When Bangalore gets too hot

Here are ten things I do in the hottest March Bangalore has seen in 15 years:
1. Sit next to a cool,silent, table fan like Havell or Croma ( you can buy one for < Rs 2000).
2. Pour over myself one third bucket of water saved overnight every 6 hours. ( you can do it 3 times a day from one 25 lit bucket).
3. Stay on the lowest floor possible (no hot ceilings).
4. Drink LOTS of water, again saved overnight, or if you can handle it, from the fridge.
5. Eat fruits and vegetable salads.
6. Drink butter milk instead of coffee or tea.
7. Drink tender coconut water ( you get great ones at your doorstep at around Rs 15 each)
8. Go eat MTR fruit salad with ice cream.
9. Take a siesta in my lazy boy.
10. Think of Chennai, Hyderabad and Calcutta - they are hotter!

Beyond Satyameva Jayate

Kumar Gandharva - how to tell a story.

Dear rasikas,
Thanks to my good friend Varsha, I am revisiting some great moments with Kumar Gandharva over the years. I want you to enjoy these two WONDERFUL narratives about a man who discovered God through music:
1. Shabnam Virmani's classic : http://bit.ly/kumargkoisuntahai
2. Films Division Documentary on Kumar Gandharva: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLw5sZ273vM

A few things for those few who may not know Kumar Gandharva:
-b. 1924 near Dharwad, began singing famous Bal Gandharva and other masters' songs at the age of 8, well enough to merit the title Kumar Gandharva.
- was a star already when he enrolled in Deodhar music academy in Bombay for methodical training.
- married his own student Bhanumati in mid 1940s.
- was stricken with TB and doctors said he didn't have a chance to sing any more, and he went away to Devas in Malva region of MP a sad recluse.
- was nursed back to health by his wife in mid-50s, and rediscovered himself and found a new path to music through Kabir Vani.
- created a new chapter in Hindustani music shorn of gharana tabs and sang thematic concerts for many years afterwards.
- lost his first wife, a great woman...remarried another disciple, and left behind a great legacy and many talented students.

Coming to these two films, unlike many films I have seen especially on South Indian artistes, these two films are not a series of eulogies using words like fantastic, incarnation, prodigy, musicians musician and so on; they are carefully-worded sincere (non-self-projecting) attempts to describe what was unique about the man and his music, with examples and musical audio/video clips. At the end of it all, you are left in a world of music and artistic sensibilities that go beyond hagiography.

The visual content of the films is also very artistic and moving.

I will surely recommend this as a BIG Sunday treat!!!

Ciao
Sachi R

Slouch trouble

From Economic Times Corporate Dossier today:

Life has no clean lines.

Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram - values to live by

The expression "Satyam Shivam Sundaram" invokes very happy vibrations in most Hindus. This expression is associated with the Vedas (Rig Veda, Rudra worship etc.?) and comes often in discussions of Adi Shankara's works. I read this morning a chapter on Saundarya Lahari - interpretations by the Kanchi Paramacharya. He explains that Devi, the mother goddess, is depicted by Shankara as the ultimate confluence of overflowing love = goodness and physical bodily beauty and that confluence can happen only in godhead. Man connects with everything that is beautiful and good instinctively, and that is because these values seem intrinsic to the loftier ideals of humanity.

I think Plato talked of Truth, Beauty and Goodness as abiding values for the philosophic progress of mankind. I just found a fine lecture by Steiner in 1923 on this theme.

Therefore these values of "Satyam Shivam Sundaram" = "Truth Goodness and Beauty" seem universal aspects of philosophical thought from time immemorial.

Osho has given a series of very beautiful lectures called Satyam Shivam Sundaram. He says that whereas "Sat-Chit-Anand" is a goal to be pursued in meditation, Satyam Shivam Sundaram is the external manifestation of the same ultimate reality that we can connect with in the world of creation.

Precisely. I think all values and philosophies start with me, as the perceiving, thinking, living entity. Without me, there is no Satyam Shivam Sundaram. Just as all conceptions of God, whatever religion and whatever deities we may worship, are only projections of our own philosophical pursuits and values.

Poetry and prayer are rooted in our conception of God or the Ultimate Reality. We can build fantastic treatises and books of prayer to expand this, and expound to others our thinking. That results in cults and religions. That results in beautiful works like Saundarya Lahari.

We can even connect mathematics, geometry, physics, music, art, and everything else in human artistic and scientific endeavour to this basic infrastructure of values of Truth Beauty and Goodness. Fundamentally, it all starts with human consciousness. That is the core principle. So Ramana said, ask yourself, "Who am I"
When I understand universal connectedness of consciousness, I think I have arrived. All the books and songs about "truth, goodness and beauty", and even, let me say it, Raj Kapoor's eponymous film, are entertainment on the way. It is like keeping school children entertained in a picnic with songs, dances and games so they don't get lost in the woods!

Now my own thoughts.

The first, truth, is something absolute, unassailable, undistortable. All pursuit of reality has to be based on truth. Truth is beyond sentiment, beyond preferences, beyond distortions. Of course absolute truth is beyond comprehension. But pursuing truth as a value is something like taking in a pathology report or a school marks card or report card. We may like to see something else, or we can project it into the past or future, but truth is something which is 100% The Present, not memory or wish. It is the basis of any progress. It is a bit like walking. In order to take the next step, I have to deal with the reality of the earth beneath my feet.

The second, goodness, is even more separated from my own preferences. When I see goodness, I have to appreciate it even if it is against me. For example, if I have a need for something selfish or mean, and someone is being good in denying me this, I have to deal with it. In fact if I am very self-centered, I often do not see goodness. I can be childish, churlish, corrupt or mean. I need to pursue the value of goodness by overcoming this. Goodness here is not a quality like fresh or pleasant, don't believe the ads. Goodness is an intrinsic quality of loving and giving. It is in the people, and even in abstract ways in things, like the cool and still water that nourishes the thirsty birds and animals in summer or the early morning sun.

And beauty is about MY preferences and desires! I like a sky-blue colour for my car. I like a nice warm pinkish glow in the cheek of a baby. I like the sparkle of beautiful music, the striking appeal of a well-done dance movement. Beauty is an ideal that exists in the abstract, but lives in my consciousness. That is why the bard said beauty is in the beholder's eye.

Now why this sequence? Because truth is inviolable and cannot be wished away. It is something universal. Goodness is a real, palpable, feel-able thing, for which I have to go beyond my selfishness and ego. Goodness connects me with the rest of humanity and creation. And beauty is a luxury, a value that I will embrace when I become a fuller being, a more developed consciousness. In fact at that level, it makes the three-fold value my personal path to liberation.

Truth goes beyond you and me. Goodness starts with you. Beauty starts with me. But to pursue the trio, my consciousness is the basic pre-condition.

Sunday @ the park

Sony Xperia Z photos

In the silence of the night

My newest Gizmo Sony Xperia Z

Well, I shall act all proud and shy and what not as you applaud my newest acquisition bought with hard earned money and hard suppressed craving. It's the latest and greatest Sony mobile phone. It is the sixth Sony phone I have owned. Apple and Sony are my two favourite gadget brands. Unlike Bose with which I have an uneasy intimacy, with these two I have pure love. I forgot to list Canon DSLRs and Lumix point & shoots. For their design, user interface, quality, reliability and long life. My second android phone this, sports everything I want in a phablet, and works fine as a phone too. I was one of the first to own it in Bangalore, but they sold four more in the same Sony store as I was standing at the checkout. Waterproof, full hd, lots of cool apps. Like blogger here. Well, talk to you soon with pics shot on this 13MP camera!

The Dying Indian Post Office.

Today's ET shows what I had been suspecting all along. The Indian Post Office is a dying phenomenon. Far gone are the days when we we waited for the postman with bated bath to bring us news of IIT admission, someone's job or wedding or a new arrival. Gone too the days when we had so much pleasure going and buying lovely postage stamps with lovely pictures of famous people or lovely art. Gone too perhaps the postal savings scheme and such. The PIN code we proudly show in everything called our postal address, is more like an epitaph to a dead institution.

When I lived in Germany, Australia and Singapore, when I used the US Post, I saw how cheerful those places were. They sold a lot of useful things, apart from postal stationery. They sold packing boxes and prepaid speed post envelopes. Hardy covers that would proudly withstand the ravages of transport and proudly declare where their trip began, when delivered with your lovely handwriting to your near and dear ones far away.

When I sent a lovely book recently by speed post to Canada, at a fraction of the cost of a private courier, the Indian Post delivered it fast and safe. Even today, we can't help going and checking every day our post box at the gate for some nice surprises. Alas, we find some useless handbills for pizzas and Andhra Chicken Biriyani.

Why can't we use our national imagination to make the Indian Post Office the centre of our social life? Here are a dozen ways we can bring the glory back:
1. The Post Office handles all postal and courier parcels with guaranteed efficiency and speed at lower cost and basically becomes the first mode of delivery. Revenues will grow 10X.
2. They have door to door pick up and delivery for a convenience fee.
3. You can buy all your stationery needs.
4. You can buy school books.
5. You can do your health insurance.
6. You can do national postal savings.
7. They offer all payments online through a single gateway with a credit card tie-up with SBI.
8. They offer scanning, faxing and binding services.
9. They have community events in each locality.
10. They offer special door to door service to all senior citizens.
11. They have special school events and projects.
12. They tie up with Railways to showcase how Post and Railway are big national integrators.

By doing all this, we will be using prime-location, trusted, government real estate for doing what the government can do best to serve the community well.

A story about three grains of wheat.

I heard this story from Osho.

A king was about to retire and wanted to select one of his three sons to inherit the reins of his kingdom. He called them all and told them that he was going to decide who among them would make the best successor. He gave each of them a grain of wheat and said they should each do what they deemed fit with the grain during the next couple of years when he would be gone on his travels.

On his return, the king called each son to narrate what he had done with the grain of wheat.

The first replied, 'father, as your successor, I should preserve the safety of our kingdom. I understood at once this grain of wheat is your metaphor for the kingdom. Here it is, I have kept it safe in a gold box.' When the box was opened, the grain looked wasted and dead.

The second son replied, 'father, I knew you wanted to test how well I would inherit the richness of our kingdom. The wheat grain was your metaphor for our wealth. The wealth of a grain is in its eating, so I cooked it and ate it up.'

The third and last son told his father, 'father, I request you to come with me to see what I have done with the grain'. He took him to a field, and showed a rich harvest of wheat. He said, 'father, the true potential of our kingdom is to grow and prosper. I knew your grain was your metaphor for the productive potential of our land. I took it, sowed it, and turn by turn, it has grown into a lot of wheat here in this field'.

The richness of life is in its living and growing. Not being hoarded away like gold.

Various mobile Internet options

From the "Right Choice" magazine:

Eating a Gold Dosa.

I admit I am a bit backward, because I did not see this BBC news item or read in the papers how a Darshini type of joint in Malleshwaram is making a killing selling Gold Plated Dosas.

My first reaction is disgust. As someone who travels long distances to eat good dosas, I have an intrinsic adoration for dosa as a divine food article. But I also know that many Indians regard Gold to be a symbol of all that is good and holy. Today our country has more than 750 million hungry and poor people because other people have been stashing away their wealth in idle gold so it appreciates and they make a killing, instead of employing their wealth in productive activities.

Gold represents all that is worldly and self-seeking and NON-productive. The Indian mind is warped and ill. Hence the craze for gold. And now will I eat a Dosa costing Rs. 1011/-, because it has a gold leaf stuck to it, whereas a decent dosa should not cost you more than Rs. 50/-?

Modern medicine says all heavy metals and heavy metal salts are TOXIC. The most benign explanation of the "pure" gold leaf's edibility is that it will not be digested and go out with the faeces the next day.

Ancient people used to take gold as medicine and as a fortifier because of myths. The rich people of the world today lace their chocolates and drinks with gold foils to show off. But a Darshini dosa costing Rs 1011/- because it has gold foil stuck on it...It is simply REVOLTING.

But I was revolted when I heard about a Devi temple built in pure gold by some self-made god-man. I think I have a problem with the obsessions people have with gold.

PS: I am amused when the rich poor young lady says in the video that the gold dosa is ISO certified. She doesn't know that ISO standards are not endorsements for products but a certificate for factory processes. I don't think this guy has any ISO process. Perhaps the municipal hygiene inspectors would have eaten his dosas before signing off his shop certificate.

Sharing photos with friends

Way back in 2001, my uncle celebrated his 100th birthday. It was a great event in the extended family, and I had great pleasure in meeting so many relatives and celebrating the grand old man's birthday. My uncle was fully active, healthy, happy and could remember names and details of all his relatives of four generations there.

I also had a camera which I had just purchased in Japan, the Sony DSC-P1. This camera made lovely 1 MP photos which I could see as I shot them, and I could also share them via the Sony photo sharing application on the Internet. Overnight, lots of people in the family around the world could see the birthday photos and feel happy.

Since then, I have shot and shared several thousand pictures. I am into my dozenth digital camera, and I have the cult camera Canon 5D Mark II which shoots in 21 MP and HD Video using a full frame sensor!

The beauty of digital cameras, whether they are the ones on your cell-phone or other DSLRs or Cybershots, is that

1. You can compose and optimize the photo as you shoot it.

2. Show it around right away.

3. Save it on your computer for future viewing.

4. Share it on the Internet.

By definition, digital cameras have a way to transfer the photos to your computer from the camera either directly using a USB cable or by removing the memory card and attaching it to your computer through a USB card reader. Once the photo is stored on your computer, you can use your Google or Yahoo account to upload the photo to a web album and share it.

Step 1 : how to transfer photos from camera to computer using Picasa

Step 2 : How to share pictures on web albums: