Happiness

Happiness is sought by everyone. I would like to discuss some philosophies that guide people towards happiness.

One school of thought that I completely agree with is that happiness is internal. Too many of us spend too much of our time looking for happiness in external experiences. Some of us link it to our success in our work or love life. Some of us start to find happiness in our material possessions. Too many of us start to link success and happiness to how others perceive us. However any happiness that can be derived from these sources is just ephemeral. It ends as soon as it begins, and then we crave for more of the same to get our next fix and the cycle continues. However true happiness lies inside you. Ancient Indian sages loved the analogy of the Kasturi (Musk) Deer. This deer species famously smells this wonderful fragrance and falls in love with it. They spend their entire life running from one end of the forest to another in search of the source of the fragrance, in vain. The deer do not realise that they themselves are the source of the fragrance. So it seems do humans not realise that they themselves are the source of their own happiness.

Another philosophy is that true happiness is achieved by being content with what we have and where we are, in finding peace. This to me is a very dangerous school of thought, which if it had become popular earlier, humans would not have ventured out of the cave. Human evolution on the zoomed out scale and your personal development and upward social mobility on the zoomed in scale, rests on the promise that you work harder today than yesterday. Put in more hours towards your goal. Which is impossible to do if you are fully content and 'happy' with where you are. You need to have the hunger, the burning desire to work towards a better tomorrow.

Some believe that true happiness is achieved by helping others, by donating time and effort. By performing selfless acts of kindness with no expectations of a reward. Though this is a noble pursuit and no doubt brings a pure form of happiness with it. I have experienced a higher plane of happiness. Tread with caution, because once tasted the other forms seem too bland to enjoy. This happiness is the happiness of hard work, of blood and sweat,  of creating something, of discovering something, of knowing that you gave your hundred percent, of not leaving any stone unturned, of not having any regrets, of doing your best, of affecting lives, of changing lives, of making a difference. And then finally looking back at the journey with pride. This is true contentment, this is true happiness.

Trust, Action, Berkeley!

Trust in yourself, fate or a higher power. Trust that everything will turn out okay, nay everything will turn out awesome. In my opinion, 'Let the fear of failure not keep us from trying' is a perfect phrase to ascribe to for the difficult circumstances that you will find yourself in : Sometimes we worry too much about how things will turn out and are either overwhelmed by the complexity of the task at hand or are engulfed in the belief that we may not be able to make it. It is imperative to ignore such thoughts and focus.

The very first step is planning : think long and hard about what do you want to achieve and why do you want to do it. Consider all possible factors, this is one of the most important phases. Talk to people who have made it. Voice your ideas to your mentors and take their advice into consideration. Reach out to other successful people in your field; let me let you in on a secret : most successful people are good human beings and more than willing to help motivated individuals, you just need to ask them nicely.

After considering all of this, make your own decision for the right reasons. And once you have decided on a path, stick to it. Don't let self-doubt fool you into lowering your expectations, which is bound to happen when you are faced with challenges that any goal worth achieving would present. This is the time to believe. Trust in yourself and your abilities and drive. Trust in fate, you are destined to achieve greatness. Trust in a higher power, God will help you. Trust in anything you believe, and trust that you will achieve your goals. Do not let self doubt eat away at your dreams. Trust and put in work.

At the end of the day it is the only action that matters. Work towards your goal, and you will find yourself closer to your goal with each passing day. The steps need not be and will not be significant, in fact you will not even notice that you moved forward in the grand scheme of things. But keep your head down and keep working, after all it is the drops that make an ocean.

You must keep in mind that not every action will lead to an instantaneous reward, in fact 99% of your effort will seem to go to waste. But that is not the case when you are mindful, with each attempt you are learning something which makes your next attempt better in some small way. You need to actively look out for opportunities and seize them with an unapologetic fervour. You need to keep shooting arrows after arrows, you never know which one will hit the target. And it will hit the target, believe me.

For instance, I have been applying to good summer programs in artificial intelligence for over six months now, and none of them seem to materialize. Some of the applications got very close, even to the last stage of reviewing, but did not come through. Rejection is hard, and it is difficult to not take it personally. I mean who believes letters like "Thousands of meritorious applicants applied to our program this year, but unfortunately we have a limited capacity.....This decision does not reflect on your caliber....we are sorry.....apply next year". But you know what, they are true! Of course merit is one of the main factors but so is luck. Chug along and finally you will receive an email at one in the night saying that you have been accepted to participate in Astro Hack Week 2016, a summer school cum unconference being organised by some of the best institutions in the field, University of California Berkeley, University of Washington and New York University, in Berkeley.

After the jumping on the bed stops and you are finally able to explain to your friends why have you been smiling the entire day like an absolute and utter fool, you will begin contemplating, and that’s when self doubt begins to creep in. Am I really good enough? Was this an administrative mistake? I surely do not belong here! You will not believe how common the Imposter Syndrome is, and how powerful it can be. The best way to fight it is to recognize it. To realize that almost everyone feels this way, and this brings us back to trust. Trust in yourself and your abilities, it’s about time.

Power to you!

How to have a Chi-ful day

Here is a small guide to have a positive productive day, you know the kind of day you feel you are greater than yourself and part of a larger whole. The kind of day that you have too rarely. The day where you can feel the life force flowing through you. The day you have your chi with you.


Eat the frog in the night
Do something that you have been putting off for some time the night before. This need not be a huge task, even small symbolic tasks like doing the dishes that have been lying around for a couple of days or tidying up your work desk can be enough. Its raison d'être is to motivate you to get out of bed and start your day on a positive note.

Have a reminder of your previous night's achievement ready by the bedside, so that you see it first thing in the morning

Wake up early, sunrise early 
Witnessing the calm environment and nature rejuvenating and restarting can be contagious and inspiring at the same time.

Have a clean workplace ready where you can organize your thoughts have a paper or app handy

Have a full belly
You need fuel to do all the awesome stuff you have been planning, don't you?

Take a review
Step back from the daily banalities and look at the bigger picture.
What kind of a day has it been? What kind of a day do you want it to be?

Think about one of your achievement that you are proudest of
 It is okay to gloat!! This is not only for your self esteem, but you must resolve to strive to better this achievement.

Read some good positive get-out-of bed-change-the-world writing 
Quora can be a good source

Have a nice calming relaxing bath.
It is not only a great way to de-stress but also an awesome opportunity to collect your thoughts. Many great ideas are a result of soothing baths (read Archimedes)

Time Management
 It is imperative that this morning routine be totally stress free, so make time for it accordingly.

Have a phrase that exemplifies your goals, intents and ambitions. 
Repeat it every time you need to step out of your comfort zone and need that momentary insane courage to do it.

Think about what kind of a person you want to be
Your dream/ideal self, now incorporate some small part of that ultimate personality into your day. Sounds simple right? It is. For example if your ideal self is a well read and well informed person you can debate at fancy parties about the country's fiscal policy, stream the news in the background as you get ready for work. That's it, you have taken a step towards being that awesome person.

Work when your productivity is at its max 
Work smarter not harder. If you are lucky enough to have flexible timings, use them wisely, if not demand that you be trusted with them. There is no point sitting on your desk and staring at the monitor for hours, or gossiping at the water cooler, or reading mind blunting social media crap. Time is the rarest commodity, you only get so much of it. Do not waste it. Give your all to what you are doing. When you are working, you are working.

Always say Yes! 
This is a lot more difficult than it sounds. We are wired to say no to new things and stay within our comfort zone, it takes active effort to say yes to things. Go further than your call of duty, go the extra mile, take the first step. Being complacent is our natural state. Summon the 2 seconds of insane courage and see the magic happen. Make Yes! your new default.

Smile
Smile and be kind to others spread the positivity and cheer. There is no feeling better than this, trust me!

Hope you have a Chi-ful day!

Inspiration

Hello there, 

So I have been meaning to start a blog for quite sometime now. For years, if I am to be completely honest. Invariably every summer vacation during my college years, has started with a resolution to write a blog, and invariably it would sizzle out as the days passed and I became complacent and got used to the comforts of the ‘Home life’. The farthest I have gone is to create a webpage on blogspot, but that has been the sum of my actions. This time it will be different.

I haven't finalised the theme for this blog, yet. So this inaugural entry is going to be a haphazard amalgamation of my unstructured, random thoughts. The motivation to write is a complex one and  has many levels. Firstly it would be really cool to discuss the thoughts and ideas I have with my friends and more so with strangers whom I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to interact with without this blog. Secondly It would be fun to document my decisions and mistakes as I make them, which may someday help others who decide to tread a similar path, after all dear reader the wise are those who learn from the mistakes of others.This is a really strong motivation, as I strongly believe in the concept of ‘paying it forward’ where in you try and help those who come after you, as a way to thank the people who came before you, for all that has made you, well you. Thirdly and more selfishly, to my dismay I have been noticing that my writing skills are slipping, becoming rusty and are in need of wear, this is an attempt to remedy that too. 

Through a tinted window

Okay so enough of general banalities, so what’s up?  This entry is being written on a super fast from Manipal to Mumbai, as I return home. A chatty TTE and a beautiful country side stand witness to my incessant typing. Let us talk about inspiration.

Inspiration is a very powerful tool. I believe taking random instance of momentary motivation and turning them into fuel that keeps you going through the darkest of nights is a very vital life skill. All of us have goals, aspirations and ambitions in life, but why do the majority of us end up not realising them? The answer is a lack of persistence. All of us know what is right for us and what is not. What will further our cause and what will not. Then how does this rationality drown into oblivion in our daily lives? The problem is we do not see the big picture. It is very important to take a step back every once in a while and look at the bigger picture and as Randy paunch puts it very eloquently in his last lecture - “do not let the urgent drown out the important”. As a side note if you haven’t watched the Last Lecture, you definitely, positively, absolutely should. It has the potential to change your life, in-fact I recommend that you watch it once every year. But I digress. 

The beauty about this phenomena is that it is very easy to implement once you are conscious towards it. Anything however seemingly unrelated to your goals can act as inspiration. Do you want to know what is the best part? The universe presents you with amazing opportunities daily, you just have to pick them. Here are some instances of momentary inspiration that have help  convert thoughts into action.

Heavens

Pale blue dot, is a picture taken by the Voyager 1. Incidentally Voyager 1 is the first man made object to escape our solar system and become venture into interstellar space. The famous Carl Sagan had the following reflections on the pale blue dot photograph.

“ From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

The Pale Blue Dot

Just look up at the night sky and see the infiniteness of the universe. If you have been lucky enough to see the ‘Pillars of Creation’ in the Eagle Nebula through a telescope, you know what I am talking about. 

The Pillars of Creation

One of my favourite quotes about space exploration, comes from the West Wing, when Sam Seaborne is asked why should the government spend taxpayer's money on a NASA program:

'Cause it's next. 'Cause we came out of the cave, and we looked over the hill and we saw fire; and we crossed the ocean and we pioneered the west, and we took to the sky. The history of man is hung on a timeline of exploration and this is what's next.

President Bartlet from Aaron Sorkin’s ‘West Wing’

“ Every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we are reminded that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American Heroes, we will do what is hard, we will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars! ”

“ Our goal is not to cater to the least common denominator but to raise it. “

Manipal weather and scenic beauty

Reader who share the Manipal experience (my UG college) will relate to this instantly. Just one look at the beautiful surroundings with the perfect weather show you that the world and life itself is much bigger than your daily struggles. 

The Destitute

You are lucky enough to be in a position where you are being briefed about what humanity has achieved before you it is your duty and responsibility that you either further it or use it to better the lives of the people who need it the most.

 That poor old lady on the side walk is relying on you. I can talk about computer science, my tradecraft. I feel like I have a super power, never in human history have we had the power to change lives transcending geographical barriers by the push of a button. Affordable healthcare innovations, Predicting outbreaks using big data, technology to help the differently labeled lead a more ‘normal’ life, agricultural insights these are some of the applications of CS that are changing the world, I hope you are not among those who are stuck in the mini world of creating the next trending app or most visited website. More on this some other time. Meanwhile use your super power for the betterment of the unfortunate. 

Crush 

One of my favourite writers on Quora Dushka Zapata sums this up very nicely 

“A crush is a pure lightning bolt of the best kind of energy. It’s yours to use any way you see fit.
If it were up to me (since you asked) I’d suggest that you use it to wake up happy and create something.
To fuel the courage to do less of what depletes you and more of what fulfills you.
Use it to love yourself for exactly who you are.
Use it as motivation to always be kind, even after a long day. 
Years from now, when you look back at the time you had a crush on a stranger, rather than thinking “boy, that was so silly!” I hope instead you remember what you felt as a source of inspiration.
Inspiration is what a crush is for.“

Read the complete answer, here http://qr.ae/8JrBNI 

Steve Jobs 

‘We are here to make a dent in the universe otherwise, why even be here?’  is a very very powerful quote that resonates with me.

Hamilton

“If you stand for nothing Burr, what do you fall for?”

-Aaron Burr,Sir!

“ There is a million things I haven’t done, but just you wait “

“In New York you can be a new man!”

-Alexander Hamilton

“I know that we can win, 

I know that greatness lies in you,

 but remember from here on in history has its eyes on you”

-History has its eyes on you

“I am not throwing away my shot, 
Hey yo I am just like my country, I am young scrappy and hungry, and I am not throwing away my shot!”

-My shot

“ How do you write like tomorrow won’t arrive?

 How do you write like you need it to survive?

How do you write every second you are alive?”

-Non Stop

Basically the whole musical is an unending source of inspiration. For the uninitiated, Hamilton is a musical on Broadway, created by Lin Manuel Miranda. It tells the story of the American founding father Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in the words of his nemesis Vice President Aaron Burr. You just need to listen to the whole cast album available here —>https://goo.gl/7igoYB 

“For Camelot!”

 Need I say more? For those who do not know Camelot is a musical (and now a TV series) where King Arthur and his advisor Merlyn establish a new order at the ancient Roman castle of Camelot. They go on to unite all of Britons and in turn become legends, because they offer a new form of politics, a politics of hope. 

The eternal rashtriya kavi Ramdhari Singh Dinkar has written many a classics, which are very moving and full of inspiring couplets. A favourite of mine is Rashmirathi (which is also available in an audio format on youtube) 

"सिर पर कुलीनता का टीका,
भीतर जीवन का रस फीकाअपना न नाम जो ले सकते,
परिचय न तेज से दे सकतेऐसे भी कुछ नर होते हैं
कुल को खाते औ' खोते हैं

"विक्रमी पुरुष लेकिन सिर पर,
चलता ना छत्र पुरखों का धर.अपना बल-तेज जगाता है,
सम्मान जगत से पाता है.सब देख उसे ललचाते हैं,
कर विविध यत्न अपनाते हैं"

"उड़ते जो झंझावतों में,पीते सो वारी प्रपातो में
सारा आकाश अयन जिनका,विषधर भुजंग भोजन जिनका,
वे ही फानिबंध छुड़ाते हैं,धरती का हृदय जुड़ाते हैं." 

Let me know what do you think about this piece in the comments below. Also if there is a specific topic on which you would like to hear my thoughts the comments section below is the place to shout out.