Keep talking

Ever since the first communicating humans grouped together, to turn the odds of survival in the wilderness of an unforgiving nature, there must have existed feelings of imposing ones will on others in the group. In the current times, our civilization, full of presumed freedoms and perceived choices, uses plenty of different words essentially meaning the same thing i.e., 'dominating in order to enforce a personal opinion and will.'

Statewide policies dictate a law in the name of justice. On an individual level, it turns to greed and jealousy, in terms of appetite, it becomes hunger and lust. Any which way you look at it, it'll always remain the single most important commonality, amongst humans from different lands and equally different cultural backgrounds.

Defining the inherent flaw of even basic understanding, its relatively easy to conclude, that communication was invented out of the need to transfer ones thoughts, without changing its meaning. Of course, other reasons are there too, like coordinated hunting for instance, which was essential to survive but was also about whose idea to follow in order to kill most efficiently. But all of that comes later.

At best, this post itself is likely to be considered a stupendous example for the above mentioned theory. At worst, no harm will be done out of being unknown.

Prevalence

1. Once you know you actually want something badly, you'll eventually get it; if you have the patience to learn to live without yearning for it. The only caveat being - time.
2. As a species, having developed a level of understanding nature/environment better than other creatures, we do not tend to be any bit more forgiving or tolerant of weakness than what our wild and savage cohabitants on earth are. That means there's no mercy when it comes to survival.
3. Too often we end up being blinded because of our expectations. It'll serve us well to actually be cautious of what we want from those who are closest and matter the most. Others will come and go.
4. Good and bad are contextual. Do not go about thinking they are fixed things to be sworn by and sacrificed for - its what will lead to fanaticism.
5. Develop some ideas on the basis of personal ideology and socially acceptable morals to guide your - thoughts, responses & behavior - simply by 'agreeing in principle' to have them.
6. Don't panic if you have't thought about this ever before, most people spend their lifetimes without realizing its missing.
7. If you feel like someone is just coaxing you to do something you don't want to do, just say so! Its alright to be rude once than to hold a grudge for a lifetime.
8. The more reasoning you give describing a problem, the higher the number of solutions people will return!
9. The more reasoning you give for your argument, the lesser the probability of convincing.
10. A familiar character who has achieved a 'perceived success,' either by living in a particular manner or simply by daring to have a means to an end - will most certainly be unacceptable, for no discernible reason, other than some unknown person, who's achieved a greater amount of similar success.
11. Give others a chance to speak and voice their opinion, just like you expect yourself to be heard. As simple and doable as it may seem, very often, we do not even realize how we end up defending a point of view, just for the sake of having said so!
12. There are always, at the very least, two ways of doing. Simple and complex. They are not right or wrong, but are just the way it was meant to be. One is 'get to the point' while the other includes 'how to.'
13. If you ever get thinking about "simple v/s complex" - know for sure that precision and details are inclusive of each other in order to be complete, and are not mutually exclusive.
14. No professional manuals are ever concise. A book of law or medical operational procedure for instance.
15. Always know one thing for certain - its more and then even more! Being satisfied with nothing and feeling empty with everything is simply a matter of choice.
16. There are never any compulsions in life except the ones you create.
17. Superstition is only a manner in which weakness manifests itself in the form of saving grace. It's like an oxymoron - hope against hope, shattering silence etcetera.
18. Superstition is also another one of those tricks designed to maintain differentiation and to enforce limits - without being questioned.
19. If in case there ever exists an entity called God, all powerful, all mighty, all forgiving and what not, he/she/it is certain to have a lot better things to think of and create, than to keep a count of everything everyone does. Certainly not as much and in the manner as the pundits have us believing.
20. In the world of tiny ants, if they could imagine and communicate like we do, would they think of humans as humans think of Gods?
21. In the unlikely event of really getting questioned about the (mis)deeds of having lived in a certain way, how would the decision be made and the judgement passed in an unbiased way, when one man's fight for freedom is another man's terror?
22. Its certainly more fulfilling to ask for forgiveness than to request for a permission.

The first guards of time

Narayana Shastry(1869-1918) A great scholar from erstwhile Madras with a keen interest in learning the truth of the Vedas and scriptures decided to find out, study and transcribe an extensively well researched work on the life of Shankaracharya and the history of the kings of Kaliyug. Having spent 20 years of his life searching, studying and collecting material(evidence) from maTh's(spiritual centers), libraries and other places of archaeological importance, he ended up collecting ~50,000 manuscripts, magazines and book for his personal library. (Ref: page 1 - intro - Age of Sankara.) His research was primarily directed towards establishing accurate chronological order of the dynasties/kings/satraps/jhagir's and forever lay to rest the dispute between western and eastern scholars on the matter of who ruled when, in the Indian subcontinent. He wrote a book of 800 pages in two volumes, detailing the sequence of events of 'All' the kings/major rulers, ascending to and descending from the thrones, since., guess what? 3102 BC! He also established the year of birth of Shankaracharya as 509 BC. Of course, all this was written along with material, circumstantial and archaeological evidence. The volumes could not be published at one go, in those times due to lack of funds and hence it was to be released in eight parts. The first book - The Age of Sankara, was published in 1916. A year later, in 1917, his other book - The kings of Magada, was published. It extensively quoted verses from - Bhavishotter puran aka Kaliyug Rajvrittant. Both these books along with 20 years of written material along with the huge personal library disappeared mysteriously ~8 months after being published! Less than a year after this incident, even Mr. Narayana Sastry died.

Coincidence? I think not!

Eventually, his son, T. N. Kumaraswamy collected some leftover material and published the second episode of 'The Age of Sankara' in 1971 with some additional information. It was printed by B. G. Paul & Company, Madras. In the preface, he directly states "as was originally promised by my father, all the supplements could not be brought to fore. The manuscripts containing all the valuable matter simply vanished, leaving no trace behind."

In the 800 page volumes, 14 chapters and 10 appendixes, there was information along with proof of one of the most contentious issue affecting India and its growth even today. It contained the correct chronology of all the kings of Kashmir.

The race for the worlds biggest bomb

The image below is a screen grab from a documentary I was watching and thought I should share it.

After the WWII ended, the cold war started and so did the arms race, the space race, the race to conquer the oceans, the race for the north and south poles, the race in cartography[accurately mapping out entire ocean surface(sea bed)] on the world, the speed race, so on and so forth., This was obviously between the USA and Russia primarily. As the tensions started initially, entire masses of known as well as unknown countries had to pick a side like kids in a primary school saying - if you talk to X, I wont talk to you!

Anyways, one of the most important races among the ones mentioned above, was the race for owning the loudest bang and the biggest buck - race to build, own and show off the biggest bomb ever built by mankind. The USA had gotten a head start in the race but it was not the one to finish it. Russians ended up building something so huge, that when it was tested in a remote Siberian territory of the vast Russian landmass, the shock-wave generated circled the entire earth three times!

The picture posted below was taken in 1946 when the USA kicked out the 165 islanders of an island called Bikini Atoll situated to the south-west of Hawaii in the Pacific ocean. Very frequently when we see the video of a nuclear explosion, we fail to realize the enormity of the mushroom cloud, the stem and the burst area because there is nothing around to compare it with. That is where this picture come in. If you see closely enough, you will find an entire flotilla of 93 ships used for testing the true effect and power of the atomic explosion and its scale.

The longest ship visible in the snap below is something called a battle-cruiser and is the biggest class of fighting ship with a displacement of 40,000tons and above. This single ship during WWII had 18 BIG guns simultaneously firing shells/bullets which were ~1 meter or more in length and 5.5" thick. The ship must have been easily around 170mts in length. Think how long 170 meters is in terms of the street you live on. And then, look at the stem of the explosion below the mushroom cloud for comparison.