A profound philosophical approach to life ....

For a change Rediff.com came up with a really heart touching article today. The story they covered is of a young boy who works as an auto mechanic in Calcutta.

http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/jul/16/child-labour-dreams-help-me-survive-on-rs-200-a-month.htm

Its really touching story of determination of an young boy against all the odds. There are countless children like him and I hope no child, any where, either in India or else where, had to go through the hardship like this.

My dead mother and her philosophy

My mother died about 12 years back. She was from a fairly well to do family, and my grand parents had 13 children. My mother was 10th child. 

She always said some thing very simple, no great philosophy, but very true and easy.

She said, Contentment is the source of happiness. Always, compare yourself to less fortunate than you when you are going through difficult patches in life.

Largest Star ever discovered

I was browsing since related web sites and I stumbled upon this link

http://www.techdo.com/images/largest-know-star.htm

It has an animated GIF, worth waiting for it load and watch. It's fantastic. Just before that I was reading US Republican Vice Presidential Nominee's quotes on God creating the Earth and everything.  Such a coincidence.

Trafiic Police

Last evening I had to goto Hyderabad Deccan or Nampally Railway station as it is popularly know in Hyderabad, to see of a friend taking a train to Bombay.
Just in front of the railway station, I took the U-turn, and I was caught by the Traffic Police as its forbidden to take a U-turn at that junction. Mistake was clearly mine, I had not observed the puny little "No U-Turn" sign at that junction.

The police man asked me to step out of the car and pay the fine. I told him that I did not see the sign board, but will pay the fine. He took me to his superior where I asked them to write my fine and let me go as I had to go to the station. From what I observed, even though, I did a traffic rule violation, they were reluctant to write me a fine and let me pay the fine. They were rather interested to get some money (of course less than the traffic fine I had to pay) instead of making me pay for the fine. Ultimately, they let me go, with out loosing their face as my car registration is from Delhi.

The traffic constable was almost begging for the money to be paid, I walked off as if I did not observe his sorry face.

I felt really sad to see the traffic police in a state which makes them to beg for some money and be corrupt. I would have been so happy if they made me cough up fine instead of letting me go away.

The Living Dead

 

del.icio.us Tags: politics,history,statues,children,india

Share this post :

My sister and her family spent a couple of days with me recently and this was one of the discussions I had with her about her 4 year old son.

As 4 year olds go, my nephew has tons of questions for my sister and brother-in-law. Some times its easy to answer his questions, and some times its pain to come up with some reasonably sounding answers. This blog is about one such question.

We were passing in front of statues of freedom fighters, poets, and other historical figures. My nephew asked my sister. Who are these people, whose statues are erected along the street we were passing. Aruna, my sister told him that, the statues of the people who had done good work and of great importance. Almost all the names of those statues were unfamiliar for my 4 year old nephew Pandu. His next question was, do those people live inside those statues? Aruna said, no, there are all dead. The statues are a way to honor their memory.

Pandu's next question was, does this mean, statues are erected only for people who are dead? Now Aruna was in dilemma. If she says Yes, then that will be not correct.

• UP CM Mayawati to install more of her statues - Zee News
• Kanshiram wanted my statues beside his: Mayawati - Express India News Article 
• Mayawati’s statue pulled down for being too ‘small’ - The Hindu
• Lucknow will get more statues of Mayawati - Rediff News
• UP govt to install 3 more Maya statues - Times of India News Item
• Mayawati pulls down her own statue, finds it too small - Times of India
• Mayawati to put up more of her statues
• Mayawati to put up more of her statues - Hindustan Times
• Mayawati to put up more of her statues - MSN News
• New statue of India's Dalit icon - BBC News
• In pictures: Mayawati's favorite statue-maker - BBC News

Read these articles to know the depravity the politicians can stoop to. Now how do you tell a 4 year old child, that, there are people who are "Living Dead". Erect statues for themselves.

Quote of the Day:

In this world, it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.
--Henry Ward Beecher

The Moral Instinct - New York Times

Today I happened to read an article on, yes "Morals" on New York Times. It's an interesting article. A topic which has bothered me for a long time.

Is it not possible to be a good human without believing in God? If it is within us to be good or evil, then what place our world has for religions and sermons and sects and the denominations?




The Moral Instinct - New York Times

What do we teach our children?

In Hyderabad, India (which is true in other cities too), I keep seeing one recurring scene on the roads. Parents talking the children to the schools or bringing them back to home, on two wheelers (Bikes/Scooters/Scotterets/Mopeds etc).

It's very endearing scene as well as disturbing at the same time. Most of the parents, are subconsciously, are teaching their children to break the law, rules by breaking themselves.

Driving on wrong side of the road, taking shortcuts, driving without concerns to other commuter's convenience, over loading their bikes (I have seen 4-5 kids being ferried to the school by some brave hearts).

Children are very impressionable and they learn exactly what they see.

Do these parents care about the education they are giving their children?

Parents need to be good examples to their children.

Its a pity, these parents do not realize that they are the first teachers of their children.

Read this beautiful article/discussion A Parent's Realization: "I am my child's first teacher!"
See this Video

Children Learn From Parents


CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE!

CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE!

Helping Your Child Learn Responsible Behavior with activities for children

Children 'learn violence from parents'

Children learn from watching parents

Amazing Perspective

 

del.icio.us Tags: Astronomy,insignificant,philosophy,humans,perspective,art work,illustrations,blogs

Share this post :

Few days back, I had written a blog here on the "Pale Blue Dot" a lecture by Carl Sagan. Today when I was browsing the net, I came across this amazing link, called Amazing Perspective. A beautiful illustration site which puts "Pale Blue Dot" in a modified way. I am not even sure if the author of this site wanted to tell the story of "Pale Blue Dot" through these pictures, but he did.

Take a look at this: Amazing Perspective

Quote of the Day:
The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a good discussion.
--G.K. Chesterton

The Pale Blue Dot

del.icio.us Tags: Carl Sagan,Astronomy,Philosophy,The Pale Blue Dot

Share this post :

Recently when I was browsing through the net I came across a beautiful video called "The Pale Blue Dot" based on the speeches of Astronomer-Philosopher Carl Sagan. It was a speech at his university, which is truly touching and beautiful. Below is some paragraphs from that speech.

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

There are various versions of this video on the net. Please look up on Google or YouTube and you will see different versions. I have never been able to stop watching this video. I watch it again and again. This reminds me of my childhood hobby of star gazing and telescope making and spending every summer holiday looking through the telescope in to the infinite space. Astronomy is a really a humbling experience.  Any one who has seen the gaseous milky ways or star being born in Orion Constellation, even once will feel that way.