About Human Computability...

Going back to childhood, and before landing into the "land of opportunities" I always had (or probably was an inherited) pre-conceived notion that, Indians are good at computability. While in history books we used to take pride in our Aryabhattas and Bhaskaracharyas, I never got a scope to explore the notion or cull it into a practically validated fact in reality till today.
Nevertheless, today morning came as a surprise: a proof of this deep-and-old seated notion that even if agreed Indians' computation capability is better, how is it so? How is the degree of that? Or is it something else? Well, I am not a racist or an overtly patriotic individual, but beleive me I was taken aback when I got a 'parametric' view of the difference in computability between the folks from the East and the West!
Somehow, in a class of mine where there are undergraduates too, a topic cropped up: how long did you learn arithmetic tables? Basically the professor was casually asking us, what is the highest number of whose table you had memorized in primary school. He said, "Probably 12, right?" Then someone(one undergraduate) interrupted, "No! more for me! I learnt till 15!" Then there was a big "wow"! I was sitting quiet and smiling to myself. Then I thought, okay, let me give them the shock of their lives. I said, "I learnt till25!"
And then the situation in the class: don't ask me what happenned!
Well, generally, they were telling me later, that even for 13*5 they would use a calculator! I don't know if this degree of technology dependency is good or bad, but I am sure, this is destroying the natural computability of humans. I will not talk of Asia and The West separately. Because I believe, computability is not intelligence: it can be acquired by any. And when they say, they carry a scientific calculator/PDA with them all the time which they specifically use for the four basic mathematical operations: add, subtract, multiply, divide, I can only arrive at two conclusions.
One, this is a direct affect of too much technology dependence which is interfering with people's computational growth. Or the second, am I too out-dated, old-fashioned, obsolete looking at today's undergraduates, despite the fact that I myself was an undergraduate only 2 years ago? The answer is a question to me!

Every Tear Of Mine...

This might sound ironic, but it is true, that tears are the biggest assets of life! They are your strengths when the world turns back to you with a blind eye; they are the sources of placation when the wound in your heart is too deep to be healed ever. I know, my tears are going to stay with me whatever would happen in my life!
I find my tears the sole source of sustenance when I would need my emotions to ventilate, when it becomes rather very difficult to address the unsaid, deliver the unknown and understand the unheard. And probably that is why every tear of mine is very precious to me: though selfish it is to get captivated in the labyrinths of one's own problems, yet, tears are a bliss for which I would be grateful to the Almighty, if He is there. Tears make me heal my woulds, tears vent my feelings, tears show me the way to proceed in life as it comes.
I am not being pessimist, but just wondering how difficult it would be, unless our eyes were wet or our cheeks red. My tears bear all the secrets of my life, my tears though lost, would revert back to me everytime would I be alone in life. If you are upset, you know, you have your tears to stoop by you all the time; should you be lost in the wandering roads of life, you know, for every mistake you do in life, you have at least one tear to take you back to the 'origin' point of life from where you can always dream to return. And when you know, your belief in something has itself belied on you in the course of time, you still know that your tear is never going to belie on you ever!
I know we always talk of tears when we are through the rough times of life: when we see our tear as the lone silent spectator of feeling of loss, isolation or confusion. We cry inside, hide from the world to put a cover to the 'black' in our life. Yet, is not this a wonderful yet astounding yet mystic facet of everyone of us?
This reminds me of the poem by Heather Loughton called 'Silent Tears'.

A thunderous silence
breaks through my thoughts.
What was once many great ideas
is now a triumph, lost.

Baffling words tumble through my mind.
Reflections of darkness hover.
A disturbing peacefulness beckons to me,
and inside myself, I take cover.

What would it be like to stay there forever?
To be lost in all my cares?
From the inside, looking out -
I cry silent tears.

The Perfect Or The Survivor of The Fittest?

They have left the mundane Earth in quest of 'nirvana'; they have embraced the humanity at large to benefit the greater interest of 'world peace'; they have clung to their aisle of their own principles to revolutionize their ideologies; and they have disregarded all forces to delcare themselves as the 'architects' of their own destiny. These are the genre of people whom we would label as 'mavericks': the people, who, they say, are the real heroes of the world till date. These are the folks who are counted in the category of 'The Perfect.'
Then we have the genre of folks like you and me: folks who are entangled in the pros and cons, nook and corner, the pettiest intricacies of a commonplace humane life. This genre is probably not perfect, or more commonly, never ever deems towards perfection. We are just so busy with our own little lives. We are born, live to our variegated responsibilties and reach a unheard funeral. And amidst such uneventful lives of ours, we succeed and we fail, we grow and we wither away, we rise and we fall. If not perfect, the only goal we strive for is the goal for a comfortable life. Should we be successful in doing so, we are probably what Darwin had coined eons ago: 'The Survivor of The Fittest.' Not that the Survivor concept is true for our biological evolution, it is equally true for the evolution of the mankind as a whole.
Now, ask you about the biggest irony on Earth? What is an ideal goal? The Perfect? Or The Survivor of The Fittest? Neither me nor you are sure of the right answer. Or, is there really a right answer to it?
Things look blurred and bleak. Nevertheless, what we can declare in black and blue is that The Perfect is probably hardly The Survivor of The Fittest! We are human beings and not Superman! What would sound more logical to a mundanely successful life is therefore, probably, The Survivor of The Fittest and not The Perfect! Somewhere in our lives, always, we reach a point where we have these two roads to pick from. And then we would advise ourselves to stick to our ideologies and strive towards being The Perfect. But is that something we would dictate for a decent living in our little realms? Probably not!
The reason is, experience teaches us to live not for our ideologies, but for a reason to live. And that reason to live makes The Survivor of The Fittest, the winner at the very end. Now what is this reason to live? A reason to live can be as petty and mundane as my pet cat which I want to take care of forever. Or it might be a very small accomplishment as in earning 100 bucks, but, all with the sweat of my brow, day in and day out. To someone the reason might be to live for their loved ones and their kith and kin. But however small it is, it accrues a great shape when we make it 'a reason to live': the secret of strength The Survivor of The Fittest.
I believe, the biggest surge of life has to be, not the quest of the key to perfection, but the quest for a reason to live. Because a reason is the dormant storehouse of inexhaustible energies which would never part our mighty soul. A reason to live is something which would guide us through the labirynths of thick and thin, would enable us come upfront with the reality and make us bold enough to tackle it. Therein lies The Survivor of The Fittest. And the one who would always find a new reason to live, should the earlier one disappear in thin air, is the one whom our Mother Nature would select for a blissful life for ever and ever...