Till The Mind is Free and without Fear

I hardly remember anything from my pre-'five year old' childhood. Why? The answer strikes me like a bolt from the blue - because then, my thoughts were only of the immediate 'present'.The deeper future and past were simply non-conceivable! With language, come thoughts, and abstractions.

 I tried this simple experiment recently. I focussed on what I was 'thinking'. I then tried thinking about the 'thinking I was doing'. I further tried thinking about the 'thinking about the thinking I was doing'. That's it, I could proceed no further. Though theoretically 'infinite regression', should be possible, our mind cannot handle more than a few layers at a time.

I sometimes wonder, had humans not been gifted with the ability to form words- and thus language- would our thoughts, be as sophisticated as they seem today. I don't think so. Strictly from the evolutionary angle, too much of thinking may not be conducive to our well being as a species. Off course, longevity of a species, defining it's success, may in itself be disputable.

Most of our conscious actions emanate from thoughts. Generations have gone by in trying to shape thoughts, that would lead to actions which were in our best interest. Unfortunately, reining in destructive thoughts, is well nigh impossible. And if it is so, 'thought policing' and 'thought surveillance', which will certainly be possible in the not too distant a future, be the solution? As compared to the Orwelian '1984' thought policing, what technology can do today is indeed very frighting , I tremble to even think of such a possibility. During these, troubled uncertain times, no one seems even to discuss, our right to privacy. Even giants like 'RIM', the owners of the ubiquitous 'Blackberry' brand may have to cave in.

Come what may, I, for one, would like to live, only and only, as long as, as Tagore says, the "Mind is without fear, and the Head is held high".
  
  

Rhyming Problem!

Our cousin gifted us a Cocker Spaniel female. Like all pups, she so endeared herself to all of us that for some time she was the only topic of discussion in the family. Manisng, my son promptly named her, Lizza. (For some strange reason, it is customary, to give English names to cats and dogs in our family, we have a German Shepard named 'Tyson', and a couple of mixed breeds named 'Jockey' and 'Lion' ).

Though we have always owned many different breeds of dogs, this is the first time we have got a Cocker Spaniel. Our parents, as part of proper grooming, had taught us to rinse our mouths after every meal, but now we realised for Cocker Spaniels, this was not enough!, their ears too need washing after every meal, as the poor animals just cannot help dipping them into the food while eating.

A few days later, we brought home Lizza's sibling, as both of them were lonely without each other. I named her "Daisy"- and there began a rhyming problem!. The two are always together, and they need to be addressed simultaneously. They were either called "Lazy-Daisy", or "Lizzy-Dizzy". Now with her tremendous verve and energy, Lizzy was certainly not lazy, and neither did Daisy show any signs of  dizziness.

Our staff, who, did not like the English names anyway, promptly changed them, to  "Champi-Dampi", to be immediately admonished by my  better half, Varsha. She felt it sacrilege to change a name so lovingly given by her son and hubby.
Any suggestions here?

Leaving The Comfort Zone

With ancient civilizations such as our's, the common refrain is that things hardly change. We are so comfortable with the old order that ushering in the new, is fraught with a sense, of not just fear of the unknown, but guilt of having destroyed the old.
Old ideas, which we tenaciously hold, are the root cause of much of the strife and pain around us. These may be about God and Creation,or about Caste, or for that matter the Mores and Traditions, about which we are extremely possessive and proud. I feel that the problem lies in the fact that we are in a transitory phase. On the one hand technology has progressed by leaps and bounds, and on the other, humans still are found to be adhering to age old thinking. I, feel that this is a glaring failure of our education system, that in-spite of centuries of enlightened thinking, majority of the people still cannot grasp, the simple truths, that science has made available and proved beyond doubt. The difficult part is convincing the majority, who have been brainwashed, since childhood, to believe in certain ideas, and no amount of proofs, to the contrary, can dent their beliefs.
I feel the time has come when we need to overhaul our entire "belief systems", be they about our attitudes towards fellow humans, fellow living beings, or for that matter towards the entire animate and inanimate universe.
Change is indeed difficult to accept, but as the protagonist says in Dr. Johnson's famous book 'Who moved my cheese', "When you change what you believe, you change what you do!"
In a lighter vein, I made a small beginning in accepting change today! I always believed that only a certain barber knew how to cut my hair, and I had diligently stuck with him for all of Thirty Five years. I had to go for a new one as my old trusted one had become old and infirm, and to my surprise, the new one certainly did a great job.
After all, Change is not always for the worse!
    

Mhaisal Birds III

Some More Birds from Mhaisal

Opportunities Galore

I was once called to deliver a lecture on 'Entrepreneurship'. I had been thinking, on my way, as to how to open the topic, to a largely undergraduate audience, who had no inkling, as to where that 'brilliant' and 'viable' seed of an idea for a successful enterprise could come from. I, was suddenly struck by a scene, elucidation of which would indeed fit the bill, for a good opening.

This scene I had seen a thousand times, but the brilliance of the idea had never occurred to me.

A lone woman with a heap of grass near her, had tied a cow to a nearby tree. Care was taken that the cow could not reach the grass heap on her own. Passers-by would buy grass from the woman and feed the cow.
Wow, what an idea! one, the cow belonged to the woman, with all the benefits, like milk or progeny, the cow delivered, accruing to her, and, she was actually getting paid for allowing people to feed her. Two, she had bought the grass cheap on wholesale, and was selling it dear on retail, obviously making a handsome profit. Isn't this what entrepreneurship is all about?
I, then narrated the wonderful story, written by Somerset Maugham, about a  Church Verger dismissed from work, for being illiterate, finding a new calling in life which takes him to dizzy heights.
There are everywhere, opportunities galore, one just has to keep one's senses wide open, when one would realise that every challenge is indeed a hidden opportunity.

Have You Stopped?

Many years ago, an advertisement used to run on TV, a very successful man in the back seat of his new chauffeur driven car (I think it was a HM "Contessa") is stalled on a country road, as a shepherd boy with his herd just cannot get the sheep to clear the way. The chauffeur is forced to stop the majestic car, the man just rolls down the window glass and smiles at the boy benignly. How many times have we done this? Our usual reaction is to rant and fume. We all hate being stalled.

Time we all know is one of the most valuable resources, unfortunately, our understanding of it's flow is rather patchy. Hence, when a value is to be attached to it, it is purely a subjective exercise.

One wonders, why time flies, under some circumstances, and at others, seems not to move at all? Einstein, while explaining the theory of relativity, has given some very interesting examples of the subjectivity of time. He has been quoted to have said, "Put Your Hand on a Hot Stove for a Minute, and It Seems like an Hour. Sit with a Pretty Girl for an Hour, and It Seems like a Minute. THAT'S Relativity".

Most of us have seen patients wired to an oscilloscope. The running cardiogram on the oscilloscope screen, with its interesting patterns, repeating over and over again assure us a beating heart, but in the unfortunate circumstance of the demise of the patient, there is nothing but a straight line seen on the phosphor screen. The question is, has Time stopped for the deceased? The wave form, we all know is generated by the superimposition of the pulses from the probes, on a time line generated by the machine. Then isn't it true that what really gives meaning to the time line, is not just it's elapse, but the pulse that is being imposed on it?
Let us make the most of this non renewable resource, by stretching it, in such a way that gives us the most happiness.
Most of us work hard, so that, we have the means to bring happiness to ourselves and our dear ones. We need to know the "Stops" in this journey, so that we enjoy the fruits of our toils.

Ask yourself,

Have you ever stopped, to watch the Sunset on your way back home?

Have you ever stopped, to pat that stray dog, who came to you with a wagging tail?
Have you ever stopped, to gaze at the night sky and wonder at our insignificance?
Have you ever stopped boarding a train, just to watch, the busy people on the platform?
Lastly,
Have you ever stopped, to recite "The Daffodils", to your little one?
If you haven't! Do Do Stop Awhile.