Mahashivaratri at the Austin Hindu Temple

Thanks to my daughter and my wife, for the first time in over a decade of my life in USA I managed to get to a temple on the day of Shivaratri and I am glad I did.

For the few hours I spent in the temple, I was impressed by the way the festival was celebrated at the Austin hindu temple, they had abisheka pooja every hour starting at 5:00PM going on till midnight or later (not sure) and were also providing milk to people to pour on the Shiva Linga. On the food front they were providing prasada pretty much through the night. Considering most of it is run by volunteers, it was a pretty well run show. Keep in mind, unlike other festivals where there is a concentrated time in which the temple usually gets a bulk of its visitors, this festival is a marathon process. 

Usually I will be the last person to pour milk on a shiva linga (essentially a black stone) but this time around I stood in line and participated in the process. It was a unique experience, for the time I was pouring milk, my mind was pretty still and thoughtless. One can call it a few moments of meditation. To an extent it made me understand the meaning behind some of the rituals and ceremonies.    

Another laudable effort by the temple committee is to draft a calendar that is applicable to Austin (USA) region. They still have these calendars, in case you want it.

Looking back nearly a decade ago when one of the founding members had called some of us for a meeting to talk about a hindu temple in Austin, I had snubbed him off but now I am glad they built this place of worship.  

Oh my god - movie worth a watch

Last year (2012) there was a movie called Oh my god released with Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar as the lead and I had completely discarded it for I was skeptical of Akshay Kumar after his disaster of a movie called Joker and weird movie that became a hit Housefull-2. But some how this year a friend of mine mentioned that it is worth a watch and was available on Youtube, so I took a chance.

The story is different than any movie I have seen before, and it is something that is relevant to the present times. It is the story of an atheist  Guajarati businessman who loses his business to an earthquake and his claim is denied by insurance company for they do not cover damages that is considered “act of god”. So, the businessman files a case against god himself, since he cannot summon god himself he calls the heads of various religious organizations (watch the movie for I do not want to spoil and dilute the reasoning behind this call) and what happens next is the story.

The movie is some what a summation of all my adult life thoughts on god and his presence. The movie does make a ton of fun on blind faith and belief that we carry on specially in India. The logical arguments in the movie has the potential to make one think hard. It has a good and happy ending too and a very nice message in the end, not sure how practical it is though.

I recommend the movie and it is worth a watch.  

A letter to Lance Armstrong

Dear Lance Armstrong,

I never thought I will write this but what the heck, when I am in a jolly mood to write to the NRA why not you. First things first, congratulations on making Oprah Winfrey richer and helping her ailing cable channel. Btw, what was your cut for admitting on her show? Also, are you on Botox or something, for your face lacked the expression when you admitted to a guilt.

For me, you seemed proud of what you have done. I was amongst the ones who stood by you and believed you to be innocent back in August 2012 when USADA bought allegations and you sheepishly agreed to the claims. Come to think of it, I was a fool. here is why, there were a lot of colorful trigger points along the path including you divorcing your first wife right after your cancer recovery and dating celebrities like Mariah Carey or the worst one when you were spotted with one of the Oslen twins. But like many fans of your wins and your charity I happily ignored these warnings and bought the LiveStrong bands almost every year (thankfully never wore them).

Now that you are a father, how do you tell your kids to be truthful and nor cheat in their lives?, or for that matter how did you manage for this long to look yourself in the mirror and fight all the claims about your cheating, may be you can write a book on how you managed to keep your conscience clean while cheating left and right. It could be a best seller like your book on cancer recovery.

Anyways, you famously claimed to Ms. Winfrey that you will work every day to win back your fans. I am still waiting to hear more, piece of advice drop the Botox and come out with your true self with some emotions. Also, please stop working with USADA to help them bust bigger drug rings in return for less stringent sanctions on you. If you really feel guilty, do the right thing but without expecting returns..

Not anymore a fan

-M

A letter to the NRA

Dear NRA,

Your recent ad criticizing the president “are presidents kids more important . . . . “, I think is fairly foolish. Yes the president and his family are more important to America as a whole. You know history better, if not just re-visit the way President Lincoln was assassinated and the formation of the secret service.

That said, I am not following your argument of armed guard at every school. I want to send my daughter to a school and not a jail. Besides, your short sightedness on this issue is pretty remarkable. Here is why, every day I pass by a school near my neighborhood and almost everyday I see a bunch of kids (20 to 30 of them) playing in the play scape/park and the play scape is visible from the road, what do you think prevents someone to open fire from a moving car and kill a bunch of kids and get away even before your armed guard posted at the front door can make his way back to the play scape area. Or for that matter what about all the daycares and private pre-schools that operate in the country, do we need armed guards for them too?.

Ok, even if I buy your argument for school security guard, what is your solution for the Virginia Tech problem, one in front of every single department and for Aurora problem, one in front of every theater and a public place where there is a possibility of more than 8-10 people gathering? Oh wait, that would mean increased government everywhere, which is antithesis for the republican party you all support.

But I agree with you on one thing, banning assault weapons is just an eye candy thing that the president has done. For I do agree the assault weapons constitute less than 10% of the total gun violence in the USA.

So, please drop these ridiculous ads and focus on promoting responsible gun ownership and having fun with guns. Please do not keep quoting the second amendment again and again, for as I have indicated in my previous post that argument is also borderline foolish. Have faith in America and people of America to keep democracy going for it has been strong for last 200 years.

Hope you enjoy the read 

Delhi case–my thoughts

A heinous act was committed in New Delhi, capital of India on the night of December 16th. It managed to create an outrage in many parts of the country and now the wave seems to be shifting towards Pakistan crossing the LOC (The politicians must be saying, thanks Pakistan). Some questions have been bothering me for a while now.

• I am wondering if the outrage is against the act itself or the heinous nature of the act had everything to do with the outrage. I would go with the nature of the act.
• If the victim hadn’t been that severely wounded and succumbed to her injuries, would the police had acted as swiftly as they did and would the government had pretended to act as they did by setting up swift courts and all.
• If by chance the victim were not a medical student working at a call center to fund her education but were in questionable employment, would we have had the same reaction? or would we have said, she got what she deserved? 
• If there is a supreme court order that prevents any bus with tinted windows and curtains to be operated on Delhi roads. Why was this bus never stopped for almost 2-2.5hrs of its drive time. All it would have taken was 1 police constable to stop the illegal bus. It was not middle of the night, it was between 8:30/9:00PM to lets say 11:30PM.
• In the light of the above comment, why did I not hear a bunch of suspensions in the Delhi Police pay roll?
• The male victims account of the events is also questionable, after being beaten badly (it appears he appeared on a wheel chair for the interview) where did he find strength to pull the woman victim from being mowed down. The bus did not go for a second try in mowing them? I believe they were robbed of everything, so where did he time the 45mins of the police discussions.
• The comments from the spiritual leaders like Asram Bapu and our so called political leaders including the son of our present president is sending chills down my spine. Not because of their comments but because nobody managed to throw a shoe at their face (Yeah, yeah it is a democracy and people have the right to speak).
• In terms of the lawyers representing the case, I think they have picked the case just be in the lime light. I don’t even want to talk about the comment made by one the defense lawyers.
• Regarding the so called minor accused in the case, assuming he did most of the carnage as has been reported why not just try him as an adult and hang the damn thing.
• That day will be sad when the accused are awarded lighter sentences because of the so-called torture they endured during the police custody.

Kannada rhymes DVD by infobells

If you were born in Karnataka in the 80's or 90's and your parents were not too sold out on “convent” culture, you probably grew up hearing some of these Kannada rhymes 

• ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಲೊಂದು ಚಿಕ್ಕ ಪಾಪ 
• ನಾಯಿ ಮರಿ ನಾಯಿ ಮರಿ ತಿಂಡಿ ಬೇಕೇ
• ರೊಟ್ಟಿ ಅಂಗಡಿ ಕಿಟ್ಟಪ್ಪ 
• ಆನೆ ಬನ್ತ್ಹೊಂದ್ ಆನೆ

Now imagine these rhymes and much more like this being beautifully animated and made into a DVD. That's what infobells has done. I must say, they have done a wonderful job. The DVD flows as a musical narration of songs and is captured as an interaction between a small girl “Chinnu” and her pet dog “Pappu”.  

Thanks to my sister-in-law for introducing us to this. My 2 year old daughter just loves this DVD. Its one of her favorites and she calls it “Chinna – Aane”, referring to the pictures on the DVD.

The company Infobells seems to have a YouTube page and looking at the same, looks like they have translated the rhymes to multiple languages (Tamil and Telugu).

I do consider buying more DVDs from the company and will keep you posted on those when time permits.     

USA and Gun Control

The recent shooting in Newtown, CT shook me to the core and this is the first time in my recent memory of mass shootings and deaths I was shaken, needless to say fatherhood has its side effects.

Anyways, as any other person living in the USA I spent my weekend on gun control laws and the NRA and so on. Here is my take on the topic.

The NRA claim is that owning a gun is a constitutional right and it is intended to “have the ability to raise a private militia” in case the government decides to take over. In short one needs to own the gun to keep democracy in place. But wasn’t this statement made over 100 years ago when the government and the citizens had similar weapons. There were no missiles, invisible drones carrying missiles, hangars of F-16, F-18 and F-22’s and not to mention the nuclear warheads. Do we really believe that a citizen militia does stand a chance against the mighty armies armed to the teeth with way more sophisticated technology in terms of communications and weapons? In short if Obama decides to become the dictator and the American military decides to cooperate with him then I doubt if the free floating guns have any chance. 

That said, I am all for owning a gun and gun rights. For better or worse human beings in general are tending to be more private and believe in having their own space (big and wide) and its tough to be dependent on the 911 call to help always. As they analyze in the book “Freakonomics”, a gun changes the equation, it will make the contender likely to loose a fight more likely to win the fight. As much as I love to believe, we do not live in a very civilized world. So, I believe one should have the right to own a gun for self protection. The other reason to own a gun is for sport (target shooting) and (as much as I dislike it) hunting.

While reading the article on Mother Jones website, it occurred to me that most of the mass gun shootings are carried out by semi automatic pistols or handguns. The so called assault rifles contribute to less than half of the shootings. So, if the law makers do not want to pick up the battle and want to ban all the assault rifles and want to face an opposition from the NRA and its likes, here is my advice, just focus on banning all the large capacity magazines. Set the max limit to 8 or 10, let the rifle lovers have their rifles, For it is my understanding that for both the scenarios I mentioned one would not need a 30-40 bullet magazine. To be more effective the ban should be retroactive and make an effort to eliminate these methodically.