Powerful words start with P

Just thought of putting down the words that define and shape one’s career and discovered so many words starting with ‘P’. Classified the words into few categories, and tried to sequence them within each category. Though some words may fit in more than one category, have tried to put in that category that requires it the most.

• Academics: Planning, Promptness, Practice, Pass

• Career: Priority, Potential, Peer, Pressure, Performance, Promotion

• Characteristics: Plain, Pleasing, Pleasant, Polite, Principle

• Economics: Principal, Protection, Proportionate

• Innovation: Passion, Persistence, Peculiar, Perseverance, Product, Precision, Pioneer

• Philosophy: Problem, Progress, Philosophy, Period

• Politics: Politics, Proximity, Popular, Power, Prime, President

God and his Merit System

The idea of penning down this post occurred, when there was a casual discussion with my friends and colleagues about the interesting values behind Ramayana and Mahabharata.

In my observations, I noted that believers of God, had always sought or resorted to God, during their tough times. Generally believers of Hinduism, not only put the onus of their tough situations on God, but also on their own fate. So what is fate or destiny or karma?

Fate (leaving aside the bookish definitions) can be considered as a meritorious system of effects for the deeds done by a person – which we either construe as rewards or punishments; rewards for good deeds and punishments for bad deeds; which in Hinduism, not only relates to what one does in his current birth but also had carried forward from his/her previous births (what else can explain about a child being born to poor parents, while at the same time and almost at the same place, another child being born to rich parents).

The role of God is to serve as an administrator or that of an implementer of the fate or meritorious system. God may give solace, reduce the impact, or effect of a bad fate, and even may help you to completely pass you through the tough times, but then wise men say that, it is how the fate has been defined for you – that you will be blessed and be guided by God.

Therefore, God as an administrator (though very much could be the creator) of this system, reserves the right to add/increase/decrease/remove the effects, therefore bringing in the flexibility to the otherwise rigid system of cause (deeds) & effect. However it should be noted that whatever the deeds and effects may be, they once again gets added up to one’s list, and will be evaluated again as the cycle (of birth and death) continues.

P.S: May be this merit system can be thought of a well-balanced zero-sum game, another example highlighting the art of delicate balancing.

Magician Vs Actor Vs Politican

After a long time, thought of publishing a post in Tamil. Though this was written by me, over 15+ years ago, and discovered recently, I thought this still sounds fresh and spicy in this election season!

வித்தைகாரரின் திறமை – நடந்ததை நடக்காதது போல் காட்டுவது
நடிகரின் திறமை – நடக்காததை நடந்தது போல் காட்டுவது
அரசியல்வாதியின் திறமை – இவ்விரண்டும் ஒரு சேர பெற்றிருப்பது

Quick Translation:
A magician’s talent is in acting that nothing has happened, while an actor’s talent is in acting as if something had happened. A politician’s talent is in mastering both the acts!

My first Post on WordPress

Yes, you read it right. This is my first blog post on WordPress, and not my first blog post!

I have been maintaining (and shall continue) a blog under the same title “Thoughtful Timepass” in Blogger, since 2005, that’s almost a decade now, and almost after 2.5 years of Microblogging – Twitter.

Have read many impressive articles about wordpress, and finally decided to take the plunge, and experience myself by posting at both places – Blogger and WordPress in future. However the hidden secret is to achieve a sort of backup or redundancy of my posts!

By, any chance, if you landed on this page, expecting a few tips for writing your first blog post, check my first blog post here.

Madurai and Melbourne

Madurai, the temple town or city, was where I was born, and spent few years there.  Melbourne was the first place that I roamed around outside of India (forget the airports). So I was obviously, though unconsciously trying to find similarities between these two places. 

 

Though it’s like comparing apple to oranges, I want to share my perspective primarily with respect to the structure of the cities. So, here goes the list of similarities.

• River: Both (Madurai and Melbourne) have a river flowing through in the City. Madurai has Vaigai (though most part of it is without water, and poorly maintained) and its length is 258 KMs, Melbourne has Yarra river flowing through with a length of 242 KMs. (Yarra is beautiful and well maintained river supporting lot of recreational activities. ) 

• Street Layout: Both Madurai (old Madurai) and Melbourne (Old Melbourne) have streets designed in a rectangular/squarish way, and from an inner rectangle, you move to an outer rectangle and so on. In case of Madurai, the Meenakshi Amman temple is considered as the central point, surrounded by the 4 Tower streets (North, South, East and West), and as you move outer and outer you will reach the 4 Veli streets (North, South, East and West). In case of Melbourne it has Flinders Street, Collins Street all parallel to each other in the rectangular pattern.

• University: Madurai and Melbourne have a University starting with their name. – Madurai Kamaraj University and Melbourne University (Though Kamaraj refers to a person, atleast they are starting with the name of the place). 

• Market: Though it is quite common for every city to have it, the structure of markets were quite similar – noise, smell :), dedicated day of the week for markets, etc… 

 

P.S: Do not get misled by the above, if you had never visited these places. Both of them are great and unique places in this world, that I would recommend you to see for yourself. Madurai has a very long history (several thousands of years), and one of the oldest continually inhabited city in the World (along with Varanasi, India). Melbourne, founded in 1835 (though occupied by local hunter-gatherers for thousands of years) is rated as one of the best places to live.

The Year 2013 – for me

I would like to maintain my style of posting about a recap of events that happened in the last year, as my first post of the year – a sort of autobiography.  So, here it is:

• It’s difficult to start learning something new, especially as basic as a skill like driving, and that too when people less than half your age, already have mastered it. Nevertheless, with a firm mind, I started with a two-wheeler, and within a month, mastered it (simply means, you keep driving in chaotic traffic, and try to find way, even within a very narrow space!). Then came the bigger one – Learning to drive a manual transmission car (with gears!), in real traffic and that too in curvy and slope roads, (ofcourse after getting trained from a professional driving school) 
• Had the experience of being pulled into a project and being pushed out of a project purely for non-technical reasons! – Though I had to admit that, I was wishing for it to happen.  
• Met reasonable success in a project that involved overcoming huge administrative challenges, and happy as it brought a sense of satisfaction after a lot frustration and will be a very important milestone in the history of the organization that I am working with. 
• Yet another project of mine, relating to academic networking saw some reasonable success; However all the above projects require continuous follow up to sustain the success!
• Started to do some serious study on DNS, that I had kept in my wish list for a long time. 
• My mentor and boss, for almost a decade, moved to another location of the organization. This lead to series of changes, but at the end, you learn to accept the changes.
• Had a busy time authoring proposals in areas related to Information Security, the domain that I had been involved with for the past few years  
• Got a feel of Hybrid PC or Convertibles – (Laptop with detachable screen, and screen can act as a tab), but soon realized that these products are immature and not going to suit someone who spends considerable time in front of the PC. 
• Had the experience of learning and working with good number of interns this year
• Had the experience of running around the government offices to apply and collect few essential documents!
• Travel: As usual made trips to New Delhi, Tirumala, Madurai, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Chennai

The Human Evolution Story so far

After writing about Religion, and Passion & Success, and nearing the end of the year, I decided to return back to my older interests on evolution, especially the Human evolution.

Many of us would have heard about Neanderthals, our (Homo sapiens sapiens) closest relatives. Neanderthals (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) have become extinct from this earth, 28,000 years ago. They were said to be ruling this earth  for more than 200,000 years, especially in regions of today’s Europe and Western Asia. They lived in regions around today’s Israel, Mongolia, Italy, Gibraltar, and Britain, but gradually moved from place to place. 

Research shows that modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) invaded Europe, starting a little more than 40,000 years ago which means that Neanderthals and our current species would have lived together in the same region or territory for a period of 12,000 – 15,000 years. This makes it interesting. The Neanderthals and modern humans probably lived most of their lives without seeing each other; or rather kept away from each other from the landscape. 

The last batch of Neanderthals are believed to have lived in the now British territory of Gibraltar, some 28,000 years ago. The prime reasons being cited for extinction of Neanderthals are Climate Change and subtle differences in their behavior and biology. It is known that Neanderthals were bigger in size than Homo sapiens sapiens, and therefore would have required 4034 Calories per day, while a modern human being required only 2200 calories per day, which might have caused the Neanderthals to hunt for bigger animals only (like horses, deer, bison and Wild cattle etc..),  though they ate vegetables and other plant food, they served only as supplementary food items for them. 

Humans on the other hand might have hunted for smaller animals, survived with plants and vegetables (latter activities were primarily carried out by women), during the extreme climatic conditions that were changing rapidly within a span of few decades. Therefore humans survived with diversified diet. Another theory is that, Neanderthals had different cognitive capabilities than modern humans; as they reproduced 4 years earlier than in modern humans and therefore matured earlier.

Now the developing story of our history is about the discovery of a new Denisovans – another sub-species of Homo sapiens, who seem to have coexisted in Asia with Neanderthals and early modern humans. To begin with, the common ancestor of modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans would be Homo heidelbergensis, (though some scientists consider it an European species ancestral to neanderthals alone) who existed 700,000 years ago and began to diverge into these two groups and so far. But now a discovery in the Caves of Siberia, called the Denisova Cave, a new human species – Denisovans seem to have existed 190,000 years ago. The surprising and interesting thing is that, this cave seems to have been home for both Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Denisovans are closer to Neanderthals in their DNA and reveals that both might have interbreed with each other. However it is highly likely that Denisovans might have interbreed with another species (yet-to-be identified) which would have created them.  The DNA analysis also tells that traces of Neanderthal DNA (approx 2.5%) in found all non-Africans today and of Denisovan DNA (5%) found in today’s Melanesians – the aboriginal Australasians.  This means that humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) interbreed with both Neanderthals and Denisovans and also provide strength to the argument that Neanderthals were with the West, and Denisovans with the East. 

Prior to this, the discovery of the remains of Homo sapiens idaltu, another extinct sub-species of us, was found in Ethiopia in 2003. This species is argued as the ancestors for us – Homo sapiens sapiens.   The discovery of yet another species – Homo floresiensis – known as Hobbit (as they were known to be very short) through the remains found in Indonesia  in 2004 tells about another human species that is considered to be from Homo erectus, another of our sibling that would have lived with the modern humans for a long time.   

Well, the story does not end here, and hopefully,  even more mysteries of our species will be unraveled in future. 

Sources of Info: 

• National Geographic , October, 2008
• Scientific American, August 2009 
• Scientific American, August 2012
• National Geographic, July 2013
• New Scientist, November 2013

My two cents worth of view on Hinduism

Fortunately I had umpteen opportunities to discuss about Hinduism with many diverse people; people who were orthodox, who were moderate and liberal, who were atheists, and also people who were either orthodox or liberal followers of other religions.

Well, first the disclaimers. I am neither a Pundit, nor a orthodox follower (hence the title – two cents).  My views given below are my own, and that I had realized or evolved over long periods of time.

To start with, Hinduism is a label attributed (probably by the Britishers) to the people who followed a certain culture and were living around the current Indian geographical regions. Over the years,  it became branded as a religion, though it is not an organized religion unlike   many others. Also, as mentioned in my earlier posts, a religion is only a path to spirituality, and many texts, like Ramayan or Gita, that are attributed to Hinduism, reinforce the same – in other words, an orthodox following of Hinduism (or any religion for that matter) may not necessarily make a person spiritual! 

If I had to share one most important facet or fundamental trait of the religion of Hinduism, then this would be the one.

Every thing you do or believe will have an effect.

Though this may be sound too simplistic, this forms the basis for many other concepts or philosophies in this religion. The point to be noted is that even an intangible thing or even as abstract thought or belief will have a resultant effect. Also, even if you claim to do nothing, or even think of nothing (Meditation!), it will have its own result / effect.  Belief (a strong thought with conviction, as I would like to put it) is emphasized very much in numerous ways through out Hinduism.  If you have a strong and unshakable belief or faith, you will get the results of your belief.

The implications of this simple concept are phenomenal and in-numerous. Add to this, the resultant effects get carried forward to your next re-birth, and that’s Karma in the most simplistic sense. In Hinduism, this concept of Karma, leads to the cycle of birth and death and therefore reincarnation of our soul.  This leads to the concept of destiny or fate, which is determined by your actions not only in this current birth, but also from the actions of your previous births or incarnations! 

The concepts of karma, destiny or fate has the potential to answer any question that one may encounter or realize for oneself, generally during the toughest times or during their peaks in life. To give an example, How two children born at same date and same time, and probably even the same place and the same environment get their lives shaped up differently ?

The Secret Success Sutra and Mantra

First the Disclaimer: This is an abstract model that I believe, defines success. Success can mean many things to many people, but I go with the view that Success is something that creates a positive impact on the humanity and meant for the long-term. It is not momentary and definitely not a short-cut. This formula must work 95% of the time, and the remaining 5% have to be resigned to fate, or ill luck or there may be something better waiting to happen.  Here the Sutra means Formula and Mantra refers to the activity done repetitively (as pronouncing a sound during meditation). 

With enough preludes, let me start it.

Passion, is the base or the pivot point or the binding force that stitches many things and gives a new meaning to what you do. Passion is the most critical element and I had already dealt with it in several of my previous posts – starting with similiarities among great achievers and then bringing out differences between Emotions and Passion and about the minute differences between Passion Vs Feelings.

To explain with a different perspective, people who may have in-born talent or a skill that they can master like a fish to water, will generally have difficult time in managing themselves, and without a passion that binds their talents and skills, they will not be able to shine and generally lose their focus. In the same vein Passion has the power to equalize even a novice or a person without any of the required skills or in-born talent and a person who has those skills.

Now let’s get into the the Success formula, which has been depicted through the below figure. Passion is the seed for Success. With passion, you practice, persist and then perfect a skill or a job to be a master. A key ingredient or a catalyst in all these activities is Patience. Patience is critical to understand and learn; and requires a lot of self-motivation. Practice and Patience are required for Persistence, and to attain Perfection, you need Practice, Persistence and the key binding element of Patience.  

If you have Patience and Persistence it is easy to develop a passion and if you practice it to perfection, success will be in your way.  Other parameters like your attitude will help you a lot, but only Practice and Persistence can take you to the path of success.  If you are already possessed by passion, then you will automatically have Patience, and with enough of practice and persistence, you can master it to Perfection! – indicated as the convergence point at top of the image.  

You may be wondering that I had missed out on Planning and Preparation. But they can only serve as tools to push oneself and help in sharpening the focus. However, without passion, planning and preparation will simply be monotonous activities, and unfortunately they are overemphasized and drilled into our minds. The most common example is that of the competitive examinations, where everyone is urged to plan and prepare, but largely without a passion for the subject, or we find the passion being misplaced – to emerge as the topper.  This may lead to success in the exams, but that will be a success without a soul in it.  

Now, you may be wondering why the outer circle or eclipse? It’s to indicate we keep running around or moving around circles, or in elliptical orbits doing things routinely. To go to the next level, either we need to revolve around at very high speed, or we need an external force that will displace us to a new orbit. Generally, we find ourselves comfortable and settled in a orbit, over a time period, which will lead to complacency, but we need to keep pushing ourselves till we go near Perfection. 

Passion Vs Feelings

You would have heard and used these two words often, sometimes even without really meaning it, and sometimes even interchangeably also. However there exists a difference between these two words and this post explores that. 

Though ‘Passion’ and ‘Feeling’ both represent an emotion, ‘Passion’ represents a stronger emotion, or a stronger desire than a ‘Feeling’. 

Feelings in general can fade fast, but Passion may not!  If you are watching your favorite comedy show, then you will have feelings of laughter and joy, but those feelings are likely to fade away quickly as moments pass by.  Feelings are instantaneous in nature and do not change easily.  For instance even if you watch the comedy show, years later,  your feelings of laughter may not change to that of crying.  

Passions are stronger emotions that sucks you in! and makes you feel restless when thoughts or activities concerning those passionate entities crops up. One’s passion may change over a long-time period. What you are passionate about today, you may not have the same passion on the same entity, years later. 

Feelings and Passion are both important. Feelings have the ability to shape your attitude! – the more positive feelings you develop and nurture, and keep away the negative feelings (like anger, greed etc…) you start developing a positive outlook and hence a better attitude. Similarly choosing the right positive passion is one of the most important steps to future success, and combined with the right attitude, and persistence, you are already there in the success path.