Hues of Nature

Its the beautiful Spring time again. I have slightly changed my habits and added some good ones and one of them is to take a walk in the morning.
The agricultural university - GKVK - is right in the vicinity and its more than a park, its a mini forest.

Bangalore is still livable and has traces of the old one due to these small patches of lush greenery in and around the city.The people rushing to these parks /mini forests in Lal Bagh, IISC, sankey Park, BEL, military zones are examples of how necessary it is for human's to be part of nature rather than exploit it.Its moving on from the old independent houses with a small garden to a more compacted houses without no sign of greenery around to a concrete jungle with hardly any trace of natural colors. All good thoughts, religions claim life comes full circle. I think we are on the hump of the semi-circle right now, with city being over crowded and reducing ground water to traffic and pollution. Am already thinking of where I should reside probably ten years down the line .

Meanwhile, I could not resist the beautiful colors around in GKVK and wanted to capture them permanently in memory and digitally. Here is a small sample. If you are interested in watching all the photos , please follow me into - A walk on a bright Sunday morning

Black Swan

Last night I watched Black Swan and for the life of me , I have not been able to stop thinking about it. I went and re-read the summary and interpretations on various sites. I read through Natalie Portman , although while watching the movie , I felt the face similar but could not trace back to another movie.After realizing that she was in Closer, I was to some extent surprised and impressed with her perfect acting in this movie.

She definitely deserves the accolades she received and the director has done no less than a fantastic job.

Its amazing and mind blowing to watch movies like this which are perfections and an art in deed. In terms of the story , I just relived my post-watch experience of "Hide and Seek" and "The Hour". Whenever I watch such movies , which are open ended and food for thoughts and some serious things within and with human nature, a kind of discussion with somebody else who really understands it is something I cherish and often don't get.

To get this off my mind and to be able to sleep, I had to start watching "Gulliver Travels" :D

Happy movies

Book Review - The Design of EveryDay Things by Donald Norman

I recently finished reading this book. It is a worthwhile read. Although not all of the aspirations of the author are realistic(atleast for the area of software), its good to aspire for what is ideal.

After reading this book, one important thing is that you will start appreciating the beauty of design even in the simplest thing like a safety pin or needle. You will also realize that not all newer versions are improved designs since there are so many factors contributing in production of a new product, its not always true that the latest is the greatest.

One needs to go by the old thumb rule that you are best Judge when you have the knowledge, so get the knowledge and decide for yourself.

The beauty of the book is in the way author communicates his ideas with the simplest things around us and with the excellent examples like door bars, water faucets, motor panel design, the mapping of vertical movement with the circular steering wheel.

There is one part of the book, which talks about how digital clock is better than analog. Whoever invented the concept of having 2 needles for the clock and why it is hard to teach a child to read a clock. Interesting things which typically we would not notice or care to observe.

Assuming that the author wrote this book in early 90s, his expectation about computer design to evolve to solve the actual problem rather than becoming a part of the problem is to some extent true if you see in today's progressed computer world. But we are still long way from becoming as advanced and perfect as a motor industry and this will take its time. The ideal day would be when using a computer becomes like using electric current, to solve the problem - lighting the bulbs and lamps, cooling for refrigerator, heating for iron . But the computer world is a lot different from the other worlds so coming times will tell us how best they evolve into.

I like reads like this , since they enhance your view or improve your perspective about what is around you, they make you more cognizant human being ultimately.

Vacation

I took off a long vacation of complete 15 days from office. This was after a long time, so much so that i made a list of things i need to do during vacation.
Well I could cover atleast 80% of it. But most importantly it just provided me this time to just come out of office and just be somebody who I would be if I am stripped of my job.

I enjoyed it in my own way, not that I spent all the time laughing and going around the world. But I did do some thinking, some reading, some shopping and watched quite a few movies - in a sense I did a few of everything. I watched interesting movies - Hachiko, The Gods must be crazy, Memento(third time and still can watch again), The social network, Falling in love , The Lovely bones and a few more.

It amazes me how time passes by and how people are always , in their own ways, trying to make meaning out of their lives. Almost everybody understands that time is precious, but nobody is really sure if they are really using it to the fullest.

I accidentally came across Nikola Tesla's feature and about how although he was so intriguingly knowledgeable, but still did not have so much of luck with the world. Well Well well, for one thing , I realized, its not important whether the world thinks if you are good, that's a question you ought to answer yourself. You might not be famous or somebody who gets a huge salary or somebody with a lot of political influence, but it does matter how your family treats you and how you respond back . This is what probably makes one feel good , and spice it up with achievements in your work life, one would feel a life worth lived. Do check out this link about Tesla.

Meaning of life

So I am reading a serious but a very meaningful book from Viktor Frankl about Man's search for meaning in life.
I chose to buy and then read it because this book addresses something which is like a eternal question for me. I am still reading it , but it is one book everybody should read.
Its a constant thought at the back of my mind, if I start worrying about anything - is this the purpose of your life and if you continue to do what you are doing, how will you feel 10 yrs down the line?
Anyways there is no general answer for these questions , each person and each person's life is unique so I could continue to write a few pages and still don't conclude about the meaning of one's life.
I came across this very interesting site - Khan academy. The interesting thing is the person - SalmanKhan - provides online videos - like online classrooms. This guy is so learned and his effort is something which seems to make the technology we have meaningful and worthwhile. Imagine how many people are getting benefitted out of this . Some thing like this, which helps the other human beings and also gives the satisfaction for the person of achieving something - this is called as meaning for one's life in my opinion.

The Weatherman

Watched "The Weatherman". Good movie and states the obvious. Its human tendency to make sure to keep everybody in his family happy and every family person tries it. But all can't go the way one wants it this is what is narrated in this story. There is one quote I liked very much by Micheal Caine .
"Do you know that the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy. "Easy" doesn't enter into grown-up life."

You don't have to be intelligent to be happy

Although Intelligence and happiness are two different things altogether. A lot of the time I keep thinking that anybody who is intelligent will be happy. I usually get fascinated when I meet people who are close to "genius" . Post the meeting, I usually get into thinking, how lucky and blessed this guy is... he is so intelligent and he should definitely be happy and satisfied with his life.

But Its not true. Intelligence does not mean happiness, all intelligence gives you is at the bare minimum you own your actions and even when you are not happy, you are fine to some extent. An intelligent person weighs pros and cons of each of their decisions and is cautious. I know all this is very abstract but then thats what this space is all about :)

Now let me talk about the book I finished today - " the search" by John Battelle. Its an amazing book. It narrates the story of search, how google has become a synonym for search. How in future search is going to encompass every second of our life but still, its a little far from getting us what we actually want. I remember one comment from one of the movies " You cannot consider yourself an expert and have done a research just because you went and browsed about it on google". This is very true.
This book is a very good read and sometimes goes on to show, how the right things like the google's good will and hardwork of making sure they have the best algo for search has paid them a long way in their business.