Discovering Self

Last updated on: May 15, 2008 at 4:13 pm By Desh Kapoor

The discovery that lies in self-knowledge is arduous, for the beginning and the end is in us. To seek happiness, love, hope outside of us leads to illusion, to sorrow; to find happiness, peace, joy within requires self-knowledge. We are slaves to the immediate pressures and demands of the world, and we are drawn away by all that and dissipate our energies in all that, and so we have little time to study ourselves. To be deeply cognizant of our motives, of our desires to achieve, to become, demands constant, inward awareness. Read more

Tragedies around the world and Man's Greed

Last updated on: May 15, 2008 at 4:05 pm By Desh Kapoor

Last week has been a terrible one for the world. Several large - man made and natural - have struck killing several and maiming and injuring many hundreds. Here is the list: - Tornadoes in the US states of Missouri and Oklahoma killing 23 (BBC) - Serial blasts killing over 80 and injuring many. (WSJ) - Earthquake in China (different estimates) killing between 10-50,000 people. (MSNBC . CNN) - Cyclone in Myanmar (Burma) killing upwards of 100,000 people and counting. (CNN) It is difficult to say whether man is more terrible or nature? In at least two of the tragedies, man and his evil mind has been the principle culprit - Jaipur's bomb blasts and Myanmar's tragedy after the cyclone when its dictator would not let in AID agencies! The other tragedies also have a hand of man although it is tough to create a direct relationship. The US tornadoes could have resulted from the effects of Climate change. The fact that its colder this year and the cold air mixed with hot air resulted in these tornadoes does point to a reason far beyond just nature gone wild. Read more

What Am I?

Last updated on: May 14, 2008 at 4:33 pm By Desh Kapoor

What am I? I am a result; I am the result of the past, of innumerable layers of the past, of a series of causes-effects. And how can I be opposed to the whole, the past, when I am the result of all that? If I, who am the mass, the whole, if I do not understand myself, not only what is outside my skin, objectively, but subjectively, inside the skin, how can I understand another, the world? Read more

Service and the Economy

Last updated on: May 14, 2008 at 4:29 pm By Desh Kapoor

By Bob Livingston author of How you do...What you do (with special permission) ======================== We are a service economy. Close to 80% of our GDP is service based. In a marketplace wrought with problems and concerns over the economic downturn, one must wonder how we will pull ourselves out of this fiscal malaise, when our primary source of business results from how we service what others manufacture. Never will service be a more considered factor in securing and maintaining business relationships. In these troubling times relationships will be tested, and I predict only those who have served customers and clients well, will survive well. With ferocious competition for limited client attention and business, how we serve will become a means to compare and judge. Competitive differentiation, which is lasting and enduring, will prevail in these turbulent times. We are seeing it already. Retailers and suppliers who have treated their customers and clients badly are feeling the pressure now. Business is falling off, and trying to change in the midst of an economic crisis may be a daunting challenge. People are being let go, locations closing and these two factors, connection and convenience, are at the center of any service strategy. Those who have been paying attention to how they serve their customers and clients all along will get through these difficult times hurt, but perhaps not crippled. Read more

Future of IT will bring privacy challenges

Last updated on: May 14, 2008 at 9:34 am By Desh Kapoor

These days with social networking, photo uploading, blogs, and twittering, can you imagine what someone with some smarts in IT can gather? The photos are stamped with time and location. The locations can be mashed with Google Earth and matched to find exact locations. If someone could collect the information from around the net - from all the sources listed above - to create a coherent report.. one could know exactly who all and how many people walked through, say, Grand Central on a certain day. Yes, some extrapolation would be required but with enough IT power and info sucking ability for certain parameters anyone - Government or Terrorists - could extract some extremely vital information from - what is considered very harmless information. Read more

Smoking and Terrorism

Last updated on: May 13, 2008 at 5:03 pm By jessicafick

A post by Suresh Naig ======================== Contrast with the ban on smoking scenes in Indian cinema by the health minister and a host of measures to wean people away from smoking, during a major part of past century, smoking was a fashion statement. Winston Churchill seldom appeared in public without his trade mark cigar. Before the ban on cigarette advertisements many of the brands have associated a healthy sport with the unhealthy habit of smoking. Elite people of the past were proud to display their smoking habit which was considered etiquette. Only after an avalanche of medical records associating smoking with a spectrum of dreaded diseases, people woke up, but then it was too late. The rot had already set in and cigarette industry has become a strong economic block, and to ban its production would be foolhardy. Instead, all over the world countries spend enormous amount to educate people to desist from smoking. In spite of concerted efforts of banning smoking in public places and public transports, smoking habit has very less sign of decline. After the ban on direct advertisements, many top brands resorted to surrogate advertisements for their brand of cigarettes. Advertisements as we all know are a form of propaganda which highlights its selling points. Read more

Understanding ourselves

Last updated on: May 13, 2008 at 4:26 pm By Desh Kapoor

To understand ourselves requires objective, kindly, dispassionate study of ourselves, ourselves being the organism as a whole—our body, our feelings, our thoughts. They are not separate, they are interrelated. It is only when we understand the organism as a whole that we can go beyond and discover still further, greater, vaster things. But without this primary understanding, without laying right foundation for right thinking, we cannot proceed to greater heights. Read more

Drinking Pepsi could damage your DNA and liver (Cirrhosis)

Last updated on: May 13, 2008 at 4:13 pm By Desh Kapoor

Drinking sodas like Pepsi, Fanta, Sprite and Oasis could mess your DNA, seriously damaging the cells. In fact taking too much of these sodas or some fruit juices could lead to cirrhosis of liver (the state of liver after one has been alcoholic for years) or the degenerative disease of Parkinson's. A study says that Sodium Benzoate, known as preservative 211 could damage DNA. It is naturally found in berries and apples but probably the chemical version of it can be deadly in effects. Here is some detail on its effects. “These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they inactivate it: they knock it out altogether,” said Professor Piper, who has been studying the effects of sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999. Read more

Einstein on religion

Last updated on: May 13, 2008 at 4:02 pm By Desh Kapoor

For the most brilliant scientist of our times, Einstein made this strange assertion: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind". In the ordinary sense of how we understand religion, as organized institution, this was nonsense! This has fueled a lot of debate. Thankfully, now comes out of the closet another letter that puts paid to any pretensions on his love for religion - the organized institution - as a source for solace or good. In a letter written on January 3 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind who had sent him a copy of his book Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt. "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this." Read more

The Phantom Limb

Last updated on: May 12, 2008 at 11:38 am By jessicafick

A short story by Suresh Naig ****** ******* ***** I lost count of the miles I have traveled in the metro train of Chennai and the smiles encountered. I was traveling in it when it was Madras and meter gauge. In spite of so many years of travel, it never bored me. I have watched many of my co passengers growing older, but not the train. My favourtie pass time during the train journey is watching people, which never bores. Each one would be unique. Some would open a book or newspaper, immediately on getting a seat. Some would keep talking, as if they would never have the freedom of speech at home and office. But the ones who interested me were the people who followed “Dynamic” sleep. Staying alert even in sleep, for they would come out of their slumber, upon the train reaching their destinations. Perhaps the tagline of a hotel conglomerate fit me perfectly “WE ENJOY PEOPLE”. Among the sea of faces, one face in the past five years was remarkable. I have been watching him curiously for some time. He used to come in impeccable white dhoti and a white khadi shirt. I have not seen a stubble on his face any day, for he shaves his face regularly. However, he had a stubble, which never showed on his face. His right leg was amputated just above the knee, and he used to board the train, three stations from the origin, from where I board every day. He used to skillfully board the train, throwing his crutches first and jump into the train holding the handle, with athletic adeptness. Many a day, I have offered my seat to him in the crowded train, which he would accept politely with a smile. In the entire five years, we never had any conversation. His presence in the compartment had a positive tilt, for no beggar in crutches, would venture where he sits. For nearly three months, I did not see him boarding the train, and I did not attach much importance to it. In the past years, I have seen so many people retiring from work, retiring from life, but the train continues to run without any retirement. I used to think that the metro rails are the modern day rivers, on its banks, so many new civilizations are born and so many have perished. Read more