How to Understand Death?

What?
Now, that you have put me on the pedestal, let me be audacious & sermonise.

Once every few years, keep changing your situation. Meaning, change the place where you live, change where you work, bid adieu to your favourite eatery, ... you get the drift?

So, this is what happened.
I went to submit laptop to my previous employer. While I was in the cab, this thought dawned upon me. Isn't this exit process & formalities similar to the death rituals or rather I would say, अंतिम संस्कार (Antim Sanskar)?

Once you let that feeling seep into you, it's no turning back. You feel drastically different about the same building, same security, same reception, ... everything stays the way it has always been. And, it will be like that for a long time to come. Alas! you would be no more. You would have bid your time, now it's your turn to spread your wings. Now, it's your turn to fly into the next phase.

I understand we miss our colleagues, and we soon find new ones. Ultimately, it all feels like a rite of passage. The less we were attached to our old friends in the old company, it has lesser impact.

How beautiful it would be if we could feel the same for our body, friends, family, belongings...One day we will die, leave all of this behind. 

Do you miss your old childhood school? Old childhood friends? College?
Of course, Yes!
And, deep down you know that you have grown up and grown out of those experiences & emotions.

Ultimately death knocks on all doors!

You are closer to death than you were before reading this blog post.
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Robot with Emotions? - The 5 Senses

Is it possible to make a robot which can experience your touch like a human being?

The allure of humanoids has kept scientists busy for decades. If we zero down on the 5 basic senses which humans have : touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste, we can ask an objective question and get an answer too.

Do we have humanoids/robots which can experience these 5 basic senses like humans? NO.

So, Is it possible, anytime soon?
To answer this, we would first need to understand how the 5 basic senses function in humans. 

Sound : Sound waves hit your ears and your body recognises the waves

Sight/See : Light waves gets inside your eyes and again your body deciphers the object's image

Touch/Smell/Taste : Most likely waves could be the reason for these senses as well

So, if we fully understand these senses, we could start building that first humanoid which starts to feel like a human. 

Rough Edges Versus the Allure of Finesse

 

What gives you more joy? Getting 100/100 in all subjects or getting (99,99,98,97,94,...100,99)?
I'll choose the later. Not that I am capable of attaining either with no uncertainty. It's just the sight of possibility, the extra room for improvement, something which was amiss, creates a charm!

I'm pretty sure you must have heard of Casey Neistat. I am not telling why I mentioned him. Go Figure!

When there is a mass messaging about going the extra mile, giving that 10% extra, why am I invoking this sense of inadequacy and almost eulogising it? 
No reason at all. It's just me.

Growing like mushroom is not always desirable or attractive. Everybody loves to chase the growth story. Why? I don't have a definitive answer. May be they are chasing wealth/fame/independence. 

This is the opportune moment to clarify that I am no way promoting mediocrity. Perhaps I am titling towards Pareto principle. May be even this is not exactly what I mean.

Nature & human beings are drawn towards symmetrical things. This may be a reason for the allure of finesse, the craze of the perfect and the worship of the ideal!

Recall the moment, when you came back from office with the news of much awaited promotion. You put your bag away, hug your significant other and then after a while take a sip of Masala Chai which has slightly less sugar than you like. Try to capture that emotion, hold it in your hand, and tell me whether you would enjoy that rough edge to your happy moment? May be this would have added a signature, a uniqueness, a sense of individuality, a sense of belonging to that moment. 
I am reminded of this famous quote , "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." 
I would like to tweak it. Not all happy families are alike. When you are happy irrespective of what's happening around you & in your family, you get an ecstatic family.
Now, I am starting to sound cheesy; tsk!

PS : Merry Christmas! 

Coffee?

 Why do we enjoy coffee? Why do we sit in Cafes? 

To listen to something like "All I've Ever Known · Bahamas" and ruminate about the life you wish to have?
May be not. May be you have a different reason. That being said, there is a pleasure about sipping an overpriced drink laced with sugar and a kitschy slow/low background music playing around to keep you company.
This makes you feel like you have a halo, not around your head but around your thoughts; Around your life which has slipped through your hands like sand. This reminds you about someone. This reminds you about yourself; When you were someone different.

Or else, you are just a pretentious braggart buying your expensive coffee to distract your mind away from the senseless chatter you keep recycling in your head.

No, I'm not putting people on different rungs or putting anyone/anything on a pedestal. This is just me listening to "All I've Ever Known · Bahamas" on a Saturday morning and reminiscing about the times I hopped around the city to visit the new quaint coffee/tea place to idle away my time or to meet the next ... you know who? *sigh*

A lot definitely happened when I had coffee.  

Leaving you with the song which made me write this (below)


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Where there is an entrance, there is usually an exit

When you are someone like me, with a switch 'ON' button but no 'OFF' button, you are bound to gravitate towards lines by Murakami like 

“Where there is an entrance there is usually an exit. That’s the way things are made. Mailboxes, vacuum cleaners, zoos, salt shakers. Of course there are exceptions, Mousetraps, for instance.”

If I have to tell you the truth, I don't have any qualms about my obsessive personality. In the software parlance, I would like to term it as a feature not a bug. Of course, there are times you wish that there was a way out, the so called 'exit'. 

The art of distancing yourself from things at the perfect time is something which requires certain strand of cold-heartedness, which yours truly lacks. There are just quite a few times I have been able to say the perfect 'Good-Bye' with mathematical precision of a well-aimed projectile. Those incidents still haunt me more than I ever cared while executing my acts. 

Be it the quaint neighbourhood cafe, breakfast cereal, a new brew of tea, someone special...you get the drift? I have a bad habit of obsessing over them till I get a closure of sorts. As I don't practise moderation in the acts of heart, I drift apart from them too. Perhaps, that's my exit? No! It's more like death. Exit is something which starts another day, something like 'light at the end of the tunnel'. The way I part is more like a butcher bludgeoning an animal to death.

Few years back, Alpha & I were discussing about addiction. 
Alpha asked , "How to stop this habit of sipping diet coke?"
"Simple, order ~100 of them and finish them in 3 days" I replied
"Wow! Even I follow a similar plan to get off a bad habit, just do it so many times, you get bored of it. More like you overflow the process of quenching your cravings. Like capillary effect, it just adjusts the contact angle and no more of it overflows" added Alpha

And in the words of Haruki Murakami,
“All things should have both an entrance and an exit. That’s just the way it is.”