Coward

 Hiding your eyes to see what you don't want to see but you must see to resolve the issue is not an act that will let you reach a certain decision. And if I have to attribute such mindset, I will name it as 'being the coward'. We all often succumb to escapism for momentary comfort which, in reality, amplifies the problem with each passing time. Our escape for momentary comfort turns into a nightmare and before we understand what is happening with us, we are caught in a whirlpool of negative emotions which finally leave us depressed, indecisive and broken.

Since 'being the coward' was the reason for such disaster, 'being the brave' is the only solution to get out this misery. We need to arm ourselves with confidence and fight the negativity that has plagued our lives. A decision has to be made. What I have personally realized that being indecisive is far worse than making a decision, even it turns out a wrong decision. A wrong decision can teach you something but being indecisive will only drain out your happiness by keeping you overwhelmed with confusion. Being indecisive is analogous to a situation when something is stuck in your neck and you don’t know if you should swallow it or spit it out and you are not able to do any of these.

The beauty of the world is often explored through the darkest caves and bottomless valleys. 'Death' is the only fear in this world. All other fears are just its reflection. Remembering death makes us realize the mortality and insignificance of our life. Death is very similar to fire - deadly but useful. Death makes all problems in life so minuscule and meaningless. Only by accepting and realizing the impermanence of life, we can be brave enough, be honest, and truthful to us and to others.

Misanthropist

There are moments when I find myself no less than a misanthropist, especially, after a rough timing with people. The innate selfishness driven with opportunistic trait attributes the majority of people and it often creates a doubt whether all those people who we see as good and others as bad have just difference of opportunity and fear. Morality often seems to fall apart falsifying the universality and Sat, Chit, Anand view of Human character. It is intriguing to see how we construe our own code of morality, though, limited in domain to exploit profit without having guilt of contradicting the larger aspect of morality. And there is where ‘Ethics’ comes into picture. After having many encounters in the past some days with people ranging from doctors to Rickshaw-wallas in the streets of Varanasi, I can say to some extent that we, human, are socially and emotionally controlled but selfish people. No doubt, there are instincts quite natural required for our survival who inadvertently lead us to selfish behavior but there are also social needs and emotional feeling like empathy, kindness which regulate our selfish motives. When survival becomes crucial, a person loses all the characteristic of being human. As study suggests, in the time of famine there are certain hormones secreted inside human body which make human to do everything for survival, even killing other people without any remorse. When the rules in the society along with innate kindness of people override these selfish instincts, society become safe and secure. Reducing the insecurity of people for survival and increasing the dependency among people could help in such scenario. 

Fan And Me

As a doctor, my younger brother has more to show his importance to my family members and neighbors. But being an engineer, I don't get much chance to showcase my abilities with practical utilities to people, other than engineers or scientists. Then, there is this opportunity I somehow convinced my mother of the importance of being an electrical engineer. It happened as the speed of ceiling fan of my room was not as fast as it should normally be. When the electrician came, he just replaced condenser of fan. Surprisingly, even though the fan was speeding fast, it was not throwing air downwards. Actually, all the air was being thrown upwards as the speed of fan had got reversed. Electrician had no idea how it happened.  And that was the time, I remembered the question asked during comprehensive viva about single phase induction motor during my engineering days in IIT, BHU and it took no time to realize that, in fact, the winding of condenser had been interchanged and therefore, the torque had got reversed. I just convinced the electrician to change the condenser location  and with all the surprise of my mother and electrician, the fan started running in the usual direction. And that was the time, my mother proudly introduced me as scientist to the electrician and It made my day. :)

Feeling Worthy??

Image courtesy: studiomothers.com

For many, there are two distinct ways to feel worthy. Either by doing a worthwhile work or simply, by proving his work worthwhile to others. Former is  self-driven  whereas later is driven by other's judgement. People whose ego only feeds on  external motivations can again be classified into two not-so-distinct classes. First one tries to prove his work worthwhile whereas second one condescends other's work insignificant and mediocre.  Unfortunately, the hazards these second type of people can bring into any organization are often underestimated. Their egotism combined with arrogance engenders a lethal combination which poisons and erodes the core value of organization.  It is worth pondering how such 'mutation' happens; How a fresh graduate from college ends up being such creature. Though it would be amateurish to conclude based on limited observations nevertheless, It is not difficult to find a pattern. The pattern shows a direct relationship between being such creature and being an incompetent. Incompetency leaves no choice for survival other than to devolve into such being.

Where does the solution lie? Solution lies in recognizing such creatures as soon as possible. One needs to put  efforts as it might be difficult at times to see their real face in  the veil of intellectualism.  But once pinpointed, one should keep his/her ears and eyes away from them as it is more than enough to starve their ego.

Quotes

1. If you have not made any mistakes in your life, you would not have anything interesting to make other's laugh.
2. Choices engender confusions. But, often out of the confusions, we come to correct decision.
3. The image, we see of others, is always tinted with our own colors.
4. Experience is the additional lens; life rewards us to see the subtlety of life more clearly.
5. In hindsight, justification is often driven by rejection.
6. Happiness and sorrows in life are like poles and zeroes of control system. If positioned correctly, they       make life more happening and responsive.
7. Uniqueness lies in diversity. 
8. Efficiency : Meaning :: Adam Smith : Karl Marx :: Machine : Human
9. To me, an author is just an instrument who amplifies the thoughts and ideas filtered out by his consciousness. The 'bandwidth' of consciousness is critical in such scenario as it largely decides what thoughts and ideas it would amplify. 

Phantoms In The Brain

As an observer's point of view, the world- from a tiny atom to a vast galaxy, seems no less than mystery and apparently can only be comprehended through 'something'that is more mysterious than  mystery itself and when we search for this ‘something’ , nothing seems more reasonable than  our brain- A three pound jelly type structure consisting billions of neurons. There would be times when most of us ponder over the purpose of existence, the feeling of ‘I’ emanating from the deep inside, the observer sitting inside the brain going into a recursion and many more abstract aspects of life. It would not be exaggeration to say that since advent of the existence, these fundamental questions have been searched and what we see today as religion, belief and philosophy are merely by-products of this mysterious expedition.

Some weeks before, I got familiar with the work of the one of most sought neuroscientist of contemporary world, V. S. Ramchadran through his lecture-video on TED where he was describing his experiments with the patient diagnosed with different brain disorders in an attempt to unlock the mystery of brain. It was quite intriguing and interesting. To understand brain is more like a crime investigation where every clue, however small and trivial, should be logically deducted to conclusion with logical consistency of assumption. If someone, Ramchandran’s video on TED and his book “Phantoms in the Brain” made me remember, it was Sherlock Homes and it would not be an exaggeration to crown him as “The Sherlock Homes of Neuroscience”.

A world where the line separating real and imaginary, feeling and substance seems blurred and enigmatic, the book “Phantoms in the brain” not only stimulates with the questions but also provide answers, very much like a scientific explanation with logical consistency that unveils the long-hidden facets related to reciprocity of mind and body.  The simplicity of writing with systematic elucidation is riveting. Once I got hold of book, it took me into a mysterious world where I could relate my electrical circuits very much to the functionality of mind. The question whether the technology is abstraction of mind or understanding of mind is mere widening of our understanding of electrical circuits (pattern-finding-behaviour) is similar to much notorious question- which came first, the egg or hen.

The case-studies of numerous patients described in the book will not only provide the deep insights and complexity of brain but also provide the glimpse of inevitable and indisputable link of mind and body and consequently, it kindles the possibility of a new kind of therapy in medical field in coming future. And, no doubt it emergence in near future might create a paradigm shift. 

Nothing sounds so interesting to me when a book which defines the humour in neurological way and also illustrates the possible reasons behind having a sense of humour exclusively in human-beings is quoted as one of the most funniest and original book (Guardian, Newspaper). The simple experiments devised by V. S. Ramchandran outlines the illusory nature of self. Through intriguing relationship between perception and conception (Blind-Spot), he delves into utter mystery of existence. With Various references of philosophers and scientist like Freud and Darwin, this book provides insights from various dimensions.  

 Read this book, it may hammer your notions of GOD but I am sure it will give you sense of humility- the ultimate purpose of religion, for being an inevitable part of cosmos. Somehow, this book points towards a window from where, I firmly believe, one day we would be able to discern the mysticism and spirituality which are hitherto been perceived as incomprehensible.

Those Umpteen Years

Deep inside my skins

The bluish veins were carrying

My life...cold and entrenched

Equivocally dead

Laughter subdued into restrained

Hollow smile

An innocent heart was seeking to be guile

Belief, hope, trust and love

Seemed just a fantasy...perhaps a pun

This tiresome, tedious and treacherous run

 Was it worthwhile for just a minuscule fun?

Then one day, it knocked my door

It entered; I was lying on the floor

I was pulled apart into two

Detracted into Me and him

I saw those numb dead eyes

I felt the void, the emptiness

Perhaps...in those umpteen years

When it was carrying me

I never loved him...

And in turn, not loved by him.

8 Marvels!! A Way to Introspect

I have been once again tagged by my Blogger freind 'Shruti. It's really a cool tag  as it give a chance to introspect myself.

8 TV SHOWS I LOVE TO WATCH.

1.)     Movies on World movies

2.)    Tom and Jerry

3.)    Iss Jungle Se MuJhe Bachao

4.)   Bindaas Dadagiri

5.)    Sach Ka Saamna

6.)    News

7.)    Comedy serials

8.)    Animal Planet

8 FAVORITE PLACES TO EAT

1.)     VT (Viswanath Temple) in BHU

2.)    Limbdi Corner

3.)    Crystal ball restaurant

4.)   Ming Restaurant ( Chinese only) 

5.)    Bindaas restaurant

6.)    Aahar-Vihar

7.)    Kerala Cafe

8.)    MacDonald’s

8 THINGS THAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY

1.)     I got up at 9:30, bored by series of self guided dreams.

2.)    Took a cup of coffee with less sugar.

3.)    Took a bath, did Pranayam (I have learned in ART OF LIVING).

4.)   Switch on the laptop; Browse Google news, Orkut, Gmail and my blog.

5.)    After taking breakfast, slept for two hours.

6.)    In evening went to the roof of my room with my IPod and watched the people coming and going on the road.

7.)    Took a book from my small library and tried to read ‘Theory Of everything’.

8.)    Switched on the Laptop, sat beside TV till 12:30 in night.

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO

1.)     My Joining in DRDO, Pune (in Novem.)

2.)     My elder sister’s marriage.

3.)    To meet some new friends in DRDO.

4.)   To visit my native place.

5.)    To meet my school friends; my friends in village.

6.)    To do some good research in defence for our country.

7.)    To do some sort of social service.

8.)    To be an active blogger.

8 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT WINTER

1.)     Long sleepy nights

2.)    A hot cup of coffee and spicy potato fries.

3.)    Playing badminton as a warm up

4.)   Water Saving (just joking, I regularly take bath)

5.)    A heated discussion to my friends

6.)    Watching a horror movie on computer with friends in common room

7.)    Driving my Activa with my friend  

8.)    Bunking my first classes at every morning, requesting someone for proxy.

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST

1.)     Serving the country as a defence scientist throughout my life (Hope! Money will not change my mind to go abroad)

2.)    I want to have a big library of my own.

3.)    Social Service

4.)   Wish to travel with my parents all over India

5.)    Car! Just a Honda City will satisfy me.

6.)    Want to write a book.

7.)    Wish an intelligent and graceful wife.

                                                     8. )    Always wish some time for myself.

8 THINGS I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT

1.)    Hollywood movies

2.)  Computers

3.)   Mobiles

4.)  Blogging

5.)  Sketching

6.)  Music

7.)   Yoga and Meditation

8.)  Travelling

8 WORDS OR PHRASES I USE OFTEN

1.)    Nice

2.)  It’s ok

3.)   Yaa

4.)  Well

5.)  It’s  not fair

6.)  What the hell are you doing

7.)   Idiot

8.)  Hello (often on mobile)


8 THINGS LEARNT FROM PAST

1.)    Life is a journey, not a destination.

2.)  For happy life, keep your desires mild.

3.)   First love and respect yourself, then you will do others.

4.)  Never take life very serious.

5.)  We quarrel, we cry but nothing is as supportive as family.

6.)  Find out the difference in love and infatuation before proposing.

7.)   Do not ever pretend to show what you are not.

8.)  Accept and take responsibility of your mistakes, never feel guilty.

8 PLACES I WOULD LOVE TO GO OR VISIT OR SEE

1.)     Kanyakumari

2.)    Barcelona

3.)    Venice

4.)   Switzerland

5.)    Paris

6.)    Shimla

7.)    Kerala

8.)    Andaman Nicobar

8 THINGS I CURRENTLY NEED OR WANT

1.)    Want to complete my book ‘Gitanjali’

2.)  Want to watch an entertaining film.

3.)   Want to meet my brother in his Medical College.

4.)  Want to write more posts on my blog.

5.)  Want to play cricket

6.)  Want to play Counter-Strike on LAN.

7.)   Want to read more blogs

8.)  Want to buy a book ‘The Importance Of Living’

Thanks to me, I got 8 things J

Dear reader! Please grab the tag and complete as soon as possible. It really provides you a chance to witness yourself and to set your goals and priorities.

Cheers!!

Random thoughts

My desires only seem to me immortal as they hold up my mind, ridicule to my heart, fill me with dream to achieve .It challenges me to show my potential, to show that I am existing. I can feel the duality that wants to shatter each other. I doubt the path which I have chosen to follow whether it has chosen by me or path has chosen me. My path is trying to coincide to a confluence of desire, power and reputation. A fear to become obsolete is driving me, forcing me to increase the complexity of life. One side of my mind is saying to jump again in the hell of competition and other side to be grateful for what you have already got.

What an enchanting evening this is! Sky looks like a painting, is gifted to us by the existence on blue canvas with different color. The metamorphosis of clouds into different shape is claiming the movement and changefulness of life, challenging the orthodox and dogmatic thoughts of narrow-minded people. A breezy air, passing through my air is whispering a no lyrical song, touching my heart and soul. Trees, around me are dancing and rejoicing in the togetherness of air. My spell of individuality is weakening, loosing and trying to embrace the trees, wind, sky and the buildings and feeling of my self is redefining, reinventing in the lap of everything around me.