Today's blog is a short poem I have written for my parents ... as a way of saying a small 'thank you' and 'i love you' to the very people who always stand by me through thick and thin no matter what ....... happy birthday baba!!!
The poem is in Bangla ........ the language in which I wrote my first poem 11 years back ....... and since this one is for my parents, mother tongue it will be! But for you guys who don't know the language, the poetic translation in English is just below that .......
AMI UTHI ABAR
Amar meghla bikelbalay
Akla mon kharaper ghum,
Shei brishti dekha kanche -
Amar alochhayar room |
Kichhu phontar shathe kotha,
Kichhu shobdo bhalobasha,
Klanti ghum hoy na chokhe -
Amar chhelemanushi asha |
Er modhye onek bhaba,
Khata ankhre dhore thaka,
Mon shanto hoy abar -
Buke shopno ma-babar .......
Kokhon shurjo dube gachhe,
Chena shobdo ghorir kantar,
Abar karon khonja othar -
Asha japte uthi abar |
-------------------------------------------------
And the english translation in verse is .........
I RISE AGAIN
Another of my cloudy eves,
On a pensive mood I sleep,
Watching rain on the window pain -
Light and shadows paint my room !
Words I speak with drops I hear,
Some sounds I've heard make me endear,
These tired eyes hold no sleep -
My childish hopes surround me !
Amidst all this thoughts crowd in,
Holding on to scribbled sheets,
Again I calm down deep inside -
My heart carrying my parents' dreams ........
Don't know when the sun had set,
The clock ticks on familiarly,
I search again for a reason to rise -
Embracing my dreams I rise again !
----------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
ENGINEers
Not long ago they looked down on us
As men who toiled with tools and nuts,
We sawed through wood and hammered out ore,
We were 'penters and 'smiths till they wanted more !
In reply the machines started to come
And they needed men to run the beasts,
Under tin roofs they called us in -
We started working with the milling machine !
Over time the machines got bigger and better,
Gears and levers had become our tools -
No matter what rolled out on the belt
The world outside always needed more !
In time the engine took its place,
And they found us a name at last -
Since then "ENGINEers" we have been,
Chugging the new world onwards !
The new world needed machines to build,
Engines to travel...machines to unravel,
We built machines for a better world......
We built machines that threatened us all !
Today with machines we've bonded so deep
That without them life seems empty and steep,
Our work is getting machines to "engineer" -
So ENGINES are today's real ENGINEers !
As men who toiled with tools and nuts,
We sawed through wood and hammered out ore,
We were 'penters and 'smiths till they wanted more !
In reply the machines started to come
And they needed men to run the beasts,
Under tin roofs they called us in -
We started working with the milling machine !
Over time the machines got bigger and better,
Gears and levers had become our tools -
No matter what rolled out on the belt
The world outside always needed more !
In time the engine took its place,
And they found us a name at last -
Since then "ENGINEers" we have been,
Chugging the new world onwards !
The new world needed machines to build,
Engines to travel...machines to unravel,
We built machines for a better world......
We built machines that threatened us all !
Today with machines we've bonded so deep
That without them life seems empty and steep,
Our work is getting machines to "engineer" -
So ENGINES are today's real ENGINEers !
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
INdustry
Hi friends! Here I am again taking my first strides in the biomedical industry. It's been a heady mix of things till now ... from a warm orientation to basic and then advanced training right upto some exciting work ... in an R&D company which employed me after 8 rounds of assessment ... to pay me about 70% of the salary an average finance guy gets... a price I was ready to pay to do what I love - which is ENGINEER! Overall, I would say a decent beginning!
In the midst of all this, I could not help notice the sudden changes in my environment from university days........ there is a silent formality in the air, conversations are casual but crisper, things are often put forward in an "implied" manner, "subjects" have become "domains", "concepts" are called "background", "application" has become "value creation", and the words "customer" and "business" ring in the air throughout the work-floor. While my "midterms", "CPI" and "guide" have been promptly replaced by "quaterly review", "project rating" and "team lead", "projects", "presentations" and "performance" have persisted ...... but with a whole new meaning!
In spite of the above, being in a product development set-up probably means the nearest semblance to the easy-going and intellectual atmosphere of school. Ever since I got the offer, I had been excited to know how ENGG actually GETS DONE in the seemingly sophisticated medical implant industry ...... and so far the learning has been largely enlightening, at times mundane, but throughout full of surprises - in the last few months I have come to understand how SIMPLE INNOVATION ACTUALLY WORKS!!! The major difference between industrial innovation and academic R&D is now clearer to me than ever before - Value of a technology is measured here in the simplicity, range and applicability of the innovation (besides business sense), whereas in our university labs it is largely driven by the core scientific concept and/or intellectual understanding! So, like many others coming out of school, I needed to incorporate within my INTELLECTUAL definition of science the broader understanding of its application, market value and, most importantly, NEED!!!
All innovation pipelines are mostly driven by NEED (in both academia and industry) .... but the challenge is to keep the technology in its finished form as USEFUL, RELEVANT and AFFORDABLE to the EVOLVED NEEDS of the customer ..... as it once started out in the form of a CONCEPT! I guess that is where "simultaneous engg" comes in - whereby the guy in the lab talks to the customer, the manufacturer, the supplier and the surgeons to understand the need of the hour to innovate upon!
However, one thing I found rather discouraging (which persisted right from my university days) was how little the academic and industrial stalwarts think of each other ..... in spite of the fact that there is a WIN-WIN situation for both in any kind of collaboration - this is simply because their strengths are so complementary to each other that you can't help think why there couldn't be a HAPPY MARRIAGE between the two! If only we could get over the petty ego-clashes and mutual misinformation, inject a little mutual respect and think for greater good, research and engg could really accelerate in this country! While the academia has the brightest ideas, sharpest HR and depth of detail, the industry brings to the table business resource, a systematic implementation and the BIG PICTURE.
It took me 2 hours from 4 office days to write this blog........so all in all, it's been an exciting start to MEDICAL ENGG for me......lots of things to learn and explore.....with some intellectual and practical reconciliations along the way!
In the midst of all this, I could not help notice the sudden changes in my environment from university days........ there is a silent formality in the air, conversations are casual but crisper, things are often put forward in an "implied" manner, "subjects" have become "domains", "concepts" are called "background", "application" has become "value creation", and the words "customer" and "business" ring in the air throughout the work-floor. While my "midterms", "CPI" and "guide" have been promptly replaced by "quaterly review", "project rating" and "team lead", "projects", "presentations" and "performance" have persisted ...... but with a whole new meaning!
In spite of the above, being in a product development set-up probably means the nearest semblance to the easy-going and intellectual atmosphere of school. Ever since I got the offer, I had been excited to know how ENGG actually GETS DONE in the seemingly sophisticated medical implant industry ...... and so far the learning has been largely enlightening, at times mundane, but throughout full of surprises - in the last few months I have come to understand how SIMPLE INNOVATION ACTUALLY WORKS!!! The major difference between industrial innovation and academic R&D is now clearer to me than ever before - Value of a technology is measured here in the simplicity, range and applicability of the innovation (besides business sense), whereas in our university labs it is largely driven by the core scientific concept and/or intellectual understanding! So, like many others coming out of school, I needed to incorporate within my INTELLECTUAL definition of science the broader understanding of its application, market value and, most importantly, NEED!!!
All innovation pipelines are mostly driven by NEED (in both academia and industry) .... but the challenge is to keep the technology in its finished form as USEFUL, RELEVANT and AFFORDABLE to the EVOLVED NEEDS of the customer ..... as it once started out in the form of a CONCEPT! I guess that is where "simultaneous engg" comes in - whereby the guy in the lab talks to the customer, the manufacturer, the supplier and the surgeons to understand the need of the hour to innovate upon!
However, one thing I found rather discouraging (which persisted right from my university days) was how little the academic and industrial stalwarts think of each other ..... in spite of the fact that there is a WIN-WIN situation for both in any kind of collaboration - this is simply because their strengths are so complementary to each other that you can't help think why there couldn't be a HAPPY MARRIAGE between the two! If only we could get over the petty ego-clashes and mutual misinformation, inject a little mutual respect and think for greater good, research and engg could really accelerate in this country! While the academia has the brightest ideas, sharpest HR and depth of detail, the industry brings to the table business resource, a systematic implementation and the BIG PICTURE.
It took me 2 hours from 4 office days to write this blog........so all in all, it's been an exciting start to MEDICAL ENGG for me......lots of things to learn and explore.....with some intellectual and practical reconciliations along the way!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Destiny
I am an edgy cube among polished spheres,
Painted on top - no repaint layers.
Uninsured my mind drives against walls,
The crash gets cleaned ...... but tears fall.
I sit alone at night no more -
The stars have long befriended me;
I want to understand no more -
'Understanding' has deceived me!
I realize a loss, feel hollow inside,
Fate takes turns to cut through me ...
Is it immature to try holding on?
Holding on to a dying tree?
How often does a heart rebel inside?
The conscience ever crave to speak ......
Maybe it is a foolish wish
To hope for that which money can't buy ......
So I don't even dream any more,
'Cause even dreams cost, you see!
Thoughts pent up and dressed up nice,
Masks to hide - some entice ....
My set of "can but doesn't"s is funny -
And I failed to merge love and money;
I am all you should never try to be ....
I am, my friends, my destiny!
The above is dedicated to those who chose to be different.......opted for the harder way........gave their all to someone/something.........and quietly dressed their pain in smiles!
Painted on top - no repaint layers.
Uninsured my mind drives against walls,
The crash gets cleaned ...... but tears fall.
I sit alone at night no more -
The stars have long befriended me;
I want to understand no more -
'Understanding' has deceived me!
I realize a loss, feel hollow inside,
Fate takes turns to cut through me ...
Is it immature to try holding on?
Holding on to a dying tree?
How often does a heart rebel inside?
The conscience ever crave to speak ......
Maybe it is a foolish wish
To hope for that which money can't buy ......
So I don't even dream any more,
'Cause even dreams cost, you see!
Thoughts pent up and dressed up nice,
Masks to hide - some entice ....
My set of "can but doesn't"s is funny -
And I failed to merge love and money;
I am all you should never try to be ....
I am, my friends, my destiny!
The above is dedicated to those who chose to be different.......opted for the harder way........gave their all to someone/something.........and quietly dressed their pain in smiles!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Hello everyone! I am feeling tired today ...... and yet want to wirte something ..... so I will take the easy route out by writing a very short poem ..... let's see what verse might provide when prose gives way ........
It doesn't yet have a name ---
Chains around him that pain no more,
Trying to hold in a joy so soar .......
Words erupting deep inside,
Turning away but cannot hide .......
Silver linings that come and go,
The tide of joy might hit the floor .....
Thoughts pent up and dripping slow,
Love is warm but hard to show ......
The present merges into past sublime,
A swirl of dreams on the tick of time ......
He struggles to tell ...... but tears swell ---
We hear a silent prayer for peace !
See you next time!
It doesn't yet have a name ---
Chains around him that pain no more,
Trying to hold in a joy so soar .......
Words erupting deep inside,
Turning away but cannot hide .......
Silver linings that come and go,
The tide of joy might hit the floor .....
Thoughts pent up and dripping slow,
Love is warm but hard to show ......
The present merges into past sublime,
A swirl of dreams on the tick of time ......
He struggles to tell ...... but tears swell ---
We hear a silent prayer for peace !
See you next time!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
So long IIT Kanpur........
Hello friends! This is the last night as a student at IIT Kanpur, the very place which once seemed like a daunting institution reveling in its intellectual glory.......the very place which, they said, would take you even better places......the same prize that millions fight for but know very little about...and I was no exception!
Today, on the verge of leaving for a new journey...a new chapter in life, the mind yearns to stay back....the heart ponders on the last 24 months....not only with fond memories of a journey which completely changed my life (just as many others), but with a subtle understanding of a little part of IITK I now carry with me.....because I now realize that the challenges, competition and intensity of this place that all of us fervently (at times grudgingly) went through, actually developed a part of us we never even knew existed! Instead of the usual stuff IITK was supposed to give me as a finished product of its assembly line - such as knowledge, a hard-earned degree, decent future prospects and so on....... the more important take-home's for me turned out to be much less materialistic - such as the conviction to try on, the guts to think "out of the box" and, perhaps most importantly, a broader understanding of life!
So, yes, I can hear my gray cells (which are few and far between) sobbing a little to leave this place, but the heart has unexpectedly joined in too......to bid adieu to the many bonds built in such a short span of time.....all my batke (BTech), matke (MTech) and phaddu (PhD) friends .....warm smiles from the hostel(8), mess and canteen "bhaiyas"....the "aaj mess me karela hai" canteen dinners......the heady fun of the antaragnis, techkritis and galaxy's........out-of-the-blue "contri" pizza parties.......the never-ending and "always lots to notice beside the ppt" basbe seminars....and, closest to heart, some wonderful human beings who became my family!
The last paragraph is more the kind of "acknowledgment" I would have loved to write in my thesis.....but, whatever! On a more serious note, when I look back on my time spent here, and ask myself, "Was IITK the best engineering school in this country?"....the answer I get is "Probably yes"; but on the question of "Did IITK contribute a great deal to India?", the answer is "Probably not". Like anything else, living or otherwise, this place has its share of problems, worries and challenges in the future.....but most of the people leaving their hostels for corporate shores, IIM calls or foreign scholarships know very well in their heart of hearts, that in spite of the numerous draw-backs of "yahan ka systam" (which absorbed many "gaalis" over chai and BBC), this school is still a serious stimulant of thought, innovation and application in the world! But real India (read as Nankari) awaits us outside the IITK walls with despair on the one hand and hope on the other....hope that needs to be answered....and for those of us who have cycled around the countryside know what I mean...so let's hope that our beloved IITK makes a difference...and India will follow!
It's almost 5:10 am now, and I have not yet packed an iota of matter into my prospective luggage, dispersed around my room in perfect "post big bang" anarchy, which needs to get on board a transport about 14 hrs from now (and I am a 10 hr sleeper!).......so got to go friends......take care and more later!
Will really miss IIT Kanpur.......and so will keep coming back !!!
Today, on the verge of leaving for a new journey...a new chapter in life, the mind yearns to stay back....the heart ponders on the last 24 months....not only with fond memories of a journey which completely changed my life (just as many others), but with a subtle understanding of a little part of IITK I now carry with me.....because I now realize that the challenges, competition and intensity of this place that all of us fervently (at times grudgingly) went through, actually developed a part of us we never even knew existed! Instead of the usual stuff IITK was supposed to give me as a finished product of its assembly line - such as knowledge, a hard-earned degree, decent future prospects and so on....... the more important take-home's for me turned out to be much less materialistic - such as the conviction to try on, the guts to think "out of the box" and, perhaps most importantly, a broader understanding of life!
So, yes, I can hear my gray cells (which are few and far between) sobbing a little to leave this place, but the heart has unexpectedly joined in too......to bid adieu to the many bonds built in such a short span of time.....all my batke (BTech), matke (MTech) and phaddu (PhD) friends .....warm smiles from the hostel(8), mess and canteen "bhaiyas"....the "aaj mess me karela hai" canteen dinners......the heady fun of the antaragnis, techkritis and galaxy's........out-of-the-blue "contri" pizza parties.......the never-ending and "always lots to notice beside the ppt" basbe seminars....and, closest to heart, some wonderful human beings who became my family!
The last paragraph is more the kind of "acknowledgment" I would have loved to write in my thesis.....but, whatever! On a more serious note, when I look back on my time spent here, and ask myself, "Was IITK the best engineering school in this country?"....the answer I get is "Probably yes"; but on the question of "Did IITK contribute a great deal to India?", the answer is "Probably not". Like anything else, living or otherwise, this place has its share of problems, worries and challenges in the future.....but most of the people leaving their hostels for corporate shores, IIM calls or foreign scholarships know very well in their heart of hearts, that in spite of the numerous draw-backs of "yahan ka systam" (which absorbed many "gaalis" over chai and BBC), this school is still a serious stimulant of thought, innovation and application in the world! But real India (read as Nankari) awaits us outside the IITK walls with despair on the one hand and hope on the other....hope that needs to be answered....and for those of us who have cycled around the countryside know what I mean...so let's hope that our beloved IITK makes a difference...and India will follow!
It's almost 5:10 am now, and I have not yet packed an iota of matter into my prospective luggage, dispersed around my room in perfect "post big bang" anarchy, which needs to get on board a transport about 14 hrs from now (and I am a 10 hr sleeper!).......so got to go friends......take care and more later!
Will really miss IIT Kanpur.......and so will keep coming back !!!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Vaccuum of thought.......
Hi again everyone......after a loooong gap!
Time's at a high premium nowadays as thesis submission is round the corner - the culmination of two years of a tumultuous journey through the annals of science, pawing over the trails of thought, observation, reasoning, doubt, despair and finally childish joy! This article is not intended to be a lesson in either of the above, but a candid collage of some thoughts on "thought" I realized mainly in the last 2 years and want to share before bidding farewell to this intellectual haven!
I was watching this commercial the other day proclaiming in an ultra-cool genre "Thinking is such a waste of time!", and i said to myself - "Wow!", now that punchline required some serious thought! Isn't it extremely rare nowadays to find simple, logical and visionary thought around us? I mean the costliest thing available in the global market is probably sound logic or balanced thought! The world is just so overflowing with extremities and imbalances, sentimentalists and sensationalists, unreal cynicism and rabid oversimplification, pseudo-intellectuals and knee-jerk administrators ....... in short, thought seems to be at an all-time low in a world that tends to believe "Thinking is such a waste of time!".
As soon as one hears of the word "intellectual", "education" springs to the mind - doesn't it? But to think of it, most education only trains the mind in ideas and concepts ...... it only helps us getting through volumes of text and instructions to the ultimate destination - ability to think! But it is possible to essentially "think" without an academic pedigree! Recent research pretty conclusively showed that the centers of learning and thinking in the human brain were not only distinct but quite independent of each other! Surprising? Well, quite a few of us would be surprised to realize how little we know or indeed think about so many things we take for granted as "known" or "thought through".......maybe after reading a good book, attending an enlightening talk or just asking ourselves some simple and tough questions! But somehow the clarity and balance of thought in most matters are highly weighted by prejudice, misinformation, emotionality or outright ignorance! So the thing comes down to respecting knowledge as ability to think, correlate and realize - something we intellectuals and "educated" beings rarely ever do! That might be why the Noam Chomskies, Richard Dawkins, George Orwells and Arundhati Roys are not fashionable celebrities or "cool" commodities - even though they happen to be the leading philosophers of our time and adhere to the highest values of intellectual integrity, some of us rather prefer to label them as "leftists", "non-believers", "illusionists" or "sympathisers of extremism"! Most of our minds are just ignorant of the more important things in the world and are confined by us to our little cocoons filled with convenient inconsequential fodder to "think" on - we tend to put so much brain into petty matters that we often miss out on the larger picture!
Perhaps the most intellectually rewarding human experiences are not learning things, but two facets of ordinary daily existence - realization and correlation! Isn't the real application of any knowledge only possible on realizing the learning? - whether it is music, sports, science, literature or even cooking! The second aspect of "thought" most lacking in our immediate conscience is "correlation" - as my thesis supervisor once said very truly, "The time I realized that fluid mechanics and thermodynamics were intricately related was when I actually understood both subjects" - similarly it is not really possible to think about or through anything in isolation.....this world is a giant continuity of beautiful truths - sometimes impossible to comprehend, but beautiful none the less - and literature, maths and science are just convenient, approximate attempts to segment the one giant truth! Thinking emanates in the human mind and manifests in different forms for different fields of life.......but the need for exercising the grey cells is universal for the human race........not only for taking great strides in time, but more importantly for keeping one's own self on the right track and preventing the misuse of intellect!
So friends, we don't have to go mad or become a sadist or loner to realize the importance and power of "thinking". Let's try to take interest in different things outside our little cocoons, respect knowledge and not degrees, and begin to appreciate the beauty of a broader understanding of life in simple terms....do we really need to be nerds to do that? In the list of Nobel achievements across all fields, you will find a lot more of very simple and broad thinking than complex theories....so, yes, the answer is that we do not need to be "nerd" or gifted in any particular way in order to be able to think, because each one of us is born with it. In the complex world of today, we need to constantly climb out of virtual boxes of knowledge that surround us from time to time........once outside we can breathe the fresh air of freedom and feel the radiance of truth....there is a need to unlearn the past to learn new things with a child's enthusiasm...."unthink" opinions and decisions in order to rethink about matters we already made up our minds on...."applying thought" to answer the right questions......and now, more than ever before, not just thinking on information but through it.......making sure the pen (mind) remains mightier than the sword!!! Not "thinking is such a waste of time"!
"Information is not knowledge." - Albert Einstein
Time's at a high premium nowadays as thesis submission is round the corner - the culmination of two years of a tumultuous journey through the annals of science, pawing over the trails of thought, observation, reasoning, doubt, despair and finally childish joy! This article is not intended to be a lesson in either of the above, but a candid collage of some thoughts on "thought" I realized mainly in the last 2 years and want to share before bidding farewell to this intellectual haven!
I was watching this commercial the other day proclaiming in an ultra-cool genre "Thinking is such a waste of time!", and i said to myself - "Wow!", now that punchline required some serious thought! Isn't it extremely rare nowadays to find simple, logical and visionary thought around us? I mean the costliest thing available in the global market is probably sound logic or balanced thought! The world is just so overflowing with extremities and imbalances, sentimentalists and sensationalists, unreal cynicism and rabid oversimplification, pseudo-intellectuals and knee-jerk administrators ....... in short, thought seems to be at an all-time low in a world that tends to believe "Thinking is such a waste of time!".
As soon as one hears of the word "intellectual", "education" springs to the mind - doesn't it? But to think of it, most education only trains the mind in ideas and concepts ...... it only helps us getting through volumes of text and instructions to the ultimate destination - ability to think! But it is possible to essentially "think" without an academic pedigree! Recent research pretty conclusively showed that the centers of learning and thinking in the human brain were not only distinct but quite independent of each other! Surprising? Well, quite a few of us would be surprised to realize how little we know or indeed think about so many things we take for granted as "known" or "thought through".......maybe after reading a good book, attending an enlightening talk or just asking ourselves some simple and tough questions! But somehow the clarity and balance of thought in most matters are highly weighted by prejudice, misinformation, emotionality or outright ignorance! So the thing comes down to respecting knowledge as ability to think, correlate and realize - something we intellectuals and "educated" beings rarely ever do! That might be why the Noam Chomskies, Richard Dawkins, George Orwells and Arundhati Roys are not fashionable celebrities or "cool" commodities - even though they happen to be the leading philosophers of our time and adhere to the highest values of intellectual integrity, some of us rather prefer to label them as "leftists", "non-believers", "illusionists" or "sympathisers of extremism"! Most of our minds are just ignorant of the more important things in the world and are confined by us to our little cocoons filled with convenient inconsequential fodder to "think" on - we tend to put so much brain into petty matters that we often miss out on the larger picture!
Perhaps the most intellectually rewarding human experiences are not learning things, but two facets of ordinary daily existence - realization and correlation! Isn't the real application of any knowledge only possible on realizing the learning? - whether it is music, sports, science, literature or even cooking! The second aspect of "thought" most lacking in our immediate conscience is "correlation" - as my thesis supervisor once said very truly, "The time I realized that fluid mechanics and thermodynamics were intricately related was when I actually understood both subjects" - similarly it is not really possible to think about or through anything in isolation.....this world is a giant continuity of beautiful truths - sometimes impossible to comprehend, but beautiful none the less - and literature, maths and science are just convenient, approximate attempts to segment the one giant truth! Thinking emanates in the human mind and manifests in different forms for different fields of life.......but the need for exercising the grey cells is universal for the human race........not only for taking great strides in time, but more importantly for keeping one's own self on the right track and preventing the misuse of intellect!
So friends, we don't have to go mad or become a sadist or loner to realize the importance and power of "thinking". Let's try to take interest in different things outside our little cocoons, respect knowledge and not degrees, and begin to appreciate the beauty of a broader understanding of life in simple terms....do we really need to be nerds to do that? In the list of Nobel achievements across all fields, you will find a lot more of very simple and broad thinking than complex theories....so, yes, the answer is that we do not need to be "nerd" or gifted in any particular way in order to be able to think, because each one of us is born with it. In the complex world of today, we need to constantly climb out of virtual boxes of knowledge that surround us from time to time........once outside we can breathe the fresh air of freedom and feel the radiance of truth....there is a need to unlearn the past to learn new things with a child's enthusiasm...."unthink" opinions and decisions in order to rethink about matters we already made up our minds on...."applying thought" to answer the right questions......and now, more than ever before, not just thinking on information but through it.......making sure the pen (mind) remains mightier than the sword!!! Not "thinking is such a waste of time"!
"Information is not knowledge." - Albert Einstein
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Cupid's post !!!
Hello again friends......after a longish gap! So how was the valentine's day this year? Was it "love"-ly or lonely? Never mind even if it was the latter......it's just another day of the year, isn't it? And since when does Love need a day to be celebrated anyway? I mean a reserved calendar day is fine and convenient to remember, but who cares? We can celebrate it every day of our life! Speaking of which, don't we actually live "love" (almost like breathing air) every moment?
For all of us "I don't believe in love"s out here(I felt so a long time back too), there is that one person or thing that all of us love....somewhere tucked away in the bottom of our hearts...the raison de vivre (reason to live) that keeps us going...taking everything life throws at us. Although I am no "love guru", it may be realized as subtle inexpressible feelings of affection, simple comfort, calm joy, poignant possession, deep trust and shared dreams....for any living being or, in fact, an inanimate thing. However, whatever love is for or towards, I feel it is actually the realization of such a feeling/relationship rather than its expression in cards/gifts/flowers/kisses that makes love "LOVE"! Don't you think it is important to understand the subtle difference between the two?
Can we make our complex relationships and shared priorities a bit easier if we start putting more effort into realizing and simplifying "Love" on a personal level?...... rather than being driven by a shady feeling we do not wholly understand, yet are intent on following it to where it leads, on the way trying to force it into expression (even if it is to one's own self)! For example, if you ask me, I believe the Muasamman Burj (Shah Jahan's prison balcony in Agra fort,through which he saw his Taj) is a greater symbol of love than the Taj Mahal itself.......why? Very simple, because the former is an example of the very feeling of love at a very personal level, while the latter was only an expression of that feeling! It is true that history (like most of us in our daily lives) mostly recounts love in its forms or expressions through the times (more exciting and dramatic that way), instead of the very basic feeling/relationship/understanding that defines "love" in itself! It's like saying "i fell in love with x the moment I saw her/him/it"...almost verbitizing an actually gradual feeling into a single moment of occurence, and that is where we make the first mistake of complicating such a sacred and beautiful feeling! That person will invariably realize much later on, that the feeling that occured from that day onwards, after seeing "someone/something special", indeed crystallized much later into what is actually "love"!
I will leave you, friends, with the above thoughts......so, maybe "love" just "happens" to our emotional senses; or maybe it gradually seeps through our senses, mind and soul for a long long time, without even our realizing it, till it seems it was always there to start with! To me, love is a continuous feeling/process of self understanding, realization and enrichment (thanks to my family and Puku)...there is something inherently selfless about it - independant of reciprocity from the person/object of love...it's about becoming stronger and better human beings...and I am sure all of us have something/someone to live for...and after sometime it really doesn't matter even if that someone/something does not share our feeling...because "love" really doesn't need the "me too" component, does it?...and if we look around us, we just might realize that we weren't searching hard enough all this while for the real reasons to live! So, let's keep our relationships simple...by asking ourselves tough questions...answering ourselves honestly...searching for true happiness in our feelings for someone/something ...because at the end of the day, what matters is whether we are happy.......finding reasons to smile...and spreading "happyness" among those that really love us!
"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time." - Edith Newbold Jones Wharton
"Just because you love someone doesn't mean you have to be involved with them. Love is not a bandage to cover wounds." - Hugh Elliott
"Real love is a permanently self-enlarging experience." - M. Scott Peck
For all of us "I don't believe in love"s out here(I felt so a long time back too), there is that one person or thing that all of us love....somewhere tucked away in the bottom of our hearts...the raison de vivre (reason to live) that keeps us going...taking everything life throws at us. Although I am no "love guru", it may be realized as subtle inexpressible feelings of affection, simple comfort, calm joy, poignant possession, deep trust and shared dreams....for any living being or, in fact, an inanimate thing. However, whatever love is for or towards, I feel it is actually the realization of such a feeling/relationship rather than its expression in cards/gifts/flowers/kisses that makes love "LOVE"! Don't you think it is important to understand the subtle difference between the two?
Can we make our complex relationships and shared priorities a bit easier if we start putting more effort into realizing and simplifying "Love" on a personal level?...... rather than being driven by a shady feeling we do not wholly understand, yet are intent on following it to where it leads, on the way trying to force it into expression (even if it is to one's own self)! For example, if you ask me, I believe the Muasamman Burj (Shah Jahan's prison balcony in Agra fort,through which he saw his Taj) is a greater symbol of love than the Taj Mahal itself.......why? Very simple, because the former is an example of the very feeling of love at a very personal level, while the latter was only an expression of that feeling! It is true that history (like most of us in our daily lives) mostly recounts love in its forms or expressions through the times (more exciting and dramatic that way), instead of the very basic feeling/relationship/understanding that defines "love" in itself! It's like saying "i fell in love with x the moment I saw her/him/it"...almost verbitizing an actually gradual feeling into a single moment of occurence, and that is where we make the first mistake of complicating such a sacred and beautiful feeling! That person will invariably realize much later on, that the feeling that occured from that day onwards, after seeing "someone/something special", indeed crystallized much later into what is actually "love"!
I will leave you, friends, with the above thoughts......so, maybe "love" just "happens" to our emotional senses; or maybe it gradually seeps through our senses, mind and soul for a long long time, without even our realizing it, till it seems it was always there to start with! To me, love is a continuous feeling/process of self understanding, realization and enrichment (thanks to my family and Puku)...there is something inherently selfless about it - independant of reciprocity from the person/object of love...it's about becoming stronger and better human beings...and I am sure all of us have something/someone to live for...and after sometime it really doesn't matter even if that someone/something does not share our feeling...because "love" really doesn't need the "me too" component, does it?...and if we look around us, we just might realize that we weren't searching hard enough all this while for the real reasons to live! So, let's keep our relationships simple...by asking ourselves tough questions...answering ourselves honestly...searching for true happiness in our feelings for someone/something ...because at the end of the day, what matters is whether we are happy.......finding reasons to smile...and spreading "happyness" among those that really love us!
"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time." - Edith Newbold Jones Wharton
"Just because you love someone doesn't mean you have to be involved with them. Love is not a bandage to cover wounds." - Hugh Elliott
"Real love is a permanently self-enlarging experience." - M. Scott Peck
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Fair is Lovely....
Or is it? This topic was suggested by my "someone special" the other day in casual conversation......and i felt compelled to write on it...thanks sreya! There has been a huge outburst in the press lately about the "racist" attacks on Indians down under....and rightly so. But contrary to the shock expressed by most of us, I am not at all surprised by these outbreaks....rather, irrespective of the nature of motivation behind these attacks, certain things should be put in perspective: that is a nation with a marked history of racism against the aborigines, an aggressive culture inherited from convicted forefathers of the British empire (just historical facts....no offense to Australians, please!), but most importantly a seemingly developed society which always had an under-current of unemployment and anguish, that was inflamed by the Australian education industry (read as universities) taking hundreds of Indian students, trying to fulfill the "foreign quality eduction dream", only to land up often in average universities with no scholarship!
But one thing that did surprise me, as an Indian, was how we react to such atrocities outside our soil, but rarely ever introspect about the pathetic "white is right" colonial hangover/attitude that we shamelessly portray in this country! Don't agree? Well friends, let's stand in front of the mirror for once and ask ourselves:
Why is India (not China or Brazil or whole of Africa)the largest market for fairness creams in the world? Don't the "x & y" commercials on TV smell of racist undertones? Isn't "gori" or even "gora" (nowadays) silently attributed a hierarchically higher stature in society or marriage? Don't we know what happens in the air-hostess interviews of some of the Indian airline companies? Do we stop to think before calling certain names to darker-skinned people from Southern India or people with mongoloid features from the North East?
Even after 63 years of independance, we still breed in our minds a color complex even towards fellow Indians.....still acutely lack in self-confidence as a society, as a nation....we still hanker for the "white man's appreciation"......and hypocritically feel a quiet sense of appreciation to be complemented on our skin color......racism is not only the violent "Mississippi burning" or " a Melbourne stabbing" - it is also the "...gori gori ..." Bollywood songs and the "Girl, fair, slim ..." narrowly defined beauty in our matrimonial ads!
I believe that racism breeds racism.....while a fair skin breeds it believing in its misplaced superiority, a darker skin also does the same by believing that the fair skin is right! So let us stand for what is right......by taking small steps in our everyday interactions with people.......from peer groups to job desks....let us be aware of what WE, as citizens of the country of Gandhi, DONT WANT TO BE KNOWN AS ... and more importantly, LETS ACTUALLY NOT BE THAT!
"On an altar of prejudice we crucify our own, yet the blood of all children is the color of God." - Don Williams, Jr (American poet and novelist)
But one thing that did surprise me, as an Indian, was how we react to such atrocities outside our soil, but rarely ever introspect about the pathetic "white is right" colonial hangover/attitude that we shamelessly portray in this country! Don't agree? Well friends, let's stand in front of the mirror for once and ask ourselves:
Why is India (not China or Brazil or whole of Africa)the largest market for fairness creams in the world? Don't the "x & y" commercials on TV smell of racist undertones? Isn't "gori" or even "gora" (nowadays) silently attributed a hierarchically higher stature in society or marriage? Don't we know what happens in the air-hostess interviews of some of the Indian airline companies? Do we stop to think before calling certain names to darker-skinned people from Southern India or people with mongoloid features from the North East?
Even after 63 years of independance, we still breed in our minds a color complex even towards fellow Indians.....still acutely lack in self-confidence as a society, as a nation....we still hanker for the "white man's appreciation"......and hypocritically feel a quiet sense of appreciation to be complemented on our skin color......racism is not only the violent "Mississippi burning" or " a Melbourne stabbing" - it is also the "...gori gori ..." Bollywood songs and the "Girl, fair, slim ..." narrowly defined beauty in our matrimonial ads!
I believe that racism breeds racism.....while a fair skin breeds it believing in its misplaced superiority, a darker skin also does the same by believing that the fair skin is right! So let us stand for what is right......by taking small steps in our everyday interactions with people.......from peer groups to job desks....let us be aware of what WE, as citizens of the country of Gandhi, DONT WANT TO BE KNOWN AS ... and more importantly, LETS ACTUALLY NOT BE THAT!
"On an altar of prejudice we crucify our own, yet the blood of all children is the color of God." - Don Williams, Jr (American poet and novelist)
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Mera beta engineer banega !!! (my son will become an engineer)
Yes, you guessed it right........it's that age-old stigma we Indians just cannot seem to shrug off......the eternal question in the middle class mind......Doctor or Engineer?...which gets more specific...computers or biotech?....even more specific...JAVA course or GRE? And the questions just keep coming!!!
Even though there are tremendous academic, peer and social pressures on today's youth and children in a country like India, there is no denying the fact that we seem to somehow, rather sheepishly, fall prey to the general herd mentality all around us....and often get flown along the strongest drift of the times! The Indian rational tradition of thinking and decision (which we, at other times, pride ourselves on) conveniently gives way to a false and hypocritical sense of future security and moral righteousness! The result? A lot of good artists, musicians, historians, poets, archaeologists and sportsmen turn up carrying T-scales and the obnoxious label of "engineering student", under the overwhelming umbrella of social respectability and class.
We keep hearing about the pathetic fates met by those few rebels among our friends and cousins, who chose to follow their passion and in the process lost out on the "race of life"! Society treats them like outlaws, as if engineering is the only divine profession worth living in.......well actually, there are a few laws driving today's engineers , not found in the numerous career counseling guide books....and who know them better than the unfortunate few, like myself, who really wanted to engineer science and almost ended up a disillusioned techie!
Law 1: Right to JEE (Joint Entrance Examination, the premier engineering entrance exam in India) is a birth-right, and every student shall have to take it, even if they prefer facing the firing squad to a maths paper!
Law 2: All important and high-scoring subjects need to be captured in notes......not the other way round.....and during exams?....well, careful strategy...after all : "Hum aam mein sab nange hai!" (Among us we are all the same)
Law 3: If you are not exceptionally intelligent and a touch lucky, you will not get to work in your dream job after college...and that is not such a bad thing, is it?
Law 4: After 2 years of work, you will feel like moving on to either an MBA or a masters, without which they say you are doomed...."but hey, 2 more years man...and then sky is the limit!"...career counseling nowadays is almost like marketing to you your own future!
Law 5: Almost every so-called "engineering job", no matter what your pay-scale is, gets intolerable after the first year...worst kept secret...but your "pseudo-engineer ego" is never supposed to give way - especially in front of the "Arts" guys!
Law 6: You feel like having a silent laugh to yourself when they call you "the IT guy" for doing the "Ctrl C Ctrl V" routine day in and day out....but then again, who cares?
Law 7: Before facing the job interview in final year, you never quite realized how important a trivial thing like communication could be!......if only you spared a few hours for the "lowly language subjects" from your JEE preparation that crucial year!
But even with laws and the divine hand of society guiding us engineers, we often stop to ask ourselves......What am I doing? Is this worth it? What if....? But then again, in comes the "herd", pushing and tossing us about.......till we give way and become a part of the crowd! We are engineers, after all...
Even though there are tremendous academic, peer and social pressures on today's youth and children in a country like India, there is no denying the fact that we seem to somehow, rather sheepishly, fall prey to the general herd mentality all around us....and often get flown along the strongest drift of the times! The Indian rational tradition of thinking and decision (which we, at other times, pride ourselves on) conveniently gives way to a false and hypocritical sense of future security and moral righteousness! The result? A lot of good artists, musicians, historians, poets, archaeologists and sportsmen turn up carrying T-scales and the obnoxious label of "engineering student", under the overwhelming umbrella of social respectability and class.
We keep hearing about the pathetic fates met by those few rebels among our friends and cousins, who chose to follow their passion and in the process lost out on the "race of life"! Society treats them like outlaws, as if engineering is the only divine profession worth living in.......well actually, there are a few laws driving today's engineers , not found in the numerous career counseling guide books....and who know them better than the unfortunate few, like myself, who really wanted to engineer science and almost ended up a disillusioned techie!
Law 1: Right to JEE (Joint Entrance Examination, the premier engineering entrance exam in India) is a birth-right, and every student shall have to take it, even if they prefer facing the firing squad to a maths paper!
Law 2: All important and high-scoring subjects need to be captured in notes......not the other way round.....and during exams?....well, careful strategy...after all : "Hum aam mein sab nange hai!" (Among us we are all the same)
Law 3: If you are not exceptionally intelligent and a touch lucky, you will not get to work in your dream job after college...and that is not such a bad thing, is it?
Law 4: After 2 years of work, you will feel like moving on to either an MBA or a masters, without which they say you are doomed...."but hey, 2 more years man...and then sky is the limit!"...career counseling nowadays is almost like marketing to you your own future!
Law 5: Almost every so-called "engineering job", no matter what your pay-scale is, gets intolerable after the first year...worst kept secret...but your "pseudo-engineer ego" is never supposed to give way - especially in front of the "Arts" guys!
Law 6: You feel like having a silent laugh to yourself when they call you "the IT guy" for doing the "Ctrl C Ctrl V" routine day in and day out....but then again, who cares?
Law 7: Before facing the job interview in final year, you never quite realized how important a trivial thing like communication could be!......if only you spared a few hours for the "lowly language subjects" from your JEE preparation that crucial year!
But even with laws and the divine hand of society guiding us engineers, we often stop to ask ourselves......What am I doing? Is this worth it? What if....? But then again, in comes the "herd", pushing and tossing us about.......till we give way and become a part of the crowd! We are engineers, after all...
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Journey of life
Hi everyone ! Today I feel like talking about something a touch (maybe even a press!) philosophical, so please excuse me if it gets a little heavy...but hey, we can all handle a little load, can't we? So that means we venture to ask ourselves one simple question: WHAT IS LIFE ? ....... No, I don't intend this to be an intense, didactic value education essay (I am no guru)... rather, I just want to pour out some thoughts or questions for all of us......
If we google the above question, we will get loads of book names, famous quotes, religious references, philosophy writers and what not! It probably has been asked through centuries in thousands of languages in millions of contexts....some wise men have defined life as the path to God, some others as love, some as success, some as fate, yet some as a goal worth living for, besides others. But the concept of life as just a JOURNEY always fascinated me....don't exactly know which school of thought this belongs to and it doesn't really matter anyways. The philosphy of life being a journey in time appeals to me because, for starters, it is simple to understand, and it also doesn't have religious or political undertones as the others, besides marrying well with science.
Like any journey, Curiosity is our invisible, but ever-present, co-passenger in life, always wanting to know what lies beyond the next turn! Some ways look more familiar than others (feeling of deja vu)....some roads bumpier than others....and inevitably the journey always gets slower on the rougher terrain, often making the pain more agonizing....and seems to speed over the smoother parts - too fast to enjoy the surrounding beauty to its fullest!
For the most part of our lives, we move on...... move away...... move over...... move towards.... but rarely ever move FOR something or someone......because somewhere along the entire journey, its very reason gets lost...the reason to go to the next destination erodes away and the destination starts becoming the reason!
Our lives, again like any other journey, are also checkered with images, sounds and feelings from the trail of the past....... bright memories and gray shadows from the roads left behind of childhood, teenage and youth.... by this time, our good friend Curiosity has got off somewhere and Nostalgia has got aboard. We no longer yearn to see the next turn but often look over our shoulders into the haze of yesteryears!
And finally like every journey, life has a definite beginning and end. It ends exactly in the manner it once began...with suddenness and the eternal truth of all existence...neither is there a clicking stopwatch throughout the way, nor is there a countdown at either end of the road! But it is true that some lives (the few great ones) begin from where they ended.....most great men become "great" only after their journeys end....guess only theirs should be called LIFE CYCLES, while others should be spared that scientific misnomer and just called LIVES (linearly so)! However, in spite of the eventuality of every journey's end (with no heavenly luxury facilities to look forward to!), I feel there is a certain beauty in this prosaic and nonchalant sense of mortality...... The greatness of LIFE is in the JOURNEY that comprises it! How's that for simplicity?
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon
"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." - Oscar Wilde
If we google the above question, we will get loads of book names, famous quotes, religious references, philosophy writers and what not! It probably has been asked through centuries in thousands of languages in millions of contexts....some wise men have defined life as the path to God, some others as love, some as success, some as fate, yet some as a goal worth living for, besides others. But the concept of life as just a JOURNEY always fascinated me....don't exactly know which school of thought this belongs to and it doesn't really matter anyways. The philosphy of life being a journey in time appeals to me because, for starters, it is simple to understand, and it also doesn't have religious or political undertones as the others, besides marrying well with science.
Like any journey, Curiosity is our invisible, but ever-present, co-passenger in life, always wanting to know what lies beyond the next turn! Some ways look more familiar than others (feeling of deja vu)....some roads bumpier than others....and inevitably the journey always gets slower on the rougher terrain, often making the pain more agonizing....and seems to speed over the smoother parts - too fast to enjoy the surrounding beauty to its fullest!
For the most part of our lives, we move on...... move away...... move over...... move towards.... but rarely ever move FOR something or someone......because somewhere along the entire journey, its very reason gets lost...the reason to go to the next destination erodes away and the destination starts becoming the reason!
Our lives, again like any other journey, are also checkered with images, sounds and feelings from the trail of the past....... bright memories and gray shadows from the roads left behind of childhood, teenage and youth.... by this time, our good friend Curiosity has got off somewhere and Nostalgia has got aboard. We no longer yearn to see the next turn but often look over our shoulders into the haze of yesteryears!
And finally like every journey, life has a definite beginning and end. It ends exactly in the manner it once began...with suddenness and the eternal truth of all existence...neither is there a clicking stopwatch throughout the way, nor is there a countdown at either end of the road! But it is true that some lives (the few great ones) begin from where they ended.....most great men become "great" only after their journeys end....guess only theirs should be called LIFE CYCLES, while others should be spared that scientific misnomer and just called LIVES (linearly so)! However, in spite of the eventuality of every journey's end (with no heavenly luxury facilities to look forward to!), I feel there is a certain beauty in this prosaic and nonchalant sense of mortality...... The greatness of LIFE is in the JOURNEY that comprises it! How's that for simplicity?
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon
"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." - Oscar Wilde
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Nature's Call
Hi friends! Thank you very much for tolerating my attempts of blogging! And so here I am again. After the last post, I was wondering if the grossness of the Haitian catastrophy beamed over the news networks around the world somehow enveloped the bigger picture of the crisis facing the world today !!! Why? Well because 6 months from now another disaster would have happened and the world will react in shock and sympathy, with relief measures from rich countries, UN making the headlines, candle-light prayers across the world and few making small gestures through blogs such as this.......this is the way the human world reacts to natural disaster.....but after a while the rubble gets cleared, charity is done, relief camps are set up and we get back to our usual business.......everyday business involving urbanizing forests and lakes, looting nature with drills and dynamites, wasting water and electricity, jamming up sanitation pipes with plastic, transforming the troposphere into a smoke chamber, keeping poachers in business with our exotic desires and refusing to face up to a grim future awaiting us!
Hmm, and what might that future be? Well, how about a time when drinking water would be costlier than jewelery? Or fuels rationed weekly, green parks as luxury hang-outs, simulated forest safaris and cage-less zoos with fossil enclosures? Better still, how about taxes on the oxygen we breathe in, patentable cloud-making technology, artillery for breaking waves or cars lining up at solar power stations? I know it sounds straight out of a "Day after tomorrow" kind of flick.......but let us think a bit harder on the following facts....They say that the third world war, if fought, would be .....no, not for land or oil...it will be for sweet water sources! Oil will almost run out of stock in the next 50 years, and natural gas a little later. Already chartered parks (with entry fees), much like oases, are staring to crop up in the concrete desert of metro cities. The entire forest cover of a big country like India is likely to vanish in the next 30 years. 50 animal species have become extinct in the last 100 years, with many more about to. Oxygen might be the fastest depleting(%) component of the air we breathe, and solar power looks like the only realistic hope for clean energy. Yes, my friends, these are some reasonably accurate facts.....and we need to know them....not as hi-tech environment scientists or policy-makers or business tycoons....but maybe as just responsible world citizens, who would like their kids and grandkids to inherit a planet worth living on !!!
"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." -Lao Tzu
p.s: It's now 7 am, and the street-lights haven't yet been turned off.......
Hmm, and what might that future be? Well, how about a time when drinking water would be costlier than jewelery? Or fuels rationed weekly, green parks as luxury hang-outs, simulated forest safaris and cage-less zoos with fossil enclosures? Better still, how about taxes on the oxygen we breathe in, patentable cloud-making technology, artillery for breaking waves or cars lining up at solar power stations? I know it sounds straight out of a "Day after tomorrow" kind of flick.......but let us think a bit harder on the following facts....They say that the third world war, if fought, would be .....no, not for land or oil...it will be for sweet water sources! Oil will almost run out of stock in the next 50 years, and natural gas a little later. Already chartered parks (with entry fees), much like oases, are staring to crop up in the concrete desert of metro cities. The entire forest cover of a big country like India is likely to vanish in the next 30 years. 50 animal species have become extinct in the last 100 years, with many more about to. Oxygen might be the fastest depleting(%) component of the air we breathe, and solar power looks like the only realistic hope for clean energy. Yes, my friends, these are some reasonably accurate facts.....and we need to know them....not as hi-tech environment scientists or policy-makers or business tycoons....but maybe as just responsible world citizens, who would like their kids and grandkids to inherit a planet worth living on !!!
"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." -Lao Tzu
p.s: It's now 7 am, and the street-lights haven't yet been turned off.......
Monday, January 18, 2010
Reaching out with verse
Hello again people! Why, on earth, was winter created ? And they talk of global warming !!! But in spite of that, there's no denying that winter mornings are the best excuse to run away from the busy world into a bit of verse. Nowadays I hardly get time to write poetry.....about 3-4 years back I used to write more frequently....and I miss it quite a bit! Verse is such a beautiful addiction to have(even if you are just a versifier like me)! I still remember the first poem to make a significant impact on me while in school.....it was "On his Blindness" by Milton...I loved his embrace of hope and faith in his hour of "darkness". Who's your favorite poet?
Speaking of hope, there is perhaps one place on earth which needs all our hope and prayers at this moment......Haiti, as you all know, had been struck by probably the worst earthquake ever in history, with almost no prior warning at all! I was going through some news reports.....such a beautiful country hit with such ferocity and shock! The poor island was transformed overnight from a peaceful caribbean tourist hub to a mammoth humanitarian crisis with over 50000 lives lost !
I wrote the following poem a long time back, but am rewriting it here as a small gesture towards the affected people of Haiti, who fight their loss and pain in this moment of crisis. This is a compassionate message of strength and love in celebration of humanity......it's called SILENT HARMONY.
Silent Harmony
The show had finished an hour ago,
And the harmony faded into the dark,
Shadows have peopled the empty hall
As is winter embraced by an aging lark....
Their music had ceased long before,
Loud cheers are not heard anymore,
Reverent whispers have died away
And they bid adieu for the day.
A sudden note! The breeze lights up!
The cobbler's child at his broken flute -
His broken notes grace the dark,
This touch of freedom warms the lark .... the aging lark!
The boy plays through the frozen night
And smiles at the crowd in brazen joy -
Accolades and praises deafen his soul
Until the orphan can take no more ....
Lowering his flute he screens the hall,
His restless eyes in search of a face -
The face of his mother shining still
Amidst the gloom of the balcony.
Tears pour down as the music plays on
Deep down in the bottom of his heart,
He closes his eyes and takes a bow -
The shadows leave the balcony.
--------------------------------------
Speaking of hope, there is perhaps one place on earth which needs all our hope and prayers at this moment......Haiti, as you all know, had been struck by probably the worst earthquake ever in history, with almost no prior warning at all! I was going through some news reports.....such a beautiful country hit with such ferocity and shock! The poor island was transformed overnight from a peaceful caribbean tourist hub to a mammoth humanitarian crisis with over 50000 lives lost !
I wrote the following poem a long time back, but am rewriting it here as a small gesture towards the affected people of Haiti, who fight their loss and pain in this moment of crisis. This is a compassionate message of strength and love in celebration of humanity......it's called SILENT HARMONY.
Silent Harmony
The show had finished an hour ago,
And the harmony faded into the dark,
Shadows have peopled the empty hall
As is winter embraced by an aging lark....
Their music had ceased long before,
Loud cheers are not heard anymore,
Reverent whispers have died away
And they bid adieu for the day.
A sudden note! The breeze lights up!
The cobbler's child at his broken flute -
His broken notes grace the dark,
This touch of freedom warms the lark .... the aging lark!
The boy plays through the frozen night
And smiles at the crowd in brazen joy -
Accolades and praises deafen his soul
Until the orphan can take no more ....
Lowering his flute he screens the hall,
His restless eyes in search of a face -
The face of his mother shining still
Amidst the gloom of the balcony.
Tears pour down as the music plays on
Deep down in the bottom of his heart,
He closes his eyes and takes a bow -
The shadows leave the balcony.
--------------------------------------
Saturday, January 16, 2010
What is happiness ?
Folks, how are you ? January is looking more like the foggy English weather than the pleasant tropical winter of these parts. The other day while conversing with my sister, this question casually crossed my mind....and I was a touch surprised to actually find it difficult to answer. The last couple of days have been pretty stressful with work....in fact these days I feel so intrinsically a part of the "rat-race" around me that I really thought of stopping for a moment and asking this question.
So friends, the question today is very simple: "Are you happy?" Now to answer that, we ask ourselves the very question in the title. And suddenly this seemingly naive question throws up more questions......like, Is "happiness" comfort or peace or both? Is it absolute or relative? Is it a very personal thing or a collective feeling? Is it a goal to reach for or just a pursuit in itself? And, as usual, I don't have all the answers either.
But 25 years of my life has helped me find one answer for sure.....happiness can only be pursued but never totally achieved. This is not like saying that all men are greedy and hence never satisfied with what they have (which, to an extent, is true for some).....but the very fact that happiness, like you and me, always grows with us in our lives.......and its form changes with time, place and situation......form being a brand new toy to a kid, to jewelery to a girl, to baby's first steps to a parent, to that one solved equation to a scientist, to a Wall Street listing to a CEO and so on. But the one thing that doesn't change is the very meaning and essence of happiness....or in the pursuit for it! Whatever it is to each one of us, it is very precious and personal.......and it is something we live for....but we often mistake it to be the superficial things or the petty forms of happiness, like our possessions (things or people), ambitions and comforts.....I don't think happiness is the paint of our lives (that some of us mistake it to be) that we can scratch it off the surface and see which color it is......but a little deeper than that....more like the plaster of paris that holds all the paint and cement of our life together from falling off! Isn't it? It's like if i really love someone, i will be "happy" regardless of his/her love for me......why? because I am happy at a very personal level with my feeling, that gives me peace.... it's free of the seemingly material and possessive happiness that we often mistake for real happiness !
Now friends, let us decide what makes us happy........and pursue it with all your heart.....because that's worth living for !!! As for me, I live for 4 other people on this earth......that keeps me going ! Chow....gotta run for lunch. More later.
So friends, the question today is very simple: "Are you happy?" Now to answer that, we ask ourselves the very question in the title. And suddenly this seemingly naive question throws up more questions......like, Is "happiness" comfort or peace or both? Is it absolute or relative? Is it a very personal thing or a collective feeling? Is it a goal to reach for or just a pursuit in itself? And, as usual, I don't have all the answers either.
But 25 years of my life has helped me find one answer for sure.....happiness can only be pursued but never totally achieved. This is not like saying that all men are greedy and hence never satisfied with what they have (which, to an extent, is true for some).....but the very fact that happiness, like you and me, always grows with us in our lives.......and its form changes with time, place and situation......form being a brand new toy to a kid, to jewelery to a girl, to baby's first steps to a parent, to that one solved equation to a scientist, to a Wall Street listing to a CEO and so on. But the one thing that doesn't change is the very meaning and essence of happiness....or in the pursuit for it! Whatever it is to each one of us, it is very precious and personal.......and it is something we live for....but we often mistake it to be the superficial things or the petty forms of happiness, like our possessions (things or people), ambitions and comforts.....I don't think happiness is the paint of our lives (that some of us mistake it to be) that we can scratch it off the surface and see which color it is......but a little deeper than that....more like the plaster of paris that holds all the paint and cement of our life together from falling off! Isn't it? It's like if i really love someone, i will be "happy" regardless of his/her love for me......why? because I am happy at a very personal level with my feeling, that gives me peace.... it's free of the seemingly material and possessive happiness that we often mistake for real happiness !
Now friends, let us decide what makes us happy........and pursue it with all your heart.....because that's worth living for !!! As for me, I live for 4 other people on this earth......that keeps me going ! Chow....gotta run for lunch. More later.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Lessons from history
Hey friends ! Guess what, just watched a wonderful movie from 2007 called Man From Earth. One word amigos.......Awesome !!! "Refreshing" might be another! In spite of being into science, I kind of always liked history (thankfully initiated in the subject by a couple of wonderful teachers in school), which graduated into love in the last 2 years.
Unlike the way the subject is taught and evaluated in school, it's actually quite an interesting thing.........i mean, after all, its about the PAST ! And who on earth is not interested in knowing it? We always want to know in everyday conversation "what happened, dude?" or "where were you?" or "have you done this before"?.........its just part of normal human curiosity, I guess....... most of us celebrate birthdays , anniversaries, golden (and other metallic) jubilees and so on......and all of this is nothing but implicit references to things of the PAST or HISTORY. And still those same people piously claim "I don't like history" or better still "History is not for me"...........how absurd, right ? And the weirdest thing is often how people have this mental "time cap"on HISTORY, as if 20 years back is not history but as it starts to go above 30 it does become so. Time has been forever continuous right from the day one of us rubbed stones a little harder to today when we are trying to rub electrons together ! In this enormous length (or space, courtesy Hawkins) of time a lot of things have happened............. and those many many occurences, no matter how archaic and insignificant, have a lot to tell us today.
I always felt the murder of history in our textbooks should be discussed in some serious forum.......like maybe the parliament (maybe not, after watching Lok Sabha TV)........ or the UN (but even they distort history)........ or better still if children grow up knowing REAL HISTORY rather than the mug-books that roll out year after year in this country.
By reading on the internet and collecting information from various sources, I have known so much more and dispelled so many widespread myths that we inculcate about our own history, right from the Aryans to the British. And it doesn't give me a high saying this, but just a sense of clear understanding and quiet respect for the past we inherit.......i was fascinated to know bits and pieces about the egyptians, parthians, romans, nubians, greeks, saracens, crusades and so on.........and then when i tried to relate the diffrent histories from different geographies, a completely new and enthralling picture of the world emerges from various periods of her past - ancient, medieval and modern!
Just to give you an example how we miss the real flavour of history by missing the relative historical picture worldwide..........we are all taught that india had her temples and sculpture and so forth during Samudragupta's rule.......but unless we understand what was happening across the Hindukush or in the late Roman empire during that time, the real relative picture of the world never emerges.........you know why ? Because at about that time the huns (who helped in destroying the gupta empire) were wrecking havoc across Roman Europe........and the western world we know today might not have existed if the hun leader Atilla was not assassinated by his wife, because they had almost destroyed Rome and ended all western civilization at about that time.
But that was a long time ago......who cares what happened then ? Lets think of religion or even science........history of either has immediate bearing on our lives today. Religion itself is mostly history.......isnt it? History which has been rewritten and modified and coaxed and finally flavoured till it tasted and smelled right ......... almost like a well-cooked dish !!! It doesnt require a historian to tell you that the one thing that has been falsified the most by man is his PAST.......... lots of things to cover up, maybe........... hmmm, but we thought noone cared for history, right ? So why is history worth killing for/waging war for/spending fortunes for/devoting lives for .......... if it really wasnt that important? Friends, there's a thought to leave you with ........... there must be something in the seemingly boring HISTORY that affects how we are and what we do in everyday life.......something we are very busy to notice...... something that can teach us what a lot of textbooks cannot !!!
"We learn from history that we learn nothing from history." - George Bernard Shaw
Let's change that part of history for the better, at least.
Unlike the way the subject is taught and evaluated in school, it's actually quite an interesting thing.........i mean, after all, its about the PAST ! And who on earth is not interested in knowing it? We always want to know in everyday conversation "what happened, dude?" or "where were you?" or "have you done this before"?.........its just part of normal human curiosity, I guess....... most of us celebrate birthdays , anniversaries, golden (and other metallic) jubilees and so on......and all of this is nothing but implicit references to things of the PAST or HISTORY. And still those same people piously claim "I don't like history" or better still "History is not for me"...........how absurd, right ? And the weirdest thing is often how people have this mental "time cap"on HISTORY, as if 20 years back is not history but as it starts to go above 30 it does become so. Time has been forever continuous right from the day one of us rubbed stones a little harder to today when we are trying to rub electrons together ! In this enormous length (or space, courtesy Hawkins) of time a lot of things have happened............. and those many many occurences, no matter how archaic and insignificant, have a lot to tell us today.
I always felt the murder of history in our textbooks should be discussed in some serious forum.......like maybe the parliament (maybe not, after watching Lok Sabha TV)........ or the UN (but even they distort history)........ or better still if children grow up knowing REAL HISTORY rather than the mug-books that roll out year after year in this country.
By reading on the internet and collecting information from various sources, I have known so much more and dispelled so many widespread myths that we inculcate about our own history, right from the Aryans to the British. And it doesn't give me a high saying this, but just a sense of clear understanding and quiet respect for the past we inherit.......i was fascinated to know bits and pieces about the egyptians, parthians, romans, nubians, greeks, saracens, crusades and so on.........and then when i tried to relate the diffrent histories from different geographies, a completely new and enthralling picture of the world emerges from various periods of her past - ancient, medieval and modern!
Just to give you an example how we miss the real flavour of history by missing the relative historical picture worldwide..........we are all taught that india had her temples and sculpture and so forth during Samudragupta's rule.......but unless we understand what was happening across the Hindukush or in the late Roman empire during that time, the real relative picture of the world never emerges.........you know why ? Because at about that time the huns (who helped in destroying the gupta empire) were wrecking havoc across Roman Europe........and the western world we know today might not have existed if the hun leader Atilla was not assassinated by his wife, because they had almost destroyed Rome and ended all western civilization at about that time.
But that was a long time ago......who cares what happened then ? Lets think of religion or even science........history of either has immediate bearing on our lives today. Religion itself is mostly history.......isnt it? History which has been rewritten and modified and coaxed and finally flavoured till it tasted and smelled right ......... almost like a well-cooked dish !!! It doesnt require a historian to tell you that the one thing that has been falsified the most by man is his PAST.......... lots of things to cover up, maybe........... hmmm, but we thought noone cared for history, right ? So why is history worth killing for/waging war for/spending fortunes for/devoting lives for .......... if it really wasnt that important? Friends, there's a thought to leave you with ........... there must be something in the seemingly boring HISTORY that affects how we are and what we do in everyday life.......something we are very busy to notice...... something that can teach us what a lot of textbooks cannot !!!
"We learn from history that we learn nothing from history." - George Bernard Shaw
Let's change that part of history for the better, at least.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Being Brave
Hi everyone again ! Just returned from lab in the intense chill of January, the least enjoyable feature of this part of the country (even more than the scorching heat!). Before diving into soem desperate manuscript writing towards the end of my thesis, I thought of sharing this wonderful scenery on my way back.
Just beside the narrow winding way back to the hostel, there happens to be a bowl-shaped woody cover that kind of descends from the road into scrub and ascends into another road on the other side. Tonight I found this really ghostly fog slowly descending into the bowl and covering it up........... straight out of a Hitchcock movie! And then it suddenly struck me that that must be the reason why they say that valleys between hills are always more moist and feel colder in the morning than even the hilltops. Such a simple thing (to think of now) seemed so weird at the time i first heard it........ and really, this is a no-brainer ! But then again many great discoveries have seemed later to be "only natural", but just that people were not brave enough to ask the right question !!!
Thinking about it, one of the most fascinating things about IIT Kanpur is ........ no not its academics ..... or its status..... or the fat-pay jobs.......but the really weird way in which it helps you to be BRAVE ! No, there is absolutely no compulsory military training or killing a tiger or that sort of stuff ........ its just after 2 years in this institute you suddenly realize you have started questioning yourself or the world in a way it never happened before !!! How ? Well, I honestly don't know......i mean, maybe the intense peer pressure.....maybe expectations back home....big-shot alumni success stories.....16 credits per sem....it can be anything. But, now I realize something and this is especially important for the many young IIT aspirants out there : IIT doesnt make you great, it just helps you understand your potential ..........trust me friends, all it takes is loads of curiosity and a touch of guts ! And IIT doesnt teach you either......it just grows in you while you are here. So if you want to be "brave" and "great" and "successful", you can be so anywhere you are ... you dont need to join this brand !!!
I just realized the last para looks more like "gyaan" than "friendly advice"........ oops..... but hey, my fingers are freezing from the cold through the window..... so i gotta go- more later. And as they say ........ "AAL IZZ WELL" ! Chow.
Just beside the narrow winding way back to the hostel, there happens to be a bowl-shaped woody cover that kind of descends from the road into scrub and ascends into another road on the other side. Tonight I found this really ghostly fog slowly descending into the bowl and covering it up........... straight out of a Hitchcock movie! And then it suddenly struck me that that must be the reason why they say that valleys between hills are always more moist and feel colder in the morning than even the hilltops. Such a simple thing (to think of now) seemed so weird at the time i first heard it........ and really, this is a no-brainer ! But then again many great discoveries have seemed later to be "only natural", but just that people were not brave enough to ask the right question !!!
Thinking about it, one of the most fascinating things about IIT Kanpur is ........ no not its academics ..... or its status..... or the fat-pay jobs.......but the really weird way in which it helps you to be BRAVE ! No, there is absolutely no compulsory military training or killing a tiger or that sort of stuff ........ its just after 2 years in this institute you suddenly realize you have started questioning yourself or the world in a way it never happened before !!! How ? Well, I honestly don't know......i mean, maybe the intense peer pressure.....maybe expectations back home....big-shot alumni success stories.....16 credits per sem....it can be anything. But, now I realize something and this is especially important for the many young IIT aspirants out there : IIT doesnt make you great, it just helps you understand your potential ..........trust me friends, all it takes is loads of curiosity and a touch of guts ! And IIT doesnt teach you either......it just grows in you while you are here. So if you want to be "brave" and "great" and "successful", you can be so anywhere you are ... you dont need to join this brand !!!
I just realized the last para looks more like "gyaan" than "friendly advice"........ oops..... but hey, my fingers are freezing from the cold through the window..... so i gotta go- more later. And as they say ........ "AAL IZZ WELL" ! Chow.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
My first blog !!! Wow !!!
Friends, citizens and planetmen (and women) ........ lend me your ears !!! My name is Shammodip Roy, an engineering post grad student in the heart of this beautiful country called India. I have been thinking about this for a long time, and here it finally is.........
I am blogging at long last, finally finding time from the daily schedule of dry computer programming and fancy 3D modeling . After coaxing from a few friends, advice from dad and considerable self-motivation, Shammodip (mechanical) Roy's life seems to finally start building the one avenue that it lacked the most ---- Release !!! (not in the physical sense)
Yes, my friends, this little space will be solely for a child, dreamer, critic, connoisseur, loner, fool, follower and leader in my humble self ! And it has taken me some 4 years to finally get going. Well, better late than never ........ and as time flows on and the pages get turned, I seek to capture some imprints through this little effort ....... and hope this wet clay hardens with time to find resonance in someone's heart (or mind) somewhere in the world --- in these "sounds of silence"!
I am blogging at long last, finally finding time from the daily schedule of dry computer programming and fancy 3D modeling . After coaxing from a few friends, advice from dad and considerable self-motivation, Shammodip (mechanical) Roy's life seems to finally start building the one avenue that it lacked the most ---- Release !!! (not in the physical sense)
Yes, my friends, this little space will be solely for a child, dreamer, critic, connoisseur, loner, fool, follower and leader in my humble self ! And it has taken me some 4 years to finally get going. Well, better late than never ........ and as time flows on and the pages get turned, I seek to capture some imprints through this little effort ....... and hope this wet clay hardens with time to find resonance in someone's heart (or mind) somewhere in the world --- in these "sounds of silence"!
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