Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Happiness- A Relative Sensation

Einstein spoke of Theory of Relativity to express the relation between space and time all to come up with a model to describe the Universe. It is on these lines that I have through my own cognition felt that happiness too is related to space and time. I realised this the most today during the course of a group meeting in my current organization. I felt the happiness of being part of a dispensation that shared with its employees, information and tidbits that were considered "beyond one's ken" in my previous organization.

My 'sensation' with my previous organization can best be declared as suffocating. There were barriers at each rung and any trangression of those barriers was considered a taboo. A taboo which asked for maximum punishment albeit through subtle scheming. Asking pertinent questions was considered too 'modern' and 'radical' for the believers of the traditional setup.

On the other hand the current organization stresses on the need for continous feedback. Asking quesitons is considered to be sacred and acceptable. I have in fact lost count on the number of times I was told to ask questions and the stressing can not be far from the truth of proving the point that its a way of life in this setup.This kind of encouragement can only but usher in a sense of worthiness and satisfaction, which by default translates into greater happniess.

As times and space have changed along with the people who have mingled with me over the various times and spaces of the present and the past, so has happiness varied in me. This happiness has thus brought in me a greater sense of the ways and means of understanding the universe around me.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Sitting Quietly

Of all the things in this world that I find most irkesome has to be sitting quietly. Can you imagine your situation when you are forced to sit quietly doing nothing at all, letting your mind go riot on the most irrelavant.

Post the scare casued by the unearthing of the plot to bomb 10 US bound planes over the british skies, the world has seen the western countries and thier security agencies go crazy. Rules and new regulations have been put in place that enforce rigid rules that infringe on the very basic rights that one has come to cherish. Of all the new rules the most absurd according to me would the one that makes you forcefully sit idle when in air by barring people from carrying books! This according to the security agencies is to prevent terrorists from tucking materials that can be used to make bombs or from carrying materials that can facilitate explosion of any kind. Does this in anyway compare better than similar diktats of the erstwhile Taliban in Afganistan banning people from reading books other than the Quran? Does this fare better than the forceful enforcement of silence on the masses of the muslim world by not letting them voice thier opinion through publications of their own?

Look at this in the backdrop of the imperialist West(read USA) demanding more freedom for people including people who are not its own citizens! Do they have the moral right? Do they stand on firm conviction? And come on, being so technologically advanced, if you can develop and install machines that can scan and smell human bodies then why can't you do the same for books!

At the end of it all imagine yourself having to sit 20 hours idling through your journey in the air. How much of gossip can you share with your neighbour? And if the neighbour too has a similar character like mine there would be no chat of even the trivial kind. What boredom! It most probably would feel like being incarcerated in a solitary confinement!