Sushi Speaks

Destiny, if you search for the meaning of the word, you might end up looking at a few different meanings. But in general, in the context of our everyday lives, destiny is something that is to happen in the future. It may be causal. "I wonder what lies in my destiny.", "I wonder where my destiny would lead me.", these are quite regular thoughts for everybody. But what exactly is destiny? Is it something that is already out there pre-written for us? Is the destiny of an individual a fixed path?  I often stumble upon these same thoughts. But everything in nature depends on the past, or some cause, just like the butterfly effect. Wikipedia definition of it in chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. If we take the butterfly effect and apply it to our destiny, would it make sense? Absolutely! If a tiny butt...

What is it to live a meaningful life? Achieving something great? Earning a salary of six figures? Running your own successful business? Doing something worthwhile for society? All these might be the right answers, but what is it that runs behind the scenes? Happiness? Would it be considered worthy if you lead a happy life?  The human species have always been in search of something that makes them happy. It is a biological reward system tuned in to the system that gives us pleasure. Dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins are termed to be happy hormones. Whatever we end up doing, ultimately is to have a burst of these hormones in our system. The body doesn't really comprehend achievements, wealth, fame, love, etc. It only rewards us with a sudden rush of hormones that makes us feel good. After a while, the promotion you got at your job, the trophy you won at a sports event, marrying the love of your life, just don't end up in eternal happiness. Happiness is always a momentary ...

W hat would the world be like in the next 50 years? Will the world end? Will there be another mass extinction? How will human life change in the future? One might stumble upon these questions very rarely. Maybe when we see an article or a news extract showing us a few polar bears, with their visible skeleton. Ice caps have been melting near the poles, carbon level rising everyday, global warming. A scientist coming onto the news and giving us the information that the temperature of the earth has risen by 1 deg C doesn't make us glue our eyes to it. "Huge crowds have gathered for the premiere of a blockbuster movie",  " Maybe I should book the tickets for this". This is the general conscience. Human evolution per se. In our day-to-day life, these warnings are mostly taken for granted. True, I have been on that page as well. When I heard that an 11-year-old kid was responsible for huge protests across the world for a better future, I just shrugged off the whole ...

What is it to be in the present? "Live in the moment". How often do we come across the statement? But what it is to be in the present. Sitting under the night sky looking at the stars is the kind of peace everyone enjoys. Would you say it as being in the present? On a rainy day, sitting on the windowsill, hearing the raindrops fall to the ground, listening to your favourite playlist. Would you associate with being in the present?  img source Is there a present? Or is it just our perception of the present? We tend to assume time as a constant. But it is really based on sensory modalities. We are actually always in the past. Looking at the stars, did you ever think that you are actually looking at the past? The twinkling star must have met its destruction many millions of years ago. Even the moon is 1.3 seconds in the past. Even the object that is a meter away from you is 3.3 nanoseconds in the past. The speed of sound is 344 m/s, again, a source of sound that is 1 meter away...

Most of my childhood I had spent in solidarity. I learned to entertain myself with toys, riding my bicycle around the house in a confined space, and watching all the cartoons I possibly could. Many try to engross themselves in books having such a childhood. My dad had this obsession with buying books, not many fiction novels but mostly general knowledge, DIY books, magazines, etc. Though surrounded by a vast catalog of books I never really felt like reading any. Except glancing through the numerous car magazines just for the pictures. I despised reading books, the number of textbooks and especially English literature books sufficed the need to read a book. Ironically, I was made a bookkeeper during my 7th grade for the class library. Though I never read any of them I used to get. The only books other than textbooks I remember reading were the Harry Potter series. Why? The Hype.  Most of my family enjoyed reading books but I never did.  Even up until my teenage years, textboo...

Measuring Success We all have been at a conference or some kind of seminar where we see the anchor reading out a list of achievements of a person and introducing them to the crowd. And at times, the keynote speaker doesn't need an introduction because they might be famous. But what makes them eligible to give out talks to the public or audience? Success?  Many would say because of his achievements, experiences, or success.  I once had a small chat with a TEDx event organizer and asked them about their eligibility for being a speaker at such events. The answer, you have to be successful in your own field. We always look at achievers as successful people. But being successful, is it really that hard? What is being successful in life? Having earned a million dollars, is it a success?  A millionaire turning a billionaire, is it a success? Reaching the top position at a Fortune 500 company, is a success?  Becoming a head of state from a humble chai wala, is ...