The Technology Bubble

You can't cure delusion and delirium at the same time.

This one's certainly for you if you eagerly await articles which sound like - Technology Trends for the year 2XYZ - unless of course, your belief system says line 1 doesn't make sense.

 Have you caught these buzz words recently? Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Neural Networks, IoT. Chances are that you have. If you haven't, you might still have time to catch up on Tom and Jerry and save yourself the trouble. But seriously, you may be into something else which may be important to you and that's a good thing!

Have you wondered:

1. Why does promoting a particular technology and invariably solicit investment become more important that solving existing problems?
2. Why are these promotions always backed by a study that no one will remember next year when the findings are proven wrong?
3. Why do these trends always come with the message We dare you to miss the bus?

I don't at all deny that new technology and fresh thought streams are required when we hit the ceiling with existing ones. Have you noticed the hype around every buzzword - be it conferences, workshops, courses, hackathons and so on. Noise invariably dies down just like a buzzword that didn't quite live up to the hype.
Am I saying these aforementioned activities are worthless? Hardly that. The real question is: Where is the accountability to the hype?

Dare to dream is a common bubble blower these days. You sit at a quiet corner, wrap yourself in a colorful bubble, wonder how beautiful it looks from inside, invite more dare-to-dreamers who wont burst your bubble, show them a rainbow and... wait. Wait for them to share the dream with you in the form of investment.

I wonder if anyone asks these days "Do we need this?", since the handouts when you entered the bubble had already answered exactly that, in bold: Of course you need it! - I dare you to dream and I also dare that you refuse.

A typical business leader might look at the technology trend curve and say "Hmm. The reports say it will last 5 years. So I'll still get my share of the pie".
New technology comes with need for a workforce educated enough to build, say a product, based on the bleeding edge technology. You then contact academia, have them put something together in a hurry, advertise, make a few job promises and you are on your way. Others will pick up the scent and it spreads - I dare you to not compete.

A new bubble is ready to burst.

The age of the Ephemeral Celebrity

Celebrity: someone media (and thereby, the public) celebrates with attention.

There should be one simple question we need to ask ourselves: What exactly are we celebrating here?
A rare quality?
But then,  there are "celebrities" like Rakhi Sawant, who have nothing that someone from the general public cannot  offer, other than perpetually self-disgrace in the name of drama/entertainment.

Of course, there are those people with rare qualities who are also Celebrities. No denying that. This discussion is about the other class.

So where, then, lies the disgrace? Is it in the taste of the general public?
Yes, agreed that audience tastes change, but to embrace crap and celebrate it? Really?

For example, a wink that went viral and made someone an instant celebrity. And then what? A film career? And then what? Does it matter to anyone?
Not so long ago, a disaster of a singer became a sensation after her atrocious voice and videos went viral. And now? Did it matter then? Obviously, it doesn't, now.
And there lies the truth with short-term fame and celebrity-hood. It is exactly that. Ephemeral. 
These people who are occupying our mind-space; do they actually deserve it? Are they occupying it because we don't know what better to do with ourselves?

The general public have never felt more empowered; social media has provided fertile ground for half-cooked, mediocre minds to voice their opinion and be heard. Imagine a scenario where many totally deaf people are arguing about something. Thats the direction in which our social media revolution is heading. In the opposite direction of the collective intellectual evolution.

At the bottom of all this is, something akin to what is today identified as ADHD in children. It is as if a large part of the population is enjoying (and not suffering) from ADHD which in turn, creates these T-shirts of the week (Ref: David Fincher's Seven).  Clearly, suffering is for the rest of the populace.
We fail to pay attention to detail and get swayed by something ludicrous since it comes well-packaged with the pretense of being niche. It makes us not see the bigger picture or even consider the possibility of the existence of a higher design.

Orchestrating the whole show is obviously the media, whose moral values have generally been on an endless descent. It has got to a point now that any falsehood can be made to masquerade as breaking news to cater to short term attention and then be conveniently forgotten.

Can we break out of this temporariness? Hold on to something that's more long term? First define and then develop higher tastes for oneself, perhaps?
At least, try and stay neutral to T-shirts of the week.
Be oblivious to such content or prepare for oblivion, the same place it all goes.

The great facebook Like sale

You scratch my back and I scratch yours back.

I am on facebook, like, (not that Like...) all day.
Not a day passes now-a-days without getting on to the most widely read book on the planet, facebook. For the techtivated (read: tech-activated) lot, at least!
But really now, is it really some sort of technology at play here? At the very bottom of it, it's just plain old sale of attention and human beings' need to feel important. Of course, we all knew that. Wait, there's more. It is, in reality a gigantic advertising platform, money involved or not. Money for some, not for all others.
So what are we selling today? Life events? Travel goals? Relationship status? Or Likes?

How about this? I sold 10 likes this morning which was actually an investment to get at least 15 back.  Yeah you read that right, a factor of 1.5 if you open up your posts to be liked by friends of friends. That factor can jump if you make public posts where random people with twitchy left thumbs will like your posts for reasons unknown!

Here's how I do it. Just before I unload (no, I didn't mis-spell upload) some content, I Like my friends' posts, with a hope that they will take notice. Fresher the post, the better. I mean, seriously, people do track  these statistics, you know.  Not count, but track.

1. Who were the first ones to like it? 
2. Who liked it because someone else liked it? Consequently, who might like it if someone else likes it and the converse?
3. Who are the usual likes, who like my stuff just to tell me they care?
4. Who are the likes that really matter to me? Psst. if they haven't liked too, it'll register in some corner of my mind, no worries. Er. that actually worries me.
5. Who didn't like it this time because I may have missed liking some of their earlier posts?

The list being so small is actually a giant giveaway that I lied about being on facebook all day. Yeah, I lied. In other words, there are a myriad more facebook situations (whoa, whatever is that?) that might exist which I haven't been (yet) made a part of.

Sage Vishwamitra is said to have created a Trishanku Swarga - an alternate heaven to serve one person's fancy. Mark Zuckerberg is the Vishwamitra of the present day, eh? Hello, he created a heavenly limbo for every user on facebook, including you.
But hey, I created it myself, he just gave me the platform!
Exactly.
This, that we sense with our sense organs is all falsehood, maaya - the scriptures keep screaming. By creaming your time, facebook has taken maaya to an entirely different level eh? 

The irony of it all is that this will be shared on facebook to get eyeballs. No, wait. I am using facebook as a newspaper which everyone will open up to skim for new content every morning, afternoon, evening and night. Did that sell?


Even when I mis-spelt facebook as farcebook at some places, the sample audience of this blog didn't even notice it. What does that tell you?

So go ahead, write something here...
P.S:
* At many places, facebook is used as a generalised term for social media. Guess what? To get more eyeballs!
* Sigh, there's so much more to write, but this is already crossing the ideal blog size for more, you guessed it, eyeballs!

Unplanned - Urdu

lagaya hum par ilzaam yaad na karne ka
ke jab khud hi yaadon se rooTh gaye

kitne din unke haseen yaadon mein guzre
kya batayein kitne saathi hum se chooT gaye




 Maafi-Naamaa

 siskiyon mein kategi ab zindgi
jo tum ne humein na maaf kiyaa

hum nahin karenge koi shiqaayat
jao tujhe saat khoon maaf kiyaa

be-qadar be-khabar teri nazar
cheekhtee hain "na maaf kiyaa"

hawaa ka rang hai taazaa ahmar
raet par likhaa hai maaf kiyaa

aazmaayaa hai kaafir-e-aazam ko
khudaa ne bhi humein na maaf kiyaa

Be-rehem

jahaan dhoondhta phirta hai mujhe,
magar tu mujhe kahin na mila
(the world seeks me, while that I seek eludes me)

mera faDfaDaataa dil aur laDkhaDaati zubaan
donon se be-waaqif hai mera yaar
(my fluttering heart and stumbling speech, you hear neither)

tum qadamon se roz likhti ho naye shaer
kitni nazooki se raundte hain mere dil ko

yeh shaer hi meri dhadkanen hain
darbaar-e-dil intezaar mein hai

(you trample my heart everyday to create this poetry
it awaits your entry(feet to trample) everyday)

uski be-rehmi ka bhi jawaab nahin,
mujhmein bandagi jo aa gayii.

(her cruelty is inexplicably magnificent
since it made me turn to God (for mercy))

A Bovine Intervention

They say "You see it in their eyes".

We (My 10 year old daughter and I) spent a couple of hours at the Madhwanarayana Goshaalaa (MG) located near the Muktinaaga temple on the outskirts of Bangalore - en-route to the Big Banyan Tree.

MG is a volunteer-run unit which aims at providing a peaceful life to cattle that are uncared for or those need a safe place after being abandoned or displaced.

They also have a long term goal of breeding most of the Native Indian breeds for preservation purposes.
At this point, they have cattle breeds like Sahiwal (Punjab and Haryana), Baraguru, Hallikar, Malenadu giDDa (all Karnataka) and Amrit mahal. Some of them are rescued, and the rest are bred in house.

The cows were initially cautious with us, watching us, feeling us.
We fed the cows some freshly cut corn stems, which they very happily devoured.
After we hand-fed them, our presence became more acceptable to them - perhaps being convinced of our intentions.

The goshaalaa itself is very well kept with absolutely no stench whatsoever. I was told by the keepers that the dung produced by the native breeds doesn't stink. The cattle are in good health too.

I grew up with cattle being a part of my childhood - so, for me, the connection was instantaneous. It came as a pleasant surprise to me that my city-bred daughter took to them so fondly. We spent a good two enriching hours there.

The place is managed by, as I said, a group of like-minded volunteer friends, who aspire to run it professionally (simply by tracking inflow and outflow).

MG is a part of the Sri Vrindavana Gokula Charitable Trust and PunyakOTi Trust to which donations can be made.

They also are trying to grow their own fodder in available land. They are very welcoming to visitors, so please take some time out to touch base with your Bovine connection which for many, I am sure, will be not very different from the Divine connection.

I have been visiting the gOshaalaa every Sunday now, but today was special. I just broke into a couple of raga based presentations while I was alone with the bovines. Their response was pointed ears, continuous stare and rapt attention.
A massive Sahiwal breed bull called Ganesha and a Sahiwal cow Madhubaala were the most noteworthy in how they reacted. The bull Ganesha never let me to touch him before this, when the music was on, he drew closer to me and stood still like a statue. They started looking at me very differently after that. This is something beyond words. I must say that all of them didn't seem to be equally responsive, but Madhubaala and Ganesha blessed my Yugaadi today.

Notice the pointed ears:

 

Video of Ganesha's latest response to a ghazal:

https://www.facebook.com/2133040003638887/videos/2138576729751881/

https://www.facebook.com/2133040003638887/videos/2138575999751954/