Sri Lanka - Religion

Sri Lanka is a very religious country. Having said that, it is not much of a news for Indians who are perceived to be a highly religious community. That perception is not entirely true, considering there are at least 3 states in USA that think of themselves are more religious than Indians! However, there seems to be no doubt about the religiousity of Sri Lankans. An overwhelming 99% of Sri Lankans consider religion as an important part of their daily life - which is 3rd highest in the world (behind Egypt and Bangladesh).

Majority of Sri Lankans are Buddhists and unabashedly so. A small number of Hindus (largely Tamils) stay in the north province of Jaffna and were brought to Sri Lanka to work on the tea plantations. My hotel owner in Dambulla belonged to such a family of plantation workers who made it good. A part of his family, including his parents still lived in India. Actually, he was pretty happy, once he got to know that we were Indians. He tried to coax "kunchum kunchum" Tamil out of me but all that I could manage was "Taamil illa" or "Taamil Teriyadu".

Buddha and Hindu deities coexist peacefully in Sri Lankan society. Portraits of Laxmi, Karthikeyan, Vishnu, Ganesha or even Saraswati are to be found along side a meditating Buddha. Shiva, however is conspiously absent. I found the reason for that after I visited the Sacred Tooth Relic Temple in Kandy. Shaivaites have been historically portrayed in a negative light for having persecuted Buddhist Kings of Sri Lanka and attempting to destroy Sacred Tooth relic of Buddha. Shiva temples (kovils) are to be found most abundantly in Jaffna and sparingly in Colombo.

Mohammadans can be instantly recognized with their clothes - the long black dress worn by women who huddle together, the more progressive ones made out with bright colored salwar kameez. Men as always do not have to follow the dress code so they were busy herding a group of women and children. A marked contrast from the otherwise liberated and easy going Sri Lankans. I hardly saw any mosque around my trip except may be in Colombo.

There are statues of Buddha, Ganesha, Laxmi and Jesus in a glass case around the city squares. The glass cases are kept neat & clean and unlike India, not sprinkled with food grains, colors, flowers, vermillion or blackened by the smoke from incense sticks. Also, there are no priests who keep a vigil on these sites. There is no forced occupation of land after building a religious structure.

In the next part I will write about Buddhism in Sri Lanka and its changing face.

Image Courtesy - Wiki User Obi2canibe

Previous Entries:
Sri Lanka - Introduction
Sri Lanka - Cleanliness

Good or Bad?

"Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong."
- Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

I think the scientific community is a confused lot. Every now and then they publish some research which is contradictory to past publications. Prime examples:

• Is alcohol good or bad?
• Is coffee/tea good or bad?
• Is chocolate good or bad?
• Is egg/chicken good or bad?
• Is milk good or bad?
• Is chicken good or bad?
• Is sex good or bad?
• Are birth control pills good or bad?

And many more like chillies, cannabis, extra-fat, maggi and what not! I understand that there is a continuing research and much more needs to be discovered. Our collective knowledge keeps evolving and gets updated every now and then. However the opinions of scientific community are considered seriously by the general public and often put into practice.



See the following :

Women who take birth control pills live longer
Vs
Birth control pills cause breast cancer in women

Drinking alcohol helps women stay slim
Vs
Alcohol damages brain

They are just a couple of examples. I hope the scientific community is much more decisive when publishing their research. The "cans and mights" should give way to "wills and should" ;)

Please Rob Me!

"When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the later for everyone else." - David Brin

We are born in a free world, a free nation and open society. With the advent of internet, information can be shared across the globe almost instantaneously. We love to chat, email, tweet, blog, scrap and share our 'status updates' on social networking websites. While doing so, we also reveal our personal choices and interests.

"Off to Mauritius for a week" - seems like an innocuous update on twitter out there for every Tom, Dick and Harry to quip at. But would you really hang a sign on your door saying that?

Ok! Before you think I am being a dork I am out of here. But give it a thought!

Still not convinced? Have a look here.

Alan Turing - a side note

"We had gay burglers the other night. They broke in and rearranged the furniture."
Robin Williams.

Ah... these comedians could plummet to any depth. But then what's life without humour -a pile of bread sopped in water, a bowl of cabbage, an insipid tale of mundane running around matters. Humour is the salt of life! But then lets save it for some other day. After a long time I have got some time to reflect and write and so must I.

Alan Turing - the man Winston Churchill dubbed as the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in WWII died in an not-so-honourable way - eating a cyanide laced apple. There's a Hindi saying, "Chirag tale andhera" (below the lamp lies the darkness) - very apt here.

Read on.


Turing - the ' shining-lamp' phase
I first read about Turing during my graduation days. He had an Indian connection - his father was a member of Indian Civil Service. His maternal grandfather was the Chief Engineer of Madras Railways. In fact he was 'conceived' at Chhatrapur, Orissa. He was the hero of WWII- the master code breaker of German Enigma machines. Father of AI, he created the concept of Turing Test to distinguish between humans and robots. In 1999, he was name by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Most Important People of 20th century.


Turing - the 'darkness-below-the-lamp' phase
So far so good for being a war hero, a celebrated personality (however eccentric), a poineer of computer science, cryptanalyst, mathematician, logician, chemist - we are still finding out. Add another adjective to it - and it all goes in vain - "GAY".

In 1952 Alan Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency. As an alternate to imprisonment, he was injected with female oestrogen hormones and chemically castrated - a known side effect of which was the development of breasts. His security clearance was removed and he wasn't permitted to continue his research with UK government. For two years he loomed between death and despair and finally killed himself by eating the proverbial apple. So much so for his service of the nation (and possibly of humanity). No wonder they forgot to mention this in text books :-)

Honour restored or too late?
Times have changed now - and how! This year after a petition signing campaign to urge the British government to apologize to Alan Turing posthumously, the government has finally relented. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown released a statement two days ago. It described the treatment of Alan Turing as "utterly unfair" and "appalling". It also noted that British government was "deeply sorry" and that Turing "deserved much better".

Ahem.


Image Credits: Wikipedia

Hyderabad blogs

I wanted to some serious blog reading today. So I opened Google Blog Search and punched in Hyderabad (that’s where I live right now!). Instead of blogs what I came up with..?

Ads – about free air tickets from Hyderabad to else where on this planet, about a 160 sq. yard Independent house in Gautam nagar Upparpalli, about free medical transcription training, about Wipro and GM walk-in, about openings at Prof. G.M. Reddy Research and SAP consultants at Wipro..

Jee… doesn’t Hyderabad host any bloggers.. there sure must be lots of them but doesn’t the city of Hyderabad interest them? Finally the face saver was Hyderabad Photo Blog .

It declares itself a blog about the “Life in Hyderabad – not the stuff you’d see in Tourism Corporation’s brochures and websites.  “. Its a tongue n cheek description of how life stutters in Hyderabad – in its filthy-dying streets, in its crammed markets, overloaded roads and unbuilt flyovers, in the banner spammed skyline and the dust n pollution. It captures the street life and many more things that might miss the inattentive eye. Nice blog man.. m linking to you :)

Traffic blues

I had promised to write about the notorious Hyderabad traffic so folks here I am, right on my money :) 

The worst thing about Hyderabad traffic is that there are no rules. People assume, as they are entitled to in a democra(z)cy, the highest authority on themselves. In this process they forget the hapless traffic constable ,who has been shouting his guts off in the crazy heat or the hapless commuters (the god fearing type) who just happen to be in the wrong place (they always do, don’t they?). The end result is a mob frenzy with a free for all kind of traffic.

They jump signals at the smallest excuse, break queues,cut lanes, and indulge in all kind of nuisance you possibly can imagine. You would consider it to be your lucky day if you can cross the road without getting hurt – those sadists :(

Someone posted the following video on YouTube showing a glimpse of the Hyderabad traffic:

You can really see for yourselves how crazy the people are! Sometimes I feel people get what they deserve and Hyderabadis have nobody but themselves to blame for the chaos they allow themselves to be in. A sad commentary indeed for a place that prouds itself on being the Cyber capital  :(

Americans and privacy

"When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else." - David Brin (American science-fiction writer)

It is amazing and indeed a paradox of our times that America is one of those nations with an absolute madness for celebrities (with scant regard for their privacy) and an equally tight-fisted resoluteness about government turning a Big Brother and hence violating their personal lives!

Here is an article about the History of Privacy in America and its timeline. An interesting read!

The perfect swing?

“Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.” - Winston Churchill

I must admit myself as a golf illiterate, having been routinely bamboozled by the birdies, putts,flops, bogeys, eagles, albatross and vultures ( what is it about the birds?). All I know about the sport is that you have got to put the ball into the hole with the help of a stick in the minimum number of attempts. I am also aware that a certain Tiger Woods has been running around with the dough for quite some time now.


United States scores over rest of the world with nearly half of the world's total 32,000 golf courses. But according to this article, golfing has seen a decline over the past several years in the US. The number of people who play the sport has declined from 30 million to 26 million since 2000. The golf boosters (number of people who play 25 times or more a year) declined from 6.9 million in 2005 to 4.6 million in 2000.

This is a part of the broader decline in the outdoor sports like tennis,swimming and hiking among others. The reasons vary from the ravaging hurricanes to family commitments to popular electronic games to the long duration of the game and related etiquette rules (like not using their cell phones on course).

So the game about which Wodehouse famously wrote, "Golf, like the measles, should be caught young, for, if postponed to riper years, the results may be serious." in danger of losing its charm?

Bharat Ratna

Biju Patnaik, Karpoori Thakur, Jagjivan Ram, Jyotiba Phule, Mohammed Rafi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kanshi Ram, M Karunanidhi, Chaudhari Charan Singh, Jyoti Basu and finally the man who started it all - Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The race for this year's Bharat Ratna started when L.K. Advani proposed the name of Vajpayee for the nation's highest civilian honour. Since then its been a barrage of sorts with every political party worth its salt, proposing its own candidate for the award to be announced on Jan 26 - The Republic day.


This kind of drama can only be expected in a messy "democrazy" like ours! When will these power mongers get rid of their oneupmanship and understand that the highest civilian honour of this country cannot be bestowed on the basis of political affiliations. We've got enough of this! Let us hope good sense prevails soon.

Marriage of convenience!

"Every dog has its day"
English Proverb.

A man known as Selvakumar has married a bitch in a ceremony which took place in Sivaganga district, 50 km east of Madurai in South India. The bride has been renamed Selvi (Mrs. Selvakumar) after the marriage. "Chosen" by the family, she was bathed and dressed in a sari before the "couple" exchanged marriage vows.


The man believes he had been cursed by the killing of 2 stray dogs 15 years ago - suffering paralysis and loss of hearing. An astrologer since advised him to marry off a female dog to ward off the curse. The groom and his family had a marital feast where the dog was given a bun!

In the recent past a donkey wedding was also arranged to bring monsoon rains in the IT capital of India - Bangalore.

How to make an English cup of tea!

"No sex please, we are British"
Unknown ( at least I don't know, somebody said the queen!)

The British are said to be reserved in manners, dress and speech - with its stiff upper lip. Known for their politeness, self-discipline and sense of humour (did someone say dry?). Much has been written about the social dos and don'ts in Britain.. sample a few!


Don't

1. Stare at anyone in public. (what about people watching?)
   
2. Ask a lady her age.
   
3. Do gesturing in public like backslapping and hugging.
   
4. Do not pass wind in public (ha ha....)
5. Ask questions like "How old are you?" ,"You seem to have put on some weight?", "Why aren't you married?" or "Why is British food so bad?"
   

and many more...

English Tea
Britishers also like to distinguish themselves from the Americans by the way of their accent and drink (tea for British ,coffee for Americans). Now a 17 years old school boy in Britain named Charlie McDonnell has created a video named "How to be English ?". The video has been a major hit online attracting thousands of visitors. The video takes a tongue-in-cheek look at English manners and mannerisms including how to make the perfect cup of tea. Watch it here. The video is really funny!



"I set up a You Tube account about six months ago and thought I might as well do something with it and started filming little videos and sketches. The 'How to be English' one was one of the most popular. I got quite a few comments from Brits accusing me of being an American pretending to be English," McDonnell told reporters.

The teenager's satirical sketches have now won him an invitation to appear on the ABC channel's popular daytime show The View, co-hosted by Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg!

Mystery Spending

"Spending is quick, earning is slow."
- Russian proverb

According to a new survey by Visa, Americans are spending an average of $45 a week on something they can't remember! Among those who report "mystery spending," men under age 35 are the worst at monitoring where it all goes, losing track of more than $3,000 a year on average.

The nationwide telephonic survey of 2036 adults reveals that almost half (48%) of respondents suffer from mystery spending. The survey also reveals that young men mystery spend on nights while young women do so while shopping.

News Credit: Visa USA
Image Credit: http://www.freefoto.com/

Walkers crisps got crispier!

Walkers crisps got even more crispier! The company is the first to put carbon footprint figures on its products.

Carbon Footprints
Carbon footprints - which measure the amount of carbon (other GHG emissions) produced to directly or indirectly support any activity in equivalent tons of CO2 have become a bench mark. For eg. when you buy an Walkers crisp, carbon has been burnt during its production,packaging, transportation etc. Therefore the overall Carbon Footprint of a crisp is calculated by summing up all the carbon expanded during its lifetime.


In recent times carbon footprints have wielded great significance with its effect on increasing world temperatures and resulting climate change. 72% of the totally emitted GHG (Green House Gases) is CO2. Carbon footprints therefore measure the contribution of a product towards Global Warming. Countries like US, China, Russia, Japan, India and Germany have the largest CO2 emission levels with US also leading in the per capital CO2 emissions.

Walkers Carbon Footprint
Carbon trust on the behalf of Walkers have calculated the carbon footprint of a standard packet of Walkers Cheese and Onion crisps. They have taken into account various stages in the life cycle of a Walkers Crisp starting from sowing of potato and sunflower seeds to disposing of the packet. The final carbon footprint calculation is 75g.



The stages involved in calculation :

1. Raw Materials : Potato, Sunflower and seasoning.
2. Manufacture : Producing crisps from potato.
3. Packaging.
4. Distribution.
5. Disposal of the packets.

Certainly a commendable step towards the future of this planet!

Image credits: Walkers

Big brother is watching you...

According to a news item published in the BBC, citizen surveillance is on the rise. USA and Britain are the countries using state of the art gadgets to keep common people under their watch. The goal is to create a system that will match the facial image of the person with their gait, height, weight and other elements to identify a person instantly. With newer technology, radio waves can be used to find out if anyone is on the other side of the wall and may be their heart and breathing rates as well.

"As you walk through a crowd, we'll be able to track you. These are all things that don't need the cooperation of the individual." said Professor Challapa from Maryland University.

Changed times

Since 9/11 terror attacks are on the rise throughout the globe and countries like US and UK are always on the hit list. Round the clock surveillance gives rise to privacy issues even though it might lead to reduced crime rates. The terror suspects come from various strata of the society often mingling with the unsuspecting crowd making peer to peer surveillance nearly impossible. This system will provide means of non-contact surveillance.

However the public doesn't seem to mind! Opinion polls, both in the US and Britain, say that about 75% of us want more, not less, surveillance.

A kiss...

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. "
-Ingrid Bergman

However a new study at the State University of New York indicates that a kiss can make or break a couple's relationship. The study indicates that women placed more emotional importance on a kiss. Man on the other hand tend to see kissing as a means to an end – SEX.




"The complicated exchange of information that occurs during a kiss may inform evolved, unconscious mechanisms about instances of possible genetic incompatibility," say researchers.

The study was conducted on 1041 college students and consisted of three questionaries measuring kissing preferences, attitudes, styles, and behaviors. The study also indicates that women value kisses throughout a relationship however men place less importance on kissing as a relationship progresses.

Just the way your mom would cook it...

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."
- George Bernard Shaw

Very true indeed..! The love for food outweighs any other love in this universe. This love which has been epitomized for centuries, by the saying "Bhookhe Bhajan Na Hoin Gopala" (One can't worship on an empty stomach!) and more recently by the ad line "Hum kamate kyon hain? Khane ke liye!" (What do we earn for? to eat!)



Indian food habits

The battle for a decent and affordable square meal assumes gigantic proportions in cities. For any metro worth its salt having a sizable "IT workforce" and student population the population is much more accentuated. Anyone who has moved out of his/her home town to a bigger city misses the "maa ke haath ka khana"(home-cooked food).

Indian food habits are very much traditional even in this globalized age. Occasional bread-n-butter,pizza,burger or maggie is fine but cannot substitute a full fledged meal of Dal, roti, chawal and sabzi!

Now much has been written about the Mumbai ka Dabbawallas, known to deliver 200,000 dabbas (food tiffins) every day but a more recent phenomenon is the Mom's Kitchen which is managed by ex-IT professionals.



Mom's Kitchen

Mom's kitchen prides itself on being India's first fully professional tiffin service providing "end-to-end solutions" right from food preparation to food delivery (What a context!) Started by two IT professionals who got "frustrated" by the pathetic food quality of daily food in Pune, they claim to have the food prepared by the master cooks specially handpicked from Allahabad to retain the homely touch. Their USP is "fanatical devotion to unmatchable customer service."

The food is reasonably priced with the premium tiffin priced at Rs. 30 and the mini tiffin at Rs. 20. With the durable daals, sizzling sabzis and the rasila raitas it seems a runaway!



Interesting study

The "core team" consists of three former IT professionals- Vikram Pandiya, Ashwani Kumar Singh Rathore and Venkataramana Singanamala - all of whom kicked off their jobs. They make for an interesting study as Ashwin wants "all the Pizzas and Burger companies mushrooming around the country to ride back to their parent countries and establish Moms kitchen as a national brand."

The orders can be placed online at their website which also allows for tiffin customization. Their delivery areas cover a large part of Pune with plans to expand further with new centers. If this model succeeds one can foresee similar kitchens coming up other big cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi to name a few!

Blue for boys, Pink for girls..

"Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions."
- Pablo Picasso

Ever wondered why men prefer blue and women pink?

A marketing gimmick? No... blame it on evolution ! Researchers from University of Newcastle say that pink may have helped women gather ripe fruit, or pick healthy mates. Whereas blue signals natural preference for a clear blue sky and good water source!



In an experiment, 208 young adult men and women were asked to select, as rapidly as possible, their preferred color from pairs of colored rectangles. While the universal favorite color appeared to be blue, when shown a spectrum of hues from red through blue and green to yellow women preferred red.

So next time, remember the color of rose you intend to present to your lady!

Feeling high...

A recent research confirms that cannabis cause severe harm to the lungs - with one joint being as bad as five cigarettes. In the study, researchers from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, Wakefield Hospital and the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, studied 339 volunteers.




This research confirms that cannabis poses a serious health risk to the lungs says Reuters . However, tobacco continues to be more harmful overall because it is typically smoked in much higher quantities than cannabis.


Cannabis - the culture

Cannabis have had a past of their own giving rise to the 420 Cannabis culture with the Beatles star Paul McCartney famously saying ,

"I spent my time [in the Tokyo jail] making a mental list of all those drugs which are legal but dangerous. We're all on drugs --cigarettes, whiskey and wild, wild women. Society thinks alcohol is terrific, yet it kills. Cigarettes can kill. They are worse than marijuana. It's just not true that marijuana can kill. What about the little old ladies on Valium? Think of aspirin's danger to the stomach."

after being deported from Japan for bringing almost half a pound of marijuana into Tokyo for an 11-concert Wings tour. He later said,



"I support decriminalization. People are smoking pot anyway and to make them criminal is wrong."


Cannabis - the history

Cannabis has been used as a medicine for thousands of years all over the world including India, China and the Middle East. Painted pottery from the Neolithic Yang-shao culture (4200-3200 BC) indicated the presence of cultivated hemp. Hemp reached eastern Europe in the later part of the third millennium BC. Remains of hemp have been discovered in the eighteenth-dynasty tomb of Akhenaten (Amenophis IV) at el-Amarna and cannabis pollen was found on the mummy of Rameses II (nineteenth dynasty).



It was the first psychoactive substance (apart from alcohol) that became a common subject in modern popular music, with jazz classics from the 1930s such as Louis Armstrong's Muggles and Cab Calloway's That Funny Reefer Man topping the bill of marijuana-inspired fare.Finally, in 1937, through the considerable persuasive powers of Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the Marihuana (Marijuana) Tax Act became federal law and in 1956 the drug was incorporated into the more comprehensive Narcotics Act.
The history is recorded by BBC in a news item here.


Bhang in India..

Back home in India, the cannabis served as a folk standard of potency. The three varieties are known as bhang, ganja, and charas. Bhang, the least potent of them all is consumed openly during the Indian festival of Holi as a drink and is widely depicted in Indian movies. It is interesting to note that the marijuana used in the United States is equivalent to bhang or, increasingly in recent years, to ganja.



In India while the government cracks down on rave parties where youngsters(allegedly) do drugs the lips are sealed when it comes down to open consumption of Bhang during Holi.

Watch your buddies !

A new study done by researchers at the University of California in San Diego has shown that having fat friends and family may increase your chances of being fat too!

The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, says it is plausible that "areas of the brain that correspond to actions such as eating food may be stimulated if these actions are observed by others"



This is the first time research has indicated the unhealthy side of social networking. So watch who you eat out with...OBESITY IS CONTAGIOUS!

All they did was weaken the nation..

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, otherwise referred to as Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the 11th president of India served out his term to constitutionally highest post in India. Dr. Kalam has set several precedents during his tenure in the Rashtripati Bhawan which will be difficult to follow for the new incumbent Mrs. Pratibha Patil aka Pratibha Tai...

His dream vision for the future of India by leading the country to be a developed state by 2020, his special relationship and bonding with the kids (whom he hailed as the future of India), his past credentials as the missile man of India and his image as the "aam aami ka pratinidhi" led him to an iconic stature.




He really was the "People's President". Although the comparison is not correct, I would still term him as the best president since our first president Dr. Rajendra Prasad (who, incidentally is the only one to be elected in back-to-back presidential elections). He was also the only prominent national leader after Chacha Nehru to form such an emotional bond with the children...

He now plans to teach at Anna Malai University, in fact he has already joined at the varsity and wants to be referred to as Professor and not former President!

Pratibha Patil, the new President is just a bunny of Congress(I) leader Mrs. Sonia Gandhi (so is Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh) and it still needs to be seen if she can emerge out of her tutelage (although she was chosen specifically for that purpose!). And all this farce in the name of "women empowerment"!




Muslim President and vice-president, first Sikh Prime minister, first Dalit CJI (Chief Justice of India) and now first Women President !

As Col. Jessop would have said, " All they did was weaken the nation".