Uncertainty's child - Part 1

I keep thinking about god and religion, and the relevance and importance of both in my life, thanks to the choices I've made till date in my personal life. I am not an atheist and I'm a Hindu who is fond of vinayagar but that has not stopped me from questioning the relevance of god and religion. Being a hindu has given me the freedom and liberty to even question my faith and god alike, unlike Christians or Muslims who do not have such privileges. I know questioning one's faith is a sin for Christians, for that matter, questioning even the Church is a sin for Christians, but as a Hindu I'm free to do all I want. There are no organisations, priests or imams who would control my thoughts and beliefs. In IT language I should say Hinduism is like open source.
Now back to the point of questioning the existence of god. I kinda realized that there is one thing that humans fear the most, Uncertainty. Uncertainty like luck is an abstract concept, it doe snot exist in this world as a physical entity that humans can counter. Uncertainty is something that even the world's powerful men have to live with and uncertainty has been there from time immemorial. I guess people in ancient times faced hell a lot of uncertainty than we do as modern humans. for instance everyday occurrences like night fall lead to uncertainty, therefore I feel humans started worshiping nature because they would've considered the uncertain nature as omnipotent and as something they cannot control or predict.
As times changed humans became accustomed to nature, seasons and excelled even in astronomy so I guess as humans unravelled the mysteries of nature, nature and the world around them that they worshipped did not seem so uncertain, so I guess humans started moving away from nature worship. As humans advanced they became organised, organisation did give humans the power to counter uncertainty. By being organised the early humans who roamed around as tribals countered the biggest uncertainty they faced during their times, survival. The advancement of humans into organized social animals gave them strength and courage to counter enemies, gather more food and consequently to survive. the birth of organized life sowed the seeds for the birth of religion and god.
Religion and god thrived from their inception mainly because of two reasons, one was that god and religion were an answer to the uncertainty faced by humans and two was that humans found that organisation gave them power. I would say that religion and god was something that started as a concept to provide solace to humans in an uncertain world and then ended up as outliving the purpose they were conceptualised for. Its a classic case of an idea or product being devised to full fill a purpose but was later used for a grander scheme.

bored and counting my days as an employed person

I'm writing this on a dull thursday afternoon. 2 more months for me to put my papers down. I've planned to be unemployed and useless from November this year till I leave to Netherlands in december later this year. After almost 4 years as a software professional I long for a break of a month or two, the privilege I used to have only during school days. I'm like a school kid now longing for the summer holidays.
My anticipation is more about the useless days ahead in november and december than about my MBA life in Rotterdam. People might just give me the stares for such a statement but thats how I feel now. I just wanna be a guy who can wake up as he wishes, have a breakfast of bread, mustard, muffins and poached eggs and then do unplanned things the whole day. This might sound like as though I'm aiming to be a recluse but I guess I'm just bored of the routine life that I've lead from 2005 in bangalore, going to office everyday on weekdays, going to hometown on a weekend every month, going around bangalore the other weekends. Just got bored man, I just wanna be carefree. I just wanna get up one day in november, brush, shit, bathe, have a heavy breakfast, go the the nearby shop, pickup juice and snacks, take my bike and go off to nandhi hills, sit on one of the benches at the edge of the hill top with a great panaromic view for hours doing nothing, do whatever I feel like doing the whole day and come back in the evening. I just don't want to think, plan and do anything for a day atleast man.

nothing serious

I guess I havent written anything at all here for a longggggggggggg time.The only guy who had some faith in me, Claxton would have given up on me that I would write anything here. Anyways, here I am writing again. The reason I stopped writing was because I was kinda busy with lots of things this year. Six months have passed in this year but I feel its been ages, till now its been a tumultous year, an eventful year I should say. Lots of financial and emotional drain, coinciding with the recession. Now don't think that I'm an investment banker.
I started this year with Chicken pox and followed it up with a broken tooth sometime in april and then rounded off my adventures with a fall from my bike and ended up bruised and scratched in june. so healthwise it has been adventurous but not a great experience I should say. My mom attributes all these to the house I live in, she says that from the time I rented it I've been having so many health problems. I know all this defies science and logic but you know science doesn't stand a chance before good old wisdom :-)
At the same time you know, I got an admission at RSM Erasmus Uni, Netherlands for an International MBA course, this was something of a career goal and I did achieve it, so I don't know if I should entirely blame the house :-) anyways, the house seems to have a brain of its own I guess.
Anyways, I'm moving out to a new house and new place in bangalore, frazer town and things are looking up these days. Have many things lined up leading to my course start in jan 2010. Planning to start dutch language classes from this weekend, I just hope dutch is interesting. Thats pretty much, and I also hope to keep writing.

Calvin and Hobbes

This Calvin and hobbes comic strip, brings fond memories about my school days. The summer holidays, called as the "Annual Exam Leave" was the most sought after one by every kid.

The Umbrella

The Umbrella is defined in the Wikipedia as "An umbrella or parasol (sometimes colloquially, gamp, brolly, or bumbershoot) is a canopy designed to protect against Precipitation or sunlight"

Once I was listing out a couple of objects around us, used by us, which haven't undergone major design changes over remembered time and the Umbrella was the first to pop up in my mind. Before I could even write about this "Evolution Stagnation" of the Umbrella I wanted to confirm if I am correct, so I googled for two kinds of Umbrellas, one, for the most modern ones available in the market and two, for the ancient ones documented.

The most modern umbrellas available can be found here and the oldest documented can be found here and I was correct, Umbrellas haven't evolved at all for over centuries together. There can be two explanations for this

1) The design of the Umbrella has been almost perfect for the need it was developed for, from the time of its invention, that it required no design development.
2) The need for its existence and further development has been overridden by many other inventions.

This second explanation is intriguing, because if its true it makes us go back and look at the need for the invention of the Umbrella.According to me, the evolution stagnation of the Umbrella can be because of both the above mentioned explanations.

1) The Umbrella is a perfect cover from Sun and Rain when used over a short period of time and distance.
2) Humans donot have the need to use it for over a long period of time or distance as cars and other covered vehicles have taken over the job of the Umbrella.

The Umbrella therfore is a classic case of a product where, "Need is limited but essential, so the product lives on but product development is unnecessary but is agreeable so there is design evolution stagnation"

Quantum of Solace

Appaloosa(2008)

I'm writing this after a while I guess, yeah more than a week since I wrote a new blog. Not that I was any busy but just that it didn't happen. I'm writing this on this monday night with a slight headache. Gaurav has a headache as well and he blamed it on the high winds blowing here. anyways, just wanted to write about the trailer of the new movie Appaloosa
Never have I been so impressed by a cowboy movie trailer, till Appaloosa came by today. I googled and found out that Appaloosa was a horse breed with leopardish spots on it, the name sounds red indianish though. There were 2 or 3 1970 hollywood movies as well in the same name. Appaloosa (2008) is what I am talking about.The impressive thing about the trailer is that it has been very well edited to showcase the crisp and superb dialogues in the movie. check this out for a sample

Man to Virgil Cole: You shot three of my men
Virgil Cole: As a matter of fact I only shot 2, Mr Hitch here shot the other one.( To which, hitch raises his peg of whisky in acknowledgement)

If you watch the trailer, every dialogue in it is thoroughly enjoyable, as I did.The Dialogues in the trailer gives a certain cowboy cool about this film. As a finishing touch to the trailer there is a dialogue which I am pasting here, I was so impressed by it that I have added it as my signature in my mail.

Virgil Cole : You afraid to die?
Man : I ain't afraid
Virgil Cole : Good, cos you go first!

I reckon this movie should be a good one that would show that good dialogues are as good enough as expensive graphic simulations that mostly adron movies these days, I feel the trailer is a proof. I am waiting to watch the movie.
The Trailer