passing thought

I have noticed that with blogger.com , when i visit websites and leave a comment, there is no way for me to learn if the owner of the blog has replied. Usualy it requires me to revisit the post to check if a comment was actually left. instead, If blogger has an option where by the person leaving a comment is able to receive notification that a reply has been posted by the owner.

I think it could be just as useful to the person leaving the comment to check an option on the comment sheet if he would like to be notified.


Just another passing thought..

Mutiny

"Aa-za-di" (freedom)..The hindi song from A.R.Rahman's 2005 composition for the Bollywood movie "Bose..the forgotten hero" plays in the background. The words, echo the setiments of millions of Indians fighting for independence from the British Raj. I can sense the pain, agony, the faith and the confidence of the people in the freedom movement.

I wonder what is the motivation for people who fight against colonization, slavery, ignorance, censorship, women rights, racial equality and religious prosecution. What was the renaissance, the industrial revolution, fight against aparthied all about? Can't we hear the echo of freedom struggle there?

Freedom: What is freedom? What does it mean to me? What does it mean to a nation? What does freedom mean to you?

* It is defined as the absence of necessity, coercion (force), or constraint in choice or action. I believe it is the ability to express one's state of mind.It can take various forms, be it social freedom, economic freedom, freedom from repression, freedom to live!

* credits: www.m-w.com

Is freedom a right or a privilege?

I guess it is somewhere in between. Why would we have prisons to punish those who take freedom literally? As mentioned in my earlier post, freedom has various degrees over which it is expressed. It is hard to imagine, but humans were free in the most crudest sense possible. He was free to roam around this earth without fear of boundaries, had the freedom to set up a home where he choose, had the freedom to express pleasure and discomfort as pleased, had the freedom to pursue what he choose to do.

So what has changed since then we got civilized?? Populations of humans over time got clustered. Civilizations are now divided based on races, nationalities and ethinic groups. Each nation has its own set of rules that define its entity as a state. One would assume, that humans would also divide the concept of freedom equally. That doesn't seem to be the case everytime we see an uprising, everytime we see a victim, everytime we argued with our parents, everytime we were victimized. It was as though what we thought was our right was now presented to us as an privilege.

This was just the news around the world today....

A drowning boy struggled against mom says lawyer in the Andrea Yates trial, Tamils in Srilanka fight for their struggle, Clashes broke out in East Timor again,Kuwaitis have begun voting in the first poll in which women are allowed to cast ballots and stand as candidates, In the united states, constitutional amendment to ban flag burning was one of the issues in the senate today.

A boy struggled to live, tamils in srilanka and people of east timor fight for land and equality, Women in kuwait want the freedom to be treated equal, In the united states, people want to decide what to do with the flag of the country they own allegiance to. Which of these struggles was a right and what is a privilege? Who has the authority to decide?

Is there a freedom fighter within each one of us, I ask? I sit here fuzzified.....

But Still...

....I was intrigued looking at certain aspects from my previous post labeled , table talk.

First, most of the top 25 nations in the world were never colonized. The other interesting aspect of those nations were their life expectancy. People seem to live atleast 10 - 12 years longer in colder regions than those close to the equator. Hmmm....

Driving to one of my favorite mediterranean restaurants for dinner, we got talking in the car! I pose a challenge: think if you may, of the most efficient machine known to man! Can you guarantee that it would run non-stop for 75 odd years? I am amazed at how nature constantly chiseled us to this state we are in today! Nature made sure that the mouth, stomach and intestines were designed to work in tandem, yet they are entities that could go wrong. Vision, ears, nose all designed with a sense to control and navigate. The way species have been engineered by nature is amazing...

"but, nature hasn't optimized us to live for 75 odd years", is the rebuttal I got! He continued, " I believe that if nature persisted, humans would only live long enough to propagate species".... Could that be true? Are we most efficient till the time we produce an offspring? There is no doubt that physically we grow weaker as time progresses, but has nature designed us to lose our capacity to exist efficiently after reproducing?

I believe the following should make for a good read:
W.J. MacLennan and W. I. Sellers, aging through the ages, "Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh",1999 . It is true though that before the 1900's, life expectancy revolved around the 40's mark.

Another report in wikipedia states the following:

Humans by Era, Average Lifespan (in years)
Neanderthal, 20
Neolithic, 20
Bronze Age, 18
Classical Greece, 28
Classical Rome, 28
Medieval England, 33
End of 19th Century, 37
Early 20th Century, 50
Circa 1940, 65
Current (in the Western world), 77-81

Credits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy#_note-1

Life expectancy, seems to have improved due to human intervention, modernization, development in drugs, etc. We are able to create vaccines and eradicate diseases. We are able to probe into the body to completly understand and try to replicate or engineer its function. In years to come, we will be able to re-engineer the various parts of the body with great success.

Can nature give us an answer as to why are we the most advanced species inhabiting the world today? Why are we able to control the forces that were designed to restrict our life expectancy? Is our only purpose as a species, progeny? How has nature allowed itself to be let engineered? Hmmm...but still, I wonder

Table Talk ( 2 )

Here is what i would suggest reading if you wish to continue pursue reading more on the "Table talk" post. More reading is suggested at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_intelligence

http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2006/02/world-of-difference-richard-lynn-maps.php

Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis. Atlanta, Georgia: Washington Summit Books (PO Box3514, Augusta, GA 30914) ISBN 1-59368-020-1

American Anthropological Association Statement on "Race" and Intelligence
(adopted December 1994)

Table Talk

I have often enjoyed conversations that could be labeled "food for thought". What better way to have these conversations than at a dining table. The mind is at utmost pleasure when it meets someone who challenges it, appreciates it and motivates it to strech. One such conversation made me to bring myself to write this post. Well! As all table conversations go..This one too was random and intense. I have sincerely tired to seek the best possible answers for our theories.

The question on the table was, Does climate influence/impacted the economic growth of nations, affected the native intelligence of people ? Yes it does! The brain, can best operate at colder environments. I choose to spend sometime later today looking at the pages on the International monetary fund, especially focusing on gross domestic products (GDP) of nations and their respective per capital income.

Before, I lay down the facts, it is interesting to note a couple of things. One of the things I looked into was the nations that form the G8 (Group of 8 developed nations). The esteemed group of developed nations comprises of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, U.S.A and the U.K. It doesn't come as a surprise to me that most of them exist in the Northern hemisphere. All these nations are advanced in terms of technology, innovation, research and house one of the most civilized and successful societies on the planet today.

13 nations lie on the equator, namely,Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo,Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives, Indonsia, Kiribati, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil. Further more, most of the nations that lie on either side of the equator dont classify to be included in the top 25 nations in the world.

Most of those 25 nations seem to exist in the colder environments. I was curious to see per capital incomes and be able to coorelate them in terms of geographic location. I choose to list them based on the findings of the 2005 IMF report: Luxemborg, Norway, USA, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Canada, Austria, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Qatar, Finland, Belgium, Australia, Holland, Japan, Germany, UK, Sweden, France, Italy, Singapore ,U.A.E, Spain and Taiwan.

Does that mean, born in a nation automatically sets you up, automatically restricts your natural ability based on geographic orientation. It does imply that, doesn't it?

The human body operates at a very high temperature, 98 deg. F or 37 deg C. Now, when the human body is exposed to heat on top of this, efficiency to be productive has to drop because the body is constantly trying to engage in cooling its system. The analogy is similar to your laptop or PC, that constantly wants to run at an optimum temperature.

The conversation shifts to emerging markets. China seems to be a top player aiming to increase GDP by a whooping 45% by 2010.Singapore is another exception with a per capita GDP equal to that of the four largest West European countries.. The two other nations that made to the top 25 list included Qatar and U.A.E (thanks to their natural oil and natural gas reserves).

Why aren't nations from Central America or Africa or the Indian subcontinent represented? One possibility is that the climate has enabled efficient functioning of the brain. The other theory churned out was that as human migration happened, man was forced to think harder to survive in a colder environment and so that could have contributed to socio-economic success. The theory holds good here. Natural ability seems to favor people in a colder environment.

This motivates me to look for other answers, the origin of linguistics, formation of civilizations, the countries that has had the greatest contributions in theology, architecture, astronomy, arts. Do we have a pattern!

Within a given region, Do people living in a geographic location tend to do better? Being an Indian myself, We ( includes, cousin, uncle, aunt and yours truly) decided to debate if research programs across the world has more intake of north indian students compared to south indian students. Does Northen India, due to its proximity to the himalayas offer sustanance to our theory? Such debates usual are subject to intense speculation due to lack of statistical data to support. Does it have to do with settlement of Aryans along the ganges? Who knows?

Have to wait until lunch tomorrow i suppose...Would love to have you join us...now it would be labelled a pot luck! wouldn't it?

Profound

Overheard:

"When money talks, even bullshit walks"

2+2=5

I, in recent years have been most fascinated by the way Mathematics touches our life. Seldom does one sit and ponder about subjects we are made to study in school. My earliest memories of my father trying to teach me math aren't the best days growing up but now, to look back at them, make them more memorable. As a child, I have often cursed Sir. Isaac Newton as to why couldn't he just eat the apple that fell of a tree, Why did he have to come with a disaster called calculus.

What is so fascinating about calculus, algebra, surds? To me it is their existence in everyday life. I am amazed at the simplicity of its occurrence. I am sure, one can make claims of other subject areas as well. We all deal with numbers while investing in a home, buying grocery and the countless times I sit in a day making phone calls, looking at time, taking a photograph, writing my next blog, counting stars in the sky. Math is like a painting. Some can see the beauty in it while it is repulsive to the others, but one cannot deny its existence. I am most amazed by how the right amount of particles get together to form any matter, how 3 basic colors give the aroma of colors that exist around us. It enables us to build telescopes, enables us to fly aircrafts, help create search engines, enables us to define economies, is instrumental in defining a government. Nothing can be more beautiful that recognizing the importance of why I learnt something and how it affects us. To me that justifies the countless taunts that I heard as a child to do well in school.

If I may ask, would there have been a concept called "time" if math never existed? Maybe..Maybe not. How did the cave man, or let say the animals and nature track time. Sunrise and sunset...hmm. Maybe the other species have a natural clock built into them..who knows. How can the Siberian crane calculate the time? How is a penguin able to make decisions? Within the brain, math is what decides the difference between a normal person or say someone who suffers from addiction. It is math that is able to tell a chemist the amount of drug to be used, math that decides the strength a material can take, math that decides if the currency is devalued, it is math that helps us solve the mystery called space and explain the motion of transmitters across the synapse in the brain.... It is all a play of numbers.

A recent discussion made me conclude that animals have to be as intelligent as humans to have propagated to the 21st century. I am not an expert on Darwinian theories but, how did birds learn to decide what is good for them to survive. How do pets learn to build associations with its master? How did bats realize they could use ultrasound to hunt? Why are we have been paired as opposites in nature, predator and prey, man and woman and so many other associations all with a sole purpose of either progeny or restricting it? Seems like nature devised itself by and for doing math. In Phil Pastoret's words "If you think dogs can't count,try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then giving Fido only two of them."

...what is the purpose of having all this beauty if we don't have the intelligence to appreciate it. I guess the impending question to ask is...Why did it take evolution so many million years to create an intelligent race? I wonder what if the 21st century had happened like a 1000 years ago...Wonder where we would be today?

On a closing note I wish to quote Calvin Trillin:

I never did very well in math - I could never seem to persuade the teacher that I hadn't meant my answers literally.

india awakens...Are We Up Too Early?

India Awakens

Fueled by high-octane growth, the world's largest democracy is becoming a global power. Why the world will never be the same...reads the current issue of TIME.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/current

Wow! REALLY. That brings a smile to my face.The article goes on to read how the current lack in infrastructure will provide opportunities for development and investment.

In related news, China and India are the favoured markets of investors living outside their home countries, while fears about corporate governance standards in emerging markets have waned, according to a brokerage firm's survey on Monday reads Reuters UK. Further it adds, Investors turned less confident about the British, U.S. and euro zone economies as places to put money, citing ageing populations, rigid labour laws and saturated home markets as reasons for their caution.

As recent as last month, I tried to look for an offical website for the two of the busiest airports in India, Mumbai ( Bombay) and Madras ( Chennai). Well connected with majority of the continents across the world, surely i assumed there to be portal that would let me track arrival and departures of aircrafts. Much to my dismay, a nation that prides itself on doing most of the world's database and IT processing jobs cannot afford itself a website for its airports.

India, houses one of the best technical and business schools in the world, extracts the best through highly competitive exams to get into adminstrative services, but with these as the trump cards, what does it have to show to the world? It has in the past been burdened with lack of vision, planning, poverty and political ill will. Still in these 50 odd years of independence, it has come a far way from it earlier socialistic reforms to embrace a more capitalistic way of operation.

India, has acheived what it is, based on a service driven economy. I have my concerns about that! ....As we all know about the services we seek, be it buying grocery, looking for an airticket, etc; when we find a viable option, we choose to move on. This is my fear for India. In the short term, with a large chunck of technical expertise it has been able to achieve these economic milestones, but in the long term there is no foundation for it to stand upon. Can the ability to provide services, data base managers become the pillars of india's growth in the decades to come? I think india today has vision, and the ability (just in terms of the human resources and a young and talented work force) but lacks pioneers! Ofcouse, I cannot take away anything from the greats of Tata's (www.tata.com) , Ambani's (www.ril.com) , Birla's (www.birlacorporation.com) or in recent times NR Murthy (www.infosys.com) , Premji (www.wipro.com), and the other shops that have been set up. Right now, we are good at reproducing technology, and we are good at converting someones demands into a package. My question is: Can we become the power house for generating technology? In the years to come, can India be the forefront for producing outstanding knowledge base and technology.

Oh Yes! India Inc raked in billions of dollars through foreign investment, we have forged the way to set up the first airforce base overseas, but as a nation where is our true value? Are we ready to demand our place as a permanent member of the security council? Are we ready for the spot light to be on us? Are we ready to be a super power?

We can march to forge ties with the big players in the global political scene but where does India stand in terms of its foreign policy(especially in the subcontinent and Asia), in terms of its human rights records, in terms of having a active role in solving conflicts with its neighbours, interms of reducing the deficit. Has India set examples in the past to claim its position to that esteemed chair? What say does it have in global politics today: Economic? For someone in banglore or hyderbad ( the silicon hubs of india) certainly FDI's (foreign direct investment) are their bread and butter, but what about the farmer who waits subsidaries on his needs. Is India Today, mature enough to handle the duality that it has suffered in the past?

The fact is that the indian electorate is divided. It is a country of great disparity. Indians not only coexist amongst people who speak a dispora of languages, they also coexist amongst different species of the animal kingdom. One of the first things that stikes me is the absolute disregard for planning in the cities. The utter lack of civic responsibilities, apathy of the common man in the affairs of the state or city. The government, the people and the ideology in general revolves around what i wish to call as the "band aid solution". Everything seems OK as long as the current problem is solved!!!

Back in the days, when the great minds forged the ideas for creating the India Inc. that exists now, no one wanted to develop the "B" or "C" category cities. Instead, already taxed metropolises were forced to house the technology powerhouses of today. Hence, india deals with more power cuts, water shortages, traffic congestions, rising poverty, excessive migration to urban cities. Metropolises are still craving for clean and pure drinking water, a stable sanitation system, pure air, fighting poverty, convienent transportation. How can a place be classified as an URBAN METROPOLIS when people have to fight to get basic needs : Water,Sanitation, Electricity, & Transportation. I agree rome wasn't built in a day....but...

As an Indian, I can only dream of watching the Olympics in New Delhi someday, can only dream of the day the first Airbus A380 would land at an Indian airport, can only dream of a day where traversing 700 miles would take me 11 hours by road instead of 24 hours and I can only dream of a day where the perpetrators of IC 814, the Indian airlines flight that got hijacked back in 1999 to Kandahar, Afghanistan are brought to justice. I can only wish, India shows its own people what the rest of the world belives its map looks like and I dream of a day when a nation of over 1 billion people produce 15 men who can play soccer for india in the world cup! To me, it is a great tragedy that amongst so many people, we have not been able to produce 10 people, who could go and win us medals in a sport with consistency. Certainly, we are good at doing taxes, write software code, reproduce work, provide services, and speak english in the way we are required to speak...what do we have that we can call our own?

What has brought in the much transformation? I think it is the ability to provide a technical powerhouse that can run 24/7 coupled with a young and dynamic task force that wants to succeed, tons of engineers who can speak and think in english, a better and a more transparent work environment but are we there yet? In retrospect..Can this gush of economic success drive India and Indians to redefine their position in the world? I choose to wait and watch....

Cinema

I think motion pictures are a great gift of the 20th century. The ability to capture movements and sound, and replay it forever. Motion pictures enable to be entertained at our comfort. Wonderful isn't it, to be able to much popcorn, soda and watch a flick!

I have come to an agreement that movies are a good reflection of the society that it has been made for. It can be translated as demand and the market has to meet its demand. Thus, it reflects the motivation, intelligence of that society it has been made for.

* Bollywood(Hindi cinema) and the other major cinematic hubs (Tamil - Kollywood, Telugu - Tollywood, Bengali, Kannada, and Malayalam) constitute the broader Indian film industry, whose output is the largest in the world in terms of number of films produced and in number of tickets sold.

I am most fascinated by the subject of love, and about why that has haunted Indian cinema for as long as I can think! Indian movies are obsessed with the concept of a love movie..Movie Plots employ ingredients such as star-crossed lovers, angry parents, love triangles, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, conniving villains, courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate, and convenient coincidences. There is love, there is dejection, that is misunderstanding, and there is reunion, usually amongst 3 people. As recent as last evening, I ended up watching one more of these productions called : "The Gangster - A love story". I think to myself, that is irony right there!

What is cinema trying to teach? In reality, Familes haven't changed their prespectives towards their kids choosing their life partners for the most part. This holds true for a the urban populus as much as for the rest of the country. In this case, Cinema is a good representation of reality. There has to be a strong reason because there hardly exists any other themes that have attracted the attention of the masses. A nation that prides itself on producing more engineers in a single state than the entire united states put together lacks to motivate people to put together or watch a good comedy, a decent thriller, a nice science fiction or so much, a heart warming love story.

Most of my time watching such movies is spent browsing the internet (if i am at home). I pay to be entertained, right? ...certainly, looking at a predictable thought for the 50th time certainly motivates me to think, when will i decide to stop watching such movies; that thought is entertaining.

I have come to a conclusion that I primarily watch vernacular movies to relive old memories and look at some background pictures from some of the towns in india. Thats worth the 2 pennies i spend.

(*) Credits - Wikipedia

Rights

Sixty-four civilians were killed and 86 injured when a state-run passenger bus was destroyed.......Worst massacre of civilians since February 2002 ceasefire agreement......there is no iota of doubt that it is the LTTE, says Colombo....LTTE denies involvement, blames Government for attack reads the headlines on The Hindu.

Killed and destroyed! Killed and destroyed

...think about those two words for a minute. Think about someone traveling in that bus, traveling to meet a family member, going for a wedding, returning from a funeral, making small talk, going to start a new life...BOOOOOM!!!!!

You are never to return! NEVER!

Is that acceptable to you? To me it is scary. It is unimaginable. Violence lifted its grizzly face in another part of the world. To me, it doesn't matter which side of the story you buy. To me it doesn't matter who you support. My question is...did they all deserve to die this death. Days before, a family of 4 massacarred in a small village goes unnoticed.Unfortunately, I knew someone who were associated with this family. I am told it got a mention in a BBC article. As fellow citizens of this world, are we unjust and irresponsible towards those who seek our assistance to merely exist,merely to live for the next day? Have you stood up to voice the plight of another human in adversity?

How sad, we welcome the new ones into this world, but we forget to acknowledge those that leave us, dying this violent a death. How unfair is human kind? I dont know what can prepare someone to kill another in flesh and blood. We can give it a 1000 names: homicide, warfare, terorism and so on...but infact what we did was we made a killer out of someone.

When I am born, what do i have? I am born with rights- I have the right to LIVE.

I learnt today that the very first such draft giving people rights dates back to 2050 BC, by Ur-Nammu, the king of Ur. Since then we have learnt of how wide the galaxy is, how an atom can be manipulated, how kids can be raised in test-tubes and conquered nuclear energy? Have we learnt to respect another human life. Have we? We may not kill someone, but have we learnt to respect another human?

Yet, as we grow broad and deep in our understanding of everything around us, we have not been able to see how to cure the hate within us. This issue is universal. In the current context, what are these people fighting for? Human Rights?

As a human, what rights to I possess, I ask?

We have the "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights", called the Magna Carta of Humans

http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/eng.htm

Contrary to what we are supposed to believe, the fact remains that human beings having universal rights, or status, regardless of legal jurisdiction or other localizing factors, such as ethnicity and nationality, is a FALLACY . The examples are endless, The Holocaust, Killing fields (Cambodia), Checenya, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kashmir, Srilanka, Northen Ireland, Rawanda, Palestine, East Timor, Cyprus....History can teach us endless facts on the reasons why there was dissent, violence, gives us numbers, but it does not motivate us to change. It attempts to but falls in its face everyday when these acts of violence surface.

We just have new words to fight: terrorism, rebels, extremist, radicals. Seems like violence redefines itself. Who suffers?... that day it was carpenter who returned to his family.....it was a group of people who were going back home? We choose to empathize, sympathsize and hypothesize about a solution.

Have things changed in these 5000 years since the first account of civilization? We still debate and kill eachother for/over land, water, food, sustance and basic human rights.

Can we call ourselves the most intelligent creation of god...I put my head down in shame!

Hypocrisy

I buzzed someone earlier today asking about their opinion on my blog.

Response : it is too philosophical..Seems like you have lot to write, you should voice some political opinions.

Me : Political opinion huh? My opinion on current affairs? Why are they important? Who wants to know what is my opinion on what is going on in the political scene in india, srilanka, iraq, or elsewhere? Who cares...

Response : I voice my opinion to create awareness!

and....

I think to myself, aren't we all aware of what is going on around the world. Who gives a shit! People who are affected give a shit! Wrong!! people who are weak get affected by that shit. They buy into it and are subject to taking more of it. The intelligent, influential, the people who want to survive; Escape!

It is commendable that we choose to voice the plight of those who suffer in the name of the state, ethinic cleansing, civil war etc. What way does that stop violations against humanity?

Who eventually suffers?

It is just another name on some newspaper that suffered that day. The reason he/she suffered was because he/she didn't have the resources you had to escape the same situation. That is the truth!

What do I do with this awareness? What have you done with your awareness? Make more people aware and done what??

Am I not aware that back in the 1954, Standard Oil, a company owned by Rockefeller learnt about Oil Deposits in Vietnam. Am I not aware that the reason, the warlords were placed in afghanistan to place an oil pipeline from tajikistan into pakistan. Can I not see the reason why the united states which talks about bringing democracy around the world never bothered to do anything in Tinnamen Square in 1989. Am I not aware of the fact that the reason Norway is interested in peace talks in SriLanka is because NATO wants a permanent base in the Indian Ocean to "foresee" the rise of two powers in the subcontinent.Am I not aware that this nation looks at war as a way to revive economy. Am I not aware that the UN-sanctioned war in the Balkans was all about oil and the pipeline easement for Caspian Sea oil to Western European markets through Kosovo to the Mediterranean Sea.

I am a hypocrite! That's what I am aware of!

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was aware of how apartheid existed. Dr.Martin Luther King knew of the plight of the Blacks in this country, Chairman Mao Zedong was aware of the state of the peasants in China in the 1950's, Lenin,Ho Chi Minh were all aware. They had opportunities to grow if they pursued their personal goals. Yet, they stand as pillars in history because they took that awareness, created knowledge and rebelled for a cause. The cause of justice,for the common man. They also realized the only way to achieve success is by getting to where it matters the most...The TOP! When they took stand at a stage and spoke, you and a million others wanted to listen to what they had to say.Actions needs sacrifice, sacrificing for a greater good.

Have you stood in the crowd and expressed opinions, it gets lost as noise!

Tiananmen Square,Beijing, 1989, Pro-democracy movement. The entire city block evacuated by the army. One person, labeled by TIME as the "Unknown Rebel", AKA the "Tank Man", stood in front of a battalion of tanks symbolizing what is it the people of China stood for! Were these people destined to be great? Or, they searched for a purpose for their existence. These people to me are men who had chapters written about them in the textbooks we read.

I have opinions about many issues, but all I care about is the lifestyle I have, the money I make, the city I live in, the car I drive, shoes I wear, and the clothes I want to buy. Do I care about people who don't get food,clothes, who sleep in shanties everynight? I want you to think I care..but I don't. Not because I don't want to, but because, I am caught in the big wheel..that turns and turns!

There are millions of people with billions of opinions. Awareness needs momentum. Awareness needs more than a speaker. Awareness needs a leader,and a moral one! Action speaks louder than words. So next time you become aware about something. Think about this....Knowledge without action creates table talk or better...A BLOG!

Degrees of Freedom

Degree of freedom:

any of a limited number of ways in which a body may move or in which a dynamic system may change

Relationship:

the relation connecting or binding participants in a relationship: as a : KINSHIP b : a specific instance or type of kinship

Credits: www.m-w.com

Relationship is probably a word that exists at all levels;living and non-living. I seem to have a relationship to my bed, my car, my work place, and with my wife, my parents, my relatives, my pet and everything in between my city, the air, the water.

What is the need to associate? From the moment we are born, we get associated, many a time unconsciously. Is it necessary for me to have a relationship with my parents? Why? In any era, those are not questions well appreciated. Can i just take my parents to be two people, who brought me into existence and nothing more? I guess not. But, are these choices that I made or I choose to accept:- is my question?

I find it interesting that almost all relationships in these above cases i mention are all restrictive. Every relationship comes with its own set of rules, binds and duties. It is as if to constantly seek to categorize everything around us and define rules for it. This is what i can be with my "best" friend, this is who i should be with my boss, this is how i should behave at the mall. Unfortunately, this extends to the god and the altar as well. It is almost impossible to misbehave with him or her.Fear and prejudice guide our associations.

We all seek to remain true to our identities, develop a niche for ourselves. I ask, how can you be different when you are already bound by these rules? We are social animals. I agree we have to coexist in a cohesive fashion, does that also mean agree to these bounds?

You may question? What would you like a relationship to be? I guess everything that it is not right now, undefined. But, is that possible? I will be motivated to give it a form sooner or later, as a friend, sibling, wife, father like or my favorite seat, car, season etc.

Our lives in their present form are attributed to the relationships we have had, parents that gave birth, spouses, siblings, friends we have made, kids we have had, houses we live in, cities that protect us. Can I redefine them?

Probably Not, Can I realize my degrees of freedom with each of these relationship...definately.

Purpose

What is one's purpose in life? Is there a destiny for everyone? What did God decide our life should be when he created us?

Let me go back to god? I like to see his mind, understand why does he want to have 6 billion people on a single entity in this vast endless space. Were Sergie brin and Larry Page desitined to start google.com the day they were born, or did they have the consciousness to realize they would want to make something out of their lives.

I believe the choices we make forges our destinies and our lives. If we were created with pre-defined life sets, who we would meet, where we would live, what is the "Fun" in it for god? I guess he/she...starts you into this world with a purpose, and it is you and your concious that drive you through life. I have always believed that one can fight destiny. Become who you want. My greatest inspiration - "Wilma Rudolph". A black american, born prematurely at 4.5lbs, who fought seggregation, who had polio, walked with metal braces on her feet, yet in the 1960 Rome Olympics, at the age of 20, went on to win 3 Gold medals for the USA, inculding the 100m, 200m and 400m. History I guess set us up with many examples, the question is do we believe that we have it within us?

Often, it has been argued about: if we all had the same creator, why do we have such drastic socio-economic lives? Philosophically, i guess we all have our purpose in life. If i could explain it in a rather crude way, is eating more important than excreting. I dont think so? Both serve as functions that keep our body healthy and going. It is just that one seems more attractive that the other. It is true, opportunities are hard to come by when we are less fortunate than others. But, in no way do i agree that, it is a dead zone. My answer to everything is - will power! Do you have it in you to do it.

So the question is what is it that you what to do with your life? Are you conscious enough to realize your potential?

TIME:

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to nought
Or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desparation is the English way
The time is gone
The song is over
Thought I'd something more to say


Credits: Song: TIME, Album: Dark Side of the Moon- Pink Floyd

Mental Masturbation

Main Entry: men·tal
Function: adjective

a : relating to the mind; specifically relating to the total emotional and intellectual response of an individual to external reality, emotional activity, relating to, or being intellectual as contrasted with overt physical activity

b : occurring or experienced in the mind : INNER

c : relating to the mind, its activity, or its products as an object of study : IDEOLOGICAL

d: relating to spirit or idea as opposed to matter

Main Entry: mas·tur·ba·tion
Function: noun

a : erotic stimulation especially of one's own genital organs commonly resulting in orgasm and achieved exclusive of sexual intercourse, by instrumental manipulation, occasionally by sexual fantasies, or by various combinations of these agencies

credits: www.m-w.com

I guess the best way for me to write a blog is to define what is its purpose. For a long time i have fought over the necessity for a blog where there are millions of pages that could be of greater use reading.

I certainly realize the need for the mind to exercise, to explore and exfoliate.
Mastrubation on the other end is more of a need, a desire with the pure objective to attain pleasure. The marriage of these two words, i guess, gives me the freedom to exercise, explore and attempt to exfoliate my mind with the single purpose of attaining pleasure.

As all journey's begin, I am unsure of what is to come, what I will experience but this first one is towards the better.