Needs and Wants

This started as a discussion between me and my wife, while stuck in traffic, and then very sportingly, we converted it into a game. Our distance of over 30 mins was well spend, and we were really amazed by the results.
It started with our wishlists. What material things we require, and out of fun, we started segregating the things into NEED and WANT.
After having disposed of my car, the main wish has always been buying a car again. Travelling in rikshaws and taxis has now made us both realise, that we WANT a car, but dont NEED a car.
The best example can be taken from our recent trip to Juhu beach, where we were lucky to go in a rickshaw. Seeing people stuck over there in long queues, waiting for their chance to park their cars, certainly made us think it was a wise decision not to bring a car(as if i have one right now). But it certainly make me feel energetic not having to drive the distance of 20 km for more than one and half hour to reach there. It certainly makes me feel more in a good mood, just getting off near the entrance to the beach, without having to travel round and round in the car, searching for a good parking place. With good cabs also coming out, i really think I dont need a car. But i do WANT a car. Status symbol....kids growing up, ease of moving out without having to hail a rikshaw or a cab.
Similary, Gold always comes in the catergory of WANT. I can never say, I NEED gold. So what do we need? Simple , I NEED ........ :) still thinking what I NEED. I am currently infested by WANTS only. Can anybody help. What do we need and what do we want. I am certainly going to put up my needs up soon, if i have any.....

George Bush and the missing food link

George Bush says, that while the world is facing a food shortage, Indians are eating more and more. I feel there is more than what meets the eye. So, now after gaining control on most oil and petrol rich places, where should the great US of A poke its nose in.
Agriculture is one of the biggest assets of India, and its sucess not only in agriculture but also in other sectors is bringing it in frontline.
So now do they want to take control of the Agriculture rich countries also. Iraq war is a thing of past. Attacking Iran or Pakistan is not going to gain much. Arms are being produced by a dozen in the factories of USA. Unless there is a war at some place, where can USA offload these weapons.
It is just a thought, but maybe I am right. Asian countries, so far have been away from BIG BROTHERS problems. But maybe now it wants a share of agricultural pie.

One more year

So, celebrating one more year of life. Here i would like to share an interesting topic I had heard on a very Intelligent and saintly persons birthday. He says, he was never interested in celebrating birthdays. He says, if you keep a parrot in a Gold Cage, laden with diamonds, feed him the best of nuts, the parrot will still try to break the cage and fly away. Even Humans are similar to parrots, they will have everything, still they are not satisfied. Something inside them is still not happy. Humans get acquire everything, but there is some satisfaction which is still lacking. It is not want for more, it is our soul which is not happy. Our souls are like the parrot, wanting to leave our body and fly away to God. It is trapped in our body. It is atma(soul), which wants to meet Parmatma(GOD). With each birthday our souls keep on getting happy, because, now it has got one year less to approach God. It has gone closer to meeting God. So we should be happy and celebrate our birthdays, because our soul is getting happy.

Though it is good to hear, I still feel, before my atma goes and meets Parmatma, I have to fulfill certain duties. And till then I have to keep my soul in this cage called body. Sorry God, sorry soul, I will not be happy to make your union so early. Let me fulfill my duties, then I have no objections.

Self replicating emails

The spurt of self replicating emails on the net is on the rise. You are asked to click on the link and bang, the email is sent to all your contacts. While there is not much to talk about it, I am actually wondering what makes the people so curious to know what the link contains. As long as the email contains, "Who has added you", "Who has deleted you", it is ok. But when the email contains sexually explicit stuff, then I feel like laughing, because then your contacts know, that you were trying to be naughty. The same thing has happened with me on Orkut. I received a video on scrap showing some #$@@ video. Knowing that it is trouble, i didnt click on the video. What made me understand this, is the fact that the video was sent to me by a person I least expected to send it to me. I have now come to understand that the poor person, out of curiousity just clicked on video out of curiosity, and now is subject to jabs and pokes from all her contacts. Poor female is shocked not knowing what to do.

The Best is to just delete such scraps, links, emails sent by your contacts. Do it now, before, you are in a big soup.

Agricultural Land in India

I had an opportunity to hear this chatter while travelling in a share cab. Two gentlemen were discussing why agriculture production is reducing year after year. Their reasoning is as follows....

A farmer is very happy with his 16 acres of farm land. He distributes his land equally to his four sons. So each gets 4 acres. There four sons have two sons each, so they distribute their land equally. So each gets 2 acres. This land is further distributed down the generation to two sons. The new generation gets 1 acre of land. Now in this 1 acres, is the person going to build a house, do farming or what. No, the new generation farmer will give the land on annual lease to his villager and go to the city to do a job. He is quite happy being called a city person. And the villager... how much will he work on the land.

Not bad, but sadly this is the fact of life. Down the generations, India's main production is being wiped off.