'I draw great strength from my family and friends and therefore I'm not very religious'.

I couldn't understand what it was about this that struck me as odd. Something about it caused it to stick out like a splinter in my head. I couldn't put a finger on it and I didn't give it much thought. Recently I found myself reading the same words of the same Orkut profile. Again it struck me as odd. It was then that I realized what it was. about it that had bothered me. I realised that I did not agree with the implied purpose of religion that this sentence was attempting to portray. Was it true that one didn't need religion or spirituality if one had good family and friends? In other words, was religion a substitute for friends and family?

Well I have good family and friends but I find I still resort to the almighty in times of need. What then, is the important of religion and spirituality in our lives if we are constantly surrounded by friends and family? I think the former distinguishes itself by providing an absolute ideal where friends and family can only provide temporary cushion, sometime obligatory, flexible as needed and in keeping with the times. Religion (or spiritualism, whatever term one may chose to use) gives us a path that will remain the absolute ideal, the absolute truth, one that will always remain correct, irrespective of day and age. relatives and friends can give one strength but the existence of an absolute emanates only from faith in godhood alone. This is my conviction.

A tiny island in the Indian Ocean about 900 miles east of Madagascar, Mauritius has been ruled by the Dutch, the French and the Britich, in that order. When the French lost the war to the British, the treaty acceding control to the British specified that mauritius would continue to have French as its main language and that French culture would remain. It's not surprising then that the local population speaks fluent French, in addition to a Bhojpuri dialect of Hindi and a pigeon form of French mixed with hindi called 'Creole' that is yet to chieve the status of a complete language.

The entire coastline of Mauritius is a neverending beach that looks like its been pulled out of a movie. Several shades of light blue merging into a darker blue and turquise green further away. White sands and palms. December and January are peak tourist months for Mauritius. Its when the fifty-five five-star hotels (each of which is located on the coastline) are busiest. Really, I know of no other place with so many grand hotels are such great density.

But Mauritius is much more than just a tanning ground for sun-starved tourists. Mauritian society is highly multicultural. Island residents are the descendants of people from the Indian subcontinent, continental Africa, Madagascar, France, England, China plus a few other places. The people of Indian origin that now constitute the bulk of the Mauritian population were brought here as indentured labour for sugarcane farming from Bihar, Bengal, Tamil Nadu and what is now Andhra Pradesh by the British who then ruled both countries. When they landed here, the British tried recording their names in English
resulting in the strange spellings that we see today. (Our landlord here is one Mr. Vencatswamee). Several generations later, the people of mauritius have managed to keep intact the religion and culture they had brought with them. They are staunch followers of Hinduism and even stronger Shaivites. The Govt. of Mauritius openly promotes Hinduism. During the month of Maha-Shivratri, Mauritians travel from their homes on foot to the Ganga Talao, a huge lake that represents the river ganges of Mauritius, to draw water which they then carry home to pour on the little shivlings in their homes and in the huge Shiv temple.

Yesterday we went on a picnic to the south western shore of Mauritius. We took along lunch which consisted of 'Dhol Pouri' which is Mauritian for 'Daal Poori', a fast food snack that is sold in kiosks on the roads. So with set of at nine in the morning with foldable garden chairs, some frond mats and our picnic basket. The view at the shore was breathtaking (picutures coming soon). We then went to Alexanrdra falls, followed by Chamarel, a place where seven distinct colors of soil are visible.

If you think sunny beaches is all that Mauritius has to offer, think again. This tiny island has lakes, rivers, waterfalls and even mountains! In 1847, Mauritius became the fifth country in the world to issue postage stamps.Mauritius was the only known habitat of the extinct Dodo bird (for some reason, they make a big deal of of this - they even sell wooden models and fridge magnets of the dodo).

These are only my first impressions of this beutiful country. This when I've been here for 4 days. I'll be putting up pictures soon.

'You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first and then heaven,
and that heaven was copied after Mauritius.'

-Mark Twain

Labels: holiday, home, Mauritius, new year, vacation

Prabhuji ! Tum Chandan, Hum Pani |
Jaaki Ang Ang Baas Samaani ||
Prabhuji ! Tum Ghan, Ban Hum Mora |
Jaise Chitwat Chand Chakora ||
Prabhuji ! Tum Deepak Hum Baati,
Jaaki Jyoti Barai Dini Raati ||
Prabhuji ! Tum Moti, Hum Dhaga |
Jaise Sonhe Milat Suhaga ||
Prabhuji ! Tum Swami, Hum Dasa |
Aisi Bhakti Karai Raidasa ||

Approximate meaning:

Prabhuji ! Tum Chandan, Hum Pani |
Jaaki Ang Ang Baas Samaani ||

O Lord, we are the water. You are the sandalwood that perfumes the water and is present equally everywhere in the water.

Prabhuji ! Tum Ghan, Ban Hum Mora |
Jaise Chitwat Chand Chakora ||

O Lord, we are forest. You are the cloud. As a Chakora Bird is thirsty for a raindrop directly falling into its mouth from the cloud, so we are for You.

Prabhuji ! Tum Deepak Hum Baati,
Jaaki Jyoti Barai Dini Raati ||

O Lord, You are the light (deepak) and we are the thread(baati) that burns to sustain the ever glowing flame.

Prabhuji ! Tum Moti, Hum Dhaga |
Jaise Sonhe Milat Suhaga ||

O Lord, we are the thread and you are the beautiful pearls of the mala.

Prabhuji ! Tum Swami, Hum Dasa |
Aisi Bhakti Karai Raidasa ||

O Lord, You are the master. We are Your servants. Let this be the way of my devotion forever.

Taste maker has learnt his first lesson: How not to be disappointed.

Its quite simple really. One must merely learn not to have any expectations. None at all.

'How do you do that', you ask, and I really wish I could explain it to you. I really do. But I think there really isn't any explaining I can do to help you. You see, You just have to do it.

'Easier said than done' you say.

Ah, yes, and you would be right. Whic,h I suppose is the reason that it is only at this age that I am beginning to learn how this works in the first place.

Bogger sucks. I used to swear by it, but today I discovered how ignorant I have been all this while and how trly and toyally blogger really sucks. I suppose I assumed that since it was associated with Google, it had to be the best. Introducing wordpress.com. I mean khamman. This blogging tool is just brilliant. How did I realize this? I felt a need to classify my posts into categories. So I did some searching in blogger and googling around, only to discover that blogger didn't support categories. There were some hacks around it that involved other websevrces such as del.icio.us but there was no native support for categories.

Then I found Wordpress - a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. And it is. It really is. Too bad I just upgraded this blog to blogger beta. That, in effect, means that I cannot export all my posts to wordpress - else I would have.

I had a dream today. Not last night. Today. In it, people were staring at me.  Women were staring at me, young women between the ages of 20 and 28. I think they were sneering, jeering and ridiculing me. I looked back at them, half because they all looked very pretty. 

Then this guy came along. He was wearing a black shirt that hugged his body. You could tell he had been working out. His hair was spiked, you know the way it usually is on guys. He began flirting with some of the women. They liked it. I could tell they were enjoying themselves. I realised there was alcohol. I remember seeing beer, some martini glasses, and some other drinks that I can't seem to remember now. The women continued to look at me - it was as if they were trying to tantalize me. Each of them was minimally clad. Then the guy took two of the women by their arms and walked towards his car.

The three of them made out in the car. Then they rolled up the windows and drove of, swevering madly in the crowd. I saw that it was a BMW. Then I looked at myself. I was wearing the clothes I had worn to class. I had my backpack on too. Just then, it happened. I felt something regurgutate inside of me and I puked right there. I felt really sick.

First, to whet your appetite, here are some maps from the Hitchhiker's guide:

And now, for the main course. I have found, through some harmless Googling, the entire BBC Radio series of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

A delectable treat indeed. I'm currently on episode 9.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd
It droppeth as the gentle rain
From heaven upon the Place beneath

It is twice blessed
It blesseth him who gives
And him who takes.

...

Here's an interesting map of the world - it shows the location of nuclear weapons.

I'm at the great O' Hare International Airport in Chicago right now. I decided to purchase an "all day pass" to the WiFi service after they announced that my flight to Newark, NJ was delayed by 2 hours. Below are the events that transpired in the last few hours:

In stead of boarding at 8:30, I boarded United Airlines flight UA974 at 11 pm. Ready to take iff at 11:15, a Chinese lady sitting 2 rows in front of me on the other side of the aisle called an airhostess and informed her that she could smell something strange. The hostess called the 2nd in command captian of the aircraft. What followed was a long and tiresmome wait, at the end of which the captain announced that they had decided to go back to the gate to get the plane checked out. At the gatre, two engineers walked in and did some looking around near our portion of the plane. At 11:45 pm, the captian announced they were about to do an engine restart to cehck if the smell was real. So the engines were rebooted. There was no smell. After a while, the captian shut off the engines again. Suddenly a number of people declared inunision that they could smell it. It was the smell of oil. Unmistakable. The captain proceeded to inform us that the engineers were on the phone to the engineering unit base in San Francisco to figure out the problem.

By this time, a number of passengers begun to get restless. One guy asked a hostess if he could get off the plane and take a flight next morning. There was murmur. This was like a movie scene. (I'm not flying United again I think. Just want to get back home now). At 12:15 am the pilot announced they had decided the aircraft was out of service and that there would be another plane at 1:30 am. We then proceeded to deplane at gate B7 and walked to gate B18 where we were told the other plane would be. After a wait of 25 minutes, we were told that the plane at gate B18 was a test plane and there wasnt enought crew to handle it. We were asked to move yet another time to gate B10 where, we were told, an aircraft would arive at 1:15 am and we would be flown out to Newark at 1:30 am. It is now 12: 48 am. I really hope this works out and they dont end up messing our bags in between.

Looking forward to a long sleep tomorrow. Thank god its a weekend.

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Update at 12:55 am:

We have just been informed that the plane we are waiting from will not be here untill 1:40 am. The revised departure time for Newark has been set at 2:15 am. This would get me into Newark at 5:20 am. They have also given us the option of taking the next available United Airlines flight to Newark with an available seat on it. This flight happens to be at 6:30 PM tomorrow. Inceidentally, all restaurants and snack bars in the terminal are closed. The authorities say they are trying to arrange drinking water for us but they do not have access to it!

India has the 4th largest GDP in the world (in PPP terms i.e. Purchasing Power Parity). I didnt know that until very recently. The first three above us are the US, China and Japan. However, India ranks 135th in the GDP per capita (GDP divided by the population)!

I feel neither GDP nor GDP per capita are ideal measures of the status of an economy. Instead of dividing by the population, what if I weighed each unit of population by a number between 0 and 1 and used the convex sum of such weighed numbers to divide the GDP? Does that represent a more accurate meausre of a contries produce suitably offset by the distribution of wealth among its population?

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The boy stood motionless in the field as a steady breeze swooshed the tall grass in one direction. He stood absolutely still, holding the fruit in his palm, gazing at the horizon with his tiny eyes. the sun shone brightly upon him. He was alone for miles in every direction. He continued his long hard gaze, changing direction ever so slightly every now and then, as if he was searching something. perhaps in disbelief of his solitude. Then, slowly, he lowered his head and looked at the fruit in his hand. The breeze was a strong wind now. It caused his hair to fly along with the grass. It was a beautiful day.

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