Category: People

Learning a bit of History from Lt Gen Thapan

It is important to know what happened and why, and how we got to where we are today before we have a good shot at understanding where we should be going and how we could get there. If we are lost in any sense today, it could be because we are ignorant of our past and cannot quite figure out where we ought to be heading, leave alone knowing how to get there. We don’t know our history. Chalk that one up as yet another failing of our dismal educational system.

Reading someone who has lived through events that define our past is a learning experience. Lieutenant General M L Thapan, Param Veer Seva Medal, has just added an important bit to my very limited understanding of India’s recent history. He’s seen most of the last hundred years, being 89 years old. Long before most of us were born, he was fighting wars. Ramanand Sengupta spoke with him, Rediff.com reports:

He fought in two major campaigns in World War II.

After Independence, his division was ‘two-and-a-half km from Sialkot when the ceasefire whistle blew in (the second India-Pakistan war) 1965.’ And in 1971, he faced enemy fire again when he was asked to clear one of the three sectors into which East Pakistan had been marked out by India’s Eastern Command.

Continue reading “Learning a bit of History from Lt Gen Thapan”

Art of Living: Another Letter

Not having the gift of foresight, one rarely knows how far one will stray having embarked on an ill-advised direction. So it is with me and my simple assessment of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar many years ago. I began with concluding that SSRS is very skilled in marketing a good and ancient Indian technique generally known as yoga. Many others from India have done so and I approve of all of them because I approve of good ideas being shared. Some made huge fortunes (self-styled “Bhagwan” Rajneesh AKA Osho, for instance) and some labored out of sheer love and devotion for the ideas.

However, my conclusion that SSRS is a “useful” person, just like you and I, did not go down too well with those who are persuaded that SSRS is God Almighty incarnate (whatever “God” is.) So I get nastygrams from these fairly regularly. But once in a while I also get letters from dissatisfied AoL customers. The curious thing is that the nastygrams from SSRS worshippers are pretty incoherent rants; and the dissastisfied customers are generally pissed off but coherent. Because I have published one recent incoherent rant from an SSRS worshipper, I am publishing one from someone who has an opposing point of view. Here it is, for the record.
Continue reading “Art of Living: Another Letter”

Jan 23rd, 2007

My younger brother’s daughter shares her birthday today, 23rd Jan, with David Hilbert who was born in 1862. Hilbert compiled a list of 23 unsolved problems in mathematics in 1900. “This is generally reckoned the most successful and deeply considered compilation of open problems ever to be produced by an individual mathematician.” Hmm. Born 23rd Jan; compiled 23 problems. Coincidence? I think not. 🙂
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R U MAD ??????

HELLO,

PLEASE STOP WRITING NONSENSE ABOUT OUR GURUJI SRI SRI RAVISHANKAR JI. HE WILL NOT EVEN GET A SINGLE PENNY OUT OF ART OF LIVING ORGANISATION. HE IS STRUGGLING SO HARD DAY & NIGHT TRAVELLING ALL OVER THE WORLD FOR PEACE AND A SMILE FROM HEART. I GUESS YOUR LIFE MUST BE FULL OF TROUBLES..NO DOUBT ABOUT IT….STOP JUDGING ABOUT GURUJI..YOUR LIFE WILL BE PATHETIC AND IT IS ALREADY PATHETIC…STOP ALL YOUR BULLSHIT AND RUBBISH. ATLEAST JOIN THE BASIC PART 1 COURSE YOU WILL CHANGE. MY LIFE TOTALLY CHANGED BECAUSE OF GURUJI OTHERWISE IT COULD HAVE BEEN MISERABLE. TRUST ME HE IS GOD.. YOU WILL REALISE ONCE YOU DO THE COURSE. I’M NOT HERE TO HURT YOU..PLEASE REALISE GURUJI IS A GOD’S GIFT. HE IS VERY VERY NICE PERSON ON THE EARTH. I CAN NOT REPAY HIM FOR EVER. MY FEE IS NOT AT ALL WORTH…I GIVE MY WHOLE LIFE TO GURUJI..ONCE AGAIN PLEASE STOP ALL YOUR RUBSIH AND REALISE….YOU WILL SEE A BEAUTIFUL WORLD.

JAI GURUDEV

HEMANTH

[Thus wrote Hemanth {previously published email address removed}. I would be embarrassed if I had such worshippers. Sri Sri Ravishankar, please read and weep. To answer your worshipper who asked if I was mad, I assure you that I am merely confused, not mad. I am confused regarding why your worshippers write such emails to me when I have not written a single negative comment about their “Gurudev.” Gurudevji, if you are here for the first time, please read my final word on you.]

Milton Friedman: A Joke and Some Serious Stuff

One day an economist looked up and saw a little girl being attacked by a vicious dog, just down the street. He rushed over and saved the girl by strangling the dog.

A reporter interviews him and says, “Sir, this is a wonderful thing you have done. Did you say you are an economist?”

“Yes, I am,” says the economist.

“Very good, sir,” says the reporter, “this will be our lead story tomorrow, and the headline will be ‘Radical libertarian economist saves little girl from vicious dog.‘ ”

“Well, I’m not that radical,” says the economist. “I’m really more of a classical liberal.”

The reporter scratches his head and says, “Well, we’ll come up with something. Whose views would you say you are closest to?”

“Oh, I suppose it would be Milton Friedman,” says the economist.

Next day, the economist buys the paper. Across the front page is splashed: “CHICAGOITE KILLS FAMILY PET!”

Continue reading “Milton Friedman: A Joke and Some Serious Stuff”

Tubular Belle

Tubular BelleLast month, while waiting at San Francisco International airport for my flight back to India, I was tickled to see a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 which was named Tubular Belle taxi into the next parking bay. It had Richard Branson’s zany sense of humor written all over it. Mike Oldfield’s album Tubular Bells is one of my old-time favorites and, as it happened, I had it in my MP3 player (a new Creative Vision M, I will have you know). Clever name for a 747, I thought to myself. But I did not know the connection between Virgin and Mike Oldfield until this afternoon when I picked up and read Richard Branson’s book Screw it, Let’s Do It: Lessons in Life. (Virgin Books (C) 2006).
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Channeling Tommy

This blog is a big fan of Thomas Friedman (Friedman has his own category with six posts). So I would like to share a bit from this article by Norman Solomon which attempts to synthesize Friedman’s brain waves [hat tip: Ashok Bardhan]: Continue reading “Channeling Tommy”

Dr Bismillah Khan — RIP

It is a sad day for Hindustani classical music fans. Dr Bismillah Khan passed away today. May his soul rest in peace.

His sublime music will, of course, live on. I cannot express the hours of joy his rendition of Bhupali Todi has given me.

The Final Word on SSRS and AOL

The time has come for me to bring to a close the matter of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and his Art of Living as discussed on this blog. It began with a simple enough request some years ago from my brother who asked me to check out AOL since he was (and continues to be) a big admirer of SSRS. I checked out the site and I realized that I had indeed heard of SSRS before. It was at an Indian classical music concert in San Francisco. The concert was being sponsored by the Art of Living Foundation (or something to that effect). Before the concert began, there was a fairly long video presentation promoting the AOL program. I recall seeing SSRS images on that promotional video and it seemed to me that the man was central to the movement. Continue reading “The Final Word on SSRS and AOL”

SSRS, AOL, and Devotees

AOL refers not to “America On Line” but rather to “The Art of Living” as taught by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (SSRS, in short).

A simple straight forward piece I wrote some years ago (Is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar a Con Man?) does get a lot of attention. I get emails from people, some of which is the average “I agree with you” type. Then there is the “How dare you even suggest that SSRS is not god almighty himself and that the sun does not shine out of his butt? You are an evil person” type. I would like to share part of one such exchange I had today with one SSRS worshipper (initials “AG”). Continue reading “SSRS, AOL, and Devotees”