rant here to your heart's content

i go first.

p and her husband q are indian friends of mine; i've known them for a long time. p likes to read, and she sometimes borrows books from me. i never see my books again. i remember two books quite well.

the first was a biography of mohammed yunus of bangladesh, the founder of grameen bank, and a nobel laureate. the book was published around the year 2000, and after i had read it, i lent it to p. i never saw the book again. between then and now, they had moved houses; i assumed that they had lost my book during the move. it's a bit of a loss because the book was written before yunus won the nobel, and is now out of print.

the second was by j. k. galbraith, about his years as ambassador to india during the kennedy-nehru years. recently, p returned it to me after about six years! and not entirely of her own free will. about a year after lending it to her, i had given up all hope of my book ever re-emerging from that black hole. then last year, she took some of us up to her sunny attic, which may be her space for quiet solitude, to show us some art she had there.

i've been to p's and q's house many times, but never to that room. within a few minutes of being there, p jumped up, pulled out a book from a nearby bookshelf, and handed it to me, saying, "willy, this is yours." apparently, it was only a moment earlier that she remembered that the book was in that shelf, and quickly retrieved it and returned it to me before i saw it and asked for it!

p had not lost the galbraith book, nor misplaced it permanently, after all, and knew exactly where it was! i now suspect that she didn't lose the yunus book in the move either, and knows exactly where it is. i shall not ask for it; i just hope that i stumble over it some time in her house. of one thing, i'm sure: i'm not lending any more books to p.

btw, p and q are well-to-do people, and good friends of mine. i wish i knew why she doesn't want to part with my books.

your turn now.

get her drunk ( enough to loose her senses)..go to her room, search your book.

WillyNilly wrote:i go first.

p and her husband q are indian friends of mine; i've known them for a long time. p likes to read, and she sometimes borrows books from me. i never see my books again. i remember two books quite well.

the first was a biography of mohammed yunus of bangladesh, the founder of grameen bank, and a nobel laureate. the book was published around the year 2000, and after i had read it, i lent it to p. i never saw the book again. between then and now, they had moved houses; i assumed that they had lost my book during the move. it's a bit of a loss because the book was written before yunus won the nobel, and is now out of print.

the second was by j. k. galbraith, about his years as ambassador to india during the kennedy-nehru years. recently, p returned it to me after about six years! and not entirely of her own free will. about a year after lending it to her, i had given up all hope of my book ever re-emerging from that black hole. then last year, she took some of us up to her sunny attic, which may be her space for quiet solitude, to show us some art she had there.

i've been to p's and q's house many times, but never to that room. within a few minutes of being there, p jumped up, pulled out a book from a nearby bookshelf, and handed it to me, saying, "willy, this is yours." apparently, it was only a moment earlier that she remembered that the book was in that shelf, and quickly retrieved it and returned it to me before i saw it and asked for it!

p had not lost the galbraith book, nor misplaced it permenantly, after all, and knew exactly where it was! i now suspect that she didn't lose the yunus book in the move either, and knows exactly where it is. i shall not ask for it; i just hope that i stumble over it some time in her house. of one thing, i'm sure: i'm not lending any more books to p.

btw, p and q are well-to-do people, and good friends of mine. i wish i knew why she doesn't want to part with my books.

your turn now.

what was the title of the mohammad yunus book? many of his books are available on amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mohammad+yunus

i will give my rant in a subsequent post.

caucasians and chinese who take some interest in hinduism often believe that it is a polytheistic religion. i once took a cultural anthropology course in canada in which my professor, no less, was teaching the class about hindu polytheism and the polytheistic deities in hinduism. invariably i have to explain to all i come across--who have this misconception-- that no hinduism is not a polytheistic religions. the different gods are different manifestations of the one god. for instance, the President of an organization can be President to someone but he can be Father to someone else, Husband to another person, etc.

i attended a lecture today on hinduism and also on Diwali (part of a cultural program) in which the speaker spoke of the different gods and goddesses in hinduism and their attributes. he never once clarified that all the gods and goddesses are in fact different manifestations of the one God. I accosted him afterwards and gave him my feedback and he took it for granted, ever so casually, that what i said was correct and very obvious.

---------
This is from the Upanisads:


Then Vidagdha Sakalya questioned him. "How many gods are there, Yajnavalkya?"

He answered in accord with the following Nivid (invocationary formula) : "As many as are mentioned in the Nivid of the Hymn to All the Gods, namely, three hundred and three, and three thousand and three (=3306) ."

"Yes," said he, "but just how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya?"

"Thirty-three."

"Yes," said he, "but just how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya?"

"Six."

"Yes," said he, "but just how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya?"

"Three."

"Yes," said he, "but just how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya?"

"Two."
"Yes," said he, "but just how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya?"

One and a half."

"Yes," said he, "but just how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya?"

"One."



http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?C=946&title=704

i sometimes sleep in my office. i bought this nice sleeping bag and every now and then, at night, the sleeping bag is on the floor and i am inside it. The problem is that the security guards want to open the office doors of all the offices at night--as a security measure-- and invariably i am woken up whenever this happens.

i go to this chinese restaurant every now and then. one of my favourite dishes is 'House Tofu'. Fried Tofu with steamed vegetables. There was a new person at the counter today when i placed my order. Then when i reached home and began to eat i found pieces of meat in the dish. I had half a mind to go back to the place and ask for a replacement but then decided against it. Removed the meat pieces from the dish and ate the tofu and vegetables it with the rice.

Rashmun wrote:i go to this chinese restaurant every now and then. one of my favourite dishes is 'House Tofu'. Fried Tofu with steamed vegetables. There was a new person at the counter today when i placed my order. Then when i reached home and began to eat i found pieces of meat in the dish. I had half a mind to go back to the place and ask for a replacement but then decided against it. Removed the meat pieces from the dish and ate the tofu and vegetables it with the rice.

i've had only vegetarian food thus far today. i had a broccoli salad, a potato-and-egg salad, and an apple for lunch; rice, cheese-drenched veggies, and oikos's "traditional" greek raspberry yoghurt for dinner. none of it was indian though. my craving for indian spices will drive me relentlessly to the only decent indian restaurant nearby for a veggie thali tomorrow.

happy, though belated deepavali to you, qb, mu, and our 3,759 other readers.

thank you, same to you and your family. Hope this year brings joy,peace, prosperity for everyone.

Willy, QB, MU, and others,
my best wishes to you and your family.

thanks for wishes Rashmun,same to you.

have you noticed how difficult it is to get a product out of its packing, especially if it was bought in a supermarket? it's often sealed in a hard, clear plastic with no obvious place or notch at which it can be torn or pried open, and no printed directions on how or where to open it.

if one is lucky, the back may be made of paper, and one can open the package where the plastic front joins the paper back. often, the sealing-in is so complete and effective that one has to extract the product by force with a knife or another tool, risking damage to the product inside.

part of the problem may be that retailers want to hang these products from hooks, with the back of the packing of one unit fitting neatly into the front of the one behind, thus minimizing the amount of space used. hard plastic helps to retain the shape of the packed product, enabling many units to fit well together, one behind the other.

the customer's convenience appears to have been a secondary criterion in the design of the packaging. packaging is partly art and partly science. i wish that retailers and manufacturers would pay more attention to it. good packaging could be good marketing.