Make a list of 10 most famous artists, 10 most famous writers, 10 most famous poets, 10 most famous humourists and 10 most famous musicians. Out of these 50 personalities how many would be females? If you go by the normal demographical distribution, you must see 20 to 25 of those people being females. In reality, I think we might struggle to get 10 female names. I’ve always wondered why. When it comes to creative arts why don’t we see enough women there? I’m not coming to a conclusion. I’m just asking a question here. If I try to answer the question myself, I have a few options.

Opportunities: I think it can’t be a question of opportunities as they are certainly available. When I talk about opportunities I’m talking about women at large, not just Indian women. There are enough opportunities for women to get jobs in banks, companies and even politics. Creative arts require natural talent and genius which can create opportunities for the artists in the normal course of time. Are women being encouraged to take up creative arts is another question. With ‘less’ pressure to be breadwinner, I would imagine that women are better placed to take up creative arts.

Priorities: Yes, that could be different. If I’m very creative and I don’t apply my creativity beyond my realms, no one may ever get to know. As such, creativity can be applied anywhere. When they get applied in popular arts, it reaches people and creates that publicity. If I have different priorities and none of them are as popular as painting, writing, poetry, humour or music, it’s hard for me to prove that I’m a creative person too. It’s just a matter of choice about where I want to be creative.

Creativity: Is it just a matter of not being creative enough? Creativity may not have anything to do with gender. I respect statistics a lot. If creativity has nothing to do with gender, why would, even in 2009, we have less representation from women in creative arts? I know a few people who very categorically say that men are more creative than women. They say it as a matter of fact statement. It’s like saying Chennai burns like hell and Bangalore has a lovely weather. That’s how the creation is. It is not a matter of Chennai’s mistake or Bangalore’s choice when you talk about their weather. Out of the box is fine but if the box itself is very small, it may not be as out of the box as you’d like. Is their box very small? Or that’s because this is a man’s world?

I know I’ve used the word ‘creative’ a bit loosely here but I hope you get the point. To further the point, make a list of 10 most famous thinkers, 10 most famous philospohers, 10 most famous inventors, 10 most famous spiritual gurus, 10 most famous explorers and out of these find out how many . . .

My internet has finally broken down. It’s been three days and there are no signs of a better tomorrow. I badly need internet but there’s little I can do about it. I hate these helpless situations. Is internet not as essential as air, water, xbox, food and shelter? I want to read all those election manifestos to see whose has the promise of uninterrupted high speed internet. What do I do now? I can’t stop browsing and blogging. Of course I have my sweet little Nokia N95 which allows me to use internet but that’s never enough. With almost a sense of self-pity, I decided to do something about this. What are the things I could do?

Call up the service provider: It may not really help me, still I can try. So I tried. The number kept ringing and after half a minute I got to listen to a strange music. Phone ring sounded sweeter. And the music went on. Nothing else happened. I hung up. I tried again. After a couple of rings someone picked up the phone and banged the phone down. Not my idea of customer service. I kept trying. Finally, I got to listen to the live voice of a human being. He informed me that I’ve dialled the wrong number and directed me to another number. I was puzzled. I had dialled the same number I’ve been dialling for internet problems. Anyway, I consoled myself that number might have changed. I called this new number. Guy at the other end told me that I should be calling a different number which happened to be the number I originally called. I gave up.

Try to fix the problem myself: It’s true that you don’t necessarily need to go the himalayas to get a humbling experience. While I was trying to fix this internet problem yesterday, I realised that I had no clue how to fix it. First of all I didn’t know what the problem was. All I could do was to perform certain actions over and over again and hope that I get connected. So I restarted the laptop. Nothing happened. I restarted the modem. Still nothing happened. I disconnected and reconnected the phone cord. No signs of internet life yet. I even allowed windows to diagnose and repair the problem. But it did neither and left me where I was. I didn’t know what else to do. I was helpless. I was wasting time. I gave up.

Go for a workaround: I remember that I can use my Nokia N95 as a modem and have my laptop connect to the internet via my mobile. I needed to have an application installed in the laptop. Fine, I think it must be there, oh wait, didn’t I uninstall it when had nothing else to do? I did. No problem. I can re-install the application with the CD that came with the phone. Problem. I have no clue where that CD is. I have the laptop, the mobile, the chord that connects them both but what I don’t have is the application or the CD. Why can’t I simply magnify what’s on the mobile screen into a laptop screen with the help of bluetooth or rednose? May be I’m a decade ahead of our times, technologically speaking. Basically, I gave up.

Come up with a creative solution: I’ve heard about those. You run around the solution and away from it so much that you get lost and then suddenly the simplest of all workable ideas looks like a creative solution. Here it is. Open notepad. Type the stuff. Save it and send it to the mobile using bluetooth. Save it as a notes item in mobile. The copy all the text. Open mobile browser and go the blog admin area. Create a new post and paste all the text. Publish. Not bad.

Blogging is all about writing and publishing. Bulk of the time normally goes in writing. Publishing is a minute’s work. For writing, all that I need is a computer. Computers don’t think, so I need to have ideas too. To execute the ideas, I need to time to write. Time is not an issue as I constantly withdraw some time from my wife. So, ideas + computer + time = writing. Blogging = writing + publishing. Publishing what’s been written, as I said, is a minute’s work and that can happen from my mobile. I can do this every single day until my internet is fixed. Cool eh? There is a slight downside as well. Because the internet access is a bit restricted, I may not get to read stuff as well. It’s not that I write well-researched articles but it certainly helps. Also rationed internet means no pictures in blogs. I know you like text better than pictures. A word is worth a 1000 pictures. Let’s concentrate on the text, that thing in black and white, that thing the author screams.

I’m struggling for a good last line so let me just say that the normal service resumes

Reading a book is a bit like reading a person. You could have your own methods. You can take less time or more time. Each one of us could have a unquie habit when it comes to reading. Personally, I have never finished reading a book. That’s because I don’t start reading a book as well. I know need to clarify now. Suppose I buy a book today. I’d look at the list of contents. If there is any interesting topic in the list, I’d jump to that for a quick read. I’ll read that bit as much as I can. I also have the habit of browsing the book. When I say browse, I just open the book and start reading the page from a logical start. It could be purely random.

I don’t use bookmarks too. For my method of reading, bookmarks don’t help, striking out might. If I happen to read a part that I have read before, I must be reminded. If I don’t realise that I’ve read that before and it’s interesting, it’s worth reading again. So, no bookmarks.

I never have this habit of reading from chapter one. I don’t know why. I don’t read fiction or biographies, where this may not make sense. Any book where the sequence is very important, this may not work. Luckily, for the kind of books I read, this is an allright habit. Even with the chapters I read, my interest should be sustained by book. I never read all paragraphs painfully because I have to complete reading a chapter. Not all books maintain the tempo and interest throughout the book. That does not really impact me because I don’t mind reading from anywhere. Also, I don’t finish reading books.

In every book, there is an essence right? I try to get that soon enough. You may call it synoptical reading or something like that. As soon as I get that theme and essence, I might even suspend reading the book. The writer of the book had an idea, theme or an essence based on which he has written a book. If I well and truly think I understand that heart and soul of the book, I mentally try to write that book, not all 500 pages. Just try to imagine what I would capture in a book, if I were to write based on that idea or theme, you know what I mean?

It’s all about what you want from reading a book. What’s your objective when you pick up a book? To complete reading a book or reading the book. There is a big difference between wanting to complete reading a book and reading the book. I’m never under this artificial self-created pressure of ‘ah! 200 pages more’ or ‘7th chapter is more interesting but sadly i’m only in the 2nd chapter now’. I never feel that I have to finish reading a book. Sometimes, I even think that I don’t have to read the whole book.

If you ask when will I be done reading the book that you just lent me, my answer would be ‘i don’t know’. I don’t allot daily reading time or anything like that. As you figured out I don’t have a rhythm when it comes to reading. You can call it a purely customised method of sporadic reading, slow reading, comprehensive reading and a bit of skimming. There are books that you can read very quickly. There are books that cannot be skimmed. There could be books with very good views, ideas and thoughts but unnecessarily prolonged to double the size upon the publisher’s request. And there are books where you read a couple of lines and you simply can’t proceed unless you spend time to think about those lines and completely understand the author.

My unrhythmic method of reading gives me the flexibility to read any type of books to my satisfaction. So you must have deduced that I could read many books simultaneously as well. I feel very comfortable with this method. Come to think of it, this is the way I used to read for my chartered accountancy too. Of course, ‘reading’ was one of the components of ’study’, which included few other things like classroom sessions, test papers, examinations, training sessions etc.

There is a quote ‘you read to know that you’re not alone’. Very true for this topic. Read this piece on what American thinker/writer Mortimer Adler says about reading a book:

Adler sets forth his method for reading a wholly or primarily non-fiction book in order to gain understanding. He claims that three distinct approaches, or readings, must all be made in order to get the most possible out of a book, but that performing these three readings does not necessarily mean reading the book three times, as the experienced reader will be able to do all three in the course of reading the book just once. Adler names the readings, “structural”, “interpretative”, and “syntopical”, in that order.

The first reading is concerned with understanding the structure and purpose of the book. It begins with determining the basic topic and type of the book being read, so as to better anticipate the contents and comprehend the book from the very beginning. Adler says that the reader must distinguish between practical and theoretical books, as well as determining the field of study that the book addresses. Further, Adler says that the reader must note any divisions in the book, and that these are not restricted to the divisions laid out in the table of contents. Lastly, the reader must find out what problems the author is trying to solve.

The second reading involves constructing the author’s arguments. This first requires the reader to note and understand any special phrases and terms that the author uses. Once that is done, Adler says that the reader should find and work to understand each proposition that the author advances, as well as the author’s support for those propositions.

In the third and final reading, Adler directs the reader to criticize the book. He claims that now that the reader understands the author’s propositions and arguments, the reader has been elevated to the level of understanding of the book’s author, and is now able (and obligated) to judge the book’s merit and accuracy. Adler advocates judging books based on the soundness of their arguments. Adler says that one may not disagree with an argument unless one can find fault in its reasoning, facts, or premises, though one is free to dislike it in any case.

So how do you read? What are your habits? Tell us about your methods and styles of reading and types of books you read and how your methods and styles helps you to read your types of books.

I want to climb the Himalayas. Well, that’s not the same as reaching the Mount Everest. I’m just talking about climbing the Himalayas. That must be some experience, isn’t it? I want to do that just for that unique adventure. At least for a short period of time, you get to experience the world that could not be distorted by man. You’ll be far far away from the reach of technology. That’ll be a place where there is no value for money. Rupees, dollars, pounds all are one and the same. That’s world at its purest form.

A baby is the purest form of mankind. Unadulterated. Then the baby gets loaded with all morals, values, ideas, rituals, formalities, knowledge etc and then it grows to become a man that can fit into this society. The world that we live in, be it Chennai or London or Newyork is like this grown man. The places like Himalayas are the babies which are as pure as they arrived, devoid of any human developments or distortions. That’s what attracts me to that place. To see how life can be lived in places where you have no phone, no internet, no electricity, no pizza huts, no malls, no shops, no cinema, no banks. All that’s left there is nature and some forms of lives. I can bet that it could be an unbelievable and unforgettable experience. I don’t think there can be a more humbling experience than this one where you look like a sand in a beach. Imagine if you were one of the people in the below photograph. You’ll be an ignorable dot in the massive himalayas.

The biggest challenge is to travel into that unknown. We can have our expectations based on the stories but the actual experience could be quite different from person to person. What one needs to be aware is that this expedition involved risk. The temparature could be in the negatives, water could be frozen, you need to eat what you get, no one might understand your language, your fatigue can end your trip or can even end your life.

I want to go there. I cannot force my folks at home to join me. I don’t think it’s wise. This whole expedition demands a lot of physical exertion. Step one to be able to do this is to persuade my wife and my parents that I’m going. The expedition is for about 15 days which includes the travel from Chennai to Delhi to mountain base at Dehradun and back. So that means going offline with your family, friends, colleagues, office and business for about 15 days. So persuasion for acceptance should happen first.

Now, the most important question. Who would take me there? I don’t know anything about himalayas and trekking there. I don’t even know where to start. All that I have is the desire and will to go. There are lots of agencies that organise himalayan expeditions and take people as groups. One such group is Youth Hostel Association of India (YHAI). They do it as a service and charge a minimal fee for a trip of this significance. Money wouldn’t be too much of a concern. The total cost involved is not beyond Rs.10,000 and most of it is spent on train tickets to reach Delhi and charges to reach the base. The organisers take about Rs.3,000 for arranging, organising and conducting the expedition. Anyway, there is little worth for money as you climb up so all that you spend would be when you’re at Dehradun and not beyond.

It would be real adventure. I’ve spoken to people who’ve personally experienced it. As with any adventure, there are risks. When you’re trying to reach a height of more than 12,000 feet from the sea level, you can’t do it like walking the dog. You need to climb, trek, cross rivers, pass through bridges, walk through streams, get past snow capped hills, dense forests and withstand very gutsy cold winds. The expedition that starts with a 30-member group might end with a 20-member group at the highest point because many people to give up in the middle and prefer to make a return. The group would be accompanied by a good number Sherpas, the local community who are experts in climbing and trekking. They are practically our life guards who can help, guide, support or even carry us if required. Generally, the ratio of Sherpas to participants would be 1:4 which spells safety.

To desire to climb the himalayas is not sudden. I have always wanted to do it since my college days. May be I wasn’t strong willed enough back then to really give it a go. That’s why I say I now have not just the desire but also the will. Does this mean I’ll pack my bags next week? Not really. I may not even do it this year. Certain things will have to fall in line – home, office etc. But I would certainly do this once in my life. My wish is to go before I get so old that my body becomes a burden for me to be able to do this to my satisfaction.

I’m sure I’ll be there one day. I’ll be here to tell the tale as well.

When you tell someone that you’re a gamer the immediate reaction would be that of surprise and ridicule. People have a perception that games are for young people. Why should a 30-year old be a gamer? Gaming is generally looked down upon because it is considered a waste of time. Some even think it is silly to be playing games beyond your teens. Don’t you have better things to do? Is this the best you can do with your time? May be you should grow up and leave these to the teens? All those types of questions.

I’m an XBOX 360 gamer. I play only football games in the console. For those who don’t know, XBOX 360 is the the set-top-box-like equipment that’s connected to our television. There are various consoles in the market such as XBOX 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii etc. The games such as football, cricket, war simulations etc come in DVDs. You put the game DVD into the XBOX 360 and the game plays on television. How do we control the happenings on the TV screen? We have wireless controllers, unique to XBOX 360, which has various buttons each of which can be configured for each type of game that we play.

I do play for about 6 hours every weekend and sometimes play even in the weekdays. Why am I playing football games on XBOX 360? What do I get out of this? I think it’s amazing fun. It is addictive. It is harmless. How often you get to get hyper-joyed? How often do you get to laugh your lungs out so much that you cry tears? How often do you get to do something that keeps your focus and concentration well above 100%? When was the last time you did something with no sense of time or place? How often do you feel so light and feel completely chilled out? What if you get to experience all this together?

Gaming does require some skill and that skill can be acquired only through practice and concentration. Using the controllers effectively requires some decent hand-eye co-ordination and very quick reflexes. It is this aspect in gaming which keeps you completely attentive and occupied. Generally the mind is busy with too many things. Even when you’re sitting quietly, your mind keeps thinking about various things at different layers. The objective of meditation is to make your mind thoughtless and still. For me, gaming is one step towards that. Laughable? At least, when I’m into gaming there’s only one thing I think about. Mind is clear of all other things. This could be possible with various activities. What makes gaming unique is that the fun is sustainable for hours (so I knocked one comparison with this point) and it requires your involvement and interaction (unlike movies) and in an environment as comfortable as you can make (unlike playing outdoor games under the ‘Chennai sun’).

For me, gaming is not at all a waste of time because I get value for time. Most people who don’t really understand the value of gaming may not have played a game in a console. If you have not tried this yet, don’t miss the next opportunity. Do play any game. See how engrossed you get into that. See how you forget what time of the day it is and where are you’re sitting. See how relieved you feel. See how you explode with joy and laughter which might even be very unlike you.

We are a small group of gamers that play for fun. The objective is strictly fun. We play either against the artificially intelligent computer (aka just ‘computer’) players or against each other among ourselves. In any case, the objective remains to be fun. So we win some, we lose some. When we win, that gives a good feeling. When we lose, invariably there is something to laugh about, with the way we played. Irrespective of the result, we have loads of fun playing that version of indoor football. In every single session there would be spells of laugh riots. Over the last few years, I think we have had over 1000 hours of gaming and possibly more than 2000 football matches.

This one happened the other day. Me and my cousin, as a team, were playing a football game on XBOX 360 against a computer controlled team. We were a goal ahead. Dying moments of the match. We were defending a well orchestrated, devastating attack by the computer. We defended the attack well as my cousin took control of the ball dangerously close to our goal line. Just when I thought he was going to clear the ball to safety, I saw him blasting the ball with unbelievable brutality into our own net for the ‘best’ own goal ever scored. Priceless moment.

Aren’t you getting tired of these news channels? It’s all getting a bit obscene now. Everything is a breaking news. Everything is a sensation. I don’t take any of these headlines at newsvalue. Something becomes a headline because there is nothing better to report. Unfortunately, there should always be a sensational headline, a terrible crisis, a shock report etc. What’s more unfortunate is, if there is none, there is an attempt to create these. Make a news out of nothing. I realise it’s not easy to keep giving news for 24 hours non-stop. But you have a choice of creating news or being responsible and educate people otherwise.

When the Bangalore blasts happened, I was in Bangalore. I was staying in Shivajinagar which was one of the several places where the bombs exploded. It is, of course a big news and a terrible news. But I can confirm that it was not as bad as it was made out to be, by the news channels. I was shopping around that weekend because things returned to normalcy in a matter of few hours. If you had followed the images and footages on the television, you must have been thinking that Bangalore was burning, while I was exploring the city on foot and by taxi.

We have too many private news channels. And there is a dog-eat-dog competition among them. What this results in is a cheap competition of who can best sensationalise the happenings. Sadly, that’s what it all boils down to. You can see that if you keep switching across channels while something worthwhile is being reported. I guess there must be a mad rush to fix a catchy deadline that can run for days and weeks. It is purely a business. It is just a matter of who sells more copies or who gets more viewership.

The crudeness, the cheapness of reporting is one. Worst is, the joy, more than the duty, of reporting terrible incidents. Sometimes it makes me feel that if they hear about a serial bomb blast somewhere, they might scream ‘yesssssssss’. The news channels’ job is a bit like that of the doctors. If everyone’s healthy, he’s got nothing to do. That shouldn’t mean he’s hoping for the cholera to break out. If it does break out, he can’t be spreading the scare and fear instead of awareness and alertness.

Journos question everyone. News channels are omnipotent. They are so bloody powerful. They question politicians, economists, sportsmen, artists, celebrities; they can question anyone. They have the God-given right to ask anyone the tough questions. They have the privilege of embarrassing anyone in the public eyes. They might even score some brownie points when they get someone to walk out on them from the studio or when someone was made to weep. I guess they would also weep if it helps the TRP.

Who can question the news channels? Who can evaluate them? They can name and shame the politicians for not doing their job, they can question the commitment of a player when he is not in form, they can brutally criticise an artist and his creations and pretend that they know more than the learned economists. Now, who’s checking if the news channels are doing their job? Who’s going to report them? How do you evaluate the news channels is an interesting topic in itself.

You must know about this blogger Chyetanya Kunte who wrote a post titled ’shoddy journalism’ about the coverage of the Taj incident by NDTV. He was not a well known blogger or anything. He wrote about how the terrorists used the NDTV’s live coverage of the whole Taj incident. He was particlarly singling out Barkha Dutt for the ’shoddy journalism’ and questioning her ethics. He was tracked down by the NDTV and Barkha Dutt. He was sued and made to issue an apology in his own blog for his post. Below is his original post for which NDTV sued Kunte. Make up your mind.

I think it was a very good post (though with a poor closing line) which should have been responded by Barkha appropriately instead of a libel. He has raised some very vital questions which require answers more than anything. Those were the questions on everyone’s lips. When this argument continued in facebook, Barkha herself responded there in facebook, again with no valid response. You can read the whole history of this battle here. The whole episode was seen as a breach of freedom of expression. The bloggers were enraged. Many many anti-Barkha communities were created in Facebook. Finally, we all realised there is a way to talk about the Press. I think the answer to who can evaluate and if required, criticise the news channels lies in this very incident.

It is in the internet, and it should be the bloggers. Who else can do that and using which other medium?

Yet another Zen story. As always, quite deep and thought-provoking. This is one of the longish zen stories but there’s reason why it has to be this long. I want you read this as many times as you want and come up with your comments. I want to know your interpretation of this story. The reason why I’ve posted this is I really want you to read this story plus, I don’t have time to post a written article today. Now, over to Zen.

There was once a stone cutter who was dissatisfied with himself and with his position in life.

One day he passed a wealthy merchant’s house. Through the open gateway, he saw many fine possessions and important visitors. “How powerful that merchant must be!” thought the stone cutter. He became very envious and wished that he could be like the merchant.

To his great surprise, he suddenly became the merchant, enjoying more luxuries and power than he had ever imagined, but envied and detested by those less wealthy than himself. Soon a high official passed by, carried in a sedan chair, accompanied by attendants and escorted by soldiers beating gongs. Everyone, no matter how wealthy, had to bow low before the procession. “How powerful that official is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a high official!”

Then he became the high official, carried everywhere in his embroidered sedan chair, feared and hated by the people all around. It was a hot summer day, so the official felt very uncomfortable in the sticky sedan chair. He looked up at the sun. It shone proudly in the sky, unaffected by his presence. “How powerful the sun is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be the sun!”

Then he became the sun, shining fiercely down on everyone, scorching the fields, cursed by the farmers and laborers. But a huge black cloud moved between him and the earth, so that his light could no longer shine on everything below. “How powerful that storm cloud is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a cloud!”

Then he became the cloud, flooding the fields and villages, shouted at by everyone. But soon he found that he was being pushed away by some great force, and realized that it was the wind. “How powerful it is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be the wind!”

Then he became the wind, blowing tiles off the roofs of houses, uprooting trees, feared and hated by all below him. But after a while, he ran up against something that would not move, no matter how forcefully he blew against it – a huge, towering rock. “How powerful that rock is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a rock!”

Then he became the rock, more powerful than anything else on earth. But as he stood there, he heard the sound of a hammer pounding a chisel into the hard surface, and felt himself being changed. “What could be more powerful than I, the rock?” he thought.

He looked down and saw far below him the figure of a stone cutter.

What a lovely story! This has got to be one of the best. There’s always someone better or there’s always someone worse. The more you want the less you get, at least in your mind.