Baltimore....it does not mean more buckets

I went to Baltimore
It was no eye sore
But more than anything
i met my sister ming ming (whatever that is)

what was the best thing there you ask?
it was the man with the blue mask!
nah i'm just kidding my dear
but i will tell you the truth, dont fear.

to the aquarium we went
thank god we didnt faint
sharks and sting rays we saw
varsha thought they would eat her raw (thats how they like their food mostly)

a dolphin show put the colour back in our cheeks
oh such cute and intelligent tricks!
it was like nothing i had seen before
it made me clap my hands and my heart soar

lots of shopping was on the agenda (man agenda is going to be a tough word to rhyme)
round and round the stores we wenta (a slight tamil accent...(no offence to tamilians or their lovers)
the most expensive things i bought
cause varsha was paying so, why not!

but the best part about the trip
was being with my sweetest sis
how lovely it is to be with family
thanks god for blessing me!

FOOTBALL!!!

That what I have been doing every thursday evening.... playing football or what they call Soccer here. Its absolutely 'awesome' again as they say here with the American twist of the tongue. I am not really sure if there is any tongue twisting in that but you get the point eh?
But I ain't playin just some 'galli' football but actual tournament in a proper field. The field is infact a indoor field. Its pretty awesome. So a few people in my department and their friends signed up a team for this season.... and asked me to join them. I told them I suck plus $50 for it....ummm...nah.
But guess what? We all suck and its totally worth the money because its a lot of fun.
So i have to wear shin guards and high socks till my knees and shorts and t-shirt and over the t-shirt i have to wear a stinking colourful vest to match the rest of my team. I am ready to go!
we play against other teams. I have played 2 thurdays already and have 3 more to go. Its great excersise and really tiring. The deal is that there have to be 2 girls on the field at all times and the ball has to be kicked by a girl at least once before there is a goal. there are only 3 girls in my department and so we all get a lot of running to do. but its not too bad.

We lose.
yes thats what we do.
we lose.
well yesterday we played the best team (undeafeated!) and guess what happened?
WE WON!!!
Nah I am kidding.
We lost 8 goals to Zero. hahaha
But we philosophers are all cool headed and unambitious, non-competitive folk. we take it easy. so its not difficult to lose...
The best part of this whole football thing is that I get to kick the ball, i get to fall and make other people fall too! The other great think about it is the pain oh sweet pain in the legs till the next thursday.
Well here you have it. I am getting all round development here in Toledo.
Loving it.

Beans!

I have decided to start writing on random topics that come to my head just for fun. So today's is beans.
There used to be a poem called...

Beans! Beans! the magical fruit
The more you eat the more you toot
The more you toot the less you eat.... etc..

I cant remember any more..

Beans are like pseudo peas. You think you could open them and find something meaningful inside them but nope you just gotta chop em' up and eat em' (its not the american accent coming in if you are wondering).
Its usually when I am in a recklessly happy mood that I end up writing posts up stuff like beans. Otherwise I am usually on serious stuff like god, soul, mind, the end of the world etc.
But why am I even writing about beans in the first place I have no idea!

Here are some facts about beans anyway...

1. Beans were among the first cultivated crops when man started agriculture
2. Beans can be dried and kept for years. (good point to note while packing a survival kit before we will drown because of global warming)
3. Beans help reduce cholesterol because they are the richest source of fiber(this is a great point to note...you know who I am talking to)
   
4. Dried beans can even be used as pizza topping (eww!)
5. Beans can reduce the risk of cancer
6. thats it....

ya thats all I have to say about beans. If i write anymore you will probably be wondering whether I have nothing else to do in the US. well as a matter of fact I do have a lot to study so I will sit down to read the 'evolution of the human mind'.
see ya

Philosophy at Toledo...

Hellos everybody who is interested to know more about how I am getting along at the UT (University of Toledo).
So the campus is really great. Beautiful and big like University of Pune (which btw is greener). As I stepped into college for the international students orientation, I was surrounded by Chinese and Indians. Chinese outnumbering the Indians by a huge margin. Quite surprising for me actually. Eventually I realised that I was probably one out 300 people there who was here to study something in the arts side of things.... The rest were engineering and pharmacy students. So you can imagine how alienated I was feeling! But I enjoyed meeting all these new people.
My department is extremely small as you can imagine. So small that I think it is non-existent to many. Like the president of international students organisation did not know that the university had a department of philosophy! But i think we are all used to this by now isn't it? Well so my department is situated in a building about 15-20mins walking distance from my apartment (I walk everyday). The building is like a maze and you just get totally lost in it cause it has steps and doors and more steps and more doors. Finally I did make it to the department and I was told by the secretary that I was the only international student they had had in the last couple of years! Well so that felt good to hear in the beginning but later I realised you can get pretty alienated in a totally american dominated environment.
So I have a teaching assistantship which means I have to assist one of the professors (Ammon Allred) in his undergraduate lectures. I have to mainly sit and listen to his lectures and help him with grading papers and sometimes even help him teach. I will be assisting him in Contemporary Moral Problems. Looking forward to it. I also have to maintain a few office hours every week where undergraduate students can come and ask me questions and I have to help them out. So that is my job.
My degree requirement are that I have to have minimum of 32 credits at the end of 2 yrs. These 32 credits include lecture times and thesis reading (or something like that). I am still getting a hang of these things... not too sure. So there are three semesters and I have to have to choose a minimum of 9 credits each semester. So this semester there were four options....
1) Philosophy of mind
2) Phenomenology
3) 20th century analytic
4) American philosophers : william james etc..

So i chose 1,2 & 3 which are 3 credits each that makes it 9 credits total.
Next year things will get tougher because by this time I should already be ready with a draft of my thesis as I will have to begin applying for my PhD by december. And also I may be talking my own classes like 'Introduction to philosophy or critical thinking etc.'

So tomorrow is the first day of my lecture.
I have already begun reading as you have to keep reading all the time and soon write papers. And A's in the papers are a must....

Well thats all for now.
I will keep this space updated!
Keep a look out for it
Feel free to ask me any questions about academics or anything here

Looking forward to this new adventure!

p.s. If you click on the title 'Philosophy at Toledo' it will take you to my department website

Philosopher Quotes - WITTGENSTEIN

“Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie.”

“The real discovery is the one which enables me to stop doing philosophy when I want to. - The one that gives philosophy peace, so that it is no longer tormented by questions which bring itself into question.”

“If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done”

“Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present.”

“Philosophy is like trying to open a safe with a combination lock: each little adjustment of the dials seems to achieve nothing, only when everything is in place does the door open.”

“Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.”

“I sit astride life like a bad rider on a horse. I only owe it to the horse's good nature that I am not thrown off at this very moment.”

“(on Sartre) Hell isn't other people. Hell is yourself.”

“At the end of reasons comes persuasion”

“A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring”

“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.”

Love Poem...there had to be one...

Some say that love is easy
it is like a game
some say its difficult and hard
and someone is always to blame

tiring or fullfilling?
precious or spaceless?
killer or life giving?
meaningful or meaningless?

love makes you go around
in circles forever
love creates a path onwards
that ceases never

love makes you drop
like a hot potato
love makes you fly
high and wide like Plato

Which answer must I choose?
The good ones or bad?
I must let my heart speak
before i go mad!

It is simple
it is pure
it is growth
it is sure

it is forwards
never backwards
it is beautiful
it is discipline

it is faith
it is appreciation
it is apologising
it is forgiving

you and me
we share a dream
to be together
just us forever

love has kept us
love will lead us
love is ours
we are His.

My terrace wall!!! we painted it

How does it feel to be different from me?

These are the words of a song by Avril Lavigne called 'how does it feel?'.
I have always felt that no one can know what my pain feels like and I can never know what someone else's pain feels like. Its good in a way and at the same time sad.... I want to know how it feels...

I'm not afraid of anything,
I just need to know that I can breathe,
And I don't need much of anything,
But suddenly (suddenly)

I am small and the world is big,
All around me is fast moving,
Im surrounded by so many things,
Suddenly (suddenly)

How does it feel...
To be, different from me,
Are we the same,
How does it feel...
To be, different from me,
Are we the same,
How does it feel,

I am young
And I am free,
But I get tired and I get weak,
I get lost and I can't sleep,
But suddenly (suddenly)

How does it feel...
To be(to be), different from me,
Are we the same,
How does it feel...
To be(to be), different from me,
Are we the same,
How does it feel,

Would you com-fort me
Would you cry with me

In This Moment

Just stay still for a moment.

Don’t think about the past nor the future.

In this moment now

In this moment now

Are you sad?

Is there any reason in ‘this moment’ to be sad?

Don’t think about the past nor the future.

There is nothing sad happening to you now in this moment.

So be happy in this awareness.

The awareness that there is nothing sad, Now.

Dwelling in the past is a waste of energy.

An unnecessary waste of emotions.

You’ve already got what was needed from the past now.

No need to go back there.

Dwelling in the future is a waste of energy.

Things never turn out the way you imagined.

And you know that.

An unnecessary waste of emotions.

You already know what you need for the future, Now.

In this moment you will know what you need.

But only in this moment.

Now I know what I must do.

Just be.

The Endless River

This choice of life brings with it a lot of sadness of unfinished dreams of purity, freedom and exploration. It brings with it a defeated acceptance of life and all it has to offer. Nirvana, sadness, happiness, people, relationships, love. But what is missing here? It is missing. Depth is missing. Unknown is missing. There is a compromise everybody has made with life at some point or the other but have forgotten it. Some remember, but most of them have forgotten it. And soon I will also forget and get lost in this world and one day I will wake up and find the dreams of my childhood. I will show them the light of the unknown. The light of a place where they can be different. Completely different. No norms, no rules no prefixed path or way of life like the one is lived. What do I mean? Well I mean look at the life of a normal man. He is born, he plays as a child, goes to school for 12years, college for 5 years or so. Then he must work for money and livelihood which in reality he should have no need to work for because everything on earth is for him and everybody. There is more than enough for everybody. How is it that man said this is mine when it was and never is his? And still it is not his as u know very well man is born and dies without a single thing. Then he questions himself as he does through his whole life what is the purpose of my living? Most of the times his answer is to be of help to another person. And that he does and some people do it a lot. Then he dies. But can there be a completely different life? One where there are no words, no definations, no rules, no needs, no pressures, no goals, no money, nothing of what is now. Don’t u think it is time a new life is created god? A completely different life? Has not this life gone on for too long? The mess is ever increasing. The ones who seemed to have found ways of staying away from this life are just waiting for u to send or create a new life. Unconscious frustrations are causing deaths and more hurt. Some of which are conscious. But I think it is time for this life to end. I understand god that u must have some plan, but must this end with so much pain, so much suffereing, so much hurt? Cannot it end peacefully with a thought in everyone’s heart of peace and hope for the light of the unknown? Are we the ones to show the light? Is there any hope for this life to end beautifully? If I am meant to show the light I am ready to do what you please. Because I too want a different life. Don’t give up on me. I am not lost yet.

How much will people do to survive in this life full of hurt and pain. Everybody finds a corner or a log of wood to float on while the river keeps on growing wilder and stormier. So many so many are unable to hold on and pass away. When will this storm end? Why do some people float on unbreakable boats while some barely can hold on to one piece of log? And then they try desperately to hold on to another and another and try to build a raft for themselves. Many manage to do that. But that is all they do. Ultimately they are still flowing with the river towards its end which is the same for all. And many decide to help pthers as they build their own rafts and help others who are struggling to keep their head above the water, up on to their rafts. But there are so many who go under, so many who are crying out for help. What can we do god? We are all being hurled towards the end by this river which becomes increasingly violent. We all must hold our hands as we will meet the end as it comes ahead of us.