A loving man, a genius guide, a
commendable author
I couldn’t be prouder of being my father’s daughter
He showed me the world, but didn’t
force my steps
As he taught me about life, he didn’t daunt me with what’s next
With his unwavering support and saintly
patience
He let me be me and encouraged all my passions
I was told I could be who I wanted to be as long as I had the right zest
I’m sure it surprises no one today that I chose to follow the best
From chess to physics, and science to
swimming,
what makes me me comes from you
With our love for logic and thirst for knowledge
we’re depicted a sagacious crew of two
My dreams flitted and changed with me
as I grew ever bigger
and he accepted them all with just as spirited a vigour
I fancied myself as a pop-star and he bought me my own mic My pursuits shifted to biology, and he got me a microscope with slides And as I dabbled in sports and he provided the best gear I can only marvel at how his inexorable abetment doesn’t veer
The moments we spend are memories
treasured
That love of a father that refutes all measures
As he would rise at the crack of dawn to drive me to karate sessions
All the pains he took for me have left a lasting impression
Only a father as devoted as him could
shrug off a tedious day
with his glass filled to the brim
And read his book under the dim lamp by the pool
just so I could swim
A cornucopia of knowledge with a heart
of gold
The impeccable man, shaped by the perfect mould
He has shown me the cosmos from the puny quarks to galactic black holes
He has been my guide, my Google, my guardian in every role
My father is the embodiment of
“knowledge makes you stand tall”
Yet he believes that rationality dwarfs dogma, but humanity trumps all
I hope he knows that as I shoot for the
stars he illuminated in the night sky weave
“Like father, like daughter” is the best compliment I can ever hope to receive!
So
you’re looking to sharpen your mind maybe to make your life easier or maybe to
accomplish an intellectual feat and become the envy of your peers. The mind is
a mysterious thing, no doubt, and its ever-unquenchable thirst to be better at
what it does, I think, can be forgiven as a trait of animal survival.
Perhaps
like me, instead of survival you want to outdo the rest of mankind and achieve
God-like omniscience! It’s a bit far-fetched, but what if I told you that it
was possible?
Before
I get down to the brass tacks of achieving or even considering something as
ridiculous as omniscience, let’s begin with the first step and understand what
exactly is intelligence and how one can go about improving it.
Intelligence
is, as Oxford Dictionary defines it, the ability to acquire and apply knowledge
and skills. So, in other words, we can say that intelligence basically combines
the abilities of memorizing information and accessing it to solve problems and
answer questions. But then what’s the difference between a genius and an
intelligent person? A genius, I believe has the ability to not just access
clear memories of information, but also combine that information creatively,
from the dozens of permutations and combinations possible, and come up with the
perfect combination of information suited to solve a problem. Simply put, when
confronted with a problem, an intelligent person will take the most legitimate
route from A to B step by step, while a genius will intuitively find a shorter
and smarter route from A to B and possibly create more knowledge in the
process.
This
intuitive creative ability of a genius to connect seemingly unrelated scattered
pieces of information into new knowledge and efficient solutions is the key to
omniscience. You see, if you really think about it, if all the devices of
communication – alphabets, numbers, symbols – were to be rearranged into the
millions of permutations and combinations that are possible with them, we are
bound to happen upon sentences, equations and even books that contain knowledge
that has been lost, known, or yet to be known. Just as it was envisioned by
Jorge Luis Borges in his short story “The Library of Babel” (Here’s the modern
day version of it: libraryofbabel.info) and Kurd Lasswitz before him, if we
could somehow trigger our minds to do this very permutation and combination
with the tons of information it absorbs every day, rejecting the unnecessary
gibberish and singling out the coherent pieces we could have the answer to
every question.
Sounds
all fine and dandy but is this even possible? Can your mind perform this feat
consciously or even subconsciously? I think your mind does that every night
when you go to sleep. Your dreams are results of weird combinations of
information it has absorbed over the course of your lifetime. Sometimes you see
things in your dreams that are completely ingenious; you see stories that would
put even Shakespeare to shame, you hear thoughts that give you a whole new
perspective on life and you wake up as a completely different person. This is
nothing but pure permutation and combination in effect.
But
how do we replicate this consciously? Is it possible to voluntarily enter into
that deep sleep REM state of mind on command and unlock your mind’s true
potential while you’re wide awake? Well not unless you have sleep apnea like
hip-hop artist Bill Ray who sleeps in the recording booth to wake up with rap
lyrics on his mind (https://youtu.be/xmkx1_Jv03Y).
Otherwise, there are tried and tested ways to improve your brain function,
strengthen your neural networks, and produce more brain cells that you could
start with before you enter into the realm of yogic omniscience. For instance:
1.
Research has shown that running and aerobic exercises done for prolonged
periods of time can trigger the production of new brain cells.
3. Learning a musical instrument can do wonders by strengthening the connections between the two hemispheres of your brain and more.
4. Solving math problems, playing puzzle games and even some video games will also enhance the way your brain handles real life problems. Being smart in real life basically means being creative with the way you solve problems/challenges that life throws your way and you do that with a brain that can organize and access information gathered in the short-term memory. Many video games encourage players to tackle problems and challenges in creative ways which helps improve memory function.(https://www.techtimes.com/articles/206644/20170504/playing-video-games-can-help-boost-memory-and-prevent-dementia-in-elderly-people-study.htm)
Basically,
if your brain has the capacity to store more information in the short-term
memory, it’ll have more elements to play with while solving a certain problem.
And this is why knowledge is power. If you know more about things, your brain
will be more competent at being smart in general because it will always have
enough information to play with to handle problems. Keep feeding your brain
with information, be hungry for knowledge. Stay curious. Eventually, you’ll
realise people keep contacting you for problems they get stuck in just because
you always seem to know the solution to everything.
Moreover,
problem solving is not an end in itself, because sometimes knowing how one
problem is solved can turn out to be a more creative approach to another
unrelated problem, so your curiosity will put you in this virtuous cycle of
problem solving.
Having
an attitude that’s always curious will teach you how to dissect a problem and
you’ll know where to look to find better insight into the problem. Moreover,
you wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel; you’ll already know ways to tackle a
problem by drawing inspiration from someone else’s approach to a similar
problem. Besides, you’ll know what other information can be used to your
advantage because you already knew it beforehand.
Even
though trying to absorb all the information of the world may seem daunting, I
don’t believe that we have to consciously store information in our brains. Just
be in the present, enjoy the information that comes your way and don’t worry
about your ability to remember it a couple of hours or days later, because, I
believe, that our subconscious stores everything anyway and when the need
arrives all the information will connect in a eureka moment. And like I
mentioned before, you’ve already experienced your subconscious’ ability to
connect obscure long-forgotten data together to form unfamiliar faces and
situations, and uncanny ideas that you come across in your dreams. Sometimes
it’s the permutation and combination of data and sometimes it’s solid data you
acquired long ago or even recently.
Finally,
I’d like to mention one of humankind’s often underappreciated superpowers –
concentration. The ability to pay undivided attention to something, the ability
to focus is what sets us apart from a lot of animal species and honing it can
give us an edge over other people. I think this is what makes us the smart
beings that we are. We can focus on a problem and work towards solving it.
Therefore, meditation becomes a powerful tool to help you become a smarter
individual by helping you focus and in a way making you one with the problem
which will make solving it as easy as looking into yourself. Meditation is also
known for its endless benefits and long-time meditators have been observed to
have larger volumes of grey matter. (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090512134655.htm)
But
being a devout supporter of the Ying and Yang philosophy, I’d recommend that
too much of anything is bad. Too much concentration is bad because it might
blind you to a simpler solution, a solution that could be easily ignored in
your concentrated dedication to a particular approach. Sometimes you need to
break your concentration to be creative and stumble upon the answer you’re
looking for.
However,
this does not undermine the power of meditation, because aside from improving
your ability to concentrate, meditation is known to produce alpha waves which
are related to creativity, and deep meditation is known to induce theta waves,
which are also produced during sleep (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100319210631.htm).
If
you can practice deep meditation and gain the ability to will these brain waves
whenever you want, I believe that is when you’ll happen upon omniscience,
because if you could use the same power of the subconscious to make efficient
use of permutations and combinations, then imagine the amount of knowledge you
can create and discover from even basic information like alphabets and numbers.
Touching
on the topic of the subconscious again, I believe that if you maintain the
desire to be a genius then you’ll subconsciously tend towards being smarter and
achieve your end goal. Your subconscious mind works in mysterious ways but
keeping this desire in the back of your mind as much as you can might, among
other things, make your brain notice the little smart things you do and reward
you for them with dopamine. And dopamine is basically what everyone is in the
pursuit of; the happiness hormone will keep you dedicated and you’ll
automatically default to behaviour that makes genius genius, and will have you
well on your way towards omniscience.
Ragged rock breaths, and rumbling storm pulse Panic striking through her heart like an icy dagger Head pounding with dread, waning resolve staggers
The moonlit night deepens and the mist begins to fall The bleak woods are bathed in an eerie pallid light As the wolf, her demon, steals forth to the dismay of her plight
Lost and hunted, she stumbles through the thorns The throes of her terror make their presence known Alas! Ill-fated or reaping what she has sown?
Is this the end?
And yet, fatigued, no stranger to this ordeal Aware this terrible horror is a mirage in her head This hangman’s noose, intricately knotted herself
Desperate for an eternal escape from this maze She has the key, but the lock has changed She knows she is her prisoner, but she can’t let her out
Quest for knowledge has finally proved to be a bane Every hiss of the wind and whisper of the barren branches A mind aggrandises as the wolf balefully advancing
This must be the end.
Good sense has fled her haunted mind leaving only misty ghosts in its wake The reedy branches tighten their wisps around her throat Deserted. Forsaken. Suffocated. Afloat.
Now, an olive branch takes root among the stifling twigs A jolt back to reality as a hand breaches the grim illusion Hasty retreat from the harrowing hallows’ contusion
At long last, the woodcutter with the axe to banish her wolf A shoulder to cry on, the promise of an emphatic ear “Hush, now. It was but a nightmare; no cross to bear”
This might not be the end.
Freedom. Respite. Replete with renewed joy. She gazes gratefully into the woodcutter’s amber eyes Relief crumbles to resignation as his grin reveals the wolf in disguise.
I missed my past, I couldn’t wait for my future. I loved my past, I wasn’t afraid of my future. I remembered my past, I drew my future. I sailed forth knowing my direction, I knew what I was to expect.
There was a perfect balance, now I know no more.
The tides of time have shifted my course, and have left me in uncharted waters. Ignorant of them, I am tossed and turned, thrown towards approaching land.
What is this land? What is it called? I don’t want to go there. Can I turn around? Which way?
I’m tired and solid ground approaches. No turning back now. I’m almost there. I will reach my destination. Yet not quite be there.
Disoriented. With my future an empty space, the past fills it up in a deluge. Overwhelmed. With my mind left purposeless, emotions within intellect take refuge. Addicted.
What do I do? What can I do? Did I ever do anything at all? Or is nature just doing its do. How could order ever exist, without chaos as proof?
Anyway, I’ve already surrendered to fate. It gave me direction and took it away. Almost as if it were I in its place, the future me correcting his past mistakes.
I’ve been regaled with tales of her ecstasy at my arrival as naïve and helpless, I leaned on her for survival and she must have been tired, fatigued no end yet she doted over me with an affection that can’t be rivalled
I’ve tried her patience and tested her resolve but in her loving eyes of a mother, every blunder dissolves She brings out my worst, and highlights my flaws yet when I fear chiding, I’m only met with applause- not for my wrong-doings or failures, and not for my falls but because she’s the one who sees through my fears to my cause
In how we view the world, needless to say, we often clash we fail to see eye-to-eye about everything from culture to hash And yet she swims through the changing tides without so much as a splash Channelling the shifting times, she adapts to the generation deemed rash
Her beauty is a unique product of the most delightful art Her glowing looks are breath-taking, but even shinier is her heart Morality, justice, kindness, and truth she blends with her smarts She’s reaching the zenith in the world, yet it’s just a puny piece of her part
My heart fills with gratitude for when she scoops me up when I’m ill and pallid and for the hours she slogs away to make exotic dishes for my palate
I have been regaled with tales of her pride at my power little does she know it’s the seed she watered that flowered
She has been my rock, my confidante, and my idol my friend, my anchor, a mother befitting the title
She has bestowed love, wisdom, and care with no trace of a blame and whenever she needs me, I vow I’ll extend the same
A
nation wouldn’t exist if its people fail to apprehend the force that binds them
all together into a unique sense of identity. This sense of identity is the
sense of patriotism. The sense of being a part of a large organism with each of
its unique constituent parts united in working towards nurturing and building
this great organism we call a nation. The sense of patriotism is the
consciousness of this organism and it is vital for a nation’s well-being to be
conscious of itself, to be mindful, just as we meditate upon our being and our
body starts to regulate itself better, our immune system strengthens, stress
levels decrease and every part of our body comes together in peace.
Peace
fosters growth, be it in your body or in a nation. Therefore, developing a
sense of patriotism among the people of a nation becomes imperative to bring
about a conscious effort for achieving this peace, and only in peace can the
nation make decisive decisions to move forward, a nation plunged in chaos and
conflict is like a raving lunatic with suicidal tendencies.
Taking
this anthropomorphic analogy further, we can agree that developing a sound and
mature mind capable of being conscious of itself and hence its identity begins
at an early age. It is then safe to say that the youth of a nation is the
mirror into the future of that nation and instilling a sense of patriotism in young
minds through increased focus on the nation’s cultural heritage, its history, art,
language, prominent figures, and everything the nation together as a people has
produced, produces and envisions to produce should become the prime objective
of a nation’s education system. If the youth fails to believe in this sense of
identity that the people of a nation share, the nation as an entity will
dissolve into antiquity along with its older inhabitants.
Naturally,
it becomes the responsibility of all patriotic citizens of a nation to instruct
young minds to love and respect their country. Teach them to respect laws and
regulations, teach them basic values such as cleanliness, politeness, kindness,
love and compassion. Teach them the kind of values that cultivate their
personalities into citizens that don’t litter their country mindlessly, cut
down trees recklessly, pollute their environment obsessively, and treat their
compatriots indifferently. Such values will come about naturally in a person if
instilled with a sense of patriotism they understand and believe in the identity
of their nation, an identity that is a part of them.
Homo
sapiens have been blessed with a mind that has the ability to envision an
abstraction that in many geographical locations of the world binds numerous
cultures and races of people together into one entity, into one nation, such as
India. Its people fight through all differences and conflicts, and come out of
it ever stronger, united and tolerant. Yet what bemuses me the most is the fact
that imagined borderlines still mar the vast splendour Earth affords for all
its denizens and these imagined borders, rooted in self-doubt and paranoia of
the human race as a whole, limit us as a species to evolve into something
greater.
I
guess then there must be a fine line between patriotism and jingoism or are
they a direct consequence of one another? Can we ever unite together in
patriotism for our earth? For our universe perhaps? Or are we too small for
that?
Confounding people will queue for hours in the scorching sun
to pour a jar of milk on a stone replica of Shiva’s member,
but swat at the hungry homeless begging for alms
when a few sips of that milk could be a kind deed remembered
The devout will cheerily offer loads for the church
and forgo savings in hopes of good health
Hard-earned money is lost
in a blinded prayer for wealth
Starving for fasts because we’re told that’s how with god we
can bind
claims of cleansing the body, but what of the toxins in our minds?
Come Diwali, and we arrange the best sweets in the fanciest
platters
dress up in our special adornments,
when the stark nakedness underneath is what matters
Hunger for clout and hungover with doubt Religion teaches to love all, but the gays don’t count
What is this culture, where we run after by running away
say what we mean, but rarely mean what we say
It impelled me to pick up a stray paper and pen
for we talk of feminism, then strike out against men
We were taught to be steady, never too rash
yet who preached of earning experiences gave them up for hard cash
The more we propound, the more it confounds
Because the louder our voices, the softer our causes
The hollower our talk, the more poignant are the pauses
The better we’re connected, the poorer our connection
The closer we dwell, the clearer are the sections
A call-to-arms may be mute to ones deafened by dogma
and a red flag may be white to ones blinded by karma
But when we need a cure to move beyond our stagnant phase
it is the true redeemers who will help lift the haze
Liberty, equality, tolerance, sovereignty, secularism, right to freedom of speech and expression. Wah! The Indian Constitution speaks so valiantly. You get a tear in your eye and feel real proud to be an Indian. You go to the cinemas and stand up all broad-chested, singing the national anthem making up for the shitty audio the government manages for our thriving patriotic spirit. You hear someone yelling “Jai Hind” at the end of it too. But what do you get for all that? A movie chopped up into a fine fucking mess. All the “adult” bits censored for the Indian adults. What in the name of fuck! What? So Indian adults don’t have the BALLS to handle sensitive content? Is this what the Central Board of Film Certification thinks? That Indians are intolerant, close minded fucks who can’t handle a little nudity? Can’t handle blasphemy? Oh, yeah. What am I talking about? They’re right. We can’t. People can’t. Humans can’t. History is full of examples from all across the world. We’ve got a ton of fundamentalist groups ready to protest and riot in India, too. But does that mean we butcher art? Shape history the way WE think is appropriate? Only to prove to coming generations what intolerant pieces of trash we are, the way our ancestors seem like to us when we see casteism, sexism, and prejudice epitomised in their art and culture? C’mon! We can be better than that. Well, only if the oh-so-secular Indian government would do something about it besides sucking up to the divided communities of India. Until that happens, let me make an effort to suggest a simple change that can be made in the censorship system that could put this issue to rest for good. Just change the vague-as-hell content rating system! A, U/A, U, they’re too broad for the culturally diverse and varied people of India. Make better demarcations of content. Maybe add additional ratings that would cater to different religious and communal sensibilities. Or, don’t do that. Just treat A for what it really is- for “adults” or if that doesn’t help, make two ratings- MA and IMA that differentiates between mature and immature adults. But, for fuck’s sake, there should be a rating that will give a movie full uncensored exposure and let some of us cine-philes be thrilled, shocked, disgusted, and enraged. Aren’t these feelings propounded to be some of the 9 rassas in the Natyashastra, the great ancient Sanskrit text on performing arts that we Indians like boasting about so much? So, why are we so shy when it really comes down to it? This is fucking ridiculous. Why does an Indian adult have to waste his time writing a rant about something so damn elementary! No wonder we can’t focus on things that really matter.
An easy death on your own terms- a basic right or violation
of fundamental rights themselves? Euthanasia has been a hot topic of ethical
debate for as long as we have been able to launch verbal attacks on those who
dare disagree.
Fuel, water, fauna, and fodder, all considered essential
resources, pale in comparison to the most precious resource at our disposal-
humanity, with its ever-evolving innovations and intellect. Across nations and
cultures “life” is widely and unanimously agreed upon as being invaluable. Add
to that legal laws, religious tenets, and moral obligations and it becomes evident
that talk of wilfully putting an end to one’s life will raise a few eyebrows.
Death is an important aspect for every religion. Every
religion seeks to offer explanations and provide meaning and significance to
the loss of life. Unsurprisingly, it would ruffle a few feathers if people were
to be in control of this eventuality and commit such sacrilege. Most faiths
propound that it is their gods who infuse life into us and it is only them with
the power to take it when so deemed. To legalise voluntary death would be seen
as blasphemous irreverence to gods of all faiths, and thus euthanasia, like several
other progressive notions, clashes with religion.
Whether or not religion or morality appeals to you, there
are no two ways about the fact that life is of inestimable worth, which is why
there are a plethora of laws to safeguard against its loss (think murder and
manslaughter). To take someone’s life is to shockingly violate their right to
life and liberty.
But what if I want to take my own life? Is it not denying my
rights to my own body and life to make
me live against my wishes? Is it not an infringement upon my liberty to take
away my power to make decisions about my life? Isn’t killing me without my
consent just as bad as making me live without my consent?
The concept of assisted suicides and “mercy killing” is
quickly gaining favour with the masses. Imagine a patient of a terminal illness
who is living out her days with the knowledge that there is no cure and her
numbered days only consist of agony and pain, quality time with loved ones and
previously enjoyed hobbies are a thing of the past, and all there’s left to do
is to endure the suffering until she is physically unable to anymore.
Or think about 29-year-old Aurelia Brouwers who was
physically fit, but depressed and had anxiety. After multiple failed suicide
attempts, she filed to be euthanised, a request that was granted by the Dutch
authorities. She was given help in ending her life, not for any physical
illness, but simply because she simply did not wish to live anymore.
The laws pertaining to euthanasia vary from country to
country in terms of criteria and method. Currently, voluntary euthanasia or
doctor-assisted suicide is legal in Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, The
Netherlands, Switzerland, and in six US States.
In case of patients being in an unresponsive or vegetative condition, with
little to no chance of making a recovery, their family is given the right to
decide. Making such a decision is fraught with emotion, selfishness, bias, and
personal morality.
A word of advice: it’s never a bad idea to jot down how one would want things
to proceed in such an event.
It is worth mentioning that legalising euthanasia is no walk
in the park. There are a multitude of ways it can be misused and even the most
stringent of laws governing it can be circumvented. Disturbed individuals may
choose the ‘easy way out’ and commit suicide over a small hiccup in life while
losing sight of the bigger picture. In addition, people may take advantage of
the provision to kill unjustly and for personal gain; legalisation of
euthanasia may well be followed by a hike in the number of “assisted-suicides”
of the well-off who just happened to have a modest fortune to leave to their
next-of-kin.
In my not-so-esteemed opinion, there should exist a
regulated system for reviewing every such request. Majority of doctors the
world over are in agreement for assisted-suicides for patients beyond the point
of no return so as to uphold the autonomous nature of human beings.
Being healthy should also not be a deterrent in an
individual’s choice to stop living. To prevent unnecessary loss of life, a
well-regulated system should be established.
People seeking death as an answer to a resolvable or transient issue or as an
‘overreaction’ should be given therapy to avoid uncalled-for dissipation of
lives.
In addition to therapy, every applicant must be reviewed by a panel consisting
of doctors, physicians, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Besides healing all
wounds, time is also good at giving people a little perspective. The evaluation
should be carried out over a sufficient period of time to ensure that a
temporary problem doesn’t need a permanent termination. Only people found to be
mentally fit to consent to death should be given the chance to embrace it.
Perhaps the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, but while
I was unable to voice my agreement in my creation, shouldn’t I at least be able
to consent to wrapping it up on my own terms?
A Tipsy Quill 