New-entertainment

I am probably writing this gheesa peeta topic. The new entertainment of our age are the NEWS channels. They bombard us with the same news all the time & give us our penny's worth of time pass. 

Gone are the golden days when we used to find our solace in reading Wordsworth, Munshi Premchand and the likes of them. Now, we sit in front of our great Idiot Box (who has undergone radical slimming cycles) and look....

At what? anything that seems to occupy satellite wave-space. We do not care whether its someone's personal life being splashed on TV or whether its someone's death being announced. Every news is just another piece of ITEM to us. 

& why are we so? We are so busy with our lives, that we really do not care. We watch the news, just because we feel guilty of NOT CARING about the world. & hence, we see, we discuss, we gossip, call up people & feign interest. 

But, at the heart of it, we are still just passing our time. When we go to sleep, we neither care, nor want to deliver on any issue. & this brings us to the larger state of our nation: IMPASSIVITY.

I am guilty of being an Anglophile to some extent. BBC news has been providing quality programmes as far as my memory goes. They do not bring up "Ganpati drank milk" and "Recreation of a rape / blast / accident". They just show the news & move on. Rest of the airtime deals with news too, but news that mean something. Our desi channels have yet to learn that NEWS does not mean showing ONLY the breaking clips. It also means, making sense of it (yes, there are those programs, but then..how many are they?), creating documentations on it & showing them. After the Iraq war, BBC showed a documentary of the entire war, with its different angles. I don't think our channels have done anything more than hosting talk shows where they call the politicians & citizens, and arrange a cat-fight.

How long will they take to understand that one cannot move ahead by showing exotic clips? If quality is a parameter, i guess our news channels are guilty of shooting in the dark?

& oh yes, 177 died today in some hill in Rajasthan, as Chief minister of Maharashtra announced 5 lac compensation for bomb blast victims in malegaon, while our cricket team gets ready for yet another unending series, and Abhishek Bachan says hes a cool young man while his father was the angry young man. 

You just read the top headlines shown some time ago, in about 20 seconds. Make sense, anything? Now imagine these guys showing the same headline every half hour for the next 2 days!! Some news, eh?

Mindgames

Its been some time since i have found the solace to write.. the essay took up all my energy last week... & now back in blogbusiness..

I have been reading Mitch Albom: Tuesdays with Morrie followed by Five People you meet in Heaven. 

I always thought I wouldnt much like to read spiritually elevating books. But then my dear friend Doc introduced me to Albom with For one more Day  and I have been hooked. Also Jun had given me Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance and then suggested Lila (which i shall read shortly). I have found all these books quite vocal in their thoughts and messages.

I do not want to review them, for they can only be understood and read when one is ready to accept their train of thought. Else, they will seem either gibberish or too soft. 

One thing that has struck me: One always values more, what one never achieves. 

I speak this in context of our current life, where we always run after things, and take them for granted after we have attained them. I talk not just of work, academics or materialistic things. I feel the same equally about relationships: friends, lovers and even family.

For those who are away from them, lost them or are separated from them, it is an exercise in patience, a daily tearing apart of the mind where lonliness only seems to increase the dark feelings. 

But for the things we attain, we quickly set our goals on the next thing, and forget that we must relish our achievement first. We should be quick & elastic, for the world today demands it. But one cannot be carried away by everything that is the trend today. After all, general opinion is seldom right. 

I have had a few achievements lately, but I have not found the excitement in them that I should have. I realize that they seem futile or irrelevant, not because they were too fickle, but because I accepted them too soon, and moved on to the next step. The new battle takes up all my energy and leaves me with little time to remember that I have recently done something to make me and all my wellwishers proud.

When I reflect this on the general world stage, I find it true for all things. Not just work, I may take some relationships for granted, not realizing how hard the other person is working to maintain it or to keep me supported. I may ignore my friends, because I know they will be there when I need them. I do not share time with my family, because I think I am doing something too important to waste time in the smaller merriments of life. 

But when I look back, I think I am missing the big picture. Who will share my achievement, who will laud me, who will keep me floating when I am in trouble? I feel taking all these people for granted is the bane of our modern lifestyle. I remember the earlier days, when we used to share each & everything with friends, family & those we love. Today, we are running too fast to even reflect on our actions, leave apart sharing our life. 

& from here, when i move on to the next stage of what is it that I strive for? I realize that I strive for all those things that I do not have. While I have stated above that one need not do it, as one can be happy with what one has, this other feeling has a distinct angle of its own. I recently saw this ad for an insurance company which I will try to describe:

A long haired college youth is walking on the road and sees another dude on a huge bike, which he would like to have. The biker then sees a girl behind another guy on a plain bike, female company he does not have. The girl on the bike sees a young mother with a child, something she yearns to be. The young mother sees a bald rich man buying an expensive piece of jewellery that she wants for herself. The rich man buys the jewellery and sits in his car. When his car waits at an intersection, the long haired college youth passes by and the rich man longs for such well endowed hair growth.

The story is familiar with our life, and it struck a chord with me. We always respect what we do not have, and forget what we have. So, if we are so incapable of changing ourselves to NOT enjoy what we have, should we then leave what we yearn for most, unattained? 

Will getting more money make me happy? or should i be poor & rather keep my respect for every new thing that i buy with each hard saving?

Should I ask the girl of my dreams to marry me? or should i never attain her? So that i always keep my love for her intact, and never take her for granted, because achieving her may make me get used to her in some time.

Will making more & more friends keep me company? or should i NOT make any more friends, so that i always respect & give importance to those I already have, in effect forming a closer bond with my pals.

I can ask many such questions about life. If you see them as objectives with only YES or NO for an answer, you will not agree with me. But if you take your time to reflect on them, you will come to understand how we value things, relations and life in general today. 

We only value what we DO NOT have. I would like to change this perception and find happiness in everthing we have or keep having, because the way forward is always the right way. But, unfortunately, if we are unable to change our current mindset, I would say (rather offensively) that we do not deserve to move forward. And, that we are better off valuing what we have.

I don't want to end up a bald rich potbellied man yearning for a dense patch over my head. I would rather have a luxuriant growth, no belly (because i work hard) and be dreaming about how she would feel when I gift her that piece of jewellery! (Reference to ad above) What say Mr Mufaazaa? hair or head? ;)

www.sandylief.blogspot.com

Amateur vs professional...

I saw a teaser of a movie called 'Hello' based on Chetan Bhagat's 'One Night at the call centre'. I have read all three of Bhagat's books and found them descending in order of quality of content. Now, Bhagat fans (maybe Mr. Mufaazaa) will want to disagree with me, since now we are conversant with his style, while his first book may have read as a fresh style.

I have started writing recently (I am NOT even starting to compare myself to an accomplished writer /pro) and I have found an important difference in writing styles.

While, writers today resort to callisthenics in order to make their book more saleable, i, as an amateur can write what i want, the way i want and still be free of wanting to sell my words to the readers.

To elaborate my above statement, Mr. Bhagat probably wrote the first piece from his heart, since he was not much bent on selling it, as he was on writing for the fun of it. As he has written successive books, his style is more leaning towards Bollywood scripts, with heroes & villians, struggles of life (as if we dont know how to read characters), and a host of other happenings in normal life which he wants to include or identify with.

In order to cater to a wider audience, I believe he has lost the original audience, who read his book for its maverick style of " I WILL WRITE WHAT I WANT, READ IT OR CHUCK IT... THE HELL I CARE!!"

His latest book is more like Iqbal married to Parzania married to Discovery channel documentary on Gujarat Earthquake (including spicy interviews of victims)...

I read through it only because I was desperate to start reading novels again. Ditto, with the earlier work on call centres. I still think everything is spicy & fine (although not as good as his first work) till he puts God in perspective. All hell breaks loose in later pages as the call centre turns into a terror cell for Americans. I can scarcely believe all this is written by the same author who penned the first book.

So Mr. now-writing-for-Bollywood writes for the intention of selling.I couldn't help do some book bashing to prove my point which follows:

I think Mr. B is justified in his style, if we are to put ourselves in his persepective, where he is under pressure (now) to sell his work to a larger audience and also earn from it. Where amateurs gain, is that they write for the fun of writing (me now & him in his first book). We write from our heart, as we want to convey something, rather than sell it or gain something by writing it.

So, in retrospect, maybe amateur writers are better off at some level, in writing from the heart. While i will be largely proved wrong by a plethora of professional writers if my statement is taken as a generic stand on professional vs amateurs, my point holds true for first time published writers who want to continue it as their occupation. We cant lose track of our style, just because we need to cater to different people. We should in fact be proud (and maybe even arrogant) about our style, while finding alternative strategies (advertising or fancy packaging). But, i still believe those who read the first book with fervour and found it intersting should always be our target audience. 

Happy writing...

THE BETA SYNDROME part 2

I just saw a piece of news that supports my BETA syndrome theory. As i start to write this, i do not know whether ill end up giving just another example of the BETA syndrome. But, i hope to achieve much more than that. 

A piece of news being followed by a news channels (with their so called consumer surveys, interviews & the likes) is about CALL DROPS on cellphones.

So why do calls drop? It could be given to many reasons:

1. Over crowding of spectrum, more users & less bandwidth

2. Less cell sites by cellphone companies

3. Still unfathomable spaces in current cellphone technology, like basements, elevators & high-rises.

We have started living with this CHALTA HAI attitude when our cellphone shows limited or no signal in basement parking lots (which i believe are spaces needing most connectivity due to their exponential increase in size recently), high rises (how do i call a fire brigade?) and elevators (ah, need i say more...)

So the most critical spaces are NOT being covered by our cell sites. These would also include most hilariously, highways with less traffic, and remote villages.

So, in short our great cell companies have a vendetta to advertise their product as purely urbane & having functionality limited to general gossip, and sports a NOT TO BE USED IN CASE OF EMERGENCY tagline.

We all know how safe & connected we have become with the cellphone revolution in our country. We can call anybody (literally) at any time of the hour from anywhere (almost).

I have used the cellphone successfully in remote locations on the way to ladakh in 2004, when these things were seen as a wonder. 

So, what has it got to do with BETA syndrome? & why am i lashing about cellphones with my head in the sand?

if we are to look at cellphone technology, in theory, it is meant to go through walls (not multiple walls though) and provide us seamless connectivity. But, it fails due to higher spacing between cell sites or network traffic. So, while i cannot say about other countries (but hearsay is similar to ours, so im not india-bashing), the companies are so eager to launch their product that they do not test it completely. I agree it is virutally impossible to test all places before releasing cellphone technology. But there are other ways, companies could just turn out with schemes which ask customers to report places where signal is weak or not available, and in return they get a token gift (which is useless most of the times). 

Just using customers as their testing personnel, companies stand to gain a lot. Im not saying they will be able to wipe out the inefficiency of technology, but they will atleast come across as a pro-active organization, which is ready to accept the drawbacks of its product, and do the needful in order to serve the consumer better. 

There is hardly anything like perfection, but then, one can always create a positive image by trying hard..

While there are other ways of tackling this problem where a regulator fines the companies for such deficits, i think it is taking the point to the extreme. Yes, in the interest of maintaining their consumer base, the company can give discount plans to consumers facing recurring problems!!

Anybody out there, listening?? .... oh damn:

LIMITED CONNECTIVITY- emergency calls only

An internet handicapped person's frustration

I write today, actually on behalf of my dad, who had a serious tiff with my pc & the world of internet in general. This is the list of his complaints:

1. Why google mail, even though it is so fancy, does not print emails as they are shown.

(Explanation: for some reason, tabs, tables and other Html items are fuddled up when printing, and his office emails look like gibberish)

2. Why yahoo mail even after opening an email in another sub-tab (within the webpage) stays on inbox

3. why Firefox opens all the sites it opened previously after i forget to shut it down an earlier time

and so many others follow, including the state of service of internet provider, error messages that bring bewildered look on even our faces (they do much worse to him), etc etc

The point is:

While internet is progressing by leaps & bounds & our rate of INTERNET RELATED INNOVATIONS increases or rather multiplies exponentially, we are becoming slaves of the BETA SYNDROME!!!!

After so many years of existance, Google mail is still BETA. We have found ways of providing freebies (like free email) coz advertising pays for our free email (as it did for cable tv 5 years ago before pay channels came into being) but we in our race to gain advertising revenue and hence leave others behind, we have compromised with two huge (& largely related) concepts:

1. PERFECTION

2. SATISFACTION

I am not saying that both of these should cater to the customer, but i remember how in early days (even i feel old before internet generation kids) we used to patiently keep working on ONE thing till we achieved some degree of mastery over it. We strove for perfection, and that led to satisfaction.

In this day of rise fast, wane fast life & events, we have compromised on both counts in order to be the FIRST to do everything. I must confess that I too, am a victim of the same. I try to be the first to serve my client, or come up with unique gimmicks for profession or personal life, and without even had tried them with some time to, what we said in old days " Sleep over it", i ditch one concept & move to another one.

And hence, in the end what we are left with is BETA versions of everything that we use or see or interact with. I have started meeting beta versions of even people, who say this is just trial and they mite be better at a later time. I mean, come on, where are the good old days!!!

Funnily, and irritably, i remember a movie called THE KARATE KID, where this Japanese karate teacher gives this young American girl a wax and sponge, and tells her that her first lesson in Karate is to wax the teacher's car. He instructs her to wax clockwise & then anticlockwise. When she asks him how long to do it, he just smiles & goes away. 

Whether i recollect the scene truly or not, i'm not sure, but the next scene of the movie that links to it is a scene where the teacher shows her an elaborate kicking trick, and asks her to try till she succeeds. At that moment, her patience delivers and she finally is able to do it after umpteen failures.

We seem to have lost that today. I apologize for generalizing on this concept, but I am speaking as a layperson, and for the layperson. I still come across many such people, like my professor at PG program, who would not let go of a certain thing till he was satisfied with it. Even years later, if one were to meet him, he would recollect the study & what could have been done more on it. I believe, perseverence is a requisite, and my PG program helped me understand some of it.

But largely, i still feel vulnerable to the push of everyone around me, trying to crawl over me & launch some BETA activity. With so many billion of us out there, instead of coming up with everything that we can possibly juggle, maybe we should take ONE thing and pursue it, aiming for perfection, and settling for personal satisfaction.

In the adapted words of my professor: " You should pursue it, till you are sure you can defend it to death. Even after that, if you are to be proved wrong, pursue it again, and revise it, to again defend it to death!"

Two lessons: Perfection / persual and being open to other's ideas in one teaching!

Even though i am not able to do the above, i believe that is the right thing to do, the right path to follow & the right life to live. Maybe, i will have better patience in future to follow my ideals.

A walk in the rains...

में शायार तो नहीं, मगर पता नहीं,
जब से लिखा हे ये ब्लॉग,
शायरी फिर आ गयी!

I'm amazed at my own pace of churning out poems. To be honest, they just come to me, mostly while on my walks, and at the most bizzare, on the way back from office!

So here is another one, regarding tonight's failed attempt at a walk.

A walk in the rains...

As i start my stroll,
Rains decide
To break my ritual.

Walking in the rain
I see:
People taking shelter
Life:
Helter-skelter
irritated cows,
A cat meows.

Drenched i am
as is the earth,
Several pairs of eyes
Follow my determined march forth.

Coolness in my head
Cold atmosphere spread;
Large drops making bubbly sound
And patterns of waves:
Round.

A lone school-child shares my way-
Kicking the water:
As he returns
After a long day.

Faster i walk,
Harder it pours.
As i reach home,
The clouds end their score.

Frogs coming out,
Music of monsoon renew-
Puppies running out,
And chasing frogs anew!

As i enter my house,
One last glance
(at) the dark sky
A break of (moon) light
Forming a smile wry!

Another Rainy Day & other Haikus

I woke up in the middle of the night with a mind filled with flowing words..
I have tried to form Haikus & freeverse. The poem may be read as one go, or as individual parts. I am presenting in the manner that i composed them.

Again it rained,
Memories pained:
and living feigned.

Life's a game
Of harbouring pain;
Limits of strain:
Numbness,
- insane.

Rain you came,
Awakening lost shame,
Remorse:
Intense-
and in vain.

Tainted I am,
Have everything I want,
And yet
A pauper's existence I flaunt!

Wishes derailed,
Trials failed.
Aspirations buried,
I'm not worried.

Internal strife,
Searching good life;
Grass always seems greener
on the other side!

I'm one of a kind,
A fuddled mind
Daily grind.

Looks betray,
Promises gone astray-
Bets lost
Life is the cost.

Chances & dances,
Risks and nuances;
Troubled waters
Crocodiles-
Waiting to slaughter.

Existence lost,
Persona distraught;
Rebuilding my life:
A huge gripe.

My Lamy runs,
Paper burns:
Thoughts the fuel
Restlessness
Pouring itself to cool

Another version of the last one is:

My Lamy runs,
Paper it burns:
Thoughts- the fuel
Restlessness
Making of a perfect fool!

Civilizations have progressed by propagating knowledge....

I am reading a book called: Guns, Germs & Steel (A short history of humans in last 10,000 years) by Jared Diamond. The author is an evolutionary biologist who wrote this pulitzer winning book about world history..

I hav read 60% & i must say im impressed! While typical books on history provide just data, Diamond actually discusses the mechanism of evolution & its implications. Being a landscape architect, the part about plant evolution due to introduction is most intriguing for me.

But there's more, especially something that will have Thomas Friedman (a personal favorite) running for his money! Diamond has deduced that the world over, the civilizations that invented writing & allowed it to filter to the common people were the ones that progressed faster. When he talks about relative rates of evolution among peoples of the world, he discusses the advent of farming (as crop science), the advent of society (as social structure), the advent of writing (as knowledge dissemination) and finally politics (as a method of super-hierarchical governance).

Using these tools, and their comparative analysis across various peoples, he tries to find evolution rates. Now, we all know that Gutenberg can be partially congratulated for the Renaissance explosion of science, but Diamond goes much further into prehistory to unravel how the West Asians had much geographical advantage which led to their societal structure. This in turn allowed innovation.

Writing was invented independantly in 3-4 places, but none had the same effect as that in Eurasia. This is because, in Eurasia, writing was used by the common man (at a later date), as compared to other cultures, where it stayed in the hands of the elite. Writing allowed ease of learning & dissemination of knowledge. Diamond points out an important fact that no invention has been undertaken by one person only. He goes on to list 19th century inventions like steam engine, automobile & aeroplane, where the now credited inventors learned tremendously from the research of their peers & elders. This is an important point, stressing the dissemination of knowledge.

More importantly, Diamond goes on to show that when knowledge was available freely, the rate of growth of civilizations was phenomenal compared to other civilizations (im comparing decades versus centuries here!!!). For example, grammar was polished in a few centuries in Eurasia, whereas it took thousands of years to develop in Mesoamerica, and most of their original script still stayed primitive in grammatical proficiency. West Asia also obtained written accounts of inventions from east & west both, and used it to their advantage, such that the Islamic world was at the fore of invention, knowledge & military strength from crusades till the 14th century (after which Europe took over).

I have still not finished the book, but i need not write more. I think this is definitely a collector's edition!

reply: nobody gets the girls

I am enthused that my dearest anglophile friend, a new addition to blogworld, has started off with game theory. I am reading it currently, and i wish i also had read the book he suggested about Indians and game theory. I do not feel qualified to answer him without atleast glancing through the book, but i still feel answerable to him.

Dearest dude,
I have never been to Bangalore and hence, I cannot comment on the road rage or cultural situation there. But i will bring to your notice a place that we both share our links with. what you wrote about Bangalore, i found largely true for Ahmedabad, with ONE noticeable difference.

During my thesis, I & a friend were printing the final sheets, and the roads outside the print shops were simply non-existent. As a result, trying to juggle 4 feet long prints with bike & road rage traffic, i slipped in the gravel. And, within a span of the next 2 minutes (starting at 15 seconds), there was a crowd of atleast 10 people, including a rickshaw wallah offering his rickshaw as a seating to my friend who was bleeding from the nose. And, others on two-wheelers, in cars, in autos and even a bus, stopped to ask if there was anything that could be done. All this, inspite of this being just a regular road slip, that happens everyday on that road.

So my dearest friend, the application of game theory can not be universal. While I find myself disagreeing with my own statement, I have come to realize it may be true. Recently, a school friend of ours found another school friend, Gullu, trying to direct traffic in the middle of an intersection that was jammed.

The point i am trying to make is, game theory is true, and its applications may be universal, but the focus matters. When we are at an intersection, letting the person beside us pass may not be in our best interests, forget that, this train of thought may not even be needed. I agree we lack basic road sense, which is a huge problem and the reason due to which we face such issues. Some education on this will go a long way for all of us.

The desire to get ahead of others on roads, I believe, comes mainly from the fact that most of us are lacking in road sense and road rules. More that that, even if we do know them, we do not want to apply them, since we feel others definitely don't have an inkling. So we ask ourselves: why speak chinese when others are wont to ignore it....

Indians, I beleive, come with a JUGAAD in their genes, and hence, every rule has its TOOD (break) and every law has its slip-out. I have not yet come to conclude whether this inheritance is beneficial or degrading, whether it holds us together or fragments us, whether it really IS the game theory we talk about or selfish greed.

Sometimes, i ask myself, are we such animals, that only rules can keep us flocking together?

A rainy depression

Rain rain-
Come again;
Wash my mind
Of its pain…
Assure me
My existence is not in vain!

Show me a place-
Where life is not a race,
Things move,
At a comfortable pace…

Pour away…
Shoot streaks of lightening
Completely blinding!
Muster your deepest thunder
Deafening my mind-
As it starts to wander…

The piercing feeling in my heart-
Everytime I remember her face,
The tearing apart:
A text book depression case…

In a drop’s fall I find the joy,
As momentary as you;
I wish this is her ploy –
To make me forget
Moments with her few…

I seem to have lost
Life’s meaning
Every thought of her
Reminds me
Of the still incomplete healing…

Bring me life
From where you gain your might
Give me courage
To withstand a broken’s heart’s rage…
Shout and dazzle-
Make me jump,
I want the glass to crackle,
With your stupendous rattle…

Wounds exist
Marks are not seen
Suffering persists
To leave me alone-
Remorse is not keen…

You blow the wind
Cool the earth
A burning fire
Lies in smoulder
And yet,
How can you not-
Stop my mind
On its way to rotten moulder.

She was the light
Shining my life
The world has separated our way,
And I am left-
Cast away…

I challenge you,
You are no different;
Shouting and dancing –
Up there alone…
Trying to show your might
Giving people a fright..
Entertaining, refreshing –
And yet,
At the end of the day,
Alone you end your stay..

And so,
Rain rain-
Come again.
So we may both-
Relieve our pain…

Keep walking.....

With gr8 pride i write that last nite i ws able 2walk 9.05 km @6km/hr.. I guess i hav beaten my trekking record with this feat, although that was in hills. I also managed 2climb 9 floors after the walk. It still didn't leave me tired, which means my stamina has increased. But these walks take up 2 hours which is a problem. Hence, i'm thinking of introducing jogging in my regime. On an average, a 20min jog @ 8-9km/hr burns as much calories as an hour's walk. So, i stand 2gain time. But jogging in the evening is hard, as pollution leaves me out of breath. I hope i can start from tomorow evening. I also find myself dehydrated, so i'll carry some water too.. Hope for the best, need your encouragement people! Somu, competition has arrived! Lets talk about that marathon now!

Sandy's trips

Dear all,
I declare with great pride the inauguration of my new blog sanventure. I have a few small trips & 2 grand trips planned. So, instead of creating a jumble on this page, i thought its better to categorize my stuff. I shall also go on to categorize my regular reviews into another blog. So also watch out for that one...

Sandy

Pursuits of the hard kind....

I saw the beautiful movie: THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS a few weeks ago... I am not going to write a review since the movie is quite old & does not need an introduction. I just want to point you to one aspect of the movie: THE ENDING...

The whole movie showed a man's perseverance against all odds, but what struck me most was how the ending was depicted in the most truthful manner!

When the boss tells Will Smith in the end that he has actually got the job, he does not show any hint of happiness. It is neither shock nor disbelief. It is the display of pure lightening of a burden on a man who is trying hard to just stay alive. That happiness, in fact happiness is the wrong term, that relief, about having got what one is relentlessly working for, and still not sure whether one will actually achieve it.... the portrayal of that feeling touched me deeply...

If you haven't seen the movie, or have missed that scene, please see it again.
Will goes out into the street & does not do anything more than waving his hands as a sign of victory or the same...and he simply starts walking, matching stride with the people around him.... That stride is not to show that he has equalled them in any manner... it is the stride of a man who has the confidence to face the future...

Which is not to say that Will does not show confidence during the entire movie...it is shown as a series of desperate measures to stay alive.. any other person, like his wife (in the movie) would have given up more easily... it is only his sheer willpower that takes him & us through the movie, and that willpower having obtained its goal, presents us with a memorable ending!!

happy watching....

the N CLUB

The first thing i saw today morning was a newspaper shouting at me:
INDIA JOINS THE N-CLUB.

I believe in renewable energy, but i leapt out of bed and ate through every article that spoke about the NSG wavier. I think this is a major step in the advancement of our nation, not because a few self-proclaimed countries have given us a waiver. What is important is we are accepted as a responsible nuclear power, and we will obtain incessant (so to say) fuel supply for our ever-growing needs.

One of the major distinguishing factors between us & China, apart from our complex bureaucracy, is the lack of primary infrastructure. Nuclear power will help us provide just that. The most important infrastructure is POWER. Without power, no modern marvel can function. Captive power plants are an added burden to industries and renewable energy is at least 20 years to come to retail or industrial level. So the focus is on the next most efficient & least polluting form of energy: Nuclear power.

It has its share of critics who show us Chernoboyl and the likes. But if one sees it in context with incidents in other power plants worldwide, it is like comparing the accident rates of Indian aviation with Indian railways. Apart from that, the most debated topic is that of nuclear wastes. I know that the solution is not here, but then humans did not know electricity in the 17th century. Does that mean our light bulbs did not come, or we used up the world's supply of wax or animal fat? Given the time, we are bound to come up with solutions.

I have also found compulsion an effective way to come up with drastic solutions. Once the nuclear wastes pile up, there is bound to be an outcry, and hence, more contribution to research on nuclear waste disposal, disintegration or recycling. I do not see that further than another 10-15 years away, as with India and China lapping up nuclear power, the amount of radioactive wastes is bound to increase tremendously.

For all you critics, try shutting down the Trombay reactor and then invest in Indian share market. I hope you get my point. I live in a city which obtains its electricity from two coal plants & a gas based plants. A private company ensures the citizens do not have any power cuts, but i know the cost in terms of pollution to those living around the plants. I also know that this city would not have thrived if we wouldn't have had uninterrupted power supply. I dream to see all of India share our Ahmedabadi privilege.

Hindu way of thought

I have been meaning to write this article for quite some time now... I wonder how i forgot to post it...

Before i start let me begin by saying i prefer to put my position as someone who is an aetheist, has not read the Bhagwad Gita or any other religious scripture of any religion in its true text, but has only read an enormous amount of history & prehistory.

I also do not believe in scientology or the perfection that science professes.

I am talking here about the Hindu culture, which is very different from the current interpretation of Hindu religion, and though they meet at quite a few places, they stand apart. And for the same reason, I still take pride in writing that i am born a Hindu, and that i will stay that way forever.

A friend recently sent me an email of a conversation between an NRI and a yankee. The yankee was surprised to hear that Hinduism does not profess weekly prayers, or reading the scriptures or any such things that bring about order. It also says that even an aetheist (like me) can be called a Hindu if he or she follows the way of thought. Moreover, no one can be converted to Hinduism by any ritual (& im not taking into consideration fickle superstitions or ceremonies) but can only be either born into it, or follow it as one pleases.

I am attaching that email here for your reference so that i can deconstruct it later:

Am I a Hindu?

Four years ago, I was flying from JFK NY Airport to SFO to attend a meeting at Monterey, CA.
An American girl was sitting on the right side, near window seat.
It indeed was a long journey - it would take nearly seven hours!

I was surprised to see the young girl reading a Bible - unusual of young Americans! (Later I came to know that September 11 has changed mind-set of lot of US citizens. They suddenly turned religious, it seemed.)
After some time she smiled and we had few acquaintances talk. I told her that I am from India.

Then suddenly the girl asked: "What's your faith?"
"What?" I didn't understand the question.
"I mean, what's your religion? Are you a Christian? Or a Muslim?"
"No!" I replied, "I am neither Christian nor Muslim".
Apparently she appeared shocked to listen to that.
"Then who are you…?"
"I am a Hindu", I said.
She looked at me as if she is seeing a caged animal.
She could not understand what I was talking about.

A common man in Europe or US know about Christianity and Islam, as they are the leading religions of the world today.

But a Hindu, what?
I explained to her - I am born to a Hindu father and Hindu mother. Therefore, I am a Hindu by birth.

"Who is your prophet?" she asked.
"We don't have a prophet," I replied.
"What's your Holy Book?"
"We don't have a single Holy Book, but we have hundreds and thousands of philosophical and sacred scriptures," I replied.
"Oh, come on…at least tell me who is your God?"
"What do you mean by that?"

"Like we have Yahweh and Muslims have Allah - don't you have a God?"
I thought for a moment. Muslims and Christians believe one God (Male God) who created the world and takes an interest in the humans who inhabit it. Her mind is conditioned with that kind of belief.

According to her (or anybody who doesn't know about Hinduism), a religion need to have one Prophet, one Holy book and one God. The mind is so conditioned and rigidly narrowed down to such a notion that anything else is not acceptable. I understood her perception and concept about faith. You can't compare Hinduism with any of the present leading religions where you have to believe in one concept of god.

I tried to explain to her: "You can believe in one god and he can be a Hindu. You may believe in multiple deities and still you can be a Hindu. What's more - you may not believe in god at all, still you can be a Hindu. An atheist can also be a Hindu."
This sounded very crazy to her.

She couldn't imagine a religion so unorganized, still surviving for thousands of years, even after onslaught from foreign forces.

"I don't understand…but it seems very interesting. Are you religious?"
What can I tell to this American girl?

I said: "I do not go to temple regularly. I do not make any regular rituals. I have learned some of the rituals in my younger days. I still enjoy doing it sometimes."
"Enjoy? Are you not afraid of God?"

"God is a friend. No- I am not afraid of God. Nobody has made any compulsions on me to perform these rituals regularly."

She thought for a while and then asked: "Have you ever thought of converting to any other religion?"

"Why should I? Even if I challenge some of the rituals and faith in Hinduism, nobody can convert me from Hinduism. Because, being a Hindu allows me to think independently and objectively, without conditioning… I remain as a Hindu never by force, but choice." I told her that Hinduism is not a religion, but a set of beliefs and practices. It is not a religion like Christianity or Islam because it is not founded by any one person or does not have an organized controlling body like the Church or the Order, I added. There is no institution or authority.
"So, you don't believe in God?" she wanted everything in black and white.

"I didn't say that. I do not discard the divine reality. Our scripture, or Sruthis or Smrithis - Vedas and Upanishads or the Gita - say God might be there or he might not be there. But we pray to that supreme abstract authority (Para Brahma) that is the creator of this universe."

"Why can't you believe in one personal God?"

"We have a concept - abstract - not a personal god. The concept or notion of a personal God, hiding behind the clouds of secrecy, telling us irrational stories through few men whom he sends as messengers, demanding us to worship him or punish us, does not make sense. I don't think that God is as silly as an autocratic emperor who wants others to respect him or fear him." I told her that such notions are just fancies of less educated human imagination and fallacies, adding that generally ethnic religious practitioners in Hinduism believe in personal gods. The entry level Hinduism has over-whelming superstitions too. The philosophical side of Hinduism negates all superstitions.

"Good that you agree God might exist. You told that you pray. What is your prayer then?"
"Loka Samastha Sukino Bhavantu. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti,"
"Funny," she laughed, "What does it mean?"

"May all the beings in all the worlds be happy. Om Peace, Peace, Peace."
"Hmm…very interesting. I want to learn more about this religion. It is so democratic, broad-minded and free…" she exclaimed.

"The fact is Hinduism is a religion of the individual, for the individual and by the individual with its roots in the Vedas and the Bhagavad-Gita. It is all about an individual approaching a personal God in an individual way according to his temperament and inner evolution - it is as simple as that."

"How does anybody convert to Hinduism?"

"Nobody can convert you to Hinduism, because it is not a religion, but a set of beliefs and practices. Everything is acceptable in Hinduism because there is no single authority or organization either to accept it or to reject it or to oppose it on behalf of Hinduism."
I told her - if you look for meaning in life, don't look for it in religions; don't go from one cult to another or from one guru to the next.

For a real seeker, I told her, Bible itself gives guidelines when it says "Kingdom of God is within you." I reminded her of Christ's teaching about the love that we have for each other. That is where you can find the meaning of life.

Loving each and every creation of the God is absolute and real. 'Isavasyam idam sarvam' Isam (the God) is present (inhabits) here everywhere - nothing exists separate from the God, because God is present everywhere. Respect every living being and non-living things as God. That's what Hinduism teaches you.

Hinduism is referred to as Sanathana Dharma, the eternal faith. It is based on the practice of Dharma, the code of life. The most important aspect of Hinduism is being truthful to oneself. Hinduism has no monopoly on ideas. It is open to all. Hindus believe in one God (not a personal one) expressed in different forms. For them, God is timeless and formless entity.
Ancestors of today's Hindus believe in eternal truths and cosmic laws and these truths are opened to anyone who seeks them. But there is a section of Hindus who are either superstitious or turned fanatic to make this an organized religion like others. The British coin the word "Hindu" and considered it as a religion.

I said: "Religions have become an MLM (multi-level- marketing) industry that has been trying to expand the market share by conversion. The biggest business in today's world is Spirituality. Hinduism is no exception…"

I am a Hindu primarily because it professes Non-violence - "Ahimsa Paramo Dharma" - Non violence is the highest duty. I am a Hindu because it doesn't conditions my mind with any faith system.


So what I am basically looking at is that the NRI is talking about the way of thought and not really about the religion. I once asked a professor of mine, who has worked as editor to our famous television series of Mahabharata about what Indian identity and culture is. She said simply, Hinduism. i was taken aback and asked her about her secular credentials. She replied: " I am secular, but the Hinduism you look at is a religion. The Hinduism i am talking about is the Indian culture."

From our subsequent conversation, and my reading into the interpretations by Irawati Karve, Romila Thapar, Tadgell's architectural exploits, British Indian gazetteers and the likes, it emerged that the Indian culture could truly be labelled as the Hindu culture. If one is to compare the way people of any religion marry in different parts of the world, there are bound to be local additions. But i found none to be so overbearing as that seen on the Indian subcontinent. I dont know if its the environment or the society, the ways and thoughts of a culture which has been continuously debating for and against itself has given rise to traditions unique to us, and also percolated into those of other religions.

So what is the Hindu way of thought, after so much ranting, u may ask?

I would say the Hindu way of thought is the true democratic thought. One may ask about the various binding ceremonies and the kinds that push us into an envelope of religion. But most of those are based on certain scientific explanations. To take a latest example, the Bengalis would not eat a particular fish in a given season since it was the breeding period of the fish. The latter reasoning was dropped as the times moved. But it still stands to day.

The hindu way of thought, I BELIEVE, is the one that allows us to explore ourselves, reflect on our actions, and also sometimes do actions that we believe strongly in, without actually worrying about the consequences. In short, it gives us the flexibility to be ourselves, while providing a plethora of literature & cultural idiom to support whatever our lifestyle may be, without binding us to any particular typology. That i believe, is very important. To respect our individuality is the highest honour to our self-esteem and being. And hinduism does that in the most subtle manner. One has to be really observant in order to see it.

Being an aetheist i have had many experiences with different kinds of people from various cultures. I have found that the least questioning people are Indians of any religion. They accept my moral struggle for & against, even if they may not understand it. Neither do they laugh at it, nor do they try to discourage me. I believe this is the respect i obtain, to choose my own path. & for that I would be happy to be called a Hindu at birth, while i still do not believe in any religion.

Postscript: I do not wish to put any religious colours to this article. I have friends from all differing religions and i have found all of them equally great people. I am talking about a culture and not about religion, since i do not understand or wish to profess it. One could read this topic as the Indian way of thought, but then the word Hindu is not a copyright of the religion too. It comes from Indu or Indus (currently in Pakistan) and I am after all from that culture.

Teacher's Day

A quote adapted from Superman befitting the occasion:

"You'll be different. Sometimes you'll feel like an outcast but you'll never be alone. You will make my strength your own. You will see my work through your own as your work will be seen through mine. The student becomes the teacher and the teacher becomes the student."

Review: NONZERO by Robert Wright

A belated review of Non-zero

I have earlier criticized non-zero while reading it for its cumbersome treatment of a seminal topic towards the end. i still stand by my critique, but i wish to add a complete review, so that one may forgo the deviations and focus on the uniqueness of the subject at hand.

The author tries to show us that the world moves forward because it wants to propogate itself & exist, and for the same reason it forms positive sum relationships within and around itself. While i am still musing on the relationships that we have built with nature in the last couple of centuries, and i still stand unconvinced of the conclusions of the book as yet, i believe that it provides us with important insights on the history and development of the world. This development, charted earlier in human terms and later in pure biological terms, provides us insight into the complex social processes and the psyche behind them with logical explanations which are based on painstaking research.

I would read this book like a compilation rather than an authorative work, somewhat like reading a novel by Michael Crichton where one is introduced to a fairly new topic and taken through it in form of a story. While the research that goes into such a compilation is worthy of admiration, the result may not necessarily be what the truth is, or what may sound like a convincing theme. But it should be read as a new way of looking at the world and understanding it.

Moving on, the book does jump from one section to another while losing touch, but for an experienced reader, who can support it with his or her own research, done either on the internet or reading another similar work along with it, the book opens new vistas.

I had the unique opportunity (since it dragged on towards the end) of reading it with Yuganta (a commentary on the social life during Mahabharata), with Cat o' nine tales (crime stories by Jeffery Archer), with Guns, Germs & Steel (a Pulitzer winning document about the history of humans in last 10,000 years), with Emotional Intelligence (which explores the social traits as compared to raw intelligence).

I found that the book had much to support for and argue against all these works. It told me about the psychology behind them, the logic for the history, culture & social customs, and also about the human mind and body.

So while i wouldnt ask you to read this book by itself, i would ask you to read it with a companion book and then use it to reflect on the happenings. Like my experiment, you may even use a novel to do the same and arrive with results that actually overwhelm you about the relationships of characters and the environment or context of the novel.

I wish you happy reading, and feel free to throw it away towards the end when it starts to drag.... it will not serve much purpose anyway...

Google Chrome!!! Awesome!!

I read about google chrome yesterday on techtree (www.techtree.com) & today in the morning's newspaper. Both had highly critical reviews, but that was only because Google the great is supposed to do mindblowing things & chrome they said wasn't so mindblowing.

But ask what an average user needs, & the answer is speed. While we have started enjoying broadband for an odd coupla years in India, browser technology is over the world is hardly broadband friendly. Internet explorer, the demon of all browsers, is prone to hanging the system before you can even hit Crtl+Alt+Del. I have been a Mozilla fan for over a year. The speed it gives me is really fancy. Opera, I have no comments on , coz i use it only on my phone & that version is really great (apart from tearing off my prepaid bills), but the desktop browser is cumbersome.

& here comes google with its brand new chrome plated CHROME.
So...getting back to the point, "Is mein aisa kya he jo dusro me nahi?"
Well just download it & find out!! "Are magar woh karna hota to yeh blog kyo padhte?"
Exactly my point people, if you just type the name of this blog, it will have appeared before you blink (provided your broadband provider is equally good).
Heavy sites like Gmail, Orkut, Facebook & even Youtube open at blazing speeds.

& the best part!!! It doesn't hang the entire system. Chrome has tabbed browsing which is currently the fad. But the older browsers were better coz if one hung, the other program was largely unaffected. Google has read its history well (im a history freak, so i got it reasoned ;) )& brought what seems like a tabbed browser, but actually every tab opens like an individual program!

For all you laypeople, today's sites (including gmail, yahoo new mail, etc) use heavy javascript in order to bring those flashy effects & speeds to your desktop. But while java loads in a normal tabbed browser, the whole program is hung, even if for a few seconds (im not talking of your celerons, they will take ages). What Chrome has is separate programs, so only the tab that is loading javascript hangs for a moment.

Cheers for us multi-tasking freaks!! This is the best development after Mozilla which I still salute for bringing the competition to their senses!! But after all, Google is the GREAT!

So what about other features?
I always love their overtly simple interface, no cluttering, just the plain look. Also, being open source, you can keep adding many plugins as developers & amateurs churn them out.

I love the way loading happens in left bottom corner. It just comes out of the blue, and does not waste even those 5mm of screen space when not necessary. Thats simplicity & efficient space usage!!

They have done a lot of technical stuff which i dont want to bore you people with. You would definitely love to read their comic book about development. Its nice & informative.

So go ahead, download & experience the difference!!
Do comment here if you think otherwise...
I'll be happy to hear.

Darwin vs love

A small attempt to put love in poetry:
(ps: the last paragraph "I say:" is written off-hand)


When I am down,
with no one to look (after me) around:
I realize I am
Darwin's unfit loser,
Wright's sociable unsocial animal,
who can only:
crawl his way if crutches are offered...

I put on music deafening:
Hoping to drown my heart's wailing;
But still I can't catch the notes-
Lost in my sorrow,
That chills my marrow-
Tearing my mind apart,
Till I fall asleep,
Tired of the same thought.

They say:
It is better to have loved and lost:
I loved, I lost
And each time I hoped..
for a better start.

That illusive feeling,
Love, with its infamous healing...
Evades me..
& leaves me reeling..
Darwin's unfit loser.

Some (Darwinians) say-
Love not anyone, more than thyself.
For loving is the sure road..
To heart's disgress.
And they love themselves, live by themselves,
oblivious to the warmth
That is offered by love's hearth.
The world is their enemy,
Survival at other's cost their never ending ceremony.

You say:
I speak against love,
I speak against non-love-
What's on my mind?
Am I the insane kind?

And at this point my friend,
I ask of you to recognize the trend..
A troubled heart's lament,
A broken mind's predicament.

Love shall not set me free,
Until I have truly,
Understood its decree.

Love says:
Dearest worried soul-
I am not about getting,
about achieving,
about conquering...

I AM about caring
about giving
about sharing
about sacrificing
about letting go & still
keeping oneself on the show.

(My dearest worried soul)
If you cannot
gather your happiness
from what I am-
Then you,
have never loved at all!

I say:
I know not love yet,
I know not survival yet,
I am starting my life,
Understanding my mind's strife:
But I shall go on,
As Tennyson's brook:
Living life on the hook;
I cannot relate to Darwin's agression,
I believe I have the loving passion:
With some patience
& some digression
Learning & unlearning the world's fashion,
I will arrive at love's bastion!