Touch the horizons – My friend

This is a different article from those that I have penned for this blog. It’s a bit personal and about a close friend of mine who is flying abroad for a year on a project. Over the last many years that I have been in Bangalore, I have forged new relationships with many people at different levels, but if there is one that stands apart from all the others it is my association with Varada. I met him for the first time at the gates of NIIT – a lanky six footer with a lot of ambition and fire in the belly. When people misunderstood him to be arrogant and abrasive, I found a gentle and kind human being who wanted to do well in life and would cross any hurdle to reach there. Ambition always seems arrogance to others.

I took a little while for us to break the ice, but once that happened we got really close to gether. I understood the fact that his family wasn’t educationally inclined and he wanted to cut loose from the crutches of filial burden and soar upwards in search of a dream. What endured him most to me was his commitment and hardwork. Many a sleepless night has he spent mastering Java, which incidentally became his love after I formally introduced it to him years ago. He wanted a vision in life and a path to follow, which fortunately I was able to show him. But once he knew that, there was no looking back. He completed all the international certifications required in quick time to get him placed in a reputed Software company. The rest in history, as one would say. He has proven himself beyond doubt that he is a quality developer material and has an intuitive insight into software. Never once have I solved a problem for him. I gave only pointers and he would come up with the answers. That is classic developer material for me. Despite immense personal problems, he never let it affect his professional life. Many in his place would have become a mental wreck, but he stood his ground and never once wavered from his ambition or commitment.

When I came in touch with for the first time, he was a machine room coordinator at our center with a very nominal salary. And years later when I see him now, Happiness wells in my heart. He has grown beyond recognition. Varada is to fly to Australia for a year with his family. When he flies, a part of me will go with him. I am not being emotional here. The relationship that I have shared with him and the time that I have spent with him are for me to cherish forever. I will miss him, but I am sure this is just the beginning of a illustrious software career for him. He is destined to do well and he will do well. I wish him all the best. My prayers and blessings are with him in whatever he endeavours to do.
I hope to see the day when he reaches the pinnacles of glory and be able to share it with me as we do today. Cheers!!! Young man. May the horizon prove to be a lesser target for you. God bless!!!!!!!.

The 2007 Wimbledon championships yet again proved genius lies a sphere of its own, untouched by the the gross. Watching Roger federer play was wittnessing an artist at work at the height of his powers. The Staunch commitment, the languid grace of his ground strokes, the lissome movements on the court and above all the buddhist like temperment - was a treat to watch. He is arguably one of the finest grass court players who have ever graced the game.

What amazes me is the consistency of the performance. Its one thing to work hard and reach a certain level, but it is really difficult to sustain that over many years. Unless one really enjoys what he is doing , such levels of perfection can rarely be attained. In every game, In every profession, one would find people who will the deliver the goods time and time again. One may argue, that they are innately gifted, but still genius needs to be nurtured and channelised to achieve an end. One can never take away the fact long hours of toil and commitment that has gone into making them what they are today. True champions.

The real challenge for all these champions is to overcome the sense of complacency that can set in after reaching a level . The distractions that accompany success can be a great deterrent in pushing them forward. The constant public appearances and the limelight can tarnish the resolution of many. But thats precisely greatness is all about. The ability to rise above the circumstances and plung forward into the dizzy heights of glory. No doubt, a lot of sacrifices are needed to achieve this. Family life takes a beating, Socializing happens anly to satisfy the unending demands of the public and media. Every move is watched, commented and criticized by millions of people. Despite all that one needs to find anchor in our talent. Thats what we mean by the word professionalism.

it is my opinion that true professionalism cannot be developed without the inner joy that accompanies it. Unless one is able to love our job, greater heights cannot be reached. The fire of passion must burn intensely within us. Once that is there, no amount of sacrifices will a burden on us. Every genius exemplifies this. Vincent Van gough, the great dutch painter died in penury pusuing his artistic abilites. His life was a mental and physical wreckage, but the inner fire plodded him along. Winston churchill - the great English statesman, worked twenty hours a day,smoked cigars endlessly, fought a war and found time to pen eight fabulous volumes on the fate of the second world war - which is unsurpassed in literary and factual brilliance even till
today. Andre agassi, played tennis with flawless intensity,mesmerized public with his attitude and style, found time to flirt with three female celebrities and finally settled down with arguably the best female player of our generation - Steffi graf. History is replete with lives that have lived their destinies with joy and fun and yet have left an indelible mark in the history of time. A warren Buffet who started with dropping news papers; rose to become a financial wizard the likes of which the world has never seen; but still chooses to live in a house that he bought forty years ago and drives his own car.

These people aren’t unique because they were born to be unique, but because they chose to be unique.it is in our capacity to rise to these levels, but we are hindered by our own selves. Nietze spoke of the superman that lies in all of us. The dormant greatness that resides untapped in each one of us has to be woken out its long slumber. What we lack is the commitment to pursue our dreams. Every dream is indicative of our unconscious talent and fire,but we ignore it because there is risk involved in it. Pursuing a dream means breaking out of shackles, facing life face to face and plunging headlong into the swirl of it. It takes courage to do that, but that is where our true destinies lie. We live in a mirage and take that to be our fate, but for those few people who dont mind doing the bungee jump, there is an oasis of peace that is waiting out there, a panacea for all the pain and sacrifices that they have had to bear to get there.A fulfillment of life.

This may be the shortest article that I would have written so far, but I still would want to continue with it. I really do not know when we as a country would stop religious hatred. I am sick and tired of it. Punjab has been peaceful for many years now, thanks to the iron hand of Mr. Gill - who rooted out violence in a fashion that deserves credit. I am amazed that in a country like ours where virtually every religion is given its due, we still fight and more importantly kill in the name of religion. Until and unless we realize the true purport of religion we will never be able to come out this malady which has afflicted us. The insane notion of my God versus yours is a theory that we had put to rest millleniums ago, but yet we continue to perpetrate the theory because none of them who participate in these demonstrations have actually made effort to read about their religion. I hope A DAY will come when we can fight over more pressing issues than these. I hope I will live to see that Day.

The human mind is a very curious thing. One never knows what goes on in it. We can never fathom the mind of anybody. The outside persona is no way totally indicative of the inner workings. The recent brutalities in Noida emphasizes my point. History is indicative of the fact that the human mind is essentially brutal, callous and completely selfish. The depths of depravity that we have reached over the last two thousand years is staggering to say the least. Numerous studies have been made on the reasons for mind degenerating to such levels and the conclusions drawn are unanimous in that the mind is shaped and moulded by society; and ones place in it. The reactions of the individual’ genetic structure to the experiences around him places each one in a unique position and hence the inner world of any man is something that is true only for him.

Colin Wilson - a Criminologist, has made incisive studies on the nature of serial killers and has written numerous readable works on it. His conclusion on the nature of these killers is pretty interesting. Almost all the serial killers are very normal people with normal behaviour.In some cases, they have been found to be extremely intelligent too. It would be very difficult for the outside world to perceive any difference in any of them. One common background all of them share is that most of them would have had an abused childhood or an environment in which a lot of violence and brutality was displayed. Parental dysfunction coupled with neurotic upbringing of the child would invariably result in a distorted or schizophrenic personality.

A psychological investigation into most serial killers would reveal they have no compunction, guilt or sympathy for the victims. In fact, they are totally convinced about what they have done. It simply doesn’t strike them they have a laid an innocent life to waste. In some rare cases, the killer confesses and seeks pardon of the relatives of the deceased, but largely they are insensitive to their acts. Sometimes, one does get to sympathize with them. They are according to me, victims of circumstances. It is hardly imaginable to assume that all of them were born with such brutality and cruelty.

Unlike in the west, we do not make an attempt to study such characters. Our only aim is to prove them guilty and show them the gallows. It is a fact that they have to punished for their crimes but that should not stop us from trying to understand them- their motivations and reasons for turning into cannibals. I truly believe that such a study would reveal a lot many things, some of them very unpleasant for the government and the society that it governs. More often, it is the abnormalities identified in a system that will help us change and evolve into something better, but it requires guts to accept that there are imbalances, which many societies unfortunately don’t possess. Let us not solely focus on the incident at Noida but look at the meaningless violence that is rapidly increasing around us. Rapes, murders and insensitive behavior are all signs of a society wherein a rot has set. The glaring differences between the have’s and have not’s has furthered fuelled the fire. The rift between people is inevitable in a growing society, but we need to deal with the transition in a sane and healthy manner. A mature society is one wherein an individual has the freedom to deal with his life in a healthy fashion and is not confined to confirming to a set of rules and regulations. The more the psyche is suppressed, the more will it lead to psychotic behavior? And, once the dichotomy happens, the human being is no more in control and he plummets into abyss of moral and physical depravity which no law or morals can deter. It is better to address the root cause first than to blame the end result. The Noida case can become an eye opener to us if we learn something from it apart from punishing the guilty. If its is going to be another political gimmick orchestrated for the benefit of an select few, then we are totally missing the point. The choice is ours.

To succeed in our professional careers, we need to have a lot of commitment and passion. The successful ones have both of these characteristics in plenty. But today unfortunately, young professionals want to have it the easy way. It doesn’t dawn on them that success is a byproduct of an activity and canot be tasted without hardwork. The early days of ones professional life is very crucial towards achieving great things in life. Money should not be the first prerogative during that phase. It is the learning that is important. In those formative years one must cultivate good attitude, wiliingness to give oneself to the job in hand and a passion for whatever one is doing. Once these characteristics have taken seed, then there is always a chance that succes may come your way. I am the head of a software training center where I mostly employ young graduates as trainers. These youngsters have no clue about the industry and its requirements. All that they know is that there is money in the field and they want to make as much of it as possible in quick time. At the outset they are not interested in training, but have joined us because they could not get employment anywhere else. After having gotten in, their attitude is so pathetic, that we regret why we employed them in the first place. In spite of groming them, they are always on the look out for a different job. To them, Training is a menial job meant for people who are not capable of anything else.Astounding!!!!.

I have dedicated my career to training and I dont regret a wee bit. My point is not everybody can teach. So its perfectly acceptable that one may want to move on life to more suited areas, but once into a job there must be total commitment to it. Otherwise ,there is no justice at both ends. Any job for a fresher should be a dream come true. Its the first straw they hold to climb up. They must use it as an oppurtunity to refine themselves for better oppurtunities. A time will come when the organization cannot hold them, that is the time to leave and seek greener pastures.

I have witnessed innumerable cases where despite tutoring freshers in all these aspects, they would still go their own way. I feel sad when that happens because they will learn the importance of all these the hard way, when they will have no choice. Well, if it is their destiny then nobody can change it. It is my firm opinion that any job done with sincerity and commitment would result in the betterment of that person. Successful lives are testimonials to this principle.

As Human beings we have this immense need to feel important and to be given importance. In fact this need is greater than that of Money. Other species too exhibit this characteristic, but in them it is more of physical and territorial strength more than anything else. In humans, we need this importance more in the form of a Psychological craving. At office, at home everywhere we need to be seen as somebody great. Lets then understand this phenomenon in some detail.

I suppose as children, we are taught to respect and revere our parents as somebody bigger than ourselves. We begin by imitating the way they behave. And as our education progresses, we are shown various role models for us to follow. Internally, we are in awe of these idols for the adulation and respect that they get. Our school lives are full of episodes that express the need for praise and glory. The debate competition that we have won; or a sport that we have excelled in; or a first rank in the class – all these are illustrations of the psyche’s need to be appeased. By and By, as we pass on to adolescence, our character’s become pretty complex and consequentially the demand for importance takes on various hues. Jealousy, infatuation, intellectual superiority are some of the manifestations of this phase. Then as career starts rolling along, work related cravings set in and after marriage ego related issues between the Husband and the wife brings in a new dimension to an already complicated scenario.

According to me, the reason for the complexity of human existence is this need to feel important at all points in our lives. We crave for company so that we may exhibit our superiority. We can never accept the fact that we are unimportant. Recently, near my office I witnessed a classic example of this. For nearly twelve years an auto stand is functioning at the door step of my office. About two months ago due to the some complaints by the nearby residents they were asked to vacate the place and move to the other side of the road, which was thoroughly disliked by the auto drivers. To aggravate them further, the municipality demolished a fence that they were trying to build around a tree. I could see on their faces a rage that would come only when one is treated with disdain. Now to prove their importance they sought the allegiance of politico-social party and had the stand inaugurated with great fun fare. There was absolute glee on their faces, as they were trying to prove a point to the people who seemly haven’t given them their due respect. Well, at their level this was all that they could do. But isn’t it the same story in all facets of our life- The need to prove a point.

In a horrendous storm, the grass does not get uprooted. But the Bamboo tree will. The reason is simple. The grass will gracefully bend to allow the storm to pass away, but the Bamboo tree tries to prove a point. Streams don’t fight with the boulders that come its way. It meanders away slithely towards its final destination. We as Humans need to learn the art of doing that. Being important and decisive is not required in everything that we do. Our lives could be lot simpler if we could shed out sense of being important and start going with the flow of life. The cosmos has thought you important enough. That’s sufficient. We need not have to strive for it. Let us for a moment contemplate upon our position not in society but in the expanding vastness of this Universe. We are all privileged enough to be a part of this exotic cosmic dream. We just have to relax and let go. We all have a part to play, and it will be played immaterial of our efforts. This is not a fatalistic view of living. No. It is understanding the beauty of life and bowing down to it with reverence and humility. To know that the pulsating gene that’s makes me throb with life is the same stuff that enlivens everything in this Galaxy is a thought that makes me shudder and relieves me at once of any sense of self importance and I start perceiving life in a new light. My false sense of ego dissolves in this knowledge; and what’s left of me is a mere organism that participates seamlessly in the glorious ride of life.

I have observed this tendency in many youngsters to reject Gods and Temples with nonchalance. It seems to them almost demeaning or embarrassing to even talk of it. They believe that life is totally in their hands and it requires nobody’s intervention. On one hand this self confidence is highly appreciated but on the other hand they have completely missed the relevance and significance of religious culture. It is true that the way religion is abused in our society leaves one with nothing but skepticism about the whole idea, but that should not take anything away from the fact that the spiritual culture we have inherited had a profound base and its tenets had a much larger meaning than what we have assigned to it in contemporary society.

For some time let us forget the various names given to religions (Hinduism, Islam etc) and their various subsets and look at the origins of this reverence to the unknown – which we call as religion. Primitive Man was hapless in front of the awesome forces of nature. His daily existence was determined by these forces and he thought by appeasing the wind or the rain in some way, his life would be more controlled and secured. And thus began the saga of rituals. Over the ages these wild incantations developed into a rigid system of “worship” with its own power hierarchies. The notable feature in this development is the fact no matter how refined and purified the prayers became the element of unpredictability and insecurity in Man’s life never left him totally. A fatalistic belief in fate began to rule the mind of man. A giving up of one’s life into unknown hands took the shape of God’s and Goddesses whose task it was to guard the world of uncertainties. Festivals and other days of worship became coded into the calendars of culture and it became the bounden duty of every person to attend places of worship and offer prayers mainly to propitiate the wild and virulent natural forces symbolized by these Gods. But the underlying urge behind these acts is the knowledge that our lives are never in our control. In every religion, we find there is parallel path of thought where a few men rejected the vain idolatry of their times. They were not atheists. They acknowledged the impersonal hold on their lives but they did not seek the reasons for it in the outer world, but dug deep within themselves to seeking out an answer. This line of thought came to be known as mysticism, and invariably in every society the mystics were looked upon with fear. The reason was clear. The mystics looked upon the Gods not as truths by themselves but as symbol of cosmic laws which none had the power to understand or change. A temple to them was not a place for appeasement but a sanctum sanctorum where one comes face to face with his own reality. The reality that life is lived through us and not by us and we have to accept whatever life has to give with a deep inner resignation. That is the true meaning of visiting temple-To prostrate before the cosmos, Understanding truly that every one of us has a role to play in this divine drama and that our personal will is only a myth. In a way we are led by destiny.

So visiting a temple is not to venerate an idol, but look beyond it and look through the inner meaning. If you want to show somebody where the moon is you have to point a finger towards it. Once the person has seen the direction of the pointed finger, he has to look beyond to actually see the moon. Similarly, the temples are pointers to the unknown. Do not get caught with pointer – See where it points too.

I remember some years ago, browsing in a bookshop in Katmandu, where I came across a book with a curious title “Mind is a Myth”-conversations with UG Krishnamurti. That was the first time I have heard of that name or the book. I was reluctant initially to pick it up but after walking up and down the alley for some time, I realized I badly wanted to buy it. It was a second hand Book store and this particular volume was priced nominally at fifty Nepali Rupees. Eventually, along with couple of other books I ended up buying this one too.

It is my usual practice to dig into the author’s life before reading his work. After a bit of research I found out the UG Krishnamurti was a contemporary existentialist Philosopher who refuses to call himself so. A seeker of truth from childhood, he had gone through the entire gamut of religious practices offered by our religion but was not satisfied with any of them. After dabbling with many Gurus, eventually he rejected all of them. What follows is interesting. Mahesh Bhatt’s biography of UG tells us that one fine day in Switzerland where UG was staying with his companion, UG underwent a “metamorphosis”-an event that UG describes as “declutched state”. A state in which all the five senses started perceiving undiluted sensations without the intervention of the mind. UG had to learn everything anew. He would eat something and then ask what is it that he had eaten; and so it was with all other perceptions. Slowly he became a functional Human being again, but things were not the same. His search for God and peace ended right there.UG would not entertain any talks on God or enlightenment ever again. He said that he had achieved no particular state except that from that moment when the metamorphosis happened his body worked in a declutched state with no intervention of thought. When there was something to do, he would do it; but beyond that he lived like an organism without the façade of the mind. And since then he has lived as a recluse not entertaining any conversations about religion or spirituality, because according to him the mind is a myth and hence any attempt to eliminate it is futile.

The book that I was holding in my hand was a collection of conservations with the man. It’s a thin volume and it didn’t take me long to finish. As I put the book down I could only feel pity for the conversationalist, because in the fifteen odd conversations that are recorded, UG completely denies that there is something called enlightenment and refuses to get into any arguments about it putting the author in a very embarrassing position. The talks do not reveal much about the man himself, but I guess that’s the way he would have wanted it to be.

Now what stuck me was that UG may be right in what he says. Our scriptures keep iterating the bliss is our natural state; we have somehow drifted away from it. And the cause of our misery is the mind. So if our true nature is untainted then there is no way we could attain it, because we are already that which we want to be- TAT TVAM ASI. Enlightenment or attaining that primordial state should not be esoteric happening. It could not also be something that can be forced. Alan watts beautifully describes this predicament as “trying to lift oneself using one’s shoe strings”. No method or rigor can force this event. It happens or it does not. It is better to let go of extraneous means and start questioning the thought structure which gives rise to these methods. We may have taken for granted something which may be an illusion in the first place. In UG’s case the illusion just snapped. He had nothing to do with it. There was no way he could describe what had happened to him. The world around him did not change. What changed was the way UG looked at it.

Well the book did leave me with a lot of questions? But more importantly it left me a notion that enlightenment does not mean that a thousand suns will rise in you, but could be as simple as snapping of our thought structure.
Cheers!!!!!!!!

The amount of violence that we are witnessing in our country in the name of religion is appalling. Ever since we became a democratic country, we have been grappling with this tyranny of religious fanaticism. We have allowed it to mushroom silently into multi headed hydra and today we are at a loss to know which head needs to be cut first. The issue has become so complex that is difficult to pin down the cause of this unnecessary bloodshed. What irks me is the fact that innocent lives who have nothing to do with any religious dogmatism get killed. The recent Bombay blasts is one more grim reminder That we as a nation have to quickly come to a conclusion on how do we end this insanity. Passing the buck from end to the other should no more be tolerated. Somebody must be stand up and take the responsibility of weeding out this insidious seeds of violence that have taken root. As a civilization we have become more cowardly each day. It is difficult to remember too may historical wars where lives of innocents were taken.

Every war was fought by the respective armies and not waged against any civilian. It was an unwritten rule that no common man should be dragged into the quagmire of war and bloodshed. True manliness lies in thrashing it out one against one. I am not advocating unwarranted massacre, but it seems to me that we are playing a waiting game; a chance that peace may flower in the hearts of the cold hearted maniacs who have no qualms of slashing the throat of a new born baby. Either we take decisive action or wait and witness the moral fibre of our nation weaken to the point of no return. Violence in the name of religion is not new to mankind. History is the witness to the fact more bloodshed has happened in the name of religion than anything else. The bloody crusades and then the Islamic dominion showed us the cost that we had to pay for religious wars. But, the difference today is that we cannot afford a wholescale war as we had in the past.That would be the nemesis of entire mankind. At the same time we cannot allow this rot to sink in. And the situation is getting worse by the day.