How to Do Nothing

This article shares its title with a New York Times bestseller by Jenny Odell. But I haven’t read it. A reviewer said that Ms Odell’s work is "ambitious". This article’s subject is the antithesis of ambitious.

I’ve been working. I’ve been busting my ass without a break for months now. I’ve kept my nose to the grindstone working on stuff that turns your brain into an overheated, dried-up, two-stroke engine. But even when I’m not working at the stuff that brings in the bread, I’ve been dosing myself with social media, snorting newsfeed to lull my brain, distract me from matters of bread-earning.

I Miss Neighbourhoods

I miss neighbourhoods ... where you could just pop into a friend's house uninvited, to chit chat or eat or drink something, or just yell your friend's name from outside his house, waiting for him to come out so that you can go to play, or gossip about another friend or talk random shit,

Unfamiliar Entertainment

Before Netflix and Amazon Prime, before YouTube, before even cable TV, Indians' choice in television entertainment was limited. Severely limited. To two: Doordarshan and DD Metro. And before that, just one: DD.

Why People Are the Next Big Tech

Our age is swamped with technology. 

From robotics to smartphones; from e-rickshaws to international space stations; from CRSPR-Cas9 to Solid State Drives. Human ingenuity and science are being rapidly encapsulated in complex algorithms and packaged into dense devices and executive routines. Governments and corporations are ramping up R&D budgets to create or acquire the next big technology, like with AI, Data Science, and Machine Learning.

American Signage: A Journey through America

I like to read words and interpret them. I like to think about what they mean. I want to get into the head of the person who wrote them. Why did they say so? What were they going through in life when they wrote that. All this mulling makes me a slow reader. But for me, half of the joy of reading is imagining and charting out the unsaid landscape behind and beyond words---be it a literary novel, a children's illustrated book, or a business non-fiction.

News from 2084, Issue 3: SC Upholds Cricket Ban

★18 January 2084, Staff Reporter, Indraprastha★

Ruling in favour of the government, the Supreme Court yesterday declared cricket illegal under the Bharatiya Sanskriti Act (BS Act). It took the government 64 years to finally achieve this feat after decades of public campaigns and re-education.

Author Arrested for Portraying Immoral Act: News from 2084, Issue 2

17 January 2084, Staff Reporter, Prayagraj

Nobel Prize-winning children's author Ram Charan was arrested yesterday after a midnight raid on his residence. Prayagraj Police's Vice Squad (PPVS) undertook this raid upon taking cognizance of the complaint of the parents of a child.

The parents were infuriated that the author's latest book, which the child was reading, featured an illustration of a girl in jeans. PPVS Sub-Inspector Pramod Mahadik said, "Mr Charan claims innocence and has said that this was an editorial lapse and he never meant to portray immoral acts. We are currently questioning the editor and the publisher of the book. We are leaving no stone unturned in catching the culprit of this ghastly crime." Sources close to the investigation revealed that the publisher is blaming the illustrator. He alleges that the illustrator, a woman, has drawn this illustration during her impure days, which was a breach of her contract terms. Further investigation by this correspondent has revealed that the illustrator may have been under the influence of a banned psychotropic drug called 'feminix'.

On Not Knowing and Knowing Too Much

Whoever said 'ignorance is bliss' wasn't kidding.

There was a time when I didn't know much and I was happy.

My time on earth can be divided into life before internet and life with internet. The 1980s were a simple time in India. Two channels on TV; video games were monochrome, with two buttons and expensive for ordinary folks. I spent most of my time playing outside/inside or reading random non-curriculum shit.

Bullshit is Content

These are the days of content.

 

Text, audio, video, graphics, gifs, photos, JPEGs, animations, motion pictures, 2D, 3D, music, white noise, pink noise, SMS, tweets, newsfeeds, games, apps, blogs, HDTV, FM radio, pulp fiction, literary fiction, non-fiction, memos, minutes, emails, reports, excel sheets, PowerPoint presentations, and so on and so forth—things that are making the world go round.

Honknuts

So, I was driving home the other night, and the weather in Delhi was especially lovely. Not too cold, not too hot, just right. I rolled down my car windows to enjoy the cool breeze outside. (Thankfully, the pollution wasn't too bad either.) What really spoiled it for me was the constant honking of cars and bikes. It was so bad that it could leave a normal person rattled and traumatized if exposed to it for above-average duration. Not to mention, the loss of hearing.

Jazz and Life

We were there to feel the profundity of life…without feeling insignificant ourselves. On the contrary, Jazz gave us meaning. A sense of place in the middle of all this; a sense of importance of the role we are playing; a sense of hope that there is order behind this seeming chaos; a hope that things will be calm and settled and moving on an even keel, just like Jazz.

The piano and the sax alternated now and dueted now; like two lovers having a lovers’ argument, a passionate flirting of a beautiful lady and a handsome gentleman. A love affair of unending youth that age cannot put a label on.

The drum brush and bass guitar were knocking a steady rhythm that closely mimicked my heart. Or was it the other way round? Now the piano and the drums were talking to each other. Piano talked, drums listened. Drums talked, piano listened. And now they agreed and nodded together. This was the art of conversation at its best.

Office Worn

It is not surprising that you tend to remember people's clothes in
your office. Most people have a limited set. Some have a larger set.
Every one wears his clothes on a rotational basis. The idea is to
remove, as much as possible, the memory of that dress from heads of
your colleagues. People don't forget really, but at least they wont
remember it distinctly being worn sometime recently. Is it snobbish?
Pretentious? Persnickety? It is most certainly wide spread. What is
the optimum time before you can repeat a shirt or a saree or a top?
One week? Two weeks? Considering five working days, I would need 10
shirts to have a two-week rotation for each shirt.
Ummmm...ummmm...blah blah blah.

Anupam is...

I am a social Road Runner. I keep in touch with all my friends. I know what they're up to, how they're doing, what their kids and wives are doing and who is about to have an affair. I know their deepest emotions, greatest joys, biggest fears. I get blow-by-blow account of their mood shifts. I know where they are and what they're doing and what they're planning to do and perhaps will not do. I know what they're hinting at and when they're bluffing. I know when their Sensex is going up and when their fortunes are about to fall. They tell me everything, reveal all and are not shy to open up. Not just to me, but perhaps to the entire world. I aint no magician. It's not my touch. Just see their status on your favourite social networking site and you'll figure.

It's funny how you know more about your friends' moods, activities and plans through Orkut or Facebook, rather than a chat or meet or even email. There is something utterly functional about this, yet something extremely cold and emotionless. I don't know...maybe its just me. I orkut. I facebook (check out the verbification of those). But I guess somewhere along the way, I couldn't shake off my old-fashioned 'deviations'. There is something really really weird...almost promiscuous about broadcasting your deepest emotions on a social networking site. It's like telling the world, "'Come! Therapy me!" I tread that path cautiously. People may call me a wimp or a recluse...or even a traitor to the medium. I've tried to follow suit. I've tried to put myself 'out there'. But I could never get myself to completely expose. I would sooner go 'commando' to play Rugby.

You, human being, are unfortunate to have been caught in the Big Bang. The universe is nothing but constantly expanding. Take it as the first truth and first act. Now think about your life on this planet. It's evolving. It's changing. The species is changing and so are social dynamics. Oft repeated, an infinite loop and forever relevant, is the adage 'Change is the only constant'. If you don't surf the wave, you'll get dunked. I know, it's terrible to be on your feet constantly. But tough luck, that's how it is here. Adapt or perish (rather, get murdered). I can imagine what people felt like when Graham Bell rang in telephony. I'm sure romantics might have found the concept of purely vocal communication, without the aid of the visual, extremely pathetic, even lamentable and cruel. Some said it's a passing fad (it's as if they could see into the future!). I dread the day when I'm flooded with phone calls from friends and relatives (and sundry associates whom I owe money) asking me about my health, well being and peripherals. Why? Because my status message on some faceless book just said...

Anupam is...

Deprivation

Only few things in this world make it worth living - beauty of nature, music, and the love of your child. And the irony is that we're stuck within walls, inside cubicles without being able to enjoy any of the three - nature, music or your child's company - trying to eke out a living that does not leave life worth living. We're living in just thoughts of these beautiful things: company of child in the evening, smell of a flower someday and FM radio in the car. We try to snatch 'quality time' from our 'scheduled automaton' of a life. We feel guilty both ways - at home and in the office, and along the way too. We look forward to the next weekend from this weekend. The weekend seems to be the sanctuary where all our troubles and all our fears will be resolved. The weekend is the place where we will be reunited with our loves and loved ones. But weekend is the only time when you get to pay your bills, fix your car, do your accounts, fix the broken stuff around the home. And then there's just enough time left for you to catch up on some sleep to compensate for the entire week's deprivation.

Why was Robert Killed?

I just finished watching the movie 'Bobby' based on the events leading to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. The movie ends with the following speech. As I heard the speech, I was surprised at how relevant it is now as it was then! Haven't we changed at all? What about America? This was in 1968. Robert Kennedy was championing withdrawing from Vietnam and end to the rift between races. Where has US come since then? Who killed Bobby? Why did he have to die? Just because he was on the side of what humanity actually stands for? What lessons can India derive from the history of our Democratic elder?

The movie is a good watch but the following speech is a must read! If you can hear it toward the end of the movie, the whole speech will actually hit you.

Remarks of Senator Robert F. Kennedy to the Cleveland City Club, Cleveland, Ohio, April 5, 1968, aka, "On Mindless Menace Of Violence" speech.

"This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity to speak briefly to you about this mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.

It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one – no matter where he lives or what he does – can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on.

Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by his assassin’s bullet.

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people.

Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily – whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence – whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

"Among free men,” said Abraham Lincoln, “there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs.”

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach nonviolence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some looks for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear; violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is a slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man’s spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all. I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we known what must be done. “When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies – to be met not with cooperation but with conquest, to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our bothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community, men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear – only a common desire to retreat from each other – only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is now what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of human purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of all. We must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember – even if only for a time – that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short movement of life, that they seek – as we do – nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our hearts brothers and countrymen once again." (Source)

Click here to listen to the speech.

Dudette Discovers Garlic!

FADE IN.

GREATER KAILASH, SOUTH DELHI BUNGALOW. A POSH HOUSE TASTEFULLY FURNISHED.
The camera pans the drawing room and moves toward the kitchen as Dudette passes in front of the camera straying into the kitchen by mistake.
INT. KITCHEN. DAY.
Mom has a white thing in her right hand, trying to crush it on the kitchen granite slab.

DUDETTE
Mom what is that?

MOM
It's a pod of garlic beta.

DUDETTE
Garlic as in garlic bread and vampires?

MOM
Ummmm...yes.

DUDETTE
Pod as in IPod?

MOM
Ummmmm...distantly related.

DUDETTE
Wow! Cool! Wait till I tell my friends
that garlic came from IPods!

MOM
No no it's just the word! Actually
garlic came first. Try to...

DUDETTE
Yeah whatever mom. What are you doing
with it?

MOM
I'm removing its skin.

DUDETTE
Oh okay. But why are you killing it?

MOM
Oh, I'm just crushing its knotty head
so that its easier to peel its skin!

DUDETTE
Awesome mom! Can you imagine the world's
reaction when it knows how easy it is to
skin a garlic pod? Wait, let me record
this on my cell. It will get millions of
hits on YouTube! I'll be famous! I'll be
rich!

Mom slaps her forehead with her left palm and shakes her head left to right looking down at the garlic pod.

DUDETTE
Hahahahaha! That was so funny! Wait wait,
do that again, do that again!

FADE INTO BLACK.

Immigration and the True Citizen

There is a huge debate going on in UK, Europe and other nations that attract immigrants in large numbers. In light of terror threats, governments have come to the realisation that immigrants are just not immersed enough into the culture and tradition of their host nations. Therefore, they feel disjointed from the society and harbour a deep sense of disenchantment and dislike that expresses itself in the form of terrorism or support for radical causes. Hence, the governments feels that the best way to resolve this issue is to 'localise' the immigrants and give them 'strong incentives' to adapt to their host's systems. Governments are not understanding that you cannot force-feed culture. Migrations and the results thereof are much more complicated than asking people to take a quiz that they can just mug up. Immigration is neither a win-win nor a lose-lose game. You win some, you lose some.

Human beings have always migrated - to look for food, shelter, safety or conducive weather. Most people who are migrating to UK and Europe from elsewhere are still looking for the same. These people are not migrating to a culture or religion. They are migrating to money, to a legal system. They are not beggars who need to be grateful to a benevolent Britain. Most of them are fortune hunters who had to go through severe hardships - to reach Britain, and even after reaching there, just to find their feet. They have worked hard and are still working very hard because they know they are in an unlike country, a dissimilar nation. They're not good with the language or the culture but that doesn't dismay them because there's good money to be made and they always have their own culture and religion to take solace from. The immigrants win some. And so do the hosts. Immigrants effectively lower costs of basic services. Young immigrants make sure that the demographics are not uneconomically skewed on the side of the elderly. Immigrants supply skilled and unskilled labour in severely shortaged markets. They also pump in huge tax dollars into the exchequer.

It is the power of economics exerting an influencing force on culture, tradition, systems, laws and government. If you cant take the change then forget about the economic benefits. Concessions have to be made, tolerance has to be shown. In search for the definition of a pure and true citizen, we must not insist on a rapid or drastic cultural adaptation. It is neither fair nor practical. Which South Asian ever emigrated to UK because he loved Fish-n-chips or felt grateful toward the Magna Carta? While asking the question about the true meaning of Britishness, people are forgetting that the world has moved on. Just as the moon exerts some influence on the earth's orbit and makes it a little wobbly, so will immigrants exert some influence on the culture of their hosts. Thats been happening for thousands of years in India. India was supposed to be a sexually liberal nation at some point in history. You have to see our temples to believe it. Where did Kamasutra come from? So what happened in between? How come we've become such prudes now?

Cultural change due to migration of human population is like mixing two matters with dissimilar properties. For instance, hot water and cold water. Put more hot water and you'll scald yourself. Put more cold water and you'll freeze. Too much of hot water changes the character of the water towards the hotter side. Similarly too much cold water changes the character of the water towards to colder side. But its never completely hot or completely cold; unless there is massive invasion of one matter. Then the identity of one engulfs the identity of the other. Immigration is like that. If original white Anglo-Saxons think that they can sit easy and politely ask the immigrants to try and gradually become more 'British' then they are in for a big disappointment. If you allow immigration, be prepared to get influenced in some ways. Prepare to change your own culture in some ways. Friction and turbulence are given. The definition of a 'British' person changes every time a new person crosses the immigration desks of Heathrow.

Is the approach of governments right? We need to define what a nation stands for. What is the definition of culture, identity and boundaries in this age of mixing and mingling. I insist on the basics. What makes a nation what it is? What are the values that attract immigrants? Where does the safety, the shelter, the food and the prosperity stem from? Where is the culture of the nation - on its face or in its heart? Multicultural democracies like India, UK or USA cannot be defined by one culture or one religion or even one political party. These nations can only be defined in terms of values - values that are enshrined in our founding documents - freedom, equality, opportunity to pursue happiness, and so on. The British government must relay messages of these basic values rather than external manifestations of culture. UK must help the new members of the British family to understand that the safety, security and prosperity that they have come to ticks because of these reasons.

"This nation is not what it is because women here do not wear burqas, but because women and men are treated equally. This nation is not what it is because people can speak English, but because everyone can understand each other, speak freely and express anything. This nation is not free and fair because it is populated by rich white men, but because long time back in its history, a great document called the 'Magna Carta' was written and adopted. Beyond this, you are most welcome to love(or hate) either Fish-n-chips or Hilsa in mustard gravy!"

Tips for a Good Morning Walk

[Glorious outcome of a recent bout of insomnia, acquisition of heavily discounted walking shoes, and mending of centrally torn track pants.]

• Wash your face, brush and have half a glass of water before you leave. It helps to feel fresh and recharged and alert enough to avoid the odd early morning rash driver.
  
• Leave five minutes before sunrise so that you can watch the sun rise over the horizon just as you're beginning. It’s beautiful! Like a bright orange Poppins sneaking out of its hiding place.
  
• Don't drive your way to the nearest park. Your tubeless radials will lose weight, not you.
  
• Don’t force yourself to walk fast. At least to begin with, in the first few days while you're still gathering the enthusiasm, just amble, just stroll aimlessly, saunter, drift, meander, loiter leisurely. Look around. Take in the sights and sounds. Think of childhood games and sports. Or don’t think at all.
• If you're as lazy as I am, then don’t impose a target or objective on yourself. You will never wake up in the first place! Mind games! These days, the objective is not to lose weight or become thin. The objective it to prevent muscular atrophy and joint logjams.
• Keep changing your routes. It’s boring to go round and round the park bumping into the same people who you've seen everyday but don’t know anything about. Also, its really really awkward!
• Avoid routes where disadvantaged people relieve themselves. Respect their privacy and your olfactory nerves.
• Talk to dogs on the way. Shoo away cats. Shout at birds. Stay out of the way of cows and bulls.
• Don’t make eye contact with anyone you can’t talk to. And if you do have company, then talk lightly, don't shout like a hick.
• Don’t stare at women, fat people and people making strange movements and sounds. Be conscious of your own gender, flab and wrong timing of birth.
• Dress flatteringly. No point flaunting your skinny calves, flabby triceps and sagging gluteus maximus. It’s important to look stylish so that everyone can enjoy the view in the park.
• Hum. Occasionally.
• Travel light. Just carry your tiniest cell phone. Or none at all. Leave your wallet at home. You can’t buy your way to good health. Don't expect to get solicited either.
• Walk for at least 20 minutes. Or just enough for you to not scramble to reach for your inhaler.
  
• Don't get too ambitious too soon. Get medical insurance before you bust a lung or pop a vein.
  
• Jogging is NOT walking. It's a whole different ballgame that is outside the purview of my experience, understanding and imagination. It's a separate matter that I don't have medical insurance either.
  
• Walk close to home just in case you need to rush back to take an urgent call from nature.
• When you're back home, don’t lose the get-up immediately. Preserve the show for some time. Feel the health seeping in. Watch the smugness on your face in a full length mirror. Feel the adipose being disposed. Walk around or read the paper like that till you start feeling too hot for comfort. Or till your better half reminds you of you being the worse half.

----

Jokes apart, this blog post is the most popular on my godforsaken blog. Lots of people come here looking for genuine information on walking and morning walks. I almost feel like a cheat by making light of the whole thing :) So I thought I should add some 'useful' information. Here are some links:

• Walking Builds Aerobic Fitness at both High and Moderate Intensity
• Walking on About.com
• Walking for fitness: How to trim your waistline, improve your health
• Why Walking is Necessary for Good Health – Even If You Are Extremely Fit and Lean
• Walking Workout Routines
• Why isn't my workout working?
• Effective Walking Routines - Tips to Improve Your Results

I hope this helps. Let me know.

Terror Fatigue

My Dear Terrorist fiend,

At the risk of being called insensitive toward your cause, let me just give you a heads-up - terror fatigue has set in. Your TRPs(Terror Rating Points) have fallen drastically and the Indian public is neither amused nor saddened by your show. There is no shock, there is no awe, there is not even one hee-haw. Your indiscriminate bombing of poor helpless souls is boring, tedious and old news. One looks much like the other and no one remembers which was the last one. Your 'bijli bums' are bummers leaving audience scratching their bums and wondering what was that all about. You think you're having an orgy of gore, but no one in the public is having an orgasm; just bore. Come on! Excite us! Use your imagination! Give us a show that we can gossip about even a week later! Dont forget that you're competing with scores of 'saas' and hundreds of 'bahus'. Even an afternoon soap causes more heartburn on a daily basis than you do in an entire year.

I say, if you really have to massacre in acres, why mow the people who still sow? Why kill people of faith, and those who still have faith; lives that make this nation valuable and yet are not valuable lives? Talking about 'valuable lives', the Indian public still fondly recalls the day when you guys decided to flush the house of representatives off the representatives. But your hand just didn't reach the lever. Don't you want publicity? How can you get publicity without becoming public? Why don't you show your face? Why don't you engage? We don't even know who you are or what you want anymore! What is worse is that we really don't care anymore! Your bips and boops of cellphone bombs are neither catching the signal, nor taking a call. Even Andrew Symmond's outburst makes a bigger bang than your burst out. You're hurting innocent individuals but your random pokes carry nothing but nuisance value for a nation as vast and varied as India. Get real, willya?!

I would think that you need some consultants from Hollywood to jazz up your show. Or maybe some wedding planners from Delhi to add masala to your pelvic bursts. But the problem is that the people don't really know what you stand for. You don't represent a demand; you represent frisking at malls, random roadblocks and breaking news. Thats it! You're so annoying that you cant be called a terrorist (maybe annoyist!). Your fundamentals are so screwed up that you cant be called a fundamentalist. You're hardly causing a movement to be called a revolutionary. And I wont insult any religion by calling you a holy warrior. You still don't get it, do you? In a democracy like India, the chorus is more popular than the lead singer. So where is your voice? Where is your chorus? Where is your real protest? You will find that in India, its easier to wash off blood stains from the floor than a mass movement from popular consciousness. If there is any truth in your claim, then why don't you ask for it? Come out, congregate and shout! And for a change, try something that really worked - Satyagraha.

Hope you're not doing well.
Please don't take care.

Yours dead bored,

AC.

P2P 2 Networked Brains

Nicole Kidman's latest movie "Invasion" is a little low on the scare quotient. Or so I thought. But fear is not what I wish to talk about here. There were other such movies in the past. We call them Zombie movies. Like "Night of the Living Dead". Expressionless, man-subjugating, blood-sucking part-human and past-human creatures that strangely move in a regimented fashion. A friend found it interesting that so many people could share a common thought and a common purpose. So, doesn't that make zombies better than us? Interesting thought. No wonder that in 'Invasion' all world problems seemed to get resolved by the common cause alien zombies. Can we ever develop brains like zombies?

Just a thought. Peer-to-peer file sharing - millions of computers worldwide networked through instantaneous connections, hosting games, music, movies, porn and God knows what else. Isn't this the precursor of a singular entity-like humongous hard disk cum operating system? Sun Microsystems proudly says that "The Network is the Computer." Sun sees a future where your digital work, play and identity are all 'online'. Google is already cashing in on this convergence phenomenon (Google knows everything about you). Predicting this future was never difficult. One look at the Zombie movies and you can predict even farther. Internet is already a sort of common cause, a universal transport bus. When computers are networked, they 'talk'. Soon P2P networks will evolve into machines with shared operating systems and hard disks; machines that share infrastructure (processors), defence (anti-virus and firewalls), money (credits and bandwidth), tools (applications) and finally the most zombiesque of all qualities - a common cause (seen I, Robot!?).

All that leads to here. Let me bend the space-time continuum and take a quantum leap into the future of digits without shifting any paradigms. I see what? I see Matrix-like brains that can be plugged into your reigning digital machine using a wireless technology (called 'Yellowtooth'??). I shift the slider on the time scale a little and it gets more interesting. I see Person-to-Person networking by connecting the minds of all humans on this planet (and elsewhere). At the thought of a click, you are connected to the brain of a man relieving himself in the loo of a crater-side cafe on Jupitor's moon Titan. Implications and possibilities - Sahil can scrap Sagarika from a beach and Sagarika can text Sahil from the middle of the ocean - different galaxies, if you want. John can check out Jenny's lesbian memories and Jenny can check out John's SuperPowerPoint slides. No need to download anything at all! Just browse! The next step? A common cause. When our survival depends on a resource that itself depends on we all holding it up together, then a common cause emerges (think, the Earth). Here comes the scary thought - could we turn into zombies in the future? Could we become so much like each other that we're indistinguishable? Could we agree so much that all dissent is banned? Finally, could we invade planets using our seamlessly communicating minds? Maybe fear is what I want to talk about!

But thank God for the double helix that humans are neither a common cause nor a common thought life form. We humans crave to retain our genetic identity by compromising our consciousness induced standards. Somehow our survival not only depends on having variety in physical characteristics, but also in thoughts. Still waters stagnate. For growth, it is important to question established thoughts as well as the establishment. To disagree on the way to an agreement is the best form of decision making. That is why Democracy rocks!

Last request - with the future in mind, could we at least agree on a common cause? Or two? One - saving the Earth. And two - not checking out Jenny's memories.