Alok Chaturvedi

Category: Essays

  • Power to Change

    Exactly, two years ago, in the February of 2024, two major assignments came my way. I was assigned to an onsite project in Pune, and I was assigned into a matrimonial relationship. Initially I was excited for both, however very soon one of the assignments started to haunt my waking world. Through the ordeal, I learned an important lesson. I learned that humans are inventive creatures; we have the power of imagination and ingenuity through which we have the power to change what we do not like.
    I don’t dislike my marital assignment; I just hate being in Pune.

    Salutation:

    27 February 2024 was the day I came to Pune for the very first time in my life. I went to Hinjewadi in the morning to report and then during afternoon I was travelling to Yerawada from Hinjewadi along with a colleague from Solapur, to collect my laptop. In between our journey, near Manapa, I saw Mula Mutha river. I have always been good with geography, and I was trained in geology in my college, hence I know a river when I see one. After seeing Mula Mutha river, I exclaimed, “Wow a river!” to which my colleague answered, “Nala hai re!” I knew he was joking about the river being a drainage due to its terrible situation, yet that was the cream of my stay in Pune. Over the course of a year, I tried making Pune my home, yet it was of no use. If I took public transport, my head would hurt due to jumping buses on the crumbling roads. If I drove a rental scotty, I would get sudden terrible jerks due to the same roads. If I walk, I am constantly worried that something is going to hit me on the narrow roads or something might fall from the metro construction site. My fears are not irrational, I have seen people dying in the narrow road due to half constructed metro pillars and moving construction vehicles.
    I am so much terrified of Pune that I actually loved being in Bengaluru, and I want to go back there. It’s as if making Hitler the chief guest because he is better than the Devil.
    I also feel guilty staying in Pune, because my kind, the IT service personals, are the reason, a beautiful city situated on one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world is a living hell.

    Since I failed to adjust to Pune, I did the next best thing, that is to get work from home and go back home. I availed work from home from an organization, my client, which has a very strict work from office policy, which is 3 days in office week per week while only two weeks of continuous work from home in a year. Out of last 2 years, I have stayed in Pune, only for 8 months including this month. When I look back, even I am surprised at the data. I realized the power of human ingenuity and persuasion. I would just think of the reason why it was important to get work from home approval, I would practice asking for approval and then I would execute with 100 percent strike rate. I never failed in availing work from home. I am again going back to Ranchi. coming Monday.

    While work from home is a lifeline to survive, it is not enough to grow, hence when I completed my minimum serving period for change in project assignment, I asked for what I truly deserve, I asked for a project change, and guess what, I didn’t get it. Instead, I got a subtle blackmail that my annual appraisal will be affected if I keep asking for what I deserve.

    Did the blackmailing deter me? Off course it did, I need good rating to get the next assignment however it didn’t crush my will and once the ratings were locked, I ran away to Bengaluru, and guess what, that didn’t work out either. I am still here, but I did get to stay in Bengaluru for 4 weeks which was enough to prove that I am not crazy for seeking a way out of Pune.
    And the silver lining to this fiasco was that I have a last working day in my current assignment and hence in a couple of months, I will be (fingers crossed) Pune free.

    This whole comical saga was a blessing in disguise for me. It worked to increase my confidence in my ability to influence my life and reaffirms that our human brain is mighty powerful, it is full of ideas to change our situation. I now believe that there is no such thing as being helpless, if we want a change, it is within us to make that happen. What also helped we was my work ethics; people trusted me to complete my work unsupervised. I am also very good at making one to one relation, since I have very good relationship with my managers, there was no repercussion for my bold move. Yet the major credit goes to my will power, the will to affect my situation and not feal helpless.

    Dear audience, if you ever feel helpless, maybe because you have been single for a very long time or been in a dead relationship forever. Maybe it’s the job where you are vegetating or that home you always wanted to buy but couldn’t, just close your eyes and repeat, you are not helpless, tap into your will power and believe that you have the power to change.

  • The Higher Truth: Beyond Simplified Answers

    One day, not long ago, I saw a group of MBA students coming out of an insignificant Private College in Pune. The sight was rather painful for me to watch because it reminded me of the failing state of our Education System. I suddenly realized that there is a clear similarity between these educational Institutions and religious institutions, for both provide an oversimplified version of a higher truth.

    Many MBA colleges, along with other coaching institutions, work on the promise of “Job by mere Study”. These institutions, which broadly include coaching institutes for difficult examinations or coaching for direct jobs in the Government Sector (such as Banking or Civil services), the Private Sector, are highly focused on clearing the examination hurdle by means of study rather than teaching to produce entrepreneurs who can build businesses. As a result, many of these institutes are continuously producing pupils with few marketable skills, and hence more prone to being at a disadvantage due to the ever-changing nature of the market economy, which hardly gives a damn about bookish knowledge and GPAs. Yet many people line up to be part of such institutions, and this mentality is quite similar to the people’s affinity towards religious institutions. A lot of humans don’t care about the true answer; they just need a simple, believable answer.

    Religious institutions focus on a single isolated truth while the rest is ignored, like believing that this god sacrificed for you, or believing that praying is the answer to all your problems, or just chanting his name, to make things work for you. These steps may sometimes work like placebo drugs, but the same institutions won’t focus on all the lies they have propagated over the years, such as Earth being the center of the universe or evolution being fraudulent. If they were wrong then, how could they be correct now? My analytical and procedural brain doesn’t buy such unprovable fables, and yet the business for such institutions is booming. In today’s time, people claiming to be the men of gods have a higher earning potential than skilled entrepreneurs. For the masses, this business model works because it relieves them of responsibility; they only need to hold on to one belief or one lie.

    The higher truth is always anything but simple. In order to develop marketable skills, one needs to understand current technologies, consumer behaviors, successful businesses, domain knowledge (e.g., Healthcare, Retail, Banking, etc.), and more. One needs to be excellent at negotiation, communication, and conflict resolution. One has to be skilled at sales and marketing, which in turn requires an understanding of human behavior. All of these skills can only be learned through practice in the real world, which many coaching businesses ignore. What is actually taught through books is more graspable to the pupils, which leads them to make over-simplified assumptions that bookish knowledge will get them a job. A few cares about the placement data and base rate. I personally know many folks who have completed their education and are currently doing even more study to get a job. What kind of society are we going to create if key tasks are handed out to people with little practical knowledge? The magic of producing food and resources through book reading is a mere illusion and not real magic.

    Similarly, understanding god and the nature of the Universe is never simple. With the advent of modern science, the analysis of gods transcends the realm of logic and ethics and goes into the world of quantum physics and molecular biology. Creation, previously thought to be a god’s work, is now performed by scientists in laboratories. These truths are simply ignored by the proprietors and consumers of these gods’ businesses all over the world. The simple critical thinking in the direction of analyzing one’s god will free them from the senseless actions and appreciate the true value of culture.

    The higher truth may be difficult to understand, and it is very well possible that we may never understand it through our ephemeral life, and yet the quest to understand it brings freedom which is otherwise unattainable. By conforming to a narrow truth, one can only achieve illusory peace, which is yet not the worst outcome of this approach. The worst is the creation of mindless followers who are subservient to the whims of their political or religious master. Simplified truths give comfort. The higher truth gives freedom. We must choose which we value more. The choice, at least, is simple: be a puppet or critically evaluate.

    Nature

  • My Newfound Thinking Cap

    I am often stuck on some problem in my work as a software developer, while other times I am unable to think of a topic to write about on my blog. In such moments, I feel the need for a thinking cap. Recently, I realized that I had the thinking cap all along and not just me: you, he, she, they; we all have it and let me tell you how you can effectively use it.

    I thought of an idea of satire in February this year, 2025; however, I was able to finish the blog just last week, in mid-July, in the same year. The period between conception and creation was about five months. Five months indeed might be a long time, but if you ask me, I still believe that I am happy to have finally finished it, because for a long time, I was not going anywhere with the story. By the way, if you are interested in the story in question, you can read: Don’t You See, I am Trying to Save You. Suddenly, I had an inspiration last week, and it was clearer to me how my story ends, and with the inspiration, I finished the story.

    When the inspiration came, I was wearing a thinking cap, and I didn’t even know about it. I have been using that cap, yet I was not deliberate, and hence, unable to utilize the full capacity of my thinking cap. It took me years to appreciate its powers, and yet it’s not an easy task to be able to reap maximum benefits. Let me break the suspense and introduce you to the thinking cap.

    My thinking cap is walking alone, driving, or riding a bicycle. Given that I am not talking to anyone either directly or via my phone, not listening to any music or podcast. In essence, my higher mind is completely free while some other parts of my brain are busy with routine tasks such as ensuring I am not falling off the road or hitting a vehicle next to me or putting my body in any kind of danger. In this state, thoughts flow freely. It may appear simple, but it is anything but simple. My brain doesn’t want to work as a result; whenever I am opting for walking, I get a strong urge to listen to any music, podcast, or audiobook. I even get an urge to take all my pending calls, and believe me, I take most of my calls while walking. While driving, there is no option to entertain my brain, yet I do not get a lot of driving opportunities. Nevertheless, if I can tame my mind and not entertain it, I achieve the state where thoughts start inundating me. Our minds crave distraction, but it’s in those quiet, undistracted moments that genius whispers. Yet there is another difficulty other than the difficulty of will power.

    Whenever I am in a thinking-cap state by the act of walking, cycling, or driving, I don’t have conscious control over my thoughts. The only thing guaranteed is that there are a lot of them. I remember many times enduring depressing thoughts originating from some trivial incident of wrongdoings, such as a disagreement with a colleague, someone not following a traffic rule, some wrongdoings of the distant past, etc. Sadly, there is no solution to this predicament. The only solution I can think of is to maximize the thinking cap time. Let’s say that on average 25 percent of time, happy and creative times are flowing into my higher mind, then spending ten hours a week will give two and a half hours of creative time which I can translate into good work if I can follow up on the head start, and that is another challenge of the thinking-cap state, the thoughts are ephemeral.

    Willpower is essentially required to maximize the creative time, but following up with the creative time is even more important; otherwise, the two and a half hours I calculated earlier would amount to a big zero if I am unable to follow up on my thoughts. It so happens that the thoughts that flow in the thinking-cap state don’t last long and dissipate like a dream sequence. It is highly important to note down creative thoughts. When I had the inspiration last week for closing my satire, I straight away opened my laptop and finished writing; however, it was a coincidence that I was able to use my laptop to write, after walking. It may not be the case, always. To this, I have a solution: note apps. I have downloaded an app that is just there to note down inspirations like these so that I can work on; however, something tells me that even that won’t be sufficient. I have a feeling that if I write it down and don’t look at it again for months, I will lose interest in the inspiration, and it won’t be that appealing to me to drive me to write about it. Hence, a recommendation to self and all, begin the work on your inspiration within twelve hours of achieving it.

    Let me summarize the effective ways to use our thinking cap:
    1 – Give the thinking-cap state enough time, perform activities like cycling, driving, and walking without any music, podcasts, etc.
    2 – Once the inspiration comes, write it down as soon as possible, preferably before you forget all about it.
    3 – Start the work on your inspiration within twelve hours of the inception of the idea.

    Next time, if you are stuck with a work problem, looking for an idea to draw, write, or compose, or seeking a business idea, try this thinking cap, make effective use of it. Next time you feel stuck at work, in art, or in life; take a walk without your phone. Your best ideas might be waiting at the next corner.

  • Vicariously Unliving

    Man reading about mountain trekking from the couch
    They may enjoy the Feelings of Adventure yet it’s not their Adventure.

    These days I am doing a lot of rethinking, and I would credit it to Adam Grant, for his book ‘Think Again’ inspired me. A lot of this rethinking is directed towards the way I live my life. I have always loved and enjoyed a good story, either via books or via moving pictures. Now though, I am trying to analyse my pass-time. I asked one simple question to myself, “What is the one thing the characters in books never seem to do?”

    I am doing a lot of reading these days (a lot considering my line of work: Software Developer). The current book that I am reading is by my favorite author Gabriel Garcia Marquez; it’s called “Love in the time of Cholera”. I had listened to the audiobook of the same a long time ago, but I bought the paperback to enjoy more time with my characters. Factually a lot of the incidence in the book is inspired by the love story of the author’s parents. The story of young love who were destined to go separate way only to find their way back in their old age is a gripping plot and a true masterpiece. It’s all well and good, yet the rethinking question is, “What is the one thing the characters in this book never seem to do?” The answer is, they hardly read a book at least not in the foreground of the story. The same is true for any fiction you are reading or any film/tv-series you are watching. The characters are living their life in full while we are living their life, enjoying it vicariously. Can we do better?

    If someone reads our life story and, in that story, if we are spending most of our time on couch living vicariously then certainly to the reader of that story our life would appear boring. Reading books or watching movies do give us an escape from reality and it is fruitful against the pressure and torment of real life yet the sense of achievements we receive is not ours but the characters of the story. If a character is well liked by most and they win the day, it is their victory not ours hence in reality we gain no experience, no memory nothing worth sharing by just watching or reading a story. It is definitely not difficult to do most of the stuff that a character is doing. Take a romantic movie for example, we typically see a man and a woman fall in measureless love, the man tries his best to give the woman best of dating experience, either he cooks for her or take her to a restaurant with a nice ambience, he attends to all her needs, he listens to her and more importantly he is always ready to give his all for her sake, while woman is also deeply in love and she smiles which makes the man’s day (It all happen like this till things turns for the worst before returning finally to the best). Can we not do the same to our woman (or man), is it that hard. If you are still missing your significant half, surely you are not going to find them in your book or on your couch, get out, do something, meet people and when you happened to find them, treat them even better than what the best of romantic authors had imagined. What if I am not into romantic books, you say. What do you like the most then?

    If you are someone who likes adventure movies, then go for your own adventure. I like adventures, and ever since I have done rethinking, I am looking for my chance to go on trekking or running around one of the prettiest lakes, I have ever seen. I go out and be part of forums (well it’s Toastmaster in my case) where I meet interesting people. Most of the times in stories, the characters travel and rediscover themself. Traveling in these times is one of the easiest activities you can pick with the most rate of return. In the era of train/flight/road connectivity there are many cool destinations ranging from pristine beaches to snowcap mountains at on average ten hours away. If you are truly an indoor person, then there are many indoor activities for you, draw, cook, paint, make pottery etc., these are just suggestive options, sky is truly the limit if you decide to come out your vicarious unliving session. However, I have an easier solution, are you Interested?

    We all have a taste, we like certain kind of story, whether it’s romance or comedy or any other genre. There are certain aspects in the story which appeals to us. We can try to implement that aspect in real life wherever possible (try not to be Superman or Kickass). Do whatever you like your favorite character doing. It is that easy, trust me, and don’t forget to be creative.

    I love to cook, and I am always inspired by different foods I see in movies or even documentaries. My inspiration often leads me to supermarkets and then to kitchen. I had my first roasted mutton when I saw it on TV. This is really a simple trick to come out of the vicarious life yet the best idea would be to build your base from vicarious experiences and build skyscrapers on that base. I can give the example of science fiction to explain my metaphor. In a good science fiction book, there are many impossible gadgets, mentioned yet numerous kids take those unreal gadgets as challenge and make them real, when they grow old to be scientists. Kindle was built in this century however Star-Trek-The-Original-Series already had a digital book reader like that the last century; they even had cell phones before they were built in real life. There are many scientists and astronauts who are inspired by many books of Arthur C. Clarke. These inventor and scientist didn’t get lost in the vicarious world they entered rather draw inspiration from it. I implore you to do the same if you don’t want your life story to be a boring one liner (He spend most of his life on the couch reading or watching tv). Do we stop reading books and watching moving pictures all together?

    I think no, especially when I have made a point that vicarious adventure can be basis for true adventure. However, there must be a balance and definitely more weightages should be given to the real life. Make your own story ninety percent of time while enjoy only ten percent of the time someone else’s story, if this is too much then at least ensure that you are having more real adventure than vicarious one. Being able to listen to stories is a bliss, being able to tell stories is a gift and yet the true mastery of life is to make life better than the best of the stories. Vicarious unliving is when there is victory only in the stories we encounter. The real living is when stories are our own. Vicarious unliving is easy yet boring, real living is difficult yet interesting. My act of writing this article is also part of my rethinking to walk toward real living as I think, act, live and then write about it.

  • The Relevance of Animal Farm

    On a bright summer evening in 2019, I was walking around with my friend after my lawn tennis session. During the walk we were enjoying our intellectual discussion, and I was trying to make a point that Left wing and Right Wing are basically the same, however I was not able to explain to him the logic I used to deduce that. It wasn’t the first time that such a thing happened to me, my prefrontal cortex (thinking part) works way faster than my Broca’s area (speech formation part) and I am often overwhelmed with thoughts that I cannot express. I wish I had read Animal Farm back then, because George Orwell found a creative way to express what I was deducing then which he had deduced seven decades earlier.

    George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm was born in Imperial India, he saw the atrocities committed by imperialism and naturally oscillated towards communism. He became a communist sympathizer and fought against General Franco in Spain in a losing cause. He saw the rise of communist state in Russia and other counties, and then he achieved the ultimate realization.
    He saw the similar atrocities in fascist, republics, imperialistic and communist regimes and he concluded that it’s really not the system, it’s humans. Humans can corrupt any system is the ultimate truth, which George Orwell understood.

    Animal Farm as a book focuses on highlighting the following aspect of human’s animalistic nature:
    – Humans when in power will always benefit themselves while pretending to be doing good for all.
    – Humans when in power are capable of changing the perceived past.
    – Humans when in power rarely walk the talk.
    – Fear is the great uniter.
    I said humans but the book is actually about animals. George Orwell used animals as simple tool to make some very serious arguments, which I had pointed out.

    The story takes place in a Farm in Britain where the Animals realize that while they do all the service and production whether it’s egg or milk or something else, the produce always goes to the owner who apparently does nothing. Hence, they start the revolution, which is successful. Animals kick out the owner and start managing the farm themselves.
    Pigs AKA leaders become the brain of the operation while donkeys and horses do the hard work. They form their guidelines or seven commandments such as we won’t drink, we won’t wear clothes, we won’t sleep in bed, no one will kill the other, and the best of them all: Whatever goes on two legs and doesn’t have wings (AKA Human) is an enemy.
    Everything is good to begin with, but the nature soon takes its course, when the cow produces excess milk, it disappears and when everyone gets to know that pigs are keeping the milk for themselves, pigs argue that they need milk as nourishment since they are the brain of the operation. They point out that without them in charge and in good health there is a good chance that the Human owner will return. Through this event, the author wants to highlight how humans in power will benefit themselves while pretending to benefit the masses.

    The animals had decided that they won’t drink, but the pigs get addicted to fine drinking and when their action contradicts the past commitment, what do they do? They change the perceived past. The pigs convince everyone that the commandment was, to not drink in excess, rather than not drink at all.

    When hard work is required, the pigs make moving speeches, but they never do any work themselves. When the same is pointed out, they make a case that their work involve paperwork which may not appear as doing something but as a matter of fact it is quite important however at the end of the day all the paper is burned down in the chimney, hence supporting the argument of the author that humans in power rarely walk the talk.

    Whenever the pigs faced protest from the animals for the injustices, they would use fear as tool to subjugate, either fear by intimidation using their pet dogs or fear of the alternate future, like return of the owners, hence supporting the argument of the author that fear is the great uniter.

    The best transformation happens when pigs started walking on two feet just like the owners, since one of the commandments was that anyone who walks on two feet is an enemy they had to change the commandment and convince everyone that that’s how it has always been. Those walking on two feet were never enemy but friends.
    The pigs when in power transforms into two-legged creatures and the original owners, the humans were also two-legged creatures. Hence there is absolutely no difference between humans in-charge or the animals in-charge. There is absolutely no difference between right wing or left wing. A left-wing society might start as rule by the people but eventually the pigs who will hijack the power would no longer identify with people, hence effectively it won’t be the rule of people but rule of a few like a right-wing society. The animals were worse off under the pigs as compared to under the owners.
    Phew, you can understand why I had trouble making my friend follow my logic. At least now, I can use Animal Farm analogy.

    We are hardwired to always take simplest explanation, but the truth is never simple. There is no hero to celebrate and villain to curse, we all have a hero and a villain in us and when opportunity comes the villain in us show us the true color. George Orwell died after writing just two books Animal Farm and 1984, however had he lived longer and expanded on his ideas, he would have liked us to do introspection and figure out how we can redeem ourselves rather than redeeming any system. I must assert that he was well ahead of his time, because I see the same phenomena prevailing in today’s world. People in power still use fear to move masses, they still benefit themselves while pretending to be doing good. They talk more and do less. Most importantly there is no separate race of bad humans, whoever gets the power irrespective of their upbringing acts like a pig. Animal Farm was and will always be a mirror to us Humans.

  • Tale of a Toxic Beloved

    Have you ever loved and desired someone?
    Odin’s beard, what am I asking, off Course you have loved and desired someone, the relevant genes were passed on to you.
    However have you loved and desired not one but two, and desired both at the same time?
    Wait don’t answer that, I know it’s a scandalous question.
    I have! I have been loving with desire two,  for quite some time. If you think loving one is hard, loving two is tiresome, to say the least.  Let me put a disclaimer that my love is not virtual but real.
    My esteemed reader, let me narrate my eventful, triangular love story and if you feel pity on my situation and you have some tips to manage my love life, feel free to share with me later, 1st please hear my plight O virtuous ladies and lords


       My oldest love is very sweet, charming, and gentle, whenever I am with her, I feel relaxed as if there is no worry in the world. While most of the time, my love shows me dreams, sometimes she also suffers me through nightmares, just to keep me on my toes. My love is also routine bound, just like me as a result we get along quite fine. We spent hours every day resting, dreaming, and soothing. She is usually very low maintenance unlike girls from engineering colleges. However, if my oldest love came to know that I was with the newest one, she would just not come to me, she would just shut me out for hours before the chemicals the second love has left in my body goes out.

    My second love is exactly opposite of my 1st love, and it’s not a figure of speech, they are literally opposite like north magnetic pole and south geographical pole.
    My second love is not soothing, gentle or sweet, she is toxic, bitter and abrasive.
    When I am with her, I lose my ability to relax, my heart rate climbs up and the world feels like a war zone.  There is no dream and hope for me in her company, it’s just despair


        At this point of my story, I am sure you are wondering if I am a fool. If I have someone soothing and sweet, then why do I go after someone who is toxic and bitter. Let me assure you that I am not a fool, it’s the effect that my toxic beloved leaves on me that keeps me bound to her. Do you really think I have not tried to get rid of her. There were months when I would avoid her, it won’t be easy to start with, I would be restless, I won’t be able to concentrate but I do become normal and then there will be a day when I assume that I am over her and I can casually interact with her, I would think that I can be “just-friend” with my beloved, boy would I be ever more wrong. My beloved would entrap me again and I will fall back into her charm.
    I am a rational person but even I am helpless against the material charms.

        Allow me now to introduce you to both my beloved,
    my 1st beloved who is charming, sweet and soothing is Sleep. She is indeed my 1st love. When I 1st came into the world, there was no one but her, though I don’t remember the time we spent together at dawn.
    My toxic beloved, who is bitter and addictive is coffee. I know she is bad for me; she doesn’t allow me to relax and she kills my appetite for nourishment, I still go after her.
    My days are a constant struggle to keep a balance between my two beloved. I try to not fix a date with my toxic beloved in the evening but sometimes I just cannot help myself and give in to the temptation as a result my other love, sleep would stand me up, I would have to plead, beg and make promises (false promises) to bring her back.

    My Toxic Beloved


        When I lie restless, kissed by my hot toxic beloved, I wonder how my life would have been without the toxic embrace, could I not have found someone more toxic and even fatal, as a result my life could have been worse. I also wonder if I am the only one who despite having someone who heals, goes to someone who hurts. Do we feel that simple and easy is boring and we would rather have someone who imparts a bad influence on us. I am submerged with all my thoughts and then it becomes too much for me and I cry out, “Oh coffee my beloved, would you please come to me!”, and I amble towards a  coffee shop.


        I don’t know if I should keep struggling to maintain balance, get rid of the toxic one or just give in to my temptation and enjoy life as I go. Even if I get rid of her for good, should I be worried that I might fall for something more toxic. I am asking questions because I truly don’t know the answers but I know that sharing our problem is the second step of resolution, for the problem of fatal attraction. The first step is acceptance.
    Let’s confront our toxic interaction, let’s avoid our toxic interaction and if we feel powerless, let us at least make sure that the toxicity of one aspect of our life doesn’t drive away the good aspect.
    Dear Reader, if you have some tips to share with me, get in touch with me via email, meanwhile, I will try not to drink coffee post evening.
    Meanwhile you try and analyse your triangular love story:
    Are you involved with morning jog and late night snackathon
    or are you involved with your liver and party hard spirit
    or are you involved with success and reels scrolling, if you are
    recognise your toxic beloved in your triangular love story and if you want to share your plight, I am all ears.

  • Say No to Breeding Slaves

        Naukari, Naukari, Naukari was what I used to hear as I grew up during the 1990s and 2000s. Getting a naukari (Job) was apparently the greatest achievement of our life. I remember sweet feelings of day dreams in which I had a Naukari, even as a child. I got a Naukari in my twenties and I realised that Naukari is not the Nirvana which I was promised. I would still insist that I am the lucky one as I was provided for a privileged education and I have a socially admired job which provides mental satisfaction and I am not tied to it; since I can leave it behind if I don’t find the zeal to keep going. Not everyone has the satisfaction from their job and worst of all not everyone has a job, hence they are not disappointed yet and still believe that a job is as desirable to them as Silver City is to a Catholic. I admit a job is essential as it helps us make our contribution to human civilization, though at the essence, it is just giving back our share to our fellow humans who helped us so we could grow and be able to pay back, a Naukari is not the ultimate aim of our life and definitely it is not the only way to pay back our share. Therefore instead of day dreaming about getting a job we should be training ourselves so that we contribute to our great civilization with the best of our abilities. Let me narrate an observation to take my point home.

        In the great pandemic year of 2020 I lived in my hometown after eons due to lockdown. After years I had enough time at home to look around to see how my town has progressed in these years and that’s when I met Xyz. It was not the first meeting, I grew up playing cricket with Xyz since we are almost the same age, yet he was already a breadwinner for not only his parents but also for his family of wife and three children while I am still unmarried; and diving deep into Machine Learning for a long term AI Engineering career. Xyz doesn’t have privileged education like I have but he is a skilled negotiator and electrician. I don’t believe that family is a liability but in his case it is. Xyz had the opportunity to build his skill and business as an electrician but there he was stuck in fulfilling the basic family needs.

        I am sure it is very controversial to say it, but I do think that social norms of getting married and having a large family even though one is not financially capable is completely irrational. Though he might still pull off financial success and provide privileged education to his three children, it is unlikely. Imagine in a parallel Universe, Xyz’s parents delayed his marriage, even though he didn’t get a good education, he got ample time to build a small but flourishing business, by the time he is thirty, he is already secure with respect to basic necessities for himself and his family. He is getting married at the age of thirty, and a few years later has a child that went on to receive quality upbringing and education. This is what I call not breeding slaves.

        Many capitalists think that cheap labor is the building block of civilization so they encouraged rampant population growth, they want Xyz to have three children sooner than a single child later because more means cheaper. Capitalism’s obsession with growth is a major reason for human suffering. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not a commie, I am a capitalist too because this is the best system there is for universal growth and improvement of quality of life, yet its obsession with growth is ridiculous. It’s not important to make profit, the profit has to be more than the last profit. However the best part about this system is that while people like Xyz might be influenced to produce slaves, they cannot be forced to produce slaves. The religious groups are even bigger influencers to the slave mentality, for all their moral pretense these religious groups legitimize the african slave trade and they will do all in thier power to influence their followers to produce more, more means better representation and more power to the one who pretends to be jn contact with gods. It’s up to Xyz to ensure he breaks the cycle by providing education to his children before they become a procreation machine.

       I don’t have anything against the number of offspring one should have as long as they are able to provide them with not only the basic necessities but also with quality and pragmatic skills and education. A Billionaire can have ten children and talk all about advantages of high population growth but I know that I cannot afford to have ten children with my salary, though more than number, quality matters. I have been using education in a very generic sense but let me be more specific. Those who are barely meeting their end want their children to grow and get just enough education for a socially acceptable job (I belong to that category), but whose basic necessities are covered would want their children to grow in every dimension possible. While the lower and lower-middle class sends their children to learn Science and Mathematics, the upper and upper-middle class teaches their children art, music, sports, law, taxes, trading, public speaking, foreign languages etc. alongside Science and Mathematics. Even the rich kids clear tough screening for colleges, despite their broad education and in fact it is because of the broad education that they clear difficult screening tests. The lucky children of the lower or lower-middle classes are able to clear the screening for good colleges and jobs; ensuring a steady income for themselves,  while the unlucky ones are left in limbo; without a marketable skill or trade. Irony is that these same folks would produce even more tiny versions of themselves who would not be skilled enough to survive out of predefined jobs and professions. This cycle is perpetually creating new age slaves for those in elite circles. The elite children who receive broad education and are proficient in public speaking, negotiate, persuasion, sports, music etc. are able to make a good life even beyond regular jobs as an entrepreneur or sports person or an entertainer. Overall as a society we are producing low-quality but high volume-cheap human capital which works well for selected few but a lifetime of bondage for the other.

        I know all the people who have access to this essay already have this understanding even if not convincingly. I also understand that people who lack the wisdom cannot be convinced otherwise, imagine going to the marriage ceremony of a 25 year old Xyzs and asking them to cancel the marriage and work on their productivity. There will be flying arrows from everyone else even if it’s not from Xyz themself. Yet the talk must happen, lest the worst of our dystopian nightmares come true. The cycle of breeding modern day slaves must be broken, putting the burden of financial hope on a newly born must be stopped. Anyone who is taking the sacred responsibility of bringing new lives in this world must ensure to provide all the opportunity to them including but not limited to basic necessities and pragmatic education.

    Is this why we attain human life?

  • It is I, Life!

        I saw a dream; lived it, worked on it, cared for it, gave it my all and yet Life happened. Just a week before my dream would turn into a reality, Life turned it into an actual nightmare with endless trauma and regrets.

        It was no brainer that I was devastated beyond repair, yet repair I must! That was the call of my inner-self. I asked life for an explanation of its cruelty and it remained apathetic to my plight as if it was just some innocent wave, perpetually reducing motionless rocks into sand and gravel. While I was busy interrogating  life, my inner-self was working on rebuilding me. My inner-self demanded that I survive. I lost my appetite yet it forced me to eat just enough to breathe; I lost my sleep yet it encouraged me to scrapp for whatever little I could get. Slowly and steadily I increased my food and sleep ration. Slowly and steadily I gained my energy and calmness. I was still traumatized though I was whole. I was still devastated yet I was ready to try and forgive Life, since it is just one that I have and perhaps I will ever have.

         As I healed with time, I realised that mathematically, the half-life of my suffering was two weeks, as every two weeks, my suffering was reduced to half and almost two years since the tragedy I can confidently say that I am almost over my shattered dreams. As I recollect those terrible days of my first four weeks of suffering, I am truly enamored by the inner-me, the one that held me to Life, the inner-me that never questioned Life and it’s intentions, rather just accepted it on the face value allowing me time to heal and appreciate Life myself. Just months after bringing the worst tragedy, Life brought me the best moment yet, all too nonchalantly and then I understood why it was breaking me. Life breaks to create exactly like waves breaking rocks to create sandy beautiful beaches. Life doesn’t see the difference in my worst moment and my best moment, for it both are the same, it never felt sorry for the worst and yet never felt pleased with the best for Life doesn’t expect the best or the worst to last, both are just there in one moment diminishes in the next, leaving behind beautiful experience every single time.

          I achieved the profound understanding that something is amazing not because it lasts but rather because it’s ephemeral. I understood that experiences are far more valuable than concrete possessions and there is no such thing as a good or a bad experience, it’s just plain experience as valuable as water is to a whale.

        With a new outlook I analysed my existence and all the experiences I have accumulated and with respect to the whole existence, this one small tragedy was nothing but a minor inconvenience and it was truly not the first one and unfortunately it won’t be the last. Pain and pleasure both will come as nonchalantly as they will go because the one called Life is not worried about the minor inconveniences rather it is busy crafting a beautiful set of incidents for me.

        If my conversations were literal with Life, it would say, “It is I, Life; the only one you would ever get. It is I, Life; the only one with best intentions for you. It is I, Life; the only one making your existence beautiful. It is I, Life; the only one working tirelessly for you. Hence I suggest you stop whining about minor details and focus on the big picture,  work with me and accumulate all the experiences I am providing you. Rise and accept me, rise and love me, rise because I am your one true friend for It is I, Life.”

  • Our Fragile Home

    We have tried hard to find life beyond our home planet Earth while some are still trying without success. With more and more failure some are beginning to believe that Earth might be the only planet having just perfect condition for life to exist and evolve. However these life supporting conditions are not permanent. Our home, Earth, is extremely fragile. A minor change in her crust or atmosphere will have devastating consequences that will remain irreversible for millions of years.
    When first life form in the form of unicellular structured appeared on Earth, there was no diatomic Oxygen in her atmosphere. After evolution of years a unicellular life form became capable of harnessing power of sun to produce energy similar to photosynthesis. Diatomic Oxygen was bi-product of this process and it started rising from the ocean into the atmosphere. Presence of Oxygen in atmosphere downplayed the green house effect of methane in atmosphere. Earth lost her ability to retain heat, she froze killing majority of life form that had evolved in time. Earth remained frozen for millions of years until volcano erupted and filled atmosphere with Carbon Di Oxide. A minor change in atmosphere almost destroyed life on Earth.
    A billion years later, when Earth was a heaven beaming with life, she turned into a monster. Due to a large number of concurrent volcanic eruption Carbon Di Oxide began to accumulate profusely. Earth became a hot oven, oceans turned acidic and majority of life form became extinct. We also call this event as one of five mass extinction. A few who found home in the burrows survived and thrived when Earth became habitable again millions of years later. A mishap of decade took millions of years to recover.
    If my 1st example highlights the delicacy of Earth’s ecology ,the 2nd narrate how close we are to another mass extinction today. Each nation is urging each other to cut on carbon emission. Surprisingly Carbon compounds (like Methane or Carbon Di Oxide) are not the most significant contributor to green house effect, it is water vapor. However we don’t worry about water vapor, simply because in no time water vapor condense and return to Earth. Carbon compounds take significant amount of time to return to normal. If Carbon emission is not controlled, just in few decades water vapor will become significant in global warming because, due to high temperature condensation will be less than evaporation and the difference will start widening due to continuous rise in temperature.
    In an alternate scenario calamity may come from beneath us. There is nothing to stop a sudden rise in volcanic eruption. Since there are already significant amount of Carbon in atmosphere, lesser eruption will be required as compare to the last time.
    Whatever may happen, end result will be the same. Our home will become an oven, water will turn into acid, land will become poisonous and life as we know it will cease to exist. There will be survivors, humans, deep sea dwellers, the one that live in burrows underground but majority will fail to stay alive resulting into 6th mass extinction.
    Our technology may help us to survive in small numbers but it will not be sufficient to reverse the situation in quick time. Humans as a species will exist but as a civilization, it will fail.


    Since I brought up the problem, it is my ethical duty to bring the solution as well but I do not have any individual solution. Solar energy, electric car won’t work at an individual level. Unless everyone realize the gravity of the situation, nothing can be achieved. The organism that produced Di Atomic Oxygen froze earth unknowingly but we have complex brain, we can analyse the consequences of our action.
    As individual we can take pledge to spread awareness regarding environment and implement any solution that will come our way in order to save our fragile home.

  • Curious Case of One God Theory

    Christianity believes in Holy Trinity, one God,his son (Jesus) and mother of Jesus. Praying to any body else other than these three is termed sin and it goes further to established that there is absolutely no other Deity other than the Holy Trinity. This theory has always sounded hypocritical to me. If a God can have son or wife then why not a father or a brother or an uncle, if we continue down the line we had similar Deities like (Odin, Thor, Frigg) or (Zeus, Hera, Ares) or (Shiva, Ganesh, Parvati) however Christian religious leader will call these Deities Pagan (Satanic). The other mono-theist religion, Islam is philosophically quite sound as compared to its predecessor Abrahamic faith, however being precise might not be as important as being accommodative to other school of thoughts.
    If we know that something is a fact, we swallow it in the name of ethics even if it taste bitter, however if an idea is not a fact and it is intolerant towards other ideas, we do better to discard it. The idea that Aryans descended from Scandinavian reason towards other part of the Earth and created civilization is not a fact but merely a hypothesis which fueled raciest idea of Hitler resulting into the Holocaust and carnage, as a result we discarded it. It’s high time we discard monotheistic theory of any religion.
    In Hinduism there are millions of Deities, such a huge number that even a scholar priest cannot name all or even 1 percent of them. Sometimes I wonder, how did we end up having so many gods and goddesses, it cannot be one school of thought. One possible explanation might be the accommodative nature incorporated in the dominant school of thought. It kept integrating every other idea of god into itself. That is the beauty of polytheistic religion. There are some philosophical branches of Hinduism that states shapeless, limitless God, something like pantheism (a bit similarity with Islamic idea of God) . Accurate English for Dharma (like Hindu Dharma) is not religion, it is “The way of Life”. Hinduism is not a religion, but a way of life.
    When Hinduism met Islam or Christianity, it was a superior in philosophy but lacked political backing, it was also infested with social illness that gave chance to these two Abrahamic religions to remain untouched (though it did partially influenced the other two) by mighty Hinduism. Imagine a situation if Hinduism had dominated the interception, we might have a idol of Jesus in a chamber in a temple and a space to worship Allah. When we would go to temple, we would start worshiping with Lord Ganesh (as per custom) and continue worshiping Jesus, Holy Spirit, Mary, Vishnu and we won’t come out without offering Nawaj to Allah and there will be some other thing to fight about but not about Gods.