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Movie Review

Bharat (2019) Movie Review

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I got to see Bharat (2019) in the Amazon Prime Video OTT. This movie is underrated per IMDB. I would put it at a much higher rating than above average, likely 8 or 9 out of 10.

Who would not like this movie? It is pure fiction and has a larger than life story with strong emotions covering the whole spectrum from sadness to happiness, death to life before and to life after, from patriotism to atrocity, from poverty to richness, from dependence to independence, from childhood to old age, from non violence to violence, from fantasy to reality, from existence to non-existence. I would count this as Salman‘s best movie ever, that I have seen.

Placing the Tiger in the background and working in and around untouched domains

Coming from the hangover of the YRF Spy universe. Bharat, makes me think of this as a precursor to the Tiger. Almost completing the Tiger’s background story, which could have easily sat between pre-Tiger to Tiger. With similarly bold character of Katrina Kaif holding up and performing beyond expectations of a stereotypical Bollywood heroine. This also fits well with the Salman Khan’s zone of movies with the premise of India-Pakistan making this one also a true pan sub continent movie of Bajrangi Bhaijan. Complete with the Pathaan and upcoming Tiger Movies, this almost demands at least in people’s mind to give Salman movie fans to make these attempts a redeemer of whatever faults the human has and keeps the hope of negating the differences and unifying the broken hearts of both countries.

Bharat the redeemer

Coming back to Bharat the movie, at some Katrina’s character also knocks out the superhuman of the character making it very human. This must have been a truly humbling experience for the fans. As for the actors, they are just acting, it is for us, that it matters more.

Bharat and work

That scene of getting himself and his team a work visa was funny, unrealistic and stupid, nevertheless entertaining. Going through tough times of Partition of the sub-continent to formation of different countries, the effects of which were shown with good intent and effectiveness, Bharat stands out. Taking us through numerous jobs that the titular character undertakes and gives his best, it is a reminder for anyone who is willing to succeed, to also be willing to put in the effort. As we grow up we relate to different aspects of a movie. A working class person, someone in the working age, hopes to get to work and live a work life, accepts a VIP orAla Vaikunthapurramuloo or The Pursuit of Happyness at a much more realistic viewpoint. On a parallel, Katrina’s character also goes through work life, of immigration, public broadcasting and reality TV, a natural evolution resonating with the macroeconomics of the country of India.

Bharat and immigration

As a southerner, the effects of partition are not known much in the south, only history testbooks and interests in geopolitics would draw a curious mind towards this forgettable but important nation creating moment. I would have to use much imagination on top of the excellent writing of Kushwant Singh in his Train to Pakistan, to fill the gaps of humanness and the lack thereof. Bharat also goes through ambitions of the unemployed, how they wished to build their family first, reminding an average Mamootty fan of Pathemaari. Pathemaari was a serious take on poverty, helplessness, economic immigration and immigrant workers. Similar immigrant worker stories of which we heard and read in the recently concluded Qatar world cup 2022 as well. So many years have passed, but history repeats itself. Bharat particularly touches the immigrant’s nerve when it talks about hopes. Destroying someone’s hope is worser than death. In Kerala, a related proverb goes like, “Give an elephant, but never give hope”. Sometimes as immigrant and/or worker, we give hopes to ourselves, some of them may need a reclassification as a false-hope, to satisfy our ego and give ourselves a really hard footing. Don’t hopes drive us? Don’t we give ourselves hopes to live on and live by? Sometimes winning, sometimes losing and having a lifetime of experience to reflect upon.

Going through different jobs, posing different situations and the associated struggle and fun, it sits well with me as an economic immigrant working out of home country. The fun side of which reminds me of yet another great movie – The Forrest Gump. Salman portrayed an emotionally less aged character in the hit Bajrangi Bhaijan, whose innocence, just like Forrest Gump captured the heart, this one in and as Bharat combines the best of both worlds, and includes a whole universe of characters, emotions, situations and struggles, which is yet another surprise in a Bollywood movie, especially one normally expected out of Salman. Dealing with even pirates, on his own style, who would not want to be Bharat’s friend. It is his friend in bad times, that kept with him, and even this aspect of friendship was explored,in addition other relationships with siblings, parents and extended family with much importance in the movie.

Overall, Bharat was an interesting experience, of laws and lawlessness, ambitions and complacence. It is a wonder for someone who went through The Forrest Grump and Bajrangi Bhaijan to see that even within a standard Indian movie duration, Bharat could offer this much, and keeping a coherent narrative with effective visualization. Like other Salman movies, this one too, stands ground on hit movie songs. Bharat was a refreshing experience, and thence for once putting this particular movie well above my average ratings for an average Hindi Movie.

There was only one instant where I felt the movie could have improved. During Bharat’s near death experience in the underground work place, an otherwise stopped watch should have started working, to show us that this was unreal times, where his whole life flashes before him, and the watch should have stopped, when he recovers, indicating that we are back to normal where the watch never worked.

Bharat also pays good reference times for the legends Shah Rukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan.

Sidenotes

As someone who worked for a Pakistani Origin CEO, in a company which had significant footprint in Pakistan, USA and office in India. Going to a sponsored vacation trip with all Pakistani people in an unknown country, was a unique and memorable experience for me. Thanks to the USA for letting us do that.I would confidently claim that time has been proving over and over again of no much difference between humans, their needs and emotions. And people of all countries gel well when they are outside of their homes. So I would encourage everyone to get out of the comfort of home, and go and see the world. To shine lights on the darkest corners of our brain, to open up and bring in a true acceptance of the world we live in.We need to do more of that between these two beautiful countries and many other countries as well.

Footnotes

I could not end this without relating this movie to my own work life and visa experience as an economic immigration, though not as exciting and entertaining, it has its own ups and downs captured as related posts here.

Work in the USA

KGF1 (Known Good F1) Visa

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The known good F1 visa as I knew it was issued to any good student (read average or normal) with good university admit with everything good (normal). The good is normal. And probably why USA has people ask “How are you?” and get the answer normally as “good”. Good is normal. Good is good. How good is good? It is as good as it is known. So it is a known good. The unknown good, well is unknown. (Ref: Kakkakuiyil comedy ഒളിച്ചു വെച്ചാ പിന്നെ… https://youtu.be/VFPBZIh4vic)

So a student comes to the USA and gets F1 and studies Masters, in engineering, of course, others – are they normal? There could be other normals like the STEM based courses, anything non STEM is abnormal. For example: Dentistry DDS/DMD course in the USA is not a STEM Degree. So it is not Science, Technology, Engineering or Management. (Ref: Special 26 https://www.reddit.com/r/DesiMemeTemplates/comments/fhj3o4/asli_kaam_toh_yeh_kar_rahe_hain_special_26/)

So yeah!, Well back to the story. Studies are completed and then, no you cannot complete F1 based education just like that?! Why? We need to plan the timing to get the Optional Practical Training (OPT). Why is this optional, because some of the courses may not have practical component? Or you did not enrol in the lab component of a course? It is optional because you have the freedom?

None of the above. It is optional, if you want you apply for it. It is optional for the USCIS /DHS as well. If they feel like they can approve it. If not they can keep asking more questions or outright deny it.

OPT can be applied +/- so many days from graduation. Only if you graduate OPT is valid, if you fail then meh! So wait until graduation and then apply for OPT, but without OPT you cannot start job. But on an average OPT is awarded if school is good, DSO is well learned and you time it right then OPT will come, you will have a job based on OPT.

Where is the average data? There is no data. It is blind faith. Have faith, and you will be alright. So I attend all the available information sessions from university and elsewhere for OPT, OPT application, then realise that there is a CIP code, which will be printed on I-20, which was issued so that visa eligibility is proven, and then realise that the STEM OPT depends on the STEM Degree List published somewhere in the internet. Wait! No one said this in the beginning, well you never asked.

OK So How about I went though all the career fair, career services sessions, linkedin, networking, beefed up my already exceptional resume and crack application, jump ATS, at this time your resume NEO is in the ATS matrix, and then into oblivion. What happened to all the 1000s of resumes I submitted?! No time to waste, keep applying, pulling contacts, building networks and requesting referrals, and add to it the special charisma borrowed from Telugu and Tamil Mass Masala movies to attract hiring managers to get a foot in the door and interview and then present technical and soft skills and then wait for the results and gently nudge them, while applying for still many more jobs and then finally getting the OPT Employment Authorization Document (EAD) without the USPS missing it, without any correction to the EAD card and then if you already have SSN through some campus jobs all set to take on the challenge of Corporate America. For 12 months you are in the “Optional” Training. This is not optional for you, the loans are waiting repayment and then the mental promise is that it be repaid in time maximum withing the 3 years of OPT+STEM OPT Extension.

Oh! see that shiny PhD research position, wait the loan needs to be repaid. How about buying some apples, they are costly, lets stick with the student life and shared accommodation until loan is repaid and then you could have a lavish serving of $5 bag of apples. So it is that time of the life to toil to earn to repay the debts. In this pursuit KGF1 visa will work for 1 year. Be volunteer or employed. I have to be employed. Landed in a job. Worked well. Make a name so that there are atleast 3 good references from the job, and make them vouch the profile to be put in the lottery for the work visa (H1B). There are H1B lottery happening every year once with OPT and STEM OPT a total of 3 years will give atleast 2 chances for the lottery. If you joined in Fall and graduate and get to for profit employer job before Fall then you could potentially be eligible for that year + next 2 years for the lottery. However, life does not work like that. Employer would evaluate the work and then start the talk of sponsoring only if employee initiates the conversation and then somehow make them enter the profile into the lottery by March end of the year where the lottery happens in October of the same year. About 85000 H1B lottery visas are available. And there is a sub division for Master’s and Bachelor’s degree holders. Rules do change, so this data is from 2017-2018.

After impressing the employer and getting the lottery of H1B by chance you get maximum 6 years of work period and after which either an immigration petition has to be filed or you have to leave the country, wait for 1 year and then re-enter the lottery pool.

Hold On! This is going too fast. You said you wanted to study and repay loan and then what? Well the future beyond was /is unchartered. Only a 3 year post study stay is semi-guaranteed.

Life moves on with filing the ‘training report’ for OPT. The job that I got was based on my 2nd job in India, not due to the Master’s degree. Master’s degree gave the work authorization through OPT that I applied. Remember it was optional. Is life optional? What if this option had a lottery component?

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Yama’s Nirvana

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The day when human mind focused on death, instead of life, the future, instead of the present, Yamaraj (Divine-in-charge of the time, death, King of Time) was possibly created.

And hence every Brahmin true to his soul pays respect to the Lord, note: not God, of Death

Yama vandanam
Prostration to the Lord of Death

Stand facing south, palms joined.

        Yamaya namah
Yamaya dharmarajaya mrityave chantakaya cha
        Vaivasvataya kalaya sarvabhuta kshayaya cha
Audumbaraya dadhnaya nilaya paramesthine
        Vrikodaraya chitraya chitraguptaya vai namah
Chitraguptaya vai nama om nama iti

Reference: Sandhyavandanam

Link: http://www.kuladevatha.gsb.in/Sandhyavandan3.html

How does one understand this section of the future ? Future is the end. To the the lord of death, the lord of the end, lord who kills all the past; the past which haunts. Yama is killer of the past, receiver of the dead. The dead get a chance of interview with Chithragupta, the Lord’s Bookkeeper and as luck permits, Lord Yama himself. Lord Yama is not a God, he was not elevated to that level at any point. Like all other devas, the divine beings, Yama also gets his immortality and superdivine powers by virtue of being a Deva. And to that Yama we pay our respect. Not before dying. Not after. It is everyday. And the point being, the past needs to be killed. And everyday we are dying. We are also growing from the past.

In traditional Mexican tradition, Day of the dead, is celebrated. In certain Tamil communities, the dead is taken to the funeral rituals accompanied by dance, songs and drums. Death Dance is “a thing” across the globe. With all the sufferings of the living gone, the dead on the day of death is sent off happily. The past is essentially protecting us. As an example from daily science I can fairly say that the outer skin of humans are composed of dead cells. This cover of dead cells help protect the inner live cells.  When nail grows longer, nails are dead cells, no one says we are dying faster when someone grows hair or nails, some put nail polish and color their hair. Celebration of death everyday. And loss of the death, loss of hair and malformed nails are a cause of concern for people of indulgence. Is that necessary ?

“the old live in the past, the young live in the future, the wise live in the present”. This present presents itself as a present to the Lord of Death. Yama, would be more than happy given everyone accepts their present presence in complete mindfulness. The past , let it not haunt, but protect and make us wiser. The future, let it be natural transition from the actions of the past and present and not any random luck or wish favored blessing in the guise.  The time ticks. It is in the perpetual works. If it cannot be changed why worry ? If it could be, then why worry ?

Those moments which has been accepted as is and then utilised gives Yama his much needed Nirvana.

creativity

Shiva: The destroyer of Brahma

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Disclaimer: Whatever is written here is imaginary and to be taken lightly.

Immortals are imaginary. That imagination lasts forever. One of the classic legendary character from Indian Mythology is Jambavan. Jambavan originated from the tension of Brahma. Brahma, the swayambhu (self-originated) knows the whole from the beginning. He is the creator , then how is that he had tension ? It seems almost impossible. This tension also includes the story of origin of Shiva and destruction of Brahma as the one true ultimate.

 

The Shanti Mantra  (hymn for peace) states

Om

Poornam-adah poornam-idam

Poornaath poorna-mudachyate

Poornasya poorna-maadaaya

Poorna-mevaa vashishyate

Meaning:

Everything (infinite) came from the infinite (complete/all encompassing/all inclusive). From infinite came infinite. Take the infinite from infinite and infinite remains.

Initially there was one infinite. Brahma. From that Infinite Brahma created infinite, so that infinite remains. This is as much story of Brahma, as is the universal inclusion and pantheistic (including agnostics and atheists) on the land of the legends, known as India in the modern world.

Brahma is the creator,who created the creator. It, the creator. The creator, being beyond Shiva (also spelt Shiva in certain Indian (English) and Vishnu, is the first fellow to give boons to Asura. In early lifestyles that existed, there were humans ( Manushya) , the divine beings (Deva) and the superhumans (Asuras). Brahma created them as it’s own creations it had responsibilities and authorities over each of the creations. Like small children fight for resources within a household. These children of it started discomforting each other. Humans, were greedy, to whom Brahma advised “Da”. Devas were living their uber pompous lives of luxury, to whom Brahma advised “Da”. Asuras were uncouth and almost unmindful in their activities, narcissistic and ruthless to get everything for them even at the expense of others, to whom Brahma advised “Da”. The First “Da” to humans implied “Damam” control, or self-control and control their greed. To Devas is was their luxury that was drving them out of control to balance it Brahma advised them to perform “Daanam”, charity and donation. The third superhumans would never listen to anything other than their own wants and needs, to whom Brahma advised the third “Da” which stood for “Daya”, Kindness, to be kind when they go about attacking and abusing with their superhuman strengths and imposing themselves on others.

All these creations where too much to manage on its own. Brahma decided that there must be  Maintenance Manager, not less or greater in power than it. Hence, Vishnu was created. It is also a natural evolution in the process of delegating tasks as in modern companies or in general human nature. And Vishnu did a good job in maintaining the stuff created. In this process he got a certain status of God. Making himself the second but not less than the one.

Brahma’s cohort of Devas where not well trained in their regulatory affairs and generally indulged themselves in their big life of entertainment, unending supply of food and drinks. Though a good hire. Yamaraja, the time keeper was over burdened with regulating death with his assistant Chithragupta, who did rigorous accounting of death and dispatch to next realms of life after death or conjoining the infinite. There were bigger troubles who manifested in terms of uberhumans, better and brighter than the average Asuras. Though they were classified as Asuras, the Devas lived in constant fear of being driven out of their land of rich rule because of these powerful beings. This needed someone, who was skillful handy and ruthless in dealing with these beings and be the epitome of peace and calm otherwise. The search ended in the creation of the title of “Rudra“. Rudra evolved from one the outliers in the Deva clan who was not much into the ostentatious lifestyle. Rudra was created and chosen to be the one. Unlike the average Deva, Rudra received the powers to the physical elements, so elementary that modern “Brownian motion” tied to Rudra’s cosmic dance. Master of balance and like a systematic clock maintains time for the purpose of eventual eternity. Yamaraj , King (Raja) of Time (Yama), was relived. Now there was someone dedicated to hunt down the critical time evading uberhuman beings. A master of time, anger, dance and handy, Rudra evolved from age to age, like any average Deva, he went through cycles of life. Juggling through each skills in each power cycles, Rudra graduated to Shiva. The change was so subtle that Brahma could not notice it. Meanwhile Brahma’s creations, primarily Asuras sacrificed through rituals and rigorous customs to plead to their creator for various boons and benefits, which were granted in considerable persistence. It was harder to reach Vishnu and Shiva. nevertheless, some Asuras and even humans were patient enough in their invocate meditations that they reached their favorite deities and requested desired wishes and boons to be granted. Brahma was always the first and the fastest. Like a mother all children’s calls were attended to first by the creator.

Maintenance (Vishnu) and annihilation (Shiva) came later. Hence later strengths of these two. They made weapons to defend against later creations. They acquired higher forms and started sidelining the creator. The creator was the first form to which Deva, Asura and Humans would go and ask for help. Thence redirected.  Devas started knocking at Vishnu’s door for help.  It is a point to be noted that in that ancient world there were seven seas and seven lands. The number seven had a sense of specialty to it. Seven encompassed everything . Rudra through his power life cycles attained The Damaru ( Drum). Chandra, the Moon God who controlled the mind of souls paid tribute to Rudra and resided on Rudra’s head. Holy River Ganga, drops of which can purify any soul joined powers of Rudra and formed partnership with the Moon and stayed on Rudra’s head. With power of the time in hand, Rudra could conjure up the pasts (Bhoot) also known for lesser beings as ghosts. The past which haunts is indeed a ghost for the lesser mortals, for good or bad. The pasts symbolised itself in the form of Kapala (Skull) Initially , collaborative, Vishnu attained certain rapport with Shiva. Then came the great churning of the universe. It was time for Vishnu to prove his powers and incarnated as a Turtle which helped in churning the ocean of universe. From there among many other things came Kalakuta poison. To save the earth from this time puzzle (which is easily related to black hole in modern astrophysics), Rudra drank it. However, his wife did not permit the poison to go down beyond his neck by holding his neck. The poison turned Rudra’s neck into blue color and with power of his wife, the poison was suspended to stay there forever using a snake which was tied around his neck, the King of serpents, Vasuki, now would be part of Rudra’s decoration. Rudra acquired the name of Neelakanta or the Blue-necked, a great event that launched the two successors to Brahma in a single event. Brahma was happy to find his new creations to be performing upto expectations. Rudra was a frequent meditator, Yoga practitioner hence called Adiyogi. Seeker of perfect meditation Rudra was fascinated and involved in different forms of meditation, one of which manifested as cosmic dance, giving him the name “Nataraja” (King of Dances). To aid his meditation Rudra used prayer beads of Rudraksha, literally tear drops of Rudra.  Shiva and Vishnu after their universal debut became friends for good. Among friendly exchanges Shiva gave Vishnu, his great weapon the Sudarshana. It was time to establish the higher powers of the three and Rudra made the trident(Trishula) to commemorate the celebrations for himself. The seventh accessory that made him the Shiva (Seven) . A traditional puzzle asks the listener “ആറും പിന്നെ ഒരു ആറും ചേർന്നാൽ ?” (six and a river becomes ?) (both have the same word in Malayalam)  . The answer is Shiva, the Seven. The timelessness of Shiva spread worldwide. Even the Jewish mourning is called Shiva (=Seven)  what can escape the almighty time master. At this point Shiva is truly elevated as one among the holy trinity. The Trishul being symbol of that. The name Shiva, indicating the spread over seven seas and seven mountains, Shiva had truly arrived. The name of Shiva or importance of seven is prominent in languages and cultures to the west of India. A clear indication of were the spread went. The customs of the modern Islam is tied to the moon and clearly indicative of the power of Shiva. Shaivite customes and Islamic traditions are similar. Yogic postures in meditative prayers, 3-5 times prayers daily and so on.

Was it time to retire or throw in the towel for Brahma? I do not think so. The two new heros of the show had something up their sleeves. In fact , Vishnu was beginning to be called Ranganatha (the lord ( natha) of the stage of the world = (ranga)) and was ready to take the challenge of who is the mightest straight on. While Shiva was gaining his foothold on the western landscape Vishnu had a look east policy. Contemporary evidence suggests that the lands to the east of India such as Cambodia has heavy influence of Vaishnavites that Buddhist sculptures are derived from incarnations of Vishnu. Skillfulness of Vishnu was so great that yet another immortal, the forever Vishnu devotee, Narada goes in with a challenge posed at Shiva. Narada asks Shiva who is the greatest Brahma or Vishnu. Knowing that this was his chance to be the greatest Shiva comes up with task for the contenders Vishnu and  Brahma to prove who is the one. Shiva asks them both to find the end of Shivalinga. Eager to prove and maintain their status quo both of them embark upon different directions to find the end. On its way Brahma finds a Ketaki flower. Knowing the infinite length of the Shivalinga Brahma is willing to return and report a bluff that he found the end and made a deal with Ketaki flower to vet for him and give testimonial.  On their return, Vishnu was waiting for them and in desperation exclaimed his inability to find the end. Nonchalant Brahma made his claim and Ketaki flower testified. Knowing that his task was endless Shiva says that Brahma is not worth their respect anymore and there would not be any worship center for Brahma anymore. By extension, Ketaki flower would be banned from any worship related activities. This elevated the tensions in the growing old creator from whom Jambavan, the tension of Brahma originated. And Brahma manifested into Him , instead of it. Brahma had an identity and grew to have emotions and tension just like his creations. Lost, ashamed Brahma returned to his enormous floating lotus in space to find a way out of this.

Ultimately the powers on later days thwarted Brahma so much so that there no more than a few temples for him. The creator thus sidelined the battle being Vaishnava and Shaiva started to be more fearsome. Kingdoms and priests fought over intellectually and physically on the philosophical interpretations of what they deemed to be correct.

Little did they know the God of Gods, Brahma had better plans. The creator found no choice than to bring diversity to avoid massive destruction of creations. Thus came languages cultures and other religion. To help maintain and contain the expansions of the Two, Asuras were granted powers, boons. There was chaos.
Incarnations of Vishnu’s sidekicks were assigned to combat their own lord. This shook the basis for fight. Collapsed the decorum and ultimately led to weaker and lesser incarnations for both Shiva and Vishnu. The duo went on continuous meditation. While Shiva took on the bed of mountains to regain, strategize and retain his title, Vishnu took to the oceans lying on the infinite snake, Anantha (=Infinite), plotting strategies to win the title of ultimate God. However, Brahma was effectively out of the race for a long time to come. To what extent we yet do not know, but Shiva did his job of destroying, destroying the past, destroying the past Brahma, leaving a new Brahma to brace himself to give birth to new theology.

creativity

The Glue said: “Put your life together”

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Another day, another mission. The spirit of adventure never cease. The excitement and wonderment, wanderlust catching dust. In time, finding time, to time, for time.

I sat glued to the chair to solder a disobedient wire onto the printed circuit board, that it was phobic about. It reminds me of the legend of Kodungalloor Bhagavathy temple.  Where, the legend has it that the deity needs verbal abuses to be pleased.  The reasons pointed out are varying in geopolitical climates and religious sentiments, riding on libertarian actions to uproot the caste barrier. However, finding a convincing analogy to my situation , for my wire did not yield any clue. Therefore, giving the abuse a pass, I took to the next available step. I had to put this thing together. And there it was, in red and white, bringing the memories of Croatian football team. American’s have to change their fighting game name to something else. And football is really football, soccer does not mean anything. So, going back to the story. With great ambitions, I picked the savior of the day, the superglue. One tiny squeeze and the wire was trapped in its place. Only, I know the importance of having stuck the wire intact. And plenty of story that tiny bit of wire can tell me about the board. An accidental extra squeeze, and I spread the glue all over my fingers. Figuratively, I had put my life together in one shot, and literally in the next. And the superglue did both in such an enviable fashion. May be there is a super glue ad which says “Put your life together”.

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Vanishing point

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An average timeline of  a human can be drawn starting from birth to school, progressing to university and job and marriage and help repeat all the same for the kids. This canned solutions in life is a proven time tested sequence. The authority of which is questioned only by a few. So far, the biggest joke has been, people who do PhDs become researchers and award winners, Masters degree holders assist the higher level tasks and assume a better position in relation to a Bachelors holders who can offset the difference in relation by experience. And Lo comes a business graduate with some idea, and good communication skills but unable to create anything depend on professional Masters , Engineers and Accountants to help surround him so the idea can be fruitful and s/he will manage, who in turn is controlled by Government regulations and to top it off politicians who have virtually no clue on what to do except get votes and keep their chair ( Indian context). And there have been people , Ministers who have hardly been to proper schooling but control whole education department of state. Nothing bad about them not being canned, or dressed like the preparation of a law student to be a judge. Nothing offensive. People are people and we accept them in that way. Who are you and me to change people and attitude. We can help build solutions, bring it to people, enabling them with technologies, but not force people to change their attitude. Attitude is developed from within. In relation to the learning, if someone does not have that attitude to learn. Why force it ? They may be more than happy in the position they are in. Hey, that is why they are in that situation , right ? Then why worry. No news is good news. If there is no news of worry on their part that is good. And as time progress , we have accomplished various things among a truckload of failures. We keep failing, falling, rising up, one step, success, among hundred falls, sometimes hurting, sometimes breaking bones, we never stopped. We keep moving. The act of brownian motion ( Shiva tandavam) or universal vibration. I am happy to have introduced to this relation between physics, spiritual idea and practicality by a Chemistry professor. That was mind-blowing. And that is exactly why I remember it even now after 10+ years of hearing it first, and only once. This sounded great.

 

Zooming back to reality, some 8 years back I was talking to my friend in one of the huge classrooms that we had. He was apparently struggling with his courses, while I crossed the bar every time by luck. There was struggle, but it did not hurt much. I took it easy.  The last bench was unoccupied. Rare. Compared to the mayhem that is generally associated with backbenchers who create ruckus even when the class is in progress. They had gone to in pursuit of whatever fantasizes them. We were left in the dust. Yes, though we have good amount of greenery and excellent climate the classrooms were dusty. I believe it was more of the dust in the mind. There was no clarity. What are people going to do. It was global recession, American trend is that whatever they do is global and international. There are massive impacts because of nations in general and USA is a heavy weight champion in this regard. And we were in dust, because someone lied. And a group of people lied. That lie was taken to be truth, democracy is crazy. And here we were sitting in this classroom, not sure were things were headed. About job search and direction of life. These are times that I feel timelessness. The time simply stops. And the clock grinds to halt so I can easily take pictures of these moments without worrying about the shutter speed. Our classrooms were very well ventilated and had natural sunlight to work with. The day was bright but future was not. Time simply stopped. My classmate asked me about the examinations in general. I wanted to help him. I let him ask. How can I force myself to help him. I waited. He asked me something that no one ever asked me, no classmates ever discussed, no professor mentioned this in class or in personal interaction. That was one question that still haunts sometimes. The implications was beyond classes. He asked me to give him a relation on learning. How the courses in our syllabus were connected  ? How does one course in first semester connect with a course on third semester. Just like the canned life , I mentioned before our syllabus in University of Calicut was also canned. There is a syllabus to follow. Common for all applied electronics and instrumentation engineers from first semester to sixth semester and few electives offered for 7th and the 8th semester. In total it was 3 electives for the whole 8 semesters which amounted to 4 years of engineering study. And therefore, it must be pretty easy to link the canned courses. I sat with him, listed the courses on paper. Tried to link related courses in group. And yeah! it made sense. It was someone sensible who made the course. We missed the forest for the tree. We were taking one course at once without a thought about how they all were the building blocks of electrical and instrumentation systems. That was a moment of revelation. Here was something I could learn, thanks to him, because he asked such a thoughtful question. And then the pieces came together. We divide to conquer and unite them for strength. We needed to hold both the bigger picture and individual segments in relation to the larger perspective. And there a peripheral course called Engineering Graphics made sense, though the professor had mentioned in the first year that this course has no direct application in our program, he did not connect or link it to applications of electrical engineering for us. It was for us to discover, to connect , to learn, to paint the bigger picture one section at a time. Now, that was learning at a different level.

With time the picture gets bigger, revealing only little sense overall. Nevertheless, I keep working at a corner here or somewhere dis-contiguous elsewhere. My site of work appears random. Clock keeps ticking. My picture has more color and more figures in it now. How are they related ? Though, I am not cent percent sure I keep working at it. And the sense of time vanishes. Recalling my Engineering Graphics lessons reminds me of the concept of vanishing point, will that vanishing point be my point of convergence ?

 

 

-Sense of Time series-

  • Sense of Time - I would wake up everyday. Just like any other day. This was yet another day. Exciting as usual. A running clock adds to the excitement of awaiting adventure. And I start upon a new one. This time it is about time. And it is time. Time changes and now it was forcibly changed. The circadian … Continue reading Sense of Time →
  • Vanishing point - An average timeline of  a human can be drawn starting from birth to school, progressing to university and job and marriage and help repeat all the same for the kids. This canned solutions in life is a proven time tested sequence. The authority of which is questioned only by a few. So far, the biggest … Continue reading Vanishing point →
  • Wake Up - Work life habits are like rock. I would wake up at 5.30 am. Listen to the soothing sound from my phone. The wake up call with a Native American touch to it, resembling the flute of Carlos Nakai. In the background the birds chirp and the wake up call for a hunter, ready to pick … Continue reading Wake Up →
  • Blizzard - Nature is by far the best cure for passing time. Problem in passing time is a common boredom oriented disease. I have met extrovert complain about boredom. Even Issac Asimov said this. I do not have to believe it. It is belief that add weight to visions. It is this belief that converts the unreal … Continue reading Blizzard →

Book Review, Review

Blinked

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Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without ThinkingBlink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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I picked this up a second time. Thanks to Buffalo-Erie Public Library System for providing this free facility.

Blink takes the reader through some case studies and associated case studies on snap-judgements and its base on expertise, prejudice and autonomous nervous system.

It was interesting to wonder if some Kathakali artists could collaborate for the facial action coding system. For the uninformed Kathakali is an old art form mixing drama and dance, action and emotions. Kathakali artists spend a lot of effort in efficiently enacting the required dramatic sequences based on Indian (Hindu) mythology. It takes equal amount of effort from the audience to understand the performance. This art form is considered to be the height of acting. It is also an old saying in Kerala that face is the mirror of mind (മുഖം മനസ്സിന്റെ കണ്ണാടി). And blink re-affirms that mind reading (read face-reading) is for real.

Malcolm also says about well educated people doing blink judgements and actions which may be right or may not be right based on the habits built by exercise. While the policemen killed Diallo because of their bad exercise, and Paul Ekman could judge facial expressions to predict the nature and behavior of persona by good practice. Musical experts picked up good music performed behind the screen and also got dissatisfied by seeing a woman performing trombone , when the screen was removed later, due to prejudice of expecting only males perform high quality trombone.

In the afterword, Malcolm wishes to urge the US American jury system to adopt the “screen” to avoid prejudice in official judgement that may creep in due to the jury system of USA. This brings in a question about the jury system itself. The world class movie “Rustom” vividly portrays and adaptation of real story that used the last jury system based judgement that happened in India. I was wondering why the system was restricted to judgement by judge alone in India. If USA uses jury system that must be good. Ain’t it ? Blink reassures me that definitely, well educated individuals in jury hardly know legality and constitution. They are influenced by their prejudices and what the they feed themselves a.k.a media and opinions as demonstrated in the actual court case which inspired the movie “Rustom”.

In this same way, as a reader, I would have to read people by face, I can know their mind. Let rationality take over instead of pre-judgement in case of confrontation and confusion. Let me be guided in the right direction as the Gayatri Mantra states.

 

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To , or not to ?

To think over the mind and matters that matter the mind is not very mindful matter. However, the matter of mind is such that mind still minds about mind and matters. Mind thinks without the thought to provoke it intentionally. It keeps at the task of pondering over the wonders and gossips of the world. And once this question came up.

How do I see a person.

As a person who minds, I do not have to think too much on how I behave when I am with people I am accustomed to . Like small kids who are free to cry or be happy or be wild in the presence of their best human contact, mostly mother and father bear the brunt. They seem to act more polished and  controlled in the presence of strangers. This, I see as  a sense to be naturally defensive. Keeping the own nature to the near and dear ones, while be secretive or hide the total character from others, who may or may not be well-wishers. Is it for the same reason that the human mind gets stuck at the thought of a public presentation or to speak up at interviews and public forums. May be Yes. There is a time when the mind is experienced enough to pull in socially acceptable standards of putting thoughts into words. This may backfire in case of people who are honest and frank about telling the inconvenient truth.  Do I perceive them differently ?

If it is a public personality, a politician or a popular person. There is a reason to keep a distance at the thoughts promoted by that individual. The influence of this individual may be limited by the sense of overall character perceived by the viewers, followers or fans in case of sports and movie starts. If an actor says about social responsibility rather than films and movie related matters, I do not feel that the person is authentic because of lack of experience shown by that person in social responsibility initiatives.

Say, I heard something about a close friend. How does the mind analyse it. Initially, it is the thought as to should I share what I learned about the person just now ? Is she/he open to hearing the same. Does it benefit either of us in sharing this information/gossip. Is it true ? Should I check if it is true ? Does it matter ? This process very closely uses the Aristotle’s filter of truth.

If the mind decides through the filter that it may be true, but not beneficial in material terms, except that the growing empathetic concern to see my friend in a better light would be  personally satisfying. This holds no material benefits and can be truly classified into the category of gossip.  Because this really does not bring in the positive enthusiasm, nor is it could in bringing about a sense of calm. It is just like some of the Indian roads. You see the cattle shit, sometime you do not. You step on it. Some people may feel it funny, some feel it may be funnier when you step, slip and fall. Nevertheless, for the self, it is the back-pain and the resulting dirty footwear that matter. And like Mark Twain said about age.

“Age is a matter of mind. If you do not mind, it doesn’t matter”

Can be applied to anything and feel free to fill the blank.

“_____ is a matter of mind. If you do not mind, it doesn’t matter”

To judge whatever comes to me, to analyze and to categorize as good bad, beneficial , not beneficial, instigating action or not, is for the mind to decide. That is where it really matters.Because at the end of the story, if there is no lessons learned, there is no point.  And it goes to resemble the Socrates’ question and let me ask the self  when something comes to me. Is it for me to take action, scrutinize, propagate, promulgate or pejorate. The next step “to, or not to____?” remains with me.

And Buddha’s story helps here. A person came to Buddha and shouted huge profanity at him. Buddha remained silent. After some time the person left the place. And one of the disciples asked Buddha. ” That person, was outrageous and too heated up. Why did you remain silent all this time ?”

And then Buddha replied ” If someone comes to you with a gift and you do not take. What happens to the gift ?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Incomplete, me!

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Once, I went to an office to sign up for my paperwork due for an employment. Being in USA, I like the way they present the tax forms upfront, so we know that we are part of something bigger and tax is being paid directly, there is nothing illegal about the job offer, etc.  This happiness is short-lived by the amount of confusion innate in any Government forms. And after multiple questions, filling up portion of the forms and going back and forth, I made a friend out of the front desk clerk. Then comes the part which asks for my status in the country. I say without any expression, but surety to know the answer “I am an alien”. That lady held my hand in a semi-sympathizing manner. I was startled, for a moment, because I never expected such a reaction. The movie “Independence Day” (US American English movie) came to mind. I did not dwell myself too much into the implications of the movie, in this context, for I have a job at hand. A job to complete. As I continued, more spaces stood out blank “says aliens to read instructions”, I read out. This time the lady had come to terms with my kind of reading. So, we were back to the content, directly.

Sometimes, in life, when confused, I feel that I live to fill up the blanks in the forms presented at various stages of my life. Except for the space for family, parents, I used to wonder all the humongous amount of information that we had to put into paper to get various benefits from the Government, or even in the case of employment. This continues into online applications, tax filing and almost every place I end up being me. And then this funny incident happened.

In my last visit to the health services I was told there was nothing to do, except the chores. The freedom of the country, I am in, gives the practitioner a complete picture of my previous medical cases. Only, whatever I chose to reveal in the beginning, of course. This is a routine in USA, where you are asked the history of your health, about your parent’s health, so the complete case history is at the fingertips of the doc. This time I only had to verbally fill the form that they had in their system. It is mandatory for them to remind me of all the background I had. Especially allergy and surgery. I have been asked in India, my home country, too, about allergy to medicines. This may be standard across the board. However, surgery was something new. So, I am told ” You had no major surgeries except removal of wisdom tooth”. I ask back, curious to know if it is really that important ” Is it a real surgery?”. Doc replies ” Yes! because they gave you anaesthesia, opened your body and a part of your body is removed “.  I retorted “I am incomplete!”. She in a surprise said “I have never heard someone say like that”.

That realization that I had left something of my body back from where I came from, I had lost it to the modern medicine. A part of my body is removed, therefore I am incomplete. Nevertheless, it helps fill the form, where there is space to fill up with any surgeries I had.  Cynically, I had lost something to gain something. And the insight struck that I do not have to be confused enough to do something to fill up some random blank space in some equally arbitrary event in this life.

 

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Fuel of life : ATP – A Targeted Plan

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If you want to achieve something. Plan.

This is THE MOST important and first step to achieve your goals.

It is mentioned in all possible self help books that you can find.

Listing some

Think and grow Rich

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams & Reaching Your Destiny

Jumpstart Your Business: 10 Jolts to Ignite Your Entrepreneurial Spirit
Even “root” once said about PhD advisor’s motto

Decide what you want. Go get it

And Les Brown says that too.

Ambition is the most desired character in any field. That is in one way a natural trait of humans. “Ambitions unlimited” seem to be the genetic motto of humans. But by some circumstances people tend to be mediocre. Ambition boosts once self confidence. The end result of ambition, called “Success” is what people envy about. Never once have I heard people say that I envy someone’s ambition. The mediocre guy pretends ignorance to ambitions or act like a jealous Indian, forgetting conveniently that there is no limit to excel.  They overreact when someone says Plans can fail. They do not see that at the end of a failure there is success.  Thus, in a sequence not planning lead to non-failure, planning is often never done due to fear of failure. Even if texts which are centuries old, Bhagavad Gita, and later literature urge one that fear of failure should not be a deterrent to success.

Knowing this the very next best step to do is to decide. Though indecision, is also a decision. (Remembering Narasimha Rao‘s famous ” inaction is also action”). Some spritual schools may definitely believe in indecision as decision. Also, decision can be reached by this sort of elimination method.

Let us think what a decision can do.

We know that ambitious people have a plan, a focus , a decision. This decision leads to A Targeted Plan = ATP . Like the ATP molecules which are the energy units of the human body cells. A Targeted Plan can change the way of life. As the Inventor Charles Kettering said ” A Problem well stated is a problem half solved” . The decision leads to well stated target. This target leads to single-minded focus. Which helps us to stay organized around this central idea or theme. Focus is essential , as in cameras, to get the clear picture. The decision to follow the target plan, with persistence of effort naturally lead to the desired success. Some people are brilliant at multi-tasking, some are brilliant in coming to a decision fast, some are slow, some are great at choosing the right decision, some are excellent in analyzing the available choices to arrive at the decision. All the further activities are determined by the decided mind.

Ambitious people know their weakness. And work towards bettering it. Decision lets you prioritize and rearrange the tasks at hand. Decisions by ambitious keeps them moving.

Like the great Taxi driver who told about his son’s life.

“A motor without load will burn”

His son, he said, started like him, as a driver. He took bike on loan, paid it off, got a car on loan, paid the loan through his rides; took house on loan and paid it off by hard work. Because of this all banks are happy to lend him money. Because they know he has proven record of repayment on time. He said whatever his son has made is through his own hardwork and persistence, without anybody’s help. The load that he took upon himself , the ambition, made him a successful person that his father is proud of. Without that load of ambition the talents as a human would have burned and become useless.

The ambition of  person can be limitless. In fact, ambition should drive one towards a positive life, made possible by decisions and actions. No wonder truly ambitious people stay focused and achieve what they want.

Ten years back, when I wrote the Kerala Engineering , Agricultural and Medical Entrance Exam, I scored mediocre marks. A family friend asked me why you are not on the top. As was my track record in his perception. I said I was not decided on what I wanted. It reflects directly on the results. This is a fact. This is an experience. At the same time, I have achieved stuff on which I was ambitious, decided what I wanted and stood focused. Come what may, that ends up in success. The good thing about being ambitious is same as that of education.

More education paves way for more venues to learn. As ambitions leads to success, that success paves way for more success. It is all a matter of persistence. And all we need is to keep the fuel of life or ATP well stocked in our tanks.