Cogito Ergo Sum

These are a few quotes I came up with in December 08..Thought of documenting it time to time.

I do not know whether I believe in what I write or I write about what I believe (Adhoc) - date 6.12.08 Professors and project managers have uncanny talent for making simple things intricate. (Experience) - date 24.12.08
If I am forced to choose between wisdom and love I'd choose the latter (A thought) - date 28.12.08
(The meaning of the last quote should not be applied to materialistic "wisdom" and materialistic "love")

With that, bye bye 2008..

Many of you who have read Kannada story books in childhood would have heard Tenaali Rama's name. He was a (the, you can say) shrewd joker-cum-minister in Vijayanagara(Today's Hampi)'s Krishnadevaraya's court.

Once the King gave everyone in his court a cat and a cow to provide milk for the cat.He announced a competition like this: after one month whichever cat is the fattest would get a big prize. Tenaali Rama found it stupid and thought of an idea. On the first day, he gave very hot milk to the cat and the cat's tongue got burnt, which got healed in a few days alright, but the memory of it lingered in its head. Due to this bad memory, it never drank milk again and became lanky. All the milk was used by Rama to make money. So, on the day of prize announcement, he demonstrated that his cat never drank milk and it is unfair to judge him on par with everyone. He got the prize.

We have all laughed reading this, but shall we go a bit deeper? The cat, once being cheated into believing that all white looking liquids were burning, it could hardly identify a genuine cold milk again in its life. As long as there are such cats, which may be thinking that they are being smart by not trusting in people, there are people like Tenaali Rama, who can outsmart them, using their paranoia for their own benefit, the cats may not even realize it! What cat is loses is sweetness of the milk and what such people lose is grace of humanity....

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This is a story which is a counter-example to the above.
I "know" a "strange" girl. I call her strange because, I've known her for as long as I can remember and whenever I think I know her, I come to believe that I do not know her. If I were her, I would have lost belief in everything, but she still lives and lives with her own beliefs and convictions!

To tell her long story briefly, she was an abandoned child by her parents; she came to our neighborhood to her grandmother's place. She was abused by her uncles, scorned at by the entire villagers, despite being nice to them. Her only crime was being an orphan. Somehow, people did not like the "tone" of her speech; they thought her to be arrogant at the first sight. She was very caring, passionate, affectionate, helpful and much more. I liked her, forget it, I loved her. She was excellent at Maths. She used to teach us everything she knew in our first standard, since first and fourth standard teachers were same and the teacher did not have time. In fifth standard a new male teacher joined our school and he hated her, because she understood something about him, which none of us knew. She was ill-treated everywhere, but she never lost faith in what she believed (what is that 'belief', she only knows, because I never understood her philosophy and she was not the kind who believed in God). They say, childhood experiences are the ones who shape a person, just like the primeval experience of Rama's cat with the milk. Even today, after getting a PhD in psychotherapy and being a full time psychologist, she's still a mystery to me; amazing character, I must say!


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Don't remember whether this is a Chinese or Zen or Osho story, that's not important anyway. It is real or fiction, that also is not known. The story goes like this:

There is a well grown green tree. A person lives in a hut nearby. He is not having a particularly good time nowadays. Business has gone down. Every morning, he goes for a walk, stands near the tree and lets out all his frustrations. He even goes to the extent of reproaching the tree for all his miseries. He does not notice any changes in the tree, but yes, he feels a strange relief after sharing his desperation. After about a year, the green tree has no leaves and it's almost dead. He never comes to know why. Do you know by any chance?

Might sound funny, but many scientists too believe that trees too have hearts, minds etc. No one and nothing can live for long after getting bombarded with negative energy constantly.

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This is a counter-illustration:

The river Bhaagirathi, which originates at Gangothri Glacier, a vast expanse of ice, five miles by fifteen, at the foothills of the Himalayas (14000 ft) in North U.P. and joins river Alakananda to form the river Ganga at the craggy canyon-carved town of Devprayaag. The Ganga has an exalted position in the Hindu ethos. It is repeatedly invoked in the Vedas, the Puranas, and the two Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Ganga Devi is supposed to be the daughter of the Himaalayaas and the consort of Lord Shiva. Bhagiratha is supposed to have got her to the earth through his penance, to get liberation to his ancestors.

This Ganga is polluted by majorly by leather industries, especially near Kanpur, which use large amounts of Chromium and other chemicals. Sheer volume of waste - estimated at nearly 1 billion litres per day - of mostly untreated raw sewage - is also a significant factor. Also, inadequate cremation procedures contributes to a large number of partially burnt or unburnt corpses floating down the Ganga, not to mention livestock corpses.

Even then, in the minds of people, Ganga is "Paavana Ganga". Not only from all over India, but from all over the world, people come to Haridwaar and worship the river. She is supposed to be "Paapanaashini", meaning "the one who destroys sins". The logic of the educated mind on "How can a polluted water create soothing effect on mind?" does not work with Ganga and most people. In spite of all the pollutants being added, Ganga continues to flow like she has ever been flowing and joins Bay of Bengal finally and draws respects from people.

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Saturday morning, felt like sharing what just came to mind..Both the stories have a bit (or quite a lot of?) correlation too!

This week I could not think of any topic to write on....Hence uploading a picture, for Kannada readers. Guess who is this?? Not a terrorist of course! I have already given a hint, hence must be easier to guess.


Got it in one of the museums of a famous tourism places in Karnataka..

Enjoy..