Kerala visit, Dark Knight & ya, The Potency of God!

Its a considerably long time since i blogged, taking into account the initial ardor of the previous blog posts. Well.. It happens. Anyway, back to blogging.

For the record, i went to Kerala, for the rites of my Grandpa. Well that went on well.

Q:Anything special regarding the Kerala visit?
A: Well, barring the fact that i almost drowned twice, had a lot of fun, and got a very nasty cold and ya, did something else also ;D, nothing special.

Next: The Dark Knight

If you are thinking that am gonna write how great this movie is, i know better that if you know the greatness and the impact of the movie, you wont be reading about that in my blog. I just wish to quote from the Dark Knight.

He's the hero that Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now ... and so we'll hunt him ... because he can take it ... because he's not a hero... he's a silent guardian, a watchful protector... a Dark Knight.

Now these are the last lines of the movie. A fitting end to a great movie and this is an understatement.

The next quote is by Joker. But its the one that's getting more attention.

This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.

Well, to put it scientifically, as to my understanding, an immovable object is something that can't be moved. Infinite mass, absorbs anything and everything. Like a Black Hole. Now, what is an unstoppable force. It is an infinite source of power. It doesn't runout. Well since there is wat you call as antimatter, there could also be something of an Anti Black hole. Seriously, me and my theories!

Anyway both are singularities and can't exist and this is an illogical statement. While reading it about in Wiki, (Looked up due to the prior conversation between me and Don in the afternoon) i came upon an interesting paradox.

The Power of God!

Well, this statement is about the Omnipotency of God. Now for the uninitiated and those who are verbally less gifted and those non GRE people :D
Omnipotent means having unlimited power.

Now consider this question,

Can God create a Stone, so heavy, that he couldn't lift?

Well the question is used as an argument to disprove the existence of God..

From Wiki:

J.L. Cowan attempts to resolve the paradox in "The Paradox of Omnipotence Revisited." He proposes the following:

1. Either God can create a stone which He cannot lift, or He cannot create a stone which He cannot lift.
2. If God can create a stone which He cannot lift, then He is not omnipotent (since He cannot lift the stone in question).
3. If God cannot create a stone which He cannot lift, then He is not omnipotent (since He cannot create the stone in question).
4. Therefore God is not omnipotent.

Well there are lot of counter arguments to it. For more details you can always wiki or google.

But in the Hindu Mythology, there exists the all too familiar story of Lord Shiva, giving Padmasura the boon that whatever he touches will turn into ash, and Padmasura trying to test it on Shiva itself and Vishnu becoming mohini etc..

Also It is said tat there was once OM and there was Great Para Sakthi. She created the lords Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma and the gods were male chauvinists. Vishnu being the mastermind gave the idea to Shiva to do penance for Parashakti and Got his Third Eye as a boon. With that third eye, he turned Parasakthi into three heaps of Ash and from the ashes they got Parvati, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. I haven't read that, but saw it in a movie but guess it would be somewhere in the literature.

Well In Hinduism, there are Gods. Plural. And those Gods are subject to their rules.

So the Question of God still continues!
எல்லாம் அவன் செயல்!

If you have ice cream I will give you some; If you have no ice cream I will take it away from you! So What is it?

Time for some Zen. A main component of Zen is the practice of Zazen, which in simplistic terms is meditating. Zen monks often meditate on Koans (spelled "cone") which are seemingly non sensical questions or statements. The purpose of these koans is used to open the mind of the practitioner so as to facilitate enlightenment.

Here is an often told koan:

Once a student wished to become a Zen monk. So he went to a Zen master to request him to take him as disciple. The Zen master said "You are too young, so come later." But the student insisted on joining him. So the Zen master asked him the following Koan:

"You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together," said the Master. "Now show me the sound of one hand"

Now i could tell you the answer the student told. But then there is no correct answer to any koan. Its upto each one to find his own answer.

I can tell my own version though. Once upon a time the Zen Dude asked one of his Girlfriends the same question; "You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together," "Now show me the sound of one hand!"

The Girlfriend hesitated for a moment; and then her eyes twinkling came near the Zen dude, Slapped him and went away.

Has a Girl friend Zen-nature?
This is the most serious question of all.
If you say yes or no,
You lose your own Girl friend!

And the answer to the title is "Icecream Koan!"

End of the Universe!

Decided to write on this topic after watching the Star Trek Episode: The Lonely Among Us.
The episode plot is relatively simple; A New Engineer and his Assistant arrive on the Star ship Enterprise and tweak its engine. A mistake causes the Ship to break the warp barrier and they go to the end of universe. How they get back is the rest of the plot.

Anyway, by all means the End of the Universe is a fascinating idea. Scientifically there are many theories suggesting how the universe may end--Big Freeze, Heat Death, Big Crunch, Big bounce are some of those.

Rather than the scientific theories, i was intrigued by the depiction of the End of the Universe.

In the star trek episode, the end of the universe is described as a place where thought becomes reality. Whatever your thoughts are, they realize immediately.

In The Restaurant at the end of the Universe, Douglas Adams describes the End of the Universe as Where all time stops, and the big bang and big crunch are happening all the time. The fireworks of the Big Bang are part of the attraction of the Restaurant there.

Another depiction i have came across is in a game i played. Its called Chrono Trigger in which End of Time, rather than End of Universe is depicted. But i guess both are interchangeable.

I remember reading two short stories, one by Arthur C Clarke. Its called The Nine Billion Names of God. Another is by Isaac Asimov called The Last Question.

I could describe it here, but i would be spoiling your experience. Since they are short stories they won't take more than 5 minutes to read. But the impact of the stories hits you hard. I seriously recommend going through both the stories. These are truly masterpieces.
The Nine Billion Names of God
The Last Question

What Came first the Chicken or the Egg?
The Circle has neither a beginning nor an End.

Goodbye Achacha

No regrets; Only Gratitude........ Goodbye Achacha

Speeches Three

Felt all the previous posts were on the lighter side. So decided to be serious for a change. This blog post is about 3 speeches that i came across in the recent days. Felt these speeches have an underlying connection. So here are my thoughts.

Recently finished the book "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. It's a nice book to read and entertaining also.The book's protagonist is Howard Roark, and Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism is delivered in his speech at the courtroom, which is the climax of the book.
Now what is objectivism?

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.--- Ayn Rand

Objectivism concentrates on the power of the individual and his greatness. This is a very tempting philosophy. I mean it makes sense right? Why should i live for others? My survival and my greatness is of priority. People are attracted by this proposition. Ayn rand blasts the very concept of Altruism. As Roark puts it,

“Altruism is the doctrine which demands that man live for others and place others above self"

Actually altruism is a concept that baffles the Evolutionary biologists. What is evolution? Simply put its "Survival of the fittest"; But the altruism shown in nature by animals seems to suggest a theory of Survival of the Nicest!


This worship of Individualism and Man as a great hero is overrated in my opinion. I may sound a bit nihilistic.But then why is objectivism, or more specifically individuality tempting and attractive? I guess its because we live in what we call as Democracy. As Douglas Adams
puts it, the problem with democracy is what the world affects the individual but the individual doesn't seem to be having an impact on the world.

In his speech on "Is there an Artificial God?" DNA says, there is a falseness in our perspective that the world and the universe was created for us and Man is great. Here is a very thought provoking quote on Money from the speech.

Money is a completely fictitious entity, but it's very powerful in our world; we each have wallets, which have got notes in them, but what can those notes do? You can't breed them, you can't stir fry them, you can't live in them, there's absolutely nothing you can do with them that's any use, other than exchange them with each other - and as soon as we exchange them with each other all sots of powerful things happen, because it's a fiction that we've all subscribed to.

And so drawing a parallel, the so called achievements of Individuality wouldn't make sense, if the so called Collectives didn't exist.


This does not mean we need to drop the individualist perspective. Looking further into Individualism we come to Capitalism and Socialism. At this point, we come to the third speech. This one is by Bill gates, made at the World Economic Forum. According to him, the least needy get the most improvement, while the most needy get the least improvement or none at all in some cases. The problem on missing out on the benefits is they will suffer from the negative effects of the benefits they missed out on. The effects of global warming will be biggest on people who have done the least to cause it.


As a solution, Bill gates proposes what is called as creative capitalism. He emphasizes on the need for changes that are based on market incentives. He acknowledges that profits are not always possible when businesses strive to serve the very poor. He proposes an alternative which is also a market based incentive- Recognition. His argument is that when a change is driven by market based incentives, you have a sustainable plan for change- because profits and recognition are
renewable resources. He cites various examples of creative capitalism in action. Overall a brilliant argument from Bill Gates.

I would seriously recommend going through all the three speeches. Your welcome to share your views on the comments section.

Howard Roark's Courtroom Speech
Douglas Adam's Speech-Is there an artificial God?
Bill Gates's Speech

Until Next post!

乱取り(Randori) Part 1

While filling out my profile page in blogger, there is this section called a Random Question. As the name suggests they are random generated questions and you are supposed to answer them and your answer gets displayed on your profile. My random question and the answer i gave can be seen on my profile page. I became interested in the random questions and i collected quite a few of them. I have tried answering a few of them in this post.

Q:Paper or Briefs?
A:In India, we use Water!



Q:You can whistle and steam can whistle, so why do you sing in the shower?
A:Karapan Boochiku kooda meesai irukudu, adukaga adhu Aambilai aagida mudiyuma? (Translation: Even a cockroach has a moustache, So can it become a man?)



Q:Unlike a dog, how can a turtle ever be naked?
A: This is the best i could come up with. Click here



Q:Never mind the turtle. Don't you think you're sure to win?
A: For the Zen Dude, battles are won before they are fought.




Q:If mud is dirt plus water, what is clay?
A: According to wikipedia, Mud is a liquid or semi-liquid mixture of water and some combination of soil, silt, and clay.
So Clay= Mud minus (Soil & Silt)



Q: Chicken Monkey Shoes?
A: According to urban dictionary, Chicken monkey is any small animal that is fun to play with.
So i guess chicken monkey shoes must be the shoes that those small animals wear. I managed to find a picture though.




Q: The children are waiting! Please tell them the story about the bald frog with the wig:
A: Once upon a time, there was a bald frog who wore a wig to hide its baldness. It was so bald that you could brainwash the frog by just making it take a shower. So it stayed in the pond all the time. The frog was an avid reader. Actually an interesting bit of trivia is most of the frogs are avid readers. They say that they teach "Metamorphosis" by Kafka to tadpoles in School. There was a chick(en) who was the girlfriend of the frog. The chicken went to the library and jumped in the counter and said "BUK BUK BUK". The librarian would then give the chicken the book. Then the chick would take that book to the frog but the frog would chuck out the book saying "RREDIT RREDIT RREDIT". So the chicken got angry with the frog and dumped the frog. So the frog was feeling very lonely & bored, it decided to go out to get some "fresh hair". Since it was a Leap Year, the favorite time of the frogs, it decided to go somewhere far and decided to travel by train to Alli Kulam.. He went to central station and bought a ticket to Alli Kulam and kept his most prized possession, his Wig at the Croak Room. It then boarded its train and opposite to the frog's seat was a Fly. The Fly kept buzzing and the frog asked it to keep quiet. But the Fly didn't keep quiet. It kept on Buzzing. So the frog said, "You keep Bugging me!, I am gonna eat you!" and tried to catch the fly with his tongue. But the fly was too fast and it flew out of the train, the frog followed it by jumping out of the running train and Alas!. The frog had broken his leg and was very Unhoppy!

Moral of the Story: A Frog with 4 legs cut goes deaf!

There are still more random questions. But they are for some other time.. Until then..

さよなら。(Sayonara!)

Once Upon a Time in Rosemary

Question: Any Experience you Wish to share?

Once upon a time in rose mary when a guy called sundar was studyin in 8th standard he was asked to mind the class of 2nd standard....the guys in the class were so mischievous that he had to write their names on board to silence them....the class became quiet then.....few minutes later he saw a guy in 3rd row giving a letter to a girl sitting near him...his sherlock holmes brain said somethin was wrong with that letter....he snatched that letter from him immediately n read that....as he had expected the guy was tryin to propose to the girl....he wrote the 3 magical words in that letter...unfortunately the magic dint work with him.....he showed the letter to his class teacher....n she immediately ordered the boy n girl to be separated for life.....thereafter the boy was forced to sit in the last bench.....and the girl in first bench far away from that.....the teacher rewarded the sincere 8th standard student for his discipline.....n from then he was called antilove sundar by those 2nd standard students due to grudge....altho he was really called sincere sundar by everyone....n true love sundar by his class teacher...
P.S. the writer of this article now works in a avvaiyar matrimonial.com ...

Excerpt from Instant Slam no.18, Slambook no.1058586

Girl Friends

Today Phone Rang in the morning at 7.30. I picked up the phone. The voice said (translated to English)

"Dear BSNL customer, Your bill amount for the month of June is Rs.957/- Please pay the bill to avoid disconnection. If you have already paid the bill ignore this message."

Dad: Who was on the phone?
Me: Automated call from BSNL about the bill.
Dad: How do you say its automated da?
Me: Well, it was a computerized girl's voice pa..
Dad: How come they don't use computerized man's voice?

I started thinking. Why do men use female personalities for computers and their possessions?

• Quadraplex T-3000 computer has a female personality. For those of you wondering what is this, its the Computer that runs Dexter's laboratory. Even Dexter who thinks girls are slimy (maybe a Generalization, but Dee Dee is slimy!) gives his computer a female personality and calls it (her) "my love".

• This is what Gunnery Sergeant Hartman instructs his recruits in the film Full Metal Jacket:

"Tonight... you pukes will sleep with your rifles! You will give your rifle a girl's name! Because this is the only pussy you people are going to get! Your days of finger-banging old Mary Jane Rottencrotch through her pretty pink panties are over! You're married to this piece, this weapon of iron and wood! And you will be faithful!"

• There is a website called Ananova.com that originally featured a computer-simulated animation of a woman newscaster, named "Ananova," who had been programmed to "read" newscasts to Web users.

The list goes on. So What am i coming to say?

Heard this one from Manju: Everybody likes a woman's company; even women..

So here it is. Now you know why the blog title is "Zen dude and his Girlfriends" and Not "Zen Dude" alone.

So in the forthcoming posts, the Girlfriends of the Zen Dude will be making their appearances.. Watch out!

Dewa mata!

Name Sake

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

Shakespeare

Decided to blog again. Decision making is kinda of simple. But finding a name for the blog was not so simple.

The names i thought of:

• Zen & the art of Girlfriend maintenance ( spoof on the Book "Zen & the art of Motorcycle maintenance, but it has been spoofed a lot so decided against it)
• My Girlfriend said she needs more space, so i locked her outside ( now this is a title with the twist, but then decided to keep it for a later post )
• Zen Dude's Guide to Nose picking ( It has the cool *GROSS* feel to it. But my feeling is that its a very good title, since Zen says complete immersion in whatever you do, & nobody can deny the bliss when you are alone and picking your nose. May make an interesting post title though)
• Fun with Zen ( Pretty Crappy one!)
• A Zen Dude & his Girl friends ( felt it was kind of lame, but decided to go for it as it has got the 3 main things in the title: Zen, Dude & Girl Friends)
  

So once again i step into the world of blogging, this time with a zen twist.

なむ あみだ ぶつ (Namu Amida Butsu)