Mahabaleshwar trip

    There do come times where you stand at a crossroad and need to select between two things, and according to you both are correct. "Just like- whom do you want? Mother or father."     Or there are times where you need to attend two things at two different places at the same time! And you wish, if you could not miss any! The same thing happened with me. 

   College Friends planned a two-day trip to mahabaleshwar, Sunday and Monday ( yeah bunking college ) And I had to attend a family function on Sunday. So it was a 'this-or-that' situation for me.

   It's Sunday morning. I check my mobile. See status updates of friends and find that they have left for mahabaleshwar. As planned, I went with my family. I would have missed the first day of mahabaleshwar and would have regretted had it not been for the sumptuous food that I had that day and those crazy hours of garba. 

   The function was over and I packed for the trip. Reached an hour before the time of arrival of the bus. I had booked a seat (or should I say a bed) in a Neeta Volvo. It picked me up at 10pm. And I left on my journey to mahabaleshwar, alone. 

   In the bus, I found a 9th std school student as my co-traveller. He was going back to boarding school after the winter vacation. I slept all the way, something which I boasted a lot about when I reached there :p. 

    "Last stop, last stop", the cry woke me up from my sleep. I stepped down. And saw a crowd of taxi men waiting for passengers. One of them asked me- booking hai? Booking hai? Not knowing what to Answer- I nodded. I told him the hotel name. He quoted the price. Bloody ₹100 for one km!!!!!

   I just asked him the direction. And started walking. Checked it out on google maps and reached there in 8 min. I made another good decision by not taking a cab. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to wander there. Inhale it's beauty. And feel its peace. A local lady then showed me the exact way to the hotel. She was friendly and welcoming. 

    When about 70-80% distance was completed, I heard namaaz echoing around. I looked around. And then looked up. What I saw, I won't be able to describe with mere letters. The combination of twinkling stars and soothing prayers stole my anxiety. I reached the hotel.

   Saw a friend sleeping, the door was open! I wondered- Why did they not shut the door before sleeping! But I thanked them later for keeping the room open. After a few zzzz's in his room, it was about 7am. I went out in the garden and soaked a little sunrise in. Good, but not as awesome as the view past night. Next hour I spent waking everyone up. And listening to their experiences of Sunday. Later I came to know, that the door was open as they had slept only an hour ago, ie at 4am!

    After checking out from the hotel, I spent the rest of the day like an ordinary traveller. Visited pratapgad fort. And returned home at midnight. 

    How much ever beautiful the fort was, or how much ever fun we had in the bus while returning back. Nothing can match the view of stars with namaaz in background.

    Travelling in its true spirit is tasting the lives of the locals. Talking and interacting with them. Living their lives for a day. And I lived the true spirit, though for those 8 mins! They were the best moments of the trip. 

Who is the boss?

  Toot toot...toot toot...it's 7 am and the alarm rings. Rohan's hand involuntarily snoozes the alarm. Not wanting to, to rubs his eyes and the first thing he does is- to check the time. It's 7.22am. He is late. He has to attend a business meeting at 8. He needs to rush. Having a bath quickly, he grabs a couple of toasts and calls his driver to get the car ready. He leaves the house, checking the mails and messages on the way. Curses himself for not picking up a phone from a colleague that would have resulted in a business deal. Disappointed with the loss that he incurred in the morning itself, he reaches the office. Shouts at the clerk for not keeping the files ready. Skips the lunch since an assignment wasn't completed in time. He gets a call where he is invited to dinner with other business people. He has to attend it, cancelling the appointment he had with a doctor. 

    In the same office building is a liftman. Wakes at 7. Reaches office at 8. Gets a lunch break. Leaves at 4pm. Spends time with his family. And enjoys a good sleep. 

    My question is- who's the boss?

    The boss is the one who gets to live his life according to his fancy. Before being able to 'order' others, he should first at least be 'Khud ki marzi ka maalik'. 

    We saw that Rohan was cursing himself for the loss of money that "he could have made profit with". Do note- since there was no profit, he thinks he had a loss. This reminds me of a story-

     A wife was standing at the bus stop. She was on her way home. The buses were so crowded that she couldn't get in.  She ran behind the bus. Trying to chase the bus, halfway through the route, she gives up and decides to walk home.            On reaching home, she tells her husband, "today I saved ₹10". Then she explains the story to him. The husband then replies, "you made a loss of ₹40. You would have saved ₹50 had you run behind a taxi!" 

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In the same way, those who use a mobile are using it so that they can be available to others for their perusal at all times! The boss is the one who is without a mobile!

     

Informed decisions

 I'm waiting at Elphinstone road station. I need to reach Malad as soon as possible. In Mumbai, every minute counts! It's evening. I just saw 05.11pm borivali slow crawl (yeah 'crawl'- it's Mumbai) away in front on my eyes when I was on the bridge. And being unsuccessful in tackling the crowd on the foot over bridge, I missed it!

  Next train I saw was of Andheri. ( uh god! Why don't we get things, when it's needed most 😡). So I opened the mobile app about the train schedule. Saw 5.14 Andheri. It reaches dadar at 5.16pm. Saw a train for virar That begins from Dadar. If I just take andheri train till Dadar and change to virar train? Then I check for the next Borivali train. It's at 5.20pm. Oh god. Can't wait for so many minutes. 

   Then I found the time at which each train reaches malad. Borivali slow reaches at 5.57pm. But the virar train (that originates from Dadar) reaches malad at 5.50pm! Done. Decided. I changed the train from bandra. To avoid the crowd in Dadar. 

  Now, as I'm writing this blog, I'm in that virar train. Thought to pen it down instead of cursing the Indian railways all the way.

  But. The moral of this blog is NOT to show you how to save time. Neither to promote any app. 

   It's to make you understand the term- to make an informed decision. I was well informed about the system. Cherry on the cake was that I was also well-versed with Indian railways. This helped me save my time. Made me more efficient.

  Now you can look at it from two angles. 

-> how few companies cheat people by not informing them about the products. Not telling them about harmful toxins present in items they sell or for example-

 Your mobile network provider dupes you by not disclosing minute details. In other words, consumers are cheated by the small and simple "*" in an advertisement!

   Looking at politics, India would become so much better if we know the crime history of politicians, the productive work done by them in their respective constituencies, how do they collect funds, the details of bank accounts and black money stashed abroad! If we had all the information available at a click!

  Another angle could be...

->it explains the need of having experienced people. An experiened player in a team will share his knowledge for the benefit of all. Similarly, an experienced teacher, it explains the Need of having real teachers and not merely gadgets.  

      It teaches us the importance of education. Today, countries with high or almost 100% literacy rate are consisted developed. If we achieve absolute literacy in India, it would reflect on human development index. The quality of life a common man lives will improve. It also shows us the importance of infomation. Of decision making. 

      We can kill the darkness of ignorance by the light of knowledge. 

Randomness

To prove that- no real process can be random.

I believe no real process can be 'random' and always an element of given sample space has greater probability of occurring than another element. 

   When I ask you to 'randomly' select any single digit number-

Some may say their lucky number, some will say which ever number is first or last in the sample space, some will go with one, some educated people might say a single digit negative number. Etc. 

   Now see, the probability of a negative number( which is also single digit) is so less! What I wish to put forth is- there is always a cause behind selecting a number. Some we consciously know. Some we say unconsciously say. 

    Let's take another example. You are asked to randomly pick a ball from a tub which has balls of many colours. You may ending up picking a ball of your favourite color. To eliminate this error, let's consider you have been blind-folded. Now the probability by which your hand reaches to each ball is not same! Some may be below. Some easily reachable!

   The random article of Wikipedia must also be using some algorithm to generate random articles! 

   One thing I don't understand is- randomness is based on random choice. The ability to choose is vested in the hands of those who live! Then how can computers choose and generate any random number!!!! How can apps make random passwords!!!?!?!??

   Here I conclude- basic idea being- "nothing is random. Everything has a cause. You just need to think rationally"

Learn; Unlearn; Relearn.

    A very respected teacher in my college says- "everything in life comes in threes. The process of learning also involves three stages- learn, unlearn and relearn". Further, "whatever we are learning may be wrong, but to put forth a better theory one day, you must first know what's wrong!" 

   These words set my mill of thoughts,  churning..........

   Synapse- it's an anatomical gap between 2 neurons that allows "contiguity" of nerve impulses. It's also the form of storage of our memory. 

   So when we learn something- a new synapse is formed. And applying the same idea to unlearning, that synapse must be disappearing so that we 'forget' that. 

   But in case of "unlearning", we must be making another synapse which must be allowing us to remember that what I have learnt is wrong. And further, which would allow us to compare the differences between new theory and old theory. Further if an emotion has been attached to this process, the memory is stronger in our minds. 

   Then finally comes "relearning". Where a new approach to the same basic concept, incorporating new ideas and understandings enables us to overcome the shortcomings in the old theory. This is how we progress. This is how mankind has set on a journey to decipher everything- from an electron to the cosmos. 

    For example, let's look back to this history of- structure of an atom. 

    We began with saying that atom is the smallest, indivisible part of a substance. Then came plum pudding model. But it couldn't explain alpha particle scattering experiment. Then came planetary model but it couldn't why electron stays in its path and not collide into the nucleus. Then quantum theory. And so on.

   While watching a show about humanity's existence and our creator, Renowed physicist Stephen Hawking talked about "the best-fit theory". 

    He gave an example-

A man opens a room and finds a table in the centre of the room. There is nothing and no one else in the room. He goes out. And comes again after 10 minutes. He finds the table in that same place where he had last seen. The man thinks that the table was at the same place all the 10 minutes that he wasn't there. This is the best-fit theory. He simply uses his logic.  But...maybe the table flew out of the window, encircled the planet and came back just before the man entered again! Or maybe- some other person entered the room after he left, shifted the table beside a wall, left, third person entered and brought the table to the same position. The original man still thinks the table didn't move. 

   This is how we see. Actually, what we see is not reality. It's a virtual world that we are seeing. We keep using this 'best-fit' model and try to understand things.

   Since this blog has been uploaded from my site, you think that I have written this blog. This is what fits-best according to you. But who knows if someone hacked my account and posted this on my behalf! The possibilities are endless...can you think of other such theories?

The human brain

   We humans are the most evolved children of Mother Earth.  Man has dominated the planet since eons and will continue to. But what has made a man so powerful!?

   Man does not have the strength of an elephant, the speed and agility of a cheetah, neither the ability to fly like birds, the sharp claws of a tiger, the venom of a snake, night vision of an owl, ability to camouflage like chameleon, and the list is endless...

   But what is it that has allowed man to dominate all the five kingdoms of life? It's his ability to think, invent, discover, decipher, ponder, wonder, create, dream and realize the dreams. It's our well developed brain!

  So, Our brain is a master piece. No doubt...

It helped us create- machines with the strength more than hundreds of elephants, cars that ensure quick mobility, aeroplanes that breach the speed of sound barrier, prehensively created tools sharper than anything,  chemicals and bombs poisonous enough to wipe off the last bit of mankind, camera for night vision, computers to manipulate, calculate and formulate. 

   We have used brains to solve many mysteries. But the irony is, we don't know many whys and how's about our own nervous system!! We have many open questions in this field, challenging you to take the plunge and solve them. Like-

   •What are dreams? Why to we get them? Why is it that we see that particular dream that we see?

   • why is nature of people different? What controls emotions?

   •why does right side of the body control the left side and vice versa?

   •why some are more intelligent than others?

   •which part of brain is responsible for a particular action?

   •why nerve cells do not regenerate?

   •what part of the brain is the real "you". Where is the soul in our body?!

   •how is a thought or a new idea generated! I mean, it's something big out of nothing!!! How does it happen!?

   •what part in my brain provoked me to write this blog?

The mysteries about our own nervous system are such that our own nervous system is unable to solve so many mysteries about its functioning. 

So is our brain so complicated that our complicated brain cannot understand itself!?

Or is it possible that will evolution make our brains even more complicated that will help us understand it one day or will it make it even more difficult to understand it!?

 The purpose of this blog was to strike a spark of thought in your brain, and just think about it- how is a thought being generated in me...

The formula of success

   For any particular action to happen, for success in any particular work, there should be a correct combination of 4 important things. These are the prerequisites of success! These are listed in jain books. They are:-

 1) dravya   = Material 

 2) kshetra. = Place

 3)  kaal.     = Time

 4) bhaav.   = Motivation

To understand them, we will take an example-

Suppose you wish to get first rank in a particular exam...

For success in it, you first need all the basic necessities like good teachers, books, stationery etc. That is dravya...Suppose you don't have access to good books like guides. Still, You can get marks with only text books. But you need to be at the correct place. You need to be in the library and study instead of being on the play ground or with those guys hanging out! That's kshetra....well you may argue that- you need not study all day to get first rank in any exam. There have been people who study and enjoy their lives, together! Agreed. Marvellous indeed! But you need to be at the correct time. You ought to value time. You can't be late for exams. You can't procrastinate things. You can't appear for graduation when you are a year old! Things need to be done when the time is ripe. That's kaal....

     Now...

    I give you the best teachers in the country, I ll give to all the necessary study material, a dedicated study room, an assistant to carry your books (dravya = material ). Also a car to ferry you to and fro. A room that's besides your college and tuitions, a shelf that's large enough to accommodate your books ( kshetra = place). All care will be taken that not a single minute of yours will be wasted (kaal = time). But...........

    Will you get good marks if you just don't want to???

    "You can bring a horse to the pond but you can't make him drink water". These lines, I still remember, we're told by my school teacher - Gladywin  sir. He was so true!

   To attain ultimate success, you need to have a strong determined mind. You need to be focused on your goals. You need to be motivated. That is bhaav (= motivation)  

   That's the power of inspiration and motivation, my friends! We are all aware how Chhatrapati Shivaji's mother - Jijabai used to inspire him by narrating stories of great leaders in the past. And the rest is history! 

    When ever you take up some work, if you put your heart and soul into it, you are bound to get success! Or you can say, your god is bound to give to success! After all, he himself had said- "Karm Karo aur phal ki chinta mat karo" ie "do your duty selflessly". 

 Do your best and he will handle the rest. :)