Baba blog

No, no, I don't mean Baba, the movie. Southies may get me wrong here, hehe . Of late, I have been wondering what it takes to become a baba. There are so many examples around.

Sai baba, the serene baba
Nithyananda, the sexy baba
Amritananda Mayi, the hugging babi?
Desi baba.. err.. not that one
The list is endless..

One thing in common is that all the babas (and babis) are real rich. They get lands for cheap deals, donations in the form of cash, gold and what not. All of them are well dressed, mostly in robes - white or saffron and rudraksha. Babas grow their hair long, babis already have it long. And man.. they all look so cool.

The closest I have got to a baba (it was a babi actually) is hugging Amritananda Mayi. My cousins are sworn devotees and I had accompanied them. Well, yeah, she hugs her devotees and they feel relieved of their problems. I did't feel anything special after she hugged me. She told me just one word (pora = not enough), probably because I didn't hug her properly. One thing is for sure, most people who visit her return happier. I believe it's all in the mind. Everyone likes to be cared for and comforted. I believe a baba has to be strong enough to comfort anyone and hope that the comfort seeker's mind does the rest. It usually does, mine didn't. A baba also has to be a good actor, for he has to pretend that he knows everything and has an answer to everything. If he doesn't have an answer, he can say something like - look within yourself, and the devotee will go gaga about how baba said he has to put more effort. Ohm!! baba ki jai ho!!!

So, what really is a baba? A baba has to dress well, in white or saffron robes, grow long hair (sniff sniff :( i can't be a baba) and be patient. A baba probably has to listen to endless complaints and worries from devotees, who expect baba to snap a finger and solve their problems. Nothing comes easy. A baba will have to master a few tricks, to impress a gathering.

Check this out. Baba tricks1 Baba tricks2
Practice makes perfect, of course.

A baba has to be good at management; be it people, money or politicians. He will have to toil his way to stardom and once he is there, invest money in the right markets and promote himself. A star baba can sell pendants, start colleges, hospitals and get his organization registered so that donations will be tax exempted. There will be umpteen sources of income and fun, if you know what i mean ;). Baba just has to lap it all up. Nowadays, babas are catching up with technology. All famous babas have their official websites (courtesy: Murthy). Besides, they have trademark logos, quotes etc.

Sai Baba site Nithya site Amrita site
Pretty cool work huh? Just google their quotes. It gets more interesting.

Sexy baba's quote: Unless we reach the level of being we'll not be able to experience what is really life. By not entering into the space of being we miss the ecstasy of life - Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda.
Ecstasy.. hmm he has got it right there.

All said, it is no easy feat to become a baba. For every devotee, there will be a hundred doubting Thomases. There will be numerous newspapers writing bad things about The Baba. But a baba has to believe in himself and in the destiny preordained. He has to surpass all the challenges (mms scandals, youtube analysis of tricks et al) but most importantly, he has to be absolutely shameless.

May be, if the aam aadmi was not a fool, there would not be so many babas around. Anyway, let's hope that we all attain nirvana. Baba ki jai ho!!

Interesting Reading:
Some angry guy's rant
Baba miracles
How to become a baba - Guide for dummies

I offer my apologies if i have hurt your sentiment. It is not my intention do that. You are free to believe what works for you.

Karting in Bangalore!!!

It was yet another long weekend and we, I and a couple of friends, were hungry for action. Two long weekends, back to back, ain't much fun. After brainstorming for a while, we decided to go karting. I had gone to EZone karting track at marathahalli quite a few times. So, I suggested that; but soon, I recalled a friend mentioning a karting track on mysore road. So, off i go googling. Thanks to google, I found what I was looking for - Grips karting, near Raja Rajeshwari Hospital, Mysore road. The reviews looked good. So, we decided to give it a try.

If you have been to the EZone club and liked the experience, you will find Grips way better, leagues ahead in fact. The track is beautifully designed, longer and there are trees to offer shade. The karts were in good condition. I went hard at it as I had some prior experience at karting. The assistants were friendly. I drifted a few times, trying to go fast round the corners. The assistants kept their cool. I found them very sensible. Attached are a few pics and the details. Give it a go folks. If you like life on the fast line, you are in for a treat.

Where: Mysore road, after Raja Rajeshwari Hospital, on the left side (when you travel towards mysore)
How far from bangalore: 50 km , we reached the place in about an hour, from BTM.
Rates: 150 for 6 laps (6.5bhp engines), they also have more powerful karts for 200 and 300 bucks. I tried the one for 200 bucks. It was awesome!!
Info: 9845011007, hours - 9.30 to 18.30

Have fun!!

Googling with your eyes closed??

On a normal day, I take bath only once; brush my teeth once or twice and think of sex 13 times!! Now, that last bit is what Telegraph says. However, as a techie, I use google a lot. Now, how much is a lot? This month, for instance, I have done 3639 searches!! That's about 120 searches in a day. WTH?? I google a lot of non-technical stuff too, some of which I wouldn't really want to post on my FB wall. So, I did a little googling on how safe or secure my googling history is. My findings are fairly alarming, not that I didn't expect it. But some comments by experts do get me worried.

"Google builds up a detailed profile of your search terms over many years. Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is."
-- BBC technology commentator Bill Thompson, Feb. 21, 2003

Hmmm, so google definitely knows a lot about me, definitely more than I want them to know (but I think of it more than 13 times a day, hehehe). Before I tell you how you can verify this, let me brief about two types of searches.

Signed in searches: Searches that you do when you are logged in to a google account.
Signed out searches: Searches that you do when you are not logged in to a google account.

Google can permanently store only the 'signed in' search history. We will discuss 'signed out' searches later in the blog.
Access this URL - https://www.google.com/dashboard/ You will be prompted for google account credentials. This is your google dashboard. All information related to your google account will be properly arranged here. Check out various sections. Towards the bottom of the page, you can spot a section - Web History. This is of extreme interest to us.

Here, your search history is categorized and listed. Access any of the links and revisit the sins of your past. Will google ever sell this info to a third party? I don't really think so; but, what if someone hacks your account. Hahaha, noone can hack my google account. Come on yaar, it is google eh? I have a friend who hacks google accounts with a fair amount of ease. He is not successful at every attempt though. There would be a lot of info in your account and in your search history you want to keep private. Well, that is why google gives you an option to delete it. So, if you are concerned, please use it.

However, if you do not delete the search history, be aware that google personalizes your search experience, by default. What does that mean? From 4th Dec 2009 onwards, google personalizes your searches. Read more here. You can also opt out of the personalization feature.

Hope this piece of information puts you more at ease.