Convenience in absence

How many times have you gone on a planned trip where nothing happens as per plan yet you end up having a great time?

I was recently on a vacation for a week with my family to visit my native place and had plans to meet up with friends in Chennai on my way back. We had budgeted close to half the trip to spend time with friends. As luck would have it none of them were available for one reason or the other and we had the whole time time to ourselves and had a blast in Chennai eating, shopping and attending concerts. A great ending to a good year.

Oh, and thanks guys for being absent.

Democracy experienced

They were all there, tens of thousands of them, irrespective of their age, gender, religion, community, state, language and popularity or the lack of it.  They were sad for all the lost lives, they were passionate about the Desh, they cheered the armed forces and were angry at the “Murkhs” who run the “Desh”. They conveyed their sentiments through slogans, placards, songs, candles and in some cases silence. They were a crowd but they were one. They were all Indians.

It was democracy in its purest form. I am glad that I experienced it first hand

Bigger questions!!

The siege has lifted. Brave men from the armed forces have been able to eliminate terrorists. Questions are being asked by individuals and celebrities through social sites, television, radio and print about the safety of Mumbai and the efficiency of the operation against terrorists. Suggestions have come in asking people to vote out the current government, get a different government, consolidate vote bank, bring about social revolution, initiate civil disobedience movement and much more.

What about all the other questions that have never been asked before? or if they have been asked, the ones that never got the required media or public attention? Many more people die in India due to negligence, accidents, hunger, weather and natural calamities. If you just want to talk about terrorism, we have states towards the north and the north east that face what Mumbai faced on a daily basis.

The solution to this is not an easy one, but it does not mean that we do not look for one. The problem seems to be cultural than anything else. In India we are so used to “life being wasted” that in most cases we turn a blind eye to problems that we cannot look at or choose not to look at. We do not pay attention to a problem until it comes out and blows up in our face. If only we can change ourselves to question everything we might be addressing the root of the problem than one of its symptoms.

Info-impact

The impact of information on the human psyche is very intriguing.  Fear, happiness, sorrow  – you name the emotion and you will find that any piece of information once consumed and digested, will evoke a different emotion in each person.  The human brain has this immense capability to pick up a piece of information and interpret it against the sum total of all other knowledge, notions and assumptions that has already been acquired leading to a series of actions driven by emotions that were triggered by the recently acquired piece of information. In todays world, where information sources are numerous, does the brain work itself out trying to interpret everything that it receives? Is that the reason for high stress levels?

Hello world!

Hats off!! to people who  blog regularly. It has taken forever (seems like eternity) from when i created my first WordPress account (which is now lost forever) to my first post (you are reading it) on WordPress. I would have liked people to believe that i never came to this page before today, but believe it or not i have been here many times staring at the blank white box wondering how to articulate my thoughts. Assuming that this happens to everyone before their first post (and possibly before every post), i am going to feel happy for now with this achievement and hope i come back here more often with my contemplations.