Vedanta - Daydream All the Time?

CHANDER GUPTA





The conscious represents the present, the unconscious is reflected in dreams, and the subconscious is part of daydreaming. Daydreaming consists of memories, drama of desires, emotional undercurrents and fantasies. When we are asleep, our unconscious makes its presence felt in dreams.Our dreams are a clue to our unconscious; they are not without meaning. Dreams are involuntary . We do not have control over what we see when we are asleep as they arise from our unconscious and so they indicate the state of our unconscious. But when you are awake, you daydream.How much of your time is spent in daydreaming?
Some amount of daydream ing is desirable, just like salt in food and sugar in beverages.But would you relish too much of either salt or sug ar? Probably not, because any excess only spoils the taste and makes food unpalatable. So is the case with daydreaming.
When you sleep, your unconscious becomes awake. When you are awake, the conscious tends to go dormant as the subconscious buzz puts your conscious to sleep. As long as your subconscious is active, you can't change. Your subconscious imprisons you in the status quo, in the past. Quality of life depends upon how conscious you are, how awake you are, how much aware you are.
How to attain the conscious state? By coming out of the subconscious. Do you spend a lot of time daydreaming: fantasising, recalling memories, enacting drama of desires, worrying, regretting? Which state of mind -the conscious or the subconscious -is dominant when you are awake?

Cambridge univ historian Christopher Bayly dead

Srijana Das





With the death of Cambridge University historian Sir Christopher Alan Bayly, Sir Christopher Alan Bayly, 70, who suffered a huge heart attack in Chicago, the world has lost a top historian who unearthed the roots of Indian nationalism.“Chris was one of the greatest historians of India,“ says Shahid Amin. Bayly's path-breaking research analysed how often overlooked players, from peasants to merchants, moneylenders, mofussil gentry, politicians and spies, contributed to the making of modern India.Themes analysed by Bayly radically reshaped understandings of India's past -and remain deeply relevant today . “Studying Allahabad's intricate local politics, he captured two schools of nationalism -Madan Mo han Malaviya's Hindu kind and Motilal Nehru's Western sort. From analysing sherwanis and other sartorial styles in the Indian imagination to procuring the entire run of a newspaper edited by Malviya for the National Archives, Bayly's contribution to India was immense,“ Amin remarks.
Bayly's work was pioneering in linking local histories to the national -and global. Ramachandra Guha comments, “Chris Bayly was a historian who constantly asked new questions. His work explained important continuities across time for instance, he showed links between Mughal, British and post-colonial styles of intelligencegathering. He showed 18th century India as creative and enterprising, not in apathetic Mughal decline. Forever excited about new sources, he wrote about the first wave of globalization to impact the world.“
Amin says Bayly's sweep broke across cantankerous ideological divides that could narrow historians' vision. “At a time when history is understood to be very `national', Chris Bayly's work was admired across the world. We became friends in 1973,“ Amin recounts. “He wasn't a typical Oxbridge don. He was very open-minded, very excited by things around him, deeply committed to teaching a vast numbers of students who looked up to him.“

Air pollution may cause stroke

DurgeshNandan Jha

New Delhi:





Air pollution which is known to cause poor lung and heart health may also cause a stroke, new research suggests.The findings of the research, which has been published in the British Medical Journal, are based on an analysis of 103 studies, involving 6.2 million hospitalizations and deaths because of stroke in 28 countries.
TOI spoke to India's top neurologists who said it was possible. “ At AIIMS too, we have initiated a study to analyze the link between air pollution and strokes,“ said Dr Kameshwar Prasad, professor and head of the neurology department. He added there has been a significant increase in stroke cases thta can't be explained by unhealthy lifestyle and other known risk factors.
Dr Shakir Hussain, chairman of Stroke & Neurointer vention Foundation, said more than 50% of the stroke patients that he sees are below 45 years of age. “Of them, some are non-smokers, who have normal blood pressure and do not have diabetes. The role of environmental factors in triggering neural disorders cannot be ruled out in such cases. It requires detailed investigation,“ he said.
Doctors say vehicular emissions include ultrafine particles and gases like carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide which get into the bloodstream. “These thicken the blood and also initiate formation of cytokines which trigger strokes,“ said Prasad.
The AIIMS study , he added, will involve assessing the date and time of stroke and the level of air pollution in their area.“Several studies held across the world, including the one in British Medical Journal, show a strong association between strokes and air pollution. In India, pollution levels in cities are very high and if our study reveals a similar association, we will urge the government to take action,“ said Prasad.
He said the role of pollutants is more prominent in ischaemic stroke cases in which the blood vessels supplying oxygenated blood to the brain get blocked. It constitutes nearly 85% of all cases. The rest are haemorrhagic stroke cases, in which bleeding from a damaged blood vessel in or around the brain damages or puts pressure on the brain tissue.
“In western countries, even 40 microgram per cubic metre of particulate matter is considered hazardous but the average presence of such pollutants in Delhi ranges from 150-200 microgram per cubic metre,“ said Dr Sundeep Salvi, director of Chest Research Foundation.

Economic & Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Gujarat's Anti-Terrorism Bill

Another Building Block in the Edifice of Authoritarianism

Vol - L No. 16, April 18, 2015 | SAHRDC 

• Commentary

The Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Bill is the latest effort at the devolution of authoritarianism. This article discusses four draconian provisions, which seem like a throwback to the days of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act of 1987 and the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2002.

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Idealism and Collectivism Are Alive

A Report on Swaraj Samvad

Vol - L No. 16, April 18, 2015 | Meena Radhakrishna 

• Reports From the States
 
• Web Exclusives

If the decisions arrived at the Swaraj Samvad are carried out effectively, Arvind Kejriwal may face one or both of these prospects in the coming months—A vast number of AAP members constantly agitating for swaraj from within, or en masse migration to an expanded political party born through the newly launched Swaraj Abhiyan.

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Editorials Social Sector Spending in 2015-16 The states now have an opportunity to set their own priorities in the social sector. Read more	Editorials Let the Children Play Child labour laws must be based on the right of all children to a childhood. Read more
Editorials Where Is the Proof? A crucial committee fi nds no "Indian evidence" that tobacco consumption leads to cancer. Read more	Commentary Iran and the US Too Early to Celebrate Siddharth Varadarajan The framework agreement that Iran has signed with the members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany opens the door to ending the stand-off over Tehran's nuclear programme. But there are many obstacles standing in the way of a... Read more
Commentary India's New Foreign Trade Policy Pluses and Minuses Biswajit Dhar Despite some steps in the right direction, the new policy has several limitations. This article makes a case for looking at them anew. Read more	Commentary Cash for Food--A Misplaced Idea Dipa Sinha Direct benefi t transfers in the form of cash cannot replace the supply of food through the public distribution system. Though it is claimed otherwise, DBT does not address the problems of identifying the poor ("targeting") and DBT in... Read more
Commentary Nehru and the Question of National Identity Manash Bhattacharjee Nehru makes a conscious effort to fuse India's cultural past and modern democracy. The loosely imagined idea of India's heterogeneous past is also the basis of Nehru's idea of a national identity. Nehru's self-representation as... Read more	Commentary More Credit for Agricultural Households? NSSO’s 70th Round on Indebtedness Sher Singh Sangwan An increase in indebtedness in agriculture between 2003 and 2013 does not necessarily mean a growth in debt that has debilitated the cultivator. Higher indebtedness may also refl ect a more enabling process--the increased availability of... Read more
Commentary Article 370 of the Constitution A Genesis Jai Shankar Agarwala A brief history of why Article 370 of the Constitution was framed in a certain manner and the importance of the text of the Article from the viewpoint of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Read more	Book Reviews Prejudice: Primordial to Modern Anand Teltumbde A History of Prejudice: Race, Caste, and Difference in India and the United States by Gyanendra Pandey, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013; pp 244, Rs 595. Read more
Book Reviews Diversity among Muslims in Asia Irfan Engineer Modes of Engagement: Muslim Minorities in Asia edited by Rafiq Dossani, The Walter H Shorenstein, Stanford, Asia-Pacific Research Centre, 2014; pp xxii + 200, $24.95. Read more	Book Reviews Connections between India and South Africa Renu Modi Contemporary India and South Africa: Legacies, Identities and Dilemmas edited by Sujata Patel and Tina Uys, New Delhi and UK, Routledge, 2012; pp x+ 318, Rs 795. South Africa and India: Shaping the Global South edited by Isabel Hofmeyer... Read more
Book Reviews Studying Women Seeking Abortions Leela Visaria Abortion in Asia: Local Dilemmas, Global Politics edited by Andrea Whittaker, New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2013; pp xii + 253, Rs 895. Read more	Perspectives Nehru's Legacy Inclusive Democracy and People’s Empowerment Aditya Mukherjee Nehru may not have succeeded in achieving all that he set out to do, but his contributions have been foundational in building India as a secular, democratic republic which would have a socialistic "common sense." Today the Nehruvian... Read more
Perspectives Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian Working Class A Historical Review Sabyasachi Bhattacharya There is surprisingly little work by historians on Jawaharlal Nehru's relations with India's labour movements. This historical survey of his positions, actions and relations vis-à-vis working class politics identifies a clear break... Read more	Special Articles Capitalisation of Nature Political Economy of Forest/Biodiversity Offsets Soumitra Ghosh Trading in environmental commodities like various forms of "offsets" has started with its questionable premise that any loss or damage to environment at a particular space-time can be offset by a supposedly pro-environmental action in another... Read more
Special Articles Democracy and Identity Politics in India: Is It a Snake or a Rope? Badri Narayan The politics of recognition has dual effects while empowering marginal communities during democratic participation in India. On the one hand, identity politics provides democratic empowerment to a few communities or specific sections of... Read more	Special Articles Estimating Agricultural Productivity in Mysore and South Canara from Buchanan's Journey (1800-01) Positioning India in the Great Divergence Debate Sashi Sivramkrishna In 1800 and 1801 Francis Buchanan conducted one of the first agricultural surveys in the erstwhile Mysore state and its adjoining regions. By subjecting data contained in his survey to rigorous analytical study, estimates of agricultural... Read more
Notes Agrarian Class and Caste Relations in 'United' Andhra Pradesh, 1956-2014 N Purendra Prasad This article traces the trajectory of agrarian relations in terms of class and caste in Andhra Pradesh from 1956 to 2014. The analysis shows that land remained in the control of upper castes in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema in Telangana,... Read more	Notes Tribal Migrant Women as Domestic Workers in Mumbai Sunita Kumari Focusing on female migrant domestic workers from Jharkhand, this article looks at their lives before and after migration. Jharkhand witnesses heavy migration and mobility to cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, especially female migration.... Read more
Discussion No Room for Doubts on New GDP Numbers Central Statistics Office The Central Statistics Office argues that the doubts expressed about the fi nal estimates of the output of the non-financial corporate sector are misplaced. A rejoinder to "Seeds of Doubt on New GDP Numbers: Private Corporate Sector... Read more	Postscript The N-Word, Loud and Clear Dilip D’Souza Recent incidents in the United States raise fears of a renewed bigotry and discrimination that could increasingly fuel racial and cultural hatred. Read more
Postscript Superheated Expectations Alok Rai The courage and tenacity of Bhagat Singh was invoked in a meeting at Meja in Uttar Pradesh when villagers gathered to discuss resistance to superthermal power plants. Read more	Postscript Blood, Period Nabina Das In many countries, especially in India, menstruation is a subject of taboo and stigma, which feeds the ego and pride of a misogynist society that objectifies and sexualises women. Read more