A Thought

"Mind is an attribute of an individual. There is no such thing as collective brain. There is no such thing as collective thought. An agreement reached by a group of men is only a compromise or an average drawn upon many individual thoughts. It is a secondary consequence. The primary act – the process of reason – must be performed by each man, alone. We can divide a meal among many men. We cannot digest it in a collective stomach. No man can use his lungs to breath for another man. No man can use his brain to think for another. All functions of body and spirit are private. They cannot be shared."

--Ayn Rand “THE FOUNTAINHEAD”

S T A R

Among the stars we see in the sky, many of them do not exist any more. Reason: the stars are several thousands of light years away from the earth i.e. it takes several thousands of years for the light from stars to reach the earth. By this time many of those stars are merged to other stars or become cold (lose energy to shine) or simply destroyed.

Likewise, we see many human stars around us. Some star performers in the office, star players, star students, writers, singers or stars in any other field. We got to see whether the star in them actually exists today or is it the light of stardom they had few years back? In many cases they are the dead stars. Out of ignorance, we still consider (or worship?) them as stars.

So the next time when you see a star, think, “Does his/her star-quality actually exist today?”

PS: This is not my original thought. I had read it somewhere long time back. Some incident reminded me of this and I thought of sharing it with you all.

Balance

Randomness is the nature of the nature. The nature is balanced by random forces in all the directions. Consider a closed empty box in your room with nothing but air in it. It is kept on your floor. Suddenly if it starts moving up in the space, how would you feel? :-)
We know that the air molecules in the box move randomly in all possible directions and hence neutralize each other’s forces. But what if all the molecules get motivated and become progressive and all start moving up. They will lift the box. Is not it? It will destroy the physical stability of the universe. Thankfully, nature has balanced things by randomness.

Similarly we always complain about various things not happening the way we think they should. We want everything to be progressive, righteous, correct, ethical etc (definition of these terms vary from person to person). Like the left parties and BJP should let the govt. go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, the leftists should allow economic reforms and privatization, there should be no corruption etcetera etcetera. But will not USA start taking us as lightly as it takes to UK if we agree to all their suggestions. I do not know whether this nuclear deal will get through or not, but the domestic opposition has clearly told USA that it is not a charity which we will be glad to accept. Mr. Bush had made it look like a charity that he was offering. But the Indian opposition has clarified that it is a DEAL. Not surprisingly, the US media doesn’t talk about it these days. They are embarrassed.

The Vajpayee govt had a separate disinvestment ministry (first time in our history) headed by Mr. Arun Shoury, whose only job was to privatize the state owned companies. But should it be done mindlessly? Remember at what price did they sell BALCO to the Sterlite group? It was much less than the fair valuation. Also is privatization the only solution for progress? What if the private companies start minting money from the public? Remember Reliance Energy (which supplies power in Mumbai) suddenly increased domestic power cost by 240% a year back? Should not monopolies be checked?

So I believe a strong opposition is the backbone of a strong democracy. Without opposition, countries will become like Pakistan. There should be forces in all the directions to balance the things. That’s democratic way. Sure, democracy runs slower but chances of blunder are very less here.

Regarding corruption, everybody is not corrupt. Also, everybody is not corrupt every time. So it’s balanced too. :-)

Momentum

In physics the momentum of an object can be conceptually thought of as how difficult it is to stop the object. So, the moving object continues to move unless it is stopped by applying an external force. That’s why in all kinds of vehicles, the power required while starting is much more than the running power. Life is also like this. We know that doing certain things will benefit us; still we are not able to do it, rather not able to start it. Only if we apply extra efforts and start doing the work, it will be difficult to stop.
“Well begun is half done.”
What is the explanation of the juggernaut of Australian cricket team? How else can one explain of some player being in-form for certain time? It is the momentum which plays a vital role in win and loss.

Late Mr. Newton also told us that the objects will remain in no motion state unless they are applied on by “sufficient external force”. So there is also a momentum of no motion, laziness and defeat. This explains some players being out-of-form.

Momentum p = mv

So we need to have mass (knowledge/talent etc.) and we require external force (extra efforts/motivation etc.) to acquire substantial velocity. After that life is cool. Enjoy Madi.

Deserve, Then Desire

This has become the current trend. We often find people complaining about their salary, people changing companies for better pay package etc. Some of them may be really deserving better salaries than their current employer pays, but, I think, most of these crying souls desire more just because some of their pals are getting more. A recent NASSCOM survey says that the number of jobs outsourced to India has started reducing because of the explosive increase in salaries and attrition rates. Do these people really perform extraordinarily in their new companies to justify the hike? Well, Dinkarji answers logically in the following lines.
छुद्र पात्र हो मग्न कूप में जितना जल लेता है,
उससे अधिक वारि सागर भी उसे नहीं देता है॥
-------दिनकर (रश्मिरथी)
(The water taken by a small vessel from the sea is no more than the water it takes from the well.)

The steep increase of salaries is the root cause of many problems in the socity. An average employee in IT/BT sector gets 20% annual hike whereas an average government servant gets 2-4% annual hike. So year after year the difference in their assets widens. Is the Hi Tech cities like Bangalore, Gurgaon, Noida, Hyderabad are occupied only by these priveleged IT/BT sector employees? Certainly not. Then where from a govt. servant will get Rs 60 lakhs to buy a house or Rs 1 lakh for deposit + Rs 10,000 per month for house rent? How will he be able to pay Rs 40,000 donantion for admission of his kid in a good school in LKG?
What happens to the education and career of his children? No wonder, the crime rate in Bangalore (and other Hi Tech cities) is on ramp. The increacing financial imbalance makes it difficult for the lower middle class to survive. The easier option to their kids is to loot an IT employee on the street in mid-night or so. There has to be a way to reduce this financial imbalance. Otherwise the 21st centuary will have new set of naxals, mostly in Hi Tech cities.