Life and Spirituality

Recently a dispute arose between an Indian woman diplomat in USA and her Indian domestic Maid. The dispute grew into a legal battle between the two parties first and it has now has grown into a full fledged diplomatic battle between India and USA and the previous good relations between the two countries have been soured. Could the inside story behind this incident be a story of a Christmas Party that went wrong? With prosperity in the developed part of the world, minimum wages of the poorest in such societies have gone up over the past several decades to a level that hiring of full time domestic staff has become unaffordable for most in such countries. However in the underdeveloped and developing world, poverty is still widespread and therefore servants and domestic staff are still affordable by many. Although its prevalence is coming down fast in India due to recent economic growth, the practice continues widely in many Indian homes. When a servant is employed in a home someti...

O ur wonderful planet has a huge variety of delicious and nutritious foods. It is good to feast on this bounty, provided one can afford it. We also have persons like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, the Queen, Bankers who play with our money and their minions the one per cent,   who need not worry about the expenses in case a food is expensive. However, for us lesser mortals, there are times in our lives if not all the time, when one has to look at the price label before throwing the packet in the cart.   During my own life, comfortable with the grace of the Almighty for the largest part, there have been occasions when one had to be very careful with expenses. The first was when I was a doctoral student in Canada, the second occasion arose when I had begun working and started a family at the same time.In later life an occasion arose when I built a home with my savings and also had to interrupt my career because of that and other family issues. However, following are three ...

According to a decision of the Supreme Court of India yesterday, millions of Indians, perhaps the majority of them who have engaged in sexual activity are serious criminals deserving sentences of around ten years in Jail. This criminality arises from the way sexual intercourse of certain types is regarded in Indian law due to a section called section 377 This criminality would continue unless the following amendment is made to section 377. Indian law makers have not bothered to make the amendment for 150 years or so, ever since it was introduced. A High court judge who ruled against it was overruled by the Supreme court of India yesterday, restoring the criminality. Needed Amendment of section 377: An act of carnal intercourse between two consenting adults, even if it is not penile vaginal intercourse, shall not be regarded as against the order of nature but merely as recognition of the diversity of nature. In either case it shall not be deemed to be criminal conduct punis...

O ne, two, three, four, five, is a popular nursery rhyme and counting-out rhyme. However when it came to Golu my grandson mentioned in some earlier posts of this blog it appeared to be a bit complicated for an under five preschooler. Therefore I decided to create a new simpler one called One, two, three, cat on a tree –  this is how it goes   One, Two, three, Cat on a tree, nursery rhyme One, Two, Three Cat on a tree Four, five, six Cat in a fix Seven eight nine Cat now fine Zero after one makes ten Cat climbed the tree again New Preschool Aritmetic Feel free to copy the rhyme and use anywhere, if you like. This was only some of the content I gathered to take Golu, my god-grandson up to a count of twelve (so as to cover the clock). Must admit though that I found the task of teaching a preschooler more challenging and in the end more delightful as compared to many engineering students I have taught in three of the finest universities on ou...

A Lakeside road in Nainital M y childhood was spent in the beautiful Himalayan Town of Nainital. Aside from its bewitching beauty, there was something else in the town that was even more valuable. The lives of most people were filled with simplicity and goodness and that added to highly stress free and happy atmosphere. It seems that goodness and beauty are frequently two sides of the same coin. Unfortunately this town has not remained so with time and commercialization of the modern age. In later years, I have lived in many parts of the world for education, work and living but never found the same level of goodness prevailing. An increase of greed, lust, anger, jealousy, selfishness vitiates the atmosphere of any town or village and destroys this sense of peace and happiness. When a mind is obsessed with a desire arising out of greed, anger, lust, jealousy, pride etc it has obviously no space or capacity to enjoy the many joyous wonders life has to offer without aski...

There are two older posts  ( here and here ) on coconut in this blog, on the tree and on its health benefits. A great recipe called Mother’s Bounty has also been described. However without mentioning the contribution of coconut to human beauty the information would be incomplete. Coconut oil is great for adding beauty to human skin and hair. It appears to restore damages to both rather quickly. It tends to solidify in winter but if one takes a spoonful and rubs it in the palms of one’s hands it melts immediately. The best way to use it for hair is to rub it into the hair and scalp about half an hour before a bath and then wash it off during a bath with a mild soap or shampoo. It will add health to the hair and act as a natural hair conditioner. It may be left on the hair all day too but then a greasy look is not at all fashionable. In India women and men in the province of Kerala use it regularly on hair and the people of this province have the thickest and healt...

Linking Bosses Pay to the Lowest wage The Swiss 1:12 Initiative The Internet has made propagation and access of information widely available. Just about anyone in the world can post his her ideas and once posted they become available to just about everyone, anywhere in the world with a few clicks of the mouse. One does not have to search for it in a library as was necessary a few decades ago. Although many thoughts may be of little relevance as thoughts often tend to be, some have the potential to cause significant and valuable changes in the way humans live, love and work. This blog has been publishing articles on health, environment, life style, economy, politics and spirituality for the last several years and some of them have made a difference to our world, hopefully for the better. An article (now deleted) urging a referendum in the Falkland Islands lead precisely to that. An article on inflation in this blog provided a key to how the Japanese could leverage def...