Thoughts And Trivia

We have two hemispheres in our Brain, Right & Left. Both are quite separate with a minimal shared bandwidth between them. Both are quite different. Right one is a parallel processing computer hooked to various energy sensors in our body, simultaneously gathering millions of streams of data. It connects to the world outside. Its very chaotic, it cannot make sense of what it gathers, because it cannot distinguish self from the universe, present from the past and future.
Its the left brain which is a serially, logically processing machine, which has enormous wealth of past records. It also has a sense of "SELF". Its this brain which makes sense of Right Brain inputs and its effect on our selves.
Right brain is what gives us a sense of being connected to the rest of living beings and with the rest of the grand universe. It gets the sense of being permeating the whole universe and vice-versa. Its raw, fleeting, slippery and transient and present moment in time - that has no past no future.
The left brain is what brings us down to earth, controls our actions and makes us a calculating, methodical entity, separate from the rest of living beings and we-and-they feeling regarding the rest of the universe. Its past and future with the present moment missing.
One can understand this when we just come to conscious from anaesthesia generated unconscious. I wrote about my experience of this 80 Fathoms below conscious. As I regained consciousness, the right brain kicked in with gibberish data. Immediately left brain came back, failed to resolve the inputs but alive enough to say that "you are ok, I cannot make sense of it but its enjoyable even in raw form. Do not let others shake you out of it, enjoy while it lasts".
Without the left brain (as can happen in a left brain stroke) you feel the feeling of becoming one with the universe, but you become non-functional - cannot process language, cannot understand numbers or remember who you are. The feeling is not unpleasant - as told by people who have gone through it. The feeling is of "Nirvana" or "Moksha" of release from the limited life to unlimited peacefulness. Here is the talk by Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight about her such experience. If the video doesn't work go to the site.

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(<-A modern Japanese Pagoda on the banks of Coronation Tank of Vaishali)
On my recent visit to the archaeological remains of the ancient city of Vaishali, I tried to feel how it must hae been to live in those times. Its a sobering experience and makes you respect people who lived then.
Vaishali, a city in North Bihar, India is known to have existed since at least 6th century B.C. It was very large, very populous and rich. It was also the capital of the state of Vaishali. The legend has it that one of the earlier king, "Nabhaga" abdicated the throne due to an accusation about Human Rights violation and is believed to have declared: "I am now a free tiller of the soil, king over my acre". The city then declared itself a democratic Republic - the first democracy of the world - much earlier than the ones in Greece.

(<-The earliest of Ashokan Lion pillars. Unlike later ones it has no religious edict engraved on it. On right is an irreverent look at the butt of the lion. The lion's facial expression is pathetic not majestic or ferocious - where have you strung me up?)
The place is also linked with the lives of Mahatma Buddha and Mahavira (the 24th incarnation of Jain Religion). Buddha spent most of his last years here. During this time, the place was famous for its courtesan - Amrapali. She is the focus of many legends and stories of that time for her beauty and wealth. Modern day Hindi Novel - "Vaishali Ki Nagar Vadhu" (Vaishali's City Bride) is also about her. Buddha's influence (or is it vice-versa) converted her to a female-monk, for which Buddha broke his rule of allowing only men-folk as monks. This change almost broke the Buddhist community into two warring sides (shades of "Helen of Troy").
There are now many archaeological remains in the area. Most of these show layers of construction in various periods of the history - from 6th century B.C. till 7th century AD.

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Of the bewildering and encyclopedic events in our life, some memories stick to the brain and some do not. The selection of remembered event is based on the intensity of interest that we had in the event at the time of occurrence.
But this interest changes as we grow older. As a child the level of curiosity is so intense that large percentage of memories of our lives from age of 3/4 years to 17/20 yrs get remembered. Later on this percentage goes on reducing. This makes interesting study when you compare the memories of life spent together with your children or parents.

Recently my son suddenly recalled, that once I had fainted due to vaso-vagus syncope. This nothing but a metabolically programmed, shut down of brain due to intense pain, to reduce the damage to the body. I learnt that I was more prone to it as a trait. About 25 years back, my wife, me and my son (then only 5 years) were sleeping and I woke up due to some stomach pain. I sat up on the edge of the bed slightly leaning forward due to intense colic pain. I had vaso-vagus syncope and I fainted, just keeled over, and hit the wall in front like a sack of potatoes. The sound of my head hitting a ledge must have woken them up. I do remember this event, but the detailed imagery that my son recalled, was very vivid. He could create a complete visual scene, although very small kid at that time. The boom of the tree, the exact place I was lying. The sounds , the colour of the floor etc. I did not have that much detail in my mind.
Being at the center of the three generations, I recalled my and my father's relative memories of shared events- and found it to be true in reverse order.
I think that is good as well! Otherwise our minds would have been clogged with too many memories of more busy portions of our life.

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Flame of an oil lamp, flares up, one last moment, before it runs out of oil and it just starts spewing black soot.
Evolution of societies also follow this route to oblivion. The dying society flares into megalomaniac creations just before being snuffed out. Is the present 21st Century also the last for the Human Race? From the megalomaniac creations - it just looks to be the case of burst of the dying flame.
There is a web-game about what it would be like for the human race to die in year 2100, if do not wake-up.
But look at the megalomania. We have created a Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe to just smash two protons (travelling at almost the speed of light) together, just to prove whether two mathematically elegant theories could actually govern the sub-particle universe.

LHC has been built in a circular tunnel 27 km in circumference. The tunnel is buried around 50 to 175 m. underground. It straddles the Swiss and French borders on the outskirts of Geneva.
The statistics and Money spent is nothing Human Race has ever seen. For example:

1. The combined strands of the superconducting cable being produced for the LHC would go around the equator 6.8 times. If you added all the filaments of the strands together they would stretch to the sun and back 5 times with enough left over for a few trips to the moon.


2. Part of the LHC will be the world's largest fridge. It could hold 150 000 fridge full of sausages at a temperature colder than deep outer space.
3. The cost of the accelerator only (without experiments and computing) but including manpower and material is 4.7 Billion CHF (that's around 3.03 billion euros)

There is more on the web, officially.
...and unofficially
I think there could be a simpler way to do science.
This is not all. The type of buildings that we are now making in the Middle East is super-megalomania.
Mahatma Gandhi used to say: "There is enough on earth for our needs, but not enough for our greed."
We are going to kill the Human Race if we do not temper our use of Earth's resources.
What Do You think? Please leave comments!!!

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We do face people with whom we find it difficult to deal. May be we are ourselves difficult person to deal with! ;-)
How to deal with persons we are having difficulties in social/business interactions:- here is the cheat-sheet:
1. Have an inner dialogue (I-D). The attempt by him/her is to put you in a non-rational frame of mind - to numb you with high-emotions so that you are not able to think. Therefore deliberately think and have an internal dialogue - give yourself a pep-talk - "I am not going to get cowed down here!". What is he saying? What are the issues involved?
2 Keep to basics (B's). Do not get drawn into tangential supplementary issues. Point out the basic issues. Insist on not getting into peripheral issues. Point out this is not appropriate to discuss "Always" - stick to the immediate provocation. (e.g. You are 'always' late for appointments! Let him/her state are you late this time? Other past instances are not being discussed.) Step 1 above, Inner Dialogue should help you think what is the basics here.
If he/she comes down to basics and if you are at mistake accept it! You need not explain in detail how this happened, instead promise that you will not commit such mistakes in future. Express (with self-respect) regret at the inconvenience caused.
3 State feelings , opinions, beliefs (F-O-B). You have right to express how you are feeling in this transaction (I am feeling being unfairly treated.). State your opinions freely. Express what you believe is involved. BUT BUT please stick to basics, do not fly into tangential - do not step up emotional temperature.
4 Be not a party to dis-assertiveness, state your needs and wants (D-N-W). Resolve during the internal dialogue that you are not going to be a party to dis-assertiveness. I will not accept unfairness towards me!. State your Needs and wants clearly: (I need to be given time to work on this report. I need to be given such & such resources if this result is required. I want that I may not be please treated discourteously.)

Well this needs to be practiced. Practice the opposite party role also. Get unfairly tough on somebody and see how he handles it ;-). Explain it off after its over. Keep a printed slip with following in your purse:
1 (I-D) Have an inner dialogue
2 (B's) Keep to basics
3 (F-O-B) State feelings , opinions, beliefs
4 (D-N-W) Be not a party to dis-assertiveness, state needs, wants

Did you find it useful! Do you have better strategies? Please leave comments!!!

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