Politics for a better tomorrow.

The Indian elections have now entered their final lap with the results being declared tomorrow.

That being said, I wouldn't deny I'm posting this specific article a little late, but I'd prefer to comfort myself by saying "Better late than never". These elections, the largest democratic elections the Earth has ever seen, have definitely been intriguing, not to mention competitive. Never before have I seen these leaders work so tirelessly, giving their everything and not missing a chance to impress the voters. On the other hand, the media, in my opinion, has played a truly remarkable role by constantly keeping all parties on their toes, pressurizing parties when they were getting ugly, and also analyzing and debating the elections with lots of enthusiasm and dedication. The parties cautiously planning each move of theirs, using their best marketing techniques, and carefully laying down their manifesto has set me thinking on a different line, however.

If one looks at how exactly the parties have appealed to voters, one can find various issues like development, public facilities, industrial growth, eradication of poverty, and inevitably caste and religion. However, I was deeply saddened to see hardly any politician speak about education, and a way to improve the constantly deteriorating education system. I wouldn't call that surprising, however, for at least two major reasons:
1) With a growing educated population, parties might be worried that more-and-more people would be able to see right through their plans and strategies.
2) Education doesn't give any immediate benefits to the country like industrial development does, and thus is not a cause of concern to the general voter. In other words, education, yielding no instantaneous harvest, is not a good way to appeal to the common man.

On the other hand, I feel that an ignorance from the voter towards education is a matter of shame.
He wants eradication of poverty,
he wants an end to communal riots,
he wants an end to wars,
he wants a better quality of life,
he wants more literate and thinking politicians,
he wants industries coming to India,
he wants lots of employment opportunities,
he wants everything.
Yet, what he probably doesn't realize is that he can get all of this with patience and education. Education can definitely convert all these wants into a reality, with just some amount of patience.
What sort of an education? Scientific education.
How is knowing Newton's Laws of motion going to solve these national problems? It's not.

It is not the education of the theory of science, but rather the education of the spirit of science, that solves these problems. How? Let us look at certain aspects of the scientific spirit and thought:
1) Question the obvious.
2) Question everything.
3) Demand evidence for every claim made.
4) Think rationally.
5) Accept new ideas and embrace change, provided there's enough evidence supporting their authenticity.

These were just some of the fundamental elements of scientific thought, the list can go on forever. Science makes us think beyond the boundaries created in our mind. It discourages prejudices, and promotes rational thought. It makes us feel humble, yet powerful. It gives us knowledge, but leaves us thirsty for more. It tells us to search for the truth and respect all others around us. It tells us that if there are to be wars, let them be fought by thought and evidence, not by weapons and money. It teaches us equality. It tells us that it is not the purity of gold but the purity of thought that makes a person rich. It tells us to respect nature, for that, is our home. It tells us that we are all humans, not Hindus, Muslims and Christians. I feel that most of these ideas are encapsulated perfectly by Carl Sagan, out here:



I don't expect politicians and leaders to talk about education and science. I rather feel that we as voters must talk about it. We must realize that these are the long-term solution to all our problems and crises. Let us have patience, be true to ourselves, and our species. We need an educated country. We need people free of biases. We need dedicated leaders. We need a disciplined, yet free country. The wants could come later. It is a matter of shame that we value our wants much higher than our needs in the world of today. Let us work for a better India. Rather, a better world. Let us initiate the politics for a better tomorrow.

[PS - There is no intention of gender discrimination wherever 'he' has been used, and not 'she']

The Mind.

"The Power of the Mind"
How often does one hear this phrase?
People use it to talk about how much the mind is capable of doing, how much of influence it can have, and so on. Unlike such people, I want to talk of the power of the mind a bit differently. I want to talk about it as a scientific miracle.

Since time immemorial, the goal of scientists has been to explain whatever is happening around us with accurate reasons. For that, postulates, laws, theorems, equations and various theories have been put forth by various personalities across the globe. What science has achieved is amazing in the sense that today a person can explain complex phenomena just on a piece of paper with a few alphabets and numbers (i.e. in the form of equations). Science has been able to explain so many things, like the formation of a rainbow, 

 

or the periodically recurring shapes (or phases) of the moon 

and so many wonderful things that left man awestruck for centuries!

Science showed the world that there are patterns in nature and most of the things that we see around us work as per these patterns. In the scientists' language, they termed these as laws, theories and such stuff. Science succeeded in explaining simple things like why we are stuck to the surface of the Earth, or why we can walk easily on a dry floor as compared to a wet floor, as well as complicated things like the production of light by stars or the reason children have features similar to their parents.

The reason I call the abilities that our mind possesses as a 'scientific miracle' is that our mind, or rather the minds of all organisms on this planet, never needs to work out such equations in order to do something. Let me be more specific. Suppose I want to lift a pen fallen on the floor and keep it on the table nearby. Now, this action or phenomenon, as discovered by scientists, works because of certain conditions, and as per certain equations. This action won't be possible in certain circumstances too. For example, to lift the pen, one must apply a greater upward force than the gravitational force which keeps the pen down. One can also calculate the energy that will be required to complete this action.

But the mind is amazing. No person actually calculates in the mind the force that (s)he has to apply to lift the pen is say 2N at the least. The mind is miraculous. It can pretty accurately predict how much force it needs to apply without working out complicated equations. The mind can judge whether the temperature of a hot object you might be touching will burn your hand or not if you keep your hand on the object for some more time. It tells you when some noise is too loud for you to sustain, without actually calculating the decibels and all. It knows the intensity of light and accordingly instructs the iris to adjust the size of the pupil to prevent damage.

In brief, though all the phenomena around us work as per certain laws, our mind is powerful enough to do all the math, physics or whatever required to complete its action almost instantaneously. It knows exactly what it has to do without doing the actual physical calculations and telling you that "Hey, you can't open that door unless your hand applies a force of 5N!"

It just does it. It somehow does. Looking at it scientifically, it's totally miraculous. A SCIENTIFIC MIRACLE!

Breathing a new life..

After an artificially long break from writing, I've decided to breathe a new life into this blog. So how do I do that? Well, I think this time I'll just pick up on the idiom I used before and start straight off. Rather than focusing on the etymology and stuff of the phrase, I'd be writing about breath, and life.

It isn't really worth speaking about the relation between breath and life, what breath is and how it is necessary for life and such stuff. These are common facts which I believe most of the readers (if not all) must be knowing of. The more interesting part, I believe, is the Earth being a Goldilocks planet. Some put it as "We are fortunate that we got to live on a Goldilocks planet, else we wouldn't exist", while some others argue that "The development of life, and its persistence for so long, is a result of the Earth being a Goldilocks planet". Nevertheless, apart from how this idea is conceived, I feel the idea in itself is pretty beautiful. For life to sustain, the Earth provides a good habitat. For life to sustain, every life-form needs to breathe. Breath is nothing but the intake of gases by life-forms. Gases, another thing the Earth provides.
I thus notice a very intimate connection between, breath, life, and the Earth.

A scientific perspective can suggest the exact composition of gaseous compounds that go in and come out while breathing. A little change here and there, can probably affect not only breath, but also life. Earth has had a perfect composition of gases, satisfying the needs of life. In fact, satisfying the pleasures of life too. I'm sure any person would agree that is really satisfying and rejuvenating to go on top of a mountain and enjoy the cool breeze up there. But then, as we always hear, man is destroying nature, causing global warming, blah blah blah! He's then finding a new Goldilocks planet, trying to terraform it and then probably even "shift" to that planet. This is like destroying something you already have and then buying a same copy of it. Just that, it's not too easy. To go through such a kind of a process, just to help life persist, will surely take one's breath away. I need not really talk further about saving the Earth and stuff, cause I believe enough awareness of the same is being generated all across the world.

To understand the true significance of breath, and it's correlation with life and habitat, in my opinion, is a very difficult process, both, scientifically, and philosophically. One needs to think, experiment and introspect before making any conclusions regarding the same. Breathing, in my opinion, is in no way a silly or trivial activity. It is a very complex, and beautiful phenomenon, though never much noticed. In all Oriental and mystic philosophies, the breath holds the secret to the highest bliss. That is why breathing is the dominant factor in the practice of Yoga.

After all this, I suppose all of us should just take a deep breath and enjoy life till the last breath!

\m/usicology

I feel that music has been best described by Hans Christian Andersen in the following five words:

"Where words fail, music speaks." In fact, music speaks better than words even when they don't fail. Music is a very integral part of everyone's life. A systematic presentation of noise, as I term music, can well represent various moods of a person as well as make plants and animals sway to its tune. The very fact that even plants respond to music, and not words or language, positively, indicates the power of music.

Talking about the 'systematic presentation of noise', I first talk about noise. Noise is a mixture of sound notes and beats, but randomly expressed, without any pattern or rhythm.  When the same notes and beats are presented rhythmically and in particular systematic manner, we find it pleasing to the ears, and term it music. This actually is the basis for composing. Composers basically just pick up some musical notes from a heap of options available to them and arrange them in a way that will sound pleasing to the listeners. Then they add beats to it which go as per a particular tempo.

Then we have made different instruments that present these same notes They however sound different due to differences in harmonics. We have also created different instruments to play the same beats. The may differ in their structure, thus yielding different pitch as well as differences in harmonics.

Using these different instruments, various musicians have worked extensively, and mastered the instruments. Different instruments were brought together to bring different sounds under one umbrella. These led to what are now songs.

As such developments occurred all across the globe, and as development of communication and transportation is a relatively recent phenomenon, different instruments and rhythms developed in different parts of the world. Over time, they were termed as the 'music' of that region and this concept still exists. For example, Indian classical music, rock music, country music, or maybe even the Brazilian Samba beats are nothing more than regional variations of the same notes and beats. Linking these variations together is what we call 'fusion' music nowadays.

The next stage after composition is presentation. That too has acquired different forms. Some music is sung in choirs, some present it in operas, some are solo artists, while some may present it in groups or bands. Each has its own specialty and uniqueness.

Now, mathematics is also increasingly being linked to music. After extensive research in music, a new set theory in music has been developed similar to the set theory in maths. The beats can also be linked with mathematics as they repeat in a cyclic manner. Physicists also have studied sound waves and harmonics in great detail to understand how music works.

Leaving the technical part aside, music, in any form, has always touched everyone's heart. So let us all convert noise into \m/usic!

Discrimination.

DISCRIMINATION

When one comes across the word above, he/she will most probably relate it to the way some humans have treated fellow humans all over the world over time. And so did I. Discrimination and such differences that humans have generated among themselves, are, like many other malpractices today, a result of the mixing of BAG, as I term it. I define BAG to be Brain And Greed.

None would object if I term the human brain to be the most advanced among all organisms. However, when this amazing power of the brain is used for negative or selfish activities, the glory of the positive achievements diminishes. Take for example the case of applying science to develop new technology. On one hand, humans have created the light bulb while on the other hand, they've also created nuclear weapons. Both are examples of science being applied to develop something, however, the purpose also matters. Developing the light bulb can be termed as a positive achievement of the human brain whereas nuclear weapons can be termed as something created for negative purposes.

Something similar do I apply toward discrimination. When the species of humans were created, no human was given some extra or special advantage over other humans by nature. Then how should we understand the development of such mass-scale discrimination? I simply believe that some used the brain for selfish purposes and looked to control others. Then came this discrimination. Humans 'classified' themselves, based on various features or thoughts. That's fine. But the wrong part in it is that this classification was not a simple tree chart but a pyramid. In other words, some classes were considered to be 'better' than others. Take for example, things like racism. The race of a human is totally decided by nature and nature yields no special benefit to a particular race. Similar was the spate of many classes as per various classifications.

Further, humans didn't stop there. Discrimination was extended to various species. Boasting of the most complex body structure, and a highly capable brain, humans considered themselves to be the most 'advanced' species. What next? Poaching, hunting, killing as well as forest fires. Here's one picture that I came across on the net. It perfectly describes what I'm trying to say:

We were all pitted as equals. May it be in the case of humans, or organisms. Using feelings like greed and feeding it by the power of the brain to selfish benefits is absolutely incorrect for any organism/ human to do. I suppose we should all respect nature and its creations.

Man-made different from natural. Or maybe not?

Well, I admit right in the beginning of this post that this isn't too much of a serious post. Just a fun thought that came up in my mind recently.

So I begin with the knowledge of disasters that is planted in every child's brain when in school. When we are taught about disasters, we are told that they are of two 'types' - natural and man-made. While natural disasters are caused by nature, man-made disasters are caused due to the actions and activities of man.
I now try to think of this in a bit different way. When we say 'man', we refer in general to humans. Humans (or Homo Sapiens) are actually nothing but another species on the face of the Earth. Like all other species, they too have evolved from some other species. In short, humans are also a result of evolution, just like all other species.

Now let us consider nature. What do we include in 'nature'? One often refers to the natural environment when talking about nature. So it shouldn't be inappropriate to consider nature to comprise of living things and non-living things. While non-living things may comprise of water, air, soil and stuff, living things include all the species of plants, animals, and all other organisms that carry out basic life processes like respiration and excretion to name a few. In my previous paragraph, however, I've pointed out that humans also are a species of the same kind.

So in short, humans are like all other organisms whom we together call "nature". That is, humans themselves form a part of the same 'nature'. All that is different with us is that we are more complex in body organisation, and have developed impressive communication techniques. But that doesn't distinguish us from nature. Each organism has its own specialties.

The point I'm trying to make finally, is that there barely lies a proper reason to separate man-made and nature. If it was just because man can 'make' things, I recall the good old weaver bird who can 'make' really fabulous things.

Man has let his himself fall prey to the pride he feels of his achievements and tends to look at himself as a class part. In my opinion, this has also been the basis for the immense amount of discrimination that occurs today in society, which in fact should be the next topic I take up for this blog.

A matter of Inspiration.

I begin this post by first addressing the terminologies 'inspiration' and 'influence'.
Here's what the dictionary told me about them:
Inspiration - The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative.
Influence - The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.

Many people have said, and so do I agree, that one should be inspired not influenced by someone or something. Being influenced might be good during certain times, I don't deny, but that influence should not govern your mind. I rather feel that one should add his/ her own touch of thought to that influence which he/ she has gained before using it, to have some originality. Inspiration on the other hand, inculcates the same. Thus I reach my main point, which is inspiration.

So many times have I been asked, "Who is your inspiration?". I'm pretty sure most of the readers too face such questions frequently in their lives. What my objection, however, is the word 'Who'. Let me get you to what I am saying sequentially. Say, someone asks me who my inspiration is. I might answer that I am inspired by say Beethoveen. Now if someone asks Beethoveen (though I know there is no way of doing this today) who his inspiration was, he might talk of another great figure. And so can this can continue till we reach the first human. Ask him/ her who his/ her inspiration was (please don't tell me about the fact that language wasn't well-developed back then or that there might have been more than one homo sapiens when our species came to life). What would he/ she answer? He/ she has no human to talk about. I quite naturally expect the question directed toward him/ her to be "What is your inspiration?" rather than "Who is your inspiration?". He/ she might answer nature, considering that almost everything at that time could be called nature. Why then do people today never ask "What" my inspiration is?

In fact, I feel that nature (or maybe any other non-human thing, though I'm focusing more on nature) in this world can prove to be a better inspiration than a particular human.

I support this with what Albert Einstein had once said, "Look deep, deep into nature and you will understand everything better."

Today, I feel, that what was once but natural for people to do (seek inspiration from nature), has unfortunately, I should say, been converted into a field of study, called 'bionics'.
You can google that for more information, but in short, it is a study wherein people design technology and engineering methods from biological methods and systems of nature. Today, there wouldn't have been velcro, resilin, cat's eye reflectors, and many more things if people hadn't worked in bionics.

Yet, I get the feeling that this world of humans is quite insane. On one hand we destroy nature, and on the other, draw inspiration from it. A truly "weird world". :-)