Reinventing the Hindu Temple

Without replacing Jesus as the Central authority, without replacing Bible as the doctrine Pastor Mark Driscoll has reinvented the Christian Church with his Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Also without making it a cult and himself a Cult-head.

Which is so different from Hindu organizations with their Bhagwans, Maharajs, Sri’s and their individual interpretations of Hinduism.

I believe God is Supreme in all His Names and Incarnations, deifying Man is the highest form of foolishness and all truths can be found via rational means plus for the Hindus in the Geeta, the 2 Epics, Vedas, Puranas and the Upanishads – just like we do not worship the composers of the Vedas it’s idiotic worshiping writers of books borrowing from them.

Mars Hill presents pure Christianity without dilution or fusion in short, powerful, entertaining messages in a context and language relevant to today. We would like to learn from them to present Hinduism as is, so this is a prayer for collaborators, mentors and teachers to join us to deliver Hinduism without making it anything else – musicians, composers, lighting gurus we wait for you to join us to build the New Hindu Temple

Shameful conduct of shameful American companies

Jay Leno said on the 12th, forget Merrill Lynch lets "lynch Merrill" in reference to reports that 4 company executives paid themselves $121 million in bonuses just as the company was writing down billions due to CDS related losses and at the same time being acquired (with US Government's help) by BofA due to liquidity problems. Liquidity problems were bad enough and the company was so concerned about projecting the right image to its clients that it canceled branch office Christmas parties (Seattle office party was scheduled for December 5), yet it paid executives $121 million? Forget lynching, how about taking a stand for truth, honesty and justice and firing your Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor? There still are decent, honest firms and Financial Advisors out there, including the honest folks of Merrill Lynch who left the company when the extent of corruption became evident.

And who would think Dell would join the ranks of shameful companies? I bought a Dell XPS-13" computer in January. Within a week of arrival the computer did not work right, so I called customer service. After about 3 hours of being shuttled between customer service centers in the Philippines and India staffed by the most inept, though earnest and polite people, who asked me the same questions, made me turn off and on the machine, I demanded to speak to someone in the USA since I'd bought an American computer in America from an American firm. Finally I got to speak to Tim in Florida who said the only way I could demand to speak to and receive service from a US based support group was by signing up for "YTT Premium Support" for $149 per year. Despite the fact that my computer was less that a week old Tim would not help until I signed up for the service so I did - and one of the reasons was that I want to do my bit to help keep some jobs in America. The promise of the service was: a dedicated phone number and a guarantee that the phones would be answered in 2 minutes. That promise hasn't been kept. Today - the 14th - I was on hold for 45 minutes this morning, and when my computer could not connect to the Internet I was told that I was in trouble since Dell needed to do an online diagnostic and until that was done there would be no on site service, so if my computer is dead therefore not connectible what do I do? May I get a refund for the non existing premium support and better still return my computer to get Dell the hell out of life?

So how many Americans like me have been cheated by Merrill Lynch and Dell? And what are we doing about it?

Practice vigilante justice and buy Apple and invest with an Independent Advisor.

House for rent - the one that's not renting

Mine.

That is house for rent.

I mean the house that I don't live in is for rent. Fully furnished.

It's a very nice house. Northwest Contemporary, Post & Beam style, with huge windows in a great part of town.

But I can't rent it. That is cannot find a tenant. With the housing slump the rental market's taking a beating too.

So I can't sell the house because the market is slow and getting a home loan isn't what it used to be (snap, and it was done) and can't rent it because no one (at least not my neighborhood) is renting $4,000 homes.

It's a bitch - this situation, and I am wondering if I could install a home based business in the house to generate some cash.

Any Ayurvedic or Naturopaths looking to set up a practice in Seattle?

These economic shifts in the US economy are getting too repetitive. There's always some speculative bubble bubbling to burst. And like this time too the well to do are fine the little guys are hurting, so when you look at NASDAQ or Wall Street do not assume that all's well in the great American suburbia - it ain't.

This Christmas on Christmas eve and the day before the stores were quite empty. And the general mood was melancholy, except for the Sports Stars and the Technology millionaires - they seem to do fine almost always.

It's this pressure to somehow get ahead, make more have more, so everyone got burned who came as the last man (at the end of the sort of pyramid) over paying for eToys. The preferred guys in front of the stock issue line got out okay selling very expensive stock soon to become junk to the average guy with stars in his eyes.

The same average guy hocked his house because it was so easy to borrow against the house - more than the house was worth. So guys making the loans made loads and loads of money. Then reality check happened and the average Joe found he had borrowed more than he should've or more than he could have - and now sits on a house with a loan of 500k when the value is 400k or something like that. And the guys who made the money kept their money. Merrill Lynch or Citi or others banks posting billions in losses aren't asking that commissions they paid be refunded - which they should.

So someone made money and now I can't rent my house - I need someway out!

On the subject of moneyed people Mukesh Ambani is quite obnoxious! $600m house is outrageous. He has money, granted, but there's a regular, flourishing slum, right outside the gates and against the walls of the old Ambani building in South Bombay. I've seen, and smelled it - last May - so it is there, and those who do not believe go see.

Social responsibility should be the flip side of extreme wealth - like Bill Gates and Tatas.

Messers Gates and Tata will you please rent my house?

And Messers Bankers will you reduce interest rates on credit cards (of course by freezing spending limits) so Americans can pay off credit card debts or you'd rather have them go bankrupt as that might mean write off instead of lowered income?

Massive Storm

The drive is long along Oak which crawls with a little jitter of speed now and then, and then there's the border where lines can be 5 to 45 minutes long, so I keep the radio on to keep with the news (also to stay awake).

Couple weeks ago there was this forecast for a massive storm with rains to drown the city and winds to uproot Redwoods - and since something similar had happened last winter downing 1000 tress in Stanley Park plus knocking power out for days in Seattle and parts of Vancouver - everyone - even me - were concerned.

The radio meteorologist issued dire warnings which were duly repeated every 10 minutes (since its traffic and news every 10 minutes). So I told my staff to be doubly careful - like otherwise they would be recklessly dancing under falling electric cables. We were duly kept abreast of this savage storm's location as it drew closer, so by the time it was 4 the storm was less than 50 miles away, ready to hit land with fury like Dharmendra hitting Shetty.

Since I have a longish drive (at this time inattentive reader is required to read paragraph 1) I took off early (after advising my staff, also my neighbor and a very wet, soggy customer to "take care").

I was hoping to make it home safe without being hit by buses flying overhead with passengers screaming louder than the screaming winds (carrying the buses quite in the wrong direction, or maybe right - point is bus is flying), and as waves leapt in from the sea making rivers out of roads, my only hope being faith in the 4 Matic, Nidhi's love, God's Grace, but based on my track record with luck I was also quite convinced that it would not be to odd were I to be swept away (by the winds) to the sea - Highway 99 drives along the Pacific - where I would be dropped on a piece of drift wood which will promptly sink with me on it, conversely I could also be crushed under a falling bus from the sky. So I said silent I Love Yous, Sorrys, Thank Yous - gave my car an affectionate pat (I am not kinky but the car and I have a strong bond, but at no time does it involve displays of affection which can be considered lewd by the prude - unless a kiss now and then is objectionable?).

So I got on the road. the sky was gray. The road was wettish from earlier rain. Traffic was light since many had chosen to play it safe rather than risk it on the road. And the air was still.

Not a leaf was fluttering. I mean it was like the whole fuckin' tree realm (there are many, many, many trees along the Highway, I mean its a jungle, seriously - with deer) was paralyzed.

I said, to the car - since there was no one else so who else would I say to - "Calm before the storm"

So I drive faster, and the air remained calm. I was hoping to see some activity instead of this suspense. But no leaf stirred. The birds in trees, many birds and even a few foolish one's brave enough to fly seemed quite calm. I said, with a wave, "Hope you birds survive".

By this time the radio was quite excitedly going on about the impending catastrophe. Reporters were calling to report positions of City Crews prepared to help, save humanity in distress. And City Crews were moving - per Radio - with great alacrity all over the place, blanketing Vancouver with cars, trucks, ladders, hand held radios, flash lights and whatever else rescue crews carry.

Radio said it was the biggest storm of the season and the City and the citizens believed it whole heatedly - proof was me waving good wishes to birds.

Still no leaf stirred. Not a single rain drop fell on the car or around it. I was almost at the border now, almost home to Nidhi - safe, alive, even birds were safe, and buses were on course.

Then the Radio said, "The storm has missed us totally, veering South where it will cause massive havoc in Seattle" And with gusto went on about how many trees could fall on how many homes crushing many young and old - storm spares no one, since Nature is impartial that is my view, not AM 1130's

Radio came back again reporting people had died because of a massive storm that had narrowly spared us but got those Americans good.

I heard there was some wind activity in Seattle, but no buses flew. Not even a moped flew - it could not since there are no mopeds in Seattle, but Vespas remained grounded, Subarus drove instead of sailing (could not sail because one, they are cars, secondly roads did not become rivers).

Today's forecast is for a massive storm with high winds and buckets of rain.

Check on me tomorrow.