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.

செந்தமிழ்நாடு மதுரை - Madurai !

Numerous ancient temples, variety of deliciously tasty food, detailed political gyaan at every corner of the road, meter-less auto-rickshaws, the more familiar heat of Tamil Nadu, and a lot more is what I have experienced in my first visit to this ancient city of India - Madurai, also known the Temple Town, with an exquisite legacy and heritage of its own.

Madurai, is also dubbed to be the Capital of southern Tamil Nadu, in colloquial terms. And with its experience of being the capital of the immensely successful monarchies like the Pandyas, Madurai can less be ignored.

My two days in Madurai has been the ideal hangout for a gypsy that I tend to be. Needless to mention that I enjoyed it tremendously for, it was my first trip to Madurai.

The memories I carry from here for this time, are of mixed nature; Some vivacious, while some are subtle, perfectly depicting the nature of the city that Madurai is.

Mind blowing temples, which form an important aspect of discovering ancient India are housed in Madurai. The official logo of Tamil Nadu - The Gopuram, has elaborate presence all across the city.

The world famous Meenakshi Amman Temple, for all its grandeur and legacy was one place I was certain of not missing. And I did spend an elaborate five hours scanning through the layered alleys of this marvel. The awe inspiring architecture of the temple, the symmetry and the scale are the traits which have given it the status it enjoys today.  More importantly the devotion and emotion associated with the temple and its deities, which bring in the thronging crowds aren't to be missed either :) The only complaint I have is the newly done stark paintings performed throughout the temple. Although in some places it increases the aesthetics of the architecture, I certainly would have loved to see it as it was done by the masters then. I call them the masters, for accomplishing a masterpiece of this sorts then, with the little resources they had is mind boggling, and I believe it would be undo-able today, even with all the resources and technology.
We have simply lost the passion our ancestors possessed!

Apart from the Meenakshi Amman temple, there are a host of other temples and places to visit, but I couldn't go on, given the time and energy constraints.

Second and most importantly, the food everywhere in the city has been sublime. Ethnic south Indian cuisine, with all the creativity and the entire spectrum of non-vegetarianism in it has been a treat for a foodie that I am. I have tried numerous new eatables this time around in Madurai.
Here's a list of new on my food list:
"Parutthipaal" made out of cotton seeds extract.
"Jigarthanda", a Madurai special natural cool drink
"Pathaneer" with the sap of tender palm fruit as the main ingredient. This again is a natural coolant, much needed to beat the heat!

 

On the non-vegetarian side of the food, I had "Muyal Biriyaani", that is authentic Tamil biryaani with rabbit meat in it :)
Also, mutton omelette (finely chopped goat meat, with beaten eggs), likewise sea-food omelette, boneless crab omelette and chicken omelette! Then the addendum to the "muttai dosa" list was "chicken/mutton/all-meat/seafood/prawns dosas", which are instigating my salivary glands as I am writing this down! All of this in one classic place - Amma Mess.

Then the roadside idlis with chicken kolumbu, and the ever enticing "muttai kotthu parota": An adventurous preparation yielding yet another mouth watering delicacy.

In all, Madurai food was Sublimely delicious, and vibrantly various!

The warmth of people in Madurai is very visible and that comes natural with their living ambiance, which is still based on the human values. Drawing in the cynicism I have developed towards the the IT/Corporate/LPG-sick city that Bangalore is coming to be, I was so glad to see a place where people on the lower middle and lower sections of the economic spectrum have chances of survival unlike in other metros! It isn't about the prices being nominal alone, even the lifestyle of people matches their living circumstances, and the people are contended and more importantly proud of what they are, again unlike the hypocrisy full, West emulating trends in other cities.
 

Overall, Madurai stands out as one of the best places in India, more for its culture retention and pride of its local (not in the derogatory sense) authenticity.

There will be complaints about everything we observe, but in this log I have subdued one or two negative aspects which I observed for, the rest of it is all so awesome!

The droppings of capitalism!

Capitalist modes of running a society and its criticism is a highly elaborate exercise, and to take up that task I am still inadequately equipped. I shall save it for the future, to make it more convincing.

In this post, I want to focus on certain profound ramifications rendered by the crowning jewel of capitalism - Neoliberalism. 
 
As David Harvey in his book A Brief History of Neoliberalism points, "Neoliberalism has, in short, become hegemonic as a mode of discourse. It has pervasive effects on ways of thought to the point where it has become incorporated into the common-sense way many of us interpret, live in, and understand the world."

And I want to concentrate on the way many of us perceive, interpret and understand the world, well in an increasingly contorted way. To hint at what I am talking about, allow me to present a couple of contemporary ethic statements as heard by me!

"You know you are poisoning the customer, better give him a slow death than a sudden one, so that you get out safe... "

"When you're faced with a vicious snake and a close competitor, kill the competitor first!"
Theories like,
Profit making by legal, although unjust means is perfectly sane.
Professional life comes first, and personal life is secondary.
Rivalry amongst peers taking newer heights of animosity.
Exploitation legitimized in the name of profit making.
And many more observations, which are getting ubiquitous and are successfully draining out the core values of us humans. It is evolving into a system where cynicism and skepticism are increasing instead of trust and belief amongst people.

Even this aspect of declinging trust is not of concern, as much as the silly sancitity assigned to these anomalies. These digressions away from the human values, inclined, contrarily towards the market values have found way into the ethics of the society. And that makes the future bleaker!

A price tag and a profit margin on anything and everything, including emotions and basic necessities is the fundamental basis of Neoliberalism. And we, the mere droppings of this system are more than willing to endorse and live by these false standards. If not a systemic revamp, at least pursuit of consciousness at a personal level against the perils of a system,which is polarized away from our natural good is imperative.

The booming spiritual bloom!

"Inner Engineering", "Spiritual Software", "Cosmic architecture", and many more paradoxical terms have seen a sudden boom in the last decade. This is the new set of jargon presenting itself when the need has arrived. 

The blend of spirituality and technology seems to be the USP of the recent resurgence of the spiritual heads from India, whom I categorize as the "Corporate Gurus". This entire saga of Spirituality and India is a deep rooted gimmick, which has flourished through centuries and still growing, better than ever.

Ancient Indian philosophy, when traversed through without the prejudices we might have inculcated in today's world, is nothing but contradictory to the current preachings of today's spiritualists. In Debiprasad Chattopadhayaya's book "Indian Atheism" he elucidates the fictitious nature of the contemporary spiritualism. He argues and very well validates the absence of the concept of God in most of the ancient Indian Philosophy, which on the other hand is the underlying basis for the contemporary spiritualism.

Another important aspect which comes under the scanner is the plethora of lost minds who are seeking solace from this trend. If narrowed down, the ones seeking 'spiritualism' today mostly are workers deprived of their rights!

An employee who works for 14 hours a day, with no time to spend with his/her family, with no sense of satisfaction and with almost zero interaction with the society in its real terms are the ones who are driven to such extremities.

If one extremity is falling prey for depressants like carcinogen, alcohol and other hallucinogens, the other 'respite' to this new class of social destitutes is seeking spiritualism in order to fill in the voids left by their exploitation.

Capitalizing on this new class of desperadoes is the new thriving 'industry' of spiritualism. Most of these Corporate Gurus bamboozle the vulnerables into their traps, with nothing but sweetened non-sense and a heavy 'donation'.

While Indian philosophy has homed the greatest of the philosphers like the Buddha, Kabir,Shirdi Sai Baba, Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekanada, and certainly some contemporary ones also who haven't shot to 'fame'. The discerning factor between these philosophers and today's swindlers is their motive.

While the genuine gurus were preachers for the sake of betterment in the society, the contemporary Gurus are lavish charlatans who have made the most out of the vulnerabilities in the society. While the ancient philosophers were reformers, who fought against social practices which made the lives of the people miserable, today, the Corporate Gurus are the parasites feeding on the exploitation rendered by the system, and who have zero consciousness of the problem in its entirety. They are mere pseudo embalmers, pretending to salvage the depressed.

It ain't just pretension, the Gurus of the day are frauds of the highest order.
Take a look at some of the programs and ideas propagated by these self proclaimed teachers and leaders!

Walk without Feet, Fly without Wings and Think without Mind!

Art of breathing, to teach you the Art of Living!

As we have physical science to create external well-being there is a whole inner dimension of science to create inner well being. I call it Inner Engineering!

With so much debauchery surrounding the entire scene of spiritualism today, the crowd thronging at them mainly is the learned urban middle class. Isn't it a shame that an educated section of the society can endorse and let such attempts to thrive!

Discerning the materialist in me

Am I a materialist?

Yes and No.

Yes: In the context of non-idealism; in my manners of understanding everything around me. This tinge of materialism in me is what has enabled me to grow an outlook endorsing rationality and self verification, and am usually not driven by the momentum of the legacy of beliefs. 'Doubt everything', as one great philosopher put it is the underlying perceptive principle, out of which the materialism in me emanates.
Looking for the logic behind events, reasoning for occurrences, with an incessant urge to question is how life should be lived. It gives immense gratification, which is otherwise impossible to be rendered by the other ubiquitous means for 'pursuance of truth' like spiritualism, religion or superstition!

No: If being asked in the context of being 'materialistic', i.e.,belonging to the creed manifesting greed, in the purest sense of commodity seeking behaviour. This category of consumers are technically not materialists, but only materialistic in nature.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Materialism

I recurrently am encountered with questions about my aims in life.
And even before I start to formulate my ideas, the questioner starts off, "A plot of land","A posh flat", "A gizmo car", "A heavy account balance", and blah blah. If these are not blah blah to you, you are one such prospective questioner I would despise if you go on to presume something on those lines. Contradictory to the conventional trend as it may appear, I treat commodities as mere commodities, and not goals of my life.

It doesn't mean that I do not want to lead a comfortable (economic stress free) life. I would not give any more reverence to the commodities beyond that. My objectives in life, if I were to even think of them are more on the lines of expanding my own abilities, bettering my skills and in this course to throw some positive influence on others.

Inside WikiLeaks, and inside Inside WikiLeaks!

 I am a self proclaimed admirer of Julian Assange [J] and more so of WikiLeaks[WL]. Let this trait of mine not induce an idea that this post of mine is in favor of J or WL, in manners more than what they deserve.

Daniel Schmitt [D], actually the pseudonym of Daniel Domscheit-Berg is the author of the supposedly tell all book about WikiLeaks in his recent hurriedly written, crib-log Inside WikiLeaks.

I took up reading this one for, this is the first account of any details from within the secretive whistle-blowers platform WikiLeaks. But, as ridiculous a book could get, Inside WikiLeaks is majorly the yanking of D about J's personal habits, dressing sense, his perception of women, arrogance, egotism and everything that should have been confined to one's personal observations about a fellow comrade in their struggle against secrecy, and for transparency.

Non conformity with the book

WL has always propagated that "Transparency is only for Governments and big corporations, and not necessarily for individuals". I think D had got this idea distorted and goes on yanking about J's personality, and reporting nuances of J's behavior like kids would do in kindergarten.

J eats with his hands, and wipes off on his pants.
J taps the keyboard hard, creating disturbing noise.
J wore the same white shirt for both the days of the conference.
J eats faster and leaves me little to eat.
J gets more importance, and not the team, or myself.
J wears my jacket, and goes to sleep.
J pounces on my cat.
J is not bothered about selling the T-shirts, he's busy philosophizing.
J is paranoid!
And lots of commentary on J's sexuality, to the extent that D brands J a sexist.

D, for all the credibility he has as being an important person who was working for WL, hailng from the Chaos Computer Club, and to come out with a kindergarten complaint book of this sort is silly firstly, and also puts the work he had contributed to WL in bad light. I can very well anticipate the quality of work he would have been contributing to WL with a mindset such as this.

The claims of him being sidelined, and that J was getting more attention is again a point not worth debating. WL is the ingenious and courageous brainchild of J, and if he gets credit better than his counterparts, there's nothing wrong in it, unless you have peers who are trivially bothered about it. This is a normal issue in any team, and I can testify with first hand experience, like many of you would as well.

The most importantly ignored aspect about J, or WL in the book has been the security threats they have been undergoing. D pretends as if they were functioning in a safe and secure IT firm, just writing code. Even if some of the threat claims made by Assange have been exaggerated, instances where WL whistleblowers were killed, or Amazon, Paypal, VISA withdrew their services reveal to great extents the opposition WL was/is being conditioned to. And because J had to front end WL in times of most turbulence, even his safety and well being is at evident risk.
The circumstantial allegations of the sexual misconduct by two women, to get J grounded is more than a normal reaction to what could have been J's actions.

Conformity with the book

Although the book is filled with nonsensical commentary on J, the details about how WL functioned initially, or at least to the point of narration where D is still not jealous of J is quite a read.
A single decade old server hosting WL for the first whole stint, and portraying it differently to the external world, or about the impact their leaks had is enjoyable.

The criticism on the disorientation of WL from its core principles of neutrality, because J wanted to go head on with the US, if true is a point I too would be worried about. As far as D has written in this book, J's anarchist tendencies have driven him to a war with the US. But, I cannot deny the fact that, when you take World politics and are trying to make it transparent, the US of course would emerge from under everyone's carpets. And to expose the world, is in reality exposing the US, for, the US is so intrinsically involved with the rest of the world!

Holding back of leaks, or if any bias has happened to them as D alleges, that again is a matter of immense concern. Although, apart from the commentary which influence the opinions of the audience, the material by itself will be authentic, or the concerned authorities would certainly pull WL into intended espionage.

About alleged mishandling of the donations to WL, which is the core motive which has driven D to write this book according to me, must sometime come under scrutiny, or better if J would publish the transactions to shut the critics.

The internal structure, and inherent secrecy of WL as an organization is understandable for, they're in a tough game, playing big opponents and functioning with transparency is something a small team like theirs cannot afford to.

About Open Leaks [OL], I am certainly looking forward to it taking off. For, if OL can be better than WL, by not influencing the nature of leaks, or precedence, or of the recipients of the leaks, it will certainly be better. Transparency on their platform theoretically sounds very promising, and if accomplished it can certainly become the baton holder of whistle-blowers after WL.

D says,
"There's enough injustice in the world to occupy more than one (whistleblowing) platform.", and let us hope both together can make the world a better place.

All said and done, WikiLeaks made the world aware of the importance of whistleblowing to a greater extent than ever before in the History, encouraging a lot of dissidents to take up the cause. Julian Assange, irrespective of his gray shades personally, has been the spokesperson for transparency of Governments globally and will remain an icon ( maybe not of Pop icon nature, as claimed by Daniel), but more important than that – A role model to today's technologists to take up issues of social concern, without secluding themselves from the realities around...

Self deception in the process of gross deception...

It's quite amazing as to how we can make ourselves believe, almost in a manner of self-deception, by repeatedly emphasising on something fictitious to be factual, either about our own persona or of our perceptions.

Being absolutely honest about oneself is impractical, and more so not pragmatic. There is a trade-off between the quality of the character we possess and would aspire to possess as depicted to the external world. And many a times, these aspirations transcend to become traits, because even we start to believe that these fictions are facts, just like we would have wanted the rest of the world to perceive.

There are principles, and then there are beliefs. While principles are the schools of thoughts endorsed by the mind and there is a tinge of stubbornness attached to it. Beliefs are more on the aspirational lines.

The realities as portrayed by us to the ones other than us, slowly creep into our being and after a certain threshold level of belief, these 'beliefs' become one with our set of principles, mostly attributable to one's depleting ability to discern between the facts and fiction. We convince ourselves while in the process of convincing others, that some of fictitious beliefs are facts as well.

Just like the creator getting lost in his/her own creations, our mind creates a panorama of beliefs to either influence others, or sometimes just to move on with the proceedings.
After having succeeded in making others believe in these created projections of ours, ironically even we end up believing in these projections.
Self deception in the process of gross deception is what all of this seems like.