The art of fasting

Fasting is a very common thing among living beings mostly animals. Lots of animals undergo a period of hibernation, when they undergo metamorphosis, lot other animals fast during unfavorable seasons and when there is a food scarcity. We humans generally don't fast naturally, but some of us do so for religious reasons. Religion certainly imposes fast to lure people into prospects such as rewards in terms of wealth, happiness so on and so forth. But actually fasting does wonders to our bodies apart from saving food. Mostly we over indulge in food and consume much more than required by our body and most of them are built into fat and other reserves while our digestive system has to work non-stop to clear these unwanted things from our digestive tract and the large intestine works to expel it out. Fasting once in a while can do lot of good things such as:

1. rest the digestive system
2. allow for cleansing and detoxification of the body
3. create a break in eating patterns, while shining a spotlight on them
4. promote greater mental clarity
5. cleanse and heal "stuck" emotional patterns
6. lead to a feeling of physical lightness, increasing energy level
7. promote an inner stillness, enhancing spiritual connection

Now, how to fast? Is there a easy way to stop cravings. It may sound difficult in the first instance, but it can be easy if you practice. Initially you may feel hungry, but if you don't supply any food to your system, it will slowly retract and you will not feel hunger anymore. What you may need to do is hydrate yourself adequately.

Today we are observing fast in order to express our solidarity to Anna Hazare's fight against corruption. We hope that the food grains we save today will be put to better use...

Mind is like a Parachute: Functions well when it is open

Disclaimer: I have stolen this article from a friend's friend's facebook page. Found this to be incredibly interesting. This is an experiment conducted by Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten who won Pulitzer prize for writing this piece of article.

Joshua Bell
PERCEPTION

THE SITUATION
In Washington , DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule. 

About 4 minutes later: 
The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
At 6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
At 10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.
At 45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
After 1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.


No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.
This experiment raised several questions:
*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? 
*If so, do we stop to appreciate it? 
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made . . ..
 How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

Enjoy life NOW .. 

it has an expiry date !

"Minds are like parachutes; they function only when they are open."

Anna's struggle against corruption

Today Anna enters the 7th day of fasting fighting against corruption!! I thought of fasting today for supporting this issue, but just could not. Missing meal by one time in a day seems like such a huge deal. I am wondering how a man 75 years of age is doing this for the sake of the country...
The more disturbing thing about this is the paid media has started working again printing obscure articles against Anna's crusade against corruption. I was very tempted to post a comment on one such article written by Salil Desai in DNA India [Link here], but could not do that because it needs registration and access to all my personal information. In any case, let me analyze the article here. The author of the article is a filmmaker and a known govt. supporter. His arguments goes as below:

1) Common people in India are corrupt, so Anna's movement will not change anything unless we change ourselves.

My view: Agreed! Many people like to bribe for petty things like for a Police ticket, for any sarkari job etc. Suppose say, all of us will stop paying bribes, what will happen? Will it stop a mammoth scam like 2G spectrum scam/bofors scam/CWG scam/Housing society scam... No sir, it won't. Because there are 2 aspects to corruption in a country. One is corruption at a personal level and a corruption at a national level. By being clean you are cleaning your personal character, but this will not change much at the national level. Because the pople who make policies are different - are the so called elected leaders. Once they are elected they are safe for 5 years. Can you do anything to topple them? No you can't! They will continue to do what they like and most political leaders do exactly that. What common people would do if they have no choice to vote for? Have you thought about this? My previous article that explains Janlokpal in detail has a number of solutions. One has to really get into the bill to understand how it is going to work.

2) Common people in India are illiterate and have a herd mentality. They support Anna for the sake of supporting without realizing the consequence...

My View: I have not seen a much stupider statement than this before. The author says that the ones that support are illiterate. But I would challenge the author about how much he himslef knows about the bill? Does he have a solution as how to solve this problem, or he is just blabbering for the sake of blabbering.

3) Only 10% of the net users support Anna's movement, so it does not have a great support base.

My View: So, you are trying to dismiss the movement saying that it is not a populist movement and can be ignored. I am wondering what you would have done if all these supporters have not poured in the first place. Probably, Anna would have been dad by now. India is a great country and this type of selfless movement is only possible in India. because of sacrifice of few people we are enjoying a free India and because of Anna's sacrifice we will enjoy a clean governance. Do you have anything to say on this?

There are few other articles that makes an attempt to argue against Anna's method of tackling. I am not even willing to get into the details of those articles. One such article was written by Arundhati Roy and is a useless piece of article without any content. I would like to hear people' views on this. Jai Hind...

Anna's struggle against corruption and the detractors

Recently, we have seen a big uprise in the number of people voicing their opinion on corruption. This is certainly a very good trend. It makes us feel that we are changing and changing in the right direction. The younger mass is actively participating in the struggle of fight against corruption, they are more aware, less selfish and have more "national character". Today I read a ridiculous piece of article on Times of India that tries to meekly make a case on why Anna should fail. I did not quite understand what the author wanted to say other than making a personal dig against Anna. He was trying very hard to say Anna is imitating Gandhi and imitators are loosers. But he did not say anywhere why imitating Gandhi is such a bad idea when the nation is reeling against corruption.
Lets analyze on what Anna wants to say in his Lokpal:

After reading the article written  below, please state whether we need proper agitation against corruption or not. That same TOI article also stated that - why common people are so much after corruption, they are the root cause of all corruption. Do I agree - yes I do. But there are 2 types of characters every one of us has: 1) personal character 2) national character. Personal character is concerned with our day to day living well being etc. and national character is the big  picture, that is our love and affection for our own motherlad and its well being. I think it is unfortunate to compare personal and national character of people. So, it is extremely unfortunate that TOI publishes such article...
Source: http://aidindia.org/main/content/view/1385/467/

Salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill
1. An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up

2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.

3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.

5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

6. So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month’s time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

7. But won’t the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won’t be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process.

8. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

9. What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.

10. It will be the duty of the Lokpal to provide protection to those who are being victimized for raising their voice against corruption.
******************************************************************************

To, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India Mrs. Pratibha Patil, President of India Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance Dear Manmohanji, Pratibhaji and Soniaji, I am writing to inform you that on April 5th 2011, I will fast in solidarity with fast unto death satyagraha of veteran social activist and Gandhian Anna Hazare demanding passage of the 'Jan Lokpal bill'. I fully endorse the Jan Lokpal Bill, an empowering anti-corruption bill drafted by leading civil society activists and oppose the government's attempt to pass a watered down version of the same.

Government's versions of Lokpal Bill have been introduced eight times in Parliament since 1968, all of which lacked teeth to fight corruption and even the weakest version of this bill has not been passed so far because the bill seeks to investigate politicians. The latest draft of Lokpal Bill prepared by the Government rather than strengthening the existing weak anti-corruption systems, seeks to completely insulate politicians from any kind of action initiated against them.

The people's version of this bill, Jan Lokpal Bill, gives more power to fight corruption effectively. Salient features of this bill include central and state level independent bodies Lokpal and Lokayukta respectively, having power to:

1. Complete any investigation and trial within two years so the corrupt can be brought to justice immediately
2. Order dismissal of a corrupt officer,
3. Investigate and prosecute any judge,
4. Enquire into and hear every complaint and prosecution against any officer or politician without needing any sort of permission. Politicians will not be involved in the selections of chairperson and members of Lokpal & Lokayukta, which will be done through a transparent and public participatory process. This bill ensures that public grievances get resolved in a time bound manner and loss caused to the tax payer due to corruption will be recovered from the convicts. Also, the convicted may be sentenced a minimum 5 years and a maximum of life imprisonment.

I have decided to join hands with millions of my compatriots in this crucial fight against corruption and demand that the Government immediately pass Jan Lokpal bill.

Sincerely,

******************************************************************************

S. No.	Government's proposal (Lokpal Bill)	Civil Society's Proposal (Jan Lokpal Bill)
1.	Lokpal will not have any power to either initiate action suo motu in any case or even receive complaints of corruption from general public. The general public will make complaints to the speaker of Lok Sabha or chairperson of Rajya Sabha. Only those complaints forwarded by Speaker of Lok Sabha/ Chairperson of Rajya Sabha to Lokpal would be investigated by Lokpal. This not only severely restricts the functioning of Lokpal, it also provides a tool in the hands of the ruling party to have only those cases referred to Lokpal which pertain to political opponents (since speaker is always from the ruling party). It will also provide a tool in the hands of the ruling party to protect its own politicians.	Lokpal will have powers to initiate investigations suo moto in any case and also to directly entertain complaints from the public. It will not need reference or permission from anyone to initiate investigation into any case.
2.	Lokpal has been proposed to be an advisory body. Lokpal, after enquiry in any case, will forward its report to the competent authority. The competent authority will have final powers to decide whether to take action on Lokpal’s report or not. In the case of cabinet ministers, the competent authority is Prime Minister. In the case of PM and MPs the competent authority is Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, as the case may be. In the coalition era when the government of the day depends upon the support of its political partners, it will be impossible for the PM to act against any of his cabinet ministers on the basis of Lokpal’s report. For instance, if there were such a Lokpal today and if Lokpal made a recommendation to the PM to prosecute A. Raja, obviously the PM will not have the political courage to initiate prosecution against A. Raja. Likewise, if Lokpal made a report against the PM or any MP of the ruling party, will the house ever pass a resolution to prosecute the PM or the ruling party MP? Obviously, they will never do that.	Lokpal is not an advisory body. It will have the powers to initiate prosecution against any one >after completion of investigations in any case. It will also have powers to order disciplinary proceedings against any government servant.
3.	The bill is legally unsound. Lokpal has not< been given police powers. Therefore Lokpal cannot register an FIR. Therefore all the enquiries conducted by Lokpal will tantamount to “preliminary enquiries”. Even if the report of Lokpal is accepted, who will file the chargesheet in the court? Who will initiate prosecution? Who will appoint the prosecution lawyer? The entire bill is silent on that.	Lokpal would have police powers. It will be able to register FIR, proceed with criminal investigations and launch prosecution.
4.	The bill does not say what will be the role of CBI after this bill. Can CBI and Lokpal investigate the same case or CBI will lose its powers to investigate politicians? If the latter is true, then this bill is meant to completely insulate politicians from any investigations whatsoever which are possible today through CBI.	That part of CBI, which deals with cases of corruption, will be merged into Lokpal so that there is just one effective and independent body to take action against corruption.
5.	There is a strong punishment for “frivolous” complaints. If any complaint is found to be false and frivolous, Lokpal will have the power to send the complainant to jail through summary trial but if the complaint were found to be true, the Lokpal will not have the power to send the corrupt politicians to jail! So the bill appears to be meant to browbeat, threaten and discourage those fighting against corruption.	Deterrence has been provided against frivolous complaints in the form of financial penalties against the complainant, however, Lokayukta is empowered to prosecute the corrupt and take disciplinary action against them.
6.	Lokpal will have jurisdiction only on MPs, ministers and PM. It will not have jurisdiction over officers. The officers and politicians do not indulge in corruption separately. In any case of corruption, there is always an involvement of both of them. So according to government’s proposal, every case would need to be investigated by both CVC and Lokpal. So now, in each case, CVC will look into the role of bureaucrats while Lokpal will look into the role of politicians. Obviously the case records will be with one agency and the way government functions it will not share its records with the other agency. It is also possible that in the same case the two agencies arrive at completely opposite conclusions. Therefore it appears to be a sure way of killing any case.	Lokpal will have jurisdiction over politicians, officials and judges. CVC and the entire vigilance machinery of government will be merged into Lokpal.
7.	Lokpal will consist of three members, all of them being retired judges. There is no reason why the choice should be restricted to judiciary. By creating so many post retirement posts for judges, the government will make the retiring judges vulnerable to government influences just before retirement as is already happening in the case of retiring bureaucrats. The retiring judges, in the hope of getting post retirement employment would do the bidding of the government in their last few years.	Lokpal would have ten members and one Chairperson. Out of them four need to have legal background (they need not be judges). Others could be from any background.
8.	The selection committee consists of Vice President, PM, Leaders of both houses, Leaders of opposition in both houses, Law Minister and Home minister. Barring Vice President, all of them are politicians whose corruption Lokpal is supposed to investigate. So there is a direct conflict of interest. Also selection committee is heavily loaded in favor of the ruling party. Effectively ruling party will make the final selections. And obviously ruling party will never appoint strong and effective Lokpal.	Selection committee consists of members from judicial background, Chief Election Commissioner, Comptroller and Auditor General of India and international awardees (like Nobel prize winners and Magsaysay awardees of Indian origin). A detailed transparent and participatory selection process has been prescribed.g
9.	Lokpal will not have powers to investigate any case against PM, which deals with foreign affairs, security and defence. This means that corruption in defence deals will be out of any scrutiny whatsoever. It will become impossible to investigate into any Bofors in future.	There is no such bar on Lokpal’s powers.
10.	Whereas a time limit of six months to one year has been prescribed for Lokpal to enquire, however, subsequently, there is no time limit prescribed for completion of trial.	Investigations should be completed within one year. Trial should get over within the next one year.
11.	It does not deal with corruption of Bureaucrats. Corrupt bureaucrats continue in their job without any actions against them.	Lokpal will have power to direct disciplinary action, including dismissal of a corrupt officer from job.
12.	It does not talk of investigation of complaints against judges	Lokpal will have powers to initiate investigations on complaints of corruption against judges.
13.	Speaker would decide which complaints shall be enquired into by Lokpal.	Lokpal will not be able to dismiss any complaint from public without hearing the complainant.
14.	Our entire governance system suffers from inadequate public grievance redressal systems, which force people to pay bribes. Lokpal bill does not address this issue.	Lokpal will have the powers to orders redressal in a time bound manner. It will have powers to impose financial penalties on guilty officers, which would be paid to complainant as compensation.
15.	Large number of people raising their voice against political corruption are being murdered. Lokpal does not have any powers to provide protection to them.	Lokpal will have powers to provide protection against physical and professional victimization of whistleblowers.
16.	Nothing has been provided in law to recover ill gotten wealth. A corrupt person can come out of jail and enjoy that money.	Loss caused to the government due to corruption will be recovered from all accused.
17.	Under the present law, there is Small punishment for corruption- Punishment for corruption is minimum 6 months and maximum 7 years.	Enhanced punishment - The punishment would be minimum 5 years and maximum of life imprisonment.

 ********************************************************************************

Being at the Right Time and Right Place

To my repertoire of remedy for success, these two are relatively new. Today while working on one of my blog posts which I write for SAB, I realized that I may be making a mistake if I invest my time working on this instead of working on something that is the demand of time. Then I sneaked away from my "demanding" work to write little bit on this. You may get some benefit out of this.
Often times, we tend to do things, that is the not the demand of the hour. Giving simpler example for this may be; during lunch time, you don't eat lunch and do something else, which may or may not be very important. As a result, you skip lunch, and the long term effect for that is ill health. As well as we know, health is the biggest wealth we can have, may later be a limiting factor to the success that the work would have brought you about which you chose to carry on at the cost of lunch.
I have to look at pricing information on some RNAseq service providers and if I delay this and instead write my SAB blog, then the meeting that is suppose to be held in the evening will be fruitless. To make up for that we have to arrange extra meeting seeing convenience and make some travel etc. which will eventually cost more time and energy. So, in the end a job not done at the right time makes it more difficult afterwards.
Similarly, being at the right place at the right time is the major key for many success stories. You may be applying for 100's of jobs, but you need just the one, where your skill sets are required at that particular instance. Then you are good. So, job searchers, don't give up till you hit the right job which needs you at the right time...

What is economy?!

From a common man's perspective, what does economy really means? Does it mean the GDP or the per capita income of the people or purchasing power or what? I will never be able to understand all these.
Today I read a report that says China's economic growth from 1970s to mid of 1980s was hot air. He also predicts China's speculative growth from 1980s to mid of 2005 is also hot air. What does it mean? How can an economy that is predicted as good and solid be hot air? In other words, good economy is not necessarily good as projected, it may be hot air(inflated). So, whom should we common people believe? Is it the media that plays a major role in making and breaking economies?

In good old days, when there were no definition of countries, rich princely states were those that had adequate food, clothing and administration and wealth (in form of gold). People were buying and selling goods by paying gold coins and it was the standard. That was the basic form of economy. As civilization grew, boundaries were raised around regions marking them as countries, policies were made, then came the dirty economics policy. This means, people that work hard or produce goods are not necessarily the richer people, rather they are very poor. Where as countries where people worked least, had enough entertainment and breaks were richer and could afford more. How does this equation work? The developed countries (read USA) raised their currency price, thus are able to buy more goods from countries whose currencies are cheaper. In return, they would sell the arms and ammunition, at a higher rate gaining their currency back. For that, they have to make sure there is unrest everywhere in the world. But things always don't work the way the developed countries plan. Because of their lazy habits, the jobs are done better by the poorer countries and hence they have steady flow of income and they can spend on stuff. Where as the lazier lot started loosing jobs and had less money to spend and depend on govt. programs for their survival. This makes the "developed" country poorer and people un-productive and hence a economic collapse. Up to this I understand well, but I still don't understand why China had to buy US bonds. Is it for interest returns? China can invest the money in something else or may be invest in India where the interest rate is much higher. Or do they think dollar is the global standard and Indian currency is unstable? In any case, I seriously don't understand all these economic stuff other than the simple equation that you buy and sell products. It would have been a better world if economics did not expand beyond that... 

New Unit Conversion Scale Developed by India

(Discovery is equal to number system given by our ancestors) :-

100 Crore  = 1 Yeddi 

100 Yeddi  = 1 Reddy 


100 Reddy  = 1 Radia


100 Radia  = 1 Kalmadi 


100 Kalmadi= 1 Pawar(All Agri prices rigging)
100 Pawar= 1 Raja
100 Raja  = 1 Sonia 

Sonia pe Suhaga sirji!!!

Subramanyam Swamy's Interview on Fox channel

Recently Subramanyam Swamy was under fire for writing an article against Islamic terrorism in India. In the aftermath of the Mumbai July 14th Opera house and Zaveri bazar blast, Dr. Swamy wrote an article to unite Indians against Islamic terrorism and was immediately under scanner for spreading hatred. I have read the article and don't find any hatred in it. It is just political vendetta by the ruling party that supports terrorism to get muslim votes. How incorrect is that. Here is the link to the article swamy wrote .Click Here
The video of Dr. Swamy's interview on fox is below: