Ganesh Chathurthi:
This is one of the most widely celebrated festival in our country. I still have not understood the significance of the festival, for that matter I have not understood the significance of most of the festivals. We do 'pooja' to the lord on this day and tons of manthras will be chanted but what do those manthras mean ? Are they significant in the present world. Somehow when I sat for the pooja yesterday only such thoughts were going on in my mind. There is no answer for the why's in our society. Some one has started the tradition and its our duty to follow it. Are people forgetting the 'bhakthi' aspect of these festivals. Even the festivals are commercialized. People are more bothered about the size of the Ganesha idol. The bigger the better. If this continues, generation after generation, Ganesh Chathurthi will exist only in memories.

Noise pollution:
yesterday I happened to visit one of the famous schools in Bangalore, St.Josephs boys Indian High school and was sitting in one of the classrooms. Had a horrible experience. The school is situated right next to the busy Mallya hospital road and the noise from the road was so awful. I am wondering how the students can sit there and listen to the lectures while all they get to hear is the horrible noise of the auto rikshaws and buses. It was mainly the autos. I feel its better to ban the autos throughout bangalore and replace them with city taxis. The noise was pathetic, awful, horrible oh words are not enough to xplain it. I felt like killing each of the auto drivers and setting the autos on fire. I wonder why the school authorities do not file a public litigation against the autos. I really pity the students who sit in those classrooms.

All these days in my life, I have never been attached to anyone and I never feared the fact of losing anyone ... but I never realized the importance of 'non - attachment' until I got attached to someone. And today I have come to a situation where in I have to get out of that deep rooted attachment .. and am not at all able to get out .. somehow I want to win this ... and somehow I want to get back to my old state of 'non - attachment' ... somehow ..

Some revelations : Never to dissipate anger on someone/something. This thought triggered off when I heard about a movie called "Anger management" starring Adam sandler. It is quite natural for a man to react in anger. At that moment mind will be oscillating between tons of thoughts and it will be a typical chaotic environment. Any chaos will result in an outburst. Going by the cause and effect theory, the cause of the outburst ( I would rather term it as emotional outburst ) would lead into an undesirable effect which leads to further complications. After sometime ( this could be a few minutes, hours, days or even months) the anger subsides and then the individual starts thinking about the cause - emotional outburst and the effect and the further complications. Since the efffect is undesrable, the individual cannot live with the effect and he/she tries to alleviate the effect of anger by various means. So what is the outcome of sprewing anger ( as one of my friends terms it ) on someone. It will only lead to a state of regret - "oh I should'nt have done this'. So should we avoid anger ? I dont have an answer. In my view we should'nt. I have tried to avoid anger and always I have failed. At some point in time .. anger takes over and I end up dissipating it on people in some form or the other. I feel instead of avoiding if I accept anger and just be quiet .. things will be fine. Simple analogy - think about the effect ( based on the past experiences ) and understand the fact that 'by getting angry things wont change for your benefit or good, it will rather worsen". But I really dont know of a means of accepting anger. Last night I was angry with my friend and I tried to get into an acceptance mode and it was not at all working. The mobile phone was lying in front of me and my mind was racing and telling 'pick up the fone type in the sms or call up and blast the other person' and somehow I didnt want to do it.. so I went and started watching 'Tom and Jerry' :) until I could sleep. So I could not find a means of accepting anger .. I just diverted my mind to something more relaxing and got away with it. I need to find an answer for this.. an interesting quote to end ....

"The difference between courage and stupidity is the outcome"

Learnt a lesson last nite - Never to extend your hand for a handshake to a lady whom u r meeting for the first time .... :)