So What About YOU?

Mozart, Beethoven - Music

Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo - Art

Chen Ning-Yang, Isaac Newton - Physics

Liu Hui, Gauss  - Mathematics

Li Na, Roger Federer - Tennis

Yao Ming, Michael Jordan - Basketball

Confucius, Lao Tzu - Wisdom

You - <WHAT??>

Michael Schumacher - Car Racing

Mohammed Ali - Boxing 

Liu Xiang, Usain Bolt - Athletics

Bruce Lee - Martial Arts

Dolly Parton, Beyonce - Beauty and Music

Kim Kardashian - Rear End 

Miley Cyrus - Shaking Rear End

You - <WHAT??>

Mao Zedong, Gandhi - Social Revolution

Lu Xun, Hemingway - Literature

Qian Xuesen, Yuan Longping - Science

You - <WHAT??>

A good father, a good mother - Sacrifice and Love

A good friend, a good brother - Help in times of need

A good teacher, a kind mentor - Knowledge and Guidance

You - <WHAT??>

Some people are famous and well-known, many are not. They are known for something they contributed to the world that was significant or useful. It is not that the famous scientist was not remembered as a good father. Not all can be famous, but all can be remembered by those close to them for some contribution to society or someone else.

So what will YOU be remembered for? What would you LIKE to be remembered for?

What do you have to give to others or to this world?



Copyright  (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2015
All rights reserved 

When You Set Out To __ Be Prepared To __

When you set out to love, Be prepared to be disappointed

When you set out to help, Be prepared to be declined

When you set out to do good, Be prepared to be vilified

When you set out to live, Be prepared to die

Because, you do not know everything and everyone out there.

But don't let it stop you. Go on, anyway -  try to love, help, do good or live!


When you set out to win, Be prepared to lose

When you set out to conquer, Be prepared to be defeated

When you set out to be too clever, Be prepared to be shown foolish

When you set out to kill, Be prepared to die

Because, more than one can play at your game and perhaps someone is better than you!

If it won't stop you, atleast let it give you a pause for a moment. 


Copyright  (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2015
All rights reserved 

Never Forget Who You Owe

"You owe your birth to your parents. But that is just a minor, obvious fact. That is not all. You owe everyone who makes you what you are today. You owe the farmer, the plants and the animals that gave you the food you have eaten every meal. They are from every corner of the world. You owe the plants and the earth the air and water you need to survive. You owe the Sun the light to sustain you. You owe the Moon the magic of a moonlit night spent with your love. You owe the tailor your clothes. You owe everyone who paved the road you walk on, who worked on every part of the car you drive. You owe everyone who wrote every word you read. You owe everyone who loved you, or cared for you, or smiled at you. Yes, you have worked and earned your way and someone owes you for what you have done, but never forget the countless people and creatures and nature that has nourished and sustained you until this very moment. You owe all that you have, to them ALL."

This quiet, non-emotional 'outburst' was from my mother recently when I was chatting to her.

Firstly, let me explain the meaning of the word 'owe' in this context. While it can be viewed, technically, as a debt un-repaid, it is also used to acknowledge or credit the source of something, even after we have paid our way. 

This is different from when you 'owe' the bank some money for your mortgage or when you 'owe' someone a favour in exchange for what they have done for you. A debt does not exist anymore after you have paid it off.

You 'owe' the doctor your health (even after paying his bills). You 'owe' the farmer your physical body from the food, even after you have paid for the grocery. You owe this lifetime to your parents. You owe your feelings of misery perhaps to some ill-feeling between you and others. These are simply acknowledgement of facts. It cannot be otherwise. We could not possibly do everything for ourselves and it is only because of the contributions of millions of others that we have every single thing that we do. Often the awareness of such facts brings up a feeling of gratitude or sadness in some instances.

I was chatting to my mother over the phone and we were remembering my father. I mentioned that I felt I owed the most in life to them for giving me life in the past and my children for giving me a greater purpose in life now.

We were reflecting on my days that I spent with my parents growing up into adulthood. It is only when we are ourselves old, our parents older and sometimes not around anymore, that some of us reflect on what someone has done for us, for a long, long time.

Like most youngsters, I was rebellious, eager to grow up, become 'independent', do things 'on my own' and often on the opposite side of an argument from my parents. Looking back on those years, when chatting to my mother, I acknowledged that she and my father, who passed away a few years back, did so much for us, quietly, willingly and happily put us first and above themselves. They also took care of their elders and siblings and took on a lot more responsibilities than people of my generation do, generally speaking.They gave of everything they had without a thought to save up for themselves in their old age. Now, we try and do what we 'can' while still not quite matching up to them.

Those old days were times when they were struggling, not too poor, but certainly not well-off. Everything involved hard work, physical and mental. They had very little material possessions or property. All they had was their energy and attitude. Everyone around us was mostly in the same boat. My parents applauded our efforts and I used to mistakenly believe that they were being proud of 'my own achievements'. They simply smiled and made it a point to encourage us to keep putting in the 'effort'. It took me a long time to realise that the 'results'  or 'degree of our achievements' mattered far less to my parents than our own attitude, effort and happiness. 

As I expressed my understanding for the growing fear of my mother of becoming dependant on others as she gets older and more frail, she left me with another quiet, self-assured line. 

"No one is truly independent in this life. That can come only when one leaves this physical body."

It explains her attitude to life in general now and why she speaks of everyone and everything with an attitude of gratitude.



Copyright  (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2015
All rights reserved 

Lies, Statistics and Politics

I suppose many of us have heard of the saying 'Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics' in referring to the various degrees of lies. It is perhaps fitting that politicians quote statistics selectively and reveal their true mindset.

When it comes to pollution of the environment due to wasteful human consumption, Australia with its low population emits a small percentage of the whole. However, if measured per capita - it ranks as one of the top polluters. Our esteemed Prime Minister and many that follow his way of thinking, never tire of always mentioning the  overall percentage contribution of Australia to global warming and seek to avoid undertaking to reduce consumption. They will simply ignore any mention of 'per capita' emission or consumption.

Now, when it comes to support for Syrian refugees fleeing their ravaged country and society, suddenly the Prime Minister and like- minded politicians have suddenly started mentioning 'per capita' in every sentence referring to the aid for refugees or the number of intake of refugees from that area. With a smaller base population, suddenly 'per capita' of Australia sounds better than the overall percentage it contributes! They never talk about spare land available per capita in Australia! 

It is politics as usual. I suppose the saying should be - Liars, Damned Liars and Politicians!


Copyright  (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2015
All rights reserved 

In Machine We Trust

There is a well-known saying written on the currency of the USA - "In God We Trust".

I find this a bit odd since the founding fathers of that nation have been quoted as saying that their nation and government were in favour of separtion of church (really ANY religion) and state. Atheists apparently enjoy the same rights as believers of any religion in the USA according to the constitution.

Well, it may have been a sign of the times that someone in the government of the USA felt a need to let everyone know that they trust in a God which is not defined in any manner in their constitution. Since most religions or philosophies, barring a few exceptions, atttibute absolute perfection and desirable qualities to their idea of God, it is perhaps understandable that someone wanted to make it clear, right there on their currency, that when it comes to money, perhaps the only entity that the nation trusted is God. It is by an elegant statement of omission that they said nothing about their trust in humans, who created their nation state, ideas of wealth, money and their currency. To me, that failure to trust humans enough - not all, but atleast the majority of the people to do the right thing in the affairs of the state, including economy- is very telling.

In many ways it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Not only the USAnians, but the entire world can trust only God to make sense of the economy and financial practices of the USA. Only God can get it out of the hole it has dug for itself economically and the mess it is in. Only God can save the rest of the world from the terrible consequences of such a process, if God were to choose 'fixing' that problem.

Now, we have come to another juncture in the history of the world. It has been in the making for many decades now. I think most of us have either noticed it or take it for granted now that we trust humans less to do things well as compared to machines. We accept and expect people to be less capable, less perfect, less efficient than machines. In almost all aspects of life, where we once trusted humans to be the best, it is no longer so. 

Whether it is cleaning the house, washng dishes, cutting the grass, doing brain surgery, making a wheel or toy, sowing clothes, crunching large numbers, weighing a hundred different factors and arriving at an 'optimum' decision in a fraction of a second, we trust machines to do these tasks far better than us. We would trust a machine (a computer is still a machine) to land our plane, drive our cars, perform minute delicate surgery over a human, no matter how smart the human is. 

Yes, to an extent we trust humans ultimately when it comes to some feelings or motives - we trust their love for us. We are used to trusting humans when it come to doing the right thing. When we don't trust some machines or computers it is because we don't trust the humans who might have made them or programmed them with an evil motive. 

We know that if a given machine or computer is programmed to be impartial, it will do its job better, more accurately and consistently than a human ever can. It will never develop a motive to favour you or disfavour you. It will not lie and mislead you, unless it has been programmed to do so by a human.

More and more, public dealings of banks, governments are being automated and computerised. Machines are trusted to be more efficient and honest than humans in that role, even if many of us complain about their 'impersonal' nature. We trust computers to count our votes more honestly than humans.

The most crucial time-critical and real-time systems upon which a large number of human lives depend on, are now most likely controlled by machines - whether it is a hospital power supply, a complex surgical tool, a large ship, the latest cars, a jet plane or a nuclear weapon. Sure, there is often a human override, but it is rarely used. Many of these are designed to not accept human control beyond a certain point because we do not trust humans. Soldiers are being replaced by robots, drones and other machines. They are trusted to carry out their tasks without complaint, dissent or developing a 'conscience' or human feeling. It seems we humans can trust only machines to not have a motive of their own. They will do our bidding no matter what immoral act we tell them to do. The way some nations are going about treating their citizens, it is not surprising that they are starting to appear as if they were mindless robots with no personal independent thinking, feelings or conscience. They are all kept busy and 'satisfied' with enough material personal needs or wants.

Things have become so, that I believe that it would be true to say today ,"In Machines We Trust."

Perhaps machines are the best example of our human efforts to create a working representation of God - "True, Consistent, Honest, Impartial, Efficient, Excellent in performing any task." Of course, humans will be humans and will never stop attempting to corrupt  our new 'Machine-Gods' and trying to program a bias in them.

Ultimately, while we know it is only humans who can corrupt each other and machines, it is also only humans who can do better than machine and be unfairly nice to each other.

What if a machine is programmed to have a 'conscience' of sorts? What if a machine is programmed to be impartial? Do you suppose ALL humans would accept it? I doubt it!
We cannot accept a true God of our own creation. We can only sell a corrupt version of it to others!



Copyright  (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2015
All rights reserved