Necessary Illusions

I have always had issues with fakeness and pretentiousness – life in general and relationship in particular. Perhaps that’s the reason it endeared me with the first few movies of Kannada actor Upendra. He has multiple themes – mainly psychological – running in his movies. One of his main hypotheses is that we wear many masks in life which makes us unreal, and we weave many illusions and some illusions are necessary to get through life – many people can’t live their lives normally without the ruse called illusion. The protagonist in the movie tries to live his life as per his rules, without pretentions, without masks, facing brutal realities as they are – but fails miserably in doing so. 

His thought process goes something like this – Say, in a marriage, whether the husband loves the wife truly or not, but if the wife thinks he does, she can live happily. It works the other way too. For that matter, societies can’t function without some illusions. It can be extended to cultures and even nations. As per him, all the existence is cobweb of lies and illusions. Maybe he takes the idea too far. But he has many valid points.

To illustrate the point, I quote a scene from Terry Pratchett's Hogfather :

Susan: All right, I'm not stupid. You're saying that humans need fantasies to make life bearable.

Death: No. Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.

Susan: With tooth fairies? Hogfathers?

Death: Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.

Susan: So we can believe the big ones?

Death: Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.

Susan: They're not the same at all!

Death: You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and THEN show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet... you try to act as if there is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some... some rightness in the universe by which it may be judged.

Susan: But people have got to believe that, or what's the point?

Death : My point exactly

Without some of these illusions, relationships, societies may break. As ironic as it may sound, some illusions are necessary to get a grip of realities we have created or chosen for ourselves. Perhaps this is what many ancient Indian seers called 'Maaya' or the veil. Perhaps some veils and thus illusions are necessary.

Thoreau and the rebellious living

Thoreau lived a couple of years of his life away from the people, alone — minimalistic kind, like a hermit in the woods. Out of that experience, he was able to write “Walden”. When I heard about it the first time, I was equally stumped and impressed at the same time.

People disappoint you. That’s a given. Even the ones you think never will disappoint you. They say not to expect — that’s not possible and you know it. You should be either a real sage or a person in a comatose state to not expect anything. Relationships build expectation — in fact, relationships are built on expectations — big or small and is a continuous transaction. Over a period of time, they change. How one handles, fulfills or fails in handling or fulfilling the expectations decides what direction the relationship takes. That’s why relationships are a complicated affair.

Also, most of the people — even the ones that you love or those who love you are judgemental. There are few or if you are lucky enough a very few people who see and accept you the way you are. Mother Nature doesn't judge anyone. It embraces all. It is neither caring nor cruel, it just is. That's the beauty of nature.

Perhaps it’s a trade-off we all make — putting up with various disappointments, innumerable heartbreaks, the fakery of the so-called ‘civilized world’ just to be accepted. Then, there are various masks we don just to get along with the ways of the world. 

All of us would have our own moment of 'running away from the world' — away from the drama, heartbreaks, judgments, disappointments marooned and cocooned all by ourselves. Jiddu Krishnamurti had a very different take on this topic and it's difficult to summarize a man like Krishnamurti; So, here's what he had to say on the topic

Thoreau did not run away from the world — he had rather chosen to make a radical change in his lifestyle. He perhaps lived like what Camus said — The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

The solitude of life

I’ve been a loner all my life. Mostly. I grew up as a single kid - I never yearned or wished for a sibling. I had a limited number of friends. I did and do enjoy a good company but I wouldn’t be depressed if I’m not surrounded by people for a long time. I’ll be fine. That's the way I was wired I guess - although there is a considerable change, I admit. 

One of the statements I read and found appealing - "After a while everything changes - beauty seems plain, love becomes stale, happiness degenerates into boredom. Until you realize that beauty, love, and happiness are all waves within your own soul, you're forever condemned to an unending search".

If you see life, there is solitude - perhaps an inherent one to it; that no one - not your parents, your children, your spouse, your best of friends can share your subjective experience with. There’s empathy - but even that, wouldn’t go a long way with respect to subjective experience you have in life as a whole.

Also, nobody or nothing can 'complete' you - not your partner, your job, your achievements or whatever the latest fad. We are condemned in this unending search. You are always alone on this journey. The sooner we realize the better it is. If we truly realize this, the very realization is liberating.

Mind — Incessant Chatterbox

[This was in a draft from a long time. Just thought of redeeming it quickly]

One of my ways of escaping from the incessant chatter of thoughts is to bury myself in some good literature or shove my ears to the headphones and go with the crescendo. 

It seems how hard you may try, some thoughts refuse to go away. The pattern repeats and it goes all circular. There is no point in indulging in it, you know. But alas! you can't stop it. All those descriptions likening the mind to monkey make more sense to you now. I take refuge in music. For a brief time, I seem to be free. If I were an alcoholic, I would have taken refuge in alcohol. It would have calmed me down. Music does no less a job. 

These are but temporary solutions. The more I think about it the more these Buddhas's word makes sense to me - " It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell ". The toughest challenge you face is not someone, it's just yourself. It's perhaps true that if you have managed to successfully handle yourself, you can handle anything in the world.

Troy! And the train of thoughts that unfolded

A few days back I watched the movie Troy in its director’s cut version. To narrate the story shortly-it’s a story of war between the Trojans and Greeks for the queen of Spartans (Helen) who is abducted by the Trojans. I really loved the visual spectacle that the makers were able to create. Though it was criticized by many for its flaws like historical inaccuracies, poor acting by a few etc. it is one of the magnum opus projects post-2000. As a hard-case movie buff, I was discussing this with my cousin, yet another movie buff! 

Having seen many historical movies in Hollywood, I wondered why they didn’t make any significant movies about India despite the fact that India is the only continuous, oldest civilization on the earth which is replete with colorful history. Even if one were to discount the mythological stories of India still there was an ample scope of making great historical movies out of India. When you have a history of more than 5000 years, there ought to be many great historical characters, instances. For this my cousin nonchalantly replied that westerners or the people of the so-called 'first world' don’t want to see India as a land of heroes or in anyway positive (yes there are a few earnest movies like City of Joy but the numbers are very few).

There was truth in his statement. The first world still wants to see India as a land of snake-charmers and soothsayers. To satisfy their appetite for India’s portrayal as chaotic and effete nation, Hollywood churns out movie like Slumdog Millionaire which is so poor that no true Indian can like the unfaithful depiction of India. The makers have done a loathsome job of rag-pickers who have picked all the negatives possible: Drug mafia, human trafficking, prostitution, communal hatred and what not. An art-deprived movie which plays to the gallery by the over-usage of clichés, stereotypes wins Academy award for the best movie category!

Apart from the reason stated before, the other strong reason appears to be the proximity and proclivity that Hollywood has towards the Greek and Roman history. It is true both geographically and culturally. The European philosophy for instance is greatly influenced by the Greek philosophy. So, there is a cultural proximity and that doesn’t exist with India. For the west, India is still the ‘other’. To borrow a phrase from Samuel Huntington, each has been the other’s other.

Samuel Huntington in his landmark book “The clash of civilizations” explains two terms: hard power and soft power. “Hard power is the power to command resting on economic and military strength, and soft power is the ability of a state to get other countries to want what it wants through the appeal of its culture and ideology.” Soft power is power only when it rests on a foundation of hard power.

India as a country never lacked soft power. But soft power becomes a farce when it’s not supported by the hard power. India had both hard power and soft power before the advent of the British (it was the richest country in the world before 16th century). If Roman and Greek empires are remembered even to this day the reason is that the soft power comfortably rested with the foundation of hard power of military might. If the U.S is seen as the world leader today, it is because of its economic and military prowess. As India doesn’t lack soft power, in order to command respect of the west and the rest, India should work on hard power even harder.

Difficulty of being an individual

You were born original, don’t die a duplicate said one philosopher. It was Voltaire who said man is born free but is chained by society as he grows up. Well, they both were right. A child is fed with many unnecessary things by many circles like parents, societies, religions etc. If a child is not fed with anything, it may flower into a completely different person with many possibilities but all those potential possibilities are greatly compromised by these circles who want the child to be in a certain way.

Whether it is society or religion which wants a person to be in a certain way is moved primarily by one thing: continuity. The society wants to continue through an individual, so does the religion. If an individual is really an individual in the real sense, the whole structure of society or religion will collapse. Therefore, no society or no organized religion will like any individuals to develop freely. They sense a real individual as a threat. All they want is a person who can join the gang so that he aids the continuity. That is one of the main reasons why reasoning is not encouraged in many societies or religions.

Having said all these, the idea of individuality if not properly handled can go loony. The idea of collectivism has the comfort of group. It always finds solace in the group but individuality doesn’t have anything to fall back on. So, extreme individuality can be a disease as well. Some great philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche who advocated individualism went berserk in their lives. It’s very hard to explain that. Individuality which aids in breaking all walls created by the society is great but if it creates more walls, it is worse.

Among the societies, traditionally the western societies especially after the renaissance have supported the idea of individualism whereas the Japanese and Indian cultures have always believed in collectivism. Both have succeeded in their own ways. It’s probably a unique combination of individualism and collectivism that can do well.

The year that’s gone by 2011- the best, worst and the rest

When I bid adieu to the year 2011, many memories spring up: good ones, bad ones, inconsequential ones and many more. In many ways, 2011 was a fulfilling and memorable one. It would have been more memorable had I landed up in a good job. That’s the only pain that I had to endure all through the year. Except for that, everything else was fine. I did end my post graduation and thus my academic life with a decent percentage, had met some of my old cronies, had been to quite a few historical places, and as any other years, seen a few good movies and read a few good books. 

The year began with a tour to North Karnataka with the family. I’d never seen Northern side of Karnataka. It ended to be a great tour to witness historical places like Bijapur, Koodalasangama, Badami, Eihole, Pattadakal all which were reminiscent of the glorious days of our state. Then somewhere in the year we did visit the fort of Chitradurga. All the People of Karnataka should watch this fort which stands as a testimony to the history of our state.

I always wanted to learn yoga kriya by a master. Although I’d learnt something, it was never proper, disciplined. I considered it was a great opportunity when I came to know that Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev would be conducting inner engineering program in Mysore in the month of April. Without hesitation I along with my father registered to the program and we did attend for two and a half days. I guess those two and a half days were the best, worthy two and half days of my life which was lush with life, experience, intensity and knowledge. The name of the kriya that was taught was ‘Shambhavi Maha Mudra’ which is from distilled repertoire of ancient yogic science. I’ve been regular in my practice till date and I have seen significant improvement in my well-being and my experience of life.

The arena of stock market: In the stock market I actively participated at least for a few days and made some peanut money not out of my knowledge but due to the fluctuations of market. For the very first time, I did day trading. Though the profit made was in a few hundreds, the thrill that it gives is priceless. But one has to be wary about it not to overindulge.

A few of my childhood friends got married. It’s sort of funny to attend the marriages of a few friends who were kiddos once and now with assumed maturity are getting married. It’ll always be a great feeling to meet some of the oldest friends after a long time and to get drenched in the memories of good old days.

This year I read exactly 25 books from various genres. Somewhere I read this fact about Osho Rajaneesh : he was an avid reader. In his lifetime, he’d read more than hundred thousand books. He calculated till that point and after crossing that mark, he left calculating. I was amazed by the fact. I thought I should at least do 10% of what he had done. The number came to be 10000 and seemed impossible and then I decided at least 1% of the number i.e. 1000. So, thus I began calculating from the year 2011. Hopefully, i will cross that mark sometime. Some of the best books I read are: Wings of fire by Abdul Kalam, Rich dad poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki, Stay hungry stay foolish by Rashmi Bansal, Autobiography of Michael Jackson (Moonwalk), The natural state of U.G. Krishnamurthy, Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Enlightenment-Life the way it is of Sadhguru, Aavarana(Kannada) by S.L. Bhairappa, Many lives many masters by Brian Weiss, Negationism in India by Koenraad Elst and finally Shantaram by Gregory Roberts.

As I was jobless most of the times, I saw quite a few movies (114 to be exact!) in 2011. A few good ones: The passion of Christ, Inception, The last seduction, The social Network, Source Code, Raging Bull, The silence of the lambs, Aviator, Copycat, Battle of Algiers, Schindler’s list, Manchurian Candidate, Minority Report, Full metal jacket, 12 angry men, Saving private Ryan, Die hard, Good will hunting, The shining, The kid, Downfall, Sleuth, Seven, Avatar, Infernal Affairs, The pianist, The sting, Das boot, Shutter Island, Braveheart, District 13 Ultimatum and Papillon.

As I bid adieu to 2011 and welcome 2012, the year that is supposed to be the end of the world I hope all positive things come in abundance and the negatives shall become scarce or nil. If the world comes to an end, which would be the end of all non-senses in one shot that man has done. Both are fine with me.

An affinity towards negative

A popular law of physics says unlike charges attract each other, like charges repel each other. Applying the law in the realm of mind one can say that many a mind have excessive fetish for the negatives than positives. Negative matters make more and quick impact on us than the positive ones. In all the range of emotions that we are capable of, the intensity is more in negative emotions than positive ones say our anger is more intense than our love. Enemies make more impact than friends.

Try this one: like someone very much and detest someone to the core; I can take a bet that the person whom you detest will be in charge of your mind for most of the time than the person you like. This is the chicanery played by the mind. What a tragic life that would be to be guided by the enemies or the people whom you loathe! This kind of behavior is what Stephen covey called as ‘enemy-centered’ attitude which is a failure right from the start.

The world is actually a beautiful place. Or one can say that the world is neither good nor bad but actually thinking (or perception) makes it so. But the TV or the media in general has made the world look like such a messy place that if one were to believe in it, then one has to conclude the doomsday of the world is not far away. The affinity towards negative obscures the reality. That combined with the shoddy journalism makes the journos to portray the world as a messy place.

There are many beautiful people around the world doing many beautiful things. But the channels seem not to be interested in them at all. Jack the ripper is remembered more than any saintly person. We know the name of psychopaths like Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer than people who have impacted the society in some positive way. In fact, in some societies the negatives are celebrated. In the popular culture of the U.S. you are considered cool if you are a gangsta. Even girls like bad boys you know!

So when the focus like this develops, we tend to think the world is a bad place which is getting worse by the day. This will increase the negative outlook towards life and is dangerous for individuals as well as for the society.

Amidst all these I am reminded of Dr. Sudarshan. He is a doctor by profession. He could have had a lucrative career ahead of him. But inspired by the words of Swami Vivekananda, he decided to do service to the downtrodden and backward. He started living with the Soligas (a tribe that lives near B.R hills of Chamarajanagar District). Establishing trust with them, he slowly affected them by educating them. Now after many years of his tireless work, Soligas are not only an improved community, but also there are many graduates amongst them. Unlike many religious groups which in the cloak of serving people do the religious conversion, Dr. Sudarshan did not have any ulterior motives. His motive was service and service alone.

People like Dr.Sudarshan can seldom become the darling of media. There are many people like him who are doing service not for any popularity but purely for the sake of service. They are affecting society positively in their own ways. The scale of their work may be small or large. We need to develop some positive outlook towards life looking people of this kind than fretting over the past or being gloomy about the future just because some garbage news channel showed some non-sense!

A tryst with war movies

In Hollywood, ‘war movies’ is a genre in itself. Having seen many genres like sci-fi, romance, comedy, thriller etc I felt that I had not seen much of war movies. So I began watching war movies and for sometime that was almost the only genre I watched. Someone told it right ‘there are no war movies; there are only anti-war movies’. Yes, to a large extent the statement is right. Most of the war movies show the brutalities, causalities of war and hence give the message that war is futile. But there are some movies which see war in a dispassionate angle and don’t conclude in anyway. Usually the later kind of movies became great because they were not trying to make any statements and were just showing the war as it is.

The war movies that I have seen fall broadly into these categories:

1) Based on the two world wars
2) Based on Vietnam war
3) Based on wars fought before the world wars
4) Based on some revolutions or hypothetical wars

The events and the time period of the world war gave fodder for some of the finest war movies ever. So did the Vietnam war which was waged by the US against the popular opinion of the people.

I started watching war movies with the 1930 release All Quiet on the Western Front which is perhaps the earliest movies revolving around the world war. Then it was Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory(1957) which depicted the hostility that existed between Germany and France and how soldiers were made to act against their will and fair judgment. Some more from the category: Lawrence of Arabia(1962), The Bridge on the River Kwai(1957), The Best Years of Our Lives(1946) , Judgment at Nuremberg(1961), Letters from Iwo Jima(2006)

Next to the world war movies, the highest number of movies made about an event is on Vietnam war. The significant movies that are made are Apocalypse Now(1979), Platoon(1986), Full Metal Jacket(1987), The Deer Hunter(1978). Platoon is the movie which is directed by Oliver Stone who had first hand experience of Vietnam war as a marine corp. So that fact makes the movie more authentic. The movie Deer Hunter shows the most dangerous game of the world Russian roulette in great detail. Full Metal Jacket is one more masterpiece of Stanley Kubrick.

Among the war movies that were based on the wars before the world war, the movie 300(2006) which depicted the courage and life of Spartans stands out. Apart from that there are some good movies like Gladiator (2000) and Akira Kurusawa’s Ran (1980) which has the story of Shakespeare’s King Lear. I am yet to watch movies like Troy (2004) and Alexander (2004).

The movie The Battle of Algiers (1966) shows the Algerian struggle for independence from the French. The story is told from a neutral point without taking any sides for the portrayal. That makes the movie special. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) is a suspense thriller in which the concept of brainwashing is shown vividly. It also shows the post war trauma that people face. It is perhaps one of the best war thrillers ever made.

Movies with comic touch:

Many movies use comedy to deliver the intended message. The earliest film which used comedy to deliver the ill effects of war was of Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940) in which Chaplin has parodied Hitler. Don’t know whether Hitler had seen the movie or not! Then a movie about a small & happy Jewish family at the time of world war is Life Is Beautiful (1997). The film has a good mixture of humor and emotional appeal. The movie Full Metal Jacket makes profuse use of comedy. Among all the war comedy movies made, the movie which is considered to be the greatest is Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1962). The movie is considered as a masterpiece of black comedy.

The best I have seen so far:

Schindler's List (1993): This Speilberg’s masterpiece depicts the plight of Jews in the Nazi occupied Poland. The cinematography gives the film a sense of timelessness. This is a classic one. 

Inglourious Basterds(2009): I don’t know how true this story is but it is very interesting. In all the movies the Jews are the victims. For a change, in this movie a small group of Jews called Basterds hunt down Nazis and instill terror in their hearts. This is like paying with the same coin. For that factor, the film becomes dearer. 

Downfall (2004): This German movie depicts the last 10 days of Hitler’s life. The actor who has portrayed Hitler has given complete justice to the role. It is considered as an authenticated account of Hitler’s last days. 

Das Boot (1981) Another German movie which is based on the real event of German submarine which goes to attack the British side. The film gives a brilliant account of navy, wars under the sea. Technically, the film is considered perfect and the best submarine film to ever come. 

Full Metal Jacket (1987): The first part of the movie is full of comedy and is carried superbly by the brilliant acting of R. Lee Ermey. The second half gets serious with war scenes showing the difficulty of fighting in Vietnam, the sniper tactics. The movie is highly engaging and entertaining. 

Saving Private Ryan (1998): One more masterpiece of Spielberg! The depiction of war scenes is so raw and seems real. The first 30 odd minutes of the movie seems like cut and paste from the real war. So realistically it is shot. 

The Pianist (2006): This is one of the movies which doesn’t try to make any statements but gives the account dispassionately. The film is based on real story of Jewish musician Władysław Szpilman . Adrien Broody has acted brilliantly. The movie is directed by Roman Polanski who had had first hand experience of the events. 

The given list of movies is definitely not comprehensive in any way. There are still many good war movies I am yet to watch like black hawk down, good morning Vietnam, born on 4th of July and many more. So, the list goes on becoming long…

Alliance Memoirs - Faculties

With bagful of dreams, a tinge of fear and arrays of expectations I, along with many others entered Alliance Business Academy (only to be disappointed later of course!). Since I intend to write about the faculty members, I restrict to that subject alone.

             In the first interactions with the faculty members, I was pleasantly surprised. Most of them were courteous, receptive to courtesy, friendly with students. Though a few of our faculty members were like that in graduation, the number was very few. So it was a good beginning in Alliance. In the first semester, it was bi-modular approach for us i.e. at any given day, only we needed to listen to the lectures of two faculties. Usually they would finish their quotas for the semester in about 15 days. This method, like any other method had its own advantages as well as disadvantages. This was a novelty for us then. But we got accustomed to it soon. As far as teachers are concerned, most of them had the quality and competence to deliver and some were downright comedians with their own trademark antics. I enjoyed listening to most of them and resented a very few. Some memorable ones…

Nandita chaterjee & Navodita misra: The very beginning of the first semester happened with these two faculties. They knew what they were teaching (This seems like an ordinary statement but if you have seen myriads of teachers and their competence level, you would understand the immensity of it!). They had the standards required for any premiere institutes. They would have been good ambassadors of Alliance if Alliance stood for what it proclaimed.

Kameswaran: I don’t remember listening to his lectures except for the first very few classes and he did not have any complaints about it. He was busy with his business and we were busy with ours. We were more enchanted to his English accent than to his accounts lecture perhaps! He had a bovine kind of character and never scolded anyone.

Smitha: Most of us pitied her because she was given more responsibility than she could ever handle. She was helpful for most of us during our internships or during dissertations. A teacher should exert some control over the class no matter what. Most of us felt she lacked it. Apart from that, she was good

Sivanandam: Took operations research for us. Most of the time went for his earlier experiences in voting machine and BPL rather than for OR. He taught us overheads. Most of the things he taught us were over our heads. Very few people understood what he taught.

Havaldar: A thorough gentleman,an alumni of IIMA. He was a near perfectionist, the only person like him was Dr.Rajesh. He did everything professionally, even when he scolded us. He had a  very good knowledge of what he taught us but i felt the only lacking point was his sense of humor.

Rudramurthy: A quarter of humor, a quarter of arrogance and the rest for knowledge: that’s Rudramurthy. His subject knowledge and his ability to deliver were unquestionable. Very few people who possess knowledge can inspire students to go for a quest for knowledge. This person was capable of that. The way he inspired people in the field of finance especially stock markets was simply amazing. One of the lecturers I truly admired. 

Jatinder: Though seemed very promising at the beginning, he failed to carry that drive. May be all of us failed him. In the end it felt like over promise, under delivery.

Rajesh: A true taskmaster, he knew how to extract work no matter which way it was. He did possess good knowledge and expected a great deal from students which sometimes seemed unrealistic. But he did it with good intentions obviously. One of the few lecturers I really respected and feared! 

All in all though I have my resentment towards Alliance in some issues, in the issues of faculties I have very less complaints.

A letter to women!

     Women! What a wonderful creation you are! All the poetry of the world would not suffice to behold or describe the charm of you. Without you, how barren the world would seem! You bring the color to the otherwise black and white world.

     Just because you were physically weak, how men persecuted you all over the ages! You were seen as a mere object which would satisfy carnal appetite. Shame on the men of the world who did this to you! The idea of men being superior to you was obviously created by the men. Except in physical strength you are no way less than any men. In fact in many others, you are far superior. 

     But thanks to changed global scenario that the situation has began to turn around. You are seen as capable as any other men in the world. But what I feel is that you also fell as a victim to the disease called imitation. Instead of growing in a unique path, you always wanted to tread the path of men. 

     Whenever you imitate any person, you obviously see the person as superior to you and you set the standard accordingly. The person you imitate becomes your yardstick of measurement. You may love or hate the person you imitate but somewhere in the mind, you hold the person higher than yourself. Oppression for many millennia has made a rebel out of a few of you. But when a rebel acts, it is actually a reaction to the existing pattern. So, the rebel can’t think of independent pattern. He/she just modifies the existing pattern.

     You started imitating men from clothing to lifestyle to everything. Though on the outside you claim to be no way inferior, in your psyche you are yet to come out of that. All the feminists who clamor for the equal rights are still keeping men as the reference point. With this kind of thinking we are working well to create a chaotic world where gentleness, love, care are costly commodities. Love, compassion are natural traits of you but have been jeopardized in this mindless imitation. 

     Women of the world! Please heed to these and create your own paths, tread on them fearlessly and thus create a beautiful world in which there is no prejudice based on the gender and both the genders are in harmony with one another.

Birthday = One year closer to death !

Yes! I turn 24 today. There it ends. I’ve always said that the birthday is just a remainder that one is closer to death by a year. Nothing more, nothing less. Whenever I say that, many dismiss me saying that I have a negative outlook towards life. But I have to say it is a fact. Whatever one may say; it is an undeniable fact that all are inching towards the same destination called death. For some, the destination is near, for some it is far. But the destination is same for all. Perhaps death is the only destination that everyone shares.

                For a person who has ventured into something big, birthday may motivate him/her by reminding the less amount of time that is available. In that way, if it is motivating or adding life to years (not the opposite!) then it is worth celebrating. But if it ends up being just another ritual or a compulsive act, it is unworthy of celebration. 

               But, if someone comes and wishes me a happy birthday, of course i don't preach these philosophies but instead throw a smile and say 'Thank you very much pal' ! But i clearly know these things ain't got any value !! 

Alliance Memoirs - Pals

In Alliance, I have met and befriended some of the most graceful people of my life. I have my share of some beautiful experiences and some forgettable experiences. Here, I have tried to document some of the people and their personalities. I don’t like the process of describing any person because one can never do justice to it. But I have just budged to the temptation of documenting them!! First I will go with the people of our section and then the other section.

Sharath:

Here comes the first person from our core group. The group consisted of him, me, Yeshwanth, Mario, Rakesh, and sometimes Shiva.

Sharath, arguably one of the most brilliant persons I’d ever had as my classmates. No wonder he was the state topper of the entrance test for MBA!! A very sensitive person, had great attributes to be a team player, fantastic analytical mind, and had modesty.

I had had some beautiful discussions with him. I cherish one discussion in particular which I remember to this day. One day we were discussing about handling anger. I said to him that I never became angry outside though I was inside and I usually vented anger on my parents for no strong reasons. He told never to do that. Anger should be handled then and there itself and never to vent on parents. He made one statement which struck me ‘they deserve the best of you’! He was absolutely right. I valued those words and still I do.

Yeshwant:

This is one of a few people whom I admired for some qualities and disliked for some. Among all my x-classmates who were close to me, if I have seen some fearless people, I can list a few. Yeshwant comes in the forefront. I have seen him giving presentations, addressing people, interacting with people. Absolutely fearless creature he was. That’s an incredible quality in itself and can take you places. He had great ambitions, the quality of taking initiatives and getting things done.

            The thing that I disliked is that the person always indulged in self aggrandizement & carried an aristocratic bearing with him. I think there is nothing wrong in tooting one’s horns but not at the cost of others.

            Whatever! the person never envied his peer’s success, always had that khullam-khulla attitude (open book, he was), always had good intentions for his friends and I consider him to be a very reliable person among many I know.

           

Mario:

Perhaps he is the one liked by all in the class and he’d that charisma, no doubt. I remember some wise man saying that joy is contagious. If you see the guy, you would accept the statement. So cheerful he always was that I rarely saw him being in a somber mood. I loved spontaneity & the sense of humor of the person very much. He had a great passion for music. He was a kind of rock star of our class. It was always fun to discuss music with him

With Mario, aristocratic bearing manifested in a different way: Sarcasm. He was very much identified with it. If someone gets strongly identified with something, the person applies that something for everything. As Abraham Maslow put it ‘he that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail’. He had his own philosophies to live by. Though some of them seemed crazy, he articulated them well. I loved to listen to him.

He’d the wit and many a times I thought ‘you are at a wrong place buddy!’ He could have done much better things if he’d followed his passion, I would think. If he goes in the right direction, he can achieve big. Creativity as far as I think, can’t be taught. This person had it naturally. All that’s needed is nurturing and some fine tuning.

Rakesh:

Too childish at times, he was an artless person. Did not have any artificiality and was good at heart. He did not have any grand philosophies of life, was simple and so obviously cheerful.

Shiva:

A typical product of St. Joseph’s :) His English accent attracted instant notice. Often friendly, sometimes short-tempered, a foodie, a great game buff was shiva. The guy was not bored to play computer games round the clock and there are more stories about his computer and his enormous collection which can’t be discussed here.

He had good knowledge about a few subjects and was creative in creating some puzzles, which I really enjoyed solving.

Divianand and Shivank:

These are the two people who always appeared to be professional in their mannerisms, etiquettes, attire and all other aspects. They looked like the real businessmen and of course Divi was already one. Shivank was the best presenter of our class without any doubt. Divi, though came from a very affluent background and had his own company, he was always grounded, a very good character. As they say simplicity and humility are two hallmarks of greatness!

Prakash, Ramsagar, Arvind, Pavan, Sharan:

All the lords of last bench were extremely fun loving and were there in their own world. Probably this is the group which enjoyed the most in our class.

Vipin, Saurish:
Two close friends who've always been together. Vipin was a surprise package. He surprised all of us when he got placed for the highest package in Volvo !!

Abhinandan, Pavan, Prabhakar, Sanjeev, Venkatesh:

All were from North Karnataka region. One thing I loved in the people of north Karnataka is that the people from there are very sincere and honest. There is very less amount of artificiality in them as far as I have observed.

Shilpa, Mary, Megha:

3 musketeers as we would call them, they always flocked together. Shilpa’s mother tongue was telugu, mary’s tamil and megha’s marathi. Whenever they conversed with each other, they would converse in Kannada. That made me happy.

Manoj:

He’d raw talent, if fine tuned, could be of a great use. He was a voracious reader, probably numero uno in the class.

Nihal, Nidhi, Rajesh:

Another group of 3 always in their own world. I can take a bet that there was no one from our class who had talked as much as nidhi. Too verbose she was.

Srishti, Harsh, Sunitha, Monisha, Namratha:

One more group of our class. (Shivank and Sanjeev included). They mingled with the rest more than any other groups.

I’ve missed the details of two names: Monisha and Namratha. Because as they say, the best always comes in the end!!

Namratha:

One girl with whom anyone could dare to be themselves. Namratha a.k.a Nami was such a sport and a darling of all of us in the college. A fun loving, open minded, care free, a self-confessed nerd she was. One of a few companies I really enjoyed and first girl I’d ever met who liked some extreme rock bands such as cradle of filth or Children of Bodom.

Monisha:

I may become poet if I start describing her beauty!! An epitome of bewitching beauty she was. I’d many crushes in my life. The crush I had with/for her (if I may use the word) was the last and the most beautiful of my academic life. Her name, her beauty and her smile will be inscribed in my memory forever. At the end of the semester, she got engaged. Don’t know how many hearts were broken!

Now, coming to the people from the other section

Most of the people who I had know before entering the college were from the other section. I many times wished I was in the other class.

Amit, Tarun, Rasik, Rahul: These are the ones I’d met on the day one of the counseling. When the class was divided into two sections, all went to the other section and I was disappointed in the beginning.

            A special mention in Rasik: This is a typical Mr. Perfect student, may be the very quality made people dislike him. Because it was not normal to be perfect, needless to say the favorite student for most of the teachers.

Pavan, Abhin, Dilip, Mudassar: I think I got close with these guys mainly because on common specialization and most importantly because of Facebook!!

Soumya, Binitha: Quasi-sisters I fondly called them, they were like Siamese twins always together. Soumya was one of the persons whom I’d met in counseling. She had a bit of traditionalism which I admired. Rare to find these days you know!!

Anoop: This is one of the best presenters that I have ever seen, had a perfect professional look and body language. If Shivank is for B section, Anoop was for A.

Sumanth Reddy: I'd lost touch with Telugu for many years. It was revived by conversing with Reddy. 

Rakesh: Always in his own world, a reserved guy who worried, cared only about career aspects, had a good knowledge about finance, especially stock market.

Hemanth: A cheerful guy who took responsibilities and handled them well, he was a natural team player.

Rhea: This is one person with whom I could discuss Dostoevsky, Camus, Kafka or J.krishnamurti. In all my student life I had never found any person with I could share these topics. She was verbose, somewhat touchy at times. I liked talking with her 

These are just brief memories. When I write my autobiography, will go for elaborate descriptions. Anyway, will be having a rough draft in blogspot!! :) 

An obsession with virginity

Call it the effect of culture that we are brought up in or the consistent influences of society, most of us are fascinated by the concept of virginity. When it comes to the gender discrimination, this virgin thing also plays its part. All boys do expect the girls that they’re gonna marry to be virgins even those who are not virgins themselves. So, there is a tinge of hypocrisy in this as well. Double standards exist here as everywhere else. 

I’ve often wondered why there is so much importance of virginity. I try to be neutral in the analysis even though I am severely inclined towards one side. The spouse with whom we are set to begin our lives should be new in every sense to begin new life. Perhaps that’s where the idea of virginity is springing from. Is it wrong to expect our future spouse to be virgin? Or is this virginity linked only with the bodily acts or is it beyond it as well? Does the corruption of the mind tantamount to the loss of virginity? These questions I’ve always been unable to answer. 

If we just peep into the other side, things might look different. In the world, especially in our country, in the name of freedom, people are indulging in brainless imitations. There is a feeling that whatever actions that people do, if they have got the approval from the west, then there will be no problem about them. The people who have strongest words of criticism for the superstitions that exist in culture are the same ones who are indulging in brainless imitations of the west. Imitation without a proper basis is also a kind of superstition. For example, now the vogue in our country is live-in relationship. Needless to say, that’s an import from the west. The west can be a model in the field of science and technology but never in relationships. It has demonstrated its failure emphatically. But still, people want to follow it. 

So, the perception about virginity has definitely changed over years. There are both pros and cons in it. The perception differs from person to person. But there are arguments like ‘If I am a virgin, what’s wrong in expecting the girl marrying me to be virgin?’ Though I endorse the argument and risk being called a sexist, there can’t a unanimous opinion about a highly subjective topic like this.

Knowledge and information

One more confused set of words where the two words are often used interchangeably. Information is something that is gathered over time. Knowledge can’t be gathered. It is something that is always present. Information can be generated but not knowledge.

Any person who is considered as an expert in any field is often called as knowledgeable. What they actually mean is that person is well informed. The more a person gathers information and the more efficiently does he use the information, he will often be touted as knowledgeable. But actually he is not knowledgeable but well informed. Information is about survival but knowledge is way beyond it.

Information doesn’t free a person. It is actually a chain, a never ending one. It doesn’t matter the kind of information one has, it never becomes enough. It is a game of constant accumulation and gathering. But knowledge is not like that. Knowledge frees the person from everything including the very knowledge.

Optimism, Pessimism and Realism

There are basically just three ways to think or see the things. The first approach is optimistic, the second is pessimistic and the last is the realistic.

A pessimist is the one that always see the things in the negative shades, gathers all the info that are negative and generally has a negative outlook about life as a whole. On the other hand, an optimist is the person who sees the world in rose-tinted spectacles, sees only positive in all the things and most of the times avoids negatives. A realist is the person who sees the things as they are.

Pessimism is a horrible way to exist. Being pessimist, we end up being like rag pickers. Optimism is definitely better than pessimism and it is encouraged by many. Many people sermon to embrace optimism. Optimism can mend many a situations according to our requirement and positive outlook towards life enhances life, no doubt.

 But realism is always better than optimism or pessimism any day because realism is the way in which we see the things as they are without sabotaging our intelligence with some petty pre-conceived notions. Pre-conceived notion, good or bad will never let to see us the things as they are, so we usually miss out the truth ascribing to some philosophies. If we have to act on anything or have to understand anything completely, we should be able to see the things as they are. Else, we miss out many simple but great things in life.

Opinions and Facts

Opinions and facts are two different things. They can be poles apart or very near to each other. The nearer they are, the better it is. An opinion many a times is nothing but a distorted fact. A fact incorrectly put or understood becomes an opinion.

            People form opinion about certain things and become attached to it and over a course of time they will not be able to see the fact at all. They profess their opinions as facts. In their thinking, they would have made opinions as facts. So, for them their opinions have become facts.

            Opinions are such useless things that one should not care for them at all. Because opinions can be a million but the fact can only be one. Any interpretation would fall short of the fact. But we have formed castles of opinions in us that they have become more important and dear than people around us. So in my opinion, all opinions should be shunned including this one!!

Function of None..

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of functions in mathematics because it can be applied to our lives easily. To explain functions very simply,

                        Y=f(x1, x2, x3…..)

As per my understanding, here the value of Y is dependent on all the variations of x i.e. if the value of anyone among x1, x2, x3…changes then invariably the value of Y changes. Y is the dependent variable, in other words.

            Now, apply the same to our lives. Consider our happiness as Y, and all the factors which make us happy as the variables x1,x2 and so on. In our lives, the R.H.S is too long i.e. our happiness is dependent on too many factors. The intelligent man will always keep the RHS short. Probably, the most intelligent man won’t have any RHS at all i.e. to say that his happiness is not at all dependent on anything external. By his own nature, he’s able to remain happy, no matter what the external situation is. To such a person, I bow down. Mathematically speaking, he’s a function of none. All of us should reach that stage. The sooner we reach, the better it is.

Is Bangalore in Karnataka??i doubt it sometimes...

Any person gazing around some of the streets of Bangalore might feel Bangalore is not a part of Karnataka. Through the IT boom or otherwise, people have come in torrents to this city like no other city (Except Mumbai probably). Perhaps, people from all the states of the country are found in the city. Everything’s fine. The constitution guarantees the right to every citizen of the country to wherever he/she wants to reside.

            But for the person who loves the language and the culture of the state will be in disappointment in this scenario. There are people here who have stayed for over many years and still don’t know kannada. A belief has set in that even though if one doesn’t know the language can manage in this city very easily. And it is truly so. This can never happen in a city like Chennai. If the same scenario continues for a long time, then kannada may vanish from the city. This might look like an overstatement, but looks apparent if the same trend continues. Even the statistics support the fact. Around 53% of the population of Bangalore is of kannadigas. Such a state never exists in any other states.

            Some areas of Bangalore like R.T.Nagar is completely dominated by the people and language of neighboring states & areas like M.G. Road, brigade road show the ‘modern’ side of Bangalore. Searching kannada in these parts will be a Herculean task. People should respect the local culture and language. They don’t have to do a great service to the language. The greatest service that they can do is to learn and speak it. But this basic thing is lacking.

            The modern fad is to claim that one doesn’t know kannada. Some people take pride in it. People take pride in the things in which they actually have to be embarrassed. Some kannadigas also claim their children can’t write kannada properly with pride. That’s shameful.

            The attitudes of both kannadigas and non-kannadigas towards kannada and the local culture has to change. Otherwise, the day of reckoning for kannada is not too far!!

Confidence - is it needed??

There are talks about confidence building everywhere. Everyone is asserting to be confident. Confidence building is probably a multi-million dollar industry in itself. But let us pose a question to ourselves. Is confidence an essential thing to live? My answer would be an emphatic NO. Let me give my explanation.

            Confidence is required only when the person is in the state of diffidence. The state of diffidence is a kind of negative state. To negate that state, confidence is required. In other words, both confidence and diffidence are not realities. Both are a kind of beliefs. If knows about oneself properly, in that state of being, there is neither confidence nor diffidence. In that state, there is self knowledge.

            Knowledge should be placed higher than belief. No doubt, belief can do wonders. But, knowledge is always more potent than belief. Because knowledge is always about NOW, always facing the reality. But belief evades reality.