Whistling In Songs

I have loved melody in songs. And appreciated people who sing well. While in college, there used to be a sweeper who could whistle so well that I would wait up to listen to him.

I was listening to the song "Neerodum Vaigaiyile" from the Tamil movie Paar Magale Paar and was enjoying the song and the sound of the whistle. I browsed about the latter and came across this very interesting post, that too in FB.

This song has a nice whistle: Aankhon Mein Kyaa Ji (1957, MD: SD Burman).

And here is another link, apparently there is a whistler's association.


Additional reading:

• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2011/04/piano-duets-in-hindi-movies.html -  Piano and dance songs
• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2011/10/melodious-horse-songs-in-indian-movies.html

EINSTFPJ - MBTI - Basic Theory

This was part of an earlier post. I removed it from there and created a new post here.

What I want to focus on is the kind of responses each personality type gives in various scenarios. This post is on understanding MBTI and its relevance to Vedic astrology.

I have been analyzing the various aspects of our personality for some time and trying to correlate it with the indications of planets in our horoscope. When I use the words horoscope and astrology I am not talking about Sun signs. I refer to Vedic astrology and I do not consider Uranus, Neptune, Pluto which are not part of Vedic astrology.

My specific focus is in splitting our personality layer by layer into our emotions, our mind, our desires, our drive, ability and so on. I want to find out which of these are synonyms or always go together and which of these are independent characteristics. For example desire and drive may not always go together. A person with a low drive may have a high desire or vice versa.

Guess, I have made clear what I want to understand.

This post will contain stuff on MBTI types. I will includes (links to) articles of interest and occasionally my own feelings. At present this post is unstructured and may not be reader friendly. 

Nice posts on MBTI:

• http://insightgame.org/intro.php
• Classroom learnng and MBTI types: http://personalityplaybook.com/2013/10/27/classroom-learning-and-the-16-types/
• http://infj-mbti.tumblr.com/post/102588507108/mbti-misconceptions
• http://www.newdirectionsconsulting.com/leadership-engagement/are-we-compatible-using-the-mbti-personality-assessment-with-couples/
• http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/the-16-mbti-types.htm
• http://www.inc.com/adam-heitzman/can-the-myers-briggs-predict-your-entrepreneurial-success.html
• http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/
• https://ebliz.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/why-you-behave-the-way-you-do-mbti-personality-types/

These are related articles on different MBtI topics:

• Inferior functions: 1
• Nice post on introverted sensing: 1
• Ti and Te: 1
• T and; F, ego: 1, 2
• J and P: 1, 2
• N and S: 1, 2, 3, 4 (nice one on misconceptions about S and N)
• Ni and Ne: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4
• Conflicts in TJ, FP etc: 1
• Difference between Ni, Ne and Women's intuition: 1
• Ni, No, Si, Se: 1 , 2
• Fi and Fe: 1
• Fi and comparing with other attributes: 1
• All functions in real life: 1
• NF: 1
• Relationship difficulties for N types: 1
• Gifted students: 1
• Gut feel: 1, 2
• Statistics on various MBTI types: 1, 2
• Differences between J(udging) and P(erceiving): 1
• Difference between T(hinking) and F(eeling): 1
• Forer effect on how predictions / analyses can sound nice and authentic and non unique and fits just about everyone/everything: 1, 2 (Lovely post.)
• Difference between S(ensing) and iN(tuition): 1 - While most articles tend to give an abstract definition of the two, this article seemed to me to explain the difference well.
• INTJ, INFP, INTP, INFJ Relationships, Compatibility, & the Inferior Function: 1 - very nice article.
• INTJ and INTP difference: 1, 2, 3
• On NF, NT, SF and ST - 1, 2 - both nice articles. 
• MBTI types in the classroom: 1, 2,
• Influential people: 1,
• Holland's 6 personality types or codes: 1, 2, 3
• Stress in different personality types: 1

Numbers given above are hyperlinks to different articles.

My discomfort with the definition of N or S is that they are defined on the basis of GATHERING info. I would say they are different in terms of storing info. Issues in relationships happen primarily because of differences in N and S and T and F. Intuition of the feminine kind is of a survival nature. Intuition as in NT (MBTI type) is to do with understanding the model of this world. N and F are similar in this nature - understanding or knowing what is not visible or obvious. F, E and P attributes are grounded with dealing with people. Such people deal with people much better than I, OR NT or J. Note that I used NT together.

We (rather, the definition of the type) say that N doesn't work with data, only the S does. But T processes the data and hence NT also possibly does. So when a person works with data, does it mean he is T and not N? See the confusion.

Put another way, if you see a person who is comfortable mulling on data, then is he NT? ST? SF? Definitely not NF. Read this to feel a good confusion about N (yes, you heard right).

Read this article. This article deals with intuition as defined in English. It has nothing to do with MBTI's N. The policeman who suddenly says (and maybe rightly) that the butler did the murder... Is NOT N. That kind of intuition is more F.

N, I think is about abstraction, about summarizing. Some people summarize, theorize based on data. These perhaps are the NTs. Some summarize without data whose opinions or theories are proved later when data become available. These perhaps are the NF's. N is the ability to see a pattern which others don't. Others see only disparate data, they are the S's. Is my understanding right? I read this lovely article today about the difference between abstract (perhaps "N") and concrete thinking (perhaps "S"). 

Relating MBTI to astrology:

A friend of mine told me this:

P stands for duality and Libran traits
J stands for fixed signs. I is all water and earth signs
E is all fire and air signs
N is a fire and water trait. S is an earth trait largely
T is an air trait
F is a water trait.

Venus refers to feelings, a keen grasp of sensory information, a need for comfort and hates to be rushed. It loves, is addicted to, comfort. and hence would refer to S, F and P. Saturn is thoughtful, cold and impersonal and pushes itself - it would refer to IT and J (as in MBTI). N would perhaps come from Rahu / Ketu. 

I tried to see whether the states defined in transactional analysis (TA). MBTI type ST. S seems to be the parent state, F the child state and NT the adult state.

It is said that N uses deduction while S uses induction. Some say that Ni uses deduction and Ne uses induction. A friend of mine and I keep arguing this point but we have not resolved it. 

Hearing what is not said, gut feeling and classic INTUITION are all F. These, I think have to do with MBTI N. N abstracts all data and stores only the theory behind it. This theory can be explained to an S but the S may or may not understand the theory. The S definitely won't agree with the theory, rather won't agree that the data points can be summarized so neatly into a theory. 


Here are some articles that explain the difference between induction and deduction:

• http://www.personal.kent.edu/~rmuhamma/Algorithms/MyAlgorithms/DeductInduct.htm
• https://suite.io/isaac-m-mcphee/jvn2y0    https://school.carm.org/amember/files/demo3/2_logic/deduction_induction.htm
• http://www.ekahimethod.com/demystifying-intuition/

A friend sent me this link. About the person whose quote is shown in the link: Is he an F or a T?

Additional reading:

1. http://zombiesintelligently.com/non-fiction/myers-briggs/
2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/give-and-take/201309/goodbye-mbti-the-fad-won-t-die
3. http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2012/11/bad-venus.html
4. http://vbala99.blogspot.in/2012/01/modified-five-factor-personality-type.html
5. http://vbala99.blogspot.in/2012/05/know-any-hsps.html
6. http://vbala99.blogspot.in/2012/06/new-vedic-astrology-mars-venus-saturn.html

Jesus, How Much More Complicated Can Life Get

The advent of DNA dealt a great blow to the issue of lying about paternity. Now we have this. What will a DNA test show? That the father is an earlier partner or the current one? If a man had an affair with another woman prior to his marriage, would his child resemble the other woman? (just kidding)

Additional reading: 

• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2009/08/common-mistakes-in-perceptions.html

Disgusting

I have been trying to find what disgusts me. A friend of mine asked me to express what disgusted me.

I can think of couple of things.

• A tendency to establish superiority through words (by constant spamming: sending extra verbal messages which aren't exactly required for the subject being discussed but which are sneaked in to add "value") or mentioning association with things or people with high brand value ("dropping names").
• A desire to get things without providing equivalent value; usually through fraud, emotional manipulation or by expressing need.
• Extraordinary sense of loyalty to persons and sacrificing justice / fairness.

I watched a scene of Mahabharata the other day when the five Pandavas express deep anguish when they hear that Karna was their brother. All this long when the brothers didn't know the real birth details of Karna it didn't matter to them. That he had some positive attributes, they couldn't see. Now, the moment they knew that he was their elder brother, they couldn't but grieve. Now, how is that?

Another example is of Shakuni goading Yudhishtra to stake his brothers one by one in a game of dice.

"I don't think I / my sister / father /  daughter / husband / mother could have done such a thing. No way." "Our billing system could never make such a mistake" - these are examples of high loyalty.

What is the common thread running through all these? There is an alternate language being spoken here. Something quite different from the way I like. The language of Venus, I will call it for now, for want of a better expression. 

Do You Think I Should Have A Baby

This story begins with the line "Do you think I/we should ...?" - what I call a feminine line (used by men and women with a strong Venus) who ask this question after having made a decision. 

They go through this line a purpose: To establish that others/you were consulted before taking any action (note that I use the word "action" and not "decision"). For any risk that you/others might come up with on their plan of action, they figure out counteroffensives - but rarely do they change decisions.

But this story is very nicely written.

Jayalalalitha - Verdict In The Disproportionate Asset Case

Jayalalithaa was born on Feb 24 1948 near Mysore at 2:30PM. 

I see that she has Gemini Lagna with Jupiter in its own house in Sagittarius. Her 7th (Kendra lord) is powerful in its own house. I read a book a few years back by Gayatri Devi Vasudev where she mentioned that Jupiter, usually considered the best benefic, becomes a terrible malefic for Gemini Lagna as Kendrathipathi, being 7th lord.

For Gemini, Jupiter is the lord of the 7th and 10th and is a maha malefic. And she was running the swabhahara of Jupiter (Jupiter dasa and Jup bhukti) till Oct 20 2014 as per Jagannath Hora software. 

As a hugely malefic lord,  during its swabhahara, Jupiter perhaps brought down Jayalalithaa.

Maybe this is one of those infrequent instances where astrology gives a nice explanation to life's events.

Additional reading: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/jayalalithaa-verdict-assets-case-disproportionate-special-court/1/393035.html and http://www.thestatesman.net/news/79065-tight-vigil-for-jaya-assets-case-verdict.html (read the comments).

Added on 16th Feb 2017 after J's death couple months back and after Sasikala was sent to jail. It surprises me. How did Bangalore court acquit her? How do people like these survive and thrive? (not that Maran's are any better). And still the whole state is Head Over Heals with them. What with the Jallikattu incident and the DA case, I feel Tamil Nadu is no better than backward states like Bihar and UP.

• http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/da-case-justice-roy-blasts-jaya-and-co-says-magnitude-nefarious-gains-startling-57262
• http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/In-2000-it-took-three-days-for-Special-Court-to-assess-Jayalalithaa-Sasikala%E2%80%99s-jewels/article17301734.ece

Maths Puzzle

A friend of mine gave me this puzzle. Find the next number in the series: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 6, 2

Kunti, The Mother Of Pandavas In Mahabharata

When Arjun won the swayamvar held for Draupadi, the Pandavas along with Draupadi come to their mother to announce what happened. The Pandavas intimate to their mother that they have brought home something very special. The mother, perhaps busy, tells them to distribute what they have brought among themselves. And that is how, Draupadi ended up marrying 5 brothers.

Now, what kind of a person says to her sons "distribute it among yourselves"? That phrase, I believe, is one used by a person who usually resorts to rules blindly without taking the trouble of finding whether the rule is applicable in every circumstance. Now, if the mother thought that her sons said they brought peanuts, one can imagine her giving that response. But, what did she hear her sons tell her? She heard them tell her that it was something (or someone) special.

Was Kunti someone who blindly apply a rule? Such tendency to blindly distribute equally comes from a person who is out of sync with the world, someone who sees the world without feelings. Was that her nature? Why did she give such an uncharacteristic response to what, she could suspect, was a fairly important question? What would have been the response of Kunti, as we know her from the rest of Mahabharat? My guess is "I am busy, wait". She would never have told her sons to distribute equally.  

Why did the author of Mahabharat create an incident where a character behaved so differently from her usual self? Is this the right way to write?

Unsung Heroes - Teachers

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-educationplus/unsung-heroes/article6389607.ece

I am posting this link with respect to a conversation I had the other day with a friend. She was mentioning that one person she knew was not as good as some other teacher, whom also she knew. That started a train of thought. 

How is one teacher really better than any other? What is the purpose of a teacher? I guess a teacher is supposed to make the student (a) understand the subject better and (b) become better socially adapted. Does a teacher serve any other long term purpose?

Now if we say that teacher A is a good teacher, then it has to mean unequivocally that A meets at least one of the two criterion above with respect to the majority of her children. If we say A is a better teacher than B, then A has to meet the 2 criteria better than B does.

A teacher is not a crutch for students. A teacher is supposed to make the child (student) better and enable the child to do well without needing her, to become independent. 

We make ourselves indispensable only by making ourselves dispensable. We think our mother is our first teacher. But many mothers want to retain the close bond with their offspring by making them dependent on themselves (the mothers). Is that the mark of a good teacher?

It's like when we learnt cycling, we had our father or some older person who would catch hold of us while we were cycling. After some time, when we were able to manage they would still run behind us with their hands close to the seat or close to our waist, just in case. Once we were confident, they would stop coming after us. 

The process is the same while teaching any subject. Do we know how to guide? And how to let go? Are the teachers well socially adapted themselves to teach the children what should and should not be done?

Do our teachers make our children independent and better? Do we know enough of any two teachers to say that one is better than the other? Do the teachers know how to make a difference to the students?

These were the thoughts that I had had in my mind for a long time. After a recent discussion with a friend, I tried to put together a few points to evaluate.

Now let's see how to evaluate a teacher. There could be multiple perspectives. That of a student or a parent or peer teachers or the principal. Here I am focusing on the student. I am assuming that the student is old enough to understand the following questions and provide meaningful answers.

The questions I would ask of a student about the teacher are:

• How much interest in the subject did the teacher create in me? (1=Hate the subject, 5 = I love the subject)
• How does she compare with other teachers who taught me the same subject? (1 = She is in bottom 20% of all teachers, 5=top 20%)
• Do I think of her as a role model? (1=God forbid, 5=OMG, Yessss)
• What do I like in her apart from the subject?
• How much have I changed because of her? (1=very little, 5 tremendous positive change)
• If the rating for question above is more than 3.5, explain in which aspects I have changed and how.

I am not, at this point, interested in seeing how the evaluation results will be used - whether to set targets for teachers to score at least so much or their tenure or salary linked to these scores etc. My goal here is to see whether I know how to evaluate a teacher and have a means for differentiating a good teacher from a not so good one.

CBSE on how much homework is appropriate: http://m.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/chen-society/cbse-weighs-the-pros-cons-of-homework/article6402056.ece/

A friend talked to some students (class 9 to 12, basically high school students) and parents about what students expect from a good teacher. And what she found out is mind boggling. Students, both boys and girls, want a teacher to be a "mother" first to them. I still am shaking my head when I write this. A mother? Eeeek.

Articles related to the question above:

• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov08/vol66/num03/What-Students-Want-from-Teachers.aspx
• http://scs.tamu.edu/?q=node/94
• http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/va01000586/centricity/domain/63/hanover_research_--_effective_grading_practices_in_the_middle_school_and_high_school_environments.pdf

Lord Krishna, Reincarnation, Mahabharata Etc.

It is part of our belief that we believe in reincarnation. That the body may die but the soul doesn't. That we are reborn. That only the soul which has reached the highest state of consciousness is not reborn. Now this may make sense if the population is dwindling. How do we apply the above belief in a case where our population is increasing? There must be some (thousands of) births every year which didn't exist the year before. Where did the soul of these new births reside earlier?

We also believe in poorva janma palan. That we enjoy or suffer the fruits of what we did in the previous birth. What happened when we were born the 1st time? Or as outlined above, what happens in the life of those souls who are born the 1st time now? There was no poorva janma for them?

And for those people who are going through their 2nd, 3rd etc births we believe that they go through what is accumulated in their account from their previous births - that's what Krishna says in Mahabharata, if I am not mistaken. If what happens in this life is a result of what we did earlier, there really is no free will in this birth. Why are we judged then? Judging people assumes a free will. The only time we had a free will was when we were going through our first birth. And subsequent events carried forward the backlog from one birth to another, with the amount of free will getting reduced. As in "Ass", a card game popular in India, where the person who loses the game carries forward an Ace to the next game. And if he loses the next game, he carries forward two Aces to the 3rd game and so on. Poorva Punya seems to be like the Ace in the card game.