ANZAC day

On a TV program this ANZAC eve, there was
a short report containing an interview with a frail
eighty something year old. His casual but humble
and honest expressions matched his watery, sad
looking eyes. On an occasion where he was explaining
how he and thousands of his mates were tortured by
the Japanese in Thai Burma rail works during the
World war, the interviewer asked him if he felt any
repulse of the Japanese today. This was at the back
drop of the event he was referring to, the Allied
PWOs, numbering around ten thousand, mainly from
Australia, UK, US and surrounding local countries,
were made to work almost eighteen hours a day, for
nearly two years thru the thickest forests. Most died
of diseases like malaria, open ulcers, hunger,
dysentery and anything imaginable that can kill.

There are picture of these POWs lying like skeletons,
resembling jews in Hitler's chambers in Auschwitz.

Thousands of mates of this old soldiers perished,
the brutality they were inflicted were
horrendous and unspeakable, like in China or wherever
Japan invaded. He came home at the end of the war,
lost and poor, shattered both physically and inside.
At the end, the Japanese surrendered, the prisoners
were now the masters.

He held back tears and remembered an incident that happened
in the jungle after the Japanese surrendered. He asked
a mate of his if he wanted to give the surrendering Japanese
the payback, the same torture and brutality, after all,
they had it all within their grasp now. He chocked for
couple of seconds, before recalling what his friend replied,
if a digger were to do the same, what's the difference,
between him and them, it was stunning, untainted greatness of a man.

Nepal,Tibet,China and myself 2

Tibet is a unique entity. Its location with world's
highest mountains as background, its plateaus that
are wonders in themselves, its beautiful skyline and most
importantly of course, its religious flair, culture,
serenity and colors. Its a land of all the peace, more
peaceful than all the peaces of the world combined.
The only living, ancient teachings and learnings about
Buddhism, philosophy, medicine, are done
in its monasteries, where oil lamps are still common.
This is the land of monks with red robes and shaven
heads, of beautiful chants and clear blue skies; of
stories of the caravans of people and yaks crossing
the mighty Himalayas in the thickest blizzards and
snow falls. Its truly, a paradise where people seem to
always smile and welcome you with their folded
hands and offer you their butter tea.

Tibet, needs to be kept alive, it needs to be saved,
from encroaching pollutions of haphazard constructions,
invasion of Han Chinese, the type of modernity it barely
needs. It needs a good standard of living, I don't oppose it.
But not at the cost of eroding its divine culture, peace
and immortal sense of higher life, something you cannot
find any where else, it seems. And like any other species,
this truly, is now at the verge of extinction. Once gone,
it won't survive long in the Dharmashala of India, and
meager Tibetan diaspora in the western world or Nepal.

Tibet is no doubt the last standing ancient civilization.
Tibet is a life, we cannot get it back if it dies.

Nepal,Tibet, China and myself 1

My earliest memories of school history books is the
constant politics, business, scholarly exchanges and wars
between Nepal and Tibet; and Tibet and China; and China
and her neighbors.

At that time, Tibet was a sovereign, free country,
like Nepal or Australia.

I wanna go back to where it all began.

In around mid sixth century, there was a Nepalese
princess, Bhrikuti, who was married off to a Tibetan Emperor,
Shreng Cheng Gampo, by the girl's father, Anshubarma,
to forge a diplomatic relation so that the wars between the
two countries would cease by virtue of this. The Nepalese
bride is thought to have spread Buddhism in that part of
the world. She is still known and revered as 'Green Star'
among the Tibetans. If not for her, there would have
been no Tibetan sect of Buddhism, no monasteries, no
monks and no Dalai Lama or any Lamas.

There is also a very touching story of a young teenage
sculptor named Araniko from Kathmandu who
was invited to participate in the decoration of Chinese
Capital, Beijing, upon invitation by the then Emperor of
China, Kublai Khan. One of the monuments Araniko himself
built still stands in downtown Beijing, by the name of Bai
Si Tha, or White Pillar. Today, hundreds of Nepalese youth
have been trained in China as Doctors, Engineers,
environmentalists, business experts and so forth.
The bond is ancient, modern and alive. Today the Chinese
companies dominate the building of roads, bridges,
and other massive structures in Nepal. I am here,
well and prospering in a way, powered by Chinese
education, Chinese food, Chinese love and care. I owe,
a huge part of my life to China, Beijing and a town
called Wuxi in particular.

At that time, Nepal was protected from Chinese invasion
by the buffer zone of Tibet, who had to bear the brunt of
the super power of the time. Kathmandu people, the
Newars, were the major tradesmen supplying goods and
commodities to Tibet. There still are various families in
Newar families of Kathmandu whose grand fathers or great
great ones travelled to Lhasa. Its no wonder the trade between
Nepal and Tibet is still one of the biggest revenue generators
for both states.

But today, fate has it, owing to Tibet, Nepal is still a free
country and not a part of China. Tibet is a region in
China, poor and backward. China on the other hand,
as everybody knows, is already a super power, slowly
consolidating her position in the world she rightfully
deserves, among the top nations.

War and Karma

War is brutal to the core.
There is no fun for those on the ground,
it might be fun for those watching on TV.

Differences in view points is stark.
Iraqis think they are fighting invasion,
Americans think they have just liberated
them from a dictator. Both sides can't
see each other's view.

North Vietnamese thought they were fighting
another invader, French were the first. For Americans,
it was an element of cold war, saving the world
from domino effect of communism. They did not
know, Vietnam had been fighting the Chinese,
for hundreds of years. There was truly, no wave of
communism.

What could make me believe that they are right
about Iraq today?

You fight and you could lose, like Milosevic, Kladic,
Tojo, and end up a war criminal. You could kill
a hundred thousand people a night, like in Tokyo or Hiroshima
or Nagasaki, and win, and become a hero.
I dunno if Kennedy would have authorized to nuclear bomb Japan.

For every Chinese they killed and tortured in Nanjing,
Japanese lost two in American bombs.
Like it or not, sooner or later, Karma, does catch
up, I beleive. Who's next?

Happiness

Source:
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/happiness-without-the-hype-
what-it-really-means-and-how-to-find-it/

When people think about their lives and what
they want to change, it’s natural think in terms of
what we have and what we don’t have.

In reality, our happiness is largely determined by what we expect.

To paraphrase John Adams:

The vast majority of our pleasure and pain is caused,
not by the reality of our lives, but by our hopes and
fears for the future.

Do you recognize this truth?
When we face uncomfortable conditions they are
generally bearable. When our suffering is concrete
we can manage it and take action to alleviate it.
But when our pain is caused by fear of the future,
it feeds on itself. We imagine the worst possible
scenarios and are powerless to change them.

The opposite is true of hope. Even the most miserable
conditions can be endured, even relished,
if the mind expects a positive reversal.