Chronicles of Nikhil Baliga

Swami Nikhilaananda said: " An Apple a day will definitely make me bankrupt " [The purpose of this post is not to tell you how to get themes, mod or dropdown menus] I have an old iPod - 2nd Generation 8 GB one lying around. With the rapid rate at which technology becomes obsolete, I often wonder if investing money into buying gadgets really makes sense. Apple promptly stopped support for the older generations of devices, with no software updates beyond 4.2.1 and none of the newer apps work on my device either. Which means, I have to be happy with whatever apps I had installed. It suddenly went from a savvy gadget to ordinary music player - something that phones do as well. I also have a Raspberry Pi and I thought - it would be really cool if I can somehow make my iPod a screen for the Raspberry Pi - Act as a monitor. That'll give me a small computer of sorts. My first thought was to run a VNC server on the Pi and a VNC player on the iPod because I was looking for ...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " The moral fabric is netted, the sizes of holes not constant " Let me start off by saying that the attitude in this post is intentionally cynical As kids, we are taught a series of moral lessons - " Don't hurt others ", " Don't steal from others "... and as we grow up " Don't covet others' wives " and so on. As children, we are taught to take these statements as truths, we don't question them, we simply accept them. The reason being that we don't have the maturity and experience to validate them. So we accept them, and we follow them. As we grow up, we gain both experience and maturity. At this point, we can begin to validate our lessons and accordingly strengthen those that matched with reality and discard those that didn't. AI junkies will consider this as strengthening of synapses and those who've read 'I'm OK, You're OK' will relate this with the PAC model. ...

Swami Nikhilaananda said: " And then when I saw the leeches, blood drained from my face... " A cool breeze blew past me, reminding me to prepare myself for the obstacles ahead. I looked up at the sky and felt like a giant, for the clouds seemed to be within my reach. In the epic Mahabharata, in the Mahaprasthanika Parva , the Pandavas and Draupadi begin their journey up the Himalayas to reach heaven. And then a dog accompanied them... I knew I was about to embark upon a similar journey; I sensed I was very close to heaven, for nowhere else can beauty of this magnitude exist - the lush leaves of plants and trees all around me painted in various hues and shades of green, the soft gurgle of the stream, the eternal croaks of frogs and chirps of mysterious birds that refused to show themselves... The entire area seemed to be the epitome of vibrant life, for even the fallen trees were teeming with life, with  mosses and colourful mushrooms growing side by side, a perfect exampl...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " Pardon my affectations, this is me being a flibbertigibbet " I stared into his eyes as he stared into mine. Some times I wonder if eyes are really the window to the soul, and if he could read my mind through my eyes. " What's your plan? ", I asked him. " I am going to write a blog post with them ", came the reply. " For the life of it, I can't believe that I can't remember most of these words, you know? ", he continued. I could sense anguish in his exasperated voice. " And that's why I am going to write this post, even if it ends up being a rigmarole ", he paused. " Rigmarole ", I smiled, and took out my phone. I have a need to find the meanings of words if I don't know the meaning, an OCD of sorts. So I have a dictionary app handy all the time. " Looking in the lexicon, eh? " he grinned. " What's the point of this? " I asked him, getting rather ann...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: " Problems don't arise due to beliefs... Problems arise when you force it upon others " Religion has been around for thousands of years and I am sure it is not going to go anywhere anytime soon. With the advent of Social Media, information can travel across the world rapidly. These are two facts. There is nothing wrong with believing in something. We all go through life's ups and downs - and some times we are alone when we are down. Sometimes, we don't have anyone to fall back upon though we would have loved to have someone to reassure us. And when you feel all is lost, you find solace in God. You pray to God, pray that all your troubles go away. You derive strength from faith. Even if your problems don't all go away, you feel invigourated. Problems are given to you only because God knows you have the strength to solve it, they say... And even if you didn't, it works - perhaps a placebo effect. People do remarkable things b...

Swami Gulagulaananda said: "In mob psychology,  if there is success, everyone shares the fruit, if there is failure, the leader gets hanged " Just the other day I was reading a very interesting book that spoke about how application of mind to do something beyond the mundane autopilot mode applies considerable stress on us. For example, an experienced driver doesn't require much thought while driving everyday to work. Not much thought is applied on when to brake and when to accelerate. Experience makes you do this automatically. Same goes for typing. I don't see which key is where, the only thing that comes to my mind is the word that I have to type and the word gets typed. However, considerable amount of strain comes when I have to multiply 43 x 76 or if I have to remember a couple of numbers in mind like 46.83 and 35.78 for some time (working memory) It might seem obvious to some of you that activities such as mathematical calculations are not really natural wh...

Swami Gulagulaananda recounted the old saying: " Before you judge me walk a mile in my shoes " A great thing about being in India is the myriad colourful lives that you get to see around you. Different people living their lives in their own ways. And every single person has different qualities that define him or her, their own personal idiosyncrasies and peculiarities that make them what they are, that define them. Some are logical, some are cold, some are jumpy, some sensitive, some optimistic, some pessimistic,  some balanced, some depressed and some ecstatic... You get the picture. But it gets interesting when you try to analyse why people are the way they are. As in, we are aware of what qualities are desirable and what are not. Like, optimism in general is considered a good quality while pessimism is not. I say 'in general' because there have to  be certain negative inclinations at times too, for it helps us prevent pitfalls due to over-enthusiasm. But in ...