Arbit Scratchpad

Today is Swami Vivekananda's(1863-1902) 141st birth anniversary. His own words reflect the concepts of communal harmony and religious peace that seems to be missing in this world nowadays... " Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid. The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant. Similar is the case with rel

India Rising - Returning to the golden ages... India is surely on the path of resurgence - no doubt about it and will reach on to a greater position of strength this new year ! Certainly apart from the Gujarat riots, the BJP led National Democratic Alliance's five (plus one) years tenure has had lots of positive facets as it is working hard to raise the economic, strategic and domestic image of India and raise the standard of living of the citizens of India. From a passive observer, it has gone on to forge active ties with USA, China, Israel etc. etc. flexing its muscles when required (remember the manner in which Pokharan was done (NTK - something that seems impossible in India) - CIA and USA first time came to know something from Media ! ). The morale and spirits of people as a whole in the country is certainly high at this time and not a false high this time around. With such passionate visionaries like our scientist President (A P J Abdul Kalam) and our poet Prime Min

To Maharashtra and back. Just back from Nashik and Pune after a week on official duty ...... During onward journey in 2 Tier AC, we were thrown out at Dharmavaram on 3rd Jan 'cause I and a colleague were under waiting list. Then came back to Bangalore and went by a Volvo semi-sleeper bus coach on 4th Jan upto Pune. The travel in bus was not very eventful with two long tunnels on the Bangalore - Pune ? Highway; the first one is long and lit up with electric lights all through the length of the tunnel. The bus as such gets 70/100 marks for comfort from my side. Trains are certainly more comfortable. Pune to Nashik in some private bus. Work (testing of hardware and software and successful interfacing of certain devices and equipment) at Army camp (School of Artillery) Deolali on 6th 7th and 8th. Other people had started off their work on 5th itself. Visited the Sai Baba ashram at Shirdi too on 8th Jan! The Ashrama has a Darshan Sthan akin to the Tirupati Darshan wi