Evaluations and TMK's blindness

TMK and a study on evaluations.

Everyone has a right to have their opinions, views, perceptions, judgments etc so why should we bother about whatever TMK says? Or whenever he evaluates Carnatic music wrongly?

This nonchalant, nonsensical and newspapers’ [English media’s] latest friend in whom the media houses find lot of scholarship and sincerity on all subjects. Be it his anti-Modi write ups before elections in The Hindu or his proclamation that carantic music is getting confined because of Bhakthi [he needs to define this term-Bhakthi- its intrinsic meaning is sincere commitment with total intensity and intense totality] and the modern philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said, “Commitment is an act, not a word”.

What I find in the people like TMK, most of these people are indoctrinated with a perverted and parochial mode of perceiving everything through the prism of victimhood projecting preconceptions and therefore, naturally creating /inventing/instigating separation and division so that they can debate and deliver some more dull doctrines. This has been the pattern starting from Karl Mark to these self centered, well off leftists worthies.

So they try to look at everything from art, religion, politics, ethics, values etc with this motive and are aware that, “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien and so end up doing  exactly what  Jessamyn West said, “We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don't it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions”. They have this tendency to presume some mal intention in everything because of their perversion and they should always be told what Milton Friedman said, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their [ presumed-italics mine]  intentions rather than their results”.

We must all understand the underlying scope of politics behind the prejudiced tools and terms of evaluation of these tribes.

Everything has to be evaluated on its inherent merits and not whether it appeals or is applicable or can be put into action by different sections or strata of population of different countries etc. This is doing injustice to the subject [here caranatic music] intentionally, diverting attention from healthy debates on the musical merits or qualities of carnatic music or its aesthetic appeal etc that’s why I wrote this piece as a reaction to TMK’s remark last December season http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/12/story-of-mango-fruit-sambar-and.html

A very important element or aspect of any evaluation especially in the realm of art is quality. Even in social/political and economic development oriented activities Jane Davidson explains, “how important it is to combine a mix of qualitative and quantitative data with "relevant values" (such as needs) to draw explicitly evaluative conclusions” in his book ‘Evaluation Methodology Basics: The Nuts and Bolts of Sound Evaluation’. 

Any evaluation which deviates from studying the inherent qualities of the thing/person that is being evaluated is unworthy. For example if one were to evaluate one’s parents should one do so based on whether they [the parents ] had qualities which had the potential to compare them with great film stars/great sports persons/ millionaires/greats artists/ great musicians/great thinkers/great scientist etc. No, not at all  the evaluation must be how they were as parents in relationship to the concerned person in terms love, care, compassion, emotional attachment etc

It is peculiar when a great classical art is evaluated as a political activity or in terms of some political ideology it throws lot of ethical dilemmas, politics and lot of controversies which both the media and TMK relish.

They are very selective in culling facts to engage in logical fallacies while constantly creating the divide between the non –existent victim and the presumed victor in every field of activity, you can see the pattern of this psychotic malady in all their misconceptions. They do with facts what Mark Twain has said, “First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure”.[ here they do it fit their preconceptions] and armed with these selective, filtered and twisted facts they do what Maya Angelou perceived and stated, “There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth”.

That’s why even great research works on evaluation like the bulky  ‘Evaluation: A Systematic Approach ‘ by Peter H. Rossi, Mark W. Lipsey, and Howard E. Freeman first published  get such reviews like ‘There is never any clear instruction about how one should begin an evaluation or how one should proceed’.

The most comprehensive book on evaluations ‘ Making Evaluation Matter-a practical guide for evaluators’ by Cecile Kusters with Simone van Vugt, Seerp Wigboldus, Bob Williams and Jim Woodhill also emphasizes certain factors repeatedly and predominantly they are context/situation, situational responsiveness, stake holders, inherent qualities of the project /program/person being evaluated ,multiple roles, consequence awareness etc

Even this material also throws lot of light on evaluation ‘American Journal of Evaluation-2011-Smith-565-99.pdf’.

In the realm of political decisions and business organizational management methodology etc these types of game play matter, but not in evaluating art, as Messick, S. (1994). Writes in The Interplay of Evidence and Consequences in the Validation of Performance Assessments. Educational Researcher, 23(2), 13–23, “Validity, reliability, comparability, and fairness are not just measurement issues, but social values that have meaning and force outside of measurement wherever evaluative judgments and decisions are made”.

Having said that the best way to deal with sensationalism seeking chaps like TMK who have sunk in leftist ideology is to ignore them.  If we ignore them they will decay naturally in their inhumane ideological cage.

For all people that complain about others that live within their radius, they need to look at themselves first? Self evaluation is quite important.

TMK needs to be given lessons on what is evaluation and how to evaluate everything and everyone? He definitely needs a serious psychological counseling session.

Why TMK can never sing with Bhavam like Neyveli santhanam, with expertise in raga alaphana like Sanjay Subramaniam, with thala nadai excellence like TNS. krishna, with sweet voice like Unnikrishnan because they all are strong in their field and therefore focusing on it with passion and professionalism without comparing it idiotically . Here I am tempted to quote, “Friend to Groucho Marx: “Life is hard…” Grouch Marx to Friend: “Compared to what?”

So TMK stop making irrelevant comparisons and illogical evaluations and instead start doing something other than writing columns in newspapers.

This was also written about evaluation when TMK wrote another nonsense in last year

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/04/pseudo-secularists-and-modi-baiters.html

two more on evaluation 

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2010/12/attitude.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2011/10/evaluation.html

Careers, Profession

http://bitecharge.com/play/career/h5

​Nowadays any career in any cadre is like this. Recently I was asked to speak at a meeting held for business development managers and HR professionals in software companies. I said in olden days those who sacrificed their family relationships, their time, everything and stayed away in search of increasing their wisdom were called saints and nowadays many do the same thing for earning money and they are called employees, irrespective of cadre . Everyone went into laughter. 

Then I dwelt upon how life , at least biological existence of our life is determined mostly in terms of chronology. What we do with our time? At least 7 hours in sleep, 1 to 2 hour[s] attending to our personal chores like bathing, toilet, dressing up,eating etc 10 to 12 hours work and travel put together. so effectively 21 hours is gone . We are left with just 3 hours at our disposal. How we spend these three hours? With whom? For what? Are we too tired to even think actively in these three hours etc? What are the inevitable social and religious obligations and family compulsions , our passions, our hobbies, our pet entertainment elements which share major part of this 3 hours? Are we left with something called a time for ourselves? Do we have the luxury for enjoying time with others whom we love and wish to consolidate our relationship with like our parents, children , spouse etc ? Time management is all about effective, relaxed , focused and contextually meaningful utilization of these three hours that we are left with. I say contextual because if we have a child or an ailing aged parent or a spouse who is not well they become a priority over everything else. Even our eating and sleeping can be sacrificed for them but we cannot avoid the compulsions of our career because it provides a very vital vitamin for our social and biological survival called money. Life can be rendered more meaningful,comfortable, happy only when we are able to/capable of balancing all these different choices, contexts, shifting priorities based on our natural attributes and nurtured attitudes constantly chaffing away things and issues which are relatively irrelevant at a specific situation or context in our life. For example tasty food and pleasant dress could be the priority when we were young and not when we are 60 plus. All our actions are based on three broad classifications what we want to do, what we can do and what we are destined to do. 

We cannot have a control or choice over the last one but we can and must have clarity regarding the other two and make our choices depending upon what we want in life. Career options are all about that . They need not necessarily be confined to social image or pay check alone. While I like and do undertake many such psychological tests on a regular basis to console myself that I could be branded as sane as per these evaluations I feel what is best is the following combination which leads us to our choices namely what our gut feelings prompt us through experience and life's urge to live rather than merely survive at every context/situation and this tempered by common sense and rational outlook for a normal and happy life . 

This does not exclude the spirit of adventure, the impulse of social service, attending to others and help them in whatever way we can , pursuing our passions and natural talents which may not have a role in our career path. So ultimately these three factors what we want to do, can do and destined to do decide with varying degrees of their manifestation or predominance at different times what we are and how our life is. For example a sudden accident or disease can upset the whole process of life either for good or bad. There are only few who are lucky to have immense talent which is also a passion as well as their profession and career like great sportsmen, artists, scientist etc. These blessed souls are few, nature or evolution or God wants it that way so that human race does not get intoxicated in pleasure and happiness and forget to enhance growth of civilization.​

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/04/23/how-to-find-fulfilling-work-roman-krznaric/

what is there in a name ?

What is there in a name?

Very interesting read indeed. Unfortunately the administrators and politicians who decide on various factors do not have time and respect for research, which is there in Europe, nor do they bother about etymology which also is almost venerated in Europe.

Names do carry lot of meaning, history, story and etymology all of which are either obvious, inferred and in some cases esoteric representing a concept.

But for these interesting aspects, long back the world would have listened to this very logical suggestion [1-very useful and interesting]

There is poetry, history and romance to every name.

There could be several reasons for any name primarily etymological and then to remind or perpetuate some ancestral link to any particular tradition, religious significance, mythological reference, culture, family name, profession, geographical location, particular clan, specific attribute of some of the either physical or psychological of the ancestor, sometimes also indicating some extraordinary contribution made some ancestor, sometimes mock name etc. In some culture numerology, astrology etc are also given importance.

We, Sanathana Dharmis were a bundle of contradiction here as in the case of preserving our treasure house knowledge [wherein we claim , rightly so the credit for many things but without enough documentary historically recorded evidence]. In the case of names we were highly philosophical at one end of the spectrum declaring what is there in name and form and  never bothered in general about labels and names, except in some religious arena and hence it was left to whoever wanted to do anything with any name and at the other end of the spectrum to every God which we represented with a form manifesting it as a symbolic representation of a particular attribute or concept and also gave thousands of names for examples for Ganesha,Vishnu, Shiva , Saraswathi etc and we also ensured to imbue each name with lot of meaning sometimes with highly esoteric meanings ensuring that each name manifested the various dimensions, degrees of the attribute represented by that particular God or Goddess.

For example the following book which was published as not for sale book by Maa Amirthananda Mayi trust by a family which was well versed in Lalitha shasranamam exposition for more than 3 generations. I was fortunate to get one among the only 1000 copies released initially free of cost now I think it is priced more than 1000 Rs . The book is titled ‘The Thousand Names of the Divine Mother Sri Lalita Sahasranama with Commentary by  T. V. Menon’. One would be surprised to know the inner meaning of several names there as there are lots of esoteric meaning to the verses in Soundarya Lahiri.

Fortunately we are sticking on to family names and some traditional aspects connected with that like the 'kar's of Maharastra,[gavaskar, tendukar] or ' jee's of  west bengal like mukherjee, chatterjee etc, or 'padyayas' of UP like chatopadyaya etc all these too had something to do with the name of the place from which a particular ancestry originated or the recognition of how many vedas a particular ancestor was conversant with, in south India it was  both family name, caste name  as well as place name like chembai vaidyanatha bhagavathar, manakal rangarajan, lalagudi jeyaraman, semmangudi srinivasa iyer.  

In European language we can even know the anatomical structure of ancestors through names like le grand[ referring to tall people], la fesse [referring to people with pronounced buttocks ] etc Russian names have tags of words referring to wolves, water, goat  and many Jewish terms too indicating the jews who tried to escape. In fact the place very much in news  Ferguson and many people bearing that name in the USA again refer to Jews who escaped and while being allowed inside USA ports they were just asked to declare their names and in order not to be identified as escaping Jews from Germany  when they were asked their name they said in German '  vergessen ' meaning 'forgotten' which the auditory sharpness of Americans recorded as 'Ferguson' though wikipedia gives different version unconnected with this version and also many history text books record it as the derivation of FERGUS- a mythological figure of Ireland/Scotland. There is a website which attempts to give references to some name though http://surnames.behindthename.com/

Many years ago Babujee’s student, Gopu’s friend in TVS  and later on Rekha’s boss [Iyer] asked me to do a study of surnames for a German portal for which I did lot of homework and I think I may have the files in some folder. If by any chance I happen to find out I shall share that. In fact it ran into more than 1000 pages.

The Germanic people in Kent in UK indicated Saxons from different directions as Essex, Sussex, Middlesex, Wessex [ nothing to do with sex]. From North there weren’t many so no Norsex.

[1] Hearing Places

Architect Stedman Whitwell thought it illogical and confusing that different towns sometimes have the same name. He suggested assigning a unique name to each location based on its latitude and longitude. He published this table in the New Harmony, Ind., Gazette in 1826:

Insert an S to indicate south latitude and a V for west longitude; omit them for north and east. Thus New Harmony (38°11′N, 87°55′W) would be rechristened Ipba Veinul; New York would be Otke Notive, Washington D.C. Feili Neivul, and Pittsburgh Otfu Veitoup.

What these names lack in poetry they make up in utility: a traveler given the name of a town can immediately infer its location. Unfortunately, Whitwell’s scheme never caught on — and today the United States has 28 Springfields, 29 Clintons, and 30 Franklins.

Foundations of Indian Culture

"Foundations of Indian Culture" by Polymath Shatavadhani Dr. R. Ganesh.
If ever you thought of spending worthily six sessions of 3 hours each totaling 18 hours of worthy listening to a great speech to know intellectually many fundamental aspects /factors of Foundations of Indian Culture rendered marvelously by the scholar DR.R. Ganesh.
Excellent collection of six 3-hour lectures in English by shatavadhani shree Dr.R.Ganesh ji overviewing, explaining Indian culture, principles, traditions, practices, touching on many contemporary issues also and answering many questions and doubts that people do raise here and there. It has taken almost two weeks for me to listen to the whole series in bits and parts.
Here are the six
Series of 6 lectures on "Foundations of Indian Culture" by Polymath Shatavadhani Dr. R. Ganesh.

1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2aAXN3jEmY
2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XOFAAdbh2w
3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4hY1gYTX_8
4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RufSIiP9Wq8
5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw945f6DACA
6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRpwvOJpkVE

Lecture summaries and recommended reading can be found here
http://www.scribd.com/doc/232875587/Foundations-of-Indian-Culture-Session-Notes

Art -Its evaluation and survival

Why we prefer “BIG BANG THEORY” over Bollywood nonsense?

We Indians suffer from unloving criticism, more virulent if it is combined with xenophobia, and uncritical love leading to hero worship of worthless fellows in Bollywood.

I have read lakhs of quotes on art and criticism but this one I feel is more appropriate here as in the very title the great Oscar Wilde injected both terms ‘The critic as Artist, 1891’ wherein he says, “Science is out of the reach of morals, for her eyes are fixed upon eternal truths. Art is out of the reach of morals, for her eyes are fixed upon things beautiful and immortal and ever-changing. To morals belong the lower and less intellectual spheres”.

Let us study art in very general terms based on mere observations rather than any expert analysis.

Any form of art is expected to provide entertainment, education, enlightenment [if that also can emerge].

What art is? How it emerges and how various art forms impact a variety of human beings?

In the process of doing this it manifests the attributes and attitudes of the society to various aspects of life in different ways trying to capture the various dimensions/facets of life and perceptions and the many methods through which human beings try to deal with different situations and contexts that they force themselves into or forced to face due to fate.

Art does these things broadly  through abstract representations; surrealistic presentations; exaggerated and/or twisted humor; if it is visual media visual comedy too;  either superficial or in depth critical analysis of many social practices and issues; aesthetic appeals, deep devotions, or sometimes produces unbelievable masterpieces  which are the result of revelations to the soul or through the soul of the some artists, we label them as prodigies/geniuses etc who are otherwise ordinary mortals in all other aspects like the rest of human beings; sometimes certain artists seem to come out with certain unbelievable creations in a state of trance to which they are transported either through devotion or drugs or other hitherto scientifically unexplainable and unexplained means [there are many examples and vast scientific literature too available for this facet of art].

So, in brief art emerges out of the emotional feelings, intellectual perceptions, spiritual vibrations [for those who are not willing to believe or accept such terminologies] or from realms beyond the physically tangible, emotionally felt and/or intellectually perceivable.

Art while doing these, sometimes soaks the sentiments and emotions through high levels of pathos through projections of insurmountable physical discomforts, emotional troubles and mental problems etc; sometimes transports the human spirit away from all seriousness into a realm of enjoyable humour that makes us forget everything and swim in the ocean of laughter; sometimes appeals to the aesthetic sensitivities of human beings; sometimes slides us into our basic sensuous sensations through great romance; sometimes strikes a chord with the spiritual dimension of human being wherein it takes both the artists and the audience/spectator/reader/fan into realms beyond the normal cognitive consciousness.

Human beings generally are easily attracted to various art forms or various standards of productions within a particular art form as the impact of art is piercing and powerful because art permeates directly into the three major aspects every of individual human being emotional and/or physical, intellectual and spiritual manifestations of three vital parts of human life body, mind  and soul/spirit [ this aspect of our life itself is abstract we can neither see it in mirror nor grasp it with our  intellect].

Art is able to do these because it is by nature a spontaneous expression of creativity/enjoyment/devotion so it neither tries to convince any intellectual correctness nor bothers about social/traditional acceptance nor overburdens itself with the necessity to synthesize with any ideology/specific culture/socio political view etc.

From these above indicated exalted inherent credentials of arts we are expected to enjoy it, get engrossed in it or engulfed by it, exported into aesthetic arenas, get enlightened etc.

Still nothing prevents us from evaluating, critically analyzing or trying hard to synthesize with our pet socio cultural perceptions. We shall now see why we do all these?

Why we evaluate art, critically analyze it and try to synthesize it with socio cultural standards/perceptions?

What has happened to art that we all try to evaluate it rather than enjoy it? What has happened to art that we subject it to critical analysis rather than getting engrossed in it? What has happened to art that instead of getting enlightened by it we try to synthesize it with our views and practices of life/life styles/cultures etc or seek syncretism with our various belief systems or social acceptance etc?

As in every evolution, in art too, there are many art forms which have evolved into something more polished and sophisticated able to withstand different onslaughts of socio-cultural changes and there are many art forms which have become extinct too.

The process of evolution throws everything to test, art being no exception, into the huge cauldron of all these:- socially emerging or constantly changing value systems, scrupulously strengthened traditions, petrified ideological indoctrinations and psychological conditionings, political power centers, commercial considerations, carefully cultivated and devotedly developed edifices of religious morals and belief systems, factors of basic human urges, impulses and instincts, the constantly  emerging expectations  of rational thoughts and scientific vindications, socio cultural acceptance, the ever changing trends , taboos etc

After throwing into this huge cauldron and subjecting it to constant churning there emerge or float lots of stuff, everything liked and useful for different set of people or sects of society with varying degrees and intensities of appeal, impact and/ or influence etc.

In the evolutionary churning process various methods are adopted ranging from the very sane to the incorrigibly stupid; from the profoundly philosophical to the silly superficial social engineering; from the time tested value system benefiting the human beings and the environment to the vacillating trends of vacuous inanity; from the very scientific methods to superstitious beliefs and so on and so forth.

In any age or era in the inevitable evolutionary churning process any artistic expression and/or creation or scientific discovery and/or invention has to necessarily and primarily to ensure its own survival then work towards or do things to attract attention and acceptance.

Why only some arts, scientific discoveries and sport events survive and are supported more and why?

Only those art forms and scientific discoveries/inventions that accepted this reality of floating to capture attention survived and sometimes eventually got glorified as well.

That is the reason many works of art, literature and science which survive and impact humanity were sponsored, supported and sustained by kings and emperors, religious leaders and political leaders for various reasons which again is a vast subject by itself and forms a major part of controversial history. Artist could create great arts; scholars could write great pieces of literature; philosophers could propound great truths; scientists could discover and invent many things; saints, sages and enlightened souls could spell out wisdom but all these required attention and support for continuation of survival.

So whatever great arts, scientific discoveries, philosophical thoughts, spiritual wisdom that exist, impact and influence us are not necessarily the best or the greatest but those that managed to survive and get supported.

The supporters and sponsors whether kings or religious institutions or leaders or political leaders had their own vested interests, prejudices, hidden agenda, lurking motives etc to which these arts and sciences had to necessarily confirm by making some compromises or at least minor adjustments.

In the present age the sponsors and sustainers are the economic powers, commercial interests and supporters are the products of prevailing socio-cultural trends.

In the present age, besides all these, arts and sciences have to cater beyond geographical, linguistic, national barriers to be more successful.

So it does not require a rocket scientists to know why Grammy award winning music albums have a greater publicity though they need not necessarily be the best music; Why Hollywood awarded movies have a greater viewership though they need not necessarily be the best movies; Why BCCI sponsored IPL cricket is the most popular cricketing event though it need not necessarily be the best cricketing event; Why European club football has greater viewership of all football events though it need not be the best football event; Why Australian Master chef is the most viewed culinary event though that need not necessarily be the best cuisine.

So any artistic creation or scientific discovery does not survive purely and/or only due to its inherent quality or greatness or utility but due to all these multiple factors explained above.

Therefore to make any dissection and analyze any work of art through any specific ideological bias, or moral or cultural policing or doctrinal discrimination or social engineering and worst of all media based judgment peddled by ultracrepidarian[A person who gives opinions and advice on matters outside of one's knowledge.] pretentious know-alls who revel more nowadays on scandals, sensationalism and gossip rather than on any concrete content based evaluation of anything on inherent merits.

So as an ordinary mortal aware of and taking into consideration all the factors I would prefer to continue to enjoy “BIG BANG THEORY” with all its purported bias and hidden agenda because beyond all these it offers great humour to those who have sense of humour.

These sitcoms are far more humorous, entertaining, educative than the stupid stereotyped Bollywood movies and sickening Indian teleserials imbued with mother in law daughter in law duels or the social engineering of victimhood portrayals, poverty parading and preaching on national integration and communal harmony.

Above all these sitcoms have certain inherent merits that one preferably need to look for in sitcoms and films or any audio-visual production in general namely good to great acting, good to great cinematography, crisp dialogues, curt replies, marvelous editing, many useful information of the subject that they deal with rather than masking everything with a masala mixture of veiled vulgarity and preaching with a long dialogue from pedestal even in moments like chasing and  shooting a villain as they do in Indian movies.

From ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘House’ we can learn a lot of interesting facts about human anatomy and modern medical practices.

Serials like ‘Lie To Me’ and ‘Castle’ can be used in training sessions for detectives and police force.

Serials like ‘Friends’ have excellent and sharp verbal humour.

While discussing about pay check do not get distracted by passions, career satisfaction, dreams, ambitions, how far is your place of work, who are your co employees etc though all these are important not when you are bothered and discussing only about paycheck .

I remember a Chinese Proverb which says, “When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills”.

I would be happy to be one among these categories listed by you below, that you seems to mention with derision, in this part, “No wonder that shows such as The Big Bang Theory are talked about in social circles which include teenagers, newly adults and veteran adults, who pride themselves on being members of the global community having left behind their antiquated ideas and morals about right or wrong.”

Thoughts and language

There are many things/factors/ideas that impact, initiate, influence, impel and/or condition our thinking process.


Whether we like it or not language [ which is supposed  to be a tool to communicate our thoughts] also incidentally supplies, supports and shapes our thoughts.

These have been very excellently explained  by Steven Arthur Pinker in his popular books.

Through excellent examples and in depth analysis he has argued that the human faculty for language is an "instinct", an innate behavior shaped by natural selection and adapted to our communication needs. He is the author of six books for a general audience. Five of these, namely The Language Instinct (1994), How the Mind Works (1997), Words and Rules (2000), The Blank Slate(2002), and The Stuff of Thought (2007) describe aspects of the field of psycholinguistics, and include, among much else, accessible accounts of his own research. The sixth book, The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011), makes the case that violence in human societies has in general steadily declined with time, and identifies six major causes of this decline.

[Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-born U.S. experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist,linguist, and popular science author. He is a Harvard College Professor and the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, and is known for his advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind].

Of these books The stuff of thought and How the mind works are really gems that everyone must read. .

Also read Harold Waldwin Percival [a Theosophist and writer] his magnum opus Thinking and Destiny a very detailed book on thinking running to some 1000 pages.


You can also spice up these with Le Comte de Nuoy's 'Human Destiny' another great book.


This preamble is for all of us to get rid of our illusions thinking that our thoughts  are the result or the cause of our intelligence/intellect/knowledge etc and also the dispel the presumption that some superior wisdom exclusively privileges and directs our thoughts.


It is bad indeed  to give great importance to the thoughts of merely academically qualified people without any wisdom, worse still to those who have merely held positions doled out to them by virtue of their political sycophancy and worst of all if it emanates from a opinion platform of a newspaper like The Hindu [ where opinions are filtered through the highly hypocritical sick Indian brand of left over leftist ideology  whose proponents owe their livelihood and suck  for their survival  the very institutions and ideas that they virulently and vociferously criticize].


These opinions/thoughts expressed by these worthies  cannot do anything else but support the wrong causes.

Their only qualification is that they can sandwich their stupidity in pleasant language and through a putrefying platform like The Hindu.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/planning-commission-struck-off-in-one-blow/article6329382.ece

Fate, Freewill and Humility

Whether it is being in echo chamber or being alert like a Gecko without ever blinking. A.K. Bhattacharya has well expressed simple fact and  inevitable truth below in the book review but what intervention that anyone seeks is determined again by many factors like culture, divinely predetermined disposition of the inner self otherwise called natural attribute, indoctrinated or carefully nurtured  attitudes of reactions and all these leading to ensuing actions. 

For example imagine the plight of all non Shias in Iraq in the past two months, whatever has been happening is defying all logic, rationality etc and even the option or luxury of sanely choosing any intervention is not available. So very often the intensity of the crisis and inevitability of circumstances determine our recognizing, resorting to and respecting intervention along with again the unwillingness of human beings to be humble enough to accept that there are plenty of things that happen / can happen which are beyond the ken of human intellect, knowledge, understanding, logic, science, and all other known resources that we are used to and are comfortable employing to counter difficulties.  

All human beings may be unwilling to be humble but resort to all sorts of remedies in times of extreme crisis which are either belief based, ethnocentric culture oriented, traditionally tested and tried, faith oriented etc sometimes much against their long held convictions too because survival counts above everything else for all human beings except those with suicidal tendencies.

​

Life mostly is lived and perceived in the Time and  ​Space conundrum but happens beyond these two. That's why sometimes when things happen in a jiffy when the human mind is not even given options of dealing with it in Time and Space, physical lives just end as it happened recently to the Malaysian aircraft passengers or as it happens during big natural calamities like earth quakes etc

Any deliverance be it delightful events or damage and destruction does not depend on anyone's belief system, faith, intellectual capacity, logical perception etc. Everything happens not necessarily as definable by any belief system or logic. Events happen that's all not necessarily as definable by any belief system or logic. Persons behave in very nice ways as well as nasty and inhumane ways not necessarily as definable by any belief system or logic. It does not mean that we must sit passively and witness everything happening around us or everyone acting the way they want in any helpless manner cocooned in our fatalistic attitude but we can and are empowered to always use our freewill to deal with all these events and persons in wherever we can. 

Growth of life is led by a staircase made of the horizontal and vertical planes of fate and freewill.

http://jeevatma.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/not-so-curious/


AUGUST 8, 2014 BY ANANTHA NAGESWARAN

Not so curious

A.K. Bhattacharya of  ‘Business Standard’ has reviewed a book written by Shri. V. Krishnamurthy, former Chairman of BHEL, Maruti and SAIL, etc. The book may not have anything new and it may be the case that Mr. VK’s close connections to Mrs. Indira Gandhi and then her sons, etc. helped him. But, it is interesting to note that Shri. VK has mentioned twice how his religious beliefs helped him come out of tight situations.

What is difficult to understand is Mr. AKB’s observation in the end about the ‘curious explanation’ of the author’s religious beliefs helping to rehabilitate him. What is so curious about that?

In difficulties, all people run into the limits of both rationality and their abilities. They seek some intervention. In India, most people seek divine intervention. In fact, limits of reason and ability are always evident except that we do not have the ability nor the humility to accept that.

What is reinforced – yet again – is the not-so-curious case of some members of the Indian English-speaking public not being in touch with India. No wonder the rest of India does not take them seriously as much as they themselves do. That is why they are way out of touch with their election forecasts, predictions, analysis and advice. They remain in their own cocoon.

No. Make that ‘echo chamber’. They live in their own ‘echo chamber’. It is noisy and it is a nuisance but they hardly matter to the lives of rest of us.

Language debate

Why the language debate is unending, unrelenting, emotive and yet very meaningful?

I have many more points to make as I can read, write and speak in some 3 European languages and know to read and understand a bit two more European languages. Besides I did my entire schooling in my mother tongue Tamil. Sanskrit is a language I love and I got the university second mark in that and thanks to my sister I learned a bit of Hindi she is a Hindi pandit. Thanks to Saint Tyagaraja’s kritis I can understand very chaste Telugu which unfortunately very few speak. 

Besides I have read and can quote from some 100 best books and authors on linguistics, not only those who have written  purely academic stuff  but more so very interesting books by  those who have made in depth observation and research on how languages are used and how they use, make, modify, motivate, maneuver , manipulate and do many more things to the mind and thinking process itself with the help of /hype of many wonderful expressions, intricate usages, sublime suggestions [as used in religious business] , sensuously enticing usages [ as used in business promotion advertisements], surreptitious intentions [as used in political brain washing techniques] and many more subtle aspects of many languages.

As with any other subject languages too are, and preferably must be, analyzed from two extreme ends of the pendulums and all our debates, discussions and discernment swing between these two extreme points they are:- 

1] Very close to everyone’s heart purely subjective, passion filled [sometimes even with a tinge of fanatical affinity] with an ethnocentric and cultural affinity influenced and impacted by several generations of association and enhanced by ideological indoctrination promoted with a proportionately pleasant bunch of literature and philosophy, symbols imbued with extraordinarily valued and sometimes venerated substance because of the knowledge and perception of the significance of the concepts hidden beneath or manifested by those symbols a sort of magical lens that reveals what eludes the normal outside observer or a prism that unravels a kaleidoscopic splendor of patterns and colors etc.

2] Very objective, prosaic analysis in terms the inherent value of the subject [[here language] under scrutiny with reference to its utility, value for survival, significance to life of humanity especially the functional aspects of life etc.

Both are right and wrong because both are relative and being an umpire here is as unpleasant or an uneasy task as being an adjudicator in an argument between a mother and wife.[ [if you view it subjectively] or between a mother-in –law and daughter in law [if you view it quasi subjectively] or between two women of different ages with different relationships to you [if you are very objective].

For example the syntax of a sentence describing the beauty and importance of eyes is very objective and precise to the point when it is used to advertise a product or lens or spectacles for the eyes but the very same description of the beauty and impact of the beauty of the eyes wanders into very poetic and romantic realms throwing all rules of grammar /syntax to the winds when describing a lover’s beautiful eyes.

So the language debates will always be reasonable, could be recreational, relevant [ for various reasons]  and reverberating with vigour.

As per the great linguistic scholar Steven Pinker in his wonderful book one of the trio logy ‘THE STUFF OF THOUGHT-LANGUAGE AS A WINDOW INTO THE HUMAN NATURE’ writes “language itself is not a single system but a contraption with many components…….syntax itself encompasses several mechanisms, which are tapped to different extents by different languages……one of the key phenomenon of syntax is the way that sentences are built around their verbs. The phenomenon goes by many technical names [including subcategorization, diathesis, predicate argument structure, valence, adicity [roots thus mark points of interface between the language faculty and the wider cognitive makeup of a person], arity [the number of arguments that a function can take] , case structure, and theta-role assignment], but I’ll refer to it using traditional term verb constructions.”

He also goes on to write , “For example, pour, fill and load are all ways of moving something somewhere, and they all have the same cast of characters: a mover, some contents that move, and a container that is the goal of the movement. Yet pour allows only the content -locative [pour water], fill allows only the container –locative [fill the glass], and load goes both ways [load the hay, load the wagon]”

A book by the linguist Beth Levin classifies three thousand  English verbs into about eighty-five classes they appear in; its subtitles is ‘A preliminary Investigation’

But due to want of time and space I am not going into the details and as suggested by many well meaning, experienced and erudite persons in this long drawn discussion on English versus Hindi debate I am more comfortable and convinced with English for various reasons which you may find in the links below.

  

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2014/06/language-its-limitless-limitation.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2012/09/language-very-interesting-article.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2014/07/languages-and-language-teachers.html

​http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2014/07/languagerituals-politics.html​

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2012/09/sanskrit-why-it-is-great-language.html

One must also read David Crystal on language studies besides Vygotsky the much neglected great linguist whose only mistake was being born in Communist Russia during cold war period

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2012/10/quotations-from-vygotsky-1962-1986-1978_514.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2014/01/my-sincere-lifelong-lovers-26-gems-who.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2014/01/romance-of-words-raped-and-killed-by.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/08/my-20-point-observations-on-languages.html

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/01/language-hegemony.html

Calories, Protein etc

There are neither axiomatic certitudes nor dictum of finality in any domain of life nor can we deny or defy the importance of anything in life.

I relook into Calories, Protein etc as I got a message about the Calorie myth

No doubt all branches of science have made huge strides in development and making life more comfortable, happy and meaningful. However even many aspects of our physical body are still a  mystery and different  systems of health care have been and are therefore constantly trying to grasp bits and pieces of mysteries unraveled through serious scientific research works and sincere observation based on several case studies ,symptoms,  remedies etc. Be it allopathic, ayurvedic, naturopathy, acupuncture, siddha sytems, native aborigines’ natural and herbal remedies etc all work well with varying levels of effectiveness for different individuals. Each individual’s physical set up on the whole is unique starting from the shape, size etc visible to the naked eye to those invisible to the naked eye like internal organs, constantly changing biochemistry, hormones etc. But based on several experiments conducted and experiences evolved we have been adopting certain remedial measures as universally applicable, but nothing is complete, comprehensive, and conclusive. With each new discovery we need to evaluate the existing store house of data and arrive at a better solution to our problems, if necessary rework or even completely change the perspective and processes involved in our approach and evaluation methodology, that is the beauty of the inbuilt humility and higher position of science over other domains of human knowledge systems like religion, tradition, believe systems etc.

So even the craze of modern trend of starving in the name of dieting and everyone preaching about calories, fibers, proteins etc is not totally correct because as said earlier there are millions of factors which decide a person’s or any person’s health. If as human beings we had complete or total knowledge of how our bodies work then by this time we could have /would have tweaked some aspects and worked on immortality if not longevity for all.

A calorie is NOT a calorie (huge myth exposed inside)

Joel & Josh - BioTrust Nutrition

To Me

Today at 7:46 AM

Eat less than you burn and you’ll lose weight – it’s preached as the “be all, end all” of weightloss and it’s completely WRONG.

Truth is, the number of calories you eat is not the only factor that affects your body composition.  In fact, there are at least 5 other factors that need to be considered, including:

1. The thermic effect of the food ingested.  The thermic effect of food (TEF) measures the amount of energy that is required to support the processes of digesting, absorbing, and assimilating food nutrients as well as the energy expended as a result of the central nervous system’s stimulatory effect on metabolism when food is ingested.  Of the three macronutrients, protein carries the highest thermic effect.  More about this here.

2. The fiber content of the food ingested.  Due to its chemical makeup, fiber is classified as a carbohydrate; however, it is unlike other carbohydrates in that it is a mostly indigestible nutrient.  Even though each gram of fiber contains four calories, these calories will remain undigested and will not be absorbed.  Therefore, if one were to consume 300 calories of red beans (a food in which nearly 1/3 of the caloric content is from fiber), approximately 100 of these calories would pass through the intestinal tract undigested.

3. The glycemic and insulin index of the food ingested.  The glycemic and insulin index are scaled numbers that refer to how quickly a particular carbohydrate source enters the bloodstream as sugar and how much insulin is needed to rid that sugar from the bloodstream, respectively.  Generally speaking, there is a positive relationship between the two; that is, the quicker sugar enters the bloodstream, the more insulin is needed to rid that sugar from the bloodstream.  When high levels of insulin are present within the blood, fat burning is brought to a screeching halt, which is anything but desirable for those whose goal is just that.  Get the our #1 trick for automatically lowering the glycemic and insulin index of the food you eat here.

4. The macronutrients present in the food ingested.  Although insulin’s primary function is to shuttle glucose (sugar) into skeletal muscle, it also carries many other nutrients to their respective storage sites; this includes fat.  Since carbohydrate ingestion stimulates a large insulin response and fat ingestion gives rise to blood lipid levels, the two, when consumed together in high levels (especially in the absence of protein), promote the greatest fat storage.

5. The timing of the meals ingested meals.  Ingesting a large amount of carbohydrates before bed spikes insulin, sabotages overnight fat burning, and increases fat storage during sleep.  On the contrary, consuming a great deal of calories early in the day does not bring about this problem; rather, these calories are likely to be used as energy to support daily activities.

As you can see, someone could be eating a relatively small amount of calories daily, but at the same time promoting a great deal of fat storage by:

1) making poor food choices
2) eating carbs and fat together in large amounts without protein, and
3) consuming meals at inopportune times

To illustrate this further, let’s take a look at a recent study conducted by Demling et al which analyzed the diets of 38 police officers.  Demling found that although the officers were consuming a hypocaloric diet (fewer calories than they burn), they all had unhealthy levels of body fat and had been gaining fat mass over the past five years.  If all you had to do to lose fat was consume fewer calories than you burn, then these individuals would be losing fat, not gaining it!  And to confirm the importance of the factors that I previously mentioned, let’s take a look at some of the other things that Demling noted:

•  Only 15% of their diet consisted of protein, the macronutrient with the greatest TEF.
•  Their diet contained very little fiber.
•  Over 50% of their carbohydrate intake was derived from simple sugars, which have very high glycemic and insulin indices.
•  The majority of the meals were high in fat and carbs with little protein
•  Over 50% of their calories was consumed right before bed

By now, it should be obvious that fat loss isn’t just a matter of calories in, calories out.

Proteins

Protein intolerance affects people worldwide and can be present from birth. While protein is an essential nutrient for the human body, too much of the wrong kind can lead a child or adult of otherwise normal health to develop a protein intolerance, causing several digestive and overall health issues. While cow’s milk, soy products and gluten are the most common culprits, the body can have a difficult time digesting any type of protein.

Lysinuric protein intolerance

http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/lysinuric-protein-intolerance

There’s no cure for lysinuric protein intolerance, so people who have this disorder will need to restrict their protein intake permanently. According to Gianfranco Sebastio, M.D., from the Department of Pediatrics at Federico II University and colleague, people with protein intolerance might need to take citrulline and nitrogen-scavenging drugs on a regular basis. These drugs will clear the body of any nitrogen waste caused by the digestion of protein. People who are able to digest protein can filter and eliminate that waste on their own, but people with lysinuric protein intolerance can’t. This can lead to serious problems, such as seizures, cerebral edema and coma.

The Surprising Reason You May Be Aging Prematurely: Improper Protein Digestion

http://bodyecology.com/articles/getting_enough_protein.php#.U9zzZuOSxRI

Malabsorption Syndrome: Famine for the Body – Feast of Illnesses
~ by Jo Jordan

http://www.puristat.com/Malabsorption/default.aspx

Symptoms of Enzyme Deficiencies

Although you may be eating healthy foods and exercising, other factors can overrun your body's ability to produce a high enough enzyme level to maintain good health. Some of these factors include environmental stressors, such as air or electromagnetic pollution; emotional stress, such as job loss, loss of a loved one, or a chronic relationship conflict; lack of raw foods in the diet; other lifestyle stress, such as frequent business travel, lack of sleep, or job and family demands. All of these conditions either inhibit the body's ability to produce enzymes, or put the body into stress because normal levels of enzymes are being used up and not sufficiently replaced.

Here are some indicators to look for that may point to a enzyme deficiency.

http://enzymes.subtleenergysolutions.com/enzyme-deficiency.html

Another useful overloaded site is

http://curezone.org/Default.asp