Chronicles of Nikhil Baliga

Swami Gulagulaananda says " India is perhaps the only country in the world that went from being the greatest super-power to a developing wannabe superpower " Indian culture - the Holy books - The Ramayana, The Mahabharata and the Bhagavat Gita and the greatest literature of all time, the Vedas, have held remarkable words of wisdom. But it's not the wisdom, but the intelligence which is even more remarkable. We had done all the scientific inventions and discoveries, had flying crafts and had even fought a nuclear wars some 4000 years back... Don't believe me? Have a look at this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_PfhV_Hns4 And perhaps the very same Hindus are all the time the underdogs in India - No matter who fights, people first blame Hindus. Just have a look at what Francois Gautier had to say about "Hindu terrorism" Francois Gautier Is there such a thing as 'Hindu terrorism', as the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur for the recent Malegaon blas...

Baba Gyani Triviani said: " I agree with Barack Obama when he said 'Yes, we can change' - But I am still waiting for Indians to understand that 'Yes, we can change, we need change, we will change' - For knowing that we can change isn't important, but the will to change is... " "Honesty is the best policy" is an old adage. "Rules are meant to be broken" is another old adage. But somehow we see that people like to follow the latter, more than the former. A lot of patriotic Indians may disagree with me in this article. However, my aim is not to get anyone worked up - rather, we need to understand some home truth, and analyse it for our own good. Rules are seldom followed in India. If you don't believe me, stand at any traffic junction, and watch. Especially when the traffic policemen aren't around. We can see how people continue driving despite the red signal. Everyone is in a hurry. When people see the green turn to amber fr...

Click on the image for the full size A tribute to the brave men who laid down their lives for the safety of others, a tribute to the families who lost their loved ones... Let us not just sit and watch. My dear friends, I do not think that simply sitting around and blaming politicians is the solution. We should all stand up together and take a solemn oath that we shall follow the rules, no matter how hard it is... We shall respect the law. We shall change... And we shall influence others to change. To change towards betterment. We shall follow rules by not paying bribe, we shall follow traffic rules, we shall follow rules - for they are meant for our good. And when we do, we begin to realise that following rules is not important, but the sense to do that is... We start become conscious, and later it becomes inherent in us. And when we all become responsible, it becomes easy to narrow down problems. If you have some time, close your eyes, and think about it...

Swami Gulagulaananda preached: " The danger of HIV is not the virus itself, but the fact that it nullifies our defense to face newer ones " The recent terror strike in Mumbai has taken the lives of hundreds of innocent people. And the blame game has already started, with the intelligence agencies saying that they had warned about these attacks long back and no action or preparation came from the Mumbai police and government to prevent this from happening. And the people at the other end of the fingers pointed claim that no specific information was given - strikes could be anywhere, anytime. Information too general... Well, whichever is true, the damage has already been done. Now for the correctional measures - which several people have demanded for, and new Home Minister, Chidambaram has made several promises which if truly implemented will be really effective. However, this is within the country. A lot of people have strongly felt that we should go on a full nuke strike on ...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " The day won't be far when we can buy babies with 'Made in China ' labels on their little butts - problem is, I don't know if they will kill me by poisoning me or exploding " Of late, the number of incidents cropping up due to usage of Chinese products are too many. I thought that the melamine milk scandal of China was just one sporadic incident - but the reality is far from it. Chinese products are very popular for one reason - Quality? Haaa you must be joking. Chinese products have never been known for quality - it's the price. And Chinese products have pervaded all areas - from hardware products -testers, screwdrivers etc. to electronics articles - calculators, phones, digital calendars to food - biscuits, milk products, poisoned or otherwise. But there is a major issue in these products - Safety ... I have heard a lot of my friends telling me that Chinese phones are available in the market for a ver...

Swami Gulagulaananda, Baba Gyani Triviani and Swami Nikhilaananda all chanted: "There is only one God say all religions, then why are you converting or being intolerant?" Whatever I want to say in this entry - everything is clearly given in the link below. Just follow it, download the attachment and read it - Please attach it to your mail and forward it to others http://baliganikhil.googlepages.com/death_of_hinduism.pdf

Swami Gulagulaananda said: "I have heard of monks selling ferraris, but NOW I have seen everything" Chess is a game of minds. Well, I was on Yahoo Games the other day. I thought of playing a game of chess with some random person in some random room. And then I played a couple of games. And then comes along a person with a strange ID - christ_is_the_way_to_heaven or something to that effect. And the game starts, and the "dude" engages me in a conversation. I would actually say "interesting" conversation. It did keep me more active on that side, than on the game... [sadly] Dude : Hello Me : Hi :) Dude : Where are you from? Me : Bangalore, India. You? Dude : Phillipines Dude : Are you Christian? Me : No (Oh boy, here we go... from his ID I knew what he would do next) Dude : Do you want to go to heaven? (What're you? My travel agent?) Me : No. I would rather live here on Earth forever Dude : That's not possible (Duhh !! :P) Me : Yeah I know, it's b...

Baba Gyani Triviani believes in: " Necessity is the mother of invention. Piracy is a tweaked version of that " When a crime is committed there are many people who analyse it completely - inside out, the motive, the method etc. And then they write books like psychology of the criminal mind and books with other fancy names. So, in this post, I try to analyse a pirate - Not the one who has a "squacking" parrot on his shoulder, an eye patch, a hook for a hand and a sword in the other, and wooden stub for a leg and screams out " fee fi fo fum " [Oops! or is it " arrr land lubber matey" :-) ] Well anyway, coming back, I am talking about the software pirates, book pirates and music and movie pirates. Now we first try to see why does piracy even take place? In the entire discussion, I am taking India as the country. In India, I have seen that the software that needs to be bought from a store - the original version, is extremely expensive for a com...

Swami Nikhilaananda said: " People stressing on being politically correct are not among the ones who defend, but are those who underestimate "    I was going through Bangalore Times today and happened to read an article about being politically correct. The article was long and finely written - well, don't ask me to comment about the contents. People with sense and blood pressure problems at the same time are requested not to go through the article. The reason? Well, read the small gist below    The article says that it is Politically Incorrect to call a fat person fat because the person might feel offended and demotivated and may get into depression and may end up eating more instead of trying to slim down. Instead we should say - obese. So much for calling a spade a spade eh? Or not really. A person who is mad should be called mentally ill. It goes on further saying some more weird things.    Well, what exactly did we conclude from this? It says th...

Swami Nikhilaananda wondered: "Love is forever, or is it indeed?" I was sitting alone, wondering how much he had changed over the years. He used to love me a lot. I can't believe someone can change so much with time. Time changes everything - mighty mountains disappear. Even the dinosaurs which once ruled the planet are nothing but fossil remains. We all grow old, don't we? I expected his love for me to grow with age. I feel it's so unfair. I try to look at him innocently. Hoping my eyes will at least melt his heart. But looks like time has changed even that. Nobody understands my loneliness. Everyday he comes drunk and beats me, and if that doesn't hurt me he adds abusive language. My my, the words he uses... I wish I could say something back. I don't want to hurt him. I still love him. He's the master of my heart and soul, now, is he not? But I definitely wish he would change. He should understand that my silence doesn't imply my approval - of c...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: "Purpose of life I simply know not but life has a purpose, that's my thought" Darwinism and Creationism. Two theories which I don't think agree with each other. I didn't know creationism as a word until recently. However I knew what it was about. I had studied Darwinism in school as part of subject. But I feel Darwinism can only explain the general evolution of species. The evolution of man from monkey, how different species have many similar characteristics and so on. But I am sure evolution cannot explain many things that we see in nature. For instance, let us consider the "yucca" plant. This plant disperses seeds by producing a cotton like material to which a seed is attached. When the wind blows, the cotton material being light carries the seed to a distant area, where a new plant grows. Now, I am sure a lesser organism like a plant does not know or understand that cotton is light, that it can float, that by attaching a see...

Baba Gyani Triviani said: "Life is a race against time. The longest race you ran. Run like the wind, or forever fall behind" You can now read the story from the book - Swami G's Short Stories Buy now - Just $0.99

Swami Gulagulaananda preached " When in trouble, son, and you can't do much, just let go " You can now read the story from the book - Swami G's Short Stories Buy now - Just $0.99 He was uneasy in his seat. The movie was a fast paced one, but he had other things in mind. He had seen a scene on the screen and this was followed by thoughts. He pulled out his phone from his pocket to check if he had gotten any calls. None. He replaced it. He had stopped watching the movie now. His fingers were trembling in his box of pop-corn while the hero was loading his gun with bullets on the big screen. He had a terribly queasy look on his face. He was beginning to feel sick. Why wasn't it ringing. He turned to his left to see the rather annoyed looks being darted at him by his wife. " If only looks could kill ", he reckoned. " What the hell is wrong with you? " she muttered through her gritted teeth. He could almost see the flames of the explos...

Swami Nikhilaananda wondered: "If DSL or power line goes for a tizzle How many net crazy lives would fizzle?" We are aware of, or if not, then made aware of two kinds of worlds that exist now. I am not talking about the earth and space, hell and heaven, netherworld and its complement... I am talking about the real world and the virtual world. And by virtual world I refer to the lives people live on the internet. Real of course, is YOU as a person and your life. Virtual world is the more fascinating world as of now, at least as of this discussion. Virtual world is much larger than the real world, more fantastic in many ways - larger because of the several terrabytes of memory being contributed by each server and more fantastic because normal rules and laws don't apply - by laws I mean Newtonian and Coulombian (not legal) You can take birth at the moment of your choice... All you need to do is create your account. You can die at the moment of your choice - delete acco...

Swami Nikhilaananda lamented: "We are many, reaching a billion; Are we nothing but the west's minion?" India has a population of a billion. One billion. That's one followed by ... well, many many zeroes. And Indians are as such considered to be among the most brilliant people in the world. Many patriotic people say that many leading western companies like IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have thousands of Indians working in them. India also has many indigenous companies such as Infosys and Wipro. I have till date never heard or seen of a single Indian product that is being recognised across the world as a famous product. Not a single one... Operating systems such as Unix and Windows are American, database softwares such as Oracle and Access are American again, SAP is German, and if you consider any other software for that matter, they are all western, perhaps American or European, but never Indian. The only famous Indian product that I have heard is Tally. I am ...

Swami Gulagulaananda always preached: "Justice delayed is justice denied" The crime rate is ever increasing, at least it is so in India. But why are the perpetrators are never scared or worried of getting caught, and the consequences that follow thereafter. And why is this? There are all kinds of crimes that take place. And of course, from crimes, I am directly linking to the justice speed and the system. Now when I say crimes, I am referring to much more than just the criminal cases. I also include the civil cases. Murders, rapes, robbery, attacks, property dispute, official disputes, etc. All of these are common cases that the justice system faces. But these continue to flow in, and in fact continue to grow unabated. The main problem is - THE SPEED OF JUSTICE. People aren't hesitant to commit crimes because they know that they won't get caught, and even if they do, nothing will happen to them. I am, of course, as you might have guessed by now, talking only a...

Baba Gyani Triviani said: "If eating cereal and drinking milk made people any clever Then would they come here to read my lessons? Never..." If you have watched advertisements, you'll know what I am telling you. I mean the hilarious advertisements they show on TV. I liked the Kellogs cereal ad and the Goodlife milk ad the most. The bottom line is this - you are an idiot, nothing enters into your head. Then you eat the cereal, or drink the milk or butter etc. And *BOOM* the girl solves the problem, the dumb looking man who till then didn't know he was being robbed right under his nose gets a sudden brain powering, and he can tell the number of the vehicle without looking... Ok, how lame are we to believe this? It's funny how people try to "fool" people into buying their products. I wonder if people actually fall for it and buy these things because of what they are claiming their products to be doing... In a way they are cheating people by making t...

Swami Gulagulaananda proclaimed: "A crime is a crime, big or small, Size determined when done by all" Have you ever met people who commit mistakes and they say, "Aww chuck it man, nobody will notice" ... Or "Hey, it's ok... Forget it, nothing'll happen" Ok, or you yourself may think like this some times. When I am talking about these small mistakes, I am referring to the teeny weeny errors like: Jumping signal, driving badly (no indicators, hand signs etc.) Throwing chocolate wrappers, chips packets etc. on the ground as you walk, drive etc. (Littering) Spitting, shouting, talking loudly in restaurants and other public nuisance creation Cutting in lines whilst in queues... Small cheating, like giving 990 ml fuel instead of a litre in bunks... Aww come on, these are too small - this is what you may think. We have to understand that this problem is small when only YOU are doing it, and it will cease to remain small if everyone thinks...

Baba Gyani Triviani smiled and said: "Skimpy clothes, drink in hand Page 3 is where you'll land" Times of India - Nice newspaper, in fact it's really great. You get everything that you need to, but then, they also provide this supplement called Bangalore Times. Bangalore Times has many pages, but it's the page 3 that intrigues me, and also works me up. Well, by now you would have realized how much I am against pub culture and social drinking. Alright, FINE, do it - it's your life... But you know what? Why publish these photos of people doing this, in the newspapers??? Funny, I feel - they publish the photos of some who-is-who and mostly " umm-who-the-hell-is-that ?" type people. Now seriously, think about it, who in the sanest states of their minds, would want to look at photos of people they don't even know in newspapers page 3? They can use that much ink for putting in better stuff about so many things - ok, why not write some cook...

Swami Gulagulaananda exclaimed: "Largely ape needn't be King Kong; Look around you, I am surely not wrong" At every point we seem to be aping the west - especially the United States of America. Aping is alright, as long as your aping will benefit, and it makes sense to do so. Here are some very annoying things that I found among Indians who ape the "states" Mentally retarded children are referred to as mentally challenged... And now they are being referred to as "gifted" children. This is supposed to be called - being politically correct. It puts me off just as much as management talk [crap] does. I find it rather ludicrous that people are more bothered about selecting politically correct and apt words - now mind you, they don't have any sympathy for the children, in fact, they act as if something weird is near them when they see the children. Instead of showing the "gifts" in feelings, time is wasted in such things. Call the child ...

Swami Nikhilaananda lamented: "Economy booming, money overflowing Why then are the unfortunate continually growing" The economy is growing rapidly. India is the second fastest growing economy in the world. We all have amenities. iPod isn't a thing anymore. Everyone knows how to use it, and kids around me have exclaimed surprise when they came to know I don't have one. We are not all stinking rich. But we are all pretty well to do, upper middle class people. Alright, fine, maybe middle class... But we do spend money for something that we don't need THAT badly. Like for example, we spend fifteen bucks to drink an iced tea from some kiosk. And something around that for a bar of delicious chocolate. And so on. There are many people around, who don't have that much money to buy a bun or some rice to fill the stomachs of their children and themselves. I don't say completely curb the habit of enjoying and pampering yourself. Come on, I am no saint [...

Baba Gyani Triviani says: "Getting drunk and murdered, molested or raped is a ridiculous way of appearing in newspapers" In view of the recent "Shame thing again" from the business capital of the country - Mumbai, where nearly 80 men groped and molested the two women. This thing can be seen from two angles, one of which is the obvious conclusion that can be drawn - the city isn't safe for women. That what happened was a very very uncomfortable thing for the women, very shameful and a horrifying experience for them. This of course can be drawn straightaway, you don't have to be an analyst for drawing this inference. But if you have a look at it the other way, I still feel that the women weren't right in doing what they did... I am sure some would be ready to throw stones at me. But what these people need to understand is that we are not yet living in Utopia where the entire city is SO safe that people can safely walk around at 1:30 AM in the mornin...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: "I don't take analgesics because they hide the symptoms - Fight the cause, fight the disease, and the symptoms shall disappear with it..." Reservation is indeed a major problem in India. And this problem continues to exist primarily because the problem of casteism continues unabated in the nation. I saw a video the other day which described the pathetic conditions of the people of the "low-caste" and how these people were ill treated and were not allowed to be at par with the people of "high-caste" Now in the video, they showed this girl who decided to drop out of school because she could not continue owing to the taunts of her fellow classmates. She initially intended to become a nurse or a doctor and all her dreams were shattered she says in it. Now, the government decides to reduce these things by putting up reservations for these people. In reality these people are never benefited by this ridiculous scheme. In fact...