Hey, are you OK?

This is one of the reactions of my friends on reading this blog ! A tinge of sarcasm & humour colours this question. Answering on the same note, I can say I've never been OK, but maybe closer to getting there. There is no need for concern on hearing the reply if one listens with philosophical ears.

We humans are a strange species resting on our laurels of conquering the planet earth, lording over every other inhabitant. From our narrow perspectives we can convince ourselves that we are all doing OK, immersed in the mundane nitty gritties of life. What about the bigger questions of knowing the mysteries of the entire Universe ? It is obvious that even the greatest scientist ever on earth has only understood a very tiny portion of the entire knowledge that is in existence. No matter the leaps & bounds progress of science & technology, these are like drops of water in the ocean of existence. On being posed these questions, most people either brush it off or appear truly unconcerned. Relativity in it's glory shines forth for I cant help being totally surprised at their answer, while they cant help being equally surprised on my question ! That being said, I think there is no denying the fact that _everybody_ at some moment, however fleeting it might be tend to wonder deeper than their current existence. Getting unnerved, it is very easy to brush off, but never erased it keeps coming back like the relentlessly bloodthirsty mosquito to your ear !

Coming back to the question of Science & technological progress, as a kid I was a firm believer in that alone. Slowly, after 2 decades of witnessing the snail like progress of Science, disappointment set in. Will I ever know or even read about the mysteries of the Universe ? Will I ever in this lifetime meet the aliens on distant galaxies ? If not me, will anybody in the not too distant future get these answers ? It seems very unlikely ! Read about dark matter (or missing mass problem) at http://epo.sonoma.edu/duo/science/cosmos.html & other sites & you'll soon find out that all the Physics, Chemistry, Maths, technology that's been drilled into our heads can't even explain 5% of the Universe ! Isn't that great - most of the Universe does not even follow the laws of the greatest earth born Physicist or Chemist !!! Science is useful, it allows us to spend time & money in relativistic pursuits. But it should be treated as a very small subset of spirituality (reality), without excluding belief in the current unknown.
Perhaps the answer to these profound questions lies in another simple question - do I need to taste all the water in the oceans, rivers, lakes just to know the nature of water ?

Do the surface waves cease to exist in the deep ocean ? Why remain at the surface alone...when I can as well be a deep sea diver rising to the surface as I wish, enjoying equally the sky through the surface & the deep sea dark !!! If you see the connection of this to the start (or topic) of this posting, look in the mirror and ask yourself "Am I OK?"

Blog Buddies

Everyone's blogging these days. It's a great way to network & know what's going on with your friends. Those of you who know me might know some of my friends too, so here's a guide to my friend's blogs (will update the list as I find more..). Hope this will encourage the tardy ones to be more regular !

1. http://tuck06.blogspot.com/ by Krishna Hegde. Very regularly updated.
"This is an attempt to chronicle my experience at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. As I go through two years of learning, making new friends, living in a different country this blog will be my online diary."

2. http://noizrulz.blogspot.com/ by Ajay Shenoy. Very regularly updated.
"just flowin thoughts..."

3. http://www.geocities.com/prashthy/ by Prashant Murthy. Quite regularly updated.
Personal webpage with blog like content.

4. http://unblogs.blogspot.com/ by Nithin Nagaraj. Updated once in a while.
"I am a shadow in a flood of photons and you need photons to see me."

5. http://random001.blogspot.com/ by Prashanth Kota. Updated once in a while.
"In hope that blogging will bring some order to the otherwise randomness in my thoughts."

6. http://whiteboardwarrior.blogspot.com/ by Gautham Chundi & friends. Updated once in a while.
"Like the title suggests, there's no particular theme or recurring idea here. Its pretty much anything that catches my fancy. So here goes"

7. http://premms.blogspot.com/ by Premchandra Shankar. Only one post...for the heck of it !

8. http://andysen.blogspot.com by Anandraj Sengupta. "Musings". Newly started with one great post !

A new year..a new lease of life

As 2005 dawns upon the world, I can't help wonder about some fortunate happenings towards the end of last year.

Desperate to get away from Bangalore during the last week of Dec. 04, a few of us were planning on a trip to Andaman & Nicobar. Being last minute planners, we could only find bookings aboard the ship, but not the flight. Being stuck for 5 days on a ship with everyone's insides coming outside didn't excite me too much making me the only spoke in the wheel. Somehow, inspite of all my friend's enthu this trip got shelved. The other destination we looked at was Sri Lanka, the beachy paradise. This trip too got junked due to the high costs at that time of the year - prohibitive for the rupee earning non-management folks like us ! Finally we tripp'ed to God's own country (Kerala) - a most enjoyable pleasure filled 5 days, but that's beside the point I'm trying to make here.

Every TDH (Tom-Dick-Harry or Thimmaiah-Deepak-Hari) knows the catastrophic events during the last week of Dec. 04. During the weeks preceding the Tsunami disaster, we were very despondent looking at all our travel plans getting botched. Reminiscing about the chain of events that saved us from turning into debris in the Indian ocean, "fate" or "karma" functioning behind every occurrence in our life becomes lucidly apparent. It was just not meant for us to die young ! Though, it is a very sad plight for the lakhs of people who met with watery graves...& their bereaving families, continuing thinking along same lines, these people MUST have been responsible in some remote past for the happenings today. This appears cruel & unsympathetic, but the laws nevertheless function irrespective of what you or I feel. The universe cannot be a chaotic, random system, cause the very fact that it exists proves otherwise. Even a fool can see the connection between events in time & space.

This raises the age old debate of "fate" vs. "free-will". My fate is my own free-will exercised previously - I may or may not know this & hence choose to hide it conveniently under "destiny" that is beyond control ! These appear to be archaic moth eaten textbook fundas until you experience it & reflect on the same - as appears above. There is further complication. Can I accomplish ANYTHING with my free-will ? That is impossible because anything I do always conflicts with somebody else's free will, perhaps in such a minute way as to be indiscernible. How much control did I have in planning my trip ??

As we ignorant humans spend our entire energies planning & preparing for future events it only during these times when all the cutting edge technology cannot save the world that we sit back & think deeper.

Is this blog post meant to be published & read ? Or did I choose to do so explicitly ? The clue perhaps lies in the answer to this question - do the characters in your dream have control over what's happening in the dream ? Do YOU have control then ? If neither, who does then ? In any case, who is the YOU during this phase ? :))

Think....think.....& it will only help you realize the futility of thinking. Experience, experience & words are like fleeting, ever changing reflections on the water !
Post your comments & let me know what you "think" ... :D