Just in time:

We are developers and come across this term frequently. This is a concept which makes the compiler to get the code just in time so that it speeds up the process. I just want to take this concept and apply to our real life situation. Let’s see if I make you understand this.

Human body is combination of many parts and driven by the most powerful processor, brain. Brain, in my view is the compiler and make your body move. Thoughts are the code blocks and brain compiles them when its needed, just in time, and the out comes are the actions that we do.

If the code is perfect or close to perfect, you will produce a better system. If you add Just-In-Time technique to your compiler, the system is much faster.  On the same grounds better thoughts make your actions better and if you add just-in-time technique then your actions become much better and accurate.

Let me admit that I personally have this time problem. In my case it is putting my thoughts out in a group of people just in time. Some times its really embarrassing and annoying. What I have learned so far is, if you cultivate a habit of waiting for a sec before processing your thoughts, results will be under control. This is so true when I want to talk funny or crack a joke in a very wrong time. I used to make this a lot of times before but now I think I am getting better at it.

Small tips in this regards,

1. Take just one second pause when you want to talk funny.
2. Observer the mood of the opposite person(s) before you proceed.
3. Carefully choose your words when you are trying to translate some thing from your language.

Hope I made my self clear, let me know your comments.

In many of Indian languages a word is combination of two words. ‘Yugadi’ is the combination of 2 word, Yuga meaning era and Adi meaning beginig. So put together Yugadi means begining of an era. As usual this festival is celebrated through out indian states in different ways and with different names. Here is the list of states with their related names.

Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka – Yugadi
Gudhi Padwa – Maharashtra
Baisakhi – Punjab
Puthandu Vazthukal – Tamil Nadu
Vishu – Kerala
Poila Baishakh – Bengal
Bohaag Bihu – Assam

And I am sure there are more. I will be talking about the way this festival is celebrated in Andra Pradesh.

Yugadi is is celebrated between the months of March and April. The day is the first day of Telugu calender month, Chaitra. This is the official Telugu/Kannada peoples regional new year.

There are 2 special things we do for this festival. The first one is Yugadi Pachadi. Pachadi is a Telugu word meaning pickle. Ingredients are green mango, neem flowers, tamarind, sugar, salt, chili and water. It looks like salsa. Like the ingredients, it tastes like sweet, sour, salty and hot. These tastes signifies the different feelings or incidents that one could come across the new year.

Ygadi pachadi ingredients

Yugadi Panchangam

Yugadi comes with one more exciting event ‘Panchangam’ and the wiki explanation is as follows.

A panchangam (Sanskrit pañcāṅgam ) is a Hindu astrological almanac (or calendar), which follows traditional Indian cosmology, and presents important astronomical data in tabulated form. It is sometimes spelled Pancanga or Panchanga. It is pronounced Panchanga. It is widely used for astrology Jyotisha (Jyotiṣa).

This is a big event and it usually happens in the evening of that day. Pretty much every one is interested in out state to listen to this. Who dont want to know about their future? This festival is the most meaningful festival except the astrology part and its my favorite because of food. Its a strict vegetarian festival.

Now with this busy and modern life style I guess all these traditional festivals are becoming extinct.

Satya is actually started this series and I am going to continue with the rest as per best of my knowledge. As every one knows that India is the most diversified country in terms of religion, culture, believes and languages. These factors makes the festivals as the most exciting part of Indian culture.

As usual here is the wiki definition of Festival

“A festival is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on some unique aspect of that community.”

There are several festivals of the similar kind and type but goes with different style. Let me start today with most celebrated festival all over India, Diwali A festival of lights.

As per Indian mythology so far we have completed 3 eras (yuga) which lasted for tens of thousands of years each. Rama belongs to Treta Yuga and Krishna belongs to Dwapara Yuga.  To make the confusion even more, Rama and Krishna are both incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

South India celebrates Diwali as a viscotry of Krishna over a dangerous demon Narakasura. The rest of India celebrates Diwali as Rama’s return to his kingdom after 14 year in forest and great victory over Ravana. Some parts of India celebrates it as Lakshmi Pooja. Lakshmi is wife of Lord Vishnu and she has all the money.

I always wonder about this festival, the way it is celebrated. The mythology stories are thousands of years apart and every one celebrates differently.

Like any other festival, diwali is also full of food. One more exciting part of India is each festival goes with different style of food. Diwali goes with more of sweet dishes. Again to add a little more confusion, food is again different for the same festival and in different regions.

Next time I will write about one more exciting festival, Ugadi.

Here is the wikipedia explanation of Case System in India

“The Indian caste system describes the social stratification and social restrictions in the Indian subcontinent, in which social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups, often termed as jātis or castes. Within a jāti, there exist exogamous groups known as gotras, the lineage or clan of an individual, although in a handful of sub-castes like Shakadvipi, endogamy within a gotra is permitted and alternative mechanisms of restricting endogamy are used (e.g. banning endogamy within a surname).” Pretty confusing right, yes it is. Here is my understanding why this system has evolved.

Why do USA has 50 states? why not one state ? and the answer is simple, its easy to manage, organize and control. In our day to day terminology, single tire vs n tire. Based on this there were 4 categories of population in Hinduism,

Kshatriya: These are rulers or kings
Brahmana: These are priests and most educated people
Vaisya:People who does business and smart with money
Sudra: There are every one else.

After this, among the last category: sudra, there were many categories based on the work they do for living. For example, people who do carpentry are one cast,   who do haircut is one cast, and so on so forth. People who do dirty jobs like sanitarty are treated as untouchables. These poeple are the most ill treated group of people. We are not supposed to touch, let them in to the houses, not allowed to any functions and not even allowed to walk infront of a higher cast people. After independence we had rules in place and gave reservation for these group so that they will have better life as any one else. Untouchability is not fully eradicated but way better than 50 years back.

Now, based on these system its close to impossible to get united. We really need a person like Gandhi for this. But the point I want to make here is, based on this system people get divided in to groups and out politicians play with sentiments. Our state politics now became totally cast based and its really bad.

Hinduism is the only religion having this kind of system which is think is the biggest obstacle for growth and unity.

Right now this movie is hot and collecting lots of money. Critically acclaimed and lots of reviews floating around. Before I start any thing I want to make one thing clear, I have not seen this movie.

I have listened few talk shows and was discussing with friends about this movie. Its now in Oscar race and expected to win a few awards.

Since its pictured in India, a famous actor acted, popular music director, song writers and many more flavors of India, this makes obviously all Indian dudes to be “proud”. On contrary lots of Indians got offended because of the way India is pictured. Here I am going to talk about Indian pride.

I am an Indian and I feel proud of my country. I don’t get offended if some is picturing my country as poor, dirty, disgusting and hopeless. I believe its all the game of entertainment. Movies or TV Shows don’t do any good, rather spoil the spirits. When Steven Spielberg portrayed Indians as monkey brain eaters many got offended. Don’t you think its just a movie and just for fun?

We, the so called proud Indians, do funny makeups in god name and make fun in movies. We treat people really bad based on cast and make fun of them in movies. We show slums all the times in movies and showing India as slums is offending for us

When you stop you car at signal there are at least 5 children begging for money around you. We are used to it and if a visitor from other country comes to Mumbai and look at them and that visitor happens to be a creative artist, guess what, Slumdog Millionaire would come out. This is just the directors view and we watch it for time pass. There are few movies like GANDHI which are true inspiration and that is not made by us.

Why are we getting offended? This is a good question. We do get offended because we don’t have any better things todo. Dont get me wrong folks. A common man in India is struggling for food and survival and don’t have time to think about this. Here people are little relaxed and there in India, few famous people give negative reviews. We make big mess out of it. Its all finally a big game of time pass.

India

I am from India and like every one else I am proud to be an Indian. Since being the worlds largest democratic nation we have a tons of cultures, languages, believes and customs. As Satya had mentioned in a post, we have 28 states, and the believes we have are at least 2800 per state.

As per Google search, custom means a “Specific practice for a long standing”

Having a known history of more than 5000 years, you can imagine how diversified our customs would be. I will start with a few example I know that are followed in my state Andhra Pradesh.

Offering hair to the Lord.
This custom is followed for ages and I was talking to a priest about it. Its a age old custom that we offer our hair to god. Every one loves a super power because of the believe that he/she makes your wishes comes true. When it happens, in return we offer our hair. Beauty is considered the most important of the human body and hair on top of list to enhance your beauty. So we give our hair as the offering.

Do not Cut nails in home.
It sounds little funny to follow this custom now a days. But there is a really nice health concern behind this. Every one knows that a a cut nail is very sharp at edges. In olden days there is no concept of dining tables and we sit on floor to eat food. Still we like to do this though there are dining tables. So if we cut nails in home and if some thing was left on floor and mixed in food, it will become life threatening once you swallow.

The above two are just a tip of the iceberg. But what I have realized that there is a proper reason for each custom or tradition and I keep getting excited of learning these new thing. I will definitely post few more explanations since I have reached my 300 word count.