Thoughts And Trivia

Even to persons averse to rituals, like me, the scene of the evening worship at the city of Haridwar (= The gateway to God) on the Ganges, is a poignant moment. It sends a gooseflesh shiver down my spine.
Every evening, the goddess of Ganges is worshiped, at the banks of this river in Haridwar . During the worship, thousands of floating lamps in leaf boats are launched into the night, on the Ganges. Your heart starts thumping with excitement, to the rising crescendo of chants and cacophonic sounds of gongs. Thousands of floating, flickering lights hold you hypnotised. The mixture of serenity and heightened emotional tension leaves you shivering.
Click to see the Site
I would avoid, going out on a limb. I would not explain, why I think that main reason of "What are we here for?" is as follows:-
Imagine the knowledge accumulated by Human race over past 3000 years. The knowledge is so vast and diverse - that no human generation could have gathered it in its lifetime.

More than passing down of genes, its this passing down and further accumulation of knowledge - generation after generation - that is the essence of "What are we here for?".

We are like the thousands of floating lamps launched on the Ganges, to explore that vast river. We are part of that millenniums long project, to gather knowledge and understand the universe.
The urges to survive and mate, merely, are a mechanism of ensuring continuity of this knowledge gathering, accumulation and passing down. Selection of best genes to pass on, is meant to refine, the knowledge gathering capabilities of future generations. It would make Humans morons and humourless, if this mission was known to them, ab-initio, through an operations manual for Humans.
It is not that the lives of those, who do not help to take further, the sum total of universal knowledge, are of no avail. Like in a corporate mission, all persons in different roles in the organisation are equally important - as much as direct production or the marketing people.
Who created this grandiose scheme of Human continuity to understand an infinite world? Who seeded our brains with the Trojan viruses of survival and gene-passing? I would not like to go into that mine-field!
But I am ready to do an iteration. Having failed in understanding "Who Am I?", we turned to "What are we here for?" and succeeded. Lets go back to "Who am I?", with this knowledge. Can we now tackle it successfully?

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Having failed to answer the question - Who Am I? Can I answer What Am I here for?
The genes I carry are a net result of a sequence thousands of passionate matings - since the mitochondrial eve - Lucy ate the apple. These matings were a result of a deep seated insane command in human brain, to shuffle one's own genes with best possible genes accessible.
How many matings. It is estimated that there were 6,000 to 10,000 generations between us and the "Mother of all Mothers" - Lucy of Africa.
And if my genes are analysed - besides the Caucasian genes of North Indians, there may be traces from South Indian - Dravids, Locals Aborignals, African people, Middle-eastern people, Huns/Mangols. One wonders at the veritable melting pot of genetic material. More than the genes, I carry the same insane command to pass on these genes - shuffled with best possible genes.
To pass on genes - one has to survive. Therefore urge for self-preservation should be more basic. But given the two urges - many time urge to survive is risked - a woman's pregnancy threatens her survival.
We are just envelops of the message of genes - where the envelop itself is the message.
Is this robotic command the main thing we are here for?
I Hope not!
I think Not!
Is there some other job that is more important and more basic to 'Why we are here for'? Till Next Post!

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Even moderately complex equipments come with an operation manual, warranty card and maintenance support centers. But we Humans come to the world without an official operations manual, nor any warranty and nor any maintenance support. Oh! Dear GOD why did you play this trick on us?
All literature and Arts arise from the quest of humans to understand just two questions, in the absence of an operation manual from GOD:

• Who am I?
• Why am I here?

We try to the answer the fist question by pigeon-holing ourselves. We attach ourselves to various groups to define - who we are? I am a male; Indian; a non-functional Hindu; a branch in a family genealogy; member of a caste/tribe/race; alumnus of a college; employee of an organization; and so on...? To forge and sustain these identities we extol the virtues of me-groups and denigrate the not-me groups. We see not-me groups as evil and foul - and me-groups as pious and virtuous. This is the main reason for so much hatred in the world.
But by this hiding behind group identities, we mask and fudge the question - who am I? The question still remains unanswered? My groups do not define me - I must find the answer elsewhere.
Or perhaps accept that the question may not have an answer.
Lets smile and appreciate the not-me groups - they are just as lost and orphaned as me!!
Can I console myself, that I can at least answer the second question - Why am I here? See you Next Time!

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Exceptional creativity arises at the boudries between normalcy and insanity. The German King Ludwig II, who was declared insane by his relatives, created one of the most beautiful Castle - which I had dreamt of visiting since I was 7 year old boy. <
When I was 7 year old, my father put up on my bedroom wall, a framed photo of a castle taken from the Calendar of Lufthansa Airways. Perhaps he wanted to pass on to his favourite child, the childlike thrill he got from the picture. The castle feavered my imagination and made me dream of the place. It was like a Fairy Tale.
My dream was fulfilled in 1988 (I was 38 yrs old), when I went for a year, to live in West Germany. I had faint memories of this childhood dream. With great difficulty, I could get a person, who could tell me the name of the castle, from my scanty description of a childhood photo.
I went round the castle in a trance. It was really like playing a part in a dream Fairy Tale. I count that visit as one of the high points of my life. The story of castle added to the mystique.
This is the castle (schloß) Neuschwanstein near Munich. Ludwig II called it the "Castle of Holy Grail".
But like all Fairy Stories, the Castle brought only curses to Ludwig. Only after six months, of moving into the castle, his uncle usurped the Reigns, after declaring Ludwig as insane. He was imprisoned in-house and was found drowned, under mysterious circumstances, in lake Starnberg, early in the morning of 12th June 1886.
But what a striking similarity this story has to another dream monument "The Taj Mahal". The Emperor Shahjahan who created Taj, was imprisoned, by his own son, who snatched power from him. Shahjahan went insane in his last days and spent all the time, watching Taj from his Prison cell in Red Castle, which overlooked Taj.
Having too much money/ Power /beauty could be a fatal disease.
Please see the official site of Neuschwanstein.

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I recently read a thought provoking book - which shook some of my views on the subject of Peoples, Race and Ethnicity. The book is: -
Mapping Human History
Discovering The Past Through Our Genes
By Steve Olson (2002)
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Let me give you a synopsis.
The book traces the differences and similarities between Peoples of various Races and Ethnicity using:

• Frequencies of Genetic Mutations in mitochondria and Y-Chromosome
• Languages
• Physical and Facial Features
• Archeology

Its Findings are:-

• There has been too much back and forth mating between the Peoples that Race and Ethnicity has no Biological basis.
• Differences between the Races are much less than variations within the Race.
• Human migrations from Africa to Middle-East -> to Asia-> to America and Europe has not been smooth and one way. There has been movement back and forth also within the overall direction mentioned above.
• European People developed faster than Peoples in other continents, due to local geographical and environmental conditions - not due to any genetic difference

I learnt that the passed down theory of Aryan coming to India and replacing the less developed locals - is a conjecture to support preconceived ideas. Available facts do not support this theory.
Click to see Maps and Data on Homo Sapien Migrations

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Number counting system is so basic to civilization, that we tend to not realize that, this was the first major step, learnt by Homo-sapiens towards civilization.
There are still some tribes, in South America - whose counting vocabulary is limited to 1; 2 and Many!
Its clear that initially humans stumbled from 1; to 20, without forming any number system - since each of these numbers have unique name uptill twenty. 'Eleven' for 11; not 'ten-one'. (Exception is Sanskrit which starts calling 11; as 'one and Ten' -"Eka-Dash").
Even now in remote villages, illiterate persons do all their counting with numbers till twenty. 136 is '16 and 6-twenties'. Evidently it gets difficult after 420;.
Beyond twenty we start using the positional number system (developed much later) based on Units, Tens, hundreds etc. So 21; is Twenty-One. 121; is One-Hundred and Twenty-one. The digits are read out from left to right for hundreds, tens and units.
With the invention of positional number system, counting could go beyond 20; upto 100 and even beyond.
German and Sanskrit are however stuck with an intermediate system (which is a precursor of positional numbering system) for counting between 21; to 99;.
Both in German and Sanskrit, digits are read from right to left - and not left to right - i.e. units (right digit)first and then Tens (digit on the left)- in numbers from 21; upto 99; . This system was good enough, till the positional numbering system invented Hundreds and beyond - by reading out digits from left to right for Hundreds, Tens and Units in sequence.
However being too long an established a system, both these languages retained their right to left reading of digits upto 99; but superposed it on left to right reading of digits for hundreds and above.
In both these languages, reading out digits is weird - Hundreds digit from left, then unit digit from extreme right and then the middle Tens' Digit.
122; is read as "ein-hundert; zwei und zwansig" or as translated; "one hundred, two and twenty" instead of straight-forward and logical "one hundred twenty-two". In Sanskrit"Aik Shambhar Dwai-DwaDash".
This weird system of counting, from 21; to 99;, is such a squashed fly - that this proves that both languages must be copies of same proto-Indo-Germanic language.
I suspect that German is the older sister - since it retains the older "and" between units and Tens - while Sanskrit. which came later, does away with 'and' (like other later languages). So 22 is 'zwei und zwansig' in German; but 'Dwai-Dwadash" in Sanskrit.
This conforms to the accepted history that Aryans came to India from north.
Both cultures have other similarities - like use of "swastika" symbol - though there are minor differences, in the symbol, in Sanskrit and German cultures. In India swastika is written, with its arms vertical/horizontal and in anti-clockwise fashion. In Germany it was written with arms at 45 deg and in clockwise fashion.

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When you photocopy a version (having a fly squashed on it), of a many-versioned document, the copies can be traced back to that particular version. Some thing similar has happened with languages during the migration of human races across the continents - and we can trace the origin of various languages - the proto-language. Human race is said to have evolved from one single woman called "Eva" - based on evidence from mutations of mitochondria genes. We can trace the great human migration from Africa to various continents in three ways:
1) Mutations of Mitochondria Genes or Y-chromosome genes
2) Archeology
3) Comparative study of languages
Let me share my own discoveries on such photocopies of squashed flies between "Sanskrit" and "German" languages - that I learnt during my one-year stay in Germany during 1987-88. No wonder that these two languages are said to have come from same proto-indo-germanisch language.
Firstly the roots of words:
i) 'Sammeln' in Deutsch (German) = To collect or gather; 'Sammelan' in Sanskrit = Gathering of people.
ii)'Bahn' as in AutoBahn in Deutsch = A mode (of travel); 'Vahan' in Sanskrit= A mode of travel.
There are many others like that. In fact while learning Deutsch there, I felt a sense of Dè-jâ vu - whenever I encountered a new word. Many times I was able to guess its meaning.
But what is the real squashed fly is the exact copy of a totally weird counting systems in the two languages - about which I will post next. Please Wait for the next post.

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I underwent a minor operation, under general anesthesia, on a hand injury. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of coming out of unconsciousness after the operation - so let me share it with you.
My first recollection after the operation was of a video-game like bizarre scene in my mind. The figures were hazy and with very low resolution - madeup of large square pixels. As time went by the picture dithered like a ".GIF" file downloading - and became more refined. But for quite sometime it was not a clear picture.
I had a feeling of zipping at high speed on a motorway with scenery rushing past me - wind on face. It was exhilarating.
I was amidst unknown landmarks in an unfamiliar City.
A small voice in my head told me " Ah! Good. Enjoy the moment don't rushout to consciousness. Don't succumb to frantic efforts of others to take you away from this - too soon. Enjoy while this lasts."
I was feeling like a naughty child in presence of doting parents.
I opened eyes, but my pupils were uncontrolled - they were vibrating left and right. I saw multiple, collage of overlapped blocks of hazy images of my wife.
I told my Wife: " I am enjoying it, don't disturb".
The videogame played on in the mind. I enjoyed it very much.
The thrilling and exhilarating feeling was with me for days to come. I used to consciously go back to that feeling, by closing eyes.
I had dived 80 fathoms below conscious and touched the real tenant of my body. He is real sport and much more child-like and happy, than I am.
P.S. Or was it drug-induced hallucination?

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The very fundamental urge for all living beings is to ensure and compete for survival. All survival ultimately is exclusive access to sources of energy - in modern terms - access to Money. So we have a natural tendency to earn and stockpile Money.This urge to survive - like all selfish things - is quite natural and understandable.
But the urge to mate and procreate is so altruistic that I suspect that this is a Trojan virus that has hijacked our psyche by some aliens. This urge to create as many copies as possible of our genes and mate with those who appear to have best chances of survival - overrides the instinct for survival. We forego our own sources of energy and share it with mates and offspring. We also run after and compete for mates. And how ludicrous, funny and laughable this rub-and-tinkle thing is mating.
If this urge was not there animals would eat and play all their life. No Helen of Troy, No Sparta and No Trojan Horses. It looks fishy. I feel we have been enslaved by some Virus into this anti-selfish urge.

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Even if I don't realise, all my emotional reactions are based on a world-view acquired mostly as a child.
By world view, I mean, a conceptual model of human universe. What are the components of this universe and what are their inter-relations? What are the fundamental rules and principles which govern the processes of this universe? What action would attract which retribution or reward?
Its part morals, part religion, part spiritual, part psychology but mostly unadulterated non-sense.
This model is necessary to save the society from inbuilt animal genetic programming in our brains. Therefore it is very manipulative of us.Our religion, family and society inculcate this model of human universe in us. Parenting involves passing on these mental chains to our children.
Most of our grief as adults arises from this world-view.

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