Natural vs Artificial

The other day I got into an argument with our professor on the disasters which man made things have bought to our doorsteps. Well this post is not about the natural vs artificial debate but about the very definition of "Artificial".

We define artificial as something conceived and created by man. We think just because the human mind has thought of it it somehow magically it is separated from the other natural things. I am of the view that there is nothing called as "Artificial". It all natural out there. I think it is a gross arrogance on our part to think that just because we are self aware we are somehow detached from nature and we can function independently of it. I believe that nature created man to look at itself. So man being a 100% natural product will subsequently create natural products only. It may be different from what occurs commonly but when man creates a new thing it is actually nature creating itself. We may try but we will always be a subset of nature.
Anything man made is good or bad like the uncountable things around us which are both good and bad. Earthquakes are bad but the same system which causes earthquake creates the magnetic field which protects us from the dangerous cosmic rays. Similarly we may say that plastic created by so called "Man" is causing so much pollution but it is an integral part of modern society helping us from storing our food to saving our lives in operation theaters.

So we must end this debate about Natural Vs Artificial. Its not just the man made against the natural made that is important what is important is the way of usage. So any natural thing used in a wrong way will harm us and similarly any man made "natural" thing if used correctly will be a boon.

Use natural use artifical but whatever you use just don't screw around with it...

Why do I love her?

She turned back and asked, "Why Do you love me?" She said, answer fast or you will be making up words and I know you do it very well. "Don't Think", she was firm this time. Though I wanted to say something but I kept quiet looking into her deep eyes. I always looked at them when I am lost, tired, worried or sad. They had the zing to pep me up anytime. This time I wanted to ask her eyes to tell me, "Why I love her?" She closed them and said no this time around you have to answer it from your Heart and I am no longer helping you out. It was tricky now and she wanted the answer.

I hold her hand and drew her closer so she could hear my heart beat. I said,"Why don't you listen up for yourself". She smiled and her dark eyes just got bigger and she smilingly said,"How do I know if they are telling the truth" I said I don't know as it no longer talks to me. Its your for so long that I don't remember it being mine ever.
I hugged her and told her," I wish I had the words of reason to explain the cause, I wish I had the mind to assimilate it all, I wish I had the peace to observe it all and I wish I had few lives more to know it all. My love I don't know and have no desire to know more than the fact that I love you, for who you are. Pardon me sweetheart but I only have love and no reason."

Morality..

Have you ever pondered why is morality necessary in life? Why our parents want us to be truthful, honest and humble. Why do we hate liars and hypocrites? Why there are numerous stories about the virtue of Good and how every time good wins over the evil in the long run. Are we good because there is an almighty god looking over us and we will be burnt in hell if we do something bad. Are people in general good because they are afraid of God.

To me we are more good than evil because that is a logical thing to do. "Good" here i must emphasize symbolizes the greater good of our civilization and human race. It may be relative on an individual basis but on a macro scale being good or having all the positive qualities we hear about is logical and in fact very necessary for the very survival. Imagine a world where its OK to rob your neighbor and bring home their money and goods. With the same logic it should also be OK when one of our neighbors mugged us up. You can clearly visualize that such a society cannot exist. So came the old adage "Love Thy neighbor". Similarly all the other moral values are the basic requirement of a stable interdependent society.

These moral values have emerged from our own individual needs. We will act in a certain manner which we expect others also to follow. So if we want that a person be honest to us we need to be honest to him as well. So this is all give and take. If you are immoral then it is difficult for people to deal with you and thus you become a misfit in society. So in reality being moral is the only way for human civilization to survive and prosper.

We don't have to worry about divine intervention for our immoral acts as over a longer period of time no immoral act can survive the rigid moral rules of interdependence and immorality will lead to devastating effects on ones life. Its like the shepherd boy's story who use to cry "Wolf Wolf" without any reason and one day when the real wolf came there was no one around.

Faith..

Faith is blind I hear...Either you have it or don't.. there is no middle way. Faith can be on anything or on anyone. People feel when they have faith they don't need reason..and faith in itself is the beginning and the end. But if we look closely our faith depends on what people around us have faith in. Humans like most species need care and support from their parents and we naturally build a very strong bond with them and their faiths and beliefs comes to us naturally. We go by the notion that somethings have worked for them and so they are to be taken as a rule. As we grow our inquisitive mind becomes skeptic of various ideologies that we inherit.

Sometimes we are too busy to question them and continue with them as they are. These with time becomes rules which we may not have any reason for but believe in them subconsciously.
These ultimately leads to blind faith and superstitions. If we look closely it is easy to have faith on concepts which are based on reason. Like I will have 100% faith that if i throw a ball up it will fall down as gravity is at work. However I don't have any reason to believe that if I visit a temple before exam I am going to get lucky with it. Its sad but in most human cultures "GOD" is considered something which is beyond reason. Its just the faith you have to live with.

I agree that human reasoning may not be adequate at this point to discuss and describe God if there is one looking at us. But why believe in something which is beyond reason. Can we wait till things are proved beyond reasonable doubt. Well its your choice to have blind faith if it helps you in some way as far as I am concerned I know what to believe in...

College Days - Reloaded

After 5 long years in the industry it is good to be back to college. Though it is not a full time course but still sitting in a classroom over the weekend for 8 long hours and staying for exams make it an exhaustive course and one start feeling those great days of college are back again. The class composition is also great with students from various age groups and Industries coming together for this business course.

Though people may be managers and successful individuals in their own right but once inside the class everyone becomes the same naughty teenager. It is really great to relive those moments. It is like reliving your past. But people in the class are very serious too when it comes to learning. It takes a great effort to leave behind your family friends and fun to come and attend lecturers weekend after weekend for two long years. Thus everyone seems to make the best use of weekend by focusing on when it is important and fooling around when its not.

With this post I will like to thank all my batch mates for being so great to make this learning experience so much fun and so much productive.

Love in the time of recession

Recession is bad..very bad I guess there are lay offs everywhere, the salary cuts are very common, no increments and suddenly those little EMIs become monstrous and becoming life threatening. The saving becomes all time low and in spite of all those retail outlets giving flat 50% discount there is no money to buy. Under these inhospitable surroundings it is difficult to think about romance..The mind is only thinking about surviving the next month and praying hard for those good times to come back. So how do we manage our love life now in these hard times?

The answer is simple invest more in love now. Its time to huddle up together and be there for each other. It is more important to show our love more than ever. You never know how a small gesture can bring back smile in these hard days. We know the old saying that the hard times help us recognize our true self and of others. It is easy to be romantic during good times but its difficult to love when everything around us is tumbling. Believe me hard times like these actually strengthen the relationships and will help it grow more. Don't worry about the expensive gifts you can be a true romantic without it. Pleasant suprises don't cost much except for a genuine effort.
What I am suggesting is don't neglect romance now and infact draw your strength from it. Respect your relationship it is far much precious than what wealth can buy. Invest your time in it with honesty and you will come out of it a far better a person than you are now.

Keep Fighting and keep loving...Wish you all a very happy valentines day....

What is it being an Indian?

What is it being an Indian? What is this thing which I call my mother land... my nation. Why am I told to respect it and love it. What does it represents? Is it just a block of land where I was born , a place whose culture and history shaped my thinking , whose laws and forces protected me and whose system allowed me to be able to write this up here the way I want to..

In Discovery of India Nehru explains that a country is the sum total of the aspirations of its inhabitants. A nation is build by all the social, political ,economic and environmental forces which shapes its behavior and belief systems and thus forms the backbone of its culture. Long ago when Man started his journey from the heartland of Africa he was looking for new places to support the growing population. The humans in next thousands of years spread across the nook and corner of this planet and formed the basis of the nation states as we saw them today. This brings us to the question of Why do we need nations in first place?

The answer is simple its the best humans can thought of given that humans growing in huge numbers and the rate of which the resources grow is mush less. Nation states allow human civilization to stabilize and grow in a better environment safely within a framework of rules , regulations and norms. Peaceful coexistence is the best way forward for the nation states. But as we all know its hardly the case and in this unfair world things don't work always the way they should be. But still we as humanity are trying to live peacefully within our defined boundaries.

Now when I say I am an Indian..what does this word "Indian" signify. Do I really understand what it is saying. Is it just a collective noun or does it hold some meaning that is subtle and deep. India does not just refer to a land mass surrounded by seas down south, guarded by mountains on the north, glowing as a desert in the west and washed by the givers in the east but it reflects thousands of years of history of glory, defeat, persecution and triumph. It idolizes the freedom of faith, misery of poverty, respect of the old, spirit of the young, hollowness of politics, pervasiveness of the corrupt, bravery of the forces and the labor of the worker. It symbolizes the belief system which accepts and assimilates everything that comes its way..a school of thought which grow young with every passing day, its the mechanism which wants to hold it history tight but looking firmly at the future. Above all it reflects the hope that no matter how corrupt its ruler are and how ruthless its enemies are it will outlast everything and beyond that golden horizon the New Day is waiting for it..Long live India