Blog 8 - Food.. Glorious Food!!

After watching the movie "Castaway on the moon" I realized how food can possibly be a driving factor to HOPE, although its a beautiful Korean love story the message delivered through it is very deep. I decided to dig into the abyss of how food and how is the science that is associated with food.

I have travelled a bunch of places and when you travel the important part of travelling is exploring the places, the culture and the food. Food is something that drives us, a very wise person told me once that whatever we do, whatever we earn, we do it for one single thing and that is to fill our stomach with food so never prioritize anything over food. I came across the popular cuisines in my travels, I wouldn’t say I am much of a foodie but I love to cook new dishes whenever there is a chance of doing so. Somehow I realized there are a whole lot of scientific theories and reasoning behind the food items or dishes that are consumed around the world.

Let me ask a few obviously yes questions. Do you like orange juice? Do you like hot/spicy food? Do you love chocolates? Do you prefer eating sweets after lunch or dinner? And lastly does coffee tastes better without sugar?. As I said most of you would answer these questions as yes, this is where the body's anatomy comes into the picture. Our tongue is responsible for everything we taste, provided it’s sour, bitter, sweet, hot and salty. Everything else that we sense is the aroma of food. Spices that are widely used all over the world in cooking, spices are basically used to preserve food for a long time and the aromas of spices are used to increase the palatability of food. In short the spices that we taste in any food is not the taste of those spices it’s just the scent of the ingredients, for instance, if you want to test this, try eating something and hold your nose so that you cannot breathe through your nose, you would notice that the only taste that you would get is sweet, sour, bitter or hot.

Thus coming to the topic of favorite food around the world, I have observed in terms of preferences most of the people love what is tangy or sour, there are the people who like what is hot with above average use of chilly, there are the people who love to eat that is bitter and lastly the sweet eating people. Although the feeling of chewing on different meats has nothing to do with its taste, it's just something that satisfies the carnivorous instinct that we all have, some suppress it, some embrace it.

When it comes to food what I think is, people decide on what to eat depends on the craving of their tongue for any of the taste senses. The taste buds on the tongue play an important part in the whole process. As the surface area of the tongue that detects what’s sour is large anything that is sour is widely popular, be it food or drink like wine or beer or anything that would give you a tingling sensation on your tongue.

Along with this, there are other factors too that are responsible for people to select what type of food items they want to eat. It’s the feeling of chewing on something that makes us all crave for a particular type of meat or vegetable or fruit or even dairy food like cheese. So the feel of biting on something plays an important role here, too. Thus we have people who prefer red meat over white or fish over chicken. There is a type of cheese that’s consumed in Europe called the Casu Marzu. The specialty of this cheese is that it has live maggots and people are somewhat fond of the feeling they get when they eat this cheese, however, this cheese is banned.

Thus, on the nutshell, cherish all the food items, be it meat or vegetables, after all, we need all the vitamins for a better life.

Blog 7 - Let's see what ''Chaos Theory'' says!!

“And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun” - Pink Floyd 

It’s been long that I published a blog as the topic I selected got me stuck at numerous points but I managed to find my way somehow or at least I think I did. I came across the chaos theory while finding the derivative initial value for time, the beginning of time. I wasn’t able to find the value but this theory caught my attention. This theory isn’t any jibber jabber it is validated in mathematics and physics. I, on the other hand, would like to apply it to real life situations. 

Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics focusing on the behaviour of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, this is the easiest definition that we can find about chaos theory.

Before I could start jotting down instances let me explain what does chaos theory explains. Any minor changes in the initial state of a mathematical equation give a huge difference in the final outcome of the equation. This could be from the framework of mathematics but to state the very concept in generalized terms, any minor changes in the physical or virtual state of an entity can have considerable changes to the final results of that very entity. It is not necessary that all the objects or equations or people demonstrate this quality however it is pretty unique to encounter such. It is more about explaining the stability in a continuous regression pattern of an equation, not necessarily the output should be the same for any set of values however stability might exist in the pattern that follows, but if we apply the chaos theory to this very event the possibility of its validity depends on not having any pattern what so ever to rule out the stability or factors leading to the stability.

String theory states most of the dimensions among the 10 based on initial conditions of time and the events would depend on the initial conditions, be it the Big Bang or the alternate universe and their respective Big Bangs however I wonder if the present reality is a Big chaos? As time has passed we cannot change the outcome of the present now but can we assume the present time to be the initial time for the near future to come? Hence the past, the present and the future could be closely related to the chaos theory. 

One theory also states that nothing can exist if the observer itself doesn’t exist thus assuming that we all have a different universe altogether and this can or should coincide with the alternate universe for another person in exact opposite to balance the scales, if you do something bad there is someone in this universe who will do the exact opposite of it. Some term it as karma and keep doing good deeds. What goes comes around on your actions* correction the initial actions hence chaos theory.

For all said and done, one cannot change the course of time that’s happened till now but surely one can assume a new initial time and start over, over and over again.

Blog 6 - Artificial Intelligence

In recent times the concept of AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been the topic of discussion all over. When I say AI it means a Super Computer or a Humanoid Robot or in layman terms any intelligent machine capable of processing and analyzing data. Many people talk about the AI is the next big thing, AI will be replacing humans, AI will rise against humans, what so ever it may be, no one really knows how the outcome of full deployment of AI would be. AI is the capability of a machine to imitate super intelligent behaviour. It’s about the capabilities of machines to generate their own consciousness. The concept of AI isn’t very new it’s been there in existence for decades or I must say centuries. The existence of AI can be traced since mankind discovered logical reasoning all the way taking us to Ancient Greece, before Aristotle or Plato. There were giant robots as titans that were developed to perform a task on their own intellectual thinking, no doubt those were mystical creatures made by the gods* as per the mythology goes, however it was enough for humans to take the inspiration of something that is autonomous and has its own thinking. This phenomenon gave birth to the idea of AI. AI cannot just be a computer running simulations doing calculations on its own. It is more than that, it was is a machine with a personality, thinking capability and just to cover everything, emotions too.

I am not going into details of how it is programmed or designed because it would be out of scope to this blog just to give an idea of how it works, it will be safe to say it mimics the humans. With some computations, it will generate data that would be stored and processed to resemble with the data gathered mimicking humans. However, as it will be spontaneous the response time for AI to learn a skill will be incredible. Recently I read a paper on how the AI learned hand gestures in 30 minutes that takes an average human about 10 years to learn. In short the AI will have an IQ (Intelligence Quotient) of a superhuman, however, the level of IQ will decide the abilities of the AI, I’m sure the scientists have figured out a way to control the learning curve for these machines. Thus explaining the variances in the AI systems available in the market, namely Siri by Apple, Google assistant, Alexa by Amazon and so on. The capacity of these systems is limited by an IQ controlling algorithm; the learning curve gets disrupted once the system tries to cross the set threshold, basically the smartness limit.

Imagine you give a call to the customer care of service/product related company and you have interactions with an executive and your issues are resolved but once it’s done you are informed that you were talking to a Chatbot. Well, that is happening, right now. That is AI. The personal assistant in our phone is AI. The games you play on a console are designed in AI. Thus whatever is process driven can be articulated as AI. It’s like gravity, where ever you go on earth the gravity will be the same as 9.8 m/s2 if we are to compare the same scenario to the AI we could say the universally accepted processes can be fine-tuned to perfection and thus can be made to replicate it with the AI. That can be something to worry given the thoughts what implications the AI implementation would have on the jobs done by humans. We better think about improving our skill set to cope up with this rather than moaning about machines replacing us. corporations will take measures to reduce their expenditure, not just that, the probabilities of human errors are on the higher end, Darwin theory of evolution overall.

There are many theories, movies, cults about the AI going rogue and turning against humans. Come on... AI was developed to make our lives easy, its main purpose is to serve us, how on earth would the basic or probably the core idea for the existence of AI would turn it against us?, consider a situation when a humanoid robot or a computer system having AI designated to serve us in the most suitable way, however, we are the slaves of our habits, we tend to give in to our weak side when it comes to certain things, but the AI would not see this as a suitable course of action for us, there will be a difference of interest between us and AI. Suddenly there will be two opposite sides, not humans and the AI, but humans and the “Better option” for us according to AI. According to AI? This is the stage where the friction will start. Remember AI is a self-learning entity; it will take a stand on its side, the side that is better for us according to it as suggested or programmed into the AI's core idea. I have read a number of papers on how or when would the machines turn against us presented by many scientists and theorists, but no paper addresses this concern as to how to control the level to which AI will make decisions for our better life or decisions of what is most suitable for us humans, and to what level would the AI go to force the better decision option on us.

In my readings, I came across the practical applications of AI and one in particular that fascinated me, it is the idea of eternal life, the idea of being immortal. This does sound like a plot from a fictional movie but on paper, the idea is achievable and of course through AI. When I say immortal life, let me clear on what do I mean, as I always say and believe we are only as good as alive as our mind. There are techniques to draw mind patterns for your thoughts and your thought process, it is the EEG technology with some alteration. It is like getting a histogram of your brain in different situations, in different emotional situations I mean. As mentioned earlier the AI can replicate humans, thus if we are able to find the bridge between our consciousness and the way AI processes the information, we can and we will be able to transfer our thoughts and feelings to a humanoid robot with AI. Of course, it will need a link to stay connected with our body and mind made of flesh and bones, thus a syncing mechanism will be in place. Don't think in the unnatural or the unethical side of this, but think on what if it is achievable, we can never lose anyone in our life, it can be an extended life for everyone with ON-OFF-RESTART buttons.

Nothing to get alarmed by anything as yet, I will conclude this blog by mentioning one very important thing. Even if it is predicted that the full compatibility of AI systems will take a couple of decades to actually have a significant effect on our lives, we would never know if there is a fast-forward button for all this and we can live among robots with personalities, not to forget "Sophia" the humanoid robot was declared of being into existence in a fortnight. 

This is again a very huge area to discuss, but if anyone is curious enough can contact me on my email.

Blog 5 - Moth and Flame

Have you ever wondered why we do what we do, or why we don't? If it is justified by reasoning, then we probably don’t have to think too much but what if there is no justification. For instance, consider boozing, I mean whatever we drink, beer, whisky, vodka or any liquor, we know it is going to harm us in some way like spoiling our diet or liver or something but still we do it anyway. Also smoking, we know it will create complications later but we do it anyway. Mostly any bad habit. Habits are something that has no logical reasoning to justify. However, I am not going into details about the how and what I would talk about why.

Consider a situation where you love something, be it a hypothetical situation. Love comes in different forms, some people love money, some love stuff that they own, be it a vintage car or anything, why is that. A human brain is evolved to find affection and peace or stability in things beyond explanation. We love someone no matter how lively or toxic the relationship is but again we do it anyway as it makes us feel good or miserable that depends on the comfort our minds. This is nothing to do with heart; a human body is only good as the brain. Every feeling that we have is an electric pulses mixed with some chemical reactions in our brain closely synced with the subconscious part of our mind that makes us feel good about something as our mind relates it to something that we have embedded into our thoughts from past or from what we believe or even what we have read somewhere irrespective of that being true or false.

Ok, let me tell you a story that gave me the idea of writing this blog. It was a nice cold weekend’s evening, me and some friends were having drinks on the patio. We had lit up a few lamps and our discussion was revolving around random topics. I noticed insects coming towards the oil lamps, I started wondering why the insects would be attracted toward the flame. After a couple of drinks, we decided to call it off but I forgot to light off the lamps they kept burning the whole night. In the morning I saw a moth dead near a lamp. I somehow tried to picture the incident from the moth's eyes.

This is hypocritical but pretty imaginative.

As a moth, I was flying around in the dark somehow this bright light caught my attention. It was dark and silent, I approached this light to see a flame. It was bright and I found serenity in her warmth, just being close to her felt wonderful. I somehow gathered the courage to talk to her. I asked her what was her name she replied that she is The Flame. I told her that it feels like heaven to just be near her, to which she warned me to stay at a distance as she tends to destroy and burn anything that comes close to her. I was furious to hear that, I started wondering how something so bright and soothing can be so destructive. I wanted to feel her, I wanted to touch her, I wanted to tell her that I’m insanely smitten with her. Somehow I told her what I felt, but she replied that if I would go any further near her I might get burned or even die. We talked and talked for long but the thought of being close to her never left my mind. I gave in to the temptation and told her that I’m going to hug her, she was equally attracted to me but also scared of destroying me. I took the leap and went closer to hug her. I could feel my body burning my wings turning to ashes but I finally hugged her and it never felt so good, worth dying for...

Now back to reality,

Looking at the died moth, its hands were in such a way that it did die hugging the flame. So why did he do that, why did he sacrificed his life just to be closer to the flame for just once and what the hell is it to do anything with us, us all. Well as I see it, we too give in to our emotional side as it feels heaven like, be it for once. We know it’s going to destroy us in a way but having the pain of content is worth every moment. But it is for us to decide if we got to take that leap or just live and perish with time. It is about the beliefs that we have, it can be a test, however, this scenario cannot just merely stick to something in a reverse sense, one can use the situation to stay motivated and achieve extraordinary goals in life.

Let me know what you think.

Blog 4 - Trouble-making Electric car era.

I recently got my level one driving license and I was wondering which car to buy, after hovering on the thought of buying a Mustang the thought of electric car popped in my mind and after a lot of thinking I ended up settling for a Tesla. This blog is the outcome of the struggle that I went through while taking this decision.

In 1800's cars were invented; it was a boon for mankind. Easy transport easy commute to destinations and lots of employment. The father of modernization in automobile manufacturing, Henry Ford with his company ford motors revolutionized the automobile sector when it came to manufacturing cars in an orderly and more efficient way. Till date, we follow his principles in the mass production of cars and what not. The industry that was flourishing hand to hand with automobile was the oil industry, and when I say to oil it means the crude oil industry segment responsible for discovering, sourcing and production of all the products related to crude oil and in the matter of no time the oil industry took over the automobile sector, with the dependency of vehicles on fossil fuel to power their internal combustion engines. The oil industry rules withholding all the cards in their hands. The outcome of this was the world started fighting over oil deposits all over the planet. There were or probably are wars still going on to get a hold of the oil supplies throughout the world. Also, we cannot ignore the outcomes of burning fossil fuel through these internal combustion engines, namely the health factors and also the harm that it caused to nature. With all these considerations in mind, one should wonder why haven’t there been any efforts to find an alternative to this situation. Consider the availability of alternatives to fossil fuel. It is a source of energy like electricity or solar power or anything that can be available to the people around the world readily without any control over the supply. If we would dig in to search, we would get shocked to learn that there were efforts made however they weren’t made available to the people, reasons? Yes, let me tell you those reasons in the later part of this blog. In recent years not far long there started a revolution to shake the automobile industry by introducing electric cars to the world and let me stress on the point, available to everyone. The company I am referring to is Tesla founded by Elon Musk. Following him, NOW other car companies have entered into the race too.

So why is this electric car segment the troublemaker.? Why didn’t anyone come up with an alternative for internal combustion engine cars? Why is the electric car market booming in the recent times? These are the questions that are weighted in this blog.

First of all, let me explain how a combustion engine works. The engines have a number of parts to regulate the inflow of fuel to produce just enough power to drive the crankshaft which in turns drives the wheels forward or backward regulated by a gearbox. We all are familiar with these terms or at least we have an idea of how things are. See the car itself consists of thousands of parts that moreover have hundreds of minor parts, not to forget the crux of all this, the fossil fuel!! Now the reason why I wrote all this is that when we look at the sourcing, the research and manufacturing of these parts that make the car run have millions of people involved. Imagine what would happen if the requirement for these parts gets stopped. The time that has taken to mature the automobile industry has made or is making billions of dollars for corporations that manufacture the car, its parts and the fuel that makes it move. Also not to forget the supply chain industry for fossil fuel, namely the petroleum companies. All of them will be out of business or if not suffer the losses of demand drops. And they wouldn’t want that to happen, we are talking about billion dollar corporations here, also powerful in ways no one can imagine.

Secondly, there were attempts to find an alternative for fossil fuel by replacing it with biofuel however that research vanished in thin air before it could be used for commercial purposes, and guess what, there wasn’t any clue of why or how. I still remember an article in the early 90s where someone invented the alternative for petrol by processing onions. Also, the research on jatropha (Biofuel plant) for the production of biodiesel has come or probably forced to come to a dead end.

Thirdly the preference for electric cars has been increasing day by day in recent times. I thought of finding the reasons for that and I learnt that it’s mainly because of the increasing gas prices and the tech-savvy preferences of people all over the world. Ok, imagine driving a car to be as easy as using your Smartphone. Just type the destination you have to go and that’s it, the car will drive itself to the location. This is the main reason for people to shift towards the electric cars, it’s as easy as operating a Smartphone. Also, count the parts that would be required for the car to move, they will be mainly the electric motors the battery and probably an onboard computer!!! Isn’t that great? One would not have to worry about servicing a clogged pipe for the fuel to move or worry about the level of gas in the fuel tank or the tuning of the engine for better functionality, Just recharge the batteries like a Smartphone and you are good to go. In comparative terms, a battery operated electric car will be far better on maintenance than a car running on fossil fuel, also take into account the serviceable parts in both the cars. The best part here is anyone if given a thought will be able to make an electric car getting the spares with the skeleton of a normal car running on fossil fuel, although there would be some technical and legal hurdles, but they can be sorted out.

For the troublemaker part, this electric car era is like a revolution taking into account the availability of electric energy through non-conventional sources is becoming cheaper and cheaper also the shift of countries over energy plants that are producing energy from sun or wind or any non-conventional energy source is on a rise. Many countries have agreed to shift their electricity requirements primarily on non-conventional energy sources. With all this in mind the fossil fuel industry and the car companies that make engine operated cars are facing troubles. Remember we are talking about billions of dollar industry and powerful on a global level, the ones that kept this shift of consumers to electric cars on a hold, are now facing trouble as electric cars are making their way to the automobile industry with a bang. It will be time that will decide the fate of electric cars as this phenomenon cannot be stopped now.

Do comment or mail me your thoughts.

Blog 3 - The Universe from my understanding (Continuing blog)

Note: The following work is not strictly based on any theory or principles, nor it has to challenge any beliefs or understanding, consider it as a work of fiction if you may.

First of all sorry for the delay in publishing this blog, it is a very big topic, also with my new job and research it becomes hard to assign time for this blog, but I will try to be as regular as I can as I love it. So I am going to keep this blog with no conclusion as I would try to add new findings as I learn about them.

Here it goes..

The Universe is too big for anyone’s imagination or understanding. It is human nature, of what we don’t understand we term it as heavenly or mystical or something that has to do with a supernatural power that exists, and we term it as godly. True or false doesn’t matter, the efforts should be of decoding the mystery of the universe, it is definitely not easy but I think it isn’t impossible too. Human limitations are the reasons for not knowing what is out there and how it all began. It keeps scratching my head should I believe the universe was formed after a big bang or it was made by someone, basically a side to take when it comes to the formation of our universe, science or some stories without facts that don’t exist. I would keep that to you which side you would choose, I would trust in science that makes logic to me. I am a Spock fan but it is something that has grounds to base a theory and not just something arbitrary. So this blog isn’t about proving any theories or mocking any beliefs. It is my attempt to portray the universe from my understanding. You don’t have to be a person from a science background with all the fancy degrees to understand the math or concepts that I have tried to explain here, it is pretty OK to read and make sense. However, I would require your thoughts and comments to quench my curiosity, like what do you think. Be it mythological or scientific, be it from a movie or a comic it doesn’t matter. See this is a code, and I dare to crack it, with your help of course.

This blog has certain pictorial representations of my beliefs; I have tried to explain my thoughts through those drawings and pictures. The drawings are made by me on paper, I tried to be as much detailed as I could, but if it is hard for you to read or understand let me know.

Image 1:

Notations on the image

Top Left side

• The universe has to be a Sphere with infinite radius.
• The numbering system here is flawed; it can only be rectified once the constants are nullified. Or probably after using some other numbering systems.

Bottom Right

• When everything tends to infinity, still our whole numbering system is based on constants like 0(Zero), (Pie) or √2 (Root 2) and etc, according to me, these are the anomalies.

Bottom Left

• Value of Pie π = 3.1428571428571….to infinity (Continuous series)
• 0(Zero) = Nothing

Top Right side

• XYZ…. ∞ Infinity (A Sphere can have infinite axes)
• Distance (d)XYZ = ∞ Infinity
• 0 = Center of the universe at any instance.

Consider a sphere, with yourself at the center. Here X, Y, Z are the 3 coordinates of the sphere. The values of X, Y, Z at any instance of time tends to infinity. A Sphere can have infinite axes as it can have an infinite number of the radius.

This is a bit tricky to understand but its basic math.

The area for any circular object has a constant variable in it and that’s π (Pie). For instance, consider the area of a sphere, that’s A(Sphere) = 4πr2.

Here if you consider the radius to be infinity the whole equation falls, but if you use the radius as any value of infinity minus 1 at any instance of time, the equation stands, however what about the value of pie, it is considered as 22/7 = 3.142857142857….so on, but if you try doing the math it is never constant. It is in our math rules that whenever a sequence is repeated in a division we round it up and stop the division but if you keep doing the division you will keep repeating the pattern till infinity or in a loop. Remember we did not invent math we discovered it is the approach that I’ve taken here. So again there is this term infinity involved in calculating the value of pie. Thus the assumption of the universe being a sphere with infinite radius stands ruling out the possibility of the universe being flat or hyperbolical.

Now, I tried to figure out a pattern in these multiple numbering systems that we have, like Binary, Hexadecimal, octal and what not. I am still searching.

However, there is an interesting theory behind the fascination of Nikola Tesla for the number 369. It was his strong belief that the secret to the universe is in this very number. And the interesting bit in the logic behind this number is that it doesn’t take in to account the existence of 0. Check the images based on the beliefs of Nikola Tesla.

Nikola Tesla believed that there is some secret in these 3 numbers to uncover the mysteries of the universe. The math behind it is as follows if we consider our decimal numbering system without zero.

1+2=3

But

2+3=5

However 

2+4=6

Also

5+6=11=2

4+6=10=1

But

3+6=9

And let me tell you the sequence pattern repeats for the higher numbers too that means if you go on following this technique you will get an infinite series of 369 repetitions in regular intervals. Below if you would observe closely, the non-connected numbers are 3 6 and 9. The pattern can be drawn based on the addition of numbers shown above.

So the conclusion is if you try to make a sphere of these numbers with the pattern shown you would get the following wireframe diagram:

And the shape that you would notice will blow your Mind (If you wonder how just drop me a liner ill explain it to you)

Shapes:

Thus if we try to relate this theory to our math, in the beginning, you would notice the sphere that will form is actually with infinite radius at any given time instance.

Now, if you would wonder as we know the math or as we supposedly know the math we can manipulate the laws to actually travel through time, and here the concept of Big Bang or I must say multiple Big Bangs come into the picture. Remember on the timeline of the universe it is assumed by me that the course of time is +t it means it’s moving forward thus when the possibility of time travel is considered one can always move travel forward in time and not backwards. 

If we consider the backward travel we have to change or probably reverse all the parameters involved in the equation of time travel if there is any.

To be continued..

I came across the Infinity Hotel paradox by a German mathematician David Hilbert, this unknowingly gives a base to the assumption that I made in regards to ( ∞  - 1)

Blog 2 - Living in a foreign country

This blog is roughly, if not closely based on my experiences along with the experiences of the people I know. The interpretation by me may not be totally correct but you should not take my word for it, take your leap of faith and experience it yourself!! and that's the intention I had when I thought of writing a blog on this topic. Only if I can inspire any person to take up the quest for searching new experiences, to become a Global Citizen.

It is a dream of every teenage person to live in a foreign country as the early times of their teenage they are exposed to the world of sitcoms!! It could be something else too, what matters are the inspirations for getting the motivation to move, and not just wander but to live and thrive. It just doesn't stop there, with the advancement in information technology, where we had to wait for a movie to release in the theater near us but now the times have changed, with the touch of a button we can live stream any movie or TV series online!! not only on our mobile but also on our personalized home theater system too. Times have changed and so are the conditions to travel and stay in a foreign country.

It is a big decision for an individual to leave behind the stable life in their home country and move to a totally new place, be it for studies or for a better lifestyle, the glamour of a developed country hasn't faded a bit over decades. So, all said and done, should one move to a new country or no? Of course yes!! It is a test of our perseverance, the test of how you want your life to be. But everything comes to you at a cost; there are tons of things you will have to sort out before you actually move. Not to mention the visa, the flight tickets the accommodations and your local contacts. However it’s easy buying your way out getting the technical part of it sorted out, the real challenge starts when you actually land. For a first timer everything is new and trust me everything is new, and there starts your unforgettable journey to life, everything that you do from here the good the bad the ugly it is done by you.

So as you have moved to a new country, kisses, cuddles. tears. heartbreaks are just the starting of your new journey as you leave, you cannot reach somewhere if you don't leave from somewhere. It is us who decide how you want to make your life worthwhile in the new place, but there is a tough path that one has to traverse to reach a place that you always wanted to. The difference between wanting to move and have to move comes into the picture. It becomes an everyday happy experience for the person who has the motivation to take any situation as a part of learning as it was decided in your mind that you will not just live but you will thrive as the decision was yours and yours alone to come to a foreign land, however for the individuals who have to move as a matter of option and not choice it is an everyday challenge to survive in the foreign land but there is no running away from it, giving up is also not an option, would be too easy.

Living on your own in a foreign land can be pretty frustrating for any person, be it the person who goes there by choice or by option. It is just the cultural shift that happens, I know it is a wide term when I say cultural shift but it is the best way to put it. Imagine something you've been doing since the time you started to create a mental picture of how things work in the place or country where you live, and suddenly you are in a plane with your mind trying to calculate the what’s and how’s you'll do when you land in a new country. Now that you are in the new country, it does take time to adjust to the new surroundings to the new people to the new weather to actually everything. It is where the greatest quest starts!! Only the can-do attitude is expected!! We all say we are different from the common crowd, so this is the time to prove it, not to anyone, but to yourself and the tricky part is, you can’t even create an illusion as there is nowhere running from or lying to yourself.

Once the excitement to land is faded the blending-in blues crawl in. It's the 4 stages of cultural adjustment* that everyone goes, which is a pretty difficult phase. Some of the things that can help pass through these stages are jotted below, it might work in different ways with different personalities but the outcome is always the same for everyone, that's peace of mind!

Music: One of the greatest gifts to humanity, when I try to over exaggerate this statement there is nothing that I am mentioning is vague or wrong. Music has a soothing effect on us in ways one cannot imagine; however, the choice of music is important too. There is actually a deep science based on how music affects our brain waves, in turn, having a physical effect on our body. So, search for the kind of music that uplifts your spirits in the hard times and I am sure it will help.

Books: The person who finds peace in the presence of books is the most imaginative person as once said. A person is made by the books he or she reads. It is a different universe when you are indulged in reading a book, the way I see it, it creates a telepathic bond between the writer and the reader, isn't that fascinating!!

Quotes: Let me mention there are a number of quotes that you can come across, but, yes there is always a but, only believe in them if they are from a valid source, not because it makes you feel better by addressing your state of mind. Read the quotes that will make you realize the sense of your existence and of course your journey to achieve the goal that you've decided for yourself.

Movies & Series: Do I need to say anything? Just be careful about the movies/series you come across, there is actually a happy movie genre that you can find, make it a point not to skip on any part, you never know you might miss out on something that could help you. The series part is something that works on an even greater level, be it a drama, a cartoon or a Sci-fi choice of yours. But keep in mind, the aim is to uplift our spirits so decide accordingly, as the sage in Indiana Jones says "Choose Wisely!!”. Stick to something with a happy ending.

Courses: No matter how hard it is to focus, get yourself ready to take on some online educational course. There is no downside to it anyways. You will realize our mind functions in a totally different way, but like a drug you got to resist the temptation of giving up and you might actually end up learning a skill on a deeper understanding, I don't have a scientific paper to prove this, it is with experience, so why not give it a try.

Social Media: A strict note on the use of social media at this stage, the effects can be in your favour or they may not. Better keep it in check by avoiding it is what I have learned. Although not all the social media platforms are the same.

Shopping: Yes!! That’s right it actually helps, for time being, but that's what it takes. There is this monetary constraint that one cannot ignore, as the pleasure derived from shopping might be short-lived and you might end up getting yourself in the crunch. So manage if you can, there is no have-to in this, remember, every penny saved is a penny earned when you are abroad.

Cleaning: This is something that's backed by people working on human psychology and with my own experience, cleaning is a way to deal with mental stress. Be it cleaning your room, or cleaning your closet, washing utensils or even cleaning your phone gallery!! What I have learnt, it’s not the action that we do but it the satisfaction that we get to do things in an orderly way, and that in turns makes us feel good about of ourselves, like a sense of achievement. No matter how small these achievements are, they are great for you in the state of mind that you are in.

Once you've passed through these phases of adaptation, you are a tested survivor and the path to success awaits you be it in any sector of your choice. No challenge is big enough for you to overcome as you've already won the greatest battle one can face, the battle with yourself to survive and thrive.

Now there are 2 kind of people you'd want to become in a foreign country, the focused and the drifters. The glamour and the temptations to explore are irresistible to ignore. The power and freedom that comes when you get the visa for a country that has no restrictions on travelling destinations like an exotic beach holiday or a historical place or any getaway place the options are unlimited, however, it is the resistance to the temptation that makes you a focused or a drifter. Time is of the essence, time to make yourself financially stable, time to plan your lifestyle, time to create a life that's an inspiration for others. Well, you got to decide, and trust me even if you are a first timer or not, the time management works when you are on your own far from your home country trying to make a living. The lifestyle of a focused person might appear to be slow and monocoloured but like every seed that takes time to germinate and become a tree, it takes time for them to have a solid foundation and eventually the perks are no longer to be pursued but to be enjoyed as mandatory which is pretty awesome. On the other hand for the drifters it's energetic blissful and fun, but, only until the time, they realize they have nothing to count on once the reality hits them. Nothing biased in both the approaches but it’s the perspective of temporary fun or prolonged happiness. Decide for yourself.

Living with mates is the new and totally different case one has to anticipate in a foreign country. It cannot be predicted who you will share your house or your dorm with. People from all over the world are your pool of flatmates. Patience and tolerance is the key to success, as you can never be sure how the person in the room next to you would be. Sharing is the part of living; you share kitchen, bathrooms common areas and what not. If we are lucky enough we can get a mate that syncs with our habits if not one has to adapt to stay with an annoying flatmate. There is constant banging of doors closing, dirty kitchen, filthy bathrooms, overflowing garbage bins as just some perks that you get but there is a silver lining to it. We can always make a friend instead of making an enemy, right? Try bonding with your flatmates, some of them would realize it, some might just won't give a damn, but it’s always worth to take a shot at it rather than not. So you got to deal with it. Don’t let their rudeness or arrogance crush your spirits; there is no running away or moaning about it. So you got to figure out how you are going to deal with such situation, it could be in your favour or it may backfire but in most cases, it works in your favour and you get accustomed to living together. May the motivation to get your own place be the driving force behind all the adjustments you do while staying with your flatmates.

So now that you have a pretty vague idea, this is how it is. It is not easy to start your life in a new country that is for sure, but it is worth the efforts. Not all but most of the successful people you see or you read about have some or the other ways have moved to a foreign country with a dream, and that dream kept them focused. Imagine all that your dreams come true, well they sure do, but you have to be prepared for that. I would love to read the experiences of the people no matter how it is related or not to this blog when it comes to living in a foreign country.

Comment if you want, I'll appreciate it.

*https://www.princeton.edu/oip/practical-matters/Cultural-Adjustment.pdf

Blog 1 - Thoughts.. (Plot)

What is it about writing a blog? Many people maintain blogs as a personal diary, what they did the whole day, what they want to do the next day and that sort of things. Well this blog isn’t anything like that. Let me tell you what is this blog about. do you know what is an oblivion, it is the unsure nature of things that could happen to us, of what we have no idea, no idea of what is going to happen next with them, with the people they care for, with the things they care for, with the cause that keeps them driving. My effort is to highlight those thoughts in this blog how to deal with oblivion, I ain’t no expert, I ain’t even a novice on this topic, this is my understanding of how oblivion is, may be you could relate it and try to cope up with it as I am trying right now.

So, that said and done, it is a journey through something you have never been before, or maybe you have been before but it’s not the same always. There is a science behind everything that happens around us. Be it winning a lottery, be it meeting the girl in your dreams, be it achieving something that was not easy, but if you realize against all odds the event happens, irrespective of what you had to go through, what you had to sacrifice, what you have to deal in your head. There is a natural course to all the things that happen around us, it’s the nature or some might call the law of the universe, but there is a catch to this, you can always have a choice to crack the code, to know what is going to happen next, to get rid of the state of oblivion. It is the choices those decide the course of your life once the event is passed, it is your choice that shapes up your future, of course and on your terms. There is a term very famous that was used in a sci-fi movie of being the one. The one, one who can change the course of time, who can define the laws of the universe accordingly, however it starts with believing in us being the one. No one has the same priorities in life, same aims or same goals to make one happy. Trust me at the end of the day it is just one question that should be answered by your inner conscience, that is whatever you did today are you happy.. There are few enough to actually get an answer as yes but most of us would get an answer as no, well there is the time when your journey starts, it’s called the pursuit of happiness. You have to be true to yourself, there is no one to judge you, and it’s just you and your conscience that do the talking. The pursuit for happiness is the driving key to get you rid of the state of oblivion.