Sunday, May 27, 2007

Time: 26th May 2007

 

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gunAnd you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

 

 

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
Its good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.

 

Pink floyds masterpiece….

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Sunday, May 20, 2007

Dawn

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And Tomorrow is only a Vision;
But Today well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

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Saturday, May 19, 2007

Moral Dilema

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather l et the train go its way?

L et ' s take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make................
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Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, I thought the same way initially because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic soci et y, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train ' s sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

"Remember that what ' s right isn ' t always popular... and what ' s popular isn ' t always right."

Everybody makes mistakes; that's why they put erasers on pencils.

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Thursday, May 17, 2007

Pathetic state of "Brahmins"

At a time when nearly all political parties are vying with each other to please Dalits or other backward classes advocating reservations for them, ignoring the Brahmins, French Journalist Francois Gautier, having spent nearly two decades in India, finds it a prejudiced trend based on misconceptions.   

In a write up “Are Brahmins the Dalits of today?” (May 26, 2006 ) posted on Rediffmail.com, Gautier has pointed out how much ill-found are the facts about the ‘prosperity’ of Hindus, especially, the Brahmins in today’s India.

He lashes out at the UPA Government for following an appeasement policy, which appears to be based on obsolete data about the actual state of Dalits in India.

“At a time when the Congress Government wants to raise the quota for Other Backward Classes to 49.5 per cent in private and public sectors, nobody talks about the plight of the upper castes,” says Gautier in his write up.  

According to Gautier, today’s Brahmins can be easily found cleaning public toilets, a menial job that the government projects as if it is being done only by Dalits since ages.

“There are 50 Sulabh Shauchalayas (public toilets) in Delhi; all of them are cleaned and looked after by Brahmins (this very welcome public institution was started by a Brahmin).

There are five to six Brahmins manning each Shauchalaya. In most villages in UP and Bihar, Dalits have a union which helps them secure jobs in villages,” Gautier states.

Fifty per cent of rickshaw-pullers in Delhi’s Patel Nagar are Brahmins. Did you also know that most rickshaw pullers in Banaras are Brahmins?,” Gautier asks.

He questions: “Do our institutes connect with the real India?” while pointing out the reverse discrimination existing in bureaucracy and politics of the country.

Talking about Kashmiri Pandits, Gautier mentions they are living as refugees in their own country.

“400,000 Brahmins of the Kashmir Valley, the once respected Kashmiri Pandits, now live as refugees in their own country, sometimes in refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi, in appalling conditions. Their vote bank is negligible,” says Gautier.

In South India, the state of Brahmins as stated by various agencies speaks for itself.
 
Seventy five per cent of domestic help and cooks in Andhra Pradesh are Brahmins.

“A study of the Brahmin community in a district in Andhra Pradesh (Brahmins of India by J Radhakrishna, published by Chugh Publications) reveals that today all Purohits live below the poverty line,” quotes Gautier.

Gautier questions: “Who are the real Dalits of India?”

“In fact, according to this study there has been an overall decline in the number of Brahmin students. With the average income of Brahmins being less than that of non-Brahmins, a high percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level,” Gautier quotes.

“The study also found that 55 per cent of all Brahmins lived below the poverty line -- below a per capita income of Rs 650 a month,” adding there is no reason to believe that the condition of Brahmins in other parts of the country is different.

Gautier quotes the per capita income of various communities as stated by the Karnataka finance minister in the State assembly: Christians Rs 1,562, Vokkaligas Rs 914, Muslims Rs 794, Scheduled castes Rs 680, Scheduled Tribes Rs 577 and Brahmins Rs 537.

But preferential policies for the non-Brahmins in government jobs and modern occupations such as law and medicine have forced Brahmins to retreat in these spheres as well.

Gautier suggests that caste shouldn't overwrite merit while quoting an Andhra Pradesh study, the largest percentage of Brahmins today are employed as domestic servants. The unemployment rate among them is as high as 75 per cent. There are hundreds of families that are surviving on just Rs 500 per month as priests in various temples (Department of Endowments statistics).

Gautier says : “There are innumerable instances in which Brahmin priests who spent a lifetime studying Vedas are being ridiculed and disrespected.”

“At Tamil Nadu's Ranganathaswamy Temple, a priest's monthly salary is Rs 300 (Census Department studies) and a daily allowance of one measure of rice. The government staff at the same temple receive Rs 2,500 plus per month,” Gautier states.

Gautier observes and lashes out at the Congress-led government observing “the tragedy of modern India is that the combined votes of Dalits/OBC and Muslims are enough for any government to be elected. The Congress quickly cashed in on it after Independence, but probably no other government than Sonia Gandhi's has gone so far in shamelessly dividing Indian society for garnering votes.”

Gautier also quotes from The Indian Express newspaper’s report: 'These measures will not achieve social justice'

“The Indian government gives Rs 1,000 crores (Rs 10 billion) for salaries of imams in mosques and Rs 200 crores (Rs 2 billion) as Haj subsidies. But no such help is available to Brahmins and upper castes.”

Writing about how reservations fracture Hindu society, Gautier observed that Anti-Brahminism originated in, and still prospers in anti-Hindu circles. It is particularly welcome among Marxists, missionaries, Muslims, separatists and Christian-backed Dalit movements of different hues. When they attack Brahmins, their target is unmistakably Hinduism.

 

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Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Salary of Government Servant

Salary & Govt. Concessions for a Member of Parliament (MP)

 

Monthly Salary : Rs. 12,000

Expense for Constitution per month : Rs.10,000 Office expenditure per month : Rs.14,000

 

Traveling concession (Rs. 8 per km) : Rs.48,000 (For a visit to Delhi & return: 6000 km)

 

Daily BETA during parliament meets : Rs.500 Charge for 1 class (A/C) in train : Free (For any number of times) (All over India )

 

Charge for Business Class in flights : Free for 40 trips / year (With wife or P.A.)

 

Rent for MP hostel at Delhi : Free

 

Electricity costs at home : Free up to 50,000 units

 

Local phone call charge : Free up to 1,70,000 calls.

TOTAL expense for a MP per year : Rs. 32,00,000

 

TOTAL expense for 5 years : Rs. 1,60,00,000

 

For 534 MPs, the expense for 5 years :  Rs. 8,54,40,00,000 (nearly 855 cores) And they are elected by THE PEOPLE OF INDIA , by the largest democratic process in the world, not intruded into the parliament on their own or by any qualification.

This is how all our tax money is been swallowed and price hike on our regular commodities.......

Think of the great democracy we have.............

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High Hopes - Pink Floyd

"High Hopes"

Just last night while plugging in my songs this one came up and i felt elevated... the quality of music is just brilliant of Floyd. Gilmour, Roger, Syd together created something that is legend and that gets your thoughts to reality.... I dont really know how many Floyd fans visit me .... but still heres a sampling of what the brilliance means...


Beyond the horizon
of the place we lived
when we were young

In a world of magnets and miracles
Our thoughts strayed constantly
and without boundary
The ringing of the division bell had begun

Along the Long Road
and on down the Causeway
Do they still meet there by the Cut

There was a ragged band
that followed in our footsteps
Running before time took our dreams away
Leaving the myriad small creatures
trying to tie us to the ground

To a life consumed by slow decay
The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The nights of wonder

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us
To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side
Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again
Dragged by the force of some inner tide
At a higher altitude with flag unfurled
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world
Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
There's a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
Though down this road we've been so many times

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river
Forever and ever


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Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd is by far the greatest band for me. I can hear them again and angain and again! Its also like a shot in the arm to hear Division Bell and I feel recharged into whatever I was doing.

Here is a song "Comfortably Numb"




Hello.
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?
Come on, now.
I hear youre feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain,
Get you on your feet again.

Relax.
I need some information first.
Just the basic facts:Can you show me where it hurts?
There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ships smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I cant hear what youre sayin.
When I was a child I had a fever.
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I got that feeling once again.
I cant explain, you would not understand.
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.

Ok.Just a little pinprick. [ping]
Therell be no more --aaaaaahhhhh!
But you may feel a little sick.
Can you stand up?
I do believe its working. good.
Thatll keep you going for the show.
Come on its time to go.

There is no pain,
you are receding.
A distant ships smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I cant hear what youre sayin.
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse,
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown,
the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

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