Chaos...and hope!!

A lot of things to say..

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First of all, the nasty reaction to Dr. Rajkumar's death yesterday. He was a cultural icon, a great actor, a singer, a Padma Bhusha, A Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner, a winner of 10 Film Fare awards, a survivor from Veerappan's kidnapping, and above all a clean and gentle man. I pay my humle homage.

But all said, he was just a man, and he died of natural causes. Being from outside this state, i underestimated the public reaction that'd follow this. When my company urged people to leave early, little did I understand the seriousness of the situation. But when I reached my place (and in record time too, because there were very few vehicles on the road), all the shops were shuttered down. No food, no water, nothing. With some luck we did manage to get some food, but for someone who's not accustomed to this, the incident is very exasperating. Why would anyone resort to violence on the roads, burn trucks, and throw stones at vehicles and buildings if an actor died? Nad that too of natural causes? How will my manager explain to the client that half of the IT companies in Bangalore are not working because an actor died? And there's even a cable black-out. I agree that it is only a small section of people who might be causing this, but that small section is enough to bring shame to the so-called IT hub of India.

I guess I should be proud to say that I belong to Kerala, where we might strike every other day, either to protest against cutting of trees in amazon or to protect the poor of Nigeria from World Bank intervention, but we never ever wreak havoc over the death of a matinee idol and a cultural icon.

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"May you be tough as a Rock." - Rig Veda (LXXV-XII)

No, not the VHP (Viswa Hindu Parishad) this time. This is the motto of "Paritrana" (the complete relief implying the end of the very cause of distress, in Sanskrit), a new political party launched by a group of IIT-ians.

Now, why would these guys launch a political party rather than help launch rockets in NASA?

Well, much before the RDB boys dreamt of killing the Defence minister and changing the world, these guys had come up with a much more feasible and non-violent solution. To launch a political party that'd have the best of the people in it.

You might want to visit them http://www.lokparitran.org ; Might want to vote them or even join the party.

Let's dream a better tomorrow.

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Airtel ad.

The "Express yourself" theme, shows a glimpse of Quit Inida movement, Martin Luther King, The Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Churchill, David Sheaphard (the cricket umpire), the Berlin wall.
Awesome ad.

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J Krishnamurti on knowledge and thinking -

"If you are alert, aware of your own process of thinking, you will see that whatever you tink has already shaped your mind; and a mind that is shaped by thought has ceased to be free, and therefore it is not a mind that is individual.

So self-knowledge is not a process of continuity of thinking, but the diminishing, the ending of thinking."