My Window Seat

Do we need middle-men for GOD? -21 April 2005 Hi Friend, Do we really need middle-men or so-called swamiji's to connect with God?! My answer is a big NO, when these middle-men step beyond their limits of being a preist and becomes a God-men! I visualise them as vessels that carry water! The vessels have to be empty if it has to carry what it is supposed to! Here I relate the emptiness to the deatchement these people should have towards the worldly pleasures. When I said Pleasures - I didn't mean about eating good food, living a normal life (read as -married life including SEX). These guys should act as a Guru/teacher who dedicates part of his life in understanding the depths of religion that he belongs to, the rites and rituals (with meaning), value of the system etc. This learning should make him EMPTY, or detached from qualities like happiness/sad, jealous etc. Then he is qualified for preaching us what life is all about and how GOD can be reached through them. One more analo...

Though not a regular to treks, I was part of a team that explored this wonderful and adventurous trekking along/on the abandoned railway track near Bangalore! Read on... HARI Abandoned Railway Track Trekking Adventure: in simple terms its nothing but walking along the railway line (metre-gauge) with few bridges and tunnels surrounded by picturesque ghats! After getting bored with the regular week-end routines, myself and my friends decided to do something that would refresh our body and soul. After discussing about various options like picnic, playing cricket etc., we finally decided to "Trek". Inspired by some of our friends' trekking experience reports, we were looking for a right location to try out our first trekking adventure. And we came across this peculiar trekking track that involved tracking along an abandoned railway track from Donigal near Sakleshpura to Yedukkumeri. Once we heared about the terms like Donigal, Sakleshpur, Yedukkumeri etc., we were all jumping...

Hi, I used to read all those facts printed on Snapples bottle-cap while traveling to NJ! That made me collect some interesting facts for you! Let me know if you liked it! Hari * Most cell phone antennas have no purpose other than to make people believe that flipping up a 2 inch antenna just gave them better reception. They are not connected to any circuitry. * TIME Magazine’s “Man of the Year” in 1938 was Adolf Hitler. * The most productive day of the workweek is Tuesday. * The New York Stock Exchange started as a coffee shop! * One quarter of the human brain is used to control the eyes. * Babies are born without knee caps. * According to U.S. FDA standards, 1 cup of orange juice is allowed to contain 10 fruit fly eggs, but only 2 maggots. * In New York City, approximately 1,600 people are bitten by other humans every year. * It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. Snapple Facts #1 A Goldfish's attention span is three seconds #2 Animals that lay eggs don't...

Came across this interesting piece of news on Rediff today! Hari Why popcorn doesn't pop! April 19, 2005 Ever wondered why, in a bag of popcorn bought at the movies, there are always some unpopped kernels at the bottom? Well, a Purdue University team led by food chemist Bruce Hamaker of the Whistler Centre of Carbohydrate Research has the answer. "It is a matter of scientific curiosity and we are in the food business, so we decided to find out," Purdue's Rengaswami Chandrasekaran said. After analysing 14 varieties of corn popped in a microwave oven, the team discovered that the key pop-ability factor is the kernel's cellulose hull, known as the pericarp. Chandrasekaran, a crystallographer, found that the pericarp in corn that popped has a stronger crystalline structure than the pericarp in those that didn't. "With a better organised crystal structure," he said, "the kernel retains moisture better. It swells as it heats up until it finally explod...

April 3, 2005 It's a Flat World, After All By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail for India, going west. He had the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. He never did find India, but he called the people he met ''Indians'' and came home and reported to his king and queen: ''The world is round.'' I set off for India 512 years later. I knew just which direction I was going. I went east. I had Lufthansa business class, and I came home and reported only to my wife and only in a whisper: ''The world is flat.'' And therein lies a tale of technology and geoeconomics that is fundamentally reshaping our lives -- much, much more quickly than many people realize. It all happened while we were sleeping, or rather while we were focused on 9/11, the dot-com bust and Enron -- which even prompted some to wonder whether globalization was over. Actually, just the opposite was true, which is why it's time to wake up and prepare o...

Dear Reader, Let Happiness Rest In You Always! (My Haiku!!!) Hari