love and enjoy a game than winning but then goad on them like race horses. We think we are the next superpower and then say " India hai yaar..yahaan kuch nahi ho sakta". We say something and do some thing thats diagonally opposite to wat we say. We say we hate materialistic things but lust after our neighbors car. We say we dont like western things but we throng out in large numbers to have a grab at anything western. We say we dont want english but then admit our children into same schools. If you have a look a tv shows you will see this dichotomy played out again and again. You will find smooth talking urbane crowds mouthing all politically correct dialogues about everything from the BMC to Kafka and sounding so so nice. Thats all fine till u actually see what they do ...

Hinduism Interesting and educative point of view! Am I a Hindu? Four years ago, I was flying from JFK NY Airport to SFO to attend a meeting at Monterey, CA. An American girl was sitting on the right side, near window seat. It indeed was a long journey - it would take nearly seven hours! I was surprised to see the young girl reading a Bible - unusual of young Americans! (Later I came to know that September 11 has changed mind-set of lot of US citizens. They suddenly turned religious, it seemed..) After some time she smiled and we had few acquaintances talk. I told her that I am from India. Then suddenly the girl asked: "What's your faith?" "What?" I didn't understand the question. "I mean, what's your religion? Are you a Christian? Or a Muslim?" "No!" I replied, "I am neither Christian nor Muslim". Apparently she appeared shocked to listen to that. "Then who are you…?" "I am a Hindu", I said. She l...

Yesterday Pradeep showed me a book that was real cool. It was on "infinity" the holy grail of maths ..and somehow we got reading   it and came to a part on Godels Proof of incompleteness of the scientific knowledge. Although frankly I could not get far on the "I am a liar" statement…We got discussing on the fact that weather time travel is possible theoretically.   What is the paradox involved?   Suppose I go to the future and see the events and then come back and alter the present. What would happen to concept of free will then? Or lets say I go back to the past and kill my father.. will I exist then?   I feel that such paradox can be avoided if we take into account "information storage" mechanism. Lets say brain..or it can be any arrangement of molecules..say a beta tape, an audio tape or cd.   Now when we take the "memory" through time…we inexplicably alter it instantaneously . For example say memory(it could be a person ..or...

I dont feel the need to explain as to why u shud enjoy these paintings/sketches of mine. If u do..its fine by me. If you dont ..even still finer by me. I really dont care a damn. I enjoyed doing them and thats all that matters to me. You as a viewer are insignificant in my scheme of enjoyment.

Its very difficult for me to capture the wrinkle and feel of a cloth or surface. Denim leads itself to amatuerish attempts of mine because essentially its a fuss free fabric. This is a pair of jeans hanging on the door of the cupboard. Made with color pencils

This tree is slightly stylized by me. Otherwise inspired by a real tree.

If u look around and read or see the repeated headlines of "sex racket " busted or "bar girls caught" and footages of girls hiding their faces in their dupattas at police station flash across your tv screens...You might have a sense of deja vu. This scene is played over day in and day out with alarming regularity. One thing that actually hits me is how come the customers of these girls are never caught? Yes there might be a display of few "taporis" as customers but all of us kno its a face wash. We cringe in our "middle class" homes about loss of moral standards and how the country is going to dogs in this issue...! We are all right..in a way it is but I differ from the point of perspective. How do we stop this hapenning day in day out..how do we stop Prostitution?More important should we legalise Prostitution!! To look at answers we should answer a few basic questions: 1. What constitutes prostitution? 2. What drives the demand and supply chain...

There are times you just want to believe ... Believe that this is the truth, this is the reality for there cannot be anything other than that. Some times the belief is that which sustains your sanity .. the belief itself may be insane. Sometimes a lot of things die when the belief dies. Sometimes a lot of things become alive when the belief dies. The death of the belief , the most painful part of life. Call it trust, call it faith ... When it dies it kills a lot... The reality is a painfull world we avoid.. In the hope that our belief will cushion us.. When that dies what else is left... The deadness of life.. Mundanely flowing thru the meanders of time.. and the deathly spell of still water.. Rotting dying and existing .. Where once existed the spring of belief.. The death of belief ... The most painfull of all ..!!!

Once upon a time there was a small village in one of the godforsaken corners of the country ..Poor and dilapidated. There were no rains ..no crops and the neighboring villages had often looted this village thrice (lets name the village ..mm..Indunagar) ... They all sat down and thought over it and finally the Panch decided that it was only because that they did not have enough cows that they are facing all these problems. So they formed a board of villagers held a selection interview for the best cows around the village. Now they promised that whichever cow is selected will have the honour of village on his shoulders. (errr..her shoulders). She would be crwoned with the best thorns and paraded with the best bells. She will get the right of the way in the village streets and not only that she will get her own platoon of cows to command . This was a lucrative offer for all cows in the vicinity of the village . All the cows who were struggling with their masters , or were too young and f...