All the random thoughts

The Vagabond and the new manager stood next to each other and stared at the barren landscape in front of them. It was still early on a cold morning in ITVille. The new manager looked grim and concerned. It was hard to discern what was going on in his mind at that moment though the expression did convey that he was thinking about something sinister that either happened already or was about to happen. The Vagabond started humming. “What’s that you are humming? The occasion doesn’t really warrant a song” the manager was grimly curious. “Just an old.. ah…Beatles song, sir” the Vagabond assumed it must be some song written by someone who knew the English language really well. The manager wasn’t ready to let go. He wanted to dig deeper in the hope that it could lighten up the mood before they get on with the task at hand. “Beatles? How does the song go? I think I can recognize a Beatles song if I hear one”. “Oh it is not really much sir” the Vagabond replied. “But if yo...

"Funny that you believe in those colored threads on your wrist" "Every particle and wave has a natural frequency, including human body and thoughts in the mind. A thought, it is said, is just a wave form" "OK" "We do things, say stuff when our body/mind resonates with a certain situation or person. When things are not going our way, it basically means that we are having a frequency that is just resonating with the wrong situations or people" "Keep going" "A thread is an attempt to alter that frequency in the hope that we resonate differently. Same is the case with any bodily gear. That is why we feel certain types of clothes bring luck etc." "Then why get the threads from the temple?" "A temple is just not any place. It is believed to be a center of energy. The mantras and their frequency are expected to generate positive vibes. So threads from there are expected to compensate for negativ...

The Vagabond stared at the Samosa Chat plate in front of him and shuddered at the prospect the next fortnight held for him. "More junk food, more facebook and more English", he thought. He never really understood why, after his initial tryst with serendipity, everyone in ITVille continued to trust his non-existent capabilities. "If we name and categorize all the work in this world, what I do will stand alone. No one can do this because no one knows what it is. And no one will do it because no one needs to do it". He thought about the events of the last few days that culminated with him sitting alone at midnight in an airport eating Samosa chat. ** "You need to go to this customer and fix the burning problem" Vagabond's manager said. "What problem of which customer? I do not know much about anything. How can I solve any problem?" the Vagabond was exasperated with the expectations that people had from his unseen and unheard of c...

The setting wasn't something I'd have expected to find in the midst of a large gathering of bositerous crowd for a street festival. There was too much going around that plundered the senses. Yet it was the many ecstatic devotees chanting their mantra who made it almost impossible for two people to have a conversation. I asked him nevertheless. "Summarize Gita for me in one sentence" "That's a tough ask", he said. He thought for some time. "I can try in three very short ones, if you like" I was happy for him to take a shot at it. "I do not love anything. I do not hate anything. I am everything". He looked into my face and probably found mild apprehension. "Makes sense?" "And the 'I' is Krishna, I suppose" "Yes and, everything else as you can figure from the last sentence" he said "And who is Krishna?" "That's an incorrect question. The correct one will be t...

Casteism is bad. Sati is bad. So many Gods is bad. So much wastage on rituals is bad. So many blind beliefs are bad. And most people through generations watched silently as a dominant part of their mental makeup was ridiculed. Most realized the fallacy of Caste and Sati. They tried to reconcile with the castigators or ended up in changed paths. And then things changed. Information revolution made people more aware and confident. Yes there are bad things that got absorbed ov er centuries. The same are identified and will be cleaned albeit over a long time. But what of the tremendous good in this culture? Who would forsake an entire garden because of few rotten fruits? And who are these modernists and rationalists whose contempt for all that is not understood in their culture is only because of its familiarity? Why do they readily accept or ignore more outlandish claims of other cultures? If what was truth hundred years ago is proven to be a falsehood now, why is it not possible...

Our multi-skilled, multi-lingual and multi-tasking cab driver put on the brakes all of a sudden. He had just finished maneuvering a hair-pin bend while still on phone with a mate. He back tracked about 20 metres while looking up out of the window. Then stopping under a sprawling tree, he pointed at a black monkey in a meditative pose on one of the branches. "Black Monkey" he said to us and then continued his phone conversation. After our initial excitement at spotting a rare  animal subsided, the car moved on and the driver concluded his phone conversation. "You have seen that monkey, no?" he started. "There is a belief around here that drinking a very small potion of that monkey's blood can cure all the health problems of human beings. Especially Asthma" the possession of such secret knowledge made him sound slightly pompous. We all looked at him in disbelief. "Yes sir. But it is very difficult to kill that monkey, you know why?...

Now that the initial shock from the selection of Yogi Adityanath started to wear off, think about this. BJP had a complex analytical problem at hand. A mix of MLAs from 15+ different castes (rough guess) with various levels and permutations of getting alongness. Sample this - A and B get along but not with C and D; But when with E, A and C get along but not with B and D; However E gets along with B and D but not A and C. And so on. The strong heads and headstrongs struggled f or a week trying to solve the equation that Amit Shahs complex candidate selection created. All this while the solution was roaming around freely right in front of their eyes. The problem with the solution was that it was perceived as a solution for another problem and not the current one. So they struggled and struggled while the rest of the country admired their election win and media continued to give them backhanded compliments. Then one of the selection panel guys, sipping a cutting chai while on a wel...

"What about Hanuman Jayanti" "What about it? " "Why so much importance to a monkey?" "Good question. Within yourself if you have to say there is a monkey, what could it be?" "Why, the mind of course" "You will also agree that the mind is powerful and capable of performing miracles, won't you?" "Yes" "When that monkey merges with the Lord it doesn't remain a monkey anymore. It becomes the Lord itself. Now think Hanuman and his devotion to Rama again. Does it make sense?" "Belated happy Hanuman Jayanti"

As the festival season begins, so will the usual rants from the usual suspects on the impact on environment of various things –from threads to idols. We must pay attention to the intention behind such rants for there might be some that are well meaning. But we must also pay attention to the millions of workers and their families who’d have invested their time and money into harnessing the demands of the festival season. From catering orders to selling wild flowers, colored th reads to making photo frames and large idols - huge amount of work is anticipated. In a temple economy, festivals are the triggers for consumer spending and economic revival – more so at the bottom of the pyramid. So if anyone argues about the time and money based rationale for an “Abhishekam” or “Govinda or Ganesh”, we must also ask them the rationale for the time and money spent in a pub. I mean, exactly what’s the contribution of few large pegs of Whiskey consumed over couple of hours to any of human/environm...