the Khan

I sat in front of the tv to find myself mesmerized with the story of the Khan - this is not the bollywood khans or some random Khans that you know of. This man controlled an empire larger than the romans, larger than Alexander the Great, and commanded one of the most feared and loathed army in the world. I am talking about Genghis Khan.

it turns out that the Khan was much ahead of his time in terms of military strategy. After all, it started as a horde of Mongolian nomads. He unified all the rival tribes under one rule and consolidated Mongolian empire before starting off a long journey of conquests. Even the most powerful empires like China got defeated in the heat of the battle with the Khan. And then Persia, and then Russia, Poland, Germany.

Another remarkable fact in history stands that any city that the Khan conquered, he would kill all the men, and rape the women. It turns out that he raped so many women, there are more than 16 million direct descendents to the Khan !!. One in 200 in Asia and Europe have the y chromosome that match. Since the tomb of the Khan is a great secret held in history, we would never know the Khan's DNA, but it is unanimously believed that no one else but the Khan could have such a 'wide spread' hereditery impact.

Wants and Needs

While driving to work, i was listening to a song, and suddenly the lyrics caught my attention. This is what the lines said,
"Bathing in Ganges can cleanse your sins, but can it cleanse your desires??'. And then i started to wonder the philosophy of wants and needs.

Your needs - food, shelter, and clothing.
Your wants - a posh house with a swimming pool, cool cars, trip around the world, expensive outfits etc etc.

The theory of necessities says that high level needs get promoted as soon as a low level needs are satisfied. For instance, you are starving - you have food, and hunger is satisfied. Now you need a nice place to stay - you have that and you start to expand your needs: a car for commuting, maids to do your daily chores etc. When does it stop? never. Lets say a flood washes your entire house off, and you are left with nothing. You are left to starve for a couple of days - in no time you are back to your low level needs. You dont care that you have a maid bring in your food in a silver plate. Three days of hunger and you are ready to fight with a dog for a piece of bread.

The more your mind gets attached to material things, the more you are fooled. Its like kids fighting for a seat in the bus, saying 'this is my seat' without realizing the truth. Start to focus on things that move with you when all your material wealth is stripped off - that is where you find your true self.

Too much thinking, huh??