Speak Easy At Renaissance Talk About Socio Economic Political Scientific Nostalgia

Day 0: Delhi Trip 2009

2009-10-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

Day 0: Delhi Trip 2009

Flight C0-82, New York to Cleveland, my first trip back to my home to Delhi in two long years. The Delhi airport was brand new, clean and world class. It was funny to see the reaction of the Customs offer when he saw my two big suitcases and my form said I had nothing to declare, and eventually without any hassles I got out of customs. I was excited to see my family, my sister, my dad and my mom came to pick me up, hugs and high fives flew around the airport for half an hour before we headed back to the car. My sister who met with almost a near fatal accident some months back and I saw her and it was like nothing ever happened. My dad me struggled for authority, marking our domains, for I was no longer a kid and he had to yield some authority was negotiated with a warm hug between a man and his son, at least for that moment we had an understanding :-). My mom hugged me and that was one of the most genuine moment of love and care I experienced in months if not years.

Delhi at last, amazing city, new dozens of miles and miles of ultra modern flyovers and a brand new airport with world class facilities. As we drove towards South Delhi, we passed thriving city streets crowded with people, full of lights, with the essence of celebrations. My Dad proudly boasting about the development in the city, though being a realist by acknowledging the short comings and the fact that India still has a long road to travel. The city landscape had changed a lot since I was last here the shopping malls, designer outlets, globalized fast food chains and some new bars too. Luckily I live near a green belt region, so its still comparatively beautiful, peaceful and calm. Its surrounded by the Tughlaqabad Fort, lighted up looked magnificent in the dark of the night still very royal, still very young in long long history of India. Tughlaqabad a structure that has always attracted me to ask questions, seek stories and explore its dark corners and high walls with each brick telling a story. The drive took 30 mins flat to reach home from the airport. Home sweet home, my room. Delhi always had a special place in my heart. I was watching Gandhi (1982 movie) on the flight back home, that made it a even more thrilling experience for me.

I plan to etch each moment of my re-acquaintance with Delhi, my family, my relatives, food, culture, monuments and history of my Delhi through blogs and photographs.

Individualism, Game Theory & Spirituality/ Ayn Rand, John Nash & Spiritual People :-D

2009-09-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

Individualism, Game Theory & Spirituality

Ayn Rand, John Nash & Spiritual People

The reason I started writing this article was driven by my compulsive egoistic need, to understand and explain everything around me, and especially to finally understand a very interesting person very dear to me. I was given this book Fountainhead - Ayn Rand, and was initially tortured, blackmailed into reading it, for as stubborn and lazy ass that I am I didn't. It was recently when I lost dearly, due to my inability or arrogance to understand someone, I decided to pull up my sleeves and read the book. Interestingly written book, quiet graphical helps you visualize, and way too thick for me, especially for one subject, especially if its fiction, though trust me I love stories especially if someone reads it out to me. And by the way the main character is an idol very inspiring courageous, talented, idealist but at the same time very egoistic self destructive character, something everyone can relate to in their lives at some point or another. The book was interesting and whether I subscribe to the philosophy (even though the answer is not in its entirety, discussed in next para) is not the question, the compulsive part of me makes want to understand about the roots of such school of thoughts and the points I am missing because of my ADS disorder :-), therefore I have started on Anthem - Ayn Rand as well. I managed to successfully complete Objectivism 101 so that I am atleast equipped to write my first thoughts about Individualism.

I grew up in a evolving mixed economy, and have seen various degrees of swings to either side. So I try not to be biased towards Individualism and Collectivism, both have their merits and demerits, aligning to anyone of these schools of thought and being or trying to be spiritually enlightened at the same time would certainly make you bipolar. I rather rationale each tenet of each philosophy on case by case basis individually based on its merit rather than blindly associating myself to any school of thought (Liberal or Conservative, Socialist or Capitalist, Individualist or Collectivist?) for the heck of it.

Interestingly enough I am also reading this book called "A New Earth: Ekhart Tolle", again suggested by the same person which I resisted to read (explained later) and I am totally in love with this book. This book is like a laxative, helps you to pass out the gunk in your life much easily. Now its not a magic book, its not one of those self help book either, you might not even be able to relate with it in entirety, but it helps you shut up, sit down and question yourself at least once. Being an Indian we grow up feeling spirituality is the second nature to us, too a point I didn't finish all the lesson on spirituality and assumed I master it and don't need to know more, that's was my complex, whether superiority complex is derived from wealth, beauty or knowledge, it is egoistic, therefore making thyself not very enlightened. Thus I have always struggled a lot when I was ever told to read a book on spirituality or even religious text like Bhagwad Gita. I always believed that philosophy of life, spirituality occurs to you through your life experience and books and temples etc cannot actually substitute real life and that's true. So life bitch slaps you and there is nothing like being humbled by my own experiences :-D, I found out sometimes reading a good book in life is one of the experiences that I have been just all talks and no work. So I read it once, and this is my second read.

The best part about this exercise was I read both these books in order, and I can see the Stark 180 degree difference in the philosophy, its almost makes me bipolar, split in two. The goal is simple, to understand and simplify myself, be easy. Contention from a philosophy is not to be surrounded by philosophies or identifying with them. I have seen people identifying with them, almost to the point where they think its an intellectual property, and almost anal about it. The lessons are then lost its meant to simplify life, lead to contention, ease life a bit, where we are not just struggling to find answer everything in life by the means of association to one or more school of thoughts. And off course I am not and not even trying to be an enlightened Baba. I decided to use game theory & Eastern Spiritual Philosophy as a point of reference of knowledge, so as not to be blinded by my own ego. As I write this article I strongly state that Knowledge is relative, Truth is relative and infinitely evolves with time, and this applies to the following thoughts too.

I am not as enlightened as Eckhart Tolle or an accomplished writer as Ayn Rand, so bear with me if I seem to ramble or for my non intuitive examples. I believe as a creation of one's brain an empirical rudimentary thought has been put across and it can always be improved and will be. I would certainly like questions, comments, even clarifications for I myself have questions about what I am writing.

"Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life." - Ayn Rand

This school of thought has Utopian, Ideological, overly simplistic assumption, the assumptions were

1.) Unlimited resources: Implying no race condition for resources, therefore no conflict and contention for all. To verify this lets assume limited resources, limited resources can either be distributed equally for contention of all by virtues inspired by collectivism which leads to uniformity and diminishing individual creativity, or by Individualism let players compete for resources, and survival of the fittest, which would also ultimately by the process of natural selection lead to uniformity as others diminish and diminishing of individual creativity. History has been a witness that while Collectivism in the form of Socialism has led decline of individual creativity by imposing order and standardization. So has Individualism in the form of Laissez-faire, it has led to decline individual creativity either by the means of consolidation & takeover or by the process of perishing of the weaker player. To sum it up anything less than unlimited resources would lead to deadlock and mutual assured destruction. We know resources are not unlimited, not even intangible resources like emotions, opportunities, hopes, avenues and in reality race condition exists and the proof of it is wars, crisis the current state of the world.

2.) Knowledge is absolute and exist beyond the realms of human conscience, emotions, hopes or fears.

Knowledge set is relative and ever growing. Only instantaneous/current knowledge is absolute. Events are absolute, instantaneous representative of knowledge and seemingly non random, so events are not the entire knowledge space, historical events just form a small subset of knowledge. It was believed earth was flat, well considering the knowledge at the time of stating that statement, earth's diameter was almost infinite in human interpretation, knowledge etc etc line is circle when radius tends to infinity (though this is not the reason people at that time would have given), earth was flat was knowledge, it was factual and it was absolute. Until humans travelled around the world and found out diameter of earth is not infinite and measurable, then the previous knowledge no longer holds true. Knowledge only is true and absolute for this absolute moment, it keeps on evolving with time. Existence of a good/bad monarchical government at any time was an absolute event, a good monarchical government at any given time would have meant monarchy is the only and good form of governance in terms of knowledge of that time, but over time both good and bad monarchical government existed, so knowledge expanded by general dissatisfaction of people and lead to development or expansion of alternative form of governance. I understand this is not the most intuitive example to state my point, but some how this was the first thought so bear with it. Science is like a lamp in a dark room, it explains the region lighted by it, but does it mean it denies the existence of vast dark unexplained universe that surrounds the region beyond light. At any given time now multiple parallel universe exist in the future, its only probabilistic which future will be the next now future.

3.) Non conflicting objectives of each player: This has its bases on first and second assumption, since the resources/ opportunities/ avenues are unlimited and each individual is unique and special, so each player can choose to fulfill his objectives, without worrying about others, since the other individual is. Consider this case:

a.) Two Players, Conflicting Resources: Let the objective be make the most beautiful building in the world. So since resources are unlimited, we can eliminate the problem of race condition. Player one builds a beautiful building, Player two also builds a beautiful building, since both the buildings are beautiful neither players objective is achieved of making the most beautiful building, therefore non is contended. This means that there are other more intangible resources involved here which we ignored ego, opportunity and avenue which should also be unlimited like the tangible resources. Also would mean "Knowledge is relative", since otherwise both houses are the MOST beautiful houses for contention of both players, which is the objective of all tenets, thus violating the principle of mutual exclusiveness. To sum it up If everyone is special no one is special.

This tenet wouldn't hold true if all tangible and intangible resources are not unlimited, and knowledge is not absolute.

3.) Unlimited upside, No skewness or fat tails in outcomes: Upside doesn't have ceiling, its independent and mutually exclusive of any downsides. Independent & mutually exclusive as players are driven by self interest, unlimited resources imply unlimited upside for all players, in fact downside wouldn't exist as all players are acting with self interest (i.e. upside) and unlimited resources. For one players decision/ actions only effect him and not the greater ecology, society around him. Nature is an example of this our nature sustains such a big bio system this is an upside, but when nature's furry occurs it leads to extinction of species, thousands of years of ice age, the downside is way more devastating. In reality individualism has many a times if not always been at the cost of something, at the cost others, at the cost of society and the environment. Isn't a dictator an individualist, isn't each a country an individualist, isn't a rouge trader an individualist, isn't each religion an individualist, isn't an organization an individualist, all of them acting selfishly in self interest as their sole moral duty.

4.) No Requirement for Co-Operation: Since a player is always driven by self interest, he owe's nothing to his ecosystem, his creation/ decision are his own intellectual property. This would imply sum of all human knowledge/ achievements/ emotions exists in all individuals for them to be exist successfully. Everyone has an Einstein, Newton, Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci and therefore there is no actual exchange/ transfer of resources/ knowledge between different elements in the ecosystem which includes nature, human society, environment. It also implies players are separate from their ecosystem, players therefore can infinitely exploit natural resources motivated by self interest. No requirement for co-operation is not the same as a non-cooperative system, later has choice, former doesn't.

The tenets of individualism violate many principles of natural laws, spirituality and even science like Game theory

1.) Resources are not unlimited, individualism cannot thrive if this criteria fails. Resources are not one individuals property. Individuals don't own nature, but nature owns them.

2.) It establishes individuals are separate from their ecosystem, separate from nature, they don't inherit or absorb anything from their society and thus owe nothing back. It defines any interaction/ transfer between humans let it be knowledge/ emotions/ relations as a simple give vs take transaction.

3.) If not all most animals, humans included widely have herd behavior encoded in their DNA, this is exhibited in natural tendency to form social structures like family, community, society, states, nations, also exhibited in all major aspects of human life. This nature is not unique to humans, it has been observed in the ape family, birds, bison, buffaloes, elephants even dolphins. So individualism is a clear denial of herd theory, its like denying gravity or saying gravity is bad.

4.) At this moment in time Collectivism in the form of Socialism and Individualism in the form of Capitalism view resources and human contention by ownership of these resources, which is egoistic. Eastern Spiritual philosophy or Native Indian (American) way of life which doesn't separate humans from the resources, elements of the nature, land thus is totally incoherent with Individualism. The level of contention of India and Native Indians(American) is higher.

5.) Humans tendency is to maximize their contention which is the objective of any philosophy. Individualism makes life a zero sum game, which infact is not the case. Individualism leads to unlimited upside of one individual at the cost of unlimited downside for other individual. The downside is not necessarily equal to the upside. Therefore making upside less then unlimited in certain cases i.e. upside is limited while downside in unlimited, thus making life a non zero sum game. The point being contention can occur in infinite combination of states, there are other states of upside results or relative upsides. It establishes humans as not intelligent enough to realize relative contention and only salvation to individual contention is the one which is absolute e.g. A human can be content with no money, $1 MM, $10 MM or not even with $Infinite MM. The concept of relative contention is exhibited in Iterated Prisoners Dilemma Game.

6.) It makes humans replaceable resource, one human can be replaced by another human.

7.) The whole concept of "I Don't Owe / Should I Sacrifice?" is just an ego, whether a player acknowledges or not there is constant flow of equal/unequal transactions (not just Give and take)/ transfer of knowledge/ Energy/ Emotions/ Thoughts/ Idea etc that is flowing between them, its a stream of energy. You can never measure what you Owe to the whole ecosystem or what ecosystem owes to you. We are all connected to each other, to the nature, to the greater universe there is always a constant flow of resources/ energy/ thoughts/ ideas/ emotions etc whether we acknowledge or not and therefore the question of "Do I Owe?" is not only incorrect but irrelevant. Sun keeps giving us energy whether an Individualist want to receive it or not, whether he wants to acknowledge it or not, so the question of "Do I Owe to acknowledge or do something about it, pray bow to sun?" is absurd. This applies to all humans in their daily life with respect to their existence in a relations, family, society etc. Any act to ask or answer such question is just driven by ego, greed, weakness etc.

Ayn Rand tenets were mainly inspired by the fact that Socialism led to suppression of creativity of individuals, for the sake of society. There are all sort of merit in Ayn Rand's work courage; literary and philosophical merits. Philosophically she was able to invert the Collectivism pyramid, her answer to Collectivism was Individualism and off course if its tenets were not driven by overall contention of the society, it wouldn't have had such a great impact on our modern society. Her work is good quality literature, her ability to imagine, and portray graphical images in minds of readers as if they were part of the scene is mesmerizing. Her courage and ability of correctly identifying the drawbacks of collectivism, and provide such deeply thought and radical philosophy of individualism for the time as a solution. The overly relaxed assumptions (perhaps based on the knowledge and events of that era) attracted people to understand and readily accept it. Ayn Rand was certainly a individualist, was she selfish, egoistic; well as much as individualism prescribed. The implication of her work still continue to impact us in both good and bad ways, the Alan Greenspan era being one of them, modern Credit Crisis being another, where individuals are driven by only self interest at the cost of countless unrelated individuals, though this was certainly not the kind of individualism Ayn Rand herself would have conceived. On the other hand such a philosophy helped society break out of shackles of controls like Socialism, Anti Feminism etc.

Strange Days On Earth - Global Warming & The Vanishing Race

2009-07-10T18:27:00.001-07:00

Strange Days on Earth - Global Warming & the Vanishing Race

Vinayak Marwah

Introduction

These are strange days on Earth. Our planet is changing rapidly. We are going to experience some of the most rapid and diverse changes in nature like no human has ever experienced before. The stage is set, unforeseen phenomenon are happening around us and they are all interlinked. The only way to understand the phenomenon let alone forecasting them is to find the connection, the link between geographically distributed, physically differentiated problems.

What Are We Talking About?

It’s been observed across the globe how species as small as a microbial bacteria to larger mammals are going extinct each day. Extinction is not just related to human poaching and hunting, something not so obvious is killing these species. Could it be global warming, if yes, then the question lies can life evolve and adapt faster than the rate at which temperature of our globe increase. Life is rapidly being pushed to limit of their survival.

We are talking about infiltration of invasive species, dwindling aquatic life, dying coral reefs. Last century has seen a massive almost 90% decline in aquatic biodiversity in our vast oceans, declining population of animals and plants, tremendous increase in occurrence of rare disease, Signs of new diseases that are not native to the region.

Clues of seeming unrelated, unconnected events across the globe are telling a different story. Studies have been able to establish that phenomenons around the world are connected. Our dependence on energy weather its hydroelectric, nuclear, coal & hydrocarbon based has triggered climate change. Natural events like gigantic dust clouds from Africa on the Atlantic, Tsunamis, hurricanes with speed greater than 250 Km/hour, reversed monsoon patterns, excessive precipitation, global warming, flash floods, landslides, draught, desertification, and increase in fresh water levels are now the new regime of patterns in our climate.

The Changes & the Effects

Humans are inducing pollution into the environment. Pollution is directly or indirectly triggering changes in almost all natural cycles whether it is Earths Wind System or Earths Ocean System. Earths Wind System is responsible for various phenomenons like precipitation in the form of rain, snow. Earths Ocean System is responsible for earth’s temperature, seasons; it influences earth’s wind system. What has been observed is both of these cycles have changed more dramatically over past one century than ever before, even more alarming is that these systems have or seem to have been reversed.

The heat is accumulating in the global environmental system unevenly. An increased temperature leads to melting of the ice and glaciers. The fresh waters from these melts have lead to increase in water levels, floods, landslides. Increased water leads to increase in mosquitoes, rotting of vegetation, increase in water borne diseases in all species of plants and animals in the region. In winter the same increase in fresh water leads to increase the precipitation in the form of snow & rain. Increased snow leads to decline and unavailability of vegetation for the herbivorous animals in the region. Starvation and disease resulting from this famine decreases the population of herbivorous animals. In turn this decrease in the population of herbivorous animals, translates in shortage of food for animals higher in the food chain, the carnivorous animals including humans. Such is the fate of the northern regions of our planets like the north arctic belt, Alaska many places witnessing an increase in temperature as high as 11 degree Fahrenheit. This has resulted in the decline of porcupine caribou population in the western arctic by one third since 1989. Is this decline a natural phenomenon or evidence that a species is struggling to cope with the changes to the climate?

Ocean constitutes 70% of the Earth’s surface. The reversal of ocean cycles is a natural phenomenon that occurs every 20 - 30 years, though now global warming has increased the temperature range, and frequency and severity of these cycles. Studies found out Global warming is influencing phenomenon like reversal of Gulf Stream flows, thereby disturbing the whole aquatic ecosystem. The reversal of Gulf Stream affects availability and flow of nutrition to the shores and reefs, which in turn is affecting the marine life, which is dependent on it. Zooplankton is central to the aquatic life, it’s directly or indirectly food to all marine life. By 1980 - 1990 Zooplankton population plummeted by 80% from their levels in 1950, but this was followed by a massive increase in zooplankton population. Since this counter phenomenon could not explained by natural cycles, studies were conclusively able to link it to Global warming. The decline of zooplankton has lead to very rapid & sharp changes to marine life. Dwindling aquatic life, dying coral reefs are being observed across the globes. Marine life is experiencing rapid and extreme range of temperature shifts, pushing even the toughest species on the brink of survival. Not just that massive fishing has in the period from 20 – 70 lead to decrease of small as well as big fishes in world seas. In just one decade since the inventions of trailers we have been able to successfully reduce marine life population has been reduced by 90%.

As water increases in certain region, other regions are experiencing shrinking of the water bodies there, for instance Lake Chad Africa's great lake is reduced to less than 20% in just over the last decade. This leads to desertification. Dust from these deserts lead to huge dust storms and gigantic dust clouds carried from regions separated by oceans & continents. Triggering increase in diseases like asthma, disease in sea weeds in the new regions where dust lands. This triggers a chain of events affecting all the life forms higher up in the chain. Even though dust has been flowing across from Africa to Americas from millenniums, the recent changes are explained by the changes to the earth’s wind systems, responsible for precipitation. Once an unpredictable random system throughout life, in recent decades has started showing patterns. Computer Climate modeling and simulation were able to correctly identify CO2 levels as the reason for these changes in behavior of these massive atmospheric systems. Increase in temperatures over Indian oceans lead to increased precipitation and increased heat in that region, that perturbs to distant pacific and Atlantic oceans triggering changes all over the planet.

The Connections And The Future

The earth’s climate system consist of massive Ocean, Atmospheric wind systems. These climate systems , cycles of water, wind, seasons are in turn are interconnected with the bio systems and life itself, each influencing and balancing out each other in an natural implicit, seemingly unconnected ways. Imbalance caused by Human activities is pushing these delicately balanced interconnected system beyond their tipping point and resulting in strange, unpredictable some times subtle and many a times devastating changes to our planet. Even subtle changes in one climate system in one region has a rippling effect triggering a set of unknown, unpredictable changes in climate system across the globe.

It’s like a chain reaction; one phenomenon triggers of another. Pollution is considered as a major reason for Global warming. Our use of polluting hydrocarbons has lead to massive increase in CO2. The presence of high contents of green house gases like CO2 has lead to a dramatic increase in earth’s average temperature by almost 1F. This small increase is having a diverse and widespread effect of our planet.

The temperature increase is an exponential phenomenon, what that means is average temperature of the globe will rise three to time times more this century than the last. A wide range of plants and animal species would not be able to survive such rapid diverse changes to the climate.

The occurrence of bad years, weather change are rare, gradual and sporadic events this enables the life beaten down by one bad season to re bout, evolve, adapt and grow stronger. But when the frequency of such bad years increase, life is unable to adapt at such fast rate, and ultimately perish.

Our response to human impact on climate change today is the key to future generation. We should all give it a thought, how would future generations react to our response today to global warming? What should we give up today, to limit such drastic changes to our environment? What ultimate price in terms of horrific weather phenomenon, spread of diseases, floods & draughts, famines, extinction of communities and communities of plants and animals are we willing to pay before we decide?

Our investments today in protecting our environment by the means of efficient energy consumptions, lower consumption, development of local self sustaining communities, is the best insurance for our generations to come.

Is it natural evolution?

Evolution is inevitable natural phenomenon. Most of the changes that we are seeing now around are consequences of human activities. So the question remains whether all human activities that are changing the face of the earth are a natural part of earth’s evolution cycle or is it violation of all fundamental laws of nature i.e. how does human activities fit into the evolution theory model? What I am trying to convey is that most of the evolution in nature around us are imposed by human activities rather than by nature itself, the plants, the animals, the whole ecology is adapting according to human activities.

Strange Days On Earth - Invasive Species

2009-07-09T21:24:00.001-07:00

Strange Days On Earth - Invasive Species

Vinayak Marwah

Introduction

These are strange days on Earth. Our planet is changing rapidly. We are going to experience some of the most rapid and diverse changes in nature like no human has ever experienced before. The stage is set, unforeseen phenomenon are happening around us and they are all interlinked. The only way to understand the phenomenon let alone forecasting them is to find the connection, the link betweengeographically distributed, physically differentiatedproblems.

What Are We Talking About?

There is a strange phenomenon, being observed all over the planet, where species of plants and animals from one region have managed to cross seas & land masses. The only problem is these species were never meant to be in these regions. This invasion of alien species has lead to complete change of ecology of the regions they have invaded, eliminating local species, spreading diseases,.devouring man made and natural structures.

Species are in general curious, take humans for example. Humans have manged to migrate thousands of miles and establish themselves in remotest corners of the planet. Opportunity for species to migrate at these gigantic scales was limited through out the history of life. Big animals would carry small animals for short distances, moment was small and rare. Then humans developed these massive Global delivery systems of planes, trains, ships which transports different species from one remote corner of the planet to another. It has enabled these species to leap frog across impossible barriers.

Natural Selection, man made structures, and ability of life to evolve and adapt has enabled invasive species to thrivesuccessfully in areas they never inhabited before. As the species adapt to its new ecology, it becomes stronger and more resistant. Note that's not just the problem, a crucial element is missing from this picture - the natural predator. As the alien spices plant themselves in a new region its natural predator is missing in this new ecology. This leads to an imbalance and uncontrolledgrowth of the invasive species. An estimated 90% biodiversityin many regions with high human transportation activity is alien.

Bio control experiments of introducing one alien species to fight another alien species has just created more serious problems. Its a lesson for people every where, its easier to bring in an alien species but almost impossible to remove it.

The Effects & The Connection

Termites in boxes made of wood in China & japan wrecking havoc in New Orleans, leading to billions of dollars in property damage, and costing even more to prevent further expansion. Termites are smallindividually, but tend work in groups, in groups these insects are unfathomable destructive force, capable of bringing down a house, sink boats, wipe out entire forest & vegetation in that region.

Other instances were the early 1900 invasion of termites & destruction of billions of dollars of property in New Orleans area. 1929 invasion of Mediterranean fruit flies in California has costed more than a billion dollars a year in crop damages. In 1980 invasion of Zebra mussels from the Caspian see clogged hydro - plumbing installations, pipes in the great lakes costing billions of dollars.

Lake Victoria, Uganda, Nile Perch crocodile was introduced in 1950, following the introduction of this alien species, 200 species of fishes unique only to this region went extinct. Once the supply of fishes in the lake dwindled there has been massive increase in fatal crock attacks on humans, fisherman fishing in the lakes.

Water hyacinth was spotted in lake Victoria in 1989, by 1999 80% of the Ugandan shoreline was clogged by this alien plant. It lead to decline in fishes in the lake, catch became meagre, a famine threatened Uganda. Rotting vegetation, poisoned water, leading to wide spread of water borne infectious diseases like malaria, dysentery, increase in mosquitoes. With no natural predator this plant thrived in lake Victoria.

The Future

Such rapid globalization of life is unnatural and unprecedentedin the history of this planet. Its an ever increasing phenomenon, spreading across all countries, continents. The invasion of species has led to an extinction of epic scales. Human beings careless, ignorant andunconscious consumerism, gave us technology to move at large and fast. As we discover the destructive power of this problem, How do we address it? As a society , consumer, travelers what more cost are we willing to pay before we mend our ways?

Is it natural evolution?

Evolution is inevitable natural phenomenon. Most of the changes that we are seeing now around are consequencesof human activities. So the question remains whether all human activities that are changing the face of the earth are a natural part of earths evolution cycle or is it violation of all fundamental laws of nature i.e. How does human activities fit into the evolution theory model? What I am trying to convey is that most of the evolution in nature around us are imposed by human activities rather than by nature itself, the plants, the animals, the whole ecology is adapting according to human activities.

Vaishnav Jan - Living For Something More Than Just Yourself

2009-06-21T20:00:00.001-07:00

Vaishnav Jan To - Narsinh Mehta (1414 - 1481)

Wikiepdia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishnav_jan_to

Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBVYAup80AA

Vaishnav jan to is a very popular Hindu bhajan from Gujarat that was a favorite of Mahatma Gandhi's.

Vaishnav Jan To Tene Kahiye Je (One who is a vaishnav)

Peed Paraayi Jaanay Rey (Knows the pain of others)

Par Dukhkhe Upkaar Kare Toye (Does good to others, esp. to those ones who are in misery)

Maan Abhimaan Na Aye (Does not let pride enter his mind)

Sakal Lok Maan Sahune Vande (A Vaishnav, Tolerates and praises the the entire world)

Nindaa Na Kare Keni Rey (Does not say bad things about anyone)

Vaach Kaachh Maan Nishchal Raakhe (Keeps their words, actions and thoughts pure)

Dhan Dhan Janani Teni Rey (O Vaishnav, your mother is blessed)

Vaishnav Jan To Tene Kahiye Je (One who is a vaishnav)
Peed Paraayi Jaanay Rey (Knows the pain of others)
Par Dukhkhe Upkaar Kare Toye (Does good to others, esp. to those ones who are in misery)
Maan Abhimaan Na Aye (Does not let pride enter his mind)

Sam-Drishti Ne Trishna Tyaagi (A Vaishnav sees everything equally, rejects greed and avarice)

Par-Stree Jene Maat Rey (Considers some one else's wife/daughter as his mother)

Jivha Thaki Asatya Na Bole (The toungue may get tired, but will never speak lies)

Par-Dhan Nav Jhaalee Haath Rey (Does not even touch someone else's property)

Moh-Maaya Vyaape Nahi Jene (A Vaishnav does not succumb to worldly attachments)

Dridh vairaagya Jena Man Maan Rey (Who has devoted himself to stauch detachment to worldly pleasures)

Ram Naam Shoon Taali Laagi (Who has been edicted to the elixir coming by the name of Ram)

Sakal Tirath Tena Tan Maan Rey (For whom all the religious sites are in the mind)

Van-Lobhi Ne Kapat-Rahit Chhe (Who has no greed and deciet)

Kaam-Krodh Nivaarya Re (Who has renounced lust of all types and anger)

Bhane Narsaiyyo Tenun Darshan Karta (The poet Narsi will like to see such a person)

Kul Ekoter Taarya Rey (By who's virtue, the entire family gets salvation)

Gandhi Ji's Talisman

2009-06-21T18:32:00.001-07:00

Gandhi ji's Talisman

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj [Self Rule] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away." - Mahatma Gandhi

I read this thought all through my school life, in every NCERT book :-). The thought of thinking about others, scared me as a kid. Once out of school forgot about it. But somehow this thought kept troubling me unconsciously at every step of my life without even remembering it.

Today when I have acquired more worldly things I can possibly use (still counting and perhaps forever will I don't know) and I still feel there is something missing. The Talisman came again to haunt me, to bother me, provoke me, fight myself, question myself (not fair :-) ), but this time despite all the internal struggle I am going through because of this ideology, I am happy after a long long time and it makes me want to take the challenge it has put in front of me and do something about it. Rediscover myself, my roots.

Have we actually attained Swaraj after 60 years, we attained freedom from the British Empire. But no we didn't attained self rule. Till the last person lives his life under destitution, poverty, fear, discrimination can we actually claim Swaraj?

Swaraj would be when each individual rules himself, a person can only rule is he has no fear, No fear of destitution, no fear of poverty, no fear of discrimination. Fear instigate hatred and violence. Ahimsa & Swaraj can only be attained if we are able to take control of our own fears. Only if we treat others (humans, plant & animals) with equality & respect irrespective of their origin, color, religion, big or small, rich or poor; all as the children of the same God (whatever you call him Yesus, Allah, Rab, Ishwar). The day when we are able to truthfully master the fear inside each of us which keep failing us so often, finally we'll be truly free.

Reaching out to others never crosses your mind unless you yourself are going through some kind of pain. The only thing that can heal you through your pain then is when you are able to reach out to others in pain and help them restore their broken lives. We are all in this together.

If the human race has to progress the growth & development has to be inclusive and not exclusive, oneness of human growth and his environment, not a soul left behind, each soul empowered to empower others.

Punjabi By Nature - Delhi Food (Draft... working on it)

2007-11-20T21:39:00.001-08:00

I still remember living in Delhi, India. its been almost 4 years now that I have been away from my home, my love Delhi. Punjabi's by nature are people who relish life to an extent it might seem fatal to most westerners.

For instance if you look at Punjabi food, its mostly spicy, fried delicacies, for that matter even a something as simple as Dal (Lentil Soup) is a Dal fry. Everything with an extra dollop of Ghee, Butter, Cream has to be a Punjabi delicacy.

Even a bite of light Punjabi snack is enough to give calorie conscious "Goras" a freaking panic attack. For instance my favorite morning snack "Cholay Bhaturay" is nothing but "Kabuli Channay" (Chick Peas) cooked in ghee and spices, garnished with diced "Aloo" (Potato) and cubes of "Paneer" (Cottage Cheese) . It's served with Bhatura which is essentially a deep fried flour bread. To Jazz it up a bit more you have "Aam ka Achar" (Spicy Mango Pickle) , "Gajjar Ka Achar" (Spicy Carrot Pickle) and on the Onion and Cucumber salad served on the side. All of this is topped with a tall glass of cold "Matha" (Salted Butter Milk) . Well thats some breakfast, I mean down here in Chicago eating Pancakes for breakfast everyday is like fasting.

Then there is the "Samosa", the tea time snack for the morning... then the 11:00 o clock... then the 2:00 o clock and also the 4:00 o clock and then finally just before moving out of office 6:00 o clock tea . It's not just a tea time snack, it's the most essential dish served on all possible occasions right when you have guests over, "rokas", engagements, marriages etc. I mean its everywhere and since I have come to realize it I mean I can't imagine an Indian social gathering which maybe just one guy or a whole battalion, and no samosa's being served.

The defining characterstic of this snack beverage combo is not just the deep fried samosa served with Refreshing "Pudhina chutney" (Mint chutney with coriander and green chillis) and "Sweet Sonth chutney" (Jaggery, Imli, and Sonf) , but even the tea has to have atleast 2 teaspoon of sugar in it. Its a made for each other combo, one to give you a coronary disease other to complement it with diabities :-). Nah just kidding we Punjabi's seem essentially immune to most of such diseases even if they are not they are essentially comfortable with them compared to their other problems, which by the way are lot.

Then there is "Dal Makhani" (Lentil Soup), served in almost all resturant in north India right from Dhabas (a kind of Truckers Joint open all night long) along the National Highways between Delhi - Punjab - Haryana - Jaipur; to the most exquisite Indian 5 star hotels in the country and abroad. Dal Makhani is primarily taken for dinner or even lunch with hot "Tandoori Roti" served right out of the "Tandoor" (owen). What makes the Dal Makhani even more special than any other dal is the garnishing that goes into it sprinkled with finely chopped Dhania (Coriander), grated "Paneer" (Cottage Cheese), fine chopped ginger strips, chopped green chillies and dollops and dollops of fresh white butter and liberal quantity of sour cream that goes into it when the dal is being prepared making it an amazingly rich delicacy.

That reminds of the other day when I thought lets cook some dal makhani, so I asked the guys to get some urad dal when ever they goto Devon Avenue next time, explicitly wrote it and explained verbally too what is urad dal and how it looks etc. Anyways so next weekend when these guys come back from Devon they have urad dal for me, they are excited it's been almost a year in Chicago and haven't had Dal makhani. I mean it's all over there face a feeling of accomplishment you know we worked hard to have some dal makhani. And then I see the packet and the Dal is white, and it did it's urad dal, and I am like WTF, Dude is this what you were supposed to get but then he was like it say right there on the cover it's urad dal. Then I tell him it was supposed to be black and he's got one thats been processed, WTF do I prepare from it a "vada" (South Indian delicacy made out of coarsely grounded processed urad dal, which is deep friend kind of a salted dough nut) and I cannot prepare make Dal makhani with this and then the other guys look at him and just charge at him since nobody is getting any Dal Makhani atleast that day. It was funny most of us Indian guys are jerks when it comes to cooking I mean forget about cooking even getting the stuff from the market is a nightmare for us and for our better halves who are supposed to make something out of it.

Then some other butter dishes like "Shahi Paneer", "Butter Paneer Masala", "Paneer Pasanda" all cooked (actually garnished with exuberant quantities of paneer :-)) with paneer(Cottage cheese) as if butter wasn't enough to trigger a coronary blockage. Punjabi's love meat lamb curry, chicken curry, tandoori chicken, fish. Who hasn't heard of the world famous Indian butter dish garnished with meat, the very mouth watering Chicken makhani or Butter Chicken. But than its all about enjoying life, what better way than eating rich amazing punjabi food.

I grew up eating Churi/Paratha (IndianBread) with home made butter in morning for breakfast. Than on Saturdays and Sundays we aternated Rajma chawal, Dal Makhani, Aloo Puri, Butter Chicken and my favorite mutton curry

But amazingly not that many Punjabi's seem to be having coronary problems considering their cholesterol loaded diets.

Spontaneous Samosa

Spontaneous:

Pronunciation:\spän-ˈtā-nē-əs\
Etymology:Late Latin spontaneus, from Latin sponte of one's free will, voluntarily

1: proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint
2 : arising from a momentary impulse

Samosa:

Pronunciation:\sə-ˈmō-sə\
Etymology:Hindi samosā & Urdu samosa, sambūsa, from Persian sambūsa

1: a small triangular pastry filled with spiced meat or vegetables and fried in ghee or oil.

Strange Days On Earth: Part 1

2007-04-23T02:45:00.001-07:00

Strange Days On Earth - Part 1
By
Vinayak Marwah (Drafting)

Introduction

These are strange days on Earth. Our planet is changing rapidly. We are going to experience some of the most rapid and diverse changes in nature like no human has ever experienced before. The stage is set, unforeseen phenomenon are happening around us and they are all interlinked. The only way to understand the phenomenon let alone forecasting them is to find the connection, the link between geographically distributed, physically differentiated problems.

What Are We Talking About?

We are talking about Tsunamis, hurricanes with speed greater than 250 Km/hour, reversed monsoon patters, excessive precipitation, global warming, flash floods, draught, desertification, increase in fresh water levels, infiltration of invasive species, dwindling aquatic life, dying coral reefs.

Is it natural evolution?

Evolution is inevitable natural phenomenon. Most of the changes that we are seeing now around are consequences of human activities. So the question remains whether all human activities that are changing the face of the earth are a natural part of earths evolution cycle or is it violation of all fundamental laws of nature i.e. How does human activities fit into the evolution theory model? What I am trying to convey is that most of the evolution in nature around us are imposed by human activities rather than by nature itself, the plants, the animals, the whole ecology is adapting according to human activities.

The change?

Such changes are triggering phenomenon like reversal of Gulf Stream flows, thereby disturbing the whole aquatic ecosystem. The reversal of Gulf Stream affects availability and flow of nutrition to the shores and reefs, which in turn is affecting the marine life, which is dependent on it.. Dwindling aquatic life, dying coral reefs are being observed across the globes. Ocean constitutes 70% of the Earth’s surface. Massive fishing has in the period from 20 – 70 lead to decrease of small as well as big fishes in world seas. In just one decade since the inventions of trailers we have been able to successfully reduce marine life population has been reduced by 90%.

The connections?

It’s like a chain reaction; one phenomenon triggers of another. Pollution is considered as a major reason for Global warming. The presence of high contents of green house gases like CO2 has lead to a dramatic increase in earth’s average temperature.

Flashes Of Visions Of Future & Beyond

2005-12-15T23:50:00.001-08:00

Flashes of Visions Of Future & Beyond
By
Vinayak Marwah

Right from days of sputnik ( Russian satellite ) to today’s advanced geo - stationary satellites , GPS satellites , remote sensing satellites ; from days when computers were as big as ENIAC to today’s wearable computers ; from genius graham bells’ first telephone or way back to Samuels Morse code days to today’s palm sized mobile communication systems brain child of Martin Cooper at Motorola & others . This all has been possible with the invention of transistors which ultimately evolved into a mere component of micro chips. With discovery of new fabricating materials ( Ga-As ) which addresses to factors like size , power ,speed & capabilities efficiently & techniques like VLSI & ULSI have made it possible to have full large scale systems which one existed as huge isolated systems as a embedded small chip probably with cost & dimensions of a penny . Chip design technologies have come a long way, but yet again a lot more can be conquered. The quest is to conquer challenges like functionality , interactivity , mobility , storage capacity , speed , power dissipation , physical characters tics like ( weight , material , size ) , intelligence , fault tolerance , extensibility , scalability , applicability , economics & above all whether the technology actually connects with people , does it actually serve a useful or any purpose at all .

Take a look into my vision of future of man made tecnologies, imagine technologies which are not limited by the boundaries of just tactical interaction, but new improved sophisticated interactive systems capable of communicating using possible every sensory experience from sight to sound, to a mere thought in your mind to an expression on your face, from your physical characteristics (color of your eyes) to natural bio - chemical interaction. Systems small enough to be worn as jewelry or a watch , powerful & fast enough to be a wearable personal computer , networked so as to defeat geographical boundaries & distances , smart enough to complement if not supplement humans , economical enough so as to be accessible beyond various economical , social & technological divides , social enough to be embedded into / onto humans , to be an indispensable object part of your daily life . Imagine systems size of a mobile set or even smaller capable of interacting / communicating with you through your mere expression on your face , or your sound , grip , or even thoughts ( waves ) or may be like trees communicate through bio chemical emissions , smell . Imagine communication systems where you are able to communicate & share your world exactly as you see & may be feel with people separated by vast geographical distances. Virtual reality based systems to render you unimaginable & maybe impossible experiences. Imagine systems capable of understanding & conveying what you want to communicate you overcoming linguistic barrier. The vision goes much more beyond this & has more gizmos to amaze you, but reality waits.

But questions still exists “are we trying to be self proclaimed gods? “& “is technology an endless race to make life simpler by making it more complex? “. Answers to all our queries reside in the nature surrounding us, its just our perception how we see it. All human technologies are inspired or infact copies simulating phenomenon in nature. Like in any other technology ; to expand our horizon , to find solutions to questions like creativity , application , economics & how & what of this technologies all we need to do is take a look around into the diverse & complex nature that surrounds us .

Inside Corporate DNA : Values

2005-05-12T22:29:00.001-07:00

Friday, July 29, 2005
INSIDE CORPORATE DNA : VALUES
By
Vinayak Marwah

DNA is a strand of life, the most basic unit of life that defines both physical & behavioral characteristics of a living organism. A DNA is mutable; it can be modified to achieve desired characteristics. The process & results of mutating are well dictated by laws in science , but not much is actually known about hidden domino like after effects on other parts of DNA which are not to be modified . Thus from a probabilistic point of view the results if not completely then to a certain extent are uncertain, which would imply that there is an equal probability of a catastrophic disaster.

An organization is an organic system , its a complex of large diverse sample spaces of Principles & Practices . An Organization is a living organism, which breeds on the inputs such as principles & practices of the people who form the part of the organization i.e. its employees & of those it servers i.e. the community which includes consumer. It evolves & grows just like any other organism . “Principless” , “Values” , “Beliefs” , “Percepts” all synonyms , are the building blocks - “strands of life” of an organization . The “value system” is a DNA of an organization. While “Practices” , “Process” are physical interpretation or characteristics of an organization defined by its DNA , mutated by the environmental factors like Socio – Cultural value system of people ( both Employees , Community which includes consumers ) , Economical - Political – Legislative systems , Market dynamics & Natural Environment . Most of these factors are impossible or difficult to control & prevail simultaneously & continuously with varying intensities.

As it hold true for any other organism , the Darwin’s “Theory Of Evolution” also holds true for any organization . In Analogy to Darwin’s Theory , All organization have a “Common Descent” , they have similar constituents like “Principles & Practices” inherited from their ancestors , though these constituents differ from one organization to another again dictated by internal & external environment . Also the theory Of “Natural Selection” , “Survival Of The Fittest” hold very true . Evolution is the process of adaptation & variation induced in an organism by internal & external environmental variables. A resistance or an inability of an organization of evolve may lead to failure or even extinction of the organization, while other organization which were flexible & dynamic enough to accept changes, flourish & grow.

A pure “Top – down” evolutionary system which involves direct dictation of Principles & practices & changes to it becomes difficult as organisms evolve into smarter & stronger offspring’s , which becomes resistant to some mutating factors . In context of an organization management , considering that an organization is a pool diverse sample space of people a dictatorial approach has many times lead to oppression , suffocation , inefficiency , retardedness & restricted innovation & thus hindered growth & many a times lead to collapse of an organization . For instance USSR as an organization collapsed in 1991 under dictatorial communist government, it did not collapse because it opened floodgates for changes it collapsed due to cynics to it & also to the fact that these changes were due over long time, thus bringing about a collapse to a 72 year old organization. In this modern society where people are much more stronger & smarter , which is implied by Scientific breakthroughs , Universal Standardization Of Socio – Legislative Systems, Labor Laws , Democracy , Internationalization one can’t expect people to be dictated . Apart Principles & its direct implication Practices of an organization are contributions of employees & to a certain extent community , so why restrict it only a small set of people like management & political bodies .

A pure “Bottom – Up” evolutionary system is totally impractical & perhaps non existent at least in nature. If it were , it would have been changes induced in organism as per its own free will , or infact absolutely no changes due to resistive will of an organism which will eventually lead to extinction . In context of an organization management, such a free will would imply large incoherent, incompatible & unmanageable value system, which would actually consist of all the good & bad virtues speaking relatively. Thus leading to dissonance & frictious environment in the organization & thus act as a negative catalyst in the evolutionary process of the organization. The organization would have a gaseous physical characteristics & no absolute shape or direction would eventually lead to the collapse of the organization.

Thus equilibrium between the two approaches has to be attained to achieve a dynamic & harmonious evolutionary system. The “Top – Down” approach should dictate a minimal set of commonly accepted values , while using “Bottom – Up” approach giving freedom & room for people to contribute individualistic values compatible to organizational value system based on various environmental factors as already discussed . Thus a “Value System” of an organization is thus nothing but a compatible if not common belief system which can coexist without leading to any friction or dissonance & thus act as a positive catalyst in the evolutionary process of the organization. The empirical relation between Principles, Policies & Practices if can be formulated, can be expressed as follow:

F (Principles, Mutating Factors) = Policies ----------------------------1.
F (Policies) = Practices -------------------------------------------------------------2.

The type of relation between Principles & Policies and Policies & Practices, act as indicators of positive or negative catalyst in the evolutionary process of an organization. A “One To One” relation amongst Principles, Policies & Practices with a finite range of input values yields an ideal corporate environment for success of an organization. So the question is , “How Much Of The Principles Are Actually Mapped To Concrete Policies And How Much Of These Policies Are Effectively Mapped To Practices In An Organization ?” . Or in other words “How Much of What We Believe We Say & How Much of What We Say We Implement?” Empirical studies suggest that the degree of one to one mapping between principles & policies is higher compared to mapping between policies & practices . So does that suggest ““Values”, “Principles” By Which All Organizations Swears By Are Nothing More Than Feel Good Statements?” The answer to the question above has always been an issue of debate , where some claim “Values” are much more than just “Feel Good Statements” & all organization work toward bridging the gap between policies & practices , while others claim they are nothing more than “Idealistic Views” which are questionable & are to good or impractical to be practiced in these modern times . But studies have revealed that all successful firms to name a few IBM, GM, and GE abide by the former group & emphasize strongly on “Corporate Value System”, thus have been able to evolve successfully into modern corporates & still continue to evolve smoothly.

The bottom line is that, for any organization as for any other living organism Physical characteristics i.e. “Practices” are totally dictated by its DNA i.e. “Principles”. Corporate evolution is a never ending & continuous process of attaining the right degree of mapping between Principles, Policies & Practices. Evolution is a natural compulsory process & takes it own course.

Nationalism : Relevance Lost

2005-04-07T22:38:00.001-07:00

NATIONALISM: RELEVANCE LOST!
BY
VINAYAK MARWAH
(NOTE: INCOMPLETE FIRST IMPRESSION. FEEDBACK REQUESTED)

• Saying that “India Is The Greatest Nation Of All” would be like being severely blinded by extreme nationalism. The same nationalism that we all Indians vow by at all possible occasions. When we win , when we loose , when we are embarrassed , when we have this inferiority complex , when we showoff we flaunt our pride for our nations on our sleeves , yet we don’t actually realize that its not just believing but actually implementing & following in what we believe is what is really important . Yes we are as much, infact more nationalistic than people of any other nation but do we realize that how many of us actually uphold it. Nationalism is not just a virtue of feeling pride in your nation & believing “Your Nation Is The Greatest Of All” but is revolution that burns inside you to make a difference & to “Transform Your Nation Into Greatest Nation Of All”. What we should understand is being a “Great Nation” is not a “Destination” it’s “Journey - An Infinite Journey”, it’s a “Process”, it’s a “Caravan”.

• To understand what nationalism actually means the foremost thing required is to understand what our nation is all about “What India Is All About?”
“What Our Strengths & Weaknesses Are?” “How Do We Identify Ourselves?” & “What Do We As A Nation Offer This World?” or shall I say it this way in this era of globalization “What Is The USP Of Our Nation?” We as Indians for long time suffered the inferiority complex of being an “Indian – A Third World Developing Country Citizen.”, yet we have always flaunted extreme nationalism by saying “We are much cultured than others! Or Our Culture Is Better Than Others! Or We Got The Most Diverse Culture”. It’s a mask that we use to disguise the fact that we ourselves know we are nowhere near perfect. How can we actually question ones belief, ones culture when we ourselves can’t tolerate such invasion. How can we judge that what we believe is any way superior or better than what others believe? They believe in something because it works for them, we do the same for ourselves. They are advanced & are better of because they conceived the dream, the vision of transforming their nation into greatest nation of all & the worked really hard for it and they saw the results. Success didn’t come to them just out of the blues.

• Its amazing that we take pride in our nation even when the whole environment is polluted with with evils like Corruption , Illiteracy , Ever Increasing Population , Extreme Poverty , Orthodox Ideology , Superstition , Social Evils like Dowry , Child Marriage , Female Genocide , Religious Fanatism , Social Bias – Castism , Reservations . It’s like being proud of our shortcomings, our evils, our failures, our reasons of not to be. I’m not a Gandhian but I believe every single word the man said seemed right if not practical , I say he was “To Good , To Be True” . The India, the world this man conceived, now seems so simple yet beautiful. I’m not trying to say that latter will be better cause we are stuck in a moment & we just can’t get out of it. Coming to the solutions we have for these problems , would make any conscious Indian feel diminished . Instead of figuring out real solutions we enjoy pointing fingers, playing the blame game until the problem is forgotten at least until the next time. We blame our neighbors, we blame the politicians, we blame everyone but ourselves, we lack the basic etiquettes of assumed responsibilities, of delegation & sharing. Why can’t we realize that if we are the part of the problem, we have to be the part of the solution too? Some wise man once said “Every Problem, Confides In Itself Its Solution”. We complain but do nothing to end our miseries; we search for reasons & explanations, but not solutions. We as individuals are as much responsible for all our miseries , our problems as any other factor say God , Climate , Geography , Politicians , Neighbors , Foreign Hand , Colonialism , WTO , UN , USA .. I mean whatever you can blame .

• Now one might think , all said & done , what is the solution to all of it . Some one might suggest a Maha-Yagya , perhaps a Ramayana Path , or a voodoo ritual , or sacrifice ( Human sacrifice would be the most effective but it is replaceable with smarter organism ) , some might even suggest war with our neighbors on a milder side in a sarcastic way some might say a left government at center . I say these are all tried & tested techniques & I shouldn’t dare doubt them , but for a change lets be innovative & do things a bit more scientifically this time round . First we must burn in our minds that “India Is Not The Greatest Nation Of All” , “But” & a very strong “But” which makes us unique & really great is that “We Got The Capability , The Reasons & The Force To Transform India Into The Greatest Nation In The World” all what is needed is a little change in attitude & a revolution . It certainly doesn’t mean changing ourselves & forgetting our roots , our roots are equally strong , divine & scientific as any one else’s .” , what is needed is , Is a face lift .

• What is required , Is for us to broaden our vision , think what we can do for our country rather than thinking wat our country can do for us to create a just , responsible & even if not equal than at least comparable society . We need to engineer a society free from any kind of reservation based on caste , religion , gender , language , creed & perhaps even ones economical status . The need is to empower people , empower suppressed classes , suppressed genders , economically suppressed segments of the society not by giving them subsidies or reservations . Subsidies & Reservation are only short term solutions , infact they are not even solutions , they are way to suppress rather than solve the problem . All this socio – economic development is possible only if we could provide the basic infrastructure which include electricity , water , land , roads & rails and info-communication for all . There is a need to educate people , a need to promote entrepreneurship , need to engineer & all this has to be done at grass root level , to be done in villages not just in cities . We have been gifted with a great vision , a dream of “Developed India : 2020 BC” lets all as engineers , doctors , architects , as a common man pledge to do the needful , lets all be engineers & be innovative lets learn & teach , educate , design & apply technology , re-engineer the socio-economic structure , filter our beliefs , bring about a change , a revolution & catapult India into the future as “The Greatest Nation Of All” . Lets Pledge .

• We have seen great reforms in the Telecom sector in past five year & its not wrong to say that what we witnessed in years 1999 – 2004 under BJP government was certainly an electronic revolution . But it’ll be unjustified to give credits to some ( BJP ) without mentioning the events which actually set the stage for these revolutions in Telecom \ Economy \ Banking \ Power Sectors that we are & will witness , it all started in 1992 with Congress Government led by PM P.V Narshima Rao with Manmohan Singh as the Finance Minister opened the flood gates by introducing Liberalization & Globalization . The list of appreciation is long but one person I would personally like to appreciate was Rajiv Gandhi , he was the young face of India a face that was as advance & as consumerist as anyone else flaunting his Raybans & Reebok shoes he gave us a dream a dream of technologically advanced & self reliant India , he pioneered the Telecom revolution by setting up CDOT , computerized computers to India , gave as vision of E-Governance , gave us the basic infrastructure where villages of India are as technologically advance as our metropolitans .

• Focusing on basic infrastructure the initiatives like Golden Quadilateral are already in progress but what moreis required is all villages should have atleast basic if not the best of the roads . The river joining project & irrigation & canaling projects need to be