I had planned to write these as part of previous message but on
second thoughts decided to write them separately.
Sankar

Random thoughts (24) 
12/1/02

1. Ananda = Love = Compassion

(Ananda means bliss in sanskrit)

[After listening to Mitchell Ratner last night, I would add
true wisdom to this equation]

2. Hindus are the pack rats of tradition. We hate to discard
anything, so we integrate every practice, ceremony, deity and
myth into the whole and store them away in some place so 
someone someday might use them. Kind of like scientists and 
mathematicians. We mathematicians hate to discard any of our 
theorems. Usually, some scientist finds a use for them 
eventually.

3. Watching games on TV: The following is the way I'd rank them
in terms of how much we know of what's going on.

a) Baseball: we see everything. as if through a microscope.
b) Basketball: we see most of it. it happens a little faster.
c) Football: you don't see everything even if you replay them
again and again.

[Hockey fans: where would you rank hockey?]

4. Eventually human beings will evolve to develop organs 
exclusively for the sake of using cell phones. Perhaps an extra
digit to dial the phone while holding it with the same hand.
Or maybe the phones will become so tiny that the earpiece will
be implanted in our ears, the mic in our throat, and the screen
in our retina, and we can dial by thinking the number. We
wouldn't even need to talk. Our thoughts will be transmitted
directly to our friends. Telepathy becomes reality!

5. Life is a constant struggle to bridge the disconnect between
what I think and what I want to think; between what I think
and what other people think I am thinking.

6. It is very relaxing to watch National Geographic TV. I think
NGTV is one of the few channels that you can call stress-free,
non-toxic TV, sort of like elevator muzak. 

7. Seen on NGTV: If you want to leave the rat race and become
a rancher, and also make a decent living, become an Alpaca
breeder. These gentle, cute, cuddly animals (native to 
S. America) that look like a cross between camels and sheep 
go for about 30 grand each. No kidding.

8. It will be nice to be like Alice in Wonderland or Bill 
Murray's character in Groundhog day or Rip Van Winkle: Being 
in a place where time and space act differently. Just for a day
perhaps.

9. As a nation India has a cyclical nature: periods of inertia
and periods of great activity and unrest. I think right now 
India is awake and going through a lot of change and activity.
Out of this chaos will emerge a stronger India, more creative.

10. The spirit of native Americans pervades this country. 
Either through the genes carried by all the descendents of 
the children of inter-racial unions or from the influence of
their spirituality. I think Americans owe a lot of their
understanding and interest in spiritual matters to the Native 
Americans.

11. It will be an interesting experiment to see what will
happen if one candidate decides to have only positive messages
in his ads. While his opponent attacks him, he chooses to say
only good things about his opponent and talk about the issues
in a mindful way. Would others follow or would he be laughed 
off?

12. From a review of a book about the 17th century diarist 
Samuel Pepys, influential aristocrat in the court of King 
Charles II, responsible for the reorganisation of the English 
navy into the powerful force it later became (Atlantic 
Monthly, nov 2002):

"I went, and Mr Mansell and one of the King's footmen, with a
dog that the King loved (which shit in the boat, which made us 
laugh and me think that the King and all but belong to him are
but just as others are).