10% of brain!

There is this theory that we, humans, only use 10% of our brain and if we harness the other 90%, we would then be a Sherlock Holmes or  a Tony Stark. Of course there is enough scientific proof to contradict this theory. Also it sounds as ridiculous as one saying that we only use 10% of our body muscle & if we harness the other 90%, we would then be a Super Man or a Hulk.

However this 10% brain theory still continues to be an urban legend and is a quite popular one at that. That should not come as a big surprise as mermaids and Yeti still continue be popular legends despite lack of any scientific proof or any credible sighting over centuries. Don’t even get me started about LochNess monster or invading aliens!

A part of me understands why people believe in 10% of brain theory. I wondered many times if people even use 1% of their brain. There were situations where I had begun to believe that it is quite possible for people to be ‘brainless’. How many conversations do we have with folks around us that have no semblance of logic or thought? We are mostly driven by perceptions, notions, presumptions and emotions. No wonder we think we don’t need more than 10% of our brain!!

I definitely do not grudge people believing in this 10% brain theory. I would love to believe myself. Every time my dad would snub at me for being on computer all the time and yet not create anything significant, I could tell him that I might have been a Zuckerberg only if my body had used most of its grey matter and not just 10%!!!

There is no doubt that we use majority of our brain every single minute of our lives. We just do not realise it because most tasks that brain does happens in the background and they are programmed to work at the time of our birth and without our interference. We only recognise the sensible work that we have done with our interference. Are we doing enough sensible work everyday for us to realise that we use a vast majority of our brain?

There  is vast amount of senseless hubris around us every day. Not all of it is wrong, if we always followed logic we will all be machines and robots. We are better than them because we know better than logic! Our human nature demands that we deviate from logic time to time to address our emotions and those of others around us. But are we deviating too much from logic, even in the situations where there is no such need? We probably are.

Our over reliance on smart machines, our growing tendency to live in a bubble and believe all is well, our growing preference to appease emotions over logic, our rising extremism over petty differences, our all over electronic surveillance, our ever increasing sheep herd mentality – I am not sure where we are heading towards. When I think of these and our future generations, I truly wonder if all they will ever use is 10% of brain!!!!

Pic Credit – http://cdn-media-1.lifehack.org/wp-content/files/2014/12/Human-Brain-Myths.jpg

Blogging after an year!

The most complicated relationship of my life is with the hobby of blogging! I have a on-again-off-again relationship with my blog. I last posted on this blog more than an year ago. I have never posted once in the year of 2016!

Mine isn’t a very popular blog, the traffic has always been low here. However few of my posts have managed to bring in some readers and a few of those readers subscribed to my blog. I thought some of them might want to know why the blog was inactive for a long time.

So what happened over the past one year that I couldn’t write a single post? Life has happened! It has been a mixture of positives and negatives. A lot of stuff happened over this time. I had achieved some recognition at my work, there was some good news in the family, made few new friends and was at prime of my health throughout. Life had to counteract the positives to achieve the balance, so there were few negatives as well. I choose to keep the negatives to myself, there is little use in spreading negativity.

The blog has never slipped off my mind. I was fully aware that I have a blog that is inactive for a long period. My love for this hobby has remained the same. There were occasions when I wanted to post something. And  yet it took me an year to come back here.

Time teaches the best lessons in life. One year has taught me maturity to handle stuff I couldn’t before. It has taught me to stay course even when the seas are rough. It has taught me to look into face of my fears and meet them head on. How many of these lessons will I hold on to? I do not know, time will answer that question as well! Like any teacher, when the time is right, time will put me through challenging times again to examine how much I have actually learnt!!

I hope you had a good time when I was away. I am sure you might have learnt something new from the challenges life had in store for you. I am confident you will remember those lessons and enrich your life.

I do intend to keep the blog active and keep the posts coming! I do hope that you will continue to support me and my blog. Thanks!

The lighthouse within us!

It is very easy to get lost in the seas, its all just water to the extent an eye can see. I am amazed how captains navigate their ships, how they know where to adjust the course and to what degree. It’s not like there are landmarks to relate to, it’s just water and more water!!

Lighthouses play a crucial role in helping maritime pilots navigate their crafts even in rough seas. They ensure that ships know where the port is,  show them light in treacherous waters, alert them on rocks & reefs and symbolize hope for the sailors. Modern era electronic navigational system is making them obsolete, but for generations they kept the ships from being lost in seas.

It is easy to get lost in life too! Consciously or unconsciously, we sometimes let ourselves adrift in the life, letting the currents take us wherever they take us. Sometime later we realize that we lost our way, our life is set on a journey that doesn’t take us to any destination. Its just aimlessly wandering there on the seas. It happens to almost all of us.

Some of us complain that it is not under our control, that life is just drifting away and taking us wherever currents carry it. Some of us resign to the illusion that it’s now too late to do anything about it. Some of us put up a sportive face and say, hey this is fun and exciting, let life take its course and take us with it.

The truth is we all have our destinations, our dreams, our goals, our targets, our desires. We must pursue them. We must yearn for them. We must achieve them. We must reach them. To reach our destination, we must set course to it and ensure not to get lost in the journey.

Just like ships have lighthouses to help them, we too have a lighthouse within us to guide us. Call it soul, consciousness, intelligence, power, God and what  not. There is a guiding light within us, reach out to it and it shows us the path to the destination. Whenever we feel we are lost, we can reach out to that light for purpose, clarity and guidance. It is never to late in life to correct our course and pursue our dreams.

Life is not about destinations, it is about the journey. But journey is not aimless wandering. Journey is the experience between one destination to another. We reached our destination, we bask in it for some time, then set course to another. We reach that, we set course to another. Because Life is all about that exciting journey! But all journeys should have our desired destinations!!

Pic Credit: http://anewplacevt.org/

What does religion has to do with everything?

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan had made some statement about leaving India, which kicked a shit storm in all forms of media in general and social media in particular. For those who would say I came to the party tad bit late, the timing of my post is deliberate. I didn’t want to render a knee jerk reaction like others.

No matter how patriotic I want to be, no matter how many great claims I want to make about my country, I can’t win over statistics. Statistics has its way of busting false claims and laying the cold truth bare. I would want to go on one limb and claim India is a very safe country but alas that claim wouldn’t stand the test of statistics!

Global Peace Index is one way of measuring how peaceful a country is. Go google and find out more for yourselves. Every country is ranked on the index,the most peaceful country has lowest value on index and the most restless country has highest value on the index. India ranks 143 on the index, there are 142 more peaceful countries than mine.

Mr. Khan said he felt insecure in India and if the above statistics mean anything, he is not wrong in having his concerns. He voiced his opinion through media which is perfectly alright considering we have a right to free speech and right to criticize our own country as we will. There was a huge public backlash on his statements, many criticized Mr. Khan on his views via social media. This is again free speech, you don’t like someone’s views you are welcome to voice your opposition.

But what I really don’t understand is why does everything have to be tied up to religion? I don’t know and don’t care what Mr. Khan had said, but what I do know and do care is that the debate is taking a religious flavour. Whoever offered an opinion ended up bashing one community or the other, only a few brought very rationale views to the table. Not just in this case, in many earlier cases as well I observed that most online debates had turned religious at one point or the other, even when there was no reason to.

India is clearly not the safest country in the world, we rank very bad in Global Peace Index, there is a lot where we can improve. Why can’t everyone sit and speak about what we can do about that? Why can’t people give rational ideas to make our country safe and secure? Why can’t we just do what we can do to keep our fellow humans safe instead of fighting who is more unsafe, muslim or hindu? Why can’t we speak something useful than spitting venom on each other?

Let’s start discussing without hurting or belittling any community. None can judge an entire community by the crimes performed by minority or even the majority of that community. Lets start loving or hating our fellow humans by the virtue of their traits but not by the virtue of their religion, region, caste or creed. Only then meaningful discussions will take place between the citizens of the country, else all we will have are noise and havoc.

Pic Credit: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/

The Bull Fight!

positive vs negative thinking

There are two bulls with us that fight everyday – Positive thinking and negative thinking. Guess which bull wins, the one we feed the most!!

This is one quote that I repeat to myself everyday. This reminds me that positive thinking is always a choice, even in tough situations. When everything goes smooth, anyone can stay positive and cheerful. It is the rough seas that test the character of a person. People who chose to stay positive at all times tend to win a lot once they have weathered the storm.

Things go as bad as we make them appear. To quote a character from one of my favorite TV shows Arrow, ‘Pain is mandatory, suffering is optional!’. Although it sounds like a straight-up Ninja bullshit (it actually is! The character is a martial arts trainer!!), it drives home the point that it is how we react to the pain rather than the pain itself that causes maximum damage.

Many psychiatrists unequivocally agree that it is the way we handle a bad situation that will determine the impact it has on our life: we can minimize the impact or maximize the impact and cause more damage than it is capable of! A psychiatrist gave me this practical example – keep a paper in sunlight, extreme sunlight is hard on paper, it breaks its fabric. You know what happens if we keep a magnifying glass; it burns the paper. The sunlight in itself is not capable of burning the paper, it is the magnifying glass that has worsened the case.

So lets make the smart choice fellas! Let us feed the right bull with Red Bull! There are both positive and negative energies within us, let us nourish the positive one. Let the positive bull win the fight!!

Pic Credit: http://www.sylvianenuccio.com/