Pcube

The Great Master

2010-04-22T22:28:00.000-07:00

If we may judge from the bust that has come down to us, Socrates was as far from being handsome as even a philospher can be. But if we look closely, something of that human kindliness and unassuming simplicity which made this homely thinker a teacher beloved of the finest youths in Athens.

How the master lived hardly anybody knew. He never worked, and he took no thought of morrow. He ate when his disciples asked him to honour thier tables; they must have liked his company, for he gave every indication of physiological prosperity.

Why did his pupils like him so much? Perhaps because he was a man as well as a philosopher. He was liked most for his modesty of wisdom. He did not claim to have wisdom, but only to seek it lovingly; he was wisdom's amteur, not its professional.

It was said that that the oracle at Delphi, with unusual good sense, had pronounced him the wisest of the Greeks; and he interpretted this as an approval of the starting point of his philosophy - "One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing". Gnothi Seauton, said Socrates : Know Thyself

hijack by the fourth estate

2007-08-07T23:23:00.000-07:00

off late the Indian media has been showing all non - sensical irrelevant stories and serving them through their national and international platforms as - news contents. there was a time when almost every body with little brain would find it fashionable to criticize ekta kappor and company's productions. i am sure more than at least half of them would secretly watch the late night shows of the same stories.
but this one is not one of the many criticizm posts on the daily dose of our mummy jis's and auntiji's idea of entertainment.
it is about news channels. the Hindi ones have been showing all total absolute filthy obscene non sense. and the question is why and how dare they???
are we concerned what is happening in some one's private life, okay if that someone happens to be a celebrity, politician, film star- one can still give some credit to its claim to be in the news. but not the rest. i guess all those who have been viewing star and aaj tak for some time would follow what am i talking about
worst still is these two channel's obsession with showing all sort of ghastly murders, crimes, and even super- natural non sense that sometimes the contents are even below the ones which a cheap c grade movie may perhaps be comprising of. (actually never watched one, but i have watched these news channels)

my concern is : if there is any censor policy applicable to these widely watched vernacular (free to air) news channels keeping an eye on their: contents, objectives and implications for public morality and decency and order??? i think there is an urgent need for some regulating authority to be present and actively filter out the nonsense because the worst part of this menace is they are present 24-7 in the name of 'news'.
and what about the moral responsibility of the these channel wallas. what is so grotesque about market compulsions and profit motives operating within the rapidly shrinking attention span of modern city life that is pushing these media houses to stoop down to such levels? i am more than certain that any normal, sensible, educated person (which these media professionals certainly are) can feel that what is being presented as news of such importance so as to be shown in national free to air channels.....is not worth even mention.
a need for a comprehensive and 24 - 7 vigilant censor policy is all the more required because unlike the daily soaps, the news channels are known, accepted and expected to be showing the real- life truth rather than fiction.

perhaps critically a much wider question is
do they own no moral responsibility for being the 'fourth estate'??? they get to critize the state, the civil society and even transgress the public - private divide to 'report' the private too; but the critical question is who in turn regulates/controls them?
in the name of preservation of democracy, how much of a free hand can be offered to this agency? who regulates it but the ones whom it seeks to monitor and influence - yes, it is us the public, whose opinion it seeks to articulate and aggregate. it is within the (de-facto) power and moral responsibility of civil society to set limits to offensively over-expanding media's perepheries.

UP - leads to Delhi

2007-05-17T01:09:00.000-07:00

BANG and behenji is back and this time with a thumping majority.
anti incumbency - yes
UP is known to alternate - yes
if not SP then surely neither congress or bjp- okie
but Mayawati- how come?

answer lies in adaptation..something which the bjp and congress both need to learn from bsp
now its no more dalit morch but a sarvajana morcha. mayawati has as many upper caste cabinet colleagues as dalits if not more. actually if i remember coorectly its more llike 11:7 sortta ratio.
wow!! this is politics no permanent friends and no permanent foes
and whose complaining..okay something called ideology.....nay!!! we have parallel ideologies to smooth out discords...

dissolve

2007-02-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

saain itna dijye jaame kutumb samaaye..main bhi bhookha na rahoon, atithi bhokhaa na jaaye

apni chav banaiye ke, main pii ke paas gayee, jab chav dekhi pii ki, apni bhool gayee...chaap tilak sabb chini re mose naina milaye ke....

rasri jal koyla bhai, koyla jal bhai raakh re, main paapin aisi jali ki koyla bhai na raakh re...

paani main meen pyaasi
mohe dekhat aawe haansi
paani main meen pyaasi
aatam gyaan bina sabb bhatke, koi mathura koi kaasi
jogi hokar rahe jungle main
ban ban phire udaasi
paani main meen pyaasi
mohe dekhat aawe haansi
kasturi mrug naaabhi basat hai, dhoondat hai ban ma hi
pothi pad pad pandit ho gaye, kawn milye awinaashi
paani main meen pyaasi
mohe dekhat aawe haansi
majid padd karr, mulha pukaare,
kawn mite yamm phaansi
gaat kabir suno bhai saadho
guru bin mite na chowraasi
paani main meen pyaasi
mohe dekhat aawe haansi

bilakh bilakh ke tiriya/chiriya roye..toot gayee meri jodi, kahe kabir suno bhai saadho, jin jodi unn todi....
zarra dheere gaadi haanko re more raam gaadi wale
kahat kabir suno bhai saadho
mann laago mero yaar phakiri main
saahib mile saburi main

unke chipne ka koi gham hi nahin...dil ke aaiyene main,, iss dil ke aayine main taswir utar aayi hai

stagnation is death. flow is life...

2007-01-25T21:50:00.000-08:00

http://www.sahajayogasardegna.it/mp3/Nirmal%20tarang/Sarvaloka%20Sakshiye.mp3

tell me are you scared?

2007-01-17T07:17:00.000-08:00

this is some piece from somewhere

.....This is a concept quite similair to Gandhian understanding and technique of Conflict Resolution. The Mahatama never escaped from conflict and tried to avoid it. Martin Luther king, one of the greatest followers of Gandhian technique described a conflict situation as “creative tension”. According to this, conflict or more precisely ‘the tension’ is latent in the social order, and the non-violent technique consists in bringing it out on the surface. “Non-violent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which ahs constantly trefused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue……I am not afraid of the word tension ..i have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, non-violent tension which is necessary for growth.”........

rose tagged me..

2006-12-14T03:16:00.000-08:00

1Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence.
3. Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Name of the book and the author.
5. Tag three people.

---------------
1. grabbed :)
2. opened (ha ha)
2.modern neo corporitism can be understood as part of the breakdown of neo-keynesianism. in the post-war period, Western governments had attempted to maintain full employment through techniques of aggregate demand management. this had, however, led to inflationary pressures, which became much worst after the first oil shock in 1973.
3.oxford concise dictionary of politics - Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan
4. want to save this for future (dont have many friends in blogworld)

conquest of a different kind

2006-12-10T07:24:00.000-08:00

....Within a century of Clive's victory at Plassey(1757), practically the whole of India had come under the control of the East India Company. It would however be wrong to imagen that the British on their own conquered India.

Man to man, a British soldier was no match to an Indian soldier.....Whenever the British won a battle, it was always a battle in which the section of the Indian army went over to the side of the British and fought against their own countrymen.

Those who directed the conquest were mere merchants of a trading corporation who had no experience of wars and warlike operations. Many of their commanders were men from the clerical establishment who either volunteered or were pitchforked into soldering.

The conquest was peculiar in yet another sense. It was achieved wholly at the expense of the conquered, for the company did not contribute a penny towards the expense of the war and conquest. It was peculiar also because the instruments of the conquest were provided by the conquered.....

choice freedom and empowerment

2006-11-20T00:42:00.000-08:00

the word choice is often mis understood and may be therefore a misused term. when the modern way of civilized living hails the idea of choice and the fredom to choose, i wonder what it means.
the idea of ourselves as modern, free members of world society sounds quite empowering in itself. empowering oneself is the initiative factor for all growth in all possible spheres. science, technology, philosophy, economy, politics as well as practically all institutions of the organized/disorganized world.
we as human beings have always wished to empower ourselves: through education, wealth, knowledge,information, influence, networks, or even good will and friendships. i see this intricate web extending even to our individual relationship (or as some may like to call it)connection- with God.

i seek if it is in our choice to be empowered through self? for that the trick is obviously to first know self. that is who i really am? Hindu spiritualist tradition like all spiritual branches (i do not particularly like to call them as schools) of the world view an individual not as an aloof, disconnected entity, but as a part of the whole cycle of existence.

now is it in our choice to be anything but what this organic whole decides for us? does real freedom exist for anyone of us? if the 'karma theory' is correct than we are all stuck in the infinite circles of good/bad karmas. so where lies the fundamental human/individual choice in all this gigantic process?

a ray of hope shines through the idea of akarmata or efforts that are done with sense (in mental terms) and actuality (in real terms) of complete identification with the whole. in this way, there is no trouble in surrendering to the whole, simply because one is completely identified with the whole and not the part. simply speaking it is like whom does one surrender to when there is no other?

this way empowerment is possible because one is the source of power and can be truly liberated from not only the cycles of karmas but with the ever present dillemas of choice and freedom .

the myth of democracy

2006-11-09T08:46:00.000-08:00

david rumsfeld has been drpped by Bush following a defeat of the republican policy reflected in the mid term polls.
its nobodys guess that Bush is not coming back and so is the congress in delhi. two continuous terms anyway face a major threat from the anti-incumbancey factor

sometimes i truly wonder, if modern democracy is ever about choice? the pressure of the numeric majority is such that there is no other way but to follow the middle path, than what is the logic of having a two part or a multi party mechanism?

i know these questions have very well arguable answers, but in the end probably its all about choosing the lesser evil- and democracy is the answer

advise from someone

2006-10-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

FIND THE SILENCE WITHIN

judicial activism and land sealings in delhi

2006-09-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

judicial activism is being aggressively pursued by the judiciary in India , which seems to have found a new mecahnism to assert itself over the excutive.
however to my mind and understanding this can lead to a complicated and often fierce struggle for power and even one- upmanship in the current (socio- economic) landscape of indian politics. this is because: as the realities of the coalition politcs are crystalizing, the powers and the nature of it is experiencing a phenomenal change. coalition has its own benefits but gets in its package- certain compulsions which are 'more' natural to sprout in multi cultural and multi faceted dynamics of a competitive democracy. this often results in bargaining of the kind which is no doubt demeocratic, but very often so complicated that it renders political stability a unique level of precariousness.
although our judiciary is dependent on the mecahnism of PILs for this to kick start, but then in this land of polarities and differences, its not hard to find.
the ongoing case of land sealings and demolitions as well as the resultant struggle (which took a ghastly turn just a few days back)in and around delhi - is a befitting example of this.

every one just about every one in Delhi knows that the delhi development authority (DDA) could achieve only 16% of the development in all these years for delhi. in the political and administrative capital of an infant nation, this was way too less to cater to the rising tide of requirements and expectations. quite obviously the govt.(central as well as the relatively young state govt.) were aware of this. in an indirect way this meant that the development and infrastructure work shall spread according to growing private need and initiative- a fact which was seconded through govt. action of providing legal COMMERCIAL power and water connections and collection of regular property taxes from these establishments.

agreed that the government (esp. the state govt.) has been pro- trader in delhi, but this is more about private initiative and effort filling in for ,where the govt. provisions seriously lacked or simply were non existent.
the honourable judiciary seems to have ignored this point or atleast greatly undermined it.

however, today the news has come in that some relief is being offered to small etablishments which has certainly opened a window for the rest.

let wisdom prevail.

nothing- not a thing

2006-09-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

so much to write
so much to say
at one level it is all bubbling up inside
urging to come out
and the next moment
it is all farce
just a thought
a mere thought
what is its relevance or identity
it is nothing but a mere thought
a rising wave
which is meant to decline

quasi yoga..is it possible?

2006-08-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

whats the use of that yoga, which is half hearted??
if the holy river ganges flows to my doorstep even
and i feel awed and glad that it has bestowed its kind love upon me
what is the use, if i do not make full use of that special blessing?
what is the difference then between half hearted recognition and no recognition at all?
there is only one truth..the only and the ultimate truth

oh! my beloved,
You are the omnipotent and omniscent and therefore omnipresent...

tumm binn bigadi kaun banaye
nirmal gyan kaun sikhaye
saara jeevan tumne sawaara
charnow main abb de de saharaa....

Pcube explained

2006-08-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

politics is such a dammned word. i want to find out if the word, as such, is so rotten as it is often made out to be?
could it be that it has been misused to such an extent, that it is about time, someone took up the challenge to strive towards extracting justice for this subject?
so many people ask "what is scentific about political science?" and i read somewhere, someone replying to that with a- "what is cultural about horticulture?"

policy is something that is invariably connected to the politics of the country (and in these times of globalization)-to the politics of the dominant part of the world. its rather unfair, how it is "hip" to be discussing policy, but bad to practice(and in my case, to study politics)

philosophy is the 'mother of all knowledge"- from its womb all modern day knowledge and various fields and subjects of study have emerged.

even the supposed pure science fields like physics are not far removed from the eternal questions of human life, which philosophy has sheltered in itself since the begining of civilised human living...that the great scientist Einstien chose to title his most important theory as the "theory of relativity"-bears testimony to the fact.
science is no longer talking in absolute but "relative" terms. in this ever expanding universe, with human being as quinntisential core of majority of our pursuits, change is the only stable thing. so that if till yesterday, pluto was a planet, today it is not.... sooner, we humans accept this better it is