Boring Coincidences

The last day of the Year 2010.

I had been busy with my thesis writing, conferences, and projects, in the last couple of months. So, could not give priority to writing or blogging, for the last 3 months. So, restarting to bore!

This month (December, 2010) I surprisingly noticed a couple of boring coincidences. I was at a conference in NewDelhi, and it was during the Coffee break, that 6 (known) people saw me one after the other, and asked the question "Where are you staying", and the interesting thing was that the first person who asked was still standing next to me, followed by the next, and the next, and the next .... I was just wondering what would be in the mind of atleast the first three people, who posed me that question.

Though I was bored to repeat the same answer, I tried my best to be creative, like saying - I am staying in Accord's, I am staying in C R Park, I am staying in a area, predominantly occupied by Bengalis, and so on... to keep myself overcome the tiredness of answering

Another interestingly boring (What a Contradiction!) coincidence happened when I was travelling in a local bus (BMTC) in Bangalore. I was standing, and I noticed a girl next to me, who was carrying a book that was appearing to be a novel. Curious enough, I wanted to know the title, and it read "Mister God, This is Anna", and as I was struggling to read the last word "Anna", suddenly a boy from behind was calling me "Anna" - meaning brother in Kannada!, showing me the vacant seat next to me. I noticed his call, when he called me the second time, with a loud "Anna"!!.

Coincidences are a subject of great debate. But let me stop here, as I had bored enough!

Are Great Achievers born?

Well, I am not sure of the answer.

However, when we look around the most famed people in the modern history of the world, we find that most of them had nursed their talents from their childhood days and followed it up with great passion and commitment. Here are a few legends, who have created history in their own right

• Thomas Alva Edison (Came up with his first invention at the age of 16)
• Bill Gates (Started programming at 13, - at a time, when no one did)
• Warren Buffet (Bought his first shares at the age of 11)
• Ilaiyaraaja (Started early, and by 14 years, was a performer in Musical Troupe)
• A R Rahman (Started to play instruments before the age of 11)
• Michael Jackson (Debuted with his brother, at the age of 6 )
• Viswanathan Anand (Started playing Chess at the age of 6)
• Sachin Tendulkar (Started playing cricket as a Toddler)

So, do you need to start things very early, and continue for very long (or if possible through out your life) to become a legend or a great achiever? The answer appears to be affirmative, but not everyone who started early was a great achiever later, as another list of people, who had a promising start, but could not live up to the expectations or failed miserably could easily be put up.

So, what separated the great achievers from people who also started early, but could not attain the fame that great achievers attained? The answer is Passion, Focus, and Commitment. These legends were passionate about one particular aspect, and they worked on it with sincere commitment and focus, and as time passed, they automatically excelled, in what they did, and that lead to the list of great achievers.

Most importantly, these great legends, though would have faced great disturbances, or influences or diversions, than others, in their lifetime, it was their passion and commitment, that should have helped them to cross or ignore the diversions easily.

I also believe that most of the great achievers, including the above legends were never behind money, and their prime intention was on achieving some thing else, and money followed them as an end-result of their achievements.

So, to conclude, if something is started from a very early age, and religiously practiced with passion and commitment for years, then great success is bound to happen.

Update: 2015:  Recently I was reading the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, (It was published in 2008), and the essence of it is that to be successful, you should start early (in terms of age and time), put in continuous and consistent efforts (10,000+ hours) and be prepared to seize the opportunity (hopefully if it comes to you at the right time). The point here is that Gladwell drives home the point with case-studies and data, emphasizing the same points, and coincidentally the examples mentioned above in this post concur with it.  

Research is Costly!

If you had been guessing that I am going to talk about some Sci-fi or life-involving scientific research here, then you are going to be disappointed.

This week, I had the privilege of attending two events - one was an open discussion forum (that had two renowned guests - one was Dr S P Mudur, and the other was Dr N Vijayaditya), and a project review committee meeting for a project, that was into developing a product, out of research efforts.

In the open discussion forum, after a few questions (including one by myself, on IT infrastructure), the discussions steered towards research in general (with IT or other innovations at the back of the mind). The summary of the discussion was that even a very non-critical research involves risk - risk of time, manpower, & money. Out of several attempts made in research, only a few of them may succeed over time, and that too the success is not guaranteed. This is in a country like India with more than a billion population, translates to spending very less on research, and expecting results in a short time, which imposes constraints on the researchers, to focus on short-term goals rather than long-term goals.

In the later project meeting, there were comparisons drawn between the product developed on home-grown research efforts, and products developed by well-known MNC's. Though the fact that the cost involved in terms of money, time, and manpower, are in no way comparable with those of the MNC products, the expectations were always there. Also, the costs associated to take the product beyond the labs, to a wide-scale user base was even more prohibitively costly affair!, which is the main reason that most of the research prototypes do not see the end of the light, and just lay in the labs.

What's more is that, even cash-rich companies or developed western nations do not expect all their research efforts to produce great outcomes, despite significant costs being associated with them, and here, there is a pressure on many fronts to get a great outcome in a short-time, and with the least of the infrastructure. Of course, this too could be achieved, by an extra-ordinary person in a select field, but could not be replicated every time and every where!

To summarize, research is a form of learning, and one should be open for failures and involves huge cost - not only in terms of money, but also in the form of time, and other risks such as a evolution of a superior technology in the future, turning the scales upside down, for an existing research effort.

God - Representations & Manifestations

This world has an inherent knack of giving numerous representations to a single object!. So, it may not be surprising when we see or create many representations for a single concept or entity that we deal upon. The main point behind these numerous representations is that everyone would like to visualize a particular object or concept or entity in their own way, based on their perceptions, thereby leading to multiple representations. When these multiple representations or visualizations are correlated they could give a much deeper and probably better understanding of a subject.

By nature, all objects themselves can have different forms or manifestations, based on a lot of factors. The underlying base for these factors is time; As time changes the forms or manifestations also differ!. To illustrate this, look at the Sun; It appears or lends itself to different forms (to other planets)- in the morning, during the day, and during the evening. Ofcourse, there are scientific explanations behind it; but speaking abstractly, as time passes, these forms or representations also change!. Not only the way in which we see the sun changes from time to time, but the sun by itself also changes from time to time - as a star it has its own life cycle - for instance the sun is becoming more luminous - at the rate of 10% every billion years.

As there can be innumerable representations of the same object or entity, and also each objects can have numerous forms or manifestations over the time - one could realize that God too can be visualized or represented in many forms and in many ways!, and if God could be factorized to a base - i.e., energy, then God too could manifest in multiple ways based on time!

Renunciation

A couple of months ago, I had an opportunity to meet a young Swamiji. He was wearing saffron robes, and gave a very short lecture to us, about a Kriya - an exercise that would benefit all of us. During the lecture, he also mentioned about his journey of life, and how he went on to embrace spirituality.

Actually the Swamiji was a former student at the place, where I am working now. He went out of this place in 1999, after completing an IT course (I joined here two years later - in 2001, as an employee) and after which he was working for some IT companies in Bangalore and Hyderabad, and then finally chose the spiritual path!. So, we were naturally curious to know the turn of events in his life that lead him to his current state.

One thing that was apparent from his talk was that he had been searching for 'something' that was not materialistic and probably would have ended up in those saffron robes. It also appeared that he had come out from most of the common worldly desires like money. However, he did not advise us to take the path of spirituality, for he knows that we are immersed and enjoy ourselves in those trapping of desires!. And I don't believe that only food, money and sex are the powerful desire trappings - it's even name and fame that are as powerful as the former, or perhaps even more.

Thinking about desires further, it appears to be extremely difficult for one to completely come out of all the desires - including the desire to live, which is why I think the path to spiritual elevation is supposed to be taken at an older age. According to me, one has attained the highest position - in spirituality - if he has come out of all the desires. But then, finding such a person is going to be extremely difficult for anybody, and a person inclined and committed to find such a person, would rather himself come out of all the desire trappings.

Coming out of all desires is what is called as renunciation. It is being in love and peace with everyone, but absolutely without any attachments or expectations. And I believe that even if a person has some desire it may easily lead to a trap of multiple desires, coming out of which would test even the noblest of the souls.

Supermarkets and Plastic Money - Lethal combination!

For any activity planning is important. In my childhood days, I have seen many women in my neighborhood preparing the list of household items to be purchased for the month, and the budget that will be required for getting those items (with more than 95% accuracy). The items in the list, would be typically of absolute need, and very rarely (On special occasions, where extra bonus income has come) exceptional items would find their way to the list. And also those were the days, only small grocery shops were available, and finding a supermarket was a rarity.

However these days, as both men and women are working, and as everybody is busy with something, it has become extremely painful to do such meticulous planning, and most of them enter the modern malls or supermarkets typically to get the absolute essentials, but endup buying a lot more than that is required.

The main reason for this is the lack of planning - in not only the list of items to be purchased, but also the amount of money to be carried for buying those items. The availability of Cards - Credit or Debit has made the later possible. So, one could forfeit all the planning processes, and would walk into a modern mall and pick up the things that tempts him/her.

Added to this the free credit period, that one would get to repay the amount - in case of credit card, and also the other temptations such as bonus points, discount coupons, and so on ... would easily make a person, jump out of the line. As if this is not sufficient, the malls attract you with lot of advertisements - claiming to be give goods in a "never-before offer!" at mouth-watering prices.

Suppose, if you had been doing shopping with all the above temptations, and if you had time by your side in the mall - then it's going to be even more lethal for your money - because one gets easily spoilt for choices and also want to get the best - meaning highest priced one, unless otherwise, you have a very definite taste or pick for a particular product.

A psychological factor can also be added to the above recipe - "the joy of discovery". Typically as the items are scattered across the store, you end up searching and browsing for your required items, and once you get to your favorite item, you feel a sense of discovery, that will urge you to discover more - which leads you to discovering more and more items, that you would have never bought in the first place. However, this factor plays out only if you have sufficient time for spending in the mall/store.

So, the only solution, is to plan well in advance, - of what you want to buy, and a rough estimate of the amount that would be needed, before you step in into the stores.

Some Short Philosophies in Tamil

It's really been a long time, that I wrote something in Tamil. So, here I am going do that. But what to write ? - For me, it's simple - philosophies as usual ( தத்துவம் in Tamil). English translations are also provided.

உயிர்- உடலையும் உள்ளத்தையும் இணைக்கிறது; இல்லாவிடில் உடலும் உள்ளமும் வேறு வேறு!

English Translation: It's the life force that binds both our body and mind (soul). If there is no life force, then body and mind are separate entities!.

(உண்மையான) சுவாமி - ஆசை அறவே அற்றவர்; மற்றவர் - ஆசாமி!

English Translation: A REAL saintly or godly person is one who renounces ALL the desires, while others are all ordinary persons.

Being Judgmental!

Sadness, Frustration, Anger, Depression, and other such sufferings are predominantly (most of the time) caused by the Judgmental attitude or behavior. The above pains could be because of either the sufferer's attitude or because of the attitude of the people related to the sufferer. As an adult we always make judgments; often about others, sometimes about the situation, and occasionally/rarely about us.

It is this judgmental attitude that make us suffer the emotional pain, and therefore make us unhappy. The answer to the question, that why young children are generally happy lies in the lesser exercise of this attitude. (Well, this point could be very much argued, but I am speaking from a general view point).

So, do I mean to say that one should give away the judgmental attitude to be happy - Not necessarily. However, if you are wondering for a solution, then follow this:

When you are making judgments about others, try to put yourself in their place; and when you are making a judgment about yourself, try to put someone else in your place.

And if you are unable to do the above, try to avoid the process of judgment, as you may be dealing with a situation, which might be of no concern to you.

The above solution might look simple and obvious. But for an ordinary soul, like me, it is really difficult, and you need lots of practice, patience and persistence to develop the above skill - a skill that will make you a better soul - a better human being, and if you are interested in spirituality it will lead towards the path of self-realization.

The year 2009 - for me

As it had been my convention, let me start this year's blogging by writing about some notable events for me in 2009.

• A long-awaited project in the domain of Web Intelligence materialized in December. More about it later.
• Did spend a good amount of time on research, the result being my research papers accepted for publication in reputed and popular conferences. (Ofcourse faced rejection too, from a most conference)
• Technically feeling and creating the AJAX magic, in web development and mainly involved in improving the Usability of systems.
• Significant progress made towards my PhD; Also decided on the final title of my work;
• A project that I worked passionately for the last few years, got extended for another 3 years, but with riders and change of direction (towards product mode targeting different kind of users).
• Had to put my head into ISO processes, as one of the internal auditors and as a process owner for some time.
• Involved with the process of coordinating a mega module (topic wise), covering Databases and Web in 6 weeks and allocating work to 20+ members! who wanted to participate in the training activity.
• Setting up of VASP (a software for Molecular Simulations) in clusters, for the second time.
• Moved to an apartment with better amenities; started understanding the apartment culture, and was getting the feel and importance of amenities.
• The birth of my second angel/queen
• Took the 'active' decision of giving up the official transport and using the Public transport for commuting to office
• Observing Financial markets from a distance, and wondering whether I could ever understand and explain its behavior.
• Travelled to Tirupathi, Kalahasti, Erode, Kodaikanal, Chennai, Mahabhilipuram, Vellore (Golden Temple), Mangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Pondicherry.
• Overall, the year was satisfying.