*From To Sathish*-Sathish's new movie Info & Pics pg20! - Page 99

"Oh," says the husband, "she'll order for herself."

His wife replies, "That fence wasn't electrified 30 years ago!"

The man replied, "Been married to your sister for over 48 years."

FAITH,wh**eMONGERS AND THE GREAT SALE

"A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most."
George Bernard Shaw

Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.Faith is belief that is not based on proof. It can also be defined as confidence or trust in a person, thing, deity, view, or in the doctrines or teachings of a religion, as well as confidence based on some degree of warrant. The word faith is often used as a synonym for hope, trust or belief.The English word is thought to date from 1200-50, from the Middle English feith, via Anglo-French fed, Old French feid, feit from Latin fidem, accusative of fid"s (trust), akin to fdere (to trust).

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.-Alan Watts

That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.-Albert Einstein

Faith,belief and complete trust in god or even something which one believes in gives vast and immense power and strength to do unimaginable acts.But i start with Thai poosam and the worship of lord Muruga.I have seen with my own eyes,devotees with their cheeks pierced,bodies pierced with hooks and dragging heavy carts with idols of lord Muruga.From my very own experiences of the worship of SHAKTI followed in my family.i have seen people running across burning coals and have run across them many times with my cousins.The only time someone got hurt was my kid sister bindu,a bit of timid character who panicked and hesitated on the coals for a split second and got her feet barbecued.This happened a long time ago,a very long time ago.
My most recent experiences which left me gaping was when i walked up the mountains to see the lord in TIRUPATHI.I think it took us like a few hours and maybe that too because my friend director elavarasan was a bit overweight and paunchy.Add to that the blazing sun,then heavy rain and again sun and again heavy rain.It was just like the song from CROWDED HOUSE " FOUR SEASONS IN ONE DAY".But the most important and significant thing was seeing people without legs crawling up the stairs.Blind people,old people (as old as the vanished pharaohs of egypt) and people suffering with all kinds of handicap and mental ailments.The jury of doctors are out and have yet to term the condition which ails me.

But those feats of faith and the power behind them still awes me and makes me ponder on the gifts we humans have at our disposal but have no clue how to invoke it and harness it peacefully.Well i submit and repeat myself that everyday i see people from all walks of life going about their lives and heading to various destinations to earn money and to feed and nurture their families.I can safely say that is an act,a peaceful act and they go about it without even realising it.Countless lives have come and gone and are countless are living still,working,plodding and enduring mental and physical agony and ridicule so that the lives that depend on them can have food and shelter.I have just one thing to say to these lives "HALLOWED BE THY NAMES" and offer these nameless lives a big salute.

We human beings are truly a remarkable species and also a mystery,in that we do although we know the good from the bad.Today we stand tall in our sky scrapers and have really scraped the sky by putting man on moon and machines on mars and as i speak,machines launched into space are speeding away from the clutches of our suns gravity.But much before that,our voices,radio signals,tv signals which were sent out have travelled many light years from earth and i wonder if some alien species has captured them and trying to make sense of it all.

At the pinnacle of evolution we humans seem to be blessed with so much power and i wonder if it is a cruel joke played by some cosmic power.Seriously all this drama of today could be an ongoing process in which the weak,innocent are just collateral damage and maybe sometime in the distant future a version of us,but numbering far less could walk and rule the earth.Culling.in biology, culling is the process of segregating organisms from a group according to desired or undesired characteristics.I have seen elephants culled because the forest could not support too many of them.Well what about culling human beings and i have my own personal list of people whom i want culled,right now.

In the name of faith,in the name of god we evoke and invoke and draw from a deep spring of strength and endurance and yet we cannot draw the same when it comes to doing the right thing.

You know,ten to fifteen years back the streets of chennai used to be empty of traffic but today i see traffic even at 2 or 3 in the morning.So many bars,so many watering holes to drink from and still i prefer to stay home with my books and music and my demented thoughts.Today we have so much information streaming via the internet,tv channels and most importantly mobile phones.But everything is about corrupt asshole politicians,happening actors and celebrities.

Everything is for sale and if you are ready to wh**e yourself and demean yourself there are people to make you famous and a household name.
For instance haev you heard of this actor called POWER STAR SRINIVASAN who came into the limelight by proclaiming himself the next superstar.That's it and everybody was talking about him and asking who the guy was.The guy is an ugly looking thing and his acting and expressions are even more uglier and yet here i am talking about him siimply because he proclaimed himself as the next superstar and made outrageous statements and gave many interviews.

Today if you are willing to show your shortcomings and cry on tv,there are people to buy that.If you say " i have a tiny dick" then there are people to sympahtize with you,if you come out of the closet then they will make you the host of a tv show (ROSE,A TRANSGENDER HAD HER OWN TV SHOW IN KALAIGNAR TV WHERE PEOPLE CAME AND SOBBED TO HER ABOUT THEIR SEX LIVES ).

Welcome to the 21st century's great sale where everyone can sell and sell anything even your shit from your body and worse shit from your mind.Everyone wants their share of limelight and the dance shows are a great example where two year old tots are dressed up,made up and asked to perform,gyrate to popular kuthu numbers.Not surprising when you have people who make elephants stand on a stool or to cycle and make big cats jump through hoops on fire.

What the human mind is capable of is truly astonishing and it remains to be seen how much more lower we can sink.

SATISH