AID TO TSUNAMI VICTIMS IN INDIA

Dear friends. I have been able to collect some addresses of Non-Governmental organisations that are accepting physical, financial and material aids that would go to help the victims of Tsunami in India. I came across these addresses as part of comments from my fellow bloggers and I decided to put it up as a post in the hope of making it more effective and far reaching. I would also like to request my fellow bloggers to send e-mails to all their friends and acquaintences beyond the blogging community soliciting their service in all possible manner as no amount of help would be adequate enough to bring back the life of the victims of the tragedy.

Dresses and clothing can be sent to :

AID-India

Old No 132, New No 242, Avvai Shanmugam Road
Gopalapuram,

Chennai - 600 086
Ph: 044- 28350403, 28115058

Financial donations :

Donations can be made to:” HOPE - Tsunami Relief Fund” and sent to:

The Company Secretary,
NDTV,

W-17, Greater Kailash-1,
New Delhi-110048

Donations can also be made in favour of : “Indian Red Cross Society, New Delhi”
Addressed to:

Secretary General,
Indian Red Cross Society,
1, Red Cross Road,
New Delhi – 110001
Phone: (011) 23716441, 23716234

It is indeed very heartening to see so many organizations coming up to the rescue of the victims of the tragedy, but I would also be too glad to be part of some organizations who are engaged in giving these victims some very sound Moral aids or counseling for better living. We have to accept the hard fact that all the science and technological upgradations just cannot prevent such natural calamities (nature’s corrective measures), but we can definitely do a lot towards reducing the loss of life and properties that accompany such incidents. I understand that 90% of the victims of Tsunami in India belong to the fishing community. It can be accepted that the fishing community earn their livelihood from the sea and so ideally they have set up their homes close to the sea itself as they cannot afford the cost of commuting. But then the cost of life is much more than the cost of commuting.

It is not just sufficient that we help these victims rebuild their homes and life, but it is imperative that we help them do so in a more healthier and safer place even if at a slightly higher cost which I am sure the government can afford to bear. It would be much less than the cost the Government has to incur in the form of relief to such victims at regular intervals whenever there is a ocean or river swelling due to vagaries of nature.

THE SILENT FURY OF NATURE

The nature, in the form of Tsunami this Sunday, has once again demonstrated its might and dominance over all living and non-living things and this entire world in a most furious manner ever seen by man and left a significant part of this world in shambles in matter of minutes. The enormity and magnitude of the calamity and the shortest possible time within which it was inflicted has truly left the whole human civilisation shocked and numbed to say the least.

I do have words to explain the catastrophic situation at the Marina beach, Chennai. Disastrous or Heart breaking is too insensitive a term to explain the situation in a bright sunny Sunday morning when men, women and children were running helter and skelter hysterically crying and wailing to save their lives, where just a few minutes ago there was complete serenity with people flocking the beach to have a nice cool Sunday morning stroll. It took just a few minutes or may be even seconds to convert what looked like a paradise into a battle field where nature won over humanity without even a fight.

But then nature is not our enemy. Nature has always been stated to be mother and worshipped as God and meant to protect all living being like its child. With this perception would it be appropriate to describe this event as calamity or nature’s fury. As Swami Chinmayananda had said, God is the best Leader or Manager under whose control the nature functions without any flaw almost. The spiritual leader explained that the so-called calamities like flood, draught, cyclones, earthquakes etc. are just the corrective measures taken by the nature to overcome the imbalance created in its system by we humans who are supposed to live under its care and treat nature as our mother. We destroy the nature and the balance of its system everyday by cutting trees to build concrete jungles, emitting excessive Carbon monoxide making the earth warmer, building dams indiscriminately thereby putting excessive pressure in the earths crust where it is not supposed to be, detonating nuclear bombs deep inside earth shaking its roots and all this is done under a false pretence of trying to improve the quality of human life by overcoming the vagaries of nature. But the nature, much like a responsible mother with a view to instill discipline on its children and protect the existence of human beings in this world, takes corrective measures, termed by us as calamities, to overcome its imbalances and preserve this world for a long time much beyond our lifetime. May be without this correction, we would have been waiting for a much bigger and disastrous calamity. When will we humans understand that our survival and quality of life can be best protected only by nature and no human effort can ever succeed in making it better than the nature and that science and technology can never ever succeed in a challenge with nature.

One more big lesson I learnt from this calamity, though in the most bitterest manner. Myself and my colleague have been in Chennai since for about four years and had always nurtured a dream of spending an early sunny Sunday morning in the Marina Beach playing in the waters and then returning to have a delicious buffet breakfast in the Hotel Residency, but time or shall I say fate never permitted it. Unfortunately ….. my colleague with his wife succeeded in making his dream come true this Sunday but only to shatter all the dreams of his family as he paid the maximum price the God could ask for it. That gave me a big lesson that some dreams are better when they remain a dream as their realisation might be too bitter and I would never crib hereafter when my dream does not come true.

THIS IS AN INTERNATION DISASTER AND CATASTROPHE, BUT FRIENDS THIS IS MORE A TIME FOR INTROSPECTION THAN MOURNING. LET US LIVE WITH NATURE THAN FIGHT IT AND PERISH

HUMAN NEEDS – SHOULD IT BE SATIABLE OR UNSATIABLE

Human Needs is a single source of all conflicts, crimes, unhappiness, dissatisfaction etc. on one hand and at the same time it is also a single source of all inventions, discovery, Revolutions, growth, development, modernization etc. on the other.

But should there be a limit to the human Needs, a point of satiation. It is true that a point of satiation in human Needs would lead to stagnation in growth and development not only in terms of invention, discovery, technology and modernization but the most important is that it would restrict the growth of civilization itself. Because Need includes Need to procreate. In that sense, the point of saturation of human Needs would signal the beginning of the end of human race.

On the other hand, the rapid growth of human Needs is bringing about insurmountable miseries, unhappiness and dissatisfaction at all levels of human civilizations. For example at individual levels we see even school going children commit suicide, quoting unfulfilled needs or too much commitments or stress as the reason. This is a typical example of ill-effects of uncontrolled growth of human needs that is consuming even children. When I was going to school I do not remember whether I was even aware of the concept of suicide. Our protest against unfulfilled needs used to extend maximum upto skipping one time meal or a day’s seclusion as no Needs were considered compelling enough to demand a greater sacrifice.

At family levels we see families being split and moral values disintegrating for inheritance of family wealth from a few lakhs of Rupees to even more than one lakh crore rupees as we are seeing in the latest broil in India’s most prosperous business family. Does that mean that a persons needs cannot be satisfied even with one lakh crore rupees. It is indeed devastating. At world level we see countries fighting for money, land, Oil and even intangible items like religion.

So we see that without Needs, there would be an end to the human civilization. But at the same time with the dangerously alarming growth of Needs, the humans are only getting more uncivilized and barbaric, which would again lead to a point of total annihilation of human civilization.

So friends, it is time that we realize that we cannot lead a life of total spirituality without any Needs at all and at the same time we also cannot afford to get caught in this mad chase of growing needs. Coincidentally, in today’s world we are seeing typical examples of decreasing moral values both in cases of totally spiritual people as well as people chasing maximum materialistic gains.

If the human civilization is to continue and evolve in this world and we need to lead a life of relative peace, comfort and happiness we need to have relatively satiable levels of needs and must practice moderate levels of spirituality.

TRIBUTE TO M.S. – AN HONEST ATTEMPT

I wanted to write a post as a tribute to the great MS, but I was found very much wanting for words and my best effort was giving a silent tribute. I soon realized that it takes much more competence and a rich source of vocabulary at one’s disposal to pay tributes to a legend like MS. But the ardent fan of MS in me prompted me to make an honest effort to add a drop to the vast ocean of tributes which she would have been showered with.

In Dr. Rajagopalachari’s lecture as preface to the rendition of Bhaja Govindam song by the Legend MS, he describes Knowledge and devotion or in other words Gnana and Bhakthi as synonymous to each other. He tells that Knowledge takes the form of devotion or bhakthi on its maturity and if it does not become so, then such a knowledge is useless. He describes Bhaja Govindam song as a typical example of Knowledge having transformed into bhakthi. I thought it was a preface to the Bhaja Govindam song, but later I realized that it was as much a tribute to MS, the singer too. Her knowledge of music had reached the highest levels of maturity and transformed into devotion or bhakthi in its purest forms. It is this devotion that made her renditions divine and eternal and placed her at a much higher platform than being just an acclaimed Carnatic music singer.

A CORRECT PHOTOGRAPH WITH A WRONG INTERPRETATION

This is regarding the photograph published in the second page of Chennai edition of “The Hindu” today. The photographer apparently was enjoying the children bathing in the waters of the reservoir of Chembarambakkam. It was really a very relieving sight for Chennaites to see the reservoir filled with water, but I am sure, for people with some forethought, the sight of children bathing in it would definitely not be pleasurable as it indicates the first step towards contamination of the waters there which is supposed to cater to the drinking water requirements of Chennaites for the next year.

It is really unfortunate that the photographer is seen admiring the children enjoying a nice bath in the reservoir, instead of highlighting the serious possibility of contamination of the waters due to the reservoir being left open to public access.

It is a rational thinking that anything precious has to be kept under maximum security and close to our heart. For the Chennaite today there is nothing more precious than water. But looking at the photograph today, we really don’t seem to care much.

THE LIFE OF A MAN

A few days ago when I was reading through the Newspaper, I jumped on this interesting story of how the life of a man evolved. No Gender war intended please. The story goes like this :

One the day one of evolution, the God came to the earth and created the Cow. He blessed the cow with 60 years of life and instructed that all through its life it should serve the farmer by helping with his farming slogging in the sun and giving him milk required for his sustenance. The cow told God that 60 years is too much for this life of slavery and it requested God take back 40 years and allow it to live for 20 years serving the farmer. The God agreed to the request.

Next day the God created the Dog. He gave it 20 years of life and instructed that all through its life the dog should remain outside the house protecting its master and barking at strangers and thieves. The dog said spending 20 years of life barking is just too much and it requested the God to take back 10 years and the God agreed to the request of the Dog.

On day three the God created the Monkey, gave it 20 years of life and instructed that it should spend its life jumping and playing tricks entertaining people. The monkey felt 20 years of jumping and entertaining is sickening and it requested the God to take back 10 years as he did to the Dog and let the monkey do its act for just 10 years. The God agreed.

On day four, the God created the man, gave him 20 years of life and told him that all he needs to do is eat, play around, sleep and enjoy all the pleasures of life. The man immediately pleaded with God that 20 years is too less to enjoy his life fully and requested God to grant to him the remaining life of the Cow, Dog and the monkey also so that the man can live for 80 years. The God agreed and blessed the man to live for 80 years.

So accordingly the man lived his first 20 years of life eating, playing around, sleeping and enjoying all the worldly pleasures. The next 40 years he lived the cows life, that of a slave working hard roaming in the sun to take care of his family. The 10 years thereafter he lived like a monkey jumping and dancing entertaining his grandchildren. And he spent his last 10 years outside his own house like a watchdog barking his way to death.

Females bloggers, please do not mistake me to be a male chauvinist or overtly trying supporting the male fraternity through this post, in fact this story highlighted an important point favouring woman, that God created man before woman, so that woman can learn lessons from the man’s greediness and become more wise in their choice of life and what more, most of you seemed to have learnt the lessons well.

Ooops, I think I am in for a lot of thrashing………. But sorry gals, I was so much impressed by the interface between reality and the story that I could not resist posting it.