By

VIKRAM KARVE

When I was a small boy in the nineteen sixties Pune was a “Tea Town”. Everyone drank tea and all over the town there were chiefly two types of tea for the laidback discerning gourmet Punekar to relish – AMRUT TULYA CHAHA at the ubiquitous Amrut-tulya Tea Shops in every nook and corner of Pune, and the peerless IRANI CHAI served by the numerous Irani Restaurants all over Pune City and Camp like Café Naaz, Lucky, Good Luck, Volga etc.

Amrut means Nectar, and Tulya means Comparable, so “Amrut Tulya” means “Comparable to Nectar” and indeed, true to its name, Amrut-Tulya Tea is comparable to nectar –  sweet, ambrosial, like the elixir of life! Amrut Tulya Chaha is not brewed in the traditional Tea service style – the tea is “cooked” in front of you.

Come, my dear Tea Lover, let me tell you how to make Amrut Tulya Chaha - The Art of Tea – Pune Style.

Assemble the following Ingredients for Two cups of Amrut Tulya Tea “Special Chaha”

Assam CTC Tea or, if you live in Pune, get the famous CTC+OP “Family Mixture” Tea Powder from your favourite “Tea Depot” in the heart of Pune City.

[By the way, the acronyms are: CTC – Crush, Tear, Curl; OP – Orange Pekoe; BOP – Broken Orange Pekoe].

Full Cream Buffalo Milk [I like Chitale’s]

Fresh Water

Sugar

Fresh Ginger Crushed [Better still you can crush the juicy fresh ginger with the chimta directly in the water-milk concoction to let the ginger juices flow out and blend in smoothly]

Cardamom – peel, crush and powder the pods

[NB – Amrut Tulya Tea is not your traditional Masala Chai so please don’t add any Tea Masalas or spices like clove, cinnamon, black peppercorns or herbs like gavati chaha (lemon grass?), tulsi leaves etc. and neither is it the “khada chamach” or “cutting” Chai so please don’t boil away to glory – remember, you must achieve Amrut Tulya Chaha of just the right consistency!]

In a brass vessel [or stainless steel, if you can’t get a brass vessel] mix one cup of water and one cup of milk. Add four teaspoons of sugar. Put on the stove. Medium heat.

Squeeze in a bit of crushed ginger and add a pinch of cardamom powder and the peel.

Lightly stir, let it warm, and bring to a boil.

Smartly add two teaspoons of tea powder and keep stirring gently to ensure the boiling concoction does not spill over. Keep boiling till the tea attains beautiful bright golden-orange colour – the moment you see a reddish tinge, give the heavenly brew a loving last stir, twirl the vessel, and sieve the Amrut Tulya Tea Special Chaha directly into the cups.

Sip the delicious tea slowly and mindfully, roll it on your tongue, let it emulsify in your palate, close your eyes, absorb, discern the flavour, the rich taste, relish every sip lovingly.

Tell me, isn’t Amrut Tulya Chaha lip-smacking tasty and soul-refreshing? Blissful ambrosia, an experience of nectar, isn’t it?

Now you know why they call it Amrut Tulya – comparable to Nectar!

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2008

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

vikramkarve@sify.com

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

When I was in my early twenties, I had an office job at a bank. My role was a combination of mail clerk, statement processor, and other mundane tasks. It was a position I held until I eventually made something of myself. At the bank, I worked with an older man, John Greenwood, who had the same duties I did. He was a retired engineer who worked a few hours a day in the quiet confines of the department where we were both stationed. For nearly two years I stayed at that company until I got higher paying employment elsewhere. I learned that shortly after I left, John died of a heart attack.

News of his passing didn’t upset me as it should have. Our relationship did not extend beyond work; and, I did not find out about his death until almost two months later. For almost twenty five years, I didn’t think of John again, until one recent morning when I was discussing history with a fellow employee at the college where I now make my living. My friend Kenny is a man my age. We’re both retired New York City police officers; so, we share an immutable bond forged from the common experiences and stresses of “The Job.”

Some mornings, Kenny will stop by my office and we’ll exchange pleasantries or tell a quick joke. Rarely, do we discuss police work. On the morning in question, my buddy from the NYPD, Kenny, and I were discussing our fathers and their roles in history. I am a bit of a World War II buff, with a minor in the American Civil War. Kenny’s dad, like mine is a WWII veteran, and that morning we shared stories of the hardships our fathers faced in battle, and the frustrations we both experienced while attempting to get information about warfare from our dads. Like many conversations, ours drifted a bit and we began to talk about the Korean War.

Kenny noted that it is often referred to as “America’s Forgotten War” as it is sandwiched between WWII and the Vietnam War. That’s when John popped into my mind. From long ago, the skinny, older gentleman, slightly stooped, and armed with a hearty laugh, appeared in my mind’s eye as if I saw him a day earlier. John was a Korean War veteran. Unlike my dad or Kenny’s father, John told me an immense amount of details about Korea and the conflict there. His accounts of battle were gory, stark, riveting, and most of all, true. He had the steely gaze of a veteran who had “been there.”

I mentioned John’s Korean War service to Kenny, offering a vivid depiction of my long lost colleague; for, it was only then that I fully appreciated the sacrifices he had made for his country. At the age of twenty one I was John’s eager “life apprentice,” often jotting down mental notes during coffee breaks with him as he freely gave me advice on women, money, jobs, and the like. Mostly, I’d listen intently as he described how he was forced to fire his Browning fifty caliber machine gun directly on advancing Chinese troops as they attempted to breach American lines with “human wave assaults.”

My dad never spoke of battle until recently. But, John did so back when I knew him. In retrospect, as I’ve discovered with my father, battle hardened veterans often come to a time in their lives when they need to cope with all of the dreadful things they saw when they were in battle. The fact that John passed away soon after my departure from the bank makes me suspect that maybe he knew something which the rest of us did not, and he needed to make peace with the explicit images which re-ran in his mind when he closed his eyes every night. My dad now talks about his wartime experiences in the same breath which he states that he “does not have much time left.” There is an apparent correlation between aging and reconciliation. Old soldiers are destined to fight their battles anew, facing their fears, and perhaps asking forgiveness as they ready themselves for the next life.

My friend Kenny and I did not see heavy duty combat while we were cops. There were brutal and ghastly sights, and also some tragic and heartbreaking situations which we experienced. Also, there were incidents which put us both in danger; but, we did not have to spray charging enemy soldiers with machine guns. My recollection of John made me realize that there are folks wandering in and out of our lives all the time whose stories, their life’s’ histories, are filled with events which are horrible beyond ordinary comprehension. The casual dealings we have with people who have been to the brink of death and back, who have suffered enormously, are easily taken for granted.

Kenny and I have our dads to comfort and care for in our old age; yet, there are those around us whose tales remain as footnotes to history until someone recognizes their importance and is able to appreciate the depth of their struggles. It’s too late for me to offer John reassurance and relief from his anguish which he was no doubt seeking as he regaled his young coworker with his war stories. However, I still have time to sit and listen to my father. I’ll listen with the enlightened ear of a man trained early on by a nearly overlooked soldier of a forgotten war, and I will do my best to honor them both.

-Michael J. Kannengieser

The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower, by Robert Baer

So, I may write a little or a lot on this matter before, during and maybe after it occurs. I don't know what I'm writing yet, but as I have more information for you on that, expect that I will update this here note.

We'll see how this all turns out, won't we? -wink-

-Kaman

Sigh.

So, being a morning person is necessity. Being a night owl is my nature - my limit before I start crashing out is about 0200 to 0300 hours. This usually ends up in a compromise with me usually sending myself off to sleep by 0200, and awaking six hours later. This is a decently survivable amount of sleep, though admittedly, not all that great for my health. Eight hours is the optimum amount. In any case, what am I getting at here? Well, it's October. Already into October. Less than a month away from the start of...

NaNoWriMo

...and my life is already pretty nuts. What, you must be asking, am I thinking?? 50,000 words in a month? I must have flipped my lid. But, I think I need some sort of graspable, attainable goal to work with amongst all the vague, nearly-impossible-seeming ones. You know, to make me feel like I've actually accomplished something monumental. And hey, I've always wanted to write a book (as if I don't write enough forum-based role play already...). I mean, who doesn't want to? So I'll be attempting that on top of work, toddler (and all the other things that entails), darts, and trying to find my own place for... eventually.

Augh, I don't really know what I want to write yet. I've been percolating on and off all day, since I seriously decided I needed to start thinking about this, and I've had some thoughts, but nothing really concrete yet. Well, at least I still have a few weeks before all the insanity is to begin.

-Kaman

A nice, quick read about how evolution works - and how to distrust our brains.

Mourning Sickness edited by Missy Martin and Jesse Loren

In this 186 page book you will find a variety of writings on miscarriage, stillbirth and infant loss. What is unique (to me) about this book is that it is not only mothers writing about their experience. Fathers, grandparents, children and others also tell their stories as well.

Mourning Sickness contains a variety of writings" memoir, fiction, poetry. The writing is beautiful, sad, tender. The anguish and disappointment felt by those writers is real. It can be felt within the pages.

Lisa Marling, author of Feel Better, describes her heartache after losing twins, her experience in the hospital before being discharged, the comments made by the staff. Marling writes:

"I awaken. I want to vomit. I want to scream. I want to hold my babies and snuggle them to my neck. I want-... A student nurse enters. She is cheery and talks too much...She tells me that I will feel better when I get home to my children. She tells me this won't be as difficult or sad since I have children at home. I want to crush her skull."

Those who contributed to this book show tremendous courage in the face of grief in sharing their experiences with others.

I can think of people I know who would find companionship between the pages of Mourning. Companionship, understanding, a sense of community for those who have lost little ones. If you know someone who has suffered the loss of a child, this is a must read.

By Leonard Sax

This is an excellent work arguing that boys and girls have biological brain differences that affect the way they view their world, including their ability to learn in the traditional classroom.  Sax discusses those brain differences, such as the fact that girls hear better than boys, and then discusses how they impact classroom experience (such as boys who sit in the back of the classroom, as is often the case, and may not hear the teacher as well).  Ultimately, Sax is arguing for same-sex education, saying that boys will be more likely to pursue "girl" activities (such as playing the flute) and girls will be more likely to pursue "boy" activities, such as taking up debate.  I highly recommend this book to all parents or teachers interested in the differences between boys and girls and how to use those differences to enhance a child's education (rather than trying to make a gender-neutral environment, which Sax argues hinders a child's development).  Thought provoking read!

Yes indeed the beloved 'Tarzan' star has his us with a book chock full of Hollywood dirt, A- list monkey business (sorry couldn't resist), booze, lechery, drugs- this spoof of the traditional Hollywood memoir has the lot.

Take this quote on Rex Harrison: "an absolutely irredeemable c*** who tried to murder me."  Or this enlightening opinion of Charlie Chaplin, "Chaplin is an extraordinarily special human being, a person in whom a multitude of talents and virtues are united, but, as the saying goes, to be human is to be fallible (what a modest species you are!) and not even Charlie's stoutest defenders would claim that he was perfect or even likeable or indeed defensible on any level at all." 

Cheeta's obviously not a monkey given to pulling punches, which makes this book all the more entertaining a read.  Scandal, scurrilous and malicious gossip, all delivered safe in the knowledge that it'd be pretty hard to sue a 75 year old chimp for libel. I only wish I'd thought of it first.

'Me Cheeta: The Autobiography' is published by Harper Collins imprint Fourth Estate.
<http://www.harpercollins.com.au/books/9780007278633/Me_Cheeta_The_Autobiogr
aphy/index.aspx>

By

VIKRAM KARVE

I love tea.

You too love tea but don’t know how to make a good cup?

Let me tell you how to make tea.

Get some good Assam CTC Tea [CTC is an acronym for Crush, Tear and Curl]. CTC teas have a granular appearance and the fact of the matter is that if you are really interested in a Stimulating, Refreshing and Invigorating cup of traditional Indian Tea, Orthodox Leaf Teas [the OPs, the BOPs, et al] just don’t fit the bill – you need CTC tea to brew your strong, bright and full-bodied cup of milky Chai which looks deliciously appetizing – a lively reddish orange colour, not the dull muddy brown colour you get when you add milk to tea made from leaf teas the orthodox “teapot” way.

Take two cups of fresh water [one for you and one for me!] in a stainless steel vessel. Add four teaspoons of sugar. Put on the stove, cover with a lid and boil. Once the water starts boiling, remove the lid and boil for one and a half minutes – yes, exactly one and a half minutes!

Now briskly add two teaspoons of CTC Tea leaves, one teaspoon for each cup – the boiling water will suddenly erupt, and surge up, like a volcano, so smartly switch off the flame before it spills over and quickly cover tightly with the lid. Brew for five minutes till the liquor is full-bodied and the infusion is complete.

Have ready some freshly boiled full cream buffalo milk – yes, fresh creamy buffalo milk is a must – in Pune, I prefer Chitale’s. First pour in some hot milk in the cup, and through a strainer, pour in the rich tea brew and till you get beautiful reddish orange colour. Remember – always pour tea into milk, never milk into tea. This is the secret of the appetizingly attractive bright lively carroty red colour as it facilitates the perfect blending of the strong rich full-bodied intense tea liquor tea brew with the creamy white milk without producing any bitterness.

Now, go ahead, relish every sip, and enjoy your cup of ambrosial divine rejuvenating tea.

And do tell us how you liked it.

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2008

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

vikramkarve@sify.com

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

Fiction or non-fiction? Genre? Non-Fiction, Religion

What led you to pick up this book? I was going on a retreat with church and what better way to connect better with God than read about the evidence one man found on his own journey.

Plot summary: Lee Strobel interviews multiple scholars and religious experts to find the evidence supporting and surrounding all the claims of Christ's life, death and resurrection.

What did you think of the ending? It ended with a summary of what Strobel felt was the most important points covered on each aspect of his interviews, all the burning questions and answers put in more simpler terms in case you didn't get the point the first time.

Do you recommend this book? I would recommend it to anyone searching for God or wanting to learn more about their own religious experience and feel confirmed in their beliefs.

Scene: The seafood counter of my local supermarket. I've just ordered a fresh trout for dinner and the clerk, a young man, is removing the head and tail.

Characters: Male Seafood Clerk; Female Produce Clerk. The Produce Clerk enters from stage left and speaks first.

Produce Clerk (to Seafood Clerk): Where's Tishea at?

Seafood Clerk: Oh, she went and got another job—administrative assistant to some bigwig over at the YMCA.

Produce Clerk: Frosty! The girl can proper that.

Seafood Clerk: That's right.

Produce Clerk: That Tishea—she can proper her act real fast.

The above text is a recreation of a snippet of conversation overheard by Your Faithful Blogger. What intrigued me about the exchange were two words I had not heard used in this way before. It took me a while to figure out that in this case "frosty" was meant as an intensifier, becoming "cool"-squared. And "proper," an adjective, becomes a verb indicating Tishea's ability to act out any role she's given—and doing so in ways my dictionary defines as, "Displaying exaggerated propriety or gentility." This small slice of grammatical time has been slightly edited and/or expanded, and rendered in script form for your reading pleasure.

Sobering words coming from a cancer survivior, right?

I try my best to be positive, but sometimes things just pile up all in one day and blast me right in the ego.  Friday, I received a rejection on an essay I was very proud of. But there were other things going on that day in my personal life and day job, that made that rejection more of a sting.

I had to go shoe shopping to recover!

But it's a new day, and with it a new attitude. So, I look at it this way: I have a great personal essay ready to pitch to another market and two new pairs of adorable boots (to help me walk tall and confident.)

What are you trying to get past today?

Angela from Sometimes It's the Destination

Heather from Not A DIY Life

and Stephanie T.

Winners, please email me with your mailing address so that we can get your copies out to you. Thank you to all who participated! ( antonette at ameritech dot net)

Antonette

Sheila

Kate Summerskill interview

In order to be happy, Pamuk begins, he needs a daily dose of literature, like other people need a daily dose of medication. This daily dose must meet certain criteria:

First, the medicine must be good. Its goodness is what tells me how true and strong it is. To read a dense, deep passage in a novel, to enter into that world and believe it to be true - nothing makes me happier, nothing binds me more to life. I also prefer it if the writer is dead, because then there is no little cloud of jealousy to darken my admiration.

However, it is different when Pamuk himself is writing. In that case, "the best cure of all, and the greatest source of happiness, is to write a good half page every day."

If Pamuk hasn't had his daily fix of literature, either through writing or reading, he becomes deeply unhappy and the world becomes a deeply unhappy place with him. So, Pamuk concludes, "the real hunger (...) is not for literature, but for a room where I can be alone and dream", a place where he can isolate himself from the distractions and the busyness of the world. To be able to be a good writer, Pamuk needs to be bored, and to be bored he must participate in life, he must get out of this room. Because when he is out in the world he realizes he is watching it all from the sidelines. And that's when he gets bored and begins to dream.

So the real ingredients of the medicine he has to take every day are "boredom, real life and the life of the imagination." This is one of the places where my Dutch text differs from the English. The quote I just used, comes from the English version, the Dutch translation omits boredom.

Orhan Pamuk now goes on to ponder how writing is a way to use those daily daydreams, to let them run free: "we choose our subjects, and shape our novels, to suit our daily daydream requirements."

To write a novel is to be open to these desires, winds and inspirations, to the dark recesses of our minds and their moments of mist and stillness.

For what is a novel but a story that fills its sails with these winds, that answers and builds upon inspirations that blow in from unknown quarters and seizes upon all the daydreams we've invented for our diversion, bringing them together into a meaningful whole? Above all, a novel is a basket that carries inside it a dreamworld we wish to keep forever alive, and forever ready. Novels are held together by the little pieces of daydreams that help us, from the moment we enter them, forget the tedious world we long to escape.

Through writing a writer creates a whole new world that grows and expands the more he writes. Pamuk loves to escape to this world and is always reluctant to move back to the 'real' world.

As Pamuk stated at the beginning of his speech, his daily dose of literature can be taken by writing or by reading. This implies that a writer's daydreams and fantasy imaginations, which were initially produced to feed the writer's own needs, can be a medicine not only to their creator, the writer, but also to their 'consumers', the readers:

An imaginative novelist's greatest virtue is his ability to forget the world in the way a child does, to be irresponsible and delight in it, to play around with the rules of the known world - but at the same time to see through his freewheeling flights of fancy to the deep responsibility that will later allow readers to lose themselves entirely in his novel. He might be spending the whole day playing, but at the same time he carries the deepest conviction that he is more serious than others. This is because he can be looking directly into the centre of things the way that only children can. Having found the courage to set rules for the games he once played freely, he senses that his readers will also allow themselves to be drawn into the same rules, the same language, the same sentences, and therefore the story. To write well is to allow the reader to say, "I was going to say the same thing myself, but I couldn't allow myself to be that childish."

Pamuk ends his lecture by adapting Wolfgang Iser's principle of the 'implied reader' to express something he learned in a period when he was being driven out of his own room to 'participate in life' and didn't have time or opportunity to get his daily fix of writing (or daydreaming). He refers to the court-case against him in Turkey in 2006 because he had referred to the Armenian genocide and mass killings of Kurds in the Ottoman Empire.

Iser created a brilliant reader-oriented literary theory. He said that a novel's meaning resides not in the text, nor in its context, but somewhere between the two. He argues that a novel's meaning emerges only as it is read, and so when he speaks of the implied reader, he is assigning him or her a special role.

When I was dreaming up the scenes, sentences and details of another book, instead of continuing the novel I was already writing, it was this theory that came back into my mind, and what it suggested to me was this: for every unwritten but dreamed and planned novel (in other words, my own unfinished novel), there must be an implied author. So I would only be able to finish that book when I'd become that book's implied author. But when I was immersed in political affairs, or - as happens so often in the course of normal life - my thoughts were interrupted by unpaid gas bills, ringing telephones and family gatherings, I was unable to become the author implied by the book in my dreams.(...)But having come through this experience, I have understood why, for 30 years, I have devoted all my strength to becoming the implied author of the books I long to write. This may be important to me because I only want to write big, thick, ambitious novels, and because I write so very slowly. It is not difficult to dream a book. I do this a lot, just as I spend a great deal of time imagining myself as someone else. The difficult thing is to be your dream book's implied author.

You can read this speech in its entirety here. My post about Orhan Pamuk's Nobel speech is here.

As a former city-dweller and self-described lesbian, Elvis-loving shepherd, Friend has a unique and intimate perspective on the morals, economics and practicalities of raising and eating meat humanely. With low-key, Midwestern humor, she takes readers on a tour of an abattoir, writes a love letter to her lambs heading for slaughter and relates how chivalry has been bred out of roosters. She delineates the differences between certified organic, certified humane, cage free, free range, and omega 3 eggs; the often-confusing nuances of organic, sustainable and conventional farming; and why, in her opinion, small farms are preferable to big ones. She encourages readers to get to know their local farms and provides questions to ask farmers and butchers about their produce. Readers interested in the subject will likely be familiar with Friend's overall treatment, but fostering a long-term commitment to the cause, she believes, is an act of respect that will affect the lives of the millions of animals raised in this country every year, and her suggestions are so reasonable that even the most rampant, mainstream meat-eater might consider trying them.

Seriously? "Self-described" lesbian? What does she have to do to earn the title of actual lesbian? And now, a link to her website: http://www.compassionatecarnivore.com/

You dedicated readers of Pale Nerd are free to ask questions about the book if you are curious, but I have been on this here internet for a long time, and I think I finally learned something.

"Don't post your opinions on the ethics of food on the internet. Only pain and suffering can ensue."

Okay, two things - "Don't look up your exboyfriends." Same outcome.

A friend of mine has reappeared, and here I was thinking he'd vanished off the face of the Earth. I'm kidding, my friend. I know life just gets busy. Welcome back to the world.

Well, I think that's just about all I have to say for now.

-Kaman

The book includes

• information on all four movies
• casting notes
• original photos from the production of the films
• original story line ideas for Indiana Jones
• how they worked with creepy crawlies
• how they searched for the various locations in the film
• original commentary by George Lucas and Steven Speilberg

Do you know any other interesting Indiana facts?

That problem is, unfortunately, balancing projects and ideas.

I have, at the moment, the following projects under way:

• A novel of semiautobiographical nature [currently on hiatus]
• A short story entry for the Writer's Digest's contest, and therefore, profit [currently in progress]
• A song about self-absorbed guitar guys at open mic nights [not in progress]
• A short story for fun [not profit, on hiatus]
• Two comic book series ideas [for relief during novel]
• Readings and Writings for Graduate School [currently in progress, less enjoyable than writing for pleasure, but far more enjoyable than root canal]

Unfortunately, I need to give highest priority to that last stuff. I will be happy beyond words when my Strat Comm class is over; the readings are dense, and self-involved to an unhealthy point.

Speaking of that, I think academics truly need to get a grip on themselves; if I couldn't make references to earlier papers I'd written in the course of writing a new paper, why should they be exempt from that rule?

I'd rather spend my time exploring my ideas, but as long as I stay on top of my work, I'll be able to make time. I believe I can see a future for myself as a consultant while pursuing the dream; many things seem insurmountable, but as long as I keep perspective, it's hardly that intimidating.

(Except for that whole organizing thing. I think it's very frightening, and if I still had a stuffed animal, I would crawl under my sheets at night clutching it tightly, knowing that it served as both comfort and instant effigy if the need for escape presented itself.)

-Brian

You will notice that a lot of writers, read a lot of books. Why? Because reading is good for you. It gives your brain word nutrients, oxygen, and exercise. Going to a library is like going to an imagination gym. I try to read a little bit everyday. Sometimes, I am just too wiped out - but I do make a bit of an effort. I have a plan to read 50 books this year. I think I have finished 41 or 42, so far.

I once heard the novelist, Yann Martel say, "that for every book a person reads, a life is added to his own". I have not remembered that quote accurately, but I think I got the gist of it. Reading a book and sharing someone's imagination is a gift. It enriches our lives. It gives us moments of stillness. Something we all need. Our hands do not need to be busy all of the time. We should quiet our bodies, and awaken our minds. It's good for us. I will update this blog, on what I am reading - and what I think of the book.

This week's selection is Girl With A Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier. I just started this book the other night, when I was sitting in a noisy sushi bar - so I have not gotten far, but it is keeping my interest. At this stage, that is all I can ask. What are you reading? Let me guess. Since there is only 2 people who know about this blog. I am thinking one of them is reading something by John Irving - by the way Rex, he is back on the shelf - again- his books are too disturbing for me. And I think the other one is reading Robertson Davies - hopefully its come down off the bookshelf now. Am I right???

Blogging about people that infuriates me. I do that alot.. Haha! That's why I don't use names except for mine and a few.. Isn't it funny how we used to give a nick to refer to the one we are giving a dressing down? The fuckface, the double-faced asshole, faker bla bla bla.. All these sounds like characters from the Batman movies. I know people reads my blog. But I still wanna write about it.

It's not like you can't deny whoever you're scolding after that.. A little acting dumb plus a few cutesy emoticons will do the work.. ^^

Asshole: Eh, who you scolding ar in ur blog?

Me: Oh... Hehe. Someone u dunno lar.. Some "Asshole" lor..

Asshole: Icic.. LOL! Scold 'em more!

Me: I will, you fucking asshole! I was referring to you in my blog! Eh, busy now.. Chat later!

This kinda tone down the point of ranting about someone you hate in the Internet? It's all in the name of Peace and Harmony. The "smarter" assholes will know I'm referring to them and will not ask me who I was referring to. Conflicts swept under the carpet and avoided, you feel good after that dressing down and you start a brand new day without keeping what's bothering you!

Moral of this article: Never put on the Internet what you don't want others to see. There's nothing a simple Googling can't find out. If you insist on doing so, be anonymous. A safer way is to write on a stone slab and have it buried a few thousand feet under the ground. Even that is not privacy-proofed.

Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen

"Mr. Sen's writing is clear on a variety of topics that are mired in misunderstanding and controversy. The book is both easy to read and interesting as it poses such questions as: what is the purpose of wealth? What is the relationship between freedom and wealth? The relationship between freedom, democracy and development? Mr. Sen takes the position that providing services in developing nations ( health, education etc. ) is not just as a means of achieving equity but of achieving development. He argues that the development of human beings is both the natural fulfillment of human purpose and of greater economic goals and additionally that both these ends are best served under the auspices of a democracy. A great book."

Review from Publishers Weekly: "When Sen, an Indian-born Cambridge economist, won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economic Science, he was praised by the Nobel Committee for bringing an "ethical dimension" to a field recently dominated by technical specialists. Sen here argues that open dialogue, civil freedoms and political liberties are prerequisites for sustainable development. He tests his theory with examples ranging from the former Soviet bloc to Africa, but he puts special emphasis on China and India. How does one explain the recent gulf in economic progress between authoritarian yet fast-growing China and democratic, economically laggard India? For Sen, the answer is clear: India, with its massive neglect of public education, basic health care and literacy, was poorly prepared for a widely shared economic expansion; China, on the other hand, having made substantial advances in those areas, was able to capitalize on its market reforms. Yet Sen demolishes the notion that a specific set of "Asian values" exists that might provide a justification for authoritarian regimes. He observes that China's coercive system has contributed to massive famine and that Beijing's compulsory birth control policy--only one child per family--has led to fatal neglect of female children. Though not always easy reading for the layperson, Sen's book is an admirable and persuasive effort to define development not in terms of GDP but in terms of "the real freedoms that people enjoy."

Find this title in the library catalog.

In chapter one, the book defines which it means by God. First off, logic rules out a god who is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omnipresent. There cannot be a 3O god. That was easy. So the book focuses on a particular kind of god, by setting out eight attributes, commonly ascribed to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God, which ought to create evidence that such a god exists. The attributes (much condensed) are:

1. God created the universe.
2. God is the author of the laws of nature.
3. God works miracles and answers prayers.
4. God created all life and human beings.
5. God gave human beings souls.
6. God is the source of morality.
7. God has revealed truths in scriptures and revelations.
8. God does not deliberately hide from anyone who seeks him.

Chapter two fights the evolution battle and concludes that a god with attribute #4 doesn't exist.

I didn't understand why chapter three takes a detour into the paranormal, such as qi and ESP, since I thought people who believed in this stuff used to be called witches. Anyway, it goes on to discuss the lack of evidence that prayer as petition works or that the soul has a separate existence from the body or that there is an afterlife. Thus it concludes that a god with attributes #3 and #5 doesn't exist.

Chapter four shows that neither a god with attributes #1 nor #2 is necessary to explain the origin of the universe or the laws of physics. Chapter five further attacks these attributes by addressing the anthropic principle, that the structure of the universe is fine-tuned for life. It argues that the "fine-tuning" of the cosmological constants isn't nearly as precarious that they are made out to be, and that there are other sets of constants that could create other universes with life in them.

To be honest, at first I thought chapter six, which proves the scriptures are wrong when they make testable statements about the world, took on too easy a target in attribute #7. I mean, you get into all sorts of trouble with literal interpretation. But it turns out there is no archaelogical evidence for even the parts that sound plausible, like the kings and judges. It leaves you wondering if there's anything historical in the Bible.

Chapter seven shows there is no need for a god with attribute #6 to give us our sense of right and wrong. We have a common set of moral standards that goes back into all history, prehistorical myths, and even into the evolution of social animals.

Are you starting to see a pattern here? None of the attributes are in order. And then, instead of attacking attribute #8, chapter eight discusses the problem of evil, brings the 3O god back into the argument, and dismisses him again. This is interesting, but it has nothing to do with science.

In chapter ten, the book recaps what it actually proved (again, much condensed):

1. The complex structure of the world can be understood to arise from simple natural processes, not God.
2. There is no evidence for a soul or an afterlife, let alone a God who bestowed them.
3. There is no evidence for miracles, including some of the most important biblical narratives.
4. No violations of physical law--or interventions by God--were required to produce the universe.
5. The universe is not congenial to human life, which is inconsistent with a God who fine-tuned it.
6. There is no empirical confirmation of a God who communicates with humans by direct revelation.
7. The evidence shows that humans define morals and values for themselves, without God.
8. The existence of evil is inconsistent with an omniscient, omnibenevolent, omnipotent God.

As theologians are confronted with the physical evidence, they are retreating to the possibility that god hides himself. This verges into the problem of evil, since a loving god would not hide from believers who seek him. There is a variant where god hides himself from all but his selected elite. The book concludes that god with attribute #8 could exist, but he would be evil.

There's so much that fascinates me here, but it drives me crazy when I have to outline a book to figure out its structure, only to find that the structure is inconsistent. But for all its inconsistencies, I learned from it, including some good advice about life without God.

More to come next week.