Let's beat the equation.

As I spend time at home on a nice Saturday evening, catching up on all things inspirational, I come across a talk by Bill Gates, titled "Innovating to Zero". It's all about the need to reduce our carbon emissions down to an amazing ZERO. Pretty ambitious, in my opinion, but its Bill Gates. I'm 100% sure he'll make things happen.

A visionary who's trying to solve the real problems of the world, Bill Gates is sure to go down in the books for what he does today more than that software behemoth he gave birth to in his garage.

In his talk, he presents to the audience an extremely interesting equation :-

Total CO2 Emissions = [#people in this world] x [services per person] x [energy per service] x [emissions per unit energy]

All this really means is that the amount of carbon dioxide we emit as a human race is related to all the services we use and the amount of carbon emissions each one of them has. To get emissions down to ZERO, obviously one of the variables in the equation needs to go to ZERO. Bill Gates proposes the emissions per unit energy to be that lucky variable (watch the talk for more details and insight. It rocks)

I say, here's a faster, yet more dreamy approach. But to consider the possibility, let's dream. Dream that the equation exists as

Total CO2 Emissions = [(energy you spend because you THINK you need it per unit time) + (energy you spend because you're lazy per unit time) + (energy you spend because you're wasteful per unit time) + (energy you spend because you REALLY need it per unit time) ] x [emissions per unit energy] x [number of people in this world]

The above, in my opinion, is really how we spend each living moment. Our every day is filled with our basic necessities/activities and the rest is excessive, wasteful and products of laziness. There's definitely a way we can work on reducing the contribution to carbon emissions from the variables in red above....

I looked around my apartment while watching Bill Gates' talk, only to find that I have the lights in my kitchen left on, the ones in my hallway left on, my heater is left on in my room when I'm in my living room - it saddens me to realize how wasteful I am sometimes. It also saddens me to realize the carbon footprints I'm leaving behind as a result of being ME today. But, how about I change ME a little bit?

A little change in me would result in lesser consumption and a better world for the future. Just a little less today, and a lot more to offer for tomorrow. Lets extend that statement to say that I'd like to consume less overall - energy, clothing, technology, everything. Living a simpler, lesser complicated life would result in a cleaner environment, better usage of my possessions (by donating, selling, etc) and a free mind. But, how can I do this?

Here are some ways:

• Fight against the machines : use what is necessary. Switch the rest off. Don't leave any of them running, from the lights in your room to the monitor in power-saving mode.
• Clean up your mess: We all have things we don't want or need. It's all clutter. Unnecessarily piling up to fill our closets. Give them away. Sell them. Get them out of your life!
• Recycle: Intelligent minds have worked on ways to make use of our by-products. Let's not direct useful resources to landfills; let's re-use them. All we have to do is separate useful from non-useful :).
• Be a minimalist: This is hard today, but something worth working towards. There's beauty and tranquility in being simple and having less. There are too many marketers meddling with our minds to make us think there are many things we need. Guess what, most of them don't positively impact our lives at all. Read Buyology, you'll see what I mean.

A simple change in our lifestyle today can ripple its effects to the future. Together, you and I, can beat that equation Bill Gates put forth.

So, let's be dreamy, change that equation and beat it to the ground.

Live your religion.

I recently watched a very interesting talk by Barry Schwartz on the Paradox of Choices - how having more choices actually leads to higher expectations and lesser satisfaction. The slide you see above is one from his talk and one that really appealed to me.

I've been brought up in a culture that teaches you to respect your elders, love your parents and follow your religion. As a naive kid with not much to care about, I followed every Hindu ritual that was imparted to me. And so I grew, in age and mind, which lead me to question my beliefs. Poojas and religious festivals are an integral part of my fond childhood memories. They always will be. Yet, by no means are they reflective of the belief-system I currently hold (well, maybe indirectly, through the years that have moulded me).

It has taken me a while to accept the fact that I'm not religious - at least not in Society's eyes. An initial feeling of self-denial transitioned its way to one of acceptance as the years went by; and I realized that it wasn't wrong to hold your own opinion or question the very canons of the societal belief-system. I'm still working on it, but I do have a strong opinion on this :-

As humans, we seek control of our existence. For this control, we rely on a set of facts that complete our view of the world - call it religion or your fundamentals. These facts define us and make our every breath possible. Since they define me, I want to know what exactly they mean. Since they make me possible, I want to be passionate about them - as dear to me as my life. Since they are my fundamentals, I want them to be simple.

I don't know if I can ever conform to a universal set of such principals that fulfill my above listed criteria. But, what I do know is I can make a list of my own to live my life by and call my religion.

I know what is right and what is wrong. I seek to learn and correct. To do and reflect. And with this simplistic approach, I use the "Ten Commandments Do It Yourself Kit".

This post is for my parents, who didn't hold me back from questioning faith. Not once did they impose their beliefs on me. I cannot thank them enough for giving me the freedom to tinker.

Be in touch with your roots.

We all need a release; in the good times and the bad. Some find it in the melody of music, in the written word or whatever it is that gives them the peace of mind. Point being, there's a story behind it. In the case of writing and music, in particular, the story behind this product is, more often than not, as fascinating as the product itself. To a listener or a reader, there's some context then, with a dive into the mind of the artist. Such a dive did Joshua Radin provide tonight.

I went to the concert with no expectations. There are songs I really like by him, but he was no where on my list of concerts to go to before I die. By the end of it, though, I left impressed. I've always wondered why big bands never do small gigs once they get popular. If i were an artist, I'd always want to mix a few small ones in as a reality check of my roots . Joshua Radin really hit that note today when he said the following (paraphrased):

"I'm not backed by any big records that shove music down your throats on the radio. Where my song is a squeeze between a Britney Spears song. You're here because you heard about it from someone or you like the music. This is a community."

I love it. It's all about the people for him. That's how things should be.

The intimate setting provides for a connection where you really feel like the band's playing for you and that they're there just for the few in the crowd. To take that one step further, Joshua turned the night into a story-telling affair. He shared with us the story behind his inspiration for every song he sang - some were personal, some philosophical, yet all so normal. Definitely made me feel like I could be an artist tomorrow. That feeling sealed the deal for me and gave me my money's worth.

It's fascinating to try and understand what inspires people. It's also amazing to realize how a simple mundane act can spur the hidden song in a person. To share that with the world is brave. The transparency razes to the ground many assumptions that stand tall between people.

To sum it up, this definitely goes down as one of my favorite concerts. The setting was great. The music soothing. The vibes so positive. And the message learned was this:

Know where you started.
Be in touch with your roots, down to earth.
Let your creation do the talking.
"And everything'll be alright"

'Hit the ball out of the park'

There's so much going on around us. So many things we all want to be part of. I won't say there's not enough time to make it all happen, but just too much going on to give 100% to it all at once.

One of my seniors at work shared this very simple, yet important fact of life:- "No matter what you do, what you're working on, hit that ball out of the park."

Let's be objective and rational in our decisions. Yet, for a change, let's put our hearts before our minds, and give whatever it is that we want to do our very very best shot.

There are things I want to see through and I'm sure you've got your list too. Make it happen; throw yourself at it. Let's work hard to see it all through.

I think the video below by Gary Vaynerchuk sums this message up really well.

Empower fourteen children in Uganda.

For the past 15 minutes, I've made several failed attempts at delivering this message in a very inspirational way. I'm at a loss for words and the rhythm of poetry. So, I'll deliver it point-blank. I want this message to hit you hard. I want it to be effective. I want us to make something happen. Starting today, starting now.

$38 can buy you a t-shirt, a nice meal at a fancy restaurant, a few drinks at a bar or a month's worth of education for a little child in Uganda, with all living expenses included. The same $38 that will give you fleeting pleasure will empower a child to be educated. Your education has brought you to this very point. So, stop right here. Think back, be grateful, and pay it forward. Here:- http://www.jolkona.org/campaigns/FourteenEducatedChildren.

It's our responsibility to destroy this imbalance. The very fact that we're educated makes it our moral obligation. I could go on about how important it is for us to realize this but I'll leave the rest to you.

This is in no way a solution or a fundamental fix. Just a hurl in the right direction.

Let's do this together, really.

Let the creativity flow

I had the chance to catch "Where the wild things are" this past weekend. When my brother introduced me to the trailer, I was intrigued. A 10-sentence children's book was being turned into a movie. That's a bold project, I thought, not because there wasn't much to go by for Spike Jonze, but because he had the audacity to challenge the imagination of hundreds of thousands of individuals that had their own little story for this 10-sentence book. I was ready to embark on the director's journey.

While the movie has met mixed reviews, I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. The movie took on unexpected turns and was truly unconventional in its story-telling methods. While the characters were somewhat complicated, Spike Jonze very craftily exhibited the inherent characteristics of Max through the *monsters* in Max's dream.

What really appealed to me was the randomness in the movie. It lead me to question why, as children, we're so radical in our thinking; so naive, yet so colorful and imaginative. There're so many stories that we have to share as kids; most of them conjured in the blink of an eye, just like that. All it takes is someone to level with kids and engage in their creative journey - it's truly fascinating.

Here's the real question though, where does that random train of creativity go as we grow older? Why're we so rigidly attached to this system that we cannot appreciate an anomaly? Why do we refer to it as an anomaly in the first place? Why does something come across as random or even unexpected? I don't get it.

Here's a video worth watching. Sir Ken Robinson probes the question if school kills creativity in this TED talk.

Here's my take on it :- in this system that trains you thoroughly for a one-dimensional existence, do you have what it takes to break loose?

I want those colors to flow again. I want to paint with my mind and heart, not with my conditioned existence. I want to add my own color.

We are here.

The last couple of weeks have been interesting. I've been walking to work and back home everyday, only to realize how exhilarating it is to have the time to look around and absorb. A half hour walk is sufficient to lift my spirit and energize me for the day ahead.

To be surrounded by people and the familiar sounds of an early morning makes me feel like the world is mine and I'm here to conquer every moment of it. No confined space of a car would give me that feeling. I know I can take any turn, change my path at any minute and bring in the unexpected into every walk. There's a feeling of power in that; and I love it.

Little did I notice before the messages hidden all around. Be it in a poster, a tile on the floor or the wall, or right above you, in the most mundane of elements. Here's one that particularly struck me:

"Now we see the ties,
Each steel crossbeam a line that reads,
From here to there, from then to now
You don't have to leap tracks to make the connection
History is the same as sunlight and snow
Where we are bound,
This network of tracks behind us -
Hard evidence of lives spent to reach us -
And leads us to the same point:
We are here."

Our past experiences bring us to this very moment.
This is our thread, woven by our DNA.
Seize it. Make it work.
Make it count now.
Let's write our own history.
Be masters of our very existence.
No journey should tie us down.

Interesting quote.

This will be quick. I've got 5 minutes but I'm in the mood to put something out here. Came across this interesting quote :-

"Don't ever let your mind stop you from having a good time." - Jason Mraz, At the Greek Theatre in Berkley.

That's an interesting thing to say. I think I have the best time in my mind. Sometimes, I can't give words to the piece of thought cause it's so unrealistic . Sometimes, dreamy. Sometimes, realistic. They're filled with things I want to do.

And I think those thoughts keep me going every single day. Yet, I'll keep some of them safe inside right where they belong.

Cosmic Entropy

This article is fricking amazing - filled with paradoxes, assumptions, falsifications and theories to explain our universe.

"No known physical principle can explain why the cosmic entropy is so low. But it’s a good thing because the low value “is responsible for everything we experience about the [unidirectional] flow of time — breaking eggs, growing older and dying, remembering the past but not the future,” notes Carroll. “The universe is incredibly more orderly than it has any right to be. Egan and Lineweaver have shown that it’s just a bit more disorderly than we thought."

It's amazing how this system of life is just about right to make things work. Yet, no amount of science or knowledge can even make us fathom how complex it really is. We live in pursuit of its understanding. Our collective curiosity destroys and constructs our facts every day. I love it.

Nothing's absolute; or completely solved. So, with that in mind, let's keep pursuing whatever we do.

Walking.

I love walking. I want to walk everywhere I can. Every journey is different then. There's always something new to discover, or maybe just some color to marvel at.

The randomness is exciting - unforeseen and moving. The exchange of unknown glances; and then, a smile. Embrace it - it's all part of the exercise.

Here's an age and time when I can. So, why not. Why any other way. Time beckons I guess. Well, the same path for another time - I'll walk you again to paint my mood.

Here are pictures from things my mom and I discovered when we chose to walk instead of take the car for a change. A welcoming twist to the day.