Dubito ergo cogito; cogito ergo sum(I doubt, therefore I think; I think therefore I am)

I have been a huge fan of Hinduism not because I was born Hindu, but as I grew up, I realized that I was blessed to be a part of that ocean of knowledge, which has been promoting exercise of intellect for centuries, which has not only been providing solace to some one lost in the dilemma of “Karma” versus “Maya” but shaping up the world and allowing peaceful existence with others but most importantly ruling yet not dominating the world. Buddhism is of course the brain child of a Hindu prince, who is even considered to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and all the intelligence that Western world seems to derive from the Buddhist monks in China or Japan, owe it to the scriptures mostly unwritten but hugely understood, here in India.

But I am not fighting for Hindu Dominance at this stage. The world is already divided in this issue. And I would be more of a villain in my pseudo secular country, if I say that half (read most) of the world’s problem is due to one FORCE (not religion) which is nascent (compare a 1000 years with something which has no beginning), was born in caves of Arabia, in a mind which was certainly thinking more about spreading their belief with sword rather than convincing the lost ones and which sees nothing beyond hijacking free will, belief and thought. But at this point, I don’t have the intention of bleeding and insulting the myopic “intellectuals” and “The Indian media”, which vehemently aids this FORCE, even if that means playing with national and social security.

I was talking about lots of sense (I am not using the word Science here since Science would be too low word for It.) in the belief of Hinduism. I was particularly attracted by the essentiality of knowledge of GOD, SOUL and COSMOS, preached in Hinduism and the hunger to know more on these has what actually propelled me to question and find answers for lots of things which till date remain unexplained and make mockery of human evolution and development.

Time and again I cross roads with knowing more about the science of “Bio Space” or “Bio –Parallel World” and you might not find this word in dictionary yet, coz the English world still needs to learn a lot from us –The Indians.

To me, science mostly Western Science (who are skeptic on labeling Ayurveda as Science), has done little on knowing the world within and world outside. Forget the very basic question of human existence; let’s question how the world was formed? The concept of BIG BANG is just waiting to be dumped like “Aristotelian theory of gravity” or “Flat Earth Theory”.

To know how BIG BANG is challenged read this article from their very own Scientific American:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147

There can be no denying fact that Trillions of dollars spent on robots and Space vehicles though have done commendable job have not done enough to answer other popular questions. One screaming among them is “Are we alone in the universe? “. But I want to stretch this question a little more and ask “Are we real? “or “Are we programmed? And being ruled by some other force which we might have not comprehended”, as depicted in the highly popular movie – The Matrix (Read Hinduism reloaded).

I would like to approach this issue with my limited knowledge (being fully aware that much of my views would need correction in some stage. But nonetheless let’s try to make a bold attempt to know the unknown.) by asking some set of sub –questions
a) Why do I think Aliens exist?
b) Why do I think they are more advanced than us?
Why do you think they are already watching us?
c) And why the possibility that they are ruling us, seems not so strange?

A) Why do I think we are not alone in universe or Do Aliens Exist?
These are two similar sounding questions but lot different.

According to Ecology: the definition of alien is (adj.): An organism, especially a plant or animal that occurs in or is naturalized in a region to which it is not native. By this logic, we still have aliens in the ocean floor – a lot of them in ionosphere and may be in the moon surface or mars.
We have to just start discovering them with more powerful sensors and intelligence.

Are we alone in universe? Actually might mean looking beyond the world we inhabit (and presently leading it to point of incorrigible destruction.). My reasons to believe aliens exist are as follows
1. If life developed on Earth because of Water – then by that logic since water has been discovered in unimaginable volumes in interstellar space we might chance to see life developing or life flourishing some where in our own milky way. Even Mars and Moon have water in large volumes.

2.The ruins of Pyramid, the scientific advancement mentioned for lost world of Atlantis, Peruvian civilization and engineering marvels from past - support the view that aliens earlier had visited us when human civilization was in cradles and built these trophies for us.

3.The last but most important reason is Drake’s Equation which is very genuine. Out of the limitless space and trillions of galaxies spread, does Earth seem to be the only one planet where life would exist when parallelism is so much apparent in the universe? Also If splitting of stars into planets and sub planets could lead to formation of Earth then life is being generated in some light years right now.

B) Why do I think they are more advanced than us?

1. Simply, because we have stories or facts which state that UFO’s have reached us and we still haven’t been knocking at their doors.

2. And do you know there is lesser known fact that Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin sensed aliens watching them when they landed on moon. Read this:
http://www.ufocasebook.com/moon.html


3. For a nanosecond assume that we are not alone in the universe. How long did we take to reach space and human cloning after invention of computers? Hardly a decade, isn’t it?
Imagine if Parallel world exist or some world which has races more intelligent than us or which were formed before us. They would have taken the same amount of time. In gist they might be in a platform much more advanced than us.

The Question of why we haven’t met them is yet another different topic which I might pick up some days later (I am on process of reading about the WOW signal and Issac Asimov.)
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/E/extraterrestrial_intelligence.html

Now we come to final Question
C) Are we real or just part of the program being run by other entities which see our brains as we see the Pentium or AMD processors running our computers?

My reasons:

1. If sense is what we see, hear and touch then they could be stimulated by computers, so what we see, hear, talk and feel might have been because of bio chemical interactions or Artificial intelligence, programmed behavior or interaction of all these fields.

2. There is no science which cold refute the logic that we are not real.

3. Some unexplained behaviors like Ghost limbs, déjà vu or being driven by unexplained power which our minds still can’t comprehend.

And yeah while writing this very document, my computer got restarted automatically and then when I tried again the windows were not responding, then again some later I got a call from wrong number, which proves that I am not being that paranoid and the agents want this article to be censored. But something in me is what they can never command and that is my conscience which also moulds the thought process, for thoughts are always born free and will be unfetterd unless you want them to be otherwise. Oh, how true was Rene Desecrates - “I think therefore I am”.

Some interesting facts !!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DID YOU KNOW~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers-they saw it as competition. Itis not chemically addictive as is nicotine, alcohol, or caffeine.

=========================GRAFITTI ===============================

• People have one thing in common: they are all different.
• A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing youwith company
• I either want less corruption, or more chances to participate in it.
• Flattery is hearing from others the things you have already thoughtabout yourself.
• The probability of someone watching you is proportional to thestupidity of your action.

==========================FUNNY quotes FROM famous===============================

• "Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas."-- Keppel Enderbery
• "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."-- former U.S.. President Bill Clinton,
• "The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guylike Norman Einstein."-- Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.
• "I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."-- former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle
• "It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's theimpurities in our air and water that are doing it."-- former U.S. Vice President Al Gore
• "Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime ratesin the country,"-- Marion Barry, Mayor of Washington, D.C.
• "Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part ofyour life,"-- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become Spokesperson for theFederal Anti-smoking Campaign.

=========================MANAGEMENT LESSONS===============================

Lesson Number One

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?" The crow answered "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it. Management Lesson: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

_______________________________________________________________________

Lesson Number Two

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love tobe able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but Ihaven't got the energy.""Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fortnight, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Soon he was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree. Management Lesson: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

________________________________________________________________________

Lesson Number Three

When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss. The Brain said, "I should be Boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions." The feet said, "We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go." The hands said, "We should be Boss because we do all the work and earn all the money." And so it went on and on with the heart, the lungs and the eyes until finally the asshole spoke up. All the parts laughed at the idea of the asshole being the Boss. So the asshole went on strike, blocked itself up and refused to work. Within a short time the eyes became crossed, the hands clenched, the Feet twitched, the heart and lungs began to panic and the brain fevered. Eventually they all decided that asshole should be the Boss, so the motion was passed. All the other parts did all the work while the Boss just sat and passed out the shit! Management Lesson: You don't need brains to be a Boss - any asshole will do.

_________________________________________________________________________

Lesson Number Four

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold, the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it. As the f rozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy and soon began to sing for joy.A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung and promptly dug him out and ate him! Management Lessons: 1) Not everyone who drops shit on you is your enemy. 2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend. 3) And when you're in deep shit, keep your mouth shut!

====================Some more Ramblings ============================

I became a professional fisherman, but discovered that I couldn't live on my net incomeI found being an electrician interesting, but the work was shockingI got a job as a historian but I realized there was no future in itI studied a long time to become a doctor, but I didn't have the patientsMy first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned because I couldn't concentrateI worked in a muffler factory but that was exhaustingI worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn't hack it, so they gave me the axI was a tailor, but I just wasn't suited for it. It was a so-so job

==================English is a funny language ===========================

There is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple...Is cheese the plural of choose?If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?In what language do people recite at a play, and play at a recital?Ship by truck, and send cargo by ship?Have noses that run and feet that smell?Park on driveways and drive on parkways? Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese?One index, two indices? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out, and an alarm clock goes off by going on.When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?.English muffins were not invented in England or French fries in France. How can 'slim chance and a fat chance' be the same, while ' wise man and a wise guy' are opposites?

buttter-pun ke din

Acutely observed and rendered with insight and biting wit, Butter Chicken in Ludhiana is a contemporary classic

A little over a decade ago, Pankaj Mishra travelled through the small towns of India and found they had shed their sleepy, half-apologetic air; brash and ostentatious, kitschy and clamorous, here was an India in transition. A convent-educated young woman from Jhansi aspiring to be a beauty queen; a rich young man in Gujarat speaking casually of murdering Muslims; Naxalites in Bihar trying to foment revolution; small shopkeepers planning a vacation in London ---

Mishra captured, with irony and humour, a people rushing headlong to their tryst with modernity. 'Butter Chicken in Ludhiana is a marvellous travel book about small-town India, where the village and the city, the folk and the kitsch, and the comic and the violent threaten to converge' Ashis Nandy ‘A love-letter to the real republic. No other book defines as clearly, and with such troubled irony, our last decade of change’ Amitava Kumar

Book DetailsPublication Date 19/01/2007 ISBN 9780330444125 Dimensions 197mm x 130mm Weight 0.291 kg Pages 320
Author
About Pankaj Mishra
Pankaj Mishra was born in North India, and currently works at TCS. The author likes to spend his leisure time in the loo listening to natural sounds.