Rumi Nations

Facebook or Twitter? Yes. Choose. Between Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor if you like. Or, Aishwrya Rai and Katrina Kaif. Twitter it is for me. Hands down. No contest. Reason: it lets me keep in touch with so many and so much ... from news sources to my heroes to celebrities. Please weigh in with your choice and the reasons thereof.

I was wondering about the actors who portrayed various gods on those TV serials about two decades back. Many of the 'important' gods of course managed to leverage their roles in quite remarkable and unrelated ways. Many of the gods became politicians and representatives of the people of India. But then their political careers sort of fizzled out as the people decided that perhaps they didn't want these gods to represent them. Even as actors, I do not think any of these guys either were exceptional in their profession to begin with or rose to any great heights afterwards. Perhaps this shows that playing god is a rather easy job as far as acting jobs go. Which would seem to indicate that the 'story' itself was rather weak if the main characters are rather unremarkable. Indeed, the mythologies are more or less like children's fables written millennia ago that have lost much of their relevance today. The basic assumption that something written ages ago would contain...

Do I need to explain how or why? OK. I will. DC is the latest beneficiary of the fascination that people in the West have with the mysterious East. The fact that he was able to persuade a few Hollywood celebrities has clearly helped his cause immensely as well. He is a trained medical doctor and PhD too as he will readily inform you. The essence of his philosophy is intricate and intriguing. Well, that's really the secret to being a New Age guru . A SUCCESSFUL one, that is. You take the latest from modern science ... medicine/physiology/genetics, nuclear physics/quantum physics and general relativity and whatever else you can put in the mix without appearing too wacko. You correlate this ' latest ' scientific stuff with some ' ancient ' wisdom . And you say that all this was already known to the ancient wizards living and meditating in the jungles. And then you've to do a very effective presentation about the 'new' insights you've gained into these...

What was there before the toothbrush? The twig of course. Has it died down? No sir! Not in India. It’s still very much the in-thing in rural India. But what surprised me somewhat is this spectacle of seeing policemen using twigs in Gurgaon. Well, I guess you discover many unexpected facets of India on those early morning walks — if you bother to venture outside of the confines of your apartment complex. I am left wondering if the policemen use twigs out of cultural habit or to save money or out of convenience. I would be interested in hearing the opinion of the readers about what they think. I saw more this morning. One sturdy Haryanvi policeman climbed a tree on the periphery of the police station this morning — presumably to collect a twig for brushing his tooth. I am not quite sure as to the purpose of this energetic activity as the line of sight from me to him was not quite unobstructed. What does this say — about policemen in particular and Indians in general? I do not know. I am ...