The emerging mind, and the overwhelming awe

The ability to be able to do Science is the grandest gift that has been bestowed upon us Homo sapiens, during the course of evolution, while we were trying to 'survive'.

To be able to understand the intricate patterns of the Universe, decipher the codes of the nature, reason out the fallacies in our presumptions and to inch closer to rationality: Are we not gifted enough?
Why do we need any more miracles?

My latest read, that has increased my inquisition about neuroscience is the book, The Emerging Mind - a long pending read I must admit, and it comes in at the right time - when I'm all engrossed in an involuntary and obsessive spree of revelation after revelation. Written by one of the brightest of the neuroscientists - Vilayanur Ramachandran, the book is a must read to all Science afficiondos.

A somewhat gratifying compliment while reading the book is the presumption of the author that his readers are all Darwinians (which I so am), and would make zero sense in case you are a creationist or the "magic wand-life happening" believers!

The book has lot of medical jargon. It was quite a homecoming of sorts, after a gap of few years since my pre-university Biology and the little gyaan I assimilated there!

Knowing about the least known thing - The Human Brain, is an excellent appraisal of realizing where we stand today in terms of understanding everything. Although, this book by itself is highly speculative at certain claims, mostly it is convincing and I must add that the book is a lovely read, overall. Interestingly, the book has an equal number of pages dedicated to Notes , which are interesting case studies.

Another important aspect of the many of the arguments presented are that, they are efficient in disproving some of the exaggerated Freudian ideas and approaches using the physiology (if there's anything of that sort) of the human brain.

So, I am lesser a Freudian, and more in awe of the chronicles and adventures of the human brain after having read this book.

As Feynman puts it, "Wondering at the wonder of wondering" - Isn't the idea of being able to ideate, and to be able to contemplate the process of ideation itself something unbelievable.

The awe I have developed about the wonders of nature, and that is growing exponentially on a daily basis now has another element added to it.The human brain is equally diverse and obscure as the Universe itself. It is not just the awe about the human brain, but one step ahead, the ability of these jellies of neurons to contemplate and dig into the secrets of the universe, and almost as a recursion be able to stand out as a separate entity and wonder at itself! Wow, what an exercise!


Aren't we the miracles, we keep looking for in fables and gospels, stories and fantasies!

Advertising genes? LOL!

The incentive for humans to do all that, that is humanely possible to do, has had lots of people speculating in various dimensions. There have been social, economic, philanthropic and biological justifications.

The most entertaining of these, and that is the most convincing as well is the evolutionary perspective.

Organisms, given their conditioning to the law of natural selection, want to transmit the best of the genes  to better the process of evolution and hence playing their part in perpetuating the highest quality genes.

The usual example of peahens being attracted towards peacocks with large, vibrant tails, or giraffes with the longest necks etc... are just the tip of the iceberg of the evidence that's out there in front of us.

Talking about ourselves, the evolutionary gift bestowed on us is the ability to think, imagine and create : Our Intellectual abilities. So, the incentive as directed from the evolutionary force, for each of us to be able to be doing what we do, is to advertise our genes!

This has neuroscientific elucidation; There are certain portions of the modular brain that we are bestowed with abilities to enact the trait of advertising the genes for evolutionary purposes, which end up being subsconscious many a times.

I am so resonating with this idea, that I might concur entirely with this argument ;-)

This makes so much sense, at least to me, or the ones like me: I recently discovered that my saga of amorous infatuations (at least the majority of them), have had a categorization! I wholly belong to a genre of people, coded with a sexual orientation called as "sapiosexual" ( a person who is sexually attracted to intelligence in others)!

And because I see myself as a sapiosexual, the notion of me advertising my genes (although it sounds ludicrous), seems justifiable ;)


PS: Suggested reads - works of Wilayanur Ramachandran, and of course Charles Darwin.

Socially necessary value of oneself

An interesting observation by a fellow rationale was reported to me, about me having a broad network with wide range of people in it (not on Facebook!), but the real people network. Well, even if I was quite aware of this, another aspect of the reporting was about the recognition/id'ing I end up having in this diverse diaspora. As in, the way I value the people in my network, they too I presume value me for some worth in me.

After encountering this idea, I started wondering what is it that makes someone in my network to give heed to my words, observe my actions, and eventually at least pretend that I bear some value to them.

Using a derived idea, I call this "The Socially necessary value of oneself".

Every sect of this network has a commonality between their interests and mine. As long as I am able to cater to the interests of this particular sect, and if I also happen to maintain a gradient, or at least camouflage obscurity as a gradient, the interactions happen in a mutually respectful and responsive manner. The efforts I invest in catering to each of these sects is what I call as the "socially necessary value". This is not me trying to cater to someone else consciously, although that ends up being a ramification. It is more of an exercise of expanding the self.

Now, it might not be a generalization, but based on my interactions for quite a substantial period of time, what I have come to realize is that a gradient helps in getting people to give heed to you. And the more diverse one's realms of gradients are, broader will the diaspora grow into.

The incessant efforts I put in, to keep pace with these other sects conversely are building up my skills and that's not something I might want to complain about.

Top 10 songs in the last 50 days

The last  couple of months have washed away all the music famine, a music afficionado like me was facing. I must admit that for quite sometime, before that there was no music whatsoever,that was even audio palatable! And am I not glad now!

Well, there has been AR Rahman, Coldplay, RHCP, Maroon5, some new bands and even a kannada song as well! Here I just am in a playful mood to index these tracks in a seasonal, personal favorite countdown.

10. Days are forgotten from Kasabian's Velociraptor

Wow! This is one of those songs which hook on the very first few seconds you are into it. I haven't been aware of this decade old band-Kasabian;nonetheless now I'm glad. With this song I am going a little retrospective into their discography and pick out all their best. For now, this song is going to be on my playlist for sometime now. The aaaannn-nnnnaaaaaa-aaaa hum is super haunting, and adding to it is a cool video. Days are forgotten!

9. Kathlalli karadige from Yograj Bhat's Paramatma

Well this witty of a kannada track from the movie Paramatma, has all ingredients except the picturisation to become a memorable one (irony is that I had stopped listening to it after seeing the video!). Nonetheless, the song by itself is full of sarcasm, mockery and unheard kannada slang - I just love it!


8. I don't mind from Superheavy's Superheavy

An awesome duet by Mick Jagger and Joss stone with some deep lyric. I can almost visualize AR Rahman playing the keyboard for this one. A haunting bass goes through the song and is one of the most effective songs in recent times. A great venture by the team of Superheavy to mix cultures and give us some vibrant music. Superheavy the album itself is a great listen. And Joss Stone in this song sounds like Dido in the Eminem version of Stan, while Damien Marley sounds the most comprehensible in this track :P

7. Munandhi saaral ni from Harris Jayaraj's 7am Arivu

First and only Tamil song which has been exceptional in the recent months comes from Harris Jayaraj in this tamil biggie. Karthick, one of my favourite singers renders a magical touch to this deeply romantic track picturised on the gorgeous Shruthi Hassan. Looking forward to the entire video, this time!

6. Satyameva jayate from Superheavy's Superheavy

Second of the tracks and first direct one from AR Rahman is this amazing track titled Satyameva Jayate, and gets on to become a peppy number. The main chorus with all the artists singing to an awesome guitar piece sticks to one's head.

5. Moves like Jagger by Maroon5 and Christina Aguilera

Mick Jagger's third time already :D
Although in this one, he's the protagonist, and not the artist. In a tribute to Mick Jagger, Maroon5 collaborates with Christina Aguilera for this hilariously shot video and a great number, it starts with a funky whistle apt to feature Mick Jagger's clones! Although, Christina's vocal contribution to the song ain't much, I'm not unhappy that she's featured in the video ;-)

4. Sada Haq from AR Rahman's Rockstar

Okay! If this comes as a surprise, as in not to have made it to the top - I guess, then there is something better than this awesome track. One of the best guitar leads for an Indian song, from Michael Jackson's lead guitarist Orianthi Panagaris. The lyrics are just ground breaking and I love the way this track catches its tempo - Keeps ascending through the song. Another masterpiece by the genius. It would be apt to mention another track from Rockstar "Naadan parindey" deserves to be somewhere on the list, and most apt would be along with Sada haq. AR at his best in both the tracks.

3. Paradise from Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto

Audience can be led into the closest sensation of musical meditation in contemporary music only by Coldplay. Is Chris Martin's voice magic? I might agree! Chris Martin singing "para para paradise, everytime she closed her eyes" is as magical as something could get. An amazing song, no one but Colplay can do something like this. A great album overall, better than their previous Viva la Vida, and the track Paradise is my favorite in this album.

2. The adventures of rain dance maggie from Red Hot Chilli Peppers' I'm With You

Talk of groove, funk and jump, there's RHCP for you. The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie has an impeccable groove through the song and the teasy lyric of RHCP in this song catches on from the very first moment. Further, the classic "Heyyyy noooow" by Anthony is as good as it could get. The casual video on the beaches of California is also something pleasant to watch!

1. Jo bhi main from AR Rahman's Rockstar

Well, if you have not heard this song yet. You might be surprised to listen to it. This is not one of those impulsive songs which you start liking the very first time. This is a classic AR Rahman track which grows onto you, each and everytime you listen to it. Mohit Chauhan's best ever, and a great track in this amazing album. The song gets better with every piece of instrumentation, carried all over really well by Mohit. The song has some profound lyric yet again! This is one of the tracks which will stand the test of time!

Revisiting the JanLokpal debate

For some organizational purposes, friends and myself from ITEC visited Justice Santosh Hegde, former Lokayukta and a core committee member in the "Team Anna", and I was looking forward to meet him in person after all the initial genuine work he did, and the intrigue grew subsequently after the media portrayed him as the lone anti-corruption crusader.

Warm, humble and sensible are the words adequate to define him.

During the course of our discussion, as I was hoping, the discussion did get routed into the Janlokpal debate.

If some of you have been closely watching the Janlokpal (the debate about the bill, not the TV drama!), the points of contention were about who would be brought into the ambit of the bill. And the media was chewing the cud over and over again about the PM being brought into the ambit of the bill. While more saner heads around were asking everyone else to look at the obvious miscreants, and pull the corporates and now the latest threats NGO's into the bill.

But, the media and NGO's both are run by the Corporatocracy, as is most of the Government itself. And the media has hushed up about these two aspects.

While I was certainly endorsing the idea of bringing the corporates and NGO's into the ambit of the bill, I had presumed that Mr.Santosh Hegde would have adhered only to bringing the PM into the bill (my ignorance), and making it 'stronger'. While we were more on making it 'stronger' and 'sharper'.

It came as a surprise today: The first thing he spoke about while discussing the Janlokpal bill was the fraudulence associated with majority of the NGO's, and how myopic the bill was without bringing in the Corporates into the bill.

His frustration about the NGO's and their parasitic nature of thriving on the misery of others was a lot more sensible than whatever TV appearances he's been making. The venting out against the Corporates with all the work that he's been doing is something that few people have given heed to.

It is intriguing to see how we are all made to believe that the real villain is our saviour.  That is, talking about the role of corporates, who are pretending to be
the nice guys, and acting as if they were the ones who could abolish
poverty (ex, recently the Coca Cola -NDTV school campaign!)...
Irony in the first place is that, it is because of such profit seeking monopolies, that the disparity globe across has grown to this extent.

Bottomline: Corporates need to be brought into the Janlokpal bill, if ever it is going to be implemented.

ಯರೂ ಕಾಣದ ಆಪಲ್ ಕಂಡ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್

ಗಣಕಗಳನ್ನು  ಜನಸಾಮನ್ಯರು ಬಳಸಲು ಅನುಕೂಲವಾಗುವಂತೆ ತಯಾರಿಸುವುದಾಗಿ ಹೊರಟ ಆಪಲ್ ಕಂಪನಿಯು, ಗಣಕ ಮತ್ತು ತನ್ನ ಇನಿತ್ತರ ಉತ್ಪನ್ನಗಳ ಸ್ವರೂಪಕ್ಕೆ  ಅತಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಪ್ರಾಮುಖ್ಯತೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟರು. ಈ ಕಾರಣ ಆಪಲ್  ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸಿದ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನವು  ಗ್ರಾಹಕರಿಗೆ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರತೆ ಇಲ್ಲದಿರುವ , ಅತಿ ದುಬಾರಿಯಾದ ಉತ್ಪಾದನೆಗಳನ್ನು ತಯಾರಿಸಿ, ಗ್ರಾಹಕರಿಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಚಟದಂತೆ ಬೆಳೆದ ಆಪಲ್ ಕಂಪನಿಯ ಸಂಸ್ಥಾಪಕರಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಖ್ಯರಾದ  ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್  ,ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗೆ ನಿಧನರಾದರು.

ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್  ನಿಧನರಾದಂತೆ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮಗಳಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ಅವರ ಕೀರ್ತನೆಯು ನದಿಯಂತೆ ಹರಿಯಲಾರಂಭಿಸಿತು. ಈ ವರದಿಗಳನ್ನೆಲ್ಲ ನಂಬುವುದಾದರೆ ,ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್  ೨೧ನೇ ಶತಮಾನದ ನ್ಯೂಟನ್,  ಐನ್ ಸ್ಟೈನ್, ಎಡಿಸನ್ ಎಂದು ಹೋಲಿಸಿ ಹೊಗಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಅದೇ ಸಮಯ ಹಲವಾರು ಬುಧ್ದಿ ಜೀವಿಗಳು ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್ ರವರ ಕೆಲಸ ವ್ಯೆಖರಿಗಳನ್ನು ಮತ್ತು ಅವರ ಸೃಜನಶೀಲತೆಯನ್ನು ತೀಕ್ಷ್ಣವಾಗಿ ಟೀಕಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ .

ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್ ರವರನ್ನು  ಹೊಗಳುವುದೇ, ಅಥವಾ ಟೀಕಿಸುವುದೇ?

ಅವರ ಜೇವನ ಮತ್ತು ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನು ಪರಿಗಣಿಸಿದರೆ , ಈ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗೆ ಉತ್ತರ ಸುಲಭವಾಗಿ ಅರಿವಾಗುವುದು. ಒಬ್ಬ ಗಣಕ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನಿಯಿಂದ ಆಪಲ್ ಮತ್ತು ಪಿಕ್ಸರ್ ನಂತಹ ಬೆಟ್ಟದಾಕಾರದ ಕಂಪನಿಗಳನ್ನು  ಬೆಳೆಸಿರುವುದು ಒಂದು ದೃಷ್ಟಿಕೋಣದಲ್ಲಿ  ದೊಡ್ಡ ಸಾಧನೆಯಂದು ಪರಿಗಣಿಸಿದರೆ. ಕ್ಯಾನ್ಸರ್ ನಂತಹ ರೋಗದಲ್ಲಿ ನರಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾಗಲೂ ಜೀವನದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋರಾಡಿ ಜನಸಾಮಾನ್ಯರಗಿ ಒಂದು ಸ್ಪೂರ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ಒದಗಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಆದರೆ , ಅವರು ಈ ಸಾಧನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿದ್ದು ಹೇಗೆ, ಎಂಬ ವಿಷಯವನ್ನು ಯಾವ ಮಾದ್ಯಮಗಳಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ಚರ್ಚಿಗೊಳಗಾಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ.

ಕ್ರಿಯಾಶೀಲತೆ ಮತ್ತು ಸೃಜನೆಶೀಲತೆಯು ಬೇರೆಯವರಿಂದ ಅನುಕರಣೆ ಮಾಡುವುದೇ ಅವರ ಕಂಪನಿಯ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆಗೆ ಕಾರಣವೆಂದು ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್ ರವರು ,ಅವರ ಕಂಪನಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಉತ್ಪಾದನೆಗೊಂಡ ಒಂದೊಂದು ಉತ್ಪನ್ನವೂ, ಅದರಲ್ಲಿರುವ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶವು ಗ್ರಾಹಕರಿಗೆ ಕಡಿವಾಣ ಹಾಕಿದಂತೆ ಇವೆ. ಅವರು ಮಾಡಿದ ಅನುಕರಣೆ ಹಾಗು ಅದರಿಂದ ಪಡೆದ ಲಾಭವನ್ನು, ತಮ್ಮ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರು ಪಡೆದು, ಬೆಳೆಯದಂತೆ ಒಂದು ಕಾರಾಗೃಹವನ್ನೆ ನಿರ್ಮಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಷ ಆಂದೋಲನದ , ರಿಚರ್ಡ್ ಸ್ಟಾಲಮನ್ ರವರು ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್ ರವರನ್ನು  ಕುರಿತು "ಗಣಕವನ್ನು ಕಾರಾಗೃಹ ಮಾಡಿದ ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್ ರವರು ನಿಧನರಾದ ಮೇಲಾದರೂ ಅವರ ಕಂಪನಿ ತಾಂತ್ರಿಕ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರತೆಯನ್ನು  ತನ್ನ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರಿಗೆ ಒದಗಿಸಲಿ ಎಂದು ಅಶಿಸೋಣ " ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಗ್ರಾಹಕರ ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರತೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಇಂಚಿತ್ತೂ ಆಲೋಚಿಸದೆ , ಲಾಭವೇ ತನ್ನ  ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಗುರಿ ಎಂದು ಗಗನಾಂತರ ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ಆಪಲ್ ಕಂಪನಿಯಂತಹ  ದ್ಯೆತ್ಯವನ್ನು  ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸಿರುವ ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್ ರವರನ್ನು , ಬಂಡವಾಳಶಾಹಿ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮವು ತನಗೆ  ಬೇಕಾದಂತೆಯೇ ಒಬ್ಬ ನಾಯಕನನ್ನು ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್ ರವರಲ್ಲಿ ಕಂಡು, ಪ್ರಚಾರ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದೆ.

ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್ ರವರು ವಯಕ್ತಿಕವಾಗಿ ಹೋರಾಡಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಜೀವನದಲ್ಲಿ ಹಲವಾರು ಸಾಧನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿದರು ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿವುದಾದರೂ, ಆ ಸಾಧನೆಗಳ ಮೂಲ ಆಧಾರ ಎನು? ಎಂಬುದು ಆಲೋಚಿಸ ಬೇಕಾದ ವಿಷಯ.ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನದಲ್ಲಿ  ಅಸ್ವತಂತ್ರತೆಯನ್ನು  ಸೇರಿಸಿ ಕಲುಷಿತಗೊಳಿಸಿದ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನಿ ಸ್ಟೀವ್ ಜಾಬ್ಸ್, ಎಂದು  ಸಮಾಜದ ಮೇಲೆ ಕಾಳಜಿಯಿರುವ ಇರುವವರೆಲ್ಲರೂ ಒಪ್ಪುವರು.

ಹಿನ್ನುಡಿ: ಜನಶಕ್ತಿ ವಾರಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗೆ ನಾನು ಬರೆದ ಲೆಖನ 

Mistrust and Marketing

The notion across the manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries, and more so amongst the consuming end-users is that Marketing in essence is the pinnacle of product development; And that without this piece of gimmickry there would be not much of value that could be associated to the technology itself; This is I must argue the most flawed of the perceptions that is around. This perception, of course has been perpetrated by the current modes of economic models in business.

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development (wikipedia).

Because it is from Wikipedia, it gives the average accepted definition of marketing. Nonetheless, the point is how far have we taken this strategy? What are the ethics it is based on?

Putting this question on hold for sometime, let us also analyse a close associate, or a jargon sometimes interchangeably used with marketing : "Advertising".

This facet of product market, which actually is an interface between the industry and consumers has lost its original purpose;

Advertising was supposed to be simply a means of propaganda; While the necessity of propaganda itself is quite debatable, I am on the YES side  of the debate. It would merely, but importantly serve as a means of spreading awareness in its original form. When the market is flooded with products, simple advertising gives consumers a choice. Presuming that there is no fraudulence associated with this information, it presents itself as the entropy using which people make their choices.

Getting back to the question of Marketing, the tricks it engages in are directly oriented at manipulating these very choices, by altering the nature of information entropy, propagated via advertising!
Marketing in today's global markets has gained a definition something on the lines of "verbiage deception, accomplished euphemistically".

If the reader has already noticed there is extensive cynicism that has been exhibited on this post about marketing. The root of this cynicism is something psychological, and only is a special case of mistrust.

When relations involve money, the chances that mistrust creeps in are higher. It is natural for the human psyche to perceive it that way.
A talk by Lawrence Lessig on these lines would substantiate my claims better. 

The unwritten rule of marketing in the current context is to hide flaws and maximize profits. And it is such trickery that has appended this extent of cynicism to the act of marketing!

Over this discourse, an impression of me being highly prejudiced against marketing must have surfaced. This is in no manner a prejudice alone. First hand experience and some rudimentary understanding of the system has what enabled me to argue on these lines.

To see what some of us see, you will need to look through a different paradigm. A paradigm where people come first, and not commodities or profits.

ಸೂರ್ಪಣಂಗು : ಒಂದು ಪ್ರಭಾವಶಾಲಿ ನಾಟಕ

ಹಲವಾರು ದಿನಗಳ ನಂತರ, ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಲೇಖನವನ್ನು ಬರೆಯುತ್ತಿರುವೆನು. ಈ ಲೇಖನವು ಒಂದು ತಮಿಳು ನಾಟಕದ ಕುರಿತು ಎಂಬುದು ವಿಶೇಷ. ಸೂರ್ಪಣಂಗು ಎಂಬ ತಮಿಳು ನಾಟಕ ಇತ್ತೀಚಿಗೆ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ರವೀಂದ್ರ ಕಲಾಕ್ಷೇತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರದರ್ಶಿಸಲಾಯಿತು.

ನನಗೆ ಹಲವಾರು ಹೊಸದಾದ ವಿಚಾರಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಮಹತ್ವದ ದ್ರಿಷ್ಟಿಕೋನಗಳು ಈ ನಾಟಕ ಹಾಗು ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಸೇರಿದ್ದ ಜನರಿಂದ ಅರಿವಾಯಿತು.

ಸಮಾನತೆ ಎಂಬುದು, ಬರಿಯ ಪಠ್ಯ ಸೀಮಿತ ವಿಚಾರವಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಇಂದಿಗೂ ಹಲವಾರು ವರ್ಗದ ಜನರು ತಮ್ಮ ಹಕ್ಕುಗಳಿಗಾಗಿ ಹೋರಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಇಂತಹ ಒಂದು ವರ್ಗದ ಹೋರಾಟದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಈ ನಾಟಕದ ಆಯೋಜಕರ ಮೂಲಕ ತಿಳಿದು ಕೊಂಡೆನು.

ಲೈಂಗಿಕ ಅಲ್ಪಸಂಖ್ಯಾತರು ಮತ್ತು ಅವರುಗಳ ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ತೊಂದರೆ, ಕಷ್ಟಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಹೋರಾಟಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಒಂದು ಇಣುಕು ದೊರಕಿತು. ಅಕ್ಕೈ ಪದ್ಮಶಾಲಿ ಅವರು ಲೈಂಗಿಕ ಅಲ್ಪಸಂಖ್ಯಾತರಲ್ಲಿ ಒಬ್ಬರಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಅವರ  ಅಂಗೀಕಾರ, ಹಕ್ಕು, ಮತ್ತು ಸಮಾನತೆಗಳಿಗಾಗಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಸಂಗಾತಿಯರೊಂದಿಗೆ ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಜನಾಗೃತಿ ಚಟುವಟಿಕೆಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆಯು ಅರಿವಾಯಿತು. ಇಂತಹ ಅಸಮಾನತೆಗಳ ಗೂಡಾಗಿ ಬೆಳೆದಿರುವ ನಮ್ಮ ಸಮಾಜದಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಪಾತ್ರವೇನು ಎಂದು ಆಲೋಚಿಸುವ ಅವಕಾಶವಾಗಿ ಈ ಅನುಭವ ಒದಗಿತು.

ಸೂರ್ಪಣಂಗು ನಾಟಕವು ಕನ್ನಡ ರಂಭೂಮಿಯೊಳಗೆ ತಮಿಳು ರಂಗಕ್ರಿಯೆಯ ಅನುಸಂಧಾನವೆಂದು ಪರಿಗಣಿಸಿ, ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತಿಸಿದರು . ನಾಟಕ ಗ್ರಾಮೇಣ ಮತ್ತು ಶುದ್ಢ ತಮಿಳಿನಲ್ಲಿದುದರಿಂದ, ನನಗೆ ವಚನ, ಸಂಭಾಷಣೆಗಳು ಅರ್ಥವಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಮಾತೃ ಭಾಷೆಯಾದರೂ ಇಂತಹ ಅವಸ್ಥೆಯಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನನ್ನ ತಮಿಳು :-)

ಸಂಭಾಷಣೆ ಅರ್ಥವಾಗದಿದ್ದರೂ ನಟರ ಅಭಿನಯವು ಯಥಾರ್ಥವಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಗ್ರಾಮೇಣ ಪ್ರದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ಹಬ್ಬಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ಹಸಿವು, ಕ್ಷಾಮ, ಬರ ಮತ್ತು ಜೇವನದ ದೈನಂದಿನ ಹೋರಾಟಗಳನ್ನು  ಅತಿ ಪ್ರಭಾವಶಾಲಿಯಾಗಿ ಅಭಿನಯಿಸಿದ್ದರು. ಆ ಪ್ರಭಾವವು ಪ್ರೇಕ್ಷಕರಾದ ನಮ್ಮ ಮನಸ್ಸನ್ನು ತೇವ್ರತೆಯಿಂದ ಬಿಗಿ ಹಾಕಿತ್ತು. ಹಲವಾರು ದೃಶ್ಯಗಳು ನೋಡುಗರನ್ನು ತಳಮಳಗೊಳಿಸಿತು. ಹೆಂಗಸರಿನ ಮೇಲಿನ ದೌರ್ಜನ್ಯ, ಕಾರ್ಮಿಕರ ಮೇಲೆ ಅತ್ಯಾಚಾರ ಇಂತಹ ಸಂಗತಿಗಳು ನಿಜವಾಗಿದ್ದರು ಅದನ್ನು ಒಂದು ಪ್ರಭಾವಶಾಲಿ ನಾಟಕದ ಮೂಲಕ ಕಾಣುವುದು ಬಹಳ ಕಷ್ಟಕರವೆನಿಸಿತು ನನಗೆ.

ಸುಮಾರು ಎರಡು ಗಂಟೆಗಳ ಕಾಲ ಗಾಢವಾದ ಪರಿಶ್ರಮ  ಮತ್ತು ಉತ್ತಮ್ಮ ಪ್ರತಿಭೆಯನ್ನು ಪ್ರದರ್ಶಿಸಿದ ನಟರು ಮತ್ತು ಅವರ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನವು ಮನದಾಳದಲ್ಲಿ ನೆಲೆಸಿದೆ. ನಾಟಕಕಾರರು ಪಡುವ ಪರಿಶ್ರಮವನ್ನು ನಾವು ಉತ್ತೇಜಿಸಿ ಬೆಂಬಲಿಸಬೇಕು. ಹಾಗು, ಇಂತಹ ನಾಟಕಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಹೇಳಲ್ಪಡುವ ಸಂಗತಿಯನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮ ಜೇವನದಲ್ಲಿ ನಾವು ಸಂಧರ್ಭ ಬಂದಲ್ಲಿ ಅಳವಡಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು, ಸಮಾಜದಲ್ಲಿ ಸುಧಾರಣೆಯನ್ನು ತರಲು ನಮ್ಮಿಂದಾಗುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನವನ್ನು ಪಡಬೇಕು.

And down grounds the ego...

While it all seems like a frictionless glide, allowing the ego to swell to the fullest and the momentum to go full throttle, there comes a necessary prick. A prick which deflates everything that's swollen and grounds the now helium filled ego down to an equilibrium point. It hits like an unseen obstacle on the forehead; RSVP's a serendipitous encounter with the ever humble, unfaking, simple revelation: The Reality.

When unchecked, the chances of losing oneself in his/her own oneiric world, detached from the roots of reality are extremely high. Such a state is not only temporary, it also erodes the quality of the time to come.

The constant cognizance of the fact that we are nothing but deep voids,and no amount of straw filling can even begin filling up these voids must be borne always. The scale of learning, growing and disseminating each one engages in is miniscule, when compared to all that is yet to be sought.

Vanity in relative superiority is perilous, and there should be only the aspect of pride when appraised with oneself. The metric should always be ourselves; never should we delve into relative comparison. By saying this I don't imply to endorse 'hypocrisy with a tinge of humility', but only the realization of the cliched fact that "Known is a drop, and unknown is an ocean".

Relative comparison either puts one in a deludingly superior position, or a depressingly inferior position; Both of these are unnecessary when one thrives to increase and make positive the rate of growth of the self at this instant, when compared to some recent point in time in the past.

Information gradient

Asymmetric Polarization has been a certain trait of society, as far as all the documented history of human race have revealed. This conscious polarization of the society into one small advantageous section, and a large suppressed section has been true since the times of patriarchal settlements to the current civilized democracies.

Creating a gradient in the society using various manipulable parameters, with an ultimate motive of facilitating oppression has been the unwritten rule throughout. The parameters, which have been manipulated at various epochs of History have been different: Class, Caste, Gender, Land, industries, and today we are at a point where Information is this gradient causing agent.

Controlled knowledge as misinformation, and suppressed information in the form of secrets have become the weapons of 'mass' destruction in today's Information society. While there is information mining on certain type of information using all means possible; there is also an astronomical way of suppressing another kind of information.

Stuck in the middle of this Information Revolution, most of us are the ignorant technologists paradoxically driving the motors of this oppression regime. Like I usually end up saying,
The problem often is not arriving at the solution, but in many cases realizing the existence of the problem itself!

Even in this case, the lack of cognizance amongst us about the perils of the information gradient, that we are very much a part of, is of more concern than even the contemplation on the solution to this threat.

As instances of whistleblowing, RTI's and WikiLeaks in general have shown the ever increasing risks involved with the just attempts of declassifying high level classified information should put us at alert, and we must begin to analyze the inertness of ourselves and the hyperactivity of the suppressors who would in turn manipulate and try disabling us!

We help build the gradient which is favourable to them, while ironically is perilous to ourselves.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Is Oscar Wilde one of the greatest writers ever?
Certainly, yes!

The first of his work  which I have read is the uncommon fiction The Picture of Dorian Gray, which serves more as a critique on the etiquette of the 19th century English society, which is more relevant today than even when it was written.

This is an extraordinarily written story about a naive, young man and his tryst with narcissism, which turns him into a devil from within, while still retaining his physical appearance. Narcissism, and the consequences of mad obsession of one's own physical appearance and addiction to pleasure without gauging the rights and wrongs are the rest of the book, ingeniously written.


Apart from the exceptional plot, the consistent wit associated with every parable puts the reader at awe, incessantly. Especially the philosophical discourse, a character Lord Henry spills throughout are unbelievably witty, although the morals of the same could be severely debated.

This work by Oscar Wilde is a tribute to youth of people, as was his entire life. The vanity, curiosity and hypocrisy of the protagonist, which the narration elucidates are the manifestations of the life and personality that Oscar Wilde was.

Oscar Widle, as an author, to have written and to have endorsed this work in the 1890 is something of a great achievement by itself.


A personal favorite passage towards the end of the book; It stands out while reminiscing the book.

Life is not governed by will or intention. Life is a question of nerves, and fibres, and slowly built-up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams. You may fancy yourself safe and think yourself strong. But a chance tone of colour in a room or a morning sky, a particular perfume that you had once loved and that brings subtle memories with it, a line from a forgotten poem that you had come across again, a cadence from a piece of music that you had ceased to play--
I tell you, Dorian, that it is on things like these that our lives depend. Browning writes about that somewhere; but our own senses will imagine them for us.....
The world has cried out against us both, but it has always worshipped you. It always will worship you. You are the type of what the age is searching for, and what it is afraid it has found. I am so glad that you have never done anything, never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets. 

Stop. Look. Proceed

An apprehension that has been perpetually haunting me, from the time I remember my own conscious thoughts is the sensation of having done so little, while there's so much more to do be done. Even in some previous posts I must have expressed this private concern. The apprehension is neither exaggeratedly confined at the macroscopic level, or simply at introspective level. It is a boundary less visualization of everything, including the task of realizing my own potentials to the fullest.

I do not look at this as a question of  accomplishments or unquenched goals. These are voids which I know I can fill with with my efforts. For some inexplicable reasons I feel as if I am running late - Sometimes, as if I have started late!

Today for reasons symbolic only, the day is an epochal one to me. And although symbols are mere symbols, they serve to highlight some specialty associated with their endorsements; It is such symbols which serve the purpose of revealing aspects of ourselves to us.

Will this remembrance serve as a wake up call to some extent? Not sure. But, I would certainly strive to get better, in all regards.

Comprehending fear

Over a casual discussion with a friend, which as usual ended up being vibrantly philosophical, the question of fear and the sources of fear surfaced up. A consistent definition used by me, did fit the context well: Ignorance.

Ignorance, adding to its list of accomplished human vulnerabilities also is the certain root cause of fear.

While obscurity and lack of clarity can be attributed to natural curiosity and inquisition, ignorance and misinterpretation can conveniently be attributed to fear.

And this aspect of ignorance when left to grow, will mature (or can i say immature!) as fear, to become one of the most efficient instruments of exploitation at our disposal.

Oppression in the name of classes, castes, race, color have all been possible because institutionalization of fear emanating out of  ignorance has been transformed into reality. Inequality coupled with ignorance can be used to force a reign of fear upon people, as History stands to testify.

Conquering ignorance, and invading into the exciting realms of reasoning is the scientific penance each one must consciously be engaged in. Enlightenment is not an spasmodic transformation, it is a gradual revelation!

All art is quite useless

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.

The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.

The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. 

The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. 

No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. 

An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything. 

Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. 

From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type. 

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. 

Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. 

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.

OSCAR WILDE

PS: I have quoted Oscar Wilde verbatim from the preface to his book The Picture of Dorian Gray. I could not contain myself to complete reading this book and then write about it.
He is truly the First Modern Man.

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations

The Wealth of Nations is considered to be the basis of classical Economics which has today grown to become the foundation of the Free Market Economy, maturing into Capitalism.

The book Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is a ghostwritten work by Karen McCreadie . It is a brief commentary, but in the contemporary sense of the impact of the basic ideals put forth  by Adam Smith in his humungous five volumes - The Wealth of Nations.

It isn't surprising to hear the statement "Even Adam Smith would turn rounds in his grave, if he'd know what has come of his ideas of free market , to have culminated into today's ruthless capitalism". Even in this book, this apprehension is reiterated numerous times.

This book by Karen serves at best as a perfect primer to introduce Adam Smith's ideas, in correlation to the Economic bubbles and busts we are experiencing even as I write of it. She explains Adam Smith's ideas in relation to the global economic ambiance fluently.

One conclusive excerpt from the book:

The biggest challenge with The Wealth of Nations is that it fails to take human nature into account, which by all accounts is a serious mistake. Free enterprise can be valid economic system, but this is on the assumption that human beings will not exploit each other, that the strong will not take advantage of the weak, and unfortunately that assumption is misplaced in the 21st century, perhaps especially in the 21st century! Capitalism without decency, humanity and moral conscience is tantamount to evil, whatever century you choose to examine.

PS: It is interesting to note that the very fundamentals of today's global free-market economies: loans, credit, mortgage, gambling (speculation etc.) and other villainous tactics while are hailed today in the name of Adam Smith and his works - We were warned about these perils by the very person!

Contentment and discontentment of similarly dissimilar diasporas

When I'm with students, the aspects of contentment and discontentment are all the same - exams, projects, jobs

When I'm with working professionals, the aspects of contentment and discontentment are all the same - hikes, pressure, jumps


When I'm with kids, the aspects of contentment and discontentment are all the same - chocolates, homework, play


When I'm with an exclusive chunk of femina, the aspects of contentment and discontentment are all the same - infatuation, surreality, alliance

When I'm with activists, the aspects of contentment and discontentment are all the same - change, society,vision


When I'm with FOSS enthusiasts, the aspects of contentment and discontentment are all the same - proprietary, GNU, Linux


When I'm at home, the aspects of contentment and discontentment are all the same - future, work, sedimentation


When I'm with my small tribe of mavericks, the aspects of contentment and discontentment are all the same- unconventionality, creativity, expression

But, when I'm with myself, the aspects of contentment and discontentment are never all the same - ponder, wonder, forget!

PS: Every diaspora has its own undercurrent, defining trait and objective; And this is what discerns the similarly dissimilar diasporas from the ever similar rest of the plethora.

Right Ho, Jeeves!

Got on to reading fiction after quite sometime; And this time I made it a point to get hold of some humor. Based on the collective opinions of some friends and a huge reputation online, PG Wodehouse was the name appearing everywhere.

Right Ho, Jeeves! was the book, and I am relishing the fact that I was smiling almost half the book and giggling within for the rest of it. Also having known that the subtle and witty Jeeves was played by one of my favorite actors Stephen Fry, Jeeves throughout was played by him in my imagination.

Although Jeeves has very few lines, and very little presence on the scenes, he's undoubtedly the protagonist and most of the scenes as imagined by me also had him heavily occupying his master Wooster's thoughts !

And this vividness PG Wodehouse brings about with his simple language and effective narration allows one to travel into the country side house and be part of the audience in most of the hilarious scenes.

Will be looking forward to some more of PG Wodehouse books; for now, will try to own the Jeeves and Wooster TV series with Stephen Fry playing Jeeves :)
Right Ho!

Not just another brick in the wall!

I must finally, and gladly admit that the last one month of my life has been the most satiating in terms of the quality conversion that has been in progress, of time into tangible efforts.

Not teaching, but facilitating, and at extreme cases mentoring as I perceive is what I have been engaged in my own alma matter. A matter of pride and privilege as I see it.

The efficacy I have been able to incorporate into my routine in terms of the amount of reading, studying, discussing, ideating, implementing many of the discussions, and of course having fun has been super exhilarating.There is also a reasonable amount of vanity in the impact I seem to have made already. Wholly, it has been quite remarkable, this known cum new experience.

I have wanted to discuss this discourse, but am inhibited by my own clauses I will keep it brief and pretend to have obscured you.

If the following lines sounds rhetoric, it would purely be coincidental, and I certainly did not have any such intentions. These are merely my deep experiences of the last few hundreds of hours of my life.

There has been little time that I have been whiling away! The cribbing sensation I used to feel previously, while I had to while away time forcibly has vanished, replaced only by a deep sense of gratification. Understanding has been elevated to newer levels. My days are swift, productive and in the end deeply satisfying.This is not complacence in any sense, but a strong motivator to drive me to strive further.

With contemplations of bigger and better plans I have ushered into a new realm, with the least bit of doubt as apprehended by my well-wishers I shall stay put and do my best operating in this environment.
And rest assured,
/me not just another brick in the wall!

My humble wishlist

You might want to brand me a knurd, geek, or any other stereotype, into which I might be far from being congruent.
Nonetheless, as I lay on my bed thinking, or maybe just when I was at the rim of my conscious mind entering into subconsciousness, I stumbled upon a fanciful wishlist of sorts; Today being my birthday and all, I allowed myself this privilege of posting it up on my blog!

• To understand the General and Special Theory of Relativity in a manner Einstein would have wanted everyone to
• To read Charles Darwin's elegant work, and to take a voyage of evolution along with him sailing on HMS Beagle into the nature's womb
• To revel through the profound obscurity of a mind that Karl Marx was, and observe the polity of economy
• Fighting with Sigmund Freud to look into the mind as taught by the Father of Psychoanalysis himself
• To play around with Quantum Electrodynamics and understand almost everything that fascinated a mind like that of Feynman
• Someday to have learned Tamil and to fathom the gist of Thiruvalluvar's Thirukkural
• And to have my own Theory of Everything!

Is this a lot to ask for?
Hmmm, maybe :)

Hope I someday draw myself closer to understanding few of these minds and the greatness imbibed in their work.

The eternal fountainhead

Well, if you are expecting Ayn Rand and the selective endorsement of her individualism on my part in this post, after having read the title, let me warn you that it is not going to be about it.

A personal, childhood question if creativity was inexhaustible, or whether we would run out of it seems really amusing in retrospection. I intend to reminisce this silliness of mine.

When I was ten or something, I remember deeply analyzing the prospects of humanity running out of creativity, which was according to me then the only discerning factor between humans and animals. My concern then had been on the certain possibility of us running out of it ;-)

The creative run of humanity, keeping music as a domain for analysis, I had then concluded would get 'exhausted' for, we had extended far beyond our abilities to churn up creative music. (This claim by me then, sounds to me like the 'laugh at you' scenes of the Truth Happens video).

Not that I relied for long , nor that I still dwell on these lines of thinking. But, it certainly puts me at awe, as to how we are able to push the envelope farther everyday.
Worth wondering is the fact that we end up inheriting centuries worth of efforts by our ancestors, as snippets of intuition and go on to expand the boundaries of our understanding of Nature, and conquering the ignorance that keeps haunting and eluding us.

The regression of saving an idea today, apprehending that one might not be able to churn up a better one tomorrow is the proclaimed death of creativity.

PS: Truth Happens, one of the best videos ever

Truth Happens from 521studies on Vimeo.

Confessions of an Economic Hitman

Reading this autobiographical, tell-all book by John Perkins seemed surreal.
I am not someone who is very naive about manipulations; I would at least be able to discern between genuine attempts of foreign support, with those of attempts towards hegemonic domination, better than a lot many of us who are blinded and fooled by the corporate media.

But, this detailed reporting from an insider sends shivers down my spine.

A "superpower", pushing beyond the realms of being anything but ethical in order to dominate countries under its vindicative goverment, run by selfish, greed mongers in the background is hard to believe. The USA with its ancient Manifest Destiny and other crap, now has accomplished an indomitable position, where it has the say about anything and everything about every country.

While even countries like India (ironically the largest democracy in the world) is far from being soveriegn, as revealed in the recent WikiLeaks cables, where a cabinet reshuffle in Indian Ministers portfolio was instigated by the lobbyisits of US. When such is the case with the largest democracy, other countries in the middle east, African continent and Latin America, except for a 'few nations' are all entangled in this web unleashed by the aspirations of one country in its distopian dreams of a global empire with a "free" world market, based on exploitation of the majority for the benefits of a small minority, increasing the disparity ruthlessly at a global scale, including amongst its own people.

Instiutions such as the IMF, World Bank and even the UN have evolved to become primary tools used by this superpower and its allies to arm twist countries retaliating against the submissive nature of their hegemony.

This book gives a scintillating account of all the dirty tricks, evil ploys and inhumane nature of functioning of the system as it is today.

Defying the system when it is this hostile is the most natural response anyone who recognizes this hostility would end up doing. But, the efficacy of this system has been its subtle and orchestrated perpetration which keeps all of this hostility hidden from us.

That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
Something on the lines of what Morpheus says to Neo in The Matrix, is the current state of the world.

Nonetheless, this ain't no movie - People are dying, countries are getting impoverished and future is getting bleaker. We are all part of this megaplan of hegemony and exploitation,both by getting exploited and exploiting at various levels.

Defy and change!
We need to change it to a different world: A world as we dream of it, as John perkins puts it in the book.
Now what is the dream of the world we wish to live in is upto each individual to choose upon.

Less personal,More social

A personal observation about the contents I'm discoursing on my personal blog: It certainly is getting unbalanced. Unbalanced in terms of the contexts of the content being discoursed.

My initial posts, if some of you have read/ been reading, would make it obvious that those were primarily venting out of personal experiences, with a narrow scope in the content. Those posts, if read now seem trivial, nonetheless seem special and cute to me. They imbibe some of the best moments of my life: Rendering those moments immortal.

Off late, the content of the discussions in my posts are seldom pertaining to anything intimately personal at all, and seem to be digressing into wider realms of understanding everything around me, keeping myself as the observer. This again is a phase, which I attribute to the growth I have had. An evolution into mindsets which are capable of comprehending some crucial aspects which shape our lives and mould the society. This again is important and  I am glad to be able to doubt, understand and critique these subtle, yet powerful forces honing us.

This stop and look back post was instigated by the observation that my audience is getting diversified, and some of you have been part of this journey seeing me metamorphose into someone that you think that you know.

Be it personal or social, ideas will forever remain immortal.

Life and works of Acharya PC Ray

Talk by Prof.S Chatterjee

Science can afford to wait but Swaraj cannot ...

P C Ray

The prolonged Indian Freedom struggle, and its chronicling in retrospect seem to focus only on the efforts by a select few national heroes. Whereas the freedom struggle itself was brought to its momentum by hundreds of intellectuals and revolutionaries, thousands of toilers and millions of the masses. Reminiscing the contributions by many other great minds are certainly needed to expand the understanding of our History, legacy of our struggle, to further interpret the current state of affairs.

Prafulla Chandra Ray, the entrepreneur and scientist behind the Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, who was dearly called as Acharya Ray played an important role. Acquainting with his life and works, certainly help us to understand the Indian freedom struggle better from other necessary dimensions.

On the 15^th of August, 2011 a talk about the Life and Works of PC Ray by Prof. Chatterjee was organized at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc,Bangalore. This informative talk, followed by a detailed discussion session certainly threw light upon the life of the great confluence of an academician, entrepreneur, scientist, historian, nationalist, pacifist and patriot that Acharya PC Ray was.

Prof.Chatterjee traversed through the life, ideals, work and accomplishments of Acharya Ray in an exhilarating talk which span for about an hour. Prof.Chatterjee communicated all the dimensions of this multi-faceted being in the most convincing manner. The correlation that was brought between science, scientists and their social responsibilities were elucidated in a comprehensive and riveting manner.

PC Ray apart from being the entrepreneur behind the Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, was one of the important scientific visionaries of pre-independent India. Under his guidance, his students would go on to expand the realms of scientific contribution in India. His students were of the likes of Meghnad Saha, Atul Chandra Ghosh, and others who made significant contributions to develop science and technology in India.

Acharya PC Ray was contemporary to Rabindranath Tagore, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Subhash Chandra Bose, MK Gandhi and other influential personalities during the Independence movement. PC Ray had his own crucial contributions to the Freedom struggle. Apart from propagating science and grooming technology, PC Ray was known to have sheltered numerous revolutionaries and provided them with support for their work.

Prof. Chatterjee in his talk brought out the contradiction between today's statesmen and the so called 'intelligentsia', with that of the statesmen and intellectuals of the era of PC Ray, using PC Ray's notions about self-reliance and sovereignty as examples.

The audience resonated to this contradiction, when excerpts from Acharya PC Ray and another modern statesman were quoted for comparison.

PC Ray in his Essay “India before and after the mutiny” written in 1885, makes a profound analysis of the British rule in India:

"England unfortunately now refuses to recognize the hard and irresistible logic of facts and does her best to smother the nascent aspirations of a rising nationality. The selfish, and therefore, harsh and cruel exigencies of an alien rule have imposed various disqualifications and disabilities upon the children of the soil.... The lamentable condition of India at present is due to England’s culpable neglect of, and gross apathy to, the affairs of that Empire. England has failed, grievously failed in the discharge of her sacred duties to India... Tomorrow you will be the arbiters of the destinies of 250 millions of human beings, your fellow subjects. We fervently hope your advent to power will be a death knell to the existing un –English regime... I was a believer in those days in the doctrine of mendicancy and with child like simplicity held that if the wrongs and the grievances under which our country groaned could be brought home to the British people, they could be remedied. The disillusionment was not long in coming...

The great mutiny had entirely unhinged the financial equilibrium. In 1857 the public debt had stood at 60,000,000 pounds. In 1863 it rose to the incredible sum of nearly 110,000,000 pounds. Thus the indirect expenditure incurred for mutiny amounts to almost 45,000,000 pounds. And it is notorious that England did not contribute a farthing to India as financial help.... India is a famished nation rather than of Rajas and Nababs....A government which can squander 10,000,000 pounds on palatial barracks, but cannot spare a farthing for laboratories should forfeit the title of a civilized government....The Indian government is essentially a tax squeezing machinery and not a government for the people...."

And here's an excerpt from one modern Indian statesman, who has the following perception of the same relationship, and was quoted by Prof.Chatterjee towards the end of his talk:

Today, with the balance and perspective offered by the passage of time and the benefit of hindsight, it is possible for an Indian Prime Minister to assert that India's experience with Britain had its beneficial consequences. Our notions of the rule of law, of a Constitutional government, of a free press, of a professional civil service, of modern universities and research laboratories have all been fashioned in the crucible where an age old civilization met the dominant Empire of the day. These are all elements which we still value and cherish. Our judiciary, our legal system, our bureaucracy and our police are all great institutions, derived from British-Indian administration and they have served the country well. Of all the legacies of the Raj, none is more important than the English language and the modern school system. That is, if you leave out cricket!

Like in the audience at the talk by Prof. Chatterjee, it is hard to guess that the above mentioned statesman is the Dr.Manmohan Singh, exhibiting what could be termed an anti-nationalist stand.

This instigated a good round of discussion amongst the panel members. Arguments whatever arose, ultimately ended up rebuking the statements that were made by Dr.Manmohan Singh in his convocation speech at Oxford University in 2005.

Also detailed questions about Acharya PC Ray's principles happened to be discussed, during which again the multifaceted maverick that PC Ray was was much discussed and reminisced further.

One important aspect of the talk itself was the manner in which it was presented by Prof.Chatterjee. The audience present can be categorized conveniently as the intellectual elite and mostly apolitical. Prof. Chatterjee, nonetheless was able to communicate all the aspects of the life of Acharya PC Ray in a subtle but impacting manner, which certainly got the audience thinking in relation to the current scenarios. And that was the objective of the talk, which was well accomplished.

Slides of the talk by Prof.Chatterjee: http://bit.ly/rrek5w

The God Delusion

How lucky we are to be alive, given that the vast majority of people who could potentially be thrown up by the combinatorial lottery of DNA will in fact never be born. However brief our time in the sun, if we waste a second of it, or complain that it is dull or barren or (like a child) boring, couldn't this be seen as a callous insult to those unborn trillions who will never even be offered life in the first place?

Think about it. On one planet, and possibly only one planet in the entire universe, molecules that would normally make nothing
more complicated than a chunk of rock, gather themselves together into chunks of rock-sized matter of such staggering complexity that they are capable of running, jumping, swimming, flying, seeing, hearing, capturing and eating other such animated chunks of complexity; capable in some cases of thinking and feeling, and falling in love with yet other chunks of complex matter!

-Excerpts from the book "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins

I have already attributed Richard Dawkins to have facilitated my transition to become the ardent and absolute atheist that I am now, in previous posts. And like in his documentaries, he is cleverer and super accurate with his arguments in The God Delusion.Impeccably convincing!

Turning towards the book itself, it is a quick and joyous read in the literary sense. But, this book symbolizes an apprehension of serious scale and it ain't just the literature one needs to ponder about. What actually dawned upon me while reading the book was the intent of the book itself. Pushing science and rationality amidst the infinite bandwidth white noise of religion, Gods, and the related blah blah!

Religion is ubiquitous, and it certainly is perilous, whatever small subjective positives one might have experienced. This ancient dogma has to be stigmatized for, eradicating it would take a long long struggle against many maniacs.

Nevertheless, increasing the consciousness of people pertaining to the futilities encapsulated in religion as a whole will slowly evolve to eliminate this weird but natural seeming, artificial digression of us humans.

While Science is what has given us answers, drawing us out from the shrouded clouds of ignorance, into light and still leading, Religion is that strong regressive force holding back majority of the Homo sapiens , bound to the shackles of faith, blind faith and dumb blind faith!

The God Delusion is a must read for everyone: Of course it will be offensive to the strong theists. But, for anyone who's just swaying away from the absolutism attached to religion, it will certainly help and enable them start drifting farther away from religion and closer to rationality - All for the good.

I might personally want to see religion eliminated from the face of the earth; But, it is even more complexly interleaved than even Dawkins himself projects.

Let's hope there's light, sometime soon, if not spontaneously!

I don't try to imagine a personal God; it suffices to stand in awe at the structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it.
Albert Einstein

Totem revolutions

The exaggerated rumours during the Egyptian revolution, that the revolution itself was a ramification of the existence of social networks like Facebook and Twitter is preposterous, and indicates the myopic understanding of such analysts.
While Facebook and Twitter did influence the rate of information dissemination and to some extent online mobilization, the idea that if for no Facebook and Twitter the Egyptian revolution and the Tahrir Square struggle would not have occurred is simply ridiculous.

The reason I am delving upon this example is to show the contorted reasoning people end up believing in. The idea that a revolution/ a change/ metamorphosis could be instigated and perpetuated via social networks or some other online token actions has been imbibed into the minds of people by the media, and a majority of the gullible have certainly endorsed this idea.

The Facebook Campaigns like Save Tigers, Support Anna Hazare, Stop Corruption, and others are to be treated as awareness increasing campaigns, using a new means of reaching out to people:Online Networks.
Unfortunately, posting up these campaigns on one's page and clicking the 'LIKE' button seems to be the end of this campaign to a lot many.

While nothing can replace the basic ground work in terms of understanding the problems, mobilizing people beyond the online networks (for, there is at least three quarters of the country out of this reach), contemplating pragmatic solutions and persuading the authorities to implement them, or in compelling cases (like in Egypt, and middle east) involving in struggles will what reap benefits. And certainly not just the Likes, reposts and shares of links and tweets.

The tendency of individuals to have executed their duties of being a citizen by performing these token actions online is highly increasing. People, I guess are considering this to be an extrapolation of online payment of taxes. Performing your duties online!
And such tendencies is what I am terming as "Totem Revolutions".

The token-like actions, the symbols which rise to become powerful totems in the current context are futile. Manifestation of the the cliche: "Means mistaken to be the ends". The acts of sharing web links, retweeting, forwarding mails, display picture badges, giving out one-ring calls (!?) and other product marketing-like strategies are most efficient in attracting the less concerned crowds, for the ones who really bother wouldn't require any of these wake up calls. These tokens, growing into totems should not be given anymore reverence than treating them for their worth,i.e, they are the newer means of mobilizing and awareness increasing methods at our disposal.  I again reiterate, these are no ends by themselves!

"Symbols are given power by the people. Alone a symbol is meaningless but with enough people blowing up a building (symbol) can change the world."
V for Vendetta

And a converse of this is also true. People who only cling on to a symbol forget the reality and are busy obsessing the totems! This, off late, has become the ubiquitous behavior of the 'concerned citizens'.

Online protests like the Anonymous groups, and the DDoS attacks in support of WikiLeaks had some tangible results, for, they didn't only mobilize online, they were conducting their struggle online, for they were fighting a peril being perpetuated online!
The arenas were different.

Further, using centralized and Government monitored networks like Facebook, Twitter would cripple any such movements. WikiLeaks versus VISA/Paypal/Amazon incident is a manifestation of this apprehension.

Here's the link of the manual circulated during the Tahrir Square protests, urging people not to use Facebook/Twitter!
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/01/egyptian-activists-action-plan-translated/70388/

Cumulative observations on these lines, through months has made me sit down and write this post. The increasing tendencies of the online activists, to trigger campaigns online is perfect. But, the aspect of clarifying that the means aren't the end have not been profoundly proclaimed by many of them.

And please, no more of Totem Revolutions.

Understanding the Information Economy: ITEC Seminar

ITEC has been around for sometime now and has been taking up some important tasks pertaining to the 'elusive' IT industry. Attempts at increasing the awareness about the pitfalls in the industry using instances to be concerned about, like fraudulent IT companies, work pressure and related issues have already been basis of their work.

In the recent campaign ITEC had organized a seminar on understanding the "Information Economy". It certainly was an eye-opener to all the 50 participants. Suresh Kodoor and Vasantharaj were the speakers, highly apt for lecturing on the lines of "Information Economy", moderated by Prof S Chatterjee.

The seminar was arranged at the new Jaaga, on an overcast Sunday afternoon.

The gist of the talk, as I have understood would be as follows:

The transition from a manufacturing and product based economy, which primarily produces tangible products,  to now an economy extensively 'speculative' in their own jargon has turned out to be more on the lines of selling out information as products, driven by finance capital. This new era  (which is at least a few decades old) has brought in a paradigm shift in the businesses of the world.
To understand the contradiction between the two ways, look at the growth rates: The information economy mammoths show 20% + growth on a normal basis, while the veterans of the manufacturing industry still are steady with their 8-10 % growth.

To understand the differences that have been ushered in by the Information economy a brief comparative study in the way these two business models are run was explained by both the speakers. The common contention putforth was the lack of innovation in India, even in terms of self-reliance of software products to cater to our domestic needs. Secondly, the lag in investing in hardware manufacturing for telecom, defense and other critical sectors needs was discussed. The need to resuscitate the dying PSU's was mentioned as well.

On Sunday, when day the seminar was held is when the news of the S&P downgrading of the US creditability from AAA to AA+ had occured and we were only speculating what else could go wrong. It seems as if most of the talk that proceeded on that day was as if prophesizing the subsequent hours which were to put the financial world at unrest. Once the markets reopened on Monday the symptoms of the second dip recession have surfaced visibly and lot of suppression tactics are being implemented, as I am speaking of it. There's turmoil and apprehension filling in the air.

And this time, in case a second wave of global recession would hit, India wouldn't be as immune as it was in 2008! The 'outsourcing' menace as naturally seen by the people of the US and other European countries has taken its toll and now stands at the threshold of a breakpoint. Unemployment, public benefits cut down , inflation, taxation and dipping stock market are gelling up to become a dangerous threat to the global stability.

The ITEC seminar did certainly help us to comprehend both sides of the stories, while the speakers convicned us of what could be the solution as well: Self Reliance!

Secluded in the cities

Over a casual chat, a friend discussed an observation to me, which was rather very interesting, and worth pondering further, beyond the discussion.

According to him,in the daily urban chaos, the aspect of socializing (in the real terms), which is the essence of all humanity is being lost, and that we are getting narrowed down to really small, shrinking diaspora, which consists of very few people.

And after thinking some more on these lines, I tend to agree with his observation. It ain't even individualism that is being practiced. These conditions which are getting so ubiquitous around us, I might want to term them as a kind of forced urban seclusion, and that has come to be the widely agreed standard. Each is left with little, or no time to bother about anything apart from very personal matters.

Socializing (only) on online networks has deteriorated the already bad situation. While it can never be a replacement to interpersonal rapport, these networks have played the subtle but hostile roles of alienating the social beings within us.

Coming back to the point of forced urban seclusion, it is a convergence of the hectic and reckless lives that the city drives one to lead, with no care whatsoever to the conditions around. It is a pathetic state to be in, for, it breeds cynicism about the (world minus us), and an expanding void within.

There is little that the 'bhag bhag' lifestyle has ultimately showered us with on the bright side. While there's a lot more it has forced upon us to crib about.

All said and done, if one wants to break free, there's all the control given, but then aren't most of us either way, comfortably, or uncomfortably numb about it ?

Last official day at my first professional job :)

A new experience it was, altogether today. It will stay with me forever.
Bidding adieu to my first job at MRO-TEK turned out to be harder than I had imagined it to be; I hadn't imagined it to be hard at all. Nonetheless, the day took me aback, and it turned out to be an emotional and deeply touching farewell.

In my farewell mail, I called my job at MRO-TEK, which happens to be my first job  to be equivalent to The First Love, and rightly so for, I already seem to have forgotten the few negativities and have started relishing upon all the positives encountered by me.

The affection my colleagues had shown through my tenure by itself was overhwelming, and today it was taken to new heights. Sweet chunks of advice, geneorus words of praise, lots of aspirations and a deep sense of nostalgia, all of it surfaced one after another, making the rendezvous heavier with every passing moment.

I haven't discussed my job, or the nature of my work at MRO-TEK on my blog, and now that I am done with it, I still wouldn't want to talk of it, for, as I see it now the love and affection I have earned amongst my peers speak louder than everything. And so be it!

Mine was a short tenure at MRO-TEK, just a few days less than an year and nine months. It has been quick, exciting and vibrant! The industrial exposure will enable me set the right path to my goals. While all the maturity I have assimilated, pondering for these many months in a different framework has certainly made me a better and sophisticated human being.

The quality of discussions with certain resonating colleagues, day in and day out will be missed deeply by me. So will also the lovely campus, with an earthly serenity attached to it be missed.


This current phase, when I am just drifting away from a bondage into newer realms renders me exhilirated, while soaked in nostalgia. And I am relishing it.

In the end, what I take back from my first job is a new me, who has matured enough to work in aligning myself closer to the utopian me.


Riding on the experience of yesterday, backed by all the courage of today, I am excited about facing the challenges posed by tomorrow!

Making my moves, like i wanted to!

Taking decisions in life, now, when I am at the verge of an important decision feels like playing a tricky game of chess!

I have thought deeply, evaluated the consequences, guaged the prospects and hoped for the optimum, and it feels precisely like an important move you've done on the board of chess; when you know the pawns will have a radical change, while you are desperately hoping the ramifications to turn out to be good!

It is easier said than done, to steer the happenings of one's life to fall in congruence, or at least near the mental envisage of what his/her life should become. But, once a while, a few important decisions put us right into the pilot seat and present us an opportunity to change the course of our lives.
And, to brave up and take those small risks to move closer to our purpose of life is as good can one's life can get.

Now, I am embarking upon a certain path, which will lead me closer to the essence of me. It might not be something grand or exciting to an outsider, but I am swelling with enthusiasm and euphoria, while I still feel a small tinge of apprehension :)

More than the future prospects, the current contentment I derive out of the control I have exhibited and the confluence of all the right things which have fallen into place make me feel wondrous and simply happy.

Banking on this hope and confidence, I am on MY WAY!

How far can one go riding on rationality?

Encountering rationales is getting tougher by the day in today's technology driven world. As paradoxical it might seem, irrationality is getting ubiquitous in the 21st Century. In a world run on the principles of scientific inquisition and technological accomplishments, a counter wave of revived illogic and neo-superstitions are spreading quickly amongst the individuals.

Incorporating the paradigm of logic and reasoning in one's life is not an easy task, agreed. It requires lot of courage and strong conviction to defy the orthodoxity and conventionality that is piously preached by the society.
But it certainly is the only way forward!

In an attempt to categorize the minds I've known based on the rationality exhibited by them, here's a four grade demarcation :P

The ones who don't take off: Have known and continue to know many more who belong to this clan. A strong force acting within these people repels all the logic and makes them imperveous to reasoning.
Traits: Relucatance, apart from the natural obstinate ignorance

The ones who break down en route: These are the slender and fragile ones, who make an attempt but certain adverse situations put them back to square one, or to the level mentioned above.
Traits: Timid and voluntarily cornered

The ones who apply with exceptions: A new creed I am discovering amongst my own regular diaspora. These semi rationales apply rationality with exceptions, and many a times at their convenience. I don't know how they do it, but they successfully detach from their plane of thought and contradict themselves, ending up irrational.
Traits: Opportunistic and of course undone.

The ones who perpetuate forever: These are the ones who wouldn't contradict the subjective realities in variation with the objective conditions. Consistent with their logic, and adamant on their perception.
Improvising a cliche here: Rationality isn't a destination, it is a journey!
And to hang on to this journey, it is nothing less than an incessant struggle; Struggle with one's beliefs and prejudices, and an everlasting process of clearing the smog unravelled by the rest of the three clans.
Traits: Strong conviction and pragmatists

It takes continuous effort and consistent show of mental strength to endorse a lifelong paradigm of rationality. Lethargy, reluctance, hesitancy, selectivity and cowardice are the hurdles to cross if you want to embark upon this enlightnening and gratifying journey.