My Viewpoint

Ashram refers to a stage or phase in the life of a Hindu. There are four accepted ashrams. These are: Brahmacharya, for studying; Grihastha as a married man and householder; Vaanaprastha, for performing penance in a forest; and Sanyasa, for renouncing worldly attachments. According to the Manusmriti, the span of a human life is 100 years. Every Hindu man was to spend a part of his life in each of the four ashrams to fulfill his obligations: to the sages by studying, to his ancestors by raising male progeny, to the gods by performing penance and sacrifices, and for the salvation of his soul (see Moksha) by renouncing the world. This was assuming, of course that he lived his full life span. Vaanaprastha stage indicates the beginning of old age. Living away from society in the forest, he should live simply, perform sacrifices, and prepare to renounce all worldly associations. A man may take his wife to live with him in the Vaanaprastha ashram, in which he stays until he is 70 years of age...

COUNTERPOINTS [The screaming 24x7 coverage on TV channels may have put quite a few off. I was one who wondered what's happened to Pranoy Roy & Barkha Dutt. The following came to me from Shukla Sen of Peace Mumbai, as a breather of sorts. So thought of sharing with you- Arunan.] We Can Compete; They Should Not Arnabs and Rajdeeps would wax eloquent on Manmohan Singh and Advani visiting Mumbai separately and not together showing solidarity even at this hour of national crisis. What a farce? Why can't these channels pool together all their camera crew and reporters at this time of national calamity and share the sound and visual bites which could mean a wider and deeper coverage of events with such a huge human resource to command? Why should Arnab and Rajdeep and Barkha keep harping every five minutes that this piece of information was exclusive to their channel, at the time of such a national crisis? Is this the time to promote the channel? If that is valid, the politic...

I just came across this artilce by Tarun Vijay in ToI today and wish to share this. Please find below the text......................................................... In Srinagar, a Muslim women’s organization – the Dukhtaran-e-Millat – vows to impose the strict Islamic code on women through violence and declares that it is in the interests of women. The leader of this outfit, Asiyah Andrabi, was jailed several times for working against the nation and for being a conduit for money to jihadi groups who used that help to kill Hindus and create disaffection among people against India. The US State Department Report of 1995 held a Dukhtaran-e-Millat activist responsible for a parcel bomb blast at the BBC office in Srinagar in which one person was killed and two injured. The DeM has recently been linked to certain money laundering cases. Andrabi was booked under POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) for receiving ISI money through hawala channels. Whenever she speaks against India, there is n...

Today I was anxiously logged into http://irctc.co.in/ an Indian Railways online reservation web site to book rail tickets from Secunderabad to Pune on 2nd of March 2008 under Tatkal scheme before the quota gets over. I was lucky enough to have a few bearth's in 2 tier AC available in Konark express (the other most convenient train Mumbai express is always full even under Tatkal quota). For this I have to book a ticket from Bhubaneswar from the train originating station until its destination boarding at Secunderabad. (If I forget to mention this after one station from Bhubaneswar my ticket gets cancelled). So far so good. I paid the money using my creadit card and yes now I can see the bearths are alloted. I my eyes ran through the ticket to see if evrything is ok. I missed out something...yes, though the train starts from Bhubaneswar on 1st March it reaches Secunderabad on the next day i.e. 2nd March my boarding point. Errr....I made a mistake now my date of journey sorry boarding...

I got this joke through mail. This is not only hilarious but also reflects the current state of affairs. The person who wrote this must be creative and I thought I should blog this! Read on and enjoy! The Lord surveyed the Ram Setu and said "Hanuman, how diligently and strenuously you and your vanara sena had built this bridge several centuries back. It is remarkable that it has withstood the ravages of the climatic and geographical changes over centuries. It is indeed an amazing feat especially considering the fact that a bridge at Hyderabad built by Gammon using latest technology collapsed the other day even before they could stick the posters on its pillars." Hanuman with all humility spoke "Jai Sri Ram, it is all because of your grace. We just scribbled your name on the bricks and threw them in the sea and they held. No steel from TISCO or cement from Ambuja or ACC was ever used. But Lord, why rake up the old issue now." Ram spoke "Well, Hanuman some people...

The battle lines are drawn for the next round of elections. The central government is slowly inching towards mid-term elections. In its latest affidavit filed with the Supreme Court in the Sethusamudram Project , central government says there is no historical proof of RAM or Ramayana. What the government of Inida lacking here is poilitical dimplomacy or 'Raja neethi'. They should have been very careful while dealing with the religious sentiments of the people. It appeared as they are pleasing their boss 'The Super PM' and apeasing other religions. It is a practice in Congress party that they take decisions and if it boomerangs then the blame would be on the government. If it is appreciated then credit goes to Sonia Gandhi. Everyone knows that what ever decision is taken party/government is with full knowledge of Sonia Gandhi. What the government could have done is they should have focussed only on the Ramsethu than 'Rama'. They should have done carbondating of t...

"Why are you on Orkut!" exclaimed my 19 year old cousin Leena when I told her that I am on orkut too. "How come on orkut" inquired her younger sister Spandana . They were surprised to find me there. I laughed it loud. "I just wanted to taste waters" I told them. Yes I really wanted to experience this so called social networking. Initially I was a bit annoyed when I found many of my junior colleagues glued to orkut. I felt they are much of the project time and resources. I noticed this even amongst newly recruited who are fresh out of college. “What is there in orkut?” I enquired and “what is it?” “It is a social networking site where you can connect with a number of link minded people, find your lost friends” was the answer. I looked at the person thoughtfully and decided to taste this phenomenon. I created my profile on orkut and started browsing the site when ever I find time or feel like browsing the site. I could hardly make any friends except adding a...

I was watching APEC coverage on tv on yet another lazy Saturday morning in Melbourne. As it was boring I switched the channel to another news channel, "Bin Laden’s new message to America -- embrace Islam" was flashed by the channel. Sooner all the news channels around the globe and all the newspapers covered the same news. Since the attack on WTO in New York on 9/11, Al Qaeda and Bin Laden got more coverage around the globe. They said it is “Jihad” in the name of Allah for Islam. And sooner almost every non-Muslim country started treating Muslims as terrorists or terrorist sympathisers. And everyone started thinking Islam is bad or barbaric religion. Is Islam that bad? No religion is wrong. All religions preach the same. It is people who interpret it differently made them look different. It is those wrong views of some people made some religions look bad. Every religion says “Let there be no compulsion in religion” meaning a religion cannot be imposed on anyone. The revelati...

"A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and Honest people are screwed first." *************************************************** "Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous." *************************************************** "The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. ! It will destroy you." *************************************************** "There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no Friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth." *************************************************** "Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead." *************************************************** "As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it." *...

ARYABHATT(476 CE) MASTER ASTRONOMER AND MATHEMATICIAN Born in 476 CE in Kusumpur (Bihar), Aryabhatt's intellectual brilliance remapped the boundaries of mathematics and astronomy. In 499 CE, at the age of 23, he wrote a text on astronomy and an unparallel treatise on mathematics called "Aryabhatiyam." He formulated the process of calculating the motion of planets and the time of eclipses. Aryabhatt was the first to proclaim that the earth is round, it rotates on its axis, orbits the sun and is suspended in space - 1000 years before Copernicus published his heliocentric theory. He is also acknowledged for calculating p (Pi) to four decimal places: 3.1416 and the sine table in trigonometry. Centuries later, in 825 CE, the Arab mathematician, Mohammed Ibna Musa credited the value of Pi to the Indians, "This value has been given by the Hindus." And above all, his most spectacular contribution was the concept of zero without which modern computer technology would hav...