Blogging and the wonders of the world

The real wonders of the world, the numerous people out there who take life to be a step above the mere circle of existence. Back in the old days you would have to be a party hopper or a pathological socialite to know enough people to find the ones who can satisfy your craving for some genuinely intellectual fulfillment. I believe blogging has opened up the playing field for those less privileged souls who would have otherwise perished in anonymity just because they were not born in a family that would put them on the center stage of the society.
I do repent on not having jumped on to the blogging bandwagon earlier on. In fact having a background in communication technologies, it is rather shameful that I kept myself away from it for such a long time. Lately however, while spending some leisure time on blog-hopping, I have come across some wonderful brains to whom I would like to meet in person if given an opportunity. Many remind you of the person you are, or the person you always wanted to be, many remind you of the things you once held as most important but lost track of them running after things that you don't really deem important at all, many of them bring you face to face with the most hurtful facts, many of them give you that moral uplifting just when you need it the most, many of them give you perspectives that you instantaneously find acceptance for, many of them....the list goes on. The bottom line however, is that blogging has given me access to some real wonders of the world who are not popular enough to get a billion votes, but at the same time don't need those votes to solidify their place amongst the best wonders. Thank you blogging.

My experiments with Integrity

Integrity - I first got introduced to the real life meaning of this word in The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, when back in college one of the teachers I admire a lot recommended that I read it. I was always considered to be a hard-headed idealistic person, often to the extent of being dogmatic. Then gradually I discovered the true me, or rather I should say the me that I would want to be - a person with integrity. I found out the difference between being dogmatic and having high levels of integrity. Over the years, I have tried my best to remain true to that image of myself. That is the singular most important thing that gives me satisfaction when I look straight into my eyes in the mirror and see the person behind them. There were times when I really questioned the worth in maintaining integrity as opposed to being retaliatory. There have been times when I ended up hurting those who care for me in the process of making sure that my integrity is not hurt. Whether this was right or wrong, is yet unknown to me and hence I call them my experiments with integrity (though I would be lying if I say that before I die I will be able to get some conclusions out of this experiment).
These are the days of extreme turbulence for my experiment. I like the little snippet on the cover page of the book titled integrity by Dr. Henry Cloud. It says "the courage to meet the demands of reality". The way I apply this to the context of my current situation is that no matter how ugly the reality becomes, no matter how bitter the world around me is, if I have the courage to face the facts and give real world sacrifices to preserve my integrity, only then will I have successfully completed one more phase of this experiment. Let us see.

P.S.: The reason I wrote this post is to use it as a place to get myself back on my feet when they are shaken off the ground by the turbulences I see approaching in the coming days.

Fair Enough?

Back in 1998 when I was in the second year of college, an incident happened that made me question the benefits of my sticking to my morals and ethics in the midst of the worst crisis. That day the frustration within me came out in the form of few words that had sent shock waves across the senior management. Years later today, I am in a phase where my mind asks me the same question: Is it worth maintaining and living upto your own standards of moral conduct, or should you once in a while cross your self-drawn boundaries and give a sucker punch to teach somebody a lesson? So far I have been successful in sticking to the former, and intend to do so for the time foreseen, because I firmly believe that the strength of your ethics is tested only when the goings are tough and the world pushes you into a corner where you feel like blasting out in anger.

Fortunately, I still have a copy of that letter, that had the same title as the one for this post. Though the context today is completely different and hence the particular words and phrases don't apply, the underlying meaning is so apt even today. Here is the original script:

"This is neither a protest letter nor a piece of paper questioning the righteousness of the decisions imposed. But, as great men say, one should never suppress the strom of emotions rising within one's soul, we found it proper to put our feeling on paper and try to console our minds for the injustice we think has been done to us.

In the history of mankind, there have been numerous instances when the obvious truth was neglected, not to mention, this was one. Man, for his own interest, or to pamper his fake reputation has many a time chosen paths which he himself is not sure if they are worth following or not. It has slowly seeped into the human nature that one hates to look with naked eyes towards the sun which gives a honest light, but adores the sight of the cozy moon which, in fact has not brightness of its own.

For centuries, the people who have shown the wisdom of keeping matters free from troubles at the cost of their own well being, have been taken for granted. Their patience has been mistaken for their cowardice. There are only two possible end results for this. One, unfortunately is that these handful of people become saturated of tolerating evil, lose their patience and put things into chaos. The other one, and the only hope for tomorrow, is that the people in authority wake up from their age old sleep, and show the wits and courage to support the wise in their cause, so that others might also in future take the pains of fighting the wrong in the right manner. The decision whether which path to take, lies in our hands. Whether we want to give our future generations a society which has its foundation on truth and honesty, or one with double standards prevailing everywhere, depends entirely on us."

Any answers?

We, the most evolved creatures, the most fantastic design of nature, the most civilized species....we, the human race. We have come a long way from the day we started walking on two limbs. We know a lot of things, yet have not the faintest ideas about most. Our opinions for the most part are shaped by the tiny part of the world we see first hand, by the keyhole of our own experiences. If we are asked about the same opinions in the context of the space-time dimensions that are beyond the realm of our experiences, even the few of us who have received a lifetime of training on those subjects can make an educated guess at best. Come to think of it, some of my previous posts (The 20/20 Hindsight! (?), Changing Frames of Reference.., Perspectives) are different ways of coming to the same 'confusion', and hence this post is also a repetition of the same idea. But a series of events over the weekend irritated the thinking neurons, and I had to blog it out to soothe the itching :-).

First was this concluding episode of the fantastic Planet Earth series, in which they talked about the role of religion in conservation. They say that when it comes to bringing awareness on a mass scale, faith is a stronger medium than logic. Especially when the process involves sacrificing of material well being by the less privileged. They quote the example of how the people of Tibet, even the poorest ones, burnt their most expensive furs when the Dalai Lama spoke against wearing them. There are plenty of initiatives like this one that try to achieve the goals of nature conservation by means of religion.

Then on Sunday when I was in Barnes and Noble, I was solicited for donating money to an organization that uses the mode of religion to promote world peace. Once more I came across the school of thought that believes in faith being stronger than logic, and that religion can be used to convince people that the interests of humanity should be put before the interests of the State or individual.

Third was the description of the history of economics in the first few pages of this book I have been wanting to read for a long time - The Worldly Philosophers. The author opines that the need for 'economists' arose after the world adopted the idea of free markets. Before that the balance of the society was maintained primarily by either of the two methods, viz. tradition and authority. In places where 'tradition' was used, the role of an individual was decided by birth, while in places that used 'authority', an individuals fate was decided by a plenipotentiary entity, like the 'party' in the former USSR. In the free market philosophy, the individual had 'choice', and with this came the complicated question of who maintains the equilibrium of the society if every person was a loose cannon. This question gave birth to the profession of an economist as we know it now.

Finally today the New York Times published an article titled The Politics of God. The limelight was the much debated question of how separate should politics be from religion, and how much separate it really is in the America of today.

All this led me to think that if I were to give my opinion on these issues, I have sufficient clarity of thought to take a stand. However, if I have to think in terms of a thousand years, or for that matter two hundred years, and take a stand, I sure am confused. The free market economy has its own benefits, but we have also witnessed the dark side of it in the politics of oil that is taking hundreds of lives everyday, or the continuous quest for higher profits that is poisoning the food chain with cancerous chemicals. Sure the free market economy has given me the freedom to express my opinion on this blog today, but has it passed the test of time yet? The balancing act that tradition played was around for millennia, will the free market be able to survive that long? Or will we some day, maybe a hundred years from now, reach a threshold where another revolution will bring an end to it. Maybe we will eventually develop a society where the balance is maintained by 'design', like that movie (I can't remember the name) in which every individual was genetically designed to be good at a certain task and that became his destiny before birth. Maybe at that time the direction of the world will be determined by 'geneticists' and not 'economists'.

The importance given to religion as an answer to the challenges of the modern world creates a bigger challenge for non-believers like me who believe in the underlying principles of religion, but find the conventional concept of God too 'unscientific' to adopt. But again when I think of it in terms of the mass population, where we have a majority of individuals not having exposure to the kind of intellectual training that I was privileged with, or the nature-gifted self control that is bestowed upon me, I get confused again. How would it be possible to convince the world - in its entirety - to live the way of life preached by religion, but without believing in a supreme power. Is the human mind evolved enough to accept that one's failures and accomplishments are a result of a combination of factors like intelligence, hard work, co-incidences, and even sheer luck; and because of that one should be immune to disappointments and pomposity? Can I convince with 'true success', even 2 out of 10 people that we should make conscious efforts and even give up certain conveniences to conserve the environment, purely based on logical arguments? And the opposite, how many people can I convince to do the same if their religion also dictated so? My logic says at least 5 out of 10. But in accepting that logic, I butcher my other logic!!!

To Change or Not to Change!!!

What is one supposed to do when he/she reaches a point where one realizes that he/she has taken a path he/she did not intend to, and now wishes to switch gears, change directions, and move on in what seems to be the right path? We come across such cross roads all the time as individuals, but some times these forks come in our way as a nation. One option is to conveniently ignore the situation because making any change is, to put in one word, hard. The other is to take the pains of going through a correction process so that the coming generations do not have to live with the contradiction.
The subject in context is that of the National Anthem of India. It has been debated over and over again, and honestly I never paid any particular attention to it earlier. Today after seeing the latest Rehman rendering of the current National Anthem, I was curious to know the meaning of the words we have sung for years now. Apart from the controversies of many years that were enlisted in the web pages, what struck me more was that I did not find the meaning of the words good enough for the song Jana Gana Mana to be used as the National Anthem.
Obviously following the leads of the controversies led me to find out the exact meaning conveyed by the most sought after contender - Vande Mataram. I can't understand how one can refute the aptness of this song in the designation of a National Anthem? I do understand the sensitivities involved in maintaining a secular outlook when it comes to things of national significance, but what is wrong in selecting the verses that have no such obstacle? Even those selected verses convey a far more 'secular' message, and more importantly 'patriotic' message, than the words of Jana Gana Mana.
Personally, I find this to me a much more appropriate change to make than Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata or Bangaluru!!

Can't agree more!!!

Came across a couple of nice quotations today:

“A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.”

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Which reminded me of this one from the blog of a friend who has decided to stop blogging (I hope he changes his decision):

Across the fields of yesterday, He sometimes comes to me,

A little lad just back from play, The boy I used to be.

He looks at me so wistfully, When once he's crept within,

It is as if he hoped to see, The man I might have been.

I will not ruin the significance of these magnificent words by trying to explain them. I only wish that at the end of my life I can close my eyes in peace, and say to myself that I was successful in living a life true to the meaning of these.

The most worthless contest

“You wouldn't worry so much about what people really thought of you if you knew just how seldom they actually do.”

I have seen many people live their entire life as if it were a popularity contest. Their every action, every outwardly dealings are done with only one thing in mind - what will others think about it? In doing so, they knowingly or unknowingly keep on poisoning themselves and the environment around them with negativity. In the midst of the smallest contradiction with anybody, they have to conspire with the entire universe to prove how incorrect the other person is. All I have for such people is lots of pity, because I personally find this contest to be the most worthless one.

I have always been a hard headed person in conventional wisdom. I live for myself and nobody else. Neither do I pretend to be otherwise, nor do I want anybody to think that I am otherwise. When I make this statement, what kind of an impression any person wants to form about me is entirely their prerogative. The only thing that is important for me is that I never lie to anybody, especially myself, and do not criticize anybody in front of a third person because I do not agree with his/her point of view. The whole world might sing praises about me, but if I am not satisfied with what I did, the praises mean nothing to me. Every single soul can be against me, but if I think I am doing the right thing, I care less about what anybody thinks. For me the only person with whom I should be popular is my own self. The only person with whom I am competing in this popularity contest is me myself. The only person whom I give the right to decide the outcome of this contest is me myself. I think the world would be a much happier place if every person decides to just take care of his/her own self, or more importantly, take care of 'just' his/her own self!! As soon as the 'just' word is forgotten, the worthless contest begins and happiness ends.

(Feeling too sleepy so please pardon if I sounded very confusing)

The best thing you can do....

....is to just laugh it out. I am talking about situations you come across in your own life that are not the most pleasant. I have found that instead of cribbing or mourning about it, giving it a humorous twist is the best way to deal with it. Though I have practiced this in my life 'as much as possible' (the goal is to change this phrase to one word - always), it explicitly came to my mind from a conversation I had with Nihar today.

A cousin of mine has just came in from India and is staying with me. For the past few days all three of us were having dinner together. Today when it was only me and Nihar, he asked me this question keeping her in context:

"ene tamara vishe khabar chhe?" (Does she know about the two of you?)

I instantaneously said "yes", then I paused a few seconds and gave him a broad smile. On being asked the reason, I told him -

"Back in the college days when somebody used the exact same set of words to ask a question, it was such an opposite meaning than what it meant today!!"

I found it a little amusing, a little disappointing, a little weird, a little funny, how the same words can have such drastically opposite meanings depending on their context. Again, I think the best way to face it is to laugh it off as I did today (I know, easier said than done - but again, who said life was easy!)

Man vs. Machine

A friend recommended this toolbar called 'stumbleupon' that randomly takes you to a website that has content from a list of your favorite categories. While trying it for the first time today, I came across a website called "World of Inspiration". Though I did not dig deep into it, on the first page I found this interesting quote:

“Take away my people, but leave my factories, and soon grass will grow on the factory floors. Take away my factories, but leave my people, and soon we will have a new and better factory.”

Andrew Carnegie

How true!! I have always been a firm believer of the philosophy that any system, any process, any society, any civilization, and business model, is to a large extent dependent on the people at the helm of its affairs for it to be a success. Look at USA over the past century and then look at China over the past couple of decades. Can anybody say for sure if democracy or communism makes a nation successful? Look at the erstwhile USSR and look at Pakistan. Can anybody opine with certainly if socialism or democracy can be responsible for the downfall of a country?

It has been of interest to me to know the corporate structures and company mission statements or guiding principles of successful corporations. I am yet to find a methodology that 'works'! I have seen corporations that are run on lose democratic principles (McKinsey), and companies that are still run by a chain of family members (Hershey's). Few if any can question the success of these giants, and few if any can explain the linkage between their corporate structure and business growth.....especially if the analysis was done simultaneously for both and compared. Books like "Built to Last" do explain the reasons some corporations have withstood the test of time, but fail to explain the reasons why many corporations vanished in spite of that.

All this has led me to believe in Andrew Carnegie's quote mentioned earlier, and my quote mentioned right after that :-).

India poised!!

This has been debated in the intellectual circles of our beloved nation for some time now....may it be a group of concerned industrialists discussing their long term vision of the Indian economy, or some activists calling these industrialists a bunch of greedy capitalist pigs, or a couple of young executives who work in the upcoming corporations of these industrialists talking about the 'India-story' over a cup of Barista coffee. As interesting as this debate always sounds, when you think about it in loneliness, it sends a shiver down your spine. Today in the Ahmedabad section of Times of India, I found these two stories listed so close together, and I could not help but notice the stark contradiction in the India of today, being reflected so clearly. The gory details of the second piece of news made me as much or more sad as compared to the excitement I experienced from the details of the first.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong in the fact that the Indian economy is booming, even though it is for a select segment of the society and the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening. The simple reason behind this is that in my opinion that is the only way to coming out of the 'developing nation' tag, and the downsides we are talking about will be a part of the process no matter how hard you try. In the changing face of the nation, the generation that is caught in the middle will have to give this sacrifice.

However, we should keep in mind that as a nation we will have to control some aspects of this change to avoid things from getting into a chaos. First and foremost is quality education. In order to sustain the growth and provide enough quality man power to the industrial juggernauts that can leapfrog the nation into the future, we will need to improve our educational processes and institutions on a mass scale. Second is retraining of the existing man power. The changes that have come in the past few years, and the changes that are bound to come in the coming years, will make a lot of people obsolete and put them out of their jobs or make their roadside small businesses go bankrupt. We will need to put in place systems which facilitates the retraining of these people into fields where there is opportunity for survival. Unfortunately as it stands today, I have not seen any concrete efforts made at a war footing on either of these avenues.

I am no expert on socio-economics so I cannot give my 'prediction' on what will happen given a certain sequence of events. Maybe these factors won't have any effect and the market driven economy will find a solution to these problems on its own. Maybe sooner or later the people who can make a difference will come to realize the gravity of this problem and try to rectify it. If this is to happen I can only wish that it happens sooner....before the India that is poised starts looking down in disappointment instead of looking up with a refreshing smile.

Another experiment begins...

Today marks the beginning of another personal experiment: I subscribed to two mailing lists that can potentially broaden my horizons. One is call 'Word of the Day' - which as is easy to guess, sends me an email everyday with all possible details about one particular word. Another, called 'On this Day' sends me a list of significant events that happened on today's date. As for Aug 3, the following are the events worth mentioning:








Happy Independence Day Niger!!!

I was surprised to see how similar the Niger national flag is to our Tiranga.












Adios Chris!!!
1492 - Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain, on his first voyage that took him to the present-day Americas.






This is another interesting one:
1981 - U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Ronald Reagan they would be fired, which they were.
Having grown up witnessing the daily comedy show of Indian politics, I am sometimes fascinated by the way the leadership in this country deals with some situations - like their 'we do not negotiate with terrorists' approach or in this case the 'Don't mess with me, I am the boss' approach. Of course there are always convincing arguments that are contrary to everything that we say.

Anyways, I hope this experiment will achieve the results I expect. Maybe they will take me to a stage where my name will be listed in the 'On this Day' email that will be sent out some years from now :-). At the very least, I will certainly have some meat for my blog everyday!!

The 20/20 Hindsight ! (?)

When we look back at things and talk about it, often times we say that so many years back if I would have done that thing this way, today I would have been there instead of here. I disagree with that way of thinking because we do not take into account here all the events that happened after that. In the years after that singular decision or series of decisions, we must have certainly come across a multitude of forks, there must have been numerous other factors that influenced the outcome of that event. Today we are making a judgment about our that decision based on the outcome we are seeing today. But if I had chosen otherwise, maybe after going through all the forks that followed and all the factors that contributed to the after effects of that decision over a period of time, I would have still been 'here' and not 'there'. Maybe I would in fact be 'there', but that is also a 'maybe'. I cannot sit and scratch my head thinking that where I am today would have been different if at a certain point in the past I did something in a different manner.

However, we as human beings have a natural tendency to find reasons and opportunities to put the blame on something or somebody else. It is too painful to know the reality, and even more difficult to live with that awareness. This natural tendency is the cause of many things that have become a part of our society, our way of living. I sometimes even find this tendency to be a major contributory factor behind the almost universal acceptance of the traditional concept of God (this though deserves a separate post or series of posts). For now, it would suffice to say that where we are today may have been different if we did a certain things differently, but its a 'maybe' at best. Where we will be many years from now may be different if we do certain things differently today....again it is a 'maybe' at best. But what I have in my hand now, right in front of me, is this moment, this day. Let us live it through as we find it best, let us do things today as we find them appropriate and let life take its course.

Quote of the day...

I came across this quote at a doctor's office today....while I do remember having read this earlier somewhere, it slipped out of memory. I decided to make a note of it on the blog today so that I never forget it....and possibly try to implement the same in my life.

FIND OUT WHAT WORK YOU LOVE TO DO, AND YOU WILL NEVER HAVE TO WORK A DAY IN YOUR LIFE!!

Simple. Striking. Glaringly true. Very difficult to actually practice.