From ‘Dreaming in Hindi. Coming Awake in Another Language’ by Katherine Russell Rich

……..as a friend said, “In India we share everything, even privacy.”




At birth, we have the potential to discern all the speech sounds used around the globe: the throaty Polish dz, like a slipped j to Americans, the high-ba and low-ba pitch phonemes of Mandarin. Phonologically, in infancy “we’re citizens of the world,”……….At birth, our brains are already tuned to the prosody, the characteristic lilt, of whatever our mother’s tongue is…….For a brief period early in life, we can easily register anything anyone from anywhere says, then we cant. By six months, our ability to detect other cultures’ vowels is waning, though other cultures’ consonants remain clear for a while.




………Chinese writing fires the brain differently……..in scans, it activates both brain hemispheres, whereas English engages mostly just the left, the half where language functions generally reside

Thoughts………

The less you understand the more ready you are to give reverence

- Wilhelm Reich



At the heart of this phenomenal world,
within all its changing forms
dwells the unchanging Lord,
So, go beyond the changing,
and enjoying the inner,
cease to take for your self what to others
are riches

- First stanza of Isha Upanishad



We’re all Indians first; we are all secular Indians by any definition. Irrespective of what anyone might say, we operate on a very high level of integrity – personal integrity. I’m not talking only about money, for after all, money is only one aspect of personal integrity. Lets say we have a fairly high moral standard and I think these are assets

- Arun Singh



Before you say anything censorious about anyone ask yourself three questions. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? If the answer to any one of these is even a qualified no, you’d best be quiet

- Helen Epstein in ‘Music Talks’



Say what today wants to say and then tomorrow say what tomorrow wants to say and don’t be bothered about consistency

- Emerson



Truth is that whose contradictory is also true

- Zen saying



A woman, occasionally is quite a serviceable substitution for masturbation

- Karl Kraus



People with a psychological need to believe in marvels are no more prejudiced and gullible than people with a psychological need not to believe in marvels.

- Charles Fort