How did the name "Hindu" came into existance?

Based on what I read in many sources I came to know this:


Sanatana Dharma is the original name of Hinduism. Persians are the one who coined the word "Hindu" when they invaded India during 6th century B.C.

In Persian language the letter H and S seems to be pronounced almost the same way. Because the Sanskrit sound of “S” converts to “H” in the Parsee language. So the Persians mistook the word Sindhu to Hindu.

Experience of watching preview show of Rajinikanth's Sivaji...

In the last week of Feb '07 I went to US for a 3 months official trip. I was very happy for the fact that I can watch Sivaji in US itself (As the initial date for the release was April 12th or 15th). So I was enquiring on where normally tamil movies would be aired and the way to get tickets etc.,

Unfortunately the movie got postponded quite a few times for various reasons known only to Rajinikanth, AVM and director Shankar.

In the end my return date was confirmed as May 21st '07. I was following www.rajinifans.com regularly to keep me updated on Sivaji news :)

After coming back to India I didn't have plans to watch the movie on the first day. It's because I normally hate watching any movie on the first day as it would too crowded and the fans would go crazy inside the theatre and would make it difficult for us to understand the dialogues. When Rajinikanth's movie BABA was released few years back I got tickets for the first day first show in Rohini complex (Koyembedu) via my friend Rameesh Ramachandran. But my wife was too adament that I should not go on the first day so I informed Rameesh to go along with somebody else :(

Coming back to current affairs :) When Sivaji's release date was announced as June 15th almost everyone of my friends were keen in finding a source by which they can grab a ticket. I also wanted to watch the movie on the first day but as usual didn't try for anything presuming that it would be too crowded to go and stand in a queue.

On June 14th my manager asked me whether I am interested in watching Sivaji on the same day evening show in Albert theatre!!! I first thought he is just kidding as the movie is about to get released the next day only (June 15th). But on further enquiry I came to know that a day before preview shows would be normally shown (majorly for Fan clubs) and he has managed to get 2 tickets. Wow it was a pleasant surprise to me and somehow I managed to get permission from my wife this time lol.

The actual show timing was 9.45 PM. So we both left in a two wheeler to Albert theatre at 9PM. We were there by 9.20 PM and the entire road was flooded with Rajini Fans :) Man I was getting prepared to experience a preview of Rajinikanth's movie for the first time. The theatre security didn't allow our vehicle inside the complex. We were informed that we need to park the vehicle on the road only for now. Later we can park it inside few minutes before the show starts. I was fine with that idea!! (because its my managers vehicle hehe) and so parked the vehicle near a tea stall which is just opposite to the theatre. When we entered the theatre I was shocked to see the notice board there. It read, the first show which was about to start by 6.30 PM has started only by 8.15PM. Which means our show will start by 11PM or so. We had no other go than to watch what's happening around us within the theatre complex till the show starts.

We saw few guys climbing through the advertisement racks and pouring 'Milk' on the banners of Rajinikanth. Next I saw three guys with lungi who climbed on the advertisement rack and a big rope was thrown from the ground to them. Only then i realised that these guys have climbed up to place a new 'Rajinikanth' banner there. It wasn't as easy as I was thinking. The rope got cut twice and the guys standing below somehow managed to catch hold of the banner without tearing it.

Though I have heard pouring 'Milk' on Rajinikanth banners it was very odd for me to see and digest it in reality. Why should these guys spend their money and pour milk on a banner which goes totally waste to the ground? In many movies/functions Rajinikanth himself has said 'first take care of your parents / house'. I don't know when these guys would realise that!

Apart from these the fans who were standing outside the theatre were electrifying. The tea shops and the hotels opposite to the theatre where open all through the night. We went there to drink a coffee for the sake of killing time. The road was crowded and it was very noisy too. I didn't feel like its 11PM. It was as if I am standing in the road during afternoon :)

Somehow we managed to kill time till 11.30PM but there were no signs of our show getting started. It got delayed... delayed....delayed and at last they opened the doors for us to enter and by the time I managed to locate and sit on my seat it was 1AM. Just when I entered 'Rajinikanth' was climbing down the escalator in the airport. Man to watch him on a theatre after a long gap was really great :)

The song 'Ballelakka' was really good. As I was thinking all these days I wasn't able to watch the movie peacefully. Fans where shouting, dancing and even fighting among themself!

All the songs (lyrics, music and coreography) where excellent. There were lots of scenes in the movie which I like very much. For ex:

1. The punch dialogue which he speaks 'Kanna panninga dhan Kootama Varum ... Singam single'a dhan varum'.
2. The sequence done in a Tea stall where Rajinikanth and Summan (Villan) discusses about Summan's illegal wealth.
3. All the scenes in which he comes with 'Mottai' :)
4. The way he said 'Pera kettalley chumma adhirudhulla' :)
5. Nayendara (who acted as heroine in Chandramukhi) came for the dance number 'Ballelakka' was looking cute (actually cuter than Shreya. I would have loved if she had done the role of heroine.).
etc.,

Overall I felt that the first half was full of comedy (but slightly dragging) and the second half was fast moving. Punch dialogues were great but it would have been awesome if those punches have come from Rajinikanth himself. Rajinikanth rocks as usual and I loved this movie more than 'Badsha'.

Sachin Tendulkar reaches 11000 mark

The only cricketer I love to watch anytime is 'Sachin Tendulkar'. For past few years I don't watch a match in which India plays if Sachin is not there in the team.

He is one of the person in my list of personalities whom I would love to meet sometime in my life (along with Rajinikanth, Abdul Kalam, Vijayakumar I.P.S etc.,).

For me, he is the best attacking batsman India has ever produced. Understandably due to age / physical conditions he has changed his style of batting now. Still I love watching him :)

I know of many people who still have hope in India winning a match as long as Sachin is there in the crease.

The latest record of Sachin is: He is the 3rd person in the world to reach 11000 runs in Test cricket and the 1st person from India to do so. Congrats Sachin. Keep 'em coming.

Btw, Brian Lara and Allan Border are the two persons before him. I am sure he would overtake them in the near future :)

The best part which I like in Sachin is he seldom responds to his critics via media. Mostly he responds with his BAT. I guess that is one attitude everyone of us may want to practice ourself in our respective profession!

Do you know?

1. What is the original name of "Hinduism"?
Sanatana Dharma

2. Where does the words 'Mother', 'Father', 'Geomentry', 'Trignomentry' etc., came from?

It seems these words where created based on the following words in Sanskrit.

a. Mata - Mother
b. Pita - Father
c. Gyaamiti (meaning, measuring of earth) - Geomentry
d. Trikonamiti (meaning, measuring triangular forms) - Trignomentry

Check out this for knowing similar information. It was a nice read for me.

Why does Hindu's alone do Idol Worshipping?

In my view, there is only one GOD who doesn't have a form. Based on individuals beliefs, creativity, intellect each one thinks of different forms. That is, everyone of us can worship GOD in whatever form suits us and based on the stage of spiritual evolution we are in! We know the need of having a flag for each country so an Idol does the same thing for the devotees of an religion. So no harm in it!

May be its a myth to say that Hindu's alone are into Idol worshipping! I always wonder whether there can be any person in this world who does not believe in an idol or symbol!
Though all religions have the concept of God with name and form I have read that Hindus alone have the courage to admit that fact.

In Christianity,

1. The Holy Cross in the church,
2. The picture of Jesus Christ,
3. The statue of Mary,
4. Statues of patron saints, etc., are all idols.

The point I am trying to drive across is "Idol worship is there every where.".

In my view different names of GOD and Religions are created by human beings living in different parts / communities / cultures. Mostly situation based but the ultimate aim for everything would be to lead the human to good life.

For example,

1. I remember seeing sculpture of Christ in the form of a boy holding on to a Book.
2. Christ in the form of a boy holding on to a sheep.
3. I have also read that 'pictures of Christ vary according to their culture'.

3.1 A loving young white man in USA,
3.2 A tough man looking like a judge in Russia,
3.3 A nice black man in Africa (may be you want to read this too) and
3.4 A man looking like a typical man from China with a sheepish beard. (May be the picture in this site refer to it.)

Aren't all of these are idol worships?

For further understanding on this topic please refer http://www.geocities.com/profvk/gohitvip/1202.html

I always advocate these:

1. One should not say that its wrong or right for any issue! All we need to do is just understand the situation and learn that there are one set of people who say this as right for these reasons and there are different sets of people who say otherwise. We need to just analyze and gain experience out of it. All these experience would help us make a well informed / matured decisons at later stage in our life!

2. Don't get bogged down by any religion saying that I will read only Bible or Quran or Bhagavad Gita and decide that others are wrong! Learn the good points from all sources and try to practice them as much as possible.

3. Just be helpful to others as much as possible.

4. Trust and Humanity are basis for human life.

5. What ever religion we belong to, lets just have trust on the GOD (in what ever form we believe) and lead a good life :)

[Tamil Poem] Volleyball team

Yesterday we nominated our Volleyball team for my companies this year sports event. To that mail one of my friend Mahesh sent out a response as follows :)

Register pannia-vargolo PALA
Vilayada varuba-vargallo SILA
Adhiley Nee dhan - THALA
Opponent'ai Pottu - POLLA

I have translated this as-is into Tamil version here

ரெஜிஸ்டர் பண்ணியவர்களோ பல
விளையாட வருபவர்களோ சில
அதிலே நீதான் தல
ஆபணன்டை போட்டு பொல

Superstitious belief...

What does "superstitious beliefs" mean? In my view, anything which you don't understand properly but you blindly practice can be called as superstitious belief.

In my experience, UNDERSTANDING is really tough, generally we ASSUME and screw the entire thing :)

Science in Vedas

We have all been brought up in a such a way that we automatically believe we are steeped in superstitious and are ignorant scientific knowledge. We believe only the west gave us lessons on science.

But the fact is completely the reverse. When Copernicus forumated the theory of earth being a sphere and not flat, he was so prosecuted by the christian clergy that he had to disown his discovery. But our vedas speak of planetary positions and their movements in the Universe. Even our tamil sanga literature, almost 2500 years old, talk of the Universe as a conglomorate of innumerable spherical planets.

Our Panchangas (Almanac) have a cycle of 60 years. For example: This years panchanga will be exactly replicated after 60 years. The calculations will be so exact that even the Solar and Lunar eclipses will be predicted to the exact second.

We laugh at the picturisation of our Sun as riding a chariot driven by seven horses. But then we dutifully accept the fact that the Sun rays are actually made up of seven colors. What we call as Vibgyor, Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. This is what our vedas conveyed in the seven horse driven chariot parable.

Our Vedas, Upanishad and Puranas are rich store-houses of the deeper meaning of the universe. This can be exemplified in the well known tales of Dhasavathara in vyasa's Bagavatham.

If you ask an educated person, who propounded the theory of mans evolution, the person will unhesitatingly identify Charles Darvin. But in reality it was Vedavyasa who propounded the theory of evolution.

To prove this, we will have to go first to the eigth Avathar. You may know 'Balarama' is the eigth avathar. You may also know that he is shown with a plough in his hand as a weapon. Now, let me ask you, can anyone use a plough as a weapon of war or aggression? As you might be knowing plough can never be used as a weapon. It is truely, only an instrument of agriculture.

Then, what is the real significance of plough at this juncture? Now go back to the 6th and 7th avathars. 'Parasurama' the 6th was a hunter in the forest with a crude weapon made with a stick cut from a branch of a tree, which had at one end a sharp stone tied with fibre extracted from the bark of a tree. This axe was the first weapon that came in the avathar. With the axe one can attack someone in hand-to-hand fight or kill some animal for food.

Next avathar is Rama with an improved version of a weapon which can kill or wound some enemy or some animal from a distance. In fact Rama was the first to invent a launcher. His bow can launch an arrow and attack from a distance.

These two avathars exemplify the primitive man who probably lived in caves in the forest and worked out a living by hunting. From this hunting man advanced into social life with agriculture as his occupation. Consider also, ploughing can be done only by tethering the plough to a pair of bulls.

Now, that needs a herder of cows and bulls. So, Krishna came as the ninth avathar. He, not only was a cowherd but also the first to advent into the fine arts with his musical instrument, a flute. His weapon was a chakra which cannot be used as a weapon of war. Probably, it was the introduction of wheel in the human world for easy travel. Since agriculture presupposes a social life Krishna was the first to propound each ours duty in a society. His 'Geetha' is a set of rules for social life.

We can now begin from the beginning. As we all know life form evolved in water. So the first of the Ten avathars is shown as 'Mathsyavathar or fish avathar'. Then in course of time the life form tried to venture on to the land. Though it often ventured on to the earth, it lived mainly in water. That was 'Kurma Avathar or Tortoise'.

Then, the life form began to live on land, but its affinity to water was still pronounced. So 'Varaga Avathar' or 'The pig' came into being. Now, evolution has reached a crucial stage. Man has to evolve. But, before that, some being halfway between beast and man has to come-in. That halfway mark is signified by 'Narasima Avathar', a half man, half beast. Naturally, he used his teeth and finger nails as weapons.

Then evolved man himself. When compared to the other life-forms, he was very punny. That was 'Vamana Avathar'. He was the first to invent an instrument. He took a stick from a branch of a tree and attached a dried palm leaf on top. That was a crude form of umbrella to ward of the wrath of Nature, like the scorching sun rays or the pelting raindrops. But in that avathar itself man is shown to have conquered the element by his sheer brain power and mental capacity. That is the significance of 'Vamana' transforming into 'Thirivikrama'.

Then, ofcourse came first the crude hunter with an axe and advanced hunter with a bow and arrow. They were primitive forest dwellers. After that evolved the agriculturist with his plough and his co-worker, the cowherd. They were the representatives of social gathering with sets of rules and regulations.

Now we are in Kaliyuga. Kalki has to appear. Kalki has been picturised as a warrior on a white horse with a shinning sword in his hand. Actually, he could be a man on a white space-ship with a ray gun or some weapon in his hand.

If we begin to think in these lines and delving deep into the significance of our ancient literature and begin to interpret them properly we will be astounded to know how far advanced in scientific knowledge, our ancestors had been.

Hello World {Once again}

I would keep this blog majorly as non-technical and talk on almost all topics to the best of my ability :)