Low Profile

Hello,
I have two friends in Atlanta who are Raj and Soumya. Very warm and kind people. Raj narrated a story to me recently and since I love stories I listened. Raj hails from Srihari kota and Soumya from Vizag. The story goes like this:

Not so long ago in late eighties India was gunning for a Space Program. Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle was a program that was to be the spear-head of many such programmes. Initially there was incredible hoop-la about this program.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASLV

Ofcourse, a lot of things in India get easily politicized. The then chief minister of Tamil Nadu(a state in India), the Chief Minister of Andra Pradesh(another state in India) and the Prime Minister of India (late Rajiv Gandhi) were all invited and made appearance at the launch site in Sriharikota. In 1987 there was a launch which was nothing short of a disaster. A repeat of that event took place the following year. And another failure was to follow in 1992. Since these events happened the culture of Sriharikota scientists has changed. They do not declare openly what is going to happen. They have shed their pompous way of proclaiming to the world their latest and greatest innovations. In all, the initial failures humbled them. Nowadays, one hears of a launch in the morning of the day of launch in a small section in the newspaper. I guess the scientists have had their share of bad ju-ju and now have a healthy respect for badluck.

Listening to Raj I realized an analogous concept applicable to humans. We must also play it down and be modest. I will keep a low profile and achieve success and let my success speak for itself. So that's that. This is just a small grain of blog posting for you. But there is enough to make you think, I think.

Best Regards
Your 'humble' author!

August August

This month is truly August in the sense that there is an august feeling in the air. Hope you understand. Named after Augustus Caesar it marks the short duration between a hot summer and onset of a cool autumn.

My blog would be terribly incomplete if I did not mention Maslow's Pyramid which is mentioned earlier in my blog of Aug 2nd(I think). The Maslow's Pyramid is a concept in psychology which tries to explain our motivations are human beings. Our actions are driven by motivations some hidden and some transparent. Uncovering the motivations will enable us to understand and predict our behavior. This knowledge is key to psychologists who try to help trouble clients by gaining an understanding of their motivations.

The base of the pyramid is the Need For Survival. This motivates us to eat and hunt for food and run and hide in a cave for shelter etc., Higher up in the pyramid above the Base layer is the need for love and togetherness and companionship and being in group because through years of evolution we have come to realize that strength in numbers ensures survival and also it is easier to find a mate and procreate species.

The third of the 5 layers in the pyramid is about secruity for individual and family. This is what makes us buy a home and buy a security system and burglar alarm. This is what makes us buy a dog for protection. We want to secure our family and protect spouse and children.

The fourth layer is social standing and respect related. Arnold shwarzanegger is now Governor of California. He needed to not just exist in the US society as a citizen and tax paying resident and a father to his family and husband to his wife but he wanted a social standing. He wanted a position in the society where respect and admiration are given to him. This is the fourth layer. This is the same motivation that drives us to throw parties once we achieve success and have get-together gatherings and share the good fortune with others. Human beings someone dont seem satisfied in just being successful or wealthy. They need to show it off to society and be recognized and respected.

The fifth layer which is higher up in the Pyramid is the need for self actualization. This means that one knows oneself and is at peace with oneself. Ideally at this phase one should stop yearning for more wealth and seek a tranquil retirement. One should stop pursuing materialistic things and look forward to a peaceful twilight to their lives.


I was discussing all this with Rishi Sinha in BITS Pilani in my second year of college and I told him how I wanted to do so much in life. Be a writer or columnist for the Times of India newspaper, be a volunteer at the hospital, makes scientific discoveries, be a good family man and raise great kids, go to Africa and help them build a well or a school in some impoverished areas and i kept coming up with more and more ideas. I am bursting with enthusiasm.

Rishi listened. He has thick glasses and his eyes look small through them. He squinted once or twice at me and said, 'Prabhakar the tip of the Maslow's Pyramid need not be in the clouds'. I was stunned. To this day I remain stunned. That is the ultimate answer to the question, 'What is my purpose and what should I do'. What I should do depends on what motivates me and what motivates me need not be an earth-shattering lofty goal. A simple goal as going to work on time and doing a good professional job and coming home and depositing pay cheque in the bank and driving safely so that I am not a safety concern for others on the road and paying my tax and being a kind person and having a kind word to say to colleagues friends family members is enough. I dont need to discover another element on the periodic table to reach self-actualization. I am already self-actualized. I just need to realize it. Besides after death I will end up in an urn as ash. All my dreams, aspirations, desires, passions and the sum total of all my consciousness will end up in a jar as ash. Since I know the destination can I not live each moment in the present time with more happiness. Surely I can make more changes now than when I am sitting as ash in a jar. I dont need to win an Olympic Gold Medal or invent something like Laser or discover something like Plutonium or a new computer language like C++ or go to warn-torn Africa and help in defusing the landmines and win the Nobel prize for Peace or save the rain forests from timber logging and save the planet or work for Nasa and go on a space walk with some other astronauts. If I make a phone call right now to my mom and tell her how much I love her and ask her how her day is going I am self-actualized. If I notice my colleague waiting for the rain to stop because he has not brought his umbrella and I got one and I offer to walk him out to his car sharing my umbrella - I am self-actualized. If I complete my deadline at office and my whole team is happy and we get a good name from the Director of company appreciating us- I am self-acutalized. If I come home to my wife and kids and I spend time with my son showing him how to build a Lego set and I help my wife in the kitchen with the dishes-cleaning - I am self-actualized. I can be stuck down on the highway by an eighteen-wheeler truck tomorrow and my last thought in my consciousness would be that I mean no one ill-will and I lived a complete life. I can close my eyes and drift in the thick murky black oblivion. Will it be life after death. Will I be cremated and end up in a bottle as ash. Will God receive me in Heaven. The rest is shanthi shanthi shanthihi!

The Pragmatist vs The Romantic

Hello Dear Readers,
Thanks for stopping by my blogsite. Dr.Phosphorus greets you and apologizes for short hiatus from blogging. I am just sharing some random thoughts again. Subject? 'Humanity' again which never seems to sate my curiosity!

As you might already know I tend to intellectualize everything. Some of the favorite things that I try to intellectualize are Life, Capitalism, USA, Love, Human Foetus, Women, Men, Future, and Knowledge. As is the case with most people who attempt to do that, I also feel that I must refrain from a ham-handed way of dissecting the most intimate feelings that we as human are wont to feel. Intellectualizing a topic like 'love' or 'friendship' does not mean the writer does not feel those emotions or does not believe in those feelings. If there is a seller of ancient lamps on the street who is hawking his products it need not necessarily mean he does not know the value of what he is selling. It just so happens he knows not just the value but also the worth of the product. I am one such person who knows the value and the worth of these feelings. As an aside, I have not sold any ancient lamps yet to realize this about myself.

Most people attack the person who intellectualizes the topics like 'Love' by saying, "So you don’t believe in it?" or "does this mean that you are a romantic or a pragmatist?" and so on and so forth. I tend to intellectualize even this reaction of the readers as follows: In life everything is not black and white and we find it hard to see a situation in an unpolarized manner. It seems like we need dualism to complete the picture. Night and Day , Black and White, Good and Evil, it seems like even the most intellectual amongst us seems uneasy in an amorphous definition-less holistic environment and we are tempted to draw lines to delineate and separate concepts. Why do we feel the need to do this? Why can we let things be? Do we need to put things in boxes and label them and stow them away. Will this classification of items in a strictly dualistic manner help us survive? Is that the motivation? Survival? I am aware of myself trying to do that. I restrain myself when I feel the urge. Here is a story from a Wild West movie that was first narrated to me by Rishi Sinha born April 27 (Aries) and my second year roommate in BITS Pilani Hostel. He went on to get his PHD in computer science from Southern California University. I hope I have not lost him in the madding crowds. He was someone who would engage me in these conversations. He did have some thoughts on the Maslow's Pyramid. More on that later. I wish you well wherever you are Rishi.

Once upon a time there was a sparrow. It lived in the Arctic region. As winter started approaching the sparrow decided to fly down to warmer climes. As it started migrating it felt so ecstatic and soared through the air catching a southern drift and sailing with it. But soon its wings became frozen and fatigued and it drifted slowly down to ground and landed on the soft snow. It sat there cussing and cursing how rotten its luck had turned out. It was very afraid that it would die there. Its thoughts were interrupted by a warm feeling as some cow dung feel on it head. More of it landed as the sparrow looked up to see a bovine dropping warm dung on it. Enraged at the cow the sparrow started yelling. But as the cow started moving away the sparrow started feeling better. The warm dung thawed its wings and the blood rushed to it wings and legs and it flapped its wings in joy. Now it could complete its migration in time to reach warmer climes. It joy was short lived as a cat sprang out of the bushes which investigated the source of the sound and gobbled up the sparrow.

Moral: Everyone who shits on you is not your enemy. Everyone who pulls you out of the shit is not your friend. And if you know you are in a warm pile of shit which makes you feel comfortable keep your mouth shut. (The language is befitting a Wild-West movie...)

I hope the story was illuminating as it was witty. Let us not digress.

So it seems like we humans need to take a stand. For or against communism. For or against Iraq war. For or against Global warming....etc., why can’t we accept communism to coexist with all other forms of government? Why cant we adapt it and develop on it and merge it with other forms of government and make a new one that is more suitable and equitable to all citizens. Another question for the reader is, ' the ones who don’t wish to see the world as a polarized dualistic one ...are they the arm-chair psychologists or no-good Utopians or passivists who don’t even believe in themselves. Looks like I am opening yet another can of worms. Just ruminate. Don’t respond.

There was a book by Chinua Chibi about the struggle for freedom in South-Africa. I fail to recall the book name which is probably Cry My Beloved. But in the book a white journalist who is writing supporting liberation and against White oppression of the Black people get robbed and murdered in his house. The irony being, that he was killed by Black kids in the ghettos: the very people he was writing to save. The author ends the book saying "Not all White people are bad and not all Black people are good". Enough said.

I guess all of us feel the urge to crucify the person who intellectualizes the concepts because we need to see things in black and white and the process of intellectualizing the concepts tends to break down this belief system and what happens when the life-sustaining belief system breaks down is that we panic and we release a tirade on the person who says something like "a human foetus is just a well adapted parasite". 'How can you say something so inhuman and insensitive'

I know a first year professor of medicine who talks about the foetus as a sophisticated parasite. What he was trying to do was to break down the belief system that and let the young doctors understand that treating the human body dispassionately is an essential aspect of the profession. We can pick a lot of topics like this one, Marriage being another.

Can multiple opinions coexist? Can we reach a state of mind where we have no opinions? Some people say 'I have no opinion' or 'no comment' when actually they are suppressing their comments. But is it possible that we can reach a state where we have no comment on subjects like Abortion which seems to be a controversial election make-or-break topic in the USA.

Well, plenty of concepts here for the unwitting reader who stumbled upon my blog site. Hope you enjoyed reading and hope I made you introspect. Until we meet again...take care!