Category: opinions

Personal opinion about culture, movies, books.

  • Virtual Marathons

    Every city which used to organize epic Marathons, Half-Marathons, 10Ks, 5Ks, and my favorite 2.5Ks are now resorting to Virtual Marathons. Basically, in a period of a week or so, participants have to install apps and just run wherever they can and whenever they can. They can run marathons and take breaks in between. The app would track their miles ran while keeping them safe from the dangers of the crowd. So, you don’t have to wake up early morning or late at night, get ready in your track pants, reach the starting point, see a huge crowd and wonder if people don’t have any other job, huff-puff, and start running. Soon you realize that running isn’t your cup of tea while you miss the warmth of your bed and you miss your tea. Deep inside you know that you just joined for showing off on social media. But seeing everyone running or walking or crawling, you also join the struggle to reach the final point to grab your participation medal and groupfie.

    But in virtual marathons, your struggle won’t be visible and the motivation to run which comes with a crowd might not be present. Except for actual runners, they would still go and run in actuality.

    When it comes to a group activity done virtually, people have started to embrace it now more wholeheartedly. But physical activities like participating in Marathons are yet to become normal. Still, enthusiasts would continue to show off their completed miles and you will regret missing out this year. You can still keep it as your new year resolution because running virtually might be easier than not finishing a proper run.

  • 3-Unit Boredom Hypothesis

    They say if you do something for 21 days straight, it becomes a habit.

    Just a counter-hypothesis: Anyone who gets away from the routine for more than 3 days, starts to get bored and distracted.

    If you are away from your home and you’re not on a vacation, after 3 days you might get homesick.

    If you’re preparing for an exam or watching a tv show or reading a book and if you aren’t hooked after 3 chapters, 3 episodes, or 3 pages, you lose the interest.

    If you are in a hospital for more than 3 days, you start getting bored. Moreover, people who were visiting you might slowly become less frequent.

    Just a counter hypothesis to the 21 day rule.

  • Tricking the Mind

    Tricking the Mind

    I am not a medical expert but all this year, I have read so much Medical Documentation that I have been giving advises and explanations to everyone (with a caveat that I am not a Doctor). May be it’s my looks or maybe I am worth it. Lolyeah. Googling symptoms doesn’t make you a doctor.

    Having said that, reading medication gives one slight idea about how medicine works. In many cases, medicine tricks the body and thereby the mind to act in a certain way. Take for example the vaccines. Again, not an expert here and highly simplifying, but many of the vaccines are based on the principle that if you inject a certain dose of foreign material into the body, mind assumes that body has been infected. So it starts telling all the cells and the blood to start creating antibodies to fight the infection. Thus, when any virus or infection occurs, body is already ready with antibodies making the infection futile. (Don’t confuse this with Homeopathy as that’s a different thing altogether).

    Body’s flight or fight response can be trained too in certain aspects. What if we learn the ways to trick the mind to get anything changed in our physiology and psychology. Wouldn’t that be really amazing! For example, before a speech or presentation is to be delivered, if one takes up the Wonderwoman Pose or just act like you have won something, open up stance, sit relaxed, then the body starts generating happy harmones which reduces the stress and collywobbles which makes you confident. That means assuming you have killed it, makes you kill it.

    Tricking the mind without taking anything (important) would be the next best thing. It might help us fight diseases, or put you into a cryogenic mode so that you could live longer or even travel farther.

    Lying to mind to get something good should be normalised.

  • Be like a Monolith

    There are mysterious Monoliths showing up at various places across the world. Then they disappear without any hoopla.

    They show up. They create suspense whether they are alien, or they’re some prank, or they’re naturally occurring, or they serve no purpose, or Banksy is the culprit, or an art installation, or bad welding show-off. We don’t really know. That’s quintessential 2020 then and there.

    Then they disappear. Some people say people have been seen taking them down and cleaning all the traces. No video has been surfaced yet of installation or removal.

    I think there is a lesson in it. Actually, there is none. And that’s the lesson that some things do show up and then they disappear. They leave no clue but only conspiracy theories.They can create mystery and might damage things. Or they might not.

    One can’t understand everything. That’s the beauty of it.

    Be like a Monolith in some stranger’s life. Or don’t. Who cares!

    Here are my renditions of Monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey

  • What were you doing last year this time?

    The last month of the year 2020 has begun. Last year during this time, most of us were living nonchalantly, oblivious to the coming era. This time we are conscious. Our resolutions this year would have been postponed to 2021 in most cases.

    Technically nothing really changes when dates change. Sun still comes from the east. But we still celebrate the end of the formalities and welcome the man made calendar years.

    Last year during this time, like every year, wasn’t sure whether I should have a resolution or not. This time I think I will have one. I still have a full month to think about it. Even if nothing really changes but there is always a chance to make it better.

    P.S: Last few posts have made lesser sense but that reminds me that time keeps changing.

  • Hesitation in us

    Hesitation in us

    Seth Godin (Google Seth’s Blog) once did this in one of his talks:

    He asked the audience to raise their right hands. People followed. Then he asked them to raised their hands higher. Surprisingly, almost everyone could raise their hands slightly higher.

    The act was now obvious. Everyone hesitates.

    Some of us just hesitate more than others. In praising, in giving, in debating, in arguing, in taking, and even in loving. We have always been told to contain ourselves and not give away everything. That’s our conditioning.

    This also applies to generosity. There’s a beautiful story about hesitating in giving.

    “A prince wants to be known as generous, so the god Krishna decides to put him to the test: He creates two mountains of gold and tells the prince to give it all away in 24 hours. The prince begins to do so, parceling it out to people he thinks need it. But as the day ends he’s hardly made a dent in the mountains. So Krishna calls another prince and tells him he has just five minutes to give away the gold. This prince sees two people walking along, goes right over to them, and gives each a mountain. Just like that, the job is done.

    The moral is unsettling, but simple: Don’t impose limits on your generosity.”

    Source for the above.

    If we learn to not hesitate in everything (except criticizing), may be we will become better automatically.

    Header Photo courtesy: unsplash

  • So I recently watched: The Trial of the Chicago 7

    As I write this, hundreds and hundreds of Farmers are protesting against some new laws about 200-250 KM away from where I am. They are staying almost in open in the night and the winter season is in full flow right now. Almost none of them have masks on by the way. And there have already had a huge scuffle with the Government via the Police.

    Democracies like ours give us rights to protest. But sometimes the size and motivation of the protests grows larger than what can be handled. Also, there are powers in the authority who believe that such protests are not worth the time and they must be dealt with iron fists. And then there are clashes when both the government and the governed are equally adamant.

    The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a movie by Aaron Sorkin. So you can expect amazing dialogues and conversations when almost all of the movie is a courtroom scene. It deals with the fag end of the Vietnam War when citizens of US were getting tired of the length of the struggle. The war was just being dragged to satisfy the ego of a few but it was resulting in large number of casualties of young Americans. Drafting of youngsters into the army was becoming a big deal. So many voices started to crop up in order to curtail the unnecessary war efforts and pacify the government to backtrack.

    Many organisations called for protests in Chicago. A large number of students, citizens, African American rights groups, and the quintessential 70s junta comprising of the Hippies marched towards Chicago to protest

    However things turned ugly and violence ensued. The movie deals with the trial of 7 leaders who called for the protest.

    I have always been a fan of courtroom dramas and this movie delights me to the fullest. The cast, led mostly by Sacha Baron Cohen and Eddie Redmayne, and supported by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mark Rylance, and Frank Langella, is solid by all means. The movie gives you enough ground to understand the serious perspectives of all sides. But the scenes are mostly stolen by Cohen’s one liners which lighten the mood and makes you wonder, what kind of mentality and movement was there, when the name of the revolution was called ‘Flower Power’.

    I liked The Trial of Chicago 7. It is a compelling courtroom drama and raises the important debate about Protests and Rights in a democracy.

    P.S.: Cohen played Abbie Hoffman who was a hippie rebel. He wrote a book called ‘Steal This Book’. Imagine what happened to the book when people saw it in the bookshops.

  • Pygmalion Placebo

    Pygmalion Placebo

    In this post on the A Learning A Day daily blog by Rohan Rajiv the Pygmalion Effect is mentioned.

    Pygmalion Effect, also called Rosenthal effect, says that if you and everyone around you believe in something, there are more chances of you making it happen. In other words, high expectation lead to better results while lower expectations lead to poorer. It is a bit similar to the Placebo effect in Medical Science.

    Right now, there are 3 or more Vaccines with high efficacy are peeking from the horizon. While there are skeptics, there’s a huge populace which is betting on its success. Even if they end up being reasonable in effectiveness, this effect might make it more effective.

    Same thing works with confidence. Isn’t it?

    Header Photo

  • Highs and Lows, Positives and Negatives

    Every day we experience positive and negative emotions. They are amplified with the readings on Glucometer, Oximeter, Blood Pressure machine, and what not.

    Some highs are good, some are scary. Some lows are needed, some lows aren’t.

    When to give up? Is a question which keeps popping up once in a while each day. But seeing everyone else fighting and somehow winning gives us hope. People at least have tried to stay hopeful despite dramatic drastic situations.

    There’s so much around to feel bad about. In loads. We should try to hang on to whatever good is there, I think. Even if good is scarce, we still need to and have to keep trying and hoping that good news would be around the corner.

  • Do you have it in a different Color?

    Do you have it in a different Color?

    These days, as part of caregiving to folks in my family, I have to visit the pharmaceuticals shop at least once a day. Everyone is slowly improving, thankfully, but the medicines list is never ending. When I go there, I try to stay as outside as possible while people keep flocking in with, and sometimes without proper masks to buy their own medicines which are also similar versions of what I came for buying. This means that the issue of infection is obviously more prevalent than what newspapers report. Mind you, newspapers are already reporting huge numbers which are jaw-dropping in their own sense.

    Anyway, the mask buying thing is pretty interesting. I have seen several people who come and buy the masks as if they are buying vegetables or a piece of clothing. Of course, safety is what they should intend for, but their concern is not how good the mask functionally is. Many people ask for different colors than usual White or Gray or Surgical Aqua Green Blue. They want designer masks. They want masks with sockets in them so that ‘Oxygen can flow normally’. I didn’t see anyone asking if the mask is meeting the specification or not.

    Our collective energy is being focussed in trying to curb the virus infection in multiple ways possible. But trying to change public perception regarding Science of the Mask is an art in itself. There have been several animations and videos but we are still far from making everyone understand the importance of a proper mask which is the 1st thing we should have done.

    P.S.: Seth Godin reminded us all that Google is not your friend. It is just a tool that was free but might not be future. Today is World Backup Day so why not start here: https://takeout.google.com/

    Photo by Adam Nieścioruk on Unsplash