Insignificantly Significant....

The significance of one's life is a question one asks at some point of time or the other. It is a question that even the greatest and the smallest of us asks and any answer we give each other or ourselves is never complete for even after having heard an answer, we are still left with a sense of incompleteness, a sense of dissatisfaction.

I have been plagued by the question a lot in the past 7 or 8 years and every time i would look up into the sky and imagine the planet we are on, teeming with life and activity, out to the moon orbiting our blue-green planet, out to the rest of the planets centered around our Sun that make up our star system, further out to the many star systems clustered around the core of our Galaxy and then the many millions of galaxies that dot the vast nothingness of Space, like small oasis's in a desert.

This thought would unfailingly depress me as i would always be awestruck by the small dot, that is me, on a slightly bigger dot, that is the Earth, tucked away in the Western Spiral of the Milky way, hurtling through space, a product of the Universe that is ever so vast, the sheer size of which, a human brain cannot comprehend.

So why? Why is it that we live, that we are given a maximum of 100 Human years to lead our lives, do whatever it is that we do, grow old and die. Why is it that we were given the ability to think, to speak, to reason, to invent, to discover, when the Universe within whose confines our Species occupies a tiny  microscopical pin-prick of space, is beyond our comprehension. It is such that we do not even know where or why this Universe came about into being. We are not even sure if our Universe is a part of something else. That the buck does not end with our 3 Dimensional Reality.

Life is the greatest expression in our Universe. Many may put love to be the greatest expression, many might say that how can Life be an expression in the first place? We humans express a range of things but without Life we wouldnt be here to express anything. Life is the Greatest Expression because it is an expression by our Universe. It is a product of favorable conditions for life, which as far as Humanity's limited knowledge goes, has never been replicated anywhere else in the Universe. It is a a result of several Free Floating Single Celled organisms deciding to clump together for a change in the liquid confines of Pre-Historic Earth. Life is the greatest expression because when it results in an intelligent species like ours gives rise to entities like Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Einstein, Hawking and so on who obsessed with the Mysteries of the Universe attempt and succeed in unraveling a small part of it. Life is the Greatest Expression because it creates US, we who can marvel at the Universe, we who can partially understand the nature of the Universe our Creator and our Home.

Why is it then that this is so Ironic, that we who are the ultimate product of the Universe, that we who live, breathe, think, comprehend the Universe that envelopes us, why is it that our significance is molecularly microscopic, that our lives individually mean nothing. Some may say that it is whimsical to wish for individual human lives to mean something in the cosmological perspective and in a way they would be right.

But maybe the part we dont understand is the fact that everything in the Universe is its product, every star system, every nebulae, every Quasar, every Black hole, every supernova is a slave to the Laws of the 3 Dimensional reality we perceive. Everything in this universe is governed by the Scientific laws and principles we attribute to the nature of the Universe. But us? We are indeed governed by Scientific laws like those of Gravity, Inertia, Motion etc. but in our lives we have one thing that is unique, one right that is specific to Living Thinking Organisims, the right of CHOICE.

Our Choices govern our lives and our lives are filled with choices which shape and give impetus to our lives. Choice to do or not to do is what sets us apart from all the dust and hydrogen that fills our Universe, Choice is our answer to the Universe to which we are insignificant.
 

2012 & the Mayan Long Count???

All of us have undoubtedly heard of the Mayan Long Count Calendar and the implications of the end of the world on 20/12/2012...... but how much of it is to be believed... with all the talk of planetary Alignment and increase of Solar Flares one does wonder what is the truth...

Sometimes though The Simplest Explanation is the answer.......

Piracy

This is why Piracy ROCKS!!!!!!!! and also keep the viewer/customer in mind...as opposed to legit stuff which kinda is like strip tease :)

History?

Ok today i'll be writing bout something a little more boring and academically philosophical in nature. Specifically the History of our race and our perceptions about it.

To be quite frank this post is inspired by my time spent today morning on the site www.forbiddenhistory.info which basically documents all the oddities that have been found as part of our past but somehow just dont add up with the technological level of those times.

As an introduction i'd like to direct your attention to how Civilizations come to be? It is a well known fact of Social Evolution that the older the civilization the more primitive it is than the one that comes after it. As scientific enquiry develops and inventions and discoveries happens so does technological advancement. Sound enough for starters?

Well then how would this explain for eg. (to start with the most basic of oddities) the asthonishing  knowledge of Astronomy possesed by the Sumerian Civilization who knew that the Earth revolved around the Sun and that there were other planets besides the Earth and they had documented the existence of all the planets, even pluto!!! whose modern day discovery happened in 1930!!!!!

And the buck doesnt stop there..... lets shift our gaze from a thing that is commonly know (i.e. the remarkable knowledge of astronomy of ancient civilizations) to a slightly more bizarre aspect. The following is an excerpt from the Mahabharata :

"It was a single projectile
Charged with all the power of the universe.
An incandescent column of smoke and flame
As bright as ten thousand suns
Rose in all its splendor..
It was an unknown weapon,
An iron thunderbolt,
A gigantic messenger of death
Which reduced to ashes
The entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakras...

The corpses were so burned
As to be unrecognizable.
Their hair and nails fell out.."

doesnt take a genius to figure out that the narrative in the excerpt comes astoundingly close to the description of an Atomic Explosion. And there has never been any dispute bout how old the Mahabharata is.....

Want more??? How this for size?

In certain deserts around the world there have been discovered a Layer of Fused Glass, in some cases underground (Iraq) and in other cases right on top (Gobi Desert, Mohave, Africa). Now many would ask so whats the point? The point is that fused glass occurs when Rock and Sand are subjected to extreme heat (much much much more than normal sunlight) and the rock and sand melt to fuse together into glass. Interestingly such a formation was documented in nuclear test sites where the heat from the explosion was sufficient enough for causing a sheet of fused glass beneath the Test Site.

And now for the kicker..... the archaeologists who discovered the underground  fused glass  date it to approximately predate the Sumerian Civilization which incidentally is one of the first civilization to arise on our Planet.

More?

In 1960 the United States detected an a UFO in Polar Orbit and this is was before the US or USSR had put an object in outer Space. It was definitely concluded not to be a rock or any other kind of space debris. Furthermore this object transmitted messages to our planet which when decoded turned out to be a 13,000 yr old Star Map to a remote star system Epsilon Bostes.

What do all these (and many many more) instances suggest. Could it possibly indicate that our civilization has defied all known logic? Could it be that our ancestors had figured our Space Flight, Aviation, Atomics but their knowledge died with them? Could it have been Extra Terrestrials who visited the earth when our civilization was young and shared knowledge(At the risk of sound terribly cliched)???

If so what does this mean for us? does it mean that we have been so careless so as to let such a wealth of knowledge slip from our fingers merely on account of the passage of time? Does it mean that the reason the Ancients did not ttrust this knowledge to further generations was because they had recognized the basic flaw in human psyche i.e the insatiable desire for Power & the equally insatiable Greed of man?

We as a species have indeed come a long way taking into account the Modern Age. but i do wonder? what kinda world would we have been living in  if the ancients had propogated their knowledge to future generations??

probably one where i would have been on Neptune sipping a  beer and typing this out to be relayed across human settlements in the galaxy over a network that would've made the internet look like "two cans attached by a string.

The Future!

well our dealer would make us listen to his Stories and view on Life (Ramnik) while his kids would be running around playing..... and the stories werent that great either.... In fact it seems like an commonality between dealers in india... all of them are freaking weird and lame... nothin lame bout the social service they provide though :D

Up yours Islamofascists!!!!!!!

and here's my contribution :)

One Line Films

This is not my creation nor did i come up with this but i think its funny so hence i'm sharing it. for the full list head to www.postmodernbarney.com/2009/04/uncomfortable-plot-summaries/

Essentially these are movies with the plot explained in One Line..... Short and to the fucking point :)

• 300: Gays kill blacks.
• 8 MILE: White man successfully coopts black culture to impress other whites.
• CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: Deranged pedophile big-business industrialist tortures and mutilates young children.
• CRANK: Drug addict spends last day in orgy of rape and violence.
• DAREDEVIL: Blind man pisses off crime boss, gets all his girl-friends killed.
• DARK KNIGHT RETURNS: Aging sadist corrupts, endangers minor, facilitates murder, destroys superhero comic books for 30 years.
• DIE HARD: Dysfunctional cop saves marriage by murdering foreign national.
• DONNIE DARKO: Hallucinating teen crushed by airplane engine.
• FIGHT CLUB: Deranged sociopath guides yuppies to their deaths.
• GLADIATOR: Convict murders head of state.
• GROUNDHOG DAY: Misanthropic creep exploits space/time anomaly to stalk coworker.
• JUNO: Teen fails to get abortion, ruins lives.
• JURASSIC PARK: Theme park's grand opening pushed back.
• KARATE KID: Boy gains acceptance through violence.
• KILL BILL: Irresponsible mother wants custody of her child.
• LORD OF THE RINGS: Midget destroys stolen property.
• LOVE ACTUALLY: Prime Minister risks war with United States over a sexy secretary.
• MULHOLLAND DRIVE: Lesbian relationship is harmful.
• O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU: Southern musicians encounter massive flooding and government incompetence.
• OCEAN'S ELEVEN: Gang of career criminals commit act of terror to facilitate robbery and romance.
• RAMBO III: The United States provides arms, equipment and training to the terrorists behind 9/11.
• RATATOUILLE: Vermin infest restaurant until it is forced to close doors.
• ROBOCOP: Female officer's incompetence leads partner to be murdered and enslaved by corporation.
• ROCKY: White man beats black man.
• SCARFACE: Immigrant finds running his own business stressful, dangerous.
• SCHINDLER'S LIST: Wealthy industrialist expands not-for-profit ventures.
• SE7EN: Homicide detectives unable to prevent even a single murder by admitted serial killer, killer gives cop head.
• SILENCE OF THE LAMBS: Incompetent manipulated by several murderers, stumbles upon suspect completely by accident. Creates situation that allows serial killer to escape.
• SPIDER-MAN: Nerd gets bitten by spider, complains about how this ruins his life for years to come.
• STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE: Religious extremist terrorists destroy government installation, killing thousands.
• STAR WARS: EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Boy is abused by midget, kisses sister, attempts patricide.
• STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI: Handicapped mass murderer kills septugenarian, is lauded.
• TERMINATOR: An unplanned pregnancy leads to complications.
• THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY: Nameless drifter kills American soldier over stolen money, hangs friend.
• THE MATRIX: Hacker is given perfect justification for mass slaughter.
• THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST: Mel Gibson fulfills fantasy of showing a Jew beaten to a bloody pulp and killed on-screen.
• THE X-MEN: Minority group seeks overthrow of social order.
• THERE WILL BE BLOOD: Kidnapper commits murder several times.
• TITANIC: Crazy old widow disregards lifelong memories of husband, children, and grandchildren in favor of that one time she fucked a bum.
• TOP GUN: Pilot routinely endangers Air Traffic Controllers.
• TRAINSPOTTING: Statutory rapist and junkie sifts through human waste, gets enormous sum of money.
• TRANSPORTER: Repressed homosexual kills employers.
• TWILIGHT: Girl gives up college for stalker.
• V FOR VENDETTA: Dystopian government overthrown by faceless conformity.
• WALL-E: Obsolete robot disrupts big business, disrupts lives of millions of innocent civilians.
• WAR OF THE WORLDS: Immigrants face difficulty acclimating.
• Requiem for a Dream : 3 Junkieson heroin/coke, 1 Old Lady on Speed, all end up in shitty circumstances

Off With his HEAD!!!!!!!!

The Human Race in its quests for Justice Delivery has experimented with a variety of methods to serve out the Ultimate Punishment i.e. the death penalty. The methods to achieve this however have been varied ranging from being pulled apart by horses (popular in medieval Europe and Imperial China, with four horses; or "quartering",) to more unsual methods like "Back Breaking" (popular in Mongolia) or being crushed by an elephant.

While man over the centuries may have had ample time to try out his various fantasies with regard to this aspect, but in the so called 'enlightened era' that we live in today there are Human Rights Groups to deal with who's view though controversial yet are morally correct (to a certain degree).

The aim of this post is not to dissect the  Capital Punishment concept, neither is it to argue if the State has a right to take away an individuals life. In my opinion in todays age when individuals can be made into mindless zombies who strap bombs to their bodies and blow themselves up on account of instructions given by "holy men", then a message has to be sent to these "holy men" that WE WILL NOT TAKE UR SHIT!!!!! A message has to be sent to the many budding jehadis and mujaheddin that if u are going to come and attack our country so blatantly, you better pray to god that you die.. cause if u dont... we will ensure that u are swallowed (whole) into the long and tedious Indian Legal Process (death is preferable, some say).

The Death Sentence for Kasab might be given... but what does it mean.... does it mean that Kasab is to languish in an Indian Jail for the next ten years while the Judicial Process exhausts itself and the Politicial Process begins? Does it mean that he will continue to be alive in 2017 after spending 9 years as a guest of the Indian government, the money being spent on him coming from the TaxPayer? I will not go into more analogies but simply say this.... if it was upto me ... i would take Kasab.... get a few good news channels for coverage (especially ARY, or any of the Pakistani Media) and decapitate him (slowly) on national television... and when i say slowly i mean really really slowly........ His death will be so horrific and inhuman that all the remaining Terrorist who have plans for an Indian holiday will quietly lay down their arms and start to look for alternative career opportunities.....

The media in the meanwhile has gotten an amazing idea... the pics above are the only pics in todays (7/5/10) paper that have been used to show celebration in lieu of the Verdict of Capital Punishment......  doesnt it strike anyone as odd that both the pictures feature Muslims celebrating??? i for one would've taken it as an obvious thing that Every Indian would have had a happy moment on hearing the Capital Punishment verdict... then why the need to highlight Muslims Celebration???

Sometimes i wonder whatever happened to honest journalism..... whatever happened to "Reporting the News to the Common Man" which seems to have given way to "Sell Yourself First... Everything else Later"

The Power of One

I recently came across this site while i was 'stumbling' that invited users to submit stories...... in one line. Thats right one single solitary line, many of you would be like "Dude that is so freaking not possible." or "how can a line convey a story" well sample this :

"While watching my brother-in-law use my childhood Bible to roll a joint, I realized we are probably going to hell."

ok ok i guess not a lotta people will be able to relate to that..... here's another one :

My patient's last words before he died, surrounded by family, were: "I feel so loved right now."

well for more just head on to the site www.onesentence.org

oh and i couldnt leave the site without submitting one of my own....

"When it was time to leave the hostel  for the last time, the Void in my soul kept screaming "Now what do we do??"

The age of the Leaf Eaters Cometh!

In my Universe the human race (and all sentient being as a matter of fact) can be categorized into Vegetarian & Non Vegetarian, and i belong firmly to the latter. However i must add here that whenever i meet somebody and during the conversation he/she mentions that he/she is a Veggie, without fail my eyebrows shoot up and i say "oh ok" in a sympathetic tone that is superbly disguised.

However i do wonder sometimes that how long before they snap!...... how long before their meat deprieved and culinarily stunted souls go beserk??? We non vegetarian can only wait and watch (out) for this day of judgement when this culinary division in the human race shall be a cause for the biggest war ever... the war to end all other... that will dwarf all other wars by a long shot...... until that day we wait.....

Tintin : An Inspiration

 

I’m a huge fan of The Tintin Series and have read every single comic and now own it in soft copy form as well J (for requests …email me). I was introduced to Tintin at a very young age probably when I was in the 4^th or 5^th Standard, and at that time I was a miserable loner who had a bronchitis condition a result of which I could not play much and thus had literally no friends. Thus what was a lonely boy to do after school hours cooped up in his house and mind you we are talking here bout the year 1993 to 1995, when television meant Doordarshan and Internet was unheard of, India was just taking baby steps into an era of Economic Liberalization and as such the knowledge about other cultures and countries was hard to come across, not that I specifically wanted any.

 

In any case once when I had gone to Kerala for my yearly visits to my mom’s house, my aunt there gave me a copy of Tintin in America, as I was an avid reader and as such an oddity at my age when normally kids want to go out and play and stuff. Anyways I got reading and by the time I finished it I was hooked!!!! Initially I didn’t understand why I was so attracted to it and quite frankly at that age I didn’t really care but now that I look back I understand … I understand that the reason I loved them was cause each book was like a window into another culture, another land although the depiction might not have been 100% accurate yet at that time for my kiddish brain it was Manna from Heaven. And this is absolutely true, for Tintin’s creator Hergè’s style broadly speaking was to pick plotlines from reported news from around the world, hence essentially every story would be basically set in one country and the reader would by the end of the story have a very rough picture of what that country and its people would be like.

However the purpose of this post is not to showcase my love and loyalty towards the Comic series but to highlight another issue that has recently been revived. A Belgium citizen has very recently objected to Hergè’s depiction of Africans in Tintin in Congo. Although I am and always have been an huge supporter of the anti racist movement, and to that side of my psyche Hergè’s work in Tintin in Congo screams of blatant Racism, yet at the same time it is difficult for me to bear this huge slur on my (pseudo)hero.

 

 
I believe that though the depiction of Africans in that particular story is offending yet we MUST consider the fact that this is one of the initial works of Hergè’s (the second actually after Tintin: Land of the Soviets), probably conceived in the 1920’s, and in that era Racism was rampant in society and an accepted part of life in most of Europe and America, although this does not make it OK to do what he did yet Hergè’s depiction of Africans as dumb albeit loyal people is probably one of the mildest of the depictions that was accorded on Africans during that era. In fact it is a well known fact that in society Africans were looked down upon, considered inferior and very relegated to the level of slaves, Hergè could’ve depicted that in toto, he could even have depicted them as cannibals and uncivilized people (quite like Spielberg’s depiction of Indians as a cannibalistic, idol worshipping, mindless bunch of people in one of his Indiana Jones movies which by the way came out decades later) yet he didn’t and infact in a later book titled Tintin and the Red Sea Sharks, Tintin actually rescues Africans from being sold as slaves(or at least attempts to….).

 

In any case the point I would like to make is this… Tintin has an image in the hearts and minds of Millions of people all over the globe, partly attributable to the fact that the Comics itself were sold in over Fifty Languages, and that love and loyalty will not dwindle on account of this recent case filed in the Belgian Courts. I have and always will be a PROUD Tintin Fan.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

A Different Kinda Cloud

This made me think... what'll happen the day they legalize it in India????

Imagine.. people all over india from Delhi to Himachal to Assam to the North East , from Rajasthan to Goa to Kerela..... every junkie lights up a joint/chillum/bong and they'll be at it for at least that entire day... imagine the Smoke Cloud.... For sure there wont be any Air travel in the Asian region for the next few days.. in fact i think if Leglization happens on a global basis then the temp of the planet will go up by a few degrees at the very least.

But then again leglization means taxation and that means higher prices... i unlike other users disagree on the legalization aspect on this count.... The day its legalized we'll be shelling out a lot more from our pockets........

amazing art work

As a kid i always like artwork but sadly had no knack for it... i couldnt even fill color properly in outlines and i guess the pinnacle of this was when i got 35/100 in a drawing exam at school... i made up my mind... i'm not cut out for the artworld. 


Nonetheless i do appreciate art all the same and this particular unique style caught my eye... the Artist's name is Ben Heine and this is a part of his series Pencil v. Camera. Absolutely amazing pictures not for their content but for the style.


for those interested you can download the full resolution copy of the above pic at http://www.flickr.com/photos/benheine/4524197834/sizes/o


and Ben's Flickr page has his entire series that can be found at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/benheine/sets/72157623723956821/


all i wanna say is Great Job Ben!

The Volcano!!!!

The Icelanders sure have a way with word.... and also have one kickass knack of naming stuff.. as clearly seen here :)

The capital of Iceland is Reykjavík and while this may not be as much of tongue twister as the 'E' name but nonetheless can make people practice saying it at least twice in their head before trying it aloud once. Also found in iceland are Egilsstaðabær, Skriðdalshreppur, Hjaltastaðaþinghá, Sauðárkrókur and many other delights for a person who loves tongue twisters.

You know all these names kinda make me think that its possible Iceland's people could have been exposed to an alien culture long ago.... like its obvious that that kinda word formation cannot be a relative of any language from earth. 

 

Shhhhh.... the admin is watching you

Admins!!! the bane of our cyber lives ...... be it from the office or on your college admins everywhere are a cause for worry. If you however are of the lucky few who have unadministrated access to the Internet, well consider yourselves lucky not to have crossed the paths of this particular group of people. 

Broadly speaking there are types of admins 1) The dumb admin, 2) The laidback admin & 3)The 'Pain in the Ass' admin. Of these the one you have to worry bout are the Second and the third one... you never mess with them cause if you do they can quickly ensure that somehow even though the ip you are working on is correct and you have excellent wifi connectivity yet somehow you cant access the net. Then you gotta call them and they would at first send some apprentice fuck who has no clue what he's doing and manages to figure out that part before returning to his Guru for instructions, the Guru would then grunt his displeasure at being interrupted from his ritualistic reading of "Admins Weekly" or whatever it is that they read, gives the underling a disdainful look and troops over to you and looks at you like you are the most stupid person in all of the 4 Dimensions... plays a few handstrokes over the keyboard and Voila! your internet starts to work... as he leaves you mutter a "Thank you" to which his only reply is a Smile that is clearly meant to say "You Stupid Fuck".... and as soon as he's outta earshot you mutter "Asshole!"

Genesis : Let there be Light!!!

Excerpt from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

(convo between Ford & Arthur)

"I always thought that about the Garden of Eden story," said Ford.

"Eh?"

"Garden of Eden. Tree. Apple. That bit, remember?"

"Yes of course I do."

"Your God person puts an apple tree in the middle of a garden and says do what you like guys, oh, but don't eat the apple. Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting 'Gotcha'. It wouldn't have made any difference if they hadn't eaten it."

"Why not?"

"Because if you're dealing with somebody who has the sort of mentality which likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them you know perfectly well they won't give up. They'll get you in the end."