ideas that matter

This talk I watched yesterday made me happy ,so I posted it on my twitter handle. The reply (one and only) that it generated made me think why it made me happy. So, I began to sort out my happiness.  I listed what I "heard" from the talk - a. we care for feeling like a good person and being seen as a good person all the time. b. we work to protect the good person identity. c. the ratio of conscious processing of information to the incoming information in the mind is really low resulting in a bounded or limited rationality. d. this further results in unconscious bias leading to explanation of mistakes we make. e. no challenge to good person identity so no thinking about ethical decisions and challenge to good person identity creating a narrow and petty ethical decisions. Going over these points makes me realise that we assume some sort of 'watch' or 'camera' around us while we act in a certain way. After likening the situation with the camera, I say that it is ...

Some are hardy, some non hardy, Some are perennials, some short lived. Some fruit bearing sweet and sour, Some with foliage of colours light and dark. Some are in excess, some priceless, But You, O Merciful!  take care with Grace, Treating all alike in miscellaneous race. You, O Merciful!are so very kind, Mistakes we make but you don't mind. Plantation and transplantation done most properly, In the pots of free will to spread across. Yet preening and pruning and saving from frost. Throughout the seasons, protecting with mulch,weeding with patience and care utmost. O Dear Majesty! Will we ever grow up to deserve Your Love! Never separated from You, Our Holy Gardener, Beloved Tender, Every breath in your name. The seed that was sown may bring to the Garden ,beautiful flowers to Your Delight. Sweet shade be blessed upon one and all , e ntwined with the sunshine of Your Might!

Just came across this book called  'Calculus Made Easy' by Silvanus P Thompson. Wonderful initiative by the author to bring maths to language and vice versa. I sincerely feel that the teachers need a connection with the students at the language front. We must put some meaningful words into their mouths to help them understand and feel what they're learning. For this we the teachers must for some time or at the onset leave the puritan approach and let our hair loose on the subject. The dogma can be easily replaced be pragma.  Language should be more connecting,  contemporary and comprehensive. For example, for a Hindi medium student entering the college , the word 'arbitrary' which is so frequently used in maths doesn't  have any meaning. He has not used it before and what he used in Hindi also did not come from the language he spoke. The Hindi word for Arbitrary is Abheesht. No better than Arbitrary for the poor soul!  Where is the understanding? So in a way...

I recently met with an elderly lady whose daughter in law is my friend.  We got talking and conversation was flowing until I stumbled upon her misery point.  She mentioned that her son (my friend's husband)  was very close with his elder brother and that they shared a great bond and that he would never deny anything that his brother asked /sugggested/told. In a hushed tone she mentioned that my friend can't understand this.  She was unhappy and complaining. This sent me thinking.  An association /relation that has seen one through bad time vs a new association /relation that is equally part of the thick and thin,  that is the present and future more than the first one!  And the man in question is feeling obliged to put or apparently put the first one first. It's Tricky,  really tricky.  There are emotions involved from all sides. What is the solution? What does help from the past beget? Sorrow for the present partner. What does the new as...

Addition,Subtraction , Multiplication and Division, all these seem like so normal in life. Understanding Multiplication using Addition and Division using Subtraction. Further finding out that Division can be done using Multiplication! This is so awesome! Indeed. But a simple thought that how is all this even possible sends one to the wonderland called the Algebra. The ease of addition and multiplication is due to Algebra. Algebra is the provider of all the tools for such daily and petty routines that seem so natural but have got some really fine manoeuvres behind. And the world is wondering about those lofty equations! But that fundamental thing is often overlooked.  Just as we keep on breathing and never spend a microsecond thinking what is the basis of life, we never pause writing those polynomials and equations to appreciate the fact that there goes the addition,  the Subtraction and so on!  Oh!there was this consciousness that gave us the binary operat...

"The Special Gift" Time is going down quickly. Who am I? What is my purpose on this planet?  me. planet. creation.  I feel incredible being part of this beautiful creation. This is a creation with a purpose. It is a missionary creation. It has all the instruments to facilitate actions. Actions for me are the Karmas. The transactions. To be made most carefully. They must be conscious karmas. But intellect the egoist fools us into performing karmas based on Buddhi. So the quest is to traverse from Buddhi to Subuddhi. Subuddhi is endowed with realisation. It is being grateful at all times.   It is so important to be grateful but difficult as well. For the world is driven by self appraisals and projections. It is quite contrasting.   Looking at the creation across negative infinity to positive infinity does the job. So what am I made of? Cell? Atom? Sub-atomic particles? Who made the sub-atomic particles? Science today facilitates the realisation at nano ...