Yours Faithfully!

My friend Chandu sent me the story given below. It made me think and think deep. It was about Trust Vs Faith. Some of you may think that both are the same; it is only the semantics. But I do not believe it is merely semantics.

Faith is complete trust or confidence in someone or something.

Trust is a firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something.

I somehow used to think that Trust and Faith are two similar words, but as I was pondering about the difference, I realised the subtle and not so subtle difference in these two words. Chandu’s story helped me conclude.

A person started to walk on a rope tied between two tall towers, and he was ambling, balancing with a long stick in his hands. He had his son sitting on his shoulders.

All people on the ground were watching him in bated breath and were very tense. When he slowly reached the second tower, everyone clapped, whistled and welcomed him. They shook hands and took selfies.

He asked the crowd “do you all think I can walk back on the same rope now from this side to that side?”

The crowd shouted in one voice “Yes, Yes, you can..”

Do you trust me, he asked? They said yes, yes, we are ready to bet on you.

He said okay, can anyone of you give your child to sit on my shoulder; I will take the child to the other side safely

There was a stunned silence. Everyone became quiet.

Belief or faith is different. Trust is different. For Trust, you need to surrender totally.

It is what we lack towards God in today’s world. We approach HIM selectively.

We believe in Almighty. But do we trust HIM?

The image above is one I found very interesting. To me, it indicated that you start trusting at some stage; to me, Trust is the next stage of belief/faith. In the image, you see a man balancing himself to go from one end to the other, walking on the thin rope. But the caption written on the picture gives an important message. It says, “A day will come when the option to move either forward or backward, is not an option in a typical case. At that stage, one has to become a “डोंबारी,”- a Marathi word for an acrobat! These acrobats are not professional acrobats, but the whole family, including kids, perform acrobatic stunts, on streets; they have no option. They perform these acts to earn their living.

                                                             डोंबारी Video!

In everybody’s life at some stage, we have to become a “डोंबारी.” Sometimes our options are limited or tight. We need to make decisions, whether we like it or not. Our general tendency is to try and maintain the status quo. But is it only about life and death? Many times yes, but it is not a necessary condition. There are some personal situations, some business situations; there could be some public matters which may force you to make a decision.

Mother and the child relationship is one that is based on trust all the way. The mother carries the child in her womb for nine months, and no relationship in this world could be closer. For the mother, the child always comes first at every stage. We know the stories where mothers have fed their children by remaining with an empty stomach. The sacrifices mothers make, reach new heights in different situations. In every other relationship, the first stage is always faith, and from faith comes the trust.

In work, the first such relationship that comes to mind is that of the trapeze artists. Trapeze artists work in circuses. They swing and perform various acrobatics usually performed by more than one person; sometimes, it is a group activity. The artists swing high in the circus tent with a safety net below. Some outdoor performers use water body in place of the safety net. These performances are high risk, and when done a team event, it is based totally on trust. Once that full trust is formed, the performance of the group reaches the peak.

I want to use the term Parachute Packers as a Metaphor. When people go on missions in aeroplanes, or they go for para jumping, someone packs a parachute for them, correctly. It is a job of that safety person. But it is the trust we show in these Parachute Packers that is important.

Similarly, there are Parachute packers in our life. We have friends, family and others who may not be close to you on a day to day basis. These persons or group of people are just there behind you, only if needed. How does this happen? What makes people think differently than others? Is it the love between two humans, not necessarily equals? Is it inborn in the people? In an ordinary course, your parents, siblings, close relatives and friends are expected to be such people, but there have been instances when this group of people have remained spectators. Your parachute packer, lurking in the background, raises the hand! 

Do we work on creating such a support system? Is such support quid pro quo? No, it is not quid pro quo! Such people are simply born that way. Like mothers, these people also pack your parachute because they just want to do it! Who does not need parachute packers in their lives? I feel that all of us need such people. It is because money can’t buy everything. There are some situations where you may have the financial wherewithal, but that does not get the support you are looking for; you may be in two minds about the decision to be taken in a tough situation. You may feel lost in a situation; parachute packers are there for you in the background. You go to them, and they will help you. Or maybe sometimes they will come to help you without your calling them. 

I am talking of those who support others on their own because they just want to do so. I will share with you a story about a professional. The professional was a smart professional in the technical marketing field. He had excelled in his job, and everything looked hunky-dory, from a distance. One day he went to meet a friend of his. They were good friends but did not meet regularly. Our man told his friend, let’s go out somewhere. They went out and settled near a lake; the guy looked very upset and tense. He said, “Please help me; I have an issue with my job.” The problem was that the gentleman had simply started hating his job. He did not have any professional issue, and he was not sure what caused this. He also said that once he felt like committing suicide. The friend talked to him for some time and helped him to decide to quit that job. The friend nursed him back to normalcy. The gentleman took another job and was very happy in his life for the last 30 years. The person who did this is a close friend of mine. I asked him why this friend came to him? He is still not sure, but my friend spent almost three months in nursing that person back to routine; they have met only once after that episode in, 30 years! Parachute Packer?

Why was my friend approached in this situation? My analysis is that my friend is a great listener, and he exuded trust. He is a person with empathy; he is very sharp and can judge things in correct perspective, quickly. And most important is that during this critical phase took special efforts to find time for this person who was in difficulty! Is that description of a Parachute Packer?

There may be a Parachute Packer around, but ultimately you have to become a “डोंबारी,” and take that delicate walk, knowing that you could still fall and hurt yourself.

To me, when human beings come together, they like each other, believe in each other and start having faith in that person. But unless that person becomes your “Go-To” person, you cannot trust him. You trust HIM and your mother!

My definition of a trustworthy person or a “Go-To” person is best described in a poem below.

They came to tell your faults to me,

They named them over one by one;

I laughed aloud when they were done,

I knew them all so well before, —

Oh, they were blind, too blind to see

Your faults had made me love you more.

 

Which is the real Golden Age?

We always discuss the progress of the human race. We also take pride and talk about how progressive was the life in Egypt and Harappa thousands of years back. Considering the technology of those days and knowledge about worldly things, including science during those times, the human race at respective times was progressive compared to life five thousand years before that period. Ancient Egyptian civilisation was around 3100 BC, and the Harappan culture was between 2600 BC to 1500 BC. 

We sing paeans of those times and talk of golden age or era! But why is it called the Golden era? Why was it the Golden age? Compared to which times? If this life is compared with new stone age then, Yes, it was Golden age.  

Egyptian civilisation succeeded because they adapted to conditions and the vagaries of the Nile river. They handled the floods correctly and managed to have a good irrigation system. This helped them produce surplus crops that fed the dense population. Since resources were more than needs, exploitation of minerals and many other developments like joint construction projects were implemented. Of course, famous Pyramids were built in those times. Medicine, Architecture and civil engineering were developed sciences of those times. 

The evidence of the Harappan valley suggests that they had a highly developed city life. Many houses had wells and bathrooms as well as an elaborate underground drainage system. They had excellent writing skills and maybe military skills. But since their writing still cannot be deciphered, many things are vaguely known.  

Ok, but what is the point of writing all this. Let us compare the old civilisations with today’s times in a country like India. India has progressed by leaps and bounds in last 20 to 25 years and showing overall progress. World population in the late 18th century was close to a billion people. India’s today’s population is 1.2 billion. Even today India is not considered a developed country. Some parts of India are highly developed, and some have remained extremely backward. I don’t think we can call today’s Indian age as a golden age.  

But in the comparison of the golden age of ancient times, in today’s average times, we are way ahead of the “old” golden age. In those days it was almost impossible to overcome droughts or floods. Societies have vanished in floods, or large populations have died due to drought in those times. Diseases in those days would kill thousands of people. In today’s times also, we have floods and droughts, but the aftermaths are managed pretty well. A few years ago rainfall was deficient in Maharashtra. Government transported water from water excess regions of the state to the shortage regions by freight trains. Many such trains carried water over a period. The situation was brought under control till the next monsoon rains arrived. Droughts today are more of distribution issues. India cultivates vast amounts of food. Many times our problems are commercial, like framers not getting good rates, storage godowns issues, and distribution issues in general. Why was the old period then called golden age?  

Currently, I am reading a book by an Israeli author Yuval Noah Haran, called Homo Deus. The book talks of the Green Lawns as power centres. How can the lawns be power centres? The lawns came into vogue about 300 years back. In those times, only the nobility could afford such lawns. The lawns required land, people to maintain them, a lot of fresh water, fertilisers and so on. The lawns became cost centres, and there were no returns from them. The lawns gave the owners bragging rights. What is the significance of the lawn story?  

In the recent past human race is galloping towards newer discoveries, newer methods of doing things. The last twenty years are the peak of this activity, especially with the advent of the internet. In the olden days, life was very predictable. What would happen after 50 years? Except for a few floods, famines and a war or two, things would not change much; this situation existed until about three centuries back. Now it is impossible to predict where the world will move in the next 15 or 20 years. Everything has changed. The bragging rights for lawns continued for centuries; slowly lawns became possible in middle-class homes too! But now if you are lucky, the bragging rights for some new invention could be there only for ten years.  

Last year we had a significant flood in Kerala; the whole nation and part of the world came together to help Kerala come back to normal in a couple of months. Yes, there were losses of both material and human. But rebuilding is being done quickly. Nowadays, in India there are no famines; there may be shortages of a few things. It is a simple question of redistribution of that item to shortage zone. But we consider India as a moderately advanced nation. India’s agriculture and other products can feed the population of 1.2 billion; some of the items like grapes, sugar, flowers are even exported. Days of people dying in millions due to cholera or plague are gone. Today the epidemic is declared even if a few hundred are affected and controlled fast.  

In olden days, dying of loose motions and fever was very common. Even the kings and the queens used to die of such diseases. Today, even a worker with low income gets easily cured of such “simple” to handle ailments. Today, millions of people get tap water, most large cities have underground drainages, though millions live in such towns. Transportation of today’s time, communication of the current era are incomparable with those of the golden age. Classic examples of the progress of today’s times are how people live in areas where there is heavy snowfall; how people comfortably live in desert areas.

We study history and try to analyse what mistakes were made during that time. This helps us with a better tomorrow. But nobody can predict tomorrow, especially in today’s average times. I am calling Indian society as a moderately developed society compared to the rest of the world. But why historians keep on calling Egyptians and Harappan times as a golden era?  

To me, today’s times are golden times, till we move in a newer better era. But we will do well not to call any period as a golden era. If we think of some era as the ultimate thing, we take time in accepting modern and better technologies, processes and products. We still keep on talking about how the systems and technologies were better in olden days. By doing this, we make the error of accepting better stuff and delay its implementation. We keep on talking of Pushpak Viman whereas we still cannot make a quality aeroplane in India. We speak to progress in medicine in olden days, especially of Ayurveda. But there has been no research, and all new inventions are made in Allopathy. Things are going to change at a faster and faster pace. Let us accept them with an open mind and heart and make our life happier, more comfortable and maybe longer.  

 

 

 

 

 

Man and the Machine!

I read about a flight required to land in the Hudson River in New York. US Airways Flight 1549 was an Airbus A320-214 which, in the climb out after takeoff from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport on January 15, 2009, struck a flock of Canadian geese just northeast of the George Washington Bridge and consequently lost all engine power. Unable to reach an airport, pilots Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles glided the plane to a ditching in the Hudson River off Midtown Manhattan. All 155 people aboard were rescued by nearby boats, and there were few serious injuries.

This is the animation video of the incident. While reading about the incident and after watching the video and the video clip from the movie Sully (2016), questions came to my mind how far a machine can (based on AI- Artificial Intelligence-) take over human jobs and whether they are good enough to interpret the tricky situations. In this case, the incident occurred at 2800 feet which is considered very low to handle such incidents. The pilots showed fantastic skills and managed to land in the Hudson River in very chilly conditions.

When different agencies analysed various parameters, they used data from the black box and created simulations based on retrieved data. They concluded that there may have been a pilot error because the auto simulations proved that the pilots should have acted differently and could have landed at nearby airports. Both these airports had cleared the flight for an emergency landing. But the pilot declared that he could not make it to the airport. The data was loaded on simulators, and two pilots “flew” the aeroplane based on the data captured. About 13 such pairs “flew” the plane on the simulator. Seven teams could not reach the airport.

When pilot Sully was interviewed, he disagreed with the lab’s findings. During simulation, Pilots were instructed to turn towards the airport. But when the real bird hits happened, the pilots were stunned and, by a rough estimate, did not react for 35 seconds. The plane ultimately landed in the river 218 seconds after the bird hit. Of this, 218 seconds and 35 seconds were lost in the pilots recovering from the shock. Another important aspect was that the procedure stipulated by the plane manufacturer Airbus had written with the assumption that the flying height would be 33000 feet at such times. At this height, humans have enough time to react. But at 2800 feet, the time left to respond was less than four minutes before landing or crashing. When 35 seconds of “no action” time were considered in the simulation tests, the results matched the pilots’ actions in deciding that insufficient time was left to return to any of the airports. Both pilots were honoured by many authorities for their heroic efforts, which saved all 155 lives. See this exciting clip from the Movie “Sully” based on the incident, with Tom Hank in the lead role.

Now the question comes to mind which is better, Man or Machine? Would the machine have required 35 seconds of reaction time? Maybe no. But unless this real-life situation was available in the database for the AI system, how would a machine have reacted? The pilot could see that there was the river Hudson around, which he thought would have become a spot for a “soft landing”. At any other place in New York or New Jersey, the aeroplane would have crashed into buildings and maybe exploded. Would an AI system have known the option for a soft landing when the incident occurred?

How many combinations would be required by the AI database for the system? Would the system understand the combination of 2800 feet height and time remaining (218-35=183) seconds? Was the Hudson river broad enough, and there were no taller buildings on the path? By analysing hundreds of such options, the AI system would have concluded what would be the “safest” option to save lives and the aircraft. At least in this case, with the current level of technology, the human decision was definitive.

The way humans react, their mind thinks out of the box! AI system decides only based on what data is available with it. The human mind applies its thoughts and extrapolates to arrive at the correct conclusion. It automatically does the risk analysis and tries to take the best possible decision under the circumstances. It is difficult for us to judge how far AI systems can extrapolate. Fifty years hence, who knows?

I will share another example from the Aviation field. The incident is known as “Gimli Glider” this happened in 1983, and the plane was Boeing 767 used by Air Canada. At every stage, there were errors in the measurement of fuel, manual, gauges, and dipstick. There was a transition from the FPS system to the MKS system in Canada. One thing led to another ending in the incident. See the link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

The incident is too technical to be explained here. But all the fuel tanks were suddenly empty, halfway to the destination. We can say that an AI could have avoided all these errors and complications. Yes and no, both be, because it takes time to “learn everything”! After many such incidents, AI would become “an expert” in this area. But what happens here is human intervention shows us the limitations of AI over human intelligence. When the pilots felt issues, they decided to do an emergency landing at Winnipeg. But when they realised there was zero fuel, the copilot and the pilot started thinking fast. The pilot was a gliding expert and calculated that the plane could glide 16 times the height the aircraft was flying. The co-pilot was from that area and had worked at a Royal Canadian Air Force Station. He judged the parameters and decided to land at that Ex-air force station at Gimli. The only problem was that the pilots and air traffic controllers were unaware that the station had become a racing track. But it was only because of the pilots’ knowledge and how they applied it sensibly that the plane ultimately landed safely with no significant injuries to anyone on the flight and the ground.

This brings out the same question, AI or Humans, who are better? This discussion is going to go on forever, but AI systems will become better and better. Still, nobody knows what is stored in the Human brain and what humans will retrieve from their brain. It will be tough to judge. But we should not forget one thing; humans are the ones who are creating an AI system!

I read somewhere about the movie Sully! The copilot Skiles is asked in the end what he would have done differently if the same incident were to occur! He smiles and says, “I would ensure that we landed in Hudson River in July and not as we did in January!”

Anatomy of reaching your Gooooooal!

I read a poem by Kedar Nath Singhji, रास्ता, the Road or the Pathway! The beauty of his poems is that the poems throw up a simple thoughts, a new way of looking at life. In the poem, he talks about three Egrets flying in the sky and three men going out of town in heat of the Sun. They had taken a pathway on the plains and all very confident that they will reach their destination (or target?) by Sunset, the same way as the Egrets reach their home on the trees before Sunset, every day! Since the men thought that they were on their way, they were engrossed in chatting. Suddenly they were forced to a screeching halt and found that pathway had ended;  in front, they found fields full of Jowar! How come the pathway ended? Where has the pathway gone? They were worried and confused wondering what to do now!

Then they saw an old farmer who was packing up for the twilight. They went to him and asked him, “Where is the pathway? How has it suddenly ended?” In their minds, each had different thoughts. One thought it’s a good idea to turn back. The second one thought, they rest for the night and the third one thought that there is a need to somehow find the way. The third one did not waver from his target. The farmer just picked up a lump and threw it towards a cow, who was lazily grazing. The moment she was hit, she started moving in a certain direction through the field. The farmer just signalled to these three men to follow her!

These three men followed the cow, walking through the Jowar stalks, her hoofs making crunching sounds. After walking some distance, they were in for a surprise. Sun was almost down but twilight was still there. And lo! They saw the pathway and at some distance, they could see their destination.

This is what happens in our lives, friends. The cow was there, the fields were there. The farmer was there and Sun was there. Only these men, apparently had forgotten what their target was, what their destination was. And in all this time the Egrets had flown ahead and had reached their destination.

This is the story of life for many of us. We want to achieve a lot, we set our goals, we set our targets, and hope that we will achieve everything. And we hope that we finally make that Goal! But is not as simple as that, there can be a sudden end of the road, there may be a sudden dead end. We may rethink the goal, we may simply give up on the goal. Suddenly, we will become Arjuna! We will lose all the energy and lose our wish  to reach the target! There are many reasons why this happens, all of us cannot explain the way Kedarnathji has explained it beautifully, in his poem रास्ता. Here are the six reasons why we fail to reach our goals!

• Loss of Focus
  • Why do we lose focus? There are many things in life that we do simultaneously, it can so happen that we may lose focus about a goal
  • This tells that we should prioritize the targets we have and try to work on them and list out priorities.
  • Once we list out the priorities, then we know the path. But don’t forget that there are several goals and hence several paths; maybe you will go on the wrong path when you lose focus. The wrong path may be the right path for a different target!
  • Loss of someone close or in the family can be a genuine reason to lose focus. Things can get derailed for some time, but the motto of “Life Goes On” needs to bring us back on track.
• The absence of strong enough reasons
  • Our goals and targets are set for some specific reasons.
  • Your friends say that you must get your annual medical check-up done, regularly, every year. You have never had any serious health issues before, you have not known any serious hereditary issues in the family. You then start feeling infallible. What happens if I don’t do the check, let me do it after I am free from the current pressure at work! This is not on! Your health has to be in your topmost priority list.
  • You have a target to buy a bigger house but for some reason or the other, it is getting delayed. Honestly to me it hardly matters if you put such targets on the slow burner!
  • Things like love, family, country, freedom and security are compelling reasons. But you have to state just what those reasons mean to you if you don’t want to fail to achieve your goals. When you state what it means to you, and it’s deep-rooted enough into who you are, your determination won’t waver, and you’ll end up seeing things through.
• Lack of Planning
  • When an aeroplane takes off from one city to the next, it has a goal. It has a goal to land at a specific destination on a specific day and at a specific time. But it doesn’t just have that goal, people plan to achieve it. It can’t achieve the goal without planning towards it. How will it take off and land? How much fuel will it need? What direction will it travel? What happens when there is air-traffic congestion or turbulence?
  • Create a massive-action plan towards achieving your goals. But don’t just create that plan and forget it. Plan every single day, week and month out towards your long-term goals. What will you do to tackle your most important tasks for the day? How will you manage your time effectively so that you don’t get distracted? There is so much to consider, so be sure to plan, plan and plan some more.
• Inability to act at the right time
  • I published a blog on 26/10/2018 on this subject, the title is Procrastination. https://panvalkarpramod.wordpress.com/2018/10/26/procrastination/
  • I have mentioned the same things in the blog. If we don’t act or react on time, our targets can go haywire.
  • While pushing past the obstacles we face in life is hard, to say the least, it’s overcoming procrastination that’s even harder. But there’s a simple method that you can use to help get momentum back on your side. It’s called the 15-minute rule. Set a timer on your phone for 15 minutes and commit to doing the one task that you’ve been putting off for exactly that amount of time.
  • There is nothing golden about 15 minutes. But this 15-minute timer (it could be 10 or 20 minutes too!) will remind you of what you have to do and break your inaction cycle!
• Bad habits that hold us back
  • Another reason why we fail to achieve our goals, are due to the bad habits that hold us back. How can we expect to achieve monumental results when those bad habits keep getting in the way? Did you know, according to one study, that habits comprise 45% of human behaviour?
  • If you don’t want your bad habits to stand in the way of you and your goals, you need to find ways to overcome them. It happens slowly over time. Don’t try to go from zero to hero overnight. When you try to create or break a habit too fast, it can snap and unravel. When that happens, you revert back in a more vehement way.
  • The problem with some habits is that they can also create a change in our physiology, making us dependent on them. This goes for cigarettes and alcohol as much as it does for sugar and fatty foods. It’s difficult to overcome physiological dependencies. It takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight.
• Apprehensions
  • You want to change a job or to migrate to a different country; as the time to this comes near, we start having apprehensions!
  • This is one tough thing that you need to overcome yourself or take someone’s help.
  • Reaching a goal is not a poetic subject. It involves Brass tacks! It needs detailing, it needs planning and needs to overcome the inertia. It needs for us to overcome speed breakers and many other barriers.

When I came across this beautiful poem रास्ता by Kedar Nath Singh, I felt that the life is not so beautiful and charming! He said the same thing in his charming way, but he has also added that while the three men lost their way, the Egrets had moved on and had reached the target way ahead of the three men! The real life Egrets also don’t wait for anybody, same as time and tide!