Am I different?

Look around yourself, you'll see only two types of people - males and females.

That's the only difference nature choose to have in mankind! Isn't it?

The only difference God chose for us!

All other differences are man-made, in my opinion.

Strangely enough, mankind has found ways to coexist in this dicotonomic world! Men and women not just coexist together, but also compliment each other in a very beautiful way! Not just in the way animals coexist. But, much more beyond that. As complex as they seem, man-woman relationship have stood the test of time and have evolved to huge extent, albeit it's share of abrasion!

(Subtext: abrasion like oppression, exploitation and imposition... Mostly fueled by the societal and cultural norms build by "humans".. Men trying to exploit the difference nature created for us, rather than protecting its sanctity! At times for animalistic needs, but mostly for and under the sanction of these "norms". Now, who created these norms or rules?? And more importantly why?? May be some other day...)

Yes, there black and white, brown and not-so-brown people. People with different types of eyes, nose, and other anatomical parts of body. But, they are more evolutionary adaption, or a result of environmental factors, or a "misfortune", if I may! Something, that people could not choose or control themselves. Yes, these too are differences!

Yet other ways to differentiate, that mankind chose for itself, are regionalism... religion!

Regionalism could have been an evolutionary "concept" devised to distribute and protect "interests" of a particular group. But, do they really serve the purpose? Is this design, this scheme of things, works perfectly "as-designed". Or is it more of a trouble, not worthy of the price humanity is paying. Wouldn't it be much better place, if people protected each others interests, rather than spending energies to protect them from others, who by the way are equally scared!

On the other hand, religion may have been 'invented' to make sense of things around us, which did not have good explanations! Or, perhaps to set few guidelines of how to interact with those in your closer vicinity. Or, to explain 'supernatural' phenomenon. Or, to explain the reasons for our existence. Or, to strike a balance between our physical and spiritual self's. Or, to explain concepts of life, death, soul, life after death... And many other dogmas in a quest to put to rest the 'doubts' of a wandering, restless soul... or should it be 'being', since 'soul' happens to be another explanation!

For sure, minds of men and women are full of questions, those arise, thanks to the human ability to think. However, he and she and we, are expected to just accept things and not question, for many doubts may still remain unexplained. Beliefs and faith are needed much more, than the quest to unearth the truth!

For sure, one life time is not enough to explore ourselves the mystic ways and find peace! But, the discovery from within would be so much more satisfying, rather than accepting what others experienced! Keeping aside the cons, isn't the collective wisdom,  amalgamation of thoughts of masters, something that should make things easier for us. For indeed the troubled mind is also impatient!

Is survival the only way to spend the precious little time we have? Is the time we have really little? Why, or how, few can change the world, while others choose to submit to surroundings? Why are men behaving the e way they are? How could we be better people than those who lived before us? Why are looking at the mistakes of the past, and bringing most to present, and spoiling our tomorrow? Why are we not looking into the future, in a positive and motivated way, drawing inspiration from the past? How can we bring peace to our hearts? And how can we bring peace to others? To each other? How about sharing the love, compassion and love of life?

Am I too different for this or am I capable enough?

Why I love Android?

To be written when I have some free time :)... 
Been long long since i wanted to write about this topic....
This post has been overdue for long time now. Finally!!!

My Android-love has... kind of... subsided and so has my Apple-hatred. Not that these things are no longer interest me, but have kind of realized that there are many more things to life, than just technology. Yes, of course - in Steve's own words - I still want to make my dent in universe. But, I'm equally convinced, that malaria won't go away by looking into the sky and hoping that balloon enabled internet/wi-fi would get its medication.

While technology can be an great enabler of solutions, it requires a human genius to put it to proper, good use. And a marketing genius to earn humongous profits out of it. To think of beyond profits and enable masses to use and play around with it, goes beyond technical/marketing genius. And after being there and having done that, if someone turns towards philanthropy, we're talking of a different level all together! That's a story for another day...

Being Human...

I have nothing against Salman Khan's initiative by this very name. It does mean something good and is a good ad-line. However, every time I hear or see this 'logo' on T-shirts, I go crazy! As if we are all animals and these blokes are the only humans.. makes me want to wear a T with 'being animal' slogan!

Guys, you don't have to remind us.. we know "We're all Human Beings"!! Aren't we?? Atleast, 'social' animals for sure!!

I really wonder sometimes, does wearing clothes qualify/justify the 'social' tag? I mean.. without the clothes, we're are the same! Same anatomy, same body, same appendages, etc. Then how did this species aquire the special status of being called the 'humans'? Remove the clothes and we're all animals! Isn't it? In fact, there are many prowlers out there waiting to attack and tear someone elses clothes!

Don't the animal instincts of human beings mean anything or something?

Why then the false masks?

Why do we need to hide our feelings and emotions, similar to our bodies? Why can't we bare our immortal souls, just as we seek pleasures of mortal bodies? Or are we too human for that??

Social Media!

Once upon a time, every newcomer in the corporate IT world used to have fun with the most widely used communication tool - Email. And the fun was 'forwards'. Remember hitting 'Crtl+F' and 'Alt+Enter' impulsively and shooting a mail with 'FWD' in subject line, perhaps coupled with some other keywords to ensure 'safety'! ;) And then, there were blokes who used to religiously send Thought-For-The-Day or Good-Morning mails as a daily ritual! There were forwards of good-luck or bad-luck striking if one forwarded the mail to x number of recipients, or fund-raising for some sick child - for every forward 1$ will be credited, or blonde-jokes, or about some social-cause, or some product promotions.. variety of subjects.. I vividly remember same images being recirculated with different stories! While few others just plain, out-rightly fake news, stories or urban-legends! And of course, there was also the spamming on personal mail-ids. Over a period of time people could sensibly judge and decide what is true and what is not!

Body and Soul...

Source

It is always said that the body is temporary while soul is immortal. Have been hearing this ever since my childhood. And I always had this dilemma or question about death in humans/animals as compared to trees/vegetation. Animals supposedly have soul which at the time of death seemingly leaves the body, rendering it lifeless. What happens with trees then? Do they die at some particular instant or moment? Or they don't have soul?

O Morpheus, where art thou?

There are times when we all are full of self doubt. We try to understand the reasons for the things, things which don't make any sense but exist, and we can't do anything about them - or so we think.

Does it sound familiar? Well, this might be a story of everyone, isn't? This is not the story of everyone.. it's the story of the One! We're talking about the central character of the cult-classic movie-series The Matrix, Neo aka the One.

The entire series, from a different perspective, can be summed up as a struggle of a single person. From a computer geek full of questions to the ultimate savior of what is left of mankind.

Justice

Is Forgiveness = Weakness? Is Justice = Revenge?

Source

These were the questions that rose in my mind few days back when I had a heated debate on FB with a colleague-friend. It revolved around the idea of delivering justice in a very straightforward way - kill the killer. This person comes from a armed-forces background. I have immense respect for the people who risk their own lives guarding the nation and its sovereignty against any hostility. I, on the other hand, am civilian, who does not have the faintest idea of what it feels like to be having the power to take away someones life. I'm too faint-hearted for any blood and gory. Fine, I may have read Godfather many times or may have cried watching war movies.. but by nature I'm a peace loving person.

It - the debate - boilded down to the notions of justice and forgiveness.

What is justice? What does being just mean? Being fair mean?

Parametric Equation of Life

will be posting soon on this topic... 
Updates: Finally I wrote this piece last sleepless-night... so here you go... 
Geek alert!! contains technical stuff!! :)

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Image Credits

Few days back, I attended an internal training on geometrical concepts from QA perspective. The instructor was a guy who had switched to software development from QA profile. We work on a CAD software, so most of the people involved are from mechanical background. It was a very good 'training' which introduced us to the very basics of how a CAD software is written/coded. Geometric kernels, application layers, OpenGL, tessellations, criteria on which 3D applications are build - CAD or Gaming or the likes, Bezier curves, lines, equations, etc, etc.. finally we understood the reasons why we learned the Newton–Raphson method, etc, etc, in our engineering curriculum.

Take Care

It is said that where science ends, religion and philosophy begins. This would essentially mean that the people of the world can be divided in two classes. Believers and Reasonable. This is a very crude classification, but let’s say this is how it is for time being, an assumption at this point of time. Now let us analyze or try to see thru these two points of view the present series of unfortunate events that are happening all around us and life in general.

The believers have very strong faith in the being of God. And believe that most of the things happening around us are controlled by God (in fact all things, not just ‘most’ of them). And, also, that our own deeds are precursor to the kind of situations that we land up in. It’s the good that we do which returns to us. The same is true with our bad deeds. There might be some delay but the justice is delivered according to our deeds. It’s our Karma.

Arre Ruk Ja Re Bande...

Right now, I am listening to this awesome track from equally hard-hitting movie 'Black Friday'(wiki-link). Accidentally played it yesterday and it has been playing in a 'single-repeat' mode. It has a line which has been haunting me since y'day. Why? Because, the thought behind this line has been haunting me since long long time and I could not 'wordify' it. It goes...

            Kise kaafir kahega (whom will you label as 'infidel'/atheist)

            Kise kaayar kahega (whom will you label as coward)

            Teri kab tak chalegi (how long will you call shots)

The context of the movie (and the song) is very different from my line of thought. The movie is about an act of terrorism. However, I won't venture in that direction - religion, hatred, killings, atrocities, injustice, organized crime, etc. I have something else in my mind.

God, Religions, Individuals...

     The central cube is representative of God... and smallest cube is nothing but individual... the color coding stands for Religions... grey areas are the actual gray areas, which no one is aware of... 

     Many ideas and realities are depicted in this model... 

His Glasses?

THE AUSTRALIAN AND THE NEWSPAPER AD

        I'm in Sidney Harbour, looking at the beautiful bridge that joins the two halves of the city, when an Australian comes up to me and asks me to read an advertisement in the newspaper.

        'The print is too small,' he says. 'I can't make out what it says.'

        I try, but I haven't got my reading glasses with me. I apologize to the man.

I wish...

Self Realization

When the road ends and the goal is gained, the pilgrim finds that he has traveled only from himself to himself (was the entire journey a vicious circle then?)

 You pursue a path (less traveled or more frequented) to reach a destination. To fuel your ambitions. To achieve success. To amass wealth. To gain good health. Etc, etc.

  

But at the end of the journey all you find is you, yourself. Waiting for "yourself" to show up? Perhaps... Or was it you who walked all the way thru the ups and the downs, just wanting to find who's at the end of this 'journey' called life..

The truth is, as sages say, self realization is the key. The day you find yourself is the day you are attain an eternal, peaceful bliss.

Is this task so difficult? Well... Yes... But, it's definitely worth it... For then you'll have a clarity, unknown and unimaginable, to the people around you. You'll know all you need to know. 

Understanding the Corporate Takeover

Found this interesting and thought-provoking video... Link

Inspire

Necessity is indeed mother of all inventions.. But many a times, it’s a motivating factor or a few inspiring words that make the difference...

In this world, there are many who exist, but a few amongst the crowd live... These few living people often do things which all of us want to do, but are unable to do. Some don't have enough time, some don't have the means, while few others find such an act just unimaginable to their limited vision..

We often find ourselves lost in this crowd... it’s a frightening thought... it’s okay to feel the fear, that's perfectly normal and human... but don't be afraid to such an extent that it (fear) overshadows your capabilities.. Finding the insurmountable human spirit will take you to the avenues, heights where others would look at you and wish they were in your shoes...

Guardians of Culture

Are we old enough to decide what’s good or bad for ourselves? Or do we still need others to tell us ‘what to do’ and ‘what not to do’? Or is it, that, we’ll always remain mamma’s boys and papa’s little princesses; no matter how old we grow or even if we have kids of our own?

Be it the kind of movies boys prefer to watch or the 7 pm deadlines for girls (10 pm for the liberal households), there will always be set of rules to ‘regulate’ or rein the adolescent genes, the hormonal changes, et al. The ever-worried parents do need such ground-rules to ensure that their young boys and girls grow into mature and responsible citizens of tomorrow. There’s no denying this fact of life (mind you, it’s necessary in many cases) and no harm in dealing with your children’s future with caution and prudence.

Most of the parents do realize when the time arrives. The time when all their parenting efforts are put to test by means of freedom acquired eventually by the youthfulness. And now it’s this upbringing that decides the course of actions an individual takes. There would be times when people turn to elders for guidance, counsel and support. And elders in turn show confidence in the judgments and decisions of the younger generation.

That’s how generations evolve and human race progresses. That’s Mother Nature’s way. Sparrow teaching its young ones to fly and then one fine day little ones fly off to newer heights to make them proud.

An Amazing Video from TED

Beauty...

Is this word a misnomer? Or does it actually exist?

Is it an illusionary concept? Or is it real and tangible?

Is it a passing phase? Or is it eternal?

Is it really skin deep? Or is it something much deeper from within?

Does it lie in the eyes of beholder? Or is it felt only by the one who is actually beautiful?

Does it need someone's appreciation and approval? Or is independent of observers sanction?

Everyone's point of view might be different on this, just as their idea of what is beautiful.. The idea.. The thought.. The feeling.. The reaction..

It is something which appeals, engages, evoke emotions and feelings which are pleasant and pleasurable. Something that brings joy.

Feeling it takes us to a different plane of thoughts. Thoughts that cannot be described by words.. Which leave us speechless..

Have's and have not's...

The world has always been divided into these 2 categories. The have's and the have not's. The blessed one's and the cursed one's. This is an eternal divide and has always been in existence since the earliest times...

Talking of the fortunate people, one can infer that their lives are better than most others since they have the means. They usually have all the enviable luxuries making their life desirable. Some are born with the silver spoon in their mouths while other carve their way to the top. In either case, it's a widely accepted notion that these are the 'successful' people in their own worlds. Few might even be kings and queens of their tiny fiefdoms. Success and happiness could be bought by the resources they have. This is the outside view, an external perspective, a bird's eye-view... However, the view from within may be completely different... Or it isn't...