That Mr Behl is a very learned and well respected man is something that came across in first half an hour thorough the insightful incisions he was already making to our fertile minds. It was attended by around 80 inquisitive minds and was held at the Vicarage Lodge at Delhi University North Campus. The skeletal framework of this course was set in around 26 documentaries that were commissioned by Doordarshan pertaining to Indian art history and had come as a weekly program in around 2003 (not sure). More than the actual technical discussion of the painting the focus was expectably on Indian history and some controversies related to it. But refreshingly Mr Behl  was also able to redraw what could have been some of the ethical guidelines of Ancient India from very seemingly innocuous traditions that he observed across paintings. As a student of management and life this is what made by 2 days worthwhile. I will try to list them out there for posterity.

The well known (to others at least) concept of Chitrasutra – a kind of bible for painting –of the Vishudharmottarra Purana tells us about an highly developed and formalized knowledge of art in India and an understanding of painting which is comparable to what was the best in the world at that point of time. His viewpoint that “God” , as a powerful entity outside our being is a concept was given to us by the westerners and that we have always had deities rather than god is a very interesting and to me, a very intuitive concept. So what’s the difference? Deities are more of a representation of a quality within you that want to bring out. Here is where he brings in the folly of our understanding of another word/concept. The word puja according to him is more adoration rather than prayer. And when you do puja, we by adoring a representative personification of a combination of virtue (and vice?), are trying to open our inner treasure chest to release these qualities onto the word though our being. And from this new perspective, if we take a closer look at it a lot of our seemingly inane traditions they suddenly start making sense. For example our oft ridiculed pantheon of 33 crore gods (read deities) seem more purposeful as representative of different sets of virtues and vices.

From a technical viewpoint as he traced the evolution of Indian art from ancient to medieval to modern times we moved from a “infinite softness or tenderness” to “dynamism of intellect” finally to a more “materialistic” view point (attributed to colonial styles) and then back to an evolved state of understanding as revived by the Bengal school under Tagore, Nadlal Bose etc.

Again the ethical undertones that he brought about from different paintings were beautiful and I’ll try to illustrate the same by some examples. His perspective that the eternal dance of Shiva is not complete without his loved one Shivkami standing and looking at him dancing gives us a peek into Indian viewpoint on the sacred bond of love and the gratification of completeness that comes with it. The representation of moods and facial expression to everything in the pictures from men, women, and animals tells us about the oneness of the universe that we Indians believed and believe in. The complete absence of name of kings and others who commissioned the work is indicative of the collective civic sense of belonging that people had. We also traced the evolution of buddisum, jainisum etc though art particularly the idea behind the emergence of the bodhisatva as a simplification of the concepts of buddisum as a means to reach the common man thru the jataka tales etc. The common technical heritage across different religions helped pointed toward a culture of guilds of artists that helped create beautiful art and also codify and improve the various techniques by them through the patronage of general society from the kings to housewives to fishermen.

The interpretation of stupas as a representation of different levels of self realization as clearly evidenced by a stupa in Indonesia (since they were wrongly interpreted as burial stones by the colonial historians) was of particular interest to the management student in me due to its close similarly with Maslow’s triangle. I saw traces of other management concepts underlying a lot of the observations and it possibly merits deeper study at some point. On a side note, our faculty Mala Sinha at FMS, Delhi is one of the foremost researchers in this field of understanding linkages between management concepts and Indian mythology and its different undertones. Having got a starting nudge in the same I am now looking forward to the results of such explorations that I can apply in my managerial career.

As the best takeaway to the whole course, to my often dismay at the thought that unless I understand a lot more about art my experience of it will be unfinished, Mr Behl  had the perfect panacea. His view point that art (Indian art at least) was a means – and this being its intended purpose than anything else – to at least temporally achieve bhramanadandam – the eternal bliss itself – and that does not require technical knowledge. This makes perfect sense to me as art is art for it speaks without you knowing the language and there is something special that art can give you whatever your proficiency levels in the technical details of it are.  To sum it all up, of course too many things were covered for me to list out but the general ethical framework that invisibly was woven into completion by the end of the 12 hours across 2 days left me richer and closer to my Indian heritage and am looking forward to Mr Behl ’s book on the same when it comes out.

Endnote : For people interested in knowing more about Mr Behl’s work, I am, with permission posting some links of articles written by him which traverse the same annals of history

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-01/india-ancient-art/interactive-map.html

Article 1:  ”Eternal India”  (General and Indus Valley)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2416/stories/20070824507606600.htm

Article 2:  ”Birth of Classic Form” (Maurya period + Bharhut)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2417/stories/20070907505406400.htm

Article 3:  ”Harmony Set in Stone” (Sanchi)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2418/stories/20070921505506600.htm

Article 4:  “Grandeur in caves” (Early Western Indian Caves)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2419/stories/20071005505506600.htm

Article 5:  “Of divine forms” (Kushana period)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2420/stories/20071019505206400.htm

Article 6:  “Valley of stupas” (Krishna Valley, Andhra Pradesh)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2421/stories/20071102504206400.htm

Article 7:  “Mind over Matter” (Gupta period)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2422/stories/20071116504306400.htm

Article 8:  “Simply Grand” (Later caves of Western India)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2423/stories/20071207505906600.htm

Article 9:  “Early Perfection” (Chalukya period)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2424/stories/20071221505406500.htm

Article 10:  “Living rocks” (Mamallapuram)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2425/stories/20080104242506600.htm

Article 11:  ” Royal shrines” (Kanchipuram and Kalugumalai)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2501/stories/20080118504906500.htm

Article 12:  “Miniature cosmos” (Development of the temple and Central India)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2502/stories/20080201505906500.htm

Article 13:  “Soaring spirit” (Ellora)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2503/stories/20080215250306500.htm

Article 14:  “Tradition of grace” (Orissa and Shravanabelagola)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2504/stories/20080229503906500.htm

Article 15:  “Thought and images” (Pala period, Nalanda and Vikramasila)                            

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2505/stories/20080314250506600.htm

Article 16:  “Chola marvels” (Chola temples)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2506/stories/20080328250606500.htm

Article 17:  “Tradition in bronze” (Chola bronzes)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2507/stories/20080411250706800.htm

Article 18:  “Mountain magic” (Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2508/stories/20080425250806300.htm

Article 19:  “Colour of peace” (Ladakh, Kinnaur and Spiti)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2509/stories/20080509250906400.htm

Article 20:  “Beauty of devotion” (Khajuraho)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2510/stories/20080523251006400.htm

Article 21:  “Glorious blend” (Hoysala temples)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2511/stories/20080606251106600.htm

Article 22:  “Tallest of them all” (Sun temple, Konark)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2512/stories/20080620251206600.htm

Article 23:  “Images of change” (Hampi)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2513/stories/20080704251306500.htm

Article 24:  “Sacred spaces” (Later temples of Tamilnadu)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2514/stories/20080718251406500.htm

Article 25: “ Temples of Peace” (Gujarat and Rajasthan Jaina temples)

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2515/stories/20080801251506600.htm

For it was childhood that brought with it freedom that I could not even imagine for a while in my life, a sense of anything being possible and also a inherent want for something larger than life manifesting itself in various stories entwined with whatever I picked from my world around – my comics and my father’s bed time stories the prime culprits. Yes, I wanted to be a super hero, an innocent want to be special, to be larger than life, a common human want? But as time has passed I have been fed to believe that I am not special. But we are special aren’t we?

What is special but a word with a vague enough definition for people to satisfy the minimum criterion and enjoy the vicarious pleasures of the max. For me this flight of fancy has taken different forms from my want, no, need to be a superhero and then to my belief that I am a alien. And alien I truly am in some level of its definition but more so by my inabilities than by my abilities. But then the trees that tasted the edge of my sword were aliens themselves who were forced to become human and lead the least judged path.

Ah Yes..the least judged path , as our society has shown us is the path of least resistance and hence the right path. But isn’t this contradictory for a society extols the hard work & creativity and resistance to the path of least resistance, at least in its overt overtones?

As for me, I have and will remain an alien, abet one which has learnt to put the human mask as and when necessary

I don’t know how to explain it, but to get your first tag is something that keeps a smile on your face which lasts the whole day

I was tagged by angel-doc who in her own words is a woman-doc-friend, a blogger with a strong affection for hyphenated words and someone who’s posts I have always found to be excellent reads. Having been fed on a regular dose of Scrubs, ER and Robin cook its nice to get to know the person inside the while coat.

Ahem…enough soapfying of my tagger…and getting down to business

The subject of the tag is “Human Nature” which is one of the things I think I am weak at. Be it judging people or dealing with people or anything with the root anthro in it.

Being an engineer (not to lean too much into the cliché) I like things that are logical. I mean, I like it when a=b and b=c follows with `a=c`. I like it, my mind likes it. But in case of human beings `a` can be any range of values from b-z and might borrow something from other scripts as well. But then again, being human (I would want you to believe that wouldn’t I? ) I, at some level like this unpredictability, chaotic-ness ….for a lack of a better word….humanness. It is the same factor that mystifies and at the same time excites me.

(Disclaimer: the nature of the tag is such that once you read it there is HEAVY chance that you get influenced by it…that’s Heisenberg at work for u there….but still I shall try to be as unbiased as “Humanly” possible )

First To Name The people I want to Tag

Being my first tag I wish to limit it to just my best friend Zubin aka Madnezz aka crazy_guy

The second part of the tag is about the "Kinds of People I Judge"

I do not believe in “earth is flat” type of judgments and believe that most people are just products of their upbringings. While I do give this due consideration while judging people, still for getting a reference point from which to see the outer world, to introspect myself and make decisions I judge people. But to draw a list would be hard but here goes

I judge people who are born with the silver spoon and act as though they are the only people who should be living in the world. And on the opposite side if a person with the same background shows humility, I value it a lot.

As with most people, I dislike sycophants. While I do believe that you need to be in the favor of the powerful, you should have a stand of your own and that stand should have some driving force other than mere sycophancy.

I can accept a certain level of Hypocrisy, since at times I have felt that I am a hypocrite and with this the set of all hypocrites’ changes from “them” to “we”. And True to my human nature I have tried to justify it and the justification I could couture up is pretty straight forward. Your views change and when it does a lot of associated ideas change. For example, in my school I used to proudly declare that I won’t drive a polluting vehicle and I was vehemently against my parents for buying a car. But now I can’t live without my little Unicorn. I think it can be attributed to naivety than hypocrisy but then again I cant be impartial in judging me . But oscillatory or totally contradicting morals with in a small temporal space is something I would despise
 
Maybe I will add more here later

The third part of the tag is about "People and Things I admire"

I admire a lot of people. Recently I have been doing a lot of Find + Replace of Envy with admire in my lil book of emotions.

I admire 

• People  who are polite and courteous even when they gain nothing from it
• People who are dedicated for a cause and work tirelessly for it (Its something I really cant do)
• People who are able to take bold decisions against the flow due to right reasons
• People who are brave enough to speak out the truth how ever hard it is
• People who can understand people much better than me (that would include a large percentage of the world’s population )
• People who can live life as it comes
• People whose writing moves me (songs/poems/prose).
• Music and people who can sing from their hearts…and who can enjoy music

At first sight there might seem to be a contradiction, but, I feel, there is none. The conflict lies in the first sentence which can, at worst, be called vague. It only talks of freedom but does not talk about the level of abstraction at which this freedom is defined. The second statement just does the opposite by bringing in the idea of different levels freedom. Since freedom itself is an abstract idea, when one calls it an illusion, one is invariably introducing a lot of level`s` of abstraction. So, redefining freedom for both the sentences should obviate the contradiction that seemed to exist initially.

When I say my freedom is important to me, I talk about freedom from that what I perceive as threats to my “freedom” at that moment in time and space in my life. This freedom and its inhibitor’s definition are strongly influenced by not only my perception of the world and also the price my sub-conscious mind is willing to pay for that freedom. If the price is perceived, by my mind, to be too high, more often than not, it will not been seen as shackle by my conscious mind. But once it is identified as a chain by my conscious mind, my ego would not rest till at some level I break the chain or at least convince my self that I have broken it. This is why it is important to me and how I fructify this importance

In the second sentence, freedom is to be taken in its most absolute terms that you can imagine for it. But the image that you conjure up will still be limited by the very facets that make you human. So to imagine it as an un-imaginable thing is the best way to imagine it, much like the concept of infinity. And it is this concept that’s an illusion.

Contradiction Solved?

And to round it off on a sober note, I asked one of my friends after *making* him read this give me his definition of freedom. He retorted “Your freedom is to ask me that question, mine, to choose not to answer and, ours, to understand each other on this”
 

This whole 6 day work week issue reminds me of one of the countless forwards I had got looong back. I have dug it up here. In that article the author openly argues for shorter working hours. Back when I read it, I had just got into the industry and barely come to terms with the Indian work culture. I thought, even with 42.5 hours + countless late nights + weekends that I am putting in and I see other people put in; my work is not taking any noticeable steps towards the word called completion. And true to my human nature, I assumed the problem is with “them”, that all Europeans are lazy twats and they do lesser work than us Indians and are even more lazy that they have the audacity to actually ask for lesser working hours. Now me, I was proud of my work, proud of the extra hours I put in, even though my seniors warned me that, the pride will soon wane away but you would still end up at office on odd hours to cope up with the work.

And then UK onsite happened.

One of the first things that I noticed there was that people were VERY strict about their working hours. Unless something VERY important, they came in at 9 o clock and left at 5. Again I thought…no wonder they need to outsource their work, they are lazy to the core. Me and my colleagues would run up by 10 and work till 7-8 which was “real” work in my eyes. But as my work their progressed, I noticed something very different about their work culture. Unlike us, if a personal call came to them during office they would not chatter on endlessly and when they came to work in the morning, the first place they went were not their Gmail or Yahoo inbox but rather to their official mail box to check official mails (I cant really say that with 100% surely but still). Again most of the time I went to the coffee-vending machine, which was a common occurrence since I used to get orange juice FREE! , it would more often be my colleagues sitting around chatting rather than the “native” workers and after 5 again we would, at least  most of the time, be the only people still working.

One thing that was becoming clearer to me was that they might be spending lesser hours than us at office, but the actual amount of “work” minutes they put in seems to be the same. Hence “lazy” prejudice that I associated with them got replaced by efficient and towards the end of the 3 months I spent there, I could see the benefits of that.

But coming back, it didn’t take me long to fall back into the old routine of staying late without realizing it. But then certain things like appraisals have a way of forcing you to introspect your life and ask questions like “Am I prioritizing things properly?” it is then I realized that I had unknowingly slipped back into my night shifts and inefficient work patterns

At that moment everything seemed clear. I was able to see something really wrong with the work culture. She would later tell me that it is something She has been telling all along but I still would credit the root cause analysis to moua.

Root cause analysis By Sabarinath K

A large chunk of the IT industry is normally freshers (read as fresh out of college and fresh into industry from academics). A lot of them come from different backgrounds from the bullock-cart village to the extremely urbane. Of this most of them do not have the luxury of getting a job at their native place and are hence are also fresher into a new city and probably “living” in a city with bright lights for the first time.

Being in the IT sector most of them must be computer savvy and would possibly swear by Gmail, Yahoo and Orkut or at the very least hooked to the internet in general. Even though I would not bitch about pay, but I have to say that the cost of living in Bangalore is one thing that’s proudly kept pace (and sometimes even overtaken) with the pay hike that the IT sector has been experiencing. And being bachelors their lifestyle would be…well…let’s stop with the word “bachelor-like”.

Looking at the big picture, what do you have at your hand? You have a huge set of young boys/girls living outside their parent’s aegis with a limited amount of financial freedom. They are getting free internet and air conditioned workplace with freedom to stay till they drop at their office compare this with their “unconnected” home , subject to the whim and fancy of brother weather ( not AC’ed I mean) , what would they choose? This leads to a lot of them staying back at office for no particular reasons or at least official reasons. Add to that, misguided corporate policies giving web mail access only in the night, and more and more people are drawn to stay late.

Once this sets in work will be slowly put off till the dark due to various reasons (maybe cuz the hot chick in the next cabin wont be available to flirt after 6:30? Or maybe you will not get into the mode to work till its night or maybe your PM saw you sitting late and night and just assumed you would love to work then too). Once this happens, habits for a life time are sowed. Since the current seniors would also have been subject to this same cycle, it would be seen unnatural and would probably go un-noticed.

Not only are we learning to stay late, we are also learning to expand the work (Murphy’s law? Work expands to fill time given), that could be easily done in 8 hours, to fill 10-12 hours. From a bachelors point of view it is not very relevant, but moving such a habit into a married life can be disastrous and by that time (that a IT person get married) this would be in-grained in us to be easily fixed.

Coming back to the crux of the issue. The reasoning behind the 6 day workweek is to bill the customer more rt? I feel that the customer is not myopic to not understand that 6 day workweeks would decrease the productivity increase errors and we would end up spending more man hours for the same work, in turn costing the customer more but getting possibly more shabby work.

I feel it’s the duty of the Indian management to understand/convey this vision, and coupled with the issue of margins and try to take the hit themselves or pass it on to the customer ,by convincing them that it’s in their best interests.

One thing that you might think that I have ignored is the competition from companies like Accenture, EDS etc who have a lot of their workforce outside India. Well, from where I stand (ideological zenith and practical nadir) , the cost factor was going to be just the spark for the engine that’s is the services industry, the fuel needs to come from differentiation in other more important things like say quality of work!.

Time to look at that maybe eh?

( A HHHUUUGGEEE thanks to Nikhil or rather he should thank me for giving him the opportunity to proof read the draft )

When the atheist says, "I am an atheist," the unspoken corollary is, ‘If you’re NOT also an atheist, then you are deluded, gullible, or a liar."

When the theist says, "I believe in (whatever)," it logically follows that, "I’m morally superior to you if you DON’T also believe; and you DESERVE to be infinitely punished for daring to disagree with me."

I am not going to oversimplify and generalize this comment to everyone in the above-said categories, one reason being that I am inthe latter but do not confrom to the statement, but I have seen a lot of them have this kind of arrogance attached to their statement

My question to them is that, what’s wrong with believing in what you believe and let others believe in what they believe? Whatever is said in the different religion, ultimately the common theme in most of them, as I understand, is that god is a source of strength for everyone, a marker of sorts to the "current" defined standards of morality and ultimately a source of meaning in life for those who search it. And most of the atheist’s, I know are "strong" people and also have a strong sense of morality within the society. Even if anyone deviates from this path there is still the law of our society which defines a minimum set of standards.

If people are able to find meaning in their life in what ever way they do….why is it necessary to fight with each other? Can’t we accept that there can be "multiple" right paths and if that’s too hard to digest cant the people just let the other people be, as long as the laws of the society are undisturbed?

And for people questioning the "origin" of these laws, Aren’t we at a good equilibrium to have laws that are flexible to most religions that exist today? I know its an uneasy equilibrium but not one that cannot be refined right?

This story speaks of a winter. It was a winter to some and a summer to some. But the pessimist in me wants to talk about the winter. So, here goes…

This story speaks of a winter. A cold and dark one at that but it did come after spring. Yes, there was a time when the birds flew freely in the sky, squirrels spent lazy days together with nothing but dalliance in their minds. But then came a sorcerer. He seemed like what the predecessor of Ford Prefect who came to earth and saw before hurrying off, scribbling “Mostly harmless”. But little did the creatures know his ways were distinct and his plans deep, with levels of foresight than the best chess AI.

He promised them fun, food and love. He promised them stuff they had not even heard about, but felt they could do with since he made a big deal about it. They listened to him with both ears and if they had a third one, they would not have hesitated listening with that too. Was he a good orator? No, they would not say that, but as the wild geese later quacked meekly, “There was something about him.” Was he poetic? They would not say that either, but as the rats later confessed, nibbling their little nuts, “There was something about him …”

The creatures listened with delightful expectation and uninterrupted concentration as he cast this well-practiced spell, his voice waxing and waning with intent. Then he laughed a laugh, not evil, but one that spoke of intense satisfaction, satisfaction of a job well done, a spell well cast. By this time the creatures had left earth, they were dreaming of greener pastures, darker chocolate, greener ‘hasins’ (even though they did not know what it was, but they figured that since he emphasizing it that much, it must be worth having) and what not.

The time had come for him to leave, to go to other forests, to tell other about the good news. The news of this ‘Great New Forest’. A forest all could only dream about. But was it the last time they would hear from him. Unfortunate for some it would be because they could not convince him that they wanted it badly enough or was it he did not want them enough? Who could tell? Anyway, for of the some happy critters, it would not be last time they would meet him. Actually, it was far from last in one sense and not too far from it in another.

The ones who could not convince him were sad for obvious reasons, but the others were even sadder, since he asked them to wait and learn the tricks of the trade till the spring was over, so that they could readily fit into the new forest. They were sad since they had to wait, worse still they had to learn for they had to maintain a CNEG (Common Nom Eaning Grade) in the AFCT (All Forests Creatures Test).

So they studied. For this story to sell in most forests I would have to tell that they studied hard, but lest the computer on which I am typing hang, I am going to refrain from doing so. My humble note to forests creatures reading the electronic version is that I will be correcting this anomaly in the print, if it ever goes to print, as long as the printing machine does not go bust.

And the D-Day finally arrived. Actually the D-Day was different for different animals since they were invited to join the forests at different times so there was no D-Day as such but for the sake of sensational effect in this write up D-Day exists.

Getting back…The D-Day arrived and animals were feeling great, nervous with anticipation. Scared of the denizens of the new forests and nauseated because of the taste difference of the grass and leaves of the new forest. BUT they were feeling great.

They arrived from far and wide, spoke different dialects of the forest slang, some hardly recognizable by others but they were united in one thing (and in most test samples of two animals this thing alone), their being selected to be the new age forest.

They assembled in a large clearing in the forest specially constructed for welcoming the new comers. The older ones had tagged along with their children to see what was new in this “new” forest.

The ceremony started, with the present animals talking about how different the new forest is, recollecting their past experiences from other forests. The new ones and even the old ones that tagged along were awed by the what was said, but some of their faces gave away a look, a strange look that can be found in history umpteen times. A look which is neatly described in the fable “The Emperor’s Clothes”. But some were genuinely awed.

Coming back to our forest and more specifically to the clearing we were talking about, the speeches were over. The animals were not totally clear about what was said in the last 1-2 hours but they were happy, not only because the other also seemed just as confused as them but mainly because it was lunch time…FREE lunch time. They ate to their hearts content and their stomachs’ limit…and a bit more, for today they could call themselves residents of the new age forest. The older ones talked among them of how wonderful the new forest seemed to be, each trying desperately to figure at least one thing good so that they would not seem stupid. They dispersed, the young to their new caves and temporary trees and the old started their long journey back, a bit happy, a bit sad.

Day 2:
They rose early; they did not want to miss out anything from their first actual day at the new forest but if I were to lead you to believe that this became a habit I would be lying. They had been asked to assemble in the clearing before the shadow of the great oak tree crossed the newer oak tree. And they actually assembled before there was any actual shadow at all.

They waited. And while they waited they talked. The different dialects were a problem but they managed, made friends. But there were some who were too scared to leave their old forest group. Others started talking as if they had known the others for years.

Finally the older animals arrived. Leading them was a fox. He seemed mature for his age. His posture reflected years of sedimentary work and his wide forehead radiated the aura of a person with years of experience and excellent at skills of both foresight and hindsight, a cross between the Oracle and the Merovingian . He stood at the center. He looked around. His deep eyes cut through every one. The cacophony that existed slowly ceased and as he cleared his throat, the animals could hear the leaves fall.

“Good Morning New Crits, Hope you had a good sleep…”

The more attentive ones (mostly the ones at the front replied) a bleak “yesss.”

“I didn’t HEAR that…”

“YES SIR!”

“That’s more like it.”

“I am sure all of you will be eager to start living in this new forest with us…”

“Now we will be allocating you roles to play in the new forest…”

The animals stood perplexed. Roles? They could not figure out what he was talking about. There were traces of a murmur that faded away as he began to speak again.

“Right then, I will be reading out the names of those who have been selected for the squirrel position…”

The perplexed looks on the creatures’ faces grew ten-fold. Squirrel position? Who would be more suited to be a squirrel rather than a squirrel himself? But they were too scared to speak out lest they do it out of place and context. They thought that if the others are content with it, it must be a natural thing as we are taught from the time we are born that it’s better to walk with the group. Actually taught is a strong word. The more appropriate phrase should be ‘lead to believe’, but let’s leave aside the technicalities and let’s get on with the story without being bored too much.

A string of names followed…most of them were squirrels themselves but there were some rats and even an elephant among them. Then the names stopped. But the remaining squirrels, though few in number, huddled together scared at why they were left out. In the next one hour they were allotted roles but instead of easing their anxiety it just multiplied since they just could not understand what they would be doing in the role of a rat and an elephant.

Then they divided into their respective groups and started to get to know each other form their team. They found out that even the other animals were as confused as they were. Then they had a bit of escape from reality and its jagged ends during "team building activities" which they thoroughly enjoyed. And no one later took up the issue and even if someone did no one knew but strangely though one or two squirrels who were initially left out were put back.

And the next day the training started for assimilation into the new forest. Some critters complained since teaching a squirrel the basics of being a squirrel seemed a waste of time to them. But they had to calm down and literally slow down for the elephant and rats to catch up with them but eventually the others reached and some even overtook the squirrels. Also, though the elephant had to be careful not to crush his fellow team mates during their various activities but rapport between then reached newer dizzy heights previously thought impossible in an ordinary forest.

And two months went off just like that. In a more practical sense, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times There were times when they had nothing to do and spent the whole day whiling away at the training water hole and there were other days when they had to decrease the number of breaths they take to submit the various training tasks. Their initial doubts, though still lingering in their minds, were swept under the little doormat in the back of their brains during these two months as they seemed to be partially justified.

Finally, the ‘Tree Allotment Day’ came. The forest was divided into different sectors with specific vegetation and each vegetation was again divided into different trees and groups of animals were to be allotted a tree where they would do their work. Everybody was anxious. It was more like the one you feel while awaiting the results of the exam. Not saying that that anxiety doesn’t have as many layers as an onion but I’d rather not go deep into that now. Their brains were getting thoroughly cleaned and all the dust accumulated under the doormat got the first rays of sunlight for the first time in two months. Well not really the first time in two months for the ambitious ones as they were real nerds, never good at sweeping anything, both in real life and in their heads.

So they waited. The person came gave them another speech about trust and the non-importance of what tree we get, because in his own words "a tree is just a tree", you will outlive a tree and move onto others and then the old tree would become irrelevant in a sense. The pessimistic ones among then saw that as a way of tendering meat before cutting them into small, small pieces but then again they were a minority

The allotments were read out, but it was evident that even though a tree is a tree, some trees are more tree than a tree. Animals were getting certain trees but contrary to the first division (into animal roles) lesser critters were disappointed. One way of seeing this was that initially when the critters came, they were young, their blood was warm and expectations impractically high. Therefore, they got disappointed easily but now after the initial experience they had leant to be more practical and were better prepared to take the tree allotment news. This is just my theory, though.

And their forest life finally began…they were creatures of new forest.

Okay, after all this pessimism, let go ask an important question. Were the critters happy? For example, if the elephant in the squirrel “domain” put his skills and mind to it, he might one day become the head squirrel and get the all the respect that he could have got if he had been in a elephant’s role or probably even more BUT its upon him to realize that and be happy. So, was it a summer or a winter? I leave it to you to decide.

In conclusion, I would like to leave the reader pondering over Stephen Covey’s 90-10 rule. It states that 10% of life is made up of what happens to you, 90% of life is decided by how you react.

One of the reasons that I did not take software engineering was(a very stupid reason I know), was that were too many languages to learn too many platforms to master that what you could do in a life time. This was very depressing for me. True to my human/Indian (?) core I was always searching for the "absolute". I thought I would find solace in the company of the absolute of the hardware industry. Little did I know, here you dependent on the tool and its company as anywhere.

At that times even though there were no absolutes for me in the computer field, I has absolutes for me in other facets of life, like, I had a absolute picture of GOD as the all powerful and also of Hinduism as the true religion. During the past years those things have taken radical hits and are now afloat in totally different avatars. In a way I have understood the futility of the search for absolute knowledge……from what I know now…the closest thing to absolute knowledge is a very relative and constantly changing thing. Its the ability to search for and filter out relevant knowledge.
Its important to more the "filter" key word especially in today’s world, as any Tom, Dick & Harry can post anything on the internet and the common source of information on the net, the Wikipedia, which even though I respect a lot, can be easily manipulated. In this context this link on how to leant to be skeptical about information on the net is very useful
Evaluating Web Pages
So you could say what is important is not knowledge as such, but the ability to find relevant information and the ability to filter it out to knowledge.
The simplest example I can think of with respect to the IT industry is this. The work I do requires me to use multiple scripting languages. I don’t remember the syntax and semantics of most these languages. But what I know is, at an abstract level, the capabilities of each. What this helps me to do is, when I get a problem, at a abstract level I know enough to select the right language for the problem. In case I am in doubt, I split the task into micro tasks, and try to match these tasks with the capabilities of the language starting from the simplest and least capable language. And move on till I get a 100% match. Then I start scourging the net to find sample code that does these micro tasks or get it from previous code I did. Then my work is reduced to just piecing the codes together, which is hard but nonetheless much simpler than if I had to write the code from scratch.  This might give me a handicap, say ,  if I had to attend a test on any particular language but as far as my work is concerned, its goes at a good speed and I also feel my turnaround time at new languages are also reduced.
So to put it in simple words
“Knowledge is not knowing everything, but in knowing how to find the relevant information at the relevant time”
 

Recently I went home after 4 months of working in UK, and to cut a long and sentimental story short, it was wonderful. It was wonderful to see the tear laid eyes of my mom, shortly revisit the hardened cynicism of my father and last from far from least the sweet tender sight of love.  HOME SWEET HOME!

Anyway while coming back, I was at the station just about to board the train. The train was already late….something common to the “special” trains. Then I remembered something I promised myself when I was in UK….to hug my father and mother and me being me, I gave into my impulse and hugged my mom. My dad in had his usual nonchalant mask on, but I am sure was pretty sad that I was leaving so soon, anyways as I starting hugging him, commented “public shows of affections are shams”….at that time I was too involved in following my impulse that I did not heed to it. But it stuck to me like chewing gum.

Later while my mind was wandering through the universe, hoping from one planet to another, with nothing else to do during the train journey, this comment revisited me with renewed vigor. At the surface of it, it seems plausible, as its safe to assume that a lot of people do show affection in public just to one-up on someone watching. I would not consider myself as completely out of that group of people, since I have used these kinds of mind-games (?) more than once. For instance when I was having fights with some of my friends, I used to get extra cuddly with other friends around him/her. Similarly when I have heard stupid rumors floating about cracks in my relationships, I have put on that extra effort of showing my friendship…not to my friend but to others who were watching, like putting on that extra make-up on your comeback film.

In UK it was not hard to find love-stuck couples locked in their lips and more even in the sleepy town of Southampton….where they more worried about others or just enjoying the moment?  And what about our own “desi” couples in banglore?

But all these things aside, the action that led to this particular comment had none of these factors as its parents. It was just an impulsive act on part of a son who really missed his dad. Maybe what he said is true and most public acts of affection are just sham…but as long as its not the crowd that you care about and u get that “good” feeling in your heart I feel its ok….and maybe…this over analysis has to STOP! :p

There are so many people that believe in god.

So many people survived through tough times in their lives holding on to their belief in god. Not saying that there were others who were not able to hold on to it enough and see it through. But still the first set of people do exist.

If its their belief ( at least at some level as you can argue that belief is just a manifestation of their will power or lack thereof ) that helped them though the times, isn’t it proof enough that god exists?

I mean to some god is a passive benevolent observer who will make things right finally….and the belief in him giving the strength to survive thru tough times. Isnt this satisfied?

This is leaving all the other concepts of heaven and hell aside. Just this restricted definition of god….isn’t it satisfied? 

I know there might be some logcal fallacies to this arguement But I cant think of any rt now…..