Euthanasia

Million Dollar Baby, The Oscar winning flick by Clint Eastwood is taking in a lot of flak from Right wing moral brigade for supporting the mercy killing, euthanasia. Moral brigade hates taking life and they consider life to be the Gift of God and one doesn't have the right to take it.

They use the same logic to oppose abortions and stem cell research. Is Mercy killing so bad? Imagine that you are in severe pain and the pain need to be drenched in barrel full of pain killers and there is no hope for you to be cured fully. What would you prefer to do? Live this life full of misery or end this misery with dignity?

If I were ever to be in the above situation, I would prefer to die. Then comes the moral question who decides the time to die? Can a doctor decide whether I could live or not? Is it only me and myself who can decide to end my life? If yes, then is committing suicide ethical? Lots of ethical questions come up when the matter is of life and Death and the religion is not far behind.

There is an interesting legal battle going on in Florida. This is the case of Terry Schiavo, she has been in vegetative state on a hospital bed for over fifteen years. Her husband wants to end this misery for her and her parents wants her to keep alive. Florida Court has ordered the food pipe to be removed but Jeb Bush, a conservative Christian, governor of Florida and brother of president Bush stepped in and stopped the food pipe removal.



Why do these Christians who love life so much do cheer for war? Aren't Afghanistan's babies not children of God? Aren't Iraqi girls sleeping in their houses reduced to rubble when Daisy cutters dropped on them, dear to God? Is this typical my God is better than your God argument? Whenever there is religion there is hypocrisy.

What do I think? I am for euthanasia. If the medical opinion says that there is no way Terri or any other would recover and would continue to suffer terrible pain, if the family wants, they should be allowed to let her go.

What if she doesn't want to die and couldn't speak? I don't know. I guess no one knows the answer. The answer is to make a will and state explicitly what your intenstions are. My will would state "Even if there is any doubt that I wouldnt recover from the coma, take my feeding tube off and put the Beer tube in".

First Impressions!

Yesterday my friend was talking about first impressions in the toastmaster meeting I go to every week. His whole argument was the First Impressions are very important and we should be careful on making a good first impression.

Why should the first impression matter? Can you judge everyone by their smile on their face and the ten dollar el-cheapo wall mart T shirt? No, but this is what every one does in the world. Judging and making first impressions. They say that first impressions are hard to wipe off!

I was always on the receiving end of these negative first impressions. The first thing that comes to beholders mind on seeing me is that I am thug teleported from the streets of Nellore. They think that I am an uneducated, uncouth idiot. I have to work my ass off to wipe that wrong impression.

First Impression have a very strong evolutionary origins. Why do you think peacocks have this huge ornate tail? If I were peacock running away from a predator I would wish I didn't have that huge tail impairing my run for my life. Peacocks figured that by having a beautiful tail they stood a chance of finding mate rather than having none. Peahen's on the other hand could judge whether this potential mate is healthy or not by looking at the peacock's tail.




So we being evolved from peacocks started judging each other not only by how beautiful tails we had but how we behave, the twitch in face muscles when we smile, the twinkle in the eye and the breathing speed. Nothing escapes from the beholder's scrutiny. We gauge the person and place in him our respect totempole.

My dear rebels, there is no hope , evolution conspired against us. If you want a mate, a career, a car and a home in Suburbia, make good impressions. Buy decent clothes and use a decent deodorant.

Celebrity Fascination!

Why are we mere mortal humans so enamored by the rich and famous? Why are the TV shows about these celebrities most watched? And why do we care so much about them?

I was asking myself these questions this morning as I was reading the TIME magazines article on Prince Charles and his concubine Camilla Parkers's engagement and the impending wedding. On Feb 14th when Windsor Palace announced this, there was no news except this news. How would I care if a snobbish, stiff upper lip, 'I am a royal your a mortal' , philandering prince weds a nymph whose claim of fame is 'my great grandmother was your great grand father's mistress'. I am not joking, this is how she introduced herself to Prince Charles 34 years ago.


Prince Charles with Camilla


Remember the Diana obsessesion we collectively endured a decade ago? She was followed everywhere she went, her every activity was reported for example when did she take a shower and for how long? And what brand of cereal she served. Such a worthy information I dares say. She paid the ultimate price for this status, she got killed while trying to get away from the paperazzi.

The million dollar question right now is, why is this society so hungry for celebrity news?

• Is this because our lives so empty and dry, so that we need some spice, even if it is from someone else's backyard?
• Is it because we need to know how these people are so rich and famous, so that if we follow these people's daily routine we some how become celebrities?
• Or to make ourselves fell better by reading about Jennifer Lopez vapid love life?

All the three reasons seems to very plausible to me at least. May be sociologists have a better researched and more scientific reasons. For me the first reason sounds more interesting than the other two. This is the reason why we watch soap operas, read novels and the natural extension to these activities is our curiosity on how does others dirty laundry smell.

There is this new show on ABC called "Desperate Housewives", which is a very big hit. This soap follows the lives of five suburban housewives. The name leaves nothing to imagination about the content of the show. This show had more ratings than the Grammy awards ceremony and ABC is preemting this show for the Academy Awards ceremony this Sunday.

Well I guess, this celebrity infatuation has a brighter side. It decreases the depression rate and suicide rate. I would rather watch Michael Jackson court trail rather than spending time on answering my collection agency's phone calls! What else are celebrities for?

NASA disputes 'Indian test topper' story: "NASA disputes 'Indian test topper' story"

Ah! A typical Indian feel good story. A 15 year old boy from UP claimed that he topped the 'NASA" exam in India. Everyone went gaga over it and he was felicitated and promised lot of scholarship. Rediff an online news paper went to NASA to get more info on this story and the bubble as they say burst.

I am not really sure whether the parents were involved too, but my guess is negative, they were not. This kid must have made this up to score few brownie points with his teachers who must be harassing him over the math homework due a week ago, ala Bart Simpson.

We Indians really thirst for feel good stories lapped it up and even international media carried it. Only in India kind of story. No one checks facts, no one checks its veracity, they print as it comes out of horse's mouth. I have almost a similar tale to tell.

While I was at Andhra Loyola College in Vijayawada, we had this non-discript MA student studying social work. A stream with no future by itself. He was just an other PG student no one noticed him and there bunch of over achievers around him.

One day the Principal of the college got a fax that this student has won the 'State wide Nutritional Quiz'. The whole college was gaga over him. We were told that he vanquished the dieticians and doctors with his knowledge of proteins and vitamins. We all started venerating him. He was supposed to go to the national level quiz. He was staying at our hostel and he was given special permission to go and come as he pleases, we mere mortals were punished if we were 5 minutes late to be back to our room from the washroom.

Then an other fax came that he has won the National Level quiz. He was given a hero's reception all over the college. All the local newspapers carried his interview and social clubs in Vijayawada and around vied over each other to felicitate him. In a month or so an other fax came, that he would be representing India in the International Nutritional quiz. He was moved out from the hostel and was given a furnished apartment in the campus.

I even interviewed him for the campus newspaper. He had an air of celebrity around him, girls would swoon over him. He treated as mere mortals but he somehow liked me. I was in trouble with my ward and he talked to him on my behalf and I was excused.

Then cam the most awaited fax again and believe it or not, this dude was the world champion in nutritional matters. He bet all the MDs from all over the world, from USA, UK, Singapore and France and many more countries. That's it our principal knew no bounds, we had a whole day holiday, there was a big feast in the Hostel. Then the summer vacation came and I left for my home.

As soon as I came back, My warden was so serious that he made the rules so strict that , even Nazis would have sympathized with us and freed us. No one knew the reason, one day the local newspaper carried a front page article on this dude detailing how he fooled each and everyone and there was no such quiz at all in the first place. The paper even speculated whether the college was involved with this! That's it our college which prided on its reputation went on a big publicity blitz , filed a police complaint on this dude and made lot of noises about this whole affair.

No one knows what happened to this guy! I was amazed at the length he went to fake it, the international faxes, the names of the contestants and all other minute details.

This 15 year old kid is keeping the long line of con men in India alive and we gullible folks keep dancing to their tunes!

Russian woman gives birth to Cyclops child - PRAVDA.Ru



The photo of this strange baby preserved in Formalin

Freedom of Speech!

Has anyone of you ever threatened by speaking your mind? It happened a lot with me, in my school and college, both which were strict missionary run schools. Where do we draw a line with freedom of speech? What is taking truth and what is pure slander? It all depends on which side of the table you are sitting or standing.

My friends and myself were punished just because we showed up to the class with clothes full of 'Holi' colors on the Holi day. For us it was freedom of expression but for our college principal its was against the discipline of the college and 'polluting' other students brains.

China is pretty bad when comes to giving its citizens their freedoms. The internet is heavily regulated and monitored. Imagine the amount of wo/man hours go into filtering the content, keeping tab on the offenders and ensuing strain on the whole machinery. There should be something which the Chinese communists are afraid against, is it Truth? If I am afraid of truth, I must be doing something really wrong and I would go back and give it a good think rather suppress it. Chinese are smart folks, hopefully something will happen soon.

Iran is another notorious example. They have recently killed a Canadian photographer who was taking photographs of some of the sensitive areas. She was tortured and killed by Iranian secret police. Recently Iranians have imprisoned Mojtaba and Arash, bloggers, who were writing blogs about Iran and its politics. Their crime? Speaking truth, its like my principal who didn't want our color laden faces and clothes to influence other students to 'play Holi'. The Iranian Mullahs didn't want these 'impure thoughts' to contaminate other Iranians.

Today is the "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day" and we denizens of Blogosphere are showing solidarity with our brothers.



We people living democracies take our fundamental freedoms for granted. Imagine me getting arrested for writing a blog, protesting on streets. I sure wouldn't like battle tanks firing at me but, Will I stand before one to defend my and my fellow country men? Yes sir I would. Would I like getting tortured? No? Would I mind getting tortured by those cute Female GI's in mini skirts and Tight T-Shirts? who woudnt?
A coloumn on US torture techniques in Gitmo.

What’s so evil about evil?

George ‘Dubya’ Bush went on TV and says that ‘God has given me the authority to vanquish evil and I will bomb them to Stone Age”.Saddam went on TV and said that “the evil American empire will be punished severely”

What’s this evil? Someone is pure evil according to someone else.

Am I evil? My girl friend thinks so…How should this evil be then? Do it I need to have horns? Do I need to have a tail? What does this mean? Creatures with tails and horns are evil? What is the definition of evil? So what’s not good evil then? Then what is good? What’s not evil is good. Now we are going in circles trying to catch our own tails!!

So according to His Royal Highness Bush (I had to make him a King! Well, he is so righteous and full of conviction), whoever opposes him is evil. UN is evil, France is evil too. Now every French citizen has two more horns and a tail to care for! I pity the French; they are going thru such a hard time. the French fries are renamed as freedom fries. Does that means are fries free from now on?

So Lord Bush, we haven’t had the definition of evil. “Simple” He would smirk and say, “what’s not republican is evil.” Well that makes at least 50% of America and rest of the world evil.

Why Is this incantation of evil starts whenever Americans/westerns face an enemy? Is this because they are deeply religious? Or is it because their public could only relate to this kind of talk? What’s this evil again? I am trying to come up with an acceptable definition a person/thing (its hard to define is it?) is it the one which acts against the progress of a society? Say against collective good?

I think the concept of collective good is dangerous. According to this logic anyone is different becomes dangerous; someone with different view points becomes dangerous and thus evil. It was only couple of centuries ago women who had a different lifestyle were branded as witches and evil and were burned at stake. Does mean that being different is evil? Now the homosexuals are being discriminated against, when will we learn?

I logic behind all this ‘evil business’ is to fight evil we need God. Therefore whenever some one says that he is fighting evil does it mean that mean he is God? Or atleast he has been god sanctioned by god? Bringing god and invoking his name in day to day affairs according to me is not very efficient governance.

This is how people were ruled in dark ages, by invoking the name of god for subjugation. Are we any better? We are living in the age of knowledge. We have uncountable bloody wars and history written in blood to remind us that fighting in the name of God is not a very good idea. God and evil belong in ones personal life. God is a commodity which needs no marketing and people have insatiable hunger for anything God, if have anything hard to sell, sell it in the name of God.

Until we have the public which demands more governance and less moral lessons we will be continued with this drivel. The next time you switch on TV and hear the word evil, please think, do we really need these false Gods fighting false evils in these false battles so that we could enjoy our false freedoms?

Nellore 13 Km

" Duhd Duhd ..." My Hero Honda went dead. "what the @#$%" I muttered into my breath. The mile stone said “Nellore 13 Km”. “I cant push it for 13 kms” I said to my self. I parked my bike by the side of the road. I looked at the road. There was no one around, not even a bat (could have said an ant but this being a spooky story...). I saw a big bungalow a few hundred feet away from the road, to my left in ruins. As if time has forgotten in about it and with that people too. Strangely, as I was looking at it, I felt that I knew this house very well and had this strong urge of going inside.

I looked at my watch it was exactly 1'o clock on a very hot Nellore afternoon. All I could see were mirages on the Road. I took of my goggles and looked around, nothing but thorny bushes. "Creek creek" The crickets made a hell lot of noise. “It Must be a "Creek Concert” I giggled.

I checked the level of gas in my bike tank. It was half empty ( you guessed right...I am a pessimist). I gave it hard kick again it doesn’t start. I used the time tested Desi technique that is to slant it and then kick it start. “dhud..dhud..” again but no sign of life in the engine.

I looked at my watch again. "Shit its 1:30pm, My father will be back,I am so dead" I thought. It’s an other issue that I used to steal my father’s bike and take it out to my friend’s farm so that we can drink cool toddy on hot summer afternoons.

Then I saw her. She was walking in the middle of the road. It was like as if she was walking on the water as I could see her reflection in the mirage on the road.

She was dressed a bit strange for a village woman. She was wearing a pattu (silk) saree and was wearing lot of golden jewellery which were shining in the bright sunshine. She was dressed up like a bride. The Creek Creek sounds of crickets was increasing every second... She was walking very slowly, as if she was contemplating something.

She must be 50 feet from me...”what is a bride doing here on the middle of a deserted road? I thought. “Hello” I shouted at her. The cricket’s creek sound was so deafening by now that I could hardly hear myself. It was like as if I am being surrounded by an army of crickets. I was terrified by now. I looked at her. She was much closer to me now. I could see her face now. It was glowing brightly and she was exceptionally beautiful.

“I never saw such a majestic woman” I said to myself. She was looking straight into my eyes and she flashed a smile at me. Suddenly a cold frigid wind blew and I started shivering even at those mid afternoon summer temperatures. It was as if some cold hands are playing with me. I couldn’t stop shivering and my legs felt really week.

Then suddenly I heard a farm tractor coming from behind. Suddenly She stopped walking towards me and her look changed from a pleasant to plain terror. Those looks were so cold that they pierced me, as if “Will you get you soon”. She then melted into thin air and disappeared.

By then, the tractor came near me stopped and the driver asked me “what’s the problem saar?” I said “My bike wouldn’t start, let me try again” and I kicked it again. My Honda started without any issue at all. I was so dazed by this strange encounter couldn’t understand anything. In that daze I drove off without even saying a word to the driver of the tractor.

Fast-forward three years. Last summer I again stole my father bike and took it to the farm house. I was returning back to Nellore and it was 7 pm and it just getting dark. My engine died. I got of my bike and looked at the mile stone it said “Nellore 13 Km”. I instantly looked towards my left and there was that house standing! “Creek…Creek” I heard those crickets again.

Mind, Heart, Soul and Brain....

My friend sent me a quote "The Mind knows nothing, and can speak,
the heart knows everything but cannot speak."
Which I honestly thought was lame. May be I am poetically challenged. Someone told me yesterday on my rant on Valentine’s Day that rational thinking is always no good, and we should leave something as unknowns 'cause we like some mystery with our mayonnaise in our sandwiches.
Me being myself couldn’t resist thinking logically about the above quotation. For this quotaion to be valid there should be some difference between heart and mind. So lets dig into those definitions.
Heart
She obviously didn’t mean the muscular organ which regulates the blood supply around the body, but she meant what Wikipedia describes as "in the Bible, and in much later literature, the heart is used as a metaphor to refer to the moral core of a human being including the intellect and not just the emotions." So the moral core knows everything but cannot speak! Isn’t moral core equivalent to one’s conscience? Isn’t conscience your guide? How can it guide if it can’t speak to you?
Mind
Again Wikipedia says "The mind is the term most commonly used to describe the higher functions of the human brain, particularly those of which humans are subjectively conscious, such as personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. Although other species of animals share some of these mental capacities, the term is usually used only in relation to humans.” Ironically she says that mind knows nothing, in fact it knows everything and 'speaks' to you too...

When we are at it let me talk about Brain and Soul too...
Brain
Brain is the central processing unit (CPU) and controls all the basic and advanced funtions of the body. If brain 'dies' the 'body' dies immediately or pretty soon too. Brain is more a biological definition and mind is more philosophical definition. For me both definitions are interchangeable. Is a brainless person a mindless person too? If you have a high IQ, you must have an active brain, and on the other hand if you have a high EQ (Emotional Quotient) you have a good mind.
Soul
Soul is typically a religious concept. It is your inner self, which can’t be destroyed, part of ‘God’, which defines the essence of life. I don’t believe in any soul at all.

In one sense all these four concepts can be interchanged and can be used as you please. One rule of thumb is when these words, especially mind and soul appear in one sentence; the sentence can usually be ignored and would as a rule contains "feel good" bull.

On Valentine's Day

Do we really need a day to express our love? Do we need a big corporation to remind us to kiss our significant other ? Is our society so marketed that we need a day for love?
I know it has become a ritual for intellectuals to bash up Valentine's day on every 14th of Feb, so I wouldn't criticize the stupidity of this day but the state of our society. Even yours truly was swept up by this tide of Valentines day. I remember buying crap for this girl who never even smelled those flowers. Such a waste of time and feelings, no sir, I am not bitter.
When you are in love, the dark sky looks blue, the rotten flowers smell sweet, and the stagnant time flows. This what the big corporations want you to feel! Love makes you to do stupid stuff, and makes you buy ridiculous things.
Why are flowers so expensive today ? Why do restaurants and bars become almost impossible to get into? Why? Does it mean that can you buy love with money? May be that they are selling love in Aisle 3 of your local Hallmark today, haven't been shopping there lately, so I don't know.
I have an honest question, Do women really want men to spend money on them on Valentines day? I know couple of girls really well and one of them is my sister whom I grew up with for atleast 20 years. She will hate when anyone spends money for the sake of such a frivolous matter like Valentines day. With this small test sample, I would dare conclude that only very shallow people (see I didn't say girls) fall for this trick of marketing. Anyone with a mind of their own would see through this day's foolish logic ( I like this phrase, foolish logic).
Having said thus, I have a beef with Indian way of expressing love, we never do it. In fact there is a taboo on showing affection, my dad and mom never showed their affection by words or deeds. Just toiled away their life for a better life for me and my sister. That's their way of showing love. I know its shallow to keep on expressing ones love at every possible moment, but once in a while a vocal expression would cool down frayed nerves.
There is famous couplet in Urdu, roughly translated it says "The love is not expressed in the language of words but spoken in the language of eyes".
Love today, Love tomorrow and Love eternal. Peace.