Being A Thought Leader

 It's not about just being a disruptor. Thought leaders have to qualify on multiple counts to be thought leaders. 

They should be different, of course, but ahead of their times. Visionary is some sense, and breaking the mould.

They may or may not have a lot of followers, but their thought could gain acceptance later, as has happened in radical theories about the shape of the earth, or the Earth going around the Sun in Astronomy, or many others.

Nobody accepts anything new without kicking and screaming. So a lot of antipathy can sometimes be a precursor to acceptance, though not always.

You can have thought leaders in Feminism, LGBT rights, or simpler things, like new ways of teaching, discovery or looking at cures for hitherto incurable diseases. Any field of human endeavour, really. We wouldn't be high-fliers without the Wright brothers, right?

Before The Coffee Gets Cold- Book Review

 A very interesting book of four short stories involving time travel. The author is Japanese. There are some tough rules that the time travellers must know and follow, while travelling back or forward. Does it still make sense to go for it, is the central theme.

Very emotional, it covers a wide range, from a Mother who is likely to lose her life while giving birth and wants to know what happened, to a story of two lovers, who may or may not re-unite after a break of three years away from one another.

Two other stories are equally interesting, about relationships-a husnabd who's getting Alzheimer's, and a girl who is estranged from her sister. Touching, and handled in a very empathetic manner towards all the characters. It's a surprising mix of high technology and basic humanity. A good blend.

Reminded me of a Marathi play about time travel- Amar Photo Studio- that I saw a couple of years ago at Pune. That was good too.

Innocence Lost in Lanka and Elsewhere

There was a time when governments fought wars over territory, or colonials conquered the armamentally backward for commercial gain, all through history. Dictators occasionally chipped in with murder and mayhem, but at most of these times, common people got along well, and there was an age of innocence among them. It seems that those innocent times are now history. It is no longer an army participating in an officially declared war with some rules (Dharma Yuddh?), but anyone who has a grouse getting up and killing anyone who may or may not have had anything to do with the creation of that grouse.

Where all this will lead, is anybody's guess. This could be the time for good governance to kick in, and show that it can bring humanity back from the precipice where it finds itself. More than all the nukes in the stockpiles of the nuclear powers, this is the trend that is likely to eliminate humanity. Not sure how much of it remains, after the regular spate of killings by individuals and organisations that see no other alternatives to killing other humans.

Hopefully, there is still some hope..

Trending- Bad Behaviour

Why is it that bad behaviour is so rampant? The video of a passenger being manhandled (still not sure why, as reports are incomplete as usual)  by airline staff in Delhi are disturbing. Usually such treatment is reserved for potential hijackers inside an aircraft (or drunk brawlers in a pub). Or is it an attempt to catch up with global benchmarks? -United staff physically dragged a passenger out of an overbooked flight recently.

Is excessive competition to be blamed? Or policies of the employer as implemented by some line managers that create stress? Or just individuals acting out of line on their own? Luckily, we still don't have gunmen shooting and killing at random, but if we had lax gun laws like the U.S., I am sure we would cross their benchmarks in this arena too.

Do humans need to be taught to respect fellow human beings? Is this what they call Kaliyug? No idea at all, but something is seriously wrong somewhere. On a bigger scale, War being threatened by a superpower over trivial things is the new normal, it looks like.

Otherwise, the Deluge

Some famous Queen supposedly said, "After me, the deluge." She thought she was the centre of the universe, I suppose.

But there are many journalists/columnists who sing the same song. As in..

If we don't privatise,...

If we don't cut interest rates,...

If we don't devalue the currency,..

If we don't de-regulate power, ...

If we open up the country to retail giants like...

If we give reservations to X, Y, Z, community/caste...

If NGOs are allowed to get unlimited foreign funds,..

If we don't catch the murderer of X,...

Most of these pieces, about 1000-word long, argue very persuasively that the world is about to end. Even if a couple of nuclear bombs were to be used by a lunatic, the world is unlikely to end anytime soon. The Chinese and Indians alone will ensure that humans as a race will suvive even if depleted marginally. Therefore, there's no cause for worry. But if I don't end this post here,....

Her- A Surreal Yet Human Movie

Saw a film in-flight on the way back from Bali to Mumbai - a Hollywood film while coming back to Bollywood (nay, follywood, mostly). Good premise, somewhat like the robots in a sci-fi film running amok in many science-horror films. But here, it is an Operating System, custom-designed to one human, that provides the twist. And if the human is male, and the OS female, then love can bloom. And it does.

If we can't understand ourselves (and how many can claim to?), why not let the software do it for you? In any case, except changing diapers, it is already doing most things for us.

Though surreal in its premise, it manages to remain a warm, human film. Scary? Yes, because that may be  a glimpse of the future. gay marriages are passe. Marry the comp.

Krish on Mars

Krish (sorry, dunno how many h's appear in his name) goes to Mars. No, I mean, this would be a sequel after a few years. This is an imaginary recount of his trip there. Krish goes there, hoping to solve advanced problems. But what does he see?

Martians live contented lives.

Their religion is Humanity- sorry, Martiality-only, it does not mean what you think it does. They don't fight. Not even husbands and wives. The downside is that there are no husband-wife jokes.

They already have all the life-skills as they are born. No need for learning them the hard way, like we struggle to do all our lives.

The poorest man is automatically elected as the head of government. But the moment another guy is proved poorer, he has to give up his position to the next guy.

Martians don't have long ears. In fact, they are incredibly well-proportioned, and smile a lot, making them look even better.

They don't fly saucers, more like they use thoughts to take them from one place to another. Think before you leap is their watchword.

Krish decides he will find more job satisfaction here, and comes back to earth.

New Killing Fields

Killing of enemy soldiers on a battlefield one can understand. But killing of innocent people in a university is something that at least I fail to understand. The gun law is obviously a culprit in the U.S. But is that the only culprit? Is there something dehumanising about our existence, like the nightmarish sci-fi stuff where humans were taken over by machines? Do we really not care about other people's right to live? Can anything be done to reverse the trend? Or are we destined to see a lot more of Virginia Techs and Northern Illinois' happening all around? Some people always felt that the veneer of humanity we wear is pretty thin. Maybe it's started wearing out.