Blogs

Popularity of a blog is independent of its content.

Let this be known as Gaurav's first law of blogging.

Attention feed readers

Confess. Now.

Unless you come forward this post will remain sticky, and will keep appearing in your feed.
*Evil laughter*

Question is answered

The end.


The battle between humans and Gods was all but finished, with the decimation of humans. This battle had raged for a long time. It should have been an occasion of joy, but no such expression was discernible on the visage of Gods. Indeed their faces were clouded by expressions ranging from consternation to, even grief. They had a difficult decision to make.

The prisoner.

Indra Sabha was silent. Everyone was awaiting the arrival of prisoner. After some time, main door opened and Krishna, King of vanquished humans entered, chained but defiant. Everyone was looking at him with a mixture of awe and resentment, Krishna oblivious to gaze of gathering or weight of shackles walked towards Indra with assured stride.

Indra spoke in voice tinged with pain, "O Krishna, blessed as you were with might and knowledge, proficient both in arms and Vedas, just in rule, righteous in deeds and thoughts, you who thwarted Asuras from Swarg Why oh why, you, on whom gods bestowed their greatest favours, became a Rakshas yourself ? Were the Gods wrong, or their grace flawed. Why, have thou fallen.

Krishna replied, "O Indra, Lord of Lords, Purveyor of Supreme wisdom, I was blessed with wisdom and might, I, born of divine grace, fought wars against every creature, contemplated upon Vedas, perfected Ragas and Mudras, I built the most beautiful temples and palaces. I won lands and hearts, I conquered the creation. After that, O DevaRaj, what else can any creation aspire for, but to conquer its creators. What else is the will if not conscious reaching beyond divine, manifest striving to supplant Nirguna? What else is Brahmana if not meeting of immanent with transcendent?"

Indra smiled. He had the answer now.

Jungle book time

Jungle book was a rage of its time among children and surprisingly among adults as well. I still remember the title track being played in marriages !

Jaane bhi do yaaron

What can I say !

Behold..

Why did one that transcends form, bring forth the form ? Why did one that encompasses reason devise reason ? Why did one that is beyond conscious beget conscious ?What made the perfect one dream of imperfection?

Was it to love ? For companionship ? To scorn ? Or may be just to mock ? Or even for irony ?

Update: Uttar mil gaya ! SSSS, (meaning Shri Shri Sharan Sharmaji) answered, "For Fun. Really. I asked". Gurudev ki jai ho!

Glory

To become sun, people have to look for source within themselves. Basking in reflected glory, one at most can become a footnote, an imitation of no significance, a satellite pale and uninspiring.
This desperation to appropriate and claim others as heroes is a sign of defeated and emasculated nation, of people not audacious enough, who can not imagine a better destiny, who can not ask, "why, not" ?

This is what all the clamour about Sunita Williams signifies.

Update: As is this infuriating stupidity called vote for Taj. Or indifference to visit of Thai PrimeMinister

Prayer

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it

[Voltaire]

Existentialist and Nihilist

And thence Nietzsche proceeded to admonish the youth, "Did not I instruct you not to gaze for long into abyss, lest abyss gazes into you, also to take care when fighting monster lest you turn into one. Yet why it was that you disregarded them."

It was then that the youth exclaimed, "But why gaze into abyss unless one also seeks the void, and why fight monsters unless it is the grotesque one covets". "It was you master who said God is dead, well then why should humanity exist". "Life is aberration, Wanton destruction only imperative".

Nietzsche had no answer.

Familiarity

Familiarity breeds contempt. Contempt breeds marriage.

Virtue

The noblest virtue that a man can aspire to is to have rich parents., however like all virtues its realization is a most arduous task.

Kaliya Mardan

Words have meaning, therefore they should be used only when we intend the meaning and not something different. This is basic rule of debate.

Similarly care should be taken in misusing the word. The word should be misused in order to undermine the opponent's position, by interpreting in a way bound to draw public disapproval.
Public approval or disapproval is of course dependant on the way public narrative is framed. Therefore those who guard the gates to public conscience by implication also decide the meaning of words. This is basic rule of politics.

This is where BJP failed. Instead of confronting the existing liberal monopoly on public discourse, it sought co-existence and sued for peace, in exchange of being conferred political legitimacy and approval by liberal priesthood. Ideological expediency for political power.

This was bound to fail because the idea which BJP represents or rather seeks to represent could not be any more different than from the idea espoused by the liberal establishment. But in its fetish for replacing Congress as the centre, it ceded more ideological ground than was required by coalition dharma. It was this act which caused it irreparable loss of credibility.

Congress is just a part, most visible, but still a part of the establishment. Liberal intelligentsia comprising of media, academia and peddlers of liberal art complete the picture. One can not fight with one tentacle of Medusa while negotiating with another.

Or to give an Indian analogy, it is ironic that BJP forgot about Kaliya Mardan.

Neem Ka Ped

I doubt many will remember Neem Ka Ped. The ghazal is gold, but then it is jagjit singh after all

Chanakya

From Chanakya, needless to say one of my favourites. The video is of 90's style DD1, which means a bit tacky, but hey I am a sucker for klisht hindi.

This serial was stopped midway due to negative publicity in English media who saw it as Brahminnical conspircay to undermine our secular socialist republic. Well ain't secularism grand again !

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

Another of oldies. Quality of video is so-so, but the song I think is not bad at all

Sometimes despite all the morbidity of socialism, at least during those times there was one idea. The idea that we are one. That this country is worth respecting.
Somehow I find that missing now. It is a very wretched feeling.

Yes I do feel offence, because there are things that I feel are worth feeling offence for, because there are things that I respect and cherish. Isn't that what humanity is all about?

Heavens forbid there comes a day when man becomes indifferent, cold.When he stops bothering because that would be the "rational" thing to do.

Bharat Ek Khoj

Well, it is one in the morning and I am stuck at office so for old people of my generation who grew up with one channel and without the divine guidance of AOE here is another of my favourites,

Of course it is only last year that I came to realize the it was hindi translation of Nasadiya Sukta. Ain't secularism grand !

The terror without

Fairly tales are tricky. I think that behind every fairy tale, there lurks a monster. This ogre, unacknowledged, hidden, is the most important protagonist of the story. The joviality is forced, a superficiality, to cover something else.

Each generation weaves the tales painstakingly, adding intricate pattern to that duvet of fantasies with which we the sentient, deny the existence of that creature.What is the nature of that creature, who knows!

Perhaps it is the fear of violence. Or dread of misfortune. Or perhaps it is the elements which scare the beast roaming inside the inner recesses of a civilized being. It may also be that our neural paths can not handle the unknown. Or horror of not being.



Futility of being.

This is personal

Dear Readers,

Due to some widget installed on this blog, I can actually see how many times a particular link was clicked. So far the link(s) which have been clicked maximum number of times are related to Tanushree Datta. Granted she has a really nice pair of boots, please do not be so shameless.
I would like you to know that this is a very serious blog dealing with deepphilosophical queries, which by the way, is the reason no one reads this blog.

Your etc.

Update: Now I am sure some of may disagree with my statement that Lara Datta is not hot, and at first glance you will be right, especially in the boot department. However she has really bad skin, so bad in fact that it will make your existential angst tolerable

This is how non boring punditry is done

SNL - Jane, You Ignorant Slut

Ek Chidiya

Today's children are ofcourse not exposed to such edifiying experience, result is asocial people like this dunali

To plugin whores

Dear whores,

Even considering the fact that you people have absolutely no shame, or taste for that matter, why is it necessary to have a plugin which shows preview for every link. Trust me it is very irritating and makes clicking exasperating to say the least. Hardly an enjoyable experience, unless you are some kind of masochist.

Yours etc.

In hindsight

When I was thirteen I used to think I was pretty screwed up, even had existential angst. Looking back after all these years, I can see it was just bad case of acne.

The moon and the bard

(One of my favourites, by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar)

चाँद और कवि

रात यों कहने लगा मुझसे गगन का चाँद,
आदमी भी क्या अनोखा जीव है!
उलझनें अपनी बनाकर आप ही फँसता
,और फिर बेचैन हो जगता, न सोता है।

जानता है तू कि मैं कितना पुराना हूँ?
मैं चुका हूँ देख मनु को जनमते-मरते
और लाखों बार तुझ-से पागलों को भी
चाँदनी में बैठ स्वप्नों पर सही करते।

आदमी का स्वप्न? है वह बुलबुला जल का
आज उठता और कल फिर फूट जाता है
किन्तु, फिर भी धन्य ठहरा आदमी ही तो
?बुलबुलों से खेलता, कविता बनाता है।

मैं न बोला किन्तु मेरी रागिनी बोली,
देख फिर से चाँद! मुझको जानता है तू?
स्वप्न मेरे बुलबुले हैं? है यही पानी?
आग को भी क्या नहीं पहचानता है तू?

मैं न वह जो स्वप्न पर केवल सही करते,
आग में उसको गला लोहा बनाता हूँ,
और उस पर नींव रखता हूँ नये घर की,
इस तरह दीवार फौलादी उठाता हूँ।

मनु नहीं, मनु-पुत्र है यह सामने,
जिसकी कल्पना की जीभ में भी धार होती है,
वाण ही होते विचारों के नहीं केवल,
स्वप्न के भी हाथ में तलवार होती है।

स्वर्ग के सम्राट को जाकर खबर कर दे
-रोज ही आकाश चढ़ते जा रहे हैं वे,
रोकिये, जैसे बने इन स्वप्नवालों को,
स्वर्ग की ही ओर बढ़ते आ रहे हैं वे।

- दिनकर

Child

Tragedy of precocious children is that they remain that. In fact they insist on remaining so,and nothing annoys people more than smartypants.

An imagined John Kerry speech to Indian students

"Education -- if you make the most of it and you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well, "If you don't, you get stuck with ids like koolguy11* ."

* Look at technorati

A dignified response.

Confused, you ignorant bastard. My lack of thick skin is not at issue here*, any more than is your inability to articulate a coherent sentence. The issue is Obama. How can America expect to continue being the leader of free world in 21st century,when we the citizens of this great nation decide to drink Kool Aid collectively and elect some empty suit like Obama, who covers up his intellectual dishonesty and ignorance by platitudes and innocence. I suppose you'd like to see our body polity conducted in the way you blog, linking to inane youtube videos and being a disgraceful plugin-whore.Then what do you have? A heap of manure of such a monumental proportion, that no A list blogger would admit to visiting, and boasting a readership consisting solely of freaks, with banality only interrupted by flame wars launched as a result of deliberate insult to Thalaivar. Is that what you want for America?It's too late for you, Confused, but this country still has some dignity left, you slut!


PS. I always wanted to do a Dan Aykroyd Skit*, thank you Jesus.

The terror within

Beauty, in essence, is deception in its most refined form.

Truth, comprehension of life, dismay even when scarce, but in their fullest extent they are poison to a self aware and intelligent being.

The truth of course is that no meaning is to be derived from existence, or consciousness, beyond being result of whimsicality of atoms, extremely rare but random nevertheless. Essence is a fiction, albeit one which comforts.

First recourse of man is reason, to find self validation by working through theorems. Ultimately however these thesis has to rest on some assumption. Randomness may be a simpler assumption, but this assumption brings the things back to square.

Which means if consciousness is to be saved from awareness of void, elaborate deception must be invented. This is how concept of beauty or aesthetics is born.

What is beautiful, is certainly a lie.What is true, is always horrible.

Comparative study

Richard Dawkins is to Atheism what Jerry Falwell is (was?) to Christianity.

I am feeling good now.

Dilemma

Raja Sen trashes Jhoom...., calling it a contrived, half-witted, over-Punjabi offering.

Now as someone who grew up in a age where every truck driver from Punjab was cutting Bhangra Pop tracks, which were belted out without respite from every dabba in every nook and corner of India, and who after he was a grown up was subjected to loud Punjabi NRI movies, I am not overjoyed by the prospect of yet another puppy type movie, what else option do a bhayya have ?

Tragically I am even more annoyed by this Sen guy. Why should movies have a point or relevance or logic, movies should entertain, end of the story. It is due to pseudo like him that we have perversion new wave, shew wave. Hai Rabba, Sen ke moonh mein keede, Sen ke moonh mein dhool

A patriotic appeal

Dear Indians,

It is absolutely essential that rediff be banned. Unity and stability of this country demands this.

1. First rediff management, with malicious intent, has been provoking north - south animosity. Not a single day passes without a most craven jingoistic flame war on rediff message-boards. Adding insult to injury the very name of true and only God is taken in vain and besmirched. This raises the suspicion that possibly East India Company is financing rediff and Lord Cornwallis is rediff's real chairman.

2. Its CEO did something which had bloggers up in arms. Now I have no idea what it was , but since I place complete trust over my blogger comrades, and believe they have absolute moral authority, whatever that was must have been wrong, immoral and criminal. Also possibly it involved child abuse.

3. But the final infraction, which can not be overlooked was to ask this insulting question

Who looks hotter: Preity or Lara?

Excuse me, What kind of question is this ! Preity Zinta, Lara Dutta? What Rubbish, Everyone knows it is Tanushree Datta, because

1. She is a true Bong babe, unlike Lara Dutta whose Bongness is polluted by European blood.
2. Nice pair of boots (Not visible in photos though which is a pity)

Hence for this nation, treachery of rediff must be put stop to.
On Tanushree Datta, those are some mugs

Important thing

I think while it is all right to debate over political narrative, it is important we dont lose the sight of bigger picture.

Now to me the most crucial question of the moment is,

In a fight between Chuck Norris and Thailavar, who will win ?

Dude, this party is not happening !

(Alternatively titled, from India lover(s) to freedom lover(s))

1. I consider myself to be cultural nationalist, a term suitably contextualized according to my preference. When I am in mood for some bitch fest, I go for Hindu nationalist.

2. In case, you feel I am overly generalizing, use BOCTAOE generously, YSLE !

3. What I am going to say, I have said earlier, many times.

A gentleman, with sordid history of crime and violence *, accused me of going Nilu's or Krish's way, now this is ridiculous.Nilu knows his stuff, so that even when he is bullshitting he can embellish things and thus entertain. I, on the other hand, claim no knowledge of anything useful. Krish is funny. I am not.


Anyhow, coming to the topic, why do I disagree with good intentions expressed in this post.

For one, I am not secular, or libertarian, nor do I believe that they are such universal imperatives. I also happen to believe that irrational exuberance and good intentions damn a nation to eternity** of cliche and meaningless rhetoric. We, as Indians have seen this in form of Nehruvian penalty. Our present liberal overlords*** give me creeps. As they say, this is like Deja vu all over again.

Therefore it is not surprising when I am put off by posts saying, "Hey, Indians need a rightist, secular, libertarian national Party, see I am such a genius that I have figured everything out".This is called triumphalism or certitude, or worse "Hey I have some buzzwords lets slap 'em together and call it the new hope for India, where is my marketing degree". As someone who is still trying to figure out stuff, this pisses me off. So excuse my lack of enthusiasm, please !


May be I am being unfair to liberals? Well consider this. If one were to take survey of major countries with both economic and social freedom as parameters, United States of America will surely find place in the top three, if not the first. Yet the libertarian party got less than half percent in latest presidential elections.****

I am sure that universal cluelessness and a normal distribution will result in some people claiming that Republican party is a secular, libertarian party. It is nothing of the sort. Republicans party is a coalition, both social as well as electoral, of libertarian and social conservatives, and unlike identity politics this coalition was not brought about by merely political expediency, but has a solid intellectual foundation as exemplified by fusionism and American conservative movement.


I will repeat what I have said earlier, coming decade will be marked by ascendancy of libertarians/liberals in intellectual circle. Yet, is there any attempt to understand nuance of coalition making by "liberals". No, sir ! It is all grandstanding and unbearable smugness.
This "christian" self-assurance is there, because (as I have said earlier), so called liberalism/libertarianism in India is, for most part, a sham. Just like Fabian socialism, this contraption is devised by unconditional acceptance of western concepts as "brahmavakya".
Instead of even attempting to examine the context and history of these ideals, our liberals are too eager to embrace them. The excuse of argument is "objectivity" or "logic", much like intellectuals from previous generations touted communism (of various hues) as "scientific theory".

The result is a cognitive dissonance of such a order, that we witness spectacle of a self proclaimed "objectivist" ruminating upon the libertarian pedigree of Mahatma Gandhi ! Or another blogger (whom I greatly respect) claiming astonishingly, during the "vande-matram" dustup in not so recent past, that the cultural ethos of this country, the very basis behind her unity, can be taken for granted and hence of no consequence ! Or some genius, who after calling Pankaj Mishra "Hindu nationalist" (!), went on to claim that those who criticize British colonialism support Sati! Can you say WTF? Or BS ? Well, I can.The liberal discourse may have promise in the beginning, but end result is always delusion of epic proportions.

Since our honourable liberals are too busy pontificating about self evident truths and logical fallacies, these most venerable maharishis can not even deign to consider the idea, that may be life is not clock work, to be explained by elegant mathematical expressions, or nice looking economic models, or "self-interest". Or that context matters, or that India is a civilization, that this civilization is a force for good,worth cherishing, worth preserving, and that this must be taken into account when constructing social and political arguments. And may be, dare I suggest, 42 is not the answer.

This marked indifference and attitude of dismissal towards Indic civilization is the best case. In the worst case, any mention of Indian culture in liberal circles result in automatic contempt and ridicule. If you even dare utter the words "tradition" or "social norms", then it must mean that you are a bride burning, Muslim killing, Dalit oppressing monster, and your existence is affront to all what is liberal and noble in this universe. You and your ideas are not to be accorded any dignity, much less any serious consideration. You are going to be branded for ever, an outcast.

This refusal to question and explore premise behind western world view is a sad commentary on sorry state of Indian intellect. Indians may be physically free, but in minds we are still slave.
Divested of any pride and deprived of cultural identity, by centuries of subjugation, physical as well as mental, and wanton social and cultural destruction, we have become dhimmis.
It is a misfortune that once "inquisitive" Indian lacks the confidence to contemplate and discover, instead condemned to satisfy himself with received wisdom.
It is in this light that the unwillingness of liberals to reflect and their disdain, towards everything Indian must be viewed. For the truth is, our mind is infected by self loathing. We are imprisoned in self perceived image of inferiority. It is impossible to have a strong nation, unless her people are proud of belonging to country. Yet for our liberals, it is impossible to express pride and joy in their Indian identity without hesitation or excuse. Nationalism may be a profanity to them for all we know.

A somewhat amusing result is liberals have better understanding of socialist, than us "Hindu Nazis". This is not surprising, considering how both are descendant of same tradition , of morbid obsession with everything western. They may not be in same ball park, but they are in same league, or for those who prefer getting all technical on other's ass, they might not share same frequency, but share same bandwidth. Encounter with nationalism, specially of, Indian kind, leave them confused, because they cant handle it in their world view.

So, dear liberals, go ahead, organize your party. You are grand, you are swell, you are absolutely rocking. As "Hindu" nationalists ,we are grateful for your benevolence on us uneducated mortals living in jahiliya. But unfortunately us bigoted, unwashed, ignorant "Hindutva Fascists" are undeserving of your compassion and gifts of philosophy, which can not be bothered with reality or history of India, so you will be well advised to direct your philanthropy some where else.

As for us, we will hit a different joint, with a better scene, without ingrates who despise idea of India and find patriotism beneath their dignity. Understand this, for us, respect for India and her civilization is non negotiable, as is patriotism, as is allegiance to this country. You are free to live in a utopia of your choice, or to claim oppression/martyrdom by "Hindu thugs" (and write risible rip offs of 1984). But anyway it is confrontation, not compromise. The days when we kissed asses and were expected to meekly accept role of Gunga din to liberal "burra sahibs" are gone, gone when BJP became main stream.

I say, Bring it on !!


* I jest, of course.

** Yes, I know wrong usage. Sue me.

*** Where liberal means classical, neo, paleo, pseudo,quasi, meta, alpha of all possbile varieties.

**** I have often wondered how American identity is so closely entwined with notion of freedom, while I do not have the definitive answer I think Pilgrim father, republicanism, and exceptionalism may offer us clues.

Update: I think I should mention that particular post was just the last straw which broke camel's back.
(Bas aisa samjho ki apne dimag satak gaya, itna freedom party ka demand dekh ke. Bas apun ne baja dala)

Another update: I must also mention, that I believe that this post is crap, and anyone who went through whole post is a very lonely person. The only reason that DP linked to this post is that I fed this ape with 2 dozen bananas. You can also get your posts linked by DP guys if you are as desperate as me, going rate is 4 dozen bananas (negotiable for regular customers like me).
If you can find a liberal and horny female gorilla for this macaca (who imagines this is planet of ape, well !), he will rig Indibloggies for you.

Global warming, a boon for punekar

Sure global warming may result in world wide famine, epidemic and forced evacuation of millions, but to put things in perspective, with any luck Pune may end up with a Sea - view. Now you can't beat that.

So any son (and also daughter) of soil Punekar, pollute as much as you can, do it for Pune.

Progress

Any human progress is aided by spiteful relatives and hateful neighbours. Brotherly love is kryptonite of civilization.

Slamming non - PM

Kick ass, totally.

What interests or rather troubles me is not the content of speech that our honourable non PM gave. He must have known, as someone who can be assumed to have at least rudimentary knowledge of economics, that the speech was nothing but bovine manure.He was casting industrialists as villain, essentially pandering for votes, harking back to hey days of Indira Gandhi and her delusional daddy, when surplus labour was the socialist equivalent of blood libel.

In other words, the speech was nothing more than pink Schick. Now this whole pandering business is something which happens frequently in politics. However what made it worse in this case is that, it made no political sense!

This socialist grandstanding is past its sell by date. Law of diminishing returns has ensured that any further invocation of this mantra will result in zero returns. This dead horse is not going to gallop howsoever MMS may flog it. The times they are a-changing.*

This is what frightens me. This is not just bad policy, but also bad politics. Whatever be the shortcoming of Indira Gandhi she knew the pulse of "common people". However the direction of the agenda that Sonia Gandhi has pursued since coming to power (due to sheer luck) only suggests that she is out of touch of reality or groundswell.

If there is anything worse than an opportunist politician, it is an opportunist politician, who is out of touch of reality.

* More about it later

Smug Alert !

Hey Ishvara,

Have mercy on your humble servants and please grant freedom lover aym gramds with rightist, secular, libertarian national Party, prefix more adjectives if you feel like it.
Because to tell the truth, this self righteousness threaten to destroy srishti.

Yours etc

Politeness

One can only hope that when Brutus committed the infamous act, he had the good sense to stab Caesar in back, not to have done so would have been quite ill-mannered and unbecoming of a noble.

Save mediocrity

Dear shameless ShrikhandDrohi

You are giving bad name to mediocrity. Kindly refrain.

Aspiring mediocre

PS. If you want to write something about food, learn from here.

An open letter to people who write open letters

Dear People,

Please, open letters are passe. Once upon a time, open letters were meant to expound. Unfortunately since rhetoric is better part of elucidation, and self-gratification is better part of rhetoric, this form ends up as an exercise in boosting perceived self-image.
Only problem, blogs (or if one wishes to be more expansive web 2.0) exists mostly for purpose of stoking one's ego only. Hence open letters add layer of redundancy, not to mention cliche, which is a strict no no, if your aim is narcissism.

Yours etc

Imagined conversation with John Lennon (and ensuing bedlam)

John Lennon : Imagine no possessions ...

Me: Err, John you know...

John Lennon: Except for copyright, and royalty. FOR THE PEOPLE.

Me: *

Maugham's Ghost : Dude, I know I said something about hypocrisy being most nerve racking vice and all, but this guy makes it so easy.

Aphorism:Common man

Common man is uninformed, his taste vulgar, notions prejudiced.

Hence it stands to reason that result of any process which relies on public preferences solely will range anywhere from indifferent in best case, to positively catastrophic in the worst case.

Democracy best exemplifies this.

I can only hope future generations will be more charitable to "age of reason" for its delusion, than this age has been to "age of faith."

"Vox populi vox dei" translates as "My God! How did we get in this mess!" *
(Yes I quoted it earlier, I like it so much)

PS I am a common man.

Aphorism : Meta-quote

People warn that "the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose", what they forget however that devil can also warn that devil can cite scripture, for devil's purpose

Meaning of life - II

(Previous post)

To proceed further, NOW after having decided that some assumption is necessary, the next question is what assumption. Answer to this, I do not know.
A better question would be, what sort of assumption. This can be answered in following way.
From the assumption(s), we can derive certain conclusions and directives.
These conclusions and directives should agree with each other as well as empirical observations.
Seen from that point of view life itself is the biggest controlling condition.
A assumption is valid only as long as life exists.
If life cease to exist or decline as a consequence of the assumption, then that assumption is erroneous.
Hence the position can be summed up as.

Assumption (or Faith) must sustain, nourish and reinvigorate life.

Another way of stating this may be,

Assumption (or Faith) must sustain, nourish and reinvigorate civilization.

Or

Assumption (or Faith) must sustain, nourish and reinvigorate consciousness.

This in all modesty is Gaurav's second wager *

Party Sharty

Dear Freedom lovers,

Since I do understand your mental agony , I find it only amusing when you seek "Market Mahatma " or "Freedom Party", instead of absurd. however there is a limit to such delusions, it is becoming embarrassing, please stop.

PS. What is the antidote for Aym Gramdism

Meaning of life - I

(Related posts [1],[2])

Survival of any species is independent of sense of purpose, that is, except humans.
In realm of beasts, survival of the fittest, this rule defines the complete domain of their interactions. On the other hand, humans can reason, or to put in other words, rationalize.

While this may be useful for daily life, after a certain point, a man who is part of a society, begins to inquire the reason for his own existence, so much so that this become the most important question, one which if remains unanswered can consume civilization in a frenzy, much like Yaksha Prashna, consumed the Pandavas.

Tragically purpose behind existence is beyond logic or reason or deduction (which means science of any kind).

Combining both,

Some purpose, which transcends human reason, must be assumed.

Being modest I call it Gaurav's first wager.*

Of course we can paraphrase as much as we want, but in end it boils down to what I wrote. Refusal to assume is just plain denial and silliness.

Rehashing old folly

(From this post)

1. Government is incurably evil.

2. People are irredeemably stupid.

Aim of any sound political system is to save people from evil perpetrated by ruler and stupidity perpetrated by themselves, at the same time ensuring progress.
One way a system could succeed is by making both people and rulers believe that they thought of it themselves. It increases their self-esteem.
However too much of self-esteem may be a problem. Therefore a priest class is needed at the top to constantly bring down self-esteem to a manageable level.

My Christmas letter

Dear Santa Claus,

Considering that I have mostly been a nice guy, I hope that you will bring "inner party democracy" in India, and if you are feeling especially generous, please set this chimp's tail on fire.

Your etc.

PS. Well if this, then why not !

My non-conversation with Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde: We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell. *

Me: ......

Oscar Wilde: Broadband, on the other hand, is not of our making. Point taken.

To further discussion

While I can only admire perseverance and diligence of foreign policy pundits belonging to Indian blogosphere, the problem is foreign policy is damn boring. I mean, think of it, foreign policy, I think you will admit that any human with any semblance of social life will be loathe to find himself in close proximity with foreign policy. The need of hour is to sex up foreign policy, like this.

Jane Curtin: Dan, only a reactionary ass such as yourself could oppose full diplomatic relations with China. As President Carter said, it is a simple recognition of reality. How can we ignore eight hundred million people? But,then again, I guess it's your habit to ignore reality. You're a paranoid schizophrenic, Dan, whose politics are obviously born out of some buried infantile trauma. You hide from reality, constructing a hostile world to justify your own incapacity for love and compassion. Go ahead, Dan, live in your dark,lonely world. The rest of us will extend our hands in friendship to eight hundred million human beings, saying, "Hi! You do exist. Let's be friends."

Dan Aykroyd: Jane, you ignorant slut. My personality profile is not at issue here, any more than is your inability to achieve orgasm. The issue is Taiwan. How can we expect to have the confidence of any free nation when we stab one of our most faithful allies in the back. I suppose you'd like to conduct our foreign policy the way you conduct your private life, hopping from bed to bed with anyone that can do you some good. Then what do you have? An old, dried-out scuzz that no decent man would be seen with. Is that what you want for America?It's too late for you, Jane, but our country still has some dignity left, you hosebag! *

LBFABNS (Lining bottoms from a blogger of no significance).
YOU GUYS ARE SO FRIKKING BORING, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE, WHAT BUFFALO OF YOURS WILL DIE IF YOU TRY TO BE INTERESTING FOR A CHANGE

Enlightenment, simplified

Dear Readers Reader,

I assume, with good reasons, that you read this blog for purpose of inquiry, your aim self -realization. Being of generous nature, let me help you in this noble endeavor.

First stage of humanity is ignorance in all pervading format. For some reason, this state is also known as paradise, which raises the suspicion that God is actually a programmer with really bad attitude. Anyhow, everything is well at this point, and sex is only done during Sabbath (in missionary position, I may add).

Unfortunately (for God, that is), this state doesn't stay long. Man through perseverance and stupidity, manages to acquire knowledge, which being evil (Boy, God has issues) results in expulsion from paradise. Now from this knowledge Man becomes aware that others are stupid, worse he mistakes his adequacy for intelligence. Result, is development of mutual contempt and distrust. This is the starting point of a civil society and value which fosters a model citizen. Civilization is the name with which this stage is denoted.

However accumulation of knowledge and malice results in epiphany. Man realizes that he is, like others, irredeemably idiot. This knowledge gives rise to self-loathing which is the driver behind all philosophy and faith. This is the third stage of enlightenment.

I hope this was of help.

PS You may say, why no discussion on intelligent. I think I can safely say that anyone reading this blog has no use for any such discussion.

Appeal

If you have a friend, who happens to like Hostel, kill him. He might seem normal, but in all probability he is spawn of Satan.

Yours etc.

PS Yuk.

Meaning of life

Is not 42. It is "squat till you puke".

What are you waiting for ?

Another Appeal

Dear Manmohan Singh,

I request you to pass a law which will prohibit anyone who comments on Krish from breeding.
Because in this case he or she is both an idiot as well as deviant. And we dont want the combination.

Yours etc.

Advice on parenting

One of the major causes for parent's grief is the erroneous belief that he can, with the help of resources/attention, "make" his child genius. Now genius as we understand is a matter of genetic anomaly, and there is not much that can be done about it, or should be done about it*.
However it is essential that the child is encouraged to "realize" his genius. A carefully calibrated regimen of education, contempt and abuse goes a long way in achieving this.

However the problem is first, there is no way to tell apart an idiot from a genius, and second most probably your child is an idiot. Since it is not possible to transform an idiot into genius, the difficulty then is to determine the goal that a parent must set for himself. But before elaborating on the solution that I would like to clarify something.

Many parents react negatively to the information that their ward is idiots. Some even reject it outright and continue to live in denial, thus ensuring life long bitterness and frustration for child.
The truth however, there is no shame in being idiot, in fact it is more than normal. A healthy phenotype will imply that the result will be idiot. It is only with anomaly that we get geniuses.

Now to return to the topic, the goal that a parent for idiot must aim for, should be cultivation of a competent, adequate and well intentioned ignoramus. Fortunately the means to achieve this is not much different from the case of a genius i.e. education, contempt and abuse calibrated as the situation demands.

To help further, by competent I mean anyone who can handle tools (including computers), by adequate he is able to save himself from his actions**, and well intentioned enough to "believe" (in anything).

Please remember success of society depends on your success in ensuring the continuation of idiocy.

PS I hope this was of help.

* It is possible to introduce mutations through radiation or reading mint, it is not advisable though as you can end up with phantom of opera, three breasted whore or worse Shivam Vij.
My advice in that case, be actively pro-choice.

** In case your ward doesn't prove adequate, you can send him to do PhD in marketing or health policy.

An appeal

Dear Morons,

Do not use "literally" for emphasis.

Yours etc.

Supply Side Constraint

(Alternatively titled Gap between theory and practice)

In theory India is a democracy, we have universal suffrage *, we also have an electoral system where anyone can stand for elections**. However in both the cases there are gaps.

In the first case the gaps are easy to spot, people may be unwilling to vote or they may be unable to vote or they may unable to vote according to their preference.

In the second case too the gaps are easy to spot, people have to fill their stomachs and some more. Politics as a profession demands too much of skills and effort, and reward (everywhere in world, but particularly India) is pittance and even that hardly guaranteed (losers get nothing)***, to make matters worse switching organization (political party) is not something clients (meaning voters) will approve of .

Which means that wage earners will not become part of political system, since middle class in India (or anywhere else in world) is overwhelmingly wage earner, it follows that participation of middle class in political process will be insignificant. More so in India where real power is concentrated in few hands.****

This means only people with accumulated wealth, which means either old money, industrialists or professionals with practice, established enough to guarantee steady and decent cash flow even in their absence, who are not dependant on wages can participate in a meaningful way.

Data, historical as well as contemporary will support my contention.

Hence to hope that wage earners can ever have significant political power is unachievable and wishful thinking. Instead it is more commonsensical to shift middle class from wage earners to second category and then pray hard that it will be interested in political positions.

As I said earlier figuring out this is not hard. The only reason that I think certain journalists don't get it is that they overlook the obvious while thinking thoroughly. This will also explain why this country is screwed.

*, ** not really, DIY/FOY

*** In fact I have come to realize now that we can not have money as an "incentive" in politics. The most that we can do is to prevent it from being a "disincentive".

**** Hence de-centralization.

Where I go Aym Gramd

To whomsoever it may concern,

Since Average age of Indians is 24.8 years [1], and more than 60% of population is below 30 years, conservatively speaking [2], I demand that maximum age for any legislative or executive post be lowered to 27 years.

Yours etc.

Aphorism: Another mistake that people often make...

Is to believe that merely witticism makes one a great politician. This is not true, witticism can only make someone a great conversationalist, someone who is guaranteed to be life of parties.
To become a great politician one must combine witticism with disdain, irony and mirth judiciously.

Aphorism: One mistake that people often make...

Is assuming that merely having anomalous genes is sufficient to make someone a philosopher, whereas one must also be in miserable marriage and have a horrible domestic life inflicted upon, to act as trigger for those genes.

Aphorism: You may be a philosopher.....

If paradoxes turn you on.

Discuss ...

Fascination with Ayn Rand and resulting Aym-Gramdism is in fact proxy for Oedipus complex

Aphorism: Problem of evil

Problem of evil is not that it exists, there being no absolute definition of evil, but that it is addictive and hence bound to lead to excess. Moderation is the highest virtue of life, and therefore should be practiced in moderation.

PS I hope this was helpful.