Monwar's Blog

বিয়ে

2011-12-21T07:13:00.000-08:00

বিয়ে একটি সামাজিক প্রতিষ্ঠান তো বটেই। কিন্তু গত দেড়শো বছরে মানবসমাজ ক্রমবর্ধমান হারে পরিবর্তনের ভিতর দিয়ে গেছে। স্বাভাবিকভাবেই বিয়ের প্রকৃতিও পাল্টেছে।

বিয়েতে একসময় ভালবাসার তেমন স্থান ছিল না। মধ্যযুগীয় ইউরোপে বিয়ের বাইরেই ট্রোবাডোররা শিভালরাস ভালবাসা খুঁজে নেয়ার কথা বলে গেছেন। আর এখনকার অন্তত বাংলাদেশি মধ্যবিত্ত বিয়েতে একটা বড় বিবেচ্য বিষয় 'ভালবাসা'; তা না হলেও, অন্তত পারস্পরিক বোঝাবুঝি।

পারস্পরিক বোঝাবুঝি যদি বিবেচ্যই হয়, এমন একটি গ্রুপ থাকতেই পারে যারা বিয়ে বা এধরনের ব্যবস্থায় অনাগ্রহী নয়, কিন্তু যাদের পারস্পরিক সমঝোতাভিত্তিক সঙ্গী খুঁজে পাওয়া বেশ কষ্টকর?

ব্যক্তিগতভাবে আমি এমন কাউকেই খুঁজে পাইনি যার সাথে বাকি জীবন অতিবাহিত করার আগ্রহ আমার আছে। বাকি জীবন বাদ দেই, একদিন সারাদিন কাটানোর কথাই ধরি - তেমনটি হয়নি। না, নারীসঙ্গে আমি অনাগ্রহী এমন নয়। আমার কাছে কয়েকজন নারীকে অবশ্যই আকর্ষণীয় লেগেছে। কিন্তু যা বললাম, সেটাকে টেনে এনে বিয়ের মডেলে ফেলাটা কষ্টকর বটে। খুব আগ্রহ পাই না সে কাজ করার আমি; বস্তুত, আগ্রহই পাই না - সামাজিক চাপ এড়ানো ছাড়া। জীবনের এমন একটা পর্যায়ে এসেছি যেখানে সামাজিক চাপ যথেষ্ট নয় আমার কোন কিছু করার জন্য, নিজের আকর্ষণ থাকতে হবে, ভাল লাগতে হবে। সেই ভাল ফিলটা এখনো পাই না।

না, আমি বিয়ে করবো না এমন কোন শপথ নেইনি। কিন্তু একে ওকে সমাজকে খুশি করার জন্য করবো নিজের সায় ছাড়াই, সেটাও ভাবাটা ঠিক মনে হয় না। গ্র্যান্টেড, লোকে জীবনে একটা সময়ে এসে এরকম সঙ্গী স্বভাবতই পেয়ে যায়। আমি এখনো পাইনি। পেলে তখন আগানোর কথা ভাববো। না পেলে, বিয়ে করবো না। :)

Eat Humble Pie

2011-12-07T06:50:00.001-08:00

I notice a pattern within me. I challenge status quo very strongly. Of course it changes the status quo, but not by much.

I think that is a question of perspective, whether to fight or walk away. I fight perhaps because I am short fused, and I have a bigger than average ego, and to some extent have a... hmm, would it be fair to call me a person with authority issues? Sometimes, yes, I do weigh on the side of dissent on principle. :) I have those kind of mental leanings, I guess.

I recently read a very interesting study by Daniel Gilbert on revenge. My personality type is somewhat prone to vindication aka revenge (although I do not think I have made a huge revenge deal yet!). Gilbert found that revenge isn't sweet, actually; it leads to lower moods, although people who take revenge simply won't accept that fact because they assume they'd be worse off if they did not take revenge. Perhaps this is the hallmark of the personality prone to 'suppression-burning'? :)

I can choose another way and apply it reasonably. I can choose to be humbler, because I know I have a bigger ego; I am too proud, too prickly. I can do that because that leads to life conditions that allow me to be more productive. I can always get back to the person in a more sane time, reasonably, after planning. I can try not to get pricked by people's 'outrages'; I can adjust my primal behavior.

That's a choice to be reasonably applied, and therein lies the challenge, as usual. :)

Rich!

2011-12-05T08:09:00.001-08:00

I often feel this incredible richness. Do we appreciate the incredible gifts our world provides us? Right now, I have at least 2 dozen very readable books on my mobile phone. Think of it, 2 dozen! There are probably half a dozen superb free iPhone games I can download. I am blogging from my phone.

I love it, and appreciate this, folks!!

গুরুত্বায়ন

2011-11-30T05:29:00.001-08:00

আজকে কাজ করতে গিয়ে আবার কিছুটা ফ্লাস্টারড হয়ে গেলাম। মানসশক্তি, আত্মনিয়ন্ত্রণ ইত্যাদি কঠিন ব্যাপার। বুঝতে পারি কিছু জায়গায় অপটিমাইজড হচ্ছে না, যথেষ্ট ভ্যালু এ্যাড হচ্ছে না, তাও রোলিং ইনার্শিয়া এড়ানো বড্ড কঠিন লাগে। :) আর, 'কনভেনশনাল উইসডম'-এ সবসময় ভরসা রাখতে মনও চায় না। কিন্তু 'কনভেনশনাল উইসডম' বাজে বলে তো ছেড়ে দিলে হবে না, আমি নিজের সুইট-পয়েন্ট, পেইন-পয়েন্ট তো টের পাই।

আসলে কি জানেন, নানাজাতের থিওরি থাকবেই। কিন্তু মাইক্রো লেভেলটা নিতান্তই আপনার, আর ওখানেই মজাটা।

উদাহরণস্বরুপ, সকালে হারুনের জন্য যে ম্যাক্রো লেভেলের প্রেজেন্টেশনটা সময় একেবারে ব্লক করে করলাম, সেটা কিন্তু করে খুব শান্তি পেয়েছি (প্রেজেন্টেশন পাওয়ারপয়েন্টের চরম ফাজলামিতে খোয়ানোর পর রিকভারিটাও কিন্তু শিয়ার ওয়ার্ল্ড ভিউ ম্যান!)। কিন্তু তারপরই জিপিআইটির ই-মেইল গ্রুপ নিয়ে যেই জিনিসটা হল, সেখানে প্রসিডিউরাল ফেটিশ না থাকলে কি সময় বাঁচানো যেতো না? এবং এর পরই আবার লাগাম ছেড়ে দিচ্ছিলো, পুনঃপ্ল্যানিং করে ভারসাম্য আনাটাও কিন্তু ভালই ব্যাপার! :)

এভাবেই শেখা হবে, বেশি ত্বরা করে লাভ নেই। এই লেখাটাও একটা শেখা। আরো মনে হয় যেটা, আধা ঘন্টা পর পর কাজের লিস্ট পুনর্বিবেচনা করা উচিৎ। মাথা গরম থাকলে কিছু একটা করে মাথা ঠান্ডিয়ে বসা উচিৎ। খুব ভাল কাজ হয় - প্রায়োরিটাইজেশনটা হয়। ড্রাকার বলেছিলেন না, দুনিয়ার সেরা এফিশিয়েন্সির সাথে যে কাজটা করার দরকারই ছিল না, সেটা করে লাভ নেই। :)

গেমবলিগেশন

2011-11-29T05:13:00.001-08:00

ল্যাপটপের সামনে বেশ কিছুক্ষণ ধরেই বসে আছি। অফিসে কর্মময় দিন গেল। বাসায় এসে গোসল-টোসল করে ফ্রেশ। এই শক্তিশালী গেমিং ল্যাপটপটায় বেশ ভাল কিছু গেম আছে। কিন্তু কেন যেন খেলতেও ইচ্ছা করছে না।

'কেন যেন' না। জানি কেন। বা মনে হয় জানি কেন। :) আমার জীবনদর্শন যেই হারে বিবর্তিত হইসে গেম সেই হারে বিবর্তিত মনে হয় হয় নাই। তাছাড়া, কন্টিনিউটি-ও একটা ব্যাপার। টানা তো আর সেভাবে খেলতে পারি না। কোনকিছু বিল্ড হয় না।

ফলে গেম খেলাটা একটু এফোর্টের মতই হয়ে যায়। সারাদিন অফিসে কোগনিটিভ এফোর্ট দিয়ে বাসায় এসে আর দিতে ইচ্ছা হয় না।

জিনিসটা ইন্টারেস্টিং! তার মানে কি? :) কাজরেই শেষমেশ গেম বানায় ফেলতে হবে? ;)

নিশ্চিত না আসলে। আমি জীবনে গেম খেলে যে পরিমান সময় ব্যয় করসি, অন্য খুব কম ক্ষেত্রেই তা করসি। ছাত্রজীবনেও তো পড়ার চাপ ছিল, তখন গেম খেলার কোগনিটিভ এফোর্ট নিতাম কেমনে? অফিসের চাপ গড়ে পড়ার চাপের চেয়ে বেশি, ঠিক। হয়তো সেই অতিরিক্ত চাপটাই মেক্স আ ডিফারেন্স।

বাসায় এসে মাঝে মাঝে গেম খেলার যে এই অবলিগেশনটা বোধ করি, সেটাও হালকা বিরক্তিকর। :) এটা কেন হল? মূল কারণ খুব সম্ভবত এক সময় গেম থেকে খুব আনন্দ পাওয়া। রীতিমত শক্তপোক্ত নিউরাল নেটওয়ার্ক দাঁড়িয়ে গেছেঃ গেম = আনন্দ।

টাকা বাড়লে কি সুখ বাড়ে?

2010-03-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

১

একদম সোজাসাপ্টাভাবে বলতে গেলে, 'না'।

তবে এখানে 'সুখ' এর সংজ্ঞা নিয়ে নানাধরণের আলোচনা আছে। তবে সুখ বলতে যদি 'সাবজেক্টিভ ওয়েল বিয়িং' বোঝানো হয় (যেটার সাথে আমি একমত), তাহলে 'না'।

তবে এ ব্যাপারে গবেষণার পদ্ধতি (মেথডোলজি) নিয়ে কিছু প্রশ্ন আছে। মানুষ সাধারণত 'সম্পূর্ণভাবে' নিজের জীবনকে খুব কমই পর্যালোচনা করে। মানুষ বরং এভাবে ভাবে: "চা-টা কি ভাল হইলো?", বা, "ধুর, এই মুভিটা ২ ঘন্টা দেইখা সময় পুরাই নষ্ট হইলো।"

লক্ষ্য করা গেছে, মানুষকে যখন 'সাবজেক্টিভ ওয়েল বিয়িং' সম্পর্কে জিজ্ঞেস করা হয়, আগের চলকের বা ঘটনার প্রভাব খুব গুরুত্বপূর্ণ। অর্থাৎ, বসের থেকে ঝাড়ি খাওয়ার পরই যদি কেউ আপনাকে জিজ্ঞেস করে এ প্রশ্ন, "জীবন সুখী না" ধরনের উত্তর পাওয়ারই সম্ভাবনা বেশি। আবার ধরেন ভাল একটা ব্লগ পোস্টে পাঙ্খা সব মন্তব্য পাওয়ার পর যদি কেউ জরীপের প্রশ্ন করে, "জীবন সুখী তো বটেই" ধরণের উত্তর পাওয়ার সম্ভাবনা বেশি।

এ কারণে প্রশ্ন সাজানো গুরুত্বপূর্ণ, এবং জরীপ থেকে এই বায়াসগুলি বাদ দেয়ার চেষ্টা করাও। ড্যানিয়েল কাহনেম্যান সেই চেষ্টাই করেছেন; বিস্তারিত জানতে তার মেথডোলজি পড়তে পারেন (http://www.princeton.edu/~ceps/workingpapers/125krueger.pdf)।

২

গত চার দশকে জীবনযাত্রার মানোন্নয়নের সাথে তাল মিলিয়ে 'সুখ' বাড়েনি, এটি হল জীবনযাত্রার মানোন্নয়ন নিয়ে করা বিভিন্ন গবেষণার মেটা-ফলাফল।

আরেকটা ইন্টারেস্টিং জিনিস যেটা দেখা গেছে, সেটা হল, মানুষ নিজের 'সুখ'-এর সাথে প্রায়শই যে কোন একটি চলকের সম্পর্ক 'অতিরঞ্জিত' করে। এটা ঠিক ইচ্ছা করে যে করা তা-ও না, বরং বিভিন্ন জটিল মনস্তাত্ত্বিক প্রতিক্রিয়ার প্রভাব (তাছাড়া এখানে জরীপ পদ্ধতিরও হাত আছে)। এটাকে কাহনেম্যানরা বলেন ফোকাসিং ইলিউশন। ফোকাসিং ইলিউশন-এর প্রমাণ যুগ্ম এবং পৃথককৃত চলকের স্টাডিগুলিতে বারে বারেই পাওয়া গেছে।

মোদ্দা কথা, মানুষ আয় বা অর্থকে একক চলক হিসেবে অতিরঞ্জন করে।

কঠোর পরিশ্রম

2010-03-04T04:27:00.000-08:00

১

'কঠোর পরিশ্রম'-কে যদি আপনার আনন্দদায়ক মনে হয়, তাহলে তো তা আর 'কঠোর পরিশ্রম' থাকে না, থাকে কি?

যেমন: স্ট্র্যাটেজি গেম খেলা আমার বন্ধু আলভীর জন্য কঠোর পরিশ্রমের কাজ। এতটাই, যে সে আমাকে বলেছে তার সামনে 'স্ট্র্যাটেজি গেম'-এর নামই উল্লেখ না করতে। অথচ আমি রাতদিন স্ট্র্যাটেজি গেমই খেলি। এখন যদি আমাকে কেউ প্রশংসা করে বলে: "মনওয়ার কঠোর পরিশ্রম করে স্ট্র্যাটেজি গেম খেলার জন্য", আমার উত্তর কি হওয়া উচিৎ?

আমি বলবো: "নারে ভাই। মজা লাগে তাই খেলি। এটা কঠোর পরিশ্রম কেন হবে?"

'কঠোর পরিশ্রম' শব্দটা শুনলেই মাথায় আসে জীর্ন-শীর্ন শুকনো এক লোকের মেশিন চালানোর মানসদৃশ্য। আমি বুঝি যে কঠোর পরিশ্রমের আরো নানা কনোটেশন আছে। কিন্তু কোন কাজ যদি কেউ আনন্দের সাথে করে, সেটাকে কি আমরা সাধারণত 'কঠোর পরিশ্রম' বলি?

২

ম্যানেজমেন্ট গুরু মরহুম পিটার ড্রাকারের মতে: সকল কিছুর আগে আসে নিজের সেরা ক্ষেত্রগুলো চিহ্নিতকরণ (স্ট্রেংথ আইডেন্টিফিকেশন)। তারপর আসে উন্নয়নের প্রশ্ন। তবে সেখানেও কথা আছে।

ড্রাকারের মতে, তুমি যেটায় ঢিলা, সেটা ৮০-১০০ বছরে আর কত উন্নতি করতে পারবা? দুনিয়ায় বহু লোক আছে যে সেটায় দারুণ, ওরা ১০ বছরেই তোমারে টেক্কা দিবে। তুমি পারবা অর লগে কম্পিট কইরা? (কম্পিট করতেই হবে ড্রাকার সাব তা বলেন নাই, তবে ব্যবসায় মাত্রই প্রতিযোগিতামূলক কিনা, তাই এই কনটেক্সটে আনছেন হয়তো)।

তারচে' তুমি নিজের সেরা ক্ষেত্রটায় উন্নতি করো না। উন্নয়নের হারও বাড়বে, তোমার মজা পাওয়ার সম্ভাবনাও বেশি।

একটা উদাহরণ দিবো নাকি?

আমি যেমন অংকে ঢিলা। বহু গবেষণা করে দেখেছি, আমার বন্ধুদের যে অংক করতে ১৫ সেকেন্ড লাগে, আমার লাগে ২০ সেকেন্ড।

চলো দুই বন্ধু মিল্যা প্র্যাকটিস করি।

দেখা গেল, প্র্যাকটিস করার পর আমার বন্ধুর লাগে ১০ সেকেন্ড, আর আমার লাগে ১৭ সেকেন্ড।

এখন আমি অংকে উন্নয়নের জন্য কঠোর পরিশ্রম করতে পারি। কিন্তু লক্ষ্য রাখতে হবে, আমার বন্ধুর উন্নয়নের হারও আমার চেয়ে বেশি।

গেল।

আমি ইংরেজিতে দারুণ। স্যাট/জিম্যাট ইংরেজিতে প্রেপ ছাড়াই আমার অন্যগো চেয়ে স্কোর অনেক বেশি আসে/আসতো।

এখানে প্র্যাকটিস করতে গিয়া দেখা গেলো, আমার উন্নয়নের হারও বেশি।

এখন তাইলে আমি ইংলিশ ফালায় অংকে কঠোর পরিশ্রম করবো কেন?

হ্যাঁ, যদি এমন হয়, বাজারে অংকের দাম তিন লাখ, ইংরেজির দাম তিন হাজার, তাহলে এই প্রশ্নই আসে না। ঠেইলা অংক করুম। এতটুকু বলতে পারি, প্র্যাকটিস করলে আমিও পারি। ৯৯ না পাই, ৯৬ তুলুম! উপপাদ্য ২৬ ("সাধারণ নির্বচন: দুইটি নির্দিষ্ট বিন্দু হতে সমদূরবর্তী কোন বিন্দুর সঞ্চারপথ উক্ত বিন্দুদ্বয়ের..." এই সারছে! চোখ টিপি ), ৪২ এখনো মুখস্থ আছে মিয়া, কি কন!

কিন্তু বাজারে অংক ইংলিশের দামে তেমন তফাৎ নাই। তাইলে আমি ক্যান অংক করুম?

উত্তর হল: মানসিক উন্নয়নের জন্য। শেখার জন্য। সেসব বাধ্যতামূলক অংক তো ছাড়তে বলছিও না।

তায় আমি এখন নিজে নিজেই অংক করি!

নিউক্লিয়ার ফিজিক্স-এর প্রতি আমার তীব্র আগ্রহ জাগসিলো আইবিএ-তে পড়ার সময়। সাগান, ব্রাইসন, জুকাভ পইড়া ক্লাস টেনের ফিজিক্স বই ধরলাম। সরি ভাই, মাইন্ড নিয়েন না, কিন্তু... থাক, মাইন্ড করবেন।

এখন কথা হল, পয়সা কামানোর জন্য কঠোর পরিশ্রম করে ইঞ্জিনিয়ারিং পড়লে আমার কি হতো?

আমার ধারনা, আই উড বি মাইজারেবল। (তবে না-ও হতে পারে; আমি নিজের সম্পর্কে কতটাই বা জানি?)

এখানে আরেকটা কেস আছে। ইংরেজিতে আমার ভাল হওয়ার পেছনে শয়ে শয়ে বই নামায় পড়ার বিশেষ অবদান আছে। এখন যদি কেউ বলে: "সিরাত ছেলেটা ইংরেজি উন্নয়নের প্রচেষ্টায় বিশেষ অধ্যবসায়ের পরিচয় দিয়াছে।", এটা কি এক্যুরেট হবে?

বইগুলি তো আমি পড়সি আমার মনের আনন্দে!

৩

ইতোমধ্যে আপনারা মনে হয় বুঝে গেছেন যে আমি রবীন্দ্রনাথের আনন্দের সাথে শিক্ষার (এবং পারলে কাজ করার) চরম সমর্থক। আনন্দ না থাকলে কাজ করে লাভ কি? আক্বীদা না থাকলে নামায পড়ে লাভ কি?

তারপরও, দুনিয়াটা ইমপারফেক্ট। ঠ্যাকায় পড়ে অবশ্যই মাঝে মাঝে আমাদের বাঁশ-বুঁশ খেতে হবে। কিন্তু যদি কনসিসটেন্টলি 'কঠোর পরিশ্রম' করতে হয়, সেটা কেমন হল?

এখানে মনে হয় আরো কিছু ব্যাপার আছে। কিছু লোকের কঠোর পরিশ্রম করার 'প্রপেনসিটি' বেশি। এরকম আমাদের ক্লাসে এক ছেলে ছিল, ওয়াসিম আলি রেজা। মাই গড, ছেলে খাঁটতেও পারতো। ও খেঁটে তুলেছিল দারুণ এক সিজিপিএ।

তবে, আরেক ছেলে গায়ে বাতাস লাগিয়ে সেই সিজিপিএ তুলে ফেললো।

এখন কি কইবেন কন? জিনিয়াস বনাম সাধারণ? জিনিয়াস কি লোকালাইজড, না গ্লোবাল? মূল্যবান জিনিয়াস চলক কি কি?

ওয়ারেন বাফেট এখানে ওভারিয়ান লটারির কথা আনেন, আনেন দুনিয়ার ইমপারফেকশনের কথা। লোকে বাফেটরে দেখলেই জিগায়: "তুমার তো টাকার দরকার নাই, তুমি এত টাকা কামাওই বা ক্যান, আর দিয়া করবাই বা কি?"

বাফেট বলে: "দেখো, আমার যে বিশেষ ধরণের অয়্যারিং, সেটা কেমনে কেমনে জানি আধুনিক ফাইনানশিয়াল দুনিয়ার চাহিদার সাথে মিলে গেছে। আমি তো এগুলি কঠোর পরিশ্রমের দ্বারা করি নাই, মজা করতে শুরু করসিলাম।"

ওয়ারেন বাফেট যা করসেন, সেটা করার মূল কারণ *মজা*, অন্তত জীবনী পড়লে তাই মনে হয়। ভদ্রলোক টাকা জমায় চরম মজা পাইতেন সেই ছোট্টবেলা থেকেই। দুই-একবার যে ফেঁসে যান নাই, তা তো না-ই। ১১ বিলিয়ন ডলার দিয়ে সালোমন ব্রাদার্স কিনে তো আর ফেলে দিতে পারেন না। ছয় মাস খাটতে হল। বা বাফেলো টাইমস। কিন্তু এই যে বাকি ৪০ বছরের 'আনন্দ', ওটা কেউ গুনবে না?

আমরা ওয়ারেন বাফেটের থেকে শিক্ষা গ্রহণ করতে পারি: "অনেক খাঁটিলে ফাইনান্সিয়াল মার্কেট ডমিনেট করা বিলিওনিয়ার হওয়া সম্ভব। ইহার জন্য প্রয়োজন নিম্নরূপ:..."

বাফেট নিজে পই পই করে বইয়ের শেষে বলে দিয়েছেন: ভুলেও এ শিক্ষা লবি না। ডু হোয়াট ইউ লাভ। পিলিজ। সুযোগ পাইলেই বাফেট কলেজের পোলাপাইনরে এই কথা বলেন।

৪

পল গ্রাহাম ওয়াই-কম্বিনেটরের প্রতিষ্ঠাতা। এরা স্টার্ট-আপওয়ালাদের অল্প-স্বল্প টাকা বিনিয়োগের জন্য দেয়। বহু স্টার্ট-আপ ওয়াই-কম্বিনেটরের টাকায় 'বড়' হয়েছে।

গ্রাহামের বক্তব্য, আলটিমেটলি, পারসিসটেন্স ট্রায়াম্ফস ইন্টেলিজেন্স। স্টার্ট-আপ বানাইতে ১৪০-এর উত্তরে আইকিউ লাইন ধরেই আসে। এই গ্রুপের মধ্যে পারসিসটেন্স ট্রায়াম্ফস।

এইতো পাওয়া গেল কঠোর পরিশ্রমের প্রমাণ। এরা কঠোর পরিশ্রম করেছে বলেই না অন্যান্য উবার-বুদ্ধিমানরে টেক্কা দিয়েছে।

তাই? নাকি এদের উদ্দেশ্যই সেটা ছিল, উদ্দেশ্য অর্জনের জোশ বেশি ছিল?

এই ধরনের এ্যাবস্ট্রাক্ট পর্যায়ে এসে কেউ বলে কঠোর পরিশ্রম, কেউ বলে জোশ বেশি। আমি জোশ বেশির দলে। ঠ্যাকা বেশি। ইচ্ছা বেশি।

৫

কিন্তু সব কিছু খালি ট্যালেন্ট, স্ট্রেংথ, জোশ, ইচ্ছা-র উপর ছেড়ে দিলে কঠোর পরিশ্রমের কি হবে? কঠোর পরিশ্রমের কি কোনই দাম নাই?

আমার ধারণা, কঠোর পরিশ্রম একটা বাহ্যিক চলক। হয়তো সফল যারা কঠোর পরিশ্রম করে বড় হয়েছে, তাদের কাছে ওটাকে (*অতটা*) কঠোর পরিশ্রম মনে হয় নাই। বাইরের লোক, যাদের হয়তো ওই ইনেট ট্যালেন্টটা নাই, তাদের ব্যাটাকে কঠোর পরিশ্রমী মনে হয়েছে!

এই সব লোকের একটা ড্রাইভ থাকে। সিডনী ওয়েইনবার্গ থেকে ইশতিয়াক রউফ, হেনরি ফোর্ড থেকে অ্যান্থনি রবিন্স (না না, আমি ইশতিয়াককে গ্রেট ম্যান বলছি না, আমি অনেক হিংসুটে; জাস্ট যে ব্যাটা অনেক কষ্ট করসে, এই আর কি; যেমন করসে ওয়েইনবার্গ আর ফোর্ড)।

এই যে আমিও কঠোর পরিশ্রম করে ব্লগ লিখছি। পারবেন আপনি এমন একটা লিখতে?

৬

আমি এখন যেই চাকরি করি, সেটা কি আদর্শ? নাকি আমাকে কঠোর পরিশ্রম করতে হয়?

আদর্শতা মনে হয় এসিম্পটোটিক। ইট এপ্রোক্সিমেটস আদর্শতা, তবে আদর্শ তো না-ই।

কিন্তু কঠোর পরিশ্রমও করতে হয় না। বা হয়তো হয়, আমি জিনিয়াস দেখে টের পাই না।

কিন্তু যেইদিন থেকে টানা কঠোর পরিশ্রম করতে হবে, সেইদিন থিকা আমি এই চাকরি মনে হয় ছাইড়া দিবো।

কয়েকমাস আগেও 'ট্যালেন্ট বনাম এফোর্ট' নিয়ে আমাদের অফিসে বিশাল এক মেইল এক্সচেঞ্জ হল, প্রায় ৪০ মেইলের (এবং ততগুলি পাতার!)। সেখানে আমি এই মত নিয়েই ছিলাম। আমার এখনকার বস ছিলেন আমার বিপরীত মতের, যদিও শেষ দিকে আমরা কিছু কমন গ্রাউন্ডে পৌঁছেছিলাম।

শেষ মেইলটা ছিল, তাইলে 'আইডিয়াল ভোকেশন'-টা কি? খাঁটুনেওয়ালাদের জন্য, ফাঁকিবাজদের জন্য?

আমার কিছু ধারণা আছে। পরে বলবো। আপাতত এখনকার ভুলগুলো তো ধরুন।

কি জানি।

2010-02-25T11:17:00.000-08:00

১

টেড ২০১০-এর সেরা আকর্ষণগুলো নিয়ে হার্ভার্ড বিজনেস স্কুলের ব্লগসাইট দারুণ একটা সিরিজ চালাচ্ছে, সেটা পড়ছিলাম বাসায় আসতে আসতে।

কয়েকবারই মনে হল, আমরা এমন একটা যুগে বসবাস করি, যেখানে প্রযুক্তি খুব সম্ভবত আমাদের মানিয়ে নেয়ার ক্ষমতার চেয়ে দ্রুত আগাচ্ছে।

আমার এই ভাবনা ভুল হতেই পারে। হয়তো প্রতিটা প্রজন্মেরই এই একই জিনিস মনে হতো/হয়।

কিন্তু জিনিসটা এমন হতে পারে, যে আমরা হয়তো একটা নির্দিষ্ট গতিতে এগিয়ে অভ্যস্ত; বিবর্তনগত একটা মানসিক অভ্যস্ততা আছে। এখনকার ভয়াবহ গতি সেই অভ্যস্ততাটাকে আক্রমণ করছে।

উদাহরণস্বরূপ - আজকে ব্লেইস প্যাস্কাল ডি আগুয়েরার রিয়েলিটি-অগমেন্টেড ম্যাপিং দেখলাম। ফটোসিন্থ নামক এক ভয়াবহ শক্তিশালী, রীতিমত আজগুবি সফটওয়্যার ম্যাপের মধ্যে সিয়াটলের পাইক প্লেসে আগুয়েরার বন্ধুদের লাইভ ভিডিও ধরে এনে ঠিক জায়গায় বসিয়ে দিল!

রিয়েলিটি-অগমেন্টেড ম্যাপিং শুরু মাত্র। টেড ২০১০-এ এরকম আরো কত কিছুই এসেছে। অবস্থা দেখে আশা জাগছে আমরা জলবায়ু সমস্যাকে পর্যন্ত মোকাবেলা করতে পারবো।

কিন্তু আমাদের মানসের কি হবে? সামলাতে পারবে তো?

২

আরিয়েলি বা কাহনেম্যান পড়লে, বা অন্তত নিজেদের দিকেই গভীরভাবে তাকালেই বোঝা যাবে যে আমরা সাধারণত *পছন্দগতভাবে* যুক্তিসম্মত ব্যবহার করি।

উদাহরণস্বরূপ: ড্যানিয়েল কাহনেম্যান টেড ২০১০-এ দেখিয়েছেন যে মার্কিন যুক্তরাষ্ট্রে অর্থ-উপার্জনের ম্যাজিক পয়েন্ট হল মাসে ৫,০০০ ডলার। এরচেয়ে বেশি টাকা কামালে জীবনযাত্রার মানের তেমন উন্নতি ঘটে না, এরচেয়ে কম টাকা কামালে মানুষ সাধারণত তেমন সন্তুষ্ট থাকে না, কারণ জীবনযাত্রার মানোন্নয়নের ব্যাপক অবকাশ থাকে।

আমেরিকায় ৫,০০০ ডলার হলে বাংলাদেশে সেটা কত? ৪০,০০০ টাকা? ৫,০০০ ডলারের সরাসরি অনুবাদ হল ৩৫০,০০০ টাকা, যেটা বাস্তবসম্মত নয়।

সুতরাং কাহনেম্যানের ফাইন্ডিং-ও কিন্তু লোকালাইজড। আমেরিকার মত প্রথম বিশ্বের দেশ ছেড়ে তৃতীয় বিশ্বের বাংলাদেশে আসলেই অন্তত এই ক্ষেত্রে যুক্তির অনুমিতি পাল্টে যায়।

সেভাবে দেখলে বাংলাদেশের গড় সুখ কি আমেরিকার চেয়ে অনেক কম (যতদূর খেয়াল আছে, না)? আমেরিকায় যারা ৫,০০০ ডলারের জন্য হাঁসফাঁস করছে, তারা বাংলাদেশে আসলে কি সঙ্গে সঙ্গে মানিয়ে নিতো না?

তাহলে আমেরিকায় থাকলে তারা পারে না কেন? কারণ সবকিছুই কনটেক্সচুয়াল?

যারা চিন্তা করতে পারে, তাদের তো ১,০০০ ডলারেই সুখী থাকা উচিৎ, তাই না?

৩

কন্ট্রাডিকশনের সাথে বসবাস করা আমাদের জন্য নতুন কিছু না। আমরা এখনো জীবনের বহু মৌলিক প্রশ্নেরই উত্তর দিতে পারি না। নিজেদের আমরা ব্যাপক বুদ্ধিমান মনে করি, কিন্তু অতি আনন্দের চোটে আমরা আত্ম-ধ্বংসের ধারেকাছে পৌঁছে গেছি। এখন নিজেদের ইররাশনাল জিনিয়াসের উপর ভরসা করা ছাড়া তেমন উপায় নেই।

মানুষের মধ্যে নিজেকে অতিরিক্ত কিছু মনে করার যে প্রবনতাটা, এইটাও কিন্তু পুরাপুরি ইররাশনাল না। অতি-আত্মবিশ্বাসের সময় আমাদের মস্তিষ্ক এবং অন্যান্য ইন্দ্রিয় আসলেই অনেক ভাল কাজ করে; ভুল করেই হোক বা জেনেশুনেই হোক। সমস্যা একটাই, যে অল্প চান্স থাকে ল্যাপস হওয়ার, তখন বিশাল ধরা। তখন আবারো অতি-আত্মবিশ্বাস ব্যবহার করে সমস্যার সমাধাণ এবং আবারো ধরা, এবং আবারো... এইভাবেই কি চলবে?

*

এখনও আমরা বলতে পারি না ঠিকমত আমাদের মহাবিশ্ব একখান না বহুখান না সাবসেট না প্যারালেল, বা একখান হইলেও সাইজ কি, কার্ভড না ফ্ল্যাট, বা বাকি বুদ্ধিমানগুলি কই।

সেদিক দিয়ে ধর্ম বা দর্শন অনেক নিম্নপর্যায়ের ব্যাপার। সেদিক দিয়েও আমরা সমষ্টিগতভাবে উপসংহারে তেমন পৌঁছেছি যে তা-ও না। এটা ঠিক আমাদের দোষ যে, তা-ও না। কচ্ছপ কিভাবে পাখির কাহিনী জানবে?

সুতরাং এই 'স্টেট অফ ফ্লাক্স' কি নতুন কিছু? আলভিন টফলারের 'ফিউচার শক' ৭০-এর দশকের বই। এখন তাহলে যা হচ্ছে, সেটা তো ফিউচার শক এর বাবা।

আগুন আবিষ্কারের সময় থেকেই আমরা শক খাইতে খাইতেই আগাচ্ছি। মানবসভ্যতার বড়সড় আবিষ্কারের একটা গ্রাফ করলে আমাদের এই আধুনিক যুগ তেমন আউটলায়ার টাইপ কিছু না।

৪

তাই বলে জিনিসটাকে কি এবসোলিউটলি নেয়া যায়? আমরা কি এখনো এমন একটা টেকনো-ইন্টেলেকচুয়ার ক্রসরোডসে পৌঁছাই নাই যেখানে স্পিশিস হিসেবে আমরা একটা মাইলফলকে পৌঁছেছি বলে মনে হয়?

আজকের জলবায়ু পরিবর্তন হয়তো সেরকম একটা ভাবতে-বাধ্য-করা মাইলফলক। ঠিক।

কিন্তু আমরা 'বিবর্তনের স্বপ্নে' কি পৌঁছেছি? বিবর্তনের যদি কোন স্বপ্ন থাকেই, সেটা কি? মানুষের ঈশ্বরায়ণ? সেখানে আমরা কখন পৌঁছবো? তার পর কি? আমাদের আগে কারা কারা পৌঁছেছে? আমরা কি তাহলে তাদের মনস্তত্ত্বের ফিগমেন্ট?

পুরো জিনিসটার পয়েন্টই বা কি?

৫

জীবনের একটা বড় সুবিধা হল, জৈবিক সম্মিলন হিসেবে আমাদের নানাধরনের সীমাবদ্ধতা আছে। ফলে এসব চিন্তা কিছুক্ষণ করে না কুলালে আমরা সহজেই ঝেড়ে ফেলে চা আর একটা সিনেমা নিয়ে বসে পড়তে পারি।

কিন্তু মহাকালের এই যে যাত্রাপথ, এইটা আমরা ঠিক পার করছি কেন? এই বায়োলজিকাল ইমপারেটিভ কার ঠ্যাকায়? এটা কেবলই দূর্ঘটনাবশত (প্রায়-)বৈজ্ঞানিক প্রক্রিয়া?

তাহলে আর লাভটাই বা কি, তাৎক্ষণিক আনন্দ ছাড়া?! নাকি আমরা কেবল 'এখন' এবং 'এখনের খাতিরে তখন'-এর জন্যই বেঁচে থাকি?

এইটার বাইরে যদি আর কোন অর্থ না-ই থাকে, তাহলে আপত্তির তেমন কিছু কি আছে?

কি জানি।

দ্য নিউ স্পেস অপেরা - ১, ২

2010-02-23T06:39:00.001-08:00

১

বেশ কিছুদিন অতি উন্নতমানের কল্পবিজ্ঞান পড়া হচ্ছিল না। হ্যামিলটন আর ব্যাংকস শেষ করার পর ভাল স্পেস অপেরা কম খুঁজিনি। চার্লস স্ট্রস, অ্যালেস্টেয়ার রেনল্ডস, ড্যান সিমন্স, ভার্নর ভিঞ্জ - কোনটাই সেই হ্যামিলটন-ব্যাংকসিয় আমেজটা দিতে পারেনি। ফাঁকতালে ওয়ারহ্যামার ৪০,০০০ এর আইজেনহর্ন সিরিজটা কেমনে কেমনে জানি দারুণ লেগে গেল। ব্যাপক আগ্রহ নিয়ে আইজেনহর্ন-শিষ্য রাভেনর এর ট্রিলজিখান নিয়ে বসে দেখি আবার যে-কে সেই। 'টু মাচ মিনেশিয়া' দোষে দুষ্ট, তাও ওয়ারহ্যামার আরপিজির; ধুর!

আমি সাধারণত একসাথে চার-পাঁচটা বই পড়ি; হাতে একটা কল্পবিজ্ঞান না থাকলে ভাল লাগে না। বাস্তবতা নিয়ে বিরক্ত লেগে গেলে একটু কল্পবিজ্ঞান চেখে নেই। নাহলে ঠিক পোষায় না।

তো এই স্ট্রস সাহেবের ব্লগে না কোথায় যেন গিয়ে দেখি আবার হাউ-কাউ হুগো-নেবুলা-লোকাস নিয়ে। হ্যানের গল্প কেন স্থান পাইলো না, ত্যানের বইটা দারুণ, অমুক তিনবার জিততে পারতো, তমুক সবচেয়ে আন্ডারএস্টিমেটেড লেখক। এগুলির বেশিরভাগরেই আমি চিনি না।

ইংরেজি ভাষার কল্পবিজ্ঞানে লেখক না চিনলে তেমন অসুবিধা নাই। গার্ডনার ডজোইস আছে, নাহলে রিচ হর্টন। প্রতি বছর দুইজনে দুইটা এনথোলজি বাইর করে, পড়ে নিলেই হয়ে যায়।

কিন্তু আমার ছোটগল্প পড়ে ঠিক আরামও লাগে না। একটা ছোটগল্পে কতটুকুই বা আনা যায়? ৬০০-১২০০ পেজ সাইজের ইয়া গাব্দা বই না পড়লে কিসের আমেজ, কিসের সুইপিং স্টোরি, কিসের ফিনিশিং? আমার পড়া বেশিরভাগ সেরা বই-ই এই 'ইয়া গাব্দা' ঘরানার, সুতরাং ছোটগল্প বা ছোটগল্পের সংকলনকে আমি মোটামুটি ভাল সন্দেহের চোখে দেখি।

কিন্তু ইদানিং আয়ান ব্যাংকসের দারুণ একটা ছোটগল্প সংকলন পড়ে ধারনাটা একটু নাড়া খেলো। বিশেষ করে ব্যাংকসিয় নভেলা 'দ্য স্টেট অফ দ্য আর্ট'-এর মত অসাধারণ জিনিস আমি খুব কম পড়েছি।

যাই হোক, স্ট্রস সাহেবের ব্লগে এসব ধানাই-পানাই দেখে আমি ভাবলাম যাই, নতুন ডজোইস নামাই, ভাল লেখক খুঁজি। পৃথিবীতে নাকি ১০০০ ফুল-টাইম কল্পবিজ্ঞান লেখক আছে, এদের মধ্যে আর একটারেও আমি খুঁইজা পামু না? ক্যামনে কি?

২

আমি আসলে বই প্রথমে আমাজনে (বা এমাজনে, আমার উচ্চারণ সুবিধার না বুঝেনই তো) দেখি, তারপর ভাল লাগলে নামায় ফেলি। ডজোইস এর 'ইয়ারস বেস্ট সায়েন্স ফিকশন সিরিজ' সার্চ দিতে গিয়ে দেখি আরো দারুণ দুইখান এনথোলজি - 'দ্য নিউ স্পেস অপেরা ১' আর 'দ্য নিউ স্পেস অপেরা ২'।

কল্পবিজ্ঞানের মধ্যে আমার এই স্পেস অপেরা জঁনরাটা অতি অসাধারণ লাগে, তা হোক 'হার্ড' আর হোক 'সফট'। স্পেস অপেরার সেরা লেখকদের নিয়ে এনথোলজি থাকবে, আর আমি সেটা নামাবো না, তা কিভাবে হয়? ;)

যাহোক, আর বই সংগ্রহের কাহিনী নিয়ে প্যাঁচাল না পেড়ে যেই কাহিনী বলতে আসছিলাম সেইটা কইয়া যাই গা।

৩

অ্যালেস্টায়ার রেনল্ডসরে সম্প্রতি টর বুকস এক কোটি ডলার এডভান্স দিসে তার পরের দশটা কল্পবিজ্ঞান গ্রন্থের জন্য। কেন দিসে, সেটা 'মিনলা'স ফ্লাওয়ার' পড়লে বুঝবেন।

মানুষ এইসময় লাখ লাখ গ্রহে ছড়ায় গেছে, কিন্তু আধা-ভন-নিউম্যান, আধা-সাইবর্গ এক শত্রুর সাথেও সংঘাতে লিপ্ত। আরো আছে অতি প্রাচীন, প্রায়-ঈশ্বরসম শক্তিমান সভ্যতাগুলোর কিছু রেলিক, যেমন ওয়েনেট - তারার মাঝের পার্টিকেলবিহীন রাজপথ। মানব কহর্টকে বাঁচানোর জন্য মার্লিন ঘুরে বেড়ায় এই রাজপথে। একটা দুর্ঘটনার কারণে পথের পাশের এক গ্রহে থামে, যেখানে বহু হাজার বছর আগে মানুষ কলোনাইজেশনের জন্য এসেছিল। সভ্যতা এখানে 'আকাশ-পাতাল' রূপ নিয়েছে। কিন্তু যে দুর্ঘটনা মার্লিনকে থামায়, সেই দুর্ঘটনার কারণেই এই গ্রহের সূর্যকে মাঝখান দিয়ে কেটে নিবে ওয়েনেট। মার্লিন এখন কি করবে; 'হাস্কার'-দের থামাতে চলে যাবে না হাজার গ্রহের মাঝে এই এক গ্রহকে বাঁচাবে? কিভাবে?

আমি গল্প-সংক্ষেপ লিখতে অতি-অপটু। যাই হোক, এই গল্পটা এতই ভাল লেগেছিল, খুঁজে পেতে রেনল্ডসের আরেকখান এনথোলজি (জিমা ব্লু এ্যান্ড আদার স্টোরিস) থেকে এর পরের সিকোয়েলটা পড়ে ফেললাম - 'মার্লিনস গান'। আরেকখান *কঠিন* গল্প, যেটার সংক্ষেপ করা প্রায় অসম্ভব।

৪

আগেই বলছি, আমার উদ্দেশ্য ছিল নতুন লেখক খুঁজে বের করা। জন সি রাইট সাহেবের 'দ্য ফার এন্ড অফ হিস্ট্রি' পইড়া মনটা ধেই করে নেচে উঠলো - **পাইসি**। গল্পটা পুরাই মাথার অনেক উপর দিয়ে চলে গেল, কিন্তু ভাবতেই ভাল লাগতেসে যে একটা পুরা ট্রিলজি আছে যেখান থেকে এই গল্পের ব্যাকগ্রাউন্ড পাওয়া যাবে। এই লোক ব্যাংকস না, কিন্তু ব্যাংকস পর্যায়ের হাইপার-আইডিয়াবিদ। আর সে কি ভাষা, সে কি বিশালতা। ফাস্টার-দ্যান-লাইট ছাড়াই বাপধন এই অবস্থা কইরা সারছে। উরিব্বাপ! (ভুলেও এই গল্প সংক্ষেপ করতে কইবেন না। ;) )

রবার্ট চার্লস উইলসনের উট্রিউস্ক কসমি (Utriusque Cosmi) হইলো আরেকখান পিস। গল্পটা যাকে ব্র্যান্ডিং-এর ভাষায় বলতে হয় স্টিকি। লাইগা থাকে গায়ে, যায় না দূরে। পড়ার পর আধা ঘন্টা বস্টন লিগাল খুইলা গল্পের কথাই ভাবসি। :) এই গল্পের মূল থিম হইলো পোস্টহিউম্যান সভ্যতা। একটা কথা এখানে বলেই ফেলি, আইডিয়ার বিশালত্বের দিক দিয়ে স্পেস অপেরার উপরে কোন কল্পবিজ্ঞান নাই। রবার্ট চার্লস উইলসন সাহেব যেন ব্যাংকস আর স্টিফেন বাক্সটারের মাঝামাঝি এক ত্রাস। মহাবিশ্বেরও রক্ষা নাই এই লোকের হাত থিকা।

ট্যাড উইলিয়ামস যে কল্পবিজ্ঞান লেখে আমি জানতাম না। ওনার ড্রাগনবোন চেয়ার আমি পড়সি - একটু ঢিলা কিন্তু ভাল ফ্যান্টাসি (আমার অত ভাল না লাগলেও জনগনের লাগে)। কিন্তু এই লোক 'দ্য টেনথ মিউস' দিয়ে প্রমাণ করে দিল যে লিখতে জানলে সবই লিখন যায়। টেনথ মিউস বুঝলেন তো? শেক্সপিয়রের নাইন মিউসের পরেরটা। মহাশূন্যে এক অজানা আর্টিফ্যাক্ট, এক ভাষাতত্ত্ববিদ, কয়েক জাতির 'নৌবাহিনী', এবং দশম মিউসের খোঁজে গ্যালাক্সি পরিত্যাগ। এগুলিরে ঘুঁইটা যে এইরকম খাসা একটা কিছু লেখা যায়, জানতেন?

বিল উইলিংহ্যামের ফেবলস কমিক্স সিরিজটা অসাধারণ। শুধু আর্ট দেখেই মাটিতে গড়াগড়ি খেতো ভক্তরা। এই ভদ্রলোক যে পুরানধাঁচের, লেন্সম্যান ঘরানার 'ফিয়ারলেস স্পেস পাইরেটস অফ দ্য আউটার রিং'-এ কমিক্সের টান দিয়া এইরকম বানাবেন, এইটা কেডা জানতো? [সত্যি কইরা কই, আমি এই গল্পটা নিজেও এখনো পুরা শেষ করি নাই; কিন্তু পুরা শেষ করতে হবে কেন?]

ড্যান সিমন্স সাহেবের 'মিউজ অফ ফায়ার' গতকাল গভীর রাতে পড়া শুরু করতে গিয়া তাড়াতাড়ি ল্যাপটপ বন্ধ করা ঘুমায় পড়ছি - শেষ করতে গিয়ে যদি রাত কাবার হয়ে যায়? ওরে বাবারে, শেক্সপিয়রের নাটকের সাথে সুদূর ভবিষ্যতে ভিনজাতির কঠোরগ্রাসে মানবজাতির মুক্তি নিয়া এ কি গল্প। এইটাও শেষ হয় নাই, কিন্তু শুরুটা বড়ই অসাধারণ।

স্কটিশ লেখকদের মাথায় এত বুদ্ধি কেন? আমার মতে স্কটিশরা দুনিয়ার সেরা স্পেস অপেরা লেখক। আয়ান ব্যাংকস, কেন ম্যাকলিওড, চার্লস স্ট্রস (ইংলিশ হলেও এডিনবরা-প্রবাসী, বুঝতে হবে না!) - তারপর আয়ান ম্যাকডোনাল্ড। উরিব্বাপরে, 'ভারথান্ডিস রিং' পড়ে যদি আপনি না বলেন আমি ইহা কি পড়িনু, তাইলে আপনার লগে আর খেলুমই না, ধুর! পুরা লেখাটা একদম... উফফ, কেমনে বলি - এক মহাবিশ্ব থেকেই এক গ্রুপ-সুপারইন্টেলিজেন্স (বা সোজা কথায় 'এক দল অদ্ভূত নামের ঈশ্বর) আরেক গ্রুপ-সুপারইন্টেলিজেন্সকে লাথি মেরে বের করে দিচ্ছে। যেই প্যারালেল ইউনিভার্সে পাঠাচ্ছে সেখানে অবস্থা উল্টা হয়ে গেল। এখন তাদের কি হবে, মাল্টিভার্সই বা কি বলবে? কল্পবিজ্ঞান, থুরি, স্পেস অপেরা পর্ন পুরা। :)

অস্ট্রেলিয়ান লেখক গ্রেগ ইগান এখন সামনে এসে বলে, আরে আমরাও কি কম যাই নাকি? এই ভদ্রলোক সুদূর-ভবিষ্যত প্রযুক্তির 'বিজ্ঞানসম্মত' ব্যাখ্যা দেয়ার জন্য বিখ্যাত। জেন আর এ্যান 'নুডাহ'-দের গ্রহে গেছে প্রায়-আলোর গতিতে, একটা পিনের মাথায় চড়ে। পিনের মাথার দৈর্ঘ্য এক পরমাণু। কেন গেছে? 'নুডাহ'-দের আগের 'নায়াহ' সভ্যতার ত্রিশ লাখ বছরের গাণিতিক সমণ্বায়ন নিয়ে জানতে। আর কইলে আপনেরাই আমার গলা টিপবেন।

যাই হোক, আজকে এতটুকুই রাখি। আমি সাধারণত কথা রাখি না, সুতরাং আরেক পর্ব আসবে বা দুই একটা গল্প অনুবাদের চেষ্টা করবো এমন কিছুই বললাম না। আপনারা কষ্ট করে পড়ে ফেলেন; এমন জিনিস কমই পাবেন। :)

স্টোনওয়াল

2010-02-23T01:48:00.000-08:00

১

ইউনাইটেড স্টেটস মিলিটারি একাডেমিতে যখন টি জে জ্যাকসন ঢুকেন, তখন তাকে পাত্তা দেয়ার মত লোক কমই ছিল। আরে, ব্যাটার গা দিয়া গন্ধ, ঘোর দক্ষিণের কোন এক চিপা থিকা আসছে, আপেল খাইতে খাইতে ঘুমায় যায়, একে পাত্তা দেয়া হবেই বা কেন?

ইউনাইটেড স্টেটস মিলিটারি একাডেমিকে সংক্ষেপে বলা হতো ওয়েস্ট পয়েন্ট। ওয়েস্ট পয়েন্টে সাধারণত ঢুকতেন সমকালীন মার্কিন অভিজাতরা। মধ্যবিত্তরাও ঢুকতেন না তা না, তবে জ্যাকসন ধরণের 'চাষার ছেলে' ঢুকতো কম।

এই জ্যাকসনই ওয়েস্ট পয়েন্টে চার বছর শেষে অন্য ক্যাডেটদের মত অনুযায়ী সবচেয়ে বেশি উন্নতি করলেন। জেনারেল লি-র মতে, আর যদি একটা বছর থাকতো, তাইলেই সে ক্লাসের সেরা হয়ে যেতো।

২

মার্কিন গৃহযুদ্ধ শুরু হওয়ার মূল কারণ নিয়ে পুঁথিগত ঐতিহাসিকরা নানা কথা বলেন, তবে দাসপ্রথা যে 'ঘরের মধ্যের হাতি' সেটা তখনকার শিশুরাও জানতো।

উত্তর আর দক্ষিণের মধ্যে তফাৎ ছিল বিশাল। উত্তরের জনসংখ্যা দুই কোটির উপরে, বেশিরভাগ শিল্প সেখানেই, অস্ত্র-শস্ত্র নৌবাহিনী ইত্যাদিও সব ওইখানে। আর এদিকে দক্ষিণ ভাইজানের লোকজন মাত্র ৯০ লাখ, এর মধ্যে ৪০ লাখই কালো দাস। দক্ষিণের সাদা ভদ্রলোকেরা কিছুতেই এদের যুদ্ধ করতে দিবে না - মান-সম্মানের একটা ব্যাপার আছে না! বরং এরা পালিয়ে গিয়ে উত্তরে যুদ্ধ করতো।

দিনলিপি - ধরি ২

2010-02-23T00:57:00.000-08:00

১।

আমার চারপাশে বহু মানুষ দেখি। একজন আরেকজনরে ছাগু, কাফির, বরাহ, রাফিদি, গাধা, গরু, শুয়োর, মুনাফিক, বি'দাতি - কিছু কইতে বাকি রাখে না।

বেশিরভাগ মানুষই আমার ধারনা এমন না। কিছু মানুষ এমন। তাদেরও আমি দুষি না (সল্ট অফ দ্য আর্থ থিওরি), কিছু মানুষের কড়া মতামত থাকবেই। ব্যক্তিগতভাবে আমি এদের কাজকারবারে বেশ হতাশ হই। এভাবে মানুষকে ক্লাসিফাই করে লাভ কি?

দুনিয়ায় সব দৃষ্টিভঙ্গীরই সহনশীল-অসহনশীল মানুষ আছে। আমার হেজিটেশন আছে বলেই সবার থাকবে সেটা আমি আশা করি না। কিন্তু এত্ত সহজে জাজমেন্টাল মানুষজনকে যে আমারও বিরক্তিকর লাগে। মরালিটি কেন এত অবজেক্টিভ হবে? আমার ব্যক্তিগত ধারণায় মরালিটি অনেক সাবজেক্টিভ, কনটেক্সচুয়াল। আমার এদের সহ্য হয় না। সুতরাং আমার নিজের প্রেফারেন্সে আমি এদের দূরে সরায় রাখি। :) এদের এই প্রিচিং, 'তোমার ভালর জন্যই তো করা' এটিচুডও আমার অসহ‌্য লাগে!

আবারও খেয়াল করা দরকার, আমি নিজেরে ইনোসেন্ট বলতেসি না। কেবল নিজের ব্যক্তিগত প্রেফারেন্স বলতেসি। ইহা আমার ব্লগ, সুতরাং... ;)

২।

ইদানিং কিছু অসাধারণ সায়েন্স ফিকশন পড়া হচ্ছে। গার্ডনার ডজোইস আর জোনাথন স্ট্রাহান এর দ্য নিউ স্পেস অপেরা ১ আর ২ নামাইসিলাম। দারুণ কিছু লেখক আবিষ্কার করলাম।

অ্যালেস্টায়ার রেনল্ড সাহেবের 'মিনলা'স ফ্লাওয়ারস' আর 'মার্লিনস গান' এখনো মনে লেগে আছে। এই ভদ্রলোক নাকি মার্লিনের বিশ্বটা নিয়ে আরো লিখবেন। মাশাল্লাহ!

জন সি রাইটও সেরকম। প্রথম না দ্বিতীয় ভলিউমে ওনার গল্পটা পড়ে মেইনস্ট্রিম বইগুলার প্রতি আগ্রহই বেড়ে গেছে। 'দ্য গোল্ডেন এজ' নামাইলামও।

৩।

কালকে আমেরিকান ভিসা ইন্টারভিউ। মামা আসায় ভাগ্য সেইরকম ভাল আমার, নানাজাতের চিঠি-ফিঠি নিসি। যেরকম ভাবসিলাম তার থেকে কাগজপত্র অনেক বেশিই আছে। তারপরও চান্স কিছুতেই ৩০% এর বেশি রাখতে পারতেসি না। হতাশ হওয়া উচিৎ না, কিন্তু খুব সম্ভবত কিছুটা হবো না পাইলে। দেখা যাক।

Planning

2010-02-13T04:43:00.000-08:00

I used to plan things. Now I no longer plan things, really.

I do not why I do this. I have phases when I plan, phases when I do not. I have a hunch that I do not do so because our current world is... too easy.

Is it not so? Yes, you can stretch yourself more than you ever want or need. But you can also be extremely laid back.

I also think that I have an overactive imagination to help me through it. I read things, watch things, play things and probably can get pretty deeply engaged into these.

Is this 'healthy'? OK, no, not totally. But hey, what is? Life is what you make out of it, after all, right?

I still do plan. But it mostly is done on whim, *it* doesn't control the whims. :)

I used to plan heavily. But that seemed to take away the fun of life. U predictability is such a... hoot (as Melvin Palmer in Boston Legal would say). ;) A hoot with a capital H.

It does have its penalties, though. But I can't force myself to force myself to do it.

That would be all for now.

না কইলে কি হয়

2009-11-01T08:41:00.000-08:00

না কইলে কিছুই হয় না।

ব্লগ করতে পারি বইলা করি। যারা ব্লগ করে না তারা আলাপ করে। আমি ব্লগ করি। বা ফোরামে লিখি। বা কিছু করি না।

ব্লগে নানাকিসিমের মনের কথা লেখার সুবিধাও আছে, অসুবিধাও আছে। লেখার পর হাল্কা টেনশনে থাকি। আগে ১০ মিনিট পর পর মোবাইলে চেক করতাম। এখন এক-দুই দিনও চলে যায় চেক করা হয় না। কিন্তু লেখাটায় ফেরৎ যাই, মন্তব্য পড়ি।

কিছু লেখা দিয়ে মনে হয়, ধুর শালা, কি দরকার ছিল এইসব কথা কওনের।

তারপর আবার যখন অন্য কিছু লোকের লেখা পড়ি, ধরেন হিমু ভাইয়ের (অন্য অনেকেই আছে, হিমু ভাইয়ের টানা ছয়টা লেখা পড়ায় ওনার কথাই মনে পড়লো ), মনে হয়, শালার, আমার লেখায় যে মাইনষে দয়া কইরা ঢুকে সেটাই তো যথেষ্ট!

কিছু (মতানৈক্যে সব) লেখায় ইনসিকিউরিটি চলে আসে, অহংকার, ভয়-ভীতি, বায়াস, প্রেজুডিস। যতই বলি ভার্চুয়াল জগতে কে কি বললো পাত্তাই দেই না, আসলে দেই। ব্যাপক দেই।

এ কারণে আর চিত্ত যেথা ভয়শূন্যও হয় না। মনের গভীরের কথা কইতে পারি না। ঢর লাগে। হুদা গালি খাইতে ইচ্ছা করে না (মানে, গালিটা হুদা না, যিনি দিসেন তার দৃষ্টিভঙ্গী থিকা ঠিকই আছে, আমি কাউরে না বললে গালিটা খাইতাম না আর কি, সেদিক দিয়ে হুদা)। এর উল্টা আছে প্রশংসা। যতই বলি ফুলি না, আসলে ভালই লাগে কিন্তু প্রশংসা খাইতে!

সমস্যা হইলো, সবই niche। বাংলা ব্লগ লিখে/পড়ে কয়জন? পৃথিবীতে আনন্দের জন্য বইই পড়ে ৩০%। এর মধ্যে বেশিরভাগ বছরে দুইখান বই কিনে দুই ছুটিতে। বাকিরা এত লাখ লাখ বই পড়ে।

তাই বলে এগুলির গুরুত্ব নাই তা না। ব্লগ অবশ্যই মতামত গঠন করতে পারে, যাদের দরকার তাদের। তাছাড়া, আমার নিজেরও লাভ ব্যাপক; নিজের শক্তি/সীমাবদ্ধতা অনেকটাই বের হয়ে আসে। সেই বিস্তারিত এখন দিতে ইচ্ছা/সাহস করছে না আপাতত।

ব্লগিং সম্পর্কে আমার চেনাজানা অনেকেরই কথা - কি লাভ হুদাই এসব অচেনা লোকের গাল খাইয়া? আমি নিটশা মারি: "The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."

এবং মনে রাইখেন, ভাল রকম ডিফারেন্ট। সচলায়তনের পরিবেশ আমার বাসার পরিবেশ থেকে প্রায় উল্টা। জিনিসটা একদিক দিয়ে মজার হইলেও একদিক দিয়ে ব্যাপক কষ্টকর। যেমন ফেসবুক/সিসিবিতে মাওলানা আবুল কালাম আজাদের ব্যাপারটা - আমি মন্তব্য করার আগে খালি আমার বাপের রিঅ্যাকশনের কথা ভাবি।

এই নিয়াও আপত্তি আছে। আমার বন্ধু আশফাকের মতে, বাপ-মার কথা আনবি কিল্লাই? পরিবারের কথা আনবি কিল্লাই? ও আমার রোজা রাখা সংক্রান্ত লেখাটা পড়ে মহা ক্ষিপ্ত হইসিলো।

ওর কথায় যুক্তি আছে। ব্লগে পুরা জীবন আসে না, খন্ডচিত্র আসে। ব্লগে বার বার বাপের সাথে সচলায়তনের সমষ্টিকভাবে অপছন্দ কিছু জিনিস এসোসিয়েট করাটা বেশ বাজে একটা ব্যাপার। অবশ্যই এখানে পূর্ণ চিত্র তুলে ধরার কোনই সম্ভাবনা নাই। আব্বা নিজে সচলায়তন পড়ে না (আগ্রহ নাই তা না, 'বাংলা নাই')। জিনিসটা অবশ্যই এত সরলসোজাও না।

তবে আমার কথা, আশফাকের উত্তরে, আমার মতামত গঠনে পরিবারের ব্যাপক, বিশাল ভূমিকা আছে। যত যাই বলি, সেটা যদি ব্যাখ্যা না করি, তাহলে বাকিটা বুঝাবো কি করে? আমি তো তাদের দুষছি না। মতামত আমারই।

আমি আদৌ কাউকেই 'দুষি' না। নানা মুনির নানা মত, এবং সেটাই দুনিয়ার মজা। এক সাইডের কোন কিছুই আমার খুব একটা ভাল লাগে না, ডেভিলস এ্যাডভোকেট হওয়ার তীব্র প্রবনতা বিরাজমান। ইন্টারেস্টিংলি, আমি এ পর্যন্ত কোন ফোরামে ব্যান খাই নাই - কট্টর ইসলামি থেকে শুরু করে সচলায়তন পর্যন্ত। নিজে ক্ষেইপা বের হয়ে গেসি, অতটুকুই।

যাহোক, ফাহিম ভাই আবার 'আমি' আর 'আমার' এর হিসাব শুরু করার আগে কাজে ফেরৎ যাই গা। কেবল বইলা যাই, ব্লগে যা লেখি সবই একেবারে বিশ্বাস করি বলেই লেখা না। সারফেস চিন্তাভাবনা অনেকটাই। লিখতে লিখতে মত ফরমুলেট করার চেষ্টা করি। প্যাসিভ থাকাই যায়, কিছু না লেখাই যায়, তাতে কি মজা? তারচেয়ে ৩০ পৃষ্ঠা গালি খাইলাম না হয় একদিন।

ব্লগিং আবার

2009-11-01T08:27:00.000-08:00

ভাবলাম নিজের পেজেই আবার ব্লগিং শুরু করি। এই সেডার পয়েন্টের রোলারকোস্টার পার্ক নিয়ে পড়তে গিয়ে মনে হইলো। পাবলিক ব্লগিং-এ নানা মুনির নানা মত, সবসময় পোষায় না। ফালতু।

যাউগগা, গত কয়দিন স্মাইল এর ব্রডব্যান্ডটা নিয়া সুখে আছি বেশ। :) আরাম, এই দারুচিনিটা, শাই শাই করে জিনিস নামে। ইন্টারনাল নেটওয়ার্ক তো।

জব করতে করতে আইলসা হইয়া যাইতেসি শালার। এফোর্ট দিতে চাই না জিনিসে। এটা অবশ্য নানা পার্সপেক্টিভেই দেখা যায়... লাইফে একটা সেটলড ভাবও আসছে; এখন আরাম না করলে কখন করুম?

যাউকগা, সামনে আমার মালয়েশিয়া ইত্যাদি ভ্রমন নিয়া কিছু লিখুম নে। এগুলি মিসই হইয়া গেছে। আমেরিকা ভ্রমন নিয়াও। চালামু নে।

The Islamic Variable

2009-10-19T20:50:00.001-07:00

A post here:

Was reading through the Afghanistan post here. It quoted the recent Islamic demographic data... 23% of the world population being Muslim and all that.

That kind of stirred me. I read about it in the news too and found it... of little use.

I am 26 and come from a Muslim-majority country (Bangladesh). I live in the capital (Dhaka), in a pretty conservative, Islamic family. I myself am an agnostic... in the sense that I am not sure what to 'believe', but am pretty well acquainted with Islamic culture.

Most of what the Taleban does, is thoroughly abhorrent to my family. Let me give you an example. My sister is preparing to marry her boyfriend... who comes from a richer business family (religious-minded... but... umm, how to explain this... the women cover themselves, but has very high social mobility)... and there was talk about my sister not having to work. My parents kind of had an outburst at that... how the hell come an educated woman not work?! That was pretty impressive... I mean the absolute standard my parents hold on that matter... these are religious and conservative Muslims... my parents, and keep in mind that they never forced my sister to take up the hijab (the 'head-scarf', LOL).

Now, you can pick the above 'story' apart in seconds... it is just one stance among many. Conservative Salafis will consider my family 'deviant', ultra-liberal Westerners might as well snigger at that story ('heh'!).

But that's not the point I am trying to make. What I am trying to tell... wondering around with my words as I tend to do... is that what my family is arguing for is ABSOLUTELY unacceptable to the Taleban. I should know. My cousin married an Afghan refugee family's son whose home is in Peshawar. They didn't allow the marriage ceremony to be filmed (the most conservative strams of Islam take literally the injunction against painting, hence the complete refusal to allow themselves to be photographed).

So now, the point becomes pretty obvious, and I am saying nothing new - there are millions of shades even within Islam. My father, say, is simultaneously an orthodox Sunni Islam and a Sufi (of the Qadiriyah Tarika, most probably). He is non-violent to the extent of not killing the mosquitoes that bite him at winter!

I was reading Andrew Sullivan's 'The Daily Dish' the other day, and there was one post where he pointed out that the struggle now taking place in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia... these are 'their' struggle. I kind of have a same view. It is a 'working out' process.

Let me give you another example. Bangladesh was named 'East Pakistan' till 1971, and then it got fed up with the West Pakistanis and had a Liberation War. I was watching a video... a docu-video, about the situation before the Liberation War. It struck me how many woman in Dhaka wore the hijab in those days... from the random footage. ZERO.

Now-a-days, the percentage has gone up to ~30%. Indeed, there is increased religious observance (Egypt also comes to mind). This is a critical point in a nation's juncture. I have a pet theory that as education levels improve, religious observance tends to increase. This, with other 'externalities', can make a nation go Pakistan's way, or, say Malaysia's way. Bangladesh is closer to the Malaysian model. Of couse the country has its share of extreme followers of Islam. But they tend not to be able to exert an impact on wider society. They do try violent tactics, but as the whole of society is very strongly opposed to such disruptions, including, criticially, the vast, religious Muslim segment... it FAILS, miserably. Even the most fanatic among them learns that lesson (and then some act on it, and some don't... just like Herodotus said).

I find some of the Western opinions to be incredibly generalizing (and I am sure we 'Easterners' make similar outrageous generalizations). That said, I find some opinions to be well-informed. Of course I can not totally blame the West (and I hate that generalizing term) for not being able to grasp the complexities of the broadly Eastern and narrowly Islamic societies as a whole. I myself have great difficulty doing that... and wonderment... and amazement. :)

There are unique variables in every society... every 'civilization', every species (Jared Diamonds' books come to mind). What seems fundamental differences between Western civlization is the snowballing of trivial differences (from 'courtly love' to the 'sexual revolution'). Even within these respective categories, there are HUGE differences between Western and Eastern societies.

Enough of me rambling. What's the conclusion to be reached here? LOL. Not much. I just felt like presenting a perspective. That said, I prefer a more sympathetic view of geopolitics and broad human trends. Even with everything happening, not much has shifted... I am sure I am indecipherable here. Don't try to decipher... just consider most of these, broadly, to be 'salts of the earth'! :)

Shagspere

2009-10-12T21:29:00.001-07:00

“The marriage license itself is lost, but a separate document, the marriage bond, survives. On it Anne Hathaway is correctly identified. Shakespeare’s name is rendered as “Shagspere”-the first of many arrestingly variable renderings.” :D

From Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare book.

A Check

2009-10-12T19:30:00.001-07:00

Had a spam attack in this blog lately. Checking the new email-post address.

Q/A with Me

2009-01-27T02:11:00.001-08:00

1. Tor self-discipline kemon? Self-confidence? Do you make written plans, or just play these in the mind?

Apparently amar self-discipline ta ‘cyclic’. Sometimes I am very organized and disciplined, both mentally and activity-wise. But then it disintegrates and I do things ‘randomly’, which is not as unuseful and negative as it might seem. My own theory is that my balance arc is a very small part, say, a 40 degree arc in a 360 degree circle. I am yet to learn to keep my dial focused at that point for a sustained period of time.

I generally have pretty high self-confidence, sometimes to the point of arrogance. Again, it varies on topics and situations. I tend to be either highly competitive or not at all, which also plays a part in this.

When I am in my organized cycles, I make pretty detailed written plans; sometimes acting almost like a write-aholic. Otherwise, I just play these in the mind. I have a weak short term but good long term memory which also plays a part.

I am not yet sure as to the reason for my cyclic ‘organization urge’. Either I press myself too hard, or I am yet to find my true self, or it is just a trivial thing to be disregarded. In other words, my behavior is ‘not consistent’. I have been asked by someone I respect (you might know him, Muaz bhai) to ‘cut my peripherals’ to be highly effective… but I am not sure if that’d be giving away one of my strengths; and in either case, I can not seem to disengage.

2. Do you think you are a 'genius'? If not, what made you this good academically? Academic theke professional e ki oi carryover ta hochche/hobe?

I do think I have certain talents in a few narrow areas; am average on most other areas and suck at a few – just like most other people. If one can mix and match and apply well, he or she can be a ‘genius’. In your case, the match might have been better than average followed by good application (which should be obvious in the case of a good match anyway).

Following from the above, I think I had a better ‘say’/’hand’ in my choice of professional sphere, which has allowed a stronger match. But is this the optimal match? I am pretty sure it isn’t. As for carryovers, it probably is nowhere near optimal. Technically, ‘Training and Development’ is only one of the forty courses I studied in IBA – so there you go.

3. Do you feel the need to start working on your weaker aspects, such as your social prowess, or do you rather believe like Drucker that it is a waste of time?

Hmm. The world is a onion to me and I am still opening layers of it. As I do so, I can clearly see that there are spheres where I haven’t even tried venturing, and these seem like such a terrible waste to me. From there, not working on my social skills, which I perceive myself to have significant improvement areas at, seem wasteful. But again, I am not sure if I am a fundamentally social person. The basic problem seems to be that I do not ‘enjoy’ people. I dislike small talk. Information extraction efficiency seem to be very low in the case of humans. May be this has happened due to my overexposure to technology from a pretty early age. May be my extensive reading habits have allowed me to extract information in an unconventional (for most people) but very efficient (IMO) manner. I do feel these limitations in my ‘social adventures’, and they indeed are moral-dampening. However, there are also positives. I am still searching for that sweet spot, but I would say my social leverage remains pretty weak (though I have been surprised pleasantly in this regard).

Setting Up Miranda Portable IM at Work

2009-01-25T03:03:00.001-08:00

Download Miranda from www.miranda-im.org.
Allow MSN, Yahoo and Jabber.
You need to allow things to go via your proxy, if one is active. Click Network. Click ‘Use Proxy Server’. Choose Server Type as Mixed. Host is the host from your IE’s Tools ->Internet Options -> Connections->Lan Settings tab. Port from that source too. Click Resolve Hostnames through Proxy. This should enable MSN.
Go to Main Menu->Options, click MSN, give e-mail and pass.
Yahoo is easy, just enable email ID and pass.
For Google Talk/Jabber, Login Server should be ‘gmail.com’. Port should be 5223, and check Use SSL. Do not manually specify connection host (Uncheck). Should enable GTalk.

These were the settings when I enabled all this on 25 January 2009. For any help, just Google or try Miranda’s forums. J

Updates, 5 January 2009

2009-01-04T22:12:00.001-08:00

On a book-reading spree lately. Read through Hamilton’s The Temporal Void, Banks’ Matter, Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and now Gladwell’s Blink. Gladwell has been especially fascinating, though the copy of The Tipping Point I downloaded had some OCR-ing errors which made reading pretty difficult.

I have also been doing some GMAT, focusing on Math, more specifically on Data Sufficiency. On the tougher ones, I have a 40% success rate, which sucks. I do feel that with practice I should be able to improve, and it actually is pretty fun. J

Office is full again, with Mazhar bhai and Noomaya back. A full office has a very different feeling. At one point of time I wanted a quieter workplace, but right now, I won’t go for it right away.

I am of a mind to write an article that inspects the inner workings of enjoying one’s work for the general entry level worker. This partially stems from my recent feeling (reinforced by Ishtiaq Rouf!) that I read too much and do not synthesize my many thoughts.

I also researched a bit on my frequent peeing habit. Methinks the most likely cause(s) might as well be psychological coupled with either a small or an overactive bladder. There are also some suggestions of Diabetes, but my health reports are a big No on the necessary statistics for that to happen. Anyway, I think I need to check with a General Practitioner, or better, an Urologist. Some also suggest that Acupuncture works well. Anyway, it is about time this problem gets a good hearing.

Talent versus Practise

2008-11-16T02:13:00.001-08:00

“…is the strange story of Christopher Langan, a man who despite an IQ of 195 (Einstein's was 150) wound up working on a horse farm in rural Missouri. Why isn't he a nuclear rocket surgeon? Because of the environment he grew up in: there was no one in Langan's life and nothing in his background that could help him capitalize on his exceptional gifts. "He had to make his way alone," Gladwell writes, "and no one--not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses--ever makes it alone."

Conincides with here:

Studies suggest that the key to success in any field has nothing to do with talent. It's simply practice, 10,000 hours of it--20 hours a week for 10 years.

Practise Practise

2008-11-15T20:12:00.001-08:00

From here:

Studies suggest that the key to success in any field has nothing to do with talent. It's simply practice, 10,000 hours of it--20 hours a week for 10 years.

GDP Shares in the Ancient World

2008-10-12T02:09:00.001-07:00

A survey by a certain person… forgot the name, but it was on today’s Prothom Alo, suggests that during the late 1700s both India and China produced a quarter of the world’s GDP. During that time the Indian GDP’ share of the world was 24.4%, whereas the whole of Europe produced only 23.3%!

Fundamental 'Apottis' About Going Abroad

2008-10-06T03:53:00.001-07:00

Koshto. I do not want to give away 3 years of my life.
Money.
Subject line: BBA further?
No academic knack.
Being able to ‘do whatever I want’ here.
Ultimate material benefits not attractive yet. May be a failure to visualize.
Demography and lifestyle doesn’t suit me. (Late Night Works: Was reading Darden blogger Vika Osipenko and learned she kept awake till 4 AM. That’s just not my thing.)
World view – jekhane jemon, make the best of it. Stinks of escapism as well. Also from a view of history. ‘Life’s too short’.
Personality, less ambitious by nature.

Insight: It seems like you do not want to study business. Eliminating that removes a lot of problems, but brings in a few as well. Other subjects?

At the same time, there are several incentives to going abroad. Good incentives, even great. Some of these are very common, but listing nonetheless, but some are specific to me as well:

+3-5 years into the future; greater hobby advantages.
Much higher income.
Slingshot effect of further traveling.

Food Prices, Biofuel and the West

2008-10-06T03:38:00.001-07:00

(From an E-Mail Conversation)

“You’re right – I re-read my part and found it to be pretty hazy. It was written in a hurry, so sorry.

As a background, the file you are sending me is taken from a Time article about an year old (though the conclusion is not Time’s). A lot has happened since then. Let me retry to get my point through, but I might again fail:

1. Rising Asian population and economic growth IS a major factor behind food price increases, contrary to what the author of the e-mail posits, more so because:

a. Staple food price increases, rather than basket food price increases is the real issue, and (most of) Asia suffers more from it because of a less diverse food basket.

2. However, the most rapid spikes happened with the Biofuel debacle, where large amounts of crop-producing capacity was diverted to… well, crop production – but for fuel producing purposes. If the author of the e-mail wants to blame the West, he could have, much more credibly, bring that point forth, as the rise of Biofuels has much to do with rising fossil-fuel prices and an increasing ‘green-consciousness’ which are nearly exclusively a Western phenomenon (as the poor East heavily lacks biofuel usage capacity anyway).

To quote from an interesting conversation between Fareed Zakaria and Thomas Friedman here (highly recommended, BTW):

Zakaria: Explain what you mean by "hot, flat and crowded."

Friedman: There is a convergence of basically three large forces: one is global warming, which has been going on at a very slow pace since the industrial revolution; the second--what I call the flattening of the world--is a metaphor for the rise of middle-class citizens, from China to India to Brazil to Russia to Eastern Europe, who are beginning to consume like Americans. That's a blessing in so many ways--it's a blessing for global stability and for global growth. But it has enormous resource complications, if all these people--whom you've written about in your book, The Post American World--begin to consume like Americans. And lastly, global population growth simply refers to the steady growth of population in general, but at the same time the growth of more and more people able to live this middle-class lifestyle. Between now and 2020, the world's going to add another billion people. And their resource demands--at every level--are going to be enormous. I tell the story in the book how, if we give each one of the next billion people on the planet just one sixty-watt incandescent light bulb, what it will mean: the answer is that it will require about 20 new 500-megawatt coal-burning power plants. That's so they can each turn on just one light bulb!

I hope I am clearer now. ;)"

Powdered Gentlemen, Office and GMAT

2008-10-06T02:05:00.000-07:00

(Peter Stuyvesant and John Adams– Colonial Governor of New Amsterdam and Colonial American Politician and later President – profile picture from the game Colonization. Credits: IGN, of course!)

Pirates: Powdered European gents, pirates… these are the themes that are going through me right now. I am heavily playing Sid Meier’s Pirates! recently, along with Mass Effect. Pirates! is such a delightful game! The graphics, the minigames, the overall strategy, it is great fun. What lives they had… but at the same time, these were tough times for them, of course. Bart Roberts is an interesting one, but so is the cruelty of L’Olonnais. And then there is Henry Morgan. No lives are inherently fun, as we might see in hindsight… consider the fate of Stede Bonnet. What makes it fun is when people do what they want to do, like to do, and become successful in it. When a group of people are having fun doing what they want to do, the resulting competition is also fun. Hence the pirate fun. They knew the danger, but they still went for it. Fought for it.

Office: Am supposed to finish the DPCs – Development Plan Confirmations. A pretty complex and abstract task, and is most efficient to do when you are working in bulk.

GMAT: Dunno what to do. Go for it? It seems like the ideal exam for me. But what bothers me is what to do after GMAT. It can be done for its sake… but can it, actually? I mean, I have so many other higher-preference tasks to do that bringing the GMAT in behind those would be a silly idea. I need to be more determined for this to work!

Sleepy After Lunch...

2008-10-06T01:42:00.000-07:00

Have not been blogging for a while now. In office right now, feeling rather sleepy after lunch. May be I’ll start snippet-blogging… let’s see. You need to get started, things will happen automatically.

A Series of Extraordinary Books

2008-08-06T11:02:00.001-07:00

I read books for many reasons, chief among which I'd describe, rather oversimplistically as: 1. They allow us to compress our otherwise short lives, allowing us to relive in others' footsteps. 2. They allow us to increase our perspectives, in the process making us 'powerful' (in lack of a better word) human beings.

I have been reading a plethora of books recently that, I feel, is really doing just that wonderfully well, i.e., broadening the horizons of my mind. I did not read them in the order described here, rather, mixed among many other books I constantly read and opt out of. But these books especially, in the last 12 month period, has had a strong effect on me. I have expressed here my opinions on those books, and, to do better justice, have attached a high quality review of the book.

1. COSMOS

It started with Cosmos, Carl Sagan's masterpiece. Thanks to Muaz bhai for lending me the book. This is a book that got me *excited* to finish it. Cosmos starts out wide open and then narrows down to give readers tremendous perspective mixed with an urge for focusing on the micro level.

Featured Review:

"As one of the great astronomer-writers of the Twentieth Century, Carl Sagan was extraordinarily communicative with the non-scientific public, able and willing to take the time and trouble to break down the mysteries of the universe into comprehensible fragments. The purpose of this book, which can be considered a companion to the acclaimed television series, is to explain what we know about the universe from a cosmological perspective and why we need to know more about it.

Physicists often talk of the unity of the branches of physics: the interrelation and application of mechanics, thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, and optics to the motion of everything from galaxies to subatomic particles. Similarly, Sagan's major theme is the unity of cosmology with the natural and physical sciences that define what we know about the Earth. Does the stifling, carbon dioxide-choked atmosphere of Venus imply anything about the greenhouse effect on Earth? Was a nearby cosmic explosion called a supernova indirectly responsible for the disappearance of the dinosaurs? What would be the biological consequences for the survivors of a global nuclear war? The answers to these questions are vital to the continuation of life as we know it.

Sagan also identifies cosmology with its own history. He lavishes reverent detail on the ancient Greek and Alexandrian study of the stars and planetary motions, the pioneering work by the Renaissance scientists Brahe, Kepler, Copernicus, Huygens, and others, and the men who revolutionized science with the formulation of laws of motion, Newton and Einstein.

The scope of "Cosmos" is tremendous, from the farthest expanses of the universe containing a hundred billion galaxies in addition to our own Milky Way, at the end of a spiraling arm of which our solar system is located; down to the lone electron circling the nucleus of a hydrogen atom, the most plentiful single entity in the cosmos and the source of everything we know, love, and are. In between there is discussion of the unmanned spacecraft expeditions to investigate "our" planets: Mars with its boulder-strewn, desert-like terrain; the gaseous giant Jupiter; Io, a Jovian moon of incredible redness, spotted with volcanic orifices and resembling an unappealing sauce-covered meatball; Saturn with its ice rings. Would these worlds contain life? Using what we know about the evolution of life on Earth, Sagan hypothesizes how different types of lifeforms might develop on worlds with different environments.

Even a casual interest in cosmology requires a fascination with astronomical distances and unthinkably long spans of time in which a human lifetime is but a blink of an eye. However, Sagan seems to write also for those who would rather relate cosmic arcana to familiar terms, and in this sense he is a grand entertainer: A thought experiment that provides a simple but fanciful illustration of the concept of black holes uses the tea party scene in "Alice in Wonderland" as a setting. "Cosmos" neither complicates unnecessarily nor insults your intelligence; very few "popular" science books will capture your imagination so well." (A. J.)

2. A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING

Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' is book similar to Cosmos, at least in nature, if not is scope; a book to appreciate Newton's comments about pebbles in the beach. The book is especially valuable in giving you leads to many exciting paths and disciplines.

Featured Review:

"Bill Bryson is an excellent writer, no question. He's at once friend and informative, chummy without being condescending. The problem is that Bill Bryson is not a terribly well informed writer.

I read an interview with Bryson in New Scientist not long ago in which he admitted that he really didn't understand a lot of what all these scientists were telling him, and unfortunately that's all too clear in reading this book. As a consequence Bryson gives you a good deal of infomation peppered with some really horrid misunderstandings and errors. I'm reminded in reading "A Short History" of Bryson's book on language, in which he either repeats or invents any number of terribly inaccurate folk etymologies. Also a very readble but terribly inaccurate tome. He's great fun to read on personalities (although the accuracy of some of his characterizations is suspect) and he does have an ear for fascinating trivia, but science takes a back seat to all of this. All too often we get the beginning of an explanation that trails off into a "and anyways it's all very complicated but it's it just fascinating" sort of gee-whiz summary. One suspect that we've just reached the point where Bryson has either lost the thread of understanding or perhaps just decided that he doesn't care to understand something any further.

As enjoyable as Bryson can be to read, I only wish he'd had his manuscript vetted by editors with a solid science background, or better yet, collaboraated with a scientist on the writing. As it is, I can't really recommend this book. The reader interested in how science has shaped the world would do far better to read James Burke's justly well-regarded "Connections"." (Michael J. Edelman)

3. GOD'S DEBRIS

Scott Adams' Gods Debris gets an honorable mention here for providing a twist on perspective.

Featured Review:

"For those who love Dilbert, please realize that this book has nothing to do with that enjoyable character. There's also no humor here. Instead, you will find a fable that presents a unified theory of cosmology, religion, and knowledge. Before you get excited about all that you can learn, realize that this unified theory is deliberately flawed by Mr. Adams to provide you with a thought experiment to locate what is wrong with the argument. So the book is actually a brain teaser in its primary intent. It is a brain teaser that most people will find exceeds their knowledge of probability, physics, religion, philosophy, evolution, psychology and logic. So, to pick it apart you will probably need to assemble a team of people with deep knowledge in those areas. As a result, God's Debris is perfect for a serious book club. After understanding what's wrong with the arguments in the book, many will probably begin to see more unity in everything that happens based on a better platform of knowledge. That's well worthwhile.

I found this book fascinating as a puzzle, and enjoyed picking the arguments and misstatements apart. It reminded me of a question on the bar exam from many years ago where I had to write about what the law was in regard to a will written by an illiterate person. Great fun!

Mr. Adams warns that this book is for "people who enjoy having their brains spun around inside their skulls." He also says that it is "a view about God that you've probably never heard before." I certainly agree with both of those points. He also warns that what's in the book "isn't true . . . but it's oddly compelling." He also notes that people under the age of 14 should not read it. Although he doesn't say why, anyone who reads this book without a foundation in the subjects described may actually believe what's proposed by the Avatar. The world has enough false beliefs in it. I applaud Mr. Adams for helping to avoid creating any more.

After this book has honed your knowledge and critical thinking skills, I suggest that you take arguments that you read in other books and practice seeing what is wrong with them. All nonfiction books provide thought experiments of that sort!

I do hope Mr. Adams will write another of these thought experiments.

Overcome the appeal of simplicity to see through to the dynamic reality!" (Donald Mitchell)

4. THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is a book for organizing our vanishingly small, but supremely important 'real life' among all these super-macro level perspectives. Thanks for Wasim for recommending this book to me. This is probably one of the most useful books, along with Kurzweil's one, for organizing our micro level lives, that is, if we so desire.

Featured Review:

"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change was a groundbreaker when it was first published in 1990, and it continues to be a business bestseller with more than 10 million copies sold. Stephen Covey, an internationally respected leadership authority, realizes that true success encompasses a balance of personal and professional effectiveness, so this book is a manual for performing better in both arenas. His anecdotes are as frequently from family situations as from business challenges.

Before you can adopt the seven habits, you'll need to accomplish what Covey calls a "paradigm shift"--a change in perception and interpretation of how the world works. Covey takes you through this change, which affects how you perceive and act regarding productivity, time management, positive thinking, developing your "proactive muscles" (acting with initiative rather than reacting), and much more.

This isn't a quick-tips-start-tomorrow kind of book. The concepts are sometimes intricate, and you'll want to study this book, not skim it. When you finish, you'll probably have Post-it notes or hand-written annotations in every chapter, and you'll feel like you've taken a powerful seminar by Covey." (Amazon)

5. THE WORLD IS FLAT

'The World is Flat' by Thomas L. Friedman is a book that makes the effects of globalization crystal clear and makes one want to jump on to it. Alongside, it explores many other useful tangential topics, enlightening one greatly about our modern world.

Featured Review:

"Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist. His aim, in his new book, The World Is Flat, as in his earlier, influential Lexus and the Olive Tree, is not to give you a speculative preview of the wonders that are sure to come in your lifetime, but rather to get you caught up on the wonders that are already here. The world isn't going to be flat, it is flat, which gives Friedman's breathless narrative much of its urgency, and which also saves it from the Epcot-style polyester sheen that futurists--the optimistic ones at least--are inevitably prey to.

What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected": the lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. This in itself should not be news to anyone. But the news that Friedman has to deliver is that just when we stopped paying attention to these developments--when the dot-com bust turned interest away from the business and technology pages and when 9/11 and the Iraq War turned all eyes toward the Middle East--is when they actually began to accelerate. Globalization 3.0, as he calls it, is driven not by major corporations or giant trade organizations like the World Bank, but by individuals: desktop freelancers and innovative startups all over the world (but especially in India and China) who can compete--and win--not just for low-wage manufacturing and information labor but, increasingly, for the highest-end research and design work as well. (He doesn't forget the "mutant supply chains" like Al-Qaeda that let the small act big in more destructive ways.) Friedman tells his eye-opening story with the catchy slogans and globe-hopping anecdotes that readers of his earlier books and his New York Times columns will know well, and also with a stern sort of optimism. He wants to tell you how exciting this new world is, but he also wants you to know you're going to be trampled if you don't keep up with it. His book is an excellent place to begin. (Amazon)

6. GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL

Followed by 'Guns, Germs and Steel' by Jared Diamond, an exposition on human history and our physical environment's effect on it.

Featured Review:

"Diamonds' thesis, as noted by other reviewers, is that the triumph of western culture traces in large measure to accidents of geography and environment. In particular, the east-west orientation of Eurasia and the abundance of usable crop species and animal species in Eurasia in general and the Fertile Crescent in particular. The ability to create domestic crops and domestic animals, by his reasoning, led through a series of steps to the development of larger communities, the development of technology, and the triumph of the West." (James D. DeWitt)

7. THE 10% SOLUTION TO A HEALTHY LIFE

The 10% Solution to a Healthy Life is Raymond Kurzweil's supremely convincing masterpiece about a balanced diet (10% of fat from calories) which intertwines so many other health facts.

Featured Review:

"Standing out from a field of "fad" diet books(The Zone;Sugar Busters;Atkins,etc.) like a pearl in a sea of mud,The 10% Solution is a lucid, intelligently written,well-documented eating plan that really works.(I know--I've been following it for some time now,with fantastic results) Kurzweil is NOT a nutritionist--rather,he's a computer scientist--but he's clearly done his homework,and his writing style and format make it easy for anyone to understand the principles of a healthy diet. Yet he doesn't over-simplify,or insult the reader with emotional pleas and lack of documentation. In a nutshell,the "10% Solution" means that no more than 10% of the calories in your diet should come from fat. Extreme? (After all,the FDA,AHA,and other mainstream entities recommend a diet consisting of 30% of calories from fat) Not at all,as Kurzweil convincingly demonstrates. What's extreme is the eating habits cultivated by "developed" societies like our own ov! er the last century,where undue emphasis is placed on fat. The author compares our typical diet with one from rural Asia,along with respective heart disease and cancer rates. The figures are staggering. Yes--despite what you've heard from the latest fad diet promoters--fat IS the culprit(of course,SOME fat is necessary). A truly low-fat,nutritionally balanced eating program is an enormous factor in attaining good overall health. And,yes,you can(and will,no doubt) lose weight on this regimen--but more importantly, you'll feel better and improve your health immensely. Cutting down to 10% of calories from fat does take some adjustments,but it's not as hard to do as many may think,and Kurzweil makes it easier with a section of recipes. I've read quite a few books on diet and nutrition,and this is clearly the best-written one I've personally seen. Read it and change your life for the better." (Kent Stallard)

8. ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig, is a spiritual inquiry on the metaphysics of quality (I am yet to get that; haven't finished it yet), but so far Pirsig's elucidations on rational versus classical are wonderful.

Featured Review:

"In this monumental 1974 work, Robert Pirsig has achieved what few others have managed before him and, to the best of my knowledge, nobody else has accomplished since: a perfect unification of philosophy, adventure and mystery. His "Chautauqua," or traveling tale, takes the reader on a profound tour of ancient Greek philosophy, the steppes of Montana, and even a little bit of Zen Buddhism, with endless surprises and much original if not truly inspired thought along the way. Through his self-portrayal by means of the unforgettable and eerily enigmatic character Phaedrus, Mr. Pirsig shares his far-reaching search for the meaning of life, and himself. His fundamental concern is with the following seemingly simple but in effect infinitely complex question: "How can one distinguish "good" from "bad?" The question is posed and addressed in many different forms throughout the book, and in the process the concepts of truth, value and quality are dissected, reassembled, and again dissected and reassembled many times. Mr. Pirsig has an uncanny sense of timing, and he never allows the heavier passages to labor on too long. This is avoided by craftily interspersing his philosophical discourse amongst very down-to-earth and charming observations made during a motorcycle trip that takes the narrator and his seemingly troubled son Chris from the American Prairies to the Pacific, and forms the prevalent background for the entire "Chautauqua." "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is a totally unique creation. Not being one to lend himself easily to corny clichés, I nevertheless believe that this is one book that definitely could dramatically change your life, whether or not you believe in Zen or have ever sat on a motorcycle. If you love somebody, buy them this book." (Walter V. Cicha)

If you have read through till here, I hope you have found one or two books to your liking here. Do feel free to recommend me any book you thought might be useful.

Started Morrowind - 5 Years After I Bought It

2008-07-10T05:29:00.001-07:00

(From Bethesda’s Forums.)

I bought Morrowind when it came out, sometimes around 2003. Never really played it much. I did load it up and created a character, but at that point my PC was not really up to the task and the introductory gameplay kind of put me off. Didn't know much about Tamriel, and was more into Bioware type RPGs.

5 years later, I got hold of a shiny, new laptop and wanted to install some older games on it just for fun's sake. The list included Civ4, Sims2, Freedom Force, Warcraft3 and of course, Morrowind. To put it in a nutshell, I installed, booted up and got thoroughly hooked.

Of course, there is more to the story than that. I must credit Oblivion for this rejuvenation of Morrowind. I have so far gone through ~120 hours of Oblivion (no where close to finishing yet, FYI) and the game has immersed me on the wonderful world that is Tamriel. This knowledge and background has made Morrowind much richer an experience.

The graphics is indeed dated compared to Oblivion, but all these of course depend on one's assumptions, and as I was playing on a laptop, I did not ask for much. Still, it has exceeded all my expectations, and is pretty damn good, especially with the laptop's native 1280*800 resolution.

I had a recent gap in playing Bethesda RPGs, so as I get immersed into Morrowind, I start appreciating again how deep Bethesda makes their games. I mean, I am 18 odd hours into the game and I am only getting started. All I have killed so far were a few cave rats. Besides that, I have learned a wealth of information on the world and have gotten into half a dozen guilds and have got 24 pages of journal entries O-O. 18 hours into a game and you have not yet gotten started? Yeah, that kind of thing only happens with Bethesda RPGs.

I am playing with an Imperial Knight (chose Ultima style Q&A character class detection) named Rex Litharius. Wearing a patchwork of iron, steel and imperial legion armor. Really need some money, have only 26 GPs. So many skills to improve. I can already see myself replaying this game. There, a 1000 hours gone from my life! Well spent, though. A bit too light on action at this point; so many options, so many NPCs!

I am curious as to how long it took fellow forumers here to 'complete' Morrowind in their first run. Also, I am debating with myself whether I should install mods as this is my FIRST Morrowind game. Nothing like a grand ol' RPG to make you feel rich and content.

Any comments and experience sharing very welcome. Do not spoil me though, please. Looking forward to having some good time with the community as well.

The Joys of Non-Driving

2008-06-22T21:18:00.001-07:00

(Credits, Andrew Sullivan, for providing this C.S. Lewis bit, and allowing to ‘borrow’ the post name.)

“I number it among my blessings that my father had no car, while yet most of my friends had, and sometimes took me for a drive. This meant that all these distant objects could be visited just enough to clothe them with memories and not impossible desires, while yet they remained ordinarily as inaccessible as the Moon. The deadly power of rushing about wherever I pleased had not been given me. I measured distance by the standard of man, man walking on his two feet, not by the standard of the internal combustion engine. I had not been allowed to deflower the very idea of distance; in return I possessed "infinite riches" in what would have been to motorists "a little room."

The truest and most horrible claim made for modern transport is that it "annihilates space." It does. It annihilates one of the most glorious gifts we have been given. It is a vile inflation which lowers the value of distance, so that a modern boy travels a hundred miles with less sense of liberation and pilgrimage and adventure than his grandfather got from traveling ten. Of course if a man hates space and wants it to be annihilated, that is another matter. Why not creep into his coffin at once? There is little enough space there.”

My New GMAT Blog

2008-06-12T02:34:00.000-07:00

http://monwargmat.wordpress.com J

Jefferson and GMAT

2008-06-11T02:41:00.001-07:00

Before I finish, I think I can apply my Blog Header to my GMAT:

“In fine, I repeat, you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject anything, because any other persons, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable, not for the rightness, but uprightness of the decision.” - Thomas Jefferson

My exam, my preparation, my life, my way. Let’s do it! I have been listening to others’ advice time and again. They can have an effect, as long as they are thought through. But I must be the determiner of my fate, or this life will not be enjoyable.

A GMAT Blog

2008-06-11T02:33:00.001-07:00

I feel that I have been overly hurried and impulsive about this whole GMAT and going abroad thing. It has not all been bad, but not all good either. I started it on May 13, and today is June 11, so nearly a month (actually, 28 days) has passed. I would have liked more progress within this time. To be honest, I have not really been serious about the thing. I am also somewhat frustrated about my back and forth decision making and irregular studying habits. I need a smoother effort, that’s more like me.

There are certain advantages to my situation. I have a good, relaxing job (not always though… need to plan) and supporting friends and family. I have a very established base here and can afford to take my time. On the other hand, I do not really have a target. I know I want to explore the world. That objective has some gap with GMAT. I need to be more specific. I also need to keep myself from being burned out, or so relaxed I forget what I read.

I was also going through Eric’s blog a while ago and found it a very good one. I think if I create a blog to record my experience that might as well work out. I already have a Blogspot blog, so I would probably want a Wordpress one this time around. Several things need to be done: set my target, research universities, explore other avenues (but that might be better to do in this blog), log progress. All this seems fun. I have always been a person to see life (especially mine) from a macro level perspective and derive fun out of it. This seems just like that, fun!

Now that I have revised this document once, it feels like such blogging can sure direct me. I can blog about this whole going abroad thing as well; research more on the topic, guide myself. I can have a Games blog. I already have a work blog (just need to search)… or try a real private work blog listing my day to day works and what worked or what did not. But too many blogs might actually end up disorganizing me. Let’s start one at a time. If you asked me what this tells about me, let me try to answer: I have always enjoyed planning for something and seeing it to the end. These are some of my more enjoyable moments. That’s all. Just sucking the bonemarrow out of life… ;)

GMAT Stats

2008-06-09T22:15:00.001-07:00

*Only 1% of all GMAT takers score 750 or higher,

7% score 700 or higher,

15% score 650 or higher and

30% score 600 and higher

(Guide to the use of GMAT scores effective Oct 1, 2003 - percentages based on examinees tested from January 2000 through Dec 2002 (including repeaters))

*Getting a single question wrong in the first 10 can jeopardize chances of a good score.

*All areas (and especially the tougher areas) need to be covered if you are shooting high (700+).

What Adventure!

2008-05-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

“We went over to England from St Pierre in Newfoundland. After 21 days we arrived at the Isles of Scilly and stayed in Falmouth for the winter. This was 1979. Then our visa expired and we went to the Netherlands. Our daughter was born there and they kicked us out. So we went to Norway for a while, then Sweden. We had not much money then. Then Nell got a bit big for the boat. She was having trouble in school because everyone spoke Swedish. We sailed back through Denmark and into the canals of Germany. At one point, I will never forget, we were in Belgium at Liege, there was an English barge behind us and Nell got off and a little girl got off this barge and started speaking to her in English and Nell took her hands and would not let her go. She was about three and it was the first time she had met someone her own age whom she could understand. I thought then it was time to come home. So we took off through the canals to France, I didn't want Nell to cross the Atlantic, too dangerous, so she flew back with Wendy and a couple of friends helped me to get to the Caribbean.”

- Robert M. Pirsig, in an interview with the Guardian

'America's' Engineers?

2008-05-28T20:46:00.001-07:00

My friends are being put to good use:

“But America's hidden secret is that most of these engineers are immigrants. Foreign students and immigrants account for almost 50 percent of all science researchers in the country. In 2006 they received 40 percent of all PhDs. By 2010, 75 percent of all science PhDs in this country will be awarded to foreign students. When these graduates settle in the country, they create economic opportunity. Half of all Silicon Valley start-ups have one founder who is an immigrant or first generation American. The potential for a new burst of American productivity depends not on our education system or R&D spending, but on our immigration policies. If these people are allowed and encouraged to stay, then innovation will happen here. If they leave, they'll take it with them.”

From Fareed Zakaria: The Rise of the East, Newsweek

Pick a School, Pick a Score

2008-05-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

The GMAT asks you for 5 universities to which it will send the scores, before the test starts. My first cherry picked list was as follows:

1. Pamplin (Virginia Tech) - 620
2. Rutgers (The State University of New Jersey) - 637
3. Carlson (University of Minnesota) - 655
4. Mays (Texas A&M University) - 665
5. McCombs (University of Texas at Austin) - 673

Of course, the above has been sorted by GMAT scores. The range kind of tells you my estimation of my GMAT score. I scored 1270 on the SAT without much of an effort (I'd dub it 'low moderate', the degree of effort). Halving that gives me 635, and downscaling by difficulty I should have about 620 on GMAT with a 'low moderate' effort. Moderate should take it to 640, good should take it to 670, very good to 700 (Yang: In your dreams... Yin: AHA?).

With this list, I consulted Sharif bhai, my Grameenphone colleague and a graduate of US universities to gain his input. He suggested Brigham Young (Mormons?!;)), Indiana Bloomington (Kelley), Urbana-Champaigne, UTD, Penn State, Ohio State (Fisher), Boston, UMass at Amherst, Emory, Berkeley (yeah!) and University of Washington, in addition to my choices (a total of 11 new). He also suggested some Canadian universities such as York, UBC and Western Ontario (Ivey); interesting. Lots of searching to do, if you ask me. :)

'Wisdom of the Empty Vessel'

2008-05-21T08:45:00.001-07:00

(Copied from a Facebook note from friend Imran (Oney). Might not agree with all, but food for thought. Spelling corrected and formatted.)

1. Knowing thyself is not possible because we are what we choose to be.

2. The brightest person is the one who understand the absolute darkness.... the intensity of white is best seen in the presence of the intense black... grey can never show whether more black or white is there.

3. Give the best, expect not the very worst in return .... your repay is in your courage to do good no matter what.

4. Those who lie knows they are guilty... that guilt itself will take care of all the mischief it causes .... so learn to care less for the liars.

5. Always remember the faces who were there when you needed them the most... more often people take the good things for granted... that is the only mistake that causes all the pain.

6. Friends in need are the only human souls that are to be cared for the most as that sense of duty is not bound by any blood relation, law, stereotype or even culture.

7. No man is greater then the other, so bow not before men, respect is all u will get in return.

8. If humbled is what you are by the touch of wisdom, understand that you are wise.

9. Mistakes only have a presence if you do not learn from your experience.

10. The road to freedom of any sort is never ending.

The Islamic Reformation

2008-05-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

[More then a year old, keep that in context, please. A passive analysis, all offense is a construct of your mind, really!]

The last time a ‘reformation’ happened, in Europe in the mid sixteenth to mid seventeenth century, it put nearly all the continent in utter turmoil in the form of the Thirty Years’ War. Just in Germany (or the Holy Roman Empire as it was then called), the population loss was close to one-third of its existing 20 million, and it took the country until the early eighteenth century to restore previous demographic and economic levels.

But anyone who has read the history of that period would know the number of variables alongside religion that was involved in that war. However, that same person would also acknowledge that religion acted as a major catalyst for the events and only took a backseat when the major parties had been fully engaged and were, to an extent, war-weary, and only when religious doctrines were abandoned for ‘reasons of state’ was the Peace of Westphalia achieved.

Is the world ripe for another such reformation? A plethora of recent major events seem to bear such signals that the Reformation might be coming to the East, to the other great world religion, Islam. Before going into any debate whether it might actually occur, let us examine these events, and start with a historical perspective.

The Re-rise of Islam

It would not be an exaggeration to say that since its birth and ‘blitzkrieg’ expansion, Islam remained in a dominant position compared to the rest of the world. To a great degree, the infighting between the various Islamic factions prevented the Moors from taking Northern Europe (defeated by Charles Martel at Tours in 732), or the Fatimids from taking over Southern Italy circa 955 (they already held Sicily), or many such conquests thereafter till the Ottoman siege of Vienna. That they only had to stop this outward fighting (or expansion) to fight amongst themselves perhaps shows a major reservoir of military strength, and when the infighting stopped, and peace was made with the Dar-ul-Harb (such as between Charlemagne and Haroun al-Rashid), it gave birth to one of the most ‘enlightened’ societies, compared to Gibbon’s dark age of contemporary Western Christendom.

So it is perhaps not a mistake to comment that, at that stage of history, the Islamic East (and Maghreb, Andalusia and parts of Islamic Africa) perhaps seemed as amazing to Western (and even Eastern) Christendom as today’s Western Civilization is looked upon by the East. In fact, common opinion suggests that Western Christendom only escaped from the clutches of the dark ages via the Crusade experience when, among other benefits, they developed great trade and re-learned their Roman and Greek heritage from Arab scholars.

History, however, has a general dislike for stability before which no previous Empire could make a prolonged stand. After 600 years of general prosperity, the great scourge of the Mongols arrived at Islam’s doorsteps, and with some help (as usual) from the never-ending court intrigues and faction fighting, sacked the flower of Islam, Baghdad, with such thoroughness that the Arab element of the Islamic World took a backseat from which they only recovered recently.

All was, of course, not destroyed. The Islamic empire was vast, and just like the Kurds had relieved the Islamic World from the Crusades in the guise of Salah-al-Deen al-Ayyubi, now the Turks came forward, first in the guise of the Mamelukes, and then in the guise of the Ottomans. A new Golden Age began for the Muslims, and losses in the West (Sicily, Islamic Spain) were offset by great gains in Africa, India and Eastern Asia. For sure, this golden age was perhaps not as comprehensive as the previous age, but then, this age was less restless, alongside being less prosperous, and gave birth to some unparalleled philosophies which still guide most of the Islamic World.

But prosperity begets complacency, and feeds the great cycle of history. The rich and the civilized become soft, the poor, ‘barbarians’ start to look at them like fruits ripe for plucking, and their restless nature generally begets innovation. From the eternal fighting of the medieval and early modern ages emerged a consolidated, hardened, technologically superior Europe who turned outwards, while at the same time the Islamic societies turned inwards, slowly becoming stagnant and weak. For sure, this reversal of roles took generations and centuries, but the end result was that Islam, through its followers, ceased to become a major force in general. What the Europeans couldn’t achieve in two centuries of hard fighting during the Crusades, they achieved nearly effortlessly during the Age of Imperialism.

For the last 250 years, a perusal of the history of the world would show the most minuscule contributions in civilization from the once-great Muslims. Europe’s superiority and often, suppression made sure that the Muslims were considered only an auxiliary, a tangential. But then, history again started to turn a cycle. The Europeans now turned to devastating themselves in the form of the two World Wars, and except for the USA, the Old Europe became stagnant. No longer could the bindings of colonialism be enforced, and the now independent Muslims started to explore themselves.

The Islamic Identity

The primary thought patterns started, quite obviously, nationalistically, especially in mostly-Muslim countries. This nationalism was generally secular, although by its very definition it needed to have religious elements, but rarely do we see this nationalistic concept ‘overwhelmed’ by religion, until the very failure of this concept through the failure of application. Nationalism, in all its forms, nearly overnight, became a vice from a virtue and was considered a weakening factor. Universalism was not an option; there was still too much anger at the failed states, the stealing of resources and the nostalgia of past glory. Rather obviously, Islamism came forth to fill the gap. It is not that the Islamic identity was a totally new thing, but whereas previously it was passive, in this new age, adopted by an angry, ambitious, idealistic, glory-seeking populace, it became active mostly via manifestation. Oversimplistically, but more succinctly, the generally passive religious identity now took an active (even aggressive) politico-religious form, more by the need of the time rather than by the intrinsic virtues, though it must also be said that of the modern monotheisms, Islam remains the most comprehensive, and by definition, more adaptable to the fulfillment of such a need. The seeding of this thought process can be tracked starting from Hasan al-Banna, to Qutb through Khomeini, the Islamic Salvation Front and al-Bashir. Suffice to say that any effort in generalizing such a framework shift is doomed to failure due to the large and varied demographics and societal structures involved.

Whereas the success or failure of this new ‘awakening’ is better left to the judgment of future historians, one aspect requires our immediate attention if we are to understand the subject matter. In all revolutions, an element always exists who want to bring change much faster than the ‘mainstream’, and are generally judged to be the radicals. The methods they use, often unconventional, determine their success, and generally have strong effects on the movement as a whole. Consider Che Guevara and Castro, the Meinhof-Bader gang, and even Mao’s Cultural Revolution. This might happen due to a very high internalization of values or great frustrations with the system where the pace of change is extremely slow.

In the case of the new Islamism[1], both variables had a role. I think that in our times the most violent form of such radicalism is expressed by the most-right wing Wahabis, or the Salafis, who show both symptomatic variables.

Salafism, or the turning back to the acts and decisions of the Prophet and the first two generations of successors as a guide to what Islam should be, was originally a liberal idea propagated by Taqi al-din ibn Tayimiyya, where reaction to the then-recent Mongol Invasion and sack of Baghdad also had a strong role to play mostly in the strong anti-Shi’a conjecture. It tried to cut through the thicket of centuries of Islamic jurisprudence. The role of ibn Tayimiyya, in my mind, is almost like Marx, and that of Abdul Wahab, of Lenin or Stalin, who applied it to a local context.

The extreme fringe of the Salafi movement consists of the likes of al-Qaeda, the radical Sunni insurgents in Iraq, and in a more indirect, almost ‘influential’ capacity, (non-exhaustively) several Pakistani terrorist groups and JMB in Bangladesh. As the nature of such ideologies have been discussed earlier, these organizations wanted to bring in desired social change as fast as possible, and for this they applied violent force, which is often the fastest way to achieve that objective, albeit with a high rate of failure. Of course, sometimes their failures might also create a certain awareness for that ideology which allow the mainstream moderate of that movement to reap rich harvest, as perhaps witnessed by the Naxal failure but socialist success in West Bengal.

It’s not like there are many Salafis in this world, they remain a small minority among the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims, and the extreme, violent segment another minority even within them. But the methods they use to accelerate social change in their direction have given them a disproportionate amount of publicity. However, the extreme Salafi drive against the Shi’a, as witnessed currently in Iraq, might backfire terribly to bring about a conflagration not unlike the Thirty Years’ War, but far more devastating in consequence due to the sophistication of modern weaponry. Extending the analogy, Samarra can be taken for Donawuerth, or even Magdeburg, which fast brought the Protestants into the action, though it’s stretching it a bit too far. Recent summits in Makkah, or even the Abdullah-Ahmadenijad meeting can be considered attempts to stem the negative flow of events, but these show every chance of failing, like the Diet of Regensburg.

The greatest internal turmoil in the Islamic world is happening right now, in our times, at least if you consider the number of bodies being felled in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and even Iran. A few factors can be attributed to this, such as colonial rearrangements of territories, corrupt governments who had to make deals with Islamists to ensure their survival and a shift in the Islamic jurisdictional structure which became deformalized, where people like Zawahiri who are not ‘orthodox clerics’ can have a lot of support and the say of the populace.

I have a notion that this Sunni-Shi’a clash, much like what the Thirty Years’ War did for Christendom to generally moderate Catholic-Protestant tensions, will eventually bring up a universal Islamic identity reconciled with technological advancements. The signs are already there. Witness the recent Ahmadenijad-Abdullah summit between nemeses such as Saudi Arabia and Iran. Then the other unlikely bedfellows such as Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait and Lebanese and Iraqi Sunnis, and on the other hand Iran, Bahrain, Shi’a Iraq etc.

Of course, in such reformations, religion is never the sole variable and has a rather nasty habit of dragging other variables with it. During the Thirty Years’ War it was state politics, and in the modern time we also see a merger and alignment of such forces. Consider Bangladesh, where against JMB, the ‘moderate’ forces unified and aligned, including the archrival political parties and the effect of the external forces. Also consider the Danish Cartoons incident, or more recently and clearly, Benedict’s comment and the European Left’s support for it.

There are monetary dimensions to this issue, for sure, especially related to oil money. Another important issue is the morphing of Islam from a locality-based, diversified creed to an almost planetary universal creed where Muslims shun petty sectarianism. This new Islam is eschewing ‘local innovations’ such as Shab-e-Barat. The new generation of ‘Internet Muslims’ are helping the coordination of this universal class but in the process are becoming alienated from local Muslims, for whose ‘conversion’ religious efforts again become necessary, part of that eternal cycle. Even within these ‘localized’ Muslims there are large numbers of diverging viewpoints and parochial views on their local visions, and the tendency to consider other (especially non-local) variants un-Islamic and deviant.

Before I move further in this article it must be said that sometimes collective analysis is much easier than individual, however in such a case one con is that broad brushes are a must. In the process you do run the risk of generalizing and bias which I would kindly ask the reader to excuse.

Such parochial attitudes are also something which affect the slaughter of the ‘deviants’. Such excuses have been used for ages. In modern times, when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said: “Let blood be spilled, and we will speed those who are good to their paradise”; during the medieval times, when Bishop d’Cetaux Arnaud Amaury, who during the Crusade against the Cathars killed 200,000 and when asked how to differentiate Catholics from Cathars, replied: “Kill them all, God will sort his own’, to the classical times when the parishioners of the Archbishop of Alexandria, Cyril, dragged the Mistress of the Great Library of Alexandria, Hypatia, and hacked her to death.

But we must also contemplate, as pointed at previously, that such a conflict can also bring about positive change for the wider body of the World’s Muslims as they understand the horrors and evils of extremism and sectarianism and see the benefits of embracing moderation and toleration. Whether this will lead to better relationship with the West will of course depend on relevant variables and similar understanding from that sector.

Islamic societies are not inherently rigid and stagnant. They come in many flavors and types. Take for example conservative Iran, where democratic forces are working as you look at Ahmadenijad’s loss. Adoption of democracy is not a standard of excellence by any means, but it does indicate, as it is especially vindicated by high-ranking Islamic clerics, the desire for the populace to have a strong say in state and mass theological affairs.

In fact, that is the point of view I am rooting for. I can not accurately predict whether a reformation is happening or will happen. History is a flow, there are no neat lines separating or predicting such periods. But the upheaval is real, as any keen observer of contemporary events will admit. Despite my sadness at the sheer loss of life at these upheavals, my readings on history suggest that such are often followed by great forward strides for the human thought process, a significant reconciliation of our base reptilian brain-stem against the mammalian and advanced cerebral cortex where we learn to value our ‘better natures’. The Islamic Civilization consists of 1/5th of humanity, and the resulting ‘enlightenment’ might be greatly beneficial for the human enterprise, and we might again see another golden age, where the whole of the Islamic World will contribute greatly to world civilization, not unlike, but in a much grander scale than Islamic Spain did to Europe. That is the reformation I talk of, where a great people, firm in their beliefs of doing good, enrich the human enterprise inexorably.

Footnote:
[1] Islamist: This word is used to mean the new politically-motivated Islam. Not meant in any derogatory or religiously offensive sense.

Jaha chai taha bhul kore chaai... ;)

2008-05-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

"Apnake ghotona ektu khule boli. Amar kono 'target' et cetera naai, neither am I especially interested in an MBA. Baire jawa ta just amar ekta aspirational thing. Ami randomly GMAT dekha shuru korsilam, online theke ekta copy namai niye. Pore dekhlam nah, mojai lagtese. Tarpor bhablaam eitake leverage kore baaire ghura tura jaai ki na. Ei aar ki, nothing too serious. Apne to shemne assumption dhore nisen. ;)

Thing is, baaire ghura probably shaamne emniteo hobe, as income levels rise. Hoito baaire porte gele ektu aage hobe, deshe chakri kore taka kamai ghurle ektu pore hobe. Ei aar ki."

...

"IR is a great suggestion. Geopolitics interests me like anything. Eikhane kotha ki Muaz bhai, ami ailshar dheki. Baaire giye porashuna cheler haater mowa na, bhaloi porishrom korte hobe, especially if I want a good CGPA. Ami interest na paaile sustainably effort dei na."

Point of Reference

2008-05-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

In the micro level, at the detail, all things matter, so to speak. Not the quantum micro level, mind, that's a different story altogether. The micro level of laptops and GMATs, cars and nails, dogs and humans.

At the macro level, however, nothing matters. How could it? At the macro level, there is no context for anything to matter. Everything and anything is insignificant among the vastness of infinite multiverses.

The human dilemma seems to be in reconciling, as usual. Problem is, there is no point of reference, hence the sad rich and the joyous poor, the Suicide Bomber and the Playboy Playmate. Zen and the art of searching for points of reference. One who writes it must be God! :)

But why make it so complex when we are as adept at finding temporary references? At that point, Philosophy (and perhaps Higher Physics?!;)) seem to become refuges for the invalids. Make it easy... want it not? Strive not. Shout that 'I DON'T WANT IT' and the fakement is there to see. Want it? Go for it, who's stopping you? But of course, there's that thorn of contention... just a slight mental tingle, but so easily ignorable.

Or are you still going to blame the Point of Reference?

Musings 18 May (Laptop, GMAT, Darden, Banks)

2008-05-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

Posting from my laptop. Yeah, I got myself a shiny new laptop - an Acer 4720Z with 2 GB DDR2 RAM, X3100 graphics card (who said you can't play games on a laptop? It plays the Sims2 like a charm), Dual Core 1.6 Ghz, 160 GB HDD and all the other regular features. What made me buy it? The electricity problem. I also had a good deal of money saved up and decided that it would serve my purpose best by relieving myself of the loadshedding tension. We had 1 hour of blackout today which barely ate up 11% of the laptop's charge which it promptly replenished in something over half an hour. Serves me!

Did some GMAT reading, then browsed up to Darden's web site (yeah, I got the spelling wrong on my last post, Darden, not Durden). Read a student blog there, by Anand Rao. Interesting. Holds my somewhat fleeting interest together.

Must also add that Sims2 was a great relief after so long (Vista won't play it unpatched). It plays great on the laptop too. Good job, Acer (pats the laptop). Hopefully I won't become addicted/obsessed and keep my focus. Iain M. Banks had a nice quote about it. People generally come out of obsessions because in the long run it allows for less diversity. The exact quote is in my desktop, of course, and I am too lazy to fetch it for your pleasure. BTW, I am thoroughly enjoying Banks' 'Player of Games'.

My browsing of GMAC.com on Friday lead me to an interesting piece of information: GMAT can predict MBA peformance much better (.48) than your undergrad grades (~.28). Combined, the prediction rate goes up to .53. Not bad, and I am relearning a lot of good math after a while.

Musings 17/5/08 (GMAT, World in Conflict)

2008-05-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

Have not been blogging for some time now. Was determined to write something today, as determined as you can be about blogging; so here I am.

As of recent news, add GMAT to one of my hobbies. I started browsing GMAT to check up on it, but found great fun reading through McGraw Hill's books (no worries, I am nowhere close to finished, just the first 40-odd pages). Thoroughly liked the chapter on Business Schools. Just browsed the Princeton Review book, seems great fun. Also got Kaplan, the Official Guide, Barrons and Arco to go through. I hope this will be a fun journey that will enrich myself and in the process will allow some aspiration fulfilment.

If 'aspiration fulfilment' seems vague, well it is meant to be. I expect multiple benefits from GMAT. Strategizing, learning, new direction, competition, fun, parent-pleaser... what not. But of course, as I told my mother, it will need to continue to be fun for me to see it to the end. And of course I'd be very happy to get a strong score and get a good scholarship at a good business school in the United States.

That said, choosing a business school has been a tough call so far. I am, of course, yet to devote significant time to it. My first browse, at my cousin Saki's suggestion was Mays School of Business of the Texas A&M University. He also suggested Arlington, Austin and Lamar. I found Virginia's Durden to be interesting (credit: McGraw-Hill :)). More time needs to be devoted before I can decide the four schools to which I will send my scores.

As the tone will suggest, I am excited by GMAT and the prospect of getting into a good American business school. My limited reading suggests them to be exciting places, and I won't need to worry much about a career if I do apply myself. I also had this false idea about scholarship not being available for MBA programs. Some GMAT reading and the Mays website clearly dispelled this idea. I was also fascinated by several detailed forum posts written by people who did well on the GMAT (720 and 740, respectively). Thanks guys (one of them is Eric, another probably is Siddarth), you inspired me.

In other news, World in Conflict has captivated me. WHAT A GAME! The cutscenes sure are a great incentive to continue the single player campaign, and the gameplay totally adds to it. I love those beautiful French towns... and specially when my artillery is shelling them (MRLs, more like). Of a mind to play my RPGs (role playing game) and [TB(turn based)/RT(real time)]S(strategy)s as well, but little time.

Anyway, great fun after blogging after such a while. Hope to continue and regularize. :)

On Sirius Broadband

2008-05-09T11:52:00.001-07:00

A comment at gamersworldbd.

"I had terrible experience with Sirius. I was one of their earliest clients (circa 2002) and found their gaming support to be quite terrible. The service was also heavily firewalled meaning that I could not play games such as Age of Empires II on the MSN Gaming Zone (which I used to play on a dial up!). Basically, I considered my 'Zip phase' to be a waste of taka 20,000, a considerable waste (especially considering that I was a student) that taught me some hard lessons. On a sidenote, in this country, being a technological laggard has its advantages.

But of course, I must also agree that the service (at least in its earlier stages, and I presume even now) was more geared toward providing a 'faster browsing speed' rather than 'good online gaming' which I was looking for. As such, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). :)

In any case, I do wish my fellow Bangladeshi gamers the best of luck in finding a good ISP and a smooth connection to play online over!"

Some Very Counterintuitive Health Tips

2008-03-17T21:58:00.001-07:00

(Courtesy: My colleague, Taufiq Inam)

1. Do not drink coffee TWICE a day: Coffee contains caffeine and excessive usage of caffeine may interrupt the rhythm of human body.

2. When battery is down to the LAST grid/bar, do not answer the phone as the radiation is 1000 times : This basically depends on the quality of the handset, but normally radiation is available in all electronics goods J.

3. Do not use headphones/earphone for LONG period of time: True, it may affect in your cochlea.

4. Reduce the amount of OILY food you consume: Because too oily (rich) foods needs more energy to digest and also needs more amino acid, more over excess fat may cause heart blockade.

5. Do not have HUGE meals after 5pm. (Please read below the details)

6. Best sleeping time is from 10pm at night to 6am in the morning. (Please read below the details)

7. Do not lie down immediately after taking medicine before sleeping. (Please read below the details)

Do Not’s After Meal:

* Don't smoke- Experiment from experts proves that smoking a cigarette after meal is comparable to smoking 10 cigarettes (chances of cancer is higher).

* Don't eat fruits immediately - Immediately eating fruits after meals will cause stomach to be bloated with air. Therefore take fruit 1-2 hr after meal or 1hr before meal.

* Don't drink tea - Because tea leaves contain a high content of acid. This substance will cause the Protein content in the food we consume to be hardened thus difficult to digest.

* Don't loosen your belt - Loosening the belt after a meal will easily cause the intestine to be twisted & blocked.

* Don't bathe - Bathing after meal will cause the increase of blood flow to the hands, legs & body thus the amount of blood around the stomach will therefore decrease. This will weaken the digestive system in our stomach.

* Don't walk about - People always say that after a meal walk a hundred steps and you will live till 99. In actual fact this is not true. Walking will cause the digestive system to be unable to absorb the nutrition from the food we intake.

* Don't sleep immediately - The food we intake will not be able to digest properly. Thus will lead to gastric & infection in our intestine.

Good rest and sound sleep is very important... if you don't sleep well. The toxic in your body will accumulate affecting your health and your mood...

The main causes of liver damage are:
1. Sleeping too late and waking up too late are the main cause.
2. Not urinating in the morning.
3. Too much eating.
4. Skipping breakfast.
5. Consuming too much medication.
6. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.
7. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil.
8. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.
9. Consuming overly done foods also add to the burden of liver. Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.

We just have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits. Maintaining good eating habits and time condition are very important for our body to absorb and get rid of unnecessary chemicals according to "schedule."

Because: Evening at 9 - 11pm : is the time for eliminating unnecessary/toxic chemicals (de-toxification) from the antibody system (lymph nodes). This time duration should be spent by relaxing or listening to music. If during this time a housewife is still in an unrelaxed state such as washing the dishes or monitoring children doing their homework, this will
have a negative impact on her health.

Evening at 11pm - 1am : The de-toxification process in the liver, and ideally should be done in a deep sleep state. Early morning 1 - 3am : de-toxification process in the gall, also ideally done in a deep sleep state.

Early morning 3 - 5am : de-toxification in the lungs. Therefore there will sometimes be a severe cough for cough sufferers during this time. Since the de-toxification process had reached the respiratory tract, there is no need to take cough medicine so as not to interfere with toxin removal process.

Morning 5 - 7am : de-toxification in the colon, you should empty your bowel.

Morning 7 - 9am : Absorption of nutrients in the small intestine, you should be having breakfast at this time. Breakfast should be earlier, before 6:30am, for those who are sick. Breakfast before 7:30am is very beneficial to those wanting to stay fit. Those who always skip breakfast, they should change their habits, and it is still better to eat breakfast late until 9 -10am rather than no meal at all. Sleeping so late and waking up too late will disrupt the process of removing unnecessary chemicals. Aside from that, midnight to 4am is the time when the bone marrow produces blood.

Therefore, have a good sleep and don't sleep late.

Not Just a Library

2008-03-14T19:43:00.001-07:00

'Consider what you have in the smallest chosen LIBRARY. A company of the wisest and wittiest men that could be picked out of all civil countries in a thousand years have set in best order the results of their learning and wisdom.'
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solicitude (1870)

The Worship of Power - and the Uglyness of It

2008-03-06T16:08:00.001-08:00

"There's something horrible and undefeatable about people who have no life except the worship of power, people who don't want the meeting to end, the people who just are

unstoppable, who only have one focus, no humanity, no character, nothing but the worship of money and power. They win in the end." - Christopher Hitchens

If somewhat defeatist, I still agree.

A few from Clausewitz

2008-02-21T08:43:00.000-08:00

"There is, upon the whole, nothing more important in life than to find out the right point of view from which things should be looked at and judged of, and then to keep to that point; for we can only apprehend the mass of events in their unity from one standpoint; and it is only the keeping to one point of view that guards us from inconsistency."

- Clausewitz, On War

Obsession - what of it?

2008-01-29T03:32:00.001-08:00

“But there's a point where interest becomes obsession, and I think most people regard obsession as a bad thing because it makes for less variety, less flexibility.” – A character of Iain M. Banks, ‘The State of the Art’

Resonates, more than any such mindless advices not justifying the reason.

Leading through Following in the Age of Foot Soldiers

2008-01-28T21:13:00.001-08:00

A few days ago I received two articles from our department head. They were enlightening reads, especially the second one, and my opinions follow:

“I mostly agree with the following points and these will be my major take-aways:

Leaders and followers are not binary concepts, but that there is a continuum from leadership to followership along a spectrum.

Leadership has always required more than a downward touch: it needs to come up from below as well as from the top. Good followership, in other words, is a form of upward leadership. More upward leadership is essential.

A heavy follower is able to lead upwards; he is able to lead in his followership. Heavy followers take responsibility for their followership. The following they do is active and engaged. They do not passively wait for their leader to lead. The concept of heavy followership demands an active role on the part of the follower.

Also, a few months ago I suggested my section-mates that they read through the book ‘The Seven Day Weekend’ by Ricardo Semler, who leads one of Brazil’s most successful companies, Semco. One example for doing so has been mentioned in this article: “Ricardo Semler has delegated decision-making to the lowest possible levels – so far that employees elect their own managers and decide on their own salaries.” I also enjoyed reading about Shell’s model of rotating where leaders can eventually work as followers. These two ideas, whereas advanced, should not be impossible for us to implement as our organization develops.

Finally, I think we can safely connect this with this excerpt from the strategy article sent to me a few days ago:

“Roughly speaking, strategic planning is for generals and other top brass, whereas execution is for foot soldiers and mare lowly employees. In a slightly perverse way, it has traditionally been assumed that planning is cerebrally superior to the carrying out of a plan - perverse because it is easy nowadays to argue that the opposite is the case. The cerebrally superior activity of today is that of the foot soldiers, who have to be infinitely subtle in maneuvering to achieve an organization’s goals. Planners, however are being encouraged more and more to let their imaginations run riot, to free themselves from the analytical and cerebral chains that have traditionally bound them.””

Strategy and the Boss

2008-01-27T00:09:00.001-08:00

Banks, Culture

2008-01-10T00:14:00.000-08:00

I have recently started reading Iain M. Banks after running out of Space Opera type science fiction when I finished The Dreaming Void. Gone through most of Consider Phlebas and some of Excession. The concepts are indeed grand but I have some reservations regarding Banks’ storytelling model and language especially in early Excession. If you read fast, it’s dense and difficult to follow. But read with concentration, and you have never had better speculative fiction. And the concepts, wow, I started Banks for his concepts really and I must say in this regard Banks hasn’t disappointed me at all. It drags you right in and leaves you feeling small by the power of his imagination. This is why we read science fiction, yeah?

The Eastern Front

2008-01-06T08:07:00.000-08:00

Going through Wikipedia's article on the Eastern Front, I was wondering a while ago why it never quite received equal 'publicity' compared to the Western Front (of WW2, of course). The reasons are pretty obvious once you start to think, but it is such an injustice! Some breakthroughs are being made now, of course, but they are still insufficient. Kursk, Prokhorovka, Kharkov, Stalingrad, Korsun, Izyum, Leningrad, Bagration, Crimea can generate dozens of games and movies if they just looked at it. Perhaps because the Eastern Front was so inhumanly brutal so few dared touch it, and of course the subsequent Cold War. I feel guilty ATM asking games to be made of this HUGE human tragedy... actually, the greatest man made disaster (numerically). But then games and movies do bring in much needed attention. Anthony Beevor did a great thing with his Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin books, of course. And Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin.

Here's hoping we will not forget the Eastern Front, and our creative talents will justify it in whichever way possible, despite such naked aggression of our baser natures.

72,289,600

2008-01-06T08:01:00.000-08:00

The total number of casualties in World War II. Of this, 5,178,000+ was in the Eastern Front.

Let's not forget what we are capable of.

Next to God - Kaons

2007-12-18T00:09:00.001-08:00

“One example of the close connection between particle physics and cosmology is an experiment that was performed in 1965 using the particle accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York. According to prevailing theories, a certain symmetry in the early universe created equal amounts of matter and its opposite, antimatter. We can see something like this at Fermilab when collisions produce equal numbers of protons and their opposite, antiprotons. But when matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other in bursts of radiation. So if the early universe produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter, then either all the matter and antimatter should have consumed each other, leaving a universe of nothing but radiation, or the matter and antimatter may have in some way separated. If so, where is the antimatter?

From careful searches for the radiation that results from matter-antimatter annihilations, scientists learned that the density of antimatter in the observable universe was very small. The Brookhaven experiment helped solve the puzzle of the missing antimatter by revealing a violation of a certain symmetry in the decay of neutral kaons (a type of meson, which in turn is a subatomic particle that is made up of quarks and antiquarks). As a result of this tiny violation of symmetry, a slight excess of matter survived annihilation by antimatter. This surviving matter now forms the galaxies, stars, and planets.”

(From Encarta, Leon M. Lederman’s article.)

The Assumption Perspective

2007-12-09T21:13:00.001-08:00

The moment you make the decision that 'this life' is high value, you will become more efficient by principle. The moment you decide this life has no value, it's just an worthless experience process of consciousness, you will show less care and zeal in living it and hence less efficiency and prosperity. The middle point might be somewhere along this continuum for every individual.

Life as a biological and mental process is made worth living due to mental or physical 'pain'. This is an immediate reason for continuing to live. Beyond this, we don't really have any concrete justification for living except for 'contrived purposes'. In a way, pain or pain of death (both mentally and physically) rules our lives.

Shooting the Body Clock

2007-12-04T23:21:00.001-08:00

I always wondered why it is never as satisfying (and seems unnatural) playing games or doing similar cerebral activities during daytime rather than in nighttime. BBC Health reports that our body temperature rises during the day and boosts naturally occurring levels of adrenaline, hence the natural tendency for work and more outgoing activities (last clause mine). In the evenings, the body cools down, reaching its lowest temperature in the early hours, hence the preference and comfort in more cerebral activities (again, last clause mine).

Moreover, constantly changing patterns is disastrous for the body as the circadian rhythm is "completely shot". It might take several weeks to rectify an irregular pattern over several years. Scientists also add that they suspect long term damage done to other parts of the body.

Scientists sum up the problem by saying society has fundamentally changed in a very short period, but human biology has not. Some cope better than others, but whatever expectation we have of a 24-hour society, we cannot eliminate our inbuilt body clock*.

*The body clock aka circadian rhythm helps us stay awake and alert in the daytime and enables us to sleep and recuperate at night.

Meaning of Life...

2007-12-02T07:16:00.001-08:00

[In reply to a mail from a reader in the Daily Star. Excuse the prudery... ;)]

I found it interesting that a reader has been asking around about the meaning of life. I can't blame him, I often do the same thing. Interestingly (or rather, should it be obviously), no one has yet come up with an answer, and some tell me coming up with an answer would spoil it. Personally, I do find it rather perplexing that we can barely answer the question 'what is life for' and still continue onwards with it with such overwhelming zeal. Perhaps that is why they dub it the human condition - the species who has done so much for its survival and enhancement without even understanding and penetrating the meaning of it.

I can form a halfway decent answer: that we human beings live life as ending it is too much pain, and taking it to the pinnacle is too much pleasure, neither of which most of us could handle as both require tremendous effort. Hence we spread the feelings and go on with it with a semblance of the much desired 'stability'. This balancing act, as has been identified starting from the Greeks, might be a weak definition of life as we now experience and understand. But then again, it has the folly of defining 'the process' rather than 'the why' of it. Frankly, I am not sure human beings would ever understand it; or if we even do (or might have done), if the answer is not favorable to our skewed psyches, accept it even.

Despite such directionless metaphysical wondering, as the above two paragraphs surely are, I believe we should still continue to try to define life and its meaning. Even this lack of comprehension is enlightening and can make us wise.

Work: Question of the Century ;)

2007-11-18T03:47:00.000-08:00

Monwar: Bhaiya, 21-22 tarikhe apnar orientation, aschen to?

Employee: 21-22 tarikh ki bar pore bhaiya?

Monwar: Boodh aar Brihoshpoti.

Employee: Hmm… [Pause]… 21-22 tarikh koi tarikh bhaiya?

Monwar: Err… 21-22 tarikh to 21-22 tarikh!

*(Also)

Monwar: Bhaiya, 21-22 tarikhe apnar orientation, aschen to?

Employee: Ji bhaiya, ami 21, 22, 23 e ashchi.

Monwar: Na bhaiya, 23 tarikh laagbe na.

Employee: Ooo!

Sidr

2007-11-17T01:35:00.001-08:00

Although I live in a well-built up area in the capital, Dhaka, the force of Sidr was there to be felt. Trees around our two-story brick home were ripped off, and throughout the night we could hear tins (used as cover/roof) from nearby homes flying or crashing. Severed branches were flying everywhere and the windspeed and sound were pretty horrible which kept most of us awake late at the night. We had to spend close to 5 hours the next day cleaning up all the fallen leaves and tree brunches from our home and the nearby premises.

Stanford University Commencement Address by Steve Jobs

2007-11-15T00:15:00.001-08:00

This is the text of the Stanford University Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
-------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Diagnose Your Sleep

2007-11-14T02:12:00.001-08:00

A real good test from BBC Science.

Explore Your Brain

2007-11-14T01:52:00.001-08:00

Thanks to the BBC.

Listening to People - Four Rules for Good Reception

2007-11-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

1. The listener thinks ahead of the talker, trying to anticipate what the oral discourse is leading to and what conclusions will be drawn from the words spoken at the moment.

2. The listener weighs the evidence used by the talker to support the points that he makes. "Is this evidence valid?" the listener asks himself. "Is it the complete evidence?"

3. Periodically the listener reviews and mentally summarizes the points of the talk completed thus far.

4. Throughout the talk, the listener "listens between the lines" in search of meaning that is not necessarily put into spoken words. He pays attention to nonverbal communication (facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice) to see if it adds meaning to the spoken words. He asks himself, "Is the talker purposely skirting some area of the subject? Why is he doing so?"

The speed at which we think compared to that at which people talk allows plenty of time to accomplish these four mental tasks when we listen.

(From a publication by the Harvard Business Review)

Extreme Jobs

2007-11-13T19:40:00.001-08:00

The Extreme Ethos: "...many professionals are wearing their outsize work commitments on their sleeves; they consider their over-the-top efforts - and often voluntary sacrifices and risks - a reflection of character. They brag about pulling all-nighters [...] To them, a 70-hour workweek is about proving their worth. It's akin to going up against the elements.

The Workplace as Social Center: "Perhaps most profound among the cultural shifts we've been describing is the fact that the workplace is now the center and source of many people's social lives. When one's best friends and most stimulating encounters are at the office - as is increasingly the case - the prospect of working late into the evening becomes less onerous. [...] Home is the source of stress and guilt, while work has become the "haven in a heartless world" - the place where successful professionals get strokes, admiration and respect.

Risks: [...] the so called Gen X and Gen Y cohorts - seem less enamored of their jobs than baby boomers. In the 45-60 age group, only 19% of extreme jobholders say they are likely to leave their jobs within two years; this figure rises to 30% in the 35-to-44 age group and to 36% in the 25-to-34 age group. The ultimate price may be paid in succession planning if maxed-out professionals stop striving for top jobs. In our survey, 65% said they would decline a promotion if it were even more demanding of their energy.

[...] For every company that [encourages a work-life balance], however, there are others afraid of creating a work atmosphere that is unattractive to "A players".

Bangladesh's Internet Charge Highest in Asia

2007-11-13T19:24:00.000-08:00

Bangladesh’s internet charge is the highest in Asia, and 20 times higher than that of the neighboring countries.

Startling!

Musings, Sept 21 2007

2007-09-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

I have not been posting here for some time now. I seem to have become much more restrained, careful, calculating after entering my professional life, which are not the most desired blogger qualities. In any case, I do not intend to stop blogging altogether at all, but realistically, the frequency will drop.

Got a new computer recently. It's fabulous and fun. It has increased my choices so much I am in some dilemma. To give you an example: Should I play only Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and Fifa 07, or should I also try NWN2, Medieval 2 Total War and Madden NFL 08. If I play that many games at once, will the immersion factor remain? That leads to additional questions, such as why we play games, for 'finishing them successfully' (achievement orientation) or experiencing newer worlds. I have (I believe) high achievement orientation, and hence have generally gone for the first option, but who knows how long that will last.

One Hour Marriages

2007-06-09T11:51:00.001-07:00

"Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a cleric, said: "We have to find a solution to meet the sexual desire of the youth who have no possibility of marriage. Temporary marriage is God's rule. We must encourage that.""

A reader comments: "How about cutting it down to about 7-10 minutes?"

Absurd!

Win = Lose?

2007-06-08T23:05:00.001-07:00

A practical example from the 1967 war. A short term win might well be a long term loss.

Should illustrate properly why victory-defeat, good-bad are relative and time-dependant concepts.

Some Interesting Facebook Stats

2007-05-31T07:50:00.001-07:00

Bangladesh has 5503 members (150 mil), Pakistan has 12814 (150 mil), Iran has (surprisingly) only 949 (74 mil), Germany has 30334 (83 mil) and Saudi Arabia has (very surprisingly) 20863 (22 mil!). [Brackets indicate population base]

Bangladesh seems the MOST LIBERAL NATION so far with 19% liberals, compared to Germany's 10%, Saudia Arabia's 8% and Pakistan's 13%. Only 1% of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia each are Conservative, compared to 2% for BD and Deutcshland.

Bangladeshis' favorite book is 'Harry Potter', similar to Germany's (!), whereas Pakistan's is 'The Alchemist' (?!) and Saudi Arabia's
Quran (for once, not surprised) followed by Harry Potter. E porjaye amra bolte paari je J K Rowling has conquered the world.

Germany shows a 35% female proportion, compared to Bangladesh's 24% and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan's 31%. ^_^

Music is the universal top interest. Rock is the universal favorite genre, except for Pakistan's 'U2'.

13% Bangladeshis are 'in a relationship', compared to 19% Germans and 5% Saudis and Pakistanis.

Certain other indicators I won't bother posting here, but population proportionwise, I was taken aback by Saudi Arabia's heavy use of Facebook. Reading Saudi blogs, newspapers (check two posts back) and websites gives me a impression that the most conservative country in the world is opening up MUCH faster than I thought, perhaps due to its material wealth.

Anyway, it's always good to be part of the most liberal country in Facebook! ;)

As usual, take all of these with 'fistfuls of grains of salt'.

4 Links

2007-05-23T09:20:00.001-07:00

Iraqis are now using TV ads to prevent suicide bombings.
Baghdad car bomb video. BTW, how did he know?
Why does Zarqa produce so many suicide bombers?
A great Honda ad.

Forbidden Females

2007-05-05T10:02:00.001-07:00

A Saudi female columnist, Fatima Al-Faqih, writes in the Saudi daily Al-Watan:

    "Are Saudi women actually deprived [of their rights]? [They] are forbidden to drive, forbidden to travel without permission, forbidden to stay alone at a hotel without permission, forbidden to name their own children without [a man's] consent... forbidden to take out a passport without permission... forbidden to leave their homes without permission... forbidden to take a job without permission... forbidden to change the color of their abayas, forbidden to go to school or to the university without permission... forbidden to purchase shares or to open to a [bank] account in their children's name without permission.

    "[A woman] is not allowed to expose her face in some cities of the kingdom... [She] is not allowed to marry without permission... not allowed to stay married if [one of] her male relatives decides that her husband's [tribal] lineage is inferior to hers... not allowed to sue for divorce without apologizing and paying a fine, not allowed to keep her children after the divorce, unless she gets permission... not allowed to hold a senior position in the private or public sectors, not allowed to vote or run for office... not allowed to travel alone with a chauffeur... not allowed to annoy her husband, and finally, a woman's voice is considered [a form of] defilement, and she is forbidden to speak in public, so that her affairs will remain shrouded in secrecy.

    "A researcher [studying the limitations on women] would [probably] stop here, since the list is endless, and since he would conclude that whoever doubts the [injustice] inflicted on women either lacks awareness or derives some benefit from the discrimination. The damage [caused by this discrimination] is obvious, and the solution has been delayed, causing the problem to grow [even] more severe. There is need for immediate intervention in order to stop the deterioration."

But at least the voices are now 'heard' in a written format. The power of the written word is amazing.

Two Quotes to Boot

2007-05-05T09:49:00.001-07:00

"He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth." - Goethe

"I think Rick Stengel has gotten it wrong again. I don't think Bush has ever been as influential as he is now. If he supports something, vast numbers of people around the world - and a majority of Americans - will automatically oppose it. Whatever else that is, it's influence." - Andrew Sullivan

The Nemesis of al Qaeda in Iraq

2007-05-05T09:45:00.001-07:00

And it is not America, rather...

The Sheiks of Anbar. See Sullivan and this site.

A Few Good Movies

2007-04-12T09:10:00.001-07:00

A few good movies I went through recently, with perhaps a few short comments.

The Bridges of Madison County: Tear-jerker extraordinaire. But then as I have spelled that out it might lose that quality. Midwestern housewife gets dream guy for 'Four Days'.

City of God: Didn't watch it? Run, baby, run! Awesome storytelling, and graphic as hell, Brazilian slum-mob drama.

Se7en: 'Graphic'? Or rather, implied gruesome? 7 sins, one ultra-fundamentalist retarded Christian, and David Fincher, stir and mix (note to self: try Zodiac). Pitt roxor, BTW.

GoodFellas: Joe Pesci, oh Joe Pesci. Best mob movie after the GF (that's Godfather)! BTW, Sopranos (TV series) is even better.

Fight Club: Psychedelic anarchic BS? Manipulative delusional masterpiece? Don't leave much too important to do in Office the next day.

'Behind Enemy Lines 2 : Axis of Evil': Fast, Syriana/Ocean's 11 type for people who like realisitic international suspense. Very good. Also recommneded: BEL1.

The Departed: Yeah, OK, but loses to GoodFellas, City of God or the Sopranos. But then, for the girls, Leonardo does look superb (not a representative sample, so don't get offended please)!

London: The dialogue, just for that, especially when that English guy shouts.

Linkso

2007-04-07T06:19:00.001-07:00

In the longer term, virtue is regretted more than vice?
The best strategy for a good decision is to let your unconscious mind handle it?
Five tips for improving employee job satisfaction.
The AOL job satisfaction survey.

A great BG portraits site

2007-03-15T23:03:00.001-07:00

Here.

I downloaded the Arquette one. Take a look.

'Money' Quote

2007-03-13T09:33:00.001-07:00

Money is a form of energy; you must devote as much time learning how to spend it as you devote to learning how to earn it.

-- Ari Kiev, A Strategy for Daily Living

The Withdrawal Pledge

2007-03-11T22:02:00.001-07:00

Tanvir posts of a pledge on the Iraq war:

I believe in the immediate withdrawal of all foreign combat troops from the nation of Iraq. I believe in using my blog, in whole or in part, as a tool toward this end.

My response: Unfortunately I am not yet prepared to support this action, as Iraq, as yet, needs American troops, as even its neighbors (more specifically the Western neighbors… the Arab states) would agree. Saudi Arabia actually called up Chenney to stop any planned withdrawal. Without the troops the civil war would reach catastrophic proportions. There needs to be a certain understanding between the factions before any withdrawal, and the recent Abdullah-Ahmadenijad summit and the Iraq summit show signs of a new understanding. We must yet hope, without being unwary.

The 'Cultural Success' of Religion?

2007-03-11T21:51:00.001-07:00

Harris pummels Sullivan:

“You end your last essay by arguing for the veracity (or at least plausibility) of Christianity on the basis of its cultural success. I suspect you must know that this was a hard turn into a blind alley. You even acknowledge the existence of other very successful religions, and this spells doom. Consider the case of Islam. Here is a religion that explicitly repudiates the core claims of Christianity (Muhammad assures us that anyone who thinks Jesus was divine will spend eternity in hell, Qur'an 5:71-75; 19:30-38). Islam has nearly as many subscribers as Christianity does and is now spreading faster than any religion on earth. What should I make of this, if I am to follow your reasoning? Am I to believe that Muhammad really flew to heaven on a winged steed? That the Qur'an is the perfect word of God? On your account, these claims have stood the test of time. But that is not the point. The point is, they do not withstand the test of dispassionate scrutiny. And yet, in many respects, Muhammad's career as a prophet was more impressive than Jesus' was. At the very least, he escaped crucifixion. Of course, Christians have managed to make even the crucifixion of their Savior into a success story. It would seem that faith can rationalize anything.

[…] The endurance of religion in general, and Christianity in particular, is not much of a mystery--and it is certainly not so mysterious as to lend credence to ancient miracles. No doubt there are many factors that have contributed to Christianity's success. The problem of sunk-cost is surely one: just look at how much attentional, emotional, and financial resources people have invested in this religion. No one is eager to realize he has been wasting his time. Realizing that the core claims of Christianity are illegitimate would be tantamount to a Christian admitting, "I have been wrong all these years." It is no surprise that people keep their shoulder to the door, bracing against such epiphanies. I have received thousands of letters and emails from people describing just how painful it was for them to finally admit that they were duped by Christianity, and that they duped their children in turn. I have heard from many ministers who have ceased to be ministers, and even Christians. More commonly, I hear from people who are terrified to articulate their growing skepticism about the doctrine of Christianity for fear of being shunned by friends and family. I do not doubt how much psychological and social pressure religious people are under. I don't think you should doubt it either.

[…] Are you really surprised by the endurance of religion? What ideology is likely to be more durable than one that conforms, at every turn, to our powers of wishful thinking? Hope is easy; knowledge is hard. Science is the one domain in which we human beings make a truly heroic effort to counter our innate biases and wishful thinking. Science is the one endeavor in which we have developed a refined methodology for separating what a person hopes is true from what he has good reason to believe. The methodology isn't perfect, and the history of science is riddled with abject failures of scientific objectivity. But that is just the point-these have been failures of science, discovered and corrected by-what, religion? No, by good science.

[…] And those of us with the benefit of a 21st century education can be more parsimonious in drawing conclusions about the cosmos on the basis of such ecstasy.”

Recent Movies

2007-03-09T02:23:00.001-08:00

(I consider Schindler's List to be my movies standard, just like astronomy's standard stellar candle. Movie ratings are based on units of SL, where Schindler's List is 1.)

Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep's 'The Bridges of Madison County' was a wonderful movie. .73 SL. From my post in IMDB forums: "I did shed tears when the Four Days book was opened by Streep and parts of Byron's poem shown. I am emotionally quite controlled so this is something. The only other movie that did this to me was Schindler's List, especially when Oskar Schindler was being thanked by the Jews before leaving in his car, but I was younger then."

'One Fine Day', by Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney was also quite good. .3 SL.

I did not like 'Bridget Jones' Diary' that much. .1 SL.

What an Initiative!

2007-03-03T20:13:00.001-08:00

Do not know how cosmetic this is, but the Abdullah-Ahmadenijad meeting surely is interesting. Usual rhetoric coming out, though.

Links and reads

2007-03-02T06:57:00.001-08:00

Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan in a most interesting theological debate.

Iran's president to visit Saudi Arabia soon? Hmm... that'd be interesting.

Check my new job and friends photos in my flickr.

I am going through Carl Sagan's Cosmos, and it is an awesome read. Recommended to everyone!

The Sectarian Strife Keeps Spreading

2007-02-20T09:59:00.001-08:00

This time to Iran, where Sunni Balochis fight, 'aided by US and UK'.

You thought Shi'a-Sunni was bad, eh?

2007-02-17T09:27:00.001-08:00

Here's the Catholic-Protestant bit:

"Westminster Confession of Faith:
25.6. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalts himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.

The London Baptist Confession of 1689:
26.4. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the church, in whom, by the appointment of the Father, all power for the calling, institution, order or government of the church, is invested in a supreme and sovereign manner; neither can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof, but is that antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the church against Christ."

Parker's 'The Thirty Years' War'

2007-02-10T01:02:00.001-08:00

(From a mail sent to the actual owner of the book.)

Such intrigue, complexity, suffering. I somehow got an impression of a human character study after reading this book, at least, aspects of it... Adolphus, Wallenstein, Christian, Anhalt, Fredrick, Ferdinand, Maximilian, Richlieu, Onega, Urban VIII, the Count of Orange, Oxenstierna... a most interesting cast of character. Adolphus still occupies my mind though, along with Wallenstein, whose killing people for their failure to keep absolutely quite is just my type. Oh Europe, what hast thou produced? But again, this is what resulted in Europe's nonconfession, and eventual greatness post-enlightenment. This is also a damnation of confession in favor of secularism ( i.e., matters of state).

My Medieval 2 Total War After Action Report

2007-02-08T12:54:00.001-08:00

If you are as much of a fan of the medieval period as I am, and you like the latest iteration of the Total War series, do follow my Holy Roman Empire AAR, 'Voltaire's Folly'.

'Gonna stop blaming the Muslims'...

2007-02-02T11:57:00.000-08:00

An interesting, random read. This new world of multiculturalism, rapid innovation and of course, confusion, yeah?

Oh, and please do not reach any righteous conclusions - that'd defeat the whole purpose of that link. Rather, contemplate and ask. :)

Just lessons

2007-02-02T11:43:00.001-08:00

Portions of a forum post:

"Some rather incoherent and ill thought out fragments. Accept with fistfuls of grains of sand.

[snip... forum specific material]

I consider Iraq, at this point, and rather oversimplistically, the HRE of the Reformation period over which various others fight. There are too huge a number of variables involved for naive neo and theocons in Washington to salvage anything from this situation. For what it is worth, I have little anger for Bush, more pity.

The problem, at this point, is mostly religious and neighbor-geographic. The Arab suicide-nihilism (with religious, but foremost, societal variables) and Persian obstinance and grudge-holding must stop either by a reformation of the fragmented Islamic faith or sheer brutal force (for which USA or EU has no stomach), both long term solutions. I see no short term solutions, at least, no realistic short term ones.

Much to the pity. This has been, is, and will be, a HUGE bloodbath. It is even sadder, ironic, and perhaps infuriating, that the West, more specifically the USA, has so thoroughly f***** up. So much for democratic and moral superiority, eh (I am not trying to gloat, BTW, rather, sheer frustration)? The USA now has at stake a total loss of its superpower status, in addition to being despised (in the Middle and South Eastern Asian hemispheres) or ridiculed (Far East, portions of Latin America) or considered naive (EU, portions of Latin America). Just lessons, I say.

This sheer incompatibility from the supreme leaders of the world's greatest nation can not be explained, however much the other variables can be."

Some of my More Favorite Quotes

2007-01-20T22:44:00.001-08:00

"O you people, beware of being extreme...for that which destroyed the people before you was none other than extremism in the religion." - Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into." - Jonathan Swift

"I may disagree of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire

A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker. - Buddha

'To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.' - George Orwell

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. - Bertrand Russell

It's surprising how much you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit. - Abraham Lincoln

Even after all this time, the Sun never says to the earth, "You owe me."
Look what happens with a love like that,
It lights the whole sky.
--Shams ud-Din Muhammad Hafiz

No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude. - Sir Karl Popper

"The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. " - George Bernard Shaw

When everyone is against you, it means that you are absolutely wrong-- or absolutely right. - Albert Guinon

"I thought that life is the honour of witnessing events. You need to be a God to control them." - Liol, a character in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy

"A pessimist is never disappointed." post-Britpop band 'Theaudience'

"Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet" - Anonymous (From Ishtiaq via Muktadir!)

"Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation." - Jalal ad-din Rumi

Mencken Says:

2007-01-20T22:15:00.001-08:00

"Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on 'I am not too sure.'"

Courtesy Sullivan, and check his version here.

M B Naqvi chimes in on Iraq...

2007-01-16T22:08:00.001-08:00

... and I support the Pakistani columnists viewpoint.

Money quotes:

Pakistan as the leader of the Islamic World? "They (Arabs) think that Islam and the Arabic language are inextricable, and non-Arabic-speaking people can only be second rate Muslims. Pakistan has tried since the 1950s to assume the leadership of the Islamic world, and has repeatedly been rebuffed -- and ridiculed. Remember King Farook's biting remark that Islam was born on August 14, 1947. It is about time that Pakistanis gave up day-dreaming."

The Changing ME Dynamics with Resurgent Shi'a: "Anyhow, the problem needs to be analyzed. There have been historic wrongs suffered by one or the other community, particularly by the Shias who were at the bottom of the heap in Iraq and in various other states including Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon."

And a Solution? "That is to say, employing democratic norms, no one is superior and no one is inferior. All historic wrongs can only be corrected by democratic principles. This can, and will, be the solution to the age-old problem between the Sunnis and Shias in Iraq."

Try Daily Star's link to read the whole thing, but knowing DS, that might not be stable.

More Q&A on Saddam

2007-01-16T03:17:00.001-08:00

My friend agrees with some of my opinions, but questions persists, and I answer:

Shouldn't his American accomplices get the same treatment?

Ek haate tali baaje na, of course they should. But do remember that they could not really have provoked the Iraqis into action (in the Iraq-Iran war) without some intrinsic motivation on the Iraqis' part. This cycle can always lead us to the 'egg-chicken-egg' dilema. But Saddam has been the ulitmate doer, and his punishment is right, but not just. He deserved a slower, more painful death. His accomplishes should also be punished to deserving degrees. Unfortunately, the world is basically unfair. And this is why I should not have been so forceful, but perhaps some other 'unfairnesses' have made me more forceful. :)

He was THE MOST powerful and notable ruler > in the history of Iraq.

That would be Salah ad din Yousef (or Saladin), from Salahudeen province, a man of mix Kurd and Arab blood.

Just leave all those and think for once- what would you do if someone strikes you with a life-threatening attack? Leave them untouched and give them another chance to destroy you?

What has that to do with killing the Kurds and southern Shi'a? For a fact, they didn't threaten anything, not even Mosul or south of Kirkuk. All 'adventures' were localized.

Yeah, Iran did... but then Saddam did make them pay with a million death, and 2 million of his own... pretty costly for a thorough defeat.

And of the US? Where were the Republican Guards or the Fedayeen Saddam? Vanished, as usual, before a far superior enemey, but always there for the weaker foes!

'Respect' for Saddam?? What are you talking about?

2007-01-16T02:27:00.001-08:00

This is oversimplified (otherwise it'd take a book....) and raw, but go through it. One of my friends recently asked me if any respect should have been shown towards Saddam. Here's my opinion.

I have recently watched 2 documentaries on the massacre of Kurds in Iraq (one of them being the infamous Anfal where Saddam killed over 200,000 Kurds through the Baathists and Sunni tribesmen). If ANYONE watched those he could not have supported Saddam in their right mind. Only for massacring the Kurds he THOROUGHLY deserved his death (and in all its Shi'ite lynch mob ugliness). It is sad that we don't know, and we don't give ourselves a chance to know, The skulls and the body parts, the worn clothed pieces of body, how much can we ignore, choose to ignore? People blindfolded, tortured and shot dead just for being Kurds.

And I haven't even started about the Iran-Iraq War or the massacring of Shi'as and all that!

I am damn happy Saddam is gone. He derserved every bit of it, and more. He should have been cut into a hundred pieces and fed to the dogs.

Why the Bush Argument Backfires Again (This Time FOR Muslims)

2007-01-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

A Sullivan reader raises the question:

"I need an explanation. The common argument for why we "cannot lose" in Iraq, is that it will result in a breeding ground for terrorists (specifically Al-Qaeda) in Iraq - much like Afghanistan was (is?). [snip]... that there is a significant difference between Shiite and Sunni. If we leave Iraq, I suspect the civil war would escalate. Who would win? Almost certainly the Shiite majority. Why would the Shiites then allow Sunni terrorists such as Al-Qaeda to set up shop there? I don't see why they would. So the result would seem to be a Shiite state and no large-scale Sunni terrorist activity (certinaly none focussed on the US).

I recognize the problems of a possible genocide against the Sunnis and of an Iranian puppet state. But those problems are wholly different than the argument made by Bush and his supporters that leaving would result in an Al-Qaeda breeding ground.

Where am I wrong?"

He isn't, actually. This war's base (that of WMDs as the casus belli) have long disappeared. It's now a 'sewn-up' war. Lame explanations and lies are the order of the day.

But if I were to reply, I would do so from a different angle: A Sunni-Shi'a civil war will just swallow the WHOLE Middle East in flames. There is a close balance of the sectarian demographics there unlike elsewhere in the Islamic World. The war would be so brutal, so devastating (consider 25 times Thirty Years War), that not only America, but the World can not (or should not?) let that happen. Although truth be told, I believe some good might yet come out of such infighting; people get to understand the core individuality of religion and to keep their hands of other folks' faith (and that's oversimplified, no offense).

Condi Rice is a single woman!

2007-01-14T11:42:00.001-08:00

Never knew. I admire any single woman (or a single person for that matter, I plan to be one if you are curious) for what they generally have to endure from 'conservative society'. She's not gay, lesbian or whatever (me too!). Even in the USA (is it really a surprise?), questions get asked. Check Barbara Boxer:

"Asking if Dr. Rice can truly understand what the parents are preparing to do is not wrong in my book. It is bringing up a real issue. For many peole this is not an abstract discussion of geo political strategy, it involves Death. That is real!"

And Condi replies:

"I thought it was okay to be single. I thought it was okay to not have children, and I thought you could still make good decisions on behalf of the country if you were single and didn't have children."

I don't think constant bad decision making could have gotten her to where she is now. It's all about choice. Yes, there are very cogent and logical explanations for staying single, but why should I even bother to explain that to you? My life, my choice. You have a problem? In that case, I have a problem with you!

(Quote credits: Andrew Sullivan)

The Politics of Ups and Down

2007-01-11T10:09:00.001-08:00

You know, at this point, our politics almost reminds me of the 2005 Champions League Final between Liverpool and Milan.

I know the analogy is crude, and this has been so damaging to the 150 million Bangladeshis, both tangibly and psychologically. But our (rather twisted) politics always keeps us guessing, doesn't it? It seldom fails to surprise.

Talk of the up and down cycles, consider:

1. Hasan (1-0)
2. Aziz (2-0)
3. Shafikul, reformation and new voter list (2-1)
4. and this latest fiasco (2-2)

In all the cases we were laid low and brought up, emotionally. From the depths of pessimism to the heights of optimism. The irony and mockery should be obvious. Banglai bole na, 'Rajai rajai judhdho, nolkhagrar prananto.'

To confide, I am somehow even enjoying some of it. It's not healthy... but this does expose some of our character, this politics, doesn't it?

And please, please don't take this seriously. I know many of you are thoroughly upset with one party or another, and justly so. This was just a new angle from which to view today's Bangladesh. We play at the very highest level. Few other nations dare!

A Tribute to BBA 11th

2007-01-04T01:29:00.001-08:00

During my St. Joseph days, the annual magazine would generally contain an article where a (preferably top) student of class X would write an article summarizing the character of the class or section and provide a brief breakdown of the unique attributes of some or most of the students. I used to love those articles; it made them come to life to an introverted junior shy of approaching his seniors. In the Institute of Business Administration, we don't have an annual magazine, but I study in one superbly illustrious class, the BBA 11th Batch of IBA (hereafter simply BBA 11th) and as such, just couldn't resist letting people know of this wonderful, brilliant bunch of people. I am of course not sure whether I am the right person to do so, but then, somebody had to do it.

My first day in BBA 11th was generally ordinary. The only thing that, perhaps, was an exception was the sharp English accent of a few of the students. I had come from a pure Bangla medium background (St. Joseph and Notre Dame, to be exact), and we generally showed a healthy disdain for such fluency in spoken English and the general 'slickness' of the English medium students (OK, at least, I did, and the fact that both my illustrious alma maters produced a few of the finest users of the English language of this country is beside the point!). However, this 'discrimination' started to fade soon after as we learned of each other.

I ask myself now, what was I expecting? People with apostle-like halos around their head? Dazzling fireworks that we worthies had graced a classroom? I had a slight primer of a few of my classmates from the newly birthed Yahoo Group. Some of those profiles prominently portrayed their many achievements and the elite schools they were targeting and getting admitted to (we were 76, chosen, and at this point four years later we have 46 students, the largest portion leaving within the first year). Others I knew from experience, some of my sharpest, brightest friends. Ah, suffice it to say some of those fascinations were not utterly phantasmal neither irrational, these guys were that good. It is an obvious conclusion, as such, that the utter lack of wondrous spectacles certainly disappointed me to a degree.

How wrong I was to reach my conclusion so fast!

Four years later, I have gotten so used to these über high achievers, I do not get shell shocked anymore. Our Yahoo Group regularly gets emails proclaiming how my class won this or that, ranging from Battle of Minds to National Case Competitions to Futsal Competitions and Worlds Debate places and individual brilliance awards and what not! We regularly organize programs budgeting millions of taka flawlessly, promote philanthropic causes and create music videos and Flash presentations which are so professional you won't have a clue. Of course, we pose as models as well, write articles in the national dailies and participate (and even prepare) in many TV programs. We discuss from Nietzsche to Araj Ali Matabbar to Shadakalo and Cat's Eye to Arsenal and Chelsea to Warcraft III and the Australian Cricket Team to ibn Tayyimiya during our breaks. All these happen while we go through one of the most exhaustive business curriculum in the country, with literally dozens of exams, cases, problems and presentations every week, most of which require a great deal of moving around. However, such external manifestations of my batch's brilliance represent a minuscule portion of what they truly are. I have met a lot of truly admirable people in BBA 11th, and you can't really start to appreciate them if you are not acquainted with their minds where the real fireworks happen. This is much harder to put to writing. I have experienced and become fascinated by these wonderful moments which happened while I chatted, called, emailed, visited (with) these guys. The interactions with these people is what truly sets them apart, you learn every moment, I did. Yes, they can be unforgiving and sarcastic and annoying and what not, but in the long run, these are the most accommodating of people who will respect you for what you are.

Of course, it would be a lie to say we did or do not have the frictions and clashes that universally occur whenever a group of people interact. I do not believe in absolute good or evil, and I won't tag these actions as such anyway. I happen to believe that these have a role and have even strengthened us. We are a very diverse bunch, coming from very different backgrounds and coming to a suitable optimum for interaction would require a lot of such friction. I do not believe that absolute unity is any good for the human race (ah, Bernard Shaw!), and I believe the same apply to my class too. The debates and arguments we had among ourselves have done a lot to bring us closer to each other and understand ourselves. So, yes, we had conflicts and clashes, and not all have magically vanished as we near graduation, but I personally have always believed it to be a strength of the BBA 11th Batch and I believe many in my class will also agree how many of these have actually brought us closer in the long run. After all, life is the antithesis of passivity, and absolute agreeableness is naught but passivity, an enemy of the human spirit.

Even within IBA, a center of excellence in Bangladesh, the BBA 11th batch holds its own reputation. It has a rather strong academic reputation for the very high CGPA's achieved by the top students, and the general average is also quite high by IBA standards. More importantly, the batch has a strong creative streak as opined by many of the teachers, manifested in many of our presentations, case solutions and of course, writings, from blogs to articles to simple email discussions. If you are having a 'controversial' discussion, at least, from my experience, the BBA 11th students always have something to say. I expect many among us to have a strong hand in taking our nation forward in the future.

I had, of course, thought of introducing you to some of my friends here, but that portion was skipped for several reasons. The most pressing reason was that I did not know whom to pick or omit. To provide a scattering would be a wholly inadequate halo-effect faulted characterization for each very bright individual, and as most are excellent allrounders, would perhaps focus on only one aspect of them which would be unfair. Plus, even after four years I have not gotten to know (sometimes voluntarily) all of my classmates to pass such judgments; and finally, if I do get started, space won't suffice. So, this will remain a collective characterization of the batch, inadequate, but easier to write on.

Talking of collectivity, I have often been amazed by the sheer 'power' of this batch. What do I mean by 'power'? The skills, intuitive abilities and determination for performing an action. To do something really big, you need a very diverse range of such elements. This is where this batch comes to shine. We have every kind of gift here, and in abundant quantities. This was manifest to me the first time, as a Humanities student, I tried to solve a Physics problem for over 45 minutes and then called up one of my friends who basically did it over a cup of tea in 45 seconds. It was, mentally, a jaw-dropping experience. This is not the only time such has happened. In fact, with the regularity with which such happens in BBA 11th has only convinced me of the sheer power of this batch. Properly equipped, this bunch of people can overcome nearly any problem. That fact makes me immensely proud.

In fact, I feel honored to be a part of this batch. I was in the company of excellence as long as I was with them. I do not know when I will next meet such a congregation of brilliance again. My regret will always remain that perhaps I could not tap into this well of brilliance as fully as possible, but for what I had, I remain awed. I am generally a pessimist and a skeptic, so I guess such exuberance from me would, perhaps, better illustrate my batch.

And, to finish, thank you, BBA 11th!

The New Cold War: Saudi/Israel/Lebanon versus Iran/Syria/Iraq/Hizbullah

2006-12-18T22:53:00.001-08:00

Read Cole's analysis December 13 analysis.

Money Quote:

"Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and (de facto) the 14 March Bloc in Lebanon are ranged against Iran, Shiite Iraq, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas. Neither Israel nor Saudi Arabia can openly admit to the tacit alliance for fear of anger from their own publics because of objectionable parties to it. But this is how things are shaking out.

Now the Saudis are openly saying that this new Cold War in the region could turn hot. If you don't own a bicycle, I'd buy one, because a regional war of the sort Saudi Arabia said it feared would potentially cut off 20 percent of the world's petroleum."

Sunni-Shi'a Violence in Iraq for Millenia?

2006-12-18T22:36:00.001-08:00

Cole Says that's BS:

"I see a lot of pundits and politicians saying that Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq have been fighting for a millennium. We need better history than that. The Shiite tribes of the south probably only converted to Shiism in the past 200 years. And, Sunni-Shiite riots per se were rare in 20th century Iraq. Sunnis and Shiites cooperated in the 1920 rebellion against the British. If you read the newspapers in the 1950s and 1960s, you don't see anything about Sunni-Shiite riots. There were peasant/landlord struggles or communists versus Baathists. The kind of sectarian fighting we're seeing now in Iraq is new in its scale and ferocity, and it was the Americans who unleashed it.

[...] I remember a Peanuts cartoon in which Charlie Brown observed Lucy filling Schroeder's head with a bunch of nonsense. He observed that it would take the poor guy 12 years just to unlearn all the silly things Lucy had taught him. It is the same with Americans and the Neocons on the Middle East."

I do not agree with him totally, but it's safe to say it is not a 100% native Iraqi problem. Americans have a BIG role, along with the Saudis and Iranians. They MUST stop it.