On Feminism

 
I would like to present a small little analogy before getting into a serious discussion. We believe that our education system has several loopholes and our that kids aren't encouraged to question. What if I tell you that I choose to disagree and that the kids are welcome to question their teachers. Well, who is denying that right? Einstein, Abdul Kalam and Richard Feynman emerged out of the same framework, didnt they?

I am sure you will disagree. The three gentlemen did question their teachers, Einstein even dropped out of his school. Feynman is well known for his quotations on the education system. Lets plug in Feminism, into this framework. Who is stopping the women from working, they can always go and look for work, can't they? Chanda Kochar, Indrani Nooyi and Meera Sanyal emerged out of the same society, didnt they?

The analogy should be quite intuitive. Women standing on their own feet is as improbable as kids questioning their teachers. There are a few who emerge out of the constraints, but what's the point? You need a system which produces awesome Individuals, not a sadistic one which selects a few.

Now let me ask a few important question and provide my perspective on that. I believe that the confusion arises due to lack of a historical perspective. Please allow me to present the evolutionary history of the two genders(for a moment, let me not talk of homos, this topic is quite intense in itself!)

Are women different
Evolution influences the physiology of organisms. That explains the diversity of sizes, colors and features of human races. If we look at human genders through this perspective we get some important insights. Men have evolved as the hunter gatherers and women the care-takers. Agricultural revolution is a recent development, forget the Industrial Revolution. It takes time for evolution to program us and we still operate within hunter gatherer framework. So the human mind perceives gender equality through notions which are thousands, if not millions of years old. Well, Yes Women are different!

Hiding them inside Caves
Lets get in some harsh facts before we proceed further. Tribes invaded other tribes to assert their supremacy. Evolution would select the ones who propagate more of their genes- reproductive fitness. The mechanism could be human ego. Tribes would slaughter the men and then rape the women or may be take them away. Apparently, Rakhi festival had its origins due to these issues. Afghani Pathans would take away beautiful Punjabi girls and so they started this custom of brother defending sisters. Human beings developed several cynical mechanisms to defend their women from other tribes. The women were hidden in caves and they were never let out, even after the Computer Revolution!

Inside the well
We have heard of stories of frogs inside a well. The story of refugees, hidden in a cave, is no different. Human genius has transformed the world from jungles to what it is today. Women are far from getting access to these insights. Evolution has programmed them to be better care-takes, women are the development team, who groom the next generation. Can we afford to have this important 50% of our population ignorant of these developments? May be they are not your other half, they are your Development half, think again!

How they emerged
Things got better during the Second World War. The job-markets witnessed drastic changes due to women joining the work-force. While the men were away, on the battlefield, the women had to take up jobs.  However, they were paid lower wages, molested at work place, forced to get married and not provided the kind of attention they need. This definitely discourages women from dreaming big. Women got quite a few opportunities after the war, however, they may another revolution, before they can catch up.

Women Empowerment
It is equivalent to developing curiosity. It seems irrelevant and trivial to teachers. But you know it is not and you know the dividends which it can get you. Not all women know that they differently wired and that human neural diversity is the only thing which transformed this planet into its present form. Women Empowerment is about developing your Development team.

Why encourage Women
They are different, as simple as that. A factory wants identical people who produce goods/services, A great company wants a diverse human pool growing its assets and thus help it in delivering superior customer value. Evolution has programmed them to have better soft skills and empathy. This asserts the importance of gender equality at a workplace.

Objective of this Post
When a child refuses to question a teacher or when a teacher refuses to encourage the student to question, what would you do? Well encourage a woman to know the world, the work-place and the opportunities which lifes gives her. Confront any of her obstacles and help her cross the hurdles. May be go out and help atleast one girl from a conservative house-hold get good education followed by a job she likes.

On a lighter note, I'd request all my female friends to let this blog excuse a thousand narcissistic jokes of mine. So, signing off, until I exhaust that budget!

Kurma Avataara

Pasu to Pasupati

There are several questions, which lead to certain notions and they define code of ethics. In the absence of any social system, a man is subject to the laws of the jungle, he is a Pasu. However, he learnt to question it and hence a civilization arose. A man can choose empathy or he can choose the opposite. These lead to the margas of Devas and Asuras. The one who gives it all to the society and the one who isn't conscious of his personal gains is the Pasupati. 

Origin of Civilisation

Matsya avataara is basically the origin of civilisation, when man challenged the rules of the jungle. Nature dictates certain constraints. However, we challenge that and we evolve technology to grow the space we can live in. This is illustrated by the story of the fish which grows and asks for a bigger pool to live in. Even Abrahamic religions have this story expressed in a different form.

Avataar

An avataar is basically the abstract god expressed in a certain context. The journey of human beings is written in the form of the Dasavatara Roopakam, which is essentially a journey from Pasu to Pasupati. 

Manthan

The Ksheera Sagara Madhana Marmam is described briefly, metaphorically, in the previous post. The churning of the milky way is a metaphor to describe brainstorming and the process of churning knowledge. While a side presents its argument, the other side applies anti-force, thinks about it and vice-versa. When, even one of the sides doesn't play constructively, the discussions turns into an arguments and perhaps that's not desirable.

Kurma Avataara

Kurma Avataara illustrates perseverance. When you are staring at a seemingly difficult task and when you don't the get the outcome which you deserve, negative feelings seep through. You need to realize that the only feeling which can defeat defeat is Perseverance.

Evolution selected pessimistic narrow minded short term thinking, as our survival was essential. However, since the advent of civilization, we started dictating nature, to a fairly good extent. All those marvels, were possible only through perseverance.If inception of civilization was the first achievement, which was told with the help of Matsya avataara, Kurma avataara talks about perseverance, which can take civilization to the next level.

Why tortoise?

Indian stories are essentially some incidents (usually true) embedded with philosophical layers. Some rishis would go through these and come up with arguments which summarize it, philosophically. The poets like Vyasa, do the retelling along with the philosophy imbibed in it. Perhaps an incident where the presence of a tortoise reinforced the importance of perseverance led the philosopher into coming up with this story. 

Link between Manthanam(or Madhanam) and Kurma

This is the reason why this article is being written. The Kurma basically facilitates manthan. When you are thinking through a process, churning of ideas takes place. However, you need them to be anchored and you need to be persevere. 

This metaphor is clear, when you see it with the help of an analogy. How do you grow physically stronger? You need to workout in a gym, maybe! Say, you can do twenty push-ups at a time. You need to push yourself, for a few more. Remembering your goal/destination will push you a few steps further. We have been so used to this story that we take perseverance for granted and we lose patience.

So, when we are trying to understand something, manthanam leads to ideas for and against, the force and the anti-force churn(manthan) it out. All the beautiful things will come out of the universe as a result of this process. Although you tried to get 'amrit' out of it, you get so many awesome things. When people try to solve some problems, they get solutions of more fascinating problems. That's the best of manthan, you get things other the 'amrit', you were craving for.

However, whenever, you don't get these results and negative energy seeps through, when waves of impatience start rising, you need to listen to the kurma, that only perseverance can defeat the defeat.

The Ksheera Sagara Madhana Marmam

Hi!

How are you? Hope you are doing well!
Kya hain yeh? Sudden empathy?

May be first time, in an explicit form, may be it was always there.Well, this is a public letter to a friend. The sad part is that I can't tell you who it is. When I explain why, I'd be slaughtered. keeping jokes apart and keeping it simple, let me present some nice fiction for you.

Arjun, was a boxer. He was known for his track record, besides his "never say die" attitude, disciplined practice, agility, swiftness and all the other things, which the pundits quickly makeup after finding a successful athlete. After all, it is this poetry, which makes everybody, including the sportsman, listen to the 'experts'. This dude, however, ignored the adulation and went back to his childhood days and began thinking.

As a kid, he loved his practice bouts. Sometimes he would take on more than one player, at once. Once he even resorted to a five on one and spent the rest of the day laughing over it, perhaps this ability made a difference which could eventually make a difference. Like the sun, success, would come at some random time, periodically, everyday. He loved failure even more, as it introduced him to the spirit within. They say that a string's strength can only be measured by the force which can break it. This was his journey, like everybody else's, it was full of colors. However, he could see happiness in each and every color. The diversity of colors would emerge like the flow of a stream- persistent and beautiful.

Several clouds surround the sun and bring out the 'suryadeva'. He could see the emergent value which the clouds brought. There is something which he could see and which the world couldn't- the earliest bouts in his career. When he was injured, it was all fine, really fine. Even when he injured his friends, he knew it was alright as the injuries only strengthened his friends. But one small thought worried him. Morning walk is good for health, but can you force it? May be yes, but at what cost, at the cost of their friendship? The bouts and the strained relationships were like the flowers which beautify a garden. They are small and wonderful, but only noticed by those who pay attention to it. He did and so he decided to apologize for each and every injury which he had caused.

How do you water every flower? You could use sprinklers and several other technologies, but can they beat specialized attention provided by a passionate gardener. The answer may be yes, but an engineer has some apprehensions while answering, but why? This 'apprehension' drove him to reach each and every friend, through the combination of a sprinker and a jug, technology blended with passion. He realized that the best apology could be a simple "thanks", told in person!

I would like to point you to a related thought. Manthan or brainstorming, is no different from a bout. Unlike in 'tug of war', in manthan, one side applies force the other side applies anti-force and viceversa. This is churning and this is how we prepare curd. This is how brainstorming works. This is no different from a bout and a boxer is no different from an intellectual. This is one awesome secret, from the 'intellectual universe' and the Milky Way is a mere metaphorical representation of the same. You need to brainstorm, to grow your intellectual capital. Pulling it all yourself is difficult, you could ask Indradeva.

I am going through a journey, as a science communicator and my garden has quite a few flowers already. I will have to remember all those conversations I had with you. I loved the beating and thrashing which happens during debates, we tore into each other's skin, didn't we? I guess that makes us harder, much like the bouts which made the boxer stronger. I loved each and every punch I took and everyone that I returned. Well, I cherish the punches I gave and they might have really hurt, didn't they? Looks like I started it all over again. Let me stop, okay?

You know the number of people who make it this far-the number of awesome boxers in the country. You know that a bout is different from a nice movie or may be a trip to a place like this. We could say success comes with sacrifices and all the other crap told by self-styled crap-men and self-hurt books. Wait, before we buy that shit, let me ask one question. Is this journey, more awesome than all the movies and all the destinations? Can we actually compare them?

You can't compare apples with mangoes? But, you'd fancy one of them don't you? Well yeah, this is perhaps one of those few awesome journeys one can undertake. There is a difference between a Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and the others, isn't it? It does take a journey to make it to the pinnacle, wherever it is and however it looks! I guess its the churning process which will help emerge stronger after every bout and reach there, right on top! This article, was just to thank you, for your participation, in the Manthan. Thank you, but, can we start the next bout(I really miss that smiley here)?