The Improbability Clause

If you are afraid, how can you progress? You can't be afraid of blame. Because blame eventually finds the person responsible. Not today, but someday, the person who is blamed is also held accountable. When lesser men flee from blame, aren't they also running away from being accountable? Is there a higher politics? Because world needs people who will be accountable. At a lower dimension there is the need to attach yourself only to success and stay away from failures. But are all the successful people lying then? May be. They are a slithering bunch, the successful people. May be because they tried a million things. And they don't know which of those million things actually worked. Are they as clueless as the rest of us mortals? Are there some essences which can be distilled from their cumulative experience. Because in the end you see that successful people set the narratives. They look invincible and seem like they have done no wrong ever. But nobody catalogues their journ...

There is always two sides to a coin. At least in most realities. There is a push and a pull. Yin Yang. Two forces in opposition, yet working in tandem, in sync. Is it the same for people ? There are two opposing facets which are both you. One is chaos, other is discipline. One is activity, other is rest. One is care, other is indifference. One is progress, other is devolution. One is civilization other is the baser instincts. Better men than me have attempted to decide which is better, superior. I don't know if they succeeded. Doesn't matter. I don't listen to others anyway. But this inherent sense of duality is a common thread in almost all religions and philosophical schools. The devil & god, good &evil . I don't know if one is better than the other. But sometimes one is more suitable than the other to attain certain objectives. If you are running away from a pack of dogs you need activity, alertness, adrenaline. If you trying to sleep, you need the oppos...

For/From when the colors had sounds and sounds had colors. the sounds the rhythm of the universe.  Ha, how ambitious - universe;? from when you couldn’t conceive and hold the size and volume of earth, forget earth think of the house, the city, all its veins and nerves , power-line , traffic, the lights and sounds of life.  See it all, encompass it in your mind. Hold the image , the size the spread. It's all yours ,in your mind. The district, the state, the vast ocean, how many kilometers can you hold in your head? Why can’t you? Because you hold size in your head as a comparison with you in proportion.. When the proportion goes out of whack, when distance is huge and you are small, insignificant, bordering on minuscule. And then the comparison is lost on scale. At what distance do you become too small, in your own mind. Does it vary for people to people . (I was always interested in measuring the mind of others.) And you lose scope. You can imagine earth ,but as...

Hope is the last bastion of human endurance. Don't know where I read or heard it. May be a book, may be a movie. It is too good to be an original statement. Ah, cynicism mixed with hope. A strange mixture. An improbable combination. Then again, I think it is one of the gifts of 21st century. When you know too much, to be not cynical. And yet a million years of human evolution sneaks in an ounce of hope. When you discover suddenly that you like peppy Jazz music, and it transports you to light autumn rains outside a pub in New York. The cool yellowish haze of city lights, the hum of life and movement, the gentle titter-patter of reluctant rains, the smoky scents. A sleepy city, fully awake. Imagination that takes you to a place and time you have never known. Then you know there is hope. Why? Because you know things have happened in the past. Things that first came to your imagination. Unlikely things, which came to pass. Defiance of nature, of our petty cynicism. I don't...

Imagine finding a place to stay in a city, say Bangalore. You know what you are looking for, you have your specifications. A place that allows bachelors (Good luck with that!), within your budget, with basic amenities like wifi, may be a parking spot for your dysfunctional bike. You know such places exist, you just don't know where, and how to find it. A few years ago, you would have found a house broker and have extensive negotiations. He will show you a couple of shoddy houses to bring down your expectations and drive up his utility. Finally you will most likely settle for a place within your parameters and pay the brokerage. Lets deep-dive into what happened here. The brokers job was just connecting you to an opportunity that already existed. You are paying for your ignorance. This was a simple, if inefficient example. You might think, that don't all payments fall under ignorance costs then? Imagine you take an Uber or Ola, then you pay for convenience, not ignoranc...

At this point of time you may think, I'm going to talk about India and its struggle for freedom. Freedom. Seems like a heavy word. Dense with meaning. Understood by the oppressed, and the stoners. Free beer, free software, freebies. Free has connotations of cheap, easily available. But oh boy' is it expensive. People say best things in life are free. Like clean air, or beautiful scenery. But if you are not naive, you know these do not come free. Clean air requires existence of trees, giving up on comfort of individual vehicles for the common good, to reduce pollution, expensive pollution control devices in the factories. Beautiful scenery ? Where? In your living room? Or in the mountains, beaches, famous tourist spots? Is it free to travel there? To stay, to eat? Enjoyment of beauty is free of course. But getting there has a cost, like the fine print on a contract or an agreement. Is it freedom, to curtail individual desires for collective good? Is it freedom, t...

This is a story of a series of unfortunate events. And true to Murphy's law, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. I know this seems like a concluding statement, but I’m an impatient guy, and hence should be given some liberties as such. A trip to Bheemeshwari; rumoured to be beautiful, a place of green and blue.  Anticipations were high, after a stressful week at work, a chance to unwind and relax. Four people, two bikes. One rented FZ in reasonably good condition, and a old rickety Discover 150, which ran more on faith than on petrol. First item on agenda naturally for me, was breakfast, for which we confidently  went to MTR. It opens at 7:30 am , I assured them.  As a prelude to the rest of the day, it was not open.  We waited about 15 mins, after which, to my relief, they opened. We had a sumptuous breakfast. Deepika chose idli vada, Ken got some sweet Chandrahara, Sandeep settled for medu vada. I wanted wheat dosa, but the ca...