Apatheism

Here is an interesting article about Apatheism -
http://www.jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_articles/apatheism_beyond_religion/index.html

I have always contended that reason contradicts the existence of God.

However, I have also noted that most people I knew of were pretty reasonable, pragmatic people that, for some reason, believed in God. Thus, I made every attempt to understand the reasoning behind their beliefs.

This was where I hit a stone wall. All of them were absolutely sure about their belief in God; yet, somehow, they found it difficult to expound upon their beliefs.

This frustrated me.

Don't get me wrong, I was not frustrated by their beliefs; rather, I was flummoxed by my own understanding, or lack thereof, of them.

I found "apatheism" interesting because it helped pigeonhole a lot of people around me (at least better than any other previous denomination that I knew of) and because it helped in bettering my understanding of their beliefs

Although I didn't agree with some of the author's claims, I found the article to be, on the whole, an interesting read.

P.S. There is also a good article about introversion in the same site - actually that's how I got to that blog.
http://www.jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_articles/caring_for_your_introvert/index.html

Geetha Gaanam - First Twelve Chapters

Hello all,

Naanna (Prasad Komarraju) has finally recorded the first 12 chapters of Geetha Gaanam. As you may all know Geetha Gaanam is his freeverse translation of Bhagavad-Gita into Telugu.

BTW, Archive.org is a great place for you to host unlimiated amount of audio/visual material - as long as you aren't committing any copyright violations that is :) I would also recommend you to not upload loads of unnecessary podcasts to this place. You can do that, instead, at Podomatic.com.

The West Wing

I like politics; naturally I was drawn towards 'The West Wing', the TV show on NBC. I only watched few episodes of the show in the past seasons. When the new season started I was delighted to see that the producers chose one of my favorite actors to play the presidential candidate. Ergo, I have been watching 'West Wing' religiously (with Tivo's help).

In the 'West Wing', it's time for presidential elections. The primaries are over, congressman, Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) won the Democratic primary and he is mainly campaigning on 'education'. Senator, Arnold Vinic (Alen Alda) has won the Republican nomination and he wants to cut taxes.

Last Sunday was the debate time for the both leaders. 'West Wing' pulled a stunt, (for lack of a better word) by having the debate aired live on NBC with 1 or 2 minute breaks. In a surprising move (hinted in previous episode) both candidates proposed to put the rules aside, and debate like president Lincoln and Douglas. I agree that such a fiasco would never be a real life thing, however it was written very well, and superbly acted. I don't like what Republicans stand for, however on Sunday senator, Vinic (Alen Alda) made it very heard for me to hate their ideology. The producers of the show were very successful in making both the candidates very much likeable.

As far as the debate was concerned, I thought senator Vinic won it. However, as you can see on NBC.com 70% say that Santos won, and Vinic 29%.

NBC: West Wing - Show website
The Washington Post: Who Won the 'West Wing' Live Debate?
The Washington Post: A Debatable Ploy by NBC - I don't agree with the author's take

Physicists Oppose U.S. Policy on Using Nuclear Weapons

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/physicists_oppose_u_s_policy_on_nuclear_attack_9157

I was quite amazed to find out about the current U.S. policy on the use of nuclear weapons.

Personally, I completely agree with the petition. Even though the risk of the U.S. using nuclear weapons on a non-nuclear state is very low, this ensures that some overzealous President cannot declare all-out nuclear war on countries - just to ensure that no more lives are lost in the war.

The use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrates that a President is more than capable of such ill judgement. What amazes me is not Truman 's decision to use Atomic Bombs but his decision to use TWO of them. One would think that the use of just a single bomb should suffice to demonstrate to the Japanese the capability of the U.S. to cause "prompt and utter destruction".

Really, this decision must take the prize for the most ill-considered and brazen decisions by a leader. The probable second being Hitler's decision to invade Russia - another mind-bogglingly stupid decision- but that's for another day.

What's your take on the whole issue?

Fireworks during Diwali

As children, the only festival we looked forward to was Diwali. The first attraction was, and if I am not mistaken even today is, fireworks.
Actually Diwali is celebrated twenty days after Dussehara. But for us, Diwali always started as soon as Dussehara ended.

It all used to begin with bringing the catalogs for fireworks from the local store and bargaining for budget with our parents. The prices always doubled from the previous year. So, we always had to fight for an increase in our budget. Finally, after a lot of struggle and discussions, one fine evening, we would go and buy the fireworks.

The next challenge was to dry them under the Sun for a few hours a day, in order to get the best results. The more the fireworks are dried the better they fired. Every one of us would take turns to gaurd the fireworks from rain, and thieves who mostly would be the servant maid's children.

And the next task would be dividing the fireworks equally among all of us. This was the trickiest and the most controversial part, and mostly my dad used to head this meeting to avoid quarrels among us.
I and my sisters invariably, had to part with the less ‘dangerous’ share, stuff like ‘sparkles’ ‘bhuchakras’ , ‘snakes’, ‘onion bombs’, some ‘packet bombs’ , 'color match boxes' 'Ropes', 'Pencils', 'vishnu chakras', 'black snake tablets'. Besides these, both my brothers would get to fire the bombs and rockets too.

I do not know, if any one remembers the 'black snake tablets' , which gave out black pungent smoke and black suit when lit and made a permanent mark on the floor. My mother always hated those things as she had to clean the black suit, and scrub the marks which were all over the house.

Yet another interesting thing, I remember is the Telephone bomb; we had to tie a string from one pole to another running through the telephone bomb. When lit with fire it moved from one end to the other with sparkles. We enjoyed doing that over weekends before the Diwali.

One year we celebrated Diwali in our grandmother’s village. There , we did not had all the fireworks that we had in Hyderabad, but it was fun and we learnt new things.

The most common fireworks, which all the village children lit are ‘divitilu’; a cotton cloth dipped in oil was wound to a stick and lit with fire. Carrying these in their hands, the children made all sorts of acrobatics. Some even caused fire accidents, which were inevitable as most of the houses had thatched roofs.

In addition to the 'divitilu' , there were the ‘rolu rokallu’, the crude substitutes for bombs . Gunpowder in small quantities used to be placed between a small iron mortar and pestle and was tightly secured with two long iron wires. With the help of these two iron wires it was, then swung in the air, and struck with force to ground which made the gunpowder to blast releasing huge sound.

And, another beautiful fireworks which I enjoyed in my granmother's village was the ‘vennela madugulu’; these I think were made with sulfur and phosphorous , which were packed in tubes of several layers of paper. When one end was lit with fire, drops of sparkling hot stuff fell to the ground causing the visual effect of moon light falling to ground. One had to hold these high above the ground in order to get the best effect.

Most of the fireworks in the villages were made at home by the family members and were exchanged for some thing else.

Just wanted to remind you, all the fun and enjoyment we all had back in India.

NY mayor campaigning in Hindi

All,
Did you know that NY Mayor is campaining in Hindi and Urdu? Here is the link to the article in "Times of India"

The link is http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1281942.cms.

Happy Deepavali to all of you

Patchy Foliage In Maryland

In Maryland, the tree colors just started to change here and there. This week, we went out in search of fall colors. We didn't know where to go. However, I remembered, few months ago we saw few people fish at a lake, near Patuxent Wildlife Refuse. May be I thought, I could get few good pictures there. We were disappointed to see the entrance to lake closed. To our astonishment, the entrance to Wildlife Refuse was still open. It said at the gate that, closing time is 5:30pm and we approached the entrance at 4:50pm; that gave us few good minutes to roam around. Later, a visitor informed us that an automatic gate would let us out even after 5:30pm.

We were very happy about what we saw. There were lots of birds. I didn't take my binoculars with me, but next time I will. There is a bird viewing shelter in the refuse and found it to be inviting. There are few short length trails open for visitors.

Left: Bird Viewing Shelter
Right: View from one of the shelters whole





Since, this place is minutes away from where we live. I want to post pictures of the seasonal changes at Patuxent on ‘manamantha’. So, stay tuned, I intend capture photos again at the peak of Foliage.

Festival of Lights

Now that Deepavali (Diwali) is just a week away, I thought sharing my memories of the festival with all of you... As far as I know there isn't a soul who does not enjoy this wonderful festival of diyas. It is one of my favorite festivals.

As a kid, I used to wait for this festival mainly for three things. The first is that I would get a chance to eat a wide variety of sweets and yummy snacks(ummmmmm.... my mouth already waters ). All our neighbours used to exchange savories. This was particularly special because most of my neighbours were from different parts of India. That's how I came to know of Gujarati dhokla and thepla, Tamilian carrot
payasam, Bengali sandesh, etc.

The second thing I used to look forward to was to light fire crackers. As a kid I was very scared of bombs - Laxmi bomb, Atom bomb, Rocket, Sema tapas etc. I used to just light Kakarabottulu (sparklers), Bhoo-Chakralu, Chichubudlu (flower pots), Onion bombs and other small things and I haven't changed till today.

Finally, every girl's dream: shopping, shopping, shopping!!! My mom and I would shop for new clothes for all of us. Nowadays, even if I wear new clothes on a festive occassion, I don't get into the same festive mood as there isn't any hullabulla or the
noise of festival around me. I miss those sorroundings where everyone around me was enjoying the festival busily and noisily.

There was always a lot of hungama in the weeks preceding Diwali. My mom used to plan ahead as to what special items to make for that year. She used to start preparing sweets and khara a week before. Because, my brother Babloo was never used to be fussy, she made items that I liked the most - tokkudu laddu, murukulu, mixture, aavada, garelu, panchadara poori etc. She was very good at making Bobbattlu, so it was not just I who used to demand her, but all my mamayyas, attayyas, pinnis and my paternal babayyas used to relish them too.

As you can see my mom used to most of the work (with a little bit of help from my brother), and my main help was in eating the great foods! I now realize how much she used to toil for us without any complaints, and it makes me love her and miss her even more!

On the day of Diwali we used to get up early as my dad was very particular that we got up early and had a bath. Or may be we used to get up early because our neighbors would start the noisy fireworks by 5am. Once again my mom used to make all kinds of specials that day, as all four of us would be home.

In the evening, my mother did Laxmi Pooja and would light diyas all around the house. All four of us used to wear new clothes and participated in the pooja. This used to be the best part: your house covered with shining diyas, their lights shimmering in a gentle breeze... In between all these we used have icchu kuntinamma vaayanam, pucchu kuntinamma vaayanam- meaning we used to exchange the savories with our neighbours. Finally, as the Sun finally set, the sizzling dhamakas would begin.

Wow! Those enchanting memories keep their magical hold on my heart.


Finally, some tidbits of information extracted from Wikipedia:

Did you know that Diwali is celebrated in countries other than India? In England, the days are Dhanteras, Narak Chatrudashi, Lakshmi-Puja, the most important day, Padwa or Varshapratipanda and Bhaiya Dooj or the Teeka Ceremony. In Trinidad and Tobago, the day of Divali is a public holiday and celebrations precede the Lakshmi-Puja day for almost two weeks. This event is one of the foremost religious observances for the country. You can find more on this here.

Prasad's Gita Ganam - New and Revised

You will find the first 12 chapters of Prasad's Geetha Gaanam here.

H1BEES - Entrepreneurs

A month ago I came across an article in Washington Post on H1bees. Then I happen to come across it again yesterday, this time I heard little bit of their music, theWorld.org on H1bees, and it is not only good, but also very professional. We all know that Chennai is the capital for exceptional music talent. Now, a few 'Chennaites' have shown that even the daily humdrum of jobs cannot keep them away from being in touch with their roots and talents, my hats-off to them.

Most of us who have been living in US often dream of doing such things, but few of us ever turn those dreams into reality.

H1BEES album and others

Halloween and Dussehra: Witches and Gods

Halloween and Dussehra: Witches and Gods

Though in different ways, yet Halloween is celebrated in most parts of the world. Homes are decorated with pumpkins, mums, candles and fall colors. Children dressed in different costumes go for trick-or-treat to collect candy. It is considered as the festival of witches or New Year for witches in Salem USA. It is the day when the dead are remembered. People in some parts of the world believe that during the night of the Halloween, the world of spirits and the world of mortals exchange energies.

To get disguised, and to protect themselves from the real spirits roaming during the night of Halloween, children and adults color their faces black, and dress like ghosts. Also, Halloween is the festival of harvest. Produce is kept inside for winter; the leaves change their color and start falling.

As well as during fall, different parts of the world have their own kind of festivals and celebrations according to the local lore and traditions. In India during the fall, between October and November, ‘Dussehra’ is celebrated by all classes through out the country as a festival of victory of good over evil. It is celebrated nine days and the grand finale is the tenth day and is also called as ‘Vijaya Dasami’. This festival is also considered as the festival of harvest as most of the summer crops are harvested. The Hindu mythological connection to this festival is the epic hero Lord Rama, of Ramayana, killed the demon Ravana, and also Prince Arjuna third brother of the Pandavas of Mahabharata fought his cousin Duryodhana and saved the kingdom of King Viratha on this day. On this day all the houses are decorated with marigold flowers, mango leaves, turmeric, and Rangoli. In villages the school master leads his pupils in a procession to every house where the children are offered sweets by the residents. The children are dressed in different mythological characters and carry toy weapons like the bow and arrow and maces. The school master is also rewarded by the people of the village appropriately often by presenting him rice or money. Vehicles, tools of trade and occupation are cleaned and decorated by the men of the village. Lots of sweets are made in every house and exchanged on this day. The young girls of the village dressed in their best clothes, visit the temple in evening and pry goddess Parvathi seeking good marriage.

And at night, the effigies of the demons, Ravana, and his accomplices are burnt as a symbol of victory of good over evil. Dances, songs, and plays are held in public places all these ten days. The class and the economy barriers are often ignored and every one comes together during this festive season.

My Experience with iPod

I was never inclined to listen books on tape / CD as I felt that it could not convey the essence of the story. But I was wrong. Anand has this habit of listening to books and he would always encourage me to listen to them. I had tried them before, but it proved futile. But things have changed now. My commute time to work these days varies from 1hr - 2hrs depending on the traffic. For the first few days I was listening to the radio( 1680 AM) or some CDs, but soon I was tired of them. The radio has the same hosts blabbering and CDs had become repetitive. I had to somehow pass time during my long drive.

Then, Anand had suggested that I try these books on CD once again, but this time try to choose the topics that interest me. At first I felt different as I wasn't reading a physical book but soon I got used to it. Once the book started playing, I didn't feel like switching it off. I started with John Grisham's King of Torts. It was a good book and well written. Then I read books of John Grisham, Stephen King, Paulo Coelho and other authors. This way I could listen to at least 1 book a week and sometimes more. Then as usual, I got lazy to go the library, and I didn't have any books to listen to, so Anand had suggested me to try iPod.

At first I didn't know how to operate iPod, but I learnt it slowly. My first book on Ipod was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Its the first book in the The Chronicles of Narnia series. Then I listened to The Golden Compass, The Fugitive Pigeon and The War of the Worlds. Listening to an iPod has more advantages. One can listen to iPod whereever one goes . You can listen to it while driving, while walking to the office, in the office :) etc. I really liked the experience and will continue to enjoy it.    

Earthquakes at Himalayas - Most Predictable

It is tough to predict where exactly and when exactly earthquakes occur at Himalayas. But, everyone knows that they most definitely occur. It is very well known fact that Himalayas is one of most active places for the plate movements on the earth (called Plate tectonics).

Himalayas formed (and continue to form) millions of years ago when two gigantic plates called Eurasia, and India collided with each other. Indian plate got pushed under the Eurasian plate resulting in the raise of massive mountains, the Himalayas. In fact the pushing of this Indian plate into Eurasia happens even now, when this happens earth around it naturally moves with it. According to NASA, Himalayas grow at the rate of 1 cm per year.

usgs.gov on The Himalays: Two continents collide
pbs.org has a site devoted for the earthquakes, Savage Earth
Cornell University digs little more deep, Discover our Earth
A look into the future, NASA's Global Earthquake Satellite System (GESS)

Hope, last week's earthquake works like a wakeup call (pardon the cliché) to governments involved. They should look into ways of not doing same mistakes again in terms of building constructions.

Weekly Roundup

Goodbye to summer of 2005
This has been a remarkable summer, at least for me. All of us tried to enjoy as much summer as we can. We managed to make at least one long distance trip (Rocky Mountain National Park). Can’t wait for the next summer!

Fall Blues
This is that time of year again (in US), falling leaves on side of the roads, pumpkins and skeletons by the home windows, and scary movies on the Television. Even after living in US for 12 years, I am still amazed by the season changes. Winter comes early to the northern states of the US and gradually moves south. In Maryland where I currently stay tree colors are just beginning to change. Have you ever wondered why leaves change colors in fall season? Here is a good a site that describes it all.

Political Roundup
US President, George Bush nominated ‘Harriet Miers’ as next Supreme Court justice. Many people, even in his own party (Republican) were surprised by this nomination, since there are many candidates with much better qualification than that of Harrier Miers. It will be interesting to see how ‘Harriet Miers’ will handle the hearings that will be held to confirm her nomination by Congress. Even right wing zealots like Ann Coulter are against this nomination. I sincerely hope Harriet Miers voluntarily refuses to accept this position (however, this is highly unlikely)

Ann Coulter with Bill Maher (on Harriet Miers and more) a clip from onegoodmove.org
Fox News Sunday on Harriet Miers from crooksandliars.com
I like this one very much. Brit Hume is a horrible person in my opinion and look at the way he deffends Harriet Miers. Brit Hume is the guy who said on the air (Fox) the day recent 'London subway bombings' occurred, I paraphrase, '... the first thing that came to my mind was that boy the stocks are going to go down, I can make some quick money here'.

Just In...
Earthquake in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan seemed to be devastating. After what happened in Louisiana, every one will look at the rescue efforts in a different perspective. I listened to PM of Pakistan on CNN, and he was quick to say no to any of the outside help (from America) as he mentioned that Pakistan's PM's office and military is capable of taking care of this catastrophe. This reaction seemed to have influenced by the position India took in the wake of last years Tsunami that killed thousands of people. World politics aside, I hope everyone works together to take care of the victims of this latest natural disaster.

A couple of things from Raahy

Howdy folks,

I posted a couple of items on my blog that might interest you:

Vennela Veta - Unedited Part I

Do you believe in conspiracies?

Please pay a visit if you are interested :)

Thanks!

Firefly takes off to the Statue of Liberty

I always wanted to see the Statue of Liberty for a very long time - since I landed in this land of dreams - but couldn't do so. Anand told me that the statue was closed because of 9/11 and I, being a credulous wife, beleived him :-) But this canard of his did not last long. I found out from one of my friends, Radhika, that the statue was open to visitors and that we could go up to the top of the statue. All I had to do was to purchase the tickets online 4 days ahead of time. I got really excited and since my parents were here, I wanted to share my experience with them.

We started planning from the month of August since Varalakshmi pooja (this was when Radhika told me). With lots of hurdles in between, we finally planned to go on Saturday, Sept 24. I booked the tickets a week before for 8 of us(Mamayyagaru + Attayyagaru + Amma + Daddy + Anand + Myself + Praveen + Sirisha). Apparently there were two kinds of tours available - The Promenade Tour, and the Observatory Tour. The latter includes the Promenade tour, and a trip up to the pedestal of the statue. I found that, much to my dismay, that the highest point open to public since 9/11. But, I decided to go for the Observatory tour. Later Vasudha said her family would join us for the trip. I bought four more tickets for them (Giri + Vasudha + Varija Aunty + Sai). I couldn't wait for the trip, and felt that the week passed slowly.

The Day of Trip 9/24/05:

Finally! This was the day we were going to Statue of Liberty! But for all the earlier excitement, I felt too drowsy to wake up in the morning after having a late night the day before. We had a ladies day out (to be precise "Ladies Evening out") the evening before. The four of us ( My Mom, Attayyagaru, Sirisha and Myself) went for a movie - Salam Namaste. Somehow I dragged myself out of the bed and got ready. One by one everyone else got ready too. The younger lot decided that we would wear salwars. We had light breakfast and started our journey to see the lovely gift given by France to USA. Giri & Family arrived at 7.15am, and we all started off in three cars around 7:45am :).

The drive was very smooth, without any traffic. We took exit 14B and then went to Liberty State Park around 8.30am. As usual Anand followed Praveen. If Praveen drives, Anand blindly follows him as Praveen is very good with directions. We took the parking tickets and parked the cars near the entrance. Then, we walked towards the Ferry. It was cold and breezy, and I put on the spring jacket quickly :) I went to the Ticket counter and collected all the twelve tickets. The next Ferry was at 9.00am. So, we had to wait in a line for the Ferry. My mom, my mother-in-law and Varija Aunty sat down relaxing on a bench - we called them the Three Musketeers.



At 9am we went out of the ticket office and stood in another line for Security Check. The line moved slowly and after we finished the preliminary security check, we had to assemble in yet another waiting area. This one was a makeshift tarpalin tent with fans, and heaters. We thought that we had to stand in a line, but soon we had to gather in a huddle to accommodate more people. We met a mother and child from Ohio. The mother seemed as happy and excited to visit the statue of liberty as I was! After waiting for what seemed like hours, we boarded the ferry around 9:45am.


Ferry to Liberty Island via Ellis Island

All of us sat on the top-tier of the Ferry. I enjoyed the views - the Manhattan skyline was awesome; the statue was visible in the distance, and I felt as though it was staring at me; and the waters were serene and filled with a number of sailboats and barges. We actually saw a barge which carried some plants and tree on it, and looked like an island on the move.

Ellis Island

The ferry stopped at the Ellis Island for about 15-20min. We didn't get down at this place but stayed on board moved on to the Liberty Island. The sight of the statue from the Ferry was awesome. I felt very happy that I could finally see the statue of liberty up close. As I said earlier, we bought passes for the Observatory Tour which consisted of viewing the statue from the highest point open for public - the top of the pedestal.




Liberty Island

As soon as we got off at the Liberty Island, we looked for a ranger who could explain us about the statue. Anand found at the information centre that we had to go the entrance at the base of the statue. There we had go in for yet another round of security check. Here we were not even allowed to take water with us! We somehow managed to take two bottles of water with us into the tent. But in the tent (where we had to stand in a line for our turn for the security check), an officer told us we could keep those bottles in a locker. Anand went with the bottles to put them in a locker and we went in for the security check. The officer was good enough to let Anand join us immediately without having to stand in the line once again.

Here we had a thorough security check. We were asked to stand at a metal detector gate and compressed air was pumped at us from many directions. This was to increase the chance of detecting any explosive material that one could be carrying. We had to wait for green signal to go forward. Later we collected our belongings and stood outside the security check area. One by one everyone joined us.

The Museum

The statue is placed on a concrete pedestal (which used to be a fort at one time) which is about 100ft high and we were supposed to go to the top of it. After everyone assembled, the guide led us through the door of the fort. Once inside, we saw the original Liberty Torch preserved it in that museum. A ranger with a thick Eastern European accent started telling us a brief history of the torch. We left while he was still going through his tired speech to the museum where the artifacts of the statue were kept. There was a mould of statue's face, foot, and the ear. The museum has a section that showed how the statue was created using pictures, moulds, and textual descriptions. The museum also showed how the image of the statue of liberty was used for commercial and myriad other purposes since its inception. This includes different post cards, posters, miniature replicas, advertisements, etc.

We then had to take the elevator up to the 5th floor, from where we had to climb 24 steps in order to go to the obeservatory. We took the lift and went to the 5th floor, from where we could see the interior structure around which the copper surface of the statue is wrapped. I found the architecture quite amazing. Then slowly all the 12 of us took the stairs up to the observatory.

The Observatory - and the views from there

This is the place where the statue actully starts. The height from ground to the tip of the torch is 305 feet. This includes the foundation and the pedestal. The height of the statue itself, from the top of the base to the torch, is 151 feet. I was thrilled at its sight. There was a narrow passage round the pedastal. The view of the New York skyline from here was amazing and as expected all of took pictures.

The Promenade

I am really tired of typing this article now, so I will try to cut it short :)

We decended down the 24 steps + 5 floors (we decided not to take the elevator down, as the rangers there seem to discourage it since it would take us (them?) a lot of time) and went to the Promenade. This is the view from the base of the statue. I felt that the place resembled Birla Mandir. It looked the same for me, the way you decend the stairs, then you go sit in the sitting area. The feel was the same, but the place was not the same. We all sat there for sometime enjoying the beauty of the statue, and taking quite a few snaps :)

Later around 12.30pm we all started our way back to the Ferry. On our way back, we went, as most tourits do, to the sovenier shop and bought few things and then went to take the ferry back to NJ. Over the years, I made a habit of collecting pennies imprinted with the visiting place's populars images from those hand-operated minting machines. Here, I had to spend two dollars to get a dollar-coin sized trinket which is of the same thickness as the Statue of Liberty's copper plate with the statue's image on it.


The ferry to New Jersey was just about to leave as we approached it, and we made in quick time to the shore. We ended our journey at the particular lot with an appetizing note by eating the yummy vegetable pakoras and bajjis made by Attayyagaru, mummy, and Sirisha the evening before!

Pycsohlogy

My cousin, Maruthi sent us a mail few months ago, which is very interesting. I recently came across the same stuff on television.

Following is the original mail from my cousin.

Subject: Pycsohlogy

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny primoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat
ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but
the wrod as a wlohe.

How is it???
enjoy,
Maruthi.

*********************************

p.s. Click on the title to navigate a site that talks about the facts and the myth about this phenomenon.

Sri Krishna Bhakti Gitam

You will find the first 12 chapters of Prasad's Geetha Gaanam here.

Comedy Drought On Television

It isn't just you and me, I am sure, entire US is bored of watching Seinfeld re-runs. Situation is so pathetic that this year's one of the nominee for Emmy - best comedy series is "Desperate Housewives" ABC. Now, how is that show a comedy series? 'Everybody Loves Raymond' won the Emmy if anyone cared.

Don't worry folks, NewsWeek thinks there is a light on the horizon. There 3 shows to watch for, as the new season starts very this week. You know me, the minute I heard it (hours later) tuned my tivo to record all the shows. I will update this post with my reviews, so stay tuned.

3 shows are following:

'How I Met Your Mother' - looks promising (watched it yesterday)
'Everybody Hates Chris' - based on comedian Chris Rock's childhood experiences.
'My Name Is Earl' - (is being recorded on Tivo as I type this) I have my doubts about this, this seems certianly not like a family show.

Not listing timings and stuff because many of you can look it up. To read more about the shows click on the title to navigate to the NewsWeek article.

Telugu bloggers

hello bloggers,
Here is a site containing all telugu blogs on different subjects.
http://telugubloggers.blogspot.com
I liked the one regarding old text book.
enjoy
vani

My First US Open

Hello my fellow Manamantha bloggers,

With everyone contributing so nicely to the blog, I thought I would put my own two pennies as well :) So, here's a brief story of my recent trip to the US Open.

When Anand told me that we would be going to the US Open, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I wanted the experience of going to a major sports event in New York. But, I wasn't sure if I would be able to watch hour after hour of tennis either ;) Anyhow, I decided to give it a try.

As planned, I worked until 3pm, and came home by 3:50pm. We (Sai, Sasidhar, Harika, and I) were supposed to take the 4:24pm train from New Brunswick to New York Penn station. Due to some horrible miscommunication, we ended up missing this train, and took the 5pm train to New York instead. Anyhow, we reached Penn station half-hour late, and started our walk towards Grand Central. We met my husband and Giri on Park Avenue and 32nd Street, and proceeded for our supper at the Grand Central food courts. Food was expensive there, but there was lots of choice. Some of us ate North Indian food ($9.95/plate which includes a choice of three curries, and a helping of fried rice), and some had falafel.

Anyhow, we were supposed to take the 7 train from Grand Central at 6pm, but because of the delays ended up catching one at 6:50pm instead. The train we got on was local, but were at the Stadium by 7:40pm. Giri got the pre-purchased tickets from the counter, and there was a few more minute delay at the entrance, as we had to go back to check-in the schoolbag for security reasons - a sign of the age we live in. So, by the time we got in, it was 7:55pm - nearly an hour late.

We couldn't have picked a worse day to watch tennis at the US Open even if we wanted to :) None of the stars - Agassi, Federer, Williams sisters, etc. - were playing that evening. Check on the draw, if you don't trust me.



The first match we saw was in a side court - Richard Gasquet vs. Giorgio Galimberti. This was actually a day match (our tickets were for the night matches), but they will let you in anyway. This was a small stadium, and our seats were just 5 or 6 rows from the court. Alas, the match was over within 10 minutes (just 4 games) after we went there as Giorgio retired due to some injury.




Back at the Arthur Ashe, Amelie just completed road-rolling her opponent 6-0 and 6-1, and by the time we got there, the stage was set for James Blake vs. Igor Andreev. We made our way on to the third level, row Q. While you can still see the ball being hit around there, it was not very clear what's going on. I felt a bit of vertigo because to the steepness visible from my level. The weather, however, was very pleasant - cool with low humidity. More than the tennis match, I enjoyed the ambience. There were two huge screens on both sides of the stadium, where you can watch the players close-in, and some replays as well.



The match was a totally one-sided affair, and at the end of the second set we were joined by Anand's colleague (Asif) and his son (Aahil). As it was becoming clear (against most of the spectator's wishes) that this match was going to be over soon, people started leaving from all levels. We took advantage of the opportunity, and kept gradually moving down until we got to a place where we were very close to the action. You can even begin to recognize the players' expressions from this level.

Anyhow, the match over too quickly, and we minute t waited until the lasto see if we would get those prize balls hit by Blake at the end of the match. But, we weren't so lucky :) On our way back, we saw some side courts, and took some snaps. It felt quite different to be walking on the same courts where you see players play on the television.

We collected our bag, and made our way back to the subway as part of a huge crowd. The crowd wasn't bad at all once we reached the subway. The 7 train arrived within 5 minutes after got on to the platform, and all of us found seats. This time, we went beyond Grand Central, and got off at 42nd Street (Times Square). It was nearly 11:45pm, but the Times Square and the city was as lively as if it were daytime - all the shops were still open, and people were actually shopping. We walked back to Penn Station, but missed the 11:45pm train, and had to wait until the 12:37am train. In the meantime, Harika and Sasidhar had Caramel Milk Shakes, Anand got a Green Tea Frappuccino, Giri had Nesquik Strawberry Milkshake, and Sai had some hot coffee.

Anand bought a crossword book before boarding train, and tried solving it with our help in the trian. We met Anand's friends Vivek and Minhas in the train. We got off at Jersey Ave by 1:40am. We dropped Sasidhar and Harika at their place, Asif and Aahil at their home, and reached home by 2:10am.

In conclusion, it was a nice trip but the travel was tedious and boring. But, the experience as a whole was very good.

That's all I can say about my trip to US Open,
Ajitha.

Adi Sankaracharya

Adi Sankaracharya was the first movie in Sanskrit (English subtitles) released by the NFDC. It was directed by G.V.Iyer. Bharath Bhushan played the role of Sankaracharya’s father Shiva guru, and Sarvadaman Banerjee (Sirivennela fame) played Sankaracharya’s role.

The movie begins by highlighting how Buddhism, Jainism and other religions were influencing or in some places replacing Hinduism in India. Adi Sankara revived Hinduism in India by becoming an authoritative and influential interpreter with his extensive study of Vedas and Upanishads.

Sankaracharya at a very early age realized that as long as wisdom (jnanam) and death (mrutyuvu) are one’s friends, and if one can welcome death as a friend then there is nothing to fear. This is symbolically depicted in this movie. Sankara befriended two boys named Vignana and Mrutyuvu after his father’s death.

Sankara began his journey as a brahmachary to find his guru Swami Govindapada who then lived in Badarinath. The movie then depicts how he debated and won over other religious authorities of the time with his immense knowledge, faultless logic and profound philosophy.

The last part of the movie analyzes how Sankara became the founder of the Advaita Philosophy and established a highly efficient, decentralized religious institution - the mutts across the country to take forward the task of preserving the Vedic culture.

The movie included the famous and the most popular writings of Sankarachrya like the Bhajagovindam and Kanakadhara Stotram.

Though the movie did not cover all the accomplishments of Sankaracharya, it does give a brief history of the great philosopher, who not only preserved Hinduism by interpreting the Upanishads but also took it to its peak.

Veturi Sundararama Murthy

That Veturi Sundararama Murthy was a disciple of the legendary Tirupati Venkata Kavulu (Divakarla Tirupati Sastry (1872-1919) and Chellapilla Venkata Sastry (1870-1950)) is news to me. I did however know that Veturi was given his first break in movies under Dr.K.Viswanath and later NT Rama Rao encouraged him a lot.

Here is an interesting clipping:

Vegetable Picking in NJ

Harika desperately wanted to go for fruit picking and has been asking us to take her since last year. She did some research and thanks to the internet she found one site that suited our interests - www.pickyourown.org.

The farm that we went to, called Lee Turkey Farm, is close to our place. Our group of fifteen members arrived as planned at about 10.30am at the farm. It was a nice sunny day with a cool, mild breeze perfect for a picnic.

We parked our cars in front of the farm and were greeted by a small boy, one of the family members who owned the farm. We got directions about how to go about the farm and bought a season pass for two dollars for each family. There was a board detailing the prices of various fruits and vegetables to be picked. He also asked us to take a draw cart and plastic cans of different sizes to put the produce we picked. The entrance fee was only nominal but the confidence he showed that the customers wouldn't abuse the farm was priceless.
The farm was very neat and well maintained.



The plants were planted in rows and there was enough room between the rows of crops for us to drive the cart. There were no weeds at all and the plants were healthy with lush green produce ready for harvest.
It was extremely pleasant and refreshing to be in the fields. We took pictures with the beautiful landscape of the motley plants and trees in the background.
We picked tender cucumbers, zucchini, and string beans. As though through divine intervention, we found knives handy on top of the display board for cutting cabbage and broccoli. It is so wonderful to touch the plants even though we did not actually plant them. It gives a great satisfaction to pick vegetables on your own. It reminds me of the disappointment we face with the vegetable vendors back in India when we were not allowed to pick the vegetables that we want. We had to either sneak some choice vegetables or fight the vendors to get the ones we want. The luxury of picking what one wants with nobody watching over is simply great. Indeed, one has to actually do it to feel it.

The farm with fruit trees speckled with fresh, ripe, tempting peaches, pears, and apples.

Some of us started eating them right away and broke the trust the little by at the entrance placed in us. WE took pictures and had lot of fun.

After picking fruits some of us went into the cornfields and some of us into the vegetable garden where we had tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and melons. Every one was so engrossed in picking that we totally forgot that we have to buy what ever we picked.



The result is we had a bagara baingan party one day and a barbecue party another day to consume all the vegetables and corn we picked. And finally I had to make mixed fruit jam with the fruits we picked.




Back in India especially in and around Delhi/Himachal Pradesh there are many well maintained farms some of which I visited during our stay in Delhi.
I remember Ansal Farms in Sohna, Bhatti Farms which are also privately owned like the Lee Turkey farm here. But there is a difference they are not available to common man who cannot own it and yet want to go visit once in a while.




In Kullu Manali the beautiful apple orchards, orange orchards, and vegetable farms are not available for common man or any tourist.
The farms now that are cropping around Hyderabad and Shamshabad, I believe may not have the facility for any outsider to visit.
Why not we have the same facility? I bet every family could have a healthy outing into the nature and enjoy the greenery at least for some time.
Now with the growing of apartments and multistoried buildings in Hyderabad many of them are missing the goodness of nature and greenery.
Back in our childhood we visited our grandparents in the villages and enjoyed the comfort of village environment.
Unfortunately in this 21st century the migration of all the family members in villages into cities/countries for whatever reasons has left the children of this generation with very little choice.

US State Nicknames

Ever since I moved to Maryland, I was wondering about Maryland's nickname. For past few months I have been driving in the state, but I haven't come across any car license plates with the nicknames on them. My own license (Maryland’s) plate doesn't have the nickname written on it. I finally googled about the very same matter and found out that Maryland's nickname is 'Chesapeake State'

It turned out that many states have more than one nickname and also many of the states don't have an official nickname. Following are some states nicknames are used on automobile license plates.

Maryaland - 'Chesapeake State'
New Jersey - 'Garden State'
Georgia - 'The Peach State'
Illinois - 'Land of Lincoln', and also known as 'The Prairie State'
New Hampshire - 'Live Free or Die'
Massachusetts - 'The Spirit of America or The Codfish State'

Click on the title to navigate to a site where all 50 states are listed with interesting facts about the each one!

Happy Vinayaka Chavithi

Wish you all a happy Vinayaka Chavithi

From,
Komarraju family and members of Manamantha