Amalgam of Thoughts

Book Review: Code Name God

2006-08-02T16:15:00.000+05:30

To be frank when I was told to read this book, the name was the first thing that struck my mind. I am not the religious kind and I dont want to read some book speaking about God and the religious path to see and feel him. But looking a little below, when I read, Spiritual Odyssey of a Man of Science, I knew I had to read it. He is the person who was the co-inventor of LASIK, a Laser surgery performed to correct your vision.

The first thing I recollect about a book after reading it is what defines the book for me. In this case, it was the resolve of a teenager, born in abject poverty in a caste-ridden society, to break through the shackles of hunger and poverty. With just a crumb of bread available to eat due to the famine of 1943 in Bengal, to becoming a multi-millionaire, Mani Bhaumik's journey of triumph is truly inspiring. His life is replete with acquaintances with eminent personalities, two of them being, Mahatma Gandhi and Satyendranath Bose (after whom the Bose-Einstein Condensate is named) and how they influenced his thoughts.
But to think of the book as a victory of richness of poverty and hunger would be incorrect. The facet that makes it different from other success stories is how the author realises what he had with him even when he had no worldly possessions and what he truly missed when he got everything he ever wanted. Spirituality is something which is ingrained into the mind of a person born into a religious family. But soon he loses the course drifting farther and farther away from it, craving for material possessions. There are different methods to become spiritual, but to find spirituality through Science was completely new reading for me.
Mani Bhaumik has used the latest developments in the field of Quantum Field Theory to explain how he perceives God. Quantum Field Theory earlier showed us that there were 4 basic Fields/Forces

Electro-magnetic Forces

Gravitational Force

Strong Nuclear Forces - force which keeps the protons and neutrons inside a nucleus and

Weak Nuclear Forces - force which cause nuclear decay

It was however difficult to find correlation between all these 4 forces. But lately some discoveries have shown that at extremely high temperatures or at sizes as close to Planck's Dimensions (10 X -34) all the 4 forces unite and are a single force - i.e they can no longer be distinguished as separate forces. This is what he calls as the Primary Source, as this is the source that has made Life possible. The fact that at the minutely basic level we all are made up of that single primary source can be equated by the Hindu philosophy of Aham Brahmaasmi.
It is the author's travel from spirituality to a void and back which makes the book a thrilling read. You just cannot put it down.

QLC - your take on it?

2006-05-17T16:04:00.000+05:30

I turned 25 couple of months ago, and I assume most of my fellow-bloggers are also in the same age group. Most of you would have heard about the term 'Quarter-life crisis' or QLC and would probably have read this e-mail forward before. When I first read it, I was overwhelmed by how true it was in my case and soon found out that most of my friends think the same. After a while though, it does appear bit far-fetched to me at some places, but still I must say it does a good job of catching the general mood of this age, termed by an author (in Marathi) as "emotional sea-sickness."

Few questions arose in my mind regarding this, which I am trying to jot down here. First of all, is QLC really a crisis or is it something which is being hyped a lot? Is it a totally new thing or did it exist before, unknown to us? And is it felt by all or just a particular group of people?

And why particularly at 25? I distinctly recollect feeling dejected when I turned 14 thinking that I have already lived around 20% of my life without achieving anything worthwhile. At 19, I was bit sad that I was out of teens and now in mid-twenties with receding hairline and expanding waistline middle age seems to beckon me with its own Pandora's Box. So, at every age we tend to evaluate ourselves. I guess, the reason behind all this is; however insignificant our lives be as compared to this incomprehensibly huge universe; they are of utmost significance to us and as a result, on special occasions like birthdays we tend to look back and think about the achievements, the failures, how things would have been et al. (I like the Sanskrit word "Simvhavalokan" for it. A lion usually looks back over his shoulders after walking few steps each time, hence the term.) And it is the human tendency to be overly self-critical while looking back (and on the contrary, being overly naïve while being nostalgic.)

So, what is it with 25 which warrant so much attention? My guess is that's because this is the age at which you are in the middle of perhaps the most significant transition of your life.

I cannot resist myself from mentioning an analogy which one of our Physics teachers had pointed out during 12th standard classes. While teaching about the electrons falling from unstable state to stable state, emitting energy in the process he drew our attention to progress of human life seemingly trying to reach stability. Nature, he said, strives to attain stability at the cost of energy - be it in case of electrons or our lives. Consider a class of KG kids, a class of engineering students and a pensioner's club. You will see the progression of stability at the cost of energy. At quarter life, you are in between. Trying to seek the stability in personal, professional life and losing the energy of yore - like an electron caught in between the stable and unstable state.

Having said that, one reason why this so-called 'crisis' is getting noticed more recently is the increased demands from an individual in all respects of life. So does someone from my age-group who is well-settled in life (well-settled in his dream job for 4-5 years, married etc) feel the QLC the same was as I do? May be yes, may be no. So, what I am writing next might be applicable only to a small group; but that's what I feel could be one of the major reasons of this QLC talk.

The increased competition is forcing quite a few people to continue studying till their mid-twenties. Finding a job after that, securing it and excelling in it, is becoming more and more difficult. Till 20-21, you are safe in your cozy world of family and friends, mostly protected from the big bad world outside. Suddenly you find your friends and you have parted ways and there are very few things that are now common between you; and you are now on your own. The fact that there is no one in the world for you but yourself - not even your parents, best friends and family members sometimes, is hard to digest; but you learn it (sometimes hard way) at this juncture. (No; this statement is not overly cynic and it does not mean your parents/friends/siblings don't care for you.)

[As regards with frinds - over the years, you can test the verity of the idiom 'birds of the same feather, flock together.' Barring few close friends, you and your earlier friends find that you are getting out-of-touch with each other. It might appear little harsh, but even the close friends - in most of the cases at least; tend to continue on the memory of their old friendship. Meet your close friends from school and college - you will be delighted to meet them and will exchange the pleasantries, tell what you are doing currently, discuss and decide unanimously how the time spent together was great etc, but that's that. It is a fact that they have ceased to be a part of your daily life causing the distance to grow a bit, however unwilling you/they might be to accept.] Bit of digression here, but in short the age of settling - achieving the holy trinity as per Indian middle-class standards of 'finishing your studies, finding a good job and getting married' - has gone up, in general, from early twenties to the late twenties/early thirties causing confusion (termed as QLC) becoming more frequent.

Is it really that simplistic a reason? Perhaps not. The reasoning is certainly not comprehensive and might even be flawed. But then that is the aim of this blog -- to do some vichaar manthan (churning of thoughts). So, we look forward to your comments, thoughts and reasons.

Hello! How may I Hell you?

2006-03-24T23:25:00.000+05:30

A major pie of the call centre outsourcing has been coming the way of India. Some say, it goes to show how benevolent Indians are. But are they as benevolent to our own people? Satwik just got a whiff of incompetent customer service from Airtel - one of the more popular cellular service providers here in India. Read his story (Nandan's comments display the irony I speak of!)

The Helpline employees of most of these Call Centres spend hours and hours on speaking fluent chaste English. But they forget to learn what they have to speak about. Just place a call to the Customer Service and ask some simple questions, you will be sweetly guided to wait for some moments and while you listen to some boring tunes, the customer service employee digs for answers on his terminal.
What was more ludicrous in Satwik's case was the attitude of the Service employees, who went as far as saying "Go ahead and complain to Airtel Head Office. Tell them people out here are incompetent". You dont know if you have to be enraged at the situation or pity them. So much for Professionalism. And Airtel's punchline is - Express Yourself

I've faced such un-professionalism with Hutch too. After having cancelled one of the Hutch connections at our office in Dec '05 we still keep receiving bills for that number. Last month, after visiting the Hutch shop to lodge a complaint something truly amusing happened. One of the irate customers started censuring one of the Hutch employees for misguiding him. Panicked, the employee ran behind the counter. The executive dealing with my complaint went to attend the enraged customer. After waiting for half an hour when the irate customer left, we could finally see the meek employee pop his head from behind the counter. I didnt lose the opportunity to lambast the executive who wasted my precious time.
It turns out that the Billing software most of these cellular providers use is utterly disgusting. The very fact that, after having disconnected Satwik's phone and our phone 3-4 months back, the bills kept being generated regularly goes to show how bad the software is.

Seeing all this incompetency one begins to wonder if Privatisation is after all the best answer. Ofcourse, it provides competition to Public Companies, but it is only in terms of Price. The ease of registration, Billing, Customer Service in these Public companies (e.g BSNL) is truly unmatched, least by Airtel, Reliance or Hutch. They have a lot to learn from BSNL or MTNL.

A Precedent of things to come!

2006-03-12T18:46:00.000+05:30

The First race of the Formula 1 season just concluded at Bahrain. If you glance at the winner and see Fernando Alonso you'll feel "Ah! This year's gonna be the same ". But take a look at the names of those who followed him and you get an idea of how the season might go.

Schumi & Ferrari - Back with a bang!
Michael Schumacher and Ferrari are back. The 37-year old Schumi managed to get the pole position, and his new partner Massa managed 2nd position. But a quick start and some amazing driving saw Alonso overtake Schumi for the top spot. Until the 2nd pit stop Michael was holding up very well, although his team-mate spoiled the show for Ferrari fans. In the hindsight, we can expect a lot more competition from Ferrari this season, who had a string of lacklustre performances last year.

Deja Vu?
For McLaren, especially, Kimi Raikkonen it seemed that his (Bad) luck followed him to this season too when his car gave away in the qualifying and he had to start from the back of the grid. But the fighter that he is, he just took one stop and kept creeping higher and higher on the race position and finally managed to hold his 3rd position from Button in BAR Honda. Juan Pablo Montoya, however, seemed very dull and sluggish although he finished 5th. On the whole, Mclaren managed to get both their cars in points. But seeing the manner in which Kimi was able to make most of the situation with his car, we can guess that Mclaren too has a competitive car.

Rookie of the year?
Rosberg of Williams was the person who got everyone's attention in todays race. On his debut race, he drove with determination and in the last 8 laps did 2 excellent overtaking manoeuvres to grab the 7th position. Apparently, as the commentators pointed out, his father was a world champion. That makes it certain that this is the guy who is going to grab the limelight this year. His teammate Webber finished 6th. So a good start for Williams too. Which means bad news for Narain Karthikeyan who with grave difficulty salvaged a 2nd test driver position at Williams.

Huge year ahead
If this race was a precedent of things to come this year, then kindly buy yourselves a seat belt for the chair you sit on while watching F1. Its going to be close, real close and we hope no team complains that they didnt have a good package to compete. Finally, it is possible that the race will be of the ability of the drivers and not the engineers! Good Luck to all the teams

Will India allow US to blackmail it?

2006-01-29T22:15:00.000+05:30

If you were asked to point out one event in the past decade that has metamorphosised Indian image in the Global scene, what would your choice be? I would like to choose India becoming a Nuclear Power. The reason would be very simple. People bully you, if they find you to be weak. But when you show them what you can be capable of, they start noticing you. This was very well understood by Indian scientists and politicians who decided to make India a Nuclear state.

First Blood
The fact that there was a cold war between India and Pakistan back then, definitely created flutters with the World not willing to view another Hiroshima/Nagasaki. The sanctions imposed in 1998 are still in place, with the major military related organisations still considered illegal. With India unwilling to sign the unfair Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it showed the World it was no longer going to show the other cheek.

Technological Progress
From then on, Research has been going on nuclear reactors, both civilian and military ones. Of special note would be the unique Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam. Uranium not being abundant in India, and sanctions disallowing Legal import of Uranium deposits, there had to be a method of continuing the research. Thorium was abundant in the country and the Fast Breeder Reactor utilises this element to generate nuclear energy.

The "Agreement"
In 2004, Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh visited the U.S and the media suddenly announced the signing of a Ground breaking agreement between the Indians and the US. The details of it were not disclosed. It was only told that India would have to separate its military and civilian facilities and put the Civilian facilities under the scanner of International Atomic Energy Association(IAEA). As a civilian, people like myself had no idea what the role of US was. All that the Bush Government said was "We will try our best to mend our rules".

U-turn?
It is understandable that India wishes to get rid of the sanctions so that more research can be done on this source of energy that could be the only saviour in the ever-increasing energy needs of developing India. For that to happen, it does need access to Uranium deposits. But when it accepts to put itself on the IAEA scrutiny, it also asks to be treated just like any other Nuclear state.

So the question is, in acceding to the demands of US, is India losing out on the original motive of emerging as a power centre in the global scene? Lets face it, being under IAEA scanner means being under the nose of US Spies. We are not only exposing our nuclear prowess, but also our years of research. The US, obviously, has asked India to put the Kalpakkam Nuclear Plant under the civilian category.

The Iran, Syria angle
It appears that from the recent talks, US has got peeved at the unflinching stance of India and has started to blackmail India. India's earlier vote against Iran came quite as a shock and now US has become so bold as to say that if ONGC takes a stake in Syrian Oil company then it can forget about the agreement. So it remains to be asked... "Will India allow US to blackmail it?"

When Two Worlds Collide!

2006-01-22T11:59:00.000+05:30

This beautiful Cartwheel image has been created by the collision of two galaxies millions of light years away. Keep staring at the image and it reminds you of a Diwali cracker Zamin Chakkar, which spins furiously throwing away fire. Just imagine such a situation with two galaxies, each consisting of thousands of stars. Holy Fire should we call it?

(http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060118.html) - The site shows how the image was made by superimposing four different images from four observatories. Will the Human eye ever get to see such resplendent beauty by their naked eye?

i Plod

2006-01-17T23:35:00.000+05:30

"Its taken the world by storm". "The best gadget of the year". "Witness the evolution of Revolution". A cursory glance towards the headlines on Apple's iPod and one would start to believe that it is a new gizmo that has some magical powers. The wonder-struck then becomes passionate, then crazy and then totally delirious. I too got carried away by the hype surrounding this gadget. Having known that it was the most selling product for a couple of years in the West and that it was the reason why Apple Inc stocks started shooting for the skies in the market again, I got lost out on its main function.

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid
And then someone asked me what an iPod was. "You have to be kidding me.. you dont know what an iPod is?"... and then "It... It plays songs you know, supreme quality, and.. and you can store upto 20GB or more of songs... that's like 1000 songs or more... and ... and you know new one has got a video... it .. its so small... C'mon.. you must have read about iPod!!". Came back an uninterested reply : "Explain it to me please. It sounds like an MP3 Player which has some additional features". Unwilling to relent, I throw in some more jargons and features, but the simplicity of his thoughts just broke all my defenses and I had to admit "Yeah! Its just another Walkman".

Taxonomy: The Evil
If you had the ill-luck of studying Biology then you would understand my chagrin against categorising things (Genus, Sub Genus, Species...). An average person is intelligent enough to understand everything. It is those geniuses that like to complicate things by classifying things. A South Indian happened to go to US for a small trip. Presented with a menu he was totally confused on what to get. Everyday, he tried some new name... Sandwich, Burger, Pizza, Hot Dog and at the end of week said... "They are just like our Masala Dosa. Some stuff in the middle and instead of Dosa maav they have bread". The American Indians grabbed their stomachs while laughing at the ignorance of our South-Indian friend, because his oversimplification of things couldnt be countered with rational explanation. But was he wrong?

Losing sight of truth
What Apple was actually successful in, was creating a hype with its iPod. If it presented the product as just another MP3 player, people wouldn't buy it as they did, because the market for MP3 players wasn't booming even after 5 years of such products entering the market. To create a sensation in such a manner that an iPod owner thought it as a disgrace for it to be compared to a regular 'Song playing gadget', is definitely praise-worthy. And that is what those marketing people are good at, misleading people.

Celebration time!!!

2006-01-15T11:05:00.000+05:30

With great delight I break the pleasant news of our very own member - Nandan Hodavdekar - winning the "Best Marathi Blog" in the 2005 IndiBlog Awards. His Blog Marathi Literature won with a 30% margin. The prize is a book by P.L Deshpande, his favourite author, and I think he already would have read that book a dozen times.

So 3 cheers for Nandan.. HIP! HIP! HOORAY! :D

Immigration in the Land Of Immigrants

2006-01-09T10:58:00.000+05:30

To my favourite fodder for my first post here - a land I like to call StrangeLand. A land where over 300 years ago, Europeans, mostly the British and the French, came on their oh-so-familiar conquests of colonialisation. I'm not so familiar with American history (if there is such a thing). So, do correct my errors herein.

The original natives - called Red Indians - lived in most parts of the land in harmony with nature and away from technology and all that. Where are they now? The original natives? Hardly to be seen. Apparently, most of them were wiped out when the nation was getting its 'freedom'. Freedom from who? Themsleves? And who is getting freed? I daren't ask. Cos nowhere in this 'freedom struggle' do the natives figure. They were squished in the process and millions were culled and their lands taken over. All the people in the freedom struggle were immigrants themselves.

Since then, this 'Land of Dreams' has been inviting people to come in and exploit the freedom and build a strong nation, and a strong nation it is definitely today. People from absolutely all parts of the world, of different races, have lived and prospered here. All immigrants, I may add. They have cumulatively pushed the limits of science and technology and built a prosperous economy, in the process attracting more immigrants who keep the nation 'in drive'.

But, its now been a long time since they won their 'freedom' and 300 years of living here has given them a sense of belonging, of possession. All the people who migrated earlier are safe and they are all Americans. Those who intend to migrate now, are foreigners, job-stealers, jehadis? In a nation that has no identity of its own, and no history to recollect, this is definitely uncalled for. No identity cos you can ask almost every person about their roots and listen to them shoot out European, Latin-American or Asian countries. There is no such thing as American, cos the true Americans have been reduced to a meagre minority. No history cos you can goto any historical place and see dates like 1750 and 1910, and be baffled about how recent every historic event is.

How come the land of immigrants, is all of a sudden shying away from other immigrants, giving them a cold shoulder? Does it not see that the immigrants are at the heart of this country and are what make it what it is today? Its like saying, 'Anyone who passed through the door before 2001 is good. All the rest will have to knock on the door, maybe twice, thrice,..'.

I have seen with my own eyes how the average American treats an Indian like me. I'm not even an immigrant, just a visitor. Yet, they see in me a guy who's stealing their employment, or sometimes a jehadi, especially when I haven't shaved in 2 days. All the 'Americans' get a chirpy 'Good Morning' with white teeth in full splendour when they board the 7am flight, while a tiny smirk is reserved just for me. The cop gives me a ticket and makes a remark about how the Indian IT industry is starting to take over the market, definitely not small talk. I could recount more incidents here, some more fiery, where people have stated I don't understand 'American values' and 'its obvious you are new here'. The fact is, they feel threatened now, and want to build their own identity, and the way to do this is to shut out everybody else. Something that is reflected in their stringent visa policies of late.

Will they wake up and smell the black coffee? They don't need to look too far back, only 200 years should suffice, to see where their success stems from. As for countries like my own, there's nothing better than bright minds returning home and driving its economy to levels that are already threatening to take over a fair chunk of the world economy. Who wants to live in StrangeLand anyway?

Ganguly - the Arrogant

2006-01-05T23:25:00.000+05:30

The man just doesnt like to stay away from limelight. Maybe it is his Rahukaal (Bad phase of Time), or ... ahem. When I pointed out in my post (Ganguly Deserves it!) that Ganguly deserved to be sacked most of you launched a vicious attack on me :D. But the guy keeps tripping over himself. Just read this article http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=164109 on his latest Stunts. He managed 59 and the press now say Ganguly proves his form with 59. Just cannot stop laughing. The guy has set such low standards these days that his almost 50s and 59s are considered excellent knocks.

Even when he was dropped Controversially (for some)he didnt go on to play for Bengal. But then, people excused him as he was undergoing a Shock of sorts :). When he was selected back for the Pakistan game too, he didnt turn up for the domestic match against Gujarat. Media reports said he had to be coaxed to play the current match against Tamil Nadu. Now tell me, is this arrogance or what? Does the man deserve any pity. No Remorse from my sides on labelling him an arrogant @#$@!@$!!

It Spins your Mind!

2005-12-29T22:49:00.000+05:30

While reading about sub-atomic particles, I came across a specific property of particles - Spin. Every particle supposedly has a spin associated with it, even if it considered to be in a rest state, it is spinning intrinsically. Now, depending on their spins particles have been segregated.

Integer Spin Particles

Particles having Spin 0 can be visualised as a single point. Look at it from any direction, rotate it, roll it, it looks the same.

Particles with Spin 1 can be visualised like numbered cards or an arrow. Give them a 360 Degree revolution and they look the same.
Particles having Spin 2 can be visualised like the Queen in Cards or a Line. Give it a 180 Degree revolution and it looks the same.

Forces seen in Nature Gravity, Electro-magnetism, nuclear force etc are integer spin particles.

So far so good, the interesting part comes when those scientists say that there are particles with half-spin!. i.e on Two revolutions the particle will look the same. Now start visualising how that would happen. I tried and even after the thinking spun my head I couldn't visualise it!.
The amazing (or terrifying) thing is that matter is made up of half-integer spin particles !! electrons, neutrons, protons.. the stuff that we are made up of, have a spin of 1/2 or 3/2 or 5/2... and we cant even visualise them :D. If you need some visual aid try this. Read the explanation too on that site, if time permits. Truly baffling! Either those scientists are wrong or Gods must be crazy

Inconsequentially Significant!

2005-12-27T16:08:00.000+05:30

In response to my thoughts on how insignificant we are in this gargantuan Universe, Nandan in his post points out how we need to be narrow-minded, in a sense, to gain importance in the little world that we live in. Interesting insights, I have my own reservations against it, but the thought process led to something very vague.

The External Eye
Imagine you were an alien monitoring the Earth closely.

Oh! That dazzling Blue piece of mass
So Calm, so Serene, carved by a maven
When the view so enchanting,life there must be bliss
Is that what they call Heaven?

Chaos within
From the outside, it might seem there is tranquility on the Earth, but have a closer look. There are war-ravaged lands, men blowing themselves up, vehicles and industries emitting harmful gases, vessels toxifying waters... and the picture starts getting murkier. That is what is termed as Chaos within Order. The culprit could be compartmentalisation, act of categorising everything into sets. Dividing Earth into continents, countries, states, districts, cities, zones... The eye of the Alien does not see all these.
But yet the tiny Earthling, struggles to no end to gain recognition, importance, to fulfil his desire to be a significant contributor and not be just a mute spectator. The dilemma then comes, to find out how narrow he should be? Where should the line be drawn to say how narrow his outlook should be? Should he restrict his circle of influence to his zone, to his city or should he think bigger, about the country or the world itself? By categorizing, we are invariably assuming that we are not influenced by the world outside our category, even though we know that isn't true.

The Humbling Experience
The humbling experience is only a starting point. A person should first know he is Nothing... Nothing when he is alone. One Single man, has never changed the World, he might have influenced others to tag along, but never alone. Analogous to Arjuna's experience from the Vishwaroopa Darshan given by Krishna, the humbling experience gets rid of one's pride.

(Typical Pakau stuff, I call it. If your response is too long, you can do a new post - a better one! or else start a new interesting topic :) )

Vichar Manthan

2005-12-24T18:18:00.000+05:30

Vichar Manthan
Sagar Manthan was the operation carried out by Suras(Angels) and Asuras(Demons) together to churn out Amrit (Elixir) from the Ocean. After days and months of churning and after emergence of numerous by-products, finally they were able to extract Amrit. It is the continuous churning of a substance that produces Elixir, and when the substance is a thought then the Elixir is the Enlightenment. Hence the name Vichar Manthan - Amalgam of Thoughts.

Amalgam of Thoughts
Thoughts have no barriers. Thoughts can live in the present, drift backwards in the past, dream in the future... it is independent of time. A person can control himself to refrain from speaking, but he cannot stop thinking. Even the conscience cannot stop thoughts. So there are no rules, no inhibitions, no barriers on what can or cannot be discussed here. Amalgam of Thoughts is an open book, where anyone can talk about anything and give their invaluable opinions on any of the posts, because only when we accumulate and assimilate all thoughts, reason them out and then disseminate them do we find the Truth ... the only path towards Enlightenment - our Elixir.