The Me

The conversation was a welcome fresh air of thoughts. There had seem to been dearth of such thoughts for sometime in me.

Point in matter is the conversation I had. So how do I think of an ant colony? Ants moving around the colony - building, feeding, protecting, mating and dying. Adding to it, I would also see an amazing work of collective beings. An ecosystem, when watched from top, is one single amazing being. With same perspective, looking from above, how should I see our human ecosystem. A brilliance of every single living or collective ability of sustenance?

Is it about, looking at every single individual as the highest embodiment of mind and matter. And then performing the causal analysis. Causal analysis of that single individual's ability to perform an action, or say, no action. Objectively thus deducing every event/intent in society. Not very far away from science of deduction, manifested by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Also, not very far from objectivism romanticized as the sole human might, by Ayn Rand.

I, however, seem to look at it non-objectively. May be because of shear magnitude of the cause-event analysis the idea of objectivism entails. And so like me many romantics.. dreamers.. (of not the sort of Rand or was she??) were born. Romanticizing the intent and effect. Not always worrying about internals...

Procrastinate the future and present will be past..

There is a constant debate on policy vs. innovation. Where will this technology lead us without a policy in place?


From stem cells research to AI to Mars colonization to Big Data - all are under scanner on are we ready? Are we prepared? This is Future.

From wars to famine to terrorism to poverty - all over us? This is Present

From policies to governance to institutions - all around us? They are Past.  

A language lost is a story lost.

 

Non, rien de rien

"No, nothing at all
No, I regret nothing
It is paid for, swept, forgotten
I don't care about the past!
With my memories
I lit the fire
My sorrows, my pleasures
I don't have them anymore!
Swept away love
And all their tremble
Swept away forever
I'm going back to zero “

Translated from -
“Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
C'est payé, balayé, oublié
Je me fous du passé !

Avec mes souvenirs
J'ai allumé le feu
Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs
Je n'ai plus besoin d'eux !

Balayées les amours
Et tous leurs trémolos
Balayés pour toujours
Je repars à zéro “

 - Edith Piaf

Define Independent India

I am surprised how little I knew about Indian history. British, Mughals and Vedas. Those were the only cornerstones of Indian history timeline in my head.

How ignorantly I missed northerners Nandas, Mauryans, Indo-greeks, Sathavahanas, Guptas and southerners Cholas,

How ignorantly I missed great places of history like Takshishala, Champa, Ujjain, Pataliputra, Kavaripatnam ...

Learn more at -  http://www.historyofindiapodcast.com

History of India podcasts...

What?

If not for the podcasts I would have never ventured into history of India. I do not recollect what piqued my interest (if it is what I suspect it is - then beware another frustration-ridden blog). 

Only thing I am disappointed with is, is the authors of following podcasts were influenced outside India looking inwards. Not because they are not well versed. Not for their hard-fought-efforts to say the Sanskrit/Hindi/Urdu  names right. But for they being the only option I could find in world of Podcasts. I would love to see some more such podcasts which tell me the other side of the story. After all, what we have here is still an extrospection which if supplemented with sound introspection would be an icing (beware that there is one episode by Kim Patrik where an Indian student introspects in an interview -  a fail!) 

Where?

History of India by Kim Patrik

Home Page - http://www.historyofindiapodcast.com or http://sendmejunkeveryday.wix.com/historyofindia

Podcast RSS feed - http://historyofindiapodcast.libsyn.com/rss

Podcast on iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-of-india-podcast/id1041684187?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Incarnations : India in 50 Lives

Home Page - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05rptbv/episodes/downloads

Podcast RSS feed - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05rptbv/episodes/downloads.rss

Podcast on iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/incarnations-india-in-50-lives/id993666528?mt=2

How?

Quick tip - Instead of diving into the very latest episode, begin both the podcasts from their very first. And you will be, as I was toggling between two - whichever one was downloaded to my phone, sweetly surprised by cross references of same personalities in both the podcast. 

Capital Punishment

Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder.

https://www.aclu.org/case-against-death-penalty

You know it when..

.. the Indian cricket team stalwarts are on avg 5 years younger
.. the next eye candy Bollywood stars are of same age
.. the IPO seeking CEOs are 5 years older
.. and the budding politicians are 10+ years older

that you are on hope to be on verge of
.. knowing what sports you
.. settling on what shines you
.. leveraging on what gets you going
.. and aah ..  giving up on politics and politicians forever

That it is the year when you had just accomplished 30 years on bloody damn Earth :) ..

This post was triggered by thought that M.S. Dhoni (born July 7, 1981) will be last of the guys to retire, who is older than us 30 something..

Note to yourself .. How do I invest back?

Inspired from https://scripbox.com/blog/5-ways-to-increase-your-annual-income/ and blindly making it a mental note

• Invest in Yourself – Add Value to Your Self Worth

• Invest in a Long Term Career Path – Map Your Progression Professionally

• Invest in Rewarding Risks – Zone Out of Your Comfort Zone

• Invest in Health – Focus on Your Physical, Mental and Social Well Being

If I could..

If I could just write down the melodies in my head right now..
If I could just charge up my lost curiosity right now..
If I could just make up for those lost thoughts right now..
If I could just come up with one brilliant thought right now..
If I could just wake her up right now..
If I could just fall off to sleep right now..

I would..
Not be bothered by those melodies in my dream..
Explore that curiosity uninterrupted in my dream..
Be regretless of missed thoughts in my dream..
Regret that, that thought might just always be my dream..
Tell her about my dream..
Have my dream..

If I could just right now.. I would rather live my dream..

Arvind Kejriwal aur AAP

I am prompted to write this after yet another AK and AAP bashing. At certain times it was hard to not take this personally. But it is different now. I have seen AK being reduced to a person with problems like any leader. He had his moment when 33% of Delhi constituencies were behind him. Then had his low when NaMo swept everything. I write here not to prove him or AAP right but to try to bring forth what is NOT wrong about them.

Most importantly, AK and his AAP are still (and probably will always be) more of a movement than ever a political party. Expecting anything more is irrelevant here. Gussa jayaz hai, but don't blame them. They are one of the voices. Voices of dissent against existing political and bureaucratic establishment. That's their way of fighting the system. The system, which no doubt is as corrupt and vulnerable as was when they started this movement.

What they started doing and what they are doing all is part of their existence (romantically calling - wajood). I don't see anything wrong in them trying to be constantly true to that. Their most important agenda has been clean politics and honest people in politics - zero criminals. Then they want is active participation of people in politics. They also want voices to be heard from every section of society. They want social welfare organisations to have political voice. And most importantly they want zero tolerance towards corruption. Sadly it looks like to make all this relevant to media they constantly have tried to target the current authority, even when it is sabka favorite Narendra Modi.

About just AAP. They have, since they were formed, been engaging everyday people, lighting the spark of political consciousness. I have been actively following the party ever since its inception and have appreciated just how much it has been about everyday volunteers than just the founders. I have seen more than one place where an NGO/social activist has felt politically empowered for the first time. I have seen more than few times that AAP volunteers clean out streets in their localities - way before PMO launched swachh bharat abhyaan. And like that I have seen more than few times that AAP has been relevant even without AK anywhere in picture.

Lastly, agreed that both of them have faltered more than few times on their path - but relevance of those instances is miniscule compared to revolutionary political experiment they have brought about. The political experiment which will bear its fruits in no more than 5 years!

ज़िन्दगी गुलज़ार है..

.. इष्क का दरबार है
यहाँ घम को पालना बेकार है ..

We have been watching a new TV series. A Pakistani TV series.  Zindagi Gulzar Hai. R finished first 8 eps. herself before I dived in. We barely steered away from an accident (of kind ‘dawn breaking TV series marathon’) late last night.

Once we realized what ‘gulzar’ meant, we realized so apt is this title. If R was positively excited to see Kashaf and Zaroon moving on a collision course, I was worried of it. If now R is worried of their woes post the collision, I am gladly seeing the beauty of how script is handling what I was worried about earlier. I am also glad to have small internet streaming interruptions, allowing us to steal glances saying ‘love’/‘interesting!’/‘is Kashaf crazy?’/‘is Zaroon a pig?’/‘what??’.

Apart from some little drama of kinds a TV dramas are made of, pacing of this TV series is unique. Like some scenes we wondered if having a date and place between some scenes would have helped. And like (the even better one) some conversations/non-conversations alongside tea/oranges/biscuits/coffee aren’t paced at all!

Chai aur Santre? yea! I know, sipping & munching is a thing which happens alongside most conversations/non-conversations irrespective of the intensity. If R has any problem with this series is this particular thing. Kicking off go munch munch cravings with every one of these scenes. Thank Jain dharma for feeling not so like that at all when they are having sheek kababs or machhi fry :) – I’ll have to admit that is when a very small cravings go through me …