Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Finally, after a lot of twists and turns, the paperback version of my part autobiography titled, "Autobiography of an Indian Software Techie and Spiritual Aspirant – Part 1" has been released on Pothi.com on 27th June 2019. I thank all readers who contributed their thoughts, suggestions and constructive criticism for the cover page. I also thank all readers who read part or whole of the ebook which had been released earlier, and provided me their valuable feedback (see  https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/p/feedback-on-my-book-autobiography-of.html  for feedback). All these inputs certainly helped in improving and stabilizing the paperback book and paved the way for this paperback book release. The sale page on Pothi.com is: https://pothi.com/pothi/book/ravi-s-iyer-autobiography-indian-software-techie-and-spiritual-aspirant-%E2%80%93-part-1 . The paperback book is 298 pages of A5 size inner content with Grayscale images. The cover is colour and the binding is Softcover. Pri

Given below are the contents of my recent Facebook post created on 19th June 2019:  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2520016038214958&set=a.1616532491896655&type=3&theater Here's a pic of a test print of the latest front cover part of my part autobio paperback book, on glossy paper using Brother inkjet colour printer in a Puttaparthi shop (A5 image printed on A4 glossy sheet): [To open pic in larger resolution, right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.] One feedback I got on this pic is that there are too many things fighting for attention on this pic. As I thought about it, I think the feedback is correct. Now I think the bird pic dominates over the three pics of me in the cover page. I wanted to use a bright pic as the earlier cover pic which is OK on ebook, prints in a rather dull way on paperback. I had got feedback on earlier cover as printed in paperback

Last updated on 20th June 2019 On 18th June 2019 morning, I received two copies of my part autobio book (one as replacement for white streaks paperback copy, and another as my last order). The good news is that the white streaks in printing of some pics problem that was there in previous delivery (see https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/05/got-part-autobio-paperback-with-some.html ) has got fixed. None of the pics in the inner content of these two copies have a white streaks problem. The not-so-good news is that while the new cover page with blue background is more noticeable than the earlier one with grey background (in front cover), there is a readability problem with black foreground text on blue. Given below are pics of the latest copy (or one of the two latest copies, to be precise) and previous copy (delivered to me in end May) kept side-by-side, with latest copy to the left of the previous copy. The order of pics is front cover, spine and back cover. [To open pic in

This post is based on a rough note prepared as reference for me for cover creation in 6 in. x 9 in. paperback books I publish using self-publishing platform --name-snip--. I thought of putting up this post publicly as I think it may be useful to some others. I have --name-snipped-- the name of the concerned self-publishing platform to avoid any sensitivity. Note that Pothi.com (another self-publishing platform I use) cover creator works well for Pothi.com books. Further Pothi.com wrote me (which I shared publicly here  https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/06/pothicom-is-great-self-publishing.html ) that they have no objections to the output file of their Cover Creator tool being used elsewhere (provided all the cover content is mine). I ran into problems on using --name-snip-- cover creator. So there may be situations where I may need to either create/modify a cover to be submitted to --name-snip-- (perhaps created using Pothi.com cover creator tool) using tools like GIMP and Pai

Recently I had to provide a book inner contents PDF file of 6 in. x 9 in. size to a self-publisher website. I used to use Microsoft Print to PDF on Word 2007 to produce my PDF printouts as that does not compress 300 DPI images. An around 22 MB Word document with 300 DPI images produces an around 40 MB PDF file with Microsoft Print to PDF and the PDF document on zooming the images in it shows good quality images. In contrast Save As PDF for Word 2007, creates an around 5 MB PDF file for the same around 22 MB Word document! But on zooming the images in the PDF and comparing with Print to PDF created PDF file, one can easily see that the Save As PDF generated PDF's image quality is poorer than Microsoft Print to PDF image quality. The problem for the 6 in. x 9 in. size PDF was that Microsoft Print to PDF did not provide that size as a choice in its Properties->Advanced dialog. It had standard sizes like A4, A5 and Letter but not 6x9 in. So I could not generate the PDF using

I had a recent exchange with Pothi.com on me exploring the possibility of self-publishing my part auto bio book with another self-publisher in India, in addition to Pothi.com. I was very happy to see their clear and unambiguous responses that confirmed their not having objections to my self-publishing with others (as the agreements are non-exclusive) and they also confirmed that I can use the output of their cover creator tool for books that are published elsewhere (not on Pothi.com)! They were OK with me sharing the exchange with them publicly here. I felt that will help some newbie authors & self-publishers and perhaps some oldies too! The exchange is given below in a slightly edited manner: I (Ravi) wrote to Pothi.com on 12th June 2019 afternoon, as follows (slightly edited): Hi, This is with respect to my book, "Autobiography of an Indian Software Techie and Spiritual Aspirant – Part 1", https://pothi.com/pothi/book/ravi-s-iyer-autobiography-indian-software-t

Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog: Nice message from Stuart Broad on Yuvaraj Singh's retirement; International cricket has brought friendship and respect among cricket lovers from various countries, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2019/06/nice-message-from-stuart-broad-on.html .

Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog: Nazi Germany's conquest of large parts of continental Europe from Sept. 1939 to end 1941; Later reversals and eventual surrender in May 1945; Pray that such wars never happen again, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2019/06/nazi-germanys-conquest-of-large-parts.html .

Cambridge International (schools NOT University of Cambridge) adds origin, practices and teachings of Sathya Sai International Organization (and ISKCON) as part of AS & A Level syllabus for Hinduism From https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/about-us/what-we-do/ , "Cambridge programmes and qualifications set the global standard for international education. They are created by subject experts, rooted in academic rigour and reflect the latest educational research." It states that it has a four stage Cambridge Pathway, https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/programmes-and-qualifications/ , for students aged 5 to 19. Its AS & A level syllabus is for 16 to 19 year old students. It claims that each year a million Cambridge learners utilize this education from Cambridge International. It claims that more than 10,000 schools are part of their learning community and that they operate in 160 countries across North America, Latin America, UK & Europe, Sub-Saharan Afr

Last updated on 9th June 2019 [Associated Facebook post of mine: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2507982792751616 ] I put up this post to express my support for sexual relationship between an adult man and an adult woman (heterosexual relationship) and for marriage as an institution between an adult man and an adult woman.  It is heterosexual relationship (man & woman) that has sustained human society over centuries and millennia. So I am fully supportive of heterosexual relationship as I think that is vital for healthy society. I am not comfortable in promoting same-sex (gay/lesbian) relationship or same-sex (gay/lesbian) marriage. But neither am I willing to be critical of same-sex (gay/lesbian) relationship and/or marriage in countries where they are legal. I am ***NOT*** a homophobe, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/homophobe . I respect the legal rights of gay/lesbian citizens in countries where that is legal. I prefer to stay silent on gay/lesbian sex rel

When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer). Update: To save time, I am usually not providing my FB post links but only contents. I am also not hyperlinking links. So readers will have to copy-paste links from this post onto a browser link box and then browse to that link. I am working, in snatches of time here and there, on a post on an awesome dance performance by a small girl with most of the audio for the dance coming from parts of the Sathyam Shivam Sundaram song. As I played that song on youtube, youtube showed this Western Sufi group singing that song. I enjoyed this rendition. Thought I should share it right away. Satyam Shivam Sundaram by Sufi Soul Sangeet, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOMpZ5eFKhA, 6 min. 5 secs, published in 2017 ============================ Violence against one lone Muslim (on allegation of being a thief) by many Hindus in the name of Shri Ram, as has been reported in the media about the tr

This post is based on a recent comment of mine on Facebook. Cyber bullying is bad. If someone indulges in it and then genuinely repents for his/her bad behaviour and is willing to stay away from it in future, then its different. Such people should be given a second chance. But if they are habitual cyber bullies and use cyber bullying as a way to dominate others when things don't go their way, then I think it is best to stay away from such habitual cyber bullies. Very unfortunately, the Internet seems to inflame the ugly cyber bullying side in some people as they know that they will typically not have to suffer consequences for it even if they are doing it in their real name, like they would if they indulged in bullying in their regular workplace. Facebook is quite poor at punishing such behaviour and expects the persons impacted to handle it themselves by blocking the offenders. I find that rather disappointing of Facebook. But then maybe they don't want to play ethica

Last updated on 5th June 2019 Recently the grandson of Singapore's founder Lee Kuan Yew, Li Huanwu got married to his gay partner, https://www.nst.com.my/world/2019/05/491408/singapore-founding-father-lee-kuan-yews-gay-grandson-ties-knot-south-africa in South Africa. Note that homosexual sex is illegal in Singapore as per this report. Also note that Malaysia which is the close neighbour to Singapore, seems to have a similar law at least for its Muslim Malay citizens, making gay sexual relations illegal. Famously, Malaysia had jailed its former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim with the charge (and conviction) of sodomy (gay sex), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibrahim_sodomy_trials . According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibrahim_sodomy_trials#Royal_pardon , Anwar Ibrahim suffered a miscarriage of justice (which I understand to mean that he was NOT guilty of the sodomy charges) and was given a full royal pardon on 16 May 2018, by Malaysia's king, Sulta