Making sense of that non-commital answer 'Depends!'

If there's one answer that drives us all nuts, it's 'Depends!'

And there wouldn't be a surprise if your reaction to the above statement is 'Depends!'

Actually 'Depends' is such a dependable answer because it seems to tread those fine lines between 'right' and 'wrong'. Our assessment of 'right' and 'wrong' is always so pathetic that we tend to depend on 'Depends!' to save ourselves. And so very often.

I won't be wrong to say that 'Depends!' means 'Debatable but let's not debate!'

Suppose I depend on the old saying 'excess of anything is bad', then I can also say, 'excess of rightness is wrong'. That might also tempt me to say, 'excess of wrongness is right'. And I might so rightly sound foolish with that excess of wrongness.

Anyway, have a look at this 2x2 matrix on the debate between means/methods and consequences. More elaborately, right and wrong means/methods, and right and wrong consequences.

If right and wrong always involve the 'Depends!' answer, then this matrix above doesn't accommodate explicitly the space for 'Depends!'. No?!

How and where do we accommodate 'Depends!'? Of course, between the Right and the Wrong, no?

Let's make some space...

That's the playing field. Plus-shape :)!

See if you can play around in this field. Take an example:

Means/Method = Coca Cola's incredibly frequent cute advertisements saying 'Open Happiness'

Consequence = Obesity among drinkers of Coca Cola

Can you place it in the matrix? And likewise many other things...

This Matrix of Means/Method and Consequence is just one way to make us ponder... Scale and Consequence. Ways of Reminding and Ways of Influencing. And whatever else you can conjure up, here's the plus-shape playing field.

Meanings of sharing 'family and children' pics on FB

I wonder when Facebook was originally built it carried the tag 'social media'. But since it was meant to become a virtual hangout for friends, typically from a college, it isn't a surprise that it assumed the tag so easily.

Given the current situation, the meaning of 'social' can be talked about until...

Given that the connections to most 'friends' on FB now are at best tenuous, I am trying to make sense of the sharing-family-and-children-pics-(with all the friends)-on-Facebook phenomenon.

1. Sharers know that friends might want to know what's happening in the family. Though these sharers don't know who these friends are exactly. So anyway, the pics should reach these not-exactly-known friends who might want to know.
2. Sharers know who these friends are exactly but don't find any other channel suitable enough to do such sharing. 'Suitable' means convenient or sophisticated or common channel used by all friends.
3. If in point#2, I pick the aspect of convenience, I can conjecture that sharers find it inconvenient to build a channel where they can do the sharing with just those friends with whom they want to share.
4. Sharers find it a matter of pride to show off their 'families', whatever the context.
5. Sharers are not exactly content sharing their moments and space with those they find themselves with. They want the moments and the space of togetherness to spread among other friends too. And who these other friends are, they might or might not know exactly.

It isn't very tough to reproduce. And it isn't tough either to take smiling pics every now and then. And it isn't very tough not to know exactly with whom to share smiling pics of those that we reproduce.

What's tough often doesn't get addressed, nor shared.

Friend, not a follower

Earlier when I would befriend someone on FB, I would get that person's updates on my timeline (basis whatever algorithm FB has). There was no choice.

For some time now, FB has given us a choice. If you don't want to see updates from certain 'friends' on FB, you can 'unfollow'. In which case, you don't have to 'unfriend' to avoid the updates. Just 'unfollow'.

The default is 'follow'. When you befriend someone, FB assumes you'll 'follow' this friend. Follow = Receive updates on our timeline.

Befriend. Unfriend. Follow. Unfollow. Meanings galore.

Let me just open the box using a two-by-two window!

First you shape the system, then the system shapes you?

Not really. First they shape FB, then they shape you!

In a bid to have good conversations with all the friends 'befriended' on FB, a few minutes back I was engaged in calibrating the Notification Preferences of my FB account.

After my clicking some "unfollowing" buttons, FB throws a message:

"It looks like you’re using this feature in a way it wasn’t meant to be used. Please slow down, or you could be blocked from using it."

Funny this is, they've built a system in which users might end up taking up such an activity. And if FB has throw such a message, clearly they dislike such an activity or perhaps they didn't anticipate such an activity. Hurts their business, does it?

The verbiage of the warning message above is an interesting one. Read again:

"It looks like you’re using this feature in a way it wasn’t meant to be used. Please slow down, or you could be blocked from using it."

What do they mean 'it wasn't meant to'? Are they the arbiters and judges of meaning?

'Slow down'. What's that? Are they to decide how fast or how slow should I be operating the system?

As easy as it is to consume and post the rubbish that appears on our newsfeed, FB is alright if we suffer from infobesity. FB doesn't want us to get fitter however.

Out-of-the-box solutions

often come from outsiders. Or comes when we are outside the box, literally or figuratively.

So 3 possible forms of outsider.

1) I am into jewelry retail. Someone who doesn't do the same is an outsider.
2) I am into jewelry retail. Example, I am showering and I get a cracking thought about jewelry retail.  I myself become the outsider. Literally.
3) I am into jewelry retail. I am thinking about something else sitting at my desk in the shop/office and suddenly I get a cracking thought about jewelry retail. Again I become the outsider. Figuratively.

First definition suggests that consultants, friends, father, brother, brother-in-law, jewelry manufacturer, etc. all these can be called outsiders.

I am more keen on looking at second and third definitions. Because the same person turns out to be an insider as well as an outsider.

In the second definition, I've mentioned 'showering' to suggest outsideness. However, it could just be anything. It could also be bird-watching. Or travelling. Or chilling on a beach. Or it could be working on a project other than jewelry retail.

Focus is important for thinking. So is outsideness. It makes sense to be working on at least two projects in any given time-frame.

Interesting Things and Emptiness

In the physical-store windows of all kinds, we see different kinds of things that the shop-keeper stocks and sells. Most often some unusual or interesting things in the window attract our attention and prompt us to enter and check out the stuff.

Once past the entrance windows, we see sections dedicated to a single category of goods.

When we enter an electronics shop like Croma or Vijay Sales, we often encounter number of television screens lined up on the wall. Most often all showing the same visuals. Thankfully. You can focus on one screen. And then another without feeling like you are missing out on something.

When we go to the homepages of the big ecommerce sites, 'blocks of visuals' like TV screens described above stare at us. So what do we stare at? Would depend on what frame we are in. Looking for very specific stuff or just generally in a mood to shop. If we are looking for very specific stuff, do we these blocks of visuals help? Even if we aren't looking for specific stuff, do these blocks help?

I often find that these blocks of visuals on homepages are least helpful to me. And there are many such sub-homepages too that are not really helpful. Only when I really enter a section-page that has listed the specific goods that I really get a sense to getting closer to the thing I am looking for. And even then, I consider myself lucky if I get the stuff I have in mind. And checking beyond a certain number of listings certainly makes it less interesting to shop.

It seems to me that these portals have arranged themselves in this way since they want to offer a lot of interesting things to us in a short span of time so that we can find what we want in a short span of time. Or so that we can spend a hell lot of time browsing the interesting things so that we can eventually buy the most interesting thing. Does it happen that way? Has it happened that way with you?

I love my bed and he underwent angioplasty at the age of 36

But I don't love this place called my bedroom.

On dictionary.com, I find two meanings articulated for this concept called bedroom.

One says: a room furnished and used for sleeping

Another says: a room furnished with beds or used for sleeping

Just in case the meaning of room is debated and philosophized and spiritualized, here are two meanings that, to my mind, hold sway:

1. space or extent of space occupied by or available for something
2. opportunity or scope for something

Space available for something. Opportunity or scope for something. In this world called India, what kind of space is available for anything? I mean, for practical purposes. If room is 'opportunity or scope', what kind of opportunity or scope is available given our notions, ideas and imaginations of 'bedroom'?

Now have a look at this bedroom. I randomly picked it up searching on Google.

All the houses that you've been to, how many bedrooms have a similar layout? There goes room that means 'availability', 'scope', 'opportunity'.

And all construction companies, including the mightiest ones which are considered 'brands', keep feeding us with the ideas of 'BHK' (bedroom, hall, kitchen). With those thoughts we dream, we buy, we get into the cycles of EMIs, and so often get into those ever-debilitating problems called Lifestyle Diseases, in spite of the earnest attempts to visit the best of the gyms, and to work out on the best of the equipment.

Just yesterday, son of my Dad's good friend, at the age of 36, underwent angioplasty. Going by what I've seen of them, he lives in a house with a fair number of bedrooms and a little lawn as well to boast of.  

Ahmedabad is a one-mall city

I just happened to visit the Gulmohar Mall. Saw quite a few branded shops closed. Enquired about the phenomenon with a service executive at one of the shops I entered.

He informed me that after the opening of Alpha One (another significantly bigger mall) footfalls have really really gone down. Saturdays and Sundays are when some crowds gather.

Some time back, I was talking to a Mississippi patron who has a retail shop at Iscon Mall. She said the same thing. Gets corroborated by the fact that a lot of shops have closed down there as well.

I have always found the air-conditioned malls unsuited in the Indian context. For Ahmedabad in particular, I have always wondered if there's a number of people that can help survive even 3 malls. It turns out, only 1 can survive. To me, even that's suspect. Let's see.

Indeed, if we debate the definition of 'mall', Ahmedabad has many which have tuition classes and offices and dental clinics and orthopedic hospitals. In that sense then malls can survive.

Add to this, the quintessential habit of finding a 'deal' makes online shopping quite attractive for people from Ahmedabad. So something like Flipkart et al offers a far bigger mall for Ahmedabadis to get hold of stuff (after checking them physically in the brick and mortar shops).

Long live the malls. 

Gandhiji and the tragedy of getting my clothes ironed

I thought about this some 5 days back.

In my ways of clothing myself, I thought I had reached a Gandhian simplicity. And on occasions I felt proud of it. Yes, thought of matching Gandhiji in matters of fashion can make anyone proud.

So I reached for my lush navy blue Mufti trousers, pulled them on and buttoned myself. And I let my palms caress my butts and feel the freshness of a ironed and washed pair of trousers.

Tragedy has epic proportions and minute ones too. I felt some burnt ends of the stitches that shaped my beloved trousers. For a little moment I felt the pinch of spending yet again, in spite of my simplified wardrobe, on a pair of blue trousers. Oh my Gandhiji!

Actually, Gandhiji surely had it better than I think. May be coz of the environment, or the lack of options available, or pure (intentional or inadvertent) wisdom.

So what if I wear only two colors - white and blue. So what if my trousers are always blue and my shirts always white. My iron-man has a world of options to contend with. My colors and others' colors. The fabric of my clothes and the fabrics of others' clothes. The content of poly-material in my clothes and the content of poly-material in others' clothes. The styling of my trousers and styling of other people's trousers.

And he has to iron them all in a given time to make sure he gets enough to sleep peacefully somehow. He has to show courage and strength to iron them all and feel music in life.

Let's say I want to feel at ease and peace, and also master my skill in the 100 square feet of space I occupy. I would stick to my drum-set. This man sticks to his coals and bicep-exercising mechanical iron. He masters it. He burns whatever comes in the way. He folds them nice and tight. Thinks he has mastered it all. All day long. And sleeps.

I might have to pay a visit to the mall yet again. Perhaps, before that think whether Gandhiji got his khadi ironed or not.

Pics courtesy: laudafinem.com and paulniederer.com

On Andy-Amelie and Coaching

Headline reads Andy appoints Amelie as his new coach. If you read this, you'll gather that for now it's limited to Wimbledon 2014.

The surprise as projected by the media is 'a male player appointing a female as coach'. If you read the article linked to earlier, you'll see that male players have appointed 'females' as their coaches earlier as well. Besides, female players have so often have had male coaches (if I am not mistaken, most female players do).

I haven't played a sport at any significantly high levels, but I have surely trained under 'coaches'. And while I haven't been a sports-coach, I have coached many a student so far under various guises.

To add, with the realization that help's available nowhere and nobody's helping me surely, I have been a coach to myself, and it has been a painstaking ultra-time-consuming process of coaching myself. It takes immense amount of what sounds like self-criticism. An attitude like this among youngsters is often labelled (mistakenly) as 'lack of confidence' or need for 'personality development'.

Andy's announcement of Amelie as her coach makes one review what 'coaching' is and who can be a 'coach'.

While in professional contexts, especially sports, naming and appointing coaches is explicit, coaches come in all forms. Teacher in a school (Taare Zameen Par style), elder brother at home, unusual friend at school, may be girl-friend, a boss et al. Just that the name 'coach' isn't explicit. We are all aware of the famous 'Eklavya-Dronacharya' coaching relationship. Rancho for his friends in 3 Idiots.

In my mind, I have no doubt that every single person who is sensitive to some area of performance and desires to achieve (as Aamir puts it in 3 Idiots) excellence, needs a coach-figure, if not all the time, surely at certain critical junctures in life and preparation. Having said that, those critical junctures are unidentifiable so very often. Which essentially means that this coach-figure is needed all the time.

I bowled in the nets imitating different bowlers. Sometimes I bowled well, sometimes pathetically. Was prodigious at swing but often went down the leg. Coaches would point out the errors sometimes but none pointed out that my front foot (left leg for a right hand bowler) was landing wrongly. I wonder they knew such nuances. I wonder they observed me closely. I wonder they were inclined to focus on any particular individual, since they had numerous pupils to oversee. Of course, I was always an introvert and 'egoistic' stoical moody affable kind of person. But I was at least 15 or 20 years younger than these coaches. Who would harness the raw energy. The one possessing it or the one watching it? I identified this problem with my bowling action just a couple or 3 years back!

Anyway, to close this, coaching requires an engagement that touches the deepest parts of your being. An engagement similar to a love-relationship in many respects. Great eyes, great observation, great reading of skills (not necessarily 'having' the skills) and temperament, great articulation and a lot more. Ivan Lendl helped Andy win the big title. Females might be different in some ways from males but in coaching 'gender' surely isn't a clinching point, and Amelie might just be more effective. Am watching closely.

Photo courtesy: www.telegraph.co.uk

Funny Ellipsis-using Boy

Pic taken from Indian National Congress' FB page

This isn't just about one politician. In fact, politics is only about such ramblings. Sometimes the ramblings come to be believed and politicians chance upon a windfall, on others they find critics like me.

Look at those words:

We want to give power to the people.

Since 'you' want to 'give power', of course who is going to hold the power. Because if you don't 'hold' power, how will you 'give'? In the case of your giving power to the people, can you specify how much power? Surely not enough to make them rise against you, right?

Your politics is our politics.

Whose politics? Poor people's? Is their hut your hut?

Your fight is our fight.

'Fight' implies an opponent. Who is that opponent? My proposal is that when we use the word 'fight', it should always be accompanied by the word 'against' and another word that is placed after 'against'.

So assuming it's FIGHT AGAINST ________. What fills the blank? Inflation? Wow! Assuming we can indulge in a 'fight against inflation', how exactly is the fight seen and measured?

What we have done so far is ensured the dumbness of most people in this country. Education hasn't been good enough to make most of us understand the dynamics of 'inflation'. If we can't completely fathom the dynamics of inflation then how do we fathom 'fight against inflation'.

Vote for him because he speaks the stuff that most of us don't understand.

Which camera do you possess?

Take a good pic, and someone asks you about camera.

Run long, and someone asks you about shoes.

Look good, and someone asks you about the brand or the shop.

Design good earrings, and someone asks you about metal and diamonds.

It's incredible how often we end up attributing goodness to objects, instead of attributing it to our ability/perseverance/insight/practice in using those objects.

What is Mobile Technology? Moronica has an answer!

I come across this term so often. The absurdity of it becomes really profound when I have to stop and take a call on my mobile (handset) while enjoying a leisurely bike ride.

And when I think of this term, I also come to think a bit about the term preceding this ubiquitous term. Information Technology.

Mobile Technology.

Mobile is an adjective saying something about the word Technology. In another era, it could just as well have meant technology that moves (technology that is mobile. This seems like a facile elaboration but hold on a second).

Technology that moves?

Really?! I mean we are carrying that handset with us. It isn't carrying us. Neither does it move on its own. At best, it only leads us to stop in the tracks, whichever track we are on.

Think of it. It's at best a receiver of information. Or rather, receiver of information in different forms. Ok, add a bit more. Wireless receiver of information in different forms. Ok, yet more. Wireless Receiver of information in different forms and 'reminder' of the same. I will pander to the nerds. They'll insist, it's also about gaming. I rest my case.

Again. Mobile Technology.

Without the fancy baggage of what technology companies have made us believe, think about it. Couldn't it just as well mean that technology that 'spurs us to move' or 'enables us to move', or 'inspires us to move'... You get it. That's MOBILE TECHNOLOGY. Technology that moves (the user of the technology).

Yes, one might ask further. 'Moves the user'? How? What is the meaning of 'user'? Is it a car? Shouldn't it be driver?

Good questions! Figure out the answer. I'll share when I have more. Until then, it would suffice to say that Mobile Technology is at best simply a Wireless Technology. The same old 'wireless' that we understand, but in a much more advanced/efficient form. And Wireless is a better descriptor.

Now for the next term. Information Technology.

This term, I sense, has killed the understanding of information itself. It seems now, information that's passed using digital transmission technology is our only conscious understanding of information. Which is text (that can be read), images (that can be seen), sounds (that can be heard). Mark that phrase 'conscious understanding' in the previous sentence.

It's a weird thing to be reminded of the fact that the sense to smell, to touch et al are brilliant means to gather and transmit information. Perhaps richer and more reliable. That pat on your back from behind by a friend meaning to surprise you... So now that Information Technology clouds our understanding of 'information' itself, should we call these forms of information as Sensorial Information. And our senses as Sensorial Information Technology?

As I come to a close here, people have been meaning to distinguish data and information. Perhaps rightly so. In which case, Information Technology is a misnomer. It should ideally be called Digital Data Transmission Technology. DDTT. Sounds better than IT, huh?

And revising my earlier declaration. It should be Wireless Digital Data Transmission Technology. And the gadget that receives such data, Wireless Digital Data Receiver. Or someone more puritanical might call it Wireless Digital Data Transmitter/Receiver. Chemisty/Physics nerds would like to impose their version: Wireless Digital Data Conductor.

And we've got a penchant for short-forms. So Moronica would respond by saying that our body is SDR! And we are in possession of SDTT!

Automobile is a convenient lie and traffic is exactly what it was meant to be

From wikipedia:

The word automobile comes, via the French automobile from the Ancient Greek word αὐτός (autós, "self") and the Latin mobilis ("movable"); meaning a vehicle that moves itself.

We are still struggling with artificial intelligence. Do you really believe a vehicle moves itself? Then what exactly do you do sitting in that vehicle?

Let's say you don't move the vehicle. Do you still believe that the vehicle is moving itself?

Read more from wikipedia:

The loanword was first adopted in English by The New York Times in 1899.

If the belief of/in the word 'automobile' has resulted in losses to you (I can't think of a loss that's well-articulated and measured though), time to sue the NYT :).

Wikipedia has more on the origins of the word 'car':

The alternative name car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum ("wheeled vehicle"), or the Middle English word carre ("cart") (from Old North French), in turn these are said to have originated from the Gaulish word karros (a Gallic Chariot).

Now the concept of wheeled vehicle sounds like the true description, isn't it?

And we are also unnecessarily bothered by 'traffic'. It's meant to be just what it is. Flow but slow. Again from wikipedia:

Traffic in English is taken from the Arabic word taraffaqa, which means to walk along slowly together.

And yet we keep cursing. May be they never told us about company in traffic. We've got some nasty teachers :).

Disturbing pic of my early morning bedroom and how the Japanese got it right

The funniness of what we call as 'bedroom', in the modern context, has dawned upon me. And quite conclusively.

In the second line of the wikipedia page on 'bedroom', you find this:

To be considered a bedroom the room needs to have a bed.

Actually, this line makes it feel like 'bed' is just one of the objects in the bedroom. Quite so. But mathematics isn't just about numbers. It's also about space. The modern bedroom is typically filled with the bed, in a manner that no other substantial object can be placed or accommodated in the bedroom. At least, for the majority of people who've been able to afford a bedroom.

And that no other substantial object can be placed in the bedroom, means other than resting or sleeping or making love (variants of the same posture I would say), no substantial activity can take place.

Given that a mighty number of us find ourselves doing work which doesn't quite make us exert ourselves, at least physically, in any great manner, this bedroom turns out to be a great roadblock on the way to good health. Let me elaborate.

We have risen substantially in population. Per capita space available is very limited. That's the reason we find such congestion on the roads, in the malls, in the gyms et al. And when I mention gym, I can easily say that reaching the gym is also an inconvenience in general, in a world which has made contraptions for convenience of all kinds even for the smallest of things we do.

After entering the gym, the nightmare doesn't end. Certain gadgets or equipment might have queues for use.

That makes whatever per capita space available to us a really precious thing. Space that is undividedly available for personal use, no matter the time. And that is occupied by the bed.

First you shape the building, then the building shapes you.

So you start shaping your undivided personal space with a good bed in the little space you have for yourself. Now is the bed's turn to shape you. And shapes you, it does. Pretty well.

Am I saying bed isn't needed?

Nope! Given the space an individual has to himself and the work he does in the modern context, I am saying naming the space blindly as 'bedroom' has entailed a massive cost on our well-being. We've taken it for granted that such a space can be nothing but a 'bedroom'. And the thing that we end up doing is installing a bed that doesn't leave much space for very very important things. And our architects and interior designers perpetuate the crime.

Let me go back a bit. When the convenient technologies weren't available and when majority of the people exerted themselves physically and really hard during the day, they perhaps found it very very comforting to come back home, do nothing more than cooking and eating, and simply go to bed. Having a ready mattress would be the perfect luxury. Since the space outside the house exercised majority of the people, inside the house dedicating space to sleeping was just a great complement. But now, no longer so.

In fact, there's very little space outside for healthy exertion. And, even inside, there's mostly the bed.

If we really want to make the space available count and if we really want a healthy body, here are a couple of things.

Futon. We all have seen this thing. From wikipedia:

A futon is traditional Japanese bedding consisting of padded mattresses and quilts pliable enough to be folded and stored away during the day, allowing the room to serve for purposes other than as a bedroom.

Perfect!

There's more. Wall-bed. Also called Murphy bed. Wikipedia narrates the legend:

According to legend, he (William Lawrence Murphy) was wooing an opera singer, but living in a one-room apartment in San Francisco, and the moral code of the time frowned upon a woman entering a man's bedroom. Murphy's invention converted his bedroom into a parlor, enabling him to entertain.

Now that surely takes care of a man's health, no!

Multi-tasking, some clarification

Image source: wikipedia

A lot of us who've tried being superheroic, and tried doing things in a way that we become worthy of this appellation called 'multi-tasker', would relate to what I have found out.

For example, ever tried talking on the mobile phone or answering someone's call while brushing your teeth full of froth. How does it feel, this attempt to multi-task?

But let's say your mouth is full of froth and foam, and for a couple of minutes you ignore the call or the mobile phone ring. And once you are done with rinsing your mouth, you get to answering the call or talking on your mobile phone. How does that go?

To understand multi-tasking in the truest sense, determine whether the two/more tasks are meant to happen at the same point in time or in a sequence over a little stretch of time.

My anxious attempts at doing it the first way have put me in such inelegant spots and situations that I don't want to share them here. Currently, I am occupied with the second kind. And that is proving very very tiring.

Two more points.

Those who have developed this ability to multi-task over a stretch of time, I reckon, have mastered a very crucial skill.

Actually, a better term than multi-tasking is juggling. Conceptually and sonically, both.

Is buying when not on 'sale' any good?

I just happened to visit the Alpha One mall this afternoon. Some students were sitting in the atrium on benches doing nothing and breathing in the cool air. Shops, all looked empty.

Of course, it's a Thursday, and one won't expect much anyway. Besides, everyone's blaming the economy. And lastly the discount sales are largely over. Or have they? So it looked.

The last point has become the reason for people to move out shopping. They know that if they don't buy when there's no discount sale, they won't have to wait too long.

Now that 'shopping when there's discount sale' has become the norm, I am wondering what exactly is a person who's shopping when there's no 'sale' thinking? For surely, asked directly if he would prefer to save money on buying the same thing when there's a discount, every single buyer would reply in affirmative.

One grand excuse that people might give to themselves when they do 'unsale' shopping is that they buy when it's new, fresh, just in. They buy when very few others have the same thing. But that's only internally satisfying until it is publicly recognized that very few others have the same thing.

We all know public recognition of new things isn't necessarily uniform and up to date. In fact, majority don't bother to keep track of majority of the things. And therefore, recognition from others is difficult when someone goes 'unsale' shopping.

I think that's so terrible. 'Unsale' should be added as a tag alongside the brand name so that such shopping gives shopper some good credit for having taken the risk.

Why 'staying fit' doesn't make sense?

Yes, there was a time when without moving the body and toiling it was difficult to earn one's bread. And most time was consumed by such moving and toiling. This moving, it seemed, made one hungry and this moving consumed all the energy one got from eating the food one earned by moving. The human will, it seemed, was one with the basic human need. Fitness (or perhaps if I can put it better, non-obese body) was a default condition.

But that's no longer the case. Food is available fairly conveniently. Moving the body and toiling for food doesn't apply to majority of human beings. Enduring the inconvenience of moving one's body to earn for food sounds preposterous for so many of us. Unfit bodies, especially the obese kinds, resulting out of minimal movement is common.

So we have a special problem. For a lot of us, the will (to move the body, for that's what is needed to exercise one's body and keep fit) has divorced from the basic need of obtaining food by moving and toiling. If I can say, moving one's body has lost the deep essential meaning it had once upon a time.

The story (oops, sorry the horror) of story-telling

When we watch these movies with insane twists and turns, heart-tearing agony and mind-numbing gore, in spite of the the happy endings, if we ask a question: what if we have to go through stuff like this? Phrase it differently: given any chance, would we have our own stories unfold like this?

Not that we have any more chance of controlling our life than that rock falling off from a cliff one fine day...

Come back to the questions. What if? Would we?

Difficult to nod in the 'yes', no? Mighty difficult. And yet we continue to hear and watch such stories like crazy, making these movies claim 'record breaking collections' in every other ad.

Perhaps thousands of years back, to watch someone else die, to watch someone else brutally torn to pieces meant that you were the one alive. The lucky one. You were the one to whom those things didn't happen. And you were the one wishing for those things never to happen to you.

And indeed, if you witnessed such events, you had to tell them to your village as a precautionary measure. The only way to tell was to act them out in full horror. But even in your wildest of dreams, in spite of the rampant possibility of such events unfolding, you wouldn't wish them to happen to you. Nor would anyone in the village would wish those things to happen to them.

So while you would feel the horror (empathize) judging from the enactment of horror, and feel it necessary to make use of every single chance to watch the horror (information for self-defense), you would never want the story-with-the-happy-ending to unfold in your life.

The security of a job has a similar explanation.

A story of wealth-making and classroom

I think wealth and wealth-making concerns all of us, in spite of the fact that we forever debate its meaning and never ever come to a great conclusion.

But all of us, at least majority of us, buy the point that we should have wealth and we should make wealth.

Now that 'we should make wealth' is such an overwhelming agreement among the people of the world, doesn't it sound obvious that every kid must learn 'how to make wealth'.

And the isn't it obvious that there should be schools explicitly meant for the purpose of the teaching 'wealth-making' and awarding degrees like 'Master of Wealth Creation'.

I am talking rubbish! I don't understand that wealth creation is a result of doing something.

Mark those last two words 'doing something'. Now question, how is a classroom defining 'doing something'. How is a classroom teaching the class about 'doing something'?

Imagine such ill-defined words as 'wealth' and 'doing something', and every classroom filled for those two ill-defined words. Degrees and yet more degrees awarded in pursuit of the ill-defined meaning of such words.

If you look up the Oxford dictionary (or deploy any other trick) to prove me wrong that these words are ill-defined, don't crib about your salary.