Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ Category

Hey! Looks like you are a new visitor, you may want to subscribe to my Lens RSS feed. Or my shared links Convex RSSThanks for visiting!

Perhaps there is really no correlation between what we deserve and what we get. Perhaps that’s why the Gita advises us to let go of the fruits of our actions, for there is no direct equation. Faith and reason are the tools we use to understand life, and both fail us at such times. Perhaps Life is indeed completely random.

Am quite ashamed to quote it TOTALLY out of context from the original personal post here.

I would have liked to extend the above with my thoughts and put my perspective (and probably a context), but thats for another day.

Posted by Rk on 16 September 2008 at 5:34 pm under Blogmela, Philosophy, Thoughts.
Comment on this post.

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because because you are a good person is like expecting the lion not to attack you because you are a vegetarian.

From a forward which had other inane quotes like Gandhi said “Love your enemies” and Nehru said “Laziness is our worst enemy” , the above made quite some sense.

**
On the other day I had a moment of enlightenment when I realized suddenly that complaining “Life is unfair” is quite uncalled for, given that “no one” “promised” it to be otherwise. It was you who set the requirements and/or expectations.

Asking “So what” after every question helps sometimes.

**
Totally personal cribbing though hoping that it is context-independent.

Posted by Rk on 15 September 2008 at 3:30 am under Philosophy.
Comment on this post.

I have this enormous repulsion towards few people that repeatedly blinds me to their positives and magnifies their not-positives. I have let many instances where I can pounce upon, pass by me and remain unaffected but with these people it is as if I am just waiting to capture that every oppurtunity. Actually when I do look back, it is not that I hate the people, not even dislike them, but pure can’t-stand-you feeling.

Sometime ago, there was a similar incident and the character is the sameperson. He saw a flashy car and cribbed “I don’t have such a car”1 (the conversation was in Kannada and the original sentence was even more full of cribbing - it was with such a tone that indicated “sadness” “hopelessness” “anger-towards-destiny” all together ). Now that tone and that formation of sentence was what irked me most.

Needing/wanting a car is different. Not having a car is different. And I with utmost patience and with a very un-emotional and controlled voice decided to enlighten him.

“I do not understand why if it had to be any diffrerent. I mean, lets look from other direction. Why is that you “should have had” a car by now ?” His reaction, as expected, was a reaction to unexpected reply. He wanted me to sympathize/join him. He was silent. I grabbed the chance to continue my onslaught (In kannada with choiciest of effective words -eg ನಿನ್ನ ಯೋಗ್ಯತೆ ಏನಯ್ಯ ? - and my tone I am sure I was hurting and as well as making a point crystal clear). “Lets see if you deserved to have had a car by now. There are few cases where one at an as early age as yours could have owned a car. Lets see. Do you have a rich industrialist father, who could have gifted you a car in your early teens to even go to your college ?2 Or have you won any lottery ? Ok, lets leave the “luck and chance” thing aside, have you done any thing remarkably great and ‘earned’ a lot of money - say like Sabir Bhatia - at an early age ? You have been just an engineer with less than 2 years experience and if you have had to own a car by now, you should have been earning and saving x many thousands a month, are you doing that ? Being a software engineer you are earning quite more than many others and at least you could desire/hope/plan to own a car after a few years where as there are others who could not even hope or plan now. I do not understand why you should have had a car by now, by any reason ! It simply means that either you haven’t worked towards it (like stealing!) or you do not deserve it. When you have not done anything and there was no other way by which you could have had a car, where is the point of worry ? Do you think otherwise ? ”

“Ha, of course if you had said “I want/wish to buy a car”, that would have made sense. But “Aiyyo I do not have a car” does not make any sense. Agree ? “. He nodded.

I was happy I could drive home the point with a neutral voice and with good words :) Also now I keep a watch on myself if I complain for not having what I do not deserve.


  1. ನನ್ನ ಹತ್ರ ಅಂಥ ಒಂದು ಕಾರ್ ಇಲ್ವಲ್ಲಾ ಅಂಥ :( [back]
  2. I do not mean any disrespect to any father for not doing so, and I told him that. It was just that this is the easiest logically possible thing [back]

Posted by Rk on 25 December 2006 at 10:52 am under Philosophy.
1 Comment.

These days I am playing the snake game on my mobile. I knew about it earlier but had never played. Mostly I play it during waiting - for order in hotel, for bus, for someone, whem I am lonely and during other freetime (guess when!). It is a simple game alright, but a small lapse of action(keypress) or concentration or foresight can end the game and thus the effort so far. Though it can be played passively, I play it actively, so that no other thought bothers me. With a timelimit, it could have been made even more difficult.

Well, the post is not to discuss as simple a game as that. Recently someone1 observed that “Hey why are you playing that game always..isn’t that too simple..there are many other interesting games …”
To which I involuntarily replied “This game is present in my mobile and however it its, I believe in playing well the games I have instead of worrying myself about the games that are not in my mobile”. It tangentially was an answer to something else in a subtle way, which I am sure did not reach him.

Later when I recalled that impromptu statement, I feel that is very true with me2, naturally.3 I have had undesirable times with my health, friends, relationships, career and every thing else and each time I just swallowed it. Initially I had to that with the help of thoughts and decision, now it comes naturally to me.

As long as I have this game I will try to play it in a best way possible and will enjoy it. It does not mean I will not buy a new mobile with more challenging and enriching games4.


  1. a whiner, about whom a book can be written and who takes, these days, all the credit for the fun I have,in his absense [back]
  2. reminds me of a quote from IISc Prof who taught us Transmission and Switching - damn I forgot his namethanks to anon in comment, his name is Prof Ashok Rao- he had said “These days every one says ‘I want to do good projects’ no body says ‘I want to do the project good [back]
  3. There is a huge difference between ambition/need to complaints/cribbing. My ambition has sometimes been misunderstood as complaint by many [back]
  4. While at it, I will make sure to have Chess on my mobile, Like snake it will be best companion during lonely times [back]

Posted by Rk on 24 September 2006 at 10:53 am under Life, Philosophy.
4 Comments.

“I observed you were not able to choose and decide!”, lamented the shop keeper lady at a spectacle shop. “I’ll take this”, I had just said, refering to the frame through which I was looking deep into my own eyes in the mirror reflection, holding two sets each in both hands.

I face similar situations sometimes during shopping, sometimes because I realise that more often than not I “wont have a choice”.

I’ve had quite a few choice-less scenarios in my life when I just accept the things offered to me on a platter without even thinking twice about it. And there can never be a choice to regret either! “You have made all your choices!” Oracle enlightened Neo in movie “The Matrix”.

I grumble about the choice-less situations, but choices often land me into great levels of confusion. Choice is always accompanied with advantages/compromises. If those are not clear, there is greater problem. Life is a series of logic gates where you continuously evaluate and decide yes or no, one teacher spoke philosophy in a computer class. “To be or not to be?” Shakespeare could not have put it more aptly.

“Specs is just an analogy/sample“, I wish I could tell her.

Posted by Rk on 14 February 2005 at 11:40 pm under Articles, Life, Philosophy, Thoughts.
Comment on this post.

“quote”
Don’t put too much time and effort in all these friendship and other things. Those look rosy and just like chocolate, tastes good only as long as it lasts. They are good only in movies and fictions. There are no one called good friends and bad friends. All are good, on an average, and all are selfish on an average. There is no reason to be otherwise. I don’t deny real good friends who last long despite differences and other things, but are very rare.Finding such people would be a matter of luck and testing to that effect is hardly worth it. Each one will take his/her path and move away and unless you keep seeing them and keep in touch, the once great friendship reduces just to “how are you?”, and a recall of old memories. Friendship is directly proportional to the time you spend with them and I think you will not even be seeing same people after 2-3 years! There should be nothing called as “break-ups” if there is good friendship and if people can’t see each other once, there can never be a real “patch up”. These will look immature and silly after sometime. And more often than not, all the trouble and effort are not worth them.Try to do justice to your time and give right priority to right things.
“unquote”

Philosophy lecture to my younger brother. Wish I had an elder brother !

Posted by Rk on 14 February 2005 at 11:27 pm under Life, Philosophy, Thoughts.
1 Comment.

“Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it so it goes on flying anyway.” - Mary Kay Ash

Wow…..what an inspiring sentence! For some reason, either the rhyme or the very topic, the sentence kept on ringing in my ears. If the sentence is any right, I want to fly too and I shall. Who doesn’t want to fly ? I was waiting for Dean Kamen’s secret invention IT (code named Ginger) for years hoping that it would be a individual flying transport, until his project became 1 in top 100 embarassing businees moments!! I have the very need to fly to avoid the traffic everyday. And to explore beautiful places all around earth and beyond. Fantasies of flying can go on……

But wait a minute, if the quote is only for inspiration, we have many other stories. Spiderman, Shaktiman. And when did aerodynamics agree that monkey can fly ? Don’t we have our own Hanuman for inspiration, who achieved great feats once he was made to realize his powers.

Since bumble bee does fly, either aerodynamics was wrong /not evolved or the person was ignorant. With all these thoughts formed in the background, I explored the topic on net.

Man, people have been curious like me and have taken the quote (or the myth about it) quite seriously! Web pages have been devoted only to explain or to talk about this.. Simplest explanation (in terms of comparision) comes from Doug Craigen, who says it involves different study of dynamic aerodynamics and suggests the moral lessons to advocate “keep flapping?.

In David Cushman‘s page ,the topic looks at various factors that affect the flying of bees and implications.

Here you can find the interesting insight on how it all started ! McMasters, John H goes on to explain how Jacob Ackeret, a famous supersonic aerodynamicist was thought to be a culprit initially. But later it was found out that Sainte-Lague, a lab assistant of famous entomologist August Magnan was the actual culprit.

A broadcasting company(WBQP tv) uses bee as its “mascot? and explains how the company, like bumble bee, has beaten all odds and rules to succeed!

Books have been written only on bumble bee and the theory.

So much for the bumble bee theory ……my original (childhood) curiosity still remains…can’t man fly, just like he could swim ?

Posted by Rk on 26 January 2005 at 11:52 pm under Articles, Life, Philosophy, Thoughts.
1 Comment.

Oh my God traffic is so bad …..Wish I didn’t need to travel …BEAT

I have to buy those books. Have to borrow that from her, return this to him…And in between I need to read them…BEAT

She is getting married…..He is seeing her….BEAT

He is changing his company….She is changing her city….BEAT

Need to call up him…..need to mail her….BEAT

That person’s birthday is coming up……Got to see this person’s new bike….BEAT

I better manage my time….the list of “tbd? is growing…But weekend was over just now, will have to wait for the next which will also pass soon…next one and the next one….BEAT

Havent met him…haven’t spoken to her….BEAT

And who is this person who just smiled at me..Oh ! I know him…I didnt even return the smile…BEAT

Appointment with Doc is pending ….and the vehicle servicing….BEAT

Gotto see that movie…..listen to this music…BEAT

That damned code is acting up, deadline is fast approaching…..Tch, this meeting is today…BEAT
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
On a scooter, two pillion kids….In their KG classes….
In the best costume- school uniform…Lost in their own world……
See me…With eyes that spell innocence……
Open little mouth to a broad smile…Smile that is most beautiful on earth…
Wave their hands …Say in chorus… “Tata Tata Tata? …B……E…….A………T

Posted by Rk on 23 December 2004 at 7:15 am under Articles, Philosophy, Thoughts.
1 Comment.