अहो गुणवती भार्या , भांडा वित्तम न याचते !

The Saint and his pupil.

Once upon a time, not very long ago, lived a Saint named Alpaanada at the foot hills of the Himalayas.

He used to train disciples in history and philosophy and was pretty well known in the Yogi academic circles. He had a wife called Sundari, who was famous for her big mouth.

Sundari used to keep nagging her husband about the poor quality of life in the Himalayas, but Alpaananda, true to his name, was quite happy with his life.

One day, one of his students, Pungavaabhirama, invited him over to his house for lunch. Pungavaabhirama wanted to make fun of Swami Alpaananda for his inability to deal with his wife's nagging.

So, Pungavaabhirama made his wife, Komaalangi a deal."Tomorrow, when the Guruji arrives for lunch, I will pretend to be abusing you. I want you to ignore my abuses, and pretend as if I am incharge of the house. If you do this, I shall give you money enough to buy the Kantthabharana (Necklace) you've been asking since long."

Komalaangi took a few minutes to think about the offer and Said, "Ok, I shall pretend as you say, and I will also prepare the Best meal for your Guruji. But Remember, I will only put up with this until 100 abuses!"

The next day, Alpaananda took his wife's permission and reached Pungavaabhirama's house just before lunch time.

Pungavaabhirama greeted him and shouted "Komalaangi, you lazy donkey, come here and offer the guest some water to wash his feet!", and proudly grinned at his Guru.
Alpaananda smiled nonchalantly.

All through the Lunch session, Pungavaabhirama kept abusing his wife, and tried to show his Guru that He was the man of the house. He then shouted again, "Where is the Dal (a main course dish in India) , you lazy monkey?!"

Komalaangi, who was really angry by now, was keeping calm because of her greed for the money to buy herself a Kantthabharana, was silently counting her Husband's abuses.
She realised that Pungavaabhirama had exhausted his 100 abuses, and was about to warn him after serving him Dal from the earthen pot she was carrying.

Pungavaabhirama, who had noticed the Guruji's indifference to his actions, saw his wife returning from the kitchen and said "Make it fast you sloth faced woman!"
Komalaangi lost her temper, and crashed the earthen pot into her husband's head, and said, "Now, Give me my money, you useless man"

Alpaananda, who was none the wiser about his pupil's deal with Komalaangi, smiled and said " अहो गुणवती भार्या , भांडा वित्तम न याचते !"
"I am so fortunate to have a wife, who is truly a treasure of values, since she has broken many pots on my head, but never asked me to pay for those pots!"

We Could Fall....

What is worse than a forest guide mauled by a tiger?

I always was morbidly afraid of snakes. And never thought I would realise that a far more deadly predator existed... This predator was more close to us than any of the so called wild beasts... He existed within us.

The video of LTTE Prabhakaran's son's killing by the SriLankan Troops is another example of how low humans could fall!

I can never understand why the incident ever happened. Was the 12 year kid a threat to national security? Was he a terrorist? was he a part of whatever his father had done???
And I don't want to understand either.
We do hear people saying "You can't fall any further!".
But incidents like this one show us the truth... That WE COULD FALL...
We could keep falling as long as we wanted to..

The worst part is that this event will fade away into oblivion... :(

I am editing this post  after almost one year of first publishing it to thank the journalists whose work has now brought international focus to this issue again.

I was right when I said that the event will fade away into oblivion... I truly hope that this time it won't...

I can't even say "Rest in peace" Balachandran... I can just hope for it... :(

మతం.

Accidentally stumbled upon a website that promoted conversion to a particular religion... Was shocked to see many websites of almost all religions like that on google.
Felt very bad and had a sudden sense of aversion to "religion" and wrote this...

మతం మతం మతం....
పిచ్చి పట్టిన కుక్క నోట పలికిన తప్పుడు పాఠం .
స్వార్ధ కలుషిత మనసులు కప్పుకున్న ఓ పటం .

హిందువుని కాను, మహామ్మదీయుడిని కాను , కాను క్రైస్థవుడను నేను.
మతొన్మాదం అంటే మంది పడే మామూలు మనిషిని నేను.

నా లాంటి నవ యువతను , నీ తరమా ఆపడం?
నువ్వు చేసిందల్లా చరిత్రలను చెరపడం.
మతం మతం మతం.....

God is an Underdog.

"God is an Underdog". This is exactly why I love Him so much!

Born and brought up in an orthodox Hindu family, I was always the insubordinate kid. My Father, with whom I share a beautiful friendship, let me have my way.
All along my college days, I was known for my almost- atheistic principles and harsh criticism on fanatic religiousness. So much so, that my friends used to joke that if I ever went to a temple, God would die of a heart attack!
But there has been a change lately in my attitude towards Him. Maybe part of it is because of the amount of books I've been reading these days.
I still denounce the so-called GOD-men or "Babas" but am attracted to the spiritual happiness religion offers.
The beauty with which Ramadasu describes Lord Rama as Karunaapayonidhi (ocean of kindness) or the sensitiveness shown by Karunasree in Pushpavilaapakaavyam, I am sure, were works written with utmost spiritual peace and passion.

Today we live in a world where the battle between God and Science is rising again (and I thought that had ended after the mediaeval ages lol). The extent of the involvement of the Internet and social networking in our lives have taken this to a altogether new level of bitterness.
Being a medical man myself, I completely disagree with the Church of Scientology's principles. But I do realise the limitations of science itself. I do realise, if Science could explain everything, "Why do I have to still write that the major reason of many disorders as idiopathic? "

The level of bitterness against God, just because some religion somewhere has opposed progressive ideas, is astonishing. If it weren't "Fear of God", the world would've been a much worse place to live today!
"God" is the subconscious custodian of mankind. He has always been an excellent support to the man in despair, comfort to those in pain, and a reason for millions to believe in themselves.
Though I've never been the religious kind, I cannot even imagine my plight before my exams or when my near ones were ill - if there was no concept of God.

God bless late Prof Patel, my physics lecturer, who told me that God and Science were one and the same, citing a few parallels to envision his ideas. A few of them were :

• Science for a long time said Matter and Energy are distinct. Religion said Man and God were Distinct. (- The Dwaita Philosophy)
• Einstein proved e=mc^2 , that Energy and Matter were interconvertible . AadiShankaracharya laid down the doctrine of Advaitha, that Man and God are different forms of one another.
• Science is now trying to prove that all Matter originated from a single burst of Energy called the Big Bang, through experiments of the Large Hadron Collider. Modern Spiritual Gurus like RamaKrishna Paramahamsa, and Swami Vivekananda have advocated that God created us in his own self and we all possess the spark of the divine within us.

Why did I take sides with God in this battle? most likely to be the same reason why I wanted Rocky to win over Apollo Creed, or why I wanted Leonidus to win over Xerxes, or why I wanted Refael Nadal to win over Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon.

Because I love Underdogs.

Set fire to the rain

Liked Adele's song - Set fire to the rain. Wrote this in response to the video posted by a friend on Face book.

भूला नहीं हूँ मैं वह भीगी सि रातें !
तेरी यादों की नगरी है, मेरी नम्म सि ये पल्खें !!
वह सावन का महिना था जब तुमने हमसे आँख मिलाई !
आज फिर सावन आया,
तो तेरी जुदाई ने बारिश को आग लगायी !!

RVG Hospitalised in Mumbai: Fakeindiannews.com

The Famous RVG had to hospitalized late last night, here in Mumbai, according to fake sources. The director's condition is reported to be stable, and he was discharged after sedation and 6hrs of observation.

RVG, after watching a telugu movie on Mumbai underworld, reportedly had an episode of uncontrollable laughter. The director known for his hard hitting and realistic movies had been to a new telugu movie in the evening. Reportedly, He enjoyed the movie and was about to tweet about it when post he saw on twitter comparing this new telugu movie to one of his previous bollywood mafia-based flick, triggered the episode.

Dr Prakkash, of "Descent" hospitals pvt. limited, clarified on the issue, "RVG was laughing hysterically! It could have led to major problems in his health if he wouldn't have stopped. There are previous cases of inguinal hernias and rectal prolapses being precipitated in such cases. Where do you think the phrase 'Laugh my Ass off' originated from?"

The Doctor has been bombarded with calls from RVG fans all over the world since the episode, while the celebrity himself was unavailable. "He is very stable. We had to give him high dose sedatives to stop his laughter, but he responded well, and was discharged"

Kya hai "Sab se Jyaada?"

Thanks to the ever inspiring poet and study-mate at NIMS Library, Dr Arun Rathi (alias Kaviraaj) for poking me to write something... Wrote this in the library yesterday :)

हमने तुम्हे चाहा रब से ज्यादा !
तुम्हारी कदर की सबसे ज्यादा !!
तुम लाख कहलो झूट के हमने तुम्हारा दिल तोडा !
तुम्हारा झूट न होगा भारी हमारे सच से ज्यादा !!
हाए, ज़माने से डरती हो खुद से ज्यादा !
तुम्हारा राज़ जानता है कौन मुझसे ज्यादा?
हमारी वफ़ा तुम्हारी बेवफाई को हरा चुकी है !
तेरा दिया दर्द कभी न होगा मेरी इबादत से ज्यादा !!

Please do pardon any incorrect spellings. I am an average student who just managed to pass Hindi in school :)