Thank you Alina

Prof. Sen, the Associate Dean of AUA said that we should meet up at 6:30 for a trip to Astaraki-tzor. He explained that it meant the valley of Astarak. Prof. Jon Pearce said he would bring along some guests. Prof. Ahmad Hosseini hadn't arrived at 6:30... rumour has it that he asked if the outing was 6:30 in the morning!!

Well Jon arrives in the van with his friends. Dr David Stronach and some of his students / ex students. Believe it or not, Prof. Stronach has his own wikipedia page, click on his name above. They were in Armenia to dig at Erebuni. I don't know where JON finds such interesting people. I sat opposite Alina Ayvazian one of Dr. Stronach's student.

Astarakidzor turned out to be one of the most enjoyable evenings I have had in Armenia this time. Alina turned out to be Indiana Jones for one fantastic evening. She told me how a dig is dug. She told me how they first mark an imaginary square and how they start digging. She had heard of some of the people I had heard of, Foucault, Claude Levi_Strauss, etc.

But they say.... "The best things in life cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt by the heart." After my second vodka the dance floor called out. I asked around and no one seemed to be interested. Finally someone showed interest and when I walked out I found that there was only Alina with me.

It was lovely to dance on the open air with the wind blowing through the valley, a nip in the air and not a care in the world. Soon enough the rest of the gang joined me and Alina on the dance floor.

On the way back I sat next to Prof. Hosseini and I asked him if he had been out with students in Armenia. He said no.... in the US, things are complicated, with all kinds of issues of sexual harassment, etc. I told him that he has no idea of Armenia until he meets some Armenians for real. I wish Alina had more time to reach out to people like Hosseini. I felt sad for a civilization that cannot reach out and enjoy the world around it because of lawyers, courts and rules that did not understand the heart of relationships.

The evening ended with three cheers for Prof. Sen as we drove back to Yerevan. I got dropped off at the university at 11:00 pm. I came straight to write this story. Somehow I am sure I haven't captured the evening, but then again, words can only capture so much.

I am pretty sure I will never hear from Alina or Dr. Stronach again, but I wanted to shout into cyberspace.........THANK YOU ALINA FOR A WONDERFUL EVENING!!

If everything is God, why are there bad things in the world?

Dear Ruben,

I was unable to answer your question during our last meeting, but I think it is an important one, so I will write my answer here. Your question was, as far as I remember it.. "if everything is God and there is nothing other than God, why are there bad things in the universe?"

This question has much in common with another related question "Why do bad things happen to good people". Fortunately, Rabbi Harold S. Kushner has written a whole book with precisely this title, so I dont have to address it. But in every philosophy like the one we discussed explaining bad things is an important part. Let me try and answer the question.

The first answer, as always, is "I dont know. I am not God, ask Him (or her, or it)." Having got that out of the way, lets move on. First, remember that our minds are finite and hence we can only process a small amount of information compared to what there is. This is through a perspective. For example (what was the word for that?)... Two people sitting on a bench looking at each other, see completely different things. Not only the person sitting in front, but the view behind that person. So the question is, what is the OBJECTIVE view?

As a human being living on this earth, I see the world through a perspective. Someone once said that we see the world through coloured glasses. We can change the colour of the glasses, but we cannot take them off! The theory that the creator and the creation are one is not an empirically verifiable fact (I wonder why people use empiricism for everything?), but one of faith, a postulate, that we take. Why the postulate? Because as we discussed yesterday in an area where NOTHING can be proven by empericism, we adopt the view that is most meaningful for us.

If everything is God, and God is good, then the universe (everything) must be good. That is the simple logic behind it. Now we deal with the issue of experience. Why do I not EXPERIENCE everything as good? Because I see the universe from MY PERSPECTIVE. Like two teams playing football and both praying to God, asking for victory. If one team wins the other fails. Either way, God has let down one team!

In classical terms of Indian Philosophy, this is called "Avidya", or Ignorance. When we believe that our perspective is the TRUE or the ONLY one (we believe it to be objective), then it is Maya. And when we recognize that this is a limited view Maya is lifted (in this area/context), yet, we STILL dont see the whole universe at one glance. There are those who say that, once liberated from our bodies, we can see the UNIVERSAL perspective. As we become one with the infinite, we transcend (overcome) our finiteness. Again, I don't know about that.

In short the reason why we find evil/sadness/bad things in the world is because we do not see the universe and its interconnectedness fully. We only see it from our point of view. It is a matter of faith (unverifiable) that the universe is good. Then again the opposite too is an article of faith!

Mount Ararat from my Window

This is Mount Ararat, an important national symbol for armenians - but its in Turkey! Supposed to be the mountain where Noah's Ark came to rest. This pic was taken again .........FROM MY WINDOW! Are you bored with staring out of my window?

Teachers Beware!! You may get 40 years

Julie Amero is a substitute teacher in the 7th grade, in the US (where else?). On Oct. 19, 2004 while using the classroom computer, students saw pop up advertising with Porn Images (yeah who doesn't ?) for this, a court gave her 40 years! She always claimed she had nothing to do with it and now the case has gone for retrial... under the possibility that it could have been the doing of spyware that she was not aware of.

Read about it on Slashdot.. but don't forget to look at the comments at the bottom!

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/06/1917255

Summer in Yerevan

My friend working in FMCG says that suddenly their TRP ratings have dropped in one week! It appears that people just aren't watching TV as much as they should! Well summer is here again, the sun is bright and shining until 9:30 pm, the cafe's are full and everyone is outdoors in the city. Yesterday was Children's day and there were events everywhere for children on little stages. If one can ignore the number of policemen/military personnel stationed around each stage, it was a nice air. Ofcourse there was music and even traffic jams in yerevan!! This is one such venue near the opera.

SOMEONE WATCH TV PLEASE!! WE HAVE SOAPS AND TOOTHPASTES AND WASHING MACHINES TO SELL!!

My car

I showed you my house, the view, etc. Now I thought I would show you my car too. Now all I have to do is to find the keys....

High priced photographic equipment

This is the high priced photographic equipment I used to get those photos from my window. I place my camera on top of this jam bottle. Btw, the Jam is delicious. As my wife would say "oru vedikku randu pakkshi"!