The Tao of the Comet

I purchased this book called “The Ripped Chest : Public Policy and the Poor in India” by Harsh Mander sometime back .

Finally today i almost finished reading it .. 85% lets say ;) .
A very thought provoking book .. ofcourse the pessimist in me would say.. Look , halley  ! you have been reading such books since ages … 9 out of 10 times thought provoking thoughts remain just that .. thoughts ! … nothing concrete happens :) .And i am yet to find a convincing answer to people who ask … “What wil you achieve by reading such books :P” ..

I need not go on a lengthy review of this book … the title aptly captures what this book contains.
And the foreword by Robert Chambers also is extremely well-written , so i put an excerpt from the same here … btw good forewords come only for good books ;) .. so needless to say this book is good ;)

“
Reflecting on these two books (the other one being Unheard voices which is equally good) , the question is whether we, the readers ,can match the tenacity and resilience of the many millions of the excluded and deprived who cannot and will not read them. It is whether we and those near to us can muster and sustain the courage to see and stand up for what is right.

Let me hope that The ripped chest will be widely available , widely read and widely consulted . May it , together with Unheard voices , provoke outrage and inspire action by the many who are in positions where they can make a difference . Most obviously and directly , these are officials and politicians, at all levels . They are also they many in civil society – in NGOs, in the professions , in business, in unions – who are or can become in many different ways activists for change. And for all of those it is also their families who either undermine or support them in taking stands of courage and sacrifice. All have their part to play . For it is the accumulation of individual actions that counts . Some are dramatic and visible . Many appear mundane and are seen by only a few. All matter . All can make a difference. All can combine and contribute to movements. May The Ripped Chest inform and encourage that brave vanguard of governmenty officers and activits who already confront secrecy , corruption and malpractice and who are already committed transparency,honesty and justice.May it also encourage many others to join them. For there is nothing inevitable about the bad life experienced each bday by so many crores of poor and marginalised people . That bad life is made by us , by humankind.And what we make we can unmake. The Ripped Chest shows us many ways in which this has to be done . May it inspire god actions and much change for the better.

“

I read this book yday .. A Search in Secret India by Paul brunton who is pretty famous in the west for his discoveries in the east . First published in 1934 , the one i was reading was a 1989 reprint . Since we are now no different from the westerner of the 1930s .. in that .. most of us know just as little about the oriental charm thanks to our heavily westernised systems of the current day .. it is a good read for us too ;) .

It is scary though .. very scary … like the tagline of Rajnikant’s super-flop ‘Baba’ … ‘Known is a drop Unknown is an Ocean’ :)… Indeed !

A bit long … but thoroughly entertaining nevertheless .. the book is full of such stories .. the author is quite famous for his books like .. Search in secret egypt .. Inner reality .. The Hidden teaching beyond yoga so on.

“I know almost nothing of yoga”,he has confessed . “What you tell me is new to me. I have not even met a yogi , that is ,a real one , save Narsingha swami , who came to calcutta not long ago”.

It is then that i enquire after the latter’s whereabouts , only to receive this disappointing answer.

“Narsingha Swami flashed into calcutta , created a sensation , and then went off I know not where. I understood that he emerged suddenly out of retirement in the interior , before he came here , so he may have returned there”

“I would like to know what happened”

“He was the talk of the town for a short time.He was discovered by Dr.Neoghy , who is Professor of Chemistry at the Presidency College of Calcutta Universtity , a month of two before at Madhupore. Dr.Neoghy saw him lick a few drops of pisonous acid, and also stuff glowing charcoal into his mouth and keep it there until it stopped glowing . The doctor’s interest was aroudsed and the Yogi was persuaded to come to Calcutta. The University arranged for a public demonstration of Narsingha Swami’s powers before and auience composed exclusively of scientists and medical men. I was among those invited to be present. It was held in the Physics Theatre of the Presidency College. We were a fairly critical lot and , as you know , i have given very little thought to matters of religion,Yoga, and suchlike things , because my attention has been centred on professional studies.

“The yogi stood in the centre of the theatre and he was handed poisons which had been taken from the college laboratory stock. We gave him a bottle of sulphuric acid first. He poured a few drops into his palm and licked them up his tongue.He was then given strong carbolic acid , and he licked that up too.We tried him with that deadly poison potassium cyanide, but he swallowed it without turning a hair ! The feat was astounding,unbelievable even,yet we had to accept the evidence of our own eyes.He had taken enough potassium cyanide to kill any other man within three minutes at most,yet there he stood smiling and apparently unharmed.

“After that, a thick glass bottle was broken and the pieces was ground down to a powder . Narasingha Swami swallowed the powder, which can slowly kill. Three hours after swallowing this strange meal, one of our Calcutta doctors applied a stomach pump to the Yogi and the contents of his stomach were taken out . The poisons were still there. And on the following day the powdered glass was discovered in his stool.

“The throughness of our test was beyond dispute . The strength of the sulphuric acid was shown by its destructive effect on a copper coin . Among those present at the demonstration was Sir C.V.Raman , the famous scientist and winner of the Nobel prize, who described the performance as a challenge to modern science. When we asked Nataraja Swami how he was able to take such liberties with his body, he told us that immediately on his return home he would go nto a Yoga trance and , by and intense concentration of the mind , counteract the deadly effect of the Poison”.

Narasingha Swami reappeared in Calcutta some time later, and then proceeded to Rangoon, Burma . Here he gave a similar demonstration , but owing to a press of unexpected visitors , omitted to follow his usual practice of entering the Yoga trance on arrival home . The result was that he died with tragic swiftness.

“But in our present educational system a person has no responsibility at all in the affairs of life to the last day of a certain year;yet when the first day of the next year dawns he must be prepared to take full responsibility of his affairs. We seem to see nothing wrong in this, yet surely the jump from complete irresponsibility to complete responsibility  is a regular Hanuman’s Leap, and it is not surprising that bones should be broken in this attempt.

A young man of twenty , enthusiastically absorbed in his studies, builds all kinds of castles in the air : “i will serve my motherland as did Shivaji the Great , I will become a poet , a Valmiki . I will be a scientist like Newton”. So , in countless ways he dreams of the future.(It is true that only a very few young men get the chance to dream such dreams, but at present i am speaking of these lucky few.) What becomes of these dreams later in life ? The poor fellow has to stoop to problems of housekeeping, of getting his daily bread. Upto now he has had no idea of what the responsibilities of life really mean;now they loom ahead like a mountain range. Shivaji the free outlaw of the jungles , Valmiki the sweet singer , Newton the great discoverer , must lay their dreams to rest and turn their attention to matters like getting a job,finding a wife,marrying off a daughter,and finally for providing for a funeral.So much for the results of Hanuman’s leap.

I ask a matriculation student : “What are you going to do next ?”-”What next ? Oh , I Shall go to College.”- “You will go to College, of course , but afterwards ? Have you not thought about what you will do ater ?” – “Yes, I shall have to decide sometime , but why bother about it now ? We shall see later on “.

Three years go by , and we ask the same student the same question.”No,” he says “I have not decided yet.” – “What do you mean ? Have you not thought about it at all ?” – “No, Sir I haven’t.I have no idea what i shall do . But there is still an year and a half . We shall see later on.”

“We shall see later on” – the very phrase that he had used three years before . But his manner then was quite carefree . Now it is tinged with anxiety.

A year and a half later we meet the same student – now a married man- again . This time his face is trouble , his voice has lost its carefree ring. Sankaracharya’s famous question : “What next ? What next? What next?” repeats itself insistently in his brain , and he can find no answer to it “

From :

“Learning and Living” from Thoughts on Education by Acharya Vinoba Bhave (translated by marjori sykes) …

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Posts this year :

Jan: 1 Feb: 0 Mar: 0 Apr: 0 May: 1 Jun :2 Jul:1 Aug:2 Sep:0 Oct:2 Nov:0 Dec:1

Tats jus 10 posts in one whole year !! .. That just shows how hopeless this year had been . Not tat my posts were top-notch always or something like that .. but this by far has been the dullest year in my life (except ofcourse for a couple of non-public updates may be) … My blog has always been more like my personal diary made public .. i have always had something to share … views/opinions on things around me .. books i read .. movies i see .. places i go to and general BC .. but sadly this year has been hopeless on all counts :) ..  largely becoz of my work-life which proved to be too taxing for me …  :P … hope things change for good starting early next year .. i shud be quitting my job soon :) … Not that i hate it or it is something that is undoable by anyone .. but may be it is the quarter life crisis … suddenly it was like being asked not to dream .. may be i need some more student life or idle time :)

What next ??? What next ??? .. The question still rings in my mind .. like the fellow mentioned in the vinoba passage … and i seem to find no convincing answer for that … i hope i do .. soon …

Over a period of time these days … i have been constantly amazed by one fact about sport … it provides so many stories of underdog triumps .. so many stories of comebacks .. redemptions … criticial decisions … so on … it is very interesting to see .. how people manage to stay upbeat amidst adversities .. fight back .. standup for themselves .. and then one day have that big smile on ….. hope triumphs really :) ..

I thought i should document these on my blog ..

Graeme Swann : [Oct 23 2009 . Indian express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/i-wanted-to-give-up-cricket-and-become-a-hack-swann/532283/0 ]

It was in South Africa that his international career almost ended no sooner then it had begun in 1999/2000.
Such was the crisis of confidence sparked by that trip that Swann thought about quitting cricket completely. Swann made his one-day international debut in South Africa. But missing the team bus because of oversleeping did not impress then coach Duncan Fletcher and Swann, now with Nottinghamshire, had to wait more than seven years for another England call.
“When I was playing at Northants at the end I couldn’t have been further away from playing for England,” said Swann.
“I didn’t even want to play cricket – for Northants or Northampton Saints (the town’s rugby union team), let alone England. I wanted to give up and become a hack (journalist),” he explained.
“There was a lot of time when I couldn’t imagine playing for England again.”
But since making his Test bow, against India in December, Swann has established himself as England’s premier spinner.

In those seven years of waiting .. he would have doubted himself innumerable number of times .. but then .. today he finally established himself :) …

Moral of the story : Self belief is the last thing you should lose even in the worst of times

T Dilshan : [Sep 23 2009 , Indian express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/opening-the-innings-has-changed-my-life-dilshan/520538/0]

Dilshan was dropped from the ODI side September last year after his average slipped to 25.87 in 21 matches. When he returned early this year to team, he was asked to open in ODIs and he never looked back after that. Dilshan got the Player-of-the-Series award after amassing 317 runs at an average of 52.83 in the Twenty20 World Cup.

Opening the innings has changed my life .. “I am in good form for last six month or one year and I want to deliver in this tournament also. I have changed my batting order. I think this is the turning point for me.”I open the innings which gives me opportunity to play my strokes and take chances during the powerplays so that is the turning point I feel,” he added.

And look where he is now .. who doesnt remember Dil-scoop .. and all his recent antics on the field .. now it is unimaginable .. that dilshan had a 25.87 average for 21 matches !! .. and that he was actually “dropped” from the team ..

Moral of the story : Everyone gets a turning point . Wait for yours :).

Usain Bolt : [Oct 20 2009 , Indian express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/returning-to-first-love-bolt-beats-gayle-wi/530665/ ]

Triple Olympic and world champion sprinter Usain Bolt returned to his first love, cricket, on Sunday and showed that he certainly knows how to handle both bat and ball.
Bolt, who batted with his brother Sadeeki, made 13 with the bat, including a superbly struck six off Gayle’s off-spin.
“I was pretty good as a kid and my cricket coach said I should concentrate on bowling because I was pretty quick running in,” Bolt said. “I also used to open the batting for the school team but I haven’t batted for a long time,” he said. “The six was a brilliant feeling, though.”

God knows what would have happened .. if Usain Bolt was fighting for his place in Westindies team and working hard in Jamaica first class team :D

Moral of the story : Sometimes the “switch” can work wonders :) . You just need to know where to switch when to switch .

Darren Ganga and T&T T20 team in Champions League [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daren_Ganga]:

Now who hasnt read abt this :) .. Pollard’s heroics .. Ganga’s captaincy .. Pollard i dunno .. but atleast for Ganga .. this has to be “the” moment of his life … As in .. what was he before this league ??… a top order westindies batsman who was “rejected” :) … Now the sudden limelight .. ppl talking abt him as “the” man for reviving westindies cricket etc :) …

Moral of the story : Life throws enough surprises .. Wait for yours :) ..

Jacques of all trades : [September 22  2009 Cricinfo http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/425941.html]

This has been well documented here  . The sudden rise of the new jacques kallis has astonished many people . Hardcore kallis fans like me arent surprised though ;) …

Anyone who has seen the high utility jacques kallis is the IPL-2 , Recent T20 would be surprised to know that he was omitted from South Africa’s World Twenty20 squad .

But look what he did to himself then .. he went back .. reinvented himself ..
“I wanted to improve my batting in the one-day formats and looked long and hard at making a few technical changes,” recalls Kallis. “Mickey Arthur and [mentor] Duncan Fletcher helped me make the necessary adjustments, but I’ll admit it was a lot of hard work.”  .. If kallis .. kallis ! . the big man himself .. can go to the nets .. reinvent himself .. work on mistakes ..  you and me can as well

Moral of the story : There is always scope for reinventing and re-evaluating oneself. Do your due diligence .. and it will work wonders.

Irfan Pathan “It’s not just a hope, I believe good times will return”
[Oct 25 2009 , Indian express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/its-not-just-a-hope-i-believe-good-times-will-return/532841/0]

I have always admired irfan pathan … i admire him even more after i read such … it is not about attaining success at a young age .. it is not about making a mess out of it .. it is about staying upbeat in the face of adversities .. and this 24yr old’s ongoing story is the best example for that :D … I hope he makes a comeback one day .. one big huge comeback .. so that all the naysayers keep their mouth shut :D …

““It’s not just a hope, but I believe that good times will return. I have seen worse three years ago and I have overcome that. There will always be a position in the team for a guy who can bowl and bat well. I believe that I will perform and get an opportunity to play four or five games on a trot,” he says.

Thumbsup ! Irfan :D

Moral of the story : Believe goods times will return .. and they will ..

Mohd Kaif :
[0ct 25 2009 , Indian express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/watching-from-the-stands/532866/0 ]

“Now I am three or four degrees away from the Indian team. But I’m playing well, and somewhere I know I can make it back”
“I have to make the best of every opportunity I get. Life doesn’t give too many chances,” he says with a smile, “at least not to me.”

I dont talk much about Kaif .. coz i am not a big fan of his actually :P .. except for this interview of his really i dont admire or adore him so much .. But yeah i hope he too makes his comeback again !

Moral of the story : [Same as above]  Believe good times will return .. and they will ..

So the frustrated software engineer got frustrated again , this time he decided to go the tamhini ghats near pune and enjoy the greenery and whitery  around( dunno if such a word exists … if it didnt … now it does :P)… ( As mentioned before ,  this seems to be the standard opening line for my posts these days ;) … i am reminded of Vikram aur Bethal series .. where each story starts with the same lines :D ) …

Little background on tamhini ghats :

Last year about the same time i went to Mahabaleshwar … on the way back we lost our way .. roamed around in random roads and somehow came back via tamhini ghats …. it was dark by then … and despite the darkness i had decided this as one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen to date ;) ……. one of my friends famously claimed that the valley/mountain view from the ghats is going to be his profile pic on orkut/gtalk .. and hasnt changed it in a year now :D ….

So we started ( 3 in all) … from Pune at 6:30AM … pirangut ghat -> paud road -> mulshi -> tamhini .. and back .. It is just about 80kms .. and as one of my colleagues remarked .. “this is why i dont want to leave pune .. there are sooo many beautiful places around pune” … so true … pune rox when it rains :) …

The speciality of these ghats is .. the huge number of waterfalls …. and the white white gushing waters there …. Check the pics then :) …

Pic 1  Comment 1 :

Trust me this is NOT a wallpaper from wallpapers.com :P

Pic 2 Comment 1 :

I had corn / mokka jonna here along with hot boiled egg … trust me good hot food does help .. at times :P ( I rarely eat egg btw .. i am supposed to act like a pure vegetarian .. but for once .. i couldnt resist ;) )

Pic 3 Comment 1 :

This waterfall was a bit bigger .. and we could walk high up also … nice experience it was

Pic 4 Comment 1 :

Yet another one .. by this time i got bored of water :D

Pic 5 Comment 1  :

Coupled by awesome views of like the one below .. it was an awesome trip indeed ..

Comment 2 :

This pic is supposed to have captured a waterfall .. where we could barely see the water fall … it was as if it joined the clouds before it fell ….. I know i need a better camera :D

Pic 6 Comment 1 :

If there are two things that amaze me the most about all these places around pune … It is the fog or mist or rain or watever :D … It suddenly makes the sorrounding look sooooo beautiful ;) …

Pic 7 Comment 1 :

If fog/mist/rain is the first thing .. the greenery is the second … i somehow never remember seeing this kind of greenery in my side of india ;) .. Andhra pradesh .. though my colleague from coastal andhra reminds me .. some places in coastal andhra .. look just as green too ..

So the frustrated software engineer got frustrated again [My last three posts have the words .. Frustrated software engineers .. do you see a pattern here :D ] .. and decided to go to Diveagar – Harihareshwar … he had three other colleagues joining him this time ..

Now lets finish of this thing fast .. as the author needs to rush for a movie at 7PM .. and he cant waste time .. doing something as trivial as blogging … :P …

Diveagar – Is a konkan beach town .. like many others on the konkan coast ;) … it has a famous suvarna ganesha temple .. though the temple will look more like a cottage from the outside .. as in no .. gopuram or some such things that u expect from a hindu temple …  It has got a black-black beach .. which i think i last saw .. when i was in ratnagiri ;) … when i went there it was raining .. cats dogs dinosaurs .. wat not :D … and it was precisely the rain that added beauty to the full scene . We hired an indica from pune to diveagar .. about 250kms .. unless you get lucky .. like we did :) .. This journey btw started with a Puncture :D ..

From diveagar .. next stop was harihareshwar .. which has got a white-white beach .. and a famous temple .. another cottage like temple .. like the one seen in diveagar .. apparently this place is called … Dakshin Kashi it seems .. had lunch there .. and stayed there till about 5PM-6PM or so .. and reached Pune at 10PM …

Nice trip it was .. and here are the pics :)

The black black beach ..

The green green forests .. that sorrounded the black black beach … [ At this point of time the author thinks repeated mention of colours .. make this sound like  a kindergarten rhyme :D ]

This is the cottage like temple .. Harihareshwar temple …

The white white waters :)

Grey grey skies :)

Another post .. after about a month or so .. okie .. i can count .. more than a month ;) ..

So the frustrated software engineer got frustrated again .. and went to Ajanta-Ellora-Aurangabad last weekend …

Other frustrated software engineers and frustrated research students :P … joined .. 10 members in all ..

The folks who came from hyderabad came in Ajanta express which starts at a convenient time of 6:30pm from hyderabad and reaches aurangabad at 4:30am . From pune i had a couple of roommates joining me and our bus started from pune at 12:00 AM and reached aurangabd at 4:30AM .

Immediately we headed to the railway station as the others were waiting for us there , luckily enough we found this fella who offered for a tata-sumo / tavera for all 10 of us .. for 2 day tour including Ajanta – Ellora- Grishneshwar – Daulatabad fort – Aurangabad . The tariff worked out to about 600/- per head for 2 days , if u can sacrifice the a/c in the vehicle then it would be 500/- per head . Not bad actually ;) ..

The driver fella also took us to a hotel nearby , after some bickering etc .. we managed to find 3 rooms for 10 of us at a tariff of 450/- per room .. about 150/- per head per day :D .. cheap ;) .. So we then slept for sometime and had breakfast etc and started to ajanta at 9:00 am . Ajanta takes about 2-3hrs from aurangabad .

It is a UNESCO world heritage site … and is more of a never ending stretch of caves . Some of the paintings are good .. but after a certain point of time it does get boring . But yes walking through the whole sequence of caves .. listening to the gibberish that the guide mouths is an experience in itself ;) . We returned to Aurangabad after having lunch at a local dabha at about 5:00 PM .

This is when some of the folks got a brilliant to idea to also go to shirdi .. which is about 2hrs from aurangabad … miraculously enough they managed to find a cab for about 1500/- and 5 of them left to shirdi at 6:30pm .. reached and finished darshan by 9:30pm and came back to aurangabad by 11:30pm .. Quite fast indeed ;) .

Those of us who chose not to visit shirdi .. went roaming in the city .. and landed in a zoo :P … zoo in the middle of the city .. with quite a few animals .. all this at 5/- entrance ticket :D .. cheap ;) …

Next day we started to Daulatabad fort first … reached there in about an hour from aurangabad . Boy o boy . what a fort that is .. it is by far the largest of the forts i have ever seen to date ( i did see quite a few after coming to maharashtra ;) ) .. very very tiring .. the whole climb . But looking at the grandeur .. the dark alleys .. and other traps for enemies etc is a fun experience.

Then we went to this temple .. Grishneshwar which is one of the 12 jyotirlinga places in India . The temple looked very similar to the one i saw in triambakeshwar .. except for change in colours here and there :) . Only difference is .. you need to go in half-naked into this temple if you are a male … obv they cant put such restrictions for females :D . So if any girl is reading this post… don’t worry :P.

We then went to ellora caves which is about 30mins from this fort . Ellora is different from Ajanta in a lot of aspects … in that the caves have lesser paintings and more sculptures ;) . It also has got the awesome Kailashnath temple .. which is supposedly one of the world’s largest monolithic structures.

Next stop was Bibi-ka-maqbara .. the imitation of tajmahal .. it is a pretty decent imitation .. but ofcourse no point comparing it with tajmahal … this can be called may be poor man’s tajmahal ;) .. the ones deep down south who feel going to agra is such a pain .. can visit this place and stay content ;) …..

Then took a bus again at 12:00pm from aurangabad and reached pune at 6:00am .. this bus sucked though :D .

Now for the only entertaining part of the post …. entertainment is such a subjective thing really :D ..

Caves in Ellora / Ajanta .. How does it matter anyway .. Caves are caves :D

One of the awesome sculptures in Ellora

What was this called .. Chaitya hall ?? .. or whatever the guide said

The next two pics are just to show what a pain climbing the daulatabad/devgiri fort can be .. this is the minar/tower seen at the bottom of the fort

And this is how it would look from the top of the fort …

This was the final destination .. the bibi ka maqbara …