Friday, November 26, 2010

2 years after 26/11

I can only share these links:

This is a spine chilling, must watch documentary. Do find time to watch it: (49 minutes)
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1e4_1246490858

And this event, which is happening in multiple cities. We find time to go pandal hopping, we find time to go for religious processions.. find time for this one please (you will have to scroll down to find the contact for your city)

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/IndiaArmyFans?v=wall

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Beautifying the Hotel

If you are a facebook junkie, you might have heard of a game called "Hotel City".Here, players have to create a hotel, and as they play , they make game currency. What is that currency used for? Beautifying the hotel. There is no game benefit to beautifying the hotel. It is just that people "like" to do it. A lot of money that Second Life makes is based on this "like to beautify" instinct in humans.
Have you seen the new Airtel logo and heard the new tune? It sure looks like someone was playing Hotel City there. Sure, the brand logo needed repositiong because there was a possibility of visual confusion with a new entrant - Aircel . But the tune? Why would you kill one of the best known advertising tunes in india? WHY?
This is not the first time organisations have played Hotel City. (Made expensive, but essentially cosmetic changes to their corporate presence without any known strategic, marketing or other benefit).
 
But in some companies, a lot of Hotel City is being played right now. Nokia about tops that list in mind. What are some other Hotel City playing companies that come to your mind?

Monday, November 22, 2010

To Abid Khan posted at Nathu La

This October, i took a holiday to Sikkim and for the first time, visited Nathu La - the China Border.

There was a soldier posted there. Coincidentally, there were 2 soldiers with the same name. As we were getting down, a child of about 11(walking a little ahead of moi)  looked at the 2 name plates and said "aap dono ka naam same same hai? " (Both of you have the same name?) The soldier replied with a smile "haan hamara naam same same hai." (Yes, we have the same name)
The child replied with wonder "Aisa kaise ho sakta hai?" (How is that possible?)
To which, the younger of the 2 soldiers replied, with so much ...hope .. and ...  innocence on his face "Kyun aap same same nahi ho hamare jaise?" (Why, arent u the same as us?) the child looked from one to the other, and really had no answer. At this point, i looked at the 2 name plates. They both said "Abid Khan". This post is for the Abid Khan(s) at Nathula. That was one of the most touching moments ever for me. It will be a long time before one forgets the look on that face as it said "Kyun, aap same same nahi ho, hamare jaise?"

The second instance was, when we were at the top, requesting the soldiers to pose with us for pics. And Abid Khan (the older one) said " zaroor pose karenge. aap log itni door se aaye ho yahaan tak sab kuchh chhod kar. ye bahut badi baat hai. " I said "Aap log itni door rehte ho sab kuchh chhod kar, ye us se bhi badi baat hai." He looked at me, then pointed to peaks still higher up and said "vo dekho, hamare bhai vahaan.. hum se bhi oopar rehte hain.. hum akele thodi na hai..." I dont think any of us city slickers could think like that.. to live in such difficult conditions and still to think of other soldiers - living even higher up. It takes a lot to be that....

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Why is telepathy so hard to understand?

How does information travel over the internet? Do you see it travel? No. But you know it does. How do you know its all "real"? Because you see it on your computer screen - right?

But you also know, and see, in equally "real" terms, that on some days, your computer(or your grinder, or the garden) seems to hate(or love) you. On some days, the person you are thinking of tends to call. When you are fervently hoping for something to happen, it does. That is equally real too, right?

So why is it that we believe in the "real" of the internet more than we believe in the "real" of the "Real"? Why is the bad mood of a "tool" less tangible (God knows we suffer real enough with it) ?

I've been thinking of this a lot. Why is Reiki, telepathy and auras still "occult"? We saw auras with Kirlian Photography and then some people started to believe it. Like our own eyes are less reliable than a camera. If we devised a camera someday that could, magically, capture "thought waves" as they flow out of our bodies, into the auras and then into the area around us, if such a camera comes into being, THEN, we will believe in the power of thoughts to make things happen. Until then, all the proof that stares us into the face, every single day, is "unreliable" and "coincidence".

THEN, we will see that thought waves emanate from every single entity - from our "non living" tools (anyone who has worked with tools knows that they are as living as it gets) , from plants, animals, and of course, people. We will see these thought waves travel from one person to another, miles away, and THEN we will believe in telepathy. We will see that thought waves of positive emotions make people happy and thought waves of negative emotions make people unhappy too. We will know why mass meditation works.

We will see that its perfectly possible to understand why, when some people enter the room, there is a sudden calming effect on everyone, and when some other people enter the room, the same set of people is somehow more agitated. We will then understand the power of using the most potent power that we share (other than breath) with every entity that exists in the physical and metaphysical world - the power of thought waves.