I just found out that Marijuana is far better for you health-wise than cigarettes. It's a medical fact!
My question is why is marijuana illegal and cigarettes are legal if this is the case?
A probable answer is that the primary motive of the worldwide law and political systems is not public health and well-being. But, i don't want to be cynical today.
The evening is just too pleasant!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Funny things
Dear Silence,
Trust you are doing great.
It was nice meeting you last week. We hardly talked though. Guess all the noise at the restaurant distracted you? I wanted to tell you how much i loved the way you held the flowers. And when you sipped the wine, it felt like you were weaving symphony. Wish i can meet you again soon. I call often but i don't seem to get through?
Love,
Sound
P.S: You will receive this message late as am sound and not as fast as light!
Reply from Silence:
Dear Sound,
I am silent but you are dumb!
How can i ever meet you?
Reply from Sound:
Dear Silence,
There is no physics in dreams. It's all geography.
Trust you are doing great.
It was nice meeting you last week. We hardly talked though. Guess all the noise at the restaurant distracted you? I wanted to tell you how much i loved the way you held the flowers. And when you sipped the wine, it felt like you were weaving symphony. Wish i can meet you again soon. I call often but i don't seem to get through?
Love,
Sound
P.S: You will receive this message late as am sound and not as fast as light!
Reply from Silence:
Dear Sound,
I am silent but you are dumb!
How can i ever meet you?
Reply from Sound:
Dear Silence,
There is no physics in dreams. It's all geography.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
God of long things!
Faith does strange things to people. You somehow garner the strength to achieve the otherwise arduous and impossibly cruel tasks. Life starts looking like an easy drive on a half-volley.
I was witness to several acts of faith over the last weekend. A trip to tirupati with family helped in a lot of ways!
Tirupati, the abode of lord venkateshwara, is a place full of wonders. The mind-boggling queues do not worry the devotees at all. Infact, they almost enjoy the long wait! The average wait-time for a chance appointment with the lord is approx 4-5 hours!! This is if you belong to the privileged sorts of queues (the ones with reco letters from prominent politicians, etc.). A poor peasant typically waits for 12-18 hours to get a sneak peek at the lord!!!!!
The 'darshan' is a big tragedy. You are already too tired by the time you reach the crux of the temple and are in no mood to pray. Also, you will be pushed off by fat khakhi-walas/poorly clad pujaris in an instant. A nanosec is all you ever get! And, people typically close their eyes in front of the god. That esentially means that not more than a small portion of the devotees actually have a full glimpse of the lord.
The story isn't limited to the main temple where the real slim lord is located. Around the main temple, lots of smaller ones co-exist. Each one has a story. Interesting ones i should say. I often wondered if several of those temples were just plain jokes by the erstwhile feudal lords. The joke would have been a result of a chance conversation between two weekend friends.
Sometime during 14th century, the conversation between a rich merchant and a not-so-popular king on a dull sunday would have been like below:
Merchant A: "Dude, am gettin bored these days! Not enough golf!! Also, my wife is in the states with her relatives!"
King B: "Ahh, sorry to hear that bro! Am bored too. My wife is back again. Let's build a temple for timepass. We will also earn a lot of mudras through ads!!"
Merchant A: "Kewl idea man!!!"
And so were created dozens, hundreds, thousands and lakhs of temples across villages, towns and cities alike. Back then, the population must have been fairly low and the temples were never really crowded. But, the prosperity of last several centuries (read good rains) resulted in a population explosion leading to crores of devotees on streets. They all have a single-point agenda. Stand in a queue and visit a god! We devotees typically keep a score. It's similar to a fico-score. We call it the darshan-score. The one who drank the maximum 'theertham' (holy water distributed at the temple after darshan) and climbed the highest number of steps is the most reliable devotee. And temples usually issue blessings at lower interest rates (like a bank issues cheap credit for ppl with high fico scores) for devotees with high scores!!
Whatever that means, the fact is that the long queues are constant throughout the day at all kinds and sizes of temples. All that a true devotee has to do is chant "govinda govinda" ! It acts like a crocin pill to the fever caused by all the evils of capitalism, inefficient democracies, inadequate educational institutes, poor form of justice, pathetic infrastructure and gallons of corruption.
God bless.
I was witness to several acts of faith over the last weekend. A trip to tirupati with family helped in a lot of ways!
Tirupati, the abode of lord venkateshwara, is a place full of wonders. The mind-boggling queues do not worry the devotees at all. Infact, they almost enjoy the long wait! The average wait-time for a chance appointment with the lord is approx 4-5 hours!! This is if you belong to the privileged sorts of queues (the ones with reco letters from prominent politicians, etc.). A poor peasant typically waits for 12-18 hours to get a sneak peek at the lord!!!!!
The 'darshan' is a big tragedy. You are already too tired by the time you reach the crux of the temple and are in no mood to pray. Also, you will be pushed off by fat khakhi-walas/poorly clad pujaris in an instant. A nanosec is all you ever get! And, people typically close their eyes in front of the god. That esentially means that not more than a small portion of the devotees actually have a full glimpse of the lord.
The story isn't limited to the main temple where the real slim lord is located. Around the main temple, lots of smaller ones co-exist. Each one has a story. Interesting ones i should say. I often wondered if several of those temples were just plain jokes by the erstwhile feudal lords. The joke would have been a result of a chance conversation between two weekend friends.
Sometime during 14th century, the conversation between a rich merchant and a not-so-popular king on a dull sunday would have been like below:
Merchant A: "Dude, am gettin bored these days! Not enough golf!! Also, my wife is in the states with her relatives!"
King B: "Ahh, sorry to hear that bro! Am bored too. My wife is back again. Let's build a temple for timepass. We will also earn a lot of mudras through ads!!"
Merchant A: "Kewl idea man!!!"
And so were created dozens, hundreds, thousands and lakhs of temples across villages, towns and cities alike. Back then, the population must have been fairly low and the temples were never really crowded. But, the prosperity of last several centuries (read good rains) resulted in a population explosion leading to crores of devotees on streets. They all have a single-point agenda. Stand in a queue and visit a god! We devotees typically keep a score. It's similar to a fico-score. We call it the darshan-score. The one who drank the maximum 'theertham' (holy water distributed at the temple after darshan) and climbed the highest number of steps is the most reliable devotee. And temples usually issue blessings at lower interest rates (like a bank issues cheap credit for ppl with high fico scores) for devotees with high scores!!
Whatever that means, the fact is that the long queues are constant throughout the day at all kinds and sizes of temples. All that a true devotee has to do is chant "govinda govinda" ! It acts like a crocin pill to the fever caused by all the evils of capitalism, inefficient democracies, inadequate educational institutes, poor form of justice, pathetic infrastructure and gallons of corruption.
God bless.
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