How do we master Self-Control?

Sometimes people just don’t know how to differentiate right and wrong. But yet even when most people are able to understand the irrationality of a desire, they are unable to restrain themselves from it. This gives way to the thinking that 'Perfect Man' does not exists; the thinking that there is always a middle ground between the good and bad; the thinking that things are neither black nor white but 'shades of gray'.

Before talking about Self-control, it is necessary to discuss about 'Pleasure'. Pleasure, Joy and Happiness are emotions that are important to achieve a sense of ‘Life’; a sense of Self-Esteem; a feeling that life is worth living. Pleasure/Happiness is attained from Productive work, Human Relationship, Sex, Recreation and Art. Except for Productive work none of the other activities necessarily provide long term happiness. A bully of a friend, smoking, irrational lust though are perfectly capable of providing pleasure, yet are counter-intuitive to the idea of long term happiness. In contrast a knowledgeable friend, a good book, swimming and Romantic Love with an Ideal Partner can make life Enriching. 

But then how does one escape from the clutches of irrational Pleasures?

1. Philosophy - Man is inescapable of Philosophy. Every action a man chooses has philosophical roots. It's his choice to identify it or not. It’s irrelevant of the fact that man studies philosophy or not.  Man can choose to act based on feelings, emotions, faith, or whims (Subjectivism) or based on ‘Reason’ towards a specific purpose and specific objective (Objectivism). Philosophy is a guide to Man's Life. Therefore It’s essential to study, identify and choose a Perfect Philosophy that clearly differentiates black and white, good from bad, rational from irrational, moral from the immoral based on a Standard; That differentiates what should be restrained and ignored from that which should be cultivated.
2. Judgment – Values are anything that one wants to ‘gain’ or ‘keep’. Emotions by itself are not bad or good. Emotions are lighting fast calculators of a moment or situation. Emotions are the automatic results of what man holds as a ‘Value’. Observe that when two people who are asked to watch pornography, each can exhibit different emotions. One can lustfully enjoy it yet the other can feel disgusted. Different emotions (Joy, Disgust) are exhibited due to the fact that one holds pornography as a 'Value', while the other does not. The latter is aware of its crude vulgarity and its objectification of women. The former is either not or is not ‘one with himself’. That’s why Judgment of value is important. Is smoking or over-indulgent eating and drinking healthy? Is company of a bully to be valued and sustained?  Is gambling good ? Is spending too much time on internet irrational? Think and Judge before holding anything as value. Do not hold or do anything arbitrarily or just because other people do. Think and Judge!
3. Taming the Animal - We've evolved from animals. There is a little bit of animal still left in us. The Rational part of our brain is pretty new compared to emotional pleasure driven part. Rational and Structured thoughts are often an effort and tires us quickly compared to emotional and arbitrary thoughts, which can run all day long. When asked not to think about elephant. The word elephant itself triggers the elephant Imagery. An act of controlling thought or monitoring absence of a thought itself induces the thought. It then becomes necessary neither to think nor to monitor that which should be controlled. 'Distraction' is a way how you tame this Animal. When you think of smoking try to end up eating a chocolate or having Tea instead.  
• Marshmallow Experiment conducted on Kids has shown that kids who were able to successfully distract themselves from the immediate pleasure of the moment had a greater re-warding Life in the future. 
4. Purpose - A passionate purpose driven man has hardly time to indulge in irrational desires. Choose a purpose. A productive work. “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” But even If you don't find a job that you love, it is necessary that you do get a work, in order to live self-dependently and survive. Grow pride. Get an ego. Love yourself.

Things are Black or White,  Good or Bad, Moral or Immoral. The 'Perfect Man' exists. 

P.S. 

The post is mostly influenced from the works of Ayn Rand, especially from the essays found in the book "The Virtue of Selfishness". 

Happiness is….

• Is to always be Honest. To always speak and stand up for whatever that is right, irrelevant of the consequences.
• Is to do whatever I must do, irrelevant of the fact whether I feel like doing it or not – Self Discipline.
• Is to be the best in everything that I do. To be the most knowledgeable in what I do.
• Is to sit down and laugh with people who matter the most and see them always smiling.
• Is to radiate energy. To always stay healthy and fit. Fit enough to cross the English channel.
• Is to be an adventurer – to sky dive kilometers above the ground and go kilometers below the ocean.
• Is to see all that this planet has to offer. Every Nature, every climate, and every country. Is to get bored, trying to touch every corner of this earth.
• Is to play music, play guitar and make people sing and dance to my tune.
• Is to always keep smiling.

Lets Go Wild ! - The Wild Tribe Ranch

September 22nd, 2012. It was 5.25 AM when I woke up. It was going to be an eventful day. A day I would be doing things that I had never done before. Some of the things that I always wanted to do, but never really got the opportunity. We (My TCS Team) were going to ‘The Wild Tribe Ranch’ - A Paradise for Adrenaline junkies.

We were traveling by a mini-bus to Ponneri , Chennai. The bus ride was fun and boisterous, spent trying to make each other dance and pull each other’s leg. We reached our destination around 10.30. As we got out of the bus, we were able to see the constructions of the activities that we were about to do. This looked inviting! I will try to highlight some of the activities worth mentioning in chronological order.

Totem Chorma – Paint Ball! Ever wanted to shoot some-one down with AK-47 ? Then this is as close as you should get : ) Two Teams differentiated by the color orange and color red go head to head on war. Each team protects the opponent Team’s flag, which is on their base. Any person shot would be out of the game. Many bunkers were placed in between for cover. The Aim was to get to your flag without being shot. And Raj was like - “INKALAB JINDABAD!”. During my match, I made a dash toward the flag running all-outs, to win for my team. Later that day, at home I found three patches of green on different parts of my pant.

Bullie the Bull! - Trust me! This is the closest you should get when it comes to riding a bull. Fun, difficult and challenging! How long can you stay on this one; a minute or just few seconds? You may possibly tame a lion but this one is a hard nut to crack!

Mad Riders (ATV) - Four wheeler Bike Ride. This was fun though the length of the ride was small (just two rounds of a maybe-100m-track). Adrenaline junkie that I am, No doubt I was driving this bike fast. And on one particular place where track had an uneven downward slope, I hit the sides (bordered with tires) and flew way away from the bike. Lying flat on the ground, I got up immediately and took the helmet off. The bike was upside-down. Prabhu, Dheeraj, Mahipal (Thank you guys!) and the guides came running to me to check if I was okay. No injuries, not even a scratch as I fell with my back hitting the ground first. One of the guides put the bike on its foot again. The other was instructing me on ridding the bike slowly, to whom I paid no heed. I asked him if I could complete my ride. I was happy when he said ‘Okay!’ Highlight - the tiny race-off between Andrew and Sangeetha.

Geronimo – Trampoline jump - This simply was the best one. For me at-least! You are strapped and connected with elastic cables. With the help of this, you would be bungee jumping to and fro for like 15-25 ft high. Why I liked it? While watching one of my colleagues do this before me, (bad memory, Unable to remember who?), I had this idea of doing reverse somersault while on the highest point. This was the first time I was doing it. And I did it : ) Later Ram was able to do normal somersault, which actually was tougher than the reverse one.

We were already tired by this time. Heat was high that day. I personally was totally exhausted after Trampoline jump doing it twice. We had our lunch around 2, which was fairly decent. A bit over-charged at Rs.160. But I was so hungry that I wouldn't have minded, giving off Rs.1000 for that food, especially with the Gulab Jamun as desert. In-fact, Desert may not be the right word as most of us were having Gulab Jamun as Main Course.

Before I go on with the next ride, I would like to make a special note on Girls! It’s always more than fun to have girls around. You can-not help to laugh at the fact that they may fear death falling from the height of 0.5 meters. I maybe exaggerating here. But come on, why to be afraid when there is no chance of death and minimum chances of any injury especially when you are all protected with proper safety measures. No Girls! By no means am I insinuating a change of your attitude. Because this is exactly why, we Men like you :)

Monkey Walk - Obstacle Course - You are supposed to travel in path which involves lots of jumping and balancing with the help of ropes hanging from the top. For some of us it was like a walk in the park, for others - 'No mean walk in the park!'. Notably, when we had to do the mini-Tarzan jumps and walk through the rotating drums. Prabhu and DLN were dancing on the drums : ) Girls (Suchirita, Ishwarya, Sangeetha and Preethi) had a tough time doing the mini Tarzan jumps. Loads of Laugh. Kalyan was able to complete the course without an effort.

Super Geronimo - Ejection Bungee - Strapped and connected with elastic cables, you are catapulted straight 35 to 55ft high. It really felt wonderful, when you are propelled to your maximum height, depending on your weight. And it’s also fun being a spectator seeing the expression on people’s face. Some excited, Some scared and Some as if they have seen the devil himself!

Lastly, some of us cooled off in the pool. We got back to our Mini bus around 6. Finally the adventurous and exhilarating day came to a close. In the end all of us were tired and exhausted (I’m still tired with cramps as I am writing this post). Probably, we would have enjoyed a bit more, if the heat was not as high as it was. Anyway, I am glad to have been there! This could possibly be the best outing ever.

P.S.

Thanks to Ram and Nanda for orchestrating this excursion to perfection. And to everyone else who came along.

Ring of Gyges

Excerpts: Wikipedia & Freakonomics (book)

"Gyges of Lydia was a shepherd. One day after an earthquake, a cave was revealed in a mountainside where Gyges was feeding his flock. Entering the cave, Gyges discovered that it was in fact a tomb containing a corpse, which wore a golden ring, which Gyges pocketed. He discovered that the ring gave him the power to become invisible by adjusting it. Gyges used this new power of invisibility to seduce the queen, and with her help he murdered the king, and became king of Lydia himself."

Glaucon after hearing this story argued with Socrates that any man who could gain such a power would be incapable of being virtuous enough to resist any form of temptation. He said that morality is only a social construction, the source of which is the desire to maintain one's reputation for virtue and honesty. And hence, if that sanction were removed, one's moral character would evaporate. And adds that If anyone so happens to obtain this power, and that if with such power he/she never does anything wrong or touches what is another's, he/she would be thought by the on-lookers to be a most wretched idiot.

Socrates, however, explains that the man who abused the power of the Ring has become morally bankrupt and suffered irreparable failings of character, while a man that chose willingly not to use it is at least at peace with himself.

Pensive musings...

It's been a long time since I last blogged. I knew or rather thought before-hand when I started that I would not blog for long. As it was popular back then, I had to try my hands on blogging. Even though I was an amateur or rather a tyro as my blog says, I wrote a wonderful article - YOU ARE A GROWN UP ROBOT (read it if you haven't read it yet!). That article to me is something like what Mona Lisa was to Leonardo da Vinci.

Blogging still is the ‘thing’ now and besides all famous actors, politicians, sportsmen, reporters and many more blog. So, generally people who become famous blog. And as I always had and have an inclination towards doing things in unconventional way, I thought, Why not - blog and become famous! : )

So I am going to blog again. But na... It is not for being famous, that I will blog. Fame is not what I crave for! Being famous is not what I want. What I really want is to write something as good as YOU ARE A GROWN UP ROBOT, perhaps even better. And of course I know I can write better, relying upon my ever wondering and ever-questioning mind. At times I even feel amazed, by all those wonderful and creative thoughts that cross my mind. And yes! I want to feel this same amazement after I engrave them on my blog.

But then what’s the point in writing, if you don't have an audience to read what you write. I could rather very well keep my thoughts crammed in my head instead of writing something which nobody will read. Why to display it to the world, when you know the world is not there to read it. Therefore to bring audience, I am going to expand my network. This is a very hard thing for me to do. It will be difficult, (you seriously don’t know) but hell! As the old, beaten and dusted saying goes - Nothing in life is for free! And to this purpose, I would be taking some painful steps.

Or would I? Or would I be happier if somebody randomly stumbles upon my blog and genuinely finds interest in reading them? oh... how I hate endorsing something that I like!

P.S.1
Truly, humans are the only species who have to pay to live on earth.

P.S.2
Yeah! I make a lot fuss about petty little things. To me, I guess these petty little things are the ones that matter the most.

PLACED!

Phew. What a hectic semester this has been. Well it has all ended now. I am placed in TCS. Can’t explain how tiring and thrilling the last two days have been. The most difficult part was sitting, sitting in the auditorium with 2500 aspirants and waiting for your name to be screened and announced. And doing the same thing again after the interview round. TCS has created a record for recruiting 1080 students from a single campus. SRM University, I am really proud of being a part of it. SRM did put all its effort to help the students. It conducted training programs, all the prior mail notifications in yahoo groups and what not. All credits to SRM. What a wonderful day. I am happy to clear my primary goal. But the main goal is too far ahead. But for the time being it’s time to relax. It’s time to go home. Home at last. : )

-------------FUCK LIFE--------------

Life will fuck you in your ass, so hard..
you will barely be able to walk!
You might never know whether it was once or twice,
in fact, you could have also been fucked by a mice!
But life isn't about you getting fucked!
Its about how you retaliate, how you fuck back harder
No! not the mouse you dumb fuck!
I am talking about life.


P.S

Reader discretion is totally unnecessary. Parental guidance can go to hell!