India, My Country

Sometimes I think why at all freedom was required for India. In other words I would say I try to think about a scenario in which India does not become free in 1947. After a lot of thought I most of the times reach to a conclusion that, in order to become a world leader or a world power one elementary condition is to become free. And more so for India because arguably we were once world leader in ancient times and we were the ones who made significant inroads in field of mathematics, art, law, philosophy, Religion and other fields and it was us from whom most of these things flowed to other parts of primitive human civilization. But that again, that was only in ancient times. I also find out one more reason that is that we Indians are capable of becoming world leaders again, we are a country which deserve to be second to none.
For Instance a Ramanujam was a clerk in Madras, did not have proper food and other basic amenities of life. But when he was sent to a British university, He grew to be considered as one of the greatest mathematician of his decade. I just quote this example here because I think that Indian mind is some how capable of taking human civilizaion to steps further in many directions. And it was therefore a necessity for country India to become free to become creative and original in its ideologies and Ideas. And It was also necessary to ensure that every Indian gets proper food, clothing and basic amenities of life so that he can move ahead and innovate.
Some days earlier I saw bribery scandal being divulged in the Parliament and I was shocked. I was more ashamed because the MP's who brought money to Parliament considered it to be some kind of victory with out being even slightly thoughtful about the fact that whole world was watching at this mockery of Indian democracy. Some of them must be joking at us and some of them may even have contempt in their minds for us. That day there was a mention of Bomb Blast in Jammu Kashmir in news paper, and I was surprised to see that it was so taken for granted that no body paid attention to this. It looked as if Life of people at Jammu Kashmir holds no significance for us. No statement from Home minister, no consolations for people those died. The only news that was in lime light was this Bribery scandal.
If I summarise my feeling to some words at that moment it was not any kind of disappointment or sorrow, rather this was an acute pain. I just felt- 'oh shit'. I was feeling as if I just wanted to go somewhere where I just can't think about this.
Then came next day, Bomb blasts at Banglore, I was again deeply shocked. Next to that day I was going to watch a movie and some of my friend mentioned that its not safe. I just had an argument with him that its ridiculous to think like that. I mean, we should/have right to feel safe at least in our country. But then the same day, there were blasts at Ahmedabad, next day live bombs found at Surat. Should we really feel safe? Lets not discuss about right of feeling safe.
And then came statement from one of members of a major national party that these bomb plantings and blasts were done to divert attention from Bribery scandal. My God! what an opportunism. What has happened to us, where is that cohesive view of India where we call her our motherland and think that we can do anything for her. What about Indians being people who will give world new directions ? I thought that there would be some statement from our Prime Minister or President with an assurance. but that was not !!! It looked as if feeling of being Indian was being hit , the pride behind it is being hit from all sides. The pain became more acute.
It was only the next day when I woke up and came in balcony and saw temple bell ringing and a flag over it, I felt no, its not all bad. I was coming to office and saw people talking to each other happily, some hugging each other, I felt relaxed. I felt no, spirit of my motherland is alive and we are moving ahead. I also thought probably it is this spirit that has kept us bounded and very much alive since ages. And this thought improved my feeling of relaxation to a certain optimism and certain happiness. I felt as if my blood pressure is decreasing and took a deep breath and a sigh of relief.

Pt. Nehru watches Incredible Hulk 2008

These days I am reading "Discovery of India" written by the first Prime-minister of India Mr. Jawahar Lal Nehru. Discovery of India covers every aspect of artistic, intellectual and philosophical attainment of India through ages. Through out reading the book I have been amazed to see perspective of a Prime minister towards Indian History, Hindu as a religion, Hindi as a language and also about the impact of science on the Human race.
Last Friday, I went to watch movie Incredible Hulk, a movie which is second in the Hulk series. The movie talks about a crazy scientist who makes himself a test subject for his discovery towards human immunity towards diseases and it involves gamma radiations. and This guy while an experiment becomes a subject for a miracle and turns in to a monster which grows enormously in size whenever his heart beat rises. I had also heard about a Gizmo movie Love story 2050 and that thought was also there in my mind.
On Friday after watching the movie I had a dream where I saw Pt. Nehru watching Incredible Hulk which is screened as a Science fiction movie with name "The Incredible Hulk in 2008". And he is perplexed while watching the movie. Pt. Nehru Lived in a period of history when there was a universal optimism towards technology. This was a period of time when technology was growing. Atomic Physics, communication, electronics and various branches of science had started to create their impact on Human race. On major factor was a focus on "Why" in perspective of people in general. In this period of time Human was growing capable of controlling natural factors and forces and subverting them according to his own wish. and thats why Pt. Nehru says that his period was a unique period of Human civilization where human had attained those capabilities. In my dream I saw that Mr. Nehru is awestruck to see the destruction caused by technical progress. In Movie an Army officer ( General in US army) infuses his man with some radioactive radiations so as to turn them in to weapons. and then by mistake another Monster is created who is similar in size to that of Hulk. and He starts disrupting life in New York.

Mr. Nehru in my dream is rethinking about his optimism towards technology. In brilliant universities of America, which are temple for science, all these Destructive experiments take place. The Human has reached to the extent of creating Human Weapons, genetically infusing human. The blood of hulk itself is so destructive that a sheer drop of it could lead to enormous destruction. and above all there is this cruel desire of human to conquer everything. Mr. Nehru is thinking if he should check all the technical progress in India and should campaign against it through out the world. He is thinking if it is really useful to create IIT's at all. He is thinking if actually advent of technology a boon for Human race or it is a bane. He is thinking if he should follow a path which will lead India to a country which guides world to Live with out technology and to live in Harmony with nature. Mr. Nehru with his Farsightedness is able to see that a day may come when war are fought with Atomic bombs which may exterminate Human race with all its roots. He is confused.

We are today living in a period where there is still a optimism towards technology. We foresee a lot of progress both at science and technology fronts. But somehow a pessimism towards this progress is also creeping in. I was today reading about some scientific mission of India which is touted as dream mission of ex-President of India Mr. Kalam and I was surprised to see its mention under title "Science or tigers". The article said -

"the best kept secret in India is that we are at the verge of ecodisaster to happen."

Seeing all this I also sympathize and have the similar feelings to that Mr. Nehru had in my dream. When I think about it more, I Find that in my dream it was Vice versa as Mr. Nehru was having Feelings that I have somewhere in me.

An Inconvenient Truth

I was only slightly informed about Global warming. Even when I read articles about it, I never understood it to its true extent. Actually we Human beings are subconsciously so self involved that we never ever agree to existence of anything until unless it directly effects us. There have been Katrina,Tsunami but our consciousness towards these events is only limited to merely consider them as news. Only some weeks ago near the World Environment day 5th June we had Environment week at ST Microelectronics. There Movie "An Inconvenient Truth" by Mr.AlGore was Screened. The movie has won an Oscar and Mr. AlGore has won Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. I personally was deeply moved to see the movie and so were many others.
One very interesting in the movie was this frog analogy, which says that if you put a frog in to a jar of boiling water it jumps out instantly. But if you put the frog in to a jar of cold water, and then start boiling it frog never comes out . Similarly we human beings even after being alarmed to the risk of global warming never work to alleviate it, because ironically its a problem which is slower in its impacts than the pace required for us to get in to action.
I was appalled to see the factbasedness of the movie. There were graphs. And Some graphs like that of CO2 levels, Temperature levels showed that we are in trouble big time. Everywhere there were facts like that of level of shrinking Ice caps, that of Sea waves direction changes. Even more facts like the calculation based predictions which had alarmed about Katrina. But C'mon, Nobody believes all this crap. We guys are too smart and self involved to accept these facts. And Katrina Devastated America. There is a Quote in the movie which says:

"What changed in US with Hurricane Katrina was a feeling that we have entered a period of consequences."

I mean its all fact, mathematics, science behind every prediction that alarms us about global warming. I mean its like if x happens and y increased, z is bound to happen. and We know that x has happened, Y is increasing and we sit comfortably !!!

We have risked earth for our comforts and self involvement. Those who dont believe me, PLEASE WATCH MOVIE : AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. Please vist website
www.climatecrisis.net


I personally tried to mail many people about it but everybody seems reluctant. I dont understand why? I think Its that frog analogy that explains it. We just don't understand that working to avert Global warming is inclusive NOT EXCLUSIVE to everything else that we do. I appeal here to you to rise to the challenge. After all we are a race which has changed earth most than anybody else, this is what is special about Human beings that we can usher changes in and have done so in the past. Who else could have sent something to moon from earth, could have done something as complex as Heart Transplantation surgery.

I just appeal to you to watch the movie "An Inconvenient truth" at least once and to take small steps to try to save energy wherever it is possible.

"The Rain"

As a kid my heart used to sing. There used to be songs. Everytime It rained, the first cold drops of water, the peculiar smell coming from mud, The sound of leaves from Bunyan Tree, The hopping frongs, everything used to make the sound even rythmic. Even later at Almora this song was internalised by me even more. The distant mountains in rain looked as if they are saying, "Hey kid, Look I have watched you play many times, Now see here I Play". I always wished to stay at mountains for ever and never leave them. But then I grew, reached cities, heard creeks of vehicles, people shouting at and hating each other. My heart became afraid, It stopped singing. The sound became mum. The time passed by and now there was no song. Mind had grown over heart. It was, it is, career consciousness, a mad race, a target somewhere to achieve always, even logical problems those made the sound even feeble. Here I am, seeing the first rain of this season want to go back to time, want to feel the sound of leaves, that feeling of joy again. I want to run fast and want to listen to that "chap chap" sound again. Some where some how I have lost it. But I want to go back. And I think see I think again. I just dont want to think, I want to feel. I want to feel.

I think

I think. And see patterns in things and am able to find out things those could have happened or may possibly happen. I think about thinking too. even I think that I think about thinking. It never stops. Sometimes I am lost in this. I may think about two things and even multiple things together. And when interrupted will still not be able to come out of all thinking threads together. Therefore I sometimes behave as a absent minded person. Given simple tasks I will make them too complex by thinking too much about them, trying to think about all possible dimensions, all possible consequences and factors. While bathing I may think about thermodynamics, while talking to somebody I may think about Psychology, while travelling I may think about sociology, looking at sun, I think about different planes, looking at numbers I may see patterns, looking at Europeans I may think about evolution, races , theology, number of chromosomes. And everytime in this state I feel unique pleasure, a certain happiness and I feel like humming. I am happy to be an engineer as it pays me for thinking. But I certainly strive to find better avenues where I get more time and purpose to think about various things and hopefully am able to share my ideas with others.

Multi-Dimensionsal Thinking

Everybody looks at things from different angles. But they can be seen in different dimensions also. Earlier I never realised that Lateral thinking in one dimension and vertical is other. These dimesions look pretty obvious. If I consider the above two as x axis thinking and y axis thinking, then there can be a z dimesion to thinking also. I call it as shift of platform for thinking and there can be many platforms to shift to. Suppose Somebody says I think about a apple. It is Red, It's sweet and It is round. He is doing One dimensional thinking. Suppose one MBA comes and says that it can be exported to another country as it is of great Quality its another dimension of thinking in the same platform. But Somebody thinks about first person's perception of an apple and of its difference to some body else's, He is thinking at a different platform, and which you can say is in z directions. Suppose another person thinks not about quality of apple but thinks about the definition of quality itself first, he is again thinking at a different platform which I say is in 'w' direction.
Philosophers in early times used to ponder a lot about basic things for hours. This was because they used to shift between different platforms of thinking. But we as modern human being don't have this opportunity. You may have just thought that this is because any lack of time or due to our business in normal lives. But I say that this is because our thinking has been restricted to certain dimensions of thinking only. In our schools and other social institutions we are made to think only in certain fixed dimensions. And that makes those facilities of brain more dominant to others. And the effect is loss of natural creativity and ability of multidimensional thinking, as everytime we think, our thinking patteren is dominated by the way we are taught to think.
I certainly agree that there can be many things that our brain is not capable to think of. and perceptions only govern our Ideas. For example wheels were invented round because sun is round. Triangle shape was generated because Mountains are like triangles. But There can be many shapes in the world which we have no perception for and hence those are never created.
We are not able to see Time dimension, we are only able to feel it through our memory. But it does exist. I think we would have certainly been more able to discover things, had we not had so many preconceived notions. In this way Science is killing itself by imposing patterns of thinking on individual minds.
Einstein definitely was a multidimensional thinker and so can one be. One has just got to try to think with out preconceived notions. On would realise that one enjoys it . And slowly slowly some day this way one must be able to shift platforms of thinking.