Ummm.A Post!

Upcoming posts

* Delirium
-Freedom
-Curse of a nightmare
-The walk
* Goa
* Story of a success and a lot of failures
* The upcoming renaissance
* Softwar

Just finished reading
Softwar

Just In
Alexander-Sands of Ammon and The ends of earth

To Fairy Dear (for fixing my bug :-) )

Blog quotes

Some time later I had a 'Wet Dream'. I must mention that it was an Irish cream and vodka cocktail, before you all start getting notions, not fit to be put down here. It tasted great!
-Fairy at Finntimes

This post isn't over. Not by a long shot.
-Dee (Praveen)

Now there are so many things wrong with the last bit of that last sentence, I canÂ’t even begin.
-Gabby

Some bonus stuff

Economics for girls

Girls donÂ’t get it. They donÂ’t understand money.

They excel at the micro level. I mean, they can tell you that the milk Kroger is cheaper than the milk Walmart. They fail to understand that the drive from Walmart to Kroger is more expensive than the difference between the prices at these two stores. (Excluding, depreciation, cost of the time, other unnecessary stuff that we end up buying at Kroger).

Have you ever checked your girlfriends purse? A girls purse is a simplified version of the girl herself. Don’t expect to see credit cards, money and driving license. They come last. Expect to see the unexpected. It could be a tampon or a bus ticket that she bought last year to her moms place. No, don’t even dare to clean it and organize it. According to her, its already organized. Don’t expect the money to be logically filed. 500 rupee note is followed by 5 rupee note is followed by 20 rupee note followed by 100 rupee note followed by 5 rupee note.

When was the last time a girl discussed her mutual funds, real estate investments and her retirement benefit plans with you? Never. When was the last time your mom/wife complained to you about the ever increasing prices of the commodities? Daily.

My mom once remarked that Vajpayee is fat. My aunt once remarked that Bill Clinton looks good and Nelson Mandela wears ridiculous shirts. That’s how much don’t women get it.

If Jennifer Lopez is telling you that that her love don’t cost a thing, don’t take it literally and fall in love with her. Its just that she doesn’t understand how much it costs.

So, to make this world a better place, Smiley’s Social services department came up with a series of articles that can be digested even by dodos. Each article is $1.99. But, if you buy today, its just 99Cents. Not only that, you will also get a free application for ordering the next article.

Smiley’s social services dept
in association with
finance department presents

Economics for dummies girls.

What is money?
What is a bank?
What is saving?
What is spending?
What is tax?

Ming Mouse

Chinese bring culture shock to HK Disney
15:17 AEST Tue Sep 13 2005

AP - Mainland Chinese tourists visiting Hong Kong Disneyland on its debut day
smoked in non-smoking areas, went barefoot and even let children urinate in public.

P.S: Disney dudes, you aint seen nothin yet. Wait until you open one in India.

Smileys

Pointless posts department
In association with
Bad short stories department
Presents

Once upon a time

Once upon a time, there was a fly. It flew into a lamp one night.
It burned its wings and fell into a pond nearby. Well, not exactly into the pond.
It fell on a lotus leaf.

Burned are my wings. Motionless is my life, now. For, what? The fly shouted. Then it rolled to its right to fall into the pond.

Burned are your wings. Motionless is your life, forever. Live, for I need a friend to tell stories to. The lotus leaf lifted the fly and saved it.

From that day on, lotus leaf fed the fly with her fiber and fungus.

Every night leaf would tell the fly a story. A story of a fly who re-grew its wings. Only bigger. Phoenix. Her name is Phoenix.

During the day, the fly used to knit a house with the fiber. Within a month the house almost looked like a house.

On a full moon day, two female flies flew over the leaf and fell in love with the house.

Home, sweet home. Females shouted.
That’s my house. I built it with My sweat and lotus fiber. The fly proudly announced.

He is My man.
He is My Man man.

That night they made love the whole night.

Next day, the fly grew little wings. It buzzed them in excitement the whole day.
Next day, the wings grew bigger. Fly flew a little.
Next day, the wings grew bigger and stronger. The fly flew. Fucking flew.

When night ate the sun, the lamp on the shore got lit.

I am going for the lamp.

Friend! The lamp is going to burn you.
My man! The lamp is going to burn you.
My Man man! The lamp is going to burn you.

I am going for the lamp.

The fly flew.
The fly flew over the lamp.
The fly flew around the lamp.
The fly flew under the lamp.
The fly flew into the lamp.

It burned its wings and fell into the pond. Well, not exactly into the pond. It fell on the leaf.

Burned are my wings. Motionless is my life, now. For, what? The fly shouted. Then it rolled to its right to fall into the pond.

It fell into the pond. The leaf watched it swallowed by the abyss underneath.

The next day, female flies drifted with the wind.

Parking Links

George Musser comes up with an action plan for 21st Century.

If you havent already seen or heard about FSM , here is a great place to start.

Humour Haiku

leaves all raked

the winds skips over

to the neighbour's yard

Blogquotes

Then there is this fella, the size of a thimble. He’s so thin that if he were
the apple, he’d never fall off that tree and Newton would have never
discovered gravity.
-Alpha 2

There was a study in Britain. Not another one, you might be tempted to
add but to let you on a secret, such studies make for excellent blogging
material as you might have noticed.
-Patrix

He is speaking in another language
making another plan,
with another woman.
And all the while I am thinking:
I love the sound of his foreign words.
-Ph

The Vipassana Chronicles
Inside, outside. Outside, inside.

Yato yato sammasati
Khandhanam udayabbayam,
Labhati piti amojjam
Amatam tam vijanatam

Dhammapada, XX.15 (374)

Thats Dharmapada asking you to have an insight into the impermanence of
everything around you. Physical and mental.

A free translation of one of the verses of Day Six goes like this

Impermanent are the compounded things.
When one perceives this with insight
Then one becomes detached from suffering
This is the path to liberation

There I was, a born atheist, a learned rationalist, (never practiced any religion
in my life, never accepted anything that is not scientific) sitting in a pagoda,
dismissing my thoughts and observing my sensations.

By then, observing the sensations was spread through out the body.
You start with your head and end up at your toe. You do it in reverse after that.
You repeat that. This is more engaging than observing breath. By then,
whichever body part I was concentrating on, I was able to feel every single
sweat pore and hair of that part. That was the kind of detail it got into.

Experienced dudes can observe sensations even inside the body and through
the body. You can observe a sensation emerging on your stomach, getting
inside, passing through the gut and emerging out on the back and
disappearing. It never happened to me.

Around noon, I discovered a short cut. I was following a sensation from
my chest to my hand and by chance observed my chest, stomach and hand
all at the same time. I then realized that I can feel (unfortunately my
vocabulary is so limited) myself from inside out, all at once.

I call it the Matrix moment. My whole body suddenly became a sum
of vibrating, pulsating, appearing and disappearing sensations. Sweat pores
on the scalp, itching on the little finger, the tip of the penis, vibrations on
the back side of the right thigh. I could observe all these sensations at once
from inside out. It was a surreal moment. It lasted for a long time.

Ironically, the whole idea of Vipassana is not about discovering the sensations,
but to dismiss them. Some people develop a craving for those Matrix moments
and try hard for them. That is wrong. That sensation was an impermanent
moment too.

Day 8

Getting used to a life where you get up at four in the morning and start
meditating at four thirty is not easy at all. By then I was getting used to the
snoring roommates, the idea of surviving without alcohol and chicken, without
sexual thoughts, enjoying the little flowers on the sides of the path, listening
to the woods (they have so many sounds hidden in them), not having any issues
to deal with or any tasks to do and in general feeling good all the time. I was
even beginning to like the food and the taste of warm ginger water that is
served all the time.

Phutthassa loka dhammehi
Cittam yassa na kampati
Asokam, virajam, khemam,
Etam, mangalamuttamam

Maha mangala sutta, Sutta nipata

(When faced with the vicissitudes of life,
Ones mind remains unshaken,
Sorrowless, stainless, secure;
This is the greatest welfare).

Stephen Covey called it the Gap between the stimuli and the response.
That was his Matrix moment. He discovered that there is gap between an
event (stimulus) and our reaction (response) and with some training, we
can choose the reaction or response.

He discovered this simple idea on a remote island in Hawaii.

Using a complex methodology and with a Hindu accent Mahatma Gandhi
discovered it too and named it Satyagraha. A different kind of response to a
standard stimulus. He chose his reaction. When provoked, he smiled.
When slapped, he sympathized.

(
Understanding Satyagraha is not easy.
Understanding Buddha is not easy.
Understanding them with your mind is difficult.
Understanding them with your heart is easy.

They are beyond your thought. The spread of Buddhism in Buddhas own life
Alexanders victories. Buddhas thought spread from the remote caves
of Afghanistan (Gandhara, back then) to the wild tribes of Lanka to the mighty
kingdoms of China and most of the modern India.

Ironically, the idea of impermanence preached by Buddha remained intact
even after of 2500 years. The region of dominance and control of Alexander
perished right after his lifetime.

Now, Vipassana has nothing to do with Buddha. It was there before him.
Buddha chose Vipassana as the technique in his journey towards the truth.)

Many a great leaders found the same truth from different perspectives under
different Geo Socio Political situations and propagated the discovery to the
masses through different organizational structures using different languages.

On that day, with my heart filled with love and compassion, my face adorned
with a smile (and the gap between my teeth), I was present, sensing everything,
observing the response and dismissing it, at the moment.
And the moment after that.
And the moment after that.
And the moment after that.

Day 9

A Pali passage on Day nine during the discourse summed it all.

Pakarena janatiti panna
Atthasalini

Translated:
Wisdom is, knowing things in different ways.

P.S:
I conclude this series.
I might take up the course in the future or I might not.
Vipassana and Buddhism made a definite impact on my thought
and actions.

May all beings be happy.

In listening

I need money. My nephew called me two days back.
He is just into college.
Ok, but how do I handover the money to you? I asked.
(He lives in Vizag and I live in Hyderabad)
I dont know. He replied.

Ok, do one thing, check to see if any of your friends are having accounts
in computerized banks like HDFC, ICICI. I will deposit cash in their accounts
from here and you can withdraw it using their ATM card from there.

He called me a little later. Yes, one of this friends is having an account with
Indus Ind bank. Yes, it is computerized.

Ok, Good. Give me the account number. I asked.
Its 1634-C1709..
Wait!Wait! Is this C as in Cat?

Nephew paused for a moment and confirmed

No, its just an ordinary C.