Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Looking at my past.. Just the past...

I hear a lot of noise about the new year coming up, people are busy making resolutions, which i generally don't make. I am not a planning guy, take life as it comes, and do what u like, but then that leaves me out of writing what's going to happen in the the year to come. But i can always write about the year gone by, surely not the events happening in the world, that would be too much and too talked about. So today i am going to talk about "I".. :-) ...

Now lets see... u know human memory is contextual, u remember something when u see something similar to it, and also it gives more importance to what happened most recently, so i remember chocolates getting costlier and lighter more vividly rather than going to Chennai for a workshop, more than 6 months ago. okay, let me list what i can recall

  • I got placed(Got a job)(important one, not to be forgotten),
  • Chocolates got costlier.. :-)...
  • My sis got married
  • My father retired
  • I gave a seminar that everyone liked at the time(but i dont think i am getting good grades),
  • I attended a workshop in IIT Chennai(a lot of wherever i am going now comes because of that)
  • A couple of my friends had babies, (making me feel old.. :(.. And wondering if i can ever be responsible enough to have one of my own.)
  • I didn't go anywhere on a trek.. :(... Making it a pretty boring semester.
  • Started off on Twitter. Liked the medium. But the problem is again separating the spam from information.
  • -- Thats all i can remember right now... Will add more as and when i remember them.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Preaching thy self...

Ever had the feeling that u have yourself not being doing justice to what u say. You see i am a great believer in doing what one says, as in - practice what you preach, treat others as you wish to be treated yourself, and everything along similar lines. But a few days ago i realised that i have been saying something which if not altogether false, can only be considered otherwise because i did not know that what i was saying was wrong.

The incident was simple, i had not being playing regularly for the last week or so and hence had become a bit rusty when i got back to playing again, now trying to get back to the way i played earlier i fell back upon what i told others who asked me how to play- tilt the bat in the right way, check the speed of the ball(i play table tennis, if u are wondering). And to my utter dismay, they didn't work, now it was time for me to realise how bad the advise that i gave others was. So this time round when i did get back to playing decently, i tried to figure out what was it that i was interpreting in the wrong manner, and then came together the number of things that have always stared me in the face but i had never put them together to realise that they are all interdependent. I had written a post some while ago, it was in context of the way we learn what every emotion is, but now its time for me to realise that its not true for the abstract things only, everything that we learn is through imitation and repetition. Its the sub-conscience that does the thinking, ... I dont even know if i am making sense here... Anyways what i did realise was that there is no way to do something better than to get used to it to such an extent that one can move beyond it altogether. Practice makes a man perfect has never sounded truer to me, albeit it came from a slightly different line of thought. And what it also means is that my sub-conscience is more adept at doing a lot of tasks than me, and that implies a lot of other things, but that is a topic for another post. .. :) ..

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The danger of a single story

To start off, this post is a culmination of a large number of things that i have seen or heard, but before that a few things one should know to understand why the idea behind this post is what it is. I am a Google addict and in no way can i imagine a life B.G.(Before Google). Now what that means is that there is hardly a service provided by google that i do not use. And if google goes down. So would most of my contacts, most of what i love, my blog, my conversations with people i admired, the chats that i still read in solitude and in short a part of me would be lost.

Now again the events that led to this post, one was a talk that i heard here(on TED by Chimamanda Adichie), second was a presentation i attended by a Yahoo guy(who was telling us what all they are doing), third was my wish to write a post on living a week without google(I am still working on that), and finally the realisation during and after the Yahoo presentation that there was so much good that's happening, and i was cut off from it, even though i was under the illusion that i am connected to the whole world.

Like most people around me, yahoo was my first email service, but then came google, and with it gradually the plethora of services that it offered to keep us engaged within the google domain. I am not saying that it was a conspiracy to cut us off, and i am not even sure that it applies to anyone else or is it just me that's tied in the bind. But i am unaware of life as it could be outside of google, maybe my future efforts to write a post will make me more enlightened, but as of now i am a frog in the well, albeit a big one(that almost feels like an ocean).

But then why should i limit the thought to things google and !google. As the talk at TED that i mentioned above very rightly shows that the same applies to the real world. The talk of real world reminds me now, there is another talk by Arundhati Roy that follows similar thoughts.

Of course i am not saying anything new here, but its just a reminder to myself that there are always better things in the world. No matter how good and comfortable u are at present. One must constantly strive to get out of the cocoon, challenge the comfort zones and make way for things that could bring about changes for the better.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

A mockery of methods

In today's world when we talk about making girls stand shoulder to shoulder with any man in any career she wishes, i am aghast at the prospect of the future of engineers that our country is producing. And that too at a place none other than what is considered the epitome of technical education in India, an Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Roorkee. Where the girls are forced to get locked up in their hostels by 10:00 PM. Today when we strive to make our cities safer for women working 24X7. We get a college that can't make its own campus safer for its own students. It is anybody's guess how would the mentality of the young minds be moulded and the budding engineers be shaped, how will they go out in the real world and accept assignments that would require them to be responsible for systems and mechanisms that indeed run 24X7. Unlike routine classes in a college, the world doesn't stop when the sun goes down, the world doesn't stop spinning.

I know the arguments that are going to be put up against any such opinion, but i also know that the answer is better education and a better awareness. I hope that if someone who is responsible for making rules such as these, is reading this, WAKE UP. No one can stop thinking at the ring of a bell, the education that u wish to provide does not stop at the end of your lectures, it only starts there. The thinking goes on. If u are asking someone to close their books in library and give up their thoughts in labs, u are killing that thought, u are stopping an innovation. Wake up and welcome to the real world where men strive to be better than women, in the world that appreciates talent, in the world where women win Nobels, and if you can get the Nobel laureates to say that they won it without burning the midnight oil. I am willing to give up my argument.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Memories of yesterday, lines of today

Anyone who has read my blogs earlier would know that i do some writing now and then, if not as in poetry then just as in rhyming sentences and keeping them legible. Touch of Love was surely not my first effort but it was the first that i carried so far. Apart from that i keep writing a few lines every now and then and they generally go up consuming the space on my chat status in Gtalk, Yahoo and others. Bored as i am today, I thought i will put a few of the ones i liked up here, maybe it would brighten or err... Most probably sadden someone's day ...

Free to cry

I prefer to be free,

Rather than flee,
Under the shadows,
Of guns so eerie,

I want a world,
That's not so twisted,
Not so curled,

I want a dream that makes me cry,
Not with pain but sheer delight...

===================================================

Hoping...

Happy to be happy, for the hope of the heart,
Happy to be happy, until the heavens do part,
Hoping for an hour, an hour of just laugh,
Waiting for the hour, when my happiness never departs.

===================================================

Look for a reason...

When the eyes are heavy, but still cant sleep,
When the truth untold, makes u weep.
Then live for a reason, so simple and deep,
Live for a reason, live for a reason to keep...

===================================================

Passage to Hell

I found a stick that wanted to walk,
After a while it started to talk,
It wanted to be cherished,
It wanted to be free,
It wanted to be cared,
Without a burden to carry,....

Of the loads it had carried,
Of the people gone awry,
I was made to realise,
That i should be sorry,....

And sorry yes i felt,
For my want of a walk,
For i could have as well,
Read my passage to hell.

===================================================

Wish

I wish for a place, where the wind is true,
The air that blows, is not for the few,
It blows for a reason, and the reason is you.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Lessons from the trip to Malaysia

There is going to be no random stuff today. I was recently on a short trip to Malaysia, and i thought i should write down some things that i had figured out so that anyone making a similar trip in future would be more comfortable.

Well here was my list of questions before i went there:
  1. How do i keep in touch while i am there? Should i take my cell on roaming?
  2. How much cash should i carry? How costly would things be there?
  3. What places to visit there?
Ans. (1) . The first question was the more troublesome one, international roaming is absurdly costly compared to the ISD calling rates of course. Matrix cards were another option. But they turned out to be a bit cumbersome too. I had tried activating my international roaming, but when i landed in Malaysia and my cell didn't work, there was really nothing that i could have done other than curse the call center people who had assured me that it would. Anyways, the best option is to get a a local number when you land in Malaysia. They don't make much of a fuss about it. All that they ask for is your passport for proof. And the call rates are good too. I got a connection from an operator DiGi, and they had pretty good service and call rates too.

Ans. (2) . The answer to the second question came from my brother. He remembered the McBurger Index published by The Economist. And it turned out to be pretty accurate. Food is not very expensive there. In fact its the same price that you would pay in any decent restaurant in metros of India. So for day to day expenses one need not carry a lot of cash with them. As for shopping. I personally think the place isn't cheaper as compared to India. However there are some Malaysian crafts that one can lay their hands on while there. So for shopping there is no limit on the amount of cash that you can carry.

Edit: Its called the Big Mac index. http://www.economist.com/markets/bigmac/ . Thanks to anonymous... :-) ...

Ans. (3) . As for the places to visit. It is very important to have a well laid out Itinerary. Almost all first time travellers will have Kuala Lumpur in their itinerary. And its a beautiful city and must be visited when in Malaysia. However there are a number of things that one can see in KL. Its best to ask your travel agent for a detailed itinerary and make sure there isn't a lot of time devoted to malls and going around to various shops(I would suggest not having any time for malls, there is really nothing that you cant get in India, at the same price). One can visit the Bird park, the museum, The aquarium at KLCC. Watching petronas at night is a must, its a beauty and being there and not seeing that would be like going to Mecca and not touching the sacred stone. If one is open to a bit of adventure and trekking, there are places within short distances from KL which provide beautiful getaways. Though i haven't been there i heard a great deal about Langkawi and Penang. And one can explore options of touching those places too.



And lastly, always keep the Embassy numbers handy, and don't take chances with strangers that you don't know, unless they show proper credentials and speak a language that you can understand. Enjoy the Malaysian food, don't go Indian restaurants only, though there are a number of them there.

I am open to any questions, you can post them as comments below.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

I had a dream...

Woke up a while ago, and wondered why i had overslept, there was this strange sensation of quiet because of which i was not angry with myself. Anyways i carried on, and suddenly it all came rushing back to me when i laid my eyes on the camera. I was having a dream wherein i was out somewhere, i don't remember either alone or with someone, but i saw a new bird, i do remember thinking that its a Brahmin eagle and that i was supposed to capture it, however though the colors matched i think they were shaped a bit like vultures(if i don't make any sense, blame my dream). Now comes the interesting part, i came back to my room and got my camera, and wanted to get back and see if i can get the birds, but somehow for one reason or the other i was held up one or the way. Because i wanted to click the birds i did not want to end the dream made me to keep on sleeping, but the fact that i somehow knew that i was in a dream and should continue sleeping made my wish to click the birds a futile quest. Whats interesting about this is that, i had the knowledge about two facts that i acted upon, such that the knowledge of one nullified the other or rather the fact that the mere presence of one made the other an impossibility. But still in the dream they did not contradict each other. They coexisted, the existence of one made the other a reality instead of contradicting it, I think after the idea had taken root, and i had made up my mind that i should not get up, i had latched on to my result, and forgotten about the process that led to it, and followed the other course blindly. I think the same thing happens a lot in reality. We often discard the obvious and base our decisions on past line of thoughts, and just remember the decisions that we had taken. The need of every hour is to take the changed circumstances into account and make fresh perspectives and better decisions, that better reflect our present circumstances.

As i think over this, i am realizing that there are things in my life too that i had decided upon a long ago, but never ever subjected them to a review. I will need to reconsider them. But just as in the dream, we never really realize the mistake until its over. Now the dilemma is, even though i realize that i was wrong, or rather, am wrong, the fact still remains that i am living in a dream, one that may have to wake up from to actually realize how wrong i was.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

When politics got personal -- Mandate 2009

This has been one of the elections that i have been following closely, trying to keep an unbiased opinion which is most of the time impossible because everybody says the same thing, though with a different tone, timing and tact. However one of the notable features of these elections has been the rise of the educated and the well-to-do, into the political space. What has come out has been a clear involvement of the people who actually seek change and talk about change in their living rooms going out to get it for themselves. The idea that one man can make a difference, which has been rather difficult getting into our collective Indian psyche post independence, is rather unfortunate because we already had examples like Gandhi in our midst. However the huge persona of the Father of the nation was such that i believe that people were unable to identify themselves as belonging to the same creed, and his sudden departure did not help matters either. The same lack of self importance reflected in our social behaviour, self governance, and our lackadaisical approach to our own quality of life and society in general.

I believe with this elections the politics in India has surely come a step further, and has come closer to becoming what Nehru would have called the awakening of the Indian politics. I have always held the belief that no matter which party gets the mandate, as long as it is clear, and coalition politics does not tie it down terribly, the governance and the policies would continue to be along the same lines as before, because the needs of India remain the same, and for benefiting the people of India as a whole, its the same path that would lead to prosperity. This is the same as the observation that the opposition in India has often been for the sake of opposition, for the opposition must have done the same thing had they been in power. Having said that i believe that could change in the near future as all parties would need to connect with the educated voters and must make their policies and actions based on their promises. I sincerely hope that the next elections are after 5 years and many of the positives that came out during these elections are carries forward and get translated into actions.

Friday, April 10, 2009

The idea of Ideas...

U know there are many different things in life that shape the way with think about ourselves and the way we perceive the world. We form certain perceptions earlier in our lives that we adhere to for the rest of our lives, knowingly or unknowingly. All our pains and happiness depend upon what and how we develop them in the first quarter of our lives. If the rest of our lives conform to the way we thought , life is a bed of roses, else its a bed of thorns. Not exactly that extreme, but i believe for one to be truly happy these ideas are very important. Trying to change them is heresy, anything against them is unacceptable, and anything that contradicts our thoughts are difficult to digest or accept.

It has many implications in our life, it strives to make us stable and our responses predictable, after all what is intelligence but to predict, to be able to foresee. And our eternal quest to make things predictable and stable makes us the same. This is the reason why old people have problems with adapting to changes, its the reason why the first love is always the best because it shapes ones opinion, its the reason why the first language we learn is the one we speak in at the time when we are the weakest, its the reason why everyone in their hearts wants the "good old days" when they could tell what was good and what was not. In this day and age, the new generations are not fixed on places, are not troubled by changes in the way of working,... But even we have our nuances, the bits we don't want to change, the people we want to be, (the websites we don't want to be redesigned.. :-) ... ). Among many others... yes a lot has changed, but we are all still human, I guess staying human is the tough part after all.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Quantity we have, now we need Quality...

I was recently witness to an incident that made me wonder what does it mean to be alive but not be able to live the way one wanted to. I was sitting in a hospital with a friend of mine waiting for the doctor when a boy was brought in, probably in his teens, for what appeared to be clearly a suicide attempt. The conversation around the boy indicated that he had taken some pesticide or rat poison lying around the house. What was of particular interest is the fact that it took the doctor hardly fifteen minutes to diagnose the patient and send him off. Whatever was needed was available at hand and at no point in the whole event was anyone morbidly tensed as to the fate of the boy. Everyone there knew and believed that the boy will be saved. It is this very feeling that made me wonder what was it that could be missing in the whole sequence of events. At this point of time through whatever means there are amenities available all over the country which may not have been possible in the not very distant past. But what was missed in the whole episode are the reasons which could have triggered the boy, I am almost sure that there will be nothing done to address the reasons for the same.

On a very similar vein, recently a batchmate of mine passing out this year from college was worried about kids said to be just barely above the permissible age of child labour(15 yrs.) working in our hostel canteens. We did not want them to be just thrown out of the work because we did not know where they were going to end up next. A short interview with the child revealed that he worked there along with his father for a meagre sum of money, asked if he wanted to study he said no he did not want to(I cant blame him for it, i don't remember kids actually thinking that education is necessary, the realization comes only later).

As i remember Alvin Toffler the renowned futurist in his books had predicted an age when services and goods will be produced in such quantities that they will be available to the common man. Its in the same age that we are living right now. We did not actually cross the eras of telegraphs and telephones and jumped directly into this age with mobile phones. In the process i feel we lost the ability to innovate and improve upon and bring the changes as an improvement in our lives, rather than as a service. Yes its an era of global cooperation and sharing, but as i recently heard, its the local solution to global problems that is going to save the world. No matter how much we become like one another, its managing our differences and understanding them that's going to make us succeed.

Now merely increasing the quantity would not have the required effect on our lives that we desire, or at least i desire. The need for maintaining high standards of quality in every field of our endeavour, is what is going to bring forward the next revolution in our life.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

What am I?

No its not a philosophical question that i have set out to answer, i am just trying to figure out what am i going to do for the rest of my life. I was on a vacation for the last one week, and that gave me some time to think over things away from the daily grind, and the worst thing is i still haven't come up with something concrete. I thought i want to be a guy who built something new, something that would change the way people live, something that would make the world a better place, I was always happier when i found out something new that i didn't know before, and u figured that's what i am going to be doing. But as of late, i think i am becoming more of a system admin, the kind of guy everyone looks up to as doing a great job but no one aspires to be.

I am not getting any new ideas, am not writing anything great, no code, no thoughts, nothing... I am just turning out blank day in and day out. Do people have dry spells too, i hope they do, because unless there is something like that, i would have a really difficult time coming out of something that doesn't exist.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

My encounter of the first kind

I started this post with the weird heading because i have recently done something that i had not done earlier. I saw snow capped mountains and that was a wonderful experience. I had been to Auli for a three day holiday and came back yesterday evening, I would try to recount the experiences of my journey in a roughly the same order in which i could show through the few pics.

Uttarakhand is a beautiful state, and the journey turns out to be pleasure along with the destination. Here are a few pics of the beautiful journey that we could capture on the way.


The view en route


The view en route


The view en route


The view en route: the path that leads to heaven...

On the first day we traveled from Roorkee to Joshimath, reached there at around 7 in the evening. The hotel that we stayed at had a name that was meant to be confused with Kamat, but rhymed with Comet, was named "Kamet"... :-) ... Could not find out why it was named that way. Anyways, after the day long journey, owing to the fact that one is not allowed to travel at night in these ghats, we had to give up one whole day for the journey. By the time we reached it was pleasantly cold, and had an early dinner because the shops close very early, around 9 there. We did not call it a day immediately of course, there was some rounds of dumb charades and some fighting, friendly ones, before we called it a day and dozed with the hopes of a wonderful tomorrow.

Day 2:

The day 2 started with most of the people with me going to the temple in the morning(i was sleeping). Finally after some breakfast we checked out of the hotel and left for Auli, though the distance isn't a lot, after going for sometime we come over no claim land over with the roads are terrible and it was a real pain to be driven in the mud roads, because there are no charted roads in that area. Here are a few pics of the time from Joshimath till we reached Auli.


First impressions
In the pic above bottom right is the base camp for mountaineers.

So far all the sights had been from the confines of the bus, Now having finally landed in Auli, the snow capped mountains were invitation enough to get started right away.

We started on our way, it hadn't been a very long trek until now, but enough to make us realize that it wasn't going to be a walk in the park. We had not taken the time for acclimatisation into account. And the lack of oxygen was making us fight for our breath every now and then.

The place is famous for skiing and so the first question that one gets on getting there is whether u would like to give it a try, the price quoted for the same was Rs. 350 but the bargainers in the group brought in down to Rs. 250. Now if that is low enough can only when someone reading this goes there and is able to settle at a better price... :-) ...

I myself did not go for skiing, i preferred the trek to learning another balancing act... :-) ...

Every step on the way was worth the journey that we made to the place, cant explain it in as many words, It would be better if u have a look at the pictures below.
The beginning...

The white that covers it all...

White and white all the way...

We were trying to get used to the weather, but needed frequent stops to have our heart beats return back to normal.
As for the feeling of doing something new,.. we did find some snow near the top that has not been walked upon, at least we were the first ones to have come there since the last snowfall... :-) ...


Its the last lap of the journey that's said to be the toughest, but when something can be as beautiful and breathtaking as this, all the hardship seems worth it.

And finally the view from the top,...


The view from the top was nothing like I had ever seen for real, and then to realize that you have climbed one of the peaks similar to the ones in the pic. One would certainly feel good. And there I was, taking in my share of conquest... :-) …

But like all good things, even this had to come to an end, we found our way back to our waiting bus as the sun started to go down, there was some tension in the end because a few of our companions got delayed in getting back, and we were getting apprehensive that they may have got lost in the slopes, which beautiful as they are, would have been inhospitable after nightfall. But eventually and fortunately things got sorted out and we started on our way back.

We came back from Auli and didn't stop at Joshimath again, there is one thing which one must keep in mind if one visits these parts. The roads leading from there to the plains are still being constructed and are extremely prone to landslides. We came to know that just just after we had come there a day earlier, there had been a landslide on the route and the road had been blocked for almost half a day, we saw the remains of the landslide on our way back.

In a way we were fortunate to have crossed over in time, had we been a lil more delayed we would have been stuck there and would have had to cancel our plans. So all in all it was a good trip, we were lucky, had a great view of the place, no injuries so far and everyone was happy.

So we moved on and made the night stop at Mayapur, Chamoli District. The name of the lodge was Him anand(I think he meant it to be Heem anand, meaning icy pleasure). We had a lil bonfire there. The night fell, and we were tired, a few fell asleep, and the rest stayed awake till late at night, cherishing the day when we had set foot on the paradise on earth, we lit a fire that soon died away in the chilly air. And the dying embers reminded us that we had to move on, with the memories of the day.

There was a bridge nearby the hotel, and after dinner and the fire, people walked around, we sat on the ledges trying to figure out the meanings of dark outlines, of faraway lights, and of anything that cast a shadow. But in general there was not much talk, it was so quiet that i think the fear that we could do something wrong by breaking the silence, was more than a thought. Its a strange thing that we don't really know what silence is, in cities and in homes, there are so many things that don't ever let us know what is it like to hear nothing, what is it like to have a loud thought and be afraid that someone might hear it. It was the occasional passing of a vehicle that broke the reverie. Eventually everyone crept back to their rooms and gave heed to their tired bodies which readily acknowledged the need for a few hours of rest, for we had a days journey to go.

Day 3:

We started back as early as was possible, and got back into the bus. The journey back was as picturesque while going back as we had found it on the way fro if not more, a lot of it was spent in silence, possibly because there was a regret of going back to the daily grind, and also of leaving back something so beautiful.

The day was more or less uneventful, people were not as troubled by altitude sickness as while coming, Apart from a few breaks every few hours we kept going forward. We did stop near Devaprayag for lunch, and the restaurant was opposite the river Ganges. So while the food was prepared we waded through the cold water. The bottom of the river was slippery with algae and it was quite an effort not to fall down, i finally managed not to fall, against all my premonitions.

After the lunch, we headed forward again for home, stopping only for some evening tea.

It was a great trip, the company was wonderful, the view was fabulous, the journey comfortable, the stay cozy, the timing perfect, the organizing flawless, and finally the memories. unforgettable.
The End: Its life that awaits on the other side of the bend,
but memories stay to make us come back, to make a new pact,
to cherish the feeling so good and few,
and wait for every moment that begins anew.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Hoping for a change...

There have been days when i am down, disappointed, not interested in doing what i was doing. But these last couple of weeks have been worse than that. For some absurd reason i don't feel like studying, and reading just the headlines make me wish to throw the paper away. The way i see it i live with a simple principle, tit-for-tat. I do what i expect, and i let everyone do as they wish as long as they are not getting into my face. And i believe that's the principle that India is built upon, everyone to their own believes, though the real principle is that being so diverse there is no single idea that cant be voted out by the rest of the ideas together. But it had worked out pretty fine so far. But following this approach has made us overly tolerant, we tolerate things we may not like ourselves and that has done a terrible thing to us. We don't know when to say stop. When some hooligans try to take over our daily lives for a day, we take it as a holiday and accept it. That gives the illusion that they can get away with whatever they want, this cant go on. We in the new India need to start being more tolerant as a person as less tolerant as a society. The real challenge is to make every one of the 100 crore plus citizens realise that. Its not easy and i wont call it possible, but i am sure i am young enough to be there when such a day comes in the life of India.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Prediction, order, God and randomness

Yes i do know that i use the word Random a lot. Its even up there near the title, but my liking is not the topic of this post. I have been reading and hearing a few things about beliefs and religion, and have ended up i don't know where, its always safer to know one side of the story, then u can truly say what u believe to be the truth, u know both sides and there u are, ending up having an argument for every question that the any of the sides puts up(and let alone the possibility that there may not be only a two sides of a coin).

We all love to know whats going to happen, and we live our lives in trying to make our life predictable, to order things in ways that wont fail, in ways that make us comfortable with the outcome, and for that bit which we cant predict we call god, the one who knows all, after all "if i don't know it at least someone does" is a pretty reassuring thought. The idea of randomness does not do a great lot for the times when we need to stop from breaking down in distress. For the times when things happen that we did not desire. Try telling someone who has lost someone in an accident that their loved ones are dead because of all the millions of possible ways of things happening this was what happened, and it was for no reason, no justification, no purpose greater than a probability of occurrence, and i am sure the person will know first hand one of the possible way that he may die(unless of course he is lucky enough to be talking to a mathematician). And maybe that's why we need god, to account for what we cant control, what we cant understand, and what we cant revert.

I have never had any problems with religion as such, its only that there are so many of them. I personally don't have enough faith to be an atheist, but i really liked a quote i came across recently --
" All of us are atheists, only, some of us, take it one god further "

But is there ever going to be a day when we wont need god, i don't think so, Unified theory or no unified theory, there will always be days when one would need to stop reasoning, calculating, thinking and just lie down knowing that everythings gonna be all right... And for that well, god is a really small word to say.

Monday, January 5, 2009

The need for art... The need for pride...

I was on a trip to Mussorie recently, and realized something, art or rather just the act of making things beautiful means a lot more in life than immediately apparent. The town is a tourist spot, and that must be the reason why the city is so well decorated. There are murals along the roads, the bus stops en route are artistically designed. It just felt good to walk through the streets, the feeling i later recognized was one of pride and content. Its almost like being at home. Of being nurtured, the road was more than just a path to another place but an end unto itself, it symbolised that it was not the destination that one must look forward to but the journey.

I feel that it is this very feeling that lacks in India today. The feeling of being more that just "this will do the job", because in such a case there is very little to inspire, it does not suggest that we are doing more than just surviving, we are thriving. And as far as i know that feeling is very important for a society to coexist peacefully. Because a person will feel happy only when he is well to do and has more to spare. The need of the hour is therefore not just to build a nation but to do it with elegance, we need to make it such that we are proud of everything that we see, and they don't remind us to things that have gone wrong but things that went right. We do the same thing at our homes. We buy a house, and don't just stay satisfied with the walls and the furniture but more than that we make it a place worth coming back to, we decorate it, we make it a place where we keep our memories. All that we need to do is to extend the same to our surroundings. Lets stop the "chalta hai(will do)" and start giving ourselves more than we need. So that we can strive for more than we thought we could achieve.