A bit late but a dusshehra rehash

October 23, 2008 at 7:20 pm (Relativity)
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Its abt a situation where superman finds himself alone in the world as someone who knows what is good.
Lex is his old foe who is the messenger of evil. Now lex has turned whole world as he is and the morals are as spoken by lex and not as superman knows them. Now superman has the offer from lex…join me and we will rule together according to morality as defined by me (lex).
Superman is now contemplating what to do because lex poses him the question “who decides what is good or bad”?
Superman:

Last night, with my spirits in kind order and my head spinning clock wise, I have thought over Lex’s argument and his proposal in great detail.

The issue with human morality is that the person who leads us to the path of what is “Just” is often branded as a saint[1] and it marks beginning of another sect with its own followers. The issue is this – what the saint wanted to achieve was not to have another sect or have him branded as a god incarnate but to achieve that people should realize the true self inside them and use the faculties provided by either god or the compounds, depends on whichever side of god one stands. These faculties are free will and reason. The critics of this write-up are requested to please read the analysis further if and only if they believe that each and every individual is endowed with these two faculties because my analysis and arguments presented in this paper are based on this basic premise.

What happens is that people on losing physical contact with the saint tend to fall again to their basic weaknesses. Ones who had access to the saint start to act as his missionaries and exploit people by making them believe in whatever they say. The obvious distortions of teachings are made. Power, ever the enticing mistress, extends its vice-like grip on them and they start expanding their realm of influence. What for the rest of followers? They start to conform to whatever the new seat of authority says because of their need to fit in.

The instinct to survive takes over and daily worries and vain desires overcome their logical mind. The numbness renders them ineffective and fuels the ever growing demand of power for the new messiahs. Now, this is the mentality that is being exploited by Lex. When he poses the question “Who decides what is right or wrong?” he is pinching the boil that the religion has propounded for ages. The religion which tells this is right this is wrong; this is good this is evil. This has direct implications upon human tendencies which are going to help them make choices that might be right or wrong to an individual but religion by inculcating its dogmas[2] make them flush with guilt the instant they do something that is contrary to dogma. Why guilt because our friends have long forgotten to apply their faculties to differentiate between good and bad. This again feeds into our new age messiahs hands. They grow still more powerful because it’s only they who can atone the poor guy for the supposed “Sin”.

However, the logic of a truth is simple; truth is that that appeals to an individual and his inner self after putting it across the fire of logic, aided by objectivity granted by free will. Truth is about realization and not dictation. However there are a few questions that are worth considering about Lex’s logic and the situation at hand. Who is he to decide what is good or bad for people? Why is it that people are following him? Why has he not exterminated me? Instead he needs my help! What is it that I can do?

I recall when I was initiated into the order of the champions of good. I tested each of the thoughts that were put to me as good and only after careful and objective analysis I was convinced of what is right and what is not. Again the two champions of mine will and logic helped me decide my future.

What Lex is doing currently is quite the opposite which is trying to influence people into subjugation. He himself is not following the dictum that he gave me “who decides what is right or wrong” in other words “To each his own”.

Why are the people following him? Let’s go back to my argument in third paragraph. The need to fit in and survive. To have someone take care of their daily worries and in return he can have their unpledged support. Result? Be happy or sad afterwards? I can’t say that as of now. Because then I would allow my own morals to interfere and not let others take an individual call. So what is it that I will do? I shall start by putting across to people my views about how the actions of people are going to impact them and their surroundings in long term, no value judgment just plain facts and argument. Then some would start using their own logic and values to weigh my arguments. They may or may not agree but what it will do is start to apply their minds more to what is happening to them.

I know they may come to an entirely different conclusion about morality which may be very similar to what Lex has taught them. But as a crusader of truth my job is to show people the way through which they should conduct themselves. However, there is a strong possibility that they might revert back to the values of the old. Why? Answer lies in the twin clues. First, even though Lex could have killed me to exterminate all those who had differing views to his, he hasn’t. Is it that HE CAN’T kill me (The eternal battle between the real good and the bad)? Second, he has asked my help to rule the world. Maybe his magic is being seen through by some and old values and their beholders are finding renewed acquaintance with people, therefore he wants me, a champion of morality of old, to come out and help him kill this small niggle for ever.

PS: Sati, in a distant land, was once a socially acceptable practice sanctioned by the powerful of the times. Yet people with sound logic were able to see through the dogma and challenge it, and now the whole world praise those people as visionary. Therefore people need to trust their mental faculties to arrive at good and bad. To Each His Own.

[1] Saint here refers to a genuine person who believes in brushing off the dust of ignorance amongst masses a la Swami Vivekanand

[2] Dogma here refers to truths or non truths propounded by someone else and agreed to by people after the propagators without testing them at the altar of logic

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Karn

May 18, 2008 at 10:11 pm (Ancient history)
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What would a whirlwind do to an insignificant twig? Destroy? Given the tenuity attained, and not ordained, by the object, its well nigh possible that it would outlast its leonine but diasporic conqueror. Yet there must be something that should happen to it. For there is an inevitability of fate for all that is not destroyed and that is to chart the new course in a world which is in metamorphosis and it takes time for the subject to imbibe it in itself or itself into it. But there is something very peculiar to twig, which is both its strength and weakness, and that is its freedom. Freedom it possesses by being or by being able to be away from its progenitor. A liberty and a bane bestowed upon it when it ceased to experience its fate as a part rather becoming a whole in itself.

However, one thing that is granted for such entities is the opportunity to take on the world at its own terms. Gargoyles are in any case not expected to act as harvesters.

What can be those terms? They can be, as is the nature for all of us, to have the feeling of belonging; which it has been deprived since its birth. Why I say deprived is because the concept of birth is something that we all have to experience without any self conscious desire and yet have to owe up whatever destiny throws at us; no questions can be asked no justice to be expected. Or it can be the feeling of proving oneself as an equal to those who don’t need to prove their rights that they are bestowed with out of their still intact affiliations. There is another desire that should take shape, a desire to maintain the quintessential dignity of being a human being; a desire made more profound by the sordidness that is associated with the word ordinary. In fulfilling such desires in part or in full, the subject endures endless scrutiny. Its own life becomes an altar for testing its own purity which often the ones with better endowments escape.

Those who have endured scrutiny would understand how being tested by another human being, who on the merit of individual prowess needs to show respect that we should show to someone with superior achievements. However owing to the arrogance that lesser mortals seek to associate with factors that they are born in rather than born with leads to one of the gravest cases of justice denied as well as injustice accepted. This humiliation of will and soul doesn’t stop, it is not easy to understand and accept the unacceptability.

Its said “Veer Bhogya Vasundhara” but such is the travesty that the Veer continues to seek legitimacy to be called a Veer. What is more disconcerting is that he seeks acceptance from very people who had they been in a world where humanity, for the first time, starts to decide upon rules to establish rules and laws based upon strict adherence to natural principles of meritocracy and honesty would have willingly accept him as the alpha. However in this case he proposes to be disposed, he cares to care but is asked to beware. This collective attempt to erode can never go unpunished, for the creator of the world wanted the world to be a Libra, forever trying to redress balances, moving between excesses, sowing fear and hope, delivering injustice and justice. And so was the justice finally met out to our twig. For all that he yearned for while living, the future ever since has been yearning equally hardly to bestow on him. His greatness lies that while he had his chances to change which he din’t, his debtor, the time wants to change and it can’t. He lives and shines as the mark of the famous father who begot an even more famous son.

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Of stats and cali

February 19, 2008 at 2:30 am (Cricket)

Of Stats and Calibre

Came across a news item with headline “48 required by Chaminda Vaas to become 4th all rounder….”….baah humbug. Vaas an all rounder!!

I did a quick search on cricinfo to find out what exactly the cricket writer, or rather statistician, meant – 309 ODI’s 1962 runs 390 wickets. Having worked as an analyst cum statistician I could see the orgasmic high such a statistic combination would have given to him. But I had been taught to look at statistics as a means to justify an end so I again sought help to verify my limited knowledge of what exactly an all rounder means. This is what wiki yielded “An all-rounder is a cricket player who excels at both batting and bowling”.

Chaminda Vaas for all his intelligence, and not necessarily skill of late, would go down as Sri Lanka’s lone seamer of note and repute. But to call him an all rounder is nothing but a sacrilege on what an “All rounder” means (disclaimer: as per wiki). Other illustrious “All Rounders” that he might share space with are Shaun Pollock, Kallis and another one. Then a thought occurred to me that I may be overreaching my self by getting into the circuitous logic of statistics myself. May be statistics do tell something that makes business sense. So let’s analyze the business (cricket) sense of the inference that the writer had drawn.

Imagine Brett Lee bowling at 150 to an “All Rounder”, playing with number 10, with match as tight as the knot binding couples during Hindu marriages! Who would I trust to save my neck? Or rather if I am sounding a bit too egotistical by quoting my “trust” who would Lee not want, out of the league that Mr Vaas is going to belong? It’s a million dollar question who wouldn’t he want between Kallis and Pollock? Oh did I forget Senor Vaas, Mr. writer? I am sorry for being selectively amnesic but then cricket is about making million dollar calls and not decisions that even I and you can make.

Actually I think it’s a bit too harsh to comment with such impunity about Mr Writer’s inference. In a country where marketability of a film star determines the suitability for candidature of presidency, atleast for mass media and a lot of “sms“ voters, and it actually lands up in the lap of a respectable elder woman says a lot about the kind of logic that drives Indian mass and elite. Our writer has atleast taken refuge in something that has statistical sense to it.

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Singapore Diary

August 9, 2007 at 9:11 pm (Travel, Work)

Thought of writing something about present days but saw this piece lying in some folder so here goes the rendezvous ….

Singapore Diary

After the growingly insipid days at Inductis, doing the stuff that I had been doing for the past 1 year, came the opportunity that every fresh engineer craves for in the first year of his career but few actually get. I got an 8 month posting to Singapore for an onsite project.

The day was made as there were a lot of worthy candidates to choose from.

However the reality soon struck hard as I realized the import of the decision, an eight month long deputation away from home. “Home” a place which seems so ordinary, not in terms of its value but the necessity and the regularity of that necessity, that you never imagine life away from it. All the initial euphoria gave way to a sick feeling of pregnant nostalgia that I were to experience in the coming days or should I say months.

 

May 18th 2006, Changi Airport

 

9:30 AM the Indian Airlines flight landed on the world famous Changi aerodrome.

One of the first things that one notices about Singapore is the amount of green this city boasts of, although a city no bigger than one third of our Delhi the city houses 4 million people and yet the green cover is maintained with much fastidiousness. So through the green and woods our caravan reached the Redwood, a service apartment near the south western harbor of Singapore and from now on our home for the next 15 days.

 

After accommodation now was the time to visit the place where we were to spend most of our time away from home, so we arrived at the PBTP(PLAZA BY THE PARK) the SCB office in downtown Singapore, one thing you notice about the place is the weirdness of the name of the place as the park after which the square was christened was non existent, later we came to realize that the park had given way to a management university, although I don’t like green to be sacrificed at the altar of development, this sacrifice didn’t really perturb me as later it became a sort of favorite hanging spot for me during the lunch breaks. More on that later as I don’t want my favorite spot on the PBTP to have a fleeting mention.

 

If anyone is planning to stay in Singapore for considerable length of time it doesn’t take long to realize the necessity to acquaint oneself with the public transportation as you are likely to realize the diabolic ERP, Electronic Road Pricing, a penalty if you want to help the cause of employment of the local taxi drivers, though its applicable only during the supposedly the peak hours of traffic and not to mention the peak hour surcharge that is levied on top of that.

If you somehow are able to convince yourself to take that hit on your pocket the most basic existential reality hits you i.e. the possibility or the impossibility of getting a cab, therefore you have to pay another surcharge to “call a cab”. So to cut the long story short – the govt of Singapore can’t see the taxi drivers or the people using them happy, so be prepared to drag yourself to the closest metro station and travel to your destination surveying the bounties of Singapore. Not that I mind that too much.

Not too bad is how I would describe my first impression of Singapore. The only thing left to survey was the food. The first day we’d lunched at a small Indian joint just across the road at redwood, though not exactly tasty the food was quite palatable, which appeared to be quite a surprise as the area was predominantly Chinese or malay or just non Indian.

The quest for true tasty tangy Indian food led me to my -would be- the most favorite spot in the whole of Singapore, LITTLE India. A completely familiar milieu suddenly sprouts up in the middle of awe inspiring yet tastelessly done Singapore. The crowd, shops, houses, restaurants and the component that is the quintessence of any culture, its people, all seemed so likeable, so familiar and helped quite a few times in partially bridging the disconnect, which occurs when you are detached from your comfort zone and put in untested waters.

Apparently this in one of the few places left that has somehow maintained its old world charm to some extent amidst the frenzy to expand horizontally and vertically that has caught the imagination of the local gubernators. You can find the pavement stalls selling coconut water, vegetables, incense, flowers just about everything and like back home. Although Singapore has traditionally been known more for south Indian settlers amongst the Indian expats yet the trend is changing with a more cosmopolitan look to its Indian expat community that was well reflected in the number of north Indian food restaurants the place boasts of and even the south Indian places offer quite a reasonable platter of north Indian dishes.

My favorite joint became “Khansaama”, a Punjabi restaurant run by a dozen of Punjabis. My taste buds after dipping into half a dozen other Indian restaurants across Singapore still vouch for the taste of khansaama as their lengthiest and most consistent passion. However in the heady days food was usually cooked at home by my competent colleagues.

Days starting passing with monotonous regularity, morning – to office, evening – back from office and then follow the same routine again. The work was not something to lose sleep over or be overly excited about but it did gave me an experience which if I look back has helped me both professionally and personally the most.

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Destiny’s Child

June 16, 2007 at 5:34 am (Rambling about self)

Today, 16 June 2007 8 AM, sipping tea with rain pouring down, washing all the heat off Delhi germinates a thought. Isn’t a burst of morning rain all that is required to soak the dried earth? Or to put it differently isn’t a torrent all that is required to chart a new course in a perceptibly decided one.

Better part of the year back with a decent posting in Singapore, ample amount of money, time and avenues to spend it in tow I had made peace with my childhood dream of getting through to THE B school, dream it was when one fine day I recall, seems almost prophetic now but ludicrous till before “now”, telling or rather announcing to my teacher that I am thinking of doing my MBA from IIM-A. Lack of success for two year running, repeated failure to repeat the mocks success at the big stage had made me do a capability vs desire balancing check. It was decided that one last shot would be given to CAT and in case of a repeat performance life should move on with other pursuits independent of MBA. Plans were made to catch on things that I had always wanted to do, once I had enough in my pocket, but were in limbo owing to obvious reasons.

Its one thing to think beyond your dream but to live beyond it is destiny’s call.

With absolutely no expectation, sleep (owing to sinusitis) and preparation of conventional sorts (AR and SS to vouch for that) 19 November was greeted with a strange sense of relish that a prisoner should know of on the day before his release. Exam was remarkably different, with extra time, as if to compensate for the killer English section which would have tested even the progenitors of the language. Rest of the day along with the whole of evening passed in analyzing the results as announced by the various reputed institutes.

It’s said success depends upon how someone performs under pressure, I cannot. Shouldn’t it be how someone performs without pressure?

Came New Year and came along with it interview calls. A twist in the tale, a new chapter or just a momentary distraction? The answer made its appearance a few months later to confirm the former. At that time it felt surreal, almost devoid of any emotion, a feeling of numbness that hits you when something that you hoped, once, comes true. Destiny again seemed to be playing with me, as if saying “Hello sir who decides where the hell you land up, I do”.

Script has been written, die cast what you do or think matters little, and it’s futile. Is it?

This experience helped me learn one thing and that is flexibility is an alias for change and change is what is constant. When chips are down the worst you can do is mow yourself down and the best to mow the expectations down. Expectations are like a dead burden that lend little help in acheiving the goal while physchologically disintegrating the beholder. That’s education which no coaching institute provides and honestly that’s the first thing that should be taught in this competitive world. Sounds a bit like “Bhagvad GITA” but then great men across ages think alike :) .

Journey began millennia back, it will continue like quest for Atlantis.

In life as in death one thing is common, the eternal question remains. The question, I believe, is strictly idiosyncratic. They say we find answers to questions the whole life, what actually we need is that one question that defines all answers, what an irony?

For now the new course carries the journey forward, the idiosyncrasy remains, the question remains which only destiny can answer.

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