Lets all Have PUN !!!

I am a self declared ( sometimes condemned - but mostly admired !!!) fan / addict of PUNNING !!!

And, I have been for a long long time !!!!

In fact I remember responding to a "structured" discussion on puns in school almost 20 years ago !!!

The teacher read out a statement - "Life depends on the LIVER" and asked if we could figure out the double meanings in it.

I promptly answered, saying that meaning no.1 was that Life depended on the person living it. Meaning no. 2 was that Life also depended on the state of your health - in this case signified by the organ, the LIVER !!

I got pat on the back from the teacher - who then declared that LIVER was a PUN !!!! I also got lots of amazed looks from the other students !!!

My formal career in Punning had been launched !!!

The fun of punning for me has always been the amazing possibllity of interpreting MORE than ONE meaning to the same word / concept !

And for that, I salute the ENGLISH language for allowing so many many LOOPHOLES which allow the wild and wonderful of Punning to flourish !!!

A serious attempt at defining punning ( wikipedia) reveals the following :

A pun (also known as paronomasia) is a figure of speech which consists of a deliberate confusion of similar words or phrases for rhetorical effect, whether humorous or serious.

A pun can rely on the assumed equivalency of multiple similar words (homonymy), of different shades of meaning of one word (polysemy), or of a literal meaning with a metaphor.

Bad puns are sometimes called "cheesy".

Walter Redfern (in Puns, Blackwell, London, 1984) succinctly said: "To pun is to treat homonyms as synonyms".

In order to be able to pun effectively it is necessary that a language must include homonyms which may readily be misrepresented as synonyms. Languages with complex gender or case structures tend not to facilitate this, although puns can be constructed in all languages with varying degrees of difficulty; i.e. puns are said to be easy to construct in languages such as Chinese or English, but rarer in Russian.

A realisation came to me about a Universal Truth : Everyone loves Puns - they just REACT to them in different ways !

Reaction 1 ( The Honest one) : Wow !! How do you do that ?! Its so amazing ! And you just thought of that right now ?!

Reaction 2 ( The Sour Grapes one) : Groan ! Groan ! Not again !!! When will you stop ?

Reaction 3 ( The Fence sitter one) : That was nice ! ( wince wince !) / That sucked ! ( with a smile of admiration !)

Unfortunately I know a lot who fall into Reaction no.2 or 3 - as if it is beyond their dignity to laugh at a well cracked pun ! As far as Reaction 1 goes, well quite rare indeed !!

I mean - hey lighten up ! I am just having PUN !!

Also, for those who do not know, there are many BENEFITS to PUNNING :

• For the PHYSICALLY INSPIRED, PUNNING is like RUNNING - It is an exercise - for my brain - which is always in tip top shape.


• For the SPIRITUALLY INCLINED, It is helpful in BUILDING AWARENESS


• For the SEXUALLY INCLINED, it helps in chatting up the Opposite Sex, especially when you run out of words !


• For the ENTERTAINMENT CHALLENGED ( Bored), it is a great way to pass time


• For the ROMANTICALLY FRUSTRATED it is a great way to create POETRY

So, as you can see there is a very POSITIVE side to PUNNING. It is definitely not the PUNishment that it is made out to be !!! :-)

Kicking your own BUT !!!

Yes - yes ALL Puns intended !!!

This line emerged in my mind after a conversation with a friend. She said that everything was going beautifully in her life - but, she still felt incomplete.

I told her that it was the GOOD, BUT syndrome.

Example - "This dress looks good on me ... BUT ...!"

How many times do we subject ourselves to the BUT ???

So, I told her to start Kicking your BUT from now on !!! The moment you see yourself adding a BUT to an otherwise obviously GOOD thing in your life, STOP right there - and KICK that BUT goodbye.

We deserve a good life, we deserve enjoying the good life and no BUT is going to spoil it !!! Not for me at least !!!

So, lets help each other in Kicking BUT !!!!

At a slightly deeper level, most of us might / might not know that we can CREATE our OWN CIRCUMSTANCES.

If we truly believe that a) We deserve a GREAT LIFE / Circumstances and b )we can make that Great life / circumstance happen for us then we need to ELIMINATE that BUT !!! ( also the IFs !)

Next post : Managing the IFs !!!! ( Just kidding ! Why WORRY about IFs !!?)

Cee ya !!!

A journey of PASSION - My JAZZ Journey - Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lhNvOkAJEc

Hey ! This is the second post of my very own TRILOGY !! There ! Now you know how many parts of this journey I intend to write !

Anways, back to JAZZ and specifically back to MILES DAVIS.

I attended the next Jazz Workshop at Planet M. I had become a REGULAR !! Jayanto Sengupta unfolded the most awesome intro to JAZZ I had ever gotten.

There were 3 workshops on Miles to be conducted by Jayanto. That's one workshop every month ( first sunday). So, I would be exposed to 3 months of Miles.

I think by the third workshop, I pretty much knew loads and loads about Miles and had by then most of his key albums !!!

What Inspired me about MILES

Miles Davis was a very talented man. More than his individual talent, he had the knack of attracting the BEST TALENT. He has probably created more super stars than any jazz musician.

He was the GATEWAY. He was also the CREATIVE MAESTRO composing tunes that would be super hits. He knew how to get the best out of these other creative geniuses.

He also never settled for his own laurels and achievements. He always wanted to outdo himself. He would never go back to a formula - even if it was his most successful one !

The Giants who have graced the MILES Factory have been John Coltrane , Bill Evans , Wynton Kelly, Herbie Hancock, Red Garland, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Paul Chambers, etc. etc.

Miles was supposedly not very EASY to get along with as a person - he was moody, self centred, unpredictable - but aren't al creative geniuses ?!

Miles' approach to Jazz inspired me greatly - not just his music, but his amazing ability to keep spotting and attracting talent and forever re-inventing !

Miles recorded many landmark albums from the 1950's all the way to the 1990's just before he died. But I'd like to talk about one of his seminal albums which influenced not just jazz - but even Rock - the album was called KIND OF BLUE.

This is a review on the net :

Kind of Blue is a jazz album that has transcended the genre of jazz and become one of a handful of recordings whose very existence changes everything. That Miles Davis acheived this more than once in his career serves as evidence to even the most casual observer of jazz that he was one of its mystics, its visionaries. As pointed out by Ashley Kahn in the excellent book Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, "Copies of the album are passed to friends and given to lovers. The album has sold millions of copies around the world, making it the best-selling recording in Miles Davis's catalog and the best-selling classic jazz album ever. Significantly, a large number of those copies were purchased in the past five years, and undoubtedly not just by old-timers replacing worn vinyl: Kind of Blue is even casting its spell on a younger audience more accustomed to the loud-and-fast esthetic of rock and rap." The album is perenially hip, listened to by cool, brooding Clint Eastwood characters in both Play Misty for Me and Line of Fire. It also casts a kind of Zen calmness, perhaps due in part to its one-take mythology and the enigmatic liner notes written by pianist Bill Evans

Kind of Blue influenced and still influences many including Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers' band !

This was a Giant album with giant performances from Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and a very fresh Pianist ( whom I just fell in love with !) - Wynton Kelly ! More on him later !

Even if you are not into jazz, this album is worth a listen !!

A journey of PASSION - My JAZZ Journey - Part I

I was of course tempted to call the title of this post, the cliched - "All that Jazz" but luckily I refrained from doing so ! (Not just to escape cliche - but because my Jazz Journey is a musical journey - not just covering Jazz !)

The fact is that JAZZ has been a wonderful journey in my life - a journey of PASSION, CREATIVITY, SELF DISCOVERY, SELF-CONNECT and SPIRITUALITY !!!

Wow that's a lot of Destinations in this journey ! :-)

Let me start this account by declaring that one of my biggest passions ( probably the biggest - but then my wife might object !) is MUSIC.

It has always INSPIRED me, made me feel ONE with Existence, connected with my INNERMOST or PUREMOST.

I started my musical journey way back in 1983 listening to some Popular Pop - I was in the Eight Grade / Standard.

A lot of the intitial music that i was exposed to was British Pop. This went on to American Pop and then the SECOND Inflection Point in my musical life when I fell in love with HEAVY METAL !!! The year was 1987.

I got into it big time - like I always get into all my passions in life - 101 %. I started a journey of DISCOVERY. I started listening / buying / trying bands or artists whose names I had never heard of before !

The excitement and the fun was in the Discovery !

Many bands started pouring into my life - Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, etc.

Then in 1988, I moved to Mumbai ( from Bahrain, where I was doing my schooling ). This is when I met a friend called Parag - who pushed into my THIRD Inflection Point in my musical journey - getting Deep into Rock - the music , the artists and the lyrics.

I got into it so much that I even set up a musical store in those days. This was in 1989. The store was in Andheri Lokhandwala and it was called GENESIS ! It lasted for a year and I discovered the passion within me to SPREAD the Passion to others. I was busy converting people from AIR SUPPLY to JOURNEY / STYX !

Then my life got into College, MBA, CAREER ( which was Advertising) and Music was playing a less active role in my life.

This changed a bit when one of the Advertising accounts / clients I was handling was a music company - Polygram !

I fell in love with the music business and wanted to be a part of it someday. And that happened ! After a couple of years I saw myself in Sony Music.

Before that, I changed my job and I went off to the US for an official assignment. The year was 1996 and my FOURTH Inflection Point in my musical journey !

This is when I was exposed to two new genres of music - Jazz and Blues ! On the first weekend of my stay in the US, we went off partying with my colleague and his friend ( who was a computer programmer by day and Bass guitarist by night !). He took us to the famous Jazz club - the BLUE NOTE for a Sunday Jazz Brunch show ! http://www.frommers.com/destinations/newyorkcity/N24399.htmlIt was awesome - we were sitting right in fronto fo the stage - and the experience was really good. It was a jazz vocal band playing - though I don't remember who now.

Bu the experience that really touched me was after, when he ( the bass guitarist) took us to this non descript hole in the wall BLUES BAR called Dan Lynch's Blues Bar ( which I believe has closed down now). It was located somewhere in Manhattan NYC in the Village.

It was just fantastic ! Basically, it was a small bar and amateur bands just jammed there playing from the afternoon till the wee hours. Musicians just signed up in a register - stating what they wanted to play - and that's what they did !

I had never really heard the Blues before this - and I fell in love ! Because it had a lot of electric guitar, I just loved it !

So, though both started off together ( Jazz and Blues), my heart went out for the Blues, primarily because of the ROCK connection ( It helped that all modent Rock owes its Origin to the Blues !)

A couple of years of Blues happened - and I started veering away from "conventional music". It was difficult to live in this "idealist" world as I had by now joined Sony Music in 1999

Sadly, I was a bit disillusioned with the job - I realised the business of music was .. just that - BUSINESS ! It was difficult to grapple with the "awesome talent" that existed everywhere in the world of music and there was the "other music" which was commercial and therefore was made money !

Reading this book, THE HIT MEN, (http://www.amazon.com/Hit-Men-Brokers-Business-Vintage/dp/0679730613) also did not help me in joining the industry that I had joined. It is a fascinating account of how the US Music industry has always worked - Personal connections, Mob influence, Drugs, Personal agendas and a little bit of talent !

I realised that I was buying far less music than I would have not working for a music company. Of course, the free / heavily discounted CDs were partially reponsible !

I soon left Sony, went back to advertising, where I started picking up the broken pieces of my music passion. That helped.

What helped even more was I finally purchased a DECENT Music system ( Canton Speakers + Rotel Amps) . At the time of purchase I was freaking out on Modern Rock - Linkin Park, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Staind, etc.

By the time the system came in, I had fallen in love with Jazz all over again !!

I was visiting Bangkok as part of an office conference and I chanced upon an attractive box set of modern jazz - a compilation by this european jazz label - ECM called RARUM - a set of 12 CDs. This featured compilations made by the artists themselves - Paul Motian, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, John Surman, etc. All were strange names to me - which made the investment even more exciting, fun and RISKY !!!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/299610/

I got this collection home and even my wife seemed excited with it. Then, the first real connection started when I attended a JAZZ Workshop conducted at Planet M ( a music shop in Mumbai). The person conducting it was an old timer from the Jazz Society in Pune called Max Babi.( He writes for this jazz website - check it out ! )http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=149

His passion for Jazz just hit me there and then ! I asked him to recommend some music from the store and I ended up buying some Oscar Peterson ( which I love till date !) http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll Check him out too !!

He played some artists ( which I had obviously never heard of - like Saskia Laroo, a Scandinavian Trumpeter) and I realised that JAZZ was a huge Ocean of unexplored gems of talent that I was going to have a blast discovering ! This was two and a half years ago and I am so happy to say that that journey continues with great fervour till today ( even greater actually !)

The next connection was my next jazz workshop. I found out that they were doing a 3 session workshop on MILES DAVIS conducted by Jayanto Sengupta.

This was how I put my foot on the JAZZ Gas Pedal and started cruising on the awesome JAZZ highway !! I will share this in my next post ! Toodles !!!

Creative Leap !

Yes - I have already done one of the 101 things to do before you die !!! ( see previous post)
Sky Diving !!! Tandem Sky Diving to be precise - you jump out of a plane along with an instructor who is attached to you ( or you are attached to him rather !)

It is all very professionally handled. My jump happened on December 13th, 2005 in Queenstown, New Zealand.

It had been a dream to do this for many years and I was just waiting for two things - the opportunity and the COURAGE required to do such a thing !!!

Fate and the Universe allowed the opportunity to arise when I found out that my company was going off for an International conference ( from India) to New Zealand.

I found out that NZ was one of the best places to do Sky Diving in the world !

So, I realised that the Opportunity had presented itself - now it was coming down to the Courage !

After a day in Auckland ( where the formal conference happened), we ( 140 of us !) set off for the Adventure Capital of the world - Queenstown !

The moment we hit town, I enquired about the jump. I realised that besides the Opportunity and the Courage there could have been one more barrier - Cost !! The jump was not exactly cheap !! ( infact - it cost NZ$ 295).

So, my mind went into a turmoil ! ( Should I do it ? Is it really worth it ? When do I actually do it ? The schedule for the group seemed to be quite packed. So, if I had to take out time to do this, I would have to excuse myself from one of the scheduled group activities. That may not look nice !)

Then I just decided to SURRENDER ( not like what Saddam's forces did in Operation Desert Storm), but more of a LET GO.

I trusted that since the UNIVERSE had brought me to the edge of Opportunity, it would guide in jumping off it as well ! So, I decided to attend all the group activities - which I must admit I did not regret - as we visited one entirely divine place on earth - called MILFORD SOUND.

The Universe responded to my SURRENDER. The return flight schedules were put up ( Queenstown to Wellington) and I realised that I was on the LAST FLIGHT out ( in the afternoon). This SUDDENLY gave me time to do my jump !!!

But, as this nail biting build up to the jump continued, I realised that GOOD Weather was also a cruicial prerequisite for the jump to happen !

And the weather on the day before the jump was exactly the OPPOSITE - Grey skies, Cloudy and lots and lots of rain !

My mind, always trying to play the devil kept goading me, pointing out that maybe sky diving was not meant for me !

This went on till 8:30 in the morning on the day of the jump. The bell captain of the hotel promised me that he would call me after checking with the Skydiving operator whether the weather would permit a jump to happen for me or not that day !!!

I could not wait. I took my bag and headed off to the lobby assuming that IT WOULD HAPPEN !!!

I approached Bob ( I think that was his name !) who was on the phone. He suddenly got off the phone, looked at me, smiled and said, " You sir, are going to JUMP off a Plane today !!!"

Those words stung me !!! I had 2 instantaneous reactions. EXCITEMENT that it was going to happen. And, FEAR that it was going to happen !!!

I went off to the skydiving shop, went through some videos and photos of the diving. I chanced upon the literature of NZONE ( the sky dive operator) - and saw a quote on their materials which made a lot of sense at that moment !

I must not fear
Fear is the mindkiller

Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration

I will face my fear

I will permit it to pass over
and through me

And when it has gone past
I will turn the inner eye to see its path

Where the fear has gone
there will be nothing

Only I will remain

FRANK HERBERT


WOW !!! I thought to myself - "Did Frank Herbert ever do Sky Diving ?!"

After a short wait, we were whisked off to the Drop Site.

This was close to the airport and in the background were the beautiful, snow capped and panaromic REMARKABLES mountain range ! ( Yes - the very same from LORD OF THE RINGS !)

The Instructors briefed us on the basic mechanics of the jump. There were two others who would be jumping with me - a young Brazilian guy and the other one was English. There was an instant and silent connect between the three of us as we realised that we were sharing the same fate !

This when I realised that though we were harnessed to the instructors, we would be the first to jump out of the plane !!! My mind would see the plane, the sky and the earth below first !!!

The only comforting fact was that my Instructor - Sasha(who hailed from Serbia) had been jumping for 20 years and had performed almost 10000 jumps !!

We huddled into the plane. There were 9 of us. 3 instructors. 3 sky diver camera men ( These would shoot our memorable experience on video !!) and 3 silent sky divers ( Us !)

There was no looking back now. Our jump was scheduled at 12,000 feet !

The "dreaded" moment arrived and I was the last one to jump out ( Thank God !)

General George Patton once said that Courage is fear holding a minute longer ! And thats what I went through !!

The moment came... and went ! One moment I was getting into position to jump. The next, I was falling down. I got into a somersault action. I first saw the Earth. Then I saw the underbelly of the Plane ( I was upside down) and then I stabilised and I was in HEAVEN !!!!

I cannot describe the feeling that I went through for the next 60 seconds ! We were in Free Fall. This meant that the Parachute had not opened yet and were descending at a speed of 200 kmph !!

But the sensation that I got was of FLYING !!!!

It was me ( with the instructor on top of course !) and Mother Earth - and a very very pretty, divine and beautiful looking Mother Earth - a beautiful blue lake surrounded by lush green fields and the majestic Remarkables mountain range !

There was nothing in between the earth and me. I could see 360 degrees of the Earth ! This was nothing like watching the scene from an airplane window. Here, I was part of the scene !!! The other difference was there was wind ( a lot of it !!!)

I felt a loving vibe beckoning me from Mother Earth ! I was definitely in heaven and in love !!! I posed for the Skydiver Camera man who was covering my entire journey !

And then, there was a tug of reality - the parachute had opened and we were ready to drift onto land ! ( How sad !!)

We had a perfect landing and it was OVER !!!

I knew it would take a lot for me to forget this experience ! I still haven't and its been 9 months since !

The only thing that came close to the experience after this was ... watching it on DVD !!!

That was the closest to sharing it with the others ! I was only the one amongst the 140 who had ventured into this and I knew that I was now a Hero !!! :-) Indeed, I was soon nick named SKYDIVER during the rest of the trip !

I don't know what Gautam Buddha went through when he was enlightened, but I sure as heaven went through 60 seconds of that when I was in FREEFALL !!!

Thank you UNIVERSE for making all the right connections for me !
Opportunity , Courage and finally Bliss !

After this post, I am tempted to share my SCUBA DIVING experience. And this time I was not strapped to anyone else !!!

Until then, CIAO !!!

101 Things to do before You Die

Another very different kind of book inspired me recently (thousands of books do that to me by the way ! )

A very tempting title screamed out to me ! 101 Things To Die Before You Die

Above that in small print was 1) Attempt 2) Complete and 3) Expire !!!

Richard Horne, the author has put together an amazing book - or should I say LIFE Kit ?!

The whole approach is - "Handy Guide to doing all the coolest things in life" !

The book has a sheet full of "Star" stickers which you peel out and stick on the things you have completed from the list ! It also has a compact list of all the 101 things to be neatly folded and put in your wallet so u can integrate these things into your life 24x7 ! Very Professional !!

Just check out some of the THINGS !

1. Write a Best Seller
2. Bungee Jump
3. Drive a Car at Top speed
4. Join the Mile High Club ( i.e. make out in a commercial airline flight !)
5. Leave a job you hate
6. Get barred from a pub or bar
7. Get something named after you
8. Invent something
9. Study the Kama Sutra and put theory into Practice
10. Sky Dive
11. Throw a Dart into a Map and travel where it lands !
12. Shout "Drinks are on me" ! in a Pub or Bar !
13. Sell all your junk on ebay and make a profit
14. Be an extra in a FILM
15.See an erupting volcano...

and there are 86 more !!!

Each page describes the activity in some detail highlighting the pleasures / risks and has a activity noting page for you to note down details of your personal achievement !

So, I bought a copy - and the next day bought a few more to "gift to friends" !!

I felt that the book touched a chord - with a simple message - LIVE LIFE !!!!

and more importantly, LIVE LIFE NOW !!!

The question that comes to mind is "Hey, am I living my life now ? " and if I am not living my life, what EXACTLY am I doing ?!!!

I honestly don't know the answer to your personal question - but I sure as heaven know mine !!!!

I have been living my life 2.3 % of the time - and I just need to LIVE and PLAY big !!! What are we here on this planet for ?

To commute for 3 hours a day to office and back ?
To earn a salary and crib about it
To have a relationship and be insecure about it ?
To never be satisfied ?
To never be happy ?

Also, who decides whether I am happy ? My boss ? My wife ? My pet dog ? ( I actually have one !)

No No No !!!! Its me !!! (believe it or not !)

I decide whether I am happy. I decide how I want to live my life - regardless of the size of my Swiss Bank account !!!

And as far as I am concerned, I want to ENJOY life !!! Every single moment !!

And, does that mean that I have to follow Richard Horne's list ? Well, I might take a few ideas from there - but I would rather have MY OWN list, draw it up and start ticking it, while my Life clock is ticking !!!

So, I leave you with this question -

"What's your list ? and when are you going start ticking ?!"

What's the (GOOD) News today ?!

Am currently reading a very interesting book. One of my favourite booksellers - Rafique of Ensign Book stores, Bandra vociferously recommended this title - GOD WANTS YOU TO BE RICH by Paul Zane Pilzer.

The title was certainly attractive ! Rafique pointed out that the author uses a lot of logic and case studies to apparently make the point. I was sold !

I started reading the book and I was hit by the central theme - no not about God helping you with your finance - but the basic premise he talks about is that most of man's CONFLICT in this world has been about people fighting over SCARCITY. Scarcity of Resources - especially of the Natural kind ( read Oil in today's times !). Because he has always ASSUMED that these resources were scarce, he has always been INSECURE and that has led to GRABBING them from others ( or attempting to grab / always having the intention to grab !).

This had led to the countless wars and violence that we have all grown up reading about. Pilzer, the author argues that the world resources are actually ABUNDANT. Even if one resource runs out there has always been another to replace it ( Coal - Oil for example) . Or. Technology has stepped in to make better utilisation of our resources -so the same "depleting" resource if used better can last us for lifetimes ! ( more fuel efficient engines helping conserve the once rapidly depleting oil resources)

Alas, not everyone sees it this way. Many are eyeing the neighbour's wealth of resources and scheming to get it for themselves ! To help them in their scheming ways, a very powerful tool is used very successfully - FEAR !

Man has been living with FEAR ever since he can remember he was man ! Man also discovered that he could create fear in other men to get what he wanted.

Creating fear in others is a strategy that is being in the employ of man for thousands of years. And it continues. Today there is the fear of terror. Yesterday it was the fear of "Oil running out". Both these fears are of course linked !

"FEAR KEEPS US ALL IN PLACE" is the insight that a lot of people have been using to dominate the world. And who is the best ally to these scheming intentions ? The Media !

They have practically amplified Fear to a level never thought possible. Do read the wikipedia section on "Culture of fear" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_fear

Many have pondered, observed, written, made movies about this. Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, etc.

The POINT is that one of the fears that have always bothered man has been the FEAR OF SCARCITY. "What if I cannot continue the life I am leading because of this running out ?!"

"I must do something about it" ! ( Oops - violence ?)

And the media have helped this fear to be rampantly widespread. Bad News travels faster. And if it is helped to do so by the media why not ?!

Can you remember reading a newspaper any day where there was NO Bad News ! ?

Would the newspaper sell ?

Would anyone watch CNN if there was only news on happiness and peace ? Tough - right ? !

So, that's the truth - Bad News Sells !

And it is a vicious cycle ! Bad News creates Fear. Fear creates more Bad News ! Bad News focuses on Selective information for example SCARCITY, amplifies it and makes it the BIG News !

So, utlimately coming back to Pilzer's book, this fear of scarcity makes everyone believe that ABUNDANCE is not meant for everyone. Only some will have it - sp most of us will just live in miserable scarcity. Some might do something about it ( which might not be good !)

If we actually realised that we have been living in a world and society of ABUNDANCE and see how blessed we are all and see that if we just share, there is actually enough for everyone. Everyone would benefit and the pie of resources would just get bigger - thanks to OPTIMISM rather than the PESSIMISM which we have seem to have adopted !

He gives a couple of commercial examples where having a mindset of Openness has led to everyone get richer. Eg : VHS vs Betamax. VHS was for all - maybe technologically inferior - but it had an "inclusive" approach. Today, the more "superior" Betamax is not even known which had tried an "exclusive" approach.

The Internet with its "open" architecture has changed the way World Society functions. I am sure you have chanced upon the Cluetrain Manifesto. If not, do give it a peek ! It talks about how the world actually started going FLAT in 1999 http://www.cluetrain.com/

Open architecture operating systems like LINUX has given the behemoth Microsoft a run for their money ! Have a dekko at this story from Business week ! http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_05/b3918001_mz001.htm

So, to sum it all, remember, the WORLD RESOURCES are ABUNDANT. We will all Prosper ( and we are meant to Prosper !) if we accept this and operate with openness and willingness to Share !

I hope the reactions to this are ABUNDANT !

New age spiritual heroes

Who do we turn to for INSPIRATION in today's tumultous times ? Do we have a bank of HEROES the way we see them liberally sprinkled across our various History text books ?

Or... are we living in an era which does not have any Heroes anymore ?

Are the Heroes also too busy to be heroes anymore ??

Whom would we consider today's heroes ?

The Dalai Lama ? The late Mother Teresa ? George W Bush ? Tony Blair ? Zinedine Zidane ? Rahul Dravid ? Oprah Winfrey ? Deepak Chopra ? Robin Sharma ?

I don't know - I am sure each one will find their Hero in the list above !

Are there more heroes in Fiction today ?

Spiderman, Superman, The X-men, Agent Ethan Hunt from MI i/ii/iii, Shrek, etc.etc.

Maybe the world doesn't need real heroes and turns to these REEL Heroes instead ! :-)

I have been fascinated by a certain Reel Hero - someone I have been "watching" for some time now.

He's a modern hero facing the most "modern" times ( read - terror !)

He's Jack Bauer from the hit TV series 24.

I am sure most of you would have seen him in action !

I wanted to analyse his character to see if he is today's IDEAL HERO ! Have a dekko at what I picked up from a wikipedia entry.

Characteristics

Jack Bauer has characteristics marking him as a "flawed hero". He holds similarities to many Greek heroes, having a "tragic flaw" that dictates his rise to power and, inevitably, will dictate his downfall. Jack's employment at CTU has given him many survival skills that have kept him alive, yet his tenure at CTU can be held liable for many, if not all, of Jack's misfortunes (losing his wife at the end of Season One, his addiction to heroin during Season Three, the emotional "loss" of Audrey Raines, his love interest in Season Four, the lives of some of his closest friends, his job at CTU, and his own "death".)

Bauer's behavior and actions are consistent with the philosophy "the ends justify the means". When innocent lives are in danger he behaves as though obtaining a desired result is more important than how he obtains it, and he frequently performs controversial actions if he thinks they will achieve an important goal. His philosophy was perhaps best expressed after he shot and killed a witness in front of George Mason, then-CTU Special Agent in Charge. George expressed dismay at Jack's extreme action, and Jack replied: "That's the problem with people like you, George. You want results, but you never want to get your hands dirty."

Lying, torture, stealing, and even cold-blooded murder are all viable options to Jack, a stark contrast to the vast majority of fictional heroes. Comparisons with the very people he battles are inevitable. As stated by George Mason in Day 1, "Rules don't apply to Jack Bauer. He does what he wants, when he wants, and he doesn't care whose life it affects."

Jack Bauer is also a master of interrogation. He often uses extreme physical force or psychological stress to retrieve the information he needs. At other times, Jack has threatened the lives and/or well being of terrorists’ families. Jack himself is also adept at handling interrogation, as shown in Season 2, proving terrorist Ronnie Stark's point, "Everyone breaks, Jack, even you," to be incorrect. Jack has withstood knife carvings, electrocutions, and injections without confessing. During one torture session, he was accidentally put into cardiac arrest, but was revived with emergency measures. Jack was soon portrayed as a character who could remain perceptive under pressure when, several minutes after his revival, he was able to escape with the help of a nearby doctor.

Jack has routinely put his and his family's life on the line, as well as the lives of those close to him, in order to serve the greater good. Notably, he was faced with a situation where a terrorist threatened to release a devastating biological weapon if Jack did not execute one of his superiors, Regional Director Ryan Chappelle. Despite efforts to locate the terrorist before the deadline, Bauer was forced to execute Chappelle. In the fourth season, Bauer was told to extract a Chinese scientist named Lee Jong from the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, who had vital information needed to stop an imminent terrorist strike. During the illegal raid, Lee was shot and needed immediate medical attention to stop him from dying. When he arrived at CTU, Bauer learned that the doctor there was already working on Paul Raines, the estranged husband of Audrey Raines (Jack's then girlfriend). Raines had been shot earlier trying to push Jack out of the way of a gunman. Much to Audrey's horror, Bauer drew his weapon and ordered the doctor to begin surgery on Lee. Raines went into cardiac arrest and died shortly afterward.

Jack Bauer is rarely seen showing remorse for such actions until after the crisis has passed. This is largely due to his emotional suppression necessary to complete the task at hand. He has on occasion revealed his more vulnerable side, including a notable scene at the end of Season 3 when he breaks down crying after the traumatic events of the day.
Following the death of his wife at the end of Season 1, he seemed to live a life that had little personal purpose. To Jack Bauer, there is no separation of his personal life and his duty. As he said to Chase Edmunds, his partner during Season 3: "You cannot do this job and have a normal life at the same time."[5].

Having gone through his CHARACTERISTICS, my question is - Is Jack Bauer the new age HERO ? Real, Flawed, Emotional - but very very FOCUSED ( to the extent of being RUTHLESS !) on the GREATER GOAL and GOOD.

I have watched all 5 seasons of 24 - and enjoyed every riveting suspenseful minute of it - but I have been contemplating on this extremely complex anti-hero - Jack Bauer.

Do we need people like Bauer in today's world ? Or would he just be an overkill ? Is he the DOUBLE EDGED Sword that this world needs to face all the evil ? Or Is the evil just over hyped to suit certain agendas ? Is there a Bauer in all of us ? - just waiting to get out ? Or is his Realness too Real ?

This is the first post on NEW AGE SPIRITUAL HEROES ! Cheers !