Immigrants all

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Rajiv Kapoor

Legislative Update

How many great scientists have we stopped from working in the US; because of the outdated views on immigration, by certain sections of our society, and inability of our legislatures, to come together to improve our system? We are allowing some of the brightest thought leaders of tomorow; to not join in our struggle to make the next century, an American century against the surging Asia.

Indian-born Stanford University professor Arogyaswami Joseph Paulraj and Indian techie Himanshu Asnani, pursuing research in mathematics at Stanford, will be honored in Washington DC Thursday by the US-based Marconi Society. Named after Nobel laureate Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), who invented radio, and this prize is to recognize individuals for “creativity in service to humanity”.

Paulraj, 69, is the winner of the Marconi Prize 2014 for his pioneering work on developing wireless technology to transmit and receive data at high speed.

Born in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, about 360 km from Chennai, Paulraj was also honoured with the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal in 2011, for his profound work on theoretical foundations of MIMO.

“Paulraj is the only India-born scientist to receive both the Marconi Prize and the Bell Medal — the two top global IT technology awards,” IndiaTechOnline.com editor Anand Parthasarathy told IANS in Chennai.

Asnani, 27, was chosen for the Society’s Paul Baran young scholar award for his outstanding work and contribution to point-to-point and multi-terminal channel coding and source coding problems.

“The prestigious awards will be presented to Paulraj and Asnani at our annual event Thursday at the National Academies of Sciences in Washington DC,” Marconi Society chairman David Payne told IANS from the US.

Tech pioneers who created Microsoft, Google, Facebook and so many other companies all acknowledge; that without these immigrants, the US cannot sustain, its eminent position in technology, where it is today. They complain that we have routinely turned away, potentially, thousands of such scientific brains; from our shores in the last decade, at a time we need them the most. They will just do their pioneering research elsewhere; leaving us so much poorer, than where we should have been. President Obama is correct; and I hope that Washington will gather its legaslative strength, to pass immigration reform now!

Nov is Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month)

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Rajiv Kapoor

The Director of the Haworth library has invited me and other promising authors to attend Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) author event at his library.
My Author appearance is on, October 29, 2014 Wednsday.
Place: Haworth Municipal Library, Haworth, NJ, US
My personal blog to keep up with any updates is http://www.rajivkapoor123.com
The director sent an email, “We are interested in inviting you to speak at our library to talk about your book, specifically how your researched it and how you published the book.” (escuse the old photo as the library is much better now)
Look forward to meeting you there!

Off to the races!

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Rajiv Kapoor

I am realizing now as an author, that one has a tougher road to climb; than the folks on radio for example, with their marvelous accents and musical backgrounds that can convey a mood and action so quickly. When one looks at TV; or the videos on the internet, one realizes that the written word is slowly going the way of the dodo bird. The new world realizes that they do not need a billion good writers but can get by with a few million. So the elite are educated into a coherent species while the rest are able to get by on the spoken language, social norms and local means of communications.Fewer kids are reading these days and spend their time on other social media and video games and as a result are losing their vocabulary and gramatical skills.

The study of the classics and the source of most human knowledge remains stored in books; and the world seems to be walking away, from them. With the explosion of knowledge; so many genres have been created in the Fiction and Non Fiction categories that at times one has to sit back and think about these selections. So much of our world is turning digital, and with it we have to change our habits, and also the way we gather information whether for entertainment, or for work. In such an environment the ability to generate exclusive content becomes paramount; and there is a worldwide phenomenon to protect sources of data and to patent and to copyright this intellectual property. It is the work of the good authors, which creates magical worlds and great heroes out of ordinary people.

Facing a blank page I have to write the accent, play the music, create the scene and then flesh out the character, all in swift strokes to keep the reader involved. The challenge is that without inspiration the writer cannot weave his\her magic to bring a unique realty to the reader. So it becomes an everyday struggle between the inner demons of the author; and his innate ability, to convey them to his audience. The audience is fickle and in our world of instant messaging, easily distracted. Yet my hope is that with great authors we can still enjoy those hours; in reading a great book, to change our lives. Master authors take control of the plot, dialog, action and our lives become interwoven for those few hours or days, as we imbibe their story telling art. Sit back and let the story teller tell his tale, and do not be surprised as the action grips you and you suddenly find yourself, off to the races!

Mantra after 25 years remains the same

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Rajiv Kapoor

Pick a flower on earth and you move the farthest star. -Paul Dirac, theoretical physicist (1902-1984)

While my daughter was cleaning up for her move to the west coast; she pulled out a letter from Rutgers dated Aug 30, 1989, 25 years ago. In it they had responded to my enquiry for the location and translation of our beloved ‘Gayatri Mantra’ the university responded with the following and I quote.

”It occurs in the Rig Veda samitha, mandala (book) 3 hymn 62, stanza 10. As a written text it dates to 1,000 BC; as an oral tradition it must be two or three thousand years older. The mantra reads

Tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi

Diyo yo nah prachodayaat

It seems to have been the most popular hymn even in the ancient world. There are several referencxes to it in the Brahmanas and the Upanishads, as well as in the laws of Manu. The literal translation of ths text reads as: tat = “this; savitur = sun god; varenyam = “to be desired, long for); bhargo = :radiance, glory); devasya = “of the heavens, god) dhimahi = “We direct our mind”

Dhiyo = “thoughts, devotion, knowledge); yo= “who”; prachodayat = “May inspire”

“We direct our mind to the sun god, radiance of the heavens, who may inspires our thoughts””

The natural forces were often referred to as gods like the sun, wind, soma, but in all the writings there remained one supreme reality; and we were just the soul (ataman) on a journey through this life in this body and mind, which would eventually merge back into God (parmatman). Our journey is part of the natural order of things and as we seek our own path we must have individual passion and inspiration. For this we have to direct our mind, discipline it and be inspired by the great wonders of our universe. We must seek to acquire the knowledge; that will allow us to shine with the brilliance of the sun, in our own life, for the others around us.

It is clear from this passage that it is only by inspiring our thoughts into higher realms of reality, that we can become an inspiration in our deeds as well. I will thank my daughter for this gift after 25 years; as everything is according to a grand plan, and we discover things, when we are ready to understand them. I will now fix my mind to this mantra and see where it leads me, and those around me on this path of knowledge. So I will take my time to pick my flowers and move the farthest stars and won’t you join me on this journey?

Augmented reality and virtual environments

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Rajiv Kapoor

It has now been over a year since I started this blog on July 6th 2013 and it is 82 posts later that I write this today in a mixed reality.Today I realize that because of us, our reality exists. Furthermore this reality is highly ephemeral; in so much so, that I can change it by changing my perceptions. We can change our own reality through better understanduing; as it is only an apparition of the state of nature, at this moment. The stars from a billion light years away shed their light on us and we feel that they exist today, when in fact they may have been dead a long time and moved on to another reality. Similarly our future may be affected by millions of unrelated events that conspire to make our reality uncertain, and we are often befuddled into inaction by them and stop growing.

The best reality is when you live in each moment, as it arises. You do not expect anything from it; and you do not let the sudden silence, or the cacophony of modern existence, bear you down. In this thoughtless ness of a blank mind, is the whole thought full ness also. Each moment is for action, and this should only be taken to augment the current reality. Anything that takes us towards truth, is eventually liberating. We study the depths of the oceans, the polar ice caps, the far heavens fill our imagination, takeing us to new hopes for our future. Our reality is ever expanding, much like our very universe. We grow with the universe and allow all others to flourish also, as per the laws of nature. Our success means that we take all others with us, and not create the haves and the have-nots that we see today.
We have to make a more humane society or we will perish at our own hands. Great wars have been fought over the centuries and millions killed in the name of a nation, race or religion. We know well in advance with modern communications, when a society starts to unravel, and the mass prosecution of a minority starts. It is for us to step in and not to allow these movements to grow, and become genocidal before we take action. The UN Security Council and the Human Rights Commission has a heavy burden, to stop us from destroying our own reality. Our future is getting brighter; and that can only happen, if we allow the innovation that is tied up in our teeming billions, to flourish. We can make a new world order; if we invest in our future and can carve out a better reality, for us all. My hopes and dreams are of this moment; but then this moment is also, the only reality of my life. I am what I think, and I must learn to think well; and take the long view, along the path less taken
Eventually we are all going to have to live in a virtual reality as we will be able to augment humans through the use of the virtual world. Eventually many of the things that we cannot imagine today will become normal. Everyday reality for our grandchildren through the use of machines and robots will be very different for what our grandparents had. The journey on this path has only just started; and already we have seen a sea change in our abilities to communicate, with the rest of our world. We can now be virtually present in multiple locations, and this is a very rudimentary avatar, in comparison to, where we are headed. The brave new world will be upon us sooner than we think; and it is best for us to try and mold it for the force of good now, before it is too late. Will you join me and help to open the portal of compassion, love, hope, to make our true dreams become reality?

Moral Strength

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Rajiv Kapoor

The morality of the economic elite is not be questioned by the middle class; and similarly the lower classes are supposed to live with their own moral or immoral behavior, squeezing the middle strata from both ends. The pleasures of the senses though fleeting; seem to attract the worst in us, and but for our morals many more of us would fall into a trap of descending morality and decadence. The rise of civilizations is when the middle class is on the ascendance; and lasting change comes neither from the top, or the bottom. In any great society history has shown that while the middle holds itself to a higher standard, only then the society continues to evolve into a higher rising spiral of success.

The greatest leaps in philosophy, art, science and architecture have come about, when great ideas were shared by the middle classes and spread across the spectrum of universal thought. To achieve this; great dialogs have to take place, and education and cultural renaissance has to be nurtured and spread across the nation. The atmosphere has to change to allow this great exchange of ideas, to encourage innovative thinking and solutions for the betterment of mankind, and also of our fellow creatures. For this to happen a more equitable distribution of resources has to take place; so the best ideas can be implemented and allowed to bloom, into the next fruitful endeavor.

Today we face a great dilemma where the elite are increasingly gathering the resources to them, at an unprecedented scale, and the political will to redistribute is gone. The poor subsist on the dredges of the top down approach and the middle is struggling for its economic and cultural survival. Failing standards in schools and universities are pushing the middle class further behind. In an unequal economic war, large corporations squeeze the workers out; for the benefit of their shareholders. The top corporate officers are often seen running away with the million(s) dollar prize, even when they are dismissed for not adding any value. We learnt from Alan Greenspan’s following of the Ayn Rand philosophy; by allowing capitalists to go forward and multiply unchecked, led to unintended consequences. Instead of being harbingers of the greatest good, they showed unmitigated greed, bringing the greatest financial institutions of the world to financial ruin, and led to the Great Recession and a lost decade.

It is still too early to say who will come out as a champion of this century, or this millennium. The US, and China are the front runners today but neither of them are known for their high happiness index, or measures of equality. While one has a dysfunctional political government, the other has an overtly centrally planned one. Neither of these models is conducive to find the long lasting solutions for a moral standard, which will allow humanity to be happy in the long run. The US stands on its own moral high ground belittling all other developing and undeveloped nations as inferior, and China has historically maintained that its Middle Kingdom is superior to all others. We desperately need a new model.

We should all think long and hard on what we want to achieve and what kind of a world we want to leave for our next generations. A more equitable and caring world is only possible if we remove the rose colored glasses, that we all wear. We need to be able to look clearly at reality and without prejudice move towards a morally higher path. Innovation and development are not mutually exclusive from compassion and love. We have to not only embrace diversity and equality, but have to allow it to prosper and grow. From the many will come the solutions of tomorrow and not from the elite at the top. The revolution from the poor will only unravel the laws of a civil society and be more regressive then progressive. Our greatest achievement will be to lead all around us from darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge, and from the untruth of sensual weakness to the truth of moral strength which is everlasting.

Lights – On sale now!

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Rajiv Kapoor

http://bookstore.abbottpress.com/Products/SKU-000726468/Lights.aspx

Finally the day has dawned and I can request all my fellow travelers on this journey; to sample a tale about Times Square, and a family’s despair, hope and faith on Broadway. Will you please help me to share its availability for sale at Abbott Press at the link attached?

Fifth of humanity

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Rajiv Kapoor

Arundhati Roy has correctly stated that the open sore that festers all the country’s political bodies in #South Asia based on the division on religious lines by the British, now lies exposed to all when she says specifically in this last Indian elections “The two main parties agreed on most policies, and each had the skeleton of a mass pogrom against a minority community in its cupboard. So now, it’s all out in the open. The system lies exposed.”

The attack on the Indian consulate in Afghanistan where luckily no official died is a symptom of this disease. The killing of 60 people in Northern Waziristan a strong hold of the Pakistan Taliban, the killings in eastern India all show countries, in a war with themselves. To the credit of the countries the security forces have behaved admirably and performed their tasks well keeping the separatists and terrorists at bay. The fear mongers and nay-sayers will predict the worst for the future atrocities that humans are prepared to undertake in the defense of their religion or their community. For tribal societies homogeneity is not a preferred lifestyle as life is lived within the remote forests and valleys in their own distinct flavor. With democratic governments all across the SARC region the imagination boggles at the possibilities of a progressive state.

Will the economic ties be strengthened and the rule of law enforced so that trade and commerce can happen in open borders with trust and conviction?

Will cultural exchanges be encouraged so that we can all understand, how much we have in common and to gain collectively, if we all pool our resources and develop together?

Will we open up seamless trade between our traditional Indian Ocean neighbors from South Asia to the far east and Africa in the greatest development of trade ever imagined?

Will pipelines of energy flow into the starved heartland from Iran and Central Asia; so great enterprises can flourish, and tech cities be built to house the next generation?

Will the harnessing of 80% of the region’s water that flows into the ocean today, be saved for prosperity, before the Himalayan snow caps melt into history?

Will healthcare, education, human development and equality be the new standard against which a nation is measured; rather than the old ones of hate, ignorance, bigotry, caste and creed?

Will the infrastructure finally be built to crisscross the land; in 12 lane highways, superfast trains and modern airports, with the bridges, tunnels, ports and warehouses that are required for a modern life?

Will we be able to leapfrog to the internet of things; as while it too a long time to collect 550 million votes, we could count them electronically in just one day. By modernizing electronic communications – imagine what we could do for agriculture, housing, transportation, crafts and local products with open markets?

Will we generate employment for the millions; that will only spur us into an upward spiral of development and prosperity at a scale, that the world has never known before?

Questions that only time and a steely resolve to improve a fifth of humanity’s condition can answer, we can all join in the effort with a single step forward.

Growing inequality

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Rajiv Kapoor

“This massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer people presents a real threat to inclusive political and economic systems, and compounds other inequalities – such as those between women and men. Left unchecked, political institutions are undermined and governments overwhelmingly serve the interests of economic elites – to the detriment of ordinary people.” Oxfam reports that the 85 richest people own as much as the poorest half of humanity put together.
The growing #inequality between the haves and the have nots continues to grow despite all the trickle down economics that was supposed to help the poor. There is no rising tide in the forecast that will lift all the boats and reduce poverty and provide the education and skills required to improve productivity. Those who have control of the property and assets will continue to reap rewards and those without will continue to struggle to make ends meet. Nation states will continue to protect their wealthy citizens as they control the nation’s wealth. All others are second class citizens and can be controlled with the laws of the state, if they step out of line to grab a fair share of their existence. Who ever heard of laws to help the homeless, insane, destitute or of our own folks in deep despair? The laws are written to protect the precedence of established #wealth and hierarchy, by the paid servants whether by political or economic patronage. Suspect all not for profits and charitable institutions, until you can see them working with the disadvantaged and for them alone.
Modern states have all the tools at their disposal to build a more equitable economy through the use of taxation and the dreaded words to conservatives “income distribution”. A more equal world will open up opportunities for half of humanity living in dire states and allow them to achieve what the 85 can never do on their own. I am no Robin Hood who would rob from the rich to give to the poor. I would instead advocate a path of growth and development where the state provides justice and the rule of law and national security and leaves the rest to the people. The use of taxation is to take from those who have been blessed with too much and use it for education, health care, shelter of the masses by providing the infrastructure for the people to build their own lives. People are resourceful and can solve their own problems and to create what they need, to leads a happier life. We do not need the Rich or the State to provide handout but rather help the individual to develop into a productive member of society.
The state should ensure that the roadblocks from outdated laws and political patronage, should be overhauled to provide more inclusive growth. This overwhelming inequality is a moral insult to all people who value human dignity and respect human freedom. Why force people to live out a life of subsistence and depravation when we have the means to raise them out of poverty and destitution. The cost of raising their standards is insignificant in the larger political economy; as if we stop our wars for even a year, we will be able to pay for it many times over. It is the price we pay every day that is too much; to have this #inequality fester, all over the human body. Given the opportunity people will become productive and lift themselves out of poverty and ignorance. Even history guides us as Greek-Roman historian Plutarch: `An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.` . Is the empowerment of 85 more important than that of 3,500,000,000?

Find meaning in life

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Rajiv Kapoor

Viktor Frankl drew on his own existantial experiences as a survivor of the holocaust, to originate the discipline of Logotherapy as explained in Wikipedia. “Logotherapy is a form of Psychotherapy that stresses the need to find meaning in life even in the most tragic circumstances. When “Man’s Search for Meaning” was published in 1959, Carl Rogers called it “one of the most outstanding contributions to psychological thought in the last fifty years.” He broke away from Nietzsche’s will to power and Freud’s will to pleasure by explaining that the individual’s highest calling is to find the meaning in life based on the following:
• Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.
• Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
• We have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or at least in the stand we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable suffering.”
Frankl went on to explain that to find meaning in life we need to be careful against affluence, hedonism and materialism as that will distract from finding the purpose that will give meaning to our life. No matter how adverse the environment we face (Frankl lost his family and survived multiple death camps during the Holocaust), we must always remember “the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances”. The freedom of will is ours and we have to determine our own character and personality, no matter what the circumstances. We will be buffeted by biological, political, social, economic and other adverse situations but our will is our own and we will suffer, but we must never surrender to our circumstances.
Existential analysis and psychotherapy aside how will we bring this message alive, so that we can continue to find meaning in our life and get fulfillment from a life lived with purpose? We are the victims of our own inadequacies which are largely the result of “unfulfilled responsibility” (I could have provided better for my daughter) and we suffer from “anticipatory anxiety” (I will not be able to sleep when I go to bed). To battle anxiety from such situations Logotherapy offers “paradoxical intention”, or go to bed and intentionally try not to fall asleep (this will reduce the hyper anxiety about not being able to sleep, and the person will fall asleep in a more normal timespan).
Now I look back on my life and see the successes of all my contemporaries and also the many accomplishments of the wonderful people that I have known. #Life is valuable and we must not squander this greatest of all opportunities. What are anxieties about my lack of personal success; whether economic or social are eating away at my purpose in life and I am unable to develop myself. The depression from promises unfulfilled to my spouse, or family, or boss have taken their toll over the years; till now I am a mere hollow shell of what I once was. Drop by drop, the repeated blows of perceived failures, have hollowed out my inner strength; till now I project a weak exterior, trampled on by one and all in the passing herd. Life has become a daily look in the mirror at past failures and lost opportunities and preconceived notions of my own inadequacies for #self actualization.
Now I consign all these sorry feelings and low attitudes, to the dung heap of history. I will raise my beliefs again to the level where I will find the meaning in life, which I have long sought. Next time we meet you may find a spring in my step and a vision that rises higher. If you see a new light around me, it is my life burning in a new flame of meaning. The wick is time (my life) and the fuel is will (my attitude) and the light is knowledge (my life providing meaning to others around me). Look closely at the flame that rises; for I have decided that from now on I will become the temple lamp that lights the way, by burning itself out. In my newfound wisdom I will indulge fully in a joyful effort to improve myself and those around me. We will promote training in generosity, patience, concentration, wisdom and above all a compassion for all creatures and promote ethical living. My current flame is weak I know; but by the time I am done I #hope, it will be an inferno that will become a shining lighthouse in life’s storm, for all humanity if you join with me!

@rajivtheauthor

The Peacock Throne Wars

Category Archives: Hope