varnam

Sen. John McCain on if he voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.

"I voted, campaigned for, worked as hard as I could for President Bush's election in 2000 and 2004," he said. "It's nonsense."

Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff who attended a dinner with Sen. John McCain in 2001

McCain replied that as a member of the GOP, Whitford added, he always intended to back the party's nominee. Then, the actor said, someone asked McCain whether he had cast a vote in favor of Bush.

"He put his finger up to his lips, shook his head and mouthed, 'No way,'" Whitford said.

Schiff remembered the conversation the same way. "My memory was he said pretty clearly, no, he did not vote for him," he said. "I discussed it with others afterwards. It was clear to everyone he said no.

See Also: Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

(Image by individuality)

When The Da Vinci Code, was released in Kerala, a state which has high Christian population, no one protested. There were long queues for the movie which according one theater owner generated interests second only to Titanic. That was not the case in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu where the Government pro-actively banned the movie.

The High Courts of both states vituperated the governments.The Andhra High Court told the government that, "the constitution does not confer or tolerate such individualised hyper-sensitive private censor intrusion into and regulation of guaranteed freedom of others." The Madras High court, on similar lines, wrote, "artistic expressions may be asphyxiated by law if a petulant group of self-appointed `censors' prescribes the paradigms for suspending the screening of a film."

More opportunities for asphyxiating artistic expressions are on the way, but this time it will not be the state governments which will be acting.

In the much awaited Kamal Haasan movie, Dasavatharam, it seems there are scenes which show idols being destroyed in the clash between Shaivaites and Vaishnavites. Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Vedantam has said that such scenes hurt the sentiments of Hindus all around the world and should be removed failing which they will resort to protests.

The second protest, which might start soon, is for the new Mike Myers movie, The Love Guru. In this movie, which also stars Ben Kingsley, Jessica Alba, and Justin Timberlake, Myers spoofs an Indian Guru who returns to Canada to get into the self help business. The fight over the movie has already started in United States with Rajan Zed, the Indian priest who was heckled by Christian fundamentalists in the Senate, stating that the movie "aids in creating negative stereotypes of Hindu characters. " Deepak Chopra, the self-help guru, retaliated with a statement that anyone who opposes the movie is a fundamentalist.

Deepak Chopra is doing a cameo in the movie and has an upcoming book, Why Is God Laughing?, about comedy and religion and so has his own reasons for batting for Paramount and Mike Myers. That said, is this religion which survived Aurangzeb and Macaulay now facing the biggest threat from a Canadian comic? This Nawab of Arcot mentality will give free publicity to the movies and opportunities for violent mobs to destroy public property achieving nothing else. Movies come, go to DVD and their popularity would be fugacious, but something which has survived more than four millennia will live on.

If you are offended by these movie concepts, don't watch it. Stay at home and get offended by the IPL cheerleaders.

And if we Hindus fail to ignore such Love Gurus, we have to go back to the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita and start from scratch. Because we have not even understood the basic teachings of Hinduism.[Simply Ignore the Hollywood Movie The Love Guru and the Controversy]

As for Mr. Vedantam, there are many real temples in dilapidated state around the country hurting the sentiments of Hindus all around the world. If only he could worry about them, instead of fake idols in a movie.

Jhumpa Lahiri's latest short story collection, Unaccustomed Earth, has got good reviews. In this interview she shares some of her writing techniques.

Lahiri: I really can't explain how I write, or what I'm thinking of consciously. I studied literature for so long, and was taught all of these things so deeply, all too well. I was trained to read stories, and to appreciate these elements, but when I write the stories I become a different person altogether. Everything goes out the window, and nothing applies in that sense.

Before I had my first child, I took Lamaze classes. They walk you through all of the things, and the experiences, and you practice, and you learn it in a sort of theoretical way. Then I remember the actual experience of giving birth, and nothing was registering at that point, you know? [Laughter] It wasn't like at one point I could turn to my husband and say, "Oh, let's do that thing that they taught us!" It was so purely in the moment of what was happening. In a way I feel like when I write, I'm just in that moment of writing, and none of the knowledge I have is able to penetrate.[Jhumpa Lahiri ]

One of the reasons why her stories flow so well is due to a simple technique called revising.

Lahiri: That's really all I do. It's all a process for me of continued revision. I worked on most of the stories in this book for several years. When I finished some, and I published some, along the way, then I considered them done, but I still worked on them for a considerable length of time, and the ones I didn't publish, I continued to work on. Most of these stories were simmering for two to three years, minimum.[Jhumpa Lahiri ]

Mammotty, chairman of the Communist owned Kairali Channel, has always stayed loyal to leftist ideologies. Appearing alongside N. Ram, China's man in India, at a DYFI meet he rightly criticized the Gujarat carnage ignoring the Communist atrocities in Nandigram. In 2005, he was to act in a Coke commercial for a remuneration of Rs. 20 million, but backed off at the last moment since the party was against Coke at that point in time. A staunch anti-imperialist, he has made sure that his children have the best life possible in United States and Britain. In short, he is a leftist with all the associated hypocrisy.

Now there is a disturbance in the force. First Mammotty told the media that he was in discussions with Microsoft to launch a statewide education project. Microsoft and Communist Party, for the uninitiated, have an Amitabh Bachchan-Raj Thackerey relationship. The official policy of the Communist Party is to use open source software in all e-governance applications to break the monopoly of proprietary software companies and thus Mammotty being the brand ambassador for the Microsoft would be like Darth Vader explaining the layout of the Death Star to Luke Skywalker.

The second event was more shocking. Canceling a shoot, Mammotty came to Kochi to receive a copy of L.K.Advani's autobiography from the author and stood alongside BJP leaders. In his panegyric Mammotty mentioned that the book was a statesman's biography and agreed with the RSS point of view that a confederation of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh was required.

The Communist party has evicted long serving members for going against the party line. M.P. Parameshwaran, a staunch Communist, was against capitalism and imperialism, but advocated a "fourth world" model which would "seek to regulate the production of goods only to fulfill the `needs' of the people and not for their `greed'. Parameshwaran could not get the party leaders to cotton to this idea and he was expelled for he believed that socialism could not be achieved through dictatorship.

The ramblings against Mammotty have started.Now that he is doing everything which is anathema to the Communist will he also be shown the door or will they tolerate his divarication?

In this TED talk, Dr. Dean Ornish briefly describes factors that can cause neurogenesis besides exercise and that includes chocolate, tea, blueberries, alcohol in moderation, stress management and cannabinoids. He also has a list of things which decrease brain cells, which surprisingly does not include too much web browsing.

(Source: National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo)

Till recently it was believed that oil painting had its origins somewhere in Europe between 11^th and 13^th centuries when some unknown artist discovered that mixing linseed, walnut or safflower oil with pigments could produce a different feel than watercolour. Archaeologists looking into caves behind the destroyed Buddhas in Bamiyan found evidence that oil painting has a non-Eurocentric history. The artists who lived in the 7^th century, used besides oil, natural resins, proteins and gums to paint murals showing Buddha sitting cross-legged in vermilion robes.

The paintings in 12 of the 50 caves were created using oil paints, possibly from walnut or poppy, according to scientists at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France. "This is the earliest clear example of oil paintings in the world, although drying oils were already used by ancient Romans and Egyptians, but only as medicines and cosmetics," says team leader Yoko Taniguchi.[Afghan oil paintings world's oldest]

Now that the oldest oil painting has been found, it is time to look for the remains of the first oil painting critic.

In Philippines, a Roman Catholic majority country, the government has rejected contraception a family planning tool since it goes against the Church doctrine. The President herself suggested what the population should do - "Women not wanting to get pregnant, Arroyo advised, should buy a thermometer and recording charts and abstain from sex when they are outside the 'infertile phases of the monthly cycle.'" The result of this advice, according to Washington Post, is a country of poor people with large families.

Acceding to Catholic doctrine, the government for the past five years has supported only what it calls "natural" family planning. No national government funds can be used to buy contraceptives for the poor, although anyone who can afford them is permitted to buy them. Local governments can also buy and distribute contraceptives, but many lack the money.

In 2005, Catholic bishops in the southern Philippines announced that they would refuse Communion to government health workers who distributed birth control devices. [Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty]

Deepak Chopra writes what is happening in the Pope's back yard where people have rejected the thermometer and graphs.

Italy, the home country of Catholicism in Europe, has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. This implies a resort to contraception, and yet Church dogma calls that a sin, forcing its parishioners into Hobson's choice.

United States is the largest consumer of bottled water and since water bottles are made of a type of plastic which is difficult to break down, 86% of the bottles become garbage. Landfill clogging by these bottles became a major issue and many city councils took action by banning the bottles in government meetings, replacing them with water pitchers and drinking fountains. Restaurants too joined in, encouraging the use of tap water.

The environmentalists started a campaign and the bottled water industry reacted by releasing advertisements. On radio programs, the bottled water industry spokesmen argued that the issue is consumer choice; if a consumer has the freedom to eat a mango grown in Philippines, he also has the freedom to drink San Pellegrino.

After all that initial posturing the bottled water industry is now trying to accommodate the environmentalists, so that they are not seen on the wrong side in this issue. The solution they came up did not make the bottle disappear, but made it eco friendly by featuring smaller labels and bottles made with less plastic.

The present trend is growing environmental awareness among private businesses to make up for unenthusiastic stance of the Bush Administration. Buying from farmers market is popular and Low Carbon diet is the new mantra. The rising popularity of the environmental movement has recognition among politicians on both sides of the aisle and nothing says it better than this advertisment.

During ancient times, guru dakshina used to be a tricky business; gurus could ask for anything and the shishyas, without questioning, had to provide. Pandavas, on completion of their education asked Drona and his wish was a preemptive strike on Drupada. In a separate incident related to Drona, Ekalavya had to part with his thumb.

In modern times body parts and warfare are not in vogue; the disciple donates something according to his capabilities to the guru and such convention has worked very well. The stay at Sivananda Ashram in Kasi is entirely free for few days and if you want to extend the stay, all you need is notify the receptionist. The 10 day vipassana course conducted around the world is free as well. All these are supported by dakshinas by people and there are enough people donating that both these institutions, like many others, have been running successfully for years.

By giving a dakshina, as per Indian tradition, we honor the guru parampara; all the masters in the org structure who made this transmission of knowledge possible. By our support we also make sure that our children and grand children have access to this knowledge. It was never about money this has always been the way of Indian spirituality.

Now you see certain New Age spiritual groups which sell spirituality with a predefined price list for various courses. There is a fee for basic meditation course, a larger amount for advanced meditation and half your salary for a residential course. Essentially it is like registering for a tennis or salsa dancing class - you pay a certain amount and you get packaged spirituality.

Indian philosophy has supported a market place of ideas including both astika and nāstika but there never was, during ancient times, an instance when spirituality was sold as a product in the market place. Earlier each school differentiated itself by ideas, now it is by the menu card. To top it, these spiritual groups demand a guru dakshina at the end of the class and what got by goat was a recent $100 discount coupon I got for one such spiritual course.

Selling spirituality is not to be delated. That is business and looking at the amount of people flocking to these gurus, it seems to be a profitable one too. Then, at the end of the tennis class our coaches do not ask for more money for the price for the class was negotiated and settled earlier. Asking for guru dakshina in such situations does not go with tradition and it would be as disagreeable as adding sugar to sambar. As Yoda would have said^*, "This mix and match of business and tradition, jarring I find it to be."

(*) result of watching 6 Star Wars movies back to back.

When asked why he did not introduce a iPod like book reader, Steve Jobs arrogantly said, “the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.” He was being dismissive of Amazon Kindle, which was sold out in a day and was buying time to develop the Kindle killer. Still the point that Americans read less is a valid one.

Tom Ashbrook recently had an interview with Maryanne Wolf, the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, which explains that reading shapes the human brain and by reading less we are going through devolution.

Thus the reading brain is part of highly successful two-way dynamics. Reading can be learned only because of the brain's plastic design, and when reading takes place, that individual brain is forever changed, both physiologically and intellectually. For example, at the neuronal level, a person who learns to read in Chinese uses a very particular set of neuronal connections that differ in significant ways from the pathways used in reading English. When Chinese readers first try to read in English, their brains attempt to use Chinese-based neuronal pathways. The act of learning to read Chinese characters has literally shaped the Chinese reading brain. Similarly, much of how we think and what we think about is based on insights and associations generated from what we read. As the author Joseph Epstein put it, "A biography of any literary person ought to deal at length with what he read and when, for in some sense, we are what we read." [Reading Lessons From Proust and the Squid]