Its time for change

Manmohan Singh probably realizes this. The economic reforms of the 90's, that he gets so much credit for, unleashed the aspirations of a sleeping elephant that India was. Now, this elephant has woken up in musth and wants more, right now!

For the past many decades, we have been very forgiving.

We have tolerated bad roads, lack of basic infrastructure, lack of city planning, the red tape, the fact that millions go hungry despite rotting food grains in Govt go-downs etc. for a very long time. Indeed, we are probably the only third world country that called itself great. 'Mera Bharat Mahan'.

But the 90's reforms that created a lot of wealth for many Indians and widened the middle class belt has also created an insatiable appetite for more growth that needs a different kind of leadership.

Not one where millions of tonnes of food grains are burnt while millions die of hunger.
Not one where the size of corruption is Rs. 17,60,00,00,00,000.
Not one that shames India by bidding for a Games and doing a poor show of hosting it.
Not one where the number of large scale scams are so much that there is no room for covering all even in the era of 24/7 news channels.

Behind Anna's anti corruption movement, are people not below the poverty line but people who have 'roti, kapda, makaan' but want better 'roti kapda and makaan'.

Middle class Indians have seen how developed countries look. How the Govt works for the people and not for itself. That life can be a lot better. That we can get rid of our poverty. We even almost believed Obama when he came here and told us how great we are.

But our crop of 'leaders' have always let us down. And the recent spate of corruption scandals has proved to be the tipping point for a movement that has now swept across the country.

Fanning the flames of this movement are 24/7 news channels and frivolous internet apps like Twitter and Facebook where sentiment flows in real time and snowballs rapidly.

When the bomb exploded at Norway, its PM said, "The answer to violence is more democracy". To our PM, the answer to a non violent protest was jail.
That perhaps characterizes best where we are and where we want to be.

It will be interesting to see how the movement takes shape with Team Anna entering its 7th day of fast. Will the movement be able to sustain popular support during the next work week? Will Parliament be able to pass the bill risking the prospect of sending a lot of its members to jail?

Polyculture

In California, someone asked me whether I liked people watching. We were at a mall somewhere in Sunnyvale, CA and I was out shopping with an American colleague and his wife.

I don't normally observe people and I looked out to see whether I liked what I saw. And there it was - too many people of different races, wearing different things, buying different things, differently. There was too much diversity.

Of course every person is unique and race is not an identity. But your race still says a lot about you - the color of your skin, your diet, your religious propensity, your family values and so on.

There is beauty in the uni-cultural settings of Kerala, conservative Japan, communist China, even cosmopolitan Mumbai. But too much of diversity is not my taste.

Better off this way

There is always this topic most people are ambivalent on whether innovation is worth it. Whether we suck by not being like the Navii's in Pandora. My take is that there would not have been any other way. Our brains are such that even if we were to set the clock back to a few ten thousand years, we would still have become the way we are. Humans would have always invented the wheel, traveled across the seas and created the impossible. We are predisposed to innovate. The fact that civilizations like Mayan to Mohenjodaro took off in totally disconnected areas reaffirm this.

Ofcourse, there are still tribes that are afraid of the dark. But you have to read 'Guns, Germs and Steel' to know why they didn't evolve.

2 Worlds

These days, I find myself getting pulled by two different worlds more often than not.

In one world, I want rich, diverse, challenging experiences. i.e. work hard, party hard, run hard, travel hard etc.. i.e. More life in a breath.

In another I want a more sedate life where I picture myself enjoying fine living - reading books, listening music, tasting fine wine, eating rich food, playing relaxing sport, enjoying siestas, spending time with the family and so on.

As always the middle ground is the right world. Too much of either extreme can be toxic and lead to unsatisfactory life.

Perhaps, my long stay at home in Kerala is whats pulling me to the latter. Or maybe the lack of excitement from work is pushing me away from the former. Or it might be my inherent laziness.

Either ways, I want to remind myself of this quote

Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile.

I tweet, therefore I am

The effect of randomness in our lives is very understated. The brain is essentially a neural network of neurons. You have millions of neurons that are connected through synapses. Each connection between neurons has a 'weight'. All of our thoughts, decisions, memories etc. (viz essentially who we are) is affected by how this neural network is represented. Because of the millions of random connections between neurons, every person is unique in the way he/she thinks and interprets the world. Even congenital twins will never have the same neural network even though they have the same DNA.

Coming to the external world, it is not very different. Our lives are very much determined by when/where we were born, parents, neighborhood, friends, relatives etc. All these are the 'neurons' of the external world and each has its own 'weight'. Our senses connect the neural network of the brain to that of the external world.

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert calls it the 'exobrain'.

Given this backdrop, it is not hard to see why things like Twitter and Facebook are important. To a lot of people it is a tool to showcase vanity. But what the new toys have given is a new dimension to the 'exobrain'.

There are a a gazillion use cases of Twitter in our practical lives - like following techies so that you can keep up with the latest tech trends, what to read/eat/watch. It motivates you to run longer (for bragging rights) and to take better photos (lest your friends comment about bad photos on FB) and recently, even sparked revolution in Egypt, Libya etc. (despite what Malcolm Gladwell says here). The least you can do then is to help serendipity find you.

But the bigger picture of a more connected world is far more fascinating. It represents 'Whats happening' with everyone in the world and 'What's on everybody's mind'. Now, if that is not the greatest thing to happen to human civilization since Gutenberg's press, what is?

The pursuit of happiness

When people ask me how life is in the US, I am always in a state of conflicting opinions. Quite frankly, there is no difference in my state of well being whether I am in a developed, clean, picturesque city of the US with a pleasant weather OR if I am in a crowded, dirty, slow and hot city in India.

But when I think about the experience here, I think immediately about the weather, the clean atmosphere, the infrastructure and easy life which convinces me that this life is better.

Therefore, I was pleased to see this TED video which illustrates that the brain really refers to particular memories it has instead of the whole experience and is therefore not a good judge of whether an experience was good or not.

It turns out that once the basic needs of a person are taken care of, the key determinant to happiness is whether we get to interact with people we like.

Doesn't this turn our whole set of aspirations upside down? A job promotion, bigger house, a fancy car, foreign trips.

Instead, we must spend more time on Facebook :)

The answer to the question

After a certain point in life, it becomes necessary to determine how you want to live your life or the purpose for your time on earth.

Society has come up with a decent solution to occupy ourselves viz. to get married, have kids, support family. The 'responsibility' that it brings lends itself to a purpose for a major portion of life until you retire. And then you begin to ask the old nagging question. Have I really lived my life?

So, we amuse ourselves with friends and relatives, the television and the latest time sink: facebook.

If you believe in evolution, then it is clear that we really do not have any moral purpose in life. The brain is really a bag of chemicals which can be influenced to change one's behavior and the concept of 'free will' itself is being questioned because it turns out that most of the time, we are not rational. We only rationalize the decision we have already made.

On one hand, I really hope there is a larger, spiritual meaning to our existence. Not having any would mean that whatever we do is pointless. Really. It wouldn't make any difference if you are a man of values or not.

But on the other hand, I do not like someone watching over my shoulder. My choices should not be based on the fear of a repercussion by 'God'.

Is that why we do not know the answer to the God question?

For the sake of argument, lets assume that there is no God. What would our ideals be then?

I think the answer is evolution. Or, supporting evolution. To be better, stronger and faster as a species.

To question our situation or the way we do things now and find better ways to do it. To improve the standard of living.

If a person has done that then I think he has lived his life.