What is truth ?

Truth is more or less identified as a constant or as an absolute state of things , which does not change. But does truth change or ,rather, can truth change ?

The Church burnt St. Joan as a heretic - Was that the truth?. The Church canonized St. Joan. Is this the truth?.

Sun rises in the east and sets in the west - Is that the truth?. Sun is stationery; it is the earth's rotation which causes it to raise and set - Or is this the truth ? .

Copernicus said the Earth was flat - Was that the truth?. Galileo said that the Earth was round - Is this the truth?.

Well, earth is round - has to be, aint't it !! The point to be noted is that we are aware of this because we have only seen pictures of it or we believe in the word of a few people who has seen the earth from far (space shuttles/satellites ..) or it is the accepted common belief .We have never seen it , still we believe in it.
However,tomorrow if substantive proof is given , which appeals to our reason, we might be willing to believe even otherwise !!

If that be the case, if everything can change, then what is truth ??

The point is we get so convinced by our view of things, most of which was just told to us and some of which are experienced by us, when we are given a new perspective of the same thing, we just simply refuse to believe it. It happens day in and day out in our everyday lives. Sometimes we are the perpetretor or the receipient of this thinking. How many ideas or thoughts would have never seen the light of day due to this . One can just wonder !

Selfless Love - Does it exist ??

Oxford dictionary describes "selfless" as "not interested in one's self". Nowadays, people try to outdo each other by doing so called "selfless" or "charitable" acts. Someone said, "Charity is not giving a bone to a dog; it is giving a bone to a dog when you are as hungry as the dog" ..

The most often quoted example of selfless love is that of a mother's love to her kid(s). Poets,philosophers,artists - you name them - they have used reams of paper and gallons of ink to illustrate this selfless love. But, is mother's love actually a selfless love ?? For the sake of reasoning, let us assume a scenario wherein a mother,who is from a poor family, had given away her share of food to ensure that her child does not go hungry.The question to be asked is , would she have done the same if the child in question did not happen to be "her" child ??

Given this apparent contradiction, one can go to the next level and say that selfless love involves deeds between strangers without any benefit for the doer. I may not be too off the mark by presuming that these kind of acts are driven by the doer's sense of sympathy or empathy.However, if he acts to satisfy "his" sense of sympathy or empathy (or whatever it is), knowingly or unknowingly, can it be termed as "selflessness"?

Hence, does "selfless love" exist in its purest sense or is it just only an oxymoron ??

Kaapatungo !!!!!

For some time till recently, I have been successfully evading the marriage topic. But when one of the management trainee in my office called me "uncle", I decided it is high time to move on with life to the next stage. After all, happiness can't last forever :-))))If not for marriage, guys will not ever get to know what is mistake in life ..

One day we were watching TV in our home, when one of the songs featuring Trisha was playing. I said to my mom,"Look, atleast you need not find me a girl as beautiful as Aishwariya Rai, I will settle atleast for someone who resembles Trisha". Mom - "Ido paaru da, beauty is only skin deep. (I sometimes feel this statement is used unnecessarily. Beauty is ,of course, skin deep !!!)Do not get carried away by physical beauty".
Ok, she is not looking for a beautiful wife for me :(((((

"Thik hai. They say if you are born poor that is your fate. But if your father in law is poor, then it is your foolishness!!"
"Che che ... Money can't buy you happiness. (I know that, but it can buy things which can make me happy. No one sees that !!)So let that not be the criteria for you."
Ok then, no rich father in law for me .(((((

"Sari ma .. You know ***(I told the name of one of my friend's wife who my mom knows very well). She is very cultured, good hearted and a sweet girl.You know it. Alteast find a girl like that "
Letting out a big sigh, she said,"You know da,it is extremely difficult to find a girl like that."

Oh my god , no beauty, no money and no gunam !!! Yakka,Athai,Kaapatungo !!!!

Jackass !!!

In Apr 02, I landed in pune for my first job assignment and I had my own apprehensions at that point of time regarding various things .. My topmost worry was that my knowledge of Hindi was zilch (even now, though i speak Hindi, the expressions on the face of my listener, keep reminding me that I am no way near mastering it !!!) .However, in my first year , I picked some smattering of Hindi/Marathi ... But they say half knowledge is worse than no knowledge.
I had bought a new pair of , a slightly expensive, clothes to be worn on my bday. Normally , I live under the impression that I dress smart, though in reality it might be far from it (I believe in admitting one's weakness, before someone else exaggerates them !!). Since I was wearing new clothes on my bday, I was walking one inch above the ground; cocky that I will be turning heads in my office.
I opened the door to my office;and there is this babe, who is talking to a customer on the telephone.She turned her head , saw me and with a very serious expression , said, "Vishnu, you look jakhass!!", and turned back to her monitor and continued her conversation with the customer.
Now, I was totally embarrassed and dumbstuck !!! I was wondering ,"Out of all days, today, when I think I am looking smashing, and of all people , a girl, looks at me and says that I look like a jackass !@#$*How bad it can ever get???."
For the next half an hour, I could not come to terms with the fact that a girl had told me I look like a jackass and I was totally lost and could not concentrate on my work. Atlast, upon enquiring discreetly, I learned that "jakhass", in Marathi(slang), meant "superb". Upon hearing this I was highly relieved !! I had thought she said "jackass" with an accent , which had caused my half an hour of restlessness.
Indian languages can be funny at times !!!!!

Why Temples ??

This summer my niece and nephew visited our home. Its good to have kids around you sometimes.They look at things in an uncomplicated way ; sometimes even you get a fresh perspective into mundane stuff .. My niece is known for her repository of questions. She can virtually exhaust a person with her barrage of questions. So one fine day, it was my turn at the receiving end. " Why do we need to go to temples?Can't i pray from whichever place I am in?". Now that was a tricky question. I pondered over as to how do i answer this kid so that i do not make a fool of myself ..
"How many rooms you had in your house back in the states?".
"Five"
"What are they?".
"Hall, Bedrooms, Kitchen, Dining Room and the bathrooms".
"Where do you sleep usually?"
"In the bedroom."
"Well, why don't you sleep in the hall?"
"Coz silly, my bed is put up in the bedroom and moreover we are supposed to sleep in the bedroom only !!"
"Well, similarly, temple is a place where people go and use it for worshiping the Gods. For eg, you can sleep in the hall also , but you usually sleep in the bedroom, as every room in your house has a purpose. Likewise, you can pray wherever you are but you are supposed to go a temple, atleast once in a while, as they too have a purpose - to let people come and congregate together to pray and worship the God of their choice.".
After this , my niece became quiet and she did not ask questions for some time. Guess, atlast I made some sense !!!!

Also, at the end of the day, God does not have any form , etc etc .. However, it is very difficult to explain a formless God to a person . Hence, the temple, idol worship, rites, rituals etc etc.. so that he can start to identify God with that. (It's like teaching alphabets to kids by showing their corresponding objects. A- Apple, B-Biscuit etc...) But once he forms the idea of God, he is supposed to go beyond these. The sad part is , however, he gets stuck in those practices ......The idol worship , rites and rituals are not be denounced - they are an important aspect to reach Him - but while one is doing these stuff one should be aware that these are only means to the End and not the end by itself !!!!

Badri's Cook

I have come across very few instances wherein the cookin a house gets more mentioned than the inmates of thehouse . When any of our family member happens to be inBadri's house in Delhi, they say more about the cookin his house than about Badri !! So when I , alongwith my friends, got an opportunity to be in his house, on our way to Kathmandu, I had a chance to check outthe veracity behind these statements ..
True to what they all had said, he made us paneer ,which was simply " out of the world " !! I have had myshare of fills in many places , but I have never hadsuch a tasty paneer. This was even corraborated by myfriends ...
Before I left for Delhi, I had enquired Neela Athai asto whether she is sending something to Badri . Now Irealised as to why she was not so keen to send anyeatable to him :-)))) (By no means, I am belittlingher culinary skills - I still vividly remember theupma she had concocted for me the last time I wasthere in their home - It was yummy !!)Now I know as to why Badri is not so keen on movingback to chennai .. If his stomach is taken care of(that too in this way !!) I am sure he won't mindbeing there for long ...
I hope Badri,despite this mail, will lemme stay in his house the next time I am there :-))))

Education

"We study to get a job. But education in
school/college does not reflect the reality that one
faces in work". This is an oft repeated accusation
that is levied against our educational institutions
all over the world by the students themselves, by guys
who pass out of their college and spend some time in
their first job, and even by many business leaders.

This statement was thrown to me by one of the students
in the institute ,where i studied, when I had
visited it three weeks back . Personally speaking, I
feel that education can never , at any point of time,
reflect the reality one faces at work. Business/Work
or Life for that matter is so dynamic that one cannot
tailor make a course for it. What education does is
to hone our brain by making us think to respond for
various situations. These situations can vary from a
mathematics problem to a case study.Neither these
situations can be exhaustive nor the solutions for
these.
Hence it is unreasonable on anyone's part to expect
education to have answer for all questions ..

Sydney Saga

The events which had happened in Sydney had atlast made even me to come out of my laziness to pen this blog ..

Broadly speaking , there are questions/views that have been raised on three issues here:
a)The allegation made on Harbhajan
b)The gamesmen/sportsmen spirit of the Australians
c)The umpiring debacle

Coming to the first one, going thru the video replays shown on the television, we can safely assume that at the exact moment when Bhajji had ostensibly mentioned the "dreaded" word, only two people were witness to it, Symonds & Harbhajan. Considering the fact that even the umpires had not heard the same, it all boils down to word of one person/team against the other. In this scenario, to proclaim Bhajji as guilty is grossly unfair. In order to throw more light what had transpired during the hearing, the details of hearing has to be shared with the public. When there have been events of more significance which had been discussed in courts (which is open to public , normally), I am sure disclosing the hearing details is not that a big deal !!! As of things stand, the boards/players are fully justified in doing the present course of action that they are pursuing ..

Australians have always prided themselves about playing the game hard and fair. Frankly, despite being an Indian, I am a die hard Aussie fan . However some pertinent questions need to be asked to them in light of the recent happenings:
- What happened to the famous Australian's unwritten rule that "what is said in the field stays in the field ..:??Considering the fact that even the umpires did not hear the conversation, the issue must have definitely confined itself strictly between the players of the two teams.
- Ponting was miffed at the fact that his integrity was questioned. He had used words to the effect that person(s) doubting his integrity must not be present in the press conference room. If that be the case, shouldn't he/his team take Sachin's word that there was no racist comment hurled by Bhajji. I am sure Sachin commands respect to that extent !!! (atleast more than Clarke or Symonds for that matter!!)
- Replays had showed pretty clearly that the both the catches (Ponting & Clarke) were grounded after they had been caught. I am sure that both of them would have been unaware of the fact as things happen so fast and in the excitement it would have never occurred to them. But what in fact is surprising is the stance taken by Ponting that the catches were clean even after watching the television footage .

After all these events, definitely, the australians cannot have any shred of moral superiority over other teams stating that they play the game hard but fair !!!

Last but not the least, commenting on the umpiring quality in this game, I am sure everyone is rightly justified in feeling that the standards were abysmal. However, asking for Bucknor to be removed is a very extreme and a sad step on part of the Indian team. Weren't sachin/kumble/sehwag/ganguly/any player for that matter given another/innumerable chance(s) in spite of repeated failures ? If that be the case, why to remove Bucknor for one horrendous match ?? Secondly, Is this the only or ,for that matter, the first match in which a team had lost due to dubious decisions by the umpires ??? If no, then why to penalise the umpires in this particluar match ??

If one has to put a exact finger on this issue , one would have to ask - Would India have taken this step if it had won/drawn this match ??I am sure, the answer in all its sincerity would have been "No".
Criticise the umpire, table a strong complaint against the umpire by all means - but asking him not to stand for the next test due to the inability of our team to last 70 overs or to wipe out the australians in spite of having them on the mat is not fair ..

This issue would have never even arisen if we had won this match !!! The sooner the team/media/administration realises this , the better for us.I sincerely believe Bucknor was made a scapegoat !!