Sharing Ideas Sharing Thoughts

Last week, i n his TED talk , Uri Alon, spoke about his journey as a research scholar. During his Ph.D, he felt hopelessly stuck when even after prolonged efforts, he was reaching nowhere. His experiments were simply not working. He calls this state as "cloud". Then he found that the intricate bio-chemical network inside our cells is made up of handful simple repeating interactive patterns. And I recently read the following : In his book, The Mind of God : Scientific basis for a rational world,  Physicist Paul Davis, Ph.D, writes , " The laws are possessed of an elegant simplicity, and have often commended themselves to scientists on grounds of beauty alone. Yet these same simple laws...   Similarly, Michio Kaku in Hyperspace writes, " Perhaps the most profound discovery of the past century in physics has been the realization that nature, at its most fundamental level, is simpler than anyone thought" .  Timothy Ferris, a science writer fo...

We are all such a worried lot. We are always find something to worry about. Worrying has become a chronic habit. Why don't we let our minds relax? Mind and body are connected and so by worrying too much we indirectly harm the body. As if that was not enough, we launch a direct attack on our health by not eating nourishing food (regularly), by not exercising and by not giving our bodies adequate rest. Our body is not a machine. But in-spite of this knowledge, we use our bodies like one. And let us remember poorly maintained machines, fail prematurely.  Now, we all know this. then what stops us from doing the right things? We have a little extra hard work to do here.  Let us take the cause of our worries.  We take on too many tasks and want each of those to be done well. We want perfect outcomes-each and every time. Minor deviations make us worried and we see ourselves working overtime to correct the course. In other words our tolerance for ambiguity is so le...

I have disrupted my life. I have CHOSEN to move out of my comfort zone. Why should a sane person do this? I had a stable job (Indian Army Officer), I was in a senior position and an expert in my profession, I had good salary and had a comfortable life. First, it is not me alone who has taken this decision. I have full support of my family and especially my wife. I would say that she has more guts than me. It is her, who has taken the leap of faith. Being a woman, she is ruled by her emotions and not her reasons. She is hard-wired to look for safety and security. Even the efforts to get a new job are not in her hands. And she is supposed to not only keep her spirits high but also to keep me motivated.  Second, I believe that we all have a destiny and are guided towards our future. There is a larger scheme of things. But, this does not justify 'inaction'. Remember, the "law of Karma" that I wrote about yesterday. Our present has been created by our past action...

What is that one thing ? We keep learning new things through reading, observing and by simply living each day. We get inspired by new ideas, new thoughts. And then we wish to implement these in our life. After some time, there is so much of "knowledge overload" that we find ourselves retaining nothing.  Let me give an example: I am presently re-reading Robin Sharma's, "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari". I am going very slow and I am trying to absorb everything. Making a mental note at every step. In fact the author concludes every chapter with a summary. And I am very much loving the process. Yet, I find myself losing grip with the simple wisdom brought out in the book. After the age of 25-30 one is wise enough about various aspects of life. Especially so if one has a questioning mind. All the do's and don'ts, rights and wrongs are known. For example, we all understand that the two most damaging emotions are 'anger' and 'fear'....

People who are driven and focused, at times appear to be non-cooperative. But, they are so centered on their primary task that they cannot be called selfish. They are simply obsessed with activities that will help them achieve their goal(s). One would not fail to notice that these people have high levels of concentration and strong will to achieve their target(s). I recently came across the concept of OHIO (Only Handle It Once). Productive people, do not procrastinate. They pick up a task once and finish it. And then that's it - it's done. This also resonates with the philosophy, "it's more important to choose than to choose right". Procrastination happens either because one is fearful and is not confident of completing the task or because one is a perfectionist and fears non-precision. Either way, it is fear that results in procrastination.  Productive people practice selective perfectionism. Being a perfectionist is not necessaril...

I was bitten by the writing bug when I was a child. It started in 1987 with "daily diary", when I was sent to the boarding school.  I was a 15 year old adolescent, overflowing with thoughts. Hostel life was a very special experience. I got exposed to a new world, where at a young age, I learnt to fight my own battles. The stimulating environment in the boarding school, triggered my imaginations and I converted them to words.  In 1989, I was selected for the prestigious  National Defense Academy.   Getting selected for NDA was a a  matter of great pride and honour. It is a unique institution where young boys with leadership potential undergo an encyclopedic three year training. It is said that in this leadership lab, "They turn boys to men" . The training was tough, but, I continued with penning down my thoughts. In 1992, we were sent for specialized military training to Indian Military Academy and in 1993 I got commissioned as a Second-Lieutenant ...