Dear friends of mine, Hope life is treating you all very well. If you are a football fan, I hope your team is in the playoffs and does well. (Unless you are from Dallas, in which case, boo hoo!! Now that our man Spurrier has figured out the NFL, you will be to Washington what Vanderbilt was to the University of Florida.) As we enter this final, frenzied month of football action, those of us whose home team did not make the playoffs feel like we are watching a movie after the hero has been killed. We have to find some favourite teams amongst the ones left, someone you can root for. Usually this turns out to be an underdog of some sort but it could be anything. For instance, I might want Philadelphia to lose because they banged up some Washington players pretty bad. Just an example. I am actually rooting for Oakland (they have a lot of players older than me!) and Indianapolis (Tony Dungy is such a nice guy!). Oh well, one more month of this slam-bang soap opera. And then the days will get longer and I'll have to come out of hibernation and actually do something with my life :-) Please do let me know how you are doing when you get time. And oh, before I forget, like Austin Powers would say, HAVE A SHAGADELIC NEW YEAR, PEOPLE!!! Sankar P.S: For anyone out there wondering how come I am still watching football after all that talk about violence, let me just say I did think about it. Random thoughts (26) 12/30/02 1. It is amazing to see the speed and accuracy with which some quarterbacks are able to throw the football, given that it was designed (as in rugby) to be simply tossed and caught with two hands over short distances (or kicked on the run). Given its peculiar shape (approximately ellipsoid?) I wonder if someone has done any research on its dynamics. It must be possible to do more with it, especially while kicking. Also I have never seen it being bounced on the ground and caught on one hop deliberately. It seems to me that (a deliberate fumble?) is possible within the rules. 2. I was reading a review of "The man who talks to dogs" by Melinda Roth. It talked about how domestic animals such as dogs and cats have basically been bred to depend on our love and kindness, and they have lost the ability to take care of themselves (hence the sickening misery of stray and abandoned pets). Love that breeds dependency is not love at all, whether it is directed towards animals or people. 3. Looks like after a while the only animals that will thrive on this planet are the animals people keep as pets or livestock and the animals that have somehow learnt to adapt to and live in urban and suburban environments, such as squirrels, rats, rabbits, and deer. 4. Apart from providing mindless entertainment, TV and radio serve another purpose, whether we like it or not. They provide an electronic community space, for a city or a region or even for the whole world. A place where people can talk to, listen to, or simply watch a lot of other people. 5. Talking of community spaces, bars and other meeting places in the US today are designed for the way young men and women of this generation (gen. Y?) interact. The open lounges and futons facilitate group dating and provide the ambience of slumber parties at their parents' homes that they grew up with, it seems. 6. Talking of dating, the tradition I came from seems to be the polar opposite of the environment in the US. In India and several other Asian countries, sex was taboo and romance had long been restricted to the movies. Neither was considered necessary for marriage. In the US, youth are exposed to both at a very young age. Because of the way sex and love are presented in the media, the average person could very well confuse passion with love, and great sex could be seen as the gateway to deep love. In my opinion, romance comes first and love springs from it, and deep love generates great passion. Sex certainly enhances love and marriage, but love is the horse that moves the cart on the wheels of sex. Passion can exist without love, but it will be a hollow existence that implodes upon introspection. 7. What is romantic love, really? I think it is the mutual realisation and feeling of oneness. 8. I once saw a German movie about food in an environmental film festival. It talked about how children today are unable to distinguish different flavours in food because their taste-buds have been numbed by the artificial flavours. I think this is true not just about food. Because of the artificial environment of TV, phones, computers, offices, etc., that we live in, we are losing touch with the natural world, with our own bodies, and ultimately with life itself. We are slowly forgetting how to really understand and appreciate other people, how to love and make love. Unfortunately these are things that books or expert consultants cannot teach. Here comes the virtual life! 9. Parents and other family members know what you are and what made you happy and what was good for you. But it takes a great deal of talking and listening for them to understand what you want to be and what will make you happy. If that is not possible, it might be best to leave the children to find their own way. 10. Here is my theory on human energy based on experiments conducted on exactly one specimen of the race: Our nervous or emotional energy is stimulated by hormones and built up the way electric charge builds up in the clouds. Certain activities drain it in one explosive moment, releasing it with thunder and lightning. Some others (like watching TV) drain it slowly, without recharging it. Like hybrid cars, it is possible to use it up slowly at the same time as recharging it. The way to do it is to take part in activities that you enjoy, but do not drain  emotional energy too much, and also leave you feeling fulfilled or satisfied. Examples of such activities are playing sports, music, and any creative activity (including proving theorems in mathematics!). It is possible to work passionately on something without getting worked up. 11. People are constantly doing things as part of a system which they would hesitate to do by themselves. The system, on the other hand, has no conscience. It can plunder, pillage, lie, cheat, kill and exploit without any inhibitions. So it is important for each one of us to be aware of what system we are a part of and to understand what that system is doing, whether the activity is economical, political, intellectual or spiritual. 12. For a novice spiritual aspirant, the biggest problem is not knowing one's limitations, I think. I am constantly struggling against over-reaching, trying too much too fast. What worked for Buddha or Gandhi or any other great soul will make me miserable if I am not ready for it. Each one of us comes with a certain mental frame that develops through childhood and by the time we are adults, there is a considerable amount of emotional baggage. Each person needs to realise what will work with his or her set-up and push its limits slowly. Or simply be happy with it. 13. As one gets deeper into meditation, there comes a stage when you are aware of just one thing, whatever it is that you are focussing on. You are aware of eveything else, including your body, and sensations, as if they are part of your autonomous system -- the awareness is almost subconscious. This state is different from the state of the brain during sleep or dream, as well as from hallucinations or "extra-sensory awareness" in the much touted limbic part of the brain. It is not just loss of orientation resulting in a feeling of unity with the whole universe but rather a heightened state of clarity and focus. 14. On the lighter side, I would like to know what is it with the weather channel and pregnant anchors. Every time I turn it on there is yet another pregnant lady talking enthusiastically about the jst-stream and low pressure systems.