Rip, mix and burn

Much of our innovation process, patent laws and intellectual property assumptions are built around this notion which if my memory serves me right goes something like this 'the Great Man theory of invention' -- which basically says that you can give ownership of an idea to one person, or one small group of people, and say that nothing like it existed before and nothing like it will be allowed to exist again for another 17 years, or longer in the case of copyrights. It's a terrible injustice to the innovation process.

The more we move into a digital world and the more easily our work becomes digitized and traceable, the more easily the origins on our influence become traceable. The Beatles borrowed from Elvis and everybody else. When they borrowed, it was OK because they were playing their music in small clubs and nobody could track their music. Now! when a hip-hop artist samples music off of CDs and puts together a song on his Apple (ipod), it becomes possible to say, "Wait a minute, you stole that melody from here and you stole this part from there." The creative process is the same, but now with technology we can tease out the influences and say, "This riff is owned by somebody else." All of a sudden, on an erroneous assumption, the law is meddling in the creative process. Guess its never been so tragic!

Winter in Bangalore! so early?

Well i am not really in the true blogging mood and have been suffering from this kinda pensive state for a long while. A bit too long i guess! But yes, with reference to the winter morning post i had earlier written, i just felt like answering the question i had posed, myself.

Well! the season was a much awaited one, but it did come early much to my surprise! This time though i guess i wont be able to enjoy the coffee with her at the coffee shop in my hometown but might have to in this forbidden place-hyderabad! I really dont care, its the person this time which is the factor-reason for all my excitement for the past 20 odd days and will make this visit of hers the most enjoyable time i have or would have ever had out here.

Do We Think Right?

Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed, or downright prejudiced and most of the times driven by emotions. Yet the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make,or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking can turn out to be very costly, both in money terms and in quality of life. Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated and it can be done only if one really can push that 'emotion' out of the picture and think or consciously bring his EQ to a very low level. All sorts of issues would then vanish............... And would then lead to a perfect picture..... So I guess that's why it never happens!!!! hmmmm.....

Conversation Crisis!!

Starting my neverending series of questions again? Yes!!

But think about them!

Is it the surprise element? That you're learning something new? Or is it in the flow? The fluidity of a two-way conversation that is going somewhere, possibly somewhere exciting or surprising?

The kind of people who are interesting are those that give me a breath of fresh air. They inspire me with the stories they tell, the passion they convey, and the things they do which I really admire. Not that I want to be just like them, but for me, what interests me always captivates me.

Interesting conversations to me are those that have developing content ---- not repetition or gossip but something that triggers a sense of quality, depth, and multi-dimensionality. But there are some people who I find extremely fascinating and they have this inborn talent to talk about a boring subject in an interesting way, or rather, finding something interesting about a boring topic. That's interesting again!

I get tired of repeating myself. That's one reason why I download my thoughts and conversations onto this web Log. But does that mean I become a less interesting person as a result? Does it

Winter Morning in Bangalore:

A rosy dawn and a cold blue morning, with aeroplane trails in fiery streaks across the sky which made made it look as though a powdering of frost would settle down on trees and fence posts. The dove-grey buildings of my city glowed a rich cream in the rising sun as I walked across a million tiny shops in the market place. Thin-leather driving mittens in a nice cerise tan seemed to be a la mode for the beautiful women of bangalore this winter. But I wore my thermal gloves warm enough to juggle ice blocks in and good enough to keep me from shivering . It was going to be a nippy day in the landscaped dells of Cubbon Park.

The margins of the nearby lake were still. Felt as though they were skinned over with ice. Could feel the suns warm rays. Its shadows thrown blackened the great sprawl of the Palace on its rise of ground.

I was with her, sipping coffee at the coffee shop round the corner. The view from the cafe's large window panes made the morning feel even more cozy. The Insurance building facing us looked hunched and formidable from this perspective, an image mirrored by the distant statue of the queen, that stood poised at the busy junction of MG Road, silhouetted on its column against the blue sky.

I ask myself.... Will this winter morning come again. This august or the coming November?

Loud thinking

Notions, ideas, and random thoughts that I’m processing – stuff “out of my mind”

When we think, we have our mind filled with thoughts. If I were to explain what thoughts are I would say that thoughts are nothing but cognitive events that change mental imagery. So in turn, thoughts are created by processes that relate to mental imagery, so that a logical act is implemented or executed by a sort of cyclic interaction of thoughts modifying a mental imagery which gives rise to further thoughts.

Could u picture that?

Ok! At any point of time, out of the vast space of possible thoughts, a single thought ends up being "spoken" within deliberation. Actually, "one thought at a time" is just the human way of doing things although some individuals have this ability to multi-task., but this doesn't change the basic idea.

Now I wonder instead of thinking actually! What the thought process would be like for individuals with extra ordinary intelligence? I am referring to people such as Albert Einstein or Sir Isaac Newton. Is it that they are so different even in aspects so fundamental or basic such as the thought process which takes place in a human mind, which I tried very hard to analyze or is it that the thought process itself has an unknown or an untraceable source.

Are words from a particular language a distinctive part of the thoughts process or are they embedded onto the human mind or the brain cells? Such that when they are used by these intelligent people in the right manner they sound so perfect when spoken or written?

Man's Envisage

From the early morning of the world, until very recent times, the best energies of mankind have been wasted in the worship of gods. All these gods have been naturally produced. They originated in the minds of men who, by their invention, sought to account for the facts of nature. The poor savage found himself surrounded by nature’s phenomena he just could not comprehend. Knowing nothing of natural law and order, ignorant of the relation of the clichéd term ‘cause and effect’, his simple mind was terrified and amazed by the things that he observed. The plaintive moan of the wailing wind, the thunder's awful roar, the lightning's blinding flash, the devastating flood, the lingering disease that tortured and deformed, and death that stilled the voices of his loved ones, convinced him of the presence of evil powers that worked to bring about his ruin.

But there were other things that seemed to strive in his behalf. The genial warmth of the sun, the soft light of the moon, the pleasant showers of summer days, the abundance of fish and forest foods, and the health and happiness that he enjoyed--these led him to believe that some of nature's powers were his devoted friends. Thus all the friendly and unfriendly phenomena were personified; and thus were made the gods. A very simple classification of good and bad or a friend and enemy made the savage mind fill the earth and air with friends and foes. Whatever brought him good was a friend--a god; whatever brought him harm was a foe--a devil. To him, nothing was natural. Everything that happened had a supernatural cause. The world was filled with miracles and marvels. All things were the sport and prey of good and evil gods.

It Feels Good

It couldnt have felt better. A smile on the face which i could feel over the phone and the the number of happy-faced emoticons used on Yahoo messenger. It said it all when she read it.

It was hardly 7 lines altogether. But it took a while to write it. Something which i always wanted to do, so that it would express everything i felt. Something i possible found very hard to express, earlier maybe i can now.

And Orkut gave me this opportunity. It was the Testimonial section which is usually filled up by close friends. And my mood supported me in this. Without which, knowinng myself i cant even write a single word on a piece of paper let alone blogs or messages.

And it feels really good to give this blog of mine a change by writing this loose post.

Have We Met?

As humans we live and interact across a wildly diverse set of physical spaces. Each of us formulate our own personal meaning of place using a myriad of observable cues such as public-private, large-small, daytime-night time, loud-quiet, and crowded-empty. Unsurprisingly, it is the people with which we share such spaces that dominate our perception of place. Sometimes these people are friends, family and colleagues. More often, and particularly in public urban spaces we inhabit, the individuals who affect us are ones that we repeatedly observe and yet do not directly interact with – our Familiar Strangers.

The claim is that the relationship we have with these Familiar Strangers is indeed a real relationship in which both parties agree to mutually ignore each other, without any implications of hostility. Isn't this true?

While today’s mobile communication tools readily connect us to friends and known acquaintances, we lack mobile devices to explore and play with our subtle, yet important, connections to strangers and the unknown – especially the Familiar Strangers whom we regularly see. Will these systems provide a new lens to visualize and navigate our urban spaces? How will these systems provide an interface to strangers and unknown urban settings? What will such devices look like? How will we interact with them? What will they reveal about us and these strangers? Will they alter our perception of place? of the strange and unknown?

An Altercation

Great!! Another board for the war of the fans! Star Wars rocks! No it sucks! No you suck! Blah, blah, blah! The flick has been released ages ago and the last remake made it again and hit the Hollywood box office, though i personally believe its a crappy sci-fi movie,yet the same ridiculous fan war is continuing. Not to forget the saga of 'The Matrix trilogy', which i would prefer not to elaborate due to differences in opinion.

I wonder what goes wrong with people? For even the cast, were not as dedicated to that mindless fluff as the fans are and they were the ones who put in the 12-15 hours of work, daily, no less! For those who enjoyed the mediocrity of what Star Wars, as all sci-fi movies are and wishes to continue on, more power to you.
For those who perhaps once loved the flick and hated what became of it, more power to you also.

Why can't we all live in happy disagreement harmony? Why does it always come down to a bunch of sycophants who always hanker to mould others into their way of thinking, and a bunch of bitter fans who wish to push their negativity on everyone? Every individual is duly entitled to his/her opinion and both sides come off as losers when they try to change each others minds'.

Aren't we talking sense here?

EGO

They say it refers to a reasonable or a justifiable sense of one's worth or importance in the world we live in. I think its an unjustified feeling of being pleased with one's achievements or one's situation. Well there should be some achievement to begin with right? So what is the reason for a person who is in his 20's to hold on to a heavy bag of ego?

Imagine if a person says this to you or to any other person 'Don’t be so humble - you are not that great'

I always found ego to be the reason for many relationships to crumble or the root cause for good friendship to fade away. And the most funniest thing to watch is when a person just tries so hard to maintain a particular level of ego because he/she believes that he/she deserves to be a part of the elite class or he/she thinks that the situation he/she is in right now is so perfect that he/she ought to be that way. To tell you the truth, I’ve seen this a lot among the female gender (did i have to mention it) Ok lets say we have our exception list along with us as we discuss about such a debatable topic.

So she is sitting at a coffee shop and sipping coffee at her own pace. You have to notice her (cause that’s what she wants, she is hardly in her mid 20's but do you know how much she has 'achieved???!!!') but you cannot even go up to her and think of asking her whether she would enjoy your company. Maybe George Clooney or Pierce Brosnan could think of it, but dude! Not you! You are not Mr. Perfect! And by default they believe guys have the saddest sense of humour and that means you do too so don’t spoil your good day at the coffee house.

I deeply apologize for the sarcasm but aren't we on familiar grounds?

Well Said

'I am not driving Fast, I am flying Low'

Saw this saying on the back of a Car in Bangalore and found it quite interesting. I was enthralled actually. Although I knew very well as to what the owner meant or at least what he was up to, the saying itself was so perfectly framed. I just couldn’t forget it. May not be the best of sayings, but if you just think of it, it means a lot. It is a pun filled statement.

I am not a person who would actually indulge in such activities, but, yes and a serious yes. Well eh.. I mean I was giving it another thought. I was thinking whether it really gives the person the bliss he wants. Does he really derive the ultimate pleasure he craves for when he strongly believes that the whole world is against him or the so called 'system sucks' feeling is in the air.

My Belief

These people are crazy. For them excuses are a means of escapism. They just blame and keep blaming everything around. It keeps them alive you see. It’s in their blood. To start with, let me say that they can achieve nothing in life for nuts. They believe that they are so superior when it comes to inborn talent and their extra ordinary ability to face all sorts of challenges that come their way. Or infact they are the people who one must consult when it comes to realistic problems. And with such a magnetic and a dynamic personality, they just can’t place their butts on the chair to F***** study so that they can do well in a teeny weeny simple exam, which by the way should be very simple for them to crack with such a magnanimous profile. No, they just want to ‘fly’ my friends. You know why? Because the day to day challenges, we normal people face and die to take on, have already been mastered by these so called rather self proclaimed maestros. And these 'maestros', by the way have this condescending attitude towards us, the normal people. Obviously it’s their only defense to the dustbin like life they live which of course they cannot accept. Well, Great life guys!!! Sure we are missing loads of 'great things in life'.


Epilogue

Well, this has been a very abstract post. One of the extreme type of posts which I’ve ever done. I somehow enjoyed typing this though. Anyway, all this will make perfect sense to the reader only if he/she knows what I’ve been referring to. And no, I am not going to clarify anything. Post your comments and try figuring it out yourself.

One last thing. This has been my first post after a very long time-gap. So it’s actually a spurt of all emotions bottled within me esp. against these delinquent classes of people.

My Encomium to 'The Six String'

The guitar, among all the musical instruments, is most associated with love and death. The fact is that these two strong forces of emotion or to say the senses of love and death have been ubiquitous . And this six-string instrument has been truly one of the best means to express one's deep emotions with a magical touch. That is the touch of music and its abitlity to revive a person's vigor.

As i sincerely bow my head to this instrument, the experiences i've had and enjoyed while learning to play it is too rich possibly too hard to explain. Recalling those early days when i believed that i had no sense or instinct towards music, somehow i felt that this was the only instrument which could make me enter the beautiful 'world of music'. I believe that this instrument is designed and tuned to give the player a wealth of possibilities and approaches to not only enjoying but also making music. As an ameteur (Which i humbly accept) the pleasure i derive when i play a particular piece very close to the original composition, is too immense actually fantastic. Its the pride that you can enjoy as a player. The pride that you can reproduce music with your own hands. Its the joy of seeing your fingers move so easily over the fretboard(fingerboard).

The beauty of the instrument is hard to explain in a lay man's language. The major advantage the guitar as an instrument enjoys over the other instruments, is its design. You can play the same chord or note in different positions with a slight variance in its pitch. The guitar facilitates this with the easy concept of movable chords. Something keyboard players can only dream about. The first set of movable chords we learn as beginners are the Bar-chords. And this 'move' ability applies to any chord position. So once you learn one inversion of a particular chord, you can apply it to any other chord as you move along the fretboard. Actually many times you tend to discover a position as you keep on playing and practicing. This way you tend to increase your musical vocabulary. And it comes to great help when you improvise. Again improvising is the key to enjoy and share music and its beauty . Especially when you love the sound of the 'six string'

These things i must confess are truly enjoyable. Its fun and probably you can share it only with another musician or perhaps a true music lover. As my passion to the instrument grew stronger, i wanted to see the professionals play and by observation pick up better styles and tricks to play. This urge grew and I started collecting live concert videos. Perhaps I must have seen each video a million times before i even tried to hunt for the music notes or even tried my hand at it. There was a change of attitude I experienced. Initially I was awstruck by the way the artist would close his eyes and play. Seeing his fingers fly on the board was too inspiring. The feeling was great. Then when you actually pick up the guitar you realise you need to practice a lot many times than you think you have. This feeling seeds frustration, the feeling that you can not play like them or become a virtuso guitarist (like Knopfler, Clapton or Jason Becker). As you mature as a guitarist, attitude becomes more positive and you will realise the level of perseverence and dedication that is needed.Its only then, that you just start to blindly respect the 'the six-string and its master'

Simplicity of Life

If i do have the right to speak about 'life', i guess it should be really simple. As simple as it can get. I Guess the man made tensions like money and competition has led many people to change their attitude towards life. Again, if i do have the right to talk about 'life', i would say every day of my 22 and odd years have been going good. I guess 'life' has a lot to teach me, so as its sincere student i guess i should just be enjoying every moment.

Money and competition make life interesting. They have been created by man. It directly affects no animal or any other living creature except man. When we go on a vacation, we enjoy nature's peace and the way in which animals love being in its tranquility. So is it really justified to spoil our inner peace just because some man created thing called money has interfered or has become a potential threat to the peace we could enjoy? They seem too trivial to the precious gift God has given us-Called life. It can really be so Simple, we insist on making it complicated.


Its easy to say, 'Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you'

But is it really that difficult?

'Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction' E.F. Schumacker

The Sense of Direction!!

For over a year or so, I have had many great experiences of being guided to certain important landmarks in the city. There were times when I was lost in a locality trying to find my way out to the nearest familiar post. And when it comes to giving directions to the lost character (me in many cases as I don't remember some directions that easily) people out there are very much 'THERE' to confuse u, sorry 'to help you'. And with that pure intention to be of some help, very interesting things have been said to guide you to your humble destination. I wish to share just a few of those.

He said,' Walden? Huh! Very easy, you go straight, until you come to a red light. Then you take the left and you will see it right in front of you!'
(Please note: Many people refer to a traffic signal as 'red light'. But was I supposed to go straight, keep going straight until I come across a traffic signal which at that moment has the stop signal on? And only then I take the left turn? And then keep looking ahead till I bang into 'Walden' which is in the middle of the road? Well I managed to reach Walden no doubt. Dont ask me how!)

He said, "dude! You guys carry on. Ill be there. Now you go straight and take the left turn near that green lorry standing there, take the second right, arre! That place where that paani puri wala has his cart, and park you bike next to that man. In the next half hour we will be there.''
(Well he wanted us to go there in time no doubt, but I wonder where I would have landed if that green lorry just moved ahead. And God forbid that 'paani puri waala' decided to close early and if 'that man' was not standing there. I am sure I would have landed somewhere but nowhere close to 'that man' who would have been waiting all day jobblessly for us to park our bikes right next to him. This friend of mine was referring to the green lorry which indeed has not mooved from that location since 1999 due to some problem, nice landmark!! And that paani puri guy, I heard, never closes. 24/7, 365 days in a year, yes! he does not know what holidays are!! A Pure workoholic!! and 'that man', was the Watchman that my friend was referring to. So he actually wanted us to park our vehicles in the parking lot meant for visitors.)

My phone rang, he said, " You guys are coming right? ok, this place is very near, and its a great place to chill on a Saturday night! Do one thing. Come right now, Ya right now, im standing right there. Ok ill be raising my left hand. you remember my face right? so come fast"
(Near is good, Saturday night out is also good. But no, Not lifting your left hand. Thats not a landmark my friend!!)

He said, "Dont worry, the nokia priority dealer is very close! you go over that bridge and there its on your right. They will solve all your handset problems."
(I have lived in bangalore for more than 20years and i was literally thinking and breaking my head as to where a river flowed in between the busy streets of my city. No the Cauvery does not even touch Bangalore! forget solving the handset problem, he gave me one new problem. An un explored secret river over which a bridge is constructed. And on the other side there lies NOKIA priority dealer) ...................................................(Eureka!!!!!Bridge=Flyover)..................... (Richmond road flyover. All problems solved)

Thats it!!

Oxymorons

Ever noticed that it's simply impossible to find seriously funny oxymorons online? The only choice is to ask one of those paid volunteers at the library – the ones in the long-sleeved T-shirts – for an original copy of some obviously obscure documents that were found missing amongst some paperwork almost exactly one hundred and one years ago.

This was fun!

Does it really make sense?

Proverbs are the flower of popular wit and the treasures of popular wisdom. Actually these proverbs are popular sayings expressing a truth or a common fact. And I somehow feel they are sayings of our ancestors who condensed their wisdom into one-liners.

'You Cant have the Cake and Eat it too'

Most of them have underlying meanings. Rather all of them. And I feel they should atleast make sense in the first reading. Somehow I feel this popular proverb (mentioned above) has absolutely no surface meaning. But again it has a lot to say when analyzed.

I seriously feel it sounds very stupid. Although this might sound juvenile, i ask this. Why is one made to believe that he cant enjoy and relish the cake he has? Why cant you eat the cake you have? Why on earth do you even have it? Now I am getting serious doubts on the so called 'wisdom' of our ancestors. If it were only framed in a better manner the depth of the meaning would be far more hard hitting than leading to a weird argument or a disputatious statement made by some character who calls himself 'Hellskitchen'!!

Man in the mirror

I have never believed in shortcuts as I really feel it cuts your 'life'... short. Work hard, and work smart as far as possible. When you have achieved what you have always wanted to, you can have and enjoy the best of sleep. This principle of mine became stronger when I read this poem written by some anonymous poet.

When you get all you want and you struggle for self,
and the world makes you king for a day,
then go to the mirror and look at yourself
and see what that man has to say.

For it isn't your mother, your father or wife
whose judgment upon you must pass,
but the man, whose verdict counts most in your life
is the one staring back from the glass.

He's the fellow to please,
never mind all the rest.
For he's with you right to the end,
and you've passed your most difficult test
if the man in the glass is your friend.

You can fool the whole world,
down the highway of years,
and take pats on the back as you pass.
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
if you've cheated the man in the glass.

-Anonymous

Dismay of Hope

Why are there so many men in this world?? NO, Why aren't there many interesting women in this world?????? Just when you believe that there could be one, you realize you were dreaming and THUD!!!!!!!! You wake up and realize 'How nice it is to dream' and continue dreaming.

Ok, I'll explain the background story to this intense spurt of emotions.

I happen to see an interesting comment in my blog space. A comment on my recent post. Knowing very well that this particular post would provoke many readers to comment in every dimension of their personal beliefs, I keep checking on the comments posted. Now one such comment had my mind thinking.

The identity of the person was undisclosed and it was posted as 'anonymous'. Now adding to this curiosity, there was something which made me really believe that it was by someone. An interesting person. No!! And its NOT 'you know who' neither could it have the roots from there. If you do not understand what I'm trying to say, its alright but do not decide to misunderstand.

The comment was a short one but certain sentences made me feel that it could have been posted by a person of the opposite sex. An Interesting woman!!! 'The HOPE' made me feel good and believe that this planet is really a nice place to live in. I even thanked the creators of the Internet to have made this physical and geographical distances between nations so small. The thrill of having to find out who this anonymous person made life for me extra interesting. Yes! Extra......

'Those were the best days of my life'... Sounds familiar? I was so excited that I even asked this one 'particular friend', co- blogger to read the comment and to help me out in my mission of discovering the identity. Guess that was my Cardinal sin which I committed. I should have just kept quiet (rather follow the popular Shakespearean quote*)

This friend had nevertheless helped me in successfully discovering the identity of that 'interesting person' but to my DISMAY I realized that it was he who had posted it. And crushed my entire bubble of hope. Well life is beautiful as they say.

*Refer to url: udhbhava.blogspot.com

Your Reflection

Ever imagined how it would feel to meet a person in your life who thinks almost exactly like you? When I say 'almost' I am giving that gap, a presumption that no two individuals on this earth can be the same. Actually to give God the credit of a perfect and flawless creation.

Say supposing you are waiting for somebody or something and you somehow meet a person. This acquaintance is not an ordinary one cause as you talk or exchange your thoughts, you sense an extraordinary vibe. Initially the feeling is such that you can have a neverending conversation with that person. But it doesn't happen as Time always plays with you and your plans. You just have to wish that you get to meet him/her again.

An interesting conversation is something any person would crave for, as the different kind of people you end up meeting everyday, would really have made you feel miserable at times. In the popular novel 'The Alchemist', written by Paulo Cohelo, he frequently quotes these words, it goes something like this, 'When you really want something, the entire universe conspires in your favour'.

So your craving for an interesting conversation with this person, for you, is the positive force enabling the universe to conspire in your favour. And so this conversation, which is bound to happen makes you realize that your new 'friend' is your perfect mirror image. Imagine if he/she narrates to you his/her experiences, belief's, relationships, expresses his/her emotions towards the same passions, thoughts, attitude behind every move he/she makes or experiences. On the whole making you feel as though you were in a dream or as though you are listening to yourself speak. Making you wonder how God can create another living being who is just like you, rather who is YOU, sharing this same place on planet earth?

If this person is of the opposite sex, do you think the chemistry existing would last forever? Or you assume that the chemistry might fade away, as a long lasting relationship with 'Yourself' would be too boring to hold on forever? With such a high ratio of similarity, there might be a deep corner inside the person which will bring out ideas that would always contradicts yours. This is for sure. And this is where the Almighty above, has done his creative contribution.

And if this person happens to be of the same sex, would you feel at any point of time that your friendship will turn out to be a strong one? I ask these questions as I feel that there has to be a slight rub off, or a series of verbal arguments or mature 'fights' over a period of time in a relationship to keep it going. But such a hypothesis is relevant only to people who do not belong to the special category I am referring to as 'Your Reflection'

Can such a rare and rich experience be possible? or is it that you maybe too ignorant about certain facts of life. Either way i have never got answers to the questions I posed. As to date, I have had the experience of meeting one person who I strongly believe is my 'Reflection'. Although I do not find it necessary to reveal the identity of that person, I really find every conversation extremely interesting!!