Proud of my Grandfather

Proud of my Grandfather!
Quoting an EMail from Shri Gurbir Singh to my cousin sis - Rita Mahapatra and brother-in-law Brajendra Mahapatra. Thanks to the diaries preserved by my uncle Shri N Gantayat!

====EMAIL From Shri Gurbir Singh==

Paralakhemundi.

22.3.11

Smt. & Sri Mahapatraji,

         

Thank you very much for writing that wonderful E-mail to me, which was very much intrinsically imbued on with feelings of great understanding, love and admiration for a family patriarch and great soul, who had contributed so much to the making of a great familial lineage by being a great human being with so much of a sensitive side to him ( I personally treasure this aspect more than anything in a human being), of course, besides his enormous contributions to the royal household of Paralakhemundi and to the latter cause of  including the PKD Zamindari to the approved boundary of the Orissan State. 

This I feel inclined to write because when I first met Sri N. Gantayet Babu, I was overwhelmed with his dedication and love for his father; to find him having preserved the old diaries (even of the very young days of his father that described his hostel life and high school days) with so much care and devotion was like seeing a small sensitive, adorable, spiritual charisma. This I admired much; this I find in this E-mail itself. The diaries which I read with so much interest, the diaries which allowed me a journey into the mind of a sensitive young man that was filled with enormous dreams and concern for the society he lived in, the sensitivity I found in him, I found dominant in the successive family trees as well. He must be a happy man in heaven to see this intellectually sensitive side predominantly running in his family.

I am no scholar, no researcher, no publication craving contributor. I wrote what I meant and I meant what I strongly felt. There was so much to write; the diaries had so much in them, maybe the haste of writing the piece to keep the deadline did make me leave out some other aspects of this unacknowledged, great man of Orissa. I am sorry for that. At a personal level, I found it highly satisfying to read the entries in the diaries, and it was also quite energizing to write that piece. Mentally I have been enriched by the mind of the young man who felt so much, whose feelings unfortunately remained unknown, so much like his valued scribbles which have remained obscure till date, though very well preserved and read by a small inner circle of family acquaintance.  

I strongly feel that he could have become a chronicler par excellence, besides contributing politically to the state and the nation post independence, if he had not been God’s favourite in dying young.  But as you have rightly affirmed in your E-mail that he had left behind a legacy of quiet dignity, perseverance and high moral conduct as the goal for all of us to strive and achieve, I am sure that the throbs that still beat in the hearts of those diaries will definitely make many more readers like me rededicate themselves to strive to become better human beings. One day, he surely will get his due mention as one of the architect in shaping the minds of those were acknowledgedly at the helms of affairs in carrying forward the struggle of independent statehood of Orissa.

Thank you once again for writing.

With warm regards!

Gurbir Singh

Power of married men :-)

Just couldn't help sharing this - specially for the Married Men Club!!!

Hinduism is Open Source

Even Hinduism is Open Source. How divine!! Read on :-)
And NOOOO, I didn't write (wish I had!). Got it from a friend!!!
==================

Hinduism is 'Open Source'

Trying to explain the core beliefs of "Hinduism" to an interested observer can be challenging to say the least. Its often stated that the word "Hinduism" itself is a total misnomer, as it basically refers to the sum total of spiritual and religious thought and practice that has taken place on the Indian subcontinent over the past 5,000 years. And lets just say it's been a busy 5,000 years.

The sheer volume of spiritual literature and doctrine, the number of distinct gods worshiped (over 30 million, according to some sources), the breadth of distinct philosophies and practices that have emerged, and the total transformation over time of many of the core Indic teachings and beliefs can be disconcerting to those raised in monotheistic cultures, as we are used to each faith bringing with it a defined set of beliefs that -- with the exception of some denominational rifts over the centuries -- stay pretty much consistent over time.

However, the key point of differentiation between Hinduism and these other faiths is not polytheism vs. monotheism. The key differentiation is that "Hinduism" is Open Source and most other faiths are Closed Source..

"Open source is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to a software's source code." 

If we consider god, the concept of god, the practices that lead one to god, and the ideas, thoughts and philosophies around the nature of the human mind the source code, then India has been the place where the doors have been thrown wide open and the coders have been given free reign to craft, invent, reinvent, refine, imagine, and re-imagine to the point that literally every variety of the spiritual and cognitive experience has been explored, celebrated, and documented.

Atheists and goddess worshipers, heretics who've sought god through booze, sex, and meat, ash covered hermits, dualists and non-dualists, nihilists and hedonists, poets and singers, students and saints, children and outcasts ... all have contributed their lines of code to the Hindu string.

The results of India's God Project -- as I like to refer to Hinduism -- have been absolutely staggering. The body of knowledge -- scientific, faith-based, and experience-based -- that has been accrued on the nature of mind, consciousness, and human behavior, and the number of practical methods that have been specifically identified to work with ones own mind are without compare. The Sanskrit language itself contains a massive lexicon of words -- far more than any other historic or modern language -- that deal specifically with states of mental cognition, perception, awareness, and behavioral psychology.

At the heart of the Indic source code are the Vedas, which immediately establish the primacy of inquiry in Indic thought. In the Rig Veda, the oldest of all Hindu texts (and possibly the oldest of all spiritual texts on the planet), God, or Prajapati, is summarized as one big mysterious question and we the people are basically invited to answer it.

"Who really knows?
Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced?
Whence is this creation?
The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?"

While the god of the Old Testament was shouting command(ment)s, Prajapati was asking: "Who am I?"

Since opening the floodgates on the divine question, Indic thought has followed a glorious evolutionary arc from shamanism, nature worship and sacrifice through sublime and complex theories on mental cognition, the nature of consciousness, and quantum physics.

Through tracing the subcontinents relationship with the deities of the Vedas, we can trace the course of Indic thought over the centuries. One of the first things we notice is that not only does the people's relationship to god change over the centuries, the gods themselves change. Shiva, for example, appears in the vedas as Rudra, the howler, god of storms, still something of a lesser deity.

Reappearing over the centuries as Bhairava -- he who inspires fear -- Pashupati, lord of beasts, the god of yogis, and the destroyer, Shiva finally, by the 9th century, achieves status in Kashmir as the fundamental energetic building block of the entire universe. Neat trick.

But as much as the gods change and the evolution of Indic thought leads us to increasingly modern and post-modern views of the nature of reality, the old Vedic codes still remain front and center. One of Hinduism's defining factors is that the historic view of god, the nature worship and shamanism, never went away, so that god as currently worshiped exists simultaneously as symbol and archetype as well as literal embodiment. That Shiva, for instance, could simultaneously be the light of ultimate consciousness and an ash-smeared madman who frequents cremation grounds is a delight to us spiritual anarchists, while mind numbing to most western Theologists.

Western and Middle Eastern monotheistic faiths have simply not allowed such liberal interpretation of their God. They continue to exist as closed source systems.

"Generally, [closed source] means only the binaries of a computer program are distributed and the license provides no access to the program's source code. The source code of such programs might be regarded as a trade secret of the company."

One of the defining facts of Christian history is that access to God has been viewed -- as in most closed source systems -- as a trade secret. The ability to reinterpret the bible, or the teachings of Christ, or the Old Testament, or to challenge the basic fundamental authority of the church has been non-existent for most of the church's history. Those who dared to do so were quite often killed.
In Indic thought, there is no trade secret. The foundation of yoga is that the key to god, or the macrocosm, or the absolute ... lies within the individual and can be accessed through a certain set of practices. It's a beautifully simple but ultimately profound concept that has been allowed to flourish unchecked for millennia. The process of discovering and re-imagining the divine is in your hands. The God Project.
====

Ramasseri Idli 

Got this as a forward in my mailbox. And being an avid 'idlli-fan' /eater could not resist recording this in my blog to ensure that next time I am ther in that part of the country, should have a go at Ramasseri Idli!!

Dedicated to all the 'idlli lovers'!!!

Ramasseri Idli

Ramasseri, an offbeat village in Palakkad is known all over Kerala for the idlis. It make the delicious Ramasseri Idli. Take an 8 - km drive from Palakkad town and embark on a culinary trip to Ramasseri , a nondescript hamlet , reputed for its fluffy idlis. Unique in shape , size and taste. Spongy and soft Ramasseri Idli is slightly different in shape from the conventional idlis. It is a little flat and round... just like ‘’ dosa ‘’.. Ramasseri Idli is eaten with Podi mixed in coconut oil. The beginning was from a Mudaliar family living near Mannath Bhagavathi Temple in Ramasseri near Elappully.

The recipe of Ramasseri idli dates back to about one century,which again is a trade secret. The Muthaliyar family had migrated to Palakkad from Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. The new generation in the profession says that the secret of the recipe and taste were handed down to them from the older women of the community. Now the idli business is confined to four families in Ramasseri. Selection of rice is very important in making Ramasseri idli. Usually the varieties used are Kazhama, Thavalakannan, Ponni etc.

The Idli Cooker

The taste depends on the boiling of paddy itself. Drying and dehusking are also important and need to be done in a particular way. The combination of rice and black gram is also equally important. For 10 kg of rice, one kg of black gram is used. Idli is made only after four hours of fermentation. Steaming of the idli is done on a cloth covered on the mud pot using firewood ( wood from tamarind trees ). Steaming time is only 2 - 3 minutes .This allegedly provides a special taste to the preparation. Idlis can be preserves for two to three days in moderate climate.

Be at Saraswathi Tea Stall at the crack of dawn to avoid the separate queues. It is fascinating to watch these idlis being steam cooked in mud pots arranged in a unique three - tiered manner. These flat , round idlis - served with sambar , chutney , idli podi - melt in your mouth. You won’t be able to stop at one.

Available at

Sankara Nivas Tea Stall
Ramasseri
Palakkad

Saraswathi Tea Stall
Ramasseri
PalakkadTel # 04922 - 2583995

__._,_.___

Digital Art - using free Open Source tools

Are you passionate about painting, sketching, digital art etc? Or know someone who is (kids, friends, siblings, parents etc.)? Was using/procuring expensive digital art editing software cost prohibitive (not talking about those who feel using pirated software is their birth-right :-)?

Well, you know that the Open Source world gives you loads of wonderful digital art manipulation (Photo editing, vector drawings, 2D/3D-Graphics etc.) software - which are not only free to use, but sometimes even better than what you can get by money-pay!!

Take your pick from http://www.linfo.org/software_artists.html
42 of the best Open Source Free digital arts tools can be found here

Thats not all. Do your bit by joining and sharing the Ubuntu-Artists forum - where you share and learn and enjoy great digital art!! Check out the site http://ubuntu-artists.deviantart.com/

This is a group for everyone who uses Ubuntu to create artworks, designs and other creative media. It's a great place to show off what you can do with the tools available in Ubuntu.

Women and Linux

Happy Women's Day!! 

http://www.linuxchix.org/

LinuxChix is a community for women who like Linux and Free Software, and for women and men who want to support women in computing. The membership ranges from novices to experienced users, and includes professional and amateur programmers, system administrators and technical writers.

http://ubuntu-women.org/

Ubuntu-Women is a team functioning under Ubuntu to provide a platform and encouragement for women to contribute to Ubuntu-Linux, a Debian based free and open-source GNU/Linux software. Our main role will be along the lines of supplementing and being the stepping stone toward the larger Ubuntu-Linux world. Membership is open to all. 

http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Encourage-Women-Linux-HOWTO.html

This article explains some of the difficulties and biases women face in the Linux community and examines various strategies for addressing those difficulties in order to encourage more participation by women.

http://women.debian.org/home/

This is the homepage of the Debian Women Project, a subproject of the Debian Project.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Women

GNOME Women is a group dedicated to providing encouragement for women to contribute to GNOME, a free and open-source GNU/Linux and Unix desktop suite.

http://community.kde.org/KDE_Women

KDE Women is a group of women in the KDE community. We are here to help increase the number of women in Open Source and to support each other.

http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2010/Schedule/Sunday

This years LibrePlanet Conference of the 'Free Software Foundation' which is to be held from March 19th-21st in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Harvard University Science Center has a special session for Women - check out the 1030 Hrs presentation on 21st Mar.

Shreya's thoughts - Terrorist

This is a poem/thoughts by my daughter Shreya - all of 7 years old!! Gives an insight on the effects the current events have on the little minds. Sad but true - the little minds have so much more to cope up with!!

(the poem/thought has been reproduced as is - without any grammatical correction or modifications!)

Terrorists

The Terrorist are attacking our country

I just hope that when i grow up

I will try to fight against terrorist

and make my country INDIA proud

so that there would be peace and stability

I want to spread this message to all over INDIA

Thank You

[This was written after she viewed the movie MNIK - My Name is Khan ]

An inspiring artist - K.K Raghava

This talk at TED 2010  is inspiring - for hobbyist artists like me, KKR is a rock star. Check out his TED 2010 talk below.



From Wikipedia
K.K. Raghava (b. Bangalore, India, 1980), also known as Raghava KK, Raghava K K, is a contemporary artist living and working in Bangalore, India. He is best known for his early style of painting, in which he created large watercolour on canvas paintings using his hands and feet.
He started his career in 1998 as a cartoonist for The Asian Age, The Indian Express, and The Times of India in Bangalore. He has been called "one of the most successful emerging artists in India" by many galleries and journalists.
His first painting exhibition in 2000 in Bangalore was hosted by Indian actress Shabana Azmi. In 2005, he collaborated with Gregangelo's Velocity Circus to create Anthropomorphism: When Paintings Dance, a performance art piece, at an event in San Jose presented by art patron Ann Getty. K.K. Raghava has collaborated with dancers, actors, musicians, and other artists, including Pepe Linares.
In 2007, his work was showcased on the Mur Foster at the Carre d'Art Musee d'Art Contemporain in Nimes, France. His works were included in an auction by Bid and Hammer auction house in 2008.
He is married to musician Netra Srikanth.

Vivekananda Library Online - eBooks

For the book lovers - here is a great link to ebooks on Vivekananda

http://www.vivekananda.net/Library.html

 

Vivekananda Library Online- Frank Parlato Jr.

Frank Parlato Jr. is a Vedic scholar, one of the leading authorities in the world on the life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda. His work is cited and has been published in prestigious journals and magazines around the world, including Encyclopedia.com, Vedanta Kesari and Hinduism Today. His research has lead to many new discoveries of Vivekananda considered by hundreds of millions as the spiritual father of modern India.

LCD and LED displays to be give way to LPD

Forget LCD and LED Displays - here comes LPD


CA-based Prysm came out of stealth mode to talk about its plans for manufacturing Laser Phosphor Displays, or LPDs. The new devices, which the company will show off at the Integrated Systems Europe trade show in Amsterdam next month, reportedly use 25 percent as much electricity as equivalently-sized LCD screens. And they should be easier to manufacture too, since they don't have a backplane of transistors like LCD screens: the image is generated by a laser beam that sweeps across phosphor stripes under the control of a scanning mirror. The venture-funded startup, which plans to build and sell LPD screens under its own brand, is promoting them as a low-cost, low-maintenance way to display information in lobbies, airports, broadcast studios, command centers, and the like.

Full story at http://bit.ly/4Cu8ud

Happy New Year 2010

New Year is the time to unfold new horizons & realize new dreams, to rediscover the strength & faith within u, to rejoice in simple pleasures & gear up 4 a new challenges. Let us leave behind what we don’t need to carry - GRUDGES SADNESS FEAR and REGRETS. 

Life is beautiful, Enjoy it.  

Happy New Year 2010. 

Wishing you all a truly fulfilling new year!

 

Linux means Liberty

A picture is worth a thousand words.. 

(From http://www.tuxradar.com/content/linux-means-liberty)

Linux means Liberty

The Best Twitter Applications

Bored with just tweeting? Is the Twitter bug waning? (check all about Twitter here) Though I admit I am not much of a 'tweeting type twitter', I am rather a 'reading type twitter' and spend good part of my time reading other peoples tweets (does that make a peek-a-booer??). I have my own interesting tweet to-follow list (will post it sometime!) which I religiously follow for the sake of information and awareness.

Over the weekend I was wondering what all can be done on 'twitter' to make the Tweet-life a little bit easier. With the Open-Source Twitter API (check this web site), it is now easier to integrate ones favourite apps with Twitter.

Though there are hundreds of twitter apps out there, these are some of my favourites. Thought would name it top-ten-twitter apps, but put in just two extra to make it 12. Try them out and enjoy twitting. Catch me at : http://twitter.com/gantayet

Twitter Grade. A pretty interesting site that grades your twitter account. I was ranked 2,280,381out of 5,792,569 which is just about average :-/ Agree whole heartedly with the grading :-) from their web site:

"Twitter Grader is a free tool that allows you to check the power of your twitter profile. It looks at a variety of factors including the number of followers, power of those followers and the level to which you are engaging the community. It takes just a few seconds to generate your free report"

Twitter Ratio. This site calculates the Twitter 'Follower-to-Friend' Ratio - the TFF Ratio. (never thought of that!!). The results are pretty interesting. It also provides you a web-badge code which can be embedded in your web-site, blog etc. to proudly show off your TFF ratio.


Twitter Value. Another ego bursting site. It puts a value on your Twitter!! Well, if you feel bad post the 'valuation', try out your friends Tweet value too. I was valued at $3 - my web-worth!! Whereas Shashi Tharoor twitter was valued at an obscene $18157.00!!!

TweetCube. TweetCube allows you to share files on Twitter. TweetCube is 100% free to use, but the maximum file size you can upload is currently 10mb. You can upload as many files as you want. Files are deleted after 30 days.

Twixxer. Twixxer is a photo and video sharing component for Twitter.com users who are normally restricted to text-only updates that contain links to media. It is comprised of a browser add-on and a web service.

Twitpic. You guessed it. One more site to share your tweet pictures from the mobile or API.

Twitter Business Card.  Now you can send customised 'Business Cards' with your Tweets! Pretty simple to use and work with.

Tweet to Follow.  A nice site that helps you find like minded twitter whom you may follow!! just giver your twitter name, and you would see twitter-to-follow list!!


GeoChirp. As the name suggests, this site helps you for find twitter-users in a particular geographical area!! A very Twitter-GoogleMap mashup,  this has a very nice interface! Go get them - the twitters near your area :-)

Twitter Search. Find what's happening in twitter right now with this  Google-like web interface!!

Twitter Desktop. So by now if you have become a frenzied Twitter, the web interface would be a big pain. you would need a dedicated twitter client to organise and manage your Tweetings. This is your answer!! :-)

Twitter Screencast. You can easily create screencast and tweet them using 'Screenr'. Very easy to use and share!

For more and much more on 'Twitter' do visit http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/ and get that tweet back in your life :-) !! 

Enjoy!!

The Indian Spider Man

The Indian Spider Man - in real life!! Some one forgot to tell him that Spider Man is fiction!!

Jyothi Rai from Karnataka, India earns his living by acting the Spider Man for tourists at the Chitradurga Fort, Karnataka. His death defying stunts, done day in and day out for entertainment of tourists and school children visiting the fort is done without any safety harness (highly not recommended!!). Check out this web site and video!!

But for crazier death defying Spider Man - this had me gulping!!!

CAUTION: AFNHB Official Site dangerous

The official AFNHB (Air Force Naval Housing Board) site - http://afnhb.org site has been rated dangerous/un-trustworthy by the popular WOT (Web of Trust) rating agency. Various domain control agencies have blacklisted the site.The site has a poor malicious/virus rating making it dangerous.
Check out the details at:
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/afnhb.org/comment-2899237#page-1
http://www.mywot.com/en/forum/4618-malwaredomains-new-update-10-14

Please exercise caution when when accessing the site.

 

Please exercise caution when when accessing the site http://afnhb.org.