Growing Roots

If I may steal Mark Twain’s quote “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it”, I would like to say that same thing applies to “Depression” that we are going through too. Everyone I talk to, believe me that just very few people in this cold winter – at some level depressed or saddened or feeling hurt about something. It could be that their credit card is maxed out, it could be that they are not getting new jobs etc. Even my friends in India wonder how I am doing when the market is so down.

I am not closing my eyes to reality – I know we are in recession (now that it is official) but I am baffled by how much people get stuck with something like this. We as humans have immense potential within us – we survived all these years. We are the best survival machine when it comes to Darwinism. One credit card declined can’t put a frown upon our faces forever. We are better than this.

I do believe that this is a chance to look at ourselves deeply. Not just at our bank balances, but deep within our psyches. It’s time to regurgigate our beliefs, thinking and how we deal with this so called ‘reality’. It’s time to hibernate. It’s time to get lean with all the things in our lives. It a time to test how much are we slaves to our senses.

Recently I got an email which talked about how a tree grows. When a tree grows taller, even before it grows taller – the first thing it does is to spread it’s roots deeper. Otherwise the height won’t be stable and it will fall. I think similarly, this depression time is the time for us to grow our roots deeper. It’s the time to make our bases stronger and then there would be a time for us to grow taller.

These are the times that bring out the best in us. These are the times that make us think creatively. The theory already exists in Business – it’s called “Theory of Constraints“. Just treat it as a constraint and see how your mind cooks up new solutions. I keep wondering “What is that life demands from me?” in these times. I don’t have the answer yet, but I for sure know that it’s not something I have already done in the past.

Peace to all the people who are on this path of transformation.

Externalizing God

(Disclaimer: I am a Muslim only in name, so please don’t read too much into this as Hindu bashing. These are just my own opinions)

It’s been 2nd year in a row that I have spent the months of Sept-October in Hyderabad, India. I am very impressed as to how India is advancing in Science and Technology. But I also think we are taking a step behind in some other areas. One such area is Religion and it’s gaudy display.

India is a country where Vedas, Upanishads originated. These were the rules God seekers followed. It is being said that not one person wrote the Vedas, it’s been collected over a period of long time and passed down through word of mouth. Just imagine, the kind of concentration, commitment and love these people must have hold to be able to have Vedas on their tongues and an urge to pass it on to the next generation. Vedas is all about how to seek God about going with in. They don’t emphasize on rituals and rites. Just the invocation of Vedas itself is holy as the words are arranged in such a way that they bring up the holy feelings in the people who just listen to them even if they don’t understand the meaning (as they are in Sanskrit).

So, with that background context I find that the contemporary Indians are moving in an opposite direction. Like I mentioned earlier, during the months of Sept-Oct there are like gazillion festivals in India. First there is Ganesh Chaturthi – the puja (prayer) of Ganesh for about 10+ days and then his immersion. These 10 days are filled with noise and pomp in all the neighborhoods. People pray to Ganesha as he is the remover of obstacles, but honestly those 10 days are obstacles for everything in a common man’s life. There is a loud music played all those 10 days till late into the night. And there is a show off as to whose Ganesha is bigger than whose. As if the size of the idol signifies the sincerity of faith.

Next comes Navrathri. Nav – means 9 & Rathri -means night. So, this goes on for 9 nights. In the past there was not much pomp & show on this festivals. But recently people in Hyderabad have started a new tradition of erecting idols of Devi. Again, those 9 days are fllled with loud music being played and breaking all possible traffic rules.

Then to end this noisy phase comes – Deepawali. The festival of lights and firecrackers. Unlike other western countries we don’t have a specified place and people to take care of fireworks for us. We handle our own fireworks right from our own apartments and houses. So, this night Godess Lakshmi is prayed as welcoming the wealth into homes. But people blow up their hard earned money in the form of fireworks. Again, the same measure applies here too – the more the noise you can make the more the rich you are treated in the society.

I was having a chat with my friend who is a very big supporter of all these things. This is what I learned from him. In the old days, people used to go around houses and collect money for these idols and music arrangements. Now a days its been sponsored by very few rich people or corporates. So, a common man does not even has that satisfying feeling of his contribution, but he/she feels ok for his daily life to be disturbed for 10 days in a row.

I totally understand people’s sentiments about God and religion. But this is not going to take us anywhere in the field of Godliness. I also understand that these idols are the symbols that ignite the Godliness within us, but spending so much money, energy and not to mention disturbing so many people’s lives – it isn’t fair and it doesn’t match up. This externilizing of God is the new fashion in some Indian people. I am not sure why? May be because all this westernization of India is scaring some people who really can’t participate in it because they lack resources or can’t speak English. But it sure is driving them towards religious extravaganza. This gaudy display of one’s faith in such external objects which totally loose respect once that 10 days period is over is scary and sickening. I for one vote down for the externalization of God like this.

God is within us, we have reached a stage where we don’t need these external crutches to stand on. We can experience God without disturbing other people’s lives. Think about it.

Knowledge is Power

I think that I get a lot of ideas to blog about when I am in India. It’s been frantic one week I have been here, now that I have internet connection I can get back to blogging. When I am in US, a lot of stuff that comes out of me is very personal which I usually journal. In India though it’s different. My mind is filled with ideas for blogging here. So, here is something I have come across recently.

Who ever said that “Knowledge is Power” wasn’t joking. It’s true and I think there is a flippant side to that quote too. In India, you will come across a lot of elder people who use their ‘Knowledge’ to yield ‘Power’. India is a smorgasbord of forgotten traditions and new consuming habits. In this variety of feelings – the person who ‘claims’ to know the answer is the king. You see, you don’t necessarily have to be right because you could use your ‘elderness’ to make it right.

Recently my sister had a baby. My nephew shares his birthday with me now. And I was excited to see him. But it was not going to be that easy. There was this Aunt. Let’s call her – Aunt Kia(Know It All). Aunt Kia used her knowledge and put forward a rule. She said, I can’t see my nephew without hearing him cry. And after I see him, I need to give him some money as a gift. So, when I entered my the room, I literally closed my eyes and they made the baby cry – which I think is CRAZY. Once I heard him cry, I saw him and gave him a gift of Rs.500.

Now, I don’t mind following this weird tradition because all the elders were happy I did that (they expected me not to respect any traditions after living in US and marrying a Hindu). But what boggles my mind is that there is no logical explanation to this. And ‘Aunt Kia’ wields her power only because she can blurt out these kinds of things in everything we do. I have seen her in action in the past too – she has a age old tradition for everything, from taking a shower to raising a baby. But, no one questions her. Because then it would be chaos as you would be pitting your heads against the tradition. In all this craziness, ‘Aunt Kia’ happily paddles her way by throwing around commands. I am pretty sure every Indian family has one such ‘Aunt Kia’.

I think this is one aspect of Indian family where this ‘hidden knowledge’ of tradition gives immense power to the elders. I am not sure when does tradition stops and manipulation starts. It’s kinda easy to trespass that line.

On the other hand, I see another kind of power being yielded by the young people. A lot of young people know a lot about technology in this country. SMS, Email etc are so easy for these young people, but very difficult to comprehend for the elders in the household. So, in this case the youth uses it’s knowledge to wield power. But, at least it’s not based on some superstitions.

The real clash of ages happen when the traditions’ superstitions clash with new ages’ arrogance. I am not sure who will win eventually but I do know that it’s going to be a long battle. In the mean time keep gathering that knowledge.

Travel, Travel & Travel

I have been on the move from the past 4 weeks. I didn’t realize how packed my days, weeks are going to be when we planned it. It all started long time back. Shyam’s wedding plans have been going on from last year. Even though we were never actively part of his wedding plans, we were prepping ourselves in various ways. We went to Chicago first. It was nice to be part of the family preparations. It was nice to eat home made amazing Indian food. And there was this extra tradition of offering the food to God before we eat it – may be it does enhance the taste of it. I loved it.

After one week of talking about the next week and preparation we drove to Cleveland. We were greeted with much more love and affection. Sangita’s family friends came to our rescue. We stayed in their homes and became part of their family. Their kids gave up their rooms for us. To think of these kids who are about 15, 12, 7 yrs old and so thoughtful just blows my mind away.

That week was the most fun one. We had Shyam’s court wedding, traditional temple wedding, Sangeeth, and a grand reception. I could write pages about each of those days, but I am just gonna keep it short.

From Cleveland we drove up to NJ & NY. Met our good old friends and had such a fun time. Finally we got back Oakland last week and we drove to Santa Barbara for Sangita’s school stuff. We spent last week by wonderful beach.

Now we are back in Oakland and I am leaving for India day after tomorrow! Can’t believe everything is happening so fast. I am pretty sure I would be travelling a lot in India. I am a bit tired of all the moving too. Actually I feel jet lagged even before I have started. Hehe.

There, that’s my travel update.

Life in 3rd person

This has been on my mind from the past 2 months. I have been wanting to blog about it for such a long time. I may not sound very clear as the topic I want to blog about is very complex and when I bring it from the level of thoughts to level of words, some stuff does slip out though. Not everything I think of can be translated into words easily.

I have wondered about religion, spirituality and meditation for a long time. First I tried to take my refuge in my religion. But being not able to speak or read the native language of my God’s literature (as it was Arabic) I couldn’t be very successful. This was like 20 years back. So I gave up on religion and kinda didn’t pay much attention to God as an organized form of following till I met with the concept of Spirituality. There was this one book which I believe completely changed my belief system and made me admire and love  ‘The God’ more and more.

It was ‘Conversations with God – Book 1‘. Even though it has a Christian twist I was able able to very successfully block it out as I did with my very own religion and just tune into what the Author was really saying. When you do that you really understand the book. Otherwise, you would end up judging the book by it’s Christian value connotations which could be good or bad based up on where you grow up in this country. Anyhow, that book introduced me to Spirituality. Mind you, I am not referring to ‘Secularism’ here. I was down that path after Islam didn’t work out for me. I adopted a formula where I treated all religions as one (being the Libran I am). So, Spirituality came after Secularism.

That’s there, we will get back to that part of the story shortly. I wanted to talk about another trait of me. From my childhood I have been verily fascinated by Brain/Mind/Cognitive studies (although the term Cognitive studies is something I learned couple of months back, I have been interested in that study for a long time). May be it was my Dad’s influence where he imprinted on my mind that mind is the most powerful thing in our lives, may be it’s the popular Hindu belief that says ‘Mind can either bond you or liberate you’. Not sure what it was, but I have been fascinated by mind studies and cool things you could do with it.

I guess the fact that it looked very interesting to me was I got one right with me (I mean my mind) and I can do all the cool thigs with it. This is when I started to learn Harry Lorayne‘s super memory tricks. This is where I trained myself in ‘Vedic Mathematics‘ where I could multiply multiple numbers simultaneously and quickly. It started out as a play thing for me. I would look for information around me and see how I can organize it in my mind. I would not hesitate to take any help from outside. Like eating ‘Okra’ or ‘Bhendi’ as we Indians call it – would enhance your mental prowess and guess what my favorite curry, growing up was? When I was 18 I read an amazing biography of ‘Ramanujam‘ – the greatest mathematician ever lived, called ‘The Man who knew Infinity‘. I was obsessed with Maths and Number Theory. I read that book back to back 3 times but still couldn’t control my obsession. I wanted to have a brain like Ramanujam. In that book the author mentions that Ramanujam’s favorite curry growing up was ‘Brinjal’ or the way Americans call it – ‘Egg Plant’. And I adopted it thoroughly. Eating Egg plant atleast 3-4 times a week. Even though I didn’t like it back then.

So, to make the story short. When you come across Spirituality you also come across a very important tool of which is widely employed by many – Meditation. It was about mind control and I was hooked. Looking back – every religion has some kind of ritual built in where people can get into ‘meditative state’. Muslims pray and count the ‘Tasbih‘. Hindu’s pray and sit in ‘Dhyanam’. Sufism followers get into whirling to get into that state. So, this organized religions have all some way of rituals instilled within them so that they will let us have that one moment of zen.

But at the Spirituality level this is employed very openly and encouraged. But again, Spirituality is like a nameless river. Religions are all like named rivers. No matter how cool Spirituality may sound like but still it has it’s boundaries or edges. It’s still organized and any organized system inherently incorporates things that someday will break. Because to be complete and whole we have to include or take into consideration EVERYTHING. (This is where you should consider my warning of not being able to translate my thoughts into words, again)

So I realized that even Spirituality has it’s short comings and I just focused on Meditation. This was interesting phase and it still is for me. Now, we come to the point I want to put across. I know there are many variations in meditation again. But I think no matter what path you take in Meditation, all the paths are always leading to one destination. And that is ‘Self-Awareness’. That word has been used in so many contexts by now, each of you reading that word ‘Self-Awareness’ has different interpretation. So, let me tell explain what I mean by that.

The state of Self-Awareness is a gradual one. For some lucky people it’s instant. Like 1% of the whole humanity gets to Self-Awareness instantaneously. But since this blog is for the rest 99% I am going ahead with the statement that Self-Awareness is a gradual achievement. When you reach complete Self-Awareness you are in nirvana state. Nothing bothers you. Nothing concerns you. You function in this world perfectly, but nothing in this world will affect you.

So, how does this Meditation lead one to Self-Awareness? If you take all meditative processes and traditions there is something very common in all of them. It’s called – “Watching”. Yep. Watching. Watching the inner watcher who is watching the world. You see within us lie a powerful force which is functioning in a perfect way. There is something that helps us to pump our blood, breaths automatically, make the whole body function in perfect harmony. This is the core. A lot of people call it with lot many names. Atma, Soul, Higher Self, God etc.

Self-Awareness is the state where there is no difference between you and this Core. Where you are ALWAYS AWARE that You are this Core. Meditation kick starts this awareness process. So, how do you know whether you have started it? By watching. Watching your thoughts, feelings, actions without prejudice or judgement. As you start to watch yourself you will start to see how things are moving in the 4 dimension of space and time. This watching is very difficult in the beginning but with enough practice you will get to used to it.

Here is the beauty of it. Once you get to used to this watching – you will start to live life in a 3rd person. It’s as if you have separated yourself from self and you are living life in 3rd person. That’s what I mean when I say living life in 3rd person. Like some people refer to themselves in 3rd person, people who are advancing in meditation are living life in 3rd person, not just referring their names. This is such a powerful idea. That’s what you reap after years and years of meditation. Nirvana doesn’t come in few days. First comes awareness and then Nirvana follows. And meditation enables it.

So now if you look back to religions – we said that they have rituals which basically give a glimpse of what Mediatation does. So to reach a 3rd person life – you have to spend a lot of time in religion. But you can do it with meditation in short period of time. It’s an ardous process. We really don’t want to know what goes through our heads. We are so good at being in denial with our own thoughts and feelings. But once we start to watch and once we gather courage to face our internal stuff, we emerge victorious and happy. It doesn’t end there.

Scientists seriously believe that there are about 11 dimensions in our world. Google “String Theory” or watch this video. But we are only aware of 3 all the time. So where are the rest of the 8? If you take time into consideration you still have 7 more. I believe that those 7 are not outside of us. They are within us. Those 7 remaining dimensions are the stages or persons we will have to go within us to reach that core.

Once you start to watch your thought process in 3 person, after some time you would go one level higher. 4th person. You would be watching the watcher who is watching the watcher. It’s hard. Just imagine it. Close your eyes and see yourself sitting or standing or whatever you are doing right now. Now as you observe yourself try to pay attention to the person/entity who is observing you. I know I sound crazy, but if you can’t never mind. This is what I have learned and this is something I believe. As I go on my own meditation path, it fills me with wondrous possibilities.

Believe me life in 3rd person is really fascinating.

Journey of an Indian Consultant

On Saturday I was visiting one of my long lost friend who was in Sacramento for 1 week on some project work. He is trying to change jobs and as a part of the process, he was there to check out the new job for 1 week. In that process, I happen to meet another Indian guy who is a consultant too and also just moved to Sacramento for work.

Talking to them reminded me how I was like them only a couple of years back. A consultant moving from place to place. We also chatted about a lot of issues the usual Indian guys face when they actually come to US for work purpose. As I was speaking to them – I was fascinated by the journey any Indian consultant makes through his career.

So here is my (partial) list of things that a typical or standard Indian consultant goes through. To all those Indian consultants – “keep it going yaar”! For the fictional aspects as well as for understanding purpose who are non-Indian I am going to use a character name called “Babu” (Thanks Sienfeld)

Birth of a Consultant

Babu is born in some remote village of Southern India. His parents are farmers and they are very hard working people. His parents have learned from what they saw around them in contemporary India that Education is the best thing they can give to their child.

Babu ends up working hard in his school and college. Babu’s parents can’t afford to pay for all his education so they borrow money and send him to College. Babu secures an admission in one of the prestigious schools. But the problem is it’s not in his village/town. It’s in the capital city. Babu is very excited and so his parents. Let’s say he goes to ‘Hyderabad’ city for his education.

Babu goes to City

Babu makes new friends and starts living in a place which could be described as 2 room apartment with no furniture. He lives with 4 of his friends as they have figured out that more the number of students less the rent they have to pay. They do have a TV which they watch on a regular basis. Their eyes glued to the boob-tube and their dreams hitched on high hopes in Western countries.

Babu gets introduced to binge drinking. The perennial skill of Indian common man. Checkout Indian mythology to see how much liquor influences us Indians. Then follows terrible throw ups and not to mention the favorite acts of breaking the beer bottle.

Babu also gets introduced to movies. A lot of them. As movies consume his time, he wishes that he too has some super powers (Google Rajnikant on Youtube) like those stars. He wishes that he too want to get some “pretty”, “fair skinned” girl to fall in love with. This is the same time when Babu explores his amorous side. Since it’s been taboo with his parents and relatives to talk anything about Sex (Yes, we did invent Kamasutra), his friends are very much open to talk about it. Since none of his friends had a proper education  Babu ends up learning all the wrong things from them. He gets more adventurous and visits a movie theater which is far away from the city and watches his first ‘xxx’ movie. Which obviously was censored and he feels cheated.

This is also the time when his parents visit him. They bring him food and money. His room-mates eat away all the food in first few days and Babu throws extravagant parties with his money.

Babu goes to Consulate

This would be his first visit to the American Consulate. After Babu finishes his studies. With all the knowledge he gained about the ‘Foreign land’ from his Bollywood movies watching he decides to go to US of A for his higher studies. This is the phase when the seeds of so called ‘American Dream’ TM are sprouting in Babu. He is scared to go to Consulate all by himself. But he does a good job of hiding it.

After spending 6 hours in line and then finally getting inside the consulate. Babu with all his nervousness and broken English fails to impress the guy at the counter. His application gets rejected.

Babu does Higher studies in India

After 5 hours of binge drinking with all the sadness of getting rejected for Education visa, Babu decides to pursue his higher education dream in India. He applies for a local University and gets in. The saga contiues. He stays in a similar room with 4 other guys. You would expect for him to do mature things. But nah, he is the same and the same patterns repeat themselves.

Babu gets a job as a Progammer

After looking for 3 months Babu gets a job as a Programmer in a local company. But there is a catch. He is an intern for 6 months and gets paid in pennies. Zilch. He accepts it as the competition is very high and also he needs the experience.

Babu meets software

All during his college/University Babu was very good at memorizing stuff and ogling it out when required in exams. But the reality is a bit harsh. Here he needs to write programs and come up with actual programs that work. His project manager is an ass and sloppy. Babu never learns anything about project management. He learns some bits and pieces of software technology. He does want to improve though and he makes up his mind to learn everything about real life software development

Babu goes to Consulate

But he gets constantly distracted by his colleagues who are no more interested in doing their job but to just use the company’s internet connection. He forgets about his learning and just gets content with quick fixes. Time goes on and 2 years later, his dormant ‘American Dream’ TM wakes up again. This time Babu goes to consulate with all the proper paper work, good enough english and a confident outlook for ‘H1B’ work visa.

He gets the visa!

Babu prepares for America

Babu refers to the excel sheet which gets passed onto all Indians travelling to America. It’s the mother of all lists. It has all the things that a american newbie needs to know. What to bring? Winter clothing? What to say to the cab driver? How much to tip? Where to find cheap cigarettes? How to avoid black people? etc

Like all Indians be buys – ‘checkered full sleeves shirts’, ‘Indian camel leather made jacket’, ‘Thermals’, ‘Nike Shoes’ (china made). He splurges on himself. His parents borrow more money for his tickets as they know that once Babu is in US he would be sending money back to pay off their debts. Babu is talk of his village. He is the first guy from that tiny village of 1000 people to make it to America!

Babu comes to Boston

Like any other consultant Babu is picked up by the Guy whose company sponsored Babu’s work visa. Let’s call him ‘Ram’. Ram is a typical India Consulting firm owner who sponsor Indian talent to US, makes money off of them and gets rich.

Ram takes Babu to his 4 bedroom house. Babu is excited as he is in US and he is going to live in a 4 bedroom house. On arrival he realizes that there are about 16 people in that 4 bedroom house and he is back to square 1. Sharing 1 room with 4 other people. First chink in his American Dream TM

He brushes it off and adapts to the environment. He makes friends with the guys. There are groups within 16 people. There is a South India group, North India Group, ‘Gujju gang’. They don’t mix up much. These groups cook separately, watch TV till late night, whistle while watching ‘Basic Instinct’ and are ready to give Babu with advice about America

Babu starts his American Education

Babu starts to learn quick. It’s November in Boston. Frigging cold. He realizes that the Camel leather is not gonna keep him warm. He dons his ‘Monkey Cap’ from India and walks around. He get’s his SSN, learns to drive, attends interviews for jobs.

He is introduced to Costco, Walmart, Sam’s club. All 16 people use 1 Costco card to share and shop. He is introduced to ‘Chalupa’ at Taco Bell, Big Mac at McDonalds. His weekends are filled with travelling to New Jersey to meet other Indian friends and eat some more Indian food and driving to Rhode Island to go visit a strip club.

Babu get’s a Job

Finally after 4 weeks he gets a job. But as usual this job is not in Boston. He has to move to another place. All by himself. The journey he made from his village to the city in India is repeated again. He moves to San Jose for his new job. He looks up sulekha.com and finds a place where he can live temporarily.

He moves into a 2 bedroom place which is shared by 4 people again. He is happy that atleast this time he has to share the room with 1 more guy. He gets a closet for himself for the first time. He buys about 50 hangers even though he doesn’t need them all. As usual this room has no furniture, no internet, no tv. He irons his shirt and pants for his first day at this job.

Babu’s first day at Work

He is nervous. He thinks everyone asks him how he is doing, but don’t really wait up to hear his answer. He can’t understand most of their American accent. He says “Yes” to everything they say to him and does his ‘Indian head nod’ a skill only Indians are expert at. Indian head nod is a circular bobbling of the head which could either mean ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ depending up on the person who is interpreting. For 400 years British were so cruel to us that I think we developed a special way of realying our angst and disagreement without being lashed. It’s an Indian thing. Check with you local Indian friend if you want to find out more.

Babu’s first year in America

His first year goes well. He moves out to 1 bedroom apartment with another colleague at his work place. He buys a used ‘Honda Accord’. He has been sending money every month diligently to India. He has learned to cope up with some more quick fixes at work. His hiring firm promised the client that Babu is an expert in all the relevant technologies. But it was a lie. Ram just wanted to make some money. Since Babu couldn’t say no to the job, he just acts that he is an expert and learns the new technology in 1 week. He knows that he is good at remembering stuff. It comes handy to show that he is indeed an expert. But that was interview. In his day to day job Babu is just putting off new fires and using Google to find out answers to his technical problems.

He has a TV, bought again from a Mexican guy on Criagslist. His furniture is all bought from Craigslist as well. He buys his clothes from Target and groceries from Costco which he shares it with his room mate.

Babu visits India

After 3 years of struggling in America Babu decides to go visit India. In the mean time he has changed about 5 jobs and in 5 different places. He has learned the art of Indian living in US. Saving money and living on very few dollars per month. Some times he is reminded of his grand dream but he no more believes in it.

He has planned to go visit India as his parents are bugging him to get married. They have already setup about 5 meetings with would be bride’s parents in the village. As he is the first guy in the village to make it to America – they can demand high amount of Dowry for him. Finally all the investment they made in him is paying off. This is the day they have been waiting for.

Babu arrives, visits all 5 possible bride’s places. Ok’s 3 girls and his parents pick the one who is paying the highest dowry among the 3. He get’s married and brings the mail order bride to the US of A. Before he left for India, Babu got his single friend to move out of the 1 bedroom apartment so that he can live with his new wife now. Let’s call his wife ‘Babi’ (You know I like short names!)

Babu’s Honeymoon

Babu doesn’t know anything about Babi. This is the time to know more about her. Babi is scared to be with a new person and also in a new place. They both go to Las Vegas for their Honeymoon. Babu gets to know more and more about Babi. He decides to fall in love with his wife. He figures – it’s going to be just like his job. Putting out more fires!

Babi’s American experience

Babu is the new teacher of Babi. She is dependent so she can’t work. She be-friends all the other Indian dependent mail order wives in the apartment complex. They have potlucks during weekends. Babi learns to operate Microwave, dish washer, dryer. Babu teaches Babi driving which takes about strenuous 5 months and few minor accidents. For the first time Babu let’s his car get scratches after he bought it. He discards it off as she bought a lot of Dowry to his parents. Babi gets more and more friends and learns to shop by herself. Yes, she uses the same Costco card.

Babu’s new baby

Babu doesn’t waste time. Why waste money buying condoms? Babi is pregnant and this is a good reason to get his parents visit him. He sponsors his parents to visit them for 6 months. He takes his parents to visit Disney land, Las Vegas, NY, Grand Canyon, Florida, San Diego. Babu has a baby boy.

Babu applies for Green Card

After talking to Ram and paying him money to sponsor his own green card (I told you Ram loves money), Babu gets his green card process started. By now he is settled and his job is going good. He has not yet learned the Software in real world and project management which he wanted to. But he is happy. He knows how to make this work. He works like a robot. Totally forgets his dream. Now and then wondering was it worht it? He is just another cog in the wheel. Another modern slave to the capitalistic market. He is just happy that he gets to eat Indian home made food and takes his kid to Indian cultural programs.

Babu’s Future

  • He has one more kid. It’s a girl this time
  • He grows a beard and gets over weight
  • His kids make fun of his English Accent
  • His kids call themselves – ABCD (American Born Confused Desi)
  • He has a receding hair line, eventually goes bald.
  • He still shops at Costco
  • He goes out to eat on weekends with kids (not at Mc Donalds)
  • His kids grow up.
  • He is worried about their education
  • He wants them to excel him and NOT have any false dreams
  • His son turns out Gay (not that there is anything wrong with that)
  • His daughter is dating a black guy
  • He is speechless and shocked.
  • A fitting finale of ‘Nightmare’ to his ‘American Dream’ TM

That’s all folks. Thanks to my many many friends who have gone through most of these experiences and all the acquaintances who shared their stories with me. I could go on and on but my fingers are aching like hell.

That’s the journey of a typical Indian consultant. Next time you see one – just check how he is doing. There is a lot more going on behind that ‘Indian head nod’!

Role of Creativity in Consciousness

It’s been a long time I have blogged and I have been wanting to blog about this topic for a long time. Recently Lynn came up with an idea of having our own household TED talks. So, last Friday I did a TED talk on this topic and it gave me an opportunity to gather all my ideas in one place. I also uploaded a PDF of that talk in the end of this post.

To start with I have 3 basic theories that intertwine to form this grand picture.

  1. Quantum Physics, NLP Theory
  2. Thinking in genenral, Creativity Frameworks
  3. Creation Theory (Not the Church one)

Let’s look at each of them:

Theory # 1: Quantum Physics

It’s a very well known fact that once we break down and dig deep into physical things, there a whole new world out there. Take a strongest microscope and take a deep look, the world within things is totally different. It’s not like the way it has been described – a planetary system. That’s classical physics take on it. Quantum physics says that at a quantum level, things are made of something called “Quanta”. This Qauanta is not a thing, but it’s a energy packet.

In other words this ‘Energy Packet’ is also called ‘Possibility Packet’. Meaning, it’s a proven thing in Quantum physics that at any given time we can only measure one thing of a Quanta. Either ‘Location’ or ‘Speed’. It means that if I go out to find the speed of a Quanta that’s exactly I would find. If I seek location, that’s exactly what I would get. But say, I would want to know at a given time where quanta is at a given time and what is it’s speed – it’s not possible. Think about it. The cop need only find out your speed to check if your are speeding. You just need to find out where your car is parked in a parking lot. You cannot figure out both at the same time.

So this leads us to the fact that we are somehow getting what we are intending for. It means that at quantum level, these energy packets – quanta give us what we seek/intent. Meaning we pre-destine the possibility of what these quanta would be. Meaning we choose what these quanta would be. That is the reason why these are also called ‘Possibility Packets’.

Now, hold that thought and zoom out to regular physicality level. This draws us to conclude that our thoughts basically affect the possibility of certain thing we are seeking. Our thoughts are in turn tied up with our behaviors, habits etc. In other words, what we observe has direct relation to what we intend or looking for.

Remember that, we are going to recall that again later.

Matter Vs. Energy

Let’s talk about matter and energy for a short time. We are used to seeing matter around us all the time. We also see energy in various forms – electrical, chemical(batteries). Long time back Einstein proved with his very popular equation:

E = mc2

In other words energy could be equated with matter with something else. Basically telling us that energy and matter are same things in different forms.

Rehash – Top down approach:

Let’s rehash what we have learned and try to make a connection.

  1. We know that energy and matter are same
  2. If we dug deep into matter(or energy) we would find it filled with possibility packets
  3. These packets behave according to the intention of the Observer
  4. More importantly, the observer can totally change the possibility packets to change by changing the thoughts.

That’s good enough about Theory # 1. Let’s take a look at the next one.

Thoery # 2: Thinking and Creativity Tools

Our thinking consists of 2 components:

  1. Perception
  2. Logic

We all tend to equate logic with thinking. When we refer to thinking, we unanimously tend to think of logic. The logic would say that Obama got enough super delegates to become a democratic candidate. We are obsessed with logic. So much that we totally ignore the ‘Perception’ part and just straight out jump to logic. What we forget is ‘Perception’ is what gives fodder for ‘Logic’ to work on. Taking the Obama example, if we look at perceptions – it would mean that for the first time in history an African American could be a President of America. It’s a powerful thing. You cannot deduct that through logic. You need perception for that.

A lot of daily problems we come across are mostly to do with ‘Perception Errors’ rather than ‘Logical Errors’. We have mastered the logical part of our thinking. So much so that, we can either give it to the computer to figure it out or outsource it to figure it out. Perception is what makes us more humane.

So, how can I be more creative?

If you think about it – Creativity is nothing more than coming up with more options, choices, solutions. So, generally if you expand your perception –> you expand the input –> there by you give more choices to work on at logical level –> there by you get more outcomes, more options and more optimal solutions.

You can use many perception expanding tools. One of the popular one is Edward de Bono’s Six thinking hats.

Let’s check out next theory.

Theory # 3: Basic creation theory (not the one Church is proposing)

This involves all the new age gurus. This is more spiritual and involves a lot of teachers who have been talking and spreading knowledge about this. For example – The Secret.

We usually have 60,000 thoughts per day. And recall from Theory # 1 that our thoughts change possibilities. So, imagine each thought is altering some possibility. Meaning we have about 60,000 alterations going on in our one day at Quantum level.

How in the hell do I manage those 60,000 alterations?

Welcome Feelings.

One feeling is worth a thousand thoughts!

We can keep those 60,000 thoughts in check with the help of feelings.

Remember what we learned in Theory # 1. Our thoughts alter possibilities –> meaning, our thoughts alter or can also create possibilities –> meaning, our thoughts can create matter or energy (Thanks Einstein)

Let’s take a visual representation:

Here are our thoughts:

Thoughts

This is how Feelings Orchestrate thoughts:

Feelings Orchestrate Thoughts

It’s time to mix all these 3 theories and see what come up. Before we do that, let’s note the key points.

  1. Observer changes possibility
  2. Creativity enhances perception
  3. Perception is at a thought level
  4. Feelings affect multiple thoughts
  5. Observer have feelings

The Big Picture is:

Grand Big Picture

So, if you look at it – creativity plays a very important role in our lives. At a sub-conscious level it helps us to perceive more options and there by helps us create the life we want.

Here is the Role of Creativity in Consciousness slides in PDF format.

Map and Territory

Couple of months back I was reading an amazing book called “Tao of Physics” which basically talks about how quantum physics and spiritual realm are similar. It talks about what mystics have discovered about 5000 years ago holds true in what a quantum physicist has to say. In there I came across a para which blew me away. Allow me to explain ( I wish I could quote it but I don’t have the book anymore with me)

Most of the people who consider themselves to be spiritually advanced kinda consider themselves to be knowledgeable. Most of these people once they reach the saturation of their knowledge realize that reality that we see around us is nothing but a big mesh of tricks which our senses along with our mind plays on us. So this usually ends up in this knowledgeable person raising to the occasion of enlightenment declaring that the world around us is magical, mystical and an illusion. What is missed in this is though – how cunningly dualistic is our mind. As soon as we realize that this world as we experience is an illusion – the mind plays its best trick, tricking us into thinking that this so called “illusion” is out there. That this perceived illusion that we have called out is out there and the mind is a friend of ours in identifying it.

But the truth is: the illusion is not out there. It’s actually played out in our heads! We tend to think that it’s out there because then it becomes easy for us to label it and shelve it and go back and watch our favorite episode of ‘LOST‘. But in reality (so ironic) that illusion is in our minds. We carry our own illusions in our minds. This has been labeled by many people in many ways. Some people call it – “Map”. We carry a map of reality in our minds. We try to sift through this so called territory with our maps.

Another populist saying in this arena is “Map is not the Territory”. We keep thinking and identifying that what we see out there is reality and we form assumptions, make decisions totally blinded by the fact that we base all of them on the internal map of the territory. What a kicker would be is – that there is no actual territory. Our languages define how we think. Just close your eyes and check what do you see when you hear or read the word ‘Territory’. I bet its some 3 dimensional landscape or some high view of google maps! But for the lack of words what we refer to as territory actually doesn’t exist in reality. Our maps along with our minds make us believe that what we got is a map and there is a huge territory out there to explore.

Check Schroedinger’s cat phenomenon, check wave particle behavior of light, check Heisenberg’s uncertainty theory. It says in gist – the thing that is being observed is totally affected by the observer. Which means that in any given case, observer is part of the play. He/she is not separate. Which makes us wonder about the territory we have been talking about. At some deeper level you can feel that the territory is us and the map is just some contrived way of looking at the blips in territory.

I better stop before I get labeled as crazy. 🙂
Wave Particle

Tracing my Creative Self

I am a strong believer of creativity. I believe that’s the only thing that differentiates us from each other is how creative we are. Anything could be copied if tried hard enough – not creativity. I think everyone is creative and I believe it’s just a matter of time, care and nurturing to bring the creative self out.

Creativity means many things to many people. For me, finding creative solutions to everyday problems. For someone it could be crafting the best and innovative curriculum. Depending up on what is most important to us we try to seek creativity in that area.

Have you ever used a drawing book where you get a tracing paper on top of the diagram? I think creativity is just like that. It’s already in there within us and we just need to trace it out in our lives. Recently I have started to read a book which gave me one of the most important tool of my life – “The Artist’s way“. The last time I read that book, I was so over joyed by the first chapter that I stopped reading it! I started doing this exercise of “Morning Pages” and it has forever changed my life. Now I have decided to continue reading the book.

It’s a long and exciting journey of finding and tracing out my creative self and I am looking forward to it. In addition to doing my journaling every day as a process from the book – I have also set aside time for my “Artist Date” every week. An Artist Date is some specified amount of time where you spend with yourself nurturing your creative self. Last week I went out and watched a movie. This week I am planning on to go to Citylights bookstore in San Francisco.

The Artist\'s Way