Vaasthu - Does it Change Over Time?

There is science behind the Vaasthu. Many people do not know that, it varies from place to place. The rules of the Vaasthu in the East Coast side varies from the Vaasthu in the West Coast side. One reason for that is, the air flow is in different directions in the East Coast and the West Coast. In the East Coast side, the air flow is mainly from the North East side. The Vaasthu of the East Coast says, there should be more empty space in the North East side, preferably with water flow on the North East side. By that, one gets more natural air, and they would be more healthy. The rule of having more empty space in the North East side may not be applicable to the people living on the West Coast side.

I feel, the Vaasthu may have to be changed in the same place because of the changes in the life styles of the people.

The Vaasthu of East Coast says, have the house entrance doors in the North East side. In villages and small towns, many people always open their main doors. If they have the entrance doors in the North East side, then there would be more air flow in their house. In big towns and cities, almost everyone closes their main doors. By having this rule, essentially, the people in the cities and big towns are not getting any air flow at all. Instead, if they construct the houses in such a way that, their balcony or other windows/doors, which they usually open is in North East side, then there would be more air flow.

It may be time to revise all the rules of the Vaasthu and apply the real reasons rather than blindly following.

Platform Learning

In 1997, my friend called me for a chess competition in my home town, Mangalagiri. For that competitions, the organizers invited then under-12 chess champion. In an informal discussion, the top player of that district told others that, in Mangalagiri, there was no one who can beat the under-12 chess champion. He knew, he and one more person can beat her.

I know another chess player in that tournament, who was not a top player, but reasonably good player among the players in that competition. There was one game between him and the under-12 champion. In that game, he defeated her easily.

My friend and myself talked to him after the game. He explained about the game. His learning was platform learning. He did not read any books to learn the game. He learned the game by playing. He does not know the names of any moves of the Chess game. Where as the under-12 champion learned by books. She knew all the moves with it's names. But, the problem is, she can win the game, only if the opponent is playing book game or not so advanced game. Since, he was playing a platform game with lot of common sense and self-learning, she could not understand how he was proceeding in the game, since his game was not a book game. She was not aware of how to play in that situation and finally she lost.

Recently, I realized that, Platform Learning is applicable even in Software also.

There are few people who are so much deep inside the design patterns including their names, sometimes, they cannot think of anything outside of the book. Those people, start with a design pattern and tries to apply to their problem instead of starting with their problem and finding out the best way to solve it. Those who are deeply involved, cannot even think of changing the pattern little bit to solve the problem efficiently. They insist that, that variant is not a pattern, and we should follow "proper" design pattern. It is very difficult to argue with them, and the discussion may never end.

If you are not starting with the problem, it is very difficult to end up with the optimum solution.

Had Mahathma Gandhi Lived For Another 10 Years

After the Independence, Nehru gradually kept aside many of his colleagues in freedom fight, who disagreed with him. The only exception might be Babu Rajendra Prasad. Many senior leaders including Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari, B.R.Ambedkar, Prakasam Panthulu moved out of Congress within couple of years after the Independence. Leaders like Shyam Prasad Mukherjee, moved out of the interim government formed by Nehru. Sardar Vallabai Patel died within 3 years after the Independence. Almost everyone who disagreed with Nehru either moved out of Congress, his government, or died soon after the Independence. The entire country is governed how Nehru wanted it.

When the British granted the Independence, Congress gradually started keeping Mahathma Gandhi away from the main activities. Eventhough, the entire government came down, when he fasted to return the money to Pakistan, apart from that, Congress and Nehru always did what they wanted. Mahathma Gandhi wanted to close Congress, since it served it's purpose. There were many other policies of Gandhi which did not make sense to Nehru and many other leaders of Congress. They have not followed any of Gandhi's advises after the Independence was declared.

If Gandhi had lived for 10 more years, Nehru would have definitely moved him out of Congress, or Gandhi himself moved out of Congress. Had Gandhi moved out of Congress in that way, he would not have become Father of Nation. He would have been just another freedom fighter like everyone else.

Nathuram Godse is the one who has given more fame to Gandhi than anybody else.

Partition of State/Country

When Pakistan wanted separate state, almost no leader of Congress liked that proposal. The Congress people and the Hindus did not want the separation. But, they had to accept the separation, because of Jinnah and Muslim League.

After 60 years, if we see in retrospect, as in Indian, I feel it was a good idea to separate the country. [By the way, I am not at all supportive of the riots that happened after the partition.] In the 60 years of Independent India, there was only 19 months period, when the Democracy was not honored. Other than that 19 months, rest of the time, the Democracy was honored in India, and only those whoever were elected by the people, ruled the country.

In 60 years of the Pakistan's history, half of the time, it was either ruled by the Military or was in Emergency. The basic democracy was not honored for more than 30 years in Pakistan. I don't have full details of the life of the people in Pakistan. But, I feel, the life of the people in India is much better than the life of the people in Pakistan.

When there was partition, the extremists moved to Pakistan. Another important thing is, with the partition, India scrapped the separate electorate based on the religion. Had Pakistan be not separated, India would have been forced to keep separate electorate based on the religion and also would be forced to introduce reservations based on the religion, which would have created many more problems, as if the existing problems are not enough. By partitioning the country, India got ridden of many bad things.

In retrospect, Partitioning of India may not be a bad idea.

After seeing the hatred of the people in Telangana and their movements, I feel, if the same thing continues, it would be better to give separate state, even by losing Hyderabad. May be after a decade or two, we may realize that, the separation was good for us.

Kapila Aranyam - California

Kapila Aranyam (Forest of the sage Kapila)

Kalipa Aranyam (By a sanskrit rule, where the characters are reversed)

Kaliporniya

California


- Chinnajeeyar Swamy

Astrologer's Role in Marriages

These days, many people are consulting astrologers whether the bride and groom's charts are matching or not.

If we believe that, the astrology is correct, and it cannot be changed, then at the time of birth itself, our fate has been decided, and whom would one gets married is decided. So, there is no need for one to check the astrologers about the horoscope match. The astrologer does not play any role in this.

I asked the same to an astrologer. He told me that, his role is only shortlisting. If there is no match for the bride and groom, and if they do not consult astrologers, then they would spend lot of time and money, and finally, the marriage would not happen. If they come to the astrologer, they would check whether one can proceed or not. If it is a clear no case, then one would save lot of time and money.

He gave a counter example to the same. There was a family, who always comes to him for anything in their family. For their son, they visited the astrologer many times to match with the bride chart. Once, he went out of station for few days. At that time, that family found a match, and they got married without consulting this astrologer. Within 15 days after the marriage, the husband left his wife, because she was harassing him like anything. The astrologer told me that, this guy had two marriages in his chart. That's why, for his marriage, they could not consult him.

From this, few people conclude that, astrology is always correct, and everyone should follow it, and they follow all the random and fake astrologers and change their life according to what they say.

The conclusion that I got was, whatever has to happen will happen. It cannot be changed. We can only be prepared. If the astrologer says, you will face troubles, if you marry that person, and if you are not destined to have troubles, you will not get married to that person. If you are destined to have troubles, you would get married to that person. Irrespective of your interest and actions, the whole world conspires you to get married to the person you are destined to, provided you are destined to marry. If you are not destined to marry, then the whole world would conspire you to not get married.

Another astrologer says, many people are getting married late, which is true. My guess is, the astrology is using astrology to delay the marriages. It is very difficult to find good astrologer these days. Most of them do not have any knowledge in astrology, and for many, the goal is, to extract more money. If the astrologer says, the chart is good for every match, then they would get married soon, and the astrologer wont get much money. If the marriage does not happen, then they can earn money. So, the fake astrologers try to reject as many as possible. If the astrologer had not said no, then many people may get married without any issues. Since, their destiny is not to get married, they are going to these astrologers only to cancel the marriages. Astrology is using itself to prove itself.

I used to hear the predictions of few parrot astrologers, who always say correct to any illiterate. They say, something like, these days you are getting dreams regularly. But, by the time, you wake up, you are forgetting. You are thinking about one thing deeply. You don't know what is going to happen in that. For these things, it is true for almost everyone. Any healthy person would get dreams regularly, and it is very rare that, they remember it. Everyone thinks about many things. It is very difficult to do not think. Since, they are true, the illiterates believe that, the astrologer is correct.

The same kind of general truths can be applied even for marriages. There is no perfect match. For any couple, at some time or other, they fight with each other. Even decades back, the couple used to fight in such a way that, the wife goes to her parents house and stays there for some time. These days, even divorce became common. So, if an astrologer says, within 3 years, this girl fights with the husband, and goes to her parents house, it would be true for most of the time. The astrologer would also suggest big puja to rectify this problem. If there is no fight, then, the astrologer says, because of this puja, nothing happened. If there was a fight, he says, because of the puja, the problem reduced significantly.

Illegal Does not Mean Unethical - Dr.JP is Planning to do Illegal Activity

Illegal does not mean Unethical. Illegal only means, you are violating one or more rules set by the government. Even if the rule set by the government is unethical, still, if you violate it, it would be called as illegal.

If the people are self-dependent, then they do not care about the government. If people do not care about the government, then most of the politicians will be worth of nothing. Many present politicians can survive only, if people are dependent on them. For that purpose, government introduced many unethical rules which are there just to increase the suffering of the people.

One example is, Andhra Pradesh farmers cannot sell rice to any other state in India. A.P. farmers are not getting good price for rice in A.P. If they sell rice to the neighbor state Karnataka, they get Rs.150-200 extra per bag of rice. But, A.P. government is neither giving fair price to the farmers nor it is allowing to sell outside the state. Whenever any farmer suicides, all these politicians visit their house, and say, they would take care of their family and would solve all the problems of the farmers. But, they do not remove these kind of restrictions.

Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan has given a warning to the government to remove this restriction before Feb 17th. If they do not remove, then under the leadership of Dr.JP, all the farmers would violate the government rules and sell rice in Karnataka on Feb 18th and 19th.

All the so-called sincere people out there; Now, you can criticize that, even Dr.JP has done illegal activities. If he violates the rules on 18th and if the government files any case against him, you can say that, Lok Satta Party is also similar to any other party, and it's president has pending cases against him.

Open Competition and Capitalism Increases Corruption

Whenever anyone talks about corruption, the first example that I give is, corruption in getting a telephone in 2000 and in 2003.

Till 2000, If anyone wanted a phone, they need to pay bribe and even then, they would get only after 2 months. By 2003, if anyone wants a phone, it would hardly take few minutes to get a phone. The corruption has gone away because of the competition between different Tele-communications companies. We need open competition and capitalism to reduce the corruption, and not by arresting the employees of BSNL who were taking bribes.

After this, many intellectuals raise the next question. The biggest scam in India happened in Tele-communications. That open competition has given an ugly face and the corruption has increased to unimaginable level.

Let's suppose, if there had been no competition, and there is only BSNL controlled by the government, like it was till 1996. What would have happened? The entire spectrum would have been taken over by the BSNL. How much money would country have got out of it? Absolute zero.

For obvious reasons, if there is no money, then one cannot do corruption in that.

All the communists want to reduce the corruption to zero, which is possible, only if, the income is zero.

All the capitalists are fine with the loss of money because of corruption, as long as we get something out of it.

Redbus May Cancel Your Ticket Without Your Permission

My friends had very bad time with Redbus. They had booked two tickets in redbus, and they wanted to cancel one. They called the customer care and asked to cancel one. Customer care people tried to cancel, and then said, it is not possible to cancel one ticket. They did not cancel any ticket. My friend found another one who would like to travel in the same route and went to board the bus. At the time of boarding, they said, one ticket was cancelled and they did not allow another to board. That other person had to go by very expensive way to reach his destination. Obviously, at that time, it won't be possible to go by a cheaper mode of transport.

Later on Redbus called and said, other person did not show up, so, they cancelled that ticket and returned full fare. That was the biggest comedy. When they were fighting on why they cancelled without their permission, they were saying the passenger did not show up. They returned full fare, saying passenger did not show up. (Nobody returns full fare, if the passenger does not show up.) But, the expense because of the alternate transport was much more than the full fare.

If a case is filed in a consumer court, it is easy to win. But, for that, one needs to spend significant time (which can be translated to money). So, they did not go for that option.

If you are planning to book tickets by Redbus, be careful. If you are doing partial cancellation, prepare for the worst.

When You Are In Others' Shoes

Many years back, my manager used to tell our team about few reasonably big functionalities.

This is a very simple functionality. While having lunch with one hand, you can finish this feature with another hand.

For obvious reasons, we did not like that.

Few days back, I told the following to my colleague before starting for office from home, about the only feature in a sprint.

This is a simple functionality. By the time, I come to office, you can finish this feature.

One Question to the Supporters of Anti Corruption and Anna Hazare

How many people have submitted all the original documents in the income tax declarations with true claims including but not limited to house rent, medical bills, travel bills etc.?

Whatever the reasons that people have, to submit fake documents, for the same reasons, the corrupted people are doing corruption.

What is Valuable for One is Not Valuable for Others

When I was in Hyderabad, one friend invited me for lunch, and in Chennai another friend invited me. Both times, I think, I ate minimum no.of items than they prepared (not quantity), and Dal and Rice were the major items that I had taken. Both were the best lunches that I had in those cities.

One common friend asked me, whether I did not like the food, because, I had taken only dal and rice, and with force, I took one more item for the namesake. I told that, since, dal and rice are good, I ate only that. Then, I was given a class that, even if I like those two items, still I should eat other items also. Otherwise, they may think that, I don't like the food. I am not sure, who is correct. But, I was more happy by eating just those two items.

At another time, a family friend invited me for lunch. They did not cook dal. The person asked his wife, whether she made dal or not. She said, since dal is the one which is eaten everyday, she did not prepare. Eventhough, there was no problem with that food, I cannot say that, it was the best food that I had eaten in recent time or in that city.

When she said that, dal is the one which is eaten everyday, I felt like saying, who eats daily? You may eat it daily. But, I don't. For obvious reasons, I did not tell.

For the person, who does not know how to cook, and eats in the hotel always, the normal food that is cooked at home would be delicious. It may be normal for them, but it is a good food for me.

Probably, the junk food that I eat daily may be special food for many people.


Many years back, when I was a kid, I visited a village to attend a marriage. There, they have arranged a car and a tractor to go to the marriage hall. I did not like to go by tractor. Since, I travel by bus regularly, I did not want to go by bus either. I wanted to go only by car, and I waited till the last trip of the car, and went by that. Now, if I am in the same situation, without any second thought, I would go by tractor.


Thanks to
Mrs & Mr. Vamsi Kalyan
Mrs & Mr. Siva and Sobhana