Marriages are made on Earth

I,like many, have got my views on the school of marriage and thought of expressing them through this blog. My analysis on marriage is more from the aspect of Cause & Effect which obviously is a most convenient way to look at the reality of the world. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in his book 'Beyond Good and Evil' said "The same emotions are in man and woman, but in different TEMPO, on that account man and woman never cease to misunderstand each other." Ever since the time mankind has progressed into a society living, moving on rapidly from the ape phase, the concept of marriage seems to get as complicated as possible.  Humans by natural tendency get attracted to an effect rather than the cause. Numerous philosophers in the West and the East have dealt with the concept of metaphysics and religion. Their intentions were clear which was to ponder over how to construct a healthy form of society so as to curb Human's natural instincts. So, what are natural instincts when it involves a man and woman? Lets analyze the cause that brings man and woman together (by this we can safely consider 'Marriage' as an effect).  Every human being's ultimate goal in life is to be happy.  By happiness we mean satisfying a man's will , may it be desire,object, feelings and every other subforms that is associated with a Man's will. By natural law a man is attracted to a woman.  In the due course of his life, a man meets a woman, for whatever reasons decides to spend his life with the woman with the sole motive that his happiness can be further enhanced. At that time if a similar thought is ripe in the woman she will reciprocate and thus the two decide to start living together. Now, this is a cause which I am sure many of you reading this blog would agree. Now lets analyze marriage.  From the times of ancient civilization irrespective of region or religion, marriage has been looked at as an event where in friends and families are expected to gather to symbolize the beginning of living together of the man and the woman. So what caused as a personal interest in the mind of man and woman is now being witnessed by people who are considered as friends and family of that man and woman. Let us look at whom do we want to include in the group of friends and family mainly from the viewpoint of the man and woman. Barring parents and siblings, other members of families and mainly friends are the ones whom the man and woman chose to be surrounded with for their personal interests in the years of their growing up. All these people what form a Society from the point of view of the man and woman getting married. This gives rise to that one big question, Marriage to Society OR Society to Marriage ? And it doesn't stop there. Marriage gets the law of the land involved too. Now let us go back to the Cause. What caused as a thought and desire in the mind of a man and woman, will have to involve all that we discussed above (Society+Law of land) to take its effect. Now let us analyze human mind from the thought, will, desire and feelings standpoint. All of these are given at a particular time and circumstance. Going by the cliche, "Change is the only constant entity in life", every man and woman is bound to this change which will lead all together a new zone of mindset wherein the same thought of living together may not be ripe in either or both. But now the couple are in the 'Effect' (Marriage) zone that involves (Society+Law). From this time onwards they will have to work from Effect backwards to the Cause the travel of which is cumbersome to the core completely in contrast with the travel from Cause to Effect. While it is nearly impossible to lay absolute opinion on the concept of marriage, I tried my best to condense my views and put it together as a blog post. 

Bottomline: The above lines reflect my thoughts on Marriage which is accepted by many as a means for the Society to progress. But who exactly are we talking about when we say Society? What started as personal interest in the minds of that particular man and woman, how ridiculous it is to involve the Law and Society for supervision of a Marriage ? 

Vishnu Sarma

My visit to the DMZ - A once in a lifetime experience

It was a once in a lifetime experience for me as I traveled upto the South Korean Border of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. Conflicts between various nations across the world has been existing for centuries now. From Israel-Palestine to India-Pakistan, religion has played a major role in contributing to the heights of the conflicts between the nations.But I always thought that the North and South Korean conflict had a unique nature to it in the sense that the whole difference stands on the ideologies each of these two nations have got.  Political differences between nations draws attention across the world only when a strong incident occurs (mostly in the form of violence) which will make the whole world stand up and take notice. The TED talks video "Hyeonseo Lee: My escape from North Korea" drew my attention to the North and South Korean conflict and became a subject of interest to me.  

                                           
                                                The DMZ behind me

In my attempt to understand the root cause of the conflict between North and South Korea, it became clear to me that the heavy influence of the US on South Korea and the Soviet Union(now Russia) on North Korea played a major role in contributing to the differences between the nations. This obviously meant that while South Korea took to the ideology of Capitalism, North Korea got heavily influenced by the ideology of Marxism.

                      The North Korea post as seen from S.Korean border


   Just going by a simple one line summary of these two strong opposite ideologies, Marxism fights for the protection of human rights while Capitalism fights for the protection of individual interests. I always believed that these two ideologies exist as two strong opposite forces inherently in every individual belonging to the post industrial revolution era. Whichever force dominates inside an individual, reflects the personality of the individual. But the fact that these two strong opposite ideologies can actually contribute to the differences between two whole nations as a major factor, just makes me realize how much impact these two ideologies have created across the whole world.

           A army officer keeps a vigil at the South Korean Border check post

At the end of my tour, I asked the tour guide ,"Just keeping the political interests aside, what is the general feeling of a South Korean towards the people of North Korea? Is there a hatred or brotherly love feeling?", to which she replied, "There is definitely a brotherly love feeling. The sufferings that people of North Korea currently are undergoing pains us a lot".

       In front of the Dorasan Station, the last station in South Korea before the DMZ

   My last stop in the tour was at the Dorasan Station, which is the last station in South Korea before the DMZ begins. One thing was apparent towards the end of my tour. There is definitely a optimistic feeling for a possible unification between the nations in future. Only time will tell when this historic incident can occur.


Disclaimer: The post reflects my thoughts after the experience of my visit to the DMZ. My intention in this post is neither to highlight the tensions between the two nations or to dig deep into the sufferings of various degrees that the people of North Korea are currently undergoing.

Vishnu Sarma

The policy that could kill the intellects

The worst disease mankind can bring to itself is by preaching equality. Not a man-woman, religion-religion, class-class, sect-sect, rich-poor and all those sub group nomenclatures that society takes pride in defining and bring into existence, but an individual-individual equality that I talk about. Any country’s prosperity depends on how many genius minds it has got. By preaching equality a country could only dilute and curb the genius minds. India, today, is facing such a situation. The proposal by the government to introduce one common entrance examination for admission to all the engineering colleges including IITs, if materializes, is a symptom to the endemic called ‘preaching equality’.  In addition, the proposal to include the 12^th board examination percentage to contribute as a significant weightage to the overall rank could only intensify the effects of this endemic.

                                                   It is evident from any country’s history, culture and civilization that when a group of people rise above the ordinary through their intellect minds, they have been wiped out by much more forceful power either through physical power or through mysticism. That is because the intellects were perceived dangerous to the society, were considered gifted and most importantly were considered a misfit to be part of the endemic ‘preaching equality’. In democracy, the physical power is in the form of policies. Policies are the claws. Policies are the daggers. Policies are the nuclear weapons. One such policy is all set to kill a group of intellect minds who take joy in solving the JEE question papers, an examination which challenges to apply the fundamentals of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.

                                                  I possess no strong knowledge on the B.Tech program structures at IITs but very well aware that someone who has cracked the JEE has applied the fundamental principles of Science and Math in the best possible way. I have no interest in wanting the IIT graduates to, what is called, ‘serve’ the nation. For someone who took fun at the age of 17 or 18 in applying the fundamentals of science and math, will possess the best free mind at 25. Free minds leads to creativity. Creativity defines the intellect minds. Intellect minds will contribute to a nation’s prosperity.

                                           The only obvious solution – exclude JEE from the common entrance.

Personality

In my previous blog on my uncle one of my favorite lines was "The way how a presence of a person makes difference to your life is a complete one hundred percent perceptional feeling and cannot be expressed how much ever articulate you try be". Today, one of my cousins ,whom I have always respected and admired for taking a aggressive approach in all that she does and has really been her success weapon, wanted some views on ''Personality traits - are they primarily inherited or influenced by environment?". I just quickly wrote few lines about my views on the topic and sent her. What I later realized was that it had a strong connection or may be should I call it an extension of what I wrote in my previous blog. If that was on a particular individual, the one that I wrote on personality caters to individuals in general. I was really amazed with the coincidence. Anyways, here is what I wrote,

Personality traits - are they primarily inherited or influenced by environment?

Personality for me is a relative term. It is what others see in an individual. But an individual himself is driven by his mind. Mind is an embodiment of thoughts. Man tries to convert his thoughts into action, completely or partially, depending upon his determination or will to act.

Now what are thoughts? We are all born with a blank mind. As we start growing, we start to think in our language, get influenced by our parents, teachers, friends and other people around you in that order. So these thoughts push an individual to perform his/her actions until he/she reaches adulthood.

Adulthood exposes an individual to a whole new world. In adulthood an individual has a choice to become a Scientist, a businessman, a politician, a leader, a philosopher and a worker. Now none of these are a conscious effort by an individual to become a personality.

Personality is a culmination of thoughts of childhood and adulthood. No one can ever feel one’s own personality for it is never a conscious effort to become one. It is for others to see in that individual as to what he is.

Bottomline: A personality can never be primarily inherited. It was, it is and it will continue to be influenced by the environment.

The penultimate line which goes, " No one can ever feel one’s own personality, for, it is never a conscious effort to become one. It is for others to see in that individual as to what he is", primarily forms the crux of my previous blog on my uncle.

Vishnu Sarma

A Man with a difference

I always had penchant for people who led their lives differently. The whole fun in interacting with such people is that the more you try to extract their mind the lesser you will understand them. And nonetheless to say there's a kind of thrill in it. But sometime down the lane they would have made a huge difference in your life. In the attempt to understand/imitate/ape/just do what that particular individual is/had been doing, you would have made your own individuality yourself.

As a kid I remember meeting this man at the Hyderabad airport(the old one at the Begumpet) when he had come down to spend some leisure time with us in between his otherwise tight schedule and there he looked to me like the quintessential businessman in our the then Hindi films. He being my mom's brother and she being the only sister, I got to hear stories after stories about him, before I met him at the airport. My weak memory now filled with all the adulthood junk doesn't let me remember any of those moments that I got to spend with him while he was at Hyderabad. After he left and during the years I grew, I became more interested to learn about him. The way how a presence of a person makes difference to your life is a complete one hundred percent perceptional feeling and cannot be expressed how much ever articulate you try be. And thats exactly what I felt. In the days when you got to see majority of men or for that matter, working individuals for whom ending their day's work was as important as being at work in time, here was a man who was working on his will, travelling round the globe at his will, in-short was dictating his life instead the other way round which was the way of life for all other individuals I knew during that time. And added to that he being the only Engineering grad in the whole family lot that I knew, obviously there was a foolish affinity towards engineering. The fact that I opted for a Electrical Engineering degree while he was into mechanical is a proof that how I successfully screwed up my understanding of him. For if I had atleast made an attempt to understand what he was doing, the kind of stuff that he was into, using my otherwise dumbass brain I might have looked at my life differently.

So there I was among the whole lot of post high school students getting into a engineering degree with a huge million dollar question inside me of why I chose to study Electrical Engineering?Was it because I wanted to be like him for what was he? Did I know him better? Do I have a path defined in the coming days to travel alongside him in a similar journey as his? With the academic structure and the peer group around me the reason why I chose to enter into such a degree completely died inside me. So by the time I came out of the 4 year grind I was a confused alien on a novice planet. Human mind is so adamant that though to the world you look like a soul living life as it comes, it is meanwhile caught in a staunch retrospection though you tend to oppose it. And this phase of retrospection began as soon as I got out of my college with my degree.

During the days when I was on a job hunt post my bachelor's degree I got disturbed and disappointed at the huge crowd wanting to enter the firms which were into information technology services. No doubt they had the grandeur appeal to attract the just graduated crowd and just in a short span they would all be in an attire same as my uncle when I first met him at the Hyderabad airport. So is that all it took to become like him? that's all ? if that was all today I tell you it takes nothing. But that's not true. There was something else. While I might have easily got embroiled into one such firms my perception of him came back alive like a live wire. I immedietly swore to myself that I will rather make some pennies doing odd jobs and not get into such firms. My short stint at a call center further reaffirmed my decision. All said and done, today when I am part of a global team designing interfaces for a renowned car brand I take a childish pride in myself for doing something that I love to do. What I am doing is not even a one hundredth of a fraction of what he did or what he might go on to do but the kind of understanding my tiny little brain has got of this extraordinary individual is that the feeling is the same. Both of us are doing what we like to do. Three cheers to my uncle who taught me through his presence that there is a different way of looking at life.

Why Cricket,Why?

It is not the first time in the history that a profession has been marred with allegations of involvement of unaccounted and illegal money. That too in particular, sports, a physical activity involving extreme amount of talent, character, discipline, dedication and all those positive traits to excel at the international level. There have been cases of sportsmen tested positive for drugs. Match fixing has been Cricket’s oldest and worst enemy ever seen. It has the money and power to pull any player towards it. But as a Cricket lover I ask the question, does it matter above a Cricketer’s talent? With so much being alleged on Mohammed Amir, I as a Cricket lover, feel that a brilliant talent is being put under jeopardy. Fast bowling talent has been the biggest asset of Pakistan Cricket. They are the answer from the subcontinent to the bouncy tracks of Perth, Durban, Lords, Jamaica etc. Mohammed Amir is 18 and his career statistics in Tests reads something like this - 14 Tests, 51 wickets, best-6/84, 3 5-wicket hauls. Now just imagine what his statistics will read at this rate when he will be 30. Such figures what gives the game of Cricket its identity. I repeat. Not players but first comes the figures and statistics. It is because of the statistics the Bradmans, Tendulkars, Dravids, etc will remain some of the biggest legends of Cricket. But my key point here is whether all the events that happened in the past few days with the match fixing allegations, going to ruin the game? Definitely not. No match fixing incidents can come closer to a Tendulkar’s straight drive, a Wasim Akram’s s inswinger, a Jhonty Rhodes’ dive catch, the last ball six and win thrill, the world cup wins for a team etc. I am so much concerned for Mohammed Amir’s Cricket future that I don’t even bother about the rest of the 2 players facing the same allegations. May be all of them are equally innocent or equally guilty. But Cricket needs talents like Mohammed Amir. As a Cricket lover I can meet my selfish ends when I see a face to face challenge between a Tendulkar or a Sehwag and Mohammed Amir. Well, that’s Cricket folks. We need that drama. What is wrong in it and which sport is devoid of such dramas? If Cricket is like a dish then the term ‘traditional rivalry’ is like a masala (spice). Cricket haters and Cricket lovers live with the same emotion. But those who are in during lets say a T-20 or a one day thriller and then curse the game when there are incidences of match fixing must realize just one simple fact. Any extremely popular or a huge money involving business is equally vulnerable in terms of its reputation. Did Satyam’s scam put an end to the IT business? Did Indian films stop doing lucrative business even after a proven underworld funding of films? No. Then why Cricket? The best answer that Cricket can give to such match fixing incidents is to popularize the game multifolds. Every player getting selected in that playing 11 and representing their country must realize what it takes and what it means to be a part of such a group.

So bottomline: whatever happens THE SHOW MUST GO ON.

Shahrukh Khan , Who?

So whats the big deal if SRK was held in the Newark airport for a couple of hours. Why does media has to sensationalize some news even on the Independence day. A photo showing SRK looking pale, his hands on his head, and the headlines reads "My self-respect was hurt". Who isn't hurt if they are held for interrogation? The media blew it big just because the person who was interrogated turned out to be SHAHRUKH KHAN. Then what about those numerous travellers with the same or resembling this last name, who have been through such interrogation before? Don't they have self-repect or their self-respect isn't hurt? Where is media when their self-respects are hurt? Why don't they highlight their plights? As a person who clearly understands media's modus operandi, I don't see any difference between them and people who cause riots in the name of religion.