Resurrection

Terceiro

2006-11-28T14:18:00.000+05:30

It has been really long since I blogged. Like most people I lose motivation too... So I am not motivated enough to continue writing about the "Soap Opera" (as one of my friends put it) which I has been the topic of my previous two posts. So today I am going to continue with my "Series of blogs on Philosophy"... I have decided to take my brother's advice and have decided to include 'Martin Heidegger' in the list of philosophers that I will talk about. Let me not waste time and start off right away: Plato... He was 29 years old when Socrates drank hemlock. He had been a pupil of Socrates for some time and had followed his trial very closely. The fact that Athens could condemn its noblest citizen to death did more than make an impression on him. It was to shape the course of his entire philosophic endeavor.
To Plato, the death of Socrates was a striking example of the conflict that can exist between society as t really is and the true or ideal society. Unlike the works of Socrates we believe that most of Plato's works remain in good shape. This is not in the least due to the fact that Plato set up his own school of Philosophy in a grove not far from Athens, named after the legendary Greek hero Academus. The school was therefore known as "Academy". (Since then the term has been used everywhere...)

What were the problems that Plato was concerned about?
Briefly, we can establish that Plato was concerned with the relationship between what is eternal and what is immutable. The idea that right and wrong "flowed" and are not fixed was totally unacceptable to Socrates. He believed in the existence of eternal and absolute rules for what was right or wrong. Then along comes Plato. He is concerned with both what is eternal and immutable in nature and in morals. To Plato, these problems were one and the same. He tried to grasp a reality which is both eternal and immutable.

Ok! Let us take one thing at a time. We are trying to understand one of the most influential brains that even functioned.
Plato believed that everything tangible in nature flows. Absolutely everything that belongs to the material world is made of a material that time can erode, but everything is made after a timeless mold or form that is eternal and immutable.

Do you see it? No you don't!
Ok! Let’s see... Why are Dogs all the same? You definitely don't agree that they are same at all. But there is something that all dogs have in common, something that enables us to identify then as dogs. A particular dog flows naturally. It might be old and lame, and in time it will die. But the "form" of the dog is eternal and immutable.
That, which is eternal and immutable to Plato, is therefore not a physical "basic substance".

If it still is not clear. Let me try explaining with an example.

You have a box of Lego and you build a Lego dog. You then take is apart and put the Lego blocks back in the box. You cannot expect to make a new dog, just by shaking the Lego box. How could Lego blocks of their own accord find each other and become a new dog again? No, you have to rebuild the dog. And the reason you can do it is that you have a picture in your mind of what the dog looked like. The Lego dog is made of a model which remains unchanged from dog to dog.

If you actually think how all the ginger bread men made by a baker look the same and you realize that it was so because of the same mold he used... they had a common origin. None of these men are perfect. But the mold in itself must have been perfect. And what is more you are seized by the immense desire to see the actual mold. Because clearly, the mold must be more beautiful that the copies of the ginger bread men.
Like most philosophers, Plato was astonished at the way all natural phenomena could be so alike. He concluded that it had to be because of the limited number of forms behind everything we see around us. Behind every horse, dog, human, there is an idea horse, idea dog or idea human. (Just like there is a mold for every ginger bread man)
Plato came to the conclusion that there must be a reality behind the "material world". He called this reality - "The World of Ideas"; this remarkable view is called the Plato's theory of ideas.

I hope you are following me. But must be thinking if Plato was being serious. Did he really believe in forms that existed in a completely different reality? He certainly did. Let us try and follow his train of thought...

A philosopher tries to grasp something that is eternal and immutable. It would serve no purpose for instance to write a philosophical treatise on the existence of a particular soap bubble. Partly because one would hardly have time to study it in detail before it burst and partly because it would probably be rather difficult to find a market for a treatise on something nobody has ever seen, and which only existed for only 5 seconds.

Plato believed that everything we see around in nature, everything tangible can be likened to a soap bubble, since nothing that exists in the world of senses is lasting. We know, of course, that sooner or later every human, every animal will die and decompose. Even a block of marble changes and gradually disintegrates. Plato's point is that we can never have true knowledge of anything that is in a constant state of change. We can only have opinions about these. We can only have true knowledge about things that can be understood by our reason.

Ok! Let me try to be a little clearer...
A gingerbread man can be so lopsided after all the baking that it can be quite hard to see what it is meant to be. But having seen dozens of gingerbread men which have been more or less successful, I can be quite sure what the gingerbread mold looked like. I can guess even though I have never seen it. It might not even be an advantage to see the actual mold with my own eyes as we cannot always trust the evidence of our senses. The faculty of vision can vary from person to person. On the other hand we can rely on what reason tells us, as it is the same for every person.

If you are sitting in a classroom with thirty other pupils and the teacher asks the class which colour of the rainbow is the prettiest, she will probably get a lot of different answers. But if he asks what is 8 times 3, the whole class will - we hope - give the same answer. Because now reason is speaking and reason in a way, the direct opposite of feeling. We could say that reason is eternal and universal, because it only expresses eternal and universal states.

In short we can only have inexact conceptions of things we perceive with our senses. But we can have true knowledge of things we understand with our reason. The sum of angles in a triangle will remain 180 degrees till the end of time. And similarly the "idea dig" will walk on 4 legs even if all dogs in the sensory world break a leg.

I shall stop with this today. I will continue tomorrow with Plato's ideas about the immortal soul and most importantly about "The myth of the Cave”, which I believe makes a very interesting story. I will be concluding the thoughts on Plato by writing about his ideas of Body - Soul - Virtue - State. And the analogies between these...

Until then here is a thought... it is actually a dialogue by Kamal Hasan from the movie "Kurudi Punal" (Read River of Blood)

"Dhairyam na enna teriyuma? Bhayam illada madiri nadikardu thaan"

Translation - (a bad one)

"Do you know what courage is? It is the ability to act like you have no fear..."

Um desengate a recordar - parte dois

2006-11-01T15:55:00.000+05:30

Time now: 07.30 in the morning on 28th October, 2006. We reach Mekhri Circle and wait there like well! a bunch of tourists. The only difference being that we did not have enough luggage to pass of as tourists... Then started the usual laughing spree and the smart talk among all of us. I guess none of us actually realized that we were standing on one of the busiest circles of Bangalore city.
As time passes by, our man (Read "Abba!") reaches Mekhri Circle, in his "Yo! I am a prosperous version of Eminem and Himesh" clothes. Sweet Money is adamant that she travels with Abba! And in the process Beeks, Teresa and I start looking for an auto. There was one, but the auto driver was sleeping. As we were looking for another auto, Abba! Decides to chuck the idea of taking Sweet Money along with him and he also starts hunting for an auto. After a lot of discussion about whether or not to wake the sleeping driver, (which resulted in a decision to leave him alone) we got onto another auto and reached the famed "Dollar Colony". Yeah yeah! Sweet Money did finally travel with the prosperous man! But all the way she was arguing with our man! At least that is what Teresa could make out.... Rather that is what Teresa said she made out. Oh! and we also happened to see a lane where Beeks had seen a mammoth sized guy beat up a rat sized individual... So much for Equality at times of fight.

We finally reached Dollar Colony, 4th Main , 11th Cross. Guess what we see first, a dog.... A dog which looked rather sad.... (We were later informed that the dog was a vegetarian - by force... :))
We reach the small, compact, well maintained and clean room of the man with prosperity written all over his body. (Actually I am still trying to come up with a good name for him... ! Till then bear with the convoluted statements! ;P)
The room was good with 3 beds set up which we realised were not for the guys, but the girls as pointed out by the fact that we had out room booked in another lodge. We went through the usual bout of morning activities. Once completing that, started the usual round of talk, which evidently went nowhere and most of the times was.. Just because we had to talk.

Then we decided to move and have our breakfast. As we were walking to the place, Sweet Money steps into "Shit". There starts the beautiful conversation about whose shit would that be? I said it was Bull Shit. Sweet Money argues that it is "Cow Shit", reason being, Bulls don't roam about freely, but Cows do. So more probability of it being Cow Shit. (Logic rules!). The kid chips in with his bit... It is "Dog Shit" As that area was full of Dogs and no Cows or Bulls were seen around.... After all this "Smelly" talk, we went to the Tiffin Center and had a typical Bangalorian breakfast... Idly, Vada, masala Dosa, with that little bit of Butter on top of it! :D
Once we got back home we started talking again....
In the process of all this talk we got to know about a very "Hot, Seductive, Saucy" Bangalore babe, who happened to Well! Seduce the Kid (I decided to call the Prosperous, man - a kid, for he was the youngest amongst us all. I know what most of you are thinking now... Abba!)
The kid did get seduced over a lot of drinks, details of which can be had offline. All I would say is... People Just be careful when you visit 'Haze' with a girl whose name has anything to do with the biggest Casanova the world has ever seen (Which would be Lord Krishna!)

While all this discussion was happening there was one man who was slowly but surely showing his true colours of being a LAZY ASS. Beeks was acting like he was interested in all the non-sensical conversation we were having. But truly he was more interested in the bed and the blanket. After a lot of deliberation we decided that it was time to move our asses. Because as the Kid rightfully pointed out that if we stayed at home all day, then we would be "THE GUYS WHO SPENT CLOST TO A GRAND EACH AND TRAVELLED TO BANGALORE TO SLEEP". I decided I really did not want to be braded so. This led to me making sure Beeks got up and we went to our room, which was booked in a place called "Food Bay". Nice place, Cozy room, small but good enough. Had a TV (Not like we watched a lot of it... But yeah we did catch Sharapova and Huntuchova playing each other. Good use of TV I must say!)
Once we got fresh we reached the Kid's place around 12... On reaching we experienced the perennial confusion everyone experiences when, he lands up in a city not knowing what to do and with a fair amount of time on his hands. We decided to think about the places we should go to on that day. After a lot of thought we narrowed down on going to Indie Joe's for lunch and TGIF for drinks, which we would then follow up with a trip to Brigades.
Plan in place we decided the mode of transport would be a Call Taxi as that would make sure all of us are together. On trying like a million numbers, we got hold of one guy, who was ready to reach the place we were in about 15 minutes.

Here come the Call Taxi, there we board it and start on our way to TGIF. Btw if you are wondering why only TGIF and no other pub... that is because Sweet Money wanted to have "LONG ISLAND TEA"(Ultimate/Regular is still a debate). We reach Indie Joe's and realize that there is no place in there. But also that Happy hours in TGIF were not due for another hour or so and that we were hungry and wanted to have lunch.... We decided to have food in TGIF.

Ok people now is when Mother Teresa starts her UNMOTHERLY activities, so please pay attention... On reaching TGIF we start to order food... and there came Fried Mozzarella (Which was good) and Chicken soup (Which tasted more like Sambar with Chicken in it) and Chicken fingers (there were 3 pieces... rather morsels of chicken). But food is food and time had to be passed and so we ended up ordering for another Fried Mozzarella. We were just about to finish it when the Bell Rang.
The Bell the kid had been waiting for. You could almost see the tinkle in his eyes. His lips which were crooked all this while started to straighten out... he was visible happy. Pat came the call for the bartender.... happy hours meant 1 drink+1 more at the price of 1.
One ULTIMATE LONG ISLAND TEA (Which had Bacardi, Smirnoff, Ginger green in it)
One Pinkish looking drink (Which I forgot the name of :P Sorry Beeks)
One Bacardi large.

Arrive the ULTIMATE LONG ISLAND TEA and Sweet Money gets the shock of her life... The glass was the size of 5 normal glasses. And one look at the glass and her face told me that she will never be able to drink any of it. She had I guess 3 sips of it when she decided that she will not have any more of it. In the mean time the kid was happily enjoying his drink. Intermittently having a tiff with Sweet Money, but all in good humour. Teresa and Beeks were having their Pinkish drink. As time went through and I was slowly having my Long Island Tea, Teresa, Beeks and Money decided to finish the other Iced Tea together. In the Process Beeks ka Dharam Brashth hogaya. As he had decided to stop the intake of alcohol... The Iced tea made its way into the systems of Sweet Money (about 5%), Teresa (about 30%), Beeks (63%). 1% was already sipped by Sweet money.

After this the Kid decided he wanted more of it and so ordered for 2 small ABSOLUT Vodkas...
One for the Kid, One for Beeks, One for me and one common pool. As soon as the drinks arrived, the kid made the statement which would be the defining moment of the whole trip... He told Teresa "You have to make this trip memorable". Heaven knows what struck Teresa and she GULPED DOWN the whole of the Vodka in one quick swift motion. More like the Hindi Film Heroes who are very very depressed and drink to get their frustrations out and take all the booze in quick gulps...
1.Beeks was surprised
2.I was taken aback
3.Sweet Money did not quite understand the intensity of what had just happened
4.The kid was busy in his own world, but was appreciate of the courage Teresa had just showcased....

Silly talk all around, the bill is asked for, close to 4 grand. Once done with that we get into the cab to reach Brigades... The Cab reaches Domlur and I realise that Sweet Money is sitting in a rather funny position, which did not leave me much space to sit. Reason was that Teresa was sitting like she was on a couch which was wholly owned by her... We reach Trinity circle and Beeks makes a passing comment that Teresa's breath doesn't smell too good... Actually none of our breaths smelt good... really! But Sweet Money decides to check it out for herself and so smells Teresa's breath and the instinctive action which followed this event will be best demonstrated by Beeks....
We finally reach Brigades, with Sweet Money slipping down on the seat once of often and my one butt dangling in the air....

I have a major issue to debug.... Life of a Software Engineer... That should be a separate blog topic... So I shall try and continue this tomorrow..... Sorry about the abrupt stop...

Um desengate a recordar

2006-10-31T16:29:00.000+05:30

will discuss the answers of the questions I asked in my previous blog when I get back to the series.... Three blogs from the one today will be about an event... live blogging as it is called.

Also check out the pictures that I will be putting up according to what I have written...

I know it has been a really long while... But did I ever mention that it is going to be regular?
Enough of seeming smart Alec remarks! I was on a vacation for a long time. 16 days to be exact (Saturdays and Sundays included). Reason for the vacation was too much "Hard work" and more importantly a decision that it was high time I do my masters, which required some hard work.
All good things come to an end and this did too... But in the most energetic and memorable fashion.

I will now try to describe probably the most cherished 60 hours of my life (Sounds a little extolled, doesn't it? Well! it is supposed to)

One has to keep in mind that "huge amount of planning" , "hordes of misunderstandings" and "a blatant lie" were a part of the plans that went into making these 60 hours memorable.

It all started at 17.00 hours on 27th October 2006. I get a call that Mals and Night are just about to reach the famed, fort like built, yet extremely vulnerable "Reservation Complex" at rathifile in Secunderabad.
I reach there and realise that Neither Mals nor Night had reached, I decided to do what we had come to the reservation complex for, which was to cancel Mals' ticket from Bangalore to Hyderabad. I went through into the fort, surprisingly there were very few people. Directly went to the counter where they book tickets with Plastic money. Needless to say that the same counter cancels tickets previously booked with Plastic money. Once I was done with the Cancelling the ticket, I walk out. And what do I see? A beautiful face, standing beside a face with very sharp features... As I draw closer I realise that the beautiful face was well! Mals... (Sigh!) and the one with sharp features - night(She calls me her brother btw!).

I guess I have always exuded the vibes of being someone who gives gyan all the time. Night must have sensed those vibes and she comes to me and asks me if she should book tickets for an earlier train from Bangalore to Vellore to the one that was already booked. Reason... It was the birthday of one of her close friends and she had to attend it.... I the usual gyan guru told her to get her priorities right and she finally decided to spend less time with her cousins and more with her friend. So we walk in again, cancel another ticket and book a new one. All this under the auspices plastic money! (:P)...
Once this was done we started towards Kachiguda station where the all important and supposedly interesting journey to Bangalore was to begin. We reach the station around 18.25 and Mals is terrified on sighting certain lesser privileged souls and decides not to disembark from the car till all my other friends come in. Which they did eventually and which she did eventually too... (Compound statement... just to confuse :D)
Once my other friends reach they tell me that a man who has driven in Hyderabad for most part of his life got confused with the route and went through the same circle twice, without even realising it... Kudos to the IIT brain.... And so we all reach the station, and have the first round of introductions, which were pleasant I guess... After the IITian bought his platform ticket we settled into the train compartment. We were totally 6 of us. But one of our seats was a little far away from the coupe in which the other 5 had theirs. In any case we decided not to sleep that night. So it really did not matter. Once the IITian bid farewell and the train started, it was time to gorge on the Pizza's which Beeks, Mother Teresa and Sweet money had bought.
Mother Teresa for reasons known to her and her only was adamant that she eat non veg. (she normally eats vegetarian only). Please note the name Mother Teresa. You will realise that she did many "UNMOTHERLY" activities in Bangalore. :P

Once we had the Pizzas it was time for some Cards. The card games happened - UNO was the game that was played. As time went by the Aunty and Uncle who were sharing the other seats in our coupe wanted to rest their back and so out came the berth holders and up swung the back rests of seats which double up as the Middle Berth.
Positions shift, all of us move to the upper berths. Beeks, Teresa and me on one. Sweet Money, Night and Mals on the other. it is time for Dum-charades now. and what revelations we had.
We realised that our team was a little too good for the other team. And so we decided to re assemble the teams. Mals, Night and me in one team and Beeks, Teresa and Sweet money in the other. Now was the time for revelations... And if you ask what they were... here you go...

1. Mals is a really bad actor... I know she was bad. but she is worse than I thought.
2. Beeks and me know the same set of movies
3.Teresa and Sweet Money are experts at ignoring everyone in their team and the members of
the opposite team they have more fun playing dumb-charades between themselves!
4. Beeks reads India Today so that he can know the names of all the B and C grade movies
released in that month
5. Two must watch, must know movies in Hindi are -
a) Ghar mein ho saali to har roj diwali
b) Basanti ki shaadi aur Gabbar ki suhag raat

After we were enlightened by these revelations we decided to stop the game and were chatting with no end at all. And might feels sleepy and so we give her one of the upper berths to sleep on and Mals and me shifted to the Side upper berth. Suddenly Teresa gets the urge to go and stand at the door of the compartment, which she does. Sweet Money and I follow her. We stand there for quite some time and in the process do what we are best at... laugh and crack silly jokes. And now is the time when Uncle Anger gets hyper and start banging the false wall which is present on one side of a berth. Reason being we were disturbing his sleep... We took a pic of his... Mals and Beeks also joined us and then we all took pictures. After a while Sweet Money also felt sleepy and she went on to the middle berth and slept. As time went on Mals and me and Beeks and Teresa started talking... I was catching up with Mals for all the times that we missed being together. Beeks and Teresa were also talking to each other. Around 1 in the morning we realise we do not have water to drink and that is when the train arrives at Gooty. Mals and I decide to check if there is water and so we get down and go a fair distance. But find no water anywhere. Getting back into the train, just in time as the signal changed from a scary red to a more mellow orange, we stood at the door for a good 30 minutes and discussed a lot of stuff.... Which ranged from life in general to Pre-marital sex.

Once we returned it was blabber with Mals all the way, and rest for Teresa on Beeks' shoulder all the way. As time went through, Beeks and Teresa shifted positions and Mals decided to rest too... Around 4 in the morning (Now it is 28th October) the usual coarse voice of the coffee vendor woke Sweet money... After which Beeks, Teresa and me decided to use full berths to sleep. And Mals slept on Sweet money's lap. Time flew by, it was 6.30 in the morning and zoom went the train into Bangalore East. The next station was where we were to get down. And before we realised we were in Bangalore Cannt. We got down from the train and had to wait for Vivek. Mals' cousin. who did come with his pretty Rajasthani wife... he whisked Mals and Night away and Beeks, Teresa, Sweet Money and me set out to a place called "Syed Inayatullah Mekhri Circle". We were to meet 'Abba' there. Yeah yeah! that is the name of the person we were to meet.

So we utilise the pre-paid auto service and get into the auto and reach mekhri circle in about 15 minutes. Time now: 07.30...

I guess I have hardly started to talk about the 60 hours. I am done with about 14 hours of it... So I guess the rest will come in two more installments. Long blogs tend to get boring to read...: D
I know coming from me it should be surprising... but it is true.... I shall continue this tomorrow... if you are interested come back....
if you are not, then wait for me start my series on philosophers again. probably next week...

Till then....

Here is a thought...

Death is hereditary.

Em segundo...

2006-10-12T10:35:00.000+05:30

Firstly, I would like to thank Dr.Srinivas Bhogle for helping me get started on the path that I travel now and hope to travel for the whole of my life. Thanks a million sir, for making sure that I always try and accumulate knowledge, which as you say will get converted to Wisdom at the right time. More importantly Wisdom which will be useful to every other person I come across.

Thanks for all those lively discussions and for introducing me to some people whom I will remember through my entire life... Dr.Isaac and Dr.Sinha being two of them.
Thanks again for that amazing trip of my life! to Ketanur, where for the first time I stood on the wings (blades!) of the "First Indian designed Windmill"... It made me feel like I was on top of the world, ready to fly and in the process ready to take on the might of the entire European turbine making heavy weights...

This sudden flood of gratitude has been triggered by what I read on the National Aerospace laboratories homepage... It said "Dr.Srinivas Bhogle calls it a day". I don't know how I felt when I read that. But I sure know I felt funny. That funny feeling was well! funny and let us leave it at that. Beside the written line I could see the same familiar, wise and serene face, but now with a smile on it. You could call it a smile of accomplishment. He was ready for it I guess and he knew that it was a well deserved holiday (a long one at that!). The contributions of Dr.Bhogle to NAL and to India as a whole will make a topic for a whole book and not just a blog and so I shall not even attempt to say anything about that...
All I want to say to him is "Sir! you are the best... you taught me how to teach people and I shall cherish every single moment spent with you... "

And for those who are thinking that his name sounds familiar, yes! it sure does... 'Cause he has a more famous if not greater brother - 'Harsha Bhogle'...

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From today on... I shall be starting a series, which will be specially written for a dear friend of mine... RIA...Parts of it have already been read by her, but I shall post it again for seemingly greater benefit... :P

I am going to call it - "série da filosofia"
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série da filosofia

In this series, I will try and cover the philosophies, rather my understanding of the philosophies of certain great Western Philosophers... Following certain Western philosophers and the world of their thought, I will also try and explore the worlds of certain eastern mystics...

I intend to cover my understanding about the philosophies of the below listed great men...
1. Socrates
2. Plato
3. Aristotle
4. The Renaissance philosophers
5. Rene Descartes
6. Hume,
7. Kant
8. Marx
9. Darwin
10. Freud
11. Sartre
12. Modern scientists from Einstein to Stephen hawking to Dyson to Kapra

So let us start...

Socrates... I am tempted I have to say this... When I hear the word Socrates the first image that comes up is that of the Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, the great Brazilian footballer. I know football is a great philosophy on its own, but I shall talk about Socrates from Greece who lived from 470-399BC.

Socrates is probably the most enigmatic figure in the whole history of philosophy. He never wrote a single line. Yet he is one of the philosophers who have had the greatest influence on European thought.
We know that he was born in Athens and that he spent most of his life on the city squares and market places talking with people he met there. "The trees in the countryside can teach me nothing" he said. He could also stand lost in thought for hours on end.
Even during his life time he was considered somewhat enigmatic. The fact that he was enigmatic made it possible for various schools of thought to claim him as their own.
We know for a certainty that he was extremely ugly. he was potbellied, bulging eyes and a snub nose. But inside he was said to be "Perfectly Delightful".
It is also said about him that 'You can seek him in the past, you can seek him in the present. But you will never find his equal'. Nevertheless he was sentenced to death for his philosophical thoughts.

The life of Socrates is known to us only through the writings of Plato, who was one of his pupils and who went on to become one of the world's greatest philosophers. Plato used a number of dialogues on philosophy in which he used Socrates as his principal character and mouthpiece. Since Plato puts his own philosophy into the 'Dialogues' we can never be sure if the words presented were actually uttered by Socrates. So it is no easy matter to distinguish between the teachings of Socrates and the philosophy of Plato. The same problem applies to many other historical persons who left no written accounts. The classic example of course is Jesus. So what the 'historical' Socrates actually said will always be shrouded in mystery. But who Socrates 'really was' is unimportant. It is Plato's portrait of Socrates, which has influenced thinkers of the Western world for the past 2500 odd years.

The essential nature of Socrates' art lay in the fact that he did not appear to want to instruct people. On the contrary he gave the impression of being the one who was ready to learn from the people he spoke to. So instead of lecturing he discussed.

Obviously he would not have become a famous philosopher had he only listened to people, nor would he have been sentenced to death. But he asked questions, especially to begin conversations, as if he knew nothing. In the course of the discussion he would generally get his opponents to recognize the weakness of their arguments and forced into a corner, they would finally be obliged to realize what is right and what is wrong.

Socrates whose mother was a midwife, used to say his art was like that of a mid wife. She does not herself give birth, she only assists in the process. Socrates saw his task as helping people to 'give birth' to the correct insight, since real understanding must come from within. It cannot be imparted by someone else.

Socrates always said he had a divine voice inside him. In 399BC he was accused of "introducing new gods and corrupting the youth," as well as not believing in the accepted gods.

Socrates was more concerned about man and his place in society than the forces of nature. As a Roman philosopher Cicero said of him "Socrates called philosophy down from the sky and established them into towns and homes". Socrates was a philosopher in the true sense of the word. A "Philo - Sopher" - One who loves Wisdom.

A philosopher knows in reality that he knows very little. That is why he constantly strives to achieve true insight. Socrates was one of those rare people. A philosopher therefore is someone who knows that there is a lot he does not understand and is troubled by it. "Wisest is one who knows he does not know."

Mankind is faced with a number of difficult questions that we have no satisfactory answers to. So now two possibilities present themselves. We can either fool ourselves or we can shut our eyes.
People are either dead certain or totally indifferent.
It is like dividing a deck of cards into one pile of red and one pile of black cards. From time to time a joker turns up who is neither red nor black. Socrates was like this joker... but from Athens and not from cards :)

Socrates believed that a solid foundation for human knowledge lay in man's reason. He was ’Rationalist’
Socrates said that his divine voice told him what was right. "He who knows what good is will do good", he said.
By this he meant that right insight leads to right action. And only he who does right can be a virtuous man. When we do wrong it is because we don't know any better. That is why it is so important to go on learning. Socrates was concerned with finding clear and universally valid definitions of right and wrong. He believed the ability to distinguish right and wrong lies in people's reason and not in the society.

To sum it all up...
Socrates thought that no one could possibly be happy if they acted against their better judgment. And he who knows how to achieve happiness will do so. Therefore he who knows what is right will do right. Why will anyone choose to be unhappy?

Think about it... Can you live a happy life if you continually do things you know deep down are wrong? There are a lot of people who lie, cheat and speak ill of others. Are you aware that these things are not right - or fair, if you prefer? Do you think these people are happy?

Socrates didn't!!!

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That is the end of the first write up... About Socrates it was... Now for the funda of the day...
As it is, I seem to have written a lot of stuff, quite a few of you must have slept through it... So no funda!
So here is a poll.... Tell me whom/what do you like more?

1. Aishwarya Rai or Sushmita Sen

2. Karna or Arjuna

3. A full moon or a Crescent moon

My choices... Sushmita Sen, karna and Crescent moon... Why? I shall talk about it in the next blog... :)

Till then....

Primeiramente

2006-10-11T11:51:00.000+05:30

My first post...

A Lot of non-sense and a fact...

As much as I did not want it to be triggered by something uncalled for, the inevitable seems to have happened. But I shall not write about what happened. Just a few thoughts triggered by it. Each one of us has "issues". In the process some of us tend to hurt others, which are extolled in the other's brain to an extent that in a fit of emotion he/she takes certain drastic steps makes some hasty decisions. This is not to say that those who take the decisions were not sane, nor is it that those who acted out of their "issues" were insane. Just that two problems came together at the same instant, which, apparently proved to be catastrophic.

It is imperative for people to discuss with others. Understandably there are some who would never listen (Me for instance). But I am sure if explained in the right way they will understand, because after all a situation like this most often arises among friends. And well! what are friends, if they don't fight. Just that it is essential for people to clear the air if there is a misunderstanding. It is not wise to take decisions, which will in the process hurt some more people than those in the first instance...

Looking at the other side of it, every human has a right to express his/her feelings towards anything and everything. So if someone proclaims that he/she does not want to do something and gives no reasons for it, that I believe is perfectly logical. I don't question that attitude at all, 'cause I myself have that attitude. But no matter how stone hearted you are, it does hurt when someone you like is...if not anything upset!
That is when you start to realise, may be... just may be all this could have been avoided in the first place if "The one" never tried to complicate things.
But the problem with the one is that She/he does not want others to do something out of their way for her/him...
She/he wants people he/she likes to actually do what they want to without making a compromise...
In the process of ensuring that all this happens, due to his/her brazen, blunt attitude he/she tends to complicate things. which leads to a Hell-Hole of confusion...

So how do we clear the confusion that has already ensured??? Well! we speak to each other about it. Seems simple! doesn't it? I believe it is one of the most complicated things to do... But if done, will ensure a lot of peace and happiness...

Yeah! yeah! i know what you say... Kabir once said (A bad translation of his Doha) "A relationship which has a misunderstanding, is like a broken thread held together by a knot... no matter how hard you try, the knot will always remain and will resurface always"... I dispute this... I say that the knot makes the thread more beautiful, more human, more likable...

After all a true friend is someone who accepts the other with all their faults... isn't that true???

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Starting from today, I shall try and post on every weekday (As most of you must have guessed that is because I blog from my office... :P )

In every blog of mine I shall try to explain some funda... most of the times it might be arbit, but sometimes you might... you just might like it...
To start with... a funda which I have explained to like a million people already. but I never get tired of explaining it over and over again... The total credit for this funda goes to Dr.J.J.Isaac, Head of the Propulsion Division, National Aerospace Labs., Bangalore for explaining this when I was doing my internship under him... So here we go...

The Fourth Dimension

Though a lot of theories argue that there are more than 20 dimensions, I personally could understand only 3. The fourth dimension - namely - SpaceTime was always fuzzy and to be frank still is... But I can at least metaphorically understand what SpaceTime is...

Every night we look at stars and rest assured we all like them. men have always liked stars. Loads of poems, stories and yes! scientific articles have been written about them. It is very interesting to note that a star can actually help us "feel" SpaceTime.

Now assuming there is star we see which is let us say about 50 Light years away...
By definition a Light year is the amount of distance Light travels in one year. So when we look at a star today, a star 50 Light years away from us, it means that the light which reaches us from that star at that moment took 50 years to reach us.
This in essence means that when we look at that star today from Earth, we are actually looking at how that star was 50 years ago. The present state of that star is actually not known today.
Doesn't this mean that we are actually looking out into 'Space' at the same time we are looking through 'Time'. This actually translates to Space time! Fascinating, isn't it?
Sure was for me... if you liked this fact, revel in the moment.

We too have "Divya Drishti" of a different kind, it is not just limited to the Yakshas and the Devas...