Bharat Ratna

Early last week , I saw a news report that states that Abhinav Bindra( remember Beijing Olympics?) has been recommended for Bharat Ratna. Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India)  is the Republic of India's highest civilian award, for performance of highest order in any field of human endeavour. A (maiden) Gold Medal in the Olympics is undoubtedly a very great achievement, as he had to compete with as many as 51 shooters from across many countries. 

Also the criteria for conferring the award has been amended , and now everyone whose performance is of highest order in any human endeavour is eligible.  If by winning gold medal once in lifetime , one becomes eligible (i doubt this) or gets recommended (note this) for a Bharat Ratna then , why is no one recommending Viswanathan Anand who has been world champion many times in chess? Even this feat is unparalleled.

There are many people who say few cricketers deserves Bharat Ratna.  Just take a look at how many countries participate in cricket ? 8 or 9 or 10 you can literally count on your fingers!

What I feel is that Bharat Ratna should be given to only those personalities whose contribution to nation matters a lot. Whose contribution is towards the development of the nation. When someone scores a huge score or wins a cup what happens ? How is each individual of the nation benefitted from that? Can someone come and say only because someone scored so much in a match or someone got a gold medal our country is recognized ? I bet no one would come up to say that. I don’t mean any disrespect to the persons whose name has been mentioned or belittle their achievements , but just think about this; don’t you think Khel Ratna is sufficient for the sporting legends? 

There are many other people who deserve this prestigious award. No wonder if someone recommends movie stars for Bharat Ratna in the coming years. What I want to point out here is , irrespective of their profession if someone has really contributed for the development of the nation , they surely deserve the Bharat Ratna.  Don’t you think you are comparing the people with a gold medal and few thousand runs with stalwarts like Dr. Kalam, Sir M. Visvesvaraya, Dr.  S. Radhakrishnan etc.. ? 

Ping Yourself !

    I had ordered a black t-shirt couple of months with this statement “There’s no place like 127.0.0.1” printed on it , thinking that it looks cool and until I realized that it’s not just cool , its profound.  It actually hints at the universal truth. Read on to know why...

                    

I bet everyone might have seen this statement almost everywhere from the geeks blog page to the t-shirt. As usual before I start off with why I intend to write something on this , let me tell you what is 127.0.0.1.

127.0.0.1 is the loopback Internet protocol (IP) address also referred to as the “localhost.” The address is used to establish an IP connection to the same machine or computer being used by the end-user. The loopback construct gives a computer or device capable of networking the capability to validate or establish the IP stack on the machine. So in a way , this statement means , pointing to oneself (computer in this case).

We all try to explore so many things in this Universe form the smallest of the things like atoms to the biggest of the things like galaxies and black hole and what not? We ( read as mankind ) are so much interested to know if water is present on mars (if so thank GOD these guys will somehow fetch it and i guess we won't have any drought issue unless some politicians fight on how much water is needed to supply)?  Or may be how does our universe look like ? is it flat , round ,spherical , or flat at top ?  Or how much oxygen is there on this planet “xyz”?

How many of us do really think about exploring ourselves ? How much one really knows about oneself? Who are you ? How much you mean to this universe?  Or the true nature of yourselves ?

                                                   

I would say that this statement “ There’s no place like 127.0.0.1” is very profound in a way that, it hints at self-realization. We always seek happiness in all the worldly things, some in Work , some in love , trekking , writing , singing ,dancing and the list goes on.. Above all , at some point of time in life we all feel to confide ourselves in someone whom we love , viz. mother , father ,brother , sister ,friend, girl / boy friend, wife , husband , son , daughter etc. One may feel that he / she finds solace in him / her. But how about the greatest creation of God (or say nature? ) ? YOU ! oh I mean ME ! myselves!

    Even Yajur Veda says “ yatha pinde tatha brahmande” - “so are you , as is the universe” , man is really the epitome of this universe.  We all go to the farthest place on the face of the earth to find out the truth. We all .more often than not look outside for happiness, look outside for help (spiritual ), not realizing that all this exists in ourselves.

    Also most importantly , this statement hints at the fundamental nature of the universe , that is “ singularity ”.  Just as the vedas describe -

As is the human body, so is the cosmic body

As is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind.

As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm.

As is the atom, so is the universe.   

 

-    The Upanishads.

    So , now tell me are we any different from the very universe we exist in?

Whosoever has said it ,  has said it damn right ! “ There’s no place like 127.0.0.1 ”

                                                    PEACE !

The NFA called Life !!

By the way this new TataSky add caught my attention. While two friends having a conversation a guy asks his friend if its ok to take his sister out for dinner. To his astonishment the gals brother agrees. Poonchke to dekho poonchne main kya jaata hain? You never know what's gonna happen ! But if one would carefully analyze there are two scenarios : one , that the girls' brother would say yes ; second , that moment would have been the end of friendship and they would have fought.

So whats so special about this ad. Superficially this may seem to be any other event whose probability of occurrance would be very low.Its not the event as a whole that caught my attention, but for the tagline poonche main kya jaata hain? This emphasizes on the uncertainity in life. Many people lose many opportunities just because they didnt ask for that! We always weigh our actions on this very uncertainity. You never know whether this is gonna happen or that is gonna happen. But which one ? No one knows. 

During a leisure I got a little nostalgic and went back to the time when I was studying finite atutomata theory. I reiterated through the concept of NFA (Nondeterministic Finite Automata). Let me tell you in the simplest terms what automata is. Attomata is stydy of abstract objects. Lets say a switch. A switch can be any switch very abstract. But the finite thing that we know of switch is that either it can be on or off. This on and off are the states of this automata.

Automata can be wither deterministic finite automata i.e You know the action for a particular input. Eg If switch is on and if you press it it can go only to off state and vice versa. The other category is non-deterministic finite automata (NFA). In case of an NFA you never know to what state the automata can go on a particular input / action. 

                          

Life is very similar to an NFA , nondeterministic yet finite. Once can analyse this at a macro level level of the materialistic life. Materialistic life starts at birth and ends at death of this physical body. One thinks if I do this I can be that , I can go there , I can reach there and blah blah blah ... Life always accepts those actions that lead to the final state (just as a NFA) of the materialistic life (Death).No matter which peak a man's success scales or how low a man's moral can go, or no matter what a man can achieve or what he has as his prized possession, in the end when he says I wish I would .... have / haven't done that, it really signifies something. This something is infact very significant for a man thinks that the decisions/ actions which he wished he would have done or not; would change the course of his life.

Life (materialistic one ) is highly non-deterministic , yet finite , starts with birth and ends with death and that's precisely the final state of this non-deterministic finite automata called life. However , from the spiritual perspective , it may not be the final state but may I know how many of us think beyond death ?  

                                                 To Be Continued...