Light from Darkness...

I am just reproducing a nice message I received:

'If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy .' 'And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.'
Also ......
' If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day .'
'If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation .. You are ahead of 700 million people in the world.'
'If your parents are still alive and still married ...you are very rare .'
'If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair.'
Ok, what now? How can I start?
If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.
Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you want, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are!

The Real Media Advisor!

Harish Khare, the Media advisor for the Prime Minister has called the Congress  a party with a 'status quoist air' and it did not believe in convictions.Its only conviction was to win the elections. He also named three leaders of yester years including Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who according to him, were defeated by their own party.

Well. This is nothing extra ordinary about any political party in the country but what makes it significant is that Khare is the Media advisor to the Prime Minister. Having said all this, Khare also issues a 'clarification' by saying that he was actually talking about 'Stability'. Only he must know better...

Something is showing the big dents in this Administration these days.Leaders of the same party are busy in slinging mud at each other.  Law and Order,CWG,J&K,Inflation...there is no area which appears to be anywhere near some statesmanship. I am happy that the people are in with a clear opportunity to see the state of affairs. The Media Advisor has for once stopped advising and got into the real act-of demonstrating the state of affairs in this Administration for the people to judge by themselves! For once, we have a real Media Advisor!

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All in the game!

Real problems for 'Real Housewives' of D.C

Well. The 'Marquee Blog' of CNN had a nice article on reality shows and real problems. The show seems to be talking about several problems involving raising a loan for a dream home,a different house warming ceremony and biometric locks, problems with kids etc.

The creative click here is basically the place where everything actually happens-the home and the people who are passionately glued to it. If one looks at the economic policies through a lens and gradually takes away the lens from there only to focus on the place where these may not be discussed but their immediate social and economic effects find a demonstration.

The RBI in India has raised the interest rates on loans to fight a rather intriguing inflation rate while food inflation has perplexed many a thinker (10.5%). This is something like the temperature of a patient not receding in spite of several antibiotics and treatment based on several investigation reports. If one visits a typical Indian home these days where some one is trying to buy a new item or simple vegetables, the 'real' problems are already there!

In essentials, reality shows turn real when there is a clever (but not crafted) link between those governing and those who are governed. One needs a clear understanding of policies and frameworks.

All in the game

CAG,PAC and Mr. Moily-difficult to digest!

The Union Law Minister has expressed dissatisfaction with the functioning of the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). According to him,had this office intervened at the appropriate time,many scams and scandals could have been prevented.

Now this requires some thought about the very nature of the functioning of this body. Most of its activities are carried out after the events past. The objections are classified according to their gravity and perhaps the gravest goes upto the PAC (Public Accounts Committee). This calls for an introspection into what the governments do or do not do about the PAC's criticisms. We shall explore some instances...

Some time ago, the PAC pulled up the Railway Board for unjustified investments to the tune of 30000 crores. This figure went up year after year and one finds no reply from any Railway Minister when the annual Railway Budget is presented. The white paper presented raised several questions on Laloo's manouvering with what he called as 'surplus'.

Based on a Report on the Indian Railways submitted by the CAG during 2007, the PAC tabled its Report in Parliament which stated that the carrying capacity of wagons should not be augmented without conducting a thorough, scientific and feasibility study since there were several instances of rail fractures, weld fractures and defects in wagons and locos. It criticised the policy of 'incurring long term damage to Railway Infrastructure for some short term gains in freight earnings.'

There was also a mention of motor cars being erroneously included in the category of 'essential commodities'!

Returning to the subject, scams and scandals aside, the issue here is the increasing number of accidents owing to this sheer lack of perspective on part of the government. This instance is glaringly connecting the lives of millions of passengers who board the trains with the belief that all is well!

Mr. Moily, a Minister representing the government therefore has no business to talk like this about the institution of the CAG. The Honourable Minister of Law needs to spell the word 'Justice' before publicly commenting upon the functioning of the CAG.

Reality-just a concept?

There has been some discussion on what Stephen Hawking has said about Reality-'There is no picture or theory-independent concept of Reality'.

Well. This book ,'The Grand Design' co-authored by him with Leonard Mlodinow is quite fascinating. The thin air between Reality and the concept of Reality is what is Reality all about!

Eckhart Tolle would say this-Become at ease with the state of 'not knowing'. This takes you beyond mind because the mind is always trying to conclude and interpret.It is afraid of not knowing. So, when you can be at ease with not knowing,you have already gone beyond the mind. A deeper knowing that is non -conceptual then arises out of that state...

If 'modelling' is one kind of theoritizing, let's look at one concept. An existing mountain appears inside a dream. What is Reality? The mountain or the Dream? Now look at this. We are already thinking into the idea of a dream being a reality!

Pictures, theories, realities...it's a life-system. Hawking's explanation is straight and absolute-...in some cases, individual objects don't even have an independent existence but rather exist only as a part of an ensemble of many. A fish existing inside water draws life from oxygen inside water...where is it's life energy? inside water?, inside the oxygen drawn from water? inside the life sustaining mechanism perfected inside the environment? Now life turns conceptual!

But which one preceded? the life supporting system or the concept of life?

Absolute Truth-'Pragnyanam Brahma' is beyond conceptual thought.Perception is a modelled thought process. Srikrishna states in the Gita, ' The problem is with Drishti (viewpoint) and not with the Srishti (Creation)'