My corporate life, of 5 months, is seeing the closing of its first chapter. I ended my tenure as a Software developer yesterday and am going to be a Data Analyst from Monday. I am excited and hopeful that this will interest me. That I will be able to enjoy work and thus, my life. Yet, this is not a finality. Already, my mind is asking the question “what next??” That is classic uber restlessness. I have not gone one day on this job and I am asking myself what next.
The truth is, I want to do something big. Something pioneering, if not that at least something which has an impact, something which solves a problem.I might be able to do it. I might not be able to do it but this I know, I will never stop trying to do it.
As of now, at this very moment of writing, Life is Good
This is the first post for the series Wonderful Women.
It is the season of the Nobels and this year, women have done exceptionally well in catching the nobel prizes. They have got it in Medicine/Physiology, Chemistry, Economics and Literature ie in 4/6 fields. When one thinks of Nobel prizes and one thinks of women, it is hard to miss the person who has done more than anyone else to make the position of women in science respectable. And that is the first woman nobel laureate, the first two-time nobel laureate in two subjects – Marie Curie or Madam Curie.
What I want to observe here is the way she managed to tackle all her obstacles and make them look small even when they were so huge in the times that she lived in. To fight the financial burden, to fight the fight of being a woman and therefore getting rejections by default, to fight the doubts as to her abilities and many other such small but significant things. She did not let anything stand in the way of her love, her curiosity of finding things.
I cannot but imagine how daunting the conditions must have been for her to pursue what she truly loved in a field where women wee not only not encouraged but straight away denied entry. Instead of fighting it out loudly and getting dejected, she found a better way. She did the best job she could do, she did the job better than others could do and thus shut the mouth of her detractors and became the icon for women and other scientists that she is today.
If there is anything one ought to take away from her is the spirit and strength.
Thanks goes to Madam Curie for showing a way to numerous aspiring women scientists who would later join her in the eminent scientist’s club. The one who started it all – we salute you.
The job is…It is 5 months old now. The excitement has died down. I can see that the lights that are shining are not very bright now. So what is next??
MBA or no MBA, that is the question. The trouble is that the answer is as ambiguous as it can be. I want prosperity. Who does not? But I don’t know how to get to there! I want knowledge but I don’t know where to find the time and the resources.
It is a non nice situation. It is like a jungle where there are animals who will eat me. Some small ones are hollowing me already and yet I don’t know which way to run to get out of it.
An inspiration occurs and it dies down. It occurs again in another format and it dies down again.
Being passionate has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, from what I have seen, if you are passionate, you are one of the lucky few in this world. I believe that those who have found a passion to live for have found the meaning of life and gained spiritual nirvana. That goes so against the philosophy of Buddhist nirvana right?? But when the blood is hot and spirit young, I think a cause or a passion and a single steel minded dedication towards it does the trick. It provides a purpose and gathers your thoughts.
If there has ever been a successful person, he/she has had the passion to do something. Those goasl may vary from time to time and change radically but the determination stays. For me, one whose life is passionate has got a life which is worth living for.
Have you ever noted that these two words always come together. For a beginning there is an end and with the end starts another new beginning. Because this universe is after all a continuum. I wonder if there are any real ends at all.
It has been quite a while on this journey. It has been pretty exciting, most pleasurable and extremely painful too. I have seen most of the spectrum of emotions in it. I have lost many things, gained much more. I have enjoyed and suffered. I have been extremely active and mindnumbingly dormant. It has been a total sine curve which has completed a period of 2 pi. Now, it is the time to sketch another graph. I have an idea what it should look like. Let’s see what it looks like.
But what I am taking from this endeavour is a wealth. A wealth of wisdom of some sort. A bucketful!! I am glad! If I were to do it all over again, would I take the same path. NO! I would not. I have some regrets but at the end of the day, I am at peace and content. I enjoyed the views while I covered this path. I discovered some really great sceneries. I think that compensates a lot for the speed I lost.
For the first time in my life. I cast my vote today morning. It was a great experience.
I got to see what a leveller democracy is when I was standing in the line to vote. Young, old, men, women, students, professionals, illiterate people, professors, rich, middle class and poor- all stood in the same line waiting to cast their vote to choose their representatives.
There is soooooo much to think about the stuff people have said (by way of philosophy) that I do not even know where to start. But I think I will focus on two main streams (extremely huge in themselves): Western Philosophy and Indian Darshanshastra. Off course there are parallels between the two. And that is what I aim to figure out. The sameness and the differences and then choose for myself my own philosophy out of these assortments and if possible(who am i kidding? it is not!) to propose one or two thoughts of my own. It is going to be exciting!!
Yoga, the school of Patanjali (which assumes the metaphysics of Samkhya)
Purva Mimamsa (or simply Mimamsa), the tradition of Vedic exegesis, with emphasis on Vedic ritual, and
Vedanta (also called Uttara Mimamsa), the Upanishadic tradition, with emphasis on Vedic philosophy.
Western Philosophy:
Socrates
Plato
Aristsotle
Erasmus/Francis Bacon
Rene Descartes
Berkeley/Spinoza/Locke/Hobbes/Burke
Diderot/Voltaire/Rousseau/Kant/Montesquieu
Hume/Adam Smith/Schopenhauer
Wittgenstein/Russell/Heidegger/Sartre/Popper
Derrida/Foucault/MacIntyr
And guess what? Indian/Hindu philosophy is the oldest in the world. It predates the Greek philosophy(which forms the basis of the Western philosophy) by almost 500 years. It began around 800 BC or at least that was the time it became formal. It is such a proud thing to say and such a shame that there is hardly anything that I can say I know about it, formally. It is a great loss to world that we have not been able to build upon the very strong and solid foundations that had been laid for us. The analytical philosophy which became mainstream in the 18th and 19th century western thought had already been expounded in the Nyaya-Vaisheshika stream of Vedic philosophy.
Of course, the question of God is very central to the whole field of philosophy and that is why it is so intimately related with religion. What further delights my heart is that Indian philosophy has covered all grounds: From aastika to naastik and within the aastika too there is the monotheistic and polytheistic tradition. One whole branch (carvaka) is dedicated to atheism. Wonderful variety and open mindedness.
I feel that any study of philosophy in today’s age is incomplete without the study/understanding of cosmology and quantum physics. Afterall, every intrigue begins and end at either the highest level (ie the universe and its origin) or the lowest level ( ie the atomic/subatomic and quantum matter).
Ah! What a wonder the world is and how lovely for us to be thinking sentient beings who can drink in the delight of trying to find it out. A life of enquiry is the best blessing one could get.
I call myself an atheist. I believe that there is no creator all powerful, mighty, omniscient and omnipresent to look over our actions. I believe in the theory of evolution and all the discredit to the religion that comes with it. However, having said that, I can understand why would an institution like religion would be created: to impart moral values, to bind people in a sense of brotherhood, to make them fear for things that are wrong. Why this was done in the 17th-18th century and earlier is easy to see but not so easy to see that why is it important today when we have so much scientific knowledge at our hand. The defenders of the religion say that the fear of punishment by god (by going to hell in monotheistic religions and reincarnation as a lesser being in hinduism, for example) prevents people from doing wrong things. Is that true? Is moral behaviour tied to a sense of fear and damnation. Can we not be nice to each other if there is not an adverse result for being mean? Does this mean that on a basic level human being is a bad creature rather than good and has to be subverted with the fear of punishment?
I can also raise the question that : is not this fear of punishment and deep sense of loyalty to some unexplained thing/being/phenomena causing the followers to do unimaginably terrible things? Blowing up people, waging wars, killing thousands and millions in the name of religion, destroying homes and families. I could see that this logic of preventing people from doing wrong has turned on its head in this case.
Put all contentions from an atheistic viewpoint aside. Let me for a moment pretend to accept religion as it is today. When did it start?? Where does it come from?? Who started it and why? If God is the all powerful and he created everything, why did he create a being who could recognize him and praise him and be his servant at the very end? What about animals? Are they religious too? What about the different faiths and gods? How do we make a compatibility between the observed scientific phenomena and this concept of being created by a god? I mean there are so many questions that confound me and the answer that I get for them is : take a leap of faith. Well, I suppose I am not a good high jumper. My faith does not go there. So, I choose to be an atheist.
This is of course a topic which is being very hotly debated these days. More so, after the recent acts of terrorism in the name of religion. I have been pretty interested in it for quite a while now and although my knowledge about theology etc is not very great, I understand what the basis is. And starting from the first principles itself, it makes me very doubtful . As for the question of morality goes, I think that it is innate in a human being. Some people are wicked and they will be so, religion or no religion. I take for example myself. In many examples demonstarting very clearly, I have found myself more moral than people who are deeply or normally religious.
* I wanted to write a really coherent and organized post about this but then there is not much time with me so this is a quick draft which I hope to improve further.
**Have been watching a lot of Dawkins’ material and also the BBC Atheism Tapes. Have also been thinking about this for a long long time. Planning to do a post on Hinduism as a religion because what I really believe is that more than being a religion, Hinduism is a way of life and a philosophy of thinking and is ultra rich. To do that post, I think I will have to wait for at least 5 more years. One very interesting thing which Prof. Weinberg said about Hinduism is that there is no theory here with which he could engage in a debate. He says that creation is not a major focus, way of living is. And, I agree. But it is also concerned a lot about afterlife and reincarnation. How does that fit in? These are some quetsions which hound me and I am sure have been studied thoroughly but I have not come across any such material yet. As I said, I think that in 5 years, I will have covered a lot more ground in this respect.
Yeah! I discovered Eminem this week. Too late, I know! But I sort of was not into music before, in his hey days and much less into Rap. Then 2 days ago his new single came and there was all this news that Eminem is back. So, I checked that song out and I liked it. I found it was funny and satirical and too darn in your face. So, I thought I should check out more of his songs and I did. And I am now a fan. I like it. I like rap for the first time perhaps. Since last two days, I have been non stop listening to his songs.
The particular ones which I extremely like are: Stan(love the concept and the bit by Dido), The Real Slim Shady, Lose Yourself(a gem), Just Lose it, The way I am, My Name is, Superman and Guilty Conscience.
As direct as he is, he can scare people. It is true when he says that he speaks things which people only think or only discuss in darkness. He is least of all daring, and a great musician, because the songs have a hooking quality to them.
So, I am a new addition to the Eminem appreciation society.Ha!! Writing a pure language in his praise seems like a sin . Oh and he is cute too. I also found out that Eminem means MnM which is his name actually ( Marshall Mathers)…
great guy!! Does not give a shit abt what others think( seemingly )
For the first time in my life. I cast my vote today morning. It was a great experience. 
