We've made up our mind!

We've made up our mind!

Every day, on every issue would you choose to think, discern, decide and then make an opinion? Or would you just once and for all make up your mind, decide which side you are on, build a toolkit of your arguments and prepare to not only falsify the opponents' arguments but also to tackle any future facts that may emerge to light?

Many times, we subconsciously choose the later. Because it is convenient and because we feel a pre-made mind can help us take quick decisions and move on through life swiftly. We have a conscious mind and a sub-conscious mind or the instinct. The conscious mind is called the slow thinking mind (coined by Daniel Kahneman) and the sub-conscious mind is the fast thinking mind. It is the shortcut to thinking. This is what I call the shelf-lookup technique.

"We can be blind to the obvious, and we are also blind to our blindness." — Daniel Kahneman

We love convenience. Convenience rules. Convenience overrides faith, fashion & friendships. We almost always know which side of the debate we will defend, even before the debate starts and even before arguments are put forward by both sides. Even before we see the facts, we know what appearances we will endorse. We choose sides, assuming they are always the same as aligning with our core values. When a new fact comes in front of us, it is uncomfortable and inconvenient to change our made-up opinion. It is hard-work. It is scary to change your mind.

The world is much more complex and random than we imagine. Things & events happen because diverse people are involved in give-n-take on diverse issues. Appearances may be false, situations may be complex, people might have changed. Each happening has multiple probable reasons and outcomes. The real world is more unpredictable than we like. We regard predictability very highly because it supports an easy functioning of our mind.

You don’t have to defend anything, not even your own mistakes. The religion, caste, country, terrain and the era you were born in, was not chosen by you. It was a matter of bad-luck or good-luck! The society likes to put the above labels on you for their convenience and easy categorisation. You don’t have to accept, conform or defend those by-chance labels. Unpredictability is good if it helps you course correct. That small switch in your mind that makes you change your mind is uncomfortable but it is exactly what makes you authentic.

This may seem out of fashion, but I want to say: ‘be judgmental for that is what means to be a human’. Judge each incident, each political hero, each media angle, each friend or family member by their actions and values. And after you are done judging, let that judgement make you more compassionate more empathetic and more inspired to take action. Always carry the courage to change your mind!

An open letter to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi

An open letter to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi

Congratulations on forming the government again. As you take the office again, here is a wish list from a common man.

Dear Prime Minister, I hope,

1. Now, you will bring full separation between religion & politics and discourage anyone who mixes them
2. Now, you do not worry about the vote bank and take action against people like Brij Bhushan for atrocities against women
3. Bring the uniform civil code systematically with dialogue. Don't lose the opportunity by hastily passing laws and enforcing them like it was done with the good Farm bills
4. ⁠Throw away the so called ‘washing machine’ with which you included many corruption-accused people into your party
5. Make institutions like ED and CBI strong and independent so that in future they are fair irrespective of who is in the government. ⁠Don't selectively intimidate the opposition.
6. ⁠Don't encourage a system that locks people in jail for months without proof. And if there is proof, speed up the proceedings and convict them.
7. Don't drum beat about the last 70 years of Congress’ failure and the evil of Nehru. The RTI, Aadhaar, MNREGA, food ration guarantee bills were all passed by non-BJP. Bring more reforms!
8. In future elections, use development, corruption removal and cleanliness (and not caste, maans, machchi, mangalsutra) as the instruments of vote appeal.
9. Enrich the common man & woman to see through political propaganda

Wishing us Indians a bright and clean future!

- Amrut, 4th June 2024

Greece and Istanbul

This year we decided to go to the Mediterranean. Where the climate is moderate, and the sea breeze is light. In the Sept of 2023, the holiday mood was building up. The machinery of the world was conspiring to get us to Greece and Turkey! Visa offices, forex banks, international airlines, hotels, island ferries and sunset boat tours were offering us places in exchange for bucks!

The Athens airport is surrounded by hills. When we landed there, I was trying to see more than what was visible around the airport. I was trying to spot the Acropolis and other ancient remnants of the great Greek civilisation. But for now, I had to hold that task and start the connecting travel to Mykonos.

At Mykonos was our first encounter with the Mediterranean people. I don’t consider our interaction with the people at Athens airport as interaction with the Mediterranean people. Or for that matter any airport. Airports are the most globalized, standardized, and sterile of places. The same processes, the same security checks, the same book shops. Special mention of the power adaptor shops. After 200 hundred years of industrial revolution, there is a whole industry that runs on making power plug of one country fit into another. Mykonos is a small island to the south of mainland Greece. It is like a bouquet of colourful 2 storied buildings on the seaside, of windmills and of the blue and white homes on the hilly steps.

 

Our hotel in Mykonos was run by a lady (Elena) with her old father and mother to help! She was beautiful, had braided hair and wore a flowing maxi. Our hotel room had a small sit-out with a view and a constant breeze from the Aegean Sea. We could see people sailing and surfing and living the marine dream. It was the constant breeze from the sea that had the power to silence your mind. And we took a welcome break from the chatter we indulge in when we visit beautiful places. There is a place in Mykonos that was recently named ‘Little Venice’. Mild waves hit the line of houses and restaurants. And behind was a small settlement of houses, shops, narrow lanes like a textbook painting. It is a place humans have designated to relax and have fun. We had our dinner listening to the 'Bouzouki' (a Greek musical instrument that sounds like a cross between a guitar and the Indian Sarod), sipping house wine and having salads and fish.

    

The next morning, we met a lady who was selling beach wear. She talked very friendly to us and showed us her tattoo that read मायादेवी (Mayadevi) which she got when visiting India. She appreciated that Indians have always been aware of the concept of Maya and the role of illusions. Just this awareness I think, enables one to be objective. We took a ferry that took us to the last beach of the island and on our return, we hopped beach to beach back at the starting point. There were beaches where nudity was not a big deal, where the LGBTQ were not frowned upon. People were harmlessly having fun and soaking sun! We took time to swim and relax at every beach.

Santorini was the next island we visited. Our room was on a cliff. It had the view of the sea and the volcanic island that was around 3 miles into the sea. There was no human population between us and the sea and the island. My theory of what separates a developed country from a “developing” country is the average awareness, sensitivity, clarity of thought and ability to express it. It is not whether a country has billionaires or no, every country has them. It is not whether there are geniuses or no, every country has them. When summed at mass scale, it is the common man’s attitude and ability that makes a country or a society great. Here, on an evening boat tour, away from the small island of Santorini, we had only 3 crew members on board. They were our tourist guides, they entertained us, heated & served us food, helped us put on snorkelling equipment, and then washed the dishes to make the boat ready for tomorrow!

As the sun was setting, the turquoise waters started becoming darker. The sunset boat tour gave us a front seat to the daily show that nature puts up. The impression of Santorini was always like a melody in my mind. It could be due to a musical piece by the same name, composed by the Greek musician ‘Yanni’ and due to the name sounding like the Indian musical instrument Santoor!

Now we were heading back to Athens, this time to really come out of the airport and go into the lanes where once Aristotle, Plato and Socrates walked and thought. Our day tour to the Acropolis started by seeing the grandeur that was Greece (a large statue of Alexander). The Acropolis (the monument on the hill) was built 3000 years back. It saw sessions of government, democracy, theatre, war & poetry.

The amphitheater there (called ‘The theatre of Dionysus’) was a witness to the drama of civilizations and the invasions of Romans & the Persians. Just like Bharat-muni in India wrote the Natya-Shastra, we learnt that people in Greece wrote the rules of performance and stage setting, devised modes of play like tragedy, comedy, satire in 6th century BC. Aeschylus is regarded as the father of tragedy and Aristophanes is regarded as the first comic playwright. Homer is the author of the two greatest epics of ancient times, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

 

The National Archeology Museum of Athens has a room with statues of philosophers. Each one of them has made great contributions to how we think today! Engraved above the statue of Socrates is his quote that captures the gist of the pursuit of knowledge ‘The more I know, the more I realize I know nothing’. Plato advocated that there are ideas and forms in the world irrespective of limited human perception. Aristotle said, ‘It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it’. Aristotle is regarded as the father of logic. He made contributions to Science, Ethics, Politics, Esthetics, Poetry and is considered to be an inspiration for renaissance that took place thousands of years later in western Europe.

We saw many other statues of figures like Pythagoras, Thales, Epicurus & Diogenes. Although the language was all Greek, it has had a tremendous impact on English. Words like democracy, marathon, music, phobia, hygiene, dialogue, and many many more are of Greek origin.

Going through the streets of Athens in an open roof bus, it was evident that the ancient Greek were fitness freaks. While the Romans are known to have enjoyed deadly gladiator games, the Greek invented the Olympic games where physical excellence and sportsmanship was paramount. The Greeks are not covert and insecure of their bodies, they appreciate and celebrate the beautiful engineering and millions of years of human evolution which can be seen in their statues of heroes and gods. While shopping, we met a tall greek lady who was a sculptor and a shop owner. She sold us her hand-made sculpture of Aristotle. She also warned us of the Chinese statues that people falsely claimed to be made of alabaster.

Istanbul was our next stop. It is a strange place! To a European eye, it seems like a Middle Eastern city and to an Asian it seems European. It is a strategic and economic bridge between Europe & Asia. It is literally a melting pot of cultures. The first thing that strikes about Istanbul is its people. Tall, handsome, beautiful, lively & never afraid of stepping forward into action. Like Greeks, the Turks also have a long history that they are proud of. The Ottomans Turks ruled for 600 years till 1920 and at their peak had eastern Europe, North Africa & the middle east under their rule. Before them the Greeks, Persians, Romans ruled here and left deep influences. The Romans brought Christianity; the Ottomans brought Islam to Turkey. The city of Byzantium became Constantinople and then became Istanbul.

The Istanbul we saw, was modern and of European style. Mustafa Kemaal Ataturk lead the people’s movement to establish the free nation of Turkey in 1923. He removed Islam as the state religion, brought in secularism and many reforms like women’s rights & education. He kept the budding nation of Turkey non-aligned in World War II, like Nehru did later during the cold war. After this journey, the current president Erdogan has brought in a religion inspired centralized leadership and is known to depart from principles like secularism and is very popular among the masses. This story sounded very similar to what’s happening back home in India.

‘Magnificence’ is what you experience when you look at the ‘Hagia-Sophia’ literally meaning the church of holy wisdom. It was built as a church 1300 years ago, then converted into a mosque by the Ottomans. They modified the prayer wall inside to point to Mecca among other changes. Mustafa Kemaal Ataturk converted it into a museum. Erdogan converted it back to a mosque in 2020. The Hagia-Sophia still stands as a witness to all this!

Our day tour guide showed us the enormous and elegant Blue Mosque (named as Sultan Ahmed Mosque). He also said “we have many mosques already, but people and leaders today are on a mosque building spree”. One can witness this just by looking at the skyline of the city of Istanbul.

Istanbul has beautiful clean views of the city and the sea. The city has efficient public transport in trams, buses, metro, trains, ships. We took a boat trip into the Bosporus strait that connects to the Black Sea. On board the ship we saw the Sufi Dervish dance, Turkish belly dance and the Ottoman warrior dance.

The grand bazaar was full of goods, energy and salesmanship! Away from India, this is where I heard the golden words of bargaining by shop keepers: ‘not yours, not mine, middle price ok?’. The spice bazaar again made me feel this was a place close to India due to the aromas in the air. I was surprised when a shop owner asked me if India will be renamed as Bharat and wondered why. He said, we know it as India for  such a long time. I told him that the name Bharat is even older, however such political waves keep happening. After a hard day and miles of walking, it was time for Hamam, the Turkish bath! One just needs to surrender to the steady and powerful hands of the 'tellak' the person who gives you a hamam bath! 

There is a story in Jain texts about Bharat Chakravarti, who conquered the world and reached on top of Sumeru the tallest mountain in the world to hoist a flag to indicate he is the greatest king. When he reached there, he saw many flags already hoisted by many other kings. This made him feel humble, he was enlightened and then he attained Nirvana. Both Greece and Turkey have very rich heritage and prosperous history like India. All ancient civilizations have thought they were the greatest and originators of all important ideas. It is with globalization that we see how valuable each society is and how inter-dependent we all are. Travel to a distant place gives us a window into the working of the world and so colourful was this window to the Mediterranean!

Amrut, Preeti (Sep 2023)

The Broad Nation with Tall Buildings: Our visit to the USA (Oct 2022)

The USA is a country with a ‘chhappan inch ka seena’ (literally meaning a 56 inch chest: a sign of courage and generosity in contemporary Indian jargon). You will see on the world map that it is a massive piece of land. It has the diversity that can only be matched by the continent of Europe or the subcontinent of India.

What we just visited was not a country, it was the concrete form of an idea that was formed around 300 years ago and realised by the people who came to this land. Liberty, the idea of setting man free from society and giving each man full responsibility and freedom to be himself and decide his own fate. These people resolved to ensure liberty to every individual. Each person here is recognised as a separate, sacred entity to be respected. The people here know that this unit (an individual) makes a society and not the other way.

Seldom in history there comes a 'movement', when man learns from the past but also is not stuck in it and charts out a new journey with modern values. America is such an affair. A country with not much past, is busy building the present and the future. A land where the pursuit of happiness is not associated with guilt. It is a demonstration of how prosperous mankind can become when let free to rise and achieve. Nature also did not hold itself back, it provided enormous space and resources and Americans grabbed it with both hands.

It is a value based society i.e. the exchange of value and goods is very explicit and in prime focus. It is probably due to this, that a waiter expects a tip as a percentage of the bill and he knows it may be denied if the service is not professional. We did not ever see a waiter at a restaurant or a boy at a shop lacking in awareness. Clarity, efficiency and individuality are the qualities in-grained in every person. People have the strange way of bracing the uniqueness and differences of others and at the same time remembering the self-identity. They are aware of what they know and what they don't know and are very clear in expressing it.

The society does not have fascination for the divine provider and the poor receiver arrangement, it has traders instead. As heartless as it sounds, trade can happen only between equals in exchange for value to value. I am talking about the ethos and values of the general American and not about the government policies that propound ‘You are your brother’s keeper’. Not 'submit and surrender', people of the US admire their heroes to emulate and become like them.

Even at the Airbnb we stayed, everything was well thought and well appointed. Every room of every house in the US is full of things of utility. Frugality is not such a great virtue. And sometimes even at the cost of excess, providing to every need at every time is considered essential. The food portions at restaurants and groceries are huge. Probably a good idea as it avoids another trip to the shop in a land where distances are so large. I could not help but humorously remember the famous scene from the Hindi classic movie ‘Jaane bhi do Yaaro’ where the American journalist says to his Indian friends – Thora Khao, Thora Pheko, bahut mazaa aata hai!

With nature and cities, we also observe people and their attitude on any tour. General warmth and prudent behaviour is seen all across the US. But here too, we saw each city has its personality and attitude (although globalization has taken out some of the distinctness of each place).

New York is a city we fell in love with. My friend immediately reminded me that I am the Mumbaikar type as opposed to Punekar (or a Dilli Wala. Read a delectable piece by Marathi author Pu La Deshpande to fully understand what I am referring to).

It is truly a city that is a functioning model of human collaboration. Everyone’s utmost contribution is presumed and demanded. The best of the best come here. New York’s monuments are the towering & functioning places of business & commerce. The skyline of New York is not a result of a Pradhan Mantri Skyline Yojana. They are built by private people in pursuit of excellence who were left free to do so. New York City  has the buzz of a marriage banquet hall. People are scooting from here to there. They want the work to be done quickly and they don't have time to waste. They are aware that they are part of something big and in a great time in history.  It seemed that New York had the trade of London, the art of Paris, the food of Italy and the rush of Tokyo. We walked and walked the streets of New York in awe of what I call the greatest show on earth!

Denver is a land locked town in the middle of the US and as we entered it via the 100 year old Union Station, we saw a board that read ‘No Ocean, No Worries’. Here we got a glimpse of nature’s bounty that America is blessed with. It has springs, beautiful mountains with white ‘Aspen’ trees and a fully functional gold mine. It is a town with an old world charm. People are more friendly and it feels like they are blessed with more time to appreciate nature, like it usually is in tier 2 cities.

Washington DC with its national monuments and government chambers has the air of state control and it doesn't feel like being in the most capitalist country. The city brings back memories of the wars the country has fought. Los Angeles (translates to ‘The city of Angels’), is a dreamland and the land of Hollywood. The sea-side, the sunset and the Hollywood boulevard is magical! It is a warm city that is the home of many studios. San-Francisco, the large colourful city built on sea-side slopes, is the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the world with a golden gate. Indians can be especially proud of being a key part of running things around here!

The only place in the US we visited purely for nature was the Niagara Falls! Three-million litres of water crushing on earth each second! It is another symbol of the humongous abundance of nature.

In all of this, a piece of our own home was provided by our family members in the US! It gave us the sense of belonging to that land. Where travel between places is so hard, our family members were eager to take us places and show us things! Prasad Vaze, Prajakta and Anish in Richmond, Praveen Sachdeva, Sonika, Anushka and Arnav in Los Angeles, Mandar Kunte, Apurva and Neel in San Jose were our amazing hosts who lived the wonderful moments with us again and made it a memorable trip for us! It was also evident that they are carrying a piece of India in their hearts!

We returned to the comfortable weather of Bangalore and as we entered our home saw that our maid had cleaned our home, our cook had kept the food ready. We realised again how each society has its way of achieving convenience and creating a world around itself.

The persona of the free, open, confident and happy American will always remain with us and inspire us to live life to the fullest!

Amrut and Preeti

October 2022

Enslaved by the Past

Does your history, heritage and tradition fill you with pride and make you feel great? If the answer is yes, you might be sitting on a fallacy. 'Pride' is what you feel due to your  own achievement, not by ‘belonging’ to a group. You build self-confidence based on your self-worth. Taking birth, in a particular country or community is a matter of chance and not choice.

At office, a colleague said in his defence, "but, this is how it was always done in the past". To which another colleague responded "we need to learn from history, not repeat it". This sentence stuck with me and got me thinking: what is the utility of history, past, traditions and heritage?

Recently watching many discussions on ‘how great our heritage is’ I always remember what Ayn Rand said: “A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race - and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin.” One can feel proud of what one has achieved and the change one has brought about. And one may feel 'lucky' about being born in a certain country. One is not obligated however, to defend whatever’s transpired in it. The only valid mission is the one that makes your present and future better.

Man’s faculty of judgement enables him to do that which is right and advocate it. Not because it is a tradition, not because it is done by his race, group or past. It is rationality which enables humans to regard each other as ‘thinking individuals’ and not as mere products of race and religion. When listening to someone, our mind immediately attributes the other person's motives to his background or community. But these generalisations could be based on our biases. A ‘bias’ is a sub-conscious judgement and often a poor substitute to thinking. We use our past, history, traditions, heritage, and personal experiences to form our biases about others. Doing what your community does, is the easiest way to belong and 'to fit in’.

Generalisations are convenient but dangerous. By defending that which is yours, just because it is yours, you miss the opportunity to assess matters with various viewpoints that others bring. We form our allegiance by looking at the popular narratives (the zeitgeist) and then we only look for things that reaffirm these beliefs.

 

The TV debates we see are a proof that our minds are preset and not open for judgement. The debates are platforms to show-off one's ability to collect and propound the arguments that favour one's stand. Each day, we have the freedom and responsibility to think rationally and decide what is right. In matters of critical importance we choose the easy way. The way of fitting-in. The easy way of being enslaved by the past.

It makes things worse because the prescriptions for future we derive from the past are taken literally. Being enslaved by the past, is being trapped in dualities i.e. in the us vs them. There is no neutral, progressive and futuristic option. If a barbaric act was committed hundreds of years ago, doing the exact opposite is not rejecting the principle behind it but accepting it and being enslaved by it.

We need to study the past and be ready to be free from it. Reconcile what was wrong by stating it. Take stock of the present using the latest knowledge and plan for a future that is not trapped in the narratives of yesterday. The only valid mission is the one that makes your present and future better.

‘Mala-dweep’ - A garland of blue waters and white sands

Open the world map and you cannot spot this country. It has the most dispersed islands and the smallest land area in Asia. Sub-marine mountains under the Indian ocean peep out here, to form dots in an oval. Each tip of white sand like a flower on the blue canvas. The canvas does not have a binding frame and the flowers are not symmetrical. They are just there, as beautiful as nature can be. It is what humans call Maldives.

Legends have it that humans came here just 2500 years back! Very recent compared to the vegetation and marine life here. ‘Duryodhan’ probably had full knowledge of Maldivian beauty when he vehemently protested giving up even a tip of land away to Pandavas :-).

One can see in a gaze that the land is under invasion by sea here. Highest point on Maldivian land is just 5 meters high. The limitless ocean suddenly makes one realize that water is the actual ‘mainland’. While we humans fight for pieces of land, it is water that has a much bigger kingdom and will probably prevail.

I could see that this kingdom is so benevolent. Species of all colors, size and shape cross paths without conflict under the sea. They never seem to need a traffic signal. While swimming and snorkelling in the waters, I felt like a minority and was worried if I am behaving correctly in their society. They treated me well. They came near me, looked at me. Some even nibbled at my fingers and went back disappointed. One of them even had an expression of ‘...uh, humans again’. As usual the big fish were bullying around (or so it seemed to a human eye). It was fun to see hordes of small fish jumping away instantly, together like a flap of a fin!

The ocean shows variety of colors. Shades of turquoise and blue that get darker with depth. I recollected why the darkest and deepest blue is called ‘Navy' Blue. A constant, invisible companion of the sea is the sea breeze. Thousands of miles away from the sub-continent the breeze had the fresh quality of  blowing away stress and tiredness. Despite the physical activity the body felt supple and the mind more alert. Sun, sand and breeze make you feel one with nature and bring a certain ease to your behaviour. The crimson gleam of sunset and the white beam of full moon on water created a sublime experience. Add to this, the mildly heady fragrance of the white delicate 'fan flower'. 

There, in the middle of the ocean, around 2 kilo-meters away from our island, which is 100km away from Male (the capital of Maldives), on the speeding jet-ski boat that I was riding, it suddenly struck me how much we humans too, trust each other. I personally did not know the maker of the jet-ski, its engine, its fuel provider, or the instructor whom I met just 10 mins back, yet we trusted all and ventured out in the deep ocean. It is amazing how much we depend on technology and have faith on some other man’s product and some other man’s trade to make things available to us at the right time. We totally underestimate this benevolence of humans.

The staff at the resort was all Indian and Srilankan. Living on this island may not be always equal to living a dream. Sonal who worked at the restaurant felt it’s a boring place and Anita at the same time was amazed by the Maldivian geography and was amused by how God made natural rock formations at a distance to protect the islands! Two perspectives of similar people at similar place and time. If one has to work under strict and rigid timelines of 7am, 1pm, 9pm every day and serve customers, it is natural to feel ‘stranded on an island’.

99% of the population is Muslim but the resorts are free from any deliberate communal coloring. Investors are Maldivians and resorts and very professionally managed. They cater to international customers, have options for gluten free and dairy free food. We also learnt one thing: a luxury seaside resort need not have the best seafood and need not match the taste of butter garlic fish of a Goan shack.

It was the morning of our departure. We sat at the beach taking in the cool sea breeze and waiting for the sun to rise and closed our eyes. Imagined our living room in Bangalore, the shops, and the concrete urban locality, and then slowly opened our eyes to see what lay in front of us at that moment. Hopefully, the white sands and blue waters we saw will make us serene and clear.

23-Dec-2021

Amrut and Preeti, Maldives