Tuesday, May 03, 2016

Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco Smoker, by Johann Sebastian Bach

One of the English translations
Most of us know Bach as a music composer.  But he also wrote some verse, including the following intriguing one, where he explains how smoking his pipe makes him contemplate higher things (other Christians have said similar things, BTW; e.g. see here (HT: CL) ):


Whene’er I take my pipe and stuff it

And smoke to pass the time away

My thoughts, as I sit there and puff it,

Dwell on a picture sad and grey:

It teaches me that very like

Am I myself unto my pipe.



Like me this pipe, so fragrant burning,

Is made of naught but earthen clay;

To earth I too shall be returning,

And cannot halt my slow decay.

My well used pipe, now cracked and broken,

Of mortal life is but a token.



No stain, the pipe’s hue yet doth darken;

It remains white. Thus do I know

That when to death’s call I must harken

My body, too, all pale will grow.

To black beneath the sod ’twill turn,

Likewise the pipe, if oft it burn.



Or when the pipe is fairly glowing,

Behold then instantaneously,

The smoke off into thin air going,

‘Til naught but ash is left to see.

Man’s fame likewise away will burn

And unto dust his body turn.



How oft it happens when one’s smoking,

The tamper’s missing from it’s shelf,

And one goes with one’s finger poking

Into the bowl and burns oneself.

If in the pipe such pain doth dwell

How hot must be the pains of Hell!



Thus o’er my pipe in contemplation

Of such things – I can constantly

Indulge in fruitful meditation,

And so, puffing contentedly,

On land, at sea, at home, abroad,

I smoke my pipe and worship God.




(Note: slightly different version from the one I posted in the comments on another post; I presume translation from the German has produced some different English versions.)

Genius Douglas Hafstadter book godel eschar and bach has the following sentence which is missing "concepts and combining"

to synthesize new concepts by taking old------------------ them together in new ways; to come up with ideas which are novel. 

Sunday, May 01, 2016

How about starting a Religious cult fraud watch?


How about starting a  Religious cult fraud watch?on the lines of quixtar cult intervention.
to expose all the  self serving  Charlatans  peddling   pseudo mystical Indian spiritualism.

Is SREE,SREE,SREE Ravishanker the  Chandraswamy of the  P.V.Narasimha Rao  st kitts fame ? 

Did my father suffer from bipolar disorder?

Did my father suffer from bipolar disorder?
Recently I was talking to my wife and son about the circumstances under which my father disappeared from Hyderabad when he came to the city to collect his pension for the last time.
I also had some conversations with my mother about some of the incidentswhich happened during the early days of their marriage. Such as my father leaving the family and disappearing for months on end without ever telling her where he is going.
He had high blood pressure for which at the time the medication used was Reserpine (Serpasil)
which depletes dopamine levels in the brain and can cause depression.
Did this medication had any causative effect for his behavior?

Is old always gold?

Is old always gold?
I do not subscribe to this blindly but as I read more and more about dietary fat and heart disease I have to agree at least on a few things which are old maybe really gold.
Read this article

Yogurt: Heart healthy in its natural state


From Margadarshi,Sahara to Agri Gold people never learn " Shree 420" s of India,Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shree_420

Shree  420
Shree 420 (translationMr. 420, also transliterated as Shri 420) is a 1955 Bollywood film directed, produced by and starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis.

so even before independence People were aware of similar schemes.
still no one seems to  pay heed to the  idiom  

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me


6 years ago A blogger wrote about  Agri gold's  fraud in 

I am mirroring his article here.
I think the  Human tendency to hope for a better tomorrow and   simple greed   almost never seem to  change 

Thursday, 9 December 2010

Madras High Court termed MLM illegal long back

In M/s. Apple FMCG Marketing (Pvt) Limited, Vs. The Union of India, the State of Tamil Nadu and the Director General of Police, the company filed a Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for a writ of declaration that selling products through the Network Marketing System is legal and not in contravention of the provisions of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 or any other law and consequently forbearing the respondents or their subordinates or agents or their men from in any manner interfering with the lawful business activities of the petitioner company by either freezing their bank accounts or interfering in the conduct of the seminars and promotional meetings held for the distributors and prospective distributors and pass such further orders.
The Madras High Court held that Mere fact that no complaints were received does not make an act legal, if it be otherwise illegal (Para 15).
Contention of the petitioner that there is no chain of customers appears not acceptable- Scheme creates chain of customers and only when the chain progresses without any break in any of the links, the ‘principal distributor’ gets more commission- If, for any reason, the chain is broken, at any stage, then the principal distributor’s commission would get reduced proportionally to the extent- Therefore, it is not correct to say that there is no chain of customers in the process (Para 16).
Definition in S. 2© makes it clear that any scheme by whatever name it is called whereby on a promise that one would receive or would make quick or easy money be enrolment as members into the scheme is ‘money circulation scheme’ – Such members earlier get commission without doing any work; getting such a commission is nothing but getting quick or easy money- Therefore, such schemes/ the so called ‘Multilevel Marketing’, definitely falls within the definition of ‘money circulation scheme’. (Para 20)
It is suffice to say that it is not for Union of India or any Member of Parliament to interpret the provisions of any legislation- Statement given by the Union of India or its Officers that Multi-level Marketing does not attract the provisions of the Act cannot legalise an illegal act. (Para 21)
Grievance of the petitioners is that the petitioners are conducting conferences and lectures in order to propagate the scheme and they are under surveillance by the police, and this would amount to violation of the petitioner’s fundamental rights under Article 19(1) (a) and 19(1) (g)- This argument is not acceptable- It is true that they have the right to freedom of speech and expression and also to the freedom to carry on business- But, both the rights are subject to reasonable restrictions as contemplated under Articles 19(2) and 19(g)- The right to freedom of speech is subject to reasonable restriction on the ground of ‘public order’ and the right to freedom to carry on business is subject to reasonable restriction in the interest of ‘general pubic’. (Para 32)
Argument of the learned counsel for the petitioners that there is no promise of quick or easy money is not correct for the reasons stated above- Thus, the so-called Multi-level Marketing, though called by a very attractive name, squarely falls within the definition of ‘Money Circulation Scheme’ under the Act- Hence, it is prohibited by the Act- It is for the law enforcing authorities to take appropriate action- Writ Petition dismissed.
The High Court also stated that it is true that several companies including Multinational Companies carry on the business of the “Multilevel Marketing” and it is also true that the Executive and the law enforcing authorities keep a blind eye on such activities. This also does not make an illegal act legal. It is always a fact that the law enforcing authority would try to close the stable only after the horse had escaped.” (Para 22 ).
In this part of India, people are gullible and fall an easy prey to the tall promises made through the media. That was the reason why the lottery tickets were sold in large numbers in the State. Many companies want to exploit this attitude of people and float many schemes and lure the people to join the schemes. The petitioner is not entitled for direction for prohibiting the authorities from keeping surveillance over any meeting. Sec. 7 of the Act confers the right on the police officer to enter any premises, where he has got a reason to suspect that the premises are being used for purposes connected with the promotion or conduct of any prize chit or money circulation scheme in contravention of the provisions of the Act. (Para 33. ).

The answer to water crisis in India

 Can everyone become self sufficient like this house.This is created by  an Engineer

A house which never paid any water bills due to Rain water Harvesting

10 steps to Physician Burnout

10 steps to Physician Burnout
A tongue in cheek way of trying to  tell  good docotors from  burning out.
I liked it