An Attempt on Rational Creativity!

The grass is greener on this side

2011-06-22T00:04:00.001-07:00

A few months back, my brother, my sister-in-law and I were at a charity event where funds are raised through 5k and 10k walks and runs. It was a wonderful sunny day, and the races had just got over. The park was really nice as well, with plenty of greenery all around us. As we were heading back after the event, I observed the turf that we were walking over, and said to my brother, comparing it with some grass that a ditch divided us from... "It looks like the grass is greener on this side!" We laughed about it.

Today, I was thinking back to that day, and realizing that there was much more to my state of mind that day, than the landscape I saw. I really enjoyed that day for many reasons.

To begin with, I was spending time outside in the sun after a long time. The weather was just right, and I was enjoying it with family. For a while, I felt the freedom that I had - to do just what I had wanted to do. That in itself, cast away any anxieties that I may have felt the day before. I felt in control of my life.

Besides, it felt really good to be giving - to be volunteering at an event, that would give that good feeling to so many more people who had come to participate in the event, while funding the education of children who couldn't otherwise afford it. It felt good to just be doing that small bit, no matter how small, to make a difference to the world.

When I said "the grass is greener on this side", what I really felt was how fortunate I am to be where I am. To be in a position to think these thoughts and write a blog post about it, or to even read one, is to have come a long long way. In fact, just writing this post has inspired me to move on and make a difference yet again. It's the drops that make the ocean.

Peace.

Reality... really?

2010-01-10T16:40:00.000-08:00

What is reality? Everything that actually is. What about our perception of reality? Is there a common perception of reality? Or does that perception vary from person to person? We all discuss that each person has his own perspective. No doubt then, it should logically follow that there exists no common perception of reality - unless, of course, we have failed to apply logic as it should be applied.

Many wise men are known to have spent their lifetimes seeking universal truth. I would assume that means that they want to know reality(as it is), instead of just another perception of it. The biggest conundrum for me would always be - how would you know when you've reached? If you define a goal that you're headed towards, how do you know it's not tainted by your perspective? If you haven't defined a goal, well, then it doesn't matter anyways.(Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland?)

Now, what is anyone's perception of reality? In short, everything that we experience, with all our senses - some of them known, some not so well known(the sixth sense?). Was my dream real? I would suggest it indeed was. But not in the same way as my narration of the dream that I typed into my laptop one night after waking up. What makes the two realities different?

A dream is indeed real. I definitely perceived myself walking through the jungle and talking to a tree. Only, the tree existed in a reality that is not in front of me now - a reality that appears not based on the materialistic world we deal with, or with the five senses we normally rely on. In fact, I believe that tree still exists somewhere. My mind just made a journey to a world that I can't take anyone else to, because I reached there randomly. If I knew how I got there, I would tell you, and you might probably go there too, and see exactly what I saw, and heard, and felt.

As a child, I used to sit on the staircase, and imagine I was flying a fighter plane and shooting down "the bad guys". I had no steering wheel, no joystick. Just my closed eyes, and the vivid scenes running through my mind. The planes are always there, the runway's always there, just waiting for me to hop in and fly out. I could see them. I felt the wind blowing against me. I had a chill run down my spine as I gained the speed to take off. You can't tell me that's not real. I'm sure just reading those lines conjured up an image in your mind!

The big problem with reality is, we often start to get carried away with everything we perceive, and think everyone else should perceive it the same way. For instance, candies are sweet. How do you know what "sweet" feels like for another person? You don't. Yes, it is true that it triggers roughly the same taste buds for both you and the other person. That may not be the same experience for the other person. Lets move to another possibly more comprehensible example - law. There are many innocent people who get convicted because of circumstantial evidence (mistaken to outline reality), when there really was a big missing link that nobody found and brought to light. Once a man is convicted, it's difficult for anyone to believe his story, no matter how true it might be. In other words, again, your perception of reality, could be a far fetch from the reality.

Where is all this headed? It's simple. Each of us has a perception of reality, and should experience it anyway we like. We could try to share the experience, but we should be wary of the fact that the experience we give another person may or may not be as pleasant as ours. Every now and then, we might come across someone that appreciates our point of view. But we should keep in mind, that true reality consists of everyone's perceptions combined. The fact that each of us perceives, whether the same way or another, is indeed, real.

Trust - Gain versus pain

2009-07-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

I'm inspired to write this post as a follow-up to a topic I recently discussed with a couple of friends, on Twitter. And this post is most certainly dedicated to the two of them.

To start with, I'll just lay down the points of discussion, numbered to make them easy to refer to, later in the post...

1. To trust is to be vulnerable.

2. To trust blindly, is to ask for trouble.

3. If you trust someone, you give him/her the power to hurt you.

4. When you trust blindly, there's much higher risk that someone you trust will actually hurt you.

When you trust, there are two main elements involved: the guarantee that you're expecting, and the guarantor. There has to be a close tie between these. (Please assume for the purpose of our discussion, that the guarantor doesn't explicitly communicate that he provides the guarantee. Also assume, that what you're trusting is something positive. Not, for example, "I trust that the bus will be late.")

If the guarantee is delivered, we stand to gain, since things happen the way we hoped for. Otherwise, we stand to lose. This justifies point 1 above and, partially, point 3. I'll come back to the reason for saying "partially" later in the post.

Now, what are the situations in which the guarantee is not delivered? Maybe the one we trust can't actually do what we expect. Lets say, I trust my friend borrows my Ipod, and I trust him to return it in the same condition, but he returns it with scratches. Or I trust a friend to reach on time for my birthday party, but he gets stuck in traffic and reaches when the party is almost over. Possibly, the only way to handle these scenarios is to develop a kind of inbuilt analysis of whether someone can be guaranteed to do something. It's still not really a guarantee, though, because there could be a lot of unknowns involved. When I understand that there isn't a high certainty the event happening, I plan for the non-occurance mentally, and also try what is known as "risk mitigation". If Alfred stays on the other side of town, and I know he can't start from office earlier than 6 PM, there's a chance he'll get stuck in the traffic on the way, and I should be mentally prepared to move forward with the party, and also put aside some cake for him so that it's not all over when he reaches. In other words, I trust that Alfred will "do his best" to reach my party on time, but may not be able to. This is where I say point 3 is partially true. Agreed, Alfred may not "do his best" and may get hooked to some girlfriend on the way, and hence be late. But if I know Alfred is inclined to do that, I probably wouldn't be surprised (or "hurt") when I find out. :)

When we trust "blindly", we just presume that everyone will understand the implicit "guarantee", sometimes even when there's no scope for such common context. Whenever we hear "I expected him to do X, but he didn't" ringing in our minds, and feel hurt, the things to check for are: Does he know that I expect X? Is it feasible for him to do X? Another important question is: Would he want to do X? Lets suppose you're travelling alone in the train with a lot of luggage(generally a bad idea, but anyways...), and you want to take a quick stroll down the compartment. Now, you might have been chatting a lot with the nice family that sits next to you, and might be tempted to request them to "watch over" for a few minutes. And they might agree too, but they might not really be in much of a position to take care of your luggage, or even want to do so. If someone picks something out of the front pocket of your bag, they might not even notice, and it might be in your best interest to lock up luggage, chain it, and then take your stroll. Of course, the new assumption here is that someone cutting chains or breaking locks is quite likely to catch other passengers' attention. :)

Another time when we tent to trust "blindly", (and the more common one) is when we have known them for a long time. Most of us trust our families blindly. Sometimes, this does crop into unfulfilled guarantees("Dad, why didn't you buy me an Xbox for my birthday?" :)), but we don't "lose out", since we know it was just a misunderstanding and not an ill intention. We talk to them and clear out the misunderstanding. Also, one could argue this is not blind trust, and instead a relationship built over time, where we know how they are likely to react to almost any event.

We also tend to develop a lot of trust for friends that we've known for a long time, and expect a lot of unspoken understanding, just like we did with our parents. There's always a likelihood that this kind of trust can go "blind" at some stage, where the friends keep making assumptions and not communicating. And when that happens, the chances of your friend hurting you can actually go quite high, because the expectation of "guarantee fulfilment" is very very high... sometimes because you didn't understand the friend's intentions right, sometimes because he didn't know you had the expectation.

In short, don't trust blindly, and you'll be much better off. Don't trust anyone for anything and everything. Make sure you trust them to do the specific thing you expect from them. If unsure, try to make sure somehow, or maybe lower your expectations.

Living on the edge!

2008-10-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

This blog post is dedicated to dk, who asked me an interesting question in the comments section of the previous post. It is likely that I may not answer the question completely, but here's my take on it. :) For a purely moral point of view, I'd point you to my other blog which I'm trying to slowly and steadily build up and present what might be a basis for an individual to develop his own moral system.

Living on the edge can be a philosophy of life. Have you ever got onto a roller-coaster ride? If you have, you have a very small glimpse at the kind of pleasure it might give you. Very small, though. Because there's a slight difference between a 5-10 minute ride, and your whole life. :)

If the brain in conjunction with your heart, guides you to live life on extremities, then you're probably doing fine. As long as, after every experience, you evaluate the consequences, your brain is likely to take corrective measures. For instance, if you slip while handling a crazy snowboarding trail, and get fractures, you'll take care next time. Or, at least, you'll know to be more careful when you take out someone else with you, and prepare them for the situation.

Picture this: You must have seen lots and lots of the Guinness records. If you imagine, these people can't achieve what they've done without taking major risks. And, at the end of the day, did they really need to take the risk? You and I can't judge that, because they live to see the results.

Following the heart really is important. And, we shouldn't forget... Id, ego and superego would play their role in both your mind and your heart. (Unless you stick to the old school of thought that says it's scientifically only the brain that influences both emotions and thought, not the heart. ) This means your train of thought would be something on the lines of:

Id: Lets race on the road!

Ego: Ok, we can't overtake this guy with what we've got under our hood.

Superego: We should slow down a bit, before we cause someone harm, or we should be very alert to ensure we don't.

Not quite there, but you get the idea. (And, if I got my terms wrong, I'll remind you I didn't have sociology in my graduate course. :P) But what's most important is not just whether you live on the edge or not. What can change things is whether you can clearly understand what your heart says to you when you listen. And for that, I think each of us has a moral system that we build up over time. How do we build it up? My other blog tries to answer just that, but has a long way to go.

The heart, moods and... life!

2008-09-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

(This post is dedicated to someone who had an unusual Orkut profile name, that inspired me to write this post. If you're the one and you're reading this post, you know it's you.)

The heart... the supposed source of emotion... holds a mystery within it. Actually, as we've been taught at school, it's the brain that holds the mystery. but the heart expresses it. I'm talking about the times when you feel a tickle in your chest, and you have a strong feeling that it's from your heart. A tickle that could mean many things... your heart beating fast, or your sudden noticing that your heart is beating softly.

Scientifically, we now know that there's more linking the heart and the brain than we used to think. In the sense, the heart and brain actually talk to each other, and each influences the other. No, I'm not about to talk science here. You can find that information elsewhere. I'll confine my scope to my perspective about things.

Listen to your heart. I'm sure you've heard that said so many times before. But here's some philosophy around why you should... During life, we go through our share of experiences. We start to form a sequence of one event turning into another. We take actions, and we see their results. We have people who'll support us, people who'll blame us, and people who just don't care. No matter whether what, good or bad, happens, there's only one thing that you can always be satisfied about... that you did what your heart told you, because that's the one thing that has built out of your own experience... because you had a sense of what was the best way to react. And nobody can ever promise you that they are sure what the results would have been if you had done things some other way. But always learn from your own decisions and their consequence. It'll help you when you listen to your heart the next time.

Lets your moods swing. Yes. Mood swings are nice. They're awesome. They do a lot of good to you. Every mood you go through is a mental transformation. It makes you think in a totally different way. That means you experience life itself differently. Someone who is always happy or always sad... I'd say both of them are missing a whole lot. You have one life. Live it. And the only way to live it thoroughly is to understand the beauty of contrast. The reason why you see, hear, feel anything around you, is because one thing looks, sounds, feels different from another. So you can "differentiate" between them. It's the same with moods. You go through more moods, and you know how you can enjoy one versus the other. However, don't let your moods kill your life. Moods result from experiences. And you may miss some experiences if you're not in the right mood for them. If you can experience mood swings, and not go overboard with them, that's the ideal situation. Also, keep in mind.. some moods are to be just experienced, some moods are to be shared. And some to be held within, you say? I don't know. I'd expect everything has to come into the first or the second category.

Enjoy life. I would say that's something that you should make a habit. It doesn't translate to the same as "Always be happy" or "Always be satisfied", or any other similar state. It's an emphasis of the fact that every moment is precious. At the cost of sounding like a dialogue from a very popular movie... There is no secret ingredient to life. Your life is special by the very virtue of your considering it special. That's all there is to it.

How's life and what's up?

2008-09-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm going to talk about something that everyone that's met me or spoken to me will closely associate with... my typical answers to these two questions...
1) How's life?
A) Awesome, as always! (OR) Gr8, as always!

2) What's up?
A) The ceiling!!! :D (OR) The sky!!! :D

These are answers I picked up, somewhere along life, and they are not just answers, even though they remain the same every time you ask. These are statements of life. These are my two gliders. Yes, gliders is the right word. When you're sailing through the air, gliders are what you use to take you higher, to keep you at the height you're at, or when you're starting to drop, to bring yourself back up to the height that you want to be at.

These answers refresh my mind. So, the next time you've asked me one of those questions, keep in mind, you've not just made me repeat two obvious answers. You've done much more. I feel much better that you still took the care to ask me those questions.

Now, lets dig a little deeper into what those questions mean to me, and the answers. Lets start with "How's life?" Well, my life could really be any way. I could be down into the dumps, or I could be having a pretty normal life. I might be finding the work I'm doing at the moment a little mundane. Or, I could be having the best time of my life. No matter how life is for me, it really doesn't matter. If I'm throughly enjoying the moment, life is really awesome, and there you go! If life is a little on the lower side, it's just for the moment and will pass. Then life will again be awesome. Besides, you spared the time to ask me, even though I was probably walking down with my eyes focused somewhere in the air, and just managed a glance at you, and you asked! Thank you! My life is now awesome. :)

The second question is more of a pet peeve for someone who's known me for a while. Many of my colleagues find it a little boring that I've been saying the same thing for the last "n" years(Don't ask me, I've lost count!). No matter what, is does lighten their mind when I say it! To me, this answer is something that saves me from even having to search out what's really up. Coz maybe there might be times when I would be tempted to say... Err... nothing's really up right now. Everything's down. I'm going through this phase where... Oh, never mind. That's just me, really. And it's just now. So... the ceiling's up, or the sky's up, and will always be up! And hence, yes, there are plenty of things that are up, now that I come to think of it... the fan, the .... hey! I forgot! Yeah, what about that thing I did right 5 minutes back? Wow! Loads of things are up! Life rocks! Life is awesome! And, yeah, I just gave my same old reply, Lolz! But it got me feeling much better once again, right?? Yippie! Thanks, dude, for asking me that question! It was fun!

And, there lies one of the typical behaviours of Avanish answered. And maybe your key to more of my behaviour. :) Happy meetings!!!

Autobiography of a Bronchitis patient

2007-12-25T06:23:00.000-08:00

Parent Advisory: PG(Parental Guidance required) – This post contains many intentional spelling mistakes. Children must recognize them instead of learn the words out of context. Parents must help them do the same, but not by chucking the book into the dustbin and disappointing the children. Also, parents must remind the children that some authors are just eccentric and exaggerate certain events just for kicks.

All characters, places and things in this story are fictitious and any resemblance to reality are just a coincidence.

# - This sign denotes that...

For those that have a proclivity for philums: Convert the italicized phrase literally to Hindi

For those who watch philums occasionally: Check the index for the intended literal translation

For those who don't know what philums really are: Ask the fellow next to you what the italicized phrase means! You are missing an important part of the story!

Have you ever heard of those wonderful offers like “Pizza khao, Ibizza jao” that keep coming nowadays? They have become so commonplace that one starts to wonder why these food chains are so desperate to send their customers farther away from their homes. I would think serving pizza is enough to do that. Anyways, I recently got such an offer. But it's a very long storey. Let me tell you how it all happened....

I am a simple, modest, hard-working software engineer. I came home to Mumbai to spend a week of quality time with my family. I had no idea what the weak end would bring home. I reached comfortably, and merrily started spreading my things out. It was a relief to have my darling wife pick up things after me. Cheerfully, I spent the first day gossiping with my wife and children, playing with my poodle Girna(affectionate shortform given by the children for Giridhar Naagar), and eating my wife's delicious cuisine.

The next morning, I woke up with a grunt. Something was not right. But I could not figure out what. Had I forgotten to bring some important file home? Had I paid too much for my ticket? No, no. I had done everything very carefully this time. I had nothing to worry about. But why was I unable to stop worrying? Something must be wrong with me, I thought. Maybe I overate last night. The food was spicy. It was not a good idea to eat such spicy food immediately after a tiresome journey. Or maybe it is all psychological. Let the problem find its own solution.

I switched on the tube light in the living room, and sat down with a cup of coffee and the morning newspaper. There had been another stock market crash. I was so much safer not having ever invested in stocks, I said to myself. Or else I would have lost a fortune today! I glanced furtively at the mail that had come in. There was one black envelope with no address written on it, and I was hesitated to open it without it coming to the notice of other family members. I resumed my perusal of the day's hot news.

Breakfast time came, and my darling wife had made some special toast for us. It was some kind of bread stuffed with something. All I knew was that the something contained somethings chosen in such a manner as to decrease future heart problems for me. No, no. I'm not a heart patient or sugar patient, or anything like that. I am a healthy, fit software engineer. And it is all thanks to my darling wife and her wonderful cooking. I looked around the table and hummed, “We together together are#.”

We all munched the bread with overflowing zeal, the munches spaced out between sips of freshly prepared mausambi juice. As we finished and washed our hands, I settled with the newspaper again. My wife glanced at me, changed her expression from a nice big smile to a cold serious face, and turned away. She carried on clearing up the table. She is such a sweet girl. She doesn't like my spending too much time reading and wants me to spend more time with her. Yet, she never tells me off. She just feels a little upset and reconciles herself to my behaviour. She is very happy if I only notice the change and correct myself.

But today, I had not picked up the newspaper to read. I wanted some time to check the other family members' reaction to the black envelope. I failed to understand why even the kids did not point it out. I slowly put the newspaper aside, picked up the envelope and shook it in the air. My younger child looked at me as if I were teasing the air. Then my other child picked up another envelope on the table, and said “Look, pa! Grandmother has written a letter for me!” I gave him an encouraging smile, and put down the black envelope I was holding. Meanwhile, my wife brought one more round of coffee.

The kids turned on the television and started watching cartoons soon, and my wife went to the adjacent room to make a phone call to her club. The sweet girl wanted to cancel her social networking appointments for me. My attention came back to the black envelope. I could hold myself no longer. I must find out what this is all about, I thought, and I ripped it open. Out came a coupon. It was one of those offers. You know what happens when we receive these offers. We only care that we are getting a trip to somewhere, or a prize or discount of some sort. It becomes irrelevant to check who sent the offer, how they selected us for it, or what the fine print(also known as Terms and Conditions) is. We just want to avail of the offer before the last date. Surprisingly, this coupon did not have a last date. It only said that I had won a free trip to the Bed for a week. And to redeem the coupon, I had to make a visit to the doctor. And as we all say, Heart is that agrees not#.

---

By lunchtime, I had decided to ignore the offer. I could live without it, couldn't I? I had nothing short of what I wanted. Besides, I didn't want a trip to the Bed. I wanted to spend my time in the city, with my family.

Lunch was scrumptilicious. I though my wife had surpassed all of her previous experiments with this new dish she had made. However, my appetite had decreased a little, and I was unable to enjoy it as thoroughly as my greed demanded. We topped off lunch with a glass of lassi.

As the sun set, I noticed I was able to identify some muscles that I did not know existed. I thought, of course, the journey was quite a strain. But that didn't explain my sudden bouts of cough. Soon, my wife also pointed out that I was wheezing too. Faintly, in the background, I could hear the humming tune of a song from “My fight#.” Strong as I am mentally, I decided that I'd sleep early tonight and everything would be normal by morning.

The day was not over yet, though. The kids wanted to go to see a fair. Not wanting to disappoint them, I agreed. It's nice to be a dad. You get to remind yourself that you have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, and you have a wife to reassure you that you always give everything your best shot. I did some warm water gargling and got some momentary relief from the irritating cough. Then, we set off for the fair.

There are some very valid reasons why housewives should learn driving. One is so that they can drive when the husband has ill health. It's marginally safer for the kids. When the husband is well, however, he's the safest driver around. Of course, in my wife's case, she's very fast at getting a glimpse of everything that's happening and about to happen, and the controls are second nature to her. So, contrary to how I regard female drivers in general, I place my wife on the same pedestal as me when it comes to safety. And, don't tell my wife I said this, but... car insurance does boost up a man's confidence in his wife's driving, even if just a little.

It was quite a big fair. Sights of the merry-go-round and giant wheel took me back to my childhood days. I wasn't really the kind who'd take risks that would put my life on the balance. Lucky for me, neither were my kids.

“Dad, lets try to shoot the snowman!”, said my elder the child. The younger one wanted a doll that she saw at last year's fair, and couldn't buy coz the last piece had just got sold. I said that we would search for the doll, and took them to the shooting stall.

“How much,” I asked.

“Twenty rupees.”

“That's very expensive. Last year, it was ten.”

“Inflation, saab. We have to face it too.”

These shopkeepers have some way of breaking through me and making me thoroughly incapable of bargaining. I've seen my friends buy things at dirt cheap prices. But when it comes to me, I see no scope for decreasing any cost by even a single paisa, leave alone rupee. As I paid the stall-keeper, I noticed another stall where there were bangles of different sorts. I thought this was a good opportunity to surprise my wife, so I told her to stay in charge of the kids, and that I'd be back in a while.

The bangles stall had quite a variety. He had earrings and hairclips too. I saw a hairclip that sang the tune of “Vande Mataram” when it was pressed. I was wondering whether kids really cared for such stuff. I wouldn't have given it a second look as a kid, I thought. Then I found a nice glittery bangle that was not supposed to corrode on washing dishes and clothes. Not a nice signal to send to her. Discarded.

Finally, I found something I thought my wife might like. She loves to spend time with the kids, and show them strange things. So a holographic finger-ring was definitely her kind of stuff. Again, the “Idiot made, this heart of mine” syndrome hit me, and I bought it for the price he quoted.

As I walked back to the stall, I started feeling week, and noticed my breaths had been gadually getting shorter, and I was finding it harder and harder to breathe. I tried to take a deep breath to get a quick bout of oxygen, but it converted into a massive pain in my chest, and I fell to my knees holding on to it. My wife noticed me, and came to pick me up. She was about to call up the ambulance on my cell phone, when I managed to utter, “I'm alright. I just need to get home and lay down. ”

Such understanding children I have. They didn't make any complaints about the sudden change of plan, and the home retreat. They went on muttering between themselves as I tried not to exercise my vocal chords. We drove back home, had a quick dinner, which I could hardly even identify, and went to bed.

I was unable to sleep. The wheezing was much harder when I laid down, than when I was sitting. My wife offered a massage, but I knew it wouldn't help. Finally, I fell asleep in a sitting position, leaning against the wall against which the bed was propped up.

In my dream, I saw the black envelope again. I could feel a lot of pain in my head this time.

---

“Bronchitis. A clear case of bronchitis. The breathlessness you faced last night must have been difficult, I understand. And, you have had bronchitis in the past too, if I understand correctly. In your childhood days, perhaps? I can make out. Don't worry. Take the medicine I give you. I will get relief in a couple of days. Continue the medicine until you finish the 5-day course. Oh, and do warm water gargling and steam inhalations 2-3 times a day. The infection is a little serious. However, you'll be back to normal in no time.”

I sat across the table, and all I could do is blink. Faintly worried about dietary restrictions, I asked the doctor.

“Yes, yes. Avoid spicy food, and sour food. And also fried food.”

Mentally, I was knocking off favourite dishes that I couldn't have within the next week. My wife always has elaborate plans for stuffing me whenever I come home. This time her plans would need a make-over. My children would still get the goodies. I would have to watch them eat tasty food, as I chewed bland food.

I got home and updated my wife on the matter. Being the caring wife that she is, she told me not to worry, and that she would make tasty food that would suit my diet. I caressed her warmly and told her, “Our heart of you near.” She made a mental note of the times when I had to take medicine: all once after breakfast, one after lunch, and all once again after dinner. She also asked if it was possible to extend my leave. The expression on my face reminded her she was asking for something I could not give, so she forgot the thought and carried on with her cooking.

We all know how uninvited guests turn up, out of nowhere and create mayhem. We are obliged to serve them to the best of our abilities, no matter who they are. There is a saying, “Guests are gods”(Atithidevobhava). But at the middle of the night was a little hard for me to face, given that I was already feeling weak, and my darling wife was so deep in sleep that I didn't have the heart to wake her up. The unexpected guests were in my throat, irritating me to the core and waking me from my wonderful sweet dreams. I got up and rushed to the bathroom for some warm water gargling, continuously using a clothes bar as my support, as I appeased the uninvited guests of my throat.

After they had left, I sat down at the dining table, trying to take deep breaths. I knew more guests were expected, but they would not intimate me before popping up. I dragged myself to my bed, and laid down. No sooner had I closed my eyes to sleep, again I had to get up and cater to more guests. This formed a cycle of about 5 rounds, after which I was thoroughly exhausted and had a very dry throat.

I drank some water, and relaxed my back again, hoping to finally get some shut-eye.

*Unfinished work, but couldn't keep myself from posting it already!*

Index of philumi khichdis used

Heart is that agrees not – Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin

We together together are – Hum Saath Saath Hain

Our heart of you near – Hamara Dil Aapke Paas.

My fight – Meri Jung

Idiot made, this heart of mine – Nikamma Kiya, Is Dil Ne

Heaven is a place on earth

2007-01-27T07:30:00.000-08:00

I fell asleep in my previous post. I haven't woken up yet. Or, I don't know if I have.

Here are a few questions that occupy my mind right now: What is heaven? A place of complete bliss? When does one experience bliss? I do have the answers taking some space up there too. However, they are not your answers to the questions. They are mine.

One experiences complete bliss when one feels confident to face the consequences of one's actions. That presumes that one is able to weigh different aspects of any choice involving actions that could be taken, and zoom in to what one judges to be appropriate. Once the judgement is made, the results start to materialise. When one can look forward to evaluating the results without hesitation, one is happy.

It follows that, to achieve happiness, we must be able to exercise choice, or the illusion of it. Why illusion? Because there is no way of determining whether our actions are solely determined by our thoughts, or have been a result of various cirumstances that we have come to face, or even an environment in which we have been living from the start. When we feel that we don't have choice, not even a choice to skip exercising our choice(such as letting someone else choose something for us), we cannot be happy. On the other hand, if on every event that we face in life, we feel that we have chosen to decide or not to decide on something, and we have checked validity in that choice, we are happy.

So the happiest life one can live, is a series of actions and their consequences, each action something that we love, and each consequence rising from an exercise of volition. And this is achievable on earth.

My Discussions with Nature

2006-12-11T06:27:00.000-08:00

It all started in my room. I wanted to discover my own nature. I had heard from somewhere that it would help me discover the universe. Why did I want to discover the universe? Well, if I knew my true nature, I’d know the a answer to that question, I thought. So I set out on a journey to explore my nature.

How could I explore something I didn’t know? I had no idea. I thought the best thing to do would be to start exploring anything in my mind, till I settled on what was my nature. Perhaps it was to be a pattern in the way I think. Perhaps my nature was to keep searching for it. But that would be a contradiction. If I ever found that to be my nature, then it would no longer be my nature. Since I would stop searching for something I had already found. Yet, perhaps the very fact that I consider the possibility a contradiction makes that my true nature.

I decided to talk to nature. Maybe some part of nature would step out and cry, “Hey, I’m yours! Yeah, that’s right. Your nature!” Besides all search and research starts from nature. Why does it always start from nature? But then, what is beyond nature? Could one start a search outside nature? How does one do that? Whatever I could think of, or imagine, would still consist of some fundamental units which are derived from nature. Even contradicting nature itself takes nature as a base, and then tries to oppose it. Anyways, I could not find any other possibility, perhaps due to my nature. So I resigned myself to starting my search for my nature by talking to nature.
The tree was the first I thought of. Why a tree? Because it was standing in front of me and teasing me as I stared into the wild. It was saying, “You, who always walk past me, and treat me like I mean nothing. You wish to talk to nature?” I thought back to the last time I had entered this patch of green, and how I was lost in thought when I pranced across. I asked, “Did you feel ignored?” The tree shook a bit, and replied, “Do you think I have nothing better to do than pass moral judgments on people who walk across me?”

The tree sounded confused, I thought. But then, why did the tree speak to me today, and not greet me on the other day? I would have responded with a big smile on my face. I asked.
“Smile? Oh, no. You would have wondered who was calling you. You would have looked about you, and not cared to give a thought to this little tree here, reaching out as far as it could. Struggling to make its presence felt.”

“Do you also need to feel touch? To feel another skin against yours?” I asked, realizing for the first time that I had failed to notice it.

“May I remind you, dear, that I can’t even reach my neighbour, despite him being in sight throughout? You’re my only hope to reach out to something new, to acknowledge and nature beyond my own, through a sense of perception. Do I have eyes? Mouth? Tongue? Ears? My only means of interacting is touch. It means everything to me.”

Feeling sorry for what I had been to the tree, I hugged it tight. “Does that feel better?” I asked.

“Thank you. I really needed that. I owe you for making me feel significant. I don’t know any way I can explain what it means to me. “

“No, you don’t owe me anything. You’ve made me see something I never thought I’d see.”

There I was, noticing that I started on a hunt to find something that was mine, and had learnt that everything was mine, if I gave it attention. I had learnt that nature was not distinct from my nature. It was to enhance my own nature. I was not distinct from nature, but a part of it. Whatever value I chose to share with nature, it would share back with me.

Then I had a doubt, so I asked the tree, “When I eat your fruits, and chop off wood from you to make paper, does it hurt you?”

“Do you have a choice? If I told you it hurt, would you stop?”

I was a little worried, but said, “I would certainly try.”

The tree laughed, and said, “I scared you didn’t I? Well, you should have thought of it before you asked! Anyways, to answer your question, let me tell you that we don’t have volition. You do. But we are born with a very specific purpose, which is to transfer the sun’s energy to a form which can be used by other beings. The only volition that we have, is to evolve. Some of us have chosen to evolve forms of protection, but it only extends their lifetime by a short duration, and makes them lose some forms of beauty. Those of us who were willing to pay this price for the beauty we possess, have chosen to remain this way. That is the only choice we are capable of exercising. Those of us who exercised their choice too much, ended up in a situation where they could no longer address their purpose of life, and got eliminated in the process. We, the plants and trees, are unable to express forms of volition such as emotions. We rely on beings like you to provide that, since you have the capability of exercising your volition in our favour. “

I thought deeply on this. “When Newton came up with the theory on gravity, had the apple tree expressed his creativity through Newton?” I asked innocently.

The tree chuckled, “I have no idea! We know as much about our ancestors as you do!”

I lay down leaning against the tree, thanking it for the shade it provided me from the sun. I hadn’t stopped thinking, but I had started to feel sleepy.

Blogger Beta is here!!!

2006-11-22T23:32:00.000-08:00

Finally, the new version of Blogger is in, and I've started using it. The interface is petty neat, but it's likely for my blog to be doing funny stunts till I officially declare it as stable in a post, since I shall be trying all sorts of experiments to get a feel of the power now given to us in the new version.

Sorry good readers to keep you still waiting!

Delay in updations...

2006-11-21T02:06:00.000-08:00

Reaching out to my blog readers, I'd just like to say that I've planned an array of posts. However, I think my blogs all need some re-organising. I know the current arrangement is painful for those who read more than one of my blogs. I'm waiting to get the Blogger Beta! feature in my account so that I can revamp the place. Essentially, the new posts are going to be on a much wider range of topics than I had initially planned. Hence, it doesn't make sense for me to go on making separate blogs for them.

I thank one of my dear bloggers for having suggested this a long time ago. But, alas, the feature that would have let me make the shift is to be available only in the new Blogger.

So till then, have a great time. And keep checking from time to time for the change.

Live and let live

2006-08-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

You needn't be the best friend I've made.

You needn't be someone with whom I've played.

You needn't hold the highest values.

But when you're in your blues,

I'll be there to come to you,

I'll be there to give you hope.

As long as you understand what my life means to me,

I'll help you to find the rope

That pulls you out of the ditch.

That makes you strong within.

As long as you realise just

How and why I love my skin.

You may try to curse me for being this way.

It doesn't matter, I won't feel sorry.

But when you understand why I stay,

I'm with you. Don't worry.

I'll give you only what's due.

I won't throw alms to you, I promise.

Only give when I get what I seek.

Because that's what my code of life is.

Love is blind.

2006-07-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

For those who think that love is blind, love IS blind. For those who have to shut their eyes to experience reality, who hide the fear of what they see to replace it with what they want to see, love is blind. For those who say that the perfect match is only an ideal, never to be reached, love is blind.

Love is blind. Love doesn't care for material things. It sees the representation of values in physical form. Not the physical form in itself. Were the body devoid of all the things it represents, it wouldn't be loved any more.

Have you ever seen how a kid loves his teddy-bear? But the toy is lifeless. And, had the kid not associated certain values with the toy, he would not have loved it. Look at the number of people who toss soft toys aside as they grow. What changed? Just the values associated with it.

To me, love is the real eye opener. It makes you see everything you thought, everything you dreamed of, everything you reached out for, and everything your values stand for. The physical existence of your cherished values. That is love.

I love my parents. Is that blind love? Do I love them just because they are parents? No. My parents gave me the environment I needed to try and learn what life is. They gave me wings and said, “Go on, son. Learn to fly.” And my love for them is how I pay back to them. It manifests itself in the way I treat them, in the way I make choices, in the way I behave.

I love my brother. Is that blind love? Do I love him just because he's my brother? No. My Bro has always been, and will always be my best friend. He always shared his experiences with me, and said, “That's the way things go. Your life is yours. Choose how it should be.” My love for him is a reciprocation of the values he sees in me, and a representation of the values I see in him.

I love to study. What do I love it for? I value wisdom. And my pursuit of that value gives me pleasure.

I love to dance. What do I love it for? I like the control over my body, and its perfect synchronization with the running music.

I love to write. What do I love it for? It's the presentation of my highly sophisticated complex thoughts into an organized form, a reiteration of that which holds meaning for me.

I love to bungee jump. What do I love it for? I like to stretch the limits of human control to experience a thrill associated with high risk.

I love to croak like a frog. What do I love it for? It makes my throat vibrate in a ticklish manner. (Added just to throw in some humour)

It's really in this sense, that love is NOT blind. Love has reasons. And very clear ones. Love promotes what we consider appropriate to our lives. When we try to love by contradicting our own reasons for it, we find ourselves lost. We question the validity of love, and its essence. Love is not sans thought. Whenever we try to skip thought in love, we reach the same uncertainty that holds in the case of any action taken without thought. And the questions of why we did it, can come back to haunt us. When love is a consequence of what we consider right, and our understanding of right is clear to us, love is heaven. It has no bounds, and there's no turning back in it.

The Open Eyes

2006-07-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

I look at her, and she looks back at me.
Our thoughts run deep, and steal our sleep.
We carry on, pensive. We couldn't care less.
For we are together, there's nothing else we see.

Our goals are different. The path is one.
We reach different places. Yet the end result is one.
Twists and turns face us both alike.
And we strive for more, for challenges we like.

Whatever we may have done,
whatever pain we may have felt,
the perseverance that brought us here,
without letting our rock hard hearts melt...

It was all but too much,
for what we live now to feel.
And we knew it then, as we know now
what makes our lives so real.

We move on in this glory,
proud of what we are.
No speck too small, no star too far,
for we know for the mind no bar.

This is the virtue we knew once.
This is the virtue we now know .
And be it our virtue for others vice,
We care not, for it is theirs to think twice.

We've done our share, and we'll never cease,
to choose our way, and to pay the fees.
Never, though, shall we leave behind,
what is ours by right. No, we're not blind.

Approbate language

2006-06-22T04:30:00.000-07:00

[Statutory Warning: This is for enlightenment, oh, sorry, I mean, entertainment purpose only ]

No. That is not right word. I think that the word in title should have been “appropriate”. Yes. Please excuse me for the mistake in English of this other. Nowadays we have many many language. So kept track of them is very terrier, no I mean tedious.

So I will came to the topic which is center of the day. Many people think they now, oh, sorry, know more than what they have in their hearts. I mean brains. In the progress(or is it process), they make myself seem like fools behind others. For existence, let us take the case of I. I only tell what I remembrance. I restrict to go after that. So I do not portend because I realize that wise man there will see I am trying to do.

On the other palm, many nice softwares are there nowadays. One can easily convert on the line from one language to other. Again, this software is also their to see if airer in spelling occurs. If word is not write, it will underscore it with read wavy line. We can then click on right it and see what words can take the place to give meaning. I used OpenOffice.org 2.0 Writer to makes this document. I don't like Grammar check. It make green lines on the screen! I not like green lines.

So all on top means that we don't have to be pundit to make righting. We only need know how to use software. Rest is automatic. I learn so much vocabulary today. Please conglomerate me. It is grate achievement for me. And I tell you infinitely I will be back to shave my learning experience with you.

Please feels freedom to right comments. I will get red each and every won and try much to reply. Thanks you!

(Oh, only 1 spelling mistake I made in whole above document!!! I corrected it using tool!)

Why choose GNU/Linux? The three F's and more...

2006-03-04T02:51:00.000-08:00

1. Freedom to use
2. Freedom to modify
3. Freedom to distribute.

Please do note here, I do NOT mean monetary freedom (nor do GNU). GNU/Linux is designed to allow users to use their operating system in the way they desire. It allows them to change the source code to meet their requirements. It allows them to distrubute all GNU copylefted software to anyone they desire, and pass on the same rights provided to them.

An important thing to understand here, is that not all distributions of GNU/Linux provide all three of these freedoms. That is because, along with GNU Free Software, they sometimes add commercial components, or any other software that is not copylefted. Such software restricts its usage. However, you may have the liberty to remove such components from the distribution(uninstall) and use the rest of the OS freely. Whether this can be done varies from distribution to distribution.

Besides the 3 F's, here's why you might want to use GNU/Linux:
-> It is highly customizable
-> It can be made to run on a very wide range of hardware configurations
-> Easy support is available for it online at forums and websites.
-> The updates to software can be made very regularly. You can stay at the cutting-edge of software development
-> Many distributions are also cost nothing. Costs are generally for transfer of media, or maybe support, and not for the product itself.
-> An amazingly large variety of software is available for GNU/Linux.

I could go into details of each of these points, but this will suffice for now, I hope!
Next article will be on How to get GNU/Linux...

Disorder!

2006-03-04T02:31:00.000-08:00

1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4.., 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3.., 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3.,. 4... 5... 1... 2... 3.,. 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3.,. 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4.., 5... 1... 2... 3,.. 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2.,. 3... 4... 5... 1.., 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4.,. 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1.., 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2.,. 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1.,. 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4.., 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3.., 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5.., 1... 2... 3.,. 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3.,. 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4.., 5...
1... 2... 3,.. 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2.,. 3... 4... 5... 1.., 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4.,. 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1.., 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2.,. 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 1.,. 2... 3... 4... 5...

I wonder if any of you read that line by line. Unlikely. Our brain catches the pattern, and we move along to see what's next. Some people may not have even bothered to look down here. (I don't think that would be a very large number, because there's a bit of curiosity in each one of us).
Now, that pattern is how our life is. Now, what did you read? 1... 2... 3... 4... 5...?
Is that all that's written above? Well, not really. There are commas spread about randomly in the matrix. Did you notice them at first glance? Or did you notice them after I mentioned them? Well, that's, as I said, life.

All lives go through a very fixed pattern. Fixed stages. Fixed phases. So that, at a distance, there really is no difference. Birth. Learning to crawl, walk, talk. Learning about surroundings. Learning about behaviour. Learning, in general, to see the pattern, and go along with it. Then another generation goes through the same series.

Now, take out your magnifying glasses. Do all ants look identical? Hmmm. Maybe. Okay, now how about a microscope? Whoa!!!! There are major differences!!! Just like the commas in the matrix. But did you really bother to try that out? Putting an ant under a microscope? Well, I didn't. Though I would be interested in doing it sometime. But I know from the patterns I've seen in life that there are bound to be things which I'll observe to prove that it's not really a pattern.

I'm not just playing around with words. The bulk of us don't really bother to inspect whether or not there exists a pattern. We just assume that there is or isn't. Some of us do so coz we've already been fooled by deviations from the obvious so often. Lets look at those who do observe. Lets say, researchers. Or scientists. Graham Bell invented Telephone. How? By observing something that made something fall out of a pattern. And what did he do? Created another pattern. Now almost every house has a telephone. It's become a mandatory component of any household. Now, much later, came the cell phone. Deviation from pattern? And brought in a pattern from that.

Now, what does that mean? Ok, we come back to our third law of thermodynamics: Entropy increases (Disorder increases) with time. That's not all. It, sort of means, we try to set some things to what we call “order” by actually giving rise to disorder. Well, that's not really as bad as it might sound. In the sense, the “disorder” is something physical. But are we getting into some sort of order at a mental level?

Say, I invent a desk with shelves. So I've caused another deviation from the norm. But my things are much tidier. I access them with less worry. Or, say, I invented a weird car. It helps me get to work faster, safe more fuel, listen to excellent music while I go to work. Or, maybe, a microwave. I waste less food since I can store it in the fridge and reheat it and eat it the next day.

But what that's coming to is that we want something called “Peace of mind”. Or whatever level of that we can get. Bring down tension, bring down brute work, relax the mind. So that we can use that brain in an area which doesn't yet have these soothers. We can't have an automatic programming machine. Or a fully automated stock broker. So we need to save our strain for working on those, in the hope that someday we could automate those too. How long will this go on? Frankly, it'll go on forever. We'll automate all the things we see around us now, but by that time, somebody who was spending his time with all the soothers will imagine something that we don't see around us. That'll come out as some Sci-Fi book or movie. Then, it'll enter minds of young re-discovery enthusiasts (miniature scientists) who will get into research and make the Sci-Fi a reality. Meanwhile we'll have something else to dream about...

I think you got the point. But these scientists aren't all that large in number. So what we call “Rapid progress” is just an inkling of things to come. The rest of the working population's busy providing a self-consistent structure by which the entire population attempts to survive. Yes, we would still have the aberrations of short life, physical and mental handicaps, and so on. They form their own pattern.

Now, lets say, we decided that all the research and the deviation from patterns that it causes, is unnatural. (Just to see how it looks). That means no new inventions. Great! So we'd know how the existing products function. Would we? Who would fix bugs? Hmmm. Isn't fixing bugs also a deviation from nature? After all, error is part of nature, just like we have handicaps. So stop servicing products. Well, if we're not going to make new products, and not going to service any, then what about manufacturing? We have an expanding population. So maybe our production should just meet the Growth Rate. And choice of product isn't required. Quality? Huh! Not natural. Say, the machines take in chemicals and modify them! Dangerous! Scrap them! Houses? Nah. Other animals don't protect themselves with materials that make you choke and cough. Go back to caves. No fire, please. Unless it starts off by itself. And then you can observe what direction the other animals seem to be going in, and follow them, hoping not get run over by a herd. Now, we have reached eternal bliss. No artificial disorder. Disorder, as it is: natural. That is certainly progress. After all, aren't today's scientists struggling to make stuff as natural as they can? Or is there something missing in the above discussion? Oh, heck! Sorry, guys! This blog is totally unnatural! You weren't supposed to read it either! Now you've deviated from nature!!!!!!!!!

Light Again...

2006-02-08T07:02:00.000-08:00

[This is an article I once wrote for a Creative Writing competition. Only the first line was provided to us... ]

It wasn't a dark and stormy night.

Nobody cared why. Even though the last century had been just one dark and stormy night, today light was back.

The Sun had run out of the energy it had been using for a billion years. And had life on earth come to an end? Read on and find out...

An alarm sounded on Phoenix IX. One by one, the members of the crew woke up, entered the Refresher (which sterilised them from top to bottom, carefully destroying every microbe near them without damaging even a single human cell) and got to the control room.

Proxima Centauri had finally come close enough to the earth to provide light sufficient to start the photogenerator (a machine that can convert light energy to mechanical and other forms of energy). The development of the photogenerator had taken 5 million years to develop. Generation after generation had been trained to understand its concepts with 24-hr classes on the Phoenix IX, and the entire population specialised in microelectronics research. Every individual, however, was kept educated about real life on the earth through sophisticated virtual tours.

Phoenix IX was part of a major space shuttle system called “Omni-Phoenix.” The “Omni-Phoenix” had been launched from earth 5 billion years ago. It constituted of 12 sub-shuttles named Phoenix I-XII, each of which had been estimated to operate about half a billion years, and start to fail. Just before a sub-shuttle failed, it was to deploy the next sub-sub-shuttle. (Phoenix I followed by Phoenix II, and so on)

When the project had been initiated, it had been treated with immense scepticism. To start with, the prophecy of the sun's energy running out was never taken seriously. Even then, the project enthusiasts has managed to get the consent of 50,000 individuals from all around the world to operate the Phoenix, trained them meticulously and also put about a million people into low temperature hibernation. The prophecy has come true, the cynical had perished, and it was time to revive the world.

Time and Control...

2006-02-08T06:17:00.000-08:00

Do we control time or does time control us?

I'll make an attempt to look at the topic without including the role of religion that comes into play.

That will make it a little harder to analyse...

Are events just “destined” to happen? Are we just playing a role in a play whose script is already written? Why are we thinking about things like this? Why are you reading this blog? Is it part of the script? Or did you choose to type the url in your browser and read these words? Are these choices also part of the script?

(I'm assuming that the “script writer” is some unknown part of nature. This may itself be debatable, but such a debate should not affect what I've written, I think)

To decipher which takes precedence, i.e., the effect or its cause has been a matter of confusion throughout. (Chicken or egg?) Ultimately, it drops down to a matter of perspective. One perspective considers that the human mind has the power of volition, i.e., the power to choose an action, and not depend on what is supposed to be an instinctive response. We choose to analyse before we act on anything. And that analysis decides our action. The other perspective considers that any analysis occurs purely because it has been made to occur. It claims that nothing is in the hands of the human. Not even the direction of thought.

In either perspective, there is thought. In one you can change your own thought, and in the other your thought changes on its own accord. Those who consider that they can change their actions to yield better results seek to control their time. Those who don't may as well let their thoughts flow as they should, and let time control what happens. Any scientific approach would favour an attempt to minimize uncertainty. For that, an assumption must be made that the uncertainty can be decreased.

Controlling time does not mean slowing down seconds or speeding them up. Nor does it mean controlling all the events that occur at an instant. It means acting on events that occur in such a manner that a set of tasks that we can achieve within a stipulated time, are completed smoothly. Unexpected events may occur. These only improve our abilities to react to them. If we had infinite time and resources, all tasks would get completed at some time or the other(a little bit of stretched speculation, maybe!). Completing them within constraints requires planning and “efficient control” of time available.

GNU/Linux Intro: The whats and hows...

2006-02-06T07:19:00.000-08:00

Here's my first post on my blog dedicated to GNU/Linux and Open Source Software. The URL may mislead you to think that it's about a new distribution of Linux, but that is not the case. It's basically an attempt to reach out the newbies of GNU/Linux and guide them on what GNU/Linux is, why it is, and how to make use of it.

I'd like to make a mention here... I'm not deep into GNU/Linux myself. I use only GNU/Linux on my system, and seek out solutions for everything I do... there's a whole world out there. Since I use the OS and its software the way I do, many of my friends have asked me in the past for brief intros to it, and where to start up. So this blog is an attempt to address such matters.

To start with, GNU/Linux is an Operating System. It could be installed as the sole OS on a harddisk, or could be installed along with another OS, such as DOS, Microsoft Windows, MacOS, etc. with a dual-boot menu appearing whenever the computer starts up.

Everytime I refer to GNU/Linux, it implies two major components:

1. the Linux "kernel", which handles the core interaction with the hardware(and includes core operating system functions such as scheduling, memory management, I/O, etc. as well as device drivers for the hardware)

2. The GNU Software which allows actual user interaction via the shell and/or a graphical user interface(XWindows)

Conventionally, when you need to acquire GNU/Linux, you have to get a "distribution" of it. These are like different "flavours" of GNU/Linux. In other words, different companies or organisations put together the Linux kernel, different choices of GNU Software and other software under different forms of licensing. They make their flavour available under a name, some freely, and some for a cost. Typically, the cost is either for the media through which you receive the OS, or for support that they will provide for their flavour.

Some common flavours are:
1. RedHat Enterprise Linux
2. Fedora Core Linux
3. Mandrake Linux
4. Ubuntu Linux
5. SuSe Linux
6. Xandros Linux
7. Debian Linux
8. Progeny Debian Linux
9. Knoppix
10. Damn Small Linux

There are actually hundreds of distributions of GNU/Linux currently available. My next post will be on the whys of GNU/Linux

Time!

2006-02-03T22:15:00.000-08:00

There's never enough... for one who doesn't know how to manage his time carefully...
There always too much... for one who either does close to nothing, or manages his time meticulously.

There's just enough... for someone who just about manages his time.
Time can be squeezed and stretched. It's like rubber-band. But what makes that possible is not the physical quantity that we call time, but the strength of the mind. (Maybe another blog on the mind later! I love that topic too!)
Now, we tend to divide time into three: past, present, future. Why do we divide it? What makes these three parts so significant? Is one more important than the other?

Well, it finally varies from person to person... But one might say certain weightages for these parts may be preferable. For instance, there's no use in spending all of the present thinking about the past or the future, because then we are left with no present! On the other hand, there is generally so much beauty we can find in the past that it feels nice to dedicate a little time to dwell on it. And the mistakes in the past might be recalled and kept in mind, so as not to repeat the same in the future.

The future itself, requires a good amount of planing in the present. Finally, to give a direction and meaning to life, we should know where we're headed. Ever planned a holiday trip without knowing where you're going? Not a wise idea. Unless it was only planning and you never implemented it.

So we would have spent some of the past saving some of it for the present. Similarly, we'll spend some time in the present saving it for the future. After all, some moments are just so precious that they are worth looking at again and again. But if you dedicate your present to just preserving, you're left with no present, no past and no future!

Time is such a beautiful thing available to us. Most management gurus will say Time=Money. Though that can be proved, none would deny that Money is just one of the many things time can give us. Like the time you have spent reading this blog. It didn't pay you back. Nor did my time pay me back while writing it. But we did it for something beyond material gains. (Again leave this for a future blog!)

Therefore, value time and learn to use it well!!! And I wish you all the best in your attempts.

GNU/Linux! GNU/Linux! GNU/Linux!

2006-02-03T06:18:00.000-08:00

Freedom!!!!!!!!! I love freedom!!!!!!!!!
An hence I shall seek a form of components for my computational, processing and manipulation machine which gives me my share of freedom!
Lost?
English translation: I try to find software for my computer which allows me to use, distribute and modify FREELY!
Let me tell you how it all started...
I actually started using computers in 1992/93. Our first machine was a 386. Yeah, that's right. We had Windows 3.11 installed on it. Since then, we've made upgrades, and changes of OS, and right now at home we use Win XP. But it so happened that my bro, over time(as he was doing his engg), started to fiddle around with GNU/Linux. Being the little fan of my bro that I am, I started trying it too. :-)
So when my bro got me this new laptop of mine, it had Win XP and Redhat Linux 6.2 or so installed. Now, it was in about March 2005, I guess, that the guru of Free Software dropped into Hyd. And he told us about the three freedoms. (If you're lost on this, I suggest you search up the GNU website and find out! It's awesome!). I came back to my room, and scrapped Windows. :-)
I'm currently blogging from my laptop(my sweetheart!) which has Fedora Core 4, and Ubuntu 5.10 installed. And I've got solutions so far to everything I've wanted to do! I keep fiddling around with the proc subsystem to check out what's happening to my battery. And run my laptop as a server.
Lets just sum it up to say I love GNU/Linux! Boy, I'm looking forward to Fedora Core 5!!!!!

Every end leads to a new beginning...

2006-02-02T04:41:00.000-08:00

What a title, don't you think? I'm feeling mighty proud of it! Well, ok. Let me get down to the topic now... (despite the fact that my feeling of "pride" is taking a temporary halt, only to pop back up, when I finish writing this blog! Just like the topic says!)

First, lets put down fundamentals. A beginning is when something not existing at one instant starts to exist in a successive instant. (Not from the dictionary, so please don't penalise me for it!). An end is when something existing at one instant seizes to exist in a successive instant.

Lets take this blog for instance. It ends after a few lines. Or maybe a few more lines. But it does end. That starts thoughts in your mind, maybe? Or, makes you move to another site. Or makes you post back(please do!).

Life is full of examples of the same. A semester ends. The vacation starts. The vacation ends. The semester starts. Then the semester...(Break!). Then I graduate. Then I go for a job... Or further studies. I hope you get the point.

Now a question arises... what happens after life? Are we stuck on this one? Lets see... I think I should try to define life before proceeding. Scientifically, it's basically a groups of molecules under a set of conditions interacting in a specific way to result in certain features such as growth, reproduction, etc. which we classify as characteristics of life. If any of the conditions isn't satisfied, we state it as lifeless. So when we “die” those characteristics are not being satisfied. However, the molecules are still there. And they are reused by some other organisms which are, so to speak, “living”, and change into another form. Kindly do note here, that I'm speaking at a purely physical level. Leaving out spirituality and metaphysics, and so on. We can leave those for a later blog. ;-).
Now, once they change form, they start new reactions. And, probably, do finally get involved in maintaining life of another form.

If we move yet another step, we could wonder what would happen when the human race gets extinct. I guess you must be following on now and expecting me to justify it by leading to another species. If you're lost, bored or not convinced, you're welcome to comment so. I shall try to cater to your needs in some other blog!

Great! If you're with me so far, we're getting along well! I'll move on to analyse what would happen if the world ends... To move a little fast, let's just check out what might get harder to explain. World... Solar System... Galaxy... Universe... Aha! Universe! There's a tough one! Can we define the end of the universe? Can we define the beginning of the universe? Such a definition doesn't appear to be in existence in the physical world. (Unless you try looking at things at the level of Stephen Hawking!) Hence, I shall postpone such a discussion to a later stage when I am well-versed with such topics. However, it may have no practical implications on our lives, and that was probably the reason general sciences don't delve deep into it.

Another important word to put in here... The reason the above blog appears so simple and valid(at least to me!) is based on the fact that the title itself is very vague! After all, all limits on theorems can be proved only under certain constraints! Remove the constraints, and there is no limit!

Life is Bliss!

2006-02-02T04:37:00.000-08:00

Life is Bliss

Times come. And times go.
And I'm the happiest anyone could know.
I walk with a big smile on my face,
With that feeling nothing can replace.
The days are fine, the nights get better.
While I read through my old friend's letter.
After it's over, I gladly blink.
And once again I think...

Of the days we used to test our parent's cool.
Every morning, we'd anxiously rush to school.
And learn the world in that small room.
Come out and watch the flowers bloom.

Of the days we used to run around and play.
Every afternoon, in the old grass field we'd stay.
And enjoy every bit of our mid-day snack.
And happily jogging we'd all come back!

Of the days we went to that old Park Fair.
Every evening, at the old Giant Wheel we'd stare.
And try every ride that we hadn't before.
And spend lots of time at the Cotton Candy store.

Of the days we'd gobble mom's home delicacies.
Every night, at the old family table we'd squeeze.
And end every meal with a delightful dessert.
And drag mom to the room, for a pre-bedtime concert.

Of the days, when daddy would spend the whole day home!
Every Sunday, in the living room we'd all, like nomads, roam.
And play about with toys, and all kinds of games.
And run to dad when we started calling each other names!

And some things don't change, they just stay how they were.
Coz now I'm in college but the distances do blur,
When we go for vacation, and its all just the same.
We're all together again playing that same old game!

Times never change. What can change is us.
Don't waste your time making a big fuss.
Blend your life round to be what it should be.
And you'll always love life, and smile up in glee!