Saturday, June 15, 2013
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Legs… not crutches!
HEART TALK
Parents cripple their children with their anxiety to see them excel. A mother, who doesn’t let go of her child’s hand, needs to understand that it is the fall that will teach the child how to walk eventually
Mahesh Bhatt
It’s my prized treasure. A few simple lines which came straight from her heart, and which now sit on a page in my special black and white diary. “Dear Papa. I love you sooo much. Thank you for not helping me at all during the filming of SOTY [Student of the Year]. Love, love, love… Alia Bhatt.”
And with these lines, Alia had given her first
autograph. To her father, no less, who has the reputation of carving out
careers for unknowns in the movie business. It’s intoxicating to see a
flower bloom, a bird soar, and a dewdrop glisten. But the joy of seeing
one of your children in that butterfly moment — turning from the
proverbial caterpillar into a multi-coloured wonder of nature —
surpasses all other highs. And more so, because my wife Soni, who is an
actress of substance, and I, had resisted the urge to do anything to
limit her flight with obsessive parental guidance and love; because we
understood that our universe, no matter how big, would become her cage.
In
her debut film, Alia had made us all very proud. All the more, because
she did it on her own. She had written the first sentence of her own
narrative with her own hands, not those of her parents.
Parents
cripple their children with their anxiety to see them excel. A mother
who doesn’t let go of the hand of the child who is learning to walk, is
actually protecting herself from pain, should the child fall. She needs
to understand that it is the fall that will teach the child how to walk
eventually. The mother eagle hurls the baby over the cliff, and it is in
that moment of life and death, as the baby plummets down, that it finds
its wings, which then take it skywards.
If animals can do it, why do humans cling onto their offspring for dear
life? The dogma of every parent should be to give their children legs,
rather than become their crutches.
Parents have one more final
role to play in their children’s lives which, once again, animals play
effortlessly. Having nudged their children into the stream of life,
parents must refrain from burdening their offspring with a sense of
indebtedness. The ‘youowe-your-parents-thismuch-at-least’ refrain is the worst form of parental exploitation that exists, particularly in India.
When
my teacher and father figure, UG Krishnamurti, the man I owe everything
in my life to, stepped into the sunset hours of his life, he gave me
2000 euros. ‘I want to die the way I lived. Just watch over me for a few
days. The time for me to go is here’. And as I watched my father die, I
couldn’t help marvelling at the fact that he had even provided for the
funeral cost and refused to use me as his crutch. Now, that’s a true
parent.
Bhatt is a director & producer. The opinions expressed in this column are the personal views of the writer
The
mother eagle hurls the baby over the cliff, and it is in that moment of
life and death, as the baby plummets down, that it finds its wings
which then take it skywards. If animals can do it, why do humans cling
on to their offspring for dear life?
Friday, December 21, 2012
It’s The End Of The World - today!
The
world has “ended” many times. Every few years, doomsayers predict that
the world is going to end. It ended once in 2000, and now again in 2012.
There are various predictions about how the world will end – flooding
and fire for instance – that reveal our fascination with doom. Celestial
entertainment is popular, especially if it portends doom and disaster.
At the turn of the millennium, in the year 2000, a lot of people came to me and asked, “Sadhguru, the world is going to end. What should we do?” I told them, “What you should do is, after you spend your money on whatever it is you wish to spend it on, bequeath the rest to Isha. I have work to do after the world ends!” Nobody did anything like that because doomsaying is just entertainment and most believe such predictions only as long as it is part of entertainment, and not seriously enough to the point of giving anything.
Where did this number ‘2012’ come from, anyway? What is time but a human idea?
Neither the planet, solar system, nor cosmos have counted 2012. Mother Earth does not know what 2012 is; this is all human nonsense. Somebody just said, “This is number one.” At least if you had started counting from the beginning of the planet, maybe, but you just started counting whenever you knew how to count. According to the Hindu calendar, there are many hundred thousand years still left for the planet.
In Indic culture, people have been counting for much longer. We have calendars running 60,000 years into the past and hundreds of thousands of years into the future. Maybe the Mayan calendar ends in 2012, but we have yugas and yugas coming.
However, if you insist that the world is going to end on a particular date, then let us end it the way we know it. What we have known in the world, what has marked the history of humanity most, are wars and battles, famines and misery. The ugliest incidents in history are what we remember most. Let’s end that world.
Let’s create a world where we can experience the most beautiful things, which will be remembered for posterity. If we are willing, we can create a new world – a world that is inclusive; a world where strife and suffering do not dominate; where there is greater understanding.
Today, technology has empowered us in a way that one individual is able to achieve what one thousand persons could not do earlier. Because we are so hugely empowered, our consciousness is far more important than it was ever before. If we do not invest sufficient time, energy and resources to raising our consciousness, we might have to pay a steep price.
For a shift in consciousness, we don’t need galactic help. If you are willing, it will happen – with or without a fancy date. As a generation of people, whether we make this into a great time or we make this into a horrible time, everything is in our hands. Let us strive together to make a new world possible that is free of the negativities of the past.
Nature only creates a certain conducive atmosphere. It is individual human beings who have to decide how to live in this world. Whatever the times, people have acted in ways that are good, bad and ugly. So, let us end the ugliness in this world, and make a new world full of intelligence, integrity and inclusiveness. We can make it happen.
TheSpeakingTree | TheTimesOfIndia | Sadhguru | www.ishafoundation.org
At the turn of the millennium, in the year 2000, a lot of people came to me and asked, “Sadhguru, the world is going to end. What should we do?” I told them, “What you should do is, after you spend your money on whatever it is you wish to spend it on, bequeath the rest to Isha. I have work to do after the world ends!” Nobody did anything like that because doomsaying is just entertainment and most believe such predictions only as long as it is part of entertainment, and not seriously enough to the point of giving anything.
Where did this number ‘2012’ come from, anyway? What is time but a human idea?
Neither the planet, solar system, nor cosmos have counted 2012. Mother Earth does not know what 2012 is; this is all human nonsense. Somebody just said, “This is number one.” At least if you had started counting from the beginning of the planet, maybe, but you just started counting whenever you knew how to count. According to the Hindu calendar, there are many hundred thousand years still left for the planet.
In Indic culture, people have been counting for much longer. We have calendars running 60,000 years into the past and hundreds of thousands of years into the future. Maybe the Mayan calendar ends in 2012, but we have yugas and yugas coming.
However, if you insist that the world is going to end on a particular date, then let us end it the way we know it. What we have known in the world, what has marked the history of humanity most, are wars and battles, famines and misery. The ugliest incidents in history are what we remember most. Let’s end that world.
Let’s create a world where we can experience the most beautiful things, which will be remembered for posterity. If we are willing, we can create a new world – a world that is inclusive; a world where strife and suffering do not dominate; where there is greater understanding.
Today, technology has empowered us in a way that one individual is able to achieve what one thousand persons could not do earlier. Because we are so hugely empowered, our consciousness is far more important than it was ever before. If we do not invest sufficient time, energy and resources to raising our consciousness, we might have to pay a steep price.
For a shift in consciousness, we don’t need galactic help. If you are willing, it will happen – with or without a fancy date. As a generation of people, whether we make this into a great time or we make this into a horrible time, everything is in our hands. Let us strive together to make a new world possible that is free of the negativities of the past.
Nature only creates a certain conducive atmosphere. It is individual human beings who have to decide how to live in this world. Whatever the times, people have acted in ways that are good, bad and ugly. So, let us end the ugliness in this world, and make a new world full of intelligence, integrity and inclusiveness. We can make it happen.
TheSpeakingTree | TheTimesOfIndia | Sadhguru | www.ishafoundation.org
Thursday, November 29, 2012
5 Ideas That Will Blow Your Mind!
You won't find apps or Angry Birds
here. Check out five ambitious companies pursuing big, bold ideas.If you wanted to teach a computer to mimic the way the human brain works, where would you start? Union City, Calif.-based start-up Vicarious is starting with the eyes: It's building software that can “see” and make sense of the world.
What we found were the kind of ideas that may not come to fruition this year--or even this decade. In fact, we're not even sure some of them will pan out at all. But they are ideas to watch, for sure, if only because of the audacity and ambition required to pursue them.
1. A Laser Printer for DNA
The idea: San Francisco-based Cambrian Genomics is creating the world’s first DNA laser printer. Instead of printing ink, this gadget will spit out genetic code. The traditional process of synthesizing DNA is tedious, costly, and error-prone. Cambrian's printer will produce accurate strands much faster and, theoretically, much cheaper once the technology comes to market. Cambrian, which is a product of the nonprofit academic institution Singularity University, is still in stealth mode so little is known about the actual mechanics of the printer. But the project has received funding from Founders Den managing partner Michael Levit and lists Singularity University as an advisor.
Mind-blowing factor: Because the printer may drastically decrease the time and cost required to produce synthetic DNA, researchers will be able to generate larger quantities of DNA. The end result could be more advancements in personalized medical treatments--and even new organisms. "People get upset about extinction of animals, which I think is pretty silly,” Cambrian CEO Austen Heinz said in an interview with TWiT Live. “We're going to make new ones and we're going to make more creatures."
2. Software That Thinks Like a Human Brain
The Idea: If you wanted to teach a computer to mimic the way the human brain works, where would you start? Union City, Calif.-based start-up Vicarious is starting with the eyes: It's building software that can “see” and make sense of the world. Its first product is called the Recursive Cortical Network, which is designed to recognize objects, people, and places just as the human brain can. The company claims it's training the Cortical Network to mimic the way the primary visual cortex works in humans. The company has raised $15 million in funding led by Good Ventures, Founders Fund, and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.
Mind-blowing factor: This isn’t just the same old facial recognition algorithm marketed by companies such as Like.com. Instead, Vicarious combines visual data with pixel recognition to create a mathematical understanding of an object similar to the way neurons in the human brain make the same visual connections. Co-founder Scott Phoenix said in a recent interview that “having a visual perception system that works well would be enormously transformative.” How transformative? Down the line, the system will be able to scan a dinner plate to report how many calories are in the meal or even recognize cancerous tumors in a patient’s body.
3. Medical Drones That Deliver on Demand
The Idea: When heroine Katniss Everdeen suffers a bee sting in The Hunger Games, a tiny parachute-like drone drops the medication she needs at her feet in the middle of the woods. The idea isn’t as far-fetched as it seems: Matternet is developing an unmanned drone that can carry between two and four pounds of medicine, vaccines, and blood samples. The Palo Alto-based start-up’s goal is to give patients that live in hard-to-reach areas access to much-needed medical supplies. Matternet plans to test in the drones in the Dominican Republic later this year.
Mind-blowing factor: According to the company, nearly 1 billion people are unable to get medical aid because of where they live. Currently, the size of Matternet's drones (the
platform is just 3 feet across and carries four rotors) limits what it can deliver, but eventually the company plants to develop pilotless vehicles that can transport heavier supplies and even people.
4. X-Ray Vision
The Idea: The typical motion detector with infrared sensors has weaknesses: It must be cleaned, it’s sensitive to temperature changes and dust, and it doesn’t work if obstructed or deployed in large open spaces. Salt Lake City-based Xandem has developed a new kind of technology that not only solves these problems but also has a superhero-like power: It can “see” through walls to sense movement. Co-founders Joey Wilson and Neal Patwari have won a number of innovation awards in the state of Utah that have largely funded the company since its inception four years ago. Xandem launched its first product in April with help from Salt Lake City angel investor Ryan Smith.
Mind-blowing factor: Intruders can’t beat this system: There is no place to hide from these small, card-size nodes because they can be embedded in walls, beams, and furniture. The technology could be used in households and commercial buildings, but the company also claims that it’s sensitive enough to protect government buildings that require the highest level of security.
5. Digital Pills to Track Your Health
The Idea: How do you know if your medication is really working? One way to know is to look inside the body. Proteus has developed a small, swallowable sensor that lets you do exactly that. There are no wires or batteries--the sensor, which received FDA approval in July, is powered completely by your own stomach fluids. A disposable patch worn on the body captures data from the sensor and relays it to your--or your doctor’s--mobile device.
Mind-blowing factor: This is the only sensor of its kind to run solely on body fluids. Co-founder and CEO Andrew Thompson says the bigger idea behind Proteus is that it could help patients seek preventive treatment. "Right now we have a sickcare system,” Thompson says. "What we need is a healthcare system."
http://www.inc.com/maeghan-ouimet/big-ideas/5-mind-blowing-ideas.html?nav=pop
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