Hide your tears

Rain Drips
     Crops Rise
Petrol Drips
     Economies Rise
Blood Drips
     Empires Rise
Sweat Drips
     Monuments Rise
Semen Drips
     Generations Rise

          Tears drip... Nothing rises...                                                   

To us, tears must be the most precious of the fluids I guess, because no one wants them to be seen by others or to give them away. I'm being Minimalistic after a while now. Dont know why I'm posting about tears on a happy day. But, I had to shed these thoughts lest they turn into tears, which for me definitely need to remain hidden. Hide yours a little better & Smile more!

Lucky Saturn

Saturn, to me, it is the most beautiful planet after the Earth. The rings of Saturn have fascinated multitudes for ages and still draw out the 'oooh's & 'wow's everytime I show it to people through a telescope.

Here is a page with more pictures by Christopher Go. He has been following it with a telescope for the past year of "Saturn season". You can catch it for yourself too. All of the next month or so, it is going to be a nice, bright, starlike evening object in the East.

10th February 2007 [the day the above pic was taken] was the day of opposition for Saturn. 'Opposition' is the time when the Earth lies between an outer planet and the Sun, making the Sun and planet appear in opposite directions as viewed from the Earth. So to us, the planet rises as the Sun sets. Now magine yourself out in space and draw out the position of the Sun and the orbits of the earth and the planet on opposition day. Its easy to see that the Earth will be closest to the planet on this day. The distance in between them is of course the distance between their orbits, which is unimaginably huge. The occurrence of oppostion for various planets differs and it was Saturn's turn yesterday.

Since the early morn TV channels were full of 'news' about what all can happen on this day and how there were so many people praying to appease saturn!

"Saturn is the worst planet to have in your horoscope... & God forbid if it be close to the earth at that time... All hell will be let loose!"

So say some of the astrologers. Or at least thats the picture they paint, but will deny it when countered. In India, for ages Shani or Saturn - the angry god has been the harbinger of bad luck.

It seems that the media did finally remember that there are some dudes who are more in touch with Saturn than the astrologers [most of whom have not even seen it!]. So we had a TV team from a channel at our Science centre for a 2 minute interview to counter all the stuff transmitted all day. My senior put up a few good points. I happenned to barge in with one point that was missed and got invited to face the camera too. I was instantly transformed into an expert on astronomy giving comments on TV about the latest sensational celestial event!

I dont know about the half a billion Leo's who walk the Earth. They are "predicted" to share the same bad luck for the next few months, due to Saturn's presence in a group of stars that resembles a Lion, if your imagination can leap like one. But it turned out to be very lucky for me... If you believe that Saturn favours me, then please contact me for more details on "How to use Saturn to become famous!"

For more time-pass follow the following weblinks to sites about the spaceship Cassini, which is near Saturn doing a lot of research.

More Links:
JPL >> NASA

Silence of Thought

Drums...
What does the word remind you of?

Festivites, Rock music, Noise... depending on your present orientation of mind. For me its currently Music. I have joined the race to be in the league of John Bonham, Ian Paice, Keith Moon, John Densmore etc. For the uninitiated, that means I am learning drums!

Yesterday my 1-2-3-4 routine was bass-none-snare-bass [thats my own convention though. 'none' means no drum is played, only the hi-hat cymbals are hit]. It is tiring for the mind. Three [as yet] of my limbs are working separately doing their own do, at different frequencies, and together they have to create a beat. I have always been awed by the concepts of multitasking and time-sharing [and how I am so super at them], but this is a totally new level! The right hand keeps its own identity while the left hand & the right foot clamour to give it company. But like unruly kids, they need to be controlled. "Stay!" - I say to my foot. Its moving twice every beat. "...Stick it to the bass-drum and stay with the skin till I finish the next two beats". The left hand is the first to miss a beat. "Damn... I'll make up for it 3 beats later" I hear myself thinking "...4-1-2-" and I hit the snare on 3 but miss the foot on 4! But 1 comes on fine and I gradually settle in, oblivious to any attention I might be getting from the guitar-girls behind. I shift from counting numbers to the sound. My heart almost repeats the beats.

It hypnotises you. Maybe its not meant to be done after a hard day's work. The rhythmic beat draws you in. Slowly your eyes close. Your limbs keep doing their job, almost by themselves. And suddenly I wasn't thinking... For a definite while, I had no picture in front of my eyes, no words in my head. My world was not futile anymore. It almost wasn't there... A Silence of Thought had descended on me! Even the thought that I wasn't thinking, came after a blank... & it suddenly felt so unwelcome. I shivered in my sweat. It happened unconsciously and stayed for a while.

All that I have been craving for, for a while now, is riddance from thoughts. Anything that you do repeatedly for a week becomes a habit and I have been addicted to thoughts for quite some time now... Thoughts that contain people, expectations, which take a negative turn most of the time. I've been trying to put them away after I wake everyday. It seemed so impossible a task. I have even been half-heartedly trying, what people would term as meditation. But, either I fall asleep again, tired of the struggle, or I just give up and get to my ways of the day. My addiction has been keeping me from making new habits that could be harmful to its existence. I know... some self-discipline is missing. This is a boost to my efforts. Anyways, I now believe something like the following...

As long as you have a mind, you will have thoughts and emotions.
Meditation is bringing the mind back home, and this is first achieved through the practice of mindfulness, of bringing the scattered mind home, and so of bringing the different aspects of our being into focus.

Sogyal Rinpoche

No. I do not have any glimpses of "the world seen only by those who enter the silence beyond thought", to share with you. :) But, this is a good omen. Music is my meditation. Someday I might just be playing and not thinking about anything else while I beat the music out of the skins and metal with my sticks... and you know exactly where to read all about it!

PS: The song I'm trying to pick up is "Come pick me up" by Ryan Adams. An easy one for drums. ;)

Windows

Sunshine in some windows,
the light setting for some.
Windows have hands waving byes or
eyes waiting for someone to come.
Music from some, laughter from others
Screams from a few ignored by neighbours.
Many low and open,
a few high and kept.
Drops of rain in some,
other sills wet with tears wept.
Some curtain loneliness,
some are closed to hide amour.
Queues of people besides some...
wait for the faceless provider
Transparent glass showing off affluence
Glazed glass keeping out the prying eyes
Coloured glass keeping in the colourlessness...                                                                                    

I was in Goa last October and was fascinated by the arc(h)ane windows. Especially one that inspired me to think of a partial story. That one hasn't been typed yet, but I did come up with the above while coding today morning...

Here are the Windows' pictures I'd taken in Panaji and around.


PS: Totally off topic, but on Windows... M$ unleashed another virus on the World, called "Vista" on January the 30th. A cheap copy of the Mac OS's looks thats ages late. With it, the Windows people have become extremely aggresive in its promotion upto the level of being impolite and refusing sale of any new computers without the customers choosing Vista! As usual it is also far more intrusive with your personal information.

I'm ofcourse on my self-customised [& far better looking] Linux-box writing this... :) But here is Free Software Foundation's site about Vista. Support Free Software... Its not about freebies, its about Freedom!