Picnic, body pains and some nice movies

It is quite sometime since I wrote something in my blog.

I took an off last Thursday to supervise the flooring activity and to straighten out couple of issues that I had with the builder. On Friday, we were taken to Pragati Resorts, a weekend resort cum theme park which is spread around 1200 acres. It is around 50 kms. from the place where I stay.

The day was managed by an event management group at Pragati Resorts and it involved playing simple and fun filled games like, tug of war, passing on water filled balloons, shouting competition, along with indoor games like Billiards, TT, chess and caroms. The food was alright. The best part of the day was the afternoon, where we played cricket. We played two matches and the team of which I was a part has won both of them. We thoroughly enjoyed it; however the after effects of playing cricket after a couple of years that is the body pains are troubling me even today. Literally, every part of the body is aching, specially the right arm. I considered myself a combination of Shoeb Akhtar and Shane Warne and bowled around 5 overs, which left my right arm joint reminding me that I am not one for the next four days.

I have brought a series of movies from my friend Satish Vadrevu to watch all through this week. Some of them are, Cleopatra, Working girl, Diamonds are forever, Dr No, Octopussy, Edward Scissor hands, Kissi Se Na Kehna, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi. Watched Pretty Woman on Sunday, I guess it is one of the finest movies ever made. Another set of great movies are Nottinghill, Autumn in New York and You got a mail. These are some of the movies that I would want to collect and watch them again and again. Similarly, it is such a pleasure to watch Hrishikesh Mukherjee's and Basu Chatterjee's movies. In fact, all Amol Palekar movies of seventies, Golmal, Rang Bhirangi, Chotisi Baath (Vidya Sinha is simply adorable), Bathon Bathon mein, Rajnigandha, Naram Garam are movies to collect, store and watch over and over. Mumbai today sucks, but when you watch Mumbai in these movies of seventies it looks great. In fact, I keep telling my wife, if God appears to me and asks me what I would want, I would tell him, I would like to be born in 1950 in Mumbai, by 1975 I would need a job in Mumbai earning around 800 and then, I would ask him to give me a girl friend like Vidya Sinha. That’s all. Do I have to tell you what my wife's reaction is?

Unceremonious Exit

Does making Dravid the captain for Indian test cricket squad ring alarm bells for "Dada" for an unceremonious exit, is a big debate among the cricket enthusiasts.

Although I am not a thorough follower of the cricket news and the events, two things sounded very obvious to me about Sourav's captaincy style. The first one is Sourav's repeated failure to lead the team by example as far as his batting performance is concerned, which I think has hit rock bottom level and started to dig for newer depths. Secondly, his body language, it conveyed arrogance, unhappiness, a feeling that he is above and hence no synergy with the team members.

Though these were my observations, they seem to be corroborated with the news items that I have read about him after the recent imbroglio between Chappel and Ganguly. That he adopts divide and rule policy, doesn't have cordial relation with Sachin, doesn't attend practice sessions and fakes injuries, seem to perfectly suit and thereby corroborate my deductions of his performance and body language. By the way there is a website by name www.Ihateganguly.com, which basically is a forum for all those people who wanted the prince of Kolkata out of Indian cricket.

Looks like Sourav's tennis elbow has given a new beginning to Indian cricket through Dravid's captaincy. I wouldn't be overwhelmed by the recent series win against Srilanka and I guess the real test for anything in this world is predictability and consistency and Indian team has miles to go to achieve that. If Dravid’s captaincy can achieve that, none of us would have anything else to ask for.

Finally...... The End of Laloo's Raj

This is the best news that I have heard in the last ten years. "NDA is set to win in Bihar defeating Laloo's RJD" Click on the title of the blog to read the news item.

It has been a long awaited change and Biharis deserve it. There is uniqueness about Bihar; it cannot be made any bad than this. People's living condition, law and order cannot get worse. You get to frequently read in the news papers where opposition parties of other states compare their state with Bihar in a bid to ridicule the ruling party. Laloo (or his wife, how does it matter?) was successful in establishing a benchmark as to what bad (worst?) governance could be.

The new government which would take the reins should be careful to show the people of Bihar what the difference between good and bad governance is. It should order unbiased inquiry into all the shady deals of RJD government and the activities of Laloo, his wife, brothers in law and his aids and if proved guilty should show them the place where they actually belong. Unless, such stern steps are taken people of Bihar wouldn't realize what they have been deprived of all these 15 years.

My good friend Amar Singh must be very unhappy about this. He actually wanted to find a software job somewhere in Bihar after his MS in Canada. After Laloo's defeat, I guess Bihar would no longer be his choice for relocation. Kyun thakur?

Weekend Vows

I am back. I hope your weekend has been pleasure filled, with lots of leisure a and laid back schedule. My weekend has been hectic filled with "to do" activities that have been pending long since.
When I look back in reminiscence what I used to do for a weekend, a year ago, it looks like gone are those days of fun. I used to get up around 9 in the morning and by then my wife would have left for the college, not before ensuring that my breakfast is ready and the news paper is available ready at arms length on the bed. I have always had this habit to read the newspaper on the bed even on weekdays. Get out of the bed around 10; brush and breakfast, then sit down to watch the television. At around 11:30, I used to getup and start cooking those special dishes that are my favorites. Finish a leisure lunch with my wife and then either watch an interesting movie or read my favorite book or simply sleep.
A phone call between 3 to 4 from Jai/Vikram/Satish or all three in a conference call would interrupt my current activity and the questions are familiar, "What are you doing now? What are you planning to do for the evening?" My answers are also predictable, "Nothing, Nothing" and a detailed plan as to what to do is laid down and arrangements are quickly made and then we meet at a common place to set off to a weekend resort or a restaurant, shopping mall or a movie. It is generally a weekend resort. A three hour swimming session with quick crash courses from Vikram to all as to how to jump into the water, how to swim etc, a walk into the woody resort followed by a lavish dinner only to return to someone’s home at around 2 in the morning to sleep.
Sunday would be another lazy morning with prolonged discussions on not very important topics, like movies, cars, music or some funny thing that has happened to someone, coupled with homemade breakfast and lunch. A nice movie, banter makes the day worth spending. Sunset would remind you that it is time to go home. When you reach home, you have unwound yourself and are prepared for the Monday morning.
Back then, I never had a restaurant, wasn't building a house and didn't have an aggressive approach to career opportunities, which cut short the free time that was once available.
That was past. Now a day, weekends are no different. With just me and my wife at home all household work and other activities need to be shared between us. Added to this is the construction activity of the apartment which practically eats up all the time, then you have the restaurant work, Income tax work, vehicle repairs and not to ignore numerous petty but important things like selling old newspapers, getting a trouser from dry cleaning shop.
Travel to office is one major culprit that consumes lot of time. I practically spend 2 hours commuting to and fro which leaves no time to attend to house hold related work during the weekedays, leaving no alternative other than working them up during the weekend. By the time you attend the first few in the laundry list of to do activities your Saturday vanishes away and one half day is spent at the apartment, leaving you the Sunday evening for the restaurant.
I am learning to enjoy the activities that I am having to do during the weekend. Having said that, the very idea that you have nothing to do for the weekend but to simply lie down, eat, read a good book, watch a great movie is a bliss, never mind, even if I were to be branded lethargic.

Having a home of your own is not a cake walk

“Don’t worry sir; I will see to it that you would get 100 percent finance on the entire cost of the apartment. Even for interiors I will see to it that the entire cost is sanctioned as loan. I am there na sir; I will get it done for you.” These were the exact words that the IDBI Bank, home loan relationship manager has assured me with a year ago when I was discussing with him about applying for a home loan. When I call him now, he doesn’t even pickup the phone. Should you ask him why he hasn’t picked up the phone when you wanted to discuss something important like, release of funds he has ready made answers, “I was driving”, “I was in the traffic”, “on leave”, “How do you expect me to pickup the phone when I am in a meeting sir”, “I was in Mumbai for my engagement”.

“Sir, your second installment is due, everyone in your block has paid sir, please arrange for the payment immediately.” Says the finance guy of the builder. Where shall I get the money from if the bank contact doesn’t pick up the phone?

“It is not possible to change the door sir, the front elevation will get disturbed, it should be the same as what we offer.”, “You will have to take vitrified tiles from us only sir, you cannot get it on your own.” dictates the project Incharge of the builder. When I ask him why the kitchen platform is only 22 inches when I wanted it to be 24 inches, he would say, you should have told about it when we were building the slab. When I ask him to make a provision for another sink in the wash area, he would ask, “But, why do you need a sink there sir?”

“Always get the plan from the busiest architect in the city for your house, because he is the one who can give you the best plan” I read this quotation in one of the personality development books. The writer quotes this quote to tell that one who works busily is the one who will have new and better ideas. I have adopted this quote in all its true spirits. The architect I requested to do the interiors of my apartment is an extremely busy man, he is the branch head of a big interior design and execution firm which has its presence in entire south India and they only entertain corporate clients and that too only undertake office interiors.

We got our restaurant (Hyderabad House) done through him so I made him to agree to do my apartment with great difficulty. Owing to his business, he doesn’t pick up his phone either. Getting an appointment with him is a Herculean task and I generally celebrate the day I get half an hour of his time to discuss my apartment work.

Finally, irrespective of the kind of house you are building and irrespective of the great budget you have, the cost of getting a house built is generally overshot by at least 20 percent. The budget that I thought would suffice has shot up or is forcing me to cut down on certain things that I planned earlier. The final master stroke has been given by my dad in the morning; he called me and told me to set aside at least half a lac for the house warming ceremony. Looks like one thing is sure, by the time my apartment is completely done, I will have all my pockets burnt. Seriously, it is not a cake walk to realize the dream of owning a house.

Voice of Women

Looks like the woman folk in the country are eager to exercise their freedom of speech. First it was Khushboo (By the way, do you know there is a breakfast dish by name "Khushboo idli" sold in many restaurants in Chennai) who cracked her vocal cords by stating, "It is fine if girls indulge in premarital sex if proper precautions are taken." The statement had enough spark and fuel to thunder into a controversy. While clarifying the statement she made another comment stating, "men shouldn't expect their wives to be virgins." The later statement only added fuel instead of water to the fire.

The hue and cry that was made about the statements, burning effigies, filing 20 odd defamation cases, arrest warrant being issued and Khusboo surrendering in Mettur court are other side of the story. But, when South Indian Film artist's Association (SIFAA) didn't back the actress, Suhasini Maniratnam was quick enough to apologize to the actress on behalf of the Tamil film industry and back her.

Looks like Sania Mirza has taken cue from the Khusboo, although she didn't comment whether it is right or wrong to engage in premarital sex, she stated that it is not possible to stop people who would engage in premarital sex and hence it is advised in their best interests to take sufficient precautionary measures or care. She also pointed out that it is a matter of her choice as to what she wears (referring to the length of the skirt she wears while playing tennis) and others don't have to worry about it.

Miss Universe and Russian born Glebanova was last in the series till date to support Khushboo, she had the same opinion as Sania.

The only thing that I am happy about this episode is, you have something interesting to look at the newspaper early in the morning, something that interests you to read. I am surely not a feminist, so, I would not write anything here about the said incidents that would stand for the cause of woman, their rights, their ..... Etc. I am neither going to get judgmental about who is right and who is wrong, because there exists nothing like right or wrong, there is only one thing called power. This is a free country and people can talk and do anything that they want to provided they are going to own their words or actions and be prepared to face the consequences. What surprises me the most is how do people find so much time to burn effigies, file court cases, stage protests against one individual who just voiced what she thought is right.

Training - Part II & Cricket

Another day of intensive training as to how a BS7799 audit should be conducted. Learnt some techie stuff like dynamic IP allocation, networks, firewalls etc. The discussion that surfaced during the training was interesting.

As a part of the BS7799 compliance, any employee of the company before leaving his workstation should ensure that he locks his workstation, however incase he fails to do so, the system will automatically lock the system incase of inactivity of the computer for about 5 minutes. This reminds me of my colleague in ICICI bank, Jayanta Bhattacharjee. Incidentally there is a similar kind of compliance requirement for COPC ,(Customer Operations Performance Center, another BPO quality initiative) of which me and Jayanta apart from other were core committee members. Jayanta would frequently check for unlocked workstations in the office and when he finds one, used to send emails from their workstation, stating, "I am an idiot, everyone henceforth address me as idiot" or " I am a dumbo" or some similar silly comment like this and mark it to whole of the world. I remember occasions when this was marked to people like the center head for Hyderabad operations. The worst part is the comments that followed such mails. You would find people replying to those mails stating, "We will surely call you an idiot" or "We already knew that you are a dumbo", once again marking whole of the world.

I am keeping an eye on the score card of the match between India and South Africa happening at Hyderabad while writing this blog. Although I didn't get to watch the Indian batting, the score card tells me all the titans of Indian cricket team seemed to have lined up to return to the pavilion as if they have a more important work in the dressing room than staying to bat in the ground. The century knock by Yuvraj must have been an eventful one and this lad from Baroda, Irfan Pathan has really come handy to score those 30 or 40 runs in time of need.

One thing that reminds me of cricket is the bet that me and my dad have when Indian plays Pakistan. Nobody can get more cynical about India winning than my dad, although I wouldn't totally blame him for that cause our guys live upto his expectations. If it is cricket he is always on Pakistan's side not because he analyses their play technically and weighs the team capabilities carefully but just because he thinks they have that killer instinct which we lack most of the times and that is what makes them win. Even Pakistan's statistics against India are better than vice versa. There are quite a number of occasions on which I have won and there are some occasions in which I lost, but the last visit of Pakistan to India made me literally empty my pockets to pay my dad.

Training

I had to attend a scheduled training of "Internal auditors training program for BS7799" in the morning and that is the reason I couldn't update the blog. BS7799 is an Information System Security Policy based quality standard. The biggest threat to BPO industry today is information security and looks like BS7799 answers the vows of the clients and the industry in this regard.

Some trainers have the ability to make you loose track of the time, while others can make you swiftly drift into a nap. It is very hard to come across good trainers and of all the training programs that I attended, I probably can count on my fingers the number of trainers who I felt were amazing.

I will narrate one incident that has happened in one of the training programs that I attended. We were attending this fire safety training program and this trainer had good sense of humour. He was explaining us the priority or order in which people should be evacuated incase of fire in our office building. The order is pregnant women, senior citizens, physically challenged. Suddenly one of the attendees asked, "Shouldn't the mentally challenged be given preference while evacuating the office building in case of fire?" The trainer didn't even pause for a moment before saying, "If you employ such people here, then they should be given preference."

Tenali - Andhra Paris

Hi everyone, I hope you had an eventful weekend. I am sorry I couldn't update the blog for two days for two reasons. One is I was travelling and secondly, I had no access to internet.

Before I write down about todays topic, the following is the link of a comment posted by my cousin Pavan about K.R.Narayanan.

http://yedavalliravi.blogspot.com/2005/11/my-first-day-of-blogging.html

Ok. Back to todays topic. I have always liked to live in small towns rather to living in metros. Small towns, especially the ones in coastal Andhra are so comfortable for multiple number of reasons. Even the place where I come from, Vijayawada is such a comfortable city to live. You get everything that you want, from education to medical facilities that too at a lower cost of living. The only thing that you would miss is the entertainment part, but I guess the weekend resorts culture is fast spreading there too.

Owing to my uncle's marriage last weekend, I happened to visit Tenali, a small town in costal Andhra in Guntur district. My journey to the place was an uneventful one, although my stay was delightful. I had to travel in a city bus to Vijayawada ( a veera city bus) paying a higher price than what I pay for a hitec bus, because it is a special bus. Owing to auspicious marriage muhurtams (excuse my transliteration), all the bus tickets have been sold out. However, my wife told me that, even in an uncomfortable chair that wouldn't recline, I slept like a log. We boarded an AC coach to go to Tenali from Vijayawada.

The memorable moments of the travel started when the bus came to the outskirts of Vijayawada. Beautiful sunrise, over lush green fields and river krishna with gushing water was picture perfect. The scenary on the way to Tenali was even more wonderful. The uniqueness of this place is that all through the way, you have two water canals on either side of the road,and beyond them, hectares of lush green paddy crop. Infact one of these canals is Buckingham canal, that gives water to Chennai. So, next time you want to travel to Chennai you could take the water route, all you need is a boat and you would end up in Chennai in a couple of days if you keep rowing in one of these canals.

Finally when we reached Tenali, we drove straight to the lodging in an autorickshaw. My wife insisted that we breakfast at a well known restaurant called "Hotel Samrat" in the town where she and her father used to breakfast, whenever she was travelling to Repalle, another small town on the banks of river Krishna. We finished ablutions and started for the restaurant in a rickshaw.

Tenali, is also called as Andhra Paris, because similar to Paris this town has two beautiful canals passing through the centre of the town and the residential blocks are built around it. You will find couple of rafts over the cannals transporting people around. Although a small place, it has every facility that you would want for a happy living. Educational facilities, medical facilities, market place, theatres, etc.

To my amazement, I didn't find a single mud road in the entire town of Tenali, every road in the town is a cement one, making travel such a pleasure. We swiftly glided through the roads to reach our destination. Excellent Sambar Idli coupled with Pesarattu (Dosa made with green gram, and garnished with ginger, peppers and some Jeera) and a cup of hot, strong south Indian coffee summed up my breakfast. The sambar was finger licking. Hot breakfast on a cold winter morning is an experience. The bill for three people for a sumptous breakfast along with mineral water is just 53 bucks which reminded me of the pocket burning bill that would be given to me in Chutneys at Hyderabad for a similar kind of culinary treat. Just one of the few advantages of a small town living.

The venue of the marriage is a vast and scerene temple complex with lots of greenery. The long process of an orthodox brahmin marriage was in progress. The event being performed was "Snathakam". Excuse my transliteration but I fail to get the english alternative for this. Simply said, it is the ritual where the groom, tries to adopt sanayasa ashram after his education as no father is offering his daughter for marriage. The event ends in a rather dramatic note where the would be brother in law, coaxes the groom to drop his idea of becoming a sanyasi and instead marry his sister. Our uneventful journey the previous night made me and my wife drift into a siesta after the fiesta(breakfast) in one of the rooms allotted to us only to wake up for lunch. After another culinary experience from a small town cook, we left for the lodging.

In the evening, I engaged myself in my all time favourite activity of rambling through the market place in the small town. Thanks to Chandrababu Naidu, it was during his tenure that all roads of Tenali were made into concrete ones. There was no dust neither on the road nor on the two sides of the road. I encountered numerous petty shops that sell from clothes to bekary items, bustling with people. I came across atleast four theatres in that road. Stopped at a restaurant to have a cup of coffee just for Rs.2.50, which again reminded me of what I pay in Chutneys or Barista. Finished my evening walk with a trip inside a park maintained by VGTMUDA (Vijayawada,Guntur, Tenali Municipal Urban Development Authority, Infact there is proposal to merge these three places into a single city) Lush green lawns with old trees on the banks of a lake. Wow! What a place.

The marriage at night was well attended. Before me and my wife retired to bed at around 12 midnight, we travelled in a rickshaw to the lodgings. The rickshaw puller was drunk. A slow conversation with him made me sum up the total amount this guy spent on booze till date (He has been drinking for the past ten years, everyday), which is a staggering 60000 bucks. When I told him this figure, he was taken back, repented(atleast he sounded so) saying that with that kind of money he could have got his daughter married. He finally said he would attempt to get rid of the habbit slowly. We got up in the morning and travelled back to Vijayawada.

Indian Great Canyon

Couple of weeks ago, I have sent a mail about a place called “Gandikota” in Andhra Pradesh to many of my friends who are there in my email distribution list. My cousin Pavan who is an architect by profession is doing a project for Department of Archeology and has shot over 600 pictures of this place. Couple of these pictures are posted here. Some of the intended recipients of that mail couldn’t receive it because the mail was above 1 M.B.

Gandikota is situated in Cudapah district of Andhra Pradesh and is around 400 Kms. drive from Hyderabad. The beauty of this place is the canyon that you see in the pictures. Just in case you are planning to visit the place, accomodation facilities are available in Jammalamadugu and secondly also visit "Belam caves" in Kurnool.

The first picture of the two contains dark brown spots in it, can someone guess what they are? Cattle! If cattle would look like dots, just imagine the depth and width of the canyon. I just wonder why the government doesn't promote these places of tourist interest.

I have a series of 12 pictures of this place and if someone wants to have a look at them please email me at ravi.yedavalli@gmail.com. (Please remember that your email server should be capable of delivering mails that are more than 1 M.B.)

Kocheril Raman Narayanan

K.R.Narayanan, former president of India has passed away yesterday. He is the first Dalit President. He was supposed to be a Man of letters personally, a great diplomat professionally and a secularist politically, although I personally never had any regard for him owing to his style of functioning and specifically for his reaction in two incidents.

The first reference is to a clemency petition that was made by two Christian dalits who have been convicted and awarded capital punishment in a case famously known as "Chilakaluripet Bus burning case". The convicted indulged in a gruesome act of roasting 21 passengers alive who are aboard a bus that was on its way to Chilakaluripet, a small town in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The convicted stopped and boarded the bus (hardly couple of kilometres away from its destination ) in the wee hours and tried to rob the passengers and as a measure to threaten them sprayed petrol and lit the bus. 21 passengers were charred to death. After the henious act the culprits had no remorse, instead enjoyed movies, alcohol and wandered in agritcultural fields around the place of crime. When an award was initiated to capture the culprits, one of them appeared before the police on the pretext of supplying clues for capture of the criminals. The police doubted the man whose hands were burnt and arrested him and his accomplice only to find out that they were the perpetrators of the crime.

All courts from district level to the apex have awarded and confirmed capital punishment to the convicted and finally the clemency petition was made to the then president Shankar Dayal Sharma during the fag end of his tenure. The strong Christian lobby and its protagonist George Fernandes left no stone unturned in building support to the "great cause" of awarding clemency to the convicted. I have read news paper reports, that they even wanted to broach the topic with the then President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela who was visiting India, to have the approval of clemency petition recommended by him. Myself and my paternal uncle wrote a letter to the president Shankar Dayal Sharma asking him not to award clemency explaining the details of the case as to why they don't deserve it. We reminded him of "Nishkama Karma Yoga" as propounded in Bhagavatgeeta.

Alas! Before the file has come to the president's office, Shankar Dayal Sharma's term ended and K.R Narayanan assumed office and the first thing he did was to award clemency to these incorrigible culprits ignoring the plight and agony of the family members, relatives and friends of those 21 people who have been baked to death. A newspaper even quoted a family member saying that, if the mercy petition is approved, the common man will loose confidence in the legal system.

I was residing in Chilakaluripet when the henious incident occurred and happened to visit the place of crime. The sight of the burnt bus was disturbing. Dead bodies couldn't be identified because they got roasted and the kith and kin were given remains by literally scratching them from the body of the bus to perform the last rites. They didn't even know if the "remains" they got belonged to their family member or not.

Did the convicts deserve clemency? Why was the president so merciful towards the convicted when they weren't towards the passengers?

The second reference is to the riots in Gujarat. In the wake of Godhra incident where in 56 Hindus who were traveling in Sabarmati express were burnt alive by Muslim fundamentalists, riots have started in Gujarat. K.R.Narayanan didn't talk, condemn the incident of Godhra, nor did he mourn for the lives of those 56 Hindus, but was quick enough in condemning the riots and quicker in painting Narendra Modi black. He has even written a "strong" letter to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee about the riots.

K.R.Narayanan had been selective in using his words as "man of letters" for certain sections of the society, has used all his skills as"diplomat" when atrocities have been committed by them and yet remained "secular".

None of the words in English language trouble me more than the word "secular". The reason being the meaning of this word changes with situations, community of people involved in the situation and the context. All my efforts all through my life to understand the true meaning of this word have failed. I sometimes wonder if there would be any other country in this world other than India, where the interest of the majority community is not taken into consideration for making policy decisions. Being a Hindu sometimes gives me identity crisis.

Dear Non Vegetarian protagonists

I am happy that yesterdays post in my blog has sparked a debate. My erstwhile ICICI Bank colleague Vinod Reddy has posted a comment justifying eating non vegetarian food. I was in a hurry yesterday evening, so I decided I would answer it today.

Meanwhile, my erstwhile co-tenant and good friend Ritesh has posted a counter argument to Vinod's post. I just have couple of things to clarify. For better understanding please read those two comments before you read this.

The purpose of my post was not to debate whether one should have vegetarian food or not. I am very sure that every human being can eat anything that satisfies their gastronomic urges to astronomical proportions. I was only referring to what disciples of ISKON or people who follow Vaishnava dharma eat.

Secondly, I don't know from where you have read or picked up Sathwik, Manasik etc references to our fingers, but please remember that there are so many interpreters who are very liberal in their interpretations of scriptures which ISKON doesn't necessarily agree with. You should actually read their, Bhagavatgeetha and Srimad Bhagavatham to understand this. They firmly believe that most of the commentaries on scriptures available in book forms are "liberal" and "stretched" interpretations and that is why they named their Bhagavatgeetha as "Bhagavatgeetha as it is".

Your point that it might be discovered at a later point of time that plants do have emotions, reactions, pain and suffering is far fetched and has already been answered by Ritesh. I would just like to add one point, although all of ISKON's principles are scientific and based on sound logic, it is primarily a religious organization and accepts whatever the Godhead has stated in scriptures as thumb rule. The logic why it is acceptable to eat fruits, vegetables is that, God Himself has stated in Bhagavtgeetha that they can be offered to him before they are consumed by humans, hence the question of giving them pain while chopping doesn't arise.

Finally, not eating non-vegetarian food doesn't create ecological imbalance, but instead eating non-vegetarian food creates it. The cattle, sheep or poultry that is being bred for the purpose of slaughtering for human consumption at a later point of time consume vegetation, which is getting exhausted very quickly. Just a small example, the sheep that you breed, consumes 24 full trees before it is killed for its meat. Doesn't that cause imbalance?

Here are two excellent articles by Kurma Dasa about this topic

http://www.kurma.net/essays/e14.html

http://www.kurma.net/faq/ask60.html

In one of the passages I referred to the logic in ISKON principles. I would like to quote one logical argument that ISKON put forth to challenge the concept of evolution of man. In the book "Back to Godhead" His holiness Srila Prabhupada denies to agree that man evolved out of a monkey. His point is simple, if man were to evolve from a monkey, the monkey should have become extinct, but it hasn't.

Spiritual Rambling

I was waiting for a comment to be posted on my blog all of yesterday and finally my wait has been fruitful. An anonymous visitor to my blog has posted a comment asking me where in vedas has it been mentioned not to eat non vegetarian food. He also stated that he is an avid lover of Hyderabadi Biryani, should be my good friend Vikram.

Well, I would try to answer this question with whatever limited understanding that I have with my association with ISKON. In Vaishnava dharma, food is cooked and first offered to Krsna and only later it is consumed. In Bhagavathgeeta, when Arjuna asks Krsna as to what should be offered to Him, Krsna says, "Pathram Pushpam Phalam Thoyam yome bhakthya prayacchathi tad aham bhakthi apahrtham ahsnaami prayatatmonah" which means, Leaf, Fruit, Flower and Water, any of these things can be offered to Me with devotation and the same would be accepted, hence food like meat, fish, egg donot qualify for being offered to Krsna. Secondly, food is basically classified into three categories namely, "Sathwik", "Tamasik" and "Rajasik". Sathwik food is fruits, leafy vegetables, legumes etc. Tamasik and Rajasik food are items like garlic, onion, coffee and tea which stir your hormones, therefore they are avoided. I hope this clarifies.

If I am not overdosing you with spiritual sermons, I would like to narrate a dialogue that I had with one of the Temple devotees.(Temple devotees basically practice brahmacharya and remain in the temple and work for spreading ISKON) During the course of the conversation he was telling me that, Krsna is so benevolent that He would give you whatever is asked, whether good or bad. If you have a tongue for meat and keep eating that in this brith, He will see to it that you are born as a tiger in the next birth, similarly, if you want to live in illusion worshipping false Gods, essentially humans who potray themselves as God, He will give you the best illusion possible.

Finally, in one of the chapters in Bhagavthgeetha, Arjuna asks Krsna as to what is the most beautiful and powerful thing in this universe. Krsna simply replies stating that there isn't a thing in this universe that is more beautiful that Him and there isn't a thing in this world that is more powerful than Him. He adds, incase you find something that is more beautiful or powerful than Krsna (as human beings we are bound to succumb to such illusions) just remember that it is part of Him.

Kurma Dasa

People who have heard or read about ISKON (International Society for Krsna Consciousness) are likely to have heard about Kurma Dasa. A staunch and ardent follower of the movement, he is actually more famous for his culinary skills rather to his spiritual ones. Dubbed as the Vegetarian Guru of Australia, Kurma Dasa is an authority on Veggie cooking that follows ISKON guidelines of food eating that is "Sathwik food", to be more specific, food that does not include meat, fish, egg, onion and garlic. Transcendental devotees of ISKON don't even consume coffee and Tea.

There is a lot of reading available on his website about him. The point of this blog is about three interesting points about him.

Kurma's Blog
He updates his blog on a daily basis which is his virtual diary. This is one of my favourite blogs, cause I find his style of writing very interesting and readable and secondly the material he posts is diverse and useful. Somebody who is an avid food lover like me, would definetely like it.You probably would also enjoy reading it.

http://www.iskcon.net.au/kurma/

Culinary Skills
Though Kurma is by birth a Britisher and by citizenship an australian, he is one chef who would teach you new, interesting and mouth watering things about indian recipies. Take for example Gulab Jamoons, he calls them "Succelent Rose scented milk fudge balls in sugar syrup" and the way he describes them will surely make you feel like devouring some. Wheather it is the simple poori that we have been eating quite long or " Urad dal doughnuts" aka Vadas, he has the ability to make you feel that you have been starving for ages and need to catch up with food immediately. He has an unimitable style of telling you about recipies, food info and a whole lot of other culinary stuff. He conducts food classes in Australia and widely travels around the world to do the same and the details are updated on a daily basis in his blog and his website.

http://www.kurma.net/

Spiritual
Though a non Indian by birth, Kurma dasa has took to Indian culture, dharma and life under the tutorship of his spiritual guru and founder of ISKON, His holiness Srila Prabhupada. Kurma dasa has profound knowledge about ancient vedas, Sri Bhagavatam, Bhagavatgeetha and a whole lot of scriptures and has written articles about the same in his website. His best work on this is a 700 page book that he has written about His holiness Srila Prabhupada's stay at Newzealand and Australia during seventies, "The great Transcendental Adventure".

Thats all for today, I hope you enjoyed reading this.

My first day of Blogging

I always viewed writers with certain sense of awe for their writing skills or their ability to make people read some thought of theirs. I always believed they are a part of the intelligencia. This probably left a lasting thought on my mind ever since I was a child that some day I should write a book. I guess I will surely fullfill that dream one day. This blog could be one right move towards that. I have a platform to express my ideas, feelings, emotions etc. and I would do my best to see that this blog is readable.

Since today is my first day of blogging, wish me good luck and I have couple of interesting things to share with you.

The average age of a blogger is aroung 24 years. (Well, I am 28 so I hope I have a 20 year counterpart who is blogging to maintain the mean :-) Some six sigma statistics effect)
Bloggers collective refer themselves as Blogosphere.

See you tomorrow.