Sunder Kaand

We are born believers. Human beings are programmed by evolution to believe in God because it gives them a better chance of survival, researchers have claimed. The idea has emerged from studies of the way children's brains develop and of the workings of the brain during the religious experiences. Researchers suggest that during evolution groups of humans with religious tendencies began to benefit from their beliefs, perhaps because they tended to work toegther better and so stood a greater chance of survival. Richard Dawkins has long argued that religious beleifs results from poor education and childhood "indoctrination". But research has also proved that children have a natural intutive thinking about supernatural existence without the "indoctrination". As they grow up they overlay these beliefs with more rational approaches but the tendence to illogical supernatural beliefs remains as religion. These findings are by Prof. Bruce Hood, professor of developmental...

Man, in even in the lower stages of development, possesses a faculty which, for want of a better can be christened as Number Sense. This faculty permits him to recognize that something has changed in a small collection when, without his direct knowledge, an object has been removed from or added to the collection. Number sense should not be confused with counting, which is probably of a much later genre, and involves, as we shall see, a rather intricate mental process. Counting, so fast as we know, is an attribute exclusively human, whereas some brute species seems to possess a rudimentary number sense akin to our own. At least, such is the opinion of competent observers of animal behavior, and the theory is supported by a weighty mass of evidence. Counting especially has become such an integral part of our mental equipment that psychological tests on our number perception are fraught with great difficulties. The genesis of number is hidden behind the impenetrable veil of countless preh...

"Every five years, it is the masses who determine who will form the government. And in between those five years the classes determine what that government will do." - Mani Shankar Aiyyar , M.P., India " The best brains in the world are busy solving problems of rich & elite who really have no problems. " - Dr. Sam Pitroda

"I am saddened and it was conveyed over the phone" was a distressed reply to media by former Minister Jaswant Singh when he was expelled before the so called (though not necessary when they are not in power) BJP's "chintan baithak" at Simla! Detailed story is as follows - Jaswant Singh! Well Jassu bhai reminded me of character from the film Jerry Maguire, played by Tom Cruise. Jerry Maguire is about a 35 year old sports agent for Sports Management International (SMI). After suffering a nervous breakdown as a result of stress and a guilty conscience, he writes a mission statement about perceived dishonesty in the sports management business and how he believes that it should be operated. He goes to a copy shop early the next morning and distributes copies of it, entitled "The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business" to all of his fellow employees. His co-workers are touched by his honesty and greet him with applause the next busines...

Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’ book about events in the Indian Independence movement in 1947-48 beginning with the appointment of Lord Mountbatten of Burma as the last viceroy of British India, and ending with the death and funeral of Mahatma Gandhi has many shades to reflect the last moment that gave this region, then divided into some princely states and territories, customarily now known as the British-India; coldly reflecting British hegemony and well-planned subconscious invasion since the Company Rule(1757-1858) and then as rulers(1858-1947), a birth name – India from Akhand Bharat or Hindustan as the Mughals knew. At 62, it is difficult to gauge how much India has grown if the yardstick is Western World, but I feel India as in Indians have refused to grow up on many aspects though on the surface many changes(if we refuse to call it as development). In school I had been a regular attendant of 15th August & 26th January Celebrations, especially due to my upbring...

Was this expected or not, I couldn't tell, but I have a motor bike and had to park it in the compound of the apartment me & my family live in which is a rented place, so we do not have hegemony on many aspects from painting the house to rewiring electrical points or re-plumbing (sic) water resource. Well, this is expected in a rented apartment, but owners too do not take many initiatives in India, but our owner is mellow and attentive for our pains of course after we have no dues. Amidst this was this sorry saga of me parking my motor bike in the compound which is owned by owners! The saga was triggered by a pugnacious but living-for-the-sake of integrity man who apparently manages the Housing Society's accounts. Ceremoniously or religiously our house owner was fetched for the addition of a Rs. 25/- more on his monthly maintenance payment to the Housing Society due to the dastardly act of his tenant parking his 'vehicle' within the compound wall. Well, my words do ...

In physics, we come across an interesting analogy of the spiritual path in the form of one reversible path. In thermodynamics, work can be accomplished by two different ways, reversible & irreversible. All natural processes are said to be irreversible since they are either spontaneous or abrupt. Like irreversible processes such as, water or heat or a gas flows from a higher level to a lower level and cause changes in the surroundings. In case of reversible process the science tells us that it is a slow process, so much so that the change does not affect the ambiance at all, or in the language of thermodynamics it is always in equilibrium with the surroundings. Because of the slowness of the process as also the fact that it does not inflict any changes to the surroundings, it takes a pretty long time, to go from on state to another state. Way to spiritualism is also a reversible process in my context. Since irreversible processes such as growth(in terms of age and physique), lust or...