On the Nature of Genius

I've been reading up on genius lately. What makes a genius. Who can be considered a genius.

There seems to be little distinction between literary, scientific, and musical genius. It doesn't seem to be what you change, but how you change it. It's more about what you create, and how much of a difference this makes to the world. Genius involves thinking outside the box. Most scientists, artists and creators don't do that. They simply work within a slightly enlarged box, enlarging it from the inside, standing on the shoulders of others. 

A true genius finds a way to look anew at what everyone else sees, and see things no one else does. A new way of thought, a new pattern, a new philosophy, a new logic to how the world works. A game changer. A new type of art, a new type of mathematics, a new way to connect the dots. Creativity and originality. Education helps. you need to know how the existing status quo works before you reject it and establish a new one.

It seems to me that what truly separates a genius from the rest are not their abilities themselves, but associating their abilities with a leap of progress. Newton was smart. So were/are the last 50 Nobel prize winners. That doesn't make all of them geniuses. They all played a part in progress, but only one of them revolutionised the field of mathematics. 

On the Nature of Genius

Inventiveness

Here's an article about a guy who took 11 hours to make 300 apples power a LED lamp, and then took a 4 hour exposure of his experiment on film.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/visualscience/2012/07/24/how-many-apples-does-it-take-to-power-a-lamp-about-300/

I love stories about inventiveness. Inventive people do crazy fun stuff, like build Rube Goldberg machines, which I love.

http://coolmaterial.com/roundup/rube-goldberg-machines/

I am always dismayed by people who are dismissive of inventive people. Inventive people are dedicated to their work, and their experiments move the world forward.

If you think about it, all of the things we use on a day to day basis came into being when someone had an idea that revolved around creating something, and decided to experiment with something else, or fiddle around with some contraptions with a view to improving life on this planet.

All the products we use today were invented, they arose out of a series of continuously improving inventions over time. Our electricity, planes, trains, cars, ships, buses, microwaves, ACs, cameras and computer systems were all developed by groups of people improving each other's work over time.

None of these inventors were mere consumers of products that existed in their lifetimes. If that's all they were, we wouldn't have all the stuff we do today. If Thomas Edison or the Wright brothers were merely content with what they had to begin with, with what other people had made for them, our world wouldn't have developed in quite the same way it did.

It was because these special people acted on their impulses, working with and developing the technologies they had, that they came up with new inventions that were in turn improved upon.

And those improvements continue today. Inventive people are continuously toiling away at something they believe in, creating products that other people use, even if that's not always apparent, like with fruit powered lamps.

Here's a video describing the work of Theo Jansen, who creates kinetic sculptures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N0IonPOy-I&feature=related

I've never been particularly inventive myself, but I appreciate the importance of inventiveness, and I think other people should too. Of course, I don't think everyone should be inventive. Civilizations thrive on diverse skill sets. If everyone was a geek, the government wouldn't have anyone to defend the country. In fact, in a case like that, there might not even be a government. Now what would THAT do to a civilization?

Inventiveness

IT guys, Snobbishness & Competencies

A lot of IT guys, particularly the ones that just hit the job scene, seem to have a sort of snobbish complex about their jobs, looking down on people with fewer technical skills and more business administration skills. They laugh at terms like Prioritization, Time Management, Change Management, Lean Fundamentals & Project Management, thinking these 'made up terms' that don't really have any value and don't really do anything. 

Perhaps, when your work involves technical expertise, you tend to work within a bubble, respecting only those people around you with similar skills & objectives, and mentally demeaning or devaluing those within administration, management, etc.

However, techies would do well to remember that the companies they work for wouldn't be around for long without these kinds of folk. We’re not talking about start-ups. We're talking about a large IT company, with 5,000 to 50,000 employees. Companies like these run on processes.

Your brilliant scientific mind and those of your colleagues might develop a software product that changes the way we live, but it takes a whole team of costing specialists to number crunch, deciding how much value they should attach to the end product and its various stages of development, including the value of your time spent developing it. Without the cost managers, how would your company know what to charge for anything, or the ideal time a project should take till completion, or how much to bill a client, or how much to pay you? It probably wouldn't even have financially mapped deadlines.

Then there’s the business development guys, the ones who reach out to create clients to begin with. You wouldn't have any work without them, since they’re the ones who’re out there in the field pimping you. And they need the latest analytical tools (that you deem useless) to help sell your services.

Once a contract’s been signed, you need to have client relationship people to keep the client informed and happy. You can’t expect the clients to talk to you techies and get a straight answer to a query about a project update, in English, in less that 20 seconds. And the client relationship guys need a whole host of soft business skills to be good at what they do.

And of course you need real business experts, operations and process experts to ensure the human conveyor belt keep functioning smoothly and efficiently. And they can't be using outdated project management tools now, can they?

There's simply no room for snobbishness in a large organisation, and with such specific job roles as yours, it's understandable to come across competencies you don't understand. But remember, every competency is valuable.

IT guys, Snobbishness & Competencies

God probably loves Non-Believers

If there is a God, chances are he'd probably respect his creations more if they used the intelligence he gave them, to the best of their ability. The only way to effectively use our brains to the best of their ability is to be as rational as we can. And rational thinking shows us that Belief is pointless. Therefore, using our God given intelligence to the best of its ability results in us not believing in God. This is logical.


Do you see what I'm getting at? If God created us to not believe in him, he's probably going to welcome atheists into Heaven, and reject religious folk. If he exists, he probably looks down in disappointment at people who rely on Belief or Faith instead of Reason.

God probably loves Non-Believers

Christopher Hitchens & Shashi Tharoor on Freedom of Speech, Plus my Views

An interesting discussion between Christopher Hitchens & Shashi Tharoor on freedom of expression. I'd say Tharoor wins the 'debate' on technical grounds, though for the most part they seem to be talking at cross purposes.


Hitchens especially seems intent on taking a hardline view on being intolerant towards people who are intolerant towards people like him. Tharoor, while agreeing with Hitchens for most of the time, looks at a more pragmatic means to get along with everyone.

In some ways, the discussion above is pointless, because there are only so many matter-of-fact options available to a person involved in a making a decision that might result in people being offended and violence being incited (i.e if you want to look at things purely from a practical perspective). 


On philosophical grounds, and as far as legal premises are concerned, there probably is no divergence between the views of the 2 men above. They actually agree on on the fact that freedom of expression shouldn't be curtailed, which is why this isn't much of a debate to begin with, only a space for 2 people to air their own angles on situations arising from freedom of expression. 


Tharoor, the diplomat, focuses on avoiding conflict within a conflicted society prone to violence, while Hitchens the writer, who has no one to fear or nothing to lose, obviously takes a hardline approach to extremists, expressing outrage at people who are intolerant and advocating a no-backing-down approach, independent of context, and calling out the religious for the hypocrites they are.


There are actually a couple of points during the discussion where you can see Tharoor saying things that you know Hitchens isn't going to like, and you know he's going to respond negatively, even though Tharoor's points, and his own rebuttals, aren't really relevant to the issue at hand to begin with.


I've already made my own views on the subject clear, and agree with both of the men above. A true democracy is one where fairness prevails, and who's citizens are treated like adults, not children. A true democracy provides an environment where everyone has the freedom to express their own views, through physically harmless speech or actions, without fear of prosecution, no matter how offensive they may be to the rest of the populace, even the majority.


Take the case of flag burning for example.


A large number of Indians, even so called 'well-to-do', 'educated', 'progressive', 'modern' Indians, will tell you that this government is justified in banning the burning of the country's national flag. Yup. A blanket ban. Just like that. Free of context. That's how ignorant and backward some people are.


Others will tell you that it's O.K to burn your national flag if your intention is Just. Yup. As if they have right to permit or forbid you from such an action, pending their assessment of your intent, or an assessment of your intent by a judge or judges. Ludicrous. Where do people get such fascist arrogance from?


The fact is, it's O.K to burn your county's national flag, just for fun. It's O.K to destroy a symbol of your country that people take great pride in, just for fun, and it's O.K to piss on that symbol, just for fun. Why? Because it's your life, and no one has a right to stop you from doing what you want with it, and doing what you want with your property, no matter your intentions, no matter how offensive your thoughts, words, or actions seem to them. Of course they can question your intentions, and of course they can be disgusted at what you do. But they can't stop you. That's the whole point of democracy.


The respect that you have for another person's right of expression, no matter how offensive it is to you, is what defines you as a civilized member of society. Anything less is fascism, plain and simple.

Christopher Hitchens & Shashi Tharoor on Freedom of Speech, Plus my Views

Funny Calls I got while at a Call Center

You get weird calls when you work at a call center.


There was this one lady caller who's name was 'By-the-way'. As in Mrs. By-the-way. Sounded ancient. And funny. And made me conscious of the ways I began my sentences.


The Greek last names were the worst. Too unpronounceable. The owners they belonged to were used to people struggling with their names, and so usually preempted our awkwardness by asking us to refer to them by their first names. We were grateful.

There was the customer named Daniel, not unusual in itself, but I had to transfer him to a clearings house agent, and that guy introduced himself as Daniel too. After a short pause, I stuck to transfer protocol. "Hi Daniel, this is Daniel from XYZ dept., and you won't believe this but I've got a customer named Daniel on the other line."


The weirdest call I got wasn't even from a customer, but a couple who lived on the floor above one of our bank branches. Apparently, it was past bedtime, and the bank's automatic doors weren't working properly, and would keep opening and closing. Apart from being a serious security risk, it kept the people upstairs awake. I asked them to call the police.


We'd get our share of drunk callers too. Imagine accepting a call, only to hear a man gargling on the other end of the line, and then asking if he sounded like Sonu Nigam. After he repeated this 3 times, I hung up. Not as bad as the situation one of my colleagues, and an aspiring trainer, found herself in, when she got a caller who identified himself as being drunk, and told her he was making love to the floor. The only silver lining with weird calls like these, is we were able to end them quickly, which made our average call times look good.


Of course, sometimes even good calls stretched longer than they should have. A friend and colleague, after tending to a caller, ending up at the receiving end of a member of the Watchtower Society, who probably sensed fresh meat. Experiences with other callers who lingered, were much more pleasant, and usually involved tourist recommendations and chats about the weather when they discovered we were Indians. 


And you got to really help people occasionally. I remember trying to help out this one guy who really seemed depressed, and towards the end of the call  he told me he'd have probably killed himself if I hadn't helped him. That one felt good. 


There was also this really sad lady caller who just wanted to talk to someone. I heard her out for over 10 minutes, way longer than the average call handling time we were supposed to stick to. But I didn't worry about my stats, they were already good, and 1 or 2 outliers a week wouldn't make a difference. Plus, it wouldn't have been proper to disconnect on the lady. We were only allowed to do so with abusive callers. I could of course have coaxed her into disconnecting, but I heard her out. She talked about life being both beautiful and futile. Call volumes dropped that afternoon. I learned later that a series of bombs went of in a few of that country's busiest train stations.


When you work a rush hour shift, one coinciding with your host country's busiest call volume timings, you're usually left with a hoarse voice by the end of the day. So it wasn't surprising then, when at the fag end of one such day, an elderly gentleman asked me if the person he was speaking to was a boy or girl.


Most callers were polite, and even more so when they were speaking to a manager. During night shifts, when we were the only team on the floor, and our Team Leader was taking a nap downstairs, I was glad to take escalated calls, posing as the TL. Irritated customers change their demeanor drastically when they think they're speaking to someone with authority.


Speaking about night shifts, the good thing about working for a UK process is that they're minimal, most of your work being scheduled from afternoon to dinnertime. Those of us who did spend the odd month working the graveyard shift, found that we had the floor to ourselves for the night. We were often the only team present, had only our fellow team mates for company, and could only take our scheduled team breaks in pairs.


The first 2 nights of the graveyard shift were the worst. Adjusting to the new shift and changing our body clocks usually meant falling asleep on the job and missing a few calls. But it was smooth sailing after that. You got hardly any calls during the early hours of the morning, and spent most of your time fooling around with your team mates, chatting, reading, or playing computer games.

Funny Calls I got while at a Call Center

Bosses and Shells

People often bring back shells from trips to beaches.


Which is wrong, environmentalists say. I'm not talking about the tiny ones that wash up on the beach. Those are fine to collect. I'm referring to the large coral type ones that you buy at dedicated stalls along the beach. The ones with spokes, sometimes with light bulbs inside them.


These large shells contribute to ecology. They act as homes for tiny sea creatures. And they don't just land up on beaches. You dive to get them. That's how shops and stalls get them. Purchasing these large shells contributes to the destruction of the ocean's ecosystem.


Speaking of which, how does one even get a light bulb into a shell?


A company I used to work for used to have large shells adorning a hallway, as decorations. Funnily enough, the Chairman was an ardent environmentalist, and even owned an environmental consultancy, but probably wasn't aware that it wasn't in good taste for us to keep shells as decorative items.


I suppose he eventually found out. Those shells disappeared soon after. I had thought about telling him myself, but didn't want to attract any negative attention to myself.


Speaking of bosses & negative attention, I once almost locked a boss inside a ladies loo at a company party. Almost. It wasn't completely my fault. We were both sloshed, and he had to ask me where the men's loo was. I almost showed him to the wrong door, all the while imagining bolting it from the outside once he went in. But better sense prevailed, and I kept my job.


Then again, there was this one friend of mine who worked at a broadcast monitoring company, who didn't have my level of self control. He told off his boss while drunk at a company party, and then proceeded to never get an increment in all the time he worked there.


I guess I've been lucky. I once had a boss who was a really good teacher, and I learnt a lot about corporate culture from him. But he did have this one nagging fault. He'd always use the phrase 'take a dump' to describe printing something. For example, "Daniel, take this pen drive and go take a dump". Like I said, self control is important. It helps you stifle your laughter at points like these in your life.


Being on good terms with people helps. Like when, as an executive at a call center, I brought back a packet of cashew nuts from Goa, for a team leader who had asked for them. Too bad they turned out to contain worms. Not that he would have ever done anything to me; we were on good terms. 


Which is more than can be said for the passive aggressive relationship I had with my own Team Leader. But he couldn't touch me. It helped that he knew that I knew that a married man such as he had been sneaking around dance bars, and enjoying jaunts with young girls from the office too. Sometimes, leverage is your best friend.

Bosses and Shells

Avengers Predictions

My predictions for the next Avengers movie:

Expect 2 main similarities to the 2006 animated film Ultimate Avengers - aliens & inter group conflict.

Loki is on Earth & has the 'cosmic cube'.

He uses it to summon an army of aliens to take over/destroy Earth, his objectives being power/revenge.

These aliens will be either Skrulls or Chitauri (Ultimate Skrulls).

If they're aligned to Loki and brought to Earth by him it's unlikely that they will have had any connection to the Nazi war effort or Red Skull, as seen in previous story lines.

The Avengers will spend most of the film fighting Loki's army.

With the majority of the film's running time being spent on the Avengers fighting Loki, it might skip the Avengers' recruitment parts and go straight to the inter group conflict stage.

The first half hour of the film will be spent in the story's premise i.e setting up the Loki conflict, and establishing tensions between various characters.

Expect the more independent Avengers, Iron Man and Thor, to have trouble fitting in as team players. They want to do their own thing. 

This frustrates Captain America, their field leader, who also considers going it alone, until they in turn impress him with changes in character, sacrificing their egos to all work together as a team.

The Avengers will battle the Hulk at some point.

At the end of the film, Loki is defeated but not killed. He probably has an escape route planned in the possibility of failure. He's powerless, but still has his mind. Expect more appearances in sequels, where he plays his enemies against each other.

The after-credits scene will either feature Loki, or a new Avenger (Black Panther?).

Avengers Predictions

My Last Meal

My last meal would be egg mushroom bacon prawn fried noodles, cooked Indian-Chinese style, seasoned with hot & soy sauce. Sorpotel and Dhansak rice. I would have beef steak with this, with potato, green chillies & fried red and spring onions. And some juicy fried cow tongue, along with khiri and boti. Some lamb Karahi, cooked really dark. Albanian beef hotpot with extra cheese. Gumbo. King pao chicken. Mutton pepper fry and beef rendang. Caribbean curry goat and Laotian chilly pork. And juicy sticky BBQ pork ribs & some pork chilly with spring onions. And some macarel baked with masala and breadcrumbs. Tiger prawns, mussels, shellfish, squid and oysters, cooked Goan style. A red hot orange paneer pan roll. Punjabi tandoori chicken, butter chicken, chicken tikka and naan. A mayo pasta salad with grapes, pineapple & bacon. 

With Port wine. Dessert would be chocolate cake, mousse, a chocolate doughnut, caramel custard, China grass, different types of chocolate ice-cream, a walnut waffle with honey, syrup & cream, a chocolate eclair, and a fortune cookie.

What would your last meal be?

My Last Meal

Hindu Goddess on a Swimsuit

A note on the Australia Fashion week affair:

http://www.cnngo.com/sydney/shop/beauty-or-blasphemy-fashion-week-depiction-lakishma-sparks-indian-outrage-014626

I've left a comment.

Hindu Goddess on a Swimsuit

Why I am presently an atheist

Why am I an atheist?

I'm not exactly opposed to the idea of God. It's just that I haven't seen any proof that God exists. And in the absence of proof, I see no reason to believe in something on faith alone, just for the sake of believing in something.

Let me put it this way.

There is no conclusive proof that God is real. This fact equates the theory of God's existence with any number of other theories dealing with our origin. For example, I could say that the universe and everything in it was created by a race of supernatural space monkeys and there would be no way for you to either prove, or more importantly, to disprove this theory. And so it is with God. There is no way to either prove or disprove God's existence. Why then are we so ready to have faith in God's existence, and not in the existence of a race of supernatural space monkeys, when we really can't disprove the existence of either?

Let me put it another way for the Christians.

A theory is formed around facts. You don't first develop a theory and then pick and choose the facts that most justify this theory and ignore the ones that contradict it. Yet Christian science does this all the time. It's just a bunch of scientific facts twisted to justify Bible stories as being real. Which is why it's unscientific.

I'm not saying the Bible and Christian science are wrong. I have no proof of that. I'm just saying that there's no way to prove or disprove the truth of them either way. And by default, when you hear something that you cannot either prove or disprove (like if I told you the world would end tomorrow), you would simply choose not to blindly believe it until you had proof. Why then is belief in God any different?

You may say you believe in God because there's no other explanation for how we came into this world, and all other theories of our origin are incomplete. It's true that the theory of evolution is incomplete, full of holes and widely debated. That is why it is just a theory. There is no conclusive proof that evolution is real, any more than God is real. But that's no reason to automatically believe in God, is it? Disproving a contradictory theory doesn't make your theory any more real, does it? You'd still be left with having to prove your own theory. 

There's no reason why evolution and God can't both be complete rubbish. The 2 theories are non-dependent. Disproving one of them doesn't make the other true. Disproving the theory of evolution doesn't make God's existence real, just as disproving God's existence doesn't make the theory of evolution a fact. The truth is we can't disprove anything, so why bother believing in anything to begin with? Why can't we just let our lives revolve around facts?

This line of reasoning can be applied to any form of belief - Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Islam Judaism, etc. - where reason is sacrificed to faith in the supernatural, on the basis of lack of alternatives. You can't justify your belief in God on the basis that you don't believe/don't like/can't prove any alternative theories to God. That's no reason to sacrifice your reason and intelligence. Because your theory is equally unproven, you're just believing for the sake of believing. And there's no reason to do that.

Again, I'm not saying that God isn't real. Just that in the absence of proof either way, there's no reason to treat the theory of God any differently to my theory of space monkeys, or any form of imagination or fantasy.

Why I am presently an atheist

Needs & Wants

What you want and what you need are 2 different things, though you may confuse them for the same. You might want a lot more than what you really need.

Over 2 years ago my computer kept getting stuck at startup. I called in an expert. He told me it was a problem with my RAM. And replaced my 3 year old 512 MB RAM card with a new one for almost Rs. 2K.

The same thing began happening in July 2010, almost exactly 2 years later. I called the same expert. Same cause, he said. This time, I had him upgrade to 1 GB RAM for almost the same price.

A couple of months later, the computer kept restarting itself at sudden moments, which I assumed was a problem with the motherboard, and a few weeks after, the monitor went black, though it was still receiving power (the monitor light was on, and I could hear the sounds of the computer starting, but nothing was registering on screen. I assumed the motherboard and monitor problem were connected, that my computer was finally dying, and was about to replace it with a new Rs. 12K (at least) desktop, when I had second thoughts, and decided to call a new expert for help, to look at the monitor only.

I did this because a new system would cost me a lot more money than a quick fix, and my ROI with a quick fix would work out better, as opposed to a new system, when you considered that I only use my desktop for basic stuff.

The new guy fixed the monitor for Rs.1K, telling me it was a transformer problem. That done, I did a little research online and then fixed the computer-continuously-restarting problem by buying a new motherboard battery for Rs. 25. Turns out you need to replace these every 5 years anyhow.

But a whole new problem cropped up. My internet/LAN cable stopped being registered on the computer. The internet cable worked on laptops, so I figured it was a problem with my computer onboard modem/LAN card. I went out, bought a new LAN card for Rs. 300, plugged it into a PCI slot in my CPU, switched my computer on, copied the IP settings to the new card, disabled the old one, installed the driver CD for good measure, plugged in the cable, and I had my internet back on again.

Now, I could have just bought a new 12K PC, or a 40K laptop, but I guess that's what I wanted, not what I needed. Don't get me wrong. I still want a fancy laptop, but what I really needed and got was a basic desktop, money saved in the bank, and a little knowledge about basic computer maintenance.

Needs & Wants

Movies Seen: Get him to the Greek, Almost Famous

2 movies about affable people who're rock fans but otherwise normal, suddenly caught up in the world of rock, forced to spend time with rock musicians and deal with their chaotic lives and the changes in their own lives that follow.

Get him to the Greek (2010) - mild mannered record company executive is sent to London to escort an eccentric washed out rock star to the US for a comeback concert. Both are forced to face their individual problems along the way.

Almost Famous (2000) - A coming of age film. Young boy dreams of being a rock journalist; gets his wish fulfilled when Rolling Stone asks him to travel with a certain band and do a story on them. He learns about life, love, betrayal and failure along the way.

Neither movie glorifies the whole rock and roll lifestyle thing. That's not the focus of the films. Rather, the films portray the lifestyle or the lifestyle's stereotypes for what they are, and use that imagery, the extreme that is the lifestyle of a rock star, as a mirror against which the protagonists view themselves in all their apparent mediocrity, their own truth, learning something new about themselves.

As this guy says, we see ourselves in terms of others.

Thoughts?

Movies Seen: Get him to the Greek, Almost Famous

Loneliness

Everyone gets lonely sometimes. Especially around weekends. And holiday season. When you're at home without any plans. When all your friends have their own plans. When you wish you had something interesting to do, more friends to hang out with, more people to talk to, to party with. When you wish you didn't have to go to bed so early.

This is normal. It passes. Just concentrate on your hobbies, your likes, what excites you. Do what you like to do - read books; watch movies; go to plays, concerts, performances, screenings, seminars; travel; take a walk; take photos; play a sport, games, etc. You will meet people. Talk about common interests. Stay in touch. Over time, you'll gather like minded souls to you. Don't worry about the intermittent lonesome days/nights.

While I'm on the subject, I remember one of my psychology professors back in college telling our class about depression and that even though more men than women suffer from depression, men are better able to cope with it, as society allows men more freedom to do things that might counter depression. For example, a man who's feeling down can always go out for a late night movie by himself. Not so for women as much.

Thoughts?

Loneliness

Why We Travel

                            Market in McLeod Ganj - 11 June, 2009


I've always wondered why people travel. And what the whole point of travelling is.

People didn't always travel for leisure, did they? In ye olden times, most people only travelled because it was a means to get things done, for civilian work or military purposes. Travel was never an escape, it was a necessity. If anything, it was just the rich who travelled, to experience something new, a change in scenery perhaps, or an activity to kill boredom.

Maybe that was it. The only people who did travel for enjoyment, did so because it wasn't a necessity for them. Maybe when something becomes a necessity, it's no longer enjoyable? So in order to enjoy travel, you had to have the luxury of not being forced to partake in it? Reasonable? 

Over time, travel spread to other sections of society. As more and more people got the means to travel i.e money, and the time away from work, travel became a popular pastime.

Still, many people don’t travel today – they're happy doing what they always do – going about their normal everyday jobs. These people, you will observe, are mostly involved in traditional occupations - farming, fishing, etc. - that involve a lot of time. Also, the people in these occupations just don't seem to want to travel. They are happy as they are, with no urge to see the outside world. Contrast this with modern professionals who might be busy, but still dream of travel.

What separates the traditionalists from the modernists? The non-travelers from the travelers? Do some people get the travel itch? Or is it peer pressure? Or something else? It's difficult to say. Maybe all people get the travel itch, to some extent, and some just suppress it, while others act on it.

But what exactly is this travel itch. What makes people travel? What motivates them? Is it the desire to see or experience new things, peer pressure, an opportunity to give yourself bragging rights? Some people travel to experience new sights, sounds and smells. I guess that's O.K. Many people travel to just take photographs. I can identify with that. But what about going that extra step, finding out about the story behind the photo? I'm talking about new wholesome experiences rather than just sights, sounds and smells. It seems few people want to do that. Travel for most is travel for the sake of change.

I think I've identified at least 3 trains of thought above - the evolution of travel, why some of us don't travel, and what travel really is. 

Your thoughts are welcome.

Why We Travel

Being Famous Because You're Famous

Ever heard of being famous for being famous? Know what that means? Ever see those page 3 types that didn't accomplish anything in their lives? Ever wonder why they're up there on page 3?

A bit of networking perhaps.

When I was younger I learned that the best way to make friends and be invited to people's parties was to hold a party of your own and invite those same people. They would then invite you to their parties because not doing so would make them seem ungrateful.

Also, by holding a party, you're giving other people a chance to know you better. And if your personality is pleasing enough, and if they like you, they'll want to see you again, and invite you to their social functions. And so the cycle continues.

And if you do this to as many of the right people as possible, your network is going to be huge, and your visibility is going to keep growing. And people will want to be with you because then they'll be popular by association. And you end up being famous for being famous.

So socialites seem to be doing the same thing we used to do as kids, only on a much larger scale.

Being Famous Because You're Famous

Thoughts and Observations

Some thoughts and observations since I returned to Mumbai.

1. I'm still in the process of putting up my travel diary entries on the blog. This will take a while. My pics are in the process of being put up on Facebook.

2. We've given up half our office floor space a week after I return, making some of us move. Who knew we just needed half the space to fit in the same number of people? On the down side, we were so used to occupying a large office that the place we're left with now seems a little small.

3. Three of my friends - MD, RV & PV - who were in the process of looking for new jobs when I left, are now happily back to work after successful job hunts.

Here's an interesting TIME article on using Twitter and Facebook to find a new job, and it's corollary (thanks to Gautam Ghosh).

4. I've been going through my mail, not all of which I was able to read while travelling, and have come across some interesting stuff:

• My friend FP sent me a lesson in innovation - How David beats Goliath
• Arvind Iyer observes that we don't live a moment for the moment anymore. A very valid point, especially for travellers who love photography.
  
• And for travellers who travel by air and book tickets online, the Kiruba incident makes for informative reading.

Thoughts and Observations

Off to the Himalayas

And so I've finally booked my tickets and am off at last. I'll be leaving tomorrow and returning on the 14th of June, which gives me 38 days of travel, two days less than the 40 I had originally wanted to have (40 sounds so much more rounded and cool), and a lot less than the 56 days in total I've taken off from work.

But what can I say - it's tough to plan a trip like this. I've wanted to visit the Himalayas for a long time now - since 2007. But the summer of that year saw me shifting jobs with a small break between and no way to plan a last minute trip. Then 2008 came and I wasn't too sure about taking two weeks off in the summer since I planned on travelling in late 2008 or early 2009. I did take a ten day trip in Jan '09, which only whetted my appetite for more travel, making me make up my mind about visiting Ladakh in the summer. I certainly didn't think I'd be able to take an extended trip but maybe instead something along the lines of two weeks. And then came the news that I wouldn't have too much work at the office for the first quarter. Which led me asking for a two month sabbatical. Which I shortened to one month and three weeks to finish off some last minute work. And that's how I ended up with 56 days to kill.

Now I had started researching travel options about a month before going on leave. Like I said, I've been entranced by the Himalayas for a while now, and had worked out in my mind that the best way to use the time I had was to do a really long three week trek through the Himalayas to begin with, stopping at villages along the way to get a feel of the place.

Research showed me it wasn't that simple. The Himalayas would take more time to explore, the treks offered a deep exploration of only a tiny slice of the pie, and none of the companies I contacted seemed keen on responding, or were mostly aimed at professional backpackers or trekkers from abroad and charged huge rates.

It was around that time that I shifted my focus to Ladakh, which I've been reading a lot about. What attracted me most to it was it's pure desert feel - seclusive and all. I soon came to the conclusion that I'd need at least two weeks to explore Ladakh, and another week at least for a mild trek, which seemed doable. Any other travel could be arranged around Ladakh.

The problem, I soon learned, was that apart from air travel, the only other way into Ladakh was by road i.e the the two highways, bot of which were preferable to travel by because of the scenery, and both of which could be closed uptil mid June, which is exactly when I was supposed to be back at work.

Near panic soon set in. As my life slowly became a tangled web of search engine results, I got to know that the roads could open sooner (in fact, I've just learnt a couple of days ago that the Srinagar - Leh road is now open). This turned out to be a good thing as I figured I could do a bit of travelling before hitting Leh. Planning began in earnest. Do I go backpacking or join a tour? I had made up my mind at the start to never join a tour in my life. To me, they seem more geared towards tourists than travellers.

Unfortunately, none of my friends seemed to be willing to take even a week off from work to travel with me, making me lean towards a tour (as I didn't want to travel alone) or at least to start off with a tour group and then do my own thing once the tour completed.

It was around this time that I started on my sabbatical. I spent the first week continuing with my tour finding effort, but with no luck. None of the tours I found were in my price range, or seemed to my liking, except one. Meanwhile, I was also planning an itinerary for travel during the start of May, as all the tours I'd found only had trips beginning in the middle of May. But planning that itinerary was a real effort, because it forced me to come to terms with the fact that I'd be backpacking alone for the first time in my life. And that too for an extended period of time. And since I'd be backpacking for the first two weeks of May, I might as well backpack for the remainder of my trip as well.

I took this last decision on May 1st, when I realised I had to put a start date on my trip as enough time had gone by. Ideally, I would have liked to leave as soon as I had voted; I would have had 45 travel days in all. But all these decisions took time. I put May 6th as my tentative start date, with me leaving for Delhi and then Himachal first (as that's where all the good tripping points are) before travelling to Leh as soon as the highway opened. Then I decoded I needed at least a couple more days to deal with some last minute bank work. And during that time I heard about the Srinagar-Leh road opening up, which spurred me into booking a last minute ticket to Srinagar instead of Delhi.

And so I'm off at last.

Off to the Himalayas

Avoiding Cynicism

I fear I've grown cynical as an adult. I seem to take things for granted that I, as a kid, would normally be in awe of. Take visiting a restaurant for example. As a kid, every visit to a restaurant, whether it was a fast food or a fancy and expensive one, would be an adventure for me, but nowadays, I seem to take these visits for granted, they're all pretty insignificant. I seem to have lost that feeling of wonder that I used to experience every time I went somewhere, even if I'd been there previously, whether it was a restaurant, hotel, park or just anywhere. My questions are one, why is this so? and two, is this normal, or something I should be worried about?

The answer to the first question is simple. Priorities change. Adults see the world through different eyes compared to kids. The second question is trickier. It's completely normal to not feel the same way about stuff that you felt as a kid. But what's not normal is that it's replaced by such a level of cynicism. It can't all be because of frequency. I go out as an adult about as often as I did when I was a kid. I suppose in one way, it's O.K. Restaurant wise, Mumbai is full of good cheap restaurants for the common man, where the food is good, service is quick and the ambiance is non-existent. Maybe the point of these places that I frequent is that you're supposed to take them for granted.

But that doesn't explain my present ho-hum reaction to all the fancier places. Why? To answer this, I'll need to look back to my childhood again, beyond the changing priorities and differing world views, to the fact that maybe I was never in complete control of my life when I was a kid. The only time I went out was with my parents as they handled everything. The travel, the ordering, paying, etc. So, could that be the main reason I saw the world through rose coloured glasses then, as compared to now?

If that's true, does an aspect of the world cease to be amazing once you figure out you can control it? The answer might be yes. Look at magic tricks. When I was a kid, I used to practice all these magic tricks as a hobby. One thing I realised growing up was that every trick I saw on T.V that looked amazing would cease to be amazing once I found out how it was done. Even adults feel the same way. Watch a group of people watching David Blane levitate or Chris Angel walk on water and then watch their faces as you tell them how it's done. All you get is a blank look. You've taken away the awe and wonder that they felt just a moment ago. You've given them knowledge which leads to a feeling of control, but at what cost? I guess sometimes ignorance is bliss. Sometimes, people prefer ignorance, even if they don't know it at the time.

So does not being in control prevent cynicism, which in turn increases feelings of awe and wonder that lead to happiness? Maybe for some things in my life that I know will make me happy if I don't try to control them. But having someone lead you by the hand everywhere and spoon feed you all the time certainly isn't a solution. So if being in control of things is a natural human progression, so too must be the cynicism that goes with it. So that answers my second question about this being normal. And brings up a third one. Should I do anything about it?

Sure I should. I have a right to be as happy as possible as often as possible. How do I do this? First let me look at the other things that make me happy. Like music and movies. Maybe I can find a pattern here. I love watching Spielberg movies because they make me feel like a child again. I also like movies that make me experience something new, and make me feel like I'm part of something great, even if they make me think a bit. But I'm not in control of the movie making process. I don't suppose the people who are feel the same way about the movie as I do. So the control rule holds true here as well.

As an aside, being in control should not be confused with being knowledgeable about something. For example, many of us experience more happiness when we analyse movies for a greater level of appreciation, which in turn leaves us cynical towards their more mundane forms. And maybe this isn't bad. Maybe this is how we as humans make sure that evolution picks out only the best, most creative, and innovative kinds of music and movies to experience, for our own benefit. So maybe cynicism is goes hand in hand with happiness, as a certain level of one guarantees a certain level of another.

But coming back to the control rule part, I've figured out that multiple things that make me happy vary in the levels of happiness they provide depending on the control I exercise over them, which is unavoidable anyway. So how do I increase happiness? One way would be to to simply look for other happy experiences to replace the experiences that get diminished over time.

So I've learnt the following. Cynicism is unavoidable. What I like today I might not like tomorrow. Therefore, I need to constantly surround myself with things I like and constantly try to find new things to Iike. To do the first part, I need to make sure I avoid the average products in this world that lean toward making me cynical, avoid what I know I'll hate, and focus on those that fill me with pleasure. I should do this by following reviews, be they of restaurants, food, music, movies, plays, or any household inanimate object. And share my experiences with others. And for the second part, I need to look for new experiences in everything I do. And try to turn everything I do into an awesome party, even a trip to an Udipi joint.

Avoiding Cynicism

Life in Muscat

A recent bout of browsing through a number of Muscat centered blogs has encouraged me to write this post. I’ve noted down snippets, from my memory, of the first 17 years of my life that I happened to spend in Muscat (1983 – 2000), to remind me of what a great place it was.

Life in General

Living in air conditioned splendour 24/7. Air conditioning everywhere I went.

Looking out from a window in my air conditioned room at the land around me getting baked in the afternoon sun and putting my hand up against the window to get a sense of the heat outside while being grateful that I didn’t have to worry about it.

Travelling everywhere by car. Walking was rare. I think I only learned the joys of walking in Mumbai.

Travelling to any place by car in just a few minutes with no traffic jams. A far cry from the 1 hr 30 min average it takes to travel from one point in Mumbai to another.

Visiting the malls. They were the best places to meet up with friends, though I had to be driven there by my Father. Ditto for the cinema or any other place.

Reading 'Young Times', a youth magazine, whose subscribers used to constantly request posters of Michael Jackson, WWE superstars, and SRK.

Tazos.

Food

Gorging on Pofac cheese bites and Chips Oman. We didn't like them all that much but everyone else was having them, and there weren't that many other options.

Vimto, Ribena and Tang.

Buying Suntop juice packs, Nabil wafers, etc. just for the stickers.

T.V

Watching cartoons, T.V series and late night movies on the one channel we had – Oman T.V.

Waking up in time to catch the morning cartoons during our summer holidays. This was usually in Arabic but we didn’t care.

Watching Takeshi’s Castle in Arabic during late mornings in the summer. These were the full episodes and not the heavily edited ones they show on Pogo.

Trying not to fall asleep in the afternoon so we could catch the afternoon cartoon or show, which was either in English (Tiger Sharks, Popeye, Sesame Street, Crystal Maze, etc.) or Arabic (Voltron, Captain Planet, The Smurfs, etc.). I’m probably one of the few people to see Captain Planet in 3 languages – English, Hindi and Arabic.

Being frustrated every time the afternoon English cartoon was abruptly cut off so that the next show on Oman T.V could begin at its designated time slot. We often missed the endings of the English cartoons this way, but it didn’t stop us from partaking in the same will it-won’t it agony every day as it was all we had.

Going to my friend's homes once a week to watch shows like Small Wonder, G.I Joe, etc. on Star T.V. because my parents chose not to subscribe to cable. As time went on, Star T.V turned desi.

Rushing in from my games in the evenings so I could catch the sole evening cartoon, then going outside to continue playing hoping my friends were still there.

Watching the evening English serial. I saw shows like That's Incredible, Guiness World Records, The Cosby Show, Perfect Strangers, Who’s the Boss, Charles in Charge, Misfits of Science, Open House, Night Court, Alf, Valerie, Bustin’ Loose, Benson, He’s the Mayor, Step by Step, Good Morning Miss Bliss, Adam 12, Dragnet, Empty Nest, Uncle Buck, Generations, Mission Impossible, Our House, Sidekicks, Road to Avonlea, You Bet Your Life, Webster, etc. In our case the best of the 80’s was broadcast during the 90’s.

Finally getting cable when I was in the 8th or 9th Standard. Being addicted to TNT (later TCM) and watching almost every old Hollywood movie they showed.

Watching the channels taking the digital and more expensive route one by one when I came back to Muscat for a holiday in 2001.

Using the VCR to record shows when we were away from home.

Church

Going for Catechism classes and Mass every Friday Morning, carrying a crinkly noisy little plastic bag with a Bible, notebook and pencil or pen.

Feeling a tinge of pride walking into catechism class, the class levels being marked 4 grades higher than our school grades, so we could attend the 7th grade at school and the 11th grade at Catechism in the same year.

Getting a new Catechism teacher every year, some of whom also doubled up as teachers at our school.

Always being told interesting stories during catechism class and the children’s mass with a moral at the end.

Attending Youth Mass and Catechism on Thursday evening instead of Friday morning as we got older.

Being driven back home from church in stupendous heat every Friday late morning in a car with no air conditioning and wishing we could dive into the fountain roundabout that we drove around each time we left the church.

Always scoring well on a Catechism test…always, and wishing my school test scores were that good.

School

Feeling a tinge of pride at being part of the CBSE syllabus.

Seeing the same faces year upon year for 11 years of school.

Having my classmates faces imprinted in my mind, so that I still see them as little kids rather than the adults they are now.

Wrapping new books in brown paper at the start of every academic year.

Getting older student’s old textbooks before the start of a new academic year so we could save money by not buying new ones.

Excitedly leafing through at the upcoming academic year’s textbooks, reading all the stories in the English Reader and looking at all the pictures in the science books during the summer holidays before the new year began.

Pencil boxes that transformed into robots.

Making that switch from pencils to pens during the 5th standard. Cheap 'Hero' Chinese fountain pens.

Putting the ACs on full blast after coming in from PT.

Do you have any Gulf memories that you'd like to share? 

Life in Muscat