Better Crap

Thank God it's Monday?

2016-08-25T09:21:00.003-07:00

Note: You may not get the point of this post. This is just a musing.

For many of us, Monday is the most dreaded day. You hear Monday, you get a stomachache. The fear of Monday may be due to multiple reasons we all are familiar with. However, more often than not, its just plain laziness. After a good two days of fun and enjoyment, we are just unwilling to go working.

Friday, on the other hand induces a pleasant feeling. Thank God it's Friday. However, if you notice, the Friday excitement only survives the day. You don't even realize how Saturday passes by and by the time it is Sunday, you have already started worrying about the upcoming devil - Monday.

The Friday bliss is about two things.

1. The days you are actually happy: Friday.

2. The days you are happy about on the day you are happy: Weekend.

On a deeper thought, the feeling of Friday bliss is not about the weekend but actually about Friday. We like Fridays more than the weekend. It is a feeling of anticipated fun. The actual fun days are the weekend days, but you feel good about it only on Friday.

This is true about any kind of anticipation: good and bad. This feeling of anticipation these days has grown so acute that even Sunday feels like a Monday!

Corruption

2016-08-25T09:21:00.001-07:00

Corruption in any provider consumer system is fueled by two very human characteristics: laziness on part of the consumer and greed on part of the provider. To stop corruption, both the provider as well as the consumer must contribute.

Whistle-blowing is actually a very powerful technique to fight corruption. It works on both the ends: the provider as well as the consumer end. Only two things are needed to unleash its full potential: Protection of the one blowing the whistle and appropriate Reward/Punishment for the actions.

Officials and bureaucrats who spend so much of their time in weaving the web of red tape, could for once try to establish strong laws and strategies for whistle blowing.

Like every other technique, this may have pitfalls and we'll need to face a trade-off.

Job Satisfaction - What is it really?

2016-08-25T09:20:00.001-07:00

A job, or more generally work is a noun which cannot attract any good adjectives. People may say various things about their jobs. "I love my job!" or "My job is very interesting" or "I have complete job satisfaction". People who run after job satisfaction are trying to catch a ghost.

The key to job satisfaction or interesting work is non-monotonicity. You don't want job satisfaction. You want job rotation! Be it any kind of job. If you are asked to do it forever, it will ultimately become boring. If you want to maintain excitement, you must try and do different things.

Most employers today are resistant to practice job rotation for their employees fearing they would lose expertise. However, what is stopping them to gain expertise in multiple fields? It is the result of this resistance that the attrition rates are so high these days.

Life - A Dream - A Longer one!

2016-08-25T09:19:00.003-07:00

Don't you sometimes feel that the whole world around is shattering and falling apart, and you just wished that it weren't happening and that it weren't true?

At that time, remember, it isn't.

In such times, you wish that that it was just a dream. Know, that it is! Troubling incidents in the dreams that you have while sleeping, cause you the same amount of pain and suffering as the incidents in your real life. However, that pain and suffering is short-lived as it ends as soon as you wake up and everything is alright. Similarly, this life is a dream of a higher being in you.

I don't want to sound like I know everything or that I am the "enlightened one". I just want to point out that there is enough evidence that there exists a higher self in each individual. Knowing or at least believing this even without experiencing it sometimes helps a lot to get through the hurdles in life!

Biomimicry - Real world problem solving

2016-08-25T09:17:00.001-07:00

The key to problem solving is to know that the problem you are facing has already been solved in some way or the other. It could be a human being, or even nature. If you have studied computer science, you must be familiar with the concept of reduction. All you need to solve a difficult problem is to reduce it to an already solved problem.

This reduction is a way of making an analogy with a similar problem. In other words, analogy itself is a great tool to solve problems. For me, when faced with any problem, I simply make an analogy with some concept or phenomenon in the real world. The I can notice how nature deals with it and what can be done to solve it. Finally, I need to map the solution of nature back to my actual problem context. Thats it!

Nature is the best thing to make an analogy with. In fact, I recently found out that Biomimicry is already a popular concept in order to gain inspiration from nature to solve human problems.

All you need to solve a problem is to make an appropriate analogy with some concept of nature and you have your solution!

Destiny

2012-06-11T07:47:00.001-07:00

Note: My first attempt at poetry! :-)

Once upon a time, there was an ignorant man,

miserable he was, yes, he had no plan!

He had no idea, of what life is about,

Of what is one's purpose, was beyond him, no doubt!

As he tasted more life, his ignorance finally faded

Curiosity sprouted, questions sprang, about life, he now hated!

"Why me?" thought he, there has to be a reason,

"Destiny it is!" he concluded; his intellect had an off season!

He set out in a quest, a quest of destiny he thought,

Little did he know, all he would find was naught!

He waited and searched and then waited some more,

Lost he was in deep sea, he found no shore!

His desperation surged, restless he became,

To the extent, for anything wrong, he had destiny to blame!

Even more than before, miserable had he become,

That "this was supposed to happen", was his answer to every problem!

Then arrived a day, when he met a wise man,

Who seemed just like him, his life instantly fore-ran!

"Worry not!", said He, you are not alone,

That many a people, troubled of destiny, he had known!

"Is Destiny what you seek?, It's what you make, not meet,

A journey it is, not a final stop, where you rest your feet!

It's a mirage, it follows you, it walks with you,

Your actions define it, it changes with you, every moment it's Anew!"

Enlightened he was, by the words of the wise one,

His quest succeeded, he had found the solution!

His path looked clear, the sky was once again sunny,

Feeling empowered, he walked back, to change his own destiny!

Beyond Apocalypse: What next?

2011-11-13T10:22:00.001-08:00


Image source: Flickr

2012 it is! Just a month left. Ever wondered if actually there is an apocalypse, what would happen? I was just thinking about the possibilities. Actually a little creepy to think about it, but it's a different experience. Takes you straight to the ground!

We do not know what is going to happen, weather the oceans are going to take over like the movie 2012, or everything is going to freeze like in the movie The Day After Tomorrow. We can also consider an all-volcano event, where the earth just erupts, from all sides, to let the heat out, or even an all-earthquake event, where we just have quakes or probably just a mixture of all the above. Seriously, the possibilities are endless. The humans have harmed the environment in so many different ways, we cannot imagine how nature plans to revert it and get back to normal.

So, whatever way the nature chooses, the real question is: Is it possible that no one, literally no human being survives? Well the probabilities are far too low of that happening. A lot of people may actually get through, somehow! Now when I say a lot of people, it is like saying .2 to .5% of the world population. This seems like a fair estimate.

Let's say these people make it to the new world. What next? What would they do? How would they start a new life? Well, the questions are not at all rhetorical but filled with genuine concern. These people share great responsibility in that it would be these very people who lay down the foundations for the coming generations. It would be these people who have the power to choose right and wrong. Their decisions would greatly influence the lives of the next generations. The new generations would not have the slightest idea of how the world looked just a few years back. No body knows if there would be experts among these survivors. All we can assume that it would be a few common men and women who have felt and tasted the real world. It would be these select few people who share the responsibility of showing our next generations, at least a blurred, if not the exact picture of the actual world.

In spite of all the harm that the human race has done to the environment, we have made a great deal of progress in terms of science, technology, philosophy and various other fields. This must not be wasted! The coming generations should build up starting from where the past generation left off, rather than starting from scratch and reinventing the wheel. Some way has to be derived to preserve this information and knowledge. Unless this is done, we humans, would be straight back to the stone age, carving caves and lighting fires with flint-stones. The knowledge has to be preserved at any cost!

Of course there will be difficulties and challenges, and the early ages might actually have to go through a pseudo-stone age. The point is to preserve the knowledge, so that once the basic needs are taken care of, people could start on a known road rather than wandering about for solutions to each and every problem they encounter. Their predecessors spent days and nights working on techniques and developed concrete things that worked. The judgement day may destroy whatever has been developed but it must not be able to destroy the very research and thinking, that has gone into it.

Slowly and gradually, these people could also try to right the wrongs that their predecessors had committed. With the right knowledge and a few early precautions, probably we could last a few more centuries before the next apocalypse!

Comments, anyone?

To be or not to be: The Wistleblower!

2011-11-13T05:01:00.001-08:00

Image source: Flickr

Whistle-blowing is an act best taken with a pinch of salt! Well, we would not say that some years ago when we did not have the examples of Manjunath Shanmugam and Satyendranath Dubey who lost their life trying to bring corruption to light. These were noble people, tried to do their best to fight corruption. They have certainly set an example before all of us. Alas, their assassination raises a serious doubt in the minds of people who otherwise would have contributed equally to the fight against corruption.

The point I am suggesting here is two fold. One, protect whistle-blowers. Two, a step ahead, encourage whistle-blowing.

The first, one can say, is being taken up by the government of India. This is evident from the fact that we already have the Right To Information act in place. However, this is not sufficient and must be taken forward with protecting the whistle-blowers. The recent anti-corruption movement due to Anna Hazare has helped the corruption issue to gain priority. One can hardly ignore the importance of this movement in highlighting the issue among the government as well as the common man.

Of course there's a whole another side to it: people are equally responsible for encouraging corruption. Given that both, the beneficiary as well as the benefactor are involved in the act of corruption, the role of a whistle-blower is hard to be observed! This is an everyday case in a metropolitan involving traffic cops, railway ticket examiners and the like. Of course, it's a win-win situation in that case. Who would blow the whistle?

Well, imagine this situation: I am traveling, but have a reservation in waiting and do not have a confirmed seat yet. I meet the TTE and bribe him in order to get a berth. Later, after I have finished traveling, I report the incident to some vigilance office which is responsible for tackling corruption. I divulge the details of the incident, after which I am given back the bribe amount and given full immunity and protection. Meanwhile, the corrupt TTE is charged with corruption.

This is just one isolated example. But suppose that it were followed for some time, the corrupt officials would notice and would think twice before accepting any bribes.

As we encourage whistle-blowing, we are in fact trying to bring more and more cases of corruption to light. The only requirement is of a vigilance body which can be relied upon. Such a body must fully contemplate the meaning of immunity and protection. In many of the cases the whistle-blower can be harmed in serious ways including the threat to one's life!

Finally, one might wonder why, if we have so many examples which highlight the need for a corruption handling body, do we have so many instances of corruption and why isn't the government so lazy in acting in that direction? Well, it just might be the case of a win-win situation here!

Food for thought: Local governments - Power to the people

2011-11-12T23:56:00.001-08:00

Image source: Flickr

Recently I've been watching the series Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. An absolutely brilliant British sitcom. Visit http://www.yes-minister.com/ for a feel of it.

Well, in one of the episodes it mentions a nice technique called local government for maintaining true democracy in a bureaucratic environment. The main point is to decentralize the power of government and hand it over to the local people. We do have local governments in India. We do have the panchayats and Municipalities, but the granularity is far too coarse. Need is to make it a lot finer, say, at most 800-1000 people under each administrator. This administrator would be elected by these 800-1000 people themselves and would be based on the credibility of the administrator and his past records rather than the political party he represents! This way, the administrators would work towards the actual welfare of the people, rather than wasting time in useless hollow political publicity. Publicity would be mouth to mouth as each member would know the administrator personally and whom they would be able to meet in person. As the people have the right to elect as well as vote out the administrator, the power truly remains with the people!

With a lot of corruption and misgovernment cases cropping up in India this can be looked upon as an option to help contribute towards the betterment of the nation.

Not that this idea is recent and has not been looked at previously, its just that may be we need to look at it with a fresh perspective and in today's context.

Just some food for thought. Comments, anyone?

Joke: Student and Teacher

2011-09-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Image source: Flickr

One of the best student-teacher jokes I have heard.

Teacher: How many planets are there?

Student: Mars, Venus, Jupiter...

Teacher: Aur batao?

Student: Bas, sab badiya, aap sunao!

Source: A friend's status message.

Meditation: Why the way it is?

2011-09-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

Image source: Flickr

Finally! Here is what I think, why meditation is the way it is.

The other day, I was watching a video by some professor, lecturing on absent-mindedness. The solution he pointed out was to stay conscious and mindful always. The professor was right and gave some simple tricks to stay mindful or conscious of the actions that you perform. However, he did not talk about how to actually stay in the present. Now, how do you do that? Just stay in the present moment. Just be in now.

If you notice, being in now or the present moment is not that easy. For most people when they try being in the present moment, they will always find themselves thinking about the past. Now, past here does not mean the past of the person. Past means the time that has gone away. Time is a continuum. Thinking takes time. You thinking, means that some thought is going in your mind. This thought cannot be the present or now, as it is going on in your mind and hence has already gone past. You need to move your thinking along with the time as it progresses and hence you need to clear your mind. And, that is not easy!

Well, then how do you stay in the present. Meditation teaches us that. For those who are not aware, meditation is the practice of concentration by focusing the mind on to some object of concentration. The final objective is to clear the mind of all the thoughts. Because unless thoughts leave your mind, you cannot be in the present; you will always be in the past.

Meditation techniques often stress upon focusing the attention on your breath. Now, why breath? As I said, time is a continuum. What is breath? It is the only continuous process which takes place in your body consciously as well as subconsciously. You don't need to focus your mind in order to breathe. hence, if you focus your attention on your breath, and let the breathing go on subconsciously, you can be in the present moment. The moment time changes, the present has changed, and so has the breath. But now, your mind is with it! The moment you create something to think about, you leave it at that and move to the next event. This leaves the mind clean of all the thoughts.

I am no expert in this subject. I just try to reason about the way these things are, since they are overly complex and beyond the understanding of our present day science which is still at a very premature stage as far as God and divinity is concerned.

Fear of failure!

2011-08-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

Image source: Flickr

Most of you may have encountered situations in your lives where you are worried about the result of a particular task. This fear may be before you do something, or after you do something. In both these cases, you are worried about the result. This is the fear of failure!

There are many thoughts at the same time. Thoughts like "Should I do it or not?", "What if I fail?", "I am not capable!", "I have screwed up, what will happen, now?" surround your mind and you ultimately decide to drop the idea of doing the task.

I have been in the same place several times. Experience and some thinking has taught me a very important lesson in this direction.

So what if you fail?

If you have already done something and are tensed about the result, just think about the worst case. In most situations, the worst case isn't that bad, and the tension is just because you are habituated to take tension. Just consider the worst case and prepare yourself for it. Subconsciously, you are also thinking and reaffirming by recalling your past actions that you have not done that bad! This helps in relieving the tension to a large extent.

Now, what if you are afraid of taking up some task and are tensed even before you have done it?

Just say to yourself, "I will give my best. I can do whatever is possible and permitted by my capabilities. If after that it doesn't work out, it is not my fault."

Just have clear intentions and do it with a strong will. At the end, you yourself will feel confident because you would have given your best. After this, if you feel that you might fail, that is because you know that you have not given your 100%. This will actually help you figure out where your efforts fell short.

That's it. Just thought of sharing something useful that life has taught me :-)

Philosophical doubt

2011-08-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

Image source: Flickr

Lately I've been taking too much interest in philosophy, mostly ancient Indian philosophy. Somehow, I am now convinced about the principle of karma, and the cycle of life and death and of course, liberation of the soul.

The principle of karma says that one is rewarded and punished according to his deeds and that sooner or later (even in the next incarnation), one has to suffer the consequences of his deeds.

However, I feel that this concept (of karma) is a little counter intuitive. If you have read Bhagwat Gita, Lord Sri Krishna tells Arjuna that he will definitely win the war and that he (Arjuna) is just an instrument in the whole 'play' which has already been decided by the Lord.

Now, the question is that if everything is already decided, then isn't one's karma, also decided? If God has already decided what is to happen or what one has to do, then the individual cannot be held responsible (punished or even rewarded) for his karma.

Joke: God moves in mysterious ways!

2011-02-06T03:02:00.003-08:00

Image source: Flickr

It was a dark, late in the night, no street lights. Rajesh was driving back home after a office party.

He had traveled only a few kilometers when he saw Yamaraja, the messenger of death. He was sitting on a rock by the roadside, holding a trident in his hands.

He looked at Rajesh, little puzzled, and started laughing. Rajesh, being a very spiritual person, knew that, Yamaraja, laughing at you, although weird, is not a good sign.

Rajesh immediately approached a Pandit and narrated the incident to him. The Pandit advised him to immediately rush to Kashi and bathe in the holy water of river Ganga, which would wash away all his sins.

The next morning, Rajesh was in Kashi. As soon as he took a dip in the river Ganga, he caw Yamaraja inside the river. He quickly drew his head out of the water, thinking that he might just be dreaming. Just then, he felt something pulling his leg.

He dipped again, only to find Yamaraja pulling his leg, dragging him deep into the water. "It's time", said he,"Let's go!".

"OK. I just have one question before you take me", said Rajesh, "Why were you laughing yesterday?"

Yamaraja laughed again, and said,"Nothing. I was just confused.

I saw you and thought,'There is no way I will be able to pick this man in Kashi in 6 hours time, when he is roaming happily in Mumbai right now!'"

"God moves in mysterious ways!", chuckled the messenger.

My Expreience with Blogging

2010-03-13T05:27:00.000-08:00

Don't be misguided by the title. I am not a pro blogger nor am I an excellent writer. The 'experience' that I have mentioned is about starting to blog.

Yuo!! I have finally settled down to write my (not the) first post :-)

In fact this is my 8th attempt to write a blog. Previously I have made 7 attempts to write a post. However, I could not complete it or in some cases I thought it was too boring for anyone to read. This might be because the topics were not so interesting or perhaps because I am not as good a writer.

As I am typing this, I am still apprehensive of whether this post will make it through! Then I'll need to change my number of attempts to 8 in my (complete or incomplete) next post.

I got introduced to blogs in the third year of my engineering. Being a computer science student (Argghh...even otherwise) we all were well aware of Google. Many a times googling returned links to blogs. A lot of technical content was available in blogs. The explanation in blogs used to be in a very friendly manner, as if explaining to a friend, as one has learned, no formalities. Later I discovered that blogs are mostly used for expressing one's own views and sharing what one wishes, with other people, like a dairy on the internet. As time passed and I had gone through quite a few blogs, I developed interest in creative writing. However with passing time and a few experiments (the incomplete posts :P), I gathered that creative writing is an art, not meant for me :-(.

So be it. But I will still give it a try, of which this is the first step.

Hope to write a little more interesting post the next time.