Something to talk about when I am old and grey.

Time is cruel! © DKLA

At the pinnacle of their career, the Beatles must have had an existential crisis. McCartney and Lennon must have wondered how they would be at 64. Their vision of a 64-year old man, from the lenses of a person in the 1960s, must have been quite depressing. With bad teeth, bad eyesight and bald, it must be a picture of melancholy.
 Luckily, growing old in the 21st century is bearable. The 60s is the new 40s. One can still lead a productive life in the senior citizen / geriatric age group provided the bus does not come to pick you up prematurely.

After completing 633 km of cycling from Seoul to Pusan in 5 days, we had a couple days to unwind in Pusan. Immersed in the euphoria of completing our gargantuan task, we thought that our feat must be something that we, the seven of us, would be talking for a long time including reminiscing about it in our twilight years. We would probably be savouring each photo that we took along the way, trying to remember each story attached with it; trying to tell it to anyone who would listen.

At the end of their voyage, if life had been kind, people would have many accomplishments to ponder as their moments in time.

I know a few who talk about a time when they were stoned drunk as their memorable bits to justify their existence. They would brag about their inborn ability to hold their drink and drive home safely with their alcohol levels hitting the ceiling many times over. Or perhaps boast in the glee of a lost weekend of intoxication.
There was once a lady's man who had the charm that would put James Bond to shame. He allegedly had bedded so many women in the prime of his youth. This, he told me unashamedly with pride with a gusto of a record-breaking marathon runner. He even boasted of having two dates on a single night in the same town. Living in the fast lane, walking on eggshells, he ended his night bedding both of them, separately. That must be the zenith of his raison d'être.

Others may find pride in satisfying their gustatory cravings. They claim pride in knowing the tastiest of dishes and culinary servings. They may narrate with passion, their food trails, their exotic spread of palatal teasers and perhaps some unusual delicacies. Well, whatever makes them happy.

I bet these photos may one day carve a smile at the angle of my mouth if ever I were comatose or unarousable.

Serenity max ©FG

Another bridge ©FG

Nature's palette ©FG

Peaceful easy feeling ©FG

Misty taste of Korea ©FG

Shades of blue ©FG

Sunset in Korea ©FG

Picture perfect ©FG

A bike motel ©FG

Busan finishing line ©FG

Our hideout in Busan ©FG

I see you ©FG

Korean garden ©FG

Atop Busan Tower ©FG

Jagalchi Fish Market - can see the original features of the Koreans.©FG

Songdo Beach ©FG

Sunset over at Sangdo ©FG

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Wisdom from the Upanishads

Ten Powerful Ideas from Ancient India - Wisdom from the Upanishads.
Roopa Pai

Secular in their content and universal in their appeal, these compositions have life-affirming secrets that contain ideas about life, the universe and everything relevant from the 700BCE to the 21st century. Computer engineer, journalist and children's author, Roopa Pai is the co-founder of Bangalore Walks and the winner of the Crossword Award for "The Gita for Children". She has published over 20 books, including the fantasy-adventure Taranauts. 

Easily the best TedTalk in a long time.

The journey towards Satchitananda...

The Bhagavad Gita (25th Anniversary Edition, 2009)
Translated by: Winthrop Sargeant

Bhagavad Gita, a part of the Indian epic Mahabharata, has been translated many times over the years. Every translation asserts that it gives the most accurate account of the text, which was written in Sanskrit. It was initially told in oral traditions only to be written in the 2nd century CE. Translations are no easy feat in any language, what more an ancient language. Take, for example, the word dharma. It can be translated as duty, law, righteousness, virtue, and honour depending on the context. For that same reason, only the Holy Quran in the Arabic script is acceptable as the authentic one.

Most people spent a lifetime trying to understand what is written in the Gita. It is said to give, in a narrative way, the meaning of life. It comprises stories of interwoven nature. Each subplot carries its own weight and is able to impart wisdom and answer moral dilemmas. 

The chapter on the setting of the Bhagavad Gita gives an excellent overview of the mythological beginning of time, the primordial darkness to the creation of things all through to Manu, the ancient Kings / Gods and finally to Hastinapura, Pandavas and Kaurava. This chapter also gives the backstory to the genesis of the Kurushetra War. It clears many of the uncertainties to the ignoramus new readers of the Gita; like how Karna, who is fighting on the Kaurava's side has the same mother as the Pandavas and the bond that links many characters in Mahabharata and Ramayana.

The eternal all-pervading consciousness is eternal, indestructible and the ultimate reality. We see this in man's extraordinary creativity, courage, endurance and boundless compassion. Why, we also see this in animals' acts of kindness.

There must surely be many ways to achieve spiritual realisation. People with different temperaments attain this in their own separate paths - by being active, reflective, affective and experimentative (karma, jnana, bhakti and raja yogas respectively). These paths unite the practitioner with Sat-Chit-Ananda (Truth, Consciousness and Bliss), the higher Intellect of the Universe, the single Unity.

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Intelligent Crook?

Money Heist (La Casa De Papel, House of Paper)
Spanish miniseries, Netflix Season 1-3; 2017- present

It is no secret that countries which are secular in their politics perform better in economics. Look around. Nations who appear to showcase Roman Catholic in their day to day running of their lives, e.g. countries in the Iberian peninsula, in Latin America and the Philippines, perform worse off than their Protestant counterparts. We need not talk about Muslim nations or countries struggling to go all conservative to stay relevant. 

It seems that nations that look at pleasing the Money God seem more progressive and advanced technologically and socioeconomically. By this, I mean these countries look at acquiring wealth at a level more important than to satisfy the imagined Man in the heaven or the intangible Forces of Nature. They feel money can solve their problems in this life and do not need to follow preset rules on Earth to receive its unassured retribution in another realm or on another birth.

Retractors will insist that they are missing the woods from the trees. There are more things to life than acquiring wealth that maintaining good virtue is the aim of life. We are paying for the Original Sin, and that Salvation is attained through selfless acts and His Grace.  Are these mere rants of a loser who insists the grapes that he failed to acquire must have been sour anyway?

Whatever it is, money seems the physical proof that life actually improves on Earth. Or do they? Tales of lottery winners with windfall and ending up worse off then they were initially is well known to us. 

According to Netflix, 'Money Heist' is its most-watched non-English miniseries. Even though the dubbing can be fixed in some places and there can be room for improvement in the acting department, it nevertheless, manages to keep its viewers at the edge of their seats. As the title suggests, the story revolves around a carefully planned heist at the Royal Mint. The modus operandum is to hold the staff of the mint and a group of student-visitors as hostages as the crooks use the machinery to print brand-new crisp, authentic Euros. Maybe, as the episodes drag on, due to prolonged contact with the robbers, the audience, just like their hostages, builds a sympathetic bond as like in Stockholm Syndrome.

Along the way, we are introduced to Professor, the mysterious leader of the pack and the motley crew of 8 robbers who form the rest of the gang. All of them have a sob story to explain their miserable life and how they landed there. The plan is to print €2.4 billion and to abscond through a self-built tunnel. Things become complicated as the Professor, who is stationed outside to guide through the operation and negotiate with the police, falls hopelessly in love with the investigating police chief. And it is mutual.

Initially, the story is believable, but the series progresses, it is evident that much masala is infused into it. Too many outlandish coincidences and instances of 'near misses' make one lose interest. It is only so many times that the preparator's identity can be repeatedly close to being uncovered. There were, however, many interesting discussion about human behaviour and philosophy amongst the baddies. But, do you expect villains to be so highly refined and intellectually superior? Why not? Intelligence can be used both ways - for betterment or destruction of mankind!

With the runaway success of the first two seasons, spoiler alert, and their successful heist, the producers decided to have more of their finely crafted planning. Living incognito in separate lives, one of the crook's identity is discovered and is apprehended. In the 3rd and the yet to be released 4th season, they attempt to rob the Bank of Spain of its gold. The former inspector and a former hostage are now in their team. The story only gets more bizarre. A burglar who was riddled with bullets in the 2nd season is walking around talking philosophy, and nobody is curious. There is only so much DIY medical emergencies that one can handle. Removing glass shrapnels from the eyes, treating brain injury and full-blown heart attack is not something one can do at the drop of the hat. It is becoming more and more another offering of ‘Fast and Furious’. 

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Poverty, a qualification?

American Factory (Documentary, 2019)
Netflix

The Industrial Revolution transformed countries from the Western World by leaps and bounds. That, together with colonisation, it improved their living conditions radically. In the USA, industries flourished. Immigrants trickled in from the world over to work to their last drop of sweat. Being employed was a cool thing to be. The first and second generations were hardworking.

All the way things happened. The subsequent generations became complacent. They did not have to work to survive. Work became optional. After all, the country took care of everybody. 

All these while, the countries in the East missed the Industrial Revolution bus. Not only were they thrown under the bus, they also had to be contended staying subservient supplying the raw material to fuel the big wheels of the machinery of their masters.

Times change. The slaves, looking up at their masters all these while, have caught up. They have learnt the trade and have overtaken their teachers. Poverty, as the New Economic Order defines it, is a good enough motivator to succeed. The sons of slaves have risen to bite the sons of slave owners. The tiger roars again.

This interesting documentary, produced by the Obamas' company, Higher Ground Productions, recalls the time in the late 2000s when many automobile industry workers were out of jobs. The American automobile was in the doldrums. In Daytona, Ohio, a vast glass factory supplying automobile part had been closed for almost two years. A Chinese showed interest in reopening the plant.

Workers initially showed relief in being able to be employed again. The Chinese bosses had a strict set of rules for the workers to follow. The American workers were not happy. Amongst the workers were also Chinese workers from the parent company, who were working like robots. They worked non-stop and went on working even through lunch break. The Chinese went beyond the call of duty, without complaining, endangering themselves and doing the work that generally involved two American workers.

The Chinese boss was unhappy. The American workers wanted to start a workers' union, which was denied. The management tried to expose the top-level American workers to the Chinese workers via a working visit to their parent plant in Mainland China.

The Americans realised that they cannot work like the Chinese. The cry for a union became louder. The workers were penalised for being slow or taking long, sick leaves. The workers talk about human rights. Pink slips started flying. Sales were down. Quality of the end-product was not up to the mark. 

Finally, it came down to automation. Rather than engaging humans with innumerable complaints, the Chinese owners decided to go full-on into automation. Only then did the business started seeing profit trickling.

What started as a noble intention of giving employment opportunities to the jobless American workers, turned out to fall flat. The workers, because of their demands and non-compromise, lost their job to automation. On the other hand, the management needed to see returns on their investment. 

Poverty may not be a qualification, but it is undoubtedly a driving force to reach higher grounds. A growling stomach is good enough a reason to dance for your next meal. The hunger fizzles out when the comforts of life are showered liberally, one starts demanding.  

At the end of the show, viewers are reminded that the East has awoken from their slumber. They are undergoing a renaissance of sorts, and they are out to rule the world, once again. 

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Everywhere you lay your hat...

The Indian Detective (Canadian Miniseries, in Hindi and English; 2017)
Netflix (Season 1, E1-E4)

The 1950s were important in world politics. The Second World War was over, but the world, never learning from its past mistakes, was building another. The world was divided into two, those subscribing to capitalism or communism. The Cold War was brewing. The newly independent nations, the Third World, was up for grabs. In that environment, in 1955, a few countries got together in Bandung, to assert that they were not aligned to either side of the fence. The Americans, however, viewed it as the ranting of the newly-independent third world states with a slight socialistic stance as they were not invited but China was.

One of the prescient thing that the then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai had said was that the Chinese residing in different countries should show their allegiance, not to China, but to the countries they are residing. 

That too must be applicable to the Indian diaspora which is spread the world over. Driven to the four corners of the mainly for economic reasons and the colonial masters' labour needs, they had 5easily embraced into the cultures of the newfound motherlands. In some cases, they had even cut their umbilical cord off the country of their forefathers. They may be Indian on the outside or by name. The connection to Mother India ends there.

Generation elapsed. Indianness became diluted. The head-boobing went the same way as the subservient nature of their ancestors. For them, their grandfather's guest country became their motherland. They shared fond memories, their childhood, experienced pain and joy and shed a tear or two when their nation was under attack. So to accuse them of showing more loyalty to India rather than their country of birth is mischief or not inciteful.

This Canadian production is a mediocre one. The story is quite predictable and paints India in the same brush as most Hollywood movies. We are all bored with the stereotyping of a corrupt police force, abuse of power by officials, of arranged marriages and a dirty and polluted India.

The drawing force to this flick must have been Russell Peters and  Anupam Kher. Even they could not save the film. The acting is unnatural and forced. The dialogue is cheesy and the storyline implausible. William Shatner guests as a baddie but he remains a pale shadow of Captain Kirk. He does not explore any facial expressions beyond the emotionless and bland facies that he puts up in most scenes. The producers put up a cliffhanger at the end of Episode 4 but, obviously, the miniseries did not garner such a following to demand another season. 

Just for the record, the story is about a bumbling constable who is suspended for a month for bungling up with a drug bust (or was he?). He is forced to visit his 'ailing' father (Anupam Kher) in Mumbai. Here he gets entangled with an Indian mob and a social worker cum lawyer. See how this Mumbai gang is intertwined with his Canadian case and how the detective (Russell Peters) comes out smelling of roses. 

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No country for intelligence

Salam - The First ****** Nobel Laureate

(2019 Netflix)

His tombstone was defaced. The epitaph which read 'The First Muslim Nobel Laureate' had, with the Government decree, the word 'Muslim' be removed from the headstone. Professor Abdus Salam, the first Pakistani and Muslim scientist to win the prestigious award, was of the Ahmadi faith. The country felt that he was not Muslim enough to claim to be one. Even Pakistani textbooks do not mention him as a national hero. The younger generation has not heard of him.

His story is of particular importance to a country like ours as we seem to be pursuing the same rabbit hole as their Big Brother Pakistan took when they clawed themselves off Hindustan back in 1947. Instead of speeding forward from the race-line, they took a backward trajectory that may send them back to the Stone Age. Rather than investing in human capital and knowledge-based activities, they have only successfully managed to shoo off intellectual away from Pakistan. Left behind are the blind followers, yeoman, sluggards and conmen. Academics like Pervez Hoodbhoy, the MIT trained nuclear physicist, and Tarek Fateh, the Canadian-Pakistani media-man, can only do so much to knock some semblance of sense into the system. In return, they are labelled traitors for putting down their nation.

The recent turn of events in Malaysia, with their association with the leaders of Turkey and Pakistan, put us in the same basket as them. The joke is on us, but we are too blind to see. This country has become no place for the intelligent and thinking individual. 

One can see the parallelism between Abdus Salam's early life to that of the great modern Indian Mathematician Ramanujan. An apparent child prodigy right from the start, he grew up in humble beginnings in Jhang, a small village in Punjab (which became part of Pakistan). From the surroundings of a ricketty town, at a tender age, he understood everything about electricity even when his village had never received any electricity.

Excelling in every public examination and even writing a Mathematic paper for publication titled ' A problem of Ramanujan' earned him a place in Cambridge around 1946-47. He was financed by a peasants' cooperative scholarship. 

Even though he escaped the turmoil of Partition, he had a tough time in the United Kingdom. Food was a major problem. Surviving primarily on macaroni cheese, he completed his Ph D and returned to Pakistan in 1951 as a professor in Mathematics in Government College in Lahore. He was obviously overqualified and intellectually isolated there. The Ahmadiyya sect was always a thorn in the flesh for the Sunni-majority Pakistan. In 1953 a riot broke out. Their esteemed leader is said to have claimed to be a prophet, the fabled Mahdi and even the Christian Messiah. 

Abdus Salam left Pakistan permanently for a post of Professor in Imperial College, London.

His academic career skyrocketed from then on. At one instance, he almost won a Nobel prize. If only a senior colleague had not shot down his research, he would have published it. His idea was picked by a Chinese physicists duo who received the coveted award afterwards. 

When often asked how we got all the knowledge that he possessed, he would often point up as if he received his revelations from above. This ring a bell to Ramanujan's assertion that he received his formulas from Goddess Namagiri.

Abdus Salam continued involving himself later in developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes for Pakistan as requested by Presiden Zulkifar Ali Bhutto. This did not last long. With the change of leadership as the conservatives held the helm, President Zia ul Haq with the blessings of the religious councils, declared Ahmadis as heretics in 1974.
Another bloodbath reminiscent of 1947 Partition took place. Believers from the Ahmadiyya sect were decapitated, maimed or slaughtered. Scenes of blood-stained train coaches with mutilated passengers gave Pakistanis a deja vu.

In 1979, Professor finally received the elusive Nobel Prize. He went on to develop scientific research in developing countries. He was keen to offer himself as a candidate for the post of the Director-General of UNESCO, but Pakistan refused to back his application.

He finally succumbed to motor neuron disease and was eventually buried in Pakistan.

Garbed in traditional attire during Nobel Prize awards, he quoted a verse from the Quran that suggests that religion and science should not diverge but instead complement each other. He did not see religion as a deterrent to acquiring knowledge but paradoxically a nidus to do so. ©Getty Image.

A very touching documentary which highlights the dangers when stupid people hold too much power. When race and religion supersede rational thinking, the collapse of civil society and social structure is imminent. Like body odour, stupidity is only realised by the individuals around them, not the bearer of the stench or the idiots.


The Persecution of Pakistan's Ahmadiyya Sect

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p025n89c

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