Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Parapsychology 1 - The Mad Man at the Bridge!

parapsychology clairvoyance
Image courtesy: EgoDevelopment.com
This is a narrative from one of my junior friends. His name is Syed Imran Jewel, now resides in Australia. The narrative could have been better told by him in his native language. But since he doesn't blog so I thought I could share the interesting the story. The story is very short and the conclusions are predictable anyway.

It was a bright sunny day, with soothing breeze and tender morning dews on the grasses. Two friends from Bangladesh set on a travel to their relatives in a city in India. They had been invited by those relatives to reach there on that very special day, and they did not know the exact purpose or occasion. On their way they stopped at a bridge near a river. Suddenly their eyes stuck upon a man whose apparent looks told them that he had been out of his mind and probably going through psychological disorder. He was sitting on the bank of the river and was eagerly searching something in the water with a stick.

The two became a little curious, went to him and asked him what he was doing. The man didn't pay heed and kept on searching more inquisitively. They kept on trying to talk to the man. Suddenly out of nothing the man turned to one of them and shouted loudly, "এই তুই এখানে কি করতেছিস? তোর না আজকে বিয়ে?" (translate as "Hey what are you doing here? Isn't that your marriage ceremony is going to be held today? You should be there.").

The two started laughing at this, taking it as a funny remark from a psychologically disordered person. Now suddenly the mad man turned to the other man and said, "এই তুই এতো হাসতেছিস কেন রে? তুই তো বিএ ফেল!" (may be translated as "Why are you laughing so much, dude? You have already failed BA.").

The two laughed at this again, but anyway started their journey again. On reaching the destination, they found that some kind of festival was going on. They entered the house and suddenly all the people cheered them as, "the bridegroom has arrived". The two were amazed and one of them was adorned as the bridegroom and the marriage was completed. This was the one to whom the mad man indicated as the would-be-bridegroom.

I need to shed some light about this old oriental cultural practice. Sometimes such kind of surprise-marriage used to take place in those regions (Bangladesh and India). This was occasional and not any ritual practice in any way. However there is no instance of such surprise-marriages at present.

Now the other one's face became dark like nimbus clouds as he realized what the mad man said had come to reality; there was every possibility that his other remark would be true, too. They went back to home, BA results were published two months later and interestingly this other friend really failed in the BA exam.

As said, this was a narrative from some close contacts. There are reasons to believe in the story as clairvoyance is an established para-psychology. This is a psychological incidence, but has no explanations. Stubborns might still argue that science has an explanation to this. But remember, this is a "para-psychological" phenomenon which, by definition means it doesn't abide by physical scientific laws (or scientific laws don't have a clear explanation to this). Actually it doesn't need to be explained really as it is a magnificient power in itself and doesn't really care for any explanations. Paranormal incidents do occur in the world. Let some of the mysteries of nature remain in itself and amaze us with their magnificence.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Favorite Books 15

Book Review Anton Chekhov In the Ravine Orson Scott Card Freeway Games
Book: In the Ravine
Author: Anton Chekhov (Russian, 1869-1904)















Original Language: Russian
Year: 1888
Category: Short Story


















Summary: In the village Ukleevo lives Tsybukin who is a miserly as well as dishonest businessman. His elder son Anisim returns one day to the village and gets married with Lipa. Soon after his return to city he is jailed for counterfeiting. Lipa gives birth to a child. Now Tsybukin  and his wife Varvara think of the future of the child and bestow some of their properties to Lipa and the child. To this, the other daughter-in-law Aksinya becomes furious and eventually kills the child brutally. After this Lipa has nothing to stay in the house - no husband, no child - and eventually gets thrown away.

Days go by and someday Tsybukin becomes older and falls into a victim of kind of dementia (this was not mentioned, but I guess from his activities). Aksinya now gets hold of everything, Varvara remains the same generous as before. But nobody really takes care of the old man. One day while he was sitting on the bench unfed for three days, he met the forgotten Lipa who gave him some respect and a bread to eat. Painfully, the old man took it, could say nothing, but his eyes filled with tears of gratitude or something else that nobody knows. The sun went down, they drifted apart - only left some moments of crossing each other.

Comments: This is not a book, but a story from his short story collection book 'The Witch and Other Stories'. This one is picturesque with human emotions where the inability to maintain fair relation and justice is caused by human atrocity and jealousy. The killing of the baby, the pain of the mother, and the end scenario are mind-blowing.

Link:
Free online reading (English translation): Anton Chekhov - In the Ravine


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Book: Freeway Games
Author: Orson Scott Card (American, 1954-)














Original Language: English
Year: 1992
Category: Suspense


















Summary: Stanley is an employee in Nevada. One day when he finishes his work, on return home he started playing car games - namely freeway games. First he played moving side-by-side with other cars, then he started the game of follow, that is, following a car from distance. With his follow-game, the driver of the car that was being followed became suspicious, afraid, and desperate to escape. While trying to escape, she eventually faced a fatal accident while taking a sharp turn at the end of a road. This resulted in palpitating heart-beats for Stanley and he had an unexpected and unbelievably pleasurable orgasm at this unexpected ending. He felt the orgasm was outstanding in any way.

This made him a serial killer of a different sort. Every now and then playing a follow-game and ending in heavenly sensation of a different kind. One day while making this follow-game with an Audi, the suspense became even more intense and ... what next?

Comment: Interesting reading. Motif of a different kind of serial killing is portrayed in a different sensation. One reason for serial killing is also pictured very well. Extremely a story of suspense. This is a short story from his book 'Changed Man'.

Link:
Free online reading (English): Orson Scott Card - Freeway Games
Bangla translation by blogger Obonil. Translation available in Sachalayatan blog here: Khela

Let us buy paper books. Let's enrich our mind and home library.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

After-Death Body Donation

I have just come up with a question - what do you think of donating body after death for the betterment of mankind? What are the religious views in donating body after death?

Most of the time I find people misuse and misinterpret religions. It is us who use religions for self-interests and spoil it often. At the same time it is us who can glorify religions with our rationale thoughts. But it hurts me that whenever we meet someone the first question that arises in mind is which religion s/he belongs to rather than hitting the simple idea that, s/he is a human being.
From my understanding from people I met, donating body after death is forbidden in Islam. But I found many religious links in the web that glorifies the donation of eyes. Now again others will start saying that those sites are steered by Jews/non-Islamists blah blah and will turn the discussion down totally rather than going through a rationale revelation.
I don't know the views from other religions.Apart from all religious views, one single question is not answered, not felt:

What will you do if you have an accident, lost your eyes and you need replacement of cornea from someone's donated eyes. What will you do if you need a kidney and you need to rely on someone who donated already. 


The answer is 'Yes, you will definitely try to pursue for a replacement'. Then why would you disgrace the donor with religious ideology (if it is really like that)?


I wanted to start a friendly discussion with deeply reflected thoughts. I am ignorant in many of my own religious views and a little lazy in performing my own religious obligatories. But to my own understanding I think donating body is a sacred thing to do rather than burning it or burying it.

Just to remind - this is not a religious debate (though it started with the word 'religion'). The mail is about encouraging body-donation and the debate is for betterment of mankind which should be the ultimate focus of all religions and not to fight with each other like fools.