Reality bites!!!

I was seeing this program on the Discovery Channel and it set me thinking. Scientists had implanted an electrode into the brain of a mouse and the mouse was placed in a box with a small hole. The electrode was placed in such a manner that when an electrical impulse was transmitted, the pleasure regions of the brain were activated. Whenever the mouse peeped into the hole, the pleasure regions were stimulated. After some time , the mouse kept peeking into the hole. And I realized the reality that is constituted by the mouse is actually what the brain constructs for him. The reality that is perceived by the scientist is that of a mouse frantically and to be fair comically is that of a mouse being fooled into poking his head into a hole.And to take the abstraction even little more is that for somebody the reality perceived by the scientist could be comical. Imagine two white coated scientists studiously and diligently observing a mouse putting into a hole for months all together.
Somewhat like The Matrix. So what actually constitutes reality is actually an illusion. I remember my venerable Econometrics professor (just the recall of the word 'econometrics' gives me the nightmares) telling us that a table may seem solid to the eyes, but the distance between two adjacent atoms in the wood is equivalent to a man standing alone in a large auditorium.
Marketing 101 states that perception is reality. Scores of marketeers have made their money by convincing 'gullible' consumers that this is the reality just by manipulating their perceptions. Lets take the example of whitening creams I find it reprehensible when I see icons like Shah Rukh Khan endorsing whitening creams. Whitening creams!!! Really!!!
Excess melanin was put into our body by evolution for people in tropical regions so that the harmful effects of Sun is mitigated. Lighter colored people abound in the colder and northern climes. And suddenly, that has become the in thing. Remember Afghan Snow? So now the reality being perpetrated is that it is not cool to be dark.
On a philosophical track, the Self or Ego identifies with the body. And that becomes reality. So to nurture the reality it attaches itself more strongly to the needs of the body. And that is what constitutes Maya. The path of the philosopher is to detach the Self from the body and perceive reality. Isnt it ironic that I use the words 'perceive' and 'reality' in the same sentence.
But then maybe we don't want reality. As the character Cipher says in The Matrix 'I know this steak is not real and the taste that I feel is just my brain fooling me, But I would rather be fooled'.
That would be manna from Heaven for all the marketers and spin doctors across the world and beyond!!!
 

Clarity of thought and Nations

Clarity of thought and single minded focus are clearly attributes that are necessary for making one an adept in whatever one does. In Kalaripayattu its called ekagrata . Eka means One and it signifies single minded focus. It is no more exemplified than in the Mahabharata story of Arjuna , his arrow and the eye of the toy parrot. In modern times, in a recent interview, Sachin Tendulkar stated that he batted best when his mind was blank and his only focus was on the ball. He found himself transported in the Zone. Many a sportperson has experienced that. So what is it do with nations?
So what drives the objectives of nations? I believe it stems from a core value system which drives the nation to first protect and then proselytise the others to adopt its ways of life. So to have  a core value system defined, one needs to have clarity of thought and the ability to articulate it unambiguously and the fortitude to ensure it is not violated.
I don't raise a candle for the USA but it is instructive to see how they pursue this clarity of thought. The bedrock of the so called "American way of life" is capitalism and the life blood of capitalism is commerce and the integral part of that is the stock market. Now if people were to lose their faith in the stock markets then the bedrock could turn out to be very rocky. So they ensure that an iconic figure like Rajat Gupta finds himself in the slammer for insider trading despite the work and pedigree he brought to the table.
The other bedrock is the right to expression. So much so , they have protected the right to burn the flag because they in their wisdom have defined the right to freedom as something much more relevant than burning a national symbol. I am not arguing over the right and wrong of it. All I am saying is that the nation has clarity on its core values and has the fortitude to pursue it and crush their adversary , be it another idea like communism or another person like bin Laden.
Now lets come back to India. If we believe the cliché that the three things that bind India are cricket, Bollywood and masala dosa, and in a manner of speaking is core to India or at least a subset of India, then why aren't we going the whole hog on this spot fixing fiasco.
Let me extend the logic further. What is the core value of India? If it is pluralism, then why doesn't the state machinery just come down like a ton of bricks on communal riots and bring the perpetrators to book. A child born in 1984 almost 30 years old. 7 persons have been convicted for the killing of 3000 people.
If it is commerce, and as a Western friend told me , we are a commerce driven nation, then why did we not go with our entire might on the attack on Mumbai, our commercial capital. Have we ever heard that so-and-so attack was an attack on our way of life.
Does it reflect our lack of clarity or are we intrinsically ambiguous? It drives the other country people ape when we say 1-2 days as a measure of accuracy for completing a task. Or is it convenient to be ambiguous considering the huge diversity that India has. One may argue that even the US is diverse but then the US has only a baggage of 300 years to contend with, notwithstanding the Native American genocide.
I don't know and the answer might lay somewhere in between. Alternately there might be no precise answer. Hey, you might say I am not exhibiting clarity or rather am exhibiting ambiguity. Then I am Indian. We are like that only!!!!

Tinker,Tailor,Soldier,Spy!!!

John Le Carre must have been a party pooper for sure. His stories were stark and dark. His characters had all the burden of life to bear with. His protagonist Smiley never smiled and his antagonist Karla did not either. In some ways, they were the proverbial twins separated at the clichéd Kumbh Mela. And they did not hold a candle to either Bond or Bourne. But the stories reflected the mundaneness of the spy world. Boring and inexorable with the occasional bouts of excitement. Why am I writing this? Because Sarabjeet Singh is no more. For a person whose freedom was fought for on humanitarian grounds, his death has transformed him into a martyr and a  patriot. Which leads me to believe that he was a spy who did what he could for his country. It reminds me of the famous lines from "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
  It is not for us to reason why
 It is for us to but do and die
From a human psychology stand point, it is quite intriguing to understand the psyche of a spy. The caveat being, I haven't met a real life spy. If I knew he was a spy, then I presume he would not have been a darned good one at that. I did meet somebody who said he ran spies. He was ex-military et al.
So my knowledge is restricted to what I read about them. I understand there are three motivations for a spy.
1. Money (They are mercenaries who prostitute state secrets for lure of the moolah)
2. Blackmail (caught in compromising positions, leverage is bought to bear to do the bidding)
3. Idealist

The third category is intriguing. For somebody to take huge risks in life due to a higher calling requires serious fortitude and conviction. Spies are not covered by the Geneva Convention and as such can be hanged. So in that sense, they are going into the danger zone with eyes wide open with no tempo songs playing in the background. And the reality is , if they are caught they are on their own with the country's establishment disavowing them. Unlike the US, which strongly believes in the dictum "No American left behind", India with its legendary bureaucracy sacrifices these  guys to the altar of expediency. The Brandenberg gate has been witness to lots of spy exchanges during the Cold War. In India, the only exchange that happens is that of homilies. Sarabjeet Singh is liberated from the façade he created for the sake of his country. The country should owe him a debt. And the debt is not to be repaid through 21 gun salute orchestrated by cynical politicians with an eye on the near polls. It has to be repaid by the country following the dictum "No Indian left behind". Realpolitik be damned!!! The spies of the third kind do it because somebody has to do it!!! The country should do it because it has to be done!!!

Star Wars, The Force and Ratan Theater

I was watching the television (and yes, I do watch Television a lot) and they were showing the Star Wars saga with all the six episodes slated to be shown. Star Wars has a special memory in my mind primarily because at heart I am a geek and no self respecting geek would not like the saga. Ask Leonard and Sheldon!!!! That and Star Trek on Doordarshan has evocative memories. I remember seeing Star Wars -The New Hope in the late 1970s at Sterling. My dad had taken me to this theatre in South Bombay(it was still Bombay then) for the night show and there was something new fangled called Dolby sound which to my 8-year old mind was as exotic as light sabres. I distinctly remember being awed (ok frightened) by this looming giant with a raspy voice who entered into the Hall of Villains as Darth Vader.  We then moved to Panvel which was then a village struggling with an identity crisis of whether it was village aspiring to be a town but pretending to be a city. There were two theatres in Panvel. One was Gyan theatre which specialized in showing movies to be mildly put , qualified as Dirty Pictures. And no National awards for these dirty pictures!!!!
 The other movie theatre was called Ratan theatre. It was nestled in a busy bylane of Old Panvel and was a landmark which in today's age sounds like an overkill to qualify as a landmark. But hey, even Bade Miya is a landmark and it just consists of a grill and umpteen wooden stools. Ratan theatre specialized in showing Hindi movies which appealed to the masses. For some unknown reason, the theatre started showing English movies on Sundays. And therein hangs a tale!!!
I used to cycle down to my beloved Barns School and on the way on a wall peppered with graffiti there was this slot for movies to be shown in Ratan theatre. And there I saw this movie poster called The Empire Strikes Back. My mother, obliging as ever and as only mothers can be, gave me 10 Rs for me and my brother to see this movie. And as a measure of luxury, I could buy balcony tickets. So in this theatre (with bedbugs et al) in this place called Panvel, I saw one of the all time classics.
Ratan theatre then hosted me for more classics like Modern Times, The Dirty Dozen and Guns of Navarone. I remember the Grindwell gang cycling to Ratan theatre to watch some movie. And then in the intermission , the mandatory message flashing that cycle thieves breed and multiply in the vicinity of the theatre. And we all rushing to ensure that the beloved cycles are safe and sound.
Then one day, the theatre stopped screening English films and then it just stopped screening films. But for that time it showed the classics, it was in a different time warp. And then I guess , the Force just dissipated!!!
 

Hogwarts in Hyderabad?

This post is about magic,elegance and spells. Before you jump to the words like Accio, Avada Kedavra and sundry incantations from Ole Harry Potter, let me say this is about another Wizard who has given me joy over the years. This post was triggered from a replay of match on telly which set me thinking. The Wizard is no Harry Potter but a toothy Hyderabadi who answers to the name of VVS Laxman. And instead of a wand, he wields the willow. Ah,well wands are sure made from willow in the Harry Potter universe. He averages less than 50 (less than Gautam Gambhir) but his innings retain a special place on one's memories. To me, he was all magic. When Michaelangelo was asked how did he create those wonderful pieces of sculpture in the Sistine Chapel, he said the sculpture was already there in the block of granite, he just set it free. There is such an inevitability in a Tendulkar classic. The innings is there, it is bound to happen and he will make it happen as Sun shall rise in the East. In case of Laxman, there is almost a childlike need to create magic. The audience is enthralled and enchanted and he looks forward to what will happen next. Almost like the petal in the water magic by Lily Potter. Its simple, its beautiful and it transcends normal thoughts.
Everybody talks about the iconic 281 Kolkata classic. For me, its the 32 runs he made in South Africa which was magical and at the same time ephemeral like all magic is. Its probably the best 32 runs anybody has made. The standout shot for me was a hook of Shaun Pollock for a six which was sheer beauty. In the movie Escape to Victory, the good (the only one) German General replays the bicycle kick of Pele in his mind and applauds it after every one has stopped clapping. He applauds for the sheer poetry, elegance and magic. I would do the same for that six of Pollock.
I have met VVS on a flight once to Hyderabad. By meet, I mean we traveled by the same plan. But I shall use the word meet for bragging rights. Thats my party line and I am sticking to it!!! First impressions would indicate a self-effacing person off the field. On the field, one gets a feeling that he is thinking new ways of conjuring magic. In a test against the mighty Australians, they had two fielders on the offside seperated by an arms length from each other. In fact , if they were to stretch their hands their fingertips would touch each other. And then Laxman caressed the ball which bisected the two fielders and raced to the boundary leaving the fielders scratching their heads. Magic is deception and deception is magic. Like all elegant batsmen, Laxman always had the extra second to play his shots. It was always great to see him almost slow the ball down and then scratch his chin and decide which shot he would play. Neo from Matrix,anyone?
Inzamam had always the extra time, but he was hampered by the lumbering gait which was like a time bombing waiting to explode in the next run out. Mahela Jayawardene has same magic to an extent and no better exhibition than the 100 he made in the WC final before it was drowned by the whirr of the Dhoni helicopter.
If there was a person for whom I would pay money to watch, it would be Laxman. There is always "Where were you " moment. Like where were you when Man landed on the moon? Where were you when Rajiv Gandhi was assasinated? In cricketing lore, it has always been "Where were you when Laxman made that 281?" at least for me.
Not for him, the savagery of Sehwag or the dependability of Dravid or the inevitability of Sachin. It is always been the caress , the touch and timing. He has been criticised for lack of footwork. I say, when did a Wizard ever walk? Even the Death Eaters flew. Alladin had his carpet. Laxman has his willow.
TO Laxman for those 'Pele' moments. And I am sure somewhere Down Under the Aussies agree!!!!

My tryst with the Monk who gave away his Porsche

Everybody is aware of the Robin Sharma cult classic "The monk who gave away his Ferrari". I had the privilege of having met a real life Monk who gave away his Porsche. And no, this blog is not about whether a Ferrari is better than a Porsche (sorry, grease monkeys out there!!!). What makes it more poignant is the fact that I am very wary about Godmen and Godwomen in general. So the fact that I am writing about my tryst is indication of my awe and spellboundness (literary license to use such a word) I still am in. The Monk was a successful businessman and had offices in Canada, Silicon Valley and Sydney. He gave it all away ,including his Porsche, to take the path of a renunciate. The Monk is very much tech savvy and communicates on email. He is a friend of a friend of mine. This friend had spoken to me about the Monk, but in my addled meat-and-potatoes thinking, I greeted that with sceptism. One day, for no rhyme and reason, I decided to write to him pointing out questions regarding miracles and the effect it has on Karma. The Monk responded with a very cogent, coherent explaination and then went on to describe certain traits and events of my life which only I was privy to. That started onto a conversation thread which even now continues. His reasoning was rational and bereft of inanities and mumbo-jumbo. I have been questioning him and he has been indulging me. It is a cycle which repeats itself in every thread. Some time back I decided to go meet him since till then all conversations were conducted through the Internet ether. He resides in the Ashram in Himachal Pradesh and the journey to his ashram is a story by itself. After disembarking at Kalka I took a ride to a place near Solan. I reached the foothills of a hill and the rest of the journey was on foot. It was getting cold out there and despite a porter to help me with the luggage, I was moderately challenged by the climb. As I started walking, the treeline started changing and one could feel the onset of nature unsullied by pollution of the urban life. Presently we came across a river cascading down with the deep murmurring sound that only a flowing river can make. We started looking for a fjord for us to cross the river. My jeans hitched high, I could see the crystal clear water which I had read about but not encountered (not in Mumbai for sure). The water was icy cold and the stones polished to a smoothness over the years by the river. The good thing was that the icy water invigorated the tired limbs and it gave enough impetus to make it to the Ashram on top of the hill. It was around 4:00 in the evening and I made some small talk with another seeker ( a college professor) . Around 6:00, the Monk came to the room and assumed his yogic seating position when I went to meet him. The first thing that struck me was the glow that emanate from his face. To the rational mind, it can be attributed to the disciplined life that a renunciate leads including the food and continuous yoga . It is nobody's case that yoga does create wonders. To the non-rational person, it suggests an evolved person. It is pertinent to note that the word 'Rational' is absolute and 'Rationale' is relative. It would be highly self-delusional of me to say that I am rational. My rationale is a function of my conditioned thoughts. It was biting cold out there and despite being swathed in layers of clothing my teeth was chattering away like an agitated simian. He on the other hand was draped in a simple thing cloth and there was not even a semblance of discomfort. We discussed several things that night, some of which shall remain privy to him and me. We discussed among other things the software industry, sales cycles, the effect of Tibetan Bon religion on the Tantric school of thought in India and the Tantric school of thought in general. Before you conjure up visual images of ash smeared matted lock bearing bearded Nagas, it is pertinent to note there are many schools of Tantra and the one the Monk follows is Dakshina school of thought which is based of arduous meditation.My knowledge was and is limited and primarily from secondary sources. So it was great to hear somebody who had been through the path first hand.As we were discussing yogic practices, he asked me to feel his pulse. I registered ZERO pulse. You heard it right, ZERO pulse.So to remove any parralax similiar effect, I again felt his pulse and it still registered ZERO. He believes that anybody can attain the same proficiency (or powers if you may) if one persists. He has been tested by doctors in Chandigarh in a suitable test environment, so really, empirical evidence will suggest such powers. We continued talking on that wonderful night and it was a conversation with two diametrically opposite conversationalists. Me , a man fond of his material accoutrements and really, pseudo-intellectualized thinking and he who gave it all away to pursue a higher goal or calling. Eventually scepticism had to give way and I felt I was in the presence of a much evolved power. As I made my way back to the hurly-burly of the world that I left behind at the foothills, I realized this could have been the life-altering experience that one looks for. Some gain that by skydiving, some gain by scuba diving and some by running away from rampaging bulls (Ok, it is a straight lift from Zindagi Na Mile Dobara). I gained that experience by meeting the Monk who gave away his Porsche and I would not trade it for anything else in the world.
P.S : He does not accept any donations as a rule. As I said , he is a Monk who is cut from a different cloth than the ones one sees on TV.  For the readers who want to know more about the Monk , he is Om Swami and he can be reached on his blog www.omswami.com. I would encourage the reader to read his blog and experience the Mystic in him , and God willing, the mystic within you.

The Udupi Paradigm- Sigma of Sigmas

Anybody growing up in Mumbai is very well conversant with the ubiquitious Udipi restaurants that dot the Mumbai landscape. As a child, I vividly remember landing up at Ferry Wharf (Bhau cha dhakka in the local lingo) , then catching a bus (I think it was BEST Bus No 44) to Crawford Market (which stubbornly refuses to morph into Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Market in the public consciousness) and then have steaming idlis at Sadanand. years later, when I was doing my MMS, I was introduced to the terms like productivity, six sigma et al. And as any self respecting , shallow MBAs are wont to, I bandied these jargon shamelessly.And as time elapsed, and some wisdom sprouted purely by the sheer momentum of that entity called Father Time, I realized I did not have to go far to understand what all that meant. And what is more near than that friendly neighbourhood Udipi restaurant. So let me take you through a quasi-virtual walk through to illustrate my point.
So one lands up in the Ramakrishna Udipi Hotel ( Ramkrishna Udipi is 'Smith' of Udipi Hotels) and a waiter ( we will define waiter in the Udipi context as we go along. Suffice to say, the waiter now is the usher or the poor man's maitre'd) guides you to a seat. Before even you can put your glutatus maximus to anchor itself on the sunmica covered table, 4 glasses of water in steel tumbler materializes itself in front of you. And in a mime signal which would put any top notch baseball signaller to shame, the fan is switched on from the cash counter. You now take a dreg of water (in India we drink water, we dont sip) and even before it has cooled your innards, the waiter (yup, all he needs is a red cape and a modicum of biceps) thrusts the menu card to you. You scan the menu card and settle on the medu vada. He listens  though you are made to believe that he hears. He scoots to the kitchen landing and bellows out in a Pavarotti like voice "One medu vada". Before you can say Jack Robinson, he is back with a plate of medu vada and sambar and chutney.You believe nobody is watching you in the milling mass...But you are so wrong. The Force is with the waiter ( he is now a Jedi) and he senses 45 seconds before you are about to polish off the last morsel of the vada. He asks if you want to have tea or coffee. Afraid of antagonizing the man with those supreme powers, you order a cup of tea. The same Jack Robinson/Pavarotti routine is repeated and a cuppa tea is thrust before you.As you gulp the hot tea, he asks whether you need anything else. You, reluctantly decline. He fishes out bill book from his pocket, whips out the pen from behind his right ear lobe, scribbles the bill, plonks it on a small plate and then gives it to you. You pay the bill and you sense a disturbance in the Force which forces you sidle out of your seat and make your way out.
What struck me is how the behaviour pattern is to drive up the key productivity metric, which is , customers per table per hour. I am sure the average bill value would not be high, so sales will have to effected by higher customer turnover and it can only be attained with quick service, clean tables and tasty hygenic food. The Udipi restaurant cracked the quick service mode much before QSR became a buzzword and McDonalds brought the Veg Tikki burger to India. No wonder , the Udipi restaurant still resides cheek by jowl with the McD of India. This is my ode to the Udipi restaurant, the reason for so many memories...

Google Glass and Jarvis

So the new Google Glass is being sneak previewed by the Chosen Ones. Funny, how the world has changed when one attains celebrity status just by being allowed to play with one of the tech toys. I saw the demo video (as you may guess, I am not the chosen one ..at least not yet) of Google Glass and I was blown away. Blown away not by the technology (I have seen the future and it is bright) but the way it changes the way we percieve the world around us. For the non-initiate , Google Glass is a voice activated networked spectacles which allows the user to navigate , download info and pretty much do a lot of things on the go. The HUD (Heads Up Display) from the fighter pilots has been bastardized and then improved to create this tech marvel. So now theoritically everybody can be Maverick with the track "You take my breath away" literally playing away through the earphones. Paradoxically , an increasingly networked environment is making socially inept populace where increasingly there is no need for real interactions. They are just being replaced by real-time interactions. As a species, we are discovering and inventing newer technologies but have we evolved to assimilate these technologies?
I remember those magazines that I read while growing up which promised the flying cars. I need my flying cars and I need it now (and sorry Terrafuggia , it is not really a flying car if you have to go to the airport to fly the damn car!!!!).  My point is, we seemed to build those great technologies which take us deeper into the virtual world ( some things like the Second Life end up in the Valhalla of the virtual world or whatever is the equivalent) but we never seem to get the replacement to the Internal Combustion Engine. And the ICE has been around for more than 100 years .Interesting isnt,it?
The way things are moving, Jeeves is quickly being replaced by Jarvis . Hard luck, old chap and all that balderdash!!!
As the Chinese curse goes "May you live in interesting times"

Kalaripayattu

It is indeed a travesty that Kalaripayattu is not given the support it requires in India, unlike the other Asian countries wherein their flagship martial arts are given strong state support and is considered an inalienable part of their ethos. I started learning Kalaripayattu around a year and half back (yup, a late starter and reinforces my procrastinator status) and it has been a very fulfilling journey. Around 4-5 months back when I start undergoing some real serious personal issues, Kalaripayattu gave me the mooring I required. In that sense, I owe a serious debt to this art. In my future blogs, I will expounding on this. Like all martial arts, Kalari is a way of life and there are so many subtexts and layers to it, it is mind boggling. As you peel off the layers, you realize there is such a high spirituality content to it. No wonder, some of the exponents call it the "Warrior Yoga". Like all martial arts, it is finally victory over one self which is the final goal.One of the concepts that caught my eye is the concept of  'mei kannu' or "When the body becomes the eyes'. For all the Jedi fans, it is so prescient. But then one should not be surprised. After all George Lucas was influenced by Joseph Campbell who is in turn was very much influenced by the Asian narrative. I have been very lucky to get a great 'asan' or 'Guru' who has been magnaminious in sharing the secrets (and Kalari Asans are very secretive). Having said that, my body doth protest too much every day and that elusive 180 degree split is quite a distance away on my journey.

Why the Sunday Gentleman?

I have been thinking of writing a blog for sometime. And then I have been mulling over what name should I give to my blog. As you can guess, I am a good procrastinator. As I pondered over the issue, which by the way, was in a rat race with other pending issues including global warming, should I learn golf, and why does the pigeon want to crap in my terrace, from the mists of my ageing memory, I remembered a term called The Sunday Gentleman.
It seems in the 19th century, England was very tough on people not meeting their financial debts. So they were hounded and there existed the real potent danger of one being incarcerated with the unwashed masses.But on Sunday, that danger was mitigated. So all those people who disappeared on the weekdays would be out in their sartorial finery on Sunday. This blog is somewhat metaphorically akin to that. This is my Sunday wherein I can expound and expand (in other words, disseminate inane gyan to all on sundry without the fear of censure). And that to me is liberating!!!!