Doodling For the Spring

Armed with the pen and highlighter while at the office desk, I dream of spring. Clear sky, green meadows with trees blooming with flowers while a little bird approaches the fresh flowers enthusiastically and cautiously.

We love spring as every living entity in this world are happy and full of life. Hibernating animals wake up or return from warmer climates and often with newborns – The ultimate sign of life.

The world today is going through difficult times. It’s so severe that we need to look high and low for one good news in our daily newspapers. Understandably life for some is tougher than others and even the toughs’ stumbles as they keep going.

As we eagerly wait for the advent of spring, I believe it is our responsibility to instill good values in our children for them to confront such challenges in the future.

Change, we need to understand essentially happens only when we are part of that change. Teach them to adjust the sails when the direction of the wind changes. And if situation demands, lowers the sails while the storms weathers away.

If we want our children to be polite and have discipline, we better live by example. Preaching something that we do not practice will be of little value.

The earth revolves continuously while remember to rotate along its own axis making certain that every side gets a fair share of the sun. The earth can continue its generosity without even pausing for a New Year celebration. But we are mere mortals and we need punctuation to be able to recoup and regroup.

The New Year’s Day is a perfect opportunity to pause and make a fresh start. A new chapter to be written, new questions to be asked, new relations to be made, new dreams to be realized.

Let’s dream for a new future and this time let’s do it with a pen in hand.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’ 

Rite of Passage

 

Today is Mahalaya, a very auspicious for people who follow the Hindu way of life and philosophy. The Pitru Pakhsha, whose literal translation from Sanskrit means “fortnight of the ancestors” ends on this day and is marked as a day when men perform a rite called “tarpan”. I remember from my childhood when offerings were made to our deceased ancestors by my father. I always interpreted this as an opportunity to remember and express our gratitude to those who have left this world.

I, not having a lot of trust on purity of the Ganges and faith on the mantras chanted by today’s priests, prefer to remember my father in solitude…..within the confine of my home……..inside me. I do not believe much in the pomp & show and would love to stick to the basics in most occasions but there are many who would beg to differ!!

Extravagant celebrations when children are born, their birthdays and weddings are not uncommon these days but the new motto of life for many seems to be “live lavishly, go out extravagantly”. 

Many among the rich, powerful and famous are considering the “rite of passage” as the final opportunity to flaunt their immense wealth. Their rite of passage are competing with weddings and birthdays. People are opting for gold plated coffins, Rolls-Royce hearses and at times flying guests to exotic locales for destination funerals.

This article might shake your foundation while giving a new meaning for life and maybe a new goal for Death….

A Message From A Setting Sun

It would be nice to be at a sunset point while the day ends but beauty they say is in the eyes of the beholder. We do not always have to look high and low to find something beautiful, we just need to look around.

This is exactly what happened to me this week as I was driving home from work, thinking about the Durga Pujo in the land of six seasons. All of a sudden it appeared as if the day was cracking opening like an egg and the yolk melting all around me. 

I moved beyond the hard shoulder of the road to stop the car. Then took a deep breath, rolled down the window and armed myself with the phone camera. It’s almost impossible not to dream watching such scene.

How many of us could end a routine activity with so much love and intensity knowing with certainty that the entire drill has to be repeated the next day and the next….

No accomplishment is not worth celebrating!!!

Surya Namaskar - An Holistic Approach

It was a great experience to stand in front of this installation named “Surya Namaskara” at “Terminal 3 Indira Gandhi International Airport”, New Delhi, India. 

The human figures have been created by Sculptor/Artist by the name of Nikhil Bhandari and was installed in 2011. These are 12 individual human figures which have been sculpted to represent 12 yoga poses which collectively depict the Surya Namaskar or the Sun Salutation. The spiral base of the installation provides the most apt transition to the reach the climax. 

Each pose is the culmination of an asanas and when done early in the morning along with the recitation of the correct chant gives a perfect workout for the entire body.

The airport might not be the place to practice these asanas but without any doubt an appropriate place for showcasing our ancient tradition and instill a thirst to know more about it. Let’s start our day with humility saluting the mighty power that makes our entire world revolve around it.

Simply put, why not pick up some knowledge on the go, particularly as it has the potential to unleash holistic improvement for our body & soul….. Pagan or not pagan.

Forgive but Please Forget

Our time is limited and is not worth wasting it living a life filled with hate for others, is something that I remind myself once in a while. The above principle, if one wishes, could be the pathfinder for living a life free from hatred.
Is it easy? Most certainly not!

Interestingly! Once we acknowledge the truth in the saying “to err is human”, we will be in a much better position while navigating through the maze of daily challenges.

It’s never too late to start owning up one’s mistake and seek forgiveness knowing that this is not a characteristic of a weak person and on the contrary it’s the trait of a Brave-heart. Maybe apologizing will be a good start.

The difficulty however arises when we are confronted with a situation where others hurt us or try to harm us.  Surprisingly, the answer to this is quite simple.

Forgive and Forget.

Is it easy? Most certainly not, but I do believe that practice makes a person perfect over a time.
Yes! It’s important to forget in order to keep our nasty EGO at bay and ensure it will not raise its dirty head in self-glorification.

I keep no account when, whom or if I had forgiven anyone and therefore I do not have a story to narrate. You may ask if I am I a saint. I am not a saint and as a matter of fact not insane either! I practice this during my day to day existence wherever I am.

The most common place for irritating others or getting irate with others is the roads. It’s not only me if I am to trust a report in Psychology Today from 2016. A survey found out that 78 percent of participating drivers engaged in at least one kind of aggressive driving behavior in the previous year…..and that lead to substantial loss of property. The findings could be found here.

I am happy that I have succeeded in liberating myself from reacting to external stimuli.

People everywhere travel carrying along their baggage of frustration, hate and what not, which in my understanding is nothing but pure garbage. Navigating unscathed from such garbage thrown out by other people is the art of living. The realization that we can’t control someone else’s actions, while being in full control of ours is the key takeaway of this art. When someone acts oddly, I remind myself that the person is just bad at handling stress.

When the situation becomes a bit unbearable, I there is one rule to follow:  save it for later. There will always be someone with whom we can talk to later on to vent out our frustration about the situation. 

It’s even better if we are able to talk to our inner self to calm our mind and by doing that we will no longer require an external element to find our own peace.
We are then able to celebrate our liberation every moment of our existence.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’ 

The Blue Envelope

Parties are not always associated with introvert people but Ron is somewhat different.  Although he finds himself tongue tied amidst strangers, deep inside he is a highly extrovert person. In the world within his mind things are different. Whenever he runs into someone in his thoughts, he controls the imaginary conversation that ensues. He chooses the dialogues for both and usually the other person appreciates his ideas so much that his ego soars like a hot air balloon.

When it comes to the real world he is not too confident that he will get similar response. That fear has made him keep to himself and sometimes fumble with words in front of others.

His wife Ana is quite a different character. She could befriend a stranger within moments and adjectives like vibrant, bubbly, vivacious, ebullient, lively etc wouldn’t do enough justice to describe her personality.

They met in a conference many years back where was presenting her research on “the contribution of introverts to the field of creativity”. She spotted the handsome young Ron shying away from all the networking that was going on.  Ana was moving among the crowd during with all her grace and elegance. While she had most of the people vying for her company, she felt a natural attraction towards him.  

It took her only a while to get the quiet Ron talking and before they could realize they began to see one another. At the start of their relationship Ron thought she was just another time burglar and he would be better off in his own world, he eventually fell for her.

“I deal with introverts for a living. So when I see one I know one” she once told during a candid discussion in a party. The weekend parties were then a weekly ritual and hosting it at their house once in a while was a celebration. Ron was nervous at the beginning but Ana’s managerial skills brought in the planning, organizing and calmness to the whole affair. Those were very intimate and cozy affair and soon Ron started to enjoy those immensely. Good food, good wine with intense discussions at night and wake up late in the morning after Ana’s repeated nudging.

Today Ron was again woken by Ana’s voice. “How long are you going to be on the bed? It's time to start your day with jogging.”

“You know that I do not jog anymore”, he pleaded and turned around.

He finally woke up realizing he has been dreaming of Ana again. He remembered the date and staggered towards the closet on the other end of the bedroom. He felt somewhat excited that the date was finally here. He advanced like that kid rushing for the present on the Christmas day. But this time there was no Santa or happiness. He picked up the blue envelope from the drawer. His name written on the top in Ana's calligraphy.

He had discovered the envelope a few months earlier by sheer coincidence and was about to tear it open when he noticed Ana’s instructions on the reverse.

“If you love me, please wait till the morning of 14th February.”

He put it back saying “damn!”

Today he picked up the cover and headed for the living room couch. He read it a few times and began framing a response.

“Dear Anasua,

Since you are I gone, I find it very difficult to find things around the house. The other day as I was preparing some curries in the kitchen, I could feel your presence behind me. Were you actually there? Another day as I was about to pour my third drink, I could hear your irate voice scolding me and I Went for  my dinner instead. No one plays the music in the evenings anymore and many a times when I sit in this couch and try to read my book, I could feel your hand teasing me just like those days. When I light up the candle and the incense stick in the evening, I could barely see your face smiling from behind the frame. Don’t think my vision is blurred because my eyes are old. It’s because they turn watery whenever I think of your arms around me.

Stay happy sweetheart and wait for me there. Say my hello to God and remember to convey my thanks for all that HE has given us.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you too!

Yours Ronbir”

He started slowly towards the neighborhood forest for his ritualistic morning walk supporting on his companion... the walking stick.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’

Water For Our Birds

Designers and developers are often criticized for using water features in developments in our urban areas. But during hot summer days in cities like Delhi, these adds to the few remaining water bodies  for our avian species. 

Note: These are my photographs and you are free to use them if you need them.

30 Ways to Be Happy

Happiness in its absolute term is achieved when the needs of life is fulfilled. It is the feeling of contentment that life is ‘just’ as it should be. The trouble though is with the definition of this term ‘JUST’. Unfortunately by no means it has a constant meaning. It not only varies between people, it also changes for any individual depending on the circumstances at any given time.

What makes life just for me could be ‘not enough’ for you or the vice versa leading to the conclusion that happiness is a state of mind and also a personal choice.

Trying to put together this list of things that make me smile made me realize that I have many joyous moments in my daily life. I am therefore, a much happier person today than I thought I was.

Following is the list in no particular order:
1. A hug from my child.
2. When I could bring a smile to a person I love, it makes me happy inside out.
3. Doing something for others.
4. Driving for ice creams with daughter after dinner. 
5. The thrill of personal achievement whenever it happens and it could be as simple of being able. to renew a professional membership through continuing education.
6. Remembering the name of something/someone I had forgotten, as it happens quite frequently now a days with the passage of time.
7. I am happy to listen to the ‘pop’ when I open a can of beer or soda.
8. Listening to the rainfall with thunderstorms when I am indoors.
9. Enjoying either Freshly brewed tea/coffee with Indian snacks.
10. Or with the smell of a fine wine.
11. It makes me happy when I am on a drive and all of sudden the rain starts lashing on the windscreen. 
12. And it doubles when a favorite song comes on the radio while the drive.
13. And triples if I could spot Rainbows.
14. It gives me immense happiness after Meditation even if I am successful at that for a couple of minutes.
15. I love having time to myself.
16. Doing exercise and cheating myself with shortcuts.
17. Laughing with siblings, family and old friends at silly things so hard that it hurts.
18. Receiving a letter or call from an old friend.
19. Dancing when nobody's watching.
20. Singing in the shower or when nobody’s listening.
21. Finding money in unexpected places even though it does not happen too often. 
22. Getting new stationery and the smell of new books/magazines.
23. Listening to TED talks, particularly the inspiring ones.
24. And off course eating Biriyani or Macher Jhol or Payesh or other Bengali sweets.
25. Listening to the National Anthem Playing makes me happy as well as proud.
26. I love to watch my collections of stamps and dream of filling the gaps in the collection.
27. Watching an action packed match of cricket or football give me happiness.
28. I am a novice at sketching with strong desire in my heart to master it one day. I get pleasure trying to draw random faces from the media and when someone appreciates those I feel very happy. 
29. Like any other person, I too find happiness in finding a bargain in the sales.
30. Finally I love the feeling of chocolate melting in my mouth and often go ahead and double the happiness.

More often than not we miss out to celebrate our happier moments disillusioned by not knowing what we really want. When the realization dawns on us it is usually too late and we end up saying “we were so happy then or there!”
Let’s take an oath to celebrate every happy moment now on and broadcast it to the world with a broad smile on our face.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’ 

How Many Words Is a Video Worth!

Video blogging or Vlogging is a new trend and quite rightly everyone is joining the band wagon. I am in no mood to delve into argument if video will one day force written journalism to extinction. Today, I would rather contemplate how much worth would a video be if a picture is worth a thousand words. I would imagine it would be a few millions at the least!

A picture leaves a lot for the viewer to analyze and infer but a personal video usually drives the message straight home. For a fashion blogger, a Vlog would also demonstrate how one could carry the designed dress. That's quite a few steps ahead of just a pretty photograph.

I am neither a popular blogger nor do I have a successful Vlog. But that doesn’t deter me from contributing my 2 cents about excelling in Video blogging.

So this is top list of important (in no particular order) to do aspects for good video blog:

1. Contents - preferably should be scripted and practiced well in advance before delivering. Unless it's an impromptu event.

2. Videography - camera should be in the hands of another person. Alternatively one should use  a selfie stick or a tripod. Facing the camera at the correct angle is desirable.

3. Post Production - The raw video should not be uploaded in any case. Editing to remove noise and blanks are crucial. Another vital advantage of editing are the credits and notes. Remember words will add another 1000.

4. YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion are probably the most popular hosting sites.

My tween-aged daughter has her YouTube Channel. I try to help her with that with setting up the camera and post production. You can check that out here. She loves to unbox various stuff and also introduce places. The one below though is a song she sang.

Siri, Cortana, you and the machine next door

Are you one of those who gets psyched by the dominance of Artificial Intelligence in our lives and scared that they will very soon take over the world? Well this is entirely possible and in this post I am going to show you how it could happen. But ever wondered the voice behind Siri and Cortana are of real persons of flesh and blood? I will introduce them to you towards the end of this article. If you are women, then you more susceptible to voice theft. It has been scientifically proven that people are more likely to take instruction from a female voice and it might start from birth.

We have been obeying machines voice instructions through answering machines, telephones, banking systems, ATM machines etc. It has been one way communications as we were always in the “listening end”.  But then came Siri along and usehered in yet another Apple initiated makeover to our world. At the beginning, both Google and Microsoft ridiculed Apple’s idea of voice assistant but both companies quickly dropped their objections and copied Apple. The rest is history as they say!

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning is increasingly becoming the backbone of everything from self-driving car to virtual assistants. Recently Google’s Sundar Pichai had demonstrated how google assistant could fix a saloon’s appointment or secure a restaurant reservation. If you have read Dan Brown’s latest book, “The Origin”, then you have already met Winston and experienced his prowess.

Susan Bennett has been talking for the machines for decades. She has spoken for ATM machines, airlines, movies and list will go on. In this interview she explains how she has recorded for 4 hours for a period of a month without having any clue that she would end up becoming the voice for Siri. Jennifer Lee Taylor, an American voice actress has given her voice to Microsoft’s Cortana. Similar to Susan, Jen too recorded short sentences over a period of time. Now the machines synthesizes those short sentences to form their answers for whatever questions that we might ask.

One day in the near future, a rogue machine would coerce you to lend your voice. Then synthesize that to form sentences of its own to take over your family, your friends and finally your life. Someone might be already recording your telephone conversations secretly for that very purpose.

As The Day Dawns

The sun rises every morning oblivious of billion worries of the people awaiting it. No matter how much people request him to come early or late, he remains unperturbed. He has a job to do and that is all that matters to him! I personally requested a late start during school exams or college submissions and am quite sure that many others have wished for the night to be a bit longer for a variety of reasons.

Every night we sleep hoping that tomorrow’s Sun rays at the dawn will usher in a new day filled with opportunities and possibilities. This hope or faith keeps us going. But the dilemma here is do I sleep late or wake up early. A more important decision for to make is when to sleep late and when to get up early. A thought I had shared earlier.

The place where I live and work is amidst a high density residential tower block punctuated with roads and parking lots. The windows are thickly draped to keep the dust and heat off and therefore we are detached from the nature and dependent on the beep of the alarms.

But when we are in Kolkata, it’s a completely different world. The banyan tree by the bedroom window is a habitat for a variety of avian species. With the first ray of the dawn they start chirping and one wonders what they might be discussing before starting their day.  Although crows dominates, we get a lot of other visitors throughout the morning.

I keep my camera handy with the hope to capture a decent image but I have learnt the hard way that it’s not easy to frame one of those extremely fidgety individuals. Perhaps the equipment that I own is not up to the mark. Undeterred by the failures, I keep attempting for the best shot, motivated by their beauty. Amazed by how bright and shiny are their feathers, I wonder if I would ever be able to paint one of them. It will probably take more than a lifetime to mix such colors in a palate.

Unfortunately as the Sun gets brighter, the roaring and rumbling of the vehicular traffic with frequent honking gets louder.…..and the human beings takes over the world.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’ 

WOW

Happy Friendship Day

Someone might ask what's special about today! Isn't it just a date in the calendar and another ploy by the capitalistic world to sell products or services?  I find this as an opportunity to reach out to all my friends. The ones always in my thoughts, the ones I meet regularly, the ones I would like to meet in the future and the ones I know I will never meet in this world.Today as the line between virtual and real is getting increasingly blurred, I also reach out to my friends in the cyber world ... my blogger friends, my social media friends and corporate friends...

Happy Friendship Day 2018!

If you had a choice, what would you dream about tonight?

Google image search

The other night I woke up in my dreams to find out that I was not actually asleep but wide awake. Although quite baffling, it is not very uncommon and probably many among us have encountered similar moments at some point in our sleep. Dreams are yet another aspect of our life, over which we have little control. We can accomplish many feats in our dreams which would otherwise appear unthinkable. “Dreams come true” is therefore synonymous to accomplishing something truly marvelous.

All ancient culture tried to make sense of their dreams and their interpretation have been carried forward by their descendants. Depending upon happy or sad events that followed a particular dream, cultures created their own almanac of superstitions. We too have grown up drawing various inferences out of elements such as water, food, snakes, elephants etc. and associated action that appeared in our dreams.

Our ancestors connected dreams to our previous birth, forewarning or as a communication medium with the dead. When someone had a bad dream they interpreted it was the handiwork of demons.

A nice happy accomplishing dream makes the day and a fabulous one could keep us dreamy for few days at a time. Who would not like to have a good dream? This craving for soothing dreams created the “dreamcatchers”.

Native American tribes traditionally used “dreamcatchers” as talismans to protect sleeping people, usually children, from bad dreams. The night air, they thought were filled with both good as well as bad dreams. Hanging a “dream catcher” above the bed, they believed would ensure only good dreams came along. 

These are handmade crafts made with a round hoop woven with a loose web of yarn and decorated with beads and feathers hanging below the hoop.

A tribute on Father's Day

When we were small we believed that our father will protect us whenever we though we will fall. For us he was not only our superman but a super human. Its only after one becomes a father himself, that he understand a father's true vulnerability, weakness and his limitations. You realize the sacrifices he had to make while walking a tight rope as he struggled to maintain the balance between relationship, finances, priorities of life, time management et al.

I remember the look my then infant daughter gave me when she was vaccinated for the first time. As if her eyes were questioning me, how could you ever let them hurt me!

When I look back at those wonder years, I understand my dad a bit more each time. But its too late as he left us for the heavenly abode as soon as I graduated and started with my job denying me the opportunity to give back anything. I wish he was still there and I could treat him, take care of him and hug him!

Happy Father's Day wishes to one and all.

Quick Facts: Father's day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of June every year while Mother's day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of May.

Baobab - A fascinating Species

The name was not very common to my ears neither was its look to my eyes. Ever since I saw them at the Aspire Park in Doha, I might has asked my Landscape Architect friend umpteen number of times to remind me of the name of this tree. He used to give me the name with the questions, “why, what happened?” I always wanted to know more about them.

I am told that we have a few of the species in some botanical gardens in India but incidentally never got to see one. “There are nine species of baobab in the world, and Madagascar, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, is home to six. The African mainland and the Arabian peninsula have two, and Australia has one. Africa’s most notable species is the Adansonia digitata, named after the French botanist Michel Adanson, who undertook an 18th-century exploration of Senegal. He stayed there for five years and contributed to the publication of 1757’s Natural History of Senegal.” theguardian.com)

The shape of the trees are fascinating but the most fascinating fact is that there are individual Baobab trees alive on the planet earth for the last 3000 years. Yes you have counted the zeros alright, its three thousands!

Isn’t it amazing for somebody to stand the sand of time and witness the continued changes happening over the millenniums? But they are not able to withstand our atrocities any longer. 

A recent article made the shocking disclosure that as many as 9 of these individuals aged between 1100 and 2500 years are dying off. Unfortunately our way of polluting environment and encroaching forest lands is killing them. Victims of Climate Change! The Guardian reported “The oldest tree by far, of which all the stems collapsed in 2010/11, was the Panke tree in Zimbabwe, estimated to have existed for 2,500 years. The biggest, dubbed Holboom, was from Namibia. It stood 30.2 metres (99 feet) tall and had a girth of 35.1 m.” (theguardian.com)

Do you not feel that it's about time that we change our way of life and give others a chance? 

Live and Let Live!

 

World Environment Day: Wish you a sustainable lifestyle

The most explicit definition of Sustainable living that I ever came across is the following:

“Meeting our present needs in a way such that the coming generation would be able to meet their own.”

Our generation is selfishly rushing to achieve their self-defined illusive “Progress”. In the process we are mercilessly converting our farmlands, wetlands, forests and water bodies destroying the natural habitat of our co-dwellers in this earth.

On the 5^th of June 2018, this World Environment Day, I request all to take a moment out to decide where we want to go from here. We need to be wary of finding our environmental report card in the hands of our grandchildren and decide between growth and development.

Growth is all about getting bigger and bigger whereas development is about getting better.

I have no qualms in accepting the fact that it will take a messiah to change the world totally and revert the damages already done. But no one can stop us from participating in whatever small way to be part of the change that we want to see in our environment.

I can assure you that any step, however small that might be would not be insignificant. There are a few things that we all can undertake, no matter where we are or our circumstances.

Firstly we need to plant trees…wherever and whenever possible. Any opportunity should not be missed and it could be in our courtyards, porches, patios, terraces, balconies or even window sills. Create your own flowering nook or a kitchen garden and in doing so please remember to use terracotta pots instead of the plastic one.

Secondly say goodbye to plastics. They are doing immense harm and their outreach is now thousands of feet under the sea. The idea is to start with the disposable, single use products and slowly move to the others.

Finally let “Recycle, Reuse & Reduce” be the mantra of life.

In the end I will leave with a quote from Senegalese Baba Dioum (1968). "In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.”

The news clipping below may help to understand the gravity of the situation and motivate you. First one is a good news about Tamil Nadu banning plastics and the ones that follows are scary to say the least. 

WhatsApp and What a Wonderful World……

The school that my daughter attends for music decided to participate in the annual day celebrations of a school for children with special needs. When it was their turn, they got to the stage and stood shoulder to shoulder with the choir group of the celebrating school. Together they presented the popular song, “What a wonderful world” by Louis Armstrong. I felt it was quite an intense and emotional experience for all the participants as well as their parents. As they sang together

“I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world……”

it was a defining experience for those kids who had little idea about the challenges associated with the term “special needs”.

But this is not the subject of this post. In preparation of the program, the teacher in charge had formed a group in the “WhatsApp”. She coordinated with the parent of this small group of voluntary participants letting us know about the time to drop-offs, pick-ups for rehearsals, dress codes and other critical details about the venue, meeting points etc. related to the final day. The kids these days are fully occupied and finding a common free time to rehearse by itself is no mean task.

“WhatsApp” was a great tool for those 5 weeks and it can be extremely efficient as long as it is strictly used for purpose. No customary “good mornings”, no forwarded messages, no spam… pure business. After the program, the group became defunct.

I wish we could use technology with such prudence….always! Not letting it infringe our personal space to dump others views, opinions or frustrations and create havoc!

Culturally diverse? Yes Please!

Let's start this topic with a quote from Jane Austen. “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends.” she said and argued “ I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” That's probably how most of us as Indians feel about our culture except a few who thinks differently.

I have been living outside the country for more than two decades and have met many people who has left the country temporarily or permanently who echoes the same sentiment. One thing that unites us all is the our culture no matter how diverse we are in our thoughts, beliefs, language or appearance.

Yes we are still culturally diverse although many of our festivals and values are now intertwined across the subcultures.  But retaining this trait for a country of India's complexity and volume withstanding resistance from people who quite often spew venom in the social media is quite an commendable achievement.

I once listened to an interview and one statement made about our country said it all. India being so large and diverse, something need to be kept in consideration while drawing an inference on any particular cause or issue. What one inferred could be correct but the irony is that the opposite of that is also equally true.

As an example one might infer that the Indian society at large is becoming intolerant towards each other's religious beliefs, but the opposite of this is probably the greater truth. We see the same when it comes to #girl child, #respect for women, #social division, #dowry, #respect for National language, #celebrating other festivals #freedom of speech, and the list goes on.

Without going into the details of people and culture as a management subject, it won’t incorrect to state that only cultural identity that Indian diaspora has is that related to back home. One may think otherwise but the world out there begs to differ and tag us all with the Indian culture.

Writer's Block or Writer's Excuse

Finally I looked up for its literal meaning in the Wikipedia. I believe it was a subconscious instruction to my fingers to confirm what my mind had been suspecting for some time now. Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work, or experiences a creative slowdown. The condition ranges in difficulty from coming up with original ideas to being unable to produce a work for years. Throughout history, writer's block has been a documented problem.

 As if finding a subject was not difficult enough that my mind also insists on justifying that with reasons before it would let me get going with my writing task. 

This makes maintaining a blog even more challenging. 

I am sure, I am not the only one who feels this way and envy those who keeps churning post after posts day after day. There was a time when one used to approach the proverbial wise-man, who could easily been a woman too, for support and solace. 

But now with changing time, we approach Google or should I say ... we google! Thinking why I should be any different, I asked Google for help and help there was in abundance.

I thought, why do I need to take the trouble to tap my finger on the laptop. After all I am the lazy bum of the twenty-first century.

I spoke to Siri to find out if she could help me out. She too was equally efficient as Google. (One day I should let Siri do some Googling for fun.)

Now I have plenty of ideas and many sources to tap ideas from. Maybe I need to start brainstorming for new excuses….

Daymare? Nay! It’s a Dream

Your great grandchild will be surprised to know that you had physically transported yourself to tourist destinations. It will be shocking for them to accept the fact that people took such extraordinary efforts for mundane experience of a jungle safari or a walk on the Great Wall of China. An experience which could easily be enjoyed during a lunch break. If it is not yours, his grandchild will most certainly be looking at us as though we were the hunters’ gatherers of the twenty-first century.  

It’s not a daymare, it’s just a dream!

Virtual Reality is making inroads into the life of the proverbial common man at a speed much faster than what we would be comfortable to accept. Any major, important or popular tourist destination has already been digitized in their minutest of details. We can easily experience a fly over the highest peak of the largest mountain or inspect the intricate details of St Paul’s Cathedral leaning back on our desk chair. Today, it may analogous to gazing at the computer screen but I have a dream....  

Very soon VR technology to will evolve to a full-fledged Dolby digital like experience. As I write this post, google is busy documenting the street views of the major cities around the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if the forests and deserts are also being digitized by someone else.

The journey that one would embark in the near future would be as real as they comes, effectively encompassing all our senses but remaining within one's own comfort zone. Standing in front of the favorite monument one would be able to feel, smell and talk to the fellow virtual traveler admiring the same view in real-time, albeit virtually.

When that day dawns, the able, unable, disable and differently-able person alike shall experience the joy of visiting exotic locales. This is going to impact the life of all; the lazy, the crazy and everyone in between. The “selfie experience” will still remain quite intense while the “selfie camera” moves into the computer which will be shouldering all the hard-work. 
With that reality still lurking at a distance, my best selfie is yet to clicked. I do leave a virtual selfie. 

But till that time comes we have to drag our feet and physically send ourselves to places  armed with a good selfie camera. After all human beings' primitive instinct of showing off has to be addressed in style. The camera need to support different formats of all the social media options. Whether it is Facebook, Pinterest or the Instagram, the photos once posted need not get cropped. Mobiistar phone with its front, dual selfie camera to capture a 120° wide-angle shot would definitely give you an edge over the commoners. And moreover need not to worry about the battery dying in the middle of the trip and its worth checking it out virtually in the Flipkart store.

This post remembers Morton L. Heilig, referred by many authors as the father of Virtual Reality.