I recently had a conversation with Radha - a girl who's all of eighteen years old but has more sense in her head than a lot of people I know several times her age. We were talking about astrology, and whether it really is possible to predict things about people by asking the stars.
We started out by agreeing on the fact that most astrological predictions are vague enough that more than 50% of any predictions you hear will definitely be true for anybody. I mean, if someone tells you that you have a good sense of humour, and that you are a frank and straightforward person, that description fits what 70% of the people in this town think about themselves.
So, how do you know if Astrology really works? Even the best astrologers will accept that they could be wrong 10% of the time. Hence we settled on the entente that Western Astrology has a lot less stuff than Indian Astrology, and makes more general predictions, and is hence not worth talking about. But, being two people who don't believe in Astrology per se but are willing to shed our speculation if only someone could make some real predictions, we started talking about Indian Astrology and the connections with religion, traditions, and astronomy.
I'm not going into that conversation now, but I must submit that there are a lot of things that are very intriguing about Indian Astrology, so one can't simply dismiss it as nonsense. As a kid I was really interested in astrology, palmistry, numerology, the works.... until one stoooopid astrologer told my Mom that I was a "slow" student compared to my brother. I laughed my head off. My brother scored some 86% in his 10th boards, whereas I had 94.2%. And now, I am in IIT, while my bro was advised to stop attending IIT coaching classes after 11th as it would affect his preparation for the boards, and he had no chance of getting into IIT anyway. I'm not bragging. I'm just saying that the astrologer was SO absolutely wrong. Ultimately, I told myself, just because there are correlations between some things in this universe some of the time or even most of the time, that doesn't mean that the two things are related. Did you know that the Brazilian Stock Exchange index shot up every time there was a development in the Monica Lewinsky case?
But I realized later that I've been a bit narrow minded. I used to think how silly it was that people believed (once upon a time) that Solar Eclipses are caused when Rahu swallows the Sun. Later I learnt that Rahu is a point in space where the moon's orbit intersects the line joining the Earth and the Sun. Of course the intellectuals would have told some simplified version to satisfy the common folk. As people of science, we must learnt to sift through the nonsense and find the truth. The more I think about the so-called silly things that our Grandparents tell us, the more I feel that there are genuine reasons behind them. Hence if there were such brilliant people that long ago who studied the heavens and human behaviour in such depth, perhaps they were right... and we are yet to realize it.
Indian Astrology only talks about influences that the positions of the stars and planets have on our lives; they do not predict events. I scoff at the fatalistic people who say that their life is the way it is because that is what is written on their foreheads. But I can most certainly give room to the consideration that the heavens could influence the events on earth. Though one part of my mind tells me that it's only in computer simulations that I take stuff like map coordinates as the seed for initiating random events; this is life, not a computer simulation. Or are we really living in the matrix? Hehe.
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Trust Yourself
For all my talk about trusting other people, I feel it is all secondary as compared to trusting yourself. You must have, at some point of time, felt that you have been wasting too much time doing unnecessary things when there is inportant work to be done; or that your recent actions have defined you a bad human being; or that you are a complete loser in life. But the very fact that you are thinking it means that you are not.
If you are the kind of person who feels bad about not doing your work when you should, my bet is on the fact that the work is either not really important or you don't have to do it immediately. The truly careless people simply don't give a damn. If it bothers you that you are wasting your time, I'm pretty sure that you will come through at the critical phase. I'm not trying to say that you should rest easy knowing that things will work out just because you have realized that you are wasting your time when you shouldn't... rather, I'm saying that you should keep your calm at the time when you do start working, for it has a very deep impact on the quality of your work. If you ever took the trouble to speak to your mother on the days when the food at home tasted terrible, you're sure to find out that something was bothering her! Keep your head, and you will both finish your work and do it well.
If you've ever felt that you are a terrible person, don't worry.The really terrible people won't know that they are. Sometimes one needs to be a little harsh in order to do the right thing. God only knows how many times I've been brutally frank with my friends in order to help them realize their faults and change. It's strange shortcoming of all people - we tend to have our blinkers on until someone points out some things to us. And then there's anger, disbelief and indignation, followed (hopefully!) by a state of introspection and then the truth hits home.
Feel like you're a total loser? Relax. You've got company. But seriously, stop feeling bad. Nice guys really have a hard time in this world until they gain self-confidence. All you need is to learn how to make an impact on the people around you. Once people realize you exist, they will start listening to you, and automatically, everything in your life will miraculously look different. It's as though the tinted glasses were removed. I've seen this happen with many people. The second aspect of this is... (clearing throat) Kaizen. That's the Japanese word for constant improvement. Keep asking other people and yourself, what am I doing wrong? How can I improve? And sure enough, asking the right question usually results in you realizing that you already know the answer.
Why am I giving all these pep-talk kind of lectures in my blog? Yech. God, please cheer up my friends so that I can get out of this stop-worrying-guys-cheer-up-the-world-is-a-nice-place mode!
Cheers (and I guess I really mean it this time),
Prashanth.
If you are the kind of person who feels bad about not doing your work when you should, my bet is on the fact that the work is either not really important or you don't have to do it immediately. The truly careless people simply don't give a damn. If it bothers you that you are wasting your time, I'm pretty sure that you will come through at the critical phase. I'm not trying to say that you should rest easy knowing that things will work out just because you have realized that you are wasting your time when you shouldn't... rather, I'm saying that you should keep your calm at the time when you do start working, for it has a very deep impact on the quality of your work. If you ever took the trouble to speak to your mother on the days when the food at home tasted terrible, you're sure to find out that something was bothering her! Keep your head, and you will both finish your work and do it well.
If you've ever felt that you are a terrible person, don't worry.The really terrible people won't know that they are. Sometimes one needs to be a little harsh in order to do the right thing. God only knows how many times I've been brutally frank with my friends in order to help them realize their faults and change. It's strange shortcoming of all people - we tend to have our blinkers on until someone points out some things to us. And then there's anger, disbelief and indignation, followed (hopefully!) by a state of introspection and then the truth hits home.
Feel like you're a total loser? Relax. You've got company. But seriously, stop feeling bad. Nice guys really have a hard time in this world until they gain self-confidence. All you need is to learn how to make an impact on the people around you. Once people realize you exist, they will start listening to you, and automatically, everything in your life will miraculously look different. It's as though the tinted glasses were removed. I've seen this happen with many people. The second aspect of this is... (clearing throat) Kaizen. That's the Japanese word for constant improvement. Keep asking other people and yourself, what am I doing wrong? How can I improve? And sure enough, asking the right question usually results in you realizing that you already know the answer.
Why am I giving all these pep-talk kind of lectures in my blog? Yech. God, please cheer up my friends so that I can get out of this stop-worrying-guys-cheer-up-the-world-is-a-nice-place mode!
Cheers (and I guess I really mean it this time),
Prashanth.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
"... and you may yet restore my faith in humanity..."
(if you can identify from where I borrowed that line, you're my new best friend)
It seems like a strange coincidence that the people around me are all going through a stage of personal turmoil. Ultimately I feel that I can place all their troubles into two categories: (1) Losing faith in humanity (2) Losing faith in oneself.
A friend of mine.... no, wait, a friend of mine told me not to..... aaaaaaaaargh, there I go again..... Okay, Ravikanth told me that I say "a friend of mine" too often in my blogs, so I've decided to use names except in cases where I feel it inappropriate. So, well, Maalika was telling me about people writing nasty comments on the doodle board on her blog, and even impersonating herself and her friends on it. I know she was depressed. It is understandable. But there are sick people in the world out there. And if you let them get you down, you're letting them win. Feeling down because a friend was not there for you when you needed him is one thing, but letting a bunch of jobless misguided indecent misanthropes affect you is unacceptable.
What are the things you derive happiness from? The company of your close friends. Perhaps reading a good book. Perhaps listening to the music you love. And to people like us - the blogging community - writing. Simply penning down one's thoughts gives an inexplicable sense of satisfaction. My point is: something that can't give you happiness shouldn't make you feel sad. If your friend hurts you, or if you fail in some task you badly wanted to achieve.... things like that can get you down. Don't let the small things bug you.
But there's more to it than that. For every person I despise, there are a hundred that I admire. For every thing I hate, there are a thousand I love. The world is full of wonderful people... people who are kind, caring, compassionate, funny and helpful. Make them your friends and share your happiness with them. It is important that you trust, for trusting is an act that can bring the rich reward of friendship. If your trust is betrayed, you may lose a little, but that pales in comparison to what you stand to gain.
Have some faith in humanity. The good people you know will always outnumber the bad several fold, because they are the ones who stay with you.
As for losing faith in oneself... that's a topic for another day...
Cheers,
Prashanth.
It seems like a strange coincidence that the people around me are all going through a stage of personal turmoil. Ultimately I feel that I can place all their troubles into two categories: (1) Losing faith in humanity (2) Losing faith in oneself.
A friend of mine.... no, wait, a friend of mine told me not to..... aaaaaaaaargh, there I go again..... Okay, Ravikanth told me that I say "a friend of mine" too often in my blogs, so I've decided to use names except in cases where I feel it inappropriate. So, well, Maalika was telling me about people writing nasty comments on the doodle board on her blog, and even impersonating herself and her friends on it. I know she was depressed. It is understandable. But there are sick people in the world out there. And if you let them get you down, you're letting them win. Feeling down because a friend was not there for you when you needed him is one thing, but letting a bunch of jobless misguided indecent misanthropes affect you is unacceptable.
What are the things you derive happiness from? The company of your close friends. Perhaps reading a good book. Perhaps listening to the music you love. And to people like us - the blogging community - writing. Simply penning down one's thoughts gives an inexplicable sense of satisfaction. My point is: something that can't give you happiness shouldn't make you feel sad. If your friend hurts you, or if you fail in some task you badly wanted to achieve.... things like that can get you down. Don't let the small things bug you.
But there's more to it than that. For every person I despise, there are a hundred that I admire. For every thing I hate, there are a thousand I love. The world is full of wonderful people... people who are kind, caring, compassionate, funny and helpful. Make them your friends and share your happiness with them. It is important that you trust, for trusting is an act that can bring the rich reward of friendship. If your trust is betrayed, you may lose a little, but that pales in comparison to what you stand to gain.
Have some faith in humanity. The good people you know will always outnumber the bad several fold, because they are the ones who stay with you.
As for losing faith in oneself... that's a topic for another day...
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Friday, February 04, 2005
Art is Symbolism
Someone mentioned to me recently that he thought the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was total nonsense. I really didn't know how to respond. I mean, how do you explain that the director knows that everybody knows that people can't fly from tree to tree and a light sword cannot cut a thick bronze spear, but he's put it in anyway to symbolize some things, to a guy who's been brought up on a regular diet of Hollywood action flicks?
You can't really put the movie into any category. The only way in which I could describe the movie is that it's art. The same goes for another chinese movie, called 'The Hero'. I thought it was a really beautiful movie, but one of my friends walked out within fifteen minutes of watching it!
That set me thinking. I just intuitively classified something as art. Does that mean that there are some common characteristics to all art? I don't mean Oscar Wilde's statement "All art is useless". Well, that's also true, but there's got to be more to it! So that brought me back to one word: symbolism. Everything from paintings to sculptures to glass blowing that we bring under the category of art, has something to do with representing things in an abstract way... in our own way. That is why art cannot be spoken of without a connection to the artist.
I remember making a speech in class when I was a kid. I was talking about cooking... and I ended the speech with, "Cooking is more than a science; it is an art." I don't think I knew then how much I said in just that one sentence. In those ten words I said that the cook captures moods and settings in what he cooks; he even puts his stamp as a creative artist by the way in which he combines the ingredients to produce that effect.
Symbolism that draws the observer into a different world... only when you get sucked into that world can you appreciate art.
Cheers,
Prashanth.
You can't really put the movie into any category. The only way in which I could describe the movie is that it's art. The same goes for another chinese movie, called 'The Hero'. I thought it was a really beautiful movie, but one of my friends walked out within fifteen minutes of watching it!
That set me thinking. I just intuitively classified something as art. Does that mean that there are some common characteristics to all art? I don't mean Oscar Wilde's statement "All art is useless". Well, that's also true, but there's got to be more to it! So that brought me back to one word: symbolism. Everything from paintings to sculptures to glass blowing that we bring under the category of art, has something to do with representing things in an abstract way... in our own way. That is why art cannot be spoken of without a connection to the artist.
I remember making a speech in class when I was a kid. I was talking about cooking... and I ended the speech with, "Cooking is more than a science; it is an art." I don't think I knew then how much I said in just that one sentence. In those ten words I said that the cook captures moods and settings in what he cooks; he even puts his stamp as a creative artist by the way in which he combines the ingredients to produce that effect.
Symbolism that draws the observer into a different world... only when you get sucked into that world can you appreciate art.
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Lemmings to the Sea
I read about this in a book of strange facts when I was still a kid of about ten years, so I apologize in advance if I got the specifics wrong. Lemmings are cute little furry animals that live in underground warrens. In one particular town, every year or so they commit genocide by rushing over the cliff in large numbers and drowning in the sea.
Nobody could explain their behaviour. People thought that it's a traditional mass migration that got screwed up by geographical changes. In any case, the phrase "like lemmings to the sea" has come to represent mindless group behaviour, no matter how harmful.
As I mentioned in my previous blog, there's this friend of mine who associates this kind of "going with the crowd" behaviour without having a carefully thought out plan for yourself as plain stupid. In a way it makes sense, but when you delineate all people in the world into "the masses" and "the rest - the smart ones" it seems extremely insular.
The thinking is something like this: the really intelligent people in the world - the people who matter - the people who ought to be in an Ayn Rand-ian new world - share some common traits. They have their own opinions and do not conform to what other people tell them, but are capable of judging things for themselves. They develop individuality. They have refined tastes, goals in life, and the initiative to make it happen. These things are nothing but different facets of a good mind, and such people are the ones who rise above mediocrity.
Oh, by the way, the thoughts expressed in the last paragraph are neither things I believe in nor the things that this friend of mine said... just think of it as a theory.... food for thought. I personally disagree with most of it.
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Nobody could explain their behaviour. People thought that it's a traditional mass migration that got screwed up by geographical changes. In any case, the phrase "like lemmings to the sea" has come to represent mindless group behaviour, no matter how harmful.
As I mentioned in my previous blog, there's this friend of mine who associates this kind of "going with the crowd" behaviour without having a carefully thought out plan for yourself as plain stupid. In a way it makes sense, but when you delineate all people in the world into "the masses" and "the rest - the smart ones" it seems extremely insular.
The thinking is something like this: the really intelligent people in the world - the people who matter - the people who ought to be in an Ayn Rand-ian new world - share some common traits. They have their own opinions and do not conform to what other people tell them, but are capable of judging things for themselves. They develop individuality. They have refined tastes, goals in life, and the initiative to make it happen. These things are nothing but different facets of a good mind, and such people are the ones who rise above mediocrity.
Oh, by the way, the thoughts expressed in the last paragraph are neither things I believe in nor the things that this friend of mine said... just think of it as a theory.... food for thought. I personally disagree with most of it.
Cheers,
Prashanth.
Is diversity in taste a contradiction in terms?
I had an interesting conversation with my cousin's wife the other day. I was talking about how I've noticed that many people I know listen to songs of different genres just because that song is supposed to be famous. They don't develop specific tastes, and listen to any song that is deemed popular by the media - or so I believe.
She agreed, and ventured to add that some types of music are so different that it's near blasphemy to say you like them both, for example, hip-hop and contemporary rock.
I was just trying to make the point that people should develop their own taste and try to find artists similar to the ones they like, or at least of the same genre, rather than listen to everything and never truly come to appreciate anything (more on that later...). But her point set me thinking on a different tack. Is it really not possible for someone to appreciate music from different ends of the spectrum? Can't say I agree. I listen to rock as well as western classical, and even celtic instrumentals like Corrs and Riverdance. My friend thinks it's funny that I have Corrs and Creed on the same playlist. All I can think is, there's a dish called fried ice cream, and my mom (who's a reputed culinary expert, by the way) says it's pretty good. Why not the same with music? I'm not going as far as saying S&M is brilliant, I'm just saying one can appreciate Metallica and San Francisco Philharmonic separately.
Which brings me back to another point... is it fair to think that someone doesn't have good taste just because there is no particular type of music he likes? I think yes. Without depth, you're nothing more than a dabbler. I would have more respect for a guy with a PhD than a guy with 4 MS degrees. I appreciate the fine points of the rock music I listen to, more so because I've heard all related genres from classic rock to metal to rap-rock. I just wouldn't have a discussion on any kind of music with a person who likes every kind of music. I might even think that such a person is not interested in music at all, but just pretends to because he thinks it's cool to listen to music.
Another of my friends tends to equate lack of indivuality with mediocrity... that's a very interesting topic to discuss... I intend to pen my thoughts on that on the next blog...
Cheers,
Prashanth.
She agreed, and ventured to add that some types of music are so different that it's near blasphemy to say you like them both, for example, hip-hop and contemporary rock.
I was just trying to make the point that people should develop their own taste and try to find artists similar to the ones they like, or at least of the same genre, rather than listen to everything and never truly come to appreciate anything (more on that later...). But her point set me thinking on a different tack. Is it really not possible for someone to appreciate music from different ends of the spectrum? Can't say I agree. I listen to rock as well as western classical, and even celtic instrumentals like Corrs and Riverdance. My friend thinks it's funny that I have Corrs and Creed on the same playlist. All I can think is, there's a dish called fried ice cream, and my mom (who's a reputed culinary expert, by the way) says it's pretty good. Why not the same with music? I'm not going as far as saying S&M is brilliant, I'm just saying one can appreciate Metallica and San Francisco Philharmonic separately.
Which brings me back to another point... is it fair to think that someone doesn't have good taste just because there is no particular type of music he likes? I think yes. Without depth, you're nothing more than a dabbler. I would have more respect for a guy with a PhD than a guy with 4 MS degrees. I appreciate the fine points of the rock music I listen to, more so because I've heard all related genres from classic rock to metal to rap-rock. I just wouldn't have a discussion on any kind of music with a person who likes every kind of music. I might even think that such a person is not interested in music at all, but just pretends to because he thinks it's cool to listen to music.
Another of my friends tends to equate lack of indivuality with mediocrity... that's a very interesting topic to discuss... I intend to pen my thoughts on that on the next blog...
Cheers,
Prashanth.
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