A few days before I had written this blog about foraying into the abstract thoughts of an unruly mind. I was discussing this with a close friend of mine, Aditya Namjoshi and he said that this is nothing else, but a way to meditate. It is infact one of the techniques Osho has described to know the unknown.
http://www.geocities.com/osho1980/med2.html

Check this out..I found the article pretty interesting

Aup

Thank you, Mr. Bush

The invasion of Iraq has been a very sticky issue for quite a while now. The blatant bravado that the US has exhibited in plodding its military might through the sovereign state of Iraq, the absolute disregard of human rights that has been witnessed by the world due to this colonialistic endeavor, will go down in history. The question is, will it go down in history as a good incident or bad? Of course, some people say that wars can never go down in history as good incidents. However, if you carefully consider the ramifications of the US's (mis)deeds in Iraq, and if you speculate on the reasons of the US's invasion of Iraq, you will realize that this just might be the one 'war' that will go down in history as a good thing for the free world.

Before you come to my house with an AK-47, hear me out. There are many facets to this issue. Let us start with some historical precedents that the then Soviet Union has set. From 1979 to 1989, the Soviet Union tried to gain military control of Afghanistan. The reason for this was that the Soviet Union had vested interests in Afghanistan. Neighboring Iran and Pakistan, Afghanistan was a great country to control for the Soviet Union in order to increase its Communistic influence into western as well as eastern Asia. Moreover, in the 1950's, the Soviet Union had invested much into Afghanistan by way of laying highways and irrigation canals. Due to this, there existed a puppet communist government in Kabul. However, this government was losing popular support due to its communist backing. The 'godless' and centralized communist principles were alien to the Afghan's strict and orthodox Islamic practices. Therefore, in order to maintain a semblance of security and to show its military might, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with its own troops. They failed miserably. In the decade-long war that followed, the Soviets lost many billions of dollars worth airplanes and helicopter gunships as well as countless military personnel. In the end, in 1989, Gorbachev buckling under world pressure, not to mention pressure on the Soviets' economy, decided to pull out of Afghanistan. Therefore, we can see how a superpower, with blatant disregard to norms can invade a country to suit its own needs.

The US was very lucky during the invasion of Iraq. It had, so to speak, a semblance of a legitimate reason to invade. That being, there was a tyrant in power in Iraq; and he was, allegedly, developing Weapons of Mass Destruction which he would ultimately utilize to wipe out the population of Israel and the US. This established the basis of the very raison d'etre of the US's rationale of invading Iraq. Moreover, Saddam Hussein had the misfortune of being the adventurous leader who had invaded Kuwait in 1990. Therefore, when the US asked the UN for permission to invade Iraq, I had thought that the UN would sanction the military action without another thought. I was pleasantly surprised when, in fact, the UN didn't ratify the proposal. On the contrary, countries like Japan and Germany openly opposed this proposal. The only European power that actually supported the US was the UK. Despite showing 'damning' evidence, the US was not able to garner the UN's support to invade Iraq. I suspect that it was never the intention of the US to get UN support. This is because, the only real reason that the US invaded Iraq was to gain hegemony over it.

That Iraq was being ruled by a dictator who was allegedly developing WMDs only worked in the US administration's favor. The threat, nay just the thought, of being attacked by WMDs like biological, chemical or even nuclear weapons instilled a morbid fear of Saddam Hussein in the minds of the US population. The congress, which only represents the population, granted billions of dollars to the administration in order to carry out one of the best thought out and executed coups de grace of the 21st century. The real reason in the US's invasion of Iraq, I think, has been nothing but petroleum. The US is the world's largest consumer of petroleum. The daily consumption of petroleum in the US would be enough to feed the oil requirements of most of north Africa for several months. The total dependence of the US population on petroleum has been fueled in the past by cheap oil from the middle east.

However, the end of cheap oil has already occured. A person would have been laughed at 4 years ago if he/she would have said that the price of petrol in 4 years would be as it is right now. The oil from the middle east no longer flows like water. In another 50 years, this flow will become a small trickle. I believe the Bush administration has acted with great foresight in invading Iraq now so that when the trickle makes petroleum products very hard to come by, the US will have military and political presence in an area of the Earth that has the maximum concentration of it! Now, I don't say that it's not wrong that the US has acted in such a way, but I only say that the US has acted in its own interests. And therefore, I thank you, Mr. Bush, for epitomizing greed. What is a few lakh Iraqi lives in front of US interests?

Freak Dialogues

Freak Dialogues

I was waching the AFI 100 best movie quotes of all times yesterday. Had some pretty stunning lines in there including "I will make him an offer he cant refuse"- Godfather, "Life is a box of choclates"- Forrest Gump and "You talkin' to me?" - Taxi Driver. Sitting on my ass here in Raliegh I came up with an idea...why dont I write abt 20 of the best Freak dialogues of all times. With able help from Bailya and Marwadi, I conjured 20 of the very best and here it goes...

20. Doneeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeet - Aup
19. Chal fresh hote hai aaj ... - Bhaiyya
18. Bullock ka male Bull hota hai - Aup
17. Uske chacha ne usse naak se gaane ke liye kaha tha kya ? -Bhaiyya (On Sonu Nigam)
16. That peer ... that fuck ... has hagged again - Balls
15. PERSONALLY....I think Illayaraja is better than Rehman - Goli
14. Like aneeeeeeetheeeeeng - Balls
13.Yaar sab kehte hain Lata koel (cuckoo) ki tarah gaati hai. Abey to uske liye Koel hai na....yeh buddhi kyun chahiye.-Bhaiyya
12. Jiska naam Meghneel hai, jo Malad se aata hai aur Temple University mein mein Master's kar raha hai woh bhi Data Mining mein ..woh kabhi uth sakta hai kya?? - Balls
11. Apna to baat ho gaya tha na -Bailya
10. It wasnt as bad as i expected - Lookateeem
9. Kuch cheejein hoti hain yaar - Bhaiyya
8. Watch ur step...U too! - Balls
7. Yaar bahut din ho gaye koi jaanwar ya ladki ka shikar karke !! - Bhaiyya
6. Tu kaan se apna Lund nikal aur tel daal - Bhaiyya
5. Mujhe koi walk karte hue nazar aa raha hai - Goli
4. Nahin,haan,matlab pata nahin yaar - Marwadi
3. Yaar tune kabhi 140 pound ka chutiya dekha hai? - Bhaiyya
2. That's a good un...infact its a great un - Lookateeem
1. Le meri gaand se jala le.... -Bhaiyya

So what do u think abt the list guys...Mention some if I missed something (Definitely I mustve missed a helluva lot).Bhaiyya roxx in one-liners!!!! (He shudnt have gone to Las Vegas though)

Here are some Non-Freak uns that are worth a mention.

Jetlag ho gaya hai Bala - Vivek
Meri Zindagi to khuli khitab hai...Amitabh kya hai mere aagey? - Narayan

Hoping for a lot more of such cult dialogues in the future....
-Balls

Tylerspeak

Tylerspeak

Found this on a blog ...

http://tonyspeaketh.blogspot.com/2004/09/tylerspeak.html

After the copyright warning, there is another warning on the DVD. This warning is from Tyler Durden, and is only there for a second.

"If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this is useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think everything you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told you should want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.......Tyler"

India Unbound

India Unbound

Currently reading a book called India Unbound by - Gurcharan Das .. A really nice book depicting his view of the Indian Economy after Independence to date .. came across this paragraph and found it particularly nice .. pasting the same ...

....... Most of my teachers at Harvard also had an antibusiness bias , which reinforced my own prejudice. As undergrads in arts and sciences, we looked with contempt at HBS across the Charles. All of us wanted to be scholars and dedicate our lives to the dispassionate pursuits of "truth, beauty and justice" like Socrates. It is, of course , castly different today , I realize . Todays undergrads , both in India and in the US, dont seem to suffer from our hangups and our idealism. They have the opposite problem. If the spirit of those times came in the way of building upon the lessons that I first learned as a thirteen yr old boy from my paper route, todays youth sometimes need to be reminded , I think, that there is a great world out there beyond money.

Guess this applies to me most ... :)

Some Musings of Yesteryears !!!

On a Saturday Afternoon with vacations and me lazing around, I was thinking about my yesteryears ... and these are whatever I recollect ... all thoughts are random ...

I dont recollect much detail .. but my first movie in a theatre ... I just remember a Shark as lively as in the S for Shark book ... and it going about its mundane work of eating ... and all the people in the theatre having a not -so-happy face .. which I never could fathom .... However, at that small age I would still think when going to watch a movie always involved watching a shark ...

I think I was staring out... so there was a time when I was not scared of heights. Then I remember be standing next to the vendor outside school in Mumbai – looking at the miniature Cars - Hot Wheels. Every kid had one such car. I had asked for one too. That was the second beating. ( I dont want to recount the first) It was 1984 and satellite TV and the Cola wars had not yet arrived. Years later I had my own miniature car collection. But it didn’t matter anymore.

No one knew Pepsi then, but James Bond and Spiderman were household names. They would visit us on Sunday evenings, on Doordarshan, in black and white. I remember Spiderman swinging from building to building and me humming the title song – “Spiderman, spiderman, friendly neighbourhood spiderman ,” the rest of the song I couldn’t understand but simply hummed along.

My earliest memories of James Bond were Sean Connery – I learnt the actor’s name much later – running from some goons, entering an aunty’s room, getting into bed with her, kissing her on the mouth to dupe the goons, and once they left, jumping out of the window, straight into the hotel pool, with another aunty wearing her undergarments ....

I think my aunt came into the room and felt I have become corrupted and closed the TV and then talked to my mom saying I am evil and seeing all nasty stuff ....

Sunday Evenings also used to be memorable for another reason ... All the girls used to vacate the badminton court by 5pm in the evening to go and watch the weekly movie shown on Doordarshan ... Leaving us guys to own the area after plaiyng cricket and play box - cricket in that space.

Also, I guess the best TV show I used to like was Giant Robot and I guess till date it has been my most favourite show ..... I still enjoy after school or leaving all things on the cricket ground just come and start watching the channel ....

More Musings maybe later

Sympathy for the underdog

Sympathy for the underdog

Well, if you havent read the news yet , this is the piece that prompted me to think bt this question and here I go.

Bangladesh beat Australia .. and it really felt great.

Why do we all have this sympathy for the underdog ?

Why does a Bangladesh win over Australia feel great ?
Why does a Liverpool win over AC Milan feel great ?
Why is a Greece victory over Portugal so heartening ?

Most people when asked say that It is good to see somebody work so hard and make it to the top. Is it just that or is there more ? Because the losers (Australia, AC Milan, Portugal) have probably worked equally hard to become what they are... the favorites.

Well, one answer I would volunteer is ... we all live under a constant feeling of supression , a feeling where we constantly feel and know that there is somebody better than us no matter what area/topic we consider. And when we see a underdog winning, we get that joy because we ourselves lit up our hope again that there might be a chance for us afterall.

Any other opinions ?

Journey into the abstract thoughts of an unruly mind

Aup's quotes:
There are many unanswered questions in my mind that I just got into a discussion with Mike. It started with belief or disbelief in God and in the same vein, faith in god-men and realized souls.I second Einstein's thoughts in this regard.He said that "God is something which is simply beyond the fringes of human intelligence". I was thinking that the masses who follow people like Satya Sai Baba for eg. somewhere in time have to arrive at a conscious decision whether they would find the truth if they follow that particular person's path.Sometimes I just delve deep into aspects of metaphysics and it just begins with questions like: what is the nature of the World? Of the Soul, if any? Of God, if such a being does exist? In other words, questions concerning the ultimate nature and meaning of existence. I am confronted with dodgy questions which almost seem unanswerable like: Who am I? What is my role in this context called life? Am I here just do mundane activities like working 9-5, earning money and helping people. What is the ultimate truth and though I believe there is one, how do I get there.Sometimes I stand in front of a mirror and just look at myself as a different person, it just freaks me out and I transcend into a totally different world, in a world where I don't understand who I am. It takes 15-20 minutes to ascend to that level of concentration and then nothing comes out of it.It is such a scary thought to fathom such an identity crisis that I shrug myself off and remind myself that "Ok..you are Anoop Deshpande, a 26 year old and you still have a lot to learn". I have never discussed such freaky things with anyone but I was surprised to find that Mike too has experienced such a thing, hence I instinctively decided that this warrants a blog to get people's views. One more task which I cannot accomplish is "Thinking about NOTHING". Just close your eyes and think about NOTHING..its just impossible. Mike was telling me that its exactly when he tries to think about NOTHING that he ends up thinking about everything, everything unrelated. Another question slightly off the hook is "DEJA-VU", what is it , why does it happen and why does it happen so frequently in my case(not for you to answer)..freak if you may..I had a Deja vu that I would be writing such a blog today.So after throwing a barrage of questions in a confusing blog, I leave the rest to Mike to pour in his creative juices.
Spiritually,
Aup

Mike's quotes:
The one question that nags me the most is "What is the purpose of this life?" Whenever I try to think about this, I ask myself whether there is a higher purpose to life or whether life is meant to just exist, that is there is no other purpose to life than just to exist. I don't mean to say that existence, per se, is bad, but I have this romantic notion that the reason for our existence is not just procreation and the hoarding of materialistic wealth. I hope to discover, some day, that the life that I led was not for nought. If you think bout it, there are a lot of physical laws about which we know the how, but not the whys. For example, we do not know WHY gravity only attracts, we do not know WHY a sodium atom reacts with a chlorine atom. Therefore, I think there's some answer somewhere that will explains the whys. When I try to think about the purpose of life, I sometimes wonder about "Who m I?", "What the hell am I doing here?" By here, I mean in this world, as a living, thinking being, what am I doing, really? It is a pretty freaky state of mind... Like Aup says, I too have to shake myself out of it, saying, "Ok, sir, you are Meghneel Gore, a 25 year old..." I may have repeated many things that Aup has said, but that's how I feel too. Any takers for these questions?
Mike