September 11.

 September 11, 1893 was the day Parliament of Religions in Chicago was inaugurated and one of the speakers was a young Hindu monk named Swami Vivekananda. He started his address with ‘Sisters and Brothers of America….”. His message was the message of inclusivity and brotherhood of all men. He said that just as different streams wherever they originate all lead to the same sea, all true religions lead to the same God. He spoke of tolerance of different faiths that is hallmark of the universal religion that has its origins in Hinduism. Many reporters in American newspapers had difficulty pronouncing his name yet he became a very popular speaker in many cities in America.

September 11 is also the day twin towers in New York city were attacked and destroyed probably due to vengeance by people from other nation /s as reported in the US media. That is because we don't practice what we preach. Inclusivity, equality and tolerance are missing somewhere. 

A clarification about a conversation at the courthouse

 The  year was 2003. I and my ex-wife were legally separated and were at the county’s court house with our lawyers. I was frustrated at the slow pace at which our case was progressing and wanted unsupervised visits with my daughter. Her education and her health were being affected because of supervised visits.She was eleven years old. I prefer not to go into too much detail.

 At that time it seemed my only function was to hand out money to my lawyer ( and other legal professionals) and my wife because of which I eventually became poor.

After the hearing, I was surprised to hear the lawyers talking to each other almost apologetically. One lawyer(male) usually very loud and blunt, said softly ‘my client is crazy’ and the other (female) responded ‘my client is nuts’ !

Back at my work place , while sharing with a coworker about what had happened at the courthouse, I mentioned this conversation and added half jokingly that the lawyers were talking to each other like they just had sex!   I was disappointed and after hearing that conversation, I knew that I couldn't expect much from the legal system. 

I didn't mean that they really had sex!

Kabir's couplets (dohas)

Kabir was a saintly person born in Varanasi, India, in the 14th century. I remember reading a few of his rhyming two line couplets filled with sagely advice in my Hindi textbook in high school. Kabir used examples from everyday life and nature to illustrate his message. Recently, I came across a rendering of his dohas in musical form on YouTube.

There were no automobiles or trains or phones in that century.

Below is my translation of a few of his two line dohas  in plain English.

1.Consuming books in this ‘mua’ world, nobody becomes a pundit (scholar),

A person who realizes the meaning of the two and half letter word Prem (devotional love) is a true pundit!

2. So what if you consider yourself big, like the tall tree of ‘khajoor’ (dates)

Such a tree gives no shade to the weary traveler and the fruit is very high, beyond his reach.

3. If my guru and Govind (God) were to appear in front of me at the same time, who should I worship first by touching his feet ?

I think I will worship my guru first, because it was he who gave me the knowledge about God (and the path to reach him)!

4. People remember God when they are in trouble and feel miserable and forget him when they are happy and joyful,

Says Kabir, if they remembered God during good times also, why would they ever be unhappy and miserable?

    

Without Comment!

 

            Protesting against I.C.E in hot weather!

Near my residence in Issaquah, Washington.

Schrodinger's Cat - Part 2

 When I wrote an alternate interpretation of Schrodinger's cat a couple of days back, it was supposed to be a humorous piece. But since then more serious thoughts regarding the thought experiment have invaded my mind. What if Schrodinger was communicating secretly about the bomb….why would one want to kill a cat to explain Quantum world, strange indeed!

And the killing mechanism is ingenious - a radioactive material that throws out an electron which is detected by a Geiger counter like device which in turn triggers a switch to open a poison cylinder! Because ordinary humans can't see an electron most of the world would remain in mystery as to who released the poison causing the death of the subject. Hollywood ? Bollywood?

Schrodinger's cat - an alternate explanation!

Schrodinger's cat is the silliest explanation I have ever encountered! A cat is in a box with a radioactive material and after a while we have to guess whether it is alive or dead ! It could be alive or dead and because of that uncertainty we say that it is in ‘superposition’ because for a while we have to say that both states, alive and dead, are true, scientifically speaking !! Until we decide to open the box and observe the cat at which point the two states merge into one, scientifically speaking, and we get the answer. 

They also say that the act of observation changes the result ! Even if the cat was getting poisoned, fresh air will enter the box and might save the cat's life !

 It could also be an attempt to blame the observer for the consequence of the cruel experiment.What if there was a human being inside the box instead of the cat ! Can we say that his life was in superposition until we decided to open the box and because we will find him toasted after a while when we open the box, the act of observation caused the result. Therefore, the observer is to be blamed!

What if this was an excuse for throwing the atomic bomb - the scientists could not decide what would happen until the bomb was actually launched and they counted the number of dead and sick people, probabilistically speaking!

Quantum indeed!

Weather Whether !

I have never experienced weather like this before !

Only a a day earlier I had walked a mile in hot sun all tired and wished I had a cap and a T-shirt on and the next day it rains and the temperature goes so low, with a cold breeze included, that it feels like God did a weather rewind and put us back in winter !! I had to take out my winter jacket again.

Weather here changes not only by the day but by the hour or even by the minute. Last year I remember walking on the Front street next to the library hoping to enjoy the warmth of the sun above when all of a sudden freezing cold breeze attacked us making me retreat into the library. On another occasion, rain pounded the pavement on Front street while a street parallel to it was all clear and sunny !!

There was even an attack by the sun god couple of years back when the power went out and many residents of the building I reside in sat in the lobby. Outside it was sweaty and hot wind ('loo') blew making one very uncomfortable. I have experienced such hot weather only in New Delhi, India. According to weather page in the local news paper, New Delhi is listed at 113 degrees Fahrenheit currently.

I live in Issaquah, Washington.