The discoverer and creator of the substance LSD-25, the most powerful mind altering chemical known to man, died yesterday of a heart attack at a ripe old age of 102 years. I am saddened and overjoyed at the same time for his deeply influential existence on earth that has changed thousands of lives.
I think at this point of time I would like to start from the very beginning, the discovery of LSD-25. Hofmann was studying the medicinal plant squill and the fungus ergot as part of a program to purify and synthesize active constituents for use as pharmaceuticals at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel. While researching lysergic acid derivatives, Hofmann first synthesized LSD-25 in 1938.
He set it aside for five years, until April 16, 1943, when Hofmann decided to take another look at it. That day, he became the first human to experience the effects of LSD after accidentally ingesting a minute amount.
Three days later, on April 19, 1943, he decided to verify his results by intentionally ingesting 250 ug of LSD. This day has become known as "Bicycle Day" as Hofmann experienced an incredible bicycle ride on his way home from the lab.
Since that time to now, LSD has been used by a lot of people to find their inner selves, connect with God and Nature. In the 1960's LSD was used as a recreational drug and was used by hippies, this is the time Hofmann saw a problem arising and later wrote his book “LSD: My Problem Child” about how he looked upon LSD as a medicine for the soul.
The LSD Symposium organized for Hofmann on his 100th birthday in Basil he told the crowd of well-wishers, that included 2,000 researchers, scientists, artists and historians. "LSD wanted to tell me something. It gave me an inner joy, an open mindedness, a gratefulness, open eyes and an internal sensitivity for the miracles of creation," said Albert.
Take a look at Hofmann's closing speech on his 100th birthday, its pretty amazing I do hope everyone can see the miracle in a man of that age.
I had written an article on how LSD is used by various people to enable mind expansion even in day to day life. You may then tend to wonder why is LSD illegal? If it is something that can promote longevity, help see a persons true self, spread peace and love for nature why ban it?
Well it was the USA that banned it, after conducting a lot of covert testing on the army, they thought the army would fight better with the confusion and enhanced brain activity that LSD causes. But well let me not take the joy of watching the video of the British Military test below.
If a substance that can make a soldier who is trained to kill, brainwashed to go to war so that they can be called patriots can be turned into people who want to climb trees to feed the birds, do you think a capitalist world or the so called democracy's would survive?
All in all I would like to say a big thank you to someone I hold great respect for, he showed us the light and LSD-25 will continue to be the beacon for all of us looking to find God and ourselves. Read the complete post...
On this blog we talk about incredible people whose stories are inspirational and thought-provoking. One such person I am about to write today is simply a genius and unbelievable. Stephen Wiltshire, aged 34, is like a human camera.
He takes a helicopter trip to get a aerial view of the city, memorises the landscape - appearance and position of the buildings - and draws purely from memory in such accurate detail, you will be stunned.
Memorising is easy for him, but not verbal communication, because Stephen was diagnosed with autism, a brain development disorder, at the age of 3.
Take a look at his sketch of the London Skyline (the first image is Stephen's sketch and the second is a picture of London although the angles are a little different): In five days he drew the London skyline in fine detail on a 13ft curving canvas, never referring to notes, sketches or photographs.
Wow, isn't it simply amazing, Stephen is wonderfully talented. He has drawn all the buildings in precise position with the exact number of floors, in mere five days. Its his way of communicating with people. He has traveled from Madrid to Frankfurt, London to Los Angeles and sketches what he remembers to create nearly perfectly proportioned, replicas.
Here is a short video where Stephen takes a helicopter journey over Rome and then draws a panoramic view of what he saw, entirely from memory.
His Early Days:
As a child, Stephen was mute and did not relate to other people. Aged three, he was diagnosed as autistic. He had no language, uncontrolled tantrums and lived entirely in his own world, until it was noticed that the only pastime he enjoyed was drawing. He uttered his first word at the age of seven and learned to speak fully at the age of nine. But by then he had already sold his first drawing of Salisbury Cathedral.
Accolades Followed...
Since then it has been no looking back for Stephen. He has appeared on several television shows, documentaries like BBC's Fragments of Genius, to name a few. He has also opened his own gallery in London to display his magnificent artwork. In 2006 Stephen was named by Queen Elizabeth II as a Member of the Order of the British Empire, in recognition of his services to the art world.
A true genius, no wonder filmmakers called him the 'human camera.'
I am not too much of a commercial movie buff, if I was it could have probably done this blog some good in the sense we could have watched a movie every other week and written a stupid review about how good or bad it was, get some traffic from the search engines for the millions of people who want to read about it, but lets put that aside for now.
Last weekend a couple of friends were over and they had not watched one of my favorite movies, Hair. The movie is based on the 1968 broadway musical, Hair and was released in 1979. The main story line is about a Vietnam draftee who decides to see a couple of places in America before he goes to war. The movie is anti-war, pro-freedom, talks about drugs, sex, some very good powerful music and dance.
The first time I watched hair, the magnificent synchronized dancing, visuals and a fascinating story line captivated me. But now after watching Hair for the second time I realized a couple of things that passed me by because of the above factors, the lyrics of some of the songs in the movie are extremely powerful.
Let me start of with, “Easy to Be Hard”, at this point of time in the movie that really seems so contradictory to the characters they are playing.
How can people be so heartless How can people be so cruel Easy to be hard Easy to be cold
How can people have no feelings How can they ignore their friends Easy to be proud Easy to say no
And especially people Who care about strangers Who care about evil And social injustice Do you only Care about the bleeding crowd? How about a needing friend? I need a friend
How can people be so heartless You know I'm hung up on you Easy to give in Easy to help out
The next song is one of my personal favorites, its called “Walking in Space”
My body Is walking in space My soul is in orbit With God face to face
Floating, flipping Flying, tripping
Tripping from Pottsville to Mainline Tripping from Mainline to Moonville
(Tripping from "Pot"sville to Starlight Tripping from Starlight to Moonville)
On a rocket to The Fourth Dimension Total self awareness The intention
Hair does have a very interesting storyline if you think its just a musical. Although the story is similar, but has quite a few differences from the broadway musical. The movie will make you laugh and the end is rather depressing. But on in all you really ned to watch hair, heres one of the dancing videos for you at the start of the movie.
Event - Twenty20 Cricket Tournament Venue - North Korea Teams - Teams from Shanghai and North Korea Date - May 2, 2008
Yes, you read it right, North Korea will be hosting its first cricket tournament. Startled? I was, when I came across this news that an authoritarian and secretive country like North Korea has opened its doors to the game of cricket.
Cricket has never been played or witnessed in North Korea, so it actually will be a big occasion. The teams will be a unique combination too, apart from the venue, of course. The two teams from Shanghai will largely comprise expatriates from England, Australia, South Africa and Holland, and North Korean side will include staff from the Indian and Pakistani embassies.
Cricket has become quite popular in China, with Shanghai cricket club leading the way to develop the game in the country. They planned to have a cricket tournament in one of the most unlikeliest places on earth, and thats how North Korea was selected. It was their effort along with a British employee of DHL, who secured all the 'permissions' in North Korea, and then the Pyongyang Cricket Club was formed.
Instead of launching missiles, the country will see cricket balls being fired. It sure will be fun!
Famed around the world the Dabbawallas (tiffin carriers) of Mumbai are known for their efficiency, punctuality, organization and management. In my recent day away from home when I get out and get into the chaos with a camera, it was the time when the tiffins were sorted and loaded on cycles at Andheri station.
I took a couple of pictures with the intention to do a short post, but after doing a little bit of research I am now completely amazed with the Dabbawallas in Bombay.
Everyone who works within this system is treated as an equal regardless of their function. More than 175,000 or 200,000 lunch boxes get moved every day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawallas, all with an extremely small nominal fee and with utmost punctuality. According to a recent survey, there is only one mistake in every 16,000,000 deliveries and the system has registered a Six Sigma performance at 99.999999 rating.
The word "Dabbawala" in Hindi when literally translated, means "one who carries a box". It basically stands for the person who carries the lunch box. The concept of the dabbawala originated when India was under British rule, at that time many Britishers who came to the colony didn't like the local food, so a service was set up to bring lunch to these people in their workplace straight from their home. The trend has stayed on for over a century and the dabbawala service is presently used by Indian business men and office going people who are the main customers for the dabbawalas.
A dabbawala goes about on a cycle collecting dabbas from homes or from people who cook for dabba services. The dabbawala then takes them to a designated sorting place, where he and other collecting dabbawalas sort the lunch boxes into groups. There is a special carrier that holds these dabbas and can be easily put into the luggage compartments of the trains and stacked on each other. At each station, boxes are handed over to a local dabbawala, who delivers them. The empty boxes, after lunch, are again collected and sent back to the respective houses. The dabbas have color codes and symbols so the destination of that dabba is know and there are no mix ups.
The dabbas are delivered door to door, cycles , walking or hand carts are used to make the deliveries. The dabbawallas were known for not using minimum technology to make their work possible, although that is set to change with the dabbawallas embracing newer technologies like SMS and the Internet.The presentation below will you give a complete run on the way the dabbawallas work and their management efficency, for which they have been asked to lecture in famous colleges across the country.
With their recent site My Dabbawalla the dabbawallas of Mumbai have begun to take orders to deliver dabbas online, they have also started taking orders through cell phones throughout India. To avail of their cell phone service you need to send an sms with “dabba YourName HomeAddress OfficeAddress” to 3636.
Example “dabba Rajesh 304 , Shivaji Complex , Dadar (west) 2nd floor , Express Tower , Nariman point “ and send it to 3636.
On receiving this message one of the dabbawalas will contact you on your cell phone and your dabba delivery service will start. Prince Charles on his visit to India met up with the Dabbawalas according to their schedule as it is not flexible so did Richard Branson of Virgin.
The latest developments with the dabbawallas are the boosted revenue with advertisements. In the picture here you can see the dabbawallas putting in leaflets in each lunchbox. When Reliance came up with their Initial Public Offering for Reliance Power shares, they used the services of dabbawallas to give away forms for the IPO. Yash Ray Films tied up with Mumbai dabbawalas as part of the film's promotion, the dabbawalas wore a bright Tashan T-shirt and their dabbas, too, had Tashan stickers with a paan attached to it.Read the complete post...
I had read about it, heard about it, and now I got a glimpse of it when I watched 'Last Hippie Standing,' a 45-minute documentary on the psychedelic revolution that existed in Goa without any intervention of the government or media in the 60s and 70s. It took me on a different trip, of what was and what it is right now.
This post is a tribute to Goa, that showed the way to many in the past. As its rightly said in the documentary, "Goa is not a place, its a state of mind." At least it was...
The documentary, which is made by a German guy Marcus Robbin, is in search of the last hippies remaining out of the many who gave up their materialistic lifestyle in search of something more meaningful, and found that solace in the peaceful environs of Goa.
It starts with a local taxi driver explaining the rules of driving in India, which is humorous. Then begins the writer's quest to talk to the last few hippies remaining in Goa.
He speaks to Goa Gill, the trance DJ, who shares his experience 30 years ago. These are few lines of what Goa Gill said about his hippie days -
"I began to understand how high you can really take people with music; you can give them a spiritual experience. You can take them to divine places, uplift their consciousness, open them up and give them a transfer of this power. Dance is active meditation, when we dance we go beyond thought, beyond mind, and beyond our own individuality - to become one in the divine ecstasy of union with the cosmic spirit. "
The documentary also showed people who opposed the idea of hippies staying in Goa, without the actual understanding of their culture. Like the Chief minister of Goa in 1999, when the documentary was made, was Francisco Sardinha, who obviously spoke like a politician. In his words,
"I have seen these people (hippies) coming with practically no money, I have heard people surviving only on few coffees, they use to have one or two rupees, we don't want poor people, we want rich people to come and enjoy here, we have enough poverty, we don't want people to add to our poverty...I don't know what their culture was of the hippies, but they were not spending money, we want people who can spend and live a good life."
Of course, things aren't the same anymore, its commercialised, which has tarnished the image, but for some it still remains a place of spiritual fulfillment.
John Le Conte discovered in 1858 that flames were sensitive to sound, post that a lot of scientists conducted experiments based on the above theory. Then in 1904, using the past discoveries, Heinrich Rubens, took a 4-metre-long tube and drilled 200 small holes into it at 2 centimeter intervals, and filled it with a flammable gas.
After lighting the gas he noted that a sound produced at one end of the tube would create a standing wave, equivalent to the wavelength of the sound being made. This was a rather an interesting discovery the apparatus is known as the Ruben's Tube after Heinrich Rubens.
In the video below you will see the working of the Rubens tube and how the flames react to sounds and then music. It perhaps will make you wonder why it is not used at live performances cause its pretty fantastic, reminds me of the good old fire visualization in winamp.
My knowledge on over clocking computers is quite limited. Although while at my last job I managed to make an ancient Intel Pentium 1.8GHz to achieve a speed of 2.4GHz, it wasn't stable most of the on board features shut themselves off like the sound card etc. with a couple of simple BIOS settings.
But enough of my limited capabilities, this post is for all the geeks in India, its time for you to showcase your over clocking skills. For all of you who do not know what over clocking is, it basically is to push your computer to the extreme by changing frequency and voltages from the default, you push more electricity in to get a higher output.
I am stilling using the Logitech keyboard which I purchased from Amey the founder of The Hardware Labs, that has organized the overclocking competition in India. At that point of time we were both members of Techenclave. After some differences with the administrators ther Amey started his own technology form but catering solely to thoroughbred geeks, THL. I rarely log on to Techenclave anymore either.
“The sole intention of the THL Overclocking Competition 2008 is to promote overclocking in India. Over clocking is still in its infancy in India but as compared to other countries we are far behind,” said Amey.
The THL Overclocking Competition:
The competition is basically for overclockers in India that fall into three major categories.
Cat A
Participants with Intel's Core2Duo and Core2Quad based on the 65nm technology
Cat B
Participants with Intel's Core2Duo and Core2Quad based on the 45nm technology
Cat C
Participants with Intel's Pentium E2xxxx Series CPU's
The Rules of the Overclocking Competition
The competition requires you to have a SuperPi 8M Benchmark
Participants in Cat A need to have a benchmark at a fixed clock speed of 3600MHz while Cat B need to have a benchmark at 4000MHz and Cat C at 3000MHz.
You can sumbit your scores a maximum of 5 times and participate in only one category
The prizes are are pen drives that go all the way up to 4 GB, but I think its more interesting as a fun aspect. Just to inspire you, a journey of two Malaysian over clockers is quite interesting, even for those of you who want to get a glimpse of the over clocking world. Read the complete post...
Optical Illusions are back! Get ready to trick your eyes with some cool illusions that show the difference between visual perception and reality.
Sometimes we need to be told that something is there to be able to see it, and at times, you can spot it at first shot. Can you spot a distinct figure in the image below - A mother and her child are praying in this picture, saw it now. If not, then tilt your head towards the left, and you can see it. I also noticed another boy next to the first one, only his face and hair are visible.
Are you feeling dizzy seeing the next illusion? I love this one, it zooms in and out, one moment it feels like the words are clear. "I can't live my life...understand..." So focus and see the image moving. The next one is a pretty red rose. Illusions are found in nature and its creation, so a closer look and you can see something else hidden in the picture. If you look at the middle of the rose, there is a silhouette dolphin. Isn't it wonderful? A moving circle forming smaller circles around it. Stare at the picture below for a few seconds, and you will start seeing colorful circles rotating and taking different shapes. I really liked this one. A magic trick of the mirror. The man appears really fat, but its just the right placement of the mirror that makes him look that way. The shadow of the pole looks like a palm tree. But if you read the message on the pole it explains the illusion - Nothing can replace a tree. The shadow of the palm tree is painted on the road, to spread the message. Very cleverly done. Drop few lines if you enjoyed this collection, and always look out for illusions in real life, you never know what you may find!
Everyday is Earth Day, If it's cold or wet or hot Pitch in to save the planet It's the only one we've got.
Today is Earth Day, a day intended to spread awareness and appreciate the earth's environment, and fortunately, I stumbled upon something apt and really interesting for the occasion. A humorous, web-based animated show of kids that talks about and tackles several different environmental issues facing the world today. Its a great way to increase awareness on the deteriorating climatic conditions.
The name of the show is, 'Gorilla in the Greenhouse,' it is set in a mystical greenhouse in San Francisco, featuring a visionary green gorilla and four kids who use their imagination, their network and their music to tackle the environmental challenges facing their generation.
I watched the first episode, which is 7 minutes long, where the gang of four kids discover an island of plastic bags in the Pacific Ocean. This is harming the ecology and also the marine life. Disturbed by this, the kids take action to teach the fellow, responsible for this disaster a lesson. They come up with a campaign 'Bag the bag' where they start selling reusable bags in the market, and put that fellow out of business, thereby teaching him a lesson.
It was a sweet episode accompanied with music, which makes it a good way to teach the kids and inspire them to take real-world action on the environment. You can watch the first episode below, which was launched today -
The future episodes are suppose to cover adventures exploring mountaintop removal, sustainable food consumption, global warming, deforestation, and alternative energy.
While going through their site, I also came found that they have created a unique Plastic Bag Lesson Plan that informs children/students about the scope of the worldwide plastic bag problem, and provides them with ways to reduce plastic bag generation and waste.
Thumbs up to them and I hope this contributes towards creating a better environment!
When you hear of Bombay or Mumbai, what is the first thing that comes to your head, traffic, pollution, money perhaps, chai, shiv sena? Mumbai has a huge list of things to offer, but what about spirituality. How can a place like Bombay, with lust, ego and greed churn out someone spiritual or is it easy for someone to be spiritual in the city by giving up these desires with temptation lurking at any corner.
If you know that Gautama Buddha escaped from the chaos to meditate deep inside a forest, most spiritual souls have been know to escape to mountains, hills, forests to sit under trees for years lost in themselves. In the last few years of his teaching Gautama Buddha gave us the Lotus Sutra, after observing how a lotus grows in ponds of filth and radiates its beauty among unclean waters he said one does not need to escape but can be beautiful even in the midst of turmoil.
How is this possible, how can you and I be calm when we are stuck in a traffic jam for hours together, how can we be calm when we are packed like a bunch of sardines in a train compartment? How can one survive in this rat rice, by being humble and true to your inner self? There is a way, so simple and beautiful that can help change the way we interact with each other in a more positive aspect.
Proud to know that Bombay churned out a spiritual leader who after Ramana Maharishi, the founder of transcendental meditation, is the next follower of the philosophy of Advaita.
What is Advaita?
Advaita is the identity of the self and the whole, it is often called the monistic system of thought which consists of three levels of Truth.
The transcendental or the Pāramārthika level in which Brahman is the only reality and nothing else. (Brahman is the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being, and everything beyond in this Universe)
The pragmatic or the Vyāvahārika level in which both Jiva (living creatures or individual souls) and Ishvara (Controller or the Supreme controller, God) are true; here, the material world is completely true.
The apparent or the Prāthibhāsika level in which even material world reality is actually false, like illusion of a snake over a rope or a dream.
About Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Maruti Shivrampant Kambli (Nisargadatta), was introduced to his Guru Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj in 1933, this is Nisargadatta's quotes on the meeting, “When I met my Guru, he told me: "You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your real Self."”
I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made, and how soon! My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound.
I simply followed instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.
So people in the midst of turmoil and chaos, can find themselves in the I am philosophy, Nisargadatta Maharaj has left us with some wonderful sayings from his book, I Am That, “My advice to you is very simple – just remember yourself, ‘I am’, it is enough to heal your mind and take you beyond, just have some trust. I don’t mislead you. Why should I? Do I want anything from you? I wish you well – such is my nature. Why should I mislead you? Common sense too will tell you that to fulfill a desire you must keep your mind on it. If you want to know your true nature, you must have yourself in mind all the time, until the secret of your being stands revealed”
A visit to Delhi is incomplete without seeing the most famous and symbolic monuments of India - The India Gate. This time when I went to Delhi, I got some time to visit this war memorial.
Situated on Rajpath right opposite Rashtrapati Bhavan (the official residence of the President of India), it was built in honour of the 90,000 soldiers who died in various wars. It has a very patriotic feel to it, which makes it worth a visit.
The words inscribed on it, says it all - "To the dead of the Indian armies who fell honoured in France and Flanders Mesopotamia and Persia East Africa Gallipoli and elsewhere in the near and the far-east and in sacred memory also of those whose names are recorded and who fell in India or the north-west frontier and during the Third Afghan war." Earlier it was possible to drive around the gate, but due to terrorist threats, the roads were cordoned off. Now you have to pay entry of Rs 30, park your car at a distance, and walk towards India Gate.
This imposing structure is surrounded by lush green lawns, so you walk on it to take pictures of India Gate. Guarded by two soldiers on both sides, the walls of India Gate has names of soldiers engraved on it. It was simply amazing to read all the names which appear to be written in the same font size from top to bottom. Under the arch of India Gate is Amar Jawan Jyoti, meaning the flame of the immortal warrior, which was placed here in 1971 after the India-Pakistan War by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It was in the memory of the unknown soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the Indo-Pak war. This black marble structure has fire perpetually lit at its four corners.
History of India Gate This magnificent gate was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, who is also credited of designing the layout plan of New Delhi. The whole structure is built from sandstone and is 42m in height. The foundation stone for India Gate was laid in 1921 by the Duke of Connaught and it was completed in 1931. India Gate holds great significance in our history. It also resembles the war memorial - Arc de Triomphe of Paris - to some extent.
Enough of the history, let's talk about the lighter side. India Gate has become like a picnic spot, as I was told by a friend, with families and children coming there to relax and play. There are hawkers selling icecreams, peanuts and masala papad (a popular crispy bread in India). A small boat club close by makes this a good outing place for weekends.Read the complete post...
War causes trauma, not just to the millions of families affected by it, as you know its not just military units that bear the brunt but thousands of civilians as well. But the truth of war casts its evil shadow over the partakers who survive.
The darkness of war traumas, scientifically known as Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to one or more terrifying events in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. It is a severe and ongoing emotional reaction to an extreme psychological trauma.
If your first reaction is we are not brainwashed then explain why you do not know that the modern understanding of PTSD is largely as a result of the problems that were experienced by Vietnam veterans. America has to brainwash their soldiers to think they are peace keepers while the war is fought for oil and innocent people are dying.
In all honesty do you think that you will not suffer when you partake in Blood Shed, if you understand that all of us have a God, then who are you or me to judge another person or take the life of another ,when we come from the same father.
When you go to war your brain gets smaller and I am not kidding. Combat veterans of the Vietnam war with PTSD showed an 8% reduction in the volume of their hippocampus in comparison with veterans who suffered no such symptoms. While soldiers returning from the Gulf war have a 5% reduction in brain size. The Hippo campus plays a major role in long term memory and spatial navigation.
Symptoms of PSTD include re-experiencing of the traumatic event through intrusive thoughts and recollections, dissociative (flashback) episodes, avoidance of stimuli associated with the event, numbing or generalized diminished responsiveness to the external world, sleep disturbances, and increased hyper vigilance, startle responses and angry outbursts.
This particular song which John Lennon wrote for Maharishi was playing in my head "Oh what have you done, you made a fool of everyone....However big you think you are Sexy Samy oooh you'll get yours yet." Read the complete post...
A festival to fight AIDS and raise money for HIV research, it also draws couples looking for good fertility luck, a large gay/lesbian crowd and people who worship the Phallus. A group of men carrying on their shoulders a large, pink phallus and it bobs up and down to their rhythmic chants.
Sounds bizarre and interesting at the same time, well, that's the Japanese fertility festival for you. Also known as the Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Steel Phallus), it takes place at the Kanamara shrine in Kawasaki in beginning of April every year. There is no shame in holding a festival about sex even at religious venues.
I was stunned when I read about this, and thought of writing a quick post on this unique festival. As the name suggests, the male reproductive organ forms the central theme of the event that's reflected everywhere; from illustrations, candies, carved vegetables to decorations etc.
How it all Started?
It started way back during Japan's Edo period (1603-1867) when Kawasaki prostitutes use to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases (especially against syphilis) and also prosperity in their business. When Japan's famous flowers bloom during spring, they would carry an image of the phallus around the streets.
With the spread of syphilis now curbed, the festival has evolved into generating money for HIV research, of course, with the fun factor as well.
Watch the video below which will give you an idea of the fun factor of this festival.
There are transvestites parading through the streets carrying a mikoshi (portable shrine) with a humongous pink phallus on top. Age no bar, you will find, grandmas nibbling on carnal candy and replicas of sweetmeat of this stupendous phallus (seen in the above video). Locals also carve penises out of radish, which are auctioned in the Kanamara shrine. Children and young women sit on penis-shaped seesaws for good luck and fertility blessings. In the shrine, there is also a neat display of penises carved from wood, paintings of traditionally-clad Japanese engaged in copulation.
This shows the Japanese religions and culture have not left out sexuality just like Shaivism in India. While Kanamara Matsuri makes an interesting festival. In India the Phallus is worshipped on a much lower scale and is know as the Lingam. Its occurence is present by the Shiva Linga, the symbol of Lord Shiva.
The Olympic torch has been carried across 12 countries so far, and in most of them it has drawn massive protest in support of the suffering Tibetans. On this blog, we have extensively covered the atrocites of China and the plight of the Tibetans, and we will continue to until it has been resolved.
In less than 24 hours the torch relay is going take place in New Delhi, and any guesses on the kind of security that has been arranged for the 2.5km relay.
Over 15,000 policemen are going to be present at the relay taking place from Rajpath to India Gate, there will be Indian army's elite "black cat" commando unit, and helicopters hovering above the runners, this means that the security arrangements are even tighter than India's Republic Day.
A heavily guarded leg, to protect who? Rather enforce such security to protect the Tibetans, who were killed by the Chinese. To add to that, there will be 20 Chinese guards accompanying the flame, irking Indians still smarting from memories of a brief border war with China four decades ago. Traffic will be cut off to the centre and metros will also be shut down to prevent Tibetan protesters from disrupting the run. Really massive security for the run.
What an ironical situation, the Olympic torch is suppose to be a symbol of unity, but the reality is something else. To prevent any so-called disruption by the Tibetans, even the time of the torch relay has been withheld. The Tibetans are fighting for their rights, and what they deserve, their land to be theirs once more. They have united from different parts around the world and urging us to unite for their rights as well.
I am the God Father to my sister's baby girl who has been named Keisha, recently I was asked to give a little introduction at a party held on her behalf. So this is what it is. The video for you if you would like to read the entire speech its below.
"Hello everyone and a hearty welcome to celebrate the joy of Keisha in our lives.
Let me start from the beginning, for those of you who do not know about the relationship that Keisha and I share. When she had no name and only existed as a lump of being in Karen's womb, that's the start of where my story begins.
I usually like to have a part of my day which I spend in transcendental meditation, induced my rhythmic beats of music and dance motions. Karen was sitting on the sofa and I was travelling in my head, to the music, lost inside to be woken up by Karen, who seemed to be very excited. The reason for her excitement was the lump in her stomach moving and floating, was it to the rhythm of the music, was it to the vibrations that I was emitting, I do not know.
I was amazed, it was like an embossment moving around in a rhythm, then she said touch Clyde, there was a moment where I was wondering if she couldn't realize that the babies motions were so prominent that I did not need to touch her tummy to feel them. But as I reached out to touch, before I could connect my hand to her stomach a tiny hand pushed through the tense surface in a form of a hand pushing through the underside of a bed sheet. To reach out and touch mine, the connection that induced an exchange of energies never experienced by me till date got me stumped.
I was sitting on the floor left to think how a life that supposedly would know nothing about living, would do and understand more than you and I perceive of this reality. From that day Keisha and I have had this bond, where we can be masters and puppets of each others attention to brings a smile on our faces.
Ashley and Karen, I do hope you learn as much from your child as you would like her to learn from this life. Over the years society, so called education will consume and condition her mind until she is just another part of a well oiled machine. With barriers built around her of race, colour and creed. I do hope before that happens she can open a new door to a world of cosmic consciousness for all of us, just how she touched me.
Each one of us has the power within our selves no matter how young or how old, to spread joy in each others lives, its the choices we make that make us who we are and what we do. Hope Keisha too keeps learning and growing, not in terms of education or monetary aspects, but in terms of understanding the joys of being born as a human. Ahimsa."Read the complete post...
From being number two country responsible for emitting greenhouse gases, its become the world's biggest carbon emitter, going past the US, says a soon-to-be-published report. Apparently the amount of greenhouse gas being produced by China wasn't estimated properly in 2006-07, and it's making much more than thought.
Until now its been believed that US is the 'Number 1 Polluter,' but China's increasing pollution is making things worse. The Chinese insist that rich countries with high per capita levels of pollution must cut emissions first, and help poorer nations to invest in new and clean technology. But America's per capita emissions are five to six times higher than China's, even though China has become the top manufacturing hub. US emissions are still growing too, though much more slowly.
It will be interesting to see the findings of the new report. As per the old data, US total emissions (1000 tons of C) were 1,650,020, while China was 1,366,554, followed by Russia 415,951 and India emitting 366,301 tonnes of carbon.
Find out in real time CO2 emissions in countries around the world on Breathing Earth
Google's photo management and web album provider Picasa has launched a new instant messenger called "Hello" which has been built around enabling instant photo sharing.
Bhavika and I have a need to exchange photographs while updating the blog sometimes. Now there is a twist to Hello, which shall be explained as we move along with the post but first lets take a look at Hello.
Hello is a simple 1.95MB application that can be downloaded from here. What Hello esentially does to enable a super fast photo sharing experience is it uploads the image and stores it on the server.
It then sends the user an optimized version of the image, for example to test the application I sent Bhavika a 2.8MB picture of 2816 x 2112 resolution, what she received is a 51KB 640 x 480 image, almost instantly.
But that's not the point what if the person wants the original, then you can go to the inbuilt download manager and choose to download the original file. Why did Google not integrate the same with Google Talk, I assume that they did not want it to get any heavier, I currently use Google Talk because its a nice lite application as well as a messenger like this will do well in the niche its targeting.
For Picasa users its even better as as soon as you send a picture it appears in your Picasa Album. For Bhavika and me this service can help reduce our workload, all we needs to do is send each other photographs we take and we would get low res versions for the blog. But I am not too comfortable with all my High Res images freely accessible on Picasa.
As compared to Google Talk this application Hello has a feature called introduce friends, where you can get two people to meet each other, something like a group chat. Hello has been built for file sharing, I wonder if you rename your MP3's to jpeg's what the outcome would be of the file transfer.Read the complete post...
It was a kind of protest that Mahatma Gandhi would have advocated. Peaceful protest and candlelight vigil for Tibet at the Gateway of India on April 10th. With full enthusiasm to support the Tibetans I along with a friend went there. When we reached, no sign of a candlelight vigil, no one was there.
I went and approached a policeman standing close by to know what was happening, he informed me that the protest was canceled because the organisers didn't get permission. All sorts of shows take place outside Gateway of India, some irrelevant ones too, and for a cause like this, permission was denied. How ridiculous is that?
The policeman further tells me that he was asked to come there to stop people from protesting, I shook my head in disappointment and left. In a democratic country like India, can't we have the right to support the plight of the Tibetans? Gandhi's own country is ignoring his message and ideology.
Interpreting the Beijing Olympics logo
The Beijing logo on the right, has the red China color, and a simple design. But there has been a chain mail going around with images of how the logo was created. We found a video of the same to show you, based on the barbaric acts of the Chinese.
Its an apt depiction of the current situation.
To give you an idea here is some photographic evidence of the bloody crackdown on peaceful protesting Tibetan at Ngaba County, Sichuan Province. The images are gory and extremely disturbing, viewer discretion is advised.
Beijing 2008 similar to Berlin 1936
To allow the Olympics to go ahead shows how the world can bend in front of China, in spite of knowing its human rights record. Just how in 1936 when the Olympics were held in Berlin under the dictatorship of Hitler and the world didn't say a word.
The games went on, and showed that the world has accepted Germany as a global player, and what followed was a genocide - Holocaust. Its hard not to draw parallels between Berlin Olympics and Beijing Olympics. China, a totalitarian country trying to wipe out Tibetan culture.
How can people be ignorant to that? How can they overlook what China is trying to do? The world needs to get together and put an end to this and save innocent people from getting murdered.
How could I have not put this as the first enlightening video on this blog. This documentary is responsible for the creation of fractal enlightenment and our fractal awakening!
Exercising the Mind and Body with Pois | Painting with Light | Intriguing Underwater Sculptures | The Changing Face of Kala Ghoda Arts Festival | Consumerism in America through Art | Living Photography of Arthur Mole | Making an Artpiece out of Old Books | Peter Gibson's Street Art for Pedestrians | An Artist who can Make People Invisible | The Art of Carving Eggshells | Ron Mueck: The Hyper Realist Sculptor | Mandala: The Sacred Art of Tibetan Buddhists | Kris Kuksi's Antic Art | You Are What You Read | Artist Uses Hubcaps to Make Sculptures | Guido Daniele: The Body Artist | /a>
Does the Ban on Plastic Work in India? | Gharats, Cheap Sustainable Energy in India | Striped Icebergs and the Meltdown | The Effect of Nature on the Human Mind | Green Travel Tips for a Clean Earth | 'Doomsday Vault' in Norway to Protect Seeds | Religious Places Go Green | Solar Power Dependable Energy for India | Super Fast Electric Vehicles | Compelling Ads on Environment Issues | A World Without Humans | Craig Calfee's Bamboo Bicycle | Are We Not Nature? | Global Warming and No Dimming! |
India
Lives of Tibetans in-exile | Gulabi Gang Upholding Women's Rights | Kashmir, where are you Now? : Part 1 | Kashmir, where are you Now? : Part 2 | Indian Widows – A Sad State of Affairs | India to get a New National Animal? | The Ugly Side of the Indian Army | Getting Married, is it Arranged? | Gharats, Cheap Sustainable Energy in India | Tata and Reliance Plundering the Country | India Ranks High on Hunger Scale | Save the Tiger: India's Symbol of Wilderness | Opium Financed British Occupation in India | Conscious Organic Food in India | Mumbai's First Gay Parade | Indian Relief Fund Money Goes Missing | India: Unfriendly to the Disabled | Tata's Port to Obliterate Endangered Turtles | India's Horrific Uranium Nightmare |
Issues
Odd Stuff
India gets it own Jaws Goonch | Oliver, the Legendary Humanzee | Sleepwalking in not Living Dream | World Oldest Mother is 70 years Old | World's Youngest Mother was at the Age of 5 | Most Bizarre Diseases | Most Bizarre Experiments Ever | How Far would you go for Money | In Bolivia Prisoners can Rent Cell | Odd Things that Trucks Spill |
People
David Icke, Who and What? | Terrence Mckenna, the Shaman | Nick Vujicic, No Limbs No Cry | Stephen Wiltshire, The Human Camera | Works of Dr Alesha Sivartha | Scott Adams, The Creator of Dilbert | Mind of a Schizophrenic | Louis Braille brought Light into Darkness | Larry Carlson's Wonderful World | Julian Beever, The Pavement Picasso | Sir Edmund joins Tenzing at Rest | Alexis Kriel Food and Consciousness | Dancing to Didjeridoo with DaveJ | Andre Beer, The Guzzling Giant Wrestler | Bill Gates Money cant Buy me Love | Alex Grey beyond Art |
Spirituality
Osho the Controversial Spiritual Guru | Peyotism and Native American Spirituality | Being Spiritual in Bombay and in Chaos | How Our Thoughts Affect Water and Us! | Did Maharishi Yogi Save the Beatles? | Living and Participating in the Conscious Universe | Is There More to Coincidence? | Positive Effect of Prayers Before Meals | Buddha Stories and Lessons | Human Life Interpreted by Buddhism | Bending Time and Space with Shamanism | The Effect of Meditation on Crime | Buddha Boy and his Divine Powers | The Tibetan Singing Bowl |
The discoverer and creator of the substance LSD-25, the most powerful mind altering chemical known to man, died yesterday of a heart attack at a ripe old age of 102 years. I am saddened and overjoyed at the same time for his deeply influential existence on earth that has changed thousands of lives.
Three days later, on April 19, 1943, he decided to verify his results by intentionally ingesting 250 ug of LSD. This day has become known as "Bicycle Day" as Hofmann experienced an incredible bicycle ride on his way home from the lab.
