iBelieve...

... in the Singularity: the Infinite; the completeness of all worlds; the reason for all things visible, invisible and virtual;

And in Ruha, which is nothing but the will of Singularity: the omnipresent finger, the ordering principle in the ostensive chaos;

And in Matter, which is but just one of the human-sensitive manifestation of Singularity itself;

And in all the perceptive Beings, who for us humans guide us in this world and the next, in this life and the next higher life;

And in the catholic belief that through continuous learning, positive faith, discipline of action and enablement of other beings one will traverse the human-journey towards the Infinite with contentment and fulfilment

And in the recursion of updating this very creed if my wisdom deems so.

Amen.

Zen of automobile driving

Do you even think of 'the how' of driving while driving?

Steering left or right

Stepping-up on the gas

Pre-empting the changes

Easing down by caressing the brakes

Shifting gears at the slightest vibration shift

Uping the stereo volume

Switching the aircon on and off ... The car is like on autopilot really. And you too.

What looms infront through the windshield is the vision of the future. It looks different the closer one comes.

What you view in the rearview and side mirrors are the glimpses of my past; they appear closer than they are.

The route is a beaten path. One cannot think of any other way.

The present is what is within the car capsule.

All we normally 'think' in the present is the video-collage for the music flowing out of the 6 surrond-speakers.

Corporate Bull

Rewinding to year 1998 ...

 

I am an excited developer and am presenting my prototype to a manager at a company. A relatively new employee (and soon-to-be my lead), intent on impressing me and the manager, barges into our private dialogue.

 

Here is an excerpt of the proceedings. Names changed for privacy reasons

 

 

Me	So Sirji what I am saying is that we have made an exit in the code so that the user can customize it according to their requirements (What I really wanted to say was that there is nothing in the code, it is left for the customer to write what they want)
Manager	No, No, No, I'm not clear. Can you restart from beginning?
Me	<< Shit! It's already an hour of waste>>
Intruder	What Sujith is saying is that we can leverage the customizing technology in the core system so that the customer can tailor it as per their business exigencies
Me	<< WHAT?!!! And this fellow understood that line in a second?!! >> (And almost spraying out the hot coffee from my mouth)
Manager	Aah! OK
Me	Okay?!
Manager	But what I really wanted you to do was to conceptualize a sort of 'Flexi-Developer' system
Me	And what should that do Sir-ji?
Manager	You see Sujith, The challenge we have is that our company continues to engage in multiple custom developments within implementations these days. And so my tool should enable our customers to quickly build new modules, reports and screens
Me	<<Duh! Isn't that what Developer Workbench is supposed to achieve?!>>
Me	But Sir-ji that is not possible! How can one program that?! (Looking at the two pitifully)
Intruder	No problem, I understand what Sirji is asking and will help you Sujith. We will create one higher level of Table control which we can categorically split into its reflective views.

 

...

 

Like it says in the Dilbert strips, all you need for a corporate conservation is a shuffle between the Most-Frequently-Used words. Note all the highlighted words above, it helps me even today.

 

Sujith has matured a lot since ; but to this date cannot comprehend the connection between any of the words in that last line.

Science of Transformation

To better follow this one please read the ingredients for success in a future post :)

 

Change is necessary for continuity if not for continued success. Change can be minor improvements or complete transformations evens.  For successful changes/transformations the same recipe applies: intent & commitment.

 

To affect good transformations it sometimes may be beneficial to change the current environment too or launch the venture from a new platform. The common human needs to see and feel real differences for maximum excitement. This is why events and projects have logos, captions, mascots and even a new project location.

 

Intent + Risk + Environment

 

An example would be the case of an ‘enlightened’ person (religious/secular). We can point out some notable personalities who reached pinnacle of success ostensibly after a conversion; in the religious sense (born-again) or even by any thought paradigm(EST). One can see all the elements (intent, risk, and environment) in play here.

 

The ingredients are useful even if an individual, group and institutions contemplate the change of identity.

 

Success is hampered when transformation is incomplete. This means it is a case where one of the elements was ignored.  Happy married life: first there has to be the intent to be married and should not be forced upon. Then the promise: a public ‘I do’ or even a public ceremony will do. The couple is in a merged environment from then, good enough for the platform element. What commonly lacks or ignored is the commitment J which is essential for long-term success.

Karmic Credits

This post is not mine. I liked the analogy so much that for once thought I will just do a 'share' on my blog. All credits to the original author of this write-up. Man, you did then what the film Matrix did to the many of us!

"Hinduism is so complex. I do not understand it most of the time", said Eesha, a young girl to Uncle Ashok. Ashok had come over half an hour ago and Eesha was so engrossed in her video game then that she mechanically said "Hi" to Ashok, and continued with her game.

 

 

Ashok watched Eesha play Super Mario Brothers. He watched her move Mario to the right, hit and get hidden mushrooms and get bigger, or get a fire flower or a cape, collect coins, punch his way thru obstacles, climb ladders and occasionally get chomped by turtles. After the end of a life Mario would start his next life, from where he left off. Now that Eesha had finished one level she noticed that uncle Ashok, whom she met every week when her parents took her to the temple, was still there.

"Eesha, you are really good at this video game!” said Ashok. She nodded and added "Yep! And I can even beat my brother at it".

"You know you can learn many ideas of Hinduism from the video games", said Ashok.

"How Uncle Ashok?" Eesha asked.

Let us say if you got a video game and it gave you only one chance to beat it, will that be fair?” Ashok asked.

"No, that is why they give you multiple lives. Actually, with a new game it is very difficult to advance much further. It takes practice. When we had just bought this game, I used to 'die' in just ten seconds, every time", said Eesha.

"Hinduism is similar too. Most people do not lead a perfect life. So according to Hinduism, you get many chances to improve yourself. You get many lives. This is called reincarnation". He continued," and just as in a video game, if one life ends, you start over in the next life where you left off".

"Now what will happen if you do not go towards the right in your video game?" asked uncle Ashok.

"You will not move to the next level. You will not make any progress and time will run out", Eesha said

"Exactly! If you do not move in the 'right' direction, you will not make progress. Thus YOU determine the right direction and how far the progress you can make. 'What you do, determines the result' this is called the law of Karma. Your actions bear fruit accordingly. Now what happens in a video game if you keep making same mistakes?” Ashok asked.

"You go back to the start of that level" Eesha replied.

"Law of Karma similarly tells you that if you keep making same mistakes over and over again, you will move backwards. Now in a video game you get rewards and receive setbacks. In this video game a mushroom will make you grow bigger or an attack of a turtle will make you smaller, in real life too you may become rich or poor, but that depends where you start at and what actions you take. Yet getting big or small in itself does not mean progress. Does it?", asked Uncle Ashok.

"You are right, being big or small does not necessarily mean you will move forward in the game or even to the next level", Eesha replied.

"Now tell me what happens when you go to the next level?" Ashok asked.

"It gets tougher at the next level" Eesha said.

"Same is true in spiritual practice as per Hinduism", Ashok added. "Now tell me what happens if you get stuck at a level, what do you do ? and why ?", he asked.

"I ask my cousin Ojas. He knows what I should do. He knows where to the keys are hidden, where secret passages are. He has beaten the game already, Some times he even takes the controller to help me", Eesha said.

"In Hinduism, similarly a Guru helps you move to next level. A Guru or a master has already 'beaten the game'. She or He knows where the key is hidden that will unlock the door. She or He knows what where the secret passages are. She or He can even show you a 'warp' zone, to go to the next level. But unlike a video game, in real life a Guru cannot play for you. You have to play it yourself", said Ashok.

"You keep referring to Guru as She or He, why?” Eesha asked.

"Good question! Hinduism considers man and woman as having equal potential to become a master, a Guru. Just as you are better than your brother at video games, a woman can reach the highest state also. In fact there were many women who contributed to the Vedas, the Hindu holy books. There were many women Hindu saints in the past, and there are many women saints even now" said uncle Ashok. He continued, " alsothere are many ways you can go to next level, so some Guru will show a easier way and some a harder way, all depending on your capability.

Buddhists have Buddha as a Guru; Jains have twenty four Tirthankars as Gurus while Sikhs have ten Gurus whose guidance they follow".

"Now tell me what happens when you beat the last level?” Ashok asked.

"I have not beaten the game yet, but my cousin Ojas says that you see fireworks, music plays for long time, and then you see the name of the programmer", Eesha said.

"Interestingly, that is what Hinduism says also, when you go beyond the last hurdle you hear the music and you see THE PROGRAMMER - that is God and then you do not need to play the game again, except to help others" Ashok said.

"Let me ask you one more question. You get so absorbed playing a video game that you feel that you are being Mario or Luigi on the screen. But are you really Mario or Luigi? Who are you?” He asked

"I am Eesha, of course. But while playing the game I forget that I am Eesha and am only concerned about Mario or Luigi on the screen", she replied.

"Exactly, Hinduism believes that we go thru different lives believing we are the body or the name in that life. But we are neither that body nor its name. We are the Atman or soul which plays as a character of Mario or Luigi (or whatever). That is something we must never forget. We are not this body, but we are the Soul, or Atman". Ashok continued.

"Eesha have you noticed, that from video games you just learnt Hindu concepts of reincarnation, Karma, Guru and Atman." He asked, "Was that complex? “

"Not complex at all!" Eesha smiled, Her face was glowing by the realization of Hindu concepts, a knowledge she already had in the form of video games.

Free Radicals

Once upon a time there lived a monstrous dragon. It grabbed on anything it wanted and each day brought added new areas under its wings. The common man became either its slave or prey. It had huge wealth stacked up in its lair, collected over time from its conquests. This dragon was the Catholic Church. It had no worthy matches and it lived forever….or so it thought until along came the radical Martin Luther.

Once upon a time there lived a monstrous dragon. It grabbed on anything it wanted and each day brought added new areas under its wings. The common man became either its slave or prey. It had huge wealth stacked up in its lair, collected over time from its conquests. This dragon was the British Empire. It had no worthy matches and it lived forever….or so it thought until along came the half-naked radical Gandhi.

Once upon a time there lived a monstrous dragon. It grabbed on anything it wanted and each day brought added new areas under its wings. The common man became either its slave or prey. It had huge wealth stacked up in its lair, collected over time from its conquests. This dragon was Feudalism. It had no worthy matches and it lived forever….or so it thought until along came a radical concept called Socialism.

Once upon a time there lived a monstrous dragon. It grabbed on anything it wanted and each day brought added new areas under its wings. The common man became either its employee or wannabe. It had huge wealth stacked up in its lair, collected over time from its conquests. This dragon was the corporate IBM. It had no worthy matches and it lived forever….or so it thought until along came the radicals Steve Jobbs and Bill Gates.

Once upon a time there lived a monstrous dragon. It grabbed on anything it wanted and each day brought added new areas under its wings. The common man people became either its slave or prey. It had huge wealth stacked up in its lair, collected over time from its conquests. This dragon was the United States of America. It had no worthy matches and it lived forever….or so it thought until along came the radicals called terrorists.


OK, you get the pattern.

All the above dragons are today diseased and/or weak.
All the above radicals were influenced, if not the product, by the respective dragons.

And?
What happened to the radicals now?

They just mutated into different sorts of … dragons!

Martin Luther’s bold act inspired and gave birth to a whole generation of radical Protestants. Born out of revolt; awakened out of suppression; blinded by their concepts; these ‘believers’ collectively form the Hydra, the dragon of the new age. It cannot be reasoned with. Cut of one of its head and ten others form in its place.

Mahatma Gandhi’s bold act inspired and gave birth to a whole country of radical satyagrahis. Born out of revolt; blinded by their concepts; the awakened cattle class knew and practiced only civil disobedience. To the point, that the whole country spawned a generation of non-performers with zero civic sense. The general Indian carelessness is today its own terror, its own dragon to fear.

Socialism inspired and gave birth to a whole generation radical communists. Born out of revolt; awakened out of suppression; blinded by their concepts; this workers union polarized the world into two, brought promising countries to a grinding halt, sucked the excitement out of their citizen’s life. Though weakened now, they were once collectively the Hydra, the dragon of the new age. It cannot be reasoned with. Cut of one of its head and ten others form in its place.

Bill Gates and his contemporaries inspired and gave birth to a valley! Born out of ingenuity and entrepreneurship these fresh and exciting companies have today grown big, fat and as corporate as the original adversary dragon. Corporate career has today become nothing but a joke. Look around you and you can map a Dilbert strip somewhere.

USA’s acts inspired and gave birth to a whole generation of radicals called LTTE, PLO, IRA, Taliban and ISI. Born out of revolt; awakened out of suppression; blinded by their concepts; these ‘freedom fighters’ collectively form the Hydra, another of the dragons of the new age. It cannot be reasoned with. Cut of one of its head and ten others form in its place.


And? And the cycle will continue. It would be interesting to learn now how the Hydra can be contained.

Infinity to Outfinity

In the animation movie Horton Hears a Who! there is a world of living beings on a dust speck, which Horton carries on a clover and which he tries to frantically protect after having known that such a world exists.

The universe seems like an lot of space if we are alone. While we keep discussing on the possibility of similar beings like us (that means intelligent) elsewhere in the universe, we neglect the probability that the universe as a whole could be one organism. ... Maybe even a component or cell of another! If could be true, many more such universes could be part of a more complex organism.

Changing from the telescope to the microscope and diving deeper into our own basic units, doesn't the picture of inner space have similar patterns as with the outer space? Electrons around the nucleus; atoms together forming galaxy like cluster; and it is an awful lot of space in there too, proportionately the nuclei is like a peanut in middle of a football stadium of electrons. There could probably be many earths in the many layers of worlds as we go deeper.

If the visualization of the above gives us the creeps it is because of our self-made importance. It is only arrogance that makes us shun this line of thought. We believe that we are the most significant ones, the chosen tribe, the caste that knows God by default, Lord of the Earth. We should be at the centre of the universe. In the Middle Ages, Galileo was forced to recant and do penance for downgrading the importance of earth by taking it out of the center of the system!

Macrocosmically or microcosmically it is scary but intriguing to think that there may not be any end. There may be world within worlds within worlds within ... you get the picture. The word ‘salvation’ as per Eastern philosophies may mean nothing but allowing oneself to exit living on this earth and having the pass to enter the next ‘higher’ world.

The idea can also make one feel so insignificant, empty and meaningless.

A story from the Puranas (Courtesy www.mahashivratri.org):
"
Shiva once intervened to settle a dispute between two of the triads of Hindu Gods: Brahma and Vishnu. He assumed the form of a flaming linga and asked them both to measure this gigantic phallic symbol of Shiva.

Brahma took the form of a swan and went upwards while Vishnu took the form of a boar and went into the earth towards nether land. Both searched for eternity (as per our timings) but neither could find the ends of the linga.

While on his journey upward, Brahma came across a Ketaki flower which was supposed to reside on Lord Shiva's head. Brahma exhausted with his search to find the uppermost limit of fiery column, he made Ketaki assent to lie that he had seen the top of the column. Brahma then asserted that he had indeed discovered the origin of the cosmic linga.

Shiva appeared and then explained to Brahma and Vishnu that He is both the alpha & the omega and that both of them were born out of him and that the three were then separated out into three different aspects of divinity.

But Shiva was angry with Brahma for making a false claim. Shiva cursed Brahma that no one would ever pray to him. (This legend explains why there is hardly any Brahma temple of significance in India.) Shiva also punished the Ketaki flower for testifying falsely and banned the flower from being used as an offering for any pooja (worship).
"

Maha-maya

A portion of 'The Matrix’ movie script:

"…
Neo: Right now we're inside a computer program?
Morpheus: Is it really so hard to believe? Your clothes are different. The plugs in your arms and head are gone. Your hair is changed. Your appearance now is what we call residual self image. It is the mental projection of your digital self.
Neo: This...this isn't real?
Morpheus: What is real? How do you define real? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. This is the world that you know. The world as it was at the end of the twentieth century. It exists now only as part of a neural-interactive simulation that we call the Matrix. You've been living in a dream world, Neo
…
"

Coming to think of it, what is reality? Is what we see real? What if our eyes are deceiving us? What if the color of this wall is not white but something else that our human eyes cannot register? Does Bats see it better because they do not see light but see sound! Bonzu the dog's vision is blurred where it is two dimensional. He cannot see photographs or watch television, but sometimes barks at nothingness....ghosts?
So who can see really? Us or them? I read once that cats see in black & white, so is that the real reality of the world? Are our eyes distracting our real vision of reality with 'unreal' color?
Elephants can hear sounds that are on one extreme end of the sound spectrum; Bloodhounds and bears can sniff out their objectives many tens of miles away. We cannot. So are we incomplete in our concept of reality?


Now read this para about solidity by Deepak Chopra:

"...
At a deeper level, there is really no boundary between ourselves and everything else in the world. When you touch an object, it feels solid, as though there was a distinct boundary between it and you. Physicists would say that we experience that boundary as solid because everything is made up of atoms, and the solidity is the sense of atoms bumping against atoms. But consider what an atom is. An atom has a little nucleus with a large cloud of electrons around it. There is no rigid outer shell, just an electron cloud. To visualize this, imagine a peanut in the middle of a football stadium. The peanut represents the nucleus, and the stadium represents the size of the electron cloud around the nucleus. When we touch an object, we perceive solidity when the clouds of electrons meet. That is our interpretation of solidity, given the sensitivity (or relative insensitivity) of our senses.
..."

So we perceive solidity wherever we 'feel' a force-field AND when we 'see' there is something to touch?

Sense organs scan the surroundings and send the information, within their limit ranges, to the brain which then create the experience of the world around. How are we to know that this experience is the right one? Are our instruments of reality sensors ineffective or inadequate? Was this a deliberation or isn’t there anything called reality?

Are we dreaming?! Are we living in a (virtual) reality that is only a generation by our brains?

Are we blind and sizing up the elephant?!

A buoy in the water

Pai spent what seemed like ages on a sail-less (row-less & motor-less) boat floating helplessly in the expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Though he had initially thanked all the stars for providing him with the presence of mind to run for the safety boats while the ship was tilting, he now curses all the gods for putting him through this misery of slow death. The safety boat, that he is on, moves very slowly only with the little movement on the ocean surface. The boat seems almost still. Pai wishes that the relentless sun would at least fry-off his noisy brains at least. Severely dehydrated, hungry, sun-burned and hallucinating, he contemplates suicide. He once jumped out of the boat to drown himself only to instinctively swim and pull himself back in…curses his father for teaching him to swim when he was six. His father had taught him never to give up in life.

After a few more miserable days: He sees something on the surface. He was just able to sit upright only because his thirst was quenched by a drizzle that blessed his boat’s location a few hours ago. What’s on the ocean surface is flotsam…a piece of tarpaulin…a sail! It’s what was lost of the safety boat in the violent drop into the water. This will certainly help the boat move at least in some direction. Something is better than nothing. Some progress is better than being stationary. Pai realizes that it is coincidental that the sail & boat crossed (in the least of probabilities…considering the sheer expanse of the ocean area). There should be some surface current carrying what floats towards a particular direction. This current carried the boat and sail in the same direction.

[After a few more weeks] Pai was sure the boat is moving now; but was it still in circles….towards nowhere? Pai could make out the difference in the water color and the surface choppiness. Wondered where the hell in the world he was, was he near land? He could see nothing in the horizon except water. He was starting to give up hope.

[After a few days (?)] He was sleeping too much the last couple of days, so was up when the first lights came up the horizon. Pai almost sees something and then it disappears. Was it hallucination? Whatever it was that's his only glimmer of hope, he has to try and reach whatever it is. Energy explodes into his being and he tries his best to use the sail to direct the boat faster towards that possibility. Occasionally he uses his hands as row. After what seems like an eternity, he sees it clearly this time…on the horizon…it's a top of a coconut tree! Thrilled and now brimming with optimism we works as an athlete would. As luck has it one of the rows, that was also lost earlier in the violent fall, is also found floating...this is too much of a coincidence, does the ocean have intelligence? He picks it up and put it to use like a man driven by a vision.

Pai has to reach close enough to bring himself to the notice of the few people on the island. He gets the feeling they would soon leave on the yacht anchored close. He shouts, waves and beats the water frantically with the row until one of them finally sees him. He is saved ! And he praises his stars repeatedly for getting him back to civilization.

 

Musings: Life is meaningful in pursuit, else it is like a flotsam

Self-Imprisonment

Maintaining the quality of the relationships within one’s network maybe quite useful. Not really for altruistic reasons, but useful for at least one’s own good living. The better the relationship maintenance coupled with the depth of one’s reach within their network, the better it is for one’s own quality of life; while it may be not presently the situation then definitely in good time. By reach I meant one’s network being as big as possible. Knowing more people and keeping good relationships certainly helps in generating ‘good luck’ – opportunities for better life/helping hand/good fortune etc. In short, it pays to have a high likeability quotient.

It can also be said that doing the opposite can provide the negative results too. This is clearly apparent with individuals who are generally bashful, inconsiderate to the people around them, with few friends and/or pessimistic to life itself.


I know of a fortunate yet unfortunate person; a very experienced yet immature person; an educated yet ignorant person. Hmmmm…aren’t we all this way?

Fortunate I say because at the time I began closely observing this person he seemed to get the best things in life very easily while the majority of us had to struggle very hard for the same. Some of us had agreed then that he is in the right place at the right time. He earned in tons, got his way in situations, everybody knew him and used to command the steering wheel of life. That would make him wealthy, successful and famous in our envious eyes.

Unfortunate I say because nobody actually likes him. At least nobody that I know who also knows him. The person I am talking about, to say the least, is arrogant, a corporate bully, extremely manipulative, irritatingly talkative and flamboyantly egoistic. And the worse part: his act in life (in landmark education terms :-) ) is “I am right and all the useless rest of you are wrong”. Yup it’s hard to change him. The guy never listens and he adamantly believes he is right. in fact he once adviced me: “Making enemies is the norm in a successful corporate career. What’s wrong?”

How long can the stray good fortune go on for people like this? And here is my observation.

Like the person mentioned above, when one start the interesting phases of life (like career) they are in a space like the white space in the box. The space can be as big as the box boundaries. So many possibilities in life, so many opportunities, endless vistas and there is excitement.

Naturally, very soon one would encounter a problem: an obstacle in their way in the white space. For the kind of individual like the above person, the problem would almost always be a relationship issue. The momentum in excitement and confidence would not allow the individual to bow down. And if not resolved one creates a virtual fence. A fence that cuts that leg of our relationship network; that limits the opportunities in one’s life from that network; that which is only an interference to the positive opinion signal across the relationship network; in the macro level, limits our luck factor. "But so what?! Who the hell needs that relationship anyway? One has the rest of the space around it for life." So, the haughty one go ahead in full steam.

What next? The attitude lands one in yet another problem in life. Promptly he creates another fence for himself.

“Bah! Just another fence in the infinite space. The opportunities are endless.”

 

And a few years later …

Guess what are loud taglines at this junctures:
“Life is this way, it sucks” ,
“Shit happens”,
“Everyone is a fool”,
“I don’t need anybody”,
“Who needs friends anyway”, “What good they bring?”,
“You know my child, I have learnt not to trust anybody in life”

Slowing down

One perspective to the Recession:

 

This is a corrective phase...correcting the collective greed that was prevalent during the bulldozing and hyped-up economic situation that was before.

The corrective intensity is directly proportional to the amount of collective greed (conscious or subconscious) that was prevalent in the earlier period.

Its victims are individuals and the systems that surfed the greed wave. But the 'corrected' would be the individuals or systems that totally disregarded, in order to achieve their selfish needs, either the connection to the basic principles (ethics) or the connection with the grassroots(ordinary people).

 

If there will be no learning or change the recession will visit again. It is relentless and ruthless.

A new order and learning has to come out of every such phase.

A recession can also be within the personal scheme of things and this personal phase need not have anything to do with the outside world scenario.

तत् त्वम् असि

Who am I?

The landmark education series evangelizes of one’s life being something of ‘the act’ that one puts on. This act is defined quite early in one's life and then reinforced over the formative years. The rest of one’s life is nothing but the play of this act and one would never realize this fact ever!

But why this act in the first place?

What forms my identity?

Using a familiar model, the relationships-network model, one could try simplify: this model has the all-familiar node-circles for entities (persons/individuals) and linking-lines for relationships associated with a particular entity. In this way one can draw the web (of relationships) centered on an entity (person).

•  Imagine yourself as the center node
• Spikes (links) out of this node in all directions equivalent to the number of people you know
• Link the end of these spikes with other nodes (people you know). Everyone you know: directly or indirectly; know a bit or know a whole lot; Love or hate et cetera. It would be fun to know how many nodes you are linked to.
• Continue to build the auras of spikes around these linking nodes (of people you know) also. Yes, you share some of their links too (common friends, relatives). But definitely some of their links you may have no connection to (friend’s friend).
• If anyone could complete this web with all the people on earth, we could find out if the six degrees of separation concept is really true ;) And with facebook very soon this visualization may soon be a reality.

Yep, and if one can finish it or at least visualize it, no matter how isolated you are (or think you are or have made yourself to be) you still end up with a complicated circle of connections. No escaping this. Sales people know this fact very well: studies have shown that opportunities in life (some call this luck) is directly proportional to the number of links one maintains … maintain positively though. I also read somewhere: life is all about the quality of relationships (the solid links) one maintains.

Even with common sense, we all know our networks are important.

So how does this model make my identity?

Let there be a new node somewhere in the web: the newborn Adam who is with no links flowing out of him. But his surrounding links: parents, siblings, grandparents etc. would impose upon this infant node their version of the ‘to be’ of this identity. And the rest of the web (environment) also will not leave this infant-node free-spirited; they reinforce their expectations and continue to mould the clay that is Adam’s identity. This ‘to be’ impress is the genesis of little Adam’s identity.

The superset network is one big living entity and therefore theoretically the intent to create this particular Adam with this particular identity was ‘destined’.

 

The nodes in the web eventfully trigger information to propagate through each of its links and thus across the network … like a ripple. Like if you have just won yourself a lottery everyone you know will know soon. If you just got fired from your job everyone would know … sooner or later. If you just started your own venture everyone around you would know and appreciate. Everyone you know would also know as soon as your company goes bust. If you are accused of murder, everyone you know and a lot more in the bigger network will label you a murderer. If you are good at something, this propagates as part of your definition (identity) through the network. In short, we continuously declare our identity (Who am I? actively or passively) through the networks. Net-worked!

Propagation and/or broadcast of something new or something unapparent/unconvincing with a node (like the declaration that ‘I am not crazy’) is matched with high impedance within the network. Trying to be something or someone is therefore tougher and tiring than just being.

 

The Network also reinforces back to each node what the network’s definition of the node (Who you are?) is (or was), reminding of each node of its place (and limitations) in the network. The network has memory; the node’s past is collectively stored in one or more of the link nodes. The network continues to tell you back things like : one are not good enough; one has failed in the past; you are bonkers; you can do it; you are the child of Mr. XYZ and so it is expected of you; Humans can’t fly etc. etc.

 

In short, the network continuously also limits us to what we are, reminds one of whom one is and expects of what is supposed to be. With this reiterations one’s future (in the network scheme of things) is also more or less predictable….or destined.

Negatively speaking, our lives are trapped in this net!

The Ugly side

Cultured, humane, civilized and chosen even are we human beings while the rest of the beings are ‘animals’. Or are we ... yet?

The Homo sapiens, like any other in the animal kingdom, have always been competing for survival. Competing with other animals and competing with similar animals. It was instinctual for our shaggy forefather apes hunt, fight, kill and procreate on a regular basis. Over the million years, this allowed the survival of the fittest and the survival of the species.

 Showing-off strength, reinforcing dominance and being ruthless were very important (especially masculine) human traits … to ensure survival. If not: one could go hungry, get hurt, lose their breeding partner or worse lose their life. So back in the Stone ages: One would kill & hunt when one wished; grabbed thy neighbour's food or partner if need be or just kill if one didn't like that jerk. So in a way life was quite ‘simple’ cause and effect J

A little later in history: larger groups of humans, called communities, slightly changed the scene for the greater good. They enforced certain norms to maintain order within. But an individual’s violent side was quite useful; very frequently in the still tough and wild times.

Forward thousands of years: civilizations had sprung up and died; cities and societal-structures increased in complexity; generally security had greatly improved but only within the cloud of a kingdom but the violent-side of Homo sapiens was still active. How can what was conditioned over a million-year be reversed in a shorter time? The species just found new ways to keep alive the animistic subconscious of the past. Why else should there have been invasions, plunder, imperialism, tortures, roman-circuses, wars, inquisitions, genocides, apartheid and orgies? These are manifestations of the instincts of dominance, hunt, greed and competition … but with only more ‘civilized’ labels. Even sport is but a non-violent release for human violent-side!

Enter the space age: We look back to see how far we have come. From shaggy bent apes to the hairless, straight and obese Homo sapiens. Food and personal security is at its best ever. Violence is a trait relegated to savages. The kings are dead; Democracy and citizen-rights are the new religions. We have progressed and civilized a lot ... but only externally. Internally still not far away.

The unfortunate side of these new-world paradigms is that it acts like cages. The time-span, across many millenniums since being ‘civilized’, has still not liberated us from our urges but rather only suffocated them in more claustrophobic mental cages. And so we keep alive our forefathers’ cravings: Carving for all things material (we never had enough) and craving for power (the shortcut to control the others). We are still not cleared off from the scars from the past. Behavioral patterns forged over time by our forefathers still lie dormant (until piqued) in our sub-consciousness’.

The animal instincts from that very difficult past have not erased from the centuries of civilizing but only make us behave or act in very odd ways. Sometimes this programming from the past can manifest within an individual in very anti-social ways. Actually one shouldn't be surprised by the horrific reports of physical abuse, gang-wars, rapes, and psychopathic murders etc. that continue to this day. One could argue that these heinous crimes are not committed by us but some minority others. Yes true, they are committed by the ‘active-program’ runners (the violent-side resurfacing) only.

The rest of us passive runners only read or watch...while somebody else is doing it! Ever wondered why the newspapers and news channels gives all the obscene or disgusting details? It is because the public ‘need’ or rather demand for it. Movies enable us to (at least) watch simulated violence and perversion. Why is pornography so in vogue? Because it sells! Pornography gives us the option of relishing on ANY sexual perversion you can possibly think off without the guilt of actually performing it! Wondered why there were so many cabaret dances and rape scenes in Indian cinemas? Same reason: We wanted it!

And what are these reality shows after all? They are nothing but entertainment drawn from the exposure of the ‘normal life’ of people (mostly celebrities). And by the normal we mean to expose of the people’s vulnerability to the dark side … in real time: greed, lust, power, desperation etc.

Take the other example of the competition shows littering the channels. It is all about dominance again. C-O-N-T-R-O-L, as if the judges decide somebody’s fate or career. And what is it that we the audiences are most interested in here? Not the gleam on the faces of who wins but the defeat on the faces of who is out! A funny side of these types of shows is that the sponsors almost always manage to get judges who are third-grade in that particular field of expertise :-)

 

 

Consider simple everyday things as a joke: realize that almost always a joke is centered on putting down one of the characters in the joke! Belittle, embarrass or ridicule. Funny isn’t it? Ever wondered why we crack jokes and laugh in the first place? It is our way of expressing our own superiority over the other. Baring teeth (while we laugh) is common in the animal kingdom also … for the same reason!

Technolo-ch'i

Economists, Financial Analysts, Statisticians, Demographers, Climatologists, Astrologers and of course Business consultants do this all the time...Assume (make an ASS out of U and ME) and then predict the future. The whole world eagerly wait to eat up what they are about to vomit; ultimately sending economies to recession, share prices berserk, dumb public to panic, create new trends, countries to war and people generally direction less.
Another observation is surprisingly we do not challenge these predictors when their advices, which are almost always wrong, don't work. Obelix comments 'People are crazy'.
 

I have a few armchair (ass-at-rest) predictions too ... without any assumptions. They are so obvious that I am sure that I am safe :-)

• In a few decades, we will have dumb terminals hooked to the one big server: 'The Web'. No more operating Systems, no more pirated MS-Office, no more installation CDs & drivers and no more Hard disks. So we will see the end of the 'Personal' Computer.
• Many customers will realize that the entities: computers, automation, software, hardware and consultants had taken them for a ride. The implementation wizard was a lie, Business never improved, processes never got streamlined, the softwares were not easy to use, it was neither adaptive nor flexible and Total Cost of Ownership was always high. They will feel cheated and will seriously challenge the sales of the then software houses.
• The Age of custom developments and in-house software will return.
• Technology changed so fast but not its acceptance! Customers (sometimes excluding the IT manager) still don't understand whats ERP, Business Intelligence, work flow and pervasive technology. These concepts were too futuristic for today but they will sell tomorrow.
• Like the electronics industry the world will then have just a few big software giants. The minnows will either be swallowed by the giants or will perish.
• Entrepreneurs and software houses will then stop developing out-of-the-world and way-over-the-head applications but instead will pursue the development of very basic databases, integrative applications and infrastructures for the web.

Anyone dare challenge these? ;-)

Narcissist Era

George Romero should be smiling at the way the world is progressing or rather regressing. The situation now is almost like in one of his creations: it is hell on earth. Though a fan of horror flix, I first watched one of his zombie movies with a sense of disgust; I thought: whose perverted imagination is this? But in 2004 when I watched one of the most mind-troubling movies I have seen, Dawn of the Dead *, I realized! The seemingly nonsensical theme turned interesting, as I was able to sync with its creator's mind.

Maybe the concept of the Kaliyug is right; it seems everyone (not excluding myself) is now vehemently only after money, power, respect and recognition.

• We want money to be able to indulge and to buy respect
• We want to control but not to be controlled
• We want to covet, we covet and want to be coveted.

Unfortunately the motivators and their liners have only added feul to the raging fire: the "Just do it", "I make the rules", "Do whatever" and "Go get it" attitude we have imbibed from the environment around us has only fostered self-centeredness and ruthlessness.

If that’s on one end what’s happening at the other?

One does not not see much morality prevailing anywhere let alone spirituality. Not even in the new-age reformists/apostles let alone the traditionalists. Faith is lost, distrust is in.

As if it isnt chaos already out there we are all also becoming like the zombies, infected by the majority around us. Hope in the near future is bleak but some serious damage to mankind is probable. Detachment seems like the only prevention from insanity; Surfing the chaotic waves seems like the only way to live.

On the bright side, everything that has a beginning has an end. Epidemics, slowdowns, fads et al should eventually dip. At least thats what Malcolm Gladwell’s and Steve Levitt’s books infers so. Such situations cannot be last but that they can do a lot of damage before they subside. Fungi colonies (watch them on rotting food) are like these. They spread/multiply and grow astonishingly fast. But one fine morning they seem to disappear. The most common reason for this sudden disappearing act is that the very base on which they grew got transformed. Sad thing is this will take some time in such a world situation.

 

* The apocalyptic feeling and the hopelessness portrayed in the film were too nightmarish for me. To top it all, in the theatre seat I forced to sit put while I was being bitten and sucked blood off…. all over my body by bugs :-)

Spiritual Zombie

The title makes no sense and so does the ‘faiths’ of the times. Not targeting the mushrooming Christian evangelist sects alone, which of course am not in agreement with. It is widely known that the situation in other religious streams are not any soulful. But it’s always easier and accepted to criticize one’s own.

There is no faith left, religions have become redundant. Church seems like a mass drama. The clergy is looked upon like a bunch of clowns. To 'save’ mankind from these deteriorating religions and the chocking intra-religion politics, we have now even more Preachers, Pastors, Philosophers and Priests. Not over: blind fundamentalists, bigots and fanatics; the noise from their rallies, media channels and conventions; their littering posters, pamphlets and banners; and their chauvinism, persuasiveness and narrow-minded reasoning.

I suggest one does some introspection and a course in spirituality before looking for these new-age quick fixes. To start with read H.G. Well’s book 'Country of the Blind’. The work gives insight into the difference between religion and spirituality.

Spirituality and faith, I feel, are very personal things and are not other peoples’ business. Spirituality is one’s journey to find the truth. Religion, on the other hand, is like a generic ‘template’ for spirituality, which suffices for some for whom habits and routines are powerful enough to transform. But for many this approach with spirituality is evidently ineffective. Then religion becomes only the hinderance to salvation and a mask one puts on for identity.

My stand: There are as many paths for spirituality as there are the numbers of humans!

One savior or prophet or church may not be the only way. Religion is but ONE path for spirituality and on the flip side it breed can chauvinism. The act of persuading another to spiritually think/act alike is as stupid as persuading another to like one’s favorite foods.

The Hubulkok Effect

The hubulkok is a colourful bird. It travels a long distance, on an instinctive route, to mate and nest. En route this long flight, only some 700 kilometers before touch down, it passes over the hot and sunny beaches near the Great Pillar cliffs. Here, if the sea lashing the cliffs brews up something special a few hubulkoks may stop for a travel break. An oceanic rubbish sludge current sometimes crosses the local gulf eddies to cough up a humid stench. A very thick storm of flies hovers over the seas. The swarms of flies and the stench also attract fishes of all kinds and in turn these fishes attract the sharks. The situation normally stays only for a couple of hours or a day if it happens at all. If coincidently the hubulkoks fly over this place at this time, then the some of the hungry hubulkoks dives down into the fly clouds to swallow in mouthfuls. Then these snacking hubulkoks with their bellies full are unable to continue with their overhead friends on the remainder of the journey. They decide to nest on the nearby land itself. They fly an hour inwards into the greener parts of this land and settles near a farming village. A reason to select this place is also the access to seeds, grains et al in plenty in the barns. Just before the mating there is a cooing-the-female ritual with a display of its pinkish wings and a cry that goes 'hulhulhul'. Now, the villagers who heard this cry are tense! The elders of the village have taught them that to hear the 'hulhulhul' sound is inauspicious. And it is not wholly false; they were hit the following day with the news that one of their beloved was killed in a shark attack the day before!

Local Superstition: Hubulkoks augurs death.

How can the harmless hubulkok signal deaths?
The islanders here are mostly agricultural and close knit, mostly related one way or another. They have their own religion, traditions and superstitions. One such superstition their grandparents passed on to them is the relation between death and hubulkoks based on actual sea death incidences observed through the centuries. Many islanders have also lost their fishermen folks to the notorious whirlpools. This too happened after sighting the hubulkoks nesting near their villages. They accused hubulkoks to be death itself.
The reality is that: it is the time of year when the islanders' produce are brought to the old market ten miles off the beautiful sandy white beach near the Great Pillar cliffs. Having made their sell many of them decide to take a day off and go swimming or boating. Normally it is quite safe but not if it is the sea mood is as explained above.

Rationality: Hubulkoks sightings on that island may signal dangerous seas nearby.

Musings: Thankfully, for this particular case we can observe and understand the whole scene on a macro level. It can be explained with appropriate scientific principles we know. But imagine a situation where it involves sciences beyond our understanding or maybe even those we haven't yet formalized. Then superstitions and omen readings could just be reliable.

Morals of the story: Don’t ignore everything you can’t explain today, there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Am Back…

…after more than an year of hibernation.

I may never use this facility to log my daily moods as many others do but I will definitely write once in a while. Problem is I am not gifted with writing fluency. I wait to well in my head to fill up before I can 'flow' it out; each of my post is the culmination of many man-years of observance, discussion, thought and experiences.

Guide us ignorant

Snapped this picture very near to the Stonehenge when in UK. The sheep were absolutely still as if in some rapture. Every time I look at this snap I get the feeling, like below.

We are:
Like excited mice nibbling tunnels through a cheese block
Like short-sighted frogs in a dark well
Like sail less boats drifting in expanse of the ocean
Like blind earthworms processing mud in earth
Like characters in a computer game

Like we have any clue
Like we know it all
Like we have seen it all
Like we see any end in sight
Like we have any control!

We are…

More like goldfish in an aquarium. We know a wee bit of the environment we are subjected to but neither has any control over it nor any clue of what’s beyond it!