God!

I admire people who have no need of a God. They must be truly great to not need one. There was a time when I did not believe in God. It was out of ignorance, not arrogance.

There are at least two reasons I need God. One, so that I have a role model. That’s right. It is not that I have transcended present and past role models in corporeal form. The question is this, metaphorically speaking, how many people past or present can meditate with a snake hissing in their ears? How many people can hold still a thought as easily as holding a deer all trussed up? Thoughts are after all like so many frightened deer darting hither and thither. 

The second reason is that I need a support in time of spiritual crises. I have not transcended this need. I glad that I am now at least aware of this need. However I have some arrogance in me that baulks at the thought of taking such support. Fortunately, the saner part of my psyche knows very well that I have a long way to go before I can do away with the God crutch and be independent.

Do not mistake me, as far as God is concerned, there not an ounce of irreverence. Only utter humility. But there are many other ways in which my arrogance is reflected in this piece. For those who see them, please forgive me. For the arrogance has arisen out of fear. Here go back to the first reason I need God, to be able to meditate with a snake hissing in my ear.

The Power of the Subconscious

There is perhaps nothing more powerful in the Universe than the subconscious. It gives one what one asks of it. The trick lies in knowing how to ask, even in knowing that one is asking. There are people who ask without even knowing it. Kekule for instance; he went to sleep with a question on his mind, not even addressed directly to his subconscious. It gave him the answer in his dreams anyway. Einstein was a great believer in the power of intuition. One thing that intuition is, is the subconscious working silently and throwing up answers. I feel that even those who think that they have thought out a solution have in great measure made use of subconscious processing. 

Politics as I See it

There have been several upheavals in the way in which the world is aligned. Much of it seems to be for the better. Russia and China have risen. India is rising and there seems to be a lot of soul searching going on in the political circles of USA.

The changes started with Russia and China adopting capitalist economic models. Following this, USA and some of its allies turned extreme right. Since the success of Obama, there has been some correction of the course towards the left.

I am neither for the left nor the right. I am for balance. USA has had extreme right views for quite some time and it is good to see them shift back towards the center. India has been left of center for a very long time. It is good to see a shift to the right.

Considering the lack of experience of the BJP, I think it is only meet that the world and the citizens give them chances to prove themselves. I see tremendous positivity in the way things are shaping up in India. There are of course fringe elements from the right that are bursting out every now and then and elements from the left in the media that serve to amplify these outbursts. However, I have faith in the intentions of the present government.

India is a land of sermons. Initially, they used to come from the left and the so called secular sections of the society. These sermons used to be directed at one particular section of the society, the more substantial one. With the rise of the BJP, the sermons are coming in from all directions.

What is Greatness?

Is it about how others perceive you or about how you perceive yourself? Is it about performing stupendous deeds of heroism? 

To me, obsessing about the above, only takes away something from the potential to be great. I think greatness is just the same as success. You might be great in your lifetime or, like van Gogh, much later, after you have died. I think greatness comes from doing what you naturally gravitate towards. For Krishnamurthy and Socrates, it was philosophizing, for van Gogh, it was painting, for Wodehouse and Hesse, it was writing. These are all forms of expression.

What about Alexander the Great? Did he express himself through his behavior? This brings up the question – What does expression encompass? To me, it includes being able to organize. Perhaps organize is a better word than express for it indicates an ability to structure expression.

In the heat of battle, how many of Alexander’s decisions came from conscious thought? Krishnamurthy said he was just a radio. The structure of Benzene came to Kekule in a dream. How could van Gogh have put conscious thought into a technique that was never known before? Most certainly, it was studied once his paintings became famous and I am sure several artists have consciously reproduced the same technique. But how many of them has that made great? 

Is it then perhaps then the ability to freely organize sub conscious creativity (I use creativity for want of a better word) greatness, to a small extent guided by conscious thought? I think the subconscious certainly has a great capacity to organize. How much of what we think is conscious thought subconscious? Can the line between the two be drawn? I have come from writing about greatness to writing about thought. The key to greatness is after all in the mind.

The Disaster of Description Overdrive

" His balls and penis dangled down, pointing to the sign which said: COCHIN" - From The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

"We moderns are not interested in a hero's pathology or family history, nor in his drives, his digestion, and how he sleeps." - From The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse

"Or in this case where a particular man's genitals point." - Yours truly


"Estha noticed that the hair on his head was curly grey. the hair in his windy, armless armpits was wispy black, and the hair in his crotch was black and springy. One man with three kinds of hair. Estha wondered how that could be." - From The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

“Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.” - Kurt Vonnegut

"Who besides Estha and Ms. Roy cares how that could be?!!" - Yours truly

Goethe on Romantic Love

I read some time back, Faust - First Part. Clearly, Goethe understood very well that even an elderly, learned and wise man like Faust is not immune to the effects of this phenomenon called romantic love.

On seeing Gretchen and thereafter, her room, when Mephistopheles secrets him into it, Faust waxes eloquent on his feelings. He says,

"Grip my heart, O keen edged lover's pain, that languishes on mere dewdrops of a hope.
...
How deeply you are stirred! Your heart is heavy, and you feel so out of place. Wretched Faust! Who are you anyway?"

Goethe, here has a wicked sense of humour. For Mephistopheles tells Faust, "May I advise Your Lustfulness..." Gretchen is expected back any moment and Mephistopheles tries to hurry Faust out when he addresses Faust thus.

There are people who believe in love at first sight. I myself am a romantic. While I agree romantic love is tinged with lust, it is not all lust as some would claim it to be. I wonder if Goethe had similar feelings for some girl or if he heard one of his friends speak as Faust did. Whatever it may be, I think Goethe must have been a brat with a very good sense of humour.

Lao Tzu on Leadership

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, when his aim is fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." - Lao Tzu

The problem with this type of leaders lies in spotting them because, by their very nature, they rarely attract attention to themselves. Perhaps one way is to track the performance of individuals and the projects they work in to identify the people who work on the most number of successful projects as a percentage of the total number of projects they work on. This could be used as one of the metrics of evaluation.

It would work very well in large organisations where people tend to stay for a long time such as bureaucracies. This is just a hypothesis of mine.

Conduits to God

The supreme being in organised religion is not God but the conduit to him, whether self proclaimed or elected. Organised religion creates power structures that only serve to increase the power of the select.

Jung, in his essay, The Undiscovered Self paints communism and the church with the same brush when he says, "changes can come only from personal encounter between man and man, but not from communistic or Christian baptisms en masse, which do not touch the inner man."

Fundamental change can come only from understanding the self. And conduits to god tend to affect adversely this process.

What I like about Buddhism is that the Buddha spoke only about ending suffering and refused to deal with questions on the existence of god and creation, saying that such questions were not useful for ending suffering.

Krishnamurthy said about preachers, “Please, I have nothing against Christian priests or Hindu priests – to me they are all the same. I say they are unessential to humanity." Krishnamurthy also believed that the origin of religion was primarily psychological: the occurrence of sorrow.

The way power is exercised by organised religion over people is explained very well by K. He says, "“There is in each one of you, in one form or another, a desire for continuance, a search for spiritual security which you call immortality. He who offers or promises this security, this egotistic continuance, this selfish immortality, becomes your authority, to be worshiped, to be prayed to, to be followed. Thus you slowly give yourself over to that authority, and so fear is cunningly and subtly cultivated."

To me, heaven and hell and god and the devil are here on earth. Any organisation that preys on fear and promises security in return for unwavering faith, whether it is a religions organisation or political organisation is evil.

The Bull That Wouldn't Fight

This incredible photo marks the end of Matador Torero Alvaro Munera's career. He collapsed in remorse mid-fight when he realized he was having to prompt this otherwise gentle beast to fight. He went on to become an avid opponent of bullfights. (The look on this bull's face says it all for me. Even grievously wounded by picadors, he did not attack this man.)

Or so the story goes. It was subsequently proven that this story was not true.

However, the authenticity of the story does not matter as much as the message it conveys. To me, it is compellingly symbolic of the struggle of the Dalai Lama against the Chinese. I think the greatest tragedy has been that the Chinese have not been able to find in their collective psyche, compassion and tolerance of diversity. They are yet to find in themselves what Munera found in himself.

In Defence of Polytheism

I started thinking about polytheism as a consequence of a discussion I had with someone I once met at a University. He was a follower of a monotheistic religion and was unable to understand how people could believe in many gods. 

For very long, the discussion used to come back to me every now and then, but I could never divine a proper justification, not that I truly felt the need for a justification. Just yesterday, I had a discussion with a friend that led to the crystallization of my idea of god. To me, god is a collection of attributes I value. If that collection or a sufficient part of collection exists in a human or animal or symbol, that entity or symbol to me is god. 

Symbolism has been much reviled and become a word that people do not want to associate with. This is because symbolism has been hijacked by tokenism. Tokenism and symbolism are not the same. For instance, a piece of stone in the shape of Shiva is worshipped. Unfortunately, people worship the piece of stone itself rather than what it symbolizes. They believe that offering fruits, leaves, devotion etc. to the stone itself would bring them benefits. This is also disturbing at a different level. Because you see, Shiva is just a means to an end for them. There is a crass selfishness in their devotion. 

What I believe should instead be worshipped is as follows. The snake around Shiva’s neck indicates a person who is able to meditate even with a snake (also seen as the desires and temptations and distractions) hissing in his ear. The deer held firmly in his hand indicates a mind that is steady, a mind that does not hop about like a deer. The third eye indicates wisdom and penetration. The burning of the god of love, Kama, by opening the third eye is not a story of external manifestation of power, but a story of the power to see through the illusion of lust and to burn it at its source. There are of course other symbols, the interpretations of which I am not aware of. But the point I wish to make is we should learn to understand symbols and not blindly worship them devoid of understanding.

Coming back to the original topic, polytheism is important because different people value different attributes and may wish to develop each to a different measure. Polytheism allows each person to select a set of beliefs that are most dear to that person. For one, it may be education, for another compassion and empathy. I think it does not matter too much what it is. Polytheism grants so much more freedom. The only condition being that it be properly understood.

Confessing

"It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.” - Oscar Wilde

Confessing is one of the most beautiful ways to overcome guilt. To a person walking around like Cain with the mark of tremendous guilt upon his head, voluntary confession is perhaps the only way to absolution. The key word here is voluntary.

For over the years various organisations that seem diametrically opposite to each other in philosophy have used forced confessions (emotional, psychological and physical torture) to keep populations under their thumbs. It is sad that something as beautiful as a voluntary confession has been degraded to something like the self-criticism of the Yan'an Rectification and the struggle sessions of the Cultural Revolution. 

Unfortunately these organisations dictate what sin is and these definitions make people who have never harmed anybody in their lives believe they are guilty and the weight of this guilt bears heavily down upon many of those who are sensitive. These organisation now make these people believe that absolution can only through the channels prescribed by the organisation. What a humungous scam! What a distortion of the teachings of the truly realised and concerned souls!

Absolution can only come from within. No matter how much another person may say you are absolved, you are not absolved until you truly believe you are. Admitting to the cause of guilt does greatly help with the process of letting go of the guilt. I think a good friend or a psychologist is a much better person to help with the process than a priest.

When Values Become Inhibitions

Societies create values to prop up their current state of equilibrium. This is a symptomatic treatment and normally does not address the underlying issues. The values over time turn into inhibitions, restrictions the society imposes into individuals' subconscious.

These subconscious programmings are so strong that even in relatively progressive societies, people are conditioned by certain values that over time and societal evolution become mere inhibitions. Breaking these inhibitions is a painful process. But once broken, a lot of good emerges. Because breaking them involves addressing some of the fundamental underlying issues. True evolution requires such periodic purges of values as they become inhibitions.

The question is, how can these be made less painful.

Orwell on Sainthood

"No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth, are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid." - George Orwell

A quote from an essay by Orwell on Gandhi. I do not agree with much of what Orwell says in this essay about sainthood. But it is undeniable that Orwell was extremely talented at transforming his thoughts into words. Also, it is these days generally agreed that tobacco is not to be avoided just by saints but by the layman as well. As for alcohol, I think it may be tolerated in moderate quantities.

Orwell has some very interesting points to make about the effectiveness non-violence in the face of brutal suppression.

The 'ism' Does Not Matter

There is no doubt that socialism as an economic model was an abject failure in India and much of the rest of the world. However, there were several social lessons of value that socialism taught which are missing in capitalism.

Runaway capitalism (the cause for which I believe was the hijacking of the system by vested interests) in past few decades in the West has resulted in social inequality and environmental imbalances. Both are issues that can not be solved easily. Let us not discredit the fundamental principles of either Capitalism or Socialism just because there were failures in implementation.

Economics expects the most rational decision in every situation (prisoners' dilemma is an example). In my view, Economics deals with the rational individual and tries to bring about change by external inducements (be they carrots or be they sticks) whereas Socialism tries to bring about change in the individual by appealing to notions such as serving the greater good.

Prisoners' Dilemma says that the attained state of equilibrium (the so called rational decision) is not likely to be the ideal one because there is a lack of trust. Now the question is whether trust can be developed by inculcating the right lessons from an early age. I do not know. But I think it is an experiment worth trying. It is not the kind of change that will happen overnight as certain anarchists demand. The problem is, there are not enough people who understand and appreciate the better aspects of both Capitalism and Socialism.

Extreme positions unfortunately seem to be more in vogue than balanced ones. People unfortunately still are not interested in seeing from different points of view. Economics is a tool. Let us not vilify it or deify it. Let us learn to use it effective for I strongly believe it is one of the best tools available to understand how society works. Capitalism has made more and better use of Economics than have Socialist societies. There is therefore a mistrust of Economics among people who lean towards socialism. I hope people will set aside biases and make a greater effort to learn more about Economics before reaching a conclusion. Economics is not just about measuring GDPs.

The Truth in Apology

"How you have felt, O men of Athens, at hearing the speeches of my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that their persuasive words almost made me forget who I was, such was the effect of them; and yet they have hardly spoken a word of truth. "

This is an excerpt from Socrates' Apology, his defense in court prior to his being sentenced to death. The point I wish to make is that each man, including one who is 'mad', has his own 'truth' and as long as a particular truth doesn't engender violence in any form, it is OK. This is of course open to dialectic.

Socrates also speaks of 'persuasive words'. In this age of information where so many persuasive views on a particular topic are available, it can be difficult to discern the truth from the propaganda. A lot of reading is required.

Paranoiac Critical

It is a technique developed by Salvador Dali to help him paint surrealist images that allow a variety of interpretations.


                                            

In his words, "spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on the critical and systematic objectivity of the associations and interpretations of delirious phenomena."

To me, it is the ability to connect deeply to one's subconscious and allow it to guide expression; or rather allow it to express itself. I am not really sure if it is the former or latter. Perhaps it is a combination of both.

The subconscious is like dark matter. It occupies the major share of our mind and yet is difficult to detect, let alone  make use of.

I think Dali ought to be revered for this alone. For making known to world the power of the subconscious, as I see it, and giving us a way to tap into it.

Thinking

"If reason is the criterion of action, then the mind can never be free to act. Reason, however subtle and logical, is a process of thinking, and thinking is ever influenced, conditioned by personal fancy, by desire, or by an idea, a conclusion, whether imposed or self-induced." - J. Krishnamurthy

In the movie Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee said something similar about fighting. He said "Don't think. FEEEEEEEEL!" He also said, "when there is an opportunity, I do not hit. It hits all by itself."

Krishnamurthy said that he is like a radio that transmits the message and that his ideas did not come out of conscious thought. Were they from a highly evolved sub-conscious?

I think we need our governments and structures to hold things together till everybody or at least a big enough mass has evolved psychologically.

Passion & Revolution

Being passionate about something need not necessarily mean you are right about it. Passion is blinding more often than not.

Bring about a revolution in the hearts and minds first. This will automatically lead to a revolution in the power structures. I would like to start with myself. It is a rather difficult path for it is easy to stray.

"To reflect for one moment, to examine himself for a while and ask what share he has in the world's confusion and wickedness - clearly, nobody wants to do that." - Hermann Hesse

Tapestries of Words

To be able to weave words into tapestries, what a gift to have. On the contrary, 'To be or not to be', such a profound statement and yet the longest word is all of three letters.

The observation on Shakespeare is not mine but Kurt Vonnegut's.

USA Home Loan Bust and Indian Farmer's Suicides - What is the Link?

The underlying principle of both the above is that the variable mortgage / loan interest rates go so high that the victims are unable to repay.

I am not sure what happens when a house owner in USA faces eviction for not being able to pay the rent. The big banks that bought and sold such instruments went bust. The ones that didn't go bust were shored up with public money.

With regard to farmers in India, especially with the onset of genetically modified seeds, a large amount of money is required for sowing since the seeds from the harvested crops can't be reused. Further, take a look at the predatory actions of Monsanto which is now closely associated with DOW chemicals. Monsanto's slogan is to have every crop in the world to be grown using Monsanto's seeds.

It was DOW and Monsanto that created Agent Orange for the Vietnam war.

They are so powerful that even the farmers' lobby in the USA could not get Monsanto not to sue them in case there were even trace amounts of Monsanto crops in a large field. This is absurd. Several times, Monsanto samples crops without the suspicion of the farmer and then when trace amounts of modified DNA is found, they take the farmers to court.

The problem of the small farmers in India is compounded by having to approach unscrupulous money lenders who charge exorbitant exploitative interest rates. India has fourteen agro-climatic zones, for all of which it may not be possible to tailor make seeds. Therefore you see few pockets where the seeds are to some extent successful and others where they are not.

Caught between Monsanto, and the local moneylenders, many farmers have no recourse but suicide. So many of the stories are heart rending. I happened to see some pictures of absolute despair. Of people at the absolute end of their tether.

The relation between the two is the predatory practices employed that affected millions of livelihoods. The greed and impunity with which corporations and money lenders continue to operate is alarming. I am hoping India can contain this virus from spreading too fast.

Predatory lending and marketing strategies can have a catastrophic effect on the society.

The Iceberg Theory

I don't know what bothers me more, the news itself, or the way it is presented.

"A few things I have found to be true. If you leave out important things or events that you know about, the story is strengthened. If you leave or skip something because you do not know it, the story will be worthless. The test of any story is how very good the stuff that you...... omit [is]." - Ernest Hemingway

This is true not only for books but for news stories as well.

Let us take examples of photo journalism. The first example is that of Sharbat Gula, the Afghan girl photographed by Steve McCurry for the cover of National Geographic. Even her name was not known until sometime in the 2000s. But how powerful it was.

The other example that comes to my mind is that of the picture of the starving child in Sudan taken by Kevin Carter.

Not much was written yet they conveyed powerful stories by themselves.

A short story that comes to mind is that of the poor starving man by Anton Chekov who 'steals' a nut from a railway track (The Malefactor), or the story of Anyuta. I have only read some interesting snippets of Anyuta and am looking forward to reading the whole story.
 
Have you heard of the Iceberg Theory? Just as the true depth of an iceberg is understood from the part that sticks visibly above water, the true nature of a story lies in what is omitted, which is brought out by what is presented. Of course, it is imperative that the writer, or in this case, the news presenter knows and understands this part that is left out.

Contrast this with our news presenters who omit the essential for want of information and pad it up with complete nonsense coupled with silly made up faces, wiggling heads and ferociously blinking eyes. Watching news tires me emotionally, not only because of the content but also because of the way it is presented.


Minimalism is the essence of writing for authors such as Hemingway and Chekov. I was discussing my style of blogging with one of my best friends and he told me to add more descriptions and couch my points of focus in the descriptions. But, I think for the present, I am going to experiment with the iceberg theory.

PS: One of my best friends, please forgive me.

Scooters Like Locusts

There are so many scooters on the roads of Saigon that they have two to three separate lanes reserved for them. The scooters all look the same and the there are so may that they resemble swarms of locusts.

I learnt that there is no manufacturing of automotives yet here. There is perhaps an opportunity for scooter service shops to be opened in Vietnam.

I wonder if the concept of having separate lanes for scooters can be extended to India. I wonder how much investment it would take, whether the roads would have to be widened or if the roads are wide enough already.

Traffic rules are obeyed or disobeyed as the case may be just as poorly as they are in India. I found a woman riding her bike clean across the width of the road while traffic was in full flow perpendicular to her direction of motion.

What I have seen of Saigon resembles the better parts of our metros. Not significantly better but better nonetheless.

Unfortunately, facebook doesn't work in Vietnam. There are ways around but I do not feel like taking a chance as there is no pressing need.

My Two Bit on Corruption II

We all know corruption ( definition and basic info on corruption is available here http://www.transparency.org/whoweare/organisation/faqs_on_corruption ) is eating away at our societies, economically, socially and in every other way possible. But why is there not enough research done on tackling it?

One reason I came across is that the government needs to release data for analysis. However it is unable to do so as it would mean that the government officially acknowledges corruption. I am not sure how this works. I am only reporting what I heard. If anybody has greater insights on this, please do share. Another is that it is difficult to measure corruption.

People have compared the wealth of countries with corruption in those countries. This may not be the perfect place to start. Daniel Kaufman of World Bank says that some emerging economies have lesser corruption than some of the wealthy countries. Therefore, while it may be true that corruption causes a decrease in economic performance, the contrary need not necessarily be true.

I wonder if any of the studies have included the Gini index in their analysis. The Gini index gives a measure of the inequality in a society. Higher the measure, greater the inequality. Maybe it is too simplistic, maybe someone has already done it, again, I don't know. I wish I had lots of money so I could just retire and start working on some of my pet projects, one of them being corruption; the causes, and the methods to ameliorate them.

Perhaps one way to deal with corruption is to increase transparency. But what issues will greater transparency kindle and can they be dealt with?

One obvious issue with transparency is the loss of privacy. A consequence of loss of privacy is the rise of a big brother state. Will we be killing a Frankenstein's monster to give birth to another greater one? Can transparency be engendered without a loss of privacy?

Another solution often offered is to remove the currency notes of higher denomination from the economy. But what are the consequences of this? What will be its effect on inflation? If at all it has any.

A view supporting the removal of higher denomination notes is available here ( http://arthakranti.org/analysis/economic-reality/effects-of-taxation-system-and-high-denomination-currency ). A contrary view is given here ( http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-says-ban-highvalue-notes-finmin/989115/ ).

People say China has high levels of corruption. My view, from what I have read, is that the Chinese top brass understand this and are trying to tackle it. People try to wish away the success of China by hoping that it has systemic defects that will cause it to fail. But it is like wishing away the thousand pound gorilla in the room. That though is a different discussion for a different day.


The problem with cocktail party discussions is that everybody comes up with opinions without thinking through the consequences. Any understanding requires some study and deeper levels of discussion.

If anybody of you wants to know more on this subject, an interesting interview of Kaufman is available at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20190295~menuPK:34457~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html .

Again, please feel free to leave behind your views and comments. The more we share, the more we learn.

The Cup Bearer

"The Eternal Saki from the Bowl has pour'd
Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour."

What further reminder need we that existence is fleeting, ephemeral, evanescent? What is a hundred years, the lifetime of a man, in an eternity?  Nashe ke hum bulbule hein. Of this heady existence that we live, we are but bubbles that rise up through intoxication.

Each of us is made from a mould that is not external, but within us. It exists with us and changes with us, rather we change with each change that happens to it. It is passed on at birth, at death. Never broken, ever changing. It is existence; we are only the vessels that enshroud it and shelter it till we create the next vessel and so on. Saki is eternal. We are only the cups that pass him from one to another.


Note: I meant to write something on H. H. Munro and came across the quatrain by Omar Khayyam while looking up on the famous cup bearer after whom Munro adopted his nom de plume, Saki. The above two lines from the quatrain turned my ideas into a completely new direction, which is what you find above. Hope you enjoyed it :). Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thoughts Will Out

When you have something in your mind that wants out, and you find the pen and the paper your friends; an essay or a poem help these thoughts find escape. All the more pleasing when the words are strung together with lyrical sublimity. It has been so long since I last tried my hand at poetry or essay writing, I do not know how good I will be now...


It is best when it is impromptu.

My Two Bit on Corruption

As a friend told me, there are two types of black money, the type that circulates back into the economy and the type that is lost. Corruption has been soaking up money that might have otherwise circulated in the economy. This money, parked in offshore accounts, results in the fattening of the purses of babus, netas and foreign bankers and is lost to our economy; several crores worth of capital that could have led to the start up of thousands of enterprises and the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs.

So much corruption has been unearthed. Yet I believe that it is all for the good. For it was not that corruption on such a scale did not exist before, it is that such corruption is now being brought out into the open and is in the process of being purged.

The Privacy of Thoughts

Imagine a world where thoughts could be read irrespective of whether the victim wanted them read or not. What a horrible shift in the balance of power. Reminds me of the Second Foundation of Isaac Asimov.

Imagine now that thoughts could not only be read but could also be influenced. Would the experimentation begin on animals and the comatose or would it happen on normal people? How would the 'subjects' be selected?

At the beginning, would there be any laws governing how this works or would it be at the arbitrary whim of the inventor? A 'god', a megalomaniac who decides what is right and what is wrong and what punishment to mete out. Imagine some such device in the hands of Mengele or one of his descendants...

So Far

Course work has been mainly number crunching. Even marketing, since we are engineers and our professor specialises in quantitative marketing (Bayesian Econometrics, Pricing, etc.), involves analyses of numbers in large quantities.

Accounting just doesn't make any logical sense until one begins to accept that it is not meant to expalin observable phenomena but to organise as best as possible (read - as best suits the interests) the commercial transactions of firms. Even then some 'concepts' are simply counterintuitive.

One saving grace has been Excel. Before coming here, I never thought I would appreciate anything sold by MS, but Excel so far has been absolutely indispensable. So much so that I would even purchase MS Office for it.

Durham is a crime ridden ghettoed hick town. Entertainment is therefore largely restricted to on campus activities and neighbouring towns. Thankfully, Duke provides high quality entertainment and cultural experiences. Over the course of my stay, I have seen basket ball matches between the US and Australian womens' teams, a performance of Cats, performances by famous classical musicians from Iran and Turkey, various orchestras apart from other events. More Broadway shows including The Great Game and The Man from La Mancha set to hit the campus. One great thing about education in USA is the abundance of free food, free T-shirts and free booze. Roti, kapda aur sharab.

Last week, the Chinese ambassador gave a speech in what is normally our classroom. He essentially conveyed that China is in no hurry to fully deregulate its exchange rate, that USA should stop crying about it and take concrete steps to up its economy instead. He suggested USA might decrease its trade deficit (deficit is simply inadequate to describe the situation) by selling more products that China is looking to import (read - restricted arms and other sensitive high tech equipment). When questioned about IP issues, he frankly admitted this was a problem and that they trying to tackle it. He also told USA in no uncertain terms to keep off Taiwan. Contrasted to the spinelessness of Indian politicians and bereaucrats, the Chinese approach is refreshing and admirable. I wonder if Microsoft's review of its China policy might be a consequence of this speech, farfetched perhaps.

Last month, the Indian ambassador, Mr. Ronen Sen visited Duke. The visit was rather short and low key, no speeches, only a few words for us, mainly on the emerging co-operation in space technology.

Potomac, Squirrels and Drinking Fountains

I used to associate all of USA with the foreign policy of its government and the present coterie in power. It is only on coming here that I realise there is so much more.

Walking between the Potomac and the C&O Canal early in the morning, one can see some of the most breathtaking scenery. The Potomac gushes down the Piedmont, foaming and raging at places, while the C&O flows at a more sedate pace, still as a pond at places, controlled by the various locks that were used for navigation of barges. It is difficult to believe that they are separated only by a few meters or that the canal, in that area, flows thro' the bed originally cut and occupied by the river itself during the last ice age. The vast virgin (hopefully) woods around these two channels are extremely beautiful, comparable even, to some of the lower reaches of the Himalayas.

Walking around the university campus is a very pleasurable experience. I have never seen squirrels so big or so alert and mischievous. A friend tells me that even pigeons here are very bold, that in New York, you would have to come close to stepping on one for it to merely hop away!

So far, most people here have been friendly as well. They are mostly polite and happy to help out. My only grouse is that their accent is very American (Texan), rather grating on the ears.

Am I actually beginning to like this godforsaken country? Oh the horror!!! :)

On a different note, the drinking fountains here are absolutely fascinating. Water jets out of a spout and people bend down to drink from it. Quite a waste of water tho'; since they use so much paper here, I wonder why they don't provide paper cups.

The Supreme Artist

I wondered how it would be if air could be sculpted, only to realise that it is indeed possible and is nothing but music. Water and Air, in the form of a babbling brook or waves at night time are tools used by nature to sculpt air.

Nature was the first composer. And what wonderful peace the music of nature provides. Even the greatest of composers looked to nature for inspiration. We are lucky that we are in an age where we can record and reproduce music, but how much have we missed?

I don't know if flowing water can be sculpted, but it does a lot of sculpting, and that, with timeless patience. The feel and look of a cool smooth pebble, the majesty of a canyon, the latter looking as if it were chiseled and the former as if it were polished. What more needs to be said?  

If lightning were a chisel and thunder the hammer, the sky must certainly be the sculptor. After completing his work, he rejoices by wearing a rainbow as a garb; a rainbow woven of sunbeams on the loom of the atmosphere.

Tag

I had braces fixed to my teeth and was painfully trying to eat some cream biscuits. On hearing me opening the packet, my dachshund came running started begging with mournful eyes. Relenting after a while, I shared the halves without the cream. We finished half the pack before the pain returned.