Sparsh

Harvard professor Larry Lessig is one of our foremost authorities on copyright issues, with a vision for reconciling creative freedom with marketplace competition. 1- The Indian state of Bihar has long been a byword for bad governance. It was however governed particularly badly between 1990 and 2005, and has since experienced something of a ‘governance miracle’. How can we account for the 1990–2005 deterioration? Through this working paper - State Incapacity by Design: Understanding the Bihar Story , we will understand that the low state capacity is often a political choice . 2- La Grande Revolution, Encore? A comparison between France of 1787 with present USA as both had financed an overseas war with borrowed money. 3- The War Dogma : This article appears in the July issue of Agenda/Infochange for the theme on the ‘Limits of Freedom’. An insight on Dantewada and Operation Green Hunt. 4- Playing fast and loose by Pratap Bhanu Mehta : A overview of tussle on Janlokpal Bill ...

1- Great compilation of cultural article at BBC Hindi : Enjoy Reading about Hindustani Tahzeeb 2- ऑन स्‍क्रीन ऑफ स्‍क्रीन : बहुरुपिया का माडर्न अवतार आमिर खान 3- Death by Dialogue By Trisha Gupta : What does it mean for the future of Hindi cinema if most films are now in fact conceived, thrashed out and largely executed not in Hindi but in English? Will filmmakers only tell the stories of a minuscule section of the population? 4- National Film Awards : The absurdity of censorship - An open letter to Hon’ble Minister for Information & Broadcasting on July 14, 2005 by Rakesh Sharma , a prominent Indian documentary film-maker. 5- Paradoxes of memory by Helmut König : Lasting peace agreements after wars and civil wars were for a long time considered to be conditional upon damnatio memoriae – the deliberate and reciprocal forgetting of violence and injustice. However, the established amnesty clause is only realistic where certain rules were not broken during war. The First...

The journey of four years of blogging has touch the milestone of 500th post today. What I learned in this journey has brought enormous changes inside me. Unlearning of false traditions has taken lot of time and efforts but it was a worth living experience. The idea of personal solidarity and the idea of societal cooperation are two conflicting concepts that has tormented me as a scholar. It is like dilemma of looking for the independence without becoming alien to one's surroundings. Education is never over-rated. An institution is meant to broaden your horizon but self learning also makes you more open minded. We might go to an Ivy League/IIT/IIM and come out with nothing or might go to a decent school and come out with a lot. What has started as a hobby in the college has been taken by me as a serious learning portal and it has paid me much in the level of insights of human behavior. These four years of writing creates the illusion of a linear narrative and gives events the s...

Philosophy, the very word, means love for wisdom, and they have nothing to do with wisdom at all.Wisdom happens only through meditation; it never happens by collecting information. It happens by going through a transformation. Wisdom is the flowering of your consciousness, the opening of the one-thousand-petaled lotus of your being. It is the release of your fragrance, the release of the imprisoned splendor.Real philosophy has nothing to do with thinking; on the contrary it has everything to do with transcending thinking, going beyond and beyond thinking, going beyond mind, reaching to the pure space of no-mind. Out of that space something flowers in you. You can call it Christ-consciousness, Buddhahood, or whatsoever you like. That is true philosophy.

My heart was not in student activism: I was and am a reader, therefore a daydreamer also. There is so much to read and learn before closing my eye. I had realised that there is no joy which can equal with the joy of giving to someone in need. I always feel like as an ocean drop trying too hard to search identity with holding his ego as singularity and uniqueness. Still, I know that I am similar like all of rest drops and they are all me set against this time and space of fleeting transcendence. It is the best way devised by me to understand myself. I ventured outside my fixed realm making it a point to learn a thing. I am here continually evolving or contracting, who knows, but there is a prominent change or even mutation each moment. There arises so many amounts of crest and trough ideas inside me. Most of the times, they are absurd and quite bizarre. I also now days think of perpetual transition of my age and thoughts. I search for the meanings of these abstractness in materia...

Yaksha : Who is really a helpful companion? Yudhisthira: Steady intelligence is a very good friend and can save one from all dangers. Yaksha : How can one acquire something very great? Yudhisthira : Everything desirable can be attained by the performance of austerity. Yaksha : What is amrita (nectar)? Yudhisthira : Milk is just like nectar. Yaksha : What is the friend bestowed upon man by the demigods? Yudhisthira : Wife is such a friend. Yaksha : What is the best of happiness? Yudhisthira : True happiness comes as a result of contentment. Yaksha : Why does one give in charity to brahmanas, artists, servants and kings? Yudhisthira : For religious merit, prestige, maintenance and protection, respectively. Yaksha : Why does one forsake friends? Yudhisthira : Lust and greed drives one to forsake friends. Yaksha : What is the only food? Yudhisthira : The cow is the only food, for the milk that she produces is used to make ghee, which is used to perform sacrifices, pleased by which the dem...

What is weightier than earth? Mother What is taller than the sky? Father What is faster than the wind? Mind What is more numerous than grass? Thoughts By renouncing what does one become loved? Pride By renouncing what is one free of sorrow? Anger By renouncing what does one become wealthy? Desire By renouncing what does one become happy? Greed Who is the friend of a traveller? A companion Who is the friend of a householder? A spouse Who is the friend of the sick? A doctor Who is the friend of the dying? His charity What treasure is the best? Skill What wealth is the best? Education What is the greatest gain? Health And the greatest happiness? Contentment What is a man's self? His progeny Who is his God-given friend? His wife What supports his life? Rain What is his principal duty? Charity What makes the sun rise? Brahma Who moves around him? Gods What causes the sun to set? Dharma How is he held firm? Truth

Once, I was roaming in the Kanpur Coaching Area with my friends after completion of engineering. Throughout the whole tourism, I was flooded with my memories of how I used to travel in jam-packed auto rickshaws on the same route and many times walk for saving petty amount of money. Its interesting how people feel comfortable admitting the lows of their life once they reach the heights. It gives you an inspiration for your own life. Self made man are worth which our society looks up for in their struggle. Social Darwinism factor gives example of them only. It may appear romantic in future to look back on time with the nostalgic look. All of us are creative artist but a great craftsmanship comes with tuning our skills in versatile fields. It could be so funny, strange, scary or without clue, now that we are so busy with the life. But when I think of mine college days where I used to sit idle or drift without purpose. There were endless days and nights spent with time passing by in st...

" Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. " ~Attributed to Mark Twain, unconfirmed Explore what? Dream why? Discover whom? Blah blah blah.............. See the image of fucker, self obsessed vanity driven pseudo human in transition state between reality and dream. The life is bullshit, it ends with death. Avoid it haa!!! Why I am writing these preachy and intellectual bakwaas over my blog. Holy scriptures are more preachy and causes more bloodshed on the name of religion. And that mighty smart God is playing a comic to an audience that's afraid to laugh. Atheism, eternity, spiritualism are mere words, nothing else.. I am not high on opium or drugs. Just bored with life. Yeh Duniya Agar Mil bhi jaaye tho kya hai? The losers song is buzzing my mind while undergods are shining. Bye ...

Srikanth Srinivasan writes an article about Dev D. I wanted readers to go through this paragraph presented in the article here... " I believe there are three facets of creation - science, engineering and art. Science is purely a product of the brain. A supplier of perpetual innovation. Directors like (early) Spielberg and George Lucas are great technicians. They make up for the one-dimensionality of their scripts with their sweeping visuals and methods. Art is something that is very personal and one that should come from deep within. Scorsese and Cassavetes aren't what they are just because they shot on the streets or because they took the camera in their hands. What they portrayed on screen was an extension of their own personalities. And in between these two lies the clever device called Engineering. Assembling the innovations provided by scientists to "assemble" a customized product. And that is why Mr. Kashyap comes out as an engineer at the end of Dev D. So wh...

You cannot imagine what it feels to stuck into the body of Himanshu Rai. It is like burning desire to become free from the clutches of emotional attachment. To carve a niche for something, neither fame nor money. It is constant pursuit to search for true meaning of life. The abstract feeling of escapism with the relations, materialism and world. Something inside is pushing me to rebel against mundane and sensible. On seeing images, videos or natural beauty, a feel of transformation through barriers of time and space is achieved. The characters of the image get me hooked to their life through emotions. I rise and fall with their hopes, dreams and struggle. We have become vast in our information about past and future but our present has become limited somewhere during this process of discovering time. Time experience becomes relative and feeling of pulse/second arises i.e. I became time conscious. When you are trapped in a remote situation, there is loss of sense of time and place in...

10/03/06 Immortalism cannot be attained with the help of destructible(mortal) ways. The true meaning of art is to search for truth with false symbols. We assume that truth is perfect for each individual at each time and space. The curiosity for discovering the truth is never ending chase. ---Himanshu Rai & Puneet Jain Life,Curiosity etc are like an asymptote.---Puneet Jain 27/04/08 There is nothing immortal in this world.---Himanshu Rai & Puneet Jain

Search for unknown is only goal of curious human mind. The inquiry to recognize phenomenon behind each process is part of human behavior from primitive times. The whole pursuit of science is to understand nature in a simple and single theory. Ultimate theory must be able to define each event of this nature and then universe clearly. Current science has taken mathematics as a base to understand the nature around us. There is mutual relationship among each unit in the nature. Everyone is connected and interdependent on each other for his survival in nature. But each unit is diverse from each other and categorized in different species. Their population must be taken in account with considering the habitat. Currently, million of species plants and animals exist at present. This shows permutation and combination of millions of parameter interdependent on each other on mathematical scale. Nectar of discussion lies in process not in details. This balance of nature is dynamic in nature. It is ...

Something comes from Nothing in it. That is the imagination of our wandering mind. Imagination is the will of person through which he adjust and creates a new virtual world in his mind. Mind is like a blank board at the time of birth. Every experience within and encounter with surroundings makes a rough data bank in your mind. They became tool for further creation of ideas and development of imaginative senses. Myth represents collective imagination of society only. The consciousness acts as a way of thinking and judging yours decision. Preview and assumptions for everything comes by this path of thinking. But we are not merely puppets controlled by previous experiences. The idea of escape and search of anything new gives man power of imagination. Our imagination forms a beautiful combination with the dissatisfaction within to imagine a new world for us. Our dreams are example of activated mind in the hibernated body. Study of either human brain in biology or psychology of human is not...