Code for Indian National Flag

This august I saw a lot of people (I guess unknowingly) disrespecting the Indian flag. I even saw one instance of a guy who was drapping the front hood of his car with the flag. I guess his patriotism was overflowing out of his engine. I think the best way to avoid these acts, is to include an instruction sheet along with the flag when its sold. By the way, please say no to plastic flags. They are not all that beautiful and harmful to the environment as well.

From Flag.de

The Chakra on the National Flag was officially defined at 75% of the white stripe in 1947 (taken from specifications issued by the Indian Standards Institution), but according to William Crampton (1993) this has largely been ignored in practice ever since. To quote from Dr Crampton's notes: "...in practice the Chakra occupies 98% of the white stripe (or thereabouts)", and the spec he drew up shows it at exactly that.
Christopher Southworth, 23 May 2004

Flag code as defined by Ministry of Home Affairs - http://www.mha.gov.in/nationalflag2002.htm

From the wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_India

Read Gita even if we can't understand everything.

Everytime you read, you find a new perspective and a new meaning. I better finish reading it atleast once. A story forwarded by a friend -

An old Farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Bhagavat Geeta. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could.

One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa! I try to read the Bhagawat Geeta just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bhagawat Geeta do?"

The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water."

The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, "You'll have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.

This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You're just not trying hard enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again.

At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house.

The boy again dipped the basket into river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!"

"So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket."

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out.

"Son, that's what happens when you read the Bhagavat Geeta. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Krishna in our lives."

One question: If reading was the act of dipping into the water, What is the equivalent to the "wish of bringing some water home" to reading Bhaghavat Geeta? I do agree with one anology here. Our brains are as perforated as the coal basket. It cannot hold water.

Complementarity of Truth

Read this story.

Neils Bohr was a famous Danish physicist, instrumental in the development of Quantum Theory. One day, he was giving a lecture on "Complementarity". The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is a famous example of complementarity. It states that the more you know about the momentum of an electron, the less you can know about its position, and vice-versa. In other words, two qualities have complementarity if the closer you get to knowing one, the further you are from knowing the other. Got it? Here's the point.

During this lecture, a student stood up in the back of the room and said, "Dr. Bohr. What is the complementarity for 'Truth'?"

Bohr replied, "Clarity."

The more clarity you have the farther you are from truth. If Truth were to be defined as a perceived notion, a belief, then I agree. But I thought Truth has nothing to do with perception. Searching for the definition of Truth gives you the following results on Google.

• a fact that has been verified;
• conformity to reality or actuality;
• a true statement;
• accuracy: the quality of being near to the true value;

Clarity brings knowledge. It defrosts your windshield and shows the path ahead. And truth is knowledge, a destination you want to reach. How can they be opposite? May be once you reach the destination you dont need the clarity anymore, because you are not driving anymore!? Makes sense in a very weird way. Hope I get some clarity on the issue.