Worshipping a two headed snake for good luck!

There are people who have faith that their Gods and Goddesses never discriminate between what is good and what is bad, they go by the desire of their devotees only. They respond to their devotees irrespective of good doings or bad doings, is the belief. Criminals are known for serving their Deities sumptuously well before they proceed to commit a crime with a view to get success in their targeted task. It is difficult to comprehend as to how the Deity behaves when a criminal and his concerned victim are both the devotees of the Lord.

Quite a few days back, as brought out by the media, a gang of robbers in Farrukhabad (India) was busted by the local police. On search, the police found a two headed snake from their possession. The snake known as a sand boa which is called a domuha saanp (two headed snake) in the rural areas is non poisonous but has the reputation of securing success to its devotees if served well by them. The criminals kept it with them on a regular basis and worshipped it before launching their targeted act with the faith that it will elicit them success. Such a snake they purchase from snake charmers at a high price. Criminals are criminals after all and for them any thing is good that serves their purpose including the heinous acts like loot and murder they commit, and so are Gods, including species like a snake, who, as they think, fall in line with them with their beck and call, whenever so needed. Practicing dogmatism has no end in the society we have.

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It forms love if little weird

“

There are many a definitions of love given by innumerable persons in their own way from time to time and they continue changing fast every now and then from generation to generation. Love is eternal and so is its continual change. One such definition, as quoted above, looks to be somewhat a novel one, hence reproduced here.

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Dearth of vultures–Problem for Parsees on their death rites!

The Parsees in India and elsewhere have zoroastrian faith according to which when some one dies in their family, the dead body of the person concerned is placed in the open to be consumed by vultures, and this they think is the best way of performing the death ritual. Such a ritual is called by them as ‘Tower of Silence’. There is now an environmental problem coming in their way of doing it. The vultures in states like Gujarat and Mumbai in India, where Parsees are in a bigger measure of population, are facing acute shortage of vultures whose number is dwindling day by day. This results into dead body of an individual particular Parsee family lying in the open for several days remaining unconsumed. As an alternative to this problem, the Parsees are now opting for other measures like cremation and burial of the dead body instead of dropping it in the open with emission of a bad smell for a longer time. Some hard necked orthodox Parsee families are opposed to it but majority of them are now going for burial and cremation as an option.

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Why the Railways can’t show bigger profits?

The basic source of revenue for the Railways emerges from the fare they charge from the passengers, besides of course the freight charges on transportation of different items of goods. The Railways charge from the passengers a hefty amount by way of selling tickets to them. As per news from the media, there was a record sale of tickets through online bookings only during the year 2011-2012 amounting to Rs.9,500/ crores. This figure does not include the fare realised on the counters of the Railways. One can well imagine as to how much total amount could have been if all the resources are taken into view in totality. There is always a statistical manoeuvring to indicate a loss to the Railways because their establishment cost is bigger than the revenue earned. This may not be correct. The question is where all the aforesaid resources and the revenue earned on them go?. Obviously, the Railways too are a major partner in corruption which is so rampant in the country as a whole. If there are no corrupt practices, there is every chance that the Railways may contribute much better in the matter of showing bigger profits.

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Cancer is curable, say the doctors!

A dreaded disease like cancer is treatable, and as per studies made by experts in this area, it is curable to a great extent. Robotic Radio Surgery popularly known as cyber knife is the latest technique developed in this direction, as per media news. This technique is fully capable of locating the very spot in the body which is cancerous. It can remove any kind of tumour, malignant or even benign ones. Already recognized by Foods and Drugs Association (FDA) of America, this technique of cyber knife is growing in its popularity based on the satisfactory results of success it has elicited so far. The technique has been found much more functionable in the cases of kidney, lungs and lever cancer after an intensive research work done by the specialists by trying it on thousands of persons. It virtually works as a trusted ray of hope for cancer patients. Some more improvements in this direction are likely to occur soon, as say the researchers on the subject.

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Story of a poor man who suffered from epilepsy:

A poor man in a tattered dress, a fragile figure and a shrunken look knocked the gate of my house some time back. My domestic helper called him in to me in my office. He had some pictures of movie stars and others in a small packet in his hand which were meant for a sale each costing Rs.3/-. He requested me to purchase one or two of them if not more. I was not interested, but I did develop an anxiety to know about his condition as he looked so disturbed and panicky. He told me:

“I lost my wife a few years back and was living with my son who abandoned me for the reason that I am a nuisance to him and his own family, suffer as I do from attacks of epilepsy every now and then. I was left with no option but to resort to begging, which my conscience didn’t permit me to do. A relative of mine helped giving me Rs.50/- out of which I bought some pictures from the road side sellers. I was eagerly waiting for some customer to buy pictures from me, but at the same time I had a fit of epilepsy falling down helplessly. When I was struggling with  my disease, some one grabbed my packet containing the pictures and disappeared. The road side seller from whom I had purchased the pictures earlier was kind enough to lend me 10 pictures at the rate of Rs.2/- each which I want to sell at the rate of Rs.3/-. This will save me some ten rupees by which I can buy some bananas at least to eat as I didn’t have any food for the last 2 days.”

I did not buy his pictures telling him to sell them some where else. I offered him food and gave Rs.100/ as a token of some help. I gave him some clothes also. All this brought a smile on his tearful face and I too felt much satiated that I could share his misery at least to a meagre extent. The thought that still haunts me is that there could be numerous such instances where the people in our country are suffering so helplessly like this with no body to worry for them, neither family, nor society, nor even the government.

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Looks like they are better placed!

They are counted as shop keepers in the lower class supposedly earning an income hardly enough to meet their family needs. I am talking of a betel seller in a trolley sort of wooden shop by the side of some road or near some crossing or even around some temples. Look at the tiny shop with the betel seller sitting inside serving his customers and you may just have a feeling that this man may hardly be earning some limited money amounting to a few hundreds in a day for the sustenance of himself and his family. This is actually not the correct picture. The real picture is just quite different. One such betel seller told me that his average sale per day amounts to nearly Rs.5,000/, with gutka and paan  masala besides betels included and, as he himself confessed, his profit on sales is about 60%. The small wooden shop is his own, and that saves him any monthly rental. He has nothing to do with the Income tax department as supposedly he comes within the bracket of a low earner business man. Any other tax is all out of question. Investment wise, he has to do it just in a limited manner. He has better contacts as many an influential men turn up to his shop to enjoy betels. The banarasi paan is most popular a choice. If a salary earner happens to earn that much amount, tax collectors may make his life a hell sort of thing by chasing him like ghosts. In a way, a betel seller is much well placed compared to a salary earner.

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A positive move on curbing eve teasing:

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (India) deserves thanks for initiating certain measures directed to curbing the ever continuing menace of eve teasing. A new telephone line 1090 named as Woman Power Line has since been introduced to facilitate contact by the complainants immediately the moment they are given an unwanted call by some teaser. This call shall be attended by a woman staff who will be supposed to pursue the matter till it is given a finality by suitably punishing the caller concerned. The important feature of this service is that the identity of the girl or a woman concerned will not be disclosed publicly. Diwali in India is followed by Bhaiya Dweej when girls and women in a large number have to move from one place to another to perform the teeka ritual by putting a tilak on the forehead of their brothers. Taking advantage of the festival, the teasers find it much feasible to target their victims. This service is supposed to be quite useful in handling mainly the ugly telephone calls. This shall be much better if similar service is provided to handle the eve teasing in the streets, the markets, the colleges or universities in general, where such a ugly menace is more common.

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The poor and the destitute–How do they celebrate their festivals?

Festivals are festivals for every body –be they the poor, the destitute or the rich ones. Rich ones obviously can well afford celebrating their festivals in a lavish measure and sumptuously. On the other hand, those who are poor just can’t afford doing so because of their limited means or no means at all, particularly in the atmosphere of currently soaring prices in the markets. They too hanker for buying several things like clothes for the family, utensils on dhan teras, diwali and bhaiyya dweej, toys, patakhas and sweets for the children, but on all these items they have only to take a deep sigh, or frugally manage certain limited items by resorting to some borrowings from their friends and relations, a too embarrassing a task for any one. It was Diwali yesterday and Chhoti Diwali a day before, and what an amount of embarrassment they might have undergone amongst the members of their families and relatives on both these occasions, is a plight, one can easily understand. I only wish that some day the gulf of disparity between the rich and the poor gets mitigated at least to some extent extending the poor and the destitute some relief and solace.

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A very very HAPPY DIWALI:

Diwali, actually called Deepawali, is most eventful a religious celebration observed throughout India and even in many a countries abroad. It’s not only celebrated by the followers of Hinduism, others in different places do it equally. It is Deepawali for the reason that it is the festival of lighting. Most of the houses all over are well lit with different kinds of lights inside and in front of it. The mythology says that this is the day when the Goddess Lakshmi bestows the gift of prosperity to its devotees. She is bountifully worshipped by its devouts on this occasion. This year it is falling due tomorrow the 13th of November, but the function continues for several days together. The business community celebrates it by worshipping, besides the Goddess Lakshmi, their business icon selected for the purpose. For example, if it is some business man dealing in shoes, he will keep a shoe as an icon in his place of worship in the house. Dealers in liquors do the same thing. On this count, their object of worship differs from business to business. Likewise, an educationist prefers to worship some particular book selected for the purpose. Many use their account books in this connection. I can’t say for which selection go the black money holders, black marketers, mafia tycoons, cheaters and habitual rapists, or say even rogue politicians. If some one asks me about my choice, I would certainly say ‘yes’ to my laptop.

On this auspicious occasion of the great festival, I wish peace to the world. I wish prosperity, felicity and all happiness to my readers, followers, viewers and visitors to my blog. A VERY HAPPY DIWALI.

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Dress code–Sonia Gandhi style:

While addressing the convocation of National Institute of Fashion Technology at Rae Bareli (India) the other day, Sonia Gandhi laid emphasis on simple dress as against  overdone and over-embellished ones. Her tune and tenor was that of matching with Indian culture. One should look clean and elegant, but there should be no overdoing on that count to the extent that the people, particularly women, hardly wear any thing to fully cover their bodies. Sonia Gandhi, just like Indira Gandhi, always is neatly dressed herself, and the message so given by her is that of a modest and graceful an order. In fact the dress choice in currency these days is that of too meagre a coverage to the whole figure of a woman or girl, which at times borders a ridiculous look and that hardly fits into the traditional culture of the country. Alright that one should be neatly dressed looking elegant, but this is not supposed to suppress the very grace part of it. Appended here is a link of one of my posts on the topic for a ready reference of the readers.

Link: http://uppermost.me/2012/11/05/on-nudeness/ 

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Why go for an adulterated food stuff?

Festivals are a hay day for business community, particularly sweets sellers on a festive occasion like Diwali. which falls due within next few days. Their primary concern is making money totally unmindful, deliberately of course, of the fact as to what type of stuff they are providing to their customers. It is all fully adulterated and, in a way, it carries poison with it. There are lot many cases reported every now and then by the media about this, but there is hardly any impact of such reports on the governmental agencies. They supervise the market just as a ritual without being serious on taking stringent action against those found guilty of the fictitious deal. Most surprising a factor is that even customers don’t take such state of affairs seriously. They just go and buy the sweets ignoring the reality that it may seriously harm their family members, or those whom they offer them as a greeting gesture on the festival. During Holi, another important festival like Diwali, same thing happens. If shop keepers indulge into such activities, they do it for their own selfish interest, but why the customers should not bother about it. At least they are the ones who are supposed to be extra vigilant about the health and wellness of their family members and their circles of interest. They have options to resort to other commodities like dry fruits or other eatables available in the  market, but in this respect too, they are required to be extra cautious that the place from where they are purchasing necessary items of their use, they should be of their trust and confidence.

Technorati Tags: adulteration,shopping,sweets,business,selfishinterest,poison

What is there in a Password?

Why different banks and several other financial organisations talk of a password every now and then emphasising so much on its security? They are doing it rightly, and it is purely in the interest of customers, the customers who are having their accounts in some bank or the other, or particularly those who are resorting to online operations. The technological development in much advanced a shape as it stands today not only provides several avenues for transacting their business in multiple ways, it also furnishes different capabilities to those who resort to fraudulently withdraw the funds of others by hacking their IDs including password. Bankers are taking all precautions to check it by remaining vigilant on such operations themselves and by providing various guidelines to customers from time to time as to what methods the customers should adopt for overcoming the problem. These guidelines include that no body should ever divulge his/ her password to any body else, and that better it is to keep the password in one’s own memory instead of writing it down any where. While using ATM, the customer must push the ‘clear’ button on the ATM board before initiating his/ her own operation procedure, and this mode of operation has to be repeated also after the operation is over. What happens is that the ATM machine very often retains the contents of the individual operation in its memory, and the chances are that such an information can be used by some one else also. There are complaints every now and then that some body’s account was debited with huge amount of which the account holder himself had no knowledge at all. Password, for all these reasons, is always required to be kept as strictly and virtually private and confidential, and this reduces the possibilities of any fraud being perpetrated.

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Karwa Chauth, a tedious fast observed by Indian women:

It was just the other day on 2nd November when Indian women in India, and even elsewhere in the world, where there are people with Indian origin, observed a fast known as Karwa Chauth vrat. The married woman observe this fast for the safety and welfare of their husband. They don’t even take water during their fast. Even Muslim ladies in India observe this fast and join rejoicings after the it is over. The famous mythological story of Savitri-Satyawan is recited on the occasion mostly by the women folk themselves who assemble at a selected place for the purpose. Savitri was the wife of Satyawan. Satyawan died but Savitri by observing an intense fast was able to bring life back to her husband. All the women, who observe fast on Karwa Chauth, do remember the courage and determination shown by Savitri taking her as their role model. This festival, in many places, is also known for Savitri and Satyawan.

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Use of Credit Cards in a free styled manner is highly unsafe:I

The modern era is full of technologies in various fields, and credit cards are the ones that form a sequence of it. No doubt credit cards are very much a handy tool from its utilisation point of view, but the hazards it carries with are note worthy. Once, while responding to some ad, I was required to pay a token amount of $1. I thought it was a petty amount and why not go for an experiment. It was all a transaction on line. I got nothing in return. What was more  surprising to me was that my credit card was debited for Rs.1,789/ besides the actual amount of $1 already paid. I disputed it but there was no response from the company concerned. To ensure that they do not debit my credit card fraudulently with some more amount, I had no alternative but to record ‘Stop payment’ with the concerned Bank. Further payment is stopped but the dispute so raised against the forged debit is still pending. This is something that acts as a pointer to all the credit card holders that they should never give a blank authority to any body to debit their card without fully ascertaining the bonafides of the payee concerned. Let the instance under reference act as a note of caution, hence this write-up.

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