Friday, October 22

Da Vinci Code

Yesterday, I was reading Da Vinci Code. I heard about the book, and brought it, but never spent on it. but, when I opened it yesterday, I couldnot sleep till I completed it.

The book was very intresting in two ways:
1. The Subject, related to religion and challenging of many established notions. * why I said notions, instead of facts, I will reveal later
2. Use of Cryptology and Matematics in the chase

Though I am called a Hindu by religion, by birth, I studied in different missionary schools, Ramakrishna Mission, Nirmalite Convents (HQ at Vatcian City, under direct influence of Pope) and some other schools. And by nature, I am intrested in history and read a lot to know things about different places.

These schools did have their effect on me, I came to know about Jesus, the differences between Catholics and protestants, the different Aspects of Hinduism, and many things. I am still a Hindu, but I learnt to enjoy the good things of other religions. This is something about me. I am telling this as the topic that I am dealing with today is avery controversial and but this is to not to hurt any one, just a quest to find the answers for questions boggling me for a while.

As a student, I learnt about the European history and also read a great deal from the Graduation books, borrowing others books. The following are the issues that have been bothering me for a long long time...

1. When we speak about Christ, we never mention that Christ is a Bachelor. Is he married or Unmarried
2. What is the role of Christ's 12 Apostles in the time after his crucification?
3. Why are two Testaments present, Old and New and why do they differ in different aspects
4. Is Jesus having any siblings
5. Where did he spend the time that he was reported to be disappearing from the Roman Empire. I read that he was seen as a young kid and then as a youngman, there is no description of his teenage.

The above are based on Bible, while the below are based on the incidents described by Historians
1.Wy did Renaissance Happen
2. Why should the Church get divided into two, Catholic and Protestant
3. What exactly were the resaons behind the various major incidents that rocked Europe from 14th century to 18th Century, Like changes in ruler of Throne of England, various movements, etc

So many things that I cant explain here. Yesterday, when I was reading the book, I was first Startled. And then it became intresting.

The book propagates a theory that Jesus was indeed married and that the whore mentioned in Biblical verses, Mary is none other than his wife, etc. It also mentioned that both Jesus and Mary belonged to a Royal Bloodline and that the line is still continuing to date.

And the proceedings of the book went on to describe about Holy Grail, Mary and her successors and the chase was an attempt to find the Holy Grail and see that its intact, untouched by people and thus hiding the secret.

The use of Crypto Analysis in finding the clues is really great and Author needs to be applauded for that.
I was still skeptical whther the contents were true or not, but then to my astonishment, when I ran a quick search in Google, I did find that many were true. The book is not completely true, it seems to be part fiction, giving asubstansial support to the notion that Jesus was married.

Please read this here to know about Priory Sion, the secret society to which Leonardo Da Vinci is said to have been a Grandmaster. And BBC is running a show on the same.

After reading all these, my doubts have increased and now, I am in a quest to find the truth, the truth behind all these things.

History is always intriguing on its part, and History is nothing but the documented version of a person or more that one person's life, either by themselves or others. history can be tweaked to suit the needs of the hour. To prove what we say, we need documented support.

And I am aare that this quest is no ending, considring the above facts. But, yes, I will do my best to find what ever I can.

I made some intresting points while reading the book, and I will present them slowly here.

Again, if my views hurt anyone, either those expressed here or those that I a m going to do, please excuse me, These are purely my personal views. If you wish to make any comments, please leave them here.

Wednesday, October 20

Management Joke

Management JokeOne person comes to a farmer and says that he wants some work and he is without food for the last two days. The farmer replies that he wants a hard working person. The person says, ‘ I am prepared to do any work’. The farmer takes him to his farm and tells him to shift a haystack from one place to another. The farmer thinks that if he can do it by evening, then he is a good worker. Then the farmer goes off to do his other work. When the farmer comes for lunch, the person has finished the job. The farmer says, ‘you are hired’.Next day he takes him to his other field. He tells him that it’s a sloping field and he has to dig up and spread the soil so as to level it. The farmer estimates that this will require two days. By evening, our efficient farm hand has finished the job.On the third day, the farmer gives him a sack of potatoes and says, ‘ Some of the potatoes are rotting. Please segregate the good ones and bad ones.’The farmer calculates that by lunch time the job should be done.When he comes back at lunch time, he is surprised to see the sack is nearly full, there are two small heaps of good and bad potatoes and the fellow is sitting there holding his head in his hands.‘Come on, what happened now, what’s the problem?’‘Sir, I am prepared to do any amount of hard work. But don’t ask me to do any decision making!’

Saturday, October 16

My fav game - Blogshares

Some time back, I was searching for a generous soul to give me a gmail invitation. was really desperate then to get one and in the search, came to Blogshares. I landed at the forum and then through the forum, I came to main site.

At first, I didnt understand what it is, but later understood that it is some game. Being a curious person, I decided to register and check it out and thus I entered the site with my name and initial balance of 500B$. I was trying to figure out the game in midst of work, and was able to make some small profits. Suddenly, one morning I found my self 30times rich and when I checked, I found that a Generous player, "Mars/irissecurities" gifted me some shares and then brought them using something called as artefact. Artefact, well something new I thought and then proceeded to discover the new things at Site. Then, slowly I grasped the game and now, I am in top 200.

Hey, I ought to give thanks to Laila for her tips and trades. She gave me a good leap in the game. Above All, I should give a special thanks to BSEC. In the month of August, during Mid August to be precise, I was suspended from game, cos, the Cheaty Pants System discovered that a single player is playing game using two different ids. Hence, I was suspended. I first got angry, then I realised the actual issue, and when I explained it to the BSEC, they accepted it and restored my status to normal. MrPilot is the one who helped me out, in the sense that his answers made me maintain my coolness. And its 'C' who supported my clarification. Thanks MrP and C.

The period of suspension has actually helped me in observing the game more clearly and also know people like Raymond, Admiral_Justin, IslandDave, JustJames, MrPilot, Arvind, Laila, RWO, MLT. My next step was to enter IRC for Blogshares. Through IRC, I came to know these people more and also Jay (Jay Campbell), AlanDean, SubWolf, KyRahJade,Eli,Linn, imsaguy, VillageIdiot and sprimal. I am still learning about them. But, yes, I do enjoy the chats and wait to have a good chat with them everyday. One more reason is that I wanna appear in ChanStats.

ChanStats are the statistics taken out of the real time chat and are really funny sometimes. The other day, AJ was showing me the lst for previous year and he is the topper with many lines last year. This year, I suspect that Raymond is going to takeover. Till now, he has been having high stats for uite sometime, from the time he joined. Soon, he may go to top, thats what I feel. Both of these as well as others are ready to help and once they know the person, the way they answer is different. How come I forgot about Arvind, the teenage guy from Dubai. He has been a member of BSEC and also a member of other teams. Recently, he quit BS for school, but is still a memberof IRC and is a cool chap.

Dave is the one who actually made me write this piece, cos he announced some contest and offered Premier Membership for the top three. And this is an effort to get it. Dave, I am writing here, and hope that it comes to the standards that you have set. Jay is the owner of this site and he takes the help of other members in running and maintaining this. He is asking us to take premier membership for supporting the bandwidth, and Jay, I promise that I would take one soon. Dave also happens to be the Leader of the Editing team and to be a member of that team, I should impress Dave first. I wanna be part of it and donno how I can do that soon?

I am really impressed by the skills of Alan. He is the main member of Math Team, the team that takes care of all validations at the site. Alan, three cheers to your skills. I wish I concetrated more on Maths instead of Computing Skills :(

Earlier,I used to spend my leisure time at various technical sites, but now, this is taking away most of time. I am getting addicted to this more and more. By the way, did I tell you what this iste is all about? This is a fictious Share market, where Blogs are treated as companies and categoriesed into differnt inndstries. Each blog generates some ideas for the industries its voted into (voting is again done by the members, moderated by the moderators). Generation of ideas is taken care by the Industry Moguls. If you own 10000 Ideas in any industry that has an artefact defined, you can create an artefact and then play game in a different level. The whole game depends on the values of Ideas, the share prices and the blogs. Voting gives you karma and chips and after reaching a certian level in karma, you can become a moderator.

RWO has started a charity on the name of Blogshares, to support the cause of children in need using the Chips, ideas and monetary cash donated by the generous players . Laila has joined him in his efforts. She is a mother of two grown up kids. A child from Phllipines is already taken care of. I hope and wish that this project would go ahead and be a success. If this game can help some needy souls, that is really great. Good Luck RWO and Laila in your efforts and I would do all that I can do for the cause.

Hey, do you guys see the Tagboard here? Its an enhanced one, which I got for free, thanks to Jay. Jay runs some raffle at BS and we have to use the chips to participate in the raffle. I am lucky to get a Tagboard, which I can use for one year :). Thanks Jay.

There is a lot to say , but then there should be a limit and hence I am closing this here. Thanks Folks for reading this patiently and please leave ur comments here. I wanna know ur feedback, on the topic as well as my style of writing.



Monday, October 11

Service Tax

Today, I was writing cheques to pay the insurance premia for myself and my sister. Then, Dad who has been observng me, told me to add 10.2% extra amount o te premium instalment that I am paying.

I was surprised and then asked im, why. Its then I realised that becos of the latest changes in Service Tax policies by Indian government, we ahve to pay service tax for Inusrance Premium also. This is really scary. The otherday I noticed my Banker charging me service tax for some of the services used by me. I was wondering why. I questioned my dad the same. He works for a Bank and when he explained me the whole fundoo behind this service tax, I opened my mouth in surprise. Cos, we are paying service tax more than once for every good we purchase and with the latest changes, we are paying large amounts towards it.

when people who are good at finance rule the nation, they always device ways to gather money from the public. My Mom was complaining for few days that the prices of consumables went up sharply and suddenly. Tamarind, which used to around 55/kg is now around 100/kg and many things like this.

I wonder when we can get back to normal life and that stays a wonder. Things always go up, but never down. Rising Cost of Petrol/Gas and Diesel, cosnumables, Fares, everything on rise except the salaries which stay the same. And companies are becoming smart that they try to decrease he salary on the name of brand.

The surprising element is that Inflation is shown to be going down. I cant understand how? Can anyone explain this logic??????