Are majority of the great and influential people socially challenged?

Yesterday I attended a presentation by a person with an amazing, influential personality. The audience enamored by his personality and willingness to be associated with him, asked him if he was on Facebook or Orkut. He said “No I don’t believe in them, I am a private person”. This triggered a subconscious thought that was incubating in my mind for a long time. I asked myself “Are majority of the great and influential people socially challenged?”
Some analogies ran across my mind “Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison”, great scientists known for their innovative bent of mind and scientific contribution to the society. They had numerous students, colleagues, teachers, scientific peers but hardly had friends.
“Mahatma Gandhi and King Martin Luther”, successful leaders known for their courage to define history and transform nations in their unique way. They had numerous mentors, followers, disciples, supporters and peer fraternity but hardly had friends.
“Narayan Murthy and Ratan Tata”, successful entrepreneurs, great and influential personalities known for their vision and values with which they redefined modern India. They have mentors, followers, well wishers, supporters, colleagues and peer fraternity but have only handful of friends.
It seems, all these people have differentiated themselves from the rest of the mass because they had/have unique thought process. They are public figures but they belong to none. The evident reasoning that goes with the fact that they do not spend more time with friends as they spend more time with themselves, interacting with their conscious. As rationale defines, they are more aware and responsive to their inner voice and would not like that inner voice to fade away by external social networking noise. Consequently they are self sufficient in their own ways and are incompatible/different in their ideologies from rest of the crowd.
As they grow up the ladder, they grow lonelier because such paths are rare, isolated and are not often travelled by many people. I suppose this very fact doesn’t scare these souls as they are obsessed by a larger vision, a bigger cause and relentlessly follow their inner voice.

Central Dogma- Information of life

I felt a blustery turbulence creating the adrenaline rush in my nerves stimulating the synapse of my neurons, when I paused for a while to think how information related to life resonates in the universe. This is captured to an extent in the movie “Avtaar”.
I wonder how incredibly we communicate and respond with/to every entity of this universe. How unique it is when we communicate to the machines (when we code programs and information in it is translated in to binary- 0 and 1), when our genes communicate with each other- transforming the information of our life (DNA translation -central dogma- ATGC and AUGC), when nature communicates with life in the form of mutation indicating its decision on evolution and survival of the fittest.
As we grow we choose different streams of studies like arts, economics, science, engineering (computer science, biotechnology and mechanical), management studies etc. As we specialize in our areas we start looking at the world from that sole perspective but in essence everything in life is interconnected by a metaphysical, biological network which may seem like a cognitive dissonance. But this network is the very essence of life which has multiple non linear threads filled with information- a part of which is coded and rest is decoded. This can be explained by these analogies: 1) Fundamental origination of life began through information (quantum of data) which was transmitted to earth in the form of sun rays (e=mc2). 2)Neural network elucidates the fundamental phenomenon of how we grow up from a child to a mature humans through learning, by understanding the norms of society and developing the ability of reasoning.3)This is applicable to the phenomenon of how we teach our codes to understand the fuzzy logics and give us the output (artificial neural network). 4) This is further applicable to phenomenon of building and managing organizations by developing, instutionalizing and evolving them as a process over time.
Thus mysteriously, everything in this universe in interconnected and bounded by the cryptic information pool and every entity of this universe is interconnected through a fragile thread called informational network which is not as frequently realized as it should be.

It’s a Chimera! Not photography

These dayz I hear a lot about photography, I had no orientation towards it. Folks I moved around at Delhi had over whelming inclination towards photography and this brought new dimensions towards my view to photography.
Sunday morning accompanied by very pleasant weather in Bangalore, made me feel lethargic to do anything. Cozily ensconced on a sofa with remote in hand switched on the TV and my favorite channel “NDTV good times “was on. Wonderful sceneries with all exotic beauty blended with the lavish lifestyle aroused my interest in the subject; that was being discussed , none other than “photography”
Over the past few years, I have met numerous novice photographers (which they claim so), who surprisingly have developed a passion or hobby towards photography even though it is transient. When I heard a Veteran speak about the topic with all the seriousness that it could hold, I was dumbstruck with the paradox of art and science amalgamation.
It is mind-blowing and eye opener to know how professional photographers have to keep pace with the technological developments. This time demands photographers with not only artistic orientation but also with scientific caliber!! Now this is what I call a paradox.
Photography as a field is developing beyond limits of imagination. In this virtual era with digital virtualization and cloud computing growing at too faster a pace to be documented, it has become a pressing need for photographers to go ahead with “digital manipulation”.
The essence is---- ostentatious photography may indulge “digital manipulation”, however only “Digital enhancement” and not “digital manipulation” can get the best of the pictures ever and will bear the testimony of time.

Frenzied but not fantasized………………………

Some voice from somewhere touched my heart and mesmerized me. A soothing breeze before early monsoon brought the ecstasy experienced by the unutterable silence. Your touch left me speechless, your silence spoke it all.This mystical tranquility and symphony brought completeness to our relationship.Loved it...,Lived it...,Experienced it and Encashed it in my heart forever.

Does it matter if you are blind?

I sometimes wonder is it really a crime not to have vision in life? I have had a vision and a mission for me defined in a stereotypical way as an ideal management student. Today I feel that life is full of idiosyncrasy and sometimes not having a vision and living the moment to the fullest pays. I have received many a gifts in disguise which I never consciously wanted or ran for. Today I reform myself in the path of life and overcome my internal search for an idealistic life filled with purpose vision and mission. I believe that every day brings in a new transformation, new circumstances, new opportunities new threats so why have an idealistic vision and mission and struggle to achieve something that you may discover that don’t actually need, rather be practical and search for excellence to exceed yourself tomorrow, to be a better person than what you are today, to live each moment, to cherish the gifts of life, to love, to be loved, to feel, to experience and ultimately to live and live fruitfully

Confused movements

It is been a paradox of aspirations,dreams goals reality and future, So confused that I am about the pursuit of exploring newer dimensions and aspects.Working diligently towards attainment of perfection to have a sense of achievement only to realize that having achieved is no more a gratification of the past aspirations. I have begun my journey in pursuit to explore my self. Every time I reflect I unfold a new personality in me,meticulously working towards newer achievements,but the astonishing fact being, every time in an unrelated field! What happened to my purpose of revolutionarising the country's economy, was that my purpose at all? what is the path I have chosen? everything seem bleak. Numerous new hopes with each new day, exuberant spirit and energy for a new assignment which fades away in a short time.
Trying to understand if this is me in a constant state of conflict between Idealism and Reality.It is further exacerbated by the message from 3idiots to move towards excellence and not success, to concentrate on cause and the effects would follow.
Why I am feeling so disillusioned and desultory, why does the question of what Next always haunt me, why do I not live in the present. I know the road is unknown with many twists and turns,but having hit wall at each corner I shall eventually explore my way to eternal happiness and satisfaction with the feeling of accomplishment, feeling of being a better person than what I am today.Till then tighten your belt and keep rolling and exploring and exploring and exploring..........

26/11. Did it impact us?

Life is the most precious but most fragile entity. Life may have seldom meant more to us the way it means after Mumbai attacks. In this busy hectic life when we don’t have time for most of our cherished hobbies such heinous acts of terrorism, have made us take a pause and reflect on whether we are prepared to die today, or may be even next moment.
Death even though, an indomitable reality is least thought of aspect by most of us. In these changing times of our value system wherein we are driven by our aspirations, ambitions to constantly struggle and achieve higher professional growth, such moments of tragedy has made us introspect about our priorities and very essence of life.

Many Indians were the spectators of these fateful and ferocious moments when the coverage was almost shown live through various channels of media, and this topic has been discussed in greater breadths and depth at all levels; from government officials & policy makers at the centre & journalists and reporters of media to municipality laborers cleaning the roads . But is that enough?
In these silent moments when we reflect personally on what are the learning’s that we have derived from this event, one could only feel the numbness of words & pacing up of the heartbeat. The very thought of “It could have happened to me or my dear ones” blows us out of our senses, deepening our hidden insecurities, making us feel victimized and helpless. It is then that most of the reflective individuals start searching for options/ solutions through various dimensions and horizons rather then resorting to the fatalistic attitude of accepting things. This change in the attitude depicts the phase of social dynamism & awareness, a sense of which has been inculcated in majority of Indians after 26/11. What does this phase symbolize?
It symbolizes a sense of responsibility and accountability amongst the citizens. It is the phase that initiates the paradigm shift in the attitude of people when the blame game is shifted to the state of “ I am responsible as I am a part of this system and I shall make the difference”; the difference in this case is relative; it could be as simplistic as being patient enough to wait in queues for the security check up at metro stations and other public places , casting the vote to the deserving candidate after meticulous background research of the contestants, to as vital decision as choosing civil services as a carrier option.

This malevolent attack has made us appreciate the precious gift of life, more than ever before. It has given most of us a clear impetus to live each moment to its fullest. It has initiated social binding for a cause and kindled the spirit of social dynamism and awareness, but above all it has made every Indian realize that they are a vital entity of this social set up, and cant be apathetic about the prevailing political system; as the system is the mere reflection of the society as a whole and every individual is very much responsible for his/her own life.