Links for this week

An interesting week and some interesting links

TERI: The Energy research Institute is an organization located in Bangalore which helps people understand and use Renewable Energy Sources.

ProgrammableWeb : A nice site to see the mashups that are being created, also a nice place to search for API’s

TechCrunch : A blog which gives the latest happenings on the technological front.

Most Anticipated Betas : A different kind of site with the listing of the best betas in the web 2.0 world.

7/11 or 11/7?

Confusion prevails again. The recent Mumbai blast has created more confusion than when the actual blast took place. What a shame to see that we are not consistent on stating the date of this incident. Is it 7/11 or 11/7? By Indian method of writing the date we write it as DD/MM/YYYY format. Hence the correct format would be 11/7(The Week magazine has reported this correctly). However the great dudes of CNN IBN, who claim to have reported this incident first call this as 7/11, probably to keep their parent company happy. I wonder now how the common man has reacted to this?

I guess as usual, “chalta hai” has come into the picture as nobody has bothered to point it out to our american channel counterparts.

The americans too are happy to compare it as 7/11 and 9/11, untole number of numerologists have come up with their thesis related data on the effects of 11 and it counterparts(i.e the rest 30 days), and a variable called month.

Well anyway, the data is fixed into the minds, if we are writing checks with a certain date and try to think the Mumbai Blast days say about 5 years hence today, we would remember it happened during the rains, if we are working in a software company/BPO and think about the date, we would it remember it as a blast probably during Diwali time.

So you decide what you want to keep.

Links for the week

I thought I’d put up links every friday/weekend, of the week gone by and interesting links I’ve visited. So here goes

Bullfighter : An application for Word and Powerpoint of the number of bull(sorry jargon) words used.

Dendelife : An idea from Ross Mayfield, on keeping track of your life(biography) and the related entities, i.e.. people photos etc..

Mukta Foundation : A local group(Bangalore), which believes in brniging about change to socite in a holistic way rather than focus on individual needs

Life Hack : A site I love to visit everyday, it means what it says, hacks the day today things in your life.

Bangalore Night Life : For those party animals, whojust cannot stop
More to come in the coming weeks, keep this space watched.

Mumbai Blasts

Seven blasts have ripped through local trains in Mumbai on the western front of Mumbai. These trains carry thousands of passengers at peak hors.

Attachment,Non-Attachment Detachment

Am back with some more thoughts from “Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”.

This time we discuss attachment,non-attachment and detachment

Most of us think the latter two mean the same. Well let us start by understanding the  term attachment.

When we are keen, desirous, interested in something/somebody, it can be called as attachment. Exact definition as Patanjali states is “It is the bonding between man and matter”. So you want to do something eh? The first step is to be attached. I know this is surprising, contradictory to all the gurus. Well if you are not attached, how can you even start of something, if everything becomes aloof to you, then nothing interests you. So Patanjali, states, starting of with attachment is good.

Once you are attached, next comes the toughest part, to execute your idea,(I’m talking more in terms of a work life here, but this can defnitely be extended to personal life, to be a better friend, a father, son….) To execute your idea, you need to be in a  state of non-attachment. Defining non-attachment islike walking on a thin line. Non-Attachment is when one is not bound to the duties and at the same time, not shrugging away from duties. This is a state, where one must not realise not to look at the fruit, even before the hard work is done, and at the same time, not to miss the focal point of the task, one sets out to do.

The next stage is when you have reached the goal, think, have you really reached the goal, or is there more to do. Well atleast as long as desire is there with humans, there is defnitely, a stage still to go. It is a never ending process, so basically one reaches attachement again. So where does detachment come in? Well detachment is a stage of realising that what is there is not enough, not attaching emotions to the outcome of the task, not expecting anything, NO EMOTIONS!!!!, whoa that is tough, even mature people breakdown on losing, WHY??? The only reason is fear, pride….(lots more). Well detachment is when all these base passions are kept aside(not gone), mind you, just kept aside, it is human to undergo these emotions, but realising them and keeping them aside is more important. The process of realisation of these base feelings(fear, pride,ego), is all associated, with the concience.

Concience is a combination of the self(I), the mind(the non-physical entity which thinks) and the brain(here brain means the physiological content which includes cells, organs etc..). Stilling the ‘I’ is what brings the rest under control and concience under control bringing, the base feelings.  I a very strong word, sentence, a book, the sum of all one’s life, keeps vacillating, it needs more importance than anything, keeping it in stillness, is difficult, rather I would say, painful.

Some people have, for eg.. Bill Gates now is in that state, partly, however he did this only when he has achieved being the best.So he was attached, non-attached in executing the dream, (I’m sure when he started Microsoft he was not sure whether would be succesful or not, he just stuck to it without any attachment), now that he realised that all he did was to reach a goal, once he reached a goal, he saw no point in continuing the battle, it was painful, hence, he has detached himeself.

So nothing ends, everything is temporary(My friend Sushil comment) makes sense.I guess Matrix Philosophy is the same. More in the forthcoming days….