Random collection of my thoughts

Dubai - a heritage city

Rulers of Dubai have always recognised the value and importance of their cultural background and heritage.

Heritage village in Bur Dubai

 

My Father

My Parents

I think, for most of us who are fortunate to have enjoyed the childhood with their Father, this would be a great day.  Yes, Father's day that reportedly started to be observed a century ago.

It is with pride and respect that I write these memoirs of my Father on this great day. I do not know if the readers of this blog subscribe to my view, but I am quite certain that at least in my own case, I am fortunate to have a beloved, loving, caring and inspiring Father.

My Father, since my childhood, has been my inspiration and idol of respect and reverence so far as I am concerned. But for him, I would not have got the opportunity to be what I am now and with these remarks, I dedicate this page to my beloved Father.

He is living far away from me, and despite the distance that separates us I must admit that he hovers around me all the time I feel I am alone! His love and affection for me as his eldest son was unique and I am one of those unfortunate ones with a mind to give him all comforts and affection needed at his advanced age, but without being able to execute the desires of the mind due to circumstances.  The only consolation is that my Mother is with him, taking care of him as she has always been.

Grown up in a difficult situation with very little opportunity to harvest the seeds of his hard work and endeavor, to grow to a stature that he really deserves in life, he could only ensure that his children could do so.  Still, he is content with what he has and able to cop up with what has been pragmatic.

I am proud of my Father as I always have been, and whenever I feel let down or get into difficult situations, just a thought of him will enlighten me to pursue a way out of it.  That has been the kind of wisdom that he inculcated in me, whether consciously or otherwise.  I love my Father and wish him a long life, though, I am aware, it all depends on what destiny has got for him as in the case of all of us.  He is an ardent believer in God, but not a religious fanatic.  He is an advocate of pragmatism, but not an opportunist.  He is a self-made genius, but not very popular.  He is a symbol of virtues, but not a hypocrite.

While my mind is filled with happiness to see him again very shortly during my proposed visit to India on vacation this summer, I wish to share some information about his life and times here. Dad, thanks for all that you have given me. http://www.sreekrishnan.com/My%20Family/About_Father.htm

Who is the winner?

I had an opportunity to attend a 10-day session of Vipassana, at Chennai where, after several years of involving in the everyday busy life, I got sufficient time in 'seclusion' to introspect and learn several things that we indeed come across in our routine life, but seldom get time (rather, don't bother) to think about!

Before coming to these, let me briefly explain what Vipassana is all about.  It is a technique that has its roots in the teachings of Gautama, the Buddha who is well-known across several countries in the world in general and Asia, in particular.  Needless to mention that Buddhism considered as a religion, is still being followed in countries like Japan, China, Thailand, Kampuchea, Myanmar, Srilanka among others.  Though Gautama, the Buddha got elevated to the stage of enlightenment in India, certain events following the life and times of Buddha led to the virtual extinction of this great way of life.  Buddha concluded that the miseries and sorrows of life needed to be addressed scientifically and sought to analyse the root-cause of these which, he discovered, was the human nature of pursuing pleasure and hating displeasure.  He, therefore, devised ways and means of putting an end to the uncontrolled pursuit of the mind.  These techniques eventually developed and were proved to be quite impressively beneficial to the masses and evolution resulted in these techniques falling under different schools of thought, one such stream being Vipassana.

The difficult, at the same time effective, aspect of learning the technique is 'seclusion' from everyday activities of life for clear ten days during which the practitioner will need to be away from home, confined to the campus often away from the city in a calm and peaceful location.  Though several practitioners assemble here, they are not supposed to discuss or even engage into conversation with each other during these ten days.  The only exception to this rule is every day QA session with the teacher at the allotted time.  One has to rise early at 4 am and intermittently meditate till the day comes to an end, consuming essential food and drinks served at the campus at systematic intervals.  Quite naturally, it is difficult for anyone engaged in worldly affairs to adapt to the new environment that easily, but with every passing day, one would gradually learn to adapt, learn and benefit out of this 'seclusion' and the training of mind.

It was during that period, during one of the interactive sessions that an event during the lifetime of Gautama, the Buddha was narrated that really touched me.  Having heard about the qualities of Buddha, a villager came to convince himself as to how far could Buddha tolerate abuses.  He kept abusing Buddha in as much provocative manner as he could expecting a wild reaction from Buddha, but at the end he was disappointed.  He then, asked Buddha as to how could he withstand the kind of abuses that were poured on him without even expressing any kind of emotion!  Buddha's answer came with a smile - "You are a person having liberty to do anything and I have no control over your actions; but I can exercise control over my own reaction."  Needless to mention, the person who abused Buddha became his disciple.

The lesson here is, one who has control over one's actions and reactions is always the winner!

A demo of iPhone app created by Dr. Pannag Sanketi

CamKewl Demo - best iphone camera app review

Our concept of aesthetics

I have always thought of something apparently weird when it comes to our concept of aesthetics.  Everything considered beautiful and the scientific analysis and conceptualization of such beauty form part of the science of aesthetics.  But then, what is the basis of considering something beautiful?  This was the question that I used to ask myself. Beauty, as I understand, is something that gives pleasure to perceivable senses due to properties of the objects - whether it be the color or combination of colors, shape, size, appeal, fragrance, charm or whatever.  And again, there is an antonym that we refer to as 'ugly'.  Just the other side of the concept of beauty.

The fact remains that the concepts of beauty and ugliness have always been subjective and for this reason alone, they vary from person to person.  What I consider beautiful may not be agreeable to another person and what a group of persons consider ugly may be beautiful for another group!  Are you raising eyebrows?  Yes, it is true. It could even be a ground for alleging racialism if the features of an African aboriginal are looked upon with aversion and described as ugly by someone far away from the continent.  But within the African aboriginal community, the very same person considered ugly could be the most beautiful person!  Then, what is the basis of aesthetics as a science? If something that has no basis is considered 'illusory', can we describe aesthetics as well, an illusion?

Human mind has never been able to get rid of the perpetual evaluation of every activity in and around as positive or negative. Interesting, is it not? heard the same in computing as well.  The mind likes certain things and dislikes certain others. That which the mind likes is classified positive and others, negative. For example, when your finger gets burnt by accident, your mind dislikes the pain and records this as negative emotion.  If someone praises you for something, your mind likes it and labels it as positive.  Every such positive or negative record of the mind is archived regularly and when the same circumstances or emotions arise again, the mind scans its archive again and sends signals to the brain either to accept or reject depending on the results of the scan.

The mind is perpetually involved in the process of scanning its archives and as it sends signals to the brain craving for positive items in its archive, the person wishes to go for it again to satisfy the mind.  This is what gets transformed into a habit.  To be more illustrative, let us take the case of a smoker.  When he smoked for the first time, it could have given a kind of pleasure to him for whatever reasons and therefore, is recorded by his mind as 'positive' in its archive.  Again, while scanning its archive, the mind sends craving signals to the brain asking another smoke and the individual person obliges.  The more this gets repeated, the stronger becomes his craving for a smoke.  This is how, the habit gets deep-rooted in his personality and he finds it difficult to abandon smoking.  This applies to all emotions.  

The only way to get out of this vicious circle is by training the mind to avoid judgments of our activities. If something gives a pleasure, the judgment usually recorded by the mind is 'positive' in its archive. This activity of the mind is embedded in us since our childhood and therefore, takes place unconsciously.  It is here that we have to consciously intervene and prevent the mind from recording its judgment.  So also, in case of negatives such as pain, sorrow, sour, etc.  This is of course, a very difficult task and if one is successful taming one's mind, one's mind will be balanced.  A person with balanced mind is not swayed away by circumstances.  This is called tranquility of mind.

And if we approach the subject here with a balanced mind, it will be clear to us that beauty and ugliness are nothing but illusions of the mind.  Let our wisdom push our mind to this tranquil levels thereby giving us an opportunity to analyse everything around us with a clear vision free from illusions!