"Imtegrate" your fact search

Rivi was pointing me to a very cool way to integrate your fact search with your MSN Messenger.

Just add Encarta® Instant Answers to your list of IM buddies and start asking questions such as:

• What's the population in Karnataka?*

to get an answer in the same window. You can even ask it questions such as:

• Do you speak French?

for which an additional window is opened on the side.

* It's a different matter that Encarta and Google give different answers to the same question.

Of Triple Puns and LingoPuns

When I was in college, I first heard about triple puns through the following story:

Three brothers bought a ranch in Texas and planned to raise cattle. They couldn’t think of a name for their ranch so they asked their mother, who said, "You should name it ‘Focus.’" The brothers were puzzled. "Why?" they asked. "Because," said their mother, "‘Focus’ is where the sun’s rays meet."

This was touted as the world's only triple pun, but I heard another later:

When Mohinder Amarnath was a kid, his Dad, Lala, took him on an overseas tour to England. Frank Chester, the umpire, was quite taken in by the little kid and asked Lala's permission to seat him on his lap to which Lala replied with a vehement "No". Chester was quite taken back till he heard Lala's reason: The son never sits on the British Umpire!

Which reminds me of another type of pun one finds in India, the LingoPun (is there a pun there?) which cuts across languages. For instance, the Arctic tundra.

Wonder whether this qualifies for a triple LingoPun, but here goes:

Once, we were thinking of enjoying some nice tea with chai-biscoot in the back garden. Set up the whole shebang and queried WiFi: "Byte* thein"?

* Bite in English, Sit in Hindi, and Outside (bayata) in Telugu.

Last of the Breed

Looks like the NatGeo guys are crazy about me. After last month's free issue, they sent me another. I took it along for a drive and was caught at that painful point at Marathahalli on the way back.

So I turned to page one of the "Old Faithful" and was totally zapped by the Rolex ad featuring Erling Kagge. It went:

Erling Kagge is a man of steely resolve. Carrying food, water, conviction, and himself, he walked to the South Pole alone in 50 days. A feat made only the more unbelievable because before he trekked south, he laid claim to skiing to the North Pole. Both times, he travelled without dogs, motorised equipment or contact with the outside world. With the ends of the world behind him, he set out to climb to the top of it. He did so, easily taking Everest's peak. As the first person to take all three poles, he offers sage advice for those willing to follow his intrepid footsteps: "Think ahead, travel light and leave your fears behind."

In one fell swoop, I was transported into some other realm. I didn't have to turn another page. Reminded me of Sri Ramakrishna who went to the museum, saw a lion, was reminded of Narasimha Swami, and went back home.

With Premachala playing in the background, nothing else seemed to matter.

Better the known devil

Got the Telugu Calendar from my Dad, who was celebrating his 72*^nd b'day today.

Was wondering when my 41^st thidhi birthday was falling next year and got a shock when I noticed that it was on 06.06.06 (06.JUN.2006).

* The guy who taught me numerology used to say that 72 was the number of Kubera and that one should always open a bank account with an amount that was a multiple of 72, say, 720. In these days of minimum balances, make that 7,200 or 72,000.

Sachin & Swami

Qk.ly: http://bit.ly/bsxSandS

Image: Sachin (fourth from the left) with Swami

Folks who were surprised to see Sachin Tendulkar at the 80th birthday Celebration of Swami might be interested in the following.

Sunil Gavaskar writes in the 75th Birthday issue (Nov.2000) of Sanathana Sarathi: (page 345, right column)

A few years later, I was privileged to arrange the players for the Unity Cup Cricket Match. Swami has always said, "Life is a game. Play it." Bhagavan wanted to show that there could be unity among different countries, cultures, and communities through sports. So, the Unity Cup was played with players from all over the world, including Pakistan.

Several senior retired players were honored and had the good fortune to be blessed by Bhagavan.

Who can forget Bhagavan patting Sachin Tendulkar on the back and telling him, "I am with you!"

What a season Sachin had after that as he virtually single-handedly demolished World Champions Australia with his batting that seemed to be of a totally different dimension after that pat from Bhagavan!

I remember the final being played on the 25th b'day (24.APR) of Tendulkar. In the morning, I was attending an HP seminar on data warehousing. The speaker was an Aussie and he was gloating on the pasting that the OZs were gonna give India. Too bad none of us retorted; anyway, Sachin did that for us later on in the day.

Shivji & Swami

Shivji & Swami
Originally uploaded by shastrix.

The ToI had this on page 2 yesterday (22.NOV.2005):

"I always wake up listening to the strains of his santoor. That gives me the energy to go through the day...”

Santoor maestro Shivkumar Sharma got the greatest praise of all: Besides the Sangeeta Ratna Mysore T Chowdaiah award, none less than the President of India said this about him — words every musician dreams of hearing.

Kalam told Sharma: “I have all your CDs. I even have your son’s CDs. India is grateful to you for your contribution. Like Thailand Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who has spread peace in her country and revived traditional music by singing with the common people, our music exponents are also reaching difficult, even terrorist minds through music...’’

Sharma said he was overwhelmed: “Music is a prayer, where we try to be one with God. It is the uniting force. I tell people, music is my religion.’’

Greatest praise? I wonder. I think Shivji already got that exactly twenty years back, on the 60th birthday of Swami:

Shiv Kumar Sharma is one of my truest followers, and if you desire to experience Nirvana in music, listen to his music.

Here's the readable page from Journey with a Hundred Strings.

Celibacy is not hereditary

Saw this amusing article (Super Geckos Excel without Sex) with some interesting tidbits:

Geckos that forego sex and instead clone themselves are able to run farther and faster than relatives that reproduce the more conventional way.

"This is extraordinary," said Kellar Autumn from Lewis & Clark College in Oregon. "The traditional theory is that when a species gives up sex and reproduces through cloning, the offspring will have reduced performance."

The Bynoe’s geckos turned out to be much better athletes than their sexually reproductive relatives, outperforming them by 50 percent on the treadmill.

One of Autumn’s coauthors, Michael Kearney, said that some parthogenetic species, like the Bynoe’s gecko, evolved when two species crossed, or hybridized. Kearney compared these ultra-fit geckos to the "super tough" mule, which is a cross between a horse and a donkey.

"If there was an Olympic team of Bynoe’s geckos, there wouldn’t be a single male on it," Autumn said. "They are the Xena: Warrior Princess of the lizard world."

So there must be some truth in our spiritual gurus exhorting aspirants not to go around sowing their wild oats! As Sri Ramakrishna says:

If a man practices absolute continence for twelve years, the Medhanandi, a special nerve, is activated. His understanding will become capable of penetrating and comprehending the subtlest of ideas. With such an understanding man can realise God. God can be attained only through a purified understanding of this type.

Live on the edge or in the center?

DN was quoting the other day:

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.

That reminded me of a cool one from No Ordinary Genius, that awesome book on Feynman by Christopher Sykes:

You have to keep looking at the edges to see where the center is shifting to.

Bill Gates didn't do that for a while in the mid-'90s and is still playing catch-up.

Well, today there was a radically different viewpoint in ToI's The Speaking Tree:

Stop Living on Edge, Find Your Centre
By Swami Kriyananda

The average person is like an eccentric flywheel that is not centred properly. The faster the wheel turns, the more violently it vibrates, ultimately flying apart. Most people are frequently in danger of “flying apart” mentally. Living at their periphery, they vibrate more violently the faster they whirl through life. Few think of themselves as even having a centre. They are forever “on edge”.

Living at periphery forces you to relate to others at theirs. They, in turn, will be “on edge” with you. Your understanding of them will be superficial. Get mentally inside whatever you are trying to understand, to gaze outward from its centre. The secret of understanding others is to identify with them at their centre. To find the centre of anything or anyone, first withdraw to your own centre and project your feelings empathetically from that point.

Meditation is the process of finding your centre. Its success depends on right attitude. The first attitude fundamental to “centring” is self-acceptance. You are who you are. Make the best of it, and envy no one for what he is. Encourage yourself in your efforts to attain your highest potential. Self acceptance will come progressively as you try to live up to the highest in you.

True conscience is innate. It is the silent voice of the soul. Be clear in your true conscience. Such clarity comes only when we accept that our higher Self is our eternal reality. When you resist your lower impulses and strive towards inner heights, your conscience will be reasonably clear. You will achieve that measure of emotional and psychic relaxation without which it is impossible to find rest at your centre.

Accept kindness. You should also practise kindness towards yourself. You’ll never overcome your failings by hating your shortcomings, but don’t allow kindness to excuse them. You should work to strengthen yourself in virtue. Seek always your highest potential. If this means being stern with yourself occasionally, so be it. Never be judgmental. By kind acceptance also of others you will find yourself intuitively aware of them at their centre.

The more you attune yourself from your centre to the centre in everything, the more you will find that there is a sympathetic interrelationship in the universe that enables perfect understanding of all things. Depend not on intellectual analysis, which separates things and compartmentalises them, but try to feel the heart of what you are trying to understand.

Paramhansa Yogananda practised this and could converse easily with people of specialised knowledge, using their own terminology. A lady in Mexico City who spoke no English had a private interview for one hour with Yogananda, who spoke no Spanish. “I don’t know how it happened”, she told me, “but we understood each other perfectly”.

Finding your own centre is not a process of divorcing yourself from objective reality, but of touching that universal centre of which all objective reality is a manifestation. To do so bestows far greater than normal comprehension. Wisdom gained from tuning in to one’s own centre is not at all like going to school, where the goal is to learn. Meditation is a process of unlearning the limitations of delusion imposed on us by our egos.

Letter to The Week on their "80th birthday of Swami" issue

Thanks for your neutral reporting on the eve of Swami's 80th birthday.

In his book on Ramakrishna and His Disciples, Christopher Isherwood talks of the importance of experience in spiritual life as this can never be taken away from one. This later on triggered a haiku:

The Infinite One
Cannot be Understood
Only Experienced

Swami is like that. Some of my experiences:

• Swami looking right into my eyes, interestingly enough, on Valentines' Day in 1993
• Getting the Infosys ESOP on his birthday in 1994, which enabled me to buy a villa in the most well-known gated complex in Bangalore
• Seeing a huge dark cloud at Puttaparthi (referred to as Put-apart-the-I by Swami) and noticing that it was in the shape of Swami looking down at his abode
• One of the more interesting dreams is the Flying Dream, where one feels that one is flying, including maneuvering in the sky. I have had this dream a few times in Life and it's always a great feeling. In one instance, Swami was massaging the calf of my leg and, soon after, I had a flying dream that filled me with exhilaration.
• The Third Eye of Swami.
  

Even though many indicators have been given about Swami being the messiah (Kalki, Hazrat Mehdi), nothing is more striking to me than the experience narrated on page 42 of Evelyne Blau's stunning and lovingly-produced Krishnamurti: 100 Years. The incident is as follows: (emphasis mine)

On December 28, 1925, a unique occurrence took place at which I was present. At a meeting of the Star Congress under the banyan tree in Adyar at 8 o'clock in the morning, with the amplifiers turned off, a dramatic event took place while Krishnaji was speaking. It came at the end of his talk. He has been speaking about the world teacher; suddenly his voice changed to an exquisitely sweet yet powerful tone and, through great waves of compassionate power, he continued: "He comes only to those who want, who desire, who long"—and then it became a different voice—calm, serene and with a ringing quality. He said: "I come for those who want sympathy, who want happiness, who are longing to be released, who are longing to find happiness in all things. I come to reform and not to tear down. I come not to destroy but to build."

... In the ninety-second year of my life my memory is probably defective, but I do recall this unforgettable experience with crystal clarity.

—Russell Balfour Clarke

This happened on 28.DEC.1925, just a few months before Swami's birth (on 23.NOV.1926). I have no doubt whatsoever that:

• the voice "Calm, serene and with a ringing quality" belongs to Swami. I felt such a joy the first time I heard Swami speak!
• The words "I come to reform and not to tear down. I come not to destroy but to build" reflect much of what Swami has done.

Even after 12 years, I can still feel the power behind that look in 1993.

Tea Deva or Javanese Leaf Insect?

Tea Deva or Javanese Leaf Insect?
Originally uploaded by shastrix.

There was this article in the 21.NOV.2005 issue of Outlook, which has the following:

Banerjee, a fourth-generation planter—his great-grandfather G.C. Banerjee purchased the garden from Captain Samler, a British army deserter who established the garden in 1859—says Makaibari's decades of harmonious coexistence with mother nature has led to the evolution of a new insect (he says it is the only such evolution in recorded history) that he has named Tea Deva. "When life forms are becoming extinct all over the world, the fact that this unique insect (which looks like a tea leaf) has evolved here is nothing short of a miracle," Banerjee told Outlook. The Tea Deva, which feeds on insects that harm tea leaves, has attracted the attention of entomologists worldwide.

However, it looks too much like the Javanese Leaf Insect to my eye.

The above has been scanned from the awesome DK Visual Encyclopedia Of Animals, page (appropriately numbered) 121.

Even NatGeo Eds Aren't Infallible

Even NatGeo Eds Aren't Infallible
Originally uploaded by shastrix.

Suds was blogging that the CNN guys goofed on the difference between pouring and poring.

Well, I must say that's a tough one to catch. Even the NatGeo editors have been skewered on that one.

This is from the JUL.2001 issue of NatGeoMag.

Portents of 2012?

Saw some news that NJ is going to go underwater by 2100.

By 2012, folks are going to say that Kevin Costner was one prescient dude when he made Waterworld (review on Amazon.com).

Incidentally, a couple of newsletters earlier this month unnerved me. One was from Harun Yahya that Katrina could be a portent of the last day foretold by the Prophet:

… It [the Last Hour] will not come until you see ten signs… landslides [with a sinking down, caving in, or displacement of the earth] in three places, one in the East, one in the West and one in Arabia…
(Sahih Muslim)

The displacement of the land in the East is an easy one: that created by the Boxing Day tsunami.

The displacement of the land in the West might not be due to Katrina, but it might have delivered the sucker punch. Saw this in Gone with the Water on NatGeo:

The oil industry has been good to Louisiana, providing low taxes and high-paying jobs. But such largesse hasn't come without a cost, largely exacted from coastal wetlands. The most startling impact has only recently come to light-the effect of oil and gas withdrawal on subsidence rates. For decades geologists believed that the petroleum deposits were too deep and the geology of the coast too complex for drilling to have any impact on the surface. But two years ago former petroleum geologist Bob Morton, now with the U.S. Geological Survey, noticed that the highest rates of wetland loss occurred during or just after the period of peak oil and gas production in the 1970s and early 1980s. After much study, Morton concluded that the removal of millions of barrels of oil, trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, and tens of millions of barrels of saline formation water lying with the petroleum deposits caused a drop in subsurface pressure-a theory known as regional depressurization. That led nearby underground faults to slip and the land above them to slump.

"When you stick a straw in a soda and suck on it, everything goes down", Morton explains. "That's very simplified, but you get the idea." The phenomenon isn't new: It was first documented in Texas in 1926 and has been reported in other oil-producing areas such as the North Sea and Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. Morton won't speculate on what percentage of wetland loss can be pinned on the oil industry. "What I can tell you is that much of the loss between Bayou Lafourche and Bayou Terrebonne was caused by induced subsidence from oil and gas withdrawal. The wetlands are still there, they're just underwater." The area Morton refers to, part of the Barataria-Terrebonne estuary, has one of the highest rates of wetland loss in the state.

The third part is much more difficult to substantiate, but the Hyahya article says:

One of the most noticeable incidents of the 2003 Iraq War was the sudden disappearance of a large part of the Iraqi Army. Many newspapers and TV channels reported on the disappearance of the 60,000-man force known as the Republican Guard and 15,000-man force known as the Fedayeen.

We are indeed living in interesting times.

Shirdi Baba in Homa Fire

Shirdi Baba in Homa Fire

One of Shirdi Sai Baba's devotees in Hosur wanted Him to visit the wedding of his daughter, but He didn't show up. When the devotee was lamenting His no-show, he was asked to check a photo where He did turn up.

If you observe closely, you can also see the following: (Outline)

• Ganesha
• Om
• The logo of CM Russell, cowboy artist!

Lovely tribute to KRN

Was quite touched by Definitely no fluke: KRN at the high table by Gopalkrishna Gandhi in The Hindu:

"Never underestimate a person," he said often. "You never know where his talent lies. And never overestimate a person because of his appearance." Behind this was KRN's experience of adversity.

...

There was something in KRN's civil deportment that could be described, without offence to ourselves, as western in the best sense of that term. Most notably, in the way he showed courtesy and considerateness to his wife, Usha. Almost formal, that respect of a husband for his wife simply stood out from the all-too-familiar Indian practice of taking the wife's presence for granted. KRN and Mrs. Narayanan were, as a couple, out of the ordinary.

When I saw KRN fleetingly in the ICU, his hands were covered. But I could see they were still and did not beckon me. He seemed to say, "Now you do not have to come; I do not need help around here or where I am going; I think I can manage on my own." Go well, sir, as they would say in South African English. Go well to the High Table where there is better company and conversation or just plain silence. For who knows? You have not got there by a fluke.

The author, who was Secretary to President K.R. Narayanan between 1997 and 2000, is the Governor of West Bengal.

Plumage Passion

An old favorite from RD got into my head during my trip to Madurai-VirudhNagar-Tiruchuli this weekend:

What be-gannet all was the love of a bank lark named Albert Ross, for a gull whose tastes were too eggs-pensive for his poultry wages. She was his starling, his swan and only dove.

Aviary night, this chick had a quail of a time at the local casino and, with a few wings driving heron, she quickly frittered away his little nest-egg. With no money left, she threatened to auk out of his life and never re-tern. Desperate to keep his only dove, our little bank lark cooked the rooks at work, though he knew it was ill-eagle.

The next jay, a surprise chick was made on the accounts and Albert was arrested for robin the bank. The life of a jailbird was hard and, in his lonely shell, Albert became very bittern. His heart was filled with egret and driven beyond the linnet, he simply lost the quill to live and, in a few beaks' time, was as dead as a dodo.

So many machines, so little time

Wonder how the Japanese drum up all these ideas?!

The best things in Life are free

My NatGeoMag sub'n came to an end with the October issue, but they graciously sent me the November issue (a bit late, but that's quibbling when it comes to a NatGeoMag).

I knew I was in for a treat the moment I saw the ocelot, one of my favorite words in the English language (others are golden, skittish, and the linked one in the earlier paragraph).

The guy who snapped the ocelot had to spend like 6 months in the wild and all he got was 6 sightings over 6 seconds. And the article starts on page 66! Don't miss the multimedia.

The article on Secrets of Longevity reminded me of my own.

The pièce de résistance was, of course, Undersea Oddballs of Lembeh Strait by David Doubilet, my favorite underwater photographer. He's the guy who shot the circling barracuda, used and abused ad nauseum. He'll be turning 59 this 28th and keeps coming out with these masterpieces. Wonder what his secret of longevity is!