morality from mortality

Inspiration comes when you are lest expecting it. There are so many exposures you come across in life. I use the word exposures, as learning comes from exposures. Exposures can be in the form of an article, a book, a statement, an experience, a talk, an observation anything. Exposures can change us in ways that we don’t think was possible. Exposures help us understand life and gain from perspectives. The internet for sure has helped us expose ourselves much more. But in many way’s it’s like a TV. You can choose what you want to be exposed to. Simply having the internet on does not in any ways mean that you are going to get smarter. Infact if I see the internet these days and see my Facebook feed then it’s pretty much a shit fest where you simply are trying to get to an opinion that you already have and then trying your best to get data that proves it, in whichever way. I think seeing the FB feed these days is the worst thing ever. It’s like the days when TV burst open in India. From two state run channels we moved to a 24X7 format and the world was being beamed into our homes every day. All the channels came in and we saw discovery and national geographic channels coming in and like all good meaning people, we thought that these are the channels that we will end up watching and educating ourselves. And like all god-fearing people (forgive the ridiculous use of an irrelevant adjective) we would watch everything else but these channels. After all how many times can you watch the leopard devour the cow. It gets monotonous after some time. I think I spent a large part of my college time watching TV. Then came a time when TV became crazy and there was nothing to watch. I remember in those days going through all the channels one by one and circling it again and again, bored and hoping for something interesting to watch. There wasn’t anything.

TV definitely did not make me too much smarter.

Internet and now mobile internet is the same. It’s not going to make you too much smarter by itself. You have to learn what to search for, what to read through and what to take and what not to take in. That’s why I talk about exposures. You have to structure your life around exposures and learnings if you want to bring greater intelligence in your life. Though of course not bring in intelligence can also result in happiness. The two are definitely not co related. In fact, sometimes I think a strong argument can be made in favor of the two being inversely proportionate till a point after which it could again flip and then flip again. But still, for me learning is as important as eating and the internet as a device has contributed immensely to my learning. I envy Jispa and her ilk for they have internet before they were born. The internet has been a useful ally in her studies and in her life. Thanks to this the world has come closer to her than ever before and so has the vast depository of knowledge as it makes itself accessible to the child while growing up. She needs so little of me for teaching her stuff; she gets what she needs from the internet.

A few weeks back, I was addressing a class of teachers, who had to come for a refresher course. The college tried to organize the course by having industry faculty as well. My topic was the advent of digital in our lives. I had to teach this to the teachers and explain to them on the possibilities that this has for all of us. At the end, one question was how could teachers bring digital into the class rooms. I gave my daughters example of how digital has already entered the class room. Long back I had learnt of a technique which I have often applied. You first give the topic in advance and the reading material. People read on their own and understand and come to class. At the start of the class you take a 5 minute test and then start the class. This way there is no real teaching left to do but you can spend that time on discussions. Discussions that take the topic forward. So I was telling the teachers that they need to simply send the links to the kids beforehand on reading / watching material and then from there on you start with an online test which the kids can take on their phones itself and then you can start the discussion in class, now that the kids are well prepared. While I was explaining this to them I realized that I have to start doing this myself and this time in class I explained that from next time they will get reading material and a test to do in class. Cool nah! In return they can come to class 15 min late without any repercussions and they can have their cell phones on while attending the class. No questions asked. Let’s try this experiment. Have an open classroom with lots of interaction and complete freedom. So now to try all these things from the next class onwards. This puts some pressure on me to do the preparations, but I think it will be worth all the effort. At least we will know what price freedom extracts from us.

Coming back to the topic of exposures. I have learnt that the best learning comes from a variety of exposures. It is very difficult, almost impossible to predict which exposures lead to the most amount of learning. Small small things in your life that happen to you or those around you, help you unravel your life and give you lessons you are not likely to forget. Once my boss came to me and said that he had the most amazing experience with the COO of the firm. He had gone to him with a complaint and the COO called on the employee, ascertained the truth and then castigated him in front of my boss, reprimanding him for the lacuna in service. My boss was impressed that justice was swiftly delivered. I have kept that in mind whenever someone comes to me with an issue as regards my team. If my team member is not delivering the service that he should, he is pulled up and immediately told that he needs to shape up and that I wouldn’t tolerate any shortcomings.

Another one that recently changed an important part of me, was an app called Blinkist. It basically gives a summary of book every day that one can read through. I think it doesn’t do a great job, but is an interesting app for those wishing to read fast enough. I got it from a friend’s recommendation and then promptly recommended to a friend. The friend then took the paid version that allows more than one “book of the day’ read. She then sent me an interesting book summary, which at the right time and the right context completely tipped me over to one side. It was on Mortality by Hitchens. While most the summary was ok, one aspect of it just blew me away. He was a committed atheist and after being diagnosed with a terminal illness he refused to let that affect his belief, or rather disbelief in God and religion. That made me think about my own belief. I wasn’t religious as I have already written about in previous blogs and I wasn’t an atheist. I was ambivalent. I was middling. I did not know how to describe my views and I tried creative solutions like – pantheist. After reading this passage (as below) for some reason I cleared my mind. I decided for myself that I was an atheist, through and through. I did not believe in God. There is no such thing such as God and definitely organized religion is a complete farce. I do not believe in it one bit. So yes, now, I call myself very clearly an atheist. If I believe in logic and reason, I cannot believe in the notion of religion and it various offshoots and practices.

Extract of the summary -

After Hitchens’s diagnosis, he explored his convictions about atheism in the face of death.

Hitchens valued his commitment to the concept of atheism. And despite outside pressure, he stuck by his beliefs through his illness until the very end.

Many friends and companions pressured Hitchens to find faith as he neared death. Although he appreciated his friends praying for him, he didn’t believe it would make a difference to his situation.

Even strangers would try to convert him. People callously made bets online about how long it would take him to accept God.

Hitchens also received much criticism from people who told him he’d “burn in hell” if he failed to convert before he passed away. Some even had the audacity to tell him this while he was on his deathbed.

Despite the pressure, Hitchens believed that changing his mind about religion would be dishonest, and certainly wouldn’t help in the face of divine judgment. Becoming a Christian at the last moment wouldn’t exactly absolve him from being an atheist most of his life. Surely he couldn’t prove his faith was true if he only accepted God just before death?

Hitchens never understood why organized religion is so exclusive when it comes to the afterlife. What if he converted to Christianity, for example, only to discover that Judaism or Islam was the true religion?

The prospect of death made Hitchens realize how important it is for people to stand by their convictions. Ultimately, nobody knows if there is life after death. Nobody knows what happens to the “soul” when a body dies.

Hitchens would have been lying to himself, his loved ones and his fans if he were to back down, just because he was afraid of death.

“If I convert, it’s because it’s better that a believer dies than an atheist does.”

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That helped me in another way as well. Linda Goodman. The famous astrologer who has written and sold millions of her book called Sun Signs. Here she writes about various people born under their sun signs and she describes them in great detail. To me, I have always found it difficult to refute her truth about the sun sugns. They seem so right and they seem just appropriate about people according to their Sun Signs. Possibly there is something to it. Surely sun signs cannot predict my day to day actions (that’s too primitive) but surely  they predict the core behavior of men. Recently someone asked me about it. I took inspiration from my new found belief in atheism and said that if fundamentally, I do not believe that stars can cause any change in me, then fundamentally I do not believe in the book. Yes, I do admit that when I read the book, I too feel that it does accurately describe the people, but then I must reject the cause and the effect, as I do not believe in it. So hence in spite of it being seemingly true, it is false. I gave the analogy a magician, who suddenly might magically make a bird appear or disappear. I know that it is false despite my seeing it as true. It is a clever ruse. I must dismiss it no matter how real it gets. Similarly, no matter how real the description, it is false. If I don’t believe in the roots of it, then it is false, in spite of what I think. Hence Linda Goodman is a false story line. Possibly the way it is described every man or woman would read it and see themselves in the description, possibly being fooled in it. Possibly a taurean description could also be equally appealing to a Leo had he been explained as such. Possibly the truth is what you make of it, and now Leos are possibly supposed to behave in a certain manner as people expect them to behave thus! I am ready to take in any other wild hypothesis but I will not believe that a star on top has the ability to change my behavior or influence it. You either believe in it or you don’t. You are either an atheist or you r a believer. Simple.

This little exposure of an app and a link that a friend sent is just one of the small examples of me not knowing which exposure will get me where. This was a valuable addition to my moralities and my beliefs. I wouldn’t have ever thought that it could have helped me in so many ways.

Jasmine and me have been quite practical in our thinking. We just bought a new car and when we went to collect it, we did away with the traditional coconut and garland ceremony that the dealer had organized for us. We even implored them not to burst the confittee and spread more litter on the road. At the end the sales girl practically pleased with us to at least click a picture of us getting a delivery of the car. “sir atleast this much”. As soon we got the delivery, I got rid of the ribbons all over and got the entire emotion thing over and done with. It’s a logical extremity.

Exposure define us and influence us. We don’t know what’s going to hit us. Hence we must try and get the maximum possible. Look for new and varied exposures at all times. It could be in the form of books, travel, hotels, people, anything. Keep looking, keep exposing yourself and keep an eye out for any new thing coming your way. You never know wat you will learn from it. Even an old thing for that matter. There is a time for everything. The same exposure at a different time will possibly give you much more meaning than what you have anticipated.

Bonus Video on Hitchens. Very interesting