Monday, January 16, 2006

BEST of both worlds !

the conscious mind is what we use to showcase ourselves to the world. this mind is what we are to the world. whereas the subconscious mind is something we need for ourselves. consequently, this is what we are to ourselves. it needs an awareness, about our subconscious, to really know who we are. most of us live out our lives being aware only about the conscious. so we are always left with some sense of discontent, about not being able to be ourselves coz we dont know in total, what we are in the first place.

once we get this higher level of awareness, we can be sure that we are equipped with the most powerful tool we can ever have. this will enable us to make our both minds in sync. what a beautiful world it would be then. we'll know exactly why we do all that we do. there will be a state of coherence in all that we do. no skyscrapers or trenches in the graph that represents the logic behind all that we do.

the subconscious mind records or stores up all the experience we gain as we learn, no matter what the outcome is.. as in whether we succeed or not in doing something. it needs careful tuning into the mind, an awareness, to manage the subconscious mind, to make it learn only the positives and tune out the negatives from those experience. this negative stuff thats learnt by the subconscious is the reason why one is afraid of making mistakes, which also prevents one from learning new things. this also creates anxiety while trying to learn something new, if this learning needs the help of the subconscious mind too.

for ex, learning to ride a bicycle, or learning swimming. these are some of the heavily offbalanced activities that is difficult to learn once we've grown up. our conscious mind is blocked out by the subconscious by the negative experience that it gains over time, as we grow up. thats the reason y adults find these extremely difficult and also y kids learn these tasks like crazy. there is just no experience for the kids (leave alone negative exp) when it comes to these activities, in the subconscious of theirs. so they have no fear or anxiety, generated by the subconscious, when trying their hand at these. this is the phase when the kids have their instincts at their best, as it is not clouded by any negative experince in their subconscious.

interestingly, as a corollary, learning to swim or ride a bicycle as a grown up will serve as a perfect acid test for grown ups to see if theyve put their subconscious in place, as in being able to control the subconscious, and also to see if they have the gift in them to use their instincts. also the prerequisite to have a good instinct and to use it is, first to have the subconscious in control. (its having it in control instead of having it overpowered coz instincts are the output of a healthy subconscious mind).

this will lead to the path where the subconscious is tamed and is made our pet. it can then be ordered to take control of the conscious mind. its dangerous to let the subconscious take over the conscious, unless its tamed first, however.

well, one may ask, if we want the subconscious to be tamed, arent we talking about the conscious mind, coz its a conscious desicion in this path ? no. its the awareness that im talking about, that should take over the two minds.
The HOLE

after a real long time, i felt like i was missing the hole.

i was so irritated about somethign and wanted to shout my spirit out. i didnt wanna vent it out to anyone else, for the fear that it might disturb n shake them up. there was a huge lump in my throat that i felt the pain unbearable. the only solution would be to shout at the top of my voice.

a hole is a small room thats light proof n sound proof, shawshank redemption style, well not so cramped though. thats space for u. real space, isolated from the chit chats of the world. n the world too, from you.

trying to make people listen is a truly herculean task. there's the expectation that you mite succeed in making them get your point. there's frustration when u fail in making them listen, truly.

the hole is a good tool to help anyone with this. you enter the hole without any expectations, coz u know u are not trying to make anyone listen now.

you can come out of it, with the job done, with the lump gone, with no more pain, n u start the process fresh, trying to make people listen, only now you dont have the lump.

Monday, January 02, 2006

The thin red line



just after posting my earlier one, i took a break to have a fag. i was watching the traffic and i saw a man who was walking with crutches. he was well dressed with clean shoes. as he was crossing the road a car stopped on the road and the person who was driving it was waving his hands as if to gesture the man to cross the road without bothering about his car. it didnt seem like a natural act. it looked to me like he was doing it to make a point. a point that he cares for the disabled. the fact is this man didnt need care. he only needs respect, from the way i see him handling himself (the way he;s groomed proves he is in a good job and is respected at work)

i could sense disgust in the face of the man with crutches.

there is a thin line between the act of showing respect for the challenged and the act of showing sympathy.

i hate to even make eye contact with the physically challenged. only coz i want them to feel like i was treating them like a normal person...
i keep my eyes off them out of the fear that they might feel that i am looking at them because i feel sorry for them. on the other hand, i show sympathy to beggars who are challenged.

thinking about my thoughts behind this, it makes me wonder if this corrected action of mine is also a result of sympathy deep down in my subconscious mind. sympathy for their feeling disadvantaged. this feeling of them which i have assumed to be true deep down. little does one know how they feel, deep down in their mind themselves.
Taking care of all ye folks


about a decade back, i remember thinking that the bane of my country is in the growing population. the city i lived in then is the same one that i do now. but lots have changed since. i grew up watching men n women living on the streets, bringing up kids... scores of them. how i used to wish the govt brought in a rule of only "one kid in a family".

now i realise what a mistake that could have been 10-20 years from now, had such a rule been imposed 10 years back. the economy has multiplied since. the infrastructure has improved. schooling standards have rocketed. the markets have been opened up. if the US has been the land of opportunities all thru the last 2 centuries, india is on the way to occupy that spot alongside the US, if not topple it.

economists say the engine behind this growth is the fact that the majority of the earning population in their 20-30s. developed countries like japan, uk n europe face a huge problem in the next 20-30 years. their working population is going to shrink. simply because, the families there do not have many children. as the working population ages and retires, there is going to be a lesser workforce that will takeover the jobs from them. there is going to be lesser revenues generated for their govt. in terms of taxes to take care of the medicare and pension plans of the retiring population... all because of the fact that families there are nuclear with only one kid, mostly (this makes the working population to halve in just one generation)

infact these govts are prodding their citizens to plan for bigger families, to reverse the trend atleast in time, if not earlier. china, i believe is planning the same. they had made a one child norm much earlier... well in the 1990s. so their population will follow the downward spiral that the european economies are falling into. this will be the case for china till 2050 when india will exceed their population. china plans to urge its citizens to plan for more than one child from then on.

given the advantage that india is in, it should not take a reactive measure when it catches up with this problem too. infact, even before this problem catches up, this might lead to a problem of plenty. too much population in the 20-40 age group, only without the right skillsets.

to handle the problem of plenty, it will add value to look at ireland.... how ireland shot to economic progress in just 10 years.. from 1980 to 1990. all that ireland did was to make college education free. afterall, economies need high skill jobs to be filled. no doubt the economy should be fundamentally strong to even assume that primary education is something that it doesnt need to be bothered too much about. this is something india is groping for in the dark. primary education is a problem too in the first place. but india does not have the time to make this area strong, and move on the the technical education that ireland made free to its population.

another 10-15 years that india might get stuck in perfecting its primary education system will be too much of an opportunity cost. india is no doubt a huge growth story, clocking 7-8% gdp growth year on year. it needs to have faith in its fundamental quality and take the risk of increasing its fiscal deficit, to subsidise technical education, if not make it free, apart from taking measures to perfect the primary education system (infact the complete schooling system).

that would be learning from a tried and tested method in ireland's policy.