Surreptitious Radical Maniac

Identity... I came across 3 different posts (above) and they piqued my interest in the way we identify themselves. Maybe this is the beginning of all such things, but I'm confused if it's right or wrong. Is it okay to identify yourself as someone or something?? I'd say absolutely. No problem at all. This concept of identity is also deeply rooted in ourselves, on a broader level like ethnicity, caste, race, country, language, etc. But, recently, people started to identify in different terms.  If someone asks me where you're from, my initial thought would be, I'm from Hyderabad.  But I do realize not everyone recognizes it right away. So, I say, I'm from India . But, a person who knows India will definitely ask you which place you're from within India. It's because that person knows that you identify yourself beyond the country India. So, what's right? Is it Hyderabad or India?? Or both? A person who knows Hyderabad will...

My dog... Alex I think Alex is quite intelligent. He understands the circumstance and situation better than not just any other dog, but also humans. I'm quite sure he'd outwit individuals if he was in a human form. Well, I maybe exaggerating because he's my dog and I guess any dog owner would be boasting in the same manner (like the story of Akbar-Birbal on the most beautiful child and I don't even want to compare Alex with any other too ) . Continuing from the last 9 years, I have great memories with him, beginning from just getting him on a cold night when my family was still awestruck that I actually brought a dog, and I did what I told. Anyway, the most remarkable memory is very recent. 2 months back. This morning I recounted when I spoke to my sister and I think my family thinks that I couldn't accept it. Maybe, I don't. Couple of years back, my sister went abroad for studies and returned after 1 year. Alex played with my sister and had fun with her, b...

Why does everything have to be complicated? Why can't at least somethings be simple? No grey area. Just simple solutions. Even the word 'gray' and 'grey' itself is complicated. Why not just be simple? Like white or black. Is cognitive dissonance the primary characteristic of a human?? Why can't something be for certain and absolute? Like a murder is bad, irrespective of the situation. No 'if' or 'but.' Just murder is bad. Why can't everything be as such?? And, what's the whole point of being complicated? Does it solve anything? Or is it helpful?? Or, am I looking at it wrong? Everything is actually simple, but we make it complicated?? Now, I'm complicating the situation of complicated itself. Done with it. No more complications. I'm done with it. I can't be in the grey area for any longer. It's useless. I'll try to be more certain in my stance from now on. At least, I'm done with it for most situat...

Birds... I'm not sure about the clarity of the image, but those small random dots are birds. Do you see a pattern?? That's what I'm thinking about. Is there a pattern? I'm not referring to the image, but on a general way, like do birds fly in a pattern? Especially, these small birds. I used to do bird watching or maybe I still do it. Today, a question struck me. Is there a pattern amongst birds, like the distance between themselves, structure, orientation, direction, etc.?? Did anyone do research to find about this? Or is it meant to not have a pattern?? And, we humans got so used to organizing things also plan to do the same for beings which are not used to it?? It's inclining towards a bit of existentialism, but I'm not looking at existentialism for birds right now. Maybe some other time. And, what makes them do it? It's not like they are looking for food or is it the way they look for food?? It looks like they just fly by having a random im...

Many people claim that India's image has improved in the world in the last 5 years. How do we know it's true?? Can we confirm it just by travel of the Prime Minister? The 1st PM of India traveled almost similar as the current PM. So, does that mean they both enriched image of India? Nehru traveled to 46 countries, comprising of 70 trips in the span of 1947-1964. Modi traveled to 60 countries, comprising of 105 trips in the span of 2014-2019 Irrespectively, it's still a wrong comparison of foreign trips between Modi and Nehru as the context itself was different. And, some countries didn't even exist during the period of Nehru. We definitely can't compare the stature of India in 1947 and 2019 as there is a definite improvement and it cannot be credited to a single person like a PM of the country too. But, let's compare on more realistic terms to what does it mean to an Indian. Did it make a difference in the life of an Indian who is abroad or ...

How the ass of a horse has determined the design of a space shuttle? And, that over 2000 years ago. Is that possible?  Read the below post. https://9gag.com/gag/an5bNVB Can we use the same analogy to develop something similar? If so, what?? It made me think of few things.  Firstly, butterfly effect. "In  chaos theory , the butterfly effect   is the sensitive dependence on  initial conditions  in which a small change in one state of a  deterministic   nonlinear system  can result in large differences in a later state." Telugu speaking people are more familiar with this effect after watching the movie  Nannaku Prematho  by Sukumar. In simple words, a small change can cause an unimaginable effect in the future. But, what kind of implications does it have?? Secondly, time travel. One of the interesting discussions which I love is  time travel . I have less idea, but I'm curious, especiall...

"They feed me, they care for me, they must be gods"  - Dog "They feed me, they care for me, I am a god"  - Cat Are you a cat person? Are you a dog person?? I'm not sure... I'm a dog person. I love few members of the cat family, especially the tiger. I'd love to have a pet tiger in future. I'm not sure if I'd disturb the actual nature by domesticating or petting the tiger. Irrespectively, I still want to pet a tiger. Like the scene from  Life of Pi  movie.  so cute...  I hope I can cuddle a tiger like that... But, I love dogs. I remember reading this about dog from Jaya book. "Dogs are considered inauspicious in Hinduism as they are associated with Yama, the god of death, and Bhairava, the fearsome killer form of Shiva. Dogs represent attachment and bondage because they are territorial and possessive of their masters. They constantly seek attention and validation. They therefore become the symbol of ne...

  After the surgical strike, one of my friend wrote this “…many of our friends, families and loved ones are going to lose their lives. This insanity is not worth the lives of our armed forces. It just is not” Another friend wrote “This is how we do it” Most people are happy that a surgical strike has been executed which allegedly killed terrorists. But, what is that going to change right now? Do people think about that? Will it reduce the number of terrorist attacks? None of the empirical evidence across the world shows just killing terrorists would reduce attacks. The famous killing of Osama bin Laden of Al-Qaeda hasn’t reduced Al-Qaeda attacks. The position of Osama bin Laden is taken by Ayman al-Zawahiri. Does it bring back the CRPF personnel who gave up their life? Definitely not Is this the case of revenge against terrorists? If it is so, then there is almost no difference in the way of thinking between both groups. So, what did this achieve? ...

Militants can be killed. The objective should be to reduce militancy. As long as the atmosphere of militancy exists, a new militant arises to fill the incumbency. In simple words, it can be understood as this. A terrorist is leading a cause for certain group of people, and if he/she is killed, someone else would take the spot. The analogy can be further simplified in this manner. Suppose there is a club for ‘Cricket’, whose activities are dedicated to increase playing of the game cricket, which is played by members of the club. Now, if the head of this club is dead, someone else would take his place to continue its activities. Just because the head is dead, club wouldn’t shut down. Terrorism is similar to this in many ways. There are people who want a particular thing and they believe they can achieve their interests if they support a certain group of people. And, in this case, this certain group of people are ‘terrorists’, not because they promise to achieve something, bu...

In the last semester, I wrote about Kashmir conflict and the way it has to be addressed for one of my courses ‘Introduction to Conflict Resolution’. While I was writing the final strategy, I wrote a paragraph mentioning the implications for implementation of my strategy. One of the implication is attacks from terrorist’s groups when there is a good sign of development between the relations. I wrote the strategy paper in December 1 st week of 2018 when the new Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has opened Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara for Indian Sikhs and journalists. The Indian government responded positively to such initiative of Pakistan. As history tends to repeat itself, the good sign of progress is again hampered due to Pulwama attack by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist group. So, what would break this impasse is a question which has to be answered by both Pakistan and India. This is the excerpt from my strategy paper on how Kashmir conflict should be addressed. Attacks...