Life as I find it

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today.

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace.

John Lennon
From the song Imagine

An atheist was walking through the woods one day in Alaska, admiring
all that evolution had created. “What majestic trees! What a powerful
river! What beautiful animals!” he said to himself. As he was walking
alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him.
Turning to look, he saw a 13-foot Kodiak brown bear beginning to charge
towards him. He ran as fast as he could down the path. He looked over
his shoulder and saw that the bear was rapidly closing on him. Somehow,
he ran even faster, so scared that tears came to his eyes. He looked
again and the bear was even closer. His heart pounding in his chest, he
tried to run faster yet. But alas, he tripped and fell to the ground.
As he rolled over to pick himself up, the bear was right over him,
reaching for him with its left paw and raising its right paw to strike
him.

“OH MY GOD! …”

Time stopped.

The bear froze.

The forest was silent.

Even the river stopped moving …

As a brilliant light shone upon the man, a thunderous voice came from all around…

“YOU
DENY MY EXISTENCE FOR ALL THESE YEARS, TEACH OTHERS THAT I DON’T EXIST
AND EVEN CREDIT CREATION TO SOME COSMIC ACCIDENT. DO YOU EXPECT ME TO
HELP YOU OUT OF THIS PREDICAMENT? AM I TO COUNT YOU AS A BELIEVER?”

Difficult
as it was, the atheist looked directly into the light and said, “It
would be hypocritical to ask to be a Christian after all these years,
but perhaps you could make the bear a Christian?”

“VERY WELL.” Said God.

The light went out.

The river ran.

The sounds of the forest resumed.

…
and the bear dropped down on his knees, brought both paws together,
bowed his head and spoke: “Lord, thank you for this food which I am
about to receive.”

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Huh?

You mean planets floating around in the sky decide my life, and I’m the idiot working hard to make it how I want? Try again. Harder.

Don’t tell me about the moon influencing tides being an example. The moon may influence tides all it wants, but my plumbing isn’t affected by it. I have yet to have a day for stronger water flow on the full moon and regardless of what’s happening inside anyone else’s heads, believe me, I don’t have blood and brains sloshing around inside waiting to lean toward the side of my head where the moon is. Everything is packed and in position like it should be, thank you very much.

I see all this belief and wonder how education is limited to books, and not applied to anything it has not been recommended for.

Let’s do a quick exercise. Remember your life. Great. Did you remember EVERYTHING? Obviously not. You remembered stuff that stuck in your memory. What happened to the rest? What about that lunch you had exactly 10 years ago? What was the menu? Chances are, you will not remember. Astrological miracles are like that, as are personality profiles and other forecasts. Most of them are vague enough to fit in with most people, who in glorious self-centered bliss imagine that they are the only ones who fit the bill so perfectly. Obviously, the words are designed to feel good. Therefore, Mr. Astrologer is credible. Huh?

And what of those silly goof ups he foretold, or read in your behaviour? Well…. you don’t really find them remarkable do you? So like that lunch 10 years ago, they’re gone…. somewhere in the bottomless storehouse of the brain, not to be reclaimed in all likelihood. So now what? Perfectly credible Mr. Astrologer has a very high rate of accuracy to boot.

The final selling point is of course in his unshakable belief in your value as a person. The qualities you see in yourself being reflected in his words…… Do you honestly have ANY clue on how many people think of themselves as analytical, thoughtful, reclusive, expressive, mysterious, capable of making friends with anyone, etc? Even if loner and magnetic were used in the same list of description, chances are every human on earth has experienced both moods and remembers experiencing them when reminded by those words. Voila! The description fits like a glove.

Spare me!

Forecasts are an even enlightening experience. An all-in-one chance to flatter, guide and secure unending belief. “Today is an excellent time to throw a party if you’re inclined” variety. Heh. Really? If I am inclined, I will throw the party and enjoy myself and credit goes to astrologer for predicting that I will enjoy myself if I throw a party? Success is yours providing you persevere and remain wary of careless mistakes. How can one be wary of careless mistakes? You will save money if you can avoid those impulsive purchases. No! What a miracle!

Failed prediction? Something must have gone wrong! Well…..[i]obviously[/i], no? Apparently not. The mistake is in some elaborate calamity or unnoticed danger in the stars - not something as mundane as a chappie taking a risk that didn’t work out.

I have yet to find a prediction that has a clearly defined circumstance of failure and still comes true.

For those who wish to convert me, indulge me. Find me an astrologer who will make 10 predictions with very clear definitions of success, and let’s explore how many actually come true. I’m not interested in the 10 outstanding successes of a 20 year career. Show me the results of 10 consecutive predictions and then we’ll talk.

This is the very first post on this site. I am proud to have finally created this place as a platform for interaction for all sorts of Indians on the subject of their motherland. I’d been thinking about this for a very long time, but somehow always found the project to be too daunting, too huge to take up on my own.

India is a vast place. The sheer diversity of India is perhaps beyond comprehension of a single individual, yet, we are all Indians. Our interests vary, our habits, beliefs, concerns……. they are all different. Yet, we are all Indians and what happens in our motherland happens to us as well, in varying degrees.

Today, India is going good. Our economy is booming, we’re the country with the most number of billionaires in Asia after overtaking Japan. All sorts of industries are flourishing. There is improved satisfaction with life and better hopes for futures.

Yet, the diversity of the Indian society is not only cultural. We have the richest, and we also have the embarrassingly poor. Our educated professionals are respected worldwide for their knowledge, and we are also struggling with illiteracy. We even have the film industry that churns out a phenomenal number of films a year and our population is largely rural.

As we zip into progress, I think a need of the time is to reach out. To reach out to people of all sorts. I don’t only mean the lesser previledged or anything, just to reach out and understand the different people who are with us in this journey, to broaden our own horizons through the diversity of India.

At the moment, I am not very clear on where this initiative will go in the future. I guess, it is like India in this way too. The potential is tremendous, what remains to be seen is how much effort is taken.

I wish myself and all the people here the very best and hope that this site will be able to bring in new thoughts, initiatives and hopes.