Ranjit, Good Bye my Friend!

“Correa, Sahab, Hukum Kijya”, Ranjit Mehna, Security Head for a MNC Unit based at Chhindwara would lean forward, a smile on his lips, and in a lowered conspiratorial voice on one so many occasions. Leaning forward, I would provide instructions, time and time again.

Back then, there were so many ‘missions’ to accomplish for the ex army security head.

One involved driving to a village to give a very sensitive letter to one ‘surname’ individual (with obvious expected impact) for him to discover that the entire village had people with the same common surname. He did share he had his panic moments, but eventually completed the task to return to base.

Then there was that moment, where a huge crowd waited outside the factory gate to accost me (it was wage negotiation time) and I was to return back to the housing colony 200 metres away. Ranjit held me back with some briefing or the other, till I realized that it was his intention to have me delay my leaving the factory. “I have to go, Ranjit, not because I am not scared, but because I have to return to work tomorrow. I cannot, not face what is outside”.

Then one case of an illegal squatter on company land, and the maneuvers required to evict him from the property.

These are some memories I share. They are countless many more…..

Most Sundays, our families would meet, often drive together to a dam or a dak bunglow. My son was just a few years old, and Ranjit’s spouse and 4 daughters completely took charge of him. He loved the attention and they took turns to regale him with laughter.  Our two families were very close and we have so many happy memories of that time. As I write this many more come to my mind: treasured moments of good company. 

I remember one Diwali night as we drove off and stopped somewhere, I commented that we did not have any fireworks to ignite. He reached in the back of his maruti van and took out his rifle. Aiming at the sky, he shot off two rounds, boom, boom. Then there was silence as we all watched stunned. Today, when I listen to firecrackers during Diwali, I smile, remembering that day.

My wife and I have returned to Chhindwara thrice since: death of a loved friend, marriages. A year ago when I went back, Ranjit was ailing, his health rapidly deteriorating. He knew he was drawing towards the inevitable, yet his spirit and morale was very high.

Two days ago, I heard he had passed away. My wife has since flown down to be with the family.

Good bye my friend, Ranjit. We have had some great times together. I will cherish that always. Our stories together, will always live! Your candle blown out in the wind, but not within. The light you held, will continue to glow, in the hearts you’ve touched. Your mortal turns to dust, your legend will always endure.

The song of John Lennon reminds me sadly, ‘another one bites the dust, another one gone. Another one bites the dust’.

Deep inside I know that when times are down, I would have you by my side, “Correa Saab, Hukum Kijya”.

  

Tips on Meditation

Meditation

Witness when attached to the mind is identified with the mind. Unless the mind is stilled one will not be in touch with one’s true being. Meditation help creates the stillness (like a lake) and allows for a cessation of the movements (thoughts, emotions) within the mind. The mind is difficult to control, but it can be controlled with practice. Almost all forms of meditation originate from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. Meditation is a state of no-mind. Even when one is asleep, the mind is engaged. When thinking has ceased, there is 'no traffic' you are utterly silent, and truth is known. You cannot search for meditation, and certainly not through the mind. In the gap, between the inhale and exhale: in that silence, you will experience that fleeting moment, and the desire to make this a continuous journey - the sanyasis way of being. When mediation becomes your natural state. 

Here are a few tips.

1.  Through regular practice of meditation daily the value will be seen,

2.  also a need for this to be done at the right time (before dawn 4 am or dusk, 7 pm, or midnight).

3. Also, best to have a meditation mat, and a reserved place.

4. Now don’t struggle with your emergent thoughts and allow anxiety: simply observe peacefully. Negative thoughts may also come that may disturb us or we are attracted to flattering thoughts. Avoid both.

5. A meditator must be careful about the company he keeps. 

6. Practice simplicity, less you possess, less you get distracted. Our minds are tied to our possession – “that is mine”.

7.  Go into meditation with the feeling of eternity. No end.

8.  The heart must thirst for truth, a yearning, one pointed eagerness.

9. When not in meditation, anything we do which is moral and legal make it as an offering to the larger universality.

10.Hear enlightened people who are blessed. It awakens something in us.

Knowledge is not enough, insight must follow

Knowledge is freely available and acquired through study. Given the huge proliferation of MOOCs, this has become widely disseminated and available at minimal cost should someone hunger for it.

Gone are the days, when you went to a music tutor for lessons. One can now avail outstanding material on the world wide web, browse through material, and videos, listen to the masters, even practice structured lessons all the while enabling one’s own learning on self paced basis. This is one big change that is happening today. In the past, knowledge was hoarded, passed down from one cohort to another through long years of internship and inspection the key being to ensure quality. Examples are the Gurukul system, or the German Masters training their protégés. Today, Universities with Libraries, action research and conferences allow for the broadening of knowledge.

To be competent in a field requires Knowledge, but that by itself is not enough.

It needs application of that knowledge. Herein comes the issue of theory versus practice. How best to deploy that knowledge to create impact. It is only through insight that knowledge can be trusted, when deployed effectively and payoffs are seen. Many of us have experience in Change Management, reading post Kotter etc but that is practically useless unless deployed in the workplace and the results seen.

Having knowledge and deploying it allows for insight. This is a critical stage. When we rely on insights acquired through experience we can build confidence in what we do.

In Nayan Philosophy, true knowledge is that which is acquired from observations, directed outwardly (through our sense organs) and inwardly ( through observing one’s own thoughts and emotions, aka self awareness. Through this Inference is made. By this I mean, we can assume fire on a hill if we

See smoke. The object (hill) creates a major observation (smoke) that leads to a universal knowledge ( smoke means fire) then applied to this hill ( this hill is on fire). This is inferential knowledge: Inductive, deductive or associative.

Knowledge also comes from comparison. Some one says to you, when you go to the forest on a jungle safari look out for the barking deer: it is a deer, but barks like a dog. Even though you have no image, this shared knowledge from someone who has seen this animal before would help you recognize this animal were you to spot it. Another example would be if someone should you a hill and requested that the temple be built similar to this structure: Bingo, you would have an idea of a pyramidal structure. What we see, confirms our views: the tents gave way to house with triangular roofs, or the dome shaped tents gave way to dome shaped structures.

This far I have dealt with observations, Inferences and comparsion. I now move to Sabda: divine knowledge. These are the knowledge from scriptures and to be accepted as truths passed through generations. All other truths are secular testimony and may not be truth. We have seen how the Eucliadin view of the world gave way to the Newtonian view, to be replaced by Einstein’s relativity. Hence even scientific discovery are observations sharing truth observed by the observer. This observation expands with new discoveries. Science only offers more perspectives to us: it at best responds to the questions it asks of itself. Change the question and you change the observation.

In summary, knowledge is free. Useful if supported by insight. This experience counts. Experience that does not build insight, is wasted experience. Through this experience wisdom is gained. Through this foresight is born. The future becomes clear through foresight.

Knowledge dispels darkness of ignorance. Knowledge must be acquired through verification by testing (personal experience). There is no truth in beliefs. What is known is known. The known then used in unknown situations is insight. It is hoped that we all gain foresight through practice.

Let's now review Cause and Effect from more recent work: the use of Causal Inference or DAG.

Judea Pearls Rules:

1.     Two variables are d-separated if all paths between them are blocked

2.     Two variables are marginally or unconditionally independent if they are d-separated without conditioning.

3.     If however, the collider is ‘conditioned’ a back entry is possible.

Translating English to Causal Graphs or DAG (directed acyclic graph)

Causation and Association are different.

i.  Cause and Effect    A----> Y                  

      In figure I, A causes Y.

                                             I-----------------------------------I

 ii  Common Causes     L (parent)---->  A (child)       Y (grandchild)    

In figure ii, you could have common causes for Y occurring. For example, you have L (smoking) causing Yellow Fingers (A), but there is no evidence that Yellow Fingers causes Cancer (Y). You may also have causation where Smoking (L) causes Y (Cancer)

                                                               I--------------I

iii.  Conditioning on Common Effect .          A          Y --- >L      

in figure iii, there is a collider L, is an effect by two common causes, Y and A.

iv. Chance - this can occur if the data sample is small, but gets eliminated with larger data sets.