Taxing the Inheritance

Inheritance tax is an important issue. A flawed society with deep inequalities, institutionalized discriminations, lacking ethical or moral context or humanitarian concerns -except as symbolism for selfish good karma for better returns, meanwhile carry high sense of worth and place in universe. If they had compassion they would have worked on egalitarian value system to strengthen democracy. Technically before independence the land belonged to colonial Britain. The nincompoop feudals worked with colonizers to grab meanwhile conduit to exploitations for small titles and land rights. Hence after the socalled independence the state was expected to systematically conduct land reforms. They did attempt on abolishing of Zamindari system, conducted tenancy reforms as also ceiling on land holding so on. Since 'leaders' themselves were part of the cannibalised exploitative system these were performed half heartedly while corrupt and inept values saw to it was made ineffective. Only Kerala seems to be one of the state that was able to effectively work land reforms -an achievement considering that Kerala was a putrid pit of society lacking even basic humanity. It has much to do with revolutionary aspect of Communism. So then why Bengal failed, it too had long hold of communism? Bengal failed because the foundation was consolidated by caste cannibal feudals who saw these revolutionary ideas as only ideas meant for debating points in gentile discussions the nuances of which these primitives learned from long association with colonial masters (remember British colonizing of Indian subcontinent began in Bengal before shifting to Delhi). So when communism eventually took control of Bengal it lacked grassroot involvement hence was easily uprooted and thrown out. Kerala was successful since communism was deep rooted, very much aided by social movements that were nurtured by literacy and awareness through christian missionaries and earlier buddhist influence. Centuries of association with outside world from Rome, to Portuguese, to Chinese, to Arabs...exposed people to new possibilities despite vicious presence of caste cannibals/squatter degradation.  

Not only was egalitarian ideals of land reforms scuttled they used gandhian chicanery to work it as voluntary act of high morals -boodhan andolan. Cesspools of the world were left in this extreme exploitations and appalling negligence, while the litters learned the lessons of inheritance couched in mythical grandeur -these now are projected through mediocre entertainments as land of untold fortune and blessing. These putrid pits with absolute lack of morals is where the worst of humanity exist. Not surprisingly these have social indices worst than regions of sub-Sahara. The latest data (2020) shows one-third of children in India suffer malnourishment, severely impacting their physical development and cognitive abilities. People suffered due to lack of humanity, reflected through corrupt lackadaisical system hence lacked basic infrastructure and appalling negligence. As expected India fare badly on disparity indices, lacking humanist foundation, wealth is usurped by narrow section while trickle down was celebrated as progress. 

One would have thought they would atleast impose inheritance tax. Studies point to inherited wealth growing faster than earned wealth, which is essentially true in unenterprising rent seeking society, and much of big cities are run by rent seeking ancillary economy. Millions of migrants to big cities and tourists to temple towns know how sinister the hold is. Prime spots are occupied by worst of people mostly lacking basic decency or competence, just conniving to exploit and cheat. The undivided Hindu family is an expression of worst, lacking enterprise, expertise in incremental grab and ossifying the society in worst possibilities. They are repositories burdened through regressive culture and degrading traditions, mainstreamed as entertainment. With accumulated wealth they influence elections and policy makers, and are major source of corruption, nepotism and crony capitalism. Inbred and lacking competence they are limited by their own limitations. These value system therefore seeps into all other institutions as vested interests. The reason why Indians have such appalling standards in all field of reckoning. Excellence is rare and essentially an exception.  

India's Gini coefficient -measure of inequality, in 2010s -data accessed, was a high 0.45-0.50 while even disparity ridden US it is 0.41-0.48, EU is 0.30-0.35, Japan 0.32-0.38, S.Korea 0.30-0.35. As it is most Indians don't pay income tax -indeed it is the common people who contribute substantially through indirect tax. They recruit CAs (another of stellar career) to suggest how to avoid taxes and check for loopholes which policymakers so graciously provide. Even in USA 50-60% file tax returns, while in UK it is 90%, Sweden 90%, Germany 85%, it is also substantially high in East Asian countries, and relatively poor Brazil has 25% people paying income tax. And in India a meagre 1.5% file tax returns -and most of them are forced to since they are salaried government employees. Imagine the lack of responsibility, basic sense of collective good or gratitude to society or concern for well being of fellow citizens. Thomas Piketty, economist known for his work on income and wealth inequality, argues that inheritance tax plays a crucial role in addressing the perpetuation of wealth concentration within a small segment of the population. According to Piketty, without a progressive taxation system, inherited wealth tends to accumulate and perpetuate inequality over generations, leading to the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few individuals or families. So by taxing large inheritances at progressive rates, governments can mitigate the intergenerational transfer of wealth and promote greater social and economic equality. Now let us look at inheritance tax in capitalist countries. In the UK -from where India has emulated much of its system, inheritance tax is levied on estates above a certain threshold, with rates starting at 40%. USA has a federal estate tax with rates ranging from 18% to 40%, depending on the value of the estate. In France, inheritance tax rates vary from 5% to 45% depending on the relationship between the deceased and the beneficiary, as well as the value of the inheritance. Germany has inheritance tax rates ranging from 7% to 50%. In Japan inheritance tax rates range from 10% to 55% while in Korea inheritance tax rates range from 10% to 50%. The reason why there is hoopla created in India is to do with crony capitalism and sinister hold of corrupt money in the system that scuttles every egalitarian move.

To be fair India did have inheritance tax -known as estate duty, introduced by Nehru in 1953 (despite some valid criticism Nehru did attempt to place egalitarian liberal values as foundation of Indian state despite overwhelming odds). It was abolished by RajivGandhi government in 1985 -one wonders what was the compelling circumstances that forced him to remove this egalitarian law, and this when they had brutal majority wherein they could have introduced many much needed initiatives. In 2016 Modi government finished what little was left by abolishing wealth tax. The devious argument given for abolishing in all the above cases is that cost of collecting the tax was more than the tax collected! Aw poor tax collector.

          

Protest against Israel is not antisemitism

College campuses are space for learning, as also idealism and protest. More vibrant an education space better it is for society and dealing with complexities of future. To classify protest against atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza as anti-semitism is spacious and stretching wrong of history into entirely different context of contemporary. Indeed even protest against Judaism is not against Jews. System and people are entirely different entity. System's hold on people must be resisted while people's choices must be respected ofcourse within the rule of law, values of freedom and liberty. Students have all the right to respond peacefully and vigorously to events around the world. Meanwhile it must be seen that it is not intimidating other students or society in general, importantly it must not provide space for dangerous islamists nor regressive references normalized.       

Castetva snaps Hindutva hops

 For the greed of power the protagonists are viciously trying to impress the herd. The herd meanwhile is trapped in its own miseries, incapacitated of critical thinking and entertained in excess they sense heuristic opportunism in limited frame. Institutions are kept tardy hence herd is tutored great sense of fate. While Castetva cunningly posed as entitled saviors to ameliorate fate Hindutva short stepped to pose religion as savior that the herd found compelling since it echoed with civilizational roots. Castetva is licking the wound, not used to being out of entitled role, is scheming in earnest to get the herd back. Herd meanwhile ricochets in its everyday fate but is firmly tethered to Hindutva. Castetva and its superficial claims finds diminishing takers. Castetva is usurped, Hindutva hence will be central to Indian politics for a long time to come. Even after a decade of power its influence is essentially undiminished. 

Castetva clearly is working to regain aura as saviors. Having degraded the society for 70odds years -ofcourse with incrementally controlled benefits trickled to firmly solidify fate to herd, they nurtured the worst and exacted opportunism as art. Having lost power and facing existential threat they now dusted the egalitarian intentions that sane people pleaded for decades to nurture democratic values and humanitarian concerns in an essentially primitive society. Empathy is a compelling opportunism to influence the fate driven herd, and if you can create a binary of apathetic state the battle is half won. Rusty Hindutva lacking the nuance is falling stock and barrel into the trap. Take for instance inheritance tax -it is something that should have been done long time back, castetva willfully and purposefully scuttled it -as they did for many egalitarian initiatives wherein they could have easily pursued it. Hindutva meanwhile has taken some meaningful initiatives. Imagine if constructing toilets was taken up as pilot project across villages in 1950s and 60s or even 80s, this would've initiated consolidating PHCs and primary education so on. East Asian nations are benefiting from these long term investments. It is not about intent but attitude -the mindset, entitled castetva is incapable to think on these lines while inbreeding incapacitated to be competent. They immensely suited to trickle down, making sure herd understood the play of fate, and their centrality as dispenser. 

Despite far better placed Hindutva is seen hopping to Castetva claps. It is a ridiculous state of affair, and shows lack of maturity and desperation of new entrant. Cunning castetva is desperately banking on these. Ideally Hindutva should have kept quiet on inheritance tax -it is logically rooted to egalitarian values and most 'capitalist' society have much higher inheritance tax and cannot be classified as 'socialism' and ridiculed considering how these work for common people as also consolidates ideas of fate while state as passive nurturer. Castetva could have initiated these decades back, since they couldn't they will not. These are just posturing to capture power they desperately crave. What is shocking is Hindutva found it atmost necessary to react, thus creating a wedge. Most people in this country particularly in cities understand how inheritance creates unfair advantage to few -it has nothing to do with merit indeed it is against the idea of merit and equality. The issue is not that you are taking away inheritance but putting an appropriate tax. If Hindutva thinks it will benefit from this reaction then it is grossly mistaken, and help create class divide while castetva works its sinister caste agenda to keep herds snarling at each other while living in misery. I repeat again: Castetva gaining power -even marginally, is a civilizational loss. Hindutva is the real deal, and response must consolidate around this reality and not make believe superficialities to impress West. Castetva has no role whatsoever except condemned to dustbin of history and a nuisance value (as a reaction egoistic Hindutva will avoid question of inheritance tax altogether -a loss to common people). Meanwhile Hindutva needs to put its act together and show maturity and avoid head butting rant reaction to every time they hear snap. It also puts question mark on quality of Hindutva leadership.   

          

Failure of International community

 It is the failure of International community to not only deescalate perilous situation but also assert its presence as a meaningful arbitrator. It is also a stupendous failure of US (led by Democratic Party). Leaders need to be alert and aware of the pulse of emerging threats and consequences, unfortunately Biden is not really fit -this is not being ageist (I need to point this since placed in devious society with manipulators salivating for opportunity by creating binaries to exploit or degrade). He must realize that situation is grim at many fronts, not to forget Trump charlatan snarling at the door with dire consequences to the world. He has aged -which is natural, hence must realize his limitations, and also be cognizant of the perilous impact these have on common people not only in US but across the world. Biden maybe likeable but his position is untenable, he really doesn't bring any confidence to face the dangerously spiraling contemporary and immense challenges of the future nor represent anything new. Biden must quit the presidential race. He has taken the toxicity of middle east escalation hence a new choice will be seen as a fresh start to the bleak scenario as also introduce much needed vigor that situation demands.

UNPKF must be strengthened. Indeed immediately after October 7 terror attack PKF forces should have worked to deal and clinically eliminate Hamas and rescue hostages. Two nation solution begins with Palestine admitted into UN as an independent country, meanwhile Hamas be declared as terrorist organisation. Theocratic societies are always threat to humanity. Iranian regime poses danger to its own people and world (common Iranians are amazing people like Chinese -who too are oppressed by brutal state -watch out for Chinese origin American writers/techies). Meanwhile incompetent Netanyahu needs to go. There is no place for him in the civilized world.

I was watching BBC, recall in the aftermath of brutal barbarism of Oct7 countries like Britain allowed Islamist to celebrate on the street and blatantly provoke, now the BBC (like their foreign minister) instead of sane voices is inviting warmongers immediately in the aftermath of Israeli action on Iran this morning (the details are not out yet but it is a dangerous escalation). So this fellow with American accent "expected much earlier decisive Israeli action". These kind of narcissist views are product of too much adipose clogging the brain. It's lousy West that continues to use expressions like "Islamic world".

Denting the basic idea of democracy

 It so happens that next week (April 24) is the anniversary of one the most important landmark case decided by SC of India more than 50years back: Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala. The case revolved around the power of Parliament to amend the Constitution. Specifically, it raised the question of whether there were any limitations on this power. The SC, in its decision, introduced the concept of the "Basic Structure Doctrine." This doctrine holds that while Parliament has the authority to amend the Constitution, it cannot alter its basic structure or its essential features. The Court did not explicitly define what constitutes the basic structure but identified certain features that ensures the preservation of fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitution. This ruling has profound implication since the basic structure of constitution consolidates foundation of democracy that enshrines liberty and freedom. Though the Parliament cannot tamper with basic structure of constitution, and can be reviewed by SC, but the basic structure of democracy can be dented and degraded by other means that has severe implications. The institutional pillars of democracy must be relentlessly safeguarded and scrutinized. The legislative is compromised by corruption, nepotism, and presence of caste cannibals, regressive religions and feudal patriarchs as leaders. These have severely degraded the democratic value systems and incapacitated grassroot movements and consolidation of liberal humanistic values. Unfortunately even the socalled fourth estate too is compromised through its incompetency, run by inbreds with specific aim to control narration, scyophantic to power, they create nepotistic alliance of greed with politicians and crave power while systematically degrade humans into herds with charming entertainments and distractions. Thankfully technology has become a savior (for this blogger too to get a foothold, otherwise I would be stamped out long time back) and is having robust presence through social media -voicing and consolidating people's concerns over power brokers as also creating transparency and urgency.

What needs immediate attention is Judiciary itself: the safeguards of basic structure of constitution are becoming cause of concern -they are denting basic structure of democracy. In a primitive society where values of democracy has not percolated much propriety is meaningless. Indeed critical matters that strikes at the foundation of democracy must have strict rules. This poverty driven exploitative society has put much faith on Judiciary and has invested huge money on this institution, as also granted much power and independence to see that they are beyond influence and maintain professional probity. They must realize the onerous responsibility as dispenser of justice in an essentially unjust world. Lower courts are tardy and infected with deep malaise that defines the nature of society it is therefore important that higher echelons of judicial system must be beyond shade of doubt and maintain high ethical and professional standards. There must be strict rule against SC and HC judges taking up political position post retirement or by resigning. It severely dents basic idea of democracy. SC Chief Justice taking up political appointment as Governor or Rajya Sabha member, or HC judge resigning to contest elections, are serious transgression on idea of democracy, and if scrutinized closely, an assault on basic structure of constitution since these crucial pillars of democracy get their credence from constitution. A judge (includes CJ) of SC and HC must be debarred from holding position of political power/influence or business interest after retirement.

Grievous escalation

Netanyahu must resign/sacked/removed. West cannot keep encouraging this incompetent megalomaniacal mass murderer. Enough of this.  

It is not a mela

 

Devious people posing as savior have worked the narration of elections as a mela -an exotic cliché that is meant to awe the West. Elections are not mela, it is a serious matter that is crucial for democracy and must be taken with all the gravity. The reason why Indian democracy has not spread its roots as defining aspect of liberty and freedom is because of these devious cannibalistic manipulators who not only worked it as lighter matter but also used narrative control to define it in terms of issues that has nothing to do with bleak reality hence tardy policy making -reflected through decades of heartbreaking HDI indices and biased compromised system. Hence it is very important that all elections are combined to be held once in five years. They should have complete freedom to implement, as also focus on long term policy making, rather than moving from one election to another which only helps manipulators as also worst in the media to gain attention and barter for position as narration controllers. 

Manipulators use control to convert common people into infighting herds -while extolling to see it as diversity -the depravity of it. Castetva has well entrenched traps for Hindutva to fall, the society is degraded with Castetva onslaught for last many decades since they exchanged power from colonizer. These pitfalls include exaggeration as leader, a unique gift to humanity -an avatar, hence unhinged from reality into heightened ego and self worth, that is miraculously passed on to litters. Nepotism is another of assault on democracy that is assiduously worked. This entitled worldview is uniquely Castetva framework. Since inbred mediocres are threatened by competence hence will promote the worst -who expertise in sycophancy and various art of manipulations to thrive -this then is expected behavior down the hierarchy nurturing a nepotistic corrupt value system. These are hoisted/airdropped onto common people and are elected as 'leaders', these then infect democratic institutions as also place sycophants in media to work the narration and crony capitalisms to invest. 

Hindutva is quite comfortably placed to win the elections, and it should, it is a civilizational evolution that is close to Indian reality. Egalitarian opposition must arise as a reaction to Hindutva, an expression of humanitarian concerns that religion sorely misses -indeed negates. Any going back to Castetva will be a civilizational loss, indeed Castetva is not even suited as an opposition since it is programmed to degrade to capture back -what they dearly hold as entitlements, and will try to push herd concerns for manipulation ease rather than grievous matters of common people. It is not an accident that India has the worst HDI indices as also these were/are actively neglected (unlike manipulated 'happiness index' by international moneybags, HDI are objective). Majority of Indians were always in worst of possibilities while word defecators worked out narrations of awe. 

Unfortunately Hindutva is falling for civilizational traps -something Castetva assiduously nurtured, that is meant to excite herd and divert from real concerns. This nonveg/veg purity crap is castetva nurtured, they very well know the nuance to play -it comes with unbridled power for decades and incompetency that seek devious means for herd control since they are incapable to be competent and incapacitated to gain characteristics of empathy. Being a new entrant Hindutva lacks nuance of dealing -this is precisely what cunning Castetva is banking on: the Hindutva hooligans, to showcase themselves in stellar light as liberal saviors -whom the herd mistakenly rejected and now realize their mistake! (they may even be expecting an apology from common people! Such is the sense of entitlement).  

Lack of critical balance

 

If you are responsible then you will be concerned. Concerned without bias and prejudice, no malice and favoritism or greed. What affects humanity affects you. It is quite clear that religion is problematic and in the recent times is source of serious nuisance across the world.  Religion seems seriously ill-equipped to factor fast changing and challenging contemporary reality hence followers are reduced to stuttering herds easily manipulated or carry heightened sense of worth and supremacism over life. Religion is reduced to a system that keeps humans trapped in fantastical world increasingly isolated from critical thinking faculty and what is essential to be a human. In a world where much was unknown religion gave solace and functioned as communitarian value. With increased awareness of the world as also of self, simultaneous woeful mismatch, ridiculous claims and inadequacy, religion is reduced to an anachronistic nuisance, a pitiable presence that is deviously worked by sociopaths to trap people.

Not all religions are equal, many have seen reforms, revolt, some actively try to ameliorate suffering of people simultaneously factoring changing reality while some societies have evolved to understand futility of religion hence secular humanistic values as anchor to deal with life. Some religions are seeing market spiked regressive revivalism. Some have remained crude while some are anchored to primitive -hinged in time space bypassing all the modern values and egalitarian intents. So, religion cannot be really be equated in the same frame and condemned but what is clear is that they must face equal full force of critical scrutiny and evolved understanding that sync with democratic ideals, freedom and liberty -these are not subjective and is an indelible aspect of being a human. Denying this is denying humanity, a serious violation. Religion affects society, and as a concerned human we must be free to critically scrutinize and question what affects humanity. No religion or system is immune from critical scrutiny or ridicule (ofcourse within the aesthetic frame that is essentially expected to be evolved and empathetic).    

There is a sinister game being played by devious people in West so as to control international narration hence continue to occupy moral space as entitled arbitrators. They gained from colonial comforts and actively tapped neo colonial forces hence exaggerated presence. They nurture feudal institutions and values with impunity and amazing hypocrisy that grievously impact democratic ideals and humanitarian concerns. They are part of neoliberal ecosystem and market media, hence actively play role in policy matters and molding public opinion. Exploitative neo liberal and crony capitalism caters to their greed and wanton consumerism. They channelize resource from all across the world in a complex liberal sounding ruse that see them as perpetual winners. They also readily ‘sex up’, when needed, to attack other countries, mass kill, maim and mutilate hapless people, for resources and use destruction as strategy to extend influence through state. Apart from controlling narration they also nurture feudal institutions in the garb of democracy for ease of exploitation. They chose and install corrupt leaders and narcissist puppets, and remove them as they fancy. They encourage lowest denominator to keep people into manipulatable herds. Much of the world that contains fossil fuel are predominantly 'Islamic nations', essentially means that human beings are systematically degraded so that democratic institutions cannot be nurtured or else easily crumble despite best efforts of common people (as we saw in the aftermath of ‘Arab spring’). The state falls in the trap of self-defeating theocracy or impudent hedonistic feudals -giving the impression as liberal, as a binary. Common people are not factored when West deal with these ‘representatives’ –who become point people for wanton consumption, corruption and conduit of exploitation -West has worked out such neocolonial ecosystem all across the world. In this deal the back story for people is showcased with Islam as a pawn for West to play liberal. So, while they orchestrate exploitation of resources and common people -indeed mostly muslims, there is a blood protection deal for Islam. International institutions are extension of West’s narrative grip; hence ‘Islamophobia will not be tolerated’ celebration to appease islamists and embolden obscurantist keenly watching from the fence, while essentially lighten hardship of feudal controllers in their conduit in exploitation. Let’s be clear there is nothing wrong in hating religion (indeed one must) considering the damage it has done/doing to the contemporary world even sidetracking critical existential concerns. Hating religion is not hating people. Hating system is an attempt at liberating people from its sinister hold. And yes, Islam is major source of misery. Its growth must be viewed with serious concern. The carte blanche extended to Islam by devious West as a redemption deal is a gross violation. It also monoculturise the vibrant diversity and resistive culture within the religion into what West deem into power matrix for easy deal, or they have agreed with feudals as convenience barter. Islam cannot be given special protection because devious West wants to showcase its benevolence essentially at the expense of common people while feeding the worst, or possible black mailed through unleashing vicious herd. Islam must be criticized while ordinary people/muslims must be protected. Every religion and belief must be open to critical scrutiny and ridicule while every human being must be protected under rule of law and enjoy freedom and liberty. Religion is a subjective system and cannot be extended protection over indelible aspect of what it means to be a human being. Any attempt is a serious transgression with severe ramification. Meanwhile countries like Britain -with over exaggerated presence in international scene, must be taken to task for degradation and sickening savior patronizing stance (indeed compulsive islamophilia cringe as a recent extension of white people’s burden) that has least value for life or liberty. Colonial control has seen to that people located in Britain/language/accent have overwhelming control over international narration, hence many acts as mercenaries to authenticate narration (post-colonial societies have exaggerated presence of word defecating vermins working their call center accent to influence herd as sterling intellect while litters are awe struck by turn of sentence and kept amused with vocabulary!). A nation that wallows in the luxury of colonial abuse, nurtures feudal institutions and presents Christianity as moral foundation of democracy is severely compromised hence is easily susceptible to degrading systems and is incapacitated to critically scrutiny nor perceive the danger. Taking high moral grounds and over playing liberal is no substitute for responsibility. Colonial Britain has done immense damage across the world -but then those were brutal times and they were better equipped and smarter to deal. But the damage post-colonial Britain has done, and continues to do, to the contemporary world is immense which needs deeper study and response consolidation.           

Such a brilliant presence

 

Hello there!

These Rangoon creepers they are in a hurry

The vines clasp whatever is handy (in this case an unsettled ficus) and entwin to tall places

Just as instantly spray flowers from wild mesh of green

pendulating trumpets like bleeding wound that end in petals and fragrance

they aren’t sure though what color to display

White? not really. Pink, maybe. Ah bright red. Eventually settling for deep maroon. Waiting.

See here

this is what I got

all colours

all fragrance

and some poison -just in case.

Deal with me I am at your window.  

Attention is all you need

 

That is a groovy title for a research paper that revolutionized natural language processing and created deep learning architecture called Transformer that became the foundation for modern AI -the generative AI. Previously neural network (Recurrent Neural Network -RNN) process data sequentially -one word at a time in the order of appearance. Transformer was able to capitalize on pattern that exist between words without being located in proximity or are in sequence, this long distance dependencies in words is ‘attention mechanism’. So, not all words are important only some are, and then you work the pattern and imprint it simultaneously to get the meaning. This is pretty amazing. Amazing because that is how I also read, infact all slow readers attempt such tricks.

There are two steps in trying to comprehend written text. One is to understand basic structure of language, that is, grammar as also meaning of words. Since I really couldn’t understand grammar, I worked it by reading a lot and getting the structure, iterative learning -more you read better you become. So that when you write something wrong you get a feeling of something not quite right, so you pause and evaluate it further to get it right. Meaning of the words are always contextual hence iterative learning works. The more you read better you become while quality reading enhances your intellect. This is precisely how AI also learned language by getting pattern approximation through large data and powerful computation. I have discussed these few years back in context to GPT (https://depalan.blogspot.com/2021/12/human-intelligence-artificial.html). Now that you understand language how do you get the meaning is the second step. There was this big gap between wanting to read and capacity to read. I had racks of books to finish, and I was equally excited to know more as also understand high caliber patterns, but the capacity to read was woefully slow. I really couldn’t read more than few pages in a day, and sometimes I was stuck in word mesh and sentence loop, it is crazy but words tend to jump and play around, it frustrating to hold the words in their places while you try to get the meaning. I figured that there are two types of reading; one is deliberately slow, like for instance if you are reading nuanced writing like Kafka’s story or Dickinson’s poem, the unhinged words too add to depth of meaning, and the other one is fast reading -that is when you are reading nonfiction. The trick for fast reading is to identify signifier words (that encapsulates much meaning- 'holds attention'/tokens) and then to link a pattern to get the meaning. Though less number of words but the one that carry high approximation for meaning, and interestingly jumping words adds to unintended complexity to meaning. This is quite crazy but meaning gets into zone of high probability of not intended and eventual mess up.  Probability of success vary with how much comfort you have in the subject; approximation is generally high if you are adept in identifying important signifier words. Indeed, I used to teach fast reading techniques for few years –a kind of job you finish fast with decent money then enough time to focus on real interests.

Finding signifier words and linking it to get the meaning is precisely how ‘attention mechanism’ works -transformer parallelization, powerful AI makes it instantaneous. Since human mind is relatively slow, we take words sequentially, this is the problem with language we have trapped reality into linear time sequence hence the meaning get dispersed and is rarely able to express the holistic moment. Sometime back I discussed (https://depalan.blogspot.com/2021/07/story-of-your-life.html) about this amazing short story “Story of your life” (Ted Chiang) as also movie ‘Arrival’ on aliens who use complex symbols capsulating time to be understood as a whole. With parallelized computation through powerful GPU’s generative AI maybe we are at the cusp of nuanced meaning of the moment in great writings that has so far eluded us. Van Gogh impressions oscillates with our meditative being since it catches the essence.         

           

Game changing superchip

 

Much of economic growth of western countries in the last many decades was riding on remarkable prescience of Moore’s law- periodic increase in density of chip -doubling every two years. A few years back people thought Moore’s law has hit a dead end -it is getting too dense that it experiences quantum interference so on. The increased computational power (apart from large data and neural learning) that led to AI development has much to do with sophistication in chip -microprocessor. With remarkable development and increasing computation demands of AI, CPU shifted to exponentially powerful GPU – a massively parallelized processor suited to transformer parallel architecture. And just when you thought: how much more can they squeeze in? comes the NVIDIA’s superchip Blackwell -B2100 is a massive leap in computational power. If you saw the video of introduction by Jensen Huang he slips in the worth -essentially money spent, that square piece cost about 10b$. It however doesn’t really solve the problem of massive power consumption, it is estimated that by 2030 Foundation Models will consume as much as 25% of world power. Meanwhile Extropic is researching on Entropy computers -a paradigm shift in basics of computer through unified AI and physics, working in natural harmony with entropy thus scaling beyond constraints of digital computing and substantially reduce power consumption. It is an attempt to emulate nature and embrace chaos and noise into a symbiosis for a probabilistic AI algorithm.          

The next AI wave is consolidating on physical AI ie Robotics -access to multimodal data, which will understand natural language and emulate movement by observing human action (Terrabytes and Exabytes of videos to tap on) to navigate, adapt and interact, meanwhile reflexive learning and dexterity. Something akin to AGI is just around the corner. NVIDIA’s Project Grook is the foundational model for humanoid robot. Let’s be quite clear ‘human like’ will no doubt need breakthrough in quantum computing but nevertheless this is truly a remarkable achievement. Though it is a technological breakthrough of many lifetime -that will have significant impact much beyond work space, the social ramification will be severe. Surely, we are living in the best of the times, we also have to accept the worst of times with dangers it possesses. Technology so far is skirting a narrow balance without major disruption but it sure is going to cascade very soon. Never has technology so severely impacted society as also the meaning of what is to be a human.       

Killer air

Air contains oxygen that is needed for human survival. What happens when this basic need turns toxic? Air pollution kills millions of people, and for millions more it exacerbate other debilitating health conditions, add to it contaminated water, pesticide laced food, and ofcourse mind-numbing noise that characterizes cities. Common people are seriously impacted by air quality, and they die without being counted -that is how agencies deal with problem by not being terribly concerned about collecting data (data is crucial to understand the gravity of the situation and formulate polices to save lives) or else manipulate data. Even short term exposure to polluted air can cause severe reactions -from deeply irritated air passage, persistent cough, headaches, burning eyes, weakness and disorientation, imagine living your whole life in these polluted pits. Human life is pliable to official narration. In a poor and desperate society, it is easily achieved. Fudging data is an art that even AI cannot emulate.

Today the world air pollution report was released. Out of top 50 most polluted cities in the world 43 are in India. If you look at the number of cities in top 30 it is almost all from India, and these are mostly hellholes of small towns where the development marauders are playing havoc. It is a statement on culture of apathy.

I have travelled most of these places, even few kms away from nation’s capital these disappear from radar of any concern of power salivating officials, market media and corrupt ecosystem of nepotistic control and crony capitalism (ofcourse in recent time there is a focus on hygiene by constructing unprecedented number of toilets for common people, which surely has reduced number of deaths due to communicable diseases). Third rated Indian media -mostly occupied by different versions of psychopaths and devious slimy thick-skinned ectoplasts, stampede where the power, money and influence is. They create mythical cozy world of self-fulfilling desires and opulence, while stampede to represent desperate dying people around them. Fed and fattened they cultivate and percolate their own reflection of slimy creatures into the ecosystem as opinion makers and influencers, these appalling mediocres are then courted by feudal politicians with least connect with any reality except to control the herd. You look at the list of polluted cities and you will be mortified by the conditions under which millions of fellow Indians live around you. This is what neocapitalist development has done to the land. Death churning ecosystem is how progress is consolidated by market capitalism. The herd sink deeper into fate muck while herd controllers create bubbles of sanitized world to project their version of reality for herd to gawk.    

How market capitalism unleashed development killed a garden city

 

In the early 2000s I shifted from polluted, loud and crowded Delhi –a city of ugly uncouth people salivating and stampeding around power so much so that the character of place percolates in its sinister clutch, to garden city of Bangalore (now Bengaluru). Bangalore was a welcome respite with charming weather and mostly understated mild mannered people. During those days even fans weren’t needed in summer. Huge trees dotted the avenues with cascading flowers and wafting scent in the air. I used to go for long walks or cycle, stop for warm delicious fluffy idlis, impeccable coffee, streetside books (I recall picking up rare copy of Pearl Buck), and watch clear bluest of sky. There were lakes, gardens, birds and butterflies…. there were so many jungle mynas, purple sunbirds, and as you cycle few kms you could see Indian rollers, Kingfishers, Drongos, Ibises, (even paradise flycatcher right in the center of city -Cubbon park)…so on. There was so much diversity in urban space. Oldtimers will tell you that the city had already started to crumble with IT influx from late 1990s. Glass houses -ostensibly to keep off air pollution and noise, and look chic, propping all around the place emulating desert architecture, ended up trapping heat hence began huge demand for air conditioners. Lakes vanished, and so did the catchment areas and biodiversity (I recall spending time to visit lakes and writing about it many years ago...please visit https://depalan.blogspot.com/2011/10/dying-lakes-of-bangalore.html), and yes, a quaint culture of care and compassion. For few years I faced the brunt of polluted traffic as a two-wheeler driver (and surely reduced my life span, I still get wheezing and tremors, and assaulted spinal).

Changes in Bangalore were swift. Very soon beautiful huge trees were cut, tacky flyovers and underpasses were constructed, all the while charming buildings resolutely morphed into sickening glass house clones as the city traffic got louder and louder spewing toxic smoke. Birds and butterflies have vanished (I used to sit in the garden after breakfast at NKB, there were so many birds and bees, and now after ugly Mantri mall and noisy traffic there is nothing. The place is dead). Disease of development took over the city. They systematically hacked out life from every nook and corner, and sanitized it with signs of neo liberal progress. Where once stood inviting Coffee house -overlooking street and garden, is now brick block of glittery gold jewellery shop. The civilizational loss to market capitalism nurtured greed and crass values is immense. They are now moving to Mysore like the medieval marauders. The deadly swarm of development that will barren the land and eviscerate life.  

Even in 2018, an international report had given dire warning that Bengaluru is one of the 11 cities in the world that will run out of water in few years. Did the policy makers take note of it? Ofcourse not. This when the worst summer -that is going to be hottest ever for human on earth, is yet to begin.          

P versus NP complexity problem

 

P vs NP is a profound problem at the intersection of theoretical computer science, computing technology and mathematical logic. It is a problem that is vexing computer scientists, researchers and mathematicians everywhere for many decades now, and is considered the most important problem of times we live in. Is P=NP? is indeed a profound question that has enormous significance to humanity. If P=NP is proved then it will give enormous power over knowledge. World will not be the same again. There will be no gap between solving a problem and recognizing the solution. If P equals NP, then you could solve anything as easily as you could verify it. Fundamentally what it means is that if we can quickly check that a solution to a problem is correct then we can also solve the problem quickly. Hence anyone who could drive a vehicle could build one, and anyone who listen to a symphony could create it like a Mozart. It is crazy but that’s what it is.

Since it holds course over fate of humanity let us try to understand what exactly is this problem. It isn’t that difficult to understand. P stands for Polynomial time wherein number of computational steps grows as a power of number of variables rather than exponentially. What it really means is that we can predict the maximum amount of time it will take to solve the problem. P problem is therefore is easy and tractable, feasible to solve. Time to compute the solution is not out of reach. Solution is also easy to verify -that is, to check whether the answer is correct. So, a computer can solve a P problem in reasonable amount of time and also verify it instantly. Algorithm exists for its solution, and the number of steps is bounded by a polynomial function of n. Polynomial is ‘raised to the power’ or exponential which is also a number -hence bounded to time, this number is number of inputs to the problem, that is, number of steps algorithm needs to take is proportional to input size. NP stands for Non deterministic Polynomial time. Problems that can be verified in polynomial time but may take exponential number of steps to solve. What it means in simple terms is problems that take long time to calculate but short time to verify. Solution can be guessed or verified in polynomial time in a non deterministic way, that is, no particular rule is followed to make the guess. There are no formulae to predict how long it will take to solve a NP problem. The only way to solve the problem is to keep trying the answers until we find one that works. Time required to solve the problem using any currently known algorithm increases tremendously as the size of the problem increases hence it may take millions of years to find the solution using the available computational power. Therefore, NP problems are those whose answers are relatively easy to verify but there is no easy way to compute a solution. NP problems take time to solve but are easy to check once solved. The time taken to find solution grows exponentially as the size grows. Simple examples of these are puzzles. To solve the puzzle, you may have to use all your creativity and experience while verifying each step before finding the solution, and once solution is found verification can be done easily. Sudoku is an NP problem that takes time and effort to solve but once it is solved it is easy to check whether it is correct, and the time required to find solution increases exponentially as the game grid increases. Optimization problems, scheduling, designing or routing (travelling salesman problem) that searches for optimal solution are simple examples of NP problems that are easy to check or verify but difficult to solve. So, P and NP are complexity classes, it also includes NP Complete (NP-C), these classes are based on how difficult they are to solve.   

Some NP problems are found to be P problems. Like for instance Linear Programming problem was once classified as NP -as the number of steps increases exponentially with size of input, but polynomial time algorithm was discovered for linear programing showing it as P problem. Another example is that of testing whether a number is prime, this was NP class problem but in 2002 clever algorithm showed it to be P class problem. Hardest problem in NP, referred to as NP-C, are never shown in P. These problems are too hard to be solved with current methods. Interestingly if one of the NP-C can be shown to be in P then that means all NP-C are in P. So, P=NP essentially means; Can every problem in NP be solved in polynomial time? Can exponential time problems be solved in polynomial time? Are questions that are verified in polynomial time also solved in polynomial time? What it means is that every problem that can be verified quickly can also be solved quickly. This has profound implication as we can solve anything as easily as we can verify it. Finding solution becomes as easy as verifying that the solution is correct. This also brings in bigger question of how we decipher problems. Do we try to know and then figure it or do we work at the solution before finding it? And if P!=NP (N not equal to NP) then it means that some problems are beyond the ability of computers to solve even with tremendous computing power. Highly abstract nature of problem may need something more nuanced than brute computational power.  

PvsNP problem is essentially asking whether efficient solutions exist for complex problems or that some problems are inherently difficult to solve quickly. It also raises deeper questions on nature of knowledge, process of acquiring it and limitations of understanding. There is a view that PvsNP is a problem beyond mathematics, that the basic axioms that is accepted are not enough. Checking astronomical number of possibilities one by one will take millions of years even with brute computation force algorithm. We do not have any useful information, priori, to discriminate some solutions hence reduce the set and therefore are forced to iteratively work all the solutions. If deterministic digital computers have limitations, then what about quantum computers? Famously Shor has shown that some quantum computer algorithm is capable to solve NP problem in polynomial time. It is proved that large prime number based digital encryption could easily be decrypted by Shor’s algorithm hence the rush for post quantum cryptography (indeed public key codes that exploit asymmetry in encoding and decoding i.e. encoding is quick and decoding slow, are equally susceptible to P=NP solution). Shor’s algorithm was able to use quantum to exploit hidden structure existing in factoring. But we still don’t know whether such structures exist in NP-C problem. Furthermore, quantum computer taps on properties of matter that exist simultaneously in different states, and use these multiple states in parallel to explore different possibilities, the information is stored in spin of electron but the observer effect changes the result and also limit access. The difficulty to prove P=NP means that it is not possible to solve an NP-C problem. Just as Godel’s incompleteness theorem shows existence of unprovable theorems there may be intrinsically random problems that lacks logical scheme to solve quickly. Or is it that level of abstraction and complexity required to solve NP-C problems is difficult for human mind to comprehend or language to express? Our language to access reality seems to have shortcomings. Is the language game creating paradoxes that weaves away from nature, hence the difficulty in accessing? There is a reason why Turing was frustrated after listening to Wittgenstein lectures!  

So, the question essentially remains the same: How can we access the solution in polynomial time without going through exponential time frame search? Can we still zoom into solution where brute computation and quantum seems to fail? Does N!=NP points to limitation of human reasoning? Is this limitation of nature, as in, ‘laws of nature’? Does recent innovation in AI holds some value? It is clear that AI is limited by same constraints as humans, it cannot really solve problem that requires more resources than are available in physical universe. Importantly, complexity of PvsNP needs deep mathematical understanding and creative problem solving abilities which maybe beyond the capabilities of existing AI algorithms. They really cannot generate novel solutions as they imitate or reproduce existing proofs. Despite these negative prognosis and general cynicism AI do hold possibilities. There are enough examples of emergent abilities and capacity to detect patterns that is simply astounding. So, it is possible that AI can leverage massive amount of data, deep learning innovations and powerful computation to explore and extrapolate large and complex search spaces to come out with something entirely unexpected, or even efficient algorithm for NP-C problem. AI based evolutionary algorithm that function in Darwinian like natural selection are being adapted to learn from existing proofs and algorithms to generate new ones and solve complex problems. AI is already challenging exclusive human claim on thinking and access to rationality. And for some it has already blurred P=NP through DeepMind’s Alphafold by solving ‘protein folding problem’. Protein folding is an NP-C problem. For some AI didn’t really solve ‘protein problem’, since it didn’t work out any polynomial time algorithm. It is a optimal heuristic solution, and that protein probably did not fold to absolute minimum energy but to local minimum. Global minimum, or absolute minimum, potential energy is NP-C, and since polynomial time algorithm cannot solve, we have to assume that nature also cannot (otherwise it will take exponential time, and so nature is essentially inefficient!) hence it folds to local minimum and not absolute minimum. There is something serious amiss in this argument. Way back in 2004 there was an attempt to prove P=NP using soap bubble as a mechanism for analog computer. Soap bubble film naturally align to minimum energy configuration.

Universe is an uncertain entity. We live and evolve in the edge of chaos and are in constant loop with it. The problem could be the uncertainty and inability of limiting semantics and the complexities arising from fixed frame trying to contain dynamic chaos. I will put my money not on P=NP nor P!=NP  but on P~NP. The relation between polynomial time and exponential time is blurred by iterative inputs. Reality represents a frame that is flexible and dynamic, it can only be heuristic optimization. The pattern that is realized in verification as solution is momentary. To attribute this as optimal fixed is a mistake. Nature is alert in its loop with surrounding, and is rarely inefficient. If nature is deemed as inefficient since it is incapable to factor exponential into polynomial then it has to be about incapacity of semantics. If a brainless slime mold can produce dynamic optimal path within few hours, then we need to reevaluate our insight. If tiny insects can orchestrate ‘swarm intelligence’ to optimize resources without any supervision, then we need reevaluate how we view the world. Swarm intelligence is based on simple rules (P=NP) but it is flexible to dynamic changes, creative resourcing and heuristically optimized based on accumulated wisdom of evolution (N!=NP). It is complexity underlying simplicity of universe. The meaning and elegance in managing chaos. It zooms in on to solution working on complexity and abstraction of evolutionary intuition. Evolutionary algorithm is limited by narrow understanding of how nature evolved or what Darwin proposed. Much of nature has evolved through mutualism, symbiosis and heuristic partnering, and wisdom to minimize confrontation and optimize resources. What is needed is algorithm from nature to tap on millions of years embedded wisdom, to seek pattern. This then is the polynomial time algorithm working exponential in polynomial scale. If you listen to music you can attempt to create factoring your surroundings. With creative skills, experience and intuition you can be a good composer or with creative leap a great composer but you cannot be a Mozart. Every path is a unique solution to the time and space context of each.         

*while going through Chinese researchers using GPT for PvsNP I came across interesting prompt engineering that used Socratic questioning and reasoning to generate innovative responses. The problem with GPT is that if your prompt is not creative or cleverly engaging GPT tend to retrieve or regurgitate pre-existing answer or lapse into mainstream template. I found Socratic questioning simple and profound. Similarly, the way GPT learns language also intrigues me (by iterative approximation -essentially Wittgenstein, and not ideal meaning -Plato) it is also the way I learn language. So, I am not surprised GPT makes stupid mistakes!           

  

Dreading the El Nino spiked heat wave

 

The world has already entered unchartered zone of climate that is having detrimental effect on biodiversity this in turn is putting pressure on resilience of ecosystem eventually food security and survival of life. Democratic institutions and social cohesive values are facing severe pressure. Eventually vulnerable population will have to pay a heavy price while growthism extremist fatten themselves on carcass of arguments. In disparities driven poor societies desperate people will die in millions while millions more pushed into worst of living condition, and as expected these will be easily managed and manipulated into insignificant matter in the mainstream narration. Witness how ‘developed’ country with high standard of living and awareness like Britain is being dealt by utter scoundrels as politicians. It is not an accident, these are systemic, and these very deviant value systems severely damaged fledgling democracies of post-colonial exploited nations across the world, which in turn infected international institutions. If this is how critical institutions are framed then how will the world deal with existential threats? Feudal value systems were actively nurtured into democratic institutions reducing it to a farce, easily susceptible to nepotism, corruption and manipulation. From Africa and Asia, the extent to which sun never set, democratic institutions are being used for control and exploitation. Economists work out the detail while market media chisel the liberal sounding semantics for the audience while common people see the world collapse around them. The wanton colonial hypocrisy of rule of law by racist colonial monarchist christian civilizers became a compelling ideal for local charlatans. Hence democratic institutions and values of freedom and liberty were curtailed in the initiations itself. Egalitarian values are sidelined while humanitarian concerns dealt in posturing. Even amazing possibilities of technology is reduced to worst of dealing. Humans are actively sought to be dehumanized into herds for exploitation. Herds happily dull in Huxleyian entertainment while being told by guardian posers to fear Orwellian incursions. Distraction and manipulation, and containment, is how history repeats for herds. Charlatans worked critical debates as juvenile skirmishes of adolescents to keep the entertainment going. Attention economy is how homo sapiens have collectively worked to value itself.

There are enough signs that climate systems are collapsing faster than anticipated. Earth is heating at an unprecedented rate. As the Indian subcontinent moves towards summer this year El Nino is expected to make it worst. We are facing serious dangers of heat waves and forest fires. Though one hopes authorities are prepared but I really don’t see much action. Market media and herd controllers are excited about elections. Election Commission of India seems to be least concerned about plight of people, and expect them to come out to vote during heat wave conditions. It seems officials at EC are incapacitated to anticipate (like cricket wastrels surprised at rain in the venue during monsoon!). Understandable when all your life you were manipulating, conniving, genuflecting, for power and position. Mediocre society lacking intellectual class or tradition of probity or critical thinking also values these petty bureaucrats as reservoir of wisdom carefully emulating the template of colonial masters. COP28 cosmetic approach includes ‘cool pledge’, a ‘commitment’ to reduce climate impact of cooling sector and also universal access to life saving cooling. Meanwhile Heat Action Plan are only guidelines while NDMA initiated ‘Cool Roof’ seems to be the only action taken with some seriousness, ofcourse it is life saver in congested areas of cities, and will reduce heat island effect. Kerala has taken initiative to create cooling centers, but converting makeshift pandals into permanent structures in congested areas will need air-conditioning. AC/refrigeration already contributes to about 7% of GHGs, and then there is issue of continuous power generation during peak demand. What is needed is sustainable strategies. Before electric fans were introduced people in this region had many traditional methods to keep themselves cool that includes the way buildings were designed. These could be explored, like for instance, well ventilated high raised ceilings tend to be cooling. I read that some churches have shown enthusiasm to be converted into cooling centers, the way churches are designed provides natural cooling. Meanwhile citizens must make themselves aware of increasing temperature threshold of the region they are located in. They must take action to create off grid source of power as also natural ventilation and building design with vast resource of traditional knowledge and latest technology. Devious power structure will seek attention and keep you distracted as they amass and satisfy their ever burgeoning greed. When push comes to shove -as it happened during pandemic, you will be abandoned in the streets to die. Beware people retrieve your humanity from the herd. Technology is offering transparency and with collective action much can be worked out.

*In the low-lying regions where water logging has become frequent people have started to construct adaptive buildings. This I saw on my walk.

                  

 

Understanding

When you realize your being

has started the preparation to seep into timeless.

The carbons, the hydrogens, the oxygens…

loosen their grip on miracle.

The joyous bouquet of warblers decides to disperse

into their lonely way.

Withering senses too weak to show its final gratitude

for the marvel of chance.

You close your eyes in reverence

for all that was shared

as the setting sun dims the scene.

   

Education that murders

 

Youngsters all across the country face severe stress through what was expected to be fun filled fulfillment of awareness of the world and nurturing of critical thinking and compassion. Literacy is easy, education is difficult. Education needs commitment for better world. It needs ever evolving collaboration between educators and students to create individuals with conscience and inquisitiveness to strive for truer perception of reality. Education is an attempt to create better human being. Over the years best minds across the world have delved on it. Despite these efforts education system in much of the world is stuck in worst of possibilities, trapped by devious minds to create compliant individuals and an instrument of indoctrination. It has worked as supply chain for greed and puppet for bigger use. While primitive religions want to capture impressionable mind into its dehumanizing horror with a meagre claim of morals, market is hunting for cogs to fit for productivity. One elderly industrialist even wants youngsters to work more than 70hours per week. What is this work and how it impacts well being of individuals is not his concern. Like life education can never really be goal oriented -this goal oriented nonsense is spread by crass market and devious religions to trap humans into narrow frame of dealing so as to control. It is designed to keep plebs occupied in narrow frame. Goal removes the possibilities of education. Uninhibited learning, and indeed delearning, understanding and further research in areas of interests, is the intend. So that young mind discovers his or her inedible presence in the diverse world and an increased awareness of intricate life giving systems as also possibilities of latest technologies and wise understandings from thoughtful people. This vibrant mind then can be attuned to narrow purpose as and when needed -and shouldn’t be mistaken for goal, it is an iterative awareness of what is needed to be done. Thankfully new education policy has removed words like examination and fail from its vocabulary. Continued flexible student centric assessment and analyzing learning is being suggested.

Unfortunately, the beggar minded society values education as a means for acquiring money, power and security, and not as an outcome but the very reason to educate. For majority of desperate people, in this unjust nepotism driven corrupt world with acute poverty and characteristic middle class insecurities, this surely is true and they end up as dehumanized lives chasing little world they are eternally trapped in. When this becomes defining parameters of society is where the problem is. Education therefore becomes goal oriented for gains, and the worst of people pose as motivators to attune impressionable minds and hapless people into this crude value system as eternal calling. Exams are conducted with much fanfare -the absurd nature of these competitions doesn’t really check the innate strength or ingenuity (indeed the best educationists have questioned the stupid questions they ask, as also the exaggerated IITs are tech coolies striving for status quo world and gaining from opportunities herein to write success stories for herds back home. It is the worst evaluation of education where humans are reduced to pawns. Ofcourse there are some who gain from better education understanding in West). The failure of education, and with it potential of human, has much to do with this increasingly crass control that is encroaching into core of humanity. The beggar minded society stampeding to authenticate itself through increasingly meaningless competitions ties itself in knots and strangulates itself. The beauty of life is taken away and the confused alienated youngsters are evaluated on ugliness of society. Either they systematically degrade themselves into this ugliness and goal orient for power, prestige and money, and keep striving as best of herd and act as role model for crass world, or else face the most important question there is: whether to live? The goal oriented values and crude education system doesn’t really factor the awareness of vastness of life and essential existential absurdity. Sisyphus therefore has to suicide.  

What is truly heartbreaking in this suicide note, apart from the soul wrenching innocence, is that the teenaged girl has chosen to write this extremely emotional last message to loved ones in a language that she is evidently not comfortable in. It points to deeper alienating factors, including likely lack of communication with people around. The desolate last line “this is the only option left” -a matter of fact evaluation of life by young mind, is a failure of society at many levels. It should shudder human conscience.     

 A nation awaits

...there is a mirthful contentment in this ethereal face. Hope it brings the same to millions of believers and make the world a better place. Om shaantih. Let there be peace.

ॐ द्यौः शान्तिरन्तरिक्षं शान्तिः

पृथिवी शान्तिरापः शान्तिरोषधयः शान्तिः ।

वनस्पतयः शान्तिर्विश्वेदेवाः शान्तिर्ब्रह्म शान्तिः

सर्वं शान्तिः शान्तिरेव शान्तिः सा मा शान्तिरेधि ॥

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Om Dyauh Shaantir-Antarikssam Shaantih

Prthivii Shaantir-Aapah Shaantir-Ossadhayah Shaantih |

Vanaspatayah Shaantir-Vishvedevaah Shaantir-Brahma Shaantih

Sarvam Shaantih Shaantir-Eva Shaantih Saa Maa Shaantir-Edhi |

Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||

Meaning:

Om, Peace is in Sky; Peace is in Space (between Earth and Sky);

Peace is in Earth; Peace is in Water; Peace is in Plants;

Peace is in Trees; Peace is in Gods (presiding over the various elements of Nature); Peace is in Brahman (Absolute Consciousness);

Peace is pervading everywhere; Peace alone (which is outside) is in Peace (which is inside); May you be (established in) that Peace (and make your life fulfilled);

Om, Peace, Peace, Peace.