I Type, Therefore I Blog

Atheist : Be proud, Come out

2009-06-19T18:25:00.007+05:30

I had never really understood the concept of Gay people "coming out" or "Gay Pride" until I "came out" as an Atheist and identified with "Atheist Pride".
I used to think both sexuality and religion were matters of personal concern and not something to be worn on the sleeve, but now my opinion is changed. The social stigma attached to both surely needs to be addressed. While I am neither qualified nor familiar to talk about the former, here's my 2 rupees worth on the latter.

Those who have been visiting my blog for some time might have noticed the scarlet A on my sidebar. For the benefit of the few reading this from a feed :

The scarlet A of the Dawkins' out campaign. The symbol of Atheist pride. So why do some Atheists feel ashamed to come out?

The biggest misconception Theists have about the Atheists is that all Atheists are immoral. When I first told a few religious people many years back that I didn't believe in God, I got quite a reaction from them. It's the same many reaction many people feel all over the world. They just assume, that a Godless person is automatically an immoral, disobedient person. The idea that an Atheist can be equally if not more kind, generous, altruistic is lost on the religious.

How can you be moral if you don't believe in someone who Judges you, they ask. Where do the Atheists draw their Morals from, if they disregard the religious scripture? The short answer to this would be that the Moral code has always existed in the society.. the Theists just needed to invent an invisible being for Authority.

Anyone who thinks Morals and ethics are standard and stagnant over time is simply fooling himself. They evolve just as surely as everything else in the world. All but a few Bible thumping religious zealots would follow every word written in the book. Who would stone to death a disobedient teenager just because the Bible says so? Who would kill a person who works on a Saturday because God commanded that none should work on the Sabbath? If every "word of God" were to be followed by the Christians, the population of the world could comfortably reside within the Vatican city.

And what about the Hindus? The Christians, for all their flaws can atleast claim a central and somewhat consistent scripture.. but Hindus have no such thing. That aside, would you seek morality from Maryada Purushottam Ram, the preserver of Dharma, who goes against Yuddh Dharma(rules of war) and kill a Vali while hiding? Or would you follow everything Krishna says to Arjuna about duty and go ahead in a figh to death with your kith and kin over land.

The point I am trying to make is that even the religious choose the good stuff over the bad/irrelevant stuff. Common sense and altruism direct the religious to differentiate the good and the bad anyway, so why should it be surprising that atheists could do the same?

The other major concern some atheists have about atheism is the word itself. They refuse to be labelled as atheists and instead use pretentious word like "Brights" or "Rationalists". The problem they have is one about identity. An atheist, by their definition is one who is Anti theist, and so they would not like their identity to be dependent on that of a Theist.

So here's an answer which might put their concerns away. I have read this bit somewhere over the internet and can't remember the source, or I would surely credit the person who came up with the following reasoning.

Atheism is not Theism with an A but rather Atheos with an ism.
The first definition put us as negating the theists. Which is to say,our belief system/philosophy is a negation of that of the theists..
Atheos means godless. The second definition, Atheos with an ism, makes an atheist as having a philosophy, which is simply godless. The lack of god is just one minor thing in their existence and not the whole point of it. This definition makes us have a separate identity as against a direct comparison with theists.

I prefer using definition 2. And as long as you identify yourself this way, you shouldn't have a problem calling yourself an Atheist.

So, be proud. Come out.
And check out the Out Campaign.

Today, I have nothing to write about

2009-05-27T00:02:00.006+05:30

Today, I have nothing to write about

No coherent thought from my chaotic mind

Nothing to rant, no axe to grind

No inspiration, it’s hard to find

Today, I have nothing to sing about

No tale of happiness, no tale of sorrow

No song about today, nothing about tomorrow

No tune I could steal, no tune I could borrow

Today, I have nothing to paint about

No ethereal vision, no enchanting sight

No beautiful rainbow, no playful light

No paint on my canvas, try as I might

Today, I had nothing to write about

But I did write, a poem of some kind

But I did write, and will write again on the morrow

But I did write, and now I feel alright

Abou Ben Mayhem

2009-02-21T11:06:00.016+05:30

Abou Ben Mayhem (may his kind decrease),
harbinger of destruction.. enemy of peace.
Awoke from his slumber.. to a deep chill and gloom..
As a demon made way, into his room .

A harsh growl emerged,from the creature's throat.
As it read from the parchment, which his masters wrote.
"Hear now the words, of the lords whom demons hail,
Heed the words of Lucifer. Beelzebub and Azrael.

This be the list of the damned, that God sent forth.
It is bad news for you, but for what it's worth.
Of all those who sinned and those condemned,
you lead the list.. you await judgement."

"This isn't news to me", Mayhem grinned..
"Satan is my master, its for him I have sinned.
A faithful servant,I have been to my Lord.
wont Lucifer make me, the leader of his Hordes?"

"The demon burst out laughing.. "surely you jest..
Satan make you captain?? hah.. you imbecile pest.
Of the tools of evil.. you're but one of many.
You'll all face the heat, the Master doesn't spare any".

"Go to sleep tonight, tomorrow the Reaper comes.
I am off on my trail again,to cover more homes.
Be not deluded..because as much as I can tell.
Ages of torment await you.. see you in HELL."

Note : Written with the deepest respect to James Leigh Hunt and Abou Ben Adhem. This poem provides an inverse case study to the original poem. Read the original here.

I'm Dreaming Forgiveness

2009-01-27T20:10:00.011+05:30

my eyes grow heavy..
..my breath turns rasp
life seeps away
death's within grasp

shut all my senses
nothing left to feel
my life flashes by
like it were a 35 mm reel

i see all that i've wronged
oh, how i now repent
i see those that i loved
alas, so little time we spent

if.. if only there was time
to right what was wrong
and one last kiss to my love
i wouldn't make it long

i realise i don't deserve my love
with that i've made my peace
but let me have my forgiveness
that's all i ask.. please

oh death.. dont take me now
come back when i am awake..
because while i am asleep
I'm dreaming of forgiveness.

Don't take your love away

2008-11-21T20:10:00.006+05:30

Just seen the latest episode of Smallville. While the episode was okay-ish(Doomsday being the only saving grace), this song at the end totally blew my mind. A quick Youtube search and :

Give me a place to stand

2008-10-17T23:11:00.009+05:30

Give me a place to stand
And I will move the world
Give me a cup to fill
And I will drink the ocean dry

Give me a sad face
And I will bring out a smile
Give me a sympathetic shoulder to lean on
And I will cry you a river

Give me courage to fight
And I will win you a war
Give me a cause to believe
And I will bring you a revolution

Give me a violin to play
And I will write you a symphony
Give me a pen to write
And I will script you a masterpiece

Give me some optimism
And I will rule tomorrow
Give me a reason
And I will forever let it be /* thanks to Poornaa */

BUT

Please don't give me a deadline for my project. I don't think I can f**k*ng finish it on time. :( BOOHOO

The Heartbreak of Tubby Mouse

2008-09-01T14:01:00.011+05:30

Hickety Dickety Dock
The Mouse ran up the clock

And so it was, that late at night
Nested away, out of sight
In that cozy little clock, in the alcove
The mouse did scurry, to meet his lady love.

"Blessed be the eyes", the little mouse said,
"that have ever gazed upon your lovely face.
Of all the mice ever, be they alive or dead,
you're the prettiest ever, I rest my case"

"Your whiskers' woven from silk, your tail's made of felt,
And the fragrance of your sweat, sweeter than cheese."
She blushed upon the flattery, while the mouse knelt
"I want you to be mine forever, will you say yes Please?"

She paused for a minute, stared at his pale face.
And burst into laughter, our mouse was in a daze.
"Oh my sweet Lord, this is all so funny,
You, my dear boy, were just my little bunny."

"Despair not, cherish the moments few
Remember fondly, our regular rendezvous.
Wish you could stay longer, my dear Tubby
But off you go now, there comes my hubby."

The clock struck one,
Down the mouse ran,
Hickety Dickety Dock

Lightning strikes twice

2008-08-21T01:34:00.002+05:30

They say, lightning never strikes twice at the same place. The Bird's nest in Beijing begs to differ as a second bolt struck tonight.

A little while ago I made a not so good critique of the opening ceremony. The ceremony might have lacked energy but the Games sure didn't. The tumbling of records by Phelps and Bolt have truly made this edition the most spectacular ever.

Add in a dash of patriotism in Bindra's Gold and Sushil's Bronze and you have a recipe of pure joy to the Indian Sports fan.

Wishing lots of luck to the India boxers. Picture abhi baaki hai.

The birth of Ginger and garlic

2008-08-13T11:30:00.008+05:30

A long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away (time and distance amount to nothing in a mythological story), the Devas and Asuras were at war. Neither were immortals and there were heavy casualities. So, the Devas decide to churn the Milk sea(Vishnu's private Jacuzzi)to get the Divine Nectar called Amrit.

So, they approach Vishnu, use Vasuki as rope, Mt. Mandara as churning rod, yada yada yada.. find it here.. http://www.balagokulam.org/kids/stories/dashavatara.php#kurma

Now, most retellings of this story leave out a very important part. As Lord Vishnu took on the form of Mohini(a very beautiful Apsara) and tried to seduce the Asuras while slyly distributing all the nectar to the Devas, two guys from the Dark side saw through his/her bluff. They were the two strapping young Asuras named Rahu and Ketu (They had their fair share of celestial nymphs and could easily spot the wolf among the sheep).

So these two Demons jump line and join into the Deva queue and Mohini busy with the clever show she was putting on, feeds the Amrit to the two. On Surya's prodding and realising her folly, she releases the Vishnu chakra(a very deadly discus) on the two and cuts their heads off.

Now, here's the interesting part. Since the Amrit had already passed by their heads and throats by then, their heads were immortal which became the stars Rahu and Ketu. These are termed in Hindu Mythology as Demon stars (Rahu.. Ketu.. Demons.. stars.. get it?). They are mighty pissed off at Surya till this day and occasionally gobble him up to create eclipses.

The Amrit, which went through their throats spilled on the earthly ground and gave seed to the Ginger and Garlic plants. Since they are born from Amrit, these two plants have medicinal properties. While the Asura qualities make them harmful at times.

TRUE STORY!!

(This story was told to me by a teacher of mine back in 3rd or 4th standard in an SUPW class. SUPW stands for socially useful productive work. We(guys included) were taught to do girly stuff like Knitting(yuck) so one day we guys took a stand and refused to do any knitting in that class. The teacher decided to tell us this story to pass the time. I couldn't find this story anywhere else on the Internet and so decided to reproduce it here.

On a sidenote, I have always wondered why Mohini isn't counted among Vishnu's Dashavatar. Anybody have any idea?

ps1: Devas->the good guys(Jedi), Asuras->the bad guys(Sith), Vishnu->Yoda, Apsara->celestial nymph, Surya->sun god

ps2: for those whom it is not obvious enough.. True Story is Barney stinson's catchphrase for all the totally far fetched stories he tells

Mashup feeds

2008-08-10T12:58:00.007+05:30

I subscribe a lot of feeds on google reader and sometimes the number of feeds feels overwhelming. Thus, in my attempt to organise my feeds I have come up with a couple of mashup feeds. Feel free to use them. I might come up with some more categorized feeds in the future so bookmark this post to find the edits.

Harsha's comic feed (Abstruce Goose, Dilbert, Cyanide and Happiness, PHD comics, POPsickleSTRIP, The Perry Bible Fellowship, We The Robots, xkcd) :
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=oMdvrZRm3RGjwSX9_w6H4A&_render=rss

Harsha's Quiz feed (Daly Haal, QFI , Keep Guessing, Quintessential Theory and more..):
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=Zk0kmKRm3RGBu9VFQBJ3AQ&_render=rss

Use any rss reader to subscribe and let me know some good blogs/feeds that I might have missed.

ps : the string "feed" occurs 11 times in this post

Fireworks Do Not, A Ceremony Make!!

2008-08-08T23:46:00.006+05:30

Boy, do the Chinese have a sense of Grandeur!! The Magnum Opus that was, was truly a remarkable spectacle. The Chinese government pulled out all the stops in their attempt to make a ceremony to remember and kudos to them.

And that's done with the positives. This critique of the Beijing opening ceremony is being written before I read any other review. I am sometimes swayed with the public opinion and so let me record my honest view before I read the newspaper tomorrow and start agreeing with the reporter that this was indeed the greatest of all time.(I have noticed that people often rate every new opening ceremony as the best ever). That honor truly belongs to the Sydney games.

Now, I myself have a relatively small memory and I honestly do not recollect the Sydney games in their entirety, but what I do remember is the immense joy I felt when I was watching the opening ceremony. It was magic and the energy I felt in the performance was awesome. In contrast, the energy at Beijing was oddly subdued.

To be fair, Beijing was grand. It was colorful and it was Magnificent but it was BORING.
I thought the paper scroll with the Chinese history and the performances and the art was truly genius. And the 100000++ drummers in sync was just sweet. All good, but for me, not good enough.

BTW, Doordarshan has the worst possible commentators on the planet. The Hindi commentator in particular was pathetic. For god's sake (note: I am an agnostic and I don't exactly believe in God. It is just a phrase) Doordarshan, next time you are looking for someone to cover such events, give me a call. I honestly believe I can do a better job.

LONDON, the yardstick is still SYDNEY!

ps: It was very disappointing to see the very small Indian contingent. A small country like Czech republic seemed to have a bigger contingent. And the response we got(or rather, the lack of it) was very sad.
pps: I have this huge fetish for straight, shiny black hair (the kind Chinese and the Japanese have) and it was wonderful to see so much on display. :P :D
ppps: I need to find out who the flag bearer for Jordan was. I developed a big crush on her.
pppps: Just found out on google news that some Tibetan monks attacked the Chinese embassy in India. That is really a sad act on the part of the monks of a peace loving religion. More on that in a future post.
ppppps: I think this is the last of the postscripts.
pppppps: Unless this is the last one.

ppppppps: Or maybe this :)

GoogleWhack

2008-07-23T21:27:00.010+05:30

It has just come to my attention that I am a Googlewhack. :-) :-) and several more smilies.
The search string is "hex$adeca$phobia chl$orofluor$ocar$bon" (without the quotes, of course.. duh.. and more duhs).
This is Flying spaghetti Monster fantabulous.

ps : For those who don't know what a googlewhack is..
A Googlewhack is a Google search query consisting of two words, that returns a single result.

pps: Ignore the $'s in the string

Up on cloud number 9,999

2008-07-11T18:26:00.004+05:30

Pic taken from a recent trip to Ooty. The most beautiful sight I have seen in a long time.
Find more here.

SuperSafin

2008-06-28T15:06:00.004+05:30

Wow!! Safin is on a roll at Wimbledon right now and I am very very pleased. I wanted to write a lengthy article on him but decided against doing that due to the fear of jinxing his progress.

However, I had to post this amazing pic. For anybody out there who thinks Safin is not commited to Tennis anymore, see this.

Rock-Paper-Scissors-----SAND

2008-06-16T18:56:00.008+05:30

It's been a long time since my first post and unfortunately, the world is still as it was at that time. I didn't have much to comment on the world then and I still don't have anything to comment on it now.

However, everything in life has a purpose and so does this post. The purpose of this post is to talk about an interesting game I came across recently.

Background :
I have recently started reading the Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman and I must say that they are the best comics I have ever read.(but then again, my comics experience is limited to superhero stuff and the odd graphic novel). More on Sandman later (there are 75 issues to browse through).

In the first volume, there is this riddling game which occurs between Morpheus, the God of Dreams and a demon called Choronzon. The game is referred only as "the oldest game" and it goes like this :

Choronzon: I am a dire wolf, prey-stalking, lethal prowler.
Morpheus: I am a hunter, horse-mounted, wolf-stabbing.
Choronzon: I am a horsefly, horse-stinging, hunter-throwing.
Morpheus: I am a spider, fly-consuming, eight legged.
Choronzon: I am a snake, spider-devouring, poison-toothed.
Morpheus: I am an ox, snake-crushing, heavy footed.
Choronzon: I am an anthrax, butcher bacterium, warm-life destroying.
Morpheus: I am a world, space-floating, life nurturing.
Choronzon: I am a nova, all-exploding, planet-cremating.
Morpheus: I am the universe -- all things encompassing, all life embracing.
Choronzon: I am anti-life, the beast of judgment. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds... of everything. SSS. And what will you be then, Dreamlord?
Morpheus: I am hope.

Now, during my googling on this riddle game, I found several articles talking about the supremacy of Hope and how it can still be outmatched by despair and so on but that is not the purpose of this post.
It is not the purpose of this post to explore this dialogue further or comment on its aspects. The purpose of this post is this:
I am bored. And I would love to play this game. So, if you have stumbled upon this post by chance or by fate or by me pinging you on gtalk or however, and are interested in a round of "the oldest game'

I am boredom.. mind numbing.. Insanity breeding..
What will you be?

Blog - 101 - Pilot (aka The One With the First Post)

2008-05-15T20:27:00.008+05:30

Why are you reading this?

I am jobless these days. Jobless to the point that I have so much time to kill that I cant even do all the killing myself.
Am thinking of hiring a hitman to do the killing if only the company I am at right now payed a bit more. :(

And so I decide, since I have so much time anyway, I could start a blog. every Tom, Dick and Harry has one anyway, so why not Harsha. :)

Chlorofluorocarbon

But being the perfectionist that i am :P I wanted my blog to open with a Bang.
I even did a google search on how to write a first post. See this

And this is what I find :
http://www.copyblogger.com/5-simple-ways-to-open-your-blog-post-with-a-bang/

5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post
With a Bang

That article seems to have been written just for me. Anyway, I decide to follow all the 5 tips mentioned there.

The first tip was to start the blog with a question. I think I have asked the best possible question right at the top.
Moving on to the other tips in quick succesion, (I would rather my post wasnt overly long like some other "ramblings" or "musings"),

Hexadecaphobia

Humorous anecdote : hmmm..
Well, I once knew a person.One day, he drank so much water, he went into the restroom and didnt come out for half an hour. hahahaha. moving on

Invoke the mind's eye (have absolutely no idea what this means, but still) :
Imagine a big bucket. It is filled with water. In the bucket, there is a floating vessel. Imagine it filled with egg yolk.
Now put some Jam and flour and soy sauce and ketchup in it. mix it well. pour some coke/pepsi in it
What do you see.something gross right? exactly. moving on

Metaphor :

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

Ahh, the last one. A shocking statistic,
I searched for some interesting(and shocking ) statistic and here's what I find.
http://www.iamlivid.com/2006/10/10/a-shocking-statistic/
A research survey in America reportedly found out that 80% of people didnt tell lies on their resume. Now thats truly shocking. I wonder what the statistic would be for Indian engineering students. :P

And now comes the best part. Apart from the five tips mentioned, there was a bonus tip to truly end with a bang. I quote "A great way to close is to tie back into your opening.".

So, here it is. If you have reached this point of the post, Why are you still reading this?

I Type, Therefore I Blog

Atheist : Be proud, Come out

Today, I have nothing to write about

Abou Ben Mayhem

I'm Dreaming Forgiveness

Don't take your love away

Give me a place to stand

The Heartbreak of Tubby Mouse

Lightning strikes twice

The birth of Ginger and garlic

Mashup feeds

Fireworks Do Not, A Ceremony Make!!

GoogleWhack

Up on cloud number 9,999

SuperSafin

Rock-Paper-Scissors-----SAND

Blog - 101 - Pilot (aka The One With the First Post)

5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog PostWith a Bang

5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post
With a Bang