Differences in Shia and Sunni prayers

Gulliver's travels contains one episode where Liliput and Blufescu are at war with each other as they hold different views as to which end of an egg must be broken first - Little or Big.

Differences between Shia and Sunni :

The Shia (or Shiatul Ali) are the 'Party of Ali' or those who believed Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, as the rightful successor of the Prophet. The Sunnis did not regard him as the rightful successor.

1. Shia Muslims pray three times a day and combine Maghrib and Isha salat whereas Sunni Muslims pray five times a day.
2. Sunni Muslims fold their arms whereas Shia Muslims do not fold their arms during namaz.
3. Shia Muslims add “Khayr al amaal” whereas Sunni Muslims add “Nawm.”
4. Sunni Muslims touch their heads to the ground whereas Shia Muslims use a wooden block or tablet of clay to rest their heads during prostration.
5. Shia Muslim scholars prohibit the use of word Amen during the namaz whereas Sunni Muslims consider it as a must.
6.Shia sit comfortably on the folded feet whereas Sunni sit on twisted foot and so on.

For these differences, we blow up each other ! !

Heard somewhere: If i am asked to summarise last 2000 years in 2 words, my reply would be : Religion, Science.
While science took us to the moon, religion gave us crusades and extremism - not only in islam but in christianity, hinduism and many religions too.

DISCLAIMER: I was going through this on purely academic interest and reserve no judgement on the following. Hope no one issues a fatwa in my name.

Top 10 Led Zeppelin songs

Led Zeppelin created music which is truly one of its kind. I can hear them in an infinite loop without ever getting bored.

Though difficult to pick top 10 songs ... in no particular order are:

1. Going to California

2. Tangerine

3. When the levee breaks down

4. Whole lotta love

5. Lemon song

6. Immigrant song of coz

7. Stairway to heaven

8. Good times, Bad times
9. Heartbreaker
10. Ramble on !

Religion. Identity. Existence.

Those who experience constant happiness are bored of it, those who are not happy are constantly pained by it.

We tend to measure our lives more often by things that we do not or can not have, often remembering our failures more often than our successes.

But that’s the truth of life, successes will be few and far in between and we must appreciate the journey between them.

Though when conscious, most of might brush these essential questions as imaginary hypothetical or philosophical musings.

But deep down inside, we all are trying to find out who we are, and what is the bloody purpose of this life. Does it actually mean anything, Am I supposed to accomplish something while trying to stay alive ??

Some take these questions too deeply and become either philosophers or religious or go insane. Most of us though are able to keep It below the conscious surface and pretend to ignore it.

To come over these questions is the precise reason, we have invented the religion… most of the religions in their own strange ways, try to explain these questions . Since most of the religions were invented much before we even discovered that the earth goes around the moon, these are somewhat bizarre imaginations of the men of long gone days. And with time, as these were passed on, each generation added its own imagination, and we now have to bear the burden of imaginations of about 200 generations, and in some other religions much more than that!

Very few men create their own independent identities on basis of their genius or exceptional luck. The masses however need their own bit of identity too. That’s where the religion steps in and tells them that your life is not futile and meaningless. Nothing drives human beings more than a ‘divine’ purpose. This strategy was ofcourse shamelessly during the innumerable so called holy wars in the medieval times and since we don’t tend to learn, is still being used all across the world in various forms and for more various purposes. The key strategy however tends to remain the same: exploit in name of religion.

To create an identity, we have to differentiate from others. The most striking differentiation being in the appearance. Since the Jews had long beards and hair, the Christians began to do the opposite. The tribals in the Arabian peninsula had no beards and longer moustaches. Hence the prophet ordered his men to grow beards and have shorter moustaches. The main idea was to distinguish his own followers from the others. The drive was more political and military than anything else. When Hinduism and islam threatened to engulf Sikhs into their own fold, by claiming that it was just an offshoot of their religion, the last Guru ordered Sikhs to entirely revamp their appearance. They were to sport beards , long hair and a small weapon all the time, which is characterized by the five k’s supposed to be on a Khalsa sikh all the time. Thus a religion creates some sort of identity, without which one would be as lost as being nameless. It gives an identity to even those who reject religion entirely.

And in it’s name, so many of us seek purpose and a justification to our actions. It also proves that the psychological drivers are much more powerful than the material ones, well some might argue … not always!

If one goes through all the holy books of the major religions, atleast briefly, it is absolutely stupefying how so innumerable number of wise sane people are driven into a fervor just based on the writings and the sayings of a few men, however great they might have been. The fact that their actual thoughts might have undergone infinite mutations and propaganda driven changes, goes completely unnoticed.

With the rise of science, the number of atheists is growing and at the same very time, so is the number of fanatics. Well in the end then …. Is our existence totally Sisyphean or indeed has some divine purpose ? ?

Thotlakonda and Bojjannakonda budhist sites

Thotlakonda: Vishakhapatnam was once upon a time a great hub for budhist activities. We can find many ancient budhist sites nearby. The most famous being the Thotlakonda site. It is located on the very scenic sea side drive towards Bheemli. The ruins of the stupas and the quarters of the monks are located on a hill with a splendid view of hills on one side and the sea on the other.

Bojjannakonda rideMost of the travels i have been doing lately in coastal andhra were in cabs / buses / trains. I had been longing for the rush of freedom which only zooming my bike can give.

I located Bojjanna konda which was around 50 kms from Vizag. The pics on the net looked a little promising. So i just picked my jacket and got onto my bike.

The usually crowded highway was clear and i could happily cruise on 100 kmph without many breaks. The site is located just before entering Anakapalle from the highway near a village called Sankara which derives its name from Sangharam.

The ruins are believed to be dating around 4th century AD. The site acutally comprises of two adjacent hills called Bojjannakonda and Lingalakonda. That was the peak of activity, and historians believe after that era it decreased due to the rise of hinduism.

The main stupa is rock cut and encased in a brick structure.There are many rock cut caves which were possibly used for meditation or as a center of learning. There are many miniature Stupa like structures on the hill adjacent to Lingalakonda.

During the excavation they found many coins and earthenware dating to that era. One would expect them to be displayed near the site in a small museum, but despite being a protected site by the ASI... there is hardly anything except a board mentioning about the site briefly.

These sites were discovered in late 80's and pushed the history of Vizag back by 2000 years. Some even say that Vishakhapatnam derives its name from an ancient but very famous Budhist monk.

Sitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hain : Meaning

Sitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hain
Abhi ishq ke imtehan aur bhi hain
Tahi zindagi se nahin ye fizayen
Yahan siakdon karwaan aur bhi hain

Khana’at na kar aalam-e-rang-o-bu par
Chaman aur bhi aashiyaan aur bhi hain
Agar kho gaya ek nasheman to kya ghum
Maqmat-e-aah-o-fughaan aur bhi hain

Tu shaheen hai parvwaaz hai kaam tera
Tere saamne aasmaan aur bhi hain
Isi roz-o-shab main ulajh kar na rah ja
Ke tere zameen par makaan aur bhi hain

Gaye din ke tanha tha main anjuman mein
Yahaan ab mere raazdaan aur bhi hain

A loose translation is given below:

Beyond the stars there are more worlds
Our quest yet has more tests to pass
This existence alone does not matter
There are boundless journeys ahead

Do not rest on what you have
There are many more paradises to explore
Why worry if you have lost one abode
There are a million worlds to claim

You are the falcon, flight is your passion
And you have higher skies to transcend
Lose not yourself in the cycle of days and nights
There are many more deeds within your reach

Gone is the day when I was lonely in the crowd
Today those who resonate my thoughts are around me



Mohammed Iqbal
Naujawaan ke Naam, Bal-e-Jibraeel, 1908

Birthdays. Facebook. Telephone

I’ve heard a few cynics retort ‘Why do people celebrate birthdays .. ab bache thodi rahe?! ’. But ...there are a few good things about birthdays... some people try to make you feel special no matter who you are. A lot of people atleast acknowledge you existence and according to their priority list and where you stand - deal with you accordingly. In a few rare occasion you might even get a gift ! If your friends are insistent and you are gullible, you might even end up throwing a party. In the end you have good time for atleast a day for sure !

These days Facebook has made it very convenient to wish people on their birthdays and you don’t even have to worry about remembering their dates. The person being wished also knows that you might just have logged into your FB account !
I have noticed that people maintain a certain pecking order in dealing with birthdays:
1. If it’s a BFF or someone you have been trying to impress - they take the trouble of selecting and sending a gift !
2. If its a good friend - they might even call you to wish
3. In most of the other cases - they just copy paste ‘Happy birthday’ from the previous post on your profile
4. Since there are atleast 3 - 4 birthdays on most of the days - they are now posting Happy birthday X ,Y,Z in a single post - X , Y , Z are expected to go to their profile and thank for the wishes !

Since we have talked about wishing on phone i have also noticed a strange behaviour. Most of the times people tend to thing its rude / uncomfortable to say ‘bye’ and disconnect the phone. I have noticed weird ways of saying ab bahut ho gaya .. rakhte hai . Among my friends a few are below:

Sunil - What else dude (after every sentence)
Shanti - Oye .. mere boss ka phone a raha hai ( on a sunday ??? !! )
Sagar - Mera balance khatam ho gaya hai - tu call kar (after college who uses a pre-paid ... gawd!)
Vikas Soni - Aur sir sab badhiya .... ?
Arpit agarwal - Lagi padi hai yaar !
Shabda Raaj - Chal gaana ga / Ma_ _i se baat hua ?
Ankit Varshneya - Oye ..... ‘uska’ call a raha hai .. main baad mein karta hun !
Bikash - KK .... Shadi kab kar raha hai ?
Manik - Aur kaise chal raha hai (main itni der se kya bata raha tha ? ! )
Dev - $#@%^ (inappropriate for a public forum)
Sasanka - inkenti mama .... ? !

R.I.P - Indian Cricket and Indians

The naxals are blasting away the policemen to hell and back. The terrorists are blowing up our markets, gunning down unarmed citizens at will. After more than 20 bomb blasts in just 3 years, there are not even 2 convictions with one certain Amir Ajmal making a mockery of our judiciary demanding transcripts in urdu and non vegetarian food in the cell. The Prices are zooming with the inflation threatening to rival that of Zimbabwe. The financial crisis seems to take the W shaped recovery. The exporters are badly hit by the global recession. Countries like China and the US are building up oil reserves and grabbing rights all over the world for the precious few resources. There are millions of unemployed, whose energies if not channeled properly with due opportunities, might turn against our nation state. There are major scandals erupting implicating the ministers at union level itself. The chief ministers like Mayawati and Madhu Koda are swindling public money in not less than thousands of Crores.

These are probably 1 % of the problems staring in the face of India, in no particular order. With so many issues plaguing our country which has succesfully been a 'developing nation' for over 65 years now … there is one thing that we are majorly concerned about… The Indian Premier League!
The naxalite issue was discussed in the parliament for one day with no particular conclusion … but the IPL muck is dominating the news channels, the parliament, discussions in local trains, school / college / office canteens. We don’t give a damn to any of the above glaring problems, but are concerned if some Sunanda Pushkar was given sweat equity for free.

There is one particular phrase in Sanskrit - “Yatha Raja tatha praja !” but unfortunately has been phrased in reverse … it should be “Yatha praja, tatha Raja” !
People get rulers they deserve. We certainly deserve no better than Lalu yadav , Mayawati, Sharad Pawar etc … etc !

Even if you look at the IPL from sporting perspective, the T20 format is more entertaining and good, but there ought to be some restraint, even from business perspective ... it is being overdone and the public interest will burn out in a few years.
The IPL is held every damn year and it runs over 2 months. The T20 world cup is held every 2 years and add to that the random cups and T20 tournies that are held every year. Whatever happened to the one day internationals and test matches where there was a proper contest between nations? The franchisee owners are raking in millions of dollars and also everyone is eyeing the money making machine. And the public will feed on anything related to cricket. We just don’t give a damn to whatever is happening in the background as long as we get our daily dose of entertainment. You could possibly blame the horrible programs and soaps dominating the TV that people are desperate to see anything different, which IPL succesfully provides in ample, nevermind the "I'm Dashing .. I'm Karbonn" kind of commercials after every ball instead of between overs as before.

So for million problems, what is the solution?

India is still a developing nation and our parents generation is probably the first which could provide good education and all modern day comforts to their children. Our generation will be more encouraging in terms of sports / entrepreneurship / other adventurous career options.

We don’t have in us to change the world, we care more for our comforts than changing the world… all that is fine, but can we atleast behave as responsible citizens.We need to be responsible as citizens, journalists, and do atleast our part!

Pretty random post meandering about many things? … ya I’m a lazy guy who just believes in comfort of armchair philosophy :D .