Hobbies

The dictionary defines a hobby as a leisure activity done regularly for pleasure. So, does it also mean that stamp (and other things) collecting, reading, writing, hearing music, watching movies, singing, dancing, playing the piano, travelling, swimming or playing any sport, playing with your pet all hobbies?

Not all in the above list can be called as hobbies – I think – because not all seem to be activities in the reasonable sense of the word. Hearing music can’t be a hobby and so is reading. Well, one might defend reading as a hobby, but I think only if some conditions prevail.

Classifying how we spend our time?

We spend our time either creating, or consuming or resting. If you think its stupid of me to make such a classification, then that would be fair. For instance, without consuming and resting – both which allow for maintenance – creating would be impossible. But the separation is still important to understand the essence of a hobby.

Defining A hobby

So, I’d like to define a hobby as an activity that results in a build up of a body of work – a tangible output. You may be a bird-watcher and so you might be maintaining a field diary of different birds you have seen, their photographs. Your inputs may include field guides, reference books, binoculars etc and above all, your dedication and time. May be then, a hobby is a lot like work, just a lot more fun.

Reading - say history books – too results in a build-up of historical insights. But I don’t think all types of reading can qualify. Most of it is passive and just doesn’t adds up. Like reading newspapers!

An activity should be such which requires application of the mind and that engages it and doing it makes you better at it. Your precision of that task improves.

Summing up a hobby is an activity you do regularly for pleasure, the task is absorbing and doing it makes you better at it.

My hobbies

I deliberate on writing, though I don’t think I write a lot. I like the aesthetics of words and the tranquilizing effect it has on the mind. It combs the mind and help organize my thought, like this essay.

I read books on history, economics health and fitness along with fiction. I want to especially gain some insights into evolution and the human body processes to be able to lead a healthy life.  I also want to try out origami, sketching and painting among other things.

Looking after our health, before the event

Last week, my father’s cousin passed away due to a cardiac arrest after he was admitted for some serious health irregularities sometime back.

He was in his early 40s, living in Jaipur with wife, two teenage sons and his brother’s family. Once his sickness got somewhat serious, the family went to Calcutta to get him treated, a city they lived in not so long time ago and for almost all their life.

In the aftermath, talking among each other, people reconciled the death as a pre-written destiny. That, only so many breaths were given to him. If he was to live, he would have been at the right place for the right treatment.

Who is to say this is not destiny, and something else, but I’d risk sticking my neck out and ask to take a longer look at it. I wonder how often heart failure occurs for pre-written reasons. And if we just think of it as the play of non-negotiable destiny, then we risk not learning at all. We continue to live overlooking our body’s well-being.

Peoples’ health, measured by either of the parameters - physical activity, weight, stomach flab, diet, etc. – are so average -average being very poor - that we have come to depend a good deal on doctors, as our internal life sustaining mechanisms continue to wither. And may be being stuck in this predicament is then our destiny.

In issues of health and most things in life, what we do ex-ante (before the fact) is more critical than things we do ex-post (after the fact), the very essence of the popular adage: Prevention is better than Cure.

Good Day, Shreekant

Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts.

I recommend: Essay contrasting technology and love by Jonathan Franzen

Smart phones

Definition:

A phone is one that you consume.
A smart phone is one that consumes you.

Putting it differently - a corollary:

You can't take a dip in water and not get wet,

or touch fire and not burn yourself!

You can't have a smart phone

and not get consumed.

When technology overshoots

When markets overshoot’s,
there is a price correction (often crash-landing).

When technology overshoots
how does the correction occur?

The day I posted this question on the net, I found a picture (below) that somewhat depicted what I had in mind.

*this is not my image

Addendum:

There is a slight flaw in the analogy I have presented, though..That is the old big television set might induce the same problems as a flat High definition television would!

But its likely that the viewing experience would be unmatched and so much more tempting!

Mumbai: An Easy Target

I write, Mumbai as being an easy target, as if it was unknown. And maybe it is. But the idea that Mumbai is an easy target, explains in some amount, combined with its high position, in some part, why bombs frequently explode in the city, giving its past name – Bomb-ay - a new meaning.

Being an Easy Target, showed up in the past weeks explosion.

The aftermath effect being the predictable: everybody cursed the terror attack on innocent people, condemned the government and the intelligence failure. And what about being just Easy Targets? A place where, a bomb’s can be planted and exploded.

Zaveri Bazar was hit for the third time since 1992. Opera House and Zaveri Bazar, the two places that were hit, besides Dadar, are places where gold and diamonds get bought and sold by innocent gentlemen.

One would expect these places to match their surrounding to the aesthetics of the products they trade, but this is all imagination.

These are the places with archaic dilapidated and ramshackle buildings, leaving the whole area extremely congested. And this existence has been impossible to mend due to the same innocent men, who are thought to be victims of all this terror.

Or may be they are not. They are just innocent and powerless and its someone else who has created the mess!

Mumbai, I’d prefer Bombay, is stuck in this web of innocent folk, comatose, unable of any collective action, who have made themselves and the city, an Easy Target.

Making an exception

At the two day freelance journalism workshop they asked us to deposit Rs 500 on the first day along with the registrations, which was for securing our attendance on the second day. This put me in a bit embarrassing position, as I didn't have the required token.

And this time, there were girls doing the registrations, and when I told them the fact they did show some surprise. Taking it light, I gave an alternative.

I told them to keep my Voters ID card, which to them was not as credible or valuable as Rs500. (why else would they haggle and ask me if I could borrow, etc) Giving up, they decided to let go and "make an exception".

Well I think the exception was not really great, may be even forced but hope many people make more meaningful exceptions and it would be great if the girls lead the way.

At home, after the workshop, some related thoughts came to my mind. Well they had blackmailed me into coming the next day. I thought poking a joke like, ‘guess, why am I here’ could really be fun besides marketing democracy and our invaluable asset, the voters card. That’s because, Chinese don’t have it, do they?

The next day came, but I didn’t get a chance for this simple fun and reflection

May be it’s just, many good things that we think of, don’t get their way out or may be, I should have gone that extra bit, following it up with a thank you chocolate, and thus would have made a small exception too!

The trappings of knowledge and beliefs

I was on the road, gliding on the bike, early morning, looking at people around. The human difference. The thoughts rolled out. Some from the previous night. Thought, if people are not the same within a city, the differences between nations would be far more. ya, humans would be humans every where, but yet division lines would be bolder!

Then the axe fell on poor America. (its not always about wealth!) I thought then what is America doing in Iraq, a foreign land to them. Not talking but at war. Why would it go to war with a foreign culture? (That is what usually happens, but hold on)

I felt something is wrong. Not the war! Something else!

I thought then, why has America been involved in so many wars. Iraq, Afghanistan and others in the past. (With none does it share its border, lucky!)

What made two cultures collide? What made them bother each other so negatively? Ya, it could be oil or....., but I have a different story.

I fight with people I know but not with strangers. I don’t engage with them, so when to fight. Ya, there is the odd event of someone overstepping over someone, or some other squabble for space! (Here I just mean physical?) But that’s about it. But there are no gun shots! In Most cases!

Similarly, here there are stranger nations quite alien to each other but throwing bombs on each other. Zombies! Or, is it because human beings have a fantasy, as the movies show, that they’ll have to fight against aliens from some other planet.

No jokes. Something’s wrong!

America, the land with finest of universities, many laureates. Smart people don’t want to waste their resources in quarreling and put their peaceful beautiful life in chaos and disarray. But still it did!

And, I guessed they were trapped in knowledge and beliefs and values. They may have had the highest of values, and they were trapped in it.

Freedom, human rights and democracy are all truly valuable and America thought itself the leader and took the responsibility of bestowing it everywhere.

But cultures are different and not all may be as enlightened as Uncle Sam. Not all may value the finest of human values and yet can be in harmony with self and others.

Our knowledge is incomplete without knowing what we don’t know. And maybe this is real ignorance.

Why would the Middle East people hate the western world had the west let them live. Different attitudes need to be respected. As Raul Castro said, ‘if the American government really wants to advance relations with Cuba, I recommend they leave behind the conditions of internal governance that they are trying to impose and that only Cubans can dicide’

But the trappings of knowledge and belief go deep and reflect in many social norms. Think homosexuality. The latest burning battle!

If only we could come out of what we know, we could know more!

Happy riding!

A set of aspirations

What would shape India? I guess it would be set of aspirations.

Reading an article about the scene on emerging entrepreneurship in India got me wondering about the budding entrepreneurs. And on second thought, thought may be if individuals can learn something from it.

It was their aspirations that I found curious and funny. Funny because size mattered so much!

The aspirations were simple and numerical, and therefore clear cut. As in, a real estate developer wanted to be among the top 3 in the industry by 2013.

Even more clearer was that of an infrastructure company that wanted to be in the $10 billion dollar group.

A multiplex entrepreneur wanted to have a multiplex in every district of the country. I found this particularly interesting!

But, I am sure the one that would come closest to our heart would be an aspiration of an old businessman who wanted a one lakh rupee car!

And there would be many more aspirations tuned to these aspirations. (How many can be among the top three?)

And yes, we may want all of this. Homes, schools, roads, hospitals, multiplexes, cars etc.

But it also amazes me how these aspirations would shape our lives. And probably when we look into the mirror, we would see these aspirations.

My visit to the mumbai zoo

I recently visited the Mumbai zoo – also called Jijamata Udyan, wanting to see the different corners of the city. The last visit was some time when I was very small.

The zoo though having nice greenery as it’s also a botanical park, is nonetheless a very suffocating place. I felt. It won’t take much of empathizing to know what the animals in the zoo might feel.

Imagine a snake having to live in a place not bigger than our TV carton, but then that’s what zoo are all about. How about a duck having no water to paddle. There were so many instances like this.

I wondered at the large cages and now wonder who terrorizes whom. Animals looked quiet sad. And seeing them i remembered slavery. Have we not abolished slavery? So why keep these animals in such bondage. And then there were people making funny noises, some clicking photographs with an elephant in the background.

The zoo needs to be shut, and the animals need to be rehabilitated. Why do we need a zoo- for education, entertainment, tourism – all these arguments seem to be out of time. Regarding preservation, I’d say – please don’t use Mumbai to preserve animals in this fashion.

It'd be great if peacocks could dance, deer’s could run, ducks could paddle, monkeys could jump and elephants could walk freely, may be in the forest, and may be in a sanctuary. Fortunately we have a national park in Mumbai.

I hope, this is my last visit to the zoo, anywhere in the world!

The Beauty inside a BEST bus or The BEST bus democracy

Every-day in Mumbai, most of us on the move, takes the BEST bus.

We board the bus, sit, the conductor, often called master, comes to you so that you can take the ticket to your …….destination. This is great!

This is so obvious that we may just scoff at it being called ’great” but I find it very rare! You see – The conductor comes to you rather than you going to him (up till now it’s mostly done by men, so unfair!)

In which other Government Department does this happen? But the BEST bus – obviously a government department – is different!

I just wish that our democracy is like this. Where there is a bus to wherever we want to go. Where every bus has a conductor that comes and asks us, ‘Kuthe zaychsa aahai,” (where do you want to go?), we simply take a ticket and everything is fine.

So as I dream, I find the bus stopping at the stop I have to alight, the dream breaks halfway and I get down!

The motorcyle diaries go on.........

Saw the film 'The Motorcycle Diaries," last week, a memoir of a young man's journey through South America back in 1952. A break from studies, a desire to see the neighborhood land and to eat new fruits, but the journey transcends all this only to transform Earnst Guevara's life.

Passing through the world of poor Indigenous people who lost their land, a couple searching for a mining job and having only the warmth of their partner in the chilled desert, people forced to work in mines, people affected by leprosy, separated and cities built on gunpowder which destroyed the Inca civilization. All this changed his world view. But our minds our pretty conditioned by all this being obvious.

Though a controversial figure in history, he didn’t go unnoticed, like many of us go. He turned out to be a revolutionary, the communist type. Ironically, He too believed in gun powder.

Wonder why he turned to extreme communism. Wonder why people seeking reform, for a more egalitarian society are termed communist. Wonder why, mainstream debates usually are of the Capitalist v/s communist kind and where we knowingly or unknowingly take one of the two sides when both our equally bad. They both are monopolies.

We need to get rid of both, capitalism and communism just as we need to get rid of poverty and hunger. It’s not at all fine when people are displaced from where they belong just to become mine workers, where people are systematically robbed of their resources.

However, corporations are growing out of proportion and governments are too not reliable. They are usually with the corporations. The corporations are trying to grab hold of natural resources which should ideally be managed by the local people. The government has failed us.

However with a long history of monopoly and with most likeliness of it being repeated the journey to the desired horizon shall go on.

Jokes apart!

We, friends were in Planet M, looking for movie CD's and cracking jokes and so ......looking ....looking ...., Sushil found one of the Mozart symphonies which he wanted and which was a part of a pricey CD which made him feel kleptomanic, but gasping along we thought we'd asked Robin, who was fond of the maestro's work, so could have had the particular CD.

Sushil said he had a couple of others but not this one! Robin didn't even have those so, in excitement asked Sushil, "where did you get it from?".

"Oh, Just copied from somewhere" Sushil said. I was besides them, interested myself!

"Oh terrible!" Robin exclaimed. "Because of you guys, students don’t get scholarships to learn music. You Economist don't understand this!" Robin responded.

"So what, did Mozart also get a scholarship?" came out of me!

Well I don’t have a clue about it (Mozart getting a scholarship or not) but he had a point but we still had a good laugh at the expense of his thought.

A great cup of coffee and not a great coffee cup

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university Professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the Prof. went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the Prof. said -

"If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. That all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."

"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

(An email forward)

Life In the chaos of the markets......

Markets as a system of allocating resources (efficiently) has fast expanded its reach and power such that it is now looked upon as a savior to eradicate the most viscious of all problems, poverty!

But it has also come on to be dreaded for being a system of capital accumulation more commonly known as Capitalism.

It flourished through out the history, but the industrial revolution transformed it into a force, adding technology that could make things that served people's utility.

However in the process diminished human beings to mere inputs in the production process.

Technolgy and markets both are neutral but are quiet different when it is in the hands of the few (humans).

It gives powers to few, just like any other system, for example a monarchy. And then the few go on to decide how people should live, eat, be educated, etc, etc.

Inequality is pervasive and is acceptable. All men our born equal, but their luck differ.(Equity is normative, not positive)

It De-links human beings from the world, the biosphere in general. Why should the few sitting in their air conditioned rooms worry about global warming which definitely won’t affect them in their short lives?

It routes imperialism, where the few rule the mass. In earlier centuries one could do it politically – England ruled three quarters of the world by conquering and waging wars and now you can do it through markets and yes, waging a war still is an option for the powerful that have the money.

The aggression to own and the development of instincts for luxury and convenience well, can all not be blamed on the markets!

Markets that push you into the herd, and the only wisdom is the the rule of money which becomes the rule of the law and on and on goes its reach.

And life is reduced to a paper-note and paradoxically having a picture of Mahatma Gandhi on it.

How many miles together

I would like to share, one of our light moments, with everyone. This is is among many, when I caught her innocently dumbstruck.

One evening we were strolling outside our university library, and asked a simple question to rocky. "Rocky, how long can you walk with me." I said.

Those days we always stayed together, walking the time. She knew that I wanted to walk the Earth and she too was quite a traveller.

She was clueless and replied with her typical "means," And I said, "One country, two country."

I got no answer, but we laughed aloud..

I wished, she said,"As far as you would."

Whose plan is considered ?

Once in my Urban Economics lecture, we were studying the subject of urban planning.

After discussing some approaches to urban planning like - an environmentalist's plan, a geographer's plan, an economist's plan, etc, I found it curious and asked our professor, "Mam, finaly, whose plan is considered." and she instantly replied, "A politicians plans !"

We all had a good laugh without any arguments !