Last official day at my first professional job :)

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Raghav/Raghu
A new experience it was, altogether today. It will stay with me forever.
Bidding adieu to my first job at MRO-TEK turned out to be harder than I had imagined it to be; I hadn’t imagined it to be hard at all. Nonetheless, the day took me aback, and it turned out to be an emotional and deeply touching farewell.

In my farewell mail, I called my job at MRO-TEK, which happens to be my first job  to be equivalent to The First Love, and rightly so for, I already seem to have forgotten the few negativities and have started relishing upon all the positives encountered by me.

The affection my colleagues had shown through my tenure by itself was overhwelming, and today it was taken to new heights. Sweet chunks of advice, geneorus words of praise, lots of aspirations and a deep sense of nostalgia, all of it surfaced one after another, making the rendezvous heavier with every passing moment.

I haven’t discussed my job, or the nature of my work at MRO-TEK on my blog, and now that I am done with it, I still wouldn’t want to talk of it, for, as I see it now the love and affection I have earned amongst my peers speak louder than everything. And so be it!

Mine was a short tenure at MRO-TEK, just a few days less than an year and nine months. It has been quick, exciting and vibrant! The industrial exposure will enable me set the right path to my goals. While all the maturity I have assimilated, pondering for these many months in a different framework has certainly made me a better and sophisticated human being.

The quality of discussions with certain resonating colleagues, day in and day out will be missed deeply by me. So will also the lovely campus, with an earthly serenity attached to it be missed.

This current phase, when I am just drifting away from a bondage into newer realms renders me exhilirated, while soaked in nostalgia. And I am relishing it.

In the end, what I take back from my first job is a new me, who has matured enough to work in aligning myself closer to the utopian me.

Riding on the experience of yesterday, backed by all the courage of today, I am excited about facing the challenges posed by tomorrow!

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Making my moves, like i wanted to!

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Raghav/Raghu
Taking decisions in life, now, when I am at the verge of an important decision feels like playing a tricky game of chess!

I have thought deeply, evaluated the consequences, guaged the prospects and hoped for the optimum, and it feels precisely like an important move you’ve done on the board of chess; when you know the pawns will have a radical change, while you are desperately hoping the ramifications to turn out to be good!

It is easier said than done, to steer the happenings of one’s life to fall in congruence, or at least near the mental envisage of what his/her life should become. But, once a while, a few important decisions put us right into the pilot seat and present us an opportunity to change the course of our lives.
And, to brave up and take those small risks to move closer to our purpose of life is as good can one’s life can get.

Now, I am embarking upon a certain path, which will lead me closer to the essence of me. It might not be something grand or exciting to an outsider, but I am swelling with enthusiasm and euphoria, while I still feel a small tinge of apprehension 🙂

More than the future prospects, the current contentment I derive out of the control I have exhibited and the confluence of all the right things which have fallen into place make me feel wondrous and simply happy.

Banking on this hope and confidence, I am on MY WAY!

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How far can one go riding on rationality?

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Raghav/Raghu

Encountering rationales is getting tougher by the day in today’s technology driven world. As paradoxical it might seem, irrationality is getting ubiquitous in the 21st Century. In a world run on the principles of scientific inquisition and technological accomplishments, a counter wave of revived illogic and neo-superstitions are spreading quickly amongst the individuals.

Incorporating the paradigm of logic and reasoning in one’s life is not an easy task, agreed. It requires lot of courage and strong conviction to defy the orthodoxity and conventionality that is piously preached by the society.
But it certainly is the only way forward!

In an attempt to categorize the minds I’ve known based on the rationality exhibited by them, here’s a four grade demarcation 😛

The ones who don’t take off: Have known and continue to know many more who belong to this clan. A strong force acting within these people repels all the logic and makes them imperveous to reasoning.
Traits: Relucatance, apart from the natural obstinate ignorance

The ones who break down en route: These are the slender and fragile ones, who make an attempt but certain adverse situations put them back to square one, or to the level mentioned above.
Traits: Timid and voluntarily cornered

The ones who apply with exceptions: A new creed I am discovering amongst my own regular diaspora. These semi rationales apply rationality with exceptions, and many a times at their convenience. I don’t know how they do it, but they successfully detach from their plane of thought and contradict themselves, ending up irrational.
Traits: Opportunistic and of course undone.

The ones who perpetuate forever: These are the ones who wouldn’t contradict the subjective realities in variation with the objective conditions. Consistent with their logic, and adamant on their perception.
Improvising a cliche here: Rationality isn’t a destination, it is a journey!
And to hang on to this journey, it is nothing less than an incessant struggle; Struggle with one’s beliefs and prejudices, and an everlasting process of clearing the smog unravelled by the rest of the three clans.
Traits: Strong conviction and pragmatists

It takes continuous effort and consistent show of mental strength to endorse a lifelong paradigm of rationality. Lethargy, reluctance, hesitancy, selectivity and cowardice are the hurdles to cross if you want to embark upon this enlightnening and gratifying journey.

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செந்தமிழ்நாடு மதுரை – Madurai !

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Raghav/Raghu

Numerous ancient temples, variety of deliciously tasty food, detailed political gyaan at every corner of the road, meter-less auto-rickshaws, the more familiar heat of Tamil Nadu, and a lot more is what I have experienced in my first visit to this ancient city of India – Madurai, also known the Temple Town, with an exquisite legacy and heritage of its own.

Madurai, is also dubbed to be the Capital of southern Tamil Nadu, in colloquial terms. And with its experience of being the capital of the immensely successful monarchies like the Pandyas, Madurai can less be ignored.

My two days in Madurai has been the ideal hangout for a gypsy that I tend to be. Needless to mention that I enjoyed it tremendously for, it was my first trip to Madurai.

The memories I carry from here for this time, are of mixed nature; Some vivacious, while some are subtle, perfectly depicting the nature of the city that Madurai is.

Mind blowing temples, which form an important aspect of discovering ancient India are housed in Madurai. The official logo of Tamil Nadu – The Gopuram, has elaborate presence all across the city.

The world famous Meenakshi Amman Temple, for all its grandeur and legacy was one place I was certain of not missing. And I did spend an elaborate five hours scanning through the layered alleys of this marvel. The awe inspiring architecture of the temple, the symmetry and the scale are the traits which have given it the status it enjoys today.  More importantly the devotion and emotion associated with the temple and its deities, which bring in the thronging crowds aren’t to be missed either 🙂 The only complaint I have is the newly done stark paintings performed throughout the temple. Although in some places it increases the aesthetics of the architecture, I certainly would have loved to see it as it was done by the masters then. I call them the masters, for accomplishing a masterpiece of this sorts then, with the little resources they had is mind boggling, and I believe it would be undo-able today, even with all the resources and technology.
We have simply lost the passion our ancestors possessed!

Apart from the Meenakshi Amman temple, there are a host of other temples and places to visit, but I couldn’t go on, given the time and energy constraints.

Second and most importantly, the food everywhere in the city has been sublime. Ethnic south Indian cuisine, with all the creativity and the entire spectrum of non-vegetarianism in it has been a treat for a foodie that I am. I have tried numerous new eatables this time around in Madurai.
Here’s a list of new on my food list:
“Parutthipaal” made out of cotton seeds extract.
“Jigarthanda“, a Madurai special natural cool drink
“Pathaneer” with the sap of tender palm fruit as the main ingredient. This again is a natural coolant, much needed to beat the heat!

 

On the non-vegetarian side of the food, I had “Muyal Biriyaani”, that is authentic Tamil biryaani with rabbit meat in it 🙂
Also, mutton omelette (finely chopped goat meat, with beaten eggs), likewise sea-food omelette, boneless crab omelette and chicken omelette! Then the addendum to the “muttai dosa” list was “chicken/mutton/all-meat/seafood/prawns dosas”, which are instigating my salivary glands as I am writing this down! All of this in one classic place – Amma Mess.

Then the roadside idlis with chicken kolumbu, and the ever enticing “muttai kotthu parota“: An adventurous preparation yielding yet another mouth watering delicacy.

In all, Madurai food was Sublimely delicious, and vibrantly various!

The warmth of people in Madurai is very visible and that comes natural with their living ambiance, which is still based on the human values. Drawing in the cynicism I have developed towards the the IT/Corporate/LPG-sick city that Bangalore is coming to be, I was so glad to see a place where people on the lower middle and lower sections of the economic spectrum have chances of survival unlike in other metros! It isn’t about the prices being nominal alone, even the lifestyle of people matches their living circumstances, and the people are contended and more importantly proud of what they are, again unlike the hypocrisy full, West emulating trends in other cities.
 

Overall, Madurai stands out as one of the best places in India, more for its culture retention and pride of its local (not in the derogatory sense) authenticity.

There will be complaints about everything we observe, but in this log I have subdued one or two negative aspects which I observed for, the rest of it is all so awesome!

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The droppings of capitalism!

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Raghav/Raghu

Capitalist modes of running a society and its criticism is a highly elaborate exercise, and to take up that task I am still inadequately equipped. I shall save it for the future, to make it more convincing.

In this post, I want to focus on certain profound ramifications rendered by the crowning jewel of capitalism – Neoliberalism. 
 
As David Harvey in his book A Brief History of Neoliberalism points, “Neoliberalism has, in short, become hegemonic as a mode of discourse. It has pervasive effects on ways of thought to the point where it has become incorporated into the common-sense way many of us interpret, live in, and understand the world.”

And I want to concentrate on the way many of us perceive, interpret and understand the world, well in an increasingly contorted way. To hint at what I am talking about, allow me to present a couple of contemporary ethic statements as heard by me!

“You know you are poisoning the customer, better give him a slow death than a sudden one, so that you get out safe… “

“When you’re faced with a vicious snake and a close competitor, kill the competitor first!”
Theories like,
Profit making by legal, although unjust means is perfectly sane.
Professional life comes first, and personal life is secondary.
Rivalry amongst peers taking newer heights of animosity.
Exploitation legitimized in the name of profit making.
And many more observations, which are getting ubiquitous and are successfully draining out the core values of us humans. It is evolving into a system where cynicism and skepticism are increasing instead of trust and belief amongst people.

Even this aspect of declinging trust is not of concern, as much as the silly sancitity assigned to these anomalies. These digressions away from the human values, inclined, contrarily towards the market values have found way into the ethics of the society. And that makes the future bleaker!

A price tag and a profit margin on anything and everything, including emotions and basic necessities is the fundamental basis of Neoliberalism. And we, the mere droppings of this system are more than willing to endorse and live by these false standards. If not a systemic revamp, at least pursuit of consciousness at a personal level against the perils of a system,which is polarized away from our natural good is imperative.

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The booming spiritual bloom!

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Raghav/Raghu
“Inner Engineering”, “Spiritual Software”, “Cosmic architecture”, and many more paradoxical terms have seen a sudden boom in the last decade. This is the new set of jargon presenting itself when the need has arrived. 

The blend of spirituality and technology seems to be the USP of the recent resurgence of the spiritual heads from India, whom I categorize as the “Corporate Gurus”. This entire saga of Spirituality and India is a deep rooted gimmick, which has flourished through centuries and still growing, better than ever.

Ancient Indian philosophy, when traversed through without the prejudices we might have inculcated in today’s world, is nothing but contradictory to the current preachings of today’s spiritualists. In Debiprasad Chattopadhayaya’s book “Indian Atheism” he elucidates the fictitious nature of the contemporary spiritualism. He argues and very well validates the absence of the concept of God in most of the ancient Indian Philosophy, which on the other hand is the underlying basis for the contemporary spiritualism.

Another important aspect which comes under the scanner is the plethora of lost minds who are seeking solace from this trend. If narrowed down, the ones seeking ‘spiritualism’ today mostly are workers deprived of their rights!

An employee who works for 14 hours a day, with no time to spend with his/her family, with no sense of satisfaction and with almost zero interaction with the society in its real terms are the ones who are driven to such extremities.

If one extremity is falling prey for depressants like carcinogen, alcohol and other hallucinogens, the other ‘respite’ to this new class of social destitutes is seeking spiritualism in order to fill in the voids left by their exploitation.

Capitalizing on this new class of desperadoes is the new thriving ‘industry’ of spiritualism. Most of these Corporate Gurus bamboozle the vulnerables into their traps, with nothing but sweetened non-sense and a heavy ‘donation’.

While Indian philosophy has homed the greatest of the philosphers like the Buddha, Kabir,Shirdi Sai Baba, Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekanada, and certainly some contemporary ones also who haven’t shot to ‘fame’. The discerning factor between these philosophers and today’s swindlers is their motive.

While the genuine gurus were preachers for the sake of betterment in the society, the contemporary Gurus are lavish charlatans who have made the most out of the vulnerabilities in the society. While the ancient philosophers were reformers, who fought against social practices which made the lives of the people miserable, today, the Corporate Gurus are the parasites feeding on the exploitation rendered by the system, and who have zero consciousness of the problem in its entirety. They are mere pseudo embalmers, pretending to salvage the depressed.

It ain’t just pretension, the Gurus of the day are frauds of the highest order.
Take a look at some of the programs and ideas propagated by these self proclaimed teachers and leaders!

Walk without Feet, Fly without Wings and Think without Mind!

Art of breathing, to teach you the Art of Living!

As we have physical science to create external well-being there is a whole inner dimension of science to create inner well being. I call it Inner Engineering!

With so much debauchery surrounding the entire scene of spiritualism today, the crowd thronging at them mainly is the learned urban middle class. Isn’t it a shame that an educated section of the society can endorse and let such attempts to thrive!
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Discerning the materialist in me

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Raghav/Raghu
Am I a materialist?

Yes and No.

Yes: In the context of non-idealism; in my manners of understanding everything around me. This tinge of materialism in me is what has enabled me to grow an outlook endorsing rationality and self verification, and am usually not driven by the momentum of the legacy of beliefs. ‘Doubt everything’, as one great philosopher put it is the underlying perceptive principle, out of which the materialism in me emanates.
Looking for the logic behind events, reasoning for occurrences, with an incessant urge to question is how life should be lived. It gives immense gratification, which is otherwise impossible to be rendered by the other ubiquitous means for ‘pursuance of truth’ like spiritualism, religion or superstition!

No: If being asked in the context of being ‘materialistic’, i.e.,belonging to the creed manifesting greed, in the purest sense of commodity seeking behaviour. This category of consumers are technically not materialists, but only materialistic in nature.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Materialism

I recurrently am encountered with questions about my aims in life.
And even before I start to formulate my ideas, the questioner starts off, “A plot of land”,”A posh flat”, “A gizmo car”, “A heavy account balance”, and blah blah. If these are not blah blah to you, you are one such prospective questioner I would despise if you go on to presume something on those lines. Contradictory to the conventional trend as it may appear, I treat commodities as mere commodities, and not goals of my life.

It doesn’t mean that I do not want to lead a comfortable (economic stress free) life. I would not give any more reverence to the commodities beyond that. My objectives in life, if I were to even think of them are more on the lines of expanding my own abilities, bettering my skills and in this course to throw some positive influence on others.
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Inside WikiLeaks, and inside Inside WikiLeaks!

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Raghav/Raghu

 I am a self proclaimed admirer of Julian Assange [J] and more so of WikiLeaks[WL]. Let this trait of mine not induce an idea that this post of mine is in favor of J or WL, in manners more than what they deserve.

Daniel Schmitt [D], actually the pseudonym of Daniel Domscheit-Berg is the author of the supposedly tell all book about WikiLeaks in his recent hurriedly written, crib-log Inside WikiLeaks.

I took up reading this one for, this is the first account of any details from within the secretive whistle-blowers platform WikiLeaks. But, as ridiculous a book could get, Inside WikiLeaks is majorly the yanking of D about J‘s personal habits, dressing sense, his perception of women, arrogance, egotism and everything that should have been confined to one’s personal observations about a fellow comrade in their struggle against secrecy, and for transparency.

Non conformity with the book

WL has always propagated that “Transparency is only for Governments and big corporations, and not necessarily for individuals”. I think D had got this idea distorted and goes on yanking about J‘s personality, and reporting nuances of J‘s behavior like kids would do in kindergarten.

J eats with his hands, and wipes off on his pants.
J taps the keyboard hard, creating disturbing noise.
J wore the same white shirt for both the days of the conference.
J eats faster and leaves me little to eat.
J gets more importance, and not the team, or myself.
J wears my jacket, and goes to sleep.
J pounces on my cat.
J is not bothered about selling the T-shirts, he’s busy philosophizing.
J is paranoid!
And lots of commentary on J‘s sexuality, to the extent that D brands J a sexist.

D, for all the credibility he has as being an important person who was working for WL, hailng from the Chaos Computer Club, and to come out with a kindergarten complaint book of this sort is silly firstly, and also puts the work he had contributed to WL in bad light. I can very well anticipate the quality of work he would have been contributing to WL with a mindset such as this.

The claims of him being sidelined, and that J was getting more attention is again a point not worth debating. WL is the ingenious and courageous brainchild of J, and if he gets credit better than his counterparts, there’s nothing wrong in it, unless you have peers who are trivially bothered about it. This is a normal issue in any team, and I can testify with first hand experience, like many of you would as well.

The most importantly ignored aspect about J, or WL in the book has been the security threats they have been undergoing. D pretends as if they were functioning in a safe and secure IT firm, just writing code. Even if some of the threat claims made by Assange have been exaggerated, instances where WL whistleblowers were killed, or Amazon, Paypal, VISA withdrew their services reveal to great extents the opposition WL was/is being conditioned to. And because J had to front end WL in times of most turbulence, even his safety and well being is at evident risk.
The circumstantial allegations of the sexual misconduct by two women, to get J grounded is more than a normal reaction to what could have been J‘s actions.

Conformity with the book

Although the book is filled with nonsensical commentary on J, the details about how WL functioned initially, or at least to the point of narration where D is still not jealous of J is quite a read.
A single decade old server hosting WL for the first whole stint, and portraying it differently to the external world, or about the impact their leaks had is enjoyable.

The criticism on the disorientation of WL from its core principles of neutrality, because J wanted to go head on with the US, if true is a point I too would be worried about. As far as D has written in this book, J‘s anarchist tendencies have driven him to a war with the US. But, I cannot deny the fact that, when you take World politics and are trying to make it transparent, the US of course would emerge from under everyone’s carpets. And to expose the world, is in reality exposing the US, for, the US is so intrinsically involved with the rest of the world!

Holding back of leaks, or if any bias has happened to them as D alleges, that again is a matter of immense concern. Although, apart from the commentary which influence the opinions of the audience, the material by itself will be authentic, or the concerned authorities would certainly pull WL into intended espionage.


About alleged mishandling of the donations to WL, which is the core motive which has driven D to write this book according to me, must sometime come under scrutiny, or better if J would publish the transactions to shut the critics.

The internal structure, and inherent secrecy of WL as an organization is understandable for, they’re in a tough game, playing big opponents and functioning with transparency is something a small team like theirs cannot afford to.

About Open Leaks [OL], I am certainly looking forward to it taking off. For, if OL can be better than WL, by not influencing the nature of leaks, or precedence, or of the recipients of the leaks, it will certainly be better. Transparency on their platform theoretically sounds very promising, and if accomplished it can certainly become the baton holder of whistle-blowers after WL.

D says,
“There’s enough injustice in the world to occupy more than one (whistleblowing) platform.”, and let us hope both together can make the world a better place.

All said and done, WikiLeaks made the world aware of the importance of whistleblowing to a greater extent than ever before in the History, encouraging a lot of dissidents to take up the cause. Julian Assange, irrespective of his gray shades personally, has been the spokesperson for transparency of Governments globally and will remain an icon ( maybe not of Pop icon nature, as claimed by Daniel), but more important than that – A role model to today’s technologists to take up issues of social concern, without secluding themselves from the realities around…

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Self deception in the process of gross deception…

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Raghav/Raghu
It’s quite amazing as to how we can make ourselves believe, almost in a manner of self-deception, by repeatedly emphasising on something fictitious to be factual, either about our own persona or of our perceptions.

Being absolutely honest about oneself is impractical, and more so not pragmatic. There is a trade-off between the quality of the character we possess and would aspire to possess as depicted to the external world. And many a times, these aspirations transcend to become traits, because even we start to believe that these fictions are facts, just like we would have wanted the rest of the world to perceive.

There are principles, and then there are beliefs. While principles are the schools of thoughts endorsed by the mind and there is a tinge of stubbornness attached to it. Beliefs are more on the aspirational lines.

The realities as portrayed by us to the ones other than us, slowly creep into our being and after a certain threshold level of belief, these ‘beliefs’ become one with our set of principles, mostly attributable to one’s depleting ability to discern between the facts and fiction. We convince ourselves while in the process of convincing others, that some of fictitious beliefs are facts as well.

Just like the creator getting lost in his/her own creations, our mind creates a panorama of beliefs to either influence others, or sometimes just to move on with the proceedings.
After having succeeded in making others believe in these created projections of ours, ironically even we end up believing in these projections.
Self deception in the process of gross deception is what all of this seems like.
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Asymmetric geniuses!

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Raghav/Raghu
Thanks to one of my fellow rationales for discussing this observation with me,  which I have only tried to substantiate in this post.

It indeed is a very good observation that many of the ‘geniuses’ are in fact asymmetric. Asymmetric as in, either they aren’t the best at their ‘social etiquette’, or  the best of the home-makers!
But, does that mean they are unworthy of their ingenuity?

What most of us, who want to be the “Jack of all, Master of none” accomplish in the end is tagging ourselves onto the humongous and over-crowded cloud of mediocrity.

In order to focus and excel in all domains, the resources allocated to us when we are the conscious part of the Universe are in deficit. As a result, we can channelize our efforts to few domains, and can succeed in fewer.

So, becoming the “Master of all” isn’t feasible, in reality.

When such is the case, geniuses from any field have tried to make a trade off between their work and social/personal lives. The likes of Newton, Tolstoy, Marx, Shakespeare, Einstein, Feynman and many other minds who have put us at awe with their groundbreaking work have had ‘problems’ in their social or personal lives, gauging them with the rest of the mediocrity. Criticism and attacks on these minds for not being upto the society’s mark in their etiquette has testimonials throughout the course of civilisation, which is absurd.

Weird, really??

Recently, Julian Assange the founder and Chief Editor of WikiLeaks, a genius and maverick of sorts, has had to face a lot of mud-slinging. This coming from, as expected, the rest of the mediocrity.
My point has always been, why bother about the individual’s personal/social life unless it affects you directly! Whether he/she likes cats or not, if they wear the same shirt for more than a day, or if they keep changing their girl friends?
It should be of no concern for, the work from them is what influences us. Unless they try to influence their supposed wierdness onto us, we should be least bothered, or distracted about their lives.

In the case of WikiLeaks, this has been an extensive smear campaign against Julian Assange , who has been the Spokesperson and the front-end to the entire movement of WikiLekas. By distracting the audience from the essentials, the media certainly has done its job of trying to reduce the credibility of WikiLeaks amongst the gullibles,  of course. But, where has all the grey matter of people vanished? Most people actually seem to be concerned more about Assange’s wierd hairdo than the ideals he has brought to life with his work.

Asymmetric nature of minds at work should be recognised as a necessity for them to concentrate their efforts on the work they do, rather than expecting them to be the clichéd, stereotype social animals.
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