My experience with it is a mixed bag. It definitely seems to have some truth in it, but I wasnt awed by what it had to say.

About 4000 years ago, Sage Agastya is supposed to have written down lives of everyone in palm leaves and it is supposed to have been passed down from generation to generation. They claim that time moves in cycles, and history repeats itself. So once is so-many-years lives of people repeat. This was documented for one full cycle, and now it is simply a repeating of that cycle. About 800 years ago, these palm leaves’ scriptures (which were written in sanskrit), were translated to tamil, and it is these leaves that are being preserved here and read from.

This is how it works:

First you take an appointment, mine was postponed twice before I got this one.

When you show up there on time, they take you thumb impression. Based on your thumb impression they isolate one bundle of palm leaves. Looks like they use the characterisics of your finger print to index the bundles. Pretty impressive considering these were written centuries ago!

Once the bundle has been identified, they proceed to ask you questions to zero in on your palm leaf (Assuming they do have yours).

You are expected to answer either “yes” or “no” alone.

The questions are like: Does your name start with the sound “Da” or “Ta” or “Tha”? Were you born on a sunday? Is your father’s name a name of lord Krishna? Have you studies in Mechanical field, or in Civil? and so on. He goes about discarding and considering leaves based on your responses, and then finally her zeros in on one leaf, that is supposed to be yours.

Of course, it has happened often that the leaf corresponding to some people havent been found at all. So If you are “lucky” you get yours.

Once that is obtained, he proceeds to narrates what is written in it. The reader told me that he was simply reading out what was written in it, and it is not his job to interpret it.

What he had to say about me and my family didnt impress me much coz he didnt tell me anything that I hadnt already answered to (albeit in part) when was asking me questions.

He didnt ask me anything about my brother, and neither did he tell what my brother’s name was.

He had asked me about the syllables in my name, my mother’s name and my father’s name and he told the names out perfectly (I must admit, that is a long shot to get it right by guessing or by fluke).

He zeroed in on my date of birth, but didnt ask or tell me anything about my time of birth, but amazingly, he read out my horroscope as in the palm leaf and when I subsequently compared it with the one my mother had it made when I was born, it was a perfect match! These horroscope entires change with the time of birth as well, yet he got it right to the dot!

Then he proceeded to predict my future, I will now if its true only when the time comes. Interestingly, he talked of my previous lives and the sins I had committed then, and that they were a part of the reason why I have to face hardships in my present life and so on. Also he suggested a remedy (again reading all this out from the leaf) for it. In the end he said that they do it themselves, and it’s going to cost me 3000 bucks :)

All said and done, he told me things that he couldnt possibly have known, yet none of it was something, that couldnt be deduced. Yet there were no names mentioned in my predictions, there was very little reference of my past to verify the authenticity of what was written. All I can say is that it promises to be genuine, yet the only way to verify it is to wait for a few months, after which I will know if the prediction made for that period come true or not.

I am a firm believer that astrology is a science, may not be an exact science, but is definitely a science that hasnt been researched upon enough for people to discard it. This seems to be a derivative of astrology. I dont trust the predictions that were made at its face. But I must admit, there is something to it.

I know of people who have been awed by what the leaf had to say about them. One of my accquaintances who had her’s read at chennai told me that he told her things about her that only she could have known and no one else. It freaked her out completely. Another friend of mine told me that his uncle was told he would die in 3 years time, and in 1 and 1/2 years’ time he was diagnosed with cancer, and he passed away in 3 year’s time. These are not arguments in favour of the excercise, but mere observations that merit attention.

Anyone wants to get their life told to them? On a palm leaf?

The professor (lets call him “our dude”) lands at IISc, and gets his routine in place for the next 15 days (or whatever time that he is here for). He is a smoker, and he needs his cigarettes. A few days pass by and out dude is asked where he gets his brand from. Back comes the reply “The same place where everyone else gets theirs.” My friend is surprised, how did he know?

Our dude goes to Tea Board, where everyone go to have some grub. He picks up his snack and is wandering around. He notices a few people gathered around near the campus compound. He sees them, and the next thing you know, he is handing out some cash to the hawker on the other side of the compound for cigarettes. This is a place where cigarettes are sold at IISc (technically, outside IISc) and there’s where everyone gets it. Our dude, on the second day at an alien campus, in an alien country, without anyone telling him, manages to figure out where cigarettes can be obtained!

I am sure anyone else in a similar situation would figure out how to get what they want without anyone having to tell them. Its the sheer power of human perception. It amazes me as to how the human brain is able to carry out such astounding associations with so little information available. Imagine trying to build a machine that can do that. We are decades away from such possibility. And to think humans use less than 10% of their actual mental ability!

Each one of us has a homosexual tendancy inside of us (I can already see a few guns being loaded up). When we meet someone and we really like them, it shows. the implore is not like the quote by Jack (from “Will and Grace”) which goes “There are only 2 kinds on men in this world. Ones who are gay, and ones who havent met jack yet”. What I mean is that, a pat on a back that you give to your best friend (assuming u are straight, and your friend is of the same sex) may be completely devoid of sexual overtunes, but deep inside ur psyche its an animal instinct that you are satisfying.

So whenever u find someone attractive, a great person to be with, blah, blah. It is always sexual in nature. It may never manifest itself, but that doesnt mean it isnt there, latent, satiating itself with the small harmless interactions that you are having with the other person.

All right, I see that you are armed with limitless ammo. Fire away!!!!

This is gonna be fun :)

Phoolan Devi’s killer escapes from Jail
This is a classic. It comes in the league of “Italian Job” and “Ocean’s Eleven”. His accomplices just walk in pretending to be cops, flash a piece of paper claiming to be a warrent for Rana’s apprearance in court, and simply drove him away :). This is the stuff movies should be made out of.

“Corruption Bomb” Girish joins BJP
Gotta give it to this guy, he’s got style. First he gets a major sympathy wave from the public, and the next thing you know hez cashing in on it big time. First he plants a couple of “corruption bombs” in Vindhan Sauda making a mockery of the security there. Then he gets caught, and whips up enough support to evade prosecution. Get to be hailed as the new age “Bhagat Sing” and what not. Once the platform is set, and his popularity is high enough, he jumps into politics. He is a true politician.

BSNL lost crores to a scamster
This is what I called organized scam. This guy simply buys BSNL cell connection with ISD and Conference Call facility through fake IDs and Address Proof. Next thing you know, he calls up a number in Gulf, puts them on hold, calls up a number in india, and patches the gulf call to the caller he called in india. For both the callers he called it is incoming call, so its free. The bill is charged to the BSNL phone number which is never going to be paid anyway. This was a recket they carried out successfully for god knows how long!

Man, sometimes I get a feeling, these are the guys who rule the world. They make the rules, or break them, or arm twist it and the rest simply play along, or play around.

People dream over 5 dreams every night, but remember very few of them. I didnt think much about dreams till I read “Interpretations of Dreams” by Frued. That really got me interested in dreams, and surprisingly, as I progressed into the book, I started remembering my dreams more and more clearly. The details were more accurate, and more vivid. Frued says that dreams are basically tool of wish fulfillment. It seems true for most of the dreams that I had, including nightmares. Slowly I began interpreting my dreams. I must admit it was not easy, nor straight. But it was still a lot of fun doing it. I even got some distance with it, but eventually the sheer magnitude of the amount of information, argument and evidences described in the book overwhelmed me, I had to abandon it half way though. I simply couldnt go on.

The biggest benefit that I have received from the book is the ability to orchestrate my dreams, or rather to ensure that I dream about a particular topic/subject if I want to. It is called, incubating a dream. It is nothing more than taking the statement “Let me sleep on it”, literally! It is not very difficult actually. To incubate a dream, simply hold your question or problem clearly in mind as you prepare for sleep. Then ask (rather than command) yourself to have and clearly remember a dream which reveals the answer as either an insight, an actual experience, or both. It may not work for you the firs ttime around, or may be even after a week, but dont give it. Perserverence is the key. Trust me, you will get it.

Incidentally, the first time I made use of this technique was even before I read about dreams. I was in my XII std., there was one problem (I think it was math.. I forget which one) that I had been struggling with all day and I simply didnt seem to be able to find the solution. Exhausted I fell asleep on my table. That night, in my dream I was actually solving the problem, and in the dream I had actually solved it completely. When I woke up, the dream was so clear in my mind that I simply had to write down what I remembered and presto! the problem was solved!!I know it doesnt sound very believeable, but that’s what happened! I havent been able to repeat that performance, although I have tried… I have had some success, but not quite like the one I just wrote about.

With today’s dream, that interest in dream analysis has been rekindled. I gotta start digging around for more info on it. Net would be a good place to start. Been a while since I incubated dreams. It’s about time I got back into it. I am a little rusty now, but I’ll get there.

What is it about drugs that has helped it permeate into the music industry like a virulent pathogen? If it is the mood/mind altering property of its, then why should the musicians be any different from the doper on the streets? Why is it that if a doper is begging for some drugs he is loser in life, but if a rock star is doing drugs, it’s his lifestyle? Having said that, lets not forget that the most terribles losses to the world of music has been due to drug abuse. Jimi Hendrix choked on his own vomit simply because he was too damn doped to turn over to his sides when he started puking. Jim Morrison (of “The Doors” fame) dies at the age of 27 of alcohol abuse. Rolling Stones magazine referred to Steven Tyler and Joe Perry (of the the “Aerosmith” fame) as the “toxic twins”. And the list goes on, it’s endless.

Needless to say, all this arguments and facts seem to reflect the fact that the morals in the industry are, so to say, “liberal”. But this is not endemic to the western rock-n-roll alone. In fact we have instances in the indian classical music scene. Balamurali Krishna, one of the greats in carnatic music, is, more often than not, high on alcohol while performing. He says he cant do without it. The story of Pt. Ravi Shankar’s daughter Norah Jones in only too well known (BTW she has just released her second album “Feels like home”). In fact, classical musicians and dancers have often been associate with “loose” morals and bohemian lifestyle. What strikes me funny is that the people whose talents are praised beyond compare, whose performances are savoured by millions, are also the ones whose lifestyle would repulse you. It’s like they are walking on the razor’s edge, and a slighten movement bleeds their feet, and while we cheer the act, unmindful of the blood, they are dying everyday. Their life is spiralling out of control. More often than not, their personal life is in shambles. They may be broken in body, but not in spirit, and that’s what keeps them going. It’s sad the way things are. Being an audiophile, it’s difficult for me to imagine that the people who make great music are doing it at the cost of their lives. Makes me wonder if it’s all worth it.

We then talked about the natural ornaments of animals like the hair around the lion’s face, or the peacock feathers, or the colorful display of the parakeets etc. so what do we have for humans? His point was that hair is an ornament, a means of attracting a sexual partner, like it is in case of animals. But we constantly cut it trim it and even shave it. In fact a recent survey indicates that most women find body hair in a man to be a turn off. But why? Isnt it something that nature has given us. It is supposed to be a secondary sexual organ. Then why is it a turn off?

Is our cultural preconditioning retarding our natural instincts? Why do we have to use perfumes/deos to attract the opposite sex? Are our pheromones that weak? Have we incapacitated our body from performing the functions of attracting a mate for procreation of the species? If not, then why rely on so many means of doing the same through cosmetics and fashion.

In fact the concept of fashion changes with time and geography of places. A symbol of beauty in one place at one time may be an object of ridicule and embarrassment at another place in another time. That being the case, why are we so ephemeral in sensing the stimuli and responding to it? Why has our acquired sense of what is attractive, transient as it may be, replaced the biological instinct of what should be attractive in the opposite sex?

Would appreciate your comments.