A CASE FOR EMPATHY

From ‘I think therefore I am’ era we have landed into the post-truth era of ‘I believe, therefore I am right’. 

An interesting experiment was done on two apes. The moment one ape took out food to eat, the other one received a shock. After some time the ape who was receiving the food preferred to starve in order to avoid harming the other ape. Empathy is product of evolution, and is probably rooted in the neo-mammalian brain that generates emotion. 

You feel empathetic towards people you can emotionally connect to, and experiments have shown that the best way to connect is through mimicking. Psycologists have named it ‘mirroring’. When an infant listens to cry of other infants, (s)he starts crying (Marvin Simner, 1971). Adults mimics too, albeit unconsciously. We all know how contagious yawning is. Its called unconscious synchrony, or herd instinct.

Mimicking is a survival mechanism, the same genetic expression that helps flock of birds to fly in formation and move towards the same direction. We constantly mimic when we are talking to others by adapting our body languages, tones and even accents to the person we are talking to. Human beings are social animals and mirroring helps us bind together. It also helps us to be empathetic because similar behaviour makes us seem familiar,  feel comfortable and helps us trust each other. 

Our perception of the entire universe, which includes every human being you know, is an interpretation of our brain based on the information it receives through our sense organs. Humans use themselves as the reference point to create perception about others. In other words, one needs to project oneself into another individual. Empathy gives us the ability to do that. Experiments showed that we can correctly predict others and thus be empathetic towards others when our mental sate is neutral or same as the other person. We miss judge people mostly when our mental states are not similar.

Interestingly, chimps mimic yawn too, but only when a member of their own community yawns, and not when they see someone from the other community yawn. Call it racism. Sherif and Tajfel’s 1954 experiment showed that it was very easy to divide people into ‘us’ verses ‘them’. The experiment supported the Realistic Conflict Theory which says that intergroup hostility can arise due to conflicting goals and competition over limited resources. In a study participants were shown a video of people being injected with a hypodermic needle. The participants showed more neurobiological activity (indicating empathy) when the injected person was of same race. We mirror those who we consider as ‘us’ more than those we consider as ‘others’.

Unknown person or animal were threat to our hunting and gathering ancestors. We still feel threatened when encountering ‘different’ beings. Decety and Jackson’s study show that when you encounter people who you consider as ‘other’, you are less likely to feel their pain and emotions. They write in their paper, ‘Shared neural representations, self-awareness, mental flexibility, and emotion regulation constitute the basic macrocomponents of empathy, which are underpinned by specific neural systems.’ To be empathetic you need to connect with the other person. William Ickes’s experiments show that it takes at least 30 minutes of being together to connect (Everyday Mind Reading by William Ickes) with a stranger.

With the rise of social media, humans are loosing the ’30 min’ face to face connect. It is easy to bracket someone as ‘other’ in the social media when you do not have to see the other person face to face. Once you add a tag to a person, that stays even when you meet (h)er/im. This, along with ‘confirmation bias’ based on the huge amount of information (including misinformation) in the internet, can easily give rise to polarised world view. From ‘I think therefore I am’ era we have landed into the post-truth era of ‘I believe, therefore I am right’. Building empathy in the age of technology and internet is not something we have evolved for, and hence we need to train ourselves for the future.

Right supramarginal gyrus, part of cerebral cortex, is that part of our brain that recognises lack of empathy and helps us correct it. It helps one look at the world from the perspective of others. Our brain’s neural circuitry is not rigid. Every thought and action creates new neural pathways and changes our brain. Our brain can be hacked, and it can even be trained to become empathetic.

Stories helps us get connected to different perspectives, and thus become more empathetic. To be more empathetic you need to create positive story in your brain about the other person. Travel, creativity and collaboration can make us more empathetic. One way of increasing empathy is to force yourself to be in other person’s shoe. When you are angry on someone, first calm down, curb your ego and reduce your emotional defensiveness. Be open to diverse opinions and try to find the common things that you share with the other person. Understand the problems (s)he might be facing that led to (h)er/is judgement. 

Experiments have shown that mindfulness based stress reduction programs have changed the brain by increasing the density of grey matter in regions related to 'learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking' (Holzed et. al, 2011). There are four stages of practicing empathy everyday. It starts with imagining and then practicing compassionate thoughts about loved ones, followed by self, then about a neutral person and finally ending with someone against whom you have a grudge. Practicing empathy this way is known to reduce stress leading to a healthier and happier life.

How many people can our brain be empathetic about? Should we focus on compassion rather than empathy? Need a different post for that!

REFERENCE

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/journalism_and_the_power_of_emotions.php
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201310/the-neuroscience-empathy
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/compassion-training.html
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092549271000288X
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/39/15466
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15537986
https://www.amazon.com/Age-Empathy-Natures-Lessons-Society/dp/0307407772
https://www.amazon.com/Human-Swarm-Societies-Arise-Thrive/dp/0465055680
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realistic_conflict_theory

Written by Subhrashis Adhikari

Also Check Out:  5 Questions of the Inquisitive Apes 

"Engaging and entertaining, this page-turner is remarkable in its narration and will give you a new perspective on various aspects of life. Wellresearched and heartfelt, the encouraging tone throughout the book tries to motivate towards a happier life." - Times of India

Link:

https://www.amazon.in/Questions-Inquisitive-Ape-Subhrashis-Adhikari/dp/9387022552/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=subhrashis&qid=1570535712&sr=8-1

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'Who am I?' - An irrelevant question

‘Who am I?’ is an irrelevant question. Lots of people, including me, have wasted loads of time trying to answer it. Now I have come to realise what we were really doing. We were looking for a black cat in a dark room that was not there. It does not even matter if we were blind or not. Do not believe anybody who claims to have found the answer, or worse, wants to help you find the answer. He is either delusional or trying to fool you. Why are we so obsessed with finding the answer to that irrelevant question? Why do we need to be some thing?  

‘I’ comes from ego. It is our ego that wants us to be something - not just ‘something’, but something that does not die. 

If someones answer to that question ‘Who am I?’ is ‘body’, ego will be quick to reject it as body is not permanent. Then you find thousand reasons to justify why you are not your body. The most common justification is, 

‘You have a hand, but that is your hand and not you. You have a face, but that is also not you. All your body is an accumulation of the food you eat. So you are not your body. So, you must be something else.’ 

No matter how convincing that sounds, if you spent some time thinking about it, you will realise that it is BL - a bullshit logic. Not being your body is not a guarantee that you are something else that is permanent. Our brain is configured in a way that it wants to associate everything with something. Truth is, you do not have to be anything.

There are probably easier ways of proving that you are not your body. A simple thought experiment will prove it. If all your memories were transplanted to another body with no other memory then that body will become you. You are what you remember about yourself. Your memories are not your body.  By the way, memory transplant is not fiction anymore. Memories have been successfully transferred in rats. So, if you are not your body, then are you your memories, your mind?

If someones answer to that question ‘Who am I?’ is ‘mind’, ego will be quick to reject it as mind is not permanent. Then you find thousand reasons to justify why you are not your mind. You are born with a blank slate. Your accumulate memories with experience and they die with you, just like your body. Memories are ever changing. If you are your memories, do you die if you loose all your memories in an accident? You definitely do not. So, if you are neither your body nor your mind, then what are you?

What about ‘soul’? Soul is the most abused word, a word that should not even exist. But it does, only because our ego does. When you cannot explain something with logic, you fill in the blanks with fiction. It also gives you hope that you future life might be better than your present. If someone tries to question the assumption behind ’soul', it is easy to shut them up by saying that the truth is much larger than what our tiny brain can comprehend. Yes, off course. All our five senses with which we perceive the world is limited, hence our knowledge is limited. We, indeed, can never know everything. But it makes no sense to me to invent something unexplainable to explain the unexplainable. What is even more amazing is that soul is defined as 'energy' to make it sound scientific. Everything is energy - true. Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed - true. So, soul is indestructible- bingo. No, its BL.

Soul fits all the bills. It is neither your body nor your mind. It is something that does not die. Your ego loves it and soul sells. You jump with joy at the slightest hint of its existence. There are thousands of articles in Google and hundreds of books written on soul and past life experiences. People earn a lot of money doing Past Life Regression therapies. Truth be told, there is no scientific evidence of soul yet. If there was, it would have been in your science text books by now, and someone would have got a Nobel prize for proving it. Genetic memory theory might have a faint possibility of being true, but that has nothing to do with soul. Number of living things has increased over the years. Does that mean new souls are being created everyday? If souls are created, the they are destroyed as well. Then soul is not energy, but another meaningless temporary form like our body and mind. But then comes the twisted logic about your brain and things it cannot comprehend. How can you argue with someone in the domain of unknown?

Now we know why we are obsessed with the question 'Who am I?'. Because it satisfies our ego. Gives meaning to our otherwise meaningless life. Soul was born out of our ego to be 'something' instead of 'nothing'. But still, it is an irrelevant question. It does not matter whether you consider yourself as body, mind, energy, or even selfish genes. What ever be your definition of 'you', it is temporary.

If Big Bang Theory is correct then energy began its existence at big bang. Where ever there was energy, there was space. The whole space is our universe. The internal changes of energy within our universe is time. There is no time without change in space. If space stops changing, which means the clock stops moving, the sun freezes burning, your body stops degrading, your neurons stops firing, etc, then there is no time. Any small change anywhere in space, and there is time. The internal changes of energy, like waves or currents in the ocean, create temporary features like the solar system, our planet, us and even our ego. None is permanent. None is important. So, ditch the ego and ditch your soul. Stop asking ‘Who am I?’. 

You are insignificant, and so is everything else. There is no purpose for your existence. The more important question is how are you in your infinitesimally small moment of existence. Are you happy? Are you satisfied? If you are…you really do not care! If you are not, then do something about it rather than trying to find a stupid answer to an irrelevant question. Do not let others make money by selling you 'hope'. It was rightly said in the TV series Prison Break, 'Hope is for people who do not already live in grace'.

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Let’s Embrace Death

Toastmaster's speech for Area Level 'International Speech Contest' 

Date: 8th April 2017

Title: Let’s Embrace Death

Time: 7 min

Death is one of our biggest fears. Each and every moment we are struggling not to die, we are forgetting how to live. Once we transcend the fear of death, we can live our life the way we want. So, how to get over this fear? How do we make friendship with Yamraj? And how, fellow toastmasters, guests and session chair, do we embrace death?

Before we get into the topic of death, let us understand the thing that dies. ‘We’ die. But who are we?

We are many things – a code, a form and a perception.

First: The code, our genes.

Scientists like Richard Dawkins believe that the true us is our selfish genes. Our body is just its means of survival. These codes literally make us from the dust. They decide whether I will be an unholy human or a holy cow. It is the same code that decides if I can get dowry after marriage or get killed before birth. The sole purpose of the codes is to survive. We receive it from our parents and transfer them to our kids. Our body dies a million deaths, but we as codes evolve and continue our battle of survival.

So what dies?

Second: Form…our body

Some of us associate our self with our body. It is made of cells. Your cells are dying as I speak, and are being replaced by new ones. The body you were born with is long dead. The cells that you are made of now, are new ones. If you are your body then you have already died many times. We do not shed tears for our cells because it keeps us healthy. Death is nature’s way of keeping itself healthy.

When you go back home, I want you to find the biggest mirror. Stand in front of it and look at yourself very carefully. You are looking at yourself, yourself that is made of cells, and cells that are made up of atoms. Look at yourself and remember this. The atoms that make you were once part of a distant star. They were ones part of dinosaurs. You can research it if you do not believe me, but a part of you definitely belonged to Buddha, Genghis Khan and even Shakespeare. You are a reincarnation of these great legends… and more. Every inch of you is immortal.

Then what dies?

The perception of you.

Some say, ‘You are what you think’. The truth is, ‘You are what you remember’. Suppose I knew magic and was able to erase all your memories. Abracadabra …. Woshh… You maam? Your religion means nothing to you now. You sir? You country means nothing to you now. Even you family means nothing to you. The ‘code’ you is here, the ‘form’ you is here. But the ‘perceived’ you is dead. 

Memories are just electro-chemical patterns stored in the brain. Scientists like Ramirez and Liu have been able to not just to copy these patterns, but transfer memories of one rat to another. In the future it would be possible to store human memory in memory banks. Say I store my memory when I am 40 years old. I die when I am 70. A couple of decades later my memory is restored into a person who has lost all his memories. So this guy wakes up….hold on….actually I wake up in a new body, still 40 years old, half a century later. Think about it for a bit. Let the idea sink. The ‘code’ me is transferred to my kids… the ‘form’ me is recycled and is now part of something else… but the ‘perceived’ me is still alive. The thing that we call as ourself is really that perception, that electrochemical pattern. Gita is right when it says nothing dies….because a pattern is not even a thing.

The perceived us is like waves in the ocean. They form, roll, and crush into the shore and die. But, the ‘true you’ is not the wave but the water that makes it. After crushing into the shore the water returns and starts the cycle again. The moment we break ourselves from that ego, that pattern, that wave… death ceases to exist … death becomes meaningless.

Maybe that thought is for the saints. What is in it for the ordinary mortals like us? We just need to remember how insignificant the ‘perceived’ us is. If the 4.5 billion years of earth history was compressed in a single day, our civilisation only last few seconds, and ‘your’ life…insignificant. If the whole universe were this room, your galaxy would be smaller than an atom. And you in that? Insignificant. Death is as insignificant as our life as an individual. When you realise how insignificant the perceived you is, you realise that your life is a joke. The trick is to laugh at it. Let’s be happy in that insignificant instant when we are just ‘us’. Let’s embrace life and let’s embrace death, until the time we realise that we are one with eternity.

Over to you session chair.

Written by Subhrashis Adhikari

Author of 5 Questions of the Inquisitive Apes

"Engaging and entertaining, this page-turner is remarkable in its narration and will give you a new perspective on various aspects of life. Wellresearched and heartfelt, the encouraging tone throughout the book tries to motivate towards a happier life." - Times of India

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Body? Soul? What about a third alternative?

Before going any further into this article please close your eyes for a moment and remember the happiest memory of your life. May be your first kiss… the first day you hold your child… the gift you gave your parents from your first salary … just remember.

What if I tell you that all those memories are fake. What if I tell you that they have been implanted in your brain and have never taken place? What if I tell you that those memories belong to someone else? What will happen to you, to your identity? What if all your memories are wiped out. Will there still be a ‘you’? Ever since human beings gained consciousness they have asked a basic but profound question, ‘Who am I?’. After thousands of years of progress, are we any closer to answering that primitive question?

There is a big debate between the religious and scientific community about weather we are the soul or the body? Some say we are the soul that is eternal and it changes the body like we change cloths. Others say that the body is all that there is. We are born with the body and die with it. What about a third alternative? We are neither as permanent as the soul, nor as temporary as the body. What if I tell you that we are just memories.

Emotions creates impacts, impacts creates memories, and memories creates consciousness. Events that trigger emotions, like love, passion, fear, anger etc., leaves behind an impact that the brain thinks as important and stores as memories. It is those memories that makes us who we are.

Some say, ‘You are what you think’. The truth is, ‘You are what you remember’. Your idea of yourself, the ego that you have about yourself, your identity, all exists in memories. If I erase those, they do not exist anymore. Your religion would mean nothing to you. Your nation would mean nothing to you. You will understand no language. Even your family would mean nothing to you. In fact there would be no ‘you’. You must be thinking that playing with memories is science fiction. What if I tell you they are more real that you think.

We are lucky to be living in an era where science is breaking new grounds. Experiments have brought out unbelievable facts. Unfortunately, they do not make news. We are fed with the news of poverty in Africa, with the killings by ISIS, or with court’s judgement of whether Homo sapiens living inside an artificial boundary that matter to just one of the 9 million species, should stand when some acquistic vibrations happen in one of the infinite possible patterns created by one of over 100 billion members that ever existed of that particular species! They do not tell you about scientists like Ramirez and Liu who are removing fiction from science fiction.

The white rat in the picture is the hero of the experiment. A tragic hero if I may call it so. The wire that goes down its head is a switch to trigger a memory on or off. The white little hero had memories of the blue box. Then it was put into the red box and given mild shocks while the memory of the blue box was triggered. A trick was played with its memory. The poor guy now believes that it got the shocks when it was in the blue box. So, whenever it was put in the blue box it froze with fear. Bingo! Inception!

Scientists have managed to store rat memory in artificial memory chips that mimics brains own memory signal. They have used memories of trained rats and implanted them into untrained rats, who then became trained without any training. Scientists have even transformed shocking memories into cheerful ones. Think about the implications that it can have. One must not forget that the brain of a mouse and that of human beings are totally different. Human mind is much more complex. But, limitations are now just technological. Possibilities are endless!

We have blood banks, sperm banks, gene banks…what about memory banks? A place where you can periodically back-up your memories. Incase you suffer from Alzheimer’s when you are old, you can get all your memory back. What about erasing traumas? What about education? Just like training untrained rats by replacing memories, what if we can turn unskilled labours into skilled labour? But storing and implanting memories have much bigger implications. It shatters the very idea about our existence.

What if my memory is stored and preserved even after I die. Then it is implanted into someone who have lost all his memories. Think about it for a bit. Let the idea sink. That person whom I have never met has my memories. He ‘remembers’ just what I remembered and thus becomes me. The body changes, but I continue to exist.  I start again from the day I last backed up my memory! What if my memory is copied into more than one person? Remember Agent Smith of Matrix. There will be more than one me, with a shared past but different futures. 'Should we store memories?' then becomes an ethical question.

There would be a time when our planet will die. If not by nuclear weapons then by asteroids, if not by explosion of Yellowstone then by the sun burning all it’s fuel. If we want to outlive our planet, we need to find a new one. The nearest known liveable planet will take us over thousands of years to reach. Only way to survive the journey is to store the memory and put it back into the body after reaching there. That is one reason scientists are trying to find ways to store memory. The question of storing memories is not about ethics, it is about survival. 

Machines are slowly replacing parts of human body. They are better and efficient. Artificial limbs implanted in people who have lost them in an accident are stronger and faster. We are even creating artificial organs that lasts longer. How far is it before we create the entire robotic body and implant the memory of a living person into it? Where is the next stage of our evolution taking us? This post is not meant to answer the questions. It is to trigger the questions that makes us think we we really are. 

http://medicalxpress.com/

If we are, but our memories, how solid is that memories? What are memories after all? They are just electrochemical signals that are QC’ed by our hippocampus and stored in a very complex way in our brain. The picture you see above is a cross-section of a positive memory. Only bits and pieces of your life that had created an impact are stored as memories, while most of it is rejected by the hippocampus. Rest are just brain’s interpolation. In fact, brain plays a trick with you. Your brain manipulates and recreates your memories. Many of them are actually false. But to you it is truth because thats what you ‘remember’. I am afraid, our consciousness, our idea about ourselves, is not standing on a strong ground.

Memories are fragile… memories are manipulated. As R. Lanza says, the feeling of ‘I’ is just a 20-watt fountain of energy operating in the brain. So much for our big inflated ego!

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3000yrs Old Secret of God Revealed

I am not a religious person. I believe in no ‘devils’ and hence I find no need for ‘god’. Upanishads, the ancient Indian book, tries to answer what god means in a different way, and somehow I happen to like it. Again the poetry of Upanishads is open to interpretation, and each individual can interpret it in the way they like. Religious thoughts did not attract me to the ‘Upanishads’, rather I found it as a window to the mind of our ancestors. I expected mythologies, rituals, 330 million gods. Isn't that what Hinduism is all about? But, what I found was something that I did not expect. Yes there were rituals; yes there were mythologies, but they only acted as spice to a rich underlying philosophy coming out of the brilliant minds of the bygone era. The philosophies have been passed down the generations for centuries orally and would not have survived without the spices. But what is interesting is the amount of research these people have done on the human psychology at that time. Human beings quest to know why we are here, to know who put us here, when it all began.....the ultimate truth, is probably as old as humans themselves. Even Vedas questioned:

RV 10.129

1. THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.

What covered in, and where? And what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?

2 Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's divider.

That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.

3 Darkness there was: at first concealed in dark, All was indiscriminated chaos.

All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.

4 Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit.

Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent.

5 Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it?

There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder

6 Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this

creation?

The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?

7 He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it,

Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.

Gods came later? Does that mean they did not create us?

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Strange!

This world is a strange world. While from Obama to Pope all wants selfish publicity at any cost, they are also people who hates when someone else publicize at their cost. We are strange people. We love to put all our personal information on facebook to get attention, at the same time hate facebook for keeping a track of our personal data for 90 days. India is a strange country. Here we wait anxiously to see a porn star in a TV show, but protest for slightest sexual content on children movies. We make someone god for scoring 99 centuries, and then make the same person a devil for not being able to score just one more. We protest when onion price touches 50 rupees, of which only 5 rupees goes to the farmer; but are happy to pay 60 rupees for buying water mixed with gas and sugar that costs just 5 rupees to make. Here we make a cop hero when he catches the people who make us mad, and then claim that the same person is mad because he is calling us corrupt.

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In pursuit of happiness

Human beings pursuit for happiness has been eternal. Search the internet and you will find thousand advices that are suppose to make you happy, from buying a cat to donating an organ. Obviously it is something that is damn important to us. But, like the Holy Grail, the search has eluded us. Why is it so important to us? What make us happy?

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It’s a good life [Anand]

"Here is ANAND and his Musings...because life is like that...Check out his blog for a better and happier life....:)" - SUB

~~~~~~~~~~

When SUB asked me to write a guest post for KHOJ, I didn’t have any second thought and said yes. Of course, who will say no to SUB and his lovely, thoughtful blog? I thank him for choosing me to write a post here. It’s indeed an honour! When I pondered on the topic for him, this was what came to my mind. It’s a good life out there and why can’t we enjoy it to the fullest?

~~~~~~~~~~

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A Journey [by Saru]

“I guess there is no need to introduce the girl who has mesmerized the blogosphere with her magical words. You can find her HERE! In this guest post she takes you through a journey that you can’t miss.” - SUB >>>

P.S. The opinion below is that of the writer and not necessarily of Khoj....any one willing to write a guest post here can email me at subhrashis.adhikari@gmail.com >>>

 ~>o<~

First, I would thank Subhrashis for giving me this opportunity of guest blogging. It's an honor to be a part of his blog. I'm a Practising Company Secretary who is not at all like everyone else in this profession. My mantra in life is to chill. The best quality in me is that I don't judge people which helps in having strong bonds with everyone I know. As many of you know that I am a poet. I love travelling, cooking and sleeping. I'm a big big fan of action movies and love to read thrillers. However, trading in share market tops my list of what I can't live without. Lastly, for this poem credit goes to Subhrashis as I stole words from his timeline and composed it. Do read the timeline on this blog

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Your Eyes and My Wish! [by Neeraj]

"This is Neeraj with his wish. A blogger who puts in a lot of thought to his posts. You can find him HERE!" - SUB

P.S. The opinion below is that of the writer and not necessarily of Khoj....any one willing to write a guest post here can email me at subhrashis.adhikari@gmail.com >>>

---

At present, I am working in the marketing department of a steel company, the office is in Kolkata.  Amid pushing and shoving of the metro trains, I try to keep on thinking. I like writing abstract stuff, which I find tough, but sometimes I get some success with some topics on abstract front. I like to write on subjects that surround me, with a different angle, though every time I don’t succeed.

Anyways, I am a big fan of the writings of SUB and here I am contributing for the first time as a guest blogger.

~>0<~

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Happiness [by Anu]

"Anu has been Khoj's first 5 followers, and the only one amongst them who still comes back to read my post. It is for readers like her that Khoj exists. Thanks Anu. You can find her HERE!" -  SUB

P.S. The opinion below is that of the writer and not necessarily of Khoj....any one willing to write a guest post here can email me at subhrashis.adhikari@gmail.com >>>

---

I am thankful to Mr. Subhrashis Adhikari who gave this opportunity. When I mailed him this post, he asked me to write something about my blog and brief intro. Before saying anything about my blog I m mesmerizing few verses by the enlightener of Gazal  Jagjit Singh:

“ye shohrat bhi lelo ye doulat bhi lelo magar mujhko louta do meri jindgaani vo kagaj ki kasti vo barish ka paai”

Well no one can fulfill his place in the field of gazals.  Memories always leave their footprints in our hearts. The thing which we can do is that we can memorize those instants. These are merely some joyous and painful moments of our life, but when somewhere you sit alone only these instants spread your lips wide, your eyes starts twinkling. My blog is the mixture of memories; memories may be one day old or 1 min old. These are memories and your appreciations which make my mind to write. 

My name is Anuradha Sharma. I am a b.tech 4^th year student. I started writing blogs last year in September. I am not a regular blogger. I write just for my own improvement. More than writing I love reading blogs. I can spend my whole day sitting and thinking alone beneath a tree. Being a moody person I love doing things in my own way.  Having a kiddish nature many times I do some foolish things. My best friend always calls me idiot and mad. But the same I am a bit matured too.

I wrote this post last year. Here I am talking about “happiness”.

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Soul Searching

In a recent post I questioned, ‘who am I?’. The question was left unanswered. Most scientists say we are what we think we are. The feeling of ‘I’ is a 20-watt fountain of energy operating in the brain. But, many philosophers claim that we are not the body, but the soul. They claim that our soul is struck in the cycle of life and death, and it is thorough praying to god, or through good deeds, we obtain freedom and become one with the almighty.

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The Known - The Unknown.....Fight continues

Our world consists of the ‘known’ and the ‘unknowns’. The limit of ‘know’ is our territory within which we feel comfortable. Beyond that is the empire of the ‘unknown’, the realm of mystery. We relentlessly try to concur them and bring them under the rule of the ‘known’. Somewhere between the ‘known’ and the ‘unknown’ hides in silence the ‘unknowable’. Like the lost pages of history, like the randomness of nature, the ‘unknowable’ is the lost Atlantis. It is the hidden secret territory that we can never concur.

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Who am I?...

…It’s a question that has bothered humanity since the time they realized they are human beings. All the advancement of science and technology has failed to give a rational answer. The first question asked could well be the last one to be answered, if at all. Are we the body, governed by our brain? Or is there a conscience that controls the brain?

REF: http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3186960557/

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STRANGE GOD

Once upon a time there lived a group of Creatures in a village called Parish. It was long ago, when God ruled the earth.  Eat, Pray and Love was the rule of life and God’s authority was never challenged. Every Creature lived by the rules; pain and grief were accepted as gifts from God.

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A GLASS OF LIFE

Toddler: A glass of water, what shall I do with it?

Teenager: The glass is not half empty; the glass is full, half with water and half with air.

College Student: The glass is not half empty, the glass the twice the size than required.

Young Professional: The glass is not half empty, the glass is half full.

Middle-aged man: The glass is indeed half empty.

Old Retired Man: Holds the glass, drinks the water...

"I asked the right question as a toddler, but was looking for the wrong solutions all my life. I was thirsty and all I needed was to drink the water."

Moral of the story: Life is simple, enjoy it. Don't make it complicated by thinking too much.

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One dream, many questions…

I had a dream last night, or was it a dream? Was I struck somewhere between the conscious and the subconscious, or was I awake? Is the reality in which I am awake also a dream? Being in the state of dream, does it makes it less real? How to tell if your subconscious mind has taken over your conscious one, or is it always like that? Is there a free-will? One dream, many questions…

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GOD UNVEILED

Please read PART 1; PART 2 before you start with this one

We miss our dear ones separated by space. We feel the emotions in particular moments in time. We feel hungry because our meals are separated by time; we can eat food because our foods are separated from us by space (until of course we eat them and the fish you ate becomes part of you). Our perceived world depends entirely on the framework of time and space. We wake up every morning at a particular time. Have breakfast and go to office at a particular distance from our home. Come back, spent quality time with our family. Have dinner and go to sleep. In our sleep we dream. In dreams time has no account. Events separated by decades can be brought together into the same moment. The dreamer can be transported to past or future. Even space has no space in dream world. Our home might appear in a far away land. We can become a giant, or a Lilliput. The dream world is fluid; it obeys no laws except its own.

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Life 'you know' is an illusion

Continued from here .....

Seeing is believing, or is it? If you consider yourself the size of an empty football stadium, then the actual solid matter that makes you is of the size of a fly. Yes, that is how hollow your atoms are, and so are you. Wouldn’t everything you see be transparent then? Why can’t you pass through the walls? The reality that we know is an interpretation of our brain based on the information we perceive through our senses. So the reality we know is as good as our senses. Let’s see how good our senses are.

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