Journey back

My flight from Brussels to Amsterdam on my way to Delhi got cancelled due to strike in Belgium. So, on an urgent notice I decided to come to Amsterdam to get flight to Delhi. Good from bad, brought me with lots of nice memories from the past. I'm living very close the place where I lived when I was living in Amsterdam. My friend Michael lives here to whom I am guest now. It is a great feeling now to go around see all the seen, and trying to recall how much I still remember. :-) We biked around the city center till quite late yesterday. The reflection of red lights in the canal, smell of Marijuana as much as all the time, and streets leading to next street till we were out of town all recalled.

Just for a like!

I started blogging in 2004 when blogging was still a new thing on the internet and a lot has changed since then on social media. Facebook and microblogging site Twitter has now taken most of web traffic and are being used for all civil to evil purposes. Those days internet was still accessed largely through PC's and laptops, and posting your thought was like doing something special. Now the game has completely changes with all these social media access on mobile devices. When it started it was a cool thing that people can share all the special moments as they are going through it and everything is archived like life. All the shades were bright and beautiful, but that didn't last long when people with the agenda conquered it. Now some use these apps in/as toilets and do the same thing both in real and virtual worlds. Also, some people not social at all as I know them from their real life social behaviour are all the time super active on social media. For what, just for a like or favourite?! Just like religious frenziedness is outcome of forgetting the fact that the man-made religion, not the religion made the man, new social media madness is result of the fact that many think now that technology is solution to social challenges. Sounds old school but, it's time to realise that if we are not robots, forget tweets, posts and chats, we need to talk more often!

Typical ...ian-ness

For God we believe, rest everyone needs to show data. That's an interesting saying I heard for someone. But, there is also the next step which happen with data. We all like to draw a frame with that..some will say they don't but, they do. Anyway, there is also very interesting cross -ianism between people where two different -ians use the same characteristics to identify eachother. I heard from some Belgian friends that Dutch are rude, while from Dutch friends I hear the contrary. They both agree agree Germans are dry, but then I found Germans very friendly. So, the message is that we all are are working with our own datasets. Ours or may be some more we know have the same experience, but life is too short to gather all datasets. So, try to avoid this -ianness if not for yourself, at lease for others. Bob Marley's saying.."Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for."

Subversioning truth!

"Who can reason with someone who does not wish to face the truth?" 

"The truth", what is that? Bhagwat Gita talks about the "Saswat Satya", the ultimate truth, but is there an ultimate truth? Everyone around is walking with his/her own version of it. And if you try to showcase your version, even before you present your version you have to face the ego. And the debate goes beyond the truth to an attempt that my ego is bigger than yours. What a shame! In such situation if you debate and win you loose (because the real debate was about truth and not ego) and if you loose you loose anyway.

Longway back to home

From Bangalore I went to my wife's place via Kolkata. I spent holiday working with her on PhD thesis comments and having lots of sweets. I can't recall more than this. After Khirpai together we went to my bother's place in Bokaro. The most remarkable thing about this journey was the finding of the borders and transition of regional cultures. It was a region from Medinipur to Purulia where temples were dominated by Goddess Kali and then came the region from Purulia to Bokaro where typical North Indian God Hanuman took over. It's magical in India how with millions of Gods we never find uncomfortable living with others with different one while rest of the world is still full of people who love n hate and even kill you for not believing theirs God. In Bokaro, I went to see a steel plant, a life time experience to see steel flowing like water! We stayed there for 2 days before we traveled to Mau via Varanasi by train. I was at home, place about which I can complain, but my no journey to india can be complete without.

Experiencing experiences

Back to the blogger after long time. Returned from India with lots of masala to write about but almost forgetting them now. But anyway, with some scratching of the head I can think of few. Let's start on the journey. First time I flew to India through Mumbai, not Delhi. I was travelling to Bangalore with my research group for attend PBM conference at IISc, before I could officially start my vacation. With foreigners with me I had few more critical eyes for things in India than mine, showing things that certainly need to change. I don't know how they liked it; least could be understood with their flat faces. But with many complaints there were also appreciations for something. We landed in Mumbai, and it was as new for me as for others. I could believe how it is business capital of India, be it airport, roads or general outlook. The city was covered with posters each having 50 faces for every corner and even if one is using Indian liberty (stupid habit of peeing at roadside) he will be wetting some of the many faces without missing. Well after a night stay in Mumbai, we started again, and it was a pleasant surprise to see the Bangalore. City was clean and beautiful at least near the airport where I was staying. First time I was feeling a bit relieved and told my colleague, what you saw in Mumbai is not all India; it can be worse, and can be better as well. We stayed in Bangalore for three days and with lots of talks a happening. beside the conference talk, once again some foreigner complaining about every little thing, others curious to know more and enjoying the difference of cultures. Can't say who was right, but I go by the later one as they did "paisa vassol" act, which was the need of time for all the trouble they faced for getting the Indian visa and getting there.