Models of God - Part 2

This is in continuation of my earlier blog post on Models of God, where I had mentioned that we use models to know the unknown.  In that post, I had mentioned that Modeling is a very common thing  and in the modern world, Scientists are the most common users of models. However models have been used for long by people of all races and societies for knowing, for positive purposes, and for negative purposes.

In this post, I would like to dwell about the positive use of Models - especially in the puranas - so as to show how ancient the art is. There are many other instances, but these two stand out significantly.

In Ramayan, Ram, after defeating Ravan, and sending his wife (Sita) to forest, decided to do a ritual (yagna) for the betterment of his citizens and the world and that ritual requires his wife to participate. Left with no option, a model of Sita is created and he does the ritual successfully.

In Mahabharata, Eklavya uses a model of Dronacharya, (though some texts says that he watches the lessons of Dronacharya to Arjun at a distance) and masters the skill of archery.

Now to conclude - that what we refer as God for worship - is a model of the divine energy and is an outstanding example of the positive use of models.

Short Verse on Price Value

எனக்கு தோன்றிய கவிதை

எது இன்று மலிவாக கிடைக்கிறதோ 

அதுவும் ஒரு நாள் அதீத விலையில் கிடைக்கும் 

எது இன்று அதீத விலையில் கிடைக்கிறதோ 
அதுவும் ஒரு நாள் மலிவாக கிடைக்கும் 

எனக்குள் எழுந்த கேள்வி
அப்படின்னா தங்கம் எப்பொதுழுது மலிவாக கிடைக்கும்  ?

எனக்கு தோன்றிய பதில்

கிடைக்கலாம்.  ஏதாவது ஒரு விண்கல் (எரிகற்கள்) மூலமாக அல்லது யார் அறிந்தது, மக்கள் மனம் மாறலாம்

***

Translation of the Quote
Whatever is cheap today may become costlier some day
Whatever is costlier today may become cheaper some day

Question:
So when can we expect Gold to become cheaper ?

Answer:
May be an asteroid can shower some Gold or who knows, people may change their mind (by losing their interest in Gold). 

Buying a Premium Product? - A lesson, I learnt

I was happy buying the Bosch Washing Machine - German Engineering, and did not mind the extra-premium that I had to pay. I was convinced about its quality, durability etc...

Yes, it is robust and works like a true dedicated machine. It reduced our workloads of washing clothes, and even wondered, how about having such durable machines for doing many of our other chores.

3 years later, the display panel showed error signs, and stopped working. We got so used to it, and found it difficult without it. I made a call to the service centre, who promised to send a personnel, but I have to pay Rs.850/- as a service fee.  Just to indicate how 'equal pay' it was, I had paid Rs.750/- as consultation fee for a specialist doctor at a premium hospital, two days prior to this call.

But here, I have no option, and I agreed. Despite agreeing for it, no one turned up. So I kept calling till they sent a guy on my 3rd call. He seemed to be a deputy to the service engineer, and discovered that he had just finished his diploma. I explained him the problem. He then explained to his 'Boss' over phone. He then told me that the board has to be replaced and it will cost Rs.12,000/- 1/3rd of my machine cost - that I paid 3 years ago. If I am agreeing, then I do not have to pay his service fee now, otherwise I have to. I paid him the service fee of Rs.850/- and sent him.

I was disappointed with the Authorized Service Centre. I figured out a guy who does washing machine repairs and he visited me and told that he can fix it for Rs. 9000/- and his service fee would be Rs. 1000/-. I said 'Thanks for coming', and paid him Rs.500/- for his visit.

I searched again, and through a neighbor, got hold of yet another guy. He came and checked it, and said the same - that the board has to be replaced. But he gave the reasons for failure of the board - either power fluctuation,  or could be a cockroach that might have entered into it and would have laid eggs leading to some shortage.  He also proposed an alternate solution, that he can get the existing board 'fixed', through a specialist and I would have to pay Rs.4000/- plus his service fee. I decided to take the risk.

Weeks later, he returned with the same board, and showed the soldering that was done by the 'specialist', and I paid Rs.5000/- (Rs.4000/- for specialist that he claims to have paid and Rs.1000/- for him). The machine worked, and has been working for more than 2+ years now.

Lesson: Go for a premium brand, only if you can afford it throughout its life cycle.

Philosophical Inquiry of a Colloquial Phrase

பிறந்து வரணும் டா / புறந்து வரணும் டா 

(Rough Translation: One has to be re-born to beat the sayer (or) None is there to beat the sayer; Used to emphasise supremacy of the sayer; )

This is a dialogue that you might hear, when some one wants to tell you that he can't be beaten in a particular field / art, and he is the 'supreme' guy in that subject and to beat him, some one is yet to be born - meaning, nobody is there yet, to beat him.

Of course, this is a very colloquial phrase, and I believe this is not being used these days, that frequently. However I have heard several times, when I was in school, probably due to the influence of a movie.

Now, let us leave that aside and do a quick philosophical inquiry.

Though, it gives a sense of the sayer's arrogance in display, it also means that the sayer acknowledges that he/she is adept/best only in the current time frame, and over a period, there may be some one who will emerge better than him.

Let me throw some few arbitrary examples.

When we all watched Kapil Dev in awe, there came another greater player - Sachin Tendulkar, after many years, and then when we believed that there can be never be another player like Sachin, we discovered Dhoni, and then Virat Kohli - all in overlapping and close time frames. Though the styles are different, almost everything is different, our beliefs on the best player changes over time.

If you like Ramayan, here's another: When everyone thought that Ravan was simply unstoppable and unbeatable, there came a Ram, in a different (but overlapping) time period, who destroyed Ravan and that too in a very unconventional and different style (Ram did not have the powerful armed force of Ayodhya with him, and he was not even a king, when he defeated Ravan).

Moral: There is always going to be a bigger force or person, than the current one, but only away in the time frame.

The Year 2016 - for me

It has become a tradition for me, to start blogging each year with the happenings/learning of the previous year. So here it goes:

Lessons:

• Don't try to infer lessons from everything - time 'may' tell - just keep going!
• People keep repeating the same mistakes in different ways, because either they did not learn the right lessons or forgot them! 
• We might have given our best in difficult situations and even our efforts and rewards might be glaringly visible - but that does not mean that others are going to rate you high! - so just keep going! 

Work:

• A decade and a half got completed in my current workplace. 
• Happy to note that some of the ambitious research problems that we started to work decades ago, and left after 2-3 years of pursuing it, owing to the compulsions of the organization, were still remaining unsolved (meaning they were really challenging!), but seeing good traction in the respective domains. 
• Happy to envision and develop ICT-based social solutions, which did not materialize the way I wanted. But now seeing them created in a different way (much about it later).  
• Overtime owing to the need of the environment, I envisioned to build a portfolio of projects and services catering to the broad domain of Information Security which worked out fantastically within a short span of time. 
• The organization did not have a promotion policy for the last 5+ years. Fortunately close to the end of the year, a policy was introduced, of course with many complexities as usual, and I had to work on reports starting from 2007 to 2016! - an herculean task!
• We were able to know our individual annual ratings of the previous years, as the data was opened up - a nice thing to know, even if you do not like what you see!

• Saw myself working more on standards whether it is Digital Signatures, Internet Protocols, Cloud Security Audits etc... 
• Compiled and brought in more content to the Handbook on Digital Signatures and PKI
• Happy to initiate more activities to promote the development of Internet Protocols in India - one of the dreams visualized years ago.  
• Conducted training on Digital Signatures and PKI at various locations across the country, primarily for the local State Govt. officials. Had really tough time coordinating many of these programs and it was a good experience for me. 
• Happy to see the technical movie that I scripted on Digital Signatures going alive and receiving positive feedback on Youtube. 
• Successfully organized a National Conference on Digital Signatures and PKI exclusively catering to the Banking and Financial Sector at Mumbai.
• Participated in ICANN 57, Hyderabad and also presented the various approaches in DANE (TLSA) in DNSSEC workshop   

General:

• Wondering whether Mobile Handset manufacturers install something to make the phone/device work only for specific period of time! - Fed up with problems of MotoG 1st Gen . 
• Gave up the telephone landline connection in my native - while doing so remembered how much we had struggled (and waited patiently for years) to get it. Technology can bring in pleasant changes. 
• New age library - JustBooks - though not an active subscriber, continued to subscribe, and want them to survive! and ofcourse discover books through serendipity
• My contributions to Quora on the subject of Digital Signatures and PKI made me as one of the top viewed writer. 
• Invited lectures at couple of places made me to learn and develop an over-arching perspective.
• Places Traveled: This year was eventful and visited quite a lot of places and all of them are very memorable and each one has its own unique history. Tripura (Agartala),  Lakshadweep (Kavaratti), Tirupati, Nashik (Shirdi & Anjaneri), Jaipur, Rameshwaram, Ramnad - UttaraKosaMangai temple, Devipatnam - Navagrahas in sea, Tirupullani - Shri Adhi Jagannatha Swamy Temple, Tiruchendur, Panchalangkurichi, Sikkim (Gangtok, Nathula Pass), Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar (Lingaraj temple, Sanchi Stupa, Udayagiri), Puri, Konark Temple, Trichy (Erumbeswarar Temple), Raipur, Pyramid Valley in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata (Dakshineshwar temple), Madurai Meenakshi Temple 

Personal: 

• Got to see lord Venkateshwara (Tirumala) from close quarters, which I never expected. However my mind was restless, as my father was unwell. After finishing the darshan, I learnt that he was admitted to an Intensive Care Unit in Apollo hospital and I was deeply worried. But as a group we went to have darshan of Goddess Padmavathy and immediately started to Bangalore, and things turned fine after a day, and he got discharged the day after, and came to normalcy exactly after a month. - Don't know what to say, except that faith kept things moving. Again went for the usual darshan along with my family, a month later. 
• Later in September, my mother had developed a serious health issue - acute myocardial infraction - heart attack, and a cardiac stent was put up which later lead to several other complications  including kidney, and lungs at a much later stage. I somehow felt that the 'stent' - an external object is actually a slow killer, though it saved life at that moment. The heart attack was very much unexpected for us as her cholesterol levels were always pretty normal, no sugar, no BP etc...  I also realized that stent, cannot improve the functions of the heart and felt that her heart was not functioning up to the mark, which no one was willing to tell me ! (except time)