Mumbai, a warfield!
Reactions are coming from everyone, everywhere... people, media, politicians. Everyone has a point to make. Some reactions really make me think that this India is different from what it used to be. My friend, ND, attempts to put all such reactions gathered from media on one page (here).
But really where are we heading? We all want to fight back. But fight back against what? It is not a fight against country or religion but it’s a fight against terrorism. War is not a solution!
It’s amazing how we stand together when things like this happen. But it never goes beyond blaming the system. It’s our country, it’s our system. The system is not responsible for us, it includes us. Who are we blaming the media we support, the politicians we elect or the corrupt officials who we pay to get our jobs done? We created the system, we are responsible for it. We are at war with ourselves!
So many times we hear terrorists demanding prisoners to be released(though not the case this time). Few people go to the extent of suggesting that such prisoners should not be kept alive. Death is the only penalty!? Perhaps because we can guard our prisoners better than our people!!! Let us all go to prisons! This is how blind we are to our own follies.
We all realized how vulnerable we are on our own soil. This incidence made us mad... mad at everything, but how long will we feel the same? We are not disciplined enough to let this feeling last long enough.
I hope atleast this time what we feel is for real. And if it really is...then let that feeling be put into some positive action!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
World Philosophy Day
Before this day ends, on this World Philosophy Day I ought to post something..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
More later...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
More later...
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Techno savvy nah not me!
One of my new acquaintances started calling me on daily basis. It was a nuisance. Just because you don’t have life doesn’t mean you can go about disturbing people’s life. This made me realize why people are there 24/7 on gmail/gtalk. My first login on gtalk was about 3 months ago. I was totally unaware of the tricks and chatting etiquettes. But I knew how to be invisible and watch once a while those who are online. Found plenty of people who would start their work day by chatting. Puzzled by all this I tried doing that myself only to realize that it is stupid and unnecessary. When you work and feel tired there are so many people around who are fun talking to. When not at work, partying, roaming, reading, playing, talking to people in general and such are sufficient activities to keep one occupied. What does one seek on gtalk?...happiness of staying connected to ones who you cannot see and in the process forget who is sitting next to you. When people say they love technology it is very much likely that they just know how to use IM. I am for sure not chat savvy and hence not techno-savvy.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Happy Tolerance Day!
Tolerance, the endangered virtue.
Today is the International day for Tolerance, that is celebrated every year since 1995. To know more click here.
Recently me and my friends happened to discuss about "Religious tolerance" and so this post was bound to happen sooner or later. What's better day than today?!
Somewhere I believed that being an Atheist automatically makes you tolerant towards diverse beliefs....since one doesn't have any. :P But how many people really understand "tolerance"?
My cousin sister and her fiance, who are both atheist, recently got married with all the religious rituals for the sake of their families. And I am proud of that...else wouldn't atheism be termed as an independent religion/faith? Amit Varma had written an interesting blog on this long ago..( click here) where he tried explaining Atheism and also tried reasoning out why Atheists don't congregate.
But few days ago I read this news piece in the Guardian and I was very very amused. It is about UK's first ever atheist advertising campaign! Can you believe that!! What are these people trying to do? Preach Atheism? Does that leave any difference between Atheism and religious fundamentalism?!!
Today is the International day for Tolerance, that is celebrated every year since 1995. To know more click here.
Recently me and my friends happened to discuss about "Religious tolerance" and so this post was bound to happen sooner or later. What's better day than today?!
Somewhere I believed that being an Atheist automatically makes you tolerant towards diverse beliefs....since one doesn't have any. :P But how many people really understand "tolerance"?
My cousin sister and her fiance, who are both atheist, recently got married with all the religious rituals for the sake of their families. And I am proud of that...else wouldn't atheism be termed as an independent religion/faith? Amit Varma had written an interesting blog on this long ago..( click here) where he tried explaining Atheism and also tried reasoning out why Atheists don't congregate.
But few days ago I read this news piece in the Guardian and I was very very amused. It is about UK's first ever atheist advertising campaign! Can you believe that!! What are these people trying to do? Preach Atheism? Does that leave any difference between Atheism and religious fundamentalism?!!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Dr. House
I was totally intolerant of Dr. House character the first time I saw him. Watching it purely out of boredom(I guess my roomie was in India then) my exact reaction was...what a jackass! does he even care about anybody?! cruel idiot!
But the episode that got me hooked up was the one where House's team is confronted with the situation where they have to treat two kids differently. They have to make an ethical choice! Why ethical? Because they know that one of them will die as a result of the choice they make. They are worried about having to choose one over the other. The emotional team goes hard on Dr. House...making it an ethical issue. They would rather treat them the same way and let them both die than make a seemingly unethical choice that allows one of them to live. Dr House makes his choice by flipping a coin. It is so simple and straightforward for him. Does that sound cruel???
Overall Dr. House is brilliant, logical, sarcastic, has excellent judging capabilities, curious(should say curious to the extent of being nosy sometimes.or nah.all the times). On the negative side he is stubborn, nosy...oh and yes he doesn't deserve friend like Wilson!
Overall I watch it for logical decisions Dr. House makes and his sarcastic comments that leave you feeling crazy in love with the character.
Another interesting episode is "House vs God"
The episode I hate most is "Birthmarks". He is totally illogical cruel idiot in this one..perhaps owing to his father's death.
But the episode that got me hooked up was the one where House's team is confronted with the situation where they have to treat two kids differently. They have to make an ethical choice! Why ethical? Because they know that one of them will die as a result of the choice they make. They are worried about having to choose one over the other. The emotional team goes hard on Dr. House...making it an ethical issue. They would rather treat them the same way and let them both die than make a seemingly unethical choice that allows one of them to live. Dr House makes his choice by flipping a coin. It is so simple and straightforward for him. Does that sound cruel???
Overall Dr. House is brilliant, logical, sarcastic, has excellent judging capabilities, curious(should say curious to the extent of being nosy sometimes.or nah.all the times). On the negative side he is stubborn, nosy...oh and yes he doesn't deserve friend like Wilson!
Overall I watch it for logical decisions Dr. House makes and his sarcastic comments that leave you feeling crazy in love with the character.
Another interesting episode is "House vs God"
The episode I hate most is "Birthmarks". He is totally illogical cruel idiot in this one..perhaps owing to his father's death.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Confused souls!
An emotional friend of mine quotes clichés like this one..
“You can't love somebody and not trust them. “
Cute one indeed! But a more deeper question is...Why are we scared of trusting people? Why do we insulate ourselves from the rest of the world? Why do we suspect? Is it even ok to suspect? Isn't trust supposed to be earned?
I believe in starting with basic assumption that every person is good at heart. Respect him/her the way you would respect a trustworthy person or a friend. But don’t be blind! Don’t be an emotional fool!
It is not so easy to practice this kind of attitude. Occasionally we will encounter situations that will make us skeptical of people. As we grow up, we start losing faith in "goodness" of people. How and where do we lose innocence? Even the most logical and rational people are susceptible to "cognitive dissonance". If we strongly hold the view that "people are good at heart" and at the same time encounter people who really break our heart, we think, and most of the times think in favor of our heart, trying to minimize the pain and end up changing our views so that they are in resonance with our experiences. And what do these experiences tell us? If you read them right...they just tell us that don't be blind, don't be an emotional fool. Few bad experiences should not cost us our innocence. Be willing to tolerate such circumstances, but don't let anybody rob you of your most precious possession, the innocence.
And as all this happens in our subconscious mind, we rationalize it somehow, by hook or crook, without even realizing what we are doing. If you were to realize that you catching up with this negative trait would you not step back? Unfortunately most of us don't even realize this. This is when the habbit of introspecting, a careful examination of one's own thoughts and feelings proves to be useful.
After editing this post three times...atleast! I realized that I am getting rigid too. It is hard to admit that I do swing between the two extremes I am talking about here. Most of us do. We are skeptics sometimes and sometimes we are emotional fools too. It is amazing how this blog has changed from a simple blog to personal confession.
So, the gist is keep faith…faith that every person is good at heart. Let us not give up our innocence ever. Let us make a lifelong pledge to be child at heart and love every person as one's own self. But let's not be emotional fools!
Luv ya all!
“You can't love somebody and not trust them. “
Cute one indeed! But a more deeper question is...Why are we scared of trusting people? Why do we insulate ourselves from the rest of the world? Why do we suspect? Is it even ok to suspect? Isn't trust supposed to be earned?
I believe in starting with basic assumption that every person is good at heart. Respect him/her the way you would respect a trustworthy person or a friend. But don’t be blind! Don’t be an emotional fool!
It is not so easy to practice this kind of attitude. Occasionally we will encounter situations that will make us skeptical of people. As we grow up, we start losing faith in "goodness" of people. How and where do we lose innocence? Even the most logical and rational people are susceptible to "cognitive dissonance". If we strongly hold the view that "people are good at heart" and at the same time encounter people who really break our heart, we think, and most of the times think in favor of our heart, trying to minimize the pain and end up changing our views so that they are in resonance with our experiences. And what do these experiences tell us? If you read them right...they just tell us that don't be blind, don't be an emotional fool. Few bad experiences should not cost us our innocence. Be willing to tolerate such circumstances, but don't let anybody rob you of your most precious possession, the innocence.
And as all this happens in our subconscious mind, we rationalize it somehow, by hook or crook, without even realizing what we are doing. If you were to realize that you catching up with this negative trait would you not step back? Unfortunately most of us don't even realize this. This is when the habbit of introspecting, a careful examination of one's own thoughts and feelings proves to be useful.
After editing this post three times...atleast! I realized that I am getting rigid too. It is hard to admit that I do swing between the two extremes I am talking about here. Most of us do. We are skeptics sometimes and sometimes we are emotional fools too. It is amazing how this blog has changed from a simple blog to personal confession.
So, the gist is keep faith…faith that every person is good at heart. Let us not give up our innocence ever. Let us make a lifelong pledge to be child at heart and love every person as one's own self. But let's not be emotional fools!
Luv ya all!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Mind body connection
Running around in town with 102 fever with no care whatsoever for my body, to being forced down to do NLP with special mind-body relation section introduced for a person with special needs :D taught me nothing really.
After 5 years I did it again!
3-4 months ago I had a muscle injury because of careless lifting of heavy container that I did in my lab ;) well I am not built for that kind of stuff. But what kind of stuff are we talking about anyways?? 10kgs. 20kgs. Who knows! Little did I care then and ended up having tennis elbow. On showing it to doc in India who looked at me for a while and asked.. "What kind of lifestyle is yours?” I said ok kind of...active...occasionally not active at all. And after observing me a little more and asking about my work and all.. he declared that this isn’t the kind of thing which would happen normally. People tend to rest when something goes wrong. Hell no..don’t give me that look! I am normal. Perfectly normal. I hope saying it twice would compel you to believe me. Btw, my elbow still hurts. Any solutions/suggestions? No more ignoring my body henceforth.
No wonder I still don't get it. Mind body connection! I believe it, oh sure!! deeply! but still I don't feel it.
After 5 years I did it again!
3-4 months ago I had a muscle injury because of careless lifting of heavy container that I did in my lab ;) well I am not built for that kind of stuff. But what kind of stuff are we talking about anyways?? 10kgs. 20kgs. Who knows! Little did I care then and ended up having tennis elbow. On showing it to doc in India who looked at me for a while and asked.. "What kind of lifestyle is yours?” I said ok kind of...active...occasionally not active at all. And after observing me a little more and asking about my work and all.. he declared that this isn’t the kind of thing which would happen normally. People tend to rest when something goes wrong. Hell no..don’t give me that look! I am normal. Perfectly normal. I hope saying it twice would compel you to believe me. Btw, my elbow still hurts. Any solutions/suggestions? No more ignoring my body henceforth.
No wonder I still don't get it. Mind body connection! I believe it, oh sure!! deeply! but still I don't feel it.
Revolution within...
Read a blog of my friend who periodically vents out his anger through his blogs. He usually writes about corrupt politicians, corrupt bureaucrats and all those people who do nothing about it, which means, all of us including he himself ;)
Everybody knows that the change begins with self and so if you and I and many others change we can certainly change the world right?! Bloody hell No! (Oops I am getting that language after reading his blogs!)
Politics ain’t no easy, man. Agreed! But look at the guts of those few people...those all fools with no job and no brains rush to run the local govt. bodies. It is not their fault! How can you blame them? I don’t want to sound as if I have been there, seen all types…but sure I saw it all a little too close.
Give me the ratio of number of politicians to population of our country. Let us say there are about 10,000 politicians and our population is about 1,140,000,000. Who is ruling the country here? Where are these politicians coming from? Not sky ofcourse!
This friend of mine talks a lot on philosophy. Philosophers can be good politicians...but no matter what u say here, if you are that one timid person who can write theories at the most but get nothing done in practical life, nothing can be ever achieved. There are hundreds and thousands of crooked ways to justify yourself if you are a philosopher or a politician :P but unfortunately...unless u have guts to experiment with your so called theories nothing can ever change.
"Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."-G.B.Shaw
Everybody knows that the change begins with self and so if you and I and many others change we can certainly change the world right?! Bloody hell No! (Oops I am getting that language after reading his blogs!)
Politics ain’t no easy, man. Agreed! But look at the guts of those few people...those all fools with no job and no brains rush to run the local govt. bodies. It is not their fault! How can you blame them? I don’t want to sound as if I have been there, seen all types…but sure I saw it all a little too close.
Give me the ratio of number of politicians to population of our country. Let us say there are about 10,000 politicians and our population is about 1,140,000,000. Who is ruling the country here? Where are these politicians coming from? Not sky ofcourse!
This friend of mine talks a lot on philosophy. Philosophers can be good politicians...but no matter what u say here, if you are that one timid person who can write theories at the most but get nothing done in practical life, nothing can be ever achieved. There are hundreds and thousands of crooked ways to justify yourself if you are a philosopher or a politician :P but unfortunately...unless u have guts to experiment with your so called theories nothing can ever change.
"Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."-G.B.Shaw
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