HATE maths, LOVE numbers....

All of the handful of people that read my articles are engineers and humans. (Although it would be cool to send some of my sarcasm up the SETI program, a hint of our defenses in case they attack us). The one string that binds engineers of all branches is the fact that we all hate maths. Ironically we are called the ‘Maths Stream’ in our class twelfth.

It is not just we engineers that hate maths, everyone who was ever introduced to it hated it. It is actually like a serpent with many heads, where we begin at its tail. As we learn more we crawl on that slimy, scaly body of the serpent. And just when we thought that we have had enough of it, it diversifies into its many heads, each ghastly and breathing fire in form of questions. Soon it is a matter of life and death for all those who stick to this field. The clever (euphemism) decide its better to cut open a human rather than fight with that multi headed beast of a serpent.

All my life I grew up in the notion that maths is the most hated subject (history runs a close second, but I am a Cancerian and it continues to fascinate me). My life has been a quest to like and love this subject but even in my most benevolent of moods (when I got good grades in maths), the best emotion that I had for this subject was indifference. (Emoticonally: K)

This was a subject that made me hate numbers and alphabets alike. I was so obsessed in hating it that every legible letter or number presented a mathematical problem to me and every illegible writing (symbol) a mathematical impossibility. I began hating it so much that any number, even on the currency nauseated me and the alphabets, well I almost gave up reading. That was all before my high school level mathematics.

Then from being a ‘practical’ subject it changed to absurdity and imaginatives with huge amount of superlatives and assumptions. What made me hate it most was the cyclic nature of the problems, one solution usually lead to another complex problem. It was as if life was an asymptote, always nearing the answer but never touching. (To top it mathematicians say that it touches at infinity, that’s some positive attitude filled ass they have got).

So coming to my point, I like every engineer alive, hate maths. Life would be much simpler without it, but then maths is the language in which science is read. The rest of the population (non-engineers, or non-maths people) also hate maths.

But this was an observation made within my academia or field. When I observe life in general I find the greatest irony in this regard. People hate maths but they love numbers. We as a human race (okay, an intelligent species) are obsessed with numbers.

Not believing me? U will!

Try to remember any conversation that took place without numbers.

To judge the relations between two countries, we determine the total trade between them (numbers), or the visas issued (numbers). Never the fact that how one country helped another or may shape its future ( and if ever its done its not the way but the number of the amount is noted)

Talk about marriage of a person. The bride’s side is not at all concerned with the groom’s hobbies, goals in life etc. These questions have been reserved for interviews. What we need are numbers:

1.      His salary

2.      His height

3.      His weight

4.      The number of houses owned (not withstanding if those houses are ever treated as home)

5.      The number of brothers/sisters (not the relation between them)

And so on. The talk of marriage continues and ends with numbers.

At the end the marriage is usually remembered in numbers too. Not a sunny/chilly day but a date.

Not the bride or groom but the dowry and the amount spent in the marriage. (Again a huge amount of money denotes a successful marriage). ha!

In college we are usually treated according to numbers. Initially our Enterance ranks and then by our C.P.I. A good cpi makes you a model student by default. You can get your way around the department, just wave around with that mark sheet of yours. The obsession of numbers gets it done.

And we reciprocate beautifully too. Our allurement towards numbers ensures we eye more on the amount a company has to offer rather than the fact if the job profile will suit us. We are judged similarly, the first question a person asks related to your job is the amount you earn, or as the term has it package offered. This is probably the last question too, because no one cares what you do as long as you are getting a fat roll of bills for it.

We are so obsessed with numbers that we use them in or daily life to increase our significance. Anything to which a fancy number is attached is deemed important, be it a comet, a car, mobile model, classified project, movie etc. All around us we are surrounded by maze of numbers.

Numbers determine intensity. You bribe for Rs. 50 is all right, after all it’s a small number but a corruption of xxxx crores by some sports minister (or any minister) for organizing fancy games is a crime they should pay for.

You taking advantage of a public property/money are alright (as long as it translates to a small number) but if a chief minister is taking flats worth xxx crores, you are all inflamed up. After all its crores, it’s a huge number.

Numbers can size up art. A piece of art sold for a million makes it the best piece of art. Who views its artistically, we killed the artist in ourselves long ago.

Skill or records of a person are also subject to numbers. The best batsman had the best and highest numbers on his side. No matter the conditions in which they were made or if they helped the team, he has large figures.

Finally to our personal life. Relationships are determined by:

1.      The number of text messages shared

2.      The number of text messages she sent.

3.      The number of calls you made.

4.      The number of times you went out together.

5.      The number of times you are able to meet with her.

6.      The number of time you have been together.

Everything else is immaterial.
Talking to a person is no more using number between words, rather its using words between numbers.

Guilt, Love, Success, happiness, hatred, sorrow all of these seemingly ‘inexpressible’ and ‘abstract’ are nothing but a function of numbers now.

A small guilt for a small number (of times/money) wrong doing.

A large love of they meet for large number of times, chat, message and talk for large numbers too.

Success is magnanimous depending on number of cars, homes, money owned etc. Who cares for what you feel.

I remember times when we read that cave men used a basic reference as their whole language or expression system. It may be anything, cows, goats, rocks. Anything. Then we ‘evolved’ and diversified in culture, intelligence and all the crap we boast of but we did not notice our trajectory was circular and now we are heading back to the cave men routine, this time the reference being numbers.

Our only hopes are children not introduced to maths and numbers. Talk to them and they talk of passions, likings and such emotions in everything oblivious to numbers. They ask how we feel rather than the money we make at a job. Their questions are “Is he taller then Amitabh Bachchan or is he smarter tha you?”

They ask “Do you love her?” rather than “How many messages have you sent her that she did not reply?”

Each of their questions makes us wanting to feel the answer rather than search for an estimate.

But even they cannot hold back the flood of numbers.

We are a race obsessed with numbers.

P.s. I hate numbers but I love maths. This was just to make you read the article. Now I will head on to count the number of stars, this might seem a futile activity but has its awe.

The NATO variable.....

Relations between India and Russia (former USSR) have always been special. And here by special I mean that we have not been able to find any common denominator for this very strategic friendship. India and Russia were isolated in the ancient past with no trade or military transaction having ever taken place. (We will here not debate on the theory that Indian or Aryan origin can be traced back to the Caspian Sea which is I close proximity of Russia). The relations between both of these countries started post-independence.

Here it must be noted that post Independence it was the allurement of the USSR to the third world nations that brought these countries close. And a very erratic and un explainable alliance was forged. (Again leaving out the conspiracy theories, that have somewhat been rectified, that the KGB was funding the Gandhi family, which some allege continue today. Moreover the KGB’s strong hold over Indian government can be traced not only to the parliament but sections of the media itself, where Indian media was a victim of the famous KGB disinformation intelligence.). Having stated above and not taking into account such things would be highly hypocritical of me but without adequate proof and most importantly adequate understanding I would be guessing, which I personally hate. Unless of course done in exams or Viva which is the only thing that can be done.

For those of you who would like to further divulge into this topic you are very welcome to check out the book KGB: State within a State by Yevgenia Albats.

How India, a democracy and USSR a socialist with no common borders would have found safe harbors in each other’s friendships is not easily fathomable. Giving some ground to the conspiracy theories here we will proceed to what it has achieved for India. USSR and now Russia has always been India’s prime ally, whether it be selling of arms (India is the second largest importer of Russian arms) or vetoing in India’s favour at the UN (the Kashmir issue). India has always relied on Russian assistance in maters of need and Russian in turn has upheld India’s faith and trust to the point of sabotaging its relations with China, with whom it shares a common ideology of communism.

Today as a growing power India and as out-growing power Russia, that was almost falling apart and was recreated by Vladimir Putin, share common interests. Most important military assistance to India comes from Russia which is the only credible defense deterrence India has against the US-funded and armed Pakistan and the indigenous and fast developing China. Even in the past Russia for the benefit of India alone refused to sell and share MiG fighter jet technology with China which it shared with India and continued in the current Russian Sukhoi series where it created better and exclusive series of Sukhoi-MKi for India while selling other variants to China. Relationship between a growing and a out-growing power ca be summed on some of the collaborated defense deals: The Bhramos, INS Vikramaditya, 5^th generation fighter aircraft to name a few.

Now coming to the NATO variable in the Indian equation, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), with the US of A at its pinnacle started as a confederation of states against any future world war, which was not a far flung idea with the Cold war cropping up just post the World War II. Famously stated once, NATO’s objective can be stated as: ‘To keep Russians out, the Americans in and Germans down’- Lord Ismay, the first NATO Secretary General.

With the changing world scenario the NATO has taken a more important role in shaping the world politics. In close association with the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) of the UN in Afghanistan it has been able to increase its sphere of influence out of Europe. While earlier it was a major player in the Europe and the arenas of the cold war, post 9/11 its sphere of influence has come closer to India. That added with its expansionist policy in eastern Asia to keep the broken up USSR and now Russia down has shown that there has been no decrease in its structure or working even after the nd of the cold war.

While as such NATO does not pose a direct threat or help to India and neither does it offer Indians a position to join the alliance but with the arrival of the NATO forces in such a close proximity as Afghanistan is bound to shift the way we treat and look up to it. India in it’s overly appeasement policy of the west has applied the same to NATO. While the west in its own way has been supportive of India, allowing Indian aircraft to participate in the Red Flag exercises and other similar war games exclusively meant for the NATO members.

Truly speaking India’s diplomacy in maintaining its relations with the NATO in Afghanistan and Russia has been commendable. India has just given both enough ground. While with NATO it shares many common interests like Democracy and threat from communism, (in India’s case it is the communist China), and with Russia it shares long relations as an ally who has always been with India.

But some recent turn of events with inclusion of the NATO variable is disturbing this equation. India’s attempt to make a greater mark in the world politics, driven by its robust growing economy, has become an obsession to acquire a permanent seat in the UNSC (United Nations Security Council). While I have given my reservations to this matter in a former post, still India’s too much appeasement of the west continues and has not gone well with Russia. India might just be stalking a critical opportune period to develop its power and military sector with a self dependence in making indigenous arms for a premature promotion.

The recent appeasement of the Indians towards the Jigs of the Obama’s hasn’t gotten down well with the Russians whose president Mr. Dimtiry  Medvedev arrives India this December. Moreover India making its economy so porous to help out the US is seen as a definite sign of overly bowing for a guest. All of these are closely scanned by the Russians and may cause a brief chill in the Indo-Russian relations, which truly are the only ones India has been able to rely on. This can clearly be seen by Russia increasing its warmth to Pakistan and some defense deals being in the pipeline between them, when earlier Russia has refused to sell arms to Pakistan of the same variant as India.

In making new relationships India must be careful not to break old ones.

A perfect diplomat is one who is on all sides and is not committed to any. 

Mind OVER Matter???

What has been the ultimate human wish… I know where your mind is going right now: a million dollars, maybe love for life, maybe a Mercedes, immortality, invincibility, some ambitions to be fulfilled and for the naughty ones: I wish for three more wishes.

But all this is a creation of this time of materialism. I mean a millennia earlier people would be wishing for a fine Arabic horse instead of a red merc, a being the king instead of some other position of power in today’s world. Before I begin to make sense once again just bear with me a story that comes form the vedic times.

Once in the ashram of a great rishi during the times of gurukula, a group of students were fighting. While one group headed by say Bheem maintained that the bodily power or muscle power is more important and invincible and another group lead by say Krishna maintained that thoughts had more power and invincibility. While Bheem maintained that in times of need it is the Muscle power that counts, Krishna gave examples like immortality of thought against the body.

The rishi got interested and decided to end all argument. He called upon Bheem who was the strongest of the group and fielded him against the students in a wrestling match. The other students were no doubt defeated in no time but then the rishi paired all the students together against Bheem and he was grounded.

Now to test mental power he asked Krishna to ask a question to be solved by the students, first alone and then in conjunction. Krishna asked the a very difficult question (now I am not sure about the exact question asked but that will have little relevance to the point I want to state), being, “What travels faster than light?” While the students could not solve it individually, they had no luck solving it together either. The answer was: “Thoughts”.

The rishu thus proved that while strength can be matched by its multiplication, thoughts or mind cannot be matched by multiplication. Hence he proved that mind is more important.

Okay, story time over. When was the last time you got your way by thoughts or reason? Isn’t every mind person or a geek a bullied subject? Even after proving every thing and every reason in the end a strong person/country/weapon-owners have their way.

While thoughts or mind are more powerful they have not been potentially used and the strength of matter is what matters.

Coming to my initial question, just go over the very few options I gave you and the ones you thought. There is a common denominator in all of them: POWER!! (Here we will leave the ones who asked for love, they are crazy romantics in another world, far flung from reality).

POWER! POWER! POWER! That’s the reality of life. The one who has power wields the way, those who do not crave for it and walk on the wielded paths. This has been the ultimate human wish whether it was a cave man whose food and cave ladies were looted by the more powerful cave men, a man in the last century who saw the sultan with his power and position takes all, or we who wish for it in form of money or position.

The ultimate human wish is UNASSAILABLE, INVINCIBLE, UNCHALLENGED POWER, amounting to challenge and win death itself.

Now that we have established that human craves for power and the thoughts are more powerful than the matter so let me combine both and give a very likeable and unbelievable situation of mind over matter. Simply put how would you like that you could kill a person double your size and strengths by power of your thoughts alone??

Let me again explain this mind over matter theory that has been with us form times immemorial, sometimes in myths and beliefs and sometimes as scientific test and speculations. We all know that if a burning piece of charcoal is pressed against your arm it will cause a burn on your arm and pain in your thoughts. Is the reverse possible? Can our thoughts alone cause burn on your arm?? Is it possible to affect the physical world by the abstract power of our thoughts?

While almost all mythologies of the world had at least one God or hero with this ability. Our mythology gives this to Krishna, who could not only produce matter from nowhere, but could also maneuver his sudarshan chakra, through his thoughts. This is just one example from the many that exist and even more we do not know about. In fact it was this ability of a person to affect the physical world with his thoughts that placed him in a Godly enshrine.

We all know that the mysteries of the mind are far from getting unraveled. Each probe into the understanding of the human mind is like a dig deeper into the space, just making our realization of our limitations and dwarfism against the whole universe and ourselves. While even the best of human minds untapped less that 1% of the total human potential there is so much more beyond our veil of ignorance. Déjà vu, Pre-cognition, telekinetics, telepathy are just the tip of the iceberg.

Then again comes the question of generation of thoughts. We know that our physical conditions affect the way we think, a panic situation induces panic all around. Then again can we change the physical world’s scenario with our thoughts alone? Can thinking good make situations of goodness all around?

You will have found me posing more questions than giving you answer. This is as far as we have gotten today and if you are still reading this write up and my ridiculous questions I think I have achieved my purpose: The acceptance of these questions. The first step to finding a solution is accepting a question exists. And at this point you may have a slightest belief when I say that mind over matter is possible.

All of us have experienced déjà vu or precognition once at least. Being at a place for the first time and feeling familiar or doing something for the first time but feeling of having done that or experienced that moment sometime before. That’s ‘déjà vu’ for you and if you haven’t experienced it, I believe precognition will familiarize you. Feeling edgy for no reason, deciding to stay back and knowing something bad is going to happen for no good reason. We all have had times when we just knew something in the future, but believe me that nagging feeling or moment of precognition does put you at par with the octopus Paul.

While déjà vu and precognition reveal that our mind is wired beyond the scope of neurons in our body, they also prove the existence of a reality very different form ours, but a reality none the less. It’s a reality which does not exist for us, just as our reality is a question in that one. The above phenomenon is just a peak into that reality, through our mind. Precognition is knowing the path of the continuum through our mind, or a reflex that we get because of a certain course of actions in another reality. Déjà vu is having experienced a certain thing in another reality and realizing it in this one, just for a moment.

I will not divulge into the ‘another reality’ factor here, just accept it as it is. So our mind is just more than a processing and storage unit to be used during exams. Maybe when properly utilized it is capable of much more. Tele-kinetics is another form of mind over matter, that being moving things by thoughts alone. Research all over is done on it. It’s strange to find that the biggest mystery is just on the top of your head, your head itself, or technically our subconscious.

But even if we break through and develop this I am afraid it will be used for the ‘wrong’ purposes. Governments will be able to define the physical world by thoughts defying nature even more. And of course there will be a counter or a defense system developed by your brain itself. The cyber war as it exists today will move to the war of thoughts, literally. I just find no person using it for any better purposes.

 Don’t believe me? Just rewind a little and remember what got you excited about reading all this in the first place:

THE ABILTY TO KILL SOMEONE BY THOUGHTS ALONE!!!!

A Seat for my head....

For all those who have heard Linkin park’s ‘A place for my head’ my apologies for suiting the song to match the matter id like to discuss here, that being India’s bid and attempts to acquire a permanent seat in the UNSC.

It’s better to be the King of Hell than a slave in Heaven

The above line completely sums up our attitude towards life in general and power in particular.  The strange allurement of power is enough to overshadow the rather blurry line between good and bad, right or wrong.

The world changes a little everyday, amounting to a lot. The past month that I was having my examinations I was not aware of the little changes, now as I reflect them they seem to have amounted to a lot. One of the things was the visit of a state president which was celebrated like diwali in our country.

Mr. Obama came, danced, spoke and must have signed like a million negotiations, but to top that, it has seductively given us hopes for more to ensure that India has all the more reasons to look up to the US.

As the decade comes to a close we find that the most amazing change in the world politics has been the shift of the power locus from the perennial west (Europe, America and Russia, which operates from Europe) to the east. Many factors can be attributed to it. While initially there was only Japan that formed a legitimate balance of the locus towards the east over the past decade much more has changed. Let me list down the factors as I find them important:

1.      We have the Japanese Economy and technical expertise.

2.      The rapid rise if China as a world power, both militarily and economically.

3.      The 9/11 which was the biggest attack on the Giant of the power locus from an outside country.

4.      The recent meltdown which has precariously placed the European and the world economics on a melting ice cube.

5.      And of course the west itself came to the east in Iraq and Afghanistan which was always supposed to bring the locus with it.

In this entire shift I haven’t included any Indian factor because seriously I have no idea how they would be placed in the above list. While time and again India has proved its world leading capabilities but it has failed to resolve regional issues, where even ‘smaller’ nations have been effectively able to contain its rise of power. As the second largest growing economy it commands a special place in the world scheme of things but again it has not been able to reach a condition where it can forge the scheme of things.

I am not disparaging India but in the present system we find it more and more as ‘a potential nation to contain China’. For all those Harry potter fans remember the Order of the phoenix where Dumbledore explains the prophecy to Harry. He clearly talks that Harry was ‘chosen’ by Voldemort, and it wasn’t something that Harry did. This may be related to that in a vague way. India’s rise though not entirely dazzling is seen as a potential enough to balance the power equation of Asia, so that the region is not dominated by Chinese policies.

Okay so why did I take you through all these lessons?? Simply because of the latest ‘gossip’ or topic of speculations in the world politics, that being of India acquiring a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has once again been seductively used by Mr. Obama’s US.

The need for the reform in the UNSC (in form of expansion of course) has been around for some time, specifically because of greater representation of Asia as power shifts there and representation for South America and Africa. While the latter have met with emphatic bids by Brazil and South Africa respectively, the Asian club is in a fix.  The reasons are not hard to understand: China for one would like to continue with its exclusive membership (again China was chosen because of Japan, an axis power of the world war two. Here again we find similar situation of Voldemort and Harry for all those who felt bad at my initial comments). Then again we have Japan as a strong contender, because of its strong economy and strong US ties. And we also have countries like Germany, Australia who fulfill all the requirements for making it to the club, minus regional imbalance which seems to be in the Asian continent only.

Russia along with UK and France has long accepted the importance of Indian presence in the UNSC but of the five US and China have had reservations. China because of the reasons mentioned above and US because it’s assumingly please Pakistan policy (again as an effective anti–India measure. The US seems to be great at playing nations against each other). The recent global meltdown has made Indian importance to the world economy all the more important and the US seem to have mellowed its reservations about a permanent UNSC seat to India.

While the recent visit and the seduction of the US for support of India’s bid has been seen as a ‘historic affirmation of the US-INDO friendship’ (as is every state visit) and a ‘diplomatic victory’, its time we think what is in it for us?

It is very clear that US intends to use India as a fulcrum in levering it with China, as it uses Pakistan against India and India’s bid over Japan stems from the global meltdown in economics. While India has shown its capability as a world leader and forge some of the most important results its regional disputes have remained largely the same and unresolved. While a seat in the UNSC would definitely stamp India’s growing image as a world leader, if it is not able to live upto the standards, it would thwart India’s image for future. As a country we are still struggling to meet with development issues and despite the robust economy we have a debt raising to $223.9 billion.Our armed forces are still struggling to catch up with the neighbors, (estimated time for that is 2015), and most importantly it is still not self sustaining in terms if military technology.

 Responsibility comes at a great price and strong shoulders are needed to support that, for that I believe we are still in the developing phase.

Even a normal sized person seems like a midget in an exponentially large chair. Maybe India needs to inflate its ass more to fit in that chair.

Better enter the game late but as a player than early and be used as a pawn.