Ideas We Believe

I found myself in a rare situation this April. Had things stuck to their schedule, I would have completed my graduation curriculum and would have been ticking off any college goer's dream check-list, which did include a few travel and adventure. But, the situation as of 2020 has a different story to tell. With no end to this quarantine insight, the check-list became an impossibility.  So I took the Coursera COVID offer for colleges and started my odyssey to various areas of studies, my mechanical engineering syllabi had prevented me from. So without much ado, here are the "Gems" on the courses platform, each one must give a shot at.  Model Thinking This course gives an unusual approach to what we have accepted as complex socio-political phenomena. With simple logical and mathematical principle, Prof. Scott E. Page recreates results which have puzzled global leaders. He argues that this approach to reality is a must for all in this 21st century, and I could not agree mo

Yes, I am proudly a Hindu and also a Nationalist. But its a risk today, the risk being targeted as an Islamophobic and an intolerant. And to a large extent, the fear is genuine, just misdirected. Well, I may have sounded judgemental in the past few lines, so, I would love to present my case. Hinduism is, arguably, one of the most complicated religions, because of the lack of a single discourse, multiple narratives and the argumentative nature of the texts. This, however, has made things simple for the people of the subcontinent, allowing for customisations to rituals and traditions. An excellent example of this is the cultural influence on the religious practises, or even better the inclusion of Jains and Buddhists to the mass umbrella of Hindu dwellers. However, the story has an ugly face over the last decades, namely the partition of India. This has exposed so many fault lines over the years and needless to mention the crooked politics that exploits these frontiers. The appease

“Power to People” At the heart of democracy lies this promise, a promise to give people the power to decide the course of their nation. In this new millennium, we believe it is the best possible thing to do. However, the major reasons why democracy is considered the best today is that it happens to be the choice of most developed nations. We have lived long enough in democracy that we would readily part with our powers. And it seems a dangerous step to take. But, if we look closer into the functioning of these developed countries, its the functioning of the institutions that actually contributes to its development. The interplay of judiciary, bureaucracy and elected government, in most cases decides the life standard. The irony here is that more independent these institutions happen to be, the better they perform. Which indirectly implies, institutions of bureaucracy and judiciary, need to independent from the control of legislature (the ones people happily elected). Coming to

“Treat”. Every time  I feel happy enough about my life to share it with one of friend , this pertinent nagging term pops up. And then  with utter shamelessness, I delve into a debate on how insignificant the achievement is . And this has happened so many times that I believe “treat” is the real “congrats”. But often I wonder, why is a treat so important. To start with psychologically, celebration is a vital part of success, it   imprints positivity of the achievement , giving us a sense of permanence of good events over terrible times. Most of the hard work behind success is not inspiring enough, its  only the joy after success which helps us pull through . Thus associating success with positive feeling builds the necessary repertoire. Not all of the reasons for a treat are personal. From social angle, treat is a celebration of collective learning. Though our struggles get personal, there is no point of success if you are the only one celebrating it.  Not all times, w

Let's begin from the end. The concept of  ‘Chi’ . This as our dear Po realises lies in knowing the true identity of a person. The idea of chi is not finding a definition that fits you, rather recognising that true nature is a culmination of various personalities. Then comes the powerful concept of  inner-peace  or being at ease with oneself. As Po learns, inner peace is getting rid of the mental block, be it in the form of experience, disabilities or even fear. And once you are a master of your self, only then you can take up the most challenging task and do that with ease. Finally, the  dragon warrior . What makes one the dragon warrior? Is there a secret recipe? The answer is your belief  (funny is not it ? now do you believe in dragons ). Once you know what you are and you are in peace with yourself, the only step required is the complete believe that you can do it. You see it was never the superhuman abilities, Kung-fu is the art of mastering any skill, it's the  tr

Welcome to an unknown psychiatric syndrome, which  cripples a lot of teenagers as soon as they move away from home.  If you still doubt my claims, I shall recommend you to peek into any ordinary college bitching about professors, courses or tests. The level of obscenity in all these are far beyond the actual intentions of the teenagers or so to say young adults (this sounds like an oxymoron). Often, my friends would say, their address to mother or sister is only  to trigger a sense of disgust in the listener because they are pretty immune to the other (non-obscene) ones.  Well, it could be the case, but we must look into this psychological behavior of this specific age group with some more caution. One of the first causes of these could be a severe restriction prevalent in the society when someone intends to talk about sex. This leads to two bad outcomes namely the first that the  teenagers get to know about stuff from highly unauthenticated and filthy atmosphere , which in turn ma

Corruption as in itself carries a lot of philosophical matter, but the one we see in everyday life is quite simple to explain. Or is it ? I had a discussion with an elderly couple who were on their way to their children in Bangalore. As the discussion turned to they voiced their concern on corruption becoming a hindrance to nations growth and why we need to uproot it. And his idea was.... "Lets stop the inheritance of property across generations. " Seemed a wonderful idea at first. It solves a lot of issues on the go. It would work as an  heavy blow to the rich lads who aim to survive on their dads bank account . Bringing in accountability into the system. It would also kill the attempts to pool all money for a better life of the children. It would simply  kill the desire to pool money  (if it is not for you …) Then when things were such rosy, I thought then why not. The answer was subtle and linked much to the organisation of our society. If you look deep,  its