Let us think together

Colored Rain and Exotic Origin

2006-11-15T17:55:00.000-05:00

In 2001 several districts in a southern state of India reported colored rain. Recently a scientist who was involved in the analysis of this rain water found that this rain had biological cells without any DNA. This led him to conclude that the cells do not belong to earth!

Apparently this is more evidence for a theory called panspermia. In short, this theory says that life originated elsewhere and was brought/delivered to earth. This suggests that origin of life is not native to earth!

Let us evaluate the major human contention that life originated on earth from a philosophical standpoint. Our planet is so small relative to the universe that it is much akin to a speck of dust on earth. If we assume that this speck of dust moves around and interacts with other dust particles and figures out that there are 20 different elements and compounds. Suppose this speck claims that this is an exhaustive list of elements and the chance (based on the evidence it has collected) that there are other elements and compounds is nearly zero. It is not hard to see the absurdity of this claim even if we assumed that we do not know the periodic table and all compounds. This is because the interaction of this dust particle is simply not sufficient to make a conclusion about an object that is much much bigger than itself. The human claim that life has originated on earth can be thought of as analogous to the specks claim. How much of the universe have we explored? Don't you think its preposterous to hold on to the view that earth is the only planet in this whole wide universe that is blessed with conditions that are conducive for life?

My Trip Home

2006-11-12T16:51:00.000-05:00

Hello All,

I have been quiet for a while now. Finally, I shed my lethargy to come here and update my blog. I thought I'd share some pictures from home with you guys.

My trip home was great. I had a good time. I got to see my relatives and friends, some of whom I have not seen for a long time.

Diwali was great. I was happy to be home for Diwali. I have missed the previous 6 diwali's. So I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately my Dad was sick on Diwali day, but it was still good to be home and see people celebrate the festival. The picture to the right is on my porch with diwali lights.

Of course I had a feast at home. Here is a sampling of sweets, snacks and fireworks that are typical in South India during Diwali.

What's a festival without new clothes? It's the time when Indian women shop for those gorgeous silk sarees! The streets are packed with shoppers. There is hardly any space to move usually and this year was no different. Here is where I shopped with my parents - the salesmen tirelessly display hundreds of sarees! The number of silk saree's that are bought at this time of the year must be a staggering figure I am sure. Men of courrse wear boring clothes - certainly not as colorful or grand as women's sarees. Most men shop for western clothes, along with the traditional dhoties of course.

It typically rains in South India during Diwali. I was lucky this year. The weather was nice and warm for the first week and half. The last several days were rainy. But what the heck, I can't complain - the weather was dry on Diwali day.

I'll end this post with this beautiful evening in Chennai as I saw sitting in my porch.

دیوالی - جشن نور

2006-10-05T21:05:00.000-04:00

سلام همهسلام همه
شاید شما فکر بکنید که غایب شدم. من هر روز خیلی مشغول بودم. این پست برای خوانندهای فارسی است. میخواهم که درباره سفرم بهندوستان بگویم.

هفته دیگر بهندوستان خواهم رفت. مامان و بابای من آنجا زندگی میکنند. من دیوالی را با پدر و مادرم جشن خواهم گرفت. دیوالی در هندوستان بزرگترین جشن است.آن جشن نور است. این روز همه روحهای شیطانی را دورمیکند و روشنایی را میاورد. در این روزهمه بهترین غذاها را میخورند و اتش بازی میکنند. با مشتاقی منتظر سفرم هستم.

Loose Change

2006-09-12T23:45:00.000-04:00

I watched a debate (on Democracy Now!) between the makers of loose change, a documentary that questions whether 9/11 attacks were self-inflicted, and the editors of Popular Mechanics on 9/11, the folks who have addressed these theories.

The debate itself was very interesting. But what is more interesting (and shocking if you believe it) is the claim that 9/11 was staged by the U.S. government if indeed it did. Loose change is nearly an hour and half long. Do watch it when you get a chance.

Self-Delusion

2006-09-05T21:18:00.000-04:00

This morning I was listening to an interview of Robert Fisk, the Middle Eastern correspondent of The Independent on Democracy Now. He pointed out Secretary Rice's self-delusion during her speech in Lebanon, when she said that she could see "the birth pangs of a new middle-east", when, as Fisk notes "babies [were] being pulled dead out of the buildings" in Lebanon. Clearly, this statement shows how deeply she is entangled in either her delusions or the delusions of Israeli and American governments.

Dictionary.com defines delusion as "a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact: a paranoid delusion". Rice's delusion is not unique. Assuming I am not self-deluding myself, I came up with a couple of other examples: 1. A Muslim suicide bomber or "Jihadist" as they are called in western media (and I mean no offence to Muslims - I am just talking from my rationale), who is willing to take many other innocent lives with his/hers, seems like a person under self-delusion to me; 2. Some of President Bush's speeches can be best understood only by those people who are just as deluded as he is.

Obviously self-delusion is not limited to politicians and the so-called terrorists. If we introspect just for a moment we can easily note that we are often under self-delusion. We often find in our own lives that there is no rhyme or rationale for some things we do. Here is an instance from my life: After a five hour drive, in a physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted state I once decided to go for a run in the belief (self-delusion!) that its going to make me feel better.

Can you note instances where you have been under self-delusion? Why do you think we are deluding ourselves? Is it our fear of facing the fact?

In my case above, I clearly did not want to be miserable - a fact that I was trying to escape. But what does a suicide bomber have to escape from? He/she is willing to give his/her life! The apparent self-delusion here is martyrdom. Similarly, the apparent self-delusion of the American government is a "democratic" middle-east (Why exactly do they care about that?).

I think understanding self-delusion is very important to everyone. If every individual can cure him/her-self of delusion (and I think it can mainly be cured by introspection) then society and a nation at large will be clear in its judgment. I greatly appreciate your views on this topic.

Successful Women of Today

2006-09-01T08:09:00.000-04:00

Continuing on the theme of my last post about women having a career, I read on BBC's website today the list of most powerful women in the world. Indeed women have risen to great heights where men have held dominant roles - the chancellor of Germany (which I hear has been a patriarchal country), the US Secretary of State, or CEO of citigroup. That’s quite a list. Check it out when you get a chance.

Gender Roles

2006-08-28T20:57:00.000-04:00

In a recent post Anar refers to an article in Forbes magazine on Careers and Marriage. The male writer cites various scientific studies to support statements such as "you [men] will be more unhappy if they [women] make more money than you", "your [the man's] house will be dirtier" and "you are more likely to fall ill". The author clearly is prejudiced by the traditional model of gender roles, where women stay at home and raise children while men work and make money.

If we (men in particular) are to open our minds just slightly we will see that these arguments are all based on the comfort of men and completely disregards the independence of women. A little bit of google search will provide a wealth of information from research in anthropological and social sciences that will support an alternative model for a family where both men and women can have a career.

A discussion on gender roles in wikipedia points out that "there has been a perception of Western culture, in recent times, that the female gender role is dichotomized into either being a "stay at home-mother" or a "career woman". In reality, women usually face a double burden: The need to balance job and child care deprives women of spare time. Whereas the majority of men with university educations have a career as well as a family, only 50 percent of academic women have children."

The situation (that women face the double burden) arises primarily because of our conditoning that women cannot balance career and family. No matter how educated we are, we (men and women) are heavily conditioned to think that balancing both is impossible. The situation will never arise if for a moment men start to think that they are equally responsible in family roles and the average woman is likely to have similar ambitions and aspirations of independence just like a man does. Agreed, it is the woman who has to get the melon out of the water hose, and feed the baby. But men can begin to assume a greater role in the family and give women the much needed time to pursue their interests.

The summary of a recent text book on this subject refutes many common arguments that are made to keep women to their traditional role. If you do click on the link above pay particular attention to the first two statments in the summary.

Women have demonstrated repeatedly that they are capable of many feats in fields that men have dominated. It is ultimately upto us (men) to keep an open mind and embrace the feats that our women are capable of. Instead of feeling threatened by their success I think we should laud their efforts and encourage them to pursue their interests. How fair is it to cage a bird and make it misearable so that we can see it everyday to satisfy our self-interests? How would a man feel if he was the bird who is in that cage?

Comments?

Do we shield our fears through aggression?

2006-08-24T18:05:00.000-04:00

As Anar has politely reminded me in a comment to the previous blog, I have become quiet in my blog.

من تنبل نیستم. با کام و با شاپنگ برای انار من خیلی مشغول داشتم.

Anyways, I have been following the recent developments in the Middle East. One thing that seemed to be apparent to me was that the nation who is bullying is the one who is really scared and hence act disproportionately to protect their interest. Take the case of Israel. Israel is very worried about the attacks on their "homeland" from Lebanon. This has prompted them to wage many wars going well into their neighbours land under their self-proclaimed effort of "defending themselves". Another case in point, the United States, is "very worried" about Iran's nuclear policy and are therefore pushing the whole world to enforce severe sanctions on Iran at the very least to stop their effort. Do these acts of aggression suggest that the nations who are bullying the "weak" do indeed feel very insecure about themselves? Does this act of aggression help them feel more secure? Clearly, alienating your neighbor by reducing their land to rubble or curbing someone else’s development (if indeed it is a real peaceful development as Iran claim's) is only making you less secure rather than the other way around. But does the act of aggression, of being able to demonstrate your hegemony, appease your fear?

This fact also seems to manifest rather heavily at the individual level. Any person, by nature, seems to pursue some things in their life very aggressively. For example, suppose that I am really scared about a new colleague who seems to accomplish more and appears to be someone against whom I would have to compete in the future for perhaps getting a promotion. Then I am more likely to show some domination on issues where I can. I am more likely to pursue my work and that in the common area of interest between us very aggressively so that my position is secure. The question here is when I pursue something very aggressively, am I aware that I feel threatened, or do I try to escape my fear by focusing my energy on aggression? Is aggression really my only solution to overcome the fear? When I am inwardly very scared and insecure am I using aggression as an aegis?

The Fun of Learning a New Language

2006-08-15T20:20:00.000-04:00

I am in many ways fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn more than one language. I have always taken to new languages with zest. I learnt hindi mainly by listening to hindi music and watching national TV in India as I grew up! I think learning a new language opens up a window to a new culture which we would otherwise not appreciate. Apart from my native language (Tamil) I speak English and Hindi. If you are curious about these languages here is some info on wikipedia: தமிழ் and हिन्दी. I am now trying to learn فارسی. Of course, Anar is my primary motivation here. Words of endearment seem much sweeter in Farsi than in English (زبان فارسی خیای شیرین است!). Having said that, I do have a genuine interest in learning new languages. At some point of time I want to learn Spanish, Arabic and Sanskrit.

In Europe and in the subcontinent speaking many languages is fairly common. But its not until I was in America that I realized that being multi-lingual may not seem so easy to the folks elsewhere. I put-together the following list of why we should learn a new language:
1. You explore a whole new culture through a language.
2. You get to see things from the viewpoint of others more easily.
3. It helps you tremendously when you travel.
4. Your time is much well spent in learning a new language than sitting and watching a re-reun of a sitcom.
5. It may help you professionaly if your job requires multi-lingual skills.
6. Above all its fun!

Is there anything else that you can think of?

What sets the pace of life?

2006-08-12T15:40:00.000-04:00

I was in Canada recently. It appeared to me that life in Canada was laid back and it did not seem fast paced. I could be wrong about this ofcourse, given my very limited exposure. I was wondering what sets the pace of our life. What does a fast-paced life mean? It seems to me that that a fast-paced life should have the ability to keep our mind occupied with umpteen number of things to do (and we often run out of time to finish these things). When we label a place as "slow", we usually mean that this place does not offer enough things to keep us occupied. But who or what really sets the pace? Is it the society around us or do we ourselves set the pace of our life or is it a combination of both? Any thoughts?

Why do thoughts differ so much between the genders?

2006-08-06T22:08:00.000-04:00

This post was motivated from a conversation with my girlfriend last night. About a year back I did not even know what a weblog was, even until about three or four months back I did not care much about weblogs. I started reading farsi blogs mainly because I will get some reading practice in farsi. But soon I got sucked into the the addicitve blog world. Anyways, I am digressing from the topic I have listed here. During our conversation last night my girlfriend noted that men predominantly tend to keep their blogs impersonal while women almost always make their blogs a whole lot more personal. I added to her point that men usually tend to talk more about generic things rather than about themselves unless a specific question is directed at them. I was wondering a few moments back why men and women think the way they do? Has evolution caused them to think in this manner? Or does the society impose upon the manner in which a man and a woman should think? Why do thoughts differ so much between the genders particulary when it comes to the manifestation of a personality?

Can understanding the mechanism of the mind lead to non-violence?

2006-08-06T00:19:00.000-04:00

Arguably the human mind controls most of what is happening in and around us. So I think it is critical that we understand how it works and see it for what it is.

In this violent world where we constantly live under fear of war, non-violence is really the only way for lasting peace. Often the mind has a major role during any chain of events that ultimately causes someone to resort to extreme measures. To this extent understanding the mechanism of the mind is important.

Any thoughts?