'Sense' of 'humor'

I remember writing a similar post, or something remotely on these lines. Nevertheless, I again feel it imperative to elucidate to a certain portion of my acquaintances that

Being silly ain't humor,and talking sense is not somber!

Adding to the already persistent, vast gamut of misconceptions, people tend to think that if one is trying to communicate ideas or information in a simple and sensible manner, either the content, or the presenter, or both are emanating from some gloomy or hideous origins. This adds to the poor reception amonsgt the people, to the matters of immense import.

But contrarily, people get hooked onto silly, frivolous and futile attempts of some empty heads
(the TRP ratings of the TV shows people watch would prove the contradiction I am trying to etch out here).

Charlie Chaplin as the Little Tramp

Humor, in daily life is not about being silly, but about taking things lightly, and responsibly. And, the Greatest Comedian of all times manifested it to us in his work.

If humor was only gimmickry, or sarcasm, or plain mockery, we wouldn't have recognized and remembered Charles Chaplin as the Greatest Comedian ever. He used humor as a tool to convey all the tough messages he wanted to. He showed humor to be one of the best ways to lead one's life, lightly and responsibly. But, if people have had it confused with just being silly, he'd be very upset with it.

Likewise, if people attribute sense to somber, it is highly unfortunate, not to the sensibles, but to the rest of the dogmatists.




PS: This speech from The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin is one of the best ever.

Ruthless criticism of everything that exists!

Firstly, the post title is derived from the letters written by one of the groundbreaking thinkers, who added a new paradigm to the world as seen today- Karl Marx.

I shall not be concentrating on him, or his letter as yet. But, would like to revolve around this radical sentence : Ruthless criticism of everything that exists.


One of the main objectives of our existence is to validate the existence of everything else by our own critical faculties;  In pursuit of this validation is when many paradigm shifts have been unleashed on the world.

We might tend to accept, with many generations of like minded people having lived before us for centuries, the need to criticize everything ruthlessly might not be necessary; But, chances that the most obvious of the things as perceived by the humanity are the ones which need the most criticism. For, given the obviousness of the entity, the chances that it has bypassed the scrutiny of the critical faculties of  many generations is very high. To quote a few scantly scrutinized percolations of obvious human wisdom are God, Religion,Traditions,the Social fabric, the educational, economic, and political systems.

It naturally is our responsibility to put such percolations of supposed human wisdom under the lens of scrutiny with the bettered tools of criticism. And the word ruthless criticism is to be taken positively, which implies, it must be carried out with no prejudices, biases and compromises. Only then, the society with all its components can sustain and perpetuate based on reason, with incessant validations.

Remember to,
Ruthlessly criticize everything that exists! Move on, only when convinced.

The Ten commandments for an Atheist (v 0.1.1)

I  Thou shall always tread the path of reason: Scrutinizing every step taken. 

II Thou shall seek truth in its entirety by scientific means, using the tools of questioning, reasoning and verification.

III Thou shall and must think freely ( free as in freedom); and question with no fears or apprehensions, whatsoever. 

IV Thou shall sustain the natural curiosity, by incessantly pursuing the quest to understand everything, scientifically. 

V Thou shall openly accept flaws, once proven; Then learn, correct and better oneself. 

VI Thou shall tackle the absurdities propelled by blind belief emanating from ignorance, in a passionate and dialectic manner, by perpetuating the cognizance of truth, substantiated by reason and evidence. 

VII Thou shall not impose one's views, but shall put it forth in the most effective technique making imposition needless. 

VIII Thou shall grow and perpetuate the genetically inherent social morality of the Homo sapiens, arbitrated by our critical faculties. 

IX Thou shall naturally die; With no delusions of after life to be confused with, shall make the best out of  the lucky tenure of being a grand conscious part of the Universe. 

X Thou shall never follow, but can always improvise. 

The coexistence of Conflicting opposites

The term Contradiction is not something of a rarity in the Universe. The way Universe has come to be, as far as our understanding spans, is a consequence of conflicting opposites, coexisting at every instant of, all the time that has passed; Let us for example consider the naturally occurring,
Nuclear Fusion vs Nuclear Fission.

Avoiding the debate of the Big Bang and the subsequent immediate speculations, allow me to start from The virtually eternal hydrogen cloud that there was: Simplistically put, Fission produces sufficient energy to trigger Fusion. Then Fusion has/is converting the hydrogen to become all the elements known to us today. Fission and Fusion are conflicting opposites -One breaks, while the other makes. But, both together struggle and coexist, synthesizing all that is we are and we see today across the Universe.

If analysed thoroughly, there is for everything that exists: A thesis and an antithesis. The sedimentation of existence is the Synthesis of the conflicting Thesis and anti-thesis.

Let us consider further such ubiquitous, universally true and coexisting but conflicting opposites depicted in the graphic below.

And at personal levels, each and every decision we take at every instant of our lives is a synthesis of choosing between two coexisting choices. At this instant, I am faced with the choice of either continuing this argument or to Stop.
The synthesis of this dilemma is for you to see, as I complete this post.

The concept of the coexistence of conflicting opposites is something that can be observed ubiquitously, and scrutinized thoroughly at every walk of our lives, and every interaction in the Universe.

There perpetuates an infinite struggle between the coexisting opposites (thesis and anti-thesis) to leave behind sediments (synthesis), which might appear as cognizance, impact, logic or change to us.

Resuscitate the dying Democracy!

First the facts:

At the Centre:

•  The 2G spectrum licensing scam by the Telecom Minister amounting to 1,73,000 crore rupees! An unrelenting and defiant minister playing his dirty politics tricks in the safe haven of coalition government.
• Common Wealth Games embezzlement, nepotism and other corruptions which cost the mediocre infrastructure for the games a whooping 70,000 crore rupees. This scam seems to be at the verge of oblivion, for there have been newer, bigger and better scams surfacing up, for the media to chew on.
•  As a crowning notoriety to all the scams hitherto, comes the Adarsh Housing Society scam, where the land alloted for the widows and family members of war martyrs has been grabbed by the influentials, to convert it into a posh apartment with flats for all the accomplices. What a shame!

In Karnataka, here:

•  The never ending saga of the horse-trade of MLA's;  An over-expanding cabinet where the ruling party is at the fix of handing out minister posts to all their legislators!
•  The false majority at the Legislative Houses, which has been successfully manipulated by luring and enticing the legislators with the raw power of money!
• Another mega-scam at the verge of oblivion - The Illegal Mining Mafia ( remember the tussle between Lokayukta vs the State Govt.?) Studies show that this scam has cost the state of Karnataka nothing less than 23,000 crore rupees!

With a discomfortingly revelatory prologue such as this, and with the facts about the deep rooted corruption plaguing everywhere, there is a strong requirement for all the responsible and sensible citizens to take a call and cleanse this sickening, parasitic trend of politics, which is eating into the country, feeding on its people, ultimately nullifying the revered ideology of Democracy-By,Of and For the People!

I apprehend, if there is any hope at all for the citizens to expect anything for their good in this rotten system! Corruption has come to be a mandatory prerequisite to become a politician, and in the real sense of it.
Is there a chance that these leaders could give any heed to the real and basic needs of people?
They are super busy spending all their time and all our resources either in filling their personal treasuries, or saving their arses from the fire behind them!

Political morality, if there is anything like it, has to be inculcated/reinvigorated in this chaotic system filled with corrupt highfalutins. This sorry state of the state and the country, with the not-so sorry politicians making people feel sorry by the day has to be rectified.

People have to regain their conviction: They must demand and work towards resurrecting the miserably failing ideology of democracy here in India - The world's largest Democracy!

Miracles, we are

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle

-The genius of Albert Einstein

I do realize this is a clichéd quote, but, how many of us have really got to feel the essence of this statement? 

Haven't we all started living the first way, with no awe and admiration for all the small, little, important things in life?

If you ask me, I'd stick to the latter ideology. 

Everything is a Miracle!

Forever, until this moment, the simplicity and the grandeur; the scale and the variety; the comprehension and the obscurity; the beauty and the serenity, pertaining to each and every, small and big creation and manifestation of Nature, coupled with the interaction and interference of us humans has kept me at the zenith of awe and admiration, or at least I hope to be there soon. 

Every simple facet of existence exhibited by Mother Nature and Father Time is attributable to nothing less than miracles.Without digressing into the obvious miracles, like the vastness and eternity of the Universe, or the existence of life on the Earth, let us unleash the subtle ones. 

Personally, The Clouds still remain the most fascinating and intriguing manifestation of the exact quality we are discussing about. I can never stop wondering about the indefinite patterns spread over the blue canvas of the sky. This is just one of the marvels, which despite the science, logic and reasoning gives a kind of incomprehensible bliss to the other marvelous existence in the Universe, i.e.,Our Minds, projected by the NNN-Natural Neural Networks headed by the Human Brain. 

Although the brain is what is prompting me to jot this down, I do not think it is a narcissist, for, it promptly attributes these qualities not to itself but the culmination of millions of years of trillions of small changes as directed by Time. 

The boundless imagination, the seamless creativity, the never depleting resource of thoughts and ideas, the vivid world visualized within the mind are the things which we seldom stop to savor and be awed with. 

So near, yet so far...

Often, if not always, it is imperative we stop and look at everything around, including ourselves and recognize the miracles that we have come to be, and celebrate in the spirit of Nature by trying to emulate her with a polite mimicking of her manifestations. 

Imagine, Ideate and Create:-)

Wonder, Awe and Admiration will keep us inspired to do more than what our un-instigated mind would usually want to.

As a final thought, isn't it marvelous that the scattered and scrambled thoughts emanating from my mind have been communicated to you, and that my mind has just now touched yours?
Miracle, it is:Miracles, we are;

PS: imagine, ideate and create

The Liberation Triad

Music does convey all emotions in the most efficient way. But, as a listener I have until now been dependent on music instruments coupled with vocals to enjoy the tracks, irrespective of the artist or the genre.

Instrumentals haven't been the most appealing pieces of music in terms of emotional conveyance to me, as is the case for a lot of audience. There have been a few extraordinary pieces of music which would stick to my mind and linger forever, such as the Bombay Theme by A R Rahman.

Now again, one other masterpiece by A R Rahman for 127 Hours is on the verge of becoming one such musical mind-block. With my amateur guitar experience, I seem to connect with this piece of music very well.

Liberation triad from the Danny Boyle movie by A R Rahman is one of his recently composed defining pieces of music. With "Liberation Begins", "Liberation in a dream" and the crescendo "Liberation", he transcends into different levels of emotions progressively and hits the right chords, stimulating all the emotions as intended. When these three tracks are listened sequentially until the crescendo,they manifest the increasing power of each guitar chord being played.

Yet again, I am being taken into the deeper realms of music by A R Rahman :-)

Festivals, to the ones like me ;-)

What could be better than a day's off from work, substituted by relaxing at home, with lots to eat and feast on, while watching some special TV, apart from the warmth of the togetherness, with the added amusement provided by the skeptical participation in prayers and rituals?

A friend had raised a question if rationalists and atheists should be celebrating festivals at all!

And, as I am privileged enough to be a novice of both these elite classes (ignore the jargons;), I strongly feel even rationalism and atheism cannot prevent one from getting together with family and friends, to eat and celebrate the togetherness. That is what any Festival is meant to be, more than emulating any ancient traditions which make little sense in the contemporary world.

As I intend to keep this post positive as a whole, I shall save the critique on the customs and traditions of all religions for elaborations in future posts. 

So, 'Festivals minus Rituals' is a must have for everybody to feel the power of celebration in the spirit of life, to increase joy, happiness and to savor the periodic special days.

With Deepavali/Diwali at the horizon, let this Festival of Lights,
enlighten the minds of people, fill it with sparkling ideas, blasting off prejudices and ignorance. Hope there is lesser pollution this time, as the trend has been off late.

Happy Eco and Future friendly Deepavali

ದೀಪಾವಳಿ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಹಾರ್ದಿಕ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು

दीपावली त्यौहार   के शुभकामनाएं

தீபாவளி பண்டிகையின் மனமார்ந்த வாழுத்துக்கள் 

ಕನ್ನಡ, kannada :-)

I would have wanted to write this post entirely in Kannada, to symbolize Kannada Raajyotsava. But, I wanted to mention some interesting facts about Kannada, which I wanted the non-Kannadigas to know as well. More than the non-Kannadigas, there is an urgent necessity for the Kanndigas themselves to refresh some facts such as these, and reclaim the pride in the language and heritage, which seems to be depleting these days.

1. Kannada language has a script known as the 'Brahmi Script'. It comprises of 35 consonants and 14 vowels. Each written symbol in the Kannada script corresponds with one syllable, as opposed to one phoneme in languages like English.
2. All Indian languages are phonetic when compared to other world languages. And, Kannada is the most phonetic amongst these. Both spoken Kannada and the script comprise of all the syllables. With its 49 characters Kannada is the most phonetic language in India able to produce vocal sounds of all forms used for communication. 
3. Kannada is one of the oldest languages in the world still in use. In India, with the exception of Tamil and Telugu, there is no other language older than Kannada in use. The Halmidi inscriptions date back to 450 AD, whereas the oldest existing literary work in Kannada- Kaviraajamarga (The name means literally "Royal Path for Poets" and was used as a guide book for poets and scholars) by King Nrupathunga dates back to 850 AD.
4. English has absorbed some bit of Kannada. For example, the word 'Market'. Etymology experts attribute this word to have been derived from the Latin word 'mercatus(buying and selling)',but, we cannot ignore that in Kannada "Maarukatte" means precisely what the word market stands for. 
5. Kannada script is also used by two other languages spoken in Karnataka -Tulu and Konkani. Kannada and Telugu share almost an identical script. 

The rest will be in Kannada :)

ರಾಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸವಕ್ಕೆ ಹೇಳಬೇಕಾದ ಸಂಗತಿಯನ್ನು ಆಂಗ್ಲದಲ್ಲೇ ಹೇಳಿಬಿಟ್ಟೆ. .ಈಗ ನಮ್ಮ ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ಇಬ್ಬರು ಮುಖ್ಯ ವಚನಕಾರರ, ನನಗೆ ಹಿಡಿಸಿದೆ ಒಂದೆರಡು ವಚನವನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ನೆನಪಿಸುತ್ತಿದೇನೆ.
ಸರ್ವಜ್ಞ :

ನಿತ್ಯ ನೇಮಗಳೇಕೆ | ಮತ್ತೆ ಪೂಜೆಗಳೇಕೆ ?
ನೆತ್ತಿ ಬೋಳೇಕೆ? | ಜಡೆ ಏಕೆ ಮನದಲಿ 
ಸತ್ಯವುಳ್ಳವನಿಗೆ ಸರ್ವಜ್ಞ ||


ಗುರು ಇಲ್ಲದ ಮಠವು| ಹಿರಿಯರಿಲ್ಲದ ಮನೆಯು |
ಅರಸರಿಲ್ಲದೂರು ಇವು ಮೂವರು ನುಲಿಹರಿದ |
ಹೊರೆಸಿನಂತಕ್ಕು ಸರ್ವಜ್ಞ ||

ಬಸವಣ್ಣ :

ನಿಮಿಷದ ನಿಮಿಷಂ ಬೋ, ಕ್ಷಣದೊಳಗರ್ಥಂ ಬೋ !
ಕಣ್ಣು ಮುಚ್ಚಿ ಬಿಚ್ಚುವೈಸುಬೇಗಂ ಬೋ :
ಸಂಸಾರದಾಗುಂ ಬೋ ! ಸಂಸಾರದ ಹೋಗುಂ ಬೋ !
ಸಂಸಾರದೊಪ್ಪಂ ಬೋ !
ಕೂಡಲ ಸಂಗಮದೇವಾ,
ನೀ ಮಾಡಿದ ಮಾಯೆಯೇಂ ಬೋ, ಅಭ್ರಚ್ಚ್ಹಾ ಯೇಂ ಬೋ !

ರಾಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸವದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು... :)  

The Halmidi scripture