The human brain

This thought process is a reaction to the book 'Phantoms in the Brain' by VS Ramachandran. We smile when we are happy, think when we are in a mood to contemplate and agonize when we are negative or depressed. All these chains of unending and constantly fluctuating thoughts are a result of our mind or actually speaking our brain. Our brain mulls Shakespear, admires beautiful places and people, calculates based on self determined formulae and parameters. It integrates our vision our sense of hearing our touch and our emotions. It defines every moment we live in and decides our actions and reactions and everything else we can think of.Why puzzle about the meaning of life and wonder if aliens and cropcircles are real when we have the greatest mystery and creation of all time sitting in our heads!

It is said that the Upanishads, ancient texts which contain boundless wisdom was mostly transferred from Master to puplil through speech but before that there was an ancient and forgotten era when the transfer happened through exchange of thoughts.Like when the bluetooth device on you phone connects to the bluetooth on the person close to you, so you can transfer pictures to his/her phone. Imagine - like John Lennon said, if that were to happen with your thoughts.Imagine if the human brain remembered the forgotton habit before if evolved by which it could also process thoughts along with sounds smells and sight. Technology will be rendered useless.If you had control, you can just think of a person and transmit your ideas accross. You can save lives, multiply exponentially your productivity and change the very face of the planet.
Whew! my brain wanted me to stop writing the various insane scenarios which would come up and analyze them. Guess it has a mechanism to prevent Bheja Fry (Bheja - brain).
 Whatever we ever do, however we define ourselves is upto the brain. That is probably the reason why self help books might help. We say - I am a person. That is how the brain defines ourself. The definition itself is a thought from the brain.The definition is a result of thoughts. Therefore I am a result of my thoughts. Thoughts involve thinking. I therefore think. (Duh..I know what you our thinking. Q.E.D. Descartes all over again. As though that famous line ever changed anything..yawnnn.) I am going to say it anyway.  I think, therefore I am..whatever I thought I am, er.. I think. But Admit it. That one line he said gives way to a whole philosophy and school of thinking. One more thing you have imposed on your brain by reading this.But just think of this: You think, you live. You stop thinking, you are not alive.
 Ok Time has passed. The human brain is a strain on the human brain. Stopping now..Fullstop '.'     

When the bough breaks

The London Riots, The Libyan Liberation, The Indian Protest against corruption all had one thing in common. It involved crowds of ordinary citizens. Whatever the motive was, they all shared a common emotion which became a movement leaving the respective governments alarmed and the whole world surprised.
It is written in many ancient texts that the unified thoughts of several people can bring about drastic changes, topple civilizations, create heros and shift paradigms. Indeed the mentality of the masses is what has caused and is causing change to break dams which have taken years to create. Destruction is the other dark side of creation and this idea is especially applicable to the social norms and taboos which are prevalent in a certain era. 

As a child I have always perceived politics as a playground for people with selfish and narrow agendas and a very very tiny portion of my generation in India would have dream't of being part of the legislative machinery of our great country. We have heard of rumored scandals and accusations of horrific social and financial magnitude which has led us to perhaps unfairly believe that politics involves only money and no patriotism.And the recently heavily circulated facts which the foreign banks released seemed like that last straw which confirmed all our subconciously built up anger.  

In today's fast paced world of innovations and race for good jobs and middle class happiness, majority of the people supporting the Gandhian Anna Hazaare either lead or are geared up to lead super busy lives trying to maximise their savings and fight against the inflation and rising gold prices while trying to strike a balance between traditional Indian way of life and the new malls and magic of the foreign habits which have been creeping into our lives and have now become a rooted part of it. What will we who burn midnight electricity find as the worst possible outrage a person can commit? getting easy and effortless money and making more every day offcourse. We all said loudly and emphatically that we are against corruption but can we swear that we have not ourselves at some point in time unwilliingly or unknowingly contributed to it?

But thats ok.All said and done on all the social networks, media channels and fasting grounds involving all sorts of emotions has resulted in a Bill to be tabled and passed.A victory for all sides of the drama. Will this Bill cause a paradigm shift? Will the British who went on a rampage find a better circumstance to lead their lives? will the people of Libya have better leadership? Only time will tell.

What these incidents do prove is that the people who bow their heads and do their daily business for years do one day look up and speak out when they feel they are persecuted even if it is in a very slight and indirect way. The leaders of the world should listen to the voice of the crowd and feel the pulse of the land he/she is ruling and accept the unexpressed views and troubles of the people. Education and a well balanced social structure will ensure that The voice is cultured and civil and not brutal. A beautiful vision of tomorrow will create ambitions and manufacture dreams in all the growing populace and a happy nation will result. Money is indeed just paper at the end of the day. If the money is made to create roads and schools and jobs by visionary leaders and not just sit in a dark vault of a bank the nation will be healthy and glowing and beautiful.

Lets all try making our nation beautiful.After all, what is life for if not for being happy and making people happy.  :)