This thought hit me as I was conversing with a few 'Indian' kids here in Folsom. Incidentally we, I mean the kids and I spoke the same language, Kannada. It was during the interaction that it occurred to me that these kids could only understand the language but not speak the same. That hit me and hit me hard. I cannot imagine knowing a language and not being able to speak it. Sanskrit is one such language that I can relate to. I can understand the script but I can neither converse nor make out other conversations.
What hit me was the realization that I was no better than those kids. Growing up in a foreign land they were unable to speak Kannada but I who had spent all my growing years in Karnataka was unable to write one full sentence in Kannada without using any English words. I was shell shocked at my failure. The language I grew up speaking, writing and conversing had lost me or to stop the naivete, I can say I had failed Kannada, my language.
I started looking into the history of Kannada and that's when I realized I had lost the culture too. A language and it's culture are so intertwined it would be foolish to claim the language knowledge without that of it's culture. Am not talking about superficial knowledge here. By knowledge I mean, understanding the semantics of the language, not just the syntax. It did hurt me to feel that I had lost something which until this conversation with the kids, I had not even realized were mine.
I was of the opinion that communication is what matters and language was just a means of communication ( visual means being the other ). How wrong was I. Language is much more than means of communication - what is that 'more' is not quantifiable ( at least not by me ) but there is an emotion in Kannada that I feel for. The same emotion echoes in my culture as well.
Ever since I realized this 'loss', I'm making an attempt to regain at least some of what I have lost and I hope I'll be successful.
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
How to keep the brain alive
I don't mean literally. Never the less, how to keep the brain stimulated ? Before the how, let's delve to the question of 'why'. Why does one need to keep the brain stimulated. The answer is - we have a brain that is highly under utilized and in every one's best interests, the brain power, so called has to be utilized to the maximum potential. Not utilizing brain power is analogous to investing a few hundred thousands in a Lamborghini and drive the car at 20 mph. It doesn't hurt to do so, but it's not of any good either.
Everyone is aware of this fact. It shouldn't come as a surprise that, on an average we harness less than 10% of our brain power. I'm speaking about the average person here, not the crafty painter, the savvy investment banker or the psychology professor at Johns Hopkins. What got me into this thinking was my own lifestyle. I realized over a period of time how passive my lifestyle had become. To quote, during my high school days, I was a top achiever in almost every aspect and correspondingly my mind stayed very active. After high school - over a period of 10 years I can't seem to recollect many instances which stimulated my thinking and let me out of the box. There were such instances but not many. It's in my best interest to regain the activity level of those high school years, simply because a sedentary brain makes one more sedentary and the realization that I have a Lamborghini sitting idle in my garage, doing those occasional 20 mph runs. How to achieve that and what does this change in thinking translate to day to day living:
1. Giving up on Television - the most passive and mindless activity on this planet, period. I was never a fan of television mostly because of the commercials, but the more I kept 'surfing' the channels, the more mindless the activity became.
2. Giving up on movies - Movies of all kinds are mostly passive entertainment with the exception of a few.
3. Giving up on alcohol - This might seem a little crazy but I think drinking leads to an overall malnourished brain. An occasional drink should still be fine but regular partying surely eats up the brain cells.
4. Taking up reading : Not just the Fredrick Forsyth and the Jeffrey Archer thrillers - but the more stimulating ones - like Shantaram.
5. Taking up on certain video games - Not the ones where you have to kill all the time.
6. Waking up early - It's not a joke , 4 AM to 6 AM is the time the brain is most active. Hindus called it "Brahma Muhurta" for this reason.
7. Exercise - Again this does not translate to 45 minutes of muscle tearing bench presses and barbell workouts. A 15 minute jog would suffice.
8. Yoga and meditation: I'm still in the process of getting into Yoga but eventually Yoga will be the answer to keep the mind totally active.
It's true, not all minds think alike, but certainly the superiority of one mind over the other is just contextual. In today's ever competing world, it sure pays off to own a Lamborghini but the payoffs vanish the moment one hits the tarmac and drives the lamb at 20 mph. The extra boost has to be unlocked and the same is true holds true for the human brain as well.
Everyone is aware of this fact. It shouldn't come as a surprise that, on an average we harness less than 10% of our brain power. I'm speaking about the average person here, not the crafty painter, the savvy investment banker or the psychology professor at Johns Hopkins. What got me into this thinking was my own lifestyle. I realized over a period of time how passive my lifestyle had become. To quote, during my high school days, I was a top achiever in almost every aspect and correspondingly my mind stayed very active. After high school - over a period of 10 years I can't seem to recollect many instances which stimulated my thinking and let me out of the box. There were such instances but not many. It's in my best interest to regain the activity level of those high school years, simply because a sedentary brain makes one more sedentary and the realization that I have a Lamborghini sitting idle in my garage, doing those occasional 20 mph runs. How to achieve that and what does this change in thinking translate to day to day living:
1. Giving up on Television - the most passive and mindless activity on this planet, period. I was never a fan of television mostly because of the commercials, but the more I kept 'surfing' the channels, the more mindless the activity became.
2. Giving up on movies - Movies of all kinds are mostly passive entertainment with the exception of a few.
3. Giving up on alcohol - This might seem a little crazy but I think drinking leads to an overall malnourished brain. An occasional drink should still be fine but regular partying surely eats up the brain cells.
4. Taking up reading : Not just the Fredrick Forsyth and the Jeffrey Archer thrillers - but the more stimulating ones - like Shantaram.
5. Taking up on certain video games - Not the ones where you have to kill all the time.
6. Waking up early - It's not a joke , 4 AM to 6 AM is the time the brain is most active. Hindus called it "Brahma Muhurta" for this reason.
7. Exercise - Again this does not translate to 45 minutes of muscle tearing bench presses and barbell workouts. A 15 minute jog would suffice.
8. Yoga and meditation: I'm still in the process of getting into Yoga but eventually Yoga will be the answer to keep the mind totally active.
It's true, not all minds think alike, but certainly the superiority of one mind over the other is just contextual. In today's ever competing world, it sure pays off to own a Lamborghini but the payoffs vanish the moment one hits the tarmac and drives the lamb at 20 mph. The extra boost has to be unlocked and the same is true holds true for the human brain as well.
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