Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Changing the future through time travel

A young boy Adithyaa asked me a question about changing the future through time time travel:

In your book, God and Destiny, page no. 12, you have said, "As you cannot change whatever happened in the past, you cannot change whatever has to occur in the future from what is predestined." I have a doubt in this. Can we not change our past by traveling back into time (time travel)?

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The God quiz

How much do you know about God? Take the God quiz at http://www.godanddestiny.com/quiz/ and find out.

Monday, April 16, 2012

If

If at any time in your life, you are not able to find your path, you can not figure out your destination, and you are unable to see any of your close ones, then do come to me: I will take you to an eye specialist.

--An SMS from a friend

Saturday, November 5, 2011

worth


My mama used to tell me if you can't find something to live for, you best find something to die for.
--Tupac Amaru Shakur

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Rape square: the importance of role play in crime investigation and helping the victim

You must have heard how useful the reconstruction of a crime scene is in solving a criminal case and helping the victim. But people, general public as well as experts in the fields of psychology or criminal investigation, are still uncertain about how far they should go in this reconstruction:
ASI 'raped' rape victim, CID probe on

Fri May 07 2010, 03:39 hrs Rajkot

The CID (crime) has initiated an inquiry against an ASI (Assistant Sub-inspector) with Dhrol police in Jamnagar for allegedly raping a rape victim instead of probing her case.
Sources said the case occurred two years ago, and the CID was to get the DNA test done on the rape victim, her daughter and ASI Magan Kotwal after the victim claimed she had a child from the ASI following the rape. “An inquiry has begun under CID in Gandhinagar after the rape victim submitted an application in this regard,” said a CID official at Rajkot.
Two years ago, the victim, who is from Pav village in Dahod, along with husband and children shifted to Kharva village to work in the fields of one Narsinh Patel. In her application, the victim has accused Patel of raping her. She approached Dhrol police station, where her application was marked to ASI Kotwal, who took her to police quarters at Dhrol and raped her. Following threats from the ASI, the family returned to their native place. The victim made a complaint to the CID later.

18-year-old girl raped [multiple times] in south Delhi

TNN | Apr 11, 2011, 06.00am IST

NEW DELHI: An 18-year-old girl was allegedly raped twice at different parts of the city in South Delhi over the span of 24 hours. The incident was reported late on Friday and four men have been arrested.
According to the complaint filed by the victim, she was first raped by her 42-year-old relative in Vasant Kunj area and then raped again by a stranger. The victim claimed that when she had managed to escape from her relative's clutches, and had hailed a cab in desperation around 11pm, she was again raped by the taxi driver and his two associates.
"She has claimed that she was first raped by her brother's father-in-law — Hanuman Mishra — at his Rangpuri residence. She had gone there to look after Mishra's ailing wife. She somehow managed to escape late at night and hailed a taxi on NH-8, near Radisson Hotel. She claimed that she narrated her tale to the taxi driver, Bijender (22), who promised her a lift," said a senior police officer.
He added: "Instead of helping her, he took advantage of her vulnerable state: he picked up two other men — Vinod (28) and Parveen (27) — on they way and they allegedly raped her in the moving car. After that, the two men got down and Bijender drove her to Dwarka sector 19 to drop her off. It was then that a passerby noticed it and made a PCR call around 4.05am. A PCR van sprung into action and managed to apprehend Bijender on the spot." The other three accused, including Mishra, were also arrested. The girl was taken for medical examination where rape was confirmed, said cops.
Mishra works with a catering company at the Delhi airport, while Vinod is a loader there; Parveen is unemployed. Bijender, Vinod and Parveen are residents of Barona village in Sonepat, said cops. The victim is reportedly a student of class 10 and a resident of Faridabad. Her brother had recently married Mishra's daughter. A case under IPC sections 376 (rape), 376-2 (g) (gang rape), 366 (kidnapping or abducting a woman) and 368 (wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement a kidnapped or abducted person) has been registered.
Anyway, if you are raped, you should avoid telling about it to a man; otherwise, you are in real danger of going through the horrible experience again, because it seems that many men find a rape-story arousing and a rape victim sort of irresistible. Many women find the narration or idea of rape sexually exciting too, but at least a woman won’t rape you and might even help you, without reconstructing the crime scene literally. This reiterates the importance of the presence of female staff in the departments of criminal investigation and justice.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Book signing and discussion at Connaught Place, Delhi

I am doing my fourth and final book signing with the first print of my book God & Destiny on 19th April, 4–7 p.m., at the restaurant Roopram Roti (Dutch Fries & More Pvt. Ltd.), F 30-B Connaught Place, New Delhi. If you would like to meet me, talk to me, get hold of one of the few remaining copies of the first print of my book, have it signed by me in your name, or try out some of the delicious items from the menu of the restaurant, then you are most welcome to the event. The restaurant is just a few steps from Rajiv Chowk metro station. If you are interested in attending the event, please express your intention at its Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roopram-Roti/127878633914387?ref=ts&sk=wall#!/event.php?eid=152026648193849.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

My first book reading and interview

I have been preparing to do some book readings and signings at different venues, including book stores, with my book God and Destiny. Therefore, when I received a request for a reading and interview in the 3D-virtual-world Second Life, I accepted it happily, thinking it will be a good preparation for my real-life events, and indeed it turned out to be a wonderful experience, thanks to the intelligent and inquisitive interviewer and audience, who asked me some very good questions. Here is the link to the transcript of the whole programme:

http://www.godanddestiny.com/interview/

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

FAQ

One day, the maid who comes to my apartment for cleaning and washing cloths asked me, “Why don’t you get married?” I said, “Two women come to this house—you for cleaning and the other for cooking; they stay here for a total time of one hour, but they talk so much that by the time they leave, I feel drained, exhausted. Can you imagine what will happen to me if I get married and a woman stays with me 24/7!”

Thursday, June 10, 2010

shot hat

My chat with a random stranger on 27-05-2010 20:43:25:

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!

Stranger: m 22 uk

You: m 37 India

Stranger: black bastard

You: carry on

Stranger: carry on wat wat can u do to me
Stranger: blow me up

You: abuse me more

Stranger: why
Stranger: ?

You: just want to know all that you feel about the race I belong to.

Stranger: i feel people like you a child beaters and war starters i dont think you should be aloud to abuse your children
Stranger: in any way shape or form
Stranger: ?

You: and what else?

Stranger: thats it?

You: is that all?

Stranger: yea why
Stranger: ?

You: well, I thought there is more hatred inside you.

Stranger: no why would u think that i am a honest person who will tell anyone haw i feeel if there r summut the devil brings into the world
Stranger: ?

You: are you white?

Stranger: yes and proud why?

You: and you are honest too, cuz many white people have the superiority complex and hatred for people of other races but they dont express it.

Stranger: well i do avt got a problem with you its just alot of people hurt there children in india
Stranger: ? have you got owt to say

You: How do we hurt our children?

Stranger: u work them like a horse the children over there looks after the adults
Stranger: and olnt thing there get is shot hat

You: shot hat?

Stranger: yh

You: what is a shot hat?

Stranger: well iam going avt got time to speak to people who r war causers sorry buy

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

Friday, April 2, 2010

One year of being an author

My first book, God and Destiny: The Supreme Knowledge, was published by Rupa & Co. on first April, 2009, so yesterday I completed an year of being an author, and this year has passed very quickly—I can’t stop myself from saying, “Time flies,” even if it is a cliché. I am smiling when I write that it was an interesting, eventful, proud, busy, not very successful but mostly happy year.

Many of you may still not be knowing that my book has been published and is available in both physical and online bookstores, because I wanted to announce its publication in style—by inviting you to the book launch function or passing you on a link of an article or news about it in a reputable medium—but I could not do so, because I could not timely organize a book launch function, which I had planned to be grand and huge to an unforeseen scale, and the articles published about the book in the print media were not good enough to be shown to you. So the main purpose of this post is to let all of my friends and acquaintances who are not yet aware of the publication of my book know about it being out there.

In the first year of its publication, the sale of God and Destiny was not anywhere close to my expectations, I could not execute the majority of plans I had made for its promotion, and the main thing on which I spent my time for its publicity failed. But my efforts are on, and there were some positives too: I noticed a positive comment of a reader about the book on the Web; some sellers listed the book on Amazon.com, making it available at very reasonable price for US residents, and people are actually purchasing it from there too; the book got a place in the library of the Indian parliament; and this is what a reader from Mumbai (Hormasd Sumariwalla) had to say about the book in an email he sent to me on January 01, 2010:

“I convey my deep gratitude to you for your book God & Destiny which I consider a treasure, and which is one-in-a-million that one can find in the mountain of "so-called" spiritual books.”

His was the first email I read this year, and I thought, “Oh my God, what a wonderful way to begin an year!”

More information about the book is on its website, http://www.godanddestiny.com/. Thanks again to all of you for your love and support.

Regards,
Vivake Pathak

Monday, January 25, 2010

next time

This is an excerpt of a news I read in Hindustan Times:

>>>
New Delhi, January 23, 2010: A 32-year-old man was beaten to death by two young men after he protested against their urinating on his wall in west Delhi, police said. According Delhi Police data, the Capital saw some bizarre murder cases in 2009 as far as motives are concerned. Among these, figure cases like a man murdering his neighbour because the latter had kicked his dog at Ranhola village in Outer Delhi. In another case, a man was killed for breaking the queue at a public toilet in Civil Lines. In New Friends Colony in South Delhi, a man was killed for refusing to let another person make a call from his cell phone.
<<<

Considering the above, I would say that next time be careful if you decide to stop someone from urinating on your property, to kick your neighbor's dog, to break the queue at a public toilet, or to refuse to let a stranger make a call from your cell phone. But above all, next time, if somebody stops you from urinating on their property, your neighbor or anyone kicks your dog, someone breaks the queue at a public toilet, or a stranger refuses to let you make a call from their cell phone, then you definitely know what you have to do.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

holes

Every person is unique and irreplaceable.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Bruce Lee

And when the opportunity arises, it is not me who strikes: the opportunity itself strikes. --Bruce Lee

Saturday, September 26, 2009

love and life

Both love and life give more pain than pleasure, more woe than happiness, more tears than smiles.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

drought

I have never seen such a severe drought in my life. I feel as if this is the only drought I have witnessed. Here in Delhi, till now, the rainfall has been just ten percent what it used to be.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

four questions

The first two of these questions have been troubling me from a long time now, and the last two came up recently as a result of a news:

1. By any means, by any chance, can there be any trace of reality outside the Internet also?

2. There is a big wall clock four feet above the monitor of my computer. If I move the mouse cursor to the tip of the minute arm of the clock and press the left button of the mouse, will time stop?

3. In their mission of implementation of the teachings of the ancient, holy Quran, Shariya, and Hadith and of accelerating the Islamisation of the world, Talibans, in the holy land of Pakistan, are now recruiting small kids to turn them into terrorists and to use them as suicide bombers. Don't they know that child labor and child abuse are prohibited these days?

4. How did you feel when you killed a human being for the first time?

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

silent love

It will be a mistake if I show the state of my heart to someone;
to keep loving someone silently is not wrong I hope.

--Sameer (Dil Ka Kya Kasoor)

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

injustice

Riyadh – Saudi Arab

Abdul Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh, Grand Mufti of the Kingdom, said that girls as young as 10 years old can be married. In a speech, the Grand Mufti said Islamic Shariah law allows the practice of pre-teen girls getting married, and that critics of the practice were doing the girls an injustice, Al-Hayat Arabic newspaper said.

“We hear often in the media about the marriage of minors. We must know that Shariah law is not unjust for women,” Aal-Al-Sheikh was quoted as saying.

“If it is said that a woman below 15 cannot be married, that is wrong. If a girl exceeds 10 or 12 then she is eligible for marriage, and whoever thinks she is too young, then he or she is wrong and has done her an injustice.”

The Grand Mufti’s comment came in the wake of several well-publicized cases of young girls being married to men sometimes old enough to be their grandfathers.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Norman Wexler

You know [what] four dollars buys today? [They] Don't even buy three dollars.
--Saturday Night Fever