Ibn e Muazzam's Blog

Subjective vs/and Relative

mkfsh — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:18:36 +0000

In my opinion, the exposure to various ways of living life is important for human beings in general. This exposure to various forms/types takes us way from tunnel visioned mental attitude and give us more horizontal space to explore and vertical space to climb. There are various ways to get the exposure of the world… its not a debate whether way is more important than the other or not but for me all those means in a way facilitate each other to reach to the ultimate goal [1]

Anyhow, travelling is on such mechanism of getting to know the people around the world. The more differences there are… the higher the level of understanding the life in general. I am beginning to compile a list of Nouns/Adjective/Verbs etc. with different meaning and effect in various demographic situations.

Danger, Dangerous, being in danger
What is dangerous? Its a subjective thing, for a person living in one part of the world will have different meaning associated with this word than a person on the other part of the word.
Also, danger is relative in terms of the current state of mind.

[1] Don’t ask me the ultimate goal of life.

Rational or Popular??

mkfsh — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 03:59:08 +0000

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track. The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

What kind of decision we could make… [1]

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?
Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us every day. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are.
The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The correct decision isn’t always popular and what’s popular isn’t always right. The kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train’s sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

What can be the moral end to this story?

[1] This is one of those chained emails with lot of inspirational quotes & clichés; I modified it to remove the fictional/inspirational part of it.

Baho vs Beti syndrome

mkfsh — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:17:00 +0000

In defence of Tendulkar

mkfsh — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:15:13 +0000

Laziness Personified!!

mkfsh — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:30:49 +0000

The question of “laziness” in human nature is not a new one and we can find arguments both in favor and against it. People often try to define the term “laziness” as something [a state of mind] which is opposite [antonymous] to “hard work” (which is off course a subjective thing to say the least!). To define the laziness, one had to dig deeper into the way human operate and not just confine to these dictionary entries. Laziness for one can be hard work for someone else and vice versa and the debate goes on (essence behind a subjective matter)… Anyhow here I shall try to bring some of my thoughts on this human trait/behavior in general rather than discussing a specific context. The point here is, to analyze the psyche of humans, and not to delve deep into those psychological/philosophical processes to find it out. Anyone can complicate a matter but there are only a few who can simplify it (kind of related quote, you will see).

Let’s say that humans are by nature “lazy” and whenever an event prompt them to start working on a thing… they tend to do it in a manner to extract out a pattern[process] from the task at hand and then repeat[iterates] over it again & again to solve the task[laziness] at hand. Take the example of your daily routine of going to office from home; for the first few days you tend to think and try to find the better (again a subjective thing but normally economics, time, effort etc are the measures to help us find the best) way to reach office but after these initial necessary effort you put in to find the best (again subjective!!) possible path to reach there… you tend to repeat it.

Yes, we adapt to the changing conditions but as soon as we get used to it (got a process) they try to go back into the lazy “state” (or will try to find a way to go back into it). Iterating over a thing is kind of a false sense of busy-ness where we have minimal usage of our mind and mind is busy but doing nothing productive. The mind knows the pattern to follow (and it is best at following patterns – in various dimensions) and will do it as long as you want to… While staying in this state will help in the relaxation [relief] from the initial effort you put it. But this repetition/iteration will ultimately arose another feeling in minds lesser bound by the environmental (and other social/economical/personal etc) factors to get out it [boredom state]. The first consequence of this state, you tend to loss focus (or in other words laziness creeps in) and as a result… lack of attention/courtesy/commitment for the task at hand… A case is built (inside your mind) against it and we strive to get our self out of that state. Coming out of the state is not always easy and people used to do different things that can some time give them the sense (may be false, dil ko behlana) of satisfaction but unless and until a proper justification… the resistance will be there.

Now look at your surroundings (or may be within yourself), majority of people iterating over the daily tasks and you can find a very few who have been using the mind in constructive [productive] manner (most of the times). That is one reason why a normal person will not be able to use up even (5%) of his mind capacity in his life-time (waste off course!). There can be tasks where the repetition [may be tedious-ness] is necessary but that should be an exception rather than a norm. The actual productive work is where all our action are under the influence of mind in one way or the other and the mind through contemplation/meditation find better(may be new) ways to do a task at hand. For me, (with laziness on a %age scale) a person is performing a lazy act if mind is not involved [or is in the background, following a pattern]. The more one uses the mind in a productive [constructive] manner, the farthest he/she will be from the laziness tag.

خود نگر اور تنہا شاعر۔۔۔مجید امجد

mkfsh — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:38:58 +0000

http://www1.voanews.com/urdu/news/a-25-2009-05-09-voa16.html

Balochistan – in the Line of Fire?

mkfsh — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:42:32 +0000

A nice article on Balochistan situataion with a historical perspective. ‘Orya Maqbool Jaan’ sahib knows the province more than the most columnists around. He gave the account of his own knowledge, experience etc. The situation has become more critical after the recent menacing comments by the USA….

Shikwa – Allama Iqbal

mkfsh — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:49:01 +0000

Interesting read.

http://ur.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B4%DA%A9%D9%88%DB%81

Dungeon?

mkfsh — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:49:53 +0000

Not very long ago, someone asked Imam Khomeini in 1982/1983. Imam sahib, what you have gained in the last four years after the revolution? If one compare the Economic condition now with the one before the revolution, it is in a bitter condition now. The condition of general public has deteriorated considerably in the last four years. What you have achieved? Imam Sahib replied, at least we have achieved one thing in the last four year and that is “That the decisions [destiny] of Iran are made in Tehran and not in Washington”.

The purpose here was not to Idealize Iran and Imam Sahib but to point out the weaknesses [deficiency] of the most other Muslim leaders. The more one reads about it and thinks about it… the more it strengthen the believe [fact] that we [specifically our leaders] might have achieved the independence (on papers) colonialism but mentally [even physically now] are still trapped inside the deepest dungeons of slavery. There is still a colony somewhere within us serving the purpose of the master. Anyhow check out the article to find out more thought provoking things.

Zara nam ho tu ye matti bari zarkhaiz hai saaki?

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=196326

Neo-Colonialism‏!

mkfsh — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:54:56 +0000

Most of us would curse[blame] the Jews/West for the hunger and bloodshed around the world. Some new discoveries shed some light on the imperialists of a different sort. It seems to me that anyone with enough power and money[resources] will try to get the benefit out of anything – no matter if it’s of the same religion, ethnicity, country or whatever. Get a chance avail[exploit] it… Disgusting!

Read this article, some interesting developments and (possibly) one more reason for the present food shortage in the country.

Article Link

After shocks:

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=195516

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=195590