Chronicles of Nikhil Baliga

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " Unnecessary it is to explain on pearls hither; Therefore you can follow me on twitter " You can just add Swami Gulagulaananda to get regular quotes on Twitter http://twitter.com/gulagulaananda

Swami Nikhilaananda said: " It's prudent for a chatterbox to buy a cellphone with long battery life, than buying an iPhone " I purchased a netbook recently, and I thought of posting a small review about it just in case some of you were considering buying one. I hope you find this useful. If you want anything particularly, I will write about that as well. Specifications Well, the netbook that I bought is an Acer Aspire D250 model. The specifications are 160GB hard disk, 1 GB RAM (extensible to 2) and 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 10.1" LED backlit screen with a six cell battery. It has three USB ports, one port to connect your monitor to, one speaker out, one mic in, one ethernet port and one for charging. It has a camera and mic inbuilt. It has Wi-Fi, bluetooth and 3G for connectivity. The battery life is around 7 hours or so (for sure - sometimes more, sometimes a little lesser depending on usage). The speakers are ok, just good enough, and lacking in bass. Since I ...

Swami Nikhilaananda said : " It is always wise to test the waters before you surf the wave " Google is supposed to be one of the most innovative companies, a company that has decided to challenge reigning champion Microsoft head on, a company that plans to make the entire world to shrink even more using the internet. The internet definitely holds great promise - But will it truly completely eliminate all fat clients? Not in the next few years I can bet... In fact, I don't think that the internet will replace local software ever (unless something totally radical happens) and this is the reason why I don't think Google Chrome will rout Microsoft Windows... If anyone has a chance of dethroning Microsoft, it has to be either Linux or Apple Mac OSX. But definitely not Chrome. Google's wave is the newest of their products that have been creating a lot of buzz for quite some time now. It was a product that made a lot of people to sit and wonder when the question " H...

Swami Gulagulaananda challenged " It's time to have the greatest discussion now for a face-off... I dare all religious 'experts' to come here and put your thoughts across " The reason I am writing this article is simple - I recently got some scraps on Orkut from a person who calls himself (montse) Jesus Loves You . And they were some really interesting scraps. They are pasted here as is: (montse) Jesus : hi i don't know u, but all i have to say is that Jesus loves you, died for ur sins believe Jesus for eternity Nik : Hi, I don't know you - But I want to tell you that Sri Krishna loves you - Read the Bhagavad Gita and free yourself from the cycle of rebirth. Believe in Him. (montse) Jesus : but none died for your sins except Jesus, you should receive your salvation only by believing Jesus as your saviour Nik : See, that's where you are wrong - You start off with the assumption that one has to die for someone else's sins. Sri Krishna makes...

Swami Gulagulaananda said : " Those who truly want to do service will talk less and do more... And then there are the hypocrites " Ever wondered where you can use the words hogwash, bunkum, balderdash and fiddle-faddle interchangeably? It is in the response to the statement - "I don't burst crackers during Diwali because of the pollution it results in" This is a very interesting sentence. It may seem to be very nice to see people actually being concerned about the environment. But what interests me even more than this is the fact that their concern lasts not more than the three days of Diwali. Most people who make these statements are those who drive cars, hardly use public transports, don't carry their own bags and ask for polythene bags, don't reuse polythene bags, throw garbage around and litter all over the place... Basically, do nothing to conform with the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle idealogy (what Captain Planet tried to popularise) I am not sa...

Swami Gulagulaananda asked: " Is it possible for your father to look like you? " I happened to read an article on today's newspaper that spoke about some film maker who said that he believed that Lord Krishna truly existed and walked the earth, and he was going to make a film based on it. He said that Lord Krishna was born in 3112 BC. BC clearly indicates before christ... The name of his movie is going to be " The Indian Jesus "... Sheesh! How can you make that kind of an error? It is exactly like telling someone that his father looks like him. You can tell him that he looks like his father. Similarly, you can perhaps call Jesus as the Western Krishna, but not the other way around, since Krishna comes earlier than Jesus chronologically... Of course, I feel he chose that name to make it more appealing to the Western community - But this kind of behaviour is something that I strongly denounce. I liked his idea of making a film about Krishna, but the name is someth...

Swami Nikhilananda said: " Think in the language in which you speak; a literal translation seldom gives the right meaning " This is a small incident that happened a year back. I had attended a wedding reception, and I happened to be talking to my friend's father. The conversation was quite interesting, and he was doing most of the talking. We were both standing and talking, and I had my dinner plate in my hand. He had already finished his dinner... So, as we spoke, I found him saying " what? " at the end of each sentence. Like, for example, " The situation is getting really bad these days... What?" And when he asked me this, I thought he was just testing if I was paying attention or not... So, I repeated whatever he said, " The situation is getting really bad these days " But as we spoke more and more, he went on adding "what" at the end of every other sentence. I didn't understand why he kept feeling I was not paying attention...

Baba Gyani Triviani said : " It has been so many years since we got our freedom from the British. But, are we truly independent? " There is a difference between freedom and independence. And those of you who don't know the difference should quickly check out the dictionary. Freedom is something great - something, which you won't be able to appreciate till you don't have it. Often, freedom is a word that is mistaken for a lot of things. People have used blogs for freedom of speech and expression. You need to understand that freedom of speech and expression doesn't mean that you can go around maligning people, or spreading slander. One must understand this difference. Freedom doesn't mean you wear revealing clothes or behave obscenely. There is a fine line of difference. This doesn't mean that I am orthodox in thoughts or behaviour - most definitely not. I strongly support freedom, in the truest sense of it. Try going to a country like China or Korea. An...

Swami Nikhilaananda said : " You cannot have a great car and a potholed road, nor can you have an excellent road with a lousy battered old moped. The idea is to have both - and yes, it is possible " Today is a special day for two reasons - The Indian Independence day, and also the PESIT Alumni meet. PESIT is a brilliant college, but unfortunately, it has a reputation of that of a school - It's not at all as bad as it has been made out to be. I actually got so annoyed at one point of time, with all the comments from my friends from other colleges, that I decided to go around asking people from my college if they really did find it so hard to live in. Believe it or not, not a single person said that they hated the college, or had any major issues. Everyone had some small complaints, like security guards bothering us... But hey, no system is perfect. I know everyone has atleast one issue with everything. So, we all love our college, and we have had so much fun. I was actuall...

Swami Gulagulaananda preached: " A bundle of sticks will never break, a single twig shalt quickly snap; Beware of all these foreign helpers, for this is indeed a vicious trap " I don't know if a lot of people are aware of this bit of news that I just happened to read in today's Times of India. A Chinese web-site claims that if Beijing exerts a little pressure, then India is already ready for dismemberment. They claim that by forming an alliance with all of India's neighbours, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, China is going to splinter India into 20-30 smaller independent pieces. It also claims that India was never a country at any point in her history, and was merely held together by Hindus (who have been termed as decadent) Well, whether this is factually true or not, is secondary. Let us have a quick look at the status. There are certain facts that we need to understand. India is a vastly diverse country, having all kinds of people, belonging to all kinds...

Here is a wonderful mail I received from a friend recently... Just read it, and let me know if it is not natural to get angry, frustrated, irritated, annoyed, or just old fashioned "pissed off" when you read crap (excuse me) like what is being spread by lousy, third grade books like Satyadarshini (what an ironic name... Satyadarshini, my arse) and people who carry these around... It's a shame, indeed. Such people should definitely be severely punished for attempting to bring about defamation. If you want to join an Orkut community to oppose evangelism (religious conversions) please click here, and help to make the community grow - http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?rl=cpn&cmm=45139734 ---------------- François Gautier First Published : 06 Oct 2008 02:12:00 AM IST Last Updated : 06 Oct 2008 07:40:54 AM IST I WAS born in a Catholic family. My uncle was a priest, a wonderful man of warmth and compassion and I spent most my early years in Catholic boarding schools...

Baba Gyani Triviani said: " Anything can happen - Any event, can occur... The chances may be low, but that does not mean that you totally discount it, or discard it - A calculated discounting is permitted " What Baba means by the above statement is that, in life, you cannot simply discard anything without even considering it for a moment. I have seen several people who argue with this attitude. Their arguments are never complete. For example, there was a person who once told me that a certain organisation is known to steal credit from people who do the work... Now, this may or may not be true, one never knows, unless they have gone through this personally (for, it's very easy to malign someone). However, when I told this to my friend, he totally opposed it, with expressions which made it appear to me like even thinking it for a moment is a totaly sin. This kind of thinking is not good - For, though we like to walk around with the belief in the line - " Innocent until...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " It takes a lot more to change societies than merely forming groups... If no ground work is done, then you are yet another follower of Times Of India - (Just talk and no work) " Disclaimer: At the very out set of this entry, I would like to make it very clear that I do not intend to (tangentially even) imply any part of this material towards any existing or non existing organisation, person or group of people. People reading this entry should do so in a completely unbiased manner . I noticed that there a lot of people with good hearts, who want to do something for the people who are not so fortunate as themselves. So, people who say "There is no good left in this kali yuga " have another thing coming. There are a lot of people who are interested in doing something good - They want to channelise their energy and efforts towards the upliftment of the society, in some way or the other. So, they do things - some of them do it as individuals,...

Well, Veda tagged me for answering this Q&A set. And she said that I never cease to impress her - That kinda puts a lot of pressure on me, you know? :P Well, anyway, let's get cracking... Your crazy about nothing long enough. I like something, then I love it, then I love it more... Then I drop it. (Yikes ! But it's true) Your first thought when you hear ‘Pink’ Gay people You are impressed by Stuff that someone else can do far better than I can... You are turned off by Lack of logic, lack of emotion, boot-lickers Your glad you aren’t Anyone else!! I rock :-) You know you're sad when I am unable to smile for a long time, and have this sad look (imagine puppy-dog-eyes) Music is something that gets me in the groove, and gets me out of the "You know you're sad when... " situation Sex? Male :P (That was intentional, people) Do you want to find your better half now? Yes. If I find my better half, then definitely... Searching is the problem. Someone do that for...

Baba Gyani Triviani said " The purpose of education is not just to disseminate information, but to instill values " Everyday, we read in the newspapers about rowdy sheeters hacking one another to death due to gang rivalries and personal grudges. At the outset, we just look at this as habitual offenders committing crimes, and don't pay much attention to it as we consider it to be irrelevant to us, the civilised people... However, hooliganism or "goondagiri" seems to be coming closer to people of the civilised society as well. There have been several disturbing cases of college students resorting to hooliganism on campus. Why do college students develop an inclination towards hooliganism? One of the main reasons, perhaps could be due to Attention Deficit Disorder. They want to be seen as famous "cool" people. Conventionally, cool people are depicted to be moving around in gangs, with people turning their heads around to get a glimpse of them as they walk...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " If I am a chain smoker and you are one, and I ask you to quit smoking saying that smoking causes cancer, you should be verifying if what I said is true or false, and then if true, quit smoking for your own good instead of telling me to mind my business as I smoke myself. The advice is for your own good, and you are the one who will suffer, irrespective of whether I suffer or not. We should be looking into the truth of the matter. " The recent attacks in pubs by the Sri Rama Sene (SRS) in Mangalore has definitely sparked a series of comments by different people at all levels - from the youth to Minister(s). However I noticed that the types of remarks being made by the people who are complaining is totally confusing in most cases, irrelevant in some and seriously flawed in a majority of the arguments. Let's just have a look at some of the arguments and try to look at it in a completely unbiased manner. For some time, forget which side you ...

Swami Gulagulaananda said : " Shame on those who don't understand that all religions are nought but different paths to the same destination. Evangelists, Separatists, Hypocrites should be hanged " I received a very interesting mail some time back. It asked me to forward it to as many people as I knew. Well, I thought it would be better to post it up on my blog before I forwarded it to others. So here is how it goes... You be the judge. If a person dresses like a Sikh Guru, thousands of Sikhs gather and destroy their establishments , threaten to kill him, announce a bounty on his head - Sikhs are not criticised for being communal and intolerant, If a Danish journalist depicts the Prophet of the Muslims , Muslims all over the world rise in anger, there is violence, a booty on the head of the Journalist - Muslims are not criticised for being communal and intolerant, If MF Hussain draws paintings depciting Hindu Gods and Goddesses in sexual positions (which r...