Do you believe in ghosts?

David asked: Do you believe in ghosts?

No David, I do not believe in Ghosts, but can not rule out the possibility of its existence, because I can not prove it.

As I have said many times that I believe this World is virtual and we are just part of the game. Well, I can not prove this one as well, but I can feel it by some patterns. Similarly the possibility of existence of a Ghosts World can not be overruled, more interestingly my sis believes in ghosts strongly.

I can share an incident we experienced last year. We went to our maternal uncle’s house where we were celebrating some festival of Hindu Goddess. It was close to the burning ghat (Samshan) of Kharagpur, where the dead bodies are burnt.
At the time of coming back, I told my sis about the place and she was somehow influenced by an uncanny feeling, her eyes were unnatural and her face was surrounded by a fear. She was terribly frightened. It was tough to come back home and the night was even more dangerous. In her hallucination she was watching a black woman in a while Shari and red sindur, who was threatening her constantly. She was crazy and my whole family was not able to control her.
I was also started to feel something, totally moved by the state of my sis. That day I realized that I can not overrule the possibility of a mysterious World.

If we think about the n-dimensional state of a certain point, then the same place can be used by many different things invisible to each other. The basic function of our brain is to feel what we can see, perceive. But there are obviously limitations of it, or in a better way we can say that the program installed in a game is for a specific World. So we can not feel the other World. But there can always be some overlapping of different worlds, may be this is the reason someone can feel or experience the Ghosts World.

If we think in different way, we have so many emotions, passions, thoughts, relations, desires in this World. It can not be vanished in a moment (after we die). Well it can not be proved by the law of conservation of energies, but many things can not be proved which we can not deny. So these can exists in any forms, may be in forms of ghosts.

I can not deny their existence, I can not prove, I can not overrule, but also I can not feel it. May be weak hearted people can feel it, I don’t know!! But I don’t believe Ghost; neither have I had any experience of it.

PS: David, here people often misspell my surname, which proves ghost exists :-)

This intriguing picture is a collage of Goddess Athena, Socrates and Acropolis in Night .

Updated with one story from Kalyan.

I was talking about the story, where Sarat chandra Chattopadhyay had a challenge with his friends that he will go to the cremation site(sasan) on a new moon night(amabasya) alone and prove to his friends that no ghosts exists. To prove that he has indeed visited there he will bury a stick in the ground given by his friends. On the faithful night in the midst of howling foxes and other night animals he went there as was agreed but he also being an human had certain fears or nervousness, so he was also in a hurry to bury the stick as agreed and run away quickly. In this hurriedness his dhoti got struck in the stick that he buried and for a moment he believed that there is a ghost and is pulling his dhoti, and so he fainted in the ground. In the morning his friends got worried and they ran to that place only to see that Sarat babu's dhoti has got struck in the ground stick and that made him faint in the ground, which he was thinking as the ghost.

Cats : India and Europe

I have been to India last month . Whenever I visit my home soil, it gives me amazing feelings. The smallest things, tiniest creatures give me immense pleasure, I can feel the difference when I come back here in Europe. Its completely a different planet with strictly defined laws, different atmosphere of work, different life to lead.

I like the balance of both the life, which is why I usually spend half a year in India and other half in another countries (although now it has become one year in India and one year in other countries). The balance makes it more interesting, otherwise it would have been a boring life for me. But now I can not enjoy life in a place more than a year, which is definitely not good. I think this trend is now in my family, because we moved a lot in last 60 years, starting from Bangladesh(Dhaka) to Maharastra(Nagpur) and then back to Kharagpur(where I born) and now in Kolkata(where I live in India).

Coming back to the main discussion, I can feel a basic differences in every creature in Europe and in India. Let’s take an example of dogs. They are mainly domestic in Europe, trained and nurtured in proper way, thus they are well behaved, they don’t bite everyone, do not make chaos because the basic needs have been taken care. The situation is quite different in India.

See the cute sweet cats next to my doorsteps in Kharagpur. Their eyes are telling that they are hungry; they need little more love and foods. They were struggling for foods, but still not complaining as they have such a sweet heart. The most unfortunate part of the story is the small one died next day by a bit of a street dog.
Whereas the cats in Delphi, Greece are looking quite relaxed as they don’t have competitions for basic needs, having a small nap in a typical way. They look happier than the common people of poor countries.

I want to draw an analogy not only for dogs and cats, for people also. The basic atmosphere depends on the mentalities of common people. In India 50% people are poor, fight for the basic needs, for Food Shelter and cloths. They struggle to make both the ends meat. When I was standing in a traffic jam, a small boy came with a bouquet and I refused. Then I asked about the root, he happily guided me without any expectations. The smile was genuine which only can come from a lovely heart. I felt sorry for the kind hearted boy, who is struggling to survive; whereas the dogs in developed nations are leading much better life than them. This is the reason I hate pets.
Not everything is measured by self interests in India. A country with a beautiful heart is struggling to make both the ends meat, though many of them are happy.
The situation here is completely different. People can do whatever they want to, can play football for entire life, can focus on anything, because they are not afraid of basic needs. The health and education is also covered by the state, thus the environment is not so competitive (though we can see healthy competition in all environment) and the life is peaceful. They can focus on many different things in which the country can prosper, can write blogs for years, and can enjoy long vacations.
I strongly believe that mere charity can not solve this issue. I really don’t know how we can bridge the differences. A poor Indian can not afford to go to school while they fight for foods everyday, whereas if not they are properly educated the state is not going to improve.

100th POST

I came to blog world around 6 months back and this is my post no 100 (total in 3 blogs, this one, Travel and Photo blog). It was not an outstanding show and I am not happy, mainly because of my writing skills (I still feel uncomfortable to write good English). Leaving apart the literature part there are many positive aspects also. I got some good blog friends like Kalyan, David, Cuckoo, Stacy, Mridula, Sigma, Niki, Celine, Ash, Backpakker.. and many more. It was totally a new world where I put up my emotions, feelings, experiences, travel, photos.

I have more than 1000 hits in my travel blog and in my profile, Random thoughts and Photo blog cumulatively have almost 1000 hits. Thought it is not big number, but still enough to motivate me for future posts. I have a plan to merge the last two into one blog.

I don’t have enough time to write many posts, as this is not my first or second priority. Family and career consume most of my time and hectic travelling is responsible too (in last one month I have been to Kolkata, Kharagpur, Delhi, Frankfurt and Athens). So, I think the quality of my blog can be improved in many ways.

I thought many time, why do I blog? Just to get my writing skill better or document my travel. No, mainly to share my views to everyone. I believe, blog reflects the personality of the writer, his way of thinking, looking to the World. It defines the individuality of a person, it expresses the original feelings. Yes, one blogger can hide his true feeling in one or two posts, but not in all. Thus blogging is nothing but personal satisfaction to a blogger.

In my blog World, couple of blogs are quite ahead of others. GreatBongs (Arnab) RTDM and David’s Authorblog. These blogs defined a separate community, brought a new definition to the blog World. So, I dont want to comment separately on them.

I would like to say about my first four Blog friends, Kalyan, Cuckoo, Mridula and Sigma.

Kalyan has a very nice blog with wonderful pictures and narrations. I have never seen such a young talented blogger (just to keep in mind that he is still a student) in the blog World. He writes in various topics, some well composed poems, and the most precious element in his blog is his excellent shots. His Calcutta blog is one of the best city blogs (according to me) and his travel experiences are really wonderful. The Calcutta blog is very close to my heart as it vividly reflects my home city. What I want to see in his blog is some short stories / descriptive emotional writing.

Cuckoo, one of the dazzling sensations of Indian blog sphere has impressed me, influenced my thought many time. The young lady is bit commanding sometime (cry man cry), but she simply rocks in her nest. Once I start reading her post I cant stop unless it ends. Its hard to found such a free flow of emotions. The most interesting part of her blog is the conversations in the comments. Her poems are really excellent. What I want to see is some better pictures in her travel blog.

Mridula, I should thank you for bringing me in Blog World. Her blog is awarded best Travel blog award last year in Indibloggies. She has a very typical way of writing. Once she completes a trip she starts posting with a photo and a brief description of the place, slowly reveals the photos and finally comes up with excellent narrations. What I want to see in her blog is a well defined index of all places she covered.

Sigma, another IT guy like me, bit techy and often busy in project work, but still find sometime to share his thoughts in his blog. The speciality of his writing is the emotional touch and unanswerable questions. His travel memoirs is also interesting, specially the photos. What I wanted to see in his blog is some colourful posts in various topics in regular intervals.

Thanks all my blog friends to encourage me and share your thoughts in my blog. I thank couple of my close real life friends Ananda and Kuntal for their honest feedback on my posts.

Please drop your suggestion/comment on my blogs here.

A warm welcome to ICL

The Indian Cricket League, a desi version of Kerry Packer’s tremendously successful World Series Championships, is the brainchild of Subhash Chandra of the Zee Group. It is designed as a series of tournaments in India with a mix of domestic and foreign players. It is expected to kick-off in November-December with Twenty20 tournament.
I am very happy that we got a new cricket authority parallel to BCCI, who are going to start first professional cricket league in India. Indian Cricket League unveils its cricketers yesterday, which includes many promising young cricketers.
Kapil Dev, the Chairman of Indian Cricket League (ICL) ckaimed that India’s most promising players are part of ICL, however I do feel its not Indian, rather ICL got best Pak Cricketers, Imran Farhat , Inzamam-Ul-Haq , Mohammad Yousuf , Abdul Razzaq. PCB is now in danger and they threatened their players that they will not be picked up in National squad. Some international big shots like Brian Lara, Lance Klusener have already made contract and many more are going to join soon.

This is mainly a business driven approach and will be functioning in city format. They have a big plan ahead and planning to make a new Indian Team in future, may organize some World Cup even. If they manage the show well, ICC may also recognise it and then ICL will be a part of existing international cricketing arena.

I am not discussing the vested monitory interests for Subhash Chandra and Zee group, but feeling exited as this is the first professional approach in our country, where cricket is a religion. BCCI for long 75 years has done nothing for it, no basic infrastructure, no improvement on the quality of game. The so called team India (rather we should say Team BCCI, as BCCI is a private governing body and not a part of Govt of India) is performing poorly recent times. We need to have an infrastructure where more and more cricketers can play, can make career, can earn money. I always thought that in a country of 1.2 Billion people we should have more opportunity for good cricket. I thought of promoting zonal cricket in a professional way(so that it also merge with the international cricket). But BCCI has done nothing like that. In avg one International match in Eden Garden per year is not enough; people never get tickets though they are ready to pay. It’s the so called monopoly of BCCI, which is why Indian cricket has suffered a lot.

Keeping all these factors in mind, I should say it is a great move by Zee, and it will foster the game, cricketers and entertain viewers. So ICL heartiest welcome from my side.

Danish Newspaper Cartoon

In continuation of my MF Hussein's painting posts, I am posting two photos published in Danish Newspaper on 2005, caused Islamic resentment worldwide. I am not justifying anything, only putting up some facts.

These cartoons of Mohammad published in Jyland Posten and then circulated in many countries, I guess the revolt had made it more popular. I donno whether that was the intention of MF Hussein while painting Hindu Goddess.

Be a judge yourself of Hussain's paintings below.

Goddess Durga in sexual union with Tiger	Prophet's Daughter Fatima fully clothed
Goddess Lakshmi naked on Shree Ganesh's head	M.F. Hussain's Mother fully clothed
Naked Saraswati	Mother Teresa fully clothed
Naked Shri Parvati	Hussain's Daughter well clothed
Naked Draupadi .	Well clothed Muslim Lady.
Naked Lord Hanuman and Goddess Sita sitting on thigh of Ravana	Muslim poets Faiz, Galib are shown well-clothed
Full Clad Muslim King and naked Hindu Brahmin. The above painting clearly indicates Hussain's tendency to paint any Hindu as naked and thus his hatred.	Naked Bharatmata - Hussain has shown naked woman with names of states written on different parts of her body. He has used Ashok Chakra, Tri-colour in the painting. By doing this he has violated law & hurt National Pride of Indians. Both these things should be of grave concern to every Indian irrespective of his religion.
Out of the four leaders M. Gandhi is decapitated and Hitler is naked. Hussain hates Hitler and has said in an interview 8 years ago that he has depicted Hitler naked to humiliate him and as he deserves it ! How come Hitler's nudity cause humiliation when in Hussain's own statement nudity in art depicts purity and is in fact an honour ! This shows Hussain's perversion and hypocrisy.

Religious Paintings ; Some thoughts

Today is 60th Independence Day of India. Coincidentally its national holiday here in Greece, for orthodox Christian religious day. So, it I enjoyed the whole day with a good food, TV, Internet and a long drive to Rafina beach. It was a fantastic day.

I got a mail on M.F. Hussein’s paintings from one of my friends and it made me thinking little bit so just posted the following post. By religion I am a Hindu, but hardly follow any rituals. I am proud to be associated with the age-old heritage of Hinduism; religion is something which gives me an identity, which makes me open to the World to accept others, to understand the divine of humanity. I truly accept every race, religion and go to Church, Gurudwara, Temples and all possible religious places, like to participate in many different religious festivals. My concept of God completely varies from all religion (matches somehow with Islam but I hardly got the freedom to participate with them).

Religion is something which will not make be confined, will not restrict me from doing something, will not cause others problem, and will not make be violent, aggressive. I eat beef, which is prohibited in Hinduism. But I do it as I think there is nothing illogical (if we cook it properly). With change of time the ritual changes, the religion takes a new shape, but the basic remains same. Religion teaches us to live in harmony, to love each other.

Then one may ask why I have done the post on Hussein. Its only to put up his thoughts. I don’t want to comment on these pictures, I posted them as it was sent in mail. But there are some definite thought of perversion and these creation will definitely hurt many Hindus. MF Hussein is a great painter, but biased somehow. I have no problem to accept these creative paintings, but majority of Indians really feel ashamed of it.

In my next post I will try to put up something controversial, what if it has been done with Islam. How would they react? But I will not explain the differences, as I am not here to judge anyone; I am only posting the facts.

"The Road to pSingularity” by Dr. Prithwis Mukerjee

Recently I have gone though an excellent book of different dimensions - “The Road to pSingularity” by Dr. Prithwis Mukerjee, a Imagineer per-excellence, director of a Big Global IT firm in Kolkata.
Yesterday I got to know that the book is available in paperback version also.

Readers who are going through this blog first time, may have some problem to understand the inherent meanings of this concept of Singularity and may find some new terms like MMORPG and Second Life. But if you read the whole book thoroughly, you can understand it for sure. It is very well written with natural examples and real life feelings. The basic fact is the concept of singularity can only be understood better if one can feel it. I was in a seminar last year and was totally moved by the concept of Singularity/Vedanta/Second life. I felt I was living in a virtual world and that feeling existed almost half a year. It was an amazing experience, whenever, wherever I am going was feeling everything virtual, starting from the place, people to destiny. To me it is another game, someone is playing and I still believe in this concept. I documented some of my feelings in this blog.

Coming back to the book, it is illustrated with very creative thoughts and personal real life feelings. The innovative concept of living in YantraJaal is connected with Vedanta and Matrix. The author articulated that, It is all Maya (in Deccan Herald) and we are living our Nth life in this virtual world, whom we called Earth. Definitely a slow and through reading of this thought provoking book will take you to different dimensions.

You can read the full book online at HERE OR can BUY the paperback edition at HERE.

Before reading, I will recommend to see this video first. Pls send the your review to the Author.