Music

Came across this immensely talented group in YouTube. I think they are called the Yogi B and Natchatiras.



Personally I am no big fan of Rap/Hip-hop music, though I'm compelled to listen to it (a lot of it) in my friend's car stereo. I know Eminem from The Black Eyed Peas. That is as much as my initiation goes. I particularly dislike the generous dosage of profanities (most times, those are the only words I can make out).

Still, the Natchatiras impress me with their sheer innovation(for Tamil music); a new sound. The blending of 1980's Ilaiyaraaja's Madai Thiranthu with hip-hop rhythms has been executed well.

A must-see... a must-buy (I wonder if I can get my hands on their album, here in Australia. Anyone with info here??? )

Thuglak

Have you ever watched Muhamad Bin Thuglak? This hilarious political satire of Cho was a classic. And it sure wasn't just about the laughs. There is some truth...no strike that... more truth to Muhamad Bin Thuglak today than ever.

Thuglak chronicles the attempt of a small idealistic group who take over the government (as the resurrected Emperor Thuglak) and enact ridiculous laws... all with the hope of awakening the intellectual spirit of the nation by revealing their farce and indicating the credulousness of the common man.

Consider that... while I digress

I first heard of Scientology because of the South Park scandal, with Tom Cruise pressurising the makers to drop a show (which evidently hurt his religious sentiments). South Park in the rich tradition of Comedy Central is scandalous to say the least.

My sympathies were, of course with Tom Cruise, for the simple reason that I liked his 'Top Gun', 'Minority report' and 'Mission Impossible'. And because I didn't know crap about scientology.

In fact the name led me to believe they were an agnostic (or even atheistic) group who believed that all the miracles observed in the universe have a scientific explanation. Something like the scientists of CERN in 'Angels and Demons'. I also felt kindly to Scientology as I had watched 'Mormons' mocked at, in South Park and it wasn't pretty.

Scientology, as it turned out, was a religion that had nothing to do with scientific skepticism or agnosticism. Consider this from the Wikipedia article on Scientology

... story of Xenu and his Galactic Confederacy. Xenu (sometimes Xemu) is introduced as an alien ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living. The alien souls continue to do this today, causing a variety of physical ill-effects in modern-day humans.

Now, can you blame South Park for mocking them. Come on... seriously! You don't find that funny?

Apart from this "C3PO was our ancestor and Terminator came from the future to have a homosexual relationship with him and that is why we lost Paradise" kind of stories, the religion does seem to have the spiritual awakening of its practitioners in mind. Some of their tenets seem awfully close to some Hindu teachings.

• A person is an immortal spiritual being, termed Thetan, who possesses a mind and a body
• The thetan has lived through many past lives and will continue to live beyond the death of the body.
• Through the Scientology process of "auditing", one can free oneself of "engrams" and "implants" to reach the state of "Clear", and after that, the state of "Operating Thetan".
  

Substitute Thetan with Brahman and you have the ancient vedic religion.

I am sure that it is not so simple... all I am saying is that it has some sound, (atleast tried and tested) principles in it.

Mythology is or appears to be, at most times the ramblings of a keen imaginative mind on Prozac. I mean, we bought immaculate conception and lifting a mountain with the little finger and parting seas. Surely Galactic confederacy isn't stretching it by much, is it?

This is where Muhamad Bin Thuglak comes into the picture.

Did you know Scientology was developed by a Science Fiction writer? A certain Ron Hubbard.

My guess is he wanted to prove to the world how gullible they were and how the religions of the world were exploiting them with their mumbo-jumbo. So, he started a religion himself with some weird mumbo-jumbo. And his plan was to reveal all this in a spectacular fashion and make people reconsider their faith. However, like Thuglak, he got sucked into it and the religion survives. And people today actually believe in 'A galaxy far far away'.

Now that's a theory.

Of course, all religions are attempts to know the unknown and Scientology is just as deserving of respect as any other. I'll conclude with one of Scientology's tenets

What is true for you is what you have observed yourself. No beliefs should be forced as "true" on anyone.

Graham Bell turns in his grave

If you think life is all hunky dory bed-of-roses, try sharing office space (and telephone) with newly weds. In my office, (OK! not office, just postgrad room) dubbed 'The Stress Lounge', there are, not one but three married guys. Between the three, they get/make 30 calls on an average. That is more than one call per hour per person (c.p.h). And given that phone conversations can last upto an hour, they are pretty much on the phone all the time. (If you were trying to call me and got a busy tone, now you know why). How they get any work done is beyond me.

Yes! telephone is a great invention and mobile phones are a technological marvel. But, seriously!

And then there is this 'In love' group. I have a friend, another of the Stress Loungers, who pretty much lives with his girlfriend. He occassionally drops by to visit his room for a few minutes. From time to time. Mostly to get his clothes and stuff. In spite of that, he spends half-an-hour on the phone with his girlfriend. Every single day. He calls her in the evening at say, 5:30 and speaks till 6 only to leave for her place at 6:30. For chrissakes, they said goodbyes for a quarter-hour (this is perhaps the cliché of clichés). Why someone would do that fails me. If he had to coo in her ears, couldn't he do it in person. Do we need a telephone to love? (Or maybe love is cooed in person as well)

Ask them the reason and they will tell you it is something that you wouldn't understand unless you were in love yourself. Bah! (I am beginning to buy this argument. This friend was ridiculing the 'In love On phone' syndrome for a long long time and now, wham! he is a convert).

I don't deny that I am a romantic at heart, and as a gesture, making a call to tell the person you love that you are thinking of them even in the middle of a busy day is sweet. But, everyday!!!???

The things people do to express their undying love! Huh! Either I am rational, levelheaded and sane or plain jealous.