bhagavad-bhAShA

The war is inevitable. धृतराष्ट्रः picked his iPhone and said "Hey श्री, सञ्जयम् आह्वयतु". Fortunately, श्री knows dvitIyA vibhakti, and said "आह्वयामि सञ्जयम्". Pretending to open his eyes, धृतराष्ट्रः asked: हे सञ्जय धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे समवेताः युयुत्सवः मामकाः पाण्डवाः च किम् कुर्वन्ति ? "हे सञ्जय, in the sacred field of languages, where the intellectual kshatriya-s are …

The Karma of Sanskrit

Many dhArmika maTha-s usually have their own affiliated publishing house and publish works of authors, who are rarely known outside that circle. Such publishing houses are usually treasure troves of Samskritam works that hardly see light of day. Many of these authors are patronized by various rich persona to bring out a book or translation …

Aerial Bharata

In the late 1980s as part of Indian students group in Tver (erstwhile Kalinin), we came up with an idea of showcasing India's cultural diversity to Russians via a skit. The plot was based on Afanasy Nikitin, the earliest known Russian merchant of Tver who travelled to India in 1470s and wrote The Journey Beyond …

pikanIDoDDayitaH

pikanIDoDDayitaH - पिकनीडोड्डयितः । Sounds gibberish? Have you been on a reunion? Or met a long lost friend from school, college or an early job? After a few initial how do you dos, the conversation is completely bereft of anything productive. And then it meanders to "What is Ramesh doing?", "Where is Suresh now a …

The Affix Factory

No matter what movie, there are a certain scenes that are heavily stereotyped. Let's say, whats the most common "Lecture hall scene"? Professor faces the board Picks up a chalk and writes some profound subject-related stuff Turns back to the students Says a couple lines about the subject Bell rings Students scamper to get out …

The Sequence of Logs

Mind is like a lake, and every thought is like a wave upon that lake. Just as in the lake waves rise, and then fall down and disappear, so these thought-waves are continually rising in the mind-stuff, and then disappearing, but they do not disappear for ever. They become finer and finer, but they are …

Refactor Relishes

Technology and Product Feature are two parallel lines that keep advancing in different planes. A typical challenge for a CTO is to ensure the features of a product are usable while keeping up with the technology advances - iow keep both engineers and the customers happy. Quite often a project meets one or more of …

The sampradAna dilation

During the late 80s, the college I was studying had a good reputation for its excellent library of old Sanskrit texts. But unfortunately accessing them was next to impossible, for whatever reasons, so I hardly tried. Not just from libraries, but in general, accessing Sanskrit texts in original or even a copy was not easy …

kaShTopanishad

One of the best collection of lectures delivered as part of his first American and England tour by Swami Vivekananda is the "Jnana Yoga". Among the several inspiring lectures, there is one about kaTha-upanishad, in which he brilliantly provides an exposition about the nature of life and death. In the late 1980s, it hooked me …

For whom the feeling tolls

From a simple series of drawings to sophisticated and precise motion of objects following physics laws, animation has come a long way in just a few decades. Companies like Pixar have raised the bar with every movie release. Eventually all animations look sophisticated, beautiful and stunning, yet they fail to hold us unless there is …