Rituals

I was reading this post on questioning religious rituals and ended up writing this whole new post:
I have always been an agnostic though unconsciously in the beginning and have always defied rituals and traditions even as a kid. I still do not follow and also not support following a majority of religious rituals simply because most of them are absurd and defy common sense.

But I realised the importance of rituals the day I stepped out of my house. I realised those moments of Arti during Diwali or pooja and decoration before any festival brought immense joy. They created a bonding within the members of the house, provided an occasion for celebration, provided avenues for team work, innovation, creativity and all those things the modern day HR personnel talk about for keeping their human resources happy. I missed all those moments away from house.

The camaraderie between seniors and juniors was difficult to miss after the freshers party. These rituals and traditions followed in the college really helped the newcomers feel more at home and get to know the each other better.

A solemnly conducted ritual prepares the ground, creates the atmosphere, suggests the mood for the occasion. Rituals give a concrete shape to the abstract spiritual ideals.It is only when the rituals are separated from the faith and assume an independent existence that they become mechanical and lifeless.

According to Wikipedia “The purposes of rituals are varied; they include compliance with religious obligations or ideals, satisfaction of spiritual or emotional needs of the practitioners, strengthening of social bonds, social and moral education, demonstration of respect or submission, stating one’s affiliation, obtaining social acceptance or approval for some event or, sometimes, just for the pleasure of the ritual itself.”

Even Robin Sharma stressed the importance of rituals in his book “The Greatness Guide”.
Even Swami Vivekananda said “The greatest men I have seen in my life, the most wonderfully developed in spirituality, have all come through the discipline of the rituals.”

A thousand rupee note is nothing but a paper but it is the value that we attach it to the paper that makes it different from the other scraps of paper. Worshiping the formless reality by unthought thought is the best kind of worship. But that may not be possible by everybody. So we conceive the presence of God in a stone. A stone without those feelings is still a stone.

I do not support following all rituals blindly but just wanted to say that all rituals are not completely useless.

The 3-D Experience

I remember the day when I watched my first 3-D movie “Chota Chetan”. That was a time when 3-D movies were a rarity. The excitement was also partly because of the glasses which were required to watch the movie. As kids we really enjoyed the movie and the chasma experience. The quality of these Kala Chasma( Black goggles) determine your 3-D experience. Fortunately, mine was a good one. and I loved watching Chota Chetan in action.

Now 3-D has become a norm, atleast for the animation movies. James Cameroon took the experince altogether to a different level. Avatar is a MUST-WATCH. Amazing imagination and a visual treat. Nothing could have been better but the experience is totally spoilt if you happen to get the wrong glasses. It takes you atleast an hour or so to just used to the glasses. This is esp. true of one of the best( and also one of the costliest) 3-D screens of Mumbai, IMAX Wadala. The glasses are too big and uncomfortable. The 3-D glasses are more uncomfortable than watching the blurred version of movie with bare eyes. I always wondered how do people with glasses for eyesight watch the movie without them unless you wear contact lenses or the 3-D glasses are really intelligent. I thought I was the only one but after reading a article in Mumbai Mirror I found out I am not the only one .Lots of other people detest the 3-D glasses and haven’t had a very good experience.

I hope with the evolution of 3-D movies they come up with a better way to enjoy the movie than wear those hideous glasses.

The Reflection

Just found this some time back. Thought it is worth sharing

                The Reflection

            The good you find in others is in you too.
        The faults you find in others, are your faults as well.
    After all, to recognise something you must know it well.
           The possibilities you see for others are for you as well.
        The beauty you see around, is your beauty.
    The world around you is a reflection,
        a mirror showing the person you are.
            What you see in others shows you to yourself.
        See the best in others, and you will be your best.
    Give to others, and give to yourself.
        Show your best face to the mirror, and you’ll
            be happy with face looking back at you.

Ek cutting Chai

Undoubtedly, Tea has been the favorite beverage of India. The ads featuring Zakir Hussain saying Wah Taj! are still fresh in my mind. Taaza ki taazgi, Red Label ke antioxidants, Society, Tata Tea Jaago Re. There is also a tea and coffee exhibition going on in Mumbai. Tea is a great refresher. Like so many others I am also an addict. I drink tea at least twice( that is only the lower limit) everyday. No matter what the conflicting researches worldwide have to say.

Mom-made tea @5:30 am before going to the tuitions. And then “ek cutting chai” reminds us of the days in college and all the late night preparations for the exams. All the days esp.evenings in rainy season and chilly winters when we sat in the balcony and sipped hot tea. Empire ki adrak wali chai(This one is near my office). Wow so many hot…sorry I mean warm memories. Tea breaks are an essential part of our routine. It is a common Indian habit to wash down our lunch/dinner/snacks or whatever we eat with tea.

But the last couple of times I asked for a tea after lunch in some of the popular joints near our office, the answer was either “We don’t serve tea or not at this time ” Some waiters looked at me as if I was an alien who just landed on earth. They offered me a range of other drinks from Coke, Pepsi, Red Bull to Flavored milk. But all that I wanted was plain, simple tea. The reason why they don’t offer tea is simple “Nobody orders for tea at this time”. WT…. I am not against Pepsi or anything but have the people forgotten beverages like tea and coffee or is it that the hoteliers find it easier to offer frozen drinks as compared to the preparing and serving hot tea. All I know is I am launching the “Chai Bachao Andolan” now. I hope I am not creating storm in a tea-cup!!! .

Security Paranoia

Mordac, the information preventer

No, this is not another Dilbert comic strip that I am copy pasting.  I just used it to convey the message how paranoid we are getting about security. Understandably so. Coz most of the work that we do these days is online.  Our bank account passwords, credit card numbers and all important personal information is at risk . Insisting on strong passwords, firewalls, multi-layer security are some of the necessary evils.

But there are times some measures sound just ridiculous.  A lot of times Usability takes precedence over security.  While I understand that it is for our own safety, the only way to be perfectly safe is to lock your data in a locker and bury it six feet underground in a location known only to yourself. Even that is susceptible to accidental discovery or satellite discovery.  Some amount of trust is essential to keep things going. We need to strike a balance between security and usability.

Even in everyday life, we trust somebody or the other for our existence.
You trust the DBA that your account is not tampered
You trust your doctor to give the right medicines
You trust your lawyer for the legal advice
You trust the local beautician for your grooming

and the list goes on…

It is difficult to decide: How much security is enough and how to strike that balance. But the problem seems to be that nobody is interested in striking the balance. Everybody seems to be interested in increasing security and playing it safe and rather than trusting fellow humans. Is the world getting increasing paranoid about security?

Job Matching skills

Couldn’t resist posting this one

Dilbert Rocks

De Dana dan movie review

This is copy-pasted from my own review@mouthshut.com

De Dana Dhan is a laughter riot. Truly a Priyadarshan movie. Ultimate Confusion has been created.  I wonder how Priyadrashan conceives such ideas. Anybody would get lost in such a plot. Unlike other Priyadarshan movies which end in confusion, this one starts with confusion.

I wouldn’t delve into the story because there is no story. It is a mindless comedy. You gotta leave your brains at home before you watching this one. But what makes it worth watching is that it makes you laugh. I esp. liked the scene when Tinu Anand crashes into the mirror to catch Akshay.  All the performances are good. Amazing cast and performances. Neha Dhupia requires a special mention. The movie has its put offs though. Demeaning language like Chi***l and kutte ki pilli and of course at times you find characters plain noisy. But there is enough comedy to compensate these.

It is a very light-hearted refrshing movie and you’ll love it. Go watch it !!!

Click-o-mania

Source: http://www.brainstuck.com/2008/11/15/click-fed/

Good one…

Ajab Ghazab Kahani

I spoke to one of my friends yesterday who opined that ‘Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani’ was a entertainer and I disagreed.  But after giving it a thought probably she was right. It was a nice movie. Just a bit ahead of its time. I mean it should not have released on Nov 6. The right time would have been Nov 14 i.e Children’s Day.

Just not fair!!!

Today I happened to read this post by Prateek on stupid ads which reminded me to write this pending post. He has written about how stupid these fairness cream ads are ” The girl or guy is shown as a nobody with a dark skin, and then suddenly someone gives them a tube of the cream, which our lead applies and her/his skin tones lightens by a major amount. And voila she/he gets their dream job, everyone begins to notice them and they get their love .”

I will not entirely disagree with the ads for they do reflect reality to a certain extent. These creams may not change the girl but they do change way she is perceived. Being liked increases ones confidence and that may in turn lead to better performance by the same girl (which is actually a good thing). A fair-skinned girl does have an advantage over a dusky girl.  It helps in lots of things like marriage prospects.  The world we live in is obsessed with fair-skin. And mind you this one is a global obsession. This very belief led to policies like ‘Apartheid’ and i has taken a really long time and struggle to undo the beliefs.

But wait what about those girls who are not so fair. Wouldn’t it hurt them to know they lose out to somebody just because of their complexion and not because of their calibre. What about those who develop an inferiority complex and under perform because of this prejudice.

The cosmetic companies exploit this craze to mint money. According to one of the statistics ‘Of the Rs.3000 crore cosmetics and toiletries market, the skin-care segment accounts for Rs.1200 crore. Fairness creams account for whopping Rs.700 crore of this segment’.  They sell fair skin instead of a healthy skin.  In fact one of them even comes with a fairness-meter!!! This is not a concept introduced by the media but they only reinforce the already existing ideas to sell their products.

What is sad is that it has percolated to all the sections. Earlier the sections relatively immune to this obsession are now no less prey to it.
Some examples are

• Indians. Typically Indian Gods are supposed to be dark and not fair-skinned. Krishna is supposed to be Shyam Varna(dark-coloured) and Shiv is Neel-Kanth( Blue).

• South Indians or Dravidian race ( supposed to be naturally dark-skinned)

• In most part of the write-up I referred to girls because unlike men , women are gauged more on their looks and hence it mattered more to them. But now we also have fairness creams for men too. 

All that I can say to this madness is “Its just not fair!!!”