Are you better off?

This one is loaded. The question that is. Interpreted purely literally I would say Yes. As in better 'off' than 'on'. For starters species on this planet takes itself so seriously that they actually think they are a significant contributor to their own well being. THat they are the smartest of the survivors since survivors began surviving. They discount the horrors and their idiocy to be proponents of all that they have done that has lasting impact. Well - they do not talk about being lucky. Frankly their whole existence is a matter of luck and much like the Truman show entire generations have come and gone thinking they had a purpose and that they mattered when reality was far from. I hate to be the one to stand and say that is not so. We do not matter. We never have. Its our own myopic and largely arrogant attitudes that makes us think we do. For all the so called inventions and cures, devices and technologies, revolutions and gay marriages I am not sure what we think we are really trying to do. Advanced societies worry about matters like lost dogs and putting up bulletins when a server at a salad bar catches a Typhoid bug on their recent trip to a not so advanced place. They try to provide customer service and in turn drive loyalty whereas when you eat in a place like India you frankly have no idea what it is you are being served. What's in this? No idea sir. Cook in the kitchen has also been places and may be about to keel over but no matter - your plates may have been rinsed in recycled water - the restaurant in question may be on an eviction list for not paying bribes - et al - but you get your fixing and you feel awesome. Unless you see a rat jump out of the dessert you are about to pack you can blindly consume anything your heart desires because what you don't see cannot hurt you. The rat story is true - I had one jump out of a specialty sweet candy box in Agra (same place known for everlasting love) that it made me swear off that place. Again the point is I am not sure what it is we do and why we do it. I think we are responsible for all the ills that ail us from variation in atmospheric chemistry to deforestation to industrial through puts so we can feed more billions that ooze out from all continents. The planet though is not weak. It puts up with dumbness all day and all night and will do what it well pleases. So for all our seismographs and skimpily dressed weather forecasters we are doomed when the planet says we are. No Apples or Google goggles are going to extricate us from this and there will not be much to write on Facebook since no one will be left to read it. So on that bright note take a deep breath and live it up every chance you get. Your own definition of living up will do well. To me its visiting as many places on the planet to marvel at what massive geologic forces have done over centuries - to see killer whales migrate thousands of miles without any cellular technology - to eat what is known to be edible and then some not so - to seek out what is abnormal to some but might be perfectly legit in another part of the globe - to marvel at sunrises and sunsets at any point on the planet and be amazed at the fact that I wake up when the sun rises. So I can come back and blog.

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected. I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot. It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is. Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy. It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff? Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality. So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing? Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...

Brown Motion

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