Tag Religion

Frogs in the well

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Have you seen the 2014 Sci-Fi film Maze runner or read the Maze runner series James Dashner? If you have’t i’ll walk you through. If you have watched it, please skip to the next paragraph. This movie starts with an unconscious boy, his memory erased, deposited in a community of boys living in a place called Glade. The glade is surrounded by very high walls. Outside the walls is the Maze, a labyrinth of high concrete walls covered in ivy that changes every day. The Maze houses strange, lethal creatures known as Grievers. Grievers are described as amorphous monsters of metal and flesh. The Gladers are trying to stay alive as well as “solve” the Maze by running through it as fast as they can while tracking movements of the walls and trying to find an exit to escape.They only do the running in the day and return to the glade by sun set.

I consider this film as a Scorn/Homage the human civilization (please decide which one after you are done reading this entire thing). The small group of boys represents almost all types of persons that have ever walked the earth. Well don’t look for holes in my plot yet. Its only 2 sentences til now. I know the claim that a group of people can represent every human ever is a tall statement. Let me try to justify my claim.

In the Glade, there are 2 types of people.
1) The ones that abide by the rules set by previous inhabitants.
2) The protagonist who challenges the rules and tries to explore beyond.

The the 1st category again has certain sub categories. One set of people are very happy with the status quo they are happy with the things as they are.They fear anything new. Then there are others who not only follow rules but go super crazy if one doesn’t.
Finally there are some, who after looking at protagonist, think he makes sense, shift sides and start following him out of the Glade.

This is how humans started out. Early men/women lived in groups, defined rules for based on their experiences. They feared any thing new and anything they did not understand. Then someone like the hero of Maze runner comes around and started exploring. So they started moving beyond the metaphorical ‘Glade’ that was their immediate surroundings. Then lots and lots of years later, we reached the level that we had a map of most of the earth. But still we thought we were the centre of Universe and Sun went around the earth (Such arrogance and self-centric). We thought that the earth was flat. Then lots of years later, we reached moon, can now see beyond our galaxy. So, when we started out as cave men. The comparative sample size of our known to unknown might be same as our current known to unknown. The ratio might even be larger, but lets for the sake of argument say its about the same.

Hunting & Gathering : Hubble telescope = Hubble telescope : All that there is to know.


That way we are still Frog’s in a well. Well, not frogs exactly, Frog wouldn’t be presumptuous for one thing. Because we are human’s in a well, we have come up with a lot of stuff and thus my point finally arrives. The thing I have a feud with – Faith.

Almost all religions are human-centric. For all the years human mind had to evolve to its current state, this is very Naive. Most religions even depict god very human like. As per May 2016, earth is home to an estimated One Trillion species. Of one trillion species on earth, God is like human and has set rules for humans, doesn’t care for the other 999,999,999,999 species?

he heaven, hell, rebirth, ledger of good vs bad, what is good, what is bad, what to eat, where to eat, when to eat,what to say, what not to say, what to wear, what to do, when to do, when to fuck, how many to fuck. I say What the Fuck?
It really makes no sense to me. Like Maze runner, some people chose to remain where they are and came up with a couple of theories. Each theory was ‘a theory of everything’. They are against people who want to explore and see definitive proof before they buy into a theory. I mean why the fuck would so many people be so gullible?

It still amazes me that the guys making up stuff without moving their asses have more subscribers than the other lot. I guess that’s why Big boss has better TRP’s than than Discovery channel. They believe they are house mates in a show run by their “Big boss”. He is always watching them, giving them a purpose, rating them, ranking them, eliminating them and if you have been a good boy, giving you a reentry wild card.

I believe though we are humans, we have been thinking and behaving like Frog’s in a well.Just like the story, many would like to hear from a Frog that has seen stuff that’s outside our well.

May be that’s why we have been fascinated by Aliens.

Selling superstitions

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Sacred scavengers of the society


First let me try to explain my choice of the words for the title. 
Sacred is something to do with religion, but in this context it actually refers to an indirect result of calling something sacred. That something cannot be criticised. 
Next, scavengers. A scavenger is a curiosity of natural evolution. Like carnivores, scavengers also survive on meat. Carnivores always target the weakest animal in the herd, this is because its easier to hunt and also the genes of the weak link are thus not passed to next generation. So its a win-win for both sides. Scavengers go one better, they don’t even bother to hunt, they just eat rotting leftovers of the carnivore kills or on animals that die naturally. They clean up the place, like the garbage trucks of nature. These are not he scavengers I’m referring to, the scavengers I see in the society, the ones one that do anything but clean up.

Now lets look at a human equivalents in the society. Let’s call all the humans that try to make a living with a means that don’t harm others – Herbivores. Now everyone that harms others or looks to harm others is a carnivore. Not exactly – humans also have a third kind, the scavengers. Unlike the scavengers of the animal kingdom that are looked down upon, the scavengers of the human kind are actually respected, revered and the half dead prey actually seeks these scavengers.

I’ve been seeing these scavengers since a very young age but their population kind of exploded in the last couple of hours. These also have a professional names to what they do.
Astrologers, Numerologists, Healers and what ever they call someone who sells coloured stones etc etc

These people just amaze me with the ideas they come up with to solve all problems in life. No job no problem. No health no problem. Deadly disease no problem. Just put some incense sticks in fire, light a few lamps and shell out a lot of bucks for blessings. Just add an extra vowel in your name. or go better repeat all vowels in you name. Put on a stone on your ring. Pay someone to pray for you. Change your god. WOW. yes, that had to be in all caps. really WOW. 

Now any one with a sound and healthy mind wouldn’t be their prey. About the rest, Carnivores do not attack them because they are already half dead. Carnivores don’t eat a dying animal, they only kill the ones they kill. So, the ones who are desperate, helpless, gullible or in other words half dead in their heads are targeted by the above mentioned people. Thus, these are my Scavengers and oh yes, these are sacred. Ever tried protecting  someone from being their prey? The prey will protect the predator here. That is the most amusing fact.

Now tell me how the fuck does adding a vowel to a name change someones life? There are thousands of languages is the world, many with their own alphabet. A single name can be written in so many different ways depending on the alphabet you use. This doesn’t end at changing it, you also have to write your name x number of times everyday, everyone in your household should call you with that name. What the hell will that improve? Handwriting? 
I in fact tried an online evaluation for a name.

The name and Date of birth I entered are for Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini.
I’m pretty sure if I make an online payment, they will tell Messi that changing name to
Leoneel aandreees Meeessiiii Cuccttne will help him win the World cup for Argentina.
All these vultures of the society hide behind the shield of religion, call their ‘professions’ sacred, a service to the society. But all they do it search for an animal about to die, slowly eat it while its still alive.

I don’t have the patience to describe the strategies employed by all other types of scavengers.
In reality in don’t have to, deep down you also know. Some don’t care, some are afraid of incurring the wrath of a god who is waiting to punish you for insulting some ‘Scavenger’.

Schizophrenia

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Then vs Now

Don’t try to relate the title and the heading, I’m not going to talk about the history of mental diseases. I’ll relate them later in the post…
The above image may look like something from the controversial animation movie inside out. But its also closely related to Schizophrenia. It’s a mental disorder that comes in many a form. One of the symptoms is that the patient hallucinates or in simple words..hears voices in his/her head. Its like… if the girl in the movie ‘Inside out’ starts hearing her emotions talk to each other. Why this preamble… ? Well.. before I narrate something, its only fair that I explain where I’m coming from…

I had a realisation / revelation this week. By revelation I don’t mean I also heard voices…. I mean that I pieced together something I never thought of before.. I had a colleague beside me.. and because I didn’t know how he would react..I put fwd this theory/realisation of mine as a quote by some stand up comedian… He liked the idea and agreed with me.. and then asked ‘Who said that?’… I minced my words a little and said I don’t remember.. 
It is a sensitive topic.. I mean now a days in India every thing is sensitive… So.. I’m not going to put fwd my idea like I did to him.. I’m going to give you an example and see if you can meet me half way through the idea…

I saw in a lot of movies.. English ones.. Kids have imaginary friends. Eg: The 2012 Billy Crystal comedy Parental Guidance. I like the movie a lot. Explains a lot about what’s wrong with the current generations parenting skills. Now.. back to the topic. In this movie, Billy’s grandson has a imaginary pet. A Kangaroo. His parents fearing that the kid will get mentally disturbed if they say anything, pretend that they see it too. The grand parents are initially shocked but play along because they fear backlash from their kids.. Now imagine an adult saying something like that..

What would be your initial reaction? Would you treat him like a nut case or would you believe him. I’m going to give you another movie example here.. Raman Raghav 2.0. Its a dark cynical thriller serial killer story. The killer in the movie.. speaks to Gods. Not just one god but all gods. He justifies killing people based on his interactions with god. He even calls himself.. God’s CCTV camera..
Man hearing God’s voice and killing people because god told him to.. Clearly a Phsycopath..
That Now. Not Then. Finally something related to the Heading of the post… Hold your horses.. I’m getting there.. The then I’m referring to is a couple of thousands of years ago.
Let’s say a man said to people.. he heard god’s instructions  for mankind and who ever doesn’t agree or obey these instructions are to be killed or stoned to death.. What did people do? They wrote them down.. when from place to place.. did as per instructions.. In fact they are doing it even now.. They call this religion.

Let me take a less violent example… Another guy.. in the same period(then) sat below a tree and told people that he realised that the current way of life is wrong… and redefined everything.. It became another religion. Its a prominent one too.

This even happens till this day.. Though the registration process for new religion is tedious and success rate is less,we still have Mormons and Scientologists.. In India several self proclaimed god men live life king size talking about the voices they hear..

This is what I wanted to say… If someone heard voices in their head… Now they are put in a psychiatric facility and back then…..

If you agree with me.. you are free to ponder over it.. But if you don’t then please think of me as a schizophrenic..

Lost in translation!!

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The Chinese whisper with Google translate

Imagine playing Chinese whispers but where each player speaks a different language.

Language is a very local thing. You may learn a 100 foreign languages but you can think in only your mother tongue / native language. This is the reason why things get lost in translation. There is no perfect way to translate one language to another. Why is this? The movie John carter has a scene where a guy meets a Martian. They try to introduce themselves. See what happens. Only nouns, no other parts of grammar are involved but what they wanted to convey is lost.

Now lets add an Adjective and set the scene in South Africa. An English guy says Merry Christmas. How do you translate it to Afrikaans? See what happened when I used Google translator. 

Merry is translated as Geesende when used with Christmas and Blessed if used without it. Merry is translated to vrolik but vrolik instead means cheerful. You might get the context of the sentence, but not the true meaning. Simple words loose meaning when translated. What about ancient texts in ancient languages like Prakrit and Sanskrit? Sanskrit and Prakrit were the languages in which ancient knowledge of Indian-Subcontinent was documented. It included simple social practices to things so complex that Indians scholars have been trying to decipher them for years. 

 I started this post by saying ‘Language is a very local thing’. The structure of the sentence, the grammar, forms a word takes can all differ greatly. A lot of times there is no word to describe certain things in a particular language. Why? I’ll give a list of things a 4 year old would know and have no words for in Indian languages. Kangaroo, broccoli, strawberry & soda. These were non existent when the languages developed. Unlike English new words are not incorporated into most Indian Languages. So, how do they describe new things? Well there are other ways. Eg: There is no word for Train in my mother tongue Telugu. Its described by a word that translates to ‘Smoke carriage‘. When my people first saw a train, it was a carriage that emitted a lot of smoke. Now consider the job of translating scientific theories and theology documented by ancient Indians into European languages. 

I’ve given you on my take of the science of linguistics and yet haven’t arrived at the point. I’m getting to it. My point is very simple and you will understand the reason I gave you a linguistic lecture when I get to it. 

Heinrich Himmler was a prominent member of Nazi party of Germany. He was one of the architects of Holocaust. He was also obsessed with India and Hinduism. Himmler had a keen interest in the Rigveda and the Bhagavad Gita. Himmler carried a copy of the Bhagavad Gita in his pocket from 1941 until his death four years later. The book was a translation by the German theosophist, Dr. Franz Hartmann. In 1844, the German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling highlighted in his lectures the same passage from the fourth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, which 100 years later would fascinate Himmler – so much so that he dictated this passage to his massage therapist. This passage emphasises that a person’s identity does not have to be defined by one’s actions — that is, even if they commit evil acts, they can still remain untainted and unaffected by ones’ own actions. Talk about taking things out of context. 

Texts written in Devanagari and Bramhi scripts, translated by a German, for a German and then used to justify their actions. Great. Then there is the Aryan Invasion theory. Nazi’s thought that Indians are descendants of Aryans, who were early Germans that migrated and invaded the Indian subcontinent. A theory that has been proved wrong using DNA tests. 
Let me quote an example of how Sanskrit can be interpreted in multiple ways…

keśavaṃ patitaṃ dṛṣṭvā
pāṇḍavāḥ harṣanirbharāḥ |
rudanti kauravāḥ sarve
hā hā keśava keśava ||

(Seeing the fall of Krishna,
The Pandavas jumped with joy.
All the Kauravas cried aloud,
“Oh! Oh! Krishna! Krishna!”)

Clearly, there is something amiss here. The Pandavas are such dear friends and admirers of Krishna that they would obviously not rejoice in his fall. The Kauravas so hate Krishna that they would surely not wail at his collapse. The real meaning of this kind of trick verse is often understood by splitting the words in a way that is not readily evident. 

The word keśavaṃ (Keshava is another name for Krishna; Keshava means “the lord of creation, sustenance, and dissolution”) can be split into ke śavaṃ (ke = in the water; śavaṃ = corpse). The word pāṇḍavāḥ (Pandavas are sons of King Pandu) can be split into pā aṇḍavāḥ (pā = water; aṇḍavāḥ = born from eggs). The word kauravāḥ (Kauravas are descendents of King Kuru) can be split into kau ravāḥ (kau = who; ravāḥ = noise, howl).

Now, with the word-splits, we get the revised meaning:
Seeing a corpse fall into the water,
The fish jumped with joy.
All the howlers cried aloud,
“Oh! Oh! A corpse in the water! A corpse in the water!”

(Here, “born from eggs” refers to fish while “one who howls” could refer to the wolves or other wild animals who can’t access the meat; or it could refer to the crows cawing loudly).

If one verse can be misinterpreted in such a different way, imagine what can be done to 700 verses. Then they took the ancient symbol used to denote well being. Turned it into and made it a house hold name of anti-Semitism, genocide, war and destruction.


This symbol has a great prominence in Indian culture. Its as important to Indians as a cross is to Christians. Even to this day, when Indian’s buy a new house or a vehicle, we put the symbol on it. Imagine an Indian buying a car in Europe and putting the swastika on it. At the very least, his neighbours will call the cops. The worst case scenario is that secret service will take him in for interrogation. All because… things were lost in translation. 

In Mein Kampf, and also Third reich literature the symbol was called HakenKreuz. A HakenKreuz literally means Hooked cross in English. But  when James Murphy, an English Christian Priest translated Mein Lampf, he conveniently used the word Swastika. By the standards of James Murphy, “Fledermaus” becomes “Fled he mouse” or “Fleder mouse”. By the way Fledermaus is a Bat. Not a sports bat, but the bat in Batman. Sure it does look like a mouse with wings but its no reason to call it a mouse. That’s ignorance. But Mr. James was anything but ignorant.Just because he wanted people to forget centuries persecution of Jews by Christians. Cross reminds everyone of Christians. Nazi’s were not the first ones to hate Jews. Jews are termed God Killers by the new testament. 
                                      

Above is the so called Swastika in Lambach Abbey Christian monastery. You can call it a swastika if and only if Austrian Christians adopted Hinduism in 11th Century. That didn’t happen, so its actually Christian symbol. Mr. James’s translation was an intentional mistake. But still its a mistake in translation. 


What if something similar happened to the western world. How would they take it? What if someone took a cross, put it on a flag, kill 100 times as many people as the Vietnam War? Oops. This already happened and there is a name to it as well. I just described the crusades. Still, you can buy a Jerusalem cross pendent and wear it around your neck and go out. No one will give you a second glance. 

Apparently some things are lost in translation and some things are some other things are polluted in the name of translation.

World history comes with a ‘Conditions apply!!’ disclaimer. 

USA – Unlimited Supply of Arrogance.

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No country for coloured men


United states of America, the self proclaimed leader of the world. In last couple of months 5 Indians were killed and a few more injured in race related violence. There is an uproar in liberal, Indian and foreign media. In 2016 there was a ‘Black lives matter’ movement on police brutality in African Americans. Some are attributing this to the rise of the right wing or in other words Donald Trump. But it has always been the home for racial crimes. The country was built on racial violence and genocide. What else did you expect? 


USA is in some ways the Iran of the west. In other ways Americans and Nazi’s did some pretty similar things in their past. In-fact, they did far more bad things than what Arabs did to Iran and what Nazi’s did to Jews. Arabs had a clarity of thought, convert to Islam or die. So did Nazi’s. They hated Jews and they wanted them dead. They made no fact of hiding this. Germans do not celebrate the day Jews were killed by exchanging presents. Ayatollah doesn’t say his ideology is based on Iran first, Iranians first.

Got my point? No? Pilgrims and Natives. Does that ring any bell? 
Thanksgiving day, an american holiday that Sitcoms show as a day when all its characters have dinner together and exchange gifts. Normal Americans celebrate (if you can call it celebration) it by creating stampedes in shopping malls in the name of Black Friday. Indians are very familiar with this holiday. This is when their cousins buy Iphones and other electronics for them. But what are its origins?

“In 1621 the myth of thanksgiving was born. The colonists invited Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, to their first feast as a follow up to their recent land deal. Massasoit in turn invited 90 of his men, much to the chagrin of the colonists. Two years later the English invited a number of tribes to a feast “symbolizing eternal friendship.” The English offered food and drink, and two hundred Indians dropped dead from unknown poison.” 

Americans wiped out more than 90% of native Americans, but the history calls it just acts of genocide. Not genocide. Oh yeah. Apparently they are different.”How many ‘acts of genocide’ make up a ‘genocide’?”

On this count Present day Germany is leagues apart. Be it Stolpersteine project or the memorial day. The new German’s are constantly reminded of their ‘Actual’ history.
Brass plaques laid in the street to remember Holocaust victims
So where were we? A European was sent to find India(Thank all gods he did not find India), Found America, named them Red Indians (which was not at all racist), Other followed, killed the indigenous population which is now celebrated every year with friends and family. Is that it? No I was just warming up.

I didn’t even mention gold rush, slavery, bible belt, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, red necks, white supremacists, Klu klux klan, gun culture, Cuba, Mexico, Cold war, Nuclear race, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Capitalism. If you can’t relate these terms to America. Then I cannot help you, seriously!

When I said Iran is better than America. I meant it too. Iran’s transformation from Persia to present-day Iran also had its share of bloodshed. The local culture, language, religion were systematically erased. But not its people. 

As an Indian I’ve seen my fair share of Racism(Even before I ever set my foot outside the country). Indians are devoted to Caucasian tourists. Crowds flock to take selfies with them. Even authorities give them respect. But if there is a African tourist, they look at him the same way Ivanka Trump would look at an African American in back alley of a shady pub in downtown Brooklyn. I’ve had well educated, so called forward thinking friends look down upon Africans. Lets not go that far. I’m a south Indian, but have a couple of tones fairer skin that an average south Indian. I’ve had many experiences where people mistook me for a north Indian and when corrected told me that you ‘don’t look like’ a south Indian. 
Let me make it tad more personal. For years my maternal grand mother didn’t  allow the maid into kitchen and used to sprinkle some water on all the things that maid touched to ‘Purify’ it. Racism is a part and parcel of life in India too. Persecution is still there but violence is rare. 

Lets fast forward to American election 2016. It felt like Democrats and Republicans had a wager on who an field the worst possible presidential candidate. Republicans not only won the election but also the Wager. The notion that Americans are being unfairly treated in their own country is befuddling. If White Americans are not getting a good deal in America then who is?

It is a country of immigrants who are paranoid about the new immigrants. They did all the bad stuff enough for their beloved Santa to put them on ‘Beyond Naughty’ list with a permanent marker, now they want to maintain the status quo. Present day America was given birth by a an orgy between racist, greedy, arrogant, capitalist and hypocrite Europeans. 

Make America great again – the caption of Trump’s campaign had a hidden message (an open secret if you have some common sense) on his agenda. Now America is becoming great again. Great at racism, great at capitalism, great at war spending, great at meddling with other country affairs, Great at arrogance.

America hasn’t changed. Americans did not change. Americans are just getting back to doing what they are best at. They should simply hang a sign called ‘Enter at your own risk’ on Statue of liberty.