Mumbai Attack: A black spot and proof of political delinquency

I had decided to contain my feelings triggered by Mumbai Attack so that it seeps in my being to form an explosion but then it is an era of Internet and I received from a friend a request for an online compaign. Can it be easier than sitting in a cosy drawing room having tea and then clicking on a link to sign in a compaign???
I do appreciate the sentiments behind such a signature campaign but by no stretch of imagination I think that it would serve any purpose. The country lacks in political will and since pre-independence main political party has an appeasement policy towards one section of society. Such a policy has sent wrong signals to the people worldwide and in particular to the neighboring countries. Please don’t misconstrue this and think that I am of the opinion that that section comprises of terrorist or bad elements. In fact that section has been disrespected in a true sense by the mainstream political party by getting defended all the time when there is no such requirement. Terrorists have no religion as much as a politician has no caste.
You must realize that no political party has come out and said even a single statement against what is going on in Mumbai. Amar Singh, Raj Thackery, Mayawati, Lalu, Mulayam, Uma Bharti, Congress leaders they all seem to have been sucked in some black hole. I wish that some of them would have been in one of the seized hotels.
They think that by criticizing they will lose their political base amongst that section of the society which if analyzed correctly means that these politicians link the terrorists to be from that section which is not only shameful but disrespectful too to that section of society. When will we see the naked truth? Probably we don’t want to see the naked truth.

In the name of democracy we have got jokers as our leaders. These are coward people, corrupt so much so that they can sell their mother and daughters to brothels if that gets them the post of prime minister. A political leader belongs to no one but the lust to power.

The way they are after IIT shows their illiteracy. They are incapacitated from thinking for betterment in a true sense.

The country is suffering from the scarcity of good leaders, leaders who can keep the interest of country on the top of their pity interests.

Unfortunately I don’t see that our countrymen enjoy the sense of discrimination while opting to vote and hence they are equally responsible for this sad state of affairs in this country.

The only terrorist attack (which in many experts view was a concocted one by the Bush Govt for ulterior motives) USA witnessed was 9/11 and here in India we are witnessing a 9/11 every month. What’s going on?

Fake sense of India being a spiritual country contributes to this in a very big way. Mushrooming of fake gurus all around, conmen in name of politicians and false sense of pride are some of the diseases the country is suffering from which must be weeded out ASAP.

In the name of economy growth India has been mushroomed with customer support work where people with high end degrees in the greed of a high salary are getting sucked in. Such qualified people are basically put to clerical usage and thus will be useless for the vocation they were trained for.

We need revolutionaries who have no interest but to fix problems but where are they? Within 2 hours of the first attack in Mumbai, I sent an invitation to 250+ who’s who of the country to form a group to brain storm the issue of moral degradation of the country and then form policies with strict monitoring to the action plan on the findings of the group but so far I have received support from 3 people only. Are we really sick of these jokers? Do we want change?

We are having PanIIT in 3 weeks from now to discuss education, infrastructure etc. In my opinion, the first priority should go to cleansing Indian politics because education, infrastructure etc lies on the periphery of good governance.

A month ago I visited Nagar Nigam of a state capital for the appointment of standing counsel. I was told that my services and approach to the problems/legal issues are brilliant but that’s not enough to get appointed as standing counsel. I need to give the chairman of Nagar Nigam 15% commission of the fees I will charge and 10% to party fund to the ruling party. This is the state of affairs. It is easy for anyone to carry bombs in any major place in that city. No one is safe anytime anywhere. We are all sitting on bombs.

The way western culture is being followed blindly in the name of raising the standard of living in this country is one of the major though not looked at reasons for the rampant corruption amongst govt officials and political leaders. They have no option but to sell their conscience to send their children abroad for foreign education.

Shiela Dixit govt spent 150+ crores to make BRT and BJP wants to collapse it if they come to power. They will spend 10-20 crores in collapsing it. This 170-200 crores is tax payers money but who bothers.

There can’t be a better time than this to attack Pakistan full-fledged without worrying about any nation including USA but I don’t think this Govt has courage to do this. USA attacked Afghanistan within no time and no one dared to say a word against them.

I see Govt officials, bureaucrats , leaders and businessmen day in day out but hardly you will come across one still carrying a spine.

Sonia Gandhi is reviewing and monitoring the situation in this country and Rahul Gandhi is the prime ministerial candidate. What education does empower Sonia Gandhi with a vision to review and monitor security and economy situation in this country? A country of so rich a heritage, full of intellectuals and sages would have Rahul as its prime minister. Can there be a bigger joke?

For society to respect you, you need to have your house in order and headed by a strong person, a person of deep understanding of problems and deep insight. World must feel in awe by the leader country is headed by. We all know who is heading the country these days!!!

To bring rule of righteousness back to this country and save it from any further degradation, a high level committee of intellectuals, sages, industrialists, Scientists from across the sectors/streams must be put in place ASAP. And they should be empowered with law making/amending/withdrawing power without consulting anyone. Truly speaking, democracy is poisonous for this country and it needs military rule for at least a decade.

It is a shame for all of us that 12-13 people from a foreign land took the country to ransom for 72 hours!!!

If not now, we will never wake up!!!

IIT Brand- Measures to sustain it

IIT Delhi Alumni Association jointly with IIT Kharagpur Alumni Association organized a Panel Discussionon on `IIT BRAND -Measures to sustain it' on 22nd November 2008 (Saturday), at 5.30 P.M., Seminar Hall, IIT Delhi where PANELISTS were Dr. Shashi Gulhati, Ex- Professor, IIT Delhi, Prof. P.V. Indiresan, Ex - Director, IIT Chennai, Mr. Manoj Mitta, Senior Editor, Times of India, Dr. Y.P. Singh, Ex - Professor IIT Kharagpur and Mr. Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, Cyber Media (India) Limited. As a customary duty ascribed to Secretary, IITDAA I had to propose vote of thanks towards the conclusion of the event. Following is part of my talk which I think may be of some interest to concerned people.
............First come first, thanks to Prof. Indiresan who solved a long pending puzzle going on in my mind by sharing the fact that vice chancellors are paid seats. Sometime back I met VC of a reputed university and felt that there has been a heinous wrong in appointing this person as VC of this reputed university and I believed somewhere deep that some wrong is going on somewhere and today I got my answer. Today evening we witnessed a truly enlightening discussion and I must say that discussion held here should and will influence the authorities concerned whenever they deal with topics such as IIT Brand. It was truly a discussion straight from the heart. I don’t know how but there must be a way, may be through stake holders group as suggested by PG and Dr. Gulhati, to tell and convince people in power to give a patient hearing to the unbiased discussion which took place today in this hall. Such a discussion can be expected only from fearless people. I think that people in power, people who decide don’t really know the repercussions of what they decide and they are unaware of ground realities. I don’t think that any well wisher of the country and humanity at large would decide to open more IITs when there is scarcity of resources to meet the demands of the present IITs. Today, all problems are everybody’s problems. World look up to institutions like IITs to solve the large scale problems as cited by Mr. Saluja in his inaugural address the humanity is facing today. An institution which is so important should not be touched unless it is absolutely warranted. I received an email from Mr. Chetan, an alumnus of IIT Delhi saying that how many IITians have really restricted their area of work to what they studied at IIT and then gave a list of IITians who have excelled in non-technology areas. I would like to tell Mr. Chetan with your due permission that institutions of excellence like IITs help its students outgrow the education it provides and help them become solution providers be it through technology or otherwise. Guru is the one under whom the students learns not only the subjects but learns the very art of learning and that’s what happens at IIT and I have witnessed it. Thanks to Mr. Manoj Mitta, Senior Editor, Times of India who brought before us the ongoing anomalies in cut off system of JEE and I am sure that IIT is listening and soon will come out with a proposal on how to address the concerns raised.
Thanks to Dr. Y. P. Singh for sharing with us the brain-drain joke and sir, it is true across the sectors including the Bharat Ratna award. Apparently it does seem that unless you are drained, you are not a brain i.e. only a drain brain is a brain and others are not. In my experience, I am yet to come across an incident where someone living in this country without having any affiliation with any political party has been honored with a prestigious award.
Dr. Gulhati, even though Govt may not have a direct say in the IIT system but the game Govt is playing is much deeper than our eyes can penetrate to. The Govt by enacting mechanisms with ulterior motives is weakening the system and then they will instill their people through whom the politicians will do proxy ruling over IIT system. I do see a parallel of this in Kashmir problem. Pakistan by force and other illegal means has been successful in implanting its people in the valley and now is advocating the mechanism of self-determining system to decide the fate of valley. It is Pakistan’s people and hence they will definitely opt for to be in Pakistan............................... ....

Raj and His Divisive politics

It has been quite sometime that I wrote for the blog last. Today I received from a dear friend an article written by the spice lady of yesteryears, Ms. Sobha De which I am reproducing as it is. This prompted me to write my understanding of the problem and a larger problem of which I draw analogy from Raj event.

Me, Marathi
written by Shobha De

Correct me if I am wrong, Raj... but I consider myself an assal Marathi manoos. Born in Maharashtra to Maharashtrian parents etc. Proud to be Marathi (even though my language skills in my mother tongue are embarrassingly dodgy). I don't know how to make the perfect puran poli but I do love aamti.. This is clearly not enough anymore. Going by the checklist, I could be disqualified on several scores. I am married to a Bong, who has lived and worked in Mumbai for over 30 years (but alas, has not been appointed ambassador to the state of West Bengal yet!). He attends Durga Puja regularly and prefers maacher jhol to vangi bhaat.

Fortunately, we don't have a daughter-in-law to name a college after, either in Kolkata or Mumbai.... And our children (like yours) did not attend Marathi-medium schools.. We employ people based on their competence, not caste or region. And I have never asked the vegetable vendor, breadwalla, taxi driver, dhobi, sweeper, elevator attendant, security guard, pizza delivery boy or any of the other people who make my life easier, which part of India they come from.

This is Mumbai, meri jaan! Who cares where anyone comes from? Dhanda is all that matters.. Mumbai is India 's most powerful magnet. Once you get here, you never leave. Don't believe me? Ask those innocent bhajjiwallas and doodhwallas who were beaten up and stoned by your men last week. Even with blood-soaked bandages around their heads, and broken hearts, they are staying put. As they should.

Aaah, the natak of your dramatised 'arrest' was not lost on anybody.
Had Rakhi Sawant's slapping stunt not grabbed those eyeballs on Valentine's Day, viewers would still be stuck with the image of a nattily dressed you (mmmm...loved the styling), clambering in and out of the police van. If Rakhi cleverly stage-managed the incident, what should one say about your brilliant coup? Overnight, Raj Thackeray was elevated from being the discarded Thackeray to a national figure.
In one well-orchestrated move, you went from being a neglected nephew of an ageing tiger, to a sharp-clawed, teeth-baring cub with an independent act of his own. The circus acquired a brand new star attraction — you!

It was never easy being a Thackeray. Ask Balasaheb. If he targeted south Indians in the '60s, you smartly headed north. Same agenda, diametrically different directions. By questioning the bona fides of those who have made Maharashtra their home, both of you tapped into the vulnerabilities of the average Marathi manoos. It is worth asking the very people whose interests you are protecting, whether they really want to do the dirty work currently being handled by the northies.

Will the Marathi manoos agree to put in 18 hours a day plying taxis, selling veggies, washing clothes and so on? Who's stopping them from turning into vendors of milk, food grains, and other commodities?
Perhaps, the Marathi manoos considers such occupations demeaning? The truth is, these jobs have always gone abegging, and there have been any number of hungry, unemployed people from other states ready and willing to grab them. Kick the 'outsiders' out at your own peril, and see what happens...

Why do farmers commit suicide in such numbers only in Maharashtra ?
The answer, dear Raj, may surprise you.

In your defence, let me say you received the worst press — biased at best, and shrill to boot. Most of the semi-hysterical reporters from prestigious news channels were embarrassingly ill-informed as they blabbered incoherently each time a leaf moved outside the magistrate's court!

Surely, you are not complaining? Everything seems to be going according to the master plan. You have 'made it' in one swift move.
And women are finding you kinda cute in that sleeveless baby blue pullover. Great copy, great photo ops. What more does a neta want? To keep Mayawati and Lalu out of Maharashtra ? Now, that's a tall order!

My Reply to the whole event:

Good one!!! But Raj Thakery is doing something which may be immoral
but not illegal. The Maharastra state law promises to provide
reservation upto 80% to Maharastrians in the local jobs. And clearly
states each hoarding/board to be Marathi. He is only exploiting a
provision provided in the state law.

And if you permit me to draw an analogy, what Raj is doing to
northies, Christians in america are doing to Asians. Boundary of any
sort, national or state, need to be dropped in such a time when
problems like hunger, health and education no longer belong to one
country but to entire humanity and unless the world fights such
problems unitedly, no country is equipped to solve all its problems on
its own. Like India needs business from US to cure its poverty and US
needs spirituality from India to fix its disoriented people and
drug-addicts.
Humanity needs no boundary because problems humanity is
facing today has outgrown the capacity of a single country. The
divisive politics the world is into must be dropped. The world can't
sustain the looming threat of a world war. The nuclear and destructive
weapons the world has amassed can wipe out this world 1000 times but
the world unfortunately has yet not stopped accumulating such weapons.
Everybody is not Jesus Christ that a resurrection would happen.

I know that Raj is doing a gruesome wrong but then so is George Bush,
Manmohan Singh and all world leaders. Restricting my scope to India,
Raj should be tried for sedition, disruption of public harmony etc.
but who has the guts to arrest and try him in court for such offenses
because no party and no politicians would like to be noticed by locals
for opposing their interests which Raj, at least in their eyes, seems
to have taken up.

Politicians' problems can still be understood but
what about Amitabh Bachhan who went to the extent of apologizing Raj
for his wife having spoken in favor of Hindi in Mumbai. In addition to
the larger-than-life Amitabh enjoys on his own, he also enjoys the
friendship of top most Industrialists like Anil Ambani and of top
ranked politicians like Amar Singh. if someone of his stature and
contacts had to apologize for no fault of his or his wife, what
message he is passing on to the people of India and to the world. He
failed to stand against the injustice while he had the support of law,
muscle power and money power. People look upto him as an ideal and he
did such a cowardice act for which he must not be forgiven.

Indian politics is probably at the lowest rung and what more down it can go to now. But my understanding which I wrote above, politics doesn't bother for right or wrong. Raj wants to project himself as a leader of national importance and he succeeded. It is the politicians and their lust for power which throughout the history has been responsible for gruesome massacres of billions of people. The very nature of politics and politicians is that and expecting them to
behave for betterment of human beings is same as expecting sea-waves to be peaceful. But our problem is that we are not trained to think of a world without politicians and hence we have been and will be made victims of their ambitions.

If peace at all is warranted in the world, it must be made devoid of
politicians!!! We just need administrators to administer various
functions of a good governance and NOT politicians.
We must reach the very source of the problem and not just keep curing
the symptoms.

IIT-JEE: Existing Pattern and what lies ahead

A couple of days ago I was approached by a journalist for my comment on existing IIT-JEE standard and whether it is enough to gauge the standard of an IIT-JEE aspirant to get him a seat at the prestigious IITs. And I came up with the following to form the basis of my comment which figured later during a program at their channel.

Genesis of the problem lies in the menace of commercialization of every aspect of life and there is nothing today which can't be weighed against the money. Of course there are things and people which/who are beyond the realm of money but then such things/people are beyond the reach of common people as well. Education industry and that too in India has not been able to keep the pace with other industries. And while other industries have redesigned their financial struture to attract the best of the minds, Education Industry has miserably failed to lure intelligent minds to take up teaching as a career option. Usually it is the left overs from other industries who decide to take up teaching as a career and this has led to decline in the standard of education across the relevant sections and throughout the country. The yardstick to measure the quality of education itself is on a steep decline.
Any change in the quality of education can have two consequences. Decline in the quality of education being imparted has resulted in sub-standard students, sub-standard at least from the view-point of the standard required for IIT-JEE . Government instead of taking corrective measures to stop the decline in the standard of school education and further improve upon it to make it meet the standard required for JEE, opted for the easy way-out i.e. lower the standard of IIT-JEE to meet the standard of sub-standard products of the present school system. And thus the original JEE was replaced by 2-tier examination which in quality was definitely lower than the original JEE.
Coaching institutes are meant to fill in the gap between the requisite standard of IIT-JEE and the sub-standard students the schools are producing. This they were supposed to do by raising the standard of students qualitatively but they also opted for the shortcut and devised ways and means to make students just somehow make it to IIT.
All such institutes are totally commercial in nature and hardly bother about any qualitative improvement in the enrolled students. Their only concern is to beat others in numbers. The kind of process students are made to go through in learning the tricks of cracking of JEE papers are such that though they end up in cracking the JEE papers but they do so without learning the know -how of the subjects. Many of the professors at IIT Delhi have confirmed the above observation by saying that they no longer meet quality students.
Coaching institutes are proof of the sub-standard education being imparted at schools. Instead of lowering JEE standard the Goverment needs to form policies in order to improve upon the quality of school education so that the students get equipped with proper learning at school itself to clear IIT-JEE.
In the time to come, where will the mindless policies of the govt. take the country to is not tough to predict!!!

To miss a thing is to own it!!!

Couple of months ago, a friend brought a picture and asked me to have a look at it. I looked at it as asked and communicated to him my finding which was nothing but a huge field of grass. Then he asked me to look at it deeper and with concentration and I followed his advise. I held myself in awe when I found a beautiful painting hidden in the obscure looking picture. Later I found out that such a picture is called 3D Stereogram Image and also known as 3D optical illusions.

Believe me the statement "To miss a thing is to own it!!!" is just like a 3D optical illusion.

Human nature is a mystery to the science and in spite of putting in best of its efforts science has failed miserably to understand human nature and the fabric it is made up of.

I know that we are living in the age of science but of what use it has been to us is worth our time and effort to ask, understand and assimilate the findings in our lives.

You may be of belief that to understand a thing is to own it for easy access and the freedom to work upon it in the way one prefers. But just like 3D optical illusion picture, I would advise you to delve deeper and then try to decipher the fallacy in this approach. This delving deep wont come easy if you have never done it before. It's an art from which we are deliberately kept away so that we do not become a threat to the society (I will touch upon this topic some other time at length).

To make it easy for you, I will take up an example. Recall the time when for the first time you come across something of which you had no clue. Say a rose flower, before you came to know that its a rose flower, you were restless in finding what it is, you inquired about this from fellow beings, tried searching encyclopedia and when you came to know that it is called rose, you felt relieved. But interestingly nothing substantial has changed from what was the original situation. Just by attaching a tag to the flower, you have not come to know much of it rather in the belief that by attaching the name "rose" to the flower you have known the flower, you will stop further exploration to know more, to delve deeper into the being of the flower. The very quest to know more about the flower seems to have extinguished by attaching a tag "Rose" to the flower of which even the flower is unaware.

The strange part of human nature is that the thing from which it maintains a distance in order to avoid the unavoidable contains the very bridge to bridge the gap between the question and the answer. The unavoidable which today or tomorrow will surface and re-surface unless gets tackled with complete awareness, the unease feel will keep on existing there.

Time and again, I am being reminded by my well-wishers (at least they feel so and they do suggest me what they feel best for me) about the societal trends and one must give in to get accustomed to these societal trends to become happy. Strangely it is the same people who do not stop complaining about the so-called sources of pleasure and how measurably they have failed to extract any joy out of them.

In my experience, the moment a feel of security creeps in the person about anything be it living or non-living, the very possibility of knowing it in a real sense dies. It is only the insecurity which has the key of knowing a thing in a real sense. Security kills the very seed which could have evolved and helped the human consciousness in delving deeper and ascending the unprecedented heights. Unfortunately we have been understanding every aspect so superficially that day by day we are getting away from our own selves so much so that we don't even remember our real home. The one who is secured deep down does not keep ensuring the visible and tangible outside security.

We feel that to be secured of a thing is to own it and though it does seem to be the way to be secured but in reality it turns out to be opposite. The moment you own something you miss the very possibility of understanding it, knowing it. Owning a thing ensures the superficial security about it and security kills the very seed which could have fructified in bringing the inside of the thing, in opening up the deep secrets lying in the heart of the thing. This security in turn ensures that you miss the thing in a real sense.

Almost everyday I come across someone or the other who seemed to be in real love, prior to the marriage, with the woman who is now his wife and now the same woman has been accused of being the source of his pain and problems.

What converted an angel to a wicked lady is the security!!! What brought this security is the marriage!!! I am not accusing the marriage per se but in my view by marriage people mean an institution in which they are free to impose on the other undue burdens and uninvited problems.
I will not comment on marriage more here. Marriage brought a feel of owning the other partner and thus missed the whole possibility of knowing the other in a real sense.

Renaming of a file in windows

Recently I came across a strange situation wherein I had to rename a file to a name starting with a dot and however hard I tried I could not succeed. Later I came to know that windows by design will not permit such a naming of a file. Then I took the shelter of command prompt and the command "ren" could do what I could not in last 2 hours.

Sex: The most misunderstood act

Neither by supression(prevalent in India) nor by excessive expression (prevalent in America), sex can be understood and enjoyed and made a ladder upwards, it is only by awareness, sex can be made useful to achieve/ascend the ladder of super consciousness. Both the societies suffer from the same deficiencies and the underlying disease does not differ in essence even by an iota, both have the same disease though manifested differently. There is no way or religion or dogma or tantra or management and quick skill which can take someone beyond the pleasure of sex except awareness and the only route to awareness is self-realization i.e. through meditation. Someone who meditates goes beyond the realm of Maya and its not that s/he keeps herself/himself aloof from the worldy /material pleasures i.e. such people do not practice a forceful abstinence but the win over such pleasures by the awareness and use them at their pleasure i.e. they governs the mastery over pleasures of any kind rather than getting governed by it. Unfortunately, both the societies keep the art of this mastery of pleasure away from the reach of the common man so that they remain available at the mercy of consipirators i.e. the priestly class of any religion/any country. And the interesting part of this phenomena is that even the priestly class or for that matter any one else with the same intent as those of the priestly class has been doing it in complete unawareness i.e. they themselves are the victims and it's proven a fact that victoms love victimizing others and that too in complete ignorance.

Using the Gmail Mobile App with Google Apps accounts

Update: Google have now released a version of the Gmail Mobile App for Google Apps accounts on devices other Blackberries, so the information in this article is largely out of date. Visit http://m.google.com/a from your phone to download it.

Google Apps is a lovely way to get your email, combining the loveliness of the normal Gmail interface with the ability to use your own domain names properly, without any of this Outlook "poorhouse@company.com on behalf of poorhouse123@gmail.com" nonsense. And it's free! They also recently upgraded the email storage you get for free to that of a normal Gmail account, currently 3805 MB.

But there is one super-useful feature missing from the Google Apps product that you do get with standard Gmail - support for the Gmail Mobile App, a much nicer way to interact with your email from your (Java-enabled) phone or PDA than the standard web interface. Sadly it doesn't support Google Apps mail - but with a little trickery, it can.

To be fair there is an official Google Apps client for the Blackberry, but any of us non-BB owning phone people are left out. There seems no technical reason why this should be, so it has caused speculation of an insider deal with Blackberry and other conspiratorial, and quite possibly true, allegations. It's also angered people to the point of creating a petition.

However, thanks to Mulefire, a commenter at Lifehacker, there is now a way of making the non-Apps client work with Apps. Yay! Tested and working by the Poorhouse on a Windows Mobile 5 phone, and success on others is reported elsewhere.

Here's how:

* From your phone, go and web-browse http://gmail.com/app/v1.0.0/en/gmail-g.jar to download old-skool version 1 of the Gmail client. Install it however you would normally install Java apps on your phone - in the case of the Poorhouse's Windows Mobile phone, the Java midlet manager started up and installed it automatically.
* If asked, make sure to say yes to allowing it to use data connections.
* Run it, and enter your log-in information - using your full Google Apps email address for the username (e.g. xxx@company.com) and your normal Google Apps password for the password. If it seems that it won't let you type into the boxes to enter this information, be sure to press Enter (or select, or whatever your phone has) before typing in to bring up a text entry screen. Then let it try and log in.
* It will report failure, a 404 error in the case of the Poorhouse's experience. Fear not, just quit the application.
* Now download an update - version 1.1.1 from http://gmail.com/app/v1.1.1/L1/gmail-g.jar. When installing make sure to allow it access to data connections and to "Keep existing data".
* Open up the new Gmail app, and...wonder of wonders...there's your Google Apps inbox ready for use. Hurrah!

Make sure that you don't upgrade it to their 1.5 release because this wont work with that.

courtesy: http://thepoorhouse.org.uk/using_the_gmail_mobile_app_with_google_apps_accounts

Another VISTA mystery demystified.

Recently I changed my user status from Administrator to Std. User for security reasons as advised and publicized by Microsoft and the first problem I faced was very irritating, irritating because net search did not help much in fixing it. In fact I thought that there is something wrong with my keyboard or some configurations I might have changed in Remote Desktop Connections details which I am unable to recall to undo. Suddenly it struck to my mind and the same was advised online i.e. run mstsc (command for remote desktop) with Administrator credential and then try. And it did the trick. You must be wondering that I did not state the problem and have talked of the solution. I do understand. Problem was non-working of CTRL and SHIFT keys of my keyboard on the remote machines connected through the remote desktop connection of VISTA and it did make my life miserable because I could not use famous combinations like CTRL+A. Anyway, now I am relieved.

Why wearing seat belt is so important?

I bet that you watch this video and dare again not to wear your seat belt. I remember an instance years ago when a friend, a girl, said that i dont like to wear the seat belt because it spoils my dress and she immediately put it on when I said that you have to be alive to wear a dress and by not wearing it you are endangering two lives. For everybody out there, specially girls, please wear seat belt and save at least two lives. I am sure that after watching this video, you will wear the seat belt.  

World's best 2 photographs

Though it seems to be just a coincidence but it is a lovely coincidence!!!

1. when the Chinese president went to US.

2. when Bush went to China

How to find which application is using a particular port in Vista

It is really a nightmare to live with any Microsoft Operating System. Except the polishing of the appearance on the old operating systems, nothing major seems to have been accomplished in VISTA. And adjusting with any MS OS is another problem. Recently I was trying to host a website with VISTA IIS and it failed to start with port 80. Which means that some other program is using port 80. Now it tough to find which program is using port 80. Following are the steps to have this problem fixed.

1. To run command prompt in elevated mode, simply press the Win key; type cmd; press Ctrl+Shift+Enter; and then hit Alt+C to confirm the elevation prompt. In fact this way you can run any application in the elevated mode.

2. Try `netstat -bno -p tcp' on the command line which prints plenty of information like PID and name of the application using the ports.

3. Find the application (in my case it was skype) which is using port 80. Stop that from Task Manager and map your website to port 80 and restart IIS.

When Leaders Dissolve: Considering Controversy and Stagnation

When Leaders Dissolve: Considering Controversy and Stagnation in the Osho Rajneesh Movement by Marion S. Goldman

Contemporary religious movements and also established faiths must remain flexible in terms of organizational structures, stewardship, and doctrines, in order to sustain membership and maintain a favorable position within their host societies (Stark 1996a). If a group deviates too fundamentally from its original leader's visions, however, it may fail by becoming something entirely different through fundamental change or merger with a different faith (Wilson 1985). The path to success involves flexibility around a central core of history, doctrine, and organizational leadership.

Every major faith in the United States has experienced transitions that reflect shifting demographics, changing social environments, and also internal organizational struggles and constraints (B.Johnson 1992, and Finke and Stark 1992). This general process of internal change is particularly visible among controversial new religious movements that are attempting to sustain their unique identities without antagonizing the wider society surrounding them. Some groups, such as the Family (Children of God), Scientology, or the Rajneesh movement, have been lightning rods for controversy, almost perishing in the wake of conflict with the wider society (Bainbridge 2000; Hall et al. 2000).

The Rajneesh movement experienced two tumultuous periods of internal power struggles coupled with external attacks. The first major controversy developed in India, and it paved the way for a second conflict in the United States, which many outsiders believed would destroy the movement (Goldman 1999). Over the past decade, especially after Osho Rajneesh's death, the movement has been involved in a delicate rebalancing, which has facilitated worldwide retention and recruitment of about six to eight thousand committed followers (known as sannyasins) and fellow travelers, as well as a far larger group of circulating affiliates and clients, whose allegiances are to Osho as well as to different, complementary spiritual paths.

After almost two decades of controversy and a subsequent decade of accommodation, the movement has positioned itself within the vital marketplace of novel religions. Most movement insiders and younger spiritual seekers no longer perceive the Friends of Osho as spiritual lightning rods. Devotees have redefined their leader's contributions and reframed the movement's central doctrines to make them less controversial to outsiders. In addition to movement shifts, the host societies in the United States, Western Europe, and India have become more accommodating to American-influenced yoga, meditation, and diverse spiritual texts (Dinan 2002). Just as the Osho movement has changed, the grounding context has
risen up to meet them and a host of similar religious movements.

Leaders in the Pune headquarters and regional centers downplay the Oregon experience of the 1980s, which is still considered as a defining moment by many scholars and by Americans who remember the media blitz concerning criminal activities at the short-lived communal city, Rajneeshpuram. The movement continues, and much of the remaining controversy involves
historical memory rather than present experience. This chapter will consider the history and philosophy of the Rajneesh movement beginning in India in the 1970s through the current phase. This serves as background for examining the ways in which the movement stabilized after Osho changed his name from Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, retreated into the background, and finally left his body (died) in 1990. In his last years, Osho encouraged an Inner Circle of twenty-one rotating members to spread his ideas and develop a governance structure. After his death in 1990, there were splits and divisions within the movement, but Osho's reframed teachings drew people together, the World Wide Web permitted communication to continue, and the flagship center in Pune attracted thousands of clients who have helped fund the movement.

Currently, some younger sannyasins advocate depersonalizing the movement and allowing Osho's teachings to overshadow his old charismatic identity. They question the viability of the Osho movement leadership in Koregaon Park, and suggest a more general movement that supports human freedom (Sannyas' News November 9, 2002). Others, most often longtime members, resist. This latest challenge dramatically illustrates how leaders in the Osho Rajneesh movement generated survival tactics and encouraged the formation of local, semiautonomous groups, allowing them to overcome lingering high levels of tension with host societies, the death of their founder, and current internal challenges to the Osho movement itself.During each phase of its development, the Osho movement redefined itself, moving from an initial period of inclusivity to exclusivity in the mid- 1970s and 1980s, and back to inclusivity in the twenty-first century.

Prior to 1970, followers were permitted, if not encouraged, to explore and sustain spiritual allegiances to other spiritual traditions along with Osho, in an inclusive movement. However, as Rajneesh assumed the role of enlightened spiritual master, sannyasins were increasingly required to renounce other paths and personal ties. After his death, the movement grew more inclusive, suggesting Osho's meditative discipline could be amplified by connections with other faiths.

The movement's most controversial years were those when exclusive commitment was required. Official narrative now downplays the events in Oregon, which almost destroyed the group. In addition, there is increasing emphasis on Osho's statements about creating noninstitutionalized spirituality: "Those who have been in communion with me will have learned
one thing absolutely, categorically: that life cannot be confined into institutions" (Osho [1982] 2001: 236).

Osho Rajneesh and His Movement(s)

Many of Osho's sannyasins characterized him as a mercurial mixture of madman, savior, charlatan, and saint (Franklin 1992). His various biographies and autobiographical assertions can support any of these characterizations, yet there is surprisingly widespread agreement about the
basic outlines of Osho's own story.

He was born to a Jain family in Kuchawada, India, in 1931 and named Mohan Chandra Rajneesh. Jainism is an independent Indian faith closely related to Buddhism. Thus, Rajneesh was raised outside the dominant Hindu paradigm, in a tradition that synthesized different philosophies much as his own would, three decades later.

Rajneesh received an M.A. in philosophy from Saugar University and immediately took a job at Raipur Sanskrit College (Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya). His lectures created so much controversy that Rajneesh transferred to another university the next year, and then received a promotion to
professor in 1960. When college was not in session, he traveled around India lecturing about politics, sexuality, and also spirituality. He was a perceptive, captivating lecturer who soon gained a loyal following that included a number of wealthy merchants and businessmen. These clients gave Rajneesh donations for individual consultations about their spiritual development and daily life. These were commonplace, for throughout India people seek guidance from learned or holy individuals in the same way as Americans might consult a psychologist or pastoral counselor, and Rajneesh's private practice was not unusual in itself (Mehta 1979). The rapid growth of his clientele, however, was somewhat out of the ordinary, suggesting that he was an unusually talented spiritual therapist.

By 1964, a group of wealthy backers had set up an educational trust to support Rajneesh and the occasional rural meditation retreats he led. Like many professionals whose client base grows quickly, Rajneesh acquired a business manager around this time. She was Laxmi, an upper-class,
politically well-connected woman, who became his first personal secretary and organizational chief.

Rajneesh's early career reflected his individual charismatic attributes of intelligence, emotional appeal, and ability to communicate directly to individuals, even when they were part of a large audience (Weber [1922] 1968). He was highly energetic, with an alluring emotional volatility that
attracted both seekers in India and a small but growing number of Europeans and North Americans (B. Johnson 1992).

At the request of university officials, Rajneesh resigned his post at the University of Jabalpur in 1966 and started to use the name Acharya Rajneesh, denoting his primary role as a spiritual teacher. He supported himself by lecturing, offering meditation camps, and individually counseling affluent Indian clients. Rajneesh critiqued established politics and religions, and advocated more open, liberated sexuality. Building from the work of the Western philosopher Gurdjieff, he also developed active meditation exercises that facilitated individuals' ability to observe their own physical, mental, and emotional processes. Word of mouth and occasional
published references to his gifts brought Westerners to the Mt. Abu meditation camps that Acharya Rajneesh directed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1971, I Am the Gate was the first of Rajneesh's many books to be published in English. Visitors from the West sought out Rajneesh in the airy Bombay apartment he acquired late in 1969. He sent a number of these
first guests back home to start an international network of meditation centers.

In 1971, as his following grew and diversified, Rajneesh exchanged the title of Acharya, which means teacher, for the more expansive, Bhagwan, signifying enlightened or awakened one. For the first time, Rajneesh acknowledged that he had experienced the profound nothingness of true
satori constituting enlightenment almost twenty years earlier, on March 21, 1953. As the movement grew in the early 1970s, an official organizational structure emerged (Carter 1990: 70).

Devotees received new names, often those of revered Hindu gods and goddesses, signifying their psychological and spiritual rebirth through taking sannyas (vow of renunciation), opening themselves to Bhagwan, and renouncing their pasts. Around this time in Bombay, Bhagwan also asked all of his followers to wear saffron orange clothing, a traditional color of holy men in India. The names and clothes that signified instant holiness, coupled with Rajneesh's free-wheeling political and sexual philosophy, deeply offended the local population while enchanting Westerners, who began to outnumber the Indians visiting Rajneesh. The tension with Indian host society grew as Rajneesh began to cultivate a formal movement. His reputation as a radical academic, his philosophy, and the privileged Westerners flaunting Indian conventions all combined to generate tension with the surrounding culture. That tension, however, functioned to help define the movement for its members and to generate internal solidarity (Erikson 1966).

In 1974, Bhagwan relocated his headquarters to Pune (previously known as Poona), one hundred miles southeast of Bombay. With considerableWestern backing and additional financial support from long-time Indian devotees, Bhagwan moved to a six-acre enclave and acquired adjoining real estate in Koregaon Park, an elite Pune suburb. Over the next five years, the Shree Rajneesh Ashram grew to include a meditation hall where Bhagwan could lecture to several thousand people, a smaller auditorium, facilities for a multitude of human potential therapy groups, a medical clinic, cottage industries, restaurants, shops, classrooms, and housing for sannyasins who
lived year round at the ashram. The movement was clearly stratified, with affluent and talented sannyasins receiving the most access to Bhagwan. At this point, Rajneesh enhanced his charisma by adopting the long, flowing beard associated with Indian holy men. His clothing was white, differentiating him from all others in the ashram (B. Johnson 1992).

As the movement grew, he could no longer have regular daily contact with most sannyasins, but he became present everywhere in the ashram through ubiquitous photographs and rumors of occasional, almost random, encounters with rank-and-file sannyasins. In addition, his evening darshans (audiences), at which Rajneesh answered sannyasins' written questions, provided a symbolic closeness, as did his habit of presenting important visitors and departing sannyasins with gifts of small wooden boxes or clothing that symbolized his continuing presence in their lives (Goldman 1999).

Well-known Western presses such as Harper and Row translated and published some of Bhagwan's discourses. At the movement's peak around 1976, close to thirty thousand Westerners visited the Shree Rajneesh Ashram yearly, and the worldwide movement included more than twenty-five thousand sannyasins (Milne 1987: 23; Carter 1990: 59–60).

After 1976 or 1977, however, recruitment stagnated and many sannyasins left the movement. There was greater competition in the American spiritual and self-actualization marketplaces, Western economies were constricting, and some influential figures in the human potential movement, like Richard Price of Esalen Institute, publicly denounced violence in the Rajneesh
therapy groups (Anderson 1983: 299– 302).

There were also political difficulties in India that stemmed from Bhagwan's public lectures against the powerful Janata party. Bhagwan talked to his devotees about the Buddhafield, a spiritual community built around him and his teachings, but none of the regional governments in India was willing to permit the commune. In Pune, sannyasins spread rumors of death threats to
Bhagwan by members of various Indian sects, accompanied by terrifying descriptions of his growing emotional stress and his declining health. There were also reports of violent incidents between sannyasins and Indian opponents of the Shree Rajneesh Ashram.

The Indian government investigated allegations of Rajneesh-sanctioned prostitution, international drug trafficking, gold smuggling, money laundering, and tax evasion. Sannyasins have always denied most of these charges, but the criminal investigations created many difficulties for the movement and its leaders. The first period of extreme controversy, 1976 to
1980, created an impetus for Rajneesh to relocate to the United States. In June of 1981, the founder and his inner circle flew to New Jersey. The Shree Rajneesh Ashram began to shut down, except for a small remaining crew of resident caretakers.

The flight from India represented an attempt to deal with increasing external pressures, as the host society confronted Rajneesh's hostility to traditional rules and values. This confrontation with convention reflected the tensions that are commonly associated with spontaneous, innovative charismatic leadership (Wilson 1987). Rajneesh could have minimized friction and risked losing some of his charismatic appeal. Or he could have held his ground in India and faced painful sanctions against him and his sannyasins. Instead he fled in order to rebuild his movement in North America, where large numbers of sannyasins resided.

On July 10, 1981, Bhagwan's representatives purchased the 64,229-acre Big Muddy Ranch in central Oregon for $5.9 million, and they started building the Buddhafield at Rajneeshpuram. Rumor had it that the decision to move to Oregon reflected the relatively inexpensive price of the ranch and his new personal secretary's misplaced assumption that all of Oregon was peopled by tolerant liberals who smoked marijuana and left their neighbors alone. Wasco County proved to be far less laid-back than she had expected. During the next four years, the ranch became the site of considerable accomplishment and also considerable intrigue and crime. Debates still rage within and outside the movement about who did what to whom and why. One of the central questions is whether or not Bhagwan knew about a whole array of plots and criminal activities on the part of his personal secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, at Rancho Rajneesh.

The Big Muddy had been zoned as restricted farmland, and until the community disbanded, there were public charges made by environmental groups such as 1,000 Friends of Oregon, as well as civil lawsuits, government investigations, and fines levied for land use and building code violations. The Oregon attorney general, David Frohnmayer, challenged the incorporation of Rajneeshpuram itself as an unconstitutional merger of church and state. In December 1985, after Rancho Rajneesh was already up for sale, the Federal District Court enjoined Rajneeshpuram (the City of Rajneesh) from exercising governmental power because there was no effective church-state separation. Along with land use and legal questions, there were also disputes about who was using the land. The federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) closely investigated Rajneesh's immigration status from the very beginning. Rajneesh's formal visa application stated his intention to seek American medical treatment, requiring a stay of less than a year. He later requested extensions of his visa because of his work as a religious teacher. After legal disputes with Rajneesh attorneys, INS rescinded its earlier deportation order (Carter 1990: 161–165). Nevertheless, federal agencies continued to investigate sannyasins who were foreign nationals and had recently married U.S. citizens (Carter 1990: 150–152).

State and local elections also generated tension with outsiders. Shortly after sannyasins purchased the Big Muddy, they began buying real estate in the tiny hamlet of Antelope, the town closest to Rajneeshpuram. By the spring of 1982, the forty or so longtime residents feared that they would be overrun by sannyasins unless they voted to disincorporate. The disincorporation election failed because of new Rajneesh voters, whose representatives soon controlled both Antelope's city council and its school board. The townspeople's varied battles against the newcomers, who eventually changed Antelope to City of Rajneesh, drew widespread public attention and generated a number of lawsuits. More national attention turned toward central Oregon in the autumn of 1984, when Rajneesh's personal secretary, Sheela Silverman, and her inner circle developed a plan to bus in several thousand homeless individuals, mostly men, recruited in cities across the United States. They were to be rehabilitated in the Buddhafield and, not coincidentally, they could also vote in the November election in which sannyasins were candidates for seats on the Wasco County Commission. Massive negative publicity, state monitoring of voter registration, and legal opposition doomed the plan. At the last minute Sheela instructed everyone at Rajneeshpuram to boycott the polls.

By the end of 1984, almost all of the homeless visitors had left. Before the election, however, information about the conflict and impending debacle spurred Bhagwan to abandon his vow of silence and begin speaking to a small group, the Chosen Few. Although control of Rajneeshpuram shifted, state and federal officials continued investigations of Sheela, her entourage, other sannyasins, and Rajneesh himself. The following year, a handful of influential sannyasins who had been there since the Pune days defected and began to talk with authorities. On September 14, 1985, Ma Anand Sheela and members of her inner circle fled Rajneeshpuram for Europe. Rajneesh accused them of a wide variety of crimes against sannyasins, the public, and the state of Oregon. The crimes included mass salmonella poisoning of 750 individuals in almost a dozen restaurant salad bars located in the county seat of the Dalles. This was the largest known incident of germ warfare in the United States, and Sheela had designed it as a test run for a more
massive effort that could temporarily incapacitate large numbers of anti-Rajneesh voters on the upcoming election day (Carter 1990: 224–226).

This was the apex of the second wave of tension, which continues to characterize the movement for many outsiders. Rajneesh accused his former personal secretary and her circle with drugging sannyasins, wiretapping, arson, and embezzlement of Rajneesh movement funds. In the wake of FBI investigations of these allegations, dozens of sannyasins received subpoenas to testify before the county grand jury, and Rajneesh himself was served on October 6, 1985. There were also rumors that warrants were being prepared for his arrest. Less than two weeks later, federal agents in Charlotte, North Carolina, captured Rajneesh, when two Lear jets carrying him and a handful of sannyasins stopped to refuel in route to Bermuda. He was taken from North Carolina to Oklahoma and back to Oregon, where his attorneys posted bond so he could return to Rajneeshpuram. Rajneesh left the United States less than two weeks later, after filing no contest pleas to two counts of immigration fraud and paying fines and prosecution costs of $400,000 (McCormack 1985: 116).

This marked the most negative moment of Rajneesh's career within his movement. It could have led to the disintegration of the movement or the displacement of Rajneesh as its leader. Instead, most sannyasins blamed Rajneesh's former personal secretary for the misguided and exploitative policies that doomed Rajneeshpuram, and threatened Rajneesh and his movement's existence. Bhagwan and his new staff traveled all over the world seeking asylum, and met rejection from a number of countries. Eventually, his representatives bargained with the Indian government and resettled in Pune. A number of longtime sannyasins began to return to the Shree Rajneesh Ashram, renamed Osho Commune International, and now recently renamed Osho Meditation Resort. They quietly refurbished each building and cultivated the magnificent Zen gardens. Pune was once again Bhagwan's home, and it was a destination resort for spiritual therapy, meditation, and personal growth.

In 1989, Rajneesh decided that Bhagwan was no longer an appropriate title for him because too many people understood it to mean God. He tried out the name Buddha, and met with resounding negative feedback from outsiders. Then he changed to Shree Rajneesh. He finally settled on Osho, a name that varied sources have explained differently. The Friends of Osho trace the derivation to William James's word oceanic, which implies dissolving into the whole of human existence-in other words, being at one with everything there is. They note that Osho also carries the meaning of "The Blessed One on Whom the Sky Showers Flowers" (Osho Commune International Press Release 1991). Others write that Osho comes from the Japanese language, implying great gratitude and respect for one who expands consciousness (Palmer and Sharma 1993: 53–54). Like almost everything else about Osho Rajneesh, his name itself created initial controversy. It could be interpreted broadly to mean a revered teacher of meditation (Palmer and Sharma 1993: 54).

The movement continued after Osho died on January 19, 1990, as sannyasins heeded his message that his spirit was with them, and he had merely left his body. A dozen years later the ashram/commune/resort in Koregaon Park still throbs with music, new meditations, a mystery school, and personal growth groups. Although the Indian government has renamed Poona as Pune in order to delegitimate colonial history, the city is much as it was twenty years ago, when the ashram was at its peak and Bhagwan lectured daily.

Osho left twenty-one members of his Inner Circle in charge of the organization, and several of them have emerged as leaders. The small, international movement keeps attracting affluent seekers from the Americas, Europe, Japan, Australia, and, most recently, Israel. Some are drawn to the Pune Ashram, while others affiliate through local centers in a number of locations, including Sedona, Arizona, and Byron Bay, Australia. Sannyasins keep in touch by means of their sophisticated electronic network of group and individual home pages on the World Wide Web. Through their visits to Pune, personal contacts, and small active Osho centers, and a number of spin-off groups and personal growth institutes, sannyasins, old and recent, continue the work of transforming themselves and creating a new consciousness that synthesizes spirituality and material pleasure.

Osho Rajneesh and His Philosophies

Since 1974 in Pune, almost every word Osho uttered had been faithfully recorded and published or filmed. He was fond of asserting that there were 108 beads on the malas (necklaces) that his devotees wore to suspend their lockets with his photograph, and there were likewise 108 paths to travel toward enlightenment. In almost five hundred books, which were transcriptions of his lectures, initiation talks, and pithy sayings, almost every major religious and philosophical tradition received Osho's attention. He lectured about Buddhism, Christianity, Hasidism, Sufism, the Upanishads, Yoga, and Zen, as well as Marx, Freud, and Henry Ford. These traditions were not always well understood by sannyasins or seekers, but they melded together in an interesting, palatable spiritual stew dominated by Zen Buddhism. Bhagwan asserted that the many internal contradictions and paradoxes in his philosophy were essential to an individual's spiritual development.

People could choose to accept or reject any part of his philosophical discourses. In the 1970s and 1980s it was up to individuals, so long as they remained connected to Bhagwan and accepted him as the ultimate master. Currently, there is greater emphasis on consistent meditation and less on
an explicit master/disciple relationship. Despite changes, elaborations, and advocacy of individual choice, the two most important themes in Osho's philosophy remain surprisingly clear and consistent. They are first, surrender of individual ego and second, integration of the individual's
material and spiritual selves.

A recent Web site displayed Osho's ten commandments, which he wrote when he was Archayra Rajneesh in 1970 (www.otoons.com/osho/10.htm ). He noted that writing this was difficult because he objected to commandments of any sort.
Nevertheless, he wrote:
1. Never obey anyone's command unless it is coming from within you also.
2. There is no God other than life itself.
3. Truth is within you, do not search for it elsewhere.
4. Love is prayer.
5. To become a nothingness is the door to truth. Nothingness itself is the
means, the goal and attainment.
6. Life is now and here.
7. Live wakefully.
8. Do not swim - float.
9. Die each moment so that you can be new each moment.
10. Do not search. That which is, is. Stop and see.

Numbers 3, 7, 9, and 10 were underlined by Osho in his original letter. These Commandments are a constant doctrine that has grounded the Osho movement for more than thirty years. Free choice was the essence of Osho's philosophy, but the ultimate freedom of enlightenment was disappearance of ego through surrender to his teachings, and after 1990, to his meditations. As with almost everything else in the movement, there has always been considerable latitude for individuals to construct their own meanings of surrender.

During the exclusive phases of the movement from the early 1970s through 1990, much emphasis was placed on the individual's relationship to Rajneesh, but that changed after he died. Being a sannyasin made it possible to become a new person and achieve enlightenment someday.
Throughout his life, Osho asserted that every sannyasin had to follow a slightly different spiritual path, but all of their personal quests absolutely required an invisible line reaching directly from his teachings to each devotee's heart.

Osho returned again and again to his vision of a new man who synthesized the worldly and the godly. His ideal was Zorba the Buddha, a consummate being who combined the spiritual focus of the Indian mystic with the lifeembracing traits of the materialistic Westerner. Zen, Tantra tradition, and Reverend Ike's message came together in Rajneesh's vision. Bhagwan obviously relished this ideal, which may have been his personal goal, as well. He stated: "A new human being is needed on earth, a new human being who accepts both, who is scientific and mystic. Who is all for matter and all for spirit. Only then will we be able to create a humanity which is rich on both sides. I teach you the richness of body, richness of soul, richness of this world and that world. To me that is true religiousness" (Rajneesh 1983: 14).

Rajneesh's enthusiastic embrace of materialism generated American media feeding frenzies, and most outsiders still remember his collection of more than ninety Rolls Royces before any other characteristic of Rajneeshpuram. The extravagant cars symbolized both Rajneesh's embrace of the corporeal world and his tweaking of Americans' automobile worship. He owned his first Rolls in India, where there was a tradition of the car's association with royalty that dated back to the British Raj. His collection, however, only reached epic proportions after he settled in the United States. Sannyasins appreciated the humor behind the swarm of Rolls Royces. They also rejoiced
in their teacher's luxurious appointments in the same way that devout members of many other groups appreciate their leaders' splendor. Osho also called for transcendence of traditional gender roles.Women and men alike were encouraged to merge their own female and male sides and to strive for flexibility in every aspect of their lives (Goldman 1999).

The ideal human being was neither overtly male nor stereotypically female, but Rajneesh placed highest value on traditionally feminine traits like intuition, expressiveness, emotionalism, self-awareness, and sensitivity. Men were admonished to nurture their own feminine traits and women were lauded when they acted assertively. Individuals were exhorted to move toward androgyny, without forsaking their gender identity (Goldman 1999).

Osho Rajneesh's flexible, postmodernist spiritual philosophy made becoming a sannyasin relatively easy. Currently, official sannyas is not essential, although some individuals still become formal devotees through local centers or the headquarters in Pune. In the 1970s some people became sannyasins in Pune and then lived at the Shree Rajneesh Ashram for several years. Others joined the movement somewhat precipitously, on short visits to Pune, during stays at Rajneeshpuram, or in brief ceremonies at one of the urban Rajneesh centers that flourished until 1982. In the late 1970s, many sannyasins simply sent a card to the central office in Pune, requested sannyas, and received new names and a mala, with a locket holding Rajneesh's picture. From the early 1970s through 1990, prospective devotees checked a box on their application forms to note whether they wanted to keep their old first name, which would now be prefaced with Ma or Swami followed by a brief name such as Anand (Love), or whether they wished to receive an entirely different, Hindu-style name inspired, if not actually bestowed, by Rajneesh. After taking sannyas, in the 1970s and 1980s, devotees were supposed to meditate at least once daily, don sunrise colors (which included a whole spectrum of red-based shades), wear a mala with the locket housing Bhagwan's likeness, and become vegetarian. Along with these practices, sannyasins had to acknowledge their heart-to-heart connection to Bhagwan. These rules became increasingly flexible after Osho's death. Even when the movement had explicit, exclusive boundaries, however, those simple policies were flexible, because free choice was such a crucial element in Rajneesh's philosophy.

Since 1990, the movement has redefined itself a number of times, moving in the direction of greater inclusiveness. The ashram in Pune became known as the Osho Commune International until it was recently renamed Osho Meditation Resort. Some changes resulted from differences between different international centers and the governing council in Pune, but the most pronounced current debates involve the continued centrality of Osho as a spiritual teacher. Recent devotees ask, To what extent does Osho himself continue to be necessary to his teachings?

Diaspora and Decentralization

After Rajneeshpuram collapsed in 1985, American sannyasins gravitated to places with good weather, active alternative cultures, and spiritual diversity, unusually on theWest Coast or in the Southwest. They sought out tolerant and beautiful places, where their professional skills and countercultural experiences are appreciated. Large concentrations of American sannyasins, both old and recent, currently live near the Osho Academy in Sedona, Arizona, and the Viha Meditation Center in Marin County, California, and devotees from other places in the United States visit and correspond with them. Wherever they are, devotees often gather together to visit and meditate. Some travel to the Pune headquarters, when they have the time and money, although their trips are less frequent than they were a decade ago.

During the diaspora from the communal city, Rajneeshpuram, some people renounced Rajneesh and embarked on new spiritual paths. Most, however, at least temporarily sustained their still unwavering faith that their spiritual master would guide their futures in some way. The most affluent sannyasins left without need to worry about the years they had devoted to building the ill-fated Buddhafield. Other sannyasins who remained faithful left under less fortunate circumstances. Those without professional credentials or specific skills had to fill huge four- and five-year holes in their re´sume´s (Gordon 1987: 211–212). But devotees with businesses or academic jobs often helped out less fortunate sannyasins like these, offering them references or sometimes employment.

One Northwest millionaire recommended dozens of sannyasins on the basis of excellent work in his household or businesses. Most of their work was indeed excellent, but they had carried it out at Rajneeshpuram. Looking back over more than a decade, many sannyasins have found that their years at Rajneeshpuram provided them with unexpected occupational possibilities. Even in the twenty-first century, however, they seldom share their Rajneeshpuram histories with their business acquaintances, though these sannyasins have built solid professional reputations on skills they honed at the communal city. Their creative problem-solving approaches and their concerns with process as well as outcomes enhance their abilities to function in business or the professions. Their recent occupational successes are embedded in the focus, skills, and intense work ethic that they had developed at Rajneeshpuram. None of these individuals has grown rich, but they survive comfortably within the middle class.

Many sannyasins made the most of the twists and turns of their lives, redefining their parents' and sometimes their own ideas of occupational success. For example, an attorney had supervised one of the Ranch's large communal kitchens, because he lacked credentials to practice law in Oregon.

When he left the Ranch, he had no career direction at all, except the desire never to practice law again. After house cleaning, waiting on tables, and wandering, he started a restaurant, employing other sannyasins and outsiders as well. Explaining his current entrepreneurial success, he said, "Need makes you smart. We had to come up with an answer to life." Coming up with an answer to life after the Ranch meant deciding about work and resettlement. Spiritual issues had already been resolved.

Most Rajneeshpuram residents continued to believe that they had found the answer to their fundamental questions about life when they took sannyas. Even those who renounced Bhagwan usually continued to see him as an essential and meaningful part of their histories, somewhat like a former spouse. By sustaining their faith, sannyasins resembled others who are active members of communal new religions for at least two years. Those years fundamentally alter devotees' goals and ways of looking at the world. Long-term members seldom renounce the spiritual priorities acquired as part of an intense collective religion. Even if they disengage or if their groups collapse, they usually remain faithful to the alternative spiritual stances they have adopted (Goldman 1995; Jacobs 1989; Wright 1987). They may move closer to the mainstream, but they retain the overall frameworks that they have acquired through their earlier commitment.

The current Osho movement builds on the experience and dedication of individuals who have retained their commitment for decades. Those who lived at Rajneeshpuram command the same deference once accorded the individuals who had met with Rajneesh in his tiny Bombay apartment in the 1970s. New sannyasins have been recruited from the children of older sannyasins, and from individuals in the twenty-one to fifty-year-old range in affluent, industrial nations where there is resonance for Osho's message of personal exploration and fusion of the material and spiritual.

The Pune headquarters, now Osho Meditation Resort, continues at the center of the movement, governed by the twenty-one members of the Inner Circle, many of whom were called to govern by Osho himself. The movement around Osho, however, grows increasingly decentralized, with direct challenges to the Inner Circle's authority by both recent Indian sannyasins and a group of British sannyasins who have been dissidents for many years.

Challengers to a Pune-centered movement suggest that Osho's work and general spirit are more important than the outmoded leadership at the Osho Meditation Resort. It is undeniable that Osho's influence has spread well beyond the confines of a specific organization, but the center at Pune still holds together disparate groups. There are centers in Japan, Germany, Italy, and the United States, which directly acknowledge leadership in Pune and continue to underscore Osho's role as each sannyasin's personal spiritual teacher. Farther from this centralized model, there is a handful of thriving Osho residential centers with unique perspectives differing somewhat from Pune, which nevertheless remain connected to the Meditation Resort. For example, the Osho Academy in Sedona, Arizona, acknowledges one of their own, Kaveesha, who died in 1998, as an enlightened teacher whose words and example provide a bridge to Osho and his teachings. Some longtime sannyasins also lead independent personal growth centers with have no formal affiliation with Pune or other Osho organizations. The New England Center for Transforming Consciousnes uses Osho's teachings in promoting Consciousness to the highest degree. Another personal growth business, the Hawaii Institute for Wellness, offers workshops and counseling to already self-actualized individuals.

Some former sannyasins who have created organizations of their own separated from Osho and his organization, but still incorporate his teachings in their spiritual work. They acknowledge Osho as a spiritual master without deferring to the Pune Meditation Resort or to any center directly connected to Pune. Although not nominally affiliated, these teachers continue to spread Osho's doctrines. Among the best known are Dolano, Paul Lowe, Mikaire, Nadeen, Tony Parsons, and Matreya.

There are also customers, a few of whom once may have been closer to the formal Osho centers. These thousands of unaffiliated seekers create a market that supports both formally recognized and also unofficial organizations connected to Osho. Retreats, meditations, therapies, and consultations are easily available in regions where there are Osho centers.Major international chain bookstores, Borders, and Barnes and Noble, carry books, videos, tea sets, and tarot cards with Osho's imprint.

A recentWeb site, www.rebelliousspirit.com , lists over five hundred Osho-related celebrations, trainings, events, and therapy groups, available from November 2002 through January 2003, in twenty-three countries. The Osho movement continues, surviving both extreme controversy in India and Oregon and after growing internal dissent when the controversies with the outside diminished.

Reconstructing History, Surviving Controversy The first section of this chapter considered the question of whether Osho and his movement could be considered successful. They were not successful in terms of membership growth, resource accumulation, and social influence after the late 1970s (Stark 1996a). However, the movement continues with the core at the Pune headquarters and Meditation Resort, and widening circles of affiliated centers, personal growth businesses with movement ties, Osho influenced spiritual teachers, and unaffiliated clients in the
spiritual marketplace. In the early 1980s leaders in the Rajneesh movement defined success as the creation of a huge utopian community with one hundred thousand residents within two decades (Carter 1990). But with Osho's death and the subsequent decentralization of movement authority, the group has generally construed success as broad global cultural influence. This revision allows the movement to claim success on its own terms (Wilson 1985; Dawson 1998).

The current vision is legitimated by emphasis on the discourses in which Osho asserted that he never wanted to found or even be part of an organized religion: "I am so inconsistent, that it is impossible to create a dead institution around me, because a dead institution will need the infrastructure of a dead philosophy. I will leave you open" (Osho [1982] 2001: 232).

Benton Johnson (1992) noted that many founders were not particularly concerned with their spiritual movement's organizational survival after their own deaths. He suggested that some leaders like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (who founded Transcendental Meditation) and Osho Rajneesh had elaborated the traditional Indian form of the private guru to a psychological and religious counselor. Thus a legacy of influence might be all that could be expected from both Osho's primary doctrine and leadership style. The goal of living in the moment-a central tenet of Osho's doctrine-does not encourage the development of a bounded movement destined to last over many generations (just as, in other movements, neither does a Christian emphasis on impending endtimes that makes long-term planning futile). The movement has survived because Osho's Inner Circle saw a future in which the Pune Ashram/Commune/ Meditation Resort served as an inclusive hub for worldwide centers and individual clients with varying degrees of commitment.

It is possible to discern progression in the Osho movement and its continued survival, albeit with diluted central authority and amorphous cultural influence. First, Rajneesh ostracized Sheela and attributed all crimes and difficulties to her and her lieutenants. Second, the movement vacated the site of most extreme controversy, dispersed its members to other centers, and reclaimed its original headquarters far from the abandoned communal city in central Oregon. Third, Rajneesh renamed himself, the movement, and its headquarters. Fourth, he established a central council to carry on organizational duties. Fifth, he and the Inner Circle who governed after his death redefined the movement as one of meditation and personal growth informed by Osho's philosophy. Finally, after Osho's death, the movement reemphasized and underscored his focus on organizational diffusion and inclusive spirituality. Success was about truth and influence rather than organization and growth. Thus his legacy became: "Never born. Never died. Only visited this Planet Earth between December 11, 1931 and January 19, 1990" (Osho 1996, 282).

We may chart a more general model, applicable to groups like Children of God/the Family, the movement around George Gurdjieff, or even the hardy, intense groups who still identify with People's Temple, as well as devotees of Rajneesh. An effective movement strategy for overcoming controversy: (1) reproach, blame and ostracize selected individuals for controversy, (2) relocate, (3) rename, (4) reorganize, (5) reemphasize doctrine to support practice rather than allegiance, and finally, and possibly most important, redefine success. The Friends of Osho continue because they recruit and hold affluent, talented devotees from a number of different nations. Since they are privileged individuals, sannyasins are influential in their societies. They are taken seriously without suffering extreme political repression, and they can remain engaged on an international scale (Stark 1996b, 29–47).

Although there are now probably fewer than eight thousand active sannyasins and committed fellow travelers worldwide, they continue to have more influence than their numbers suggest because they are linked by sophisticated computer networks, they provide spiritual goods to a wide market of esoteric consumers, and they come together regularly in small groups. They follow Osho's promise of continuity after his death: "There will be no need to make any special nook and corner for me: I will be dissolved in my people. Just as you can taste the sea and it is salty, you will be able to taste any of my sannyasins and you will find the same taste: the taste of Bhagwan [Osho], the taste of the Blessed One" (Osho [1982] 2001: 239–240).

Using ColdFusion 8 with Microsoft Exchange Server

Feeling pleased having found a possibility of bridging the gap between Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies. ColdFusion 8 if used with Microsoft Exchange can really be of a great help for the people who know the immense possibilities of bringing these two together. I found this article while searching for a similar solution and would like my readers to get its access without any problem.
Microsoft Exchange Server is used by businesses for e-mail messaging, calendar scheduling, and contacts and tasks management. Adobe ColdFusion 8, with a new library of tags, gives you the ability to access, retrieve, create, and modify this information quickly, easily, and without having to learn Lightweight Data Access Protocol (LDAP).

This article uses the new cfexchange tags in Adobe ColdFusion 8 to demonstrate how to:

* Connect to an Exchange server
* Retrieve a list of folders from an Exchange user's mailbox
* Retrieve mail, contact, calendar, and task information
* Create contacts, calendar events, and tasks
* Modify existing contacts, calendar events, and tasks
Visit to know all the details.

Upgrading to Coldfusion 8 from Coldfusion 7

How easy had it been for the living human beings in mending their behavior and improving upon actions had some dead man come back and narrated what all he had to go through after death!!! But it has so far been not possible because the dead ones have got nothing to do with the left ones. But with the advent of Internet, at least in this world you can learn from other mistakes!!! Yesterday I installed rather upgraded coldfusion 7 to coldfusion 8 and it was straight forward at least so far. Following are the steps to follow.

I did not uninstall MX 7 prior to installing 8 (this is the developer version since I did this first on my local machine before doing development and/or production to make sure that all of our websites work ok with version 8…I highly recommend you do the same.)

After downloading the developer version from Adobe.com, I went ahead and double clicked ColdFusion-8-win.exe.  I then followed the wizard.

1. Shut down all CFMX 7 services, especially Verify, if you have any collections that need to be transferred over to version 8.
2. Make sure you have installed JDK 1.6 or above.
3. Splash screen - Choose language and click OK.
4. Introduction - Click next.
5. License Agreement - Accept and click next.
6. Configure Installer - Enter Serial #, select trial, or select developer edition and click next.
7. Server Configuration - Select your server configuration and click next.
8. Sub-Components Selections - Select all the sub-components you want to install and click next.
9. ColdFusion 8 Location - Select the location of where you want to install ColdFusion 8.  By default, it install in c:\ColdFusion8.  Do not replace your CFMX 7 location with ColdFusion 8.  Install it separately.  Click next.
10. Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES Agreement - If you chose Adobe LiveCycle in #7 above, then you must agree to the License agreement.   Then click next.
11. Adobe LiveCycle Serial # - If you chose Adobe LiveCycle in #7 above, then enter the Serial # if you have one.  If you don’t, after 120 days it will become an express edition, which allows you full capabilities only on your local machine. Click next.
12. Web server configuration - At this point, the wizard will detect if you have CFMX 7 installed on your machine.  If you do, it will ask you to either configure your web server for CFMX 8 (replacing CFMX 7 web server installation) or if you want CFMX 8 to co-exists with CFMX 7, and it will install it with it’s own web server (usually installed on port 8500).   Choose which you prefer.  In my case, I told it to replace my IIS webserver/CFMX 7 configuration with CFMX 8 configuration. Click next.
13. Websites Configuration -Select specific websites, all websites in your web server or select the built-in web server only.  Use the built in web server ONLY IN DEVELOPMENT, NOT IN PRODUCTION.  Click next.
14. CFMX Admin Location - Choose the location of where the CFMX Administrator will be stored.   In my case, it will be under the WWWROOT directory (c:\INETPUB\WWWROOT)
15. Administrator Password - Enter any password you want for the administrator screen.  This can be changed later.
16. Remote Development Service (RDS) - If you plan on allowing people to connect to the ColdFusion Server via RDS (NOT RECOMMENDED IN PRODUCTION), then check the “Enable RDS” box and enter a password.  Click next.
17. Pre-Installation Summary - Review all your selections and click “Install”.

ColdFusion will then begin the install process.  It may take a while, so get up from your desk and go get a cup of Java (or is it ColdFusion???).  Once it’s done the install, the configuration process will beging.  The wizard will tell you to click “DONE” and the CFMX Administrator will open up.

The first thing you’ll notice immediately upon the login screen is the new look and feel of the administrator.

1. Enter you password you created in step #14.  Click Login.
2. The configuration screen will appear and tell you to wait a few minutes (most likely…it will be longer then a few minutes….oh oh…time for another cup of Java).
3. Let the screen run its course.   DO NOT click on the “If this screen doesn’t refresh in a few minutes, click on this link to Continue”.  It will continue by itself.  Just be patient.
4. After it’s done with the configuration screen, you will continue on with the Migration of the old (old…ha ha…CFMX 7 is now old) CFMX 7 settings into CFMX 8.  This process is critical if you want your applications to at least be configured properly with CFMX 8 (I didn’t say work properly…that’s a completely different process you have to go through….called…testing all your apps!)  Click “Next”.
5. Export Settings - The wizard will show you all the exported settings it has successfully exported from CFMX 7.  Click Next.
6. Import Settings - After you clicked next above, the import of settings into CFMX 8 will begin and will end shortly, displaying all the successful migration of the settings.  Click Next.
7. Finish - This is the last screen.  go ahead…do it…click Finish and start enjoying CFMX 8.  The ColdFusion MX 8 administrator screen will open up.

That’s it.  That’s all there is to upgrading ColdFusion MX 7 to ColdFusion 8.   However, that is just the upgrade only.  The next step is to verify all your administrator settings to make sure everything is as it should be, uninstall CFMX 7 (because the wizard will not uninstall it for you) and then the hard part…that is to test all your applications thoroughly in development before you install ColdFusion 8 in production.

Good luck on your installation of ColdFusion 8!   In the very near future, I will write a longer blog on the new features of ColdFusion 8.