Our Culture of Pointing Fingers

Just saw this video– interesting that we always tend to blame others….. we used to blame the system, the monarchy, and now, the spotlight is on people abroad! Interesting that in the video, we don’t talk about what could be done…some questions that come to mind: i. is everyone supposed to be part of politics until the situation stabilizes ii. I wonder why the video focuses (once again, on what others are doing that we disagree with, not what could be done right, or on what we are doing right) to name a few. I would recommend the first habit of the 7 habits of Highly Effective people to these guys.. unfortunately, the undertone I detect in the video is not one of rational argument, but more of publicity and other emotions I care not to discuss.

On Sportsmanship

As a kid, I remember being told about good sportsmanship– the willingness to accept both victory and defeat graciously, and to act amicably with your opponent after the game. It entails of course, good behavior during the game. Further, with that sort of behavior to actually be pulled off, it implies, on the simplest level, a certain state of mind– treating the game as just what it is, a game, nothing more, nothing less. It implies a certain sense of detachment from clinging to victory and superiority, of playing the game the best you can, putting your all into it, and being willing to accept the results, however they turn out (and to try harder next time, if you want to).

Sounds almost religious, doesn’t it?

It certainly reminds me of at least one quotation from the gita, for example.

The music’s for free, just get the party ready

It’s an idle Friday day, 11:50 am on my computer’s digital watch.  I would probably be doing something else, but I’ve just been inspired to try my hand at writing instead for a while.  The source of my inspiration, ironically, is not the beauty of nature, the beauty of a person, or some profound philosophical thought.  It’s the dance music playing in my ears… loud enough for me to dance to it, though the source quite far away from where I live.

I don’t live next to concert grounds however, or anything else of that sort.  I do see a lot of colleges and schools around– we have an educational institution boom in the capital now, along with a boom in various other institutions.  One of the colleges about 5 minutes from my house is having a function today, and I get to listen to jokes, announcements, and dance music for free, all day long, as I’m told.

Thank god it’s an idle Friday, and not a busy one.  Thank God I’m not one of those poor folks on the block who are trying to get some work done, or someone else in another college who has their exams coming up.  True, I’ve had my share of frustrations when I had to study because of slightly less loud (as compared to this) music from a high school slightly further away, but today, I get the benefit of getting to type to the beat of the dance music.

I’m one of those people who don’t care.  Or rather, I just don’t know what to do, and find it a situation that is much easier to ignore than do anything about.  I’m pretty sure that not just me, but at least several hundred people are having a not so good time having to listen to loud announcements that have no context or meaning, from the comfort of their own rooms, and are pretty annoyed by it.  Without taking a step outside my own house, I already found someone who had been annoyed by the music during their exams more than once (having to resort to shutting their ears while trying to study instead).

Perhaps, in a different place with different laws, someone would have already called the police.  However, we have different laws, and different priorities.  It doesn’t make sense to ask for a remedy of the situation from that level.

Several years before, I remember hearing a dance party in a five star hotel (which was located in a residential area), as we were having our own little party.  I remember being amazed in my mind about the tolerance of the people at music that was blasting into their homes till at least 3:00 in the night.  They probably found themselves in the same situation as I find myself in when I wonder about what I can do.

Phrases that come into my head are “yasto sano kurama k kich kich garne” “yastai ta ho ni” to name a few.

However, since I just needed blog fodder, and this is something I do find very interesting to think about, I found no reason not to write about it in my blog.

I do find myself wondering about the rationale of the loud music.  Two things come to mind– i. it’s cheaper and easier to just blast music than to find a proper venue, or to set it up so that it doesn’t disturb the rest of the people around them, and ii. it’s probably a good advertisement in a sense– it lets other young people know they are there, and not just there, that they are partying there.

Well, cheers to the party–  I was headed out anyways… enjoying my idle Friday….. happy that I got to express my annoyance at something I’ve always found to be lack of courtesy and consideration, not expecting to change anything, but would like to hear what you think about things like these.

Walls

Laughter that sounds a bit made up,
Authority that people cannot do without,
Constant rebellion,
Constant conformity,
to name a few.
Ways of expression,
that have given so much comfort
to the expressor
that somewhere along the way,
they clung
to the identity it gave them,
forgetting themselves,
in the process.

– another raw, unedited poem right out of the oven… just for the heck of it.

On Respect

I often believe that too many people are blind to all but themselves, and see the world through the filter of their own projections.  Unfortunately, those projections are but the lies they told themselves or were told by others that taught them how to compromise with themselves.  Not wanting to go against the flow, they also manipulated other peoples projections into their own lives, giving them new inward appearances through their own insecure projections.

What does this have to do with respect?  I respect the few people I come across who are truly kind.  To me, kindness signifies freedom from the delusion of the lies we tell ourselves, an ability to see others as we see ourselves, and to be kind to them, as we have learned to be kind to ourselves in the process of self-acceptance.  I respect them because they respect other people for their humanity.

I certainly look forward to meeting more of this kind of people in life.

Thoughts….

This is perhaps a different way of expressing why I think dreams are interesting things to hold on to. I think this piece is pretty raw without editing, but decided to post anyways. It’s most likely not with much content, but whatever little there is, it was me trying to express a feeling I get at times, quite a few times in fact.

Once in a while, I have a strange feeling that’s hard to describe. It’s nostalgia, but it’s not a memory of people, or even a place. It’s a memory of how I felt, once upon a time. Sometimes, the feeling is triggered by other things, but sometimes, it’s some old song that I remember, or a challenging problem that I run into. Today, I was listening to an old hindi song: “Aay gulbadan” by Mohd. Rafi, and while listening to it brought back memories of experimenting with my voice, trying to match the pitch of Rafi (and imagining that I did), it also made me somewhat feel like I was back in the days of my I.Sc..

That was a time of computer programming in pascal to me. While computer programming is a profession, or perhaps, a science or a subject of study to most people, to me, it was, and is, primarily, a way to solve interesting problems. It is an expression of intelligence that allows me to try to find approaches to solve difficult problems by formulating an approach, and then expressing it systematically, yet coherently, almost as if I were writing an essay.

Getting back to the song, and the feeling of nostalgia, it reminded me of the days when I first discovered computer programming. Nobody taught me– I found a book on Pascal in the British Council Library, and I started experimenting almost immediately… love at first sight, if you will.

Computer programming aside, it reminded me of a state of mind… a feeling of discovery, of excitement. The song did bring back other memories too… it was part of a time in life, and things come flooding back… but that is another story.

What prompted me to write this short post however, was the feeling of happiness that briefly reliving my feelings of excitement while hearing the song brought to me. It’s something I constantly wonder about, and think is probably worth doing… talking to myself as if I was both a naive person looking forward to the world, and a person interested in hearing what the naive person has to say, and in helping them realize it. When I think about it, I am still around, and while I did try out some of the things I wanted to try out, there are still a lot more I did not. Nowadays, I probably hide behind a veil of indifference, hiding my feeling of embarrassment at being too old to try things out… but I think I would probably enjoy them anyways.

Even for things that are more complex, if I was talking to a young person who had dreams, I would probably listen to them, and try to suggest ways they could go about doing them… I would be interested in hearing what they hoped for, what they thought was cool, and I would be interested in offering insights to help them experience as many things they were interested in as possible. Yet, it’s kind of ironic that when thinking about myself (ourselves I think), I try to gloss over the fact that I had a lot of questions unanswered, and that time did not always permit me to explore all the possibilities all the time. We talk about spontaneity.. what would be more spontaneous that doing what we dreamt of when we were young… possibly after listening to ourselves a bit and rediscovering the wonders we thought existed, once upon a time?

Evolution?

Somewhat based on concepts of the soul evolving over time. (needs editing)

Evolution?

A yogi,

sitting cross-legged,

with closed eyes,

focused between the eyebrows,

oblivious to the world,

and yet,

very much part,

of the essence:

just a picture

in a curios mind,

inspiring it to sit still,

for a while,

until thoughts start bubbling,

covering the magical yogi,

and making him no different,

from everything else,

and his peace,

an unanswered question,

buried,

beneath a multitude of images,

until eventually,

the picture is uncovered again,

to inspire,

another,

perhaps stronger,

attempt at stillness.

On climbing trees (not about trees at all)

A thought that just came into my mind: “if you are barking up the wrong wall, does it really matter if you do it in a way other people realize you are doing it? “

As a kid, in school, I heard this question from quite a few of my teachers in class “Would you rather be happy or successful?”  Things would come up about people not paying enough attention to their family, and going too much after money and career.  “I’ve never been really attached to getting crazily rich or ruthlessly successful, so I haven’t been barking up the wrong tree.”  — a thought that has flitted across my mind, quite a few times.

Today however, another thought flitted across my mind.  “If you are not doing the things you really want to, and just getting away with passing your days with things that are not too bad, but not what you really want to do, and if that has become a habit, as it surely will, are you not barking up the wrong tree, though nobody else might realize it?”

Just thoughts that flit across my mind at times, musings if you like.

Compcracy

Note: This post is more to make you think about possibilities that might happen in the future.. not saying I think it might be a good idea.. but the narrator obviously, was born in that system, and seems to like it, as people do things they were born into.

Protests going on in some country again…. “Why are they so stuck on trying to use a system that has been proven not to work?” I wondered to myself.

We read in history that democracy had once been a popular system of governance. In fact, most of the countries where it still existed as a system were those where it had brought prosperity, long, long ago.

The current system of employment nations seems so much simpler to me. Smaller units to manage, no obsolete, separate body for governance. This system did have its seeds in democracy though.

It started with big corporations, outsourcing, and government taxation. Interesting combination. Large corporations, back in the late 1900′s/early 2000′s, had begun to build employee bases in countries where skilled workforces were cheaper to hire. They still had to pay tax in their home countries though, and were bound by its laws. This did work well for quite a while.

However, economies go up and down all the time, and with economies under toll, taxation increases, as do various restrictions.

India and China were some of the initial countries where outsourcing occured. Skilled workforces were abundant in these countries. However, as these countries also grew in economic status, companies were looking for other places to hire from.

It was then that Megalion, a software development company based in california, had a philanthropic idea that seemed to be beneficial for their target country, as well as to themselves. They decided to invest in higher education in a few third world countries with very poor infrastructures. The company was doing quite well, and it began building the infrastructure of the countries in their capital cities, contributing to better communication, transportation, and education. While it all seemed very philanthropic, Megalion was also hoping that it would have access to a very skilled workforce in the country in the next 10 years.

Many scholarships were offered: the company could easily afford to maintain a university with the current exchange rate. The scholarships also carried with them a contract to work for the company for the next 2 years, but that was actually an advantage– it offerred job security in a local market that was not very strong. Megalion’s contributions were beneficial in other ways too, reducing the tax it had to pay back home. It was of course, a very positive public image booster as well.

Tahirimba was one of the first countries Megalion had started contributing to. The youth of Tahirimba who got a chance to study there were exposed to so much more than their peers, and they could see the effects of corruption in their countries, the opportunities being lost, the potential for development, much more clearly. They grew to despise the country’s existing political system, which was a hybrid of democracy and corruption. The corruption also necessitiated public relations staff in the local body of the company to be able to properly oil the government mechanism, which would still cause problems at times, despite all the oiling.

The proposal had come out of the blue. Out of the blue for the rest of the world, those who had not been in Tahirimba of course. For the people there, it had something that had become more and more evident as the years had gone by, that this was going to happen. The first government acquisition of the company.

There were no longer any layers to deal with… the company itself managed the country, and the people felt much happier under a system that provided instead of trying to take from them. It was a risky deal– companies are for profit, and that would mean that the resources of the country, the local culture, every aspect of life, was under risk. It was one thing to have a beneficial company, another to have a ruling company.

However, the first of the companies acquire governments, Megalion, was truly philanthropic, and had no intention to misuse its power. The investment in education had come as a philanthropic move as well, one that would help the company, but would also do good for the company.

The acquisition gave Megalion enough reason to move its base from california to Tahirimba. It’s staff were also happy, working in a company where the company was the government meant no taxation, and that was good news. Of course, in other countries, government employees were taxed as well, but Megalion had other means of income.

Megalion was smart enough to realize that there would be other companies looking to acquire governments as well, after the success of their acquisition. There were many countries who had economies that would do well from acquisitions like those, and might actually look forward to them.

However, not all companies would be as thoughtful as Megalion regarding the well-being of the people and the resources of the country itself. That was why it formed the CGO — the company government organization. In a sense, it was somewhat similar to the United Nations alliance… though the companies that were members did not necessarily have to already have acquired governments. This organization layed down a set of rules that would always ensure the well-being of the country that was being acquired, and of its people.

I do not know much about the technical aspects. I know there were all sorts of debates, that there was much media coverage. The first acquisition had somehow escaped much media attention, perhaps because it was of a country not many knew about, but the formation of the CGO was hot news, and sparked debates, protests, and support rallies all over the world.

The rest is history. What started as one government acquisition by one company eventually led to government acquisitions by other companies as well, and depending on size, some companies acquired cities rather than entire countries. The countries acquired were not that large either. There was a set of rules to make sure that everything was in order. And somewhere in the middle of all this history, a new government system had already popped up: Compracy.

There were still many countries which believed democracy was the way to go. They were worried about the well-being of people in compcracies… and they would try to stop the movement. However, I find the system of moving from one region of the globe to another without hindrance, the facility of living in a place where the only variable is the company itself, not the various local and national government systems (as the company itself is all of it), a convenient one. Perhaps, I did not see the better days of democracy, and am just not impressed by what I see now. Perhaps, if I had lived in those days, and had thought about monarchy, I would have had a similar reaction, and would simply not have seen the better days of monarchy. To me, this system simply feels like there it is based on so much less whim.

Oh, I need to head out now– got carried away writing thoughts down and forgot to look at the clock… need to get to work soon, more later, perhaps.

Disagreement

Have you ever had days
when they just wont get along,
no matter how hard you try,
and with a thousand other things in your mind,
you wish you could just force them to,
though the world would probably disapprove
I have that problem sometimes,
on some rushed weekday,
when my socks
disagree.