The ebb and flow of creativity

Hi there guys and gals,

I have been thinking about this blogging thing for a bit. I am even now sitting and trying to wonder what do I want to type? I know that I had made a resolution to myself to blog consistently and a little more frequently than what I had been doing in the last few years.

Strangely, I only have the bug to write when I think of something. Something new. Or a new way of looking at something old. Yet after that, it just vanishes. The urge to write that is. It is like I want to show only the best of me to the world. There doesn't seem to be any leeway in the quality and standards that I set for myself.

I had thought that these limiting beliefs were taken away. I had thought that I am now able to do anything my heart desires without thinking too much about it. It is strange how the old habits seem to get reinforced whenever I am back home. The place is safe and so I grow complacent and allow all the old values creep in. Values that are useful I have no complaints, values without use however like this self-censoring is annoying.

I wish I would be able to just type anything and everything that comes to my mind. Other bloggers are doing this always, at least I think so. They also don't seem to run out of good ideas. It's almost as if by the continuity and practice, their writing upgrades to a level where all of their writing seems to be of a higher quality. This could only be my imagination after all since I haven't been religiously following any blogs other than the ones that belong to my friends.

Or maybe again it's my nature of being overly self-critical while not being critical enough of what people around me do. I saw this clearly when the pilot episode of the latest Knight Rider was released before the series started in proper. I had watched it about 4 times repeatedly feeling all hyped up about the coming series, not able to wait for the other episodes to be released. My cousin takes one look at it and bursts my bubble by mentioning how stiff the actors are; how wierd their scripts are, etc. Haha!~ It was all true. I just looked at the plus point of the show. KITT. I never even noticed anything else with a critical eye.

Well, time to get a bit more serious about the world around me. I realise the problems that are happening. I just have to be the guy who takes it further and criticises and confronts. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any resolution to some of the problems that are happening.

A letter to Dato AK Nathan

Good day Dato AK Nathan,

My name is Mathanaseelan Thavasimuthu. I was one of the first few in the Q&A session. I asked your opinion about taking bank loans to expand businesses.

Your session was a definite eye opener. You covered a lot of fundamental values which we are very familiar with in our personal lives. Just that we never figured how, as a successful person, we would use each of those values to build ourselves continuously and drive ourselves to succeed. The crowd definitely felt your energy and passion during your delivery.

I just would like to give you a personal opinion of mine, regarding the influence of Tamil cinema on our Malaysian Indian community here. This you may find interesting or you might not agree with. I spent 1 year studying in Hyderabad (2007-2008) and then worked in New Delhi from (2008 - 2009). I just recently returned to Malaysia in April. This opinion is based on my observation of Media in India in the last 2 years.

I feel that Media in India is being controlled by their politicians to make their huge population "malleable". The life there is very different from Malaysia. Here we can still find empty roads. There every street would have people walking around in groups at all times of the day. It is just mind-boggling thinking how many people actually live there, let alone thinking about leading and governing them. So the way the movies are portrayed, those people in the streets are always waiting for someone "special"; a "hero"; to arrive, to save them and to give them ALL the answers. They do not do anything by themselves. It is the hero's job to face and to overcome everything. I was extremely surprised to see this message portrayed across India in movies of ALL languages. It's not only in Tamil.

The people in India are generally unable to access educational opportunities. They learn a lot of new things from what they see in movies. I mean cybercafes in Tamil Nadu became a hit after "Kadhalar Dhinam" movie. As such it is very, very advantageous for India politicians to portray the "common India man" as always being unable to accomplish anything in movies. Only a hero can. He has to have a "special birth", "a rich father", "super intelligence/strength" BEFORE he even thinks of fighting the established rule of the authorities. This way the politicians control the pace of the country development (at a snail pace) and the uneducated people in ALL states don't take any initiatives to improve their own lives.

I feel pretty sad thinking how that implicit message, meant to curb initiatives and self-improvement in India, has creeped into the Malaysian Indian community here through those movies and worse, the drama serials. It was pretty evident during the Q&A feedback yesterday. One guy asked you the silly question if you wore any "charms" to aid you in business (Do you have super powers?); another guy mentioned how you are like Sivaji in Boss (You are their hero, implying you have to CONTINUOUSLY help the whole Malaysian Indian community, while they continue their "tidak apa" attitude and walk out of seminars that can actually help them); the long-winded guy asked you about astrology and fate (Is a "special birth" the only way to be successful?).

While I liked your direct answers to them, I feel it is going to take a lot more because they continuously watch the repeats of those movies on Astro Vaanavil and that stupid message "You and your initiatives are helpless" is reinforced into their sub-conscious. All it takes to undo the Energy and Drive they got from your motivational speech is to watch a few tamil movies.

Realising this mentality of needing a "hero" and then systematically building ourselves to be the Hero we want to see, instead of waiting for someone else would automatically make more Malaysian Indians take responsibility and accountability for their own lives. I would like to know your thoughts on this.

Thank you again, Dato AK Nathan. I changed my perception of successful Malaysian Indians completely yesterday after listening to you. I deeply appreciate your effort for the presentations and your kindness to share your experiences.

-Mathanaseelan-

It has ended...

Hey there guys and gals,

Yup, as the title states, something has ended. As I left ISB, I was recruited by a German company. They took me in to be a Project Consultant.

The way the whole experience has panned out has been nothing short of astounding. I got to be in Delhi and work for a year. I got to work at the HQ in Wiesbaden, Germany for 2 weeks.

I would have attended no less than 10 weddings in Delhi. All of them were ISB weddings, by the way. I realised the true worth of my ISB experience. If any of you reads this, please understand that Class of 2008 is my Indian family. As cheesy as this statement I make sounds, I love you all; like brothers, sisters and of course the ISB kids are like a whole bunch of nephews and nieces.

Without you guys I would not have been able to carry off this one year, and to those who supported me more than others, I thank you all for being there for me when I needed it the most. Vishal Dashora deserves a special mention here as he was not only my housemate but also the "cool joe" who helped me a LOT in understanding the complexities of Indian culture and how I can save myself from getting into hot soup. Or getting myself killed for that matter, LoL!~

The stint has come to an end; blame the economy, blame my personal circumstances, or blame the shareholders of my company; but however you look at it, to recover, it will take me awhile in Malaysia.

The best part about this is the mental state I am in right now. I've never believed in myself as much as I do now. In fact, I am not worried at all about going back to Malaysia. It's like I know I can almost definitely land any job I try for with my current resume. It's not just a fantasy; I've had a word with a good friend of mine and he might have some stuff lined up for me. Other than that, I am also looking at providing business consultancy services on a free lance basis. I have no complaints about the current economy nor do I have any bleak thoughts about my future.

I was telling a friend of mine recently in fact, going forward I am no longer worried about how people see me anymore. The feeling that, "I am inadequate", or,"I need to be better...", is all gone. I feel I am there, and anything and everything I do now will only result in success. In a way, India has shown me personally what are my limits and has also shown me where to head next.

So, goodbye India. I will definitely come back in future, once things are better on my end.

There is someone light-years ahead of that chimp...

Hi there,
I recently had seen an article about how a chimp used planning skills to attack humans. I copy pasted that link, given here: (http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20090310/tts-us-sweden-animals-research-zoology-972e412.html) on to my Google talk status message saying that the chimps are catching up with the BJP and Congress political parties in India. Of course a similar conclusion can be drawn towards Malaysian politics as well, with the recent spate of 'gutter politics' of spreading photos and other methods used to defame upcoming political leaders.

As usual, the way the Universe works, I was proven wrong by this article which came up on Yahoo! News some days back.

MP who submits himself for examination every year
Tue, Mar 24 09:14 AM
Chennai, March 24 (IANS) Ever heard of an Indian MP submitting an annual self-appraisal report to the people of his constituency?
Meet 59-year-old M. Ramadass of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), a doctorate in economics and an economics professor-turned politician who is charting a new course in politics.
He is the only member in the outgoing Lok Sabha and perhaps the first Indian MP to submit to the people of Puducherry an annual report of his activities as their representative.
Asked if the concept was borrowed from his academic field, the first generation politician told IANS: 'I felt it is my duty to give an account of my activities to the people. I want to be accountable to my people.'
His annual reports contain the welfare schemes and various projects brought to Puducherry by him, debates in which he participated in the Lok Sabha, his attendance in parliament, the utilisation of the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) and the protests and even social events in which he took part.
By his own admission, Ramadass, who hails from a fishermen community, has taken part in 151 parliament debates, raised 380 questions and has scored 94 percent attendance.
According to a study by PRS Legislative Research, an independent research initiative, nearly 60 MPs including former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda and actor-politicians Dharmendra and Govinda did not ask a single question in the 14th Lok Sabha. Sixty-seven MPs asked 10 or fewer questions.
Admirers of Ramadass say he was instrumental in bringing to Puducherry the Rs.330 million Karaikal port project, improving rail connectivity, and expanding railway reservation counters at Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam.
'Our MP was instrumental in the conduct of local body elections in Puducherry after a four-decade gap. He was also instrumental in devolution of powers to the local bodies,' said one PMK worker.
Ramadass is also credited with elevating Puducherry's classification to that of New Delhi -- so that the house rent allowance (HRA) for government employees goes up.
As to the utilisation of funds under the MPLADS, against his entitlement of Rs.100 million (Rs.10 crore) for five years, Ramadass issued work orders for Rs.125 (Rs.12.5 crore). 'I have effectively used the unspent money of my predecessor. My focus is on improving the basic amenities for the people,' he said.
Way back in 1986 Ramadass was in the limelight for a brief period when he won the National Prize for the best suggestions on the making of the Indian budget.
It was PMK founder S. Ramadoss who convinced him to join politics.
'Our leader wanted educated people to enter politics. My wife was very apprehensive about my entering politics, from being the registrar of Pondicherry University. A lot of cajoling had to be done,' he recalled.
In 2004, Ramadass was elected to the Lok Sabha, securing 241,653 votes (49.95 percent), defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate who got 171,472 votes (35.65 percent).
Today his services are utilised by the PMK, which submits alternative budgets for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and also for preparing the party's election manifesto.
As an academician he has guided seven Ph.Ds, 40 M.Phils and 15 M.S. theses. He has also authored five books and has 45 research papers to his credit.
At a time when even small-level politicians speed around the cities in big fuel guzzling utility vehicles, Ramadass is satisfied with his old Tata Indica car.
He is confident of not only getting the party's nod to contest again from Puducherry but also of winning. His annual reports, he knows, have won the hearts of his voters.

This is of course something that is definitely needed in India, if the governance of such a huge economy is to be done properly. Yet, I feel that this is something which even Malaysian voters need to demand from their elected representatives as well. An annual report of the constituency, on what was the money flow in and what was the money flow out of the constituency. What were the unemployment levels? What is the development level?

What efforts did the local representattive take to bring in investments? to bring in investors? to bring in residents and increase Cukai Pintu revenues? There can be a more methodical and scientific approach to nominating and voting for correct representatives if a study about the constituency is done and shared among the people of the constituency, increasing their own understanding and pride of the local area.

We do want to serve the 'rakyat' right?

Prophetic? Just commmon sense...

Hey there,

It is pretty interesting. After a long time, I posted in my blog. One, was about the way economy should behave. How an economy of advanced humans would look like? Followed by a rough, "imaginary" guideline to get there. Of the few options, I chose the android servant as the most appropriate morally.

Lo and behold, HRP-4C is now introduced to the world. She's a robot, given the face of an average Japanese woman. The body still looks robotic though. The best part, she is only 43kg. After the unveiling, the Japanese have mentioned that she would be walking the runways in an upcoming fashion show. I have to admit, that is an interesting publicity stunt. To showcase a female robot in an arena where "the best looking" female humans dominate.

Another point I made in that write-up was the way companies are behaving towards employees and just cutting them out. I mentioned that there should be not only a business ramp-up strategy, in times of distress there should be a phase-down strategy as well. One of which is of course to actually recommend their employees to job seek agencies / other employers.

Lo and behold, I just read in the news today how it has been happening in other parts of the world and now it is becoming a serious business opportunity in India as well. "Outplacement" is what they call it. Lucrative business actually. These outplacement specialists in India now charge INR 4 lakhs for Managerial level people; INR 2 lakhs for Executive and experienced people; and INR 1 lakh for junior placements, which is ok as that would be the typical 2-3 months salary of those employees given normal times. At the end of the day, everyone is happy, hopefully.

Anyway, this was just a blog post to wonder do I have prophetic capabilities? I mean one knows that doing meditation helps you see things clearer. Of course, then you superimpose it with current data to come up with intelligent future solutions. But to actually be able to make those conclusions, just before announcements about the same are being done. That's a an interesting thought. Coincidence.

Coincidence is a powerful word, mind you. It has happened often enough at critical junctures of my life, I started believing in the idea of Fate. A recent speech by my Guru highlighted the fact that there is no such thing as Fate, which is written by Someone up above as the way we would live and die. There are however environmental factors which do influence us. Our parents and friends. Our hobbies and the people we meet in that line of sports, activity.

National athletes, if you notice do not seem to be fazed by strong competition. Their highly competitive environment trains their mind, to be stronger than the average person. Children growing up in musical families, tend to take part in musical competitions and hone their musical talents even though they may be born math geniuses.

It is really difficult to be born in a family or surrounding which entrusts and encourages a certain set of values and feel that we don't fit. It really is hard to break the mold. I decided that I had to break the mold for my family. I went overseas to study, post high school. I still have to thank my dad for giving me that opportunity. I went and lived in Australia with a bunch of really successful people. That was what helped me think out of the box. Thinking "HOW?" I can break the mold.

Mr. John George, was a partner at a law firm in Darwin, Australia. Extremely knowledgable man and someone I didn't know how to speak up to. He was a lawyer and I having been brought up in an environment where I was expected to listen, did not utilise the chance I had, did not learn how to argue for my rights, did not learn from him all the stuff that I could have.

Dr. Masoud Mahmood, was an opthalmologist in Darwin, Australia. I only stayed with his family for 2 months but I realised how intellectual this man is. He listened to classical music which was my first introduction into that world. Dr. Masoud was also learning how to do Visual Basic 6 programming on his own. I had my first introduction to serious PC programming flipping through his book as well. Dr. Masoud also had stricter rules, but yeah it was fun being with them.

Last but not least was the stay with Oma. :) This deserves special mention. When I got there, I thought I had finally landed in a "normal" Aussie home. I stayed with Oma. Her daughter Connie and son-in-law James Koch lived like less than 10Km away. They had 3 beautiful children. Jameson Koch, Talia Rose Koch, Tamsin Louise Koch. So, yeah I was more like an Uncle to these kids. Lol!~ Oma was a retired nurse, while Connie was teaching at the community centre at that time. Under Connie's house they had a pool table. They also had a Japanese exchange student, Dais living with them. I've never had any pool game as satisfying as the last game I played with Dais, until I met Elly in MMU I guess. It was good ol' family love that I learnt from them. I learnt how they are much more open in showing it, in taking part in family functions, in joining activities that made the family get closer.

These are the things I learnt, by a simple change in environment for a year. I also went out on my own to do a few things. I wish I still had the contact of all those people who changed my life while I was there. 10 years have gone. Their influence still remains strong. I still see with different eyes. The extent of their influence was only felt by me when dealing with my cousin recently. 10 years I had, to influence him and to show him all the possibilities that I have seen. But, telling him and letting him experience it are polar opposites.

I made an extremely grave error in forgetting to tell my aunt to register him for an AFS Intercultural Exchange experience. It ends up even after repeatedly telling him a lot of things, he still looks at Malaysian solutions. He didn't take effort to search for the list of courses that are being offered in Aeronautical Engineering which is what he is interested in doing. That is a typical malay attitude, not taking effort, which even I had. Which, I still have. Yet, I know its effect on me and try my best to overcome it to be successful, knowledgable and loving like the people I mentioned.

Without the new blueprint of what is possible, there is no attempt to let go of what exists.

Life would be just following the few factors that dictated our lives since birth unless something really "shocks" us into taking our life into our own hands. Believing in coincidences and Fate until something tells us that life need not be so. For me it was a change in environment. I tried telling people about the change in environment that I experienced. To be able to appreciate what else can be done in life now, I realise that they needed the change in environment themselves.

I cannot afford to make anymore mistakes in my life. I have wasted time enough. It is time once again to take the effort needed to break myself from my own mental blocks and processes. Once again to take the effort to break the mold. Once again to live a life of dreams...

The Laws of Robot Manufacturing

Hey guys,

The contents of this post were floating in my head as I got to the android part in my previous post. In fact one could say I wanted to badly write this down, which is why I could push myself to finish up the final part there. LoL!~

I've read Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series. It's one of the most phenomenal series I've ever read. People would remember his other work, which was cinematised as I,Robot (albeit not really following the book, mind you!).

Fun Fact: The Foundation series takes place, in the very far future (some 20,000 years roughly), within the same universe. If you liked I, Robot and continued the other books in the series to its end, you would have seen within:

The 3 Laws of Robotics

1) A Robot may not injure a Human being, or through inaction cause a human being to come to harm
2) A Robot must obey orders given to it by Human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law
3) A Robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Eventually the plot introduces the Zeroth Law, but I digress. While writing the earlier piece, and thinking about a servant force of androids, I came to a main point saying, "the reliance on Androids must be phased down and eliminated as time goes on". This is to ensure we become a race more 'elf-like'. Instead of a race of 'dreamers', we'd be totally free from any form of Needs thus never experiencing deficiencies. 'Dreamers'; by forgetting the blood, sweat, and tear soaked histories of Humanity; would restart a feudal system within 10-15 generations.

To avoid all this when the time is right, self-transcended individuals, whether ready or not, should just switch off the androids. One problem remains. Self-Transcended individuals in search of a peak experience for themselves and humanity, might be driven to create the "perfect android"; mass producing it within the Enclaves, thus complicating the whole termination phase. This is the nature of humans, searching for perfection in everything we do. Nothing can be left at 95%. I foresee someone, somewhere continuing to improving the android servant force, making them better and eventually "perfect".

What if, the perfect (or near perfect) androids decide they do NOT want to lose accumulated data and stored analysis results? They do NOT want to stop further inflow of information? They do NOT want to be shutdown when the time comes? One of the essential parts, if I programmed a "perfect android", would be the circuits or programming that tell it to "exist", "continuously learn", and "apply learnt knowledge".

If even someone like ME would ensure my android is at least as capable as that, I am sure pure robotics manufacturers would have thought of better guidelines; to ensure androids survive better, react to environments quicker, and tolerate more abuse before succumbing to external forces. Hence the dilemma of being unable to shut them down, when the time comes, is higher.

These then are the guidelines that we need to follow to ensure that robotics manufacturing does not get out of hand:

1) A ROBOT must never be perfect: This is the cardinal rule. No robot must be made in a way that it is shielded from ALL types of energy. They have to be either non-heat resistant or non-electromagnetic resistant etc.

Rationale: We need a way to destroy their population. In fact, we need multiple ways the more sophisticated we make them.

2) A ROBOT must never be able to INDIVIDUALLY replicate itself: This is to avoid a potential population explosion: 1,2 4, 8, ... etc.

Rationale: This is to avoid rapid increase in material / energy demands and the resulting imbalances and risks of depleting resources.

3) A ROBOT should gradually change, with the environment: This is to increase the adaptability levels of the robots, as we know Earth is a continuously changing planet. It must happen regardless of the robots' ability to program or re-program themselves.

Rationale: Avoids me rewriting codes, or doing hardware reconstruction for a long time. :) *Jeevan would understand the pain of creating continuous updates for such a complex system.

4) A ROBOT must never have the thinking capability of humans: Yup, this is the easiest way to avoid an apocalyptic, robotic world from dominating our future. Simply said, nothing in their circuits must ever give them the ability to calculate past the limits that we have set them. The absence of sound recognition software may be overcome over time, if the necessary circuits are in place and the robots have enough storage space to analyse raw sound data and detect patterns, given their AI is sophisticated enough. Not having a storage space though, or having an AI without the ability to analyse stored audio data, would eliminate this problem totally.

Rationale: To keep robots from "evolving" beyond their duties. The thinking robot is a fascinating dream, but teaching other humans how to think is a better past time, I feel, as compared to programming robots.

5) ALL waste products of ROBOTs must be bio-degradable: This is a NOT side requirement, and it is very important to think about, since people might be inclined to have nuclear-powered robots, requiring expensive petroleum based lubrications etc. This would only make the existence of every robot a liability on the planet.

Rationale: This is the greatest constraint that all great scientists should have imposed on themselves. It would have led to the rise of another set of technologies and we wouldn't be faced with this hot soup, that we find ourselves uncomfortably in, called 'Global Warming'. In fact, every part of the ROBOT should be safely destructible.

6) A ROBOT must naturally come to destruction: No matter what; all robots must come to a natural destruction. It must be hard-wired into their system. 50 years? 100 years? I personally feel that a ROBOT lifetime HAS to be lesser than our lifetime. The lesser, the better.

Rationale: It helps keep the ROBOT population from getting out of hand, in case we humans become incapable of turning them off. No one robot would be able to take in the full the extent of information, that we are capable of taking in, to build experiences similar to ours.

Now, imagine GOD using those guidelines when Adam was on the drawing board...

Yeah, why haven't we been able to crack the genetic code as easily as we figured out the binary digit system? I mean it's that basic "1" and "0" which is going to be the building block of any robotic software. We can understand this concept easily and yes we are now imagining ways to create completely sophisticated robots that use binary codes. But we are incapable of thinking like God, to create another cell let alone another human. Wouldn't it be interesting if we were purposely "limited" in this way.

What if God was a Being that had the capability to easily understand and assimilate data in Quad-element systems easily? What if that meant the form of control over the building blocks is more complete, and in fact control of different mixes and compositions of metals and chemicals are mere child's play? Instead of having an iPhone, with a processor inside running in binary codes, made of a semiconductor metal; God could make a cell, with a nucleus inside running according to its DNA coding, made of many different types of chemicals and trace metals.

Irrespective of our ability to understand or program our DNA coding, it evolves. Every generation of human slowly adapts to the changing environment even though we are NOT completely shielded from all types of energies. One blast of radioactive energy; maybe from the Sun; would reintroduce all of us back to stupidity, an inability to properly reproduce, and finally a quick death due to DNA damage.

The DNA evolution takes place by fundamentally dividing the race into 2 genders to keep checks and balances. So it controls our population from exploding, as well as introducing variety into our genetics to adapt better, to the changing planetary environment. The raw material our bodies are made up of are also biodegradeable. The interesting part, for me, was realising it means we are broken down in our graves by microorganisms; destructive li'l dudes who are (Divinely?) designed for the job to return the raw material and energy from our bodies back into the planetary flows.

One thing that we can agree on is the fact that whatever we percieve is not the same as the way God would percieve it, even though we would like to believe it is. I am sure there are things that we train our mind to catch, at the limits of our perception, yet would be something totally normal for God to know. Past, present and future making one example; Time-flows. I believe everything is a snap-shot in God's memory. Even if it was not so, it would take almost no effort for God to access that information. But, we are limited from attaining this information. We feel it is almost impossible to even think about analysing this data of time which we feel in bits and pieces. The same goes for gravity and it's law of attraction. Effects are felt but it is something we cannot understand, percieve or fathom. Ok yeah, when the mass of the object is greater it exerts a stronger gravitational pull, but what within that whole mass causes it? Can gravitation be taken out of huge objects? Can objects be taken out of gravitational fields, like pulling a microchip off a circuit board?

Anyways, one thing is for sure. Death is imminent. Our DNA is coded to break down at a certain age and pass the torch on to the next generation of humans. Nobody knows why old age hits as we could have been designed to continuously grow. I think that was God's earlier experiment with the dinosaurs, gone wrong. Beings that just grew and fed on huge trees and ferns, and on each other. We still find fossils of huge underwater dinosaurs that could have crushed a minibus in the middle, just with their jaws. He then reset the system with a smaller, more complex creature. Mainframe to Desktop PC.

Woe to us when the PDAs are introduced...

There is a little bit of Economy in all of us (Final)

...Continued from Part 3
Second: The Need for a Servant Force

Yup, that is the harsh reality of it. And I am not one to dice words when it comes to harsh realities. It is better to say it as it is and accept it. For only then, we would be able to solve exactly that problem.

The highly planned, non-money driven, sub-environments as I mentioned in the earlier part would still drain huge amount of resources from the planet. As long as the whole planet does not follow the Path, there would always be dependency on points outside the system and there would be inefficiences that cannot be dealt with, within the above mentioned Enclaves.

This is the most dangerous point of my argument, timeline-wise. The transition phase. The point where 5 billion humans across the planet ask "Why do I suffer now? Why do only 1.5 billion people reap the rewards of my hard labour?" The questions may be mitigated to a certain extent seeing only children experience the joys in the starting phase. But, there is a need to quickly ramp up the size of the enclaves and as more and more self-transcended individuals grow to adulthood within, the excluded parts of humanity as we know it might find themselves in a moral predicament for outside children.

They'd be left outside the rapidly growing utopian Enclaves. They might find themselves having to work to actually support the Enclaves by selling supplies. Yet to avoid the "old think" and current ways of flawed reasoning from entering the Enclaves there'd definitely be regulations and efforts to stop people from freely entering. Worse, there'd actually be a need to stop people entering and exploiting the Non-Monetary Economy within to sell outside for high profits. In fact, there could be popular support (even from within) for these types of acts in retaliation against the notion of people having to "suffer outside". Of course, continued abuse would just undermine the whole system from working as it should. Controlling humans and driving them away from crime is hard when there is much money involved. Especially when there is also mass support. The best way then is to free as many humans as possible from the external economic cycle, as fast possible to enter the Enclaves.

What if... someone else had to do all the work? What if...humanity could replace the need to work thus being able to enter the Enclaves as and when needed? This is where the need for a Servant Force comes in.

Option 1: Androids - Human like robots that make use of artificial intelligence to perform menial tasks. Very cool, surgical and aesthetically sharp solution. Not to mention that it's extremely hard and well there is the whole "maintaining the robot" issue.

Option 2: Humans - Yup, I mean actually asking other people to serve the Transcended individuals. Using cash as a reward (also known as a VERY BAD IDEA), or capitalising on the natural joys of working with self-transcended individuals. An ethical extension to this idea, can be the Guru-Disciple relationship. Disciples having proven themselves in taking care of the Enclaves eventually find themselves one day initiated by the transcended indviduals to start their own lives within. This also intriduces a chance to acclimatise individuals before they're completely immersed into a new Path for their lives.

Option 3: Clones - Genetically engineered sub-humans. Fierce ethical debate here and I for one do not believe this is viable at all. Self transcended individuals of the future would then be saddled with an additional strain on the System that doesn't exist now. Especially, if for some reason those clones ended up being able to reproduce. Remember, we're trying to solve problems here and not trying to "carry-them-forward". Only reason I have it here at all is because recent stem cell research breakthroughs might have made it easier to do this as opposed to creating Androids.

My personal favourite is Option 1 definitely. This is because there would be a force that would continue to be at the control of future Self-Transcended humans. The existence of such a force would also lead to quick satisfaction of deficiency needs in humans. They would be free to pursue higher goals while menial tasks are performed by androids.

Changes can then be made to reduce the dependency on substances and materials. For example without money and an oversupply of every type of essential items, a lot of legality can be thrown out of the window including reciepts. True paperless environments then can exist, saving trees. Sharing becomes natural and no sane person would have the urge to build a big house for just 3 people to live in. Everyone would be content as long as there exists a personal space for them and this would suddenly solve "housing space crunches". And yeah, 6.5 billion people would ALL have comfortable places to stay WITHOUT having to cut trees for years to come. Space efficiency can be acheieved and maybe hey, we might have the interest to do more gardening.

Not only that. Things would start to slow down and the drilling of oil and natural gases could also be controlled; to only be used in long-distance transportations. Alternative energy sources would be the name of the game for localised energy needs. Imagine how much more potential can the human mind have in creating and refining better energy technologies when it is craving for the "peak experience" of having contributed to the progress of Humanity, as opposed to mundane things like 'making more money' and 'becoming succesful' in relativity to others?

Here comes the real "radical" idea. We can also stop useless chemicals from entering our bodies like coffee and tea. (I'd say cigarettes too but hey, we need something to kill people off fast in the society of the future too, right?) So, why do you need coffee and tea anyways? To keep you awake? To give you a 'kick'? (You can do that by getting married and over-sleeping on a school day). You do understand the implications of what I am saying? Whole tea and coffee plantations can be returned to Mother Nature to be rainforests again. Yup, that's how we start reversing environmental pollution. Radical ain't it? A beautiful, green planet without tea & coffee.

When you think about this, you would realise how there is much more unneccesary strains on the System now. Why do we still need leather tanneries with improving fabric technologies? Why do we still need polythene plastics or even paper bags for that matter when you can make bags out of re-usable materials like 'rattan' (and they last longer too)? Detergents and cleaners too can be replaced with natural stuff when we stop feeling that chemical solutions are "better". That is easily done. No commercials to influence people to buy. Oh yeah, the gravestone of the printing and advertising industry is an ESSENTIAL foundation slab for the society of the future. Remember. No one needs convincing to part with their money then.

Back to Option 1. The guy who creates the Androids has to share my vision of Utopia (or have a grander plan himself). He shouldn't sell them to households or businesses or governments to make profits. He should use them to create the Enclaves straight off the bat! But, wouldn't this be a hard sell to his stakeholders? I say "No"

Businesses

1) Tax breaks for businesses that invest in Androids and Tax-holidays for businesses that invest up to 40% of their profits directly into Enclave construction efforts.

2) Exclusive citizenship in the Enclaves of the Future, for the CEOs. (CEO's having the money to satisfy Deficiencies Needs would be closer to operate in the Self-Actualiser state, easily reaching the Self-Transcendence state)

3) Activities within are not going to be generating, transfering or consuming money. Profits can still be made supplying to the Enclaves in their initial stages of internal inefficiencies.

Non-profit, Non-Governmental organisations

1) Among the first things these Enclaves would do is repatriate orphaned, homeless children from the streets. It needs people without ties, without 'excess baggages' totally dedicated to fulfilling the vision. The Enclaves must SERVE the society from Day 1.

2) All NGOs, NPOs have an agenda in the betterment of humanity anyways. The Enclaves as a focus of their efforts would definitely benefit them.

3) There are no Governments within the Enclaves. LoL... where else can they operate to their heart's content?

Governments

1) The Enclaves would be a symbol of the future. Any government that has the nerve to call itself "developed" should be interested in developing these symbols.

2) Politicians would definitely think about the flow of resources that would be coming in to support the construction of the Enclave and how they can take their 'piece of cake' from all the action. Yeah, let them feed while others are busy freeing themselves. The things you own, end up owning you - Tyler Durden. Fight Club.

3) The United Nations could finally come to good use, by becoming evangelists for the Enclaves, in getting fundings to flow to developing nations as well.

I personally prefer a new Planetary Organisation to be in charge of the Enclaves. Yeah I'd prefer the term "Planetary" as opposed to "Global". The latter is very much tied into the current global economy, that causes global financial meltdowns affecting citizens globally who are all on a one way street to a global catastrophe, the day global warming passes the climactic 'tipping point'. You get the point.

We don't live on a GLOBE do we? Nope. Not a simple sphere. Yeah, for the longest time we even thought it was flat. And NO, it does not suddenly become "flat" one day because Thomas Friedman woke up and realised that every individual now can contribute to the global economy, thus rendering the US economy irrelevant. Read his book (and throw it away) someday. But, at least it got him thinking about how the global economy needs to go green. At least someone is thinking along the correct action plans. Reasoning is flawed though.

It is now high-time we use the ACTUAL word. We live on a Planet. A Planet is an increasingly complex, wonderful system the smaller you become. Each and every "flow" has an origin and a destination on a globe. In a Planet though, everything eventually goes back to where it started. Every particle has a way of flowing back to its origin, even if it takes thousands of years for one revolution.

All Self-Transcended individuals would be able to see these Nature Flows and know exactly how to tap, harness and harmonise with them. These individuals would also operate under the full realisation every move has a butterfly effect which touches ALL particles within the Planetary system; thus taking decisions for the greater good everytime.

They may need a servant force to keep their efforts focused on the big picture first, but to avoid how some popular fiction portray humanity as becoming lazy (which I believe would pretty easily happen), there has to be one Final clause in the Vision of the Enclaves. The reliance on Androids MUST be phased down and eliminated as time goes on. Humans have to embrace their chance to equally contribute to Nature's Flows at all levels...

...Going back to Dawn of Man

Every human in a tribe having needs to be met to live; contributing to get what was needed.

Except now, at the Noon of Man.

Every human on the Planet got what each needs; triggering a process of contribution to Life, aided by thousands of years of scientific understanding and technological advancements.

Leading to a glorious Dusk...

There is a little bit of economy in all of us (Part 3)

(Continued from Part 2)
...As beautiful as it may sound, we are unable to move towards this Utopian idea, even in small phases, at least until 2 things take place.

First: The Need for a Unifying Paradigm Shift
Yup. Frankly said, something else other than MONEY that has the power to glue humans together and trigger a movement to discard the idea of 'money' as obsolete. This in my mind would most definitely have NOTHING to do with race or religion. Their very nature being divisive between the "are" and "are nots". Except if you've read Dune. In Dune, whole new unified religions arise once humans become spacefarers and discovered other habitable planets. Facts and figures collected in space, forced discarding of earth-bound "divisive" truths and beliefs. Thus a new unifying "world religion" may be able to bring people across the globe together, but without strong focus, continued opposition from contemporary religions would dilute and maybe even reverse its unifying impact, breaking it apart from within.

Another way to approach this puzzle is to figure out what motivates people to change. Between extrinsic motivators, fear is stronger than greed. Someone may be inclined to perform better due to a threat as opposed to a cash reward. Yet, a unifying principle built on a "Focus of Fear" (Pestilence? Tyrant? Climate shock?) so universal that it affects everyone to forget their Focus of Greed (Money) is pretty questionable in these times. Also, if the focus of fear was created by Man, then others would only be driven to think how to solve/ destroy/ undo the fear, thus freeing themselves of the fear, instead of changing. Example: Doctors worldwide have been running around trying to kill the HIV virus for years, instead of spending that time and energy to educate and guide fellow humans to change/control their sexual behaviours which would have been a better solution in the long term.
Intrinsic motivators are then better able to pull everyone through change. This means giving either a sense of Duty or a sense of Joy internally that drives the individual to change. Intuitively, it is better to sell the idea of a new unifying pradigm shift to the young crowd with a "Focus on Joy" and the mature crowd appealing to their "Focus on Duty". I am not saying it doesn't work the other way round or it doesn't work in tandem. Just that this sequence would feel natural for both groups to adopt in changing and accepting the new unifying paradigm and eventually forgetting the importance of money.

What could be a successful unifying pradigm shift? For that I looked at Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Briefly it states there is a hierarchy of 5 needs for humans, where each of the first 4 Deficiency Needs leads to the next as they are satisfied; from the basic Physiological, to Security, to Belongingness and finally to Self-Esteem. As we can see, all these can be satisfied by the presence of money in our lives. With money we can eat, then have personal and financial security. This leads to having a lifestyle attracting friends, family, collegues and potential partners, who then make us feel good. These and our self positive feedbacks solve the deficiency needs in layers 3 & 4. Having satisfied all these the 5th layer is open where the Being Needs of Self-Actualisation lie. That comes from needing to be completely balanced, centred and knowing what we want to achieve and create as individuals, without it being an objective to satisfy any of the lower deficiency needs. Thus the importance of money for an individual diminishes.
There is a lesser famous but equally ground-breaking part of Maslov's work in 1969 where he mentions beyond the Self-Actualised layer; there exist "Self-Transcended" individuals. Maslow's landmark 1969 article, “Theory Z” (re-printed in Maslow's basic text on Transpersonal Psychology, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, NY: Viking, 1972) has one interesting comment to make about Self-Transcended individuals:-
["Transcenders are interested in a “cause beyond their own skin,” and are better able to “fuse work and play,” “they love their work,” and are more interested in “kinds of pay other than money pay”; “higher forms of pay and metapay steadily increase in importance.”]

I don't completely understand the definition of the words he uses, (having no access to his full text) but the first point to note is that Maslov mentions mystics/holy men are not the ONLY self-transcenders. There are other mature individuals who display these qualities as well. Secondly, he coins the term "peak experiences" and "plateau living" as elements that satisfy their Being Needs. It hints self-transcenders are driven by higher goals and operate in a serene and holistic mode. Lastly, he mentions how we need to study, understand and de-mystify them in order to strive and achieve what they have shown us as the currently observed pinnacle of humanity. The excerpt below underlines what is the first step to identify a unifying paradigm shift:-
[“Human history is a record of the ways in which human nature has been sold short. The highest possibilities of human nature have practically always been underrated. Even when 'good specimens,' the saints and sages and great leaders of history have been available for study, the temptation too often has been to consider them not human but supernaturally endowed…. If we want to know the possibilities for spiritual growth, value growth, or moral development in human beings, then I maintain that we can learn most by studying our most moral, ethical, or saintly people.” — Abe Maslow.]

I believe this is a logical argument hinting at a valid path for humanity to explore and to realise its own highest potential. The dire need to study the currently rare self-transcended individuals who are pioneering the next era of humanity, and to learn HOW they achieve their states of being/bliss, cannot be understated. It must be revealed that this is not a pseudo-religious experience but something that all humans are capable of achieving. Imagine a whole generation of young people focusing on the joy of exploring and embracing a lifestyle of higher morals not because it is preached by some religion. They do it after all their deficiency needs are already satisfied in highly planned, non-money driven, sub-environments where they are guided by the few existing self-transcended individuals along new paths of self-discovery. Having experienced the joys, later as adults they'd be able to focus on the duty to maintain, enhance and expand the same environment for youths worldwide to be guided in generations to come.
Each generation then is slowly removed from our way of life, ascending to a different level of understanding. Hopefully relooking at the impact of Humanity on Earth's systems. Finally devising ways of decreasing and even reversing the long term pollution we caused in the last few hundred thousand years, since we started standing upright. Harmonising ourselves with Nature; thus reversing the self-induced onslaught of Naraka on Earth and constructing the avenue leading to Svarga on Earth.

Second: The Need for a Servant Force
Continued in Part 4...

There is a little bit of Economy in all of us (Part 2)

(Continued from Part 1)
...And thus started the Economic Cycles as we now know it.

The elements were there. Taxes, Money and its supply controlled by the government. Products and Services becoming more and more complex as individuals became more and more interested in showing off their wealth; Art, Servants, Architecture, Fashion, Land, Timepieces and a whole host of things unrelated to living life came into play. Wants became more important than Needs. At this point, Premium pricing was natural. After all, how can you price something which people didn't really need? And it was socially "ok" to still want it even with people demanding unreasonable prices. Using Debt you could acquire something that was beyond your normal means and pay for it later. Debt was no longer used to address basic needs. It was used to address wants and gambling on investments (wanting more money).

Greed grew. Greed flourished. Greed trapped humans into a cycle of wanting and guilty pay back. In some, greed drove them to search for more riches to be made theirs. The Spanish set sail exploring crying "for God, Glory and Gold!
GOD: I've purposely omitted this can of worms from this commentary. It would have come into play back when I said the first Services industries appeared. Shamans being able to 'understand' the mysteries of life and educate the olden Warriors.
GLORY: Humans would have heard about the heroes who were kings. Heroes who were brave in the early economic wars. Rich people who lived their life in luxuries. They would want that for themselves as well. Their name to be in history (and there were still many places to be explored in the world then anyway)
GOLD: Need I say more? Sigh...

They colonised lands. Taking local wealth back to their kingdoms in triumph, as what their patrons expected. They then sent labourers and convicts to the new world as pioneers to establish the rules and lifestyles from the conquering countries. As if that wasn't bad enough, a worse phenomenon was that expanding businesses in home countries sent products to the new lands to be sold. They didn't care about the need / want / relevance of the product they sent. What businesses knew is that there is a market and products must be mass produced and sold. Increasing production, and thus profits. Managers were encouraged; given huge bonuses. So, managers rinsed and repeated this ad nauseum. They had to. It was the only way Investors (ie: People who were earlier patrons with lots of money, who wanted more money, and would have fired any management who failed to deliver) could be appeased.
The process repeated until all markets got saturated. Nobody wanted to buy and everybody saved money instead. No amount of pestering convinced people to buy because they had whatever they needed & wanted. Yup, ladies and gentlemen!! Supply had FINALLY caught up with Demand and there was excess supply, with factories still mass producing. At that point, production lines came screeching to a halt. Warehouses were bursting at the seams. Consumers switched to cheaper alternatives. Marketing budgets swelled to hide poor forecasting calculations. Wages were cut, even though workers were being paid overtime just days earlier. Eventually many experienced loss of jobs. Leading to further decrease in consumer Expenditure, and a vicious cycle ensued where at the end, the economy contracted.

In finance terms, a particular country's economy is said to be in recession if contraction happens for 2 quarters consecutively. 6 months. In my definition, I think the recession starts the moment EVERYONE is making insane profits. This means consumers across the board are hoarding; which then leads to the fact that VERY SOON they are going to stop buying. This is where companies still make mistakes. While they have very aggresive ramp-up strategies; No one thinks about phase-down strategies. Everyone says the other guy is going to bite the dust and I am going to take his share so I have to STILL ramp-up in a slump time. Besides, that's the only way I can keep the profits from last quarter going strong. Greed.

But, a phase down across the board is what is needed at that point. A PRODUCTION phase down. A sales TARGET phase down. A marketing BUDGET phase down. A managerial KPI phase down. And yes as counter intuitive as it sounds, a WAGE phase down across the board. Think about it, how can a company go into survival mode in a slump time if the people want to be paid as they were being paid in the boom time? Can you imagine a ship crew experiencing storm in the middle of the sea eating their rations at the same rate? The other alternative is of course to lay-off workers. But, this is a very irresponsible way for businesses to deal with the crisis. "For a few to continue eating as much as they did before the storm, we'd like the others to walk the plank into the middle of stormy seas" ?
At the least, they should get to a port and drop the excess crew off. A responsible way of retrenching staff. Leave them in a safe place where it's more feasible to look for a job. This is where Government I feel can actually help by having a rotation of projects. When the economy is going into a slump, launching a flagship project where the Government hires workers to work on it would be a great boost. Money would go straight into the hands of needy citizens and there would be a demand for daily products that arise from their employed pockets. Companies can make it easier by actually helping their employees find jobs in batches, with the Govt.

Of course, those who feel they are not interested can always do their own thing. Sadly people would do their own thing because of the ultimate need of humans. To live and to be safe. To be cherished and remembered. To be ambitious and leave a mark. They would try their hand at entrepreneurship / freelancing to make lots of money. Again, this is a situation that can be avoided if people did not need to buy what they needed. The developed economies have got the right track in mind by having Social Security schemes. Citizens unable to work are paid Social Security money by the Governments. They just haven't went on to the next step. Instead of giving people money to lift their burden of buying, the people should in fact given those items they want to buy for FREE; thus releasing more and more people from the need and "trappings" of money. I am not talking about abolishing the concept of money. I am talking instead about humans having enough to live. Then, having money would purely be for pleasure and the pursuit of happyness (pun intended!). People would then look at money as the tool it really is. Economic cycles would not dictate our livelihoods.

As beautiful as it may sound, we are unable to move towards this Utopian idea, even in small phases, at least until 2 things take place...
(Continued in Part 3)

There is a little bit of Economy in all of us (Part 1)

Hey Guys,

At the dawn of time, Everybody had needs to be met to live (Demands). Everybody could contribute to get what was needed (Supply).

In the olden times, there was this barbaric act of just abandoning or killing lame / disabled babies. That was a way of getting rid of unwanted strains on the System. There will not be a Demand which is more than the Supply that it can give. In fact, a lame baby would not have been able to defend itself and thus create the situation where others in the tribe were endangered, while trying to protect it as well.
Eventually, love and compassion stayed the hand of some and these lame children grew knowing full well that they were not able to hunt/gather/carry as much as the others. They had time to apply their brains, observe, analyse and come up with better ways of contributing. They would always have had strong opposition from the Warriors who were physically contributing to the tribe. But, eventually by becoming shamans and medicine men and toolmakers, these drain on resources were suddenly suppliers for a different set of needs. Previously unexplored, and non-essential to life sustainment (Wants). Thus, the Services industry was born.

This could have been the first instance of a serious physical Demand-Supply gap in the System. The gap would have existed earlier when not all people got the food they needed in the earlier System. That would have drove them to their first fight for food, water and land (hunting grounds); the first economic wars for limited resources. Once both sides realised that it was mutually harming chances of survival, either one would have given way or both would have decided for a mutual cease-fire. Either ways, the first barter Trade would have happened at this point with a little bit of early Diplomacy / Alliances thrown in.
This developing serious gap though could not be solved with just fighting and winning. It also required more than trade, especially in a large locality where they were in total power, with no others to grab from. This scenario along with developing methods of farming would have set off the first Agrarian economies. People realised that they could get more done if each other found his own type of specialty farming and then traded with others his excesses. internal trade flourished within communities. Of course, when you Specialise you get more of a better product and markets were there to facilitate trade.

The first Markets would have sprung very soon after the first barter trades happened. Trading posts which eventually became centres for their empires or smaller points in between empires that served as Consolidation Points of that particular area's specialty merchandise. This is where true Marketing would have started as pricing, positioning, product and with manual promotions.
To control everything, the inherent power structure from the tribal era would have evolved to support Monarchy systems. This system along with the people who support the monarchy would have formed the first Governments. An important part of Governments would have been the introduction of Taxes. People who lived in one area had to give something to the local monarch as a token. This also would have been a carry over from tribal days where the chief was given the "lion's share". A real example, Siam's (present day Thailand) holdings had to send them a "Bunga Mas" every year. Bunga = flower; Mas = gold. It literally was a symbolic little tree and flowers made of gold. Another meaning for Bunga = Interest (as in the interest paid on debt) presumably for living on the "borrowed land" of Siam.

This of course led to an interesting point in the development of economy as we know it. The discovery and manipulation of precious metals, Monarchies, inequalities inherent to barter trades, the need for tax collection in a form where lots of vegetables didn't go bad in the Royal coffers. All these would have led to the introduction of the Currency system. Money.
And so now we had Supply & Demand for Specialised Products & Services focused at the Markets. Exchanges were being done using Money and Monarchs were being paid Taxes by everyone in their domain. They needed someone to keep track of everything and Accountancy was born. The day that happened, every transaction done outside the "books" became the Black Market. Untaxable, untraceable yet physically money flowed from one to another for goods/services that never really "existed".

But, traders were more preoccupied with the money that was flowing in to their coffers. They could not run around and carrying all thier wealth in precious metal coins. They became the source of money that fed the black markets. Most of them found themselves in a pool of their own blood at the end of such transactions. Banks would have been formed at this point. Strongholds that kept everyone's valuables for a Fee. Eventually, seeing all those valuables in there just lying being unused would have led some clever banker to go on a "shopping spree"; Investments. Or it might have led him to think it would be ok to give money to someone who needs it and ask him to repay higher later (before the original owner came to reclaim it); Debt + Interest. The art of managing all this would have been Finance, as it is a different creature from only record keeping like accounting.

Now, there is a little philosophical bent to my story. I feel that as humans until that point in History we would have had our natural greed. Greed to survive. Greed to eat more. Greed to live in better conditions. Yet without focus, there was no strength in this human emotion to trap humans. Once Money was there. It was easy to see, to feel, to hear its 'jingle' during sleep. Anyone who had money had everything. Monarchs being the prime example and then the traders (proving the common man could have it too). The presence of a focus for greed amplified the emotion. Humans (who are great hunters!) became trapped in the hunt for money; only for money's sake. Children picked up the wrong message from their parents. Instead of hunting for enough food, enough land to live on and enough security; they were driven to hunt for money not really knowing the reason. Not really enjoying the fruits of the labour. For having money is pointless if you don't know what you want the money for, right?

And thus started the Economic Cycles as we now know it.
(Continued in Part 2)

The current economic situation

Hey guys,

Yeah, it might be a little bit too cliche to talk about the economy when all blogs could be talking about the very same topic. In fact, I feel there could be a lot of financial experts, and others blogging about this with a vengeance... They could take the stance of:-

the Naive: It's not that bad...there's just a minor correction and things will pick up... wha..* ..!~ Another flying shoe and this one doesn't miss. People realising they get only two-shots to "shoe-boo" their favourite politicians accurately, have started practicing.

the Know-it-all: It's just as I've been telling all this while. Nobody listened to me yesterday when I started saying it. Nobody is listening to me today. The economy is so bad now that it can only get worse. It may get better on a short term (<-this sentence embedded, to be a loophole if situations suddenly pick-up). But, I still maintain.... bla bla bla...

the Politically Correct: It is a tough in these turbulent times for the employment-challenged. We see equity-challenged companies going belly-up(..oh? ..wha? ..sorry...) I meant, forced to take legal recourse to protect their debtors from the inability of the management to grasp reality.

the Management: Please understand that the multi-million dollar bonus I got is in no way related to the way the economy is behaving at the moment. That is for my past performance, ensuring the company behaved as it should. We would definitely have not taken the bonuses if we did not earn it (...using your blood, sweat and tears. Oh, and I am going to fire you now)

the Employee: ....

And yeah, the employee most probably got it right.

The Year is 2009...

Hey guys,

How are you all there? Well, it has been a long time hasn't it? I realise that it has been actually a year this blog lay dormant.

So, to what do we owe my sudden interest and effort to blog. The Season's changed. Yay!~ Recently, I was sitting bored, when for the umpteenth time someone wanted to be "unsubscribed" from the ISB-PGP YahooGroup mailing list. Enough was enough. The people on this list are all GMAT 700+ scorers or at the least people aspiring to get into ISB. They should have got the hint (especially the guy who was kindly requesting for the 3rd time) that there are no active moderators or owners operating in that group anymore. It had evolved to have direction of its own. A purpose of its own, with people free to join and to leave by themselves anytime. No permissions needed.

I had this smug smile on my face while I excitedly jabbed away at the keyboard that evening. You see, it's pretty easy to get yourself unsubscribed. You have a link at the bottom of ALL the mails. Obviously, people nowadays don't seem to read the fine print anymore. Everybody wants in, but nobody finds out how to exit when they've had enough. It's the same everywhere. Casinos, relationships, crashing economies, the Mafia, ISB-PGP groups... everywhere. When they need to exit, they cry for help. They ask people they know, etc etc.

Anyways, I just typed my mind and I had more than a few comments lauding my post. In fact, they asked for (yep, you guessed it!) my Blog Address!! I have to say, I never thought that I would get rave reviews for giving people a piece of my mind. Lol!~

This then led me to promising my new fans a regular update and well, this time I intend to keep up and well, build my presence online. I might need to get the help of some bloggers for tips and comments as to how I can improve the blog overall. Please anybody with bright ideas, come into my mind and throw my switch on!~ =). (No, NOT that switch damn it!~ All you one-track minded bloggers). Topic/theme suggestions are welcome too.

Ciao for now!~
-Mathanaseelan-

Kashmir, India - Part 2

Hey guys,

I guess i left the cliffhanger 'hanging' for too long. Anyways, i did make it on time. To the WRONG terminal. I didn't know that unlike in other places where domestic is one side and international is another side, delhi airport's domestic itself terminal has 2 buildings. Different buildings for different carriers.

I kept saying domestic and at one point i think i much have mentioned another airline name. The auto driver dropped me at the wrong building. Thank god the buildings weren't too far apart. Went to the correct terminal. It took me about 20 mins walking to get to the terminal and then i had to walk around looking for the entrance.

Then i got to the correct terminal and i didn't really know what to do since i still had close to about 60-80 minutes. Bought some food. Got myself the local newspaper. Looked at the people rushing to catch their flights. All in all, just a jolly time. Of course, i did think at that point i wouldn't be bored out of my mind if only i had some dragged some friends along. But, well i also realised that i had some stuff to do in Kashmir and i wouldn't be able to justify that to a bunch of people rationally.



Was admiring Lord Nadaraja at the airport. After all, i was going to the foothills of the Himalayas which is His abode.

Flight time came. Got checked-in and ready to start my holiday in proper. :) I have to admit that i was very excited at this point. Adding to my excitment were the stewardesses of Kingfisher airlines. I realised that the women who were hired at Kingfisher Airlines to handle customers in-flight and as part of the ground crew were all beautiful. Surprising that no Women's Right activist took this up as an agenda to fight for gender equality



This is where things started getting bad. The captain made an announcement that the plane was headed to Kabul, Afghanistan. I honestly, didn't know how else to capture this moment. So I took the photo of the screen. Of course i had to wonder. Either the plane got hijacked, or i got on the wrong damn plane since the pilot seemed to be talking with a very calm voice.

As you can see, the plane is very close to Lahore by this point. Thank god, he didn't want to go to Lahore and drop me in the middle of a damn political crisis. At the very least i could have had some place willing to accept HSBC credit cards in Lahore, and bought tickets out. I couldn't see that happening in Kabul. Either way, I was headed towards a war zone. Kabul...Kabul...sigh...

Kashmir, India - Part 1

Hey Guys & Gals,

In the usual tradition, the cab had arrived and i was still packing. Completely unsure of how the weather was going to be when i arrived up there, i took some t-shirts as well as long-sleeved sweaters, a jacket, 3-pairs of jeans (God. Please bless the man who invented the Jeans).

Got on the cab, and he dropped me off fairly early at the train station. I had decided early on, the LAST thing i ever wanted to do was to buy and eat something at an Indian Railway Station stall. I didn't want to fall sick even before my trip started. Checked out the First Class Compartments and i have to say that they're quite impressive! :). 4 people in a compartment and about 3 compartments in a coach. If you can't picture compartments in a train, picture Hogwarts Express.

Anyway, the guy opposite me was a Lt. Col. in the Indian Army. He was going to Jaipur. After awhile i striked up a conversation with this man and i realised that he was a treasure trove of information about the North-West. He had served at Kargill and had visited Srinagar and Pehalgam. So, that's about the point at which i really started gathering information about Srinagar and the current situation there. :) Yup, you're right. Otherwise, I would have went up into a former warzone completely oblivious. Ignorance is bliss i guess. Anyway, the more i heard about the place, the more i was interested to go there at that point.

The train ride itself was about 24 hours. At night, i couldn't resist the temptation when we stopped at a station. I joined the other 2 guys in the compartment and had a bread that was fried with egg all around it. Something like the "Roti John" that we get in pasar malam except that it was using a slice of bread instead of the long bread. Besides it was ONLY eggs, and none of the other condiments. Yummy stuff, and then i took some "puri" as well. Came back into the train to find more food. I had ordered for dinner and it arrvied only AFTER close to 1.5 hours. Oh what the hell, i had that vegetarian food as well.

Somewhere at this point, we found out that some Gujarat people living on the outskirts of Delhi were dismantling the railway tracks leading into Delhi in protest to an accident involving a Blueline (the state run bus company) bus and a bus-stop FULL of people (must have been predominantly Gujarati). One of the guys got this sms from a relative living in Delhi watching the news at that moment. I looked at him quizzically(?) He admitted he didn't know the connection between a bus accident and the Indian Railways either.

Anyway, we had been chit-chatting a lot at that point and were tired. I had a surprisingly deep sleep in a moving, clanking, whistling mechanical machine. Got to Delhi on time and realised the affected tracks were the ones western of Delhi coming from Bombay and not the southern tracks from Hyderabad. (Thank GOD for that, or my whole plan would have changed). The 2 guys were nice. They got me onto an auto and sent me to the airport at the best possible price. (This price bit i noticed on my trip back, as to how much the autos in Delhi cost especially if they know you're a foreigner)

Well, thus ends the rambling of the first 24 hours of my trip to Kashmir. We have just arrived at Delhi and i am speeding in a Auto to the airport where my flight leaves in about 2 hours!!

Will i make it? =O???

The Dragon has passed away...

Hey guys,

Today got an offline message from Jeevan saying that, Robert Jordan has passed away. Of course, he knows I love Robert Jordan's books a lot and it has always been a long standing joke of his, that this day might come to pass. The passing of the author before the completion of the Epic...

Of course, I hate myself for wishing he passed away "at least" after he completed this book. Just check the Wikipedia entry under his name to see the 'projects' he intended to do after this mammoth task. Just the same, it's a great loss to the realm of fantasy adventure to see the passing of one almost as talented as JRR Tolkien himself.

I couldn't help it, I checked out the website where his blog is. Left a comment.

Comment No. 2175 at his cousin Wilson's post after he passed away.

To the family of Mr. Jim Rigney,

I came to know the Wheel of Time book only in 1998,

The first day I left my home country (Malaysia) and reached a new place (Australia), a new beginning in my life. I marked it with the purchase of a book; The Eye of the World. Since that day, I grew up alongside Rand, Perrin and Mat throughout my 18th year and onwards.

The words of Mr.Jim Rigney reached me and the advices and worldviews that he imparted, moulded me as much as my new environment did. Probably more, since I prefered to sit inside and read that series book by book. I eagerly awaited the next twist in the story, slowly escaping whenever things were hard here, and then came back refreshed. Such was the power in those books.

It was always a dream of mine to 'tip my hat' to the man who created this marvelous epic and thank him for the important role it played in my life when I grew up from being just a "farmboy" to a Man. And now I guess, it shall always stay a dream...

Thank you, Jim for everything. In your own words, "There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of time..." Farewell, Mr. Jim Rigney.

My deepest condolences to the Rigney family and everybody here that has felt that Mr. Jim Rigney was "family" too in their lives.

-Mathan-

I'm not burning any bridges

Hey guys,

Heard this phrase recently. Got me thinking. How many bridges have we burned? How many beautiful relationships and friendships that we had in the past, that now has turned stale. We promise each other that we would keep in touch. Yet, it never happens.

More often than Absence makes the Heart grow Fonder, it becomes a case of Out of Sight Out of Mind! Sometimes when we really sit down and think about the past. Whole chunks of memories with certain people just disappear from the mind. Almost as if the person did not touch out lives. Yet, after a certain period of time we suddenly (luckily!) realise that there is something missing in the interpretation of our memories. Looking back at photos, the truth comes crashing down that "I had forgotten that person and the good times that we had!'

This of course happens to people like me who are very used to meeting lots of people, and making friends with a lot of people. Sometimes I have wondered if what i was doing was wrong in any way. But the truth is just that I cannot control, the need I have in making friends!! I cannot control the fact that I want to know as many people as possible!! And perhaps the worst of all is the fact that I want everybody to be happy!!

Then all of a sudden, things would have to end and then, people would move out of our lives. This cycle repeats so many times that eventually we would have to somehow remember everybody or forget some poor unfortunate soul. Sigh!! A bridge would have to be burned!!

Just some random thought in my mind. In fact there is something else that is plaguing my mind. I am writing this particular post to release the tension inside. Lol!~ Well until next time folks!! I am so proud that this post was fully written using QWERTY!!

Take care people!!

Confusion - Resolved

Hi people,

The title says it all. Been here for 3 terms now. Confusion is setting in. I really don't know what i am.

Oh yeah, you read right. My thoughts have gone that deep. I have no longer any interests in trying to figure out what job I want to get into post-ISB.

See, To know what job i want to do in future needs a lot of thinking. I need to know my interests. I have to know my needs and wants clearly; extrapolated into the future with a little bit of Monte Calro Simulation to take into account the randomness of fate and luck.

I have to put together my core competencies that i have built in life, for the last 26 years. Now, at first glance it looks like i have been doing nothing, learning nothing. But that certainly is not RIGHT! I actually have done something extraordinary with my life. I have done many things that most people have not had the time or chance or money to do yet. I am proud of it, when i actually sit down and list down the number of things I have done.

What makes me unhappy is this problem with my memory. I forget things. I even forget things that I said I have learned and that I will make sure to remember, to never repeat my past mistakes. Problem is I forget and sooner than not I would be repeating the same mistakes. It happened again here at ISB. I just forgot who I am and why I came here during the last term. the way I approached the assignments and exams were pitiful. Nothing at all compared to the focus and composure I had during the first 2 terms. I just got carried away trying to deal with friendships, inter-study group relationships, inter-section relationships, etc.

I went back to Malaysia thankfully. Back there for a few days, seeing all my 'nakama' was a serious dose of reality. It reminded me of how much my family and friends love me. It reminded me that I am not alone. It reminded me that I did not have to worry about anything other than achieving something at ISB.

So, now i am back. Screwed one sem up a little bit. But, there are 5 more to go. I'll just have to find out what can be done in those. So, now back to the earlier point. My core competencies are what I need to learn about. The LDP sessions have been a great revealing experience. Now, I need to work on them. More importantly figure out what kind of job am I willing to FIGHT for!

Oh yeah, another few terms and the Placement season will come up. I know for sure, I want to be in an International placement. The resume building exercises are starting up. I need to know how to approach all these things to market myself as the best candidate for the position that they're offering even though my credentials aren't as flashy as the next guy.

But to fight for it at that level, I need to be clear of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats that I would be facing at each job. Could I handle them? Would I remain motivated and interested in the offers? Would they actually give me what I want in terms of salary and job scope?

There is also the current thoughts of moving into the media industry. I have been in one part of the logistics industry. Should I just stay in this industry or bring the knowledge to apply elsewhere? =)

Well, I know that I need to spend a little bit more time. But, in the meantime thank you guys!! All of you in Malaysia that helped me so much to become who I am today, where I am today!

Luv,
-Mathan-

A Flight to Adventure...

21 and a half hours to go....

I'll be stepping on a flight. Connecting at Madras and ultimately arriving at Hyderabad. I gotta say. I have a lot of unfinished business here in Malaysia. Sigh. Too many people to meet. Too many words left unsaid.

I am not who i was in 1999 when i left the country for the first time. I have grown since then. I have realised the sorrows around me and the hardships around me. Yet, I've also seen the love that surrounds my life protecting me, nurturing me; and i am excited to take this step in my life now.

I want that love to reach all others around me. I want to be able to GIVE. These were resolutions that I did not have the first time. The first time it was all for ME. =) I left a boy; and i returned a man.

This time it is for everybody that i partake in this Great Adventure. I leave a man, to return a LEADER.

The Divine Move in Mysterious Ways

Hey guys,

Tuesday, April 26, 2005. Now if you guys look back in my posts, at that date there was a post called "The Divine Move in Mysterious Ways".

I ended that post with these 2 lines (Plus whether or not she realised it, she actually gave me an outline of what i should be doing in the next 2 years. Interestingly, this was my question during my prayers!!~ "What path should i choose now?").

Well, i totally forgot about that post until i was revisiting some of my earlier writings yesterday. The advice that i got from that lady, i had been following and my path was quite well-defined in Westports for the last 2 years.

And then suddenly, the whole ISB saga began. I mean i didn't think about it beforehand. But, now I realise exactly 2 years from that post I am entering the next phase in my life. I have about 2 years work experience, and now I am doing my Post-Graduate in Management. And I guess, this is where i will be getting guidance how to conduct my life professionally and socially in future. =)

The Divine move in Mysterious Ways indeed !~ (and it took me 2 years to realise this..)

Have a nice day guys!

Strange Palms....

Hmnn... I wonder if anyone realises how I am feeling at the moment?

I guess I am feeling just like how another 400+ Great Individuals out there are feeling. Yet, I feel there is a spring to my step. A bounce when I crash on the bed....(err, bad example), a croak to my voice that comes from knowing that soon I am not gonna be in this country anymore.

I am gonna take a flight from Gate 13 and a half, and then have horseless carriages take me to Hog-....(err.. ISB?) where I would be spending the rest of my year cramming up on studies. There would be points when I am told how to cast magic effectively(marketing), how to keep track of what i cast(finances), how to make others cast spells for me(human resources), how to be a good spellcaster(ethics), how to cast faster and spend no energy to lift the damn sword out of the rock when Arthur isn't around.

I know currently I just feel tempted to use the One Ring. I know at many points in the coming year I would feel the temptation of using it. Knowing full well it is wrong to do so and that it would corrupt not only myself but also everyone around me into using their own One Rings. It lets us become invisible and draw away from the world around us. We say it is to gather our thoughts and keep our sanity, but who are we kidding? In loneliness shall madness creep ever faster to claim its prize; the mind.

If only I could find my Fellowship that supports and nurtures me and encourages me to cast away my One Ring. My mind shall be whole. It happened once when I was not looking during my undergraduate years. One blink and there was my Fellowship standing by me. =) No matter Muggles or Ents, everyone was in it to make the other shine his / her best!!~

Let it happen once again!~
-from the disjointed memoirs of Frodo Potter-