IDIOT ME!

Yeah I've seen this superbly made satire and absolutely loved it. Sure it gives the message that's been given loud n clear previously, but it really made me ponder about myself and in the end I found a lil bit of every character in me. Yup, I write this post to confess that I now clearly see all the idiots in me, and more! The message was clear in the book, and beautifully portrayed in the movie, 'Follow Your Heart'. But it posed a real uncomfortable question to me. All the frustration in life could very simply be traced back to an effort aimed at confirming to 'inspirations', if I may call them so, from outside and not from within. Yes this is where the itch starts. Many would blame parents for creating pressure, I feel this attitude is akin to blaming politicians for all the flaws of our society, rather than first looking at ourselves. If RDB taught us that we are to be blamed for our society to be screwed up, 3 Idiots was even simpler. It extends the same philosophy to our own lives. So I'm the one to be blamed for my life, if for nothing else, at least for those occasions in my life when I didn't well, 'follow my heart'. From hear popped up the real disturbing question. I say, But've always followed my heart. So where's the gap? The discomforting answer to this one, was something many won't accept. Well, I'm not sure what my heart wants, So how the F do I follow my heart??






Yes, as much as I would hate to appear to be a clueless balding young guy, it's a high to wake up to this reality. And I owe it to this movie to have made me realise this. But all is not bad. In fact the best thing I take away from this phenomenal flick and this equally phenomenal realisation is that, if I sill don't know what I want from my life or what my heart wants, then I haven't really made the most horrendous mistakes of my life yet! And I haven't committed myself to something that I simply, don't like or am not good at. So if you are as clueless about what your heart wants, that means one good thing, 'arre chachoo ALL IS WELL!!'

SUSTAINABLE INEQUALITY: WHAT SAY DEAR MR. SAINATH?

I hate The Hindu! I mean, the news paper. And my friends very well know it. But today I was filled with admiration for one of their great collumnists., P Sainath. Yes, I'm getting extremely impulsive these day's. That's exactly why I'm writing this post post when I really should be practicing on my brand new six strings. And perhapse that's exactly why I got so charged up with the interview of P Sainath on NDTV that while logging into blogger I started typing psainath instead of my id. After a long time some one could actually sensitize me about the glaring inequality in our society today. You can find out more about this great dude on these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._Sainath

http://www.indiatogether.org/opinions/psainath/

To tell you the truth I wasn't sensitized about inequalities and as I do believe that, inequality is at the core of our society, or any society for that matter. In fact, this once I was so dam pissed at the disastrous interpretations of equality made by most politicians, so enraged by societies inherent way of painting everyone in the same color, that I wanted to get a tattoo at the back of my neck that read, "I!=U". So, I love the inequalities in a society. They are the driver of the society. It is this gradient that makes society flow like the Ganges, metamorphosize(if there's verb like that) and not stagnate like a dead lake. But hearing from the ediot box what Mr Sainath had to say, brought an amazing thought to my mind.. I went euraka! This inequality that I romantisize, as beautiful as it well and truly is, needs to be within limits, for the sake of its own sustainability. That's when I asked myself, am I the first one to coin the term, "Sustainable Inequality"??

Now what on earth is that? I feel its best to explain with an example. I feel destiny is nothing but some mathematics.(Dunno where did that come from) Look, I feel, and we all know, that right now, and for a very long time in our history, at the receiving end of this great inequality has been our good ol' farmer. This cycle is about to change, or shall say the plunging happiness quotient of the farmer is close to getting bottomed out. Right now the world is looking at a very real scare of going without food. Focus in the next few decades will gradually shift to farms, and food production. the equation or rather the 'inequation', is going to change. There are two ways this'll happen. Either we get some sense into our heads, and bring some real focus to the farm sector, or we be the happy go lucky type society.. waiting for the farmer to catch his sickle, leave the harvest and come after us slick urbane types. The former, is what I call 'sustainable inequality'. All it says is, don't strech inequalities to a level where, simply put, it just snaps. I feel, in a broad sense, the society is also a corporation, that to a monopoly. You need to give the remuneration one deserves, cos attrition from the corporation called 'society', leads to birth of the gangsta, the rioter, the terrorist. One way or another the inequity will prevail.

I wish Mr. Sainath would actually come across this post and have the time to comment on this.

MAMMA 'N' PAPA LIED TO US!

Ya! Remember all those times at school when you never used to study? Parents used to go on ranting.. 'work hard now! One should work hard as a student, So u can enjoy all life long later.' Bull. When a friend of mine recently asked me if Im enjoying in Delhi.. I gave him a lecture.. You do enjoy somewhat, but nothing like student days.. It doesn't matter where you are.. One can truly enjoy only as a student..1s u start work.. Aah.. Its all run off the mill. So there you go all kiddos in school.. Don't buy that crap about hard working students. Go out n enjoy! Squeeze every bit outta this time you got. As another friend of mine wrote in his facebook profile a while ago, 'there's nothing like college life. When else do your parents shell out thousands of rs. Jus for you to go to a strange place and get drunk every night!' Of course, after accusing parents of lying.. You've gotta give them the due credit. Right?

PERPETUAL UNIVERSE: SWEET CHILD O' MINE

Bewildered by crazy concerns about the earth eating black hole I thought does the universe actually end? Certainly it does if it has a beginning. The point is.. how sure are we of a beginning? Retracing the expanding universe to a tiny unity is one thing, but looking beyond this extrapolated time line i feel a perpetual machine is a logical possibility. A universe where the cycles of expansion and collapse are more or less sinusoidal.

The very thought of a perpetual universe amazingly reminds me of something I thought of when I was a toddler. As a lil kid who didn't quite know of something called death, I very conveniently explained immortality to myself. I used to be up to all mischievous things and when stopped by my parents i would yell back that when I grow up.. all of you will become little and then, I'll boss over you!!

As illogical as it may sound, I feel that's the most natural conclusion for anything perpetual. Conceiving the notion of a perpetual universe, i feel would indeed throw a very different light on.. everything (and would certainly prove Einstein's wronged theory right!). Hypothetical as it sounds now, an unending universe for me is a signal that existence can indeed be sustainable. That all beautiful things are not doomed. That life in fact can be immortal!

Come to think of it, immortality of humans or that of life in general, is neither illogical nor immoral. If mass and energy together can be indestructible so can life. Again just like them life'll have to change forms. Yes the world as we know it will come to an end. It happens everyday to many people.. but life goes on. A belief in this perpetuity might give a new more moral question to humanity in general and to astrophysics in particular. The question of what we want the universe to be rather than what Universe has in store for us..

By the way the CERN experiment is not about a perpetual universe, and certainly not about immortality. Its just gonna checkout the conditions immediately after big bang.. (if at all there was a bang)

U D R

Upload to Download Ratio. A simple way to measure how much information one puts on the Web in return of what the web provides us. Heres the inspiration:

1. We are all always, surrounded by information provided by people. Today our exposure to web increases our exposure to information.

WAIT not just information, 'Knowledge'.

This Knowledge varies with the culture of the Authors.

I've heard many a concerned parents say:
"Internet has ruined my children and exposed them to 'western' influences"

2. From many genuine points of view, chiefly from a logical standpoint, this exposure to the web has detrimental effects on exposed culture(s) and communities which do not contribute to the majority of the content on the web,

I've heard some wise man say..
"Preserving diverse cultures is preserving diverse interpretations of life itself"
So,

3. If we measure the amount of content contributed by individuals (and thus groups of individuals) on the web in relation to the amount they read or absorb i any other form, it could to be a tangible measure of what influence is an individual is having on the web in return to the influence the web has on the individual, thus giving the Upload to Download Ratio or the UDR.

4. Obviously the higher the UDR the higher influence the concerned individual has on the web.

5. Encouraging higher UDR will help the web become a better represented place. Naturally when we take groups of people with common culture into account.. the cultures with a higher UDR are better preserved while being exposed to the web and all its influences.. Good or bad.

6. Further more a software can be written to simply measure the UDR at every connected terminal, and provide the details to not just the individual but also to a central server to analyse the data on a group, population and country level.

information>Knowledge>culture>content>(ratio of content written to content read)>UDR

WE(b) 2.0?

For most, socializing is a natural evolutionary progression. In fact, out of the confines of the house, school was our first platform for socializing... Information not just from a limited source and medium but from various sources syndicated by various people and then is given to us in various forms. Now to my eyes the original source blurs in the layers of syndication in this brave new world. Much like whats happening on the web today.. we are increasingly interacting not with chunks of information or code but effectively with people.

So doesn't it sound like WEB 2.0? Social networking, syndication, wikis, communities facilitating more and more collaboration among people... Are we today observing a replay of our own evolution, as increasingly social beings, in the virtual world? This video sure did get me thinking..



Perhaps theres no better version of the wondrous invention web is. Web 2.0: Same old web, new methodology, new objectives.. socialize, collaborate.. its just a brand new us. WE 2.0?

wat say? C'mon i need some feedback here..

TAJ'S STRUGGLE TO MAKE IT TO TOP SEVEN SHOULD BE SEEN AS A REFLECTION OF GLOBAL ATTITUDES RATHER THAN JUST INDIAN ATTITUDE

The struggle faced by the Taj in the race to the top 7 is certainly a shame to Indians as well as a very grim fact for the entire world.. why so? The fact that the Taj is struggling to make it to the top7 needs to be perceived as the general global attitude. Now certainly the global attitude of the world simply cannot be that of indifference towards India. No country has been the subject of such concentrated global attention ever after Germany during the war I suppose. Then why didn't international vote put this monument of love in the top 7 right from the start? I feel its rather the world's indifference towards love.

What makes Taj wonderful? Its much beyond the splendid and most gigantic aggregate of exquisite marble. The Taj is a wonder in every right because of it's very purpose. It's an expression of eternal passion for ones love. An expression of deep sorrow upon the death of someone you love. This love is certainly getting lesser and lesser apparent in the world today.. certainly rendering the inherent splendor of this, 'teardrop on the cheek of time' very difficult to comprehend to by the contemporary world.

BATUK CAVES- MY VIEW OF WHAT THE DISCOVERERS WOULD'VE THOUGHT

Ha.. back from my trip of Malayasia and Singapore, this is gonna be the season of travellogs. Batuk caves took me as close as you can get to pure enjoyment. HUGE cave- as huge as two football grounds, as high as two huge theaters. It's simply enthralling, making your way uptill the cave with the huge and densely vegetated peaks hanging above you. The discoverers of the place made it a holy shrine of Lord Shiva. I believe they did so looking at the spectacular long leaf shaped openings in the roof of the cave tha resembled the three eyes of Lordshiva.