Religion

The genius of Hinduism, then, was that it left room for everyone. It was a profoundly tolerant religion. It denied no other faiths. It set out no single path. It prescribed no one canon of worship and belief. It embraced everything and everyone. Whatever your personality there was a god or goddess, an incarnation, a figure, a deity, with which to identify, from which to draw confort, to rouse you to a higher or deeper spirituality. There were gods for every purpose, to suit any frame of mind, any mood, any psyche, any stage or station of life. In taking on different forms, God became formless; in different names, nameless.

An excerpt from "The man who knew infinity" by Robert Kanigel.

This is perhaps, the best representation of Hinduism I've come across so far.  I respect the depth to which the author has studied and understood the religion. After all, the book is not about Hinduism but is about a mathematician. A mathematician so religious that the author might have found it impossible to separate the two.  I for one don't know the deep seated ideologies and philosophies of Hinduism, or any religion for that matter. However, what I've come to realize after reading this paragraph is that whoever designed Hinduism was perhaps a genius. Of course the one designer theory is, let me correct it, an assumption. Liberalization and decentralization, what I see as one of the most effective forms of administration was perhaps the sole motto of this designer, letting people be free to choose, amongst other things, even their God. 

Morality, Wisdom and intelligence

About a week or so back, I came across this video on TED and like many of the TED videos, this one was filled with learning. This is not some preacher infused learning I'm talking about. This is the learning that creates a spark.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html

Focusing on what's the 'right thing to do' has really helped me attain some clarity in life. How - If we choose to do what's moral and what's right and keep the focus there, a variety of unwanted distractions tend to fade away. Quite a simple thing actually and the distinction between wisdom and intelligence could not have been explained more succinctly or more clearly. Every minute of the video is worth watching.

Buying a car

There are perhaps a thousand websites and articles that'll provide data on 'how to buy a car'. There is so much information that it'll perhaps take months and months of sifting though the chafe to get to the actual grain of information. Add in the variety of choices and the mind goes for a tailspin. Buying a car is a really tough proposition, perhaps only next difficult to buying a home.

It would have been very easy to just abandon my 8 year old compact car and go for an upgrade. The first question I asked was 'why' and I couldn't come up with a convincing answer. Better ride quality, better fuel economy, more space, good looking, better technical gizmos (USB, Bluetooth etc). So I reasoned out all the above points and my existing car fulfilled the most important of these - the ride quality to fuel economy ratio.

So why fuel economy - when I can afford all the petrol I want. It's an environment concern. Moreover, making an engine fuel efficient and maintaining a decent power band is a big challenge. I really like the manufacturers who have taken up this challenge. A decent power band is a relative term, specific to the local market and the driving conditions. For ex: A Honda Civic with a power of 130 bhp may be basic by American road conditions but it's a luxury for Indian road conditions.

Ride quality is also a relative term - Indian road conditions need a car with a higher ground clearance and  a suspension  that absorbs a lot more shocks and vibrations, while at the same time offering decent power. In my experience I've found a power band of 85-90 bhp more than adequate for Indian roads.

So what am I looking at when buying a car:

Fuel economy - 15-18 KMPL
Power - 85-90 bhp,
Ground clearance - 170 mm.
Maintenance - worry free, 10000 km interval.

Now coming to other features - I have driven cars with all the technical gizmos and have realized that I hardly use any of those. Be it steering mounted audio controls, driver height adjustment or the 8 way electrical movement for the driver's seat,  The only value added features that I prefer are  - tilt steering, lumbar support (for long drives) and a 12v electrical outlet (thanks to the abysmal battery life of modern day smart-phones).

I just happened to drive my friend's Honda Jazz/Fit and was mighty impressed with the ride quality, steering response and above all - the fuel economy to power ratio. A car with 90 bhp of power and an EPA of 15 KMPL/60 MPG blew everything away, Of course the Jazz has better space management - I could fit my bike in there if I wanted to. I put my thoughts aside and decided that if I ever bought a car it would be the Jazz, but for now I could live with the Wagon R. Then recently Honda launched the Brio - a small car with the same Jazz engine and I was sold instantly. The brio weighs about 130 kilos/60 lbs less than the Jazz with the same engine and hence a better fuel economy/power ratio. I really loved the car in flesh and decided to buy the car if a need arose.

That need arose when on a recent long drive, I failed to notice that the engine in my wagon R had heated up and I continued to drive without noticing it until the engine stalled. Somehow, I had ignored the temperature gauge. When I took the car for the service, the mechanic listed that the shock absorbers were nearing end of life and the steering response was also nearing end of life. Given that the engine had stalled, he suggested an upgrade. Then I thought about the Brio and it made sense. Without spending a ton of money I could have a decent city car. So I went and made the booking for the bare bones base version. Any add ons, I could choose and put them myself.

I realized that the key to buying anything is to understand the need for that product and not to be swayed by the listed product features in advertisements. We should read unbiased product reviews but if we list down the key features in any product that we as a person want, and then match the product features to our wants - the buying process becomes a lot easier and quicker. Moreover we'll not be influenced by features/gizmos that are not required for us. We should buy what we absolutely need and not something that's there in the market. Buying, of course is a learning process and we should learn about our buying pattern and behavior and always ask the 'why' question. 

Evolution of thoughts

For the past couple of days, I've been thinking about representing human thoughts and to understand how one thought morphs into other. In the process, the theory of evolution sprang up and that's how I started thinking about thought evolution.

Let's take anger for example. It's a state of mind which is governed by certain thoughts. Most of these thoughts arise as a result of our reaction to certain stimulus. ( Someone didn't come on time ). However, all of these thoughts get intertwined and intermingled and somehow get knotted up. As a result, the state of anger (let's say is a sum accumulation of all these thoughts ), persists. It persists, because there's no way out. There's no way for the underlying thoughts to morph or evolve into something else. A perfect deadlock situation. So what's the way out .. may be letting thoughts evolve is a way for the mind to change from one state to another.

Let's assume, we are able to extract one such thought and let it evolve. For example, in the above anger state the thought- why didn't the person come on time - if focused with some reasoning - perhaps he/she is stuck in traffic; might change to - why didn't the person call/send a text - if again reasoned out will change to - why a person didn't act in a certain way. Now the thought has evolved from 'why the heck didn't the person come' ( a primitive form) to .. 'what situation is the person in' ( a slightly more advanced form) . Reasoning plays a big part here. So with the application of reasoning, thoughts do evolve. It also means that we shouldn't let thoughts get knotted up. Once thoughts evolve, as a consequence, the state of mind also evolves and there's the way out.  There's the way out of one state of mind to another and so on. Quite helpful if you want to get out of a state of mind which you don't want to be in. 

How light changes an image

For those of us who have been to Hesarghatta lake in Bangalore, it is a well known fact that the lake and its surroundings are not what we could term as a landscape hot spot. It is in fact a birders hotspot. Its not uncommon to hear the Bangalore birders say 'Damn, I missed sighting the STSE in Hesarghatta' or even 'I thought I could bag a keeper of that Marsh Harrier, I can't believe that bird is so shy'.  However, it's very rare to hear 'wow, what amazing light over the horizon ..' or  'the drama unfolding as the mist lifts up is just too good'.

Yesterday, in the wee hours of dawn as we drove to the lake bed, these were the thoughts that came to my mind. I cursed myself for not carrying the right equipment. Hoping to catch a few good shots of some birds, I had taken only my telephoto lens. I had not taken the tripod. I didn't have a remote release. I mean, I didn't have any equipment that a traditional landscape photograph requires. Yet, the light was so tempting that I just hauled my 10 lb manual focus lens and clicked a few shots. The result was something like this ..

This place, at any other time looks absolutely hopeless. But for this early dawn light and the lifting mist, the shot would've been absolutely pathetic. I mean, whats there  .. just a few trees and a few birds in the left corner (that too if you really notice).  To top it all, this was shot hand held with a 400 mm manual focus 10 lb lens.  Agreed that this is not such a great landscape shot, but it's not a bad shot either. What I really want to convey is this - Even such a boring landscape as Hesarghatta lake bed can offer some amazing photo opportunities provided you are there at the right time, preferably before sunrise. Rest does not matter - equipment, tripod, filters - nothing matters. You have a point and shoot, get up before the sun rises, get to the lake before sunrise and in all likelihood you'll get a good shot. Later, as a consolation you might also get a shot of this kestrel which literally lets you touch it.